Getty Images/Mandel Ngdan(WASHINGTON) -- Though "Russia" and "collusion" are words that have appeared in headlines about the work of special counsel Robert Mueller, they are not words to be uttered during the coming trial of Paul Manafort.



On Monday, Judge T.S. Ellis -- the 30-year veteran of the bench who will preside over the Virginia trial of President Trumps one-time campaign chairman -- instructed the prosecution that "collusion" was off limits, as well as the mention of "Russians."



Prosecutor Greg Andres readily agreed, adding, "We dont intend to mention alleged collusion with the Russians," noting that only "a very small portion of the trial" will mention collusion -- but only insofar as it relates to the governments claim of a quid-pro-quo relationship in which Manafort received bank loans allegedly in exchange for a Trump campaign position for a former bank chairman.



A pool of 70 potential jurors for the Manafort case filed into federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, none told in advance anything about the case, each looking around quizzically as reporters observed them from the opposite side of the room.



Manafort's trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, while a trial in Washington, D.C., is slated for mid-September.



Each person in the jury pool, culled from the tony suburbs of Alexandria just minutes from D.C., filled out a questionnaire to determine whether or not he or she could fairly and impartially sit in judgment of Manafort, who was sitting nearby -- no longer in a jail-issued jumpsuit but in a dark blue suit.



Those forms -- designed to query a potential juror's knowledge and possible biases toward Manafort -- were then left with the court and placed under seal, though copies also were to be shared with both sides in the case for use in next week's selection process.



But none of those men and women, a majority of whom appeared middle-aged, will hear all about the highly publicized allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the investigatory mandate of special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors.



"There's a lot of 403 potential here," the judge warned, using legal jargon to refer to evidence that might be relevant but is far outweighed by its prejudicial or misleading value, adding that prosecutors need to "be cautious."



Essentially, the case in the Eastern District of Virginia is focused solely on alleged financial crimes, from tax evasion to bank fraud -- a straight white-collar criminal case, according to numerous legal experts ABC has consulted.



Those alleged financial crimes, for which Manafort has pleaded not guilty, were discovered as part of the sweeping mandate Mueller has -- including a probe for any crimes that might arise from an investigation into the Trump campaign's possible ties to Russia.



The separate case against Manafort in Washington is entirely different. There, the subject of the veteran lobbyist and public relations tactician's alleged ties to Russian-connected politicians in Ukraine is replete with mentions of the Kremlin, from a longtime Manafort associate with ties to Russian intelligence to the "pro-Russia political party in Ukraine," for which the defendant had done work for years, all of this alleged in a superseding indictment in the District.



The charges in Washington, for which Manafort also has pleaded not guilty, center on a complex conspiracy to launder and hide tens of millions of dollars paid by Ukrainian politicians, a failure to register as an agent of a foreign power -- a legal requirement to lobby -- making false statements about that failure to file and the recently added charge of obstruction of justice, made after an alleged attempt by Manafort to tamper with witnesses. After an indictment on the later charge, the defendant was remanded to jail through his trials.



Back in Virginia, Judge Ellis, 78, said he intends to allow prosecutors "some latitude" in recounting to the jury Manafort's work in Ukraine, but the irascible jurist cautioned, "Most people dont distinguish between Ukrainians and Russians," adding, perhaps to lighten the mood, that he also would not allow any pictures of Russians "with scantily clad women."



Andres, with a grin amidst laughter in the room, popped to the lectern to assure the judge, "There will be no pictures of scantily clad women. No pictures of Russians."



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Donald Trump's Shadow War

The administration has quietly expanded how the U.S. uses military force around the world. The consequences are grave. Why is no one paying attention?



Five days after taking the oath of office, President Donald Trump dined with some members of his national security team. During the meal, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford roughly outlined a plan for a risky counterterrorism raid in Yemen targeting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulathe terrorist groups most dangerous local affiliate.



In previous administrations, multiple levels of subordinates would have vetted this sort of mission before it was briefed to the president in the White House Situation Room with the full national security team present. Mattis and Dunfords presentation to Trump was much more informal, but the new president nevertheless gave his conditional go-ahead. Then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn convinced Trump to sign off the following morning, saying the audacious raid would distinguish him from his more deliberative predecessor.



Members of the Navys elite SEAL Team 6 and special forces from the United Arab Emirates were soon advancing on the compound in Yemens al-Bayda province. But AQAP militants detected their presence, and an intense firefight broke out. Chief Petty Officer William Ryan Owens, a longtime member of SEAL Team 6, was killed. Another five special operators were injured. One of two Marine Corps Osprey aircraft dispatched to provide air support crashed and was destroyed by U.S. forces to prevent any sensitive equipment from falling into Al Qaeda hands. At least 16 Yemeni civilians, most of them children, were killed.



Much of the media attention in the immediate aftermath focused on the presidents attempts to unload responsibility for the mission onto senior military leaders, saying, They lost Ryan. The lack of accountability startles, even today. But the Yemen raid also raised questions about how aggressive Trump might be when it comes to using lethal force outside of conventional warzones, and whether he would continue to sign off on these types of risky operations in such a nonchalant manner.



Since then, operations might no longer be approved over dinner, but the Trump administration has relaxed both the policies and oversight processes governing direct actionthe term used to describe air strikes, often by unmanned drones, and raids by U.S. special operations forces outside of conventional war zones. The military has ramped up these operations aggressively since Trump came into office, while transparency about their conduct has declined. Evasiveness and opacity about the use of force has been one of the few consistent themes of Trumps approach to national security.Selfie queen Karen Danczuk has been branded a hypocrite after she slammed a Cambridge don who stripped off for equality.

The ex-wife of former Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, Karen, 35, said she couldn't understand how 'posing nude helps equality' after seeing photos of university lecturer Dr Victoria Bateman in the buff bar a few carefully placed 5 and 20 notes.

Dr Bateman disrobed to protest against gender inequality and the link to economics, arguing that feminism is vital to creating a more 'prosperous, equitable and sustainable economy' - but Danczuk was less than impressed.

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Former Labour councillor Karen Danczuk, 35, told her 68,000 followers that photos of Cambridge don Dr Victoria Bateman naked bar some strategically placed 5 and 20 notes 'undermined' feminism...and was quickly shot down on Twitter for her views

University lecturer Dr Victoria Bateman posing nude to make a statement about equality; the Cambridge don said: 'Unless economists take feminism seriously, womens rights and free-doms will continue to be under threat'

Twitter users were quick to point out that Danczuk herself regularly published photos of herself showing her cleavage

War of words: Danczuk sparred online with her Twitter followers after some suggested she was hypocritical for commenting on the near-nude photos

The Cambridge don disrobed after giving a talk, entitled Feminism Meets Economics, at the Office for National Statistics, telling the audience: 'Unless economists take feminism seriously, womens rights and free-doms will continue to be under threat.

She added: 'Economics needs to become intimately familiar with modern-day feminism if we are to make progress.'

Four years ago, Bateman posed nude for a portrait shown at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.

After seeing the latest shots, Danczuk raged: 'I never understand how posing nude helps equality.

'These women dont want to be objectified but do just that with stunts like this. Just be honest, youre getting naked to promote yourself/make the news. Nothing to do with equality.'

Those who saw the tweet quickly branded the mother-of-two a 'hypocrite', with one saying she herself had 'made a career' out of showing off her cleavage.

@BrightonKnight wrote: 'Says the woman who has made a career out of her cleavage! At least she has a career.'

Another sharp-tongued Twitter user, @Dowy85, wrote: 'And you're famous as the cleavage displaying, philandering ex MP's wife.'

The Cambridge Fellow and the nude portrait of her displayed at a London gallery four years ago; she said her latest protest allowed her protest her beliefs using art

After her divorce from Simon Danczuk - the father of her two sons - came to an end, Karen is now loved up with her new beau, David, who she's set to marry next year

Danczuk quickly riposted: '1) Im divorced, 2) You make a very good point. Im merely the ex of an MP who flashes her boobs.

'Lets forget I was also a Councillor. Im just the plus one right and you think this because of my boobs. My point about nudity not helping equality confirmed.'

Referencing the career out of a cleavage point, Danczuk offered fighting talk, saying: 'OK lets re-read your tweet. You said says the woman who has made a career out of her cleavage but then say "at least she has a career". Suggesting I dont have a career. I thought you said "Ive made a career out of my cleavage"

And reacting to suggestions she was a hypocrite, she said: 'Have I ever posed naked for equality and subsequently said posing naked isnt for equality? That would be hypocritical my friend - maybe you need to read up on the meaning.'

After her turbulent relationship with Simon Danczuk came to an end, Karen has found love again with a Spanish man named David, who she is set to marry.

The duo met last year in Spain, with her flying back out to woo him following their first rendez vous.

Since then, love has blossomed between the pair and they have been pictured canoodling on a number of sun-soaked holidays.This Morning welcomed a group self confessed Love Island super-fans onto the show today - three Labour MPs.

Dubbed the show's 'most unlikely' fans are Manchester's Lucy Powell, Birmingham's Jess Phillips and Walthamstow's Stella Creasy who appeared on the ITV daytime show on Wednesday.

The three women, who are in recess at the moment, appeared on the show to discuss their love of the reality show.

Creasy explained how it acted as some much needed respite from their hectic jobs.

Labour MPs, Lucy Powell, Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy (pictured left to right) appeared on This Morning where they discussed being 'super-fans' of Love Island

She said: 'It's fair to say we do a job that's quite difficult, quite intense - doesn't everybody need a bit of escapism? And that's what it is'.

Presenter Ruth Langsford was eager to discover how the politicians are able to fit the show, which airs weekdays at 9pm, into their busy schedules.

Powell admitted they had to 'sneak off' to catch it. She explained: 'The annoying thing is that the parliament TV doesn't have ITV2 as a channel.

'We have to go together and watch it on the app on our iPads and we have to arrange to do that, but don't tell anyone that!'

The women revealed that in order to catch the programme they have to watch it on an iPad at work because Parliament TV doesn't have ITV2

Jess Phillips said that she will watch it in the Lady Members Room and has previously been joined by Harriet Harman

Love Island airs at 9pm on weekdays on ITV2, however, Phillips says that the channel isn't available in Parliament. Pictured: Remaining contestants, l-r: Alex George, Dani Dyer, Wes Nelson and Laura Anderson

However, Creasy admitted that they were 'open' about their Love Island viewing sessions and other MPs are known to join them.

Phillips revealed: 'I've watched it with Harriet Harman in the Lady Members Room.

'There's a Lady Members Room at the back of where you have to vote and if you're doing a lot of voting in parliament we set up an app playing on an iPad and then there's other women coming and going.'

She later added: 'Theresa (May) doesn't frequent the lady members room.'

The three women said that PM Theresa May has never joined them to watch the show

Many viewers disapproved of the subject matter taking to Twitter to air their views

Following their appearance on the breakfast show, several viewers took to Twitter to complain that they disapproved of the MPs watching the show in Parliament.

One said: 'Three MPs on TV excitedly talking about Love Island and how they sneak off between votes to watch it. And folk wonder why everything is turning to (poo emoji).'

Agreeing another added: 'The one time I've seen female politicians on #ThisMorning and it's to discuss Love Island. Cheers for that babes!'

However, some viewers saw the funny side with one tweeting: 'The fact that Rylan doesn't watch Love Island but three MPs have an iPad set up so they can in parliament is so funny.'A grieving daughter was inundated with support after she shared a heart-wrenching photo of herself cradling her father's ashes on Facebook.

Tallula Hurford, 20, from Rochford, Essex, posted the image with a message saying she was still 'broken' following the death of her father Laurence, 49, in December last year.

Tallula, a mother of one, told how she now has 'one-sided conversations' with her father's urn and 'imagines what his replies would be'.

She added: 'Remember that just because we walk around with normal faces, it doesn't mean we aren't dying and broken inside.'

The post struck a chord with hundreds of people around the world, many of whom told how her words echoed the loneliness they felt in grief.

Moving: Tallula Hurford, 20, from Rochford, Essex, posted this powerful image of herself cradling her father Laurence's ashes with a message saying she was still 'broken' following his death in December last year at the age of 49

Honest: Tallula told how she now has 'one-sided conversations' with her father's urn and 'imagines what his replies would be' in a moving caption (pictured) accompanying the image

Mr Hurford, who affectionately called Tallula 'princess', died at home on 11 December last year.

Speaking about his death, Tallula said: 'Unfortunately mental health has played a big part in our family and affected many of us in circumstances I wish not to talk about.'

He was buried the day before Tallula's 20th birthday.

Tallula, who has a three-year-old son, shared the lengthy post on Sunday night to highlight the lingering effects of grief.

She wrote: 'Unless you have lost a parent you won't understand the days where half of you is completely gone, you can't get out of bed, have no motivation for anything, not even to eat or drink, not to wash or brush your hair or get dressed.

'The days you are triggered by something so slight that it will make you burst into tears.

Devastating loss: Mr Hurford, who affectionately called Tallula 'princess', died at home on 11 December last year. Pictured, the father with his daughter as a young child

Striking a chord: The post struck a chord with hundreds of people around the world, many of whom told how her words echoed the loneliness they felt in grief

She added: 'These are the days I spend with my dad now, cuddling his ashes and having one-sided conversations only imagining what his replies would be, a voice in my head and a memory in my heart.

'It's important to remember that just because we walk around with normal faces it doesn't mean we aren't dying and broken inside.'

Some 2,800 Facebook users have responded since Sunday, with many telling their own stories of loss.

Helen Traynor wrote: 'That is so true. My mum and dad died twelve years ago and it was only seven weeks between them dying. The years don't make it any easier.'

Tallula admitted she was broken over his death and hoped to help other people in similar positions (seen with her father in the year before his passing)

Remembered: Tullula said they had a strong bond throughout the years, with him teaching her to drive and being an 'amazing granddad' to her little boy (pictured together)

Tribute: Tallula said her father was buried the day before her 20th birthday in December 2017

Leanne Marchant commented: 'I lost my mum at age 14. And I completely get how you feel. Sending hugs and kisses.'

A third, Kimberley Lowe, added: 'This is the closest anyone has described how it feels. I miss my dad so so much. I keep wishing there was something I could do to change what's happened.'

Tallula said she shared a close bond with her father growing up. Mr Hurford taught his daughter to drive and was an 'amazing granddad' to her son.

'My dad was a kind, bubbly and generous man who done voluntary work with the elderly,' she said.

Fond memories: Tallula said her father, pictured, was a 'kind, bubbly and generous man'

'He was always joking around and trying to put a smile on everyone's faces. He sent me over an email calling me "princess" which was his favourite nickname for me.'

Hoping to give other people in similar situations hope, she added: 'I wanted to let people know that they are not alone and we all go through horrendous days where it seems like there is no way out.

'I would like to encourage people to come forward and express how they feel, sometimes it helps to get everything off your chest.

'I have had so many people comment and message me saying that they can relate to my post so much and feel the exact same thing.

'It is important to remember and realise that we are not alone.'Karlie Kloss has discovered one of her favorite aspects of being engaged: getting to share the big news with her friends and family.

The newly-engaged model, 25, took to Instagram Stories on Wednesday to post photos of her loved ones looking shocked and delighted after she told them via FaceTime that she and her beau of six years Joshua Kushner, 33, are set to tie the knot.

Karlie, who has a slew of high-profile pals, included images of Serena Williams, 36, looking absolutely delighted for her fashionable friend, as well as a shot of a stunned Princess Beatrice, 29.

Bling: Karlie Kloss shared a new photo of her engagement ring on the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo, after announcing that she and Joshua Kushner, 33, are set to tie the knot

Happy: The model, 25, took to Instagram Stories on Wednesday to post photos of her loved ones after she told them the news. She included this snap of a thrilled Serena Williams, 36

Friends: Karlie also shared this photo of Princess Beatrice of York, 29, looking shocked as Karlie revealed her engagement ring during a Facetime call

Karlie, who is currently in Beijing, couldn't wait to let her pals and relatives know about her big news, and reached out to them in a string of video calls instead.

Serena was apparently in her car when she got Karlie's call, and judging by the excited look on her face, couldn't be happier for her friend.

Beatrice, too, seems to be in a car in the shot shared by Karlie. But being in the back of a vehicle didn't stop her from showing plenty of emotion; in the snap, her mouth is gaping open and her eyes widen as the model gleefully flashes her engagement ring in front of the camera.

Karlie also tagged the royal's private Instagram account in the post, referring people to @beayork.

The duo have clearly grown close in recent months; as well as being one of the first people Karlie chose to tell about her engagement, Beatrice also joined the model on vacation in Jordan back in April, along with the likes of Ellie Goulding, Crown Prince Hussein, and designer Misha Nonoo - the matchmaker who set up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

But while Serena and Beatrice were perhaps the most high profile people featured in the friends and family line-up, they were not the only ones to share their joy over the model's happy news.

Karlie also shared photos of her sisters Kimberly, 23, and Kristine, 28, looking emotional after finding out about their sibling's engagement.

The model posted a sweet shot of her grandmother, who is 'still learning how to Facetime' and thus positioned the camera to show only her forehead, while Karlie showed her her diamond ring.

She included snaps of her friend Davis Petrash and manager Penni Thow, as well as a photo of her mother Tracy looking very excited for her daughter.

Family: Karlie also shared photos of her sisters Kimberly (left), 23, and Kristine (right), 28, looking emotional after finding out about their sibling's engagement

Thrilled: The model shared snaps of her friend Davis Petrash (left) and mother Tracy (right) reacting to the news

Technology: The model posted a sweet shot of her grandmother, who is 'still learning how to Facetime' but used the app so that Karlie could show her the ring

There was no sign of Karlie's on-again, off-again best friend Taylor Swift, 28. Rumors that the two stopped being friends emerged earlier this year when Taylor omitted to list Karlie as a member of her 'squad' in her Look What You Made Me do video, but Karlie has said the two are still pals.

Karlie also shared a new photo of her engagement ring, this time taking to the Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo.

'Thank you for the congratulations. I am so happy!! ' she wrote next to a photo of herself smiling at the camera while bringing her left hand to her her chin, thus showcasing the diamond on her ring finger.

Karlie first flashed her enormous diamond ring on Instagram on Tuesday, just hours after she and Joshua announced their engagement.

The former Victoria's Secret Angel shared the happy news on Instagram, describing the 33-year-old financier as her 'best friend and soulmate'.

'I love you more than I have words to express,' she wrote alongside a romantic sunset picture of the couple that shows Joshua beaming into the camera while Karlie plants a sweet kiss on his cheek.

'Josh, youre my best friend and my soulmate. I cant wait for forever together. Yes a million times over.' She finished off the gushing caption with a diamond ring emoji.

Shortly after their announcement, the happy couple was congratulated by Joshua's sister-in-law, first daughter Ivanka Trump, who shared a heartfelt message on Karlie's Instagram post.

'So, so happy for you and Josh! I feel blessed to have you as a sister (!!!) Karlie and look forward to the decades of happy memories we will create together as a family! [sic]' Ivanka wrote.

Karlie did not initially show off her engagement ring, instead she kept her hands out of the frame entirely; in fact the only diamonds visible in the sweet snap were those being worn in her ears and around her neck.

A bling thing! Karlie shared a clip of herself on set in Beijing showing off her enormous ring hours after revealing that her boyfriend Joshua Kushner had popped the question

Special news: Earlier on Tuesday, Karlie announced her engagement to boyfriend Joshua on Instagram, sharing this happy picture of the couple

Heartfelt: Former Victoria's Secret Angel Karlie posted a gushing caption alongside the image, referring to Josh as her 'best friend and soulmate'

Family: The couple were congratulated by Joshua's sister-in-law, first daughter Ivanka Trump, who shared a heartfelt comment on Karlie's Instagram post

But the model did flash her huge rock on Instagram a few hours later while she was on set in Beijing.

Joshua, meanwhile, posted a stunning picture of his girlfriend taken inside what looks like the infamous Rain Room exhibit, an experiential art installation that made appearances at New York's MoMA, and LACMA in Los Angeles.

He captioned the striking snap with one word: 'Fiance,' while also adding a heart emoji for effect.

Diamonds are a girl's best friend! Karlie showed off the sizable rock on her Instagram Story while on a shoot in Beijing

It has been a whirlwind summer of fun so far for the newly-engaged couple, who have just returned from a sun-soaked getaway on the coast of Italy, where they were among a group of celebrity guests being hosted by billionaire David Geffen on his yacht.

There, the couple joined the likes of Paul McCartney, billionaires Barry Diller and Henry Kravis, and royal matchmaker Misha Nonoo, the designer who set up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

And while numerous candid pictures have been posted of the couple during their stay on the lavish $200 million boat, Karlie has been careful to keep her wedding finger hidden at all times, giving away not even the smallest peek at her engagement ring.

However, while Italy might seem like the perfect spot for a proposal, Joshua actually chose to pop the question a few weeks ago, 'during a romantic weekend together in upstate New York', according to People.

A source close to the couple added to the publication: 'Theyre both overjoyed and happily celebrating. Their hearts are full and theyre excited to build their future together.'

Status update: Instead of sharing an image of himself with Karlie, Joshua instead shared the news on Instagram by posting a picture of the model, along with the caption, 'Fiance'

Karlie and Jared, whose relationship was not made public until November 2012, five months after they began dating, no doubt appreciated the opportunity to celebrate their recent engagement among friends while basking in the beautiful weather in Italy before Karlie had to jet straight to China for work.

Kode with Klossy creator Karlie shared a clip of herself on set in Beijing just hours after departing Capri, where she and Joshua, who is the brother of senior White House advisor, Jared Kushner, were seen looking very much the happy couple while on-board Geffen's $200 million yacht.

Celebration: Not long after Joshua, 33, popped the question, he and Karlie, 25, traveled to Capri, where they joined billionaire David Geffen on his $200 million yacht

There, the pair were seen laughing, kissing, and holding hands with Karlie shocking her new fiance at one point by flipping the bird in the direction of the cameras, while Josh jokingly tried to pull down her hand.

Cheeky gestures aside, it was a rare display of public intimacy between the pair, who are known for keeping their relationship incredibly private.

In an April interview with Porter magazine, Karlie opened up about her choice to remain so secretive about her relationship, explaining, 'Its not like Ive ever wanted to be so secretive about my private life.

'Carolina Herrera always says, "A woman whos an open book is boring." Theres no mystery anymore. I know in my life what really matters to me. Im not trying to hide that from the world; I just really like having a more private private life.'

She then added: 'Ive got nothing to hide, though!'

It seems that sun-soaked getaways are really the only time that the couple feels comfortable being photographed; in addition to the latest round of Italy photos, they were also pictured together while enjoying a vacation in Jordan alongside the likes of Misha and her boyfriend Mikey Hess - Joshua's best friend - and popstar Ellie, as well as Princess Beatrice.

Fun in the sun! The couple appeared to be having a great time on vacation, with Karlie even cheekily flipping the bird in the direction of the cameras at one point

Friends: Princess Beatrice (right in the striped shirt) joined Karlie and Josh, as well as a host of their closest pals, on vacation in Jordan earlier this year

But, having started dating in June 2012, Karlie and Joshua have only attended a handful of public events together in the six years since, and even then Joshua has avoided making an appearance on the red carpet.

At this year's Met Gala, which the couple attended together, Joshua chose to skip the carpet entirely, leaving his then-girlfriend to pose for photos alone before joining her inside the lavish star-studded event, where he happily posed up for several more candid social media snaps.

Keeping quiet: Karlie and Joshua, pictured in April 2016, are notoriously private about their relationship

The couple has also avoided making public appearances with Joshua's high-profile brother and sister-in-law; Karlie was pictured sharing a box with Ivanka and Jared at the US Open in 2016, along with the likes of billionaire Geffen and Wendi Deng, however Joshua is not thought to have been present.

It is thought to be the only time that Karlie and Ivanka have been pictured together at a public event.

Joshua has been seen with his brother and sister-in-law more recently however; he was pictured with Ivanka and the couple's three children near their home in Washington, DC, on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot last year.

The brothers were also pictured together in January 2017 when the venture capitalist attended senior White House advisor Jared's swearing in at the White House - one day after attending an anti-Trump women's march.

At the time, Joshua is said to have told others present at the march that he was merely 'observing' and not actually taking part, however it is not the first time that his own political opinions have been reported as being at odds with those of his brother's father-in-law.

While declining an interview on Joshua's behalf with Esquire magazine in 2016, a spokesperson confirmed to the publication that he considered himself a 'lifelong Democrat', adding that he would not be voting for Trump in the presidential election.

Rare: Karlie and Joshua have not made a public appearance together with Jared Kushner and Ivanka; the model attended the US Open with the couple in 2016, but Josh was not present

Brothers: Joshua and Jared are also rarely seen together; they are pictured at Jared's swearing in at the White House in January 2017, one of the last times they were pictured together

His father, Charles Kushner, was also once a prominent and elite Democrat, before being convicted of 18 counts of tax evasion, illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering.

Karlie, meanwhile, made clear her political views in November 2016, when she shared an image of herself on Instagram filling out a voting form in favor of Hillary Clinton - along with the caption, 'I'm with her.'

No matter the status of Joshua's relationship with Ivanka and Jared, the couple's wedding is sure to be an incredibly celebrity-heavy affair; no details have yet been released about when they plan to tie the knot, however it is likely that there will be plenty of A-listers in attendance.

As well as David Geffen, Misha Nonoo and her boyfriend Mikey Hess, the couple have a slew of high-profile pals between them, from Karlie's on-again-off-again best buddy Taylor Swift to Joshua's close friend Kevin Systrom, the CEO of Instagram.

Kevin was actually one of the first people to post a picture of the couple on the social site when he subtly shared a snap of two unnamed people cuddling on a beach, albeit without any information that would give away their identities.

The snap - which was captioned, 'I think my friend likes her' - has however since been identified as one of the first photos snapped of the pair.This inspirational woman has shared her recovery from a traumatic brain injury and defied doctors who said she wouldn't survive the night after her car was 't-boned' by a speeding vehicle  and she can now deadlift an impressive 111-kilograms in the gym.

In March 2001, mom-of-three Judy Godsey, 57, from Charlotte, North Carolina was on the way to the supermarket when her life was changed forever. As she turned out of the street where she lives, she was hit by a speeding car that 't-boned' the vehicle she was driving.

With no recollection of the traumatic event herself, an unconscious Judy was then released from the wreckage by firefighters using Jaws of Life.

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Inspirational: In 2001, Judy Godsey's car was hit by another speeding vehicle. The crash placed the now 57-year-old mom in a coma with a serious brain injury

Traumatic: The car crash placed Judy in the hospital for six weeks where doctors were first unsure if she would survive

The accident left Judy with an open head wound and pelvis broken in three places, she was diagnosed with a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury and developed pneumonia.

Doctors told Judy's devastated husband of 35-years, Raleigh, that she may not survive the night. Defying medics, she survived and was then in a coma for a week.

When she came out of her coma, Judy was in hospital for six-weeks, being bounced around between intensive care units and rehabilitation centers. During this time, Judy's parents and in-laws moved into her family home to help care for her then young children  Lee, 9; Will, 6; and Caroline, 4  as Raleigh supported her.

For a month she was unable to use her entire left side and had to learn how to walk, talk and swallow again with pureed foods. Remarkably within a year, Judy was back teaching English at the University of North Carolina as she didn't have any memory or cognitive problems.

'The last thing I remember about that night was leaving my house. The following is what I have been told: I turned left out of my street and was t-boned by a speeding car. Charlotte Fire Engine 16 responded to my accident. They used the Jaws of Life to remove me from my car,' Judy said.

'A physician on the way to the mall saw my accident and stopped. He found me unconscious with a bleeding head wound. He called 911, stemmed the flow of blood from my head, and called my husband.

'Raleigh took our kids to our next-door neighbours, Fran and David. Fran cared for our kids. David drove Raleigh to Carolina's Medical Centre Emergency Department. Raleigh remembers seeing my feet sticking out of the ER bed. Devastated. He knew our lives would change forever.

'I had an open head wound, received two units of blood, and my pelvis was broken in three places. Diagnosed with a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury. I also developed pneumonia. Nearly 50 of our friends came to the hospital to support Raleigh.

Family: Judy, pictured with her husband and three kids, overcame her injuries and started teaching English again a year after the crash

Strong: A friend recommended for Judy to start working out with a personal trainer to overcome her muscle weakness

Fit: Working out in the gym has helped Judy and now is one of her passions

Judy continued: 'When I was in the coma, I was not aware of any outside stimuli. I asked Raleigh about the coma period last night and he said that about 10 days after my accident, I had not responded to any stimuli. A physician got in my face and yelled my name. I moved my right fingers. That was the first positive sign.

'I was not aware of my coma. And my first recollections of being in the hospital were not alarming. I had a tracheotomy and a feeding tube. I did not use the left side of my body for a month. I had trouble swallowing, my food was pureed, put in moulds to resemble each food type: peas, carrots and beef.

'Once the doctors cleared me, I never looked back. I wouldn't talk about my TBI. I didn't want to be defined by it. I had no cognitive or memory issues.

'I loved teaching. I was good at it. My speech was a bit of a problem. I briefly explained my TBI at the beginning of each semester. Reading essays was slower. And my fine motor skills were affected. I still cannot handwrite clearly. I reverted to typing essay comments and attaching them to each paper. That took so much time.'

Struggling with her balance and muscle weakness, Judy's friend recommended getting a personal trainer and she says that getting into fitness was the best thing she has ever done. She now trains every day and can deadlift an incredible 244 pounds, Judy credits fitness for helping to save her life.

'For about a year, I wished I had not survived. Living was too painful and often confusing. I felt old which was reflected in my movements and decision making,' she said.

'My daughter had surgery at age four to correct a birth defect. Laying with her in the hospital bed that might was the first time I knew why I survived. She needed her mom.

Incredible: The fit mom from Charlotte, North Carolina, can now deadlift 250 pounds

Phenomenal: ''My message to others: Never give up,' Judy said

'My weak muscles contributed to my poor balance. A friend recommended a personal trainer. It was the best thing I could have done.

'TBI survivors need to regain control of some aspects of their lives. Setting goals and achieving them is empowering.

'Fitness is one way of coping with anxiety, melancholy, and isolation.'

Judy's first fitness trainer, Betsy Maner spoke of her progress: 'Judy achieved a strong, lean form, better balance and confidence in many areas. Mind over matter pretty much sums it up. Her willingness to put herself out there should be a standard for us all,'

Her current trainer, Paul Sklar said: 'Judy's progress has been nothing less than remarkable and extraordinary.'

Judy shares her fitness journey on Instagram. Finally, she gave her words of advice to others.

'My friends are amazed at how I've pulled my life back together as through nothing happened,' she said.

'My message to others: Never give up.

'I had a strong support group that will helped me whether the dark day, and there were many.'The Duggars are known for acting speedily when it comes to matters of love and marriage, but second-oldest son John-David Duggar has set a new record.

The 28-year-old has announced that he is engaged to his girlfriend, 26-year-old Abbie Grace Burnett, just a month after the pair began their courtship in late June.

'We are thrilled to announce the engagement of John-David and Abbie!' the Duggar family said in a statement on their website. 'They are a wonderful match and make a beautiful couple!'

Speedy! John-David Duggar, 28, has announced his engagement to Abby Burnett, 26, a month after they started dating

Pairing up: Upon entering the courtship, John-David joked that he had 'reconsidered the whole "bachelor 'til the rapture" thing'

The statement continued: 'Abbie is a lovely young woman, full of tenderness and compassion. She has a deep love for the Lord and we are so delighted that John-David has asked her to be his wife! We love weddings in this family and cant wait for this next one!'

The couple only began their courtship a month ago, making for speedy turnaround to get them to the altar.

The Duggar family abides by strict rules when it comes to dating and relationships with the opposite sex. Rather than 'dating' as most people do, they 'court', which they explain as 'dating with a purpose'.

Typically, when Duggar enter a courtship, it is an official trial period to see whether they should get married. As with marriage proposals, the men in the family ask permission of the women's parents before asking to enter a courtship.

No fooling around! The lovebirds knew each other for a 'couple months' before entering a courtship, which in the Duggar family means 'dating with a purpose'

No touching! The Duggars have strict rules for dating, and John-David and Abbie will share their first kiss on their wedding day. They are only allowed to hold hands and give side-hugs

John-David and Abbie only knew each other for a couple of months before they began courting.

In a video released online at the announcement of their courtship, John-David explained that they'd known of each other for quite some time before actually meeting.

'Abbie and I are just so excited. Weve known of each other for several years, but we didnt meet til ' he began, before Abbie finished: 'John flew in for a church event here in Oklahoma where Im from. We really got connected then.'

'Yeah, a couple months ago,' John-David went on. 'We fell in love very quickly. And its been a wonderful journey thus far and taking the next step to move onto a courtship.'

'A lot of prayer, a lot of counsel, a lot of time together,' added Abbie.

Scandal! Some fans wonder if they broke the rules, though, after Jill (far right) posted this picture saying she ran into them  but didn't mention a chaperone

Another one down! John-David's engagement brings the total number of attached Duggar children to eight

While they're certainly moving fast, other Duggars who've said 'I do' have also taken things quite quickly. John-David's little brother Josiah, 21, popped the question to his now-wife Lauren Swanson, 19, after a six-week courtship.

Josiah and Lauren had known each other for about three and a half months before their courtship began, and were engaged for just four months before their wedding on June 30.

John-David's engagement brings the total number of attached Duggar children to eight.

Of those age 20 and over, only John-David's twin sister, 28-year-old Jana, remains single.

As members of the Duggar family abstain from sex before marriage  as well as kissing and even front-facing hugs  they tend to have quick engagements.

First look! Josiah Duggar married his 19-year-old bride Lauren Swanson on June 30

Muah! The two shared their first kiss moments after being declared husband and wife

New parents: Jinger Duggar, 24, and her husband Jeremy Vuolo, 30, became parents to a healthy baby girl named Felicity Nicole Vuolo last week

Mandate: All of the adult Duggar children age 20 and up have paired off so far except for Jana, 28 (far right)

In fact, until they are married, all dating or 'courting' adult children are expected to have chaperones with them on all dates. Sometimes, younger siblings even serve as chaperones.

Interestingly, however, fans of Counting On suspect that John-David and Abbie may have broken those rules during their courtship after John-David's sister Jill posted a picture of the trio on Instagram.

'Ran into these two last night!' she captioned the photo, without mentioning anyone else being there  leading fans to wonder whether the two adults had been out without supervision.

Once they are married, John-David and Abbie will likely follow in the footsteps of John-David's siblings and start having children immediately.

Women in the family are expected to have as many children as possible. Matriarch Michelle Duggar, who has had 19 children, has spoken out about not believing in birth control.

More milestones: Joseph and his wife Kendra Duggar welcomed their first child in June, a boy named Garrett who arrived nine months after they got married

New member: Kendra struggled through labor, with the whole thing being captured by TLC's cameras

Teen mom: Joy-Anna Duggar, 20, gave birth to her first child at 19, with husband Austin Forsyth

Baby machines: Jessa Duggar and her husband Ben Seewald have two children so far

First wife: Jill Duggar, the first Duggar daughter to get married, also has two kids

She blames a miscarriage early in her marriage on that fact that she and Jim Bob initially used birth control after saying 'I do'.

Eldest sibling Josh Duggar, 30  who confessed to being a porn addict and was found to be philandering in the wake of the Ashley Madison hack  has five kids with his wife Anna.

Jill, 27, and Jess Duggar, 25, have two kids each, while Jinger, 24, and Joy-Anna, 20, each have one child so far.

Joe Duggar, 23, just welcomed his first child with Kendra Caldwell, 19, while Josiah, 21, married last month.

The other adult children who remain single are Jedidiah and Jeremiah, both 19, and Jason, 18. The youngest sibling is Josie, eight.Brits sweltering through the UK's longest heatwave since 1976 have taken to Twitter in a panic as they desperately seek out fans to keep them cool.

The mercury is set to soar to 91F (33C) today, but those hoping for the relief of some cool air have been left frustrated with some complaining of entire towns across the country being sold out of fans.

One commenter reported that fans were completely sold out in Chelmsford; James Lund from Leeds said he couldn't find a fan for his grandmother, and a Lincoln resident also reported that shelves were bare.

Amy Brunsdon from Reading tried B&Q, Screwfix, Currys and B&M before finally having success at AO.com, which yesterday had its biggest day ever in sales of cooling and air treatment products, with sales up 382 per cent week-on-week.

Brits, such as this struggling London commuter, are having their misery compounded as fans sell out all around the country

Meanwhile, Jamie Conner from Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire also complained that there were no fans to be had.

One Twitter user advised followers to try Poundstretcher, as it was the only place she'd found in Folkestone, Kent that wasn't sold out.

Yesterday, John Lewis said sales of electrical cooling products were up 315% week-on-week as weather forecasts showed no relief from the high temperatures for at least a fortnight.

Pharmacy chain Superdrug said it had reordered stocks of its mini fans after they sold out.

People have reported that fans are sold out across the UK, including parts of Chelmsford, Leeds, Reading and Kent

Amazon.co.uk said it had seen a 2,100% month-on-month increase in sales of air cooling items such as fans and a 650% month-on-month rise on some swimming pools.

On the need for Brits to stay cool, AO.com Purchasing Director, Paul Whyte said, 'We've enjoyed a great summer of sport and now the weather is playing ball too.

'As temperatures continue to soar we've seen our customers investing in fans and air conditioning units for them to use to stay cool, not only during this summer's heatwave but for any other future unpredictable weather'.They're best known for their trademark sheepskin boots.

But UGG appears to be undergoing a radical image overhaul, if its latest range is anything to go by.

The California based brand has unveiled a pair of fluffy sandals in millennial pink that are a far cry from its chunky fleece boots, which were hugely popular in the early 2000s.

The heels, which have thick layers of faux fur on the straps, are being sold on ASOS for 120 as part of its new Fluff Power collection.

Fancy footwear: UGG is selling a stylish pair of fluffy sandals in millennial pink on ASOS for 120

The quirky shoes feature two fluffy straps across the foot and a matching fuzzy ankle strap, with a discreet zip-back fastening and the unmistakable UGG logo on the side of the heel.

They are open toed and low heeled, making them perfect for a chilly summer night out.

ASOS describes the shoes, which are made of real leather and faux fur, as 'seriously strokeable'.

The collection is designed for 'pool parties and summer nights', according to UGG, and is already making waves on social media with fans going wild on Instagram.

The sandals sit alongside fluffy pink mules and slides in the three-piece collection, which comes in four different colourways.

The brand is best known for its divisive Ugg Boots, which became popular in the early 2000s but have fallen out of favour

The quirky shoes feature two fluffy straps across the foot and a matching fuzzy ankle strap

MailOnline has contacted UGG and is awaiting comment.

Uggs became hugely popular in the early 2000s, with celebrities such as Kate Moss and Jennifer Aniston wearing them.

They were derided for being shapeless and sexless  but millions still swear by the sheepskin-lined boots for comfort and cosiness.

Earlier this year UGG caused a stir when it sent models down the runway in a made over pair of their trademark boots.

Earlier this year UGG caused a stir when it sent male models down the runway wearing slouchy thigh high versions of their boots

Stylistas were left horrified by the Ugg's rebirth as a slouchy thigh high boot, likening them to the coat of a Shar Pei dog and saggy, wrinkled elephant skin.

The shoes were in partnership with the French brand Y/Project, and were unveiled at the men's show at Paris Fashion Week in January.

Back in May it was revealed that Uggs were in a list of Britain's most hated clothes.

While the survey by YouGov revealed that the most hated clothing are Speedos, it also stated that 51 per cent of the nation don't like Uggs.Prince Harry's HIV charity has released a heartwarming set of images from the royal's visit to Lesotho last month.

The Duke of Sussex, who has this week been talking at an AIDS conference in Amsterdam, travelled to the southern African kingdom last month to open a community hall on behalf of Sentebale, the organisation he co-founded.

He met children at the Phelisanong Children's Centre in Pitseng, Leribe during what Kensington Palace described as a 'private visit' without his new wife Meghan.

The snaps show the newly-married royal playing balloons with local children, while one cheeky youngster tries on his sunglasses.

Harry plays with children holding balloons during the official opening of The Dining Hall at Phelisanong Childrens Home last month, just four weeks after his wedding in Windsor

Harry dances with a little girl during the opening of The Dining Hall at Phelisanong Childrens Home. His visit was described as a 'private' trip by Kensington Palace

Harry plays a game of chase with local children during Winter Camp at Sentebale's Mamohato Children's Centre last month

In other images, Harry is seen playing a game of tag, cuddling and dancing with the youngsters.

The Duke was also joined by friend and Sentebale ambassador Adam Bidwell on the visit to the country, with which he has a strong personal connection.

In 2004, Harry spent two months in the land-locked Lesotho during his gap year, and the experience made a lasting impression on the then 19-year-old.

He has since returned many times and founded his charity Sentebale in 2006 in honour of his mother Diana to help disadvantaged children in the land-locked kingdom.

Earlier this week, Harry joined pop star Elton John to launch a campaign to raise HIV awareness among men, warning that 'dangerous complacency' about the virus threatened the quest to wipe it out.

The billion-dollar project 'MenStar' will target men living with or at risk of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been ravaged by AIDS since the 1980s.

Prince of hearts! Harry met the children at the Phelisanong Children's Centre in Leribe during what Kensington Palace described as a 'private visit' without his new wife Meghan

Close to his heart: The Duke of Sussex, who has this week been talking at the AIDS conference in Amsterdam, travelled to the southern African kingdom last month

Second home: In 2004, Harry spent two months in the land-locked Lesotho during his gap year, and the experience made a lasting impression on the then 19-year-old

'The MenStar coalition is bravely tackling the root cause of this problem - the lack of awareness of HIV prevention amongst hard-to-reach young men,' Harry said at the 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday.

Speaking at the launch, which also featured South African actress Charlize Theron and Ndaba Mandela, the grandson of late President Nelson Mandela, Elton John said: 'If we want to end AIDS once and for all, we must make men part of the solution.'

Around 36.7 million people around the world have HIV, according to 2016 figures cited by the United Nations' HIV/AIDS body UNAIDS.

Fewer than half of men living with HIV receive treatment compared with 60 percent of women, it said.

Prince Harry said the campaign launch came at 'a time when new energetic and innovative solutions are needed more than ever before'.Feeling steamy and sexy? Or just plain sweaty? Heatwaves can take you either way: some find all that bare skin tempting, others prefer to wait for some chilly British cuddle-up weather.

But in the midst of this, we are reminded of a wonderfully insulting old superstition.

Academics at the University of Basel, in Switzerland, have been analysing an old papyrus, found in Egypt, with mirror writing in Greek characters. For 500 years scholars wondered what vital truths were in it.

It turns out to be a Roman treatise on how womens health suffers when deprived of regular sex. According to the manuscript we get hysterical apnoea and stop breathing. This belief goes back to Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, who in the 5th century BC decided that female hysteria  irrational uncontrollable emotion  was caused by a lack of sex.

Libby Purves was left exasperated after an ancient papyrus turned out to be a Roman treatise on how women's health suffers because of a lack of sex

That it might have been caused partly by their lives with the men who ran society did not, at the time, occur to him.

Instead, perhaps fascinated by our ability to grow new human beings inside us, a feat even the most powerful men cant manage, he fixated on wombs. Of the so-called womens diseases, the womb is cause of all, he opined. Without frequent sex it dried up, causing fainting, loss of breath, dumbness and hysteria.

He announced that girls must be married and pregnant by around 14, lest they get asphyxiation and suicidal lunacy. The recommended cure was simply sex.

Or, in older women of less obvious appeal to the men in charge, garlic, laxatives, a tasty drink of ground-up cantharid beetles and fumigating of your lady-bits with malodorous vapours.

Urghh. I really shouldnt have read that book (In Bed With The Ancient Greeks by Paul Chrystal). But it is fascinating to trace, all down the long centuries, this fixed male idea that abstinence or virginity are dangerous for women, who must be cured by willing blokes.

According to the manuscript women get hysterical apnoea and stop breathing (file photo)

Its worth noting that the belief hangs around even today, because it makes a lot of women unhappy. The myth that you cant be normal, bright, happy or fit without a healthy sex life is corrosive, and women buy into it as much as men. There have, of course, been cultures where not having sex was something you could be admired for. The middle-ages had a down-to-earth attitude to bodily functions (try reading The Canterbury Tales, very rude), but medieval Christianity also set great store on virginity.

Sometimes too much: a Middle English text which infuriated us at university was called Hali Meidenhad  holy virginity  and explained that the whole business was just awful, and marriage was a safety net spread to catch you as you hurtled towards hell.

On the other hand a bride of Christ, virgin all her life, could be highly respected with nobody assuming she was mad or ill.

Holy women such as the musician Hildegard of Bingen and Julian (or Juliana) of Norwich were revered, their advice sought by powerful men. Chaste widows, too, could hold high status, without anyone barging in and trying to feed them ground-up beetles or new husbands in case their wombs imploded.

The belief goes back to Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, who in the 5th century BC decided that female hysteria was caused by a lack of sex

But the Greek idea lingered. Women have traditionally been treated as a sort of currency (after all, we have both an ability to give enormous pleasure to men and to produce their heirs).

It helps the patriarchy to believe that only they can keep us going, by mating with us a lot.

By the time we got to the Victorians, the theory that regular sex was vital to women was back in the mainstream.

Sadly, it is not entirely true (as the 2012 film Hysteria tried to persuade us) that doctors invented the vibrator to do therapeutic massage for a hysterical release in troubled female patients. The first vibrators were actually just massage tools for both sexes. But they caught on, being advertised in womens magazines by the turn of the 20th century promising all the pleasure of youth will throb within you and talking of revitalising.

That only sex can keep women sane is a notion echoed in dozens of novels about spinsters (in the real world, of course unattached women just got on with life).

Think of Dickenss Miss Havisham, thwarted on her wedding day and devoting her life to ruining everyone elses. Or his sadistic, whiskery Miss Murdstone, tormenting David Copperfield. They crop up in Jane Austen, too, with Miss Bates being chattery and boring in Emma, and in Persuasion, Anne Elliot losing her bloom and faded by 27, until luckily marriage saves her.

Even Agatha Christie seems to fall for the old superstition in one of her novels - though she did give us Miss Marple

Move on and you still find the suspicion that sexually un-used women are not quite normal.

In the Thirties even the independent Dorothy L. Sayers, who created the wonderfully tough heroine Harriet Vane, cant resist the caricature. Theres a malign, needy spinster in one Sayers novel, The Documents In The Case, who diagnoses herself as suffering from sex-starvation.

In other books she explores the then-popular theory that after the first war killed so many young men, sex-starved women went batty and embraced cults and spiritualism.

In Agatha Christie, one of her characters  a lonely middle-aged lady  falls for a murderous preacher. But at least both those writers gave us clever spinsters too. The great Miss Marple needed no weird vibrators or beetle soup to beat Scotland Yard.

But still the quack theory endures: right into this century we get the idea that a woman who is not being serviced might be a nuisance or an oddball.

It haunts us, all the way from Anita Brookners brave but sad ladylike loners, to Bridget Jones squealing that she might seal up if she doesnt have sex, and the kind of pub oaf who says some woman needs a good seeing-to.

In Great Expectations, Miss Havisham (played by Joan Hickson pictured), was thwarted on her wedding day and devoted her life to ruining everyone elses

In reality, womens sex drive varies between individuals and times of life as much as mens does, and is more tightly tied to emotions and affections. For us, bad sex is far worse than no sex, and we are unlikely to go weird just for lack of it.

Through all the years since Hippocrates, we have also had other things on our minds. Like caring for the weak and the young, striving for unsexy things such as equality, education, good work, choice in marriage and permission to divorce men who rape, beat or simply bore us rigid.

What is depressing is how often that frustrated desire to be treated as a human being gets reinterpreted by grumpy males as something to do with the little ladies not getting enough sex.

As the internet connects our beliefs and worries globally, you find the idea still floating about, endorsed by women worried for themselves. I dont mean messageboards full of wives feeling sad because sex has vanished from marriage: often as you read their complaints they are not so much missing the basic act as affection, cuddles, being noticed and loved and still admired as they grow older.

Far more numerous are strident anti-feminist campaigners saying things like, Women need a mans love in order to be themselves again, that is proper women. Or pretend-medical sites hoping to get clicks by using the s-word, and claiming frequent sex is vital to cardiovascular health and the immune system. Nonsense.

To take an example at random, one site boasts that scientists have demonstrated that sexual activity boosts neuron growth in the brains hippocampus.

But two minutes on, more sober sites point out that you can do just as much good to your neurons with exercise, proper food, learning a language or taking a training course. Meanwhile, studies of monks, celibate priests and nuns show they actually live longer than the rest of us.

Sex is great. It can be tenderness, connection, release and a source of happiness, not to mention babies. When women want that form of intimacy, they should be able to enjoy it.

But its not compulsory. Not bothering with it doesnt make you ill. It is men, all down the ages, who have needed to be reassured that their male equipment is a magic wand.

And that even if the woman in their bed looks a bit bored, they are doing her good.(the magazine) is Buckley's old critter, & is reliably opposed to anything that the Democratic Party favors. They've (the magazine) had problems:"Obama conspiracy theories[edit]"Further information: Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theoriesThethat brought widespread attention to the. In June 2008, six days after Hillary Clinton conceded to Obama in the Democratic primary, The National Review published an article asking Obama to publish his birth certificate to prove that he was born in the United States.[29][30] The article led to widespread attention on what had previously been a fringe internet theory.[29]"Onebecause for ain 1958, or 60, there was.[31][32]"Bywas on the National Review, despite stirring controversy for a number of years making. D'Souza had shared a meme and. In comments that earned rebukes from National Review colleagues, D'Souza said thatattacked Roy Moore accuser Beverly Young Nelson, said that accusations against Roy Moore were most likely fabricated, and.[33]"Climate change[edit]"According to Philip Bump of The Washington Post,".[34] In 2015, the magazine published anthat suggested that there was no climate change.[34][35][36] The graph set the lower and upper bounds of the chart at -10 and 110 degree Fahrenheit and zoomed out so as to obscure warming trends.[36]"In 2017, National Review published an article alleging that a top NOAA scientist claimed that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)in order to influence the Paris climate negotiations.[37] The article largely repeated allegations made in The Daily Mail without independent verification.[38] The scientist in question, noting that he did not accuse NOAA of data manipulation but instead raised concerns about "the way data was handled, documented and stored, raising issues of transparency and availability".[37](My emphasis - more @ the URL - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Review So yah, NR isn't an unbiased source, & they've already signed up for climate change denial.If the lead exposure rate in Flint among children (& the nation, for that matter) has gone down & is less than requiring hospitalization & exotic treatment strategies, all the better. But that still doesn't validate what NR has to say - they've covered themselves in something considerably less than glory in the quite recent past. I'll look for corroboration elsewhere, & doubt that NR & I will ever agree on any political stance whatsoever.Fans of Netflix's popular Queer Eye reboot have seen hair stylist Jonathan Van Ness transform quite a few men with a better 'do  but how does he keep his own strands looking so fabulous?

The 31-year-old dished on his haircare routine with The Cut this week, talking about his go-to practices and products.

He also explained why looking good is so important, and offered a peak into what it's like to work with the rest of the Fab Five.

High-shine! Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness has talked about his shiny hair in a new interview

Fab: Jonathan's part of the new Fab Five, along with (left to right) Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Antoni Porowski, and Tan France

Before Queer Eye, Jonathan got his start by attending the Aveda Institute and working as a hairdresser Arizona and Los Angeles for over a decade.

Fans have come to know him for his always-upbeat attitude  and his long, shiny hair, which he's prone to flipping. And, of course, taking good care of.

'Not overwashing your hair gives it a nice shine. Washing your hair every day dulls it out,' he explained. 'Silk pillowcases help keep it shiny.

As for product, he said, 'I also love this product by Wonder Worker by Shu Uemura. I put it in and let it air dry.

'There are shine sprays, but I dont use a lot of them. If you struggle with dull hair, try finishing it up with one from Aveda (Aveda Brilliant Spray On Shine) or Kevin Murphy Shimmer Shine.

'If youre a dude, try more water-based pomade as opposed to matte  its more absorbent.'

Tricks: 'Not overwashing your hair gives it a nice shine. Washing your hair every day dulls it out,' he explained. 'Silk pillowcases help keep it shiny.'

Product: 'There are shine sprays, but I dont use a lot of them,' he added

He added: 'If giving yourself a fun new side part creates endorphins, then why not! Youre doing it yourself'

Jonathan says he admires a lot of other stars' hair, too, and gushed about a top knot worn by figure skater Michelle Kwan, whom he had just met.

But while he obviously cares about his hair and how he presents himself, he insisted that he isn't high maintenance.

If he is running to Starbucks, for example, or hurrying to meet someone, he won't spend a lot of time in his look  he'll just brush his teeth, floss, and throw his hair in a top knot, and get out the door.

In that regard, he thinks it's fine for people to leave the house without putting in 100 per cent  but they should at least have the knowledge of how to look their best and spend more time on their appearances, since looking good can make you feel good.

Pals: Jonathan also talked about living in the same building as co-star Antoni Porowski

Yum! 'He cooks for me at least one a week when we are shooting. He makes a lot of different things  gorgeous different pastas and clean stuff like chicken breasts and veggies,' he said

'If giving yourself a fun new side part creates endorphins, then why not! Youre doing it yourself. Dont let someone think youre not cute enough because you dont know how to do something. Never shame and empower with knowledge,' he said.

When asked about his Queer Eye co-stars, Jonathan said that food expert Antoni Porowski cooks for him 'all the time,' especially while they are working.

'He cooks for me at least one a week when we are shooting. He makes a lot of different things  gorgeous different pastas and clean stuff like chicken breasts and veggies,' he said.

'Also frittatas and smoothies. We work together and were living in the same building.'A humble Australian pizzeria has been named the 'Best pizzeria in Oceania' at an awards ceremony dubbed the 'Oscars of pizzerias'.

To reward the truly 'bellissima', the best in the world are recognised once a year at the 50 Top Pizza Awards in Naples, the birthplace of the beloved dish in southern Italy.

The awards are broken down by region, and taking out the crown on Tuesday for the best in Oceania was Melbourne's 400 Gradi by Italian restaurateur Johnny Di Francesco.

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The 50 Top Pizza Awards take place in Naples, Italy every year to pay tribute to the best pizzerias around the world (pictured is a classic pepperoni and rocket pizza from the Oceania category winner 400 Gradi)

Speaking to the Herald Sun, the owner and director of the Gradi group said it was a huge honour to be recognised among such prestigious competitors.

'It's known as the Oscars of pizzerias, so when I found out, I said, "I have to get the suit out and accept this award!".'

The overall title of World's Best Pizza went to chef Franco Pepe's Pepe in Grani eatery in Caiazzo, Italy.

Director of the Gradi Group Johnny Di Francesco (pictured) described the restaurant's win as 'a huge honour'

That's Amore! A traditional Capricciosa pizza from the East Brunswick restaurant

Johnny Di Francesco's tips for the perfect pizza * Use high quality ingredients, particularly flour * Prepare dough the day before cooking * Use your hands to stretch and knead the dough - the chef believes brilliant dough is the key to brilliant pizza * If possible, use a wood-fired oven and blast the dough at 400C for 90 seconds; otherwise, just use a pizza stone in a standard oven * Always cook with love, it's the Italian way! Source: Herald Sun Advertisement

Situated on the Italian food mecca of Lygon Street in Melbourne's inner north, 400 Gradi serves up 'heavenly Italian fare' with Napolese cuisine at the heart of every dish.

Australias best pizzeria boasts a wide range of choices, including the traditional favourite Capricciosa made with San Marzano tomatoes, artichokes, olives, prosciutto and mushrooms ($25) and the quirky Viennese with white sauce and sausage topped with fried chips ($24).

The restaurants signature pizza is the self titled Gradi, created with 20-month cured prosciutto di parma, cherry tomatoes, rocket and shaved parmesan for $26.

The most expensive item on the pizza menu is the globally appreciated Calzone al Forno, a folded pizza with mild salami, ricotta cheese, prosciutto cotto and basil priced at $29.

'We've proven Australia makes amazing pizza - you don't need to be in Naples to eat the best pizza in the world!' Mr Di Francesco is proud of 400 Gradi's widely acclaimed menu

The Austro-German influenced Pizza Viennese from 400 Gradi, with ingredients like fior di latte (soft cheese), German sausage and fried chips on top

The restaurant is no stranger to success, having previously won the coveted accolade of Australia's best pizza at the 2014 awards.

Mr Di Francesco expressed his delight at Australia's growing reputation in the gourmet world.

'We've proven Australia makes amazing pizza - you don't need to be in Naples to eat the best pizza in the world.

'We put pizza on the map four years ago, now this cements its position,' he said.The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) latest outbreak of deadly Ebola is over, its health ministry has announced.

Experts claim vaccinating more than 3,300 residents with a still-experimental jab helped to contain the outbreak, which was declared in early May in northwest Equateur province.

DRC's health minister Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga said: 'Although the scale of the crisis we were facing was unprecedented, the speed and effectiveness of the response put in place by the Government and its partners were also exceptional.'

Fears were raised when the virus spread to the city of Mbandaka, which has more than one million residents, as well as to hard-to-reach rural areas.

Yet after 42 days with no new confirmed cases, the outbreak, which killed 33 people, has been declared over.

Although a cause for celebration, Dr Stacey Mearns, senior health coordinator of the International Rescue Committee's emergency response team, added: 'It's always good to see the end of an outbreak, but it's certainly not the end of Ebola in Congo. Ebola is endemic here.'

The Ebola outbreak began in the poorly-connected region of Ikoko-Impenge and Bikoro. It then travelled 80 miles (130km) north to Mbandaka. There were fears it would spread to Kinshasa 364 miles (586km) south on the river, where 12 million people live

'A great relief'

Local resident Dominique Ekila, 44, said: 'It's a great relief for us.

'Since May, I had stopped traveling to Equateur province to sell fish. With this announcement I will soon plan my next trip.'

Esther Mavinga, who sells vegetables in Kinshasa, added: 'We were very worried that this epidemic would come to Kinshasa. The God we prayed to heard our prayers and spared us.'

Dr Ibrahima Soce Fall, regional emergencies director in Africa for the World Health Organization (WHO), called DRC's response vastly improved after the devastating outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,300 people between 2014 and 2016.

HAS THE DRC HAD AN EBOLA OUTBREAK BEFORE? DRC escaped the brutal Ebola pandemic that began in 2014, which was finally declared over in January 2016 - but it was struck by a smaller outbreak last year. Four DRC residents died from the virus in 2017. The outbreak lasted just 42 days and international aid teams were praised for their prompt responses. The new outbreak is the DRC's ninth since the discovery of Ebola in the country in 1976. Health experts credit an awareness of the disease among the population and local medical staff's experience treating for past successes containing its spread. DRC's vast, remote geography also gives it an advantage, as outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate. Advertisement

WHO, which was criticised for its slow response a few years ago, went through a 'profound reform' after the former outbreak, which included giving $2 million towards treatment efforts, Dr Fall added.

'Worst case scenario' played out

Speaking of the virus' spread to Mbandaka, Dr Kalenga said: 'From the start, we had prepared for the worst of scenarios. And our fears were quickly confirmed'.

Mbandaka sits on the Congo River, upstream from the capital Kinshasa and its 10 million residents.

This promoted concerns the virus would spread not only within DRC but also to its neighboring nations including Central African Republic.

There is no specific treatment for Ebola, which is spread via contact with the bodily fluids of those infected, including the dead.

The virus can be fatal in up to 90 per cent of cases, depending on the strain.

Where did the outbreak begin?

The most recent Ebola outbreak began in the poorly-connected region of Ikoko-Impenge and Bikoro  in the north east of the DRC.

It then travelled 80 miles (130km) north to Mbandaka, a port city on the river Congo  an essential waterway - with around 1.2 million inhabitants.

There was a 'major concern' it would spread to Kinshasa  364 miles (586km) south on the river, where 12 million people live.

The capital of the DRC has an international airport with regular flights to the European cities Zurich, Frankfurt and Brussels.

International help flooded in as aid workers desperately battles to contain the outbreak. A mass vaccination campaign also began (Pictured: a lab worker uses a microscope at the health centre in Wangata during a vaccination campaign)

Reminiscent of the 2014 pandemic

Dr Derek Gatherer, a virologist from Lancaster University, warned the outbreak was 'reminiscent' of the 2014 Ebola pandemic.

In an editorial for a scientific journal, Dr Gatherer wrote: 'The current outbreak has the potential for rapid expansion in numbers.

He added: 'Mbandaka is a port on the River Congo, the main arterial transport link from DRC's capital Kinshasa to inland cities.

'With poor to non-existent provision of running water, sewage and electricity, the similarities with the urban situation during the west African outbreak are obvious.'

'The risk of transmission to Kinshasa  central Africa's main megacity  either by river or by air from Mbandaka's regional airport, is a major concern.'

Future outbreaks likely

Writing in the Journal of General Virology, Dr Gatherer also warned the 'question of how to prevent future Ebola outbreaks remains depressingly open'.

He described the DRC basin as 'Ebola's heartland'. The virus - endemic in the country - is named after the Ebola river.

The most recent outbreak, dubbed an 'international public health emergency' by the Congo Health Ministry, is caused by the Zaire strain.

Neighbouring countries were alerted

Neighbouring countries were alerted about the most recent outbreak of Ebola, which can cause severe bleeding.

DRC borders Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Burundi and the Republic of Congo.

Kenya, which doesn't border the DRC, issued warnings over the possible spread of Ebola.

Thermal guns to detect anyone with a fever were put in place along Kenya's border with Uganda and at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

Concerned health officials in Nigeria, which also doesn't border the DRC, put similar measures in place to keep its population safe.

Angola shut a segment of its border with the DRC to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, even though the outbreak did not reach the border.

Officials closed the strip of land where people most commonly cross. A group of border patrol officers, nurses and veterinary doctors were also on watch.

Much quicker aid response

The 2014 international response to the Ebola pandemic drew criticism for moving too slowly and prompted an apology from the WHO.

Yet international aid teams moved much quicker in response this time; implementing vaccination campaigns in several regions.

Hundreds of locals and frontline health workers in Bikoro, Iboko and Mbandaka were given the experimental vaccine, known as rVSV-ZEBOV.

There are no proven Ebola vaccines, however, the rVSV-ZEBOV has been shown to be effective in trials in Guinea during the pandemic.More patients are dying than they should be at 29 NHS trusts, claims an eminent hospital death rates expert.

MailOnline last week named and shamed the 13 health service-ran organisations across England that recorded excess deaths in 2017.

But Professor Sir Brian Jarman, who helped expose the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal, fears the true figure is much higher.

He recalculated the NHS Digital data for MailOnline and found a further 16 trusts ran by the health service fall into the excess deaths category.

According to his analysis, there were 6,800 more deaths than expected at hospitals ran by the 29 trusts - significantly more than NHS estimates of 3,700.

Blackpool Victoria Hospital, ran by the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, has been flagged up for having excess deaths every year since 2014

The County Hospital is ran by Wye Valley NHS Trust, which was named as one of the 13 NHS trusts with excess deaths in 2017

WHERE WERE THE 29 NHS TRUSTS THAT PROFESSOR SIR BRIAN JARMAN FOUND HAD EXCESS DEATHS? The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust James Paget University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust Wye Valley NHS Trust University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Isle of Wight NHS Trust Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust Trusts in bold also fell under the excess deaths category by NHS Digital Advertisement

Chiefs warn the data is only a 'smoke alarm' and only warrants the need for further investigations to examine the cause of the excess deaths

NHS Digital releases its Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) data every summer for the previous year.

It collected the data from 134 hospital trusts between January and December last year and then statistically analysed the results.

There were around nine million discharges, from which 294,000 deaths were recorded either while in hospital or within 30 days of discharge.

The findings were supposed to have been published last month, but officials had to push the date back. The reason behind the delay is unclear.

In the NHS report, 103 trusts reported no excess deaths and 18 even had a lower number of fatalities than expected.

The data showed slightly less than a tenth, or 9.7 per cent, of NHS trusts reported higher than expected deaths.

WHAT WAS THE MID STAFFS SCANDAL? A disputed estimate suggested that hundreds of people may have needlessly died at Stafford Hospital, ran by Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust, due to poor care between 2005 and 2009. In what is one of the worst care scandals in living memory, anecdotes provided by Julie Bailey, who was responsible for exposing neglect at the hospital, suggested patients were left lying in their own excrement and had been so thirsty that they were reduced to drinking water from vases. The Francis report, the inquiry into the hospital's workings in 2013, found that box ticking bureaucrats prioritised targets over basic levels of care. But not a single individual will be prosecuted in connection with the scandal, police admitted last year - despite a three-year investigation. Stafford Hospital has been renamed County Hospital, and is now run by a different trust. Advertisement

They included Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS FT, South Tyneside NHS FT and Wye Valley NHS Trust, which have all had excess deaths since 2013.

Chiefs warn the data is only a 'smoke alarm' and only warrants the need for further investigations to examine the cause of the excess deaths.

But Professor Jarman's recalculation of the data shows more than a fifth of NHS trusts, or 21.6 per cent, have deaths higher than expected.

He used the internationally recognised system, recommended by the Association of Public Health Observatories, called Byar's confidence intervals.

A similar process helped uncover poor care at the Mid Staffordshire trust, which was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to ever hit the NHS.

However, the NHS uses another method, called overdispersion, which gives trusts slightly more leeway in terms of recording deaths.

Under that system, a trust is regarded as having a higher than expected number of deaths only if its SHMI is about 12 per cent or more above the national average.

In contrast, the Byars method is used internationally and classifies a much higher proportion of trusts as being significantly above the national average.

Professor Jarman told MailOnline: 'I dont consider it is appropriate to give some additional "leeway" to hospitals, if it leads to the Care Quality Commission considering the 16 trusts I have listed as having "no problem with mortality".

Professor Jarman said the NHS had used the internationally recognised Byars confidence intervals in the past.

Until January 2012 it was used in tandem with overdispersion. But the Byars method was then dropped, with bosses at NHS Digital, saying it was confusing to have two systems running at once.

Chris Roebuck, director of publications and head of profession for statistics for NHS Digital, said: 'The SHMI is designed to act as a high level measure and is a helpful indicator that may flag potential problems that require further investigation.

'It needs to be used with care and should always be used in conjunction with other information. The UK Statistics Authority has endorsed its use in this way.

'It was commissioned by the Department of Health following a review of the design and use of similar mortality indicators.

'That review benefitted from input from specialists from NHS organisations, regulators, universities, royal colleges and field experts including Professor Jarman.'

He added: 'All the experts we worked with brought different perspectives on how to construct the indicator, and we took all of their advice into account.

'The expertise of this group was invaluable to the development of SHMI methodology to best serve what is a complex area.

'It has been continually reviewed and developed drawing on expert opinion and we will continue to do this.

'NHS Digital in association with other relevant organisations have recently been reviewing the use and existence of a range of mortality indicators including SHMI.'

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust said: 'These figures include patients from Sunderland who die in St Benedict's Hospice, which we run, but the patients have not otherwise been under our care during their treatment.

'Removing deaths in St Benedicts results in our mortality figures returning to within the expected range. This has also been confirmed by an independent review conducted by the North East Quality Observatory.'

HOW DID PROFESSOR SIR BRIAN JARMAN MAKE THE CALCULATION? NHS Digital releases its Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator (SHMI) data every summer for the previous year. Last week the body flagged 13 trusts as having more deaths than expected. It uses a method called overdispersion to sift through the data and highlight trusts with excess deaths, which gives trusts slightly more leeway in terms of recording deaths. Under that system, a trust is regarded as having a higher than expected number of deaths only if its SHMI is about 12 per cent or more above the national average. Professor Sir Brian Jarman used an internationally recognised system, recommended by the Association of Public Health Observatories, called Byar's confidence intervals, to sift through NHS Digital data. In contrast to overdispersion, the Byars method is much stricter, classing anything with a SHMI of more than six or seven per cent above the national average as significantly high. A similar process helped uncover poor care at the Mid Staffordshire trust, which was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals to ever hit the NHS. AdvertisementSuncream gives only 40 per cent the protection that manufacturers claim because people do not put enough on, experts have warned.

Tests by Kings College London show even when people used factor 50 suncream their skin was damaged by UV rays because they had applied it too thinly.

Manufacturers base their SPF ratings on an application of 2mg of suncream for every square centimetre of skin.

But in fact people tend to put on just 0.7mg per square cm - dramatically reducing their protection.

Suncream gives only 40 per cent the protection that manufacturers claim because people do not put enough on, experts have warned

Study leader Professor Antony Young, whose study is published in the Acta Dermato-Venereologica medical journal, said: The problem is when people read the label they assume thats the protection without think about the application thickness.

Then they overestimate their protection, they stay out longer in the sun and they get sunburned.

Professor Young said to be properly protected people should put half a teaspoons worth on each arm and their head and neck area, and a teaspoons worth on each leg, their back and their front.

He added: If a typical woman wants to stay out in the sun all day, reapplying the suncream three times, that works out as 100ml of suncream.

For a man it is about 120ml. That works out as just over half a typical 200ml bottle of suncream per day.

You have got to slather it on reasonably generously - but its perfectly achievable, it is not over the top.

Professor Young advised people to put suncream on each part of the body twice in succession to ensure they achieve the correct thickness and do not miss any areas.

He said the SPF system had taken years to agree and should not be changed - but said the instructions on bottles should be more clear.

Tests by Kings College London show even when people used factor 50 suncream their skin was damaged by UV rays because they had applied it too thinly

Companies could do a better job of explaining how much is needed, or have a pump applicator that provides, say, an arms worth for each pump.

As part of the study the research scientists exposed 16 fair-skinned volunteers to different levels of UV rays on a sunbed, with different degrees of suncream protection.

They then examined the skin to check the damage.

Those who put on the recommended suncream thickness sustained far less damage than those who used the average amount normally used in real life.

Professor Young said: Given that most people dont use sunscreens as tested by manufacturers, its better for people to use a much higher SPF than they think is necessary.

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: This research demonstrates why its so important to choose an SPF of 30 or more. In theory, an SPF of 15 should be sufficient, but we know that in real-world situations, we need the additional protection offered by a higher SPF.

It also shows why we shouldnt rely on sunscreen alone for sun protection, but we should also use clothing and shade.Pregnant women have on average 56 different gender-bending chemicals in their blood, new research suggests.

These include parabens, BPA and triclosan, may hinder foetal development and cause birth defects, a US study found. Such chemicals are considered 'gender benders' due to them encouraging male breast growth.

Previous research suggests parabens, which are used as preservatives in cosmetics and skincare, mimic oestrogen and may cause cancer, weight gain and reduced muscle mass.

Bisphenol A (BPA), which is added to receipts to make their writing darker without using ink, reacts with oestrogen and thyroid-hormone receptors, and has been linked to infertility, autism and ADHD.

Triclosan, which is added to antibacterial soaps, body washes and toothpastes, is associated with reduced heart health and an underactive thyroid.

Pregnant women have on average 56 different chemicals in their blood, study finds (stock)

WHAT ARE THE CHEMICALS PARABENS, BPA AND TRICLOSAN? What are parabens? Parabens are hormone-disrupting chemicals, which are used as preservatives in skincare, cosmetics and hair products. They mimic oestrogen and may cause cancer, weight gain and reduced muscle mass. What is BPA? The so-called 'gender-bending' chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) is added to receipts to make their writing appear darker without using ink. It reacts with oestrogen and thyroid-hormone receptors, and has been linked to infertility, autism, ADHD, obesity, type 2 diabetes, premature births and early onset of puberty. Health fears prompted BPA to be replaced with its 'healthier alternative' Bisphenol S (BPS), however, evidence suggests BPS disrupts babies' development in the womb. Exposure to BPA, which is also found in the lining of canned foods, also causes the same inflammation and gut bacteria changes in mice that occur in Crohn's and ulcerative colitis patients. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned BPA from baby bottles, while The European Commission prohibits the chemical from being added to receipts from 2020. What is triclosan? Triclosan, a chemical added to personal-care products to prevent bacterial contamination, has been linked to reduced heart health and an underactive thyroid. It is added to antibacterial soaps, body washes, toothpastes and cosmetics, as well as some clothing, furniture and toys. Triclosan also stops infections responding to antibiotics, which may contribute towards the resistance crisis. The chemical was banned in soaps in the US two years ago. No such ban exists in the UK. The FDA declared antibacterial soaps containing triclosan are no more effective than hot water and regular cleansers at killing bugs. Advertisement

How the research was carried out

The researchers, from the University of California, San Francisco, took blood samples from pregnant women at two hospitals.

The first, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, mostly cares for low-income women, while the second, UCSF Mission Bay Medical Center, has patients from diverse backgrounds.

All of the women's blood was screened for around 700 chemicals.

Chemicals 'may to hazardous to the developing foetus'

Speaking of the findings, lead author Dr Tracey Woodruff said: 'More chemicals are present in pregnant women than previously identified, some of which may be hazardous to the developing foetus and to adults.'

Results further suggest pregnant women with low incomes have greater numbers of chemicals in their bloodstreams.

In addition, six of the chemicals found had never previously been discovered in pregnant women.

One of these new-found chemicals is 2,4-Di-tert-butylphenol, which is found in plastic pipes and water bottles.

This chemical has been shown to reduce weight gain in newborn rats.

The researchers hope their findings, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, will encourage initiatives to protect pregnant women from chemical exposure.

BPA may cause inflammatory bowel disease

This comes after research released earlier this month suggested BPA, which is also found in the lining of canned foods, may cause inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

BPA causes the same inflammation and gut bacteria changes in mice that occur in Crohn's and ulcerative colitis patients.

This occurs after the animals are exposed to 0.05mg/kg of BPA a day, which is the level considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The US Food and Drug Administration has banned BPA from baby bottles, while the European Commission prohibits the chemical from being added to receipts from 2020.

Results further suggest BPA significantly worsens rectal bleeding in mice, as well as causing weight loss and worse faecal consistency.Turmeric could offer hope for millions of people battling the common eye condition glaucoma, researchers believe.

Scientists have found a derivative of the spice used in curry - curcumin - can be used in eye drops to halt vision loss.

Trials showed eye drops containing curcumin, responsible for turmeric's yellow colour, slashed the loss of crucial retinal cells in rats.

Glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness, mainly involves the loss of retinal ganglion cells, located near the surface of the retina.

The condition strikes 60 million people across the world, estimates suggest, and is most prevalent among the elderly.

Scientists have found a derivative of the spice used in curry - curcumin - can be used in eye drops to halt vision loss

Evidence already exists to show curcumin can protect retinal ganglion cells from dying off, when taken as a tablet.

But the compound has poor solubility, meaning it does not dissolve easily and can take a long time to enter the bloodstream.

Patients would, therefore, need to take up to 24 curcumin tablets a day to see enough benefit from the compound.

The new British study delved in to other ways of delivering curcumin, in hope of finding a more reliable method.

Researchers at University College London and Imperial College London led the trial, published in Scientific Reports.

They claim their findings, based on human cells and rats, pave the way for a more reliable method to deliver curcumin to patients.

Eye drops are the main treatment for glaucoma, according to the NHS. They all work by reducing the build-up of pressure in patients' eyes.

Delivering curcumin as eye drops increases the compound's solubility factor by almost 400,000 times.

And it localises the curcumin in the eyes instead of throughout the body, meaning it can get to work almost immediately.

Professor Francesca Cordeiro, who led the study, described curcumin as an 'exciting' compound.

The study was first conducted on retinal ganglion cells in the lab, before moving onto testing the eye drops in rats.

Rodents given the eye drops twice daily for three weeks had much lower levels of retinal ganglion cell loss than their counterparts.

No side effects, including irritation or inflammation, were noted by the team of researchers.

Professor Cordeiro said: 'As we live longer, diseases such as glaucoma and Alzheimer's are steadily increasing.

'We believe our findings could make a major contribution at helping the lives of people affected by these devastating diseases.'As well as soot and exhaust fumes city air could be filling our lungs with antibiotic resistant genes, a study has found.

Some two million people in the US are thought to become infected with drug-resistant bacteria every year, and they could be inhaling them from the air.

The genes which cause bacteria to become immune to medication  antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs)  are able to move between different bacteria and also from bacteria into the environment, experts say.

And research by the American Chemical Society revealed scientists have found the airborne genes in farms and parks in America.

This confirms drug resistance could be spread through the air, adding another element to a growing challenge for scientists around the world.

It suggests bacteria could acquire their ability to survive antibiotic treatment  and become superbugs  from the air we breathe.

The researchers added the ways pollution is measured and the public are warned should be changed to explain the risk of breathing in the resistant genes.

Scientists say air quality monitoring must also focus on the risk of breathing in antibiotic resistant genes, as well as lung-damaging soot and fumes

Antibiotic resistance is a spreading global problem which means once easily-treatable infections could become superbugs that cannot be cured.

Figures estimate these superbugs  which develop from people overusing or wrongly using antibiotics  will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

Experts predict a 'post-antibiotic' world

The World Health Organisation has warned the world could enter a 'post-antibiotic' era in which medicines no longer work as bacteria become tougher and tougher.

The new research, led by Peking University, examined the levels of antibiotic resistant genes in the air of 19 cities around the world.

San Francisco had the highest levels of the airborne ARGs, whereas the air in Beijing contained genes with resistance to a wider range of antibiotics.

These genes are a risk to health because they may be absorbed by bacteria which were not previously able to survive antibiotics, meaning more and more infections could become difficult or impossible to treat.

Cities worldwide have penicillin resistant genes in the air

In all cities, genes were most commonly resistant to penicillin and similar drugs, as well as a class of medicines called quinolones which are used to treat urinary tract infections, gonnorhoea, and pneumonia.

Other cities the researchers tested included Paris, Johannesburg, Zurich, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Brisbane and Melbourne.

The air of six of the cities contained genes resistant to a last-resort treatment for highly infectious hospital superbug. MRSA, which is already immune to most antibiotics.

Work reveals the 'threat of airborne transmission'

In the study the researchers said: 'Remote regions even without using antibiotics could be exposed to the second hand ARGs, which are initially being developed in other regions but transported elsewhere.

'This work highlights the threat of airborne transmission of ARGs and the need of redefining our current air quality standards in terms with public health in an urban city.'A woman battling an agonising condition branded 'suicide disease' claims her body is burning from the inside out.

Kayla Hansen, from Arizona, has been told by her doctors she has the worst case of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) ever seen.

Most sufferers of the poorly-understood condition experience crippling pain, which can feel like they are being burned, stung or stabbed.

But for Ms Hansen, who is now no longer able to drive or even wash her hands, her skin actually blisters, which she calls burns, because of CRPS.

The 29-year-old's life has been 'turned upside down' since she crushed her hand in a car door three years ago, which triggered her condition.

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Kayla Hansen has been told by her doctors she has the worst case of complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) ever seen (pictured before she was diagnosed with CRPS in 2016)

Speaking about her ordeal, Ms Hansen told Barcroft TV in a new interview: 'CRPS is a condition where your nervous system attacks your entire body.

'In some people it will contain itself on one arm or one foot or one leg. In my case, I have a full body form.

'It is rated the highest pain disease in the world. CRPS outranks any amputations. It outranks natural childbirth, any broken bones, more painful than cancer.

'CRPS is nicknamed as "suicide disease" because such a high number of people commit suicide that have been diagnosed.'

She added: 'I feel from head to toe like someone has dumped gasoline on me and set me on fire and put me in the trash compactor.'

Ms Hansen has stage four CRPS, which she describes as the 'absolute' worst form of the poorly-understood condition patients can get.

She said: 'On a scale of one to 10, my CRPS pain most days is a 10 and that's with my medicine.

'I might get lucky some days and it goes down to a nine or a nine and a half. But it never goes below that.'

Most sufferers of the poorly-understood condition experience crippling pain, which can feel like they are being burned, stung or stabbed (pictured last month)

But for Ms Hansen, who is now no longer able to drive or even wash her hands, her skin actually blisters and burns because of CRPS

In just two years, Ms Hansen went from having CRPS in her right arm and hand to her entire body  even her scalp.

She uses a cream, designed for people who are undergoing radiotherapy, on her skin.

Ms Hansen said: 'Back when I just had it in my right hand and right arm, I was able to function some.

'But now I can't drive. I can't really do anything by myself. I can't even wash my own hands. So, it's really debilitated me.'

The former restaurant manager feared she needed time off work when she crushed her hands in two doors back in December 2015.

She had 'no idea' it would change her life forever.

A year after the incident, Ms Hansen had burns on her arms and went to the hospital to seek medical help.

Doctors initially didn't believe the burning was happening from within, until they saw first-hand the painful lesions developing and cracking.

They claimed she had CRPS, believed to strike around one in 4,000 people to some degree.

Ms Hansen has stage four CRPS, which she describes as the 'absolute' worst form of the poorly-understood condition patients can get (pictured: her skin blistering)

Ms Hansen said: 'I have no independence anymore and that's probably the hardest part' (pictured: the blisters on her arm)

Stress, water and heat are the three main triggers that cause her CRPS to flare up (pictured: the blisters on Ms Hansen's arms)

Ms Hansen quickly went from being an independent, sociable young woman to someone who was bed-bound for days at a time (pictured: blistering on her arm)

In just two years, Ms Hansen went from having CRPS in her right arm and hand to her entire body  even her scalp (pictured: blistering on her arm)

Recalling her diagnosis, she said: 'I was kind of in shock at first, I didn't really put two and two together how serious it was.

'I mean he said it would affect my everyday living but I didn't realise at the time it would completely stop me in my tracks. It flipped my whole world upside down.'

Ms Hansen quickly went from being an independent, sociable young woman to someone who was bed-bound for days at a time.

She said: 'I went from managing a fine dining Italian restaurant and working anywhere form 60- 80 hours a week to now, literally, I can barely get out of bed.

'When I am at home, I will stay in bed for three-four days at a time just because every joint in my body hurts, every muscle, every bone, every nerve ending.

'It's affected everything from the way I eat to the way I have to live, I have to depend on my mom for everything.'

Ms Hansen continued: 'I have no independence anymore and that's probably the hardest part.'

Stress, water and heat are the three main triggers that cause her CRPS to flare up.

She said: 'If I get stressed, I get really bad flare-ups on my arm and then I also get burns all around my face and down to my chin area.

'Every time I take a bath, even if I have help, getting my hair washed and different things, I still will break out with numerous burns.

Speaking about her ordeal, Ms Hansen told Barcroft TV: 'CRPS is a condition where your nervous system attacks your entire body' (pictured before her diagnosis in 2016)

The former restaurant manager feared she needed time off work when she crushed her hands in two doors back in December 2015 (pictured last month)

A year after the incident, Ms Hansen had burns on her arms and went to the hospital to seek medical help (pictured before her diagnosis in 2016)

Recalling her diagnosis, she said: 'I was kind of in shock at first, I didn't really put two and two together how serious it was' (pictured before her diagnosis in 2016)

'In the heat, I could go about not having burns for about a maximum of two-three days. Three days is probably the longest I have gone without getting any burns in the past year.'

Because Ms Hansen was working in Arizona when her CRPS was first triggered, the only way she can still pay her medical bills is to remain in the state.

However, the average temperature in Arizona is around 86F (30C), meaning she is living in the worst possible conditions for her condition.

During the summer months, where the temperature can tip over the 100F (38C) mark Ms Hansen, she has to stay in her bedroom, which is carefully monitored to never exceed 65F (18C).

Although there is no cure for CRPS it can go into remission, Ms Hansen has tried countless treatments to try and manage the levels of pain she endures.

She said: 'I have gone under quite a few treatments since getting CRPS, I have done 10-15 different nerve blocks, which is where they put me under anaesthesia.

'I went for ketamine infusions - in cases with people that have severe chronic pain - it can be used to basically restart their brain.'

However, Ms Hansen revealed none of those were successful in combating her pain either.

She added: 'In the beginning it really got me down every time that I tried a new treatment and it failed.

'I would just get more frustrated and more upset and then [after] about a year of having this disease I came to the point of accepting it.

'So, now I am hoping for a cure, but at the same time I realise that this is a disease that I am gonna have for the rest of my life.'But propellers could be blowing dust and pollen onto us, and drying out skin

Our bodies sleep best when they are comfortable between 16C and 18C

As the warm summer nights continue and sleeping is a sitcky, uncomfortable affair, more people may be turning to fans to cool them down.

It can be difficult to sleep in the heat because, according to experts, our bodies' comfortable sleeping range is between 16C and 18C.

But having a fan blowing air around the bedroom could be making you unwell, according to one sleep expert.

Allergies, asthma and dry eyes could all be irritated by the device which, as well as lowering the temperature in the room, is blowing dust and pollen around.

So for some people it might be best to avoid turning to the propellers of a desk, floor or ceiling fan to cool down.

Keeping a room shaded during the day and drinking cold water instead of caffeine or alcohol will help you keep cool instead, according to the NHS.

Sleeping with a fan in your bedroom might keep you cool but it could also have unwanted effects like provoking allergies and asthma or drying out your skin, mouth or eyes

Mark Reddick, writing for Sleep Advisor, reveals the reasons having a fan in the bedroom could make people feel unwell.

People may decide to use the spinning blades to achieve more comfortable temperature for sleeping, create a soothing white noise and freshen the air in the room.

But unwanted effects might include allergic reactions, asthma attacks, dryness, irritated sinuses, and sore muscles.

Mr Reddick writes: 'For some people, having a ceiling or floor fan in the room helps them fall asleep and stay cool during the night.

'For others, it can keep them awake, trigger asthma attacks or dry out their eyes.'

The fan could blow dust and pollen around the room causing hay fever, allergies or asthma to flare up  which is more likely to keep you awake.

'If you're prone to allergies this could stir up trouble'

'If youre prone to allergies, asthma, and hay fever, this could stir up a whole lot of trouble,' Mr Reddick said.

BRITS STRUGGLING TO SLEEP IN LONGEST HEATWAVE FOR 40 YEARS More people have complained of difficulty sleeping over the past few weeks as the thermometer in Britain has reached 32.4C in the country's longest heatwave since 1976. Dr Michael Farquhar, a sleep medicine consultant at the Evelina Children's Hospital in London, says there has been a spike in sleeplessness. He explains Britain's homes are poorly equipped to deal with hot, humid conditions at night as very few houses have air conditioning. 'As a result bedroom temperatures rise to uncomfortable levels during sustained heatwaves,' he told the Guardian last week. 'I'm very aware of people reporting more difficulties sleeping as the temperature increases,' Dr Farquhar added. He says people's comfortable sleeping range is between 16C and 18C. Experts recommend using fans, sleeping on cotton sheets, freezing hot water bottles and cutting down on caffeine and alcohol to help us drop off on hot nights. Advertisement

'Also, take a close look at your fan. If its been collecting dust on the blades, those particles are flying through the air every time you turn it on.'

Constantly being blasted with dry air might also cause skin to dry out, as well as eyes and mouths  many people do not sleep with those fully closed.

Mr Reddick said: 'A constant blast of air on your body may cause dry skin. Lotions and moisturizers will help prevent this, but if your skin is excessively dry, use caution and monitor your skin to make sure youre not over drying it.

A stream of cold air could dry out your eyes

'Another thing to consider is that some people sleep with their eyes partially open. Weird, but it does happen!

'Again, a steady airstream will dry your eyes and may cause major irritation. If you wear contact lenses when you sleep, this is particularly problematic.'

He also explains the air can dry out people's mouths, throats and noses, which can irritate the sinuses and cause the body to create extra mucous to fight back.

Cool air can also make people's muscle tense up, which could leave them waking up feeling stiff or experiencing cramps.

Mr Reddick added: 'Theres no inherent danger in sleeping with something like this in your bedroom. Its a matter of preference and of finding the right one for your needs.'

NHS recommends shade, drinking water and avoiding alcohol

If a fan is too irritating for your health, consider other ways of keeping cool during the hot weather.

The NHS suggests keeping windows and curtains closed  and where possible use light-coloured curtains, or putting shades or reflective material on the outside of windows.

Cool showers and drinking cold water will help you cool down, as will avoiding drinking alcohol or caffeine.

Wear loose, cool clothing and find a cool room or shaded place to stay out of the sun, the NHS suggests, and it encourages people to check on friends and relatives.Some of Them Are Just Bad People:

Conservative Naval Professor Explains Why

Talking to Trump Voters Is a Waste of Time

So, I had an interesting run-in with some Trumpers today, and it's story worth telling. (Mute now if you're not into story time.) I was part of a panel at Harvard talking about the Helsinki summit. Afterwards, two middle-aged women had some, er, questions.



During the talk, I had said (in response to a question) that Helsinki was not going to move the needle on Trump's base support, not least because the Trump base is willfully ignorant and refuses to hear anything they don't like about the summit or about Russia at all. Click to expand...

Tom Nichols, a conservative professor at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, said many of President Donald Trumps supporters were beyond the reach of logic and reason.Nichols, a national security affairs professor who also taught at the U.S. Air Force School of Strategic Force Studies, shared an anecdote on Twitter about two Trump supporters confronting him after a lecture Tuesday at Harvard University.The women, who were immigrants from India and a post-Soviet region, asked to debate Nichols afterward, and asked if he had called them willfully evil  and he said they sputtered after he corrected them and said they were willfully ignorant.Both did the standard Trump thing: talking at me in a fusillade of words punctuated with questions that they would not let me answer, Nichols said. This is a compulsion with Trumpers: they must  *must*  constantly explain to you why they *had* to vote for Trump.The women listed phantom Trump successes and insisted Trump was taking jobs away from foreign workers and giving them back to Americans, and Nichols tried to correct them.Look, what you believe to be true is false, he told them. The things you think are facts are not facts. We cant go further here.The women rapidly insisted their beliefs were true, and they demanded Nichols accept their views as valid.You should respect my view and not call me ignorant, one of them said, according to Nichols. Thats not reasonable.Nichols told the woman she was not a reasonable person, and he said their views on Trump were simply not compatible with reality.Well, hes not as bad as Obamanation, the woman replied, referring to the former president. Thats what he was, an abomination.Nichols rolled his eyes as the woman walked away, and the other woman explained she had voted for President Barack Obama but could not support Hillary Clinton  who she accused of various alleged crimes.These two people will never, ever change their minds, Nichols said. They are not accessible to reason. They demand agreement and respect, even when they dont give it and are themselves unreasonable. This is the cohort that neither the GOP post-Trump nor Dems will ever reach.He said the women were unwilling to accept Nichols opposing viewpoint and instead only wanted to bash Obama and Clinton, and he said they would never change their minds.These types of Trumpers are just lost, he said. Theyre not going to climb down, change their minds, listen to new information. Trump really could shoot them on Fifth Avenue. Theres no point in discussion, because they dont *discuss*, they *preach*.No rational or fact-based politics will reach these folks, Nichols added. I hate to say that, because I believe in the power of reason and facts. But theyre gone. Some of them are nice people, but dumb. Some of them are just bad people. But rationality isnt going to change much here.by Travis Gettys  July 25, 2018 - 10:29 AMPioneering surgery using a tiny laser to burn away cancerous cells in the brain is set to be offered to patients in the UK for the first time.

Neurosurgeons claim the technology, only available privately, is a major step towards treating brain tumours considered inoperable.

Hundreds of patients are denied surgery on deep-seated brain tumours because reaching them in a conventional way can cause damage.

The private Harley Street Clinic in London will offer the Visualase technology to brain tumour patients battling the tumours within weeks.

Neurosurgeons claim the Visualase technology, only available privately, is a major step towards treating brain tumours considered inoperable (a picture of the technology being used in a clinic abroad)

The private Harley Street Clinic in London will offer the Visualase laser surgery to brain tumour patients battling the tumours within weeks. It shines a laser on the diseased tissue

Surgery using Visualase is expected to cost 35,000, a price far too high for the NHS to approve at present.

The technology has been available in the US for a number of years but has only just been permitted for use in Europe by regulators.

It can be used to treat brain tumours in children and can help remove areas of the brain damaged during treatment using radiotherapy.

Patients are first given general anaesthetic to allow doctors to drill a small incision into the skull, around 3mm wide.

Medics then shine the Visualase laser down a fine narrow tube embedded into the tumour, which is then heated up to to about 44C (111F).

This destroys the tumour by heating until the cancerous cells break down and die. Any hotter would risk destroying surrounding healthy tissue.

Patients are given an MRI scan, which sends images to a computer screen to allow surgeons to monitor the route the laser is tasking

Surgery using Visualase is expected to cost between 35,000, a price far to high for the NHS to approve at present (pictured a surgeon monitoring MRI scans)

HOW DOES VISUALASE WORK? The private Harley Street Clinic in London will offer the Visualase laser surgery to brain tumour patients within weeks. Surgery using Visualase is expected to cost between 10,000 and 20,000, a price far to high for the NHS to approve at present. The technology has been available in the US for a number of years but has only just been permitted for use in Europe by regulators. It can be used to treat brain tumours in children and can help remove areas of the brain damaged during treatment using radiotherapy. Patients are first given general anaesthetic to allow doctors to drill a small incision into the skull, around 3mm wide. Medics then shine the Visualase laser down a fine narrow tube embedded into the tumour, which is then heated up to to about 44C (111F). This destroys the tumour by heating until the cancerous cells break down and die. Any hotter would risk destroying surrounding healthy tissue. Patients are given an MRI scan, which sends images to a computer screen to allow surgeons to monitor the route the laser is tasking. Advertisement

Patients are given an MRI scan, which sends images to a computer screen to allow surgeons to monitor the route the laser is tasking.

The Harley Street Clinic neurosurgeon Ranjeev Bhangoo described Visualase as 'exciting' and 'incredibly precise' as studies have shown it doesn't damage healthy tissue.

He said: 'For years we have been frustrated by not being able to get at these difficult tumours. It means patients are offered chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

'But we know that surgery in brain cancer always offers the best chances of a cure and long term survival.

'If we could reach these tumours by conventional surgery we would cause a lot of damage and maybe not remove all of the cancer.'

He added: 'We are making advances towards a goal where all patients will be given a surgical option and not rejected because we can't safely reach their tumour.'

Visualase is minimally invasive, meaning patients can go home after just one day compared to a ten day hospital stay after conventional brain surgery.

Cancer Research UK figures suggest that more than 11,000 people are diagnosed with brain tumours each year in the UK.

Dame Tessa Jowell died earlier this year from an aggressive form of the disease, a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour. The ex-MP's brave public fight won huge public admiration.

Mr Bhangoo said: 'I think Tessa would approve of this very significant advance in treating brain cancer. I can see it saving many lives.

'We will watch the results achieved at The Harley Street Clinic and hopefully we can justify its use in the future.

'A lot of equipment used in the operation is only single use and has to be disposed of which is what makes it so expensive.'A 17-year-old boy's foot became infected with parasitic worms during a mission trip when after his friends buried him in the sand during a game.

Michael Dumas, from Memphis, Tennessee, was on the trip with friends in Florida in June where they took a break to have some fun at Pompano Beach.

Days later, bumps appeared on his leg and gaping wounds had encompassed his right foot.

The teenager's mother, Kelli, rushed him to the emergency room where doctors told her that he'd had several parasites, known as hookworms, living under the skin of his foot.

Now, Kelli says she's sharing her son's story to warn parents about the parasites and prevent a similar situation from occurring to their children.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

Michael Dumas, 17, from Memphis, Tennessee, contracted a parasite known as hookworm while on a mission trip to Florida in June. Days after he returned, he complained of ear pain and fatigue, which developed into an itchy rash

Doctors told his mother, Kelli, that the infection had likely occurred after Michael was buried in the sand at Pompano Beach (pictured), where hookworm eggs had hatched

Kelli told Fox 13 Memphis that on the last few days of their trip and when they returned home, her son was complaining of fatigue and ear pain.

Soon after, an itchy rash appeared on his right thigh followed by gaping wounds all over his feet.

A visit to the emergency room found that Michael had been infected by parasites known as hookworms.

According to the CDC, someone with a mild infection may have no symptoms. But a severe infection brings on symptoms including a localized rash, fatigue, diarrhea and a loss of appetite.

Hookworm eggs are found in the feces of people infected with the disease. If an infected person defecates outside, or the feces of that person is used as fertilizer, eggs can hatch in soil or sand.

Most people are infected by hookworms by walking across contaminated grounds.

The doctors told Michael that his infection likely occurred after he was buried in the sand at Pompano Beach, where hookworm eggs had hatched.

Michael was not the only one in his group to have been infected. Four other boys on the trip are also exhibiting symptoms, according to his mother.

Doctors told Kelli that her son had several worms - one as long as three inches - living under his skin.

In addition to a number of antibiotics, anti-parasitic medications and steroids, which Kelli wrote on Facebook has cost more than $1,300, the family also visited a dermatologist - who attempted to freeze the worms.

Kelli said that Michael has taken antibiotics, anti-parasitic medications and steroids, which has cost more than $1,300. The family also visited a dermatologist, who attempted to freeze the worms. Pictured, left and right: Kelli and Michael

In a post on Facebook, Kelli said that Michael is currently unable to wear shoes and needs to soak the infected area in bleach water every day. Pictured: Michael's infected foot

In the same post, Kelli wrote that her son is still in pain more than a month after the trip and said she wants to warn other parents about the parasites. Pictured: Michael's infected foot

'While she was using the liquid nitrogen, he could actually feel the worms moving in his body,' Dumas told Fox 13.

She added that he currently cannot wear shoes and needs to soak the infected area in bleach water every day.

In a Facebook post that included several graphic photos of her son's foot with wrinkled, red skin, Kelli wrote that her son is still in pain more than a month after the trip.

'He is in pain and this is AWFUL. Never be buried in sand or allow your children to be either!' she wrote.

She adding that she called the Health Department for the City of Pompano Beach to tell them what happened to Michael.

'[They] said: "Everyone knows to wear shoes on the beach because you can get parasites." I assured them everyone does NOT KNOW THAT!!' she wrote.

The post, which was shared on Friday, has so far received more than 1,900 reactions and has been shared more than 7,600 times.Feeling lightheaded when you stand up could be a warning sign of dementia, a new study has found.

Researchers say that those who feel faint upon standing could be experiencing orthostatic hypotension, which is a sudden decrease in blood pressure.

Their findings showed that people with this condition in middle-age were about 1.5 times more likely to develop dementia and twice as likely to suffer a stroke.

The team, from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, says the findings show a new marker that medical professionals can spot early on to prevent, or delay, the onset of age-related diseases.

Feeling lightheaded or dizzy upon standing could raise your risk of dementia or stroke, a new study has found (file image)

When you stand up after sitting or lying down, the body works to send blood and oxygen towards the brain.

If this does not occur, your blood pressure can fall significantly, creating what is known as orthostatic hypotension.

Symptoms of the condition include lightheadedness, blurred vision, nausea, fatigue and fainting.

There are many potential causes, some of which include aging, anemia, dehydration, and certain medications such as beta blockers.

Treatment for orthostatic hypotension depends on the underlying cause. If it is due to dehydration, doctors will suggest an increase in fluid intake.

If the medication is the cause, then your doctor might change the type of prescriptio or the dosage.

Another treatment comes in the form of compression stocking, which stops the buildup of fluid in the legs when a person lies down or sits.

'Orthostatic hypotension has been linked to heart disease, fainting and falls,' said study author Dr Andreea Rawlings, a biostatistician at Johns Hopkins University.

'So we wanted to conduct a large study to determine if this form of low blood pressure was also linked to problems in the brain, specifically dementia.'

For the study, researchers followed more than 11,700 participants over the course of 25 years.

The participants, who were 54 years old on average, did not have a history of stroke or heart disease at the study's start.

At the beginning of the study, the team asked the participants to lie down for 20 minutes and then quickly stand.

Blood pressure was measured once while resting and five times while standing. They found that about five percent of the group began the study with orthostatic hypotension.

Participants were monitored for stroke and dementia either through the visits every five years or from their medical records.

Over the course of the study, about nine percent of the participants developed dementia and a little more than seven percent suffered an ischemic stroke, which occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked due to a blood clot.

The findings showed that the participants with orthostatic hypotension at the study's start, even with treatment, were 54 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who did not have the condition.

Nine percent of those without orthostatic hypotension developed dementia in comparison with 12.5 percent of the people with the condition.

Additionally, people with orthostatic hypotension had twice the risk of suffering from an ischemic stroke.

Around 15 percent of people with the condition had this type of stroke while about seven percent of people without it had an ischemic stroke.

'Measuring orthostatic hypotension in middle-age may be a new way to identify people who need to be carefully monitored for dementia or stroke,' Dr Rawlings said.

'More studies are needed to clarify what may be causing these links as well as to investigate possible prevention strategies.'The 'bored suburban housewife' jailed following a bizarre two-day crime spree during which she stole 28 packages from neighbors' doorsteps has spoken for the first time since starting her prison sentence to reveal that her marriage is over and the real reason behind her actions.

Last month mother-of-two, Melissa Bergman, 30, was convicted on 12 out of 28 counts of theft committed onJuly 27 and 28 of 2017.

She was sentenced to 180 days in jail and began a 30-day stint in Warren County Jail, Ohio in June, with the remainder of her sentence suspended. She will remain on probation for three years following her release.

In an apology posted on Facebook - a condition of her suspended sentence - Bergman said she did not know why she had done what she did but pointed to a cocktail of psychiatric drugs she had been prescribed following a suicide attempt that landed her in a psych ward just days earlier.

Now, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, army veteran Bergman said, 'I had everything anyone could want. I had money, I had a husband, I had kids, I had a nice house but my husband was very controlling.

Melissa Bergman, 30, of Mason, Ohio, was convicted last month on 12 out of 28 counts of theft committed across July 27 and July 28, 2017

The married mother-of-two was convicted after she stole 28 packages from neighbors' doorsteps in a a bizarre two-day crime spree last year

Bergman (above with estranged husband Stan and their daughter) says her marriage is now over and alleged that her spouse was 'very controlling'

'He didn't want me doing anything other than staying at home and taking care of my children who are two and four.

'I just felt like my life wasn't going anywhere.'

Bergman went onto reveal that she was plagued by flashbacks, anxiety, depression and panic attacks caused by PTSD she claimed was caused by a string of sexual assaults she suffered during her years in the Army.

She said, 'I was 17 years old and the drill sergeant at the time took advantage of his position. I did whatever he asked me to do. I did report it and he went to Court Marshall but everything from that night had disappeared - all the evidence, camera footage, everything had been thrown away.'

Bergman claimed the sergeant got a 'slap on the wrist' and was promoted the following year.

She also said that she had been raped on three occasions by three different men and sexually assaulted numerous times during her years of service. She said she is now recognized by the army as '100 per cent disabled' and 80 per cent of that is PTSD.

DailyMail.com has verified that Bergman was in the army from August 2005 to May 2009 and served in Afghanistan December 2006 to March 2008.

She received several service medals and ribbons but the army would not comment on her claims regarding sexual assault or PTSD.

In his decision last month, Judge D Andrew Batsche was unconvinced by Bergman's attempt to claim insanity as her defense.

Bergman had claimed she 'heard the voice of God telling her to take the packages and give them away to other people' but failed to convince the judge

Bergman (pictured on neighbors' doorstep' expressed remorse, said it 'hurt her' to hurt others and added, 'I've never stolen anything from anybody before in my life.'

The 30-year-old mom has a prior criminal record including her conviction for Grand Larceny in 2010 after she shoplifted goods and sprayed mace in the loss prevention officer's face

Eight months after the thefts Bergman told the forensic psychologist evaluating her that she 'heard the voice of God telling her to take the packages and give them away to other people.'

But Judge Batsche noted, 'She never gave away any items as purportedly instructed to do by God. In fact, she opened the packages, distributed their contents around her home[and discarded] the packaging in a dumpster a distance away from her residence.'

Today Bergman insists that her PTSD and all the medication she was on 'messed with' her mind.

The attractive 30-year-old expressed remorse, said it 'hurt her' to hurt others and added, 'I've never stolen anything from anybody before in my life.'

But the truth is that Bergman has a criminal record.

She has faced eight criminal charges in North Carolina and other counties. All but one were ultimately dismissed.

In 2010 she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison for Grand Larceny in Virginia after she shoplifted goods and then sprayed mace in the face of the loss prevention officer who tried to stop her from getting away.

Similarly her claims to rehabilitation after the package thefts last summer are somewhat derailed by the fact that, three months later it is claimed she stole three credit cards from a man she had picked up in a hotel bar and had sex with.

Bergman was seen checking herself into court to begin her 30-day stint at Warren County Jail in June

She will remain on probation for three years following her release

She pleaded guilty to the more serious felony charges of ID theft and credit card fraud in March and her case was handed over to the Veterans Court.

Asked about these crimes Bergman initially told DailyMail.com that the charges had been dropped.

When it was pointed out to her that she had in fact taken a guilty plea she maintained that she had only agreed to that as part of the plea deal to see her case transferred to Veterans Court.

She said that on the night she went to that hotel bar, 'My husband turned to me and said, "I hate you, why don't you go kill yourself?"

'That was the last straw. I left the house and went to check myself into a hotel.'

She claims that she met two men who invited her back to their room to party. She ended up going with one, she said, because she thought he was gay.

She claimed that when she shared her tales of marital woe, he felt so moved to help that he booked her several weeks in a hotel (a charge of $2,658.35) to get away from her husband, handed her three credit cards, wrote down his pin number, and told her to 'get what she needed.'

She said she bought gas and baby clothes because her husband refused to pay for such things.

Her victim tells a very different story. Speaking to DailyMail.com on condition of anonymity he said, 'In my opinion she was very calculated. She was looking for some guy who had drunk too much who she could steal from. That was me.

Bergman explained that she 'had it all' but felt unhappy with her life. Above is the couple's $450,000 marital home

'If she hadn't been caught that time I have no doubt she would have done it again. I don't believe this was the first time she had done it and if I hadn't had limits on my cards she'd have run up a bill of $20,000.'

He said that after he had left the bar - so intoxicated a friend who was with him believes he may have been 'roofied' - he went back to his room and passed out.

He claimed that he was woken by Bergman bursting into his room with the demand, 'I want to f***.'

He admitted that she clearly had 'genuine psychological' problems and noted that far from him booking a hotel, she 'bought a ten-day cruise on Travelocity.'

He said, 'She was trying to escape.'

Bergman claimed to have spent $300 on baby clothes and gas. Security camera footage shows her strolling the aisles of Walmart piling her shopping cart high with goods including a large flat-screen TV. The bill came to $2,018.79.

But when pressed by DailyMail.com on the details of that night, Bergman maintained that she is the victim in that felony case though could not explain why a stranger would go to the trouble of reporting a crime and taking her to court if he had indeed given her permission to use his cards.

Whatever the truth, that night was the nail in the coffin for Bergman's ailing marriage.

Her estranged husband Stanley Barre, 32, declined to speak. When DailyMail.com visited the Barre family home in Dayton, Ohio, his mother, Eugenia, described the whole episode as 'painful' and said, 'We just want to move past this as much as possible.

'We don't want anything to do with any of this.'

According to Bergman who last saw her children a month ago she feels 'abandoned and let down,' by the man to whom she was married five years.

But she too is keen to move on.

She said, 'I have a home. We're working on shared custody so I would have the children every other weekend from Friday to Tuesday morning.

'My goal is to get my certification in fitness and nutrition and one day build my own gym and fitness center.'

She said, 'I've never been through such a hard point in my life. I lost everything and I'm starting from the ground up. I feel terrible [about stealing the packages] and there's nothing I can do to take that away but I'm getting the help I need and when I've got the 30 days out of the way I'm just going to get on with my life.'The embattled Liberal candidate for the crucial Longman by-election often refers to himself as a 'Major' despite only rising to a low-level ranking in the Australian Defence Force.

Trevor Ruthenberg, who has this month apologised for wrongly claiming to hold a distinguished military medal, previously served in the Royal Australian Air Force rising to the third lowest rank of corporal.

Despite that, the Liberal National Party's flag bearer for the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane, often refers to himself as a 'Major' or a 'Captain' in the Australian Army Cadets.

An LNP spokesman said Mr Ruthenberg was given the honorary rank of Major when he commanded the 14th Battalion of the Australian Army Cadets.

Scroll down for video

The Liberal candidate for the crucial Longman by-election often refers to being a Major despite having a low-level ranking in the Australian Defence Force

A Department of Defence spokeswoman said a RAAF corporal could also hold a higher position in the Cadets.

'It is possible for an individual holding the rank of Corporal in the Royal Australian Air Force to subsequently or simultaneously hold a rank such as Major in the Australian Army Cadets,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

Queensland Liberal National Party campaign director Lincoln Folo said Mr Ruthenberg was given his honorary rank of Major when he commanded the 14th Battalion of the Australian Army Cadets, as is standard for the volunteers who serve as Cadet Battalion commanders.

'Trevor's fulltime paid service in the RAAF is completely unrelated to his voluntary service in the cadets,' he said.

'His rank as Corporal in the RAAF has nothing to do with his role in the Cadets.'

After serving in the RAAF for six-and-a-half years, Mr Ruthenberg told reporters last week he became a commanding officer in the Australian Army Cadets.

In this role, the LNP candidate has referred to himself as a 'Major'.

Trevor Ruthenberg previously served in the Royal Australian Air Force rising to the third lowest rank of corporal

He touted this title on the website of the Mosaic Property Group, where is the chief executive of the community relations arm of the company, the Mosaic Foundation.

'Fun facts. Attention: in his spare time he's known as Major Ruthenberg of the Australian Army Cadets,' it said.

On the Military Cadets Facebook page for the Sandgate division, in Brisbane's north, Mr Ruthenberg was pictured in 2015 wearing a military uniform with a 'Captain' insignia.

Mr Ruthenberg was recently forced to admit to falsely claiming to hold an Australian Service Medal, which is awarded for distinguished service in a non-warlike situation overseas.

The factual error had been published on the Queensland Parliament website since 2012, after he was elected as the state member for Kallangur for one term as a Liberal National Party MP in Campbell Newman's government.

The Liberal National Party's flag bearer for Longman, north of Brisbane, often refers to himself as a Major and a Captain

He has since had the record corrected to say he was given an Australian Defence Medal, which is awarded to those who had served in the military for four years.

'I said that I had an Australian Service Medal when in fact I had an Australian Defence Medal,' he told reporters.

'I've never claimed to have served overseas, I've never worn an Australian Service Medal, I've only worn the medal that was awarded to me which was the Australian Defence Medal.'

Mr Ruthenberg touted his 'major' title on the website of the Mosaic Property Group, where is the chief executive of the community relations arm of the company, the Mosaic Foundation

In that same media conference, he said he had taught his cadets to own up to their mistakes.

'I always tell my cadets that when you make a mistake, you need to stick your hand up and own it,' he said.

The Longman candidate, who is favoured to win the marginal seat off Labor at this Saturday's by-election, said he had joined the cadets to impart his wisdom to the next generation of military leaders.

'I subsequently served as a commanding officer in the Australian Cadet corp trying to pass on some of that experience to the young people,' he said.

Were Mr Ruthenberg to prevail in Longman, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's government would become the first in 98 years to win a seat off the opposition at a by-election.

By-elections are also being held this Saturday in Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia, after three other first-term MPs were found to be dual British citizens, making them ineligible to sit in federal parliament.Taxpayers shelled out 4.4million to subsidise food and drink at Parliament last year, it can be revealed.

The bill for the exclusive bars and restaurants at Westminster has risen again, and is now some 750,000 higher than in 2015-16.

The 20 per cent rise over two years will renew anger about the scale of the funding for MPs, peers and staff.

Critics said it was 'baffling' that politicians were still benefiting from artificially low prices - including on alcohol.

But the authorities at Parliament say the costs are partly down to the irregular hours that the Houses work.

The net costs at the House of Commons reached 3.1million in 2017-18, according to the latest accounts. Meanwhile, the House of Lords saw its subsidy increase to 1.35million

The net subsidy at the House of Commons reached 3.1million in 2017-18, according to the latest accounts.

That was up from 2.9million the previous year, and 2.5million the year before.

However, it is still lower than the eye-watering 4.5million bill from 2013-14.

Meanwhile, the House of Lords saw its subsidy increase to 1.35million.

Drinks on the estate are significantly cheaper than those charged in pubs and bars in the rest of Westminster, partly because they are benchmarked against hostelries in less expensive parts of the country.

A pint of Carlsberg at Strangers' Bar is 3.35, a glass of Merlot is 2.75 and a bottle of Champagne is 35.

By contrast at the nearby Red Lion pub a glass of red wine is at least 5, and Champagne will set you back 55.

The prices are also cheaper in areas where only MPs are allowed than in other parts of the estate which are also accessible to rank-and-file staff.

Dishes on offer in the Members' Dining Room include a starter of venison carpaccio with pickled blackberries, shaved chestnuts and baby watercress at 4.25.

What's on the menu in Parliament's bars and restaurants MEMBERS' DINING ROOM Venison carpaccio with pickled blackberries, shaved chestnuts and baby watercress 4.25 Slow cooked pork belly with Chinese spices, baby pak choy, onion and miso puree and sage potato dauphine - 6.90 STRANGERS' BAR Pint of Carlsberg - 3.35 Glass of Merlot - 2.75 Bottle of Processo - 21 Bottle of Champagne - 35 MEMBERS' TEA ROOM Three egg omlette with cheese - 2.35 Baked potato with beans - 1.25 Advertisement

Slow cooked pork belly with Chinese spices, baby pak choy, onion and miso puree and sage potato dauphine, priced is priced at 6.90.

Speaker John Bercow has previously conceded that there are concerns about the drinking culture on the parliamentary estate.

Former MP Eric Joyce was convicted of assaulting a fellow politician during a brawl in Strangers' Bar in 2012, while another ex-member, Mark Reckless, confessed to missing a late-night parliamentary vote in 2010 because he was too drunk.

Alcohol Concern has previously urged parliament to remove subsidies from booze in its outlets.

A House of Commons spokeswoman said: 'The catering service serves thousands of customers every week including MPs, members of the public, and the staff who keep Parliament running.

'Costs have halved since 2010-11, however last year's snap election led to fewer customers in our venues and to an increase in costs.

'We will continue to work to reduce these costs in the year ahead.'

A House of Lords spokesman said: 'The 2017-18 accounts show the overall catering subsidy was 1.35million.

'This is up slightly on 2016-17 and is due to a drop in revenue.

'The reduced revenue is due to less demand for refreshment services caused by the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the 2017 general election and the unexpected disruption to revenue generating banqueting events caused by terror attacks in London and other parts of the UK.

A House of Commons spokeswoman said the bars and restaurants at Westminster were not just for MPs

'This is an example of the unpredictability of demand for the catering services required to support a working House that makes it difficult to provide the usual canteen facilities many large employers offer without an element of subsidy.

'The House of Lords has reduced the subsidy by 32 per cent since 2007 and is working hard to reduce it further by generating more income, smarter procurement and tighter cost control.'

James Price, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'It is completely baffling how anyone can find it acceptable that well-paid politicians should have their meals subsidised by taxpayers, let alone cheaper alcohol in their bars.

'Every cheap meal and subsidised pint in parliament represents food and drink that struggling families can't now afford for themselves and their families.

'The subsidy for catering in Parliament needs to end immediately, no ifs and no buts.'A New York family has been devastated by the tragic death of three young siblings in a house fire on Monday night.

Authorities said four-year-old Eliesse, three-year-old Patrick III and two-year-old Temprince were killed on Monday night after a fire erupted at their parents' trailer home in Rome, about 35 miles east of Syracuse.

The children's one-year-old sister Kaydence was burned on both of her arms and is being treated at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. The parents, 25-year-old Patrick Croad and 24-year-old Gabrielle Croad, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

From l-r: Eliesse, four, Patrick, three, and Temprince, two, were killed on Monday night in a house fire at their New York home

The parents, Gabrielle and Patrick Croad, and their one-year-old daughter Kaydence were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. They are pictured above in a Facebook photo

Officials said the fire started shortly before midnight at a trailer home in Rome, about 35 miles east of Syracuse

Gabrielle and Patrick grabbed their infant daughter and fled when the fire broke out and then tried to re-enter the house through another door to get to the other three children

Patrick was being evaluated while his wife was being treated for second-degree burns, officials said.

The Rome Fire Department said the fire was reported around 11:48pm on Monday to 911. The home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.

Officials said Patrick and Gabrielle grabbed their one-year-old daughter when the fire broke out and escaped out a back door. Smoke detectors in the home woke the parents up.

The couple went around to the front door of their home and tried to enter to save their other three children but the flames were too intense.

Lawrenso Williams told Syracuse.com that Patrick and Gabrielle were covered in burns from trying to get back into the home to save their kids. He said a neighbor used a water hose to try and help put out the flames.

Officials said the flames were intense and the couple could not get back into the home. A neighbor said Patrick and Gabrielle were covered in burns because they kept trying to get back into the home

The fire destroyed the home. Officials are investigating the cause but do not believe it was intentionally set

Family members set up a GoFundMe for the Croad family to raise money for funerals for the three children and other expenses

'The fire was of such magnitude that it was impossible to enter the trailer,' Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Iacovissi said.

It took roughly five minutes for the blaze to be extinguished. The bodies of the three children were found in their bedrooms, officials said.

The cause of the blaze is being investigated. Fire officials told the Rome Sentinel that there's no indication the fire was intentionally set.

Family members set up a GoFundMe account to help the devastated family with expenses. So far, more than $7,400 has been raised.Police in Virginia say a 10-year-old boy and his seven-year-old passenger took their foster parent's car and tried to drive it to the beach, making it 37 miles before crashing.

The pair even made it at least a dozen miles down busy Interstate 64 in a black Lexus before crashing into a median and wrecking the vehicle.

The boys' custodian called local police about 8.15am on Tuesday morning to report their car and the children missing.

At the time, the caller believed the pair had gone to try and see their dog, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported.

Two boys, seven and 10, totalled their foster parent's Lexus on Tuesday after trying to drive it to a beach 300 miles away

Police, tipped off by another driver, had set up a road block. When the boys saw it, they reversed, hitting another car, and then hit the median soon after

But about 15 minutes later, a second report came in, telling police the car was 'all over' the Interstate.

The caller stayed with the boys, following them down the road, and police set up a block at a nearby exit ramp.

When the kids reached the police, they tried to reverse, but instead hit the caller's car before crashing into a median near Goochland - at least 25 miles from where the family lived in Wilmington, WTVR reported.

Neither of the boys were injured, and the incoming tow-truck driver said he was delighted to hear both of them had been wearing their seat belt.

Neither of the boys were injured in the crash, nor was anybody else - but the car was badly damaged

The pair had made it an impressive 37 miles when they crashed on Interstate 64

The Interstate is a busy road and one driver who was concerned for the boys tried to stay with them to keep an eye on the pair

Steve Parish of Andrew Parish Towing told the broadcaster he was shocked to see two children sitting at the crash site when he arrived, instead of adults, and shocked to hear how far they'd made it.

'They just tell you they got an accident, you don't expect something like this. You get there you see grown ups. You don't expect a 10-year old to be driving a car,' Parrish said.

'They was sitting out there like they wasn't hurt or nothing. That was the good part.'

Parrish said the seat belts were not the only precaution the adventurous boys had taken - the seats had been moved forward so the underage driver could reach the pedals.

Police drove the boys home after the crash. When they asked where they'd been trying to go, the children responded 'Virginia Beach' - which is more than 300 miles from their home.

The tow truck driver called to the scene said he was amazed to discover the boys had been wearing seat belts - and that they'd scooted the seat forward for safety (pictured)A federal appeals court has ruled that Hawaii's ban on open carry permits for residents is unconstitutional.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Hawaii officials had violated George Young's rights when he was denied a permit to openly carry a loaded gun.

Tuesday's decision reverses a lower court ruling that sided with officials who said the amendment only applied to guns kept in homes.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Hawaii's ban on open carry permits for residents is unconstitutional. Pictured is a handgun at the Hawaii Department of Natural Resources

'We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence, which the State of Hawaii has understandably sought to fight,' Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote.

'But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.'

If the ruling stands, it could lead to more guns in public in the few western states under 9th Circuit jurisdiction where they are currently restricted.

'States like Hawaii and California will have to allow far more guns on the streets than they do today,' said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

'States would be able to ban concealed carry but only if they allow people to carry their guns openly displayed.'

Winkler, however, expects the decision to be appealed to a full panel of the San Francisco-based court.

Tuesday's ruling comes two years after a full panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that there's no right to carry concealed guns in public.

That June 2016 ruling struck down a 2-1 panel opinion that was also written by O'Scannlain.

Gun rights is one of the most hotly debated issues in US political and legal circles, with any loosening or restriction of access to guns often leading to a court battle.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals (pictured in file photo) ruled 2-1 that Hawaii officials had violated the Second Amendment by denying resident George Young an open carry permit

The US Supreme Court has shied away from firearms fights in recent years, turning away challenges to restrictions after striking down gun ownership bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago in 2008 and 2010.

Judge Richard Clifton suggested in his dissent that the Supreme Court will likely settle the issue because several conflicting appeals decisions now show 'there is no single voice on this question'.

Clifton, who like the other judges on the panel was nominated by a Republican president, criticized the majority for going 'astray in several respects'.

He said the decision disregarded that states such as Hawaii have long regulated and limited the public carrying of guns, which he said did not undermine the core of the Second Amendment.

Attorney Alan Beck, who represented Young, said Hawaii County has never issued a carry permit in 20 years.

Hawaii law currently only allows residents in law enforcement or security to hold open carry permits unless in 'exceptional' cases.

Young, a Vietnam veteran who spent 21 years in the infantry, couldn't find anyone to represent him in his case and wasn't even allowed to argue his case in a lower court.

'I just thought he was a sympathetic good man who deserved an attorney,' Beck said.

'I didn't go in with any expectation of winning or losing. I just wanted to give him his day in court.'

Hawaii Attorney General Russell Suzuki said he planned to consult with the county and work with them on any further action.

'We are disappointed in the decision that would undermine Hawaii's strong gun control law and our commitment to protect the public,' Suzuki said in a statement.An aspiring Brazilian medical student has become the latest casualty of the ongoing socio-political strife that has shaken Nicaragua for more than three months, her university and a human rights group reported Tuesday.

Rayneia Lima, 29, was on her way home after completing her residency shift at a local hospital Monday night when the vehicle she was driving was sprayed with bullets, according to Ernesto Medina, rector of the American University of Managua.

Medina said the shots, which hit several vital organs, came from armed pro-government civilians who have taken over the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua since July 13. She was traveling near that campus.

Rayneia Lima, an aspiring doctor, was shot dead while driving home from work in Nicaragua. Her sister, Ketelly Lima, shared this picture on her Facebook account

He added that Lima was a sixth-year student and practicing resident at the police-run Carlos Roberto Huembes Hospital in Managua.

Ketelly Lima, Rayneia Lima's sister, posted a heart-warming message on her own Facebook account, recalling how her sister would request pictures on her niece.

'There are memories to tell you what your life was like and miss you,' she wrote. 'My beautiful sister, my top model.'

'There are memories to tell you what your life was like and miss you,' her Lima's sister,

In a statement, Nicaragua's National Police attributed her death to a 'private security guard,' saying he opened fire 'under circumstances that have not yet been determined.'

Brazil's Foreign Ministry expressed its 'profound indignation' over the killing.

The Brazilian government called in the Nicaraguan ambassador and recalled its ambassador from the Central American nation on Tuesday, seeking clarification from Nicaragua's government.

29-year-old Rayneia Lima was killed Monday night in Nicaragua while on her way home after finishing up her work shift at a hospital in Managua, Nicaragua

Rayneia Lima was practicing her residency in Managua, Nicaragua, before she died Monday night when her car was sprayed with bullets

'The Brazilian government again condemns the deepening repression, the disproportionate and lethal use of force and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security forces,' the ministry said in a statement.

It urged Nicaragua to punish those responsible for the killing and also 'to guarantee the free exercise of individual rights and public liberties.'

According to the non-governmental Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, at least 351 people have been killed in political unrest that erupted in April.

What began as protests against proposed social security cuts later broadened into calls for President Daniel Ortega to leave office after security forces and pro-government civilian militias began a deadly crackdown.

Rayneia Lima left her family back home in Brazil to work in a hospital in Nicaragua

Alvaro Leiva, the association's director, said Monday that three people were killed, 25 wounded and 15 detained Monday in the city of Jinotega when police and paramilitaries attacked protest barricades.

The violence came hours after Ortega said in an interview with Fox News that the country was returning to normal.

'The disturbances have ceased over the last week in the country and things are on course for normalization,' the president said in his first interview with an independent news outlet in nine years.

He also rejected calls for early elections and denied having any responsibility for attacks on Roman Catholic clergy or killings of civilians, blaming the violence on his political opponents and foreign interests.

Demonstrators march demanding the ouster of President Daniel Ortega and the release of political prisoners, in Managua, Nicaragua, on Monday

That is counter to what international organizations and Nicaraguan rights groups have documented.

Last week the Organization of American States adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses committed by Nicaraguan security forces and their armed civilian backers.

'State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing. 350+ dead at the hands of the regime,' U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Monday via Twitter. 'The US calls on the Ortega government to end the violence NOW and hold early elections - the world is watching!'

Ortega has also accused those demanding he leave office of being coup plotters.

Leiva denounced what he called a 'fierce persecution' against protesters, saying that during a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday more than 750 people had been abducted 'by paramilitaries in a clear violation of human rights.'Is there a human right to immigrate? Many defenders of open borders think so. Individuals, they argue, are entitled to freedom of movement, which entails the right to immigrate from one country to another. This view has found support in the newly elected president of Mexico, who remarked that there is a human right to move to the United States.



This appeal to freedom of movement is dubious argument for a number of reasons. For starters, freedom of movement is not unlimited: my freedom of movement does not give me the right to move into your home.



Ones freedom of movement is also limited by the sovereignty and property rights of other individuals. I may have freedom to move about in my own home, but that doesnt give me the right to do so in a home that isnt mine. Similarly, I may have freedom of movement within my own country, but that doesnt give me the right to move to another sovereign country. So in whatever sense we have freedom of movement, it doesnt generate a right to move across sovereign territory.



This Is a Ridiculous Circular Argument



But the more important problem with appealing to freedom of movement in support of open borders is that it assumes the very thing it tries to prove. In other words, it is guilty of arguing in a circle.



Heres why: freedom of movement applies only to places where I already have a right to be. This explains why I have freedom of movement within my own home, but not my neighbors. I have a pre-existing property right that lets me occupy my own home, but no such right exists for me to occupy the house across the street.



Now, if freedom of movement applies only to places where I already have a right to be, then appealing to freedom of movement in support of the right to move to another country assumes in advance that one already has a right to be in that country. Since that is exactly the very point under dispute, such an argument amounts to circular reasoning.



To have freedom of movement is to have the right to access or occupy some location. But I only have the right to access or occupy a location if I already possess property or sovereignty rights over that location to begin with. Invoking freedom of movement in defense of open borders, therefore, smuggles in the hidden assumption that individuals possess rights to access or occupy the territory of sovereign countries. But that, of course, is the very issue at stake.



This View Obliterates Property Rights



So much for that argument.

NOTE:

What about the idea that there is a human right to immigrate? This too is questionable. A human right is a claim to some good or activity that all humans need in order to flourish. We can think of rights as moral shields that protect us as we go about living.



On this view is easy to see why goods such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness would count as bona fide rights: they are all things that every human needs in order to live well. But what about immigration, as defined as movement across borders? What universal human interest is served in letting people move from one country to another?



Certainly some freedom of movement is necessary for us to flourishlife would be pretty boring if we stood still all daybut this is a far cry from the freedom to move across borders that defenders of open borders envision. We may grant that individuals may sometimes gain the right to immigrate through societal breakdown, oppression, or natural disasters, but this is not the same as saying that there is a general human right to immigrate. Indeed, there can be no such thing because there is no basic human interest common to all humans that can only be met by migration across borders.



Whats more, a right to immigrate, if it existed, would be the right to demand both of individuals and countries that one be granted admission to their territory, regardless of whether that individual or country approves. This is tantamount to saying that individuals have the right to use and occupy someone elses property against his will. Such a view would amount to the wholesale denial of property and sovereignty rights.



If individuals have an obligation to let others use and occupy their property, then in what sense do they really own their own property? The freedom to exclude others is essential both to property rights and sovereignty rights.



There Is No Such Thing as a World Collective



Yet some defenders of open borders embrace this conclusion. The earth, they argue, is the common property of all humans, fit for our collective use and settlement. On this view, known as cosmopolitanism, individuals are not citizens of particular countries, but world citizens and members of the world community.



The problem with cosmopolitanism, aside from its radical collectivism, is that is takes on an unrealistic understanding of human nature. Distinct communities and nation-states are necessary for at least two reasons.



First, human beings stand in special relationships to each other. I am not just a human. I am also a son, brother, friend, professor, and churchgoer. Each one of these roles generates distinct communitieswhich Edmund Burke called little platoonsof which I am a member. To assimilate them all under the category of the world community is to pretend that they do not exist.



Human beings are more complex than the cosmopolitan takes them to be. Dividing human beings into groups and communities is the best way of recognizing and affirming the intricacies of the human experience.



A Nation Is Crucial for Protecting Natural Relationships



Second, the multifaceted nature of the human experience means that distinct nation-states are essential. The nation state offers a way of organizing and elevating the special groups and communities that make social life possible into cohesive political units. It is the vehicle by which human social groups can come together and act for the sake of a common interest.



At the same time, in focusing on local and regional interests, the nation-state affirms the little platoons that render human social life meaningful. Whereas the globalism of the world community devalues these special relationships, the localism of the nation-state recognizes their importance.



The idea of a right to immigrate may sound compassionate and be well-intentioned, but it is both deeply flawed and based on a naive view of human social relations. In denying this right, I am by no means devaluing or discouraging immigration. I am, rather, calling for a view of immigration that puts national sovereignty first.



By Timothy Hsiao

July 24, 2018



No One Has A ?Right? To Immigrate Into The United States No One Has A Right To Immigrate Into The United StatesBy Timothy HsiaoJuly 24, 2018

This view has found support in the newly elected president of Mexico, who remarked that there is a human right to move to the United States. 

Former President Jimmy Carter was asked about the state of democracy in 2018. Carter said that democracy has reached its peak and is declining. I hope that trend will reverse.



Lee Moran

Jul 25th 2018 4:57AM



https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/07/25/jimmy-carter-the-us-has-abandoned-its-role-as-a-champion-of-human-rights/23489056/ Jimmy Carter: The US has 'abandoned' its role as a champion of human rightsLee MoranJul 25th 2018 4:57AM

Freakazoids know all about human Rights that must be paid for with tax dollars, but they know nothing about the Rights in our original Bill of Rights. (Not a one of those Rights requires tax dollars.) Minnesota Public Radio has dismissed three longtime employees of the former 'A Prairie Home Companion' show, including the son of creator and ex-host Garrison Keillor.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Jason Keillor was dismissed last week along with Prairie Home Productions managing director Kate Gustafson and publicist David O'Neill.

Jason Keillor tells the newspaper that he 'treasured' his 22 years working in public radio 'but the business has changed.'

He said: 'I think right now, MPR is promoting their new brand and its very expensive. Theyre running a tight ship despite their deep pockets.'

Both Gustafson and O'Neill declined to comment.

Garrison Keillor poses for a photo in Minneapolis on Feb. 23, 2018 photo. Minnesota Public Radio dismissed three longtime employees of the former 'A Prairie Home Companion' show, including Garrison's son (not pictured) and two veterans of the show

Publicist David O'Neill (left) and Managing Director Kate Gustafson (right) were also dismissed

Garrison Keillor retired from the show in July 2016.

Last November, MPR severed ties with the 75-year-old Keillor over accusations he sexually harassed a woman who worked on his radio show.

The radio station later renamed the show 'Live from Here.'

The person who first accused the creator of 'A Prairie Home Companion' of inappropriate conduct with a female employee was a disgruntled male staffer who spoke up after he was fired from the show last summer.

The Star Tribune reported that the informant was Dan Rowles, who had been a close associate of Garrison Keillor and 16-year employee with the show.

His disclosure triggered internal and external investigations by Minnesota Public Radio.

The investigation concluded that Keillor had engaged in dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents over the years involving a longtime female writer for the show whose name has not been made public.

Keillor has portrayed his relationship with the woman as a mutual flirtation, which she disputes.

MPR spokeswoman Angie Andresen says the network is 'deeply grateful' to those whose positions were eliminated.An El Nino event has been predicted for the end of the year, leaving farmers already struggling with a devastating five-year drought facing disaster.

The Bureau of Meteorology announced the odds of an El Nino system forming this year are now twice as high as normal.

El Nino events often result in severe droughts, bringing higher temperatures, lower than average rainfall and increased risk of bushfires, lasting as long as two years.

If an El Nino does form in the latter half of 2018, it could prove catastrophic for parched Australian farmers who have been crippled by a years-long nationwide dry spell which some are describing as the worst drought in 100 years.

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An El Nino event has been predicted for the end of the year, leaving farmers already struggling with a devastating five-year drought facing disaster (pictured is a drought-affected property in NSW)

The Bureau of Meteorology announced the odds of an El Nino system forming this year are now twice as high as normal (pictured is a drought-affected property in NSW)

Pictured is a sea surface temperature map showing the effects of an El Nino event in 1997

Pictured is a sea surface temperature map showing the effects of an El Nina event in 1988

BOM senior forecaster David Crock said on Wednesday there is typically about a 25 per cent chance of an El Nino pattern developing.

The likelihood of one forming is now at 50 per cent, approximately double the normal probability.

'During El Nino, rainfall in eastern Australia is typically below average during winterspring,' the Bureau of Meteorology stated.

'Daytime temperatures are also typically warmer than average for southern Australia. A neutral ENSO phase has little effect on Australian climate.

'Most international climate models surveyed by the Bureau suggest the tropical Pacific will continue to warm.

'Five of eight models indicate this warming will reach El Nino levels in the southern hemisphere spring, while a sixth model reaches El Nino levels in December.'

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned the chances of an El Nino event are twice as high as usual

El Nino events often result in severe droughts, bringing higher temperatures, lower than average rainfall and increased risk of bushfires (pictured is a drought-affected property in NSW)

El Nino events can last as long as two years, and are caused by a warming of the ocean surface or above-average sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean.

Of Australia's ten driest years on record, seven occurred during El Nino years, and 18 of the 27 events since 1900 have triggered droughts.

The period from April to June this year has been the fourth-driest since comparable records commenced in 1900, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Almost 60 per cent of Queensland is stricken by drought, while in New South Wales less than one per cent of the state is unaffected.

WHAT IS EL NINO? El Nino and La Nina are the warm and cool phases (respectively) of a recurring climate phenomenon across the tropical Pacific - the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or 'ENSO' for short. The pattern can shift back and forth irregularly every two to seven years, and each phase triggers predictable disruptions of temperature, winds and precipitation. These changes disrupt air movement and affect global climate. ENSO has three phases: El Nino: A warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures (SST), in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Over Indonesia, rainfall becomes reduced while rainfall increases over the tropical Pacific Ocean. The low-level surface winds, which normally blow from east to west along the equator, instead weaken or, in some cases, start blowing the other direction from west to east. La Nina: A cooling of the ocean surface, or below-average sea surface temperatures (SST), in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Over Indonesia, rainfall tends to increase while rainfall decreases over the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The normal easterly winds along the equator become even stronger. Neutral: Neither El Nino or La Nina. Often tropical Pacific SSTs are generally close to average. Source: Climate.gov Advertisement

Serious to severe rainfall deficiencies are present in southeastern South Australia and western to Northern Country Victoria, and in parts of Gippsland, Victoria

New South Wales government figures show 48 per cent of the state is drought affected, 36.5 per cent is experiencing drought (pictured is a drought-affected property in NSW)

According to the Queensland government, 23 councils and four part council areas are drought-declared, along with 73 individually droughted properties in other areas.

New South Wales government figures show 48 per cent of the state is drought affected, 36.5 per cent is experiencing drought.

An additional 15.3 per cent is suffering from intense drought, with only 0.2 per cent given a non-drought status.

The Kimberley and the southwestern quarter of Western Australia, most of the Northern Territory, and large parts of South Australia, New South Wales, and Queensland all saw below-average rainfall in June.

Of Australia's ten driest years on record, seven occurred during El Nino years, and 18 of the 27 events since 1900 have triggered droughts (pictured is a drought-affected property in NSW)

Serious to severe rainfall deficiencies are present in southeastern South Australia and western to Northern Country Victoria, and in parts of Gippsland, Victoria.

Similar deficiencies have been seen in the Central Highlands and Coalfields District in Queensland, and in Western Australia's South Coastal District.

El Nino threatens to hit while drought-stricken farmers are forced to shoot livestock they are unable to feed.

Les Jones, a sheep farmer in Goolhi, New South Wales' drought declared north-east, said ten sheep were dying of starvation daily, leaving mass shooting the only option.

Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer has labelled the situation as critical, sharing photos of extremely dry conditions on his 27-acre farm near Bathurst.If you've been thinking your job is giving you a host of worries you may need to reevaluate as it has been revealed Australian workers are among the least stressed in the world.

A global study found employees Down Under are the second most relaxed nation in the workplace.

The survey of more than 23,000 working professionals in eight countries was conducted by Robert Half and studied full and part-time workers.

Those thinking their jobs are stressful may need to reevaluate as it is revealed Australian workers are among the least anxious in the world, after the Netherlands (stock image)

Australia's lack of stress closely followed the Netherlands, who were labelled the least anxious workers across the globe.

The British came in as the third least stressed country followed by the US, Belgium, Canada, France and Germany.

The study also revealed Australian workers aged 55 and above were the least stressed and those aged between 18 and 34 carried the most anxiety.

The research suggested those earning higher wages, more than $150,000, were highly stressed - as were women when compared to men.

GLOBAL WORKPLACE STRESS LEVELS From the least stressed to most stressed nations in the world. 1. The Netherlands 2. Australia 3. United Kingdom 4. United States 5. Belgium 6. Canada 7. France 8. Germany Source: Robert Half Advertisement

The most relaxing industry for a career appeared to be IT, administration and accounting while health care and manufacturing fell at the opposite end of the spectrum.

'Stress in the workplace is sometimes unavoidable with many subtle yet insidious contributors,' Robert Half Australia director Nicole Gorton said.

'Stressed out employees not only negatively affect company performance, but can also impact overall team morale.

'Eliminating all work-related stress in the office may not be possible, but taking proactive steps to reduce it can improve staff performance, engagement and overall workplace happiness.'

The study revealed employers who hired large numbers of temporary staff helped reduce stress by managing high workloads.Minh Phuoc (Paul) Nguyen (pictured) was last seen at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on the night of May 1, 2014 at about 10pm

Skeletal remains have been discovered in an area of remote bushland during a coordinated police search for a man who went missing from Sydney's CBD four years ago.

Minh Phuoc (Paul) Nguyen - who was 50 at the time of his disappearance - was last seen at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney about 10pm on May 1, 2014.

On Tuesday, New South Wales police detectives conducted a search of the Illawarra escarpment - a forested mountain range west of Wollongong - in an attempt to locate the missing man's body.

With the aid of the dog squad and bomb unit, detectives uncovered scattered remains in the bushland, Nine News reports.

They are now in the process of determining if the remains belong to a human and, more specifically, whether they are connected to Nguyen.

It is alleged that Paul Nguyen was murdered by two men - 23-year-old Zulfukar Aljubouri and another 22-year-old man who was 17 at the time of the incident - in a Bankstown unit in 2014.

Paul Nguyen (centre) was allegedly murdered by two men in a Bankstown unit in 2014

NSW police detectives conducted a search of the Illawarra escarpment - a forested mountain range west of Wollongong - on Tuesday in an attempt to locate the missing man's body

Detectives uncovered scattered remains in the bushland with the aid of the dog squad and bomb unit

Nguyen, a former Bakers Delight franchisee, is believed to have made phone calls to his family on the day of his disappearance, telling them he had a business 'complication' that he needed to sort out.

Police have previously investigated whether the 50-year-old had any links to the same underworld figures involved in the death of Jaime Gao: a 20-year-old Sydney drug dealer whose body was found floating in waters off Cronulla in 2014.

'We believe they may have been associating with the same people and we are exploring the links,' a NSW Police spokesman has said.

'We have strong reason to be concerned that he has met with foul play.'

Police are now in the process of determining if the remains belong to a human and, more specifically, whether they are connected to Nguyen

Police have previously investigated whether the 50-year-old had any links to the same underworld figures involved in the death of Jaime Gao: a 20-year-old Sydney drug dealer whose body was found in 2014

The two men allegedly involved in Nguyen's disappearance were arrested in police raids in Liverpool, Casula and Smithfield in 2015.

Traces of Nguyens blood were also previously found on the carpet of the Dudley Street, Bankstown unit where he is thought to have been murdered.

Recent searches for Nguyen's remains were prompted by extensive investigations and new information.Preston Howard, 50, was sentenced to two yeas in prison for threatening to kill members of a Georgia mosque

A Missouri man who pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to a Georgia mosque has been sentenced to two years in prison.

In a statement Tuesday, federal prosecutors said 50-year-old Preston Q. Howard, of Wright City, made numerous calls last year to the Islamic Society of Augusta in which he threatened to kill members of the mosque and 'blow up' the mosque.

According to authorities, he said he would 'shoot,' 'behead', slaughter', 'execute' and 'murder' members. Howard also said he was going to 'hunt down' members and light them up.

Howard acknowledged committing the acts and obstructing or attempting to obstruct the mosque members' free exercise of their religious beliefs, the news release said.

'Threats made against houses of worship are abhorrent and this Office will work tirelessly to ensure that members of all faiths may worship in peace and without intimidation,' said U.S. Attorney Bobby L. Christine.

Prosecutors said Howard's sentence was enhanced because Howard chose his victims based on their religion and 'thereby committing a hate crime.'

When imposing the sentence, U.S. District Chief Judge J. Randal Hall noted Howard's 'disturbing pattern of intolerance of many groups of people.'

The Augusta Chronicle reports Hall told Howard that his actions were 'terribly offensive.'

'Whatever faith you chose - that goes to the heart of who we are as a nation,' Hall said during Tuesday's sentencing hearing.

Howard told the judge and members of the mosque who attended the hearing that he was embarrassed and ashamed.

'For each one of you, I apologize,' Howard said.

During the seven and a half months he has been held without bond, Howard began to study Islam, he said, adding he understands that terrorists do not represent all Muslims.

Hall pressed Howard, however. What he saw in the pre-sentencing report, he said, was a man of intolerance. 'When you're released from prison, who's next?' Hall asked.

Howard responded, 'I am definitely not the same person.'

Authorities said Howard called the Islamic Society of Augusta numerous times in 2017 and said he was going to 'murder' and 'behead' its members and 'blow up' the mosque

Defense attorney Hank Crane had asked Hall to take into account the change in Howard's attitude. Howard had no criminal history and stopped calling the mosque once confronted by FBI agents in August 2017, Crane said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Greenwood asked Hall to consider not only the vile messages left over a three-month period, but also other indications of Howard's intolerance - such as Confederate battle flag stickers covering his mailbox and the sticker of the president with a Hitler-style mustache overlaying a swastika, and similar messages and symbols on his three Facebook pages.

Hall granted the federal prosecutor's request to go above the federal sentencing guideline range of 15 to 21 months. He also ordered Howard to immediately reimburse the mosque members for nearly $30,000 spent to increase security.

Speaking on the mosque's behalf, Dr. Hossam Fadel told the judge that the members refused to let fear take them away from their faith.

Founded in 1976, the mosque has grown into a community that provides food, clothing and medical care to those in need, opened a full-time school and opened its doors to everyone in the community.

'We are part and parcel of the ... community,' Fadel said.Australians can slash hundreds of dollars off their grocery bill by using a new app that lets you scan the major supermarkets for the best deals.

The app offers shoppers the chance to compare the prices of about 45,000 products from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi at the same time.

GroceryGetter customers can then select the cheapest items from each supermarket and have their groceries home delivered.

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The GroceryGetter app (pictured) lets shoppers compare the prices of about 45,000 items from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi

'You build a shopping list on the app with the groceries you'd like to purchase,' co-creator Shawn Singh told A Current Affair.

The GroceryGetter app and its website are free to use but there is a $9.99 delivery fee and Aldi products also attract a 20 per cent surcharge.

The next-day delivery service is currently only available in Sydney but it will soon be extended to Melbourne and Canberra.

GroceryGetter was launched last year 'with a vision to revolutionise the Australian grocery shopping experience'.

Users of the app are able to select the cheapest prices from each of the three supermarket giants (stock image)

HOW IT WORKS - GroceryGetter has its own website and it is also available on the App Store and Android Store - Shoppers can compare prices on about 45,000 items from Coles, Woolworths and Aldi - GroceryGetter says it 'obtains the pricing for you so you don't need to' and customers 'see who's got the better pricing, side by side' - Customers can create their 'own shopping lists and track the live prices and savings every week' - GroceryGetter offers next-day delivery to more than 700 suburbs in Sydney Advertisement

'Flipping through multiple catalogues to find the cheapest deal, lugging heavy items, and long queues are just some of the stressors that GroceryGetter eliminates,' the GroceryGetter website says.

'Create your own shopping lists, get live price updates, track your savings, and more with the app.'

One user of the app said it had been an invaluable tool in finding the best savings.

'My average shop previously was closer to $120 for me. With GroceryGetter I spend $70 so it's a big reduction,' shopper Rebecca Glossop said.

Customers can also share their shopping list with family and friends through the app.A father-of-two who has struggled to feed his family since moving states nine months ago has been sitting at the roadside for two days with a sign asking for full-time work.

Dale Hardy moved from Goulburn, south-west NSW, to Townsville, north Queensland, last year with his wife, Donna, and their two young daughters.

The 45-year-old said the family moved to the warmer climate for his daughters' immune systems.

Although he was able to find a part-time job, Hardy said he has struggled to land permanent employment.

Dale Hardy (pictured) has struggled to feed his family since moving states nine months ago

The father-of-two (pictured) has been sitting at the roadside for two days with a sign asking for full-time work

Fed up with his fruitless job search, Hardy stood on the side of Woolcock Street and Ingham Road on Monday and Tuesday with a placard touting his skills and phone number.

The father-of-two spent seven hours each day by the roadside.

'We struggle to put food on the table,' Hardy told Daily Mail Australia.

The 45-year-old said his casual work is not enough to feed his family of four.

His wife, Donna, has been unable to work for two years after an accident caused her to lose the ability to use one arm.

Although he has not yet been offered full-time work, Hardy said the idea has been well-received.

'I really want to be working full time so i can support my family, I don't take days off,' he said.

Hardy (pictured) spent seven hours on the side of the road on Monday and Tuesday in a ploy to find a job

Hardy wants the stability of a full-time job to support his family as they are currently struggling to put food on the table (pictured: Hardy's two daughters)

Donna said the couple came up with the idea to hold a sign roadside after nothing else seemed to work.

'I'm overwhelmed by the support he's received from posts we've put on Facebook,' she said.

'Me and the girls are very proud of him, as his willing to do anything to support his family.'

Donna also urged employers not to judge her husband by his age or weight as he is 'a bloody hard worker.'

Hardy says he will head back out with his sign on Thursday.

The 45-year-old said he has a HR truck licence and fork lift licence, as well as bob cat ticket and a white card.Donald Trump Jr cozied up to Kimberly Guilfoyle in a photo he shared on Instagram just hours after she confirmed she's leaving Fox News.

'Amazing time tonight at the @turningpointusa High School Leadership Summit. Amazing crowd with incredible speakers,' Don Jr wrote in the Instagram post.

Don Jr was seen with his arm wrapped around Guilfoyle's waist as the pair flashed huge smiles for the cameras.

Another photo shows them holding hands in the air as they stand on stage during the Washinton, DC, event.

Earlier on Tuesday, Guilfoyle shared a two-part tweet that said leaving Fox News was a 'bitter-sweet' decision.

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Donald Trump Jr cozied up to Kimberly Guilfoyle in a photo he shared on Instagram just hours after she confirmed she's leaving Fox News. Don Jr was seen with his arm wrapped around Guilfoyle's waist as the pair flashed huge smiles for the cameras

'Amazing time tonight at the @turningpointusa High School Leadership Summit. Amazing crowd with incredible speakers,' Don Jr wrote in the Instagram post. Another photo shows them holding hands in the air as they stand on stage during the Washinton, DC, event

'Today I have a bitter-sweet announcement. Ive decided to leave Fox News Channel and dedicate myself full time to joining America First as Vice Chairwoman, campaigning across the country and firmly standing with President Trump.'

She continued: 'I will miss my Fox family. I thank Fox for the opportunities it has provided me. I thank all the talented producers, staff, and above all I thank the best fans out there.'

Her personal announcement came four days after Fox News revealed that Guilfoyle no longer worked for the network.

'Fox News has parted ways with Kimberly Guilfoyle,' a Fox News spokesperson said on Friday.

Earlier on Tuesday, Guilfoyle shared a two-part tweet that said leaving Fox News was a 'bitter-sweet' decision

Her personal announcement came four days after Fox News revealed that Guilfoyle no longer worked for the network. Guilfoyle will be joining America First as Vice Chairwoman, 'campaigning across the country and firmly standing with President Trump'

At the time, a source told DailyMail.com that Guilfoyle will not be appearing in The Five nor would she be given the chance to say goodbye after 12 years with the network.

Katie Pavlich filled in for Guilfoyle on Friday.

Huff Post had reported earlier on Friday that three sources claimed Guilfoyle was not leaving the cable news network 'voluntarily,' and that her team was busy working out the details of her separation package.





Sources close to both Guilfoyle and her boyfriend Donald Trump Jr denied those claims at the time, saying it was her choice to exit Fox News and begin a new job at America First.

The news that Guilfoyle would be leaving Fox News and taking a job with America First comes four months after she started dating Don Jr (pictured together)

The news that Guilfoyle would be leaving Fox News and taking a job with America First comes four months after she started dating Don Jr.

Guilfoyle had long been one of Fox News' most loyal and dedicated employees.

She was often one of the first and most vocal supporters of any co-worker or boss who is maligned in the press, having publicly gone to bat for both Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly at times when few supported the men.

Those two were eventually let go by the network, and with the departure of Megyn Kelly, Greta Van Susteren and Gretchen Carlson, Guilfoyle became one of the most senior female members of the Fox News family.

In the past few months however, she has been getting more and more press for her life outside the office thanks to her relationship with Don Jr.

It is a relationship that Guilfoyle believes could land her in the role of first lady, a position she has some experience in after her first husband Gavin Newsom served as mayor of San Francisco.

She said in an interview with Breitbart Radio that she believes Don Jr has a future in politics, and that she is so happy to have 'finally got it right this time' with her new boyfriend.

Guilfoyle called Don Jr 'the number one up-and-coming political figure on the right,' and said that he 'is the base'.

Guilfoyle has been one of Fox News' most loyal employees for the past 12 years

'He has a compelling political voice, he is incredibly bright. I have seen him at these different rallies,' explained Guilfoyle.

'He is a person that people can understand, he's very approachable. He is very relatable with his background and his interests.'

Most importantly, Guilfoyle said, is the fact that Don Jr is a man of the people.

'He actually puts the time in and the effort to understand the base, because he is the base,' said the former host.

'He gets out there and actually talks to the real people, the men and women who have been left behind in this country.'

There is a chance that Don Jr could in fact get himself on the ballot for the election this November.

The seventh district of New York, which encompasses parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, has no Republican set to run in the race for a seat in the US House of Representatives.

The political calendar released by the New York State Board of Elections reveals that a vacancy can be filled in a race up until September 19, and since no Republicans ran in the primary that spot could be open for Don Jr.

And Guilfoyle is very good on the campaign trail, as Newsom learned almost 20 years ago when he won his race for mayor.

She continued to support him during his time in office too, with appearances on a number of high-profile programs.

She said in an interview with Breitbart Radio that she believes Don Jr has a future in politics, and that she is so happy to have 'finally got it right this time' with her new boyfriend

Former five: Guilfoyle called Don Jr 'the number one up-and-coming political figure on the right,' and said that he 'is the base'

In fact, her remarks about Don Jr were incredibly similar to ones she made back in 2004 about Newsom during an appearance on Charlie Rose.

'He was very much interested in public service and had a keen mind just in term of the political issues of the time,' Guilfoyle said at the time.

'I knew that he had the vision, the discipline and, as it turns out, the courage to be in politics and to do the right thing so I'm really happy it worked out.'

That interview quickly turned into a counseling session however, with the pair discussing their bi-coastal lifestyles and the fact that they barely saw one another due to their careers.

Two years later they were divorced.

Don Jr and his wife Vanessa are currently in the process of divorcing.

The couple has five children, and Guilfoyle has an 11-year-old son from her second marriage to Eric Villency.A father-of-two tried to keep his young children out of his meth lab by hanging a sign on the door reading 'poison, keep out, danger, death is consequence' - before police found toys inside the clandestine operation.

The 23-year-old man pleaded guilty to three counts of exposing others in the manufacturing of meth in Bundaberg District Court in Queensland on Tuesday, and faces a maximum penalty of nine years in prison.

The man and his girlfriend have already been sentenced to nine months in prison with immediate parole for operating the lab, the NewsMail reported.

A father-of-two tried to keep his young children out of his at-home meth lab by hanging a sign on the door reading 'poison, keep out, danger, death is consequence' (digitally reconstructed image)

Police found the drug lab after searching the man's home on April 13, 2016.

Officers found gas burners and chemicals consistent with making meth - alongside an array of children's toys and clothes.

In court, the Crown prosecutor said police could feel their tongues and lips begin to tingle when they entered the lab.

The man is the biological father of two of the three children - aged one, three and five - who were living at the home.

All three children tested positive to meth and pseudoephedrine exposure - with a one-year-old baby having the most severe levels.

The father's lawyer argued his client was 'distressed to the point of tears' when he learned the children had been exposed to meth.

'It's a mistake made in the course of producing drugs ... rather than having direct contact to a drug lab that was unsupervised,' the lawyer said.

All three children tested positive to meth and pseudoephedrine exposure - with a one-year-old baby having the most severe levels (stock image)

Judge Jennifer Rosengren said the 23-year-old man's actions were 'extremely naive'.

'There's signs on the door that no one can read, the oldest is five years of age, and that's the extent to which the care has been taken,' she said.

The man was sentenced to six months in prison for each charge, to be served concurrently, and was released on a $500 good behavior bond.A teenager accused of assaulting an autistic boy with a spanner outside a Melbourne school claims he didn't intend to cause harm, a court has heard.

The teen, 14, who cannot be named for legal reasons, attended a children's court with his grandmother on Tuesday in relation to the alleged attack on May 8 outside Northcote High School.

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, was allegedly set upon by five attackers in the horrifying attack.

The teen was charged with affray, intentionally and recklessly causing injury, two counts of assault with a weapon, using a controlled weapon and three other assault charges.

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Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins, 14, was allegedly set upon by five attackers and attacked with spanners outside a Melbourne school in May

The court heard there had been no resolution as to the agreed facts of the alleged assault and that the issue of whether the injury was inflicted intentionally was still in dispute.

The 14-year-old's bail was extended until his next court appearance on August 14.

He received a warning from a magistrate to behave, The Age reported.

'It's really important you stay out of trouble. If you are charged with any further offending while you are on bail for these offences, it puts you in a really difficult position,' she said.

Three other teens aged 14, 15 and 16 were also charged with a series of offences in relation to the alleged attack.

Footage of the alleged attack obtained by The Herald Sun at the time shows Quinn being thrown off his bike by a boy allegedly carrying a wrench.

Quinn (pictured) told Channel 10's The Project that the alleged attack was very distressing

One of the teens charged in relation to the alleged attack (pictured) appeared in court on Tuesday, where he warned by the magistrate to stay out of trouble

Five boys then allegedly attacked Quinn, jumping on him, pushing his head into the pavement and beating him with weapons.

Once he regained his footing, a boy allegedly grabbed his head and kneed him in the face.

Quinn was then cornered between two boys armed with wrenches who attacked him from both sides before chasing him into traffic where he was held down and kicked in the head.

Quinn was taken to hospital suffering minor injuries.

'I like to think I'm a nice person to people and I don't like bullies,' Quinn told Channel 10's The Project following the alleged attack.

'They (the bullies) would come at me and they would kill me, it was very scary. I started thinking bad thoughts, it was disgusting, it's very distressing for me.'

Quinn's mother Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins (pictured) got the call about the alleged attack while her son was in the ambulance

The alleged attack occurred outside Northcote High School (pictured) in Melbourne's north

Quinn's mother Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins also spoke publicly after footage of the alleged attack went viral.

She got the heartbreaking call from her son while he was in the ambulance and said her son was too scared to leave home following the attack.

Describing the alleged attack as 'pretty gruesome', Mrs Lahiff-Jenkins said it was her and her husband's 'worst nightmare'.

She said her son had been trying to defend his friend, also believed to be autistic, who was being bullied.

'I don't imagine that these are five specific bad kids, all our kids could be out there behaving this way,' she told 3AW.

'I feel very sorry for the parents of these kids, because now they have to deal with something that I'm sure will shock them.'

Quinn Lahiff-Jenkins (pictured) was too scared to leave home after the alleged attack

Northcote High School principal Sue Harrap took to social media at the time to condemn the 'upsetting incident.'

'You may have seen some media coverage of an upsetting incident which took place near our school and appears to have involved some of our students,' she posted on the school's Facebook page.

'This behaviour is totally unacceptable and does not reflect the values of our school. Our thoughts are with the student who was attacked and his family. We reported the incident to police and we'll work closely with them on their investigation.'Pakistan General Elections 2018

Like every democracy in the world, Pakistan too holds its General Elections after a span of every five years. The people of Pakistan use their basic right to vote in order to elect members that are supposed to represent them in the Parliament.

The basic structure of Pakistans democracy consists of an upper and lower house of Parliament also known commonly as the Senate and the National Assembly. Following the elections, as part of the normal procedure, a Prime Minister is elected by the National Assembly members, whereas the electoral members, from both Parliament Houses as well as four Provincial Assemblies elect the President.

The basic body responsible for conducting the elections is the Election Commission of Pakistan most commonly known as the ECP. The ECP not only conducts the General Elections under its supervision but is also responsible for holding Presidential as well as the local body elections. The National Assembly of Pakistan consists of 342 seats out of which the fate of 272 seats is decided in the General Elections. Historically, the Pakistan Peoples Party or the PPP, has won the general elections the most number of times, forming the Federal Government on five separate occasions. Their political rivals, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz or the PML-N comes second forming the Federal Government three times.

This year, the General Elections will be held on 25th July 2018. Most recently, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz headed by the Sharif brothers, completed its five-year tenure before handing over power to the caretaker government on 1st June 2018. The Pakistanis are eagerly awaiting the day of the elections so they can exercise their right to vote once again. The upcoming Elections that promises to be as close as ever, will have approximately 105.96 million people vote for their favorite candidates. The results of the General Elections 2018 will be announced soon after the act of counting the votes has been completed.Female prison guard Amy Connors (pictured) is alleged to have had sex with cop killer Sione Penisini

A female prison guard accused of having sex with a cop killer behind bars reportedly had extreme weightloss surgery to make herself 'more attractive' to the inmate.

Amy Connors and convicted killer Sione Penisini are alleged to have had a sexual relationship within the walls of Kempsey maximum-security prison, in New South Wales.

Connors, a married mother-of-two, was reported to be pregnant with Penisini's child, but her family has denied those claims according to radio station 2GB.

Penisini was sentenced to 36 years jail in 2002, after being convicted of murdering police officer Glenn McEnally.

Corrective Services staff reportedly had Connors and Penisini under surveillance for a month before they swooped, suspending the guard from duty, Nine News reported.

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Convicted cop killer Sione Pensini (right) and prison guard Amy Connors were under surveillance for more than a month before the alleged sexual liaison was uncovered

Penisini has since been moved to Goulburn Supermax jail, home to Australia's most hardened criminals, after allegedly assaulting a fellow prisoner in recent weeks.

Penisini allegedly 'groomed' Connors by pushing her into the weightloss surgery.

Neither guard or prisoner will face charges if the alleged tryst is proven - because it is not illegal.

Corrective Services Minister David Elliot said the allegations were not a criminal act but 'it is a breach of the code of conduct' for Corrective Services staff.

Mr Elliot's office is now reportedly looking to make it illegal for corrections staff and prisoners to have sexual relations.

Police Association president Tony King slammed Mr Elliot and Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin after the allegations were made public.

'If Elliott and Severin were doing their jobs, every cop killer would be rotting away in Supermax, it's a direct slap in the face of every officer, all of us who have worn the blue shirt,' he said on Tuesday.

Pensini was jailed for 36 years after the 2002 killing of NSW Police Constable Constable Glenn McEnally (pictured)

Connors reportedly attempted to tender her resignation after being suspended on Friday but it was denied because Correction Services wish to complete their investigations first.

Mr Elliot is set to visit the Kempsey jail in the coming week and said he had spoken to Constable McEnally's mother and expressed his sincerest apologies that this could happen.

'It is clear this inmate should never have been alone with a junior female officer. I am keen to see what options we could implement to ensure this is never allowed to happen again,' he said.Nearly 10,000 outraged viewers have signed a petition demanding the 'petty' BBC brings back competition show The Great Pottery Throw Down.

The eight part series, which followed a group of hopefuls as they battled it out for the title of top potter, drew in up to 2.5million viewers last year.

But earlier this week it was revealed that despite consistent ratings, the broadcaster had axed the popular programme from its BBC2 schedule.

Nearly 10,000 people have signed the petition demanding the BBC resurrects The Great Pottery Throw Down. Pictured left to right is Sara Cox, Kate Malone, Keith Brymer Jones, the show's stars

The show, which was presented by Sara Cox and ran for two years from 2015, is made by Love Productions - the company also behind The Great British Bake Off.

TV sources have suggested that the broadcaster has not recommissioned the programme due to 'sour grapes' with Love Productions after the company sold the baking show to rival broadcaster Channel 4 as part of a 75 million deal.

Now a petition calling for the broadcaster to bring back The Great Pottery Throw Down has gained 9,600 signatures. (likely to go up)

It accuses the BBC of cutting the programme 'out of spite' and urges the corporation to consider the licence fee payer deciding to axe popular shows.

'The BBC have decided, out of spite for losing the Great British Bake Off, to axe the Great Pottery Throwdown', the petition reads.

'The public should have more say in what the corporation does and how they spend our money - so stop being petty and bring back popular programmes'.

Guest Judge Johnny Vegas. One fan said the show had resulted in pottery and ceramics classes being 'oversubscribed'

Fans who signed the petition described the decision to axe the show as 'a tragedy' and 'a terrible shame'.

One wrote: 'A shocking spiteful decision with no regard to the views of licence fee payers.'

Meanwhile, another said the show had resulted in pottery and ceramics classes being 'oversubscribed'.

The show, which was filmed at Middleport Pottery, is also said to have helped boost tourism to Stoke-on-Trent.

BBC2 controller Patrick Holland has commissioned a second series of The Big Family Cooking Showdown - which drew in an average audience of 1.4million - and Million Pound Menu which had an average audience of just 800,000.

One insider told the Mirror: 'Pottery Throwdown did really well on BBC2, they were a perfect fit. 'It just seems incredible that it won't return when other shows that haven't done nearly so well are being brought back.

'You've to wonder whether this isn't all just sour grapes over Bake Off going to Channel 4.'

When asked whether the broadcaster would review its decision, a BBC spokeswoman said: 'Whilst we are proud of The Great Pottery Throwdown and very grateful to everyone involved in the two series, we sometimes have to take difficult decisions in order to make room for new shows.'

A representative for Love Productions has been approached for comment.A Pennsylvania girl, 16, who was found in Mexico earlier this year with a 45-year-old family friend has now gone missing from her youth program, along with two other teens.

Amy Yu, 16, of Allentown, fled VisionQuest in Greene Township, an at-risk youth facility in Franklin County, with Nicole Richard, 17, and Ajah Linares, 16, on Monday.

They left in a car headed in an unknown direction at around 1am. Police are now searching for the teens and are asking anyone who sees the girls to get in touch.

Amy Yu, 16, (pictured) of Allentown, fled VisionQuest in Greene Township, an at-risk youth facility in Franklin County, with two other girls early Monday

Bulletin: Mexican authorities issued an Amber Alert saying that police believed Yu, 16, and Kevin Esterly, 45, were in the country in March

Allentown Assistant Chief Gail Struss says his department was advised of Yu's disappearance in case she tries to return to the city.

Yu was found in Mexico with Keven Esterly, 45, after her first disappearance on March 17.

Federal agents found them in the resort area of Playa del Carmen.

Yu was brought back to Pennsylvania, and taken to St. Luke's hospital after the ordeal, while Esterly was arrested on child custody interference and corruption of minors charges. He remains in Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Mexican authorities had issued an Amber Alert for Yu after she and Esterly vanished on March 5.

Kevin Esterly, 45, (pictured) was arrested on child custody interference and corruption of minors charges

Police say she went willingly with Esterly, who had posed as her stepfather and repeatedly signed her out of school.

Yu's family previously said the two met at church years ago, as Amy is friends with one of Esterly's four daughters.

Esterly and Yu had gotten so close she often went on his family's vacations and the older man had often come to her home for meals, her mother Mia Luu said.

Yu changed school documents to list the older man as her step-father, and he signed her out of school 10 times between November 13 and February 9, police said.

Her mother discovered the deception when she came to get the girl from school on February 9 and found that Esterly had already signed her out. The furious mom warned him to stay away from the teen.

Before fleeing town with the girl, Esterly withdrew $4,000 from his joint bank accounts with wife Stacey.

Luu discovered after her daughter vanished on March 5 that she had taken some of jewelry, her passport and cash.

When the pair disappeared, police were immediately suspicious. A warrant for Esterly's arrest was issued on March 7.

Esterly and 16-year-old Amy Yu (pictured together) were found in Mexico on March 17, about two weeks after they disappeared from Allentown

When they were tracked down, Yu was returned to Pennsylvania and reunited with her family.

Esterly was transported by US Marshals to Miami. He was later extradited to Pennsylvania.

Esterly had reportedly been trying to call his wife Stacy - who refused all of his calls, her attorney told CBS News.

'Stacey is happy that Amy is home and that Kevin is in custody,' attorney John Waldron said in a statement.

Under Pennsylvania law, a person commits the crime of interference with the custody of a child if they knowingly take a child under the age of 18 away from their legal parent or guardian.

Esterly's wife Stacey told cops he took $4,000 from their accounts before fleeing

However, if the child is at least 14 years old and goes with the person willingly, and the defendant had no intention of committing a criminal act with the child, that could lead to acquittal, Joachim said.

Since the age of consent is 16 in Pennsylvania and 12 in Mexico, sexual acts between the two wouldn't necessarily be criminal.

However, if Esterly gave the girl alcohol that could open up additional charges of corrupting the morals of a minor or endangering the welfare of a child, experts said.

While Esterly is behind bars, his wife Stacey is working full time to support their four daughters, according to a GoFundMe campaign to assist them.

'She is committed to making every effort to see her children through this situation as best as possible and maintain a sense of stability for them,' her attorney said.

She has also announced she is filing for divorce.An Ohio teen found guilty last week of brutally murdering his father's longtime, live-in girlfriend has been sentenced to at least 28 years in prison.

Donovan Nicholas, now 16, was sentenced on Tuesday Champaign County Common Pleas Judge Nick Selvaggi to life with no chance for parole for 25 years.

Nicholas also received a mandatory three years in prison because he used a gun in killing 40-year-old Heidi Taylor in April 2017. Nicholas will have to serve at least 28 years before he is eligible for parole.

Taylor's daughter, who was present in the courtroom for the sentencing, told the judge that she did not want Nicholas to ever be released from prison because 'he can never be trusted again,' the Columbus Dispatch reports.

Donovan Nicholas, now 16, was sentenced to at least 28 years in prison for the murder of his 'mom' Heidi Taylor. Nicholas is pictured during a court appearance on July 24, 2018

Nicholas stabbed Taylor more than 60 times on April 6, 2017 and then shot her in the head with his father's gun. Nicholas blamed it on his alternate personality 'Jeff'

A jury found the teen guilty of murder and aggravated murder last Wednesday. Nicholas, who was 14 when he committed the crime, has maintained his innocence saying that his second personality named 'Jeff' killed Taylor.

Judge Selvaggi, however, was not buying it and said in court on Tuesday that Nicholas had a resentment and anger towards Taylor, who the teen referred to as his mother, and decided to kill her after she took his cellphone away preventing him from contacting his girlfriend.

According to prosecutors, Nicholas hid behind a door at his father's Valley Pike home on April 6, 2017 and attacked Taylor with a knife when she came downstairs. A coroner determined that Taylor had been stabbed more than 60 times.

She fought back and ran upstairs but Nicholas chased after her grabbing a gun from his father's nightstand and shooting her in the head.

Nicholas then called 911 telling the dispatcher that his alternate personality 'Jeff' killed Taylor. Authorities said Jeff was modeled after an internet horror character known as 'Jeff the Killer'.

Prosecutors said Nicholas hid behind a door in the home and waited for Taylor to come downstairs then attacked her with a knife

Nicholas maintained his innocence in court on Tuesday saying that his alternate personality 'Jeff' killed his father's girlfriend

Nicholas' father Shane (center) reacts as he listens to a judge sentence his son to prison for killing his girlfriend

Nicholas (pictured during a court appearance in 2017) said 'Jeff' had taken over his body and stabbed Taylor because he was tired of her

'I just killed my mother. I just killed my mother and I need to go to the hospital,' Nicholas told the dispatcher, according to 911 audio.

This is going to be really hard to explain but I kind of have another person inside me. I hate Jeff so much... he is going to make me die in prison'.

He went on: 'It wasnt me who killed her. It was Jeff. Im sorry, this will come out really hard to explain.'

When Nicholas was arrested outside the home, he again told officers that it was 'Jeff' who killed his father's girlfriend.

He said that 'Jeff snapped' because he was tired of Taylor and that she used drugs.

Nicolas said that after attending school for the day, and while he was cleaning his room, 'Jeff' took over.

Law enforcement noticed blood stains throughout the home  in the living room area, kitchen, up the rear stairs off the kitchen and into the victims bedroom.

A bloody knife was also recovered from the residence along with a pistol from a bedroom.Just one of the ten 'dangerous criminals' who broke out of a prison during a daring daylight jailbreak is still on the run.

Bradley Silvester, 35, the eldest of the escapees is the only one still at large - after five were rounded up on Tuesday, two caught on Wednesday and another two handed themselves into police.

The men escaped after setting lounges on fire and smashing windows during a brazen riot at Greenough Regional Prison near Geraldton, Western Australia on Tuesday.

Police were called to the jail at 4.30pm, and told 'a number of prisoners had escaped'.

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Bradley Silvester, 35, is the eldest escapee - he has a light complexion and was last pictured with very short hair

Brendan Bartley, 22, has dark hair and a light complexion - he handed himself in to police

The youngest of the escapees, Darryl Councillor, 18, has light hair and freckled skin also handed himself in

Police released the names and photographs of the missing men on Wednesday - since then all but one has been caught.

Police are still warning the public not to approach them as they 'may act in an unpredictable manner'.

Bradley Silvester, 35, is still on the run. He has a light complexion and was last pictured with very short hair.

Alan McDonald, 28, and another of the escapees Devon Comeagain, 23, were caught on Wednesday.

Brendan Bartley, 22, has dark hair and a light complexion and the youngest of the escapees, Darryl Councillor, 18, has light hair and freckled skin handed themselves into police on Wednesday afternoon.

Silvester and McDonald are currently facing drug and driving charges in Western Australian courts - with both men due to appear again in upcoming weeks.

Alan McDonald, 28, has dark, curly hair -was caught at lunchtime on Wednesday

Police were called to the jail at 4.30pm, and told 'a number of prisoners had escaped'

Another of the escapees, Devon Comeagain, 23, was caught shortly after his name and photograph was released

Silvester is charged with being in possession of a prohibited drug, methamphetamine commonly known as ice, with the intent to sell or supply.

He is also charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and driving while suspended. Each offence appears to be before Perth Magistrates Court on separate occasions.

McDonald is charged with possessing ice, and reckless driving to escape pursuit - as well as failing to stop and not having the authority to drive. He is due in court on Wednesday, August, 2.

Police warned the local community about the escape by text - telling people to make sure their doors and windows were locked.

The mother of one inmate took to social media after receiving a call from her son, who she claims was 'with the women' in the other wing - watching chaos unfold.

A total of inmates escaped from Greenough Regional Prison (pictured), prompting police to issue and urgent warning to residents to keep their doors and windows locked

Chilling text messages have been sent to terrified local residents after a dozen dangerous criminals broke out of a nearby prison

A massive manhunt is still underway for the remaining escapees, who are on the loose near the town of Geraldton in the mid-west region of Western Australia

Following the riot, police sent a chilling text to residents, warning them to stay indoors.

'Several inmates have escaped Greenough Prison. Lock all doors and windows. Report anything suspicious to police,' the message read.

The escapees climbed on top of the female unit at the prison during the riot, according to 7News.

A female inmate said the men climbed onto the roof, smashed windows and lit couches on fire.

'All the officers hightailed it out of there,' she claimed.

Smoke was reportedly seen coming from the prison, a witness claimed, and an ambulance was seen arriving at the scene, Perth Now reported.

The riot is believed to be in response to regular lockdowns, according to 7News.

The escapees climbed on top of the female unit at the prison during the riot, smashed windows and lit couches on fire

Police said five inmates were still on the run after the Tuesday evening jail break as smoke poured from Greenough Regional Prison (pictured) after a riot erupted among the male prisoners - there is now one at large

Captured prisoners were returned to their cells as authorities work to determine the identities of those still at large.

The prison was housing 323 male and female prisoners in maximum, medium and minimum security units, but is only designed for 223, ABC News reported.

The centre is located 16 kilometres south of Geraldton, which is about 420 kilometres north of Perth

A WA Police spokeswoman said 'a large police operation is currently underway to ensure public safety and apprehend the outstanding escapees.'

'There is currently a disturbance occurring at the Greenough Regional Prison involving inmates,' she said.

'We urge the public to ensure that all their doors and windows are locked and if driving in the area to keep doors locked.'

The prison (entrance pictured) is located 16 kilometres south of Geraldton, which is about 420 kilometres north of Perth



Branch closures, IT meltdowns and vanishing cash machines have forced nearly a million disgruntled savers to ditch their bank and move to a rival in the past 12 months.

Barclays, Lloyds, RBS, Santander and TSB saw thousands of customers closing their accounts in favour of other High Street names, official figures reveal.

The exodus comes as about 60 branches close every month, and some big banks have suffered computing meltdowns which have left customers unable to access their accounts.

Nearly a million disgruntled savers have ditched their bank in the last 12 months after some banks have suffered from branch closures and IT meltdowns

Martyn James from Resolver, the consumer complaints website, said the closure of branches and cash machines had served as a wake-up call to loyal customers. He added: British people are notoriously reluctant to switch banks.

Youve got to really upset them or provide a shocking service in order to make them move. Recently, though, something has snapped.

People have woken up to the fact they dont need to stick with a bank that doesnt provide good customer service or a convenient way of banking.

The Current Account Switch Service, which is run by payments body Bacs, said 4.9 million account switches had been completed using its service since it was launched in 2013.

The service was designed as a way for customers to conveniently swap banks within seven days. It was supposed to end the stronghold of the big four  Lloyds, HSBC, RBS/Natwest and Barclays.

IT meltdowns have caused a lot of problems for customers in the past 12 months and can be very disruptive

Between July 1 last year and June 30, 965,317 people moved their bank account to a rival.

The majority took place in the first six months of this year.

Figures recorded between January and March showed Barclays suffered a net loss of 17,628 customers, the largest of all the banks. Lloyds Bank and Co-operative, including the Smile brand, lost 14,114 and 14,108 customers respectively.

More than 11,000 left RBS and 10,536 switched away from Santander.

TSB lost more than 5,000 customers, but this was recorded before its catastrophic computer meltdown in April.Dramatic footage of a motorcyclist performing a wheelie at high speed on a busy suburban street has prompted appeals from police to identify the rider.

The video, filmed in Seven Hills in Sydney's west, captured the masked motorcyclist yanking a Kawasaki trail bike up onto its back wheel while weaving in and out of traffic and through a red light.

Moments later, the rider appeared to stand on the seat of the bike while precariously balancing on the one wheel.

The video, filmed in Seven Hills in Sydney's west, captured the masked motorcyclist yanking a Kawasaki trail bike up onto its back wheel while weaving in and out of traffic and through a red light

Police are calling on any information that might help officers locate the brazen offender - whose behaviour, they say, is a cause for 'serious concern'.

'It not only shows a blatant disregard for the safety of other road users, but also for the rider himself,' Commander of Traffic & Highway Patrol Command operations, Superintendent Julie Middlemiss said.

'Not only does the rider go through a red-traffic signal in front of other vehicles, but the person filming the incident does so as well.

'We are seeking the assistance of the motorcycle community, road users and the wider community to identify this rider and the driver involved in filming this totally unacceptable behaviour.'

Moments later the rider stands up on the seat, the bike still speeding along on one wheel as they race between passing cars

Dramatic footage of a motorcyclist performing a wheelie at high speed on a busy suburban street has prompted appeals from police to identify the rider (pictured)

Multiple social media commenters have weighed in to suggest that the rider may be a woman

One particular Facebook user noted that the renegade rider's outfit 'Looks like female clothes'

While details concerning the motorcyclist's identity are yet to be confirmed, multiple social media commenters have suggested the driver is a woman.

'Is it just me or does the rider look Female,' one Facebook user commented on the NSW Police Force's post.

Another user replied saying 'I thought the same'.

'Looks like female clothes,' a third wrote.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.An MP has been given heightened security measures after receiving death threats for condemning the grooming of girls by Asian sex gangs. it was reported.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, was accused by activists of industrial-scale racism for highlighting the common ethnic heritage of those involved in the towns sexual abuse scandal.

The former shadow minister for Women and Equalities hit the headlines when she spoke out after 17 men from Asian backgrounds were convicted of or admitted offences in a series of trials related to child sexual exploitation.

Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham, was accused by activists of industrial-scale racism for highlighting the common ethnic heritage of those involved in the towns sexual abuse scandal

She warned people were failing to tell the truth about child abuse because they were afraid of being called racist.

She also said it was predominantly Pakistani men involved in such cases time and time again.

Miss Champion followed up her comments with a column in the Sun, headlined: British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls - its time we faced up to it.

She added: Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls. There. I said it. The furore forced Miss Champion to resign from the shadow cabinet and since then she has received dozens of death threats.

She has been heavily criticised by racial justice charity Just Yorkshire that speaks on behalf of the local Pakistani community, according to The Times.

Its leader has accused the MP of industrial-scale racism and inciting and inviting hatred against minorities.

The charity published a report in March on the MP that was said to reflect an online survey whereby 165 people were asked to described the impact on the local Pakistani community of Miss Champions remarks.

Miss Champion followed up her comments with a column in the Sun, headlined: British Pakistani men ARE raping and exploiting white girls - its time we faced up to it'

Co-authored by Nadeem Murtuja, the chairman and acting director of Just Yorkshire, it said that British Pakistanis felt scapegoated, dehumanised and potentially criminalised by her.

This report led to death threats against Miss Champion, forcing Scotland Yards counterterrorism unity to increase her security risk level, The Times reported.

She was also reportedly advised to accept extra protection.

South Yorkshire councils former deputy leader Jahangir Akhtar has reportedly labelled Miss Champion an ogre

Miss Champion apologised to the Rotherham Pakistani community for any hurt or adverse reaction I inadvertently caused. But she said that Just Yorkshires findings were based on an extremely limited survey, distributed through networks not made in any way clear in the report. Mr Murtuja, a Labour supporter, denied that his charity was part of a plot against Miss Champion.

However, Miss Champions friends have claimed that hard-left and Muslim opponents are trying to force her from office and ruin her reputation.

Leading members of the towns Pakistani community allegedly want a Muslim member of Rotherham council to replace the former Labour backbencher if she is deselected or gives up her seat.

South Yorkshire councils former deputy leader Jahangir Akhtar has reportedly labelled Miss Champion an ogre in correspondence seen by The Times.

He warned: If Labour wants to keep her seat, they need to get rid of her pretty quick. Momentum supporter Taiba Yasseen is seeking a Westminster seat and is seen as a potential successor.

She has previously criticised Miss Champion publicly for betraying an entire ethnic group. Miss Yasseen, 43, was dropped from the Rotherham cabinet in May for reasons the party has declined to reveal, but Miss Champions supporters claim it was prompted by concerns that she was trying to discredit the MP.A Swedish student staging a protest at the deportation of an Afghan man prevented the flight they were both aboard from taking off.

Elin Ersson, 22, a student activist from Gothenburg University in Sweden, purchased a ticket from Gothenburg to Istanbul, where her fellow passenger was due to change flights and to fly to Kabul, in order to carry out the civil disobedience.

The student took out her phone and streamed an emotional 14-minute video, in which she walks about the plane explaining the man 'will most likely get killed' if he's deported.

In an act of civil disobedience, the student took out her phone and streamed a 14-minute video where she walked about the plane explaining the man 'will most likely get killed' if he's deported

Knowing the flight would not be able to take off while she was standing, the activist refuses to take her seat until the Afghan man is let of the plane.

Cabin crew and other passengers ask her to sit down at start of the clip, which she insists she will do as soon as the man is let go.

At one point, a disgruntled fellow passenger tries to seize her phone, but she asks him: 'What is more important, a life, or your time?'

'All I want to do is stop the deportation and then I will comply with the rules here.

'This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime.'

Eventually the man is let off the plane and his deportation is prevented.

Swedavia, which runs Landvetter airport where the protest took place, confirmed that an Afghan asylum seeker, three security personnel and Elin Ersson all left the plane.

However, Swedish authorities have since said the Afghan man will still be deported, although a date has not been set.

They also claim the activist could face up to six months in prison for refusing to obey police orders.

Elin Ersson, 22, a student at Gotheburg University, kept the Turkish airlines flight from Gotenborg in Sweden to Istanbul grounded until the 52-year-old Afghan man, who was due to be deported, was escorted off the plane

Swedish authorities claim the activist could face up to six months in prison for refusing to obey police orders

However, by the end of the clip some other passengers have joined her protest and many applaud when the man is led off the plane.

Some Twitter users have even branded her a 'hero'.

One person said: 'Thank you for your stand, for your courage, compassion and hope'.

Another added: 'This is what a superhero looks like'.

The response on Twitter has been mostly positive, and the video which Ersson livestreamed on Facebook has racked up 2 million views

Errson's protest highlights the domestic opposition to the Swedish government's tough line on asylum.

With the far-right Sweden Democrats, who are opposed to immigration and asylum, currently doing well in the polls, the government has felt it has be tough on those issues before September's elections.

In January, Kabul was hit by a Taliban terrorist attack which killed more than 100 people and wounded at least 235.

At the time, Sweden put a temporary brake on deportations to Afghanistan but these have since resumed and the government considers the country safe for failed asylum seekers.

Sweden has now toughened its refugee acceptance conditions and asylum applications have correspondingly dropped.

Errson is one of many Swedes who feel that their government's approach has been too harsh.

'I am trying to change my country's rules, I don't like them,' she says.

'It is not right to send people to hell.'A suspicious package labeled 'Anthrax' was delivered to Rep Maxine Waters' district office in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The California congresswoman's office had to be evacuated and authorities were called to the scene shortly after 2.30pm.

A hazmat team arrived to investigate the package, which comes just weeks after Waters said she was receiving death threats for her criticism of Donald Trump.

A suspicious package labeled 'Anthrax' was delivered to Rep Maxine Waters' district office in Los Angeles on Tuesday

A hazmat team (pictured outside the office) arrived to investigate the package, which comes just weeks after Waters said she was receiving death threats for her criticism of Donald Trump

Multiple emergency vehicles were seen parked outside Waters' office (pictured) on Tuesday afternoon after the package was reported

Multiple emergency vehicles were seen parked outside Waters' office on Tuesday afternoon after the package was reported.

The team determined that the package was safe, according to the Los Angeles Times.

An investigation has since been launched by the Los Angeles Police Department Major Crimes Division. The Los Angeles Fire Department is also investigating.

While Waters has received a slew of death threats following her criticism of Trump, she has made it clear she won't be backing down anytime soon.

The Democrat recently warned would-be assassins that they 'better shoot straight' if they want to target her.

A hazmat team arrived to investigate the package, which comes just weeks after Waters (pictured in June) said she was receiving death threats for her criticism of Donald Trump

While delivering an address at an immigration rally held in Los Angeles earlier this month, Waters told the crowd that she will not be deterred in opposing Trump.

'I know that there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me,' Waters said during the rally.

'All I have to say is this, if you shoot me you better shoot straight, there's nothing like a wounded animal.'

Earlier this month, Waters was forced to cancel rallies in Texas and Alabama due to a 'very serious death threat.'

The 79-year-old congresswoman said harassment aimed towards her intensified after she called for demonstrators to confront Trump administration officials in public over its immigration policy.

The policy, which Trump rescinded with an executive order earlier this month, separated more than a thousand children from their parents after families crossed the US-Mexico border.

Meanwhile, Trump has continued to make Waters a favorite target of ridicule over the past several months, repeatedly calling her a 'low IQ individual.'

Trump has written a variety of tweets about Waters, even falsely claiming that she called for protesters to 'harm his supporters', before lodging what many perceived as his own threat

'Crazy Maxine Waters, said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in politics, is rapidly becoming, together with Nancy Pelosi, the FACE of the Democrat Party,' he tweeted earlier this month.

'Her ranting and raving, even referring to herself as a wounded animal, will make people flee the Democrats!'

Trump has also falsely claimed that Waters called for protesters to 'harm his supporters', before lodging what many perceived as his own threat against her.

[Waters] has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement,' he tweeted in June.

'Be careful what you wish for Max!'

Waters later responded to Trump in a statement, saying: 'As the President has continued to lie and falsely claim that I encouraged people to assault his supporters, while also offering a veiled threat that I should "be careful," even more individuals are leaving (threatening) messages and sending hostile mail to my office.'

The congresswoman added that she believes in 'peaceful protests' and discouraged anyone from physically harming any proponents of the President.The number of Armed Forces personnel seeking help for mental health issues has doubled in a decade  with high levels among those who have seen combat in Afghanistan or Iraq.

A report by the Ministry of Defence also revealed 'it is still taking too long' for veterans to access mental healthcare services, with some falling through gaps as the availability of treatment varies across the UK.

Official figures showed 3.1 per cent of serving personnel are diagnosed with mental health problems  twice the proportion seen in 2008/09.

British soldiers carry on a stretcher into RAF Chinook helicopter in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2009. The number of Armed Forces personnel seeking help for mental health issues has doubled in a decade

The House of Commons defence committee warned the number of veterans with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder or depression could be three times higher than official figures, at about 10 per cent, raising concerns that many military personnel may not be seeking help because of the stigma surrounding mental health problems.

Committee chairman Julian Lewis MP said: 'Most servicemen and women leave with no mental ill-health and, to help veterans, we need to dispel the myth that many suffer psychological harm.

'But the MoD must ensure that the few who do develop mental health problems are receiving the level of care promised to them in the Armed Forces Covenant. At the moment, they are not.'

The MoD report claimed that the principle enshrined in the Armed Services Covenant  that veterans should receive priority healthcare for service-related conditions  is 'inconsistently applied' across the UK.

However, it also warned that publicity of mental health issues by Armed Forces charities had created a 'distorted' public perception of the extent of the problem.

It added: 'Rather than causing problems, military service can have a positive effect on an individual's mental health.'

Official figures showed 3.1 per cent of serving personnel are diagnosed with mental health problems  twice the proportion seen in 2008/09.The heir to a multi-billion dollar liquor fortune who helped fund Nxivm and the group's leader Keith Raniere with her family fortune was photographed leaving a Brooklyn courthouse on Tuesday after pleading not guilty to racketeering.

Clare Bronfman, dressed in blue jeans and a white t-shirt, was seen leaving federal court after posting her $100million bail. Bronfman kept her ankle monitor hidden under her jeans.

Bronfman, the heir to a multi-billion dollar liquor fortune and step-daughter of British actor Nigel Havers, is accused of racketeering conspiracy in the new superseding indictment in the case.

Clare Bronfman was pictured leaving a Brooklyn court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to racketeering

The heir to a multi-billion dollar liquor fortune was photographed leaving the courthouse after posting her $100million bail

Bronfman had to agree to wear an ankle monitor but kept it hidden underneath her jeans. She is pictured above leaving court on Tuesday

That indictment also accuses Nancy Salzman, her daughter Lauren and Nxivm bookkeeper Kathy Russell of the same offenses.

This brings the total number of members arrested to six, with leader Keith Raniere and his right-hand woman Allison Mack having already been indicted back in May.

Bronfman has hired Susan R. Necheles, one of the top white-collar attorneys in the country, to handle her case.

'Raniere and Bronfman conspired to commit identity theft arising out of a scheme to obtain the e-mail usernames and passwords of perceived enemies and critics of Raniere in order to monitor their electronic communications,' states a release from the US Attorney's Office.

'Raniere and Bronfman participated in an identity theft conspiracy involving the use of credit card and banking information belonging to one of Ranieres sexual partners after her death in November 2016. Bronfman sent Raniere regular emails documenting expenses charged to the womans credit card for Ranieres "review and approval." Those expenses included payments to a chiropractor for Ranieres benefit, as well as thousands of dollars worth of clothing and shoe purchases for the mother of Ranieres child.

She is accused of racketeering conspiracy in the new superseding indictment in the case

Bronfman is pictured leaving a Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday after pleading not guilty

Hard-knock heiress: Clare Bronfman was arrested on racketeering conspiracy charges on Tuesday morning and will be indicted in a Brooklyn court on Tuesday afternoon

Leaders of the pack: The heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune, 39, is accused of running a pyramid scheme in order to enrich Keith Raniere, the leader of Nxivm (Allison Mack on left in May, Keith Raniere in an undated video on right)

'Bronfman encouraged and induced the illegal entry into the United States of an alien for Bronfmans financial gain, engaging in international wire transfers to make it fraudulently appear that the victim had the financial resources to obtain an investor visa.'

'Raniere and his inner circle, including the defendants Clare Bronfman, Allison Mack, Nancy Salzman, Lauren Salzman and Kathy Russell also known as "Prefect," and others known and unknown, comprised an organized criminal enterprise (the "Enterprise"), reads the new indictment.

'The principal purpose of the Enterprise was to obtain financial and personal benefits for the members of the Enterprise by promoting the defendant Keith Raniere, also known as "Vanguard," and by recruiting new members into the Pyramid Organizations.

'By promoting Raniere and recruiting others into the Pytu-id Organizations, the members of the Enterprise expected to receive financial opportunities and increased power and status within the Enterprise.'

Among the criminal offenses that members of this group allegedly carried out are 'identity theft, harboring of aliens for financial gain, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.'

Bronfman is not accused of sex trafficking.

It was however Bronfman and her sister Sara who helped woo Allison Mack when she considered joining the group according to multiple sources who previously spoke with DailyMail.com.

Mack was also aggressively recruited in hopes that she would become their Tom Cruise-like figure and publicize the group much like the actor had done with Scientology.

The Bronfmans helped with this by flying Mack private, all part of the $150 million the two have allegedly put into Nxivm over the past two decades.

Bronfman, 39, is the youngest daughter of Edgar Bronfman Sr, the billionaire philanthropist who was formerly head of Seagram.

Her mother is Rita Webb, the British-born second wife of Bronfman, who would divorce and then remarry Edgar shortly after Bronfman's birth. Rita Webb - now known as Georgiana Bronfman - has since married British Chariots Of Fire actor Nigel Havers, making Clare is step-daughter.

Rita and Edgar's second divorce split the family, with the girls living in England and Kenya with their mother while their father stayed in thew United States.

They would visit him in New York City as well as his nearby home in Westchester, and even took him to a Nxivm meeting at one point.

When she was 17, Bronfman began to compete in equestrian events, something she would continue to do for a decade.

She was ranked 12th in the country and 80th in the world at her peak.

Bronfman gave it all up though for Nxivm.

Two of a kind: Bronfman joined Nxivm with her sister Sara (pair above in 2017) who has not been arrested

Mommy and me: Nxivm co-founder Nancy Salzman (left) and her daughter Lauren (right) were also arrested on Tuesday

Daddy and me: Bronfman and her father in a photo she posted to Instagram (above)

Clare clears: Bronfman was once the 8th ranked America woman on the equestrian circuit

Loved up: Bronfman's mother Rita Webb and father in 1974, just before the two were married

'I retired from a very successful career as a professional show-jumper because I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life,' said Bronfman last year while defending Raniere.

'NXIVM is that. As I said, the programs help. I am happy, healthy and financially more successful than I have ever been.'

She and Sara both decided to not only join Nxivm but to relocate to upstate New York so they could become involved in teaching and training new members.

Bronfman went on step further though and became involved in organizing Vanguard Week, the annual week-long celebration of Raniere's birthday brought together all of the group's members.

The sisters were able to use their connections to attract big name guests like the Dalai Lama, who visited the group and made an appearance in Albany after the Bronfmans put up a $1 million donation.

That was done through the charitable organization they founded with Raniere, World Ethical Foundations Consortium.

That money comes from their grandfather, who founded Bronfman's Distillers Corporation.

Samuel Bronfman was born in Imperial Russia but immigrated to Canada, where he later purchased another liquor company, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons.

He decided to change the name of the company given the success Seagram already had with their branded liquors such as Dewars and Seven Crown.

He purchased that company at the perfect time as Prohibition took effect in the United States, forcing many Americans to travel across the border to buy or consume liquor.

The company would even ship liquor to a few northern cities, breaking no laws since they were producing the product in Montreal, where it was legal.

His son Edgar would become CEO, and in 1933 took control of the first Seagram subsidiary in the United States.

Edgar had five children with his first wife, Ann Loeb: Samuel, Matthew, Edgar Jr, Holly and Adam.

Samuel made headlines when he was allegedly kidnapped in 1975 by two men who demanded $2.3 million ransom.

The boy, 21, was eventually found in a Brooklyn apartment along with two other men and the ransom money stashed under a bed.

One of the two kidnappers, who were both from Ireland, said that he and Samuel were lovers.

His kidnappers were later acquitted when they claimed Samuel was in on the crime, and hoping to get a share of his father's wealth.

That is something that the sisters were also accused of doing when in 2009 they claimed that a group was threatening to go public with damaging secrets if they did not hand over $2.1 million.

Edgar and his most successful son, Edgar Jr, became estranged after he told his namesake that he should not marry first wife Sherry Brewer because she was black.

Edgar's other two sons, Matthew and Adam, are both successful businessman, while his daughter Holly moved to India and converted to Hindu, changing her name to Bhavani Lev.

Clare and Sara did not spend as much time with these siblings however given the fact that they lived on the other side of the world and were decades younger than their father's other children.

That brought the sisters close, and now prison could tear them apart.

Sara is still a free woman, but her sister is facing some serious time behind bars if convicted on these charges.

'As alleged in the superseding indictment, for over a decade, Keith Raniere was the leader of a racketeering conspiracy in which he and members of his inner circle committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and Nxivm,' said US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue in a statement'

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney also gave a statement on Tuesday.

'As alleged, this long-running conspiracy crossed multiple avenues of criminal activity, which included, among other things, electronic monitoring; identity theft; extortion; victim smuggling; and illegal trafficking of a victim after a period of unlawful confinement,' said Sweeney.

'The details of these alleged crimes become more and more grim as we continue to dig deeper into the conduct of this organization and its intended mission.

'Todays superseding indictment highlights our commitment to bringing justice to Nxivms many victims.'A secret audio recording of Donald Trump discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy a Playboy model's story about her alleged affair with him has been revealed.

In the tape, obtained and aired by CNN on Tuesday, the president can be heard speaking to his lawyer about the proposal to buy Karen McDougal's story. Trump's campaign had previously claimed it knew nothing about any payment to McDougal.

Cohen is heard on the recording - made in September 2016 - telling Trump he plans to set up a company to purchase the rights of the story from American Media who bought it from McDougal for $150,000.

McDougal is a former Playboy model who allegedly had an affair with Trump from 2006 until 2007 while he was married to Melania.

At one point Trump appears to tell Cohen 'pay with cash' but the president's lawyer Rudy Guilani insists he says 'don't pay with cash' - sparking a fierce debate.

A secret audio recordings of Donald Trump discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy a Playboy model's story about her alleged affair with him, has been revealed

Full audio: Presidential candidate Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording "https://t.co/YmC0QuDqTx pic.twitter.com/fBbq7r1Lq9  Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) July 25, 2018

Guiliani had previously said that Trump ordered Cohen to pay by check so that the money would be documented and above-board.

'I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,' Cohen said in the recording - thought to be a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interjects to ask 'What financing' which his lawyer responds: 'We'll have to pay.'

The then presidential candidate interrupts again but his voice is muffled. He is heard to say 'pay with cash', but it's unclear if he suggested to pay with cash or said don't pay with cash.

Cohen replies: 'No, no, no, no.'

'Check,' Trump adds.

Davis, 72, formerly special counsel to President Bill Clinton, said he gave the copy to the network to defend his client who was 'falsely accused.'

Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen is accused of receiving US$500,000 from a Russian oligarch linked to election meddling.

Trump's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists the president never paid McDougal but had acknowledged that the audio, which dates back to September 2016, captured a discussion related to the buying the story rights.

Before it was leaked, Giuliani said the recording would play to Trump's benefit.

'Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,' Giuliani said, according to the Times, and said Trump told Cohen that if he made a payment to McDougal, he should write a check.

After the tape was released, he told Fox News on Tuesday it was 'outrageous' that it had been leaked to the media and questioned whether it ended at a key part in the conversation.

Giuliani claims that the rest of the recording, if it hadn't cut off, would have been 'exculpatory'.

He also told The Associated Press that Trump did not want to pay cash and 'suggesting otherwise is ridiculous.'

McDougal says she had a year-long affair with Trump after the birth of his son Baron

McDougal received a $150,000 payment in exchange for her story, which never ran

McDougal is seen far right in this photo with Melania Trump (third from left), Donald Trump (center), and Ivanka Trump (third from right

THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF TRUMP AND COHEN'S DISCUSSION TRUMP: [In background] Good. Let me know what's happening, okay? Oh, oh. Maybe because of this it would be better if you didn't go, you know? Maybe because of this. For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it's so false what they're saying, it's such bulls**t. Um. [PAUSE] I think, I think this goes away quickly. I think what  I think it's probably better to do the Charleston thing, just this time. Uh, yeah. In two weeks, it's fine. I think right now it's, it's better. You know? Okay, honey. You take care of yourself. Thanks, babe. Yup, I'm proud of you. So long. Bye. [Into phone] What's happening? COHEN: Great poll, by the way. TRUMP: Yeah? COHEN: Seen it. Great poll. TRUMP: Making progress. COHEN: Big time. TRUMP: And, your guy is a good guy. He's a good  COHEN: Who, Pastor Scott? TRUMP: Can't believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What's, what's happening  COHEN: No  TRUMP: Can we use him anymore? COHEN: Oh, yeah, a hundred  no, you're talking about Mark Burns. He's, we've told him to [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. TRUMP: I don't need that  Mark Burns, are we using him? COHEN: No, no. FEMALE: Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. I'm sorry, Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE] just called. He  just when you have a chance, he had an idea for you. TRUMP: Okay, great. COHEN: Um, so, we got served from the New York Times. I told you this  we were  TRUMP: To what? COHEN:  To unseal the divorce papers with Ivana. Um, we're fighting it. Um, [Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz is going to  TRUMP: They should never be able to get that. COHEN: Never. Never. Kasowitz doesn't think they'll ever be able to. They don't have a  TRUMP: Get me a Coke, please! COHEN: They don't have a legitimate purpose, so  TRUMP: And you have a woman that doesn't want this. COHEN: Correct. TRUMP: Who you've been handling. COHEN: Yes. And  TRUMP: And it's been going on for a while. COHEN: About two, three weeks now. TRUMP: All you've got to do is delay for  COHEN: Even after that, it's not ever going to be opened. There's no, there's no purpose for it. Um, told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that  I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken  TRUMP: Give it to me and get me a [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. COHEN: And, I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with  TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? COHEN:  Funding . . . Yes. Um, and it's all the stuff. TRUMP: Yeah, I was thinking about that. COHEN: All the stuff. Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what he's  TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck. COHEN: Correct. So, I'm all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be  TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing? COHEN: Well, I'll have to pay him something. TRUMP: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash. COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. TRUMP: Check. [Tape cuts off abruptly. Separate recording begins.] MALE: Hey Don, how are you? Advertisement

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, slammed the Cohen tape saying it proved that Trump and Cohen tried to kill the story in the run up to the election so it was 'campaign motivated'.

He said that: 'Regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure.'

Schiff added that it was also proof that Giuliani was 'untruthful' when he said Trump didn't know about the payments.

Federal prosecutors obtained 12 audio recordings from the FBI raids on Cohen's offices earlier this year.

Trump's lawyers waived attorney-client privilege for Trump regarding this recording.

The president broke his silence on Saturday morning tweeting that it was 'inconceivable' and possibly illegal that Cohen recorded him without his knowledge.

'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' he wrote.

'The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' Trump added.

The discussion, which was captured on audio, related to whether Trump should buy the story from American Media, which paid McDougal $150,000 for the tale in in August 2016. They never published the story.

Cohen and Trump also discussed a number of other issues which posed a risk to Trump as Republican nominee in the run up to the election, including how to contest a New York Times request to unseal his divorce records with first wife Ivana.

Trump broke his silence on Saturday and is not happy Cohen recorded their conversation about a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal

Cohen has retained new legal representation, a possible signal he may be preparing to cooperate with prosecutors

They also spoke about election issues such as polling numbers and Trump surrogate Pastor Mark Burns.

The FBI seized Cohen's devices during a raid on his home and office in New York this spring. A court then oversaw the culling of millions of documents and files to determine which ones might be protected by attorney-client privilege.

Currently, retired judge Barbara Jones is combing through the materials obtained by agents in their search and seizure of items, to root out any documents that might be protected under lawyer-client confidentiality between Trump and Cohen.

Jones' first report, issued on June 4, indicated that only a small portion of the documents she had reviewed up until now are protected by privilege.

The documents are being reviewed by Jones because Cohen has argued that much of the material seized in connection with the FBI's investigation into wire fraud, bank fraud and campaign finance law violations is protected as privileged work-product.

CNN reported that Trump only learned of the existence of the tape last week and exclaimed, 'I can't believe Michael would do this to me.'

Cohen is under criminal investigation on possible tax and campaign finance charges, and it is unclear if the tape would apply added pressure him.

President Trump and his associates are closely watching Cohen to see if he decides to cooperate with authorities should charges be brought against him.

If payments to McDougal are deemed to have been an effort to circumvent campaign finance laws and their strict limits on monetary contributions to a political campaign, it could provide legal exposure for Cohen.

In the case of another woman who claimed an affair with Trump, porn star Stormy Daniels, Cohen did write her a check, using an LLC he set up immediately beforehand.

The alleged affair began shortly after the birth of Trump's son, Baron

'In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence,' said Giuliani.

Lawyer Peter Stris, who negotiated a settlement between McDougal and American Media Inc., tweeted: 'When @realDonaldTrump said we were lying, do you think he meant we WEREN'T?'  in a play on Trump's walk-back of his statement about Russian election meddling.

The Washington Post reported that the September 2016 story  two months before the election  involved a plan by Cohen to buy the rights to McDougal's story. But the deal never happened.

When the Wall Street Journal broke the story on the payment and the alleged affair days before the election, Trump spokeswoman and later White House communications director Hope Hicks said, 'We have no knowledge of any of this.'

Under the arrangement, David Pecker, chairman of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, oversaw a $150,000 payment to McDougal. Pecker is a longtime friend of Trump's and a political supporter.

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said it is 'powerful exculpatory evidence' for Trump

Cohen met with MSBNC host and New York figure Rev. Al Sharpton, who he says he has known for 20 years.

'Just spent an hour w/ Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney. I bet you're wondering what we could be talking about! Stay tuned,' Sharpton teased on Twitter.

'I've known [Cohen] for maybe 20 years. He was a Democrat. He used to broker meetings between Trump and I when we were fighting,' Sharpton followed up.

Cohen replied to one of Sharpton's tweets, writing: 'I have known Rev for almost 20 years. No one better to talk to!'

Porn Star Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti said there are more Cohen tapes out there.

'I know for a fact that this is not the only tape,' Avenatti told MSNBC.

'I think this is a very serious matter and I think that any or all audio tapes that Michael Cohen has in his possession relating to this president should be released for the public,' he said. 'There's nothing that's stopping Michael Cohen from releasing the audio recordings that he made between him and the president concerning my client, Ms. McDougal, and others,' Avenatti added.

One of Cohen's lawyers, Lanny Davis, said 'any attempt at spin cannot change what is on the tape.'

'When the recording is heard, it will not hurt Mr. Cohen,' Davis said in a statement.Jesse Camp, a former MTV VJ who rose to fame on Total Request Live after winning a reality show, has been found, five days after he was reported missing.

Camp, 38, whose real name is Josiah, was reported missing by his sister Marisha on July 19.

The Riverside Police Department released a statement to social media Tuesday confirming Camp had been in contact with them. The department suggested his disappearance was not suspicious.

'Josiah "Jesse" Camp is no longer considered missing. He was contacted by a local law enforcement agency a short time ago and not in need of any assistance,' the department wrote on Twitter.

'His family has been notified. No further information will be released.'

The Riverside Police Department released a statement Tuesday confirming Jesse Camp was no longer missing

Former MTV VJ Camp (pictured in 2016), who rose to fame on Total Request Live after winning an MTV reality show

Marisha wrote in a Monday Facebook post: Jesse was last seen in California last week but has not reached out to us yet.

'What he needs now more than anything is kindness and love. Please keep him in your prayers.'

Fontana Police told The Blast that a bicycle officer made contact with Camp just hours before his sister reported him missing last week.

The officer saw Camp in front of a Sherwin Williams store around 10am and did a 'pedestrian check' to make sure he was OK.

After determining that Camp was fine and verifying his identity, the officer took no further action. Hours later, Marisha filed a missing person report in Riverside.

Camp was reported missing by his sister Marisha on July 19. He is pictured here in his last Instagram post, shared in May

Camp (pictured in 1998) had previously been homeless before his surprise win on the television show in 1998, and hosted various programs for the network until 2001

Sources told the site that the area around Sherwin Williams is popular among 'transients and homeless people'.

Camp was previously spotted outside the hardware store in April and flagged a police officer down to ask them a question.

Authorities told Page Six that Camp had not been in contact with his mother, who he used to call weekly, since July 11 or 12.

An ex-girlfriend also told police that when she tried to call his cell phone, a stranger said Camp had given him the phone plus three bags filled with personal belongings.

A Fontana officer did a 'pedestrian check' on Camp to make sure he was okay just hours before his sister reported him missing. He is pictured here with Ozzy Osbourne in 1998

The former VJ (pictured here with the Osbourne family) got his big break when he won MTV's 'Wanna Be a VJ' contest in 1998

An ex-girlfriend also told police that when she tried to call his cell phone, a stranger said Camp had given him the phone and three bags filled with personal belongings. He is pictured left in 1999 and right in 2015

Marisha reportedly told police that her brother had recently been depressed but did not indicate he was suicidal.

Camp was not located in any local jails or hospitals.

The former TRL host got his big break when he won MTV's 'Wanna Be a VJ' contest in 1998.

Camp had previously been homeless before his surprise win on the television show, and hosted various programs for the network until 2001.

He then went into music, releasing an album in 1999 that featured a duet with Stevie Nicks.

Camp's last interview appears to be in 2016, when he was stopped by the New York Post for a video segment.

'I'm zipping it cause I am on a very bad acid trip at the moment,' Camp tells the reporter at the end of the video.

'I think I'm being interviewed by the New York Post - so clearly I'm not in my right head.'An Ontario woman discovered that four different people broke into her vehicle in the span of 36 hours after she placed a hidden camera on the dashboard.

Michelle Kaplan decided to set up the device in her vehicle after consistent break-ins left her hopeless at her London, Ontario, home.

'For the entire time I've lived in my home, I've had difficulty with my vehicle being broken into,' she explained to the CBC.

Michelle Kaplan decided to set up the device in her vehicle after consistent break-ins left her hopeless at her London, Ontario, home

She soon noticed that over the span of 36 hours, four strangers proceeded to break into her vehicle

'We got a work truck this year and because there is an assumption of tools inside, I didn't want the windows broken, of course leaving the doors unlocked still invited people to look for change etcetera, so we installed a camera looking to catch people in action.'

Kaplan shared that a sensor picks up motion and then turns on a light to start recording. Next the device alerts the user on their phone.

She posted the videos on Facebook on Monday, sharing that she hopes to ease some of the violating feelings she's had in the area.

'Unfortunately, the first three times I did not wake up to that notification,' she said. 'The fourth time I did and seeing his look of fear and getting out of there was kind of nice.'

Kaplan shared that a sensor picks up motion and then turns on a light to start recording. Next the device alerts the user on their phone

'Unfortunately, the first three times I did not wake up to that notification,' she said. 'The fourth time I did and seeing his look of fear and getting out of there was kind of nice'

But Kaplan insists that the break-ins are emblematic of a much larger issue in the community.

'It is not about shaming these individuals,' she shared with DailyMail.com. 'It is about the fact people are living a life where they feel this is the only way to get by and that the system needs to change.'

'It is not about shaming these individuals,' Kaplan shared with DailyMail.com. 'It is about the fact people are living a life where they feel this is the only way to get by and that the system needs to change'

She shared that many people have reached out to her to share their own run ins with burglaries.

Kaplan said: 'Within all of those people are complaining on a regular basis, daily, double daily, triple daily about having things stolen from their properties, whether that be from their vehicles or backyards.'

Ward 6 Councilman Phil Squire found that 'it's pretty amazing to watch how brazen people are' but felt that the issue was much larger than London as well.

'Every area of the city is plagued by these kind of random thefts, and they're thefts of opportunity,' he added. 'If you leave something not tied downand even in some cases if you dopeople will steal it.'

He asserts that it's crucial for folks to alert authorities, even if it is believed that little will be done.

'The police have a limited number of resources and they allocate additional resources to areas suffering from crime, really on the basis of numbers,' Squire said. 'The challenge has been that these thefts are so prevalent that people sometimes don't even report them. The problem with that is there's no evidence to support allocating more resources.'

In most cases, those who wonder into vehicles are just looking for petty cash or things that can be sold quickly.A Jetstar flight from Bali has been boarded by quarantine officers after arrival at Sydney Airport.

The plane was stopped on the tarmac early on Wednesday morning after passengers were struck down with fever and vomiting.

Weary travellers were then permitted to leave the aircraft after the sick passengers were cleared for entry.

Married at First Sight star Blair Rachael was on the flight, and posted a video to social media saying 'everyone' on board was sick

Married at First Sight star Blair Rachael was on the flight, and posted a video to social media saying 'everyone' on board was sick.

'Waiting for quarantine to board coz [sic] everyone is sick on the plane ... I'm no exception,' the former Miss Bondi contestant wrote on Instagram.

Another passenger could be heard coughing loudly in the background of the video Ms Rachael posted from inside the aircraft.

A Jetstar spokesperson confirmed quarantine officers boarded flight JQ38 after it landed just before 6.30am.

'Waiting for quarantine to board coz [sic] everyone is sick on the plane ... I'm no exception,' the former Miss Bondi contestant (pictured) wrote on Instagram

The arrival time was not affected, and passengers were not delayed, Jetstar told Daily Mail Australia.

'Two passengers showed symptoms of fever and vomiting but both were cleared,' the spokesperson said.

'The plane was not late or delayed, and all passengers were allowed to enter the airport.'

Daily Mail Australia contacted Sydney Airport for comment.The body of a missing Chinese woman has been found near a busy motorway more than a month after she disappeared.

Qi Yu, 28, was found today by the M1 not far from the Berowra exit in Sydney's outer north, a short distance from where a missing poster written in Chinese was displayed.

A New South Wales Police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia the woman's body was located this morning at Mount Kuring-gai as one lane of traffic was closed off.

'While the body has not been formally identified it is believed to be that of Qi Yu,' he said.

Scroll down for video

The body of Qi Yu, who went missing in Sydney on June 8, was found today near the M1 motorway

The Chinese woman's body was removed from the side of the M1 motorway at Mount Kuring-gai on Wednesday morning

Qi Yu, 28, was found today by the M1 not far from the Berowra exit in Sydney's outer north

Her body was found near where a missing poster in English and Chinese had been posted on a fence.

Her body was found near where a missing poster in English and Chinese had been posted on a fence.

The woman was last seen at Campsie, in Sydney's south-west, where she lived, on June 8.

The discovery, south of the Berowra exit, came a month after her father, Zhihe Yu, and mother, Qing He, visited Australia from China.

They went to bushland near Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, where police were searching for her remains, before they made a heartfelt plea for help.

The discovery, south of the Berowra exit, came a month after her father, Zhihe Yu, and mother, Qing He, visited Australia from China

The body was also found near Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, where Qi Yu's parents joined a police search in June

Shuo Dong, 19, was arrested and charged with her murder several days after Yu's disappearance, and has since been refused bail in Burwood Local Court

As his wife sobbed, Mr Yu told reporters in English about the toll their daughter's death has taken on them.

'Both of us cannot sleep... my wife's tears run dry,' he said.

'If you have any information regarding my daughter and her whereabouts please contact police.'

They then handed out missing person flyers at a media conference.

The 28-year-old woman's father, Zhihe Yu, and mother, Qing He, are visiting Australia from China

Qi Yu's mysterious disappearance Friday 8 June: Ms Yu calls her parents in China over the internet at her share house in Campsie, Sydney 7.15pm: The call suddenly cuts out, leaving her parents worried Later that night: Police find an abandoned Toyota in the street in Campsie which turns out to be hers Saturday 9 June: At 9am Yu is reported missing by her female flatmate Monday 11 June: Homicide detectives join the search Tuesday 12 June: Police charge her housemate Shuo Dong with murder but no body found. Ms Qi's mother arrives in Sydney and cries when she visits her home Wednesday 13 June: Bail was formally refused to Dong at Burwood Local Court Tuesday 26 June: Ms Yu's parents weep as they appeal for information in press conference Wednesday 25 July: Body found near the M1 motorway at Mount Kuring-gai in Sydney's far north Advertisement

Ms Yu was last seen by friends at a Campsie share house in the Sydney's southwest on June 8.

Detectives believe she was taken by car to Berowra on the night she went missing.

Her white 2016 Toyota Corolla hatch was later found dumped on Lindsay Street at Burwood in the city's inner-west.

Shuo Dong, 19, was arrested and charged with her murder several days later, and was refused bail in Burwood Local Court.

Yu was reportedly talking to her family in China over the internet when the call suddenly ended at around 7.15pm on Friday, 8 June. She had not be seen or heard from since.Twins Monica Sparks and Jessica Ann Tyson are identical in almost every way.

The African American sisters running for local office in the US state of Michigan forged an unbreakable bond during a childhood tarred by abuse. They wear the same white dress and even finish each other's sentences.

But their choice of jewelry - a blue flower pin for Sparks, a red one for Tyson - gives away the one key things separating the 46-year-old women: their political stripes.

Sparks is a Democrat. Tyson is a Republican.

Monica Sparks (left) and Jessica Ann Tyson (right) are identical twins both running for local office in Michigan, but that is where the similarities end

Tyson (left) is a Republican and vocal supporter of Donald Trump while Sparks (right) is campaigning for the Democrats

They say they are proof positive that political differences can be overcome, even in an increasingly polarized America.

'It just baffles our mind why people hate each other,' Tyson tells AFP in a joint interview with her sister. 'Mothers aren't talking to sons. Fathers are disowning daughters.'

'We are not going to let this come between our family,' says Sparks.

Sparks and Tyson live in neighboring electoral districts in the Midwestern state - part of the country's traditionally Democratic Rust Belt that, against all odds, helped Donald Trump win the presidency.

Each is campaigning for a seat on the governing board that oversees Kent County, which is home to 640,000 people and is the state's second most populous area, after Detroit.

The primary election is on August 7. Sparks faces several Democratic rivals, while Tyson is running unopposed for the Republican nomination.

The twins say they agree on broad ideas: they both want to live a life of service and to reduce political discord.

The rest, they say, can be negotiated.

'We need to start finding common ground, period, if we're going to get ahead as a society,' says Sparks.

Sparks admits that she and her sister often clash over their political views but insist it has not caused a rift in their relationship

Tyson says she is happy to celebrate Sparks 'as a woman' and revel in her accomplishments despite their political differences

Sparks and Tyson say they have been close all of their lives, relying on each other as children when they couldn't rely on adults.

Born in 1972 to a heroin-addicted mother in the state capital Lansing, they were sent to a terrible foster home at the age of five.

Sparks says they were abused 'emotionally, physically, sexually,' and Tyson remembers her sister rummaging through trash cans looking for food.

'We went through a lot of abuse together,' Tyson says. 'And together we got through.'

The girls eventually were adopted by loving parents, who instilled in them a sense of civic duty.

As adults, they have volunteered for various causes, served on their school board and other local agencies, while running small businesses.

Now, they hope to serve in a formal political capacity.

Their bond was tested when Tyson endorsed the Republican running in Sparks's district, instead of her own sister, but both say family and sisterhood come first.

'I celebrate her as a woman, and all of the accomplishments that she has made,' Tyson says of her sister. 'And no amount of winning or losing, or politics, will stop the love that I have for her.'

The pair say they have relied on each-other throughout their lives, having survived a childhood of abuse when there was no adult to support them

The biggest test came when Tyson (left) endorsed the Republican running in Sparks' district over her own sister, but the pair still insist that family comes first

Even their disagreements over President Donald Trump have not endangered their bond - though his leadership is the subject of spirited debate.

Sparks cites the controversial reality television star-turned-leader as the cause of the country's political tumult -- and a key reason why she is seeking office.

'I just don't like what's happening in our country right now. And I can't stand by. I've got to do something,' she says.

Tyson is a Trump supporter.

'I totally believe in our president,' she says, though she adds that she understands the concerns of those, including Sparks, who oppose him.

The sisters say their respect for different viewpoints, and ability to listen to others, is something other Americans need to embrace in the current political climate.

'People are hurt. People are bitter, because they are feeling disenfranchised,' says Sparks.

'You start by getting in the same room... and come prepared with open ears, an open mind and open heart,' she says. 'Then we will be able to find solutions.'Sydney is Australia's most liveable capital city, according to a new urban research report, but it isn't without its setbacks - one major one in particular.

RMIT University's Centre for Urban Research Creating Liveable Cities in Australia report found that the New South Wales capital falls well behind other major cities in terms of public transport.

A mere two per cent of suburbs met Transport for NSW targets that aim for all residences to be within 400 metres of a bus stop serviced every 30 minutes, or within 800 metres of a train station serviced every 15 minutes.

Only 38 per cent of homes in Sydney met the 'ambitious' standards for access to public transport.

Sydney is Australia's most liveable capital city, according to a recent urban research report - but it isn't without its setbacks

The report found that the New South Wales capital falls well behind other major cities in terms of public transport

'Infrastructure provision is not keeping up with short, medium and long-term targets, especially in outer-suburban areas,' said Dr Lucy Gunn, lead author of the report.

One problem for the sprawling city is that the policies are designed for higher density urban areas, and therefore fail the lower density areas in Sydney's outer suburbs.

Another additional problem is that many of Sydney's suburbs are not as 'walkable' as they should be - where walkability is determined by high-dwelling density, streets designed with walking in mind and destinations such as schools and healthcare.

'Walkable neighbourhoods have shops and services and good public transport, but this can't be achieved with Sydney's density policy of 15 dwellings per hectare,' said Dr Gunn.

A mere two per cent of suburbs met Transport for NSW targets that aim for all residences to be within 400 metres of a bus stop serviced every 30 minutes, or within 800 metres of a train station serviced every 15 minutes

Areas where Sydney performed better than other cities, meanwhile, included access to open public spaces, access to food environments and opportunities for employment

'Sydney's suburban development average of 18 dwellings per hectare is higher than other cities, but still very low, and well below the 25 dwellings per hectare required to create walkable neighbourhoods.'

The report further found that Sydney falls short on housing affordability, forcing many residents to opt for less liveable areas in order to get away from exorbitant property prices.

Areas where Sydney performed better than other cities, meanwhile, included access to open public spaces, access to food environments and opportunities for employment.

The research report promises to measure Sydneys liveability policies against how well they are being implemented, and how the city rates on national liveability indicators in comparison to other capitals.

The research team will be releasing liveability scorecards for the other major capital cities throughout 2018.A disturbing video has been posted on social media to warn Australians how easily it is to be scammed without noticing.

Filmed at a store where an unsuspecting male customer is looking at magazines on a shelf, a staff member armed with an EFTPOS tap-and-go payment machine goes unnoticed as he scans the customer's wallet in the back pocket of his pants.

'Watch me, the victim doesn't know what I'm going to to do,' the store employee explains in the video.

An unsuspecting customer flicks through magazines, unaware that he's about to be scammed

The EFTPOS transaction was approved within seconds, with the customer none the wiser that he has just been ripped off.

'I've just tapped his a**, who's got a PayPass in his pocket and the transaction is approved. So be careful,' the man warns in the video which has since gone viral.

The customer has no idea that the EFTPOS transaction has been approved without his knowledge

It attracted more than 636,000 views and has been shared more than 26,000 times within 18 hours of being posted on Tuesday.

'Guys, watch your a**. You dont let anyone touch ya that way. Wireless tech is everywhere,' the man who shared the video posted.

Many of the several hundred commenters on the post expressed their shock of how easy it was to be scammed.

To avoid being scammed in a similar way, Finder recommends consumers keep their bank cards in sight at all times, check their bank card statements regularly and report any suspicious activity to their card provider and the police.

What is tap and go payment - and why is it so popular? The increasingly popular contactless payment, commonly referred to as a tap-and-go payment allows you make in-store purchases faster with your debit or credit card for purchase of up to $100. Simply tap or hover your credit card up to 4cm away from the terminal and the transaction is processed approved without a pin or signature required. pay Wave is the name of the technology for Visa cards, while PayPass is for MasterCard. AdvertisementA Mennonite missionary from Virginia who lived in Haiti for more than a decade has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for child sexual abuse in the Caribbean nation.

James Arbaugh, 40, pleaded guilty in February to one count of traveling in foreign commerce from the US to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child.

Arbaugh told authorities that he had engaged in sexual acts with a five-year-old boy in Jeremie, a Haitian city that was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

He also told investigators that he had groomed or had sexual contact with at least 21 Haitian boys.

Mennonite missionary James Arbaugh, of Virginia, has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for sexually abusing children while working in Haiti (there is no suggestion any of the children in this picture were abused)

Arbaugh, 40, pleaded guilty in February to one count of traveling in foreign commerce from the US to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child

Arbaugh, of Stuarts Draft, did missionary work in Haiti from 2008 to 2017. He frequently posted pictures of his trips on Facebook, including many with young boys.

But the trips stopped in 2017, when Arbaugh returned to the US after someone saw him 'engaging in inappropriate sexual contact' with a child, according to WHSV.

He told his counselor about the sexual contact and was reported to Child Protective Services the next day.

Arbaugh later admitted to police that he had touched the boy's genitals under the child's clothing. The five-year-old was the son of a Haitian church pastor.

The missionary also confessed that his sexual contact with minors had ranged from fondling to oral sex.

Arbaugh also told investigators that he had groomed or had sexual contact with at least 21 Haitian boys (there is no suggestion any of the children in this picture were abused)

Arbaugh worked as a missionary with Walking Together for Christ, an independent nonprofit organization with members from various Mennonite congregations in Virginia.

He described himself as an evangelist on his personal blog, and also said he was a religious film producer.

But prosecutors said Arbaugh was actually spending his time in Haiti befriending boys that he could go on to groom for sexual contact.

Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowsk said Arbaugh was a 'wolf in sheep's clothing'.

Arbaugh, of Stuarts Draft, did missionary work in Haiti from 2008 to 2017. He frequently posted pictures of his trip on Facebook, including many with young boys

The trips stopped in 2017, when Arbaugh returned to the US after someone saw him 'engaging in inappropriate sexual contact' with a child

'He posed as a selfless missionary when in reality he was exploiting his position to prey on and sexually abuse vulnerable children in one of the most impoverished areas of the world,' Benczkowski said in a news release.

He then told his counselor about the sexual contact and was reported to Child Protective Services the next day

'Today's sentencing is a testament to the unwavering commitment of our prosecutors and law enforcement partners to hold sexual predators like Arbaugh accountable for their deplorable crimes.'

Thomas Cullen, the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said Arbaugh 'abused his position of trust to prey on vulnerable victims'.

'Their lives will never be the same,' he added.

Arbaugh was sentenced on Monday and remanded to the custody of the US Marshals Service.

His sentencing comes just months after Daniel Pye, of Arkansas, received a 40-year prison sentence in the US for sexually abusing Haitian children.

Pye had been operating a well-known orphanage in Jacmel from 2006 to 2012.

Authorities say Pye regularly abused female residents of his orphanage, including girls as young as the age of six.An Australian cheese has been removed from shelves after it was found to have a high level of E.coli.

The Queensland Department of Health alerted the public on Tuesday afternoon about the contaminated item: Blackall Gold Washed Rind 200gm.

Produced by Woombye Cheese Company, the recall affects the product Best Before October 10.

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Blackall Gold Washed Rind 200gm (pictured) produced by Woombye Cheese Company is recalled after it was found to have a high E.coli count

'The recall is due to microbial contamination - high E.coli count,' the statement said.

'Food products contaminated with E.coli may cause illness if consumed.'

E.coli is a bacteria that can cause severe food poisoning and can lead to life-threatening diseases.

Consumers will be provided a full refund when they return the recalled product to the place of purchase.

It has been available for sale around Queensland in fresh food markets, grocers and selected IGA stores.

Queensland health and Woombye Cheese Company also urge concerned consumers to seek medical advice about their health.

The Woombye Cheese Company is a one and a half hour drive from Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast.

The family-owned company was founded in 2013 providing fresh and handcrafted cheeses all over the country.President Donald Trump sat down with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and kept the EU off the list of countries he said erected 'massive barriers' against U.S. trade.

Trump made the statement amid tense talks with Europe, China, Mexico, and Canada amid multi-front trade wars kicked off by U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. He called for an ideal scenario of having 'no barriers,' while his European counterpart pointed to huge trade ties across the Atlantic.

Trump praised Juncker, who physically stumbled at this month's NATO summit in Brussels, as a 'very smart man and a tough man that represents his people well and the countries well,' and touched Juncker on the leg at one point while seated next to him in the Oval Office.

THIS MAY REQUIRE SOME HAND-HOLDING: President Donald Trump (R) meets with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, in the Oval Office at the White House July 25, 2018 in Washington

'And we want to have a fair trade deal,' Trump said.

'And if we can have no tariffs and no barriers and so no subsidize, the United States would be extremely pleased,' Trump said in brief remarks. 'We have many countries - we won't say European Union  we have many countries where they have massive barriers and they have massive tariffs,' the president added.

'And we have to follow. And you could call it retaliation, but I'd rather just say we want reciprocal. So whether it's with European Union or others, it has to be reciprocal in nature at a minimum.'

Juncker also offered conciliatory public remarks.

Trump called for 'no tariffs and no barriers'

The two men met amid a simmering trade dispute

'We are close partners, allies, not enemies, we have to work together,' said Juncker

'We are close partners, allies, not enemies, we have to work together. We are representing half of the world trade. $1 trillion is the trade figure between us. And so I think that we have to talk to one another, he said.

Trump also emphasized the positive, even after railing in morning tweets against China on trade, while going after 'weak' members of his own party who he characterized as hampering trade negotiations through complaints about tariffs and their effects.

'And we're making tremendous strides,' Trump said. 'We're doing very well with Mexico. We're doing very well with a lot of countries, actually, right now. But this is something as Jean-Claude said, together as a unit, we make up actually more than 50 per cent of the world trade. That's a big number,' Trump added.

After their comments, Trump refused to answer a series of questions about the new audio tape of his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen.

Trump hosted Juncker Wednesday for what is set to be a tense face-to-face meeting, with efforts to resolve a festering trade dispute between the two key economies seemingly deadlocked.

Speaking ahead of the White House talks, Juncker admitted he was 'not very optimistic,' while Trump kicked off the day with a combative series of tweets vowing 'no weakness' in the multiple fights he has launched with America's trade partners.

'I know Mr. Trump pretty well,' Juncker told German public broadcaster ZDF. 'I have met him frequently and know how to deal with him.'

Trump, sean seated behind Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, called for a 'fair trade deal'

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and President Donald Trump, pictured at a summit last year, will meet over a festering trade dispute

EU-US trade

Jean-Claude Juncker attends an European finance ministers meeting in Brussels in 2011

'We are here to explain ourselves and explore ways to avoid a trade war,' he said, stressing that the EU is 'not in the dock - we don't need to defend ourselves.'

Juncker also renewed a promise of immediate retaliatory measures should Trump make good on a threat to slap new tariffs on EU car imports.

Administration officials expect the president to push forward with 25 percent tariffs on close to $200 billion in foreign-made automobiles later this year, The Washington Post reported.

The European Union trades as a bloc so Juncker takes the lead in negotiations even as Trump has threatened to make side deals with individual countries.

Trump crowed Tuesday that his latest threat had brought Europe to the negotiating table.

He also called the EU a 'foe' last week in an interview with CBS News.

'I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe,' he said.

Trump is facing increasing criticism as consumers, farmers and businesses take a hit from the retaliation to the raft of U.S. tariffs on steel, aluminum, and tens of billions of dollars in products from China that he has imposed in recent weeks.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is accompanying Juncker, expressed some optimism that a solution could still be found, but also said the EU is drawing up a list of $20 billion in U.S. products to be targeted for retaliation if the trip fails.

'We hope that this won't happen and that we can reach a solution,' Malmstrom told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

She said the 'long list' of American goods would include machinery, agricultural and high-tech products, among others.

One idea Juncker will raise in his sit down with the president would be for the U.S., the EU, Japan, South Korea and other nations that are major auto makers to negotiate a 'plurilateral' agreement aimed at reducing tariffs on those products to zero, a senior European official told Politico.

The second idea he will raise would be to negotiate a limited free trade agreement between the U.S. and the EU that focused only on industrial tariffs.

Under such a deal, the U.S. and the EU could eliminate tariffs on each other's auto exports, but they wouldn't be obliged to do the same for other countries.

While Juncker is set to make a last effort to talk Trump out of the auto tariffs, which would hit Germany's dominant carmakers hard, he warned on ZDF that if the U.S. moved ahead, 'we are in a position to respond appropriately right away.'

Brussels has already retaliated against the steel and aluminum tariffs, imposing punitive duties on more than $3 billion of U.S. goods, including blue jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as well as orange juice, rice and corn.

Juncker is no slacker when it comes to standing up to the president.

In March, he called the steel and aluminum tariffs 'stupid.'

Canada, Mexico and China - the main target of Trump's trade offensive - have also hit back with steep duties on U.S. goods, and have filed complaints against Washington at the World Trade Organization.

While the U.S. claims the retaliation is 'illegal,' the Trump administration has acknowledged it is doing damage to American farmers, and on Tuesday announced it will provide up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by trade tariffs.

Trump is facing increasing criticism as consumers, farmers and businesses are taking a hit from the retaliation to a raft of U.S. tariffs

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is set to make a last effort to talk President Donald Trump out of auto tariffs

Tweeting about the trade standoff on Tuesday, Trump repeated his call to remove all tariffs and trade barriers.

'Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!' he wrote. 'Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!'

Early Wednesday, Trump hit back against his critics in a further series of tweets:

'Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!'

That figure apparently refers to the US trade deficit in goods alone last year, which hit $810 billion last year, while the total deficit including services was $566 billion.

But more voices including in Trump's own Republican Party are coming out against his confrontational stance.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse, a frequent Trump critic, said the president's trade policies recalled a past of perilous economic instability.

'This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again,' he said in a statement.

Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan sounded a more supportive note, however, saying that while he would prefer the administration use 'better tools' to address unfair trade practices, the confrontation could also produce beneficial results.

'This friction that we're having, as long as it results in lowering barriers... that's great.'An Ecuadorean immigrant who was detained by ICE while delivering pizza to an Army base in Brooklyn has finally been released.

A federal judge ordered Pablo Villavicencio's immediate release on Tuesday, putting an end to what has been a 53-day nightmare for the father-of-two's family.

Villavicencio, 35, was released just before 9pm from an immigration detention facility in New Jersey to hugs from his wife and daughters, aged two and four.

Judge Paul Crotty ruled that Villavicencio can remain in the US while he exhausts his rights to try and gain legal status.

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Pablo Villavicencio, the Ecuadorean immigrant who was detained by ICE while delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army base, was finally released on Tuesday night (pictured)

Villavicencio, 35, was released just before 9pm from an immigration detention facility in New Jersey, to hugs from his wife and daughters, aged two and four (all pictured)

Crotty said the father's release is necessary because his imminent removal from the United States is no longer reasonably foreseeable.

Villavicencio was detained on June 1 at the Fort Hamilton Army Base after a background check revealed he failed to obey a 2010 order to leave the country.

He applied to stay in the country after marrying Sandra Chica, who is a US citizen.

Villavicencio's daughters greeted him with gifts for Father's Day, which passed while he was being held in the Hudson County Correctional Facility.

'We are extremely happy, there are no words that can describe what we're feeling now,' Chica told New York Daily News.

Judge Paul Crotty ruled that Villavicencio can remain in the US while he exhausts his rights to try and gain legal status

Villavicencio could be seen hugging his wife Sandra Chica following his release. His daughters greeted him with the gifts they bought him for Father's Day

Chica said she had faith that Villavicencio would be released and revealed the family plans to enjoy these next few days back together.

'After two months of a huge nightmare, I think we're just gonna stay home,' she said.

The trouble for Villavicencio, who had been living with his family in Long Island, started because a new soldier was at the gate of the Army base that day.

'I have been there before and always go in and never have had any problems,' Villavicencio previously told the New York Post.

'They actually know me and the sergeant knows me for some time doing delivery.'

Chica (pictured with her daughters leaving court Tuesday) said she had faith that Villavicencio would be released and said the family plans to enjoy these next few days back together

Villavicencio was detained at the Fort Hamilton Army Base after a background check revealed he failed to obey a 2010 order to leave the country. He applied to stay in the country after marrying Chica

Villavicencio had shown the guard his New York ID card, which is an official form of identification recognized in New York City.

But this time around, it wasn't enough.

'There was a different security guard and he told me I needed to go get another pass to enter,' Villavicencio said.

'And I proceeded to do that. A tall man with dark skin started to ask me many questions. He asked me about why I didn't have any social security card.'

The man then called the New York Police Department, which informed him that Villavicencio didn't have a record and 'was clean'.

'But the man said "I don't care"', Villavicencio recalled. 'He said I need to keep waiting and he called ICE.'

Judge Paul Crotty questioned the government's handling of the case as he heard legal arguments on Tuesday

Meanwhile protesters gathered outside the federal court calling for Villavicencio's release

Crotty questioned the government's handling of the case as he heard legal arguments on Tuesday.

'The powerful are doing what they must. The poor are suffering the most,' he told Assistant US Attorney Joseph Cordaro in court.

'Is there any concept of justice? Or are we just doing what we want?'

Crotty went on to say that although Villavicencio had stayed in the United States 'unlawfully', he has 'otherwise been a model citizen'.

Crotty went on to say that although Villavicencio (pictured with his family in a past photo) had stayed in the United States 'unlawfully, he has 'otherwise been a model citizen'

Villavicencio is shown here with his daughters in a photo shared to Facebook on March 9

'He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family,' the judge added.

Villavicencio's story won the support of numerous New Yorkers, many of whom arrived at the courthouse to protest for his release with 'Free Pablo' signs on Tuesday.

It also gained the attention of Gov Andrew Cuomo, who celebrated his release on Tuesday night.

'This should have happened 53 days ago,' Cuomo tweeted. 'Glad justice ultimately prevailed. I wish Mr Villavicencio and his family all the best.'

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio both tweeted celebrating the judge's decision and Villavicencio's release on Tuesday

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio also applauded the judge's decision while condemning the government for separating him from his family in the first place.

'I cannot imagine what Pablo went through the last few weeks,' he tweeted. 'He was separated from his family and his loved ones for delivering pizza in America in 2018.'

'Glad he's headed home, but it's unconscionable that he was ever detained.'

Adriene Holder, Villavicencio's attorney, said the 'rule of law, humanity, and morality' prevailed on Tuesday.

'This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump administration,' she said, 'And its merciless crusade to tear families apart.'A devastating disease which claims the lives of 14 Australians a day and can turn deadly within 24 hours can be stopped if spotted early.

More than 18,000 people are struck by the 'silent killer' every year, 5,000 of whom die from the life-threatening condition.

Despite the large number of deaths caused by sepsis, 40 per cent of Australians have never heard of it, and have no idea how to identify the symptoms.

Sepsis bacteria in the bloodstream can be deadly. Pictured is a 3D illustration

Heath experts have warned people to get flu shots after spate of viral infection-related deaths from sepsis, and are struggling to raise awareness.

Sepsis can only be treated with antibiotics and speed is vital, as the risk of the disease turning fatal increases the longer it goes untreated.

The elderly and chronically-sick are at most risk of sepsis bacteria (pictured)

Professor Simon Finfer said early sepsis symptoms resembled those of the flu, which could make the illness hard to catch early.

'Each hour treatment with effective antibiotics is delayed, the risk of dying increases by between 4 per cent and 8 per cent,' Professor Finfer told ABC News.

'So, it is a genuine, time-critical emergency.'

Doctors are urging people to get immunised but a shortage in the flu vaccine has been caused by unprecedented demand.

Early symptoms include a high pulse rate, laboured breathing, lethargy or confusion and a high or even low temperature.

Mottled skin, a day without urination, shivering and muscle pain are also possible signs of sepsis and suffers should seek immediate medical advice.

One recent victim is 13-year-old Thomas Snell whose condition rapidly became worse after he caught a cold while on a rugby tour.

Septis (pictured) can be deadly if it's not detected early

The healthy and active teenager went to the doctor and was told to rest up and drink fluids - but he never became well again.

Thomas's aunt, Yvette Clarke, told Nine News her nephew was battling to cope with the virus.

'He was not settling. He couldn't sleep, he was really restless and in pain.

'It was 24 to 48 hours that he was in that state - a deathly state.'

WHAT IS SEPSIS? Sepsis, known as the silent killer, strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It is the leading cause of avoidable death, killing at least 44,000 a year, and the Daily Mail has long campaigned for more awareness. If caught early, the infection can be controlled by antibiotics before the body goes into overdrive - ultimately leading to death within a matter of minutes. But the early symptoms of sepsis can be easily confused with more mild conditions, meaning it can be difficult to diagnose. Sepsis has similar symptoms to flu, gastroenteritis and a chest infection. These include: S lurred speech or confusion

lurred speech or confusion E xtreme shivering or muscle pain

xtreme shivering or muscle pain P assing no urine in a day

assing no urine in a day S evere breathlessness

evere breathlessness I t feels like you are dying

t feels like you are dying S kin mottled or discoloured Symptoms in children are: Fast breathing

Fits or convulsions

Mottled, bluish or pale skin

Rashes that do not fade when pressed

Lethargy

Feeling abnormally cold Advertisement

Thomas was put on life support five hours later after contracting sepsis.

His organs shut down as his body tried to fight the bacterial infection, and 18 days later he died.

'There was nothing they could do to save him. If he had have survived he would have been a quad amputee.'

Another victim of the illness was Damian Jones's 18-year-old daughter Madeline, who died from sepsis in 2017.

He said she was put on life support after catching the flu before developing sepsis.

'Just asking the question - could this be sepsis? I think is very important and people shouldn't be afraid to ask that question,' Mr Jones said.Five men have appeared in court accused of dousing a three-year-old boy with acid on a family shopping trip.

Adam Cech, 27, Jan Dudi, 25, and Norbert Pulko, 22, who are from Slovakia and live in London, were in the dock with Afghan-national Jabar Paktia, 41, of Wolverhampton.

A 39-year-old man, who is the boy's father and also from the West Midlands, cannot be named for legal reasons, but appeared alongside the four men.

All five were charged with conspiracy to commit GBH over the incident in Worcester on Saturday and appeared at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Jan Dudi, 25, (pictured left) and Adam Cech, 27, (pictured right) are among five men who appeared in court on Wednesday charged with pouring acid over a three-year-old boy

Accused: Jabar Paktia, 41, is among the five men in court over the attack on the toddler

Pictured: Norbert Pulko, 22, who is from Slovakia but lives in London is also accused

A court sketch shows the four men who have been named and charged with the attack, alongside the boy's father, also charged, but who cannot be named for legal reasons

The sulphuric acid attack was thrown on the toddler, who suffered serious burns to his face and arm, while out he was out at a Home Bargains store in the cathedral city with his Afghan mother last week.

The mother screamed 'What have you done to my baby?' after the thugs hurled the pink substance at the youngster in an assault which was captured on CCTV in the discount store.

The child was treated by paramedics at the shop in Tallow Hill and was taken to hospital for further treatment, where he was discharged on Sunday. The boy's mother has two other children.

It is not known what the long-term implications of his injuries are.

The acid attack suspects accused of planning an assault on the three-year-old boy arrive in a prison van at Kidderminster Magistrates Court after being charged by police

Five men, aged 22 to 41, have been charged in connection to a suspected acid attack on a three-year-old boy. Pictured: Home Bargains store in Tallow Hill where the incident occurred

Police officers conducting a search of Shrub Hill Retail Park in Worcester on Sunday

Officers are pictured investigating the suspected acid attack on a three-year-old boy in Worcester on Saturday

None of the five men entered a plea and sat silently throughout the two-and-a-half hour hearing.

Chairman of the bench Angela Channon remanded the five in custody and adjourned the case until August 28 when they will appear at Worcester Crown Court.

Prosecutor Stephen Davis said: 'His mother heard the child crying and saw he was holding his arms and couldn't open his eyes.

'She had called an ambulance when the child's face turned red. His t-shirt had a pink substance on it. After an examination it had shown it was sulphuric acid.'

Detective Inspector Jim Bayliss, of West Mercia Police, added: 'Our officers are continuing to work extremely hard on this investigation.

'At this time we believe this to be an isolated incident and there is not a wider risk to the public.'A kidney transplant recipient has been bashed outside of a friend's party after thugs reportedly mistook his calcium tablets for illicit drugs.

The 24-year-old, who wanted to remain anonymous, was taking the medicine inside his parked car in Forrestfield, Perth's south-east, on July 14 when two men approached and unleashed the beating.

The victim was smashed in the face with an alcohol bottle and dragged from his car onto the road.

The victim was beaten so brutally he suffered a perforated bowel.

A kidney transplant recipient (pictured) has been bashed outside of a friend's party after thugs reportedly mistook his calcium tablets for illicit drugs

During the ordeal, the 24-year-old said he desperately clutched the left side of his body to protect his donated kidney.

'My only thought was to try to protect my left side. I didn't want to get back on dialysis,' he told The West.

The young victim was beaten for several minutes before a young woman left the party and yelled, 'what's going on, stop doing it'.

He said the woman's cries prompted his attackers to stop what they were doing and flee.

As his assailants fled in a car, party-goers ran to the 24-year-old victim's aid.

The 24-year-old awake until paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital, where he received more than 30 stitches in his face and 30 staples in his stomach.

He remained in hospital for five days.

Doctors said his donated kidney was not injured in the attack, but further testing is required.

Detectives from Midland (police office pictured) charged a 33-year-old over the vicious attack

While detectives believed the attackers were motivated by the victim's kidney medication, they are also investigating whether jealously was a motive.

A young woman was sitting in the victim's car when he was pulled onto the road.

The woman was reportedly the girlfriend of one of the alleged attackers.

Te Ngo Hawira Mason Ihaia, 33, was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm after the horrific July 14 beating.

He was denied bail when he appeared at Midland court on Tuesday.

Mr Ihaia was remanded in police custody to next appear in court on August 3.Advertisement

Yosemite National Park has been evacuated as firefighters desperately attempt to control enormous wildfires in a heatwave which has seen temperatures soar to 120F.

Campsites and lodges emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite by noon Wednesday.

Firefighters are battling to contain a huge wildfire just to the west of Yosemite that has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured vistas of parkland.

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads in, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

At least a thousand campground and hotel bookings will be canceled - to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. Rangers went to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotels guests got phone calls and notes on their doors.

Francisco Avendano, visiting from Madrid, Spain, photographs Half Dome as smoke from the Ferguson Fire hangs over Yosemite National Park

Hannah Whyatt poses for a picture as smoke from the Ferguson wildfire obscures the sun in Yosemite Valley

Firefighters are battling to contain a huge wildfire just to the west of Yosemite that has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured vistas of parkland

Inmate firefighters battle the Ferguson fire in Jerseydale, California. The blaze has already claimed the life of one firefighter and injured two others

Trees burn in Stanislaus National Forest, near Yosemite National Park, as part of a blaze that has killed one and injured two

Firefighters assess a fire burning in Stanislaus National Forest which has been filling the Yosemite Valley with smoke

'This is the prime visitor season, so this wasn't an easy decision to make,' Gediman said. 'This was purely for safety's sake.'

Officials were quick to point out that Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the Ferguson Fire. Authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Yosemite Valley is the centerpiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley has been enveloped by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Visitors are advised to 'limit activity during the periods of poor air quality,' the park said in a statement. 'Some facilities and services are closed or diminished.'

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained Tuesday.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while others have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

A huge plume of smoke is seen rising from the blaze in Yosemite. Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park

Tourist Mara Schumann photographs a plume of smoke from the Ferguson Fire in Yosemite National Park, California on Tuesday afternoon

Highway 140 has been closed more than a week as firefighters work to contain the blaze which is sucking in ever larger tracts of forest

Flames from a wildfire burn down a hillside in unincorporated Mariposa County California near Yosemite National Park

Smoke from the Ferguson Fire fills the sky as vehicles leave Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park to escape the danger

A helicopter gathers water from the Merced River to fight the Ferguson Fire along steep terrain behind the Redbud Lodge near El Portal along Highway 140 in Mariposa County, California

Several vehicles queue to leave the park in a hurry as authorities warned tourists and some residents to evacuate the local area

A partially burned vineyard is seen along Highway 121 in Sonoma, California as wild fires took control of much of the arid landscape

Kern County firefighters make their way to the Redbud Lodge to fight the Ferguson Fire which has been burning out of control for several days

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Heavy fire equipment operator Braden Varney, 36, died early Saturday on the fire line, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

Varney was driving a bulldozer to create a gap in vegetation to keep the flames from extending into a nearby community, according to Cal Fire Fire Chief Nancy Koerperich.

Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite/Madera County, said the regional visitors bureau has been relocating tourists statewide following the closure.

'People are heartbroken,' she said. 'Some want to ride it out for a few days and see if they can get back in the park.' Others want help finding places to stay away from Yosemite.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

'There are wonderful places to visit in the region, so we're asking people to consider alternative plans,' he said.

In the state's far north, a nearly 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.

Smoke from the Ferguson Fire fills Yosemite Valley as seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite on Tuesday as two shocked tourists watch on

Heather McLean, a US Forest Service public information, discusses fire conditions with evacuees who have been forced to flee their homes for a Red Cross shelter in Mariposa, California

A helicopter dumps water on the Ferguson fire which has already burned nearby trees to cinders

Firefighters hack back vegetation as they attempt to create a fire break and stem the spread of the Ferguson fire

German tourists Stephanie Schultz, left, photographs Kai Rudolph, right, along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley as smoke from the Ferguson Fire hangs in the air

Tourists pose for pictures in front of some of Yosemite's landmarks as they are obscured by smoke

Park official Victor Woodley wears a mask due to smoke while taking entrance fees at the south entrance to Yosemite National Park

Global temperatures have soared in recent weeks in a worldwide heatwave which is expected to last in some places until the end of August.

England has recorded highs of 33C (91.94F) this week, Sweden is basking in the hottest summer in over a century, while the mercury topped-out at an unseasonably warm 38C (100F) in parts of Southern California, and heat levels have soared to more than 46C (115F) in Saudi Arabia.

In Japan, at least 65 people have died and a further 22,000 have been hospitalised with heat stroke as a result of sky-rocketing temperatures, which have reached record highs of 41.1C (105F) in the capital of Tokyo.

The heatwave, which started to set record temperatures across the world late last month and is predicted to continue until the end of August, is caused by persistent high pressures, experts have stated.

Stationary regions of high pressure across the globe have halted weather patterns from moving eastwards.

This immobilisation of weather fronts was triggered by an unusually weak jet stream, high Atlantic ocean temperatures and the continually rising temperatures caused by warming.

This potent combination has doomed the northern hemisphere to weeks of oppressive heat, say scientists.

Half Dome is blanketed with wildfire smoke after the Ferguson fire doubled in size overnight

The sky turns red from the Olmsted Point vista lookout from smoke and flames of the Ferguson fire burning nearby

Yosemite National Park visitors take photos at Olmsted Point as the smoke from wildfires rolls across Half Dome

An aerial view from October 2017 shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood after a wildfire swept through in Santa Rosa, California

Smoke from the Ferguson fire rises over a house beside the Highway 140 and close to Yosemite National Park

Temperatures approached 120 degrees in parts of the U.S. Southwest on Monday, and forecasters said this week could bring the region's hottest weather of the year.

Phoenix reached a sweltering 115 degrees (46 Celsius), which broke the previous daily record, according to the National Weather Service.

Firefighters and city officials Monday morning distributed bright red cloth visors, hand fans and blue-colored cooling neckerchiefs to downtown Phoenix commuters, advising them to stay inside as much as possible.

A heat advisory was in effect for west Texas and southeast New Mexico into Monday evening, with high temperatures well into the triple digits, the service said. Afternoon school bus service was canceled Monday in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where the mercury climbed to 105 degrees (41 Celsius).

Forecasters issued excessive heat warnings to much of Arizona, including parts of Grand Canyon National Park, and extended into areas of Southern California and Nevada.

The operator of California's electrical grid to call for voluntary conservation of power Tuesday and Wednesday due to high temperatures in much of the West.

Parts of Utah were also issued an excessive heat warning with temperatures this week expected to approach 109 degrees (43 Celsius). The weather service said the warning for Utah's Dixie and Lake Powell regions will be in effect Tuesday through Thursday.

The National Weather Service uses a complicated formula that varies from region to region to declare an excessive heat warning, including close to record-breaking temperatures.

Forecasters say southern Arizona will swelter through temperatures from 112 to 119 degrees through Wednesday.

A weather graph shows weekly high temperatures across the western US which is sweltering through a heatwave

Today's data reveals that London hit highs of 25C (77F) at 10:00am BST (05:00am ET) this morning. This image shows recent temperature readings across Europe

In the United States, parts of Southern California reached temperatures upwards of 38C (100F), while heat levels soared to more than 46C (115F) in Saudi Arabia. This image shows temperatures across Australia and the Pacific Islands

A plane battling the Ferguson Fire passes the setting sun over unincorporated Mariposa County, California, near Yosemite National Park

Residents listen during a community meeting at an auditorium in Yosemite Valley to share the latest information about the Ferguson Fire

A pregnant woman who lives in Yosemite Valley, talks on the phone after attending a community meeting for the latest information about the fireMore than 1,200 sex offenders have succeeded in getting themselves removed from the register, despite the fact they were placed on it 'indefinitely'.

A shocking 632 criminals who had their names taken off the list within the past six years had committed their crimes against a child under the age of 16.

They were allowed to do so under a change in the law in 2012 that granted criminals who had an indefinite notification to remain on the register to appeal after 15 years.

The staggering numbers were uncovered by an investigation by Good Morning Britain that was revealed on Wednesday.

A shocking 632 criminals who had their names taken off the list within the past six years had committed their crimes against a child under the age of 16

Pictured: Breakdown by area of the number of appeals and the amount granted

No longer being on the register means offenders don't have to tell officials about their movements, when they move house or spend more than a week away from home.

Some examples of those who had their names removed from the register include an attacker who raped a boy under the age of 13 and an offender who raped a girl under the age of 16.

Several forces would not comment if those who had their names removed from the list had gone on to re-offend.

Scotland admitted three went on to re-offend - one was a rapist who had 'extreme' pornography and another had taken indecent photographs of children, according to GMB.

A breakdown of appeals and the rate they were granted includes:

In Greater Manchester, 83 offenders appealed to have their names removed from the register and 44 people (55 per cent) succeeded in being removed.

Twenty-six (59 per cent) of those who were removed from the list had offences that involved a victim under the age of 16.

In Merseyside, 65 appealed and 45 people (69 per cent) succeeded in being removed.

Thirty-three (73 per cent) of those removed from the list had offences that involved a victim under the age of 16.

In Cumbria, 20 offenders appealed and 17 (85 per cent) were successfully removed.

Eleven (65 per cent) of those removed involved a victim under the age of 16.

Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, is outraged over the findings

Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, is outraged over the findings and told GMB: 'I am disgusted that people are able to start a process to be removed from the sex offenders' register.

'The figures are very daunting when you look at each county and see the amount of applications that have been made and how many are actually successful in being removed from the register.

'Many of these are for offences against children and that child and their family will be victims for life, so why should the offender have the ability to be removed?

'Surely if you are put on the sex offender register for life, your offences are so serious you should remain on there for life.'A teenage schoolgirl will face court accused of stabbing a fellow student.

Amber Rover, 18, allegedly stabbed a classmate at Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old victim was stabbed in the back and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

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Amber Rover, 18, allegedly stabbed a classmate at Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm on Tuesday

The 17-year-old victim was stabbed in the back and was taken to hospital in a serious condition

Ms Rover has been charged with aggravated assault causing serious harm.

Ms Rover's lawyer told a court she is in hospital after undergoing surgery for a medical condition, and was flown to Royal Adelaide Hospital on Tuesday night, Ten News reported.

'Paramedics arrived on scene and treated the victim, shortly before police arrived and arrested the alleged offender,' South Australia Police said in a statement.

'The 17year-old victim was taken to the Berri Hospital where she remains in a serious condition.'

Renmark High principal Mat Evans issued a letter to the school community Tuesday afternoon explaining what he believed was a dispute between two students.

'Police were called and our school was placed into lockdown today after one of our students stabbed another with a knife,' the letter read.

Police were called to Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm on Tuesday

'We share your shock at this event which we are treating with utmost seriousness.

'It is our understanding that the incident is the result of a dispute between two students and did not represent a specific threat to the wider school community.'

The Department for Education is liaising with the school to ensure appropriate responses are put in place, including counselling and support for students and staff,' the department said in a statement.

'An assessment is being made as to whether additional security measures are required.'An Australian man has been thrown into a Balinese prison after his dogs urinated in a cafe and he allegedly punched the cafe owner's father in the face.

Michael David Sode, who currently lives in Bali and lists his occupation as a consultant, faces a possible charge of assault and a maximum sentence of two years and eight months in jail if found guilty.

The 47-year-old Aussie expatriate was arrested on Saturday, several weeks after the fracas that allegedly broke out when several of his six unrestrained dogs started urinating on chairs at the Warung Coconut in Ubud.

Michael David Sode (pictured) has been thrown into a Balinese prison after a number of his dogs urinated in an Ubud cafe and he allegedly punched the cafe owner's father in the face

The 47-year-old Aussie expatriate was arrested on Saturday, several weeks after the fracas that allegedly broke out when several of his six unrestrained dogs started urinating on chairs at the Warung Coconut (pictured) in Ubud

In a statement to police, the victim Made Wena claimed he'd visited his son's warung - the local term for cafe or restaurant - at about 10:30am on July 6, the Herald Sun reports.

Moments after Mr Wena sat down, three of Sode's dogs reportedly arrived and started 'peeing on the chairs'.

'I tried to talk to the dog's owner... [whose] his nickname is Michael, a foreigner living in Mas Village, Ubud subdistrict,' he said.

'I told Michael that his dogs were often peeing on my warung chairs... he said, 'oh, the solution is easy, just spray cleaner fluid'.'

Three more dogs entered the warung during this exchange, Mr Wena claimed - some of them urinating on coconuts that were used for drinks, and one urinating on his seat.

When Mr Wena picked up the chair to hit the dog, Sode allegedly attacked him: striking him in the right side of his mouth and causing an injury that would ultimately require three stitches.

In a statement to police, the victim Made Wena claimed he'd visited his son's warung - the local term for cafe or restaurant - at about 10:30am on July 6

Mr Wena promptly reported the incident to Ubud police station.

Ubud police chief, Commissioner Made Raka Sugita, said that Sode's arrest had been delayed for several weeks while police waited to receive the results of Mr Wena's physical examinations.

Police in Ubud will hold a press conference on Wednesday regarding the case.Jason Chester, 43, was tricked into appearing on Sasha Baron Cohen's show

A Republican lawmaker who is currently serving in the Georgia House of Representatives has resigned after being filmed screaming racial slurs on the latest episode of Who is America?

Representative Jason Spencer, 43, got semi-nude and expressed anti-gay, anti-Muslim and anti-Asian sentiments on Sasha Baron Cohen's show.

Spencer was tricked into appearing on Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime program, believing he was being taught self-defense to fight off terrorists.

Instead, the physician's assistant from the town of Woodbine was seen on the show shouting the n-word multiple times, calling Muslims 'sand n*****s' and 'rapists,' imitating a Chinese tourist by speaking nonsense, and trying to ward off a potential terrorist by ripping down his pants and threatening them with his bare buttocks.

After several public figures called for his head earlier this week, Spencer has reportedly taken the decision to step down from his position at the end of the month - according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Guns blazing: Jason Spencer, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives, was taught techniques to combat terrorists on Who Is America? (Spencer above trying to fight off Cohen as an ISIS member by threatening to rub his butt on him and make him appear gay)

Flashdance: In one segment, he stripped off his pats and boxers to ward off a potential ISIS member with gay panic by threatening to rub his bare buttocks on the man (above)

Snap into it: At the end of the episode he simulates cutting off a dummy's penis, then produces a piece of cured meat he bites into (left) and starts to chew (right)

In the wake of the damaging appearance, Spencer released a statement that said in part: 'Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked.'

In this episode, Cohen was playing the character of Captain Erran Morad, an anti-terrorism expert.

He introduces himself by stating: 'I was in the Mossad, I mean not in the Mossad for 13 years. I am here to teach you krav maga.'

Spencer then introduces himself, at which point the show reveals that last August the Republican lawmaker had told a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives that she would be killed and thrown in a swamp if she supported the removal of Confederate statues.

LaDawn Jones, a black attorney who is no longer a member of the Georgia House, expressed her shock when Spencer responded to her objections over a Jefferson Davis statue by writing: 'Continue your quixotic journey into South Georgia and it will not be pleasant. The truth. Not a warning. Those folks wont put up with it like they do in Atlanta. It best you move on.'

He did not stop there either, going on to state: 'I can guarantee you wont be met with torches but something a lot more definitive. People of South Georgia are people of action, not drama.

Things then went a step further in the next post, with Spencer writing of people like Jones who are against these statues: 'They will go missing in the Okefenokee [swamp]. Too many necks they are red around here. Dont say I didnt warn you about em.'

Spencer was also in the news for introducing a bill that would make it illegal for people to conceal their faces in public.

He tells Cohen that he does not call it a 'burka ban' and rather an 'anti-masking statute' because 'to win in the legal system you cannot be against the First Amendment.'

He then added: 'See this is how the Muslims in the country are using the First Amendment for them. You got to fight fire with fire.'

Headline grabber: He was in the news last year after telling a black woman, who was previously a member of the House, she might go missing for protesting Confederate statues (above)

Message: 'All you sand n****** over the Middle East, we are tired of you coming to America and we are tired of you threatening us,' states Spencer (above waving a knife while addressing terrorists)

Cut and chew: 'You understand, we will cut off your dick and we will shove it in your mouth, chew it off, put it in your mouth,' he tells the camera (cutting off the dummy's fake penis on left, putting the fake penis in the dummy's mouth right)

The men then work on techniques, with each practice becoming more and more absurd and offensive.

When Cohen urges Spencer to try and attract attention by screaming out the n-word, the politician yells out the racial slur a slew of times before Cohen stops him and says he meant 'noony.'

Cohen then adds that the word Spencer was screaming is 'disgusting.'

'ISIS is scared of being seen as homo,' says Cohen, who teaches Spencer 'how to use his bottom' to scare off terrorists.

Spencer willingly takes down his pants and runs backwards to ram his buttocks into Cohen's groin while yelling 'Murica' on the first attempt shown on the show, with the editing of the episode making it unclear how long each segment lasted and what parts made it to air.

Cohen then tells Spencer that in the Mosad they say: 'If you want to win, you have to show some skin.'

That is when the lawmaker takes down his boxer briefs, which he once again seems to do with no real issue or concern, and again starts to back up his buttocks to Cohen's groin.

Cohen meanwhile has his pants unzipped the entire time they are simulating this 'intimidation technique.'

A semi-naked Spencer yells: 'I will touch you. I will touch you with my buttocks. USA'

This practice, meant to simulate a gay panic that would fend off terrorists, ends with Spencer doing a fourth pass in which he screams: 'I will touch you. I will make you a homosexual. USA!'

Family: Spencer and his wife Meloney with their children and Ted Cruz in 2016 during the primary (above)

Spencer is then off the show, but returns in the end of the episode in a special message he filmed for terrorists.

'All you sand n****** over the Middle East, we are tired of you coming to America and we are tired of you threatening us. We will cut off your dick,' states Spencer, who then simulates cutting off a dummy's penis with the knife he is waving around while producing a piece of cured meat in his hand.

'You understand, we will cut off your dick and we will shove it in your mouth, chew it off, put it in your mouth.'

While delivering that line, Spencer bits off the top of the meat and then shoves the rest into the dummy's mouth.

'How are you going to rape little children and women without a dick?'

While he may not be stepping down, Spencer is not long for his seat, having lost in the recent primary election.

Dick Cheney, Trent Lott, David Petraeus, Alberto Gonzales and Sarah Palin are among the other big names who have been duped by Cohen for the new series.

Palin, the former governor of Alaska, confirmed that she was tricked into flying to Washington DC for an interview with Cohen, writing a detailed post about her experience on Facebook.

It has also been suggested by Cohen himself that President Trump will be the focus of his new show, which airs new episodes on Sunday night.An overzealous parking warden who slapped a ticket on an ambulance after a paramedic stopped for a drink in boiling temperatures will keep his job despite calls for him to be sacked.

Video footage of the female paramedic rowing with the warden in Cheshire, over the fine, divided social media over who was in the right.

The incident outside Tesco Express began when the ambulance was left on a double yellow line.

The warden was initially confronted by a witness filming the incident before he had a row with the paramedic outside the shop entrance.

Other shoppers come to her aid and try to reason with the warden, who refused to back down.

The astonishing confrontation ended with the paramedic saying to the warden 'If you ever need an ambulance...' before shrugging and walking away.

He will keep his job, employer Euro Parking Services later confirmed, but he will be retrained.

EPS confirmed the fine was 'cancelled within the hour'.

The company added it had apologised to the ambulance service, was making a donation and would be changing its training procedures to ensure such an incident does not happen again.

A parking warden, pictured, prompted outrage after slapping an ambulance with a parking ticket outside a Tesco in Northwich, Cheshire

The warden, pictured, told the paramedic and witnesses the vehicle should not have been left on yellow lines and refused to listen to their arguments

Many people on social media slammed the warden for being overzealous and a 'jobsworth'

But others supported the warden and said he was justified in handing out the ticket

An aerial view of Kingsmead Square where the incident took place yesterday

The footage prompted outrage on social media with even television presenter Nick Knowles admonishing the worker on Twitter.

But others have defended the warden claiming he was just doing his job and the paramedic should have done more to find a suitable space.

The car park is part of a private retail park owned by London & Cambridge Properties who employ Euro Parking Services to monitor parking.

The firm said it was 'disappointed' at the incident and would be reviewing its contract with EPS.

It is unknown exactly how much the fine was but typically private car park tickets are usually between 70 and 100.

DIY SOS presenter Knowles said to Tesco on Twitter: 'So you dont feel you can support an emergency services worker stopping at your store for water - not your problem?'

He added the supermarket was 'morally separating itself' from the problem by outsourcing its parking management.

DIY SOS presenter Nick Knowles criticised Tesco over the 'ridiculous' incident and demanded they talk to the parking firm to revoke the ticket

After Tesco contacted him to confirm they do not own or operate the car park or its management, Knowles asked whether the firm would support the emergency services and get involved on the paramedic's behalf

When contacted by Tesco, who told him it did not own the car park and was not responsible for enforcing car park fines, he added: 'Could you please supply us with the name of the company so WE might ask them to be more supportive of ES workers?

'Will you be talking to the parking company to express your concerns? After all - every little helps? Or not?'

Meanwhile other Twitter users were quick to become angry over the situation.

One said: 'He spent that long arguing with her she could have been in, had lunch, her bottle of water and watched a film. Jobsworth.'

Another added: 'Disabled permit holders and vehicles loading are permitted to stop of double yellows (expect with dashes on kerb).

'Emergency service crews are more important, it's integral having them refreshed and not a five minute walk from their vehicle where possible.'

But others supported the warden, with one Twitter user said: 'For real? the guy is %100 (sic) right. The ambu (sic) was not on call and illegally parked.'

The warden then had a row with the paramedic after she told him she only stopped for a drink and the vehicle was 'too big for a bay'.

The warden was also adamant the paramedic was 'not on call' and was 'getting lunch'

The footage begins with a conversation between the man filming the incident and the warden, with the cameraman asking why the ambulance was ticketed when it was 'on call'.

The warden said: 'It's not on call. It's not on call. She was having lunch. Where are the sirens? It is parked up on a double yellow line.'

The cameraman replied: 'They don't use the sirens when they are parked up you idiot.'

But the warden was unmoved and continued to stress the paramedic was 'getting food'.

She then returned to the vehicle and asked where she was supposed to leave the ambulance.

The paramedic continued to argue and ended the conversation by saying 'If you ever need an ambulance...' before shrugging her shoulders and walking off

The incident happened in Cheshire and the vehicle belonged to North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust

She said: 'Where would you like me to park? It won't go in a bay; I can't fit it. I'm not going to leave it in a disabled space.

'I've been on since 6.45am this morning; I've had nothing to drink and nothing to eat and now I would like to go to Tesco to get some water.'

The heated exchange was filmed by outraged passerby Ian French, who claims the cap-wearing attendant told him he was 'proud' of issuing the ticket.

Mr French, 47, said: 'I felt so strongly about the unfairness of what was happening that I started filming on my iPhone, hoping to bring attention to what was happening to the hardworking paramedics.

'I believe they were just collecting some food and water eight hours into their shift.

'It is a private parking firm working for the landlord, who I believe owns the car park and the businesses around it.

'The parking enforcement signs were only installed a few weeks ago. The locals are not happy about it, nor are some of the businesses.'

The paramedic's words had no impact on the warden, who said: 'I understand. That's fine, but you can't be parking on a double yellow line can you?'

Meanwhile the cameraman continued to insist she was on call and should be able to leave the vehicle there in case she has to leave quickly for an emergency.

The incident happened at Kingsmead Square, Northwich, Cheshire, at around 3pm on Tuesday.

A spokesman for LCP said: 'As owners of Kingsmead Square, in Northwich, we are of course very disappointed to see that members of the emergency services have had an issue with a parking officer.

'LCP supports all of our emergency services, and their staff and vehicles are regular visitors to our shopping centres and retail parades across the UK, where they are always welcome.

'We employ Euro Parking Services (EPS) to manage the parking at Kingsmead Square to ensure that everyone that wants to shop can do so without any unnecessary hindrance while using the car park.

'On this occasion, we do not agree with the parking officers interpretation of the parking restrictions relating to emergency vehicles. A full review of the EPS contract will be undertaken at this site.

'In the meantime all enforcement and patrols at Kingsmead Square have been stopped and EPS will not be visiting site again pending completion of the review.'

How to beat a parking ticket? Fight it! (Half of drivers who contest fines win) Steep car parking fines are a modern day curse, raking in millions of pounds every year for private firms and cash-starved councils. Although car park operators are using increasingly sinister tactics to ensure these fines are paid, victims can hit back. About half of fines challenged are overturned. The latest trick being employed by firms is to pay the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency to provide private address details that can be traced from a car number plate. Armed with this information, the companies  running car parks at hospitals, shopping centres and restaurants  are sending threatening letters demanding up to 100 in fines. Last year, a record 4.7million people had their addresses bought for 2.50 a piece by car park operators, earning the agency almost 12million. Philip Gomm, of The RAC Foundation, says: Fines sent through the post often use intimidating wording and extortionate charges are often levied for minor infringements  such as accidentally overstaying in a car park by just a few minutes. Private companies earn an estimated 500million a year from issuing parking fines. While equivalent data is not available from councils, they pocket at least 750million from a combination of car parking charges and fines. Parking campaigner Barrie Segal, who runs website AppealNow, says: They are the modern-day version of Dick Turpin, acting like outlaws by making outrageously unfair penalty demands. It is a huge money-spinner for them. Key to the success of many car park operators is the use of bullying tactics. If you pay up in 14 days, they say, the penalty amount will be halved, panicking most motorists to foot the bill rather than fight a charge. There is also the threat of sending debt collectors round if a fine goes unpaid, though bailiffs cannot go knocking on a door without first going to court. What the parking attendants fail to reveal is that half of motorists who fight a fine eventually win. But you must arm yourself with information and have the stomach for a fight. PREPARE FOR APPEAL If you have been issued with a ticket you deem to be unfair do not hand over any cash. If you do, you are effectively admitting responsibility. While half of all appeals succeed, be prepared for a lengthy process. Jeanette Miller is managing director of national motoring law specialist Geoffrey Miller Solicitors. She says: It rarely pays to hire a lawyer in cases involving disputed car parking fines. But if you are aware of the law and do your homework it will boost your chances of success. She points out that The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 was introduced to stamp out car clamping. But as a concession to the car park operators, it paved the way for private firms to chase motorists using details gleaned from the DVLA. Under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, any sums demanded must be deemed fair and reasonable. But this still means an 85 fine for overstaying by a few minutes might be deemed fair in a court of law if it is seen as a legitimate deterrent. Miller, president of the Association of Motor Offence Lawyers, adds: Take time to prepare a case, do not just get angry. Revisit the car park, take photos, write targeted letters and be prepared to attend court. Advertisement

A spokesman for EPS added: 'On Tuesday, JUly 24, 2018, a PCN (Parking Charge Notice) was issued to an ambulance that was parked on double yellow lines at the Kingsmead Centre car park, whilst the ambulance crew were getting some refreshments in the vicinity.

'Euro Parking Services were contracted to remedy the issues this car park was facing, particularly the contravention of parking on double yellow lines.

'We have internal measures in place to intercept any wrongfully issued PCNs before they are processed.

'As a result, this PCN has been overturned by Euro Parking Services and we have spoken to the ambulance service this morning to offer our apologies and to reassure them that this matter will not be taken any further.

'We recognise that a mistake was made by our parking attendant and have taken immediate action to rectify this situation. In addition, we will be following our internal procedures to investigate this matter further with the warden concerned to ensure situations similar to this will not be repeated in future.

'The incident has highlighted the need to retrain our wardens on how to deal with members of the uniformed services, not least the ambulance services.

'Parking management plays an important role in improving this car park by making it safer and user friendly through the maintenance of the flow of traffic. Since we began managing this car park, we have seen positive results. For example, we have successfully reduced the number of vehicles parked on double yellow lines. We would like to reassure members of the public and our communities that as an organisation, we are committed to providing a first class and professional service.

'Euro Parking Services would like to offer its sincere apologies to the ambulance service concerned and to the crewmembers that were on duty at the time of this incident. To this extent, Euro Parking Services will be making a donation to the ambulance service as a gesture of our appreciation for the fantastic service they provide to our communities.'Advertisement

Scientists exploring the wreck of a ship which sank off the Kent coast claiming all 237 crew have found a cache of silver coins which had been sewn into the clothes of those who died.

The crew and cargo of the 18th-century Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship the Rooswijk were wrecked on the treacherous Goodwin Sands near Dover.

Maritime archaeologists have been diving on the site, 85ft down on the sea bed, continuing the excavations which started last summer, with the aim of revealing more of the ship's story.

The Rooswijk sank on the notorious sand bank - known as 'the great ship swallower' - in January 1740 with all 237 crew lost while carrying a cargo of silver ingots, cut stone and iron bars.

Scientists exploring the wreck of a ship, which they believe would have looked much like this one, pictured, that sank off the Kent coast claiming all 237 crew have found a cache of silver coins which had been sewn into the clothes of those who died

Maritime archaeologists have been diving on the site, 85ft down on the sea bed, continuing the excavations which started last summer, with the aim of revealing the ship's story. Coins found on the ship includes pieces of eight and roughly cut silver

Some of the coins found during the dives have small holes deliberately made in them, an indication that the crew sewed them into their clothes to smuggle to the Dutch East Indies

But archaeologists have now uncovered lots of other, older coins at the wreck site including ducatons from the Republic and the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium) that were not part of the sanctioned cargo.

This suggests that the Rooswijk's passengers and crew were carrying extra silver to trade illegally.

Other coins found during the dives have small holes deliberately made in them, an indication that the crew sewed them into their clothes to smuggle to the Dutch East Indies.

Concealing the coins in this way also kept them safely hidden from others on board.

At this time historians know people were smuggling silver in their shoes and belts, such was the demand overseas.

Archaeologists uncovered lots of other, older coins at the wreck site including ducatons from the Republic and the Southern Netherlands (now Belgium) that were not part of the sanctioned cargo - revealing that the sailors were smuggling them

These pewter spoons were also found during excavation works on the Rooswijk which sank off the Kent coast in 1740

The Rooswijk sank on the notorious sand bank - known as 'the great ship swallower' - in January 1740 with all 237 crew lost

Smuggling silver was officially prohibited by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) although it seems to have been common practice by many VOC personnel.

It's thought that by the time the Rooswijk went down, up to half of the money being transported on these ships was illegal.

The Rooswijk set off on its fateful last journey, from the Netherlands to Batavia, modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia, with a cargo of silver on board - all of it destined for trade in Asia.

The precious metal was in high demand and was exchanged for asian spices and porcelain. The value of the Rooswijk's known cargo is thought to have been more than 300,000 guilders.

Shoe parts found during excavation works on the Rooswijk. Researchers in the Netherlands have now been able to positively identify and name 19 of the 237 members of the Rooswijk's crew from documents held in Amsterdam archives

Musket balls found in the wreck. The Rooswijk set off on its fateful last journey, from the Netherlands to Batavia, modern-day Jakarta in Indonesia, with a cargo of silver on board - all of it destined for trade in Asia

Researchers in the Netherlands have also been able to positively identify and name 19 of the 237 members of the Rooswijk's crew from documents held in Amsterdam archives.

Until now it was only clear the Rooswijk was under the authority of skipper Daniel Ronzieres, as all other records of the crew and passengers were lost in the shipwreck.

Two tibia (leg bones) from two individuals have been recovered from the wreck and there is potential for more human remains to be found.

Dutch genealogists carried out new archive-based research and have been able to identify several more crew members for the first time, and a little more about their lives before tragedy struck.

The excavation of the Dutch ship which sank on the Goodwin Sands, off Kent, in January 1740. The Rooswijk was carrying a large cargo of silver ingots and coinage on board. All of the crew died during the sinking, 12 miles from the shore

Two tibia leg bones from two individuals have been recovered from the wreck, more human remains are expected to be found

A 'knee' - a huge piece of angled wood used to support the deck - has been uncovered and will be investigated and recorded to illustrate the enormous size of the ship. The team is working towards where the stern of the ship should be with dives continuing until mid-August

Those identified include a senior surgeon who travelled to the East and back several times named Gerrit Hendrik Huffelman.

19-year-old Thomas Huijdekoper was on his first VOC voyage and sailor Pieter Calmer had previously survived a shipwreck, The Westerwijk at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.

Experts know most of the men on board the Rooswijk were born in the Netherlands but there were also crew with German, Swedish and Norwegian backgrounds.

Several crew members of the Rooswijk have been identified thanks to transport letters in the Amsterdam City Archives.

An archaeological conservator with Historic England checks a sealed wooden chest recovered from the excavation

A pewter jug most likely used by officers, found on the ship. Experts know most of the men on board the Rooswijk were born in the Netherlands but there were also crew with German, Swedish and Norwegian backgrounds

Transport letters authorised someone to collect a part of a crew member's salary from the VOC.

It is known that VOC personnel used these letters because of a lack of cash or credit - they used them to pay for accommodation, buy supplies for the trip to Asia or exchange them for cash.

Other indivduals were found because they visited a civil-law notary before setting sail, such as writing a will.

These deeds contain the name of the ship on which the voyage was to take place, linking person and place.

Martijn Manders, project leader of Rooswijk1740, the archaeological project led by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, in collaboration with Historic England and contractor MSDS Marine, said: 'The Rooswijk is special because it tells us about ordinary people of that time, but also about entrepreneurship, and (trade) relationships that ensured connections between cultures all over the world.

'The finds help us tell the story of the people on board, we can relate specific personal objects to what they did in general: how they lived, what the circumstances were on board the ship.'

Conservation team members Elisabeth Kuiber and Eric Nordgren with finds including musket balls and a spoon from the ship

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: 'It's extraordinary that after more than 270 years we now know the names of some of the people who may have lost their lives with the Rooswijk.

'Sea-faring was a dangerous way of life and this really brings it home. The revelation that the Rooswijk was used to smuggle silver adds to our understanding of global trade at this time - we shall have to wait and see what else we might discover from this site in the coming months.'

Archaeologists are continuing to investigate the wreck and so far have found several personal items alongside boxes and barrels in the galley behind the main mast including a nit comb, lead cheese container, pewter vessels and a chest full of thimbles.

A 'knee' - a huge piece of angled wood used to support the deck - has been uncovered and will be investigated and recorded to illustrate the enormous size of the ship. The team is working towards where the stern of the ship should be with dives continuing until mid-August.

Material recovered from the wreck site is being taken ashore to a warehouse in Ramsgate where first-aid conservation will be carried out and the items fully recorded. From here finds will be taken to a Historic England storage facility where work to assess, analyse and conserve them will take place.

The finds will be returned to The Netherlands and in future some material may be made available for display in Ramsgate.An unnamed Sydney boat operator has been fined $15,000 after they were caught emptying the contents from the sewage tank of a luxury vessel into Sydney Harbour.

Two charter boats were grounded and inspected by Roads and Maritime (RMS) officials in June during a targeted compliance campaign in response to 'credible information received about potential safety breaches.'

'An inspection of the engine room revealed the overboard discharge valve from the vessel's sewage tank was secured in the 'open' position by a cable tie, and the sewage tank was empty  directly after the vessel had returned from a two-hour charter,' RMS executive director Angus Mitchell said.



The RMS has called boat vessel operators who operate in Sydney Harbour (stock image) to comply with strict safety standards

An inspection of a vessel's engine room revealed the overboard discharge valve from the vessel's sewage tank was secured in the 'open' position by a cable tie (pictured)

'This indicated that any toilet discharge was pumped directly overboard into the waters of Sydney Harbour.'

A department spokeswoman would not release the name of the boat operator to Daily Mail Australia.

Other safety breaches identified are being considered for other possible legal action by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

The operator now has 21 days to pay the $15,000 fine for the pollution offence.

Two boats were grounded for a number of days until safety improvements were carried out and verified by a marine surveyor.

Further action regarding other safety breaches (pictured) on the vessels are being considered

Along with the sewage issues, one of the vessels was found to not have a 'competent crewman' on board who also had no knowledge of the location of lifejackets or other safety equipment on board.

Deficient safety equipment included empty fire extinguishers, a life raft which was unable to float, out of date first aid kit and missing items.'

Of the 12,000 domestic commercial vessels in NSW, there are about 220 of this class of vessel in NSW with about 140 operating on Sydney Harbour.

The breaches occurred on Sydney Harbour (stock image)

RMS executive director Angus Mitchell (pictured) said there was nothing more serious to other boaters and marine life than breaches of safety and marine pollution legislation

'Maritime inspectors and surveyors take a risk-based approach and carry out regular inspections of high risk vessels, including targeted compliance of specific vessels as required, particularly after credible information is received by the agency,' Mr Mitchell said.

'All operators need to comply with strict safety standards which are in place to protect persons, property and the environment or face the consequences.'Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney today raised the prospect of Brexit being delayed as he insisted Britain 'can't afford' to crash out of the EU.

Mr Coveney dismissed UK planning for no deal as 'bravado' - suggesting that Theresa May will have to make more concessions to Brussels.

He also risked inflaming tensions with Mrs May by insisting Dublin would 'absolutely' back an extension to the Article 50 deadline of next March - something she has repeatedly ruled out.

The combative stance came as British and Irish ministers met to try to break the deadlock with less than 12 weeks until the effective deadline for getting an outline Brexit deal.

Officials are digging in for an attritional battle over the summer after Mrs May unveiled her Chequers proposals for future trade. They would see the UK obey a 'common rule book' with Brussels and collect some taxes on behalf of the bloc.

Simon Coveney (pictured right with Irish minister Charles Flanagan in Westminster today) dismissed UK threats to walk away without an agreement as 'bravado' - suggesting that Theresa May will have to make more concessions to Brussels

The Prime Minister used an interview today to defend ramping up planning for a failure to strike a deal

But Mrs May is also facing claims she is trying to 'scare people witless' with chilling warnings about the consequences of no deal so she can push through her plan for a soft departure.

Speaking after the meeting of the UK and Irish government consultation body, Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said he did not expect talks to fail.

WHEN WILL BRITAIN BE OUT OF THE EU? Britain triggered Article 50 on March 29, 2017, starting a two year process for leaving the EU: March 2018: Outline transition deal agreed, running for about two years June 2018: EU summit that Brussels says should consider broad principles of a future trade deal. October 2018: Political agreement on the future partnership due to be reached Early 2019: Major votes in Westminster and Brussels to ratify the deal March 29, 2019: Article 50 expires, Britain leaves the EU. Transition is expected to keep everything the same for about two years December 31, 2020: Transition expected to come to an end and the new relationship - if it has been agreed - should kick in Advertisement

But he insisted preparations for a disorderly Brexit were being conducted with 'vim and vigour'.

He added: 'You have to put vim and vigour into it because you want to make sure that you have thought through all potential problems and you have got a contingency plan, which in that situation would work and deliver the best outcome in those circumstances.'

Mr Coveney said he was not paying much heed to the debate about no deal.

'To to be honest with you, I think some of it is bravado,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'The truth is that I don't believe Britain can afford to have no deal on Brexit.'

Mr Coveney welcomed the PM's Chequers plan but indicated that some parts of it were likely to be too 'complex' for the EU to accept.

'I think it will be difficult to separate goods and services. If you look at a car, for example, today, a large part of that is services, as well as the physical components which are good,' he said.

He also said Ireland would 'absolutely' support any British request for an extension to the Article 50 process.

'If Britain asks for more time, and if that's necessary to get to a sensible agreement, well then we would support that,' Mr Coveney said.

On a visit to Belfast, Chancellor Philip Hammond ruled out seeking an extension of Article 50.

He highlighted that parliament had legislated for the current exit date. 'We don't have a legal basis now for extending our membership of the European Union even if we wanted to do so,' he said.

On a visit to the Bombardier factory in Belfast (pictured), Chancellor Philip Hammond ruled out seeking an extension of Article 50

Appearing before the cross-party Brexit Committee yesterday, Dominic Raab (pictured left) played down claims he had been demoted and Mrs May's top aide Olly Robbins (right) was really in charge

Mr Hammond also downplayed the prospect of a no deal scenario, claiming the 'early reaction' from Brussels to Mrs May's White Paper had left the UK 'well positioned to negotiate a good deal'.

The Chancellor said it was 'sensible and responsible' that the Government was working with industry to stockpile certain vital supplies for the event of a no deal.

Ministers last night confirmed that medicine was being stockpiled to ensure Britain has enough if there is a disorderly departure.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said that while the Government was not stockpiling food itself, it was taking steps to ensure enough would be available.

A slew of other 'technical' papers about the consequences of no-deal Brexit are expected to be released over the summer.

One ally of the PM told the BBC's Newsnight: 'We want to scare people witless so people will eventually embrace the Theresa May plan.'

Mrs May confirmed last night that she had taken personal charge of the negotiations, downgrading the role of Mr Raab and handing more powers to her aid Olly Robbins.

Under the changes unveiled by the PM, Mr Robbins' unit in the Cabinet Office will have 'overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations'.

Meanwhile, Mr Raab's Brexit Department will be in charge of domestic planning for implementing a deal and a no-deal scenario.

What is in Theresa May's Brexit blueprint? These are some of the key features of the Chequers plan being pushed by the UK government: A new free trade area in goods, based on a 'common rulebook' of EU regulations necessary. This will require the UK to commit by treaty to match EU rules

'Mobility' rules which will end automatic freedom of movement, but still allow UK and EU citizens to travel without visas for tourism and temporary work. It will also enable businesses to move staff between countries.

Continued UK participation in and funding of European agencies covering areas like chemicals, aviation safety and medicines

A 'facilitated customs arrangement', removing the need for customs checks at UK-EU ports. It would allow differing UK and EU tariffs on goods from elsewhere in the world to be paid at the border, removing the need for rebates in the vast majority of cases. This is designed to avoid the need for a hard Irish border. But in theory it still allows Britain to sign trade deals.

Keeping services - such as banking or legal support - outside of the common rule book, meaning the UK is completely free to set its own regulations. It accepts it will mean less trade in services between the UK and EU.

Continued co-operation on energy and transport, a 'common rulebook' on state aid and commitments to maintain high standards of environmental and workplace protections.

A security deal allowing continued UK participation in Europol and Eurojust, 'co-ordination' of UK and EU policies on foreign affairs, defence and development.

Continued use of the EHIC health insurance card. Advertisement

Mrs May said: 'I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf.'

Appearing before the cross-party Brexit Committee, Mr Raab was pressed on whether Mr Robbins was really in charge.

'There is no tension between us, I think that is clear,' he said.

More than 22 billion worth of processed food and drinks are imported in to the UK every year  97 per cent of it from the EU.

Challenged about reports of stockpiling food by MPs on the Brexit select committee, Mr Raab said: 'It would be wrong to describe it as the Government doing stockpiling.

What we will make sure  and of course the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate  but we will look at this issue in the round and make sure that there is adequate food supply.'

A spokesman for Mr Raab's department said this meant giving advice to food producers rather than taking charge of stockpiling itself.

Speaking in the House of Lords, Brexit minister Lord Callanan was dismissive of food stockpiling claims.

'I am not aware of any plans for stockpiling food. It seems to me to be a fairly ridiculous scare story,' he said. 'There are many countries outside of the EU that manage to feed their citizens perfectly satisfactorily without the benefit of EU processes.'

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said officials were looking at ways to stockpile drugs, medical devices and supplies.

He told the Health Select Committee that some hard-to-obtain medicines may have to be flown in to the country after Brexit Day in March next year

Mr Hancock said he was 'confident' a deal could be reached, but it was 'responsible' to prepare for a range of outcomes.

This includes working up options with industry to stockpile medical supplies if a deal cannot be reached, he told the health select committee.

'We are seeking to avoid a no-deal Brexit, I am confident that it can be avoided,' he said. 'But any responsible government needs to prepare for a range of outcomes, including the unlikely scenario of a no-deal.

'Since I have arrived in the department, I've asked this work to accelerate and I've met with industry leaders to discuss it.

'We are working right across Government to ensure that the health sector and the industry are prepared and that people's health will be safeguarded in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

'This includes the chain of medical supplies, vaccines, medical devices, clinical consumables, blood products. I have asked the department to work up options for stockpiling by industry.'Lee Savage (pictured) raped three women, with the first attack taking place months after he was found to have sent explicit images to a girl aged just 13

A serial rapist has been jailed for life after calling one victim he met through an online dating site she was his 'b****' and another that she must be 'punished'.

Lee Savage raped three women he met through the social network, subjecting them to what a judge called 'truly horrific ideals'.

The 'sexual sadist' sniggered at his first victim and raped her in her own home after making contact through Plenty of Fish.

Savage drove his second victim to secluded woodland near his home in Penrith, Cumbria, where he raped and sexually assaulted her.

The 25-year-old slapped the third woman across the face during their date, telling her: 'You are my b**** now, you have to know who's the boss.'

Despite denying the attacks throughout the case, he eventually pleaded guilty to five counts of rape, three of assault by penetration and two of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

Savage must serve a minimum of 11 years in jail after yesterday's sentencing at Carlisle Crown Court.

The first rape was committed less than four months after being handed a community order for sending explicit images to a 13-year-old girl he befriended over Facebook.

Prosecutor Tim Evans said Savage attacked the women between January 2015 and early 2018 and involved a string of degrading sex assaults.

'He was a man who got his kicks from being violent to - and dominating - women,' he said, adding that he 'threatened to batter' the second victim.

When the third begged him to stop, Savage said: 'Sorry babe, you have to know who is in charge and who's the boss.'

In an impact statement, one victim said she felt the rapist had 'violated my whole life'.

Another of the women - all of whom where from north-east England and Scotland - said: 'Lee Savage has ruined a lot of the last few years of my life. Because of what he has done I am often upset.'

Sentencing Savage, Judge James Adkin told him: 'You are, in my judgement, a sexual sadist.

'You present a clear and imminent danger to young women of causing serious harm by virtue of your disposition towards the rape, humiliation and degradation of your sexual partners.

'There are in this case, a multiplicity of victims, demonstrating a pattern of offending.'

Isla Chilton, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Savage only admitted the attacks in the face of 'overwhelming evidence'.

'Throughout the case he claimed that each of the women consented,' she said. 'However, we built a strong case against him which showed he threatened and used violence to force them into having sex with him.

'We also applied to the court to introduce bad character evidence, detailing how he sexually assaulted a fourth woman in Scotland in very similar circumstances.

Savage was jailed for life at Carlisle Crown Court (pictured) which heard the first rape took place just months after he was found to have sent explicit images to a 13-year-old

'Once faced with the overwhelming evidence against him, he was left with no other option than to plead guilty, albeit at the very last hour on the day of the trial.

'I would like to thank the victims for their immense courage in coming forward and giving evidence against him, which has helped us bring him to justice for his deplorable actions.'

Cumbria Police's Det Con Susanne Hayward said Savage is 'a highly dangerous individual who has no respect for women'.

'He subjected each of his victims to truly horrific ordeals,' she said. 'He would be persuasive and appear, when speaking online, a reasonable young man. This could not be further from the truth.

'He has shown no remorse for what he has done to these women. Even when being sentenced he showed no emotion at all.

'I would like to praise the bravery of the three victims. They have been so strong in disclosing what happened to them and have helped make sure that Savage cannot harm any other woman.

'If there is anyone who is a victim of any sexual offence I would urge them to contact us.'

She warned singletons to be wary when using online dating sites as colleagues praised the victims' bravery.

'There are those, such as Savage, that use them to commit crime,' she said. 'Make sure the person you are talking to is the person they say they are before meeting.

'When meeting for the first time, choose a public place and let a family member or friend know who you are meeting as well as when and where. If at any point you feel uncomfortable make your excuses and leave.'An aspiring male model stabbed himself to death in a fit of anger during a drunken argument with his girlfriend.

Elliott Bowes, 26, drove a knife into his own stomach at his flat in Preston after saying he feared 22-year-old Charlotte Hubbert would leave him, an inquest heard.

Police initially arrested Miss Hubbert on suspicion of murder but she was subsequently freed without charge when it was established she had done nothing wrong.

Mr Bowes, who had been drinking vodka at the time of the incident, was taken to Royal Preston Hospital but he died from his wounds the following day.

Elliott Bowes, an aspiring male model who suffered from depression, stabbed himself after a night drinking with his girlfriend, Charlotte Hubbert, his inquest has heard

Mr Bowes was a cleaner but hoped to be a model and actor and posted photos had appealed for work on the online talent directory Star Now.

Miss Hubbert told the coroner that on August 2 she and Mr Bowes had been drinking and enjoying pizza at their flat, but he later became angry and punched a wall.

Her statement said: 'I became scared and tried to leave but he hugged me and told me not to leave and then began looking for some knives.

'I tried to stop him but he pushed me out of the way and he grabbed a knife about five inches long and thrust it into his stomach.

'He said that I cared more about my friends than I did him. I attempted to stop the bleeding until the paramedics arrived and they took over.'

Mr Bowes' girlfriend said their relationship was loving but he had struggled with depression

Her statement continued: 'He did have some mental health issues he told me about. He was very depressed, and he told me that he wanted to self harm in the past.

'We were in a generally loving relationship. I was devastated about what happened and he was the best boyfriend I ever had. He was my rock.'

The inquest hearing was told Mr Bowes' parents had died and his aunt was the closest family he had.

He had a history of depression and anxiety and made threats to self harm with his aunt concerned he had 'been through a lot in his life.'

Toxicology tests showed Mr Bowes had 169 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mililitres of blood in his system. The alcohol limit for driving is 80mg.

He had hoped to get work as a model or TV extra and had advertised himself online

Recording a conclusion of death by self-inflicted stab wound, coroner James Newman said: 'Can I say that he stabbed himself with the intention of taking his own life? I am having difficulty with that.

'Elliott died as a direct result of a stab wound to his abdomen. I don't think it's an accident, but I don't think it is suicide either.

'He struggled with mental health issues and used mental health services. Tragically, we have heard he stabbed himself in his home. He lost a large amount of blood and his heart just gave out.

'I will conclude that Elliott Bowes died as a result of a stab wound to his abdomen. In terms of the circumstances, his anxiety and depression became very agitating to him on the night of August 2 2017. His agitation got to the point where he spontaneously stabbed himself with a kitchen knife.

'Despite the efforts of the paramedics and emergency surgeons at Royal Preston Hospital, Mr Bowes succumbed to his injuries on August 3.

'Mr Bowes died as a result of self inflicted stab wounds to the abdomen, however his intention is unclear in the evidence. I wish I could say that an inquest would wave a magic wand and make things better, but unfortunately it doesn't.'

For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local branch. See www.samaritans.org for details.Neighbours of a businessman accused of killing his wife and leaving her body to rot for eight months heard 'yelling and screaming' from their house, a court heard today.

Borce Ristevski, 54, allegedly killed Karen Ristevski at the couple's Avondale Heights home in June 2016 and dumped her body in the bush.

He is now facing a committal hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court to determine if there is enough evidence to send him to trial for murder.

Karen Ristevski's (pictured with daughter Sarah and husband Borce) death could have been caused by either blunt force trauma or strangulation

Nine days after Mrs Ristevski went missing, a neighbour told police they heard a loud argument coming from the home before she vanished, Detective Sergeant Graeme Hamilton told the court.



Hamilton did not suspect Mr Ristevski at that time but interviewed him anyway, reported news.com.

He told the court: 'When I spoke to Borce that afternoon, I wanted to cover off in my own mind, whether there were any arguments that may have caused (Mrs Ristevski) to leave or whether there was anyone else in the relationship.

The detective asked him: 'Borce, is there something you want to tell me? Good people make mistakes. Has something happened?'

The court later heard how, in the year leading up to her death, Mrs Ristevski's Melbourne dress shop was in a 'constant struggle' financially.

And only days after Ms Ristevski vanished, a new company directed by Borce Ristevski had begun operating, receiving the revenue of the fashion store Bella Bleu.

Ms Ristevski (pictured, left, with Borce, centre, and daughter Sarah, right) went missing from the couple's Avondale Heights home in Melbourne's northwest in June 2016

Borce Ristevski (centre right) the husband of missing Melbourne woman Karen Ristevski and their daughter Sarah pictured at a press conference in 2016

The couple were directors of a fashion boutique and at the time of the alleged murder the business appeared to be floundering.

'There was a constant struggle with sales revenue not able to meet business expenses,' Victoria Police forensic accountant Gerard Curtin told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

'If you can't cover your rent, wages and stock you're not going to be surviving and this business wasn't covering that.'

Karen Ristevski's (pictured with daughter Sarah) could have died from head injury, Professor Cordner said

Mr Curtin said a company called Warrant Brands, of which the Ristevskis were directors, had traded as the fashion store Bella Bleu.

But as of July 1, 2016 a new company called Envirovision, directed by Mr Ristevski with daughter Sarah as shareholder, had evolved.

'All the revenue from Bella Bleu was going into this company,' Mr Curtin said.

'As at June 30, Warrant Brands no longer has any income.

'I've got absolutely no idea why that would've occurred. It has no real impact on the liabilities of Warrant Brands.'

Karen and Borce Ristevski had sometimes argued about money, the court has been told.

But Sarah Ristevski gave evidence that her parents rarely fought and her father was 'never' aggressive towards her mother.

Prosecutors have previously said the Ristevskis were in a 'very serious' financial predicament at the time.

Ms Ristevski's body was found between two logs at Macedon Regional Park northwest of Melbourne about eight months after she vanished.

An autopsy could not ascertain a cause of death.

Ristevski was charged nearly a year later after a police investigation that involved phone taps, listening devices and CCTV footage analysis.

Detective say he used his wife's Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of her body, and CCTV footage allegedly captured the car on the day.Roseanne Barr will appear on Sean Hannity's Fox News show this week for her first broadcast interview after being sacked by ABC for a racist tweet.

Barr will react to reports about her tweet and be interviewed about President Trump on the show, which will be broadcast at 9pm ET on Thursday.

The main interview will take place live with additional portions to be broadcast the following evening, according to Fox.

Roseanne Barr will appear on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on Thursday for her first broadcast interview since being sacked by ABC

Barr delivered ABC's biggest hit of the year with her 90s sitcom revival, but saw it canned after she put out a racist tweet about Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett

Hannity secured the sit-down despite Barr saying just last week that she wouldn't do any more TV interviews because they're too 'stressful and untrustworthy'.

Barr delivered ABC's biggest hit of the year when she revived her working-class 90s sitcom Roseanne for the modern political climate earlier this year.

She even won praise from President Trump, who told supporters at his rallies to watch the show because 'it's about us'.

The network quickly renewed the Roseanne reboot for a second season, but reversed that decision just as quickly after Barr put out her tweet.

On May 29, Barr was responding to a tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett when she wrote: 'Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.'

The tweet prompted a storm of criticism and condemnation, including from the show's own cast and production team.

In the end, Roseanne was cancelled before reaching the end of its initial season.

In the tweet, which has since been deleted, Barr said Jarrett looked like the 'Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby'

Barr's appearance on Hannity comes despite her saying in a YouTube video released last week that she would not be doing TV interviews because they are 'too stressful and untrustworthy'

ABC subsequently announced it would be making a spin-off show but without the titular character.

Barr later deleted and apologized for the tweet, saying she was impaired by the sleep drug Ambien at the time she was posting.

But she has continued to deny comparing African Americans to apes, saying her words were misconstrued while using her own Jewish heritage to insist the she is also being victimized.

Last week she posted a video to her YouTube channel in which she claimed that she was fired 'because I voted for Donald Trump and that is not allowed in Hollywood.'

Barr, 65, then repeated claims that her tweet couldn't be racist because she thought Jarrett was white.

Barr said she told ABC executives that she would go any talk show they wanted and explain the situation to her audience but they fired her.

'Instead, 40 minutes after that my show was canceled before even one advertiser pulled out and I was labeled a racist,' Barr says.

Barr says the video is her 'official statement' on the incident and it will 'continue to be forever because it is the truth'.A mother who was desperately searching for her missing diabetic daughter has revealed the girl is back home in response to a concerned tweet from Danniella Westbrook.

Sharon Glendinning frantically appealed for help in finding her 13-year-old daughter Morgan, who hadn't been seen since Monday - the first day of the school holidays.

The EastEnders actress reached out to Sharon on Twitter on Tuesday asking if Morgan had been found yet, and the mother confirmed she was back home and safe.

Sharon Glendinning who was searching for her missing 13-year-old diabetic daughter Morgan (pictured together) informed a concerned Danniella Westbrook that she had been found

Her family feared the schoolgirl from Rushden in Northamptonshire travelled to London after meeting a person on Instagram

In the tweet, Danniella asked: 'Have you found your daughter?'

Sharon replied: 'Yes thank God she is now home and we giving her lots of hugs and busy sorting out her diabetes. Thank you x.'

Morgan's family feared the schoolgirl from Rushden in Northamptonshire travelled to London after meeting a person on Instagram.

Morgan is diabetic and was believed to have gone missing without taking her medication with her.

At the time when Morgan was missing, her distraught father Brian, 46, said: 'We don't exactly know why she has gone missing.'

The schoolgirl is diabetic and was believed to have gone missing without taking her medication with her

Sharon said when Morgan was still missing: 'This is my daughter she is believed to have travelled to London, possibly Ealing area.

He continued: 'She has been talking to different people on Instagram.

'She is very secretive about who she talks to. We think she might have met up with them on there.'

Sharon said when Morgan was still missing: 'This is my daughter she is believed to have travelled to London, possibly Ealing area.

'She is type 1 diabetic. With limited insulin and test strips and no hypo treatment.

'Please share for me we are distraught.'Advertisement

Eurasian beavers have been released in to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for the first time in around 400 years at an event attended by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

It is hoped that the two beavers' activity will improve biodiversity in their new 6.5-hectare home and may have the potential to reduce local flood risk.

Regular monitoring will continue on site at Greathough Brook throughout the three-year project to assess these ecosystem benefits.

The Eurasian beaver is a large semi-aquatic native mammal that was once widespread throughout Britain but was hunted to extinction by the beginning of the 16th century for its meat, fur and scent glands.

It is hoped the beavers will build a series of small natural dams to slow rainwater pouring down the steep hillsides and into Lydbrook, which has been prone to flooding in the past. Pictured: The beavers, in a crate, are carried to their new home

Eurasian beavers have been released into the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire in a bid to help the local ecosystem

It is hoped the beavers will create a natural system of dams and pools to slow the flow of water from courses such as the Greathough Brook which flows downhill through a valley and a series of culverts into the River Wye.

Mr Gove said: 'The beaver has a special place in English heritage and the Forest of Dean.

'This release is a fantastic opportunity to develop our understanding of the potential impacts of reintroductions and help this iconic species, 400 years after it was driven to extinction.

'The community of Lydbrook has shown tremendous support for this scheme and the beavers will be a welcome addition to local wildlife.

Eurasian beavers have been released in to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for the first time in around 400 years at an event attended by Environment Secretary Michael Gove (Pictured second from left in the pink shirt)

The Eurasian beaver is a large semi-aquatic native mammal that was once widespread throughout Britain but was hunted to extinction by the early 16th century for its meat, fur and scent glands. Pictured: The beaver checks out its new home

'The project is an example of our wider approach to enhancing biodiversity. It is another step towards our aim of leaving the environment in a better state for future generations.'

Kevin Stannard, from the Forestry Commission, said: 'We are looking forward to seeing the ecological and hydrological benefits the beavers will bring to the Greathough Brook.

'I am proud to have led the Forestry Commission team, and support their commitment to connect people with nature here in the Forest of Dean.'

Hydrologists from the University of Exeter are undertaking research into the impacts of beaver reintroduction at a number of sites in the UK, including the Forest of Dean.

The beavers are pictures settling in to their new home. It is hope they will mate and produce kits in the near future

It is hoped the beavers will create a natural system of dams and pools to slow the flow of water from courses such as the Greathough Brook which flows downhill through a valley and a series of culverts into the River Wye

Regular monitoring will continue on site at the brook throughout the three-year project to assess the ecosystem benefits

Professor Richard Brazier said: 'We have monitored the hydrology of the Greathough Brook for over a year now and shown quite clearly that the brook contributes to the flooding problems experienced in the village of Lydbrook.

'We now have a unique opportunity to study the impacts of beaver dams on the flood flows from this flashy and flood-prone landscape.

'The study will be a valuable and important opportunity to quantify the benefits that beaver dams might deliver and therefore contribute to natural flood management in an upland, wooded catchment.'

It is hoped the beavers will build a series of small natural dams to slow rainwater pouring down the steep hillsides and into Lydbrook, which has been prone to flooding in the past.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove oversees the release of a pair of beavers into the Forest. The beavers are enclosed in a vast area of forest to help with flood management

The area is already home to wild boar and wildlife experts are also looking at the re-introduction of species such as pine martens as natural methods of control.

Natural England granted Forestry Commission officials a licence to release beavers into the secure site so a team from the University of Exeter can monitor the hydrological and ecological data.

If the scientific data backs up the small scale trials, the Forest could prove the blueprint for reintroductions across the country as a natural method of flood control.Samantha McDermott said she is was 'unfit for work' and under 'stress'

A hospital receptionist who claimed more than 3,000 in taxpayer funded welfare payments using fake sick notes has escaped jail.

Samantha McDermott said she is was 'unfit for work' and under 'stress' after her 13-year-old son failed to get a place at his preferred secondary school.

The 50-year-old used her secretarial job at the hospital to forge sick notes which claimed she had severe depression and stress.

While McDermott took time off from her desk job at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, she worked for three private practices and still claimed the benefits.

The fraud carried on for 13 months before hospital colleagues noticed discrepancies in the notes and that they were not signed off by a GP.

The initial claims of depression and stress were deemed by the court to be valid.

But as she moved on to work for other private practices the sick notes lost their legitimacy.

McDermott admitted fraud by false representation and two offences of making an article used for fraud.

The 50-year-old used her secretarial job at the hospital to forge sick notes. The fraud carried on for 13 months before hospital colleagues noticed discrepancies in the notes and that they were not signed off by a GP

Sentencing Judge David Hernandez told McDermott: 'I am aware you were going through difficulties as your son did not go to his preferred high school and then he went to Ireland wherein you were separated from him,

'But that reason is unsatisfactory and you are now having to appear before a Crown Court.'

McDermott was slapped on the wrist with a 12 month community order, 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay back the cash at 200 a month.

In total she claimed sickness benefit of 3,128.66.A family returned home from trip to France to find a Sudanese stowaway had clung to the underside of their motor-home for four days.

The refugee snuck on board Mick and Lisa Patterson's camper van when she returned from a two-week family holiday on the continent.

The family believe the man clung to the axle near Caen in Normandy, then held on for the 200 miles to Calais, then during the cross-channel ferry trip, and then extra 100 miles back to their home near Colchester, Essex.

A family from Essex found this man had clung to the bottom of their camper van from France

The man had clung to the axle of the family's camper as they made their way back from France

When they returned to their rural home, they spotted the man looking lost on the street, and gave him a packet of Mini Cheddars and a bottle of Orangina while he waited for police and immigration authorities.

Recalling the moment they found the stowaway, Mrs Patterson said: 'My son said there was a black man walking down the street.

'We live in the sticks and no-one walks down here. I ran out and called him over. He was a really nice person from the English he spoke.

'We asked him how long he had been under there and he held his fingers up and said four. We said "four hours" and he said "no, days". We just couldn't believe it.'

'I was so shocked. I asked him to show me where he had been and he went back under and showed me, he had been balancing across the back axle.

'I couldn't believe it. I did feel sorry for him, he was totally lost.'

Tesco worker Mrs Patterson, 50, had been on holiday with farm manager husband Mick, 50, and student daughter Summer, 17, and family friends.

The family believe the 6ft man got into a three foot gap beneath their camper near Caen, when they saw another migrant trying to get in the back.

Left: Lisa and Mick Patterson with their daughter Summer during the holiday in France. The couple said the man was polite and did not try to run away after they rang police

The family believe the man got into the vehicle's undercarriage near the French city of Caen

Ms Patterson added: 'We had stopped at a supermarket near Port Caen and had something to eat in the car park.'.

'When I looked an immigrant was trying to get inside the van, we managed to pull him out.

'When we got to the port we had a little walk, then the next morning moved to a site two hours away.'

Mrs Patterson was amazed they had not been stopped on their way through the ports.

She said: 'I can't believe how we got through border control. There were police standing around but they didn't pull anyone over.'

This was the moment police arrived to arrest the man. The Home Office is dealing with him

This photo shows the small space next to the vehicle's axle where the man stowed away

Earlier this year, British lorry drivers have warned Caen had become 'the new Calais'.

They claimed the city is now the pressure point for illegal immigration after security was tightened at Calais.

A spokesman for the Home Office said: 'Immigration Enforcement was contacted by Essex Police. A male who claimed to be from Sudan was arrested for immigration offences.

'He was subsequently age assessed as a minor and passed into the care of social services. His case will be progressed in accordance with immigration rules.'A Thai man cut off his best friend's penis and tossed it to his dog to eat after his drunk mate 'tried to seduce' his sleeping wife.

Suwit Tipjantha, 39, had been drinking at the home of colleague Permsak Petprasert, 50, and another friend on Saturday night in Ratchaburi, Thailand.

But when the trio ran out of booze, Permsak and the third man went to buy more  leaving Suwit alone with his wife, Tin, 52.

The bus painter allegedly made a move on her as she slept by stroking her arm.

During a police re-enactment, Permsak Petprasert, in surgical mask, left, shows police officer where he threw his friend's penis. His wife, Tin, 52, in hat and black top, above, said that the victim had touched her arm while she slept

Police arriving at the home of Permsak Petprasert in Ratchaburi, Thailand

This startled Permsak's wife, and she ran outside, screaming to her husband who was just arriving back home.

A furious Permsak admitted to police that he knocked out Suwit with a hammer, and then chopped off his manhood with a fruit peeling knife before throwing the appendage outside for their pet dogs to eat.

The mutilated worker woke up in hospital the next day with no recollection of the events  or why he was missing his penis.

Permsak Petprasert, 50, in Puma top and surgical mask, pictured during a police re-enactment telling officers how he cut off his friend's penis after he tried to seduce his wife

Permsak Petprasert (Puma top, above) admitted knocking out Suwit Tipjantha with a hammer, and then chopping off his manhood with a fruit peeling knife before throwing it outside for their pet dogs to eat

Permsak told officers that after carrying out the attack, he instructed neighbours to drive the injured man in a pick-up truck to the Baan Pong Hospital

He told police: 'I was drinking beer and liquor with my friends. I don't remember anything else after that.'

Police arrested Permsak, who confessed to beating his friend with a hammer and cutting off his penis.

Permsak told officers that after carrying out the attack, he instructed neighbours to drive the injured man in a pick-up truck to the Baan Pong Hospital.

He said would 'do the same again' because Suwit had allegedly tried to have sex with his wife.

While being taken on a police re-enactment on Monday morning, he said: 'Me and another friend came back and my wife was screaming.

'She ran to me and said that Suwit had went into the room while she was sleeping and touched her.

'I shouted at him "what did you do to my wife?" I hit him with a hammer then took off his shorts and cut off his penis.

The 50-year-old told police 'I would do this again to protect my wife. This was his fault for trying to seduce her'

Police officers and forensic teams searched the premises for the missing appendage, to no avail

Police said that Permsak would be charged for physical assault leading to a serious injury of another person

'I would do this again to protect my wife. This was his fault for trying to seduce her.'

Police said that Permsak would be charged for physical assault leading to a serious injury of another person.

He is facing a prison term ranging from six months to 10 years.

Colonel Sakchai Intarapreecha from Baan Pong police said: 'The investigating officer is collecting evidence.

'Mr Permsak Petprasert has confessed and his wife said that the victim had been drunk and touched her arm while she was sleeping.

'Forensic teams have searched the area for the victim's penis but it is expected to have been eaten by dogs.'A tattooed thug who murdered his ex-girlfriend's 11-month-old son by snapping the boy's spine has been jailed for 30 years for the horrific and heartless crime.

Jason Noy, 28, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years in jail for killing the baby at their home in Paynesvill, eastern Victoria in July 2016.

Supreme Court Judge Paul Coghlan said innocent toddler Harro Dean was killed 'for no apparent reason,' the ABC reported.

Jason Noy, 28, (above) has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after he was found guilty of killing 11-month-old Harro Dean at their home in Paynesvill, eastern Victoria in July 2016

The court was told Noy, who was diagnosed with bipolar disease in 2013, had a rough childhood and was abused by his father.

Judge Coghlan said Noy 'grew up in an atmosphere of violence and fear' but 'he cannot accept the enormity of what he has done.'

The court heard Noy denied committing the crime and told the psychiatrist that if he did murder Harro he could not live with it.

Acknowledging Noy's mental health condition, Justice Coghlan told the court Noy's crime could not be pardoned and sentenced him to a minimum of 26 years in jail.

In April, the court was told Harro died as a result of severe internal bleeding before paramedics were called to the house Noy and Harro's mother Jamee Malcolm were living in about 7.30pm on July 5, 2016.

Harro was pale and non-responsive, and was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Prosecutor Andrew Grant told the court the baby suffered 'a constellation of injuries' which only Noy could've inflicted.

Forensic pathologist Heinrich Bower said Harro's injuries were so severe he would've bled out within 'tens of seconds, minutes at most'.

'It's very rare, we never see this,' he said.

Dr Bower added Harro would've been 'in excruciating pain' before he died.

The force needed to inflict Harro's injuries was 'at the farthest scale of severe, even past severe' Dr Bower said, which would've involved the hyper-extension of the child's back.

Paramedics were called to the house Noy and Harro's mother Jamee Malcolm were living in about 7.30pm on July 5, 2016

Noy denied hurting Harro, but Mr Grant said Noy's version of events were 'an elaborate lie'.

Noy said Harro was 'sort of cracking it' while he changed the child's nappy, and then he left him in his cot.

He claimed when he returned Harro was 'laying weird... like he was being strangled, but he wasn't'.

Noy and Ms Malcolm were in an 'unusual relationship', where they were no longer romantically involved but shared a bed and caring duties for Harro and his older sister.

Noy has so far spent 748 days in protective custody.

After Noy was sentenced to prison on Wednesday, Harro's great-grandmother Betty Bennett said she was very happy with the sentence.

'He deserved everything he got, he was my grandson,' she said.

In her victim impact statement, she said 'she could not believe anyone could do this.'

'I feel sick when I think about it, and I think about it all the time.'Claire Ashman has revealed the struggle of entering society after courageously fleeing a doomsday cult led by a convicted rapist who called himself 'Little Pebble'.

The 48-year-old escaped the Order of St Charbel, headed by William Kamm, on the New South Wales south coast with her eight children in 2006 after a decade inside.

But it was finding out who she was in a world dominated by media, from which she had been completely removed, that proved the biggest 'smack in the face', she told the Today show.

Claire Ashman (pictured second from right) has revealed the struggle of entering society after courageously fleeing a doomsday cult led by a convicted rapist who called himself 'Little Pebble'

The 48-year-old escaped the Order of St Charbel, headed by William Kamm, on the New South Wales south coast with her eight children in 2006 after a decade inside. (Ms Ashman pictured in cult)

Belonging to the secretive cult meant taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, attending prayers three times a day and living under strict rules, Ms Ashman said.

When she broke free, she had trouble working out who she was outside the reclusive sect, which preached about how those not in the cult needed conversion.

'I didn't know who Claire was. There was Claire as the person and then mum. I still had all of these kids and went on to be a solo mum for eight years,' she told the program.

'Trying to bring up those kids correctly and then trying to find out who I was, was always a real balancing act.'

It was finding out who she was in a world dominated by media, from which she had been completely removed, that proved the biggest 'smack in the face' (younger Ms Ashman with kids)

Belonging to the secretive cult meant taking vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, attending prayers three times a day and living under strict rules, Ms Ashman said (chapel pictured)

Eventually her clan, which broke away from the cult following a confrontation with Kamn, learned about pop culture and caught up on the things it missed out on.

'Ultimately, my kids and I caught up together on fashion and movies and music and world events and everything else in between. It was a long journey and I've grown a lot,' Ms Ashman said.

'It was very awkward for us, it was very difficult to make any friendships because we were so different.

'We didn't know anything that was going on in the outside world and had been taught that the outside world needed converting.'

When she broke free, she had trouble working out who she was outside the reclusive sect, which preached about how those not in the cult needed conversion (members of cult pictured)

She has since remarried and now lives in Brisbane where she continues to share her story in an effort to help people still trapped in cults around Australia (couple pictured)

A year after Ms Ashman (right) left the cult, Kamm was found guilty and imprisoned over the sexual and indecent assault of a 15-year-old

Pictured as a child Ms Ashman believes if her parents had allowed her to live a normal life she wouldn't have become involved in Kamm's organisation

Ms Ashman said it was when she challenged Kamm over him ordaining married men as priests and bishops, which she knew went against rules of the Catholic Church, that she managed to break away.

'Because he was paying the mortgage on the house that we were in, he funnelled that money into his court case, thereby getting rid of a problem  that was me, and we got evicted by the local sheriff.'

A year after Ms Ashman left the cult, Kamm was found guilty and imprisoned over the sexual and indecent assault of a 15-year-old.

She has since remarried and now lives in Brisbane where she continues to share her story in an effort to help people still trapped in cults around Australia.

Growing up Ms Ashman rarely saw anyone who was not associated with her parent's religious sect - the family lived on a property 20kms from town

Ms Ashman (pictured) said it was when she challenged Kamm over him ordaining married men as priests and bishops, which she knew went against rules of the Catholic Church, that she managed to break away

Ms Ashman with her son. The woman lived under Kamm's law for nearly a decade before escaping

'I had no one to hold my hand and hold my heart when I was walking through this journey, I went through it the hard way, the long way, and I've come out the other side. I've had women contact me from all around the world thanking me for being an inspiration and for speaking out.'

Ms Ashman first became a member of the cult in 1997 after her then husband became obsessed with the cult leader's way of life.

'My ex-husband wanted to move to the country and to become self-sufficient, I did not want this but came from a very religious family where I learnt the husband was the head of the house,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'He went to meet Kamm and came back insisting we move from Melbourne to Nowra to join his organisation.'

The 48-year-old escaped the Order of St Charbel, headed by William Kamm (pictured), on the New South Wales south coast with her eight children in 2006 after a decade inside

Kamm told his followers he spoke with the Virgin Mary and she had chosen him to repopulate the earth after the apocalypse.

This message appealed to Ms Ashman's now ex-husband so he sold the family home and forced his wife and children to move to the leader's property.

'Ultimately my ex-husband wanted to be living in a where everybody held the same beliefs and we all did the same thing every day.'

The forced move into the hands of the paedophile preacher was not Ms Ashman's first dealing with religious cults  her parents brought her up in a very strict religious sect known as The Society of St Pius X.

Her upbringing was very sheltered. From the age of seven she was home schooled on her parent's property 20kms from Ballarat in Victoria.

Eventually her clan (pictured), which broke away from the cult following a confrontation with Kamn, learned about pop culture and caught up on the things it missed out on

When she broke free, she had trouble working out who she was outside the reclusive sect, which preached about how those not in the cult needed conversion (Ms Ashaman pictured)

Ms Ashman met her first husband at home  he had come to stay with the family to help with home schooling Ms Ashman and her siblings.

When Ms Ashman was 18 she married the then 31 year old and moved to Melbourne.

For eight years the couple lived out of reach of the religious sect which had dictated Ms Ashman's childhood. But then they moved to Kamm's cult.

'As soon as I saw that place I hated it  I knew something wasn't right,' she said.

'He had set up his cult on a 40 acre caravan park  he kept the licence so he was allowed to have so many people living there at once.

'It was surrounded by barbed wire  my husband and I lived in a house next door with our children. It was surrounded by barbed wire fences as well. We were told it was to protect us from the outside world.'

Ms Ashman had to wear religious garb during her time at the notorious cult  which reminded her of the strict dress-code she had been forced to follow for the first 18 years of her life.

The young woman, pictured her with her daughters, was made to wear long sleeved shirts and long dresses growing up as part of the cult's rules

The young mother was brought up in a staunch religious sect - she describes as being an open cult and married her husband when she was 18

Ms Ashman (pictured) said it was when she challenged Kamm over him ordaining married men as priests and bishops, which she knew went against rules of the Catholic Church, that she managed to break away

Kamm disguised himself as a religious man put on god's earth to do work for the Virgin Mary.

But Ms Ashman who was brought up under the religious law noticed Kamm didn't have to abide by the same strict rules as everyone else in the cult.

'There was no sex before marriage, no dancing or drinking to entice men,' she said.

'Yet Kamm was having sex with up to 10 women at any time that I know of  including his wife and girls as young as 16.

Ms Ashman couldn't think of anything worse than Kamm's eyes being set upon one of her eight children.

She argued discrepancies in the rules to Kamm in a series of letters and was seen as a 'trouble maker' by many in the cult.

The woman said she never wanted to join the cult but followed her husband as she was taught he was the head of the house

A year after Ms Ashman (pictured with husband) left the cult, Kamm was found guilty and imprisoned over the sexual and indecent assault of a 15-year-old

Ms Ashman pictured at her first communion, knew the way Kamm lived his life was not the way described in the scriptures, when she asked him about it he labelled her a trouble maker

Ms Ashman at her first wedding. She was just 18 - her husband was 31 and had worked as her teacher, boarding at the family home as they were home schooled

The apocalypse was first supposed to occur with comet Hale-bop in 1997, another big event was the turn of the century  every time the world failed to end Kamm had an excuse.

'He would tell his followers that we had been spared by the mercy of god and that enough people had prayed at the right time to stop the apocalypse from happening.

Ms Ashman left the cult before her eldest daughter turned 16. But she didn't realise Kamm had been grooming girls before they turned 16 until he was charged with having sex with someone underage.

This denial echoed her ex-husband's views on the paedophile leader years before when Ms Ashman had brought up her issues with Kamm's sexual behaviours.

Ms Ashman believes there to be about 3000 cults currently operating in Australia. Some from isolated properties where people all live together and others in situations where the families live alone and only communicate with other group members, like in her childhood.

Kamm was jailed for nine years in 2005  and continues to run a website devoted to his ideas and teachings.Police are today searching a shabby caravan close to woodland where a baby was dumped after birth three months ago as they arrested her parents for murder.

Baby Pearl was found naked with no nappy or blanket by a dog walker just after 7am on April 4 in Bluebell Forest in Heywood, Greater Manchester.

Today, a 48-year-old man and a 33-year-old woman, have been arrested on suspicion of murder, concealing a birth and preventing a lawful burial.

Police sources confirmed to MailOnline that they are Pearl's parents and the couple remain in custody for questioning while officers searched units near the woodland.

Activity focused on a caravan on the Britannia industrial estate in Heywood this afternoon before it was towed away for forensic testing.

A mechanic at Keith Wood Motors claimed they had allowed the owner to store the vehicle there around 12 months ago but rarely saw him and didn't see a pregnant woman there.

This caravan appeared to be at the centre of the searches and was later towed away for forensic testing

A police officer brought a pink Moses basket from home to carry away the child, who police believe may have still been alive when she was tossed down the rocky slope

The Britannia industrial estate in Heywood is close to where the baby's body was found

Police erected a large cordon around an industrial unit as they search a property for evidence linked to Pearl's murder

The man, who did not wish to be named, said: 'He came here about 12 months ago and asked to keep his caravan here.

'I didn't think he was living in the caravan, he never took it out. It just sat in the same spot.

Detective Chief Inspector Lewis Hughes (pictured) and his team have spent four months trying to find Pearl's parents

'We lock the site in the evening so he would only have had access to it while the garage was open. I don't know his name.'

Detectives named the poor child Pearl, meaning precious, because they felt it was important for her to have an identity after such a short, tragic life.

Her tiny body was removed in a pink Moses basket by a female officer who brought it from home to give the child some dignity.

Forensic examinations determined the baby was born with a congenital defect that resulted in her missing two ribs and officers suggested the abandoned infant may be the product of rape or incest.

In the past three months, officers have been following extensive enquiries including DNA analysis to find out exactly what happened to Pearl.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes, who headed up the Major Incident Team investigation, said: 'This continues to be an incredibly heart-breaking case for everyone involved - from the detectives working painstaking hours to find those responsible to members of the public that have felt the loss of Pearl.

'While we have two people in custody, our investigation is still very much ongoing and I would continue to urge anyone with even the smallest piece of information - no matter how insignificant it may seem - to please get in touch.

'We're committed to finding the truth for this little girl and truly believe the public could hold the key to this tragic case.'

A shrine left for Pearl was made by locals in Heywood woodland in April as police traced and arrested her parents today

Flowers and cards have been left where the child lay and the person who found her has been left bereft, police said

Detectives believe the baby was carried up a hill in the Roch Valley Woods then rolled down a steep rock face into bushes, possibly while still alive.

Police were forced to abseil down to retrieve the newborn's body.

She was found abandoned, unclothed, with no blanket or nappy.

Detectives drafted in a behavioural psychologist and made numerous public appeals for information to try to identify her.

A relative of the woman whose dog found the body said the woman 'has not stopped crying since.'

'It was an horrific sight. Something nobody should ever have to see,' they added.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0161 856 4810 or 07387 705 768 quoting incident number 368 of 04/04/18. Reports can also be made anonymously through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.A veteran Labour MP who accused Jeremy Corbyn of being a 'racist anti-Semite' had 'completely misunderstood' the party's new rules, John McDonnell said today.

The shadow chancellor rebuked Margaret Hodge for 'haranguing' Mr Corbyn amid a furious backlash at the code of conduct on anti-Semitism.

Dame Margaret - who is herself Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust - has refused to retract her comments.

But she is facing a disciplinary probe for 'abusive conduct' and been warned again 'any further behaviour of a similar nature'.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell rebuked Margaret Hodge for 'haranguing' Mr Corbyn amid a furious backlash at the code of conduct on anti-Semitism

Veteran Labour MP Margaret Hodge - who lost family members in the Holocaust - has been facing a disciplinary probe for berating Mr Corbyn as an 'anti-Semitic racist'

Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Dame Margaret's outburst was 'out of character' and she was 'extremely angry and lost her cool' when she confronted Mr Corbyn.

'Of course he was upset, I think Margaret was upset as well,' said the shadow chancellor.

'Jeremy was deeply upset because, when you have someone haranguing you in that way, of course it's upsetting. Those sorts of accusations, when he has worked so hard on the issues of anti-Semitism and anti-racism, of course he's upset.'

Why does the Labour document trigger new controversy? Labour's new rules on anti-Semitism are based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The party said they are the 'most detailed and comprehensive guidelines on anti-Semitism adopted by any political party in this country'. But it has sparked further controversy, as it omits four behaviours identified as anti-Semitic by the IHRA, including: Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country;

Claiming that Israel's existence as a state is a racist endeavour;

Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations; and

Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis. Advertisement

Mr McDonnell said Dame Margaret's concern was based on a misunderstanding of the code agreed by Labour's ruling National Executive Committee.

'I realised there was a complete misinterpretation of the code, so I can understand why she was so angry if that's what she believed this code had done,' he said.

'I think it's a complete misunderstanding and we can resolve this amicably and move on.'

Mr McDonnell said Mr Corbyn agreed that the case should be settled swiftly rather than subjected to the full disciplinary process.

'At the weekend I spoke to Jeremy and said we've got to resolve this matter quickly,' said Mr McDonnell.

'He said, yes, we've got to do that, and he's asked the chief whip and general secretary to try to sort this out.

'We want it resolved amicably and I think that can be done.'

He insisted that neither he nor Mr Corbyn could get involved in the disciplinary process overseen by Ms Formby and chief whip Nick Brown.

And he said he did not know who had initially reported Dame Margaret's behaviour, saying only that 'a range of complaints came in'.

But shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith waded into the row by saying the idea Dame Margaret could be disciplined was 'absurd'.

'The idea that Jeremy would want to set up an atmosphere in the party where people couldnt go and say things to him is completely absurd,' she told the BBC.

'Its just not his way of dealing things. I think wed all prefer to have somebody speak to your face rather than behind your back.

'Its important that we have those discussions and if it means we need to do a lot more work to get things right lets do it.'

Labour MPs agreed on Monday to stage a vote in September on whether to accept the new code, which has come under fire because its list of anti-Semitic behaviours omits a number of examples included by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Mr Corbyn (pictured at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival at the weekend) has been blamed for allowing a wave of anti-Semitism to take hold in the Labour Party

The party insists that the examples, mostly relating to criticism of the state of Israel, are dealt with elsewhere in the document.

Mr McDonnell said it would be 'mistaken' to think that Mr Corbyn's long association with pro-Palestinian campaigns should raise questions about his commitment to fighting anti-Semitism.

After initially stumbling over his words and describing Labour as 'a party that is anti-racist and anti-Semitist', he told Today: 'We are are against anti-Semitism, we are a party that attacks anti-Semitism wherever it is, either in our party or in our community.

'We are going to tackle this and we will lead that campaign to ensure that Jewish people are respected and feel safe within our community.

'Jeremy is as committed to that as anyone else within our party and anyone else within our community.'A Belgian anaesthetist has been charged with the manslaughter of a British woman in France after allegedly botching a caesarean section while drunk.

Expat Xynthia Hawke, 28, from Somerset, died shortly after giving birth to her baby son Isaac at the Kappa Clinic near Bayonne, southwest France, in September 2014.

Her son survived and is now being raised by her bereaved French partner.

Helga Wauters, 47, who could face up to five years in jail, was accused by investigators of being a chronic alcoholic

Expat Xynthia Hawke, 28, from Somerset, died shortly after giving birth to her baby son Isaac at the Kappa Clinic near Bayonne, southwest France, in September 2014

Her son survived and is now being raised by her bereaved French partner (left). He is named Isaac

Ms Hawke, who worked as a recruiter for businesses looking for multi-lingual employees, updated friends on her pregnancy using social media

Helga Wauters, 47, who could face up to five years in jail, was accused by investigators of being a chronic alcoholic.

The clinic for which she worked in the Pyrenees town of Orthez has also been placed under formal investigation.

Prosecutors in France allege that Wauters was sacked by a Belgian hospital in 2013 over an error made during a caesarean because of drinking, The Telegraph reported.

She was sacked by another hospital a year later when colleagues claimed they could smell alcohol on her while an epidural was administered.

Wauters has previously admitted having a pathological problem with alcohol.

During Ms Hawke's caesarean, Wauters administered the first dose of anaesthetic and then left to drink with her friends.

When she returned, colleagues said she smelled of alcohol.

She struggled to insert Ms Hawke's breathing tube and accidentally placed it in her esophagus - the canal which connects the throat to the stomach - rather than her windpipe.

She was then starved of oxygen, suffered a heart attack, went into a coma and died four days later.

Pictures show her beaming during her travels through France

Wauters was working despite difficulties with expression, comprehension and reactivity, according to a local prosecutor.

When questioned on the day Ms Hawke died, Wauters was found to have 216milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood  the equivalent of four bottles of wine.

Staff said she was slurring her words to the extent that she could not be understood and she did not seem to understand what people were saying, a source added.

The lawyer for the Labat Clinic said he would try to have the charges dismissed, as in 2017 during a previous case against the medical centre.

Ms Hawke grew up in North Petherton, Somerset, where she excelled at her comprehensive, Haygrove School, and won a prize for outstanding achievement in GCSE French.

She holidayed in France with her parents Fraser and Clare and her older sister Iris before moving to Paris to study at the University of London Institute.

Ms Hawke, who worked as a recruiter for businesses looking for multilingual employees, updated friends on her pregnancy using social media.

Pictures show her beaming during her travels through France. In one, she smiles widely in front of a setting sun with a fan cooling her face.A Brexiteer Tory MEP today suggested Remainers who show 'extreme loyalty' to the EU should be covered by an overhaul of treason laws.

David Campbell-Bannerman accused Remain supporters who were 'actively working undemocratically' against the UK of being similar to 'extreme jihadis'.

His comments came after a think tank backed by cross party MPs today suggested renewing treason laws to ensure they cover Britons who travel abroad to join terror groups and those who help rogue states like Russia.

Policy Exchange warned a wave of terrorists is coming up for release and claimed the country would be safer if they had been jailed for betrayal.

Treason laws, which date back to 1351, are now unworkable, the report - whose authors include Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat and Labour MP Khalid Mahmood - said.

Brexiteer Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman (pictured right with former Ukip leader Paul Nuttall) today suggested Remainers who show 'extreme loyalty' to the EU should be covered by an overhaul of treason laws

Mr Campbell-Bannerman - who defected to Ukip between 2004 and 2010 backed the change.

And he suggested it go a step further, writing: 'It is about time we brought the Treason Act up to date and made it apply to those seeking to destroy or undermine the British state.

'That means extreme jihadis. It also means those in future actively working undemocratically against UK through extreme EU loyalty.'

Mr Campbell-Bannerman later clarified that political differences were 'clearly' not the same as terrorism, but continued: 'If we have a new Treason Act what should it cover?

'Undermining the nation's interests in surely an extreme manner only.'

The last person to be convicted under the Treason Act was William Joyce, more commonly known as Lord Haw-Haw, who was hanged in 1946 for assisting Nazi Germany.

Alexanda Kotey (pictured left) and Shafee El-Sheikh (pictured right) will be tried in US courts for their role in ISIS related activities. A reformed treason law could have allowed the former British citizens to be tried here

In a foreword to the report, former lord chief justice of England and Wales Lord Judge wrote: 'If a citizen of this country chooses to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan against British forces, his crime is more than terrorism.

'It is treason, and should be prosecuted accordingly.'

It comes amid the furore over the Government's decision to drop death penalty objections in the case of two men accused of being members of an Islamic State, also known as IS or Isis, cell who face being sent to the US for trial.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said: 'The law must be written to ensure (traitors) can be stopped and their betrayal is recognised as a distinct crime'

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who are understood to have been stripped of their British citizenship, are said to have been members of the brutal four-man Beatles group of IS executioners in Syria and Iraq.

'This new offence would also provide a suitable ground on which to prosecute Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, the most high profile British subjects to have joined Isis and two of the so called 'Beatles', whom, surprisingly, it seems our authorities do not otherwise intend to prosecute,' the report said.

Some 193 offenders were jailed between 2006 and 2017 for terrorism offences, and more than 80 of them are due for release before the end of the year, according to the right-leaning think tank.

'If they had been convicted of treason and imprisoned for life, the UK would be considerably safer,' the report said.

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said: 'Punishing treason properly is important to signal clearly that our communities condemn betrayal.

'Sentencing traitors to life imprisonment would recognise the gravity of the wrong they have committed and would help protect the public.'

The last Briton to be convicted for treason was William Joyce (pictured right), more commonly known as Lord Haw-Haw, who was hanged in 1946 for assisting Nazi Germany

The UK's terror laws fail to recognise the 'wrongfulness of betrayal', according to the report.

Any new offence should cover the actions of British citizens overseas, it said.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said: 'British citizens who aid groups like Isis, groups that intend to carry out attacks against the UK, or against UK forces are deployed abroad, betray our country and should be condemned.

'The law must be written to ensure they can be stopped and their betrayal is recognised as a distinct crime.'A dead banker's lover has won a fight to keep her 2.2million share of a Belgravia mansion he sold two weeks before he died after a bitter legal battle with his wife.

Hilary Harrison-Morgan was awarded the hefty sum on Tuesday after the dispute with her late lover Rainer Kahrmann's Swiss socialite wife, Christiane De Muller.

The banker died of a pulmonary embolism in July 2014, and Ms Harrison-Morgan, who is in her late 50s, is mother to his twin boys, Fred and Max, aged 16.

Ms Harrison-Morgan not only won her share of the mansion, but Ms De Muller will have to foot most of her legal costs, plus her own, amounting to 900,000, reported the Daily Express.

Hilary Harrison-Morgan (left) won a legal battle against her late lover's wife Christiane De Mulller, (right) over a 2.2million check for the sale of a Belgravia mansion

The centre of the dispute involves a property in Wilton Crescent, Belgravia (pictured)

Ms Harrison-Morgan was unable to touch the 2.2million check after the legal drama began in December 2014.

She revealed she had to take out a six-figure loan and rely on the generosity of her friends to get by.

Speaking to the Daily Express, Ms Harrison-Morgan said: 'I'm very relieved.

'I'm super happy for my children and I'm very proud of my barristers and lawyer.'

Also embroiled in the legal drama were Rainer Kahrmann's daughters Louise and Alice, who wanted a portion of the sale of the home.

Ms Harrison-Morgan added: 'I have never had anything against the girls, whom I'd previously regarded as my daughters. I just think they have been very badly advised.'

Christiane De Muller with her financier husband, Rainer Kahrmann, in 1982. The High Court heard the couple had been separated for 'many years' before he died

Mr Kahrmann, a highly successful investment banker, died aged 71, and had lived in London until 2003, but returned to his native Germany over financial pressures.

He was also an expert on clocks and a member of the Royal Horological Society.

He and Ms Harrison-Morgan lived together in the two-storey maisonette, in Belgravia, west London, and raised their twin sons there.

The court battle concerned a 'highly complex' transaction carried out less than two weeks after Mr Kahrmann's death - involving the sale of the Belgravia home and an adjoining property.

Both properties were partly owned by Mr Kahrmann, and the sale of his stakes in them generated a profit of 4.4million.

Ms De Muller's daughter's Alice (left, arriving at court) and Louise (right) gave evidence in the lengthy court battle

Of that total, 2.2million was received by Ms Harrison-Morgan, while the remaining 2.2million flowed back into Mr Kahrmann's estate, the court heard.

But Ms De Muller's lawyers argued that the cash was 'wrongly paid' to her husband's ex-partner and she is obliged to refund every penny to the estate.

Ms Harrison-Morgan's twin sons both stand to inherit from Mr Kahrmann's estate - as do Ms De Muller and her daughters, Alice and Louise.

But Ms Harrison-Morgan 'received nothing' and claimed she was entitled to hold onto the 2.2million, said her lawyer Clifford Darton.Jason Spencer, the Georgia lawmaker who used a racial slur on Sacha Baron Cohens show Who is America? has announced his resignation and will step down at the end of the month, according to a spokesman for Georgia House Speaker David Ralston.

In the second episode of the Showtime and Channel Four series, the British actor and comedian poses as an Israeli military expert and encourages Jason Spencer to participate in a number of activities, one of which being the creation of a counter-terrorism video.

After Baron Cohen told Rep. Spencer that using the n-word is a useful tactic for attracting the attention of bystanders to an attack, the Republican dropped his trousers and underwear to expose his backside in an attempt to incite fear within homophobic jihadists.

House Speaker David Ralston called for Jason Spencers resignation after the episode was aired and in a statement, the former Representative was forced to apologise after he initially refused to step down. But who is Jason Spencer?

Jason Spencer, the Georgia lawmaker who used a racial slur on Who is America?, will resign

Who is Jason Spencer?

Jason Chauncey Spencer, born November 14, 1974 in Nebraska, graduated with a degree in exercise and sport science from the University of Georgia, after multiple transfers, in 1997. After training as a physician assistant, he received a second degree from South University in Savannah.

Spencer was first elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 2010 after beating Cecily Hill in a primary and went on to be re-elected in 2012, 2014 and 2016. In 2018, he was challenged by newcomer Steven Sainz and lost.

As a Representative, Spencer was involved in a number of controversial policies: he opposed the Affordable Care Act, sought to block the Medicaid expansion and the state of Georgia from establishing an insurance marketplace.

The Republican lawmaker also withdrew proposed legislation to ban women from wearing burqas in public in Georgia and submitted a bill, which would have made an old anti-masking statute originally aimed at the Ku Klux Klan applicable to Muslim women.

The bill required Muslim women to remove veils and burqas when posing for drivers license photos and would have essentially banned them from wearing the religious garments anywhere in public. In a statement, Spencer said that he would withdraw the bill if political forces were too strong against it.

Jason Spencer dropped his underwear in an attempt to incite fear within homophobic jihadists

While this bill does not contain language that specifically targets any group, I am mindful of the perception that it has created. My objective was to address radical elements that could pose a threat to public safety.

However, further consideration dictates that other solutions will need to be considered. He also went on to deny that the bill seeks to ban all Muslim women from wearing burqas in public and said that it was a public safety issue, because it can obstruct the view for drivers behind the wheel.

In 2017, Spencer told a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives that she would be killed and thrown in a swamp if she supported the removal of Confederate statues.

In response to the former black attorney LaDawn Jones, he wrote: Continue your quixotic journey into South Georgia and it will not be pleasant. The truth. Not a warning. Those folks wont put up with it like they do in Atlanta. It best you move on.

He continued to say: I can guarantee you wont be met with torches but something a lot more definitive. People of South Georgia are people of action, not drama.

Spencer then said that those in support of removing the statues will go missing in the Okefenokee [swamp]. Too many necks they are red around here. Dont say I didnt want you about em.

In 2017, Spencer told a former member of the Georgia House of Representatives that she would be killed and thrown in a swamp if she supported the removal of Confederate statues

Jason Spencer on Who is America?

After being coaxed by Sacha Baron Cohen, Jason Spencer was slammed after taking off his trousers and repeatedly using the n-word on a episode of Who is America? and has now announced his resignation.

According to a letter, the Georgia lawmaker submitted to the House Speaker David Ralston, his resignation will take effect from July 31, as reported on CNN after he appeared on the new show alongside the British actor, who was playing an Israeli anti-terrorist expert called Colonel Erran Moran.

The scene started off with Baron Cohen questioning Spencer about the burqa ban to which he replied: I dont call it a burqa ban, I call it an anti-masking statute. The Republican then engaged in a series of alleged anti-terrorism exercises, one of which was supposedly a way of attracting attention during an ISIS kidnapping attempt.

In one segment, Spencer stripped off to ward off a potential ISIS member with gay panic

Baron Cohen said: In America there is one forbidden word. It is the n-word, and after Spencer yelled the slur, the actor responded asking the lawmaker if he was crazy? The n-word is noonie! Not this word. This word is disgusting.

Following this, Sacha Baron Cohen also got Spencer to imitate an Asian accent after asking him to pretend he was a tourist trying to take a photo under a persons burqa and went on to drop his trousers to use your buttocks to intimidate ISIS.

After removing his trousers, he runs backwards to ram his buttocks into Baron Cohens groin shouting Murica and after the comedian says, If you want to win, you have to show some skin, Spencer takes off his boxer briefs. I will touch you. I will touch you with my buttocks, USA, Spencer yelled.

He returns for another segment where he is filmed sending a warning message to terrorists. 'All you sand n****** over the Middle East, we are tired of you coming to America and we are tired of you threatening us. We will cut off your dick,' states Spencer, waving around a dummy penis with a piece of cured meat.

'You understand, we will cut off your dick and we will shove it in your mouth, chew it off, put it in your mouth. How are you going to rape little children and women without a d***?'

After the episode was aired, David Ralston stated that Jason Spencers actions were reprehensible and called for him to resign, saying: Georgia is better than this. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal also tweeted about the language used by the lawmaker.

The actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive. There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it.

Spencer spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and said that he only participated in the television show because his fear that he or his family would be attacked was taken advantage of. He also claimed he had received death threats after he proposed the legislation that attempted to ban Muslim women from wearing burqas in public.A homemade 'flying motorcycle' has taken to the skies, with its inventor on board.

Zhao Deli, 40, was lifted into the air by eight propellers in Tangxia town, Dongguan city, south China's Guangdong province.

Mr Zhao designed and built the drone himself and - dressed in an all-black protective suit - embarked on the extraordinary flight test on Monday.

Dream comes true: Zhao Deli, 40, took off with his homemade drone in China on Monday

Feeling fantastic: After the flight test, the man said it was like riding a motorbike in the sky

Long way to success: The 40-year-old had put his drone under 1,559 unmanned flight tests

The drone's propellers are affixed to a central frame which is designed to be as lightweight as possible.

The aircraft has a motor installed under the seat, which provides the power for the drone while the rider perches at the top.

Before Monday's flight, the amateur inventor had put the unusual aircraft under unmanned tests for 1,559 times in the space of two years.

With the eight propellers stirring the air and the motor roaring, Mr Zhao's flying vehicle successfully carried him into the air.

After a safe landing onto the ground, the excited Mr Zhao told a reporter from Guangzhou Daily: 'It was like riding a motorbike in the sky.

'My dream has come true after this 1560th flight test.'

'Magical Cloud': The flying bike is a single-seater with eight propellers and a motor to power

Costly: The repairing works are expensive - a pair of propellers costs about 3,000 yuan (337)

A video on Chinese news site Sohu shows the man leaning forward with his hands on a control panel at the front of his contraption.

Seconds later, all eight propellers start to spin and lift Mr Zhao into the air.

The man-carrying quadcopter levitates in the sky and lands safely on the ground.

He has named the drone 'Jin Dou Yun' or 'Magical Cloud' - a flying cloud ridden by China's very own fictional superhero, Monkey King.

Inspired: Mr Zhao wanted to build a flying motorbike after reading about a hovering surfboard

Off we go: With the eight propellers, the drone successfully carried Mr Zhao into the air

Mr Zhao claimed the flying bike could carry a load of between 110 and 220 pounds (50 and 100 kilograms).

Its maximum takeoff weight of 564 pounds (256 kilograms), top speed of 44 mph (70 km/h) and battery life of 30 minutes make it a market leader, said Mr Zhao.

Mr Zhao was born in a village in south China's Hunan Province. Like most boys, he has always dreamt of flying in the sky one day.

He aced in science subjects at school and enjoyed fixing electrical appliances at home.

Market leader: The aircraft has a top speed of 44 mph and a battery life of 30 minutes

Dedication: Mr Zhao spent two years making his 'dream vehicle' and even sold his house for it

In 2008, Mr Zhao set up a company to sell the drones he invented himself. By then he had invented five drone models, including a petrol drone.

Two years ago, Mr Zhao read about a hovering surfboard in Canada, and that was where he got the inspiration for the 'flying motorbike'.

Despite his enthusiasm, Mr Zhao's road to success was by no means smooth.

He experienced countless failures while trying to make the unmanned aircraft airbourne during the 1,559 flight tests; he even had to sell his house and borrow money from friends in order to fund his project, it is reported.

The inventor was ecstatic after Monday's flight.

He said he hoped to fly across China's Yellow River on the aircraft.

He also planned to modify the 'flying motorbike' before launching it as a commercial product on the market.

Bright future: Mr Zhao hopes to put his man-carrying drone on the production line soonPlaid Cymru politician Simon Thomas today quit the Welsh Assembly over a police probe into a 'serious offence'.

Dyfed-Powys Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images.

The Assembly Member, who is a married father of two, has quit with immediate effect. He has also resigned as a member of Plaid Cymru.

The Plaid Cymru AM represented the Mid and West Wales region and has written to the Assembly's presiding officer Elin Jones to confirm his resignation.

Plaid Cymru politician Simon Thomas today quit the Welsh Assembly over a police probe into a 'serious offence'

An Assembly Commission spokeswoman said: 'The Returning Officer for the region has been notified and we are working together to administer the arrangements for electing a new representative'.

A statement from Plaid Cymru chair Alun Ffred Jones said: 'Plaid Cymru has received Simon Thomas' resignation as a member of the party.

'We are aware of a police investigation into allegations of a serious offence.

'Due to that ongoing investigation it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time'.

A Dyfed-Powys Police spokesman said: 'An individual from Aberystwyth has been arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images.

'The individual has been released on police bail for 28 days.'

Helen Mary Jones, the Plaid Cymru politician next on the regional list, is first in line to take over the seat under the Welsh Assembly's proportional representation rules.

She tweeted: 'In something of a state of shock. I have now got some big decisions to make in the next few days. I won't be on here a lot.

'Thanks for good wishes already received.'

The Plaid Cymru AM represented the Mid and West Wales region on the Welsh Assembly (pictured) and has written to the Assembly's presiding officer Elin Jones to confirm his resignation

Mr Thomas lives in Aberystwyth with his wife and two children.

A former MP, he was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for Ceredigion in 2000 and 2001.

After losing his seat he became a development manager with Technium in Pembrokeshire before becoming a special senior adviser to the Welsh Government.

He was elected to the National Assembly for Wales in 2011 and again in 2016.Nineteen bodies have been found and hundreds remain missing after a dam collapse swamped several villages in southern Laos - as survivors Wednesday questioned why they got little warning of the deluge.

Two South Korean contractors said they reported damage a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam in the southeastern province of Attapeu gave way on Monday and unleashed a wall of water.

A Thai consular official, Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort in Attepeu province said 19 bodies had been recovered.

Thousands of villagers have been left stranded and their homes submerged in flood water after the partially-constructed dam burst on Monday evening

Aerial images taken the day after the dam collapsed show flooded plains and fully submerged houses in the Attapeu province

'Seventeen others are injured and in hospital,' he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts.

In an update on Wednesday afternoon state-run Laos News Agency said hundreds of people remained unaccounted for, with at least 50 missing from the village of Ban Mai alone.

Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them.

Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to evacuate homes only hours before disaster struck.

'It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves,' Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, told AFP from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.

'All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don't know about their fate yet.'

Rescue efforts are underway to evacuate villagers, many of whom are taking refuge on rooftops

Many Lao villagers are stranded on the roofs of their homes after fleeing floodwaters caused by the Xe Pian Xe Nam Noy hydroelectric dam burst

Hundreds of households have been almost entirely submerged underwater in villages in the Sanamxay district of the Attapeu province in Laos

Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings.

Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the 'Battery of Asia' allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers.

But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled communist country.

Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say.

Once complete, around 90 percent of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand.

The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away.

Officials in the province put out a call for relief aid for flood victims, and hundreds of people are being evacuated by boats

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam project in southeastern Laos has collapsed, displacing hundreds of people in the region. Laos has a vast network of rivers and several other dams are being built or are planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand

Officials have brought boats to help evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu province in the southeast of Laos

Rescue officials in neighbouring Thailand were reportedly stuck at the border because Laotians were sluggish in allowing access to the country.

South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in's spokesman said Wednesday in Seoul.

'Although we are still determining the cause of the dam accident, our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam,' Moon was quoted as saying.

Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2 billion project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9:00 pm on Sunday.

'We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream,' it said in a statement.

Repair work was hampered by rain which had damaged roads, it said, and early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam -- one of the two main dams in the project -- to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.

Temporary shelters are being set up for villagers, many of whom have lost their homes and almost all of their belongings

Families are being given temporary shelter while they wait for news of loved ones, but there is 'no phone signal' in the region

Villagers carry their belonging as they evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province

The 410 megawatt capacity dam was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the venture's website

The 410 MW capacity Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Hydroelectric Power Project is being run by Xe Pien-Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC (file photo)

The dam was built to contain and divert the waters of the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and Xe-Pian rivers on the Bolaven Plateau in Champasack Province in southern Laos (file photo)

The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.

Dam operator Korea Western Power Co. said one of the auxiliary dams -- 'Saddle D' -- broke under heavy rain.

But according to a timeline the firm provided in a report to a South Korean lawmaker and obtained by AFP, it said '11 centimetres of subsidence was found at the centre of the dam ' as early as Friday.

Emergency repair equipment could not be used as the subsidence worsened.

'It remains unclear what caused the dam to subside in some places and develop cracks,' a Korea Western Power spokesman told AFP.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019.

The project consists of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers.An advertising graduate who scored herself work experience by posing as the famous 'Fearless Girl' statue has now secured her dream job.

Jade Delaney doused herself in gold paint and posed for two hours outside McCann Bristol - the UK counterpart to the agency behind the New York sculpture.

The stunt which took place in May this year, has been hailed as the best job application.

The 'Fearless Girl' stunt which took place in May this year - has been hailed as the best job application yet

After completing the internship, jade was offered a full-time position as a junior conceptual creative

The movement was so impressive she was offered the opportunity to spend two months learning the ropes at the McCann's office in Bristol.

After completing the internship, jade was offered a full-time position as a junior conceptual creative.

McCann Bristol managing director Andy Reid added: 'Jade has been great since she arrived, she has taken it all in her stride, just last week she was presenting a client case study in a new business meeting,

At the time when she engaged in the stunt as she struggled to break in to the industry

What is the Fearless Girl statue? Sculpture was created to put pressure on firms to get more women into the boardroom The Fearless Girl statue was commissioned by State Street Global Advisors via McCann New York. The bronze statue stands defiantly - facing off against the Charging Bull sculpture on Wall Street. Sculpted by Kristen Visbal, the artwork's plaque reads 'Know the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference' The Fearless Girl is a part of a campaign to pressure companies to add more women on to their boards. Advertisement

'We are really pleased that she has made the grade and is now embarking on an exciting career at McCann.'

At the time when she engaged in the stunt as she struggled to break in to the industry.

Jade was working in retail after finishing her degree at the University of Gloucester after a course in Art Design and Mixed Media at Bristol School of Art.

She sent a message to McCann on Linkedin to notify them of her plans, and soon after her arrival she started to draw a crowd - including the MD.

Jade said: 'It has been an unbelievable couple of months, it just shows that it is worth putting yourself out there to achieve your goals.

'The team at McCann Bristol have been great and I am so excited about being a fully-fledged member of the creative team.'

Kristen Visbal's Fearless Girl statue faces the Charging Bull on Wall Street after being placed there in 2017.

Kristen Visbal's Fearless Girl statue faces the Charging Bull on Wall Street after being placed there in 2017A jealous father who found out his estranged wife was seeing another man has been found guilty of her brutal murder after she was burned alive inside her house.

The 43-year-old Sydney man was found guilty by a jury after just two hours of deliberation and will face sentencing at a later date.

He cannot be named in order to protect the identity of their children.

The court heard how the father used petrol to set alight the bedroom, and then held the door closed as she screamed for help while their children stood by hopelessly.

A man has been found guilty of murder after his son told police that his father had pushed his mother into a fire as it tore through their home

It was reported by 9 News that the man's young son watched as his father pushed his mother, 30, back into their Guildford home as flames engulfed it.

The court heard the victim had recently met another man through an online dating site just 11 days before her death and had already begun the process of leaving.

She had moved bags of her stuff into the new man's home and signed a lease for a flat near her home.

Crown Prosecutor Chris Maxwell QC said these were all indications that the woman was in the process of leaving her husband.

The court heard the victim had recently met another man through an online dating site just 11 days before her death and had already begun the process of leaving

Mr Maxwell also argued to the court that the blaze which took the woman's life had been fuelled by petrol which was found in a bedroom of the home.

The son who witnessed the ordeal and heard his mother screaming for help told the court what he saw.

'Like it was a little bit open and he done something to the door like and then I couldn't open it and then like my dad pushed my mum into the fire in the blanket,' he said.

The son who witnessed the ordeal and heard his mother screaming for help told the court what he saw

His younger brother also told police he had screamed for his father to go inside and held his mother but 'he didn't'.

Defence barrister Carolyn Davenport SC told the court her client pleaded not guilty to the charges and investigators 'could not rule out the possibility it was caused by a heater'.

The man will face sentencing at a later date.A teenage girl accused of stabbing her classmate during a Year 12 English lesson was 'good friends' with the student and had posed in a grinning photo with her just days before the alleged attack.

Amber Rover, 18, allegedly stabbed fellow student at elite Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old was allegedly stabbed in the back and taken to Berri Hospital before later being transferred Royal Adelaide - where her attacker is also being treated.

A bedside court hearing for Rover was delayed after she required surgery for an unknown condition.

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A bedside court hearing for the teenager accused of stabbing Renmark High School student (pictured) has been delayed after she required surgery for an unknown condition

Amber Rover (pictured), 18, allegedly stabbed fellow student, Zoey, at Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm Tuesday

Ms Rover's case came before Adelaide Magistrates Court Wednesday where she was due to face charges of aggravated assault causing serious harm.

It had to be adjourned until Thursday following the 18-year-old being rushed to hospital in the early hours of Wednesday due to an undisclosed medical condition.

The court was told the accused had emerged from surgery but not yet spoken to her lawyer.

The pair had just one week earlier posed for a selfie together during an interstate school trip to the snow.

The 17-year-old victim (pictured) was stabbed in the back and taken to Berri Hospital before later being transferred Royal Adelaide - where her alleged attacker is being treated

Rover has been described as a 'quiet teenager' and had no history of violence, Seven News reported.

The alleged stabbing occurred during a Year 12 English class, in the final period of the school day.

'You don't go to school to see that, you go to learn. 'Everybody's in shock,' a fellow student's father said.

Anne Millard from the Department for Education said the altercation unfolded shortly before students went into their fifth period.

Rover (left, victim right) has been described as a 'quiet teenager' and had no history of violence

'My understanding is that the staff responded very quickly to contain the situation until emergency services arrived,' Ms Millard said.

South Australia Police said paramedics arrived on scene and treated the victim, shortly before police arrived and arrested the alleged offender.

Renmark High principal Mat Evans issued a letter to the school community Tuesday afternoon explaining what he believed was a dispute between two students.

'Police were called and our school was placed into lockdown today after one of our students stabbed another with a knife,' the letter read.

Police were called to Renmark High School in South Australia's Riverland region just after 2.30pm on Tuesday

'We share your shock at this event which we are treating with utmost seriousness.

'It is our understanding that the incident is the result of a dispute between two students and did not represent a specific threat to the wider school community.'

The Department for Education is liaising with the school to ensure appropriate responses are put in place, including counselling and support for students and staff,' the department said in a statement.

'An assessment is being made as to whether additional security measures are required.'ABC News(NEW YORK) -- A no-longer-secret tape of President Trump discussing a hush payment to bury a former Playboy model's story of their alleged affair is about "lies and truth, according to the attorney for Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.



Lanny Davis spoke out on Good Morning America on Wednesday, telling ABC News' Chief Political Correspondent George Stephanopoulos that Trump and his advisers have been concocting stories about what was said by whom on the tape, which Cohen surreptitiously recorded in September 2016 before Trump was elected president.



On the tape, Cohen informs then-candidate Trump about a plan that Cohen allegedly devised to try to purchase the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story from American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer. McDougal has said she had an affair with Trump -- who has been married to first lady Melania Trump since 2005 -- back in 2006, which Trump has repeatedly denied.



Davis told Stephanopoulos the tape shows that Trump is the one who raised the idea of paying "cash" to American Media to keep McDougal's story under wraps. But Trump's attorney, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, has countered with an alleged transcript of the tape in which Trump tells Cohen "Don't pay with cash ... check."



The tape, released Tuesday night, was first aired on CNN. ABC News has obtained a copy of the recording, which is garbled in some portions.

"It's about lies and truth," Davis said. "Giuliani can't make up the words, 'Don't pay.' I say to everybody who voted for Donald Trump, don't believe me. I'm a Democrat. Listen to the tape. The words 'don't pay' are not heard."



Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to express outrage over Cohen's recording him in the first place. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad!" Trump wrote, blasting his former longtime fixer.



Cohen's plan to pay American Media $150,000 for McDougal's story was never consummated, and Davis conceded that Trump and Cohen did nothing illegal by discussing the payment.



But Davis said it clearly showed that Trump was aware of Cohen's plan to keep McDougal's story from the public despite his campaign press secretarys denying Trump knew anything about it two months after the conversation.



He also said the tape is evidence of a pattern of lies the president has told before and after occupying the White House.



"We know that Trump used the word 'cash,' and people who use cash -- Rudy Giuliani knows when he's U.S. attorney -- are either drug dealers or mobsters," Davis said.



Davis said he and Cohen decided to release the tape to combat "an intense campaign of disparagement and lies and smears against Michael Cohen from the Trump camp, primarily by Mayor Giuliani."



"I will say that Michael Cohen has turned a corner in his life and he's now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and we'll see what happens," Davis said.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Tourists are continuing to take photos on a dangerous clifftop despite multiple warnings after two people plummeted to their death while taking selfies.

The whale watching hot spot Cape Solander, in Sydney's Kamay Botany Bay National Park, has seen the deaths of two people in the last six weeks.

American tourist Gavin Zimmerman, 19, died after slipping while standing on a rocky ledge as his friends stood nearby.

Weeks earlier, a man in his 30s suffered the same fate, plunging more than ten metres to his death. Both men were reportedly taking selfies.

People are continuing to take selfies on a dangerous clifftop despite multiple warnings after two people plummeted to their death

A visitor to the whale-watching clifftop is photographed jumping very close to the edge

Tourists are being asked to be careful and follow the warning signs at the whale-watching hotspot

Following the latest death, Sutherland Mayor Carmelo Pesce offered his condolences to the victim's family and made a desperate plea to tourists planning to visit the park.

'Stick to the designated areas...the deaths could've been prevented if the men didn't move to the cliff's edge,' Mr Pesce told Sydney Morning Herald.

But his words appear to be falling on deaf ears, with a number of travellers taking to social media to proudly pose perilously close to the cliff's edge.

From backflips, handstands, leg-dangling and group shots - people continue to climb over the fences and ignore warning signs to get the perfect Instagram shot.

One woman even took to social media to boast to her mother 'fortunately the ledge did not shear and I did not plummet to a watery death.'

Her ominous photo caption, accompanied with a posing shot at the notorious cliff, came just hours before Zimmerman fell to his death.

A man is photographed dangerously leaping from one cliff edge to another to get the perfect Instagram shot

A woman is pictured sitting down on the rocks. Despite not doing anything dangerous, visitors are still urged to adhere to the warning signs

Mr Pesce said it is 'unfortunate' that people are putting their lives at risk despite the fencing and signs

Gavin Zimmerman (pictured) fell to his death after slipping and losing his footing while taking a photo

While other similar landmarks like the Wedding Cake Rock and Figure Eight Pools have been fenced off to ensure people's safety, people still continue to ignore the warning signs.

Mr Pesce said it is 'unfortunate' that people were putting their lives at risk despite the fencing and signs.

He told the Sydney Morning Herald that visitors needed to be more responsible because 'we can't fence off everything'.

A woman performs a handstand dangerously close to the edge of the Wedding Cake Rock

The woman is seen sitting on the edge of the Wedding Cake Rock looking downwards

Visitors continue to ignore the warning signs and fencing which should be stopping people from climbing in

Following Mr Zimmerman's death New South Wales Police Chief Inspector Chris Hill also warned visitors to not go down on the rocks.

'If you are attending this location, those rocks are very slippery so for your safety, stay up on the whale watching platform and please don't go down on the rocks.'

The cliffs are among the best places see humpbacks migrate north to warmer Queensland in the winter.

The National Parks NSW website describes the area as 'an unbeatable lookout during whale watching season'.

'If you're lucky you won't even need to look far  whales have been known to swim as close as 200m from the coast,' the site reads.A kangaroo which was found roaming in a coastal town with 'its eye popping out' and a suspected gunshot wound to its head has been euthanised.

A resident of a gated complex near the Palmer Coolum Resort in Queensland spotted the dying kangaroo on Tuesday night and called the RSPCA.

Volunteers at the Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast, who were informed by RSPCA, rescued the animal.

A maggot-infested kangaroo with a huge gash to its head has been euthanised

The injured kangaroo was rescued by the Volunteers at the Wildlife Rescue Sunshine Coast

President Claire Smith said the resident told her 'he'd seen a kangaroo about four days before with what appeared to be its eye hanging out.'

'He said it was a large kangaroo that was stooped over with its head about a foot off the ground,' she told the Sunshine Coast Daily.

'We went out and once we had actually got it contained we noticed there was what appeared to be a bullet hole in the centre of its forehead.'

Initially, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital said the kangaroo had been shot before it was euthanised

Initially, the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital said the kangaroo had been shot before it was euthanised.

Ms Smith said the hospital found a scab over its eye.

'When they lifted the scab it had maggots underneath.'

After further investigating, Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital confirmed on Wednesday morning that the severe head injuries had been a result of being hit by a car

However, Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital confirmed on Wednesday morning that the severe head injuries had been a result of being hit by a car.

The hospital said the maggots had altered the wound, making it look like a gun shot.

Ms Smith said told the Sunshine Coast Daily she was 'quite shocked' after seeing the final report as she had seen many bullet wounds and this was 'very much in keeping'.An Indonesian Christian has been sentenced to four years in prison for a Facebook post that likened the prophet Muhammad to a pig in the latest conviction under a controversial hate-speech law.

Dozens of Islamic hardliners cheered and shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) as the court in Sumatra ruled that Martinus Gulo was hostile toward Muslims in his post, which also said Mohammed sanctioned bestiality.

The Medan District court on Tuesday ordered the 21-year-old university student to pay a fine of one billion rupiah ($70,000) or spend an additional six months in jail.

Martinus Gulo, 21, (left) made the post (right) on Facebook after becoming angry that his religion, Christianity, was being criticised online

'Finding the defendant guilty of misusing information by offending believers through his Facebook account, I sentence him to four years,' said presiding judge Saidin Bagariang.

Gulo was convicted under Indonesia's electronic information and transactions law, which makes it a crime to spread 'hatred or animosity' against an individual or group based on their race or religion.

The law has been criticised for being unnecessarily vague and giving powerful individuals the ability to criminalise critics and minorities.

Gulo was arrested in March after the militant Islamic Defenders Front (pictured 2001) reported his online post to police

A 39-year-old Muslim was sentenced to five years in April under the same law. The court found him guilty of spreading hate speech for a Facebook post in which he claimed to have experienced God's presence and questioned the faith of other Muslims.

Gulo was arrested in March after the militant Islamic Defenders Front reported his online post to police.

The Christian student told authorities that he made the post because he was upset that his own religion was criticised online.

An Indonesian Muslim praying at a msoque in West Java

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has significant numbers of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and other minorities.

Last year, Jakarta's former governor - the city's first Christian leader of Chinese descent - was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy.

The case fuelled concerns that Indonesia's moderate brand of Islam is coming under threat from increasingly influential radicals.The ex-wife of Russian oligarch who is battling to wrest control of a 350 million superyacht as part of the UKs biggestever divorce award has been told she will have to take her fight to Dubais local sharia courts.

Farkhad Akhmedov's mega boat was seized by the authorities in Dubai as part of his ongoing battle with his estranged wife, Tatiana Akhmedova.

But senior judges in the strict Arab state have ruled that proceedings have no place in the Dubai International Finance Centres commercial courts since they involve neither a maritime nor a commercial matter.

Instead Judges of the Joint Judicial Committee - which rules which litigations should be heard in which courts - have ordered that any further proceedings by Ms Akhmedova should be heard as a matrimonial matter by the local courts.

Divorce: Billionaire Akhmedov (left) is fighting with his ex-wife Tatiana (right) after he was ordered to pay her 453million by a British court in the UK's most expensive ever divorce

Mr Akhmedov had his 300m super yacht Luna seized after his former wife won a court order to seize his assets - but the case wuill now be heard in the country's sharia courts

Bailiffs acting for the High Court in London took control of the 115m yacht named Luna (pictured), which is owned by oil and gas tycoon Mr Akhmedov when it docked in Dubai

But in a blow to the oligarch's former wife Tatiana, appeal court judges in Dubai overturned the ruling and said its lower court had no power to seize the super yacht called Luna

The Luna  which boasts the largest swimming pool on any of the world's super yachts  is considered one of the prize assets of 61-year-old Akhmedov's 900million fortune

Akhmedov's boat Luna was held in Dubai six months ago following a request from the English High Court which last year awarded Tatiana a record UK settlement of 453 million.

This was despite the fact that the couple, both then Russian citizens, had divorced in Moscow 16 years earlier after an eight-year marriage.

In both the Moscow proceedings in 2000 and in the subsequent English hearings, Tatiana admitted her adultery with Mark Isle, a Surrey-based IT specialist and the brother of one of her sons school friends.

The application to have the case moved to local courts in Dubai was made by lawyers acting for both Mr Akhmedov, who remains a Russian citizen and is a practicing Muslim and, and for the Family Trust which owns Luna.

They say that the JJC ruling, delegating proceedings to the local courts, means that the arrest warrant against Luna falls away. The superyacht and her 50-man crew are expected to leave Dubai once seaworthiness trials have been completed following seven months in the blistering sun of Dubais dry docks.

Gas and oil tycoon Akhmedov bought the yacht called Luna (pictured) from his close friend Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich in 2014

The tycoon spent more than 50m on a refit for the vessel, which boasts nine decks and has two helipads as well as 10 VIP rooms and sumptuous bedrooms (pictured)

The boat boasts a huge swimming pool, which is the largest on any of the world's super yachts

The yacht was being held in Dubai as part of Mr Akhmedov's ongoing divorce battle with his ex-wife

During their marriage, the couple enjoyed a glitteringly lavish lifestyle, sailing around the world on Luna, with a 20 million mansion in Surrey, as well as a 27.8 million holiday pad

The JJC ruling is another huge blow for Ms Akhmedova and her financial backers Burford Capital, the AIM-listed legal finance firm that is bankrolling her legal fight and helping to fund her luxury lifestyle.

Following Mr Akhmedovs refusal to pay the 453million, his ex-wife and her lawyers enlisted Burford to fund global litigation to try and recover the debt. She told the New York Times that she was living off a lump sum provided by Burford Capital which will take a percentage of any money they may recover.

Mr Akhmedov has always insisted that the divorce settlement awarded by Londons High Court lacks any legitimacy and was an opportunistic attempt to win a share of his fortune following his business success after the couple were divorced in Moscow.

The London matrimonial proceedings were first started in 2012 just days after Mr Akhmedov completed the sale for 1billion of his 49 per cent interest in Russian oil and gas company, Northgas.

The sale came 12 years after the couple divorced in Russia. During that time Tatiana was living in England - where her ex husband provided generously for her until the English High Court award in 2016.

Mr Akhmedov says he has provided lavishly for Tatiana with a jet-set lifestyle complete with an English country mansion, valuable cars and a retinue of servants.

His wife has already received the contents of the couple's former family home in Surrey  worth almost 2.5 million  his 350,000 Aston Martin and the 90 million art collection.Laxmi Bai, 19, was leaving her family home when she was killed

An Indian father has been arrested for 'burning his teen daughter alive' as she was leaving the family home to marry a man from a different social caste.

The shocking suspected honour killing occurred in the village of Chainpur Sarkar in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Local media report that 19-year-old Laxmi Bai was leaving her family home to meet with her boyfriend, Rajkumar.

She intended marrying him, but her father, Sundar Lal Yadav, 52, stopped her.

Rajkumar told the Times of India that the teenager was on her way to court to marry him and had gone home to collect documentation as proof of age.

She was coming to me when Sundar Lal dragged her away, he said.

The father, who reportedly did not approve of her decision to marry the man from a different social caste, then allegedly threw kerosene over Laxmi before setting her on fire.

The remnants of a horrific fire that claimed the life of a teenage girl, Laxmi Bai, in Madhya Pradesh, India. The dead girl's father, Sundar Lal Yadav, has been arrested on suspicion of killing his daughter

This photo shows the man whom the victim wanted to marry, Rajkumar, before she was set ablaze in the village of Chainpur Sarkar in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh

Neighbours were alerted to the horrific incident as Laxmi screamed in pain, but nothing could be done to prevent the teenager from dying at the scene.

Sundar Lal Yadav has been arrested on suspicion of killing the girl.

Her brother, Rajendra Yadav, 28, has also been detained.

The girl's body has reportedly been sent for post-mortem and the investigation into the alleged murder continues.

Police chief Kailash Panse told local media that Laxmi's refusal to end her relationship had enraged her family.

The complex caste system has its origins in ancient India, and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval, early-modern, and modern India, especially the Mughal Empire and the British Raj.Ashraf Khan, 81, from Bradford, admitted incest after he fathered three children with his daughter in a 'wicked' case

A 'wicked' pensioner has been jailed after admitting incest charges for abusing his own daughter and fathering her three children.

Ashraf Khan, 81, from Bradford, was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday after his victim confessed to their children on her deathbed and they fought for justice for their mother.

The defendant was arrested after the woman's husband, who had DNA tests to confirm the children's parentage, reported the matter to West Yorkshire Police in 2012.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford told the court the complainant in the case was born in Pakistan in the 1960s, one of Khan's six children.

She married her husband there in the early 1980s, before moving to Bradford, West Yorks, to join him and her father, who abused her and she went on to give birth to three children over a decade before passing away.

Her husband was praised today for bringing the children up as his own.

Miss Langford said: 'It was on her deathbed she told her husband the defendant was in fact the father of her three children.'

The man did not report the matter to police straightaway, with Miss Langford explaining: 'He wished to continue to act as a father and care for the children he had brought up as his own.'

Khan's victim confessed to their children on her deathbed and they then fought for justice for their mother and eventually got their grandfather in the dock at Bradford Crown Court, pictured

When the matters were reported to police in 2012, Khan was back in Pakistan and did not return to the UK until 2016.

When he was interviewed in September of that year, the court heard he 'denied having any sexual relations with his daughter'.

Miss Langford said a medical report concerning the three children had found various ailments 'directly attributed to their incestual parentage', including an inability to feel certain kinds of pain, resulting in injuries such as burns during their childhoods.

In a joint victim impact statement, the children said Khan's offending had caused psychological damage and had impacted on their physical health.

Jonathan Durham Hall praised the victim who bravely opened her heart to her children before her death about their parentage and her ordeal

They also paid tribute to their mother's 'honourable' husband for his 'fortitude and selflessness throughout the years'.

Khan, from Bradford, pleaded guilty to three counts of incest a month ahead of a proposed trial.

His barrister, Nigel Jamieson, said his client suffered from poor health, but accepted a prison sentence would not be unjust.

He said: 'He comes to court today knowing that it must be an immediate custodial sentence.'

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told Khan: 'You are a very dishonourable and wicked gentleman, we all now see.'

Speaking of how the woman brought Khan's offending to light, the judge said: 'Her deathbed confession, how dreadful that must have been. Unburdening her soul about this awful trauma she had carried with her.'

He told Khan: 'Those who do this will be regarded as very serious offenders, but in this case, the harm is off the scale.

'You are of good character, but that is a shallow comment, because you have got away with this for years.'

Judge Durham Hall said the guidelines for an offence of incest gave a maximum sentence of two years, but added the 18-month sentences for each three counts would run consecutively, giving a total prison term of 54 months.

Speaking after the case, one of the woman's three children said: 'We would like this case to bring awareness of incest being committed, and for other people who may have experienced something similar to come forward so that other offenders who have committed similar crimes can be tried through the courts.'

They also highlighted extracts from their victim impact statement, which read: 'The only one who was there for us was a man of no blood relation who brought us up as if we were his own children.

'The significant choice and sacrifice he made, we will never be able to be thank him enough.

'It takes a special man to be a dad, as anyone can be a father. He is one of a kind and we will never be able to repay him for what he has done for us.

'The man pleading guilty was life-changing for us.

'He had portrayed a clean-cut image for many years, but secrets cannot be hidden and lies eventually catch up with you.

'The psychological and mental damage he has done is significant to so many lives, especially to our lives.

'It has been a long journey from discovering the horrific acts he committed to his daughter to reporting the matter to the police.

'With the help and support of the fantastic police force and the CPS, today, after many, many years since our mother passed away, we have finally got justice for our mum.'The shape of Nestle's four-finger KitKat bar has lost its EU-wide protected trademark status after a court dismissed an appeal by the confectionery giant.

Judges sitting in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg have now dismissed an appeal by Nestle after hearing that the company had only provided evidence that the chocolate was sufficiently well known in some EU countries.

A General Court ruling in 2016 said that Nestle had to prove the KitKat was recognisable in every EU country.

The shape of Nestle's four-finger KitKat bar has lost its EU-wide protected trademark status after the European Court of Justice (ECJ) dismissed an appeal by the confectionery giant

The court heard it was well known Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and the UK.

But judges were instructed that the chocolate was not well enough known in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

They have now ruled that the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) must now reconsider whether the three-dimensional shape of the bar can be retained as an EU trademark.

If Nestle is unable to demonstrate that the KitKat has acquired distinctive character through use throughout the EU it will not get a trademark.

The ECJ found that the General Court was right to annul the European Union Intellectual Property Office's (EUIPO) 2006 decision that 'distinctive character had been acquired' without 'adjudicating on whether that mark had acquired such distinctive character in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal'.

It said: 'On the basis of those considerations, the Court dismisses the appeals of Nestle and EUIPO.'

Nestle has not sought such a status for its two-finger bar.

It follows a decision by appeal judges in the UK in favour of stripping KitKat of its UK-only trademark on the basis that the three-dimensional shape of a chocolate product had 'no inherent distinctiveness'.

The appeal court heard then that Nestle had spent between 3 million and 11 million a year advertising and promoting KitKats between 1996 and 2007.

More than 40 million were sold in Britain in 2010.

Mondelez International, previously known as Cadbury Schweppes, filed the original challenge to the EU trademark in 2007, a year after it had been granted.

Duelling between the two companies has also seen Nestle challenge Mondelez's British trademark for the shade of purple wrapper on its Cadbury's Daily Milk chocolate bars.

Toblerone, which is owned by Mondelez, has successfully trademarked its 'zigzag prism' shape.A DMV employee slept at her desk for at least three hours a day over the course of four years right in front of her bosses - but hasn't been sacked.

The woman, who is employed as a data entry worker in California, had to be woken up between three and four times each day by her supervisor but was never disciplined, a report by the State Auditor found.

She finished less than half of the tasks assigned to her each day leaving others to pick up the slack, while colleagues said what work she did complete was riddled with errors.

A DMV employee was caught by auditors sleeping at her desk for at least three hours every day, in front of her bosses, over the course of four years, and has never been disciplined

The woman, who was not named in the auditor's report, was tasked with entering changes of address and new vehicle registrations into a database.

Staff were set a target of 560 forms entered each day, but the employee managed only around 200.

Supervisors knew this was because she was sleeping at her desk, but thought she was only napping for 30 minutes each day because she was regularly woken up.

But investigators found she was sleeping for at least three hours each day, wasting a total of 2,200 hours of work over four years and costing $40,000 in taxpayer money.

Her bosses brought the behavior up in her yearly appraisals and suggested ways to remedy the situation, but failed to take a single disciplinary measure against her.

When questioned by auditors, they said this was because they believed the woman had a medical condition that prevented her from doing her work.

But auditors noted that bosses never compelled her to apply for 'reasonable accommodation' for this condition.

The woman eventually submitted herself for reasonable accommodation in June 2016, and was deemed unfit to work by a doctor.

Two groundskeepers at Fresno State university were also caught wasting at least five hours between them each day. On one day, a female employee arrived for work five hours late, immediately left to go shopping, sat in her vehicle for an hour, then went to work

The DMV attempted to find her a vacant role that was better suited to her needs, but there were no positions open.

She ultimately decided to come back to work in the same role after being cleared by a second doctor, but continued falling asleep at work.

Again, no disciplinary action was taken against her because bosses had failed to log her previous lapses properly.

The DMV also refused to take disciplinary action against the supervisors and instead offered them training in how to deal with the situation better in the future.

In a separate case, auditors also took action against two groundskeepers at Fresno State university for routinely skipping work.

The employees, one man and one woman, were found to be skipping at least three and two hours of work each day over the course of five years.

Between the pair, auditors said they wasted 5,100 hours of work and cost taxpayers more than $100,000.

On one particular day when auditors were observing the pair, the woman showed up to work five hours late, immediately left to go shopping with a relative who also worked there, returned to work but sat in her car, and eventually went to work.

In total, she spent just one hour out of her allotted eight hours working.

The other employee was found sitting in his car for an hour at the start of each work day, taking an hour lunch instead of 30 minutes, and wasting an hour every afternoon driving home and back.

Both employees were suspended for 12 weeks without pay, along with the female employee's relative who was also found to be wasting time.A Hell's Angels member accused of murdering and attempting to decapitate a woman in the desert has arrived back in the US from Argentina.

Paul Eischeid was extradited back to the United States from Argentina and is now in the Maricopa County Jail after spending 15 years on the run.

Eischeid, a successful stockbroker at the time of his arrest, was indicted on drug trafficking, kidnapping, and murder charges in 2003, but fled the country after being placed under house arrest.

In 2007 US Marshals added him to their '15 Most Wanted' list.

Paul Eischeid is escorted by Argentine federal agents after being arrested in Buenos Aires back in 2011

Eischeid, pictured after his arrest in 2003, is charged with kidnapping and homicide in connection to the brutal 2001 murder of Cynthia Garcia

He was eventually arrested in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2011 following a massive joint operation between Interpol, U.S. law enforcement officers and Argentine police.

He has been in the custody of Argentinean authorities since his arrest there.

Eischeid is charged with kidnapping and homicide in connection to the brutal 2001 murder of Cynthia Garcia.

Garcia was attacked and severely beaten while attending a party at the Hell's Angels clubhouse in Mesa, Arizona.

Bundled into the trunk of a car, she was driven to the desert, stabbed and left for dead.

According to court records three men took part in the killings, including one man who was an informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

He later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and did not serve time in prison. The third man is awaiting trial.

Eischeid returned to Arizona Tuesday and was booking for first-degree murder and kidnapping

All three were arrested as part of Operation Black Biscuit, an investigation into the Hell's Angels, which ended when the case collapsed in court because of problems with informers and evidence, the Republic said.

Although Eischeid was arrested in 2003, his career as a Charles Schwab stockbroker and relatively clean criminal record meant that he was considered a low flight risk and he was put on house arrest.

But Eischeid removed his monitoring device and fled Arizona.

According to U.S. Marshals, Eischeid had been fighting extradition for the past seven years. In June, U.S. Marshals learned from the Argentinian government that Eischeid had 'exhausted all of his appeals in the Argentinian government legal system.'

Eischeid returned to Arizona Tuesday and was booking for first-degree murder and kidnapping.A girl had to be rescued by firefighters after she accidentally fell into a landfill site in a village in Hebei province, north China.

The girl was reportedly collecting garbage when she lost her footing and tumbled into the four-metre-deep (13 feet) ditch, which was filled with rainwater and a large amount of waste.

Passers-by heard the young girl crying for help and immediately alerted emergency services at about 5pm last Friday.

Girl in China was collecting garbage when she lost her footing and tumbled into the ditch

Local residents cleaned the girl's face and body with bottled water after she was rescued

Video footage of the dramatic rescue last Friday in Baoding city shows firefighters trying to reach the girl using long wooden planks and ropes.

A large amount of garbage was seen floating in the sump, with the girl desperately trying to keep her head above the sea of filth.

The rescue mission was difficult as garbage mounted to a steep hill beside the ditch and did not provide firefighters a secure grip, according to Shijiazhuang News Network.

Securing his body with two ropes, a firefighter used a large wooden plank to guide him to the girl. He then reached the girl and quickly dragged her to safety.

The rescue mission was difficult as garbage mounted to a steep hill beside the ditch and did not provide firefighters a secure grip, according to local reports

Firefighters tried to reach the girl using long wooden planks and ropes during the rescue

Firefighters eventually pulled the girl to safety after 30 minutes. She was unhurt

After she was pulled out of the ditch, local residents cleaned the girl's face and body with bottled water.

The rescue mission lasted for 30 minutes and the girl was taken to hospital.

She was in shock but was otherwise unhurt, according to the report.

Landfill sites often pose a danger to the safety of villagers nearby, especially to children.

Just two weeks ago, two brothers died after a rubbish dump collapsed on them in Zhenxiong county, burying them alive.

The siblings, aged 10 and 12, reportedly went into the pile of waste looking for toys, according to media reports.A West Australian prison escapee remains on the run after a mass breakout during a riot that left the jail looking 'like a war zone'.

Ten men escaped from Greenough Regional Prison near Geraldton in WA's Mid West on Tuesday afternoon.

Nine prisoners have been recaptured but Bradley Silvester, 35, remains at large.

After seven escapees were found in the area, Brendan Bartley, 22, and 18-year-old Darryl Councillor handed themselves in to local police.

A West Australian prison escapee, Bradley Silvester (above), 35, is on the run after a mass breakout on Tuesday

Bradley Silvester (above), 35, is the only one of ten prisoners who has not been recaptured yet

Left to right: Bradley Silvester, 35, Alan McDonald, 28, Darryl Councillor, 18, Devon Comeagain, 23, Brendan Bartley, 22

Prison Officers' Union acting secretary Paul Ledingham said the riot went for hours and was finally contained early on Wednesday.

'It's utter devastation,' Mr Ledingham told reporters.

'We've seen staff control rooms - supposedly secure areas for staff - smashed, destroyed and in one case burnt, fully burnt out.

'There is bricks, debris.'

Devon Comeagain (above), 23, was recaptured at a house in Greenough area

Police described the ten escapees as 'unpredictable' and potentially violent

Alan mcDonald (above), 28, was located at a house in Rangeway, not too far from Karloo where Comeagain was located

Alan mcDonald and Devon Comeagain were the first two to be recaptured on Wednesday morning

He said prisoners got hold of maintenance equipment including angle grinders, which they used to get into the female unit.

Premier Mark McGowan, who toured the trashed facility, said some of the women participated in the riot and their unit now appeared uninhabitable.

'Somehow this group mentality took hold,' he told reporters.

There were no reports of any sexual assaults.

Darryl Councillor, 18, handed himself at Geraldton police station at 1:00pm on Wednesday

Brendan Bartley, 22, handed himself at Geraldton police station at 1:00pm on Wednesday

Bartley adn Councillor were the second pair to be brought in on Wednesday

Power tools were used to cut a lock off an inner fence and the escapees then used a ladder to scale the outer fence.

'They were organised,' Mr McGowan said.

'It looked like a war zone in there.'

He said the damage bill would run into millions.

Mr McGowan said the lives of some prisoners were at risk from fire and smoke during the riot.

Three guards were pepper-sprayed and molotov cocktails were thrown.

It is believed prison officers lost control when they went to extinguish a cell fire that was sparked as a diversion.

Pictured here is one of the escapees, Alex McDonald who was one of the first inmates to be recaptured on Wednesday morning

Other fires were then lit.

Mr Ledingham said state budget pressures had led to understaffing at WA jails despite the muster being at a record, over-capacity high and regional facilities were among the worst affected.

He called on the state government to 'immediately' recruit more staff, saying most WA prisons were 'a powder-keg ... ready to explode'.

'According to our members, this has been brewing for some time,' Mr Ledingham said.

A total of 10 inmates escaped from Greenough Regional Prison (pictured), prompting police to issue and urgent warning to residents to keep their doors and windows locked

Police had found five of the ten inmates on Tuesday and four inmates on Wednesday, with one dangerous criminal still on the run

Pictured here: Darryl Councillor, 18

Mr McGowan said there had been no indication of rising unrest among the inmates but there would now be 'heightened monitoring' at WA prisons.

The CPSU said senior Corrective Services executives had been warned the situation across all WA prisons was 'dire' including treatment courses not being run and prisoners spending large amounts of time in cells.

An extra 150 officers were sent to Geraldton to help search for the escapees.

Residents and drivers were warned to not approach them and urged to lock their doors and windows.

The jail holds remand prisoners under maximum security while other inmates are kept in medium and minimum security sections.

The escapees will be moved to Hakea remand prison in Perth, Mr McGowan said.A city in Japan has been bombarded with inquiries from aspiring ninjas, the country's famed feudal mercenaries and spies, after a news report on city tourist promotions was mistaken for a 'ninjas wanted' advertisement.

Iga, a small city in central Japan, has long dubbed itself the home of black-clad, throwing-star-wielding covert agents - staging ninja shows and offering 'ninja experiences' for tourists.

But last week a programme on National Public Radio in the United States about Iga's ninja-centred tourist promotional effort set off a frenzy of online interest.

Ninjas are a legendary group whose talents as assassins, scouts and spies have made them feared and revered in equal measure throughout history

Japan is famous for its ninjas, also known as shinobi, who are noted for their use of stealth and deception but also for their amazing powers of endurance

The host said the city faced a shortage of ninja performers and even quoted potential salaries, giving the impression it might be hiring.

'That's wrong, all wrong,' said Motoyoshi Shimai, an official of Iga's tourism strategy division.

'There was no discussion about that, and we didn't mention money.'

Participants dressed as Ninjas perform a dance inspired by Ninjas' martial arts at a Ninja festival in Iga in 2008. Thousands of ninja enthusiasts attended the ninja-related events and wandered the town dressed as Ninjas during the annual five-week long festival to promote the city, renowned as one of the hometowns of ninjas

Still, the city received volleys of telephone and email queries from 115 ninja wannabes in 23 countries, including Japan.

Iga, in Mie prefecture, Honshu, holds ancient documents on the martial arts experts dating back to the 1400s.

Just last year, Mie University established an International Ninja Research Center, to expand research into the iconic warriors, and the city is building a second ninja museum.

Ninjas' are famous in part for the small but deadly throwing stars they use as weapons

'Most were questions about whether we were really hiring, but there were a few that begged us to employ them and tried to promote themselves,' Shimai added.

'Some had real confidence in their bodies and strength.'

Iga ultimately issued a statement in several languages saying it was not hiring, but said plenty of other ninja fun was on offer.

'(The city) is the Iga-style ninja birthplace. We can feel breath of ninja at every turn of downtown,' it said.

Todays ninjas can earn anything from $23,000 to about $85,000

City officials were surprised but not annoyed by the fuss, Shirai said.

'We were made to viscerally feel how high interest is in ninjas all around the world,' he added.

In 2008, Sugako Nakagawa, curator of the local Ninja museum, told Reuters: 'Ninja is not an inheritable class.

Without severe training, nobody could become a ninja. That's why they have silently disappeared in history,'A pair of Chinese sisters, aged three and five, have tragically died after getting trapped inside a hot car for about seven hours, according to Chinese media.

The young siblings in east China had accidentally locked themselves in their uncle's car after climbing into it to play, the police believed.

The girls were likely to become stuck in the car just after 2pm when the temperature was as high as 35 degree Celsius, their devastated grandfather told reporters.

Tragic: The sisters' bodies were discovered in the car (pictured) by their grandfather in China

The accident took place on July 17 on the outskirts of Bengbu city in Anhui Province, according to Chinese news site People's Daily Online.

Five-year-old Jiao Jiao and her three-year-old younger sister, Wen Wen, had been playing in front of their home before making it into the car, which was thought to have been left unlocked by their uncle, the report said.

Jiao Jiao and Wen Wen's parents live and work in another city, and they were looking after by their grandfather. They were believed to be playing unattended at the time of the accident.

The accident took place on the outskirts of Bengbu (file photo), a city in east China

The family realised the girls had gone missing at dinner time. After searching for them in the neighbourhood, their grandfather found them inside the car.

The police were informed at 9pm and arrived at the scene shortly. The siblings were pronounced dead at the scene.

A post-mortem examination showed that the two girls had died of suffocation in the car on the sweltering day.

Police warned the public to always mind their young children, lock their cars around them and not leave them in cars by themselves.

At least seven children in China have died after being trapped in cars since April (file photo)

Children who are stuck in a hot car could face dehydration, heatstroke and even death.

In the United States, an average of 37 children die every year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside vehicles, according to charity organisation Kids and Cars.

The survey also showed that in more than 55 per cent of the cases the children had been unknowingly left behind. Other instances included children who had accidentally locked themselves in a car and failed to open the door by themselves, like Jiao Jiao and Wen Wen.

Although such figures from China are yet to be released, reports of similar incidents have appeared multiple times this year.

In a similar case in April, also in Anhui Province, a pair of siblings aged four and six were found dead after locking themselves inside the car by accident. The police believed they died of heatstroke.

While earlier this month, two boys in two different provinces of China died in hot cars after being forgotten for hours by their care-takers.Tony Abbott has voiced his opinion about the 'harsh realities' which Australia faces due to African immigration.

The former prime minister said Australia 'stores up trouble for ourselves' by allowing violent Sudanese migrants into the country who are 'difficult to integrate.'

'So there is a problem,' he said on 2GB radio, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

'It's an African gang problem, and the Victorian socialist government should get real and own up to the fact that there is an African gang problem in Melbourne.'

Mr Abbott's comments follows the death of 19-year-old Laa Chol, as well as recent crime figures revealing Sudanese people living in Victoria are 57 times more likely to commit violent robberies than the general population.

Tony Abbott has voiced his opinion about the 'harsh realities' which Australia faces due to African immigration

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said there is 'major law and order problem' with Sudanese gangs

Mr Abbott questioned why Australia allowed 'difficult' African migrants into the country in light of the problems faced by law enforcement in Victoria.

'I guess the big question though is: why do we store up trouble for ourselves by letting in people who are going to be difficult, difficult to integrate?' he said.

'And this is why I think all credit to Peter Dutton, who is doing his best to manage our immigration program in our national interest - not in the interests of all sorts of people who might simply want to come here.'

His comments come after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said there was a 'major law and order problem' with Sudanese gangs following the death of Ms Chol.

Ms Chol was allegedly stabbed to death when a gang of young African-Australians crashed a party in Melbourne on Friday night.

Police deny there is any link to Sudanese gangs over the killing.

Since her death, police have charged a 17-year-old boy with her murder, as well as a 16-year-old boy with being an accessory to murder and assault.

'There is a major law and order problem in Victoria and more people are going to be hurt until the rule of law is enforced by the Victorian Government,' Mr Dutton said in a statement to Fairfax.

'We don't have these problems with Sudanese gangs in NSW or Queensland.'A lawyer for Michael Cohen insisted Wednesday that the former Trump attorney isn't hoping for a presidential pardon, and insisted following Tuesday's shocking audiotape revelation that there could be more to come.

Lanny Davis said on 'Good Morning America' that 'there are certainly more tapes,' after CNN broadcast a brief recording of Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump discussing possibly purchasing the rights to the story of a woman who claimed to have bedded the future president.

The FBI reportedly seized a dozen recordings from Cohen during raids this year. Davis did not, however, say that the president's voice is on any of them.

He described them as what 'Mr. Cohen has discussed, that he normally did, in order to take notes. He used his telephone.'

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday night in a Fox News Channel interview that 'there are no other tapes with the president.'

Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton hand, said Wednesday that the feds have more audio from their Cohen raids  but wouldn't say President Trump's voice is on any of them

Cohen could be charged with bank fraud or campaign finance violations in relation to his separate payoff of a pornographic actress who claimed to have bedded Trump; the tape concerns a separate proposal to

The president has lashed out at Cohen, formerly a loyal footsoldier, saying  improbably  at one point that it may have been illegal for him to record their conversations

'We have all of the tapes in our possession,' Giuliani said. 'We have transcripts of all them. We are comfortable with them. And there are no  there are no others.'

President Trump lashed out Wednesday at his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, hours after a 2016 audio recording was leaked showing the two men discussing a campaign-season payout to bury damaging accusations of an extramarital affair a decade earlier.

'What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?' an incredulous Trump tweeted.

Trump also complained that the recording, first aired by CNN, appeared to end suddenly.

'Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?' he asked. 'I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped  can this be so? Too bad!'

Cohen disclosed this year in federal court that his legal practice consisted of representing just three clients: Trump, Fox News Channel host SeanHannity and former Republican National Committee fundraiser Elliott Broidy.

Broidy used Cohen's services to negotiate his own hush-money settlement with a different former Playboy centerfold model.

Trump's lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, insisted Tuesday night on Fox News that the president's voice isn't on any of the other recordings still under wraps

On Saturday the president claimed the idea of a lawyer taping a client was 'totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' adding that '[t]he good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!'

Appearing Wednesday on 'Fox & Friends,' longtime Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz said the tape was a 'big deal about nothing' and that Cohen 'shouldnt have recorded this.'

'The end result is no payments were made, no cash was given,' Dershowitz declared. 'Theres no crime here. Theres no impeachable offense here.'

Cohen could be charged with bank fraud or campaign finance violations in relation to his separate payoff of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about an allegation similar to that of the other woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti claimed last week that 'this is not the only tape,' forecasting the first shoe that would drop.

'I think this is a very serious matter and I think that any or all audio tapes that Michael Cohen has in his possession relating to this president should be released for the public,' he said then.

In the tape CNN aired Tuesday, the president and Cohen are heard in September 2016 speaking about a proposal to buy McDougal's story. Trump's presidential campaign organization had claimed it knew nothing about any such payment.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal received a $150,000 payment from the National Enquirer's parent company, in exchange for an exclusive on her Trump story  which never ran

Lanny Davis, a longtime Clinton hand now representing Cohen, insists that Trump is a serial liar, and his client is ready to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may

The proposal involved paying American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, for the publishing rights. The company had bought them from McDougal for $150,000.

Cohen was an archetypical loyal footsoldier in Trumpworld until his home, office and hotel room were raided.

Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton legal adviser, said Wednesday morning that his client is no longer playing the role of dutiful lieutenant.

'Michael Cohen has turned a corner in his life, and hes now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and well see what happens,' Davis said on ABC.

'This is about truth versus lying, and ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth,' he insisted.

Cohen has already said his 'first loyalty' is to the United States and to his family, not to the president. The White House has avoided taking a position on a possible future pardon.

McDougal says she had a year-long affair with Trump after the birth of his son Baron

McDougal is seen far right in this photo with Melania Trump (third from left), Donald Trump (center), and Ivanka Trump (third from right

Giuliani said last month, however, that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's broader Russia probe 'might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons' when the dust settles.

Tuesday night's mini-controversy surrounded one moment in the leaked recording, in which Trump is heard telling Cohen to 'pay with cash' if he struck a deal for the McDougal story.

Guilani insisted Trump said 'don't pay with cash,' reasoning that incorporating a new company to handle the payment would require paperwork and documentation.

'I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,' Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interjects to ask 'What financing?'  to which Cohen responds: 'We'll have to pay.'

After Trump's cryptic remark about 'cash,' Cohen replies: 'No, no, no, no.'

'Check,' Trump adds.

THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF TRUMP AND COHEN'S DISCUSSION TRUMP: [In background] Good. Let me know what's happening, okay? Oh, oh. Maybe because of this it would be better if you didn't go, you know? Maybe because of this. For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it's so false what they're saying, it's such bulls**t. Um. [PAUSE] I think, I think this goes away quickly. I think what  I think it's probably better to do the Charleston thing, just this time. Uh, yeah. In two weeks, it's fine. I think right now it's, it's better. You know? Okay, honey. You take care of yourself. Thanks, babe. Yup, I'm proud of you. So long. Bye. [Into phone] What's happening? COHEN: Great poll, by the way. TRUMP: Yeah? COHEN: Seen it. Great poll. TRUMP: Making progress. COHEN: Big time. TRUMP: And, your guy is a good guy. He's a good  COHEN: Who, Pastor Scott? TRUMP: Can't believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What's, what's happening  COHEN: No  TRUMP: Can we use him anymore? COHEN: Oh, yeah, a hundred  no, you're talking about Mark Burns. He's, we've told him to [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. TRUMP: I don't need that  Mark Burns, are we using him? COHEN: No, no. FEMALE: Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. I'm sorry, Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE] just called. He  just when you have a chance, he had an idea for you. TRUMP: Okay, great. COHEN: Um, so, we got served from the New York Times. I told you this  we were  TRUMP: To what? COHEN:  To unseal the divorce papers with Ivana. Um, we're fighting it. Um, [Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz is going to  TRUMP: They should never be able to get that. COHEN: Never. Never. Kasowitz doesn't think they'll ever be able to. They don't have a  TRUMP: Get me a Coke, please! COHEN: They don't have a legitimate purpose, so  TRUMP: And you have a woman that doesn't want this. COHEN: Correct. TRUMP: Who you've been handling. COHEN: Yes. And  TRUMP: And it's been going on for a while. COHEN: About two, three weeks now. TRUMP: All you've got to do is delay for  COHEN: Even after that, it's not ever going to be opened. There's no, there's no purpose for it. Um, told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that  I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken  TRUMP: Give it to me and get me a [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. COHEN: And, I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with  TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? COHEN:  Funding . . . Yes. Um, and it's all the stuff. TRUMP: Yeah, I was thinking about that. COHEN: All the stuff. Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what he's  TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck. COHEN: Correct. So, I'm all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be  TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing? COHEN: Well, I'll have to pay him something. TRUMP: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash. COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. TRUMP: Check. [Tape cuts off abruptly. Separate recording begins.] MALE: Hey Don, how are you? Advertisement

Davis, 72, formerly special counsel to President Bill Clinton, said he gave the copy to the network to defend his client who was 'falsely accused.'

Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen is accused of receiving US$500,000 from a Russian oligarch linked to election meddling.

Trump's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists the president never paid McDougal but had acknowledged that the audio, which dates back to September 2016, captured a discussion related to the buying the story rights.

Before it was leaked, Giuliani said the recording would play to Trump's benefit.

'Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,' Giuliani said, according to The New York Times, and said Trump told Cohen that if he made a payment to McDougal, he should write a check.

After the tape was released, he told Fox News on Tuesday it was 'outrageous' that it had been leaked to the media and questioned whether it ended at a key part in the conversation.

Giuliani claims that the rest of the recording, if it hadn't cut off, would have been 'exculpatory.'

He also told The Associated Press that Trump did not want to pay cash and 'suggesting otherwise is ridiculous.'

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, slammed the Cohen tape saying it proved that Trump and Cohen tried to kill the story before Election Day, making the saga 'campaign-motivated.'

Trump broke his silence on Saturday and said Cohen may have brokenthe law by recording him without his knowledge

The alleged affair began shortly after the birth of Trump's son, Baron

He said: 'Regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure.'

Schiff added that it was also proof that Giuliani was 'untruthful' when he said Trump didn't know about the payments.

The president broke his silence on Saturday morning tweeting that it was 'inconceivable' and possibly illegal that Cohen recorded him without his knowledge.

'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning)  almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client  totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' he wrote.

'The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' Trump added.

President Trump and his associates are closely watching Cohen to see if he decides to cooperate with authorities should charges be brought against him.

If payments to McDougal are deemed to have been an effort to circumvent campaign finance laws and their strict limits on monetary contributions to a political campaign, it could provide legal exposure for Cohen.

In the case of another woman who claimed an affair with Trump, porn star Stormy Daniels, Cohen did write her a check, using an LLC he set up immediately beforehand.

'In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence,' said Giuliani.

Lawyer Peter Stris, who negotiated a settlement between McDougal and American Media Inc., tweeted: 'When @realDonaldTrump said we were lying, do you think he meant we WEREN'T?'  in a play on Trump's walk-back of his statement about Russian election meddling.

The Washington Post reported that the September 2016 story  two months before the election  involved a plan by Cohen to buy the rights to McDougal's story. But the deal never happened.

When the Wall Street Journal broke the story on the payment and the alleged affair days before the election, Trump spokeswoman and later White House communications director Hope Hicks said, 'We have no knowledge of any of this.'

Under the arrangement, David Pecker, chairman of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, oversaw a $150,000 payment to McDougal. Pecker is a longtime friend of Trump's and a political supporter.It was revealed that President Donald Trump could be heard discussing payment for Playboy model Karen McDougals story about her alleged affair with him with his personal attorney Michael Cohen, on a secret tape recording.

Although Trumps campaign previously claimed that it had no awareness about the payment, on the tape released by CNN, Cohen could be heard telling the then-Presidential candidate that he planned to set up a company to purchase the rights to the story from American Media, who bought it from McDougal for $150,000 (114,000).

To keep the affair with the Playboy model a secret, it having taken place from 2006 to 2007 while Trump was married to Melania and after the birth of Barron, the US President is heard telling his attorney to pay with cash, which sparked a debate with Rudy Giuliani. But who is Michael Cohen?

In the tape, Cohen is heard saying he planned to set up a company to buy McDougal's story

Who is Michael Cohen?

Many will know Michael Cohen after he claimed that he would take a bullet for President Trump in a Vanity Fair interview back in January 2017 and established himself as the US Presidents protector, in addition to being his personal attorney.

At the time of the interview, Cohen was about to testify after a Washington Post report had revealed that he had reached out to the Kremlin during the 2016 presidential election campaign and asked for help with a potential Trump real-estate project in Russia.

In addition to this, Cohen had already been involved in the infamous Trump dossier on the Presidents relationship with Russia. Prior to the hearing, Cohen was on a forced break from the Trumps and was unable to communicate with them.

Dubbed the sixth Trump child, Vanity Fair revealed how the New York City native only sleeps for three hours a night, believes that all press is good press and being discussed on social media just means that he is relevant.

As the BBC reported, Michael Cohen is the son of an immigrant who escaped a Nazi concentration camp in Poland and grew up in Long Island, before he attended American University in Washington, and later, the Cooley Law School in western Michigan.

On his return to New York, he started working at a law firm, married a Ukrainian immigrant, ran a taxi business and after attempting to run for City Council, met Trump through his son Donald Trump Jr in 2006.

The Cohen and Trump families were known to each other, especially after the former had purchased a number of properties in the Trump World Tower near the United Nations before Michael became the treasurer of the buildings board.

After working for the Trump Organization as counsel, he was made Executive Vice President, a role from which he resigned to serve as the Presidents personal lawyer, a dream job after many years idolising Trump, having read The Art of the Deal multiple times.

Trump speaks about the FBI raid at his lawyer Michael Cohen's office on April 9, 2018

In 2011 Cohen, who was an early supporter of the idea of Trump becoming President of the United States, was involved in the launch of the website, Should Trump Run? and was of course, supportive when the candidacy was officially announced.

Ahead of the hearing in 2017 interview, he said: At times I wish I were there in D.C. more, sitting with him in the Oval Office, like we used to at Trump Tower, to protect him.

I feel guilty that hes in there right now almost alone, especially now that Keith [Schiller, Trumps former bodyguard and confidante] has resigned. There are guys who are very loyal to him that would have gone in, but there was a concerted effort by high-ranking individuals to keep out loyalists.

Cohen then went on to say that he would question his loyalty to Trump if he saw the President in a white sheet at a Klan rally, as a Jew and a child of a Holocaust survivor - but later clarified that neither he nor Trump condone white supremacists.

Not referring to the controversy, Cohen said that he had communicated with Russia because he really wanted to see this building go up, because the economics were fantastic and revealed his conversation with Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putins spokesman.

Cohen described how if you type Kremlin into Google, there is a phone number and an email address available, but said that Russia did not respond. I can tell you for certainty that neither I nor the president were involved, at any point in time, with this Russian conspiracy.

Ive never been paid by or colluded with any Russian to hack the D.N.C., to create search-engine optimization tools to cause Trumps positives up and Hillarys negatives up, Ive never been to Prague.

Ive never been to the Czech Republic. This whole thing has been an attack on me for doing my job. Thats all that I did. I did my job, he said, referring to what was stated in the infamous Trump dossier. Cohen explained that he was in California touring U.S.C with his son and met with TMZ tycoon Harvey Levin.

However, Cohens story about the Steele Dossier began to unravel when it emerged that a hush money payment had been made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who claimed she had an affair with Trump before he became President.

In April 2018, Michael Cohen was thrust into the centre of a federal criminal investigation after Special Counsel Robert Mueller found possible campaign collusion with Russia and a raid was carried out on Cohens office to find files detailing payments made to Daniels.

Stormy Daniels exits the United States District Court after a hearing related to Michael Cohen

Michael Cohen Novartis

A month later, Cohen was embroiled in further controversy and Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis revealed that its top lawyer Felix Ehrat would be stepping down over the decision to hire Michael Cohen as a consultant.

In a statement, Ehrat said: Although the contract was legally in order, it was an error and that he took personal responsibility to bring the public debate on this matter to an end.

Cohen was paid $1.2 million (912,000) for a contract that in the end, boiled down to just one meeting. The deal emerged when Danielss attorney Michael Avenatti tweeted explosive details about the payments that were made to Michael.

Novartis spokesman Eric Althoff said they had entered into a one-year agreement with Essential Consultants in February 2017 in order to focus on healthcare policy. He also said that despite initially hiring Cohen for $100,000 (76,000) a month, after the first meeting, he realised he would not be of use.

This move followed AT&T revealing that its chief lobbyist would be leaving the company after overseeing a $50,000 (38,000) a month contract hiring Cohen to serve as a consultant for a year. In a memo, CEO Randall Stephenson said that hiring him was a big mistake and association was a serious misjudgement.

Michael Cohen smear campaign

Today, Michael Cohens loyalty towards President Donald Trump could be described as questionable, and at the start of this month, said that Stormy Danielss attorney is running a smear campaign against him and insisted that a federal judge should issue a gag order.

Cohens attorney Brent Blakely argued that because Danielss attorney Michael Avenatti frequently appears on television and tweets about the case at hand almost on a daily basis, the comments are aimed at tainting the jury pool.

Amid Cohens fight for a restraining order for Avenatti, Stephanie Clifford is suing Trump while he seeks to invalidate a nondisclosure agreement she signed days before the 2016 presidential election. However, Avenatti said that a gag order is not necessary.

Like a small-town carnival magician who attempts to confuse the audience with smoke and mirrors, Avenatti attempts to somehow justify his conduct by pulling the First Amendment out of his tiny bag of tricks while at the same time pointing his finger at others, Blakely wrote.

Trump Michael Cohen

Around the same time, Cohen seemed to untangle himself from Trump and told ABCs George Stephanopoulos that his wife, my daughter and my son, and this country have my first loyalty, in his first sit-down interview after being criminally investigated.

I will not be a punching bag as part of anyones defense strategy. I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way, Cohen said. He also went on to praise the professionalism of the FBI agent and denied any interference from Russia in the US election.

However, when questioned about whether or not Trump had asked him to make a $130,000 (99,000) payment to Stormy Daniels as part of a non-disclosure agreement, he said: I want to answer. One day I will answer. But for now, I cant comment further on advice of my counsel.

He continued: When they searched my hotel room and my home, it was obviously upsetting to me and my family. Nonetheless, the agents were respectful, courteous and professional. I thanked them for their service and as they left, we shook hands.

In June, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said that Cohen may cooperate with prosecutors: He's not cooperating nor do we care because the President did nothing wrong. I am absolutely certain of that. Michael Cohen, I think, would tell you he's got nothing incriminating on the President,' Giuliani said.

Around this time, Trump said that he hasn't spoken to Cohen in 'a long time' and that he was 'not my lawyer anymore'. This led to Cohen hiring former special counsel to former President Bill Clinton Lanny Davis to help him defend against a federal investigation in New York.

Trump Cohen tape

On July 25 2018, a secret tape recording was obtained by CNN on which Trump could be heard discussing how they would buy Playboy model Karen McDougals story about her alleged affair with the US President with none other than Michael Cohen.

Full audio: Presidential candidate Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording "https://t.co/YmC0QuDqTx pic.twitter.com/fBbq7r1Lq9  Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) July 25, 2018

The recording, which was played during CNNs Cuomo Prime Time, revealed that Cohen planned to set up a company in order to purchase the rights of the story from American Media, who bought it from McDougal for $150,000 (114,000).

Trump appeared to tell Cohen to pay with cash, to which Giuliani responded saying dont pay with cash and had previously told the President to pay by cheque so that the money would be documented.

In the recording, Cohen is heard saying: I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, referring to American Media head David Pecker. Trump then interjects and asks: What financing?.

Giuliani has insisted that while the September 2016 recording caught a discussion about buying the rights to a story, the President never paid McDougal any money. He also believed that the tape would be beneficial for Trump.

Trump broke his silence in his usual way and tweeted that perhaps Cohen had recorded him without his knowledge.

'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of.

Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' Trump added.

Retired judge Barbara Jones is currently looking through all the materials obtained by officials in the Cohen office raid and will search for documents that may be protected under lawyer-client confidentiality between Trump and Cohen.

If payments to McDougal emerge and seem to have been made to circumvent campaign finance laws and their strict limits on monetary contributions to a political campaign, it could provide legal exposure for Cohen.

Lawyer Peter Stris, who negotiated the settlement between McDougal and American Media played on Trumps statement about the Russian election meddling and tweeted: 'When @realDonaldTrump said we were lying, do you think he meant we WEREN'T?

In addition to this, Cohen met with MSNBC host and his close friend Rev. Al Sharpton after which he tweeted: 'Just spent an hour w/ Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney. I bet you're wondering what we could be talking about! Stay tuned.'

Sharpton followed this up with: 'I've known [Cohen] for maybe 20 years. He was a Democrat. He used to broker meetings between Trump and I when we were fighting.

Cohen replied, writing: 'I have known Rev for almost 20 years. No one better to talk to!' However, Michael Avenatti told MSNBC that he knows for a fact that this is not the only tape.

I think this is a very serious matter and I think that any or all audio tapes that Michael Cohen has in his possession relating to this president should be released for the public.

'Theres nothing thats stopping Michael Cohen from releasing the audio recording that he made between him and the President concerning my client, Ms. McDougal, and others.

Lanny Davis then stated that any attempt at spin cannot change what is on the tape. When the recording is heard, it will not hurt Mr. Cohen.The fifth season of Netflix's popular series The Crown (left, actress Elizabeth Debicki as Diana) will include an entire episode focusing on the royal's controversial sit-down with Bashir in 1995 (right), in which she sensationally said 'there were three of us in the marriage' - a reference to Charles and Camilla. Netflix is understood to have spent millions on the episode, which insiders said will be pivotal to the latest installment. However, the decision to recreate the Panorama interview puts it at odds with William (inset), who called for it never to be shown again. Earlier this year, the Duke of Cambridge hit out at Bashir's shocking tactics to obtain his exclusive with his late mother. The inquiry plunged the Corporation into one of the worst crises in its history, with Diana's two sons William and Harry accusing it of ruining their mother's life with its 'deceitful' interview and helping to bring about the tragic chain of events that led to her death two years later.Teen charged: Jaggar Smith, 17, is accused of driving drunk and causing a crash that killed his two school friends in Texas overnight

A 17-year-old boy from Texas has been charged with intoxication manslaughter after police say he got behind the wheel drunk, crashed into trees and split his car in half, killing his two 16-year-old friends.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says the driver, Jaggar Clayton Smith, and his two passengers, Salma Gomez and Chloe Robison who were killed in the early Wednesday crash, attended Atascocita High School, near Houston.

Authorities say Smith lost control of his car and crashed into the trees. They say Robison died at the scene and Gomez died at a hospital. The driver suffered only minor injuries.

According to a press release from the sheriffs office, at around 12.25am on Wednesday, Smith was speeding in his 2008 Nissan Altma southbound in the 18300 block of Timber Forest when he lost control and drifted into the center median, rotating counter clockwise.

Scroll down for video

Gone too soon: Salma Gomez (left) and Chloe Robison (right), both 16, lost their lives after Smith's car slammed into trees and split in two near Houston

Violent crash: Officials say Smith was speeding in his 2008 Nissan Altma southbound in the 18300 block of Timber Forest when he lost control

The front half of the car, where Gomez was riding in the passenger seat, stopped in the median (pictured)

The right side of the sedan smashed into a tree and the force of the collision broke the car in two.

The front half of the car, where Gomez was riding in the passenger seat, then rotated clockwise before coming to a stop in the median.

The rear half of the car, where Robison was riding, continued spinning before crashing into a second tree in the median.

Robison died at the scene, while Gomez was transported to Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital where she succumbed of her injuries.

Smith was taken to Houston Northwest Medical Center, where he was treated for his injuries and arrested on two counts of intoxication manslaughter. Investigators believe he had been drinking.

Robison died at the scene. Gomez (pictured with Smith at a concert in June), died at the hospital. The boy suffered only minor injuries

Hannah, a friend of Salma Gomez and Chloe Robison, places flowers at a small memorial near the site of a fatal car crash that killed the two teens Wednesday in Atascocita, Texas

A bouquet of flowers with a condolence note is pictured at the makeshift memorial

Sheriff Gonzalez tweeted after the crash saying that Smith, Robison and Gomez were 'close friends.'

On June 16, Gomez shared a photo on her Instagram page showing her posing up with Smith and another teen at an outdoor concert.

Smith's uncle told ABC13 his nephew was returning from a quinceanera reunion party that Gomez had hosted on Tuesday night.

Witnesses told deputies Smith was doing 70-80mph in a 40mph speed zone, reported KPRC. All three occupants of the car were buckled up at the time of the crash.A women's rights activist who once posed with The Duchess of Sussex for a Vanity Fair photoshoot faces 20 years in jail after allegedly confessing to conspiring with enemies of Saudi Arabia.

Loujain Al-Hathloul, 28, is among nine women held after a brutal crackdown in May - just as the desert kingdom was about to allow women to drive for the first time.

At the time campaigners were bidding to use the lifting of the driving ban as a springboard for further reforms such as ending Saudi Arabia's restrictive male guardianship system and allowing more freedom of speech.

In one picture Meghan (left) was in a group of four posing by the water's edge with Al-Hathloul (right), the poet Fatima Bhutto (centre right) and former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson (centre left)

In March al-Hathloul, who has 316,000 Twitter followers, was stopped by police as she drove near her university in Abu Dhabi and put on a plane back to Saudi Arabia where she was banned from leaving the country or using social media

But instead they were rounded up, thrown in jail and now face charges of treason that carry the harshest prison sentence - or even the death penalty.

Kareem Chehayeb, Saudi Arabia researcher for Amnesty International, said: 'The Saudi authorities don't want any change to come from below. They want to stifle any form of dissent or human rights activism.

'It appears that the only reforms that are acceptable are those that are coming from above, which is absolutely outrageous.'

Al-Hathloul's arrest came two years after she attended a One Young World humanitarian summit in Ottawa, Canada with the then Meghan Markle, Emma Watson, Cher as well as the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

In one picture Meghan was in a group of four posing by the water's edge with Al-Hathloul, the poet Fatima Bhutto and former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson.

Writing about the summit at the time, Meghan said: 'One Young World invites young adults from all over the world who are actively working to transform the socio-political landscape by being the greater good.

'They are delegates who are speaking out against human rights violations, environmental crises, gender equality issues, discrimination and injustice. They are the change'.

Loujain Al-Hathloul, 28, is among nine women held during a brutal crackdown in May just as the desert kingdom was about to allow women to drive for the first time

Aziza al-Yousef drives a car on a highway in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of a campaign to defy Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving. She is believed to have been one of the activists arrested

Walaa al-Shubbar, in her late 20s, is thought to have been another arrested. She has been active in calling for an end to guardianship rules and appeared on Arabic news programs to discuss issues of patriarchy in the kingdom

In March al-Hathloul, who has 316,000 Twitter followers, was stopped by police as she drove near her university in Abu Dhabi and put on a plane back to Saudi Arabia where she was banned from leaving the country or using social media.

Despite not posting any more Tweets, she was among seven Saudis detained two months later, five women and two men who had supported their cause, including a lawyer who had represented al-Hathloul in the past.

Yesterday Amnesty International revealed the Riyadh authorities had claimed the prisoners confessed on June 2 to communicating with Saudi Arabia's enemies, and 'providing financial and moral support to hostile elements abroad'.

At the time campaigners were bidding to use the lifting of the driving ban as a springboard for further reforms such as ending Saudi Arabia's restrictive male guardianship system and allowing more freedom of speech. Pictured: A woman behind the wheel in the country after a royal decree to lift the ban on women driving took effect in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 24

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had appeared set to instigate a series of reforms in Saudi Arabia

Mr Chehayeb said the group expects they will now be brought before the Specialised Criminal Court to face charges which amounted to treason, the penalty for which is 20 years in jail, or even the death sentence.

'They have been arrested purely based on their women's rights activism and these are trumped up charges for which they could get 20 years in jail.

'We don't know the conditions in which they are being kept, we don't know if they have access to lawyers during these interrogations when they allegedly confessed to these crimes.

'With treason you cannot rule out the death penalty but we anticipate they will be given harsh prison sentences based on trumped-up security-related charges'.

As well as Al-Hathloul, the other activists being held include Iman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, Ibrahim al-Modeimegh, Mohammad al-Rabea and Mohammed al-Bajadi.A Louis Vuitton male model told a court how he was threatened by a professional rival for sleeping with his girlfriend before he stabbed him to death.

Harry Uzoka, 25, was knifed in the heart by 24-year-old George Koh and died on the pavement in Shepherd's Bush, west London in January.

Koh admits killing Mr Uzoka but claims the victim came to his home with a metal pole and fell on to a knife he was brandishing in self defence.

Mr Uzoka has appeared in shoots for GQ, Zara and Mercedes and had helped out Louise Vuitton model Koh when he was starting out.

Harry Uzoka, 25, was knifed in the heart by George Koh and died in Shepherd's Bush in January. Mr Uzoka believed Koh slept with his girlfriend, Ruby Campbell (pictured with Uzoka)

Uzoka allegedly fell out with fellow catwalk star George Koh (left), over Ruby (right) who he had branded a 'fake' in a series of social media exchanges

But relations between the pair soured and Uzoko arranged to fight Koh to settle their developing feud, which had been brewing over Instagram.

Mr Uzoka believed Koh slept with his girlfriend, Ruby Campbell and later said he wanted to settle the row 'face to face.'

Koh told the court: 'I received a call from Harry getting threats. Harry's girlfriend had followed me on social media.

'Harry called me and said 'I know you slept with my girlfriend. There is no point denying that.

'He said to me: 'you better run, when I see you this is not a joke.'

'I was just trying to explain that I did not sleep with anyone's girlfriend.

'Then after that there were just continuous threats. I showed a couple of friends and there were quite shocked how he was messaging me.'

The court heard how Koh replied saying: 'When you see me, if you want to fight, lets fight.'

Mr Uzoka had got together with Ruby Campbell (pictured) last summer after meeting her on a photoshoot in Los Angeles, a witness said

Koh told the court that three men turned up to his house in the middle of the night, and started shouting up at his window, 'yo, come out.'

He said: 'I was so scared. They were outside for 15-20 mins. I called my friend and told him that this is really getting out of hand.

'Harry had never brought people to my house before.'

Koh, of York Way, Camden, northwest London, has admitted possessing two knives on the day of the fatal attack but denies murder.

It is claimed Koh attacked the victim with two friends, Jonathan Okigbo and Merse Dikanda, both also 24, who were said to be armed.

Okigbo, of Trevithic House, York Rise, Camden, and Dikanda, of no fixed abode, also deny murder.

Dikanda further denies possessing a machete on the day of the attack and possessing a bladed article in a separate incident two weeks later.

Model Chuck Achike (pictured) told the Old Bailey that victim Harry Uzoka had recently been offered a role in a rom-com

Giving evidence at the trial, Mr Uzoka's long-term friend, Chuck Achike, who is also a model, told an Old Bailey jury that Mr Uzoka was in a positive mood when he went to his flat the previous day despite the escalating dispute with Koh.

'He said George said 'He f***** my girl', which I thought was petty and young,' Mr Achike told jurors.

'He knew it wasn't true and I knew it wasn't true.'

He said Mr Uzoka had got together with Ruby Campbell last summer after meeting her on a photoshoot in Los Angeles.

Asked what the mood was like as Mr Uzoka discussed Koh with his flatmates, Mr Achike said: 'It was fine, it was happy, it was normal.

'Harry had always wanted to be an actor and he had just got a role in a British movie and they had just sent him the script.'

Mr Achike said he could not remember the name of the film, but knew it was a romantic fiction.

'It was optimistic, we were talking about the future,' he added.

The trial continues.Advertisement

One of Britain's most historic and exclusive shopping cities has been turned into a 'ghost town' - with 42 empty shops in the centre, according to a frustrated campaigner.

Bath in Somerset has attracted wealthy tourists and shoppers for hundreds of years and was the playground of the Roman, Georgian and Victorian elite.

The spa city and World Heritage Site is famous for its parades of shops, hotels and restaurants considered one of the UK's top tourist hotspots outside of London.

But local Luke John Emmett, 32, of campaign group Bath Deserves Better, says it is now peppered with abandoned shops.

One of Britain's most historic and exclusive shopping cities has been turned into a 'ghost town' - with 42 empty shops in the centre, according to a frustrated campaigner

But local Luke John Emmett, 32, of campaign group Bath Deserves Better, says it is now peppered with abandoned shops

Mr Emmett took photographs of neglected premises while walking through the town last Tuesday

The local activist described the growing number of empty shops as 'shocking' and said the UNESCO World Heritage Site was beginning to feel like a 'ghost town'

He took photographs of neglected premises while walking through the town last Tuesday.

He described the growing number of empty shops as 'shocking' and said the UNESCO World Heritage Site was beginning to feel like a 'ghost town'.

'All these photos were taken in one day on a quick walk around Bath,' he tweeted.

'It's SHOCKING that so many empty properties sit around Bath. It's not good enough.

Mr Emmett said he hoped the photographs would help raise awareness of the struggles facing one of the UK's most-visited cities.

He told Bath Live: 'The other day I was on a bus as it went up Walcot Street and it just struck me how many shops were empty and looking sorry for themselves.

'It really brings the look of the city down and is just such a shame. We just can't have all these empty voids there.'

As locals chimed in, Bath & North East Somerset Council replied: 'It's been a tough year on the High Street nationally but in Bath city centre footfall is up and occupancy high. Particularly proud of local independents and our work with @BathBID and @InvestinBath. '

 Slide me  As locals chimed in, Bath & North East Somerset Council replied: 'It's been a tough year on the High Street nationally but in Bath city centre footfall is up and occupancy high. Particularly proud of local independents and our work with @BathBID and @InvestinBath'. Pictured: Before and after picture of a retail unit in the Abbey Courtyard

 Slide me  Earlier this year one business owner, also based in the heart of the city, said the number of empty shops in Bath was 'embarrassing'. Pictured: Comparison between a store in The Corridor

 Slide me  Although the level of business rates is set by the national Government, Mr Emmett said the council could still do more. Pictured: Before and after picture of a store front on Broad Street

 Slide me  Quiet Street in Bath is living up to its name with this former Nationwide branch standing vacant

Mr Emmett counted eight vacant retail units on one street alone.

Earlier this year one business owner, also based in the heart of the city, said the number of empty shops in Bath was 'embarrassing'.

Other business people have hit out at the cost of business rates and rent making it difficult to thrive in Bath.

Bath and North East Somerset council has said it takes the problem 'very seriously', while also pointing out that many of the empty shops Mr Emmett counted are set to be brought back to life in the near future.

But Mr Emmett believes the council needs to be more 'open to ideas'.

Although the level of business rates is set by the national Government, Mr Emmett said the council could still do more.

'The council doesn't have to accept it,' Mr Emmett said. 'If it was me I'd go back to the Government and fight for a better deal.'

He added: 'Bath is terrible at advertising itself to its own residents.

'We're good at getting people to come here from America but sometimes we need to remind people who live here to use the city, too.'

Mr Emmett said he hoped the photographs would help raise awareness of the struggles facing one of the UK's most-visited cities

Bath and North East Somerset council pointed out that many of the empty shops Mr Emmett counted are set to be brought back to life in the near future

The rest of Bath could learn from the SouthGate shopping centre, Mr Emmett argues, although he would like to see more independent shops there

While having some empty shops is inevitable, Mr Emmett would like to see more derelict buildings smartened up and used to promote events Bath has to offer

Bath in Somerset has attracted wealthy tourists and shoppers for hundreds of years and was the playground of the Roman, Georgian and Victorian elite

While having some empty shops is inevitable, Mr Emmett would like to see more derelict buildings smartened up and used to promote events Bath has to offer.

He added: 'It would make them less of an eyesore. They could be used to actually promote Bath and the brilliant events that make the city what it is.'

The rest of Bath could learn from the SouthGate shopping centre, Mr Emmett argues, although he would like to see more independent shops there.

He said: 'Whatever the SouthGate are doing, they're doing it right. They keep it clean and shops are never empty there for very long.

'In the rest of the city it feels like our sense of community is being chipped away at with all these empty buildings.'

The spa city and World Heritage Site is famous for its parades of shops, hotels and restaurants considered one of the UK's top tourist hotspots outside of London

One of the many empty shops in Bath which has been documented by Luke John Emmett, 32, of campaign group Bath Deserves Better - this retail unit is on Stall StreetPolice are looking for five men who stole iPhones and iPads totaling $29,000 from an Apple Store in Southern California on Monday.

Costa Mesa Police Department released a video showing the men snatching the devices while in the South Coast Plaza in Orange County.

The men - clad in hoodies - would grab the electronics from their displays before fleeing the store, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Mike Manson said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Costa Mesa Police Department released a video showing the five men snatching the devices while in the South Coast Plaza in Orange County

The suspects were said to have taken $29,000 worth of iPads and iPhones

He added that the thieves had perused the store for about 15 minutes before they began taking the iPhones and iPads.

An off-duty cop was at the scene and tried to detain the men in the front of the store, but failed.

Costa Mesa confirmed that the officer was not with their department but it was not known which agency he was with.

An off-duty cop was at the scene and tried to detain the men in the front of the store, but failed

The group is said to consist of men mostly in their early to mid-20s

The group is said to consist of men mostly in their early to mid-20s.

They were seen driving in a silver Infiniti sedan toward the 405 Freeway.

Manson described that during the robbery, the men did not pull out any weapons.

'There were no injuries and no weapons involved,' Manson explained to the Orange County Register.Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, hours after a 2016 audio recording was leaked showing the two men discussing a campaign-season payout to bury damaging accusations of an extramarital affair a decade earlier.

'What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?' an incredulous Trump tweeted.

Trump also complained that the recording, first aired by CNN, appeared to end suddenly.

'Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?' he asked. 'I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped  can this be so? Too bad!'

Cohen disclosed this year in federal court that his legal practice consisted of representing just three clients: Trump, Fox News Channel host SeanHannity and former Republican National Committee fundraiser Elliott Broidy.

On Saturday the president claimed the idea of a lawyer taping a client was 'totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' adding that '[t]he good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!'

President Donald Trump is at war with his former lawyer folllowing the bombshell revelation of a September 2016 recording of the two men discussing a payment to bury a sexual affair claim

'What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?' Trump tweeted, speculating that Cohen may have recorded other clients

Cohen is under federal investigation, reportedly for allegations of bank fraud and campaign finance violations, related to a different Trump hush-money payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels

A lawyer for Cohen insisted Wednesday that the former Trump attorney isn't hoping for a presidential pardon, and insisted following Tuesday's shocking audiotape revelation that there could be more to come.

Lanny Davis said on 'Good Morning America' that 'there are certainly more tapes,' after CNN broadcast a brief recording of Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump discussing possibly purchasing the rights to the story of a woman who claimed to have bedded the future president.

The FBI reportedly seized a dozen recordings from Cohen during raids this year. Davis did not, however, say that the president's voice is on any of them.

He described them as what 'Mr. Cohen has discussed, that he normally did, in order to take notes. He used his telephone.'

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday night in a Fox News Channel interview that 'there are no other tapes with the president.'

Media interest in Cohen's revelation ran high on Wednesday, with the influential Drudge Report website featuring the story and calling him 'THE RAT'

Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton hand, said Wednesday that the feds have more audio from their Cohen raids

Trump's lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, insisted Tuesday night on Fox News that the president's voice isn't on any of the other recordings still under wraps

'We have all of the tapes in our possession,' Giuliani said. 'We have transcripts of all them. We are comfortable with them. And there are no  there are no others.'

Appearing Wednesday on 'Fox & Friends,' longtime Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz said the tape was a 'big deal about nothing' and that Cohen 'shouldnt have recorded this.'

'The end result is no payments were made, no cash was given,' Dershowitz declared. 'Theres no crime here. Theres no impeachable offense here.'

Cohen could be charged with bank fraud or campaign finance violations in relation to his separate payoff of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about an allegation similar to that of the other woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti claimed last week that 'this is not the only tape,' forecasting the first shoe that would drop.

'I think this is a very serious matter and I think that any or all audio tapes that Michael Cohen has in his possession relating to this president should be released for the public,' he said then.

In the tape CNN aired Tuesday, the president and Cohen are heard in September 2016 speaking about a proposal to buy McDougal's story. Trump's presidential campaign organization had claimed it knew nothing about any such payment.

The proposal involved paying American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, for the publishing rights. The company had bought them from McDougal for $150,000.

Cohen was an archetypical loyal footsoldier in Trumpworld until his home, office and hotel room were raided.

Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton legal adviser, said Wednesday morning that his client is no longer playing the role of dutiful lieutenant.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal received a $150,000 payment from the National Enquirer's parent company, in exchange for an exclusive on her Trump story  which never ran

Davis insists that Trump is a serial liar, and that his client Cohen is ready to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may

'Michael Cohen has turned a corner in his life, and hes now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and well see what happens,' Davis said on ABC.

'This is about truth versus lying, and ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth,' he insisted.

Cohen has already said his 'first loyalty' is to the United States and to his family, not to the president. The White House has avoided taking a position on a possible future pardon.

Giuliani said last month, however, that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's broader Russia probe 'might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons' when the dust settles.

Tuesday night's mini-controversy surrounded one moment in the leaked recording, in which Trump is heard telling Cohen to 'pay with cash' if he struck a deal for the McDougal story.

Guilani insisted Trump said 'don't pay with cash,' reasoning that incorporating a new company to handle the payment would require paperwork and documentation.

'I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,' Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interjects to ask 'What financing?'  to which Cohen responds: 'We'll have to pay.'

After Trump's cryptic remark about 'cash,' Cohen replies: 'No, no, no, no.'

'Check,' Trump adds.

McDougal says she had a year-long affair with Trump after the birth of his son Baron; Trump and the White House have denied he did anything wrong

McDougal is seen far right in this photo with Melania Trump (third from left), Donald Trump (center), and Ivanka Trump (third from right)

Davis, 72, formerly special counsel to President Bill Clinton, said he gave the copy to the network to defend his client who was 'falsely accused.'

Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen is accused of receiving US$500,000 from a Russian oligarch linked to election meddling.

Trump's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists the president never paid McDougal but had acknowledged that the audio, which dates back to September 2016, captured a discussion related to the buying the story rights.

Before it was leaked, Giuliani said the recording would play to Trump's benefit.

'Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,' Giuliani said, according to The New York Times, and said Trump told Cohen that if he made a payment to McDougal, he should write a check.

After the tape was released, he told Fox News on Tuesday it was 'outrageous' that it had been leaked to the media and questioned whether it ended at a key part in the conversation.

Giuliani claims that the rest of the recording, if it hadn't cut off, would have been 'exculpatory.'

He also told The Associated Press that Trump did not want to pay cash and 'suggesting otherwise is ridiculous.'

THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF TRUMP AND COHEN'S DISCUSSION TRUMP: [In background] Good. Let me know what's happening, okay? Oh, oh. Maybe because of this it would be better if you didn't go, you know? Maybe because of this. For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it's so false what they're saying, it's such bulls**t. Um. [PAUSE] I think, I think this goes away quickly. I think what  I think it's probably better to do the Charleston thing, just this time. Uh, yeah. In two weeks, it's fine. I think right now it's, it's better. You know? Okay, honey. You take care of yourself. Thanks, babe. Yup, I'm proud of you. So long. Bye. [Into phone] What's happening? COHEN: Great poll, by the way. TRUMP: Yeah? COHEN: Seen it. Great poll. TRUMP: Making progress. COHEN: Big time. TRUMP: And, your guy is a good guy. He's a good  COHEN: Who, Pastor Scott? TRUMP: Can't believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What's, what's happening  COHEN: No  TRUMP: Can we use him anymore? COHEN: Oh, yeah, a hundred  no, you're talking about Mark Burns. He's, we've told him to [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. TRUMP: I don't need that  Mark Burns, are we using him? COHEN: No, no. FEMALE: Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. I'm sorry, Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE] just called. He  just when you have a chance, he had an idea for you. TRUMP: Okay, great. COHEN: Um, so, we got served from the New York Times. I told you this  we were  TRUMP: To what? COHEN:  To unseal the divorce papers with Ivana. Um, we're fighting it. Um, [Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz is going to  TRUMP: They should never be able to get that. COHEN: Never. Never. Kasowitz doesn't think they'll ever be able to. They don't have a  TRUMP: Get me a Coke, please! COHEN: They don't have a legitimate purpose, so  TRUMP: And you have a woman that doesn't want this. COHEN: Correct. TRUMP: Who you've been handling. COHEN: Yes. And  TRUMP: And it's been going on for a while. COHEN: About two, three weeks now. TRUMP: All you've got to do is delay for  COHEN: Even after that, it's not ever going to be opened. There's no, there's no purpose for it. Um, told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that  I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken  TRUMP: Give it to me and get me a [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. COHEN: And, I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with  TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? COHEN:  Funding . . . Yes. Um, and it's all the stuff. TRUMP: Yeah, I was thinking about that. COHEN: All the stuff. Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what he's  TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck. COHEN: Correct. So, I'm all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be  TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing? COHEN: Well, I'll have to pay him something. TRUMP: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash. COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. TRUMP: Check. [Tape cuts off abruptly. Separate recording begins.] MALE: Hey Don, how are you? Advertisement

Trump broke his silence on Saturday and is not happy Cohen recorded their conversation about a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, slammed the Cohen tape saying it proved that Trump and Cohen tried to kill the story before Election Day, making the saga 'campaign-motivated.'

He said: 'Regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure.'

Schiff added that it was also proof that Giuliani was 'untruthful' when he said Trump didn't know about the payments.

The president broke his silence on Saturday morning tweeting that it was 'inconceivable' and possibly illegal that Cohen recorded him without his knowledge.

'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' he wrote.

'The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' Trump added.

President Trump and his associates are closely watching Cohen to see if he decides to cooperate with authorities should charges be brought against him.

The alleged affair began shortly after the birth of Trump's son, Baron

If payments to McDougal are deemed to have been an effort to circumvent campaign finance laws and their strict limits on monetary contributions to a political campaign, it could provide legal exposure for Cohen.

In the case of another woman who claimed an affair with Trump, porn star Stormy Daniels, Cohen did write her a check, using an LLC he set up immediately beforehand.

'In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence,' said Giuliani.

Lawyer Peter Stris, who negotiated a settlement between McDougal and American Media Inc., tweeted: 'When @realDonaldTrump said we were lying, do you think he meant we WEREN'T?'  in a play on Trump's walk-back of his statement about Russian election meddling.

The Washington Post reported that the September 2016 story  two months before the election  involved a plan by Cohen to buy the rights to McDougal's story. But the deal never happened.

When the Wall Street Journal broke the story on the payment and the alleged affair days before the election, Trump spokeswoman and later White House communications director Hope Hicks said, 'We have no knowledge of any of this.'

Under the arrangement, David Pecker, chairman of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, oversaw a $150,000 payment to McDougal. Pecker is a longtime friend of Trump's and a political supporter.The White House is hiding President Donald Trump's calls with foreign leaders by refusing to release readouts of his conversations with them - a move that contrasts with the policies of former administrations.

Trump has spoken with at least two of his foreign counterparts in the last two weeks, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the White House only confirmed the calls after they were reported in the foreign media.

The White House is no longer issuing readouts of President Trump's calls with foreign leaders

The White House did not issue a readout of Trump's call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Trump's conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was only revealed in the foreign media

It's unclear if the suspensions of the readouts is temporary or permanent, according to CNN.

The move comes as questions continue about what was said during Trump's private, one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

Readouts - official descriptions of Trump's phone conversations - are usually short and dry with little news or details of the conversations. But the readouts do confirm what leaders the president is speaking to.

Calls between world leaders are highly coordinated events with a translator included in the conversation when necessary and aides often listen in. Talking points and briefing papers are prepared in advance and given to the president. The national security adviser is on the call and a transcript of the conversation is circulated to key aides.

The last readout the White House issued was June 16, when Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orba.

'President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary to congratulate him on the formation of his new government,' it read. 'Both leaders agreed on the need for strong national borders and reflected on the President's successful summit with Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea. The two leaders further pledged to keep United States-Hungary relations strong.'

Foreign governments can and often do release their own readouts of the calls with Trump. Both the British government and Canadian government have done so.

Additionally, details of the calls not contained in the readouts have leaked.

Trump was reportedly furious last summer when The Washington Post published transcripts of his tense calls with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

After that he wanted fewer people in the room during the calls.

He was also angry after it leaked this spring that he had been told by his national security team not to congratulate Putin on his reelection victory during their call. He did so.

The president prefers the personal approach in his diplomatic relations and likes to forge a bond with his counter parts.

Foreign governments can and often do release their own readouts of the calls with Trump

Trump has been frustrated when details of his past calls leaked to the media

Calls with world leaders are highly-coordinated events

But Trump's more freewheeling style has caused a few bumps in the diplomatic road.

Shortly after he took office, the president gave his personal cellphone number to a handful of world leaders, The Washington Post reported earlier this month.

In April 2017, White House aides were caught off guard when the Canadian government issues a readout of a call between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump.

No one at the White House knew the call had taken place.

'We had no idea what happened,' a senior official told the paper.

After that incident, White House aides encouraged the president to route all his calls with foreign leaders through the Situation Room, as required under federal records law.

Additionally Trump has another quirk in his conversations: he rarely ends a call without extending the leader an invitation to the White House.

'Next time you're in Washington, stop by for lunch at the White House,' he often says, the Post reported.

He even makes the offer when advisers ask him not to. He did so with Brazilian President Michel Temer, who is fighting corruption allegations, last fall.

White House aides then spent the next several weeks dodging calls from the Brazilian ambassador, who was trying to set up the luncheon.Peter Rigden (pictured outside court) was caught out after his wife Mahala looked him up online 10 years after he vanished from their home and found he had a new wife

A bigamist who disappeared from his home and married another woman before being caught on Facebook by his first wife a decade later has been jailed for six months.

Peter Rigden was caught out after his wife Mahala looked him up online 10 years after he vanished from their home in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and found he had a new wife and child.

'Dreadful liar' Rigden, 48, admitted bigamy as a court heard that he disappeared 'quite unexpectedly' from his home with Mahala.

Security guard Rigden's double life was only discovered when Mahala - seeking to divorce him - looked him up on Facebook and stumbled upon his new life.

The 48-year-old met his second wife Kerry Higgins three years after vanishing from the home he shared with his first wife.

Despite knowing he had not been divorced, Rigden proposed to Kerry and the pair were married in 2007, 300 miles away from Mahala in Ramsgate, Kent, and had a child together.

Neither woman had been aware that Rigden, of Gosport, Hampshire, had been married to the other.

Sentencing him today at Portsmouth Magistrates' Court, Hants, District Judge Anne Arnold said: 'Your dishonesty has extended over a period of 10 years or more.

Despite knowing he had not been divorced, Rigden proposed to Kerry and the pair were married in 2007, 300 miles away from Mahala in Ramsgate, Kent, and had a child together

'It led to the cost of a church wedding, leading up to which you were dishonest.

'As well as the impact your purported marriage had had on the second lady involved, in years to come a child will have to learn of your disgraceful behaviour.

'I'm in absolutely no doubt that the custody threshold has been crossed.'

Earlier, prosecutor Graham Heath had told the court: 'The situation is that Mahala Rigden became involved in a relationship with the defendant in Bolton in 1999.

'It seems the pair worked together and then a relationship started. As you see by the given name, they married in 2000.

'They lived as man and wife up until Christmas 2003, when Mrs Rigden says that he did not come home one day, quite unexpectedly.

'He said he would be working away in London for a few weeks and that, unfortunately, really marked the end of their relationship.

'She felt through the passage of time that there was a need to resolve the relationship with divorce.

'She, at a later point - quite recently - sought the defendant out through Facebook.

'She said that through her investigations on Facebook it appeared the defendant had a new relationship with someone else.

'Mrs Rigden tried to contact the defendant but received a response from his partner, who said she was aware of the defendant being married prior to her relationship.

'That, in due course, put matters in motion for contact with the police. Mrs Rigden realised that things may be awry. She thought there was something strange.

'His second wife Kerry Storey, or Higgins as she is on the court listing, says she first met the defendant in 2006 through online dating.

'She says that a relationship started and within several months he had proposed to her.

'She was unaware of the defendant being married and she accepted. The pair were married in Ramsgate on December 22, 2007.

'Thereafter, it is clear there were problems in the relationship. They had a child together, but in due course they separated. She filed for divorce in 2013.

'What happens next is that in January this year, Kerry had a visit from the police who told her the defendant had been married when they got married.

'She told police that from what he told her, it fitted in with his character and his lies.

'The defendant accepted to police that he understood what he was doing and said it had been a terrible mistake.

'There is very little said by Mahala Rigden about the effect and in relation to Kerry, she says she was quite shocked.'

In a victim impact statement read to the court today, second wife Kerry said: 'The whole event has been a shock. The wedding, which was paid for by myself and my mum was substantial.

'The church, eight bridesmaid dresses, catering - the entire cost was in excess of 12,000 - all of this for a marriage which was null and void.

'As our marriage was failing, we knew we would be going our separate ways, he asked for money to walk away from [our child] forever.

'I scraped together 1,000. Peter failed to comply with any requests from social workers. Myself and my new husband finally managed to adopt [the child] regardless of Peter's non-compliance.

'Five years after our divorce, he's still disrupted our life. I always knew he was a dreadful liar but I never thought it would go this far.

'I feel humiliated and ashamed, I have had to tell my family and friends in case they find out second hand.'

Today, John Naylor, representing Rigden, said that the 48-year-old accepted 'his behaviour has been terrible'.

He said: 'What he tends to do is put his head in the sand. He just drifts into the next thing that happens in his life.

'He accepts his behaviour has been terrible.'

District Judge Arnold sentenced Rigden to six months behind bars, ordering him to pay a 115 surcharge.Grant Denyer has shared a confronting photo showing the devastating impact the drought has had on his farm in regional NSW.

The Gold Logie winner, who owns a farm in Bathurst, took to social media to share the photo - which compared lush green fields with baron, dusty plains.

'It's time to do something about this drought,' Denyer wrote online in a follow-up to a passionate post about how things had reached 'situation critical.'

The 40-year-old used the photo to spruik a fundraiser he is headlining in a bid to 'get some help on the ground for the affected farmers who are reaching breaking point.'

Scroll down for video

Gold Logie winner Grant Denyer (pictured) will be hosting a Black Tie and Boots event at the Bathurst Goldfields on August 11 to help raise funds for farmers

Denyer posted two pictures showing the devastating impact the drought is having on farm land in NSW

The two pictures are of his own Bathurst farm and are only two years apart

The fundraiser, a Black Tie and Boots event at the Bathurst Goldfields on August 11, will be hosted by Grant Denyer and feature Guy Sebastian and Em Rusciano.

There will also be an identical event help in Brisbane for those in Queensland who want to help and support NSW farmers.

Mr Denyer said mental health was also a major focus of the event.

'When times are this tough, mental health is a real issue and families suffer,' he wrote.

'With your help we'll get a professional who can visit, assist and keep a friendly eye on the most vulnerable.'

This is the picture of Grant Denyer's farm he shared with his followers to show them hoe dry conditions had become in

Mr Denyer owns his own farm in Bathurst and revealed the devastation the drought is causing in the area through a recent Facebook post.

He has labelled the New South Wales drought as 'situation critical,' pleading with people to recognise the severity and the effect it has on struggling farmers.

In an emotional Facebook post, the former game show host shared a photo showing the dry conditions on his 27-acre farm in Bathurst.

'This is how dry it is at our place,' Denyer said in his post. 'My wife just took this photo of our backyard and paddocks.

'So dry, the kangaroos are drinking out of our dog bowl.

Mr Denyar also shared a comparison shot of his farm from 2016 to 2018 showing the stark realities of drought on our farmers.

'We're lucky we don't rely on the farm for income but so many in regional Australia do. It's so sad right now. In many places it's the worst drought since records began.'

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the entire country has been gripped by an historic lack of rainfall.

Denyer is pictured here with his wife, Chezzi, on their family farm in NSW

Parts of the country  particularly in eastern states  have experienced the lowest rainfall on record.

At the moment a huge 60 per cent of the state is on drought watch.

Denyer said that the strain this puts of farmers created not just a finical toll but also a mental and emotional one.

'Some families are at breaking point, unable to afford food & with no choice but to shoot their stock so they don't starve & suffer a slow death.'

These emus have been hit by cars - after being forced to look further afield for water - pictures taken near Broken Hill

One farmer in north-western NSW is already planning to shoot all 1200 of his starving sheep and bury them in a mass grave on his barren farm.

Some have turned to alternative sources of food and hydration to keep their livestock healthy.

Just last week a Victorian farmer turned to watermelon as a supplement and on Wednesday a farmer in northern end of NSW had of a load of orange peel for his cattle to feed on.

Denyer also raised the issue of mental health, touching on the clear link between worsening drought conditions and increases in suicide, suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety.

Denyer is pictured here on his farm during more favourable weather conditions

Cows are dying from starvation and dehydration in normally fertile areas such as Tamworth in NSW's central west (above)

'Mental health issues have risen 70% in our region & suicide by farmers is the most tragic consequence of such a drastic situation.'

'Farmers harvest our food and the materials for the clothes on our back... please think of them. We need them. They need us. That's why we support @ruralaid and @buyabale.'

Farmers are reportedly having to fork out up to $10,000 a week to maintain livestock.

To help alleviate financial pressures, National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn announced the bank will stop charging farmers penalty interest if they fall behind on their repayments due to drought.

Here Denyer is pictured with some bulls on his NSW farm before the drought hit

One in three farmers bank with NAB, meaning the other big banks will face increased pressure to join them in making the change.

'This is an investment in agriculture's future and farmers can now vote with their wallets. I hope other Aussie banks follow NAB's lead and get on board,' Mr Littleproud said on Tuesday.

'If you're a farmer whose bank doesn't offer an FMD offset, you can tell them to bugger off because there are banks now which do.'

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14. For help with depression, please see Beyond Blue for a list of organisations that can assist.Two Americans who were captured in Syria and are accused of supporting the Islamic State group have been transferred back to the United States.

The two detainees were picked up by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed ground force that has been fighting ISIS across parts of northern and eastern Syria.

'Two US citizens, charged in separate cases with federal violations, have been transferred from the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces to US custody and transported to the US where they will soon appear in federal courts,' US Department of Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said Tuesday.

Defendant Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli (R), 28, of Dearborn, Michigan and Samantha Elhassani (L) of Indiana are being transferred back to the US to face terrorism-related charges

The Justice Department accuses Musaibli of helping the Islamic State from April 2015 to June 2018

Defendant Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan is due to be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday on charges of helping IS from April 2015 to June 2018.

'The indictment alleges that, for a substantial period of time, defendant Musaibli provided material support to ISIS, one of the most violent terrorist organizations in the world,' US Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement.

'We will vigorously prosecute anyone who provides, or even attempts to provide, support to terrorists.'

It was not immediately known if Musaibli had an attorney.

Defendant Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan is due to be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday, according to US Attorney Matthew Schneider (pictured)

Musaibli is believed to be one of only two American male citizens ever to be captured alive from the ISIS battlefield.

After dropping out of Edsel Ford High School, Musaibli went to work for his father at a perfume shop he operated. He eventually married, fathered a child and moved to the port city of Aden, Yemen.

Musaibli left for Syria in 2015 after being lured by a number of fellow Muslims in Yemen, his brother tells The Detroit News.

Abdullah Musaibli, 26, is adamant that his brother is not a terrorist, saying he would never join a violent extremist group like ISIS.

'Yes, 110 per cent, I don't just believe he's innocent. I know he's innocent,' Abdullah Musaibli added.

His father, Izzy Musaibli, tells the News that his son isn't an ISIS fighter and only was doing 'small work' for food.

'He's not a fighter, he's been working with the FBI to escape ISIS and after the last time he tried to escape, (ISIS) burned his passport,' Izzy Musaibli said.

'The FBI knows he's not a fighter and he's only been doing small work there for food to survive.'

Izzy Musaibli said he's had sporadic contact with his eldest son since his arrival in Syria, mostly because ISIS has limited his interactions with the outside world.

'(ISIS) doesn't represent Islam, they have a totally different ideology, and Ibraheem was preaching against them,' he said. 'Every time he tried to escape, he was put back in prison, and we've been working with the FBI as a team.'

The two detainees were picked up by the Syrian Democratic Forces (pictured), a US-backed ground force that has been fighting ISIS across parts of northern and eastern Syria

Samantha Elhassani, meanwhile, has been charged in Indiana with making false statements to the FBI. She is due in court for an initial hearing at an unconfirmed date.

The Justice Department said Elhassani was accompanied by her four minor children, all US citizens now in the custody of the Indiana Department of Child Services.

'Indiana DCS will make any necessary determinations regarding their custody, safety and well-being,' it said.

Elhassani's son appeared in IS propaganda videos and her husband, Moussa, was an IS sniper before he was killed in a drone strike, according to reports.

In an April interview with the PBS show Frontline, Elhassani said that she was forced to go to Syria while on a family trip to neighboring Turkey after her husband threatened the lives of their children.

'We ended up in Raqqa,' she said while in custody under the auspices of the Kurdish authorities.

'The first thing I say to him is, "Youre crazy and Im leaving," and he said, with a big smile on his face, "Go ahead. You can try, but you wont make it.'

Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Defense Department provided aircraft and aircrew to fly the detainees from Syria to the United States.

US officials have previously said the SDF have captured hundreds of IS fighters, many of them from other countries that have little or no interest in allowing them home.The PM today defended ramping up planning for a failure to strike a deal

Theresa May insisted people should 'take comfort' from dramatic government warnings on 'no deal' Brexit today.

The Prime Minister defended ramping up planning for a failure to strike a deal with the EU, saying it was 'right' to prepare for 'every eventuality'.

The response came after ministers declared that medicine is being stockpiled to ensure Britain has enough if there is a disorderly departure.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab also sparked alarm by disclosing that the government is taking steps to ensure there will be an 'adequate' food supply if the UK crashes out.

A slew of other 'technical' papers about the consequences of no-deal Brexit are expected to be released over the summer.

Amid anger from Brexiteers as what they regard as 'Project Fear 2.0', one ally of the PM told the BBC's Newsnight: 'We want to scare people witless so people will eventually embrace the Theresa May plan.'

In an interview today after Parliament broke for its six-week recess, Mrs May was unrepentant about the grim preparation.

'This is not just about stockpiling,' she told Five News.

'Far from being worried about preparations that were making, I would say that people should take reassurance and comfort from the fact that the government is saying were in a negotiation, were working for a good deal, I believe we can get a good one.

Simon Coveney (pictured right with Irish minister Charles Flanagan in Westminster today) dismissed UK threats to walk away without an agreement as 'bravado' - suggesting that Theresa May will have to make more concessions to Brussels

On a visit to the Bombardier factory in Belfast (pictured), Chancellor Philip Hammond ruled out seeking an extension of Article 50

'But its right that we say, because we dont know what the outcome will be, lets prepare for every eventuality.'

Mrs May also repeatedly avoided saying that EU citizens will face the same immigration rules as those from outside the bloc after Brexit. There has been speculation that the UK is willing to offer concessions on a 'labour mobility' framework, while ditching the blanket free movement rules in place currently.

'What we do for people outside the EU is we put a set of rules for people wanting to come here from outside the EU,' Mrs May said.

WHEN WILL BRITAIN BE OUT OF THE EU? Britain triggered Article 50 on March 29, 2017, starting a two year process for leaving the EU: March 2018: Outline transition deal agreed, running for about two years June 2018: EU summit that Brussels says should consider broad principles of a future trade deal. October 2018: Political agreement on the future partnership due to be reached Early 2019: Major votes in Westminster and Brussels to ratify the deal March 29, 2019: Article 50 expires, Britain leaves the EU. Transition is expected to keep everything the same for about two years December 31, 2020: Transition expected to come to an end and the new relationship - if it has been agreed - should kick in Advertisement

'What we will be able to do in the future is set those rules for people coming from inside the EU.

'So what we are doing just to be clear because we haven't set those rules yet - what we are doing is getting some independent advice on what's important for the British economy and we will ensure that we look across the rules for immigration but we are going to be able to do it for everybody in the future and just for people outside of the EU.'

Earlier, Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney dismissed UK planning for no deal as 'bravado' - suggesting that Mrs May will have to make more concessions to Brussels.

He insisted Britain 'can't afford' to crash out of the EU, and suggested Brexit might need to be delayed beyond next March.

On a visit to Belfast, Chancellor Philip Hammond ruled out seeking an extension of Article 50.

He highlighted that parliament had legislated for the current exit date.

'We don't have a legal basis now for extending our membership of the European Union even if we wanted to do so,' he said.

Mr Hammond also downplayed the prospect of a no deal scenario, claiming the 'early reaction' from Brussels to Mrs May's White Paper had left the UK 'well positioned to negotiate a good deal'.

The Chancellor said it was 'sensible and responsible' that the Government was working with industry to stockpile certain vital supplies for the event of a no deal.

Challenged about reports of stockpiling food by MPs on the Brexit select committee, Mr Raab said: 'It would be wrong to describe it as the Government doing stockpiling.

What we will make sure  and of course the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate  but we will look at this issue in the round and make sure that there is adequate food supply.'

A spokesman for Mr Raab's department said this meant giving advice to food producers rather than taking charge of stockpiling itself.

Appearing before the cross-party Brexit Committee yesterday, Dominic Raab (pictured left) said government was looking to ensure there would be 'adequate' food supplyA Colorado road opened up on Tuesday afternoon, easily swallowing a car with room to spare.

Video shows the horrific moment a giant hole opened up on Oxford Avenue in Sheridan, and a car drove straight into it.

The driver of the car, an unidentified woman, was able to jump out of the vehicle before it fell into the sinkhole, after feeling something was not right with the road, police told 9 News.

Tye Adams, who filmed the incident, said 'she cried then laughed' at her bizarre circumstances.

A woman had a near brush with death on Tuesday after managing to escape her car moments before it was consumed by a sinkhole

In 2015, a sinkhole opened up just yards from Tuesday's chasm, swallowing a police car whole - with an officer inside.

Sargent Greg Miller said he had to climb out the window of his totalled car, on to the roof and then get himself out of the sinkhole.

Police say Tuesday's sinkhole burst open after a heavy thunderstorm impacted a pipe below the pavement, which then collapsed.

Parts of southern Denver were drenched with two inches of rain in just 30 minutes during the day.

The National Weather service issued multiple warnings for thunderstorms and flash floods, on Tuesday. The storms are expected to carry on through the week.

Sheridan Police said on Twitter the road is closed from South Santa Fe Dr to South Clay St as crews check the condition of the entire roadway.

Video showed the exact moment the road opened up and swallowed the Colorado woman's carDr Kenneth Milner - former boss at Aston Hall accused of experimenting on children at the hospital who say they were physically and sexually abused

Police would have interviewed a doctor accused of the 'horrific' abuse of 115 children had he been alive today, a report has found.

Child patients sent to Aston Hall Hospital in Derbyshire between the 1950s and 1970s have claimed they were taken to a secluded room, drugged and sexually abused by Kenneth Milner.

The psychiatrist and hospital chief superintendent is alleged to have injected children with the truth serum sodium amytal before sexually abusing them, after after putting them in straitjackets.

Today Derbyshire Police said in a report: 'There would have been sufficient evidence to justify interviewing Dr Milner under caution in relation to a number of potential offences, namely rape, indecent assault, child cruelty and assault.'

So far 115 people have come forward to speak to the investigation team and police have recorded 65 crimes including physical and sexual abuse.

However, the number of abused may have been thousands since Milner ran the hospital for 28 years - with 100 patients at a time.

One victim, Barbara O'Hare, was abused by Dr Milner numerous times. According to her, there could be thousands of victims  and she urged every one to come forward.

The Liverpool resident said she would be tied up, injected and placed on a mattress in a padded room.

Today, talking about the report, she said: 'This is the validation that we were telling the truth. Aston Hall took my life. I have not had a life because of this.

'Dr Milner played with our bodies and our minds. I think, when you take

into account of how long he was there for, he abused thousands of people.

And I would urge people out there who suffered at Aston Hall to come forward. Do not feel ashamed. Do not be frightened. Come forward and get help.'

Lawyers for 47 patients sent to the hospital in the 1960s and 1970s said the 'horrific treatment' had 'undoubtedly caused permanent, damaging effects'.

Stephen Edwards, from Bond Turner, said: 'We believe that every doctor should have to demonstrate their accountability in treating patients, especially those as vulnerable as children.

'The UK needs to ensure it has the clinical infrastructure to protect the next generation of young people and our efforts are focused on preventing this kind of gross negligence ever occurring again.

'We are committed to seeking the justice and compensation that our clients deserve and hope that today will encourage those who are yet to come forward to speak out.'

Dr Milner worked at Aston Hall, pictured, for 28 years and several patients have come forward with allegations against him and police said today he would be interviewed

A slew of claims were made against Milner, who was medical superintendent of Aston Hall, between 1954 and 1979.

As well as the sexual abuse, there were claims of a patients being hit while trying to resist treatment, one having her head repeatedly forced under water, and one having her hair repeatedly pulled to force her to take medication.

Another said she woke with her hands bound after being drugged and complained to a nurse of soreness between her legs. The nurse slapped her around the head and told her she must have a urine infection.

David Martin, pictured, alleges Dr Milner 'injected him with something' and then gave him ether to 'make him go to sleep' before being abused

The vast majority of the allegations were made against Milner, who died in 1976. Other staff members accused of physical abuse have either been eliminated from the inquiry, are also dead or are unable to be identified.

A victim initially came forward to Suffolk Police in June 2011. Her claims that she was forced to receive treatment at Aston Hall were passed to Derbyshire where officers investigated but found no allegations of sexual abuse.

In July 2014, another person made an allegation to Derbyshire police that they were raped at the hospital, but the claim was not pursued because the suspect was dead.

Two months later, police in Nottinghamshire spoke to another individual who alleged they were abused at the hospital, but this was recorded purely for intelligence purposes, again because the suspect was dead.

In July 2015, another woman complained of abusive treatment, referring to being drugged and waking up feeling sore between her legs, mirroring other claims.

The following year, in February 2016, the investigation was formally passed to Derbyshire's Public Protection Major Investigation Team.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kem Mehmet, from Derbyshire police, said the same level of importance is placed on crimes when a suspect is dead.

He said: 'I am satisfied the force gave an appropriate and proportionate response to the first allegation in 2011.

'One of the victims sent a card to the police saying they no longer feel like victims, they feel like warriors.'

The independent chairman of the Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Board, Chris Atkinson, said one victim's reaction to the report was 'at last I have been heard'.

He said: 'It has taken some time for victims to raise (their views) because there hasn't been the process in place to do that in the past.'

Speaking to television journalists earlier in the day, he said he was 'deeply sorry' that anyone had endured this type of abuse.President Donald Trump slammed critics from within his own party for 'weakness' after a number of Republicans vented about a new $12 billion package to aid farmers who are suffering from new foreign tariffs in an escalating trade war.

China targeted tariffs on U.S. farm products after Trump imposed new steel and aluminum tariffs earlier this year, selecting crops and products in areas where Trump enjoys support.

As the tit-for-tat continued, the Trump administration rolled out a new $12 billion plan to provide subsidies  inviting new criticism from free market conservatives as well as lawmakers who blame Trump's trade war for the tariffs.

Trump, who enjoyed 88 per cent support from Republicans in a recent poll, brushed back his congressional critics online.

President Trump admonished 'weak' politicians who have criticized his confrontational trade policies and new $12 billion package to assist farmers hurt by the trade wars

'Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!' Trump wrote in the first of a pair of tweets Wednesday morning.

Then he added that the affront was getting in the way of his deal-making.

'When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity,' Trump wrote.

'Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!'

Trump's call for calm came hours after he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City to 'just be a little patient' on trade and agriculture'

His call for calm came hours after he told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City to ''just be a little patient' on trade and agriculture.

Trump also went after China, who he accused of being 'vicious' with its counter-tariffs.

'China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S.' Trump wrote.

'They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year,' the president added.

Republicans laid into the tariffs on Tuesday amid the standoff.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said Trump's tariffs 'are a massive tax increase on American consumers and businesses, and instead of offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem they themselves created, the administration should reverse course and end this incoherent policy.'

He wasn't the only member of Trump's party to vent after the administration pledged to provide up to $12 billion in aid for U.S. farmers to shield them from the effects of trade disputes cultivated by the White House itself.

Foreign markets in Canada, China and elsewhere have tightened for U.S. farmers in retaliation for Trump's tariffs on other goods

Republican Senators Ben Sasse (left) and Bob Corker (right) came out against Trump's farmer bailout, saying his tariffs caused the problem the subsidies are now trying to address

Through a series of aggressive tariff announcements, the president is fomenting a series of spats with China, the European Union, Canada and other trading partners.

Corker said farmers want 'trade, not aid.'

Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, a frequent Trump critic, said the president's 'trade war' is 'cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White House's 'plan' is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches.'

'Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers,' Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul added on Twitter. 'If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers  the answer is remove the tariffs.'

President Donald Trump asked farmers to 'just be a little patient' on Tuesday during a speech in Kansas City Tuesday, as his administration announced up to $12 billion in bailout money for parts of the agriculture industry hit by the effects of his trade wars

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said the unexpected move to manipulate trade through targeted subsidies 'is becoming more and more like a Soviet-type of economy.'

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, another Republican who regularly challenges the White House, called the plan 'awful.'

'American farmers want markets, not handouts,' he said in a statement. 'This is what we feared all along: that this would just turn into more aid programs.'It began with a noise complaint, then came the restraining orders, and now the bitter row between neighbors Kathy Griffin and Jeffrey Mezger is entering a new phase.

That's because Mezger has filed suit against Griffin, claiming the comedian breached his privacy by recording him and demanding thousands of dollars in damages.

It comes after Griffin caught Mezger calling her a 'd*ke' and a 'c**t' on tape, for which he was docked 25 per cent of his annual bonus by KB Homes, where he is the CEO.

Jeffrey Mezger, CEO of homebuilder KB Homes, is suing neighbor Kathy Griffin for breach of privacy after she caught him using profanity and homophobic slurs on tape

Griffin has been embroiled in a dispute with Mezger since 2016 when she moved in next door to him with boyfriend Randy Brick (left and right) and immediately filed noise complaints

News of the pair's latest legal action was first reported by The Blast.

The row between Griffin and Mezger goes back to 2016, when she moved into the same gated LA community as the property tycoon with boyfriend Randy Bick.

Almost immediately Griffin filed noise complaints with the police, accusing Mezger and wife Sanda of disturbing her.

The couple has called Los Angeles police five times with complaints, according to previous reports.

Griffin has also complained that trash was thrown on to her property and speakers playing loud music were turned towards her home.

At one point, Randy called police around 9pm on a Sunday complaining of hours of excessive noise while Mezger was having a pool party with his grandchildren.

Griffin has called police from her LA home (pictured) at least five times over the last year to complain about noise coming from Mezger's property

KB Homes was forced to apologize after Mezger was caught on tap calling Griffin a 'd*ke' and a 'c**t' and docked 25 per cent of his annual bonus

It was then that Mezger was caught on an audio recording shouting profanity and homophobic slurs at the couple.

'Hey Randy, go f**k yourself. Seriously? You call on my grandkids at 9 o'clock? You're not even the f*****g owner,' he can be heard saying.

'Let's declare war, a*****e, 'cause we got a lot to go for. Let's bring it on, you b***h.'

Griffin can be heard asking Randy what's going on, before Mezger adds: 'If you're asking Randy what's happening, he called the cops on my 5-year-old granddaughter, you f****g c**t.

'B*****t  9 o'clock at night  oh, this party's loud, this party's really happening.

Now Mezger is suing Griffin to stop her filming him at home and for damages, including $5,000 for each time he was caught on tape

'F**k you. I've done enough trying to be a nice partner  f**k you, neighbor. War's happening. Don't wait until we're gonna bring some things on you. Now f**k you.'

After that incident Griffin filed for a restraining order against Mezger, so he filed a copycat suit against her.

Now he has filed a civil lawsuit in an attempt to force Griffin to stop recording him.

He is also asking for damages, including $5,000 for each time he was recorded.

Mezger has repeatedly denied ever throwing parties or loud get-togethers and says most of the noise comes from children.Advertisement

A studio flat which used to be home of the only journalist to ever win the Victoria Cross has been put up for rent for a staggering 950 a week.

The high-end mezzanine apartment has recent undergone a recent refurbishment but still contains some of the stunning original features which makes the property so unique.

The apartment at Lancaster Gate, near London's Hyde Park, was home to Alexander Murray, the Eighth Earl of Dunmore - known by his title Viscount Fincastle - who was a war correspondent with The Times in the late 19th Century.

But at an eyewatering 49,500-a-year just to rent, it is one of the country's more expensive properties.

The studio flat which belonged to Viscount Fincastle - the only journalist to have been awarded the Victoria Cross - has gone on the rental market for a staggering 49,500-per-year

The flat in Lancaster Gate, near London's Hyde Park, is one of the most expensive mezzanine flats to hit the rental market in the UK

The first floor of the apartment, described as the perfect pied-a-terre, has an open plan living and dining area, guest shower room and modern kitchen which can be partioned by a glass and aluminium pocket doors

The property has been recent refurbished but strikes a brilliant balance between keeping some of its older features and mordernising to give it a homely feel

The first floor of the apartment, described as the perfect pied-a-terre, has an open plan living and dining area, guest shower room and modern kitchen which can be partioned by a glass and aluminium pocket doors.

The mezzanine floor, which has stunning views over the rest of the property, also has a walk-in wardrobe, bathroom and library.

Letting agency Kay & Co have put the property on the market for 950, which works out as 49,500 a year - making it one of the most expensive studio mezzanines in the country.

Sarah Bikhit, marketing manager at Kay & Co, said: 'This apartment is visually stunning and is a prime example of space being cleverly utilised, as it has extraordinarily high ceilings and full height windows which allow light into the open plan living area.

'The high specification, luxury finish leaves nothing to be desired making this apartment the ideal bolt hole or pied-a-terre.'

The property has been given a high-end finish, with marble in the bathrooms giving it a clean and polished feel

New tables and chairs in the style of old-fashion furnishing have been added to the property. New lighting has also been installed which give it a grand feel

The stunning mezzanine apartment has been described as one of the finest on the market thanks to its stunning original features and recent refurbishment. The old-fashioned fireplace is still a key feature inside the property, with the sofas facing the centrepiece of the room

Viscount Fincastle worked as a correspondent at the same time as he was a lieutenant in the British Army while posted in India from 1895-1897.

During the fighting in Nawa Bali, in Upper Swat, Viscount Fincastle and six men went to the rescue of Lieutenant R. T. Greaves, who was lying disabled after he was shot.

The brave soldiers, who were under heavy fire, tried to rescue Lieutenant Greaves but during the operation the injured officer was shot again and killed.

He was the first journalist to publish from his dispatches from the campaign, beating a young Winston Churchill.

He was awarded with the Victoria Cross for his heroics, and he went on to fight in the Second Boer War in South Africa and later received a Royal Victorian Order for services to the Prince of Wales.

Viscount Fincastle died aged 89 in 1962, and remains the only journalist to have been awarded with the prestigious Victoria Cross.

Viscount Fincastle worked as a correspondent at the same time as he was a lieutenant in the British Army while posted in India from 1895-1897. Pictured: one of the bedrooms in the property

During the fighting in Nawa Bali, in Upper Swat, Viscount Fincastle and six men went to the rescue of Lieutenant R. T. Greaves, who was lying disabled after he was shot. Pictured: The library in the property which overlooks the living areaAdvertisement

A 300-year-old Scottish castle which inspired the naming of one of Canada's major cities is on the market for offers over 695,000.

Calgary Castle situated on the Isle of Mull is the namesake for metropolitan city Calgary in Alberta, Canada - almost 4,000 miles away.

The stunning estate was built by Merchant Navy Captain Alan MacAskill, who bought the land in 1817 and completed it in 1823.

This 300-YEAR-OLD Scottish castle which inspired the naming of one of Canada's major cities is on the market for offers over 695,000.Calgary Castle situated on the Isle of Mull. The stunning estate was built by Merchant Navy captain Alan MacAskill, who bought the land in 1817 and completed it in 1823

In 1876, the castle (pictured, a hallway) was visited for the summer by Colonel James Macleod, of the Canadian North West Mounted Police. Macleod is said to have fallen in love with a young woman who lived at the castle

The castle features sweeping interiors in which to unwind and also boasts eight bedrooms and sits in woodland with beautiful beach views

The 300-year-old castle takes in beautiful coastal views which can be enjoyed from behind the parapets at Calgary Castle

This is just one of the eight bedrooms the lucky buyer of Calgary Castle in Scotland could enjoy now that the site is on the market

In 1876, the castle was visited for the summer by Colonel James Macleod, of the Canadian North West Mounted Police.

Macleod is said to have fallen in love with the daughter of the castle and was so smitten that on his return to what was then called Fort Brisebois in Alberta, he changed the name to Fort Calgary.

The then tiny outpost then developed into the city of Calgary, which in Gaelic means 'Cala Ghearraidh' - translating to 'beach of the meadow'.

These are the views that the buyer of Calgary Castle in the Hebrides could enjoy - but it'll set them back 700,000 or more

A dining room complete with antler decorations at Calgary Castle (above), which was the inspiration behind the name of the bustling Canadian metropolis (below)

The B-listed property's fascinated history is also said to include a link to the Profumo sex scandal of the 60s. The castle is said to have been owned by John Profumo's brother, Major Philip Profumo.

The property boasts stunning period features including a crenelated parapet, angled turrets and gothic-style windows.

Overlooking the white sands of Mull's Calgary Bay, the eight-bedroom castle sits amongst 27.9 acres of land and features an impressive collection of trees from around the world.

Doors at the castle lead out to a beautiful green landscape with easy access to the coast for walks by the seaside in the summer

The castle (pictured, nestled in trees) is also 12 miles from the picturesque harbour town of Tobermory - easily recognised for its row of brightly painted buildings

There's even a library within the castle for buyers to relax with a book as they gaze out of the window and take in views of the beach below

Malcolm Leslie, head of residential agency for Strutt & Parker in Scotland, said Calgary Castle is an idyllic home, adding it is 'a wonderful, secluded property, steeped in history'

The grounds are also haven for wildlife where golden eagles have even been seen on the lawn and basking sharks, minke whales and dolphins have also been spotted nearby

The Hebridean castle was put on the market this week for offers over 695,000 by estate agents Strutt and Parker and sits next to Calgary Beach

The grounds are also haven for wildlife where golden eagles have even been seen on the lawn and basking sharks, minke whales and dolphins have also been spotted nearby.

The Hebridean castle was put on the market this week for offers over 695,000 by estate agents, Strutt and Parker.

Calgary Beach is frequently listed among the top UK beaches and is just one of the Hebridean island's popular attractions.

Visitors and locals often attend the annual Tour of Mull Rally in October and the Mull Music Festival in April as well as the Tobermory whisky distillery.

The beach is also 12 miles from the picturesque harbour town of Tobermory - easily recognised for its row of brightly painted buildings lining the main street.

Calgary has a metropolitan population of around 1.4million making it the fourth-largest metropolitan census area in Canada.

The Isle of Mull in Scotland has a population of around 2,800 residents. Malcolm Leslie, head of residential agency for Strutt & Parker in Scotland, said: 'Calgary Castle is a wonderful, secluded property, steeped in history. It would make an idyllic home and while it offers the romanticism of island life, its proximity to Tobermory makes it a practical option too.'A sadomasochistic serial murderer accidentally electrocuted himself in his prison cell after wrapping a cable around his nipples and genitals before plugging it into a power socket.

Police in Germany said Egidius Schiffer, 62, killed himself while performing the 'autoerotic act' and that there was no reason to suspect foul play or suicide.

Schiffer - known as the 'Aachen Strangler' after he was jailed for murdering five female hitchhikers between 1983 and 1990 - was still hooked up to the live current when his cell was opened on Sunday morning.

Police in Germany said Egidius Schiffer (pictured), 62, killed himself while performing the 'autoerotic act' and that there was no reason to suspect foul play or suicide

Candida Tunkel, a spokeswoman for Bochum prison in northwest Germany, said the murderer had detached the cable from his bedside lamp to pull off the sex act, The Times reported.

A post-mortem revealed the cause of death was heart failure caused by a surge of electricity through his chest.

Schiffer murdered his victims - aged between 15 and 31 - after picking them up in his car as they travelled home from night clubs.

He tied them up and strangled them with rope before burying their bodies in woodland. He raped three of them.

Police caught him 18 years after his last murder when he was arrested in 2007 for stealing scrap metal.

DNA evidence linked him to the murders.

Candida Tunkel, a spokeswoman for Bochum prison (pictured) in northwest Germany, said the murderer had detached the cable from his bedside lamp to pull off the sex act

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008, Bild reported.

Schiffer - who was married and has a son - confessed but later withdrew his statement.

He claimed that he had only wanted to experience the punishment of being in custody because, as a sadomasochist, it excited him.Advertisement

They have been making generations of Brits laugh for 50 years.

Now classic comedy Dad's Army is being celebrated by Radio Times with a special tribute edition featuring behind-the-scenes snaps of some famous and hilarious moments.

The issue also features a foreword by Ian Lavender, who played the hapless Private Pike, and anecdotes from late actors including Captain Mainwaring himself, Arthur Lowe, and Clive Dunn, aka Corporal Jones.

It will also highlight the show's many catchphrases that became a fixture of British culture including Corp Jones's 'Don't Panic' and Capt Mainwaring's 'You stupid boy'.

The comedy, which featured the misadventures of a Home Guard platoon in the fictional Walmington-on-Sea on the south coast of England, ran from 1968 to 1977 with 80 episodes produced.

Radio Times has brought out a special issue paying tribute to British comedy classic Dad's Army on its 50th anniversary featuring rare behind-the-scenes photos of the cast and anecdotes by some of the late actors. Pictured from left are Arthur Lowe as Captain Mainwaring, John Le Mesurier as Sergeant Wilson, Clive Dunn as Corporal Jones and John Laurie as Private Frazer

Set in the fictional south coast town of Walmington-on-Sea, the hapless Home Guard platoon often ran into opposition from the local Air Raid Precautions (ARP) warden and the clergy, including this famous scene when the vicar, verger and ARP warden jumped up onto church bell ropes after mistaking the platoon for Nazis. Pictured left to right are Edward Sinclair as verger Maurice Yeatman, Bill Pertwee as ARP Warden Hodges and Frank Williams as Rev Timothy Farthing

Captain Mainwaring, right, would often put his crew through their paces for unrealistic tasks and is pictured here training them how to row a boat inside a church

Photographer Don Smith, who pictured the cast frequently throughout the show's run, said the cast were full of surprises and 'always made him laugh'. PIctured are Lowe, Dunn and Le Mesurier

They frequently caused chaos around the town in their efforts to protect Britain but their lovable antics were embraced by the British public, with audiences of up to 18million tuning in.

Many of the photos featured in the Radio Times special were taken by national newspaper photographer Don Smith.

The 85-year-old got to know the cast and crew very well over nine years of taking their pictures and told the Daily Mirror he knew it was special from the start.

He said: 'I was sent to shoot the dress rehearsal of the second episode I had no idea what it was all about.

'But straight away I knew this was going to be a classic.'

The Radio Times Special, left, will feature rare photos of the cast and a foreword by surviving member Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike

Lowe was well-loved for portraying Mainwaring, left, as a stubborn veteran who had little patience for others, including Sinclair's churh verger, right

Mainwaring, far right, and Pike's, centre, chemistry was also behind a lot of the humour on the show, with Lowe becoming famous for his catchphrase 'You stupid boy'

But Lowe himself embraced the fame the role brought with it and is pictured here dancing with women in military uniform

Mr Smith said Lowe, pictured, was a 'very kind' man after he was said to have a reputation for being 'pompous'

He added: 'The cast surprised me every week and always made me laugh.'

It comes after Lavender told the magazine his character's father was finally revealed as Sgt Arthur Wilson to him by creator David Croft as they were shooting the last episode.

The actor, who was cast aged 22 in 1968, told the magazine that it was nine years before even he knew the identity of his onscreen father.

He said: 'At the end of the last episode I said to David Croft, 'I just have to ask you one thing, is Uncle Arthur my father?'' he said.

'And he looked at me and said, 'of course he is!''

Although he admitted the role often led to him being type-cast in comedic roles, Lavender says he remains proud of the part.

Radio Times Dad's Army at 50 bookazine is available at www.radiotimes.com/rtdadsarmy

Pictured are two of the famous Dad's Army Corporal Jones, left, and black market 'spiv' Private Walker, right, played by James Beck. The character of Walker was written out of the show after Beck's death from pancreatitis aged just 44 in 1973

Dad's Army was loved by the British public and drew as many as 18million viewers during its heydayA budget airline flight was forced to make an emergency landing at a Florida airport after a bird flew into the engine during take off.

Allegiant Air's flight 1592 departed Punta Gorda Airport bound for Milwaukee on Wednesday morning when the bird struck the plane.

The aircraft was forced to divert to Orlando Sanford International Airport where it made an emergency landing.

Allegiant Air's flight 1592 (pictured) was forced to make an emergency landing at a Florida airport after a bird flew into the engine during take off

No one was hurt in the landing.

Passengers boarded another aircraft to continue their trip to Milwaukee.

Allegiant spokeswoman Krysta Levy told the Orlando Sentinel bird remains were found in the engine.

The low-cost airline based in Las Vegas specializes in flying from smaller airports to vacation destinations.

Flight 1592 departed Punta Gorda Airport bound for Milwaukee on Wednesday morning when the bird struck the plane

It has suffered a spate of mishaps, including mechanical issues that have caused flights to be diverted or canceled.

A report by CBS News' 60 Minutes found the airline suffered more than 100 'serious mechanical incidents' between January 2016 and October 2017.

The report prompted Florida Senator Bill Nelson to demand that the U.S. Department of Transportation inspector general investigate the FAA's handling of Allegiant's safety incidents.

'The traveling public deserves to know whether the FAA is conducting thorough safety oversight of Allegiant,' Nelson wrote, according to Reuters. 'Anything less could lead to disastrous consequences.'A primary school has been blasted for encouraging pupils to walk around a field five times on the hottest day of the year - to show solidarity with refugees.

The Met Office had issued a warning to stay out of the sun as temperatures in the south east reached a sweltering 33.3C on Monday, the day the kids took part in the sweaty trudge.

But acting head teacher at St Gregory's Catholic school in Margate, Kent, Diane Rougvie-Fevrier, says the walk was optional and water and hats were provided.

One of the pupil's grandparents raged on social media, labelling the decision 'disgusting' in a Facebook post that garnered almost 300 comments before it was deleted.

A primary school has been blasted for encouraging pupils to walk around a field (pictured via aerial view) five times on the hottest day of the year - to show solidarity with refugees

St Gregory's Catholic school in Margate, Kent, has been criticised for letting children walk around the school grounds five times

The fuming gran said: 'So my granddaughter came home from school today saying they had to walk around the field five times so they would know how a refugee would feel like.

'They had a guy from CAFOD come to speak to them.

'The whole school had to do it the younger ones done the playground.

'I think this is disgusting on the hottest day of the year.'

Another concerned parent told MailOnline: 'They had to walk around the school grounds 5 times. They did have water and hats.

'Children were not asked if they wanted to participate or not, they were told that that is what they were doing. A few staff members disagreed with it going ahead because of the heat but apparently the powers above insisted on it..

'One of my daughter's has said that each time they walked round they had to stop and say a prayer, this was not done in the shade..'

She added she was 'very unhappy' children were asked to walk in the heat and said it was just before a picnic at midday, which was also outside.

Many supported the initiative, while others said it should have been abandoned because of the hot weather.

Acting headteacher Diane Rougvie-Fevrier said the walk was 'optional' and children were provided with hats and water

The head said: 'Children were invited to walk around the school field and we were overwhelmed with the number of children who chose to join in.

'Although the day was hot, the children enjoyed the early-morning stroll in the shade and had plenty of water and hats to wear.'

Others have since voiced their opinion online.

Brian Varney said the decision was 'not acceptable'.

But Lucy Boyle said: 'This was a walk was to show support to the refugees who have to make a longer and hotter walks to a safer place, as their home has been turned into a battle ground.

'I think it wonderful this walk still went ahead, it helps the kids truly understand what refugees have to go through.

'The walk was optional and lots of water provided.

'I think everyone is just trying to use the weather as an excuse to get off whatever they can at the moment.'

Rachel Louise Sheavills added: 'Early morning stroll with hats and water provided- we are lucky to have tap water that we can drink for starters.'

Who are CAFOD? The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development are an aid organisation dedicated to fighting poverty They are the official aid agency for the Catholic Church in England and Wales According to their website they are guided by 'the values of compassion, solidarity and hope' that are rooted in the Catholic community The 'Share the Journey' campaign was launched by Pope Francis to recognise people who are fleeing from poverty and persecution Schools are encouraged to log their miles celebrate how long they have walked to support the campaign. Advertisement

The walk was part of the school's spiritual day, with a representative from CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) giving talks to the children.

Pupils took on the walk as part of the organisation's campaign Share the Journey, which was launched by Pope Francis to recognise people who are forced to flee war, poverty, persecution or natural disasters.

Mrs Rougvie-Fevrier added: 'Pope Francis wanted to show solidarity with our global neighbours by encouraging people to walk and represent the journeys they have made.

'St Gregory's Catholic primary school children wanted to add their steps to the target of 24,900 miles, which is the distance around the world.

'John Darby, from CAFOD, came in to support the morning and shared information with the children about the purpose of the walk.

'Both children and staff had a wonderful uplifting morning and we are proud of our contribution to Pope Francis' campaign.'After Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trumps daughter, revealed that she would be shutting down her eponymous fashion brand to focus on policy work in Washington DC for her fathers administration, social media users took to Twitter to roast the First Daughter.

Ivanka, who is a senior White House adviser, announced this news a year after she formally separated from the company in order to concentrate on her political career, but since then online sales on a number of websites have fallen by nearly 45 per cent.

One Twitter user wrote: RIP Ivankas fashion brand. I always saw a reflection of my younger self in those clothes, as I too spent a lot of time rejected and untouched, in a suburban T.J. Maxx, while another said: Sad day for womens fashion. Now who will fill the yacht-to-baby-shower-to-estate-signing-to-occupation-hunger-games fashion void? #IvankaTrump.'

Daughter of President Trump, Ivanka was roasted on Twitter for dissolving her fashion brand

Ivanka Trump

Known as a powerhouse figure who attempted to follow in Trumps footsteps into the world of business, Ivanka graduated in economics from the University of Pennsylvania and her first job was in the family business as Executive President of Development and Acquisitions.

In 2007, she partnered with Dynamic Diamond Corporation to establish her own jewellery company, Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry, however, the companys flagship store closed in 2011 and no explanation was provided as to why.

In 2016, the website was updated to state that the New York Trump Tower location was the companys only dedicated retailer.

Ivanka Trump fashion

After her stint as a model, Ivanka also started a clothing brand named after herself and by 2015, the namesake company boasted gross revenues of over $100 million (76,000) from a range that was stocked in more than 800 stores across the US, as reported in The Telegraph.

Ivankas aim was to create fashion for those like her, women who work, and the range included items such as court shoes and midi dresses, similar pieces to what she wears in her day-to-day life as a working mother and wife.

Using her #WomenWhoWork hashtag, Ivanka garnered an Instagram following of over two million and after the 2016 election, the publicity surrounding her fathers campaign meant that net sales of her licensed apparel had increased by 61 per cent from the year before, as reported on January 31 2017.

Ivanka Trump speaks at a workforce development roundtable at Waukesha County College

Abigail Klem, the Ivanka Trump label Chief Brand Officer, told The Telegraph after Trumps election: We are proud that our brand resonates strongly with women who are inspired by our messaging and excited about the polished and chic solution-oriented products that we offer.

[The collection is] designed to meet the needs of women who work - at all aspects of their lives. However, months after the election, campaigners turned against Ivanka when she said that she would be taking on a role in her fathers administration.

This went against her pro-female image and her fashion brand began to promote serious political policies. The Grab Your Wallet movement encouraged consumers to boycott 50 Trump-related companies after the family were accused of profiting off of the presidency.

In January 2017, Ivanka formally announced that she would step down as President of the fashion brand and Klem would be taking over. This resulted in Nordstrom dropping her collection a month later because of poor sales.

Ivanka Trump speaks on action to end modern slavery and human trafficking at the UN

Trump, of course, took it as a personal attack and tweeted: My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. She is a great person - always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible! Kellyanne Conway also then told the public to go buy Ivankas stuff.

The Telegraph reported that order growth dropped to six percent in July 2017 and by August, it was minus one percent, in comparison to the previous years August. In July 2018, Ivanka announced that she would be shutting down her eponymous brand.

When we first started this brand, no one could have predicted the success that we would achieve.

'After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners.

Ivanka Trump fashion brand closure social media reactions

After the news that Ivanka would be dissolving her business, many took to Twitter to discuss the news, with even the official The Late Show account writing: Ivanka Trump announced she was quitting fashion "to pursue a career in public policy". Yes, shes already written her graduate thesis summing up everything she knows about public policy.'

Ivanka Trump announced she was quitting fashion to pursue a career in public policy. Yes, shes already written her graduate thesis summing up everything she knows about public policy, entitled pic.twitter.com/5t8PV9JJUy  The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) July 25, 2018

While some took aim at fashion brand itself, others slammed Ivanka for leaving a business to devote more time telling American companies how to run their businesses and expressed their concern for the Chinese workers losing their jobs due to Ivanka Trump ending her fashion line.

RIP Ivanka's fashion brand. I always saw a reflection of my younger self in those clothes, as I too spent a lot of time rejected and untouched, in a suburban T.J. Maxx.  Cara Weinberger (@caraweinberger) July 24, 2018

Sad day for womens fashion. Now who will fill the yacht-to-baby-shower-to-estate-signing-to-occupation-hunger-games fashion void? #IvankaTrump  francesca fiorentini (@franifio) July 24, 2018

Ivanka Trump is shutting down her failed fashion line so that she can devote more time telling American companies how to run their businesses. pic.twitter.com/FXhiLeP4UH  Michael  (@michaelschweitz) July 25, 2018

Farewell, the Ivanka Trump Collection. pic.twitter.com/B38TfpEvZC  Farran Nehme (@selfstyledsiren) July 24, 2018

Ivanka Trump is shutting down her fashion line, because failing at business runs in her family https://t.co/7oFht1JG3r  Tomthunkit (@TomthunkitsMind) July 25, 2018

#BREAKING: Ivanka Trump Shutting Down Namesake Fashion Line In Order To Focus On Being Least Influential Person In Politics pic.twitter.com/sKJ7QyXlwQ  Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) July 24, 2018

Not even Elon Musks submarine could rescue Ivanka Trumps fashion brand  TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) July 24, 2018

Page Six has leaked that Ivanka is shutting down her fashion line, to concentrate on sitting in her White House office staring into space pic.twitter.com/fExNir96Ix  Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) July 24, 2018

Thoughts and prayers for the Chinese workers losing their jobs due to Ivanka Trump ending her fashion line. pic.twitter.com/BQYrJHyAaM  Jay B. (@jwb625) July 24, 2018

Ivanka Trump's fashion brand may be over but never forget her timeless fashion advice: Pair sleek, classic nepotism with blind adherence to a maniac and spritz with the vague, insulting guise of female empowerment.  Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) July 24, 2018

When Jared Kushner is done bringing peace to the Middle East and solving the opioid crisis, maybe he can fix Ivanka Trumps brand.  Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) July 24, 2018

Boom: Ivanka Trump is closing down her fashion line. I don't really care. Do you?  Allen Marshall (@AllenCMarshall) July 25, 2018

BREAKING: Ivanka Trump's fashion brand closes shop.



At least no American jobs will be lost.  BRANDCORP (@brandon_r_horan) July 25, 2018The European Commission is introducing rules to force airlines to carry out psychological assessment of pilots before hiring them, following the Germanwings crash that claimed 150 lives three years ago.

IFlight 9525 from Barcelona to Dusseldorf crashed in the French Alps on March 24 2015, killing 150 people including three Britons.

Investigators have concluded that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately flew the Germanwings A320 jet into the French mountainside.

Wreckage: Rescue workers and investigators pictured at the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 in the French Alps in March 2015

Prosecutors said Lubitz was suffering from a mental disorder with psychotic symptoms that led to suicidal thoughts but he had concealed his illness from his employer, part of the Lufthansa group.

Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit

Lubitz had suffered from depression several years previously, but authorities and his airline later deemed him fit to fly.

They said they didn't know his mental health troubles had returned.

The new rules seek to prevent a similar tragedy by providing all pilots with access to a support programme in case of mental health problems and by making European airlines perform a psychological assessment of pilots before they start work.

They also call for systematic tests on pilots and cabin crew for psychoactive substances before they're hired, and unannounced testing after they recover from any illness and return to work.

Pilots are already subject to annual medical checks but these have not routinely included a full mental health assessment.

Random alcohol testing for all European airlines and those foreign carriers which fly into the European Union will become mandatory, while flight and cabin crew will also face more testing for psychoactive substances.

The rules are based on safety recommendations made by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Prosecutors said Lubitz was suffering from a mental disorder with psychotic symptoms that led to suicidal thoughts but he had concealed his illness from his employer, part of the Lufthansa group

'With these rules Europe introduces the right tools to safeguard the mental fitness of air crew,' EASA executive director Patrick Ky said in a statement.

Airlines and EU member states now have a two-year transition period in which to implement the new rules.

Back in 2016, lawyers for the families of British victims killed in the Germanwings air crash echoed calls for new rules on reporting pilot mental health issues.

French investigators had urged new world rules requiring medical professionals to warn authorities when a pilot's mental health could threaten public safety.

Two years ago, the air accident bureau BEA published its final report on the crash, looking at issues including cockpit safety, psychological testing of pilots and how mental health issues are handled.

The Germanwings Airbus A320 (above) crashed into a mountain at 430mph, killing all 150 people on board, including three Britons

Lawyers for the grieving families said it was concerning that issues experienced by Lubitz, who had seen 41 doctors in recent years and been referred to a psychiatric clinic a fortnight before the crash, had not been communicated from doctors to the airline or authorities.

A specialist aviation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell said at the time that 'clear and consistent guidelines are needed in Europe and internationally on where the threat to public safety outweighs medical confidentiality for pilots'.

The three Britons killed included Paul Bramley, a 28-year-old from Hull who was studying hospitality and hotel management at Cesar Ritz College in Lucerne and was about to start an internship.

Martyn Matthews, a 50-year-old father-of-two from Wolverhampton who worked as a senior quality manager also died.

The third British victim was seven-month-old Julian Pracz-Bandres, from Manchester who had been travelling with his mother, Spanish-born Marina Bandres Lopez-Belio, 37.

Rescue workers and investigators working at the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus, 2015

French investigators had urged new world rules requiring medical professionals to warn authorities when a pilot's mental health could threaten public safety

Airlines and EU member states now have a two-year transition period in which to implement the new EU rules, to try to prevent similar tragedies in future

Traces of anti-depressants and sleeping medication were found in Lubitz's system.

The BEA said because Lubitz had not informed anyone about the doctors' warnings, 'no action could have been taken by the authorities or his employer to prevent him from flying'.

Arnaud Desjardin, who led the BEA investigation, said that experts found the co-pilot's symptoms at that time 'could be compatible with a psychotic episode', but this information had not been communicated to Germanwings.

He said guidelines were needed on the balance between patient privacy and a possible threat to public safety, describing the situation in Germany as particularly strict, adding: 'I think clearer rules are needed to preserve public security.'Spanish rescue services said Tuesday they had plucked nearly 500 migrants from the Mediterranean in a single day who were trying to reach the country's coast.

The Spanish Maritime Safety Agency said on Twitter that it had picked up a total of 484 people in 30 makeshift vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

According to a count by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of the year and July 18.

They are mainly from sub-Saharan Africa - notably Guinea, Mali and Mauritania - as well as Morocco.

Dozens of migrants intercepted near Gibraltar are brought aboard a rescue boat by hazmat suit-wearing officials

A mother comforts her children after they are hauled to safety in the Mediterranean by Spanish authorities

At least 294 migrants have died in their attempts to reach Spain this year, out of a total of 1,489 who died in the Mediterranean, according to IOM.

In June Spain agreed to take in 630 migrants who arrived aboard three vessels, including the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius.

The Aquarius rescued the migrants off Libya's coast on June 9 but Italy's new populist government and Malta both refused to let it dock, triggering an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Then on July 4, a ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms docked in Barcelona with 60 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast on board after Italy refused to take them in.

A group of migrants is gathered together after arriving at the port of Algeceiras, Spain from North Africa

Spain has upped its commitment to take migrants after the MV Aquarius was rejected by an Italian port in June

Faced with growing tensions in the EU over the issue, member states struck a deal in late June to stem the arrival of migrants.

The accord includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in EU countries and "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc, as well as sharing out refugees among member states.

But the plan remains fraught with rows over how to divide responsibility for migrants and ease the stress on coastal countries such as Italy and Greece.

Italy, which had earlier vowed to turn away rescue boats, agreed Monday to continue accepting migrants picked up at sea, at least until the bloc finds a solution for sharing responsibility.

Migrants intercepted aboard eleven toy dinghies off the coast in the Strait of Gibraltar, rest after arriving on a rescue boat at the port of Tarifa, Spain

At least 294 migrants have died in their attempts to reach Spain this year, out of a total of 1,489 who died in the MediterraneanA handyman who was called to fix a home air conditioner has been accused of shooting the homeowner to death.

Repair man Robert Moore, 26, faces murder charges in the Friday shooting of father-of-seven Frank Pineda, 41, in the homeowner's garage in Surprise, Arizona.

Pineda was at a friend's house in his neighborhood on Friday afternoon when he met Moore and asked him to come take a look at his ventilation ducts, family members told AZfamily.

The victim's son Frank Pineda Jr, 20, met Moore when he came over and said that the handyman seemed off somehow.

Robert Moore, 26, faces murder charges in the Friday shooting in Surprise, Arizona

Father-of-seven Frank Pineda, 41, (center right) was shot in the back of the head in his garage

'He was acting just unusual,' said Pineda's son. 'He seemed off.'

Family members say they did not hear arguing or a gunshot.

The elder Pineda was found in the garage, shot in the back of the head. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Police say that Moore left the residence, walked down the street, and called 911 to surrender.

He was taken into custody without incident and is said to be cooperating with investigators.

Family said they didn't hear Pineda (above) arguing with the handyman prior to the shooting

Pineda (right) leaves behind seven children aged between 13 and 24

Pineda's family members were stunned by the shooting and are searching for answers. Cops have not revealed a potential motive.

'I had no thought in my head ever that I wouldn't see him again,' said the victim's brother, Fernando Pineda Jr.

A GoFundMe campaign has been created to help support Pineda's widow and seven children.

Police released Moore's identity on Tuesday. He was employed at Arrowhead Aire, a Phoenix air conditioning company.

Moore has been booked on second-degree murder charges and is being held at the Maricopa County 4th Avenue Jail.A prison nurse has denied having an improper relationship with an inmate after appearing in court today.

Ashleigh Naylor, 30, denied two counts of misconduct and one offence against the Prison Act during a short appearance at Teesside Crown Court.

One misconduct in a public office charge accuses her of engaging in a relationship with prisoner Paul Lane between April 2016 and October last year, while she worked as a nurse at Holme House Prison, Stockton, Teesside.

Ashleigh Naylor, pictured left and right, has denied having an improper relationship with an inmate while working as a nurse at Holme House Prison in Stockton

The second misconduct charge accuses her of sending mobile phone top-up cards to Lane when he was at Kirkham Prison and she worked at Holme House.

She is also accused of 'conveying' a top-up for a sim card to Kirkham Prison, in contravention of the Prison Act.

Naylor, of Newlands Road, Saltburn, Cleveland, denied the three charges and a two-day trial will be held in November.

She was granted unconditional bail.

Naylor was accused of the relationship while working at Holme House Prison, picturedDonald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani invoked his time monitoring recordings to bust up New York crime syndicates in the 1980s as he parsed the newly released taped conversation between Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen.

Giuliani, who pursued mafia members as U.S. attorney for the Souther District of New York in the 1980s, argues that the tape shows Trump didn't do 'anything wrong' even as the then-presidential candidate discussed a plan to provide payment in a matter involving a Playboy model who accused him of having an affair.

There is already a dispute about whether it was Trump or Cohen who initially said to pay 'cash' to American Media International head David Pecker in relation to the story.

'Look, we have been over the tape over the weekend about five times,' Giuliani told host Laura Ingraham on Fox News. 'What I urge people to do is just go online, listen to your broadcast. You play the tape, play it three times. The third time you play it, it will become clear,' Giuliani said, before turning to his crime-fighting experience.

'I know how to listen to them,' said lawyer Rudy Giuliani as he defended President Trump and brought up his experience listening to 4,000 hours of tapes of mafia figures when he was a prosecutor

Then he brought up longtime lawyer Alan Derswhowitz, who said such payments happen all the time, as well as his own experience parsing through evidence as he pursued 'the commission' governing New York's five mafia families.

'I got tapes even longer than Alan Dershowitz, how about 4,000 hours of mafia people on tapes?' Giuliani said. 'I know how to listen to them, I know how to transcribe them. This tape is clear crystal clear when you listen to it. I dealt with much worse tapes than this,' he said.

Cohen's lawyer also invoked mobsters in discussing the tape which Cohen recorded, only to get admonished by Trump on Twitter for it Wednesday.

Davis told CNN that it is Trump who suggested paying 'cash'  implying he wanted to cover up the transaction.

Rudolph Giuliani, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is photographed February 27, 1985 announcing the arrests in the 'Commission' case. A Federal racketeering indictment charged nine men with participating in a ''commission'' that governs the five organized-crime ''families'' in New York City

'Richard Nixon couldn't spin the tape that did him in, and there's no way that Mr. Giuliani, who knows from being U.S. Attorney, the only people who use cash are drug dealers and mobsters,' Davis, who recently joined Cohen's legal team, said.

'Cash is not what you do, and it was Michael Cohen who said, 'No, no, no, no.' And Donald Trump, despite what Rudy Giuliani said publicly, the tape contradicts Mr. Giuliani and the word 'cash' is heard by everyone,' Davis added.

Trump lashed out Wednesday at his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, hours after a 2016 audio recording was leaked showing the two men discussing a campaign-season payout to bury damaging accusations of an extramarital affair a decade earlier.

'What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?' an incredulous Trump tweeted.

New York, New York: U.S. attorney Rudolph Giuliani announces the indictment of 19 alleged members of the "Monsanto Crew" heroin ring

Trump also complained that the recording, first aired by CNN, appeared to end suddenly.

'Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?' he asked. 'I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped  can this be so? Too bad!'

Cohen disclosed this year in federal court that his legal practice consisted of representing just three clients: Trump, Fox News Channel host SeanHannity and former Republican National Committee fundraiser Elliott Broidy.

On Saturday the president claimed the idea of a lawyer taping a client was 'totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' adding that '[t]he good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!'

President Donald Trump is at war with his former lawyer folllowing the bombshell revelation of a September 2016 recording of the two men discussing a payment to bury a sexual affair claim

'What kind of a lawyer would tape a client?' Trump tweeted, speculating that Cohen may have recorded other clients

Cohen is under federal investigation, reportedly for allegations of bank fraud and campaign finance violations, related to a different Trump hush-money payoff to porn actress Stormy Daniels

A lawyer for Cohen insisted Wednesday that the former Trump attorney isn't hoping for a presidential pardon, and insisted following Tuesday's shocking audiotape revelation that there could be more to come.

Lanny Davis said on 'Good Morning America' that 'there are certainly more tapes,' after CNN broadcast a brief recording of Cohen and then-candidate Donald Trump discussing possibly purchasing the rights to the story of a woman who claimed to have bedded the future president.

The FBI reportedly seized a dozen recordings from Cohen during raids this year. Davis did not, however, say that the president's voice is on any of them.

He described them as what 'Mr. Cohen has discussed, that he normally did, in order to take notes. He used his telephone.'

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Tuesday night in a Fox News Channel interview that 'there are no other tapes with the president.'

Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton hand, said Wednesday that the feds have more audio from their Cohen raids

Trump's lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, insisted Tuesday night on Fox News that the president's voice isn't on any of the other recordings still under wraps

'We have all of the tapes in our possession,' Giuliani said. 'We have transcripts of all them. We are comfortable with them. And there are no  there are no others.'

Appearing Wednesday on 'Fox & Friends,' longtime Harvard Law School scholar Alan Dershowitz said the tape was a 'big deal about nothing' and that Cohen 'shouldn't have recorded this.'

'The end result is no payments were made, no cash was given,' Dershowitz declared. 'There's no crime here. There's no impeachable offense here.'

Cohen could be charged with bank fraud or campaign finance violations in relation to his separate payoff of pornographic actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about an allegation similar to that of the other woman, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti claimed last week that 'this is not the only tape,' forecasting the first shoe that would drop.

'I think this is a very serious matter and I think that any or all audio tapes that Michael Cohen has in his possession relating to this president should be released for the public,' he said then.

In the tape CNN aired Tuesday, the president and Cohen are heard in September 2016 speaking about a proposal to buy McDougal's story. Trump's presidential campaign organization had claimed it knew nothing about any such payment.

The proposal involved paying American Media, the parent company of The National Enquirer, for the publishing rights. The company had bought them from McDougal for $150,000.

Cohen was an archetypical loyal footsoldier in Trumpworld until his home, office and hotel room were raided.

Davis, a longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton legal adviser, said Wednesday morning that his client is no longer playing the role of dutiful lieutenant.

Former Playboy model Karen McDougal received a $150,000 payment from the National Enquirer's parent company, in exchange for an exclusive on her Trump story  which never ran

Davis insists that Trump is a serial liar, and that his client Cohen is ready to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may

'Michael Cohen has turned a corner in his life, and he's now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and we'll see what happens,' Davis said on ABC.

'This is about truth versus lying, and ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth,' he insisted.

Cohen has already said his 'first loyalty' is to the United States and to his family, not to the president. The White House has avoided taking a position on a possible future pardon.

Giuliani said last month, however, that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's broader Russia probe 'might get cleaned up with some presidential pardons' when the dust settles.

Tuesday night's mini-controversy surrounded one moment in the leaked recording, in which Trump is heard telling Cohen to 'pay with cash' if he struck a deal for the McDougal story.

Guilani insisted Trump said 'don't pay with cash,' reasoning that incorporating a new company to handle the payment would require paperwork and documentation.

'I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David,' Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interjects to ask 'What financing?'  to which Cohen responds: 'We'll have to pay.'

After Trump's cryptic remark about 'cash,' Cohen replies: 'No, no, no, no.'

'Check,' Trump adds.

McDougal says she had a year-long affair with Trump after the birth of his son Baron; Trump and the White House have denied he did anything wrong

McDougal is seen far right in this photo with Melania Trump (third from left), Donald Trump (center), and Ivanka Trump (third from right)

Davis, 72, formerly special counsel to President Bill Clinton, said he gave the copy to the network to defend his client who was 'falsely accused.'

Trump's ex-lawyer Cohen is accused of receiving US$500,000 from a Russian oligarch linked to election meddling.

Trump's new lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists the president never paid McDougal but had acknowledged that the audio, which dates back to September 2016, captured a discussion related to the buying the story rights.

Before it was leaked, Giuliani said the recording would play to Trump's benefit.

'Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of it in advance,' Giuliani said, according to The New York Times, and said Trump told Cohen that if he made a payment to McDougal, he should write a check.

After the tape was released, he told Fox News on Tuesday it was 'outrageous' that it had been leaked to the media and questioned whether it ended at a key part in the conversation.

Giuliani claims that the rest of the recording, if it hadn't cut off, would have been 'exculpatory.'

He also told The Associated Press that Trump did not want to pay cash and 'suggesting otherwise is ridiculous.'

THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF TRUMP AND COHEN'S DISCUSSION TRUMP: [In background] Good. Let me know what's happening, okay? Oh, oh. Maybe because of this it would be better if you didn't go, you know? Maybe because of this. For that one, you know, I think what you should do is get rid of this. Because it's so false what they're saying, it's such bulls**t. Um. [PAUSE] I think, I think this goes away quickly. I think what  I think it's probably better to do the Charleston thing, just this time. Uh, yeah. In two weeks, it's fine. I think right now it's, it's better. You know? Okay, honey. You take care of yourself. Thanks, babe. Yup, I'm proud of you. So long. Bye. [Into phone] What's happening? COHEN: Great poll, by the way. TRUMP: Yeah? COHEN: Seen it. Great poll. TRUMP: Making progress. COHEN: Big time. TRUMP: And, your guy is a good guy. He's a good  COHEN: Who, Pastor Scott? TRUMP: Can't believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What's, what's happening  COHEN: No  TRUMP: Can we use him anymore? COHEN: Oh, yeah, a hundred  no, you're talking about Mark Burns. He's, we've told him to [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. TRUMP: I don't need that  Mark Burns, are we using him? COHEN: No, no. FEMALE: Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. I'm sorry, Richard [UNINTELLIGIBLE] just called. He  just when you have a chance, he had an idea for you. TRUMP: Okay, great. COHEN: Um, so, we got served from the New York Times. I told you this  we were  TRUMP: To what? COHEN:  To unseal the divorce papers with Ivana. Um, we're fighting it. Um, [Trump attorney Marc] Kasowitz is going to  TRUMP: They should never be able to get that. COHEN: Never. Never. Kasowitz doesn't think they'll ever be able to. They don't have a  TRUMP: Get me a Coke, please! COHEN: They don't have a legitimate purpose, so  TRUMP: And you have a woman that doesn't want this. COHEN: Correct. TRUMP: Who you've been handling. COHEN: Yes. And  TRUMP: And it's been going on for a while. COHEN: About two, three weeks now. TRUMP: All you've got to do is delay for  COHEN: Even after that, it's not ever going to be opened. There's no, there's no purpose for it. Um, told you about Charleston. I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David, you know, so that  I'm going to do that right away. I've actually come up and I've spoken  TRUMP: Give it to me and get me a [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. COHEN: And, I've spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up with  TRUMP: So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty? COHEN:  Funding . . . Yes. Um, and it's all the stuff. TRUMP: Yeah, I was thinking about that. COHEN: All the stuff. Because  here, you never know where that company  you never know what he's  TRUMP: Maybe he gets hit by a truck. COHEN: Correct. So, I'm all over that. And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be  TRUMP: Wait a sec, what financing? COHEN: Well, I'll have to pay him something. TRUMP: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash. COHEN: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. TRUMP: Check. [Tape cuts off abruptly. Separate recording begins.] MALE: Hey Don, how are you? Advertisement

Trump broke his silence on Saturday and is not happy Cohen recorded their conversation about a payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, slammed the Cohen tape saying it proved that Trump and Cohen tried to kill the story before Election Day, making the saga 'campaign-motivated.'

He said: 'Regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure.'

Schiff added that it was also proof that Giuliani was 'untruthful' when he said Trump didn't know about the payments.

The president broke his silence on Saturday morning tweeting that it was 'inconceivable' and possibly illegal that Cohen recorded him without his knowledge.

'Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyer's office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal,' he wrote.

'The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!' Trump added.

President Trump and his associates are closely watching Cohen to see if he decides to cooperate with authorities should charges be brought against him.

The alleged affair began shortly after the birth of Trump's son, Baron

If payments to McDougal are deemed to have been an effort to circumvent campaign finance laws and their strict limits on monetary contributions to a political campaign, it could provide legal exposure for Cohen.

In the case of another woman who claimed an affair with Trump, porn star Stormy Daniels, Cohen did write her a check, using an LLC he set up immediately beforehand.

'In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence,' said Giuliani.

Lawyer Peter Stris, who negotiated a settlement between McDougal and American Media Inc., tweeted: 'When @realDonaldTrump said we were lying, do you think he meant we WEREN'T?'  in a play on Trump's walk-back of his statement about Russian election meddling.

The Washington Post reported that the September 2016 story  two months before the election  involved a plan by Cohen to buy the rights to McDougal's story. But the deal never happened.

When the Wall Street Journal broke the story on the payment and the alleged affair days before the election, Trump spokeswoman and later White House communications director Hope Hicks said, 'We have no knowledge of any of this.'

Under the arrangement, David Pecker, chairman of American Media, which owns the National Enquirer, oversaw a $150,000 payment to McDougal. Pecker is a longtime friend of Trump's and a political supporter.Police say a man is in custody, related to the destruction of the president's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with a pick axe, early on Wednesday morning.

A call came in at approximately 3.30am Pacific reporting vandalism to Donald Trump's star, located at Hollywood and Highland, Los Angeles Police Officer Ray Brown told DailyMail.com.

This is the second time the star has been destroyed by someone using a pick axe.

A man who is described as a white male who appears to be approximately 25 years old is now in custody in Hollywood, related to this incident.

The suspect turned himself in to the Beverly Hills Police Department at around 4.30am, a BHPD spokesperson told DailyMail.com.

The suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed, is awaiting charges.

Trump, who was honored with the star in January 2017, has not publicly commented on this incident of vandalism of the star.

Police say a white male who is approximately 25 years old is in custody, related to the early-morning destruction of Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday

A man approached Trump's star at around 3.00am, a witness told ABC 7 News.

He opened a guitar case, removed a pick axe, and demolished Trump's star, the witness said.

Some time after the incident, a pull up bar was placed over the debris in the spot where Trump's star used to sit, presumably to protect passersby from tripping over the rubble.

Trump's star has been defaced, demolished or otherwise tampered with many times since he declared his candidacy for president in 2015.

A pick axe was used to destroy the star, Los Angeles Police confirmed to DailyMail.com

Donald Trump's star on the Walk of Fame is shown here, without vandalism and defacing, near the corner of Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles on December 10, 2016

Donald Trump (left) is seen here with wife Melania Trump and their then-10-month-old son Barron after Trump was honored with the 2,327th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 16, 2007

The last time the star was destroyed with a pick axe was in October 2016, right before Trump was elected president, by a man named James Otis.

Otis, who was dressed as a construction worker and also used a sledge hammer at the time, said his goal was to remove the star, auction it, and donate any money raised to the women who accused Trump of sexual assault leading up to the presidential election.

Otis pleaded no contest to a felony vandalism charge related to the incident in February 2017, was placed on probation, sentenced to 20 days of community service and ordered to pay $4,400 in damages and lawyers fees.

Some time after the incident, a pull up bar was placed over the debris in the spot where Trump's star used to sit, presumably to protect passersby from tripping over the rubble.

The damage that resulted from the last time Trump's star was demolished with a pick axe, and a sledge hammer, in October 2016 is shown here

Another incident of vandalism includes the symbol for 'mute,' which indicates sound has been turned off on a device, being spray painted on the star in June of 2016, which was speculated to have been done in protest of Trump's antagonistic language used during his campaign

Other incidents of vandalism include a reverse swastika being spray painted on the star in January 2016, and the symbol for 'mute,' which indicates sound has been turned off on a device, being spray painted on the star in June of 2016.

Speculation around the spray painting of the 'mute' sign included the possibility that it was meant to protest Trump's antagonistic language used during his campaign.

That incident was video taped and posted on YouTube with the title, 'Trump muted in Hollywood blvd.'

The Anti-Defamation League, whose mission is to stop the defamation of Jewish people, explains the distinction between forward and reverse-facing swastikas, as follows:

'The swastika as adopted by the Nazis has "arms" that hook to the right; later white supremacists maintained this tradition.

'Though sometimes more ignorant white supremacists accidentally render swastikas "backwards," the backwards or left-pointing swastika is typically the hallmark of someone not actually that familiar with white supremacist iconography.'

A gold-colored toilet, shown here when it was placed by Trump's star in May 2016, was part of a larger art installation, created in reference to the Guggenheim offering to loan the president a golden toilet after turning down a request for a specific piece of Van Gogh art

Political statements made surrounding Trump's star have also included the placing of a miniature wall around its edges, seemingly in protest of Trump's calls to build a border wall

Ana Martinez, who is the vice president of media relations for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said she'd prefer if people would stop this kind of behavior, in an interview published in November by Real Clear Life.

'Id like people to know that the Walk of Fame is a historical landmark and I would very much like it if people didnt damage any stars,' Martinez said.

'I know that people have their personal political views about President Trump, and feelings about other stars, but please, it would be great if people could refrain from vandalizing his star or any other stars.'

A board covers the spot where Trump's star usually sits in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, as the Hollywood Historic Trust prepares to replace the damaged landmark

'Id like people to know that the Walk of Fame is a historical landmark and I would very much like it if people didnt damage any stars,'Ana Martinez, who is the vice president of media relations for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said; Trump's star is shown here being reinstalled in October 2016

Political statements made surrounding Trump's star have also included the placing of a miniature wall with barbed wire around its edges, seemingly in protest of Trump's calls to build a border wall, and nearby placement of a gold-colored toilet featuring the words, 'Take A Trump' spray painted on its tank.

The gold-colored toilet, placed by the star in May 2016, was part of a larger art installation, created in reference to the Guggenheim offering to loan the president a golden toilet after turning down a request for a specific piece of Van Gogh art, as reported by the Washington Post.

Gregg Donovan, a British-born actor living in Santa Monica, showed up later on Wednesday to 'protect' what remains at this moment of Trump's demolished star, and was photographed holding a sign that read 'Keeping America Great! Trump 2020.'

Gregg Donovan, a British-born actor living in Santa Monica, showed up later on Wednesday to 'protect' what remains at this moment of Trump's demolished star, holding a 'Trump 2020' sign

Gregg Donovan, a British-born actor living in Santa Monica, showed up later on Wednesday to 'protect' what remains at this moment of Trump's demolished star, and was photographed holding a sign that read 'Keeping America Great! Trump 2020.'

Donovan noted that other stars nearby were on the surrounding walls, and not on the ground, while talking with CBS News.

'I think they should probably put [the stars of President Ronald] Reagan and President Trump on the wall for safekeeping,' he said.

'This is the second time, so something has to be done.'

Donovan said he would stay by the star as long as he had to, to stand guard.

'Whatever it takes,' he said. 'I'm not going to let anybody do this again, until maybe the police come.'

Donovan is staple on Hollywood Boulevard, often greeting tourists and locals in his signature red jacket and top hat.

Workers have already removed the rubble to prep it for replacement, which is underway

Construction workers use a jack hammer to remove the destroyed star of Donald Trump on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday

It didn't take long for the demolished star to be completely removed, before its replacement by the Hollywood Chambers of Commerce and the Hollywood Historic Trust began

Curious bystanders watch as workers rebuild Donald Trump's star on the Walk of Fame

A worker kneels beside what will become the newest replacement of Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, California

Workers have already reoved the rubble to prep it for replacement, which is underway.

Crowds stopped to watch and take photos as workers began the process.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has said it has no plans to permanently remove the star, despite its repeated targeting by vandals and activists, and a longstanding petition with nearly 50,000 signatures calling for its displacement.

All of the stars on the Walk of Fame are maintained by the Hollywood Historic Trust.

The suspect related to the Wednesday morning incident is currently in custody at the Hollywood police station, awaiting processing and booking, Officer Brown said.

It's not yet known what charges will be filed.Friends and family of Brian Baker Jr. (pictured) said the incident occurred on July 14 while the 34-year-old was performing some electrical work outside

A New Hampshire man who was stung multiple times by yellow jacket wasp died last week following complications from a severe allergic reaction.

Friends and family of Brian Baker Jr. said the incident occurred on July 14 while the 34-year-old was performing some electrical work outside his Winchester home.

Baker's wife, Mandi, said that her husband was stung twice by the aggressive insect.

Mandi Baker said that she was aware of her late husband's allergy and administered an EpiPen while calling 911.

'I had him cooling with wet towels, and I believe he started to stop breathing before the ambulance was even there,' Mandi Baker told WMUR9.

Emergency medical units went immediately to work to try and resuscitate Baker after arriving at his home.

'The rescue personnel really did everything to keep Brian with us, to give him a chance. They performed CPR on him for 45 minutes just to give him that chance,' said Brian Baker's father, Brian Baker Sr.

Baker Jr. was eventually taken to the ICU at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester but died on Wednesday as a result of his allergic reaction.

Mandi Baker (L) said that she was aware of her late husband's allergy and administered an EpiPen while calling 911

Baker Jr. was eventually taken to the ICU at Catholic Medical Center in Manchester (pictured) but died on Wednesday as a result of his allergic reaction

Mandi Baker, who described Brian as a man 'with a heart of gold' that 'would do anything for anyone,' said that he discovered he was allergic to yellow jacket stings only two years ago.

Mandi also noted that he treated her two daughters, Elisa, 26, and Hayley, 18, almost like they were his own children. The couple, however, did not have children of their own.

Experts say that those vulnerable to yellow jacket stings can quickly suffer from anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction, if stung

Experts say that those vulnerable to yellow jacket stings can quickly suffer from anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction, if stung.

'If they have any kind of reaction distant from the sting site, such has hives or the same kind of symptoms previously described -- tightness, problems breathing, those kinds of symptoms -- they should see an allergist and have testing done,' said Dr. Marie-Helene Sajous, an allergy specialist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock medical center, told WMUR9.

Anaphylaxis is usually caused by allergies to food, insect stings, medications and latex, among other causes.

A GoFundMe page setup by the family to help pay for medical costs informed donors that Baker died from his allergic reaction last Wednesday.

'Thank you all for your support. Our hearts feel so empty. We had to say goodbye to Brian last night. He was too sick to keep up the fight.'

The family has so far raised $7,336 with a goal of $10,000.

Baker was an organ donor, and his family says they are proud knowing that even in death the man 'with a heart of gold' is still helping others.A huge haul of weapons and drugs have been seized after detectives smashed an alleged drug operation.

Strike Force Hughson raided a property in Wentworth Street, Randwick, in Sydney, on April 10 this year and seized an arsenal of major weapons.

The strike force was formed to investigate a criminal group they believed to be supplying a commercial amount of illegal drugs.

Strike Force Hughson raided a property in Wentworth Street, Randwick, in Sydney, on April 10 this year (pictured a one-kilogram block of cocaine)

Pictured is the 9mm Beretta which was seized during an alleged drug operation in April

The MAC 10 machine gun seized (pictured) - a weapon typically used by Los Angeles street gangs

Detectives seized a black Mac 10 semi-automatic machine gun, commonly used by notorious street gangs in Los Angeles and rarely seen in Australia.

They also seized a 'Skorpion' pistol, Desert Eagle handgun, two Beretta pistols, magazines, ammunition and three military-style tactical helmets.

They also seized a one-kilogram block of cocaine, 5 grams of cocaine in resealable bags, a hydraulic pill press, almost 100-thousand dollars cash, five black balaclavas and numerous other items allegedly connected to the supply of drugs.

Deputy Commissioner  Metropolitan Field Operations, Jeff Loy, labelled the bust a major success.

'We allege we have dismantled a significant criminal enterprise,' Deputy Commissioner Loy said in a statement.

'The machine pistols in particular are of major concern,' he said, 'The MAC 10 is the type favoured by street gangs in parts of Los Angeles.

'The good news is the firearms are now in our possession and out of dangerous hands.'

Almost 100-thousand dollars cash (pictured) was also seized during the alleged drug raid

The 9mm Desert Eagle pistol (pictured) was seized earlier in the yearOtto Warmbier may have attempted suicide while he was imprisoned in North Korea, according to a new report published on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old Virginia University scholarship student was also never physically tortured by the North Korean authorities during his captivity in 2016 and 2017, the story claims.

Writing in GQ Magazine, author Doug Bock Clark accuses President Trump of promoting the torture theory to justify his tough stance against Kim Jong-un, before stopping mentioning it after relations warmed prior to the Singapore summit.

Otto Warmbier is pictured crying in a North Korean court after being sentenced to 15 months hard labor in March 2017; and right, on June 13, in a vegetative state while being carried off an airplane at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati

Warmbier was arrested during a budget tour of the hermit state in January 2016 for stealing a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15-years imprisonment.

When he returned to his family in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 13, he was in a vegetative state and unable to speak to extensive brain damage, which the Kim regime dubiously blamed on food poisoning. He died six days later.

Warmbier's parents, Fred and Cindy, said their son had been tortured, citing as evidence his brain damage, a scar on his foot, and his misaligned teeth which they believed had been wrenched by a pair of pliers.

President Trump supported this interpretation in numerous speeches and public statements, while intelligence reports leaked to the New York Times provided more apparent evidence of torture.

However, Clark - who examined Warmbier's case over a six-month period - cites a pathology report that suggests the student was not subjected to physical torture.

Dr Lakshmi Kode Sammarco found no significant scars, noting that the one on his foot was not indicative of torture, and found his teeth were 'natural and in good repair'. They could have been misaligned by an accident, this theory suggests.

Warmbier looks stony faced as he is carried away by two North Korean guards after being sentenced to hard labor by a court in March 2017

She also found that Warmbier's brain had been damaged on both sides, indicating that it had been starved of oxygen rather than hurt by an impact to the head, which would only have only damaged part of the organ.

Clark cites this report and the opinions of several experts to suggest that Warmbier became unconscious after some kind of accident, such as an allergic reaction.

The author then suggests the brain damage, which happened after Warmbier's sentencing, was caused by a suicide attempt that involved the student preventing himself from breathing.

Warmbier had just been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, the author writes, and images of him being dragged stony faced outside the court by two guards are evidence of his mental turmoil.

President Trump meets with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un during a summit at Sentosa Island, Singapore, on June 12

Similarly, Clark does not rule out that Warmbier was subjected to some form of mental torture, which falls under the UN definition of torture alongside physical methods.

However, the author takes his claim that the evidence for physical torture was lacking to argue that the Trump administration repeated these allegations to justify its previous aggressive stance towards North Korea.

Trump's mentions of Warmbier's case coincided with a dramatic worsening of relations between the US and North Korea, with the President making his infamous claim of having a 'bigger' nuclear button than his counterpart in January 2018.

The President regularly mentioned claims Warmbier had been tortured to justify his tough stance, relying on what Clark views as flawed intelligence reports.

One example came in his State of the Union address in January 2018, during which he pledged to respond to the 'torture of Otto Warmbier' by keeping 'maximum pressure' on Kim.

Yet as relations improved, Trump mentioned Warmbier's case less and less, Clark says, suggesting that this was because his case had 'outlived its usefulness' for the President.

Author Doug Bock Clark suggests Warmbier (pictured before leaving for North Korea) was not physically tortured and may have attempted suicide in jail

His report notes that during the Singapore summit with Kim in June, Trump failed to mention Warmbier once in his opening remarks.

When asked by a reporter why he was praising a dictator responsible for the death of an American high school student, Trump replied that Warmbier had not 'died in vain' as the summit would have been impossible without him.

Dailymail.com has contacted McGuire Woods, a law firm which represents the Warmbier family, to ask if they would like to comment on the GQ article.

If you are concerned about any issues involving suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255.

Call the Samaritans in the UK on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here for details.

In Australia, for confidential support call the Lifeline 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14.The mother-of-four who survived the horrific car crash that killed her husband and daughters earlier this month has left hospital and moved to a rehab facility in New Jersey.

Mary Rose Ballocanag, 53, lost her husband Audie Trinidad, 61, and her daughters Kaitlyn, 20, Danna, 17 and 13-year-old twins Allison and Melissa were all killed instantly when a wrong-way truck driver smashed into them on July 6.

Mary survived the crash however, and said she came to after the impact with her husband's hand on her chest. She and her husband were wearing seatbelts  her children were not.

The devastated widow has had six surgeries for her injuries and is still unable to get out of bed, but her move back to New Jersey means her extended family can finally begin funeral plans.

Mary Rose Ballocanag (pictured) was the only person in her family to survive a horrific car crash that killed her husband and four daughters

The family was headed back from a trip to Ocean City, Maryland at the time of the crash. It's believed this picture was taken on July 4, and could be the last family photo they took

Her brother-in-law, Daniel Trinidad, says there would be no service until Mary could attend.

'We don't want to do it without her,' Trinidad said. 'As long as she can be in a wheelchair, we can have it.'

Trinidad, his mother, brother and sister had been traveling six or seven hours to visit Mary and come back home to Mary's home in Teaneck, New Jersey, where they are all staying.

He told the News Journal there was a lot of heartache to work through as the family processed their massive loss.

'They're all gone,' he said of his brother and nieces. 'Why do you have to take all five of them, leave one, please.

'But I guess God is very short on angels  he needs them now.'

Sisters (from left to right): Danna, 17; Allison, 13; Melissa, 13; and Kaitlyn, 20, were killed in a car crash along with their father Audi Marquez Trinidad

The crash ripped the roof off the vehicle, and everyone is believed to have died instantly

The mother, 53-year-old Mary Rose Trinidad (second from left) was only member of her family to survive the horror crash. Mary Rose is pictured above with her daughters and husband in a Facebook photo

The Trinidad family had been coming back from vacation in Ocean City, Maryland, when their lives were cut short.

They were traveling northbound on Route 1 in Delaware just before 4pm on July 6, when a maroon pickup truck travelling southbound crossed the center median into oncoming traffic - slamming into the family's white Toyota Sienna minivan.

Officials said the Ford pickup, driven by Alvin Hubbard Jr, 44, first hit the rear driver's side of a 2002 Mercury Sable, which was being driven by Brian Kern, 24, of Bethlehem, PA.

The collision forced the Mercury Sable to spin out of control.

The truck then rammed directly into the Trinidad family's 1998 Toyota Sienna.

Photos from the scene showed the minivan with its roof ripped off and a tarp covering the inside of the vehicle.

The family have launched a GoFundMe to help pay for the Mary's medical expenses and her family's funerals.A dead baby was found abandoned inside a plane toilet shortly before the flight landed in India.

The body of the infant was found aboard an AirAsia India flight that landed in New Delhi on Wednesday, police and the airline said.

Police suspect the baby was stillborn and the airline said a medical examination conducted at New Delhi airport confirmed the infant was delivered aboard the flight, India Today reports.

A dead baby was found abandoned inside an AirAsia plane toilet shortly before the flight landed in India

A woman who was on the flight and is suspected to have given birth onboard has been held by police for questioning, an officer at the airport police station said.

The woman delivered a 'premature dead foetus,' he told the newspaper.

He added the plane was flying in from the eastern city of Guwahati, and declined to give further details immediately.

AirAsia India said the newborn was found lifeless by staff onboard as they were preparing for landing.

The airline said a medical examination conducted at New Delhi airport (pictured) confirmed the infant was delivered aboard the flight

'A suspect has been held back by police for further investigation,' the airline said in a statement to India Today.

'The suspect was identified on questioning of all female passengers onboard.'

AirAsia India, a low-cost carrier, is a joint venture between Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad and Indian conglomerate Tata Sons.

The airline said it had informed the country's aviation authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, about the incident.

'We will be assisting in the investigation and cooperating with all concerned agencies,' it added.Tammy DuBois, 52, strangled a rabid fox that attacked her

A woman who was bitten by a rabid fox says she had no choice but to strangle the animal to death.

Tammy DuBois, 52, was in the yard of her home in Pittsgrove Township, New Jersey on July 18 checking on her bird feeders when she heard an ominous rustling in the bushes, she told NJ.com.

Suddenly a fox darted out and lunged at her leg.

'I just backed up,' DuBois recalled. 'It was going crazy, making noises and its mouth was moving.'

The fox bit her twice in her calf as she tried to escape toward her house.

The animal followed her up the porch, and as she opened the door to get inside, the fox began gnawing on her leg.

'I had to do something,' she said. DuBois reached down, held the fox's snout shut with one hand and with the other, gripped its neck and squeezed.

The fox lunged out of the bushes and bit DuBouis deeply in her calf as she tried to flee

A red fox is seen in a file photo. DuBois was forced to kill a rabid fox when it attacked her

The fox went limp and she tossed its body back into the yard.

'I don't like to kill anything,' she said. 'I couldn't do anything else to get it away from me.'

The fox later tested positive for rabies.

DuBois called her husband, who rushed home and took her to the hospital.

She is undergoing a two-week treatment for rabies, which is preventable before symptoms appear, but fatal in nearly every case once an infected person becomes symptomatic.

The vanquished fox is seen after being put down by DuBois with her bare hands

It is believed to be New Jersey's first confirmed rabid fox of the year.

Of the 72 confirmed terrestrial rabies cases there were 49 raccoons , 13 skunks, nine cats and one groundhog, according to the state Department of Health. In addition there have been nine cases of rabid bats.

In upstate New York, a rabid fox terrorized the town of Yorktown over the weekend.

In that case, three people were attacked in the Westchester County town. The fox is believed to be still on the loose.The New Orleans Police Department arrested two of its own officers after they engaged in an off-duty fight with a civilian who claimed that they asked him if he was 'American.'

John Galman, 24, and 26-year-old Spencer Sutton were charged with counts of simple battery after the Tuesday altercation near the Mid-City Yacht Club.

Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said that evidence showed that the pair were 'clearly' the aggressors in their attack against George Gomez.

John Galman, 24, (left) and 26-year-old Spencer Sutton (right) were charged with counts of simple battery after the Tuesday altercation near the Mid-City Yacht Club

Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said that evidence showed that the pair were 'clearly' the aggressors in their attack against 36-year-old George Gomez

'Members of our department are expected to comply with the law and adhere to the highest standards of professional conduct, whether on- or off-duty,' Harrison's statement said, according to The Advocate.

'The swift pace at which the Public Integrity Bureau investigated this incident and the decisive actions taken by the NOPD ... by arresting the officers and starting the termination process clearly demonstrate how seriously our department views their actions.'

Gomez, 36, sustained cuts to his face and severe bruising and swelling as a result of the attack. He was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday.

Recalling the events of the attack, Gomez - who describes himself as a U.S. native who moved to Honduras before returning back to New Orleans - said that neither of the officers identified themselves as NOPD.

He said that the men had issue with the camouflage attire he was wearing while at the bar that the three had frequented

The two assailants, who are white, allegedly told Gomez that they did not like that he was wearing a camouflage shirt and bandana.

'He asked me if I was American. I told him yes, and he got mad because he said I was fake,' said Gomez, who speaks both English and Spanish.

Gomez explained to the two officers that he served in the Louisiana National Guard but asserts that that wasn't enough for the two.

He shared that he had seen them at the same bar before, but they had never had a confrontation before, WWL-TV reports.

The man said that he tried to leave the bar after it closed for the night, but the two officers refused to let him leave.

Gomez, 36, sustained cuts to his face and severe bruising and swelling as a result of the attack

And as he tried to leave the bar in his truck, Sutton and Galman stopped him in the middle of the street at Baudin and South Murat.

'We are gonna kill you,' he said that the pair threatened to him before they began beating him.

Neighbors recalled hearing Gomez screaming for help from down the street.

'They just beat him in the head,' one said. 'The whole neighborhood, I believe, heard it. You had to. He was screaming.'

Gomez had a cane with him and he tried to use it to ward off the attackers.

'I tried to defend myself, but I couldn't,' Gomez added.

An investigation is still underway to determine if Sutton and Galman - who graduated from the NOPD academy in December - will receive any additional charges.

The two were said to have still been on their probationary period since joining the force.Police in Lebanon are looking for a woman who exposed her breasts from a car on a busy highway.

The woman flashed her chest to motorists while standing up in a car that was travelling along the country's only motorway in Saida.

Lebanon's roads are often hijacked by pranksters who take advantage of them being entirely free of policing, even if it is merely for social media stunts.

The latest prank has left many in Lebanon divided, with some people calling for the woman's arrest while others see it as nothing more than harmless fun.

Police in Lebanon are looking for a woman who exposed her breasts from a car on a highway

Ziad Akl, the founder of the road safety organisation YASA, says he wants all those responsible for the stunt arrested by the police.

'It's a chaotic situation on our roads, catastrophic,' he told Mail Online.

'The police must do significant efforts to enforce traffic law not only speed control on few roads.'

'This unfamiliar show is illegal and unethical. Penal law must be enforced in parallel with traffic law in order to eliminate such behaviour.'

Police did not respond to calls for comment from MailOnline.

The woman flashed her chest to motorists while standing up in a car that was travelling along the country's only motorway in Saida

The latest prank on the country's only motorway has left many in Lebanon divided

But Dr Joelle Bassil, of the The National Road Safety Council, has called for tougher laws.

She suggests that some of the risky high speed shenanigans are alcohol-related or even due to mental health issues.

'A lot of road users' behaviour refer sometimes to psychological problems and other times a tendency to violate the law and lot of times to carry out risky behaviour - like driving under influence of alcohol and distraction' she said.

But others are standing behind the mystery woman on Facebook and her right to express herself in a country staunchly clamping down on such liberties.

Some people calling for the woman's arrest while others see it as nothing more than harmless fun

There have been many recent cases reported of bloggers being detained by security officials for merely commenting on social media sites about the state of the country.

'I heard on a radio station today too many women saying: Its no one's business!! She can do whatever she pleases!!' wrote Nader H Lteif.

'They should go practice the law on criminals not on a girl flashing her boobs!!'

Diyaa Nasr added: 'If I was the minister of tourism, I will legalise this, and you can see how the tourism will prosper and be great.'

Lebanon - a tiny country of only six million people - has one of the worst accident rates, per head, in the world.

It sees an average of 4,500 accidents each year on its roads, injuring 6,000 while killing up to 900.

Lebanon - a tiny country of only six million people - has one of the worst accident rates, per head, in the worldSecretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday the United States will never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea as he sought to fend off charges from lawmakers and others that President Donald Trump and his administration are being soft on Russia.

In a statement titled 'Crimea Declaration,' Pompeo said the U.S. will continue to insist that Ukraine's territorial integrity be restored.

He said the U.S. would hold to its long-standing principle of refusing to recognize Kremlin claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in violation of international law.

And he called for Russia to respect principles it claims to respect and 'end its occupation of Crimea.'

'In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored,' Pompeo said in the declaration, which was released by the State Department shortly before he was to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Strong statement: Mike Pompeo issued a 'Crimea Declaration' saying: 'United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored'

Pompeo is expected to face tough questioning from committee members about Trump's summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Trump has prevoiusly suggested that U.S. opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea could be reconsidered.

In anticipation of potentially hostile questions, the Crimea Declaration sought to underscore U.S. commitments to the post-World War II international order that many believe Trump has weakened.

In it, Pompeo took Russia to task for it actions in Ukraine, particularly the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Russia has defended its move, saying the annexation was approved by Crimean voters in a referendum.

The U.S. and its European allies have all said the referendum was illegal as it was held without the consent of the government in Kiev and was conducted in a highly flawed manner.

'Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community,' Pompeo said in the statement.

Even before the statement was released, Pompeo was taking a tough line on Russia and defending the Trump-Putin meeting as he prepared for his Senate testimony.

In an interview transcript released ahead of the Crimea statement, Pompeo said Trump and Putin 'didn't find much place to agree' on Ukraine when they met in Finland last week.

He said Trump made clear to Putin that the so-called Minsk Accords to settle the Ukraine conflict is the right path forward.

He also reiterated U.S. support for an investigation that held Russia responsible for downing a Malaysian airliner over east Ukraine in 2014.

Pompeo said what the Russians did was 'deeply immoral' and that those responsible for the MH17 disaster should be held accountable.

Pompeo made the comments in a Tuesday interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in California, where he and Defense Secretary James Mattis co-hosted meetings this week with their Australian counterparts.

The interview was a likely preview of his Senate testimony, which comes as lawmakers are seeking answers on what the two leaders may have agreed to in Helsinki. The White House and State Department have been vague when pressed for specifics.

Grab: Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea was followed by a referendum which Pompeo condemned and said: 'Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community,'

Building links: Russia has built a bridge across the Kerch Strait, giving it a road link and next year, a rail link, to Crimea from undisputed Russian territory

In the interview, Pompeo acknowledged that he was not in the room when Trump and Putin met with only interpreters present for nearly two hours in the Finnish capital.

But, he said he had a 'good understanding' of what took place based on his presence at a larger meeting between the two sides as well as conversations with Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

'It was an incredibly constructive engagement for President Trump and President Putin, an important one for the world,' Pompeo said. 'These are two nuclear superpowers.

'They ought to be engaged in conversations, and they covered a wide range of topics. They disagreed on many things but also set forward some constructive paths on important topics.'

On Ukraine, Pompeo said the differences were sharp. 'The president was strong in making sure that the world understood that the Minsk path is the right path forward,' he said.

Asked about MH17, in which dozens of Australian passengers were killed, Pompeo called it 'a real tragedy.'

'What the Russians did there is deeply immoral,' he said. 'There ought to be accountability.'A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that a suit against President Trump's ownership of a luxury Washington D.C. hotel can go forward  potentially opening up the way for questioning about which foreign governments have paid to use it.

U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in Greenbelt, Md has ruled that a lawsuit arguing that Trump's continued ownership of the hotel while serving as president violates the Constitution's 'Emoluments' clause can continue.

Trump decided to maintain ownership of the Trump Organization, which owns the hotel and secured a long-term lease for the former Old Post Office just blocks from the White House, after getting elected in 2016.

The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia filed the suit in federal court, and are joined by watchdog Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington.

A federal judge in Maryland has ruled that a lawsuit arguing that Trump's continued ownership of a Washington D.C. hotel violates the Constitution's 'Emoluments' clause can continue

As they go ahead, plaintiffs want the chance to interview hotel employees and see records to determine which foreign governments or their representatives paid the hotel  and indirectly, Trump, the Washington Post reported.

The Justice Department, which has been put under intense pressure by Trump's attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions over the Russia probe, must decide whether to appeal the decision.

The Emoluments states that no person 'holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.'

Trump maintains ownership of the Trump Organization while serving as president, though it is run by his two adult sons and executives

In court last month, plaintiff's lawyers argued that Trump was 'profiting on an unprecedented scale" from foreign interests.

"This is the first oral arguments focused on the meaning of the emoluments clause in American judicial history," Norman Eisen, the chair of CREW, told the Associated Press.

Lawyers for the Trump Administration counter that hotel stays don't constitute an emolument, and if the definition is too broad even ownership of foreign stocks would be problematic and untenable.

Past presidents have taken steps to avoid potential conflicts. President Jimmy Carter unloaded his Georgia peanut farm to avoid the appearance of favoring agriculture interests.

Trump's hotel has rented space to Kuwait and the Philippines while hosting foreign leaders as well as lobbyists and backers, even as it has become a gathering place for Trump supporters.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer has a book tour planned there this week, days after Press Secretary Sarah Sanders slammed former spies for trying to 'monetize' their security clearances.

In March, DailyMail.com first reported that the Trump Organization $151,470 to the U.S. Treasury for profits it says it got from foreign governments at its hotels.Addison Barnes, 18, sued his school when he was suspended for wearing a 'build the wall' t-shirt to a politics class where immigration was to be discussed

An Oregon high school student will be given a $25,000 settlement and a written apology from his principal after a judge found orders for the teen to remove a pro-Trump shirt he had worn to class were in breach of his first amendment rights.

Addison Barnes, 18, was a senior at Liberty High School in January, when he was suspended for refusing to cover up a t-shirt promoting Donald Trump's proposed border wall.

The teenager wore the shirt, which reads: 'The wall just got 10 feet taller', to a politics class on a day there would be discussion of immigration.

He was asked to cover the shirt by the school's assistant principal, after the dean of students reported some of his classmates felt 'intimidated and threatened', court documents show.

When he uncovered the shirt again, he was told he could cover it back up, change into a different shirt, or go home. The school counted his choice to go home as a suspension.

Shortly after, Barnes filed a lawsuit against the school  and won.

Barnes (pictured wearing the shirt) was asked to cover it up by the vice principal, who said she'd been informed some of his classmates found it offensive and threatening

In late May, Barnes was successful in obtaining a restraining order, which would prohibit the school from saying he couldn't wear pro-Trump clothing.

Decrying the 'cost and disruption of litigation', the Hillsboro school district settled on Tuesday, agreeing principal Greg Timmons would write an apology and the district would cover Barnes' $25,000 legal bill.

'I brought this case to stand up for myself and other students who might be afraid to express their right of center views,' Barnes said in a statement.

'Everyone knows if a student wears an anti-Trump shirt to school, the teachers won't think twice about it. But when I wore a pro-Trump shirt, I got suspended.

'That's not right.'

In vice principal Amanda Ryan-Fear's statement to the court, she explained about one third of Barnes' classmates were of Hispanic ethnicity, and some of these students had family members who were deported under Trump's immigration law.

Ms Fear Ryan said about one third of the students at Barnes' high school were of Hispanic ethnicity, and that Trump's immigration policies had seen some of their family deported

'During 2016/2017, Hispanic students reported to the administration that some family members had been deported, and that the fear and anxiety caused by the specter of deportation was negatively impacting their attendance and attention in school,' she said.

In the letter from Principal Timmons, Barnes was wished well and apologized to for the suspension.

In a statement, Hillsboro School District says it 'supports, encourages and celebrates free speech and reasoned debate'.

'We also have a responsibility to ensure that each of our students feels welcome and safe in our schools so they can effectively learn,' the statement read.

'This was an instance where we were challenged to do both simultaneously and the decision landed on the side of ensuring student safety.

'Moving forward, we will continue to use professional discretion to meet both objectives and will actively seek ways to turn sensitive situations into learning opportunities.'A bride-to-be from Colorado has been charged with stabbing her fiance to death after accusing him of cheating on her with his former lover whom he wanted to invite to their wedding.

Just after 12.20am on Saturday, officers with the Colorado Spring sPolice Department responded to the 6300 block of Cabana Circle after getting a disturbance report.

When officers arrived at the scene, they found 31-year-old Brandon Watkins suffering from a stab wound to the chest. Despite efforts to revive him, Watkins was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jacqueline Souza, 33 (left), has been charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of her fiance, 31-year-old Brandon Watkins (pictured together, right)

Souza summoned police to their home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on July 21 (pictured)

A bloody steak knife used in the deadly attack was recovered from the kitchen table.

Watkins fiancee, 33-year-old Jacqueline Souza, told police she and Watkins were returning home from a bar where they had been celebrating their upcoming nuptials in Las Vegas, when they got into an argument about the groom's former girlfriend whom he wanted to invite to the wedding.

Souza was opposed to the idea and accused her husband-to-be of cheating on her with his ex-lover.

When asked to explain what happened after they entered the house, Souza offered detectives three different versions of events, reported Colorado Springs Gazette.

At first, she told them she went to the bathroom and then emerged to find Watkins with a knife in his chest in the kitchen. KKTV reported Souza told the cops she panicked, yanked the knife out of her boyfriend's bosy and threw it on the table.

Souza said she and Watkins got into an argument because her fiance wanted to invite his ex to their upcoming Las Vegas wedding, and she accused him of cheating on her

Souza was in the process of divorcing her first husband while planning her wedding to Watkins. The Army veteran proposed to Souza in June

Police, however, found no evidence of a home invasion.

Next, Souza raised the possibly that her fiance committed suicide by stabbing himself after the couple's quarrel.

Then, Souza accused Watkins of being unfaithful to her with multiple women and said that during their argument, her US Army veteran fiance became violent towards her, grabbed the knife and threatened her.

The bride later retracted her previous statement claiming that Watkins put the knife to her face, and instead argued that he fell on top of the knife after she pushed him to get away from him.

According to police, Souzas story was inconsistent with Watkins position on the kitchen floor.

Souza also said she was the one who summoned police and administered CPR to her fiance until help arrived.

Souza (left) has offered police three different versions of what happened between her and Watkins (right), including a home invasion, a suicide and an accident

The 33-year-old woman, who was reportedly in the process of divorcing her first husband while planning her second wedding, has been charged with second-degree murder.

She was released on $50,000 bond on Tuesday. Souza is due back in court on August 1.

Watkins' sister, Erika, has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help the family transport his body to New Jersey for burial.

Brandon was impactful and a presence like no other, Erika Watkins wrote of her sibling, who went by the nickname Big Dawg. He was the one-of-a-kind combination of Stone Cold Stunner and animal lover, bench press crusher and most loving brother, Army vet with no time for complainers and a real-life game changer.

The paper reported the 31-year-old served as a food service specialist in the Army between 2010 and 2016, which included a three-month tour of duty in Iraq.

According to his Facebook page, Watkins and Souza had been in a relationship since August 2017.

In a post dated June 24, Watkins announced to his friends and family he was engaged '2 the LOVE of my life.'A man with narcolepsy managed to buy 79 in toiletries on a shopping trip - despite being fast asleep at the time.

Mark Doyle, who suffers from the rare brain disorder that means patients can fall asleep at any time, tried to return the goods he bought on another sleep walk - but ended up spending another 80 without knowing.

The 46-year-old from Neilston in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, looked wide awake when he left his home and set off for the nearby town of Barrhead two weeks ago.

But he wasn't actually conscious and ended up sleep walking to the town centre where he spent 79 on deodorant, shower gel and razors at a Saver's store.

Mark Doyle (pictured with his purchases) looked wide awake when he went to Saver's in Glasgow two weeks ago, but he was actually fast asleep - which didn't stop him spending 159

The father-of-four, who has had the unusual condition nearly all his life, said: 'When I woke up I noticed that I spent more than 100 on so many things like deodorant, bath sponges, shower gel, hair wax, you name it.

'On July 13, I went and purchased 78.49 worth of toiletries which I didn't need.

'The following day I went back in to return the products but I took a turn again, fell asleep and I tried to buy more stuff - about 80 worth.

'But luckily I couldn't find my card so the staff had to take all the other items back.

'I went again the same day and bought 26 worth of stuff. I was in the shop that day four times.

'At the start, my turns would last me for about five to 10 minutes every day but now they are lasting as long as half an hour and to me that's dangerous.

'I can't afford to be doing this anymore, I don't have that kind of money to spend.'

Last week Mark tried to take the toiletries back but says staff refused to reimburse the items despite him having the receipt.

They claim it was because of a spillage in his shopping bag.

He said: 'I tried to explain my condition but they were not having it.

'I don't get how they can let me return the other items but not that other receipt.

'They just told me that it's not their problem it's mine.

'I just hate the way I've been treated. Younger people disrespect me and they just think I'm stupid but I'm not.

He added: 'I have never been able to secure a job if I am being honest.

Two weeks ago he ended up sleep walking to Barrhead, near Glasgow where he spent 79 on deodorant, shower gel and razors at a Saver's store (pictured)

'My last job I was working as a barman and I was collecting glasses. But I had to leave that because of this.

'I once took a turn in Morrisons and bought six chickens, six cans of dog food and 12 packets of cat food - although I don't have pets.

'I took it back an hour later when I woke up, luckily, one of the members of staff knew someone with the same condition.

But Mark isn't letting his condition get him down - despite its unfortunate symptoms.

He said: 'You just don't remember your actions very well. When I talk to someone while sleeping, sometimes it's like I am speaking a different language.

'It just doesn't make sense. I want to raise awareness. I believe I am on this planet for a reason. I'm actually happy and I'm a fun guy.'

He recalled how difficult his condition made his childhood, saying: 'School was torture for me, teachers thought I should go to a disability school because I struggled to pay attention.

'But they didn't realise that although I looked wide awake, I was actually asleep. They didn't understand that but my mum did.

Saver's claim the reason Mark was not refunded (purchases pictured) was because the goods were damaged from a leak in his shopping bag

'You are not in control at all, it's a nightmare. I wouldn't be able to tell you when it's going to happen it just happens.

'I could be talking to someone face-to-face and I'll fall asleep, even when I'm on the phone, the phone would just drop on the ground while I take another turn.

'I bump my head, fall down, get black eyes and end up in hospital, all sorts.

'I've got stains all over my carpet because of this and I've fallen asleep in buses and ended up in Ayr or Kilmarnock because I've missed my stop.'

Saver's claims the reason Mark was not refunded was because the goods were damaged from a leak in his shopping bag.

A spokesman said: 'Mr Doyle has not made direct contact with our Customer Relations Department regarding this incident.

'As part of our refund and exchange policy, we will accept returns for any goods which have been purchased from our stores, within 28 days from the date of purchase, providing that they are in the same perfect, sealed and unused condition as when purchased and there is a valid receipt or proof of purchase accompanying these.

'We do not accept liability for any goods which have been damaged after they have been purchased unless they are faulty.

Last week Mark tried to take the toiletries back but says staff refused to reimburse the items despite him having the receipt (pictured)

'Having communicated with the Area Manager regarding the incident, we understand that the reason for the refund refusal is because the packaging for all the goods Mr Doyle wanted to return appeared to have been damaged, apparently from a different product which had leaked in the bag.

'Mr Doyle has received refunds for unwanted purchases on at least two separate occasions and the service which the team has provided to him has always been in line with our expected standards of service, as well as our refund and exchange policy.'

According to experts at the Narcolepsy UK charity, the condition is believed to affect around one in 2,500 people.

That means in the UK, there are approximately 30,000 people who have the disorder.

Nicola Rule, who works for the charity, said: 'Automatic behaviour and micro sleep are not only hard to explain to others but are very hard to live with, as they are unpredictable and invisible to the sufferer and onlookers.

'It is really not at all that unusual for people with narcolepsy to suffer from the same problems as Mark.

'Even going shopping at night on the websites can be an involuntary action.'

The most common symptoms of narcolepsy are excessive daytime sleepiness, brought on by an irresistible need to sleep at inappropriate times during the day.

Many sufferers also experience cataplexy - a temporary involuntary loss of muscle control.Actress Olivia Hussey has revealed that she was raped by her actor ex-boyfriend in the same home where Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's 'family' just months earlier.

Hussey, who rose to fame following the 1968 movie 'Romeo and Juliet', claims her ex-boyfriend Christopher Jones brutally attacked her at the infamous Los Angeles home back in 1969.

The actress, now 67, told People magazine that Jones started abusing her soon after they began dating in the late 1960s after she played Juliet on the big screen.

'We were talking and his eyes glazed over and he punched me in the stomach,' she said.

'I was young, and I loved him. I was very loyal.'

Olivia Hussey, above in April, claims her ex-boyfriend Christopher Jones brutally attacked her at the Los Angeles home of the infamous Charles Manson 'family' murders back in 1969

At the time, Jones was recently divorced from his wife Susan Strasberg who was the daughter of famed acting coach Lee Strasberg.

Jones and Hussey had broken up when she planned to move into the guesthouse of the home Tate was renting with her husband Roman Polanski prior to the Manson crime spree.

The home was owned by Hussey's agent Rudi Altobelli and they had all arranged for the young British actress to help a then-pregnant Tate once the baby was born.

'I said to Sharon, 'Rudi said we're going to be best friends',' Hussey said of a phone call they had. 'She told me, 'I'm so looking forward to meeting you, my baby is coming soon'. She was so sweet.'

But before she could move in, Hussey said her agent got the call that Tate and four people who were at her home and had been brutally murdered by Manson's 'family' on August 9.

Five weeks after the murders, Hussey said she moved into the home anyway. She said her ex showed up one night and violently attacked her.

'I didn't know if he was going to kill me,' Hussey said. 'My face was like a balloon. I had a bloody nose, my lip was split open, and I had a black eye. It was terrifying.'

Back in 2015, Hussey shared this black and white photo of her with Jones. She says Jones started abusing her soon after they began dating in the late 1960s

Hussey and Jones had broken up when she planned to move into the guesthouse of the home Sharon Tate was renting with her husband Roman Polanski prior to the Manson crime spree

Hussey had been planning to help Sharon Tate and Roman Polanksi (left) with their soon-to-born baby when Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's 'family'

Hussey said she found out she was expecting several weeks later but decided to terminate the pregnancy.

'I decided I could not have the baby. It broke my heart although I have never regretted it,' she said.

The claims are featured in Hussey's new memoir 'The Girl on the Balcony'.

Back in 2015, Hussey shared a black and white photo of her with Jones with the caption: 'With actor Christopher Jones. Strange memory'.

She responded to queries from fans saying all would be revealed in her new book.

Back in 2007, Jones had claimed that he had been having an affair with Tate before she was murdered. The affair started in Rome when Tate was six weeks pregnant with Polanski's child.

'I loved Sharon and she loved me. I don't think I'm betraying any confidence by talking about it. I knew that she was married to Roman and I had no intention of splitting them up. I don't feel guilty,' he said when he first spoke of the affair.

He was filming in Ireland when he was informed that she had been murdered. Jones was said to be devastated by Tate's murder and gave up acting shortly after.

Hussey has been married three different times and has three adult children from each relationship.A blood moon is coming.

While this cosmic event may sound spooky, its really just the result of Earth fully eclipsing the moon for a period of time. The way the blood moon, or lunar eclipse, affects mood is truly frightening, however.

If you know anything about astrology, you know the moon plays a big part. Full moons are known in the astrological community to affect certain zodiac signs in various ways. Blood moons can have similar effects, changing mood, creating rifts in lines of communication and drumming up emotions.

A blood moon will be visible in parts of the world beginning on Friday, July 27 and ending on July 28

The upcoming lunar eclipse is expected to be especially intense, as itll be the longest of this century. Its expected to last about an hour and 23 minutes.

Want to know how the blood moon will affect you? Check it out.

Blood moon astrology

According to Astrology King, the July 2018 lunar eclipse astrology is strongly influenced by Mars, which is sure to make the eclipse a particularly challenging one emotionally.

Astrologer Jamie Partridge said: Marss anger and frustration could easily turn to reckless actions because of a harsh aspect to Uranus. A more gentle influence from Saturn will make it a little easier to calm down, and some fixed stars give patience and decisiveness in a crisis. However, these same stars can also cause aggression and emotional problems.

A lunar eclipse focuses your attention on your emotions, intimate relationships, and your home and family, she continued.

The longest total lunar eclipse this century is going to have an incredibly powerful influence on your private life.

Aquarius, Capricorn and Leo especially will feel the brunt of the blood moon effects.

Aquarians may find that theyre on edge, feeling dramatic or experiencing inner tension during this period. Astrograph recommends taking time to meditate, allowing you to sort through your confusing feelings.

Star Sign Style notes that both Aquarians and Capricorns will feel forces beyond themselves pushing them to make a difference during the blood moon. This will be challenging for Capricorns, who are creatures of habit.

Madame Clairvoyant recommends letting loose and getting comfortable with being out of control sometimes.

You dont need to categorize and rationalize your feelings before you can speak them. Let yourself trust the way you notice the world, the horoscope reads. Let yourself speak your feelings out loud, even when their edges are still hazy.

As for the Leos out there, you can expect to feel a little uneasy during the blood moon. According to Madame Clairvoyant, Leos should also expect to receive some good energy during this time.

This week, you can return to your truest, brightest self  the side of you that shines and reflects the gold of the sun, the side of you that lights up a room, the horoscope reads.

During the blood moon, the moon and Mars will go conjunct in Aquarius. According to Astrology King, this will stir up inner passions and warrior complexes.

Moon conjunct Mars is the strongest influence on the lunar eclipse and will make you feel strong, sexy and brave, the site reads. Your quick instincts and fighting spirit can be used to defend your home and family.

'However, it will be difficult to control your strong emotions. If you start to feel irritable, impatient, bossy or mean, it is a signal that you need to back off and try to relax.

The lunar eclipse happening Friday will be a Blood Moon and the longest total lunar eclipse of this century.  starheal (@starheal) July 23, 2018

Madame Clairvoyant also warns that on Thursday, Mercury goes retrograde in Leo. Saturn, Pluto, Mars and Neptune will remain in retrograde.

She suggests you move through the world with care this week.

All astrological signs are warned, however, to expect the unexpected.

Ananda Shree wrote on her website: Eclipses are often tipping-points that shift situations, expedite change, and sometimes even pull the rug out from underfoot.

Blood moon affect mood

The blood moon is likely to leave you feeling more emotional than usual. Some signs may feel confident and sexy, while others are left feeling uncertain.

For some, the blood moon can be a period of rejuvenation, while others will be out of sorts thanks to several planets entering retrograde.

You may experience unwarranted aggression, anger or recklessness during this time.

Blood moon emotional effects

The July 2018 blood moon is expected to send emotions into overdrive. Passion will reach its peak, anger will be more present, you may be feeling sad, frustrated or overwhelmed, too.

Mercury retrograde July 2018

Mercury retrograde officially begins on July 26.

Mercury retrograde occurs when the planet appears to be moving backward in the sky for periods of about three weeks. It doesnt actually move in reverse, but looks that way because its orbit around the sun is so much faster than that of Earth.

When Mercury is in retrograde, you may find communication more difficult. Some people report feeling like theyre stumbling in the dark or trying to walk through quicksand.

Mercury retrograde is thought to lead to issues with technology, transportation problems, scheduling conflicts and other mishaps.

Its not all bad, though. According to Cosmopolitan, this particular Mercury retrograde will cause people to have a more bold and expressive style of communicating. This is because Leo is a fire sign.

During this period of Mercury retrograde, you might find that your ideas are more interesting, youre feeling more creative or youre less worried about small details. Just be careful to avoid being overly opinionated or self-centered.

Leos born between August 3 and August 16 will apparently feel this retrograde the most. Taurus, Scorpio and Aquarius people  often thought to be the more stubborn of the star signs  will have the hardest time during this period.

upcoming mercury retrograde in leo mood board pic.twitter.com/n2crbYIXzq  mama jake | BLM ACAB (@jakesastrology) July 21, 2018

Why is a total lunar eclipse called a blood moon?

Blood moons occur when Earth fully eclipses the moon for a period of time, casting a shadow over it. Lunar eclipses differ from solar eclipses because the moon doesnt go dark during such an event.

Instead, it turns red.

This entire week, it will be raining and at the end of this week, it will be the longest blood moon of the century. Idk what that means to y'all but I'm battening down the hatches  Vlaad (@3SIDEVLAAD) July 23, 2018

Chris Tinney, a professor in the physics department at the University of New South Wales explained: If the Earth was a big smooth ball with no atmosphere that would be the end of the subject, it would just go dark, like with a new moon.

But because there is light scattered through the atmosphere of the Earth, some of the suns light gets bounced around the edge of the Earth to hit the moon.

Blue and violet wavelengths are scattered more than red and orange, so the moon appears red.

Blood Moon 2018 dates

The blood moon will start on Friday, July 27 and continue through Saturday, July 28.

Where to watch the blood moon

The blood moon wont be visible in North America. According to the Guardian, east Africa, the Middle East, India and western China will have the best views.

The rest of Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and the tip of South America will also be able to see the blood moon.

In Australia, the moon will start turning at about 4:30am AEST Saturday morning. Itll peak at about 5:30am AEST and last until after 6:30am AEST.

Full and blood moon this Friday. Perfect time to release what no longer serves you, what you no longer need in your life  #BloodMoon  Lerato Maunatlala Marumo (@Lerato_M) July 25, 2018

In the United Kingdom, youll start seeing the moon turn red at 8:30pm BST on Friday. The full eclipse will occur between 9:20pm BST and will be visible in parts of the UK until 10:13pm BST.

Moon spotters in east Africa will see the blood moon begin at 9:30pm EAT on Friday night. Itll peak between 10:30pm EAT and 12:13am EAT.

Those trying to catch a glimpse of the blood moon in India will be able to catch it between 1am IST and 2:43am IST.A Tennessee mother whose twin babies drowned on Friday has said she is heartbroken, but glad the pair are together.

Amelia Weiand's twins Elyssa and Elijah, who were just weeks from turning two, both drowned in the deep end of their babysitter's swimming pool on Friday. They were rushed to hospital, but neither of them made it.

Elyssa died that day, while Elijah was pronounced dead on Sunday.

Weiand said the pair were inseparable, and so while she was in 'immeasurable pain', she believed it was the best thing for her baby son.

Amelia Weiand's twin toddlers died after drowning in their babysitter's pool on Friday. Elyssa (right) died on the same day, while Elijah (left) was pronounced dead on Sunday

'It is with much heartbreak that I tell you that Elijah has gone to be with his sister,' she told friends on Facebook.

'They were formed in my womb and grew together. She was his other half. They were soulmates. They never were apart.

'Even when Elyssa slept in, he could only stand for her to sleep a little longer. Then would wake her.

'Even in death they were together. He would have never been complete here on earth with out his other half.

'I know right now they are in heaven being mischievous and giggling. Speaking to each other in their own language that only they understood.'

Weiand said she found comfort in the fact she was able to donate her son's organs and save another child's life.

'To prevent another family from suffering this immeasurable pain, today Eli became a superhero,' she said.

'His organs are currently on their way to save several other children's lives.'

The twins were inseparable, Weiand said, and though she was inconsolably distressed, she said she found comfort knowing at least the pair were together

Pictured: The Tennessee pool where the twins were found drowning in the deep end after their babysitter went to greet another child

A statement issued by Knox County police said the Sheriff's department and DCS were still investigating.

The children's babysitter had gone to welcome another child to her house, and when she came back to look for the twins, the pair were in the deep end of the pool.

Weiand says their deaths will haunt her for the rest of her life, but the support of her friends and family was helping her to put one foot in front of the other.

'[Elyssa and Elijah] are my everything,' she said. 'I will never understand this, and I'm not sure how to live with this pain.'

'Knowing that my babies are loved by so many and have touched others lives gives me some peace.

'Please continue to pray. I don't know how to move forward...we are living moment by moment, but just know your support & love is the only thing right now getting us to next moment.'Speaker Paul Ryan delivered an inspiring, uplifting speech on social civility and the dangers of social media to a packed auditorium of Capitol Hill interns without mentioning the elephant in the room - President Donald Trump.

Ironically, a meeting with the president was the next item on the speaker's schedule. He left after his 30-minute speech and Q&A session to go to the White House.

'More and more our politics is enabling the worst in us,' Ryan, a former Capitol Hill intern himself, told the group of high school and college students on Wednesday. 'We are no longer seeing our opponents as the other side but as the others, as targets.'

Speaker Paul Ryan warned Capitol Hill interns of the dangers of social media

The speaker could have been speaking of President Trump, who he did not mention by name

He added: 'This leads to a zero sum view of life where one group has to win at the expense of another.'

He went on to warn the tech-savvy crowd, who were told by organizers before the speech not to use their cell phones during the speaker's remarks, of the dangers of social media and advised them to focus on 'personal engagement.'

He offered them the same advice he gives to lawmakers: 'Did you come here to be something? Did you come here to build a brand or did you come here to make a real difference?'

'Sometimes things get heated that's fine, look at my twitter feed,' he told them as he cautioned 'don't take the bait online.'

He added: 'Snark sells but it doesn't stick. It doesn't last. It doesn't unit people around a bigger idea.'

The speaker could have been speaking about Trump, the titular head of the Republican Party, who uses his Twitter feed to praise his friends, slam his enemies, engage in mud slinging and declare that he's 'WINNING!'

But Ryan didn't mention Trump's name.

He did expand on his social media thoughts during the Q&A session when one intern asked him how he deals with the mean comments on the internet.

'Don't take it personally and don't get personal with other people,' he said. 'It may feel good for a moment to go after someone, be snarky, attack them but think about what you're doing to kind of poison the well of society.'

He then observed: 'If you let it get under your skin you'll probably end up attacking.'

Ryan spoke to a packed auditorium of college and high school students

Ryan is leaving Congress in January

Ryan is leaving the House of Representatives in January, after nearly 20 years in office.

One intern, who is working for a Democratic House member this summer, did mention the president, asking if Trump was usurping Congressional power and authority.

Ryan didn't mention the president by name in his response but talked in general terms about oversight of the executive branch and the important work the FISA courts, which were established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed by Congress, were doing.

The speaker also had a cute treat for interns who did take his advice and look at his twitter account.

There was a recording of him reading 'mean tweets' made about him.

'Paul Ryan's the kind of guy who crashes your kegger, drinks all your beer, and then calls the cops to make his noise complaint,' he read of one tweet written about him.

He then added: 'Pretty good idea.'

Mean tweets was started on Jimmy Kimmel's late night talk show where had celebrities read snarky comments made online about them.Larry Nassar has been attacked by inmates at the high-security Arizona prison where he is currently serving life in prison for molesting athletes and possessing child porn, according his lawyer.

The disgraced former US Olympic gymnastics team doctor was allegedly assaulted back in May soon after he was released into the general population of prisoners at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson.

The alleged assault, in which Nassar, 54, sustained some injuries, was briefly mentioned in court documents filed on Tuesday by his public defender, Jacqueline McCann.

He was jailed there back in February.

Larry Nassar, 54, was allegedly assaulted by fellow inmates at the federal prison in Tuscon, Arizona in May after being released into general population

The legal motions do not specify the nature of the assault.

His attorney is asking that he be re-sentenced by a different judge in the first of the major molestation cases he faced.

In the motion, first reported by The Detroit News, Nassar's attorney accused Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina of deciding to impose the maximum sentence allowed before the hearing even began.

McCann wrote that by allowing 150 of Nassar's victims to give testimony, Judge Aquilina gave them the opportunity to 'devolve into a free-for-all' to criticize him and wish him physical harm.

The motion is asking that he be re-sentenced by a different judge in the first of the major molestation cases he faced. It accused Judge Rosemarie Aquilina (above) of encouraging 'this type of behavior' after she allowed his 150 victims to speak openly in court

The former US Olympic gymnastics doctor was allegedly assaulted in May soon after he was released into the general population of prisoners at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson

'The judge herself openly lamented that she could not impose cruel and unusual punishment upon the defendant, indicated her expectation that he would be harmed in prison, without condemning it, and finally proclaimed, with apparent relish, that she was signing his 'death warrant,' McCann wrote.

'Unfortunately, Judge Aquilina's comments and conducting of the sentencing proceeding appeared to encourage this type of behavior.'

Nassar is serving a 60-year federal sentence at the Arizona prison for possessing child pornography. He was also sentenced to up to 175 years in state prison for molesting young athletes. He agreed to a 25 to 40-year minimum term.

The prison where he currently is housed is the country's only federal facility that is classified as high security and also has a sex offender management program.Advertisement

When British couple Fred and Suzanne Cogdell saw 50ft flames speeding through the forest towards their hotel, they knew they had to run for their lives.

They made it to the beach where they hid behind rocks, but had to watch agonisingly as badly burned children waited to be rescued.

As they sheltered near the harbour with hundreds of other terrified people  local residents and tourists  they saw burned children and at least one victim with very bad injuries.

Fred and Suzanne Cogdell had only been in the coastal resort of Mati a few hours when they were forced to flee for their lives from wildfires raging near the Greek town

They were joined by hundreds of others fleeing from Mati, the town worst affected by the devastating fires which has claimed 81 lives across Greece.

'When we left the room we just grabbed a bag with our passports. Down by the sea there were children who did not have any shirts so we gave them T-shits to put on,' Fred, a tailor, said.

'It was scary as when we looked back to the hotel we could not see it anymore.

'The smoke was so thick and you could see flames shooting all around it. The flames were coming so fast they were like a steam train. You could hear gas canisters exploding and the crackling sound of wood burning.

'Trees were just going up in flames like a matchstick. We were quite worried but it helped being close to the water.'

As thousands of others fled their homes or seaside resorts, or huddled inside and prayed, whether they survived the devastating wildfires seemed largely up to chance.

Pictures show the scale of the inferno which swept through the Rafina area overnight, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures

Dramatic aerial pictures show how fire devastated the village of Mati, leaving only scorched ground where houses once stood

Paradise lost: Pictures show the charred remains of a family summer camp in Mati with an eating and barbecue area completely destroyed by fire

Some made it to the beach where they hid behind rocks and crouched in the water trying not to inhale smoke as towns burned around them and raced through pine forests in minutes.

Others had nowhere to run and shut themselves inside hoping it fires would pass them by. Some survived unscathed, but dozens more died in their incinerated homes.

Desperate men, women, and children ran in all directions - some reaching safety but many becoming surrounded by walls of flame they could not escape - others trapped in endless traffic jams.

Some of those who made it to the ocean were forced to swim so far away from last to escape the suffocating black smoke that they were washed out to sea and drowned.

Kiriaki Alexiadou and her grandson dashed to their car and fled to safety. Their neighbours, who set out towards the sanctuary of the sea on foot, were burned alive.

Hope was already gone for Irish newlywed Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp, whose body was found on Wednesday after he got separated from his wife Zoe Holohan as they ran for their lives

Greek father Yiannis Philipopoulos appealed for help locating his missing twin daughters, who he says he spotted alive in TV news footage (pictured) showing people getting off a fishing boat that had rescued them as they fled

Irish newlyweds Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan got separated as they ran for their lives on their honeymoon near Mati, a seaside town 25 miles east of Athens that has been the worst affected.

Ms Holohan survived and was recovering in hospital from burns to her head and hands, but her new husband's body was found on Wednesday.

Nikos Giannopoulos stood with his wife and two children outside the destroyed home of his 88-year-old mother, waiting for news as rescuers searched each room. They found her charred body in the bathroom.

'She died helpless, an 88-year-old woman. I lost my nearby home in the fire, and my mother's was burned too,' he said, his voice cracking with emotion. 'So many people died that it took the rescuers three days to find her.'

Meanwhile as the smoke billowed over his property, Theodoros Christopoulos had seconds to decide whether to hunker down or flee towards the beach.

'There were five of us. I said 'get back in the house'. We closed the shutters - they're aluminium - and I just thought whatever happens happens,' he said. 'The road was already blocked by cars trying to get out of Mati.'

The nine-year-old girls, Sophia (left) and Vasiliki (right), are still missing feared dead after another father said the girls in the video were actually his

Mr Philipopoulos (right) was interviewed on Greek TV talking about his search for his missing daughters

Desperate families have released pictures of missing loved-ones as rescuers sift through the charred remains of houses looking for survivors

Mr Christopoulos was among the lucky ones; his home was largely undamaged and all five people who hid inside survived.

'There was a great panic because the whole street was blocked by cars,' he said. 'Shouting, hysteria, they could see the fire was coming with the wind. It already smelled a lot, the sky was black overhead and in no time at all the fire was here.'

Many in Mati sought refuge along the coves of the beach bordering the resort, where the detritus of the hasty escapes could be seen on Wednesday.

A sandal, a cardigan, a child's toy abandoned among the pebbles were all that remained from what local Sabi Kissov called 'a night of hell'.

The caretaker of a small house near the shore, he helped his employer, a 73-year-old cancer sufferer, down to the beach to wait out the inferno.

'There was at least 300 of us. The worst thing was the smoke, it hurt to breathe,' he said.

Those huddled next to the sea were rescued by emergency workers in boats as the flames lit up the night sky. Others weren't as fortunate.

Flames continued to rage as firefighters battled to quell the wildfire at the village of Kineta, near Athens. The blazing fire has so far claimed scores of lives, including a mother and son from Poland

The mother and son from Poland were among the dead when the vessel flipped in the water amid rough seas after picking up guests from a hotel in Mati as forest fires tore through the resort, 25 miles from Athens.

In the same village, a number of holidaymakers and locals were burned alive, some of them trapped in their cars in traffic jams, as hundreds tried to flee the raging inferno, which also devoured more than a thousand homes

Aftermath: A man stands next to his burned house and car as he speaks in Mati, east of Athens. Rescuers are sifting through the remains of buildings and cars today

While many houses were burned to the ground, there were areas where properties remained untouched highlighting the unpredictability of the rampaging blaze

Just a few steps from Mr Kissov's home, the charred bodies of 26 people were found huddled together in the sarcophagus of a villa, the steep garden cliff face of the property apparently preventing their escape.

They were 'perhaps families, friends or strangers, entwined in a last attempt to protect themselves as they tried to reach the sea,' rescuers said.

'We found everything when we got back, even the car, the cockerel and the dog,' Mr Kissov said as he watered the plants in his garden, a few yards from still-smouldering properties.

'You can't explain it, why this house, why not that one... it all happened so fast,' said Fani Antonini, fixing a toppled pot plant next to the smoking remains of what was once the family home.

'At least I can still take a shower and offer you a drink, the water still works!'

One street over, Christos, 48, inspected the damage to his house. A few years ago, he covered the walls with a fire-retardant substance and the home was virtually unscathed, but the house of his elderly neighbour was ruined.

Ilias Psinakis, mayor of the fire-ravaged Marathon area, said many residents only had a few minutes to save themselves.

He described losing his own home. 'We could smell something burning. Then everything was gone in minutes. The wind came, then moved away, then came back again,' he said.

'My house was lost but nothing happened to five or six cars parked outside. One had a broken mirror. That's to give you an idea of what happened.'

150 firefighters were on the site with 74 firetrucks, and were being supported with firefighting planes and helicopter. Despite this strong winds and parched conditions have made for perfect conditions for the wildfire

Scores are dead after a series of wildfires in Greece. The resort of Mati, 25 miles from Athens, has been left devastated and rows of cars were destroyed as fierce fires swept through the area in a matter of minutes

An aerial view shows the devastation caused by the fire which raged through forests outside the village of Mati before consuming hundreds of houses

Images taken inside some of the burnt out buildings show the power of the inferno as it swept through the community in a matter of minutes

Desperate father Yiannis Philipopoulos searched for his missing nine-year-old twin daughters after spotting them alive on television on a rescue boat - only to discover it wasn't them.

He made a televised appeal for help tracking down Sophia and Vasiliki who vanished in the chaos of the wildfires raging throughout the country.

The girls were on holiday in Rafina with their grandparents 74-year-old Philip, and Sofia, 61, who were also unaccounted for, and he has been searching ever since.

He went to a morgue, hospitals and police stations and even gave a DNA sample during his desperate search, but thought he finally spotted them wrapped in blankets getting off a rescue boat.

However, in a dramatic twist, another man came forward to say the youngsters in the video were in fact his daughters, leaving Sophia and Vasiliki still missing and feared dead.

Dashing to the water was the only way to escape for most villagers - but many perished behind a wall of flames and toxic smoke

The fires broke out either side of Athens with Mati and Rafina the worst hit areas. The death toll is expected to climb today

Some 187 people have been hospitalised, with 82 still being treated on Tuesday evening, including almost a dozen children, most of whom were in a 'serious condition', the fire services said.

Flags across Greece, including those at parliament, public hospitals and the ancient Acropolis in Athens, flew at half-staff after President Alexis Tsipras declared three days of national mourning.

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos U.S. surveillance aircraft assisted the firefighting effort and were gathering footage to try to determine whether Monday's fire was deliberately lit.

'This had such tremendous force, powered by winds up to 110 kilometers per hours.. It jumped over a road as wide as a highway. When you have conditions like this, nothing can stop it,' he said.Santa Barbara has approved a new ban on plastic straws that threatens offenders with jail time.

The stringent measure, believed to be the strictest of the straw prohibitions that have recently swept across the nation, passed unanimously in the Santa Barbara city council on July 17.

Other cities, including Seattle, Malibu and Santa Monica, have passed straw bans in the past month, and San Francisco is set to become the latest city to join the list after a unanimous supervisors vote on Tuesday.

But none have raised the specter of jail time for straw scofflaws before Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara city council is seen debating the straw ban, which passed, on July 17

The city's new ordinance forbids the sale or distribution of all plastic straws.

'We couldn't be happier that they voted to pass them and support clean water and to help decrease single-use plastic pollution,' Penny Owens, the education and community outreach director with environmental group Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, told KEYT.

The first violation of the straw ban draws a warning. The second violation, however, is punishable with a fine of up to $1,000 and a jail term not exceeding six months.

Because each individual straw represents a separate violation, penalties could rack up quickly.

Assistant City Attorney Scott Vincent told Reason.com that criminal charges would be pursued only in the event of repeat violations and aggravating circumstances.

Environmentalist Penny Owens said she found these straws on the Santa Barbara beach in just an hour and a half of doing beach cleanup

Supporters of eliminating plastic straws say that they are rarely recycled due to their small size, and frequently end up polluting oceans and waterways, where plastic pollution can be devastating to marine life.

In the past month, a wave of corporations have jumped on the straw bans, with McDonald's, Starbucks and American Airlines all announcing that they will stop providing plastic straws.

In Santa Barbara, restaurants are considering alternatives such as straws made out of paper, bamboo, and even pasta straws that resemble elongated ziti.

Restaurant patrons have also been advised that they can carry around personal metal straws to use wherever they like.

Other cities considering plastic straw bans include New York City, Portland and Washington DC.

The Santa Barbara straw ban comes into effect at 2.01am on January 1, 2019.A doctor who was struck off for blunders which resulted in the death of a six-year-old boy should be back treating sick children, the Court of Appeal heard today.

Dr Hadiza Bawa-Garba, 41, was on duty at Leicester Royal Infirmary 2011 when Jack Adcock, from Glen Parva, Leicestershire, went into cardiac arrest due to sepsis.

She made the remarkable error of mistakenly placing Jack under a do not resuscitate order after confusing him with a two-year-old who had been discharged.

The doctor was later convicted of gross negligence manslaughter and received a suspended two-year jail sentence in November 2015.

Hadiza Bawa-Garba outside the High Court in London, where she is appealing the ruling that she should be struck off following her conviction of gross negligence manslaughter over the death of six-year-old boy Jack Adcock

Nicola (commonly known as Nicky) Adcock the mother of six-year-old Jack Adcock, from Glen Parva, Leicestershire, who had Down's Syndrome and a known heart condition and who died at Leicester Royal Infirmary in 2011, walks to High Court in London

Jack Adcock, six, (pictured) went into cardiac arrest after being admitted to the hospital and died of sepsis the same day

The prosecution said Jack died after a series of failings by medical staff, including Dr Bawa-Garba's 'failure to discharge her duty' as the responsible doctor.

She had originally diagnosed the boy which gastro-enteritis, a stomach bug.

The doctor failed to spot from blood tests that Jack was in shock or reviewed chest x-rays that indicated he had the chest infection.

Dr Bawa-Garba, a junior doctor specialising in paediatrics at the time, was struck off earlier this year following a successful appeal by the General Medical Council (GMC) against a decision of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal (MPT) to suspend her for 12 months.

She is now challenging the ruling that she should be struck off in front of three Court of Appeal judges.

At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, Dr Bawa-Garba's counsel James Laddie QC told the Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, Master of the Rolls Sir Terence Etherton and Lady Justice Rafferty that in the 70th anniversary year of the founding of the NHS, the case had turned out to be 'something of a lightning rod for the dissatisfaction of doctors and medical staff in this country'.

Hadiza Bawa-Garba (front right) and her supporters and legal team stand outside the High Court in London

He added: 'They are baffled and angered by an outcome which has left the NHS deprived of the services of a young and talented paediatrician who suffers from no character flaw rendering her unsuitable to practise medicine and who, it is agreed, poses no risk to patient safety.'

He said there is particular concern at the decision to disregard 'systemic failings' which contributed to the environment in which Dr Bawa-Garba came to make the mistakes which led to court.

Dr Bawa-Garba and Jack's family listened in court as Mr Laddie said his mother Nicola had told an interviewer the vocal support for the doctor had caused people to forget she and her husband had lost their son.

'We have not forgotten. Our client - a mother herself - has not forgotten and she will bear the guilt, the memory and the stain for the rest of her life,' he said.

Paying tribute to their 'articulate and impassioned' campaign, he said it is apparent their grief is 'hardly less raw' now than seven years ago.

'Our arguments are not intended to diminish their sense of loss, but we submit in this sensitive area that public confidence in the medical profession demands, or at least permits, a sanction other than erasure to be applied.'

The MPT's (Medical Practitioners Tribunal) decision was 'humane and balanced', he added.

Nicola Adcock outside the High Court today. She told an interviewer the vocal support for the doctor had caused people to forget she and her husband had lost their son

'If it had been allowed to stand, Dr Bawa-Garba would have in all probability spent today and tomorrow treating sick and injured children in an East Midlands hospital ward, and we say that is where she should be and not sitting in this court room.'

Urging that the appeal should be allowed, Mr Laddie said: 'The MPT concluded that suspension was an appropriate sanction which was necessary in the public interest.

'That conclusion was within its margin of judgment and was rational. Indeed the MPT's conclusion was correct.

'The ordinary intelligent citizen recognises that NHS doctors work under intense pressure in environments where systems are less than perfect and where one-off mistakes may have tragic consequences.

'The same citizen recognises that to err is human and that public confidence places a greater value on remediation and redemption than on retribution.'

In written argument before the court, Ivan Hare QC for the GMC, said the appeal should be dismissed because the High Court was correct to decide that the MPT failed to apply the relevant rule of the GMC (Fitness to Practise) Rules Order of Council 2004 and undermined the rationale for making criminal convictions conclusive evidence of the offence committed in disciplinary cases.

The High Court plainly had regard to the individual circumstances of the case and its reasoning was straightforward and correct, he said.

'The MPT undermined the 2004 Rules and the jury's verdict by reaching its own conclusion on Dr Bawa-Garba's individual culpability by reference to systemic failings and the failings of others.'

The hearing is expected to last a day-and-a-half with judgment reserved.The official transcript of Donald Trump's July 16 press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin contains a glaring error that hasn't been fixed nine days later.

Only the second half of a key question from an American reporter was included. The White House told reporters Wednesday that it 'was by no means malicious,' but the journalist had asked whether Putin favored Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Stenographers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, career professionals whose work spans administrations of both major parties, typed the transcript from a recording of the White House's online broadcast.

But that audio was flawed. The government broadcast's producers left Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason's microphone muted while a Russian-to-English translator delivered Putin's answer to his previous question.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) said last week during a Helsinki press conference that he wanted Donald Trump to win the 2016 election, but anyone watching the White House's video feed missed hearing the crucial question

The White House's broadcast producers didn't turn up Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason's microphone until he was halfway through, and the White House's professional stenographers made the same omission inthe written transcript

By the time the translator finished and Mason's microphone level was turned up, he was halfway through. People watching the official livestream on YouTube mised him asking: 'President Putin, did you want President Trump to win the election?'

'Yes, I did. Yes, I did,' Putin acknowledged seconds later, 'because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.'

The Russian president left unanswered the second half of the question, which was heard on the White House's audio: 'Did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?'

At least one commercial transcription service, Bloomberg Government, made the same omission. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that it had used that version.

Network news video feeds were complete, and included the question although it was heard simultaneously with the end of the translator's last sentence.

The White House's transcript as of Wednesday afternoon still omitted the words in red above  the first part of a key question a journalist asked Putin

At least one commercial transcription service made the same mistake as the White House, likely because it produced a transcript from the White House's flawed audio

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow kicked off her Tuesday night show by claiming the White House had 'skilfully cut out that question from the Reuters reporter as if it didnt happen.'

Her Twitter feed called it 'a form of information warfare and it is being waged against us.'

Mason told The Atlantic last week that an official had tried to pull the microphone away from him so he couldn't ask his crucial follow-up question, but he held on to it.

'I dont know if they turned the sound off during the time when each of the presidents were speaking, or if it got flipped on and off. I certainly didnt touch anything,' he said.

The Helsinki event wasn't the first time a presidential administration has been accused of doctoring a historical document.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow kicked off her Tuesday night show by claiming the White House had 'skilfully cut out that question from the Reuters reporter as if it didnt happen'

On one occasion the Obama administration's chief State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki admitted that a staffer intentionally cut one question and answer  about secret negotiations with Iran  from the official video of a press briefing

During the Obama administration, chief State Department's spokeswoman Jen Psaki acknowledged what she called a 'stunning case of poor judgment'  the splicing out of a question and answer from public video of a 2013 press briefing.

Psaki was asked by a Fox News Channel reporter whether secret negotiations were going on between the U.S. and Iran.

'There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress,' she responded.

Psaki said later that the exchange disappeared without her knowledge. It was restored after a media outcry.Dontray Antonio Pharr (pictured), 20, was handcuffed in the back of a North Carolina patrol cruiser when he managed to escape

Police in North Carolina say a man handcuffed in the back of a patrol cruiser managed to escape by getting into the front seat and driving away.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said in a news release that officers were searching Dontray Antonio Pharr's vehicle when he escaped on Tuesday shortly after 4pm.

The 20-year-old managed to move the handcuffs from behind his back to his front before squeezing through the vehicle's window and driving off.

Police said a 'very small' interior window was left open to allow air conditioning to reach Pharr in the car.

According to police, the marked police cruiser was found about 10 minutes away from where Pharr was arrested, but the suspect remains at large.

Officers used dogs and a police helicopter to search for him after they found the car, but they were unsuccessful.

Police said Pharr is wanted on multiple charges, including larceny of a motor vehicle, flee to elude arrest and impersonating law enforcement.

He is also wanted for marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Pharr was initially arrested during a traffic stop, according to police.

Authorities also said they are reviewing potential modifications to cruiser windows to prevent a similar incident.

According to police, the marked police cruiser (left, closest to the curb) was found about 10 minutes away from where Pharr was arrested, but the suspect remains at largeMaleek Lawal (pictured) fell ill just 10 minutes after eating the Peri Peri chicken wrap at the Ilac Centre in Dublin on October 7 2016

A 10-year-old homeless boy died from an allergic reaction to a McDonald's wrap after his mother bought one for him to take his mind off being on the streets.

Maleek Lawal fell ill just 10 minutes after eating the Peri Peri chicken wrap at the Ilac Centre restaurant in Dublin on October 7 2016.

An inquest into his death today heard his mother knew he loved McDonald's food and bought the snack for him and his brother and sister to 'keep them happy'.

Rukawat Lawal told Dublin Coroner's Court Maleek was allergic to milk, fish, eggs and nuts, but had never had any problems eating hamburgers or nuggets from the fast food chain.

She paid tribute to him, saying: 'He was a beautiful, playful boy. He loved to read. My heart is truly broken for him.' Ms Lawal was pregnant with Maleek when she arrived in Ireland from Nigeria seeking asylum in 2006, Dublin Live reports.

The family were struggling to find a place to stay at the time of his death and she and her three children were sleeping rough.

Pictured: Maleek Lawal died after eating a wrap from this McDonald's at the Ilac Centre in Dublin

She had taken all three to a barber shop to get a haircut that day, before leaving her two sons and going to McDonald's to get some dinner with her daughter.

The mother-of-three ordered hamburgers, chicken nuggets and a Peri Peri wrap for her children, the inquest heard.

She said: 'We were homeless, with nobody helping us, we were on our own and I was looking for a way to get out of emergency accommodation. I was looking for a way to keep the children happy.

An inquest into Maleek's death today heard his mother knew he loved McDonald's food and bought the wrap (pictured) for him and his brother and sister to 'keep them happy'

'Sometimes I felt so bad for him, so sad for him, that when he asked for something I had to give it to him.'

When Maleek and his brother arrived they tucked into their meal, but he started to complain he was in pain just 10 minutes later.

He went into the toilet and said 'Mam I'm feeling weak, I can't walk'. His face and lips swelled up, at which point his mother took him back to the barber shop screaming for help.

The Dublin Fire Brigade arrived at 5.50pm to find Maleek not breathing.

He was rushed to Temple Street Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7pm.

A post-mortem examination gave cause of death as anaphylactic shock. Tests found there was milk in the chicken wrap, which caused the allergic reaction.

Pediatric allergy specialist at Temple Street,Dr Aideen Byrne told the inquest a skin test in March 2016 showed the boy's allergies were still present and she advised his mother make sure he continued to avoid milk, fish and eggs.

Ms Lawal was given auto-injectors to carry with her in case of anaphylaxis.

The inquest was also told she made no queries about the allergens in the McDonald's food she ordered.

Returning a verdict of misadventure, Coroner Dr Myra Cullinane issued a recommendation to parents of children with allergies to consult lists provided by restaurants detailing ingredients of meals provided.

'The recommendation is that parents should consult such lists prior to ingestion and to reinforce the importance of carrying an auto-injector in cases of food allergy,' she said.A 19-year-old Texas man charged over the murder of his jeweler father was in significant debt and stood to inherit millions, police say.

Nicolas Shaughnessy and his wife, Jaclyn Edison, also 19, are accused of hiring a hitman to murder Shaughnessy's parents, Theodore and Corey Shaughnessy, and have been charged with criminal solicitation of capital murder, The Statesman reported.

Theodore 'Ted' Shaughnessy was shot dead on March 2, with his wife Corey calling 911 about 4.45am to report an intruder in her house and the sound of gunshots, a statement from the Travis County Sheriff's office says.

Shaughnessy, an Austin-based jewelry store owner, was killed on March 2 when an unidentified suspect broke into his home and shot him multiple times, as well as his dog

Nicolas Shaughnessy and girlfriend Jaclyn Edison, both 19, were charged on May 29 for soliciting to commit capital murder in the plot against the boy's parents. A new search warrant alleges Nicolas ordered the hit because he was in significant debt

Police arrived to discover Ted's body in the kitchen with multiple gunshot wounds and the couple's Rottweiler also fatally shot in the bedroom.

A window in the bedroom had been opened and the screen was removed.

The shooter had also tried to shoot Corey, but she shot back and survived.

Investigators allege the hit was carried out to try and get Nicolas' share of Ted's life insurance.

Had both parents died, police believe Nicolas would have stood to inherit $2million, and the teenager had well documented money problems.

When police arrived, a window in the bedroom had been opened and the screen was removed

The shooter also shot Ted's rottweiler (pictured) dead in the couple's bedroom

The morning his father was killed, the 19-year-old told police he owed his mother Corey $30,000, money she had loaned him to start a business.

Digital records uncovered a conversation between Nicolas and a neighbor of his, who was begging for $2,600 she loaned him to be paid back.

The woman had threatened to approach his parents about the unpaid loan. Another conversation revealed the married man had less than $2 in his bank account.

Johnny Roman Leon III, 21, was also arrested earlier this month for his alleged role in the 'murder-for-hire' plot.

Travis County police believe Leon was the shooter.

Nicolas Shaughnessy (left) and his wife Jaclyn Edison (right) ordered the hit. They've both been charged with criminal solicitation of capital murder, but Edison has been released on bail

Leon and Nicolas Shaughnessy remain in jail, while Edison has been bailed out.

Attorneys for Nicolas, Perry Minton and Rick Flores, released a statement claiming Ted's widow Corey Shaughnessy believes her son is innocent.

'We have been working with the Shaughnessy family over the last several months as they mourn the loss of Ted,' the statement reads.

'These allegations are not consistent in any way with the young man we have come to know. Nick has been living with his mother since the tragedy occurred.

'Ms. Shaughnessy stands firmly behind her son. We will review the evidence as it becomes available to us.'Advertisement

This is the stunning Fijian island paradise that Seagram's liquor heiress Clare Bronfman, stepdaughter of Nigel Havers, bought using her family's fortune while allegedly financing Keith Rainere's sex cult NXIVM.

Bronfman, who pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges on Tuesday, owns 80 per cent of Wakaya - a 3.1 square mile private island off the coast of Fiji - after acquiring the land for a staggering $47 million in 2016.

The island is believed to serve as a safe haven for the cult leaders in the event of prosecution, according to website Frank Report.

But the chances of Bronfman fleeing to her private resort now seem slim since she was placed on house arrest after posting $100 million bail.

This is the stunning Fijian Island owned by Seagram's liquor heiress and NXIVM financier Clare Bronfman

Bronfman is said to own the tiny island of Wakaya - after purchasing it for $47 million in 2016

The island is partially owned by Canadian businessman David Gilmour - the founder of Fiji Water - who bought the island in 1973

Bronfman, 39, (pictured leaving court on Wednesday) was indicted on racketeering conspiracy charges on Tuesday and was released after posting $100 million bail

Wakaya is 11 miles off the coast of Ovalau - the main island in Fiji's Lomaiviti group

Bronfman's attorney Susan R. Necheles, one of the top white-collar attorneys in the country, had sought her release on a $25 million bond. Necheles told the court that Bronfman is in the process of developing a resort on Wakaya.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, however, set her bail to the astounding figure after prosecutors deemed her a flight risk due to her $200 million net worth and her stake in the remote island.

In a statement, Necheles called the charges 'the result of government overreaching and charging an individual with crimes just because the government disagrees with some beliefs taught by NXIVM and held by Clare.'

The island has been privately owned since 1973, when it was purchased by Canadian businessman David Gilmour. Gilmour would later become the founder of Fiji water in 1996.

Bronfman's resort will rival Gilmour's luxury Wakaya Club & Spa which has hosted guests such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, and other A-listers.

The resort boasts 'one of the purest ecosystems on earth,' according to its website. Wakaya is said to have a population of 300 to 400 people.

Bronfman was allowed to walk free from court after agreeing to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet.

A former competitor in international equestrian showjumping competitions, she was accused of taking a number of steps to help NXIVM's founder and leader, Keith Raniere, control members of the upstate New York group, including identity theft, interception of electronic communications and money laundering.

Bronfman's attorney told the court that she is in the process of developing a resort on the island

Bronfman was deemed a flight risk but chances of her fleeing to her private resort now seem slim after she was placed on house arrest

Leaders of the pack: The heiress to the Seagram liquor fortune, 39, is accused of running a pyramid scheme in order to enrich Keith Raniere, the leader of Nxivm (Allison Mack on left in May, Keith Raniere in an undated video on right)

A former member of the cult shows off the brand which she received. It was carved into her skin with a cauterizing pen. The logo is ambiguous but many say it includes leader Keith Raniere's initials

She was part of an 'inner circle' of loyalists who 'committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and NXIVM', US attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

The indictment also accuses Nancy Salzman, her daughter Lauren and Nxivm bookkeeper Kathy Russell of the same offenses - bringing the total number of members arrested to six, with leader Keith Raniere and his right-hand woman Allison Mack having already been indicted back in May.

Rainere and Mack have been charged with sex trafficking.

Bronfman and her sister Sara are said to have helped woo Mack when she considered joining Nxixm and were said to have put $150M into the cult over 15 years.

Bronfman is said to have owned a house on the remote island before purchasing the majority of Wakaya from GilmourThe six members of the branded, sex-slave cult Nxivm who are facing federal charges for their involvement in the group were reunited on Wednesday in court.

Billionaire heiress Clare Bronfman, Smallville star Allison Mack, Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren and Kathy Russell were all seen making their way into United States District Court in Brooklyn for a criminal cause for status conference.

Once inside the five women were joined by their former leader Keith Raniere, who along with the previously indicted Mack is also facing some new charges.

A superseding indictment released on Tuesday revealed that all six members are being charged with racketeering conspiracy and that Raniere, Mack and Laren Salzman were being charged with wire fraud.

It has also been revealed that Raniere and Lauren allegedly locked a woman in a room for two years because she was affectionate for a man who was not her master.

Back in Brooklyn: Billionaire heiress Clare Bronfman, Smallville star Allison Mack, Nancy Salzman and her daughter Lauren and Kathy Russell were in a Brooklyn court (Mackleft on Wednesday, Bronfman right)

Private eyes: All six members of the cult have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, and on Tuesday Bronfman (above on Wednesday) posted $100 million bond for her release

The painted veil: The five women are all being indicted on charges related to the cult Nxivm, and a subset of the group where women were branded and kept as sex slaves (Nancy Salzman above on Wednesday)

Leader of the pack: Keith Raniere, the leader of the group, was also in court and remains in custody as he faces a number of charges including sex trafficking (Raniere above in 2016 video)

'Raniere and Lauren Salzman trafficked a victim, who was once a sexual partner of Ranieres, for labor and services,'read a statement released by the US Attorney's Office.

'The victim was confined to a room in Clifton Park, New York, for nearly two years as punishment for having romantic feelings for a man who was not Raniere.

'The victim was told that if she left the room she would be sent to Mexico without any identification documents.

'As threatened, she was driven to Mexico and her family was instructed by co-conspirators, including Lauren Salzman, not to send the victim her identification documents.'

Four of the five women are all out on bail currently, with Mack, Russell and the Salzmans paying $5 million while Bronfman had to post $100 million bond.

Russell's bond is only $25,000, but she has not yet been able to post that amount.

The women whoa re out on bail are under home confinement, while Raniere has not been granted bail in the case.

The six members have all entered pleas of not guilty to the charges against them, which carry considerable prison time.

'Raniere and his inner circle, including the defendants Clare Bronfman, Allison Mack, Nancy Salzman, Lauren Salzman and Kathy Russell also known as 'Prefect,' and others known and unknown, comprised an organized criminal enterprise (the 'Enterprise'), reads the new indictment.

NXIVM MEMBERS IN SEX CULT CASE Keith Raniere, 58 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit identity theft. Plea: Not Guilty Verdict: Guilty, all counts Clare Bronfman, 40 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit identity theft Plea: Guilty (plea deal) Allison Mack , 36 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking, attempted sex trafficking Plea: Guilty (plea deal) Kathy Russell, 61 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy Plea: Guilty (plea deal) Lauren Salzman, 43 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy Plea: Guilty (plea deal) Nancy Salzman, 64 Charges: Racketeering conspiracy Plea: Guilty Advertisement

'The principal purpose ofthe Enterprise was to obtain financial and personal benefits for the members of the Enterprise by promoting the defendant Keith Raniere, also known as 'Vanguard,' and by recruiting new members into the Pyramid Organizations.

'By promoting Raniere and recruiting others into the Pytu-id Organizations, the members of the Enterprise expected to receive financial opportunities and increased power and status within the Enterprise.'

Among the criminal offenses that members of this group allegedly carried out are 'identity theft, harboring of aliens for financial gain, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice.'

Bronfman is not accused of sex trafficking.

It was however Bronfman and her sister Sara who helped woo Allison Mack when she considered joining the group according to multiple sources who previously spoke with DailyMail.com.

Mack was also aggressively recruited in hopes that she would become their Tom Cruise-like figure and publicize the group much like the actor had done with Scientology.

The Bronfmans helped with this by flying Mack private, all part of the $150 million the two have allegedly put into Nxivm over the past two decades.

Bronfman, 39, is the youngest daughter of Edgar Bronfman Sr, the billionaire philanthropist who was formerly head of Seagram.

Her mother is Rita Webb, the British-born second wife of Bronfman, who would divorce and then remarry Edgar shortly after Bronfman's birth. Rita Webb - now known as Georgiana Bronfman - has since married British Chariots Of Fire actor Nigel Havers, making Clare is step-daughter.

Rita and Edgar's second divorce split the family, with the girls living in England and Kenya with their mother while their father stayed in thew United States.

They would visit him in New York City as well as his nearby home in Westchester, and even took him to a Nxivm meeting at one point.

When she was 17, Bronfman began to compete in equestrian events, something she would continue to do for a decade.

She was ranked 12th in the country and 80th in the world at her peak.

Bronfman gave it all up though for Nxivm.

Victory: Catherine Oenberg (right) whose daughter India remains a mamber of Nxivm arrives with Ranire's ex Toni Natale (center)

Cool customer: Bronfman defended the group and Raniere back in December (Bronfman with her attorney Susan Necheles)

Master of none: Mack flew in from California, where she was seen this weekend (Mack above on Wednesday)

Off she goes: Salzman makes her way out of the courthouse on Wednesday afternoon

'I retired from a very successful career as a professional show-jumper because I wanted to do something more meaningful with my life,' said Bronfman last year while defending Raniere.

'NXIVM is that. As I said, the programs help. I am happy, healthy and financially moe successful than I have ever been.'

She and Sara both decided to not only join Nxivm but to relocate to upstate New York so they could become involved in teaching and training new members.

Bronfman went on step further though and became involved in organizing Vanguard Week, the annual week-long celebration of Raniere's birthday brought together all of the group's members.

The sisters were able to use their connections to attract big name guests like the Dalai Lama, who visited the group and made an appearance in Albany after the Bronfmans put up a $1 million donation.

That was done through the charitable organization they founded with Raniere, World Ethical Foundations Consortium.

That money comes from their grandfather, who founded Bronfman's Distillers Corporation.

In London today Clare's stepfather Havers refused to comment.

Leaving his home in Earl's Court, south west London, on a motorbike he said: 'We've absolutely no comment to make. We don't want to be arrested by the FBI.'

Samuel Bronfman was born in Imperial Russia but immigrated to Canada, where he later purchased another liquor company, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons.

He decided to change the name of the company given the success Seagram already had with their branded liquors such as Dewars and Seven Crown.

He purchased that company at the perfect time as Prohibition took effect in the United States, forcing many Americans to travel across the border to buy or consume liquor.

The company would even ship liquor to a few northern cities, breaking no laws since they were producing the product in Montreal, where it was legal.

His son Edgar would become CEO, and in 1933 took control of the first Seagram subsidiary in the United States.

Edgar had five children with his first wife, Ann Loeb: Samuel, Matthew, Edgar Jr, Holly and Adam.

Samuel made headlines when he was allegedly kidnapped in 1975 by two men who demanded $2.3 million ransom.

The boy, 21, was eventually found in a Brooklyn apartment along with two other men and the ransom money stashed under a bed.

One of the two kidnappers, who were both from Ireland, said that he and Samuel were lovers.

His kidnappers were later acquitted when they claimed Samuel was in on the crime, and hoping to get a share of his father's wealth.

That is something that the sisters were also accused of doing when in 2009 they claimed that a group was threatening to go public with damaging secrets if they did not hand over $2.1 million.

Edgar and his most successful son, Edgar Jr, became estranged after he told his namesake that he should not marry first wife Sherry Brewer because she was black.

Edgar's other two sons, Matthew and Adam, are both successful businessman, while his daughter Holly moved to India and converted to Hindu, changing her name to Bhavani Lev.

Clare and Sara did not spend as much time with these siblings however given the fact that they lived on the other side of the world and were decades younger than their father's other children.

That brought the sisters close, and now prison could tear them apart.

Sara is still a free woman, but her sister is facing some serious time behind bars if convicted on these charges.

'As alleged in the superseding indictment, for over a decade, Keith Raniere was the leader of a racketeering conspiracy in which he and members of his inner circle committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and Nxivm,' said US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Richard Donoghue in a statement'

FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney also gave a statement on Tuesday.

'As alleged, this long-running conspiracy crossed multiple avenues of criminal activity, which included, among other things, electronic monitoring; identity theft; extortion; victim smuggling; and illegal trafficking of a victim after a period of unlawful confinement,' said Sweeney.

'The details of these alleged crimes become more and more grim as we continue to dig deeper into the conduct of this organization and its intended mission.

'Today's superseding indictment highlights our commitment to bringing justice to Nxivm's many victims.'A jury acquitted the last two co-defendants in the 2015 shooting death of Carey Gabay, a former aide to Governor Cuomo in New York.

Stanley Elianor was convicted of reckless endangerment while Micah Alleyne was convicted of manslaughter in the gang related incident that occurred during the J'Ouvert celebration in Brooklyn.

'Where's the justice? It was murder  where's the justice?' Gabay's brother said in the courtroom, according to the New York Daily News.

Stanley Elianor (left) was convicted of reckless endangerment while Micah Alleyne (right) was convicted of manslaughter in the 2015 shooting of Carey Gabay

While quietly sobbing, he added: 'My brother was murdered.'

Gabray's brother would tell the jury that 'you should be ashamed of yourselves, all of you.'

The 43-year-old lawyer from the Empire State Development Corp. had been walking with his brother from the Caribbean festival on September 7 when he was shot in the head during a shootout between two rival gangs

The 43-year-old lawyer from the Empire State Development Corp. had been walking with his brother from the Caribbean festival on September 7 when he was shot in the head during a shootout between two rival gangs.

He died nine-days later after being taken off a respirator.

Brooklyn jurors had shared with Judge Vincent Del Giudice that they were deadlocked in their decision, concerning the two defendants.

The judge ordered them to continue deliberating and by Wednesday they had to not guilty verdicts for murder charges that were initially brought against them.

'He's very happy with the jury's verdict,' said Douglas Appel, Elianor's attorney. 'Obviously, if he got convicted of murder he could've spent the rest of his life in prison. Now he'll have much shorter sentence. I think in the end, justice prevailed.'

Last week, the jury also found that Keith Luncheon was not guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.

Last week, the jury also found that Keith Luncheon (left) was not guilty of multiple charges. Tyshawn Crawford (right), another defendant, testified against the others in exchange for a 14-year sentence

They also found Kenny Bazile guilty of gun posession but he was acquitted for murder.

He had argued that he was firing his gun in self defense when it shot.

Tyshawn Crawford, another defendant, testified against the others in exchange for a 14-year sentence. He had to be placed in protective custody.

While Gabay lay dying, his wife - Trenelle - collected his sperm and gave birth to their child while the trial occurred.Barbara O'Hare has no pictures of herself as a child, which pains her immensely. 'When you are in children's homes and the like, no-one takes them,' she explains. 'No-one wants pictures of you.' Except in her case, she believes that someone did.

Photos of her as a 12 year old ('a particularly naive 12 year old,' she points out) do exist, but they are not pictures any sane person would want to see.

'They took some when they were doing whatever it was they did to me,' she remembers.

'I remember that vividly. I'd been drugged. The doctor had held the mask with the ether on it over my face, and I was drifting in and out of consciousness, but I remember the camera flashing over and over again. I was on my back at that point.

'The hospital gown had been pulled up around my waist, exposing my private parts. I remember the light burning into my eyes, and not being able to scream or shout.

'Even now I think about those pictures. Who saw them? Are they still out there? When I switch on the news and hear about paedophile rings and images being found, I think 'were those pictures of me among them?'.

Or were the pictures taken just a part of some scientific experiment? Maybe it wasn't sexual abuse in the classic sense. The truth is I just don't know. That's a terrible thing to have to live with.'

Scroll down for video

Barbara O'Hare was a patient at Aston Hall hospital in Derbyshire for eight months in 1971

When Barbara, a 59-year-old grandmother who lives in Liverpool, published her autobiography last year, it made for difficult  and highly implausible  reading.

Not even Stephen King could create such a grotesque world, one in which young girls are imprisoned in a mental institution, drugged on a daily basis and experimented on, perhaps even raped, by a doctor whose influence goes right to the top of society.

The Dr Mengele figure in her story ties his victims down, injects them against their will and pumps them full of high-dose drugs, including a 'truth serum' used on soldiers during wartime, all the time telling them that he is doing so to correct their 'deviant' behaviour.

Some are sexually abused. All are terrified and stupefied, in equal measure. Electric shock treatment is a permanent threat. There are wild rumours of some children being killed when their 'treatments' go wrong.

When they aren't being drugged and tortured, the children are put to work. 'Toothbrush treatment' involves them being forced to clean skirting boards with toothbrushes.

All this takes place in a NHS-funded hospital, under the direction of an eminent physician who works for the Home Office.

An army of adults  nurses, social workers, even the child's own father  are impotent, unseeing, perhaps complicit in this shocking abuse.

What went on at Aston Hospital (pictured) during the 50s, 60s and 70s has long been a matter of speculation

Is the heroine of the story a reliable narrator? How can she be when she herself says she lived during this time in an almost permanent zombie state?

Yet it was not a work of fiction. It was the real life account of Barbara's life under the 'care' of Dr Kenneth Milner, a certified Home Office doctor.

And her account, disbelieved by so many for so long, yesterday gained credence when the long-awaited police report into his behaviour was released. Her account was mirrored by 142 other witness statements, all making similar claims.

'Dr Milner played with our bodies and our minds,' she says. 'This is the validation that we were telling the truth. When you take account of how long he was there for, he abused thousands of people.

'It is so outlandish. No one would believe us. Even my dad told me 'you are a liar'. There was no-one to tell. No-one was going to listen to us.'

Barbara was one of the first former patients of Dr Milner to claim he was responsible for the most hideous abuse.

For eight months in 1971, Barbara  a troubled child whose traveller mother had abandoned her, and whose father willingly handed her over to care system when he failed to cope  was a patient in the Laburnum Ward at Aston Hall in Derbyshire, a psychiatric hospital.

Dr Milner was Aston Hall's chief physician from 1947 to 1975. He died in 1976, decades before the first lurid accusations about the place emerged.

What went on at Aston Hospital during the 50s, 60s and 70s has long been a matter of speculation. Murmurings about sinister goings-on started to be heard several years ago, and the local paper in Derbyshire first reported the incredible claims.

Dr Milner played with our bodies and our minds. This is the validation that we were telling the truth

Questions were eventually asked in Parliament, and then prime minister David Cameron agreed that there must be an investigation.

It was Barbara who started the ball rolling.

'People thought I was nuts,' she reveals. 'My solicitor has since told me that at first he thought I was a crank. The minute you say 'mental institution', people do.

'That's how Dr Milner got away with it for so long. He used to use the phrase 'mental defectives' to describe us, as a cover for his evil.

'The truth is we were human toys. We were a piece of meat for someone to play with, behind closed doors. And this man  this monster  was supposed to be protecting us.'

Barbara's isn't a sole voice. As soon as she started tentatively speaking out, she was approached by other former patients of Aston Hall. She still believes many more victims could come forward.

'I think what we are talking about here is the tip of the iceberg. We are not talking a handful of cases, we are talking systematic abuse in the 50s, 60s, 70s. We are potentially talking of hundreds of children, being drugged without consent and abused.'

Barbara's awful story began when she was abandoned by her mother when she was just 11 months old and 'still in nappies'.

Barbara was one of the first former patients of Dr Kenneth Milner (pictured) to claim he was responsible for the most hideous abuse

'I won't condemn my father for what happened next,' she says, with reference to her entering the care system. 'I blame my mother for everything. She was the one who left. My father tried his best but he just couldn't cope.'

Her first foster mother, a woman called Edna, was cruel and abusive, and when she tried to run away from her, aged nine, she was placed in a Children's Home.

When she ran from there too ('I was obsessed with finding my mother. I kept going looking for her'), she was deemed disruptive and difficult. By the age of 11, she had been sent to The Cedars, a remand centre for troubled children.

There, she was told that a 'very important person' was coming to see her. Thus she found herself having an audience with a bespectacled, grey-haired man in a tweed jacket 'who looked more like a geography teacher than a doctor'.

Dr Milner took Barbara's hands in his as he introduced himself, then did something odd.

'He started to stroke them,' she says. 'I remember feeling embarrassed because it was odd, quite intimate.'

He seemed particularly concerned about the state of her nails saying 'you poor child', commenting on how she must be 'very nervous' because she clearly bit her fingernails. She was confused ('I didn't, and I never had'), but was cheered by the idea that this man was going to help her 'get better'.

'He said I would be taken care of. Even though I didn't understand what I needed to get better from, I loved the idea of being a patient. If I was a patient, I'd get to wear fluffy slippers and eat bunches of grapes, instead of sitting inside a locked remand centre.

JIMMY SAVILE 'WAS A HOSPITAL GUEST' Jimmy Savile, one of the country's most prolific paedophiles, was invited to the unit as a guest of Dr Kenneth Milner, one of his victims said Jimmy Savile visited Aston Hall hospital, it has been claimed. The disgraced DJ, one of the country's most prolific paedophiles, was invited to the unit as a guest of Dr Kenneth Milner, one of his victims said. Police said they found no evidence to support or disprove the claim but included it in their report, released yesterday. It is not known if the two men knew each other but both were linked to a number of hospitals, albeit at different times. Dr Milner was medical officer at high-security Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire in the 1940s. Savile later had unfettered access to the secure hospital for three decades from 1968 and even his own keys. He abused ten victims there, two repeatedly. A report found 'clear, repeated failure of safeguarding standards' at Broadmoor at the time. Advertisement

'I thought hospital would mean freedom. I thought Dr Milner was going to save me. But instead he became my gaoler.'

In January of 1971, Barbara  carrying just the clothes she was wearing, and a pair of pyjamas  was driven to Aston Hall, horrified to see a sign declaring it a 'mental institution'.

'They assured me that I wasn't going to that part of the hospital. I was going to a different part.' She had already been taking medication  to calm her down, she thinks  at The Cedars.

Here, right from the start, there were additional drugs. As part of her first 'treatment'  which she, naively, thought was about her nail biting  she was forced to drink 'thick brown syrup' and, already feeling drowsy, made to bathe, then weighed.

Her recall of the detail is quite extraordinary, considering. She talks of seeing a 'kidney-shaped dish containing a long needle, a roll of greying bandage and various white packets'.

She was ushered into a room where there was a small rubber mattress on the floor. She was asked to lie down and her arms were bound with bandages.

She says she begged the nurse not to tie her hands. 'I don't bite my nails, I promise,' she said. 'You don't need to do this.' An injection was administered ('my first ever. I'd never had a single injection before'), and she was suddenly aware of Dr Milner being in the room.

'He pressed something across my mouth. It felt hard and sharp, like a mask made of wire. There was a strange sensation of something being dripped against it. My mouth felt wet and my skin cold'.

He pressed something across my mouth. It felt hard and sharp, like a mask made of wire. There was a strange sensation of something being dripped against it

She still remembers the stench of the foul-smelling liquid. 'It was ether. I know that now. It's on my records. I'd never heard of it then. Years later, when someone gave me a one of those Fishermen Friends sweets I nearly gagged. They used to contain ether.'

Dr Milner asked her a series of baffling questions ('How old is your brother?' 'Do you like him?'), then photographs were taken. Then she thinks she slipped out of consciousness. When she came round, she was in her bed back in the dormitory.

'My body ached as if it had been kicked all over. My wrists were sore. There was a pain searing up my body from between my legs. I felt damp below, as if I'd wet myself. Later I realised that I was bleeding from there.'

It was her first 'treatment', yet it came to be routine. Every day ('except for Sunday. Maybe he went to church on Sundays,' she says), she alleges Dr Milner would pick a different girl to have her treatment.

She was the youngest in the hospital. 'I found out later that I shouldn't even have been there. At 12 I was too young. There were certainly no consent forms signed. But you could do anything in those days. No-one questioned it.'

All the girls hated their 'treatments'; all the nurses reassured them that what they were experiencing was perfectly normal, and for their own good. 'I remember once, one saying 'you have been a very bad girl, but Dr Milner is going to cure you of your badness'.' Although it was a hostile environment ('there were always fights'), there was a certain solidarity too.

'I remember some of the older girls would tell me that I should pretend to have my period and then the 'treatment' wouldn't happen. I hadn't even started my periods.

'I didn't even know what they were. But I'd still get hold of a used sanitary towel and wear it myself, to try to fool them.' She gets upset, understandably so. 'I was such a naive child. I had no idea. Afterwards, the nurses would make us marmalade sandwiches.'

What on earth was Dr Milner doing? Barbara's nightmares now feature the doctor on top of her, raping her. She says she can remember his breath on hers.

Her book certainly details her 'feeling him pressing against me'. But she admits herself that actual memories are hazy, and confused. She has clearly tortured herself with the idea that there was a paedophile ring involved.

'Was it him? Were there others. I know that on at least one occasion I was taken to the main house. Why would that happen?

Barbara was also administered huge doses of sodium amytal, a barbiturate derivative with sedative and hypnotic properties

'But the more I hear from others, the more I am convinced that something evil was going on in that place. Other ex-patients have told me that they were given pregnancy tests. One girl says she was tested for syphilis. We weren't allowed out of that place. Why on earth would those things be happening?'

What she now knows  after years of fighting to get hold of the medical records she was once told didn't exist  is that she was also administered huge doses of sodium amytal, a barbiturate derivative with sedative and hypnotic properties.

The drug, commonly known as a 'truth serum', had been used experimentally on soldiers during the war. It should never be used on children. 'I found out that maximum dose for an adult is one gram, as it is so addictive and can be lethal. I'd been injected, on different occasions, with 120g.'

Why subject a child to this? Was Dr Milner experimenting too? 'Or was it just to make us comply? These are the questions we need answering.'

Although they sound outlandish, these claims of children being drugged while within the care system have been made before  and substantiated without doubt.

The Kendall House scandal remains one of the most horrific in modern history. At this Kent children's home, vulnerable youngsters were subjected to similar forced drug treatment.

Survivors  most notably the whistleblower Teresa Cooper  have fought a two-decade campaign to hold the local authority, and the Church of England, who were responsible for the home, to account.

Cooper received a substantial out of court settlement after claiming that her children suffered birth defects because of the illicit drug treatments she was subjected to as a child.

Now Barbara is raising similar questions about Aston Hall. 'I have always had cluster headaches,' she says. 'Is that something to do with the drugs I was given? Some of the members of our group are worried about birth defects too.'

When I first told my GP he obviously thought I was crazy

Barbara is clearly a determined women, but one whose whole life has been tainted by what she went through as a child. She did marry and went on to have children (she asks that we are not specific about how many, or name them, 'for their own protection'), but her marriage faltered in 1998.

Her relationship with her father  whom she saw sporadically during her time in care  has been troubled. 'At several points I did tell him I was being drugged, but he called me a liar,' she says.

'He kept saying he had never signed any consent forms, so I was talking rubbish. I don't think he could bring himself to believe it either.'

Barbara did eventually escape the clutches of Dr Milner when, during a visit home to her father, she confided in his girlfriend, who was horrified. Her father refused to let her return to the hospital.

Her mother did come back into her life, briefly, when she was 13, but this was not, ultimately, a happy event. 'I'd say to people now that if you go looking for a parent who abandoned you, be careful what you wish for. My mother was not a nice person.' And she clearly never forgave her.

At first no-one would believe Barbara's outlandish claims. 'When I first told my GP he obviously thought I was crazy. He went through my notes and said 'but there is no record of you ever having been at that hospital'. He then sent her home with anti-depressants.

It wasn't until she survived cervical cancer in the late 90s that she started to look into the background of Aston Hall in any seriousness  then hit a brick wall.

'I'd ask about records and people would say 'oh there was a flood' or 'they were in a fire'. She even wondered if her own mind was playing tricks on her.

In June 2015, however, she Googled images of the hospital  and 'felt like I was kicked in the stomach'. 'I brought up picture after picture, and every one was familiar. It was exactly as I'd remembered it.'

David Martin, pictured, alleges Dr Milner 'injected him with something' and then gave him ether to 'make him go to sleep' before being abused

She started doing internet searches and came across a website where someone had posted a message about abuse there. She posted a message herself.

'That was the start of it. A lady messaged me over Facebook and said the same had happened to her and  and I nearly fell over at this  she said she was in touch with another woman too. It was the first time I thought 'oh my God. I'm not alone here'.'

Her big breakthrough came when she managed  after several attempts  to get hold of photocopies of her medical files. 'The writing was faint, and the notes had been taken from microfilm but they proved that a, I had been a patient there and, b, I'd been given drugs.

'Finally, I had something that people had to listen to.'

Critics have argued that the drug sodium amytal can leave patients with false memory syndrome. But she asks, 'How can so many different people have the same false memory  that they were drugged and abused by the same doctor?'

Now, her feelings about the doctor who promised to 'make her better' are complicated. When she first heard Dr Milner was dead, she says, she 'went driving round every graveyard I could find, looking for his grave. I don't know what I would have done if I'd found it, but it's safe to say I wouldn't have laid flowers'.

The Hospital by Barbara O'Hare is published by Blink Publishing. Priced 7.99.

Doctor 'used paralysing truth drug to rape and abuse THOUSANDS of children he placed in STRAITJACKETS' at psychiatric hospital 'visited by Jimmy Savile' - but NO ONE will face justice because suspects have died

By Claire Duffin for the Daily Mail

Thousands of children may have been sexually abused by a psychiatrist after being given a 'truth serum' that left them unable to move.

Yesterday police revealed there was enough evidence to arrest Dr Kenneth Milner over allegations of rape and child cruelty against children as young as ten had he been alive today.

Derbyshire Police said it had so far identified 65 victims and recorded 73 crimes  43 of which were of a sexual nature  that had taken place at Aston Hall Hospital.

Officers said they had also identified other potential suspects who worked at the hospital, but no action would be taken as they were either dead or could not be traced. It means no one will face justice over the scandal.

Dr Milner, who died 43 years ago, presided over Aston Hall for three decades, prompting fears there could be many more victims. One solicitor representing survivors said it was just the 'tip of the iceberg'.

The psychiatrist was allowed to continue 'unmonitored and unchallenged' between 1947 and 1975 because of the power he held over staff and patients, a report found. The victims  who were sent to the hospital from children's homes, courts and troubled families  told how they were given drugs that left them in a zombie-like state. They were stripped and abused.

Dr Milner, who died 43 years ago, presided over Aston Hall (pictured) for three decades, prompting fears there could be many more victims

Others said they were restrained and experimented on under the guise of correcting bad behaviour. Those who resisted were physically abused. Many believed cooperating with Dr Milner was their only way out of the hospital, described as something out of a horror film.

The first complaint was passed to Derbyshire police in 2011. Officers investigated but found no allegations of sexual abuse.

Further allegations followed but it was only in February 2016 that the probe was formally passed to Derbyshire's Public Protection Major Investigation Team. Chief Superintendent Kem Mehmet said: 'The investigation has concluded that had Dr Milner been alive today he would have been interviewed as a suspect under caution.'

Police said they could justify interviewing Dr Milner over rape, indecent assault, child cruelty and assault. However the force said no inference could be drawn as to his guilt.

Aston Hall opened as a hospital for people with learning difficulties in 1925. It later became a treatment centre for children with mental health issues and youngsters from across the country were placed there by more than 50 local authorities.

Dr Milner, who previously worked at Broadmoor and Rampton psychiatric hospitals, carried out 'Narco Analysis', which involved interviewing patients in a drug-induced state 'in order to recall and disclose thoughts and feelings they would normally conceal'.

Patients were injected with sodium amytal, a barbiturate derivative with sedative-hypnotic properties. The procedure was never acceptable medical practice and the use of the drug was 'highly unusual' and not a recognised treatment.

One law firm, Bond Turner, said it was representing 47 victims who would be seeking compensation from the Health Secretary. Solicitor Stephen Edwards said: 'It is all consuming because they were not believed for so many years.'

'They were going to a place where they should feel protected ... but the opposite has happened. I think this is the tip of the iceberg ... you could be looking at thousands here.'

The NSPCC said: 'Today's report makes truly harrowing reading and shines a light on the decades of sickening abuse that vulnerable victims suffered at the hands of professionals who exploited their positions.'

David Martin told the Derby Telegraph that he was abused by Dr Milner on a number of occasions at Aston Hall when he was 12 or 13.

'There's a long way to go but this is confirmation that we were abused and it was horrific,' he said of the police report.

'It ruined my life. For years after I was not believed and it was like I was in a different world to other people.

'These reports say we have told the truth. We feel believed. The whole saga has been very shocking - part of me thought this was just me it happened to.'Americans age 12-18 saw the most dramatic decrease in usage of 23.5 percent

Older Americans are now on the front lines of drug abuse and addiction, with people age 50 and older seeing the most dramatic increase in the use of illicit drugs in recent years, according to a new study.

From 2004-2016, the percentage of drug users in that population increased 59 percent  more than all other age groups, according to a study by DrugAbuse.com.

Illegal drug use remained relatively steady among people age 18-34 during the same period, while declining nearly 12 percent among people age 35-49. Americans age 12-18 saw the most dramatic decline, a 23.5 percent reduction.

From 2004-2016, the percentage of drug users age 50 and older increased 59 percent

The increase among older Americans is likely due to the increased prescription and abuse of prescription drugs during the period from 2004-2016, said officials at DrugAbuse.com.

Older Americans are also more likely to have health issues that lead to chronic pain requiring long-term treatment.

It's also possible that substance abuse among the elderly isn't properly diagnosed  and symptoms may resemble dementia and other mental health issues, according to the DrugAbuse.com.

Overall, 48.5 percent of Americans age 12 and older reported using drugs in 2016  a roughly 5.7 percent increase compared to 2004.

The analysis of National Survey on Drug Use and Health data also found that the rates of drug use among Americans in 'excellent or very good' health were low and mostly flat during the 12-year period.

However, among those considered in 'good' health, drug use rates increased roughly 10 percent.

About 44 percent of Americans age 50 and older reported using illegal drugs in 2016

Another recent study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that the likelihood of being prescribed opioids could vary widely depending on the state where you live.

Researchers say that patients seeking medical care were on average three times more likely to be given opioids in 'high-prescribing states' like Georgia and Nebraska than in 'low-prescribing states' like West Virginia and Michigan.

The variation increased to 10 times more likely between Arkansas, where the most amount of patients were given opioids, and North Dakota, where the least amount were.

Additionally, patients who were given a 30-day-long prescription as opposed to a 10-day-long treatment were five times more likely to fill additional opioid prescriptions.

The researchers say that although the samples sizes in the states may vary, it's clear that patients are unnecessarily being prescribed these drugs.Washington-based fast food institution Z Burger has been slammed after the company's Twitter used an image of journalist James Foley moments before he was executed by ISIS in an ad.

The company showed a still from the haunting 2014 execution video, with a burger imposed on it. Underneath the image was subtitled: 'you disgrace me'.

Above the offensive image was a caption that read: 'When you say you want a burger and someone says okay lets hit McDonald's'.

Foley was a freelance war correspondent working in Syria when he was captured in 2012 and murdered two years later.

Washington burger chain Z-burger shared an offensive tweet mocking the ISIS execution of American journalist James Foley over the weekend (pictured)

The post, which Z Burger owner Peter Tabibian says he had not approved before it was shared on the company account, has since been deleted, but screenshots of the tweet are still doing the rounds online.

Tabibian has apologized profusely and vowed to exercise greater control over how his company is promoted.

'I have taken immediate steps to ensure that this never happens again, and our customers have my promise to ensure that established controls over the placement of amateur promotional posts on our Twitter page are more closely followed, immediately,' he wrote in a lengthy apology posted to the page.

'I'm really sorry about what happened,' Tabibian said. 'I take full responsibility for what happened. It is my company.'

James Foley was a freelance journalist. He was in Syria covering the war when he was captured in 2012 and executed on film in 2014

The owner of Z-Burger, Peter Tabibian, shared a very apologetic note to Twitter explaining an outside company did their social media, but that he would be much more attentive to it in future

'I trusted someone to do stuff on behalf of us. I made a big mistake doing that.

'I'm very sorry to the Foley family and his friends and anybody who knows him.'

He said the outside social media company hired to run their accounts, Valor Media, had accepted responsibility and also apologized.

But in a video shared by their 23-year-old founder, Michael Valor, he appeared more focused on explaining how young he was and how he'd only been working in the industry for five years.

Valor said the company had picked up a lot of business in a short space of time, and also recently hired a new art director, who was behind the tweet.

Describing the new hire as a 'really good girl', he assured viewers her actions were not malicious.Officer Shana Keckley (above) appeared to be planning for Daniels' performance in Ohio

Newly leaked emails suggest that Stormy Daniels' arrest in an Ohio strip club was pre-planned before she arrived in town.

The internal emails from arresting officer Shana Keckley, published by the Fayette Advocate, show Keckly sent herself photos of Daniels and information about the venue days before the July 12 arrest.

Police originally said that the arrest, on charges that were quickly dropped by prosecutors, was just happenstance when investigators working on a sex trafficking sting noticed Daniels illegally touching customers.

However, Keckley appeared to have a keen interest in Daniels before the arrest.

On July 10, the vice detective emailed a link to a Vice News video report about Daniels from what appears to be her personal account to her work address.

The emailed link was quickly followed by another, to an announcement that Daniels would be performing at Sirens strip club in Columbus on July 11 and 12.

Daniels (seen in March) was slated to perform at Sirens strip club in Columbus on July 11 and 12. Keckley emailed herself a link to details about the shows, photos of Daniels, and a map

Daniels is seen being taken into custody in the early hours of July 12 at Sirens strip club

Yet another email contained a picture of Daniels and Donald Trump posing together and a map to the strip club.

The emails were all sent between 10.56pm and 11.09pm on July 10.

The next email in the leaks follows at 3.47am on July 12, shortly after Daniels was arrested.

'Sirs, Ma'am/ Attached are the complaints from our arrest at Sirens,' the email states.

A few minutes later Keckley appears to respond to a compliment on the collar from a lieutenant.

The email reads: 'LT/ You're Welcome!!!!!/ I work Vice now !! :D/ It was Me, Rosser, Lancaster, and Praiter/ Please Please Don't post my name on FaceBook!!/ :D Thank me in person later.'

At 4.05am she emails another Columbus Police Department employee, Shane Keckley, who is believed to be her husband.

Daniels is seen in the paddy wagon after she was arrested on three counts of Illegal Sexually Oriented Activity in a Sexually Oriented Business. The charges were dropped hours later

Shana Keckly writes: 'It is all over CNN. I wanted you to know before everyone contacts you ... I, Susan, and Lancaster got elements and arrested Stormy Daniels this morning she is in jail.'

Daniels is seen in a mugshot from the arrest

'Elements' refers to the evidence of a crime needed to bring charges.

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Cliffords, was arrested after Keckly and other officers said she had 'smacked' three undercover police officers with her bare breasts and forcing their faces between her cleavage, as well as fondling the officers' breasts.

The porn star Daniels was charged with three counts of Illegal Sexually Oriented Activity in a Sexually Oriented Business.

Her attorney Michael Avenatti immediately claimed that the arrest was a politically motivated setup in retailation for Daniels' claims against President Trump.

Daniels claims that she slept with Trump in 2006, and that she was paid off through his lawyer Michael Cohen to keep quiet about it during the election.

Daniels shows officers her hands and tattoos as she is processed after her arrest. The newly leaked emails raise questions about the officers' motivations in the case

Hours after the arrest on July 12, charges against Daniels were dropped.

While it is illegal for performers or employees in businesses across Ohio to touch patrons, even if they are strippers, Daniels was let off the hook because she is not a regular performer at the club.

'While the presence of Vice officers at this establishment is reasonable, the motivations behind the officers' actions will be reviewed internally,' Chief of police Kim Jacobs said in a statement, adding that the arrest was a 'mistake'.

On Wednesday, Avenatti seized upon the publication of the leaked emails to proclaim he'd been right all along about a set-up.

'This is extremely disturbing. I intend on getting to truth and the bottom of who ordered @StormyDaniels arrested and why. It appears that I was correct when I stated it was politically motivated,' Avenatti tweeted.Roseanne Barr was spotted puffing on a cigarette after landing at the John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday, just a day before her controversial interview with Sean Hannity that Valerie Jarrett 'will not be watching'.

While in New York City, Barr will also appear on a live podcast talk and comedy show with Rabbi Schmooley.

The disgraced actress was seen covered up in a giant poncho as she smoked the cigarette outside of the terminal.

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Roseanne Barr was seen smoking a cigarette at the JFK International Airport on Wednesday, just a day before her controversial interview with Sean Hannity that Valerie Jarrett 'will not be watching'

Barr showed off her tattoos as she wore a pair of colorful socks with sandals. She was seen talking to a friend before she struck a pose, and gave a big karate kick

Barr showed off her tattoos as she wore a pair of colorful socks with sandals.

She was seen talking to a friend before she struck a pose, and gave a big karate kick.

Barr was later spotted laughing as she got out of a vehicle outside of her hotel.

The actress appeared carefree as she smiled and posed for the cameras before checking into her hotel.

Earlier on Wednesday, Jarrett remained calm and collected during her appearance on The View where she revealed that the racist remarks made by Barr have had little effect on her.

Barr was later spotted laughing as she got out of a vehicle outside of her hotel

The actress appeared carefree as she smiled and posed for the cameras before checking into her hotel

President Obama's former senior advisor told the panel of ladies: 'In all seriousness... as I have said before, I am fine.'

Jarrett, 61, spoke about the controversy following the racist tweet: 'I am just fine. If one of you said something like that about me, it might hurt my feelings, but this isn't what keeps me up at night.'

The former government official and businesswoman expressed other concerns, however, including policies under the Trump Administration such as immigration and gun laws.

'What keeps me up at night are those families being separated on the borders or the children going to school wondering whether or not they're going to be safe or the parents that drop them off.

'These are the things that keep me up at night... not a racist tweet,' she went on to say.

Jarrett (right) is seen right during her Wednesday appearance on ABC's The View. Host Joy Behar is seen (left) on the panel as Jarrett laughs off the Barr controversy

President Obama's former senior advisor revealed on the panel she would not be tuning into Barr's Thursday interview with Hannity

Jarrett discussed other concerns such as policies under the Trump Administration like immigration and gun laws

When host Sunny Hostin mentioned Barr's upcoming Thursday interview with Hannity, Jarrett chuckled.

Barr is set to appear of Hannity's Fox News show for her first broadcast interview after she was sacked by ABC for the racist tweet aimed at Jarrett that read: 'muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.'

Hostin asked Jarrett what she hopes the disgraced comedian will say during the anticipated interview.

'Less is more, don't you think?' Jarrett asked Hostin and the audience.

She concluded: 'I think there are just so many issues more important... I won't be watching, I hope you all won't be watching either.'

Barr will react to reports on the tweet and be interviewed about President Donald Trump on the show - which will be broadcast at 9pm ET Thursday.

Barr (left in March) will appear on Sean Hannity's (right) Fox News show on Thursday for her first broadcast interview since being sacked by ABC

Barr delivered ABC's biggest hit of the year with her 90s sitcom revival, but saw it canned after she put out a racist tweet about Obama adviser Jarrett

In the tweet, which has since been deleted, Barr said Jarrett looked like the 'Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby'

The main interview will take place live with additional portions to be broadcast the following evening, according to Fox.

Hannity secured the sit-down despite Barr saying just last week that she wouldn't do any more TV interviews because they're too 'stressful and untrustworthy'.

Barr delivered ABC's biggest hit of the year when she revived her working-class 90s sitcom Roseanne for the modern political climate earlier this year.

She even won praise from Trump - who told supporters at his rallies to watch the show because 'it's about us'.

The network quickly renewed the Roseanne reboot for a second season, but reversed that decision just as quickly after Barr put out her tweet. On May 29, Barr responded to a tweet about Jarrett.

The tweet prompted a storm of criticism and condemnation, including from the show's own cast and production team.

Barr's appearance on Hannity comes despite her saying in a YouTube video released last week that she would not be doing TV interviews because they are 'too stressful and untrustworthy'

In the end, Roseanne was cancelled before reaching the end of its initial season.

ABC subsequently announced it would be making a spin-off show but without the titular character.

Barr later deleted and apologized for the tweet, saying she was impaired by the sleep drug Ambien at the time she was posting.

But she has continued to deny comparing African Americans to apes, saying her words were misconstrued while using her own Jewish heritage to insist the she is also being victimized.

Last week she posted a video to her YouTube channel in which she claimed that she was fired 'because I voted for Donald Trump and that is not allowed in Hollywood.'

Barr, 65, then repeated claims that her tweet couldn't be racist because she thought Jarrett was white.

Barr said she told ABC executives that she would go any talk show they wanted and explain the situation to her audience but they fired her.

'Instead, 40 minutes after that my show was canceled before even one advertiser pulled out and I was labeled a racist,' Barr says.

Barr said the video is her 'official statement' on the incident and it will 'continue to be forever because it is the truth'.A majority of Americans does not want Democrats to impeach President Trump if they take over the House  even as yet another survey gives the opposition party the advantage.

Voters oppose impeachment by 55 per cent against, compared to 39 per cent for it, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Six per cent of respondents didn't know or had no opinion. The opposition to impeachment comes amid a series of polls that favor the Democrats taking back the House.

President Donald Trump's approval rating is below 40 per cent in three Midwest battlegrounds

A majority of voters don't want Democrats to impeach Trump if they take the House. Here, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks at a press conference at the U.S. Capitol July 24, 2018 in Washington, DC

Democrats hold a 51 to 39 lead in hypothetical House races, according to the poll. This type of survey does not match up with actual congressional districts, where many Republicans have built-in advantages due to gerrymandering.

Women back Democrats by 57 to 32 per cent, while men are about evenly divided.

Democrats are already facing pressure from within their own ranks to impeach Trump, although party leaders have cautioned against it. Former CIA chief John Brennan called Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki treasonous, while billionaire Tom Steyer is funding a nationwide campaign touting the impeachment option.

There is more trouble for Trump in another new survey, by NBC / Marist. It shows Trump below 40 per cent in three Midwest battlegrounds  including two he carried in 2016.

Trump's approval is at 36 per cent in Michigan, 36 per cent in Wisconsin, and 38 per cent in Minnesota. Michigan and Wisconsin were critical to his 2016 win, while Trump lost Minnesota by 1.5 percentage points.

Democrats hold the congressional preference in all three states, by percentages ranging from 8 to 12 per cent.

'Donald Trump carried or came very close to carrying these three states in 2016. But it's a very different picture for this fall's elections,' said Lee Miringoff, Director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

A majority of voters in all three states said Democrats were needed as a check and balance on Trump.The Jewish community would face an 'existential threat' if Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister, the country's three main Jewish newspapers warn today.

In an unprecedented step, the Jewish News, Jewish Chronicle and Jewish Telegraph published a joint front page editorial voicing fears that power could be handed to a man who has 'contempt for Jews and Israel'.

It highlighted how the 'stain and shame of anti-Semitism' had flourished in the Labour Party since Mr Corbyn became leader in 2015.

And they singled out Labour's 'sinister' failure to adopt the internationally-accepted definition of anti-Semitism in its new code of conduct.

The decision has fuelled concerns that the watered-down definition means activists could avoid being punished for making slurs such as comparing the actions of Israel to those of the Nazis.

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The Jewish community would face an 'existential threat' if Jeremy Corbyn became prime minister, the country's three main Jewish newspapers warn today

Underneath the headline United We Stand, the papers condemned Mr Corbyn for having a 'default blindness' to the fears of the Jewish community. They said they had teamed up because of the 'existential threat to Jewish life in this country that would be posed by a Jeremy Corbyn-led government'.

The article was written over a photograph of placard-waving campaigners against Labour anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in March.

It said there had been 'many alarming lows' of anti-Semitism in Labour.

These included human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti being handed a peerage weeks after publishing a report that allegedly whitewashed anti-Semitism in the party.

The article also condemned Labour for reinstating Ken Livingstone after he had been suspended for claiming Hitler had once supported Zionism.

But it said the 'stubborn refusal' to accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism  which saw Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, who lost family in the Holocaust, to brand Mr Corbyn a 'racist'  as the 'most sinister yet'.

The definition is recognised internationally and has been accepted by the Government and 130 councils.

In an unprecedented step, the Jewish News, Jewish Chronicle and Jewish Telegraph published a joint front page editorial

The papers highlighted how the 'stain and shame of anti-Semitism' had flourished in the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) became leader in 2015

But Labour left out four key examples of anti-Semitism relating to Israel. This was a cynical attempt to avoid the need to expel 'hundreds, if not thousands' of Labour and Momentum members, said the newspapers.

The article added that if Labour failed to implement the definition in full it would be seen 'by all decent people as an institutionally racist party'.

Labour has been engulfed in claims of anti-Semitism under Mr Corbyn's leadership following a spate of attacks on Jewish people and supporters, including Labour MPs.

At last year's party conference a fringe event speaker said people should be able to question whether the Holocaust took place.

Prior to her confrontation with Mr Corbyn last week, in March Dame Margaret branded him 'the poster boy of anti-Semites everywhere'.

Last night, Gideon Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: 'We hear from members of our community constantly that were Jeremy Corbyn to become prime minister, they would take the drastic step of leaving the country.

'Jeremy Corbyn has displayed utter contempt for the Jewish community ... the Labour Party is now so institutionally anti-Semitic under Jeremy Corbyn that the Jewish community considers it to be a threat to our very future in this country.'

THEIR DEVASTATING VERDICT IN FULL Today, Britain's three leading Jewish newspapers  Jewish News, Jewish Chronicle and Jewish Telegraph  take the unprecedented step of speaking as one by publishing the same front page. We do so because of the existential threat to Jewish life in this country that would be posed by a Jeremy Corbyn-led government. We do so because the party that was, until recently, the natural home for our community has seen its values and integrity eroded by Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel. The stain and shame of anti-Semitism has coursed through Her Majesty's Opposition since Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015. From Chakrabarti to Livingstone, there have been many alarming lows. Last week's stubborn refusal to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism, provoking Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge to call her leader an anti-Semite to his face, was the most sinister yet. Labour has diluted the IHRA definition, accepted in full by the government and more than 130 local councils, deleting and amending four key examples of anti-Semitism relating to Israel. Under its adapted guidelines, a Labour Party member is free to claim Israel's existence is a racist endeavour and compare Israeli policies to those of Nazi Germany, unless 'intent'  whatever that means  can be proved. 'Dirty Jew' is wrong, 'Zionist bitch' fair game? In so doing, Labour makes a distinction between racial anti-Semitism targeting Jews (unacceptable) and political anti-Semitism targeting Israel (acceptable). The reason for this move? Had the full IHRA definition with examples relating to Israel been approved, hundreds, if not thousands, of Labour and Momentum members would need to be expelled. With the government in Brexit disarray, there is a clear and present danger that a man with a default blindness to the Jewish community's fears, a man who has a problem seeing that hateful rhetoric aimed at Israel can easily step into anti- Semitism, could be our next prime minister. On 5 September, Labour MPs vote on an emergency motion, calling for the party to adopt the full IHRA definition into its rulebook. Following that, it will face a binary choice: implement IHRA in full or be seen by all decent people as an institutionally racist party. After three deeply painful years for our community, September is finally make or break. Advertisement

In January, the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors anti-Semitic abuse, said it recorded 1,382 hate crimes last year  3 per cent more than in 2016.

It was the highest figure since records began 34 years ago. It said the increase followed 'unprecedented publicity' about controversies involving Labour.

Last night Labour MP Wes Streeting said of the editorial: 'This is a shameful episode in the history of the Labour Party and we need to put it right.'

The Labour Party said: 'Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations. The next Labour government poses no threat of any kind whatsoever to Jewish people. The security and wellbeing of Jewish people is a priority for our party.

'We understand the strong concerns raised in the Jewish community and are seeking to engage with communal organisations to build trust and confidence in our party.'A man has been arrested after more than $900,000 worth of ice was seized and a secret laboratory uncovered.

The 37-year-old was arrested at a Silverwater Park, western Sydney, about 8am on Wednesday, and police claimed they found 1.3kg of the drug on him and inside his car.

Officers went on to raid five properties at Fairfield and Wentworth Point, allegedly finding another 460g of ice, ammunition, and a clandestine laboratory in Fairfield.

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The 37-year-old was arrested at a Silverwater park about 8am on Wednesday, after police claim they found 1.3kg of the drug on him and in his car

During their searches, police said they also seized ammunition, more than $10,000 cash, 460g ice, small quantities of prohibited drugs, precursors, drug paraphernalia, a cigarette lighter disguised as a firearm, and mobile phones.

The 37-year-old man has been charged with drug supply offences.

New South Wales police said they had been investigating the supply of ice in the area since January.

During the searches, police seized ammunition and more than $10,000 cash (pictured)

NSW Police also seized ammunition (pictured) during their search on WednesdayTwo Britons told last night of their miracle escape from the devastating Greek wildfires.

Susan Stephos fled as flames engulfed her house while Chhaganlal Jagatia was rescued from a smouldering hotel after remaining to tend an elderly relative.

Speaking from her hospital bed, expat Mrs Stephos, still wearing an oxygen mask as she struggled to breathe, described how she ran through the flames to escape on Monday night.

To her heartbreak, her dog Maia ran in a different direction and she had to leave her behind as the inferno raged around Mati, a resort 25 miles east of Athens.

Susan Stephos (pictured) described how she ran through the flames to escape on Monday

'When I was in the house and the fire was going over, I thought I am not going to make it, this is the end,' Mrs Stephos told the BBC. 'But prayers were answered. And I managed.'

She was 'very grateful' to have survived, she said.

Mr Jagatia, 76, from Egham, Surrey, was left with burns to his hands and legs after he stayed in his hotel in Mati to protect a 95-year-old relative.

From his hospital bed in Athens, he told the Mail: 'The fire started approaching us at 5pm and I could see it in the distance.'

Mr Jagatia was on holiday with his wife, their son, daughter-in-law and baby granddaughter, and the daughter-in-law's grandmother Smaragpi Kandalepa.

'All the other houses I could see were on fire, but not the hotel,' he said. 'I asked [the rest of the family] to go away because everything was falling on us. I could not possibly go out because the old lady could not walk.'

Last night the death toll from the wildfires, which also devastated an area 30 miles west of Athens, reached 85  with 100 still missing

As his wife ran to the sea with their one-year-old granddaughter Stefania, he stayed with Mrs Kandalepa, applying wet towels around her as the building began heating up and smoke started to choke them. They were finally rescued at 10.45pm.

The rest of the family spent three hours in the sea as they waited to be evacuated to safety.

Mr Jagatia was continuing to recover last night but Mrs Kandalepa was in an induced coma. Mr Jagatia's son Jay said: 'What my dad did was heroic.'

Last night the death toll from the wildfires, which also devastated an area 30 miles west of Athens, reached 85  with 100 still missing.

Families began returning to the charred remains of their homes in the tight-knit, middle-class Greek community, describing the scenes as 'hell on earth'.

Scores of Red Cross volunteers handed out water, food and medicines to the homeless. In neighbouring Rafina, the town hall and gymnasium were transformed into aid centres.

Families began returning to the charred remains of their homes in the tight-knit, middle-class Greek community, describing the scenes as 'hell on earth'

Student Sotiris Capodistrias, 18, told how his mother, father and two brothers fled their flat above a mini-supermarket where a worker died in the blaze.

As he assessed the damage with his father Christo, a Greek diplomat, he said: 'We we heard screaming, which surprised us because we were told, 'Don't worry, there is no danger, the fires are under control'. But the fire came here within one hour and we had no idea until we smelt it.

'We saw people running and screaming everywhere.

'There is a small road that leads to the back and on to the beach and used that to escape and we were running. We knew though that if we stood in the water we wouldn't be able to breathe from the ash, so we continued to run.'

Staring at the burnt-out remains of his home he added: 'There was a woman here who burnt to death in the mini-mart. She couldn't make it out.

'I've been living here my whole life, I was born here, my friends are here and it feels like my whole life has been changed. I have lost more than five friends who died in the fire.'

His father said: 'This has always been a privileged area for summer vacations because it's so close to Athens and has beautiful surroundings. It has always been green, lush and beautiful. There is a strong community of families here. Now it is unrecognisable.'

Mary Pazaskevopoulou, 58, returned to find the community cafe she owned had been reduced to charred walls and cinders.

She said: 'This was a place where the community gathered. Now it's destroyed. It's unbelievable. But I actually consider myself very lucky compared to those that have died. My husband and I were inside and we're lucky to have got away. But we're going to have to start again. There is no other solution.'

Firemen told how they had never seen such a devastating blaze as winds of up to 68mph fanned the wildfires, spreading them across an area of around five miles by seven miles around Mati on the Attica peninsula.

Four people aged 22 to 26 were being questioned yesterday on suspicion of looting abandoned homes.

There is no suggestion they started the fires and no one has been arrested on suspicion of arson, which was initially being considered as a cause.

Last night Theresa May hailed the bravery of the Greek emergency services as she sent condolences and pledged support.Major airlines including Qantas and British Airways have changed their listings of Taiwan as part of China, with American Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific becoming the latest carriers to bow to Beijing's demands.

The Chinese government sent a notice to dozens of airlines around the world in April demanding that they not refer to Taiwan as a non-Chinese entity on their websites, setting a deadline of Wednesday to make the changes.

A check on American Airline's website on Wednesday morning showed no reference to Taiwan in dropdown menus, listing Taipei and Kaohsiung as their own entries. Its destination listings usually follow the template of city name, then country name.

British Airways has changed its listings of Taiwan as part of China in its dropdown menu

Taipei and Kaohsiung are now listed without a country name on the American Airlines website

American Airlines has become one of the latest carriers to comply to China's demands

Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific and subsidiary Cathay Dragon now list the self-ruled island as 'Taiwan, China' on their Chinese and English sites. Smaller airline operators Hong Kong Airlines and Hong Kong Express also switched their listings.

Asked about the move, Cathay said its airlines were registered as part of 'the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China'.

'We must comply with the regulations and requirements of the relevant civil aviation authorities,' it said in an emailed statement to MailOnline.

'We are currently in discussions with officials from the Civil Aviation Administration of China to understand more about the details,' it added without giving further details.

Cathay Pacific lists the self-ruled island as 'Taiwan, China' on its Chinese and English sites

Asked about the move, Cathay said its airlines were registered as part of 'the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China'.

Some searches on Delta's website Wednesday showed no country references for destinations in Taiwan, mainland China or semi-autonomous Hong Kong, listing them simply by their city names.

American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said in an email statement to AFP: 'Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate.'

Other international airlines, including Lufthansa, Air Canada and Singapore Airlines, had already changed their website classifications of Taiwan to 'Taiwan, China' ahead of the deadline in order to avoid penalties.

MailOnline has reached out to British Airways for comment.

It was unclear how China might punish airlines that do not comply, but it previously added a clause to rules governing foreign airlines saying regulators could change a company's permit if it did not meet 'the demand of public interest'.

The move was described by the White House in May as 'Orwellian nonsense'. China rejected US requests for talks on the matter, adding on tension in relations already frayed by an escalating trade conflict.

Taiwan condemned what it called the 'insolent actions' of Beijing, saying it was wielding its political and economic clout to pressure international firms.

'Taiwan's existence in the international community is an objective fact. It will not disappear because of suppression by Chinese authorities,' Taiwan's foreign ministry said.

The ministry also said in a tweet on Wednesday that China's demand is 'an affront to rules-based order'.

'Taiwan is a much-valued democracy and this fact cannot be erased. The leaders of China claim [they] want to win the hearts and minds of Taiwanese. Such actions demonstrate otherwise,' the statement added.

A check on Eva Air, a Taiwanese international airline, showed that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China are listed under three separate entities.

A check on Eva Air, a Taiwanese international airline, on Wednesday showed that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mainland China are listed under three separate entities

The ministry also said in a tweet that China's demand is 'an affront to rules-based order'

Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy but Beijing sees it as part of its territory, to be reunified by force if necessary, and is pushing to isolate the island on the international stage.

As relations between Beijing and Taipei deteriorate under Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen, China is ramping up military and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan.

Taiwan's cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka called China's behaviour 'unjust' and asked for support from the international community.

'We keep on urging the international community not to become an accomplice of China bullying Taiwan,' Kolas told reporters Wednesday.An elderly man has been rescued after falling into a four-foot-deep sinkhole that suddenly appeared on a road in northern China.

Shocking surveillance footage shows how the pavement opened up without warning and swallowed the 80-year-old man in front of shocked pedestrians.

The pensioner's feet became firmly stuck in the hole, but he was pulled up by his family members and onlookers.

The pensioner walks in a car park in Jiamusi city, China, before the road suddenly collapses

The 80-year-old man disappears from sight after the sinkhole appeared without any warning

The pensioner was on his way home in Jiamusi city, Heilongjiang Province, when the accident occurred, according to Heilongjiang Television.

CCTV footage shows he was walking through a car park at 8:40am on July 20 before the ground underneath him gave way all of a sudden.

The sinkhole measured about 1.1 metres wide (3.6ft) and 1.2 metres deep (4ft).

Onlookers including a woman and a child went up to check if the pensioner was injured.

It turned out that they were the pensioner's neighbours. They informed his family members of the accident by phone and called for emergency services.

The pensioner's family members try to pull up the elderly man after being alerted by onlookers

The unfortunate pensioner sits in the four-foot-deep sinkhole (left and right) after falling into it

'Don't move! Stay there. Don't move!' One woman can be heard telling the pensioner.

Members of the public joined forces with the pensioner's family members to pull him out of the hole before the paramedics arrived.

He was then sent to No. 2 Affiliated Hospital of Jiamusi University for treatment. He did not sustain any injuries.

On-duty policeman Du Hai told Heilongjiang Television that they had set up signs around the sinkhole to warn the public of the danger.

The police are investigating the cause of the collapse.A teenage cyclist in China was so glued to his mobile phone that he crashed into the back of a stationary taxi.

The 16-year-old boy, known by the surname Lu, was riding home along a main road in Jiaxing city in East China's Zhejiang province when the accident happened.

The boy sustained minor injuries from the crash.

A teenage cyclist is driving on a multi-lane road in east China while playing on his phone

The 16-year-old boy didn't realise a taxi waiting for the lights at the junction and bumped into it

CCTV footage shows the taxi waiting at a junction during the red light as the teen glided into view on his motorised bike at 2:43am on July 22.

He was using the largely empty main road instead of the pavement while also staring at his mobile phone.

The teenager appeared completely oblivious to the fact that traffic had stopped ahead.

He bumped directly into the back of the taxi, slamming into the car and falling off his bike to the right.

The boy sustained minor injuries, according to a police statement. Both vehicles had damage.

Due to the boy's young age, he and his guardians were given just a verbal warning. They were also asked to bear full responsibility including the taxi's repair bill.

He crashed his motorised bike to the back of the taxi and fell off the ground to the rightClimber Alistair Todd was been photographed inside a snow cave 3,800ft up Ben Nevis, in this picture taken by Iain Cameron

This climber managed to find one of the coolest spots in Britain after making his way into a mountain ice cave.

Despite the current heatwave sweeping the UK, Iain Cameron still managed to spend some of his weekend hidden under drifts of snow on Ben Nevis.

While the rest the of the country was basking in the hot weather, Iain and six other expeditioners spent their time measuring ice caves in freezing temperatures.

During the group's two-hour outing on the 4,413ft Scottish mountain, they encountered snow tunnels and a giant hole in the snow.

Mr Cameron, a health safety and environment manager from Stirling, was undertaking a yearly report for the Royal Meteorological Society on the snow in the mountains.

According to Mr Cameron, the size of the tunnel was a big surprise and was caused by higher temperatures melting water and hotter air getting inside it.

But it was still nice and cold in the tunnel for the climbers, who had to keep moving to stay warm.

He said: 'We were in a snow tunnel which are uncommon to see, especially in July. They only form generally in July on the very highest of the hills. It was a very warm day and it was quite nice to be inside the tunnels as you had a little bit of respite.

#It was almost like walking in to a fridge. There was a massive difference in temperature between the inside and outside but it was quite pleasant to be inside.

Climber Calum Maclean photographed in a snow cave up Ben Nevis as Britain continues to experience heatwave temperatures

'As long as you don't stop and keep on moving then the temperature doesn't have too much of an effect. You have to be careful up in the mountains but for us there was no issue as we looked at it beforehand and I had assessed it.

'You still have to be careful obviously as these things can collapse. These are made in a two-step process.

'First of all, a very small tunnel is carved out by melting water, so a little water causes a stream which carves its way through the ice initially.

'Once the water has burrowed its way through the ice, it makes a small tunnel and that allows the warmer air to access it and the warmer air starts to melt the ice so that the tunnel gets bigger and bigger.

At about 3,800ft on Ben Nevis, snow caves still exist and are visited by a small group of explorers before they melt away

'The tunnel is formed by a combination of water and air, the process can take weeks and sometimes even months to form a very big tunnel.'

Mr Cameron writes a yearly report for the Royal Meteorological Society, where he surveys how much snow is left on the mountains, as a hobby.

The mountaineer said: 'I go up there several times a year and I need to make a judgement call to decide when to go.

'Basically, what I am looking for is how much snow is left because what I am interested in is when the snow all disappears. So I am monitoring how long the snow lasts for.

Climbers walk across a small patch of snow remaining on Ben Nevis, while Britain bakes in very hot temperatures

'By going up there I was able to get an idea of the size of it so that I can understand when I need to go back to measure it again. I want to find out the exact date of when the snow melts, so I need to keep close tabs on it.

'I am up there reasonably often but the paper that I write chronicles when certain part of the snow disappears.

'It doesn't bother me missing any of the sunshine. It's still possible to get a bit of sunburn up there. It feels a bit counter intuitive to put sun cream on when you're up standing next to a patch of snow.'Islamic State militants have killed more than 180 people in a series of gun attacks and suicide blasts on government-held parts of southwestern Syria.

Raids and suicide bombings carried out today in Syria's southern Sweida province have killed at least 183 people, including 89 civilians, a war monitor group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring watchdog, said they were killed following seemingly coordinated attacks, including multiple suicide blasts in Sweida city itself.

The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, mostly residents who picked up arms to defend their homes, it said.

Most of the deaths occurred in raids on villages in the northeast of the province, while the remainder were killed in suicide attacks in the provincial capital, the monitor said, updating earlier tolls which had initially indicated a much lower toll.

Fruit is seen scattered on the ground after a suicide bombing in Sweida, in southern Syria, on July 25

'It's the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war' and one of the deadliest ever IS attacks in Syria, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

He added that regime forces eventually ousted IS from several villages its fighters had seized and put an end to the attacks.

'Some residents who fled the attacks on their villages are returning and finding people dead in their homes,' Abdel Rahman said.

At least 38 IS fighters were also killed, including the suicide attackers.

Islamic State said in a statement that it had carried out the suicide blasts and gun attacks, which are the deadliest to hit government territory in many months.

The coordinated attacks - the worst in recent months - had all the hallmarks of the militant group and were reminiscent of its horrific assaults that spread mayhem over the past years in Syria, already ravaged by civil war.

The suicide bombings in the city of Sweida, a provincial capital populated by Syria's minority Druze, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks by a militant group linked to IS on a number of villages in the province, also called Sweida.

Al-Ikhbariya state-run TV showed images from several locations in the province and its capital where the bombers blew themselves up.

Damage can be seen above following today's attacks, the deadliest to hit government territory in many months

It said one of the attackers hit at a vegetable market in the city of Sweida just after 5am, a busy time for the merchants at the start of their day.

The bomber drove through the market on a motorcycle and there detonated his explosives, the TV station said.

A second attacker hit in another busy square in the city. Two other attackers blew themselves up as they were chased by security forces.

The city of Sweida has largely been spared most of the violence that Syrian cities have witnessed in the years since the conflict started in 2011.

Northeast of Sweida, jihadists launched simultaneous assaults on several villages where they clashed with government forces.

State news agency SANA said that two other IS militants were killed before they could detonate their bombs.

Damage is seen after a suicide bombing in Sweida, in southern Syria

Sweida Governor Amer al-Eshi said authorities had arrested an attacker: 'The city of Sweida is secure and calm now,' he told state-run Ikhbariyah TV.

The extremist group claimed responsibility for today's deadly attacks, boasting that its 'soldiers' killed more than 100 people in Sweida.

In a statement posted on the group's social media channels, it said its militants carried out surprise attacks on government and security centers in Sweida, sparking clashes with Syrian troops and allied militias before detonating their explosive belts.

Islamic State was driven from nearly all the territory it once held in Syria last year in separate offensives by the Russian-backed army and a U.S.-backed militia alliance.

Since then, President Bashar al-Assad has gone on to crush the last remaining rebel enclaves near the cities of Damascus and Homs and swept rebels from the southwest.

The Observatory said government forces battled jihadists who stormed the villages from an Islamic State pocket northeast of the city.

Government troops and allied forces hold all of Sweida province except for that enclave.

The air force pounded militant hideouts northeast of the city after soldiers thwarted an attempt by Islamic State fighters to infiltrate Douma, Tima and al-Matouna villages, state media said.

The army and villagers regained control of a hill and broke a brief siege of another nearby village after clashes, Ikhbariyah said.

With the help of Russian air power, the Syrian army has been hitting Islamic State in a separate pocket further west, near the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Yarmouk Basin in southwest Syria remains in jihadist hands, after an army offensive defeated rebel factions in other parts of the southwest.

The operation has focused on Deraa and Quneitra provinces.A 'prehistoric hippo' roamed seas off the coast of Japan 16 million years ago, say scientists.

The bizarre aquatic mammal was identified from a bone that had been gathering dust for more than 60 years - and was thought to have belonged to a dinosaur.

Now a study has revealed it came from an animal similar to a hippopotamus that existed long after the asteroid strike that wiped out the giant reptiles.

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A 'prehistoric hippo' roamed seas off the coast of Japan 16 million years ago, say scientists. The bizarre aquatic mammal was identified from a bone that had been gathering dust for more than 60 years - and was thought to have belonged to a dinosaur (artist's impression)

The fossilised thigh bone - complete with 'muscle scars' - was dug up in the town of Tsuchiyu Onsen, Fukushima, in the 1950s during the building of a dam.

It was eventually put in a museum cabinet - where it lay forgotten, until now.

The thigh bone actually belonged to an early species of plant eater known as Paleoparadoxia, Greek for 'ancient paradox'.

At more than seven feet (two metres) long, it inhabited the Pacific coast during the Miocene, 20 to 10 million years ago, ranging from the waters of Japan to Alaska in the north and Mexico in the south.

Dr Kumiko Matsui, of the National Museum of Nature and Science, Ibaraki, said his team were able to track down the fossil site owing to the original hand-written note kept with the bone.

It was recognised as a 'dinosaur' bone among the locals and displayed in the Village Hall until the town experienced a re disaster in 1954.

Dr Matsui said: 'The fossil was identied to be a right thigh bone of Paleoparadoxia, which shows well-preserved muscle scars on the surface.'

Dating tiny crystals in rocks called zircons, his team estimated it to have lived 15.9 million years ago.

Experts were able to estimate the creature would have lived 15.9 million years ago by dating tiny crystals in rocks called zircons (stock image)

Paleoparadoxia would have survived on seaweeds and grasses. Its bulky body was well adapted for swimming and underwater foraging.

Originally thought to be amphibious, it is now believed to have been a fully marine mammal, spending most of their lives walking across the sea bottom of deep, offshore waters.

Dr Matsui said the study underlines the importance of 'treasures' housed in museum collections with many waiting to be catalogued and described.

In the spring of 2017, one of his team happened to nd an old wooden box in the geological collection room at the museum, part of the University of Tsukuba.

Dr Matsui said: 'A femur (thigh bone) was in the box with an old label that contains a person's name, the date and a local address.

'It shows the best preserved femoral surface of all Paleoparadoxia specimens.'

WHAT WERE PALEOPARADOXIA AND WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE SPECIES? Paleoparadoxia, Greek for 'ancient paradox', were an early species of a plant eater. At more than seven feet (two metres) long, it inhabited the Pacific coast during the Miocene, 20 to 10 million years ago, ranging from the waters of Japan to Alaska in the north and Mexico in the south. This stock image shows a Paleoparadoxia skeleton at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County Paleoparadoxia would have survived on seaweeds and grasses. Its bulky body was well adapted for swimming and underwater foraging. Originally thought to be amphibious, it is now believed to have been a fully marine mammal, spending most of their lives walking across the sea bottom of deep, offshore waters. Advertisement

From it they were able to assemble a 3D model and the most accurate artistic impression to date.

Dr Matsui explained: 'Over the course of the study, we found two people who knew about the fossil.

'One is Mr Kazusuke Tanno. When we showed the femur to Mr Tanno, he immediately recognised it.

'According to his memory, a large 'dinosaur' bone with a rib bone and some fragments were found by Mr Tadayasu Azuma during the construction of the Higashi Karasugawa River 1st Dam.

'Mr Tanno says the fossils were discovered at the intersection between the Higashi Karasugawa River and its mainstream river, Arakawa River, while they were digging the bedrock to make steps towards the mainstream.

'It is said that Mr Azuma kept the fossils in his house for a while, but the 'dinosaur' bones were later displayed in the Village Hall.

'Then, at some point, a university teacher took the well preserved ones, presumably a femur and a rib, with him. Mr Tanno remembers it to have happened around 1954.'

In February of that year a devastating re destroyed most of the city and caused damage valued at $2.7 million (2 million), but, remarkably, the small bones survived.

The full findings were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.Archaeologists have discovered imprints left by the hands and knees of a Pictish metalsmith worker while excavating an ancient settlement in Orkney.

The marks left by the smith's hands and knees, which have been described as 'unique' by experts working at the archaeological site, are believed to around 1,500 years old.

Archaeologists found the imprints preserved on a stone anvil in the metalsmith's workshop on the island of Rousay, the largest of the Orkney Islands.

The building is part of a substantial Iron Age settlement known as the Knowe of Sandro, which is being destroyed by the sea.

The Picts were a collection of tribes who lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and early Medieval periods around 270 to 900AD.

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Archaeologists have discovered the 'unique' hand and knee prints of a Pictish metalsmith (pictured) while excavating a settlement in Orkney

The site is being examined as part of an excavation project directed by Dr Julie Bond and Dr Stephen Dockrill, both from the University of Bradford.

Initially when researchers saw the strange prints they thought it was made by one of the archaeologists working on the site.

However, closer analysis revealed they were left by the ancient metalsmith who was working in this dark chamber between the 6th to 9th century AD.

The team analysed crucible fragments and floor deposits, which provided evidence he was working with copper, brass and other metals.

'The analysis of the floor enables us to say with confidence where the smith worked, next to a hearth and two stone anvils', said Dr Dockrill

'The biggest surprise came when we lifted the larger stone anvil and cleaned it; we could see carbon imprints of the smith's knees and hands.'

The underground building was entered via steps and a curved corridor.

Imprints of the smith's hands and knees, believed to be up to 1,500 years old, were found preserved on a stone anvil in his workshop on the island of Rousay

The building (pictured) is part of a substantial Iron Age settlement known as the Knowe of Sandro which is being destroyed by the sea

WHO WERE THE PICTS? The Picts were a collection of tribes lived in what is today eastern and northern Scotland during the Late Iron Age and early Medeival periods from around 270-900AD. They formed a tribal confederation whose political motivations derived from a need to ally against common enemies such as the Britons and the Romans. They have long been seen as fearless savages who fought off Rome's toughest legions and refused to surrender their freedoms to live in conventional society. However, this wild reputation might well be undeserved. They actually built a sophisticated culture in northern Scotland and were more advanced than their Anglo-Saxon rivals in many respects. Mel Gibson's blue face paint in Braveheart (pictured) is a nod to the Pictish tradition of body-paint As a people, research has shown they were sophisticated, hard-working and skilled in many ways. We are increasingly finding that these 'lost' peoples - who have somewhat disappeared from history - were capable of great art and built beautiful monasteries. The Roman name for the people - Picti - means 'painted people'. It's not known what they called themselves. Mel Gibson's blue face paint in Braveheart is a nod to the Pictish tradition of body-paint - but the real Picts fought stark naked, and there are records of them doing so up until the 5th Century. The habit of fighting naked, especially in the cold Scottish climate, didn't harm the tribe's reputation for ferocity. Picts held the territory north of the Firth of Forth in Scotland - and were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer Scotland. The Picts mysteriously disappear from written history around 900AD. Experts suggest that they likely merged with southern Scots, who already had a written history by that time, and the two clans' histories combined. Advertisement

This would have minimised the amount of light entering the smithy, allowing the smith to assess the temperature of the hot metal based on its colour.

The centre of the small underground building was dominated by the hearth, with a set upright stone on the doorward side protecting the hearth fire from drafts.

'I have never seen anything like this before. It's unique as far as I know', Dr Dockrill told the BBC.

'Knowing that this is a Pictish building, I would guess the prints are somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 years old,' she said.

The site is being examined as part of an excavation project directed by Dr Julie Bond and Dr Stephen Dockrill, both from the University of Bradford. Initially when researchers saw the strange prints they thought it was one of their own

Closer analysis revealed that the prints were left by the ancient metalsmith who was working in this dark chamber between the 6th to 9th century AD

The workshop is on the island of Rousay (pictured). The centre was dominated by the hearth, with a set upright stone on the doorward side protecting the hearth fire from drafts

The Picts formed a tribal confederation whose political motivations derived from a need to ally against common enemies such as the Britons and the Romans.

Picts held the territory north of the Firth of Forth in Scotland  and were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer Scotland.

The Picts mysteriously disappear from written history around 900AD.

Experts suggest that they likely merged with southern Scots, who already had a written history by that time, combining the history of the two clans.

The team analysed crucible fragments and the floor deposits which provided evidence he was working with copper, brass and other metals

The Picts formed a tribal confederation whose political motivations derived from a need to ally against common enemies such as the Britons and the Romans

Picts held the territory north of the Firth of Forth in Scotland - and were one of the reasons even heavily armoured Roman legions could not conquer ScotlandIt is a classic comedy image  a growling dog chasing a terrified cat up a tree.

But that is actually an unlikely scenario, researchers say.

For cats are much more likely than dogs to be doing the harassing, a study shows.

It turns out that moggies are far bigger bullies than their canine rivals. They expect to be boss, as any cat owner will tell you, and this applies even when there is a dog in the home.

So while dogs may be descended from wolves, with loud barks and fearsome teeth, they are likely to be bullied if they live with a cat.

It turns out that moggies are far bigger bullies than their canine rivals. They expect to be boss, as any cat owner will tell you, and this applies even when there is a dog in the home

In a study of homes with both pets, more than half of owners say their cat has lashed out threateningly at their dog.

Yet fewer than one in five have seen their dog menace their cat.

Some 56.5 per cent said their cat had threatened their dog, compared with 18 per cent whose dog had threatened the cat.

And although cats are typically smaller than dogs, they still manage to inflict injury on their domestic rivals. Almost a tenth of owners reported their cat had injured the dog, but fewer than 1 per cent said their dog had harmed the cat.

The findings come from a study of almost 750 owners, who overwhelmingly believe cat is king.

While dogs and cats can live together amicably, they said, it is rarely a close relationship  and whether they get on at all is mainly up to the cat. Cats that are frequently uncomfortable around dogs were less likely to form an amicable relationship, they added.

Study co-author Dr Sophie Hall, of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: On the face of it, these results suggest that the cat is the kingpin in a household with dogs. They are the princess and the dog is lower down in the hierarchy.

The findings come from a study of almost 750 owners, who overwhelmingly believe cat is king.

It may be that cats threatening acts are more obvious to owners, as they hiss or strike out with their paws at a dog.

But it may also be the case that cats are less domesticated in their behaviours. It is important to note that these findings are the owners perceptions of their pets relationships, but it seems that the cat has to be happy and content, rather than the dog, for them to live happily together.

The study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, said that cats and dogs may get along better if the cat is younger when they begin sharing a space.

The findings may come as little surprise to Britains pet owners  almost a quarter of us own a dog and 17 per cent have cats, while 7 per cent keep both.

The study, published in the Journal of Veterinary Behaviour, said that cats and dogs may get along better if the cat is younger when they begin sharing a space

John Fishwick, president of the British Veterinary Association, said: The basic explanation of these findings is that while dogs are pack animals, cats tend to be solitary creatures.

For a harmonious household, the important thing is to give both animals their space.

They should eat in separate areas to avoid conflict.One of the star products of President Donald Trump's Made in America showcase this year, NASA's Orion crew capsule, will ride through space thanks to Europe.

With its four solar-array wings, the European Service Module supplies propulsion, power and the essentials of life for the capsule's space travels and marks a departure for NASA that Trump did not mention at Monday's event celebrating American manufacturing.

'For the first time,' the agency says, 'NASA will use a European-built system as a critical element to power an American spacecraft.'

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An Orion crew module, part of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), is on display on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington at the 'Made in America', product showcase featuring items created in each of the U.S. 50 states, Monday, July 23, 2018.

WHEN WILL ORION BLAST OFF? The Trump administration envisages a test launch without a crew in 2020 and Orion's first crewed mission three years later. Orion is designed to replace the space shuttle in time and take humans into deeper space. Advertisement

Airbus, Boeing's prime competitor in commercial air travel, leads an array of European companies that made the service module.

The actual Orion crew capsule, made by Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor with more than 1,000 companies across the U.S. contributing, sat on the South Lawn of the White House as one of most striking exhibits of products made in the U.S.

The multinational nature of space industry and exploration - and of the spacecraft itself - went unacknowledged.

'On the South Lawn, you have the space capsule,' Trump said.

'And every part is made right here, in America.'

His only reference to Europe was in the context of the trade war he is pursuing.

'The European Union's been very tough on the United States,' he said, adding 'we'll have to do something' to curb imports of European cars if negotiations don't work out.

The globalization of manufacturing has made it difficult to isolate products entirely made in the U.S. Vehicles typically have some or many foreign parts, for example, and in a long-integrated auto manufacturing industry, Canadian-built vehicles may be counted as domestic by the U.S.

'On the South Lawn, you have the space capsule,' Trump said. 'And every part is made right here, in America.'

In his Made in America event last year, Trump posed by a Boeing jet that was 30 percent foreign-made.

For purposes of the showcase, the White House cites a standard of the Federal Trade Commission that defines a U.S.-made product as having no or negligible foreign content and as going through final assembly or processing in the country.

WHAT ARE NASA'S PLANS FOR ORION? Nasa's Orion, stacked on a Space Launch System rocket capable of lifting 70 metric tons will launch from a newly refurbished Kennedy Space Center in 2019 for the EM-1 mission. The uncrewed Orion will travel into Distant Retrograde Orbit, breaking the distance record reached by the most remote Apollo spacecraft, and then 30,000 miles farther out (275,000 total miles). The mission will last 22 days and was designed to test system readiness for future crewed operations. Then, following the uncrewed space flight tests, the first crewed test flight will launch. While NASA has been hard at work in recent months readying the Orion spacecraft and SLS rocket for an unmanned flight next year, the space agency and its partners are already looking ahead. An artist's impression is pictured This could come as early as August 2021, according to NASA. Though crew size will be determined closer to launch, the space agency plans to fly up to four astronauts. Orion will carry the crew through two orbits around Earth to ensure everything is working properly. Them, it will carry out different orbital to eventually be on a path toward the moon. The crew will fly around the backside of the moon, creating a figure eight, before returning to Earth using the moons gravitational pull like a slingshot to bring Orion home, NASA says. Advertisement

Additionally, the White House says it only selects products from companies that are American owned and operated.

Under those criteria, it appears the Orion crew capsule that was on the display meets the made-in-U.S. standard.

But the spacecraft, exhibited as a model at Monday's event, would not.

NASA counts the European module as one of three primary elements of the spacecraft.

The crew module and launch abort system are the others.

'Orion's service module is the powerhouse of the spacecraft, supplying it with the electricity, propulsion, thermal control, air and water it needs in space,' NASA says.

'After the Space Launch System rocket gives Orion the push it needs to venture toward deep space and detaches from it, the service module will propel the uncrewed spacecraft on its mission 40,000 miles (64,000 kilometers) beyond the moon and help it return to Earth, detaching before the crew module re-enters Earth's atmosphere.'

FILE- In this Nov. 11, 2014 file photo, the Orion Spacecraft moves by the Vehicle Assembly Building on its approximately 22-mile journey from the Launch Abort System Facility at the Kennedy Space Center to Space Launch Complex 37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Orion's successful test flight took place the next month. The White House displayed the crew capsule from the flight at an event Monday celebrating products made in the U.S.

The Trump administration envisages a test launch without a crew in 2020 and Orion's first crewed mission three years later.

Orion is designed to replace the space shuttle in time and take humans into deeper space.

A 2014 test flight used a different service module. The European Service Module is for future flights.Russia's boasts around its new arsenal of nuclear super weapons may have been greatly exaggerated, according to industry experts.

A number of experts have come forward to debunk some of the myths put forward by the former Soviet Union in response to its recent posturing.

Neil Gibson, senior weapons analyst for the firm Jane's by IHS Markit, told MailOnline that certain claims around its weaponry were 'highly exaggerated'.

Meanwhile, nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Jeffrey Lewis said Russia's most recent claims around its hypersonic Kinzhal missile are 'bats*** crazy'.

It comes as footage revealed the Russian Ministry of Defence faked a cruise missile attack from a nuclear submarine.

It was aired on state owned TV as part of a demonstration of Russia's military might. However, eagle-eyed viewers spotted the video was in fact a re-run of a clip first broadcast in 2016.

The video was recently aired again as part of a raft of propaganda to promote Vladimir Putin's new super missiles, which he claims will be able to strike anywhere on the planet.

Russia has been accused of faking a cruise missile attack from a nuclear submarine. The Ministry of Defence in Moscow proudly posted footage (pictured) of what it says was an attack by Pacific Fleet submarine Tomsk on a ship 93 miles away in the Sea of Okhotsk

Russian watchers soon mocked the video, pointing out that the footage is of a training strike, originally broadcast on TV Zvezda - owned by the ministry - almost two years ago (pictured)

In recent days, the Ministry of Defence in Moscow proudly aired footage of what it claims was an attack by Pacific Fleet submarine Tomsk on a ship 93 miles away in the Sea of Okhotsk.

It was the latest of a series of videos broadcast by Russia to highlight the countrys battle prowess  however, the latest footage has been debunked.

Eagle-eyed viewers in Russia have mocked the video, pointing out that the footage is of a training strike, originally broadcast on TV Zvezda  owned by the ministry  almost two years ago.

At the time, the footage was described as a Moskit missile strike on a ship posing as an enemy off Crimea in the Black Sea.

Crimea is some 6,500 miles (10,000 km) from the Sea of Okhotsk.

The original announcement from the Ministry said: 'During the Kavkaz-2016 military exercises in the Crimeathe anti-ship missile Moskit was deployed.

As a result 'the pretend enemy was destroyed.'

Russians flooded social media to mock the fraudulent clip.

A number of professionals have also questioned the latest series of claims coming from the Russian Federation about its new arsenal, which has been under development for a number of years.

President Putin using his annual 'State of the Nation' speech in March 2018 to talk up the latest abilities in his arsenal, including claims that the nation's new super missiles are capable of striking targets located anywhere on the planet.

A number of experts have come forward in response to posturing from the former Soviet Union, to debunk some of the myths put forward by the country. This image shows a still from the footage

A number of experts have come forward in response to posturing from the former Soviet Union, to debunk some of the myths put forward by the country. This image shows a still from the footage

WHAT DOES RUSSIA CLAIM TO HAVE IN ITS MILITARY ARSENAL? The Russian Ministry of Defence has been keen to promote a range of new super weapons currently believed to be in development. President Putin unveiled a catalogue of doomsday weaponry as part of his annual 'State of the Nation' speech in March 2018. However, questions remain about the true nature of their capabilities, how far into development the weapons truly are, and when they will be combat-ready. RS-28 Sarmat ICBM The RS-28 Sarmat is intended to replace the Soviet-designed SS-18 Voyevoda, the world's heaviest ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile). It is known as 'Satan' in the West and carries 10 nuclear warheads. Sarmat can unleash ten large thermonuclear warheads, 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence. Each warhead is purportedly capable of taking aim at a different target. The hypersonic glide vehicle, dubbed Avangard, launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile (IBM) before sailing on top of the atmosphere toward its target. Russia tested its latest IBM, the Sarmat missile, for the first time last year (pictured) The (ICBM) weapons can strike targets via both the North and South poles. TV broadcaster Zvezda, which is run by the Russian Ministry of Defence, has previously claimed the missile will be capable of wiping out areas the size of Texas or France. It is also capable of carrying up to 24 of Russia's new Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles, designed to sit atop of an ICBM. Putin says both weapons will be combat-ready in 2020. Avangard Hypersonic Glide Vehicle Russia is also believed to be developing a hypersonic weapon that can breach even the world's most advanced missile defence systems. The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle purportedly travels at 20 times the speed of sound and can hit targets anywhere in the world within half an hour. The vehicle launches atop an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, before gliding on top of the atmosphere toward its target. It is loaded with advanced countermeasure systems that allow it to skirt around the latest-generation of missile defence systems, Russia claims. The vehicles are equipped with onboard countermeasure systems capable of dodging even the most advanced missile defence systems. This artist's impression shows how the glider could manoeuvre at high speed to bypass missile defences The gliders are also highly unpredictable thanks to their manoeuvrability, making them almost impossible to track using conventional systems. Each weapon could be loaded with a nuclear warhead, however military experts say the sheer speed of the vehicles means they could do damage even without an explosive payload attached. Putin described his hypersonic arsenal as 'invincible' during a state-of-the-nation address in March 2018. He claimed Avangard strikes 'like a meteorite, like a fireball' and was capable of reaching targets at 20 times the speed of sound. At this speed the weapon could circle the Earth in just over half an hour. Speaking to MailOnline, Neil Gibson, senior weapons analyst for Jane's by IHS Markit, said: 'I think the ability of hypersonic systems to defeat air-defence system is highly exaggerated. 'They have advantages and disadvantages as per any other weapon system. 'The fact is, the vast majority of ballistic missiles are already hypersonic anyway, it's the controlled flight when still hypersonic that we are talking about here. 'If nuclear armed, they just come under 'mutually assured destruction' style posturing. Using them is always possible of course. 'Conventionally-armed versions are more likely to be used, though any confusion with what they carry - nuclear or conventional warhead - could start an exchange of nuclear weapons if it is mistaken for a nuclear attack.' Kinzhal Hypersonic Air Launched Missile Another new missile, the hypersonic Kinzhal, travels at ten times the speed of sound, Putin says. It is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia. The hypersonic Kinzhal missile is launched from a high-altitude MiG-31 fighter jet and can be fitted with either nuclear, or conventional weapons. This still shows the hypersonic Kinzhal, which travels at ten times the speed of sound and is currently undergoing tests in southern Russia It has an effective range of 1,250 miles (2,000 km), although Putin claims its total range is actually 'unlimited'. Russia has already conducted some 350 training missions with the military unit tasked with testing the Kinzhal. Putin claims the new missile would be capable of striking 'anywhere in the world', and that its high speed and manoeuvrability allowed it to pierce any missile defence. However, despite Putin's major promises, the missile has still not been able to stay airborne for more than a few minutes, according to US intelligence sources. The new missile has purportedly been tested four times between November and February and crashed every time. Burevestnik nuclear powered cruise missile The burevestnik, or thunderbird, nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles aims to give them 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre', according to Sergey Pertsev, a developer. Ministry of Defence officials said in July, 2018, that work on the unlimited-range missile is going according to plan. Footage purported to show the missile in action, although it is unclear whether it was being powered by nuclear or conventional fuel. The 'Burevestnik' nuclear propulsion system for Russian cruise missiles, pictured, is said to have 'unlimited range and unlimited ability to manoeuvre' 'Launching systems are also being designed, while technological processes to manufacture, assemble and test the missile are being improved,' an official said at the time. However, experts have criticised the missile, including Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. He told Vice's Motherboard: 'The nuclear-powered cruise missile is newand bats**t crazy.' Poseidon Drone Submarine The Poseidon drone submarine is a sister project to burevestnik. It is essentially a giant, nuclear-capable torpedo capable of carrying a two megaton nuclear warhead capable of obliterating military ports. The Kremlin's Poseidon torpedo sub is designed to destroy 'enemy navy bases' and will be able to travel up to 70 knots (80 miles per hour), it claims. Russian state news agency TASS says it has not been able to confirm details of the weapon. The Poseidon drone submarine - with a miniature nuclear propulsion system - is shown undergoing a static test However, it quoted a military source as saying: 'It will be possible to mount various nuclear charges on the 'torpedo' of the Poseidon multipurpose seaborne system, with the thermonuclear single warhead similar to the Avangard charge to have the maximum capacity of up to two megatonnes in TNT equivalent.' With its nuke, the weapon 'is primarily designed to destroy reinforced naval bases of a potential enemy,' the report added. Peresvet Combat Laser System Named after a medieval warrior monk, very little is known about this system. Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries, which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam. According to ex-Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov the 'combat laser systems' that Putin addressed in his State of the Nation speech back in March had already been delivered to the nation's armed forces last year. Many believe Peresvet is a jamming system carried on the back of military lorries (pictured), which can be used to 'blind' optical electronic equipment inside enemy vehicles using a laser beam Once found only in works of fiction, Mr Borisov said such devices were now a very real and necessary tool of modern warfare. 'We can talk a lot about laser weapons and movies were made about them a long time ago and fantastic books have been written, and everyone knows about this,' Mr Borisov said in comments translated by the state-run Tass Russian News Agency. But the fact that these systems have started entering service is indeed today's reality.' Advertisement

Russian Ministry of Defence officials said in July 2018 that work on the unlimited-range missile is going according to plan.

Footage released last week purported to show the missile in action, although it is unclear whether it was being powered by nuclear or conventional fuel.

But despite the recent claims and new test footage, Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, believes Russia is exaggerating the power of its nuclear-powered arsenal.

He told Vice's Motherboard the nuclear-powered cruise missiles in the video were 'bats*** crazy.'

Russia's new weapons also include the hypersonic Kinzhal missile, which is launched from a high-altitude MiG-31 fighter jet and can be fitted with either nuclear, or conventional weapons.

The main reason to fit hypersonic rockets to fighter jets is 'to say you can,' James Acton, a physicist with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Motherboard.

A number of professionals have also questioned the claims coming forth from the Russian Federation about its upcoming arsenal, currently under testing. This image shows a still from the footag

All of the weapons have been under development for a number of years, with President Putin using his annual 'State of the Nation' speech in March 2018 to talk up their abilities. This image shows the Tomsk submarine

Images purporting to show the latest round of tests for Russia's range of new weapons, have been pouring out of the country in recent days.

Its RS-28 Sarmat missiles are capable of striking targets via both the North and South poles and can carry more nuclear warheads than any other missile on the planet, Russia claims.

This means they are capable of wiping out an area the size of Texas or France, it adds.

What's more, the RS-28 Sarmat missiles are able to deliver up to 24 of Russia's new Avangard hypersonic gliders, each of which can carry its own nuclear payload.

There is currently no method of defence against the Avangard cruise missiles, which can allegedly travel at 20 times the speed of sound.

Putin has said both Sarmat and Avangard will be combat-ready by 2020.

Nuclear super weapons that Vladimir Putin says can strike anywhere on the planet are being tested by Russia. Daunting footage (pictured) has emerged of tests of the missiles, which the military says could wipe out an area the size of Texas or France

The video, released by the Russian Ministry of Defence, shows the bright checker coated RS-28 Sarmat missile, seen leaving its launch silo at a secret location in the Russian Federation.

The liquid-fuelled, superheavy thermonuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was developed to replace the old SS-18 Satan missile.

Sarmat 'allows the use of all types of individually targeted warheads, including those still on the drawing board,' said Russia's Strategic Missile Forces Commander, Colonel General Sergei Karatayev.

It will be capable of unleashing ten large thermonuclear warheads or 16 smaller ones, or a combination of both, each of which is capable of being aimed to hit a different target.

Russian Ministry of Defence run TV broadcaster Zvezda has previously claimed the missile will be able to wipe out parts of the Earth the size of Texas or France.

The intercontinental ballistic weapons are capable of striking targets via both the North and South poles and Putin has said they will be combat ready in 2020. This image shows the launching pad used in the latest test

This clip highlighted a test launch of the Kremlin's newest Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, which has a reach across the entire planet. This image shows the launch taking place

It is also capable of carrying the Avangard glide vehicle, a hypersonic vehicle designed to sit atop of an (ICBM).

Once launched, it uses aerodynamics to sail on top of the atmosphere.

It is capable of making sharp twists and turns on its way to targets, making it absolutely invulnerable to any missile defence system.

Speaking to MailOnline, Neil Gibson, senior weapons analyst for Janes by IHS Markit, said: 'I think the ability of hypersonic systems to defeat air-defence system is highly exaggerated.

'They have advantages and disadvantages as per any other weapon system. The fact is, the vast majority of ballistic missiles are already hypersonic anyway, its the controlled flight when still hypersonic that we are talking about here.

'If nuclear armed, they just come under 'mutually assured destruction' style posturing. Using them is always possible of course.

'Conventionally-armed versions are more likely to be used, though any confusion with what they carry - nuclear or conventional warhead - could start an exchange of nuclear weapons if it is mistaken for a nuclear attack.'Segway-Ninebot has given fans a new look at its high-tech electric roller skates, known as the Drift W1.

The pair of self-balancing skates use the same stabilising technology as the famous two-wheeled Segway transporter to keep riders upright as they move.

Unlike traditional roller skates, riders only need to lean forwards or backwards to move the Drift W1, which are not physically attached to the users' feet to make it easy to jump on or off.

Drift W1 is 'easy to carry, lightweight and small', according to Segway, which has not yet revealed how much the skates will cost when they launch at the IFA consumer technology tradeshow in Berlin next month.

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Segway-Ninebot has given fans a new look at its high-tech electric roller skate, the Drift W1 (pictured). The pair of self-balancing skates uses the same stabilising technology as the famous two-wheeled Segway transporter to keep users upright

At an event in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Segway-Ninebot released new pictures of Drift W1, which were first announced back in June.

Gao Lufeng, chairman and chief executive of the firm, also showed off a kit that converts Segways into go-karts at the press briefing in Southern Carlifornia.

Few details were given about the Drift W1, with the company sticking to its plans to formally reveal the product during the IFA 2018 tech show in Berlin on August 30.

For now, the company has posted a lifestyle page on its site along with a video of the skates in action.

'The tires are designed to improve stability and steering capabilities, and, combined with the high-quality materials including slip-resistance on foot mats, the product is designed for maximum comfort and fun,' Segway wrote.

The company claims the skates are 'perfect for the young generation who dare to stand out and create new trends.'

Unlike traditional skates, users simply lean to move the Drift W1, which doesn't attach to the feet to make it easy for riders to jump on or off

The gadget is 'easy to carry, lightweight and small', according to Segway, which has not yet revealed how much it will cost

WHAT IS THE SEGWAY DRIFT W1? Segway-Ninebot is developing self-balancing, electronic roller skates called the Drift W1. The pair of skates is black and white and advertised as 'easy to carry, lightweight and small'. Unlike traditional skates, the Drift W1 doesn't attach to your feet, making it easier for riders to jump off. The company claims the skates are 'perfect for the young generation who dare to stand out and create new trends' It uses Segway's signature balancing technology and like the company's two-wheeled transporter moves when the user leans. Segway said will formally reveal the product in August 2018. Prices for Drift W1 are not yet known, but the similar HoverShoes XI from InMotion sell for 379 ($499). Advertisement

'The new Segway Drift W1 brings all the fun and coolness you expect from Segways consumer products line, combined with the high-quality engineering consumers expect from the Segway brand,' it said.

Prices are not yet known for the upcoming product, but the similar HoverShoes XI from InMotion sell for 379 ($499).

Segway-Ninebot's Tuesday event focussed largely on its electric scooters, which have become an increasingly common sight around US cities.

Prices are not yet known for the upcoming product (pictured), but the similar HoverShoes XI from InMotion sell for 379 ($499)

At an event in Los Angeles on Tuesday (pictured), Segway-Ninebot released new pictures of Drift W1 following the product's official announcement in June

The firm provides vehicles for Bird - a popular app-based service for on-demand scooter rentals valued at 1.5 billion ($2bn) less than a year after it was launched.

Segway-Ninebot told Reuters it is in talks with a handful of major automakers about a new design that would enable scooters to charge in the trunk of cars, encouraging more individuals to buy scooters.

As well as teaser previews of Drift W1, the firm also showed off new images of a kit it has developed to turn its two-wheeled Segway transporters into go-karts.

Few details were given about the Drift W1, with the company sticking to its plans to formally reveal the product during the IFA 2018 tech show in Berlin on August 30

The company claims the skates are 'perfect for the young generation who dare to stand out and create new trends'

The kit adds a front bumper, seating, steering wheel, brakes, and rear wheels to a Segway miniPRO.

It said it plans to acquire artificial intelligence, battery technology and other robotics companies in an effort to build delivery robots in future.

Mr Lufeng said Segway-Ninebot - formed when the two companies merged in 2015 - expects to double its revenue every year for the next three to five years.

The firm was most recently valued by private market investors at 1.1 billion ($1.5bn) and is now looking to raise 150 million ($200m) from financiers, Mr Lufeng said.

Gao Lufeng, chairman and chief executive of the firm, also showed off images of the Ninebot GoKart Kit (pictured), which converts Segways into go-karts

The go-kart kit (pictured) adds a front bumper, seating, steering wheel, brakes, and rear wheels to a Segway miniPROFacebook will lose users in Europe for the first time, following the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) set out by the European Union, according to technology analysts.

The social network, co-founded by Mark Zuckerberg, will announce its latest quarterly results today at 10pm BST (2pm PT/5pm ET).

Ahead of the announcement, industry experts have predicted that the number of active users visiting the social network will either drop, or flat line.

Facebook has never reported anything other than user growth in Europe.

According to analysts, stalling numbers are likely the result of forcing Facebook users to consciously opt-in to having their information used for personal advertising  one of the key stipulations of the stringent GDPR rules.

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Facebook could be losing customers in Europe after the stringent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into affect. Industry experts are predicting the number of active users to either flat line or drop slightly (stock)

Facebook is set to announce its second quarter results later today.

This quarter is a crucial period of time for the Menlo Park-based social network as it incorporates both the enforcement of GDPR in Europe, and the fall out from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which saw the data of 87 million users mined by a political data firm without their knowledge.

GDPR, which came into affect May 25, stipulates that companies must explicitly request consent from their users in order to personal data for advertising purposes.

Companies that do not comply with GDPR can be fined up to four per cent of their global revenue.

To comply with the new regulations, Facebook rolled-out a security check-up to users worldwide which asked them to review what kind of personal information they consent to sharing for advertising targeting.

Users were also asked to consent to facial recognition technology on the site.

Analysts believe users may have been scared off by the explicit details about how their data is being used by the social network.

Facebook is expected to announce 2.25 billion monthly active users, and 1.49 billion daily active users during the latest quarterly results.

Facebook last month confirmed the number of North American users had dipped for the first time.

Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter told the Telegraph: 'European monthly active users grew sequentially over the last four quarters to end at 377 million.

'We estimate zero sequential growth for June, ending again at 377 million.'

According to Facebook chief financial officer David Wehner, the social network is expecting a setback with these latest results.

When talking about the firm's expectations around the amount of daily active users and monthly active users, he said it is anticipated to be 'flat to slightly down... as a result of the GDPR rollout'.

Analysis by high-street bank Barclays has also revealed Facebook has 20 million European users under the age of 16. Under GDPR, these children now have to obtain parental consent in order to remain on the platform.

'We expect some drop off, similar to other companies like Twitter and Snapchat from the kids issue,' Barclays said.

Facebook reported last month that the amount of North American users had dipped for the first time. The Mark Zuckerberg-led (pictured) firm could lose up to three million users in the EU

WHAT CHANGES IS FACEBOOK MAKING TO COMPLY WITH THE EU'S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION? The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will enter into force on May 25, 2018 and offer greater privacy protection online. New terms of service at Facebook are designed to ensure the Menlo Park, California, firm complies with the forthcoming EU rules, with European residents seeing the measures first. Facebook is hoping to exclude 1.5 billion of its worldwide users from the new GDPR laws, arguing that only EU citizens should fall under its purview. Almost 1.9 billion non-EU international users, outside of the US and Canada, would be protected by the stricter law under current rules. Members in Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America would be excluded from the GDPR's protections if the move goes ahead. Under the new policy, Facebook users will be asked to review and make choices about ads they receive, including whether they want Facebook to use data from third parties. Facebook will begin to ask users if they want to opt in or out of its facial recognition feature, which is making a return under GDPR. They will also be asked to review and choose what to share about sensitive personal data. This will include their political and religious beliefs, as well as relationship status information on their profiles. Facebook is also taking steps to comply with rules that limit advertising and public viewing of data for teens. This will mean no use of facial recognition for anyone under age 18 and limitations on who can see certain information teens have shared. To comply with GDPR, Facebook will also limit what it shows to users between the ages of 13 and 15 unless they get permission from a parent. Advertisement

Advertising revenue is not expected to be affected despite the drop in users.

A lower number of DAUs (daily active users) would have a minimal effect on advertising revenue, said chief strategy officer and head of technology research for GBH Insights, Daniel Ives.

The analytical firm predicts a worst-case scenario of a two per cent drop in annual advertising revenue  around 760 million ($1 billion).

eMarketer principal analyst, Debra Aho Williamson, believes North American DAUs will follow last month's trend and be down or flat.

Ms Williamson does however, expect European DAUs to be lower for the first time, but she claims it may be irrelevant in the long run.

'Even if MAU (monthly active users) and DAU show some weakness, Facebook has done an excellent job of becoming an indispensable communications platform,' Ms Williamson told CNBC.

'Simply put, it's very hard to leave Facebook entirely.

'Perhaps people will share less often or become more careful about what they share, but we believe that it remains a very important platform for many people.

'And we also believe that engagement trends on Instagram as well as Messenger and WhatsApp will remain strong.'

Facebook itself may be facing tough times, but its empire is thriving.

Last month, Instagram announced it had hit one billion monthly users and analysts expect Facebook to post around 10.1 billion ($13.3 billion) in revenue, up 43 per cent from 2017.Advertisement

An underground lake of liquid water has been uncovered on Mars for the first time in a landmark discovery that bolsters the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.

The reservoir, which spans 12 miles (20km) and is buried a mile (1.6km) underground, was uncovered by scientists using radar to probe the planet's icy south pole.

Despite the triangle-shaped lake sitting at a hyper-cooled -68C (-90F), scientists believe the water is kept in liquid form as a 'sludge-like' salty brine.

The discovery is the first proof of a liquid water on Mars that still exists today  an environment scientists say is ideal for the growth of microbial life.

Experts said the 'stunning' find, which is around the size of lake Windermere, could provide the first evidence of life outside of Earth, and will serve as a key target for future missions to the red planet, as well as potentially providing a key resource for future human settlements.

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An underground lake of liquid water has been discovered on Mars for the first time in a landmark discovery that bolsters the possibility of extra-terrestrial life

The lake was uncovered by radar readings (left), as well as its position on the Martian south pole (right)

The presence of the underground lake was discovered by scientists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), in Rome.

Following the discovery, Warwick Holmes, an aerospace engineer at the University of Sydney, said future spacecraft missions to Mars will be working 'very hard' to design methods to sample liquid from the newly discovered lake.

As it stands, current generation technologies do not allow for drills to penetrate deep enough to reach the liquid water in the lake.

Despite this, Mr Holmes remained cautiously optimistic.

'This is currently our best, albeit slim chance of discovering life elsewhere in our solar system,' he said.

The liquid water was found using data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, which has orbited the red planet since 2003, and was the first planetary mission launched by the Paris-based agency.

Researchers used the probe's Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (Marsis) instrument to explore the planet's polar ice caps.

The device sends radar signals that penetrate the ice at the planet's surface, and measures how the radio waves spread and reflect back to the probe.

The reservoir, which spans 12 miles (20km) and is buried a mile (1.6km) underground, was uncovered by scientists using radar to probe the planet's icy south pole. Pictured are radar readings (coloured) and the outline of the feature they uncovered (black)

As it stands, current space exploration technologies would not allow for drills to penetrate deep enough to reach the lake. Pictured is an image taken by Mars Express probe of the Martian southern polar ice cap

Reflected waves sent back by the planet's subsurface features help scientists to map what lies deep below the Martian crust.

In a study spanning three and a half years, INAF astronomer Dr Roberto Orosei and colleagues used Marsis to survey a region called Planum Australe, located in the southern ice cap of Mars.

They gathered 29 sets of radar samplings, mapping out a large area that showed a sharp change in its radar signals compared to its surrounding area.

The region sits almost a mile (1.6km) below the Martian surface and measures 12 miles (20km) across.

Dr Orosei said: This is the place on Mars where you have something that most resembles a habitat, a place where life could subsist.

This kind of environment is not exactly your ideal vacation, or a place where fish would swim. But there are terrestrial organisms that can survive and thrive, in fact, in similar environments.

It is more than 30 years since scientists suggested there could be ice beneath Marss polar ice caps.

Marsis wasn't able to determine how deep the layer of water might be, but the research team estimate that it is a minimum of one metre (3.2ft).

Outside experts have not yet been able to confirm the findings with other radar detections, like SHARAD, the Shallow Radar sounder onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The radar profile of the region resembles bodies of water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth.

Scientists said similarities between subsurface lakes on Earth and the region they explored suggest the Martian anomaly is itself an underground reservoir.

The discovery finally provides conclusive proof that Mars holds a large body of water capable of hosting microscopic, alien life.

Scientists had debated for decades whether subtle signs of water beneath the planet's surface were evidence of intermittent streams or an enduring river or lake.

Professor Alan Duffy, an astronomer at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia who was not involved in the study, said: 'This is a stunning result that suggests water on Mars is not a temporary trickle like previous discoveries but a persistent body of water that provides the conditions for life for extended periods of time.

'The underground water might exist as a lake trapped beneath rock layers or mixed in with Martian soil to create a salty sludge, but either way at 20 kilometre across there is a lot of it.'

The discovery is the first proof of a liquid water on Mars that still exists today  an environment scientists say is ideal for the growth of microbial life. The lake is believed to sit below this patch of ice at the south pole

Researchers used the probe's Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (Marsis) instrument to explore the planet's polar ice caps. This artist's impression of Marsis data shows an area of high reflective which is thought to be water in dark blue

HOW DOES A LAKE ON MARS CHANGE WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT LIFE ON THE RED PLANET? Liquid water is known to be one of the key components to life as we know it, and scientists have spent decades searching for it on Mars. If a large, permanent of body of water exists on the red planet then it has a good chance of hosting microbial life. Researchers had long speculated liquid water is present under the planet's surface, but lacked solid evidence to confirm this. A new finding from a team of Italian scientists suggests a subsurface lake that stretches 12 miles (20km) long is hidden beneath the Martian south pole. The discovery is the first evidence of a lake of liquid water on Mars that still exists today  an environment scientists believe is ideal for the growth of life. While the lake exists at a hostile temperature of -68C (-90F), microbes could grow there, as they do in similar environments on Earth, scientists said. Dr Brendan Burns, a microbiologist and astrobiologist from The University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the research, said: 'While the surface of Mars is inhospitable, there is the fascinating possibility that microbial life could survive and flourish in sub-glacial Martian waters.' Advertisement

Evidence for the red planets watery past is prevalent across its surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks and gigantic outflow channels clearly imaged by orbiting spacecraft.

Orbiters, together with landers and rovers exploring the martian surface, also discovered minerals that can only form in the presence of liquid water.

But the climate has changed significantly over the course of the planets 4.6 billion year history and liquid water cannot exist on the surface today, so scientists are now looking underground.

'Wed seen hints of interesting subsurface features for years but we couldnt reproduce the result from orbit to orbit, because the sampling rates and resolution of our data was previously too low,' adds Andrea Cicchetti, Marsis operations manager and a co-author on the new paper.

'We had to come up with a new operating mode to bypass some onboard processing and trigger a higher sampling rate and thus improve the resolution of the footprint of our dataset: now we see things that simply were not possible before.'

This artist's impression shows the Mars Express probe investigating the southern hemisphere of Mars over a radar cross section of the craft's readings. The blue spots are areas of high reflectivity - thought to be liquid water

The discovery is the first evidence of a lake of liquid water on Mars that still exists today. The study combined radar reflection data (top image shows data as a cross section of Mars) from the planet's surface (red in bottom image) and the lake's base (blue in bottom image)

Scientists at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome uncovered the subsurface lake using data from the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe (artist's impression)

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter captured this view of part of the south polar ice cap on Mars in May. The poles of Mars have huge ice caps that are similar to Earths polar caps in Greenland and Antarctica (stock image)

Scientists believe Mars holds large volumes of water but much of it is stored in ice or in brine patches How important is the presence of liquid water? It is now widely believed that Mars holds a reasonably large volume of water. However, the surface of the planet is so cold, this water exists only as ice. In order for life to exist on a planet, many scientists believe it is essential for the world to possess liquid water. Ever since technology has enabled mankind to gaze at Mars in detail, humans have been looking for indications that there was water on the red planet. Did water used to flow on the surface of Mars? The Mariner 9 mission revealed clues of water erosion in river beds and canyons, as well as evidence of weather fronts and fogs on Mars in 1971. Later missions from the Viking orbiters, which first launched in 1975, revealed yet more details about how water flowed on the surface and carved valleys. Several studies investigated the presence of liquid water for decades. In 2000, the first proof of liquid water on Mars was discovered. It was claimed the gullies seen on the surface of the planet had to have been formed by flowing water. Scientists cited the debris and mud deposits left behind as evidence for moving water existing at some point in the history of the red planet. However, the formation of these gullies has been hotly debated throughout the ensuing years. Proof of ice in geological samples from Mars Spirit and Opportunity, the twin rovers, found evidence of the presence of water enclosed in rock in 2007, when one of Spirit's wheels broke and gorged a piece of stone. Analysis of the silica-rich layer discovered in the scratch suggested it formed in the presence of liquid water. In 2008, the Phoenix lander was gathering geological samples, and they disappeared after a few days. Scientists thought these were pieces of ice. This assessment was confirmed when the lander later detected water vapour in a sample. In 2012, Curiosity was meandering over an ancient martian seabed when it examined a number of rocks that were exposed to liquid water billions of years ago. In 2012, Curiosity (pictured) was meandering over an ancient martian seabed when it examined a number of rocks that were exposed to liquid water billions of years ago Recurring slope lineae and debate causes it Features known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) were first identified in 2011. These dark streaks populate the areas of Mars with a sharp incline. Researchers speculated that these may have been caused by the intermittent flow of liquid water down steep banks on the planet. In June 2013, Curiosity found powerful evidence that water good enough to drink once flowed on Mars. In September of the same year, the first scoop of soil analysed by Curiosity revealed that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain two per cent water by weight. In 2015, Nasa claimed to have discovered the first evidence of liquid water on Mars in the present day. The space agency said that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provided the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars. In 2017, Nasa issued another statement rebuking its initial findings. Features known as recurring slope lineae (RSL) were first identified in 2011 (pictured). These dark streaks populate the areas of Mars with a sharp incline. Researchers speculated that these may have been caused by the intermittent flow of liquid water It said the dark features that run down steep inclines on the red planet were actually granular flows, where grains of sand and dust slip downhill to make dark streaks, rather than the ground being darkened by seeping water. Images from the MRO revealed the streaks only exist on slopes steep enough for dry grains to descend the way they do on faces of active dunes. Also in 2017, scientists provided the best estimates for water on Mars, claiming it once had more liquid H2O than the Arctic Ocean - and the planet kept these oceans for more than 1.5 billion years. The findings suggest there was ample time and water for life on Mars to thrive, but over the last 3.7 billion years the red planet has lost 87 per cent of its water - leaving the surface barren and dry. A subterranean lake In a study published in the journal Science, ESO researchers have now discovered the first concrete evidence for liquid water on Mars. Using radar imagery from the Mars Express probe, the ESO team have found a 12-mile long underground lake filled with liquid water. Advertisement

Though the lake's water could drop to temperatures as low as -68C (-90F), its subsurface lake remains liquid.

Scientists said dissolving Martian rock could provide the reservoir with a constant supply of magnesium, calcium, and sodium salts.

Together with the pressure of the overlying ice, this lowers the melting point, allowing the lake to remain liquid, as happens on Earth.

Scientists said the find provides strong evidence for the existence of life on the red planet.

Dr Brendan Burns, a microbiologist and astrobiologist from The University of New South Wales, said: The finding provides intriguing evidence for the presence of liquid water below the ice at the south pole on Mars.

'While the surface of Mars is inhospitable, there is the fascinating possibility that microbial life could survive and flourish in sub-glacial Martian waters.'

The reservoir could one day serve to help human colonies on the red planet thrive.

Dr Brad Tucker, a researcher at the Mt. Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University in Canberra, said the lake's water 'could be used as a resource' by any humans who eventually inhabit the planet.

Scientists had debated for decades whether subtle signs of water beneath the planet's surface were evidence of intermittent streams or an enduring river or lake. Researchers had previously found dried up ancient lakes on the red planet, like the one pictured (stock image)

Dark basins and bright polar caps are among the most distinctive features on Mars, as revealed in this image taken by the Viking mission in 1998 (stock image)

But according to some scientists, the underground lake is likely to deep for humans to reach using current technologies.

Professor Bobby Braun, a scientist at the University of Colorado and former chief technologist at Nasa, told National Geographic: 'I think it's very unlikely the first humans on Mars are going to drill down to several kilometers.'

'But I think it's probably true that if this is a lake, there are other bodies of water like it that are perhaps closer to the surface.

'If we knew that there was a big body of water at tens of meters down, that would be something you'd certainly want to know about when you're planning a base camp.'

Also in the way of further exploration are UN regulations set up to protect planets from contamination.

Nathalie Cabrol of the SETI Institute said the lake would be a 'very problematic' place to explore due to the sactions, designed to stop human explorers from accidentally killing off microbes in habitable regions of other plants.Advertisement

The extinction of hundreds of species  from elephants to treefrogs  will be 'imminent' unless urgent action is taken, according to leading scientists who fear time is running out for the tropics.

The international team say a devastating global biodiversity collapse will occur as a result of local and global stress factors, including land-use change, pollution and climate change.

In a major study, scientists warned that a failure to act quickly and decisively will greatly increase the risk of 'unprecedented and irrevocable species loss' in the most diverse parts of the planet.

This is the first time a prominent report has looked into the state of all four of the worlds most diverse tropical ecosystems  tropical forests, savannas, lakes and rivers, and coral reefs.

The authors behind the study have called for a step-change in efforts to combat climate change, support sustainable development and effective conservation interventions to preserve tropical habitats.

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Hundreds of species face extinction, leading scientists who fear time is running out for the tropics have warned. Among the species at threat are the African Bush Elephant or Savanna Elephant (pictured), which used to be widespread across the whole continent

Researchers from universities and institutions across the world, including the University of Oxford, examined the vulnerability of tropical ecosystems on our planet to local and global stress factors, including land-use change, pollution and climate change.

Among the species at threat are the African Bush Elephant, also known as Savanna Elephant, which used to be widespread across the whole continent.

However, despite the animal's high-profile status and conservation investment, the pressure from ivory hunters still threatens it with global extinction.

Amphibians, such as treefrogs, are also among the most threatened of all animal species.

They face problems due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, new diseases and illegal harvesting.

Experts say a devastating global biodiversity collapse is 'imminent' unless we take urgent, concerted action to reverse species loss in the tropics. The stunning Saffron-crowned Tanager, Tangara xanthocephala, (pictured) is only found on the east slope of the Andes

In a major study an international team has warned that a failure to act quickly and decisively will greatly increase the risk of 'unprecedented and irrevocable species loss' in the most diverse parts of the planet. This image shows the understorey of a primary rainforest in the Tapajos National Forest of the Brazilian Amazon

Amphibians, such as this yellow treefrog in Brazil, are among the most threatened of all animal species. They face problems due to habitat loss, climate change, pollution, new diseases and illegal harvesting.

Most tropical species are found nowhere else, and millions more are as yet unknown to science. A typical rainforest stream (pictured) in the Brazilian Amazonia can contain more species of fish than entire European countries.

Although the tropics cover just 40 per cent of the planet, they are home to more than three-quarters of all species including almost all shallow-water corals and more than 90 per cent of the world's bird species.

Most tropical species are found nowhere else, and millions more are as-yet unknown to science.

Study co-author Assistant Professor Benoit Guenard, of the University of Hong Kong, said: 'At the current rate of species description  about 20,000 new species per year  it can be estimated that at least 300 years will be necessary to catalogue biodiversity.'

Across tropical ecosystems, many species face the 'double jeopardy' of being harmed by both local human pressures  such as overfishing or selective logging  and droughts or heatwaves linked to climate change.

Dr Alexander Lees, of Manchester Metropolitan University, said that while over-harvesting of wildlife was responsible for the annual loss of millions of highly trafficked animals such as pangolins, it also affected many less-well known species.

The new study is the first high-level report on the state of all four of the worlds most diverse tropical ecosystems  tropical forests, savannas, lakes and rivers, plus coral reefs. This image shows the tree canopy in the primary rainforest in the Tapajos National Forest, Brazilian Amazon

Although the tropics cover just 40 per cent of the planet, they are home to more than three-quarters of all species. This image shows tree growth on the floor of the primary rainforest in the Tapajos National Forest, Brazilian Amazon

The tropics contain more than 90 per cent of the world's bird species. This image shows a flock of blue-headed parrots in the Peruvian Amazon

He said: 'Even many small songbirds are at risk of imminent global extinction due to their capture for the pet trade in South East Asia. The rainforests where they live are increasingly falling silent.'

The declining health of tropical ecosystems also threatens the well-being of millions of people across the planet, according to the researchers.

Study lead author Professor Jos Barlow, of Lancaster University, said: 'Although they cover just 0.1 per cent of the ocean surface, coral reefs provide fish resources and coastal protection for up to 200 million people.

'And between them, humid tropical forests and savannas store 40 per cent of the carbon in the terrestrial biosphere and support rainfall in some of the world's most important agricultural regions.

Whilst the conclusions are bleak, the study also outlined the actions needed to turn the health of such vital ecosystems around.

Across tropical ecosystems, many species face the 'double jeopardy' of being harmed by both local human pressures - such as overfishing or selective logging - and droughts or heatwaves linked to climate change. The Rio Negro (pictured) in the Brazilian Amazon is the world's largest blackwater river and holds over 700 species of fish

Researchers from universities and institutions around the world examined the vulnerability of tropical ecosystems to local and global stress factors, including land-use change, pollution and climate change. This image shows a bristlenose catfish from an Amazonian rainforest stream

The declining health of tropical ecosystems also threatens the well-being of millions of people across the planet, according to the researchers. This image shows diverse coral reefs at Rowley Shoals, northwestern Australia

Whilst the conclusions are bleak, the study also outlined the actions needed to turn the health of such vital ecosystems around. This image shows dead coral rubble following coral mortality due to climate change

The researchers have called for a step-change in efforts to support sustainable development and effective conservation interventions to preserve and restore the tropical habitats that have been the home and last refuge to the overwhelming majority of Earth's biodiversity for millions of years.

Professor Barlow said: 'The fate of the tropics will be largely determined by what happens elsewhere in the planet.

'While most of us are familiar with the impact of climate change on the polar regions, it is also having devastating consequences across the tropics  and without urgent action could undermine local conservation interventions.'

Dr Christina Hicks, of Lancaster University said, as a powerful economic driver of change, the role of developed countries was also felt deeply in the tropics.

She addded: 'Conservation strategies must address the underlying drivers of environmental change whilst avoiding exacerbating deeply rooted inequalities.

'Environmental aid has remained static in recent years, and remains a drop in the ocean compared to the income generated by resource extraction.'

Dr Toby Gardner, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, highlighted the importance of innovation.

The researchers have called for a step-change in efforts to support sustainable development and effective conservation interventions. An understorey wildfire burns an Amazonian secondary forest during the 2015 El Nino event.

Experts have called for increased efforts to preserve and restore the tropical habitats that have been the home and last refuge to the overwhelming majority of Earth's biodiversity for millions of years. Recently cleared tropical rainforest around the Amazonian town of Novo Progresso in the state of Para, a hotspot for recent deforestation

He said: 'The past decades have seen a boom in proposals, innovations and insights about the science, governance and management of tropical ecosystems from remote sensing and big data to new legal frameworks for business.

'The clock is ticking for these proposals and insights to be properly tested.'

Dr Joice Ferreira, a researcher in the team from the Brazilian government's agricultural research institution Embrapa, emphasised that a big part of the solution needs to be in strengthening the capacity of research institutions in the tropics.

She said: 'Despite some notable exceptions the vast majority of biodiversity-related data and research is concentrated in wealthy, non-tropical countries.

'An international approach to science is vital to help avoid the loss of tropical biodiversity.'

Professor Barlow added: 'Fifty years ago biologists expected to be the first to find a species, now they hope not to be the last.'

The full findings were published in the journal Nature.Elon Musk's rocket company managed to blast 10 more Iridium satellites into space and land a Falcon 9 booster on an off-shore drone ship - all despite SpaceX experiencing extremely challenging weather conditions.

The rocket lifted off from the SpaceX Launch Complex Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 4:39 a.m. (PT) Wednesday morning, obscured by heavy fog, with the satellites successfully deployed about an hour into the mission.

Choppy waters and high winds made it 'very iffy' that the Block 5 Falcon 9's first stage booster would be able to land back on the droneship, cheekily named 'Just Read the Instructions.'

'[Weather conditions] are the worst that we've ever had for trying to get a first stage back on the drone ship,' company spokesperson John Insprucker said on a livestream of the launch.

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But about eight minutes into flight, Insprucker confirmed that the booster made it back successfully to the drone pad.

However, SpaceX missed the mark on its other goal of recovering the rocket's multi-million dollar nose cone.

The firm made a series of upgrades to its 'Mr Steven' boat, installing a net that's roughly quadruple in size, with the hopes that a wider net would make catching the payload fairings much easier.

The Iridium 7 rocket by SpaceX launches early Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket carried 10 Iridium satellites, the seventh set for Iridium

The rocket lifted off from the SpaceX Launch Complex Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 4:39 a.m. (PT) Wednesday morning, obscured by fog, with the satellites successfully deployed about an hour into the mission

'No one has attempted to recover a fairing out of the air before. It's super difficult,' Insprucker explained.

'And today with the weather, high winds, choppy seas, recovery of the fairing is going to be very difficult.'

A few hours after the Iridium-7 launch, SpaceX confirmed that Mr Steven failed to catch the falling fairings, which are 17 feet in diameter, due to intense winds at sea.

'They did see the payload fairing coming down, but they were not able to catch it in the net,' Insprucker said about an hour into the launch.

'While it's great for the Falcon 9 going up, the weather in the Pacific is bad'

'We have high winds and choppy seas,' he added.

Choppy waters and high winds made it 'very iffy' that the Block 5 Falcon 9's first stage booster would be able to land back on the droneship, cheekily named 'Just Read the Instructions.' But about eight minutes into the launch, SpaceX confirmed that the booster successfully landed

SpaceX missed the mark on its other goal of recovering the rocket's multi-million dollar nose cone. The company confirmed that intense winds at sea prevented it from catching the fairing

SpaceX wants to recover the rocket's nose cone, which acts as a protective shield for payloads, as a money-saving mechanism, just like it does when recovering and re-using rocket boosters.

The Iridium-7 mission marked SpaceX's 14th launch of the year and the seventh mission for Iridium Communications, which aims to launch 75 satellites into orbit.



After Wednesday's mission, Iridium now has 65 satellites in operation.

Falcon 9's payload of 10 Iridium satellites deployed in space about 58 minutes after launch, with one released at a time every 100 seconds.

The Iridium-7 mission marked SpaceX's 14th launch of the year and the seventh mission for Iridium Communications, which aims to launch 75 satellites into orbit

SpaceX blasted off 10 more Iridium satellites into space and land a Falcon 9 booster on an off-shore drone ship -- all despite SpaceX experiencing extremely challenging weather conditions

The company had a 'very short' launch window of one second, Insprucker said, so that it could precisely position the 10 satellites to be placed alongside the other 55 satellites currently in orbit.

SpaceX will soon launch one final round of Iridium satellites, to reach a total of 75 satellites in orbit, as part of Iridium's effort to launch a network of next-generation satellites.

It's likely that SpaceX will make another attempt to catch payload fairings in its next mission.

'Very challenging weather conditions' meant that the Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket (pictured) was almost invisible on the launchpad at Vandeberg Air Force Base in California

SpaceX has encountered many issues with Mr Steven, which is described as a giant webbed catcher's mitt, ever since it was debuted during a Falcon 9 rocket launch in February.

So far, each attempt to use Mr Steven to recover a payload fairing, or nose cone, has failed.

Enlarging the net and Mr Steven's arms may increase the chances that it successfully catches fairings in the future.

A few hours after the Iridium-7 launch, SpaceX confirmed that Mr Steven (pictured) failed to catch the falling fairings, which are 17 feet in diameter, due to intense winds at sea

WHY DOES SPACEX RE-USE ROCKETS AND OTHER PARTS? SpaceX tries to re-use rockets, payload fairings, boosters and other parts to try to cut down on the cost of each rocket mission. The total cost of one of its Falcon 9 launches is estimated to reach 44 million ($61m), while each of its larger Falcon Heavy flights costs 65 million ($90m). The space company has previously re-used first-stage and second-stage rocket boosters, in addition to one of its previously flown Dragon capsules. The Dragon spacecraft are used as the final stage of SpaceX missions to resupply the International Space Station. In an incredible accomplishment, the Falcon Heavy's reused side boosters landed smoothly back down to Earth on two separate launchpads about 8 minutes in. SpaceX is currently testing a system to recover the fairings of its Falcon 9 rockets. The payload fairings are clam shell-like nose cone halves that protect the craft's payload. SpaceX recovered a payload fairing for the first time in 2017. During its first Falcon Heavy launch in February 2018, the firm landed two of the firms side boosters simultaneously on separate launchpads. Advertisement

Each of the arms' eight struts were also upgraded as part of the process and then the firm installed the new net.

The last time SpaceX used Mr Steven was during a launch in May.

Mr Steven nearly caught the payload fairing but ended up missing it again.

'We came very close. We're going to keep working on that,' a SpaceX employee said during the livestream.Hunter-gatherers in the Amazon had made the switch to farming more than 6,000 years ago, centuries earlier than thought.

Experts examined an archaeological site in southwest Amazonia and found evidence that suggest it was an important region in the early history of crop cultivation.

Layers of recently exposed soil revealed evidence of crop cultivation as well as artefacts used for processing food dating back as far as 8,000 years ago.

The findings suggest that human impact on Amazonian forests in this region goes back many thousands of years, they say.

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Experts examined an archaeological site in southwest Amazonia and found evidence that suggest it was an important region in the early history of crop cultivation. They believe the Teotonio waterfall (pictured) attracted people to this location for over 9,000 years

Researchers from the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, analysed soil and fossilised crop remains dating back around 9,000 years.

The findings were made at the Teotonio archaeological site, an open air 130 foot (40 metre) high bluff on the Upper Madeira River.

It has been described by researchers as a 'microcosm of human occupation' because it preserves a nearly continuous record of human cultures in the area going back nine millenia.

Experts analysed the remains of starch grains, seeds, phytoliths - minute mineral particle formed inside a plant - and other plant materials in the most ancient soils of the site.

The Teotonio waterfall was an extremely rich fishing location and regular stopping point for people travelling by boat on this stretch of the Madeira river. The arrow marks the site of the archaeological site where the finds were made

Layers of recently exposed soil revealed evidence of crop cultivation as well as artefacts used for processing food dating back as far as 8,000 years ago. This image shows a view of the Madeira river from Teotonio site

They found some of the earliest evidence of cultivated manioc, a crop which geneticists say was domesticated here over 8,000 years ago

Later crops included squash, beans, and perhaps calathea, and important tree crops such as palms and Brazil nut.

They also saw evidence of disturbed forest and a soil type called 'Anthropogenic Dark Earths' which both result from human alteration of local environments.

Lead author Jennifer Watling said: 'This discovery at the Teotonio waterfall in Southest Amazonia is some of the oldest evidence for plant cultivation in lowland South America, confirming genetic evidence'.

Experts analysed the remains of starch grains (pictured), seeds, phytoliths - minute mineral particle formed inside a plant - and other plant materials in the most ancient soils of the site

They found some of the earliest evidence of cultivated manioc, a crop which geneticists say was domesticated here over 8,000 years ago. This image shows selected phytoliths and macroremains found in soils at Teotonio

Later crops included squash, beans, and perhaps calathea, and important tree crops such as palms and Brazil nut. This image shows stone artefacts used for processing food

Genetic analysis of plant species has long pointed to the lowlands of southwest Amazonia as a key region in the early history of plant domestication in the Americas.

Systematic archaeological evidence to support this has been rare, however.

These findings suggest that the people of this region transitioned from early hunter-gatherer lifestyles to cultivating crops before 6,000 years ago, the researchers conclude.

Along with plant domestication, they also uncovered evidence of the familiar human habit of landscape modification.

These results point to the Upper Madeira as a key locality to explore the earliest days of crop domestication in the New World.

The full findings of the study were published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The findings were made at the Teotonio archaeological site, an open air 130 foot (40 metre) high bluff on the Upper Madeira River in BrazilTropical lizards have a stick-to-itiveness in high wind that puts TV weather reporters to shame. Now we know why, thanks in part to a high-powered leaf blower.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria put a group of little tree-hugging lizards to the test, and scientists were perfectly positioned to see which reptiles survived and why.

Then, Harvard researchers cranked up the leaf blower to observe just how 47 of the Caribbean critters held onto a wooden rod.

An anoles lizard hangs onto a pole during a simulated wind experiment in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to a study in the Wednesday, July 25, 2018 edition of the journal Nature, lizards who survived 2017's Hurricanes Irma and Maria had 6 to 9 percent bigger toe pads, significantly longer front limbs and smaller back limbs, compared with the population before the storms.

HOW THE EXPERIMENT WAS DONE Harvard researchers cranked up the leaf blower to observe just how 47 of Caribbean critters held onto a wooden rod. Even at 102 mph (164 kph), the lizards grasped the pole with two clingy front feet while their tails and back legs flapped in the wind like a flag. At 108 mph (174 kph), it was flying lizard time. Researchers took the leaf blower and cranked up the power on different lizards, recording it all with a high-speed camera. When the lizards fell, they went harmlessly into a net. Advertisement

Under tropical storm-force winds, the lizards lounged.

As the wind speed cranked up, they still held on, although it got tougher.

Even at 102 mph (164 kph), the lizards grasped the pole with two clingy front feet while their tails and back legs flapped in the wind like a flag.

'All the lizard needs is an inside out umbrella and the image would be perfect,' study lead author Colin Donihue said.

But there's only so much a little lizard can take.

At 108 mph (174 kph), it was flying lizard time.

Don't worry. No lizard was harmed in the lab test.

'They do go flying in the air, but it is softly into the net and everybody was returned back home' unharmed, said Donihue, a Harvard evolutionary biologist.

The lizards' secret weapon to surviving hurricanes? The survivors had 6 to 9 percent bigger toe pads, significantly longer front limbs and smaller back limbs, compared with the population before the storm, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Nature.

The study is the first to show natural selection due to hurricane, Donihue said.

By coincidence, Donihue and colleagues had been measuring and studying lizards just before the storms blew into the Turks and Caicos Islands last September.

They returned several weeks later to see if there was a difference in the surviving population.

They found that the survivors were a bit lighter overall despite the bulked-up front. Key were those toe pads - they are at most about half the size of a pencil's eraser - Donihue said. It also explains why island lizards have bigger toe pads than inland Central American lizards, a difference that had baffled scientists.

In this Oct. 19, 2017 photo provided by Colin Donihue, an anoles lizard hangs onto a pole during a simulated wind experiment in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to a study in the Wednesday, July 25, 2018 edition of the journal Nature, lizards who survived 2017's Hurricanes Irma and Maria had 6 to 9 percent bigger toe pads, significantly longer front limbs and smaller back limbs, compared with the population before the storms. (Colin Donihue via AP)

This Aug. 30, 2017 photo provided by Colin Donihue, shows an anoles lizard in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to a study in the Wednesday, July 25, 2018 edition of the journal Nature, lizards who survived 2017's Hurricanes Irma and Maria had 6 to 9 percent bigger toe pads, significantly longer front limbs and smaller back limbs, compared with the population before the storms.

Outside experts praised the study, especially the researchers' luck of being in the right place at the right time.

'This study provides exciting insight into the effects of extreme natural events,' said Pennsylvania State University biologist Tracy Langkilde, who wasn't part of the study.

Donihue and colleagues didn't merely measure the differences.

They took the leaf blower and cranked up the power on different lizards, recording it all with a high-speed camera.

'These lizards are very impressive for their clinging in the high winds,' Donihue said.

The hyperactive 2017 hurricane season was one of the worst ever experienced in the Atlantic Ocean region. Damage from totals for the hurricane season topped $282 billion -- the costliest on record. Hurricane Harvey hit in mid-August 2017, followed just a few weeks later by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in September.

Each of these storms had winds in excess of 125 mph, with Irma up to 170 mph.iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- National Security Advisor John Bolton said in a statement Wednesday that a proposed meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin won't be until 2019 after the "Russia witch hunt is over."



The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, Bolton said in a statement.



Last week, President Donald Trump extended an invitation to Putin to come to Washington for a second bilateral meeting. On Tuesday, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters that Trump and Putin may just meet on the sidelines of the G20 in Argentina in November.



This is a developing story. Please refresh for details.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Google is to start selling its own USB security keys in a bid to stop customer's accounts being hacked.

The Titan Security Key, which comes in both USB and Bluetooth versions, will be available for sale in Google's online store within the next few months, Google said.

It will come in a bundle with both the USB and Bluetooth versions for $50, $20-$25 individually, according to CNET.

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The Titan Security Key, which comes in both USB and Bluetooth versions, will be available for sale in Google's online store within the next few months, Google said.It will come in a bundle with both the USB and Bluetooth versions for $50, $20-$25 individually

'We're very sure of the quality of the security,' Christiaan Brand, a Google product manager for identity and security, said.

'We're very sure of how we store secrets and how hard it would be for an attacker to come in and blow the security up.'

The Titan should work on any device with a USB port or a Bluetooth connection.

It comes a day after Google said it has managed to completely stop its employee's account being hacked by requiring them to use physical security keys.

In 2017, the tech giant began giving out physical security keys to all 85,000 employees, according to KrebsOnSecurity.

Security Keys are inexpensive USB-based devices often costing less that $20, which require the user to log in to a Web site using something they know (the password) and something they have (e.g., a mobile device or USB key).

And since then, no employees have reported any confirmed takeovers of work-related accounts, Google said.

Google's advanced protection features include an option to require a physical USB security key to connect to a desktop computer before each log-in as a way to verify a user's identity.

Researchers say protecting your account with a password often isn't enough, and tech firms have developed new methods, often needing a mobile phone or a hardware key, such as the Security Key system used by Google.

A Google spokesperson said Security Keys now form the basis of all account access at Google.

'We have had no reported or confirmed account takeovers since implementing security keys at Google,' the spokesperson said.

'Users might be asked to authenticate using their security key for many different apps/reasons. It all depends on the sensitivity of the app and the risk of the user at that point in time.'

HOW DO I USE GOOGLE'S ADVANCED PROTECTION SYSTEM? The advanced protection features include an option to require a physical USB security key to connect to a desktop computer before each log-in as a way to verify a user's identity. Mobile log-ins will require a Bluetooth wireless device. Two Security Keys are required to enroll so that you'll have a backup key in case you lose your main key. A wireless-enabled key that can connect to both your computer and mobile devices should act as your main key, Google says. Advanced protection users will have their data walled off from access by any non-Google third-party applications, such as the Apple iOS mail client or Microsoft Outlook. The program also includes a more laborious and detailed account recovery process to prevent fraudulent access by hackers who try to gain access by pretending they have been locked out. Google created a web page to walk users through setting up advanced protection, including where to purchase USB and Bluetooth security keys on Amazon. Advertisement

The idea, known as two-factor authentication, mean even if hackers know your password, they still cannot log in to your account unless they also hack or possess that second factor - usually your phone or USB key.

The most common forms of 2FA require the user to supplement a password with a one-time code sent to their mobile device via text message or an app.

The Security Key used by Google uses a form of multi-factor authentication known as Universal 2nd Factor (U2F), which allows the user to complete the login process simply by inserting the USB device and pressing a button on the device.

Sites including Dropbox, Facebook, Github, and Google's services support the new devices, with more being added daily.

Currently, U2F is supported by Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

Microsoft says it expects to roll out updates to its flagship Edge browser to support U2F later this year.

Apple has not yet said when or if it will support the standard in its Safari browser.

For non employees Alphabet's Google offers an 'advanced protection program' to provide stronger email security for some users such as government officials, political activists and journalists who are at a higher risk of being targeted by sophisticated hackers.

The $20 Yubikey that can be used on a desktop computer

Google users will have the ability to opt in to security settings aimed at protecting Gmail, Google Drive and YouTube data from phishing attacks.

The advanced protection features include an option to require a physical USB security key to connect to a desktop computer before each log-in as a way to verify a user's identity.

Mobile log-ins will require a Bluetooth wireless device.

Advanced protection users will have their data walled off from access by any non-Google third-party applications, such as the Apple iOS mail client or Microsoft Outlook.

The program also includes a more laborious and detailed account recovery process to prevent fraudulent access by hackers who try to gain access by pretending they have been locked out.

Although Google has previously supported the use of security keys for what is known as two-factor authentication, advanced protection users will have no backup log-in method available if they lose their keys other than the fuller account recovery process.

The rollout of a suite of new email security services follows a U.S. presidential election last year shaped in part by the disclosure of emails belonging to associates of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that were obtained through phishing schemes.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that those hacks, which included a breach of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta's personal Gmail account, were carried out by Russia as part of a broader cyber campaign to help Donald Trump, a Republican, win the White House.

'If John Podesta had Advanced Protection last year, the world might be a very different place,' said Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, who was briefed on the new features by Google.

Hall said the new features would increase the number of high-risk consumers with strong protections against phishing campaigns.

But he noted that they may create compatibility issues among some who already integrate custom security tools with their Google products.

Google created a web page, g.co/advancedprotection, to walk users through setting up advanced protection, including where to purchase USB and Bluetooth security keys on Amazon.AIs that can work out how to hack self driving cars and other vehicles to turn them into killers are coming - and sooner than many people think, a leading expert has warned.

'Such attacks, which seem like science fiction today, might become reality in the next few years,' Guy Caspi, CEO of cybersecurity start-up Deep Instinct, told CNBC's podcast 'Beyond the Valley.'

It raises fears that self driving cars and other technologies could be hacked, turning them into makeshift battle weapons.

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Security expert Guy Caspi claims the technology needed for killer vehicles already exists in self driving cars from firms like Alphabet's Waymo.

Caspi says much of the technology needed for killer vehicles already exists.

'Autonomous cars like Google's (Waymo) are already using deep learning, can already raid obstacles in the real world,' Caspi said, 'so raiding traditional anti-malware system in cyber domain is possible.'

The chilling warning comes days after thousands of the top names in tech have come together to take a stand against the development of killer robots.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has long been outspoken about the dangers of AI, joined the founders of Google DeepMind, the XPrize Foundation, and over 2,500 individuals and companies in signing a pledge this week condemning lethal autonomous weapons.

The industry experts vowed to 'neither participate in nor support' the use of such weapons, arguing that 'the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine.'

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has long been outspoken about the dangers of AI, joined the founders of Google DeepMind, the XPrize Foundation, and over 2,500 individuals and companies in signing a pledge this week condemning lethal autonomous weapons

'There is an urgent opportunity and necessity for citizens, policymakers, and leaders to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI,' industry experts argue in the pledge, which was released on Wednesday at the 2018 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Stockholm.

More than 2,400 people from 90 different countries signed the pledge organized by the Future of Life Institute, along with over 160 companies.

It calls upon the world's governments to step up efforts to prevent lethal autonomous weapons, or 'killer robots,' from emerging in the global arms race.

Not only is it of moral concern, but the experts warn AI weapons could spiral out of control in a way that would be 'dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual.'

The potential for lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) has come under increased scrutiny in the last few years as militaries around the world turn their focus more and more to artificial intelligence.

While today's drones are controlled by humans or used to defend against other weapons, there are fears that machines could soon be used to identify and kill people on their own.

An advocacy video released at the end of last year, dubbed Slaughterbots, envisioned what a dystopian future with killer robots could be like.

Thousands of industry experts vowed to 'neither participate in nor support' the use of lethal autonomous weapons, arguing that 'the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine.' Stock image

WHAT DOES THE FULL PLEDGE AGAINST KILLER ROBOTS SAY? 'Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play an increasing role in military systems. There is an urgent opportunity and necessity for citizens, policymakers, and leaders to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI. In this light, we the undersigned agree that the decision to take a human life should never be delegated to a machine. There is a moral component to this position, that we should not allow machines to make life-taking decisions for which others  or nobody  will be culpable. There is also a powerful pragmatic argument: lethal autonomous weapons, selecting and engaging targets without human intervention, would be dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual. Thousands of AI researchers agree that by removing the risk, attributability, and difficulty of taking human lives, lethal autonomous weapons could become powerful instruments of violence and oppression, especially when linked to surveillance and data systems. Moreover, lethal autonomous weapons have characteristics quite different from nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and the unilateral actions of a single group could too easily spark an arms race that the international community lacks the technical tools and global governance systems to manage. Stigmatizing and preventing such an arms race should be a high priority for national and global security. We, the undersigned, call upon governments and government leaders to create a future with strong international norms, regulations and laws against lethal autonomous weapons. These currently being absent, we opt to hold ourselves to a high standard: we will neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons. We ask that technology companies and organizations, as well as leaders, policymakers, and other individuals, join us in this pledge.' -Lethal Autonomous Weapons Pledge, organized by Future of Life Institute Advertisement

The UN began discussing the issue of lethal autonomous weapons back in December 2016, and 26 countries have since voiced support for a ban on the technology.

'We cannot hand over the decision as to who lives and who dies to machines,' said Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales and a key organizer of the pledge.

'They do not have the ethics to do so.'

With the next UN meeting on killer robots set for next month, many in the industry are hoping to get more countries on board with banning these weapons.More than 80 years after the famed pilot disappeared with her navigator somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, an exhaustive study has pieced together what could be the details of Amelia Earharts harrowing last days.

In the week after her plane vanished on July 2, 1937, there were 120 reports from around the world claiming to have picked up radio signals and distress calls from Earhart  57 of which were determined to be credible.

An effort led by Richard Gillespie, executive director of The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, analyzed these final transmissions, painting a haunting image of their increasingly desperate situation over the course of seven days.

Challenging one of the widely held theories, which claims her Lockheed Electra crashed and sank in the ocean, the distress calls suggest Earhart and a severely injured Fred Noonan were stranded on a reef, at the mercy of the tides.

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Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan were attempting to circumnavigate the globe by plane when they vanished on July 2, 1937. Their remains have never been positively identified, but one research group is convinced that they crash landed on a remote Pacific island

Researchers analysed 120 reported distress signals from Earhart after she vanished, and found 57 to be credible. They say the signals all point to Gardner Island as the source, because the clarity of the messages received increases the closer to the island the listeners were

Seven people who received credible distress calls managed to take directional bearings, and five of those bearings cross in the vicinity of Gardner Island, the study showed

The comprehensive new study from TIGHARs Earhart Project picks apart each distress call received in the week after the pilots disappearance, revealing an hour-by-hour chronology of the events that transpired.

These heartbreaking messages were picked up around the world by naval stations actively participating in the search, and casual listeners in their homes.

On Friday July 2, hours after her disappearance became known, a station leading the search heard a voice thought to be hears. And, when asked to confirm with a series of dashes, three stations heard the response, and one caught the word Earhart.

Later that night in the second active period of signalling, a housewife from Amarillo, Texas heard Earhart say she was down on an uncharted island - small, uninhabited.

The transmission went on to say the plane was part on land, part in water, and that the navigator Fred Noonan was seriously injured, and needed immediate medical attention.

That same night, a woman from Ashland, Kentucky heard Earhart say the plane was down in ocean and on or near a little island.

The researchers are working on the theory that Earhart managed to land her Lockheed Electra on a reef which surrounds the islands, where it sat for at least a week (mock-up image)

The timing of the distress signals, all of which came at night, coincide with low tide patterns on the reef. Researchers say this is the only time that Earhart would have been able to run the plane's engine without the propeller hitting the water, in order to power her radio

Tide patterns also show an unusually high tide on July 7, the day of the last credible transmission, which likely would have swamped the Electra and wrecked the radio. It may even have been enough to sweep the aircraft into the surf, where it would have broken up (pictured)

She continued: Our plane is about out of gas. Water all around. Very dark, before going on to mention a storm and winds blowing.

Will have to get out of here, she said. We cant stay here long.

Almost all of signals considered to be credible can be traced back to Gardner Island, where Earhart and Noonan were likely marooned on a reef.

But, Gillespie explains in the new paper, transmitting from this spot presented a dilemma.

The radios relied on the aircrafts batteries, but battery power was needed to start the generator-equipped starboard engine to recharge the batteries, the researcher writes.

If the lost fliers ran down the batteries sending distress calls they wouldnt be able to start the engine.

'The only sensible thing to do was to only send radio calls when the engine was running and charging the batteries. But on the reef, the tide comes in and the tide goes out.

According to Gillespie, building off earlier research done with colleague Bob Brandenburg, the signals could only be sent out when the water was below 26 inches, leaving the propeller tip clear.

As suspected, Gillespie found that the timing of the distress calls lines up with periods where water on the reef would have been low.

Most were sent at night, likely because darkness offered cooler temperatures after long days in the harsh island sun.

Each period of active transmission lasted roughly an hour, with a period of silence lasting about an hour and a half in between.

This, according to Gillespie, repeated each day until high tide or daylight.

In the week after her plane vanished on July 2, 1937, there were 120 reports from around the world claiming to have picked up radio signals and distress calls from Earhart  57 of which were determined to be credible

Heartbreaking distress calls were picked up around the world by naval stations actively participating in the search, and casual listeners in their homes. Above, Earhart is seen on the wing of her plane before her last flight in 1937

WHAT ARE THE THEORIES ON AMELIA EARHART'S FINAL DAYS? Theory One: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crash into the Pacific a few miles short of their intended destination due to visibility and gas problems, and die instantly. Theory Two: Earhart and Noonan crash land on the island of Nikumaroro, where they later die at the hands of coconut crabs, which hunt for food at night and grow up to three-feet long. The name comes from their ability to opened the hardened shells of coconuts. Theory Three: Earhart and Noonan veer drastically off course and crash land near the Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands. They are rescued but soon taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese and sent to a camp in Saipan. Noonan is beheaded and Earhart dies in 1939 from malaria or dysentery. Theory Four: Earhart and Noonan make it to Howland Island as planned and are eaten by cannibals. Theory Five: Earhart was an American spy sent to gather information on the Japanese ahead of World War II. Theory Six: Earhart and Noonan are unable to locate Howland Island, and head toward their 'contingency plan'. After a ten hour journey back toward the location they came from, they crash in the jungle of East New Britain Island, in what is now known as Papua New Guinea. There are several conflicting theories about Earhart's disappearance. The alleged details of Earhart's final flight, and where she is believed to have ended up based on different theories over the years Advertisement

On Saturday July 3, during the sixth active period, a male voice was heard for the first time, suggesting Noonan, though injured, was still alive and functioning rationally.

The following day, a 16-year-old boy in Wyoming heard the pilot say the ship was on a reef. And, the station at Howland Island heard a both a mans voice and a womans, with the message tell husband alright.

On only one occasion did the crew send Morse code, as neither were skilled in the technique.

A poorly keyed message received by the US Navy Radio Facility in Wailupe, near Honolulu, on July 5 stated: 281 North Howland Call KHAQQ Beyond North Dont Hold With Us Much Longer Above Water Shut Off.

Among the most famous are the snippets heard by 15-year-old, Betty Klenck, in St. Petersburg, Florida, that same day.

Using her familys radio, Klenck heard exchanges between Earhart and Noonan that indicated the injured navigator had become irrational.

In 1940, bones were discovered on Gardner Island  now called Nikumaroro (pictured)  400 miles south of Earhart's planned stopover on Howland Island. An expert on skeletal biology now believes the bones are '99% likely' to be Earhart's

The two could be heard calling for help and discussing the rising water with urgency.

According to Klenck, Noonan could also be heard yelling, and complaining about his head.

In her notes, Klenck wrote that Earheart said a few cuss words and sounds like she was having trouble getting water so high the plane was slipping.

The transmission ended shortly after.

According to Gillespie, the last active period occurred on Wednesday July 7, from 12:25 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. The researchers estimates indicate the water level would have reached the cabin  and the transmitter  by 6 oclock the following morning.

The photo shows how the high tide submerged the reef at Gardner Island

In one of the final haunting messages, Thelma Lovelace of St Johns, New Brunswick heard: Can you read me? Can you read me? This is Amelia Earhart. This is Amelia Earhart. Please come in.

She went on to give the latitude and longitude, which Lovelace wrote down and later lost.

Then, Earhart continued: We have taken in water, my navigator is badly hurt. My navigator is badly hurt. We are in need of medical care and must have help; we cant hold on much longer.

After Wednesday July 7, there were no more credible signals, leaving Earhart and Noonans final moments a mystery.

At some time between 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 7, when the last Credible Beyond a Reasonable Doubt transmission was sent, and the morning of Friday, July 9, the Electra was washed over the reef into the ocean where it broke up and sank, Gillespie wrote.

When three US Navy search planes from the battleship USS Colorado flew over Gardner Island on the morning of Friday, July 9, no aircraft was seen.

A set of bones discovered on Gardner Island in 1940, now known as Nikumaroro, provided whats considered to be among the best evidence of the doomed pilots final resting place.

According to Richard Jantz, an expert on skeletal biology at the University of Tennessee who analyzed the skeleton, the remains are '99% likely' to be hers.Liquid water is known to be one of the key components to life as we know it, and scientists have spent decades searching for it on Mars.

If a large, permanent of body of water exists on the red planet then it has a good chance of hosting microbial life.

Researchers had long speculated liquid water is present under the planet's surface, but lacked solid evidence to confirm this.

A new finding from a team of Italian scientists suggests a subsurface lake that stretches 12 miles (20km) long is hidden beneath the Martian south pole.

The discovery is the first evidence of a lake of liquid water on Mars that still exists today  an environment scientists believe is ideal for the growth of life.

While the lake exists at a hostile temperature of -68C (-90F), microbes could grow there, as they do in similar environments on Earth, scientists said.

Dr Brendan Burns, a microbiologist and astrobiologist from The University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the research, said: 'While the surface of Mars is inhospitable, there is the fascinating possibility that microbial life could survive and flourish in sub-glacial Martian waters.'Theory One: Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crash into the Pacific a few miles short of their intended destination due to visibility and gas problems, and die instantly.

Theory Two: Earhart and Noonan crash land on the island of Nikumaroro, where they later die at the hands of coconut crabs, which hunt for food at night and grow up to three-feet long. The name comes from their ability to opened the hardened shells of coconuts.

Theory Three: Earhart and Noonan veer drastically off course and crash land near the Mili Atoll in the Marshall Islands. They are rescued but soon taken as prisoners of war by the Japanese and sent to a camp in Saipan. Noonan is beheaded and Earhart dies in 1939 from malaria or dysentery.

Theory Four: Earhart and Noonan make it to Howland Island as planned and are eaten by cannibals.

Theory Five: Earhart was an American spy sent to gather information on the Japanese ahead of World War II.

Theory Six: Earhart and Noonan are unable to locate Howland Island, and head toward their 'contingency plan'. After a ten hour journey back toward the location they came from, they crash in the jungle of East New Britain Island, in what is now known as Papua New Guinea.Quick-Step Floors rider Philippe Gilbert has revealed the horrific injury he suffered during Stage 16 of the Tour de France.

Belgian Gilbert lost control of his bike on a fast descent and crashed into a wall before disappearing head first into a ravine on Tuesday.

He remounted and finished the stage but his Tour has come to an end after breaking his knee cap.

Philippe Gilbert has revealed the horrific injury he suffered during Stage 16 of Tour de France

Belgian Gilbert lost control of his bike on a fast descent and crashed into a wall on Tuesday

After disappearing head first into a ravine, he remounted and finished the stage

We've all been very scared, but @PhilippeGilbert is ok and will go back on the bike. 

Apres une grosse frayeur, @PhilippeGilbert semble aller bien et va repartir. #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/Xtrjyw3QSf  Tour de France (@LeTour) July 24, 2018

Gilbert posted a picture of his swollen left knee on to Twitter on Wednesday.

He wrote: 'When you have a broken knee cap and decide to keep going for another 60km.'

The tweet came after announcing he could no longer continue in the race in a video post on the social media platform.

Gilbert is helped back to the road after crashing over a wall during Stage 16 on Tuesday

Belgian Gilbert sits on the side of the wall he crashed into and flipped over on Tuesday

A close up of Gilbert's injury after crashing during Stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday

The caption read: 'Thank you all for the support after yesterdays crash. I have done everything I could to continue in @LeTour, but unfortunately its not longer possible with a fracture of the patella.

'As always I will come back stronger!'

Gilbert was awarded most combative rider for the stage on Tuesday and he collected the trophy with heavy strapping on his left leg.

He was awarded most combative rider and he collected trophy with heavy strapping on his legRyanair has hit back at striking pilots based in Dublin by announcing it is cutting back its fleet there by 20 per cent leaving 300 jobs under threat.

The Irish-based carrier, headed by Michael O'Leary, said it has issued 90-day notices to 100 pilots and more than 200 cabin crew under plans to slash its Dublin-based fleet from 30 to around 24 for the winter season and move more aircraft to Poland.

The airline is now beginning consultations on redundancy adding that if job losses are necessary, they will be determined by 'assessment of flight performance, productivity, attendances, and base transfer requests'.

Ryanair has hit back at striking pilots based in Dublin by announcing it is cutting back its fleet there by 20 per cent leaving 300 jobs under threat. Pictured is a Ryanair aircraft at Dublin airport

It will be offering impacted staff transfers to Poland to 'minimise redundancies'.

In a statement Ryanair said the reductions have been driven by the rapid growth of its Polish charter airline coupled with a downturn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland.

The carrier blames this partly on recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots in a row over annual leave and promotions. It says that consumer confidence in the reliability of its Irish flight schedules has been disturbed.

It added that Ryanairs Polish airline, Ryanair Sun, will now offer over 10 aircraft to Polish tour operators, more than double the five aircraft offered in Summer 2018.

The budget airline also confirmed that it expects few route closures from Dublin, but said that others may suffer frequency reductions.

It added: 'In the light of these Dublin base cuts, Ryanair has today issued letters of (90 days) protective notice to over 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew employees, whose services may not be required from 28 Oct onwards, due to this 20 per cent reduction in the Dublin fleet this winter.'

The Irish-based carrier, headed by Michael O'Leary, pictured, said it has issued 90-day notices to the 100 pilots and more than 200 cabin crew

Ryanair's chief operating officer Peter Bellew also released a statement where he explained the reasons behind the fleet reduction.

He said: 'We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots.

'Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe.

The job losses could look to Irish pilots and other people like a punishment for participation in strike action Balpa

'We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence.'

Trade union Forsa, which represents the pilots, slammed the carrier for making 'threatening statements'.

A spokesman for the union said: 'This kind of threatening statement is not conducive to building trust and reaching a resolution to the dispute, and Forsa doesn't accept that jobs or expansion in the airline need be put at risk by company management.'

Brian Strutton, from British pilots' union Balpa, said: 'Todays announcement by Ryanair that they are moving work from Dublin to Poland is extremely regrettable.

'The accompanying job losses could look to Irish pilots and other people like a punishment for participation in strike action.

'This does not give a good impression and is likely further to inflame the situation when what should be happening is both sides getting around the negotiating table to work out a new collective labour agreement.

'Balpa is recognised for collective bargaining in the UK by Ryanair but we have not yet reached agreement on any industrial matters.

'We have submitted several proposals, including ones to bring an end to a fragmented pay structure, reduce the number of contract pilots and the acceptance of seniority. Ryanair has so far failed to accept any of these proposals.'

Ryanair pilots in the Forsa union form a picket line outside the airline's headquarters in Swords, County Dublin, yesterday

The announcement of potential job losses comes as it was revealed a fourth day of strike action by Irish pilots is being planned for next Friday (August 3).

It will be the latest walk out in the ongoing dispute, which also saw pilots have their salaries published online.

The airline took to Twitter and revealed how much it pays its flight crews, which in some instances is considerable - up to 16,000 euros (14,000) a month.

In a statement published online on Tuesday, the low-cost airline said: 'We apologise to the 2,500 customers whose flights today were cancelled last Thursday (and who were re-accommodated/refunded over the weekend) due to a third unnecessary strike by a small minority (25 per cent) of our Irish pilots (who earn 150,000 to 200,000 euros p.a.) over seniority and base transfer proposals which they can't explain and which don't even affect them.

The airline hit out at pilots who staged a third 24-hour strike over an ongoing dispute by publishing their salaries online

This payslip, published online by Ryanair, shows how an Irish captain earns over 16,000 euros per month

A Belgian Ryanair captain can earn over 200,000 euros per months and a UK captain even more than that

'Our pilots should resolve these issues through out working group and not disrupt any more customer holidays.

'Across Europe today, Ryanair will operate 2,500 flights, taking over 450,000 customers to their holiday destinations.'

On Monday, Ryanair reported a 20 per cent plunge in profits to 319million euro (285million) for the three months to June 30 after being stung by lower fares, higher oil prices and pilot costs.

As well as the pilot strikes, Ryanair is also battling against disruption from air traffic control strikes in Europe and filed a complaint on Tuesday to the European Commission against France over the issue, alongside British Airways owner IAG, easyJet and Wizz Air.

It is also having to deal with strikes by cabin crew in Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Italy that are affecting 100,000 travellers.Advertisement

The world's largest indoor theme park - costing over $1billion (760million) - has opened in Abu Dhabi.

Warner Bros World opened its doors to the first visitors yesterday and the attraction honours some of the most famous cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo.

The desert-like climate of Abu Dhabi means the park is located inside a huge air-conditioned building with the interior designed to make it permanently resemble midday.

The Warner Bros Plaza that greets visitors as they enter Warner Bros World in Abu Dhabi, the world's biggest indoor theme park

One of the areas inside the park is based on Bedrock, the fictional town where the famous cartoon characters the Flintstones lived

Pictured is a Jetsons-themed ride in the Dynamite Gulch land. It's one of 29 rides that the park offers

The attraction in the United Arab Emirates honours some of the most famous cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo

The entrance to the brand new indoor theme park, which encompasses 1.65 million square feet on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi

It encompasses 1.65 million square feet (153,290 square meters) on Yas Island, a leisure destination for the Emirati capital.

The park is separated into six areas including Bedrock of 'The Flintstones' fame, Superman's Metropolis, Batman's Gotham City, Cartoon Junction and Yosemite Sam's Dynamite Gulch.

As visitors approach the park, they are greeted by an Art-Deco-inspired land that celebrates the Golden Age of Hollywood and all things Warner Bros.

As guests step through to Metropolis, they will discover a gleaming urban landscape based on the tales of superheroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Aquaman.

The Cartoon Junction section, which features attractions based on the likes of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo

Tickets for the park are currently selling at 290 dirhams ($79/60) for adults and 230 dirhams ($63/48) for children

The park was built by the Abu Dhabi government-owned Miral Asset Management. Pictured is Tweety Pie and Sylvester greeting the first visitors

Officials say the draw of the Warner Bros brand, encompassing cartoons and comic books, will help them overcome the challenges faced by other theme parks in the Emirates

In the area based on Gotham City, visitors can immerse themselves in the world of Batman, The Joker, Harley Quinn and The Riddler.

The Cartoon Junction section features attractions based on the likes of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Scooby Doo, while Bedrock brings the Flintstones to life.

In the animated storyland Dynamite Gulch, guests can experience Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner's dizzying dash firsthand, and keep an eye out for Marvin The Martian and The Jetsons.

Only two of the park's 29 rides have height restrictions, with one of the showpiece rides being Batman: Knight Flight, which allows guests to experience flying in a Batwing vehicle.

As guests step through to Metropolis, pictured, they will discover a gleaming urban landscape based on the tales of superheroes such as Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Aquaman

The park also recreats Gotham City, the home of Batman. One of the showpiece rides is Batman: Knight Flight, which allows guests to experience flying in a Batwing vehicle

Tickets for the park are currently selling at 290 dirhams ($79/60) for adults and 230 dirhams ($63/48) for children.

It was formally opened by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

The park was built by the Abu Dhabi government-owned Miral Asset Management and is the the latest offering in a crowded market in the United Arab Emirates where one marquee park already faces serious financial problems.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi (centre left), formally opened the park in the United Arab Emirates

Officials say the draw of the Warner Bros brand, encompassing cartoons and comic books, will help them overcome the challenges faced by other theme parks in the Emirates, including a Dubai park that lost $300million last year.

The Warner Bros park does benefit from being on Yas Island, already home to the Ferrari World theme park, Abu Dhabi's Formula 1 race track, a large mall and a water park.

Both Dubai theme parks are further out in the desert, away from other attractions.Hotels in Benidorm are suffering their worst July for eight years and Costa Blanca is also suffering from a drop in tourist numbers.

Horrified hoteliers are blaming the continued loss of British visitors, which they say has been caused by the revitalisation of the tourism market in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, the hot weather in the UK, less flights and unfair competition from illegal holiday lets.

Hosbec, which represents hoteliers in Benidorm and the Costa Blanca, says Brits in particular are favouring apartments and villas over hotels.

Hotels in Benidorm (pictured) are suffering their worst July for eight years, say hoteliers

According to figures from the Spanish hotel organisation Hosbec, hotel occupation in Benidorm during the first fortnight in July fell 2.9 per cent, compared to the first half of July 2017, where the location reached an average occupation percentage of 89 per cent.

This is the lowest figure since the 2010 period (81.2 per cent) and 2014 (88.4 per cent) and it has put hoteliers 'on their guard'.

The one glimmer of light is that the Spanish market is growing in Benidorm and as a result, is helping to make up for lost Brits. Spanish tourists now account for 45.5 per cent of visitors, above the British at 43.8 per cent.

The situation on Costa Blanca is following the same trend, with hotel occupation during the first two weeks of July showing a drop of 4.5 per cent to 82.2 per cent compared to the same period in 2017.

'The loss of strength of the British market is a reality,' says a representative from Spanish hotelier organisation Hosbec. Pictured is Costa Blanca, which has also

As with Benidorm, cheaper packages in Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt are being blamed, together with a drop in air capacity, illegal rentals and the unusually hot weather in the UK.



'The loss of strength of the British market is a reality,' says a representative from Hosbec. 'Since the beginning of the year, there has been a gradual decline which translates into a total of more than 23,000 overnight stays compared to the first half of July 2017, and a decline of eight per cent.

'According to the latest data available, there is an increase in the hiring of packages from Turkey (up 71 per cent), Egypt (up 54 per cent) and Tunisia (up 37 per cent), being direct competitors of the Spanish "sun and beach" model.

'In addition, we note the important competitive consolidation of Greece with an 11 per cent rise in package recruitment.'Advertisement

These are the fascinating images among those that have been shortlisted for the annual Portrait of Britain exhibition, where portrait photos are displayed on screens in shopping centres and on high streets all over the UK.

The exhibition is run by the British Journal of Photography and aims to shed light on what it means to be British.

Judges have whittled down the entries to 200 shortlisted images, which will all be printed in a book published by Hoxton Mini Press, simply called Portrait of Britain. This batch will be reduced further to 100 winning images, which will be announced at the end of August in time for the launch of the exhibition, which opens on September 1.

These 100 pictures will each be displayed across JCDecaux's network of digital screens.

Simon Bainbridge, editorial director of the British Journal of Photography, said: 'In a period during which we are constantly fed the narrative of a country divided, they provide a timely reminder that a nation is made up of individuals, not just the sum of our tribal interests.

'Each portrait is a story in itself. And collectively they present an alternative to the political rhetoric, a human face that gives some nuance to the picture of who we are.' Scroll down to see 10 of the intriguing images that have made the shortlist of 200...

Photographer Gavin Li snapped this shot of a man named Richard in London. Mr Li said: 'I saw images circling around social-media of Richard. He's quite popular within a subculture of the LGBT community known as 'Bears' ( a larger, hairier gay male) and their admirers. I wanted to juxtapose his masculinity with soft pastel colours'

Dan Wood captured this intriguing portrait, left, in Bwlch, Powys, in Wales. He said: 'He was very intense but friendly.' Pictured right is a snap of double Olympic gold medalist Dame Kelly Holmes taken by David Cummings

Artist Inzajeano Latif snapped this untitled image in London. It's one of 200 pictures shortlisted for the annual Portrait of Britain exhibition

An image called 'Misty Morning' by Rob Payne, which was snapped on Wimbledon Common. Mr Payne explained: 'I used to see Mary walking her dogs on Wimbledon Common most days. Her outfit was befitting of the mood and location'

Photographer Greg Funnell took this portrait of Lady Avon, 98, the wife of former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Mr Funnell said: 'Lady Avon is a fascinating character with a sharp wit and a fantastic wealth of experience. For much of her life she had a front row seat to British politics'

After traumatic exile from their Iraqi homeland, asylum seekers Lawand and Rawa have an uncertain future in Derbyshire - not knowing if they will be deported or be granted sanctuary in the UK. The picture was captured by Stephen Illiffe

This snap, taken in Wiltshire by Paul Wenham-Clarke, shows Rishabh, who has Down's syndrome, playing with this brother. He said: 'Rishabh may have Down's syndrome but like lots of kids his age he is fascinated by computer games and has to have his time controlled just like his brother'

Olympic champion boxer Nicola Adams poses in a gym in Sheffield in a shot taken by Greg Woodward. He said: 'It took me three attempts to get my shot at photographing Nicola as fitting me into her extremely busy pre-Olympic schedule was far from simple'Chinese woolen embroidery master Xu Fengying (right) explains embroidery works to visitors on July 18, 2018. [Photo/Chinaculture.org]

A new exhibition opened at the art gallery of Japan-China Friendship Center in Japan on July 18, as one of a series of cultural activities marking the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship as well as the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up.

The 4th Shanghai Craft Show in Japan - Exhibition of Woolen Embroidery features more than 50 woolen embroidery works created by Shanghai artists in recent years, including replicas of murals in Mogao Caves, embroideries of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, and Johannes Vermeer's The Milkmaid.

Sixteen Japanese people attended a workshop to learn techniques of the exquisite Chinese needle work on July 19, the second day of the exhibition's opening.

The exhibition will end on July 24. It will then tour in Osaka and Nagasaki.

Shanghai's woolen embroidery, fusing traditional Chinese craftsmanship with Western art, was listed as a state-level intangible cultural heritage in China in 2011.Thousands of passengers in Europe including those flying to and from Stansted have been hit by travel chaos after Ryanair cancelled flights at the last minute amid strikes by cabin crew.

One passenger described the situation, on Twitter, as a 'shambles'.

Ryanair workers in Belgium, Spain, Portugal and Italy started a two-day strike today and the carrier, despite knowing for weeks that the industrial action was coming, has been unable to keep a lid on the disruption.

Frustrated passengers at Orio al Serio airport, which serves Milan

Thousands of passengers including those travelling to and from Stansted, have been forced to make last-minute travel plans after seeing flights cancelled

Ryanair said that all 50,000 customers affected by the cancellation of 600 flights on Wednesday and Thursday were given alternative flights or offered full refunds but some experienced last-minute cancellations. Pictured are passengers at Orio al Serio airport

Pictures from airports in Italy show huge queues forming and customers resorting to lying on top of their bags after being stuck. Pictured are passengers at Orio al Serio airport

Fifty thousand customers affected by the cancellation of 600 flights today and tomorrow received an apology from Ryanair via Twitter earlier this week and were given alternative flights or offered full refunds in the past few days. So the passengers who faced cancellations today were taken by surprise.

Pictures from airports in Italy showed huge queues forming and customers resorting to lying on top of their bags.

At Orio al Serio airport, which serves the Italian city of Milan, flights to destinations such as Stansted, Edinburgh, Athens and Prague were showing as being cancelled on departure boards.

For Chiara Luchi, a 21-year-old student ending a week-long holiday with her father in Madrid, her return to Pisa, Italy, became a nightmare.

At Orio al Serio airport, which serves the Italian city of Milan, flights to destinations such as Stansted, Edinburgh, Athens and Prague were showing as being cancelled on departure boards

Passengers who didn't want to queue at Orio al Serio airport in Italy resorted to sitting on their luggage

In Italy, protests were planned at airports, with unions saying they want a collective contract that recognizes workers' rights and that Ryanair has refused to negotiate

Her flight was still on schedule early on Wednesday morning but was cancelled by the time she arrived for check-in at the Madrid airport, where a group of striking Ryanair employees handed out brochures reading 'Ryanair must change'.

A departure board at Orio al Serio airport, which shows a number of Ryanair flights marked as cancelled

She said: 'I have sympathy for the workers, but I don't think this is fair for the customers and those who have to travel because they need to work.

After some back and forth, Ryanair offered Ms Luchi and her father the full fare for a flight to Rome with another company.

Meanwhile other passengers took to Twitter to berate the cancellations by the airline.

Francesca Vescovini wrote: 'I was in front of my gate when I discovered that my #Ryanair flight to Bologna has been #cancelled. Full solidarity to those on strike because @Ryanair is a rubbish company! Next time I won't risk. #ryanairstrike'

One passenger named Edward added: '30mins before flight you CANCEL the 14.25 to Stansted?! Stranded in Bergamo airport. What are you going to do? Accommodation? New flights?! Zero representatives around. #ryanairstrike #shambles.'

Arwa Amjjee tweeted: '@Ryanair thanks for cancelling my flight back to stansted from Rome! Sarcasm intended #RyanairMUSTchange #RyanairStrike #stranded'

Many passengers took to Twitter to berate the low-cost airline saying it had cancelled flights at the last minute

Tosca Ruggieri said: '@Ryanair Flight FR3004 cancelled and we just found out... You are offering to change the flight for free but all flights to Rome (departing from Stansted) are sold out until Monday! Unacceptable! #cancelled #flight #disruption #airport #ryanairstrike #compensation.'

While David Carr added: 'Good to see the Italian cabin crew strike had no effect. The 8.45 to Pisa cancelled 3 hours before take off. Cheers @Ryanair nothing like a wasted trip to Stansted and parking. Now got to spend the week in London melting #RyanairStrike #fakenews #Ryanair.'

Spain was the country with most cancellations, with almost one out of four of the company's daily flights halted Wednesday and Thursday.

Authorities in Spain required the company to ensure that the Balearic and Canary Islands were fully served and that cities on the mainland received 35 per cent of domestic and 59 per cent of international flights.

At three Portuguese airports, 36 of 45 scheduled Ryanair flights were cancelled, and the airline's check-in areas were largely deserted. Ryanair had said before the strike that as many as 50 of 180 scheduled flights from and to Portugal could be cancelled during the strike period.

A spokesman from the airline told MailOnline Travel: 'Ryanair regrets that, due to strike action by some of our cabin crew at a number of Italian bases, we are experiencing flight disruption in Italy today (25 July) which has led to cancellations.

'Affected customers have been contacted by email and text message regarding their flight and given the option of a free transfer on to the next available flight, or a full refund.

'Ryanair sincerely apologises for any disruption and inconvenience to our customers caused by this strike action by a small number of cabin crew in Italy.'

Ryanair cabin crew members in Charleroi airport in Belgium set up a picket line after going on strike

Ryanair workers demonstrate during the first day of the cabin crew strike at the airport of Palma de Majorca

Labour unions in Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy claim that employees are hired by Ryanair or its subsidiaries under contracts governed by countries where they are not based, reducing their leave allowances, causing wage disparities and impeding the workers' access to state benefits.

In response, the Dublin-based airline published on its website salary slips for cabin crew arguing that they are paid fairly.

Bruno Fialho, of Portugal's Civil Aviation Cabin Crew Trade Union, urged the government to intervene in the dispute, claiming the airline is 'trampling on Portuguese laws' by not respecting the labour rights of local staff.

Ryanair published on its website salary slips for cabin crew arguing that they are paid fairly

In Italy, protests were planned at airports, with unions saying they want a collective contract that recognizes workers' rights and that Ryanair has refused to negotiate.

The demands came as Irish pilots held rolling strikes that hit bookings and consumer confidence in Ireland, according to Ryanair.

The airline responded Thursday by warning some 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew members that they could lose their jobs as it cuts its Dublin-based aircraft fleet from 30 to 24. Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases.She is rumoured to be taking part in the next season of Married At First Sight after quitting her radio job in Wollongong to return to Sydney for an exciting new 'project'.

And on Tuesday, Mel Greig continued to fuel the speculation when she appeared on her Wave FM radio show for the last time, breaking down in tears while talking about her lonely single life.

The 35-year-old revealed she was putting her 'health and happiness first' by relocating to Sydney and confessed she felt 'isolated' and alone in the coastal city.

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'I don't have a family or partner, it's just me': Mel Greig broke down in tears on live radio while speaking of her 'isolation' in Wollongong - and dropped a major hint she's going on MAFS

Mel said on air: 'So, you all know when I moved to the Illawarra, I was married, about to have babies... that didn't eventuate. I divorced [and] became quite isolated.

'The Illawarra is amazing, I love this place and have amazing friends here, but when you get up everyday at 3.20am, it takes its toll.

'This was a fresh start and it just didn't go to plan in the sense of what I pictured. That little family, going to nippers in a beautiful coastal town.

'I don't have a family, I don't have a partner, it's just me.'

Relocating: The 35-year-old revealed she was putting her 'health and happiness first' by relocating back to Sydney for an 'exciting' new project. Pictured in London in 2014

Referring to her pet dog, Mel then joked: 'And Mia can't get into half the restaurants!'

She added that part of the reason she was leaving her radio job was because her endometriosis has been worsened by the early starts.

During her farewell segment on Wave FM, Mel specified that she did not have another radio job lined up in Sydney.

This could lead fans to speculate that her 'exciting' new opportunity is a reality TV project, namely Married At First Sight.

Health woes: Mel explained that part of the reason she was leaving her job at Wollongong's Wave FM was because her endometriosis has been playing up with the early starts

New start: The Illawarra Mercury reported on Monday that Mel had resigned from her radio gig at Wave FM for an 'exciting new opportunity'. However, she revealed on air on Tuesday that this 'opportunity' was not a new radio job. Pictured in January 2018

The Illawarra Mercury reported earlier this week that Mel refused to deny her new project was a reality show, simply describing it as a 'new challenge'.

'Im going there basically with an open plate and waiting for fate to throw things on it,' she said of her move to Sydney.

Mel also hinted that she was bound for MAFS in her dating column for Yahoo Be.

'I'm moving back to Sydney because I'm single, childless and that's where the opportunities are for me,' she wrote.

'Every single friend I have in the Illawarra is either married or has children, majority are both and I honestly couldn't be happier for them, but it does make you feel like the odd one out.'

'I'm single and childless': Mel also hinted that she was bound for MAFS in her dating column for Yahoo Be

Filming for Married At First Sight will begin in Sydney next month. This appears to would coincide with the timing of Mel's mystery 'project'.

Producers have already asked several celebrities to appear on the show, including former Bachelorette star Michael Turnbull, 'world's hottest grandmother' Gina Stewart, and TV psychic Harry T.

Mel split with her ex-husband Steven Pollock in 2016 after just 18 months of marriage.It's been rumoured for months that Karl Stefanovic underwent a secret 'hair transplant' ahead of his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough.

And the 43-year-old TV presenter's apparent hair loss was the subject of a joke during a food segment on Wednesday's Today show.

As nutritionist Joanna McMillan explained the benefits of various food groups, co-host Georgie Gardner asked, 'What about thinning hair?'

'Why are you looking at me?' Georgie Gardner joked about Karl Stefanovic's thinning mane on the Today show... following rumours he underwent a 'subtle' pre-wedding hair transplant

Karl snapped defensively: 'Why are you looking at me?'

Georgie the replied: 'I'm not. I purposefully was not looking at you, Karl... but if your hair is falling out, what are your thoughts?'

At that moment, Karl burst into laughter and jokingly suggested that Georgie and Joanna 'were just ganging up on [him]'.

Ouch! As nutritionist Joanna McMillan (centre) explained on Wednesday the benefits of various food groups, co-host Georgie Gardner (right) asked, 'What about thinning hair?'

Later in the segment, Joanna suggested that nuts and seeds may have benefits for men experiencing hair loss.

'So, nuts can cure baldness?' Karl said, his interest suddenly piqued.

He then picked up a bowl of nuts from the table and poured them into his mouth.

'Look at that, my hair's thicker!' Later in the segment, Joanna suggested that nuts and seeds may have benefits for men experiencing hair loss. This prompted Karl to pick up a bowl of nuts from the table and pour them into his mouth

Joanna chuckled at the bizarre display as Georgie covered her face with her hand, looking less than impressed.

'Look at that, my hair's thicker! It's just lush,' declared Karl as he chomped on nuts.

'Moving swiftly on!' Georgie said, trying to keep a straight face.

In May, Woman's Day published a speculative article suggesting that Karl may have undergone a hair transplant in preparation for his wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough.

'Hairier Mop Or New Hue?' the headline screamed, followed by the bold suggestion that the father-of-three has either had 'a hair transplant or just a bad dye job'.

Last year, The Sydney Morning Herald also claimed that Karl had undergone a 'subtle hair transplant' to cover thinning at the front and top.He's due to turn 50 in October.

And on Wednesday morning, Hugh Jackman flaunted the ripped bod of a man half his age while enjoying an early morning swim on Bondi Beach.

Braving the winter chill, the Hollywood actor gave lucky beach goers an eyeful while stripping off for the refreshing dip.

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He's still got it! Hugh Jackman, 49 flaunted his age-defying ripped physique as he emerged from the sea following a morning swim at Bondi Beach

Babewatch: Braving the winter chill, the Hollywood actor gave lucky beach goers an eyeful while stripping off for the refreshing dip

Hunk on duty: With his soaking dark locks slicked back, the Oscar-nominated star resembled Greek god as he trod on the golden sands

Gritting his teeth: The X-Men icon beamed as he splashed about in the freezing water

Clad in just a pair of clinging grey board shorts with black and white palm tree detail, the star proudly flashed his washboard abs.

Emerging from the icy surf, Hugh flexed his muscular biceps while striding from the surf.

With his soaking dark locks slicked back, the Oscar-nominated star beamed as he splashed about in the water.

Look at that body! Clad in just a pair of clinging grey board shorts with black and white palm tree detail, the star proudly flashed his washboard abs

Looking good: The father of two then glanced down at his gym-honed arms, admiring his perfect form before smiling to himself

Blinded: The actor squinted as he faced the morning sun while jogging through the water

But the Arctic temperatures must have proved too much to bear as Hugh grimaced and frowned while making his way back to the beach.

The father of two then glanced down at his gym-honed arms, admiring his perfect form.

Also enjoying the surf, Hugh worked out his trainer, who almost managed to steal some of the focus with his equally-buff bod.

He's freezing: But the Arctic temperatures must have proved too much to bear as Hugh grimaced and frowned while making his way back to the beach

Competition: Also enjoying the surf, Hugh worked out his trainer, who almost managed to steal focus with his equally-buff bod

But all eyes were back on The Greatest Showman star as he washed away the salty sea water from his buff body under the beach showers.

Hugh turned heads as he combed his fingers through his hair while standing under the fresh water tap.

Refreshed from the grueling workout, he quickly dried off with a black and white stripped towel.

Cleaned up: All eyes were back on The Greatest Showman star as he washed away the salty sea water from his buff body under the beach showers

Refreshing: Hugh turned heads as he combed his fingers through his hair while standing under the fresh water tap

Barefoot, the actor picked up a an empty protein shake bottle as he wiped his face.

Married to wife Deborra-Lee Furness for 22 years, the New York based actor owns a $6million three-bedroom penthouse near the famous Sydney beach.

The star will next hit the big screen in political drama, The Front Runner.

The true story chronicles the rise of American Senator, Gary Hart a Democratic presidential candidate in 1988, and his subsequent fall from grace when media reports surfaced of his extramarital affair.Married At First Sight's Telv Williams has branded his 'ex-wife' Sarah Roza 'delusional' and even described her recent behaviour as 'stalker-ish'.

After Sarah sensationally claimed that she sees Telv's children Miah, four, and Telv Jr., two, 'more than he does', the 34-year-old father-of-two told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday that 'it's all lies'.

The FIFO worker insisted he 'speaks regularly' with his kids and wants to return to his normal life after his 15 minutes of fame - but Sarah keeps dragging him back into the headlines.

EXCLUSIVE: Married At First Sight's Telv Williams has has branded his 'ex-wife' Sarah Roza 'delusional' and even described her recent behaviour as 'stalker-ish' after she paid his ex-partner and two children a 'surprise visit' in Perth. Pictured in Melbourne on March 8, 2018

'The worst part about the Married At First Sight experience has been all the lies that Sarah keeps coming out with. She really ruined it for me,' Telv said.

Referring to previous claims made by Sarah, he added: 'I don't owe her money, I'm not insecure about my height and I never said she couldn't wear high heels!'

Telv, who shares Miah and Telv Jr. with his ex-partner Amy Gowers, went on to rubbish Sarah's recent allegation that she sees his children more than he does.

Hitting back: 'The worst part about the Married At First Sight experience has been all the lies that Sarah keeps coming out with. She really ruined it for me,' Telv told Daily Mail Australia. Pictured: Telv and Sarah on MAFS

'It's all lies. I speak regularly with the kids,' Telv clarified. 'I'm actually looking after them for a week [from] this weekend. And I'm on amicable terms with Amy.'

'I've even paid spousal support three months in advance,' he added.

Telv alleged that Amy perhaps regrets reaching out to Sarah on Instagram, after the 39-year-old beautician claimed they struck up a friendship.

He also described Sarah as 'delusional' and claimed her behaviour around his family was 'stalker-ish'.

Angry: Telv described Sarah's recent behaviour as 'delusional' and 'stalker-ish' in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia. He also insisted that he speaks regularly with his children

Telv concluded: 'I've enjoyed the whole 15 minutes of fame. Now it's over. I just want to settle back into my normal life and normal routine.

'I have a pretty big Instagram following so I'm just going to try and use that to promote charities, or people who need help with raising money on GoFundMe.

'I'm also taking part in Melbourne Storm's Big Purple Splash this weekend to raise money for the Starlight Foundation. I can't wait.'

Claims: On Monday, Sarah made extraordinary claims to Daily Mail Australia that she speaks to Telv's children more than he does - an allegation he strenuously denies. Telv is pictured with his children, Miah, four, and Telv Jr., two

On Monday, Sarah made extraordinary claims that she speaks to Telv's children more than he does.

She told Daily Mail Australia: 'I talk to his kids more than he does. They FaceTime me on their mother's phone daily!'

Sarah claimed that she and Telv's ex Amy are 'close friends' and 'bonded' over their shared experience of dating the machinery technician.

She also alleged that Telv would tell his children that she was 'dead' so they would stop asking after her, despite them supposedly being in 'regular contact'.

'They met for breakfast': In an explosive interview with NW published earlier this week, Telv claimed that Sarah paid 'a surprise visit' to his former partner and their two kids in Perth

In an explosive interview with NW published earlier this week, Telv claimed that Sarah paid 'a surprise visit' to his former partner and their two kids in Perth.

'That was the final straw for me. I want Sarah to move on, stop talking about me to the media and stay away from my children,' he told the magazine.

'For some reason, Sarah decided to fly to Perth [from Melbourne], look up the mother of my children and go pay them all a visit.

'They met for breakfast and she even painted my daughter's nails!'

Telv and Sarah were paired on the latest season of Married At First Sight, however their union was short lived.

The couple split at the start of the year, but only made the news public on March 24.She has been busy writhing around naked on a Thai beach for a slew of raunchy naked photoshoots.

And according to The Sun, Katie Price's shocking behaviour with toyboy Kris Boyson is a result of her desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy as she takes on her third bitter divorce battle with Kieran Hayler.

The publication states that the mother-of-five is terrified at the prospect of being penniless after previously boasting a 45million fortune - forcing her to pay her former glamour model days a visit in a bid to revive her career.

Money woes: Katie Price's shocking behaviour with beau Kris Boyson is reportedly a result of her trying to avoid bankruptcy as she takes on her third bitter divorce battle with Kieran Hayler

Katie, who is said to be selling her West Sussex mansion to pay off her debts, is now reportedly taking drastic action to regain control of her once lucrative career.

Earlier this month, during their romantic trip to Thailand, the couple were caught on various occasions getting intimate while hardly dressed and posing for images while she straddled him suggestively and hovered around his intimate area.

And now a source has told the publication: 'She always felt that whatever anyone said about her, she could at least point to her huge income to shut them up. But even that is disappearing.'

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Katie for further comment.

Drastic measures: The mother-of-five is allegedly terrified at the prospect of being penniless after previously boasting a 45million fortune - forcing her to pay her former glamour model days a visit in a bid to revive her career

Saucy: Earlier this month, during their romantic trip to Thailand, the couple were caught on various occasions getting intimate while hardly dressed and posing for images

Katie is currently undergoing a divorce with Kieran, which came after his affair with the family nanny emerged last summer.

And the Loose Women panellist is reportedly selling her mansion in Horsham, West Sussex, which she previously shared with Kieran, in order to 'pay off huge debts.'

A source close to Katie spoke with the Daily Star on Saturday, and said: 'Katie's having to sell her home to recover money. It's as simple as that.

'I don't know how much change she'll see from the sale of the property as there's charges on it, plus tax owed.'

Katie's family home is said to be worth 2 million, after she had originally bought it in 2015 for 1.35 million.

Third divorce: Katie is currently undergoing a divorce with Kieran, which came after his affair with the family nanny emerged last summer

'She needs to recover money: The Loose Women panellist is reportedly selling her mansion in West Sussex, which she previously shared with Kieran, in order to 'pay off huge debts'

The sprawling property reportedly costs Katie around 10,000 a month to maintain, which is proving too much for the star.

The source added: 'Even without all the business problems, the divorce from Kieran and the employment tribunal, the house documents are full of red flags.'

Meanwhile, Katie revealed she is preparing to bring her children to the hotel in Thailand, where she recently put on a shocking topless display.

After jetting away with toyboy beau Kris earlier this month, the star was seen in compromising positions outside the Ammatara Pura Pool Villas in Lamai, Koh Samui, where she has admitted she wants to go with her kids.

Jet setters: Katie revealed she is preparing to bring her children to the hotel in Thailand, where she recently put on a shocking topless display

'She needs to stop': Her ex-husband Peter Andre, the father to her children Junior, 13, and Princess, 11, is 'appalled' by her 'disgraceful' behaviour

Following her confession, sources spoke to Heat Magazine about her behaviour and claimed her ex-husband Peter Andre, the father to her children Junior, 13, and Princess, 11, is 'appalled' by her 'disgraceful' behaviour.

Insiders told the magazine: 'Pete is appalled by Katies behaviour and thinks its a disgrace. He can shield them from things like this but all their friends can see it. She needs to stop acting like a party girl in her twenties.'

Katie met Kris through her son Harvey's new fitness plan, and recently revealed she has finally found a man who 'ticks all the boxes'.

She told OK! last month: 'Hes a mans man. Hes got his own job, hes not false or fame hungry. In that respect, I think this is going to be a more normal relationship and less toxic.'Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner called it quits on Tuesday.

The longtime producing partners and friends have decided to end their working relationship ahead of their joint deal with HBO coming to a close in December.

The Girls creators are going their separate ways as they ready to debut their series Camping starring Jennifer Garner for the premium cable network.

Splits: Lena Dunham (right) and Jenni Konner - creators of HBO's Girls - called it quits on their producing partnership on Tuesday; (pictured September 2017)

Dunham and Konner are in talks for individual overall deals with HBO according to a source for The Hollywood Reporter.

'We have had one of the most significant relationships together in our adult lives and we respect each others choices,' they said in a joint statement.

'While our interests are pulling us in different directions right now, we are excited about our current work and are firmly committed to the projects we have together.

'HBO has been our home for quite some time and we look forward to continuing there as we both move forward,' they added.

Respect: 'We have had one of the most significant relationships together in our adult lives and we respect each others choices,' they said in a joint statement; (Lena pictured in May)

Camping has wrapped it's initial production of eight episodes and 'it's unclear how or if the split will impact' the comedy.

The series - based on the British series Camping created by Julia Davis - marks the first TV project for Dunham and Konner after their award-winning Girls ended it's six season run last year.

Garner co-stars along David Tennant and Juliette Lewis.

Moving forward: 'HBO has been our home for quite some time and we look forward to continuing there as we both move forward,' they added

Dunham and Konner still have multiple projects under the HBO tent with 'details being kept under wraps'.

The duo also launched the feminist newsletter, website and book imprint Lenny Letter in 2015.

No word yet on the premiere date for Camping.Kendrick Lamar set the crowd ablaze at Splendour In The Grass over the weekend, wrapping up the Byron Bay festival with an unforgettable set of his chart-topping anthems.

And the US rapper brought nothing less than his A-game when he took his DAMN. tour to Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday.

Fans flocked to Twitter to praise Kendrick's flawless performance, with one devotee gushing: 'Just hit up the @kendricklamar concert, one of the greatest shows I've ever been to, an outstanding performer and plenty of bangers throughout.'

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'One of the greatest shows ever!' Fans have taken to Twitter to praise Kendrick Lamar for his flawless performance at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday night

They added: 'Definitely going again when the legend returns to Sydney.'

Another fan cooed on Twitter: 'Once again, #kendricklamar held it down last night. Every time. Community. Power. Uncompromising. King Kenny.'

'Thank you sir for a great show tonight in Sydney,' concurred one fan, while another poetically mused: 'Serving lines all niiiiighttt. My body may be dead but my spirit is alive.'

Indeed, footage shared to social media show Kendrick's sprawling audience awash with excitement as they sang along to the artist's famous tunes.

Tickets for Tuesday's concert sold out within one hour when they hit the market in April, prompting Kendrick to announce a second Sydney performance to take place this Wednesday.

Meanwhile, fans who were unable to nab a ticket have been frantically scrolling through social media to capture a glimpse of Tuesday's show, following reports the artist banned professional photographers from documenting the final leg of his DAMN. Australian tour.

Slim pickings? Fans who were unable to nab a ticket have been frantically scrolling through social media to capture a glimpse of Tuesday's show following reports the artist banned professional photographers from documenting the final leg of his DAMN. Australian tour

'Due to artist/management request we are unable to issue photo passes for any of the shows on Kendrick's tour,' a spokesperson said on Monday.

In February, The Guardian reported that Kendrick could possibly be following in the footsteps of other major artists who are 'limiting online footage of gigs' to keep fans interested in live performances.

The Humble star finishes off his Australian tour at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Pulitzer Kenny: Kendrick performed against a large backdrop emblazoned with a less-than-subtle reference to his album's recent Pulitzer Prize win

Low profile: Kendrick kept a low profile as he strolled around Sydney with his extremely tall bodyguard before performance on TuesdayThey dated for six years between 2010 and 2016.

And following reports that Demi Lovato was rushed to hospital on Tuesday for a suspected heroin overdose, sources claim her ex-boyfriend Wilmer Valerrama is 'completely devastated'.

The 38-year-old actor is reportedly concerned for his ex and 'wasn't aware of how serious her issues were'.

So sad: Demi Lovato's ex Wilmer Valderrama, 38, is reportedly 'completely devastated' over her apparent overdose on Tuesday. He is pictured out on Monday night just hours before the news broke

The That 70s Show alum was pictured grabbing dinner with friends in West Hollywood Monday night, just hours before his ex reportedly overdosed on heroin.

'Wilmer is completely devastated and he still loves Demi and it was just a matter of scheduling and time that they needed to make a romantic relationship work,' a source told Us Weekly.

'He was not aware that her issues were this severe and intense at this time.'

The insider continued, 'She's been honest with him about her relapse, as she has with her family, friends, fans and the entire public, especially with her new song, but he didn't think it was this severe and that she would be struggling so much and have a situation that had these repercussions.'

Still has feelings: 'Wilmer is completely devastated and he still loves Demi and it was just a matter of scheduling and time that they needed to make a romantic relationship work,' a source exclusively told Us Weekly

Didn't know: 'He was not aware that her issues were this severe and intense at this time' the insider added

Honesty: 'She's been honest with him about her relapse, as she has with her family, friends, fans and the entire public, especially with her new song, but he didn't think it was this severe and that she would be struggling so much and have a situation that had these repercussions,' the tipster said

'Her friends and him are just hoping that she gets better and that she can be great and thrive,' the source added.

It was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Demi had been rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious in her Hollywood home.

Her life was reportedly saved thanks to a Narcan shot that was administered by one of her pals.

Scary situation: It was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Demi had been rushed to the hospital after being found unconscious in her Hollywood home

What saved her: Her life was reportedly spared thanks to a Narcan shot that was administered by one of her pals

'One of her friends had Narcan on hand in case something like this happened. Her friends knew this was coming because she's been using so much again,' the insider revealed.

'They were up all night partying the night before at her house. Luckily, the Narcan worked and she will recover.'

The source added that Lovato 'had two friends with her at her house and they called 911.'

The former Disney star's health scare comes one month after she revealed in her song Sober that she had relapsed following six years of sobriety.

Rocky relationship: Demi and Wilmer, pictured here in October 2015, have dated on and off from 2010 to 2016, most recently splitting because of their busy schedules

Demi and Wilmer dated off and on from 2010 to 2016.

They most recently broke up because of their intense schedules and after realizing she needed to work on herself and that they were better off as friends.

Lovato recalled meeting the actor in 2010 during a recent YouTube interview, and noted that things were not promising early on.

'I've never loved anybody like I loved Wilmer and I still love him,' she said. 'I met him on Jan. 11, 2010. I thought 'I have to have him,' but I was only 17 and he was like, 'Get away from me...When I turned 18 we started dating. I think it was love at first sight, we connected on a level that I've never connected with anybody before, he was just my rock, my everything.'She spent the whole of June in Mallorca presenting Love Island Australia.

And it looks like Sophie Monk, 38, is now ready to focus on her own relationship status, as she films The Sophie Monk Travel Show for Nine in Italy.

The beauty cuddled up with famous Italian DJ, Trashock, in the picturesque comune of Santa Margherita Ligure on July 20  and even exchanged numbers.

'Ciao Bella!' Sophie Monk cosied up to hunky Italian DJ after swapping numbers with him while filming new travel show for Nine in Europe

Sophie was approached by the European star while shooting scenes on the beach.

The hunk then attempted to charm the Australian favourite in his native tongue.

And despite Sophie initially declining his advances, saying 'Sorry, its not a good time,' it didn't take long before she took his mobile phone to punch in her digits.

'Sorry, it's not a good time': Sophie initially declined the DJ Trashock's advances as her chatted her up in his native tongue

He's got it: Trashock's Italian chat up lines later worked on Sophie as she took his mobile phone and punched in her digits

Although their meeting may have been a skit for her upcoming show, the pair continued the flirting on Instagram several days later.

'See you on the Australian red carpet,' Milan based Trashock captioned a picture posing next to Sophie on Instagram.

The host then responded: 'Thank you legend.'

Continuing to charm the star, the DJ added 'ciao bella'  which translates to 'hello beautiful.'

Caught on camera: The flirty exchanged was captured by The Sophie Monk Travel Show's crew

Sophie's upcoming travel show was announced earlier this month amid false reports Nine had axed her from returning to Love Island Australia for a second season.

'Sophie's appearance on Love Island is exactly what we wanted and expected, and is in line with the format's hosting duties as seen on the UK version,' a Channel Nine spokesman told Daily Mail Australia before confirming the new venture.

'Sophie is a treasured member of the Nine family and has a long-term deal with the Network. She is currently filming a travel show for us in Italy and we look forward to working with her on various upcoming projects.'

Although not much is known about the format of the show, Sophies best friend Oscar Gordon will be joining her on-screen as they tour the European country.President Tran Dai Quang (right) and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia Tony Smith (Photo: VNA)



Hosting the reception for Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia Tony Smith in Hanoi on July 24th, President Quang spoke highly of the outcomes achieved during the talks held earlier between Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and Smith. He agreed with the content of cooperation between the two countries in general, and their legislative bodies in particular, for the time to come.

He underlined that it is necessary for the two countries to facilitate conditions to enhance people-to-people exchange, and coordination in culture, tourism, and sports.

The State leader spoke highly of the education collaboration between both sides, expressing his hope that the Australian Government would continue its support for Vietnam in developing high-quality human resources.

Vietnam will closely work with Australia to carry out the New Colombo Plan, a USD100 million initiative to increase the number of Australians studying part of their degree in the region to deepen their knowledge and understanding of Asia, and build people-to-people ties, he noticed.

President Quang expressed his wishes that Australia will continue to create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese people community so that they can contribute to the development in each nation as well as the bilateral ties.

Vietnam, in return, will facilitate Australian citizens travel, study and investment in the country, he said.

He showed his appreciation of Australias official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam, saying that the assistance has made positive contributions to the socio-economic development in the country. Cao Lanh bridge, which was inaugurated last May, is a vivid illustration, he noted.

Also, he applauded the close coordination between the two countries at regional and international forums, particularly the United Nations (UN), ASEAN, and ASEAN-led mechanisms.

He thanked Australia for helping Vietnam in successfully organising the APEC Year 2017 and supporting the Southeast Asian nation in its bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN for the 2020-2021 tenure.

President Quang also took the occasion to convey his greetings to Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, and many other Australian leaders.

Smith, for his part, lauded the fruitful cooperation between the two states and parliaments in the past time, especially people-to-people exchanges, stressing that visits made by leaders from both sides had consistently aimed at consolidating political trust and comprehensive cooperation between the two nations.

Vietnam and Australia have enjoyed sound collaboration in trade, and education and training, he said, adding that the Australian House of Representatives will serve as a bridge to enhance the ties.

Many Australian businesses have gained great success in agriculture, and they want to strengthen their cooperation with Vietnamese partners in the time ahead, he stressed.

Tony Smith began is on his three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of Chairwoman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan./.Her boyfriend Iain Stirling has been captivating the nation with his quick wit during this series of Love Island.

And Laura Whitmore enjoyed a girls' night out on Tuesday as she headed to the Soho Theatre in London.

The television presenter, 33, cut a chic figure in a sheer polka dot dress as she exited the venue.

Girls' time: Laura Whitmore enjoyed a girls' night out on Tuesday as she headed to the Soho Theatre in London

Having earlier taking to Instagram lamenting the hot weather as she swam in the sea in a white string bikini, Laura opted to keep cool in the sheer full-length dress which sheathed her trim frame.

Wearing a black slip underneath the polka dot number, the Survival Of The Fittest presenter dressed down the look with bird patterned flats and a black cross-body bag.

The Irish beauty styled her blonde locks in an elegant ponytail and finished off the look with deftly touches of make-up.

Stylish display: The television presenter, 33, cut a chic figure in a sheer polka dot dress as she exited the venue

Fashion maven: Laura opted to keep cool in the sheer full-length dress which sheathed her trim frame

Gorgeous: Wearing a black slip underneath the polka dot number, the Survival Of The Fittest presenter dressed down the look with bird patterned flats and a black cross-body bag

The Irish presenter was making the most of her girly night out, while her boyfriend Iain continues his voiceover duties on Love Island.

Laura has been dating the comedian for just over a year, with Iain recently joking he is 'punching above his weight' with their relationship.

Comedian Chris Ramsey told Iain on his chat show: 'People tell you, and I do not agree with this and I hate it when people say this to blokes, people tell you youre punching above your weight, and I dont like that.

Natural beauty: The Irish presenter styled her blonde locks in an elegant ponytail and finished off the look with deftly touches of make-up

'One, youre a good looking lad. I find it underhanded. I find it snide. Its basically someone going, Id f*** your girlfriend, and I dont like it.

'I dont like it at all. And I dont think youre punching above your weight. I think youre a beautiful man.

However, Iain replied: I dont mind it, because it just means Ive done better havent I?

Beach babe: Her theatre outing comes after Laura was on her very own Love Island on Monday as she soaked up the sun with a glass of gin in hand

Ive got someone whos like me, but much, much better. And Lauras got someone whos like her, but much worse.

I think Ive done quite well out of it, but Im dead happy because shes lovely and stuff.

Laura revealed the couple met in 2017, before he travelled to Majorca for his voice-over commitments with Love Island.Tom Cruise dared talk show host James Corden on Tuesday's episode of The Late Late Show to go skydiving with him after he teased him about how easy it looks.

Corden, 43, initially gushed about Cruise's stunts in his upcoming sequel Mission: Impossible - Fallout and singled out a 'HALO jump' where he falls from 25,000 feet then opens his parachute close to the ground.

'My question is... what's wrong with you?' Corden initially asked the star of the daring feat.

Risky business: Tom Cruise challenged talk show host James Corden to go skydiving with him on Tuesday's episode of The Late Late Show on CBS

Corden, however, later pretended to be unimpressed, teasing Cruise, 56, about his stunt: 'I thought it was meh. You say jumped, it's falling through the sky.

'I think we're all getting carried away with the 'Tom Cruise action hero' thing,' he quipped.

Smiling that there was 'a little more to it than that' and it 'took 106 jumps to get it,' Crusie then dared the host: 'But if you're interested I'm happy to take you if you wanna try it.

'I mean if it's so easy, you can come with me. Would you like to do it? I'm in town...'

Shook hands: The 56-year-old actor got up and shook Corden's hand after the talk show host agreed to go skydiving with him

It was unclear if it was meant as a serious offer, so Corden clarified it before excitedly telling Cruise: 'Sure, I'll do it.'

'Serious? Are you serious?' Cruise asked, getting up to shake his hand, with Corden seemingly surprising him as he again insisted with laughter: 'Yes I am!'

It would not be the first time Corden took someone skydiving -- with him admitting doing so with his late mother, Mary Lee South, as a Mother's Day treat while he was filming Days Of Thunder in Florida in 1990.

Serious offer: Corden pretended to be unimpressed with Cruise's stunts for Mission: Impossible - Fallout prompting the skydiving invitation

Cruise recalled how he surprised his mom, who died last year at age 80, at the airfield, with her calmly replying when he told her what he had planned: 'Alright darling let's go do it.'

He recorded the jump, kissing his mom in the air, and sent the footage to his three sisters who had no idea what they had done.

Getting them to open the videos all at the same time, he smiled: 'They opened it and put it on and saw what we were doing and just [beep]ed themselves. They were like, ''What are you doing to our mother!''

Franchise star: Cruise will reprise his role as Ethan Hunt in the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise

Of his late mom, he said: 'She wasn't necessarily a daredevil but she had just a wonderful sense of adventure.

'She was someone who the cup was always half full. There was always a smile there, just a lovely, lovely woman.'

Cruise also talked about one of his favorite movie set rituals -- sending cakes to his crew, stuntmen and co-stars to live vicariously through their enjoyment as he keeps off sugar to stay in shape.

Lovely woman: The Top Gun star also shared a story about going skydiving with his late mother Mary Lee in 1990 while filming Days Of Thunder in Florida

'I love sugar but I can't eat it because when I'm training I'm doing all these movies, so I send it to everyone, I send it to the stunt team, and I wait for the calls,' he smiled.

Corden then told how the superstar had done a similar thing for him.

'On the morning of the Grammys I woke up to someone knocking on my door, it was like 8am, and they presented me with an incredible chocolate cake and it was from Tom Cruise saying, ''Good luck with the Grammys'',' he recalled.

Working together: Cruise was joined by his Mission: Impossible - Fallout co-star Angela Bassett who shimmered in a Veronica Beard suit

Laughing, he said: 'And I was like, ''This is how you look so good -- you make everyone around you fat!''

Cruise also talked about the gym he always takes with him, saying: 'Yeah, it's called the Pain Cave and it says, ''Only the motivated may enter.''

Turning to Corden he insisted: 'I saw you dance -- I think you'd do pretty well in the Pain Cave. We have different levels of torture in there.'

Hollywood superstar: Cruise also discussed his 'Pain Cave' mobile gym

Tom appeared on the chat show alongside Mission: Impossible - Fallout co-star Angela Bassett, 59, who stunned in a shimmering Veronica Beard suit with an Ashburn Dickey Jacket and Lago Pants.

Tom gushed of her joining the franchise: 'I'm grateful that you came on, you're such a powerful artist. You're really very special. You are.'

She then joked about how her sister may have made it happen at a party 20 years ago, when the actors first met.

'I brought my sister from North Carolina to the party and she went up to you and said, ''You ought to be in a movie with my sister'',' Bassett recalled, saying 'the earth could have opened up and swallowed me right then and there' from her embarrassment.

First meeting: Bassett recalled the first time that she met Cruise

Cruise insisted: 'I agreed with her, it took us a while to figure it out.'

Bassett joked: 'I called her up last week and said, ''Well that worked out, who else you got in mind?'' Cos that's working out really well!'

However, when she finally got the opportunity to work with Cruise she admitted she initially did not believe it was real.

Saying she got the call at 7am, she said: 'I was like, ''What Mission: Impossible are you talking about?'' I did not think with you.

Job opportunity: The Black Panther star said she was initially confused about the offer to work on the film with Cruise

Coming soon: Bassett and Cruise can be seen in Mission: Impossible - Fallout in theaters Friday

'I thought maybe this was some animated series or radio podcast or something. ...I just could not believe it.'

Meanwhile, Lorne Balfe, the composer for Fallout, told DailyMail.com that Tom was wonderful to be around: 'It was an honor to work with Tom, a great producer and a true gentleman.

'Chris McQuarrie, who wrote and directed the film, is brilliant. Getting this assignment, is a dream come true.'

Sounds good! Meanwhile, Lorne Balfe, the composer for Fallout, told DailyMail that Tom was wonderful to work with: 'It was an honor to work with Tom, a great producer and a true gentleman'

Lorne explained, 'Ive been a fan of the franchise for twenty years, so Ive basically been writing this score in my head for that long.

'We wanted the music to be loyal to the franchise and to Ethan Hunt. We of course played the iconic Lalo Schifirin theme with bongos.

'From the first beat of the bongo, you know its the Mission theme it got us all excited, so instead of doing just one bongo, we recorded twelve.'

Lorne went on to describe the massive orchestra: 'This film required an epic sound, we had one-hundred string players, fifty brass players, an eighty person choir, fourteen drummers, eight woodwinds and three percussionists. Im thrilled that music got to be a part of the journey.'

UK native Balfe has also worked on The Crown and Pacific Rim: Uprising.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout opens in wide release on Friday.

The sixth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise premiered earlier this month in Paris and has received widespread critical acclaim particularly for its action sequences.AFL WAG Clementine McVeigh has shared an emotional tribute to her late daughter Luella Paloma, on what would have been her seventh birthday.

The 35-year-old wrote a heartbreaking Instagram post about her little 'angel' and thanked Luella for 'choosing me as your Mamma'.

Clementine accompanied the tribute with three photos of Luella as a tiny newborn in hospital.

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'If only my sweet girl's heart was still beating': Clementine McVeigh shared a tribute to her late daughter Luella Paloma on what would have been her seventh birthday. Pictured: A photo Clementine shared of Luella after her birth in 2011. She died at four weeks of a heart condition

'If only my little girl's heart was beating,' Clementine wrote.

'Thank you for choosing me as your Mamma and thank you for constantly reminding me every single day to love life, be grateful, smile, laugh and sprinkle kindness like glitter everywhere I go.'

Clementine added that she sends her love to anyone who has lost a child.

Reaching out: Clementine (pictured) wrote on Instagram that she 'sends her love to anyone who has lost a child'

Doting: In one of the throwback photos, Clementine holds Luella's hand in hospital

'I know I'm not alone! So I send so much love and warm hugs to those that have lost a child or children,' she added.

'Our angels will forever be in our hearts and our steps through life. Happy seventh birthday, Luella Paloma.'

Fans and followers commented below the post, sending Clementine their support.

Stronger together: Clementine and AFL star husband Jarrad McVeigh (pictured in September 2015) lost Luella in 2011 to a serious heart condition. She was just four weeks old

'Heartbreaking and so inspirational. You're a strong woman for sharing your life and loss with the world,' one person wrote.

Another added: 'It takes a strength we didn't know we possessed to keep moving forward. Happy seventh birthday, Luella.'

Clementine and her AFL star husband Jarrad McVeigh lost Luella in 2011 to a serious heart condition. She was just four weeks old.

Family: Clementine and Jarrad are also parents to Florence, who turns one in September, and Lolita-Luella, five. Family pictured

The New Zealand model previously told Daily Mail Australia that she chose to share their heartbreaking story in a bid to help other people.

'By sharing out story I know it helps other people that are going through the same kind of loss,' Clementine said at the time.

Clementine and Jarrad are also parents to Florence, who turns one in September, and Lolita-Luella, five.British radio host Christian O'Connell was absent from his Gold 104.3 breakfast show on Monday and Tuesday as his mother-in-law was seriously ill.

As reported by Radio Today on Tuesday, Christian's wife and daughters flew home to the UK amid the family emergency.

Christian, 45, announced the news on Twitter on Monday afternoon, writing: 'I've not been on the show today as last night my mother-in-law was suddenly taken very ill.'

Crisis: British radio host Christian O'Connell (pictured) was absent from his Gold 104.3 breakfast show on Monday and Tuesday this week as his mother-in-law was seriously ill

He continued: 'My wife and kids have rushed back to England to be at her bedside. I'm keeping miracle minded.'

In a podcast on Tuesday, Christian offered an update on the situation.

'My mother-in-law collapsed suddenly with chest pains while my wife was talking to her [on the phone]. She was in a shop,' he said.

'She had a big heart operation about five years ago and so obviously my wife was terrified. Were were 10,000 miles away on the other side of a phone which has now gone dead.'

Family emergency: Christian announced the news on Twitter on Monday afternoon, writing, 'I've not been on the show today as last night my mother-in-law was suddenly taken very ill'

Ordeal: Christian said in a podcast on Tuesday, 'My mother-in-law collapsed suddenly with chest pains while my wife was talking to her [on the phone]'

Fortunately, later in the podcast, Christian had some good news arrive.

'A miracle has happened and she [his mother-in-law] has had life-saving surgery... It's hour by hour, day by day at the moment,' he said.

'My wife doesn't even know this news yet. I think she lands in a couple of hours time, has a change-over in Dubai then heads back.'

Recovery: Fortunately, later in the podcast, Christian had some good news arrive. 'A miracle has happened and she has had life-saving surgery,' he said. 'It's hour by hour, day by day at the moment'. Pictured: Christian in London in May 2011

Supportive: Fans took to Twitter to offer their support, with one writing: 'Seeing your tweets, I can only wish your mum-in-law all the very best and hope she makes a full recovery'

Fans took to Twitter to offer their support, with one writing: 'When you saw that I'd lost my partner to cancer two years ago, you sent a tweet of support and sympathy.

'Seeing your tweets, I can only wish your mum-in-law all the very best and hope she makes a full recovery.'

Another fan posted: 'Hang in there. Youve got a lot of friends at both ends of the planet thinking of you and your family and hoping everything works out OK.'

Christian was back on his radio show on Wednesday and is due to appear again on Thursday.She was crowned Miss Universe in 2012.

And Olivia Culpo was the center of attention Tuesday in New York where she attended the launch of beloved brand Beautyblender's first makeup product: the Bounce Liquid Whip Foundation.

The Rhode Island native, 26, stunned in a red sequined number which plunged low on her chest and also flaunted her thin, tan stems with a thigh-skimming skirt.

Red hot! Olivia Culpo flaunted her fabulous physique in a tiny red dress during the launch of Beautyblender's Bounce Liquid Whip Foundation

Culpo accessorized with silver shoes, solid gold hoops and a metallic clutch.

For beauty Olivia matched her dress with a berry lip and slicked her hair back sleekly.

Her dewy, glowing skin was an excellent advertisement for the new product, which is designed with unique packaging that works perfectly with the brand's iconic blending sponge.

Berry nice! For beauty Olivia matched her dress with a berry lip and slicked her hair back sleekly

In fine company: Olivia caught up with Kim Kardashian's personal makeup artists and creative collaborator Mario Dedivanovic and vlogger extraordinaire Gigi Gorgeous

Making the jump! Beautyblender is best known for producing an egg-shaped makeup sponge that artists and enthusiasts swear by and their foundation is their first venture into actual cosmetics

Also at the event was actress Regina Hall who wowed in red polka dots on an off-the-shoulder dress.

Jasmine Sanders supported the launch looking lovely in a camel colored suit with white David Lerner crop underneath.

Gigi Gorgeous was glam as can be in a Barbie pink gown with mermaid cut skirt featuring a hint of black tulle for bold contrast.

It's in her name! Gigi Gorgeous was glam as can be in a Barbie pink gown with mermaid cut skirt featuring a hint of black tulle for bold contrast

Fashionable: Jasmine Sanders supported the launch looking lovely in a camel colored suit and white David Lerner crop top, while Regina Hall's outfit featured fun polka dots

He's a pro: Kim Kardashian's trust makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic joined the fun, surely exciting the brand with the A-list artist's endorsement

The YouTuber was joined by partner Nats Getty, who was rocker-chic in a loose Hawaiian shirt, jeans and sneakers.

Kim Kardashian's most trusted makeup artist and long-time friend Mario Dedivanovic joined the fun, surely exciting the brand with his A-list endorsement.

Beautyblender, which is best known for producing an egg-shaped makeup sponge that artists and enthusiasts swear by, just released the new foundation, which comes in 32 shades and costs $40.

The product is available in 32 shades, and features a special 'reservoir' on the bottle that collects the foundation so it can be applied quickly and easily.

Rubbing elbows: The beauty caught up with blogger Marianna Hewitt inside

Getty-ing around: The YouTuber was joined by partner Nats Getty, who was rocker-chic in a loose Hawaiian shirt, jeans and sneakersAmber Heard oozed elegance and sophistication in a polka dot wrap dress as she headed to lunch with some friends in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

But the actress risked a wardrobe malfunction as a gust of wind nearly shifted her frock to expose too much.

As Amber stepped towards the entrance of the restaurant the wind whipped up the front of her dress and she had to act fast to avoid showing more than just a little leg.

Opps: Amber Heard narrowly avoided a wardrobe malfunction as she headed to lunch with friends in Beverly Hills on Tuesday

Being the consummate Hollywood starlet, she recovered quickly and clamped down on the front of her dress with barely inches to spare.

The wind revealed much of her toned and shapely right leg but fell short of a full-on wardrobe malfunction.

Despite the snafu, The Danish Girl star looked amazing in the sheer number.

She paired it with black strapped Jaclyn Jones heels and accessorized with a stylish black purse and dark sunglasses.

And her trademark blond tresses were worn long and parted slightly to the right.

Cloase call: Amber recovered fast and looked every bit the Hollywood starlet for her lunch date

Stylish: The Danish Girl star looked elegant and sophisticated in the polka dot wrap dress

On point: The 32-year old actress accessorized with black strapped Jaclyn Jones heels and a black purse

The 32-year old is no stranger to risking wardrobe malfunctions in the recent past.

Back in May, at the Cannes Film Festival, she got very daring and walked the red carpet- braless- in a Valentino gown.

The number had big flower-patterned skirt and minuscule top that had the thinnest of green velvet fabric that left very little to the imagination.

Luckily on this day, Amber pulled off her daring ensemble without any-one-thing falling out of place.

The former Mrs. Johnny Depp has thriving career in Hollywood right now, with four new movies now in the can. They include: the thriller London Fields, which is set for release in August; the superhero film Aquaman comes out in December; dramas Gully and Her Smell are both in post-production and are slated to premiere in 2019.

Daring: Amber risked major wardrobe malfunctions in a Valentino gown at the Cannes Film Festival on May 10, 2018She rose to fame on The Bachelor Australia and is now happily in love with new man Matt Baker, whom she's been dating for more than a year.

And on Wednesday, Heather Maltman took a swipe at a mystery ex, as she celebrated paying off $14,000 in debt from the previous relationship.

Taking to Instagram, the radio personality shared a clip of herself putting her credit card through a paper shredder.

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'When you pay off $14,000 in debt from an ex': Bachelor star Heather Maltman takes a swipe at a former flame as she puts her credit card through a paper shredder

'When you pay off $14,000 in debt from an ex. You need to celebrate,' Heather captioned the clip.

'Won't be making that mistake again anytime soon,' she said, adding the hashtag 'famous last words.'

In the clip, Heather says: 'This is a paper shredder. This is an undisclosed credit card that I no longer need because I paid it off. Go, go, go!'

Out with the old: In the clip, Heather says: 'This is a paper shredder. This is an undisclosed credit card that I no longer need because I paid it off. Go, go, go!'

Reality TV star: Heather rose to fame on The Bachelor Australia

'Slay it sista,' one follower commented on the post.

Heather is currently in a relationship with Matt Baker and the pair celebrated their one-year anniversary in June.

Smitten: Heather is currently in a relationship with Matt Baker (pictured) and the pair celebrated their one-year anniversary in June

The brunette was previously in a relationship with aspiring actor Andrew Steel.

She came out as bisexual in November, in light of Australia saying yes to same-sex marriage.

Heather previously had a lesbian relationship with TV scriptwriter Renee Broome, admitting on Instagram last year she 'had fallen completely in love with her,' and are still friends.Jenelle Evans flew off the handle during Monday's episode of Teen Mom 2 when she followed a man to his home and pulled a gun after a freeway altercation.

The 16 And Pregnant persona, now 26, is lucky that things didn't escalate further, according to the man, Robert Robinson Jr., who spoke to TMZ on Tuesday.

The North Carolina man explained that he was also carrying a gun for self-defense and that while he was ready to 'shoot to kill,' according to the site, he restrained himself after noticing Evan's eight-year-old son Jace was in the car.

Self-defense: Jenelle Evans of Teen Mom 2's road rage incident during Monday's episode could have ended very differently. The other driver told TMZ he was armed and prepared to defend himself with force in a story out Tuesday. Evans is seen on Instagram above

He also told the site that he alerted his neighbors of the threat and that they were also armed.

Evans and Robinson's altercation took place April 26 on a North Carolina highway and was partially captured by MTV's cameras.

Part of the frightening scene all played out on camera.

Jenelle became enraged at a driver for tailgating her, yelling: 'Dude are you kidding me right now?'

Frightening: Jenelle Evans provoked a serious road rage incident during this week's episode of Teen Mom 2

Hot headed: A driving conflict escalated into the reality figure following the other driver home and pulling a gun, all while son Jace watched on

Things escalated after he tried to get around her and cut her car off.



Evans, who is a mother of two, then followed the man to his house where she berated him and brandished her firearm.

Then she ran over his mailbox, prompting Robinson to get back in his car and block her from leaving.

Getting worse: Evans followed the man to his house where she berated him and brandished her firearm

All the while Evans was on the phone with husband David Eason who reprimanded her saying: 'You don't follow a grown man to his fking house.'

Her son then recounted events to grandma Barbara.

'He slammed into us,' Jace said. 'And then mommy just points a gun at the guy and then he said "You better not f***ing shoot."'

Big no-no: Afterwards husband David Eason reprimanded her saying: 'You don't follow a grown man to his f***ing house'

Evan's has had several previous run ins with the law, arrested in 2011 for assault and later violating parole.

She was also arrested in 2012 for harassing a former roommate.

Jenelle first appeared on the second season of 16 And Pregnant and subsequently Tenn Mom 2.

Teen Mom 2 airs Mondays at 9pm on MTV.They narrowly missed out on becoming Love Island Australia's winning couple.

But Eden Dally, 25, and 23-year-old Erin Barnett's bond seems to be the strongest as they take their relationship to the next level.

An insider close the couple has revealed to Daily Mail Australia how the lovers have already booked a bonding trip to Bali with some of Erin's family and friends.

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EXCLUSIVE: A source close to Love Island's Erin Barnett, 23, and Eden Dally, 25, says the couple are taking their relationship to the next level... despite allegations that Eden has already been seen with a 'mystery blonde'

The news comes just weeks after Erin introduced them to her man.

'They all already love Eden but everything's been a bit of a whirlwind since they returned from Mallorca so this will give them a chance to really get to know him,' the source said.

'Everything is moving so fast and they'll be flying out in the first week of September. Their opinion really means a lot to Erin and they really see a future together.'

Life's a beach: The loved-up couple have booked a bonding trip to Bali for September with Erin's closest friends and family so they can 'really get to know' boyfriend Eden

Seal of approval? Erin's best friend Daniel Gualtieri (right) is said to joining Erin and Eden for the trip to Indonesia

Erin's best friend, Daniel Gualtieri, is thought to be one of her nearest and dearest pals that will be jetting off to the Indonesian island with the happy couple.

This information comes after NW magazine claimed on Monday that Eden was recently 'seen with a blonde girl at a bar', sparking fears his romance with Erin was already over.

The incident reportedly occurred while Erin was in another city, with Eden allegedly asking the mystery blonde 'to text him' later.

Despite NW's claims, Eden posted a loved-up couple snap to Instagram on Sunday, which showed him passionately kissing Erin.

He captioned the photo, 'This one', accompanied by a heart emoji.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Erin's rep for comment.Sarah Hyland and boyfriend Wells Adams have been living it up in luxury during their romantic Mexican vacation.

As PageSix.com reported Tuesday, the lovebirds have been enjoying the delights of the Karisma resort, El Dorado Maroma in The Palafitos where they've been soaking up the sun for several days.

The actress and the radio host, who have been dating since last October, are reported to have stayed in a $9,500-a-week overwater bungalow with glass floors, an indoor jacuzzi and a private infinity pool.

Upscale digs: Sarah Hyland and boyfriend Wells Adams have been living it up in luxury at a $9,500-a-week overwater bungalow during their romantic Mexican vacation

Romantic vacay: The actress and the radio host, who have been dating since last October, have been sharing snaps from their sun-soaked getaway to their social media this past week

Hyland, 27, and Adams, 33, dined at the resort's restaurant, enjoyed karaoke and watched fire dancers perform on the beach, the gossip website said.

The Modern Family actress and The Bachelorette alum also sailed aboard a private catamaran.

The romance between the couple is certainly heating up.

Not slumming it: Hyland, 27, and Adams, 33, have been enjoying an 800-square-foot abode complete with glass floors, an indoor jacuzzi and a private infinity pool

The luxury resort offers every convenience including restaurants, karaoke evenings and fire dancers on the beach

relaxing in style: The Modern Family actress and The Bachelorette alum also sailed aboard a private catamaran as their nine-month romance heats up

Adams recently revealed he's leaving Nashville, Tennessee, where he's a radio host, and is moving to Los Angeles to be with his actress girlfriend Sarah Hyland.

The former reality star shared his big news about moving in with the Modern Family star during Friday's episode of the podcast he does with Miley Cyrus's sister Brandi.

'Should I just say it? I guess its going to come out after, it doesnt even matter,' he said on Your Favorite Thing. 'Im straight up moving to L.A.'

He went on: 'First thought is: Lets go to California. Lets move in with the lady.'

'If were going to take the next step, this is the first step weve got to take to decide if we can handle living with one another, you know?' he added.

Beach babe: Hyland posted this sexy bikini snap to her Instagram on Sunday, flaunting her toned physique

Getting serious: Adams revealed on his podcast last week that he is moving from Nashville to LA and moving in with his girlfriend. The couple are pictured in NYC in April

The move isn't without some issues, Adams admitted.

'Ill tell you what Im most concerned about,' he said. 'Im not concerned about us living together or us getting along or whatever. Im most concerned about my dog and her dogs.'

'Carl sleeps on my bed. And her dog Boo sleeps on her bed. Whats going to happen?!' he explained.

Carl is a bloodhound who currently resides with him in Nashville while Hyland has two pups - Boo, a chocolate Labrador, and Barkley, a white Maltipoo.

Blended family: Adams's bloodhound Carl, left, is moving in, too, and will join Hyland's two pooches - chocolate Lab Boo and Maltipoo Barkley, rightThe Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed and caused flash flooding (Source: KPL)



General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang on July 24th sent messages of sympathy to General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party Central Committee and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachit.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc cabled a message of sympathy to his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith, while Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also sent a similar message to Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith.

The same day, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a phone call to PM Thongloun Sisoulith, affirming that the Party, State and people of Vietnam are willing to assist the Lao people to overcome the aftermath of the incident.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Vietnamese representatives agencies in Laos to follow the situation and coordinate closely with local relevant agencies to update information about Vietnamese citizens and overseas Vietnamese in the affected area and stand ready to take measures to help those in need.

In case of emergency, it is recommended to contact the hotline for citizen protection in Laos 008562096106775 or in Vietnam 0084981848484.

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed at 20h00 on July 23rd, releasing 5 billion cubic meters of water which caused flash flooding in 10 villages in lower areas and completely isolated Sanamxay district. Five out of Sanamxay districts villages, namely May, Hinlath, Nhaythe Sanong Tay, Thasengchan and Thahin, have been absolutely submerged.

The disaster, which was supposed to be triggered by downpours in recent days, has left more than 100 people missing and over 1,300 families with 6,600 people homeless. Rescuers have recovered the bodies of 28 people and are continuing to look for the missing.

Rescue and relief efforts are facing a range of challenges due to difficult traffic conditions. The central committee for rescue and relief is working with Sekong and Attapeu provinces and Division 5 of the Lao army to deploy the rescue and relief campaign for victims.

Attapeu provinces authorities had previously urged the Party, government organizations, business community, officials, police and military forces and people of all strata to provide emergency aid for the victims of the disaster, such as clothing, food items, drinking water, medicines, cash and other relief items.

The 410 MW Xe Pian-Xe Nam Noy hydroelectric power project is located in the southern region of Laos and is estimated to have an annual energy generation of approximately 1,860 GWh, according to www.power-technology.com.

PNPC is a joint-venture formed in March 2012 by SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C), Korea Western Power (KOWEPO), Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE). SK E&C holds a 24 percent stake in PNPC, LHSE 26 percent, and RATCH and KOWEPO equally own the remaining share in the project.

The project, which is estimated to cost USD1.02 billion, is the first build-operate-transfer (BOT) project to be undertaken by Korean companies in Laos.

The feasibility study for the hydroelectric project was completed in November 2008. Construction of the project began in February 2013 and commercial operations are expected to begin in 2018./.Tania Zaetta announced she was pregnant with twins thanks to a 'miracle egg donor' last month.

And on Wednesday, the 47-year-old showed off her growing baby bump during her babymoon in the Cook Islands with her boyfriend Chris Rodgers.

The expectant mother wore a bright red bikini and designer sunglasses as she posed in the sand.

Oh baby! Tania Zaetta, 47, shows off her growing bump in a skimpy red bikini during babymoon in the Cook Islands with boyfriend Chris Rodgers

She accompanied the cute snap with the caption, 'Thank god for selfie sticks with island views like this!'

Their recent tropical getaway comes after the fitness instructor announced she was pregnant with twins last month after she failed to fall pregnant naturally.

The soon-to-be parents flew to Greece to find an anonymous egg donor, who resembled Tania.

Speaking to Woman's Day last month, Tania revealed that they had two eggs implanted and the IVF worked the first time.

Picture perfect family: 'To be able to have an egg donor baby, that's the miracle to me,' she told Women's Day last month

'To be able to have an egg donor baby, that's the miracle to me,' she said.

'I was always going to be a mum, but I was single for a long time, and I wanted to wait for the right man  and Chris was the right man,' she later admitted to the publication.

Meanwhile, when Tania and her Day Spa Manager beau appeared on A Current Affair last month, she revealed she met her tall, dark and handsome partner, while visiting the retreat he worked at.

Love is in the air! 'We have not been apart since, so from date three we were pretty much living together,' she gushed while appearing on A Current Affair last month

'If there's anything we can do to help you while you're here, then let me know,' Chris said to a very smitten Tania.

'I thought that was my in and I said, 'Oh well, if you like, perhaps I could just grab a phone number and then we can organise to come again?' and he gave me the actual number of the hot springs!' she joked.

She went on to say that three weeks after their first date, Chris jumped on a plane to meet Tania while she was working overseas.

'We have not been apart since, so from date three we were pretty much living together,' she gushedThey fled Australia's winter chill to enjoy a sun-soaked Italian sojourn this month.

But it was back to reality for Karl Stefanovic, 43, and his fiancee Jasmine Yarbrough, 34, as they stepped out in Sydney's affluent suburb of Mosman on Wednesday just days after returning home.

And it seems that the pair could be suffering from a spot of jet lag, as they cut somewhat weary figures while venturing out for a low-key brunch.

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Post-holiday blues? Jasmine Yarbrough looks weary as shes enjoys brunch with fiance Karl Stefanovic days after couple return from their European getaway

Squinting through the midday glare, the lovebirds did their best to keep a low profile as they sat opposite each other and sipped from coffee cups.

Fashion mogul Jasmine went makeup-free for the occasion and swathed her fabulous figure beneath a baggy grey jumper emblazoned with the words: 'Be here now'.

Sweeping her tresses back into a ponytail, she completed her ensemble with a pair of skin-tight leggings and some comfortable sneakers.

Forgot your sunglasses? Squinting through the midday glare, the couple did their best to keep a low profile as they sat opposite each other and sipped from coffee cups

Off duty: Fashion mogul Jasmine went makeup-free for the occasion

Feeling the jet lag? Jasmine looked a little on the tired side as she basked in the sun outside the cafe

Leisurely look: Sweeping her tresses back into a ponytail, she completed her ensemble with a pair of skin-tight leggings and some comfortable sneakers

Comfort first! Jasmine swathed her fabulous figure beneath a baggy grey jumper emblazoned with the words: 'Be here now'

The footwear designer added a touch of glamour to her off-duty look by adorning her wrist with a diamond bangle and toting a large designer handbag.

She also made sure to flash her diamond engagement sparkler, which is thought to be worth a whopping $120,000.

Meanwhile, Karl was seen sporting the same suit he wore hours earlier on the Today show- albeit now with his top button undone.

Time to kick back: Meanwhile, Karl was seen sporting the same suit he wore hours earlier on the Today show- albeit now with his top button undone

Suits him! Proudly showcasing his newly slimmed-down frame, Karl was seen strutting down the sidewalk

Proudly showcasing his newly slimmed-down frame, Karl was seen strutting down the sidewalk before taking a seat next to Jasmine.

Karl and Jasmine's laid back outing comes after their recent whirlwind Italian adventure.

Jasmine wasn't shy to boast about the extravagant trip on social media, sharing happy snaps of herself partying with Karl in Tuscany and Sardinia.

If you've got it, flaunt it! Jasmine made sure to flash her diamond engagement sparkler, which is thought to be worth a whopping $120,000

Back to reality! Karl and Jasmine's laid back outing comes after their recent whirlwind Italian adventure

The couple were also pictured on-board a luxury yacht in Sardinia with billionaire pal James Packer and his gorgeous girlfriend, Kylie Lim.

Father-of-three Karl, who still has two children still attending school, jetted to Europe with Jasmine just days after going on leave earlier this month.

Karl confirmed his engagement to Jasmine in February.

They reportedly met on a lavish boat cruise in Sydney in December 2016, months after Stefanovic's high-profile split from his wife of 21 years, Cassandra Thorburn.

Living the good life! Jasmine wasn't shy to boast about the extravagant trip on social media, sharing happy snaps of herself partying with Karl in Tuscany and Sardinia

Jet-setting lifestyle: Father-of-three Karl, who still has two children still attending school, jetted to Europe with Jasmine just days after going on leave earlier this monthGary Oldman, the reigning Academy Award winner for Best Actor, has been inked to star alongside Amy Adams for the film adaptation of The Woman in the Window.

The 60-year-old actor, according to The Hollywood Reporter, will play a neighbor of Adams' character, a child psychologist who suffers from agoraphobia in addition to alcohol-related issues.

She's stayed grounded at her home for months on end when she sees a ghastly crime linked to the family of Oldman's character. Authorities do not trust her word and she begins to trust in herself.

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Leading man: Gary Oldman, 60, has inked to star alongside Amy Adams for the film adaptation of The Woman in the Window. He was snapped in Cannes in May

The Alfred Hitchcock-inspired film is derived from the book released earlier this year by author A.J. Finn (whose real name is Daniel Mallory, 38,) that made a significant splash, debuting in the top spot on the New York Times best-seller list en route to domestic sales eclipsing 1 million copies.

According to publisher Harper Collins, the book poses the questions: 'What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one - and nothing - is what it seems.'

Joe Wright is set to direct and Scott Rudin and Eli Bush will produce, while Julianne Moore is negotiating to play Oldman's wife in the motion picture, the publication reported.

Oldman took home his first Academy Award earlier this year for his venerated performance as Sir Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. He was previously up for the honors in 2012 for his work in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Meaty role: Amy Adams, seen in NYC last month, plays a child psychologist who suffers from agoraphobia in addition to alcohol-related issues

Soaking it in: The film's based off the book by author A.J. Finn (whose real name is Daniel Mallory)

Adams, 43, is a five-time Oscar nominee for her work in the films American Hustle, The Master, The Fighter, Doubt and Junebug.

Should she be cast, Moore would bring even more accolades to the table, as she captured the Best Actress Oscar for 2014's Still Alice.Model Samantha Harris and husband Luke Hunt celebrated their four year wedding anniversary in March this year.

And on Wednesday the smitten couple appeared to be the picture of marital bliss after they recreated one of the most romantic movie scenes of all time.

The Indigenous beauty, 27, took to Instagram to share a snap of the loved-up pair imitating the iconic Spider-Man upside-down kiss scene.

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Sealed with a kiss! Model Samantha Harris recreated an iconic Spiderman scene with her husband Luke Hunt on Wednesday

'Spiderman kiss,' she captioned the snap.

The lovers who spent two years of their marriage separated from one another while Luke was serving time in prison created their own version of the upside-down peck shared between Kirsten Dunst and Tobey McGuire in 2002's Spider-Man.

The amorous couple appeared to replicate the cinematic smooth in the comfort of their living room as they were seen packing on the PDA on a couch.

Inspiration: The couple created their own version of the upside-down peck shared between Kirsten Dunst (right) and Tobey McGuire (left) in 2002's Spider-Man

That's Marvel-ous! The lovers who spent two years of their marriage separated from one another while Luke was serving time in prison imitated the iconic Spider-Man upside-down kiss scene on Wednesday

Strength to strength: The couple's PDA comes after Samantha gushed about the couple's recent four year wedding anniversary on The Morning Show in May

In the snap, Luke lay face-up across the lounge as the Aboriginal fashion model leaned over her partners face and positioned her lips right on top of his.

The couple's PDA comes after Samantha gushed about the couple's recent four year wedding anniversary on The Morning Show in May.

Model Samantha Harris gushes about her four year wedding anniversary with husband Luke Hunt after couple spent the first two years of their marriage apart while he was in prison

'It was really good, for our anniversary we actually celebrated at Jonah's in Palm Beach,' she raved.

The beauty said herself and Luke enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed the beachfront venue.

'It was a good one,' Samantha reaffirmed.

Four years: Samantha secretly married Luke in 2014, two months before he began serving a prison sentence for his involvement in a fatal car crash, which killed 78-year-old grandfather Kenneth Lay

Samantha secretly married Luke in March 2014, two months before he began serving a prison sentence for his involvement in a fatal car crash, which killed 78-year-old grandfather Kenneth Lay.

Luke was behind the wheel during the tragic May 2012 accident.

Samantha and Luke's Commodore car crashed into Kenneth's Hyundai Lantra in Narraweena, on the Northern Beaches.

Catwalk queen: The Indigenous beauty, who started modelling at the ripe age of 13, rose to fame after placing second in Girlfriend magazine's model search back in 2004

News that the couple had married wasn't revealed until April 2016 after her husband had finished serving his term.

Samantha said the couple didn't make an announcement prior out of respect for the crash victim's family.

The brunette beauty, who started modelling at the ripe age of 13, rose to fame after placing second in Girlfriend magazine's model search back in 2004.

She has since gone on to feature in campaigns for David Jones and Miu Miu, while winning an ambassadorship with Priceline Pharmacy.Elsa Pataky has been soaking up the sun in her home country of Spain with her husband, Chris Hemsworth and their three children.

And on Wednesday the Hollywood actress treated her kids India Rose, six, Tristan and Sasha, four, to an ice cream making class in the coastal town of Getaria.

The 42-year-old mother-of-three took to her Instagram story to document the family's mouth-watering frozen dessert crash course.

Sweet treats! Elsa Pataky tucked into gelato during an ice cream making class with her kids India Rose, Tristan and Sasha on a family holiday in Spain on Wednesday

'Making ice cream with Fernando in Getaria in Spain,' she captioned one of the clips.

In the first clip the young family were seen looking at the ice cream chef with a sense of wonderment as they huddled together in the restaurant's kitchen.

The inquisitive kids were seen peering at the ice-cream maker while he measured out the desserts' ingredients into a mixing bowl.

'Making ice cream with Fernando in Getaria in Spain': The young family visited the coastal town of Getaria

We all scream for ice cream! The high-profile brood were seen looking at the ice cream chef with a sense of wonderment as they huddled together in the restaurant's kitchen

Elsewhere, the kids watched on in glee as white, creamy goodness oozed out of the soft-serve machine.

At one point, Elsa's darling daughter was seen offering her mother a small spoonful of ice cream.

Shortly after the blonde beauty, who cut a trim figure in a low cut white linen dress was handed another taste-tester by the generous chef.

Nod of approval! However it appeared to be short-lived as second later, Elsa flashed the camera an approving smile

As soon as the lithe stunner licked the ice cream off her spoon she appeared to experience a spot of brain-freeze, brought on by the cold dessert.

However it appeared to be short-lived as second later, Elsa flashed the camera an approving smile.

Chris and Elsa have been spending time in the actress's home country of Spain to mark her 42nd birthday, which took place last week.

However, the lovebirds haven't been spending all of their time alone as the pair also caught up with their married friends Matt Damon and Luciana Barroso.

The famous couple met in early 2010 and married months later during the Christmas period.She has been busy filming her new Netflix comedy Murder Mystery in the famous fishing village of Portofino, Italy.

But Jennifer Aniston took a much-needed break from set on Tuesday, to enjoy some down time at her hotel.

The actress, 49, was spotted changing into her gym kit and heading to the pool, to make the most of the Italian sunshine during her afternoon off.

Afternoon off: Jennifer Aniston took a much-needed break from set on Tuesday, to enjoy some down time at her hotel

The Marley And Me star first arrived back at her room in the denim shorts and trendy fedora she was seen wearing on set that morning.

After a quick change, the blonde then re-emerged in bright pink shorts and baggy vest top - emblazoned with the words 'Spiritual Gangster' across the front - in preparation for a sun-soaked workout.

However, adding oversized sunglasses and carrying her sun cream in hand, Jennifer seemed ready for an afternoon of topping up her tan, amid her busy schedule.

R&R: The actress, 49, was spotted changing into her gym kit and heading to the pool, to make the most of the Italian sunshine during her afternoon off

The star is currently in Italy filming her new Netflix comedy Murder Mystery, alongside Adam Sandler, Luke Evans and Gemma Arterton.

Jennifer and Adam play a married couple in the film, who go on a European vacation to reinvigorate their marriage.

Then, a chance meeting on a flight, a mysterious man invites them to an intimate family gathering on a super-yacht, with an elderly billionaire.

Leading lady: The star is currently in Italy filming her new Netflix comedy Murder Mystery, alongside Adam Sandler (right), Luke Evans and Gemma Arterton

Off again: Jennifer later arrived back at the yacht where the show is filmed for another shoot

Boho chic: The actress slipped into a stylish paisley maxi dress for the outing

Casual: She teamed the frock with a large hat and comfortable nude trainers

However, the wealthy man is later murdered on the vessel, making the couple prime suspects.

Principal filming for the movie began in Canada last month, and it is expected to premiere in 2019.

Jennifer and Adam are something of a dream team on-screen, having already starred together in 2011's Just Go With It, which raked in a huge $215 million worldwide.

Taking a break: Jennifer is no doubt delighted to be spending some time away, after splitting from husband Justin Theroux in February (pictured together in 2017)

The Friends star is no doubt delighted to be spending some time in the European sunshine, after a difficult few months.

Back in February, Jennifer and former husband Justin Theroux ended their relationship after seven years, and just two of marriage.

However, according to US Weekly, the actress has been in great spirits while filming the comedy, despite her romantic woes.

'She was very upbeat when they started shooting. In fact, Jen seems happy every time shes on the set. The vibe here is great,' a source said.Advertisement

He is famed for his illustrious action man career, having flexed his muscles in smash hits Rocky IV and The Expendables.

And, with its glass, steel and concrete architecture, Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren's luxury new home is certainly fit for the hard man, with the movie legend splashing out $3.9 million on the West Hollywood property.

The 60-year-old star won't be short of space in the ultra-modern, three-storey home, which boasts three bedrooms, three bathrooms and an array of superstar touches, such as an indoor cinema, huge walk-in closet and a lavish plunge pool.

The perfect pad: With its glass, steel and concrete architecture, Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren's luxury new home is certainly fit for the hard man, with the movie legend splashing out $3.9 million on the West Hollywood property

The sleek property is tastefully decorated throughout, with the master bedroom alone possessing a number of envy-inducing features, such as a contemporary fireplace and grand walk-in closet that doubles as a dressing room.

When Dolph isn't in the mood for sleeping he can step out onto the bedroom's adjoining balcony that boasts breathtaking views, though the star could admire them from any number of balconies in the property - including a roof terrace that provides the perfect space for entertaining guests as the sun sets on the City of Angels.

Movie buffs will no doubt be envious of the property's swanky home cinema, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art projection system, though Dolph can also unwind in his very own games room.

Beefcake: Dolph is illustrious for playing the action man, having flexed his muscles in smash hits Rocky IV and The Expendables

Plush: The 60-year-old star won't be short of space in the ultra-modern, three-storey home, which boasts three bedrooms, three bathrooms and an array of superstar touches

Inviting: The sleek property is tastefully decorated throughout, with the master bedroom alone possessing a number of envy-inducing features, such as a contemporary fireplace and grand walk-in closet that doubles as a dressing room

If the star is ever feeling peckish, he can whip up a feast in his gourmet kitchen that boasts modern units, white marble counter-tops and a large breakfast bar, while food is stocked in an integrated stainless steel fridge.

Of course, Dolph can also enjoy mealtimes in a separate dining room that is bedecked with a large wine rack and a statement mirror that creates the illusion of a more open and airy space.

Dolph will also be able to pump some iron in his very own indoor gym - a space that was no doubt a prerequisite for the musclebound actor - before cooling off in an extravagant plunge pool and spa.

Plush: The living room boasts a TV-surmounted fireplace and, like the rest of the house, is elegantly decorated with a neutral black-and-white colour scheme

The gift that keeps on giving! After his workouts, Dolph can retreat to his own plunge pool and spa that still offers plenty of privacy

Dinner is served! Dolph can enjoy mealtimes in a separate dining room that is bedecked with a large wine rack and a statement mirror that creates the illusion of a more open and airy space

Incredible: A steel-and-wood open-tread floating staircase is just one of the 5,200 square foot property's charming features, as are its many floor-to-ceiling windows that provide a city-lights view

A steel-and-wood open-tread floating staircase is just one of the 5,200 square foot property's charming features, as are its many floor-to-ceiling windows that provide a city-lights view.

The living room boasts a TV-surmounted fireplace and, like the rest of the house, is elegantly decorated with a neutral black-and-white colour scheme, its minimal aesthetic offering the perfect place to kick back and unwind after a long day.

As well as its current three bedrooms, the property's many reception rooms could easily be converted into extra bedrooms, while guests can enjoy a soak in one of the pad's three bathrooms that are each fitted with a number of slick touches, such as 'his and hers' sinks and freestanding baths.

Life of luxury: Guests can enjoy a soak in one of the pad's three bathrooms that are each fitted with a number of slick touches, such as 'his and hers' sinks and walk-in showers

Ready to unwind: There's also the option to recharge your batteries in a luxurious freestanding bath

Fitness fanatic: Dolph will also be able to pump some iron in his very own indoor gym - a space that was no doubt a prerequisite for the musclebound actor

Jaw-dropper: Nestled high in the hills, the pad provides plenty of outdoor seating areas for Dolph to entertain guests as the sun sets on the City of Angels

What more could you want? Movie buffs will no doubt be envious of the property's swanky home cinema, which is equipped with a state-of-the-art projection system, though Dolph can also unwind in his very own games room

Dolph will share the property with his long-time girlfriend Jenny Sandersson, while his two daughters Ida, 22, and Greta, 16 - who he shares with ex-wife Anette Qviberg - will no doubt be regular guests at his opulent abode.

The Punisher star split with Anette in 2011 after 17 years of marriage, though the actor's most famous relationship was with avant-garde model and performer Grace Jones, with whom he struck up a romance after working as her bodyguard in the early eighties.

It was the Jamaican-American actress who convinced Dolph - who moved to Boston after landing a Fulbright scholarship to MIT - to leave the university and move to New York City to be with her and begin acting, with the star later carving a successful career in action movies.

Chic: If the star is ever feeling peckish, he can whip up a feast in his gourmet kitchen that boasts modern units, white marble counter-tops and a large breakfast bar, while food is stocked in an integrated stainless steel fridge

Room for everyone: Dolph will share the property with his long-time girlfriend Jenny Sandersson, while his two daughters Ida, 22, and Greta, 16 - who he shares with ex-wife Anette Qviberg - will no doubt be regular guests at the mansion

Plenty of options! As well as its current three bedrooms, the property's many reception rooms could easily be converted into extra bedrooms

His breakthrough came in 1985 when he starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in successful franchise Rocky IV as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago.

Despite his reputation as a hard man, Dolph previously said that he is in touch with his softer side, telling The Guardian: 'I cry a lot. It makes me feel good. I had a bit of a cry this morning, in fact. It was the feeling of loss and not being around my family that set me off.'

The actor - who was educated as a chemical engineer - also said he is more intellectual than some give him credit for, adding: 'I am a beefcake in some ways: I like to work out and I'm fairly simple, but I'm also analytical, contemplative and sensitive  people don't see that.'

The perfect set-up: The master bedroom also boasts an adjoining walk-in wardrobe, which provides more than enough space for fashion enthusiastsMade In Chelsea original Caggie Dunlop has returned to the spotlight in a blaze of glory as she prepares to release her new single Here We Are Again.

So the 29-year-old songstress was naturally keen to dish the dirt as she chatted to Christine Lampard on Wednesday morning's episode of Lorraine, during which she discussed her ex Spencer Matthews, her MIC past and best pal Millie Mackintosh.

Looking a vision, the blonde beauty, who first burst on to screens in 2011 and starring for three seasons, sported an ethereal pink dress with a stunning bouncy blowdry as she proved herself to be more stylish than ever.

Yay! Made In Chelsea original Caggie Dunlop has returned to the spotlight in a blaze of glory as she prepares to release her new single Here We Are Again

Caggie soared to fame on Made In Chelsea, when she was one of the main cast members in the show which was created to rival TOWIE in the reality world.

Her romantic involvement with Spencer was one of the main storylines, as their confused friendship and romance captivated viewers.

Now however, Spencer is expecting his first child with wife Vogue Williams yet despite this Caggie is still being grilled over their former romance.

When Christine asked her if Spencer was the subject of her single, which includes the lyrics: "I was out with all my friends/In a summer dress, my hair pulled backwards/Standing by the river Thames/I heard your name", she remained defiant.

In depth: So the 29-year-old songstress was naturally keen to dish the dirt as she chatted to Christine Lampard on Wednesday morning's episode of Lorraine, during which she discussed her ex Spencer Matthews, her MIC past and best pal Millie Mackintosh

Way back when: Her romantic involvement with Spencer was one of the main storylines, as their confused friendship and romance captivated viewers (left, pictured together in 2013), yet he has now moved on with Vogue Williams)

Chatting away: When Christine asked her if Spencer was the subject of her single, which includes the lyrics: "I was out with all my friends/In a summer dress, my hair pulled backwards/Standing by the river Thames/I heard your name", she remained defiant

Pals: On staying in touch with her MIC pals, she touched on Millie, whose bridesmaid she was at her wedding last month, and admitted she is still pals with the others (pictured on the show in 2011)

The blonde beauty appeared tickled as she said: 'I find it rather funny because people held on to that storyline so much even after all this time.. They also have to understand I am a person that has lived a whole life separate from that show...

'Before and after - I had fallen in love and had my heartbroken and had all these experiences. Spencer is a good friend of mine, but thats really all there is to that.'

On staying in touch with her MIC pals, she touched on Millie, whose bridesmaid she was at her wedding last month, and admitted she is still pals with the others.

Good friends: She revealed: 'I keep in touch with most of them I was bridesmaid at Millies wedding recently, so we are all still very close, we have just all gone off on our own paths and doing our own thing'

She revealed: 'I keep in touch with most of them I was bridesmaid at Millies wedding recently, so we are all still very close, we have just all gone off on our own paths and doing our own thing.'

Her pal Oliver Proudlock recently spoke about if she would ever make a comeback to the hit E4 show, to which he told MailOnline: 'Shell never she lives in LA. Shes on a different path.'

Proudlock - who is still close to Caggie - went on: 'Caggie is so great. She wears her heart on her sleeve. Very natural, true to herself. Shes a great person. But she wont come back.'The fourth season of Love Island isnt even over, but applications for ITV2s hit shows season 5 are already reportedly open.

According to The Mirror, the shows increasing popularityno doubt bolstered by Jack and Danis rollercoaster of a relationship and Megans muggy anticshas led to the producers to start looking for potential Love Islanders extra early.

Usually, producers start the hunt for a new series in December, as they did for Love Island 2018.

Over 85,000 people applied to be on the fourth series of ITV2 show in 2018, with the application deadline being extended until mid-July

The shows narrator, Iain Stirling, also hinted that applications would be starting earlier than normal, saying they would be opening soon, thus giving current viewers an opportunity to be next years stars.

Here is all you need to know about how and when to apply for Love Island 2019, including tips from previous contestants and what the application process is like.

How to apply for Love Island 2019?

So far, the Love Island application page has not yet been updated, showing prospective applicants the message that Love Island season 4 applications have now closed.

However, if the reports and Iain Stirlings comments on air are anything to go by, Love Island hopefuls better bookmark the link on their browser now.

The 2018 form read: ITV2 are looking for vibrant singles from across the UK who want to head to the sun, in search of a summer of love.

"The chosen cast will spend time in a luxury villa, getting to know one another - but to remain in paradise they must win the hearts of the public who ultimately decide who stays on Love Island.

What do you need to apply for Love Island?

You need to be 18 to apply for starters. However, that includes 17-year-olds who will turn 18 before the application closes in the spring of 2019.

Unsurprisingly, a passport that will be valid between May 1 2019 and August 31 2019 is needed, allowing contestants to be flown to and from the island in Spain during the shows taping.

The Mirror also says that the application requires applicants to be exclusively available to take part in the show for a minimum of eight consecutive weeks starting in May 2019.

This suggests that Love Island 2019 will be just as hefty in terms of episodes and length as the super-sized Love Island 2018.

When is the application deadline?

The current application date, according to the Mirror, is April 30 2019.

However, it is likely the deadline will be extended as it was during Love Island 2018, meaning that people who turn 18 after April 30 2019 may still be able to apply to be on the show.

Love Island 2019 application process

There is more than one way to get onto the ITV2 show. While the application is one that puts some control in the hands of the applicant, Love Island casting producer Lewis Bevans told Cosmopolitan of the ways the show searches for the next Muggy Mike or Dani-Jack combo.

We also cast our net far and wide by looking at social media profiles (Twitter and Instagram) as its always quite easy to gauge on there people who are popular, arent afraid to show themselves off and have a big following.

We also attend events and hold street castings for prospective Islanders. The key is that they are over 18, single and looking for love, he said.

However, standing out initially is only the beginning of the process. For Love Island 2018, 85,000 people applied. To put it into perspective, only 19,000 people applied to Oxford and 12,000 to Cambridge.

If youre lucky enough to progress to the next round, youll face several auditions and interviews where producers will look out for qualities that they think will keep viewers coming back for more.

Bevans also told Cosmopolitan that a key question the producers ask contestants during the application process is whether they would choose love over the 50,000 prize.

Its always important to us that anyone coming onto the show is open to finding the girl or guy of their dreams.

Love Island application tips

Love Island 2018 contestant Niall told Glamour that he got onto the show by making a video in which he said that he messaged everyone on social media without any success.

I made a little video of me basically saying I'd DMed everyone in the city to no avail so now I need to get on the Island to get some action.

A strong video seems to be key to a successful application as Lauras, which in one minute featured everything from clips of plane journeys, camel rides and gym workouts, was reportedly the best entry of the year.

Seeking advice from previous Love Islanders also seems to be a good way of understanding how to come across well during the process.

Laura told Glamour how she DMed Love Island 2015s Max Morley to ask whether she should apply.

Bevans said that Instagram and Twitter profiles are crucial in helping producers decide whom to contact and Love Island 2018s Hayley confirmed that social media plays a strong part in the decision-making process.

She told Glamour: The producers had contacted me via Instagram in previous years but Ive had boyfriends.

Im not like an influencer but obviously if you do modelling, like me, you have to show yourself off and look your best on Instagram so that is probably why they contacted me, she added.

Wes agreed, saying that his profile, which is full of fitness videos and lifestyle pictures with friends could have led to the producers casting him.MasterChef judge Matt Preston, 54, is known for his bold and eclectic taste in fashion.

And on Wednesday, viewers mocked the food critic's quirky red suit on Twitter.

The London-born star wore a bright red velvet suit with a white shirt and his trademark cravat.

'Why is he dressed like a Teletubbie?' Viewers mock MasterChef judge Matt Preston's (left) quirky red suit and liken him to Santa Claus (right)

Two fans jokingly comparing the MasterChef judge to Santa Claus, along with photos of the iconic Christmas character.

'I will not say a word @MattsCravat , love the outfit! #MasterchefAU,' one wrote in their tweet.

While another similarly said: 'I will not say a word #MasterchefAU. '

Two fans jokingly comparing the MasterChef judge to Santa Claus, along with photos of the iconic Christmas character

One tweeted a movie still from the film Dumber And Dumber charity ball scene with Matt in his red suit edited alongside the two main characters.

'Sorry Matt, I had too. Suit looks good though! #MasterChefAU,' they wrote.

Another joked: 'Is Matt the next Wiggle! #MasterChefAU'.

Looking good: One tweeted a movie still from the film Dumber And Dumber charity ball scene with Matt in his red suit edited alongside the two main characters. 'Sorry Matt, I had too. Suit looks good though! #MasterChefAU,' they wrote

'Is Matt the next Wiggle!' Other viewers of the show tweeted out their thoughts on the MasterChef judge's bold and eclectic ensemble

'Why is Matt dressed like a Teletubbie? #MasterChefAU,' someone else added.

'The budget has been spent on suits for Matt, so no overseas trip this year #MasterChefAU,' a viewer tweeted.

Khanh Ong impressed the judges on Wednesday's episode with his fig and blue cheese mouse dessert and has progressed to the top three.

MasterChef continues on Sunday 7.30pm on Channel 10Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa hold talks in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

PRETORIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- China and South Africa on Tuesday pledged to carry forward their traditional friendly relations and advance their comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era.

During the talks between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, the two leaders agreed to strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen political mutual trust, align their development strategies, promote practical cooperation and increase people-to-people exchanges, thus enabling the two peoples to enjoy more fruits of the bilateral cooperation.

Xi expressed appreciation to Ramaphosa for his important contributions to the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and to the development of bilateral relations.

Noting that China and South Africa are both major developing countries and emerging-market countries with important influence, Xi said that since the forging of diplomatic relations 20 years ago, the two sides have been committed to mutually-beneficial cooperation and common development, stood together through thick and thin, shared weal and woe, and established a "comrade plus brother" relationship featuring sincere friendship, mutual trust and close bond.

He said that China-South Africa relations have leapt from a partnership to a strategic partnership and then to a comprehensive strategic partnership over the past years, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples.

"Taking the opportunity of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties, China stands ready to work with South Africa on supporting each other in hosting this year's BRICS summit in Johannesburg and the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), inheriting the past and ushering in the future, and pushing for more outcomes from the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, so as to bring greater benefits to our two peoples," Xi said.

Noting that China-South Africa relations are now standing at a new historical point, the Chinese president proposed the two sides to focus on the following areas to advance the bilateral relations:

-- The two sides should strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen political mutual trust, support each other in independently choosing the development path that suits their own national conditions, continue to understand and support each other on issues involving respective core interests and major concerns, increase exchanges between the governments, legislative bodies and various other areas, and deepen the inter-party exchanges and cooperation.

-- The two sides should enhance cooperation within the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative and the FOCAC, align their development strategies, deepen exchanges and cooperation in new economy sectors and sunrise industries, and share the development opportunities brought by the fourth industrial revolution. The Chinese side is willing to focus on promoting cooperation in such areas as infrastructure construction, trade and investment, scientific and technological innovation, and finance, and supports the endeavors made by the South African government to develop the economy, create jobs, improve people's livelihood and promote social transformation.

-- The two sides should deepen people-to-people bonds, implement the consensus the two sides have reached on facilitating personnel exchanges and strengthening cultural and educational exchanges, and consolidate cooperation in human resources development and tourism.

-- The two sides should promote security and law-enforcement cooperation. The Chinese side is willing to strengthen cooperation with South Africa on law-enforcement capacity building.

-- The two sides should increase coordination within multilateral frameworks including the UN, G20, BRICS and BASIC (Brazil, India, South Africa and China), jointly safeguard multilateralism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and promote a more just and equitable international order.

For his part, Ramaphosa said that South African and Chinese peoples enjoy traditional friendship, and the two countries have constantly consolidated and developed their relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties 20 years ago.

The relations have gone beyond the bilateral scope with important strategic significance, and the two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation on regional and multilateral levels, he said, noting that the special friendly ties have brought substantial benefits to the two peoples.

Ramaphosa said that it is in the fundamental and long-term interests of South Africa to continue to strengthen political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, enhance scientific, technological and people-to-people exchanges with China, and promote their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He pledged that South Africa will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy, push for positive progress in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, increase communication and coordination with China on major international and regional issues, oppose unilateralism, strengthen multilateralism, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

On the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg on July 25-27, Xi said that it is the first one to be held in the second "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation and has a special significance.

BRICS gathers the world's five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"We should bear in mind the big picture of BRICS cooperation, constantly cement our strategic partnerships, make a loud and clear voice on upholding multilateralism, and jointly build an open world economy," Xi said, while pledging to coordinate with and support South Africa for a successful BRICS summit.

Xi and Ramaphosa will co-chair the FOCAC Beijing summit in September. Hailing the contributions that South Africa has made for the institutionalization of the FOCAC and friendly cooperation between China and Africa as co-chair of the forum, Xi said that China looks forward to discussing with African countries on plans to promote China-Africa friendly cooperation in the new era and jointly build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

"It is China's long-term and firm strategic choice to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries," he said.

Ramaphosa expressed gratitude for China's support in the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg. He told Xi that he looks forward to attending the FOCAC Beijing summit and will coordinate with China to ensure the success of the two major events.

After the talks, the two heads of state witnessed the signing of a series of bilateral cooperation documents and met with the press.

Ramaphosa held a grand welcome ceremony for Xi prior to the talks.

Xi arrived in Pretoria on Monday to pay his third state visit to the "rainbow nation."

South Africa is the fourth stop of Xi's five-nation Middle East and Africa tour, which has taken him to the United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Rwanda. He will also visit Mauritius during a stopover.

6

1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer's romance almost came to an end over the disastrous lie detector challenge this week.

And the Essex lad's close friend and boss Dane Goodson made an appearance on Good Morning Britain this Wednesday to discuss the Love Island favourite's relationship, saying Dani should 'chill out' because Jack genuinely loves her.

Dane, who recently welcomed baby daughter Florence with his girlfriend Casey Batchelor, was joined by the former glamour model for his TV interview.

Trouble in paradise? Love Island's Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer's romance almost came to an end over the disastrous lie detector challenge this week

Weight in: Jack's close friend and boss Dane Goodson made an appearance on Good Morning Britain this Wednesday alongside his model girlfriend Casey Batchelor to discuss the Love Island favourite's relationship

During the dreaded lie detector test, Dani was left hysterical when Jack failed a question about whether he'd be tempted to cheat once they left the villa.

The pair had an epic series of rows about Jack's fidelity - which the petite beauty has been worried about ever since discovering he'd cheated on all of his ex-girlfriends.

Dane, who is a Sales Director at DMG Office Supplies and Print Services, said Dani needn't be concerned.

He explained: 'I think Danis just so worried already about whats going to happen if Jack does anything outside.

Concerned: During the dreaded lie detector test, Dani was left hysterical when Jack failed a question about staying faithful

She's The One! Dane, who is a Sales Director at DMG Office Supplies and Print Services, said Dani needn't be concerned

'I dont think she should worry about that. She should enjoy it and chill out a bit more.'

Dane believes Jack's feelings for Dani are '100 per cent genuine, saying, 'Jack wears his heart on his sleeve. He's definitely fallen for Dani.

'He really wanted to meet someone going in the villa', Casey added.

Rea; dea;@ Dane believes Jack's feelings for Dani are '100 per cent genuine, saying, 'Jack wears his heart on his sleeve. He's definitely fallen for Dani

Dane insisted Jack - who has also upset Dani by lying about how many women he'd slept with - truly wants to find love and settle down.

'When he came and spoke to me about going on he said, "Obviously I want to have the time of my life. But I want to meet someone. I want to find someone",' the businessman added.

Dane and Casey also denied claims Jack is only interested in pint-sized beauty Dani because of her famous father, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer.

He's loyal, babe: Dane insisted Jack - who has also upset Dani by lying about how many women he'd slept with - truly wants to find love and settle down

Dane previously spilled the beans on his cheeky antics before he met Dani.

He candidly revealed to OK! magazine that his pal Jack had to be told off for bedding too many of the new girls at work.

The stationery company boss joked: 'When he was single we had a bit of a problem as he was so popular with his co-workers.I had to say to him: 'Can you please stop sleeping with the new women?'

Jack has been leaving viewers in hysterics with his impressions of his fellow Islanders, while Dane confirmed that he does it in the office too.

He said that Jack is a hit with the customers and they ring up on a Monday just to ask him about his weekend.The Love Island baby challenge in one of the most eagerly-awaited of the series.

And Wednesday night's episode will not disappoint as the couples are seen throwing themselves head first into life as 'parents', with some of the stars proving themselves fully prepared for the job, while others - particularly Josh - struggled deeply.

Despite being branded the 'most smug' couple in the villa, Kaz and Josh feel the strain of the challenge as he struggles to brand with their doll baby, Prince Kavana Joshua Denzel, leading to his make-up artist girlfriend calling him 'an absent father'.

Cooing: Wednesday night's Love Island episode will not disappoint as the couples are seen throwing themselves head first into life as 'parents'

While some of the Islanders were taking to parenthood swimmingly, Josh was clearly struggling to bond with Prince - much to his adoring girlfriend's chagrin.

He said: 'How have I got a headache already? Ive not had one headache since Ive been here. A baby comes along and Ive got a booming headache. Keep the babies as far away from me as possible, especially when they cry.'

Showing his attitude was not going missed, a rather perturbed Kaz called Josh out on his behaviour, saying: 'Im really enjoying it, Im so happy. Youve been running away, I dont think youve held him once.'

He defiantly insisted he has been on-hand however was struggling with his son's incessant crying: 'Ive held him a few times. Its just he cries, a lot.'

In-depth: Despite being branded the 'most smug' couple in the villa, Kaz and Josh feel the strain of the challenge as he struggles to brand with their doll baby, Prince Kavana Joshua Denzel, leading to his make-up artist girlfriend calling him 'an absent father'

I did once! He insisted he has stepped up as a father - although Kaz begged to differ

After Kaz branded her beau 'an absent father', Josh said in the Beach Hut: 'I dont know how people do it, its literally been half a day, and Im a broken man'.

Another star struggling to come to terms parenthood was Megan, whose partner Wes was pulling out all the stops in his own turn as a dad.

She said: 'I was a terrible mum. You really did surprise me. I thought being younger you would be just silly about it, like Meg, here you go, you deal with that. But you really shocked me, you were better than me.'

Not too sure? Another star struggling to come to terms parenthood was Megan, whose partner Wes was pulling out all the stops in his own turn as a dad

Here come the mums! The girls are sent out of the villa to take a break from their babies - however Wes is left infuriated as he admits he's been doing all the work with babyMia Ruby Nelson

The exotic dancer later realised she is not ready for tots, saying: 'Whatever age I was thinking, which was probably like 27, I feel like add another five on after today...

'100%. Im just not ready yet. But dont think Im not wife material, Im not mother material. I am only 24. One day, Ill get there. Just not now.'

The girls are sent out of the villa to take a break from their babies - however Wes is left infuriated as he admits he's been doing all the work with baby Mia Ruby Nelson.

Heart and soul: The handsome star said: 'I have put my heart and soul into baby Mia. And theyve been rewarded, what have I done wrong?'

The handsome star said: 'I have put my heart and soul into baby Mia. And theyve been rewarded, what have I done wrong?'

He then decides to rename 'the Do Bits Society' - the group made for those who have had sexual contact in the house - The Daddy Daycare Society.

Elsewhere, Megan seemed more in love than ever with Wes, as she told the girls: 'Its attractive to see that sensitive side of guys, you dont normally see it. Wes is so natural with her, Im like: "Oh my God, youre so cute, look at you"'.

Happy days: Elsewhere, Megan seemed more in love than ever with Wes, as she told the girls: 'Its attractive to see that sensitive side of guys, you dont normally see it. Wes is so natural with her, Im like: "Oh my God, youre so cute, look at you"'

Hot mamas on tour! The ladies were bringing in the giggles as they took time away from the kids

Kaz meanwhile vents again: 'I have to say, I dont feel the same as any of you. Since the day little Prince came into my life, Josh gave him his name, dressed him and then ran a mile. Ive been looking after the baby all day. Theres no father bond there.'

Megan returned and continued to gush, saying: 'I was a terrible mum. You really did surprise me. I thought being younger you would be just silly about it, like "Meg, here you go, you deal with that". But you really shocked me, you were better than me.'

Show favourites Jack and Dani realise their baby has brought them even closer together as they admit baby Kimberley uplifted their romance.

Happy days: Show favourites Jack and Dani realise their baby has brought them even closer together as they admit baby Kimberley uplifted their romance

Jack said: 'This is actually like being in the future. Im sorry this is actually like being in the actual future. Mate, I cant wait to take her down the park and that. Strolling through the park', before Dani says: 'Would you want a baby with me?'

Her beau instantly replied: 'Yeah. I said that already. Not now, maybe when Im about 30 odd. I think were going to be really good parents, dont you?'

Jack was opening up to Dani about what sort of parent he would be, saying: 'When Ive actually got a kid, I want to be a really fun parent. I want to do so much fun stuff.

'Theyre never going to want for anything. Were going to be proper stable. Theyre always going to have what they want. I want them to be so polite. I think being polites so important.'

The big reveal: Jack was opening up to Dani about what sort of parent he would be, saying: 'When Ive actually got a kid, I want to be a really fun parent. I want to do so much fun stuff'

With deep undertones, Dani then spoke about the sort of mother she wants to be, as she drew inspiration from her own mum Joanne Mas and how she's helped her.

Speaking with passion about her beloved mum, she said: 'I want her to just be able to tell me everything. How I am with my mum...

'I want her to be able to do whatever shes done, be able to confide in me, and for me to always be able to give her the right advice. My mum is strict. And shes like my best mate.'

Love Island, tonight at 9pm on ITV2They are thought to have struck up a romance last September.

And Denise Richards and boyfriend Aaron Phypers still looked very much in the throes of love as they enjoyed a romantic stroll in Calabasas, California, following a dinner date on Tuesday.

The couple were spotted locking hands and arms as they stepped out for a stroll, an outing that follows reports Denise, 47, is in talks to join The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Smitten: Denise Richards and boyfriend Aaron Phypers still looked very much in the throes of love as they enjoyed a romantic stroll in Calabasas, California, following a dinner date on Tuesday

The Wild Things actress sported a heavily-patterned jumpsuit for the date night, which also flashed a glimpse of the black bra she donned beneath the piece.

She completed the look with easy flip flops and a neutral beige handbag, while an array of necklaces put a slightly bohemian spin on her style.

The blonde was seemingly struggling to decide on a hairstyle for the occasion as she rocked a high ponytail before pulling her hair tie free and shaking out her locks for some added glamour.

Loved-up: The couple - who were first spotted together in September 2017 - locked hands as they stepped out for a sunset saunter

Denise let her natural beauty shine through by sporting minimal, if any, make-up, beneath her over-sized black shades.

Complementing his girlfriend's style, Aaron also opted for all blue in a simple T-shirt and jeans combination.

The outing follows reports that Denise has been meeting with Real Housewives producers to discuss the possibility of starring in the next season of the show's Beverly Hills edition.

'Everyone is really excited about the possibility of having her join the show,' a source told People. 'Its not final yet, its very close.

Next move? The outing follows reports that Denise has been meeting with Real Housewives of Beverly Hills producers to discuss the possibility of starring in the next season

'She's a huge Housewives fan and watches all of the shows and she has close relationships with many of the women in real life, including Kyle Richards and Lisa Rinna.'

The high-profile casting move comes as 'producers needed to shake the dynamic of the show up after a season without much conflict,' according to the source.

'She's going to be a great fit. She's not afraid of the drama. And she lives a glamorous, Hollywood life - which the show looks for.'

Away from the spotlight, Denise is also the mother of three; having welcomed children Sam, 14, and Lola Rose, 13, with ex-husband Charlie Sheen, before adopting Eloise Joni, seven, as a single mom.She welcomed her fifth child, a baby girl named Frida, last month.

And Brigitte Nielsen has candidly discussed becoming a mother again aged 54 in a new interview with People magazine, revealing she had been trying to conceive for over a decade after freezing her eggs to have her own genetic baby.

The actress - who turned 55 last week - confessed IVF (in vitro fertilisation treatment) has been a long and emotionally draining experience, but definitely worth it.

Baby joy: Brigitte Nielsen has candidly discussed becoming a mother again aged 54 in a new interview with People magazine, revealing she froze her eggs 14 years ago to have her own genetic baby

She said: 'It is such a long road. What I want women to know is that everything is possible, but you have to be realistic. There was a lot of disappointment.'

Brigitte already has four children from past relationships - Raoul Meyer Jr., 23, Douglas Meyer, 25, Killian Nielsen, 28, and Julian Winding, 34.

The star knew she wanted to freeze her eggs aged 40 when she met her now husband Mattia Dessi, who is 15 years younger.

She was only given a 3 to 4 per cent chance of conceiving with her own eggs - and persisted for almost 14 years, despite the heartache and the expense.

She enthused: 'It is such a long road. What I want women to know is that everything is possible, but you have to be realistic'

True love: The star knew she wanted to freeze her eggs aged 40 when she met her now husband Mattia Dessi who is 15 years younger

Brigitte said: 'My husband and I have been wanting this so much for so many years. I finally have my little princess.'

The actress intends to be a hands-on and insists her age and experience will only make her a better mother.

'Im more capable, less frustrated and not afraid. I know exactly what I want to do with her and where Im at in life', she explained.

Brigitte told the magazine she had an easy pregnancy and a cesarean section, and has been enjoying her first few weeks with baby Frida.

This marks Brigitte's first interview about her shock pregnancy, after posting the first photo of her baby girl to her Instagram account last month.

Struggle: She was only given a 3 to 4 per cent chance of conceiving with her own eggs - and persisted for almost 14 years, despite the heartache and the expense

Doting mother: The actress intends to be a hands-on and insists her age and experience will only make her a better mother

'We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,' the screen icon said. 'Its been a long road, and so worth it. Weve never been more in love.'

In the social media post, the star cradled her baby girl in her arms; the newborn donned a knit white hat.

Brigitte captioned the photo: 'Our precious little Frida, our true love,' adding a heart emoji.

Brigitte - who is best known for Rocky IV, Cobra and Beverly Hills Cop II - tied the knot with Italian TV producer Mattia in 2006.

It was only in May that the blonde beauty, who was once married to Sylvester Stallone, revealed she was expecting a child.

New daddy: Brigitte - who is best known for Rocky IV, Cobra and Beverly Hills Cop II - tied the knot with Italian TV producer Mattia in 2006

'We are overjoyed to welcome our beautiful daughter into our lives,' she told the site. 'Its been a long road, and so worth it. Weve never been more in love.'

Nielsen was previously married to Raoul Meyer from 1993 to 2003, Sebastian Copeland from 1990 until 1992, Stallone from 1985 until 1987 and Kasper Winding from 1983 until 1984.

Mattia is her fifth husband.

She has also dated Flavor Flav (2003 - 2005), Mark Gastineau (1988 - 1990), Tony Scott (1987), Kelly Sahnger (1987 - 1988) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (1984 - 1985). And she has been linked to Vanilla Ice, Mick Hucknall and Sean Penn.

The star shared the news to Instagram in late May.

Her ex: Nielsen was previously married to Sylvester Stallone from 1985 until 1987

The 6ft1in knockout shocked fans when she posted a photograph of herself dressed in a white dress as she placed her hands on her large baby bump.

The Eighties icon wrote in her caption, 'Family getting larger.'

Soon after the bombshell posted a second photo, this time with the caption, 'Happy time. Positive vibes.' She wore sunglasses and a scarf with a tight T-shirt dress.

Nielsen is not alone in her choice to have a child later in life. In 2013, 13 babies were born each week to moms aged 50 and older, according to parenting.com.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says births by women between the ages of 50 and 54 increased by more than 165 percent from 2000 to 2013.

Most women who get pregnant at age 50 do so with the help of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

And given the average age for menopause is 51, older moms typically use donor eggs of younger women in order to conceive.Comedian Kitty Flanagan has become the latest celebrity to weigh in on Channel Ten's 'straight white male' Pilot Week lineup, following widespread criticism.

The accomplished stand-up comedian mocked Network Ten's new offering in a comedy sketch for ABC's The Weekly with Charlie Pickering on Wednesday.

The skit began with a fictional Channel 10 executive urging the talented female comic to host a show in Pilot Week in an attempt to modify the all-male lineup.

'Men are from Mars, women are a bit s*** at TV!' Comedian Kitty Flanagan mocks Channel Ten's 'straight white male' Pilot Week lineup after the network was widely criticised

'Geez come on, help me out, Pilot Week is coming up...we've got eight new shows and every one of them is hosted by a man. I need you to host a show,' the executive said.

'Serious?' Kitty remarked as she let out a giggle.

'Women cant host television shows,' she added in jest.

'Yeah I know, but in todays climate how bads it going to look if every new show we come up with is fronted by a man?' the boss exclaimed.

'Women cant host television shows': The accomplished stand-up comedian mocked Network Ten's new offering in a comedy sketch for ABC's The Weekly with Charlie Pickering

'I mean, just look at the ABC, they know what works. Shaun Micallef, Wil Anderson, Charlie Pickering, Tom Ballard, Tom Gleeson, Paul McDermott  all men': Kitty also took a cheeky swipe at her current employer, the ABC for opting for a male-oriented television lineup

Elsewhere, Kitty also took a cheeky swipe at her current employer, the ABC for opting for a male-oriented television lineup.

'I mean, just look at the ABC, they know what works. Shaun Micallef, Wil Anderson, Charlie Pickering, Tom Ballard, Tom Gleeson, Paul McDermott  all men,' Kitty said.

She continued: 'Doing what they do best; being men, on television.'

Kitty concluded the segment by suggesting her husband (with no media background) could potentially host a show as 'he'll instinctively know what to do because he's a male.'

'Men are from Mars...women are a bit s**t at television!' she concluded.

The amusing skit comes after Channel Ten were forced to address the backlash to their Pilot Week lineup, which was criticised by several celebrities for featuring too many men.

The network was slammed by stars like Em Rusciano and Meshel Laurie on Monday after they announced eight new shows - with only one of the eight starring a female.

Speaking to the Herald Sun, Ten program chief Beverley McGarvey said: 'The reactions probably not surprising but we are a bit disappointed.'

Hitting back: Ten program chief Beverley McGarvey has addressed the backlash that the network received for their male-heavy Pilot Week lineup

She went on to explain that the network has 21 new shows on air this year and that their eight pilot week programs aren't representative of their entire roster.

'On Pilot Week obviously there is a really amazing mix of male and female behind-the-scenes people  executive producers and showrunners.

'On screen most of the shows have strong female participants where possible.'

One and only! The Bachelor's Anna Heinrich, who will star in Trial By Kyle, is the only female that made the cut for Pilot Week

She added: 'We have so many shows on the schedule that are fronted by women and so many amazing female executive producers running our shows.'

Among the upcoming female fronted shows coming to Ten include The Bachelorette with Ali Oetjen and the scripted drama Playing for Keeps with Madeleine West, Olympia Valance, Annie Maynard and Isabella Giovinazzo.

Controversial radio host Em Rusciano led the charge of criticism against Ten's man-heavy pilot lineup.

Not happy! Em Rusciano (L) and Meshel Laurie (R) lashed out at Network Ten's Pilot Week lineup because all the programs are hosted by men

Magda Szubanski also got involved, tweeting: 'We hoped after Kath and Kim things would change. But no. Women still cant get a guernsey'

The struggling TV network recently unveiled it's 'Pilot Week' schedule of eight new programs that will be either commissioned for full seasons or cancelled depending on ratings performance and viewer response.

While the experimental approach claims to 'put the viewer in charge', the apparent lack of talent diversity has rankled the likes of Em, radio presenter Jane Kennedy, and comedians Meshel Laurie and Magda Szubanski.

The eight shows in Network Ten's Pilot Week are: Dave, a semi-autobiographical sitcom starring Dave O'Neil; Kinne Tonight, a 'half hour of laughs' with comedian Troy Kinne; an Australian version of Comedy Central's Drunk History; Taboo, which sees Harley Breen prepare a stand-up comedy routine about disadvantaged people; Trial By Kyle, a Judge Judy-style show hosted by shock jock Kyle Sandilands and criminal lawyer-turned-Bachelor star Anna Heinrich; Disgrace!, a program recapping the week's scandals hosted by former Labor politician Sam Dastyari; and Bring Back... Saturday Night, a variety show presented by Rove McManus.Tom Cruise used to call Beverly Hills his home but in 2016, he sold his properties there, including his large compound which went for $39 million.

Now the 56-year-old movie icon is living in Clearwater, Florida close to the international headquarters for Scientology.

And the actor, whose new movie Mission: Impossible - Fallout opens this weekend, has brought along his 23-year-old son Connor, whom he adopted with ex-wife Nicole Kidman. According to the new issue of People, he is 'happy' there.

New digs: Tom Cruise, seen here in Washington DC, has moved to Florida

His new town: The 56-year-old action star lives in a penthouse near the Church Of Scientology, according to People

So private! The new issue of People took a look inside Tom's life

Daughter Bella, 25, often visits though her home base is in London with her husband.

Bella was adopted by Nicole and Tom in 1992, followed by her younger brother Connor three years later.

When Tom and Nicole split in 2001 after 11 years, both children went to live with their father and followed him into the Church of Scientology.

His boy is there: Also with Tom in Florida is his son Connor; Bella, also visits too though her home based is London. Seen in 2013

The past: Bella was adopted by Nicole and Tom in 1992, followed by her younger brother Connor three years later. When Tom and Nicole split in 2001 after 11 years, both children went to live with their father and followed him into the Church of Scientology. Seen in 1996

Cruise does not appear to have contact with Suri, the 12-year-old daughter her had with ex-wife Katie Holmes. They live in NYC and spend time in LA.

Cruise and Holmes were wed from 2006 until 2012.

'He loves all his children. And each of them has a right to their own story,' a source told People.

It all worked... for a while: Tom and Katie Holmes with Suri and Bella in 2008

Seems like a long time ago: Cruise does not appear to have contact with Suri, the 12-year-old daughter her had with ex-wife Katie Holmes. They live in NYC and spend time in LA. Cruise and Holmes were wed from 2006 until 2012

According to the new People cover story, the Oscar nominee bought a penthouse apartment in Clearwater, which is just a block from the Church of Scientologys international headquarters.

Cruise is 'finishing up renovations on the apartment,' but he has already been seen there plenty.

Locals have spotted him 'strolling with Scientology staffers.'

A source also said: 'Hes very relaxed when hes here.'

Before the split: Tom, Suri, Bella and Connor in NYC in September 2010

Mansion: Cruise used to call Beverly Hills his home - in 2016, he sold his properties there, including his large compound, which went for $39 million

The publication also noted he is close to Scientology leader, David Miscavige.

Opening this weekend in the US: Cruise with Vanessa Kirby in M:I - Fallout

'Hes a mysterious figure in many ways,' says Fallout costar Simon Pegg. 'People speculate about him and decide the truth about him. He doesnt really do anything. He steps back from all that.'

This summer, Tom has a massive movie to focus on, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which opens on Friday in the US.

'Ive wanted to make movies since I was four years old,' he told People.

'To be able to entertain an audience, that was my dream.'

As far as doing most of his own stunts, he said: 'I like to learn new things and push the skills I have to the next level. I dont do anything halfway as a person.'

Tom has been working on the Top Gun sequel with Val Kilmer. The original came out in 1986 and starred Kelly McGillis.Viewers were left divided over Georgia Steel and Jack Fowler's saucy smooch on Love Island.

And after leaving the villa, the drama student awkwardly clashed with Capital Breakfast host Roman Kemp live on air on Wednesday as they discussed the controversial kiss.

'I did not remember it the way that I saw it,' the dumped islander, who prides herself on her loyal attributes, admitted as she got into a frosty war of words with the radio presenter.

Tense: Love Island's Georgia Steel (pictured with Sam Bird) got frosty with Roman Kemp over Jack Fowler kiss in VERY awkward interview in London on Wednesday

Prompted to that moment, Georgia defended herself: '100%, completely get why people thought I was lying but I went back in that villa and I did not remember it the way that I saw it.

'So when I saw it I was very very shocked and I am sure people that saw my reaction wouldve noticed that for sure.'

Roman dismissively responded with: 'Hmmmm, yes'

Who was telling the truth? Georgia and Jack's kiss saw the whole nation fall out as people and islanders alike were unable to agree on who instigated the smooch on Love Island

She bit back: 'Oh yeah whatever!'

Georgia come under fire after kissing Laura's man because she had spent weeks informing viewers she was 'loyal' before lunching in for the kiss with new Jack.

The young islander claimed the smooch was mutual whereas Laura's man insisted he had gone in for a cheek kiss claiming Georgia turned her face last minute.

Tense: The dumped islander, who prides herself on her loyal attributes, got frosty with the radio presenter as they engaged in an icy war of words over the controversial kiss

Georgia hinted the scene was filmed twice after leaving the villa while new Jack was revealed to be telling the truth about the kiss in the lie detector test.

Elsewhere in the awkward interview, Roman noticed Sam's eyes 'lit up' while they were discussing Georgia's future children.

Georgia got onto the topic of kids when she insisted she would instill the same core values of loyalty, honesty and being real into her brood.

Awkward: Georgia defended herself: '100%, completely get why people thought I was lying but I went back in that villa and I did not remember it the way that I saw it'

Georgia elaborated: 'Erm, I think it was the way I was brought up to be honest, my mum always told me to be loyal and to be honest and to be real and I followed that through and Ill teach my kids the same thing because its a good thing to have.'

Roman said: 'Sam's eyes just lit up, we are talking about kids already.'

Sam responded: 'Yeah what is going on? This has escalated way too quickly.'

Must be love: Elsewhere in the awkward interview, Roman noticed Sam's eyes 'lit up' while they were discussing Georgia's future children

Motherhood: G got onto the topic of kids when she insisted she would instill the same core values of loyalty, honesty and being real into her brood

Love Island is a great spring board for the reality stars as their co-star Hayley Hughes has now landed herself a part in movie Fighting Talk.

The model, who hails from Liverpool, will star alongside Michael Jackson's ex-bodyguard Matt Fiddes and Mark Lester on the set of the comedic film.

Fighting Talk will tell the story of a London-based martial artist police officer who is pursuing two cold blooded brothers.

So cute: Sam and Georgia looked closer than ever since leaving the villa as a couple after initially splitting to stay single in the villa

Insiders have described the move from the reality sphere to the acting scene as a potential 'leg up' to Hollywood for Hayley.

The dumped islander will step into the stilettos of Charlie Knuckles but little is known about the character apart from her name.

A source told MailOnline: 'The director loved Hayleys look and thought she would add some good old fashioned glamour to his film.

Pin-credible: Love Island is a great spring board for the reality stars as their co-star Hayley Hughes has now landed herself a part in movie Fighting Talk

Leggy lady: Elsewhere Rosie Williams was on the prowl in her pinstripe shorts which best paraded her phenomenal limbs in her lace-up boots

'Her role involves fighting in a key action sequence in which shell do a hand to hand martial arts combat sequence with Matt.

'Robby saw the pictures of Hayley and Matt training together and was so impressed he rewrote part of the film to get her a role.'

Tune in to Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp, Monday  Saturday from 6am  10am. Join Capital Breakfast and stars from the villa for the Love Island final this Monday at Capitals viewing party in Londons Ham Yard Hotel - get tickets now from capitalfm.com.Advertisement

She is currently travelling around Europe on a luxurious sailing yacht with a group of close friends.

And Sienna Miller was certainly the epitome of beach-chic on Wednesday, as she arrived in St Tropez in a typically stylish ensemble.

The actress, 36, turned heads in a vibrant leaf-print co-ord and trendy sunglasses, as she headed for lunch at the famous Club 55 with pals Vito Schnabel, Derek Blasberg, and Dasha Zhukova.

Unbe-leaf-able: Sienna Miller was certainly the epitome of beach-chic on Wednesday, as she arrived in St Tropez in a typically stylish ensemble

The Live By Night star commanded attention in the vintage-style ensemble, patterned with bright green foilage all over.

The bralet gave a flash of her toned stomach, while the high-rise shorts accentuated her waist, in a trademark retro style.

Cutting off at her thigh, the chic shorts then left her enviably leggy figure on display as she disembarked the boat and hit the beach with her pals.

Stylish arrival: The actress, 36, turned heads in a vibrant leaf-print co-ord and trendy sunglasses, as she headed for lunch at the famous Club 55 with pals Vito Schnabel (far left), Derek Blasberg (far right), and Dasha Zhukova (second from right)

Stunning: The bralet gave a flash of her toned stomach, while the high-rise shorts accentuated her waist, in a trademark retro style

Beach babe: The Live By Night star commanded attention in the vintage-style ensemble, patterned with bright green foilage all over

Style icon: Never without a hint of glamour, she swapped the usual beach bag for a sleek Louis Vuitton clutch

Legs for days: Cutting off at her thigh, the chic shorts then left her enviably leggy figure on display as she disembarked the boat and hit the beach with Derek (above)

Making the most of the sunshine from head to toe, the blonde added black leather sandals and a large floppy hat - adorned with a bright red scarf, which stylishly clashed with her ensemble.

She left her hair in loose, tousled waves and accessorised with trendy round sunglasses, to draw attention to her sun-kissed complexion.

Sienna looked in good spirits as she arrived at the swanky venue, hand-in-hand with pal Derek.

Summer style: Making the most of the sunshine from head to toe, the blonde added black leather sandals

Hats off to her: She also added a large floppy hat to her look - adorned with a bright red scarf, which stylishly clashed with her ensemble

Radiant: Sienna left her hair in loose, tousled waves and accessorised with trendy round sunglasses, to draw attention to her sun-kissed complexion

Showing his stripes: The fashion journalist was equally as summery in a striped polo shirt and fedora as they made their way for lunch

Cruising: The group had arrived at the famous beach club by speed boat

Suits you: The pair were closely followed by Heidi Klum's ex Vito (left) and effortlessly chic Dasha (right)

Man in charge: Vito stood at the front of the boat and intently watched how it was driven

The fashion journalist was equally as summery in a striped polo shirt and fedora as they made their way for lunch, after a lazy afternoon sailing the coast.

The pair were closely followed by Heidi Klum's ex Vito Schnabel, clad in his usual white shirt and black shorts, as well as Dasha Zhukova, typically glamorous in a polka dot mini dress.

The actress and her pals had arrived into the coastal town earlier that day on the Creole - the world's largest wooden sailing yacht.

Designed by Charles E. Nicholson and Sergio Bassi, the 65.3m luxury yacht was launched nearly a century ago and served a role in the Second World War.

Beaming: The actress appeared happy as she flashed a wide smile during her stroll to the celebrity hotspot

Helping hand: Sienna was later helped off the boat by another pal

Close: The screen star looked in good spirits as she arrived hand-in-hand with Derek

Animated: Journalist Derek pulled a funny facial expression as they headed to the French eatery

Sienna made the most of the blazing weather in a strappy blue summer dress, as she arrived at her next destination with her friends.

Adding dark sunglasses and a large floppy hat, the Alfie star appeared completely relaxed as she reclined on the boat's deck, before joining her friends in the shade for a spot of lunch.

Proving to be living a life of luxury on the yacht, the group were also seen greeting a speedboat cafe - which pulled up to their vessel to serve them sandwiches and ice creams.

Having a good time: Close friends Adrien Brody and Natasha Poly were also spotted heading to Club 55

Full relaxation mode: The pair were recently spotted in Italian holiday resort Portofino earlier this week

Patterns galore: The 45-year-old actor maintained the summery theme as he wore a light pink shirt, embellished with monochrome-coloured shapes throughout

Stylish: Meanwhile, the Russian model, 33, looked effortlessly chic was she sported a relaxed khaki shirt, tied in with a pair of white shorts

Nice to meet you! The Peaky Blinders star was greeted by a keen fan, who appeared to ask for the actor for a selfie

Close friends Adrien Brody and Natasha Poly were also spotted heading to Club 55. The pair were recently spotted in Italian holiday resort Portofino earlier this week.

The 45-year-old actor maintained the summery theme as he wore a light pink shirt, embellished with monochrome-coloured shapes throughout.

Meanwhile, the Russian model, 33, looked effortlessly chic was she sported a relaxed khaki shirt, tied in with a pair of white shorts.

Here they come: The actress and her pals had arrived into the coastal town earlier that day on the Creole - the world's largest wooden sailing yacht

History: Designed by Charles E. Nicholson and Sergio Bassi, the 65.3m luxury yacht was launched nearly a century ago and served a role in the Second World War

Riding in style: The group had been seen topping up their tans as they sailed into St Tropez from Portofino

Chic: Sienna made the most of the blazing weather in a strappy blue summer dress, as she spent another day in the sunshine

Having a ball: Adding dark sunglasses and leaving her hair in its everyday style, the Alfie star proved her natural beauty to all as she chatted to friends, including Vito Schnabel (L), on deck

Down time: Sienna later added a floppy hat to her head as she sunbathed on deck

They mean business: They later appeared to enjoy a meeting over lunch in the shade

That's the spirit: The group sipped on a few drinks as they chatted at sea

Sienna has been holidaying with high-profile pals Derek, Vito and Dasha - who used to be married to Roman Abramovich - over the last few weeks.

Derek is seemingly working on a secret project with the group, having shared a snapshot of a lunchtime business meeting on the boat to his Twitter page.

British beauty Sienna appears to be enjoying some down time in the European sunshine, after relocating to New York years ago with her daughter Marlowe.

Service! Proving to be living a life of luxury on the yacht, the group were then seen greeting a speedboat cafe

Delicious: The boat pulled up to their vessel to serve them sandwiches and ice creams

Tasty: The group immediately met the boat to tuck into some treats in the sunshine

Here it comes: Sienna looked excited as the boat pulled up to feed them for the day

The model is regularly seen stepping out in the city with her six-year-old and ex-fiance Tom Sturridge - Marlowe's father.

She is so content in the States that her five-bedroom townhouse in London's Queens Park was recently put up for both sale and rent.

While she has settled down into motherhood, Sienna is still known for her glamorous sense of style - which she recently revealed has evolved now she is in her 30s.

VIPs: Sienna has been holidaying with high-profile pals Derek, Vito and Dasha - who used to be married to Roman Abramovich - over the last few weeks

Coy: Derek is seemingly working on a secret project with the group, having shared a snapshot of a lunchtime business meeting on the boat to his Twitter page

Work and play: However the group still took time out to relax during their trip around Europe

She told Harper's Bazaar earlier this year: 'I never used to mind drawing attention to myself through what I wore...

'I didn't mind being quite brave and colourful and I don't want that anymore. The mini-skirts and stuff

'It was great and I was in my twenties, but I've grown up a little bit. I love classic fashion; for now, I'm in a toned down, mellow state.'Brad Pitt stars in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.

On Tuesday, the 54-year-old actor was spotted sticking his tongue out as he filmed behind the wheel of a classic convertible.

Pitt was denim clad as he cruised through the streets of Los Angeles.

Silly on set: Brad Pitt stars in the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. On Tuesday, the 54-year-old actor was spotted sticking his tongue out as he filmed behind the wheel of a classic convertible

Riding in style: Pitt was denim clad as he cruised through the streets of Los Angeles

Brad, who made several funny faces on set, drove a rigged baby blue convertible while filming the crime-drama set in 1969.

The Oklahoma native wore a blonde wig for his role as Cliff Bootha professional stunt double.

The film also stars Margot Robbie, Dakota Fanning, and Al Pacino.

Perfect pout: Brad, who made several funny faces on set, drove a rigged baby blue convertible while filming the crime-drama set in 1969

Fan love: Pitt blew a kiss to spectators watching from afar

The film follows an actor by the name of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stunt double, played by Pitt, as they attempt to make a name for themselves in the film industry.

The main story runs parallel to the murder of actress Sharon Tate, played by Robbie, who, along with four friends, was slain by Charles Manson cult followers.

This is Tarantino's first movie based on true events.

All smiles: The Oklahoma native wore a blonde wig for his role as Cliff Bootha professional stunt double

Dynamic duo: The film follows an actor by the name of Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stunt double, played by Pitt, as they attempt to make a name for themselves in the film industry

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood was originally slated to premiere on the 50th anniversary of the murders until Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, caused a stink.

Out of respect, Sony bumped up the premiere date to July 26, 2019 after Tate called it 'tacky and exploitative' to release the movie on the day of her sister's deathAugust 9.

According to TMZ, Sharon recently met with Quentin to read over the script and discuss her reservations in regards to the telling of her sister's murder.

'This movie is not what people would expect it to be when you combine the Tarantino and Manson names,' she said after giving Quentin the green light.Casey Batchelor's boyfriend Dane Goodson surpisingly revealed he was the boss and best friend of Love Island star Jack Fincham last month.

And it has emerged Dane's former glamour model partner has spent time with Jack's girlfriend Dani in the past, in the latest coincidence which shows star-crossed lovers Jack and Dani's paths were always going to cross.

Casey, 33, and Dani, 22, were pictured together in January 2015, en-route to film scenes for their flick Bonded By Blood 2.

Linked: It has emerged Casey Batchelor co-starred with Dani Dyer in Bound By Blood 2 in 2015, after Casey's partner Dane was revealed as Dani's beau Jack's boss

Fan favourites: Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer are among the strongest couples in the Love Island villa

Looking as thick as thieves as they linked arms on their way to set, the glamorous duo cracked identical radiant smiles as they chatted.

Bonded By Blood 2 is based on Bernard O'Mahoney's book titled Essex Boys: The New Generation, which is set in 1985.

In the movie, it is feared that a void left behind by three murders from the original Essex Boys firm will spark a gangland war, and the instinct is to expand and conquer.

The film was Casey's first venture into the acting world while Dani was already a gangster film veteran at the time with appearances in Vendetta alongside famous father Danny Dyer and Age of Kill.

Connected: Last month Casey revealed her man's unusual link to Jack, admitting Dane was the sales director at the stationery company where the Love Island hunk works

She also appeared in Run For Your Wife alongside her father in 2012.

Last month Casey revealed her man's unusual link to Jack, admitting Dane was the sales director at the stationery company where the Love Island hunk works.

Dane made an appearance on Good Morning Britain this Wednesday to discuss the Love Island favourite's relationship, saying Dani should 'chill out' because Jack genuinely loves her.

Dane, who recently welcomed baby daughter Florence with Casey, was joined by the former glamour model for his TV interview.

During the dreaded lie detector test, Dani was left hysterical when Jack failed a question about whether he'd be tempted to cheat once they left the villa.

Trouble in paradise? Love Island's Jack Fincham and Dani Dyer's romance almost came to an end over the disastrous lie detector challenge this week

The pair had an epic series of rows about Jack's fidelity - which the petite beauty has been worried about ever since discovering he'd cheated on all of his ex-girlfriends.

Dane, who is a Sales Director at DMG Office Supplies and Print Services, said Dani needn't be concerned.

He explained: 'I think Danis just so worried already about whats going to happen if Jack does anything outside.

'I dont think she should worry about that. She should enjoy it and chill out a bit more.'

Dane believes Jack's feelings for Dani are '100 per cent genuine, saying, 'Jack wears his heart on his sleeve. He's definitely fallen for Dani.

He's loyal, babe:Weight in: Dane made an appearance on Good Morning Britain this Wednesday alongside his model girlfriend Casey to discuss the Love Island favourite's relationship

'He really wanted to meet someone going in the villa', Casey added.

Dane insisted Jack - who has also upset Dani by lying about how many women he'd slept with - truly wants to find love and settle down.

'When he came and spoke to me about going on he said, "Obviously I want to have the time of my life. But I want to meet someone. I want to find someone",' the businessman added.

Dane and Casey also denied claims Jack is only interested in pint-sized beauty Dani because of her famous father, EastEnders actor Danny Dyer.

Dane previously spilled the beans on his cheeky antics before he met Dani.

He candidly revealed to OK! magazine that his pal Jack had to be told off for bedding too many of the new girls at work.

The stationery company boss joked: 'When he was single we had a bit of a problem as he was so popular with his co-workers.I had to say to him: 'Can you please stop sleeping with the new women?'

Jack has been leaving viewers in hysterics with his impressions of his fellow Islanders, while Dane confirmed that he does it in the office too.

He said that Jack is a hit with the customers and they ring up on a Monday just to ask him about his weekend.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament in Beijing, capital of China, July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday met with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament, calling for a healthy and stable bilateral relationship.

"Healthy and stable China-Japan ties are beneficial to the two countries and their peoples, as well as regional and global peace, stability and prosperity," Li said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Li said both sides should follow the four political documents signed between the two countries and implement their consensus to promote bilateral ties along the right track.

As major economies in the world, China and Japan are also the beneficiaries of free trade. The two countries should safeguard multilateralism, and advocate rules-based international order and free trade system, he said.

"China will continue its opening-up, relax market access and welcome foreign companies, including Japanese companies to expand their cooperation with China," Li said, adding that China is willing to work with Japan to strengthen cooperation in innovation-driven development and third-party markets.

He also called for more parliamentary exchanges to enhance understanding and mutual trust.

Oshima said Japan is willing to promote bilateral ties by "following the four political documents signed between the two countries and in the spirit of taking history as a mirror to guide the future."

"The Japanese side is willing to work with China to strengthen exchanges between legislative bodies to promote a steady development of bilateral ties," Oshima said.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), also met with Oshima on Tuesday.

Wang said the legislative organs of the two countries could deepen cooperation to facilitate culture, youth and people-to-people exchanges in order to consolidate public support for bilateral ties.

Oshima said the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament is ready to work with the NPC to play a role in developing Japan-China relations.

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[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Kendrick Lamar wrapped up the Australian leg of his DAMN. tour on Wednesday night at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena.

And fans have taken to Twitter to praise the HUMBLE. hit-maker for a making his last show 'phenomenal' and 'mesmerising'.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman lead the charge of pleased concert-goers to document their experience on social media, writing: 'Awesome show!'

'Awesome show!' Hugh Jackman (LEFT) leads fan praise for Kendrick Lamar (RIGHT) at his last Sydney concert as he delivers phenomenal performance to close his DAMN. tour in Australia

The Californian chart-topper set the crowd ablaze with an unforgettable set of his chart-topping anthems.

'Blown away by the phenomenal, inspirational talent of @Kendricklamar in Sydney tonight,' one fan wrote on Twitter.

Others claimed he gave a 'mesmerising performance' and the night was 'so sick' as they shared video content from the US rapper on stage.

'Blown away by the phenomenal, inspirational talent of @Kendricklamar': Fans claimed the US rapper was 'so sick' on stage and gave a 'mesmerising performance'

'One of the greatest shows ever!' Fans took to Twitter to praise Kendrick Lamar for his flawless performances at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Tuesday and Wednesday night

It follows fans flocking to Twitter to praise Kendrick's flawless performance on Tuesday night, with one devotee gushing: 'Just hit up the @kendricklamar concert, one of the greatest shows I've ever been to, an outstanding performer and plenty of bangers throughout.'

They added: 'Definitely going again when the legend returns to Sydney.'

Another fan cooed on Twitter: 'Once again, #kendricklamar held it down last night. Every time. Community. Power. Uncompromising. King Kenny.'

'Thank you sir for a great show tonight in Sydney,' concurred one fan, while another poetically mused: 'Serving lines all niiiiighttt. My body may be dead but my spirit is alive.'

Indeed, footage shared to social media show Kendrick's sprawling audience awash with excitement as they sang along to the artist's famous tunes.

Tickets for Tuesday's concert sold out within one hour when they hit the market in April, prompting Kendrick to announce a second Sydney performance.

Meanwhile, fans who were unable to nab a ticket have been frantically scrolling through social media to capture a glimpse of the show, following reports the artist banned professional photographers from documenting the final leg of his DAMN. Australian tour.

Slim pickings? Fans who were unable to nab a ticket have been frantically scrolling through social media to capture a glimpse of his shows following reports the artist banned professional photographers from documenting the final leg of his DAMN. Australian tour

'Due to artist/management request we are unable to issue photo passes for any of the shows on Kendrick's tour,' a spokesperson said on Monday.

In February, The Guardian reported that Kendrick could possibly be following in the footsteps of other major artists who are 'limiting online footage of gigs' to keep fans interested in live performances.

The Humble star finished off his Australian tour at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney on Wednesday night.She's endured a difficult year after being arrested for assaulting a police officer and disorderly intoxication in December.

And Luann de Lesseps challenging past was once again brought into contention in a clip of an upcoming episode of Real Housewives of New York.

The 53-year-old reality television personality's history was questioned after she inquired about co-star Dorinda Medley's alcoholic beverage while the ladies were on vacation in Cartagena, Colombia.

Trouble: Luann de Lesseps challenging past was once again brought into contention in a clip of an upcoming episode of Real Housewives of New York

'How are the margaritas?' Luann asked Dorinda before a quick 'good' response as the group of women dine al fresco on their holiday.

'She's startin,' Luann said, clearly setting Dorinda off. 'I'm not starting, don't say that. You should start,' she said.

'Dorinda, you start turning,' Luann said to her castmate. 'Look at you. You're getting aggressive right now.'

Yikes: The 53-year-old reality television personality's history was questioned after she inquired about co-star Dorinda Medley's alcoholic beverage while the ladies were on vacation in Cartagena, Colombia

'How are the margaritas?' Luann asked Dorinda before a quick 'good' response as the group of women dine al fresco on their holiday

Medley is unimpressed with the course of the conversation and demanded an apology, to which Luann refused.

'You're gonna start being some uppity thing? An ex countess, got married and doesn't have countess-ship anymore,' Dorinda said before handing Luann her drink. 'You drink some more and get arrested, honey.'

Luann and her lawyer recently signed off on a Plea in Absentia ahead of her court appearance later this week that was obtained by DailyMail.com and will likely keep her out of prison.

'She's startin,' Luann said, clearly setting Dorinda off. 'I'm not starting, don't say that. You should start,' she said

'You're gonna start being some uppity thing? An ex countess, got married and doesn't have countess-ship anymore,' Dorinda said before handing Luann her drink. 'You drink some more and get arrested, honey'

As part of the deal, which was also signed by her attorney and sent to the Office of the State Attorney in Palm Beach, de Lesseps agrees to plead guilty to charges of resisting an officer with violence, trespass in an occupied structure and disorderly intoxication stemming from a Dec. 24 altercation in Palm Beach, Florida.

In exchange for those guilty pleas, the attorney for the state will ask the judge that de Lesseps receive a year probation rather than the over two years of prison time those charges carry.

De Lesseps, 53, also states in her affidavit that she will 'pay all applicable fines and court costs,' 'perform 50 hours of community service for a non-profit organization,' 'attend 2 AA meetings a week,' not possess or consume 'alcohol, illegal drugs with random testing' at her expense,' and attend a 'Victim Impact Class put on by Mother's Against Drunk Driving.'

The Real Housewives of New York airs on Wednesday nights on the Bravo network.He enjoyed a sun-drenched day with his close pal in Italian holiday resort Portofino earlier this week.

And Adrien Brody appeared in high spirits once again as he and friend Natasha Poly headed to celebrity hotspot Club 55 on a boat in St Tropez, France, on Wednesday afternoon.

The Peaky Blinders actor, 45, maintained the summery theme as he was clad in a light pink shirt, embellished with monochrome-coloured shapes throughout.

Having a good time: Adrien Brody appeared in high spirits once again as he and friend Natasha Poly headed to celebrity hotspot Club 55 on a boat in St Tropez, France, on Wednesday

Continuing his stylish appearance, the screen star donned a pair of khaki green trousers, and protected his eyes from the sun in silver-tinted frames.

Meanwhile, Russian model Natasha, 33, put on a typically chic display as she slipped her statuesque figure into a relaxed shirt, tied in with a skimpy white skirt.

The mother-of-one upped the style ante with her chain-strap handbag and animal print sunglasses, and wore her blonde tresses in a straight fashion.

Patterns galore: The Peaky Blinders actor, 45, maintained the summery theme as he was clad in a light pink shirt, embellished with monochrome-coloured shapes throughout

Off he goes: Continuing his stylish appearance, the screen star donned a pair of khaki green trousers, and protected his eyes from the sun in silver-tinted frames

Simply stunning: Meanwhile, Russian model Natasha, 33, put on a typically chic display as she slipped her statuesque figure into a relaxed shirt, tied in with a skimpy white skirt

During the trip, Natasha - who shares five-year-old daughter Aleksandra with Dutch businessman Peter Bakker - was spotted holding one of her child's Barbie dolls.

The blonde beauty's pal - and Adrien's girlfriend - Lara Lieto, 24 - was no-where to be seen on the sunny day out.

While The Pianist star chooses to keep details of his long-time relationship with Lara under wraps, the pair are rarely spotted without one another, with the Russian beauty frequenting many a red carpet with her actor beau.

Fashion maven: The mother-of-one upped the style ante with her chain-strap handbag and animal print sunglasses, and wore her blonde tresses in a straight fashion

Doting mother: During the trip, Natasha - who shares five-year-old daughter Aleksandra with Dutch businessman Peter Bakker - was spotted holding one of her child's Barbie dolls

High spirits: The blonde beauty's pal - and Adrien's girlfriend - Lara Lieto, 24 - was no-where to be seen on the sunny day out

Nice to meet you! The screen star was greeted by a keen fan, who appeared to ask for the actor for a selfie

Busy bee: Despite being one of Hollywood's biggest stars, and one of the youngest winners of an Academy Award aged 29, Adrien admitted last year that he has reduced his acting roles so that he can devote more time to working behind the camera

Working hard: Explaining why he has chosen to scale back his output, he told The Hollywood Reporter: 'I've been focusing on a few things I'm producing. Its an interesting time'

Despite being one of Hollywood's biggest stars, and one of the youngest winners of an Academy Award aged 29, Adrien admitted last year that he has reduced his acting roles so that he can devote more time to working behind the camera.

Explaining why he has chosen to scale back his output, he told The Hollywood Reporter: 'Ive kind of pulled back a bit on the acting side because I've worked a lot the past year or so.

'I've been focusing on a few things I'm producing. Its an interesting time.'

Fans of the Peaky Blinders actor will next see him feature as Charles V in Emperor and alongside fellow Hollywood heavyweight Bruce Willis in Unbreakable Spirit.Kim Kardashian has never coped to lip fillers like her half-sister Kylie Jenner has done.

So it was alarming to see the 37-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star with a fuller pout in an Instagram portrait shared on Wednesday.

The wife of Kanye West appeared to have a much larger top lip as she posed for a pouty portrait released in celebration of the latest collection to launch as part of her KKW Beauty makeup line.

Lippy! Kim Kardashian has never coped to lip fillers like her half-sister Kylie Jenner has done. So it was alarming to see the 37-year-old Keeping Up With The Kardashians star with a fuller pout in an Instagram portrait

Trickery? The makeup mogul could have also used a lip liner outside her top lip, a makeup trick Kylie Jenner often uses to make her pout look fuller

For the striking snap, Kim wore a beige tank top and looked newly spray tanned with her black hair worn in long loose waves around her shoulders.

Kim's luscious lips in her latest image also appear much fuller than they did in the last KKW Beauty-themed image she shared with followers and fans.

It may well be that the reality star was showing off the potential of the new lip liners and lipsticks in her collection; her younger sister Kylie was famously a fan of over-lining her lips to make them appear bigger, before the 20-year-old opted to get fillers to enhance her pout more permanently.

While posting the sizzling snap on her Instagram account, Kim revealed to her followers that the Classic Collection - which also features an eyeshadow palette - launched today in her pop up shop at the Westfield Century City shopping mall, which closes in two days.

Her caption read, 'The @kkwbeauty Classic Collection is available at my pop up at the @westfieldcenturycity Mall TODAY!!!!! Or at kkwbeauty.com July 27th.'

Strange change: In her previous KKW Beauty image, the doll's lips did not look that big. Here she has on LPA bodysuit 23

Also this week, Kim revealed she had a very late night beauty treatment in anticipation of some upcoming work commitments in front of the camera.

A female beauty expert named Melissa saw her for a quick fix so Kim would look perfect for her shoots this week.

She was at Skin Thesis Inc in West Hollywood. They offer Botox, Juvederm and Cool Sculpting.

The siren could have had her lips plumped at Skin Thesis, but she often does not discuss her procedures.

Kim could have also used a lip liner outside her top lip line, a makeup trick Kylie often uses to make her pout look fuller.

Maybe she helped get her lips bigger? Also this week, Kim revealed she had a very late night treatment

Hint: A female beauty expert saw her for a quick fix so Kim would look perfect for her shoots this week. She was at Skin Thesis Inc in West Hollywood. They offer Botox, Juvederm and Cool Sculpting

This comes after she shared a very racy Instagram photo days ago.

The star was in a white bikini as she lounged on the side of a swimming pool. The TV icon captioned the snap. 'Im really shy...'

The social media darling was having a laugh as she is anything but shy. This is her seventh swimsuit photo shared to social media this month.

Kim showed off her sculpted 5ft3in frame as her 24 inch frame looked incredibly small.

The Calabasas, California native perched herself up with her arms and let her legs be propped up just so.

Behind her were breathtaking mountains and mature trees with a cloudy sky. It appeared as if she could be in Wyoming where she was with her family in May and June.She left viewers in disbelief after confessing she didn't have a clue what Brexit meant during her short-lived stint on Love Island.

And Hayley Hughes continued to prove she was widening her political knowledge, as she posed with former UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the Westminster Arms pub in London on Wednesday.

The model, 22, cut a typically glamorous figure in a plunging playsuit as she enjoyed drinks with the politician, who she appeared alongside on BBCs Daily Politics show last month to gain a further understanding of Brexit.

Joining forces: Hayley Hughes continued to prove she was widening her political knowledge, as she joined former UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the Westminster Arms pub in London on Wednesday

Hayley couldn't contain her delight as he joined forces with Nigel - who previously 'begged her for an autograph' - yet again.

The reality starlet nailed her ensemble for the day out, cladding her figure in a pretty floral playsuit which put focus on her sensational front.

The number fell at a saucy thigh-skimming length which put emphasis on her toned pins.

Hayley made the most of her gorgeous features with a striking coat of make-up, which she complemented with a chic bun.

Pals: The model, 22, cut a typically glamorous figure in a plunging playsuit as she enjoyed the day out with the politician

Education: Hayley has previously appeared alongside Nigel on BBCs Daily Politics show last month to gain a further understanding of Brexit

Reunited: Hayley couldn't contain her delight as he joined forces with Nigel - who previously 'begged her for an autograph' - yet again

Standing tall in a pair of towering nude heels, the blonde bombshell couldn't have looked happier in Nigel's company.

Last month, Hayley - who worried Brexit would rob Britain of its trees - appeared on the BBC's flagship politics show to question an expert on the UK's EU departure.

Despite it dominating the political sphere since before the 2016 referendum, model Hayley told fellow contestants on the reality show she didn't know what Brexit was.

The Liverpudlian stunned viewers by saying she didn't 'have a clue' about what the word meant, before asking: 'So does that mean we won't have any trees?'

Striking: The reality starlet nailed her ensemble for the day out, cladding her figure in a pretty floral playsuit which put focus on her sensational front

Summer chic: The number fell at a saucy thigh-skimming length which put emphasis on her toned pins

Babe: Hayley made the most of her gorgeous features with a striking coat of make-up, which she complemented with a chic bun

Following the gaffe, she was invited onto the politics show and given the chance to quiz journalist Adam Fleming alongside Brexiteer Nigel Farage and Remainer Alastair Campbell.

Her hilarious appearance on the show began with her saying: 'I do care about it i just don't have an understanding, so hopefully Adam will learn me more.'

She then asked the expert: 'In a nutshell, what is Brexit?

Hayley also pitched the question on everyone's lips as she said: 'Yeah I understand. I've got another question - will it make things more expensive?'

Loving life: Standing tall in a pair of towering nude heels, the blonde bombshell couldn't have looked happier

Politics: Last month, Hayley - who worried Brexit would rob Britain of its trees - appeared on the BBC's flagship politics show to question an expert on the UK's EU departure

No clue: Despite it dominating the political sphere since before the 2016 referendum, model Hayley told fellow contestants on the reality show she didn't know what Brexit was

TV star: Following the gaffe, she was invited onto the politics show and given the chance to quiz journalist Adam Fleming alongside Brexiteer Nigel Farage and Remainer Alastair Campbell

Insiders told MailOnline before the show aired: 'Hayley is like many young people who do not know about Brexit and the impact it could have on her life. She is going to be questioning a Brexit expert in Brussels over the important questions'.

Following Hayley's shocking admission about her lack of knowledge surrounding the subject, the sources went on: 'She will find out how it would affect her day to day.

'Hayley isnt shy and although people may find this an odd choice of show for her her to appear on - she is keen to explore and has a genuine interest in finding out more and all about Brexit'.Meeting with critics at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Wednesday to discuss a new HBO documentary about her life, Jane Fonda said she's still confronted by Vietnam War veterans over her 1970s anti-war activism and welcomes the encounters.

Such moments provide an 'opportunity to talk,' she remarked, which needs to be done with what Fonda called 'an open mind and a soft heart.'

The actress drew bitter criticism after being photographed atop an anti-aircraft gun during a controversial 1972 visit to North Vietnam, and during the panel she expressed regret for that moment.

Open: Meeting with critics at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Wednesday to discuss a new HBO documentary about her life, Jane Fonda said she's still confronted by Vietnam War veterans over her 1970s anti-war activism and welcomes the encounters

Controversial: Fonda peered through an anti-aircraft gun during her visit to Vietnam in 1972

The actress drew bitter criticism after being photographed atop an anti-aircraft gun during a controversial 1972 visit to North Vietnam

She said it was 'thoughtless' to perch on the gun and called it 'horrible' to think about the message her action sent to soldiers and their families.

Fonda explained that her initial belief that America always fought on 'the side of the angels' was shaken by an earlier meeting with U.S. soldiers in Paris, which led to her activism.

Her late father, the famed actor Henry Fonda, was a World War II veteran and Jane Fonda had served as 'Miss Army Recruiter' in 1954.

She felt betrayed and lied to by America's leadership over the war and decided she would do everything possible to help stop it as part of a movement, she said.

She said it was 'thoughtless' to perch on the gun and called it 'horrible' to think about the message her action sent to soldiers and their families

Dialogue: Such moments provide an 'opportunity to talk,' she remarked, which needs to be done with what Fonda called 'an open mind and a soft heart'

At age 80, Fonda looks back at her life in HBO's 'Jane Fonda in Five Acts,' from director-producer Susan Lacy.

The film premiered during the Sundance Film Festival and is set to air on the pay television network on September 24 at 8pm.

The two-hour-and-13-minute movie takes 'A look at the life, work, activism and controversies of actress and fitness tycoon, Jane Fonda,' writes IMDB.

Discussion: The actress drew bitter criticism after being photographed atop an anti-aircraft gun during a controversial 1972 visit to North Vietnam, and during the panel she expressed regret for that moment

Fonda continues to work, starring opposite Lily Tomlin on the Netflix series 'Grace and Frankie' and is working with Tomlin and Dolly Parton on a sequel to their hit 1980 movie 9 to 5.

The new take on women's mistreatment in the workplace will have to address how the situation is worse today in some regards, including treatment of contract workers, or she won't be in it, Fonda said.

On the bright side, Fonda said she expects to see sexual harassment decline 'because guys are scared.'

Reflection: At age 80, Fonda looks back at her life in HBO's 'Jane Fonda in Five Acts,' from director-producer Susan LacyElizabeth Hurley made a special appearance in Majorca on Wednesday as her new pop up bikini boutique opened its doors on the Spanish island.

The British actress was on hand to witness the grand opening of Elizabeth Hurley Beach at local leisure complex Puerto Portals, and she ensured she caught the eye after making her way inside.

Opting for a breezy 309 maxi dress from her own collection, Elizabeth, 53, was at her stylish best as she joined guests including German businessman Mathias Kuhn, owner of the new store.

Centre stage: Elizabeth Hurley made a special appearance in Majorca on Wednesday as her new bikini boutique opened its doors on the Spanish island

Emblazoned with a bold print, the colourful dress guaranteed she stole the limelight, although on a day dedicated to the actress and her latest venture it was unlikely anyone was going to steal her thunder.

Strappy gold heels added to her look, while tasteful gold earrings and bracelets proved to be her only visible accessories.

The actress rounded off her look with a generous layer of eyeliner that drew further attention to her distinctive features.

It's all about me: The British actress was on hand to witness the grand opening of Elizabeth Hurley Beach at local leisure complex Puerto Portals

Striking: Opting for a breezy halter neck summer dress from her own collection, Elizabeth, 53, was at her stylish best

Hard to miss: Emblazoned with a bold print, the colourful dress guaranteed she stole the limelight, although on a day dedicated to the actress and her latest venture it was unlikely anyone was going to steal her thunder

Evidently in high spirits, she beamed while mingling with a variety of models drafted in to showcase her latest designs.

Elizabeth regularly shares racy pictures to her Instagram platform in a bid to promote her bikini line.

The star is a mother to 16-year-old son Damian - who regularly acts as personal photographer for her social media posts.

In good company: She was accompanied by German businessman Mathias Kuhn, owner of the new store (second left)

Finishing touches: Strappy gold heels added to her look, while tasteful gold earrings and bracelets proved to be her only visible accessories

Recently Elizabeth discussed her ex-flame Hugh Grant, saying he is 'very, very happy' following his wedding to wife Anna Eberstein.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar, she enthused: 'He has three children with his wife Anna, who is adorable, and hes a very happy man.'

Elizabeth dated Hugh between 1987 and 2000.

Upbeat: The actress was in high spirits as she celebrated the launch on Wednesday afternoon

Standing out: The actress rounded off her look with a generous layer of eyeliner that drew further attention to her distinctive featuresTheir flawless dance routines, sensational voices and flair for fashion has catapulted them into one of the hottest girlbands around.

However, the girls of Little Mix have proved that they have come a long way in terms of self love and body confidence, as they opened up about finally being at peace with their figures in a candid interview with Glamour UK magazine.

Noting she wasn't being 'big-headed', Jesy Nelson, 27, revealed she was 'enjoying her normal jiggly bum', while Jade Thirlwall praised her decision to forego a boob job and in stark comparison, Perrie Edwards detailed her joy at discovering her 'huge knockers' overnight.

Dishing all: Little Mix have proved that they have come a long way in terms of self love and body confidence, as they opened up about finally being at peace with their figures in a candid new interview

Speaking about her previous insecurities, Perrie, who is currently in a romance with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, admitted that she suddenly woke up one day with a busty cleavage.

'I was like "oh my god, guys, Im going to have to wear a bra now", because I wasnt wearing a bra because I didnt have anything in them  it was just an empty hammock!' the blonde bombshell confessed about the change in her physique.

Jade also lacked confidence when it came to her cleavage, however, unlike Perrie wasn't given the sudden gift of a change in cup size.

Proving she had to make peace with a smaller bust, the brunette stated: 'I used to really want a boob job because I used to really hate my boobs because Ive got like a double A but now Im like f*** it, I love my boobs!'

'Im really enjoying myself!' Noting she wasn't being 'big-headed', Jesy Nelson, 27, revealed she was 'enjoying her normal jiggly bum'

They've got front! Jade Thirlwall (L) praised her decision to forego a boob job and in stark comparison, Perrie Edwards (R) detailed her joy at discovering her 'huge knockers' overnight

'Im going to have to wear a bra now!' Speaking about her previous insecurities, Perrie, who is currently in a romance with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, admitted that she suddenly woke up one day with a busty cleavage

Meanwhile, Jesy focused on another body part - her bottom - as she relayed the message of being done with her insecurities.

'I just like everything at the moment, Im really enjoying myself! You need to embrace it! I dont care about having a fake bum; Im just happy with my nice, normal, jiggly bum,' she enthused.

Little Mix's candid body confessions comes after they were praised for tackling LGBT issues in the 'beautiful' video for their new single Only You.

In the clip, in which the girls, Perrie, Leigh-Anne, Jade and Jesy on the track, do not appear, American actress Peyton List plays a marginalised partygoer who finds love and locks lips with a stunning fellow reveller, who turns out to be a mermaid.

'F*** it, I love my boobs!' Jade also lacked confidence when it came to her cleavage, however, unlike Perrie wasn't given the sudden gift of a change in cup size

Bottoms up! Jesy focused on another body part - her bottom - as she relayed the message of being done with her insecurities

Swarming Twitter after the video was released, fans penned: 'Im so proud to call myself a mixer & Im beyond happy that the girls finally were able to get a lgbtq video. I love it... It so positively different- mature, telling a story, focus on issues'.

Pop and electronic track Only You, which has garnered over 15 million streams in just three weeks, was written by The Six, Digital Farm Animals and Cheat Codes, who also produced the track.

Soon after the release of the track, social media was awash with praise for the attention to issues in the LGBT community.Sprightly TV and radio host Fearne Cotton is turning traditional health advice on its head.

In an attempt to combat her summer sniffles this week, the 36-year-old wife of Ronnie Wood's son, Jesse, has been practising handstands in her kitchen.

Sprightly TV and radio host Fearne Cotton (pictured) is turning traditional health advice on its head

Showing off this yoga pose while sporting a white T-shirt tucked into palm-tree patterned shorts, she comments online: 'Still trying to shake off this summer cold. Turning it upside down always helps.'

Let's hope mother-of-two Fearne, whose intricate tattoos on her wrists and right ankle are also visible, has not yet given up on conventional remedies including drinking plenty of fluids and taking extra vitamin C.

In an attempt to combat her summer sniffles this week, the 36-year-old wife of Ronnie Wood's son, Jesse - Fearne (pictured) has been practising handstands in her kitchen

Pot and kettle?

Cleavage selfie-queen Karen Danczuk, the former wife of MP Simon Danczuk, has criticised Cambridge don Dr Victoria Bateman for stripping off and covering her modesty with a few well-placed 5 and 20 notes to promote gender equality.

'I never understand how posing nude helps equality,' says Danczuk. 'These women don't want to be objectified, but do just that with stunts like this.

'Just to be honest, you're getting naked to promote yourself/make the news. Nothing to do with equality.'

Cleavage selfie-queen Karen Danczuk, the former wife of MP Simon Danczuk, has criticised Cambridge don Dr Victoria Bateman, writes Sebastian Shakespeare

I've mellowed with age, says serene Sienna

All eyes were on Sienna Miller in St Tropez in the South of France where she was spotted wearing a leaf-print Dolce & Gabbana bra top with matching high-rise shorts.

The actress, 36, exchanged a beach bag for a Louis Vuitton clutch as she headed for lunch at the famous Le Club 55, with fashion writer Derek Blasberg and art dealer Vito Schnabel.

All eyes were on Sienna Miller in St Tropez in the South of France where she was spotted wearing a leaf-print Dolce & Gabbana bra top with matching high-rise shorts

She is currently holidaying around Europe on a sailing yacht with a group of friends.

'I never used to mind drawing attention to myself through what I wore,' she has said of her fashion choices.

'I didn't mind being brave and colourful. I don't want that any more. I've grown up a little bit. I love classic fashion; for now, I'm in a toned-down, mellow state.'

Showing a whole latte love to Emilia

Actress Emilia Fox was left surprised and delighted when she received a frothy tribute in coffee to her Silent Witness character, pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander, while filming on location in Hong Kong.

Emilia, 43, who has starred in the BBC1 crime drama since 2004, said: 'There was a cafe around the corner from the hotel and I ordered a coffee  a latte. It took for ever to make.

'When it finally arrived, it had a picture of me as Nikki Alexander on the top of it. That's why it had taken so long.'

The daughter of actor Edward Fox and brother of Freddie added: 'I never get noticed in England.'

Actress Emilia Fox was left surprised and delighted when she received a frothy tribute in coffee to her Silent Witness character, pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander, while filming on location in Hong Kong, writes Sebastian Shakespeare

Tudors star Jonathan Rhys Meyers is sceptical of fellow actors who claim they can't watch themselves on screen.

'Don't believe that. That's another side of the ego,' he says.

'They might not like sitting through their movie at the premiere, but I can bloody well guarantee you that they have it on DVD, and that they sat in a dark room and watched it three or four times.'Arguably America's favorite fictional psychiatrist could be returning to television.

Kelsey Grammer is reportedly interested in reprising his role as Dr. Frasier Crane in a Frasier reboot.

According to Deadline, Grammer has been fielding interest and meeting with writers to discuss new story lines and ideas to help push the narrative forward.

Triumphant return? Kelsey Grammer and CBS TV Studios have been exploring options to reboot Frasier, according to Deadline

If a reboot does move forward, fans could expect to see major life changes for Dr. Crane.

Some of the new concepts being discussed include: adding a number of new characters and moving the backdrop of the series from Seattle, where the original show was set.

Chicago may very well be one of the city's on the list since Frasier was seen in the series finale flying to the Windy City to pursue Charlotte.

This isn't the first time the 63-year old actor has reportedly been interested in a Frasier reboot.

Successful run: The original series ran for 11 seasons from 1993 to 2004

'It would be neat to see what happened to him, because clearly he never had any luck in love,' Grammer revealed in an interview with TV Guide last year. He went on to add that he didn't think Frasier's relationship with Laura Linney's character Charlotte would have worked out.

Grammer made his first appearance as Dr. Frasier Crane in season three of the hugely successful sitcom Cheers in 1984.

The series Frasier was created as a spin-off when Cheers ended in 1993, and also starred David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves, Peri Gilpin and the late John Mahoney.

Award-winning: Frasier won 37 Emmy Awards during its 11 seasons

It ran for 11 seasons until 2004 and won 37 Emmy Awards, including five consecutive wins for Outstanding Comedy Series. Grammer won four Emmy's during the series run.

According to Deadline, the project could move beyond exploratory stage, if the producers settle on a writer and a premise for the plot.

So far, reps for Grammer and CBS TV Studios have declined to comment.Pedestrians walk in rain outside a shopping mall in Beijing, capital of China, July 24, 2018. Beijing issued a yellow warning for heavy rain on Tuesday morning. (Xinhua/Luo Xiaoguang)

BEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Heavy downpours brought by Typhoon Ampil pounded Beijing and neighboring areas on Tuesday, causing flight delays and evacuations, according to the city's flood control authorities.

Beijing issued a yellow warning for heavy rain on Tuesday morning. Meteorological data showed average precipitation was 34 millimeters before noon with a maximum of 139.8 millimeters registered in Tongzhou.

More than 18,171 people were evacuated and 165 tourists destinations closed across the capital. Flooding was seen in several areas, the Beijing flood control headquarters said.

Emergency services staff have been dispatched to pump water, step up warning signs along hazardous roads and river sections, and patrol low-lying areas.

Beijing has also issued a blue alert warning for muds flows and landslides in outlying districts.

In neighboring Tianjin Municipality, heavy precipitation led to severe flooding in several road sections. By 10 a.m. Tuesday, 19 flights had been canceled and 30 delayed at Tianjin Binhai International Airport.

China has a four-tier color-coded weather warning system, with red representing the most severe weather, followed by orange, yellow, and blue.

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1

[ Editor: Zhang Zhou ]Gun silencers would be easier to access under a push from the Victorian Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party, but the state government and opposition won't back the move.

The minor party is expected to introduce a private members' bill on Wednesday to make it legal for licensed shooters to use silencers.

"I don't believe the government has got any intention of making any changes in that regard," Attorney-General Martin Pakula told ABC radio.

"Victoria Police would certainly not support that, and nor would the government."

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said the proposed change would not be "in the interest of community safety".

"We are comfortable with how the current laws exist and I think that is a sensible way forward," Opposition Leader Matthew Guy told reporters in Melbourne.More than 50,000 people have already voted ahead of five federal by-elections being held on Saturday.

Early voting has been most popular in the Queensland seat of Longman, where 22,060 people have already cast a ballot, just days out from polling day - up 20 per cent on the same period at the 2016 federal election.

In the South Australian seat of Mayo, 13,003 people have already voted, with 6580 turning out in Tasmania's Braddon.

Fremantle and Perth have registered 4540 and 4969 early votes respectively.

About 40,000 postal vote applications have also been received.A NSW woman has been arrested at Sydney airport as she tried to leave the country, in connection with helping a man traffick his wife and two-month-old daughter to India last year.

The 45-year-old woman was arrested by Australian Federal Police on Tuesday following an investigation into a 27-year-old Lidcombe man using coercion, threats and deception to force his Indian-born wife and Australian-born child to go to India in March 2017.

The woman is due to face Sydney Central Local Court on Wednesday, charged with one count of trafficking persons (exit from Australia), which carries a maximum penalty of 12 years.Prop Aaron Woods' 2018 rags to riches story continues as the mid-season recruit eyes an end to his NRL finals woes.

Out of favour with NSW State of Origin selectors this year, Woods has won all three of his matches with the Sharks since his high-profile switch from strugglers Canterbury due to salary cap issues.

Woods last played in a semi-final as a West Tigers youngster in 2011 and is excited at the prospect of breaking his seven-year finals drought.

"To be a part of that again is something I'm really looking forward to. It was an awesome feeling," the 27-year-old told Big Sport Breakfast on Wednesday.

"It's something that I really enjoy and (I'll) take it with both hands."

The Sharks sit fifth before Thursday night's clash with seventh-placed Brisbane.

Woods said a victory at Suncorp Stadum would go a long way to Cronulla cementing a finals spot.

"It gives you a little bit of a gap (if we) hopefully get this win," he said.

"Every win now is very crucial for the next seven weeks."

After linking up with his third team in less than a year Woods said he is still finding his feet at Southern Cross Group Stadium but has found the move invigorating.

"It's always good when you win," he said.

"You don't really question yourself as much ... you're not as sore after a win just because you've got that winning feeling.

"It's been good for myself and my family."

Despite the Sharks developing a habit for poor halves, Woods said the club's leaders were key to toughing out close wins.

"Sometimes, you know, when I've been at the Tigers we just tried to go for that miracle pass instead of just playing the percentage plays," he said.

"They've (the Sharks) been in those situations many times before and they know how to handle themselves."Federal Labor fears a key document which sets the budget starting point for the next federal election campaign will be politicised because of recent Turnbull government appointments.

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen turned up the heat on the appointment of two key government economic advisers in a speech in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Philip Gaetjens, a former chief of staff to Liberal federal treasurers, will take over from John Fraser as head of Treasury in August.

And another former Liberal federal and state ministerial staffer Michael Brennan will take over as chair of the Productivity Commission in September.

Mr Bowen said he was not questioning the pair's integrity or ability.

"But it is disingenuous to argue they are not partisans, because they are," Mr Bowen said.

"The Charter of Budget Honesty requires the Secretary of the Treasury to sign off the pre-election fiscal outlook, which is meant to be a document thoroughly above partisan politics.

"But the man signing it off will now be someone who a few weeks ago was the Treasurer's chief political adviser."

The former Rudd government treasurer said he had seen up close the professionalism of the Australian Treasury.

"And if I am treasurer again in the not too distant future, restoring the independence and non-partisan nature of this most important body will be a very important priority for me," he said.

Mr Gaetjens earlier this week described himself as being "more at the policy end of the spectrum than the political end".

He said there had been too much media focus on who people worked for rather than defining them by their capabilities.In the year leading up to the day Karen Ristevski was allegedly killed by her husband, her Melbourne dress shop was in a "constant struggle" financially, an accountant says.

And only days after Ms Ristevski vanished, a new company directed by Borce Ristevski had begun operating, receiving the revenue of the fashion store Bella Bleu.

A forensic accountant has given evidence in the high-profile committal hearing that will determine whether Ristevski stands trial for murder.

It's alleged Ristevski, now 54, killed his wife, 47, at their Avondale Heights home on June 29, 2016 before dumping her body in the bush.

He told police she had gone for a walk to clear her mind after an argument and never returned, but detectives allege he lied to avoid detection.

The couple were directors of a fashion boutique and at the time of the alleged murder the business appeared to be floundering.

"There was a constant struggle with sales revenue not able to meet business expenses," Victoria Police forensic accountant Gerard Curtin told Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

"If you can't cover your rent, wages and stock you're not going to be surviving and this business wasn't covering that."

Mr Curtin said a company called Warrant Brands, of which the Ristevskis were directors, had traded as the fashion store Bella Bleu.

But as of July 1, 2016 a new company called Envirovision, directed by Ristevski with daughter Sarah as shareholder, had evolved.

"All the revenue from Bella Bleu was going into this company," Mr Curtin said.

"As at June 30, Warrant Brands no longer has any income.

"I've got absolutely no idea why that would've occurred. It has no real impact on the liabilities of Warrant Brands."

Karen and Borce Ristevski had sometimes argued about money, the court has been told.

But Sarah Ristevski gave evidence that her parents rarely fought and her father was "never" aggressive towards her mother.

Prosecutors have previously said the Ristevskis were in a "very serious" financial predicament at the time.

Ms Ristevski's body was found between two logs at Macedon Regional Park northwest of Melbourne about eight months after she vanished.

An autopsy could not ascertain a cause of death.

Ristevski was charged nearly a year later after a police investigation that involved phone taps, listening devices and CCTV footage analysis.

Detective say he used his wife's Mercedes-Benz roadster to dispose of her body, and CCTV footage allegedly captured the car on the day.

The hearing continues and it's expected Ristevski's lawyers will on Wednesday afternoon argue he shouldn't stand trial for murdering his wife and that a manslaughter trial is more appropriate.afp

If extradited to US, Colombian coke capo will have a lot of company

Colombian cocaine trafficking kingpin Dairo Antonio Usuga could have a lot of familiar company if he is extradited to the United States -- many of his Gulf...A Catholic priest who admitted abusing at least five children in New Zealand and earlier worked in Canberra was never reported to police, the church says.

Five historical complaints were made in 1993 against Dominican Order member Father Michael Shirres, a priest and theologian who died in 1997, Auckland Bishop Patrick Dunn said on Wednesday.

However, while Shirres confessed to offending over several decades, police were never alerted because the victims wanted privacy, the bishop said.

He was instead put through an independent sex offender program and removed from priestly work. He later apologised.

"At that time the policy with historic cases, as distinct from current cases, was to prioritise the wishes of the complainant," Bishop Dunn said.

"We respected their wishes and realised that if we did not, people would not be prepared to come forward."

He said the church's practice was to encourage complainants to go to the police and the Dominican Order worked with complainants.

"Our priority is a commitment to do all that we can to care for those who have been abused," the bishop said.

A well-known figure in some communities in New Zealand's Far North from the 1970s, Shirres lectured Maori theology in Auckland and authored several books.

In the 1960s, he was chaplain at the Australian National University in Canberra for several years and was there at least until 1964.

One of his victims, Annie Hill, told the New Zealand Herald she believed it was well known within some church circles the priest was an abuser by the time he returned to Auckland in 1966.

"After Shirres apologised in writing for my abuse in 1994, no one from the Dominicans ever discussed offering meaningful pastoral care to others," she said.

"I definitely asked them to find and help other victims. It was a totally legal response."

Dominican Friars Provincial Anthony Walsh - the order's regional head - is overseas but a spokesman for his office in Victoria said the order would check archives to see if any accusations had been made against Shirres in Australia, although it was not immediately aware of any.A third of doctors are planning to cut back or completely end their visits to patients in aged care homes within two years.

The Australian Medical Association's aged care survey shows one-in-three doctors are planning to reduce visits because the Medicare rebates are inadequate for the amount of time and work involved.

AMA president Tony Bartone says he wants aged care to be an election issue, just months after the federal budget delivered $1.6 billion for the sector.

"Older Australians all too frequently do not have the same access to medical care as other age groups - a longstanding result of inadequate funding in the aged care system," Dr Bartone told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

"This inequity will likely only grow as the Australian population ages with more complex, chronic medical conditions requiring more medical attention than ever before."

Dr Bartone said there have been numerous consultations and reviews.

"Enough. Now is the time for action," he said.

"There is already sufficient information to underpin the final recommendations. It is simply unfair and unjust to delay this any further."

He wants an increase in funding for GP visits to aged care facilities, which he said would save money on fewer ambulance transfers to hospitals.

'The AMA wants to see Medicare rebates that adequately cover the time that doctors spend with the patient, assessing and diagnosing their condition and providing medical care," Dr Bartone said.

His organisation would ensure aged care gets the attention and profile it deserved in the election campaign.

Treasurer Scott Morrison said the AMA's survey was done before the federal budget's funding boost, so the data was somewhat out-of-date.

"The very need ... doctors have identified was a need that was addressed in this year's budget and we look forward to that having a positive impact," Mr Morrison told reporters.

"We have made major strides forward in this area over the last few years and there's more work to do."A Sydney charter boat operator has been fined after it was found to have been pumping sewage directly into Sydney harbour.

Roads and Maritime Services and NSW water police carried out random inspections of two charter boats in June and fined the owner of the vessels $15,000 for polluting waters in Sydney Harbour.

Investigators found a cable tie was holding open the sewage discharge valve on one of the luxury charter boats and the sewage tank was empty after the vessel returned from a two-hour cruise, the RMS said in a statement on Wednesday.CHICAGO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of students from China are visiting Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Midwest U.S. to attend a summer camp program, as the university works to draw in more international students.

Sixty-three students and four faculty members from Northeast Normal University (NENU) in China are visiting the SIU campus for a two-week long summer program to experience the region, test out business classes and get a feel of what the university has to offer, according to the official site of SIU.

SIU said in a press release that the SIU School of Accountancy and NENU School of Business worked collaboratively to offer a joint degree program. Students who complete two years at NENU and then transfer to SIU for their junior and senior year will receive a bachelor's degree in accountancy from both universities.

Andrew Carver, who is overseeing the program, sees this as way to strengthen the students and encourage future enrollment to SIU.

"The majority of these students are currently enrolled at NENU in the first two years of our joint degree program in Accountancy," Carver said. "Their summer experience in our campus will factor heavily in their decision to enroll at SIU as a degree-seeking student."

Of those attending the current summer program, 20 have committed to transferring to SIU in the fall of 2019, while many of the others are still considering their choices.

[ Editor: Xueying ]Adelaide-based chef Jock Zonfrillo has won an international culinary award for his work with indigenous communities and says their exclusion from Australia's food culture is unacceptable.

The Basque Culinary World Prize is organised and promoted by the Basque Government along with the Basque Culinary Center, a leading academic institution in gastronomy.

It recognises chefs who improve society through their work and comes with a 100,000 Euro ($A158,000) prize to be devoted to a project or institution.

The owner and head chef at Adelaide's Orana Restaurant, Mr Zonfrillo has visited hundreds of remote Australian communities, championing their culture and culinary traditions.

He cooks with native ingredients such as riberries, desert limes, Kakadu plums, quandongs and lemon myrtle and incorporates grasses and wild garlic into some dishes.

Items on his current menu include kangaroo tail and Murray cod along with a tea brewed from the leaves of the native Jilungin tree.

"One of the fundamental lessons I've learned from working with indigenous communities is to give back more than you take," he said in a statement.

"My motivation comes from acknowledging a culture who farmed and thrived from the land they have lived on for over 60,000 years.

"The First Australians are the true cooks and 'food inventors' of these lands and their exclusion from our history, and specifically our food culture, it is unacceptable."

Mr Zonfrillo also created the Orana Foundation in 2016 to support the production and fair marketing of indigenous products and to document 10,000 native ingredients.

The database will be available online in the hope it will reveal new superfoods to improve global nutrition.Climate change scientists have been surprised to learn that ice-age sea levels dropped instead of rose, and that they weren't linked to carbon dioxide increasing in the atmosphere.

An abrupt 20-metre drop 20,000 years ago, which brought sea levels 130 metres below the present level, challenges all previous scientific assumptions about the last ice age.

"Our study is unique and completely rewrites the history of this period," Australian National University climate specialist Dr Tezer Esat said in a statement on Thursday.

The international team studied more than 900 coral samples from the Great Barrier Reef and found there were rapid sea-level drops during the last ice age and corresponding increases in ice volumes globally.

Scientists also discovered the abrupt changes were not linked to any concrete climate indicators, such as changes in carbon dioxide levels or temperature.

Rather, it was discovered that climate could flip in just decades with small localised disruptions, such as the discharge of huge masses of ice.

"Transitions appear to have occurred spontaneously," Dr Esat said.

After this period of sea-level drops, evidence indicates the ocean rose at an average rate of 1.6mm per year over 4000 years and it has continued rising to the present day.

Dr Esat said it was important to note that although the rapid ice-age changes were not caused by carbon dioxide concentrations, the gas is expected to contribute to future sea levels.

"Human activity is affecting the present climate and is expected to contribute to future sea-level rises," he said.

Dr Esat said the Great Barrier Reef was an ideal location because corals found more 120 metres below the present sea level on the continental shelf reveal the dramatic changes of the period.

The research was published in the British journal Nature.Low voter turnout is expected for the Perth and Fremantle by-elections amid rock-bottom interest after the Liberals didn't bother fielding candidates.

Only 3610 early votes were received for Perth in the first 10 days of pre-polling, down 41 per cent on the same time during the 2016 federal election.

In Fremantle, 3200 early votes were cast by Saturday, down 35 per cent compared to the general poll just over two years ago.

Political analyst Peter Kennedy said those figures pointed to a low overall turnout.

Labor is expected to easily win Fremantle with Josh Wilson, the port city's former deputy mayor who held the seat previously with a 7.5 per cent margin but had to resign over his dual citizenship.

Former state secretary and ex-Kevin Rudd staffer Patrick Gorman is also expected to hold on to Perth for Labor, a seat vacated by lawyer Tim Hammond for family reasons.

The decision to give Labor a free kick - particularly in Perth, which has a margin of just 3.3 per cent - was decried by Liberal Senator Dean Smith as sending a bad message.

Mr Kennedy agreed, saying the Liberals missed a golden opportunity to test their GST reform proposal before next year's federal election.

"They were on the defensive on the GST issue initially and didn't want to put the spotlight on Malcolm Turnbull," he told AAP.

"However their fix has been reasonably well accepted.

"They could have taken the high ground on the GST.

"I think it's a tactical blue."

At the 2016 federal election, the Liberals secured more first preference votes for Perth than Labor and there was an opportunity to reduce that slim margin on Saturday, Mr Kennedy said.

The Liberals justified the no-show by saying contesting the Labor strongholds would waste money better spent on the recent state by-election in Darling Range, a seat snatched back by the conservatives but largely in a Labor backlash.

Mr Kennedy said the Greens should do well again in Fremantle, where the party could benefit from renewed anti-live export sentiment.

And in Perth, independent Paul Collins, a Liberal party member, seems the most prominent opponent for Mr Gorman, who masterminded Labor's thumping state election victory last year.

This campaign has been lacklustre, however, with no big promises made, although Mr Gorman's unusual middle name - Possum - gained some attention.

"I live in the Perth electorate and you'd hardly know it was on," Mr Kennedy said.The law might say police can access digital health records without a warrant but Health Minister Greg Hunt says policy is overriding that law.

Instead, he says the Australian Digital Health Agency has decided its own policy, which means no one's private health records can be released without a court order.

"They cannot and will not issue any records without a court order and I think it's a very simple way to look at it," Mr Hunt told reporters on Wednesday.

"They've been operating for six years, not one record has been released to the police in that time."

Privacy concerns have been raised about the My Health Record, which is a digital record of health data that Australians have another two months to opt out of if they don't want one created.

Mr Hunt said there was a difference between the legislation from 2012 - which explicitly states police can access My Health Record data without a warrant - and the way the policy was being interpreted.

"It's established as policy. There is bipartisan support for that. It will not be changing under us," Mr Hunt said.

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone said he'll do "whatever it takes" to ensure patients keep the same legal rights over their health data as they have now.

When asked if that meant changing the legislation, Dr Bartone said: "Whatever it takes."

"I'll be having a conversation with the minister and if it means we have to go to that, that's where we'll go," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Labor leader Bill Shorten wants the My Health Record rollout suspended until privacy concerns are dealt with.

"I actually think that it would be smart of the government to suspend the rollout of the My Health Record system until all of the privacy concerns are actually addressed," Mr Shorten told reporters.Under fire Labor MP Emma Husar is facing a bullying investigation as well as questions about her use of taxpayer-funded limousines.

The Western Sydney MP is on leave while the inquiry is completed, as she has been accused of using her staff for child-minding and to pick up dog faeces.

It's also alleged she took a Comcar limousine to visit her divorce lawyer.

Labor leader Bill Shorten on Wednesday described the western Sydney backbencher as a good person going through a hard time, after she took leave while the NSW Labor Party investigates bullying and harassment claims.

Footage aired on the Seven Network reportedly showed one of Ms HUsar's staffers walking her dog through Penrith and cleaning up after it but Mr Shorten said the animal was a support dog for her autistic son.

"I suspect there's more to this whole situation," he said on Wednesday.

"Having said that, I do think that the people are entitled to respectful work places and respectful treatment. Clearly there are complaints and so there are protocols in place and there is an independent investigation."

The bullying investigation has sparked a series of vile threats against the Lindsay MP, who has Polish ancestry.

She received an email from one man describing her as a "kurva" (a mistyped reference to "kurwa", the Polish slang for prostitute) and telling her he hoped she got "breast or ovarian cancer".

Threats were also made to her children.

Police presence at her office was boosted in 2016 when she was stalked and a death threat was made against her.

Cabinet minister Simon Birmingham said if the bullying claims were proven, Mr Shorten should sack her.

Workplace Minister Craig Laundy urged Ms Husar's staff to take claims to the Fair Work Ombudsman rather than rely on an internal ALP investigation.

"If people have breached the law, we'll deal with that when that happens," Mr Shorten said.

Ms Husar said in a statement the best thing for her family was to be out of the spotlight but she's looking forward to returning as the member for Lindsay.Australia's political parties are fighting voter fatigue as well as each other as they head into Saturday's five by-elections.

The Super Saturday contests are being framed as major tests for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

Both are expected to hit the campaign trail on Thursday as they try to win over undecided voters.

But before they scrape through to the July 28 polls, the pair must cut through a thick fog of disillusion and disengagement from a public fed up with process.

Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek concedes people are growing tired of the long-running campaigns.

"I know people are driven crazy by by-elections. Nobody wanted to go through this, I can tell you," she said.

Mr Shorten is due to travel to the Tasmanian seat of Braddon, where Labor is in danger of losing to the government.

In one poll, Liberal candidate Brett Whiteley was slightly ahead of Labor's Justine Keay but in another, the former Labor MP who resigned over her dual citizenship had the edge.

The Queensland electorate of Longman is also on a knife edge going into Saturday's bout and could well be won by the government, bucking a 100-year drought.

Preferences from One Nation's candidate Matthew Stephen will be crucial to determine whether the Liberal National Party's Trevor Ruthenberg can defeat Labor's Susan Lamb.

The South Australian seat of Mayo is expected to be reclaimed by the Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie, while the other by-election seats of Perth and Fremantle are expected to remain in Labor hands.The Queensland Labor Government has been accused of spending close to $1,000 a day on transporting youths detainees around the state over seven months.

LNP Opposition leader Deb Frecklington claims documents from government departments, including Queensland Police Service, have revealed more than $180,000 was spent on taxis and air flights to transfer inmates between November 2017 and May 2018.

In one instance, $3600 was allegedly "wasted" because of a no-show by the detainees and $82,5000 was spent flying offenders home after stints in youth detention centres in north Queensland.SUPER SATURDAY OF BY-ELECTIONS

--

HISTORY

* Five is the highest number of federal by-elections held on a single day.

* A government has not won a seat from an opposition in a by-election since 1920.

--

POLITICAL CONTEXT

* Labor is leading the Liberal-National coalition in national opinion polls.

* Bill Shorten is trailing Malcolm Turnbull in personal popularity and as preferred prime minister.

* The coalition is emphasising personal and business tax cuts, action on power prices and the benefits of a stronger economy.

* Labor says the coalition is wasting taxpayers' money on business tax cuts (rather than spending it on schools, hospitals, roads and pensions) and many workers are unfairly missing out on the benefits from the economy.

* One Nation (only running in Longman) is seizing on economic disenchantment, concerns over immigration and a deficit of trust in mainstream parties.

* There is residual anger over the dual citizenship crisis which triggered four of the five by-elections.

* The next full House and half-Senate election is due by May 18, 2019.

--

THE NUMBERS

* Ahead of the by-elections the House of Representatives comprises: 76 coalition, 65 Labor, 1 Greens, 1 Katter, 2 Independents, 5 vacancies (four Labor, one Independent).

* The Liberal Party is running in three of the five by-elections (Longman, Mayo and Braddon), while Labor is contesting all five.

* The Centre Alliance's Rebekha Sharkie is expected to retain Mayo.

* Longman and Braddon will be tight contests, and could be Liberal gains with the right preference flows.

* Perth and Fremantle should be easy Labor retains.

--

THE CONSEQUENCES

* Labor losses would not only shore up the government's numbers in parliament but put pressure on Bill Shorten's leadership. Leadership rival Anthony Albanese has been maintaining a high profile.

* If Malcolm Turnbull's strategists feel the tide is turning towards the coalition, an early election before Christmas could be on the cards.

* Labor wins will reinforce the prime minister's current view that the election should be put off as late as possible (April-May 2019) and more work is needed to build the government's stocks.The dam collapse sent some five billion cubic metres of water -- more than two million Oympic swimming pools -- surging through villages

The South Korean partner in a Laos hydropower dam said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed, engulfing villages and leaving hundreds missing.

The wall of water unleashed Monday by the failure of the dam in the country's southeast surged downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people feared dead.

SK Engineering & Construction, a South Korean builder that is one of the partners in the project, said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time.

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

Repair work was hampered by heavy rain which had damaged roads, it said, and early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam -- one of the two main dams in the project -- to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.

The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.

By Tuesday morning, seven out of 12 villages located downstream were flooded, it said. Aerial pictures showed a vast brown inundation swamping houses and jungle alike over a huge area.

Another video showed families waiting for rescue on the rooftop of their house, with a nearby Buddhist temple partially submerged.

The South Korean firm said it had sent a crisis team to the site, dispatching helicopters, boats and rescue workers.

No caption

"Currently, SK E&C is actively working on personnel recovery and damage relief with the Laotian government," it said.

Communist Laos is traversed by a vast network of rivers and several dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries such as Thailand.

The $1.2 billion dam located near the border with Cambodia is part of a project by Vientiane-based Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, a joint venture formed in 2012 between a Laotian, a Thai and two South Korean companies, according to the project's website.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the venture's website.

The project consists of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers in Champasak province.

It planned to export 90 percent of its electricity to energy-hungry Thailand and the remainder was to be offered up on the local grid.

Under the terms of construction, PNPC said it would operate and manage the power project for 27 years after commercial operations began.No matter who is voted into office Wednesday, the new rulers will have to make hard choices

Pakistan's next government will face myriad challenges, from unsustainable population growth to simmering extremism, all complicated by the decades-long tussle between civilian and military leadership.

No matter who is voted into office Wednesday, the new rulers will have to make hard choices, and quickly.

Here is a rundown of the biggest hurdles Pakistan is facing:

- Extremism -

Security has dramatically improved across Pakistan following a crackdown on militant groups in recent years.

Despite a military crackdown, militants can still carry out spectacular attacks

But analysts have long warned that Pakistan is not tackling the root causes of extremism, and militants can still carry out spectacular attacks.

That includes during this election season, with a string of bombings at political events killing more than 180 people, including the second-deadliest militant attack in Pakistan's history.

Analysts have warned that insurgents may be regrouping and seeking to reassert themselves after years of setbacks.

- Economy -

Pakistan's next government faces growing fears of a balance of payments crisis, with speculation mounting it will have to seek its second bailout in five years from the International Monetary Fund.

Exports such as textiles have taken a hit from cheaper Chinese-produced goods, while foreign remittances have also slowed

The central bank is burning through foreign exchange reserves and devaluing the rupee, including another five-percent dive this month, in a bid to bridge a widening trade deficit.

Pakistan, which has long relied heavily on imports, increased its procurement of materials to help build a string of Chinese-backed infrastructure projects under a multi-billion-dollar investment package with Beijing.

The terms of the projects are opaque, leading to fears about Islamabad's ability to pay for them.

The economy has also been stung by higher oil prices.

Meanwhile, meagre exports such as textiles have taken a hit from cheaper products by regional competitors, including China, while foreign remittances -- a major contributor to the economy -- have also slowed.

The winner of the election will have "limited time" to act, Fitch ratings agency warned earlier this month.

- Population growth -

Conservative Pakistan, with its limited family planning, has one of the highest birth rates in Asia at around three children per woman, according to the World Bank and government figures.

Pakistan has had a fivefold increase in population since 1960

That has led to a fivefold increase of the population since 1960, now touching 207 million, draft results from last year's census show.

The boom is negating hard-won economic and social progress in the developing country, experts have warned.

To add to the problem, discussing contraception in public is taboo in Pakistan.

Analysts say unless more is done to slow growth, the country's natural resources -- particularly drinking water -- will not be enough to support the population.

- Water shortages -

Pakistan is on the verge of an ecological disaster if authorities do not urgently address looming water shortages, experts say.

As well as combating extremism and managing delicate civil-military relations, Pakistan's new government will need to urgently address water shortages to prevent a looming ecological disaster

Official estimates show that by 2025 the country will be facing an "absolute scarcity" of water, with less than 500 cubic metres available per person -- just one-third of the water available in parched Somalia, according to the UN.

Pakistan has massive Himalayan glaciers, rivers, monsoon rains and floods -- but just three major water storage basins, compared with more than a thousand in South Africa or Canada.

As such, surplus water is quickly lost.

Political initiative will be essential to building infrastructure to reverse the course of the impending crisis. There is also little in the way of public education on water conservation.

- Civil-military relations -

Pakistan has spent roughly half its nearly 71-year history under military rule, and the imbalance of power in between civilian governments and the armed forces has long been seen as an impediment to democracy and progress.

Pakistan has spent roughly half its nearly 71-year history under military rule, and the imbalance of power in civil-military relations has long been seen as an impediment to democracy and progress

Hope surged in 2013 as the country saw its first-ever transition of power from one democratically-elected government to another.

But since then, experts have warned of a "creeping coup", fuelled by tensions between the generals and the government of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, largely attributed to his desire to assert civilian supremacy and seek warmer relations with arch-rival India.

Sharif, ousted in 2017 and arrested for corruption earlier this month, says he and his party are being targeted by the military.

Activists and several prominent journalists have also accused the military of trying to install a pliant civilian government through pressure on politicians and the media. It denies the allegations.

The next government will be tasked with meeting the country's challenges without upsetting this delicate balance of power.>>> PM urges abolition of unnecessary business conditions

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, as well as leaders of ministries, agencies, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), and World Bank (WB) attended the event.

Speaking at the event, Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung said as of July 15, 11 ministries and agencies connected and conducted 53 administrative procedures with over 1.34 million files by 11,812 businesses via the national one-stop shop mechanism.

All customs procedures have now connected with the mechanism, with 99.65% of firms joining.

By the end of 2018, an additional 143 procedures will be launched on the mechanism, raising the total to 196, or 78% of the total 251 procedures which will be launched between now and 2020.

Regarding the ASEAN one-stop shop mechanism, Dung said as of January 1, 2018, Vietnam officially exchanged form D certificates of origin (C/O) with Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. As of July 15, Vietnam received 32,949 certificates from the above countries while sending 14,214 ones to them.

Vietnam is working with Brunei, Cambodia and the Philippines to establish a system to pilot the exchange of form D C/O, and is partnering with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia to launch a pilot system to exchange ASEAN customs declarations. Apart from the ASEAN, Vietnam is also negotiating to complete protocols and build a system to share information with the Eurasian Economic Union about customs declarations and C/O.

VCCI Vice President Doan Duy Khuong said the business community wishes that the Government would further expand the scope of the national one-stop shop mechanism and make sweeping reforms on specialised inspection.

Representatives of international organisations and development partners such as the WB, the European Union, the US, Japan, and the Republic of Korea spoke highly of the Vietnamese governments reform in the field, hoping that with the help of technical support projects, Vietnam will soon join the global supply chain.

A WB representative reported that the customs clearance for Vietnams exports at border gates was brought down from 58 hours to 55 hours last year, and from 62 hours to 56 hours for imports into Vietnam. The cost of customs clearance for a batch of goods at border gates was reduced by US$19.

With over 11 customs declarations last year, businesses saved upwards of US$200 million and over 16 million hours of storage for exports and more than 34 million hours for imports.

According to the WBs Do Business report for 2016-2017, Vietnam continued to be one of the four countries with the highest trans-border goods exchange in ASEAN.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Quoc Khanh suggested improving the technological capacity and agreeing on the principles for specialised inspection among ministries and agencies.

Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung called for reducing more goods subject to specialised inspection, saying that 4,000 kinds of goods exempt from specialised inspection in the next four years is a modest figure.

He requested that 350 legal documents should be revised soon, including circulars regarding unreasonable business costs.Savannah Lafontaine -- shown here in a photo released by the Fargo police department -- went missing a year ago in North Dakota, at age 21 and eight months pregnant -- she is one of a spate of native American women who have gone missing

Ashley Loring, a member of the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, has been missing for a year, says a Facebook page dedicated to this student with fine features and an earnest face.

Ieesha Nightpipe, a Rosebud Sioux from Arizona, has been missing for a year and a half. She was a drug addict and fell in with the wrong people. Her sister Toni fears the worst.

Then there is Carolyn DeFord, who has been looking for her mother, Leona Kinsey, for 18 years. "My mother went to the grocery store and never came back," says DeFord.

These three people are among the thousands of native American women who go missing each year in the United States. Last year, federal authorities recorded nearly 5,700 such cases. So far this year, there have been another 2,750.

The problem is so serious that the US Senate held a national public awareness day on missing and murdered indigenous women on May 5, in memory of one Hanna Harris, a member of the Cheyenne tribe who went missing in 2013.

She was later found dead, and had been raped.

- 'Trauma in our DNA' -

The tragedy of another woman -- Savannah Lafontaine, a member of the Spirit Lake tribe who at age 21, and eight months pregnant, went missing in North Dakota and was later found eviscerated -- gave rise to a bill aimed at improving data collection and investigative procedures for these cases.

A film entitled "Wind River" that came out last year and the work of many artists have sought to draw attention to the crisis of violence plaguing women in native American communities.

"Very rarely are they found again alive and some are never found at all. It's mostly homicides. Also cases of trafficking," said Annita Lucchesi, a California cultural studies researcher who has launched a project to map the killings and disappearances of indigenous women.

Lucchesi, a native American who was herself sexually assaulted, said she realized while pursuing her PhD that "there was no universal number anyone could agree on."

So she made it her mission to gather as much data as she could.

Advocacy groups say currently available statistics underestimate the gravity of the situation because the actual number of cases reported to the police is far lower than the reality, mainly because of mistrust of the authorities.

"It starts with historical trauma when they were killing our people during the Removal Act," said DeFord, referring to an 1830 law that allowed the government to negotiate with native Americans to be moved to federal territory west of the Mississippi river in exchange for their lands.

This led to forced marches during which thousands of native Americans died.

Later, indigenous peoples were interned and children were placed in boarding schools and forbidden to speak their language.

"We carry that trauma in our DNA," DeFord said.

"We have higher rates of domestic violence, homelessness and substance use."

- Epidemic of violence -

Four of five native American women -- more than 1.5 million -- have been victims of violence, according to a 2010 study by the National Institute of Justice, which is the research agency of the US Justice Department.

More than one in three have been raped -- more than double the incidence among white women.

On some reservations, women are murdered at 10 times the rate of the national average.

In most cases, women's partners are to blame, and the aggressors are almost always white, said the research institute.

Tribal police lack the training and resources to cover vast areas that are sometimes remote.

Kimberly Loring, Ashley's sister, said there are 18 officers for 1.5 million acres (0.6 hectares) of land on the Blackfeet reservation.

And security forces often take too long to intervene, said John Anderson, US attorney for the District of New Mexico.

Another problem is that tribal police have no power to go after non-indigenous Americans, even for crimes committed on tribal lands.

Federal authorities are accused of ignoring many cases, and when they have followed up, many months may have already passed, meaning the trail of evidence is often cold.

Sometimes indigent or drug-addicted women who go missing, like Nightpipe or Kinsey, are not considered "credible" enough as victims to warrant a missing persons report, said DeFord, who charges there was no real investigation into her mother's disappearance.

All this "gives the message that there is no consequence," said Mallory Black of the Strongheart Native Helpline.

The #MeToo movement targeting sexual violence against women has helped parents and native American victims to realize they are not alone and to mobilize.

But each new disappearance, each new killing, brings more raw pain.

"Every time someone was missing I felt I was losing my mother again," said DeFord. "I would imagine what had happened to my mum all over again."

Says Nightpipe's sister Toni: "I cry every day. I pray to God. I can't help thinking about her."US newspapers are feeling the impact of tariffs imposed on newsprint from Canada, in a case being reviewed by the quasi-judicial US International Trade Commission

US newspapers have taken a hit from a shift to digital news and a sharp loss of advertising, but a round of tariffs on Canadian newsprint is pushing some publications to the brink.

The Commerce Department earlier this year slapped preliminary tariffs of up to 30 percent on newsprint from Canada -- the largest source for US newspapers -- in response to a complaint from Washington state-based North Pacific Paper Co.

Tariffs have heightened the economic woes for the US industry, notably for small dailies and weeklies facing the prospect of belt-tightening that may including cutting back print editions or slashing staff.

As newspapers reel from the current economic landscape, many have already been making hefty newsroom cuts, including a 50 percent reduction at the storied New York Daily News.

Andrew Johnson, publisher of three Wisconsin weeklies and president of the National Newspaper Association of 2,300 local community newspapers, said the tariffs are imperiling many news organizations.

"I lost some subscribers over the years. I cannot pass along another increase now without damaging my business," Johnson told a July 17 hearing of the US International Trade Commission, the quasi-judicial agency reviewing the tariffs.

Johnson said many newspapers "are freezing all hiring and trying to cut pages or page sizes," and that if the tariffs remain in place, some may have to shut down or sell.

Penelope Abernathy, a University of North Carolina professor who studies media economics, said many small dailies and weeklies still bring in most of their money from print, with digital subscription and ad revenues largely disappointing.

Abernathy said that since 2004, around 60 dailies and more than 1,800 weeklies have shut down in the United States, creating "news deserts" with a dearth of local coverage.

The new tariffs could lead to even more papers disappearing, she said.

"When you add on tariffs, that's going to be the death knell for a lot of smaller newspapers that still rely on the print edition," said Abernathy.

- Protecting or hurting? -

Canada has become the largest supplier of newsprint for US newspapers, but a complaint filed with the Commerce Department claims the products are unfairly subsidized

Several members of Congress criticized the tariffs at the ITC hearing as counterproductive and urged the panel to overturn the findings.

"The tariffs will harm the US paper industry because they will cause permanent harm to newspapers, printers, and book publishers, shrinking the US paper industry's customer base," said Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

Paul Tash, president and chief executive at the Tampa Bay Times newspaper, said if the tariffs remain in place it will cost his organization $3.5 million a year, "an extra cost we simply cannot absorb."

"After payroll, newsprint is our single biggest expense, and we are cutting back there too," Tash told the hearing.

- Already reeling -

The New York Daily News is among the newspapers making newsroom cuts in the face of a difficult economic environment for publishers

Newspaper industry employment in the US fell from more than 400,000 in 2001 to 173,000 in 2016, according to government data, highlighting the troubles faced by the shift to digital.

Forbes Media chairman Steve Forbes, writing in The Wall Street Journal last month, said, "The killing of local newspapers by the imposition of tariffs would gut the nation's free press."

Craig Anneberg, CEO of North Pacific Paper, defended the tariffs that resulted from his company's complaint, claiming unfairly subsidized imports take away US jobs.

Since the tariffs went into effect, he told the ITC, "our production is up, our capacity utilization is higher, our shipments are increasing and our profitability is up."

Anneberg said the tariffs helped the company restart one mill and hire back 60 employees who had been laid off.

He noted that Canada now holds around 70 percent of the US market, "not because of any inherent advantage, but because of the massive assistance that Canadian producers receive from their provincial governments and the Canadian federal government."

But Paul Boyle of the News Media Alliance, which represents some 2,000 newspapers, said an entire economic sector has been disrupted by a single complaint from a company owned by a private equity firm, without the backing of fellow paper manufacturers.

"You have one company that is manipulating our trade laws," Boyle said. "The petition has been opposed by other US newsprint mills and their trade association, and by every publisher and printer in the United States."

The media group, which is backed by a coalition of US publishers, paper suppliers and printers, is hoping for some relief when the Commerce Department makes a final ruling on August 2, or when the ITC rules in late August.

But Boyle said that even if the tariffs are cut or overturned, which would result in refunds to paper mills, "in our view the damage has already been done. Newspapers are not going to get their money back."China has rejected accusations by US President Donald Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge

China's President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said that there would be "no winner" in any global trade war, in a direct warning to US President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap levies on all Chinese imports.

"A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner," Xi said at the opening of a BRICS summit of emerging economies in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," he said, without mentioning the United States by name.

"We are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and closed-door policy and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbour approach.

"The international community has again reached a new crossroads."

Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are holding an annual three-day summit, with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

Trump has already slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars as well as tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer are attending the summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests.

Key economic data on each member of the BRICS group of countries: Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa.

"We are concerned by the rise in unilateral measures that are incompatible with World Trade Organisation rules, and we are worried about the impact of these measures," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told the summit's opening session.

- New BRICS unity? -

The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice.

Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed purpose.

Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members".

Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering

"They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said.

Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India's Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.

The meeting opened on Wednesday with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks on Thursday.

African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme on Friday include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

"South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP.

"BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade."

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines.China Food and Drug Administration said the problematic rabies vaccine had not left the factory, but the company admitted it had shipped a separate sub-standard vaccine

Chinese authorities have arrested 15 people including the chairwoman of a rabies vaccine producer under fire for fraudulent quality control in the country's latest drug-safety scandal.

News that pharmaceutical manufacturer Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology had fabricated records and was ordered to cease production of rabies vaccines has revived deep consumer unease over product safety in the country, fuelled by recurring scandals over the years.

Authorities in the northeastern city of Changchun, where the company is based, have arrested 15 people including the company's chairwoman on "suspicion of criminal offences", city police announced late on Tuesday.

The announcement did not give the chairwoman's full name but she has previously been identified as Gao Junfang.

The affair has shattered already fragile trust in regulators and spotlighted the frustrations of China's increasingly sophisticated consumers, who took to social media en masse to vent their anger over the case.

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said last week the problematic rabies vaccine had not left Changsheng's factory, but the company admitted it had shipped a separate sub-standard vaccine.

That vaccine for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus was found by regulators to fail quality standards, but the company revealed that it sold 250,000 doses to Shandong province last year.

The problems have rekindled already deep fears over domestically made medicines and driven worried parents online to swap information on obtaining imported vaccines.

Authorities have announced a series of investigations and vowed that heads would roll.

In a sign of the high-level unease, President Xi Jinping -- on a trip to Africa -- weighed in on Monday, calling the vaccine company's actions "vile in nature and shocking", according to state media.Several dozen inhabitants of a historic section of the town of Chikan in southern China are stubbornly holding out against government pressure to sell their properties to make way for a "heritage" theme park

A year ago, customers queued round the block for Wu Ying's red bean and coconut ice puddings, but now the 60-year-old has to vault a barricade to reach her dessert shop.

Wu is one of several dozen inhabitants of a historic section of the town of Chikan in southern China who are stubbornly holding out against government pressure to sell their properties to make way for a "heritage" theme park.

Chikan was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2007 due to its 19th- and early 20th-century houses, which feature a unique mix of European and Chinese architecture, clock towers and intricate stone wall carvings.

Chikan was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in June 2007 due to its 19th- and early 20th-century houses, which feature a unique mix of European and Chinese architecture, clock towers and intricate stone wall carvings

But locals say the international attention has been a curse.

Last year, municipal authorities announced a $900-million deal with investment firm Citic Private Equity Funds to convert Chikan into a tourist attraction.

Its historic buildings will become hotels, bars, restaurants, trinket shops and cafes for visitors who pay an entrance fee.

Chen Jiewan, deputy mayor of Kaiping city where Chikan is located, said the project aims to "protect Chikan's cultural relics" and draw tourist spending, urging everyone to "work overtime" toward a targeted trial opening next year.

Authorities in Chikan village in Kaiping have barricaded some streets, and red banners on padlocked storefronts exhort villagers not to "stand in the way of progress"

Nearly 4,000 households received government notices urging them to move out immediately, with most of them accepting compensation offers.

But at least 58 households have refused and received "final notice" letters in late May.

"People were too scared to push back. It is totally absurd that they are kicking out all the people in the name of preservation," complained Wu.

Authorities have barricaded some streets, and red banners on padlocked storefronts exhort villagers not to "stand in the way of progress."

- 'Breaking family bonds' -

Such situations are not uncommon in historic parts of China, with deals cut between local governments and developers.

Holdouts in Chikan, which is in Guangdong province, say the offered compensation of between 3,200-3,900 yuan ($472-$575) per square metre is nowhere near enough to purchase a small apartment in the area

In 1999, all residents were evicted from the ancient "water town" of Wuzhen near Shanghai, which now charges visitors 200 yuan ($30) for tickets to take canal boat tours of the town.

With vague laws offering property owners little protection, increasing forced evictions have become a major source of public discontent, according to Amnesty International.

Local officials are often under pressure to preserve heritage sites, but the resulting projects "often become so commercialised that they don't always take grassroots perspectives into account," said Leksa Lee, a specialist in the business of cultural heritage in China at New York University Shanghai.

Holdouts in Chikan, which is in Guangdong province, say the offered compensation of between 3,200-3,900 yuan ($472-$575) per square metre is nowhere near enough to purchase a small apartment in the area.

The average cost of new homes in the nearby provincial capital Guangzhou in 2017 was 20,000 yuan per square metre.

Wu said she and some neighbours who staged a protest last autumn were arrested and jailed for several days.

With vague laws offering property owners little protection, increasing forced evictions have become a major source of public discontent, according to Amnesty International

Around the same time, 60-year-old local resident Lou Kong Ho said, unidentified people broke into his family's recently renovated ancestral home, looting valuable antiques.

"To get rid of the house would mean breaking the bonds to our family," said Lou, as he placed small teacups and chopsticks at a family altar at his home to pay respect to the clan's ancestors.

Referring to relatives overseas who helped fund the renovation, he added: "What reason would they have to come back? None of it will be ours anymore."

If residents reject the deal, the issue will "enter the judicial process" and property owners will forfeit compensation, a statement on the Kaiping city government's website said. Local officials did not respond to AFP's questions.

- 'Who would help us?' -

Paulinda Poon, an American flight attendant who grew up in Chikan, is among the overseas former residents who return frequently.

In 2016, she travelled to Beijing to deliver a letter to the Foreign Ministry about the "unfair" Chikan situation. Officials there told her it was a local matter.

The average cost of new homes in the nearby provincial capital Guangzhou in 2017 was 20,000 yuan per square metre -- far more than the offered compensation of between 3,200-3,900 yuan ($472-$575) per square metre in Chikan

Poon visited Chikan again recently and was struck by how it resembled a "ghost town" compared to a visit last year.

Coming across a small group of residents on the riverfront, she asked if they had consulted a lawyer, and one man replied: "Who would help us?"

Poon later visited an elderly cousin at a temporary shelter for displaced residents. Inside the intense heat of the metal structure, her cousin broke down and cried.

Her family members had scattered and she hadn't had a visitor in half a year.Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seeking a "new relationship" with the United States

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that Donald Trump had urged him to accelerate negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"I believe a successful renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement will lead to even more jobs and higher wages for hard-working American and Mexican workers -- but only if it can go quickly, because otherwise I must go a much different route," Trump wrote in the letter.

"It would not be my preference, but would be far more profitable for the United States and its taxpayers."

NAFTA talks are due to resume Thursday in Washington between Canada, Mexico and the United States, and Mexico City has said a deal could be struck by the end of August.

Incoming Lopez Obrador officials will observe the negotiations. The talks, which began 11 months ago, have been bogged down by several points of contention, including US demands for tighter auto manufacturing rules.

On Wednesday, Lopez Obrador will meet with Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland in his transition offices.

Trump's letter, which was sent in English and in Spanish, was seen by AFP and read to the press by incoming foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard with American approval.

It was a response to a letter Lopez Obrador sent to Trump via a delegation of senior US officials that visited him in Mexico City on July 13.

In his own missive, the incoming president said Mexico wants ties founded on "respect, friendship and focused on development cooperation," and said that the more Mexico gets developed, the fewer people will have to leave the country in search of work.

He also spoke of a "new relationship" with the US.

- No mention of wall -

"I agree with the four priorities you have identified: trade, migration, development and security," Trump said in his text.

"My team has worked hard over the past 18 months to increase cooperation with Mexico in these areas. I have directed them to redouble those efforts with your incoming team."

US-Mexican relations have been severely soured since Trump won the 2016 presidential election after a campaign laced with anti-Mexican insults, attacks on NAFTA and vows to make Mexico pay for a wall on their border.

But the border wall was not discussed in the letters, or with the senior US officials, said Ebrard after reading the letter from Trump.

"America welcomes legal immigrants from around the world, but we cannot accept illegal immigration," the letter read.

"Like you, I believe that meeting the challenge of illegal immigration involves more than just strong border security."

US tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum, Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy on undocumented immigrants, and President Enrique Pena Nieto's two abrupt cancellations of visits to Washington have added to the tension.

Lopez Obrador, 64, pledged during the campaign to "put (Trump) in his place."

But both men say they had a positive phone call the day after Mexico's July 1 election, and Lopez Obrador has invited Trump to his inauguration.US Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri is among three senior American officials who made a surprise visit to Cuba to investigate mystery health ailments affecting US diplomatic staff and their families

Recent mystery illnesses that have injured 26 US diplomatic personnel and their families in Cuba have prompted a surprise visit by three senior State Department officials to the communist island nation.

The apparent victims of what Washington has called sonic "attacks" have suffered symptoms consistent with mild brain trauma -- including, in some cases, disorientation and hearing loss.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Management William Todd and Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Michael Evanoff traveled to Havana to "visit embassy personnel in light of new health attacks against US diplomats at Embassy Havana," a State Department spokesperson said.

Although the length of the trip was not revealed, CBS News reported that they left Cuba on Tuesday.

"The trip provided an opportunity for our senior officials to gain deeper insight into the unique challenges posed by these attacks and their impact on US operations on the ground," the US official said.

In June, the State Department indicated that two US diplomats experienced the previous month similar health ailments at an American diplomatic residence where they were both present.

The two cases were the first in Havana since August 2017, bringing the total to 26. The ailments first began in late 2016.

Some American officials in both China and Cuba reported hearing an unidentified noise before falling ill, and initial reports suggested they may have been hit by a secret sonic weapon.

But US intelligence and medical experts have been investigating for more than a year and seem no closer to identifying the cause.

After holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect its officials, the US recalled more than half of its staff from the embassy and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

This marked a major diplomatic crisis following the countries' cautious revival of ties in 2015, but Cuba has firmly denied any role in or knowledge of the incident.

On June 10, the Cuban foreign ministry said: "We can confirm that we have no credible hypothesis or scientific explanation that justifies the retaliatory US measures."US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in the hot seat when he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 25, 2018 about President Donald Trump's closed-door summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin

Did Donald Trump make secret promises to Vladimir Putin? What did the American president tell his Russian counterpart at their Helsinki summit?

US senators, distressed by the Republican billionaire's recent behavior, will demand answers from his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, when he provides the most closely watched congressional testimony of his young tenure as the nation's top diplomat.

Lawmakers have been eager for Pompeo to report back about a previous critical summit June 12 in Singapore between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un.

Their demand became all the more urgent after Helsinki, in particular the joint press conference during which Trump was seen by Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike as betraying American interests and being too conciliatory towards Putin.

"The Helsinki press conference was a sad day for our country, and everyone knows it," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an occasional Trump critic, told reporters Tuesday.

Russia will therefore be the primary focus of Pompeo's 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) appearance before the committee.

But Corker made it clear his panel will also grill Pompeo about his recent trip to Pyongyang, Trump's "undermining" of NATO and the alliance's principal of mutual defense, and the president's controversial tariffs which appear to be mushrooming into a trade war.

"I will testify about a lot of things including the relationship between the United States and Russia" and the "incredibly important" Trump-Putin summit, Pompeo said.

The closed-door meeting was panned by US lawmakers and observers, but Pompeo insisted it was "one I think the world will have benefited from when history is written."

More Trump-Putin history may be made in the coming months. The White House has announced that Putin has been invited to Washington for another meeting later this year, even as Pompeo lamented that Congress was unimpressed with Trump's unprecedented determination to push back against Russia's "malign behavior around the world."

Congress has been rattled by Trump's Helsinki performance, particularly when he appeared to accept Putin's denials rather than US intelligence conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

The criticism was so swift that Trump subsequently said he misspoke and that he believed Russia had indeed interfered in the election.

- Americans 'deserve answers' -

Congressional leaders in Trump's Republican Party were quick to stress that the Russian strongman was not welcome in the US Capitol.

The political turmoil has only grown in the past week, with Trump launching bellicose tweets at Iran and doubling down on his tariff plans.

With Moscow stressing that "agreements" had been reached between the two leaders over the situation in Syria, the content of their two-hour conversation with no one else but their interpreters present has been the subject of conjecture.

"I gave up NOTHING," Trump wrote on Twitter.

The US State Department said three "modest proposals" have emerged from the summit: a high-level business leaders' working group; a council of US and Russian political experts, diplomats and military officials; and discussions between the two presidents' national security staffs.

The Democratic opposition has launched withering attacks on Trump, demanding additional transparency and going so far as to haul the president's interpreter before Congress.

"The American people deserve answers about what they agreed to in private," said Senator Robert Menendez, top Democrat on the committee, who is working on a bipartisan bill to strengthen sanctions on Russia.

Corker agreed, stressing he hoped Pompeo was "in the loop" and briefed on the details of the Helsinki tete-a-tete.

"I'd be disappointed to find out that he wasn't," Corker said.US$100 billion milestone to be set in 2018?

China is the largest market for many Vietnamese products and goods. Notably, the neighbouring country is the largest market for Vietnamese fruits and vegetables, accounting for 74% of its total fruit and vegetable export turnover, reaching US$1.47 billion, up 17.8% over the same period last year. With a high market volume and increased demand, China is importing most of the fruits from its neighbor, such as lychees, longan, watermelon, dragon fruits and mango.

In the opposite direction, Vietnam is importing large quantities of Chinese goods. At a recent conference in Lao Cai province on boosting the trade of agricultural products, fruits and seafood with China, Le Ngoc Hung, Vice Chairman of Lao Cai People's Committee, said that Vietnam-China bilateral trade turnover has a strong average growth rate of more than 20% per year in recent years. Particularly for Lao Cai, in the first six months this year, the total trade turnover through the border gates in the province reached US$1.55 billion, up 29% over the same period in 2017.

For the first half of 2018, two-way trade turnover reached US$47.7 billion, of which, export turnover from Vietnam to China reached US$16.63 billion, up 28%, while imports from China hit US$31.08 billion, up 15.6%.

Huang Shan from Chinas Yunnan province's Department of Commerce affirmed that Vietnam has maintained its position as the second largest trading partner of the Chinese province. In the first five months of 2018, two-way trade between Vietnam and Yunnan reached US$1.84 billion, an increase of 75.8% over the same period last year.

In that period, Yunnan imported US$920 million worth of goods from Vietnam and exported the same value of US$920 million to the country. An important factor promoting the commercial relationship between Yunnan and Vietnam is that the two countries signed a border trade agreement, while trade promotion organisations and businesses of both sides have consistently strengthened exchange and trade connection activities.

With the promising growth rate in recent years, it is predicted that in 2018, Vietnam-China bilateral trade will reach US$100 billion and China will be the first trading partner of Vietnam to set this record benchmark.

Increasing the efficiency of trading activities

Trucks carry dragon fruit exported to China via Lao Cai International Border Gate. (Photo: NDO)

However, trading activities, especially border trade between Vietnam and China, still face difficulties. Do Truong Giang, Head of Lao Cai provincial Department of Industry and Trade said that the mechanism and policies related to import-export management and border trade between Vietnam and China have some differences, while the infrastructure for import and export activities has not met the growing demand. Importers and exporters in the border provinces are mainly small and medium ones with limited financial capability and ability to engage in international trade. Meanwhile, the Chinese market increasingly demands higher standards, quality, quarantine, quotas and taxes for some imported items, making it difficult for Vietnamese enterprises.

Discussing his provinces experiences in exporting agricultural products, Tran Quang Tan, Head of Bac Giang provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said that Vietnamese agricultural products are highly seasonal, but most Chinese traders do not sign official contracts with local suppliers, leading to low stability and exposing them to risks. The traffic infrastructure around the border gates has improved, but the goods checkpoints of both countries have not really met the requirements for a large volume of goods, leading to congestion at some gates when a high volume passes in a short time.

A representative from Nhan Hong Ngoc Viet Co., Ltd, specialising in fruit exports, suggested that to facilitate import-export activities, functional agencies (customs, border guard, and quarantine units) should connect closely to guide enterprises and handle administrative procedures quickly, ensuring the legal status and avoiding unnecessary risks.

In addition, businesses need to improve their proactiveness in trade, as well as updating market information and new regulations on product quality and consumer tastes for each locality in China. It is also necessary to improve product competitiveness, focusing on price, quality and type, while deploying broader trade promotion activities in China. They should also pay particular attention to copyright and trademarks, especially with the traditional famous products. On the other hand, there should be measures to restrict the differential prices in unofficial trading by Chinese traders.

Minister of Industry and Trade, Tran Tuan Anh, emphasised that in the context of fierce competition, the important solution to conquering the Chinese market is to constantly improve the quality of products, while developing appropriate plans to surmount this market.

The ministry will continue coordinating with related ministries and agencies to circulate market information among associations and import-export enterprises regarding the content of commitments in the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA), the WTO and other bilateral trade agreements. The ministry will also direct its functional units to provide timely information on markets, commodities and traders to help Vietnamese enterprises actively promote exports to their neighbouring market.Rabbit, Winnie The Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger pose for photos as Winnie The Pooh receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 11, 2006

"Sometimes the smallest things take the most room in your heart," a wise little bear once remarked -- and Jim Cummings has put his heart and soul into playing Winnie the Pooh for three decades.

The 65-year-old American voice actor has been playing the Disney character based on the stories of English novelist A.A. Milne since "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" in 1988.

After more than a dozen movies and various other television and video game appearances, Cummings plays Pooh and his bouncy feline friend Tigger in their first live-action outing, the upcoming "Christopher Robin."

"These guys are extremely special. Everybody says, 'Who's your favorite? Who's your all-time favorite?' First of all, I don't have 'a' favorite but, if I had two, it would be Pooh and Tigger," Cummings said.

"They're kind of in their own class, their own category. They're on their own shelf and everybody else isn't."

Disney's history with A.A. Milne's characters dates back to 1966 when the studio released the animated short "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree," featuring the character Christopher Robin, based on the author's son.

In the new live action adventure, the young boy who embarked on countless adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood with his band of spirited and lovable stuffed animals, has grown up and lost his way.

- 'Stealth celebrity' -

Actor Jim Cummings arrives at the premiere of Walt Disney Studios' "The Lion King 3D" on August 27, 2011 in Los Angeles

It is up to his childhood friends to venture into the world of humans and help Christopher Robin remember the loving and playful boy who is still inside.

Starring Ewan McGregor ("Fargo") and Hayley Atwell ("Agent Carter") as Christopher Robin and his wife Evelyn, Marc Forster's version of the fuzzy, ursine joy bundle hits US theaters on Friday of next week.

Born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, Cummings spent Saturday mornings as a child riveted to the television, mimicking his favorite cartoon characters and dreaming that one day he would voice them himself.

The recipient of two Daytime Emmy nominations for his television work, his many movie credits include "Shrek," "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" -- and most of the Disney animated movies you can think of.

Cummings has appeared in almost 400 roles -- from family favorites like Sonic the Hedgehog, Captain Caveman and the Tasmanian Devil to Marvel characters Iron Man, Ghost and Thanos -- but he enjoys relative anonymity.

"When I was a kid I wanted to be facially famous. I joke around and say, 'Well anybody could win an Oscar or an Emmy if they use their face,' Cummings laughs.

"But I don't mind it. My friend calls me a stealth celebrity. So, okay -- I'll take it."

- 'Timeless quality' -

Disney's history with A.A. Milne's characters dates back to 1966 when the studio released the animated short "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree," featuring the character Christopher Robin, based on the author's son

Asked how he accounts for his longevity, Cummings jokes that his secret is "blackmail -- I just have the goods on everyone." In reality he speaks of every role with passion.

"I'm as happy as I could be. The first job I got was Lionel the Lion in Dumbo's circus in 1985. And then the first movie I did was 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' another famous Disney movie," Cummings said.

"I don't have my shirt anymore but I've got the picture of me with my Mouseketeers shirt on. And I had my Zorro hat and I still have my Davy Crockett hat from the 1950s."

A.A. Milne's characters, who first appeared in print in 1926, owe their own staying power to the fact that they've never relied on being cutting-edge, says Cummings.

"They're not really attached to a fad. It's not like they're Transformers," he told AFP.

"If robots who turn into a lunchbox go out of style, Pooh and the gang will still be there."A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removes an Islamic State group flag in the Syrian town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa city, on April 30, 2017

A string of suicide attacks in Syria by the Islamic State group has killed at least 40 people, mostly pro-regime fighters, in one of the jihadists' deadliest operations in months, a war monitor said Wednesday.

"Three bombers with explosive belts targeted Sweida city alone, while the other blasts hit villages to the north and east," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory, said the group then followed up with further attacks, seizing three of the seven villages it had targeted.

He said 26 pro-government fighters had been killed and more than 30 people wounded in the attack on populated areas close to Sweida city.

Syria's official news agency SANA confirmed the attack had killed and wounded people in the provincial capital.

State television also reported casualties in villages to the north and east, adding that the army was "targeting positions of the Daesh (IS) terrorist group" Sweida province's eastern countryside".

Abdel Rahman said unidentified warplanes were also targeting IS fighters in the area.

Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has in recent weeks ousted rebels from a majority of the country's south, part of which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The regime controls almost all of Sweida province but IS retains a presence in desert areas of its north and east.

It is now closing in on a patch of territory in nearby Daraa province held by jihadist group Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, which has pledged allegiance to IS.

The group, which has around 1,000 fighters in the region, has been the target of an intense campaign of bombing by Russian and Syrian jets in recent days.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group made up mostly of ex-members of the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, also has a few hundred men in the south.

A Syrian military source accused Israel on Tuesday of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in southern Syria.

Israel's army earlier said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation in the sensitive border zone.

The Observatory later said air operations had dramatically decreased following the incident.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS and other opposition factions.

Clashes raged Tuesday between regime troops and IS jihadists on the northern edges of the border town of Saida, the Observatory said.European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker speaks during a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, on July 3, 2018

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker dampened expectations ahead of talks Wednesday with US President Donald Trump that they would resolve a bitter trade dispute between the two giant economies.

"I am not very optimistic. I know Mr Trump pretty well. I have met him frequently and know how to deal with him and know how he deals with others. We will negotiate as equals," Juncker told German public broadcaster ZDF.

Juncker said that the EU is "not in the dock -- we don't need to defend ourselves.

"We are here to explain ourselves and explore ways to avoid a trade war," he said.

Juncker renewed his pledge of retaliatory measures should Trump make good on his threat to slap new tariffs on EU car imports.

"We are ready to do that," he said.

"We are in a position to respond appropriately right away."

Brussels already retaliated against steel and aluminium tariffs levelled last month, imposing punitive duties on over $3 billion (2.5 billion euros) of US goods, including blue jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as well as orange juice, rice and corn.

Concerned about growing strain in transatlantic ties, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Twitter that the United States was "not an enemy but rather our most important partner outside the EU".

"America is bigger than the White House. Trump won't change that -- he can tweet as much as he likes."This file picture taken on March 21, 2017, shows the peace monument in the Malian capital Bamako

Dubai's global ports operator DP World said on Wednesday it has signed a deal to build a logistics hub outside Bamako, the capital of Mali.

The logistics hub will be located on the main road between Senegal's capital Dakar and Bamako, in southern Mali, and close to the rail link between the two West African cities.

It will have a capacity to handle some four million tonnes of general cargo annually, DP World said in a statement.

The concession agreement was signed in Dubai on Monday by Mali's transport minister Moullaye Ahmed Boubacar.

The United Arab Emirates firm will invest $50 million (43 million euros) in the first phase of the project, with construction due to start next year and take 18 months to complete.

The deal is automatically renewable for another 20 years.

The hub will provide the logistics platform to promote the import and export of goods through Dakar's port, also run by DP World.

The Dubai-based company operates around 78 terminals in 40 countries worldwide and last year it handled some 70 million containers.

Investors from the oil-rich Gulf states in 2014 pledged some $19 billion to the West African Economic and Monetary Union, of which $16 billion was committed by UAE firms.

Mali is a member of the eight-country bloc which also comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

UAE and other Gulf countries made contributions to the French campaign against jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda who overran northern Mali in 2012.

France intervened in 2013 to drive the jihadists back but swathes of central and northern Mali remain wracked by violence, which has spilled across its borders.While support for gay rights has been growing in Singapore, sex between men remains technically illegal under a law dating back to British colonial rule

A Singapore gay activist said Wednesday she was barred from giving a TEDx talk at a prestigious school, sparking fresh criticism of conservative attitudes towards homosexuality in the city-state.

Rachel Yeo, the research and advocacy director of the Inter-University LGBT Network, told AFP she had been invited to speak at the TEDx event organised by St Joseph's Institution last week.

TEDx events are independently organised under licence from TED Talks, which showcases lectures by influential figures from around the world that are widely streamed online.

TED speakers have included former US president Bill Clinton and late British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.

But a day before the event at the independent Catholic school, the 23-year-old student said she was contacted by organisers informing her she could no longer participate due to education ministry regulations. The ministry has denied it had any involvement in the decision.

While Singapore is vibrant and ultra-modern in many ways, critics say that attitudes towards homosexuality remain conservative.

"This incident reminds us that there remains much work to be done to foster a truly inclusive society for all Singaporeans, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity," said a statement from the Inter-University LGBT Network.

The organisation brings together groups representing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

The school said in a statement that speakers had been selected by students and the teacher in charge did not check before the list was finalised. Yeo was dropped after reviewing the relevance of speakers to the event, it said.

The education ministry said in a statement that it was "neither involved in nor informed about (the school's) deliberations on the... programme and selection of speakers".

Support for gay rights has been growing in Singapore, although activists say challenges remain. Sex between men remains technically illegal under a law dating back to British colonial rule, although the statute is not actively enforced.

Foreigners have been banned from participating in the city-state's annual Pink Dot gay rights rally. The 10th edition of the event attracted huge crowds at the weekend.A South Korean start-up firm is under investigation in Seoul over claims it has found a 'treasure ship'

South Korean financial regulators said Wednesday they have launched an investigation into a Seoul company which claims to have found a long-lost Russian "treasure ship" off the east coast.

Shinil Group announced last week it had found an imperial Russian naval cruiser the Dmitri Donskoi, which sank over a century ago in the Sea of Japan (East Sea), saying it was believed to contain gold bullion and coins worth $130 billion.

But the start-up firm since then has faced questions about whether the announcement was aimed at artificially boosting its share price, or luring investors into buying a virtual currency which it had recently started to issue.

The stock price of Jeil Steel, in which Shinil Group's founder has acquired a large share, skyrocketed by the daily limit of 30 percent on Tuesday last week -- only to dive nearly 60 percent the following week.

"We have launched a probe into Shinil Group," Financial Supervisory Service governor Yoon Suk-heun told lawmakers on Wednesday.

"There is an investigation over share price manipulation and virtual currency," he said without elaborating.

Shinil reportedly sold virtual coins to investors, promising huge returns after salvaging the ship, which it said was at a depth of more than 1,400 feet (426 meters).

Critics noted that in 2003 another firm sparked an investor bubble by announcing the discovery of the Dmitri Donskoi, which was scuttled by her crew in a 1905 naval battle against Japan.

Others pointed out that Russia would have had no reason to load a vast treasure trove on a ship it was sending into battle, especially since it had a land route to its destination Vladivostok.

Shinil said it would hold a press conference on Thursday to reveal its plans for salvaging the ship and "clear many misunderstandings that recently emerged" about the company.An activist holds a computer keyboard and makeshift handcuffs on July 24, 2018, during a freedom of expression protest in downtown Beirut

Lebanon's security forces are increasingly bringing activists in for questioning over their social media posts, sparking widespread anger in recent days that freedom of expression is being squeezed.

Since last week, the government's cyber crimes bureau has called in at least six activists because of comments they made on social media.

One was interrogated over a post blaming President Michel Aoun for the country's widespread corruption, sluggish economy, and poor wages. Others were questioned for mocking a "miracle" by a saint revered in Lebanon.

Dozens of people on Tuesday evening gathered in downtown Beirut to protest the "unprecedented degradation in freedom of expression".

Many held up signs printed with the words "#Against oppression", while one posed with a keyboard decorated with large paper-made handcuffs.

Diala Haidar, a Lebanon campaigner at Amnesty International, said the rights group has "noticed censorship increasingly interfering in spaces of expression in Lebanon".

"More than one security or military authority have started monitoring and calling in opinion holders for questioning."

Multi-confessional Lebanon is seen to be a relatively open-minded country compared to the rest of the Middle East region.

The tiny Mediterranean state's constitution protects freedom of opinion, written and oral, and of the press.

Its penal code, however, punishes libel and defamation of officials. Security apparatuses are "arbitrarily" drawing from those articles when bringing in Lebanese over their social media posts, according to Haidar.

The questioned individuals end up accused, for example, of insulting the president, insulting religion or "inciting sectarian strife", she said.

- 'Troubling pattern' -

Bassam Khawaja, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, agreed there was a worrying trend.

"For the past two years we've seen a troubling pattern of escalating retaliation against criticism of authorities in Lebanon," he said.

Activists gather in Beirut on July 24, 2018, to protest against a recent wave of interrogations by Lebanese security forces over people's social media posts

"People are being arrested and interrogated for peaceful Facebook posts in a country where the laws still technically provide up to three years in prison for defamation, with serious implications for freedom of expression," he said.

In a Facebook post on Friday directed at the country's president, 25-year-old Elie El-Khoury listed a series of complaints.

"The people, your excellency, pay: the highest telephone and internet bills in the world and get the worst service," he wrote.

"Unfortunately, your excellency, you are not up to our expectations because you turned the country into a family home," he said, referring to members of the Aoun family who are in government, like his son-in-law Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

Following Khoury's post, the cyber crimes bureau called him in for questioning. When his lawyer intervened, they rescinded their request without giving any explanation.

"I wrote the post to express my pain and how fed up all young men and women are," he told AFP.

"There aren't any jobs or any decent salaries."

"I'm 25 and if I want to buy a flat, I can't," said the graduate in business administration, who is preparing for a PhD.

"I didn't insult anyone in my post," he said.

- 'Blackmailing' -

In recent years, Lebanon has struggled to stave off an economic meltdown while tackling a series of political crises.

Aoun was elected president in 2016 after a two-year political vacuum.

Protesters in Beirut rally against security forces bringing in activists over their social media posts, on July 24, 2018

In May, the country held its first parliamentary elections in nine years -- but Prime Minister Saad Hariri has still been unable to form a new government.

In less than two years, Beirut's Skeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom has recorded at least 35 violations against journalists, intellectuals and activists.

This "intimidation does not come out of nowhere. It has been an increasing pattern over the past two years," Skeyes communication officer Jad Shahrour said.

On Friday, as he left his home near Beirut, journalist and activist Mohammad Awad was dragged in by the General Security Agency for questioning.

"They didn't tell me if I was being called in over a comment or a specific article I had written," he said.

Awad was released after he signed a "promise not to oppose the three presidents" -- the president, premier and parliament speaker -- "and the heads of religious sects" in Lebanon, he said.

Activists have been made to sign pledges they will abstain from social media for a given period or stop criticising certain people in exchange for being released.

Amnesty International's Haidar said these steps were illegal and amounted to "blackmailing".

Recent disciplinary measures were a "dangerous sign that could also lead to creating an atmosphere of fear and self-censorship," she said.

"Local laws should protect people and their right to express themselves -- not protect the authorities and their men from accountability, criticism or even mockery," said Haidar.New Zealand has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the developed world

New Zealand's parliament passed legislation Wednesday granting paid leave to domestic violence victims, with supporters calling it a groundbreaking measure to help those trying to escape abusive relationships.

Green Party lawmaker Jan Logie said granting victims 10 days of extra leave a year would allow them to "stop the violence and get help without worrying about losing their jobs".

"This is a win for victims, a win for employers, and a win for society," Logie said, describing the move as a "world first" after parliament approved the bill by 63 votes to 57.

It is the first western country to introduce nationwide paid domestic violence leave. The Philippines in 2004 granted 10 days of paid leave to those suffering domestic violence.

Australia's Fair Work Commission in March voted to allow five days of unpaid leave for domestic abuse victims, but a labour union push to match the New Zealand proposal was rejected.

Official data shows New Zealand has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the developed world, with family homicide rates more than twice those of Australia, Canada and Britain on a per capita basis.

Logie, part of a progressive coalition government elected last year, said intervention aimed at helping domestic violence victims often came too late.

"We wait until things get really bad or someone gets killed and then we wring our hands," she said.

Logie said the leave entitlement would give those seeking to escape violent relationships time to perform practical tasks such as attending court dates, moving house and settling children in new schools.

The conservative opposition National Party opposed the legislation, saying it was well intentioned but could affect victims' chances of getting a job.

"Employers will start to filter and look at whether or not they want to hire someone that may present a risk around domestic violence because ultimately it could impact on their business," National's justice spokesman Mark Mitchell told Newshub.

New Zealand has a track record of being progressive on women's issues -- in 1893 it became the first country to give women the right to vote.Police patrol as Muslims leave the Id Kah Mosque in the old town of Kashgar in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region

Arrests skyrocketed by more than 730 percent last year in China's far-western Xinjiang as the government ramped up a security crackdown in the traditionally Muslim region, activists said Wednesday.

The ruling Communist Party has justified increasingly tight policing of Xinjiang by saying it faces a threat from Islamic extremism and separatism, but many Muslims in the region accuse Beijing of religious and cultural repression.

Authorities in Xinjiang arrested nearly 228,000 people on criminal charges in 2017, according to data compiled from official government sources by rights group China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD).

That's around 21 percent of all arrests in China last year, the group said, even though the sparsely populated region has only around 1.5 percent of China's nearly 1.4 billion population.

The dramatic increase in arrests followed the introduction of draconian new restrictions on religious practices in Xinjiang, where about half the population of around 22 million are ethnic minorities.

"Though the government does not provide the data disaggregated by ethnicity, criminal punishment would disproportionately target the Uighur Muslim group based on their percentage of the population," CHRD wrote.

The report drew on public data released by Chinese prosecutor's offices at the national and local levels.

Indictments in Xinjiang also increased at a rate "far out of proportion" to its population, amounting to a 422 percent increase year-on-year in 2017, it said.

The increases follow significant drops in both statistics in 2016, when arrests fell by 20 percent and indictments by 15 percent, respectively.

China's legal system has a conviction rate of over 99.9 percent, virtually guaranteeing any indictment will end in a conviction.

- Three forces -

China says its policies in Xinjiang are aimed at rooting out the "three forces" of separatism, religious extremism and terrorism.

Simmering resentment exploded in deadly rioting by Uighurs in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009, and Uighurs have since been tied to mass stabbings and bombings that have left dozens dead across the country.

Civil unrest and clashes with government forces have killed hundreds more.

Last year marked a dramatic turning point in Beijing's approach to the strategic region as the government in 2017 pushed its plans to foster greater trade with Central Asia and Europe, a programme that puts a premium on security.

In March, local authorities introduced stringent new restrictions on religious practices, forbidding beards and the wearing of veils and the distribution of "extremist" religious content including everything from songs with Arabic lyrics to unofficial editions of the Koran.

Members of the Uighur diaspora say relatives have been arrested for seemingly innocuous acts such as sending Ramadan greetings to friends or downloading popular music.

Authorities are also believed to have detained hundreds of thousands of Muslims in a secretive network of extra-judicial political re-education centres, where inmates are given language and ideological training and forced to participate in military-style drills.

The local government pumped more than 58 billion yuan ($9 billion) into security spending in 2017, nearly double the year before, according to Adrian Zenz, a China security expert at Germany's European School of Culture and Theology.

It also flooded the region with tens of thousands of security personnel, Zenz's research has shown.Cathay's website now lists Taiwan as part of China

Beijing hailed "positive steps" as major US airlines and Hong Kong's flag carrier moved to comply Wednesday with its demand to list Taiwan as part of China, sparking anger on the island.

Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy but Beijing considers it part of its own territory, to be reunified by force if necessary, and is pushing to isolate the island on the international stage.

China's Civil Aviation Administration sent notices to dozens of airlines around the world in April asking them to adhere to Beijing's standards when referring to Taiwan, setting a Wednesday deadline to make the changes to corporate websites.

"To the foreign airlines which have undertaken the reforms, we give our approval," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing, calling the changes "positive steps."

He reiterated China's position that foreign enterprises must "respect our sovereign and territorial integrity, and our people's feelings."

But Taiwan condemned what it called China's "insolent actions" in wielding its political and economic clout in the matter.

"Taiwan's existence in the international community is an objective fact. It will not disappear because of suppression by Chinese authorities," Taiwan's foreign ministry said.

US airlines in particular have come under the microscope on the issue after the White House in May scorned China's semantic demands as "Orwellian nonsense."

In an emailed statement to AFP, American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said: "Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request."

"Air travel is a global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate," Gilson said.

American and Delta Air Lines still mentioned "Taiwan" as an entity on parts of their websites Wednesday, but the name had been wiped from some of their searches.

A simple arrival or departure airport search on American Airlines' site listed the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung with no reference to Taiwan. Its destination listings usually follow the template of city name, then country name.

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and subsidiary Cathay Dragon had previously listed Taiwan as its own entity, but as of Wednesday morning, it was called "Taiwan, China" on both its English and Chinese language websites.

Cathay said in an emailed statement that because it is registered in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong, "we must comply with the regulations and requirements" of China's authorities.

- 'Bullying' -

Bloomberg News reported earlier Wednesday that American, United, Delta and Hawaiian Airlines all had plans to change their websites over the coming days, citing a source familiar with talks on the matter.

Some searches on Delta's website showed no country references for destinations in Taiwan, mainland China or semi-autonomous Hong Kong Wednesday, listing them simply by their city names.

A growing number of international airlines, including Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, Emirates and KLM had already changed their websites from Taiwan to "Taiwan, China", while others skirt the issue by merely listing cities.

A customer-service representative from Hawaiian Airlines told AFP Wednesday that although they do not serve Taiwan destinations, the island is listed in its systems as "Chinese Taipei."

Beijing has been raising the military and diplomatic pressure on Taipei as relations have deteriorated under the island's president, Tsai Ing-wen, whose government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is a part of China.

It has also used its political and economic clout to woo away several of the few remaining countries that still recognise Taiwan's government.

Taiwan's cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka called China's behaviour "unjust" and asked for support from the international community.

"We keep on urging the international community not to become an accomplice of China bullying Taiwan," Kolas told reporters Wednesday.

burs-rld/dma/amzLameness prevention: it's all in the head

An understanding of how cows think, how they see the world and how they move is essential for lameness prevention.The company stated that shipments from Hanoi will now reach major business centres within the Asia region in just one day and two days for Europe and North America destinations.

Furthermore, shipments to Hanoi from around the world will arrive one day faster.

The new route will see four flights a week from Tuesday to Friday using a Boeing 757, FedEx stated.

According to Hardy Diec, managing director of FedEx Indochina, the new route will significantly improve shipping times and enable next-day delivery between Hanoi and the Asia region for the first time.

The new route and improved services will support the development of businesses in Vietnam by providing them with better and faster connections to global markets.

A study conducted by FedEx shows that 58% of small and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises are exporting to the Asia-Pacific region and 80% to countries beyond the region.

The US, China, India and a number of European countries are Vietnams key export markets.Toronto Police pictured on July 23, 2018 investigate the scene of a shooting the night before

The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a weekend shooting that killed two people in Canada's Toronto.

The group's propaganda agency Amaq said the attacker was "one of the soldiers of the Islamic State".

"He carried out the attack in response to calls to target nationals of countries of the coalition" fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014, it said.

Faisal Hussain, 29, killed a 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl in the shooting rampage on a Toronto street on Sunday evening, Canadian police said.

He was found dead near the scene of the shooting after an exchange of gunfire with police.

The attack in Toronto's bustling Greektown neighbourhood at around 10:00 pm Sunday also wounded 13 people aged 10 to 59, officials said.

Hussain's family, in a statement to CBC News, denounced his "horrific actions" and said he was suffering from mental problems.

The said he had battled "severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life".

They said medications and therapy had been unable to treat him.

Video footage posted by Canadian media showed Hussain, clad all in black, walking on a sidewalk and suddenly pulling out a handgun and shooting into a restaurant.

Witnesses said the shooting rampage lasted just a few minutes and sparked panic in the district, popular for its bars and restaurants.

Andrew Mantzios told The Globe and Mail newspaper he had seen the shooting as he sat with friends drinking coffee.

He said "a lady tried to run and she fell down", after which the shooter "turned around and shot her point blank, two or three times".

Toronto Mayor John Tory called the shooting "evidence of a gun problem" in the city.

IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but have since been ousted from most of that territory.

The jihadist group has claimed a string of deadly attacks in the West in recent years.

Canadian citizens have also been intercepted trying to reach Syria to join IS.Despite its reputation for law and order, hazing is still known to take place in Singapore

Five Singapore emergency services officers were charged Wednesday in relation to the death of a national serviceman reportedly linked to hazing rites.

The victim, 22-year-old Kok Yuen Chin, died in May after he was allegedly pushed into a 12-metre (39.6-foot) deep pump well at a fire station, court documents said.

Local media said Kok and his squad mates were marking the impending end of their mandatory two-year national service at the Singapore Civil Defence Force, and one of the rites involved was getting into the well.

Kok did not resurface after he was pushed in and his body was eventually pulled out after the water was drained, the media reports said.

Able-bodied male Singaporeans and permanent residents are required to undergo two years of national service upon turning 18.

They can either serve in the military, the police or the civil defence force, the city-state's main agency in charge of providing emergency services.

Civil defence force officer Muhammad Nur Fatwa bin Mahmood, was charged with committing a rash act by pushing Kok into the well, "causing him to suffer death by drowning," a charge sheet showed.

He was also charged with abetting the obstruction of justice by asking a fellow officer to delete a mobile phone video recording of the victim being pushed into the well.

Police said the video was relevant to their investigation.

Officer Adighazali bin Suhaimi was charged with obstructing justice by deleting the video of the pushing on his phone, while the rest were charged for various roles that led to the tragedy.

Despite strict laws, initiation and hazing rites in various degrees are known to happen in Singapore.

They are usually held to mark milestones, like entering university or completing national service.

Causing death by a rash act is punishable with a maximum jail term of five years and a fine or both.A Palestinian man carries sack of flour inside the United Nations' offices after receiving food supplies at the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on February 11, 2018

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced Wednesday it was cutting more than 250 jobs in the Palestinian territories after the United States held back hundreds of millions in aid.

In total, 154 employees in the occupied West Bank and 113 in the Gaza Strip will be let go, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement.

More than 500 other full-time staff will be offered part-time contracts, the statement added.

The job cuts were the first since the US announced it would only provide the agency with $60 million this year, down from $360 the previous year.

Gunness's statement said the cut represented an "existential threat" to UNRWA, which had been trying to raise the money from other donors.

The agency, which provides services to more than three million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, was seeking to "protect core services, including education, health and relief", he said.

Protests against the cuts were being held in Gaza on Wednesday.

In January, US President Donald Trump linked the cutting of Palestinian aid to the decision by president Mahmud Abbas to refuse to talk with his administration.

The Palestinian leadership froze ties with the White House after it recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and accuses Trump's administration of blatant bias in favour of Israel.Several villages were submerged with hundreds of people feared missing

The Laotian prime minister said Wednesday 131 people are still missing two days after a dam collapse swamped several villages in the country's south, killing at least 26 people.

In a rare televised press conference by the leader of the secretive communist country, Thongloun Sisoulith gave the most specific figure so far for the number unaccounted for.

Earlier official reports spoke of hundreds missing in Attapeu province.

"One hundred and thirty one people have been reported missing," he said, adding all of them were Lao nationals.

Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge, which inundated several villages across a vast area with several meters of flood water.

Two South Korean contractors said they had reported damage a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way Monday and unleashed a wall of water.

Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort told AFP that by late afternoon Wednesday 26 bodies had been recovered.

"Seventeen others are injured and in hospital," he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the poor and landlocked Southeast Asian country.

Information trickled slowly out of Laos as the publicity-shy country tried to get to grips with the disaster.

This screen grab taken on handout video footage from ABC Laos on July 24, 2018 shows an aerial view of the flooded plains

The Vientiane Times reported that 3,000 were in need of rescue as of Wednesday afternoon, taking shelter in trees and on rooftops.

Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the rescue effort.

Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to leave their homes only hours before disaster struck.

"It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves," Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, told AFP from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.

"All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don't know about their fate yet."

Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings.

- The damming of Laos -

Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the "Battery of Asia" allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers.

But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighbouring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled country.

An elderly woman carries a child while other residents displaced by the flood seek shelter in Paksong town in Champasak province

Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say.

Once complete, around 90 percent of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand.

The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away.

South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in's spokesman said Wednesday in Seoul.

"Our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam," Moon was quoted as saying.

- Questions over warning -

Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2 billion project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9:00 pm on Sunday.

Residents displaced by massive flood waters from the collapsed dam seek shelter in Paksong town in Champasak province

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

Repair work was hampered by rain which had damaged roads, it said. Early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam -- one of the two main dams in the project -- to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.

The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.

Dam operator Korea Western Power Co. said one of the auxiliary dams -- "Saddle D" -- broke under heavy rain.

But according to a timeline the firm provided in a report to a South Korean lawmaker and obtained by AFP, it said "11 centimetres of subsidence was found at the centre of the dam" as early as Friday.

Emergency repair equipment could not be used as the subsidence worsened.

"It remains unclear what caused the dam to subside in some places and develop cracks," a Korea Western Power spokesman told AFP.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019.

burs-apj/smProtesters, with slogans written on pizza delivery boxes, demonstrated July 24, 2018 for the release of Pablo Villavicencio, an Ecuadoran immigrant detained two months ago as he delivered pizza to a US military base; a judge later ordered his release

An Ecuadoran father of two has been reunited with his US family, nearly two months after he was arrested and earmarked for deportation while delivering pizza to a New York military base.

A federal judge ordered his immediate release late Tuesday and for him to stay in the United States to exhaust an application for permanent residency, which he had already begun.

Pablo Villavicencio, 35, an undocumented migrant, was detained on June 1 at the Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn, after a military policeman was not satisfied with his New York identity card and a background check confirmed that he was not a legal resident.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement were called and moved to deport him. He remained in custody until Tuesday when activists said he was back home with his family.

"Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order or removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," Judge Paul Crotty wrote in the order.

"He now has two children, both of whom are United States citizens. He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family," he added.

The case sparked outrage among pro-immigration groups and Democrats, widening the gulf between the city and the federal government's determination to crack down on illegal immigration.

"The Villavicencio family has finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare," said Adriene Holder of The Legal Aid Society.

"We will continue to fight alongside them to protect their right to remain in the community they call home," she added.

Villavicencio married his wife in 2013. Their daughters are age two and four.

Villavicencio entered the United States in 2008 and in 2010 ignored an order to leave voluntarily.

At a federal court hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Crotty had questioned the rationale for deportation, given Villavicencio's pending application for permanent residency.

"Is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing it because we want to?" Crotty asked. He later issued a written ruling, ordering the father's release from detention in New Jersey.

The Trump administration has sought to get tough on undocumented migrants, moving to deport even those without criminal records and with deep family ties to the United States.Orthodox Jewish men observe the gap left in the Western Wall on July 25, 2018, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem

A huge stone that fell from Jerusalem's Western Wall, barely missing a worshipper, was removed Wednesday as experts took the incident as a sign from above to examine the ancient structure's stability.

Two millennia after thousands of labourers had set it in place, the fallen stone was hoisted up by an unassuming crane operator named Yossi.

Roughly a metre high and wide and weighing approximately 400 kilogrammes (880 pounds), the stone fell onto a prayer platform on Monday and just missed a woman.

On Wednesday, the crane gently laid the stone down on two planks of wood at a nearby zoned-off clearing. Three smaller rocks that had broken off from the stone when it dislodged were also moved.

Neither professionals from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) nor rabbis from the Western Wall administration could remember such an occurrence.

It took place at a less-visited part of the wall, where men and women are permitted to pray together contrary to Orthodox Jewish practice at the holy site's nearby main plaza.

Believers were offering interpretations of what they considered to be a divine sign, with theories ranging from discontent over recent parliamentary legislation to hints of imminent redemption.

"Nobody can comprehend divine reasoning, but we are commanded to be roused," ultra-Orthodox Jewish activist Shimshon Elboim said at the site.

The wall, located in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, is the holiest place at which Jews are allowed to pray.

A member of the Israeli security forces and an Orthodox Jewish man examine a stone that fell from the Western Wall before its removal on July 25, 2018

They revere it as the remains of a supporting wall of their biblical second temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

There are millions of visits per year.

Immediately above it is the flashpoint shrine known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest in Judaism, revered as the spot where the two biblical Jewish temples once stood.

To Muslims it is the Haram al-Sharif compound, the third-holiest in Islam after Mecca and Medina, and home to the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

- 'Wake-up call' -

To Amit Reem, the Jerusalem district archaeologist for the IAA, the rare incident was "a wake-up call" to inspect the many antiquities and archaeological sites in Jerusalem's Old City.

To evaluate the wall's condition, the IAA was set to build scaffolding across it, with teams of professionals using radar, ultra-sound and lasers to examine "each and every stone", Reem said.

Experts would then be able to understand why the stone -- actually a portion of one of the wall's massive stone blocks -- broke off and offer solutions to prevent future occurences.

"We think that the reason is a natural reason -- perhaps water that infiltrated the stone, maybe roots of plants that grew into the stone," the archaeologist said.

The fact that such occurences are so rare was testimony to Herod's "genius construction method" according to Reem.

The Roman-era ruler had the walls constructed to expand the surface of the mount on which he built the lavish Jewish second temple, he said.

He used limestone quarried from what is currently northern Jerusalem, with masons meticulously hewing each block "with millimetric precision" to fit in snug rows, before being rolled to the construction site.

The stone blocks, weighing up to hundreds of tonnes each and up to four metres in depth, were laid without bonding materials.

Israeli Antiquities Authority workers remove a stone that fell from the Western Wall two days earlier in the Old City of Jerusalem, on July 25, 2018

Experts are unsure how they were lifted into place, though perhaps by cranes or dirt ramps.

Each row of blocks was set back slightly from the preceding one, creating a subtle pyramid structure barely visible from the front, but which afforded stability.

Yossi Algrabli, owner of a crane company who came with his most trusted employee to lift the stone, lauded Herod's workmanship.

"You see the holiness here," he said while holding the remote control of the massive crane.

"Whenever I come here, my heart melts."US President Donald Trump and his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen are heard on an audio tape discussing whether to buy the rights to a Playboy model's story that she had an affair in 2006 with the New York billionaire

President Donald Trump lashed out at his longtime personal lawyer Wednesday after CNN aired a tape in which the pair discussed how to hush up allegations that he had an affair with a Playboy model.

"What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?" Trump tweeted.

"Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!"

On the tape released Tuesday by CNN, Trump can be heard discussing with New York fixer Michael Cohen how to buy the rights to the story of a Playboy model, who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

Cohen, who no longer works for the US president, is under federal investigation in New York for his business dealings and reportedly whether hush payments violated campaign finance laws.

The release of the tape, which was first reported by The New York Times last week, has fanned speculation about how much damage Cohen can inflict on the president.

It comes after an interview released earlier this month saw Cohen apparently signal potential willingness to cooperate with prosecutors against his former boss.

The tape involves Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had a months-long fling with Trump after they met in 2006. That was shortly after now First Lady Melania gave birth to their son, Barron.

On the tape, Trump and Cohen talk about buying the rights to McDougal's story, which she had sold a month earlier to the National Enquirer for $150,000. The tabloid never published the story.

During the campaign, the Trump team denied any knowledge of the deal between McDougal and American Media, the magazine's parent company.

But on the tape, candidate Trump expresses no surprise when the issue comes up and Cohen talks about essentially reimbursing the company for what it paid McDougal.A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on July 25, 2018 shows a member of the Syrian security forces walking past a truck damaged in a suicide attack in the southern city of Sweida

A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State group killed more than 220 people in southern Syria on Wednesday, in one of the jihadists' deadliest ever assaults in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.

The bloodshed came almost a week into a Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south.

IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying "soldiers of the caliphate" attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated explosive belts.

The Britain-based Observatory said four suicide bombers targeted Sweida city while others hit small villages to the north and east and shot residents in their homes.

At least 221 people were killed, including 127 civilians, the Observatory said.

The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, mostly residents who took up arms to defend their homes, it said.

The overwhelming majority of the dead "were in (Sweida's) northern countryside, where the bodies of civilians executed inside their homes were found," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011.

"It's the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war" and one of the deadliest ever IS attacks in Syria, the Observatory chief said.

He said regime forces eventually ousted IS from several villages its fighters had seized and put an end to the attacks.

Map of Syria locating Sweida

"Some residents who fled the attacks on their villages are returning and finding people dead in their homes," Abdel Rahman said.

At least 38 IS fighters were also killed, including the suicide attackers.

- Abandoned shoes -

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east but did not give a specific toll.

"Today's crime shows that countries supporting terrorism are trying to breathe life back into the terrorist organisation to keep it as a card in their hand that they will use to achieve political gains," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he received Russia's envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev.

"These attempts will only succeed in... shedding more innocent blood," he added, in comments carried on his social media accounts.

Omar, a resident of Sweida city, told AFP explosions began rocking the city around 5:30 am local time (0230 GMT).

"The blast was sudden and unexpected. Never in its history has Sweida seen such a tough day," he told AFP.

State news agency SANA published images from the city of the attack's aftermath, showing a victim's remains sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall.

Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilt out of cartons.

An eyewitness said Sweida's national hospital was "packed".

He said he saw "people bringing in a lot of wounded in their own private cars.. Others were coming to the hospital to ask if loved ones they had lost track of were there".

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari condemned the "terrorist bombing in Sweida city", saying all civilians should be protected.

Government ally Russia said the IS attacks "confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory".

A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removes an Islamic State group flag in the Syrian town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa city, on April 30, 2017

Pro-government forces ousted IS from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, but IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The jihadists still hold some territory in Syria's south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighbouring Daraa province, to the west.

That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to IS.

After ousting mainstream rebels from most of the south, Assad's troops backed by his Russian allies are now closing in on the IS pocket in Daraa.

SANA said the attacks on Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside".

- Desert holdouts -

On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces pressed their heavy bombardment of IS territory in Daraa.

At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, while clashes have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists, says the Observatory.

A picture taken on July 24, 2018 from the Tal Saki hill in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights shows smoke rising across the border in Syria during air strikes as regime forces pressed an offensive against Daraa province

Last month, Assad's forces launched a lightning assault that battered rebel areas in the south and brought most of Daraa province under his control.

They then moved on to Quneitra, the neighbouring province which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

On Tuesday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in Quneitra.

Israel's army on Tuesday said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS, which overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014 but has since lost most of that territory.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.Keita, shown here wooing diaspora voters in Gabon, is accused of spending too much time abroad

Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, speaking ahead of elections on Sunday, said attacks that have hit the country in recent months were "pockets of violence and remnants of terrorism".

Keita defended his record, saying he had helped to stabilise the country in the heart of the fragile Sahel region since his election in 2013.

"There's no more war-mongering in Mali today," Keita -- widely known by his initials of IBK -- told reporters Tuesday on the return flight from a tour of three African countries to woo diaspora voters.

"There are pockets of violence, remnants of terrorism because neither Serval nor Barkhane could drive out all the terrorists," he said, referring to former colonial power France's two successive military operations in the region.

The country has been gripped by violence since jihadists exploiting a 2012 ethnic Tuareg separatist uprising took over key cities in the north.

The extremists were largely driven out in France's Serval operation launched in January 2013 -- but large stretches of the country remain outside the control of the foreign as well as Malian forces.

Hundreds of people have died since the start of 2018 in inter-communal violence and attacks by jihadists, which have included a suicide bombing of the headquarters of a five-nation anti-terror force, the G5 Sahel

Hundreds of people have died since the start of 2018 in inter-communal violence and attacks by jihadists, which have included a suicide bombing of the headquarters of a five-nation anti-terror force, the G5 Sahel.

Keita, 71, said the violence had "metastasised to central Mali," but said the state was making a "colossal financial effort" to combat it.

Violence in the region has increased over the past three years between nomadic Fulani herders and sedentary Bambara and Dogon farmers.

- No 'shrinking violet' -

Keita blamed the jihadists of "injecting this virus, this poison", by stirring up accusations against one side or another.

Residents of central Mali "have been living together for centuries," IBK said. "What is new is this attempt at whitewashing terrorism and making us believe that there is a policy of eliminating, or even perpetrating, genocide against the Fulanis."

"I say no. We are a people of many races, of Fulanis, Mandinkas, Bozos, Bambaras," he said.

Keita also warned sternly against groups seeking to set up militias in the troubled religion.

"You have no right to ensure territorial integrity, this is not your mission," he said. "We will only ever allow the Malian army to be armed."

Keita is facing Soumaila Cisse as his leading rival in the first round of voting on Sunday.

His critics have attacked him for spending too much time abroad and accuse him of poor governance and security failures.

"There is 'IBK-bashing' and 'Mali-bashing', which could last for awhile and to which I pay no heed," Keita said. "Let me tell you, IBK is not a shrinking violet, he has no reason to be."Finding solutions to the problem of excess supply

2017 was a difficult year for animal husbandry production as the industry had to face abnormal fluctuations in the feed market, disease outbreaks, and especially the pig oversupply crisis in 2016 and the first half of 2017, creating a lot of difficulties for output.

The domestic market is witnessing an oversupply of pork and certain other meat products, but Vietnam still has to import a number of cattle and poultry meat products and feed ingredients. This paradox has pushed the domestic animal husbandry sector into competitive pressure on prices and quality.

According to Hoang Thanh Van, Director of the Animal Husbandry Department (AHD), in order to deal with shortcomings in animal husbandry, the department has developed a report evaluating the current situation and proposing a number of issues concerned, including the "promotion of sustainable livelihood shifts and animal husbandry development for subregions in the Mekong Delta", and "disaster prevention and control for crops and livestock in the northern midland and mountainous areas". In addition, the department also held a conference to discuss solutions of researching and piloting animals resistant to climate change for the heavily affected areas, while accelerating the implementation of a planning scheme on centralised livestock slaughter establishments nationwide.

By the end of 2017, 56 of the 63 provinces and cities around the country had approved the planning scheme on centralised animal slaughter facilities, while 58 out of the 63 cities and provinces had given the nod to animal husbandry development plans (or agricultural development plans, including the field of animal husbandry). This is considered a good premise for the food safety inspection and control work to be thoroughly implemented, and for the sector to be more proactive in their production and consumption plans of livestock husbandry products at present.

Tapping into the internal power of the livestock husbandry industry

Specific steps have been taken towards an intensive production process without overheated growth, but they have yet to generate positive transformations in reality. According to data from the General Statistics Office (GSO), regarding the first three months of 2018 alone, the total number of pigs across the country decreased by 6.2% compared to the same period last year. Specifically, high levels of decline were seen in the provinces of Thua Thien Hue (16.1%), Tra Vinh (15.4%), Vinh Long (15.1%), Ha Tinh (11.3%), and Hoa Binh (10.9%). Hence, the output of live hogs also saw a decrease of 1.2%. The slump was attributed to many reasons, including the mass deaths of cattle earlier this year as the extremely cold spells seriously affected animal husbandry, and the pork prices dropping sharply, raising fear among pig farmers.

AHD Director, Hoang Thanh Van, said that only through organising livestock farming in new chains, could the sector address the instability and prove the origin of products to help consumers achieve peace of mind in using them. Therefore, it is necessary to issue more specific mechanisms to support the development chains linked to hi-tech production and processing, as well as promoting the application of information technology in product traceability, and raising public awareness of the use of safe food. Meanwhile, the departments, sectors, and units concerned should work together in managing the market and dealing with violations of food safety requirements, thus building social trust in safe food and developing markets for products joining the link chains.

In addition to sparking domestic resources, the livestock husbandry sector has actively cooperated with international organisations, non-governmental organisations and government agencies of several countries (the US, Denmark, Russia, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations) to access technical advances, conduct market surveys and evaluations, and seek export opportunities for Vietnam's animal husbandry products.

Together with choosing the correct and well-organised direction in animal husbandry planning tied to the market, and organising production in link chains, the role of businesses connecting the output with each market segment is considered an important joint in ensuring supply-demand balance and boosting the consumption of farm produce for farmers. If these steps are performed effectively, it is likely that Vietnam will soon become a major pork exporter in the region and the world.Saudi Arabia has received bids from four consortiums competing to build a $500 million Saudi wind farm project

Saudi Arabia has received bids from four consortiums competing to build a $500 million Saudi wind farm project, officials said Wednesday, as the world's top oil exporter pushes to diversify its energy sector.

France's EDF Energies Nouvelles placed the lowest bid for the 400-megawatt Dumat al-Jandal wind project in the northern Al Jouf province, while the second lowest was submitted by the French firm ENGIE, the Saudi energy ministry said.

Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power and Italy's Enel Green Power were among the other pre-qualified bidders for what is billed as the country's first utility-scale wind energy project, part of the government's reform plan to wean the kingdom off oil.

The winning bid is set to be announced on December 18, the ministry added.

"The kingdom's first utility-scale wind project opens a new chapter in our journey towards a diversified energy mix," Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said in a statement.

"The development of a wind energy industry in Saudi Arabia is an important component of our wider industrial diversification strategy."

The project will generate power to supply up to 70,000 Saudi households, he added.

The Saudi national energy programme aims to raise the share from renewables to 3.45 gigawatts in 2020 and up to 9.5 GW three years later.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies have been looking into ways to cut their energy bills and diversify their power sources away from oil, their main export commodity.

Virtually all of Saudi Arabia's power currently comes from crude or refined oil and natural gas.

Earlier this year Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans to develop the globe's biggest solar power project for $200 billion in partnership with Japan's SoftBank group.

The memorandum of understanding seeks to produce up to 200 gigawatts of power by 2030 -- about 100 times the capacity of the current biggest projects.Some 3,200 women were listed on the electoral register in Mohri Pur -- but not one voted, according to election officials and an AFP journalist at the village's sole polling station

Pakistani women who had pledged to defy men in their village by voting for the first time ultimately did not exercise their democratic right in Wednesday's election, citing intimidation by their husbands.

Male elders banned females from voting in Mohri Pur, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the central Pakistan city of Multan, around 1947 and the women have obeyed ever since.

This year many had vowed to cast a ballot following changes to Pakistan's election laws and amid shifting attitudes towards women in parts of the deeply patriarchal South Asian country.

Some 3,200 women were listed on the electoral register in Mohri Pur -- but not one voted, according to election officials and an AFP journalist at the village's sole polling station.

"We have threats from our husbands that they will divorce us if we cast our vote," 25-year-old Tanya Bibi told AFP as she walked past the polling station, without going in.

Around 8,000 men were registered to vote in the village. Large queues of them -- each clutching identity cards -- formed at the polling station, located in a school.

"We are here to cast our ballots, but our women didn't cast their votes because it is our old tradition which we have been preserving," Muhammad Shamsher told AFP.

Even Qasir Abbas, a lawyer who campaigned for the women's vote, said in the end he did not bring his wife to the polling station, explaining: "I was afraid ... the villagers might boycott my family."

Bismillah Iram, from a local NGO, said announcements were made from the village mosque warning that women should not come to the polling station.

Elders in Mohri Pur, which is located in Punjab province, banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling booth would "dishonour" them.

So-called "honour" describes a patriarchal code across South Asia that often seeks to justify the murder and oppression of women who defy conservative traditions by acts such as choosing their own husband, or working outside the home.

Women in Mohri Pur told AFP recently that they had tried to vote in previous elections but had been prevented.

In 2015, one woman, Fouzia Talib, became the only one in the village to vote in local elections. She was ostracised.

- 'Elated' -

Hopes were raised this time after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared that at least 10 percent of voters in each constituency must be women, otherwise its results will be voided.

Nearly 20 million new voters were registered in the rapidly growing country of some 207 million people, including 9.13 million women, the commission said.

It was not immediately clear how many had voted once polls closed, but queues of women voters could be seen in major cities such as Lahore and Karachi.

Elders in Mohri Pur, which is located in Punjab province, banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling booth would "dishonour" them

Not so in Mohri Pur, where "not a single female voted," said Asia Bibi, an assistant presiding officer, adding that she was "surprised and upset".

Women reported better experiences in conservative rural areas elsewhere, however, notably in parts of Lower Dir, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where they were allowed to vote for the first time.

Bakht Sania Bibi, a 46-year-old mother-of-three from Samarbagh town, said village elders had previously stopped women from voting. Announcements used to be made through mosques' loudspeakers saying women would not be allowed to vote.

"I have voted today and feel elated to get my basic right," she told AFP.

Sajida Haleem, 27, a first-time voter from Lower Dir's Koto town said she had been prevented from voting in elections in 2013 and 2015.

"I had always thought, 'Why do men decide for us? Can we as women decide for them?'" Haleem, who has a Masters degree in social work, told AFP.

"Today I feel I'm a complete Pakistani. I have got my right which had been denied to me since I was 18," she added.

strs-mmg-pdh/st/amzCooking and questions: European Union election observers go from home to home in Nyatsime, asking villagers about the fairness of the campaign

In Nyatsime village outside Harare, European Union election observers go from home to home collecting detailed survey answers -- their first mission to Zimbabwe for 16 years since being abruptly expelled.

In 2002, the head of the EU election mission was thrown out on the eve of a violence-tainted election that kept Robert Mugabe in power and was widely condemned as fraudulent.

The vote accelerated Zimbabwe's isolation as the United States and EU imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle, and Zimbabwe pulled out of the Commonwealth after being suspended.

Mugabe's ZANU-PF party are still in power -- but this election on July 30 is different.

The former president was ousted in November, and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised a free vote, inviting back previously banned observers in an effort to show a renewed commitment to democracy.

The EU mission has a team of over 100 people, while the Commonwealth has 23 and a joint-US team from the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute (NDI-IRI) is also present.

In Nyatsime, located 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of Harare, brick-maker Sharai Jinjika, 48, told uniformed EU observers about his troubles registrating to vote.

"I waited the whole day and the mother of my child is not registered because they said her ID was not in order. They told her to get it fixed in Makoni, which is very far away," he said.

"They would come up with all sorts of excuses."

- Observers under scrutiny -

Jinjika said several candidates visited the village during campaigning, sometimes handing out food, adding that it had been relatively peaceful except for one fight between supporters of ZANU-PF and the main opposition MDC party.

With Zimbabweans and the international community focused on whether the country will mark the end of Mugabe's era by holding a credible election, the observer teams are under scrutiny.

International observer teams are filing separate assessments of the elections' fairness.

As a result, analysts are predicting possible disparities between "western" observers and teams from the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Those organisations were never banned from the Zimbabwean elections and have more sway in the region.

"If the elections do go to ZANU-PF, the calling out of the freeness and fairness is going to sit with the AU and SADC," said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, director of the Johannesburg-based Southern Africa Litigation Centre legal action group.

The two regional observer teams have previously been criticised for endorsing tainted election results.

"It's going to be critical.... on whether things are regarded as free and fair to look at the disjuncture between what the AU and SADC say, and what the EU says," said Piers Pigou, senior International Crisis Group researcher.

With the stakes so high and polls suggesting a close race, observers face a tough job given their limited powers -- and the EU stressed that it could not play a refereeing role.

- A deterrent to fraud? -

EU Deputy Chief Observer Mark Stevens has cautioned against over-expectations -- election monitors by themselves cannot ensure a vote is credible, he says

"Everyone needs to be realistic," EU deputy chief observer Mark Stevens told AFP.

"Election observers cannot ensure a credible election. The election is run by the authorities in Zimbabwe on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe.

"Our job is to observe and report what goes on and express our opinion afterwards."

But the observers do believe they can be a deterrent to fraud, and encourage voters that they can cast a free ballot.

"The point of having observers is it raises the cost of trying to manipulate the process," Larry Garber, co-director of the NDI-IRI team, told AFP.

"Ultimately it's the people of Zimbabwe who have to decide on the credibility of the election."

Monday's elections are a presidential race pitting Mnangagwa against MDC leader Nelson Chamisa, as well as parliamentary and local votes.

Head to head: President Emmerson Mnangagwa, left, and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa are the front-runners in Monday's elections

The EU will give its preliminary assessment two days after voting, with a full report published within two months.

Back in Nyatsime, Titus Machingauta, 45, a father of four who knits baby clothes on a sewing machine, was pleased by the visibility of observers because it "helps build confidence."

But he recalled recently visiting Gokwe, a nearby ZANU-PF stronghold.

"People were gathered there and told to be aligned to one party," he said.A US lawmaker has resigned after being pranked on the television show of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, pictured here

A US state lawmaker is resigning after a humiliating appearance on comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's television show during which he exposed himself and shouted racial slurs.

Jason Spencer, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives, had been under pressure from his own party to step down following the embarrassing appearance on Cohen's series "Who Is America?"

Spencer, 43, finally announced on Wednesday that he planned to resign on July 31. He had already lost a primary in May but he could have remained in office until November.

Spencer was one of several Republican figures pranked by Cohen on the Showtime series.

Others included former vice president Dick Cheney, who signed a "waterboarding kit" and former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

In the episode of "Who Is America" with Spencer, Cohen pretends to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, Colonel Erran Morad, offering self-defense training.

At one point, Spencer is persuaded to expose his buttocks and chase Cohen while yelling "USA" and racial slurs.

Spencer, in a statement this week to The Washington Post, said Cohen "took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked."

Spencer told the Post he had received death threats after introducing a bill that would ban Muslim women from publicly wearing burqas.

Palin, the former governor of Alaska, denounced the show as "evil, exploitive, sick 'humor.'"A German court sentenced a Vietnamese man to nearly four years in jail for taking part in a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping, ordered by Hanoi, of oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh (centre) who was jailed for life on corruption charges in Vietnam

A German court on Wednesday sentenced a Vietnamese man to nearly four years in jail for taking part in a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping ordered by Hanoi of an oil executive from a Berlin park.

Judges at the Berlin court said the 47-year-old Czech-Vietnamese national, identified as Long N.H., was guilty of aiding an abduction and working for a foreign intelligence service.

But they handed him a relatively mild sentence of three years and ten months after he confessed to his involvement.

Long N.H. admitted during his trial that he rented the vehicle used in last July's abduction of fugitive Vietnamese state company official Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was spirited back to Hanoi.

In a statement, the presiding judge described the kidnapping as "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Germany, unprecedented in recent history".

But judges also agreed that while the accused knew about the kidnapping plans by the Vietnamese secret service, he did not belong to the top level of command.

The kidnapped man, Thanh -- a senior Communist party functionary who was seeking political asylum in Germany -- has since been sentenced to two life terms in Vietnam on corruption charges.

The 52-year-old and his female companion Thi Minh P. D. were walking in Berlin's Tiergarten park when they were dragged into a van in broad daylight and smuggled back to Vietnam.

The German government was outraged, calling it a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty. It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats and summoned the ambassador several times.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has always insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges.

Thanh's German lawyer, Petra Schlagenhauf, has described the kidnapping as "like a story from the Cold War".

- Slovakian plane? -

Long N.H., was once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany. He was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague.

He was arrested there last August and extradited to Germany days later.

He admitted renting the van used in the abduction in Prague and driving it to Berlin, but he was not at the wheel during the kidnapping. He then drove the van back to Prague. He also rented another vehicle involved in the operation.

It remains unclear exactly how Thanh was transported back to his home country, but judges said in their statement they believed he was flown to Hanoi via Bratislava and Moscow.

German media have reported that a Slovakian government plane lent to a visiting Vietnamese delegation at the time was involved in the transfer.

Slovakia has said it noticed nothing suspicious about the delegation or their flights, but warned Hanoi of harsh consequences if the allegations proved true.A woman leaves flowers for the victims at the scene of the shooting in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Canadian authorities said Wednesday they have no evidence to substantiate a claim by the Islamic State group that the gunman who killed two people in a Toronto rampage was an IS fighter.

The group's Amaq news agency said the gunman, identified by police as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, was an IS "soldier" responding to its calls for attacks on nationals from countries fighting the group in Iraq and Syria.

"At this stage, we have no evidence to support these claims," Toronto police said in a statement.

"We will continue to explore every investigative avenue, including interviewing those who knew Mr Hussain, reviewing his online activity, and looking into his experiences with mental health," police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray said.

The attack occurred Sunday night in Toronto's Greektown area when the shooter opened fire at people on a crowded street before turning his attention to nearby restaurants.

Rushing to the scene, police exchanged fire with the gunman, who was found dead in an alleyway.

An 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl were killed in the rampage, and 13 people were wounded.

Hussain's family said he had suffered since infancy from serious mental problems, which treatment and medication were unable to overcome.

In a statement, the family said Hussain had battled "severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life."

On Wednesday, however, Amaq claimed that Hussain "carried out the attack in response to calls to target nationals of countries of the coalition" that has been fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014.

A day earlier, Canada's Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale had said: "There is no national security connection between this individual and any other national security issue."

Hussain had no prior criminal record and had not been on the radar of Canada's security agencies, he said.

The Toronto Star reported Wednesday that Hussain worked at the same Loblaws supermarket chain as two of the shooting victims -- Reese Fallon, the 18-year-old killed in the attack, and Samantha Price, who was wounded. Loblaws called it a "tragic coincidence."

It was the third time that Islamic State has claimed an attack in Canada, according to Amarnath Amarasingam, a Canadian researcher at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

The first was in 2014 when it said two attacks against Canadian soldiers, one south of Montreal and the other in Ottawa, were "the direct result" of its call a month earlier for attacks on the West.

In 2016, it again claimed responsibility when a Canadian national, surrounded by police, detonated a bomb in a taxi in southern Ontario before being shot to death by police.

Amarasingam said he was "very skeptical" about the latest IS claim.

Hussain "would have said that the Western countries should leave Syria, or yelled Allahu akbar (God is greatest), or something. And it doesn't seem he said anything or did anything online," he said.People wave Turkish flags near the Martyrs Bridge in Istanbul July 15, 2018 on the two-year anniversary of a coup attempt as the country's state of emergency came to an end, before it was replaced with a new anti-terror law

The Turkish parliament on Wednesday approved a new "anti-terror" law that strengthens the authorities' powers in detaining suspects and imposing public order after a two-year state of emergency ended last week, state news agency Anadolu reported.

The new legislation allows authorities to control who can enter and exit an area for 15 days for reasons of security, while suspects can be held without charge for 48 hours or up to four days if there are multiple offences.

This period can be extended on two occasions under special circumstances.

The law, which still needs to be signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also says protests and marches in the open air must end before sunset while indoor gatherings can continue until midnight.

Rights activists have expressed alarm over the law, accusing the government of essentially formalising the state of emergency under another name.

Human Rights Watch said it would "preserve many of the abusive powers granted to the president and executive" under the state of emergency.

Officials repeatedly stress that Turkey is facing multiple terror threats from the Islamic State extremist group, outlawed Kurdish insurgents and the movement run by US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen which Ankara blames for the July 2016 failed coup.

Turkey introduced the state of emergency five days after the attempted putsch, and renewed it seven times despite calls from Western allies to end the measure.

Over 77,000 people were arrested under the emergency over alleged links to the Gulen movement, which Turkey officially calls the "Fethullah Terrorist Organisation".

Gulen denies any links to the coup bid and insists he leads a moderate Islamic group.

Critics including human rights activists accused Ankara of using the emergency to crack down on Erdogan's opponents.

But the government said that the emergency was needed to handle the multiple threats while officials said over 150,000 suspensions and sackings from the public sector were necessary to handle the "virus" of Gulen inside the state.

Erdogan promised to end the emergency in the campaign ahead of his victory in the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Earlier, the interior ministry said it had reinstated the passports of 155,350 people whose travel document had been cancelled because their partner was being investigated under the emergency.Going ape: The births bring to nine the number of endangered mountain gorillas born in Virunga this year

Virunga Park, the nature preserve in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo famous for its endangered mountain gorillas, said Wednesday that a mother had given birth to two babies, bringing to nine the number of infants born so far this year.

"The mountain gorillas were a most welcome source of good news in 2018 and it's only getting better!" the park said in a statement, adding that it was "thrilled" with the new arrivals.

The park currently counts 604 individuals, compared with 395 in 2000, according to Congolese news website ActuCongo. They comprise about 60 percent of Africa's estimated total of around 1,000.

Virunga, Africa's oldest nature reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage site, is located in North Kivu, one of the most restive areas of the DR Congo, where numerous armed groups are active.

Five park rangers and a driver were killed early this year, and in May the park suspended all tourism after three people, including two British visitors, were abducted and a ranger was killed.

Created in 1925 when the DR Congo was a Belgian colony, the park is Africa's most biologically diverse protected area.

The mountain gorilla was immortalised in the film about primatologist Dian Fossey, "Gorillas in the Mist".

The park, boasting lush forest, glaciated peaks and savannah, spreads over 7,800 square kilometres (3,000 square miles) and borders Rwanda and Uganda.

In 2010 Kinshasa granted permits to Western oil groups to explore concessions along large portions of the reserve, drawing howls of protest from environmental groups. They have since scrapped the projects.

Last month the government green-lighted plans to establish an "oil interest zone" covering more than one-fifth of the park.

Global Witness, which campaigns against corruption and environmental abuse, called for a halt to the project, saying it would have "catastrophic consequences" for the environment.New pylon towers used in power distrubution, coming from hydro power plants, run through Pak Se district in the Champasak province of Laos on July 25, 2018

Mountainous and landlocked Laos, known as the "Battery of Asia", is building dozens of dams at breakneck speed so it can sell energy to power-hungry neighbours as a fast track out of poverty.

But the communist country's ambitious power plans are highly controversial.

Most energy is exported to neighbouring countries Vietnam, Cambodia and China, with the lion's share going to Thailand -- whose Bangkok mega-malls alone suck up huge amounts of power.

That leaves local communities with little of the revenue from projects that often require compulsory resettlement of hundreds of villages and reshape the landscape and river systems.

The dam collapse this week in southern Laos that left at least 26 dead and scores missing has shed light on the perils of the country's big bet on hydropower.

Here are a few key questions:

Why so many dams?

With a vast river system, mineral-rich mines and a population of just six million, Laos is richer in natural resources than manpower.

As revenues from timber exports and gold and copper mines have tailed off, the country -- and foreign investors -- have ploughed billions of dollars into hydropower development, billed as a clean source of energy to electrify Laos and supply its power-hungry neighbours.

There are currently 46 operating hydropower plants with a capacity of 6,400 MW, with another 54 under construction and set to go online by 2020, according to the Laos News Agency.

If all goes to plan, Laos wants to generate a whopping 28,000 MW of power in just two years -- almost enough to power all of Thailand for a year.

It has targeted graduating from a lower-middle income country by 2020, according to its World Bank classification, and raise its annual per capita GDP from $2,457 today.

Where does the power go?

About 85 percent of all energy generated in Laos is exported, mostly to Thailand where two-thirds of it is sucked up in and around the sweaty capital Bangkok, according to the International Energy Agency.

Almost 90 percent of Laos has access to electricity but supply can be patchy, especially in rural areas.

"Even if it could be enough... to power all the homes, it doesn't reach all the homes, so there is a gap there at the very least in terms of access," said Vanessa Lamb, geography lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

So who's making the money?

Laos's government is earning revenues by selling power to its neighbours. Although figures are not public, the World Bank says investments in the sector are not on par with how much goes towards the national budget.

The real rewards may still be decades away.

Many contracts stipulate that hydro plants -- often built and operated by foreign firms, including those from China or Thailand -- will be handed over to the Laos government in 20 or 30 years, according to Keith Barney, a lecturer at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.

"Although there's been a lot of dam construction, the actual royalties and budget revenues -- which are opaque -- have not been that lucrative so far," he told AFP.

"They're coming down the line as these projects move toward their mature phases."

Do local communities benefit?

Most agree that so far, revenues have yet to trickle down to village level.

Unlike in some other countries, residents are not paid a percentage of the money earned from exporting power and may suffer from hydropower projects.

Villagers are routinely resettled to make way for plants and dams, and farmers have complained that diverting river water destroys farmland, while damming rivers interrupts fish flows.

An April report from the Mekong River Commission predicted that up to 40 percent of fish species in the Mekong River basin could be disrupted by dam-building in the region, a warning echoed by others.

"Poor people in the project areas are worse off because of these dams, not better off," said Ian Baird, assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"People aren't being properly compensated and then when the revenue comes in it's not getting back to those people," he told AFP.Martin Griffiths, the United Nation's special envoy for Yemen, arrives at Sanaa international airport on July 25, 2018

The UN's Yemen envoy returned to the capital Sanaa on Wednesday for fresh talks with rebels, as the government threatens to resume its offensive on a key port city if mediation fails.

Pro-government forces backed up by a coalition led by Saudi Arabia have paused their assault on Hodeida port in a bid they say to give UN-led peace efforts a chance.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths has been pushing for weeks to relaunch negotiations between Yemen's internationally recognised government and Iran-backed Huthi rebels.

The government is looking for the Huthis to withdraw from Hodeida before peace talks can resume and insists Yemeni authorities must take control of the city.

A senior official said the government would accept the presence of international observers to "oversee the management of the port and the delivery of financial revenues" to the central bank it controls.

If mediation fails, pro-government forces warn they could restart the offensive on the vital lifeline port, which has sparked fears that it could worsen the dire humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

"Our forces are ready and waiting for the green light to resume the attack on the city of Hodeida if the international envoy's mission fails," a Yemeni military official told AFP.

Rebel leader Abdulmalik al-Huthi said in an interview last week with Le Figaro that he was ready to hand over control of Hodeidas port to the UN if pro-government forces stopped the offensive.

Griffiths arrived at Sanaa's airport at noon and headed immediately to his residence without making a statement to the press, an AFP photographer said.

The envoy's visit to Sanaa comes after meetings in Riyadh on Sunday with Yemeni government officials, who demanded the rebels release all detainees.

Hodeidas port is the entry point for some 70 percent of imports in a country where eight million people face imminent famine.

The Red Sea port has been controlled by the rebels since 2014, when they drove the government out of the capital Sanaa and much of the country.

The government and the Saudi-led alliance accuse the Iran-backed rebels of receiving smuggled weapons through Hodeida and have demanded their unconditional withdrawal from the city.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other allies intervened in the conflict between Yemen's government and rebels in March 2015, aiming to push back the Huthis and restore the internationally recognised government to power.

Nearly 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict since the 2015 intervention, 2,200 of them children.The information was announced at a meeting held at the Government Headquarters on July 25 which was presided over by Politburo member and Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue. The meeting reviewed the equitisation of SOEs, the divestment of State capital and SOE restructuring in the first half of this year and put forth plans for the second half of this year.

In the first six months of this year, the equitisation plans of 19 SOEs were approved by the Government, (equivalent to 86.2% of the same period in 2017) with a total value of over VND40 trillion (US$1.72 billion), including over VND23 trillion (US$989 million) worth of State capital.

In the six-month period, total revenues from equitisation and disinvestment were estimated at over VND28 trillion (US$1.2 billion), including nearly VND22.5 trillion from equitisation and over VND5.6 trillion from disinvestment.

The accumulated revenues from equitisation and disinvestment of SOEs were posted at approximately VND198 trillion (US$8.51 billion), including VND30 trillion in 2016, VND140 trillion in 2017 and VND28 trillion in 2018.

However, the delegates said that the progress of SOE equitisation and divestment is too low compared to the set plan. As many as 135 SOEs had to carry out divestment in 2017 but only 17 SOEs completed their divestment and only 10 out of 181 SOEs finished divestment in 2018.

Deputy PM Hue asked the ministries, sectors, localities and SOEs to make every effort to accelerate the equitisation and divestment of SOEs in order to fulfil the targets approved by the Government, while removing any obstacles during the process of SOE equitisation.Boeing has benefitted from a multi-year surge in commercial jet demand as US carriers refresh their fleets and airlines in developing and emerging countries boost orders

Boeing reported a jump in second-quarter profits on Wednesday due to higher commercial airplane deliveries but said costs on a closely-watched Air Force tanker contract had risen again.

The US aerospace giant reported net income of $2.2 billion, up 25.6 percent. Revenues rose 5.2 percent to $24.3 billion.

Boeing set aside $418 million in additional funds for the KC-46 tanker, an Air Force plane that has repeatedly suffered cost overruns.

The latest cost increases were for incorporating changes into test and early-build aircraft and for additional expenses in late stage testing and certification. Boeing said it expects to deliver the first tanker to the Air Force in October.

Boeing's commercial plane business prospered on an uptick in deliveries, as well as higher profit margins compared with the year-ago period as it increased production rates on its most popular offerings.

Boeing has benefitted from a multi-year surge in commercial jet demand as US carriers refresh their fleets and airlines in developing and emerging countries boost orders.

During the first quarter, Boeing delivered new planes to Ethiopian Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, among others.

Boeing lifted its full-year revenue forecast to $97 billion - $99 billion, up $1 billion from the prior range. It projected slightly higher operating margins in commercial planes but slightly lower margins in defense.

"Continued services growth, increasing defense volume and strong performance of our commercial business, as well as our positive market outlook, give us the confidence to raise our revenue and Commercial Airplanes margin guidance for the year," said chief executive Dennis Muilenburg.

But Briefing.com noted that Boeing did not increase its earnings-per-share forecast, a decision that "may cause some people to think maybe management is bit more cautious on 2H18."

The earnings come three weeks after Boeing announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to take control of Brazilian company Embraer's commercial business.

The Embraer deal would give Boeing a fleet of smaller planes to compete with a venture between archrival Airbus and Canada's Bombardier. Boeing and Embraer are still working out final details of the plan.

The aerospace giant has also been seen as vulnerable to trade tensions, especially the mushrooming conflict between China and the United States.

Credit Suisse said in a note this week more than 400 plane orders announced at the Farnborough air show last month were from undisclosed buyers.

At least some were probably placed by "Chinese airlines looking to avoid attracting attention in a sensitive trade environment," the note said.

Shares fell two percent to $351.00 in opening trading.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is vying for influence in Africa with its regional competitor China which has aggressively developed trade, financial and diplomatic ties on the continent

India will open 18 new embassies across Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Uganda's parliament on Wednesday during a charm-offensive tour of the continent.

Rounding off a two-day visit to Kampala, Modi also announced the donation of a badly-needed cancer therapy machine and loans worth $200 million (171 million euros) for infrastructure and environmental projects.

India, the world's most populous democracy, is vying for influence in Africa with its regional competitor China which has aggressively developed trade, financial and diplomatic ties on the continent.

India currently has 29 full diplomatic missions in Africa, according to Delhi, compared to China which has 50.

It hopes to open its new missions within three years, according to an Indian official who did not confirm which countries would receive envoys.

Modi also praised Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for welcoming back the so-called Uganda Asians who were expelled by despot Idi Amin Dada, who was in turn ousted by Museveni.

"Your visionary leadership has enabled Ugandan people of Indian origin to return to their cherished home, regain their lives and help rebuild the nation that they deeply love," Modi told a crowded parliament chamber, becoming the first Indian prime minister to address the legislature.

Keen to be seen as a friend to Africa, Delhi plays up a shared history that China lacks, citing 16th-century merchants who plied Africa's coastline and India's fight against colonialism.

Earlier this week, Modi visited Rwanda where he symbolically donated 200 cows to poor families and oversaw Indian loans to Kigali.

He flew to South Africa from Uganda for a summit of the BRICS bloc.

The gathering in South Africa will bring together the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) for talks overshadowed by the looming US-led global trade war.US President Donald Trump and his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen are heard on an audio tape discussing whether to buy the rights to a Playboy model's story that she had an affair in 2006 with the New York billionaire

The dramatic leak of a taped conversation between Donald Trump and his longtime attorney signals an aggressive new strategy by Michael Cohen, raising questions about how much the US leader has to fear should the former fixer cooperate with prosecutors.

On the tape, which was broadcast Tuesday, Trump can be heard discussing with Cohen how to hush up allegations that he had an affair with a Playboy model in 2006, and buying the rights to her story.

The tape was reportedly made two months before the 2016 presidential election and weeks before the Trump campaign denied any knowledge about Karen McDougal's allegations of a 10-month fling with the tycoon.

Cohen's lawyer released the tape to television network CNN, an arch critic of the Trump administration, and in a flurry of interviews declared his client had "turned a corner" and would continue to speak "the truth."

Cohen, who once declared he was so loyal he would "take a bullet for the president," is under federal investigation in New York for his business dealings and reportedly whether hush payments violated campaign finance laws.

In addition to being involved in efforts to hush up McDougal's story, he famously paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels just weeks before the election to silence her own claims of an alleged one-night stand with Trump.

The leaking of the tape and reports that there are further recordings has fanned speculation about how much damage Cohen can inflict on the president and whether he is now mulling a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors.

In an ABC News interview released on July 2, Cohen said his family and the country commanded his "first loyalty," the first fuel to that speculation.

- 'Tell the truth' -

On Wednesday, his newly hired, high-powered attorney Lanny Davis compared the Cohen tape to the Watergate tapes that ultimately forced Republican president Richard Nixon to resign in 1974 to avoid impeachment.

"Listen to the tape in the way that (former White House counsel) John Dean had a tape that did in Richard Nixon," he told ABC television. "Ultimately Donald Trump is going to be done in by the truth."

Davis, who worked for the Bill Clinton White House, told ABC that Cohen had "more tapes." He told CNN that his client had "turned a corner in his life" and was "now dedicated to telling the truth."

On Wednesday, a seething Trump lashed out, tweeting: "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?"

"Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?"

While Trump suggested over the weekend that Cohen may have acted illegally in secretly taping their discussion, jurists said it might not be so simple.

On the tape, Trump and Cohen talk about buying the rights to McDougal's story, which she had sold a month earlier to the National Enquirer for $150,000. The tabloid never published the story. The rights were never bought.

- 'Protecting himself' -

During the campaign, the Trump team denied any knowledge of the deal between McDougal and American Media, the magazine's parent company.

But on tape, the candidate expresses no surprise when the issue comes up and Cohen talks about essentially reimbursing the company for what it paid McDougal.

"It really does signal a more aggressive stance on the part of Michael Cohen," Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at Iona College, told AFP when asked about the significance of the leak.

"It suggests he might be no longer on the president's side," agreed Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

"Ultimately Michael Cohen seems to be a person who will be first and foremost concerned with protecting himself," Zelizer added.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported on a deeper alliance forged between Cohen and American Media, which it said federal investigators were examining as part of the investigation into Cohen's business affairs.

"I think it's probably in his (Cohen's) interests to pursue some kind of deal. I can't imagine he wants to continue to pay high-priced lawyers," said Paul Beck, professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University.

"The longer this is in the public eye the more damaging it is going to be for Republicans in the November (mid-term) elections," he told AFP.US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (L) address the media after their trade talks

US President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday agreed on a plan to defuse the festering trade dispute between the two major economies.

Germany's economy minister described the agreement -- which means Washington will not follow through with a threat to impose tariffs on autos that would hurt the dominant German car industry -- as a "breakthrough" that "can avoid trade war."

The pair -- who met for more than two hours of talks at the White House -- also said they would work to "resolve" the existing duties on steel and aluminum imposed by Washington, which had angered key allies including the European Union.

"We want to further strengthen this trade relationship to the benefit of all American and European citizens," Trump said in a statement delivered from the White House Rose Garden.

"A breakthrough has been quickly made that nobody thought possible!" he wrote on Twitter, later adding: "Great to be back on track with the European Union. This was a big day for free and fair trade!"

The outcome seemed a victory for Trump, who had assured supporters that his confrontational trade strategy would bear fruit, and who appears to have conceded little in the talks with the EU.

The leaders agreed to "launch a new phase" in the relationship and "to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods," Trump said.

In addition, the EU has made a commitment to buy US soybeans and natural gas.

Juncker, who had been somewhat defiant ahead of the meeting, said afterwards: "I had the intention to make a deal today. And we made a deal today."

However, the deal was contingent "on the understanding that as long as we are negotiating... we will hold off further tariffs, and we will reassess existing tariffs on steel and aluminum."

While EU officials had threatened immediate retaliation to any auto tariffs, and said they would not negotiate with Washington under duress, they seem to have decided to appease the irascible US leader.

"Congrats to @JunckerEU, @realDonaldTrump: Breakthrough achieved that can avoid trade war & save millions of jobs! Great for global economy!" German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Twitter after the talks.

- WTO reform -

Trump also won a commitment to work together to reform the World Trade Organization to address some of his complaints about China on theft of US technology, the behavior of state-owned enterprises, and overcapacity in steel.

He has long complained that the WTO has been unfair to the United States, despite the fact the US has won most of the disputes against China and others.

EU-US trade

The US and EU account for about $1 trillion in transatlantic trade, and tensions spiked leading up to Wednesday's high-stakes talks.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who accompanied Juncker, hailed the agreement and said on Twitter that she "will be working hard to take this work forward the coming months."

The details and mechanisms as well as the timing remain to be worked out, and the impact may not been seen for some time.

Juncker said the EU already imports 35 percent of its natural gas from US producers, but will work to buy more.

"We are ready to invest in infrastructure and new terminals, which could welcome imports of energy from the United States and elsewhere, but mainly from the United States, if the conditions were right and prices competitive," he said in a speech after the White House meetings.

- Feeling the pain -

While the US president can claim his aggressive approach is working, consumers, farmers and businesses are feeling the pain from the retaliatory measures imposed to counter the raft of US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and tens of billions of dollars in products from China put in place in recent weeks.

Brussels retaliated against the metal tariffs, imposing punitive duties on more than $3 billion of US goods, including blue jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as well as orange juice, rice and corn.

Canada, Mexico, and China -- the main target of Trump's trade offensive -- also hit back with steep duties on US goods, and have filed complaints against Washington at the WTO.

While the US claims the retaliation was "illegal," the Trump administration has acknowledged it is doing damage to American farmers, and announced Tuesday it will provide up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by trade tariffs.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said Wednesday he is hoping to "stop this trend" of growing restrictions on trade.

A new WTO report showed global trade covered by measures to restrict imports reached $84.5 billion in May as compared to $79 billion in October, with 75 new actions imposed in that time period.

"We are heading in the wrong direction, and we seem to be speeding up. Growth, jobs and recovery are at stake," Azevedo warned.The war in South Sudan erupted in December 2013 after President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy rebel leader Riek Machar of plotting a coup

South Sudanese arch-foes on Wednesday signed a "preliminary" power-sharing deal aimed at ending the civil war, with a Sudanese minister saying it sees rebel leader Riek Machar reinstated as first vice president.

Khartoum, as part of regional efforts to end the conflict in the world's youngest country, has hosted a round of peace talks since June between South Sudan's warring leaders President Salva Kiir and rebel chief Machar.

The rival groups have already agreed on a permanent ceasefire and withdrawing of their forces from civilian areas.

On July 7 they agreed on a power-sharing deal but its signing was delayed due to differences over the contents of the accord.

The "preliminary" deal sealed Wednesday should be followed by a final one on August 5, Sudan's Foreign Minister Al-Dierdiry Ahmed said at the signing ceremony in Khartoum witnessed by journalists.

"The power-sharing document has been signed and it addresses all pending issues during the transitional term," said Ahmed as he announced the details of the pact.

"Salva Kiir will continue as president of South Sudan and Riek Machar will be the first vice president," he said.

"There will be four other vice presidents shared between other political groups."

Once a final peace deal is signed it will give the foes three months to form a transitional government under the new format, which will then hold power for a further 36 months.

Ahmed said one issue that still needed to be resolved was how to share power at the level of regions and counties.

"The negotiations on this will continue until we have an agreement," he said, adding that some opposition groups had refused to sign Wednesday's document but discussions with them were also continuing.

The deal signed on Wednesday stipulates that there will be 35 ministers in the transitional government -- 20 from Kiir's group and nine from Machar's, while the rest will represent other groups.

The parliament will be comprised of 550 lawmakers, including 332 from Kiir's group and 128 from Machar's faction.

Ahmed said an independent commission will also be formed to decide on the number of provinces in the country.

A similar deal was signed in 2015 but fell apart a year later in a deadly battle that saw Machar flee into exile.

The war in South Sudan erupted in December 2013 after Kiir accused his former deputy Machar of plotting a coup.

The conflict has already killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said President Donald Trump has taken a firm stance against Russia

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday delayed a second summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin, while his top diplomat insisted there was no let up against Moscow following the two leaders' controversial meeting in Helsinki.

Facing mounting calls to release the details of Trump's closed-door talks with Putin, the US administration stepped up its damage control operation, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo going before Congress to defend his boss.

The US president himself, under fire for plans to invite Putin to the White House in the fall, opted to delay until 2019 -- pushing the talks back until Robert Mueller has completed his probe into Moscow's election interference, according to National Security Advisor John Bolton.

And Pompeo went on the offensive to stress steps Trump has taken to show resolve against the Kremlin, stepping into a white-hot spotlight during a three-hour grilling by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The top diplomat said he would back bipartisan efforts in Congress to slap new sanctions on Russia in response to their meddling in the 2016 US election, and as a deterrent against meddling this year or in 2020.

"I personally made clear to the Russians that there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes," he said in his opening statement.

But Pompeo remained frustratingly vague about perhaps the biggest question of all: what transpired in the private meeting between Trump and Putin?

Pompeo reaffirmed as official policy that the United States "rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea" -- an issue on which Trump had appeared to waver.

And with the US president accused -- including by members of his own Republican Party -- of casting doubt on the alliance's founding principle of mutual defense, Pompeo sought to smooth ruffled feathers.

"NATO will remain an indispensable pillar of American national security," he said. "We know weakness provokes our enemies, but strength and cohesion protect us."

On the North Korea front, Pompeo also struck a resolute tone, warning that Washington will not let nuclear negotiations drag on with no success, amid criticism that Trump's June Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un has so far yielded few results.

"We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said.

But while he insisted that North Koreans "understand precisely our definition of denuclearization and have agreed to denuclearize," Pompeo also confirmed in the hearing that Pyongyang continues to make nuclear fissile material.

And he said he believes North Korea remains the most urgent national security threat to the United States.

- 'Submissive and deferential' -

Lawmakers -- and America's allies around the world -- have been eager to learn the details of Trump's one-on-one July 16 meeting with Putin, including whether Trump made any secret promises to Putin or as-yet-undisclosed verbal agreements.

Republicans and Democrats alike have described Trump's performance as a betrayal of US interests and too conciliatory towards the Russian leader.

US President Donald Trump (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands before a joint press conference after their summit in Helsinki

The hearing quickly turned testy as lawmakers sought details on what exactly transpired in the Finnish capital.

"I don't think that's unfair to know," Senator Robert Menendez, the panel's top Democrat, told Pompeo. "Did he tell Putin that he'll release or ultimately relax sanctions?"

"Senator, what you need to conduct your role, your appropriate role, I will provide you today," a steely Pompeo shot back, without answering the question.

While Pompeo gave no hints of any secret promises or deals between the presidents, the US State Department has said three "modest proposals" emerged from the summit: a high-level business leaders' working group; a council of US and Russian political experts, diplomats and military officials; and discussions between the two presidents' national security staffs.

As Democrats launched broadsides against Trump and Pompeo's performance, Pompeo responded in kind, accusing Menendez for example of making a "political soliloquy" at the administration's expense.

But even Republican ranks remained unconvinced by Pompeo's reassurances.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, the committee's chairman, delivered withering criticism, accusing Trump of appearing "submissive and deferential" standing next to Putin in Helsinki and saying "it's the president's actions that create tremendous distrust in our nation, among our allies."

Congress has been rattled by Trump's Helsinki showing, particularly when he appeared to accept Putin's denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- dismissing US intelligence conclusions.

The intensity of the criticism prompted days of conflicting statements from the White House, and ultimately an extraordinary U-turn from Trump who said he misspoke and did, in fact, believe Russia meddled in the election.Gbagbo's lawyer said the charges against him have not been proven beyond all reasonable doubt

Former Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo has urged international judges to acquit him and release him from jail, arguing that the prosecution has failed to prove he committed any crimes.

In a filing to the International Criminal Court (ICC) dated Monday, his lawyer argues that Gbagbo -- the first former head of state to be tried by the tribunal -- should be acquitted of all charges arising from post-election violence that wracked the Ivory Coast in 2010 and 2011.

It asks the court based in The Hague to find that "the elements presented by the prosecutor against Laurent Gbagbo within the framework of his case do not allow for the charges to be proven beyond all reasonable doubt".

The request is scheduled to be hammered out before judges at a hearing on October 1 when the defence will call for an acquittal, and the prosecution will get a chance to contend that the trial should continue.

About 3,000 people died in the turmoil that swept Ivory Coast's economic capital Abidjan in the aftermath of the November 2010 presidential polls when Gbagbo refused to accept that he had been defeated by bitter rival Alassane Ouattara.

Abidjan was turned into a war zone as clashes flared between the rival forces.

After a months-long standoff, Gbagbo, now 73, was arrested by Ouattara's troops aided by UN and French forces, and turned over to the ICC in 2011.

His highly charged trial on four counts of murder, rape and persecution opened at the tribunal in The Hague in January 2016.

The prosecution rested its case in January this year after calling 82 witnesses and submitting thousands of documents and hundreds of hours of videos.

The defence has yet to start its case, but defence lawyer Emmanuel Altit urged in his filing that the court dismiss the case against Gbagbo, "deliver an acquittal in his favour on all charges ... and order the immediate release of Laurent Gbagbo".

Judges will likely rule some time after the October 1 hearing whether they agree to acquit Gbagbo or not. If his plea is dismissed, the defence will then begin to set out its case at a later date.

It is not the first time Gbagbo has sought to be released from jail during the trial. In July 2017, five appeals court judges ordered a new review to be carried out as to whether he should stay behind bars or not, given his age and health.

But that request was denied in September, with judges ruling the defence team had failed to "provide concrete and solid conditions that would guarantee" the former leader would show up in court.UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura hopes to make a fresh push to end the Syria war by setting up a committee tasked with re-writing the country's constitution

The UN peace envoy for Syria hopes to get a new constitutional committee up and running by late September to inject fresh momentum in efforts to end the seven-year war, the Security Council president said Wednesday.

Staffan de Mistura will travel to Russia's Black Sea city of Sochi next week for talks with Russia, Iran and Turkey on finalizing the list of members of the committee tasked with rewriting the Syrian constitution.

The envoy told a closed meeting of the Security Council that he was hoping to make progress on setting up the committee before the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in late September.

With "world leaders coming here, there needs to be progress on the constitutional committee," said Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog, who holds the council presidency this month.

"That would be an extremely useful timeline to have, to show that there is now political momentum rather than the military logic that we have seen up to now."

De Mistura, who has been leading UN efforts on Syria since 2014, was tasked with setting up the committee during a Russian-backed congress held in Sochi in January that was boycotted by the opposition.

The Syrian government has expressed reservations about the proposal but in May, it sent a list of names of officials to take part in the new diplomatic effort. The opposition recently also sent its list of delegates.

The council expressed its "full support" for the envoy's efforts and called on the Syrian parties to "engage constructively" with De Mistura in setting up the committee, Skoog told reporters.

The envoy, who briefed the council by videoconference from Geneva, did not discuss the prospect of holding a new round of peace talks after the last meeting broke down in December.

The eighth round of talks in Geneva ended without progress, with the sides at odds over opposition demands for a transition of power that would end President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

Assad's forces have since made gains on the ground, re-taking Eastern Ghouta, near the capital Damascus, and pressing ahead with an offensive in the south, bringing most of Daraa province under their control.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.China has rejected accusations by US President Donald Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge

China's President Xi Jinping on Wednesday said that there would be "no winner" in any global trade war, in a direct warning to US President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap levies on all Chinese imports.

"A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner," Xi said at the opening of a BRICS summit of emerging economies in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," he said, without mentioning the United States by name.

"We are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and closed-door policy and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbour approach.

"The international community has again reached a new crossroads."

Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are holding an annual three-day summit, with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

At the same time, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker is meeting with US president Donald Trump on Wednesday at the White House to try and de-escalate the looming trade war.

Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

Trump has already slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars, as well as tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU, Canada and Mexico.

"It is difficult to deny that the global market sentiment continues to be manipulated in large extents by the trade war uncertainties, which many think represent the largest risk to the world economy since the global financial crisis," Global Head of Currency Strategy and Market Research at FXTM Jameel Ahmad told AFP.

"The concern that South Africa has with the protectionist policies by President Trump at this stage, is that it is playing havoc with the local market."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer are attending the summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests.

Key economic data on each member of the BRICS group of countries: Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa.

"We are concerned by the rise in unilateral measures that are incompatible with World Trade Organisation rules, and we are worried about the impact of these measures," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told the summit's opening session.

- New BRICS unity? -

The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice.

Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed purpose.

Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members".

Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering

"They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said.

Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India's Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.

The meeting opened on Wednesday with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks on Thursday.

African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme on Friday include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

"South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP.

"BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade."

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines.US President Donald Trump met with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in in a bid to defuse trade tensions between the two key economies

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday the United States and EU were "not enemies" as he began talks with US President Donald Trump aimed at defusing trade tensions between the two key economies.

Trump said he expected "something very positive to take place" during the White House talks -- after sending a series of tweets blasting Europe for unfair treatment of US exports.

With the United States threatening to impose punishing new tariffs on EU auto exports, Juncker said: "We are close partners, allies -- not enemies."

"We have to work together. We are representing half of world trade," the European leader said.

"I think we have to talk to one another and not at one another," Juncker said as he sat next to Trump in the Oval Office, thanking the US leader for "taking the initiative to invite us to the White House."

Trump repeated his call for "reciprocal" trade.

"Over the years the United States has been losing hundreds of billions of dollars with the European Union and we just wanted it to be a level playing field for farmers, manufacturers, for everybody," Trump said.

Before coming to Washington, Juncker had warned he was "not very optimistic" about the talks -- and vowed immediate retaliatory measures should Trump make good on a threat to slap new tariffs on autos and auto parts.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is accompanying Juncker, said the EU is drawing up a list of $20 billion in US products to be targeted for retaliation if the trip fails.

Trump crowed Tuesday that his latest threat had brought Europe to the negotiating table and called on both sides to "drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!"

Trump's confrontational trade actions, especially against US allies like Canada, Mexico and the EU, is drawing increasing criticism, and the administration acknowledged on Tuesday that American farmers are being hurt by the retaliatory measures.

The Agriculture Department announced it would release up to $12 billion in aid for farmers to buy crops or food that they cannot sell, and help them find new markets.Hosting the reception for Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia Tony Smith in Hanoi on July 24, President Quang spoke highly of the outcomes achieved during the talks held earlier between Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and the Australian Speaker. He agreed with the content of cooperation between the two countries in general, and their legislative bodies in particular, for the time to come.

He underlined that it is necessary for the two countries to facilitate conditions to enhance people-to-people exchange, and coordination in culture, tourism, and sports.

The State leader spoke highly of the education collaboration between both sides, expressing his hope that the Australian Government would continue its support for Vietnam in developing high-quality human resources.

Vietnam will closely work with Australia to carry out the New Colombo Plan, a US$100 million initiative to increase the number of Australians studying part of their degree in the region to deepen their knowledge and understanding of Asia, and build people-to-people ties, he noticed.

President Quang expressed his wishes that Australia will continue to create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese people community so that they can contribute to the development in each nation as well as the bilateral ties.

Vietnam, in return, will facilitate Australian citizens travel, study and investment in the country, he said.

He showed his appreciation of Australias official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam, saying that the assistance has made positive contributions to the socio-economic development in the country. Cao Lanh Bridge, which was inaugurated last May, is a vivid illustration, he noted.

Also, he applauded the close coordination between the two countries at regional and international forums, particularly the United Nations, ASEAN, and ASEAN-led mechanisms.

He thanked Australia for helping Vietnam in successfully organising the APEC Year 2017 and supporting the Southeast Asian nation in its bid to become a non-permanent member of the UN for the 2020-2021 tenure.

President Quang also took the occasion to convey his greetings to Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, and many other Australian leaders.

Speaker Smith, for his part, lauded the fruitful cooperation between the two states and parliaments in the past time, especially people-to-people exchanges, stressing that visits made by leaders from both sides had consistently aimed at consolidating political trust and comprehensive cooperation between the two nations.

Vietnam and Australia have enjoyed sound collaboration in trade, and education and training, he said, adding that the Australian House of Representatives will serve as a bridge to enhance the ties.

Many Australian businesses have gained great success in agriculture, and they want to strengthen their cooperation with Vietnamese partners in the time ahead, he stressed.Israeli soldiers train in a tank during an exercise at the Tzeelim army base on July 3, 2018, weeks before the army said it carried out artillery strikes against seven military targets belonging to Hamas on July 25

Israeli strikes killed three Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after a soldier was wounded by gunfire in a fresh flare-up of violence despite a United Nations-brokered ceasefire deal.

The Israeli army said the strikes targeting Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas were in retaliation for the shots fired at its soldiers along the border earlier Wednesday.

One soldier was moderately wounded and taken to hospital, the army said.

The latest bloodshed comes five days after the UN and Egypt brokered a deal to halt a surge in violence that once again raised the spectre of a new round of conflict between Hamas and Israel.

The three men were killed in strikes east of Gaza City, the health ministry in Gaza said.

In a statement Hamas's military wing hailed them as its fighters from the Shejaiya area in northern Gaza, saying they were killed during strikes on one of their observation points.

The Israeli army said it carried out artillery strikes against seven military targets belonging to Hamas.

"A short while ago, terrorists fired at (Israeli) soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip," an army statement said.

"In response... artillery targeted seven military posts in Gaza belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation."

A spokesman for Hamas said in a statement the group would "not abandon its duty to defend and protect our people and to respond to aggression."

- 'False alarm' -

A missile explodes in Gaza City during Israeli bombardment, on July 20, 2018

Shortly after the Israeli strikes, sirens sounded near the Israeli city of Ashkelon close to Gaza, the Israeli army said.

There was no immediate confirmation of any rocket fire from Gaza, which typically sets off such sirens, and the military said it appeared to be a "false alarm".

More sirens were reported later in the evening.

Israeli media reported that Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman had called an emergency meeting of army generals to discuss the situation.

The shooting on the border Wednesday was the second such sniper incident reported by Israel in days.

The Israeli military said "a Palestinian sniper in Gaza fired at IDF troops under the cover of 20 children that were sent towards the border fence as decoy".

On Friday an Israeli soldier was shot dead on the border, sparking a fierce wave of bombing in Gaza.

It was the first time an Israeli soldier had been killed in or around Gaza since a 2014 war between Hamas and the Jewish state and sparked fears of a new round of confrontation.

The violence ended late Friday after Egypt and the United Nations helped broker a tense ceasefire.

Since then the truce had largely held, though young Palestinians have continued to attach incendiary devices to kites and balloons and try to float them across the border.

The kites have caused hundreds of fires inside Israel in recent months, according to Israeli officials. There has however been a reduction in the number of the firebombs since the ceasefire.

Israeli politicians have called for tougher measures against those launching the kites and balloons and earlier Wednesday Israeli aircraft fired towards a group of people preparing them, the army said.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.

Tensions have spiked since Palestinians began protesting along the Gaza border in late March, with Israeli forces shooting dead over 150 people since then during clashes and demonstrations.

Israel has maintained a crippling blockade of Gaza since 2007 which it says is necessary to isolate Hamas.

UN officials and rights groups say it amounts to collective punishment of the strip's two million residents and feeds poverty and radicalisation.Protesters in New York hold signs on behalf of children separated from their immigrant parents detained crossing the US-Mexican border

The United States is racing to meet a court-set deadline Thursday for reuniting immigrant parents and children who were separated after crossing the Mexican border, but hundreds of families are likely to be disappointed.

The controversial separations began in earnest in May under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy when migrants illegally entering the US were detained en masse, and their children taken to shelters elsewhere.

The policy triggered howls of protest in the United States and abroad, especially after the release of audio of small children in shelters crying for their parents, many of whom fled turmoil and gang violence in Central America.

An about-face from the Republican leader six weeks later led to hundreds of reunions, but the pace has been slow -- children and their parents are being housed in different parts of the country, and some adults have been deported.

A federal judge in California, Dana Sabraw, demanded a quick resolution to the drama, issuing an order that all eligible families be reunited by Thursday.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that the government intended to "reunify all families that are suitable."

She told Fox News that her department was "working hand in glove" with the Department of Health and Human Services, which operates shelters all over the country where the kids -- some toddlers or even infants -- were sent.

The government has identified 2,551 children from ages 5 to 17 potentially covered by the order, and said that 1,634 families are expected to be reunited by the deadline.

The remaining 917 fall into the category of "ineligible cases" -- meaning children cannot be reunited because family ties cannot be confirmed, or the parent has a criminal record, a communicable disease or cannot be found.

And of that number, government data indicates that more than 460 parents may already have been deported, some of them voluntarily -- enormously complicating any possible reunion with their children.

"The other 917 -- including the 463 who may not be in the US now -- will not be reunited before the deadline, and it's up to Judge Sabraw to decide whether that is OK," said Adam Isacson, from the Washington Office on Latin America, a non-governmental research group.

Asked how the government will return children to parents who have been deported, Nielsen answered: "If the parents contact us that they would like to be reunited, of course we'll work with them."

But finding these parents in Mexico or Central America will be a long, painstaking task, said Stephen Kang, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which had filed suit against the administration to demand separated families be brought back together.

"If this number turns out to be as large as the report suggests, this is going to be a big issue for us," Kang told The Washington Post.

"We have a lot of questions."

- Government 'lack of transparency' -

A month ago, Sabraw ordered the government to return children under age five to their parents by July 10 and those between five and 17 by Thursday.

The government missed the first deadline. It deemed 45 children ineligible for return because their parents were not fit or able to take them.

Now, with the second deadline about to hit, activists are unsure how many children are still to be reunited, and concerned about what the future may hold.

"The Trump administration's lack of transparency is now bordering on stonewalling," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

"And no one should forget that the government's claim that it will meet the reunification deadline is based on its exclusion of parents it has deported or can't locate, as well as on its unilateral, unchecked decision of who is eligible to be reunited or not."

As of Tuesday, the Department of Health Human Services had in its custody, in shelters around the country, 11,500 children classified as Unaccompanied Alien Children, or UAC.

That figure includes kids and adolescents who did in fact travel to the US without an adult.

But it also takes into account kids who crossed over with their families, were separated from them and then reclassified as UAC when they were sent to shelters.

As of July 16, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had in its custody 44,210 adult immigrants.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seen at the Sun Valley Conference this month, said the social network continues to grow as it focuses on privacy and safety

Facebook shares took a hit Wednesday after the world's biggest social network reported weaker-than-expected user growth in the first full quarter since being rocked by a series of scandals on data privacy.

The company said profit was up 31 percent in the second quarter at $5.1 billion as revenues rose 42 percent to $13.2 billion.

But shares slumped seven percent in after-hours exchanges after hitting record levels in official trading, with the quarterly report largely weaker than had been expected.

"Our community and business continue to grow quickly. We are committed to investing to keep people safe and secure, and to keep building meaningful new ways to help people connect," chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg has said he did not expect a meaningful impact from the uproar over data hijacked by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, but the last quarter's figures suggested some cooling.

The key metric of monthly active users rose 11 percent to 2.23 billion, below most estimates of 2.25 billion, while daily active users grew a weaker-than-expected 11 percent to 1.47 billion.

Almost all of Facebook's revenue -- $13 billion of the total $13.2 billion -- came from online advertising, a sector dominated by the California social network along with Silicon Valley rival Google.

Although Facebook shares were in a slump after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke earlier this year, the stock had risen sharply and hit record levels this month.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook is expected to hold an 18 percent share of the $273.29 billion worldwide digital ad market, behind Google's 31 percent.

According to the research firm, Facebook-owned Instagram is making up for some of the slowdown in growth at social network and will generate $8.06 billion in worldwide ad revenue this year.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

North Korea is still making nuclear material, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers Wednesday, six weeks after President Donald Trump said the nuclear threat from Pyongyang was over.

"Yes, they continue to produce fissile material," Pompeo told senators during a closely watched appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, where the US said Kim had agreed to totally get rid of his nuclear weapons.

After the historic summit, Trump tweeted that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea," but in recent days he has faced criticism about the lack of clear progress towards denuclearization.

Pompeo insisted that "progress is happening" and that Trump is "upbeat about the prospects of North Korean denuclearization."

The top US diplomat said Trump "would agree that the primary systems that have threatened America continue to exist."

"I think what his comment was that the tension had been greatly reduced," Pompeo said.

Still, he warned, Washington will not let nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang continue indefinitely.

"We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said.

Pompeo said he had emphasized this position during "productive" discussions he'd had with Kim Yong Chol, Kim's powerful right-hand man.

"Progress is happening. We need Chairman Kim Jong Un to follow through on his commitments made in Singapore."

In a sign of potential progress, new satellite imagery shows that Kim has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Pompeo added that "every single nation" must maintain enforcement of US sanctions against North Korea.

China and Russia have argued that North Korea should be rewarded with the prospect of eased sanctions for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.

When asked if North Korea is still advancing its nuclear program, Pompeo demurred.

"May I answer that question in a different setting?" he said, referring to a closed-door meeting with senators where classified information can be discussed.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, seen at the Sun Valley Conference this month, said the social network continues to grow as it focuses on privacy and safety

Facebook shares went into a freefall Wednesday as a stunningly weak financial outlook raised fresh concerns for the social networking giant as it tries to recover from the impact of data protection scandals and investigations.

After-hours trade saw Facebook shares plunge by some 21 percent, wiping out an estimated $130 billion in market value if the slump is confirmed at Thursday's market opening.

The second-quarter report sparked initial selling after it showed revenue and user growth came up short of expectations.

Profit was up 31 percent in the second quarter at $5.1 billion; revenues rose 42 percent to $13.2 billion, slightly below most forecasts.

Selling pressure accelerated when chief financial officer David Wehner warned in a call with analysts of a weaker outlook in the coming quarter.

Wehner said revenue growth "decelerated" in the second quarter and will decline "by high single digit percentages" and added that "we are also giving people who use our services more choices around data privacy which may have an impact on our revenue growth."

On the call, Jefferies & Co. analyst Brent Thill said that "many investors are having a hard time reconciling that deceleration... It just seems like the magnitude is beyond anything we've seen."

Ross Gerber, an analyst at Gerber Kawasaki, said the latest figures suggest that the tide may be turning for Facebook and other social networks.

"Social Media has peaked," Gerber said on Twitter. "We told you last qtr and now we're seeing it."

- Investing in safety, security -

Facebook lost around one million users in Europe in the past quarter as new data protection rules went into effect

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told the call the tech giant has been investing heavily in "safety, security and privacy" after being rocked by concerns of manipulation of the platform to spread misinformation and the hijacking of user data.

"We're investing so much in security that it will start to impact our profitability, we're starting to see that this quarter," Zuckerberg told a conference call on quarterly results.

But he added that "we run this company for the long term, not for the next quarter."

Zuckerberg has said he did not expect a meaningful impact from the uproar over data hijacked by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, but the last quarter's figures suggested some cooling.

The update showed the key metric of monthly active users rose 11 percent to 2.23 billion, below most estimates of 2.25 billion, while daily active users grew a weaker-than-expected 11 percent to 1.47 billion.

Zuckerberg said Facebook lost around one million users in Europe amid the implementation of new EU data protection rules, but noted that many Europeans "want to use context from ads," suggesting they are opting into allowing data collection for advertising purposes.

Almost all of Facebook's revenue -- $13 billion of the total $13.2 billion -- came from online advertising, a sector dominated by the California social network along with Silicon Valley rival Google.

Although Facebook shares were in a slump after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke earlier this year, the stock had risen sharply and hit record levels this month.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Facebook is expected to hold an 18 percent share of the $273.29 billion worldwide digital ad market, behind Google's 31 percent.

According to the research firm, Facebook-owned Instagram is making up for some of the slowdown in growth at the social network and will generate $8.06 billion in worldwide ad revenue this year.

Separately Wednesday, Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch, who advised the company through a series of probes and investigations into data privacy, said he would be leaving for personal reasons.

"There is never a 'right time' for a transition like this, but the team and the company boast incredible talent and will navigate this well," Stretch said on his Facebook page.Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, said the tie-up with rival Dutch chipmaker NXP won't happen as a result of failure to win approval in China

US computer chip giant Qualcomm said Wednesday it was set to drop a $43 billion acquisition of Dutch rival NXP after failing to win approval of antitrust authorities in China.

Qualcomm's chief executive Steve Mollenkopf said the California firm would end its effort when the bid expires at the end of the day absent any "new material developments."

The move comes amid increasing trade tensions between the United States and China.

Qualcomm had extended the deadline several times for the tie-up which would have given the dominant smartphone chipmaker firm a broader array of products including sensors and microprocessors for connected "internet of things" devices.

According to Qualcomm, the acquisition of NXP has received antitrust clearance from eight of the nine required government regulatory bodies around the world, with the matter still pending in China.

"We intend to terminate our purchase agreement to acquire NXP when the agreement expires at the end of the day today, pending any new material developments," Mollenkopf said in a statement with the company's quarterly earnings.

"In addition, as previously indicated, upon termination of the agreement, we intend to pursue a stock repurchase program of up to $30 billion to deliver significant value to our stockholders."

Based in the Dutch town of Eindhoven, NXP is a leading maker of chips for the auto industry, as well as for contactless payment systems.

A former division of the Dutch electronics giant Philips, it became independent in 2006.

Qualcomm said profit rose 41 percent from a year ago to $1.2 billion while revenues edged up four percent to $5.6 billion.Scott Michael Johnson is the 1,642nd person to be identified of the 2,753 people killed when two passenger jets, hijacked by Al-Qaeda, destroyed the Twin Towers

Seventeen years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the remains of a 26-year-old finance worker killed in New York have been formally identified thanks to advances in DNA testing, officials announced Wednesday.

Scott Michael Johnson is the 1,642nd person to be identified of the 2,753 people killed when two passenger jets, hijacked by Al-Qaeda, destroyed the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, the symbol of New York's financial wealth.

Johnson worked as a securities analyst at investment banking company Keefe, Bruyette and Woods, New York's chief medical examiner Barbara Sampson said.

"You get pulled right back into it and it also means there's a finality. Somehow I always thought he would just walk up and say, 'Here I am. I had amnesia'," his mother, Ann Johnson told The New York Times.

It was the first identification since August 2017, although that man's identity was not publicly revealed at his family's request.

"We made a commitment to the families of victims that we would do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to identify their loved ones," said Sampson.

While more than 1,100 9/11 victims remain unidentified, DNA technology has led to 89 percent of all positive identifications, the medical examiner's office said.Barbie dolls, made by Mattel, are displayed on a shelf at a Target store on July 25, 2018 in San Rafael, California

Slumping US toymaker Mattel announced Wednesday it will cut 2,200 jobs after reporting another steep loss in the second quarter, sending shares sharply lower.

Mattel, the maker of Barbie, Hot Wheels and other toy mainstays, said the job cuts account for 22 percent of its global non-manufacturing staff.

Mattel had 35,000 employees at the end of 2017.

The company also plans to sell manufacturing sites in Mexico.

"Mattel is a company with great potential. We see a lot of opportunities, but there has been a big discrepancy between our financial performance over the last few years and where the company should be," said chief executive Ynon Kreiz.

"With that said, we are in turnaround."

Mattel reported a loss of $240.9 million in the second quarter, bigger than the $56.1 million in the year-ago period.

Revenues fell 13.7 percent to $840.7 million.

Results were dented by the bankruptcy and liquidation of giant toy retailer Toys "R" Us.

Mattel's brands had a mixed performance in the second quarter, with Barbie and Hot Wheels reporting higher sales, but revenues at American Girl and Fisher Price/Thomas & Friends falling.

Shares sank 9.2 percent to $14.80 in after-hours trading.Larry Nassar sits in court listening to statements before being sentenced by Judge Janice Cunningham for three counts of criminal sexual assault in Eaton County Circuit Court on February 5, 2018 in Charlotte, Michigan

Former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually abused hundreds of women and girls, claimed in a court filing made public Wednesday he was assaulted in federal prison and sentenced by a biased judge.

Nassar is serving a life sentence for convictions in three courts on charges of child pornography possession and sexual assault.

In the Michigan state court filing, he asked for a new sentencing hearing in one of those courts, alleging the presiding judge lacked impartiality.

The 54-year-old disgraced doctor has admitted to sexually assaulting athletes over decades, including USA Gymnastics and Olympic champions, under the guise of medical treatment.

But Nassar's attorneys criticized Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who presided over a powerful televised sentencing hearing in January as some 160 victims gave seven days of emotional impact statements.

Aquilina made headlines with pointed and frank comments during the hearing, and the encouraging words she offered each testifying victim, whom she called "sister survivors."

"Judge Aquilina's efforts to demonize Dr Nassar in front of the entire world were successful. He was attacked inside the courtroom in Eaton County and attacked in federal prison," his attorneys wrote.

The Eaton County hearing took place after Aquilina's sentencing. During it, the father of one of Nassar's victims lunged toward him, but was stopped by police guards.

Nassar's attorneys did not provide further details in the court filing about the alleged prison assault.

Aquilina sentenced Nassar to 40 to 175 years and told him, "You do not deserve to walk outside of a prison ever again."

Nassar's attorneys argue Aquilina never properly considered a lesser sentence and are asking that a different judge resentence him.

"(Aquilina) herself proclaimed she wished she could impose cruel and unusual punishment upon Dr Nassar, expressed her expectation that he would be physically harmed in prison, and finally stated that she was signing his 'death warrant,'" the attorneys said.

In a hearing next week, Nassar's attorneys will appear before Aquilina on the motion that she recuse herself.DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Many farmers remain critical of President Donald Trump's tariffs and the damage done to commodity prices and markets but were appreciative Tuesday that he offered to provide some cash to help offset their losses.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $12 billion three-part plan that would borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to pay producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy, and hogs.

The USDA also will buy the surplus of commodities that would otherwise have been exported and distribute them to food banks and other nutrition programs. That will cover fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, beef, pork and milk.

A field of corn is seen in front of a barn carrying a large Trump sign in rural Ashland, Neb., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump's escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

The third prong of the plan is to help farm groups develop new export markets.

"This is a short-term solution to allow President Trump time to work on long-term trade deals to benefit agriculture and the entire U.S. economy," said Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

The money comes from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a USDA agency founded in 1933. It has authority to borrow up to $30 billion from the Treasury at any one time to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices."

Farmers said they would rather have Trump settle the trade disputes with China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union and get free trade flowing again.

"A Band-Aid doesn't cure an illness, but it might make it temporarily better," said Dave Struthers who grows corn, soybeans and hay on a 1,100-acre Iowa farm near Collins, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Des Moines. He also sells about 6,000 pigs a year.

Reaction from trade partners to Trump's tariff policies have pushed soybean prices about 18 percent lower and corn and pork prices down 15 percent from the time Trump began discussing tariffs this spring.

China is the largest buyer of U.S. soybeans and one of the largest importers of U.S. pork.

U.S. farmers are expected to grow 14.2 billion bushels of corn this year and 4.3 billion bushels of soybeans, down some from last year but still huge crops. There were 73.5 million pigs on farms as of June 1, the highest number on that date since records began in 1964.

"Experience has shown that trade wars and all this tit-for-tat is devastating to the (agriculture) economy and drives prices down," said Richard Schlosser, who grows soybeans, corn and wheat in Edgeley, in southwest North Dakota. He called the Trump's tariffs "government interference at its worst."

Schlosser said he had been "transitioning" his farm to his son, but the future doesn't look good for young farmers now, he said.

"My son has a good job outside of farming," Schlosser said. "I told him he better keep that job."

The temporary aid is more of an admission by the president of the "huge impact" the trade war is having on farmers, said Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, which has more than 45,000 members in the state.

"I can't argue they are trying to help us but how long will this last?" said Watne. "Are they truly going to get us a solution that will make things better?"

Watne prefers better crop subsidies and other revenue loss protections in the massive federal farm bill that is being hammered out in a House-Senate conference committee, to guard against retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agriculture exports.

Some farmers were more skeptical of the administration's actions, believing the midterm elections in November had more to do with the announcement than concern for farmers.

"This is an election ploy. And we as farmers are playing the dupes again in this whole process," said Wisconsin farmer Michael Slattery who grows soybeans, corn, wheat and alfalfa with his wife on 300 acres in Maribel, Wisconsin.

Slattery said he didn't support Trump in the last presidential election.

Some farmers expressed concern that few details have been released. The USDA said it planned to roll out some of those details around Labor Day and the program would begin to make payouts after the fall harvest.

"I don't want free money. I don't want bailouts. I want trade. Trade is what works," said Wanda Patsche, who grows corn and soybeans and raises pigs near Welcome in southern Minnesota with her husband, Chuck.

Mark Jackson, who farms with his son and his brother on 2,000 acres in southeast Iowa near Oskaloosa was supportive of Trump's efforts to realign global trade to an improved balance for the United States. He said he agrees with the broader goal of balancing trade especially with China.

"There is a tendency for a little bit of Trump piling on," he said. "We're trying to sort through a lot of the chaff to get down to the real heart of the issue to make this thing a little more equitable."

____

Blake Nicholson contributed from Bismarck, North Dakota; Doug Glass from Minneapolis; Roxana Hegeman from Wichita, Kansas and Carrie Antlfinger from Milwaukee.

Farmer Tim Novotny, of Wahoo, shreds male corn plants in a field of seed corn, in Wahoo, Neb., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The Trump administration announced it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump's escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Farmer Michael Slattery stands in front of his soybean field, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Maribel, Wis. He and his wife farm 300 acres of mostly soybean and corn, but they also have wheat and alfalfa. Slattery said he while he will benefit from emergency aid, he sees it as a short-term fix. He said he also sees it as an ploy to gain support ahead of the mid-term elections. (AP Photo/Carrie Antlfinger)

Tim Novotny, right, works with Loran Houska, both of Wahoo, Neb., perform maintenance on a farm shredder in Wahoo, Neb., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The Trump administration announced Tuesday it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump's escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Farmer Tim Novotny, of Wahoo, shreds male corn plants in a field of seed corn, in Wahoo, Neb., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The Trump administration announced it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump's escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

Farmer Tim Novotny, of Wahoo, shreds male corn plants in a field of seed corn, in Wahoo, Neb., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The Trump administration announced it will provide $12 billion in emergency relief to ease the pain of American farmers slammed by President Donald Trump's escalating trade disputes with China and other countries. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)>>> Hundreds missing, several feared dead, after Laos dam collapse

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and President Tran Dai Quang on July 24 sent messages of sympathy to General Secretary of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party Central Committee and President of Laos Bounnhang Vorachith.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc cabled a message of sympathy to his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith, while Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh also sent a similar message to Lao Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith.

The same day, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a phone call to his Lao counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith, affirming that the Party, State and people of Vietnam are willing to assist the Lao people to overcome the aftermath of the incident.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked Vietnamese representatives agencies in Laos to follow the situation and coordinate closely with local relevant agencies to update information about Vietnamese citizens and overseas Vietnamese in the affected area and stand ready to take measures to help those in need.

In case of emergency, it is recommended to contact the hotline for citizen protection in Laos 008562096106775 or in Vietnam 0084981848484.LOS ANGELES (AP) - The heart of Yosemite National Park, where throngs of tourists are awe-struck by cascading waterfalls and towering granite features like El Capitan and Half Dome, will be closed as firefighters try to corral a huge wildfire just to the west that has cast a smoky pall and threatened the park's forest, officials said Tuesday.

Yosemite Valley will be closed for at least four days beginning at noon Wednesday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of State Route 41, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

At least a thousand campground and hotel bookings will be canceled - to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. Rangers were going to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotels guests were getting phone calls and notes on their doors.

German tourists Stephanie Schultz, left, photographs Kai Rudolph, right, along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley as smoke from the Ferguson Fire hangs in the air Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. The heart of Yosemite National Park, where throngs of tourists are awe-struck by cascading waterfalls and towering granite features like El Capitan and Half Dome, will be closed as firefighters try to corral a huge wildfire just to the west that has cast a smoky pall and threatened the park's forest, officials said Tuesday. The closure is expected to last through Sunday. (Eric Paul Zamora/The Fresno Bee via AP)

"We're asking people here tonight to leave tomorrow morning," he said, adding that many people have already left. "And anyone that's incoming tomorrow will get an email or phone call stating that their reservation is canceled."

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Officials were quick to point out that Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the Ferguson Fire. Authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

Yosemite Valley is the centerpiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley's grand vista of waterfalls and shear granite faces has been obscured by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Visitors are advised to "limit activity during the periods of poor air quality," the park said in a statement. "Some facilities and services are closed or diminished."

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained Tuesday morning.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while others have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite/Madera County, said the regional visitors bureau has been relocating tourists statewide following the closure.

"People are heartbroken," she said. "Some want to ride it out for a few days and see if they can get back in the park." Others want help finding places to stay away from Yosemite.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

"There are wonderful places to visit in the region, so we're asking people to consider alternative plans," he said.

In the state's far north, a nearly 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.

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Follow Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCM

Victor Woodley wears a mask due to smoke while taking entrance fees at the south entrance to Yosemite National Park, Calif., Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The heart of Yosemite National Park, where throngs of tourists are awe-struck by cascading waterfalls and towering granite features like El Capitan and Half Dome, will be closed as firefighters try to corral a huge wildfire just to the west that has cast a smoky pall and threatened the park's forest, officials said Tuesday. Yosemite Valley will be closed for at least four days beginning at noon Wednesday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of State Route 41, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. (Eric Paul Zamora/The Fresno Bee via AP)

Smoke from the Ferguson Fire fills Yosemite Valley as seen from Tunnel View Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. A Yosemite National Park official says at least a thousand campground and hotel reservations will be canceled after authorities decided to close Yosemite Valley to keep a growing forest fire at bay. Spokesman Scott Gediman says the valley, the heart of the visitor experience at the park, along with a windy, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of State Route 41 that is part of Yosemite will close beginning Wednesday at noon. (Eric Paul Zamora/The Fresno Bee via AP)

People stop to look at the smoke from nearby wildfires Tuesday, July 24, 2018 in Yosemite National Park, Calif. The heart of Yosemite National Park, where throngs of tourists are awe-struck by cascading waterfalls and towering granite features like El Capitan and Half Dome, will be closed as firefighters try to corral a huge wildfire just to the west that has cast a smoky pall and threatened the park's forest, officials said Tuesday. The closure is expected to last through Sunday. (Eric Paul Zamora/The Fresno Bee via AP)

FILE - In this Sunday, July 15, 2018, file photo, flames from a wildfire burn down a hillside in unincorporated Mariposa County Calif., near Yosemite National Park. California authorities will shut down Yosemite Valley for several days beginning Wednesday, July 25, as crews try to stop a stubborn and growing wildfire from spreading into Yosemite National Park. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

FILE--In this file photo taken Oct. 30, 2017, a partially burned vineyard is seen along Highway 121 in Sonoma, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown has thrown his support behind limiting liability for electric utilities when their equipment causes wildfires. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, file)

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2017 file photo, an aerial view shows the devastation of the Coffey Park neighborhood after a wildfire swept through in Santa Rosa, Calif. California Gov. Jerry Brown has thrown his support behind limiting liability for electric utilities when their equipment causes wildfires. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

FILE - In this July 15, 2018, file photo, a plane battling the Ferguson Fire passes the setting sun over unincorporated Mariposa County, Calif., near Yosemite National Park. California authorities will shut down Yosemite Valley for several days as crews try to stop a stubborn and growing wildfire from spreading into Yosemite National Park. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Residents listen during a community meeting at an auditorium in Yosemite Valley to share the latest information about the Ferguson Fire Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. A Yosemite National Park official says at least a thousand campground and hotel reservations will be canceled after authorities decided to close Yosemite Valley to keep a growing forest fire at bay. Spokesman Scott Gediman says the valley, the heart of the visitor experience at the park, along with a windy, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of State Route 41 that is part of Yosemite will close beginning Wednesday at noon. (Eric Paul Zamora/The Fresno Bee via AP)MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - A Brazilian medical student and three other people have been killed amid unrest that has rocked this Central American nation for over three months, her university and a human rights group reported Tuesday.

Rayneia Lima, whose age varied between 29 and 31 in different reports, was riding in a vehicle in the capital Monday night when it was riddled by bullets that struck several vital organs, said Ernesto Medina, rector of the American University of Managua.

Medina said the shots came from armed pro-government civilians who have taken over the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua since July 13, as Lima was traveling near that campus.

Armed police with their faces covered stand in a street after taking control of the city streets in Jinotega, Nicaragua, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Four more people have been killed in Nicaragua amid unrest that has rocked the country for over three months. AP Photo/Cristobal Venegas)

He added that Lima was a sixth-year student and practicing resident at the police-run Carlos Roberto Huembes Hospital in Managua.

In a statement, Nicaragua's National Police attributed her death to a "private security guard," saying he opened fire "under circumstances that have not yet been determined."

Brazil's Foreign Ministry expressed its "profound indignation" over the killing and said it was seeking clarification from Nicaragua's government.

"The Brazilian government again condemns the deepening repression, the disproportionate and lethal use of force and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security forces," the ministry said in a statement.

It urged Nicaragua to punish those responsible for the killing and also "to guarantee the free exercise of individual rights and public liberties."

In an interview broadcast Tuesday night, President Daniel Ortega blamed the start of the violence in April on "interventionism" by the United States and Nicaragua's private sector, which broke off its support for his government.

Dialogue with President Donald Trump to alter U.S. policies toward Nicaragua would be "ideal," Ortega said on Telesur, a news outlet in Venezuela, whose socialist government is a close ally of his administration.

According to the non-governmental Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, at least 351 people have been killed in political unrest that erupted in April. What began as protests against proposed social security cuts later broadened into calls for President Daniel Ortega to leave office after security forces and pro-government civilian militias began a deadly crackdown.

Alvaro Leiva, the association's director, said Monday that three people were killed, 25 wounded and 15 detained Monday in the city of Jinotega when police and paramilitaries attacked protest barricades.

The violence came hours after Ortega said in an interview with Fox News that the country was returning to normal.

"The disturbances have ceased over the last week in the country and things are on course for normalization," the president said in his first interview with an independent news outlet in nine years.

He also rejected calls for early elections and denied having any responsibility for attacks on Roman Catholic clergy or killings of civilians, blaming the violence on his political opponents and foreign interests.

That is counter to what international organizations and Nicaraguan rights groups have documented. Last week the Organization of American States adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses committed by Nicaraguan security forces and their armed civilian backers.

In a critical tweet on Monday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said: "State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing. 350+ dead at the hands of the regime. The US calls on the Ortega government to end the violence NOW and hold early elections - the world is watching!"

Ortega has also accused those demanding he leave office of being coup plotters.

Leiva denounced what he called a "fierce persecution" against protesters, saying that during a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday more than 750 people had been abducted "by paramilitaries in a clear violation of human rights."

Demonstrators a march demanding the ouster of President Daniel Ortega and the release of political prisoners, in Managua, Nicaragua, Monday, July 23, 2018. Anti-government protests began in mid-April over cuts to the social security system but broadened to include demands for Ortega to leave office and early elections to be held. (AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga)PERTH, Australia (AP) - An alleged serial killer on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to slaying three women who vanished from an Australian city nightclub strip more than 20 years ago and to sexually assaulting another two teenagers up to 30 years ago.

Bradley Robert Edwards, 49, has been in custody since he was arrested at his Perth home in December 2016 after what police described as the biggest and most complex investigation in Western Australia state history.

But he did not enter pleas to the charges until he appeared in Perth's Stirling Gardens Magistrates Court via a video link from prison. Magistrate Jan Whitbread ordered Edwards to stand trial in the Western Australia Supreme Court at a date to be set.

Three young women went missing in 1996 and 1997 while heading home alone after nights out in the nightlife precinct of the wealthy Perth suburb of Claremont. The crimes became notorious Australia-wide as the "Claremont serial killings."

Edwards was initially charged with the deaths of Jane Rimmer, a 23-year-old childcare worker, and Ciara Glennon, a 27-year-old lawyer, whose bodies were found in remote areas on Perth's outskirts within weeks of their disappearances.

The body of Edwards' alleged first victim, 18-year-old secretary Sarah Spiers, has never been found. Edwards, who lived in a suburb 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Claremont, was charged with her murder in February.

Edwards is also charged with abducting and raping a 17-year-old girl in a Perth cemetery in 1995 and indecently assaulting an 18-year-old woman during a break-in at her Perth home in 1988.

Spiers' father Don, Glennon's father Denis and detectives involved in the investigation over the years were in court on Wednesday to hear the pleas.

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This story corrects to 30 years in first paragraph.ATTAPEU, Laos (AP) - Rescuers searched Wednesday for scores of villagers left missing when part of a newly built hydroelectric dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 24 people, officials said.

Thousands of people lost their homes when the South Korean-built dam gave way on Monday, flooding surrounding villages.

Hundreds took shelter in nearby towns, traveling by bus and pickup trucks and sleeping on plastic sheeting.

In the image made from aerial video taken Tuesday, July 24, 2018, villages are inundated with floodwaters from a collapsed dam in Attapeu province, southeastern Laos. The KPL news agency said Wednesday on its website that officials in Attapeu province also reported more than 1,300 houses damaged by flooding after an auxiliary dam at the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower project partially collapsed on Monday night. (LNT via AP)

"The water came so quick we just left the house and ran away," said Phon Vuongchonpu, whose family of 12 fled as the floodwater rose to roof level. "We've lost everything: motorbike, furniture our cows and pigs."

Bounyong Phommachak, a Red Cross official, said 24 bodies had been recovered and 96 people were officially listed as missing. He said by phone that about 6,600 people had been displaced from their homes.

China's state news agency, Xinhua, which maintains one of the very few foreign news bureaus in Laos, reported that Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said at a news conference that 131 people were missing and the homeless totaled 3,060. He did not give a death toll.

The discrepancies in the tolls could be due to difficult communications and heavy rains in the area which have hampered rescue efforts.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed people sitting on rooftops to escape the surging water, while others were carried to safety or rescued by boat.

One of five auxiliary earth-fill dams at the project began visibly weakening on Friday, said Korea Western Power, one of two South Korean partners in the hydroelectric project.

SK Engineering & Construction, the other Korean joint venture partner, said the top of the dam was swept away Sunday as workers were struggling to control the damage amid heavy rain. The situation worsened on Monday as water cascaded out of the reservoir, flooding seven out of 12 villages in the area, SK E&C said. It was helping to evacuate and rescue residents and sent its president and a team of 30 people to the disaster zone.

Continued heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the area could hinder rescue efforts, and risks from flooding persisted in the mountainous region. A report by the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission said storms had caused water levels along the river to rise by 3-5 meters (9-15 feet) in the past week.

Provincial authorities issued a call for emergency aid, and residents in Paksong were streaming to the evacuation shelter bringing food, as doctors attended to those needing help.

"I feel safe here, but worry for my husband and son who are still in the village," said Tem Namsakhunpiraded, who escaped the floodwaters with three of her children and a 6-month-old grandchild.

The International Red Cross said food was a concern because village food supplies were drenched in the flooding. It was arranging for water purification units to be sent to the area to ensure supplies of clean drinking water.

The presidential office in South Korea said President Moon Jae-in had ordered an emergency relief team to help with the disaster.

The $1.02 billion project encompassing several river basins in a remote corner of southeastern Laos is the first hydroelectric dam to be built by a South Korean company, and it was unclear how severe the damage would be to the overall plan. The dam was due to begin operating in 2019, with 90 percent of the power generated going to Thailand.

Shares of companies affiliated with SK E&C sank on Wednesday on concerns over potential costs for compensation and other financial setbacks from the disaster.

Laos has dozens of hydroelectric projects under construction and plans for sales of power to neighboring countries, now accounting for about a third of its exports, to grow substantially.

But dam building along the Mekong River and its tributaries, including those affected by this disaster, has raised concerns over environmental impact and other problems.

International Rivers, a nongovernmental group generally critical of such projects, said the catastrophe showed the need to improve warning systems.

"With over 70 hydropower projects currently built, under construction and planned across Lao PDR - most of them owned and operated by private companies - authorities must immediately review how dams are being planned, designed and managed," the group said in a statement.

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Associated Press writers Tong-hyung Kim and Youkyung Lee in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.

CORRECTS TO STILL PHOTO - In this Tuesday, July 24, 2018, photo, people on a boat are evacuated in the floodwaters from a collapsed dam in southeastern Laos. Rescue efforts are ongoing in villages flooded after part of a newly built hydroelectric dam was breached in southeastern Laos. (Attapeu TV via AP)

A woman carrying her baby waits out at a shelter in Paksong town, Champasak province, Laos on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescuers were searching Wednesday for villagers left missing when part of a newly built dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 19 people. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Villager Phon Vuongchonpu and his grandchildren take refuge at a shelter in Paksong town, Champasak province, Laos on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescuers were searching Wednesday for villagers left missing when part of a newly built dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 19 people. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

Villager Phon Vuongchonpu and his grandchildren take refuge at a shelter in Paksong town, Champasak province, Laos on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescuers were searching Wednesday for villagers left missing when part of a newly built dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 19 people. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

In the image made from aerial video taken Tuesday, July 24, 2018, villages are inundated with floodwaters from a collapsed dam in Attapeu province, southeastern Laos. The KPL news agency said Wednesday on its website that officials in Attapeu province also reported more than 1,300 houses damaged by flooding after an auxiliary dam at the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower project partially collapsed on Monday night. (LNT via AP)

In the image made from aerial video taken Tuesday, July 24, 2018, villages are inundated with floodwaters from a collapsed dam in Attapeu province, southeastern Laos. The KPL news agency said Wednesday on its website that officials in Attapeu province also reported more than 1,300 houses damaged by flooding after an auxiliary dam at the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower project partially collapsed on Monday night. (LNT via AP)

Villagers take refuge on a rooftop above flood waters from a collapsed dam in the Attapeu district of southeastern Laos, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The official Lao news agency KPL reported Tuesday that the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam in Attapeu province collapsed Monday evening, releasing large amounts of water that swept away houses and made more than 6,600 people homeless. (Attapeu Today via AP)

A villager takes refuge on a rooftop above flood waters from a collapsed dam in the Attapeu district of southeastern Laos, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The official Lao news agency KPL reported Tuesday that the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam in Attapeu province collapsed Monday evening, releasing large amounts of water that swept away houses and made more than 6,600 people homeless. (Attapeu Today via AP)ISLAMABAD (AP) - The Latest on Pakistan's elections (all times local):

12:50 a.m.

The head of Pakistan's former ruling party has rejected the results of the country's parliamentary elections before the results are announced, claiming the vote was rigged.

Pakistani politician Imran Khan, center, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, casts his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League party, said the results of Wednesday's vote were being tampered with. He didn't provide any evidence or elaborate.

His allegation came hours after the closing of polls Wednesday, although the country's elections oversight body was yet to announce even the first result of the elections.

The vote was overshadowed by violence in which 31 people were killed when a bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in the southwestern city of Quetta.

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11:50 p.m.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is condemning the suicide bombing attack outside a polling station during Pakistan's national elections.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into people waiting outside a polling station in the city of Quetta, killing 31 people after the polls there opened. The attack underscored difficulties Pakistan faces on its journey toward sustained democracy.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says: "The United Nations stands in solidarity with and supports the efforts of the government of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism."

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6:20 p.m.

The spokesman for Pakistan's Election Commission says the commission has issued a notice to aspiring prime minister Imran Khan saying his vote could be disqualified after he cast his ballot in front of television cameras, violating "the secrecy of the ballot paper."

Nadeem Qasim tells The Associated Press that a notice was issued to Khan after he marked his ballot in front of TV and still cameras in violation of Pakistan's constitution, which guarantees the secrecy of the ballot. Images show a smiling Khan with his ballot paper laid out in front of him as he marks the ballot. Several cameras crowded the former cricket star turned politician.

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6:05 p.m.

Polls have closed across Pakistan in the national election of a third straight civilian government in the Islamic nation.

The voting ended after a suicide bombing outside a polling station in the southwest, in which 31 people were killed. However, the balloting for a National Assembly, lower house of parliament and four provincial assemblies was largely peaceful elsewhere.

Pakistan's military, at the request of the country's elections oversight body, deployed over 370,000 security forces at polling stations.

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into people waiting outside a polling station in the city of Quetta, killing 31 people after the polls there opened. The attack underscored difficulties Pakistan faces on its wobbly journey toward sustained democracy.

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5:15 p.m.

A top contender in Pakistan's national elections, the party of former jailed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has asked the elections oversight body to extend voting for one hour to allow people waiting to vote to cast their ballots.

Mushahid Hussain, the Pakistan Muslim League spokesman, says many of their supporters are still standing in long lines at polling stations, waiting to vote on Wednesday.

He accused election officials of taking too much time in issuing ballot papers to voters.

It's unlikely the election commission will accept the request, which came less than an hour before polls were to close.

Pakistani law allows all who enter polling stations before voting ends to cast ballots.

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3:55 p.m.

The head of the European Union's observer mission in Pakistan has condemned the bombing outside a polling station in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, that killed 31 people.

Michael Gahler says 120 EU observers are at 40 polling stations throughout the country as the nation votes but not in Baluchistan because of security concerns.

He says the monitors also watched as election workers prepared to start the vote on Wednesday, readying ballots and electoral rolls.

Gahler will present a preliminary report assessing elections on Friday. He says observers will look into some reports that media access was restricted by military posted at polling stations throughout the country.

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2:45 p.m.

Police in Pakistan say more clashes between rival political parties have killed another person and wounded 15 across the country.

Officer Nasir Ahmed says supporters of the Pakistan Muslim League and Tahrik-e-Insaf parties clashed during the polling on Wednesday in the city of Khanewal, in Punjab province, firing shots and hurling clubs and stones at each other.

Ahmed says four people were taken to hospital with bullet wounds and one of them died. He said 12 people were arrested.

Supporters of the two political parties also clashed elsewhere in Punjab, injuring over a dozen people. There were also skirmishes among political activists in various towns in southern Sindh province but no casualties were reported there.

Earlier in the day, shooting between supporters of two rival parties left one person dead and wounded two in a village near the northwestern city of Swabi.

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1:50 p.m.

Pakistan's opposition leader Imran Khan, who aspires to be the country's next prime minister, has cast his ballot near his suburban home in the capital, Islamabad.

Khan voted as elections got underway in Pakistan where the nation is electing a new National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and four provincial assemblies on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, an explosion outside a crowded polling station in the southwestern city of Quetta killed 25 people and wounded 40.

Another prominent candidate in the elections - late Prime minister Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - also cast his vote, in his native town of Larkana.

Khan, who heads Tehrik-e-Insaf, or Justice Party, is likely to do well in the elections. He arrived at the polling station to warm greetings from supporters who showered his vehicle with rose petals.

After voting, Khan appealed on Pakistanis to come out in large numbers and vote sensibly "to save future generations."

The young Zaradri, who is now heading her slain mother's Pakistan People's Party, condemned the bombing in Quetta.

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11:45 a.m.

A Pakistan hospital official says an explosion outside crowded polling station in southwestern city of Quetta has killed 25 people and wounded 40. Jaffer Kakar, a doctor, says five policemen and two children are among the dead. He fears the death toll could rise as many of the wounded are in critical condition.

Wednesday's attack comes as Pakistanis vote in general elections for 270 members of the law-making National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief in Quetta, Baluchistan's provincial capital, says the explosion took place when near the city's eastern bypass.

Baluchistan also saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the run-up to election day, with 149 people, including a provincial assembly candidate, killed at a campaign this month.

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10:40 a.m.

Pakistani police say a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties has left one person dead and wounded two people in a village near the northwestern city of Swabi.

It is the first violence on election day in Pakistan. Ahead of Wednesday's balloting, over 170 people - including three candidates running in the elections - were killed in suicide bombings in southwestern Baluchistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Police officer Khalid Hamdani says it's unclear what triggered the shootout between a group of supporters of the secular Awami National Party, which has often bbeen targeted by the Taliban, and the Tehrik-e-Insaf led by former cricket star Imran Khan, a center-right party.

Hamdani says the situation is now under control and voting is underway in Col Sher Khan village.

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10:15 a.m.

A hard-line Pakistani cleric who heads an alliance of religious parties and the country's parliament speaker have cast their ballots in the general elections underway in Pakistan.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman voted in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan soon after polls opened on Wednesday.

His Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal is a potential threat to opposition leader, former cricket star Imran Khan's party in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Khan's party has ruled the province for the last five years.

Rehman appealed to citizens after casting his ballot to cast their votes with the full sense of responsibility so capable hands could take over the country.

Ayaz Sadiq, speaker of the National Assembly, voted in the eastern city of Lahore.

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8:40 a.m.

Pakistan Muslim League chief Shahbaz Sharif cast his vote in the eastern city of Lahore soon after polls opened in national elections.

Sharif, the younger brother of disgraced ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, took over the ruling Pakistan Muslim League last year after his brother was found guilty of corruption. The ex-prime minister has since been sentenced to 10 years in jail, which he is serving while appealing the conviction.

The younger Sharif stood in line waiting his turn to enter the polling booth. In Pakistan, a candidate can run for elections in multiple seats. If the candidate wins more than one seat, a by-election will be held as a person can represent only one constituency.

Sharif marked his ballot for both the National and Punjab provincial Parliaments and is contesting elections in four National Assembly seats and in two Punjab provincial legislature seats.

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8 a.m.

Pakistanis began voting in a historic third straight election ending a campaign marred by widespread allegations of manipulation that local and international rights group say imperils the country's wobbly transition to democratic rule.

There are 85,307 polling stations across Pakistan and more than 11,000 candidates are vying for 270 seats in parliament and 570 seats in four provincial assemblies. Voting for two parliament seats and six seats in provincial assemblies has been postponed for a later date, due to attacks on candidates or disqualifications. One candidate in the Sindh provincial assembly was unopposed and has already secured that seat.

Under Pakistani law, separate seats are reserved for women and for non-Muslim minorities, who comprise 4 percent of the population.

Pakistani security personnel visit the site of bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, killing many people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday in a general election. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

A Pakistani woman mourns the death of her family member outside a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, killing dozens of people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday in a general election meant to lead to the nation's third consecutive civilian government. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Volunteers rush injured persons to a hospital in Quetta, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, killing dozens of people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday in a general election meant to lead to the nation's third consecutive civilian government. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, speaks to media after casting his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government in this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history.(AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, arrives to cast his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government in this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history.(AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Bilawar Bhutto Zardari, leader of Pakistan Peoples Party, arrives at a polling station to cast his vote in Naudero, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, killing dozens of people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday in a general election meant to lead to the nation's third consecutive civilian government. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih)

Pakistani voters pose to show their identity cards waiting to cast their votes at a polling station Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Pakistani volunteers and security officers visit the site of a bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. A suicide bomber struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta, killing dozens of people as Pakistanis cast ballots Wednesday to democratically elect a civilian government. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)

Pakistani politician Imran Khan, chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, speaks to media after casting his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

A woman casts her vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian election, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

People wait in queue at a polling station to cast their votes in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian election, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

A Pakistani woman casts her vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian election, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)

A Pakistani casts his vote at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian election, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans have launched an effort to expand the massive tax law they muscled through Congress last year, aiming to make permanent the individual tax cuts and small-business income deductions now set to expire in 2026.

The pre-midterm elections push, which clicked into gear Tuesday, is portrayed as championing the middle class and small businesses. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who heads the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said making the tax cuts permanent would build on the tax law's economic boost by adding 1.5 million new jobs and increasing wages.

With the elections about four months away, polls are showing mixed support among voters for the $1.5 trillion package of individual and corporate tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law as his marquee legislative achievement.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., closes the door before speaking at a news conference after a Republican caucus meeting, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The new tax proposals are aimed at giving Republican lawmakers a selling point as they prepare to leave Washington to campaign in their districts.

"It's going to identify Republican priorities," said Marc Gerson, a former majority tax counsel for the Ways and Means Committee, who now heads the Washington law firm Miller & Chevalier.

The new Republican outline also calls for new tax incentives for savings, by creating a "universal savings account" for families and allowing the popular, tax-free 529 college savings accounts to also be used to pay for apprenticeship fees and home schooling expenses, as well as paying off student debt. In addition, workers would be able to tap their retirement savings accounts without tax penalty to cover expenses from the birth of a child or an adoption.

Start-up businesses would be permitted to write off more of their initial costs.

"We plan to work off this framework to build on the growing successes of the (tax law) and ensure this energized economy continues moving forward," Brady said in a statement.

The tax law that took effect Jan. 1, the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, is estimated to add around $1.5 trillion to the ballooning deficit. And deficit hawks as well as Democratic lawmakers - who were unanimous in opposing the tax legislation last year - wondered Tuesday how the Republicans intended to pay for the extended tax cuts.

"It's amazing to think that Washington's record debt binge by Congress still isn't over," Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a statement. "This country is drowning in red ink. It is beyond irresponsible to add even a dollar more to the debt, and anyone who cares about fiscal responsibility should dismiss further tax cuts outright."

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said the new Republican proposal "doubles down on massive breaks for the rich and sweeteners for high fliers while trying to cover up the broken middle-class promises from their first tax law."

"Wages are falling as the cost of living climbs higher and higher," Wyden said in a statement. "Instead of working across the aisle on ways to boost paychecks for working Americans, congressional Republicans laid out a plan to give the fortunate few another round of deficit-exploding tax cuts."

The new tax law provides steep tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans, and more modest reductions for middle- and low-income individuals and families.

While the law slashed the corporate tax rate permanently from 35 percent to 21 percent, its tax cuts for individuals and the millions of U.S. "pass-through" businesses expire in eight years. The "pass-through" businesses pipeline their income to owners and other individuals, who then pay personal income tax on those earnings, not the corporate rate. They are allowed under the new law to deduct 20 percent of the first $315,000 of their earnings.

Also until 2026, the tax law ended the $4,050 personal exemption for individuals, and capped at $10,000 the amount of property taxes or state or local taxes that consumers can deduct on their federal returns.

Early this year, millions of working Americans got a boost from the tax law as they saw increases in their paychecks with less tax withheld by employers. But as Trump's populist attacks against free trade have erupted into trade wars with China and U.S. allies, trade tensions have overshadowed the tax cuts in economically vulnerable areas of the country that depend on exports.

With retaliation coming against U.S.-made products such as blue jeans, motorcycles and whiskey, many of the hardest-hit states are those that were won by Trump in the 2016 election. Some in the business community have warned that the positive impact on the economy from the tax cuts could be eroded by harm inflicted by trade disputes.

The solid Republican majority in the House nearly ensures passage of the new proposals before the November elections. But prospects in the Senate are clouded by the slim GOP majority and less appetite for tax cuts, given that a smaller proportion of members are facing re-election this year. Numerous senators are also concerned about the potential for blowing up the deficit with new tax cuts - absent corresponding new revenue sources.

"They'll see what comes out" of the House, Gerson said.WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of "vicious" tactics on trade as he prepared for tough negotiations with European leaders in an escalating trade battle among world powers.

Trump tweeted that China was specifically targeting U.S. farmers with retaliatory tariffs because "they know I love & respect" them. His defense came after his administration announced a plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers who have been slammed by the president's trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Trump wrote on Twitter, "They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"

President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving at the Kansas City International Airport to attend the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Chinese President Xi Jinping said at an international summit in South Africa that the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation," in remarks that criticized escalating U.S. tariffs on goods from China and other major trading partners. He warned that those who pursue "economic hegemony" will "only end up hurting themselves."

The president was meeting at the White House later Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other European officials as their trade dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that the European Union and Canada rejects. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The European Union has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs on products worth $20 billion if Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested in a tweet that "both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!"

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing's high-tech industrial policies. China has struck back with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe's biggest economies.

The moves have been unsettling to lawmakers with districts dependent upon manufacturers and farmers affected by the retaliatory tariffs.

The Agriculture Department said it would tap an existing program to provide $12 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trump's tariffs and other assistance, such as the purchase of excess crops.

With congressional elections coming soon, the government action underscored administration concern about damage to U.S. farmers from Trump's trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The administration said the program was just temporary.

"This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration the time to work on long-term trade deals," said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue as administration officials argued that the plan was not a "bailout" of the nation's farmers.

But that provided little solace to rank-and-file Republicans, who said the tariffs are simply taxes and warned the action would open a Pandora's box for other sectors of the economy.

"I want to know what we're going to say to the automobile manufacturers and the petrochemical manufacturers and all the other people who are being hurt by tariffs," said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. "You've got to treat everybody the same."

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the Agriculture Department was "trying to put a Band-aid on a self-inflicted wound. The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts. This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy."

Trump pushed back against critics of his plan on Wednesday, telling them to "be cool" because "the end result will be worth it!"

On Twitter, Trump said people "snipping at your heels during a negotiation" will only delay the process. He wrote: "Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!"

The program is expected to start taking effect around Labor Day. Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by retaliation to the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs.

The food purchased from farmers would include some types of fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, dairy products, beef and pork, officials said.

Agriculture officials said they would not need congressional approval and the money would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.

The officials said payments couldn't be calculated until after harvests come in. Brad Karmen, the USDA's assistant deputy administrator for farm programs, noted that the wheat harvest is already in, so wheat farmers could get payments sooner than other growers.

Soybeans are likely to be the largest sector affected by the programs. Soybean prices have plunged 18 percent in the past two months.

The Agriculture Department predicted before the trade fights that U.S. farm income would drop this year to $60 billion, or half the $120 billion of five years ago.

Mark Martinson, who raises crops and cattle in north-central North Dakota and is president of the U.S. Durum Growers Association, said the $12 billion figure "sounds huge" but there are many farmers in need. "I don't think this will cover us for a very long time - and it might not even buy me a tank of diesel. I think it will only put out the fire a little bit."

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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Kevin Freking and Matthew Daly in Washington, James MacPherson in Bismarck, North Dakota, and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita, Kansas, contributed.

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On Twitter follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC

President Donald Trump gestures to music as he arrives to speak to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump arrives at Kansas City International Airport to attend the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump arrives for a tour during a "Made in America Product Showcase" at the White House, Monday, July 23, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Islamic State fighters ambushed a city and several villages in southern Syria on Wednesday, triggering ferocious clashes between residents and the militants that provincial health officials said killed more than 200 people.

The coordinated attacks across the province of Sweida, which included several suicide bombings, shattered the calm of a region that has been largely insulated from the worst of the violence of Syria's seven year long civil war.

The suicide bomb blasts inside the provincial capital, also called Sweida, were apparently timed to coincide with attacks on villages in the eastern countryside, creating mayhem across the province.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians inspect the site of a suicide attack in Sweida, Syria, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Syrian state media say dozens of people have been killed in a suicide attack in the country's south, blaming the bombing on Islamic State militants. (SANA via AP)

The attacks triggered deadly clashes between pro-government fighters and residents who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns on one side and IS militants on the other.

By nightfall, the province's health directorate had recorded 204 civilians killed and 180 wounded, according to local official Hassan Omar, making it the single bloodiest day for the province since the 2011 national revolt that sparked the ongoing civil war.

Sultan Bou Ammar, a resident of the village of Shbiki, said some residents unwittingly opened their doors when militants knocked early Thursday morning, so unexpected was the attack.

"They kidnapped more than 40 people, all of them women or children," said Bou Ammar.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said at least 183 people were killed, including 94 residents who were part of local defense militias that have the backing of the Syrian government. At least 45 IS militants were killed in the fighting.

Al-Ikhbariya state-run TV showed images from several locations in the province and its capital where the bombers blew themselves up.

The rare attacks in Sweida, populated mainly by Syria's minority Druze, came amid a government offensive elsewhere in the country's south. Government forces are battling the IS-linked group near the frontier with Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and near the border with Jordan. The group also has a small presence on the eastern edge of Sweida province.

Since their offensive in June, Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces have retaken territories controlled by the rebels along the Golan Heights frontier and are now fighting militants in the country's southern tip.

IS has been largely defeated in Syria and Iraq, but still has pockets of territory it controls in eastern and southern Syria.

The extremist group boasted that its "soldiers" killed more than 100 people in Sweida. In a statement posted on the group's social media channels, it said its militants carried out surprise attacks on government and security centers, sparking clashes with Syrian troops and allied militias.

The death toll in Sweida, initially reported at 27, quickly climbed. The Observatory also reported a series of suicide blasts and the clashes in the province's countryside. It said the dead included civilians, pro-government fighters and IS militants.

An activist-operated media platform on Facebook, Sweida News Network said a local militia was fighting the advancing IS-affiliated group and that at least 30 militiamen were killed in the clashes with the militants.

Al-Ikhbariya said one of the suicide bombers hit a vegetable market in the city of Sweida just after 5 a.m., a busy time for the merchants at the start of their day.

The bomber drove through the market on a motorcycle and there detonated his explosives, the TV station said. A second attacker hit in another busy square in the city. Two other attackers blew themselves up as they were chased by security forces, the TV said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemns the terrorist attacks" and "is appalled by the utter disregard for human life" displayed by IS, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "Those responsible for the attacks must be held accountable."

The city of Sweida has largely been spared most of the violence that Syrian cities have witnessed in the years since the conflict started in 2011. The provinces' religious and civil leaders have preached coexistence with Damascus, even as cities elsewhere in the country heaved with protests.

But the largely rural province has suffered from emigration as weak employment prospects and conscription pressures to serve in the national army have pushed men out.

Bou Ammar, from Shbiki, said there weren't many men left to defend the village when the militants attacked.

"We got reinforcements from (security) forces near and far, God grant them peace," he said.

For the southern offensive, government forces redeployed troops from Sweida province last month to attack rebels and IS-affiliate militants in the nearby provinces of Daraa and Quneitra.

The government is now in control of Daraa but continues to battle the IS-affiliate militants in Quneitra.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb, Zeina Karam and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.The ceremony was attended by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, former Party General Secretaries Nong Duc Manh, President Tran Dai Quang, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, and many other Party and State leaders, as well as over 400 delegations representing over 40,000 members of 63 literature and arts associations from across the country. On the occasion, many leaders, and former leaders of the Party, State, and the Vietnam Fatherland Front sent baskets of flowers to the ceremony.

At the ceremony, poet Huu Thinh, President of the Vietnam Union of Literary and Arts Associations, reviewed the establishment and development of the VULAA over the past 70 years, emphasising the necessary tasks in the future.

On behalf of the Party and State leaders, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong congratulated the VULAAs artists and expressed his gratitude for their great contributions.

He also affirmed the mission and great role of literature and art, while emphasizing that the main task of Vietnamese literature and art in the future is to contribute positively to the cause of innovation, integration, and the development of the country.

At the ceremony, on behalf of the Party and State leaders, President Tran Dai Quang presented the Gold Star Order to the VULAA for the great contributions made by the art staff to the cause of national protection and construction.

To mark the occasion, the VULAA has published the book titled "70 years of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations (1948-2018)" and released a special issue of the Vietnam Literature and Arts Forum magazine.MATI, Greece (AP) - Rescue crews were searching Wednesday through charred homes and cars for those still missing after the deadliest wildfires to hit Greece in decades decimated seaside areas near Athens, killing at least 79 people and sending thousands fleeing.

There was no official indication as to how many people might be missing, and some took to social media and Greek television stations with appeals for information on their loved ones.

Survivors described dramatic scenes of people fleeing to beaches and being forced to swim out to sea despite gale-force winds and high waves to escape choking smoke and flaming pine cones raining down into the water.

A man stands next to his burned house and car as he speaks on his cellphone in Mati, east of Athens, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescue crews were searching through charred homes and cars for the missing after wildfires decimated seaside areas near the Greek capital, killing at least 74 people and sending thousands fleeing. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Fire service spokeswoman Stavroula Malliri said the death toll had increased by five to 79. There were fears it would increase further as rescue crews gradually went through the hundreds of burnt homes, while others searched the coastline and the sea.

More than 280 firefighters were still in the area to the northeast of Athens in the wider Rafina area, dousing the remaining flames to prevent flare-ups. A further 200 firefighters backed up by a water-dropping helicopter were tackling the second forest fire west of the capital, near Agioi Theodori, where local authorities pre-emptively evacuated three communities, a children's summer camp and three monasteries overnight, according to the fire department.

Flags across Greece flew at half-staff after the prime minister declared three days of national mourning.

The two fires on either side of the Greek capital started Monday within hours of each other, fanned by gale-force winds that hampered firefighting efforts.

The speed with which the blaze northeast of Athens spread took many by surprise, and is believed to have contributed to the high death toll.

"We couldn't see any fire. The fire came suddenly. There was so much wind, we didn't realize how it happened," said Anna Kiriazova, 56, who survived with her husband by shutting themselves in their house instead of trying to flee through the flames.

Kiriazova said they used a garden hose to douse their house in the Mati area near Rafina with water, and credited the fact that their window frames were metal instead of wood for their home being spared.

"We shut ourselves in the house, we closed the shutters, we had towels over our faces," she told The Associated Press. "The inferno lasted about an hour. I have no words to describe what we lived through."

Her 65-year-old husband, Theodoros Christopoulos, said the couple decided to take shelter indoors because the narrow roads were jammed.

"There was a great panic because the whole street was blocked by cars," Christopoulos said. "Shouting, hysteria, they could see the fire was coming with the wind. It already smelled a lot, the sky was black overhead and in no time at all the fire was here."

Hundreds of others abandoned cars and fled to nearby beaches, from where they were evacuated hours later by coast guard and private boats. Dozens swam out to sea despite rough weather to escape the intense heat and choking smoke.

One woman told state television she fled into the sea with her daughter and grandchildren, aged 13 and 15, and they were forced to swim out beyond the shallows along with many others who had sought shelter on the beach.

"The sea was burning, the flaming pine cones were falling into it," said the woman, who gave only her first name, Mary. "We couldn't stay (in the shallows)."

Thick smoke blacked out the sky, and the group quickly lost their bearings.

"The sky was smoky and black, and the sea stormy," she said. "There were a lot of waves, huge waves ... they were coming like mountains over us." In desperation, her grandchildren shouted for help at firefighting planes flying overhead.

After more than four hours at sea, the group was picked up by a fishing boat with an Egyptian crew, which went on to pick up others from the sea, including the body of at least one person who had drowned, the woman said.

With the number of missing unclear, authorities appealed for people to call them if they were searching for loved ones. Some people also turned to Greek television and radio stations, asking for information from the public for relatives they hadn't heard from since the blaze.

The story of one man desperately searching for his children highlights the plight of many families looking for relatives.

Yiannis Philipopoulos appeared on television early Wednesday appealing for help to locate his missing twin daughters, who he said he had spotted on television footage arriving in the port of Rafina in a fishing boat during the evacuation of people from beaches overnight Monday to Tuesday.

Yiannis Philipopoulos said he and his wife recognized 9-year-old Sophia and Vasiliki in the news footage after spending a fruitless day searching hospitals and giving DNA samples at the Athens morgue. He had contacted police, who were helping search for the girls.

Philipopoulos said the girls had been with his parents, of whom there was no sight in the footage. Speaking on television stations Skai and Alpha, he said the images gave him hope his children were alive, and urged anyone with information to contact him.

The footage showed two girls among other people, many clad just in swimsuits, disembarking from the fishing boat. Philipopoulos said he went with police to the TV station and saw the footage in higher resolution, and was sure the children were his daughters. But he had not heard from them since the fire.

The captain of the fishing boat said authorities had recorded the names of rescued people as they disembarked. The names of the two girls, however, appeared not to be among them.

___

Becatoros reported from Athens. Menelaos Hadjicostis contributed to this report.

The burned living room of a house is seen in Mati, east of Athens, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescue crews were searching through charred homes and cars for the missing after wildfires decimated seaside areas near the Greek capital, killing at least 74 people and sending thousands fleeing. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Damaged houses are seen behind the burned forest in Rafina, east of Athens, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescue crews were searching through charred homes and cars for the missing after wildfires decimated seaside areas near the Greek capital, killing at least 74 people and sending thousands fleeing. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Workers cut the burned trees in Rafina, east of Athens, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescue crews were searching through charred homes and cars for the missing after wildfires decimated seaside areas near the Greek capital, killing at least 74 people and sending thousands fleeing. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The burned kitchen of a house is seen in Mati, east of Athens, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Rescue crews were searching through charred homes and cars for the missing after wildfires decimated seaside areas near the Greek capital, killing at least 74 people and sending thousands fleeing. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)ATLANTA (AP) - With the Georgia governor's race now set, the contest between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams becomes a question of which candidate can move beyond their partisan bases to capture the electoral middle in this emerging battleground state.

Kemp, a two-term secretary of state backed by President Donald Trump, hardly moderated his approach as he celebrated an overwhelming runoff victory Tuesday. After a campaign featuring guns, chain saws and his smiling pledge to "round up criminal illegals" in his pickup truck, the newly minted Republican nominee painted Abrams as a radical leftist threat to Georgia values.

Abrams, a former state legislative leader, isn't a radical by any conventional definition of U.S. politics, but she's run an aggressive campaign to energize the Democratic base by pledging to expand Medicaid insurance and spend more on education, infrastructure, and job training. She also backs tighter gun restrictions, abortion rights and removing Confederate monuments from state property. Her effort to become the nation's first black woman elected governor has made her a national political celebrity.

This combination of May 20, 2018, photos shows Georgia gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams, left, and Brian Kemp in Atlanta. With the Georgia governor's race now set, the contest between Kemp and Abrams becomes a question of which candidate can move beyond their partisan bases to capture the electoral middle in this emerging battleground state. (AP Photos/John Amis, File)

"The contrast ... could not be sharper," said Emory University political science professor Alan Abramowitz. "Kemp is running as an all-out Trump supporter and a 'politically incorrect conservative.' Abrams is not only the first African-American candidate for governor in Georgia, but probably the most liberal Democratic candidate for governor in history."

Both national parties are running ads labeling the opposition as dangerous.

A Republican Governors Association spot slams Abrams as the "most radical liberal ever to run for governor" -- the voiceover doesn't even limit the claim to Georgia. The Democratic Governors Association labels Kemp irrational, using the same secretly recorded audio Kemp exploited to defeat Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who lamented that the GOP contest came down to "who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest."

For her part, the 44-year-old Abrams steered clear of heated partisan broadsides. After Kemp's victory, she sent a Twitter fundraising appeal that mentioned her Republican rival only by his last name. "Service, faith & family guide our vision for GA: Affordable health care. Excellent public schools for every child. An economy that works for all," she wrote. She isn't expected to campaign publicly or grant media interviews until Thursday.

Georgia's version of the widening gulf between the two major parties in style and substance in the Trump era offers plenty of spillover effects nationally. Kemp's victory margin affirms Trump's imprint and the Republican base's continued embrace of hardliners, sending another warning to establishment critics of the president.

November's vote will test this strategy with two candidates that could hardly be more different.

Will a Deep South state - led by white, male governors since 1776 and not long removed from having Confederate insignia on its flag - elect a self-declared progressive black woman from Atlanta as its chief executive?

Or will an increasingly urban, diversifying state - now the eighth most populous and home to The Coca-Cola Company, Delta, Home Depot, UPS and the 1996 Summer Olympics - embrace a brash, chain saw-cranking Republican who pretended to intimidate his daughter's boyfriend with a shotgun in a campaign ad.

Kemp credited Trump's late endorsement for sealing his victory, and Trump tweeted his congratulations on Wednesday, urging Kemp to "go win against the open border, crime loving opponent that the Democrats have given you."

It was trademark over-the-top rhetoric: Abrams has criticized Trump's immigration policy but has never advocated open borders. She also worked with outgoing Republican Gov. Nathan Deal on a criminal justice overhaul that earned broad bipartisan support.

And Wednesday evening, Trump tweeted anew: "Thank you Georgia! They say that my endorsement last week of Brian Kemp, in the Republican Primary for Governor against a very worthy opponent, lifted him from 5 points down to a 70% to 30% victory! Two very good and talented men in a great race, but congratulations to Brian!

Before Trump's endorsement, public polling late in the race suggested Kemp had the advantage by a relatively narrow margin. While Kemp had momentum on his side nearing the end, his nearly 70 percent winning margin surprised many.

Trump won Georgia by less than 5 percentage points in 2016 - a closer margin than elsewhere in the South - and Democrats argue his support is softer among more affluent, educated Republicans and independents, giving Abrams an opening as Kemp copies the Trump playbook.

"The craziest Republican emerged," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said in an interview. Inslee called Kemp a "sycophant for Donald Trump," and said Abrams offers a "real economic agenda." The DGA recently steered $250,000 to the Georgia Democratic Party for its fall efforts.

No Democrat has won a race for governor or senator in Georgia since 1998, and no Democratic presidential nominee has carried the state since 1992. But in the last decade, GOP nominees in those races typically garner no more than 53 percent of the vote.

Both nominees have weaknesses. The personal data of millions of registered Georgia voters was twice compromised during Kemp's tenure as secretary of state; Kemp blamed an employee and the contractor running the state's elections system. Abrams reported $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt along with owing $50,000 to the IRS, liabilities she attributes to her Yale law education and her financial support for her relatives.

Republicans, like party strategist and pollster Mark Rountree, argue that Abrams' agenda means higher taxes, anathema to the suburban voters she'll need.

But Jason Carter, who lost the 2014 governor's race as Democratic nominee, said Abrams "has the substance" to explain her ideas well. The question, he said, is whether Abrams can "connect with enough voters" personally to capitalize on the historic nature of her candidacy "without being consumed by it."

___

Follow Barrow and Nadler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP and https://twitter.com/benjaminrnadler .

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp hugs a supporter while making his way through a crowd after giving a victory speech during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle speaks to reporters after conceding the election to Secretary of State Brian Kemp during his election-night watch party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

FILE - In this May 20, 2018, file photo, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams participates in a debate in Atlanta. Georgia Republicans tapped Brian Kemp to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in the Georgia governor's race this November, setting a matchup that will test history and highlight the widening gulf between two major parties moving further apart in style and substance in the era of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, center, stops for a selfie with someone as he makes his way through a crowd of supporters after giving a victory speech during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp, center, poses with a supporter after giving a victory speech against Casey Cagle during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)(AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp interacts with supporters after giving a victory speech against Casey Cagle during his runoff election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp goes on stage to declare victory against Casey Cagle during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)WASHINGTON (AP) - Military prosecutors recommended a court-martial on Wednesday for a U.S. Naval Academy midshipman who is accused of distributing drugs to fellow midshipmen after he acquired them on the dark web, where people search for drugs through secret web browsers and buy them using encrypted channels, code names and virtual currencies.

Midshipman Zachery Williams gave, sold and used the drugs while going to concerts with other students, Lt. Amanda Serfess said, adding that his crimes were particularly offensive, because he introduced drugs to the academy. Antoinette O'Neill, Williams' lawyer, declined to give a closing statement at the Article 32 hearing at the Washington Navy Yard. The hearing, which lasted less than an hour, is similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding. Neither prosecutors nor defense attorneys called witnesses.

"I do not intend to make a statement, sir," Williams, of Canal Fulton, Ohio, said, when he was asked if he wanted to comment.

This photo provided by the Dover Police Department, in Delaware, shows Zachary Williams, of Canal Fulton, Ohio. The U.S. Naval Academy announced Tuesday, July 24, 2018, it is bringing charges against Williams, a midshipman, who allegedly distributed illegal drugs, including cocaine. (Dover Police Department via AP)

Navy Capt. John Han, the preliminary hearing officer, will make recommendations on whether the case should proceed to a court-martial, a decision that ultimately rests with Vice Adm. Ted Carter, the academy's superintendent who preferred the charges. Carter is not bound by Han's recommendations.

The charges include failure to obey a general regulation, making a false official statement and possession of illegal substances. They also include possession of illegal substances with intent to distribute, use of illegal substances and distribution of illegal substances.

Williams remains an active midshipman, though he has been on a leave of absence, Serfess said. He faces dismissal from the academy as well as up to 131 years in prison.

Serfess said two midshipmen told school officials that Williams and "associates" were selling drugs on and off campus. She said a search by Navy investigators of his dorm room turned up ecstasy pills and a white powder, which turned out to be ketamine.

Some of the charges relate to an arrest carried out last month by the Dover, Delaware, Police Department. Williams allegedly sold ecstasy to undercover officers during the Firefly Music Festival, but the charges were later dropped. Serfess said police dropped the charges after Williams cooperated with authorities in other investigations.

In the Dover arrest, authorities said Williams sold ecstasy to undercover officers in a festival camping parking lot with another Ohio man. Police then found 33 grams of ecstasy, 4.6 grams of cocaine, 1.1 grams of marijuana and a digital scale during a search, according to a police report. But Serfess said what police described as 4.6 grams of cocaine in the report was later described by an officer as ketamine.

Han questioned how those charges could be based on a substance that had not been clearly determined. Serfess said the charges were based off of the police report, and that they may need to wait for a definitive test. She also noted the drugs found in his dorm room.

The charges are based on an investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service that began in November.

As a result of the Navy investigation, six midshipmen have been kicked out of the academy for using illegal substances. Another five midshipmen were administratively disciplined for drug-related violations.BEIJING (AP) - Chinese state media say a total of 15 people have been detained in a growing scandal over the faking of records by a rabies vaccine maker.

Those detained include the CEO of Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., which has been accused of fabricating production and inspection records following a surprise visit to company offices by inspectors last week.

The other 14 were also executives at the company, state broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday.

A clinic staff shows boxes of Infanrix and Pentaxim vaccines for infants at a children's clinic in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as they see a rise in the number of mainland parents bringing their children to Hong Kong for vaccinations following the vaccine scandal in China. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have demanded urgent attention to the matter, underscoring the government's concern over public outrage about a series of public health scandals, especially ones concerning children.

The World Health Organization applauded the government's action, saying it shows "when regulatory oversight works well, potential risks can be averted."

"While the current incident is clearly regrettable, the detection of this event by an unannounced inspection shows that the regulatory authority's system of checks and balances to protect population health is working," WHO's Beijing office said in a statement.

While there have been no reports of injuries, authorities have impounded the vaccines and suspended production at the company's plant in northeastern China.

The disclosure of the scandal has ricocheted around social media, reviving memories of past scandals involving faulty medications and bogus infant formula that contained little more than starch.

A similar scandal erupted two years ago after police broke up a criminal ring that sold millions of faulty baby vaccines - but did not disclose the case for months.

A clinic staff shows a box of Pentaxim vaccine for infants at a children's clinic in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as they see a rise in the number of mainland parents bringing their children to Hong Kong for vaccinations after the vaccine scandal in China. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - A closely watched index of confidence among German business executives barely fell in July, suggesting that for now Europe's largest economy remains unharmed by growing global conflict over trade.

The Ifo institute index fell to 101.7 points from 101.8 points in June. Business leaders were somewhat more satisfied with how things are now, but less so about expectations for the months ahead.

Analyst Carsten Brzeski at financial firm ING Germany said Wednesday that the results suggest that "trade fears are only fears and not a drag on growth - yet."

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, car transporters in Ruesselsheim, central Germany. The European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Thursday July 19, 2018, it is preparing measures to retaliate against the United States if US President Donald Trump escalates trade tensions with new auto tariffs. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, FILE)

U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed new import tariffs on steel and aluminum and on $34 billion in annual Chinese goods imports. He has said he may impose tariffs on the bulk of Chinese goods, and on autos.BERLIN (AP) - Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said Wednesday he will return to Belgium this weekend to resume efforts to drum up European support for Catalan self-determination after Spain's bid to extradite him collapsed.

Puigdemont has been in Germany since March, when he was arrested on a Spanish warrant as he tried to return from Finland to his home in Belgium. The warrant was withdrawn last week, and Puigdemont told reporters in Berlin that he will return to Belgium on Saturday.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium last year after his regional government held an unauthorized referendum on independence from Spain.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, center, addresses the media during a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Spanish authorities took over the Catalan government for several months after a subsequent declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament received no international recognition.

Puigdemont said he will pick up where he left off in March, continuing his work to fulfill "the people's mandate" and support fellow separatists who are imprisoned in Spain.

Earlier this month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Catalan President Quim Torra - a fervent nationalist who is Puigdemont's hand-picked successor - agreed to open talks over Catalonia's future.

Sanchez took office last month after securing a narrow parliamentary majority, with support from Catalan separatists and others, to oust predecessor Mariano Rajoy - a hardliner on Catalonia.

"Clearly the change of Spanish government has meant a change of style, climate and language," Puigdemont said.

"But it is time for facts and not gestures," he added. "We have shown that we are prepared ... for dialogue, but we have to address the essential part of this dialogue: the relationship between Catalonia and Spain."

Puigdemont insisted that the matter "is no longer a Spanish domestic affair." He acknowledged that Catalan separatists have no support from European governments, but insisted that "we have plenty of support from European citizens."

Spain had sought Puigdemont's extradition on rebellion charges for promoting independence. But a German court ruled he could only be sent back to face a lesser charge of embezzlement connected to the alleged misuse of public funds for holding the outlawed independence referendum. A Spanish judge then withdrew his European arrest warrant.

An earlier Spanish attempt to extradite Puigdemont from Belgium failed.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, center, attends a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, center, waits for the beginning of a news conference in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)HELSINKI (AP) - Top European Union officials were going into a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday warning they are ready to put tariffs on $20 billion of American goods if he puts duties on car imports.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Trump in Washington to try to talk him out of imposing the auto tariffs, which would hurt the industry on both sides of the Atlantic and ratchet up trade tensions significantly.

"The aim of this visit is to cool down the situation and prevent an escalation of the trade conflict," Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in an interview.

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009, car transporters in Ruesselsheim, central Germany. The European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said Thursday July 19, 2018, it is preparing measures to retaliate against the United States if US President Donald Trump escalates trade tensions with new auto tariffs. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, FILE)

But she noted that if the U.S. proceeds with the duties, the EU is ready to respond. It will impose new tariffs on a range of U.S. products, including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery.

Trump has repeatedly called the EU - which includes many of the U.S.'s oldest and most committed allies - an unfair trading partner and even labeled it a "foe." His administration this year imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum, drawing retaliation from the EU on a series of U.S. goods. But those tariffs covered about $3 billion in goods and would pale in comparison with possible 25 percent tariffs on imports of cars, trucks and auto parts.

It is unclear what Trump's approach will be in the talks. After tweeting that "Tariffs are the greatest!" he suggested hours later in another post that "both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!"

The EU's budget chief, Guenther Oettinger, said the EU was prepared to discuss lowering and restructuring all tariffs for all products.

"We want to avoid a further escalation of the trade dispute (into) a trade war," Oettinger told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. "We have good arguments, clear numbers and we have ideas, too."

"Whether these will help, nobody knows. But not to try, not to fly over there for the meeting, would have been the wrong path."

Auto tariffs would be particularly painful for Germany, where the industry is huge and has long been the symbol of postwar wealth.

And it is not just Europeans opposing these tariffs, but American companies as well. The duties would increase the cost of many components that American manufacturers import and use in making cars. Ultimately, that will make cars more expensive for U.S. consumers.

EU has a huge stake in the U.S. industry, where European companies produce almost 3 million cars a year, accounting for over a quarter of production in the United States.

The biggest exporter of U.S.-made cars is a German company - BMW, through its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

German producers and supplies employ more than 118,000 people at about 300 plants and manufacture more than 800,000 vehicles per year in the U.S. - with more than half of the cars being exported, according to figures provided by the German automotive industry.

___

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation" amid a trade war with the United States that he warned would have no winner.

Those who pursue "economic hegemony" will "only end up hurting themselves," Xi said at the annual summit of the BRICS emerging economies, held this year in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," he added in remarks critical of escalating U.S. tariffs on goods from China, the world's second-largest economy, and other major trading partners.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25, 2017. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Just hours earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump accused China of "vicious" tactics on trade, tweeting that China was specifically targeting U.S. farmers with retaliatory tariffs because "they know I love & respect" them.

The other leaders of BRICS countries - Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazilian President Michel Temer - are expected to join the three-day summit. Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has also been invited.

Ramaphosa also expressed concern about "the rise in unilateral measures that are incompatible with World Trade Organization rules" and are especially damaging to developing countries.

Trump's comments on China came after his administration announced a plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers who have been slammed by the president's trade disputes. China has retaliated to American tariffs with duties on some U.S. products.

The Chinese leader told the summit that "we are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and a closed-door policy."

"The current international order is not perfect," Xi said, but it should not be discarded "as long as it is rule-based, aims to be equitable and pursues win-win outcomes as its goals."

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

China's President Xi Jinping, left, with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, middle, and Robert Haydn Davies, minister of trade and industry of South Africa, leave the stage after the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening session of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping applauds South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, right, at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through to Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Yeshiel Panchia)

China's President Xi Jinping waves as he leaves the stage after the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

China's President Xi Jinping leave the stage after the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2017. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2017. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during his opening of the BRICS Summit in JOhannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the opening session of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during his opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers his speech at the opening of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2017. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, inspects the honour guard during an official welcoming ceremony at the government's Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Jinping is in the country to attend the three-day BRICS Summit starting Wednesday in Johannesburg. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks during his opening of the BRICS Summit in JOhannesburg Wednesday, July 25 2018. The summit runs through Friday with various heads of BRICS attending. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)BRUSSELS (AP) - The European Union's top court ruled Wednesday that food produced by a series of new biotechnology breeding techniques should be considered genetically modified organisms, thus falling under the EU's strict regulations of the products.

The ruling, which will see the foods face special safety checks and labeling restrictions, was seen as a major victory for environmentalists at the expense of the biotech industry.

Biotech companies have been working on a new generation of technologies to change genetic material in plants or animals, and it had long been debated whether they need to match the EU's rules on genetic modification, which are much stricter than in the United States.

In Wednesday's ruling, the European Court of Justice said that the organisms created by the new breeding techniques "come, in principle, within the scope of the GMO Directive and are subject to the obligations laid down by that directive."

The biotech industry says that the new techniques make it easier to create organisms that are drought and disease resistant while providing higher nutrition yields. They say that locking them in to the strict EU GMO regulations would stifle their development. Others say that their unchecked and unbridled development would put nature and human health at risk.

German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze welcomed the ruling, calling it "good news for the environment and consumer protection. The verdict is also a clear commitment to the precautionary principle in Europe."

"Now we finally have the necessary legal certainty and transparency for consumers, researchers and industry," she said.

"Protecting the environment and health are our top priority with new genetic technology as well," Schulze added.

Mute Schimpf of Friends of the Earth Europe welcomed Wednesday's ruling at the European Court of Justice, saying that under it the new techniques "must be fully tested before they are let out in the countryside and in our food."

The European Association for Bioindustries, or Europabio, condemned the ruling. Secretary General John Brennan warned that Europe could miss out on significant benefits of genome editing and said the decision would hurt EU researchers, academics and innovators.

Detlef Weigel, director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany, called the ruling "a sad day for European science."

The court "followed arguments that are of the same quality as those who deny climate change," Weigel said.

Serious scientific organizations such as the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society in Britain and the German National Academy of Sciences presented evidence that the European Court of Justice discounted, he said.

Weigel said the decision also was impractical because many of the modifications made are undetectable.

"The law cannot be properly enforced, making it an inherently flawed law," he said.

___

Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.The Trump administration, several U.S. senators, and Taiwanese business leaders had been urging the three biggest U.S. airlines in recent weeks to stand up against China's demand about how they describe Taiwan on their websites.

The U.S. airlines, looking at the explosive growth in China's air-travel market, decided to ignore them all.

American, Delta and United joined other global carriers and bowed to pressure from China on Wednesday and stopped listing the city of Taipei as being located in Taiwan. The airlines, however, didn't go so far as to say that Taipei is part of China.

In this July 6, 2018, photo, Chinese security personnel watch as travelers check in for flights at the American Airlines check-in counters at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. China is applauding U.S. airlines for bending to its demand that they cease referring to Taiwan as its own country on their websites, as American Airlines, Delta and United are among a wave of international carriers to remove references to Taiwan on their websites ahead of a Wednesday, July 25, 2018, deadline set by Chinese authorities. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

"Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request," said Shannon Gilson, a spokeswoman for American, the world's biggest airline. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate."

Representatives for Delta and United made similar statements.

Taiwan split politically from mainland China during the 1949 civil war and is self-ruled. China, however, claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened military force to annex it.

In recent years, China has used its economic and political clout to pressure other countries and their businesses to stop recognizing Taiwan as a separate entity. In that effort, officials in Beijing targeted airlines, threatening unspecified punishment for carriers that did not heed China's demands.

The big U.S. airlines declined to say how much revenue they earn from flying between China and the U.S. In regulatory filings, they only describe revenue by region.

United Airlines, which has the most extensive service to China of the three, reported that 13 percent of its revenue last year came from Pacific service, which includes flights to Japan, Korea, Australia and Singapore. Delta Air Lines got 7 percent of revenue from the region, and American got 5 percent.

China, however, is a rapidly growing airline market with a booming middle class that is eager to travel. The International Air Transport Association, a trade group of global airlines, predicts that China could overtake the United States and become the world's biggest air-travel market by 2022.

The U.S. airlines have other financial ties to both China and Taiwan. American owns nearly 3 percent of China Southern Airlines while Delta owns about 3.5 percent of China Eastern Airlines. Delta is in the same airline alliance as Taiwan's biggest carrier, China Airlines, and United shares an alliance with Taiwan's EVA Air.

"China is so strategically important to the U.S. carriers that they can't ignore what the Chinese government mandates," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst in San Francisco. "The U.S. airlines were put in an uncomfortable position. No matter what they decided to do, it was a lose-lose proposition."

Robert Mann, an aviation consultant and former American Airlines executive, said the U.S. carriers "lose face to some degree," but they preserve their ability to sell tickets in China and avoid other punishment that might have included extra customs delays for passengers.

China's foreign ministry applauded the U.S. airlines, calling the changes on their websites "positive progress." Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China welcomes foreign businesses if they "abide by Chinese laws and regulations, sovereignty and territorial feelings, and the feelings of the Chinese people."

By Beijing's Wednesday deadline, all 44 global airlines that had been asked to scrub references to Taiwan had complied, according to the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official newspaper. They included British Airways, Lufthansa, Qantas and Air Canada.

American, which in searches previously displayed the main airport in Taiwan's capital city as "TPE, Taiwan", switched to "TPE-Taoyuan International" and it dropped "Taiwan" from search results. Similarly, Delta similarly changed from mentioning Taiwan to just "TPE Taipei" and no other location clue. United went to "Taipei (TPE-Taoyuan)".

The ending was almost anticlimactic after an intense buildup of opposition in Washington and Taipei to China's pressure.

President Donald Trump's White House had called the demand to erase Taiwan from airline websites "Orwellian nonsense." Eight U.S. senators led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio and New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez told the CEOs of American and United that Congress supported Taiwan, "a democracy and important partner to the US."

Taipei's economic and cultural office in Washington urged the U.S. airlines to stand up to Beijing's bullying. China, the group's representative said, was trying to take the free out of free enterprise.

The U.S. asked China to sit down and negotiate, but China refused.

American, Delta and United decided by Tuesday that they would acquiesce to China. The decision seemed to catch the Trump administration off-guard.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the U.S. opposed foreign governments demanding that private corporations alter their labels to suit that government.

"I was not aware that the companies said that they would fold to the Chinese government," she added, referring to the airlines.

___

David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter

Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

In this July 6, 2018, photo, travelers stand near a signboard at the American Airlines check-in counters at the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. China is applauding U.S. airlines for bending to its demand that they cease referring to Taiwan as its own country on their websites, as American Airlines, Delta and United are among a wave of international carriers to remove references to Taiwan on their websites ahead of a Wednesday, July 25, 2018, deadline set by Chinese authorities. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

In this July 6, 2018, photo, travelers check in for flights at the Delta Air Lines check-in counters at Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing. China is applauding U.S. airlines for bending to its demand that they cease referring to Taiwan as its own country on their websites, as American Airlines, Delta and United are among a wave of international carriers to remove references to Taiwan on their websites ahead of a Wednesday, July 25, 2018, deadline set by Chinese authorities. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)During the visit, Smith held talks with the top Vietnamese legislator Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, paid courtesy calls to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and met leaders of Ho Chi Minh City.

During meetings, both sides underscored the significance of the visit at a time when the two countries are celebrating the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties. In particular, the upgrade of bilateral ties to strategic partnership level in March 2018 has created a new important framework to push forward the deep and practical development of their ties.

The Vietnamese side expressed support to Australian firms to increase investments in the country, especially in the fields of high demand such as energy, telecommunications infrastructure, finance-banking, mining, engineering, high-tech agriculture, education, tourism, poverty reduction, climate change prevention and high-quality workforce training.

Vietnam spoke highly of Australias increasing role and responsibility for the region, particularly in post-disaster search and rescue, pledging that Vietnam will help boost ties between Australia and ASEAN as well as regional countries.

In order to further intensify links between the two legislatures, both sides will facilitate visits to share law-making and supervision experience, assist the two governments in effectively delivering on commitments under the 2016-2019 action plan and agreements reached during the visit, create more favourable conditions for people-to-people exchange, and uphold the role of friendship parliamentarians groups and friendship associations in each country.

They shared the significance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea and the settlement of disputes by peaceful means in line with international law.KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged Wednesday to "intensify and deepen" his country's engagement with Africa, saying his government will do more to support governments across the continent.

In remarks to Uganda's legislature, Modi said that "Africa will be at the top of our priorities," adding that India intends to open 18 embassies in Africa.

He later was set to attend the BRICS summit of emerging economies in South Africa.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second left, escorted by Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, left, meeting members of Parliament in Uganda capital Kampala Wednesday July 25, 2018. Modi is pledging to "intensify and deepen" the Asian country's engagement with Africa, saying Wednesday that "Africa will be at the top of our priorities." (AP Photo / Stephen Wandera)

"India is proud to be Africa's partner," Modi said. "Our development partnership will be guided by your priorities. It will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate your potential and not constrain your future."

Uganda's government depends heavily on outside money, especially loans from Chinese banks, to implement increasingly ambitious infrastructure projects.

India has been trying to expand trade relationships in Africa. Total trade between them increased almost five-fold between 2005 and 2016, reaching $52 billion, according to the trade group Confederation of Indian Industry. In 2015 Modi invited African leaders to New Delhi for an India-Africa summit that was the biggest of its kind.

The Indian prime minister on Tuesday announced his government would lend Uganda up to $205 million to expand its electricity grid and boost commercial farming.

In his remarks to Uganda's legislature, Modi extoled the ideals of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, saying: "India's freedom will remain incomplete so long as Africa remains in bondage."

India's government is planning to build a Gandhi heritage center at the source of the Nile River in eastern Uganda where some of Gandhi's ashes were immersed, he said during his two-day visit.

Uganda has a substantial Indian community, including a group of industrialists who have flourished in the years since they returned to claim assets that had been seized during the rule of dictator Idi Amin.

In 1972 Amin ordered the expulsion of Asians, many of them Indian traders, from this East African country, saying he wanted to put the economy back in the hands of Ugandans. Most of the seized property has since been handed back to the original owners by President Yoweri Museveni's government.

Since then businessmen of Indian origin have invested heavily in Uganda's manufacturing, agricultural processing and pharmaceutical sectors.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, second left, is received by Uganda first lady Janet Museveni, as Uganda Deputy Speaker Jacob Oulanhya, centre right, Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, third right, and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, far left, look on, outside Parliament in Uganda capital Kampala Wednesday July 25, 2018. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is pledging to "intensify and deepen" the Asian country's engagement with Africa. (AP Photo / Stephen WanderaJAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's government has asked a court to ban Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, a militant network linked to the Islamic State group, hoping to strangle its funding and support.

Also known as JAD, the network of almost two dozen extremist organizations has been implicated in numerous attacks in Indonesia in the past two years and was designated a terror organization by the U.S. last year.

Asludin Hatjani, a lawyer for regional leaders of the militant network, including Zainal Anshori, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for gun smuggling, said Wednesday they had acknowledged in court that JAD exists but that it is not a legal entity in Indonesia.

Hatjani said the aim of the government case is to empower stronger police action against JAD. If it's banned, he said, funds and property could be seized and members not actively involved in attacks could be arrested.

In 2008, a Jakarta court banned Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida affiliated network responsible for the Bali bombings in 2002. The group was obliterated by a sustained crackdown on militants by Indonesia's counterterrorism police with U.S. and Australian support, but a new threat has emerged in recent years inspired by IS attacks abroad.

The prosecution indictment filed against the IS-linked group accused it of "committing terrorism acts as a corporation." It said JAD supporters across Indonesia carried out attacks that killed civilians and police and damaged public facilities.

In May, two families carried out suicide bombings in Indonesia's second-largest city, Surabaya, killing a dozen people and two young girls involved by their mother and father in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the head of a local JAD cell.

A radical cleric who founded JAD, Aman Abdurrahman, was sentenced to death last month for inciting attacks including a 2016 suicide bombing at a Starbucks in Jakarta.

State prosecutors are scheduled to argue their case on Thursday.

___

This story has been corrected to show that lawyer for militants, not prosecutor, explained rationale for court case.KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) - A perennial candidate for mayor of Key West took a phone call from God during a recent debate.

"Hello? What? God?" Sloan Bashinsky said into his cellphone during Monday night's debate for city commission and mayoral candidates.

According to a report in the Miami Herald, Bashinsky then talked about cuts to nonprofit funding and told God he thinks city officials have lost their minds.

Bashinsky has a law degree from Vanderbilt University and used to be among Key West's homeless. He says God told him to seek office.

Weird is relative in Key West, where another perennial candidate, the late barkeep and ship captain Tony Tarracino, eventually won the mayor's office after saying "all you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego."BERLIN (AP) - Five female musicians accuse organizers of an Austrian classical music festival of not acting on sexual abuse complaints they made for years against its artistic director, according to an open letter published Wednesday.

The artists alleged that Austrian conductor Gustav Kuhn subjected them to unwanted kisses, groping, bullying and public humiliation during their time at the Tyrolean Festival Erl between 1998 and 2017.

"Repeatedly the borders of personal dignity and respect were ignored and exceeded," the five musicians said.

"We are outraged that despite the well-known facts necessary consequences have not been drawn so far," they said.

In a statement, a lawyer for the festival, Michael Krueger, called the open letter "simply irresponsible." He said Kuhn would defend himself legally against the allegations.

The five musicians - Belarusian violinist Aliona Dargel, German soprano Bettine Kampp, Albanian violinist Ninela Lamaj, German mezzo-soprano Julia Oesch and Swiss soprano Mona Somm - also criticized authorities for failing to act on complaints.

The Austria Press Agency quoted a spokesman for Innsbruck prosecutors, Florian Oberhofer, saying the allegations are being investigated.

At the start of this year's festival, its president Hans Peter Haselsteiner had criticized a local blogger for publishing allegations about Kuhn, saying the conductor "still doesn't hide what he likes. And wine, women and song are things we can all understand."WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's trade policy (all times local):

10:55 a.m.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) says the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation" in remarks that criticized escalating U.S. tariffs on goods from China and other major trading partners.

President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving at the Kansas City International Airport to attend the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

At the annual summit of the BRICS emerging economies, held this year in Johannesburg, Xi said those who pursue "economic hegemony" will "only end up hurting themselves."

"The current international order is not perfect," the Chinese president said. But, Xi said, it should not be discarded "as long as it is rule-based, aims to be equitable and pursues win-win outcomes as its goals."

He said "unilateralism and protectionism are mounting," which he said hurts world trade.

__

10:30 a.m.

Ohio's Republican governor is blasting President Donald Trump's tariffs and his plan to provide $12 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation.

Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) says Trump's imposition of tariffs on products from such allies as Canada under national security grounds was "completely absurd," and that now the president is resorting to "farm welfare" when U.S. farmers want trade. The frequent Trump critic and 2016 rival for the GOP presidential nomination spoke as the 12-day Ohio State Fair opened in Columbus.

The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday announced a $12 billion, three-part plan to borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to pay farmers being hurt by the trade battles with China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union.

Kasich says that will only compound tariff damage.

__

7:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling China "vicious" on trade and says it is targeting U.S. farmers specifically because "they know I love & respect" them.

Trump is also pushing back against critics of his latest plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers, telling them to "be cool" because "the end result will be worth it!"

Farm-state Republicans say farmers want markets for their crops, not government payoffs for lost sales.

On Twitter, Trump says people "snipping at your heels during a negotiation" will only delay the process. He writes: "Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!"

He also tweeted: "China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"

___

1:24 a.m.

Some Republicans in farm states are dismissing the Trump administration's plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief in the wake of trade disputes between the U.S. and other countries, particularly China.

The GOP lawmakers say farmers want markets for their crops, not payoffs for lost sales and lower prices. Administration officials deny that the plan is a bailout.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the plan is meant for short-term relief while President Donald Trump and other officials work on trade deals.

The government's action points to administration concern about damage to U.S. farmers from Trump's trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The program is expected to start taking effect around Labor Day.

President Donald Trump gestures to music as he arrives to speak to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump arrives at Kansas City International Airport to attend the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump arrives for a tour during a "Made in America Product Showcase" at the White House, Monday, July 23, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Greg Jesmer, 54, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child

An elderly woman in upstate New York was found stabbed to death and her neighbor named suspect after police connected evidence from a separate crime of his that involved an underage girl.

Rochester resident Gregory Jesmer has been charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed 101-year-old Marcia Morrison in the neck, throat and upper body at some point earlier this week at their residential complex located on 58 Green Knolls Drive.

Morrison was found dead inside her apartment Tuesday after an employee for a senior transportation company arrived to pick the woman up for her weekly ride and she did not answer the door.

Authorities connected the 54-year-old to the killing thanks to evidence gathered from another incident that occurred later Tuesday.

The suspect allegedly attempted to lure a 13-year-old girl, who also resides in the complex, back to his apartment with a $500 offer.

Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli said in a press conference another member of the community witnessed the exchange before they intervened and phoned 911.

Jesmer allegedly stabbed 101-year-old Marcia Morrison (pictured above) in the neck, throat and upper body this week inside their residential complex

In a press conference, Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli thanked another member of the community who witnessed Jesmer's exchange with the young girl and called 911

'This allowed responding officers to quickly detain this man,' Ciminelli said in the press conference.

'As investigation progressed, additional evidence was gathered, which connected him to the death of the victim on Green Knolls Drive.'

The police chief said additional charges may be pending.

'This investigation probably will continue for days, if not weeks. There is a lot of evidence. There's a lot of crime scene work still in progress, more people to interview,' Ciminelli said.

'On behalf of the Rochester Police Department, I would like to express our condolences and wish our thoughts and prayers to the friends, family and loved ones of the victim during this difficult time.'

Jesmer pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder during his Wednesday arraignment in Rochester City Court,' the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

Jesmer has also been charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

He is currently being held without bail in the Monroe County Jail.

Morrison was found dead inside her apartment located on 58 Green Knolls Drive on Tuesday

A photo from the residential complex is shown after the area was closed off for investigation

Prosecutor Monica O'Brien said in a court statement the crime is 'one of the most egregious that we as a community have ever seen.'

Morrison had just celebrated her 101st birthday last week.

The Chronicle reported that woman is the oldest homicide victim in the city this year.

Morrison's neighbor, Sandra Fields, told the newspaper the woman was 'feisty and funny' and like 'a grandmother' to other residents in the building.

'She had a lot of life left in her, more than some young people,' Fields added.KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - An Afghan official says that seven civilians were wounded by a bomb that exploded in northern Faryab province.

Abdul Karim Yuresh, the provincial police chief's spokesman, says a small child is among the wounded in Wednesday's blast that took place inside a mobile phone store in the provincial capital Maimana.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Separately, in eastern Ghazni province around 40 students from a religious school were detained by Afghan security forces on suspicious of having links to the Taliban, according to Arif Noori, provincial governor's spokesman.

Noori said the security forces conducted a raid late Tuesday in Andar district and the suspects are under investigation.

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, said in a statement that Afghan security forces detained innocent people from the school.SANAA, Yemen (AP) - Yemen's Shiite rebels caused "slight damage" to a Saudi oil tanker off Yemen's western coast, Saudi TV reported on Wednesday shortly after the rebels said they targeted a Saudi "battleship."

The coalition announcement, carried by state-run al-Ekhbariya TV channel, said the rebels, known as Houthis, "had almost caused an environmental disaster." Earlier, the rebel-run Al-Masirah TV said their "naval forces have targeted the Saudi Dammam battleship off the western coast." The report didn't elaborate.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been fighting to defeat the Iran-aligned rebels and restore Hadi to power since March 2015.

The coalition has repeatedly accused Saudi rival Iran of arming the rebels, allegations the Houthis and Iran deny.

In recent months, raging battles have been taking place along Yemen's west coast especially around the key port city of Hodeida as well as other rebel-held areas.

On Tuesday, the United Nations Children's Fund criticized an attack on a vital water facility in Yemen's northern Saada province, a Houthi stronghold.

UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere said the attack, which took place earlier in the week, is the third to target the same water facility. He said the attacks have left over half the project damaged, "cutting off 10,500 people from safe drinking water."

Cappelaere warned against continued attacks on water systems saying they increase the likelihood of water-borne diseases spreading in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, the U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived Wednesday in the capital, Sanaa to meet with rebel leaders amid efforts to restart peace talks after a two-year hiatus.

Yemeni Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid bin Daghr said Sunday the rebels should release all detainees and captives held in their prisons ahead of peace talks. He said the Houthis should also hand over their arms and withdraw from all rebel-held areas including Sanaa, which they seized in September 2014.

Last month, Griffiths announced plans to bring Yemen's warring parties to the negotiating table. He held several meetings with both sides since.

Yemen's three-year stalemated war has damaged Yemen's infrastructure, crippled the health system and pushed it to the brink of famine.

The impoverished country is also now in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance. Malnutrition, cholera and other diseases have killed or sickened thousands of civilians over the years.BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

10 p.m.

The U.N. Security Council is calling on Syria's warring parties to engage with the U.N. on forming a committee to draft a new constitution.

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrians inspect the site of a suicide attack in Sweida, Syria, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Syrian state media say dozens of people have been killed in a suicide attack in the country's south, blaming the bombing on Islamic State militants. (SANA via AP)

Sweden's U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog, the current council president, told reporters Wednesday that September's meeting of world leaders at U.N. headquarters in New York "would be an extremely useful timeline" for the committee to be formed "to show that there is now a political momentum."

But Skoog said after a closed briefing by U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura that the ongoing Syrian government military offensive "doesn't create the best environment for a credible political process."

He said de Mistura will now take the "strong commitment" from the Security Council for his efforts to facilitate a political solution to the Syrian conflict to a meeting on July 30-31 in Sochi, Russia's Black Sea resort, of Russia, Iran and Turkey, the guarantor states in the so-called "Astana process" aimed at ending the violence in Syria.

___

9:05 p.m.

A local health official says the death toll from an Islamic State ambush on a city and villages in a south Syrian province has climbed to 204.

Hassan Omar tells The Associated Press that hospitals had reported over 180 others wounded.

Omar said among the dead were civilians who picked up weapons to defend their hometowns against the IS assault on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the toll at 183 killed - 89 civilians and 94 local militiamen. It said another 45 IS militants were killed in the clashes.

The Observatory called it the single deadliest day for Sweida province since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011

___

5:35 p.m.

Russia says it has sent working groups to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to help coordinate the return of refugees to Syria.

The groups are to conduct "detailed analysis of aspects of the return of refugees to Syria," Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev of the Defense Ministry said at a briefing Wednesday.

Mizintsev said no refugees should be sent back to Syria unwillingly.

"In taking active steps for concluding agreements with foreign partners about cooperation on refugees' return to their places of permanent residence, we are continuing to adhere to the principle that the return of refugees to their homeland should be exclusively voluntary and in secure conditions," he said.

He added that Russia wanted to ensure the return of refugee children by the beginning of the school year on Sept. 1

___

4 p.m.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly attacks and suicide blasts in southern Syrian city of Sweida that killed dozens of people.

IS says in a statement posted on the group's social media channels that its "soldiers" carried out surprise attacks on government and security centers in Sweida on Wednesday.

The bombings - including a suicide attack at a busy vegetable market and a city square - sparked clashes later in the day between Syrian troops and allied militias and IS militants.

IS says more than 100 people were killed.

A Syrian local health official said the bombings and coordinated attacks, and subsequent fighting between local armed groups and militants in Sweida killed over 90 in all.

___

3:30 p.m.

A Syrian local health official says a series of suicide bombings and coordinated attacks, and subsequent fighting between local armed groups and militants in southern Syria have killed over 90 people in all.

Hassan Omar told The Associated Press that as many as 80 people were wounded in Wednesday's attacks and clashes, which the government blamed on Islamic State militants.

State-run news agency SANA earlier reported some of the attacks, including suicide bombings in the city of Sweida, a provincial capital populated by Syria's minority Druze.

It put the death toll for those attacks and others elsewhere in the surrounding province, also called Sweida, at 38.

The bombings appear to have sparked fighting between local armed groups that killed dozens of others, including IS militants.

___

2:15 p.m.

A series of suicide bombings and attacks in southern Syria - including a motorcycle bomber who struck at a busy vegetable market - have killed 38 people.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but state media, the government mouthpiece, are blaming Islamic State militants for the carnage.

The coordinated attacks in the city of Sweida, a provincial capital populated by Syria's minority Druze, were the worst in recent months and had all the hallmarks of IS.

The bombings were apparently timed to coincide with attacks by a militant group linked to IS on a number of villages in the province, also called Sweida.MILAN (AP) - The Latest on the death of Fiat Chrysler's former CEO, Sergio Marchionne (all times local):

4:50 p.m.

The news agency ANSA is reporting that the cause of death of Fiat Chrysler automobile's founding CEO, Sergio Marchionne, was cardiac arrest.

Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne greets workers after touring the assembly line at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., Tuesday, May 24, 2011. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

ANSA reported Wednesday that Marchionne suffered cardiac arrest while recovering from surgery to his right shoulder in a Zurich hospital, which landed him in intensive care, where he later suffered a second, fatal cardiac arrest. It did not give the timing of any of the cardiac events.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles declined to comment, citing privacy issues.

Marchionne was hastily replaced at the helm of the Italian American automaker on Saturday after the company announced he had suffered unexpected complications from surgery that prevented his return. He died on Wednesday.

___

3:30 p.m.

Tributes are pouring in from automotive leaders about Sergio Marchionne's skill, creativity and determination in saving Chrysler and Fiat from near-certain financial ruin.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra, whom Marchionne tried unsuccessfully to persuade to enter into a merger, sent condolences to his family, friends and Fiat Chrysler colleagues and praised his "remarkable legacy in the automotive industry."

Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford called Marchionne "one of the most respected leaders in the industry whose creativity and bold determination helped to restore Chrysler to financial health and grow Fiat Chrysler into a profitable global automaker."

The Cgil union, Italy's most powerful, praised Marchionne for having "saved a dying company." But it faulted him for having failed to negotiate with "an important sector of Italian workers," which it said created conflict and divisions that are still being felt.

Cgil's Fiom metalworkers union clashed with Marchionne over changes he brought to Italian plants to increase productivity.

___

2:45 p.m.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley has paid tribute to Sergio Marchionne, saying news of his death is "heartbreaking."

Manley opened a conference call on the automaker's quarterly results on Wednesday with a minute of silence. He spoke from headquarters in the Italian town of Turin, where corporate flags flew at half-mast. At the Fiat plant in Pomigliano, Italy, where the popular Panda car is produced, workers stopped production for 10 minutes.

Manley said: "This is a very sad and difficult time."

"There is no doubt Sergio was a very special man and there is no doubt he will be sorely missed."

CFO Richard Palmer, who was also on the call, said Marchionne was unique, and that he was grateful to have worked alongside him for the last 12 years. "I know his style was to get on with the job. I would like to move forward with the presentation. Moving to page 3, Q2 wasn't up to our expectations..."

___

11:45 a.m.

Sergio Marchionne, who engineered turnarounds to save both Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, has died.

The holding company of the Agnelli family, which founded Fiat, confirmed Wednesday that Marchionne, 66, had died.

Marchionne joined Fiat in 2004 and led the Turin-based company's merger with bankrupt U.S. carmaker Chrysler. He built the dysfunctional companies into the world's seventh-largest automaker.

Marchionne was reported to have had surgery for a shoulder problem about three weeks ago in Switzerland. Fiat Chrysler said Saturday that due to his deteriorating health Marchionne "will be unable to return to work" and found a replacement.

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007 file photo, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne attends an ANFIA (National Association of cars factories) meeting in Rome. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2016 file photo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel greets Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne, center, next to then Italian premier Matteo Renzi, left, and Fiat Chrysler chairman John Elkann, right, look at them, during a bilateral meeting, in Maranello, Italy. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)

FILE - In this March 15, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump talks with Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne during a tour at the American Center of Mobility, in Ypsilanti Township, Mich. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)

FILE - In this June 1, 2018 file photo, John Elkann, president of the FCA Italy group, right, removes his necktie to give it to Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne prior to a press conference at the FCA headquarter, in Balocco, Italy. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2007 file photo, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne answers journalists' questions during the new Bravo car presentation in Rome. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)

FILE - In this Friday, June 1, 2018 file photo, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne speaks during a press conference at the FCA headquarter, in Balocco, Italy. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)

FILE - In this Monday, Oct. 9, 2017 file photo, Ferrari Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne speaks to reporters at the New York Stock Exchange. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File )

FILE - In this Sept. 6, 2015 file photo, Formula One Group's Chief Executive Bernie Ecclestone, right, shakes hand with Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne prior to the start of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix, at the Monza racetrack, Italy. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, file)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 filer, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne is interviewed after the unveiling of the new 2019 Jeep Cherokee during the North American International Auto Show, in Detroit. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File )

FILE - In this July 14, 2015, file photo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne, left, and United Auto Workers President Dennis Williams shake hands during a ceremony to mark the opening of contract negotiations in Detroit. TOn Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)The expanded medical system is the second phase of a project implemented from December 2015 by the General Department of Logistics, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence, to support the Lao 103 Military Hospital.

The project has connected the operating, diagnostic and meeting rooms at the Lao hospital with the 108 Military Central Hospital in Hanoi for the exchange of specialised support.

The telemedicine system is the first of its kind in the 103 Hospital, as well as across Laos, to be supported by the Vietnamese Ministry of Defence. The system was designed and constructed under strict technical standards and is equipped with state-of-art medical instruments produced by major manufacturers around the world.

Since its launch in April 2016, the system has connected over 20 critical surgeries in the Lao hospital online, with direct support from professors and doctors at the Hanoi-based hospital, in addition to over 35 major national and international scientific seminars held at the 108 Military Central Hospital for doctors at the Lao 103 Military Hospital to update their knowledge remotely.

Doctors from Vietnams 108 Military Central Hospital assist their Lao counterparts in 103 Military Hospital to perform a gallstone surgery through the telemedicine system. (Photo: VNA)



Speaking at the ceremony, Major General Le Hong Dung, Deputy Head General of Vietnamese Ministry of Defences General Department of Logistics, emphasised that the extended telemedicine system would create favourable conditions for the 108 Hospital to continue its support and online technology transfer to the 103 medical facility in Laos.

Medical advances and experiences from professors and doctors at the Vietnamese army special hospital will facilitate the operation of its Lao counterpart, he stated, adding that the system is living proof of the special traditional solidarity friendship between the two countries.

Praising the effectiveness of the project, Major General Khampheth Sisanon, Deputy Head of the General Logistics Department under the Lao Peoples Armed Forces, affirmed that it would not only enhance the close relationship between the two ministries of defence, but also help to improve the professionalism of the Lao 103 hospital, contributing significantly to the treatment and care of the Lao soldiers and people.

He proposed that the host hospital should work closely with its Vietnamese counterpart in order to develop rules and regulations to maximise the effectiveness of the system, while selecting qualified staff to exploit it.BEIRUT (AP) - White Helmets volunteers trapped in southern Syria after the government seized areas they operated in said Wednesday they live in fear of being caught in the dragnet of the government, which considers them one of its staunchest enemies, and are desperately seeking a way out.

Hundreds of the volunteer rescue workers - who have toiled in conflict-ravaged opposition areas for years - have failed to make it out of southern Syria in a complex international evacuation.

The evacuation of more than 400 White Helmets was executed under the cover of darkness across the tightly sealed frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last weekend as a government offensive unfolded.

FILE - In this Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2016, file photo, provided by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, rescue workers move a victim from site of airstrikes in the al-Sakhour neighborhood of the rebel-held part of eastern Aleppo, Syria. The call to get ready came at night. In the raging war zone of southwestern Syria, with enemy government forces on the march, the 98 White Helmets were told to bring spouses, children and but a few belongings to two collection points. Fabled rescuers themselves now in need of rescue, they embarked on a hair-raising journey through Israel, a supposed enemy, enroute to reluctant haven in Jordan, a country already burdened with multitudes of refugees. One woman gave birth along the way, many colleagues were left behind to a fate uncertain, and Syria called the multinational operation by several Western powers a crime. (Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP, File)

In the quickly changing battlefield, the volunteers were unable to access roads to the frontier in time for the first-of-its-kind evacuation that involved international coordination between six countries - Israel, the U.S. Britain, Germany, Jordan and Canada.

Advancing government forces and an affiliate of the Islamic State group expanding in the region quickly seized territory as the armed opposition crumbled or surrendered in the face of a month-long government offensive.

Two of the volunteers who couldn't make it told The Associated Press they tried but couldn't reach the frontier.

The two, who have been part of the group for years, had been cleared for evacuation. But they were caught between the IS-affiliate militants and government forces.

They are currently confined to about 10 square kilometers (3.8 square miles) where they can move between several small villages safely.

They live incognito, using off-roads to avoid government checkpoints and move in tight circles, often with protection, looking out for any signs of government troop movements. Their villages are besieged by government troops and Russian military police. After living for years under opposition administration, the Syrian flag now flies in their villages.

One of the two, who is in charge of a team of 30 volunteers, said he is scrambling to find ways to save them and their families.

"I have four kids and I am wanted. The (government) has declared war on everything that is civil defense," he said, using the other name for the White Helmets. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being arrested.

For those who stayed behind, the psychological pressure is even more crippling than the physical entrapment.

Unlike other civilians who decided to stay in the government-controlled south, the White Helmets say it is impossible to trust the government to reconcile. Rumors and media campaigns are making them even more jittery.

The government and its allies have waged a concerted campaign against the volunteers for years, accusing them of being agents of foreign powers, being terrorists for working in rebel-controlled areas and of staging chemical attacks.

The group, which had more than 3,000 volunteers in opposition-held areas, has saved thousands of lives since 2013 and documented government attacks on civilians and other infrastructure. Its volunteers were repeatedly targeted, and more than 250 were killed on duty.

The evacuation over the weekend through the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Jordan has made things worse, said the other volunteer, a father of three who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

Israel and Syria are formally at war. Collaborating with Israel is considered grand treason. "The accusation of being an agent was the biggest (concern) ... it has become justified for the government to do anything to us."

The trapped volunteers often meet at night to discuss ways to leave, though they have few options.

"Some show their fear, some hide it. Some try to keep morale high," said the father of three.

"We are facing an unknown destiny," he said. "If we knew we face death that would be accepted. But our fate is unknown: torture, detention, maybe death or maybe survival if we are lucky," he said. "Life without hope or dreams is more difficult than dying."

The two volunteers said moving to opposition-held Idlib in the north - an option available for those who refused reconciliation - is not available to them. It would mean taking the risk of going through government checkpoints to another dangerous area considered to be an even larger prison.

They said they have not been able to contact those who evacuated to Jordan. A family member said the evacuees had their phones taken away from them.

The team leader called on the international community to negotiate an exit for them or at least guarantee them protection. "Otherwise we will continue to live homeless," he said.

The other volunteer said when there is a will there is a way: Ransoms have been paid to free Western hostages, and negotiations secured the evacuations of others, including Islamic State militants at one point.

"They can take us through the Damascus International Airport under the protection of the government if they wanted," he said. "Just get us out. We can offer help to others if we go out. We are trained to save lives."

A person close to the evacuation plan of the other volunteers said "every effort is being made" to find safety for those still trapped. He had no specifics but said some volunteers have individually found their way to Idlib.

____

Associated Press writer Alice Su in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.ATLANTA (AP) - The Latest on the Georgia governor's race (all times local):

9 a.m.

President Donald Trump is congratulating Brian Kemp for his Tuesday victory in the GOP runoff for Georgia governor.

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, center, stops for a selfie with someone as he makes his way through a crowd of supporters after giving a victory speech during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Trump had endorsed Kemp, pointing to his tough stance on illegal immigration and support for gun rights. Vice President Mike Pence also had stumped for Kemp on the campaign trail.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted: "Now go win against the open border, crime loving opponent that the Democrats have given you. She is weak on Vets, the Military and the 2nd Amendment. Win!"

Kemp this fall will go up against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who could become the country's first black female governor.

___

3:15 a.m.

Georgia Republicans tapped Brian Kemp to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in the Georgia governor's race, and now the two are headed for a November matchup that will test history and highlight the widening gaps between the two major parties in the Trump era.

Kemp is the two-term secretary of state who trounced longtime Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in a runoff Tuesday. Kemp was helped by President Donald Trump's endorsement.

Abrams, meanwhile, was already set as the Democratic nominee after dominating her primary in May. She's since become a national Democratic Party celebrity as she tries to become the first black female governor in American history.

Those results mean both parties opted for candidates who appealed to the respective bases, instead of primary rivals that had backing from party centrists.

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp hugs a supporter while making his way through a crowd after giving a victory speech during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

FILE - In this May 20, 2018, file photo, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams participates in a debate in Atlanta. Georgia Republicans tapped Brian Kemp to face Democrat Stacey Abrams in the Georgia governor's race this November, setting a matchup that will test history and highlight the widening gulf between two major parties moving further apart in style and substance in the era of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp, center, poses with a supporter after giving a victory speech against Casey Cagle during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)(AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp interacts with supporters after giving a victory speech against Casey Cagle during his runoff election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Georgia Republican gubernatorial runoff candidate Brian Kemp goes on stage to declare victory against Casey Cagle during an election night party, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Amis)Formula One CEO Chase Carey has led racing's tributes to former Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne, who died on Wednesday.

Marchionne, who was 66, died after complications from surgery in Zurich.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of Sergio Marchionne," said Carey. "He was a great leader of not just Formula 1 and the automobile world, but the business world overall.

FILE - In this July 14, 2015 file photo, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne smiles during a ceremony to mark the opening of contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers, in Detroit. On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, holding company of Fiat founding family said Sergio Marchionne, who oversaw turnarounds of Fiat and Chrysler, has died. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, FILE)

"He led with great passion, energy and insight, and inspired all around him. His contributions to Formula 1 are immeasurable. He was also a true friend to all of us and he will be deeply missed. At this difficult time we extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends and colleagues."

Marchionne, who was Italian and Canadian, replaced Luca di Montezemolo at the head of Ferrari in 2014 - with the famous Italian scuderia a fading force in the sport.

Ferrari was the most successful team in F1 but won the last of its 16 constructors' titles in 2008.

Under Marchionne's leadership, Ferrari returned to title-contending form. It has won four of the 11 races to date in 2018 and is challenging for both the drivers' and constructors' titles.

Sebastian Vettel finished runner-up to Lewis Hamilton last year and is currently second, 18 points behind the Mercedes driver.

"This is a sad day for all of us in F1. We have a lost a huge supporter of our sport, a fierce competitor, an ally and a friend," said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff.

"Our heartfelt sympathies are with Sergio's family and all at ScuderiaFerrari at this difficult time."

Many of the other teams also expressed their sympathies on Twitter, ahead of this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

British team Williams posted on Twitter: "We are very saddened to hear of the passing of Sergio Marchionne. On behalf of all at Williams, we would like to express our condolences to Sergio's family, friends and ScuderiaFerrari."

FCA chairman John Elkann - a grandson of the late Gianni Agnelli, the longtime Fiat dynasty chieftain - had been named the new Ferrari chairman on Saturday after an emergency board meeting of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

Marchionne was also the CEO of FCA and engineered two long-shot corporate turnarounds to save both Fiat and Chrysler from near-certain failure, building the dysfunctional companies into the world's seventh-largest automaker, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

"It is with great sadness that I learned that Sergio Marchionne tragically and unexpectedly passed away," said Jean Todt, president of motor sport's governing body FIA. "Sergio achieved a colossal amount for the automotive industry and motor sport worldwide.

"He dedicated himself fully to turn around the FIAT-Chrysler group and put all his energy to bring Scuderia Ferrari back to the top. He was an endearing, upstanding and brave man, an unconventional and visionary leader ...His death is a considerable loss."Google spinoff Waymo is launching a pilot program with Walmart later this week that will allow customers to use its self-driving car service to pick up groceries at Walmart stores.

Waymo said in a blog post on Wednesday that the program, which will be tested in Phoenix starting later this week, will help make shopping more convenient.

Customers will also receive savings on their groceries when they are ordered on Walmart.com, but specific details weren't provided.

FILE - This June 1, 2017, file photo, shows a Walmart sign at a store in Hialeah Gardens, Fla. Google spinoff Waymo says it's launching a pilot program with Walmart that will allow customers to use its self-driving car service to pick up groceries at Walmart stores. Waymo said in a blog post on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 that the program, which will be tested in Phoenix, will help make shopping more convenient. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

In addition, Waymo is expanding existing partnerships with AutoNation and Avis Budget Group. AutoNation will now offer customers a Waymo, instead of a loaner car, when their personal vehicles are being serviced. Avis will soon provide Waymos to its Phoenix customers to help them pick up or drop off their rental cars.

Waymo noted that, "These businesses are national and what we learn from these programs will give us a network of partners when we launch in new cities down the road."Hotel and home-sharing companies don't just want to sell you a room anymore. They also want to sell you an experience.

Want a "Game of Thrones" walking tour of Dubrovnik, Croatia? Marriott can book it for you. Want to create your own perfume in Paris? Airbnb can help.

Online operators like TripAdvisor and Expedia have been booking activities for more than a decade. But Marriott and Airbnb want a bigger piece of that business, so they've added thousands of offerings that travelers can book directly from their web sites.

In this May 11, 2018 photo provided by Danielle Oteri, Oteri poses with a plate of pasta in Naples, Italy. Hotel and home-sharing companies don't just want to sell you a room anymore. They also want to sell you an experience. Oteri runs a company called Feast on History that gives tours in Italy and New York City and has been offering tours of Italian food shops in the Bronx since 2007. Both Marriott and Airbnb reached out to her directly about her $79 tour, which is offered on both of their web sites. But most tours are still booked through her own site. (Christian Galliani via AP)

Airbnb debuted experiences in late 2016; it now offers more than 20,000 activities in 800 cities globally through the "Experiences" tab on its web site. There's a wide range, from a $12 yoga class on a Nashville porch to a $175 encounter with wolves near Seattle. Local hosts apply to Airbnb with tour ideas and Airbnb puts them on its site if they're accepted.

The larger Marriott Moments program, which launched in October, offers 120,000 experiences in 1,000 destinations, from a $27 walking tour of Detroit to a $588 full-day tour of Tuscany. Marriott's partner, online tour search company PlacePass, finds and vets the experiences.

Marriott still offers around 10,000 exclusive activities for its loyalty program members. Those offers - like a pastry class at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris - can only be booked with Marriott or Starwood points.

On both sites, experiences cost the same as they would if travelers booked directly with tour providers. West Wine Tours, which gives tours of Sonoma and Napa, California, in a restored Volkswagen bus, charges $125 on its site as well as through Airbnb.

But Marriott offers a perk: Members of its loyalty program can earn points for booking experiences. Airbnb is working on its own loyalty program, but details haven't been announced.

Sarah Ellis booked a bike tour in Rome, a walking tour in Copenhagen and a Harry Potter walking tour in Edinburgh, Scotland, through Airbnb. She also booked a "Sherlock" tour through TripAdvisor in London, but felt it was too big and commercial.

"The less commercialized and monopolized and standardized the better for an authentic experience," said Ellis, a librarian from Fresno, California.

Others say they would avoid booking through a big company. Matthew Kagan, a partner at a Santa Monica, California-based communications firm, said he wouldn't necessarily book anything through Airbnb or Marriott even though he's a member of Marriott's loyalty program.

"I find sites like Yelp and other crowd-sourced options very helpful because I believe I'm getting real locals' knowledge," he said.

But Elizabeth Barber, an associate professor at Temple University's School of Tourism and Hospitality Management, thinks Marriott's experiences appeal to travelers who want a trusted name vetting their activities.

"If I only have three days and I don't want to waste my time, these have Marriott's stamp of approval," she said.

Danielle Oteri runs a company called Feast on History that gives tours in Italy and New York City and has been offering tours of Italian food shops in the Bronx since 2007. Both Marriott and Airbnb reached out to her directly about her $79 tour, which is offered on both of their web sites. But most tours are still booked through her own site.

Oteri thinks the growing demand for experiences stems from the sameness of global cities, with chains like Starbucks on every corner.

"When you travel it's so much harder to find places that are unique to the city," Oteri said. "It's helpful to have someone introduce you to that stuff."

But there are downsides to the experience boom, Oteri said. Airbnb recently began offering a tour similar to hers for $50. Marriott and TripAdvisor also collect a 25 to 30 percent commission for tours booked through their sites, while Airbnb takes 20 percent.

Still, the exposure on big web sites is critical for small providers who can't spend much on marketing. Marielle Chartier Henault, says five to 10 Airbnb customers per week book her one-hour, $36 mermaid swimming class in Toronto.

Joe Zadeh, Airbnb's vice president of trips, says people can earn an average of $6,000 per year if they host an activity four times per month and $30,000 per year if they host closer to 15 activities per month. Some of its hosts are earning more than $200,000 per year.

"It's a really great economic opportunity where you're doing what you love," Zadeh said.LOS ANGELES (AP) - Yara Shahidi will be honored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network for her advocacy for girls' education at a gala later this year.

The group known as GLSEN announced Wednesday that the "grown-ish" star will receive its Game Changer Award at its Respect Awards, presented in October in Beverly Hills, California. Shahidi has advocated for gender parity in science, technology and engineering fields.

The group will also honor "Grey's Anatomy" star Ellen Pompeo for her advocacy for LGBTQ causes and pay equity in Hollywood.

FILE - In this March 3, 2018, file photo, Yara Shahidi arrives at the CHANEL Pre-Oscar Dinner in Los Angeles. Shahidi will be honored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network for her advocacy for girls' education at a gala in October. (Photo by Omar Vega/Invision/AP, File)

Twentieth Century Fox will be honored for its diverse slate, including the gay teen romance "Love, Simon," released earlier this year.

"Will & Grace" creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan will also receive awards.

GLSEN was founded in 1990 to address LGBT issues in K-12 education.HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - An Ecuadorean immigrant who was held for deportation after delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation is at home on Long Island after an emotional reunion with his family.

Sandra Chica told Newsday on Wednesday there were tears and kisses when her husband, Pablo Villavicencio, walked through their door late Tuesday.

Villavicencio was arrested June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison in Fort Hamilton. When he arrived, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the United States in 2010 but stayed.

Pablo Villavicencio, center, carries one of his daughters while walking with his other daughter moments after he was released from the Hudson County Correctional Facility, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kearny, N.J. A judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Villavicencio, an Ecuadorean immigrant who is being held at the facility for deportation after he delivered pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty said Tuesday that Villavicencio, who was being held at a New Jersey lockup, can remain in the United States while he exhausts his right to try to gain legal status.

"Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," the judge wrote.

Villavicencio applied to stay in the U.S. after he married a U.S. citizen, with whom he has two young girls.

The judge cited those children and said they are U.S. citizens.

"He has no criminal history," the judge wrote. "He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family."

The U.S. government, which had wanted the case moved from New York to New Jersey, did not immediately comment on the judge's action.

Adriene Holder, the attorney-in-charge of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, said the rule of "law, humanity and morality" prevailed and the Villavicencio family has "finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare."

"This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart," Holder said in a statement.

The judge ruled after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday, when he put a government lawyer on the spot over the effort by immigration authorities to enforce a 2010 deportation order. He questioned the need to detain and quickly deport Villavicencio, who's 35 years old.

"Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must," the judge said after hearing Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Cordaro defend the government's actions.

"I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to?" the judge asked. "Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country."

Cordaro said Villavicencio would still be able to pursue his application to become a legal U.S. resident if he were deported.

The case has attracted widespread attention amid a crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump on illegal immigration. Trump has said his policies are designed to keep the country safe.

___

Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.comROME, N.Y. (AP) - Relatives of a couple who lost three of their four young children in a fire at the family's central New York home have started an online fundraising effort.

So far, $8,600 has been raised on the gofundme.com website for Patrick and Gabrielle Croad and their 1-year-old daughter, Kaydence.

The couple's three other children - 2-year-old Temprince, 3-year-old Patrick III, and 4-year-old Elise - were killed when a fire broke out late Monday night at the family's trailer home in the city of Rome.

Authorities say the parents grabbed their infant and escaped, but intense flames kept them from rescuing the other children. The couple and the baby were taken to a Syracuse hospital for treatment of injuries and are recovering.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.NANCHANG, China (AP) - Top-seeded Zhang Shuai moved into the Jiangxi Open quarterfinals for the first time after beating Margarita Gasparyan 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday.

World No. 32 Zhang, the top-ranked Chinese player, needed around 90 minutes for the second-round win over her Russian opponent, who earned her first WTA main-draw win in more than two years when she beat Shilin Xu in the first round.

Zhang, who accepted a wild-card entry, is hoping to clinch her third title. She next plays compatriot Zhu Lin, who earlier beat Czech Tereza Martincova 6-2, 6-3.

Second-seeded Qiang Wang of China survived a scare before beating Sabina Sharipova of Uzbekistan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.BERLIN (AP) - Hoffenheim has signed Ghana defender Kasim Nuhu from Swiss champion Young Boys.

The German club says the 23-year-old Nuhu has signed a five-year contract. It gave no details of the transfer fee.

Nuhu's move guarantees him a place in the Champions League. Hoffenheim enters the group stage for its third-place finish in the Bundesliga last season, while Young Boys has to advance through the playoff round next month.

Hoffenheim's sporting director Alexander Rosen describes Nuhu as a "strong tackler who has huge potential and immediately makes an impression due to his exceptional physique."The information was announced by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) at a July 24 press conference on the two big programmes marking the 89th founding anniversary of the VGCL (July 28, 1929-2018) and the 12th Congress of the VGCL, including the "Vietnam Glory" and the third Nguyen Duc Canh Awards.

The "Vietnam Glory" programme, themed "Imprints of works", will recognise and honour the collectives and individuals who have made special contributions to the cause of national construction and protection tied to the great works, thereby sparking the spirit of patriotism, determination and creative labour for the development of the country, and for the goal of building a powerful nation of wealthy people and a democratic, equal and civilised society.

The honoured works will be "Ho Chi Minh Road", "North-South 500kV transmission line", "Vietnam's telecom satellites" (VINASAT-1, VINASAT-2), "Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant", "Vietnam's 1:200,000 geological map and mineral resources map", "Vietnam encyclopedia", "Vietnam's jack-up drilling rigs", "Selection and development of two news rice varieties of high quality and productivity, OM6976 and OM5451", "Vietnam's Extended Program on Immunisation".

In addition, the VGCL will hold a ceremony on the evening of July 26 to present the Nguyen Duc Canh Awards 2018 to 70 workers and engineers directly involved in the production process.

According to VGCL Vice-President Mai Duc Chinh, this year's awards winners are hard-working labourers who always aspire to research improvements to techniques and work out many initiatives in production, aiming to increase labour productivity, save materials and improve working conditions, thereby contributing to enhancing the material and spiritual life of themselves and sustainably developing businesses.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister will present certificates of merit to 30 individuals whose initiatives and innovations have been applied in reality and generated highly profitable values.TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (AP) - Five rare baby sea turtles found in a hotel trash can in Georgia have been released into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Savannah Morning News reports the loggerhead hatchlings were freed early Wednesday on the beach at Tybee Island.

A hotel housekeeper on the island discovered six live loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings in a waste basket on Tuesday. State wildlife biologist Mark Dodd suspects someone picked up the animals after they hatched.

Five of six live loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings found in a hotel room waste basket on Tuesday are examined at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The hatchling were released back into the ocean on Wednesday. (Mary Landers/Savannah Morning News via AP)

One of the animals remains at the Tybee Island Marine Science Center, which can raise the turtle until age 2.

Loggerheads are classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and even touching one can result in a fine. Police and wildlife officials are investigating how the animals got to the hotel.

___

This story has been corrected to show that loggerhead turtles are threatened, not endangered.

___

Information from: Savannah Morning News, http://www.savannahnow.comPAWNEE, Okla. (AP) - Authorities in northern Oklahoma say a 26-year-old woman fatally shot herself with a handgun she apparently sneaked into her jail cell.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday that Brittany Weide DeVerges was found unresponsive in a detoxification cell at the Pawnee County Jail on Tuesday. Investigators say a handgun was lying on her stomach and she had a gunshot wound to the chest.

DeVerges was arrested at 3 a.m. for public intoxication and possession of paraphernalia and placed in the cell. Investigators say deputies observed her at 10:30 a.m. and decided to leave her in the cell a while longer.

Deputies found her 90 minutes later with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The OSBI says evidence indicates DeVerges snuck the weapon into the jail and detectives are investigating how.LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on wildfires burning in California (all times local):

8:00 a.m.

Officials have ordered more mandatory evacuations as firefighters battle a growing wildfire near Yosemite National Park.

Hannah Whyatt poses for a friend's photo as smoke from the Ferguson fire fills Yosemite Valley, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Campsites and lodges emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite National Park by noon Wednesday, as firefighters battled to contain a huge wildfire just to the west that has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Wednesday that the blaze has burned 60 square miles (155 square kilometers). It is 25 percent contained.

The new evacuations cover communities outside the park's north side.

Authorities on Tuesday ordered visitors to leave all campsites and lodgings by noon Wednesday.

Park spokesman Scott Gediman says Yosemite Valley - the heart of the visitor experience at the park - along with a mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 will close.

He says the park isn't under imminent danger from the nearby fire. Smoke from the blaze is obscuring the valley's grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces.

The closure is expected to last through Sunday.

___

12:00 a.m.

Disappointed tourists under evacuation orders are emptying campsites and lodges in the heart of Yosemite National Park, as firefighters battled to contain a huge wildfire just to the west.

Park spokesman Scott Gediman says Yosemite Valley - the heart of the visitor experience at the park - along with a mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 will close Wednesday at noon. The closure is expected to last through Sunday.

He says the park isn't under imminent danger from the nearby fire. Officials decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with tourist traffic.

Smoke is obscuring the valley's grand vistas of waterfalls and shear granite faces. The fire was 25 percent contained Tuesday.

Mara Schumann photographs a plume of smoke from the Ferguson Fire in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Parts of the park, including Yosemite Valley, will close Wednesday as firefighters work to stop the blaze. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Francisco Avendano, visiting from Madrid, Spain, photographs Half Dome as smoke from the Ferguson Fire hangs over Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Parts of the park, including Yosemite Valley, will close Wednesday as firefighters work to contain the blaze. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

As smoke from the Ferguson Fire fills the sky, vehicles leave Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Parts of the park, including Yosemite Valley, will close Wednesday as firefighters work to stop the blaze. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A recreational vehicle drives out of Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as smoke from the Ferguson Fire fills the sky. Parts of the park, including Yosemite Valley, will close Wednesday as firefighters work to stop the blaze. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)REVERE, Mass. (AP) - The owner of the company behind chalky, colorful confections such as Necco Wafers and Sweethearts has unexpectedly shut down operations at its Massachusetts plant and hasn't said if candy production will resume.

The Boston Globe reports Round Hill Investments LLC announced Tuesday it is selling Necco brands to another manufacturer and closing down its Revere plant.

The company had recently purchased Necco for $17.3 million at a bankruptcy auction in May.

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2009 file photo, Necco Wafers are displayed in Boston. The owner of a company that makes candies such as Necco wafers and Sweethearts has unexpectedly shut down operations at its Massachusetts plant. The Boston Globe reported Round Hill Investments LLC announced Tuesday, July 24, 2018, it is selling Necco brands to another confection manufacturer and closing down its Revere plant. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Round Hill did not identify Necco's new owner. The closure came as a shock to the close to 230 workers at the plant who say they were told to pick up their final paychecks Friday.

Necco, or New England Confectionery Co., is the country's oldest continuously operating candy company.

The also make Mary Jane and Squirrel Nut Zippers candy.

___

Information from: The Boston Globe, http://www.bostonglobe.comA three-year-old Utah girl had two fingers sheared off when they were caught in a faulty supermarket escalator, her family says in a lawsuit filed against the store and the escalator manufacturer.

The girl's mother, Silvia Zamora, said in the lawsuit filed Monday that she heard a scream while she was buying a few ingredients for dinner at a self-checkout register near an escalator on the second floor of Smith's Marketplace in Salt Lake City on September 20, 2017.

She said she found her daughter, Adalene, on the first floor, drenched in blood and missing her middle and ring fingers on her left hand.

A lawsuit filed by Silvia Zamora and Ramon Moreno says their daughter, Adalene, then aged three, had two fingers cut off by an escalator at Smith's Supermarket in Salt Lake City (escalator pictured in stock photo)

The toddler had apparently gotten the digits stuck inside a hole left by missing pieces of the comb-like teeth of one step, plaintiff's attorney Brian Webber said.

The fingers later had to be retrieved from among escalator components under the floor, he said, according to KSL.com

Adalene was rushed to a hospital but her middle and ring fingers had been cut off below the middle knuckles and couldn't be re-attached.

Representatives for the store and the manufacturer, Schindler Elevator Corp., did not immediately return messages Wednesday seeking comment on the incident that occurred last September.

Around the time of the accident, Smith's released a statement to KUTV that read, in part: 'we feel terrible this unfortunate incident took place at our store. Safety is one our core corporate values so we are grateful our Store Manager took immediate action to receive medical attention...Our hearts are with her and her family and we will be following her recovery.'

The lawsuit claims safety switches did not stop the escalator and an employee had to rush over and halt it manually. In addition, it says there were no caution signs and the store's permit to operate it had expired more than two weeks before Adalene's maiming.

Zamora was shopping with the three-year-old at the supermarket (pictured) in September 2017 when the girl had gotten the digits stuck inside a hole left by missing pieces of the comb-like teeth of one escalator step

State inspectors had warned the grocery store two years before to replace broken comb teeth and repair caution signs, but the work hadn't been completed before the incident, attorneys say in court documents.

The civil complained quoted the young victim as saying of her amputated digits: 'I chopped them off at the alligator [escalator].'

The family's lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages for, among other things, pain and suffering, emotional distress and 'loss of enjoyment of life.'WASHINGTON (AP) - The chief of the Homeland Security Department has told members of Congress that the government is "on track" to meet Thursday's court-ordered deadline of reuniting hundreds of migrant children with their families, lawmakers who met privately with her said.

Wednesday's assertion by Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was greeted with open disbelief and anger, according to many of the roughly 20 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus - all Democrats - who attended. The private, hourlong meeting seemed to achieve little toward dousing lawmakers' criticism of how children taken from their parents are being handled.

Nielsen also told the group, "I am not a racist," according to two of the lawmakers. One of them, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said she made the remark after he told her she worked for a "racist regime." Gutierrez said she cited her friendship with the first lady of Honduras and other Latina women.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, center, arrives for a closed doors meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, tweeted that she told the lawmakers: "I am not a racist. Nobody believes families should be separated."

A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department was asked for comment and did not immediately provide one.

After the meeting, lawmakers said Nielsen provided no statistics to support her assertion that the deadline for reuniting families would be met.

"She said they believe they're on track" to meet the court deadline, said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., one of several lawmakers who said she used that phrase to describe the status of reuniting separated families.

"That's impossible. And we all said this to her," said Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.

Gutierrez said he told Nielsen "she is committing crimes against humanity, that she is a child abuser" and that she is "an accomplice of Donald Trump's racist regime."

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego set a Thursday deadline for reuniting children age 5 and older who have been held by the government since their families were caught entering the country without authorization.

As many as 2,551 children age 5 and up were separated from their families and 1,187 children have been reunified with parents, guardians or sponsors, the government has said. The exact number still separated is unclear. The government has been releasing hundreds of families to faith-based groups, which are caring for them.

The government has said 463 migrant parents may have been deported after being separated from their children, further complicating the reunification process. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said Nielsen suggested to the lawmakers Wednesday that those children were left behind in the U.S. at those parents' requests.

"We simply do not believe that's true," Menendez said.

A separate deadline that Sabraw had set for reuniting around 100 children younger than age 5 with their families passed two weeks ago. Just over half have rejoined their parents or guardians, according to the latest figures.

The separations caused a bipartisan, nationwide uproar against Trump's policy of "zero tolerance," in which the government prosecutes all migrants entering the U.S. illegally.

The government initially separated children from their detained parents or guardians. Under pressure, Trump abandoned the family separation policy, but hundreds of children remain apart from their parents in conditions that visitors have described as horrid.

Nielsen ignored reporters' questions when she left the meeting.

"Very productive. Very frank," she said.

The lawmakers said Nielsen also told them her agency is financing the costs of detaining families with a 1 percent across-the-board cut to its programs.

A Homeland Security spokeswoman said the added costs are due to increased numbers of people being caught entering the country, and the money is being used for additional beds and transportation expenses.

Separately, the Republican-dominated House Appropriations Committee approved $5 billion for building parts of Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico after rejecting a Democratic effort to redirect that money to other immigration programs.

Trump has requested the $5 billion for next year, but the Senate version of the bill financing the Homeland Security Department has just $1.6 billion. The final amount will need to be worked out later this year.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen leaves a closed doors meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, center, arrives for a closed doors meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Security closes the door as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sits for a private meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Latest on wildfires in California (all times local):

9:20 p.m.

Authorities have arrested a man on suspicion of starting a wildfire east of Los Angeles that has burned five homes and forced an entire town to evacuate.

Smoke from the Cranston Fire clouds the skies over Highway 243, south of Idyllwild, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people, and surrounding forest communities in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. (Richard Lui/The Desert Sun via AP )

State fire officials say 32-year-old Brandon N. McGlover of Temecula was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of setting at least five fires earlier that day in southwest Riverside County.

It's unclear whether he has an attorney.

The largest fire is a 7 -square mile (19-square kilometer) blaze in and around the San Bernardino National Forest that prompted mandatory evacuation orders for the entire town of Idyllwild and nearby communities. The fire remains out of control.

To the north, in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least one home burned in another fast-moving blaze in Clayton.

In the Sierra Nevada, famed Yosemite National Park was closed as smoke from a fire to the west cast a pall on the region.

___

5:15 p.m.

Northern California authorities say a quick-moving brushfire has burned at least one home and prompted evacuations during a heat wave.

Robert Marshall, spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, told the East Bay Times the fire started shortly after 3 p.m. in Clayton.

Footage from ABC7 News shows thick smoke in the Marsh Creek Springs area, where homes are spread out around windy roads.

Pam Temmermand, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told ABC7 News said there were no reports of injuries but at least two out-buildings and one residence have burned.

The fire is about 125 acres and not contained.

County officials ordered an evacuation about an hour after the fire started.

Clayton is about 30 miles east of San Francisco.

___

4:40 p.m.

Homes are burning near a Southern California mountain town where a wildfire is growing out of control in brush and trees amid sweltering temperatures.

Authorities have ordered evacuations for the entire community of Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles.

News helicopter footage showed several homes consumed by flames. There are no reports of injuries.

The California Highway Patrol says officers have detained a motorist for questioning after people called 911 to report a suspicious vehicle near the fire's starting point in Riverside County.

In the San Francisco Bay Area at least two homes have burned in a fast-moving wildfire in Clayton.

The fires come as much of California is locked in a heat wave.

___

4:30 p.m.

Authorities say a motorist has been detained near the starting point of a wildfire that exploded in size and prompted evacuation orders near a Southern California mountain town during a punishing heat wave.

California Highway Patrol Officer Darren Meyer says witnesses called 911 reporting a suspicious vehicle near the site the blaze began Wednesday in Riverside County.

Meyer says a male driver was pulled over a short time later and is being questioned by investigators.

The fire quickly burned nearly 2 square miles (5 square kilometers) of dry brush and timber. Residents near the resort town of Idyllwild are evacuated and roads are closed.

To the north, a wildfire in the San Francisco Bay Area has burned at least two homes in Clayton. Authorities say multiple structures are threatened.

___

2:40 p.m.

As smoke from a nearby wildfire pours into Yosemite Valley, Tom Lambert has had to tell tourists who booked his vacation home months in advance that they would have to defer their dream stays so firefighters could take protective measures against the growing blaze.

The valley, the scenic heart of Yosemite National Park, was closed at noon Wednesday. Park spokesman Scott Gediman says the exodus was orderly and visitors are understanding of the decision to close.

Lambert says his disappointed guests include a father-daughter duo who planned a graduation trip a year in advance. Another guest had to delay plans to climb Half Dome.

He says the closure is a financial blow to his rental business.

Heavy smoke from the 60-square-mile (155-square-kilometer) fire is hanging over the valley, which normally bustles with summer visitors.

___

2:30 p.m.

Evacuations have been ordered and a highway is closed as crews try to stop the spread of an out-of-control wildfire in Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains.

The U.S. Forest Service says the blaze was reported Wednesday east of Hemet and quickly grew to 800 acres (323 hectares).

Authorities say residents near the mountain town of Idyllwild have been ordered to leave and State Route 74 is shut down. It wasn't immediately known how many people are evacuated.

The fire in the San Bernardino National Forest has no containment.

___

10:10 a.m.

The few remaining campers in Yosemite Valley are packing up tents and other gear before a closure goes into effect to clear the area for firefighters battling a wildfire near Yosemite National Park.

Officials say Yosemite Valley isn't in imminent danger, but the closure is necessary to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways. Other parts of the park remain open.

The scenic valley will be off-limits starting at noon Wednesday and will likely remain closed through Sunday.

Heavy smoke from the 60-square-mile (155-square-kilometer) fire is hanging over the valley, which normally bustles with summer crowds.

___

8 a.m.

Officials have ordered more mandatory evacuations as firefighters battle a growing wildfire near Yosemite National Park.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said Wednesday that the blaze has burned 60 square miles (155 square kilometers). It is 25 percent contained.

The new evacuations cover communities outside the park's north side.

Authorities on Tuesday ordered visitors to leave all campsites and lodgings by noon Wednesday.

Park spokesman Scott Gediman says Yosemite Valley - the heart of the visitor experience at the park - along with a mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 will close.

He says the park isn't under imminent danger from the nearby fire. Smoke from the blaze is obscuring the valley's grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces.

The closure is expected to last through Sunday.

___

12:00 a.m.

Disappointed tourists under evacuation orders are emptying campsites and lodges in the heart of Yosemite National Park, as firefighters battled to contain a huge wildfire just to the west.

Park spokesman Scott Gediman says Yosemite Valley - the heart of the visitor experience at the park - along with a mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 will close Wednesday at noon. The closure is expected to last through Sunday.

He says the park isn't under imminent danger from the nearby fire. Officials decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with tourist traffic.

Smoke is obscuring the valley's grand vistas of waterfalls and shear granite faces. The fire was 25 percent contained Tuesday.

Hannah Whyatt poses for a friend's photo as smoke from the Ferguson fire fills Yosemite Valley, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Campsites and lodges emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite National Park by noon Wednesday, as firefighters battled to contain a huge wildfire just to the west that has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Loyalty to President Donald Trump tops the Republican checklist in the governor's race in Tennessee, right up there with championing gun rights and low taxes and decrying abortion.

In TV ads and debates, the four leading GOP candidates are lauding Trump and his wall-building immigration crackdown while blasting each other as insufficiently supportive of the president.

It's been a pricey message: The four have added $33 million in combined personal wealth to their campaigns and spent about that much, setting records and more than doubling what they've raised through donations.

FILE -- In this June 20, 2018, file photo, Republican GOP gubernatorial candidates, from left, Diane Black, Randy Boyd, Beth Harwell and Bill Lee take part in a debate in Hendersonville, Tenn. In TV ads and debates, four leading GOP candidates for Governor have lauded President Donald Trump and his wall-building, sanctuary city-banning immigration crackdown plans, while blasting each other as insufficiently supportive of the president and flimsy on immigration. (Lacy Atkins/The Tennessean via AP, File)

And their strategy continues ahead of the Aug. 2 primary despite scandals swirling around the White House, because even though Trump's approval ratings are low overall, he remains highly popular among Republican voters in national polls.

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam warned the GOP candidates in a letter, saying: "No offense intended, but a lot of what was talked about during the campaign will not be the issues that end up on your desk as governor."

The biggest spenders say they're simply addressing voter concerns.

"One of the first questions people will ask me is, 'What is your position on supporting the president? What is your position on immigration?'" said Randy Boyd, a former state economic development commissioner. "Once we can answer that for them, then we can talk to them about education, about jobs, about helping our rural communities, about getting broadband, about health care."

U.S. Rep. Diane Black agreed, pointing to TV ads promoting her work on Trump's tax law and her proximity to the president.

"We'll have plenty of time after we get out of this primary to talk again more about what we're going to do for the state of Tennessee, when I'm talking about things and opposing myself with a Democrat candidate," she said.

In other ads, Boyd and Bill Lee cast themselves as Trump-style businessmen, while House Speaker Beth Harwell, the field's only medical marijuana supporter, replays Trump's 2015 comments that "medical should happen."

A growing number of Republicans have criticized Trump for his appearance with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his reluctance to acknowledge Russian interference in his election. Republican leaders in Congress distanced themselves from Trump's invitation for Putin to visit Washington, saying he's not welcome on Capitol Hill.

But Black and her rivals are showing no hint of disloyalty.

The "left wing just wants to find something to jump all over our president," Black told Fox Business Network after sitting next to Trump as he tried to clarify his comments on Russian interference. "He was strong when he was there in Europe and also with Putin and I'm very proud of him and his strength."

Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who has outspent former House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh on the Democratic side, said the governor's race "is not a referendum on President Trump."

"Clearly, on the Republican side, you see that in the ads, and the candidates must have made a determination that they think appealing or tying themselves to President Trump is a positive thing. But I think about what Gov. Haslam said ... he said those really aren't the issues that a governor deals with here," Dean said.

Polls suggest a close 3-way race between Black, Boyd and Lee, with Harwell not out of it. Lee's campaign grew more competitive as he talked about his farm, his business and his relationship with Jesus Christ, and now Black and Boyd are hitting at him.

"I figured I'd better tell you why," a Lee ad says. "We're winning, and they're scared."

On immigration, Boyd's team accuses Lee of leading a group that lobbied for amnesty; Lee chaired the state chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors in 1999, before the group's national team supported permanent residency for people here illegally in the 2000s.

Boyd's campaign also targeted Black's 2016 reaction to candidate Trump's promise to make Mexico fund a border wall: She said "first of all, you can't build a wall, that won't work." Boyd also criticizes Black's vote for a 2001 state law that allowed people without Social Security numbers to have driver's licenses. Black co-sponsored a failed repeal in 2002 and voted in 2004 to only offer one-year driving certificates, a program scrapped in 2006. Harwell voted for the 2001 and 2004 laws, too.

Candidate Black has padded her "tough-on-immigration" resume, introducing bills to crowd-fund the wall and make illegal crossings a felony, and claims her "can't build a wall" comments meant that a wall alone won't secure the border. She said she's voted for border wall money 11 times.

Black paints Boyd, meanwhile, as weak on immigration for donating $250,000 in 2016 to Conexion Americas, which opposed anti-sanctuary legislation and supports in-state tuition for students whose parents brought or kept them here illegally. Boyd's donation, however, paid to expand a commercial kitchen for culinary entrepreneurs.

Black also said Boyd's pet product company, Radio Systems Corp., avoided paying millions in taxes, albeit legally, by structuring its business internationally. Boyd said he doesn't think people want "a governor that encourages people to pay more taxes than they're legally required," and said his company paid $97 million in the last 12 years, a 34.77 percent tax rate.

Boyd and Black both targeted Lee for donating to Dean and other Democrats; Lee calls those business decisions by his mechanical contracting firm.

Harwell had some fun with her ad, dressing children as Lee, Boyd and Black. While they bicker, she says she's delivered on low taxes, balanced budgeting and outlawing sanctuary cities.

"There's no swamp here," said Harwell. "We're doing everything right in the state of Tennessee."

FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2018, file photo, House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville, participates in a gubernatorial candidate forum in Nashville, Tenn. In TV ads and debates, four leading GOP candidates for Governor have lauded President Donald Trump and his wall-building, sanctuary city-banning immigration crackdown plans, while blasting each other as insufficiently supportive of the president and flimsy on immigration. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2018 file photo, Randy Boyd, former state economic and community development commissioner, participates in a gubernatorial candidate forum in Nashville, Tenn. In TV ads and debates, four leading GOP candidates for Governor have lauded President Donald Trump and his wall-building, sanctuary city-banning immigration crackdown plans, while blasting each other as insufficiently supportive of the president and flimsy on immigration. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2018, file photo, Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., speaks at the Susan B. Anthony List & Life Institute Luncheon in Nashville, Tenn. In TV ads and debates, four leading GOP candidates for Governor have lauded President Donald Trump and his wall-building, sanctuary city-banning immigration crackdown plans, while blasting each other as insufficiently supportive of the president and flimsy on immigration. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (AP) - An Ecuadorean immigrant who's been freed by a U.S. judge said Wednesday he thought he would lose his daughters and his wife when he was detained while delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation nearly two months ago.

"I thought the world was coming to an end for me," Pablo Villavicencio, speaking in Spanish outside his Long Island home, said the morning after his release from immigration detention.

"I thought I was losing everything, that my dream of having my family always together was coming to an end," he said.

Pablo Villavicencio, center, carries one of his daughters while walking with his other daughter moments after he was released from the Hudson County Correctional Facility, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Kearny, N.J. A judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of Villavicencio, an Ecuadorean immigrant who is being held at the facility for deportation after he delivered pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Villavicencio, 35, was arrested June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison in Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn. When he arrived, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the United States in 2010 but stayed.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty said Tuesday that Villavicencio, who was being held at a New Jersey lockup, can remain in the United States while he exhausts his right to try to gain legal status.

"Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," the judge wrote.

"Thank God the judge made a very fair and right decision" and told immigration officials that they "could not deport me from the country because I have been a model citizen for the nation, for my state, for my city and for my daughters and my marriage," said Villavicencio. "God makes justice."

Villavicencio applied to stay in the U.S. after he married a U.S. citizen, with whom he has two daughters, ages 4 and 2.

The judge cited those children and said they also are U.S. citizens.

"He has no criminal history," the judge wrote. "He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family."

"You feel happy that your family is reunited but you are left disappointed and sad that many other families are in the same situation," said Villavicencio's wife, Sandra Chica. "We, who lived it and know what it is like, we don't wish this to happen to anybody. "

The U.S. government did not immediately comment on the judge's action.

Adriene Holder, the attorney-in-charge of the civil practice at the Legal Aid Society, said the rule of "law, humanity and morality" prevailed and the Villavicencio family has "finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare."

"This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart," Holder said in a statement.

The judge ruled after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday, when he put a government lawyer on the spot over the effort by immigration authorities to enforce a 2010 deportation order. He questioned the need to detain and quickly deport Villavicencio.

"Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must," the judge said after hearing Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Cordaro defend the government's actions.

"I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to?" the judge asked. "Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country."

Cordaro said Villavicencio would still be able to pursue his application to become a legal U.S. resident if he were deported.

The case has attracted widespread attention amid a crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump on illegal immigration. Trump has said his policies are designed to keep the country safe.

___

Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.comWASHINGTON (AP) - Melania Trump's spokeswoman says the first lady will watch whatever she wants on TV.

Stephanie Grisham responded Wednesday to a New York Times report that President Donald Trump was unhappy that his wife's television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN - and not Fox News Channel - during their recent trip to Europe.

The Times said Trump raged at his staff for breaking a rule that each trip begin tuned to Fox. Trump is an avid Fox viewer who regularly disparages CNN as "fake news."

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One to board Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport, in Morristown, N.J., Sunday, July 22, 2018, en route to Washington after staying at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Grisham also tried to bat away questions about the broadcast of a brief audio recording of Trump and his longtime personal lawyer discussing plans to pay for a former Playboy model's story of an alleged 2006 affair with Trump.

Trump has denied the affair.

A day after accompanying Mrs. Trump to a Tennessee children's hospital that treats babies born with a dependency on drugs, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome, Grisham suggested that reporters focus on that and other issues she deemed more important than the first lady's television viewing habits or "some recording on the news."

"Did you know that every 15 minutes a baby is born with NAS?" she said. "Maybe you'd like to talk about the 160,000 kids who skip school every day for fear of being bullied, or that 280,000 students are physically attacked in schools every month."

Both are issues Mrs. Trump is working to highlight.

"Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw) or if she heard some recording on the news," Grisham said, using an abbreviation for "by the way."

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleapBEIJING, July 24 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday called on the U.S. government to urge relevant U.S. airlines to observe the one-China principle.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a question regarding U.S. airlines not having changed their listing of Taiwan on their websites.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 [Photo: fmprc.gov.cn]

In late April, China's civil aviation authority sent a formal notice to 44 foreign airlines, asking them to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites.

"The one-China principle represents the consensus shared by the international community and is the political foundation for the steady development of China-U.S. relations, something not negotiable," said Geng, pointing out that the U.S. side is very clear about this.

"We hope the U.S. government can urge the relevant enterprises to observe the one-China principle and rectify the relevant websites as soon as possible," Geng said.WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump's trade policy (all times local):

8 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he and the European Union Commission president "love each other!" after their trade talks.

President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump has tweeted a photo that shows him and Jean-Claude Juncker (zhahn-KLOHD' YUN'-kur) in an embrace, with Juncker kissing Trump's cheek.

Trump writes that, "Obviously the European Union, as represented by @JunckerEU and the United States, as represented by yours truly, love each other!"

The leaders announced earlier in the day that they had agreed to work toward "zero tariffs" and "zero subsidies" on non-automobile goods, dialing down tensions that had been rising.

Trump also tweets that, "There was great warmth and feeling in the room" and says "a breakthrough has been quickly made that nobody thought possible!"

__

6:05 p.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is welcoming President Donald Trump's announcement of an agreement with European Union leaders to potentially ratchet down the trade wars.

Ryan's spokeswoman said Wednesday that the speaker is "encouraged by this progress with our European allies and hopes to see more."

Other Republicans also welcomed the development amid months of growing unrest in Congress about the administration's trade policies.

Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley called the announcement "probably the only positive statement we've had that some progress has been made."

And fellow Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst welcomed word that the European Union would buy more U.S. soybeans.

She tweeted: "Soybeans are a big deal in #Iowa." She also thanked Trump for "working toward a win for U.S."

___

4:35 p.m.

European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (zhahn-KLOHD' YUN'-kur) says he has made a deal with President Donald Trump to try to ease trade tensions.

Juncker says during a joint Rose Garden appearance with Trump that he "had the intention to make a deal today and we made a deal today."

Juncker says after a lengthy meeting with Trump that the EU has decided to increase imports of American soybeans and liquefied natural gas.

He says, "it will be done."

He also says as long as negotiations are ongoing, "We will hold off further tariffs" and reassess existing tariffs on steel and aluminum.

___

4:25 p.m.

President Donald Trump says the United States and the European Union have agreed to work toward "zero tariffs" and "zero subsidies" on non-automobile goods.

Trump also says the EU has also agreed to buy "a lot of soybeans" and increase its imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S.

Trump says the EU will become a "massive buyer" of LNG to help diversify their energy supply.

The president announced the agreements at the White House on Wednesday following meetings with European officials prompted by Trump's trade dispute with the EU.

He declared it a "very big day for free and fair trade."

___

2:10 p.m.

The head of the World Trade Organization is appealing to countries to speak out in favor of free trade and is warning about the vast negative consequences of a possible trade war after Trump administration tariffs imposed on key U.S. trading partners.

WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo said he refused - as a policy - to point fingers, but alluded to "this dynamic of trade restriction" that could damage the world economy if it endures.

He told reporters in Geneva, "We are calling everyone who believes that trade is a force for good to speak up." Silence, he says, is "as damaging as any action that leads to a trade war."

He also warned about the "worst-case scenario" of a world without rules on trade, saying Wednesday that "the law of the jungle" would have devastating consequences for growth and jobs.

He said investors "are going to pull back, the economy is going to lose steam and over time jobs will be lost - millions of jobs will be lost."

___

1:55 p.m.

European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (zhahn-KLOHD' YUN'-kur) is telling President Donald Trump that the E.U. and U.S. are partners and allies, "not enemies," and must work together at the start of trade negotiations between the two major economies.

Juncker told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that the trade talks are important. He's suggesting the two sides discuss "reducing tariffs" instead of increasing them.

Trump notes the two continents together make up more than 50 percent of the world's trade. Trump says it would be good if they removed all tariffs and trade barriers as part of the discussions.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imported cars, prompting the Europeans to suggest they may place tariffs on $20 billion of American goods in retaliation.

___

1:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump is meeting with top European Union officials amid concerns of a growing trade dispute between the two economies over automobiles.

Trump says at the top of the Oval Office meeting with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (zhahn-KLOHD' YUN'-kur) and trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom that he's looking for a fair trade deal with the EU and is hopeful the leaders can work something out.

He says he'd prefer there be no tariffs or barriers at all.

European leaders are trying to talk Trump out of imposing tariffs on imported cars and auto parts, worried it would hurt both economies.

The European leaders have warned they're ready to put tariffs on $20 billion of American goods if Trump puts the duties on car imports.

___

1:25 p.m.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan met with President Donald Trump Wednesday at the White House. McConnell told reporters afterward it was "pretty much a routine meeting" over the administration's legislative agenda.

The GOP leader declined to say whether trade was discussed.

Earlier Wednesday, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said he expected the meeting would focus on trade - with an "expression of concern about the endgame."

The administration this week announced $12 billion aid for farmers amid fallout from Trump's tariffs. Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the proposal, saying farmers want markets for their crops, not payoffs for lost sales and lower prices.

Trump did ask about the confirmation process for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, McConnell said. "He was interested in my thoughts on the Kavanaugh nomination, which I think is going along nicely," McConnell said.

___

10:55 a.m.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng) says the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation" in remarks that criticized escalating U.S. tariffs on goods from China and other major trading partners.

At the annual summit of the BRICS emerging economies, held this year in Johannesburg, Xi said those who pursue "economic hegemony" will "only end up hurting themselves."

"The current international order is not perfect," the Chinese president said. But, Xi said, it should not be discarded "as long as it is rule-based, aims to be equitable and pursues win-win outcomes as its goals."

He said "unilateralism and protectionism are mounting," which he said hurts world trade.

___

10:30 a.m.

Ohio's Republican governor is blasting President Donald Trump's tariffs and his plan to provide $12 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation.

Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) says Trump's imposition of tariffs on products from such allies as Canada under national security grounds was "completely absurd," and that now the president is resorting to "farm welfare" when U.S. farmers want trade. The frequent Trump critic and 2016 rival for the GOP presidential nomination spoke as the 12-day Ohio State Fair opened in Columbus.

The Department of Agriculture on Tuesday announced a $12 billion, three-part plan to borrow money from the U.S. Treasury to pay farmers being hurt by the trade battles with China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union.

Kasich says that will only compound tariff damage.

___

7:10 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling China "vicious" on trade and says it is targeting U.S. farmers specifically because "they know I love & respect" them.

Trump is also pushing back against critics of his latest plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers, telling them to "be cool" because "the end result will be worth it!"

Farm-state Republicans say farmers want markets for their crops, not government payoffs for lost sales.

On Twitter, Trump says people "snipping at your heels during a negotiation" will only delay the process. He writes: "Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!"

He also tweeted: "China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"

___

1:25 a.m.

Some Republicans in farm states are dismissing the Trump administration's plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief in the wake of trade disputes between the U.S. and other countries, particularly China.

The GOP lawmakers say farmers want markets for their crops, not payoffs for lost sales and lower prices. Administration officials deny that the plan is a bailout.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the plan is meant for short-term relief while President Donald Trump and other officials work on trade deals.

The government's action points to administration concern about damage to U.S. farmers from Trump's trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The program is expected to start taking effect around Labor Day.

President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker arrive to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States has decided to release $195 million in military aid to Egypt after withholding the assistance last year over human rights concerns, the State Department announced Wednesday.

The department said the decision follows steps Egypt has taken in response to specific U.S. concerns, and it cited stronger U.S.-Egypt ties in security and counterterrorism while also acknowledging remaining areas of concern about human rights and governance.

Independent monitoring groups have documented continued human rights abuses in Egypt over the past year.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch describes the situation in Egypt as the "worst human rights crisis in the country in decades." Egyptian police, the group said, systematically use "torture, arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances to silence political dissent," according to a recent assessment.

Amnesty International reported an escalation in Egypt's crackdown on civil society and pointed to routine "grossly unfair" trials of government critics, peaceful protesters, journalists and human rights defenders.

The suspension of the U.S. military aid to Egypt in August 2017 came as a surprise as the two allies had forged increasingly close ties under President Donald Trump.

In announcing the changes, the secretary of state at that time, Rex Tillerson, said he wasn't able to certify that Egypt had met the human rights criteria set by Congress in order to receive the American assistance.

Egypt responded angrily and called that decision a "misjudgment of the nature of the strategic relations that have bound the two countries for decades."

Egypt long has been a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, receiving nearly $80 billion in military and economic assistance over the past 30 years.JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military shelled Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing three militants, after its troops on the border came under fire.

The army issued a statement saying it targeted Hamas military positions in the territory after a Palestinian sniper fired on Israeli soldiers "under the cover of 20 children that were sent towards the border fence as decoy." It military said an Israeli officer was moderately wounded.

Three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli artillery strikes near Gaza City, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A spokesman for the Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said the three were members of the Islamist organization's armed forces.

"The level of Israeli escalation against Gaza and the deliberate targeting of fighters demonstrate the occupation's intentions to kill," spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. "We can't stay silent in front of the cruel and bloody Israeli occupation's leadership."

Hours after Wednesday's incident, air raid sirens sounded across communities in southern Israel.

The cross-border exchange took place a few days after Gaza's Hamas rulers agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to prevent weekend hostilities from escalating.

On Friday, a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border - the first casualty Israel has sustained in four years - and Israel unleashed a heavy offensive in response. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the past decade.

These latest flare-ups of violence follow months of border protests organized weekly by Hamas. Over 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since the protests began March 30.

The protests are aimed at ending the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, put in place after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in an armed coup in 2007. The blockade has brought severe economic hardship to the territory.

The protests also demand a "right of return" for descendants of Palestinian refugees to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled during the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation, and two-thirds of Gaza's 2 million residents are descendants of refugees.And so, fellow moviegoers: Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what Tom Cruise can - and will - do for you.

The answer is anything. The man will do anything to entertain you. At age 56, when the rest of us are making chiropractor appointments and upping our corrective lenses, Cruise will jump out of a plane for you, into a lightning storm. He'll learn to fly a helicopter for you, all for one nausea-inducing helicopter piloting stunt - yep, he's piloting AND acting - that sends him into a death spiral in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout ."

It should go without saying that Cruise will hang off a sheer cliff for you. Oh, also: he will dangle off a rope from a helicopter, then bungee jump off it for you.

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows, from left, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (David James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)

And finally, Mr. Cruise will shatter his ankle jumping from one building to another for you - and then sprint like hell on that broken ankle. Because, what's an MI film without a Cruise sprint?

One day, if this continues, it will surely seem silly. One day, people will chuckle sympathetically at the exploits of this well-meaning but wrinkled movie star, perhaps in his 80s then, putting his life in danger to please his fans. Now, though, is not that day. With his partner, returning director-writer Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise delivers all the above in the ridiculously entertaining "Fallout," his sixth outing as Ethan Hunt.

As for the plot, well, you may chuckle in confusion. It gets unnecessarily complicated. For most movies, this would be a much bigger problem. But because "Fallout" moves so quickly from one crazy stunt to another, it doesn't matter. You'll think, "Hmm, what?" But then, "Whoa! Is Tom about to jump off that building?"

We begin, as always, with a new mission - this time, it arrives in a hollowed-out copy of Homer's "Odyssey," perhaps a reference to Hunt's own journey. We'll try to boil it down: The evildoers are the Apostles, terrorists who aim to nuke the world's top religious sites - the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca - and bring on an apocalypse. They're in league with Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the criminal mastermind from the last film, who stayed alive and now wants revenge against Hunt, not to mention the global destruction thing.

Hunt must get his hands on three missing plutonium cores. He actually manages this, for a second - but has to give them up to save a cherished team member. Thus is launched an overarching dilemma of this installment: Should Hunt save one life that is dear to him over millions of others?

We don't get much time to ponder. Hunt has to start from scratch. His IMF team includes, as always, loyal Luther (Ving Rhames), and tech whiz Benji (the wonderful Simon Pegg), who provides needed levity. It's safe to say that never before has Benji's life hung so precariously in the balance.

IMF secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) is back, clashing with Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), certainly the most stylish person ever to head the CIA, onscreen or off. Sloane forcibly injects her own agent, the very handsome but shady Walker (Henry Cavill), into Hunt's operation, causing all sorts of complications.

Crucially, we also have former MI6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson, who made such an impression in the last film). She's back, but working for whom, exactly? Regardless, it's fun to watch her take down a succession of brutish men. A welcome newcomer is Vanessa Kirby ("The Crown") as the mysterious White Widow.

Of course, it's the stunts that really matter. And the scenery. Paris has always been beautiful, but there's a certain frisson you get when arriving with Cruise by way of a plummet from a plane onto the roof of the Grand Palais. And that motorcycle chase around the Arc de Triomphe? Let's just say that getting through that traffic circle alive on a real-life day is a Mission: Impossible.

Then we're off to London, where Cruise shattered his ankle bone filming a rooftop chase. At a recent screening, McQuarrie explained that most of what we see the actor doing here, including that sprint, was done after the injury. Feel free to consider that as you watch.

The most dramatic stunts were filmed in New Zealand, standing in for Kashmir. Many people go bungee-jumping there; probably relatively few do it from a moving helicopter. We also see Cruise piloting another helicopter into a seemingly irreversible plunge. A climactic physical fight was shot in Norway, on a cliff that drops into a fjord. And Cruise's 25,000-foot jump from a plane was filmed in Abu Dhabi.

Much ink has been spent analyzing this enduring phenomenon called Tom Cruise, and what motivates him, onscreen and off. "I just want to entertain people," he said recently. That's one mission he can still nail.

"Mission: Impossible - Fallout," a Paramount Pictures release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Running time: 147 minutes. Three stars out of four.

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Tom Cruise in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows, Henry Cavill, from left, Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Rebecca Ferguson, left, and Tom Cruise in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Simon Pegg in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Angela Bassett in a scene from "Mission: Impossible - Fallout." (Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP)LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles judge ordered a man accused of stealing Frances McDormand's best actress Oscar statuette to stand trial on a felony grand theft charge.

Superior Court Judge Mark Hanasono said Wednesday that there was sufficient evidence for Terry Bryant to stand trial.

The ruling came after a hearing in which a worker with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences testified about taking the Oscar away from Bryant as he tried to leave the ceremony's official after-party.

FILE - In this March 28, 2018 file photo, Terry Bryant appears during a hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles judge says that there is sufficient evidence for Bryant to stand trial on grand theft charges for stealing actress Frances McDormand's Oscar statue. McDormand lost the statuette after having it engraved. Bryant is due to be arraigned on Aug. 8. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

"God is on my side," Bryant was heard saying in court after the ruling. Bryant is due to be arraigned Aug. 8.

McDormand won the award for best actress in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and lost the statuette after having it engraved at the post-ceremony Governors Ball.

Cesario Tio, a film academy worker who was escorting a photographer taking pictures at the ball, said he heard on a walkie-talkie that McDormand's Oscar was missing. He said he later saw a man, who he identified in court as Bryant, walk out of the ball holding a statuette and yelling "We did it! We did it."

Tio said neither he nor the photographer recognized the man. The photographer took a picture of Bryant, who told them his statuette was won for best producer on "Get Out," which Tio said he immediately knew wasn't an award.

A blown up image from the photographer's camera showed a portion of McDormand's name. Tio said he then grabbed the statuette from Bryant.

"He said, 'Hey, I'm holding that for a friend,'" Tio testified. He said Bryant followed him back into the Governors Ball, where Tio handed the statuette off to security and he didn't see Bryant again.

Bryant, 47, and his attorney declined comment after the hearing. He remains released on his own recognizance.

His attorney, Daniel Brookman, argued in court that Bryant didn't try to hide that he had McDormand's Oscar, and the charge should be dismissed. "There was never any intent to deprive the owner of the property on a permanent basis," Brookman said.

The attorney also said McDormand did not want Bryant to be prosecuted and displayed a police detective's report that said the actress "stated she is not desirous of prosecution." Hanasono did not allow the police report to be entered into evidence.

McDormand did not attend Wednesday's hearing.

Much of the hearing focused on the value of the Oscar statuette, which a lawyer for the academy said cost the organization between $2,300 and $2,500 for it to purchase. The lawyer said the award was actually probably priceless to most winners, and noted that winners could not sell them on the open market or give them away to anyone but their heirs.WASHINGTON (AP) - Pushing back against allegations of attempting to alter the historical record, the White House said Wednesday that the omission of a key question from its transcript of President Donald Trump's news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin "was by no means malicious."

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow leveled the charge Tuesday night, accusing the White House of deliberately leaving out the question.

Two reporters each from the U.S. and Russian press corps asked questions of Trump and Putin following their July 16 summit in Helsinki. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders first called on Jeff Mason, a White House correspondent for the Reuters news agency.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump give a joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on Monday, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

After posing his questions to Trump, Mason then asked Putin: "Did you want President Trump to win the election and did you direct any of your officials to help him do that?" The question is central to the federal investigation - Trump calls it a "witch hunt" - into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

But the White House transcript, and its video of the news conference, left out the first part of Mason's two-part question.

Maddow made the omission the lead of her prime-time broadcast Tuesday night. She compared the White House transcript and video to those produced by others which included Mason's question. Maddow noted that the English version of the Russian government transcript didn't even mention Mason.

"A critical exchange deleted from the transcript. A reporter's question edited out of the videotape," she said. "The U.S. government essentially following the Kremlin's playbook and maintaining that something we all saw with our own eyes, we all heard happen with our own ears, has nevertheless disappeared like old political opponents being airbrushed out of photos."

"It's weird, right? It's creepy. Turns out it wasn't a mistake. Turns out it was on purpose," Maddow claimed.

The White House denied that the omission was deliberate.

"The White House stenographer uses the audio from the White House audio to produce the transcript," the White House press office said Wednesday in an emailed statement. "The audio mixer at the site did not bring up the question (microphone) level in time to catch the beginning of Jeff's question because the translator was still speaking. This was by no means malicious."

The White House said the transcript has been updated for presidential records.

The statement did not address the identical omission that is noticeable on White House video of the news conference, or whether the transcript available on its website would also be updated. As of Wednesday, the transcript did not include Mason's first question to Putin.

The Atlantic and The Washington Post are among news organizations that cast doubt on Maddow's determination that the omission was purposeful, citing the muddled audio.

Maddow defended herself Wednesday in a series of tweets, saying the Post report offered "one possible explanation" for why the White House transcript and video did not include Putin saying he wanted Trump to win in response to Mason's first question.

Maddow also noted that the White House transcript and video hadn't been updated, more than a week after the news conference.

"I love WaPo with the heat of 1000 suns, but nothing here from WaPo disproves our report," she tweeted.

Trump has not hidden his disdain for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, regularly referring to it in public comments and on Twitter as a "witch hunt." U.S. intelligence agencies all concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to try to help Trump win, a fact that Trump has wavered on fully accepting. Putin has said the Russian state did not interfere, and Trump appeared at the news conference to accept Putin's fresh denials.

Putin answered Mason's question by saying, "Yes, I did" want Trump to win "because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal."

Journalism ethicists questioned why the White House still hadn't updated its transcript.

"I find it very worrisome that a week after the Helsinki press conference that the White House would not have corrected the record by now," Indira Lakshmanan, the Newmark chair in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute, said in an interview. "More transparency is what we need, not less."

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervillapA man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of starting a fire that burned five homes and prompted evacuation orders for an entire Southern California mountain town.

Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula was booked on suspicion of setting five fires, including a blaze threatening an estimated 600 homes in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles, state fire officials said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether McGlover had an attorney.

A firefighter watches as the Cranston fire grows to more 1,200 acres in the San Bernardino National Forest above Hemet, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Terry Pierson /The Orange County Register via AP)

One of the fires erupted Wednesday afternoon and quickly grew to 7 -square miles (19 square kilometers), fueled by dry brush and trees in rugged terrain. It was burning in and around San Bernardino National Forest, prompting officials to order evacuations for Idyllwild and surrounding communities, which are home to about 12,000 people.

No injuries were reported but dozens of horses and other animals and several hundred people, including children from summer camps, went to shelters.

William Blodgett of Idyllwild said he couldn't get home because of the fire and had to wait along with others at a gas station in nearby Mountain Center - until the fire hopped a highway and began to move in his direction.

"We were all peeling out of there as fast as we could," he told KNBC-TV. "It was apocalyptic."

The fire is one of several across California amid a statewide heat wave. To the north, in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least one home burned in a fast-moving blaze in Clayton, where houses are spread out around windy roads.

Yosemite Valley, the scenic heart of the national park, was closed at noon Wednesday during the height of tourist season as smoke cast a pall on the region from a fire in the Sierra Nevada. The closure was heartbreaking for travelers, many of whom mapped out their trips months in advance to hike and climb amid the spectacular views of cascading waterfalls and sheer rock faces.

"We had one guest who planned a weeklong trip," said Tom Lambert, who owns a vacation rental property near Yosemite Valley. "It was a father-daughter trip, for her high school graduation ... Now it's done. It's sad." Another guest had to delay plans to climb Half Dome.

The closure has also been a financial blow to Lambert and other businesses that rely on the summer tourist traffic.

Most people left the valley Tuesday, when officials reluctantly announced the closure, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. The remaining campers packed up their gear Wednesday, joining the exodus that has been mostly orderly.

"People have been very understanding," Gediman said.

Officials emphasized that Yosemite wasn't in imminent danger from the fire. Authorities decided on the shutdown to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

On Wednesday, an extended family from Los Angeles on their annual trip to Yosemite prepared to leave the Upper Pines campground.

"Very disappointed," Lisa Salgado said. "We look forward to this all year. This is the trip of our summer."

The group arrived Monday and had planned to stay through Saturday. Instead, they packed tents and other gear into vehicles, hoping they could find another campground elsewhere.

"So, this is a new memory," said Miguel Martinez. "I've never been evacuated before."

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads into the area, Gediman said.

At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings were canceled - to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said.

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Lambert and his wife, Theresa Ho, were briefly evacuated last week when smoke cast an unhealthy pall over the home where they live upstairs and rent the downstairs to tourists.

"Basically June, July and August are the big revenue months," he said, estimating that about 100 nearby vacation properties would be forced to offer refunds. "We're gonna lose half of July and half of August probably."

Yosemite Valley is the centerpiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley has been enveloped by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while other people have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

In the state's far north, a 7-square-mile (18-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.

___

Berger reported from Yosemite; Weber from Los Angeles. AP reporters Robert Jablon, Michael Balsamo and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed.

___

Follow Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCM

A helicopter battling a fire on Mt. Diablo passes a home covered in fire retardant, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, above Marsh Creek Road east of Clayton, Calif. (Karl Mondon /San Jose Mercury News via AP)

A helicopter drops water to stop the Ferguson Fire from reaching homes in the Darrah community of unincorporated Mariposa County, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A sign on Highway 41 announces the closure of Yosemite National Park near Oakhurst, Calif., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Parts of the park closed Wednesday as firefighters work to contain the Ferguson fire burning nearby. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A passing airplane can be seen through the smoke from the Cranston Fire near Idyllwild, Calif. in the San Jacinto Mountains, nearly 50 miles northwest of Palm Springs, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Richard Lui/The Desert Sun via AP )

Smoke from the Cranston Fire clouds the skies over Highway 243, south of Idyllwild, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people, and surrounding forest communities in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. (Richard Lui/The Desert Sun via AP )

Black smoke billows up from the Cranston Fire, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, along Highway 74 near Idyllwild, Calif., in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 50 miles northwest of Palm Springs. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people, and surrounding forest communities in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. (Colin Atagi/The Desert Sun via AP )

Smoke from the Cranston Fire clouds the skies over Highway 243, south of Idyllwild, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people, and surrounding forest communities in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. (Richard Lui/The Desert Sun via AP )

A sign warns departing campers of closures on Wednesday July 25, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Parts of the park closed Wednesday as firefighters work to contain the Ferguson fire. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop as plumes of smoke from a fast moving wildfire fill the sky above Highway 74 near Hemet, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Terry Pierson /The Orange County Register via AP)

Guests leave the The Majestic Yosemite Hotel, formerly The Ahwahnee Hotel, shortly after it closed on Wednesday July 25, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. The hotel, nearby campgrounds and other sections of Yosemite close today as firefighters work to contain the Ferguson fire. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Lisa Salgado and daughter Alyssa, 19, break camp at the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Salgado's family, visiting from Los Angeles, had to cut their stay short as portions of Yosemite close today to allow crews to battle the Ferguson fire burning nearby. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

River Martinez, 10, breaks camp at the Upper Pines Campground in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Martinez's family, visiting from Los Angeles, had to cut their stay short as portions of Yosemite close today to allow crews to battle the Ferguson fire burning nearby. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Hannah Whyatt poses for a friend's photo as smoke from the Ferguson fire fills Yosemite Valley, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Yosemite National Park, Calif. Campsites and lodges emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite National Park by noon Wednesday, as firefighters battled to contain a huge wildfire just to the west that has threatened the park's forest and sent up smoke that obscured grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump and European leaders pulled back from the brink of a trade war over autos Wednesday and agreed to open talks to tear down trade barriers between the United States and the European Union.

But the agreement was vague, the coming negotiations with Europe are sure to be contentious and the United States remains embroiled in major trade disputes with China and other trading partners.

In a hastily called Rose Garden appearance with Trump, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the U.S. and the EU have agreed to hold off on new tariffs, suggesting that the United States will suspend plans to start taxing European auto imports - a move that would have marked a major escalation in trade tensions between the allies.

President Donald Trump meets with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump also said the EU had agreed to buy "a lot of soybeans" and increase its imports of liquefied natural gas from the U.S. And the two agreed to resolve a dispute over U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"It's encouraging that they're talking about freer trade rather than trade barriers and an escalating tariff war," said Rufus Yerxa, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and a former U.S. trade official. But he said reaching a detailed trade agreement with the EU would likely prove difficult.

The tone was friendlier than it has been. During a recent European trip, Trump referred to the EU as a "foe, what they do to us in trade." Juncker, after Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, said in March that "this is basically a stupid process, the fact that we have to do this. But we have to do it. We can also do stupid."

On Wednesday, Trump and Juncker said they have agreed to work toward "zero tariffs" and "zero subsidies" on non-automotive goods.

Trump told reporters it was a "very big day for free and fair trade" and later tweeted a photo of himself and Juncker in an embrace, with Juncker kissing his cheek.

"Obviously the European Union, as represented by @JunckerEU and the United States, as represented by yours truly, love each other!" he wrote.

The president campaigned on a vow to get tough on trading partners he accuses of taking advantage of bad trade deals to run up huge trade surpluses with the U.S.

He has slapped taxes on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security. The U.S. and EU are now working to resolve their differences over steel and aluminum - but the tariffs are still in place. And they would continue to hit U.S. trading partners like Canada, Mexico and Japan even if the U.S. and the EU cut a deal.

Whatever progress was achieved Wednesday could provide some relief for U.S. automakers. The escalating trade war and tariffs on steel and aluminum had put pressure on auto company earnings. General Motors had slashed its outlook, and shares of Ford Motor Co. and auto parts companies had fallen.

"Our biggest exposure, our biggest unmitigated exposure, is really steel and aluminum when you look at all of the commodities," GM CEO Mary Barra said Wednesday.

Trump has also imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese imports - a figure he has threatened to raise to $500 billion - in a dispute over Beijing's aggressive drive to supplant U.S. technological dominance.

China has counterpunched with tariffs on American products, including soybeans and pork - a shot at Trump supporters in the U.S. heartland.

The EU is stepping in to ease some of U.S. farmers' pain. Juncker said the EU "can import more soybeans from the U.S., and it will be done."

Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist who studies trade, said, "The Chinese are not going to be buying our soybeans, so almost by musical chairs our soybeans are going to Europe." The trouble is, China last year imported $12.3 billion in U.S. soybeans, the EU just $1.6 billion.

Trump's announcement stunned lawmakers who arrived at the White House ready to unload concerns over the administration's trade policies only to be quickly ushered into Rose Garden for what the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee called "quite a startling" development.

"I think everybody sort of changed what they were going to say," said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

Lawmakers said they still needed to see details of the agreement with the EU as well as progress on the other deals. But they said the breakthrough announcement was a step in the right direction.

"We have more confidence in him now than we did before," said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

The White House announcement came as the Trump administration announced a final rule aimed at speeding up approval of applications for small-scale exports of liquefied natural gas. The Trump administration has made LNG exports a priority, arguing that they help the economy and enhance geopolitical stability in countries that purchase U.S. gas.

Juncker said the two sides also agreed to work together to reform the World Trade Organization, which Trump has vehemently criticized as being unfair to the U.S.

The biggest news from the Trump-Juncker meeting is that it appears to have delayed an impending trade war over autos. Trump had threatened to tax imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The European Union had warned that it would retaliate with tariffs on products worth $20 billion if Trump put duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

But the auto trade war with Europe is on hold while the U.S. and EU engage in further trade talks. Daniel Ikenson, director of trade studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, warned that the fight could flare up again if Trump grows impatient with Europe.

"Auto tariffs are looming unless the EU buys more U.S. stuff and does other things Trump demands," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Christopher Rugaber, Darlene Superville, Matthew Daly and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this story.

___

On Twitter, follow Ken Thomas at https://twitter.com/KThomasDC and Paul Wiseman at https://twitter.com/PaulWisemanAP

President Donald Trump meets with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump, right, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker walk from the podiums after speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump, right, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, left, speak in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Donald Trump and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker leaves the podiums after speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) - A southern Missouri paramedic has pleaded guilty to stealing opioids and filling the empty vials with saline solution.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that 30-year-old Zachary McCleary pleaded guilty Monday to tampering with a consumer product. Prosecutors say 18 patients in Barton County alone reported getting salt water instead of painkillers because of McCleary's actions.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says McCleary worked as an emergency medical technician for three agencies in the region: CoxHealth in Springfield, Mercy Health in Carthage and with Barton County Emergency Medical Service.

The Food and Drug Administration also investigated. The agency found that opioid-based drugs like fentanyl, morphine, hydrocodone and ketamine were stolen from numerous places where McCleary worked.

___

Information from: Springfield News-Leader, http://www.news-leader.comSAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Southern California school board's policy of opening meetings with a prayer is unconstitutional because the prayers often invoke Christianity, and there are secular ways of accomplishing the board's goals of solemnizing meetings and showing respect for religious diversity, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that banned the prayers by the Chino Valley Unified School District board of education as a violation of the constitutional requirement that government not establish religion. The district is based in Chino, a city 35 miles east of Los Angeles.

Robert Tyler, an attorney for the school board, said the board was evaluating its next step, but had previously expressed a desire to "take this case as far as they can take it." He said the 9th Circuit ruling conflicted with a decision last year by another U.S. appeals court and conflated comments made by individual board members during meetings with the prayer policy.

"There's nothing unlawful or unconstitutional about allowing an invocation or ceremonial prayer before school board meetings," he said. Tyler compared the practice to prayers before legislative sessions, which courts have allowed.

The board policy called for the delivery of a prayer by a member of the clergy or another religious leader, but it also allowed the board president to solicit a volunteer from the board or the audience to deliver the remarks if the religious leader did not appear, according to the 9th Circuit ruling.

Board members regularly read from the Bible, invoked Christian beliefs, and engaged in additional prayer at the meetings. At one meeting, then-Board president James Na "urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him," the 9th Circuit said.

The 9th Circuit panel said some faiths were not represented on a list the board used to select the religious leader for the prayer. Agnostics and atheists were also not acknowledged, the court said.

"Instead, the prayers frequently advanced religion in general and Christianity in particular," judges M. Margaret McKeown, Kim McLane Wardlaw and Wiley Y. Daniel said.

The judges, additionally, said the board could have accomplished its goals without "conveying an explicitly religious message or performing a religious activity" by, for example, having someone read about the importance of religious diversity or pluralism.

The decision came in a lawsuit filed against the district by parents, students, employees and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a nonprofit group that fights for the separation of church and state.

The court said the board's practice was different from the tradition of holding a prayer to open legislative sessions because many members of the audience at board meetings were children who had little choice but to attend and were in an "unequal" relationship with the board.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.

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Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349GENEVA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Tuesday that the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially ends, but urged to extend this success to combatting other diseases in the country.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti joined DRC Minister of Health Dr. Oly Ilunga for the announcement in the capital Kinshasa.

"The outbreak was contained due to the tireless efforts of local teams, the support of partners, the generosity of donors, and the effective leadership of the Ministry of Health. That kind of leadership, allied with strong collaboration between partners, saves lives," Dr. Tedros said.

The WHO chief also urged the DRC government and the international community to build on the positive momentum generated by the quick containment of the Ebola outbreak.

"This effective response to Ebola should make the Government and partners confident that other major outbreaks affecting the country such as cholera and polio can also be tackled," he said. "We must continue to work together, investing in strengthened preparedness and access to healthcare for the most vulnerable."

According to Dr, Moeti, in addition the quick response from the WHO and DRC authorities, the success was also attributed to the "tremendous capacity of the African region." He revealed that more than three-quarters of the 360 people deployed to respond came from within the region, including dozens of experts from Guinea who spent weeks leading Ebola vaccination efforts there, transferring expertise which will enable the DRC to mount an effective response both within its borders and beyond.

The latest Ebola outbreak, which was initially reported on May 8, was the ninth outbreak in the country's history and the largest since the West African epidemic of 2013 to 2016. Unlike previous ones, this outbreak involved four separate locations, including an urban center with river connections to the capital and to neighboring countries, as well as remote rainforest villages. There were initial concerns that the disease could spread to other parts of the DRC and to neighboring countries.

From April 1 through July 3, a total of 53 Ebola virus disease cases, including 29 deaths, were reported from Equateur province, northwest of the DRC. On June 12, the last confirmed Ebola virus disease patient was discharged from a treatment center in the province.

During the outbreak, the WHO's operations in the DRC was funded by a total of 4 million U.S. dollars from its own Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE), while also appealing for 57 million dollars and receiving in total 63 million dollars from partners.WASHINGTON (AP) - The audio recording of President Donald Trump and his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, captures the two men discussing hush money payments to a former Playboy model alleging an affair.

Here's a look at the recording , including what it reveals and what it doesn't:

IT'S QUICK AND CASUAL - AND RELATED TO THE CAMPAIGN

This combination photo shows President Donald Trump and attorney Michael Cohen. The audio recording of Trump and his then-lawyer, Cohen, captures the two men discussing hush money payments to a former Playboy model alleging an affair.(AP Photo)

Trump's lawyers say the three-minute recording was made surreptitiously by Cohen during what seems to be a casual, campaign-related conversation with Trump in September 2016, just two months away from the national election.

At the start of the audio, the president appears to be talking to someone other than Cohen whom he calls "hon" and references a "Charleston thing," concluding, "I'm proud of you."

Trump then turns his attention to Cohen, his longtime friend and attorney. The two discuss polling numbers and the impact of a supportive African-American pastor. Cohen tells Trump that The New York Times wants to unseal documents on his divorce from Ivana Trump ahead of the election (an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful, as Cohen predicts).

At one point during the Ivana discussion, Trump yells out, "Get me a Coke, please!"

This chatter is noteworthy because it shows Cohen advising Trump on campaign matters. And that could be of interest to investigators looking into whether Cohen violated election laws by orchestrating hush money payouts.

__

IT REFERS TO 'OUR FRIEND, DAVID'

Cohen then shifts the conversation. "Um," he says, "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David."

This is widely believed to refer to David Pecker, president of American Media Inc., which owns the National Enquirer. The company had just paid $150,000 to model Karen McDougal for the rights to her story about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.

McDougal later sued, claiming that AMI paid for the story with the intention of burying it to protect Trump.

Cohen says he's already spoken with the Trump Organization's finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, on "how to set the whole thing up." Trump's lawyers say the payments were never made.

Weisselberg's involvement raises questions about whether Trump's private business tried to protect his campaign.

Such a payment could be regarded as an illegal campaign expenditure if the money is clearly meant to influence the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. But it would be a harder case to make if the payment was seen as merely designed to protect Trump, who is married, from embarrassment in his personal or private life.

__

IT SHOWS TRUMP KNEW

Trump responds to Cohen's suggestion with a question: "What do we got to pay for this?"

This statement makes it clear Trump is familiar with the matter and not learning for the first time of McDougal's allegation or the proposal to arrange a payment.

The tape doesn't prove McDougal's allegations of an affair, and at no point in the recording does Trump acknowledge whether he had a sexual relationship with McDougal. But the audio does suggest Trump knew about her allegations, even as his campaign later insisted that he didn't.

Just days ahead of the presidential election, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The Wall Street Journal on its report of the $150,000 payment to McDougal: "We have no knowledge of any of this."

__

CASH OR CHECK?

At one point, Cohen says of David, "I'll have to pay him something."

The audio is muffled but Trump can be heard saying something about "cash," and then something about paying by "check."

Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, insists Trump said, "Don't pay with cash."

This is only important in that it raises questions about whether Trump was trying to hide the potential payment with cash, which can be harder to track.

Also unclear is why the audio ends so abruptly. Trump on Wednesday suggested the tape was cut just as he was "presumably saying positive things," although there was no evidence of that.

__

IT RAISES QUESTIONS ABOUT COHEN'S END GAME

The recording turned up after federal agents raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room this spring as part of an investigation into possible fraud and violation of election laws. Court filings say 12 audio recordings in all were passed on to federal prosecutors after lawyers dropped any claims of attorney-client privilege.

One question is why Cohen chose to make it public. Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, released the recording to CNN Tuesday night in what is seen as an open hostility between Trump and Cohen.

Asked if Cohen was still seeking a presidential pardon while under federal investigation, Davis responded simply, "No."

"This is about truth versus lying and ultimately Trump is going to be done in by the truth."

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

___

Follow Anne Flaherty on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnneKFlahertyWASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's top national security aides sought to fend off accusations the president is too soft on Russia by declaring Wednesday that the U.S. will never recognize the annexation of Crimea and by postponing a second proposed summit between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to face questions about last week's Trump-Putin meeting from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House said Trump had opted against trying to meet with Putin this fall, as had been announced, and would instead wait until 2019. National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.

"The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said. The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall. This came amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the fall.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, during a hearing on diplomacy and national security. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

In the meantime, Pompeo issued a statement titled the "Crimea Declaration" in which he said the U.S. will continue to insist that Ukraine's territorial integrity be restored. He said the U.S. would hold to its long-standing principle of refusing to recognize Kremlin claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in violation of international law. And he called for Russia to respect principles it claims to respect and "end its occupation of Crimea."

"In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored," Pompeo said in the declaration, which was released by the State Department shortly before he was to testify.

Pompeo is expected to face tough questioning from committee members about Trump's summit with Putin. Trump has suggested that U.S. opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea could be reconsidered.

In the declaration, Pompeo took Russia to task for it actions in Ukraine, particularly the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia has defended its move, saying Crimean voters approved the annexation in a referendum. The U.S. and its European allies have said the referendum was illegal as it was held without the consent of the government in Kiev and was conducted in a highly flawed manner.

"Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community," Pompeo said in the statement.

Even before the statement was released, Pompeo was taking a tough line on Russia and defending the Trump-Putin meeting as he prepared for his Senate testimony.

In an interview transcript released ahead of the Crimea statement, Pompeo said Trump and Putin "didn't find much place to agree" on Ukraine when they met in Finland last week. He said Trump made clear to Putin that the so-called Minsk Accords to settle the Ukraine conflict is the right path forward.

He also reiterated U.S. support for an investigation that held Russia responsible for downing a Malaysian airliner over east Ukraine in 2014. Pompeo said that what the Russians did was "deeply immoral" and that those responsible for the MH17 disaster should be held accountable.

Pompeo made the comments in a Tuesday interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in California, where he and Defense Secretary James Mattis co-hosted meetings this week with their Australian counterparts. The interview was a likely preview of his Senate testimony, which comes as lawmakers are seeking answers on what the two leaders may have agreed to in Helsinki. The White House and State Department have been vague when pressed for specifics.

In the interview, Pompeo acknowledged that he was not in the room when Trump and Putin met for nearly two hours in Helsinki. But he said he had a "good understanding" of what took place based on his presence at a larger meeting between the two sides as well as conversations with Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"It was an incredibly constructive engagement for President Trump and President Putin, an important one for the world," Pompeo said. "These are two nuclear superpowers. They ought to be engaged in conversations, and they covered a wide range of topics. They disagreed on many things but also set forward some constructive paths on important topics."

On Ukraine, Pompeo said the differences were sharp.

"The president was strong in making sure that the world understood that the Minsk path is the right path forward," he said. Asked about MH17, in which dozens of Australian passengers were killed, Pompeo called it "a real tragedy."

"What the Russians did there is deeply immoral," he said. "There ought to be accountability."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, arrives to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, during a hearing on diplomacy and national security. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)PHOENIX (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union is spending $720,000 in the U.S. Senate race in Arizona to send people into neighborhoods to hand out fliers and run a TV commercial critical of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's treatment of immigrants.

The legal advocacy group normally stays out of political races, but it is getting involved in the Arizona campaign and other races across the country to emphasize the importance of civil liberties to voters, said Steve Kilar, a spokesman for the ACLU's affiliate in Arizona.

"Joe Arpaio's record in particular is so emblematic of what can happen if people aren't paying attention to civil liberty records of the people they are electing," Kilar said, adding that the group doesn't endorse candidates and instead gives voters information so they can make decisions on issues affecting civil liberties. The $720,000 spent by the ACLU in the Arizona race includes $400,000 in expenditures reported Wednesday.

The ACLU was the driving force behind a nearly 11-year-old lawsuit that challenged Arpaio's signature traffic patrols targeting immigrants, eventually leading a federal judge to rule that sheriff's deputies had systemically racially profiled Latinos.

The case brought the worst legal defeats in Arpaio's 24-year tenure as metro Phoenix's sheriff, including a criminal contempt of court conviction for intentionally disobeying the judge's orders to stop his immigration patrols. Arpaio, now 86, was spared a possible jail sentence when he was pardoned nearly a year ago by President Donald Trump.

Arpaio said the ACLU is worried that he'll win the Aug. 28 GOP primary and will move on to beat U.S. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, considered the front-runner among Democrats, in the Nov. 6 general election. "I am pretty happy that they are worried about me," Arpaio said.

In the past, local ACLU affiliates have done political advocacy, but the effort in the Arizona Senate race marks the first time the group's national office has participated in voter education efforts in a federal election, Kilar said. "Nationally, I will say that this isn't the last time you will see it happen," Kilar said.

Faiz Shakir, the ACLU's national political director, said the group's new emphasis on political advocacy was driven by a flood of new members who joined after Trump was elected and were concerned that the new president posed a threat to civil liberties.

"Donald Trump lit a fire under the ACLU and its membership and gave us an additional power and strength that we didn't have before," Shakir said.

In recent months, the group's political activities include a seven-figure ad buy to try to raise awareness about immigrant children being separated from their parents, ads in Alaska and Maine calling for Trump's Supreme Court nominee to declare a position on the decision that legalized abortion, and spent $170,000 in a sheriff's race in Mecklenburg Count, North Carolina.

The 30-second ad running in Tucson and Phoenix says Arpaio terrorized Latinos and immigrants for years and that his GOP opponents, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally and former state Sen. Kelli Ward, have joined Arpaio in his anti-immigrant views. It shows images of Arpaio with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, detained immigrant children who were separated from their parents, and an image of the outdoor complex of jail tents that helped make Arpaio famous.

"Dr. Ward is proud to stand with President Trump and will never apologize for leading the charge to secure the border; pathetic attacks from the ACLU certainly will not change her position and won't move the voters of Arizona at all," Ward spokesman Zachery Henry said in a statement.

McSally spokeswoman Torunn Sinclair didn't return a phone call and email seeking comment on the ACLU's criticism of McSally's views on immigration.

In past decades, the ACLU has tried to shape public opinion on a variety of political issues, such showing its opposition to a movement in the 1940s to bar radical groups from appearing on the ballot, said Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus of criminology at the University of Nebraska and author of a history of the nearly 100-year old group.

After the U.S. Supreme Court became more conservative in the 1970s and 1980s, the ACLU built up its political lobbying efforts in Washington under the belief that it could choke off bad proposals in Congress, rather than waiting for them to become law and having to challenge them in court, said Walker, who is also a member of the ACLU.

"The ebb and flow of it depends on changing external circumstances," Walker said. "So the election of Donald Trump and an attack on a broad range of civil liberty issues has brought advocacy to the fore."

___

Follow Jacques Billeaud at twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://bit.ly/2GGWEPO.FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Court records show a witness photo led authorities to arrest two suspects in an attempted Fort Worth bank robbery during which three employees were shot.

Blake Taylor and Desmond J. Wells have been federally charged in last week's attempted robbery of a Veritex Community Bank in Fort Worth. Authorities say two people walked into the lobby with handguns and one demanded money. Both then opened fire almost immediately. Two tellers behind the counter and a third employee were hit.

The court documents say a witness took a photo of the vehicle the two gunmen entered. Police later found the vehicle in the driveway of a residence and detained Taylor after he exited the house next door.

The records say Taylor told authorities he and Wells intended to rob the bank.A woman died after rain from the latest round of strong Colorado storms flooded the suburban Denver basement apartment she was staying in to take care of a friend's cat, police said Wednesday.

People who live upstairs in the Englewood home called police Tuesday because they were concerned about their neighbor in the basement unit, police spokesman Chad Read said.

The neighbor was not at home but officers found Rachael Marie Haber, 32, after searching in the murky water that reached up to the ceiling. No one else was in the unit.

Pictures taken in the aftermath showed the battered door to the basement apartment which was flooded up to the ceiling when police arrived

Rachael Haber, 32, had been looking after a friend's cat in the apartment when she drowned

Haber was unresponsive and taken to the hospital, where she died Wednesday morning.

The coroner said an autopsy showed injuries consistent with drowning, but further tests on how she died were still pending.

Read told The Denver Post the water in the neighborhood was knee-high when officers arrived.

'There was water in the front yards, backyards and a car actually floated down part of the street and ended up in front of the house,' he said.

The rain also caused a sinkhole to open in nearby Sheridan, swallowing a vehicle, but the driver was able to get out in time. The muddy and mangled Toyota RAV4 was pulled from the hole on Wednesday.

Police and firemen rushed to the scene after a neighbor raised the alarm about the flooded basement

Ms Haber was rushed to a local hospital after being discovered unresponsive but died the morning after

In southwestern Colorado, water and debris closed roads near an area burned by a large wildfire north of Durango. The flooding stopped the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, leading about 800 passengers to be bused back to Durango, The Durango Herald reported.

Another sinkhole opened earlier Tuesday south of Colorado Springs after flooding washed out a culvert following heavy rain there on Monday.

A vehicle fell into the culvert and when the Hanover Fire Department responded to the cave-in, their fire truck also fell into the hole. Both vehicles were removed early Tuesday morning.

Two firefighters and the driver of the first vehicle were taken to the hospital.SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors agreed Wednesday to review a decades-old murder investigation after an attorney said she detected similarities to attacks by a notorious California serial killer and not the man who was convicted in the case.

The Orange County District Attorney's office agreed to review the conviction of William Evins in the killing of a 28-year-old woman in 1979 as part of a longstanding program that looks into old cases upon request. But the prosecutor's office said it's too soon to tell where the review will lead, and they will have to look at the evidence to determine whether DNA testing is a possibility.

Attorney Annee Della Donna, who runs the pro bono Innocence Rights of Orange County, said she made the request after detecting apparent similarities in the now-deceased Evins' case with murders by the so-called Golden State Killer.

Attorney Annee Della Donna holds a photo of William Evins, now deceased, who was convicted of the murder of a woman in 1979, outside Superior Court in Santa Ana, Calif., Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The Orange County District Attorney's office is reviewing a probe into the decades-old murder after Della Donna said she detected similarities to attacks by a notorious California serial killer. She made the request after detecting apparent similarities in the Evins' case with murders in the 1970s and 1980s attributed to the suspected Golden State Killer, Joseph DeAngelo. (AP Photo/Amy Taxin)

Authorities in Northern California arrested 72-year-old former police officer Joseph DeAngelo last April and said they believed he was the killer who had long proved elusive to authorities. DeAngelo is charged with 12 killings throughout the state in the 1970s and 1980s, including one in Orange County in 1980. He has yet to enter a plea.

As a teen, Della Donna said she was the victim of an abduction attempt and years later saw a sketch of the Golden State Killer suspect that she thought resembled her attacker. She started looking into rape and murder cases that had occurred nearby and came across Evins' case, she said.

She said she lived six blocks away from 28-year-old victim Joan Anderson and the way Anderson was killed bears similarities to cases involving the serial killer. She also said Evins, who died in 2013, pleaded guilty after a jailhouse informant said he had confessed to the crime.

"We believe that this murder was another Golden State Killer case," she told reporters, adding that she had also contacted Sacramento County sheriff's officials and the FBI.

"It's too early to tell if there's similarities or not," said Susan Kang Schroeder, the prosecutor office's chief of staff. "We don't know."ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - A Native American activist accused of raping unconscious women and recording the assaults on video has been arrested in Phoenix after police in New Mexico issued a warrant for his arrest, according to online jail records.

Redwolf Pope, a lawyer who has been described as having served as a liaison for elders, veterans and legal representatives during oil pipeline protests in North Dakota two years ago, was taken into custody late Tuesday night by Phoenix police. He was being held at the Maricopa County jail.

An arrest warrant filed Monday in Santa Fe accused Pope of both sexually assaulting females who appeared to have been slipped a date-rape drug and surreptitiously recording guests at apartments in Santa Fe and Seattle. He had residences in both cities, police said.

This undated photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff's office shows Redwolf Pope. Pope, accused of raping unconscious women and recording the assaults, has been arrested in Phoenix, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office via AP)

In a police interview last week, one woman told a Seattle detective that she had known Pope for years and had trusted him in the past because of his standing in her tribe, which is Tlingit.

Pope appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News in the past to discuss Native American perspectives on Thanksgiving, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported. The show identified his tribal affiliation as being Western Shoshone.

He also delivered a TEDx Talk in Seattle last year about oil pipeline protests at Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

He is charged in a criminal complaint in New Mexico with rape, false imprisonment and other crimes. Police in both Seattle and Santa Fe are investigating the case.

His attorney, Amy Sirignano, declined comment on his behalf Wednesday afternoon, saying she had not yet had the opportunity to communicate with him following his arrest.

Police said the Washington state woman interviewed last week had travelled in August 2017 to Santa Fe when she encountered Pope at a party and he offered her a ride. The last thing she remembers from that night was sipping a can of alcoholic iced tea he had given her, she said.

She recalled waking up confused the next morning in a Santa Fe hotel room, and Pope telling her that she had expressed her love for him the night before, which she did not believe.

"Eventually, she knew, she just wanted to get out of there and not deal with it," the warrant said.

The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.

Police reviewed roughly two dozen photographs and four videos initially recorded on cameras they obtained after one of Pope's roommates reported she had found a small video camera in his Seattle apartment's bathroom. The roommate turned the camera's memory card over to police after travelling to Santa Fe.

While in Santa Fe, the roommate also found an iPad belonging to Pope that contained videos of him sexually assaulting multiple females who appeared unconscious, police said.OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Prosecutors will seek a life sentence against a parolee charged with murder and attempted murder in the unprovoked stabbing of two young women at a subway station, a Northern California district attorney said Wednesday.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said authorities continue to investigate whether John Cowell, 27, was motivated by racial hate when he killed Nia Wilson, 18, and wounded her sister, Letifah Wilson, 26.

The women are black and he is white.

Images of Nia Wilson, who was fatally stabbed at a BART Station, are worn by a family member Wednesday, July 25, 2018, outside a courtroom in Oakland, Calif. A paroled robber who allegedly stabbed a woman to death and wounded her sister in an unprovoked attack at a California train station was charged with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday. John Cowell, 27, was set to be arraigned in Oakland in the attack against Nia Wilson, 18, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Having sat down with the victims' family, this is the worst time in their life, O'Malley said.

"My heart is broken for them and also for our community at large," she said after the hearing. "It has shaken the community, it has shaken all of us."

Cowell did not enter a plea in a brief hearing and his arraignment was held over until next month. The courtroom was packed with about two dozen members of Wilson's family. One woman wailed after the hearing was over.

The young woman's death Sunday prompted a vigil that later swelled into a crowd of about a thousand that marched in downtown Oakland across the bay from San Francisco.

A panel hid Cowell from view but courtroom artist Vicki Ellen Behringer could see him. He looked down for most of the hearing, she said and at one point, he had a slight smile. Cowell had a tattoo on his chest and a bandage on his forehead, she said.

Cowell's lawyer, George Arroyo, slipped out the back door after the hearing and did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Cowell was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train about a dozen miles (19 kilometers) from the MacArthur station where the women were attacked.

Authorities haven't released a motive for the attack but Cowell's family told KRON-TV in a statement that he has suffered from mental illness "most of his life." Cowell had been in and out of jail without receiving proper treatment, the family contended.

Nia's father, Ansar Muhammad, said Wednesday he thought claiming mental illness was "an excuse" and he felt his daughters were attacked because they are black.

"I think it's an excuse. I hate to say that, but, you know, why would you choose two black girls?" Muhammad said at the courthouse before Cowell's appearance.

Muhammad said Nia was going to graduate "with very high honors" from Dewey Academy in December and planned to join the military.

"I should be planning her graduation, not her funeral," he said.

Records indicate Cowell recently served two years for second-degree robbery and also had convictions for battery, being under the influence of a controlled substance and assault with a deadly weapon, the East Bay Times reported.

Cowell was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the family said.

He was released from the Atascadero state mental hospital in May but "there was not a place for him to go with most of the mental institutions being shut down," the family said, adding that "the system has failed in this instance."

"We had to get a restraining order at one time as well for our own protection. He was living on the streets without the proper treatment," the family said. "This is in no way an excuse for this senseless and vicious attack."

Cowell's mother, Anne Cowell, is serving a three-year sentence for setting fire to a transitional housing shelter in Santa Rosa, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Vicky Waters said Cowell had been under "active parole supervision and had no arrest warrants."

She said the agency is conducting a review and also cooperating with BART and local law enforcement in their investigation.

Cowell's family said it was "heartbroken" and mourning for the victims' family.

"This horrific tragedy never should have happened," the statement said.

BART police said they were also investigating the death of a homeless man who was attacked at a subway station the day before Nia Wilson was fatally stabbed on a transferring platform.

BART police late Tuesday released images of a man who allegedly punched 47-year-old Don Stevens at the Bay Fair station on Saturday.

The suspect hit Stevens in the side of the head with a closed fist. Stevens fell and struck his head and died at a hospital Sunday, they said.

___

Rodriguez reported from San Francisco.

___

Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com

This July 3, 2017, photo provided by Ebony Monroe shows her cousin Nia Wilson in a selfie, who was killed in an unprovoked stabbing attack at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, July 22, 2018. John Cowell, 27, a recently paroled robber with a violent history, was peacefully arrested on an Antioch-bound train Monday night about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Oakland station where investigators believe he killed Wilson and wounded her sister Sunday night. (Nia Wilson via AP)

Ansar Muhammad, father of Nia Wilson, who was fatally stabbed at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station, talks with reporters outside a courtroom before the arraignment of suspect John Cowell Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. The paroled robber who allegedly stabbed a woman to death and wounded her sister in an unprovoked attack at a California train station was charged with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday. Cowell, 27, was set to be arraigned in Oakland in the attack against Nia Wilson, 18, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

Stabbing victim Lahtifa Wilson, center right, is embraced during a vigil for her sister Nia Wilson outside the MacArthur Bay Area Rapid Transit station, Monday, July 23, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. A felon on parole fatally stabbed 18-year-old Nia Wilson in the neck and wounded Lahtifa Wilson as they exited a train at a subway station in what police said was an unprovoked attack. BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said officers are scouring the area for John Cowell, 27, who is suspected in the Sunday night attack at the MacArthur Station in Oakland. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

People hold hands during a vigil for Nia Wilson outside the MacArthur Bay Area Rapid Transit station, Monday, July 23, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. A felon on parole fatally stabbed 18-year-old Wilson in the neck and wounded her sister as they exited a train at a subway station in what police said was an unprovoked attack. BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said officers are scouring the area for John Cowell, 27, who is suspected in the Sunday night attack at the MacArthur Station in Oakland. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

CORRECTS SPELLING OF ANSAR'S LAST NAME TO MUHAMMAD, NOT MOHAMMED - In this Sunday, July 22, 2018, image provided by KTVU, Ansar Muhammad talks about the stabbings of his two daughters outside a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Calif. Authorities say a man fatally stabbed an 18-year-old woman in the neck and wounded her sister as they waited for a train in Oakland. BART spokesman Jim Allison tells the San Francisco Chronicle one of the victims died soon after police arrived and the second victim was taken to a hospital. (KTVU via AP)

Malika Harris, 25, listens to speakers at a vigil held on Monday, July 23, 2018, for her sister, 18-year-old Nia Wilson, who was stabbed to death the day before at the Bay Area Rapid Transit's MacArthur Station in Oakland, Calif. "I feel like she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Harris said. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

A memorial for 18-year-old Nia Wilson takes shape outside Bay Area Rapid Transit's MacArthur Station, Monday, July 23, 2018, a day after she was fatally stabbed on a platform at the station, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

"Stop Killing Our Kids" movement spokesman Daryle Allums speaks at a vigil, Monday, July 23, 2018, at Bay Area Rapid Transit's MacArthur Station for 18-year-old Nia Wilson, who was fatally stabbed on a platform at the station the night before, in Oakland, Calif. "We want the killer, we want justice," said Allums, who identified Wilson as his goddaughter. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

Jasmine Malone, 23, holds a sign at a vigil held for 18-year-old Nia Wilson, who was stabbed to death the night before at the MacArthur BART station in Oakland, Calif., Monday, July 23, 2018.(AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

Stabbing victim Lahtifa Wilson, 26, seated, wearing a headscarf, touches her wound outside of a MacArthur BART station on Monday, July 23, 2018, a day after she and her sister Nia Wilson were attacked on the train platform in Oakland, Calif. Nia Wilson did not survive the stabbing. (AP Photo/Lorin Eleni Gill)

In this July 21, 2018 surveillance camera image provided by Bay Area Rapid Transit, a suspect accused of fatally punching a man on the platform of the Bay Fair BART Station walks on a train in San Leandro, Calif. Don Stevens, a homeless man at the Bay Fair Station in San Leandro died Sunday, July 22, 2018, at a hospital, a day after he was punched by an attacker and fell down and hit his head on the pavement. (Bay Area Rapid Transit via AP)

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley speaks to reporters outside a courtroom Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. O'Malley charged a paroled robber who allegedly stabbed a woman to death and wounded her sister in an unprovoked attack at a California train station with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday. John Cowell, 27, was set to be arraigned in Oakland in the attack against Nia Wilson, 18, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Shanneka Harris, center, assists Alicia Grayson, mother of Nia Wilson who was fatally stabbed at a BART Station, as they leave a courtroom Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. A paroled robber who allegedly stabbed Nia Wilson to death and wounded her sister in an unprovoked attack at a California train station was charged with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday. John Cowell, 27, was set to be arraigned in Oakland in the attack against Nia Wilson, 18, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Alicia Grayson, mother of Nia Wilson who was fatally stabbed at a BART Station, wears a necklace bearing images of her deceased daughter Wednesday, July 25, 2018, while waiting to enter a courtroom in Oakland, Calif. A paroled robber who allegedly stabbed Nia Wilson to death and wounded her sister in an unprovoked attack at a California train station was charged with murder and attempted murder on Wednesday. John Cowell, 27, was set to be arraigned in Oakland in the attack against Nia Wilson, 18, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A legal feud over stricter abortion laws in Kentucky reached a federal appeals court, where lawyers for an abortion clinic and Gov. Matt Bevin's administration wrangled Wednesday over requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients prior to abortions.

The 2017 law, enacted soon after the GOP assumed complete control of Kentucky's legislature, was challenged by the state's last abortion clinic. The law was struck down last year by a federal judge, prompting an appeal by Bevin, a Republican and abortion opponent.

A three-member panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the legal arguments Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Similar cases went before two other federal appeals courts across the country in recent years, resulting in different outcomes. A similar law in North Carolina was struck down, while an ultrasound abortion law in Texas was upheld.

Kentucky's law seeks to force doctors to describe the required ultrasound in detail while the pregnant woman listened to the fetal heartbeat. The law says women could avert their eyes and ask to have the sound of the heartbeat turned off. But doctors still would have to perform the ultrasound and describe it to her. If they don't, the doctors could be fined up to $250,000 for repeat violations.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the clinic, contend the law - known as House Bill 2 - violates doctors' First Amendment rights by forcing them to deliver "ideological" messages to their patients, even when it's against a patient's wishes.

Chad Meredith, an attorney for the state of Kentucky, said the message isn't ideological but instead delivers "pure scientific facts" relevant to an abortion procedure. He noted that the lone abortion clinic in Kentucky - EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville - routinely performs ultrasounds before doing abortions.

"All that House Bill 2 requires them to do is to turn the monitor around, show it to the patient and say 'here is what this depicts,'" he told the court based on an audio recording. "This adds absolutely no more than five minutes to the procedure. There's nothing unreasonable about this."

ACLU attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas said the clinic offers to show ultrasounds to patients and to let them ask questions. The law, however, imposes forced speech on doctors that they must convey to patients, subverting the informed consent process, she said.

"Informed consent is not designed to reduce patients to sobbing, to plugging their ears while their physicians are still talking to them, to hiding their head in their shirts, to having to beg their physician to stop - all of which is what happened," she said.

When pressed during the hearing to defend the state mandate, Meredith said the information would benefit any woman who mistakenly believes their fetus to be an "inanimate clump of cells and tissue," not knowing it is starting to assume human form.

In Kentucky, the ultrasound law is just one front in a bitter legal feud between the ACLU and Bevin's administration over abortion.

A new Kentucky law seeking to ban a common procedure for second-trimester abortions is on hold temporarily pending a trial later this year after the measure was challenged. The law would ban a procedure known as "dilation and evacuation." It seeks to ban those procedures performed 11 weeks after fertilization.

In another case, the state's last abortion clinic is embroiled in a licensing fight that began when Bevin's administration claimed the facility lacked proper agreements with a hospital and an ambulance service in case of medical emergencies. The clinic filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the state from revoking its license. A trial was held last year but a judge has not yet ruled.MUNICH (AP) - Bayern Munich has agreed to sign Canadian teenage forward Alphonso Davies from the Vancouver Whitecaps in a transfer worth up to $22 million (18.75 million euros), a record for a Major League Soccer player.

The Bundesliga champion says the 17-year-old Davies, a naturalized Canadian born in Ghana, will join on Jan. 1 and his contract will run through June 2023. He turns 18 in November.

Bayern sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic says, "He offers a lot of promise for the future. Alphonso already possesses great ability, which is why a lot of top clubs were keen on him."

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 13, 2018 file photo, Alphonso Davies of Canada speaks at the FIFA congress on the eve of the opener of the 2018 soccer World Cup in Moscow, Russia. Bayern Munich has on Wednesday, July 25 agreed to sign Canada's teenage forward Alphonso Davies from MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps. The Bundesliga powerhouse says the 17-year-old Ghana-born Davies will join on Jan. 1, 2019 and that his contract will run through June 2023. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, file)

The Whitecaps said in a statement the deal includes a transfer fee and additional compensation that could total more than $22 million, the most received by an MLS club in the league's 23-year history.

Davies scored three goals for Canada in the 2016 CONCACAF Gold Cup.SHIJIAZHUANG, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Wang Xiaolin, former deputy director of the National Energy Administration, has been arrested, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Further investigation is underway as he is suspected of taking bribes, according to a statement issued by the people's procuratorate of Hebei Province.

Born in October 1963, Wang was appointed to the position at the administration in 2015 after working at Shenhua Group, China's largest coal producer, for about 20 years.

He was expelled from the Communist Party of China and public office in April.MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Box cutters, a roll of duct tape, rubber gloves and two handguns are among the items collected as evidence in the case of a Minnesota woman accused of killing her Florida look-alike.

Investigators in Florida released hundreds of photos and a list of evidence Wednesday in their case against Lois Riess . The 56-year-old Blooming Prairie, Minnesota, woman is charged with murder in the April death of Pamela Hutchinson in a Fort Myers Beach condo. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Riess is also accused of killing her husband, David Riess, before leading authorities on a manhunt. Murder charges in Minnesota are pending.

The Star Tribune reports the list of evidence also includes maps and written directions from Florida to Texas, where Riess was caught after Hutchinson's death.PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - One New England city is ordering a California company's electric stand-up scooters off its streets and another is scrambling to craft new scooter rules since the rental vehicles began appearing last week with no warning.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, sent a letter to Los Angeles-based startup Bird Rides Inc. on Tuesday, warning that it's illegal to operate its rental scooter business in the city without prior authorization. The college town home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined cities including Miami, Denver and Milwaukee as the latest battleground between municipal governments and a handful of fast-growing companies in a fierce competition to expand rental scooter and bicycle services around the country.

The dockless scooters appeared before dawn last Friday parked on sidewalks in Cambridge, in neighboring Somerville and in Providence, Rhode Island. All three have otherwise embraced trendy new modes of transportation such as bicycle-share networks or rentable electric-assisted pedal bikes, but Bird's unorthodox approach has grated on city leaders.

In this Tuesday, July 24, 2018 photo, Vatic Kuumba, of Providence, R.I. rides a BIRD electric scooter in downtown Providence. The rental vehicles began appearing in several New England cities last week without warning. Cambridge, Mass., sent a letter to Los Angeles-based startup Bird Rides Inc., warning that it's illegal to operate its business in the city without prior authorization. Providence is crafting a new policy. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A day later, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that the scooters would be sent to the tow yard if they arrived in his city without permission.

The company's smartphone app for finding and booking the scooters now shades Boston red, labeling it a "no ride or park zone," but the scooters are still being placed each morning in Cambridge, Somerville and Providence after overnight charging.

Cambridge Vice Mayor Jan Devereux said Bird seems to use stealth launches and then lets city officials scramble for how they want to permit and regulate the scooters.

"It certainly got them a seat at the table," Devereux said. "How they proceed from there is a question of what kind of attitude they bring to that table."

Bird said in a statement on Wednesday that "the people of Cambridge have enthusiastically adopted our affordable, environmentally friendly transportation option." It said it looks forward to meeting with city officials.

The company hasn't said how many scooters it has in each city. It has told some contract employees that it plans to uproot the scooters when the weather gets colder and migrate them to warmer climates for the winter.

Devereux, a bicyclist and public transit advocate, said most Cambridge residents are supportive of transportation alternatives that get people out of cars. At the same time, she said, "we want to have some measure of control" so the scooters don't become a safety hazard or chaotic nuisance.

Cambridge City Manager Louis DePasquale, in his Tuesday letter to Bird, said he would meet with company officials on Monday "to assess whether your business may safely operate in the city, and under what conditions."

As of now, he said, the scooters aren't allowed.

"The city will not permit Bird's electric scooters to be parked and used on city-owned streets, sidewalks and other public property without all required authorizations and permissions having first been obtained," he wrote.

Somerville also said this week its officials will meet with Bird but there "is no contract, license or agreement in place to allow them to operate" at this time.

Providence officials said they're consulting with police and other city officials to craft new rules.

"We're working on a policy that fits the city," said Victor Morente, a spokesman for Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Morente declined to say what that policy might look like.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - FBI special agent W. Joseph Astarita is one of the FBI's best shooters, and he knows when to shoot and when not to shoot, his defense attorney told jurors Wednesday.

Standing within easy striking distance of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, a militia leader who had come close to killing his fellow agent, Astarita decided to hold fire, the attorney, Robert Cary, said during his opening statement in a case that has become an unlikely footnote to the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early 2016.

"If he had shot, he would not have missed," Cary said.

FILE- This Jan. 26, 2016 file photo taken from an FBI video shows Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, center, after he was fatally shot by police near Burns, Ore. Opening statements begin in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in the trial of an FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum, a spokesman for a group that took over an Oregon wildlife refuge in January 2016. (FBI via AP, File)

Astarita, 41, is charged with making false statements and obstruction of justice after repeatedly telling investigators he did not fire two shots that missed Finicum, an Arizona rancher who served as spokesman for the Ammon Bundy-led group that seized the refuge in southeastern Oregon.

The errant shots came as Finicum left his pickup while authorities tried to arrest leaders of the takeover. Oregon State Police fatally shot Finicum seconds later.

The shooting was deemed legally justified, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman told jurors in his opening that the case is about not whether Astarita was right or wrong to fire. It's about integrity, "without which a law enforcement officer is nothing and has nothing," he said.

"If you shoot, you own your shots," Sussman said.

Sussman portrayed Astarita as a relatively inexperienced member of an elite FBI unit, and the only member of law enforcement who was in position to fire the shots in question.

"Only one guy stood in just the right spot," he said. "Only one guy stood with his rifle shouldered, aimed right at Robert "LaVoy" Finicum's truck."

Finicum and the occupiers seized the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016, to protest the imprisonment of two Oregon ranchers who had set fires. President Donald Trump recently pardoned those men, Dwight and Steven Hammond.

On Jan. 26, the FBI learned that Bundy, Finicum and other key figures were leaving the refuge in two vehicles to meet with a sheriff sympathetic to their cause.

Police stopped the vehicles, and several people surrendered, including Ammon Bundy. But Finicum fled at more than 70 mph with Bundy's brother Ryan and several others.

Roughly a mile down the road, Finicum swerved to avoid a roadblock, nearly hit an FBI agent and careened into a snowbank. Three shots, none fired by Astarita, hit the pickup during the chaos.

The two mystery gunshots rang out as Finicum emerged from his pickup and yelled, "Go ahead and shoot me!"

One bullet missed everything and was never recovered. The other struck the pickup and shattered a window. A fragment, possibly from the bullet, went into Ryan Bundy's shoulder. The potential evidence remains embedded.

"He won't give it to us, and we just can't go in and take it," Sussman said.

Shortly after the errant shots, two state troopers killed Finicum as he ran from the truck and reached toward a pocket where he kept a loaded gun.

Cary, the defense lawyer, stressed to jurors that no eyewitnesses saw Astarita fire his weapon and no such video exists. He also said there is no ballistic evidence linking a bullet to the Astarita's rifle.

He said two other members of law enforcement were in range to fire the rounds in question. He said an Oregon State Police trooper who killed Finicum - "the guy who aggressively followed Finicum into the snow and shot him dead" - likely fired them.

Finicum's widow, Jeanette Finicum, attended the opening day of trial, taking notes in the gallery. Also there was Shawna Cox, an occupier who was in Finicum's truck at the time of the shooting. Her video of the incident is expected to be seen by jurors.

The trial is expected to last several weeks.

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2016, file photo, makeshift roadside memorial for rancher LaVoy Finicum stands on a highway north of Burns, Ore. Opening statements begin in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in the trial of an FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum, a spokesman for a group that took over an Oregon wildlife refuge in January 2016. (AP Photo/Nick K. Geranios, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 5, 2016 file photo, Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, center, a rancher from Arizona, talks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. Opening statements begin in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in the trial of an FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum, a spokesman for a group that took over an Oregon wildlife refuge in January 2016. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 21, 2016, file photo, mourners gather at roadside memorial for rancher LaVoy Finicum near Burns, Ore. Opening statements begin in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in the trial of an FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum, a spokesman for a group that took over an Oregon wildlife refuge in January 2016. (AP Photo/Nick K. Geranios, File)

FILE - This Jan. 26, 2016, file photo taken from an FBI video shows Robert "LaVoy" Finicum before he was fatally shot by police near Burns, Ore. Opening statements begin in federal court in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 25, 2018, in the trial of an FBI agent accused of lying about firing two shots that missed Finicum, a spokesman for a group that took over an Oregon wildlife refuge in January 2016. (FBI via AP, File)WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday a great deal of work remains ahead of a North Korea denuclearization deal, but he dodged requests to identify a specific denuclearization timeline in testimony to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"There is an awful long way to go" Pompeo told lawmakers. He pledged negotiations would not "drag out to no end."

Following President Donald Trump's historic summit with Kim Jong Un in Singapore last month, Trump issued a statement that North Korea is "no longer a nuclear threat." But in the days that followed, the two sides released statements suggesting they remained at odds on what exactly denuclearization means and how it might be verified.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 25, 2018, during a hearing on diplomacy and national security. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

After Pompeo's trip to the North Korean capital earlier this month, he described his discussions as productive, but Kim accused the envoy of making "gangster-like" demands.

Lawmakers on Wednesday pressed the top U.S. diplomat on whether the U.S. and North Korea reached a denuclearization agreement. Pompeo responded that North Korea's leadership "indicated that they fully understand the scope of what denuclearization entails."

When asked to detail verifiable evidence of progress toward denuclearization, Pompeo stated, "We are sitting at the table having conversations."

Pompeo also pointed to a report this week from an American research group that the North has begun dismantling its main missile-engine test site. The report was based on an analysis of satellite imagery by the website 38 North.

Following the Singapore summit, Trump declared Pyongyang was already returning long-sought remains of Americans killed during the Korean War, which was not accurate. He later modified his comments on the matter, saying North Korea had "already sent back or are in the process of sending back" remains. On Wednesday, Pompeo said the remains would be returned "in relatively short order."

The hearing largely focused on Russia and questions surrounding Trump's private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Pompeo insisted the president is entitled to have private meetings, rejecting claims from some lawmakers that the Trump administration lacks transparency.FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Since 2011, a year when Kentucky was flooded with 371 million doses of opioid painkillers, state officials have cracked down on pain clinics, sued pharmaceutical companies and limited how many pills doctors can prescribe.

The result is nearly 100 million fewer opioid prescriptions in 2017 - and an 11.5 percent increase in drug overdose deaths.

That's the sobering findings of a new report from the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy in a state on the front lines of the nation's opioid epidemic. The report says 1,565 people died from drug overdoses in 2017, a 40 percent increase in the past five years.

FILE - This Friday, June 1, 2018, file photo, shows syringes of the opioid painkiller fentanyl in an inpatient pharmacy. A new report from the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy says 1,565 people died in the state from drug overdoses in 2017. That's an 11.5 percent increase from 2016. More than half of the overdose deaths in 2017 were caused by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Deaths attributed to prescription painkillers and heroin are declining. But other drugs have taken their place. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, accounted for more than half of all the deaths. And methamphetamine has made a comeback, accounting for 360 deaths. That's a 57 percent increase in just one year.

"We are in a crisis state," Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said. "While we are putting money at it and while we are drawing attention to it, until we start to truly address this and look at underlying causes of these things and what is leading to this it is not going to be addressed."

Nationally, opioids accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in 2016. States with the highest rates of drug overdose deaths that year were West Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Every year, Kentucky lawmakers have been passing more laws designed to address the opioid problem. They have increased penalties for heroin dealers. They have diverted more money to drug treatment programs. And they limited patients to a three-day supply of prescription painkillers unless a doctor gives them written permission for a larger amount.

State officials spent $500,000 to create 1-833-8KY-HELP, a hotline to connect people with treatment options. And they have spent thousands of dollars giving first responders naloxone, medicine that can reverse an opioid overdose.

Anti-drug advocates celebrate those changes, but their celebration is tempered once a year when the new numbers come out detailing how many more people have died.

"Most of the things we do we realize are not going to take that immediate effect," said Van Ingram, executive director of the Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy. "It just never gets any easier."

Many anti-drug advocates have credited the Affordable Care Act with helping people get treatment. The law, known as Obamacare, expanded the Medicaid program to give more than 400,000 Kentuckians health coverage. Many used that coverage to get drug treatment.

Bevin wants to require people in Kentucky's expanded Medicaid population to get a job, go to school or do volunteer work to keep their coverage. He also wants to charge them small monthly premiums to model private insurance plans.

Critics have said the result will be fewer people on Medicaid with fewer treatment options. But Bevin's plan would exempt people with substance abuse disorder from complying with the new rules. Those rules were supposed to go into effect July 1, but were blocked by a federal judge.OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - The Latest on a suspect arrested in a fatal stabbing at an Oakland train station (all times local):

3:05 p.m.

A Northern California prosecutor says she will seek a life sentence for a 27-year-old parolee charged in the stabbing death of a young woman at a subway station. The woman's sister was also wounded in the attack.

This July 3, 2017, photo provided by Ebony Monroe shows her cousin Nia Wilson in a selfie, who was killed in an unprovoked stabbing attack at a Bay Area Rapid Transit station in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, July 22, 2018. John Cowell, 27, a recently paroled robber with a violent history, was peacefully arrested on an Antioch-bound train Monday night about 12 miles (19 kilometers) from the Oakland station where investigators believe he killed Wilson and wounded her sister Sunday night. (Nia Wilson via AP)

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said Wednesday that prosecutors are still investigating if suspect John Cowell was motivated by hate. He is white and Nia Wilson was black.

Cowell did not enter a plea and his arraignment on murder and attempted murder charges was set over to a future date.

Cowell was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles (19 kilometers) from the MacArthur station where Wilson was killed and her sister Letifah Wilson was wounded.

Cowell's family says he has suffered from mental illness most of his life and failed to receive proper treatment.

___

1:30 p.m.

Prosecutors in Northern California say a paroled robber faces murder and attempted murder charges in the attack at a subway station against two sisters that left one of them dead.

They say 27-year-old John Cowell is set to be arraigned Wednesday in Oakland in the Sunday attack against 18-year-old Nia Wilson, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson.

Alameda County prosecutors say he also faces parole violations charges.

Cowell was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles (19 kilometers) from the MacArthur station where the sisters were attacked.

His family says he has suffered from mental illness most of his life and failed to receive proper treatment.

Records show Cowell recently served two years for second-degree robbery.

___

1:05 p.m.

Police in Northern California say they are investigating the death of a homeless man who was attacked at a subway station the day before a teenage girl was fatally stabbed on a transferring platform.

Bay Area Rapid Transit police say they are looking for a suspect who allegedly punched 47-year-old Don Stevens at the Bay Fair station on Saturday.

Authorities late Tuesday released images of the man they say hit Stevens to the side of the head with a closed fist. Stevens fell and struck his head.

He died at a hospital Sunday, the same day John Cowell allegedly stabbed 18-year-old Nia Wilson to death at the MacArthur station what authorities say was an unprovoked attack.

Cowell is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

In this July 21, 2018 surveillance camera image provided by Bay Area Rapid Transit, a suspect accused of fatally punching a man on the platform of the Bay Fair BART Station walks on a train in San Leandro, Calif. Don Stevens, a homeless man at the Bay Fair Station in San Leandro died Sunday, July 22, 2018, at a hospital, a day after he was punched by an attacker and fell down and hit his head on the pavement. (Bay Area Rapid Transit via AP)American companies were put on notice this week by the Trump administration that they could face steep fines, or even criminal charges, if their business involves North Korean workers anywhere in their supply chain.

A State Department advisory, published online, also provided the most detailed and comprehensive public listing to date of more than 40 countries and about a dozen industries where North Koreans were employed in 2017 and 2018, in violation of United Nations sanctions. The workers are typically paid a fraction of their salaries, while the rest, as much as 70 percent, is taken by North Korea's government.

"Dangers can be lurking in global supply chains," said Anthony Talbott, who heads the University of Dayton's Human Rights Center. "North Korea is the most brutal, anti-Christian regime in the world. The only reason an American corporation would be contracting with companies using their laborers would be because their prices are significantly lower."

North Korean workers abroad typically work 16- to 20-hour shifts with only a few days off each month, said the State Department, which describes the system as a type of human trafficking. Their pay supports North Korea's programs of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, the advisory said.

"Businesses should be aware of North Korea's deceptive practices in order to ... ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements across their entire supply chains," the State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

The advisory also names more than 230 North Korean companies that have joint ventures with partners from China and other countries. The companies produce a variety of items, including apparel, small electronics and minerals. American manufacturers, which import about 10 percent of their supply chains, could face legal repercussions if they bought materials produced by those joint ventures.

The National Association of Manufacturers declined to comment.

Last year, an Associated Press investigation documented North Korean women in Chinese factories processing seafood that ends up in American supermarkets.

The North Korean laborers often covet the jobs, which range from construction in Algeria, Kuwait and Malaysia to positions in medical clinics in Cambodia, China and Nigeria. The North Korean government receives hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign currency from their labor, as much as a tenth of its economy, experts say.

"The crackdown on wages is the one of the final and deepest-dive measures to cut off all foreign cash and finances coming into the DPRK," said George Lopez, who served on the United Nations panel of experts for monitoring sanctions on North Korea.

But he said the advisory was "more bark than bite" because it's very hard to identify and impose the restrictions.

Enforcement in the U.S. falls to U.S. Customs and Border Protection when it comes to blocking imports produced by North Korean laborers. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be responsible for criminal charges, and the Treasury Department can issue fines if sanctions are violated.

But those agencies rarely bring cases.

Professor Joseph DeThomas, at Penn State's school of international affairs, said the long list of countries is discouraging because the United Nations last year banned countries from allowing outsourced North Korean workers.

"This is a significant hole in sanctions," he said.

Ray Kuo, an assistant professor of political science at Fordham University, said fines against companies won't have much impact unless China and Russia, where most North Koreans are employed, comply.

And he said some in China, Russia and South Korea are pointing to a Singapore summit between leaders of the US and North Korea as justification for relaxing sanctions.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who has been a leading sponsor of legislation to end human trafficking, said the State Department is sending a strong message about the ongoing fight against human trafficking, "both a human rights atrocity and a source of foreign currency for the Kim Jong Un regime."MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Maryon Pittman Allen, one of only two women to serve as a U.S. senator from Alabama, has died.

Allen's nephew, state Sen. Trip Pittman, says his aunt died Monday. She was 92.

Allen was a journalist for The Birmingham News who married state politician Jim Allen, who died while serving in the Senate in 1978. Then-Gov. George Wallace appointed Allen to fill her husband's Senate seat until a special election could be held.

Allen served for five months starting in June 1978, but lost the Democratic primary to eventual winner Donald Stewart.

Allen later wrote a column for the Washington Post, using her contacts to write about the Washington social scene. After returning to Birmingham owned and operated a company that restored vintage clothing in Birmingham.

"She lived quite a life," Pittman said, recalling his aunt's big personality and sense of humor.

Known for her sharp-tongued wit, Allen once said she should be best known for keeping Wallace out of the U.S. Senate since the ambitious governor couldn't run against his appointee.

"I want it chiseled on my tombstone that this 5-foot-2 woman who weighs 110 pounds kept George Corley Wallace out of the Senate, and people should come worship at my tombstone,? she told The Associated Press in 1998.

Congressional records show Dixie Bibb Graves is the only other female senator from Alabama. She was appointed to the post by her husband, Gov. Bibb Graves, in 1937. Pittman said his aunt made the decision to go out on her own terms, stopping medication and calling hospice.

During a 1998 interview with the AP, when asked about her potential legacy and how she wanted to be remembered, Allen had a simple reply: "Jim's wife."BALTIMORE (AP) - Lawyers for the white man accused in a fatal stabbing of a black college student in Maryland want a judge to separate his murder and hate crime charges.

The Baltimore Sun reports in a filing in Prince George's County Circuit Court, lawyers for Sean Urbanski questioned the admissibility of evidence tying him to a Facebook page called "Alt-Reich: Nation," as well as "certain cartoon images."

Attorneys William C. Brennen, Jr. and John M. McKenna also cited a Maryland court rule that allows for separate trials if evidence in one charge may prejudice a party in relation to another charge.

Urbanski is charged in the death of Richard Collins III, a Bowie State University student who was about to graduate and visiting the University of Maryland when he was stabbed.

___

Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.comGREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Prosecutors are objecting to a reported plan of a man charged in the slaying of a Pennsylvania police officer to marry a witness.

The Valley News Dispatch reports Westmoreland County prosecutors filed documents on Wednesday to halt any nuptials of 30-year-old Rahmael Sol Holt to his girlfriend. The girlfriend testified in a previous hearing that she drove Holt to different locations after the Nov. 17 shooting death of 25-year-old New Kensington officer Brian Shaw.

Prosecutors say a marriage may be an attempt to keep her from testifying at trial.

Defense attorney Tim Dawson denies there's any such plan, saying "I believe this is true love."

County officials say Holt hasn't obtained a marriage license.

A judge ordered jail officials to prevent any marriage, pending a hearing on the issue.

___

Information from: Tribune-Review, http://triblive.comThe EU is now haunted by troubles. Still not politically united and powerful enough against the outside world, it is also headache with political disagreements inside. Such trend is highlighted after the outbreak of global financial crisis and European debt crisis.

At the same time, the US is destroying the international order it established after the second World War, leading to a severe damage to the political trust between countries.

Either the divergence between European countries or the chaos around the world has provided a chance for countries seeking hegemony. But obviously, China belongs to none of them.

China seeks wide cooperation and common development, which needs a unified EU that shares a common vision for the future as well as a stable and peaceful international environment. To achieve this goal, the EU and China have been active in establishing and deepening multilateral dialogues and cooperation.

Chinas dynamic economy has effectively curbed recession in global economy and supported the EUs economic growth.

Now, the worlds second largest economy has embarked on a new journey of reform and opening up, on which the activated new energy and booming domestic consumer market exert a broad and positive impact on global economy.

A more open China and the stronger policies it has rolled out to support opening up has attracted a large number of EU enterprises to expand business sphere here.

China is devoting great energy to industry restructuring and has rising demand in environment treatment, technological investment, urbanization and other areas where the EU boasts rich experience, abundant talents and mature industries.

With a high degree of complementarity in economy and many common interests, the EU and China have forged wide exchanges and cooperation in various fields. Multilateralism will win more support from people in the EU and China as the economic links between the two get closer.

Besides economic and trade cooperation, EU-China collaboration in other fields is also of great significance.

Both sides have proposed great ideas with ambitions and long-term goals and won mutual support. Their commitment to the Paris Agreement demonstrates their support for multilateralism to tackle common challenges.

A close bond has been established in China between the government and society in the field of environmental protection and green economy, which serves as firm and effective support for the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement, as a consensus of cooperation between the EU and China, also sets a good example for future cooperation that is more ambitious and forward-looking.

Under the context of further deepening reform and opening up, China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has accelerated the cross-border capital flows. Completely different from the short-sighted financial control that has been adopted by the Wall Street over the past four decades, this Chinese mode aims to seek mutual dependence in various forms such as connectivity, bilateral trade and long-term investment.

The Belt and Road construction plays a role in solving unbalanced development, degradation of natural resources and other issues of global governance. The investment under the Belt and Road Initiative is shared and reciprocal, and the capitals from the EU will also be given a significant role under the framework.

The Initiative encourages capital flows to green and environmental-friendly development, addressing the EUs concerns over the Paris Agreement. As the Belt and Road construction progresses, the financial cooperation between the EU and China under the framework of the Initiative will become an important drive for a closer economic and political relationship between the two sides.

With more cooperative projects achieving practical results, it is believed that the EU and China will get closer and closer and meet each other half way.

(The author is a renowned French economist and founder of the regulation school.)LOS ANGELES (AP) - Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, who uncovered proof that thousands of Japanese-Americans incarcerated in the United States during World War II were held not for reasons of national security but because of racism, has died at age 93.

Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, told The Associated Press Wednesday that Herzig-Yoshinaga died July 18 at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance.

Her discovery of a 1942 document revealing the real reason that approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans were kept in camps around the country led to formal apologies from President Ronald Reagan and others and the awarding of $20,000 each to those locked up.

In this May 12, 2011 photo, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga poses in Gardena, Calif. Herzig-Yoshinaga, who uncovered proof that thousands of Japanese-Americans incarcerated in the United States during World War II were held not for reasons of national security but because of racism, has died at age 93.Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, told The Associated Press Wednesday, July 25, 2018, that Herzig-Yoshinaga died July 18 at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via AP)

Before she came across the document buried in the National Archives the government had maintained Japanese-Americans were sent to the guarded camps during the war because there was no time to determine who might be spies.

But the real reason, according to the document drafted by Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, and uncovered by Herzig-Yoshinaga in 1982, stated incarceration was because authorities considered it "impossible to separate the sheep from the goats" when looking for spies among Japanese-Americans because of the cultural similarities of all.

"Her discovery of that original published justification, which was then later altered 180 degrees, revealed that the motivation for incarceration was not really a military necessity but outright racism," said San Francisco attorney Dale Minami, who used it as evidence in getting wartime convictions vacated for those who refused to report to relocation camps.

Until Herzig-Yoshinaga found it, Minami said, the government believed every copy had been destroyed. He called her a pre-eminent researcher who knew her way around the National Archives perhaps better than anyone.

Born Aug. 5, 1924, in Sacramento to Japanese immigrant parents, Aiko Yoshinaga moved with her family to Los Angeles as a child.

She was a 17-year-old senior at Los Angeles High School when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, plunging the United States into World War II. Soon after, she learned she and 14 other Japanese-American students at her school would not graduate with their Class of 1942.

"You don't deserve to get your high school diplomas because your people bombed Pearl Harbor," she recalled her school's principal telling them.

Forty-seven years later they would receive those diplomas, at a special ceremony held at Southern California's Santa Anita racetrack, where numerous Japanese-American families had been housed in horse stables before being shipped to relocation camps.

Denied graduation, Herzig-Yoshinaga instead eloped with her fiance, and the couple was shipped soon after to Manzanar. Now a historical site, it was then a sprawling, barbed-wire enclosed makeshift prison perched on a dry, dusty, barren region of California's high desert and surrounded by guards.

It was there, in a tarpaper-covered barracks shared by three families, where she gave birth to her first child.

After the war she moved to New York, divorced, remarried, gave birth to two more children and divorced again.

It was while living as a single mother in the 1960s, she would recall years later, that she began to seriously question why her government had her locked up.

"I hooked up with a group called Asian Americans for Action," she said during a Manzanar Committee event in 2011 honoring her with a legacy award. "They turned my head around. They got me to think, 'Yeah, I never thought about all the reasons why the government did this to us."

Her third husband, Jack Herzig, a lawyer who fought against the Japanese as an Army paratrooper in World War II, aided in her search after the couple married in 1978 and moved to Washington, D.C.

"She was just a regular person who was wondering, 'Why was I plucked out of high school before my senior year and not allowed to graduate?' And that drove her personal crusade," Minami said Wednesday.

"She was just a lovely woman, very kind and generous," he added. "You could even call her sweet and cute. But that belied a real commitment to social justice. Not just for Japanese-Americans but for all marginalized groups."

Herzig-Yoshinaga is survived by her son, David Abe, and daughters Lisa Furutani and Gerrie Lani Miyazaki.

Her husband, Jack Herzig, died in 2005.

A memorial is planned Sept. 2 at the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles.Brexit talks will continue in Brussels as efforts continue to find a UK-EU deal.

The latest round of talks will continue on Thursday when Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab holds another meeting with Michel Barnier.

The meetings come after Theresa May confirmed she had taken personal charge of the negotiations, with Mr Raab deputising for her in Brussels.

Brexit talks continue (Yui Mok/PA)

Tory Eurosceptics have voiced concerns that Mr Raabs department has been sidelined by Number 10 and Mrs Mays Europe Adviser Olly Robbins.

The risks of not reaching a Brexit deal were underlined by Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.

Part of the Governments planning for a no-deal Brexit involves securing supplies of food and medicines.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs he had asked officials to work up options for stockpiling by the pharmaceutical industry, while Mr Raab said the Government would also take steps to ensure an adequate food supply.

We need to see the full list including those products which need refrigeration or with short shelf lives, the costs, who will be responsible & how these costs will be passed on to the NHS https://t.co/5bbin0Momc  Sarah Wollaston (@sarahwollaston) July 24, 2018

Sarah Wollaston, chairwoman of the Commons Health Select Committee, called for more clarity about the Governments plans.

The pro-EU Tory said: We have been calling for some time for the Government to set out the full consequences of no deal.

She told BBCs Newsnight: Its not just about stockpiling here, there are some products that cant be stockpiled.

Around 700,000 diagnostic tests every year in the NHS require medical radioisotopes but these have very short shelf-lives, they cant be stockpiled and they arent manufactured here.

In Brussels, officials will discuss the future relationship, the Ireland-Northern Ireland situation and the remaining issues in the withdrawal agreement.

Mr Raab told MPs he would be going out to Brussels on Thursday striving very hard with our team to get the very best deal.

But he insisted the UK would not cower in talks with Brussels.

What Im not going to do is wallow in pessimism about the state of this country in relation to Brexit and we are going to go into these negotiations with economic confidence and political ambition, he told the Exiting the EU Select Committee.

Two former Northern Ireland secretaries, Owen Paterson and Theresa Villiers, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that technological solutions can be made to work to keep the Irish border soft, if only they are not delayed by political squabbles.

They wrote: The Commission has made a major error in only taking advice on Irish matters from Dublin.

It must seek to learn from voices in Northern Ireland. It must listen to senior figures, including the architect of the Belfast Agreement, David Trimble.

A sensible technological solution is in the best interests of the whole British Isles.

Meanwhile, efforts to repair the European Unions relationship with the White House will see Jean-Claude Juncker meet Donald Trump in Washington for talks on the trade dispute between the US and its allies.

Ahead of the meeting, the US president tweeted to suggest abolishing tariffs between the US and EU only hours after another tweet in which he declared tariffs are the greatest!

He wrote: The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them.

Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!A UK and Irish government consultation body will meet later for the first time in more than a decade amid efforts to restore Stormont powersharing.

The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference will be held in London, a year and a half after devolved government imploded in Belfast.

It gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland.

It last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial. When it was last called security was a major part of its remit but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.

David Lidington

Sinn Fein and the SDLP have long been calling for the conferences re-establishment to inject fresh impetus into the stalled political process in Belfast.

But unionists have been wary of handing too much influence to Dublin and dismissed the gathering as a talking shop.

Former first minister Lord Trimble said the meeting is reaching the point of breaking the principle set out in the Good Friday Agreement that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either, he said.

I dont regard this as a helpful situation. Its likely to make matters worse.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley are expected to attend.

Simon Coveney

The Irish government will be represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Powersharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme.

The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.Boris Johnsons successor as Foreign Secretary appears to have washed his hands altogether of a multibillion-pound Channel bridge, according to an MP.

The SNPs Patrick Grady added Mr Johnsons former Cabinet colleagues cant move quickly enough to dump his Foreign Office legacy.

The Glasgow North MP took aim at Mr Johnson after pressing Jeremy Hunt to detail his departments policy on exploring the possibility of a new fixed link between Great Britain and France.

Brexit

So much important work in #UKFRSummit outcomes, but Im especially pleased we are establishing a panel of experts to look at major projects together. Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 18, 2018

Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan, issuing a holding answer to the written parliamentary question, replied: This is a matter for the Department for Transport.

Mr Johnson, who quit the Cabinet over Brexit, was a strong supporter of a privately-financed Channel bridge after claiming the Channel Tunnel will be full by 2025.

Speaking in February, he told MPs it was a curiosity that the UK and France  separated by approximately 21 miles of water  were connected by only one railway line.

Mr Johnson also claimed French president Emmanuel Macron was supportive of the committee of wise people established to look at reviving UK-France collaboration in matters including defence and infrastructure projects such as the idea of a new connection between our two countries.

En marche ! Great meetings with French counterparts today pic.twitter.com/D73B1rSkd3  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 18, 2018

Mr Grady told the Press Association: It seems the Tory Government cant move quickly enough to dump Boriss legacy at the Foreign Office.

It was never clear if a new fixed link to France was government policy or just another of the former foreign secretarys diplomatic blunders, but now his successor has washed his hands of it altogether.

Perhaps that means the Government will now try to focus on how to avoid a no-deal Brexit and 20-mile queues at Dover, rather than on the construction of a 20-mile bridge theyd be waiting to get on to.

Mr Johnsons younger brother Jo is a minister at the Department for Transport, albeit focused on rail matters.A challenge against the Governments plans to cap the number of child refugees allowed into the UK will be heard by senior judges.

The Help Refugees charity is bringing legal action over the Home Offices calculation that only 480 unaccompanied children should be accepted under an amendment moved by Labour peer Lord Dubs.

Last year the charity sought orders to force then Home Secretary Amber Rudd to abandon the cap and reopen what it said was a defective consultation process, so consideration could be given to allowing more children in.

Lord Dubs who put forward the amendment on allowing unaccompanied child refugees into the UK (Yui Mok/PA)

But judges in London ruled against the charity in November, saying they were not persuaded its case was made out.

Help Refugees will challenge that decision at a Court of Appeal hearing on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lawyers for the charity will argue that the Governments consultation was seriously defective and does not accurately reflect the capacity of local authorities to accommodate child refugees.

The charity will challenge what it claims are anomalies in the way capacity was calculated, which resulted in just six local authority places being counted for the whole of Scotland and six for Wales.

It will also argue that access to justice was made impossible for most children who were refused relocation, because they were not given reasons.

Josie Naughton, chief executive and co-founder of Help Refugees, said: The child refugee crisis has not gone away  there are, for example, nearly 4,000 unaccompanied refugee children in Greece right now, two thirds of whom are living in destitution, exposed to trafficking and other serious abuse.

The slow pace of relocations has been shocking.

There are children disappearing from camps and settlements in mainland Europe while local authority places offered for Dubs children remain unused.

Migrants and refugees on the island of Kos, Greece (Jonathan Brady/PA)

Rosa Curling, a human rights solicitor from firm Leigh Day, who is representing the charity, said: This is the single most important piece of legislation by which the UK has tried to help children caught up in the refugee crisis.

Refugee children, living alone, in appalling conditions, are some of the most vulnerable people in Europe.

A careful consultation, which did not miss or underestimate UK local authority capacity to support those children, was essential. It has yet to take place.

The Government previously defended the claim at the High Court, arguing there was no illegality in the consultation process.

AMBER RUDD CONCEDES ON CHILD REFUGEES ELIGIBILITY FOR DUBS



We are absolutely thrilled to hear that, after almost two years of incredible public pressure, another arbitrary restriction on child refugees eligibility for the Dubs Amendment has been lifted. pic.twitter.com/aw3KNLUzHt  Choose Love (@chooselove) January 19, 2018

The Dubs Amendment was to the 2016 Immigration Act and, from May last year, required the Home Secretary to make arrangements to relocate a specified number of vulnerable refugee children from Europe based on feedback from local authorities.

The Government increased the number of children to be relocated under the scheme from 350 to 480 in February last year.Ancient treason laws should be renewed to allow enemies of the state to be jailed for life, a think tank has recommended.

Britons who betray the country through acts of terror or by aiding hostile nations such as Russia should be dealt with as traitors, according to a Policy Exchange report.

It warned a wave of terrorists is coming up for release and claimed the country would be safer if they had been jailed for betrayal.

Central Criminal Court stock

Treason laws, which date back to 1351, are now unworkable, the report  whose authors include Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat and Labour MP Khalid Mahmood  said.

The last person to be convicted under the Act was William Joyce, more commonly known as Lord Haw-Haw, who was hanged in 1946 for assisting Nazi Germany.

In a foreword to the report, former lord chief justice of England and Wales Lord Judge wrote: If a citizen of this country chooses to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan against British forces, his crime is more than terrorism. It is treason, and should be prosecuted accordingly.

It comes amid the furore over the Governments decision to drop death penalty objections in the case of two men accused of being members of an Islamic State, also known as IS or Isis, cell who face being sent to the US for trial.

Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, who are understood to have been stripped of their British citizenship, are said to have been members of the brutal four-man Beatles group of IS executioners in Syria and Iraq.

This new offence would also provide a suitable ground on which to prosecute Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, the most high profile British subjects to have joined Isis and two of the so called Beatles, whom, surprisingly, it seems our authorities do not otherwise intend to prosecute, the report said.

Some 193 offenders were jailed between 2006 and 2017 for terrorism offences, and more than 80 of them are due for release before the end of the year, according to the right-leaning think tank.

If they had been convicted of treason and imprisoned for life, the UK would be considerably safer, the report said.

Treason laws are out of date. We need to recognise our identity and that hate preachers betray us all. Colour, creed dont matter. We all have rights and duties as @khalid4PB make clear in a report for @Policy_Exchange https://t.co/XcWOCfIXe1  Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) July 24, 2018

Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said: Punishing treason properly is important to signal clearly that our communities condemn betrayal. Sentencing traitors to life imprisonment would recognise the gravity of the wrong they have committed and would help protect the public.

The UKs terror laws fail to recognise the wrongfulness of betrayal, according to the report.

Any new offence should cover the actions of British citizens overseas, it said.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat said: British citizens who aid groups like Isis, groups that intend to carry out attacks against the UK, or against UK forces are deployed abroad, betray our country and should be condemned.

The law must be written to ensure they can be stopped and their betrayal is recognised as a distinct crime.Wildfires have swept through seaside resorts near Athens, destroying homes and forests, killing at least 50 people.

Tourists  and residents  have been fleeing to the coastline to escape the flames and smoke of the two largest fires, one 20 miles north-east of Athens near Rafina, the other 30 miles west of the capital in Kineta.

Gale-force winds that frequently changed direction helped fan the fires in the hot, dry summer conditions, and the flames spread quickly.

Hundreds have been evacuated by sea and some were rescued from the water after swimming out to escape the flames. Greece has sought international help through the European Union for extra aircrafts and firefighters.

Its the deadliest fire to hit Greece in more than a decade. In 2007, more than 60 people were killed when fires swept across the Peloponnese region. Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has declared a three-day national mourning period.

What should travellers do?

The beach in Mati, east of Athens

A spokesperson for ABTA, the leading association of travel agents and tour operators, said: This area isnt a main destination for UK tourists. People on holiday in the region are advised to monitor news reports and follow any advice or instructions issued by the local authorities, their travel company or their accommodation providers.

Anyone due to travel imminently to the areas affected should speak to their travel company or accommodation provider.

ABTA is in contact with the authorities in Greece and we are monitoring the situation.

The Foreign Office have updated their travel advice to Greece, saying the wildfires have been confined to limited areas, but within those the impact has been high, with significant loss of life.

Most visits to Greece, including to Athens, are unaffected. You should keep up to date with local media reports and follow the advice of the Greek authorities in affected areas.

Are flights affected?

Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways confirmed their flights are running as usual to Athens.

A spokesperson for easyJet said: Flights to and from Athens are currently operating as normal, however, we continue to closely monitor the situation and the advice provided by the relevant authorities.

But if you would prefer to change your travel plans, you do have options.

Any customers who are booked to travel to Athens in the next seven days can transfer for free to another date or another route within the next three months, or alternatively can request a flight voucher to the value of their unused flights.

Passengers wishing to do so are advised to call the easyJet Customer Services team on 0330 365 5000.

A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens

A spokesperson for British Airways said: Following the tragic wildfires in Greece, we are offering a flexible rebooking policy for customers wanting to return home early.

Our flights are operating as planned, however we would encourage any customers with concerns about their bookings to contact us or their travel agent.

Athens Airport confirmed on Twitter that, although there had been some cancellations, diversions and delays on Monday, flights are now running as normal.

! We had yesterday some cancellations, diversions, and delays, due to the strong wings, not due to the grave Ath fires. As of 21.00, airport operated normally, today also all flights normally.  Athens Airport (@ATH_airport) July 24, 2018Why is it so hot?

In the short term, the current weather phenomenon can be attributed largely to the position and the strength of jet streams  fast moving air typically five to seven miles above the Earths surface. Such jet streams are crucial to bringing in new weather systems.

What does that mean?

Becky Mitchell, meteorologist at the Met Office in Exeter, said: The jet streams are not very strong to the north of the UK. When the jet stream is like that, it means were under a period of high pressure, currently drawing up hot and humid air from France.

What causes a low jet stream?

Sometimes it is just a feature of the weather at the time. However, this prolonged period of dry and very warm weather will inevitably cause scientists to look at the long-term impact global warming is having on the planet.

What would ordinarily be happening across the UK at this time of year?

Again, when the jet stream is further south it means cooler weather systems are able to come in from the Atlantic. That is not happening at the moment, hence the extended period of hot temperatures.

(PA Graphics)

Will we have to endure much more of this?

In short, yes. It is probably fair to say that things will get worse (that is to say, hotter) before they get better. And its all building towards Friday being the hottest day of the year, with temperatures expected to hit 36C (96.8F) in the south east before dropping back to the high 20s again. Interestingly, despite the driest start to summer since 1961, the previous three years have each had a top temperature exceeding 33.3C (91.9F), the record high for 2018 so far.

Any chance of rain?

Succour is on its way. Thunderstorms are expected in parts of eastern and northern England on Friday, according to the Met Office, with a chance of hail and strong winds alongside the torrential downpours.

Summer weather July 24th 2018

But will it actually make any difference?

The volume and persistence of the rainfall will have a variable impact on the overall temperature. Extended periods of very hot and dry weather mean the ground has itself been heated  a light shower is going to do little to change that. Nor is it likely to fill the reservoirs, which are in desperate need of a top-up. But many gardeners and farmers are crying out for rain. Any cooling of the temperatures will be particularly welcomed by dog walkers, who have been forced to take their pets out very early in the morning or late at night when the temperatures have dropped to something less punishing.Any attempt by the Irish Government to impose tariffs on trade with the UK after Brexit would lead to an upsurge in smuggling at the border with Northern Ireland, former first minister Lord Trimble has warned.

The Conservative peer said an increase in smuggling would have the delightful side-effect of diverting criminal elements away from paramilitary activity by giving them something more useful to do.

But he said the better solution would be the removal or reduction of tariffs across the whole British Isles.

David Trimble

Lord Trimble told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The Irish Republics main market is England and it exports over the Irish Sea into England a greater part of its produce.

Will Dublin insist on tariffs applying? If they do then there is an obligation under EU law for the Irish Government to put in place the appropriate infrastructure.

They will have to do that on the Northern Irish border anyway, but thats south of the border and we are not interested in south of the border. North of the border there will be no such infrastructure.

We havent got clarity from the EU on this. I would like not to see tariffs there at all but if they insist on tariffs  which they probably will, they are not very good at changing their own procedures  you are going to have a problem there.

But Lord Trimble added: Its going to have a rather delightful side-effect, because if there is this tariff barrier between southern Ireland and England, then there will be people in southern Ireland who start to move things into Northern Ireland and then into England that way to avoid the tariffs  smuggling.

When it comes to smuggling through the border, Im sure that people whove been long experienced in dealing with the border will come into play there. They will probably organise themselves, they will be very like the paramilitary organisations there before.

But they are there simply for the purpose of making money and smuggling and that will actually help by keeping these chaps  who might otherwise do silly things  (busy), giving them something useful and money-making to do. It will actually have a benign effect.

Lord Trimble called on Dublin to press Brussels for a British Isles exemption from the requirement to collect tariffs on trade with countries outside the EU.

Its in its own interests for them to speak to the EU about tariffs and about the reduction or elimination of tariffs within the British Isles, said the former Ulster Unionist Party leader.

That would be a huge step forward for everyone and it would solve all the other problems, including the problems that have been manufactured by people over the course of the last year or so.

Labour MP Ian Murray, a supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: Not only was David Trimble wrong about basic facts  Britain has not been Irelands biggest export market for some years now  but his description of a smuggling boom as a result of Brexit as delightful is a shocking misjudgment.

The Edinburgh South MP said: In Northern Ireland, smuggling and murder were the terrible twins of the Troubles. One paid to keep the other going. No responsible politician could possibly want either to flourish and Lord Trimbles apparent belief that smuggling is in some way benign or of minimal importance is likely to make people justifiably horrified and angry.An heiress to the Seagrams liquor fortune has been arrested in a probe into a self-improvement organisation accused of branding some of its female followers and forcing them into sex.

Clare Bronfman, 39, a daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr, surrendered to the FBI and pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges.

She was freed from custody following a late-afternoon court appearance in New York where she pledged to post a 100 million dollar (76 million) bond to ensure her return to court.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis set the high amount after prosecutors said Bronfman was a flight risk and hearing she has a net worth of roughly 200 million dollars (152 million), including a stake in an island resort in Fiji.

Clare Bronfman leaves federal court in Brooklyn

Bronfman, who appeared in court wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt, did not comment as she left a federal courthouse in Brooklyn. She will remain under house arrest following her release.

A former competitor in international equestrian showjumping competitions, Bronfman is accused in an indictment of taking a number of steps to help NXIVMs founder and leader, Keith Raniere, control members of the upstate New York group, including identity theft, interception of electronic communications and money laundering.

She was part of an inner circle of loyalists who committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and NXIVM, US attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

Raniere was arrested in Mexico this year and taken to the US to face charges that he, along with an adherent, the TV actress Allison Mack, coerced followers into becoming slaves to senior members.

In a statement, a lawyer for Bronfman, Susan Necheles, called the charges the result of government overreaching and charging an individual with crimes just because the government disagrees with some beliefs taught by NXIVM and held by Clare.

We are confident that Clare will be exonerated, she said.

Also arrested on Tuesday were Nancy Salzman, who was the organisations longtime president, her daughter Lauren Salzman, and a former bookkeeper for the group, Kathy Russell. All three were released on bail without entering pleas.

Despite criticism for years by ex-followers who called NXIVM a cult and a pyramid scheme, the organisations intense self-improvement classes had, at one point, earned it thousands of adherents, including some with Hollywood ties.

They included Nicki Clyne, an actress who appeared on Battlestar Galactica, Bronfmans sister Sara, a son of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and India Oxenberg, a daughter of Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg.

In an indictment, prosecutors said Mack, who played a teenage friend of Superman in the CW networks Smallville, helped Raniere recruit women to a secret sub-society within NXIVM whose members were branded with a surgical tool with a symbol that resembled his initials.

Women were expected to be subservient to masters, prosecutors said, including giving in to demands for sex.Commentary: US accusation of China stealing its technologies is nothing but a lie

China stealing US technologies is completely a lie made up by the US. However, not satisfied with its shell game, Washington later cooked up an even bigger story that China has been threatening the US through economic aggression.

By twisting the facts, the US is trying to label Chinas technology development as a threat to the world. Its intention of defaming China and fooling the world cant be more obvious.

Just imagine, can China really reach where it is today by just stealing the US technologies?

China is the worlds second largest country when it comes to the number of patent application, and is expected to surpass the US in three years in this regard.

According to data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China-based applicants filed 48,882 Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications in 2017, up 13.4 percent year on year.

China outranked Japan to the second place last year, only after the US. Most of the countrys patent applications were in the field of digital communication, and it is the only country to have recorded double-digit growth in the number of patent applications, according to the WIPO.

China also tops the world in terms of the number of domestic patent applications. The countrys intellectual property office received a total of 1.3 million applications in 2016, which was even more than the add-up of those from the US, Japan, South Korea and Europe, revealed the 2017 report of WIPO.

Chinese companies and individuals filed 90 percent of those applications, and the rest 10 percent came from overseas.

Attaching increasing importance to research and development (R&D), China spent 1.75 trillion yuan ($260 billion), or 2.12 percent of its GDP on this sector last year, 11.6 percent more than that in 2016. The rising input in R&D is a firm support for Chinas innovation system.

The total R&D expenditure of Chinese enterprises grew by 13.1 percent to 1.37 trillion yuan in 2017. It was the second straight year for this figure to increase on a double-digit basis.

Meanwhile, the R&D spending of the countrys governmental institutions and universities stood at 241.84 billion yuan and 112.77 billion yuan last year, up 7 percent and 5.2 percent respectively from the previous year.

Last year, 92 billion yuan was invested on the countrys fundamental research, 11.8 percent more from the previous year and accounting for 5.3 percent of the R&D expenditure. The input in R&D serves as a strong driving force for Chinas technology development.

Besides, China has been paying more and more for intellectual property royalties. Over the last year, the country paid $28.6 billion worth of intellectual property right royalty, a 15-fold increase from 2001 when it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).

China ranked the fourth in the amount of money paid to acquire foreign technologies, prior to Japan, France, the UK, Canada, Germany, Singapore, South Korea and India, said Nicholas Lardy from the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

According to the latest statistics released by Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the country's export of intellectual property royalties increased by 311.5 percent from a year ago to $4.79 billion last year, becoming Chinas fastest-growing sector in trade in services. In this sense, China has grown into a technology exporter.

The increase indicated Chinas transmission from a user to a maker of technologies and from a world factory to an innovation hub. It is a result of the countrys innovation-driven development and its enhanced efforts on the creation, protection and utilization of the intellectual property.

It is Chinese enterprises that have pushed and guided the technological advance of the country. This point can be well illustrated by a WIPO report issued on Mar. 21, 2018.

Two Shenzhen-based telecoms companies-Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation-occupied the top two spots with 4,024 and 2,965 published PCT applications, respectively, said the report, adding that they were followed by Intel Corporation of the US who filed 2,637 applications.

China's leading LCD panel maker BOE Technology Group was in the seventh place with 1,818 PCP applications. Besides, 10 Chinese enterprises made it into the top-50 list, including China Star Optoelectronics Technology that ranked 18th with 972 applications, Tencent that ranked 32nd with 560 applications, and Yulong Computer Telecommunication Technology that ranked 34th with 517 applications.

The above-mentioned cases prove that Chinas technology development and its source of power come from the countrys mechanism and system for innovation-driven development. The scientific and technological interaction between China and the rest of the world is positive and mutually-facilitating, and to blame China for stealing US technologies is nothing but merely a joke.

(By Li Yong, deputy director of the China Association of International Trade Expert Committee)A newly-married Irish couple have been caught up in wildfires that have been sweeping Greece.

Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp became separated as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

The pair got married at Clonabreany House in Kells, Co Meath, last Thursday before flying out to Greece for their honeymoon on Saturday.

Ms Holohan, who works in advertising for the Sunday World, is in hospital after suffering burns to her head and hands, but her husband has not yet been found.

The couple, who live in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee.

Ms Holohan was able to escape to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night.

Newlywed Zoe Holohan is being treated in hospital for burns to her head and hands (Handout/PA)

Mr OCallaghan-Westropp works in finance for a Dublin catering company and also volunteers for Blood Bikes East, which provides an emergency medical transport service around hospitals in Dublin.

Committee member Franco De Bonis said Mr OCallaghan-Westropp started off as a volunteer rider a year ago and very quickly became further involved in the service and is now its secretary.

Brian is a very charitable man  hes one of these people who you know when hes in the room. He has a big voice and hes the type who wants to get things done, Mr De Bonis said.

Hes a man of action and is very selfless. His heart is in the right place and will always want to help.

Brian would never walk away from a situation knowing someone needed help.

We are not surprised if someone was getting involved in this that it would be Brian. He would make sure Zoe is safe and then go to someones aid.

While we know they were on their way to the beach and Zoe got to there, somehow he did not.

We dont know beyond that but knowing him we are surmising he perhaps saw someone who needed help and went to them.

Mr De Bonis said Mr OCallaghan-Westropp was incredibly excited about his wedding and looking forward to their honeymoon.

He added: As much as men can get involved in the wedding he did, and he was really excited about it.

It is understood Mr OCallaghan-Westropps family are travelling to Greece.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is providing consular assistance to a number of Irish people who have been caught up in the fires, but would not give details about specific incidents.

Around 79 people have died in the forest fires which have raged through Greek villages and holiday resorts.

Blazes started west of Athens near the town of Kineta, while further outbreaks started 18 miles (29km) east of Athens in Rafina.

Hundreds of people ran to beaches as gale-force winds fanned the flames.

Twenty-six of the deaths were groups of families or friends who were found huddled together as they tried to escape.

Our condolences with Greece at this difficult time. Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media + follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Dept +353 1 408 2000.  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 24, 2018

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney issued advice for Irish citizens.

He tweeted: Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media and follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Department +353 1 408 2000.

President Michael D Higgins said he has written to Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to express his sympathies with the families of those who have lost their lives and livelihoods in the fires.

He said: Following my visit to Greece and my meeting with him and the presidents of Italy and Portugal, I am very conscious of the resilience of the Greek people, who should be assisted by all of us in these difficult times.

I offered, on behalf of the people of Ireland, our deepest condolences and our solidarity.Irelands foreign minister has denied that Dublin is meddling in UK politics by taking part in talks at Westminster on the restoration of power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.

Former first minister Lord Trimble has warned Wednesdays meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London comes close to breaching principles enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement that Dublin will have no role in internal UK politics.

But Simon Coveney insisted the talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington will not touch on decision-making in Northern Ireland, and instead on protecting the structures for devolved government to take place.

Mr Coveney told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: It is not meddling for two governments that are both co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement to try to ensure that that agreement works and that is what we are trying to do here.

Decisions that are being made in Northern Ireland are a matter for the devolved government or the UK Government, that is true.

But we are not talking about devolved decision-making in Northern Ireland today, we are talking about the structures that can enable a functioning executive there that can bring normality back to Northern Irish politics.

Mr Coveney said he is very aware and very cautious when it comes to the role of the Irish Government in Northern Ireland, and respects the concerns expressed by unionists over the Intergovernmental Conference being convened for the first time in over a decade.

Lord Trimble

Sinn Fein and the SDLP have long been calling for the conferences re-establishment to inject fresh impetus into the stalled political process in Belfast.

But unionists have been wary of handing too much influence to Dublin and dismissed the gathering as a talking shop.

Lord Trimble said the meeting is reaching the point of breaking the principle set out in the Good Friday Agreement that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

The former Ulster Unionist Party leader told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either, he said.

I dont regard this as a helpful situation. Its likely to make matters worse.

The Conference, which gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland, last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial.

When it was last called security was a major part of its remit, but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.

David Lidington

The Irish Government will be represented by Mr Coveney and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Power-sharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme.

The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.Dublin would back any request from the UK for an extension to the Article 50 process to give more time to negotiate withdrawal from the EU, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said.

Mr Coveney rejected Eurosceptic talk of a no-deal Brexit as bravado and said he believed there was still time to reach agreement by October.

But called for an intensification of talks at official level over the summer to resolve outstanding differences.

Coveney

Elements of the UK negotiating position laid out in Theresa Mays Brexit white paper would be difficult for Brussels to accommodate, he warned, though he added that the document had made negotiations easier by backing away from earlier red lines.

He dismissed suggestions that amendments to Brexit legislation forced on Mrs May by Eurosceptic backbenchers would prevent agreement on a backstop arrangement for the Northern Irish border.

Mr Coveney was speaking as talks continued in Brussels, with a meeting between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab scheduled for Thursday.

Mrs May confirmed on Tuesday that she had taken personal charge of the negotiations, with Mr Raab deputising for her in Brussels.

Tory Eurosceptics have voiced concerns that Mr Raabs department has been sidelined by Number 10 and Mrs Mays Europe adviser Olly Robbins, amid increasing speculation that divisions within the Conservative camp may result in a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Coveney confirmed that Dublin was making contingency plans to cope with Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.

But he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The truth is I dont believe that Britain can afford a no-deal Brexit, I dont believe Ireland or the EU want that either.

The negative implications of a no-deal Brexit are very significant for Ireland and the UK. We all have an obligation to make sure that doesnt happen. I think its very unlikely to happen.

Asked whether Dublin would back an extension of the Article 50 process, Mr Coveney said: Absolutely, if Britain asks for more time and if that is necessary to get to a sensible agreement, we would support that, of course we would.

But I think, even though the timetable is tight, it is possible to achieve an outcome that is good for Britain and good for the EU within the timelines that are currently there. But it also requires an intensification of the negotiations on Brexit.

Mr Coveney said that the UK had been negotiating with itself in the six months before the publication of the white paper.

We now have clarity in terms of what the British Government ask is, he said. I think there are elements of that that would be difficult to negotiate but I think it is easier to achieve now.

Potential stumbling blocks in Mrs Mays plan include the separation of regimes for goods and services and the creation of a complex new customs arrangement under which different tariffs are charged for imports destined for the UK or EU, he said.

But he rejected the idea that the amendment passed by the Commons barring a customs border in the Irish Sea would make it impossible to agree the EUs backstop plan for Northern Ireland.

You cant have a negotiation on the basis of passing laws in your parliament or introducing amendments in your parliament and then saying, Sorry, we have no flexibility now, he said.

The European Union could do the same and we would get nowhere.

Mr Coveneys comments came as more details emerged of planning for a no-deal Brexit.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs he had asked officials to work up options for stockpiling by the pharmaceutical industry, while Mr Raab said the Government would also take steps to ensure an adequate food supply.

We need to see the full list including those products which need refrigeration or with short shelf lives, the costs, who will be responsible & how these costs will be passed on to the NHS https://t.co/5bbin0Momc  Sarah Wollaston (@sarahwollaston) July 24, 2018

Sarah Wollaston, chairwoman of the Commons Health Select Committee, called for more clarity about the Governments plans.

The pro-EU Tory told BBCs Newsnight: Its not just about stockpiling here, there are some products that cant be stockpiled.

Around 700,000 diagnostic tests every year in the NHS require medical radioisotopes but these have very short shelf-lives, they cant be stockpiled and they arent manufactured here.

Two former Northern Ireland secretaries, Owen Paterson and Theresa Villiers, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that technological solutions can be made to work to keep the Irish border soft, if only they are not delayed by political squabbles.

Meanwhile, efforts to repair the European Unions relationship with the White House will see Jean-Claude Juncker meet Donald Trump in Washington for talks on the trade dispute between the US and its allies.

Ahead of the meeting, the US president tweeted to suggest abolishing tariffs between the US and EU only hours after another tweet in which he declared tariffs are the greatest!

He wrote: The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them.

Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!A prison nurse has appeared in court to deny having an improper relationship with an inmate.

Ashleigh Naylor, 30, denied two counts of misconduct and one offence against the Prison Act during a short appearance at Teesside Crown Court.

One misconduct in a public office charge accuses her of engaging in a relationship with prisoner Paul Lane between April 2016 and October last year, while she worked as a nurse at Holme House Prison, Stockton, Teesside.

Ashleigh Naylor

The second misconduct charge accuses her of sending mobile phone top-up cards to Lane when he was at Kirkham Prison and she worked at Holme House.

She is also accused of conveying a top-up for a sim card to Kirkham Prison, in contravention of the Prison Act.

Naylor, of Newlands Road, Saltburn, Cleveland, denied the three charges and a two-day trial will be held in November.

She was granted unconditional bail.Top European Union officials have warned they are ready to put tariffs on 20 billion dollars (15 billion) of American goods if Donald Trump puts duties on car imports, ahead of talks with the US president.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Mr Trump in Washington to try to talk him out of imposing the car tariffs, which would hurt the industry on both sides of the Atlantic and increase trade tensions.

Ms Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter: The aim of this visit is to cool down the situation and prevent an escalation of the trade conflict.

However, she noted that if the US proceeds with the duties, the EU is ready to respond. It will impose new tariffs on a range of US products, including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery.

Mr Trump has repeatedly called the EU  which includes many of the Americas oldest and most committed allies  an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a foe.

His administration this year imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, drawing retaliation from the EU on a series of US goods.

Jean-Claude Juncker

Those tariffs covered about three billion dollars in goods and would pale in comparison with possible 25% tariffs on imports of cars, trucks and car parts.

It is unclear what Mr Trumps approach will be in the talks. After tweeting that Tariffs are the greatest! he suggested hours later in another post that both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!

The EUs budget chief, Guenther Oettinger, said the EU was prepared to discuss lowering and restructuring all tariffs for all products.

He told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk: We want to avoid a further escalation of the trade dispute (into) a trade war.

We have good arguments, clear numbers and we have ideas, too.

Whether these will help, nobody knows. But not to try, not to fly over there for the meeting, would have been the wrong path.

Donald Trump

Car tariffs would be particularly painful for Germany, where the industry is huge and has long been the symbol of post-war wealth.

And it is not just Europeans opposing these tariffs, but American companies as well.

The duties would increase the cost of many components that American manufacturers import and use in making cars. Ultimately, that will make cars more expensive for US consumers.

The EU has a huge stake in the US industry, where European companies produce almost three million cars a year, accounting for over a quarter of production in the United States.

The biggest exporter of American-made cars is a German company  BMW, through its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

German producers and supplies employ more than 118,000 people at about 300 factories and manufacture more than 800,000 vehicles per year in the US  with more than half of the cars being exported, according to figures provided by the German automotive industry.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has accused China of vicious tactics, tweeting that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because they know I love & respect them.

His comments came after his administration announced a plan to provide 12 billion dollars (9 billion) in emergency relief for farmers who have been hit hard by the presidents trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now!A suicide bomber on a motorcycle has rammed into people waiting outside a busy polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 31 and casting a dark shadow over election day.

The attack in the capital of Baluchistan province underlined the difficulties the majority Muslim nation faces as it casts ballots to elect its third consecutive civilian government.

The bombing also wounded 35 people, with several reported to be in a critical condition.

A man mourns his relative

A witness to the attack in Quetta, Abdul Haleem, who was waiting to cast his ballot, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters just seconds before the explosion. Mr Haleems uncle was killed in the blast.

There was a deafening bang followed by thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people, he said.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but local officials were quick to blame the Islamic State group (IS).

Baluchistan also saw the worst violence during election campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

IS claimed responsibility for that attack, though Baluchistan has seen relentless assaults, both by the provinces secessionists and Sunni militants who have killed hundreds of Shias living there.

The site of the blast

In recent years, the IS affiliate in the region has emerged as a major force behind violence, often using local Sunni radicals from the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to carry out its attacks.

On Tuesday, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staffers and voting material in Baluchistans district of Turbat, killing four troops.

Also on Wednesday, shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the north-western city of Swabi. Later, more clashes between rival political parties killed another person and wounded 15 elsewhere in the country.An American pastor detained for nearly two years on terror and espionage charges in Turkey will be placed under house arrest as his trial continues, reports said.

Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, will continue to be remanded at his house, Andalou news agency said.

The case has strained ties between Nato allies Turkey and the United States. American president Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded his release.

US officials outside the court

Brunson was arrested in December 2016.

He faces up to 15 years in prison for committing crimes on behalf of terror groups in reference to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of a US-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt, and an additional 20 years for espionage.

The pastor strongly denies the charges.The deputy leader of Welsh Labour was spoken to by a former MP after making comments about a colleagues sexuality, a court has heard.

Carolyn Harris, now also the shadow minister for women and equalities, was elected as MP for the Swansea East seat in May 2015 after her predecessor, Sian James, stood down.

She held the position of office manager for Mrs James before that election, working alongside Jenny Lee Clarke, who is now on trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Clarke, 42, was hired as Mrs Harriss office manager when she became an MP and is accused of forging her signature to give herself a 2,000 pay rise.

Jenny Lee Clarke arrives at Cardiff Crown Court (Ben Birchall/PA)

Mrs Harris has insisted she did not approve the pay increase from 37,000 to 39,000 and did not sign a form reducing Clarkes weekly hours from 40 to 37.5.

On Tuesday, the MP told the court that referring to Clarkes footwear as dyke boots when they worked for Mrs James was office banter and not abuse.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Mrs James said Clarke raised the comments with her in 2013.

I was concerned because I feel that everybody should be treated in work with dignity and respect, said Mrs James, who served as an MP from 2005 to 2015.

It was to do with her sexuality. It was to do, specifically, with comments made in the office. Jenny had come out. Her sexuality was an entirely private matter for her.

The sort of comments that Jenny brought to me and she was upset about were these so-called jokes about her clothing, her style of footwear.

Generally she was starting to feel that this had gone beyond banter and it was causing her concern.

Sian James photographed at the Houses of Parliament in London (PA Archive/PA)

Mrs James confirmed that Clarke, of Penllergaer, Swansea, complained that Mrs Harris would use the word dyke.

The former MP said she took the matter seriously and raised it with Mrs Harris at the time.

She was very shocked, Mrs James said. She was very concerned that these comments which had been done within the atmosphere of the office had caused hurt to Jenny.

Both of them were very keen that the issue was addressed.

Mrs James said she chose to deal with the matter informally by speaking to both Mrs Harris and Clarke, and making clear what sort of behaviour was expected in her office.

Carolyn Harris after winning the Welsh Labour deputy leadership election (Ben Birchall/PA)

If this issue was raised for me again then I would be taking a more formal route which would include disciplinary action, she told the court.

I made it quite clear that I wasnt going to tolerate that sort of behaviour. Everybody was happy, everybody was content. No other issues were raised.

I felt it had been dealt with fairly and promptly.

However, in January 2016, she met Clarke and another former colleague for lunch.

Clarke alleged that, in November 2014, Mrs Harris had pulled her hair so hard that clumps came out but later apologised and promised her a full-time position if she was elected.

Mrs James told the jury: It wasnt drawn to my attention at the time.

I asked Jenny why  my words to Jenny were If you had told me, I would have taken action  and she said that at the time I wasnt very well.

She said Clarke had also not raised the alleged incident as she did not want to ruin the last few months of her time as an MP.

I said to her that should not have been a consideration, Mrs James said.

The court heard that Clarke, who was dismissed by Mrs Harris in January 2016, later raised the issue with South Wales Police and the Labour Party.

Mrs Harris, during her evidence to the court, said she had never been contacted by police and described the allegation as totally untrue and distressing.

Clarke was investigated after a colleague forwarded forms highlighting her pay rise and reduction of hours to Mrs Harris in August 2015.

She is said to have written an email to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) from Mrs Harriss account, confirming the change.

In police interview following her arrest in July 2016, Clarke said Mrs Harris had told her to increase her salary by 2,000.

She said I was the office angel and I was worth it, she told officers.

The trial continues.A 5 million fund has been announced to help businesses affected by the fire that destroyed Glasgow School of Arts Mackintosh Building last month.

Economy Secretary Derek Mackay confirmed the cash amid frustration from business owners and residents shut out of a safety cordon around the site while the building is dismantled.

The Scottish Government said Glasgow City Council would be given the extra funding to distribute to businesses inside the cordon and those in the wider Sauchiehall Street area who could demonstrate hardship as a result of the fires.

Those firms within the Glasgow School of Art and Victorias cordons will receive 20,000 of direct financial support, with other businesses in the area impacted eligible for 10,000.

The move follows rates relief for affected businesses and grants of 3,000 for affected residents.

Victoria's

Mr Mackay said: The terrible fires at the Glasgow School of Art and Victorias are having a significant impact on many local businesses who are either closed or unable to access their premises.

Given the scale of the on-going disruption, I am making up to 5 million available immediately to support those businesses affected.

The sheer scale and lasting effects of the fires on those involved are becoming clear and it is important that businesses are given financial support to help them through this very challenging time.

This funding will also help minimise the impact on the economy of the city as everyone involved works to help businesses and residents return to their premises as quickly and safely as possible.

Glasgow City Council leader councillor Susan Aitken added: The Victorias and School of Art fires have had a significant adverse impact on businesses at both ends of the street.

The council has been working closely with the Scottish Government to facilitate this fund, which we hope will assist those business affected by both events.

This fund complements the range of actions that we have taken in the past few weeks to support businesses including the use of the Glasgow Guarantee to support employees, having dedicated business support advisers based in the Dental Hospital and the Savoy Centre, supporting businesses to relocate outwith the cordon, hosting a session on insurance and legal issues with Harper McLeod, introducing zero rating for businesses in the cordons and reduced rates for businesses who can demonstrate detrimental impact.

Additionally, I have convened a Sauchiehall Street Task Force which is working on plans for the future viability and vibrancy of the street.

Applications for the new fund will open on July 31 with eligibility for businesses outside the cordon still to be set out.Lawyers say ministers must reform Englands archaic divorce law after five Supreme Court justices ruled that a 68-year-old woman had to stay in a loveless marriage she wants to end.

An association of specialist family lawyers said no-one should have to remain trapped in a marriage in the 21st Century.

Resolution said there was a divorce crisis in England and Wales and called on the Government to take urgent action.

Judgment has been handed down this morning in the case of Owens

(Appellant) v Owens (Respondent) https://t.co/9bFkdhiaZ5  UK Supreme Court (@UKSupremeCourt) July 25, 2018

Tini Owens had told the Supreme Court that her 40-year marriage to Hugh Owens, 80, was loveless and broken down and she said she wanted a divorce.

She said he had behaved unreasonably and said she should not reasonably be expected to stay married.

Mr Owens had refused to agree to a divorce, justices heard, and denied Mrs Owens allegations about his behaviour.

He said if their marriage had irretrievably broken down it was because she had an affair, or, because she was bored.

Two years ago a family court judge rejected Mrs Owens allegations and refused to grant her a divorce.

Tini Owens court case

Judge Robin Tolson described her complaints about Mr Owens as flimsy and exaggerated.

Last year three appeal judges ruled against dismissed Mrs Owens challenge to that decision after a Court of Appeal hearing in London.

Supreme Court justices have now also ruled against her.

They had analysed rival legal arguments at a Supreme Court hearing in London in May and delivered a ruling on Wednesday.

One, Lord Wilson, said justices had ruled against Mrs Owens with reluctance.

He said the question for Parliament was whether the law governing entitlement to divorce remained satisfactory.

Lord Wilson indicated that the law would allow Mrs Owens to divorce in 2020, when the couple had been separated for five years.

Tini Owens court case

Mr and Mrs Owens had married in 1978 and lived in Broadway, Worcestershire, judges had heard.

Mrs Owens petitioned for divorce in 2015 after moving out.

Resolution said the case was troubling.

Whilst the Supreme Court has, reluctantly, applied the law correctly, the fact that they have done so confirms there is now a divorce crisis in England and Wales, and the Government needs to take urgent action to address it, said Nigel Shepherd, a former Resolution chairman.

Mrs Owens appeal refused by @UKSupremeCourt, meaning she must remain married.@MoJGovUK and rest of government must now reform the law as a matter of urgency.



See our statement here: https://t.co/S3KuB1oX23 pic.twitter.com/n5AgQTCth3  Resolution (@ResFamilyLaw) July 25, 2018

In this day and age, it is outrageous that Mrs Owens  or anybody  is forced to remain trapped in a marriage, despite every judge involved in the case acknowledging it has come to an end in all but name. Todays judgment underlines just how vital it is that government now urgently reforms the divorce law.

He added: It should not be for any husband or wife to prove blame as the law requires many to do  this is archaic, creates needless conflict, and has to change.

Mrs Owens solicitor said many people would find the Supreme Court decision hard to understand.

Mrs Owens solicitor Simon Beccle said his client had hoped that justices would make a decision which would be forward thinking and fit with the current social mores.

He added: Mrs Owens is devastated by this decision which means that she cannot move forward with her life and obtain her independence from Mr Owens.

69% of Brits support 'no-fault' divorces, yet in the news a lady named Tini Owens is unable to get a divorce until 2020 because her husband won't agree to it and her case does not meet any of the acceptable legal grounds for divorce https://t.co/I1k6kNDy3T pic.twitter.com/4l60YTdcnk  YouGov (@YouGov) July 25, 2018

A lawyer who represented Mr Owens said Supreme Court justices had rightly rejected Mrs Owens attempt radically to reinterpret the requirements for a behaviour divorce.

Barrister Hamish Dunlop said: In bringing her appeal, she was essentially advocating divorce by unilateral demand of the petitioner; ignoring the courts duty to have some objective regard to the respondents behaviour.

He added: Those calling for a so-called no fault divorce regime may take comfort from Lord Wilsons view that in moving with the times, the law nowadays sets the bar for a grant of divorce based on behaviour at a low level.

Nevertheless, the essential ingredients of this ground (or fact under the act) must still be proved. Mrs Owens failed to satisfy the trial judge that her husband had behaved in such a way as to entitle her to divorce him under the law as it currently stands.Africa could benefit from studying China's experiences with implementing gradual reform and establishing a powerful government dedicated to the country's development, but Beijing will never force its models on any other country, Chinese experts say.

A two-day dialogue between the Communist Party of China (CPC) and around 40 political parties and organizations from 40 African countries opened in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam on Tuesday.

Song Tao, head of the International Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, said the CPC stands ready to work together with African political parties to promote the building of a community with a shared future for China and Africa.

Although the political systems in African countries differ from China's and their political values are not necessarily the same, they have a shared vision for national development, fighting corruption and reinforcing governance and capacity building. It is feasible and necessary for China and Africa to strengthen communication and share experiences, He Wenping, research fellow at the Institute of West Asian and African Studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

In general, African countries could learn from China's experiences in two major aspects. First, to correctly recognize the relationship between reform, development and stability and to build up a powerful government, select a visionary leader and adopt wise policies, according to He.

In the last three decades, China has emerged as the world's second largest economy and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. The concept of development is not only the essential need for developing countries but also the foundation for consolidating politics and democracy in African countries, she said.

Second, China could share experiences in combating political corruption and strengthening governance capacity, so that funds meant for providing public goods and other social services in African countries will not end up in private pockets, she added.

He stressed that the exchange between China and Africa is equal and bi-directional. China could learn from the experiences of Africa in NGO development, environmental protection and supervision of political parties and public opinion.

The China-Africa relationship has attracted criticism from some Western countries. The US has warned African countries to take precautions against China's expanding influence in Africa.

"Africa has been exploring a development model that suits its own conditions. African countries do not need to be dragged into any country's model. It is their own choice to refer to or study other countries' lessons," He said.

China won't export its development model. If the models prove to be successful, Africa will learn. This is different from Western countries, who are trying to force others to adopt their model, Zhang Weiying, director of the Institute of China Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.Jeremy Corbyn has denied his new Build it in Britain campaign is protectionist and insisted it does not echo Donald Trump.

The Labour leader visited HS2 trains bidder Bombardier on Wednesday after the launch of the new policy on Tuesday.

At the launch, Mr Corbyn promised Labour would use state aid powers to the full to support Britains manufacturing sector following Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn

On his visit to the site in Derby, he was given the opportunity to drive a train being sent to his constituency, Islington North, on Thursday  an experience he described as absolutely wonderful.

Great to visit Bombardier's factory in Derby and test one of their new trains.



Over the last 40 years, manufacturing has been hollowed out, hitting jobs and our economy.



The next Labour government will do more to support UK manufacturing by building in Britain. pic.twitter.com/4H1gEw6N5i  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 25, 2018

Asked whether his policy echoed the US president, Mr Corbyn said: Not at all. Absolutely not at all.

What we are saying is invest in our manufacturing base so that we can trade with other people.

Germany does that, France does that, Italy does that, Spain does that, we dont.

Its not protectionism, its the opposite because that gives us a chance to trade in the future.

We allowed Redcar to close down when it could have been saved, eventually Port Talbot was saved in the steel industry.

Too often, really good ideas that are developed here dont get brought through to production because nobody is prepared to invest in them.

During his tour of the site, Mr Corbyn spoke to employers, workers and union representatives about how the next Labour government planned to prioritise British manufacturing.

Before his visit, the Labour leader said: Under the Tories, our industries have not received the support they need, with the Government farming out major public contracts overseas. This is bad for workers and its bad for business.

Our economy has become too narrowly focused, with the Conservatives prioritising speculative interests in the City of London and ignoring the needs of our communities.

The next Labour government will throw its weight behind British manufacturing, reprogramme our economy and build a society that works for the many, not the few.Plane manufacturer Bombardier will receive almost 12 million of new Government funding to secure jobs at its Belfast factory.

Chancellor Philip Hammond made the announcement on Wednesday during a one-day visit to Northern Ireland, during which he toured Bombardiers production line in Belfast.

He welcomed the new orders of 60 A220s announced last week at the Farnborough Airshow before chairing a financial services roundtable.

The wings for the A220, which was formerly known as the Bombardier CSeries, are made in Belfast.

The new funding for Bombardier will support the company to develop the thrust reverser for the new Airbus A320 NEO nacelle.

Manufacturing is key to Northern Irelands economy  thats why we are backing @Bombardier with 12 million to develop new high tech planes and secure vital manufacturing jobs in Belfast. https://t.co/JLszhY8BOk pic.twitter.com/d8vnrupmCd  Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) July 25, 2018

There was uncertainty for Bombardier workers in Belfast last year after manufacturing rivals Boeing complained about the firm selling its CSeries jets to Delta Airlines below cost price.

The US Department of Commerce recommended a near 300% punitive duty on sales of the jets for five years, putting around 1,000 jobs in Belfast at risk.

But the International Trade Commission (ITC) in the US ruled against Boeing and in favour of Bombardier in January.

Mr Hammond pledged his support for Bombardier.

We are backing Bombardier with 12 million of new money to help develop cutting edge technology  here in Northern Ireland  for modern aircraft, he said.

This will help to secure jobs for Northern Irelands economy and cement the UKs role as a leading manufacturer of hi-tech aircraft components.

Announcing 12 million new funding for Bombardier, the chancellor denies his visit was timed to distract from the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London. pic.twitter.com/UG5wn9JQNU  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) July 25, 2018

Mr Hammond then travelled to Londonderry where he invited a bid for beefed-up development and economic powers.

During a visit to the Ulster University campus, Mr Hammond said the Government would consider an application from Derry for a city deal.

Politicians in Northern Irelands second city were angered last year when Mr Hammonds Budget contained a city deal package for Belfast, but not Derry.

Northern Ireland is leading the way within the UK in productivity growth, Mr Hammond said.

Philip Hammond

I want to support this progress by inviting a bid for a Derry-Londonderry City Deal, an opportunity for the region to continue to drive forward economic growth and build an economy that works for everyone.

The Government is investing more than 1.6 billion in city deals in Scotland and Wales and is in negotiations for a Belfast City Region Deal  the first city deal in Northern Ireland.

The bespoke agreements with Government, which are already in operation in major urban centres such as Manchester and Glasgow, hand city councils greater powers to lead infrastructure developments, generate wealth and access finance.

Ive come to Belfast to speak to businesses and universities about how they can seize the opportunities created through our future UK-EU partnership. The first stop was @AllstateNI to discuss how our Fintech Sector Strategy can spark further innovation. https://t.co/oibHPMLCoM https://t.co/gQpqQ80Iws  Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) July 25, 2018

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said: I am delighted with todays announcement, which is a positive step in progressing a city deal for Derry-Londonderry.

It is a testament to the many local partners who have worked tirelessly for progress to be made.

As Northern Irelands second largest centre for economic growth, Derry-Londonderry plays a significant role in the regions economic success.

I look forward to now engaging with local partners and across Government as proposals are developed and we build on the existing strengths of this area to deliver a real impact on the economy in the north west and across Northern Ireland.

The Chancellors visit was welcomed by local political representatives.

DUP leader Arlene Foster met with Mr Hammond following his engagements.

She described their meeting as a useful discussion.

The Government have been very clear that Northern Ireland cannot be separated from our main market in Great Britain. We will move in lockstep with the rest of the United Kingdom as we leave the European Union and there will be no border in the Irish Sea, she said.

It was also a useful discussion with the Chancellor on other issues impacting upon Northern Ireland.

We have seen once again the impact that Sinn Feins refusal to restore devolution is having on people right across Northern Ireland. Public sector workers should not be adversely impacted because Sinn Fein put their narrow sectional interests ahead of the wider public.

The number one issue raised by business and other stakeholders with the Chancellor was how a lack of ministerial decisions was impacting on them. The Chancellor now has a clear message that the Government must get on with making decisions for as long as Sinn Fein boycotts the Assembly and Executive.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed progress on a city deal for Derry.

The benefits stemming from a substantial economic intervention in the North West cannot be overstated. Both Derry and Strabane have waited a long time to receive the investment it deserves to reach its full potential, he said.

A city deal for Derry will go a long way to progressing our rail networks, building new road infrastructure, developing the Ulster University Magee Campus and increasing the overall productivity of the North West.Members of the public have been urged to avoid careless and reckless behaviour during the ongoing heatwave as emergency services across the country deal with a high number of field fires.

In London, where fire crews have already attended six times as many large grass fires this year compared to the whole of 2017, over 260 firefighters were forced to deal with blazes on Monday night.

Tom George, deputy commissioner and director of operations for London Fire Brigade, said the force was fed up of politely asking people to take care, as temperatures threaten to rise to a UK all-time record of 38.5C (101.3F).

Footage from one of 2 large fires yesterday. Huge thank you to all our crews @cambsfrs @bedspolice & the local farmers for their assistance in keeping everyone safe & putting the fires out #WildFires #TeamWork #HeatWave https://t.co/CH34aGcV8R @BBC3CR @BBCLookEast @IN2BEATS pic.twitter.com/nWK0B53LzC  Beds Fire and Rescue (@BedsFire) July 25, 2018

He said: There hasnt been any rain for several weeks and Ive never seen London looking so parched. All it takes is one act of stupidity and the whole lot can go up in minutes.

The force also claimed that careless and reckless members of the public are putting lives at risk, and encouraged people to take extra care with cigarettes and barbecues.

South Yorkshire fire teams experienced over 500 calls between Monday and Wednesday morning, one of which was a vast grass fire in Denaby, Doncaster, which had to be put out using two 5,000 litre water bowsers.

Fire damage at Cadeby Woods, Stainforth, Doncaster

In the same region, firefighters have dealt with 760 outdoor and grass fires between June 18 and July 18 this year, more than three times the number from the same period last year.

Similarly, the West Midlands has experienced a higher than expected number of call-outs, with fire crews being called to 479 outdoor fires between June 20 and July 1, up from 301 during the same period in 2017.

With scorching temperatures expected to continue over coming weeks, emergency services have been providing extra safety advice in a bid to stave off more blazes.

More photos from an incident we attended on Monday night in Thurcroft. Our Control room is taking hundreds of calls a day and our firefighters are attending dozens more incidents than usual due to the current hot spell, so please #takeextracare to prevent fires pic.twitter.com/XbRftYcHLp  South Yorkshire Fire (@SYFR) July 25, 2018

Tony Carlin, from South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, said crews were providing a fantastic service, adding: With the forecast set to remain warm and dry for several weeks, we really need people to help us, help them by taking some basic precautions to prevent fires.

For example, take rubbish with you if you are out and about in the countryside as glass bottles and cigarette ends can easily start fires.

Malcolm Stevenson, a spokesman for Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, warned that a severe lack of rain had left his and many other counties resembling tinder boxes, meaning that fires could easily start without due care.

Crews tackle a blaze in Thurcroft, Rotherham, as high temperatures cause an increase in outdoor fires

He said: In rural counties like ours, there are these vast areas of moorland and grassland, which can be particularly vulnerable during periods like this, as we saw on Saddleworth Moor.

Obviously we are aware that people want to go out and enjoy the sunshine and, in general, the public have been fantastic, but there are a few things to bear in mind, as it doesnt take much at all for a fire to start.

We would particularly urge people not to light portable barbecues or camp fires in these vast spaces, because its so unpredictable at the moment.

London Fire Brigades own tips for preventing grass fires are:

 Dispose of smoking materials such as cigarettes and matches safely

 Never leave camp fires or barbecues unattended and extinguish them properly after you have finished using them

 Clear away bottles, glasses and any broken glass to avoid them magnifying the sun and starting a fire

 Explain to children the dangers of playing with and lighting firesThe British public should take reassurance and comfort from Government preparations for a no-deal Brexit, Theresa May has said after ministers suggested food and medicines would be stockpiled in case of shortages.

In an interview with 5 News on Wednesday, the Prime Minister did not deny stockpiling is happening, but said the Government is being responsible and sensible while still trying to get a good deal with the European Union.

It came after Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs on Tuesday he had asked officials to work up options for stockpiling by the pharmaceutical industry, and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government would also take steps to ensure an adequate food supply.

Irish deputy prime minister Simon Coveney had earlier said he does not believe that Britain can afford a no-deal Brexit, and he hit out at bravado from Brexiteers who claim such a scenario would be acceptable.

Mrs May said: Far from being worried about preparations that we are making, I would say that people should take reassurance and comfort from the fact that the Government is saying we are in a negotiation, we are working for a good deal  I believe we can get a good deal  but because we dont know what the outcome is going to be lets prepare for every eventuality.

This is not just about stockpiling. That concept, what it is, is about making sure that we will be able to continue to do the things that are necessary once we have left the European Union, if we leave without a deal.

Mrs Mays comments came as a new poll suggests trust in her ability to handle Brexit is falling.

A Guardian/ICM poll found she had an eight-point lead over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn over who could be trusted to negotiate a good Brexit deal, down from 16 points in January and 34 points before the 2017 general election.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said it is sensible and responsible that the Government is working with industry to stockpile certain vital supplies for the event of a no-deal.

Speaking during a visit to the Bombardier aircraft factory in Belfast on Wednesday, he said:

Thats a sensible and responsible thing for a Government to do and large businesses who are importing or exporting large volumes of products or produce will be making contingency plans, and we would encourage them to do so and work closely with them as they are putting those plans together.

Mr Hammond also ruled out extending the Article 50 process to give more time to negotiate withdrawal from the EU, after the Irish Government said it would back such a move.

He said Parliament had legislated for the current exit date in March after suggestions an extension could help avoid the risk of a no-deal Brexit taking place.

It came as talks continued in Brussels, with a meeting between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Mr Raab scheduled for Thursday.

Mrs May confirmed on Tuesday that she had taken personal charge of the negotiations, with Mr Raab deputising for her in Brussels.

Tory Eurosceptics have voiced concerns that Mr Raabs department has been sidelined by Number 10 and Mrs Mays Europe adviser Olly Robbins, amid increasing speculation that divisions within the Conservative camp may result in no deal.

Mr Coveney confirmed Dublin is making contingency plans to cope with Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal, but he told BBC Radio 4s Today that Dublin would absolutely back an extension if Mrs Mays Government asked for it.

Speaking outside Parliament in London after the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, the Tanaiste said a no-deal Brexit is not in British or Irish best interests, but he remains confident a deal will be reached.

He said: We need to be focusing on the intensification of negotiations to try and find the solutions on a way forward as opposed to the sort of tough stance that some people feel the need to take in relation to saying well do your worst, we can deal with a (no-deal) situation.

That isnt going to solve this problem.Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney says unionists have nothing to fear from the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, after it was labelled a talking shop by the DUP.

Mr Coveney was in London on Wednesday for the talks with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Karen Bradley and Minister for the Cabinet Office David Lidington.

Unionists in Northern Ireland they have nothing to fear from a British Irish Intergovernmental Conference, this is an agreed structure that both governments have signed up to as part of the Good Friday agreement, Mr Coveney said.

Simon Coveney

We do not deal with devolved decision making.

What were about is reinforcing the message that the British and Irish governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, are working together through the structures of that agreement.

Minister for the Cabinet Office @DLidington today chaired a meeting of the British-Irish InterGovernmental Conference in London with Secretary of State for @NIOGov, Tanaiste @simoncoveney and Irish Minister for Justice and Equality @CharlieFlanagan in attendance. pic.twitter.com/AiPsVOlsTP  Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) July 25, 2018

We are doing what we can to provide an environment where political parties are able to interact again, hopefully with a view to restore the devolved government so that people in Northern Ireland can have their political decisions made by the people that they elected.

Northern Ireland has been without a devolved government for 19 months since talks between majority parties DUP and Sinn Fein broke down.

Coveney said both he and the UK Government are keen to see the Stormont Assembly up and running again and discussed a number of initiatives to bring parties back to the table.

There is ongoing dialogue between both governments that hopefully will allow us to try some new initiatives in the early autumn.

There are efforts to create a platform for political parties in Northern Ireland to interact, with a view to re-establishing a functioning executive, which is hugely important.

We cannot allow Northern Ireland to drift, he said.

The DUP were critical of the conference, claiming the people of Northern Ireland want direct action, not further talks.

DUP East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons said: Arlene Foster rightly labelled the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference a talking shop.

Good meeting at British Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London with @CharlieFlanagan. Legacy, Security cooperation, East/West Political Structures and Political Instability in NI were all on the agenda. First BIIGC meeting in 11 years. pic.twitter.com/b8kJTeHyj4  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 25, 2018

It is not a structure where decisions can be made about our roads, hospitals, schools or economy.

For Sinn Fein, it is a smokescreen to distract from the fact that they stand isolated in boycotting the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive and the House of Commons.

Sinn Fein deputy Leader Michelle ONeill MLA however, welcomed the meeting.

Todays conference is an important step to help remove the obstacles to genuine power-sharing and for London and Dublin to fulfil their obligations to the Good Friday Agreement.

In the absence of the Assembly at this time, the choice is between the protection of the Good Friday Agreement which is under constant attack by the hard Brexiteers within the DUP and Tory party, or its abandonment, she said.

Following the meeting, the governments issued a joint statement setting out the areas of discussion, which covered legacy issues, security co-operation, East-West bilateral issues and political stability in Northern Ireland.Jeremy Corbyn has said it is really a bit sad that the UK has not had a conversation about continuing services shared with the European Union after Brexit.

The Labour leader insisted there should be an arrangement with Europe to ensure there still remains a form of customs union.

After Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney announced Dublin would back a request from the UK for an extension to the Article 50 process, Mr Corbyn said there has to be a transition period.

Jeremy Corbyn

Pressed on whether he agrees the process should be extended, Mr Corbyn suggested it might be necessary for the transition process to go on a bit longer.

Speaking during a visit to HS2 train bidder Bombardier in Derby on Wednesday, the Labour leader said: Weve got to have a deal, we cant have a no-deal end to this process because the manufacturing industry and all the other services we share with Europe have got to carry on.

Great to visit Bombardier's factory in Derby and test one of their new trains.



Over the last 40 years, manufacturing has been hollowed out, hitting jobs and our economy.



The next Labour government will do more to support UK manufacturing by building in Britain. pic.twitter.com/4H1gEw6N5i  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) July 25, 2018

Therefore there has to be an agreement and its really a bit sad that two years on from the referendum, we havent had this kind of conversation.

What on earth has the Government been doing for the last two years?

Asked whether Article 50 should be extended, Mr Corbyn said: What we have said is there should be a transition period, and that was eventually supported and accepted.

Jeremy Corbyn

Quite clearly it might be necessary to ensure that goes on a bit longer.

What we have to do is have an arrangement with Europe, continue trade and we do not have a hard border in Northern Ireland which means we must have a form of customs union with the European Union.A Conservative MEP has been accused of putting the knife into free speech after suggesting the Treason Act be changed to target those guilty of extreme EU loyalty as well as terrorism.

David Campbell Bannerman, who represents the East of England in Brussels, was responding to the call from a group of MPs to update the law to target jihadis who have fought for Islamic State in Syria.

Writing on Twitter he backed the change and suggested it go a step further, writing: It is about time we brought the Treason Act up to date and made it apply to those seeking to destroy or undermine the British state.

David Campbell Bannerman, who suggested a new Treason Act should target those 'actively working undemocratically against UK through extreme EU loyalty'

It is about time we brought the Treason Act up to date and made it apply to those seeking to destroy or undermine the British state. That means extreme jihadis. It also means those in future actively working undemocratically against U.K. through extreme EU loyalty pic.twitter.com/CXSPCJqjOz  David C Bannerman (@DCBMEP) July 25, 2018

That means extreme jihadis. It also means those in future actively working undemocratically against UK through extreme EU loyalty.

Labour MP and Best for Britain supporter Virendra Sharma attacked the comments, saying: This C-list Tory MEP is suggesting putting the knife into free speech.

One of the best things about this country is the range of opinions that help diversify our political debate.

David Bannerman should think long and hard about his spiteful populist rhetoric.

This type of extremism is the real danger facing this country.

Mr Campbell Bannerman, who has been an MEP since 2009, quit the Tories in 2004 and joined Ukip over the partys two-faced position on Europe.

He became deputy leader before unsuccessfully challenging Nigel Farage for the party leadership in 2010, finishing third.

He defected back to the Conservatives the following year, saying he had been won over by David Camerons tough stance with the EU.

After his tweet he clarified that political differences were clearly not the same as terrorism, but continued: If we have a new Treason Act what should it cover?

Undermining the nations interests in surely an extreme manner only.UK and Irish ministers have insisted that Wednesdays British and Irish Intergovernmental Conference is about honouring the commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement, and denied that Dublin is meddling in UK politics.

Irish Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney, along with Justice minister Charlie Flanagan, said the talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington did not touch on devolved issues in Northern Ireland, and instead discussed initiatives to get the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running.

Unionists in Northern Ireland have nothing to fear from a British Irish Intergovernmental Conference. This is an agreed structure that both governments have signed up to as part of the Good Friday agreement.

Minister for the Cabinet Office @DLidington today chaired a meeting of the British-Irish InterGovernmental Conference in London with Secretary of State for @NIOGov, Tanaiste @simoncoveney and Irish Minister for Justice and Equality @CharlieFlanagan in attendance. pic.twitter.com/AiPsVOlsTP  Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) July 25, 2018

We do not deal with devolved decision making.

What were about is reinforcing the message that the British and Irish governments, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, are working together through the structures of that agreement.

We are doing what we can to provide an environment where political parties are able to interact again, hopefully with a view to restore the devolved government so that people in Northern Ireland can have their political decisions made by the people that they elected.

He added that Northern Ireland could not be left to drift.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond, who was visiting Belfast on Wednesday, echoed Mr Coveneys stance saying it was important that the Good Friday Agreement was honoured.

Phillip Hammond visits Northern Ireland

The conference thats going on in London is part of the standing arrangements under the Belfast Agreement.

Its very important that we honour the commitments that we have made under those agreements and make sure that the working relationship continues.

East-west relations are just as important as north-south relations and just as central a part of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Hammond added.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said the council respected the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

It is consultative, not executive, in format and it is there to talk about those matters that are not devolved to the assembly and executive of Northern Ireland.

The meeting included discussions on security and prisons, he said.

Min @CharlieFlanagan & the Tanaiste met the UK Govt at the Cabinet Office in London today for the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Matters discussed included the legacy of Northern Ireland's past, security cooperation, east-west matters and political stability #BIIGC pic.twitter.com/fatKX1fSvx  Department of Justice  (@DeptJusticeIRL) July 25, 2018

Following the meeting, the governments issued a joint statement setting out the areas of discussion, which covered legacy issues, security co-operation, east-west bilateral issues and political stability in Northern Ireland.

Former first minister Lord Trimble had warned that the conference came close to breaching principles enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement that Dublin will have no role in internal UK politics.

Lord Trimble said the meeting is reaching the point of breaking the principle set out in the Good Friday Agreement that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

The former Ulster Unionist Party leader told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either, he said.

The DUP were also critical of the conference, claiming the people of Northern Ireland want direct action, not further talks.

DUP East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons said: Arlene Foster rightly labelled the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference a talking shop.

It is not a structure where decisions can be made about our roads, hospitals, schools or economy.

For Sinn Fein, it is a smokescreen to distract from the fact that they stand isolated in boycotting the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive and the House of Commons.

But Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill welcomed the meeting.

Todays conference is an important step to help remove the obstacles to genuine power-sharing and for London and Dublin to fulfil their obligations to the Good Friday Agreement.

In the absence of the Assembly at this time, the choice is between the protection of the Good Friday Agreement which is under constant attack by the hard Brexiteers within the DUP and Tory party, or its abandonment, she said.

The Conference, which gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland, last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial.

When it was last called security was a major part of its remit, but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.

Power-sharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme. The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.The father of a three-year-old boy has appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm after a suspected acid attack on his son.

The 39-year-old  who cannot be named for legal reasons  appeared alongside Adam Cech, 27, and Jan Dudi, 25, both from Birmingham, Norbert Pulko, 22, from London, together with Jabar Paktia, 41, from Wolverhampton.

The five, who were arrested by West Mercia Police, were all charged with conspiring between July 16 and July 21 to cause grievous bodily harm to the victim with intent.

Worcester acid attack store

The men all appeared together in the dock at Kidderminster Magistrates Court, wearing grey tracksuits and white t-shirts, on Wednesday.

Officers investigating a suspected acid attack on a three-year-old boy in Worcester have charged five men with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm.https://t.co/PrKu3FX1I2  West Mercia Police (@WMerciaPolice) July 25, 2018

The boy suffered serious burns to his face and an arm at the Home Bargains store in Worcester on Saturday afternoon and was discharged from hospital the following day.

Magistrates were told by Stephen Davies, prosecuting, that the boy and his mother were now in a place of safety.

It is not yet known whether the youngster has suffered longer-term implications as a result of his injuries.

The suspected attack occurred in the Tallow Hill area of Worcester, while the boy was out with his mother and other children.

During a lengthy hearing, the men spoke only to confirm their names, ages and addresses.

All, including Slovakian nationals Pulko; who is a registered carer for his disabled mother, Cech, a father-of-two who is a team leader at an Oliver James Foods factory, and father-of-two Dudi, denied any wrongdoing through their solicitors.

Angela Channon, chairman of the bench, remanding the men into custody, told them they would appear next month at the crown court.

The boys father, together with Cech, of Farnham Road, and Dudi, of Cranbrook Road, both Handsworth, Birmingham, Paktia, of Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton, and Pulko, of Sutherland Road, Walthamstow, London, will next appear at Worcester Crown Court on August 28.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he personally told top Russian officials that there would be severe consequences for any interference in US elections or the American democratic process.

Mr Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had made the warning clear to Russia in multiple meetings and conversations.

Mr Pompeo made the comment in response to pointed questions about details of President Donald Trumps one-on-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week in Finland.

Trump-Putin Summit

Both Republican and Democratic members of the committee demanded details from Mr Pompeo about the summit for which the White House has offered only vague outlines.

Republican committee chairman Bob Corker opened the hearing by saying Mr Pompeo was appearing before senators who have serious doubts over Mr Trump and his foreign policy.China has grown into one of the top trading partners of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State, as Chinese President Xi Jinping is paying his first state visit to the UAE.

We look forward to welcoming President Xi Jinping to the UAE, Sultan told Peoples Daily during an exclusive interview, adding that the first visit by Xi to the UAE is a momentous occasion and a landmark in the relationship between the two countries.

He said that Xis visit will build on the excellent foundation that has already been established to create even closer ties between the two countries, culturally, politically and economically.

We are confident that the meetings between the leaders of both countries will be constructive and productive. Importantly, this visit represents an ideal opportunity to develop our strategic partnership and create lasting positive impact for both nations, the Middle East and Asia, the minister noted.

Xis vision on economic and social development is to be commended, said Sultan, who spoke highly of the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by the Chinese President.

Comparing the initiative as a bridge connecting countries along the route, he added that the UAE has been keenly aware of the great potential that the Initiative offers in promoting prosperity and fostering regional stability.

As a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the UAE wants to work with China to leverage the opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative, said the minister.

Sultan cited Abu Dhabi Ports and China Cosco Shipping Corporation Limited as an example. The two companies agreed in 2017 to build a container terminal that will double Abu Dhabis handling capacity.

Apart from enhancing the seaborne trade between the two countries, the project will also strengthen the UAEs capability to support the Belt and Road construction.

Sultan said that the UAE and China have deepened their bilateral relationship since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1984, and the relationship was further strengthened by a succession of high-level visits in recent years.

The bilateral trade jumped by 15 percent to $52 billion last year, expanding an impressive 800-fold compared with the 1984 figure, making China one of the UAEs top trading partners, remarked the minister.

The links between the two countries now span almost every sector, including energy, logistics, infrastructure, manufacturing, technology, finance, education, culture and tourism, bringing huge benefits to both sides, Sultan noted.

He said the UAE greatly values its relationship with China and is committed to growing it and looks forward to strengthening the close partnership across all spheres.

By fully embracing and reinforcing our relations, politically, economically and culturally, we will achieve even greater benefits for both our countries and promote enduring advancement beyond our borders, he told Peoples Daily.

Some 60 percent of all Chinas exports to the Gulf Cooperation Council region travel through the UAE, according to Sultan. He said that as a logistics and trading hub, the UAE wants to work with China, to leverage the opportunities presented by the Belt and Road Initiative, by capitalizing on its key strength as a regional center of commerce.

He expected a bigger role of his country in the deepened partnership between the Arab countries and China.

The UAE strongly believes closer relations between the Arab world and China will foster greater economic growth and stability, both regionally and globally, Sultan said.

Chinas determination to adopt market systems and open trade and investment policies, along with its focus on human development, has allowed it to become a very dynamic and innovative economy with momentum for continued growth, Sultan stressed.A fisherman has described venturing into choppy seas to rescue people who fled to the coast as wildfires ravaged Greece.

Tawefik Halil and other fishermen responded to the overwhelmed Greek coast guards urgent call for help as the deadliest wildfires in decades raged through seaside resorts near Athens.

Mr Halil, 42, was among dozens of volunteers who helped save hundreds of people stranded on beaches and in the choppy waters, buffeted by gale-force winds.

Greece Forest Fire Rescuer

It was chaos, do you understand? Do you know what its like to be in all that smoke, not being able to see anything and to have people asking for help? Mr Halil told the Associated Press.

The fire razed holiday resorts east of Athens and killed at least 79 people. But more than 700 survivors were rescued by boat and taken to the port of Rafina.

Mr Halil said he does not remember how many people he helped save, but he and the others did what they could as they plucked young and old from the water.

You cant see anything in the smoke and fire  so much fire and so much smoke. There was so much wind, he said. We could not breathe. I almost fainted at some point from all the smoke, and it was very difficult, my friend, it was so difficult. I have never seen such a difficult thing before.

Greece forest fires

Many people on the beaches were forced to swim out due to the ferocity of the fire, Mr Halil said.

The people got trapped: behind them fire and in front of them the sea. What can they do? They got into the sea, he said.

The people in the water ranged in age from eight to 70, he said, some clustered together and all pleading for help.

There were all these people in the water, some knew how to swim and some didnt, he said.

Those that could swim, we saved them. The other ones that did not know how to swim, we do not know if they are there, if they are alive and what happened. No one knows. But what we could do, we did.

Mr Halil, an Egyptian who has been living in Greece and working as a fisherman for two decades, said it was his second time dealing with a humanitarian disaster; the first was helping to rescue Syrian migrants after their flimsy boat capsized off the Greek island of Chios in 2015.

It was not all good news for the fishermen helping with this weeks rescue. Mr Halil said his friends boat pulled out a body.

Its a tragic thing, he said. I still cant believe what happened, honestly.Anthony Martial has left Manchester Uniteds summer tour of the United States to be present at the birth of his second child.

The French forward was ruled out of manager Jose Mourinhos plans for the International Champions Cup match against AC Milan in Carson, California.

Martial has now departed from the United camp to be with his partner Melanie Da Cruz, Press Association Sport understands.

Manchester Uniteds Anthony Martial has left the club's tour

He played from the start in Uniteds opening tour matches against the San Jose Earthquakes and Club America.

United also play Liverpool and Real Madrid before their tour ends next week, and are then next in action when they play Bayern Munich in a friendly in Germany on August 5.

They begin their Premier League campaign with a home match against Leicester on Friday, August 10.

Martial, 22, has been linked with a summer transfer away from United.By Tom Daly

BEIJING, July 23 (Reuters) - Chinese aluminium foil producer Shantou Wanshun Package Material Stock Co on Monday said its subsidiary is suing the United States over twin anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties Washington imposed on its shipments.

In a statement to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Wanshun said Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials, which was hit with a countervailing duty of 17.14 percent and an anti-dumping duty of 37.99 percent earlier this year, had filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Zhongji was among the Chinese foil companies that unsuccessfully filed a joint "no injury" claim with the U.S. International Trade Commission last year as Washington probed whether the companies were unfairly subsidised, and is now trying to reverse the duties on its own.

The total duties of 55.13 percent on Zhongji's foil were the lowest imposed on Chinese foil makers, Wanshun's Board Secretary Huang Wei told Reuters. This shows the U.S. side had taken some of its arguments into account, she said.

"But there are still some unreasonable elements inside" the ruling, she said.

Huang pointed to the United States comparing the prices of China's aluminium foil exports to South Africa as a reference case. The stock exchange filing noted that Bulgaria would have been a more appropriate choice.

The document made no mention of damages being sought but Huang said she hoped the U.S. would remove the twin duties.

Aluminium has been a focal point of the U.S.-China trade row, with Washington calling on China, the world's top producer of the metal, to rein in excess production capacity.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a broad 10 percent import duty on aluminium imports from China and other countries from March 23.

"We will still export to the United States," Huang said. Even after the double duties, "our customers still came back to buy" because of favourable pricing, she added.

A search of the U.S. Court of International Trade website showed Jiangsu Zhongji had filed a case against the United States in June but the full document was unavailable.

The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group and its individual members, as well as JW Aluminum Co, Novelis Corp and Reynolds Consumer Products were named in the stock exchange filing as having intervened in the Zhongji litigation in support of the United States.

The U.S. Aluminum Association, which had previously hailed the twin tariffs as a victory for U.S. foil producers and rules-based trade, said it was confident the duties would be upheld.

"We will work vigorously, along with the individual member companies that participated in the investigation, to defend the government's unanimous finding that U.S. industry has been materially injured by unfairly-traded imports of certain aluminium foil from China," a spokesman said in a statement.

The other parties could not immediately be reached for comment outside of business hours in the United States. (Reporting by Tom Daly; Additional reporting by Peter Hobson; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Jane Merriman)By Paul Carsten and Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, July 24 (Reuters) - Sixteen senators quit Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's ruling party on Tuesday and the country's third most senior politician said he might follow suit, in a blow to the leader who seeks re-election next year.

Fourteen of the 16 lawmakers left the All Progressives Congress (APC) to join the opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), a letter read on the Senate floor stated. Another two senators later left the ruling party while parliament was in session.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, the number three political leader in Africa's biggest economy, told Reuters in an interview a few hours later that the chances of him also leaving the APC were "very, very high".

In a statement, a Buhari spokesman said no harm would be done to the party by the departures and the APC had "done its utmost to stop the defections", without providing details.

Buhari expressed "total willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party, for the benefit of the nation," the statement said.

The fissures threaten to split support for Buhari within powerful patronage networks and among voters ahead of the presidential poll scheduled for February 2019 that will decide who runs Africa's top oil producer.

The defections, and the suggestion that there may be more to come, have taken place just weeks after a faction within the party said it no longer backed Buhari.

Fighting within the APC coalition, which united to unseat Buhari's predecessor rather than because of ideological unity, has mounted for years in a struggle for power and influence between those loyal to the head of state and others who say they have been targeted in a witch-hunt by the presidency.

Divisions emerged publicly in the weeks following the APC's conference in June where new party leaders were elected. Others saw their hopes of greater powers within the party dashed just months before the presidential and legislative elections.

AGENDA

The PDP, which was in power from the start of civilian rule in 1999 until Buhari took office in 2015, said in a tweet that 32 lawmakers in the lower House of Representatives had also joined from the APC.

The defections may also make it harder for Buhari to enact his legislative agenda for the remainder of his first term.

Saraki, speaking to Reuters, said he was considering his next move. "I will spend the next few days consulting with my colleagues who have defected and also my other colleagues from my state and make my announcement very soon," he said.

He ran unopposed for the post of Senate president, mainly with the support of the opposition even though he is an APC member. He was not his party's preferred candidate and the manner of his elevation to the office in 2015 led to strains in his relationship with Buhari.

Since then he has been dogged by accusations of misconduct and investigations since becoming Senate president, though none has led to convictions.

Asked about the raft of defections, Saraki said: "I must commend them for their courage because it took a lot for them to be able to do that in the face of this level of intimidation and harassment."

The Senate president and his supporters say he has been targeted by political opponents, most recently on Tuesday morning when he said his movements, and those of his deputy, were halted by police. Images of the alleged incident were circulated on social media.

Police denied taking that action.

"The force wishes to categorically state that there was no authorised deployment of police personnel to besiege the residence of the Senate president or his deputy as reported in the media," a police spokesman said.

He said the allegations would be investigated.

HARASSMENT ACCUSATIONS

Amid an increasingly febrile political backdrop, lawmakers in June issued a series of demands to Buhari including a call for an end to the "systematic harassment and humiliation by the executive of perceived political opponents".

The president's supporters have previously rejected the accusations levelled against the former military ruler.

"I am committed to listening to very legitimate grievances and engaging all those who are aggrieved that we can see through their grievances," Adams Oshiomhole, the APC's national chairman, told reporters in Abuja after Tuesday's defections.

However, he said it was best for those motivated solely by personal interest to "return to where they belong".

Buhari said in April that he would seek another term. His candidacy depends on party approval, though that is usually considered to be a formality for the incumbent.

Nigeria's main opposition parties earlier this month agreed to form an alliance to field a joint candidate to contest the election. (Additional reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram in Lagos and Felix Onuah in Abuja Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)By Rod Nickel and Michael Hirtzer

WINNIPEG, Manitoba/CHICAGO, July 24 (Reuters) - Canadian corn is flowing into Europe at the fastest pace in four years, helped by retaliatory tariffs against the United States by the European Union that has shut American corn out of the bloc, traders said.

Corn shipments to western European countries rose 85 percent year over year during the nine months from the start of Canada's corn marketing year on Sept. 1, and are on pace for a total of 1.2 million tonnes in 2017/18, the most since 2013/14, according to Canadian government data.

Canada, the fourth-largest wheat shipper, accounted last year for less than 1 percent of the world's corn exports.

Its sales to Europe are increasing, however, thanks to low freight costs and a Canada-European Union free trade deal that took effect in 2017, giving Canadian corn tariff-free access to Europe.

European tariffs against U.S. corn imposed in June have further sped up those sales, said Carsten Bredin, vice-president of grain merchandising at Richardson International, Canada's biggest grain handler.

"Canada is in a great spot" in Europe, he said, adding that EU importers are buying both current supplies and the next harvest.

Canada's growing corn exports to Europe are an example of U.S. policy redrawing global trade patterns under President Donald Trump, not always to the United States' advantage. Trump was expected to announce billions in aid for farmers hurting from trade fights. The European Union imposed tariffs of 25 percent on 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of U.S. imports, including U.S. corn that is usually the cheapest in the world, in response to U.S. tariffs imposed on EU steel and aluminium.

EU buyers rushed to import U.S. corn before the tariff was imposed, with shipments this year through May of 1.4 million tonnes, largely to Spain and the Netherlands, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

The EU's switch to buying from Canada instead of the United States could weigh on Chicago Board of Trade corn futures already trading near the lowest in about a year.

Crops in parts of north Europe have also suffered from drought and high temperatures, forcing feedlots to rely more on imported grain to fatten cattle.

Last week alone, Canada sold 25,000 tonnes of corn to the United Kingdom and 22,000 tonnes to Ireland, European trade sources said, adding there was unconfirmed talk of much larger sales. The shipments could not be verified because of a lag in official government trade data. "It's discouraging knowing the U.S. (corn) is cheap and could capture that business without the tariffs," said Futures International analyst Terry Reilly.

Brazil, another major corn producer, typically exports more in the second half of the year, but is not usually a top supplier to Europe.

For the nine months from Sept. 1 through May, Canada shipped 886,000 tonnes of corn to western European countries, including 539,000 tonnes to Ireland, according to Canadian government data.

"The retaliatory EU tariffs on U.S. corn would naturally take the U.S. out of the picture," one German trader said. ($1 = 0.8554 euros) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in WINNIPEG, Manitoba and Michael Hirtzer in CHICAGO; additional reporting by Michael Hogan in HAMBURG, Nigel Hunt in LONDON and Ana Mano in SAO PAULO; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Susan Thomas)WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he believes Russia will work hard to sway November U.S. congressional elections toward Democrats and not his fellow Republicans, but provided no evidence to back up his assertion.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election with a campaign of propaganda and hacking to disparage Trump's Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and aid Trump's candidacy, and that Moscow is now targeting the Nov. 6 congressional races.

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!" the Republican president wrote on Twitter.

Putin himself acknowledged he wanted Trump to win the 2016 presidential race during a joint news conference with Trump after their July 16 summit in Helsinki. Putin denied meddling in the election.

Trump's summit performance drew a fierce backlash in the United States after he shied away from blaming the Russian leader for the election interference. Critics accused Trump of siding with Russia over his own country by failing to so.

Democrats are seeking to take control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the November elections from the Republicans. Wresting control of either or both chambers could allow Democrats to derail or stall much of Trump's policy agenda, while ushering in more aggressive congressional oversight and investigation of his administration.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Tim Ahmann; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)ROME, July 24 (Reuters) - Italy's new infrastructure minister denounced on Tuesday an ambitious, transalpine rail link as an enormous waste of public money and said he wanted to re-negotiate the project with neighbouring France.

"Nobody should dare to sign off on advancing this line. We would consider that a hostile act," Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli wrote on Facebook in an apparent warning to authorities on both sides of the Alps.

The 270-km (167-mile). high-speed line is due to link the French city of Lyon with Italy's Turin. Originally slated to cost 9.6 billion euros ($11.2 billion), Toninelli said latest estimates gave it a 26.1-billion-euro price tag.

"When I look at the Turin-Lyon documents, I can only feel anger and disgust at how Italians' money has been wasted," wrote Toninelli, who is a member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which has long called for the project to be binned.

There was no immediate response from France.

After years of planning and controversy, France and Italy signed a deal in 2016 releasing 8.4 billion euros in funding for the initial construction of the so-called TAV. That has begun, though not work on boring the main tunnel.

When French President Emmanuel Macron took office last year, he briefly called for the project to be put on ice before swiftly reaffirming France's commitment to the plan.

The two countries said last September that preliminary work on the contested line was "all but completed" and that the final construction phase, notably the digging of a 57-km tunnel under the Alps, was being prepared.

Toninelli said that under the terms of the original deal, the European Union had agreed to pay 40 percent of the final bill, Italy 35 percent and France 25 percent.

He questioned why Paris was paying less than Rome, even though the bulk of the tunnelling was happening on the French side of the border. He also said the link made little commercial sense given that trade between France and Italy had been in "constant decline" over the past 20 years.

Toninelli said he wanted "to review completely" the deal with France, adding that economic, social and environmental concerns would determine the fate of the project.

Residents of Italy's picturesque alpine Susa valley have repeatedly protested against TAV, saying it would cut through the heart of their community and destroy stunning countryside.

While 5-Star has long backed their cause, its government coalition partner, the League, has defended the project, saying it will help develop the Italian economy. ($1 = 0.8559 euros) (Reporting by Crispian Balmer Editing by Mark Heinrich)All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader Gajan Ponnambalam, in an interview with the Daily Mirror, shares his views on the political developments of the north. Mr Ponnambalam, whose party made significant gains at the local government elections, speaks about Federalism. The following is what he shared:

Tamil people are not going to ask for an armed struggle

If there is going to be an armed struggle, it is the Sinhalese who are pushing them to it

UNHRC has been used as a political tool

UNHRC resolutions not aimed at addressing accountability issues here

They are aimed at regime change in Sri Lanka only

TNA is part of the government

Law and Order was good in LTTE controlled areas

There is nothing controversial about Vijeyakalas statement

Q As the leader of All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC), how do you assess the current political situation?

When you consider the last elections in 2015, we see the way the people voted and the expectations they had in the rejection of Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa to usher in a new political culture in the south. Later, people voted for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) on the basis that they would have a good relationship with the party in the south and deliver on Tamil expectations. As far as the benchmark for the 2015 elections is concerned, there is total disillusionment certainly in the north and east, and also in the south. There is a very clear shift away from the TNA in all the districts in the north and east. In the case of the south, there is a resurgence of Mahinda Rajapaksa. The voting terms may be different. In a real political sense, there is a total resurgence of Mahinda Rajapaksas party.

Q You mentioned that there is a resurgence of Mahinda Rajapaksa. How do you view that phenomenon from your partys point of view?

Even from 2010 onwards, Mahinda Rajapaksas political position in regard to the solution to the ethnic problem is fundamentally problematic to the Tamil people. There is absolutely no doubt about it. We reject that position. We see him pandering to the Sinhala nationalist sentiments. I personally do not have a problem with Sinhala nationalism. I do not reject nationalism. I am also a Tamil nationalist. There is nothing wrong in being a nationalist. Various forms of nationalism must be prepared to co-exist. Unfortunately, Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa has an ultra-nationalist position where he rejects any other form of nationalism. That ultra-nationalism is nothing but racism. The question is whether the alternative to it is any different. That is the key question.

If the coalition government had taken a different line and said, Mistakes have happened. The LTTE might have been defeated. But, the Tamil people are different. We have to deliver on their rights. If we do not deliver, the country will find it difficult to move forward. The international community did not like Mahinda because he did not deliver on the Tamil question in terms of war crimes, accountability and political solution. Therefore, they came down hard.

If they (the new government) had said that, I think there could have been a genuine change. They went on a totally opposite narrative. Their position is that it was they who protected Mahinda Rajapaksa. It is they who had safeguarded the military from any form of prosecution. They are trying to outbid Mahinda.

In our view, it is not a regime. It is really the change in personalities. For us, it is unfortunate.

Tamils are the vast majority living in the north and the east. If you look at upcountry Tamils, they are living in the south in fairly large numbers. You have a significant number of Sinhalese in the north and the east. No one is asking them to be chased away. Our accusation is that their settlements are State-aided colonization.

Q Yet, the present government has undertaken certain projects such as the Constitution-making process. The TNA is part and parcel of that process. How do you respond?

Kelum, I left the TNA because they said soon after the war was over that they were going to accept the 13th Amendment to the Constitution as the basis for a solution. The 13th Amendment is well within the Unitary State. You cannot be within a Unitary State and talk of devolution or Federalism. No one is talking about separation. Clearly, we are not talking about separation. Certainly, to exercise the right to self-determination in the north and east, you cannot be within a unitary state and do it. Yet, the TNA accepted it. So, we left the TNA. I cannot understand why Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa or any Sinhalese reject these political proposals backed by the TNA. These are proposals Tamil people have to reject. They are within the Unitary State. The TNA is lying to the Tamil people by calling it Federalism. But, it is not. After we told the truth to the Tamil people, they began to realize that they had been cheated. I dont understand what the Sinhalese are worried about.

Q What are the parameters of devolution you expect?

In any Federal constitution, except for foreign affairs, currency and national defence to protect the country from foreign invasion, everything is devolved. Then, for convenience sake, there are subjects like national highways cutting across Federal units. In such matters coordination is needed. That has to be vested with the centre. There has to be self-rule to the region.

Q You talk about self-rule to Tamils in the north and the east. But, a vast majority of Tamils live outside the north and the east. What about them?

Kelum, Tamils are the vast majority living in the north and the east. If you take upcountry Tamils living in the south, there is a significant number of Tamils in the south. You have a significant number of Sinhalese in the north and the east. No one is asking them to be chased away. Our accusation is that their settlements are State-aided colonization. Yet, we are not asking the Sinhalese to run away. We are not saying that Tamils in the south must come to the north and the east. We have to make sure that the Sinhalese in the north and the east are comfortable and safe. When we say self-rule, it is not to disenfranchise the Sinhalese people living in the north and the east. They will be protected and given equal rights. But, the north and east, as a region, is Tamil speaking. That identity must be protected. Within that identity, non-Tamils can live. The same sort of arrangement will be there for Tamils in the south.

Q How realistic is a Federal solution without cooperation from politics in the south?

That is something the Sinhalese people have to think about. If they want this country to solve its problems without external interference, they must find a way to solve the ethnic problem. We are not talking about separation. Federalism is not separation. I do understand the Sinhalese people having a problem with a Separate State. But, you cannot deny Federalism. We are prepared to give all the guarantees you want, provided, that Tamil people can exercise their right to self-determination within a united Sri Lanka. We will ensure the Sinhalese people that we will not seek separation.

In any Federal constitution, except for foreign affairs, currency and national defence to protect the country from foreign invasion, everything is devolved. Then, for convenience sake, there are subjects like national highways cutting across Federal units. In such matters coordination is needed. That has to be vested with the centre. There has to be self-rule to the region.

Q Support for a Federal constitution is unlikely in the south as things stand at the moment. Then, how are you going to pursue your goals?

Tamil people must have their rights.

Q How are you going to achieve such rights in the absence of support from the south?

That is something we will have to see. During the time of the LTTE, the international community told us that the Sinhalese people were willing to grant Federalism. It was the LTTE that was not ready to accept a Federal solution. The LTTE was only interested in separation. There is no LTTE today. Merely because the LTTE is not there, you cannot deny Federalism. The justification for the war was that the LTTE was for separatism.

Q How are you going to get Federalism without cooperation from the south?

Our view is that we must get Federalism. We will struggle to achieve it.

Q Through democratic means

Absolutely.

Q Some people express fear that there is the possible resurgence of the LTTE to fight for it. What do you think of it?

Tamil people have been subjected to genocide in our view. If they have been subjected to genocide, they are recovering from it. Tamil people are not going to want an armed struggle. They want their right to make sure that they wont suffer again. If there is going to be an armed struggle, it is the Sinhalese people who are going to push them to it.

Q Today, the United States has pulled out from the UNHRC. That India is having a different attitude was said by some Tamil leaders. India is bent on resisting the Chinese rise in the region. In that context, how favourable is the international situation for you to fight for your rights?

If you take the US and India, China is their fundamental concern. The US accusation is that the UNHRC is a political tool. Our accusation is that the UNHRC has been used as a political tool. The resolutions, passed in the UNHRC, were primarily aimed at regime change in Sri Lanka. That was also a political tool. It is ironic that the US makes the same allegation against the other countries. For the Tamil people, it is not a major loss that the US pulled out. The ultimate goals are not in Tamil peoples interests. The UNHRC resolution is not aimed at addressing accountability issues. It is aimed at regime change in Sri Lanka. The UNHRC resolution, as it stands, falls well short of accountability for the victims.

Q The Northern Provincial Council will stand dissolved by October. How are you planning to contest the elections then?

We will contest. I think there have been calls that current Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran has to get together with us. We have said that we are willing to work with him. We are willing to come to a coalition. Of course, it all depends on whom he is trying to accommodate. We are prepared to work with him if he creates a party. We are also prepared to work with civil society organizations and unions within the Tamil Peoples Council.

Q What about various parties in the TNA if they defected to join hands with you?

Why are they defecting? We want a political culture in which Tamil politicians are held accountable to people. We left the TNA because their policies were wrong. We believe that they are cheating on the Tamil people. During election times, they said they were for Federalism. But, after the elections, they agreed to a unitary constitution. These parties never had a problem with the TNA policies. They had various other problems with the TNA. There were problems regarding the leadership. There are ego problems. Some parties were not given equal status. None of it had to do with policies. Our view is that any coalition should be based on policies.

Yes, of course. You ask any woman in the north and east whether she felt safe now or then during the LTTE time. The answer will be unanimous. Even those who were opposed to the LTTE will tell you that they felt safe at that time.

Q The TNA is the main opposition in Parliament. You also represented the TNA in Parliament at one point in the past. What do you think of their role?

What have they done? They are part of the government. Only after they got a trouncing at the local government elections, have they started criticizing the government. They do it because they cannot come here otherwise.

They won elections after the war on frauds. They lied to the Tamil people. They gave assurances to the Tamil people.

Q What is the reason for criminal activities to rise in the north?

We are talking about a situation. There is so much intelligence gathering in the north and the east. You could not have won the war without having such good intelligence. If there are these gangs, they cannot function without the knowledge of the military and the Police. That is a fact. It is impossible for anything to happen without their knowledge.

Q UNP MP Vijayakala Maheswaran recently called for the resurgence of the LTTE. She said there were no criminal activities at that time. It became a controversial statement. What is your position?

That is not controversial. In the LTTE controlled areas, the law and order situation was so good that women could walk at midnight alone on any road. That was how safe it was. That is a fact, Kelum. Today, when you have the military ratio of ten to one, criminal activities take place at this rate. You have to ask the military what they are doing.

Q It means you also stand for the same viewpoint?

Yes, of course. You ask any woman in the north and east whether she felt safe now or then during the LTTE time. The answer will be unanimous. Even those who were opposed to the LTTE will tell you that they felt safe at that time.

Q But, there were so many political killings. Your father was also assassinated. How do you say the situation was good then?

My father was assassinated by the Chandrika Kumaratunga Government. There were a lot of assassinations in the south. During the war-time, you cannot compare even. The Government did white van assassinations. That is a different thing. Those are matters associated politically. We are talking about law and order in the normal sense.

Q What is your view on the next Presidential Election?

Our view is that we will take a decision at that time. It will depend on what the candidates offer to our people. As far as how people voted at the previous elections, they did it by trusting the TNA. Today, people have lost their trust in the TNA. Dont expect the people to behave as they did at the previous time at the dictates of the TNA! It will not happen.Nalandians have always been top among the new innovators throughout the world. In proof of this contention a group of Nalandians recently marked another milestone when their achievements were recognised at the Queens Young Leader Awards.

The group of Nalandians was able to bring pride to Sri Lanka by achieving top awards for excelling at the young scientists Research Tournament held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia recently. Members in this group competed against participants from 30 countries. The reason behind them being successful is that they have been able to directly address certain burning issues that Sri Lanka is currently faced with.

Dineru Susiriwardhena, Akila Dulsara and Januka Dharmarathne of year 10 have been able to invent a product which promises the maximum benefits when scraping coconuts.

The Sri Lankan representatives at the competition comprised only Nalandians. The group had to compete against children from affluent countries who enjoy all the facilities. The team from Sri Lanka comprised M.M. Tharindu Deepaloka Munasinghe, Maneesha Pramuditha Rajapaksha, Senith Nimneka Rajapaksha, Ayodya Panchla De Silva, Dinera Susiriwardhena, Akila Dulsara and Januka Dharmarathne.

Tarindu Deepaloka introduced a special barrel to address the garbage problem in Sri Lanka. According to Tharindu mounting fumes, as a result of burning polythene, is a huge contributory factor towards environmental pollution. Anyone using the barrel is capable of burning even 1 kilogram of household polythene without releasing fumes to the air.

Alerting lifesaving authorities

Senitha had been thoroughly moved by watching how death comes quickly to people when they sink into rivers while travelling in vehicles. He was troubled by the fact that during such incidents there was no way that a party in trouble could send a message. Senith had been able to introduce a system which gives the opportunity for the party in trouble to send a message to life saving authorities. This message can now be sent at the moment the accident takes place. The new system enables passengers to open up doors and shutters of the vehicle automatically. This action automatically passes the message to the authorities.

Maneesha Pramuditha Rajapaksha (Year 13), Senith Nimanka Rajapaksha (Year 12) and Ayodhya Panchala De Silva (Year 10) obtained silver medals for their new invention which helps to separate chemicals from drinking water and purity it. This system is capable of separating Trichloromethane or Chlorofoam by using solar power.

The benefits of this equipment can be obtained by placing it on a household water tank. This is a low cost product and it can even be utilized to purify a small quantity of water. This equipment will help users drink a cup of pure water which is not contaminated with cancerous germs. Dineru Susiriwardhena, Akila Dulsara and Januka Dharmarathne of year 10 have been able to invent a product which promises the maximum benefits when scraping coconuts. Through their finding they have shown that if a coconut is blended at a low speed for a longer time, one can obtain better coconut milk which is full of protein and low in fat.

Its noteworthy that Sri Lankans recorded these wins at a time when the Sri Lankan Embassy of Malaysia marked its 60th anniversary.

Nalanda College Principal Thilak Watthuhewa said that Nalanda College does not make their students focus only on classroom education, but guides them towards extracurricular activities too. He said that the Research Guild of the school deserves the credit for all these achievements.

He also mentioned about the guidance these students received from the Research Guild. He said that he is also indebted to the Ministry of Education and other research persons who rendered enormous support to these students. According to him, Nalandians have also obtained the Queens Young Leader Award at the 2017 edition of the event.

The Research Guild of Nalanda College was commenced by the former principal of the school Ranjith Jayasundera. Upeksha Abesekera is in charge of the guild at present. She has mentored the students who come under her charge.

Upeksha said, We started this in 2011 with a specific aim. Each year we take a batch of 50 and get them to pool their ideas. Then we cooperate with the resource persons and direct students for national competitions.

The Sri Lankan representatives at the competition comprised only Nalandians

Those who are successful in national competitions are selected for international competitions. By now our students have recorded many victories. But these students havent been properly recognized and appreciated by the countrys authorities.

Thus their future isnt certain. The achievements of the students must be given due recognition. However the principal and the staff of the school have always encouraged these students to take part in international competitions. This is the result of those efforts.A diplomatic wrangling between India and China on the construction of 50,000 houses in the North and East had stalled the project, Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said today.

He told the media at the weekly Cabinet briefing that Indias cost for a unit in the housing project was Rs. 1.3 million, while China quoted Rs. 2.2 million a unit and that India has opposed it.

We expect to speak to two parties because both countries are our close friends, he said.

The Cabinet expects an official report on the issue by next week and I have no doubt that we can resolve this amicably within ourselves, Minister Senaratne added.

Minister Senaratne said the Governments main concern was to build houses for displaced people in the North and East and a dispute between two friendly countries must not delay it.

He added that India had already built 40,000 housing units and handed over to displaced families.

Asked whether the issue came for discussion at Tuesdays Cabinet meeting, he said no and added a committee of officials had been appointed to discuss the matter with both countries and arrive at an amicable solution and submit a report to the Cabinet.(Sandun A Jayasekera)Teenagers from Europe learn to play the hulusi, a traditional musical instrument of the Dai ethnic group in China, at a recent summer camp in Beijing. [PHOTO BY XING WEN/CHINA DAILY]

Students of the Confucius Institute in different countries get a flavor of China through summer camps in Beijing, Xing Wen reports.

On Thursday night, laughter reverberates in a classroom at the North China University of Technology, where dozens of foreign teenagers sit in rows, learning to play the hulusi, a traditional musical instrument of the Dai ethnic group in China.

The music class is a part of this year's summer camp, You and Me, in Beijing which is organized by the Beijing Foreign Studies University for students of Chinese from the Confucius Institute in Hungary, Belgium, the United States, South Korea, Austria and Bulgaria.

The teacher, Sun Yanan, teaches the foreign students how to play Auld Lang Syne on the flute-like instrument.

"With the folk instrument they get a basic knowledge about China's ethnic groups and some idea of Asian music," says Sun.

She adds that everyone is also given an instrument to take back home so they can spread Chinese culture after the camp ends.

Gergana Slavcheva, a Bulgarian student who is in China for the first time, says: "I really like it. And though it is confusing for me because I'm bad at music, I will practice at home and maybe get the hang of it."

The 16-year-old registered as a student at the Confucius Institute in Sofia two years ago because she wanted to get exposure to Chinese, an ancient language that may be the base of some other languages in Asia.

"That's why I decided to join this summer camp to get to know China better and establish contact with people who share an interest in the country," says Slavcheva.

The students get some tai chi lessons. [Photo provided to China Daily]

For Leonie Sajdik, the tour to Beijing is a reminder of the four and a half years she spent here when her parents worked in the city.

And that probably explains why the 16-year-old Austrian speaks Chinese in a Beijing accent.

"I really like Beijing as it boasts a rich heritage," Sajdik says.

"And the camp is a perfect chance for me to be in a city where I grew up."

Sajdik says she may apply for a Chinese university as her family thinks highly of the prospect of a China education.

The camp, a 10-day event initiated in 2008, offers foreign high school students an opportunity to visit museums, historic sites and Chinese families, practice calligraphy, paper-cutting or Chinese martial arts, and sample local cuisines like Peking roast duck.

Speaking about the camp, Mark van Couwenberghe, a board member of the Confucius Institute in Brussels, who has served as the leader of the Belgian group at the camp for the second time, says: "The schedule is very diverse."

And he believes the summer camp is better than a traditional class environment as the students get hands-on experience of traditional arts and crafts, and can build friendships with their peers from different cultural backgrounds.

"Their social skills also develop because they learn as a group," says Van Couwenberghe.

"So, everyone goes back home not only with knowledge but friendships that they can maintain for the rest of their lives."

He adds that the students who are taking part in the camp have already attended a number of workshops at the Confucius Institute in Brussels to have been exposed to Chinese Culture in anticipation of the tour.

"So, I hope they can open themselves up more to experience the culture, then comprehend both the differences and the common elements between China and Belgium," says Van Couwenberghe.

The students get some tai chi lessons. [Photo provided to China Daily]

This year, about 60 households in Beijing volunteered to be host families in the program.

Jin Yu, a Beijing resident and mother of a 17-year-old, has hosted four foreign students over the past two years.

And as part of her duties she has driven the students from the camp site to Liulichang Culture Street where stores sell Chinese paintings and calligraphy.

Speaking of how she got involved in the program, she says: "I volunteered in 2016 because I wanted my daughter to communicate with her foreign peers in a relaxed way, and show the visitors the lifestyle of a Chinese family."

Jin says she hoped that the exchanges can prepare her daughter for possible overseas studies in the future.

The BFSU summer camp is just one of a series of activities sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters, or Hanban.

On July 18, a bigger summer camp of 760 foreign students, organized by Hanban for the Confucius Institute in central and eastern European countries, kicked off in Beijing.Sri Lanka should urgently reform all the institutions of the Security Sector to place them under full civilian control and should demilitarise the Northern Province as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation and trust-building, UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson said.

In his report, which is based on findings of the mission to Sri Lanka from July 10-14 in 2017, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism Ben Emmerson said he was particularly concerned about the very large and imposing presence of the military in the North.

While the Rapporteur understands that the military undertakes important re-construction work in that part of the country, he is also conscious of the highly symbolic value of its presence. The pervasive lack of accountability for the war crimes that were perpetrated during the war, the climate of impunity that prevails within the security sector, the overwhelming economic weight of the military, its involvement in civilian activities, as well as the overwhelmingly Sinhalese Nationality within the military all contribute to perpetuating the resentment and disenfranchisement felt by the Tamil community as a whole, the report which was released by the UN on Monday said.

It said a vetting process should be developed to ensure that all security personnel and public officials involved in Human Rights violations are removed from service.

Also ensure that the security sector, in particular in the police, intelligence services and the military, adequately reflects the ethnic and linguistic makeup of the country, it said.

The report said the Special Rapporteur had been repeatedly assured by Sri Lanka that there was no discrimination against the Tamils; that criminal law had been used against the LTTE, only; that ill-treatment was a greater challenge in the South than in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

At the same time, a pervasive and insidious form of stigmatization of the Tamil community was observed. Tamils are severely under-represented in all institutions, particularly in the security sector and the judiciary, despite the importance of ensuring that all institutions adequately reflect the ethnic, linguistic and religious make-up of the State, Emmerson said in the report.

Meanwhile, he said President Maithripala Sirisena sought to shield a former Army General from a criminal complaint which accused him of command responsibility for war crimes.

This falls far short of Sri Lankas international commitment to achieve a lasting and just solution to its underlying problems. It is indeed difficult to resist the conclusion that the inertia in implementing the reform package that is resolution 30/1-including repealing the PTA, adopting new human rights compliant counter-terrorism legislation and above all to accountability, he said.

However, he said that Sri Lanka seemed to have turned a corner with new elections brought to power a coalition government and with it the promise of change.

The UNHRC resolution 30/1, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, set out key goals for reconciliation, transitional justice, accountability and reform of the security sector, including the counter-terrorism framework. Yet, after a two-year extension granted to the Government in resolution 34/1, progress in achieving the key goals seems to have ground to a virtual halt. None of the measures so far adopted to fulfil Sri Lankas transitional justice commitments is adequate to ensure real progress, Emmerson said.

He said that there were some very slight indications of positive movement in the direction of the transitional justice reforms and welcomed the enactment of a legislation incorporating the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances. (Lahiru Pothmulla)Recently, a large volume of writing has taken place discussing the merits and demerits of executing the death penalty imposed upon prisoners languishing in the countrys jails for committing a variety of capital offences. When I read those comments my mind immediately went back to the note of resignation submitted by Her Majestys executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, which he later had included as a preface to his Autobiography. In that note he wrote I do not believe that anyone of the 400 executions I carried out has in any way acted as a deterrent against future acts of murder. Capital Punishment, in my view, achieved nothing except revenge.

The last execution in Sri Lanka took place in 1976

There was no determination of the constitutional validity of the imposition of capital punishment, under Article 11

Above all the degree of international criticism to which Sri Lanka may be targeted will not be a suitable proposition to face

Therefore, it is important that a decision of the Supreme Court is first obtained

The basic question therefore is, is capital punishment, in keeping with Article 11 of the Constitution?

Aside from any number of ethical, religious or such other reasons for decrying the execution of Capital penalties there is a Constitutional hurdle that one has to leap before legally, a noose is put around the neck of a human being, in Sri Lanka.

Article 11 of the Sri Lankas 1978 Constitution reads: No person shall be subjected to torture or to cruel inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment. Those very same words are found in Article 11 of the present South African Constitution.

In The State vs Makwanyanne and Another,reported at (1995)3 South African Reports at page 391, the two accused were convicted of the offence of Murder, under the South African Penal Code, by a Court sitting in the Province of Witwatersrand. At their conviction they were both sentenced to death. The sentencing judge wrote on the report that the murders they had committed were so gruesome that they do not deserve to be commuted. They both appealed to the South African Court of Appeal, but the hearing was held back until a constitutional issue as to the constitutional validity of capital punishment was determined, by the South African Constitutional Court. Learned counsel argued that Article 11, of the South African Constitution, which as pointed out earlier was identical with the same Article of our constitution, made capital punishment unconstitutional, it being cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

Last execution

As it is in the Sri Lanka Constitution, what constitutes cruel, in-human or degrading conduct has not been defined and that it was up to each court upon a case by case basis to determine, if and when that matter came before them. Therefore, the first question that required to be determined, before any executions takes place, is whether under Article 11 of the Sri Lanka constitution, capital punishment is constitutional? The last execution in Sri Lanka took place in 1976 which was two years prior to the promulgation of the 1978 Constitution. There was no determination of the constitutional validity of the imposition of capital punishment, under Article 11.

Returning to Makwanyane, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, after examining a very large number of authorities held that Article 11 of their constitution made capital punishment, unconstitutional.

As for the present trend regarding the abolition of the death penalty, there is a large measure of material which learned counsel in several jurisdictions had utilized

The first question we have to seek answers from our Apex Court is whether under Article 11 of our own Constitution the imposition of capital punishment was valid under Article 11. Unless the answer to that question is first obtained any rush to put into effect a sentence of death may well change the nature and character of that act, from one of a judicial execution to one of an extra judicial act of murder. In such an event a large contingent of persons from the executioner, in the first degree, and other officers as participating in a criminal act may become liable under the Criminal Law and also under the Civil Law for the payment of compensation. Above all the degree of international criticism to which Sri Lanka may be targeted will not be a suitable proposition to face.

Decision of the Supreme Court

As for the present trend regarding the abolition of the death penalty, there is a large measure of material which learned counsel in several jurisdictions had utilized, and are available for our courts and our learned counsel to consider.. In the Caribbean, the Bahamian and the Courts in other Islands have found against the retention of capital punishment. So have the courts in Africa: Uganda, Malawi and Kenya. In a seminal judgment delivered by the Privy Council in The Attorney General for Belize v Reyes [2002] 2 Appeal Cases 235, the Law Lords, after an extensive perusal of the available law found that sentences of death were unconstitutional where there is in any Constitution, as we have a fundamental human right to life.

Therefore, it is important that a decision of the Supreme Court is first obtained, before the State rushes to execute convicts under sentences of death, for whatever offences they may have committed. The basic question therefore is, is capital punishment, in keeping with Article 11 of the Constitution? That question could be answered only by our Apex Court to which resort could be had by anyone of the 19 persons earmarked for execution, or some other interested party, or by His Excellency himself under Article 129 of the Constitution.

(The writer is a Professor of Law from the University of Windsor)The Google Loon Project could go ahead as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) had responded positively towards the project, Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando said today.

Minister Fernando told the Daily Mirror that he got a positive response from ITU General Secretary Houlin Zhao in Geneva recently.

ITU General Secretary had informed us that they were concerned with the proposed Loon project as it might disturb other countries in the neighbourhood if the project operated on 700Mz.

However it could disturb only if a balloon is located above Jaffna. I assured him that Government and Google would assure that balloon would be placed over the Southern part of Sri Lanka. Mr Zhao then accepted our stand and agreed to have another discussion. Therefore we will form a working group and have another round of discussion, the minister said.

Also, Mr Fernando said he had informed the ITU General Secretary that the Government wanted to team up with Google and make a change in the IT Sector in the country.

He said the loon project would help expand 4G in all parts of the country.A ten-year old child finishes school at 1.30 pm. Then he/she takes a bite from his/her lunch and gets ready for the after school class slated for Grade 5 students. That class goes on till 3.30 pm. Afterwards the mother picks him/her and takes to a tuition class that starts at 4.30 pm.

Theres no time to go home and change his/her uniform. So in his/her uniform the bleary-eyed, exhausted, stressed up child studies till 9.00 pm in the class. Picked up by a tired father who has returned home after work, by the time the child goes back home, bathes and sleeps its way past 10.00 pm.

Another batch of such harassed children, some 300,000 will sit for the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam on August 5 this year as well. On their little heads is the weight of sky high expectations of parents and teachers. Enough and more has already been written about this torturous lifestyle of a Grade 5 student in Sri Lanka.

The race now starts in Grade 3 with a pattern already set with parents picking the eight-year olds after school and rushing for tuition class to groom the child for the grade 5 Exam. Theres hardly any time for the child to play or interact with siblings or grandparents at home or neighbours. The child has become a machine that should be on the go at the push of a button by parents and teachers.

Psychiatrists in Sri Lanka have already protested against the Scholarship Exam which more often than not is the only way a bright rural child can get into an elite school in the district capital or in Colombo before the Ordinary Level exam. They argue that besides the strain of preparing for the exam for three years, the post exam blues of the students who fail to get the cut off marks, who form nearly 90% of those who sit, badly affect the personality of the child. Failure after such strenuous sustained effort is not something that the children at that tender age are capable of coping with.

Three years ago, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam conceded that not only Grade 5 scholarship exam even the GCE Ordinary Level Examination added too much strain on students.

Several countries in the world have done away with challenging exams such as GCE O/L and Grade-five scholarship exams which impose a mental pressure on the students and parents as well. We have still not decided on anything yet, but a decision will be taken on the two exams after speaking to educationists, the minister was quoted as saying.

The world is moving more and more towards informal education with special emphasis on outdoor activities for primary students. Here in Sri Lanka, where the system is yet to gear towards such a trend, the solution is to improve the quality of education in outstation schools so that there would not be such a rush to enter city schools.

In the absence of a nation-wide campaign to reach that goal due to financial and other constraints the government it appears is yet to make up its mind to scrap Grade 5 Scholarship Exam forthwith. Of late, Minister Kariyawasam has been saying that he would make the decision around 2019. However the decision is still pending. After all scrapping the exam outright without an alternative for the rural student is likely to earn the wrath of the parents.

On the other hand since already there are tuition classes for the exam starting at grade three, at the rate that the parents and teachers are pushing the students in another year or two we may hear about such classes starting from grade two. One may not be surprised if we hear about kindergarten students attending Grade 5 scholarship preparatory classes in another five years or so.

Surely we need to do something immediately to put an end to this harassment meted out to our children in the name of education.UNP Member of Parliament and former State Minister for Child Affairs Vijayakala Maheswaran (VM) dropped her bombshell on July 03, during the Janapathi Nila Mehewara gathering in Jaffna, in the presence of the Foreign Minister, Internal Affairs Ministers and NPC Chief Minister.

Upon securing his release, she made no effort to produce him (Swiss Kumar) before a court of law

Not a single member in the audience, who applauded and cheered VM, had the presence of mind to ascertain where she and her three children lived till May 2009

On July 05, this writer in an opinion piece titled Vijayakala and LTTE: What is govts position urged President Sirisenas Government and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghes United National Party to state their positions on VMs assertions and if she would be held accountable if found to be wanting. Following a meeting held behind closed doors with Prime Minister Wickramasinghe, she announced her resignation from her post of State Minister. Speaker of the Parliament announced, he had written to the Attorney General seeking legal advice.

What would be VMs explanation for her efforts to intervene and have a key suspect in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old school girl released

Based on a complaint filed by Sihala Ravaya, the Colombo Chief Magistrate ordered the media to submit unedited recordings of the speech made by VM for translation. Party Leader and Prime Minister Wickramasinghe appointed a four-member committee of UNP ministers to study the statement and submit a report. Nothing has been heard of thereafter. President Sirisena has maintained a stoic silence on the issue.

Meanwhile, VM continues to be an MP and enjoy all perks and privileges. Given the gravity of the issue, it behooves the Speaker and Leader of UNP to provide reasons for not suspending her from the position of MP and Party Membership respectively, pending the Attorney Generals opinion, the verdict from the Magistrates Court and recommendations of the UNP committee.

Suspension from duties pending an investigation for offenses deemed severe is customary in both public and private sectors. It doesnt seem to be the case with politicians even when purported offense relates to sedition.

Not a single member in the audience, who applauded and cheered VM, had the presence of mind to ascertain where she and her three children lived till May 2009, how her family escaped conscription by LTTE and if her children had regular schooling. An honest response would have brought to light; initially in Wellawatte followed in a house worth around Rs 20 million down Gregorys Road in Colombo 7, living in comfort and safety in Colombo and children attending the Colombo International School (CIS).

Rape incident

17-year-old school girl Sivaloganathan Vidya was gang-raped and murdered on her way to school on May 13, 2015. The Trial-at-Bar case ordered by the Attorney General was concluded on September 27, 2017, with seven of nine accused being found guilty and handed the death penalty. Jaffna High Court Judge Manikkavasagarn Illancheliyan stated, one of the principal accused Swiss Kumar had confirmed in court, VM had saved him from residents of Velani who had captured and tied him up. Upon securing his release, she made no effort to produce him before a court of law or hand him over to the Police.www.newsfirst.lk/2017/09/28/state-min-vijayakala-interrupted-free-suspect-wanted-rape-murder-vidya/Swiss Kumar was one of the seven accused found guilty and sentenced to death.

What would be VMs explanation for her efforts to intervene and have a key suspect in the rape and murder of a 17-year-old school girl released in May 2015 and her call to revive the LTTE in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in July 2018?

VM is indeed a typical politician with ulterior motives. She has mastered the art of playing to the gallery. Whereas she does have specific legitimate concerns for which answers are required from both the Central and Provincial Governments, her call for the revival of LTTE is seditious and calls for a public retraction or prosecution.

Since VMs call for the revival of LTTE on July 03, there have been numerous essays in the print media including several from prominent commentators. Whereas some argue for punitive action, others advocate caution on grounds prosecution would not help reconciliation.

The contention of nays has merit if this incident is taken in isolation and a one-off case. A regular columnist in a Sunday publication recently wrote threatening those who campaign for secession with imprisonment is undemocratic and an impediment to freedom of expression. Such laws should be repealed. Should two million voters in Catalonia in October 2017 (90%) and 1.6 million in Scotland (45%) in September 2014 be put behind bars?

Impractical

Putting two million Catalonians behind bars is as impractical as placing behind bars, over half a million Tamil persons who lived outside the North and East,for the duration of the conflict. However, it must be borne in mind, the Catalan independence referendum was declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional court and proponents of the cessation referendum led by Catalonian President Puigdemont, charged with sedition, rebellion, misuse of public funds and perjury are living in exile today, unable to set foot inside Spain or else facing treason charges.

The Scottish independence referendum was held following an agreement between the devolved Scottish Government and the UK Government.

A former Snr. DIG and Chief of Intelligence in a well thought out opinion piece wrote, based on Realpolitik, There may be prudence in giving priority to considerations which may safeguard the national interest, as against taking legal action for the contravention of the law.

However, the yeas, to which group this writer belongs, see matters differently.

In the name of reconciliation or Realpolitik, several past incidents have been overlooked by the centre. Some such instances are; Despite LTTE being a banned organization, celebrating the birthday of Prabhakaran as well as Mahaveer Naal commemoration in the North. Refusal by NPC Education Minister Kandiah Sarveswaran of the EPRLF to hoist the national flag during a function at a school ceremony in Vavuniya. The quasi-endorsement of this act by NPC Chief Minister. Proposing and tabling by NPC Chief Minister of a Tamil genocide resolution and enactment with an overwhelming majority in the council. The celebration of Black Tiger Day on July 05 in Jaffna and Killinochchi Districts and the painting of LTTE logo and Eelam map on roads and walls.

Such acts hitherto perpetrated by elected officials in the periphery has now arrived in the parliament. Aiyo, who said that lie.What I said was that we did not have any problems those days(stated by VM to Ranjan Ramanayake) notwithstanding, given her position as an MP, what was said must be established beyond doubt speedily and necessary action taken forthwith. Any action taken must also act as a deterrent to prospective offenders.

Unlike Sri Lanka, Germany today is a five-star democracy. Suffice to state, even an act such as throwing the Nazi salute could result in a six months prison sentence.

In the USA, no Congressman, Senator, Governor or state legislator refusing to hoist the Stars and Stripes will be permitted to remain in office. Public opinion will not allow it.

The Sri Lankan state erred big time in permitting the JVP to commemorate their dead cadre. Notwithstanding peoples right to remember their dead ones, such eventsshould be withoutlabels such as JVP, LTTE, Black Tiger, etc. and sans banners, flags, cutouts, pandals, and photographs of dead LTTE cadre in uniform.

Germans may commemorate their war dead. Photographs of dead family members in Wehrmacht (German regular army) uniform may be displayed. However, display of photos of deceased family members in Schutzstaffel or SS uniform (Paramilitary organization of the Nazi party) or any other Nazi symbols is prohibited.

It is time to call a halt to anti-state and unlawful activities and act decisively against elected state officials on state payroll who commit such acts.The government has initiated talks with the authorities of India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to trace some Sri Lankan underworld criminals living in hiding in these countries, Law and Order Minister Ranjith Madduma Bandara said yesterday.

Minister Bandara told Daily Mirror that India had agreed to extend its fullest possible cooperation to trace and repatriate some criminals living there.

We find that several underworld leaders have escaped to India. They operate their crimes here from India. Also, there are some criminals living in Dubai, he said.

The Ministers said the police would set up new units to deal with drug trafficking.

We have increased raids. We deal with all including street pushers, he said.

Earlier, President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he would implement the death penalty on those convicted for drug trafficking. He said those death row criminals operating drug businesses still from their prison cells would be hanged first. (Kelum Bandara)President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed to temporarily halt the decision taken by the education ministry to provide appointments and promotions to employees in the education sector based on political victimization, the Presidential Media Unit said.

It said in a statement that the President had taken the decision after a discussion with the Prime Minister over the phone.

The President had discussed the matter with the trade union leaders, who protested against the Education Ministrys decision today at the Presidential Secretariat.

The President and the trade union leaders had reached at decisions to temporarily halt proposed promotions and appointments and to appoint a committee comprising of senior officials attached to the Government Administrative Service and Education Administrative Service to look into the list of those selected for the promotions and appointments.

Meanwhile, the scheduled Trade Union action by the Ceylon Teachers' Union (CTU) had been temporarily called-off following discussions with the President.

CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said around 300,000 teachers and Principals attached to the union had decided to launch an islandwide strike action today against the move by the Government to reappoint nearly 1014 individuals based on grounds related to political vengeance.Marketers are aninnovative breed of people who endeavor inanticipating, forecasting and fulfilling peoples needs and wants profitably. Therefore Marketing enhances the standards of living in the society. Youngsters who yearn to enter the fascinating world of marketing encounter the challenge offinding the right mentors to guide them towards their goal. The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM),the national body for Marketing caters to them as a true mentor on their quest towards becoming fully fledged marketers in future

SLIM PCM celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and its product mix has been cateringto the budding marketers since 1989. PCM is the ideal course for a fresher as it opens doors for young and aspiring executives and school leavers to venture into the philosophical world of marketing.This three month long certificate programme is the shortest route to an MBA.

The third inauguration of this immensely popular marketing programme was held on the 14th of July at the SLIM Business School in Colombo. With the theme, Be the Number 01, Be the winner of your career dreams, the open day was brightened with important insights for school leavers, executives and entrepreneurs with regard to succeeding in Marketing.

The basics and fundamental theories of marketing in the PCM curriculum are suited for potential marketers as well as non-marketers who aspire to better their lifestyles with knowledge in marketing.

President of SLIM& the CEO of Lanka Hospitals Diagnostics Pvt Ltd, Mr. Pradeep Edward told the participants that SLIMs area of expertise is to groom marketers to suit both the Sri Lankan and global contexts.The competitive environments in workplaces urge more and more students to enroll for marketing studies. Thus, participation of non-marketers for PCM is constantly increasing. Being top marketers in the corporate sector,the most experience lecturerswill mentor you on the practical aspects of marketing and how to secure your career path with knowledge in marketing. PCM lays the foundation to obtain a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing (PGDM). You can also pursue Branding, Digital Marketing, Sales and CIM studies at SLIM. Hence instead of curtailing your marketing studies to PCM, move forward with the gamut of advanced qualifications, he said.

PCM derives wider acceptance and recognition from employers as the course has a blend of theory and practical application. Further, students can participate in student committees of SLIM national level events such as Brand Excellence, Effie, NASCO, SLIM Trainings andthe SLIM Toastmaster,added the president.

Mr. Dinesh Manawadu who is the Assistant General Manager, Training & Development

at Sadaharitha Plantations Limited graced the occasion as the Special Guest and Senior Lecturer Mr.Prasad Edirisooriya delivered the Lecturers Message.

Vice President of SLIM and the Business Consultant, Mr.Suranjith Swaris briefed the audience that PCM is designed to provide students with knowledge of current requirements in the corporate world.

Marketing imparts standards of living to the community and marketers champion this endeavor. Everything used by people of different strata in the society are supplied by marketing. Even individuals from non-marketing disciplines follow PCM as they understand marketing is essential for entrepreneurship and business growth, he added.

SLIMs CEO/Executive Director, Mr.Sanath Senanayake noted that the quality standards of the SLIM Educational product portfolio is managed by SLIM, benchmarking the world education standards. SLIM obtained both ISO 9001:2015 certification in recognition of SLIMs superior quality management system and ISO 2990:2010 for Learning Service Provider (LSP), proving non-formal education and training services, which enables SLIM to maintain the high standard of quality education in all our branches. Further the professional career path led by PCM will open new vistas in an individuals thinking pattern exposing him/her to a whole new world of marketing.To be presented to Cabinet for approval shortly

Plans afoot to operationalise East Container Terminal

Cabinet nod to carry out feasibility study on Colombo North Port

SLPA looking for strategic investors for West Container terminal

US $ 40mn loan from India to develop Kankesanthurai port

By Harshana Sellahewa

Sri Lankas maritime sector master plan, developed by Maritime and Transport Business Solutions (MTBS), a consultancy firm from the Netherlands, and funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is nearing completion, according to Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe.



The report will be made available to us shortly, and I will share it with our stakeholders, who we are working together with as we speak, in developing the national policy on the maritime sector, Samarasinghe said at the inaugural Port of Colombo Awards Night 2018 held this Monday in Colombo.



The minister said relevant stakeholders have been meeting with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), for the last six to eight months to finalise the policy document. He said with confidence that he would be taking the master plan to the Cabinet of Ministers shortly to win their approval to embark on a systematic and predictable way of operating, not only the Colombo port, but also all the other ports that come under SLPA.

Meanwhile, Samarasinghe said the East Container Terminal of the Colombo port will be operationalised by the SLPA shortly.



We are losing money on not operationalising the East Container Terminal, Samarasinghe stressed.



We are not looking for a public private partnership (PPP) for the East Container Terminal. We have invested nearly US$ 100 million in building up the infrastructure for the East Container Terminal up to now. Now we need to only get the equipment to operationalise it and we want to do this in the shortest possible time.



Samarasinghe also expressed his ministrys interest to go for an international tender to procure the required equipment, and noted that they are looking at leasing equipment immediately so that the East Container Terminal can be made operational within the course of the next three to six months.



Currently, the Chinese-operated Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) remains as the only deep water harbour facility at the Colombo port.



Also, Samarasinghe revealed the ministrys plan to invite strategic partners to work with the SLPA on a public-private partnership (PPP) basis on the West Container Terminalanother deep water harbour facility of the Colombo port.



However, he did not rule out the future possibility of a government to government (G2G) deal instead of an international tender to develop the West Container Terminal.



I want to start the process by seeking approval shortly for a feasibility study to be done on the West Container Terminal, he said.



Meanwhile, Samarasinghe said the Cabinet has approved his proposal to carry out a feasibility study on Colombo North Port with the assistance of ADB. This will be done in a very short period of time.



Claiming it to be a key milestone for the local tourism sector, Samarasinghe is confident about the impact the proposed Galle marina will have on the tourism industry.

We have called for expressions of interest (EOIs) for the development of the Galle harbour marina. We will have a state-of-the-art Galle Marina very shortly, linking it to tourism development that is taking place in that region, he stated.



Meanwhile, Samarasinghe assured that the Hambanthota port agreement with the Chinese was a 100 percent commercial venture.



He said that Sri Lanka received US$ 974 million from China Merchant Port (CMPort) for 70 percent of equity, and that 30 percent of equity is on the hands of the SLPA.



Its a 99-year lease, and in 80 years, the majority equity holder in Hambanthota will be the SLPA.



He claimed that the US$ 974 million has gone straight to the Treasury coffers, thus strengthening the economic fundamentals of Sri Lanka, and that another US$ 146 million had come in as a foreign direct investment (FDI).



Another US$ 400-600 million will be invested by CMPort in the next few years in embarking on the third phase of the Hambanthota port, the minister declared.

He also said Cabinet approval has been received for a US $ 40 million loan from India for the development of the Kankesanthurai Harbour in the Northern part of the country.



The minister also said the Trincomalee harbour is going to be developed in an accelerated manner.



Singapores Surbana Jurong has finished the master plan for Trincomalee district and it has been handed over to us and we are now in the process of studying this master plan, so that we can move with it and embark on accelerated development of the Trincomalee harbour.



Samarasinghe noted that SLPA is by far the largest land holding entity of Trincomalee, with a total area spanning of around 5,000 hectares of land next to the Trincomalee harbour.



He said SLPA is open to give the land to potential investors for development on PPP basis.Suren Ratwatte had been appointed as the CEO of the SriLankan Airlines without a Board Decision, Airlines Company Secretary Dalarene Thirikumar told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) today.

There is Board Paper and the appointment was made without a board decision, she told the Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) on irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka today.

She informed the Commission that another Board Paper mentioned that SriLankan Airlines Board of Directors had shortlisted fourteen potential candidates for the CEOs position but the list sent to her by the SriLankan Airlines Chairmans Office mentioned only eleven foreign candidates as shortlisted to the position.

During her testimony, she also informed the Commission that the interview panel, to interview foreign candidates, was represented by the SriLankan Airlines Chairman, Acting CEO and the Board of Directors.

She informed the Commission that the Board Paper on August 25, 2018, stated that the decision to appoint a new CEO is differed by the Board of Directors, but by that time all the interviews had been held.

However, on September 21, 2015, the Director Board had noted an appointment letter to appoint Suren Ratwatte as CEO of SriLankan Airlines and he would be effective in this position from October 15, 2015, onwards, she informed the Commission.

The period of August 25, 2015, to September 21, 2015, there was no board meeting held by SriLankan Airlines Directors board, She said to the Commission.

She also informed the Commission that according to the Board Paper on September 21, 2015, the Board of Directors had decided to pay monthly taxable remuneration of Rs. 3 million and if the target budget achieved by the Company, the SriLankan Airlines would pay Rs. 10 million as taxable Performance Bonus to Suren Ratwatte in his position as CEO.

The board had noted his appointment letter on September 21, 2015, and it was handed over to him on September 22, 2015, by that time Suren Ratwatte had agreed to the package in his position as CEO in SriLankan Airlines, She said.

During her testimony, she also informed the Commission former SriLankan Airlines CEO Kapila Chadrasena also worked as the CEO and a Consultant of Mobitel Ltd, while he was serving as the full-time CEO of SriLankan Airlines and it was not mentioned on his declaration letters to SriLankan Airlines. (Yoshitha Perera)A ceremony was held commemorating UnionPay and Standard Bank's Memorandum of Understanding on July 23, 2018. (Photo: Li Yingyan)

UnionPay International, one of the worlds largest online payment platforms, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Standard Bank in South Africa to accelerate the Chinese companys presence across vital African markets.

China is widely acknowledged for the pivotal role it plays in driving Africas economic growth. It is Africas largest economic partner, recording a yearly trade growth of about 20 percent over the last 20 years. Chinese investment has grown 40 percent per year during the last decade, said Tshabalala, a Standard Bank representative.

UnionPay will give added convenience for Chinese living in South Africa. The measure will also pave the way for smoother money transactions between merchants and Chinese travelers on vacation or in the country on business.

Union Pay representative Ge Huayong signed a Memmorandum of Understanding with Stand Bank in South Africa on July 23, 2018. (Photo: Li Yingyan)

For business professionals, UnionPay cards issued locally by Standard Bank will give added levels of convenience. Soon, payments and transactions will only need a swipe of a card. Also, problems associated with carrying hard currency will diminish.

The collaboration will further ensure smooth payments between China and Africa, offering greater support for trade and personal transactions, said Union Pay representative, Ge Huayong, while speaking at a ceremony commemorating the announcement.

As Ge explained, the Chinese payment service will collaborate with African institutions and help launch unique payment capabilities such as the UnionPay QR code and further develop B2B cross-border platforms.Sovereignty is about authority. In usage it is about a people or a nation or a state being able to control affairs independent of outside influence. In this globalized world there are no sovereign states, if you really think about it.

What we have is the appearance of sovereignty even in the best of cases; if you think for example that the USA has it, then delve into the history of the US Federal Reserve and of course its present day operation.

The truth is that if one digs deep enough people as a collective have little say. Its some people who have authority or who exercise it on behalf of other people not necessarily identifiable as being part of those whose sovereignty is being discussed. So what we have are degrees of sovereignty or states of sovereignty compromised in various ways.

Its a word that gets quite a bit of carry from time to time. We had the usurpation of sovereignty and the usurpers returning it without really letting go, putting in place a system, grooming loyal agents of sovereignty-retention and creating a culture of servility. They gave us democracy, a neat anaesthetic that moreover had all the trappings of sovereignty without much substance. And they fixed us well and good with the Bretton Woods institutions.

Would Hashim or anyone else in the Yahapalana Government care to detail the contents of the draft Colombo International Financial City Law?

We had alignment, non-alignment and re-alignment. We had JR Jayewardene opening doors to the robber barons and later genuflecting before Indian hegemony, agreeing to (in Rajiv Gandhiswords) the beginning of the Bhutanization of Sri Lanka. The sovereignty-usurpers were invited and kept by successive governments.

The words are fine. For example, three years ago, commenting on the US-authored UNHRC resolution which Sri Lanka co-sponsored, Rajitha Senaratne said The US-initiated resolution clearly recognizes sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. In effect it was a shameless agreement to force Sri Lankans to inhabit the so-called international communitys version of Sri Lankas reality.

Just the other day, we had Kabir Hashim using the word. He claimed that Mahinda Rajapaksa had not only accepted a bribe from China Harbour Engineering Company, but had violated the countrys sovereignty by getting into a framework agreement with the Chinese company which by the way is owned by the Chinese state. The problem he says is that the framework had clauses which denied Sri Lankan Navy the access to Hambantota Port. He adds that after Rajapaksa was defeated Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was able to change the agreement and see to it that Sri Lankan Navy had access to the Hambantota Port.

When a country funds politicians of another country it is a problem, especially if there are benefits to the funding nation. China is not the first. We have it from John Kerry, former US Secretary of State, that the United States gave money to campaigns that sought to overthrow the government. Thats not a first for the United States of course, but lets not get into all that. Its wrong.

Heres the key question: is access of the Navy to Hambantota the only issue pertaining to sovereignty-loss? Would Hashim or anyone else in the Yahapalana Government care to detail the contents of the draft Colombo International Financial City Law?

We are talking about 239 hectares leased for almost 200 years (99+99). PM Ranil Wickremasinghe who is also the Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs is to be in charge of regulating the financial hub that the government envisages the Colombo Port City to become. We are told that theres an Operations Office regulating the legal framework and the operations methodology to be pursued in bringing about the International Financial City.

Nothing of the legal framework has been made public so far. Now what if the entire agreement will come under British law with disputes to be resolved in British courts, outside the purview of Sri Lankas judicial system? What if there are clauses that require relevant lawyers, judges and professionals to be British qualified?

Lets ask some more questions. Is it true that the US based multinational law firm Baker & McKenzie was hired to draft the laws, quite in contradiction of accepted procedure and indeed in violation of the constitution? Let us note here that Baker & McKenzie works lockstep with the US State Department and has been working with China to forge partnership agreements in Europe.

Is it true that the Chinese company paid them US $ 2.3 million for their services? Did this company operate in violation of the Rules of Supreme Court and in contravention of Article 169 (foreign lawyers cannot be employed)? Is it true that a local company funded by Chinese and US interests is advising the Cabinet Committee on Economic Development on these matters and that among the directors are, a former Attorney General, former Chairman of BoI and a former Secretary to the Treasury? What would that tell us about the levels at which treachery is being perpetrated? What would that tell us about the nature of the threat at hand?

Perhaps those in the know would share with the general public all relevant details so that we can come to informed conclusions regarding the true state of our sovereignty. We do need to know because if, for example, this Law sanctions the annexing of any territory in Sri Lanka in a context where the same terms and laws referred to above are applicable, then Rajapaksa coughing up a port is a mere tickle in comparison.

Hypothetically, China could under this law annex the Trincomalee Harbor and trade operating right to India in return for, say, concessions in the South China seas, for example Indias drilling operations off the coast of Vietnam. Of course the President would have to ratify such a move, but then again since Independence weve had many leaders who were weak, corrupt, unimaginative and happily servile. We can reasonably expect that in the next 200 years there will be many leaders who through purchase or arm-twisting will sign relevant document to facilitate such annexing.

For those who are puzzled by the China-US connection in all this, lets offer some bullet points. Barrack Obama touching on foreign policy in his inauguration speech clearly stated that the USA and China will not be on a collision course any longer. A top level team headed by Hillary Clinton hammered out the details of what was called The pivot to China with Chinese counterparts. Part of the agreement was that China would control of the region and along with the USA would globalize the world which is another way of saying ensure that the super rich will continue to call the shots and become richer. It was about burying all vestiges of sovereignty and not just that of Sri Lanka.

As we said, our leaders have coughed up bits and pieces of sovereignty for decades, either for reasons of personal gain or because of ignorance, timidity and a marked reluctance to trust the people. Weve had outright invasion by the Europeans, retention through proxy post-1948, India playing schoolyard bully, the slick maneuvering through the Bretten Woods institutions and weve had democracy, that cost-effective anesthetic that lulls into complacency through the inducing of myopia. The Colombo International Financial City Law may not facilitate guns-in-booty-out operations, but it could be a coughing up of sovereignty thats unique in character and possibly of unprecedented proportion.

Lets see the document. Kabir Hashim, sir, will you oblige? Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, sir, can we see the draft?

Malinda Seneviratne is a freelance writer. malindasenevi@gmail.com. Twitter: malindasene. www.malindawords.blogspot.com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.File Photo: Yuan Longping inspects on saltwater rice planting in Shandong Province, China (Photo: VCG)

Researchers with Qingdao's saltwater rice team led by the father of hybrid rice Yuan Longping, were recently successful in harvesting rice in Dubai's desert.

H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), recognized the significance of the breakthrough. To commemorate the moment, the Al Marmoom rice brand was created and will be presented as a souvenir to distinguished guests to help promote the Yuanmi brand.

The Chinese government has made it clear it would like to take on more responsibilities and obligations to make greater contributions in agricultural development and economic growth.

The Qingdao Saltwater Rice R&D center, led by Yuan, made the saltwater breakthrough in September 2017.

HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum values food safety and health in Dubai, the UAE, the Middle East and North Africa. It is hoped that his efforts will help countries overcome long-standing agriculture problems and to help them be more self-sufficient, eliminate hunger, and bring peace and prosperity to nations in need of food.

When Maktoum first heard about Yuan and the agriculture breakthrough, he invited the 87-year-old scientist and his research team to Dubai.

Yuans research team always adhered to the spirit of the Belt and Road initiative which helped both sides to reach an agreement, establishing a strategic long-term partnership.

The project officially began on January 8, from May through July over 80 varieties of rice, including the saltwater rice was created.

Experts from the International Rice Research Institute, India, Egypt, the UAE and China conducted the first yield determination tests in May.

Ye Guoyou, group leader with the International Rice Research Institute, announced that the tested production yields of five varieties numbered YCLJ59, YCYJ48, YCRN4H, YCSTU9712 and YCLJ58 were respectively: 7.8041 tons/ha, 7.4106 tons/ha, 7.3076 tons/ha, 5.952 tons/ha and 4.8266 tons/ha. All these varieties exceed the worlds average rice yield of 4.539 tons/ha (From the 2014 FAO statistics).

Growing rice in the desert has always been a challenge. Extreme temperatures, high saline water, low humidity, lack of fresh water, sand storms, lack of proper soil and planting resources have always been obstacles.

To overcome difficulties, the team used an advanced intelligent agriculture system to help develop Dubais digital agriculture.

Under the guidelines of the "Green Dubai" cooperation framework agreement, the Chinese research team will conduct four stages of experimental and industrial tests.

The first stage involved a variety of rice planting methods in different temperatures to help decide genetic resources and growth techniques.

Experiments for the rest of 2018 are underway. Confirming optimal soil parameters and fertilizer circulation aimed at reducing production expenses is a primary focus.

Both sides will begin the third stage in 2019 which will include the development of a saltwater rice farm. They will also explore green ecological land usage, and introduce commercial investment through the Belt and Road industrial capital.

The fourth and final stage involves comprehensive promotion.

Maktoums vision wants to expand the area of the saltwater rice rapidly beginning in 2020, and sees the crop covering 10 percent of Dubais total land area.

In working with the Qingdao research team, together they will establish the Yuan Longping Middle East and North Africa Saltwater Hybrid Rice Research and Promotion Center, and continue testing, optimizing technology conditions, training and industrial promotion.

Both sides are committed to serving the entire Arab world with saltwater rice agriculture methods to solve hunger issues caused by poor nature conditions throughout the region.The San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD) is pushing back on the San Diego County Board of Educations decision to reverse a students one-year expulsion for making a threat of violence to Torrey Pines High School. On June 29, the school districts attorneys from the law firm Artiano Shinoff filed a petition for a writ of administrative mandate against the county board a request for an immediate stay of an order to reverse its decision.

According to SDUHSD Interim Superintendent Larry Perondi, the district has not yet served the county board with the writ and it is still under consideration to complete the process to request that the county board reconsider its reversal.

The writ states that if the county boards decision is not set aside, the district will be irreparably damaged in that the district will be forced to permit the expelled student to attend district schools, despite the fact that the student presents a continuing physical danger to himself and/or others.

According to the court documents, the case in question occurred on Jan. 24, when a student posted a threat that he was going to shoot up a school on Snapchat. The next day on Jan. 25, the student posted a photo of the inside of a classroom at Torrey Pines with the caption: "let's just remind people here i wanted to shoot up the school but i forgot my backpack :( [frown-face emoticon]."

The student admitted that he alone drafted the language and posted these two messages and said it was "grave mistake." The San Diego Police Department perceived the threat as serious and immediately contacted district personnel.

The student was suspended from Torrey Pines from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, for violation of Education Code section 48900.7, which permits a local education agency to suspend and recommend for expulsion an enrolled pupil who has made terroristic threats against school officials or school property, or both. Education code defines "terroristic threat" as "any statement, whether written or oral, by a person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death, great bodily injury to another person, or property damage, with the specific intent that the statement is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out.

On Feb. 1, Torrey Pines Principal Rob Coppo recommended the student for expulsion and on Feb. 2, the district extended the students suspension pending an expulsion hearing. At an expulsion hearing on March 2, a panel issued a recommendation to the district board to expel the student for the period of March 16, 2018 through March 16, 2019 and a rehabilitation plan for the student, including 12 sessions of counseling and 50 hours of community service. The district board met in closed session on March 15 and approved the expulsion panel's recommendations.

In my perspective it was a matter of a student involved in a serious action and according to our education code, he did threaten to cause injury and that met what we felt was cause for expulsion, said SDUHSD Board President Beth Hergesheimer. In order to protect all of our students, we needed to follow through with (the expulsion).

At the past two board meetings in June, a pair of expelled students and their parents have come before the board expressing regret for the incidents that led to their severe punishments and requesting reinstatement.

I have learned my mistake and Im ready to show everyone I can do better, said one student, pleading to be able to return to school.

The students have been accompanied by their representative Curtis Davis, a recent University of San Diego Law School graduate and volunteer education advocate for Advocates for Children and Education, which began as a student organization at USD.

At the June 7 SDUHSD board meeting, Davis said he filed the appeal on behalf of one of the students to the San Diego County Board of Education (SDCOE) pursuant to Education Code section 48915 alleging that the expulsion was unlawful. In an appeal hearing on May 31, the county board voted 3-2 to reverse the SDUHSDs expulsion.

An appeal before the county board is not a rehearing but a procedural review, said Music Watson, a spokesperson for SDCOE. In this situation, based on the records available, the board found that the decision to expel was not supported by the findings prescribed by Education Code section 48915.

Watson said due to student privacy restrictions and now ongoing litigation the SDCOE board is not able to comment further.

According to Watson, in an average year, there are about 330 expulsions countywide and between one and three expulsion appeals go to the county board. In the 2017-18 school year, there were three expulsion appeals, including the one from SDUHSD.

Davis said with the county boards findings, the student was ordered to return to school and have his record expunged. Davis said he attempted to collaborate with the district for the students return but it did not happen this past school year and every day the student was not in school was a violation of the law.

There is no stay order from the court and its the districts obligation to go get one, Davis told the board on June 7.

In addition to the case in question, there were two separate threats of violence at Torrey Pines in February and the San Diego Police Department was involved in both casesin one, threats were made by a 14-year-old TPHS freshman and in the other, threats were made by a former student. In March, a Canyon Crest Academy student was arrested for making a threat of a school shooting. According to SDUHSD Director of Pupil Services Rick Ayala, the district cannot disclose what disciplinary actions were taken against those students.

Torrey Pines received another threat of violence in May, and the school was forced to cancel classes and all school-related activities. That threat was made by former student 21-year-old Kevin Gregory Matlak and allegedly included the image of a firearm and an expressed desire to end his own life and the lives of others.

Matlak, who was charged with three felonies, pleaded guilty on July 10 to one count of making a criminal threat. He will be placed on five years probation and sentenced to a year in custody, which he will be able to serve at a residential treatment facility. Matlak will be sentenced Aug. 10.

The day that the county overturned this expulsion was the same day we had to close Torrey Pines, Hergesheimer said. It makes me feel even stronger that we have an obligation to protect our students. We dont know how to differentiate one threat from another, we just have to respond.

I do not want to harm the student, but I feel that he needs to be held accountable because we would be held accountable if anything happened, Hergesheimer said.

At the June 7 board meeting, Davis said as he begins to represent more families in the district, he would like to be able to collaborate and avoid the district having to spend money on attorney fees but said if he has to, he will continue to take unlawful expulsions to county appeal.

I will continue to expose injustice in the way students are treated when they make mistakes, Davis said.

Perondi said that the issue of school violence is very scary and seriousthe discussion of school safety is one that is happening all over the nation.Save my User ID and Password

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KIRKLAND  An auto-related commercial building at 11425 120th Ave. N.E. in Kirkland has sold for $3.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was an LLC related to the family that had owned the property for decades.





. . .African employees work on an auto production line at a factory of Chinas FAW Group in city of Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. (Photo by Liu Lingling from Peoples Daily)

The city of Nelson Mandela Bay, located along the southern coastline of South Africa, is an important port city connecting the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Driving along the coastline all the way to the north, more and more factories would appear in horizon, reminding that this is South Africas first special economic zone- the Coega Industrial Development Zone.

Among the logos of settled enterprises the zone put at entrance of the office building, China's leading automakers FAW Group and BAIC Motor Corp. are eye-catching.

An employee with the park said Chinese enterprises are star companies that have made the place much more attractive, as they were often selected by visitors as a must-to-be destination.

The policy makers of the park plans to build a car production base with the aim of drawing more investment, said Liu Shijie, assistant to general manager of FAW Groups South African manufacturing branch.

Liu said the park, while introducing capital, often takes his factory as a role model to boost potential investors confidence in their prospects.

When FAW Groups South African factory was put into production in 2014, its inauguration ceremony was attended by then South African President, indicating the great importance the South African side placed on Chinese investment.

Now the factory produces over 1,000 trucks each year. The sales has been rising to exceed that of some European and Japanese brands, updating the publics impression of China-made cars, Liu said.

In front of the FAW factory lies the construction site of BAIC Motor Corps factory which is about to run for operation soon.

The 54-hectare factory, which is expected to have welding, painting and assembly workshops, is designed to produce 50,000 passenger vehicles by 2022 and 100,000 vehicles in the longer run.

The cars produced here will be sold to not only South Africa, but also to south of the African continent, Europe and the Oceania. Of the cars manufactured by the plant, 60 percent is planned to be sold overseas in the first step.

The factory is estimated to provide 15,000 jobs for local residents, create an added value of 18.6 billion yuan once production capacity is maximized, and expand South Africas exports by 6.2 billion yuan.

As the largest greenfield investment in South Africa in the latest 40 years, the BAIC Motor factory is expected to be the biggest auto manufacturer in the country and even the continent in terms of single investment.

Our dream has come true, Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle gave his thumbs up to the project.

Like a Chinese proverb the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, we witnessed how the investment project was turned into a tangible result and felt happy for this, just like an architect when he sees his blueprint has been turned into buildings, the governor said.

The parts would be supplied by both Chinese and local manufacturers, so that a 60 percent of localization rate would be ensured to drive local economy, said Sakhumzi Somyo, vice governor of Eastern Cape.

South Africas non-commercial vehicle market has shrunk in recent years, but the Chinese firms have injected great confidence into local market by bringing businesses to upper and down chains and drawing other foreign firms to increase investment, said Yao Haiyang, a manager of the FAW factory.

The suburb of Nelson Mandela Bay is home to a number of international car manufacturers and their workers, and a great deal of new jobs added by Chinese companies will help them live a better life.

The Chinese companies gave me a chance to change my life, said Patrick Mbuyi who now works for FAW factory, adding that he feels comfortable and respected in the job.

I grew up with the factory. The Chinese technicians helped me warmheartedly and we become good friends, added the man who was once unemployed and poor before being employed by FAW factory in Johannesburg in 2010. He moved to Nelson Mandela Bay in 2014 as the factory moved there.

Now a skilled worker full of energy, he attributes all his changes to China. Our Chinese colleagues are hard-working, generous and smart, I told myself to work like them. Not only my life is getting better because of the Chinese companies, the destiny of a lot of other people has changed as well. We are very grateful! said Mbuyi.Headed to the State Championship! The Lady Warriors travel to Dublin, Ga. on Thursday to take on Piedmont Academy in game one of the GISA State Championship. The Lady Warriors are looking to bring home...

Early County photography to hang in capitol Pictured above L to R are Donna Gilbert, Bobby Gilbert, and Governor Brian Kemp and pictured below with the Governor is Megan McMullen Odom.The Office of the Governor, in partnership...

Natural gas prices to increase this winter Supply concerns and rising demand are blamed for a 99% price hike over this time last year. Blakely residents are likely to feel it this winter as utility bills increase....

The Early County News has DECLARED WAR ON VERIZON because of years of substandard service! PLEASE continue sending your Verizon experiences to: earlycountyspeaks@gmail.com. Emails are being compiled and sent to company executives so the more, the better. Help spread the word to your family ......Blog Archive June 2021 (1) May 2021 (77) April 2021 (77) March 2021 (82) February 2021 (68) January 2021 (64) December 2020 (67) November 2020 (66) October 2020 (66) September 2020 (67) August 2020 (74) July 2020 (83) June 2020 (92) May 2020 (86) April 2020 (104) March 2020 (105) February 2020 (74) January 2020 (75) December 2019 (75) November 2019 (70) October 2019 (89) September 2019 (69) August 2019 (81) July 2019 (77) June 2019 (73) May 2019 (110) April 2019 (110) March 2019 (102) February 2019 (85) January 2019 (123) December 2018 (116) November 2018 (112) October 2018 (121) September 2018 (107) August 2018 (150) July 2018 (163) June 2018 (190) May 2018 (145) April 2018 (112) March 2018 (124) February 2018 (113) January 2018 (164) December 2017 (150) November 2017 (144) October 2017 (169) September 2017 (171) August 2017 (135) July 2017 (131) June 2017 (147) May 2017 (160) April 2017 (138) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (143) January 2017 (203) December 2016 (208) November 2016 (185) October 2016 (173) September 2016 (194) August 2016 (232) July 2016 (225) June 2016 (238) May 2016 (231) April 2016 (215) March 2016 (246) February 2016 (226) January 2016 (252) December 2015 (230) November 2015 (250) October 2015 (234) September 2015 (222) August 2015 (253) July 2015 (275) June 2015 (279) May 2015 (223) April 2015 (226) March 2015 (243) February 2015 (258) January 2015 (281) December 2014 (292) November 2014 (296) October 2014 (413) September 2014 (472) August 2014 (506) July 2014 (483) June 2014 (488) May 2014 (512) April 2014 (497) March 2014 (531) February 2014 (482) January 2014 (535) December 2013 (482) November 2013 (441) October 2013 (416) September 2013 (491) August 2013 (521) July 2013 (491) June 2013 (470) May 2013 (457) April 2013 (426) March 2013 (420) February 2013 (414) January 2013 (489) December 2012 (433) November 2012 (504) October 2012 (469) September 2012 (430) August 2012 (427) July 2012 (360) June 2012 (336) May 2012 (362) April 2012 (322) March 2012 (263) February 2012 (224) January 2012 (291) December 2011 (295) November 2011 (325) October 2011 (330) September 2011 (319) August 2011 (333) July 2011 (318) June 2011 (387) May 2011 (373) April 2011 (389) March 2011 (375) February 2011 (335) January 2011 (400) December 2010 (445) November 2010 (395) October 2010 (312) September 2010 (262) August 2010 (277) July 2010 (323) June 2010 (386) May 2010 (360) April 2010 (333) March 2010 (351) February 2010 (336) January 2010 (384) December 2009 (353) November 2009 (300) October 2009 (308) September 2009 (350) August 2009 (298) July 2009 (255) June 2009 (203) May 2009 (193) April 2009 (186) March 2009 (197) February 2009 (173) January 2009 (148) December 2008 (181) November 2008 (197) October 2008 (236) September 2008 (304) August 2008 (314) July 2008 (273) June 2008 (27) May 2008 (1) April 2008 (6) October 2007 (1) May 2007 (1) April 2007 (6) March 2007 (2) February 2007 (1) October 2006 (1) September 2006 (1) August 2006 (4) July 2006 (4) June 2006 (1) July 2005 (1) May 2005 (2) March 2005 (1) June 2004 (2) May 2004 (1) April 2004 (4) March 2004 (2) February 2004 (2) July 2003 (2) June 2003 (5)

By Yahoo , July 23, 2018





(Reuters) - California's power grid operator on Monday issued an alert to homes and businesses to conserve electricity on Tuesday and Wednesday when a heat wave is expected to blanket the state.





The California Independent System Operator (ISO), the grid operator, said it issued the so-called "Flex Alert" due to high temperatures across the western United States, reduced electricity imports into the state, tight natural gas supplies in Southern California and high wildfire risk.

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I hear you plan to go on a fact-finding tour of Israel. In fact, Israel is doing pretty well. Its, Somalia, your native country, that could truly use your formidable skills. Maybe you could use your frequent flyer miles and swing by.Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. Xi and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa attended the opening ceremony here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PRETORIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa jointly attended the opening ceremony of a high-level dialogue between the two countries' scientists here on Tuesday.

China and Africa, who have stood together through thick and thin, have always been a community with a shared future and a community of shared interests based on win-win cooperation, Xi said during a speech at the dialogue.

Recalling the successful Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in December 2015, Xi said he is glad to see that the science and research cooperation projects inked in the outcome documents of the summit have been well implemented with remarkable achievements.

With joint efforts from both sides, the China-South Africa innovative cooperation in science and technology has been actively advancing, Xi said.

With important progress in technology cooperation in various fields, and multiple achievements in cutting-edge technology and industrial application cooperation, the breakthrough in science and technology made by Chinese and South African scientists have caught global attention, which enriched the contents of China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and became a new growth point in expanding their mutually beneficial cooperation, said Xi.

The China-South Africa and China-Africa science and technology cooperation is faced with important new opportunities, as the FOCAC Beijing summit will kick off in September, the Chinese president said.

We should actively build new platforms for joint innovation, deepen exchanges and cooperation, boost exchanges among young scientists, proactively involve ourselves in the global innovation network, promote open cooperation in innovation ability with countries around the world, so as to push forward the China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation to keep up with the global trend of science and technology development, and endeavor to become top players in such development, Xi said.

He urged representatives from the Chinese and South African science and technology and industrial circles to continue to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries, actively expand innovation and enhance coordination, in order to find a win-win development path for China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation.

The Chinese president expressed confidence in the smooth realization of the goals through persistent endeavor.

For his part, Ramaphosa thanked Xi for his close attention and support to South Africa-China science and technology cooperation, noting the fruitful results from bilateral cooperation in recent years.

The South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue demonstrated the two countries' resolution in promoting growth through science and technology innovation, and their cooperation potential in this field, he said.

The South African government is committed to strengthening science and technology innovative cooperation, so as to better cope with the fourth industrial revolution, Ramaphosa said, stressing that China is a reliable science and research cooperation partner to his country.

He also thanked China for its commitment in helping Africa's development and in promoting the Africa-China science and technology innovative cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC.

Xi and Ramaphosa together toured a photo exhibition of the achievements in China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation before the opening ceremony of the dialogue.

Among the exhibits were photos of Africa's flagship projects in science and technology, South Africa and China's respective science and technology achievements and their cooperation results.

The two leaders listened to the introduction of the South African Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope project, which is a major project involving multinational scientists including those from China, and a major bilateral science and technology cooperation project between China and South Africa.

They encouraged scientists from both countries to continue making efforts to smoothly complete the SKA project.

The two presidents also witnessed the first vehicle rolling off the line from Beijing Automobile Works' investment project in South Africa through a video link.

Xi arrived in Pretoria on Monday to pay his third state visit to the "rainbow nation."

South Africa is the fourth stop of Xi's five-nation Middle East and Africa tour, which has taken him to the United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Rwanda. He will also visit Mauritius during a stopover.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (1st L) addresses the opening ceremony of the South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. Xi and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa (1st R) attended the opening ceremony here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa view a photo exhibition of the achievements in China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation before the opening ceremony of the South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)The Public Prosecution Office (PPO) of Dresden, the Saxon State Office of Criminal Investigation (SSOCI) and the PPO of Vilnius conducted a successful six-year investigation, 'Operation Warenagent', into organised cyber fraud, delivering a major hit against an international organised criminal group (OCG). Eurojust and Europol provided support to the national authorities throughout the investigations.

Currently, 17 suspects are accused of having illegally obtained merchandise worth over EUR 18 million through a large number of fraudulent online orders.

In October 2017, Lithuanian and German police officers conducted 11 searches in various Lithuanian cities, leading to the arrest of 5 suspects. In the period from 12 to 15 June 2018, a cross-border operation was carried out in different States across Europe: 31 private residences and business premises were searched in Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, Switzerland, Cyprus, the UK, Finland, Latvia and Ukraine, 6 arrests were made in Germany, Switzerland and Lithuania, and the organiser of the OCG was arrested in Cyprus. Two further actions, with 4 arrests and 10 searches, took place in Lithuania between 26 and 29 June 2018.

The Dresden PPO's Department for Organised Crime, together with the CyberCrimeCompetenceCenter SachseN (SN4C) of the SSOCI, began investigating in September 2015; the PPO of Vilnius as well as the Vilnius Regional Police began investigating in September 2013. As a result of the judicial cooperation between the German and Lithuanian authorities, five coordination meetings were held at Eurojust. The two countries entered into a joint investigation team (JIT) with the support of Eurojust. The JIT helped simplify and accelerate the exchange of case-related information between the national authorities concerned. In total, national authorities from eight European countries were finally involved in the investigations. Eurojust contributed to the successful outcome of the operations by coordinating the pretrial investigation with national prosecutors and police officers as well as by facilitating and supporting the international judicial cooperation. Europol joined the JIT at a later stage and assisted in its activities.

The lengthy and extensive investigations revealed that since 2012, more than 35 000 pieces of high-quality merchandise, such as smartphones, computers, navigation devices, TVs, vacuum cleaners or branded clothing, are alleged to have been illegally obtained by the OCG, which maintained a strict hierarchy and distribution of roles. Various shippers ordered the merchandise through a network of agents recruited in Germany, using fraudulently obtained credit card information. The agents acted as recipients of the merchandise, and transferred the shipments to addresses located abroad. The merchandise was then forwarded to other accomplices to conceal their own as well as the final recipients' identities. The illegal merchandise was reportedly sold mainly in Eastern Europe, i.e. Russia, Ukraine and the Baltics.

Difficulties encountered in the investigations included the following: offenders were active online using only nicknames and encrypted access codes; all payments were made using cryptocurrencies; and the OCG members communicated online using sophisticated databases regularly updated with illegal activity reports. The investigations led to the determination of the identity as well as the whereabouts of the alleged leader and other members of the OCG. In Finland, one person operating as parcel recipient and shipper was caught in the act.

The OCG members are accused of crimes related to tax evasion, money-laundering, participation in a criminal organisation, as well as production of counterfeit electronic means of payment, forgery of genuine electronic means of payment and unlawful possession of electronic means of payment or data thereof. According to the Lithuanian penal code, the sanctions for the aforementioned crimes may range from 6 up to 15 years of imprisonment.

During the operations, a large amount of data storage devices and valuables were seized. The evaluations of the extensive quantity of seized evidence, as well as further investigations, are in progress. Eurojust will continue to strengthen the judicial cooperation among European countries and provide them with operational and financial assistance, as well as legal advice and expertise, to combat cross-border organised criminality.

For more information about Eurojust, see www.eurojust.europa.eu or contact Eurojust's Corporate Communications Unit at media@eurojust.europa.eu, phone +31 70 412 5000.

For all Eurojust press releases, please see www.eurojust.europa.eu (Press centre).

If you would like to have Eurojust press releases delivered electronically to your inbox, please complete and submit this subscription form.In a novel, even if rather obscure manner, the Trump Administration has found a new way to put America first.

Both Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and the new head of the SECs anti-bribery division, Charles Cain, have expressed an interest in leveling the playing field for U.S. companies, and their agencies actions prove the validity of those statements.

Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced it would halt its prosecution (pdf) of Credit Suisses Hong Kong subsidiary, which it had been investigating for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The bank admitted it had set up a preferential hiring arrangement for individuals connected to government officials in China and Hong Kong in hopes of quid pro quo actions by those government officials. The termination of the investigation was prompted by the Swiss parent companys agreement to pay fines of $47 million to the DOJ and $30 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The FCPA has proven to be one of the worlds most active enforcement mechanisms against corporate bribery of foreign officials over the last two decades. Even so, upon enactment in 1977, the FCPA faced sharp criticism that it would damage U.S. competitiveness. Foreign companies would, in theory, be able to outbid their U.S. counterparts for lucrative business contracts by simply setting aside a multi-million dollar bribe.

Fear, however, that the enactment of the anti-bribery laws would stifle U.S. competitiveness has proven unfounded. In part, the law conditioned U.S. market involvement by foreign companies on compliance with the same standards the U.S. domestic companies faced. Additionally, the previous two U.S. Administrations have enforced the FCPA at vastly disparate rates for foreign companies.

The foreign focus of the FCPA and the long grasp of the U.S. legal system is evinced in the Credit Suisse settlement agreement. Credit Suisse is Switzerland-based company with headquarters in Zurich, and its Hong Kong subsidiary has no direct connection to the U.S. market. Nevertheless, the U.S. government has the authority to extend its powerful reach to foreign companies that have issued securities in the U.S. markets, including, as in this case, the sale of the parent companys shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Thus, even the Hong Kong subsidiary could not escape the jurisdiction of the U.S. government.

Further assuaging the fears described above, recent U.S. anti-bribery enforcement practices have proved rather lopsided  limiting the reach of the largest sanctions to foreign companies. Under the Obama Administration, nearly 200 companies were sanctioned under the FCPA, 115 of which were U.S. registered companies. There was, however, a vast divergence between the sanctions assessed against the U.S. companies and foreign counterparts. On average, the foreign companies faced fines roughly four times the size of the sanctions assessed against U.S. companies.

Not to be outdone, the Trump Administration has slapped foreign companies with sanctions amounting to roughly 15 times those faced by U.S. companies, on average $154 million to a mere $12.8 million.

Of the $2.8 billion that the Trump Administrations DOJ and SEC has collected under the anti-bribery laws, only $167 million came from its domestic companies. Not that we should be surprised. It appears par for the course for an Administration that has endeavored to assist, in any manner, domestic companies in the global marketplace.

____

Jesse Van Genugten, pictured above, is a Summer Associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP in the firms New York City office. Hes a rising 3L at Georgetown University Law Center . He can be contacted here.

The views expressed above are those of the author only, and not of Shearman & Sterling LLP.It has long been recognized that a critical principle of good governance and compliance is the implementation, promotion and communication of the right tone at the top. It is the fundamental groundwork in setting a companys culture and is arguably the most important principle in the prevention and detection of bribery and unethical conduct.

The idea is that the board and senior management promote ethical business conduct, integrity and regularly communicate this to all employees, third parties and business partners. This is more likely to encourage support and conformity to these principles. However, if senior management is perceived to be uninterested in ethical business conduct or more concerned with financial or other performance measures, employees, third parties and business partners are more susceptible to acting unethically.

Recent anti-bribery and corruption enforcement actions and the focus on individual liability suggests that the emphasis has shifted to conduct from the top as opposed to the more widely used tone at the top. Tone at the top is passive in nature, whereas conduct from the top is more active. It is emblematic of the need to ensure the ethical and cultural identity of an organization flows from the very top with the board, senior executives and middle management, playing an active part in influencing, embodying and demonstrating the culture of an organization.

Culture is certainly a hot topic for regulators, enforcement agencies and other influential organizations. In March 2018, through its discussion paper DP18/2: Transforming culture in financial services, the UK Financial Conduct Authority identified culture as a key priority and stated that culture in financial services is widely accepted as a key root cause of the major conduct failings that have occurred within the industry in recent history.

In 2017, the Fraud Section of the U.S. Department of Justice published its Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (pdf) outlining common questions that the DOJ asks when evaluating a companys compliance program. With reference to conduct from the top, questions include:

How have senior leaders, through their words and actions, encouraged or discouraged the type of misconduct in question?

What concrete actions have they taken to demonstrate leadership in the companys compliance and remediation efforts?

How does the company monitor its senior leaderships behavior?

How has senior leadership modelled proper behavior to subordinates?

But what does this actually mean for businesses trying to implement an effective compliance and monitoring program? Below, we consider just a few of the many proactive things that organizations should be doing in respect of anti-bribery and corruption to ensure they are focusing on conduct from the top and not just whether the right tone at the top exists:

Adequately evidencing when decisions have been made that do not align with an organizations risk appetite;

Senior management leading by example, being visible to all staff and demonstrating, not just communicating, ethical behavior;

A culture that allows employees to speak up if they witness behavior contrary to the organizations values;

Regularly obtaining and reviewing timely management information to identify red flags, themes and key trends where risks may be looming;

Applying a degree of professional skepticism and challenging where something does not sit right;

Inclusion of compliance metrics within employee performance measures to ensure there is accountability;

Consistent and effective consequence management; and

Pioneering good practice and ethical conduct through proactive forward planning.

Many of the examples above are equally relevant for broader financial and economic crime compliance. These may help organizations gain a competitive advantage through securing public trust, attracting and retaining the best talent, engaging effectively with stakeholders and reducing the diversion of management time on regulatory enquiries.

What is your organization doing to ensure that conduct from the top is front and center of your compliance and monitoring program?

____

Annabel Reoch, pictured above left, is a Partner and UK Head of Anti-bribery and Corruption investigation and compliance at KPMG in the UK. Shes a qualified Chartered Accountant and an experienced forensic consultant with subject matter expertise in bribery and corruption. She can be contacted here.

Tom Barrett, above right, is a Manager in the Risk Consulting, Forensic and Anti-Bribery and Corruption practice at KPMG in London. He can be contacted here.

Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategoryColdQuanta, Inc., a Boulder, CO-based company that develops and designs instruments and systems for quantum technology applications, raised $6.75M in seed financing.

The round was led by Maverick Ventures, with participation from Global Frontier Investments.

The company intends to use the funds to commercialize its ultracold neutral atom technology in the areas of secure quantum communications, neutral atom quantum computing, and quantum metrology (including timekeeping and navigation).

Founded in 2007 as a spinoff from the JILA Institute and Physics Department at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and based upon the research of Prof. Dana Anderson, CEO, ColdQuanta focuses on developing and commercializing laser-cooled and ultracold atom enabled quantum technologies.

The company, which sold its first product in 2008, has been awarded contracts from numerous federal agencies including DARPA, IARPA, NSF, NASA, NIST and ONR, AFOSR, and ARO to further develop ultracold atom technologies. It has sold products to customers in academic, federal, and industrial R&D labs around the world.

ColdQuantas work applies for the further development of secure quantum communications networks, quantum inertial sensing and navigation, and quantum information systems.

Matthew Kinsella of Maverick and Grant Dollens of Global Frontier have joined the companys board, along with Dr. Timothy Day who has assumed the role of Executive Chairman.

FinSMEs

25/07/2018Africa needs a development partner like China, said Senegalese President Macky Sall on Thursday, stressing that Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Senegal is a historic trip eagerly expected by all the Senegalese.

China has helped improve Africas infrastructure through engineering projects of railways, highways, bridges and energy, especially clean energy, Sall explained, adding that Africa needs to better cope with the short boards like infrastructure construction.

Sall told the Chinese media that he and his country are very honored to welcome Xi on his visit.

President Xi and I have had conversations in China and on multiple international occasions. We have established profound friendship and agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, the Senegalese President noted.

He added that both sides are now devoted to a closer cooperation under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

During Xi's visit, the governments of the two countries will sign a series of agreements on bilateral cooperation, disclosed Sall.

We will see Chinas role in the implementation of the Plan for an Emerging Senegal. I believe Xis state visit to Senegal will be a historic one with great importance to the future of bilateral ties, Sall remarked.

Xi is admirable for his wisdom and foresight, and his vision for global cooperation is being evidenced by the great Belt and Road Initiative that aims to connect peoples and facilitate international exchanges, lauded the president.

He stressed that the future of the world should be built upon cooperation, fair trade and partnership of win-win results.

The Senegalese leader applauded the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, saying it will traverse oceans and continents and connect people from China, Africa, as well as the rest of the world.

Lauding the marvelous achievements made by the Chinese people via hard work and ceaseless efforts, Sall noted that China's successful experience is worth learning from for Africa.

While preserving the splendid culture accumulated in thousands of years of history, China has embarked on a path of modernization through practices and exploration and grown into the worlds second largest economy, he hailed Chinas development model.

Africa's development path needs to suit its own characteristics, just as the Agenda 2063 of the African Union was formulated on the basis of Africa's development conditions, he stressed.

Sall added the FOCAC is one of the worlds most important cooperative partnerships, and also one of the best operated forums.

The FOCAC Beijing summit to be held this September and the Johannesburg summit held in 2015 are a showcase to the world of Chinas important role in Africas development, said the president, calling on a persistence to the current cooperation model which has already been proved as correct.

He expects active participation of more Chinese enterprises in the development and infrastructure construction of Africa, and calls it a new prospect of bilateral cooperation.

Sall expressed strong interest in the China International Import Expo to be hosted by Shanghai this November, pledging that Senegalese enterprises are willing to take part in it.

Senegal-China economic and trade cooperation is in a rapid development, and we hope to maintain the momentum, he added.Happeo, a Helsinki, Finland-based digital workplace startup, raised $8M in funding.

Backers included DN Capital, Maki.vc, and Vendep Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to expand upon its rich suite of integrations, making it possible to launch Linkedin, Google Chat and Slack this quarter, and to extend its global presence, following the opening of its Amsterdam office earlier this year.

Led by Perttu Ojansuu, Co-Founder and CEO, Happeo provides a SaaS digital workplace platform that empowers internal communicators to connect with employees in entirely new ways. The platform brings together intranet, collaboration, and social networking into one unified solution.

By integrating with leading enterprise collaboration tools, Happeo brings together such tools as calendar, files, conferencing, and projects, CRM and HR-systems  in one digital workplace. The solution is enriched with knowledge sharing and social networking features directly driving engagement and productivity.

Large enterprises and fast-growing organizations, such as Randstad Sourceright and Groupe Chantelle, use Happeo to reach, engage, and listen to more than 220,000 employees worldwide.

FinSMEs

25/07/2018Jennewein Biotechnologie GmbH, a Rheinbreitbach, Germany-based industrial biotechnology company, received 15m in financing.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) provided the financing. The EU banks loan is backed by a guarantee from the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI).

Led by Stefan Jennewein, founder and CEO, Jennewein Biotechnologie manufactures an extensive portfolio of innovative HMO products, such as 2-fucosyllactose, 3-fucosyllactose and lacto-N-tetraose. These rare sugars are used in the food industry (particularly infant milk formulas), the pharmaceutical industry, and the cosmetic industry. In 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Jennewein Biotechnologie a license to market 2-fucosyllactose in the USA. This was followed in 2017 by European Union marketing authorisation under the Novel Food Regulation.

The company will use the new financing to build a R&D centre to continue increasing its HMOs product portfolio and to upscale its production capacity.

FinSMEs

25/07/2018Knotel, a NYC-based flexible office provider, acquired 42Floors, a San Francisco based search engine for commercial real estate.

The deal  of undisclosed amount  will give Knotel access to data and technology on over 10 billion square feet of office space, driving further liquidity to its marketplace while also accelerating its plans for a blockchain platform.

Led by Amol Sarva, Co-Founder and CEO, Knotel acquired German workspace operator Ahoy!Berlin in June. Since its founding in 2016, the company has grown to manage more than one million square feet of office serving high-growth and enterprise companies across New York, San Francisco, London, and now Berlin.

Member network includes companies like Starbucks, Cheddar, and King.

Founded in November 2011 by Jason Freedman, CEO, 42Floors gives users a free, comprehensive database of available office spaces, complete with photography and data about the listings.

FinSMEs

25/07/2018Ridge Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm that backs early-stage enterprise startups, closed its fourth fund, at $130M.

The fund was backed by institutional investors including foundations, endowments, funds of funds, insurance companies and prominent family offices; technology executives from leading companies such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, and Oracle; and dozens of founders from across the firms portfolio.

Ridge Ventures latest fund will be managed by the firms expanding investment team, led by Alex Rosen (early investor in Krux, MindMeld, Minted, and Fastly), with Pat Kenealy (former CEO at IDG), Gil Penchina (angel investor in Ripple, Paypal, LinkedIn, Cruise, and Dollar Shave Club), Ben Metcalfe (co-founder of WP Engine, product at Uber), and April Yang (Codeverse and McKinsey).

The firm will continue to invest in enterprise companies with software designed to change the end-user experience, with a focus on AI, analytics and data, SaaS, infrastructure, martech, and HR tech. Also, Ridge will continue to back select consumer companies that reinforce its enterprise thesis.

Portfolio companies will continue to benefit from access to the firms 75-member-strong CXO network, with direct access to Fortune 500 CMOs and CIOs for customer development and market feedback.

The firm has invested in such companies as Braze, Discord, Fastly, Minted, Safegraph, ThirdLove, Trifacta, and YouEarnedIt and exited Krux (acquired for $800M), MindMeld (acquired for $125M) and NextGames (IPO).

FinSMEs

25/07/2018.            .      .          .          .        .            ,   .     ...The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the desert flower situated at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf, greeted distinguished Chinese guests coming from afar with Chinese red across its territory. The state visit paid by Chinese President Xi Jinping is the first by a Chinese head of state in 29 years to the Arab state.

During the Friday talks of visiting Xi with UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, both sides decided to upgrade their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

They also agreed to strengthen their bilateral in-depth cooperation in various fields, and propel continuous development of bilateral ties on higher levels, in broader areas and at greater depths.

The UAE is Xis first stop of this overseas trip, and also the first country he visits since his re-election as Chinese President.

The Arab country welcomed Xi and his delegation with a grand and solemn ceremony highlighted by 12 escorting fighter jets, spectacular fireworks, mighty horse cavalry as well as 21-gun salute.

Xis visit is an important event of historic significance for the UAE as it means bilateral all-round cooperation will be ushered into a new phase, said Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, adding that it will bring prosperity to the two countries and peoples.

President Xi was conferred with the Order of Zayed, the UAE's highest civil decoration, by the Crown Prince, who also gave Xi an Arabian horse as present to extend a lofty respect for his visit. Arabian horses are given as diplomatic gifts to distinguished guests by the UAE's royal family.

China and the UAE are natural partners to co-construct the Belt and Road, since the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative highly echoes the plan of rejuvenating the Silk Road raised by the Crown Prince.

Thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, the UAE has been Chinas largest export market and the second largest trade partner in the Arab world for years, while China is the largest trading partner of the UAE. Both sides also enjoy a fruitful cooperation in energy, finance, production capacity and high-tech sectors.

Xi, in his signed article published ahead of the visit, called on China and the UAE to build a community of shared future in Belt and Road cooperation by working hand in hand as strategic partners who truly trust each other, collaborative partners who pursue win-win outcomes and mutual benefits, interactive partners who learn from each other, and innovative partners who champion result-oriented actions.

During his trip, both sides reached a consensus to beef up collaboration in politics, economy, finance, education, technology, renewable resources, water resources, oil, natural gas, military and law-enforcement security, consular affairs, facilitation of people-to-people exchanges, and implementation mechanisms of strategic partnership based on their newly-updated comprehensive strategic partnership.

The rich fruits yielded from the trip present the best answer sheet to China and the UAEs common aspiration for deepened bilateral all-round cooperation and bright future.

Xis visit signifies an important step as the UAE seeks to build long-term economic, cultural, trade and investment ties with China, said Ali Al Dhaheri, UAE ambassador to China.

The UAE is now a role model of China and all the Arab countries to launch pragmatic, friendly, mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation with mutual respect.

During the eighth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum held in Beijing days ago, Xi announced that China and the Arab countries had agreed to establish a "Sino-Arab future-oriented strategic partnership of comprehensive cooperation and common development."

Against such backdrop, an upgraded China-UAE relationship not only opens a new chapter for bilateral ties, but also injects strong energy into the construction of a community of common destiny and shared interests between China and the Arab world by giving full play to its modelling role.UPDATE:

Brandon Scerri was located this morning alive and well. Crime Stoppers appreciates the sharing of this information by the public and local media outlets.

Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is asking for the publics help locating a local shrimp boat worker, who went missing in the waters sometime during the last 24 hours.

Brandon Scerri, DOB 4/9/95, was reported missing off the shrimp boat Jacob, which was on a return trip from the Florida Keys/Dry Tortuga area. The boat docked at Fort Myers Beach this morning. Scerri is a transient on Fort Myers Beach, who has been known to frequent the Chapel by the Sea church on Estero Boulevard and has no local family members. Investigators say Scerri has been a missing person in the past and may suffer from mental health issues.

Anyone who has seen Scerri within the last 24 hours is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477). All callers will remain anonymous and will be eligible for a cash reward of up to $3,000. Tips may also be made online at www.southwestfloridacrimestoppers.com or by submitting a tip through the P3Tips mobile app.

For additional information, contact Trish Routte, Crime Stoppers Coordinator, at troutte@sheriffleefl.org.

 Submitted by Southwest Florida Crime StoppersHollywood legend Clint Eastwood reportedly filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a medical company, accusing the group of manipulating a business deal in order to acquire research patents.

Eastwood was an investor and shareholder for Dr. Harry Demopoulos and his company, Antioxidant Pharmaceuticals Corporation, before it was merged under a new company, Molecular Defenses Corporation, according to The Hollywood Reporter, citing the complaint.

The lawsuit was filed against Molecular Defenses and its head, Kevin Davis, the outlet said.

Prior to his death, Demopoulos reportedly focused research on the supplement glutathione.

In the lawsuit, the actor claimed that at the end of 2015 Demopoulos company underwent the "allegedly voluntary restructuring into Molecular Defenses Corporation, according to THR.

But by the beginning of the following year, Demopoulos had a stroke, THR said, and, according to the lawsuit, it was at this tragic time when Defendants pounced, seizing Dr. Demopoulos business (and six U.S. glutathione patents) for their own ends.

CAROL CHANNING REVEALS SHE REFUSED TO SAY THE F-WORD FOR LAUGHS

As the researcher was working to improve his health, the lawsuit alleged that Molecular Defenses had an agreement drawn up that was purportedly signed by Dr. Demopoulos by his Attorney in Fact  providing for the assignment of the six U.S. glutathione patents from APC to Defendant Molecular Defense Holdings, LLC in exchange for membership rights in this Defendant-entity, according to THR.

And in the lawsuit, the actor reportedly claimed that unbeknownst to him, Demopoulos company had previously disbanded more than a decade earlier and their properties were not disbursed to investors.

Dr. Demopoulos passed away a short time later, leaving unfinished (and in shambles) his alleged efforts to consolidate his business and account for the resulting rights and equity owed the shareholders, The Hollywood Reporter quoted the lawsuit as saying.

Since Demopoulos became ill, the lawsuit reportedly asserts that the Eastwood trust has made herculean efforts to get hold of material related to the business operations, shareholders, and intellectual property of Dr. Demopoulos companies.

KATHY GRIFFIN SUED BY NEIGHBOR FOR RECORDING HIM WITHOUT PERMISSION

Molecular Defenses Corporation is accused in the lawsuit of failing to provide even the bare minimum, THR reported.

The plaintiffs claim that in the previous two years, the company has used a strategy of inordinate delay with kind words, empty promises and the trickling of incomplete, contradictory, and the vaguest of information.

All the while, during which time they solicited additional investments from the Eastwood Trust, Defendants have been working to develop and profit from all of the glutathione patents that rightfully belong to the shareholders of APC, including the Eastwood Trust, the lawsuit continued.

Through the complaint, Eastwood wants remedy for swindling through outright usurpation, covert intellectual property transfers, and corporate shell games, according to The Hollywood Reporter.David Fosters daughter, Amy, is telling haters to keep quiet about her dads love life.

The record producer, 68, recently got engaged to 34-year-old actress and singer Katharine McPhee. It'll be the second and fifth marriages for the bride and groom, respectively.

The newly engaged couple received swift backlash after confirming the news in July  with many fans pointing out the age gap. McPhee was quick to shut down critics, tweeting on July 6 they should be worrying more about registering to vote and midterm elections than whos marrying me.

Now Fosters 44-year-old daughter with his first wife, B.J. Cook, is also stepping in to defend the couple.

I know that some people have been hating on that relationship, Amy told US Weekly on Saturday. All I can tell you is it absolutely works when you see them together.

The songwriter continued, Its love. The haters [can] shut the f--k up because they are perfect for each other.

Amy only had praise for her future stepmother, who she described being so close with.

ARIANA GRANDE STEPPING AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER FIANCE PETE DAVIDSON CLEARED HIS INSTAGRAM

Shes amazing and funny, fun, smart, elegant, timeless, beautiful, talented. I cant say enough about her, Amy added.

She's not the only daughter to stick up for the relationship.

In early July, Fosters 35-year-old daughter, Erin, from his marriage to second wife Rebecca Dyer, called McPhee "mommmyy" in a comment on her father's Instagram post.

Her sister, Sara, jokingly added, "Out of the country. What did I miss?"

Erin has nothing but praise for the former American Idol star.

Shes amazing, she told People in October. I really like her. Shes awesome. My dad is kind of a hopeless romantic, and Katherines awesome. We really, really like her, and weve known her for a really long time. And if hes happy, were happy.

WWE ANNOUNCES FIRST ALL-FEMALE PAY-PER-VIEW WRESTLING EVENT

David Foster's third wife, Linda Thompson, also shared her support for the happy couple.

I think the only thing thats a real deterrent, I think, is the age difference, she told Us Weekly earlier this month. But I think life doesnt have any guarantees anyway. If you find someone you love, go for it, you know?

Thompson added, [McPhee is] a lovely person. Shes beautiful and shes talented, and they have that musicality in common, so that goes a long way.

Fox News' Morgan M. Evans contributed to this report.Alex Rodriguez only had kind words for his girlfriend Jennifer Lopez on her 49th birthday Tuesday.

When we were kids, birthdays were exciting because it was all about the gifts we would be getting, Rodriguez captioned an Instagram gallery of images. A new bat, dance shoes, maybe a new CD (yes Im old!).

The 42-year-old continued, I see firsthand how thats changed for Jennifer, and how shes found joy in sharing with others. For someone who has been about giving everything she has 365 days a yearto our children, our families, the worldI hope today, we can give you all the happiness you deserve. I love you mucho Macha 13.

KARLIE KLOSS AND JOSH KUSHNER ARE ENGAGED

Several solo shots of Lopez were included in the mix, as was a photo of a neon sign.

Rodriguez later followed up that post with another gallery, captioned Birthday girl .

The gallery included several shots of the famous duo together, including an image of them on bicycles.

MILA KUNIS SAYS SHE WAS TO BLAME FOR 'HORRIBLE' MACAULAY CULKIN BREAKUP: 'I'LL BE THE FIRST TO ADMIT IT'

The A-list couple, Lopezs twin children and Rodriguezs two young daughters were all in the Bahamas together on Tuesday, People reports.

Lopez has said she's "blessed" to be with Rodriguez. Between work, family and their relationship, the star doesn't have any complaints  though she realizes it's all about balance.

We have to take our time," she told Good Morning America in June. "I've made plenty of mistakes in my past and [...] we're mature now. We're grown ups, and we're going to take our time and we're going to do things at our own pace."Ryan Edwards, of MTVs Teen Mom OG, is going out with a bang  and in handcuffs.

Just days after announcing that he and his wife, Mackenzie Standifer, were quitting the Teen Mom reality series, the 30-year-old was arrested in his home state of Tennessee for a previous charge, which the inmate information system identifies as possession of a controlled substance, The Ashley first reported on Monday.

Hes being held on no bond.

This isnt Edwards' first run-in with police this year. In March, he was arrested for violating his probation connected to a previous heroin possession charge  possibly for the heroin and 14 syringes found in his car in early 2017, which The Radar Online originally reported.

Soon after his March arrest, Teen Mom OG co-star Maci Bookout filed protection orders against Edwards for herself, her husband Taylor McKinney and her three children, the oldest of whom, 9-year-old Bentley, she shares with Edwards. The orders were granted, according to E! News.

According to Teen Mom producers, Edwards has not made enough ground on his road to sobriety.

The network told us they don't want to show Ryan as a recovering addict," Standifer, whos expecting her first child with Edwards, told E! News.

According to The Ashley, Bookout would have refused to continue with Teen Mom OG if Edwards was still included on the show because she didnt want their son, Bentley, to watch him struggle with addiction.

They also want to take Macis word on how Im doing, Edwards told E!. Macis said shes not going to film unless I enter rehab again and quit the show. But Im sober.

Edwards posted about his ongoing recovery on Instagram the day after he and Standifer announced they were leaving the show. He first entered rehab in May 2017, according to E! News.It's been 12 years since Jennifer Garner starred as international spy Sydney Bristow on "Alias." Now, the actress is finally set to appear on her first television series since 2006 as Kathryn McSorley-Jodell in the HBO limited series, "Camping."

"If people were offering me things on TV, they werent really making it to me," Garner told reporters at the 2018 Television Critics Associations Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., Wednesday about her decision to return to television.

"I think that I was working in another way, and the momentum was just headed in a different direction," she explained. "But I said, and have always said, I assume at some point I look forward to going back to TV."

The star, 46, who says she loves the "familial feel" of a TV set, along with constantly getting new scripts, clarified that she "wasn't being offered things" over the years that she was saying "no" to.

As for what drew Garner specifically to the HBO series, written by Lena Dunham, the actress admits the "writing was so much fun to say."

"[Co-star] David [Tennant] can tell you that I had a really hard time saying it," Garner explained of the series' lines.

"I had a very hard time. There were moments of deep unprofessionalism," Garner admitted. "There was patience required on the part of everyone on set.

"The stakes are so high for [Kathryn] and theres so much energy in anything that she does that theres kind of a dangerous quality to her as well," continued Garner, adding that she's never done anything like it.

Along with the writing, the show's filming location was also appealing to the mom-of-three.

"Another huge draw for me is that its shot in LA," shared the star, who added that she doesn't think she could "be the lead in a single lead 22-episode network" anymore.

"I don't know how moms do that," admitted Garner.

Aside from shooting her new show, Garner has been busy planning a camping trip with her kids, son Samuel, 6, and daughters, Violet, 12, and Seraphina, 9.

"I'm a big backyard camper. My kids and I camp in the backyard every year," she shared. "We just spoke about it this morning when were going to do it."Missouri unions are getting some Hollywood help in their fight against the states proposed right-to-work law ahead of an Aug. 7 referendum, reports said Tuesday.

Actor John Goodman, a Missouri native, is featured in a radio ad opposing the right-to-work bill, calling it a bust for the middle class and boon for big business, the Springfield News-Leader reported.

"Maybe you've heard of Proposition A, the Missouri Senate's so-called 'right-to-work' bill," Goodman says in the ad. "The name's deceiving: The bill will not give you the right to work. Instead, it gives big business and out-of-state corporations the right to pay you less than they do now.

"It's being sold as a way to help Missouri workers," the Roseanne co-star continues, "but look a little deeper, and you'll see it's all about corporate greed."

The proposed law would ban unions from collecting mandatory dues and make it a crime for employers to require workers to join unions as a condition of employment.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, of which Goodman is a member, paid for the ad.

"It's being sold as a way to help Missouri workers, but look a little deeper, and you'll see it's all about corporate greed."  John Goodman

Pamela Greenwalt, a spokeswoman for SAG-AFTRA, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the ad is running only in the St. Louis market, but other reports indicated it could expand to Springfield.

While state lawmakers passed the law banning mandatory union fees last year, opponents gathered enough signatures to put it to a public vote. Supporters believe they should be able to choose whether they pay fees in industries that require union membership.

Goodman is set to star in two upcoming shows, including the ABC spinoff of Roseanne tentatively titled The Conners, and a new HBO comedy created by comedian Danny McBride about a world-famous televangelist family, titled The Righteous Gemstones.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Nearly three years ago, Chet Hanks, son of two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, entered rehab for substance abuse. Now, the 27-year-old is opening up about the moment he decided to turn his life around.

It was just the birth of my daughter and finding out I was going to be a father, Hanks tells Fox News of his baby girl Michaiah.

Since then, Chet, who says being a dad made him grow up really fast, has started a new music project, FTRZ, with bandmate Drew Arthur, with the two bonding over their love of music and shared sobriety.

We met through a mutual friend, and figured out we were both sober, so we became friends pretty instantly over that, Chet says of his friendship with Drew.

Fast-forward, the duo is now making music together which reflects their sobriety journeys. In our first song, Models, thats what were talking about, shares Chet.

'Models' is about the journey through our past of substance abuse that led us to be the better people we are today, he explained. How the wrong path can lead you to the right path if you make a change.

However, both Chet and Drew, who are set to release their first EP "The Ocean Park" in August, admit they couldnt have done it without the support of their parents.

Theyve been completely supportive 100 percent, Chet says of Tom Hanks, 62, and Rita Wilson, 61. Same here, echoes Drew of his mom and dad. I literally wouldnt even be here breathing, if they didnt have my back so much.

Looking at where he was several years ago, Chet admits that it never ceases to amaze him that by just making one major change in your life and sticking with it, basically, your life starts to reflect your dreams.

You start getting to live your dreams just by making the decision to be sober. Thats what its done for me, he shares. Thats the difference. Three years ago my life was kind of like a nightmare, and, now I get to live my dreams.

Along with making music, Chet has since landed a reoccurring role on the hit drama series Empire as rapper Blake.

Its a great opportunity obviously to be able to act and to have it be music-related, and to be on such a big, popular show, he says. I wanted to be on the show for a long time, and then it happened, so its really exciting.

As for his dads top acting tip? He tells me to know my lines and show up on time, shares Chet, who is set to appear alongside his famous father in an upcoming WWII Navy movie.

It takes place aboard a U.S. destroyer ship, says the actor, adding that itll about a naval combat against German submarines.

When it came to working with his dad, Chet admits it was unexpected how much fun it was.

It was a really great experience working alongside my dad for the first time, he shares. I didnt know what it was going to be like, and it turned out to be really fun and enjoyable.

Although theres no word yet on when the film starring the Hanks will be released, Chet isnt opposed to sharing the big screen with his dad again. Asked if this was the first of more movies to come, he replied: I hope so.

With all of his new projects, Chet is in the spotlight more than ever, however, the oldest son of Hanks and Wilson admits that growing up, he was always aware of his parents A-list status.

"I knew they were famous," he shares, adding that in his mind "we were a normal family." "But no one really treated me normally," Chet recalled.

"Nobody cared less about my familys fame than me," he continued. "Everybody else would form perceptions about me based on it, but it didnt affluence my perception of myself at all, which led to some awkwardness."CNN star Jake Tapper blew up at his staff last week when they bungled a series of clips intended to criticize President Trumps explanation of his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Mediaite.

The Media watchdog site reported on Wednesday that Tapper went ballistic when his crew didnt have the clip he wanted to play and urged readers to share video of the incident if available. The site is popular for members of the media industry and a reliable CNN production source provided the tip on Tapper.

It all reportedly started when Tapper wanted to show three clips of Trump in chronological order, beginning with him famously saying of alleged Russian election meddling, I dont see any reason why it would be Russia.

The second clip was Trumps correction, when he said he meant to say he didnt see any reason why it wouldnt be Russia that interfered with the 2016 election. According to Mediaites source, the third clip was supposed to footage of Trump acknowledging that Russia interfered while adding that it could be other people also.

Tappers program aired the first two clips but seemingly failed to have the third soundbite ready when the CNN anchor wanted it  and they reportedly paid the price.

Alright, we dont have the clip for some reason, an annoyed Tapper said before tossing it to a guest and then going to a commercial break.

Mediaite reported, During the commercial break  Tapper went ballistic, berating his staff in front of the entire studio for not reading my emails!

The reliable CNN production source described the incident as both unhinged and bananas, adding that Tapper yelled about his staffs incompetence.

CNN did not respond to Fox News request for comment.

If, by chance, you have video of the incident, we would love to see it, Mediaites Aidan McLaughlin wrote, providing his email address.

If Mediaite uncovers the footage, it won't be the first time the site has uncovered embarrassing antics of a cable news star.

Last year, MSNBCs Lawrence O'Donnell launched into a profanity-laced tirade at his staff that was unearthed by the site. O'Donnell was heard complaining about "insanity in my earpiece" and begging someone to "stop the hammering!"

Initially, O'Donnell complained that he couldn't hear audio in his earpiece during a report on President Trump's trip to Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

"Someone in that control room is out of control," he said, before adding expletives.

As the problems persist, O'Donnell became visibly enraged, banging his fists on the desk and repeating "G-d d--n it" and "F--k" and it continued to escalate from there.

"STOP THE HAMMERING!" He eventually screamed. "STOP THE HAMMERING OUT THERE! WHOS GOT A HAMMER? WHERE IS IT? WHERES THE HAMMER?"

Fox News Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.A Washington, D.C.-based burger joint apologized this week after its social media account used a meme of slain journalist James Foley to bash its competitors.

Z-Burger, a small chain known for its burgers and milkshakes, tweeted the image of Foley, an American journalist who was kidnapped and executed by ISIS in 2014, over the weekend, The Washingtonian reported. The tweet was up for about an hour before it was removed.

OHIO BAR IN TROUBLE WITH BREWERY OVER OFFENSIVE SIGN ABOUT SAFE SPACE

When you say you want a burger and someone says okay lets hit McDonalds, the since-deleted tweet said, with an image of Foley attached that said, You disgrace me.

Owner Peter Tabibian said the tweet was the result of a contracted marketing company and was not approved by him prior to being published.

I have taken immediate steps to ensure that this never happens again, and our customers have my promise to ensure that established controls over the placement of amateur promotional posts on our Twitter page are more closely followed, immediately, Tabibian said in a statement online.

According to The Washingtonian, Z-Burger hired Valor Media, a North Carolina-based company, earlier this year.

Michael Valor, the groups 23-year-old president and founder, stressed in a series of videos that Z-Burger should not be held accountable for the controversial tweet. He said an art student was behind it, though he ultimately takes responsibility.

PAPA JOHNS ACCUSED OF FOSTERING BRO CULTURE WITHIN COMPANY, REPORT CLAIMS

Valor also said he would make a donation to the James W. Foley Foundation. Diane Foley, the late journalists mother, said she was very saddened that [Z-Burger] would be so insensitive and ignorant of others pain while marketing their hamburger.

The Z-Burger backlash on social media was swift.

Z-Burger has four locations in the D.C.-area.Kigali, the capital and largest city of Rwanda, always impresses the first comers with its clean streets, polite residents and elegant houses.

With social stability as well as diligent and wise public, the well-governed landlocked country in East Africa is exhibiting a booming vigor and strong willpower to realize economic take-off.

As a Chinese poem reads, "Good friends feel close to each other even when they are thousands of miles away." The geographic distance between Kigali and Beijing cannot weaken the friendship and affections between the two peoples, and the Rwandan residents hold a heartfelt aspiration for China and China-Africa cooperation in all fields.

The intimacy of local citizens towards China came from the benefits Chinese people bring to them as well as the days they shared weal and woe together.

Over the decades, batches of Chinese medical teams, agricultural experts, Chinese language teachers, and constructors have fought for Rwandas prosperity together with local people, even in the remotest part of the African country.

Their hard work has benefited the African country, and the friendship was forged in their course to pursue better future.

The Chinese experts are so easy-going that they are willing to communicate and get close to us, said Ernest, who is now working with a demonstration center of agriculture techniques built with Chinas assistance.

Im happy everyday as Chinese experts taught me a lot of new skills and brought advanced agricultural techniques to Rwanda, added Ernest, an agriculture and biotechnology graduate of the University of Rwanda.

Local farmers really like the agricultural experts from China, because they did farm work together with us and told us new skills patiently, he said, stressing that such gratitude is really sincere.

The Rwandans are full of expectations towards Chinese President Xi Jinpings visit. China brings Africa friendship and respect, as well as development experience that are urgently needed by us, said James Munyaneza, managing editor of New Times, an English newspaper of Rwanda.

With a deep insight with China, he appreciates the Chinese government for realizing a remarkable national development over the past 40 years by working out feasible and practical polices to stimulate the active mass engagement of economic construction.

Only friendships built on sincerity can last long. It is a great amount of the dedicated public envoys who made the friendship tree of China and Rwanda flourish and grow.

Xi once pointed out that people-to-people bond not only constitutes a part of efforts to construct the Belt and Road, but also serves as its cultural foundation.

It is believed that Xis Rwandan trip will further cement bilateral friendly cooperation, and give a boost to the friendship between China and Africa.A Destin, Florida mans 826-pound, 8-ounce bluefin tuna catch has officially become one of the five new saltwater fishing records in the state, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) announced Tuesday.

Angler Rick Whitley caught the massive tuna  which measured 114 inches in length and 80 inches around  off a fishing boat called "You Never Know in May 2017, according to the FWC.

Whitleys impressive catch took the vacant bluefin tuna state record slot, filling the final vacancy in the conventional tackle category, the FWC said in a news release.

MASSACHUSETTS FISHERMEN WRESTLE GREAT WHITE SHARK FOR STRIPED BASS IN WILD FOOTAGE

One Tennessee man, Lanny Clark, witnessed Whitley make fishing history in the state.

"I was just blown away when I finally saw the fish. Ive never seen anything like it, Clark told the Tennessean at the time, adding that Whitley worked for three hours to reel the fish in.

The bluefin tuna, which fought to the death, Clark said, had an estimated market value of $20,000.

PENNSYLVANIA ANGLERS FIND TERRIFYING 'FRANKENFISH' SNAKEHEAD IN CREEK

The four other record catches that were recently approved by the FWC include a 4-pound, 8-ounce hardhead catfish caught by Ethan Pillitteri; a 35-pound, 9-ounce almaco jack caught by Lewis Sapp; a 2-pound kingfish caught by Raymond A. Hathorn, Jr.; and a 26-pound horse-eye jack caught by Sharon Kartrude Pryel.

Whitley did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment on Wednesday.Yosemite National Park has announced that large areas of the park will be closed off as during the near-height of the visitor season due to ongoing impacts from the Ferguson fire.

The National Park Service (NPS) posted the news Tuesday, confirming that both the Yosemite Valley and Wawona  which comprise of nearly 8,000 acres  would be closed to visitors as of 12 p.m. on Wednesday, July 25. Any visitors already in the areas will also be asked to leave.

These closures include all hotels, campgrounds, and visitor services in Yosemite Valley and Wawona, NPSs message stated. Park visitors currently staying in park campgrounds and lodging facilities are asked to be out of these areas by Noon tomorrow.

OREGON HIKER REUNITES GIRL WITH LOST STUFFED ANIMAL

Yosemite officials say Yosemite Valley and Wawona are expected to remain closed until July 29.

The closures also come during the parks second-busiest month for tourists (after August), with nearly 600,000 visiting the park throughout the June, USA Today reports. The outlet further reported that closures will the plans of hundreds of thousands of tourists, and cost nearby hospitality workers significant portions of their revenue.

Im going to lose $20,000 and thats money Ill never see again, said Ron Skelton, the owner of the Yosemite Blue Butterfly Inn, to USA Today. "Were completely shut down.

WHY ROB DECKER IS ON A MISSION TO PHOTOGRAPH EVERY NATIONAL PARK

News of the closures follows similar precautionary measures taken in other areas of the park, including the closure of roads, the Bridalveil Creek Campground, the Wawona Campground and the Merced Grove of Giant Sequoias, which are all off-limits to visitors due to the fire, or to aid with firefighting operations.

Officials had earlier said Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the fire; authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park.

The park, however, had previously put out an alert for visitors, warning of smoky conditions including poor air quality and poor visibility.

The Ferguson fire has raged for nearly two weeks, burning through over 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of woods in the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained as of Tuesday.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Federal prosecutors are increasingly treating fentanyl overdose deaths as homicides in an attempt to crack down on the growing crisis by punishing dealers with more severe prison sentences.

On July 11, Sergio Martinez, of Lawrence, Mass., was charged with distributing fentanyl that resulted in the March overdose death of a man in New Hampshire with the initials K.B. He now faces a mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison, if convicted, prosecutors said.

Previously, the feds charged Martinez, 28, and his brother with running a vast network of dealers who sold large quantities of fentanyl in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Martinez brothers and 41 others have been snared in the year-long investigation. Among those arrested were four illegal immigrants, officials said.

New Hampshire knows all too well about the deadly nature of fentanyl, New Hampshire U.S. Attorney Scott Murray said. We are fully committed to ending the opioid epidemic and will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute those who are responsible for distributing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.

CDC CHIEF SAYS FENTANYL ALMOST KILLED HIS SON

The growing fentanyl crisis is reflected in data released July 11 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that synthetic opioids, a category that includes fentanyl and its derivatives, were responsible for more than 27,000 deaths in 2017, up from 20,000 deaths in 2016.

Fentanyl is a drug 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. The opioid comes mostly from China. Senate investigators reported earlier this year that fentanyl sellers could be found online through a simple Google search.

The number of federal fentanyl prosecutions have more than tripled, from 74 defendants in 51 cases in fiscal year 2016 to 267 defendants in 181 cases in fiscal year 2017, according to the Justice Department. Some of those cases involved an overdose death.

This crisis is devastating, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in Concord, N.H., on July 12. But we will not stand by idle. We are not going to accept the status quo. We will not allow this to continue.

$1.7M IN FENTANYL FROM CHINA DETECTED BY DRUG-SNIFFING DOG AT PHILADELPHIA PORT

He announced he was ordering federal prosecutors in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maine, California and Pennsylvania as well as in New Hampshire to prosecute anyone suspected of fentanyl dealing.

We can weaken these networks, reduce fentanyl availability, and save lives, Sessions said.

In April, federal prosecutors in Buffalo, N.Y., charged Robert (Fonz) Moore, 39, of Williamsville, N.Y., and Joshua Levine, 21 of Lancaster, N.Y., in connection with five deadly Fentanyl overdoses in 2015, 2016 and 2017 in Western New York.

This indictment is a significant step in bringing drug dealers to justice for causing overdose deaths as a result of their illegal actions, stated DEA Special Agent-in-Charge James J. Hunt.

SEIZED FENTANYL ENOUGH TO KILL 26M PEOPLE, NEBRASKA POLICE SAY

An investigation into 18-year-old Bailey Henkes 2015 fentanyl overdose death in Grand Forks, N.D., resulted in indictments against nearly three dozen people, including six Chinese nationals on charges of importing large quantities of fentanyl to the U.S. from China, according to prosecutors.

Henke purchased the fentanyl from a friend Ryan Jensen who bought it over the Dark Web. Jensen was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2016.

Last year, 95 people nationwide received federal prison sentences for distributing drugs resulting in death or serious injury, nearly double the number in 2014, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a federal agency that determines sentencing guidelines for judges.

In June, Robert Mansfield, age 61, of Ladson, S.C., was sentenced to 20 years in prison for distribution of fentanyl resulting in the death of a man in December 2016, South Carolina federal prosecutors said.

Investigators said Mansfield used the Dark Web to purchase fentanyl and other controlled substances from sources in Hong Kong and other foreign locations. He then sold the drug through the Dark Web and used the United States Postal Service to ship packages to customers throughout the country.

OPIOID ABUSE TREATMENT IN WORKS TARGETS FENTANYL

In April federal prosecutors in Orlando, Fla., obtained a conviction against another Dark Web fentanyl distributor, Jeremey Achey, who was charged in connection with the February 2017, death of the 25-year-old daughter of a Virginia law enforcement officer.

The prosecutors said Achey, 44, was one of the largest synthetic opioid distributors on the now defunct AlphaBay marketplace. At the time of his arrest in June 2017, Drug Enforcement Administration agents investigating the woman's death said that Achey was also under investigation in connection with the overdose deaths of 19 other people, according to court papers.

Im the biggest vendor on there probably, Achey said of AlphaBay

in a post-arrest interview with DEA agents obtained by Fox News. I mean Im probably the best on there at what I do.

Prosecutors said Achey filled 100 orders a day operating out of his home in Pennsylvania where he lived with his wife and 16-year-old daughter, court papers show.

In June, Achey, 44, was sentenced to life in prison after Judge Paul Byron rejected his plea for a lesser sentence of 20 years in prison.

You showed a complete disregard for the safety of your fellow

man, the judge told him, according to a court transcript.

The Achey case is one of 14 fentanyl overdose death cases Florida Middle District U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez has brought since the beginning of 2017.

In June, her office charged Corey Damond Smith, Jr., 22, of Tampa with selling Bradley Dykes fentanyl billed as heroin. Dykes was 46 when he overdosed and died in November 2017.

"The impact of illegal opioids on our communities has reached epidemic proportions," Lopez told Fox News. "We intend to work with our partners and use every tool available, from enforcement and prosecution to education and prevention, to stem the flow of this devastating scourge."

Massachusetts is investigating e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc and two online retailers to determine whether they violated state law by failing to prevent minors from buying their products, the states attorney general said on Tuesday.

The probe by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey comes as the fast-growing Silicon Valley e-cigarette start-up has faced increased scrutiny due the popularity of Juuls products with teenagers.

The investigation will seek to determine how effective Juul is at preventing minors from buying its products and what, if anything, it does to prevent online retailers that do not verify a buyers age from purchasing its products, Healey said.

The bottom line, this is about keeping young people safe and healthy, she said at a news conference.

E-CIGARETTE USE EXPOSES TEENS TO TOXIC CHEMICALS, NEW STUDY SAYS

Healeys office said it was sending cease-and-desist letters to Direct Eliquid LLC and Eonsmoke LLC, demanding the online companies stop selling Juul and other e-cigarette products to Massachusetts residents without adequate age verification systems.

San Francisco-based Juul, which launched in 2015, said in a statement that it was committed to preventing underage use of its products. The company said it uses stringent online tools to block sales to people under the age of 21.

Furthermore, we have never marketed to anyone underage, Juul said.

E-cigarettes are handheld electronic devices that vaporize a fluid that often contains the addictive substance nicotine. The devices have been grabbing market share from traditional tobacco companies and are available in a variety of flavors. The Juul product has a sleek design that resembles a USB flash drive.

Cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body and causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

VAPING PILOTS WHO CAUSED AIR CHINA FLIGHT TO DROP 21,000 FEET LOSE LICENSES

While many people use e-cigarettes to help cut down on smoking, health care and anti-tobacco advocates have become increasingly concerned by the extent to which the Juul product has become popular among teens in the United States.

According to a 2016 report by the U.S. surgeon general, e-cigarette use increased 900 percent among high school students from 2011 to 2015.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 24 announced a crackdown on the sale of e-cigarettes and tobacco products to minors, particularly those developed by Juul.

The FDA issued 40 warning letters to retailers, including multiple 7-Eleven stores, for violations over sales of Juul products to minors. It also required Juul to turn over documents relating to its marketing practices.A mother in Tennessee is heartbroken after her twins were found unresponsive in the deep end of a babysitters swimming pool, saying shes not sure how to live with this pain.

Amelia Wieand, the mother of twins Elijah and Elyssa Orejuela, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that her son donated his organs on Tuesday to help other children after passing away on Sunday.

After much heartbreak, Elijah has gone to be with his sister Elyssa, Weiand told the newspaper. They were formed together in my womb and came into this world together. Both kids were extremely strong. She was his other half. They were soul mates and never apart. Even in death they were together.

Weiand said her son donated his organs to save the lives of strangers hell never know.

TEEN INFECTED WITH HOOKWORMS COULD 'FEEL THE WORMS MOVING IN HIS BODY,' MOM SAYS

Ill never understand this, and Im not sure how to live with this pain, she continued. But to prevent another family from suffering this immeasurable pain, today Elijah became a superhero.

The twins  who were just one month away from turning 2  were found early Friday in the deep end of a babysitters pool at a home operating as a day care center on Fox Lonas Road in West Knox County, sheriff officials said.

The children were rushed to a nearby hospital, where Elyssa was pronounced dead Friday. Elijah was put on life support and was pronounced dead on Sunday, a hospital spokesman told the newspaper.

I know right now they are in heaven being mischievous and giggling, Wieand said, adding that her son never wouldve been complete living without his twin sister.

In a separate Facebook post, Wieand, a registered nurse, thanked the public for supporting her during the early stages of her grieving process.

Click for more from NYPost.com.A 17-year-old Memphis teen is still suffering from painful side effects more than a month after he contracted a parasitic worm infection while on a mission trip in Florida.

Michael Dumas, who was reportedly diagnosed with hookworms, first complained of tiredness and ear pain but later noticed bumps on his thigh, Fox 13 Memphis reported.

Days prior, while still on the trip, the teen was reportedly buried in sand with his friends while hanging out on Pompano Beach. A doctor allegedly told the family that the worms likely burrowed under his feet while he was buried, WMC reported.

We have suffered so much, Kellie Mulhollen Dumas, the teens mother, told WMC. I dont want anyone else to go through this; hes going to be permanently scarred."

WOMAN CLAIMS SHE NEARLY LOST LEG AFTER CONTRACTING SERIOUS INFECTION FROM PEDICURE

Hookworms are known as soil-transmitted parasite worms, and typically live in the small intestine. The eggs are transmitted through feces of an infected person, and the larvae can mature into a form that can penetrate through the skin of humans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hookworm infection is mainly acquired by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. While most patients do not suffer any symptoms or side effects, some may experience gastrointestinal issues.

In a series of graphic photos posted on Friday, Dumas detailed her sons injuries and said that after four trips to the pediatrician and an appointment with a dermatologist, he has been prescribed several medicines and a steroid but the pain persists. He still cant wear shoes and has to soak the afflicted areas in bleach water.

NEW HAMPSHIRE MAN DIES AFTER YELLOW JACKET STING, WIFE SAYS

He is in pain and this is AWFUL, Dumas posted, in part, on July 20. Never be buried in sand or allow your children to be either! I am only showing a few pictures because it is so disturbing. Please, please pray for him to heal.

Dumas told Fox 13 Memphis that part of his treatment included an attempt to freeze the worms.

While she was using the liquid nitrogen, he could actually feel the worms moving in his body, Dumas said.

She also claimed that Pompano Beach health officials told her that everyone knows to wear shoes because of the risk of parasites. Dumas said she has been in touch with the Broward County Health Department.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Georgias race for governor this year pits a hard-charging, Southern version of Donald Trump against an African-American Yale Law School graduate trying to assemble a new liberal coalition.

Some people are already calling the election a local version of the 2012 presidential race between Donald Trump and Barack Obama that never happened, because Trump chose not to run in that year.

When voters select the winner in November they will provide important signals about the direction of the 2020 presidential race.

In the Tuesday runoff contest to pick the Republican nominee for governor, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp won with 69 percent of the vote. He crushed the establishments choice, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, with a rollicking campaign that featured Kemp brandishing his favorite rifle in a commercial.

In the ad, Kemp sat in a pickup truck and said he was prepared just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself.

An admiring President Trump not only endorsed Kemp as a kindred spirit but dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to campaign with Kemp at a rally last weekend.

The Democrats already picked their nominee without a runoff last month. Stacey Abrams, the former leader of Democrats in the state House, is the first African-American to win her partys nomination for governor. If elected, she would be the first black woman in the U.S. to become a governor.

A new USA Today poll shows Abrams and Kemp with almost even voter support, with Abrams trailing by only 45 to 43 percent.

President Trump weighed in on the race Wednesday morning, tweeting: Congratulations to Brian Kemp on your very big win in Georgia last night. Wow, 69-30, those are big numbers. Now go win against the open border, crime loving opponent that the Democrats have given you. She is weak on Vets, the Military and the 2nd Amendment. Win!

Abrams tweeted back in response to the president: Proud to join the company of  other Democrats hes campaigned against all the way to victory. Lets add one more: Donate here.

Abrams has been busy since 2014 building something called The New Georgia Project. It aims to register a new American majority made up of young people, unmarried women and minorities that she claims make up 62 percent of the states population but only 53 percent of its registered voters.

We are going to inspire voters who, for the first time, see their values in the candidate, and see the investment follow those values, Abrams says. Its the same strategy that Barack Obama used to ride into the White House in 2008.

Kemp responds that Abrams approach masks the fact that she is just an out-of-touch radical liberal who cares more for her billionaire backers like George Soros than the challenges facing Georgians.

Democrats are pinning a lot of cash and hope on Abrams. Rolling Stone magazine just published a piece headlined Why Stacey Abrams Is The Future For Democrats.

Liberals believe an Abrams victory could demonstrate they can crack the solid South in 2020, much like Donald Trump cracked the Democrats Blue Wall in the Midwest in the 2016 election.

The Democrats path to victory in the next presidential race may lie through Georgias 15 electoral votes. Trump swept the South in 2016. However, reliably conservative Georgia went for him by only five points, down from Mitt Romneys 2012 eight-point margin over President Obama.

One reason for the drop in support for candidate Trump was a reaction against him among single suburban voters, while another was a continuing flow into the booming Atlanta area of middle-class African-American migrants from the North.

Abrams admits that Georgia hasnt been considered a swing state, but said states arent swing states until they swing  and that time is now.

Kemp and his GOP backers scoff at such claims. Georgia is and will remain a red state, he told me several months ago. We will expose liberal policies that threaten this states prosperity and opportunity.

For now, break out the popcorn and expect a rollicking campaign that will feature two compelling personalities. It may not quite be the Trump vs. Obama prize fight we didnt see on the national stage, but the issues it will feature may well provide a template for how the 2020 presidential race will be fought nationwide.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

While self-proclaimed "democratic socialists" win Democratic primaries in America, actual socialists in Cuba are finally backing away from some of the ideas that kept Cubans poor.

Sunday, Cuba's National Assembly approved a draft of a new constitution that recognizes a right to own private property. That's progress. Would Senator Bernie Sanders and celebrity-of-the-moment Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez approve? I'm not sure.

Instead of saying that "communism" is the purpose of the state, Cuba will now say that "socialism" is the basis of the economy.

That's an ambiguous difference, but "socialism" tends to mean a larger private sector.

Cuba's new leaders also say they welcome foreign investment. Maybe this will bring some prosperity to the long-suffering Cuban population.

It may bring more freedom, too. The new draft says a criminal defendant is innocent until proven guilty. That's progress. It also sets term limits on presidents -- no more than two consecutive five-year terms. Fidel Castro ruled for 50 years.

The new Cuba may also permit gay marriage. The draft defines marriage as being between two individuals, not necessarily a man and a woman. That's a big step for a country that recently locked gay people up in "work" camps.

On the other hand, the state-run newspaper says Cuba "will never return to capitalism." And while some open speech is permitted, crackdowns against dissidents, even ones who just sing angry rock songs, continue.

Still, the U.S. should be happy about the changes, and the last thing we should do when we want to encourage free market changes in a country is slap an embargo on it.

Yet some conservatives want to do that, and President Trump reversed some of President Obama's "Cuba opening."

This is a bad idea. Nothing gets a population accustomed to decentralized, nongovernmental commercial activity like commercial activity.

The more we restrict trade, the more we drive a country's population into the hands of the state.

If you can't sell your products to American customers, you might just work for your country's corrupt state-run enterprises. Instead of having casual contact with customers who live outside your country's political system, that system becomes all you know. Your idea of what's possible shrinks.

Embargoes favored by the right are just one wrong approach. The left does everyone an injustice by praising Cuban communism. I live in New York, where my socialist-leaning mayor, Bill de Blasio, was so enamored of Cuba that he honeymooned there.

Bernie Sanders acknowledges that the Cuban economy is "a disaster" but says at least they have health care and education -- as if we don't.

American socialists are economically clueless. But conservative embargo advocates are just as bad.

Democratic congressional candidate David Richardson of Florida, who plans to visit Havana as part of his campaign, has the right idea.

"A half-century of isolation did not achieve progress for the everyday Cuban," he told the Tampa Bay Times. "I fully support a position of engagement with Cuban civil society ... Rolling back travel and trade restrictions has changed the lives of the Cuban people, helped private Cuban entrepreneurs, and strengthened the connection between the residents of Little Havana and Havana."

That's a good thing.

Embargoes are not only bad for Cuba, they are bad for Americans who are less free to pick which people and companies to work with.

Partial embargoes in the form of tariffs are also bad. Adding tariffs is like imposing an embargo on ourselves.

Trump defenders argue that his tariffs are a short-term tactic meant to shock other countries into lowering their own trade barriers.

The ideal is "no (trade) barriers ... no subsidies," said Trump. "Ultimately, that's what you want." I hope he succeeds, but I'm skeptical. So far, his tariffs have just brought nasty retaliation.

Not everyone agrees that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff caused the Great Depression, but tariffs have awful economic consequences. Smoot-Hawley certainly prolonged the Depression and made it worse.

Less trade means less prosperity. It doesn't matter whether trade restrictions are imposed by conservatives or by communists.

Let goods flow.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is having a bad week  and its about to get worse. On Friday were expected to learn from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis that the U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace in the second quarter of this year, further affirming the success of President Trumps tax cuts and deregulatory efforts.

President Trump hinted at the good economic news in a tweet Tuesday, writing: Our Country is doing GREAT. Best financial numbers on the Planet. Great to have USA WINNING AGAIN!

Economists expect the Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday will show that the nations gross domestic product (GDP) grew between 3.3 percent and 4.6 percent in the second quarter  showing not only a strong economy, but one that is accelerating.

Schumer hopes each day to distract from the booming economy by championing a bewildering array of issues  the latest being the news that ghost gun plans will appear on the Internet starting Aug. 1 and enable people to make guns with 3D printers.

The Democratic leader started off this week confronting unimaginable polls that are good news for President Trump and bad news for Democrats.

Despite withering criticism for President Trumps press conference in Helsinki, establishment outrage over his trash-talking of NATO, alarm among even his supporters about a looming trade war, lingering angst over families separated at the border and serial other offenses, President Trumps approval rating over the past week crept higher.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows 45 percent of respondents giving a thumbs-up to President Trump  a record since he took the oath of office.

Schumer, who desperately wants Democrats to take back the House and the Senate by winning majorities in each chamber in the Nov. 6 midterm elections, must wonder: What will it take to bring this president down?

To be sure, President Trumps support comes almost exclusively from Republicans, some 88 percent of whom expressed approval of his job performance. As far back as President Harry Truman, only George W. Bush earned higher accolades from his own party at this point in his presidency, and in his case it came on the heels of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

This is extraordinary  but not mysterious. The poll from the Wall Street Journal also showed a record 50 percent of people giving President Trump high marks for his handling of the economy. That is the only issue on which half or more of the population rates the president positively.

The problem for Democrats is that the economy is the issue that counts most. Every survey that ranks the concerns of Americans puts the economy up top. As families sit around their kitchen tables, few worry whether North Koreas denuclearization is going as planned. But they sure are concerned about whether theyre about to lose their jobs.

Democrats are in a tough position. They would like to convince voters they hold the key to a more prosperous future. Facing an extremely prosperous present, they have adopted ever more extreme programs like guaranteed jobs or free college tuition to attract support.

Some think such promises are almost too good to be true. They are correct.

Take the proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand. D-N.Y., for a guaranteed jobs programs. In an interview with The Nation, she argued that such a plan is exactly the type of roles that government must take to shift power back to workers and our communities.

Dont look now, senator, but that power shift is taking place today, when there are more job openings than people applying for work. Unemployment among blacks and Hispanics has hit all-time lows; felons and the disabled are also being hired in record numbers. Thats how capitalism works.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities conducted a study on Gillibrands guaranteed jobs idea, which is designed to transform the U.S. labor market, concluding it would cost nearly 3 percent of GDP. For comparison, our entire military budget makes up about 3.5 percent of the economy. Not happening.

Not every Democratic plan is nonsensical. Most recently, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House minority whip, launched yet another economic platform meant to inspire candidates running for House seats in the midterm elections.

Hoyers Make it in America program is actually an 8-year-old agenda refreshed by insights from what its author calls the Make it in America Listening Tour which, not surprisingly, focused on toss-up states won by Donald Trump. The new program emphasizes job training, providing health-care for entrepreneurs, and repairing infrastructure.

These are good ideas, which is why the Democrats program has been virtually pre-empted by President Trump.

On June 16 the president signed an executive order expanding the nations skill development and apprenticeship programs, an idea he campaigned on. In doing so, President Trump could tout the tight labor market  citing, for instance, that for the first time in the nations history there are more job openings than applicants.

Also, the White House just hosted a Made in America program, showcasing what the president described as the greatest products in the world  products made with American heart, American sweat, and American pride.

President Trump can point not only to knives and trucks made in the U.S.A., but also to the 344,000 manufacturing jobs that have been created since he took office. Thats powerful, especially since any number of left-leaning economists have long written the U.S. off as a manufacturing hub.

The White House is also working to create less expensive health-care for affiliated groups. That should help entrepreneurs and other small businesses.

A year ago Sen. Schumer launched a meager economic platform, called The Better Deal, which failed to get much notice. He rolled it out in response to polling that showed only 37 percent of voters thought that the Democratic Party stood for something, while 52 percent said the party only stood against President Trump.

For Democrats, things have only gotten worse. Not only has Trumps approval rating gone up, but Gallup reports Americans satisfaction with the direction of the country recently hit a 12-year high. To repeat, the country is happier with our course today than at any time during Obamas presidency.

Schumer knows his party needs to sell more than anti-Trump vitriol to voters. With every indication the economy will hum along through November, he has his work cut out for him.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

From the time Democratic President Harry Truman granted diplomatic recognition to the Jewish state of Israel on May 14, 1948  the day the state was formed  support for Israel was widespread and bipartisan among American elected officials. In fact, it was taken by most as a given on both sides of the aisle.

But sadly, in recent years growing numbers of Democratic candidates and officials have slowly but surely been abandoning Israel. The shift has, in large part, mirrored the partys overall lurch leftward.

This disturbing trend is increasingly turning support for Israel into a partisan issue  with Republicans firmly in Israels corner, while more and more Democrats show sympathy towards Israels adversaries.

A Gallup poll of U.S. adults released in March supported this finding. It found that while 83 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Israel, the figure drops to 72 percent among independents and 64 percent among Democrats.

Still, the majority support for Israel among all three groups should be a strong warning to Democratic candidates: hostility to Israel is not a politically popular position.

When the memory of the Holocaust was still fresh in the years immediately after World War II, most Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. saw Israel for what it was and remains  a democracy with values and norms similar to our own, eager to live in peace but forced to defend itself from Arab nations waging war and terrorist attacks.

But following Israels miraculous victory in the Six-Day War in 1967  when it was attacked by the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria, along with troops from other Arab nations  the perception of Israel began changing.

After it captured land from the invading armies, Israels enemies began portraying the tiny Jewish state as an oppressive occupier of lands rightfully belonging to Palestinian Arabs  who in this formulation deserved a state on the West Bank and Gaza, or for some, a state replacing all of Israel.

The Jewish people  who were living in what is now Israel and the West Bank with their capital in Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago  are increasingly and absurdly portrayed as foreign invaders of the Arabs ancestral homeland, despite clear historical, biblical and archeological records.

The latest Democrat to take up the anti-Israel banner is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who scored a stunning upset victory over House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley in a congressional primary in New York City. Ocasio-Cortez proudly identifies herself as a supporter of the Democratic Socialists of America, a far-left organization that questions Israels right to exist.

In a recent interview, Ocasio-Cortez attacked the occupation of Palestine by Israel. She earlier said Israels legitimate attempts to defend itself from armed attackers recently seeking to breach its border security fence with Gaza constituted a massacre. Obviously confused, she tried to backtrack by saying I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.

In fact, while some protesters at the Gaza border fence were peaceful, others attacked Israeli soldiers with guns, firebombs and rocks. Some even told U.S. reporters they wanted to enter Israel to mount terrorist attacks.

The Washington Post reported May 14 that a 23-year old man it identified as Mohammed Mansoura said: We are excited to storm and get inside Israel to kill, throw stones. In the same article, the Post stated: Two other young men carried large knives and said they wanted to kill Jews on the other side of the fence.



Unfortunately, Ocasio-Cortezs anti-Israel comments are sadly emblematic of a larger political trend troubling the Democratic Party.

An example of this is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, the self-described Democratic Socialist who challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. He has sharply criticized Israel on numerous occasions and made clear that he is dedicated to a more balanced position on Israel. This is nothing more than an implicit expression of anti-Israel sentiments  which paint Israeli actions to preserve the country as murderous war crimes.

That Keith Ellison, a known Israel hater with ties to consummate anti-Semites, was made deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee last year just goes to show how far the Democratic Party has fallen.

Just this past February, it surfaced that Ellison had a private dinner with Louis Farrakhan in 2013. The leader of the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan is a known anti-Semite with a reputation for outrageous lies and actions, such as arguing that there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks.

And these leaders of the far left are only the tip of the iceberg. The rank and file of the party has been steadily shifting to the left on Israel as well.

College campuses, once a bastion of support for Israel and the Democratic Party, have become the home to the Boycott Divest and Sanctions movement that calls for the global community to sever economic ties with Israel. Even some far-left Jewish students have joined in.

A few high-ranking, unequivocally pro-Israel, Democratic Party elected officials still remain. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York  the state with the largest Jewish population in the nation  is chief among them. But these officials have become less and less representative of the party as a whole.

Moreover, when it has really counted, these pro-Israel holdouts have capitulated to the far left. When the disastrous Iran nuclear deal  an agreement that released billions of dollars in frozen assets to Israel's most serious security threat  came to a vote in the Senate, Schumer personally voted against it.

However, Schumer didnt mount an effort to convince his colleagues to vote no as well. Schumers decision to stand idly by essentially guaranteed the measures passage and proved a shameful acquiescence to the anti-Israel wing of his party.

The Democratic Partys shift towards a leadership and base including Israel haters and anti-Semites is not just abhorrent, its also bad policy.

At a time when the world  and the Middle East in particular  is in such turmoil, we should be supporting our staunchest ally in the region, not alienating it. On everything from trade to technology to defense, the U.S. has partnered with Israel to the benefit of both nations.

Israels investments in U.S. businesses approach $24 billion annually. On defense, Israeli intelligence agencies partner with their American counterparts, sharing information that helps keep both countries safe from terrorists and other threats.

On top of this, Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. By merely existing, Israel helps to promote American values in an incredibly dangerous neighborhood of the world.

Supporting Israel is not just an international relations imperative. For the Democrats, its a political one as well.

In years past, the Democratic Party was a steady home for many American Jews  the religious group that forms the core of pro-Israel voters.

However, as President Trump looks to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not long after Netanyahu and President Obama butted heads, one thing is becoming increasingly clear to voters: Republicans are the pro-Israel party, while Democrats are not.

There are 5.3 million Jews in America. While it would be ignorant to characterize every last one of them as pro-Israel, there is still truth to the idea that many of them are. In a short time, growing numbers of them will take their votes and donations to the Republican Party if Democrats leave them in the shadows.

Andrew Stein is a former New York City Council president.How much will China be impacted by the tariff slapped by the US? The question can only be answered after evaluation of multiple factors on production and trading links.

Only when the domestic production cost in China remains on the same level while the US imports has infinite price elasticity of demand, the trade war would severely threaten Chinese industries. But the fact is that the cost of exported commodities usually has enough flexible room during production and trading, thus leaving the impact on China limited.

Under the background of Chinas supply-side structural reform, a tax reduction would be the most direct approach to cope with trade protectionism by lowering costs.

Having similar effect as fiscal subsidies, a tax cut is in line with the big direction of Chinas ongoing structural adjustment and economic reform, while not violating related World Trade Organization (WTO) rules such as the anti-subsidy duties.

The exchange rate of the Chinese yuan that would be lower in the medium term will be another factor, in that a downward slide of its exchange rate can effectively ease the negative influence of the increased tariffs.

The intra-trade and internal settlement is another weapon to buffer the costs. After the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2008, China has seen more and more of its enterprises seeking opportunities overseas, giving rise to a great number of small- and medium-sized transnational corporations.

These enterprises are able to change the rules of origin without making large-scale production transfer through the approaches such as intra-trade and internal settlement, and export their products through third-party countries.

Especially with Chinas continuous industrial adjustment and upgrading, the country has established its comprehensive competitiveness in the production of intermediate goods that require certain extent of technological integration.

After investing in the large-scale production in Southeast Asia in recent years, China has preliminarily built a regional production and trading network led by Chinese transnational companies. As a result, such labor division adjustment can be easily completed in the production network of Asia.

Besides, China is undergoing industrial transmission and making its economy real again. After an over-development of fictitious sector, which was the largest threat for Chinese economy in the last decade, China is now pulling itself back and getting to the track of real economy once again.

Though those irrational days witnessed unwise capital flow into the internet industry and the mismatch of social capitals, the false prosperity is getting back under control with systematic management of financial risks. The difficult financing of some fictitious economy projects in the first half of 2018 was a living proof.

The recovery of real economy, which is structural, can not find a clue immediately in statistics such as purchasing managers' index (PMI), but the trend is unstoppable.

The wholly-owned factory built by the US electric vehicle maker Tesla in Shanghai indicates the coming of a new era. Lingang New Area, where the factory locates, is a cluster of industries including international manufacturers of machine tools and robots. The mass production and supply of production materials will result in wide-ranging reform of technology and raise efficiency of domestic manufacturing industry.

Over the past years, the progress in mechanization has been reshaping Chinas competitive edge in manufacturing sector. Thanks to Chinas enhanced efforts in intensive, as well as technology- and capital-centered production, its advances in technology will substantially ease the impact of the price elasticity of demand on the industry.

The conclusion can also be echoed by the agreement recently reached by Chinese and German automakers. After years of studies and confusion, China has been policy-ready to face a new round of industrial upgrading and transformation.

The redesign of production layout by BMW and Volkswagen in the Yangtze River economic belt is a response to the call of the Chinese market with huge demand, and also an important proof of Chinese cities progress in industry growth and business environment.

(By Wang Yuzhu, Research Associate with Shanghai Institute for International Studies)NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

After the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed his razor-thin defeat in the 2000 presidential election, former Vice President Al Gore could have gone to the mat trying to delegitimize the presidency of George W. Bush. Much to his credit, he didnt.

Democrat Gore had won the popular vote, after all, and the turmoil created by the historic 36-day recount in Florida was all he needed to divide the country for selfish and ideological reasons. But instead of orchestrating a radical leftist resistance, Gore chose country over power.

As difficult as it must have been, Gore was big enough to let it go, accept his loss, and recognize that Republican Bush was the legitimate president of the United States.

In a constitutional republic like ours, every two years there are winners and losers at the ballot box. After a rigorous debate and exchange of ideas, We the People make the ultimate decision about who will do the governing until the next election.

Historically, the party that loses the previous election licks its wounds, reboots its message and works with the majority party on issues where common ground can be found. This recipe that is the American miracle has worked remarkably well for 230 years  until now.

Now theres a permanent Democratic obstruction campaign in Washington and a radical socialist resistance across the country. Whats driving this?

Never before in American history have disgruntled leaders of the minority party sought to deligimitmize and bring down a duly elected president of the United States.

Its been over 20 months since President Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the historic election of November 2016, but the left will not let it go and its doing great damage to our country.

From twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to former CIA Director John Brennan to actor Robert DeNiro to fake news, deranged leftists are determined to try to bring down a presidency. Their attacks are based on a false narrative and they dont care if they tank our country and system of government in the process.

Just this past weekend, Hillary Clinton continued to question President Trumps allegiance to America while speaking about his recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Clinton pushed the centerpiece of the Democratic agenda  Russia  when she disingenuously asked her audience: Why didnt he (Trump) stand up for our country? In this case it doesnt seem like our president cares. Hes trying to be friends with Putin for reasons we are all trying to figure out.

Hillary Clinton is a lot of things. Shes dishonest; shes the embodiment of entrenched power and the failed Washington status quo; and of course, shes crooked. However, one thing shes not is stupid.

Clinton knows full well that Christopher Steeles phony dossier is a steaming pile of political crap because she paid for the opposition research herself. She also knows that her cronies in the Obama administration pushed the fake dossier through official intelligence, diplomatic and law enforcement channels because a President Hillary Clinton would have rewarded the swamp creatures handsomely.

This is why Brennan and his deep state ilk are running around labeling the leader of the free world a traitor  just because President Trump ruined Hillarys coronation and swept them all from power.

Clinton also knows that she started her service as Obamas secretary of state with the failed Russia reset in an effort to improve relations between our two countries. She spent four years cozying up to Russia in search of a foreign policy success to hang her hat on and to line her husbands pockets and the Clinton Foundation with Russian cash.

Hillary relies on her allies in the anti-Trump media to gloss over that wrinkle in their concocted narrative. But the resistance doesnt stop with her political and media pals. Shes also got Hollywood in full war mode.

The once-respected actor Robert DeNiro goes ballistic and screams f--- Trump! at a televised award ceremony. Wealthy comedian Bill Maher waxes on about how great an economic recession would be for Democratic chances to retake power  ignoring the fact that a recession would hurt millions of hardworking American families.

These and other Trump-haters make it clear that the left is united in its effort to get rid of President Trump  no matter what.

Unfortunately for the agenda-less liberals, the Trump economy is on fire and this Fridays report on the gross domestic product will confirm what the American people already know: President Trumps pro-growth economic program is working and the results are exceeding all expectations.

Its a dangerous game being played by national Democratic leaders and its not without consequences. Whether its turning their backs on our police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, or attempting to provoke a war with Russia, the Democrats have become totally unhinged.

Will any adults in the Democratic Party show some leadership and say its time to move past 2016 once and for all? Or will they continue their sad and destructive decline into Third World chaos and socialism?

Make no mistake, Hillary Clinton is fueling the resistance and encouraging others to join in because she cant get over losing, despite the fact that she pledged to accept the results of the election. Its still all about Hillary  America be damned.Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has won a bruising Republican runoff in the state's race for governor, leveraging a damning secret audio recording of his opponent and a last-minute Trump-Pence endorsement.

With Tuesday's win against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Kemp faces Democrat Stacey Abrams. She could become the country's first black woman governor.

The race will test Democrats' assertion that changing demographics have turned the Republican stronghold into a swing state. Cagle's campaign was rocked by a secret recording in which he says he helped pass a "bad public-policy" bill for political gain.

In another recording, Cagle allegedly offers to help pay off former gubernatorial candidate Clay Tippins' $300,000 in campaign debt in exchange for an endorsement.

Im well aware that we walked away from $300,000, Tippins said. Its the best $300,000 weve ever walked away from."

Cagle denied the allegations, saying he never offered a bribe for any reason and saying he was tiring of "antics" in the race.

After conceding the GOP runoff to Kemp on Tuesday, Cagle told supporters that Kemp was "undeniably ready to lead this state." The praise was a swift reversal after a nine-week runoff that saw Cagle and Kemp attack each other on multiple fronts.

Gov. Nathan Deal and the National Rifle Association had supported Cagle. But Kemp was boosted by the president's endorsement.

Speaking to Fox News on Monday, Kemp called Trump's endorsement on Wednesday "huge," and compared it to "pouring gasoline on a fire."

Kemp, who has called himself a "politically incorrect conservative," made headlines in May for running an advertisement boasting that he has a pick-up truck "in case I need to round up criminal illegals."

WHO ARE KEMP AND CAGLE? A CLOSER LOOK AT THE CANDIDATES

And in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Cagle acknowledged the significance of Trump's endorsement, but touted Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's support for his candidacy.

"We have two gold-star endorsements: one is President Trump, and the other is Gov. Deal," Cagle said. "And Gov. Deal knows this state, and I have partnered with him to create the number-one state to do business in, the historic job numbers and the historic tax cut, as well."

Georgia, long a deep-red state whose changing demographics may make it a swing state in coming elections, went for Trump by less than six percentage points in 2016.

Georgia's potential evolution toward swing-state status comes at a critical time for Democrats. Gains in coastal and Sunbelt states  Virginia, North Carolina and potentially Arizona  could offset growing challenges for the party in the upper Midwest, where Trump shocked many Democrats in 2016 by sweeping a band of states that Hillary Clinton's campaign had considered a "blue wall."

"This is a light-red state," GOP pollster Mark Rountree said. "I don't think Georgia will be a national afterthought for either side anymore" regardless of what happens in November, Rountree adds.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A recording of President Donald Trump and his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, discussing a possible payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal was provided to CNN Tuesday by Cohen's attorney and longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis.

Fox News and other outlets confirmed the existence of the tape on Friday. A source has told Fox that no payment was ever made to McDougal.

On the recording, which was made prior to the 2016 presidential election, Cohen tells Trump: "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David" and adds that he has consulted Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "about how to set the whole thing up."

Cohen then starts to say: "When it comes time for the financing," at which point Trump cuts him off and says,"What financing?"

"We'll have to pay," Cohen responds.

What Trump says next is not clear, but it ends with the phrase "pay with cash."

"No, no, no, no, no, no," Cohen responds before the tape cuts off.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" late Tuesday that Trump told Cohen, "Don't pay with cash" and slammed Cohen for making the recording "surreptitiously."

"Theres no way the president is going to be talking about setting up a corporation and then using cash unless youre a complete idiot," Giuliani said, "and the presidents not an idiot."

"Theres no way the president is going to be talking about setting up a corporation and then using cash unless youre a complete idiot -- and the presidents not an idiot."  Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Donald Trump

The recording appears to be one of 12 seized from Cohen's apartment, office and hotel room by federal investigators in April and turned over to prosecutors on Friday.

"I dont think anyone can suggest that this represents anything where the president did anything wrong, and thats the reason why we waived [attorney-client privilege]," Giuliani told Fox News.

"Listen to the tape," Davis said in an interview with CNN. "Donald Trump is not shocked money is being paid about someone named Karen McDougal."

Davis added that Cohen "has been disparaged and insulted and called all kinds of things" but "he's got truth on his side and he'll continue to tell the truth."

"I question the strategy of doing this, of trying to make a tape say what it doesn't say, or of putting out a tape in which you're kind of proud of the fact that youre a lawyer taping your client and then thinking you can cooperate with the government," Giuliani said. "You know, to cooperate with the government, youve got to have credibility. First thing that happens is, [Cohen's] going to be disbarred.  Hes a pariah to the legal profession."

"I question the strategy of doing this, of trying to make a tape say what it doesn't say, or of putting out a tape in which you're kind of proud of the fact that youre a lawyer taping your client and then thinking you can cooperate with the government."  Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for President Donald Trump

Cohen is under federal investigation over his alleged practice of paying women to stay silent about claims they had sexual relations with the married Trump. The investigation by federal prosecutors in New York is separate from an ongoing inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

On the tape, Cohen's "David" appears to refer to American Media Inc. Chairman and CEO David Pecker. AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, agreed to pay McDougal $150,000 for her story about a 2006 affair with Trump. AMI never published McDougal's story, following a tabloid practice called "catch-and-kill."

McDougal later alleged that the Enquirer had tricked her into accepting the deal and had threatened to ruin her if she broke it. After she sued the tabloid in March, seeking to invalidate the contract, the Enquirer agreed to allow her to tell her story.

AMI's payment effectively silenced McDougal through the election, though days beforehand news of the deal emerged in the Wall Street Journal. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had "no knowledge of any of this."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Sippers, beware.

A California coastal city has become the latest municipality to ban plastic straws, enacting what is potentially the strictest plastic prohibition in the country.

Santa Barbara earlier this month passed the ordinance authorizing hefty fines and even a possible jail sentence for violators who dole out plastic straws at restaurants, bars and other food establishments.

More on this...

According to the ordinance, violators on their first offense will be given a written warning notice. But the second time a purveyor of plastic straws defies the ban is when the heavy hand of the law could clamp down.

In that case, the ordinance cites penalties from the citys municipal code for a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), imprisonment for a term not exceeding six (6) months.

In comparison, Seattle, which in the beginning of July became the first major city in the U.S. to ban plastic straws, only fines businesses $250 per offense.

Its unlikely the maximum penalties would be imposed in Santa Barbara, but Assistant City Attorney Scott Vincent told Reason.com that criminal charges would be pursued after repeat violations and if there were aggravating circumstances.

The Santa Barbara ordinance, which goes into effect in 2019, was supported by all but one city council member and comes at a time of growing concern over the problems that plastics cause for marine life.

Santa Barbara bore a trifecta of responsibility, said Councilmember Kristen Sneddon, the Santa Barbara Independent reported, noting the citys location along the coast, affluent population and status as a tourist destination.

While the ban does have a few exceptions, it does not include one that many other municipalities have added: an exemption for the disabled.

All things considered, this new ordinance isnt going to be making a real dent in the problem its intended to solve  but it could create some harm, Katherine Timpf wrote in the National Review, adding that straw bans could end up having a negative impact on disabled people who cannot drink without them.

The city joined a growing list of municipalities and private businesses to ditch the use of plastic straws.

Coffee giant Starbucks made headlines earlier in July when it became the largest food and beverage company operating globally that will ban plastic straws from all its stores within two years amid environmental concerns. Plastic straws, which Americans use 500 million of daily, still are not a top contributor to the 8 million tons of plastic trash that flow into the worlds oceans yearly, according to National Geographic.

Starbucks was quickly joined by Marriott International and American Airlines.

On Tuesday, the board of supervisors in Californias second-largest city, San Francisco, gave unanimous approval to a measure banning plastic straws alongside carryout containers and wrappers treated with fluorinated chemicals.

Supervisor Katy Tang called the negative environmental impact of single-use plastics astronomical.

"San Francisco has been a pioneer of environmental change, and it's time for us to find alternatives to the plastic that is choking our marine ecosystems and littering our streets," she said in a statement.

The legislation requires a second approval, which is expected next week, and the ban would go into effect July 1, 2019, along with a new requirement to make napkins, utensils and other to-go accessories available only upon request, unless a self-serve station is available where people can take what they need.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this report incorrectly stated that plastic straws were the top contributor to plastic trash in the world's oceans.A Democratic candidate for North Carolina's House of Representatives withdrew from her race Wednesday after a 12-year-old blog rant about immigrants resurfaced last week.

"After having time to reflect and talk to my family, friends and community leaders I have decided it is in the best interest of not only the constituents of House District 64, but also my family that I step aside," Cathy von Hassel-Davies said in a Facebook post.

In the April 10, 2006, blog post, she lambasted "Mexicans" and U.S. immigration policy.

"Okay what don't they understand -- they are illegals, do they not know what the word ILLEGAL means?" she wrote. "Oh you know what, they might not since the US [sic] bends over backwards to kiss their ... ass and spends how much of our tax dollars putting up signs in Spanish and American."

"Okay we live in ... America people we speak English," added the post, which also suggested that von Hassel-Davies' sons were passed over for jobs at McDonald's in favor of "Mexicans."

According to her campaign website, she was a member of the Republican Party for 30 years, but switched to the Democratic Party after Barack Obama was nominated for president in 2008. Her campaign also touted her parents' story of coming to the U.S. "by taking advantage of chain immigration."

"I believe that we are a land of immigrants and should not forget that," her campaign website says. "We should not be enacting laws that hurt our immigrants and immigration, instead we should be looking for ways to make them citizens and keeping them here as a vital part of our community."

The North Carolina Democratic Party initially declined to cut ties with the candidate after the post was made public, with spokesman Robert Howard telling The Raleigh News & Observer: "North Carolina Democrats believe in building a welcoming and inclusive state, and this candidates past views do not reflect the views of the party.

"Republicans must really be worried if theyre drudging up blog posts from more than a decade ago in a district Trump won by 16 points," he added.

Von Hassel-Davies posted a statement in English and Spanish on her campaign website Thursday saying her "racist rant" was "extremely thoughtless and callous."

"Over the last 12 years I have continued to grow, change and learn for the better," she said. "I truly pray that we can move forward from here and perhaps help someone else to grow and learn the same way I have.

However, state Democratic Party chairperson Wayne Goodwin said Wednesday that "following several conversations last week between Cathy and members of the Hispanic community, the Hispanic caucus and the Democratic Party, it became clear that she could not restore trust with the Hispanic community and it was best for her to step aside."

Republicans hold a supermajority in both houses of North Carolina's General Assembly, enabling to override vetoes issued by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

Click for more from The News & Observer.A supporter of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has reportedly been arrested for allegedly assaulting one of Warren's opponents in this year's U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts.

The suspect, identified as Paul Solovay, 74, was arrested Sunday for allegedly pushing a bullhorn in the face of Shiva Ayyadurai, resulting in a bloody lip for the Senate candidate, the Berkshire Eagle reported.

Ayyadurai, who is running as an independent, was using the bullhorn to shout at supporters lined up outside a venue in Great Barrington, about 135 miles west of Boston, to see Warren speak during a town-hall style event Sunday afternoon, the newspaper reported.

We dont produce enough engineers. We dont produce enough doctors. What we do is produce a bunch of s---bag lawyer lobbyists like Elizabeth Warren, Ayyadurai can be heard shouting toward the crowd in a video of the incident posted to Facebook.

We dont produce enough engineers. We dont produce enough doctors. What we do is produce a bunch of s---bag lawyer lobbyists like Elizabeth Warren.  Shiva Ayyadurai, U.S. Senate candidate in Massachusetts

In the video, Ayyadurai can be heard talking about racism, at which point the 74-year-old confronts the Senate candidate. Ayyadurai can be seen repeatedly chanting racist, racist, racist before Solovay pushes the bullhorn into his face.

Solovay is then tackled to the ground by Ayyadurai supporters.

Thats racism right there," Ayyadurai can be heard saying as Solovay is handcuffed.

Solovay was charged with assault and battery, as well as disorderly conduct. He pleaded not guilty Monday, and was released on his own recognizance, the paper reported.

But the fireworks didnt stop there. Ayyadurai continued to jaw with Warren supporters  dubbing them liberal fascists.

White privilege  eating your organic food while Elizabeth Warren poisons everyone else. Singing your stupid, bloody songs. Wake up, America! Ayyadurai can be heard shouting.

White privilege  eating your organic food while Elizabeth Warren poisons everyone else. Singing your stupid, bloody songs. Wake up, America!  Shiva Ayyadurai, U.S. Senate candidate in Massachusetts

The India-born candidate, who has four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but no political background, has reportedly raised $4.64 million to challenge Warren  although as of late March nearly 97 percent of the donations came from him, while only $153,774 came from other individuals, the Boston Globe reported.

What you just witnessed is how you white supremacists react when you dont want to hear the truth. Im a dark-skinned Indian guy -- the same guy you claim you want to help, Ayyadurai can be heard yelling just before the video ends.

The Senate primaries in Massachusetts are scheduled for Sept. 4. Warren has held her office since January 2013.Facebook admitted it mistakenly blocked a Florida Republican's pro-gun ad from the social media platform and reversed course.

State Rep. Matt Caldwell said he received the message, Not Approved: Your ad cant promote the sale of weapons or ammunition, from Facebook when he attempted to share an ad that depicted him shooting a shotgun and touting his endorsement by the National Rifle Association, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Caldwell, a Republican, is running for Florida agriculture commissioner.

Im Matt Caldwell. I like guns. I love the Second Amendment, and I support our president, Caldwell says in the 15-second spot. Thats why Im endorsed by the NRA.

Caldwell blasted Facebooks initial denial of the ad, calling the social media giant a censorship regime.

Facebooks liberal agenda is keeping our campaign for Commissioner of Agriculture from sharing our message, Caldwell said in a statement. Facebook has mislabeled our ad in an effort to censor our pro-Second Amendment support and endorsement from the NRA.

NRA TURNS KIDS INTO SHOOTING TARGETS, FLORIDA DEM GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE SAYS IN NEW MAILER

Facebooks advertising policy states that ads cannot promote the sale or use of weapons, ammunition, or explosives.

By Tuesday evening, Facebook had reversed the decision and issued an apology.

We review millions of ads each week and sometimes we make mistakes, a spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times. We have overturned the incorrect decision and the ads are now running live on Facebook.

Caldwells Facebook page does prominently feature the video.

Still, Caldwell told the News-Press, Just the mere fact that you have a gun, I dont think should flag any kind of ad.

FAMED 17TH-CENTURY ARTISTS NUDE PAINTINGS BLOCKED BY FACEBOOK

Caldwell faces state Sen. Denise Grimsley, former state Rep. Baxter Troutman and Mike McCalister in the GOP August primary. Hes been endorsed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Floridas current agriculture commissioner, Adam Putnam, is battling Rep. Ron DeSantis for the Republican nomination for governor.A Georgia state lawmaker on Tuesday announced that he will resign just days after he appeared on an episode of Sacha Baron Cohens controversial new show, Who is America? in which he took off his pants and shouted racial slurs.

Rep. Jason Spencer plans to step down from his post on July 31, the Georgia House speaker's office said.

Spencer faced backlash after he repeatedly yelled the N-Word and mimicked a Chinese tourist while taking a photo up the skirt of an actor pretending to be a Muslim woman during Sundays episode.

Cohen, who posed as an Israeli military expert, also had Spencer expose his backside in an exercise to ward off a potential terrorist, while shouting, USA mother----r.

Spencer is one of several public figures -- including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin -- who claimed to have been duped into participating in the Showtime program.

Spencer previously said he was tricked into doing the show because of his fears that I would be attacked by someone and that they exploited my state of mind for profit and notoriety.

This media companys deceptive and fraudulent behavior is exactly why President Donald Trump was elected, Spencer said in a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, while threatening to take legal action if the fraudulently obtained footage of me is used by these Hollywood liberals to line their own pockets.

Several Republican colleagues called for Spencers resignation following his appalling and offensive conduct on the show.

There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, said in a tweet.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is running for governor, removed Spencer from his campaigns list of endorsements, he announced on social media.

Rep. Spencer's words and behavior are hurtful, insensitive, and completely unacceptable. At the very least, he should issue a public apology for this shameful incident, Kemp said in a statement.Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday blasted Michael Cohen and his attorney for leaking a recording of a conversation between President Trump and his ex-attorney about the possibility of buying the rights to a Playboy models affair claim.

The former New York City mayor and Trump lawyer accused them of twisting the president's words and questioned why Cohens legal team was leaking information that could have been privileged and confidential.

If Cohen is telling the truth why are he and Lanny Davis misrepresenting the language from President Trump Do not pay by cashCHECK. And why are they leaking falsely privileged and confidential information. So much for ethics! Giuliani tweeted Wednesday.

Giulianis tweet seems to be a direct response to Cohens attorney, longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis, saying on CNN that Trumps lawyers fear Cohen because he has the truth about Trump.

Giulianis comments come as members in the Trump camp have been put on the defensive in the hours after Davis leaked the taped conversation to CNN. The tape was seized in the FBIs raid of Cohens personal properties earlier this year in the criminal investigation and grand jury probe into Cohens personal business dealings.

But Trumps legal team says the transaction with Playboy model Karen McDougal never took place.

On the recording, Cohen tells Trump: I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, a possible reference to David Pecker, Trumps friend and president of National Enquirers parent company, American Media Inc. The conversation came weeks after the parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story about an alleged 2006 affair with Trump, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill.

Cohen then begins to say: When it comes time for the financing, at which point, Trump cuts him off and says, What financing?

What comes next is unclear. Cohen says theyll have to pay something, and Trump can be heard saying pay with cashafter which Cohen repeatedly says no, no, no.

A transcript provided by the Trump legal team, though, asserts that Trump said: Dont pay with cashcheck.

Giuliani told Fox News on Tuesday that the team listened numerous times to the tape and determined the then-candidate told Cohen, Dont pay with cash.

The president blasted Cohen, who served as his former personal attorney and self-described fixer," on Wednesday.

What kind of lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped can this be so? Too bad! Trump tweeted early Wednesday.

The president was referring to how the tape cut out immediately after the discussion in question. Giuliani claimed to Fox News that the rest of the recording would have been exculpatory from the point of view of the president.

Trump denies the alleged affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.

Cohen for weeks, though, has attempted to distance himself from Trump amid the federal investigation surrounding, among other things, a separate $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged one-time sexual encounter with Trump.

Cohen, who was once quoted as saying he would take a bullet for Trump, gave an interview to ABC News earlier this month saying that his own family has his first loyalty and always will.

I will not be a punching bag as part of anyones defense strategy, Cohen told ABC News George Stephanopoulos. I am not a villain of this story, and I will not allow others to try to depict me that way.

But former Trump campaign communications adviser Michael Caputo told Fox News on Wednesday that he was struck by Cohens destruction of his friendship with Trump.

I am struck by how the destruction of longtime friendships is a central tactic to this investigation, Caputo told Fox News in an email. There is no probative value to this recording, so the release is simply aimed to embarrass the president and gut the Cohen-Trump relationship.

Caputo said he was completely confident that neither Trump nor Cohen did anything to collude with the Russians, but said investigators have taken an interest in their relationship.

This relationship goes back a long way so this development signals all bets are off, he said.

Fox News' Judson Berger, Samuel Chamberlain, Kelly Chernenkoff, Eddie DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Rudy Giuliani, the personal attorney for President Trump, told Fox News on Tuesday that it is 'outrageous' that an audio conversation between Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen was leaked to the media and questioned why the recording ended at a key part in the conversation.

Giuliani told Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle, that he found out the tape was leaked at 6 p.m. Tuesday. He said Trump's legal team listened numerous times to the tape and determined that the then-candidate told Cohen, Dont pay with cash.

Cohen then interrupts, Giuliani said. And says, No, no, no, I got it. And then you hear  distinctly  if youre careful and you slow (the tape) it down  check. And then Cohen follows with No, no, no, and then quickly cuts off the tape.

Giuliani admitted that the audio was muffled, but said the rest of the recording -- had it not stopped -- would have been exculpatory, from the point of view from the president.

The former prosecutor said he spent about 4,000 hours listening to legal recordings in his career and he is confident that if the public listens to the tape three times, "it will become clear."

CNN on Tuesday played the secretly recorded audiotape from two months before the 2016 presidential election. The tape was provided to CNN by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis.

Davis, 72, was a special counsel to President Bill Clinton and regularly appeared on television to defend the Democrat during his 1998 impeachment.

Davis said he will not give another original copy to any other network. He gave one copy to CNN, to defend his client, whom he said was falsely accused.

The president does bring up cash, but he said, Dont pay with cash.  Rudy Giuliani

The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer's parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as "catch and kill."

Trump denies the affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.

Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougal's story from the Enquirer's parent company.

Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company "for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," a possible reference to David Pecker, Trump's friend and president of the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc.

When Cohen begins to discuss financing, Trump interrupts him and asks, "What financing?"

"We'll have to pay," Cohen responded.

The audio is muffled, but Trump appears to say, "pay with cash," though it isn't clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash.

The president does bring up cash, Giuliani said. But he said, Dont pay with cash.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, posted on Twitter that the Cohen tape shows that Giuliani was "untruthful" when he said Trump didn't know about the payments. He said the move was "campaign motivated" and "regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.In mid-January, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer raised eyebrows when he observed that the US had erred in supporting China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). Judging by the broad appreciation of China's trade policies and practices expressed by numerous country delegations at its recently-concluded seventh WTO Trade Policy Review in Geneva, Mr. Lighthizer's observations are unrepresentative and misguided.

(File photo)

China's accession to the WTO on December 11, 2001, following a protracted 15 years of negotiations, was the biggest coming-out party in the history of development. Its active role within the organization as well as the important contributions to global growth in the subsequent decade-and-a-half is an eloquent testimony to the virtues of reform and opening-up and the benefits of cooperative multilateralism. And, ironically, far from disadvantaging America, it has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of China's entry. As China's average tariff rate on manufactured goods shrank from 15 percent in 2001 to single digits today, US exports of goods have risen from $19 billion in 2001 to $127 billion in 2017  an almost seven-fold increase. Furthermore, over the past decade, US exports of goods to China have grown by 86 percent compared to 21 percent to the rest of the world.

Lighthizer's observation that the US erred in supporting China's entry into the WTO is also deeply disrespectful. Given its late date of entry (it entered as the organization's 143rd member), China was obliged to accept accession commitments and encumbrances that substantially exceeded those made by other acceding countries or by member-states at a comparable level of development. Deep mandated tariff cuts aside, these limits on its trading freedoms included an interim China-specific safeguard, an interim special textile safeguard as well as the right of trading partners to treat China as a non-market economy for 15 years during anti-dumping investigations.

(VCG Photo)

China has displayed a humble and remedial attitude, too, when faced with adverse judgments within the WTO's dispute settlement system. No case of countermeasures pursuant to Article 22.6 of the dispute settlement understanding for not having complied with an arbitral verdict has been sought by a trading partner against China. The same cannot be said of the multilateral trading system's other major countries. The US, in particular, features prominently within this Article 22.6 roll of shame.

China has been a diligent rule-taker in the multilateral trading system. Looking ahead, as China transitions from being a great trading power to a great trading and investment power, it must now also become a rule-maker that helps craft the rules-of-the-road for a deepened investment framework in the multilateral system.

At the 11th ministerial conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017, a subset of WTO members including China resolved to pursue structured discussions leading to the creation of a multilateral framework on investment facilitation. China must take a co-leadership role within these discussions and devise an adaptive, responsive and resilient facilitation framework  one that substantially liberalizes global investment flows across a range of goods and services sectors while protecting the right of countries to regulate in the public interest to meet their policy objectives.

Along the way, China should also modify certain foreign inward investment-related practices which, rightly or wrongly, have caused misgivings among its trading partners. These misgivings, which were aired at the recent WTO trade policy review, relate to the as-yet preponderant role of the state in general, and its inconsistent administrative and regulatory practices related to technology transfer requirements in particular. These include intellectual property rights-related regulations which, at times, appear to depart from the 'national treatment' principle and accord less favorable treatment to foreign intellectual property rights-holders compared to domestic Chinese rights-holders in the course of technology transactions.

The 'national treatment' principle as well as the 'most favored nation' principle has been the foundational pillar of the international trading system. In the hands of imperial powers, the latter was utilized as a tool of subjugation and abuse. As Article 8 of the supplement to the Opium-era Treaty of Nanjing, the principle provided the basis for foreign powers to exploitatively strip China of control over its customs boundary and tariff-levying powers. In the post-World War II age of sovereign equality of nation-states, the two principles have been a powerful force for good, providing a ladder of development that allowed countries to break out of poverty traps and grow wealthy.

As China becomes a prodigious exporter of capital as part of its Belt and Road initiative (BRI), it must now take the lead in mainstreaming the 'national treatment' principle and the 'most favored nation' principle within the WTO's embryonic multilateral framework on investment facilitation. "That international trade should be abundant, that it should be multilateral, that it should be non-discriminatory" was the widely-expressed sentiment at the Preparatory Committee gathered in October 1946 to frame the charter for the post-war global trading order. China must endeavor to inscribe that sentiment as the guiding principles of the 21st century global investment order too.The federal judge in the case of accused Russian spy Maria Butina threatened Wednesday to issue a gag order, as prosecutors revealed they have a massive trove of information from her devices -- and voiced concern her attorney could leak it.

Butina, a 29-year-old Russian woman, was charged this month with covertly working as a foreign agent while living in the United States. Butina has pleaded not guilty and has been held in jail without bond.

In federal court in Washington on Wednesday, Butina had on an orange jumpsuit with her red hair worn down. The hearing before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan was mostly about discovery, with prosecutors revealing they have about 4 to 6 terabytes of information ready at this point -- or about 1.5 million documents.

Much of that information came directly from Butina's laptop and phones, prosecutors said, and a second batch of roughly the same size could be ready in several weeks.

ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY MARIA BUTINA OFFERED SEX IN EXCHANGE FOR US JOB, PROSECUTORS SAY

Butina's lawyer Robert Driscoll has requested that information, but prosecutor Thomas Saunders voiced concern Driscoll would leak it to the press. He argued Driscoll is trying the case in the public square by doing "the cable circuit" and talking to news outlets like CNN and Fox News.

"There is a line, and it's been crossed repeatedly," Saunders said.

Driscoll responded that Butina "is the subject of national news and incorrect reporting and I'm pushing back."

"I've got to represent her and [my interviews] are an eye dropper in a tsunami of negative press, he said.

Chutkan warned Driscoll she could impose a gag order to prevent the attorneys from speaking in public about the case if necessary, though she would prefer not to have to take that step.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 10.

According to court documents, Butina is accused of conspiring to infiltrate U.S. political organizations  possibly including the National Rifle Association  at the direction of an unnamed senior Kremlin official.

Butina, who accompanied Republican activist Paul Erickson to President Trumps inauguration, also has been charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government.

According to prosecutors, the FBI uncovered evidence that Butina was in contact with officials believed to be Russian intelligence operatives. She also had contact information for people identified as employees of the Russian FSB, the main successor agency to the USSRs KGB.

Prosecutors said Butina was regarded as a covert agent by a Russian official with whom she was in touch, with text messages discovered by the FBI showing how the official likened her to Anna Chapman, a Russian woman who was arrested in 2010 and then deported as part of a prisoner swap.

In March 2017, following news coverage of Butina, the Russian official wrote, "Are your admirers asking for your autographs yet? You have upstaged Anna Chapman. She poses with toy pistols, while you are being published with real ones," according to the court filing.

Butina and the official messaged each other directly on Twitter, prosecutors said. One such exchange occurred a month before the U.S. presidential election when Butina said she understood that "everything has to be quiet and careful."

They also spoke on January 20, 2017 when Butina sent the official a photo of her near the U.S. Capitol on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as president.

According to court papers, the Russian official responded, "You're a daredevil girl! What can I say!()" Butina responded, "Good teachers!"

Driscoll has called the allegations "overblown" and said prosecutors had criminalized mundane networking opportunities. Driscoll said Butina was not an agent of the Russian Federation but was instead in the U.S. on a student visa, graduating from American University with a master's degree in international relations.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The results are in, and Omena, Michigan, has a purr-fectly new mayor.

Sweet Tart McKee the cat was elected mayor of the small village with a population of about 300 people. Diablo Shapiro, a dog, was selected as its first vice mayor.

The Omena Historical Society organized the election, which it uses as a fundraising opportunity with a $1 fee to vote, according to the Detroit Free Press. More than $7,000 was raised this year, and election officials believe outside votes were cast.

Punkin Anderson-Harden, a dog, was elected as second vice mayor, and goat Harley Jones serves as press secretary. Penny Labriola was appointed special assistant for fowl issues, a position she certainly is qualified for, as she is a chicken.

Sweet Tart, who was home schooled, previously served on the Omena Village Council and as vice mayor of the village.

While she can be a little shy, Sweet Tart, 9, wanted voters to know she isnt stuck up, her campaign profile states. The dynamic between her and Punkin could be tense, however, as the young pup admitted her biggest pet peeve is cats who wont play with her.

Sweet Tart is expected to appear at certain events and meet with neighboring mayors, the Detroit Free Press reported. She is the fourth mayor of the village and will serve a 3-year term.

FOX NEWS MIDTERM ELECTIONS HEADQUARTERS

I represent the best of Leelanau County with the Sweet and Tart cherries, she said in a statement, adding that shes had experience governing and supervising her own household.

During the campaign, Pennys controversial past was brought to light. The chicken, who was laid in the U.S., said she stole food from her sisters mouth before.

It was also revealed Harley is not a lifelong Michigander; he was actually born in Missouri before he moved to the Wolverine State to pursue a career as a show goat. He also admitted to fathering multiple kids with two different women.

I couldnt help myself, he said in his campaign profile.

Any living pet is able to enter the mayoral race as long as he or she lives in Omena, north of Traverse City, or the Greater Omena area.A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri is giving away a machine that can make untraceable parts for firearms.

Austin Petersen, who unsuccessfully sought the Libertarian Party nomination for president in 2016, is giving away the Ghost Gunner 2 machine, which is similar to a 3D printer, his campaign announced Tuesday.

This technology  is a step in the right direction towards expanding rights for gun owners in the U.S., Petersen said in a statement.

According to Petersens website, the Ghost Gunner 2 machine allows you to build an untraceable AR-15 80% lower with ease. No paperwork or monetary donation is required to enter the giveaway although the winner may need to complete forms and adhere to a background check.

His campaign said the 3D technology is being heralded as the end of gun control by many in the media.

Petersen, 37, was gifted the machine, which costs about $1,700, by four donors, campaign manager Jeffrey Carson confirmed to Fox News.

According to its website, the machine requires a $250 deposit and is made to order. Shipping for the final months of 2018 has already begun.

FACEBOOK ADMITS IT BLOCKED FLORIDA REPUBLICANS PRO-GUN AD, REVERSES COURSE

The winner will be announced on August 7, Missouris primary day.

Petersen said he was briefly banned from Facebook last year after he attempted to promote an AR-15 giveaway. In an open letter, Petersen said he supported the right of Facebook to set its own rules, but said the move was cause for concern and worthy of a larger conversation and a public explanation.

Facebooks guidelines say the purchase, sale or trade of firearms, ammunition and explosives between private individuals isnt allowed on the social media site.

Petersen was banned from the site for 30 days, Fox News reported at the time.

Petersen has been sharing information about the Ghost Gunner 2 giveaway on his verified Facebook page.

Aside from the raffle, his campaign website offers a framed poster of Petersen holding a flintlock firearm, starting at $39.95 for the smallest size.

NRA TURNS KIDS INTO SHOOTING TARGETS, FLORIDA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE SAYS

Fox News has ranked the Missouri Senate race a toss up as incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill fights to hold onto her seat.

In the crowded field of Republican candidates, state Attorney Gen. Josh Hawley is the expected frontrunner to take on McCaskill in November.

Fox News Alex Pappas contributed to this report.Rep. Devin Nunes, R- Calif., on Tuesday said he was totally vindicated after the release of documents used to justify the FISA surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Now that weve been totally vindicated with the release of this FISA, just the pieces of the FISA applications over the weekend, you continue to see the media going absolutely crazy, the House Intelligence Committee chairman told Fox News Sean Hannity on Hannity.

"Now that weve been totally vindicated with the release of this FISA, just the pieces of the FISA applications over the weekend, you continue to see the media going absolutely crazy."  House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes

Earlier this year, Nunes led the effort to put together a controversial memo detailing improper techniques used by the Department of Justice and the FBI in a bid to wiretap an American Trump campaign official.

Democratic lawmakers criticized Nunes, saying the memo was misleading and its importance overblown. They also accused Republicans of trying to undermine the investigation into the Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.

The four-page memo revealed the improper use of surveillance by the FBI and the Justice Department in the Russia investigation, including that the wiretap application was primarily supported by the unverified dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.

The dossier was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and contain multiple salacious allegations against Trump.

They used the dossier, the dirt from the Clinton campaign, to make up the bulk of the FISA application. In fact, they lead with it in the FISA application, Nunes told Hannity.

He added that he believes most Americans would agree that only in banana republics do opposing campaigns pay someone to dig up dirt on my opposing candidate and then feed it to law enforcement.

The DOJ released documents on Saturday that were used to justify the surveillance of Page. The heavily redacted emails indicate that the infamous and unverified Steele Dossier was a major component of the 2016 surveillance warrant.

The visible sections of FISA documents dont say whether the dossiers contents were ever verified. The FBI believed Steele was a reliable source based on his previous work, according to the FISA documents.

Nunes went on to slam the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, claiming the collusion occurred on the Democratic Partys side.

The very thing that the Mueller investigation is all about is seeing if the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Hillary and used it against her, he said.

Now, we actually know thats exactly what Hillary Clinton did. Hillary Clinton paid people  they got dirt from Russians to use it against Donald Trump, he added.

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Pamela K. Browne contributed to this report.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo clashed with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday, as he took a firm line on Russia amid criticisms that the Trump administration has been soft on Moscow.

The hearing appearance marked the administration's highest-profile chance to address the sustained criticism over last week's summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. Pompeo declared that the U.S. would never recognize the Kremlin's annexation of Crimea, and threatened "severe consequences" for any future meddling in America's elections.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., sharply criticized the Helsinki meeting at the opening of Wednesday's hearing, saying the White House has a "ready, fire, aim" approach and is "waking up every morning and making it up as they go."

In a particularly dramatic moment, Corker pressed Pompeo to explain what he characterized as Trump's "purposeful" efforts to sow misinformation and discord.

"That shocks people," Corker said. "To purposefully cause the American people to misunderstand about the NATO contributions, and to cause them to doubt NATO and to really drive the public opinion against NATO -- that to me was purposeful, not unlike what happened right after Charlottesville," he added. He was referring to the violent, even deadly protests in Charlottesville, Va., last August, after which Trump took heat for not more forcefully condemning the actions of white nationalists there.

TRUMP SLAMS TWO GOP SENATORS WHO CRITICIZE HIS RESPONSE TO WHITE SUPREMACISTS IN CHARLOTTESVILLE

"Why does he do those things?" Corker asked. "Is there some strategy behind creating doubt in U.S. senators' minds on both sides of the aisle, doubt in the American people, as to what his motivations are? It's the president's actions that create tremendous distrust in our nation, among our allies -- it's palpable. Is there a strategy to this?"

Pompeo responded that Trump has had a direct role in the administration's aggressive actions against Russia, saying "this administration has been tougher than previous administrations" on Putin.

The secretary of state outlined a variety of measures taken by the Trump administration against Russia, including making lethal defensive weapons available to Ukraine -- a move resisted by the Obama administration -- and the expulsion of dozens of Russian operatives from the U.S.

He also cited Trump's opposition to the planned Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which the president has charged poses national security risks to European countries by increasing their dependence on Russia.

"Senator, I just disagree with most of what you just said there," Pompeo said. "Somehow there is this idea that this administration is free-floating. This is President Trump's administration. Make no mistake who's fully in charge of this, and directing each of these activities that is causing Vladimir Putin to be in a very difficult place today."

"You are not responding to what I'm saying," Corker responded. "You just didn't, OK?"

"We'll let the world decide," Pompeo retorted. He added that NATO members have pledged to increase their share of defense spending in part because of Trump's rhetoric.

"They are behaving differently today, there's no doubt about that," Pompeo said. "They are now scrambling to make sure they are a full part of NATO." Corker responded, "I agree with that," but claimed some of Trump's comments are "damaging."

Pompeo also clashed publicly with New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

I understand the game that youre playing, Pompeo said, as the senator repeatedly pressed him to reveal what Trump and Putin discussed in their two-hour conversation last week.

"I don't appreciate you characterizing my questions," a visibly frustrated Menendez responded.

Pompeo, though, insisted U.S. sanctions and other policies toward Russia remain the same.

I want to assure this committee that the United States does not, and will not, recognize the Kremlins purported annexation of Crimea, he testified. There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.

In a fiery moment at the end of the hearing, Pompeo accused Menendez of delivering a "political soliloquy," with Menendez raising his voice and charging that he'd be "peeling" Pompeo "off the Capitol ceiling" if Obama had done what Trump did in Helsinki.

TRUMP WALKS BACK HELSINKI SUMMIT REMARKS, CALLS RUSSIA PROBE A 'HOAX'

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers fiercely criticized Trump's performance at the Helsinki summit, saying the U.S. president had improperly cast doubt on his own intelligence community's conclusions that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Critics, including some within the Trump administration, also questioned whether Trump should have met alone with Putin.

Trump since walked back his statements in Helsinki, saying he believed the intelligence community's findings.

The secretary of state also addressed the ongoing negotiations with North Korea, saying, "We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end."

The comment was notable, because top administration officials had repeatedly declared what they called the Obama "era of strategic patience" with the rogue regime to be over.

Pompeo also told New Hampshire Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen that there is an awful long way to go to get North Korea to fully denuclearize. He confirmed that North Korea continues producing "fissile material," but would not say publicly whether it continued to advance its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday said Trump's next meeting with Putin won't occur until after Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe ends.

Trump had asked his White House to extend an invitation to Putin to visit Washington later this year, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said last week.

That news prompted Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to react with apparent surprise at the Aspen Security Forum -- only to walk back his reaction later, saying that he did not mean any disrespect to Trump.

"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said in a statement.

Fox News Gillian Turner, Nicholas Kalman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.If there's a "blue wave" coming in 2018, someone may have forgotten to tell Oregon's voters. A Republican challenger has pulled even with blue state Oregon's Democratic incumbent governor, according to a new poll.

The news comes as a surprise in a state that hasnt seen a Republican governor since late 1980s, sparking fears of the end of Democratic Partys total domination of the state.

The poll indicates that Republican state Rep. Knute Buehler is waging a serious challenge to Gov. Kate Brown, a vocal critic of President Trump, with both candidates getting support from 45 percent of likely voters, the Oregonian reported.

Oregon is considered a solid blue state, with Democrats controlling both the state House and Senate, while Brown has been the governor since 2015.

The poll, conducted by Florida-based Gravis Marketing, invigorated the race overnight, though Democrats began questioning its validity.

It's hard to understand how this is a reputable piece of public opinion research, Browns campaign spokesman, Christian Gaston, told the Oregonian.

"It's a bit surprising to see a Democratic statewide candidate in Oregon have such weak numbers, but (Brown) does."  John Horvick, DHM Research Vice President

But other pollsters in the state arent dismissing the poll showing the two candidates deadlocked in the race, saying Brown doesnt have strong voter support.

We've seen it pretty close, head-to-head, between Brown and Buehler, John Horvick, vice president and political director of DHM Research in Portland, told the newspaper. "It's a bit surprising to see a Democratic statewide candidate in Oregon have such weak numbers, but (Brown) does.

DHM Researchs previous poll in January indicated Brown was leading Buehler 46 percent to 29 percent.

The latest poll, showing Brown struggling against a Republican in a solid blue state, strikes at the core of Democrats messaging about the looming so-called blue wave in the upcoming midterm elections.

Buehler is running a campaign based strictly on statewide issues, avoiding any national politics distractions. His platform is moderate Republican, promising to restore fiscal sanity and not to impose new taxes, all while improving the states education system.

Brown, meanwhile, appears to stick to the Democratic Partys efforts to gather support by pointing fingers at the White House in a bid to energize voters in a state where the overwhelming majority of voters supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

Brown has since become a loud voice in national politics. She has repeatedly called out the Trump administration over issues of immigration and, more recently, criticized the selection of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as President Trumps pick for the Supreme Court.

But attacks on Trump may not work against Buehler as he himself once condemned Trump. In 2015, before Trump became the Republican Partys nominee for the president, Buehler called Trump angry and self-absorbed while urging voters to reject him in the state's GOP primary.

For Republicans to win nationally and here in Oregon, we need a presidential nominee and GOP that is positive, inclusive and hopeful, he said at the time.Seattles anti-Trump mayor, Jenny Durkan, may be on track for a political backlash: Her citys $52 million money splash on public transit appears doomed because new taxpayer-funded streetcars apparently wont fit the existing tracks.

Durkans office has braced city residents for the possibility, the Seattle Times reported.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reportedly ordered 10 new streetcars last year, to help expand the Seattle Streetcar system by linking the two existing streetcar lines.

But the new streetcars also are reportedly heavier and longer than the ones currently in use, raising concerns about whether they'll be used at all.

It appears the error will require either a change order for design of the streetcars or incur new costs for construction of new or retrofitted maintenance barns, City Councilmember Lisa Herbold wrote in the citys blog post last week.

It appears the error will require either a change order for design of the streetcars or incur new costs for construction of new or retrofitted maintenance barns.  Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold

Durkan had to temporarily stop work on the project after revelations that it may cost 50 percent more than previously estimated, the Times reported. The estimated total cost has already increased from $150 million to $200 million.

It's just the latest of several setbacks for Durkan while her national profile continues to rise amid fervent attacks against the Trump administration over immigration, climate change and abortion.

In April, after the U.S. Justice Department sent letters urging so-called sanctuary cities, including Seattle, to prove they are cooperating with federal immigration authorities, Durkan fired back, saying the administration should focus on real public safety threats.

Our city complies with federal immigration law and asks that the Department of Justice and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] do the same, Durkan said in a statement. The federal government does not get to run our cities or convert our local law enforcement officials into immigration cops. I implore this administration to focus on real public safety threats, like the opioid crisis, instead of unnecessarily threatening our residents and mayors across the country.

Durkan doesnt hold back when attacking the administration on Twitter, either.

As woman mayors, we are doing our part to protect our citizens against the all-out war that the Trump administration has waged against safe, inclusive communities, clean energy, and bold climate action, she wrote in a tweet.

Further evidence that Trumps administration is founded on cruelty and callous disregard for immigrant lives. Seattle stands with Salvadorans against this unjust decision, she wrote in another tweet, referring to the Trump administrations decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from El Salvador.

But as the mayors profile rises nationally, the city is facing dire problems and embarrassing flip-flops. The Seattle region reportedly has the third-highest number of homeless people in the U.S., even though the city spent $68 million on combatting homelessness last year.

Earlier this year, the city council also had to repeal a head tax aimed at taxing businesses that make $20 million in gross revenue about $275 per full-time worker each year.

The money would have gone to alleviate the homelessness problem. The tax was repealed just a month later after it passed due to pressure from Seattle-based companies Amazon and Starbucks.U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions allegedly objected last year to exploratory talks about a plea deal in the 9/11 case, fearing that could take the death penalty off the table for the alleged terrorists currently detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Defense attorneys made the allegation to the Miami Herald on Monday, saying Sessions called Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to voice his objections concerning a possible plea deal, raising concerns that the two Trump administration officials have meddled in the trial.

The attorneys now urge a military judge to order both Mattis and Sessions testify at the war court on the question of unlawful influence in the case.

The allegations stem from Mattis decision to fire the overseer of military commissions, Harvey Rishikof, which coincided with Rishikofs secret exploration of the possibility of guilty pleas to resolve the trial of alleged 9/11 plot mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others who allegedly worked with Al-Qaeda as accomplices to commit the Sept. 11, 2001, atrocities in which nearly 3,000 people died.

According to the Herald, Mattis previously said Rishikof was fired for failing to follow proper Pentagon channels.

Defense attorney Jay Connell told the publication that the DOJ may have found out about the possible plea deal because some defense attorneys wanted the departments assurances that their clients would spend the rest of their sentences at Guantanamo Bay rather than in a prison in the United States. Rishikof was reportedly in touch with a deputy of the attorney general to discuss such assurances.

Following the allegations, the defense argues that the Trump administrations purported meddling in the case merits dismissing the case entirely or at least making it a non-capital trial. Defense attorneys say their investigation into the alleged meddling in the case justifies questioning Mattis and Sessions in a bid to find out whether they influenced the trial.

The Guantanamo war court is intended to give a fair trial to the Guantanamo Bay detainees without the influence of bias or politics. Rishikof, a civilian attorney, was appointed by Mattis to the Convening Authority, which has the power to approve or dismiss cases and make or approve plea deals, the newspaper notes.

Connell has asked to question Mattis acting general counsel, William Castle, concerning his meeting in October last year with Rishikof and his legal adviser, Gary Brown. During the meeting, the attorney wrote in the judicial order, the three men talked about a call between Sessions and Mattis, with the attorney general calling him to voice his objections to potential plea deals in the 9/11 case.

Fox News has reached out to the DOJ and the Pentagon, requesting a comment.

The attorney generals spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, told the Herald she couldnt confirm the details of conversations, but noted that Sessions certainly speaks with other Cabinet members regularly, Secretary Mattis included.Most Republican governors support Brett Kavanaugh, President Trumps pick for the Supreme Court.

Kavanaugh has met privately with many senators on Capitol Hill, but he has not yet gone through a confirmation hearing. Ahead of the Senates decision on the federal appeals judge, more than 30 governors signed a letter in support of Kavanaugh, 53.

The governors said Kavanaugh's impeccable credentials demonstrate he is worthy of this nomination.

However, three Republican governors did not sign the letter. The three are from blue states and all are facing re-election this year.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner initially indicated that he would not sign the letter, but eventually did so.

Read on for a look at who did not sign the letter.

Charlie Baker, Massachusetts

Baker has stressed he believes a Supreme Court nominee should rule in favor of pro-choice issues.

Im a big believer in a womans right to choose, and I think that needs to be a fundamental part of the vetting process, Baker has said. I hope that is a fundamental part of the vetting process as they move forward here.

Larry Hogan, Maryland

Ben Jealous, the Democratic nominee for governor, has publicly called on Hogan to condemn Kavanaughs nomination to the nations highest court.

Phil Scott, Vermont

Scott told WCAX-TV he had not yet learned enough about Kavanaugh to sign onto the letter when asked by the Republican Governor's Association.

"I don't want to rubber stamp anyone. I don't know much about the nominee," he said. "If there had been a letter asking for a fair and open hearing on the confirmation, I would have signed it, but to blindly rubber stamp someone that I don't know a lot about -- I didn't think it would do great justice to anyone."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education, addresses a graduation ceremony for pre-school teachers in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Wang Ye]

Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education, attended a graduation ceremony for pre-school teachers in the South African capital of Pretoria on Tuesday.

Peng was accompanied by Tshepo Motsepe, wife of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and a representative of the African Self Help Association Trust at the event.

The pre-school teachers performed South African songs and dances to welcome the Chinese guests.

Teaching is a noble profession, Peng said.

In order to help the children realize their dreams and eventually carry forward the cause of national rejuvenation and prosperity, teachers should always bear in mind the expectations and responsibilities entrusted to them by their country, maintain a high standard of professional and personal ethics, stay benevolent and never give up learning, she said.

She urged the teachers and students to dedicate themselves to the cause of friendly cooperation between China and South Africa and make contributions to the development of bilateral relations.

The pre-school teachers training program is undertaken by the African Self Help Association Trust, which has covered thousands of people in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.President Trump and his legal allies fired back Wednesday at his former attorney Michael Cohen after the leak of a taped conversation in which the two appear to discuss the possibility of buying the rights to a Playboy models story claiming an affair with Trump.

What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad! Trump tweeted.

The president was referring to how the tape cut out immediately after the discussion in question. Rudy Giuliani, Trumps personal attorney, claimed to Fox News that the rest of the recording would have been exculpatory from the point of view of the president.

The release of the tape amounted to a stunning release of evidence, seized as part of the FBI raid on Cohen earlier this year. It forced Trumps legal team to scramble to counter suggestions that Trump was well aware of talks to buy the rights to model Karen McDougals story, despite claims to the contrary.

Giuliani, speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham, host of The Ingraham Angle, maintained Tuesday that Trump did not know about the proposed transaction before the conversation.

Theres no indication of any crime being committed on this tape, he said.

Alan Dershowitz, Harvard law professor emeritus, also told Fox & Friends on Wednesday morning the controversy amounts to a big deal about nothing.

The end result is no payments were made, no cash was given, he said. Theres no crime here. Theres no impeachable offense here.

Dershowitz also slammed Cohen, saying hes not as loyal to the president as he once was and shouldnt have recorded this.

Cohen for weeks has put distance between himself and Trump amid a federal investigation surrounding, among other things, a separate payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about a separate alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Cohen recently told ABC his family has his first loyalty.

The tape was provided to CNN Tuesday by Cohen's attorney and longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis. The recording, made before the 2016 election, has them discussing a possible payment to buy the story of former Playboy model McDougal.

Trumps legal team says the transaction never occurred.

On the recording, Cohen tells Trump: "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," a possible reference to David Pecker, Trump's friend and president of the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc. The conversation came weeks after the parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as "catch and kill."

Cohen then starts to say: "When it comes time for the financing," at which point Trump cuts him off and says, "What financing?"

What comes next is garbled and ultimately unclear. Cohen says theyll have to pay something, and Trump can be heard saying pay with cash  after which Cohen repeatedly says no, no, no.

A transcript provided by the Trump legal team, though, asserts that Trump said: Dont pay with cash . . . check.

Giuliani told Fox News on Tuesday they listened numerous times to the tape and determined the then-candidate told Cohen, Dont pay with cash.

Giuliani, speaking with Laura Ingraham, admitted that the audio was muffled, but said the rest of the recording -- had it not stopped -- would have been exculpatory. Dershowitz and Guiliani both said Trump wanted to make sure any such transaction had a record.

CNN on Tuesday played the secretly recorded audiotape from two months before the 2016 presidential election.

Davis told CNN that Trumps lawyers fear Cohen because he has the truth about Trump. He questioned claims that Trump wasnt talking about cash.

Cohen has been disparaged. Cohen has been insulted and called all sorts of things by people around Donald Trump, he said.

Trump denies the alleged affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, posted on Twitter that the Cohen tape shows that Giuliani was "untruthful" when he said Trump didn't know about the payments. He said the move was "campaign motivated" and "regardless of cash or check, whole point of phony corp. was to hide campaign expenditure."

Fox News Kelly Chernenkoff, Eddie DeMarche and Sam Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.President Trump announced Wednesday that he has secured major trade concessions from European Union officials as part of an effort to head off a trade war between the U.S. and the E.U.

After talks at the White House with E.U. officials, Trump announced in a joint Rose Garden appearance that the delegation had agreed to increase imports of soybeans and liquefied natural gas. Both sides agreed to work toward the goal of "zero" tariffs and subsidies on non-auto industrial goods, and to "resolve" recent tariffs that both sides have imposed.

"This was a very big day for free and fair trade," Trump said.

Trump said officials are looking to reduce "bureaucratic obstacles," work toward reform of the World Trade Organization, and limit unfair market practices.

Trump made the announcement alongside European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at a press conference in the Rose Garden after more than two hours of talks at the White House. Juncker said that as long as negotiations are ongoing, "we will hold off on further tariffs and reassess existing tariffs on steel and aluminum."

"We had a big day, very big, Trump said. We set out to launch a new phase of close friendship between the United States and the European Union, strong trade relationships where both of us will win.

The import of soybeans is a boost to American farmers, who have seen prices plummet after China slapped a retaliatory tariff on American goods including soybeans, in the wake of U.S. tariffs on aluminum and steel.

Trump had said earlier Wednesday that the U.S. was seeking a level playing field on trade with the E.U.

For years, the U.S. has been losing hundreds of billions of dollars in trade with the European Union, and we just want it to be a level playing field for our farmers, for our manufacturers, for everybody and we also want a big beneficiary, frankly, to be the European Union and we think it can be good for everybody and thats why we are here to discuss, he said, sitting alongside Juncker in the Oval Office.

The move is likely to soothe fears of an escalating trade war in the wake of Trumps decision to slap a 25 percent tariff on steel imports -- 10 percent on aluminum imports. The E.U. subsequently retaliated with tariffs on a number of U.S. goods.

Trump said Wednesday they would look to resolve those issues as part of fresh negotiations.

"This was a good, constructive meeting," Juncker said. "Thank you, Donald."

In the Oval Office earlier, Juncker made conciliatory comments, saying that the U.S. and the E.U. are close partners, allies not enemies, and noting that the U.S. and E.U. represent half of the worlds trade.

I think we have to talk each to another and not at another and thats what we do today, he said, before saying he hopes they could focus on reducing, not increasing, tariffs.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Trump was considering slapping a 25 percent tariff on automobiles, an idea that has drawn fierce criticism from E.U. officials -- from where many U.S. car imports originate.

In an interview with CBS News this month, Trump described the E.U. as a "foe."

"I think the European Union as a foe what they do to us in trade," he said. "You wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe."

Reuters reported Wednesday that E.U. trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said her office is drawing up a $20 billion list of U.S. goods to hit with retaliatory tariffs, should the administration make good on that threat.

We hope that it doesnt come to that and that we can find a solution. If not, the E.U. commission is preparing a rather long list of many American goods, she told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

A senior European official told Fox News ahead of the meeting between Juncker and Trump that the aim of the meeting was to build on a conversation the two had at a G-7 summit in Canada last month and to work out what exactly the U.S. wants.

The aim is to figure out what the ask is; we dont yet have a clear picture of what the administration wants, the official said.

TRUMP TELLS EVERYBODY 'BE COOL' AS TRADE TENSIONS ESCALATE

Trump was facing calls from nervous members of his own party to back down on the tariffs, particularly after the administration announced Tuesday that it will grant up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs. But Trump tweeted Wednesday urging concerned parties to "be cool."

"The end result will be worth it," he added.President Trump looked to soothe fears from jittery Republicans over his trade policy Wednesday, saying that negotiations are going well and urging people to be cool ahead of his talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Trump will meet with Juncker in Washington D.C., where the escalating trade war with the E.U. over tariffs will be front and center.

The E.U. slapped retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. last month in response to Trumps tariffs on steel and aluminum. More could follow if Trump goes through with his plan to impose tariffs on automobiles.



But Trump said that negotiations are going well.



When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity. Negotiations are going really well, be cool, he tweeted. The end result will be worth it!

He also took a shot at weak politicians who oppose the use of tariffs to counter those from other nations.



I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are not the way to go.

Nerves are likely to be frayed further by the Trump administrations announcement Tuesday that it will grant up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said that the plan would spend billions on gold crutches.

TRUMP ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY AID FOR FARMERS HURT BY TRADE WAR, SAYS THEY'LL WIN IN THE END



"America's farmers don't want to be paid to lose  they want to win by feeding the world," he said. "This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again."

Trump has long said he would prefer no tariffs, and is only slapping them on goods in response to unfair existing tariffs on U.S. goods. On Tuesday, he tweeted that he wants to ask the E.U. to drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies but he knows that the E.U. wont go along with it.



While Trump is under pressure from his own party, Juncker is also fighting battles at home in Europe. Most notably, his office has been forced to deny accusations that that former Luxembourg prime minister was drunk at the recent NATO summit after video emerged of his stumbling and being propped up by world leaders.



Commissioner spokesman Margaritis Schinas told Sky News that the accusation was insulting and that Juncker instead was suffering from a "very particularly painful attack of sciatica accompanied by cramps."



Fox News Andrew OReilly and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Paleontologists in China discovered a new species of dinosaur that roamed the planet millions of years ago.

The fossil, found in northwestern Chinas Lingwu region, was given the name of Lingwulong shenqi, which translates to Lingwu amazing dragon.

The discovery was announced Tuesday and may force researchers to rethink the entire lineage of the largest animals to roam the earth.

MAYBE BIGFOOT WAS A DINOSAUR, IF THESE FOSSILS ARE ANY INDICATION

Lingwulong shenqi, a member of the plant-eating dinosaurs known as sauropods, lived 174 million years ago during the Jurassic period.

The scientists excavated bones from at least eight to 10 Lingwulong individuals, the largest of which was about 57 feet long, paleontologist Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who led the study published in the journal Nature Communications, told Reuters.

Researchers told the wire service the discovery pushes back by 15 million years the appearance of so-called advanced sauropods, which included some of the largest land animals ever.

BABY SNAKE FROM THE TIME OF THE DINOSAURS FOUND 'FROZEN' IN AMBER

Previously, we thought all of these advanced sauropods originated around 160 million years ago and rapidly diversified and spread across the planet in a time window perhaps as short as 5 million years, said University College London paleontologist Paul Upchurch, a study co-author.

But the discovery of Lingwulong means that this group originated somewhat earlier and more slowly, he added.

Lingwulong lived in a warm, wet environment with lush vegetation. Its neck was shorter than some other sauropods, and it could have grazed on soft plants with its peg-like teeth.

Our discoveries indicate that eastern Asia was still connected to other continents at the time, Xu said.Archaeologists digging in a 400-year-old church in Jamestown, Virginia, have found a headless body that might be that of Sir George Yeardley, one of the first politicians  and slave owners  in the American colonies.

Few people have heard of Yeardley, but he played a key role in America's history. The Jamestown governor oversaw the House of Burgesses, the first elective governing body in the English colonies.

Scientists still aren't sure if the headless body is Yeardley's, but shortly after uncovering the skeleton, they made another finding that could help answer that question. They discovered a handful of teeth, 10 in all, on Sunday (July 22) that fit into a skull previously unearthed in the church. [In Photos: New Jamestown Settlers Identified]

If DNA from the teeth and skull matches that from Yeardley's living descendants, then scientists will be able to identify Yeardley's body. By analyzing the skull's contours and tooth plaque, researchers may also be able to re-create his face and determine what kinds of food he ate, The Washington Post reported.

"We have a lot of world-renowned experts working with us on this," Mary Anna Hartley, a senior archaeologist with Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, told The Washington Post. "And I wanted to make sure there was something for them to examine."

For instance, Turi King, a geneticist and archaeologist at the University of Leicester in England, who helped identify the remains of King Richard IIIafter they were discovered under a parking lot in 2012, is working with the Jamestown team.

"We've been working under whats known as clean conditions [at the church]," King told Live Science. "One of the biggest things we're worried about is contaminating the site with DNA from one of us. When I'm getting DNA from an individual, we want to make sure it belongs to that individual and not to me or another archaeologist."

Jamestown rediscovered

The church excavation is part of a project run by the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, to learn more about Jamestown, the first successful permanent English settlement in the American colonies. The community was founded in 1607 and originally called "James Cittie," according to Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.

Yeardley didn't come to Jamestown until 1610 (he left London in June 1609, but a hurricane blew his ship off course to Bermuda). He became Jamestown governor in 1616, at the age of 29. He was later knighted by King James I in Britain, and then he returned to Jamestown with instructions from the Virginia Company, which controlled the colony, to create "a laudable form of government . . . [for] the people there inhabiting," according to historical documents, The Washington Post reported.

The plan worked. In June of 1619, a group of 30 men met at the church the archaeologists are now excavating.

That same year, America received its first group of enslaved Africans. The slaves, taken from Angola in west central Africa, were on a Spanish ship bound for Vera Cruz, Mexico, until two English privateer ships attacked and took up to 60 of the Africans to Point Comfort, in what is now Hampton, Virginia said David Givens, director of archaeology at Jamestown Rediscovery. Yeardley purchased eight of the people, Givens told Live Science.

With the 400th anniversary of both of these events approaching, archaeologists hope to learn more about Yeardley, starting with the identification of his body, the researchers said. Although the DNA work is yet to come, the skeleton does offer several clues: It comes from a robust man in his late 30s or early 40s, which would match Yeardley, who died at age 40, in 1627, the archaeologists told The Washington Post.

Moreover, the skeleton's hands are at its sides  not crossed over the pelvis  indicating that this burial was an important one, likely laid out so that people could see the body before its final burial, Hartley said. And in the early 1900s, people found a tomb slab engraved with knightly symbolsin the church. Given that Yeardley was a knight, it's possible this limestone slab belonged to him, Hartley said.

She also noted that the burial is located in front of the church's altar, "a pretty prime spot to be buried," Hartley said.

The soil and artifacts at the burial match the right time period, Givens added. The team also plans to radiocarbon date the bones and do isotopic testing (an isotope is a variation of an element that has a varying number of neutrons in its nucleus) on the remains so that they can tell whether the individual drank water from England as a youth, he said.

Original article on Live Science.Scientists have uncovered a "a stable body of liquid water" on Mars, in what some are calling a "game changer" in the search for alien life.

What is believed to be liquid water is sitting below Mars' southern polar ice cap and is described as a "well-defined, 20-kilometer-wide zone." 20 kilometers is roughly 12.5 miles.

The findings, which are published in the journal Science, were made possibly by Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), an instrument that resides on the Mars Express spacecraft. MARSIS surveyed Mars' Planum Australe region between May 2012 and December 2015 and utilized radar pulses, sending them through the surface and the polar ice caps, ultimately measuring how the radio waves came back.

GEOMETRY HELPS SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF MARS' WATER

The pulses that came back created the aforementioned "well-defined, 20-kilometer-wide zone" and found that the radar reflected the brightness of the liquid water. The study's abstract notes that it is surrounded by "much less reflective areas," a sign that it is indeed water.

The team that wrote the study, including lead author Professor Roberto Orosei, have ruled out any other causes for the brightness.

Speaking with the BBC, Orosei said it probably isn't "a very large lake," but added that this is a body of water and not runoff from a glacier or something else.

"This really qualifies this as a body of water. A lake, not some kind of meltwater filling some space between rock and ice, as happens in certain glaciers on Earth," Orosei told the British media giant.

Following news of the findings, social media was understandably enthused, with some wondering what it might mean for the search for extraterrestrial life.

What does this mean?

The presence of liquid water at the bottom of the Martian polar ice caps was first theorized more than 30 years ago, the researchers said, but it had been "inconclusively debated ever since." With the stunning findings, that debate is likely to be put to bed.

The water is likely to be below the freezing point for water (32F or 0C) given its location beneath the ice cap, but the presence of minerals such as magnesium, calcium and sodium perchlorate in the soil of the northern plains of Mars, "support the presence of liquid water at the base of the polar deposits."

The presence of these minerals could help form a brine with the water, which would allow it to remain liquid, a reaction that already exists on Earth in areas like Antarctica.

MARS 'GHOST' DUNES MAY HAVE EVIDENCE OF ALIEN LIFE



Despite the obvious excitement surrounding the findings, Mars' surface is "inhospitable to life," according to the Open University's Dr. Manish Patel, and researchers are not any closer to finding life than they were prior to the announcement.

This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered," Orosei said in a statement on the European Space Agency's website.

Nonetheless, Wednesday's announcement is garnering significant attention, something Dmitri Titov, ESAs Mars Express project scientist, called a "much-awaited result."

NASA MAY HAVE DISCOVERED AND THEN DESTROED ORGANICS ON MARS IN 1976

This thrilling discovery is a highlight for planetary science and will contribute to our understanding of the evolution of Mars, the history of water on our neighbor planet and its habitability, Titov said.

"While all the previous announcements have been extremely significant, the recent verification of a body of subsurface liquid water is particularly important," Chris Carberry, CEO of Explore Mars, a non-profit organization that aims to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades, told Fox News. "When you combine this discovery with recent confirmation of organics and other evidence - while it does not confirm the existence of microbial life on Mars - it greatly increases the chances that past or present life could exist on Mars."

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_CiacciaA young girl in Oklahoma said she snagged a weird catch over the weekend, reeling in a fish bearing human-like teeth.

Kennedy Smith, 11, was on a fishing trip at Fort Cobb Lake with her grandparents and brother on Sunday and got really excited when she hooked the fish on her line, she told The Associated Press.

But to Smiths surprise, her grandmother was bitten by the animal while she was trying to take out the hook.

"I was confused because I knew that fish with teeth are not normal. It was weird," Smith told the outlet. "They were human-like and that made it even weirder."

FLORIDA MANS 826-POUND BLUEFIN TUNA CATCH BECOMES NEW STATE RECORD

Turns out that the strange looking creature was a Pacu, Caddo County Game Warden Tyler Howser told The Associated Press.

I've actually caught one myself, Howser said. As soon as I saw (it) I said I know what that is.

The fish, which are from South America, have family ties to the Piranha, according to the Oklahoma Game Wardens, who posted about the unique catch on Facebook.

While officials indicate the fish can grow to be quite large, the one Smith caught only weighed about a pound, Howser said.

MASSACHUSETTS FISHERMAN WRESTLE GREAT WHITE SHARK FOR STRIPED BASS IN WILD FOOTAGE

Officials said the toothy creature likely got into the lake after first being bought as a pet and then getting released once it became too big.

Pacu are considered an invasive species that can destroy the native Oklahoma fish ecosystem and habitat, so the fish Kennedy caught was taken by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and destroyed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A host of African-American historical artifacts, including Rosa Parks home, the Jackson 5s first professional recording contract, and the manuscript for Malcolm Xs biography, are up for auction this week.

A handwritten letter from Parks detailing her first meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is also in the sale. The letter was written in 1955, just months before she refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, an event that would turn her into a civil rights icon. The letter has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $300,000.

Parks home in Detroit, where she lived in 1957 after fleeing the south following her bus protest, has a pre-sale estimate of $1 million to $3 million. The small 23-foot by 23-foot two-story wood home has been carefully disassembled, and has even been the subject of an international tour.

'TITANIC' DIRECTOR JAMES CAMERON IS BACKING A BID TO ACQUIRE 5,500 ITEMS FROM THE ILL-FATED OCEAN LINER

There are over 1,100 lots in the sale, which is being handled by Guernseys Auction House. The auction is taking place Wednesday and Thursday.

Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday, Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernseys Auction House, said that he was confident that many of the items in the auction would end up in prominent museums. Hopefully they will be treasured for what they are, he said.

The Jackson Fives first professional recording contract, signed by their recently deceased father, Joe Jackson, and Steeltown Records, has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $300,000.

The manuscript for Malcolm Xs biography, as told to Roots author Alex Haley, also includes lost chapters that were deemed too controversial to publish. Notes in the document, for example, show Malcolm X calling for rebellion and revolt. The manuscript has a pre-sale estimate of $100,000 to $200,000.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersOver 2,500 scientists are warning that the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico will have a negative impact on wildlife.

The border wall was a key part of President Donald Trumps election campaign, but continues to spark controversy. While Trump has reiterated his desire to strengthen Americas southern border, critics have questioned its effectiveness, its economic impact and its cost.

The Presidents budget plan earlier this year included a $23 billion request for border security, $18 billion of which would be allocated to building a wall.

Published in the journal BioScience, the letter has been endorsed by over 2,500 scientists across the globe. The signatories warn that the wall spells bad news for the areas nature.

HOW AI AND TECH COULD STRENGTHEN AMERICA'S BORDER WALL

In North America, along the 3.200-kilometer [1,988-mile] USMexico border, fence and wall construction over the past decade and efforts by the Trump administration to complete a continuous border wall threaten some of the continent's most biologically diverse regions, the letter says. Already-built sections of the wall are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation.

The border bisects areas inhabited by 1,506 native animal and plant species. Some 62 of these species are listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, according to the scientists.

By significantly altering the landscape, the border wall threatens a number of animal populations, the letter says. Physical barriers prevent or discourage animals from accessing food, water, mates, and other critical resources by disrupting annual or seasonal migration and dispersal routes, the scientists explain. Continuous walls, they add, could prevent endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep from moving between California and Mexico to access water and birthing sites.

It could also be difficult for other endangered animals such as the Mexican gray wolf and the Sonoran pronghorn to cross the border and re-establish recently destroyed populations or bolster small groups.

SOMEONE JUST KILLED ONE OF THE LAST REMAINING JAGUARS IN THE US

As climate change and increasingly warm, dry conditions redistribute resources and shift habitats in the borderlands, the wall may prevent some populations from tracking these changes, the letter reads. Fragmented populations may suffer from reduced genetic diversity and face greater extinction risks.

In the letter, scientists claim that the border wall bypasses environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The border wall also devalues conservation investment and scientific research, they say.

Fox News has reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security with a request for comment on this story.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersTwitter is taking heat for "shadow banning" certain prominent Republicans, restricting their visibility in search results.

The social media giant came under fire after Republican Party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, including Rep. Devin Nunes and Andrew Surabian, the spokesman for Donald Trump Jr., failed to appear in Twitters auto-populated drop-down search results. The news was first reported by Vice News.

The notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American. Twitter owes the public answers to whats really going on, tweeted McDaniel.

McDaniels account subsequently reappeared in the search results.

TWITTER PURGE MEANS FEWER FOLLOWERS FOR TRUMP, OBAMA, JUSTIN BIEBER

Trump Jr. also took aim at Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey. @Jack its time for you to #StopTheBias against conservatives and Trump supporters and fix this once and for all, he tweeted.

Vice reported that limiting visibility in search results involves the same technique that has been used to diminish the reach of prominent racists on Twitter.

Twitter directed Vice to a May 15 blog post that explained how the platform was clamping down on troll-like behavior.

TWITTER CEO SHAMED FOR EATING AT CHICK-FIL-A OVER OWNER'S LGBT VIEWS, EXPRESSES REGRET

Searches for Republican Reps. Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz were affected by the same issue. Vice noted that top Democrats were not being similarly shadow banned.

Twitter told Fox News that the problem is the result of an algorithmic glitch in the search function that is being fixed.

To be clear, our behavioral ranking doesnt make judgements based on political views or the substance of tweets, tweeted Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour. Some accounts werent being auto-suggested even when people were searching for their specific name. Our usage of the behavior signals within search was causing this to happen & making search results seem inaccurate. Were making a change today that will improve this.

Dorsey also responded to furor over the search results. It suffices to say we have a lot more work to do to earn peoples trust on how we work, he tweeted.

Social media giants such as Twitter and Facebook are under increasing scrutiny, particularly in the wake of a government probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Twitter, for example, recently purged a slew of suspicious accounts from its platform.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersA senior official with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) claimed recently that China is waging a "quiet kind of cold war" against the United States, using all its resources to try to replace America as the leading power in the world.

Though it is different from the Cold War conflicts between the then Soviet Union and the US, its still a cold war by definition. added Michael Collins, deputy assistant director of the CIA's East Asia mission center at a forum on July 20.

The remarks were widely quoted by western media, making Collins one of the first American officials to clearly accuse China of invoking a new cold war against the US.

"China, from a counter-intelligence perspective, in many ways represents the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country," FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the same forum.

More extreme and even hysterical words are now used in the US to label China, as Washington has gone far describing China as an enemy and has somehow made such ravings politically correct.

In addition, Washington has made criticizing China a justifiable behavior, which means one can talk nonsense without thinking and will likely get some benefits by doing so.

An evidence should be provided if Mr. Collins made such a serious judgement like China is starting a quiet kind of cold war. However, he gave no reasons but his impression.

The accusation that China is damaging the US position and then replaces it is baseless. What does the China refer to? Does it refer to the Chinese government or civil society? Chinas official documents have never indicated such a message, and the Communist Party of China has never set such a goal.

In addition, it has never been a public opinion in China to take the US as an enemy. Even when some people boast that China has caught up with the US in certain fields, such words will immediately be mocked and denied by the public.

Its a widespread willingness and a consistent diplomatic policy of China to maintain cooperation with the US. Even when the US has initiated the trade war, China still insists on taking countermeasures according to the international practice, treats the trade war objectively and never takes the first step to extend trade conflicts to other fields.

China is clearly aware of the problems in the bilateral relations, but is willing to handle these challenges properly in the long term.

All of the conflicts and disputes between China and the US in recent years were stirred up by the US, and China was always the one to make passive responses.

China adopts a positive attitude toward joining the current international order, and has no intention on establishing a new set of rules. This point can be proved by the ongoing trade conflict between China and the US which doesnt go beyond the range of the US-led rules.

Chinas development is considered as a fault and regarded as a threat by the White House. It is even described as a cold war against the US by some American officials like Collins.

These narrow-minded politicians, lack of imagination and judgment, cannot find other words but the cold war cliche to describe such an unprecedented major country relationship between China and the US.

Some American elites attributed the failure of China-US ties to Chinas adherence to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. However, is there a necessity for countries with different social systems to confront with each other? This is the last thing that China wants, but some US officials are just fanning up this theory and expecting such confrontation.

The China-US relationship is facing unprecedented complexity and challenges. However, in the 21st century, the trade war cannot cloud the interwoven interests between the two countries, and to cut off the China-US ties is nothing but a pipe dream to turn back the hands of time.

China-US relationship is the toughest agenda in the history of international relationship. Facing it and managing it will be an act responsible for not only the people from both countries, but also the world and the human civilization at large.

Forcing a comprehensive cold war between China and the US will be the biggest crime in the 21st century, and some American elites are just going toward this shameful direction. Its hoped that both countries and the international community can curb the crime and protect the future of human.Nikki Haley recently spoke to some high school students. I wonder if she said it's easier than ever to make snarky remarks or take joy in opponent's mistakes or misfortunes:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMB. NIKKI HALEY, UNITED STATES AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: It's easier than ever to make snarky remarks or take joy in opponents' mistakes or misfortunes. Raise your hand if you ever posted anything online to, quote-unquote, own the libs. I know it's fun and that it can feel good.

(LAUGHTER)

HALEY: But step back and think about what you're accomplishing when you do this. Are you persuading anyone? Who are you persuading?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Now, she's right. Shutting down someone persuades no one. Still, does that matter? Mocking Dana's dog just feels good. How can I stop? But if you go online right now you're going to find two ugly sides to everything. Yet, if you decide to disarm, will the other side actually follow? Not if they read the New York Times, where an op-ed today says if you want to beat Trump, centrism is not the answer. Urging Times readers to veer left is like asking Trump to use bigger capital letters.

Fact is social media is getting way worse. On Twitter, blue-check celebrities just attacked one of their own, actor Mark Duplass for complimenting -- just complimenting -- Ben Shapiro. Right now, the left seeks scouts by mobbing people online for speech and ideas. It's digital warfare unleashed. And so, now you see the right fighting back. But there's a debate among that side: Do you take the high ground when you're attacked or do you return fire? It's mutually assured destruction. You smear me. I smear you. So maybe let's stop smearing each other.

But at some point, we need to fire Twitter from our lives. It's now a tool of vengeance employed by mobs for cheap thrills. So, Jack, you're the CEO and your company is now nothing more than an online supermarket for people selling torches and pitchforks. It's disgusting. Why not give it a rest for a day? Shut it down, look for a solution. As loud as Twitter can be, silence could be louder and more eloquent.An Allegiant Air flight made an emergency landing Wednesday morning following a bird strike which resulted in "bird remains" becoming entangled in the engine.

Flight 1592 from Punta Gorda, Fla., diverted to Orlando Sanford International Airport, about 160 miles from where it took off. No one was injured during the emergency landing.

ALLEGIANT AIR PILOT SUFFERS SEIZURE MIDFLIGHT, FORCING PLANE TO MAKE EMERGENCY LANDING

The Las Vegas-based carrier told Fox News that upon inspection, bird remains were discovered in the engine.

Flight 1592 from Punta Gorda to Milwaukee experienced a bird strike upon take off from Punta Gorda Airport. It diverted to Orlando Sanford International Airport out of caution, where bird remains were found in the engine.

The passengers were transferred to a different aircraft shortly afterward, where they continued on their way to Milwaukee.

ALLEGIANT AIR FLIGHT MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING AFTER CREW NOTICES 'ELECTRICAL SMELL'

Recently, the budget airliner has been scrutinized after pilots have threatened to strike over a years-long dispute with the carrier.

The low cost carriers reputation has also been questioned over concerns about its safety record. In a 60 Minutes expose on CBS, damaging reports surfaced from company whistle blowers and disgruntled passengers that chronicled aborted takeoffs, emergency landings, and mechanical issues in the last several years at a rate much higher than other standard airlines. The airlines executives at the time called the report both offensive and defamatory while promoting a false narrative that the company does not comply with FAA standards.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Andrew Craft contributed to this report.The hopes of Belgians eager to go to the bluffs in the buff have been dashed, as environmentalists have halted plans for the nations second nude beach over concerns that romantic "subsidiary activities" in the dunes will scare off a species of rare bird.

In recent days, the Flemish Wildlife Agency helped shut down an application for a clothing-optional beach in Westende, roughly seven and a half miles from the popular resort town Ostend, The Express reports. The group informed environmental minister Joke Schauvliege that the "locally treasured" crested lark, officially known as the Galerida cristata, would be likely be spooked by "subsidiary" sexual activity by beachgoers in the dunes and flee, according to The Guardian.

The wildlife agency also pointed out that not only would the dunes likely also suffer damage as result of nude canoodling, but beachgoers would probably leave trash behind, too.

NUDE MAN CAUGHT WORKING OUT AT PLANET FITNESS THOUGHT IT WAS 'JUDGMENT-FREE ZONE,' POLICE SAY

Though a proposal was floated to build a protective fence around the dunes, it was soon shot down as well. Steve Vandenberghe, the mayor of the municipality of Bredene  which is home to Belgium's only naturist beach  told a local outlet that a wire fence would in no way deter beachgoers from having a romp in the sand.

Barbed wire against nudists? Pff. As if a man without clothes cannot get over a barbed wire, Vandenberghe quipped, according to the Guardian.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

Meanwhile, Belgian Naturism Federation chairman Koen Meulemans is already lamenting the loss of the nude beach at Westende that never came to be, claiming that the location was ideal, as there is no building or sea dyke that looks out on to the beach, and adding that real naturists would never cause such destruction.

We too regret this behavior, which has nothing to do with naturism, he said of the thwarted plans. These are not real naturists for us.

According to the Guardian, half a million Belgians are estimated to participate in nudist recreational activities, including frequenting naturist campsites, public saunas and beaches.The heart of Yosemite National Park, where throngs of tourists are awe-struck by cascading waterfalls and towering granite features like El Capitan and Half Dome, will be closed as firefighters try to corral a huge wildfire just to the west that has cast a smoky pall and threatened the park's forest, officials said Tuesday.

Yosemite Valley will be closed for at least four days beginning at noon Wednesday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of State Route 41, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

At least a thousand campground and hotel bookings will be canceled  to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. Rangers were going to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotels guests were getting phone calls and notes on their doors.

"We're asking people here tonight to leave tomorrow morning," he said, adding that many people have already left. "And anyone that's incoming tomorrow will get an email or phone call stating that their reservation is canceled."

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Officials were quick to point out that Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the Ferguson Fire. Authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

Yosemite Valley is the centerpiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley's grand vista of waterfalls and shear granite faces has been obscured by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Visitors are advised to "limit activity during the periods of poor air quality," the park said in a statement. "Some facilities and services are closed or diminished."

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained Tuesday morning.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while others have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite/Madera County, said the regional visitors bureau has been relocating tourists statewide following the closure.

"People are heartbroken," she said. "Some want to ride it out for a few days and see if they can get back in the park." Others want help finding places to stay away from Yosemite.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

"There are wonderful places to visit in the region, so we're asking people to consider alternative plans," he said.

In the state's far north, a nearly 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.

___

Follow Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCMThe same Pennsylvania teen who police say was taken to Mexico by a 45-year-old man in March is reportedly missing once more.

Police said that Amy Yu, 16, left VisionQuest, a residential program for at-risk youth in Greene Township, early Monday. She is said to have left with two other girls.

Allentown Assistant Police Chief Gail Struss says his department was advised of Yu's disappearance in case she tries to return to the city.

According to police, Yu willingly flew to Mexico in March with Kevin Esterly before eventually being located by authorities and escorted back to the U.S.

The pair reportedly had a romantic relationship and met at church a few years ago.

Esterly remains in Lehigh County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail on charges of child custody interference and corruption of minors.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The brutal stabbing death of a 101-year-old woman earlier this month led to the arrest Tuesday of a western New York man, officials said.

Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli said at a news conference that Greg Jesner, 54, was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Marcia Morrison.

"I think it impacted everyone that's involved in this case," Ciminelli told reporters. "Certainly, it's unusual for someone to live that long, and this was just a true tragedy."

Police and firefighters found Morrison dead at her Rochester apartment on Tuesday morning. A senior transportation company had gone there to pick her up for her weekly ride, but she did not answer the door.

According to court documents obtained by WHEC, Morrison was stabbed repeatedly in the neck, throat and upper torso sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning, according to investigators.

This is one of the most egregious crimes we as a community have ever seen, absolutely," Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Monica O'Brien told WHEC. "...I certainly think that this Individual was targeted and obviously, her frailty in age led to this individual's ability to victimize her.

LOUISIANA WOMAN ARRESTED AFTER NEWBORN WAS KIDNAPPED, SET ON FIRE, POLICE SAY

Jesner was originally arrested for allegedly approaching a 13-year-old girl and offering her money to come back to his home, The Democrat & Chronicle reported. Ciminelli told reporters during a news conference that authorities were able to connect him to the murder by "very good police work."

Jesner pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. He's scheduled to return to court next week. Police did not release any information about a possible motive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The United Nations chief human rights agency in Geneva, headed by one of the President Trumps most vocal critics, has quietly established a new beachhead in Washington and laid plans for another in San Francisco.

The move by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) took place even though the U.N. itself has seen no compelling operational need for the Washington outpost. According to internal OHCHR documents, it also occurred more than a year before the U.N. General Assembly refused to approve the expansion.

The office does not show up on an official online U.N. list of offices in Washington that is comprehensive enough to include a similar liaison office for another U.N. agency, UN Women. When asked about the mysterious new office, a spokesperson for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres declined to comment.

The U.S. State Department told Fox News only that the U.S. is aware that there are OHCHR offices in the United States.

A State Department official added that we have a very strong relationship with the OHCHR and regularly engage with the OHCHR at their headquarters in Geneva and in their offices in the U.S. to discuss the most pressing human rights situations around the globe. The OHCHR performs valuable work in promoting human rights, including through its technical assistance and training programs, and we support many of its efforts.

The Twilight Zone existence of the new office appears to be the product of a quiet collaboration between the Obama-era State Department and a stubborn effort by the U.N.s volatile, departing Human Rights Commissioner, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, to go ahead with the expansion regardless of U.N. member states positions.

The idea was initially broached by Zeids office in late 2015, as the creation of a new regional hub in Washington aimed at widening the democratic space with the assistance of undefined National Human Rights Institutions.

According to internal OHCHR documents, going ahead with the Washington outpost was approved on March 13, 2016, at a meeting of Zeids Senior Management Team, headed by Zeids deputy, Kate Gilmore, a former bureaucrat with the United Nations Population Fund and with Amnesty International.

Minutes of the meeting say that the decision was to take advantage of the openness of the Obama administration to establish a presence in Washington. That was an apparent reference to an October, 2015, letter to Zeids office from Obamas Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Pamela Hamamoto.

Said Hamamoto: We welcome this initiative and look forward to working closely together in Washington.

The letter added, in effect, that contrary to what Zeids office thought, OHCHR needed no new permissions from the U.S. government to open such an office, just notification of staffing and assignments as they occurred.

The Washington branch and any other OHCHR outcroppings were, in the Obama State Departments opinion, covered by the broad agreements covering the U.N. in general.

Occupation of the one-person office was noted as completed in June 2016. OHCHRs representative is currently Mac Darrow, a senior OHCHR official.

OHCHRs decision and action, however, was more than a year before the U.N. General Assembly decided in December 2017 to postpone indefinitely any discussion of a Zeid-proposed regional restructuring, which included the Washington posting.

The same restructuring proposal had been tossed back by the U.N. in November 2016 for lack of detail.

The overall aim of the Washington move, as well as the subsequent Silicon Valley initiative, appears to be to advance Zeids ambitions for the human rights agency despite the U.N.s own cold shoulder  and, as Zeid initially sought in 2015, to bring the U.S. into closer proximity to the U.N.s tangled, proliferating and often contradictory notions of international human rights law.

It is also apparently definitely intended as part of Zeids legacy. A member of Jordans ruling royal family, Zeid ends his four-year term in late August. He announced last December he would not seek a second term, because to do so, in the current geopolitical context, might involve bending a knee in supplication; muting a statement of advocacy; lessening the independence and integrity of my voice  which is your voice."

In other words, continuing to work at OHCHR might suddenly be beneath Zeids principles.

Zeids decision to step down from his post may not have caused great grief for Guterres. Among other things, Guterres is now dealing with the decision in June of the Trump Administration, the U.N.s biggest single financial supporter, to withdraw from the dictator-heavy U.N. Human Rights Council, which, like Zeids OHCHR, is based in Geneva.

The Human Rights Council exists separately from Zeids human rights office, but nonetheless supplies some of its mandates. True to his undiplomatic form, when U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Council, Zeid tweeted that it was disappointing, if not really surprising, news.

Given the state of human rights in todays world, the U.S. should be stepping up, not stepping back, he added.

That was an imaginative reinterpretation of Haleys remarks, which concentrated on the Council as the U.N.s biggest failure, stated that the withdrawal followed 18 months of futile U.S. attempts at reform, and affirmed Americas continued engagement on human rights issues.

Zeid has been much more undiplomatic, and unflattering, about President Trump. Even before the November 2016 presidential election, the human rights chief charged that Trump shared, along with a number of other aspiring conservative politicians in Europe, tools such as half-truths and oversimplification, which they also had in common with ISIS (Zeid used the common Arabic name of ISIS, Daesh.)

Last November, Zeid sniped publicly at populists who spread hatred through tweets, which a U.N. official confirmed as including Trump. He also said his office was watching the United States very closely under the current White House occupant.

But Zeids high regard for his voice as an advocate, and his close eye on the U.S., apparently does not extend to publicly touting much about the existence of his new Washington office.

In response to questions from Fox News, a spokesperson for OHCHR said the office at the moment is responsible for OHCHRs engagement with international financial institutions such things as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

But that particular rationale for establishing a Washington office was explicitly rejected a little over 18 months ago by the U.N.s advisory committee on budget and administrative questions, or ACABQ, when Zeid offered it in the first place.

In November 2016, the ACABQ told Zeid that any liaison functions for those institutions could be undertaken by OHCHRs 33-person office at the U.N. Secretariat in New York.

The ACABQ also recommended that any new regional office of the human rights agency that would include coverage of the U.S. should be located in Barbados, where Zeid originally wanted to establish a sub-office.

That was two months after internal OHCHR documents indicate that the liaison office in Washington was already established.

Last December, the U.N. General Assembly as a whole postponed indefinitely any discussion of Zeids ambitious regional plan.

Internal OHCHR documents examined by Fox News, however, also show that Zeids plans for the office extended significantly further than simple engagement with international financial institutions.

According to a document approved by Zeid himself in August 2016, the initial office plan called for external partners to play a critical role in OHCHR efforts, which included U.N. system partners, development and human rights NGOs and the media. Further partnerships will be explored with Washington D.C.-based foundations, think tanks and NGOs.

All of those ideas, however, depended on General Assembly approval of Zeids overall restructuring proposal, which did not occur.

Currently, an OHCHR spokesperson describes the San Francisco operation for Fox News as one staff member on temporary assignment engaging with the technology sector on human rights in the digital sphere.

Internal documents show, however, that the Silicon Valley part of Zeids unofficial U.S. beachhead is intended to be a jumping off point for something considerably biggera wholesale engagement of U.S. based technology companies in OHCHRs efforts and priorities.

An internal strategic document dated March 2018, and apparently still a work in progress at the time, foresaw a much more sustained and expansive presence In Silicon Valley that would, among other things, induce high-tech companies to engagein more effectively preventing and addressing risks from their operations, products and services.

It adds: In parallel, the U.N. presence would forge links between academic institutions, labs, and the tech industry with U.N. human rights monitoring and investigations, bolstering the capacity of the U.N. to actively work towards addressing many of the worlds most pressing human rights situations.

The document also says that the human rights framework provides a foundation of universally accepted norms to which the vast majority of governments already have legally binding obligations.

One of the countries that frequently makes explicit reservations, or limits, to those legally binding obligations, is the U.S.often on constitutional grounds linked to the federal separation of powers.

The working document foresees ramping up the temporary OHCHR representation to a full representative, additional technical positions, and a locally recruited support staff.

The cost of the expanded operation $1.2 million to $1.5 million for the next three years, which is effectively the limit of OHCHRs upcoming strategic plan.

The document indicates that the plans authors are casting around for non-government donorsincluding foundations and high net worth individuals, or HNWIsto pay for it.

One sideline commentator on the document, an OHCHR official named Scott Campbell, warns that we should keep [the offices profile] fairly low in order to avoid unnecessary attention to political/legal issues. He suggests discussing the issue with HCthe High Commissioner.

CLICK HERE FOR THE SILICON VALLEY DOCUMENT

Campbells LinkedIn page lists him as Currently on assignment to Silicon Valley area, California, United States.

As it happens, Zeid and OHCHR have already forged new links with a donor who sympathizes with many of his ambitionsthe Geneva-based Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), created by Hollywood star George Clooney and his wife Amal.

In November 2017, OHCHR and the CFJ signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on development of a distance-learning, interactive online tool on trial monitoring, to be made available at no cost to individuals which either CFJ or OHCHR put forward.

At the end of the online training, OHCHR would attach its name to a certificate of completion. The MOU carefully notes that this certificate does not entitle the bearer to represent the United Nations or OHCHRthough it clearly attaches some of OHCHRs international prestige to the accomplishment.

The memo thus links OHCHR at the hip with the CFJ, a feat perhaps made easier by the fact that CFJs executive director is David Pressman, formerly the Obama Administrations Ambassador to the United Nations Security Council and close colleague of Obamas controversial U.N. ambassador, Samantha Power.

A so-called TrialWatch project on CJFs website announces the development of a tool very similar to the one described in the MOU, but without any mention of OHCHR, even though a joint education project with UNICEF on CFJs home page prominently mentions that U.N. organization.

CFJ has already gained some notoriety for its $1 million support for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that specializes in calling out alleged hate groups and other extremistssometimes even if they arent. Last month, SPLC coughed up $3.375 million and a public apology to a moderate Muslim activist in London for including him in a so-called Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists. CJF said its own money went to SPLC to expand its relentless efforts to combat hate groups in the United States.

Zeid has already shown more than once that he can be relentlessespecially when acting against OHCHR staffers who have not toed what he thinks is the appropriate reporting line.

In 2015, more or less when he was first pushing his Washington human rights hub, Zeid was taken to task by an independent panel that had investigated U.N. responses to sexual crimes against young children by non-U.N. peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.

The scandal was disclosed by a member of Zeids staff, a Swedish diplomat named Anders Kompass, who bypassed the U.N.s normal chain of command to notify French authorities in a bid to prevent further child abuse, and then told his superiors what he had done.

Kompass was later asked to resign by one of Zeids deputies, and subsequently suspended while a U.N. investigation, ordered by Zeid, continued. A U.N. judge thereafter ordered Kompass returned to his job. Kompass eventually went back to his native Swedish foreign ministry, after charging that lack of accountability is entrenched in the United Nations.

Zeid was said by the independent investigators to have had a single-minded determination to pursue an investigation against Kompass, which the human rights chief has strongly denied. A close colleague of Kompass, Miranda Brown, who aided in his efforts, lost her job and says her whistleblower claims were ignored. She has been requesting reinstatement ever since.

Zeids chief spokesperson, Rupert Colville, in a series of off-the-record comments early this year to an unnamed British journalist, called Kompass and Brown extraordinarily self-centered and dishonest people, and said their duplicityutterly disgusts me, more than anyone else I have worked with in my thirty-year career.

A third OHCHR staffer, Emma Reilly, has charged that she received something of the reverse Anders Kompass treatment, after reporting that a senior OHCHR staffer had passed on to Chinese authorities the names of Chinese dissidents invited to a Human Rights Council meeting in 2013. The dissidents never made their flight from Beijing.

The official who passed on the information to Chinese authorities was not punished, but Reilly was denied whistleblower status and she was only granted a two-year, rather than more normal five-year, extension on her contract last January. She has since been transferred to another section of OHCHR.

Those cases too, along with OHCHRs murky U.S. initiatives, may end up as a significant part of Zeids legacy.Texas police were unfazed when they encountered a peculiar diversion tactic during a search on an illegal marijuana growing operation.

The Navarro County Sheriffs Offices' SWAT Team and Narcotics unit were executing a search warrant on a heavily wooded area near Richland when they encountered an armed scarecrow, police say.

Officers described seeing a fully dressed figure lying in a hammock appearing to be armed, holding an assault type rifle appearing to provide security for the location.

Through the investigation, officials discovered approximately 10,000 marijuana plants, some as high as 6 feet tall, in a marijuana field spanning nearly 5 acres, police reported.

The complex operation also had water pumps and portable generators at the site, according to officials.

Police located the marijuana field using drone surveillance after receiving an anonymous tip of suspicious activity 250 yards west of the Texas Department of Transportation Navarro County Safe Rest Area on South I-45, officers said on a Facebook post.

Authorities say the site was so hidden that a bulldozer was required to gain access and bring in their equipment.

Some of the marijuana was already being harvested and processed at the time of the search, police say.

This bust comes after the NCSOs bust in June, where authorities seized more than 17,000 marijuana plants in southern Navarro County.A California Department of Motor Vehicles employee slept three hours a day on the job for nearly four years-- all while her supervisors knew, according to a state auditors report released Tuesday.

And the employee still works there.

Between February 2014 and December 2017, the employee snoozed through an estimated 2,200 hours worth of work, costing California taxpayers more than $40,000, the audit said.

The worker, who was not named in the report, is a data operator responsible for updating information on address changes and new vehicle ownership forms.

According to the report, a typical data operator averages 560 documents a day, but the worker managed only 200, leaving other data operators to pick up the slack, the audit found. Her colleagues said her work was filled with errors, the report said.

The workers supervisors had been aware of her misuse of time but failed to take disciplinary or medical action against the employee after initial efforts to address her conduct proved unsuccessful, the audit said.

In November 2016, the workers request for reasonable accommodation was denied. Two months later, the workers physician indicated she could perform all of her duties.

DMV officials told state auditors that they did not pursue disciplinary action against the worker because her behavior had not been properly documented.

Previous disciplinary attempts were found by legal and human resources staff to have not had appropriate language necessary for such disciplinary action, the audit said.

[D]espite the employee failing to correct her behavior, the employee's supervisors did not initiate adverse action within the State's progressive discipline process to ensure that her behavior did not continue.  California State Audit

The audit said proper documentation was completed in March 2018 and the employee was reportedly warned that she could be disciplined for sleeping on the job.

State auditors recommended DMV take action against the supervisors who failed to discipline the worker. The agency told state auditors that it is training the supervisors on the importance of following the States progressive discipline process.

MORE THAN A MILLION ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SCORED CALIFORNIA DRIVER'S LICENSES, STATE DMV ANNOUNCES

The DMV is now consulting with human resources to determine the next steps to take with the employee, the report said.

The case was one of 1,481 instances of alleged improper governmental activities investigated by the California State Auditors Office over the past year.A former Delaware priest accused of raping a pre-teen girl between 1991 and 1994 has died.

Bob Krebs, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, confirmed Wednesday that John A. Sarro died Monday at a nursing home after a long illness. He was 76.

Sarro was indicted in January on charges of first-degree unlawful sexual intercourse and second-degree unlawful sexual contact. The charges involved a girl who was under the age of 16. He pleaded not guilty in February.

Sarro was among several priests, living and dead, about whom the Wilmington diocese disclosed in 2006 that it had received admitted, corroborated or otherwise substantiated allegations of sexual abuse.

Department of Justice spokesman Carl Kanefsky said with Sarro's death, a notice will be filed to drop the charges.Journalists, students and experts attend the initiative ceremony of the 2018 Liupanshui Belt and Road & ASEAN Media Tour.

The 2018 Liupanshui Belt and Road & ASEAN Media Tour kicked off today, July 25, with an opening ceremony in Liupanshui city, Guizhou province.

The tour will last for almost a week and see international and ASEAN reporters, students and experts explore the beauty and industry of Guizhou province.

Addressing the audience, Wang Zhiqiu, director of the editorial department of People's Daily Guizhou Branch, said, Today, Liupanshui invites media friends from all over the world to come and feel the charm of the Cool City. It has a high standing position, views for miles and strong pertinence.

Liupanshui is well known in China for its enjoyable summers and fresh, clean air. Tourism in the area is set to increase, and the citys location is perfect to trade its rich resources through Belt and Road links.

Vithit Powattanasuk, Director of Information and Public Relations, ASEAN-China Centre, delivers a speech.

The connection between China and ASEAN countries is becoming ever stronger, as this year marks 40 years since Chinas reform and opening up and the continuous development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Vithit Powattanasuk, Director of Information and Public Relations at the ASEAN-China Centre said during his address, In 2017, two-way trade topped $514.8 billion and the accumulated two-way direct investment approached $200 billion. China has been ASEANs largest trading partner for nine consecutive years while ASEAN has been Chinas third largest trading partner for seven years in a row.

He noted that there were nearly 50 million mutual visits between the two sides last year, and the number of exchange students has now exceeded 200,000, adding that ASEAN-China relations have become the most dynamic and profound that ASEAN has with its dialogue partners.

Wang Zhiqiu, director of the editorial department from People's Daily Guizhou Branch, delivers a speech.

Liupanshuis trade is not only set to reach ASEAN countries. Wang explained that the red-heart kiwifruit, a famous fruit of Liupanshui, has already successfully entered the markets of Southeast Asia and North America. The fruit wine series has also passed FDA certification and will shortly be allowed to enter the U.S. market.

Its hoped that this media tour will allow journalists and guests to experience the cool summer of Liupanshui, the beautiful scenery and extensive industry in the area, allowing more people to learn of and visit the city.

Members of Peoples Daily, the Guizhou municipal committee and related companies attend the 2018 Liupanshui Belt and Road & ASEAN-China initiative ceremony.FBI and state investigators on Tuesday have taken over the search for a University of Iowa student who has been missing for nearly a week and authorities said it is "leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will."

Volunteers searching for Mollie Tibbetts, 20, of Brooklyn, Iowa, were called off this week as the FBI and state investigators took over, said Mitch Mortvedt, a spokesman from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

We're still asking for the public's help ... We'd like to get any information we can. The more eyes and ears we have, the better.  Mitch Mortvedt

Mortvedt said officials are "leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will."

Tibbetts was dog-sitting at her boyfriends house last Wednesday, KCRG-TV reported. Her boyfriend, Dalton Jack, was reportedly 100 miles away on a construction job.

A neighbor reported seeing her go for a jog that evening. Jack told the station he received a Snapchat photo from her late Wednesday night, after she would have returned to the home from her jog.

When he texted her Thursday morning, he said she did not respond, so he got ahold of her friends and family.

FBI and Iowa investigators are now concentrating on areas around Brooklyn that Tibbetts was known to frequent. The FBI is also studying Tibbetts online history and cellphone app usage in an effort to pinpoint where she might be, Mortvedt said.

Tibbetts was born in San Francisco and lived in Oakland until she moved to Iowa with her mother when she was in second grade, the Des Moines Register reported. Her father, who lives in Fresno, reportedly flew to Iowa to assist the search.

Dozens of volunteers in Brooklyn have searched fields around Tibbetts house as well as Jacks. They also blanketed the area with missing posters, T-shirts and billboard pleas in an effort to find her.

Tibbetts' aunt, Kim Calderwood of Brooklyn, told the Des Moines Register that Tibbetts' family is frustrated by the lack of progress in the search.

"We're racking our brains, thinking what can we think of to tell the investigators," she said. "It's the worst thing to want to fix something you can't fix."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Welcome to FOX News First. Not signed up yet? Click here.

Developing now, Wednesday, July 25, 2018

In a tape secretly recorded before the 2016 election, President Trump and his former longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen appear to discuss a possible payment to a former Playboy model who claims to have had an affair with the president

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could be grilled about North Korea and Trump's meeting with Vladimir Putin when he testifies on Capitol Hill on Wednesday

Trump-backed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp won Tuesdays GOP primary runoff against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, setting up a showdown with Democrat Stacey Abrams in the fall

Farmers hurt by the U.S. trade war with China will receive a total of up to $12 billion in emergency aid, the Trump administration announced

Pop superstar Demi Lovato is reportedly 'awake' and recovering after an apparent overdose scare

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Tune in to 'Hannity' Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET for Sean Hannity's exclusive interview with Roseanne Barr!

THE LEAD STORY - THE TALE OF THE SECRET TAPE - A recording of President Trump and his longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, discussing a possible payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, was provided to CNN on Tuesday by Cohen's attorney and longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis ... FOX News and other outlets confirmed the existence of the tape Friday; however FOX News has not yet confirmed the tape's authenticity. A source has told FOX that no payment was ever made to McDougal.

On the recording, which was made prior to the 2016 presidential election, Cohen tells Trump: "I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David" and adds that he has consulted Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg "about how to set the whole thing up." Cohen then starts to say: "When it comes time for the financing," at which point Trump cuts him off and says, What financing?" "We'll have to pay," Cohen responds. What Trump says next is not clear, but it ends with the phrase "pay with cash." "No, no, no, no, no, no," Cohen responds before the tape cuts off.

In an exclusive interview with FOX News' Laura Ingraham on "The Ingraham Angle," Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani slammed the leaking of the audiotape to the media and questioned why the recording ended at a key part in the conversation. Giuliani said that Trump told Cohen, "Don't pay with cash" and slammed Cohen for making the recording "surreptitiously." "Theres no way the president is going to be talking about setting up a corporation and then using cash unless youre a complete idiot," Giuliani said, "and the presidents not an idiot."

The recording appears to be one of 12 seized from Cohen's apartment, office and hotel room by federal investigators in April and turned over to prosecutors Friday. Cohen is under federal investigation over his alleged practice of paying women to stay silent about claims they had sexual relations with the married Trump.

Prosecutors in Michael Cohen case get 12 audio recordings from 'special master'

POMPEO 'S HOT SEAT ON THE HILL: Lawmakers seeking answers about President Trump's talks with Vladimir Putin during their Helsinki summit and the state of efforts to get North Korea to denuclearize are expected to hammer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo when he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday ... Lawmakers may also want to know the Trump administration's path forward after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal last May, especially in wake of a new war of words between President Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. In addition, Trumps harsh criticism of European allies, the state of U.S. relations with NATO, Trump's tariffs and a trade war with China could be other hot topics facing Pompeo.

TRUMP'S MIDAS TOUCH FELT IN GEORGIA: Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has won a bruising Republican runoff in the state's race for governor, leveraging a damning secret audio recording of his opponent and a last-minute Trump-Pence endorsement ... With Tuesday's win against Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Kemp faces Democrat Stacey Abrams. She could become the country's first black woman governor. The race will test Democrats' assertion that changing demographics have turned the Republican stronghold into a swing state. Cagle's campaign was rocked by a secret recording in which he says he helped pass a "bad public-policy" bill for political gain.

FARM-AID: The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will grant up to $12 billion in emergency aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs in the ongoing trade fight with China and other American trading partners ... Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that the plan, which will provide direct assistance and other temporary relief for farmers through the U.S. Department of Agricultures commodity program, is meant as a stopgap to give Trump time to negotiate a long-term policy with China, the European Union and others.

The plan was announced as Trump spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, where he urged patience in dealing with the tariffs and claimed that farmers will be the biggest beneficiary of the trade deals in the end.

'DEMI IS AWAKE': On the eve of a hotly anticipated string of tour dates, pop music superstar Demi Lovato is recovering after an apparent overdose ... Lovato reportedly was hospitalized after being revived at her home with the opioid treatment drug Narcan. According to multiple reports, law enforcement officials say the 25-year-old former Disney pop princess was rushed to a hospital in Los Angeles. TMZ initially reported that Lovato appeared to OD on heroin. However, the outlet is now reporting that wasn't the case, and a source also confirmed to FOX News that "it's not heroin."

In a statement to FOX News, Lovato's rep said: Demi is awake and with her family who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support. Some of the information being reported is incorrect and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now.

AS SEEN ON FOX NEWS

ALL HYPERBOLE, ALL THE TIME: "We now inhabit an age of exaggeration."  FOX News senior political analyst Brit Hume, on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," sounding off on the Denver Post's publication of a letter to the editor from a Trump critic who accused him of treason and made reference to the execution of traitors. WATCH

TROLLER-IN-CHIEF: "I think that the president sometimes literally does troll the media and the left. I think that he wants heads to explode."  "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier, on "The Daily Briefing," saying President Trump may very well be trolling the media and the left by claiming that he thinks Russia will interfere in the midterms to help Democrats. WATCH

TRENDING

'The View's' Joy Behar, Meghan McCain clash over normalizing Democratic Socialism.

Ivanka Trump reveals why she's closing fashion brand.

Oregon woman finds mountain lion napping in her home.

100 tapeworm eggs found inside brain of 8-year-old with severe headaches, seizures: report.

THE SWAMP

'Hannity' interview: Nunes says memo has been 'totally vindicated' after DOJ released FISA documents.

'Special Report' interview: DHS Secretary Nielsen says White House is 'on track' to reunite separated families by deadline.

Maxine Waters' office receives package labeled 'Anne Thrax.'

House votes to repeal ObamaCare's medical device tax.

Religious freedom is 'right given by God,' State Department official says.

ACROSS THE NATION

FBI joins search for University of Iowa student.

Liberal Ninth Circuit backs right to carry firearms in public, in latest pro-Second Amendment ruling.

Doomed duck boat's designer had no engineering training, court documents reveal.

iPhones, iPads worth $29G stolen from Apple Store in Southern California.

Judge orders release of illegal immigrant detained by ICE during pizza delivery at military base.

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS

Stocks mostly higher following barrage of earnings reports.

Katz's Deli: The secrets behind keeping a 130-year-old business alive.

Harley-Davidson looking at 'all options' to deal with tariffs.

AT&T posts mixed results in first report since Time Warner deal.

Here's why Americans are moving to these states.

The world's first flying car is about to take flight.

FOX NEWS OPINION

Liz Peek: Why Chuck Schumers about to have a very bad week (hint: Its the Trump economy, stupid).

Republicans are now the pro-Israel party, as Democrats distance themselves from the Jewish state.

John Stossel: Trump doesn't need to meddle in Cuba because things are already turning around.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARED

Georgia lawmaker to resign after yelling racial slurs, dropping pants on Sacha Baron Cohen show.

Clint Eastwood sues medical company over patents, report says.

Hillary Clinton to appear on 'Madam Secretary' with Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, CBS says.

Matt Lauer complains he's 'an easy mark,' victim of 'misinformation' in first interview since sex scandal.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?

Longest total lunar eclipse of the century: What you need to know.

Rare 'Viking' discovery made in Italy.

Mayonnaise ice cream is grossing people out on Twitter.

STAY TUNED

On Facebook:

Check out 'FOX News Update,' our new Facebook-exclusive news program hosted by Shepard Smith, Carley Shimkus and Abby Huntsman!

On FOX News:

FOX & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: The Wall Street Journal's William McGurn explains why he thinks the FISA court should be abolished. Larry Kudlow, White House director of the National Economic Council, discusses looming trade wars and Trump's tariffs. House Speaker Paul Ryan on the Republican message for the midterms. A closer look at the best companies for military veterans on National Hire a Veteran Day. Plus, meet Sgt. Alan Jones, the 94-year-old veteran that President Trump invited to the Oval Office.

Special Report, 6 p.m. ET: Analysis from Alan Dershowitz, Harvard professor of law emeritus.

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. ET: Special guest: Rep. Trey Gowdy.

On FOX Business:

Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Special guests include: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue; Jim Reid-Anderson, president and CEO of Six Flags; Rep. Darrell Issa; Dr. Liam Fox, U.K. international trade secretary.

Varney & Co., 9 a.m. ET: Rep. Martha McSally, Arizona GOP Senate candidate; Rep. Tom Reed; Stephen Sweeney, N.J. State Senate president; Christian Magoon, Amplify ETFs CEO; Nigel Farage, former Brexit leader.

Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Noon ET: Rep. Sam Graves.

The Intelligence Report, 2 p.m. ET: Special guests include: Rep. Matt Gaetz; Art Laffer, former economic adviser under President Reagan.

Countdown to the Closing Bell, 3 p.m. ET: Special guests include: Blake Moret, Rockwell Automation CEO.

On FOX News Radio:

The FOX News Rundown podcast: President Trump meets with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss the looming trade war after the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture announced $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers affected by the president's recent tariffs. FOX Business' Hillary Vaughn has the latest developments. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer joins the podcast to give insight on the Trump administration and his new book, "The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President." Plus, commentary by FOX News Radio talk host Tom Shillue.

Want the FOX News Rundown sent straight to your mobile device? Subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET: Gregg Jarrett discusses his new book, "The Russia Hoax"; Sean Spicer on his new book and life in the Trump administration; Rep. Mark Meadows on the revelations from the release of the FISA warrant applications for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

#OnThisDay

1972: The notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiment comes to light as the Associated Press reports that for the previous four decades, the U.S. Public Health Service, in conjunction with the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, had been allowing poor, rural black male patients with syphilis to go without treatment, even allowing them to die, as a way of studying the disease.

1952: Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.

1866: Ulysses S. Grant is named general of the Army of the United States, the first officer to hold the rank.

FOX News First is compiled by FOX News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your day! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Thursday morning.A repairman was called to an Arizona home to fix its air conditioning on Friday, but instead killed the homeowner during an altercation -- then afterward called police, authorities said.

Robert Moore, 26, was charged with second-degree murder after allegedly shooting 41-year-old Frank Pineda in his home, the Surprise Police Department said.

Pineda was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died, FOX10 Phoenix reported.

"We've cried yesterday all day. We're done crying, I want justice for my younger brother," Marco Pineda told the Arizona Republic.

Moore, who was working for Arrowhead Aire, had been making repairs on Pinedas friends car when Pineda approached him about fixing his homes air conditioning, family members told Phoenix's KPHO-TV.

After Moore arrived at Pinedas home, an altercation between the two men ensued, leaving Pineda shot, police said. Police are still investigating what exactly led up to the shooting.

Once the repairman allegedly shot Pineda, he left the home, walked to a corner and called 911, Marco Pineda told FOX10.

Police said that after calling 911, Moore was arrested at the scene without incident and has been fully cooperating with investigators. He was being held at the Maricopa County Jail.

He was my best friend. I could ask him questions about anything; hed have an answer.  Frank Pineda Jr., victims 20-year-old son

Pineda was married with seven children, according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the victim's family. He is also survived by two brothers.

He was my best friend, Frank Pineda Jr., the victims 20-year-old son, told KPHO-TV. I could ask him questions about anything; hed have an answer.The Haitian national accused of shooting a Florida cop in the head Saturday has had an immigration detainer filed against him, officials said Wednesday, ending nearly a decade during which authorities arrested Wisner Desmaret numerous times but didn't inform immigration officials about him.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency told Fox News the agency filed a detainer against Desmaret on Sunday, the day after he allegedly shot Fort Myers Officer Adam Jobbers-Miller, 29. Fox 4 Now reported a man was allegedly assaulting a group of males at a Fort Myers gas station before officers arrived, at which point Desmaret allegedly shot at officers while they tried to take him into custody. Jobbers-Miller was transported to Lee Memorial Hospital where he was reported to be in critical but stable condition.

FBI JOINS HUNT FOR UNIVERSITY OF IOWA STUDENT AMID NEW FEARS SOMETHING HAPPENED AGAINST HER WILL

ICE spokesman Bryan D. Cox told Fox News the agency couldn't provide more information about Desmaret because he was not in ICE custody -- something that would only occur once his current case is adjudicated and he serves any sentence imposed. Desmaret faces at least eight charges, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.

Should he enter ICE custody at that time we would be able to provide you with case-specific details, Cox said in an emailed statement.

After Desmaret was arrested in connection with a burglary in 2010 an ICE hold was requested on him. But the Florida states attorneys office decided not to prosecute the case for what they said was insufficient evidence, Fort Myers News-Press reported. Desmaret had been placed on an ICE hold in 2008 as well, NBC-2 reported.

Wink News reported Desmaret, whose age wasn't able to be verified, had been arrested several times in Lee County and was on medication for unspecified mental health issues.

Desmaret was at the Lee Memorial Hospital recovering from a non-life threatening injury after the incident Saturday, police said.

Desmarets father, John Demaret (who does not spell his name with an s), resides in Sarasota and told Wink News his son came to the U.S. legally.

ROOKIE NEW JERSEY COP SAVES MAN FROM ONCOMING COMMUTER TRAIN, DRAMATIC VIDEO SHOWS

Hes not a citizen, hes not a citizen. But he came legally. He had a visa, he came legally, John Demaret said.

Attorney Michael Raheb told Wink News it was possible Desmaret may have overstayed his visa," thus necessitating the ICE hold. Youll find a majority of people that are in this country often times came here lawfully and often overstayed or their visa expired."

A GoFundMe has been set up Jobbers-Miller and his family with medical funds. As of Wednesday morning, more than $40,000 has been raised.Five men stole iPhones and iPads worth about $29,000 from an Apple Store in Southern California on Monday night, police said.

Police released a video showing the men, dressed in hoodie sweaters, strolling into the store and then making away with the Apple devices at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Orange County.

The group swiped iPhones and iPads from the displays and fled the store, Costa Mesa police Sgt. Mike Manson said, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The crime happened about 20 minutes before the stores 9 p.m. closing time, police said.

The men were seen driving toward Interstate 405 in a silver Infiniti sedan, Manson said.

The crime was regarded as a burglary because the suspects did not show any weapons, police said.

There were no injuries and no weapons involved, Manson said, according to the Orange County Register.

The suspects were males, African-American, early to mid 20s, the description of Costa Mesa polices Facebook video said.

An unidentified officer near the entrance tried to detain one of the suspects, police said. Authorities have not identified the agency for which the officer works, but said he was not a member of the Costa Mesa Police Department, the Times reported.

The shopping center is about 40 miles south of Los Angeles.The Latest on a suspect arrested in a fatal stabbing at an Oakland train station (all times local):

3:05 p.m.

A Northern California prosecutor says she will seek a life sentence for a 27-year-old parolee charged in the stabbing death of a young woman at a subway station. The woman's sister was also wounded in the attack.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said Wednesday that prosecutors are still investigating if suspect John Cowell was motivated by hate. He is white and Nia Wilson was black.

Cowell did not enter a plea and his arraignment on murder and attempted murder charges was set over to a future date.

Cowell was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles (19 kilometers) from the MacArthur station where Wilson was killed and her sister Letifah Wilson was wounded.

Cowell's family says he has suffered from mental illness most of his life and failed to receive proper treatment.

___

1:30 p.m.

Prosecutors in Northern California say a paroled robber faces murder and attempted murder charges in the attack at a subway station against two sisters that left one of them dead.

They say 27-year-old John Cowell is set to be arraigned Wednesday in Oakland in the Sunday attack against 18-year-old Nia Wilson, of Oakland, and her 26-year-old sister, Letifah Wilson.

Alameda County prosecutors say he also faces parole violations charges.

Cowell was arrested Monday night on a Bay Area Rapid Transit train in the San Francisco Bay Area, about a dozen miles (19 kilometers) from the MacArthur station where the sisters were attacked.

His family says he has suffered from mental illness most of his life and failed to receive proper treatment.

Records show Cowell recently served two years for second-degree robbery.

___

1:05 p.m.

Police in Northern California say they are investigating the death of a homeless man who was attacked at a subway station the day before a teenage girl was fatally stabbed on a transferring platform.

Bay Area Rapid Transit police say they are looking for a suspect who allegedly punched 47-year-old Don Stevens at the Bay Fair station on Saturday.

Authorities late Tuesday released images of the man they say hit Stevens to the side of the head with a closed fist. Stevens fell and struck his head.

He died at a hospital Sunday, the same day John Cowell allegedly stabbed 18-year-old Nia Wilson to death at the MacArthur station what authorities say was an unprovoked attack.

Cowell is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.A Louisiana woman was arrested Saturday in the mysterious death of a 6-month-old boy who was kidnapped and set on fire, police said.

Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith was charged Saturday with first-degree murder in the death of Levi Cole Ellerbe, police said Monday. Authorities received a 911 call around 9:10 p.m. on July 17 about a child being taken from a home at Mayberry Trailer Park.

An unidentified mother told police two people sprayed her in the face with a chemical, possibly mace, and barged into her trailer. She said she fled the trailer to escape the attackers.

When she returned, her 6-month-old son was gone.

Officers began searching the area for the missing child until they received a call around 10:20 p.m. about a fire near Breda Avenue, about a mile away from where the boy was taken. Police found a baby with burns on his body.

He was airlifted to a hospital where he later died.

Its unclear if Smith has any personal or familial relationship to the mother and baby or what led police to arrest the 25-year-old. Police did not say what happened to the two people allegedly involved in the kidnapping.Two teenage boys sued the Minnesota State High School League on Wednesday, alleging it maintains unconstitutional rules that bar boys from joining girls' competitive high school dance teams.

Dmitri Moua and Zachary Greenwald filed a federal lawsuit with help from their parents and the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has worked on similar cases with students in at least two other states.

The two 16-year-olds want to try out for their schools' dance teams in suburban Minneapolis, but the league's rules prohibit boys from competing on girls' dance teams, according to the lawsuit. The suit argues the rules violate Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds.

"Things are changing," Moua told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I feel that students should not be limited based on sex."

Foundation attorney Caleb Trotter added in a statement: "Minnesota's school sports league cannot discriminate against boys based on nothing more than an outdated stereotype that dancing is for girls only."

The Minnesota State High School League doesn't comment on pending litigation, spokesman Tim Leighton said Wednesday.

Moua, who will be a junior this fall at Roseville Area High School, volunteered to become the manager for his school's dance team but no longer wants to sit on the sidelines. He said he finds that dance gives him "self-confidence and a feeling of acceptance and belonging," the lawsuit said.

Greenwald, who will be a junior at Hopkins High School, began dancing in fifth grade and "thrives on the athleticism and competition of dance," according to the lawsuit.

The Minnesota State High School League was previously threatened with a lawsuit by the California-based Pacific Legal Foundation after the league barred a male student from the high school dance championship in 2017. The student attended a high school in northwestern Wisconsin that competed against Minnesota teams.

Attorneys for the student filed a federal civil rights complaint that November. In May, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights determined that there wasn't enough evidence to conclude that the league discriminated against boys in the case. The student's school had already withdrawn from the Minnesota league, and he was able to dance with his team in Wisconsin, according to the foundation.

The South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors voted to suspend its rule to allow a male student to compete on his high school's dance team this fall. The move came after the student filed a lawsuit with help from the foundation.As the homeless population explodes and pricey projects are voted into existence, some Seattle residents are questioning if the tens of millions of dollars the city has poured into boosting its progressive credentials is money well spent.



From taxpayer-funded streetcars to a pricey new aquarium, the city has proposed plenty of costly upgrades. And Seattle also has been spending a chunk of money to help solve another big issue: homelessness.

The city reportedly has the third-highest number of homeless people in the U.S. In 2017, Seattle spent $68 million combating the issue.

CALIFORNIA'S ENACTED AND POTENTIAL BANS, FROM INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES TO PLASTIC BAGS

Here's a list of some of Seattle's most controversial projects and proposals in recent years, and how much they would potentially cost taxpayers.

Streetcars

The Seattle Department of Transportation reportedly ordered 10 new streetcars for $52 million in 2017 to expand the Seattle Streetcar system by linking the two existing streetcar lines.

But there's a problem: the new streetcars are apparently heavier and longer than the ones currently in use. If they can't fit on the current tracks, then it's possible they may not be used at all.

SEATTLE'S $52M STREETCAR FIASCO THE LATEST SETBACK FOR CITY'S ANTI-TRUMP MAYOR

It appears the error will require either a change order for design of the streetcars or incur new costs for construction of new or retrofitted maintenance barns, City Councilmember Lisa Herbold wrote in a blog post.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had to temporarily stop work on the project following revelations that it may cost 50 percent more than previously estimated, the Seattle Times reported.

Ocean Pavilion

The Seattle Aquarium has proposed a $113 million plan to build a new Ocean Pavilion to help relieve overcrowding. The new building, slated to open in 2023, would house a 300,000 gallon shark tank, KIRO 7 reported.

About 30 percent of funding for the project would be coming from the city, according to documents obtained by KIRO 7. The rest of the money is expected to come from private donors, federal and state sources.

NRA, SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION FILE SUIT AGAINST SEATTLE GUN STORAGE ORDINANCE

Some have praised the construction of the 48,000 square-foot building, claiming it will particularly benefit children. But others questioned if the money would be better spent helping the homeless and solving other issues plaguing the city.

Seattle Aquarium CEO Bob Davidson told KIRO 7 the project will improve tourism, pointing to a decade-old $42 million expansion that increased attendance by about 200,000.

Protected bike lanes

$12 million per mile? SDOT is planning to create 50 miles of protected bike lanes across the city  but the price tag for the new routes have some officials wondering if they can afford it.

Former Mayor Ed Murray's initial estimate for the new paths was about $860,000 per mile, with a budget of $94 million to complete construction on the 50 miles-worth of new bike lanes. But the cost to insert new traffic signals, drainage, curbs and various other items to complete the project may inflate costs.

Construction on Second Avenue, for example, cost closer to $12 million for a 1-mile, two-way lane, the Seattle Times reported in May.

Under their current budget, SDOT told the Times it won't be able to complete construction on all the lanes proposed in "The Levy to Move Seattle", which was approved by voters in November 2015.

Clearly, SDOT needs to work much harder on value-engineering the costs of these projects down, interim SDOT director Goran Sparrman told the Times. Second Avenue clearly is a far outlier. But we simply cant afford those things.

In 2015, voters agreed to a $930 million plan to improve Seattle roads, bridges and public transportation.

"The levy provides roughly 30% of the City's transportation budget and replaces the 9-year, $365 Bridging the Gap levy approved by voters in 2006," SDOT explained on its website, adding an oversight committee approved by the mayor and city council will oversee budgeting for various city-wide projects.

Tiny house villages

Earlier this year, the city council repealed a head tax aimed at taxing businesses that make $20 million in gross revenue  about $275 per full-time worker each year.

Revenue from the tax, which was opposed by Seattle-based business giants Amazon and Starbucks, would have raised roughly $48 million a year to fund homeless shelters, build tiny house villages and affordable apartments.

SEATTLE'S NEW 'HEAD TAX' BLASTED BY CITY'S MEGA-CORPORATIONS

Despite spending in Seattle and King County that has ballooned to $200 million a year, the number of people living in tents, on Seattle streets and in vehicles has grown 20 percent since 2016, to nearly 4,000 individuals.



So far, Seattle has seven permitted tiny house villages, though officials reportedly expect that number to increase by the end of the year.

"Each night, the villages provide more than 300 people a tiny house structure that locks, access to restrooms and showers, case management, a kitchen and a managed community," the city explains on its website.

Seattle works with nonprofit Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) to oversee the homeless encampments. The city doesn't fund the construction of the tiny homes  which are mainly built by volunteers  but it does pay LIHI staff to operate it, KIRO 7 reported.

Next year, the city will pay the organization $1.7 million to "operate and provide case management" to those living in the villages, according to the Seattle Times.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness has slammed cities who are taking the tiny home approach, arguing it doesn't actually solve the problem and ends up being costly and hard to manage.

"Creating and then operating such settings typically requires significant funding, energy, and staff time from both public and private agencies devoted to locating and arranging for the use of sites, educating and engaging neighbors, addressing any permitting requirements, providing a secure and hygienic environment, setting up and maintaining any structures, providing adequate services and supports, and many other planning and operational details," the USICH warned in a May 2018 memo.



Fox News' Lukas Mikelionis and Dan Springer contributed to this report.The suspect who allegedly stabbed two sisters, killing one, at a rail station in Oakland, Calif., deserves the death penalty, a past victim of the suspect says, according to a report.

Nearly a decade ago, John Cowell, 27 -- the BART stabbing suspect -- along with three other teens, beat up Shane Glick, 51, outside his Concord, Calif., home, Glick told the San Francisco Chronicle.

I wish he would get the death penalty for what he did to that poor little girl. She didnt deserve it, Glick said.

I wish he would get the death penalty for what he did to that poor little girl. She didnt deserve it.  Shane Glick, past victim of BART murder suspect

Cowell allegedly fatally stabbed Nia Wilson, 18, on Sunday night at the MacArthur station of the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system and injured her sister, Latifa Wilson, 26. Both were reportedly stabbed in the neck.

BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas called the attack unprovoked, unwarranted, vicious," according to San Francisco's KGO-TV.

Meanwhile, BART riders complained of the perception of "two BARTs," the Bay Area's FOX 2 reported. They said that BART seems safe during weekday business hours, but seems riskier during off-peak hours and weekends.

Less than 24 hours after the alleged stabbing, Cowell rode at least two BART train rides for at least 40 minutes, even passing through the crime scene, the East Bay Times reported, citing police audio recordings.

The suspect rode the transit system in packed trains before a passenger spotted him at the Coliseum station in Oakland and alerted police, according to the police recordings. He was arrested without incident Monday evening at the Pleasant Hill station after transferring trains at least once and avoiding a BART police search, the report said.

Cowell was known as a troubled kid in a gritty neighborhood in Concord, about 22 miles northeast of Oakland, the Chronicle reported.

He and other teens hung out at a community park near Glicks home, the report said.

Glick told the paper that when he confronted Cowell and the group in 2009 about his home being burglarized, they began to beat him.

When Glicks daughter came outside while on the phone with police, Cowell sucker-punched her, he said.

Cowell was then charged with felony assault.

Another resident named Ty told the Chronicle that Cowell just wasnt in a normal state of mind," and described Cowells violent behavior over the past 12 years.

He would come and would just start disrespecting his dad, who lived at the park for many years, Ty said. His dad would try to keep it cool, and he would bring him in and let him stay the night and visit, but inevitably it would turn into something. It got physical.

Authorities haven't released a motive for the Sunday night attack, but Cowell's family told KRON-TV in a statement that he has suffered from mental illness "most of his life."

Cowell had been in and out of jail without receiving proper treatment, the family added.

He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, according to the family.

Records indicate Cowell, currently on parole, recently served two years for second-degree robbery and also had convictions for battery, being under the influence of a controlled substance and assault with a deadly weapon, the East Bay Times reported.

Cowell was also listed as homeless, as officers watched several address for him in two counties during the manhunt for him earlier this week, police said, according to KGO-TV.

In May, he was released from the Atascadero state mental hospital, but "there was not a place for him to go with most of the mental institutions being shut down," the family said, adding that "the system has failed in this instance."

Cowell's family said it was "heartbroken" and mourning for the victims' family.

"This horrific tragedy never should have happened," the statement said.

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Vicky Waters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It wasn't immediately known if Cowell had a lawyer. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday and could be charged with first-degree murder.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.An exhibition featuring over 400 original stills from Disney cartoons, including some rare celluloid artworks, are being displayed in Beijing for the first time, reports Chinanews.com.

A view of the animation exhibition at the National Museum of Classic Books in Beijing, seen here on Monday, July 23, 2018. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

The exhibition at the National Museum of Classic Books includes images of classic Disney characters Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Micky Mouse, and Donald Duck. Several of Walt Disney's hand-signed works are also on display. Most of the works have not been shown before in China.

Included in the exhibition are 84 drawings from the private collection of Vaytch Robin, who was an artist at the Disney studios in the 1930s. The drawings have been contributed by his daughter, Marianne Robin.

A drawing of the classic Disney character Micky Mouse. [Photo: Xinhua]

Visitors can also experience a restoration of a 1930s Disney painter's workshop, learn about the principles of celluloid animation, and watch some classic animated films.

The exhibition will run until October 14.President Donald Trump's top national security aides sought to fend off accusations the president is too soft on Russia by declaring Wednesday that the U.S. will never recognize the annexation of Crimea and by postponing a second proposed summit between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepared to face questions about last week's Trump-Putin meeting from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the White House said Trump had opted against trying to meet with Putin this fall, as had been announced, and would instead wait until 2019. National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.

"The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said. The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall. This came amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the fall.

In the meantime, Pompeo issued a statement titled the "Crimea Declaration" in which he said the U.S. will continue to insist that Ukraine's territorial integrity be restored. He said the U.S. would hold to its long-standing principle of refusing to recognize Kremlin claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in violation of international law. And he called for Russia to respect principles it claims to respect and "end its occupation of Crimea."

"In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored," Pompeo said in the declaration, which was released by the State Department shortly before he was to testify.

Pompeo is expected to face tough questioning from committee members about Trump's summit with Putin. Trump has suggested that U.S. opposition to Russia's annexation of Crimea could be reconsidered.

In the declaration, Pompeo took Russia to task for it actions in Ukraine, particularly the 2014 annexation of Crimea. Russia has defended its move, saying Crimean voters approved the annexation in a referendum. The U.S. and its European allies have said the referendum was illegal as it was held without the consent of the government in Kiev and was conducted in a highly flawed manner.

"Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community," Pompeo said in the statement.

Even before the statement was released, Pompeo was taking a tough line on Russia and defending the Trump-Putin meeting as he prepared for his Senate testimony.

In an interview transcript released ahead of the Crimea statement, Pompeo said Trump and Putin "didn't find much place to agree" on Ukraine when they met in Finland last week. He said Trump made clear to Putin that the so-called Minsk Accords to settle the Ukraine conflict is the right path forward.

He also reiterated U.S. support for an investigation that held Russia responsible for downing a Malaysian airliner over east Ukraine in 2014. Pompeo said that what the Russians did was "deeply immoral" and that those responsible for the MH17 disaster should be held accountable.

Pompeo made the comments in a Tuesday interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in California, where he and Defense Secretary James Mattis co-hosted meetings this week with their Australian counterparts. The interview was a likely preview of his Senate testimony, which comes as lawmakers are seeking answers on what the two leaders may have agreed to in Helsinki. The White House and State Department have been vague when pressed for specifics.

In the interview, Pompeo acknowledged that he was not in the room when Trump and Putin met for nearly two hours in Helsinki. But he said he had a "good understanding" of what took place based on his presence at a larger meeting between the two sides as well as conversations with Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"It was an incredibly constructive engagement for President Trump and President Putin, an important one for the world," Pompeo said. "These are two nuclear superpowers. They ought to be engaged in conversations, and they covered a wide range of topics. They disagreed on many things but also set forward some constructive paths on important topics."

On Ukraine, Pompeo said the differences were sharp.

"The president was strong in making sure that the world understood that the Minsk path is the right path forward," he said. Asked about MH17, in which dozens of Australian passengers were killed, Pompeo called it "a real tragedy."

"What the Russians did there is deeply immoral," he said. "There ought to be accountability."next Image 1 of 2

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Of all the things people in Toronto are horrified by in the aftermath of the shooting that killed two people and injured 13, this stands out: The man responsible had a handgun.

To mass shooting-weary America  where there are about 300 million guns of all kinds  possession of a handgun might seem commonplace.

But in Toronto, the very idea that someone would have a handgun, much less take it out in public and fire it, is nearly incomprehensible. Now, the City Council is considering a motion urging the federal and provincial government to ban the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition in Canada's largest city.

"If anything, what's happened in the United States is what not to do," said City Councilman Joe Cressy, who was expected to propose the idea of banning handguns and ammunition on Tuesday.

Agreed Toronto Mayor John Tory: "Why does anyone in this city need to have a gun at all?"

It's unclear how the shooter in Sunday's tragedy obtained his gun. And officials haven't discovered a motive for why 29-year-old Faisal Hussain targeted diners enjoying a warm summer night at restaurants and cafes in Toronto's popular Greektown neighborhood, killing a 10-year-old girl and 18-year-old woman. His parents said he had suffered from severe mental illness his entire life.

Cressy acknowledged that banning handguns isn't the only thing Toronto should do to combat gun violence, which is on the rise in the city. Crime prevention programs, helping those released from prison find jobs, mentoring kids and diversion programs are all initiatives that should be beefed up, along with meeting people's mental health needs, he said.

Even before Sunday's shooting, city leaders were concerned about an uptick in gun violence that had prompted the Toronto police to deploy dozens of additional officers over the weekend. The city has seen 23 gun homicides so far this year, compared to 16 fatal shootings in the first half of 2017.

Canada overhauled its laws after the country's worst mass shooting in 1989, when gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique college. It's now illegal to possess an unregistered handgun or any kind of rapid-fire weapon. Canada also requires training, a personal risk assessment, two references, spousal notification and criminal record checks to obtain a permit.

Canadians have long taken comfort in the peacefulness of their communities and are nervous about anything that might indicate they are moving closer to their American counterparts.

"There isn't a handgun culture here," said Toronto resident Alison MacLean, shaking her head and wearing a T-shirt with symbols of a peace sign, a heart and a moose. "Handguns aren't part of the common discourse."

Before 2012, about 75 percent of illegal firearms in Canada were trafficked from the United States. By 2017, however, about half originated from domestic sources, putting an end to the idea that most of Canada's illegal guns come from across the border, said Det. Rob Di Danieli of the Toronto police guns and gangs unit.

Legal Canadian gun owners are selling their weapons illegally, he said.

The allure of a quick sell at a high profit margin is one reason legal owners might sell their guns. One man sold 47 guns and made over $100,000 in a five-month period, Di Danieli said.

"They go get their license for the purpose of becoming a firearms trafficker," he said. "A lot of people are so ready to blame the big bad Americans, but we had our own little problem here."

A big difference between Canada and the U.S. is the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Americans the right to bear arms. In Canada, gun ownership is not enshrined in the constitution.

"Canadians, unlike Americans, do not have a constitutional right to bear arms," Canada's high court said in a 1993 decision that upheld a ban on convertible semi-automatic weapons.

"Indeed, most Canadians prefer the peace of mind and sense of security derived from the knowledge that the possession of automatic weapons is prohibited," the court said.

Another difference is that Canadian politicians are not beholden to groups like the National Rifle Association, which donates millions of dollars to U.S. campaigns. Canada's federal elections laws put limits on contributions to political parties so that only individuals, not corporations or lobby groups, may donate.

In the wake of Sunday's shooting, many here said they were reminded of another mass shooting, one that happened 1,500 miles (2,414 km) away in Florida in February, when a former student walked into a school with an assault rifle and killed 17 students and staff members and injured 17 others.

"I was thinking about the victims in Parkland, and their strength," said 24-year-old Laila Hawrylyshyn. "And I hope the victims here in Toronto have the strength to recover from this."

She and a several dozen of her classmates in a government relations class at York University attended the City Council session on Tuesday where council members discussed gun violence with the city's police chief.

Said Cressy: "A 10-year-old and an 18-year-old dying is heartbreaking enough. I can't fathom what it's like as a parent to wake up and send your child off to school and wonder if they'll be killed. That's not a city you want to live in."next Image 1 of 2

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Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said Wednesday he will return to Belgium this weekend to resume efforts to drum up European support for Catalan self-determination after Spain's bid to extradite him collapsed.

Puigdemont has been in Germany since March, when he was arrested on a Spanish warrant as he tried to return from Finland to his home in Belgium. The warrant was withdrawn last week, and Puigdemont told reporters in Berlin that he will return to Belgium on Saturday.

Puigdemont fled to Belgium last year after his regional government held an unauthorized referendum on independence from Spain.

Spanish authorities took over the Catalan government for several months after a subsequent declaration of independence by the Catalan parliament received no international recognition.

Puigdemont said he will pick up where he left off in March, continuing his work to fulfill "the people's mandate" and support fellow separatists who are imprisoned in Spain.

Earlier this month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Catalan President Quim Torra  a fervent nationalist who is Puigdemont's hand-picked successor  agreed to open talks over Catalonia's future.

Sanchez took office last month after securing a narrow parliamentary majority, with support from Catalan separatists and others, to oust predecessor Mariano Rajoy  a hardliner on Catalonia.

"Clearly the change of Spanish government has meant a change of style, climate and language," Puigdemont said.

"But it is time for facts and not gestures," he added. "We have shown that we are prepared ... for dialogue, but we have to address the essential part of this dialogue: the relationship between Catalonia and Spain."

Puigdemont insisted that the matter "is no longer a Spanish domestic affair." He acknowledged that Catalan separatists have no support from European governments, but insisted that "we have plenty of support from European citizens."

Spain had sought Puigdemont's extradition on rebellion charges for promoting independence. But a German court ruled he could only be sent back to face a lesser charge of embezzlement connected to the alleged misuse of public funds for holding the outlawed independence referendum. A Spanish judge then withdrew his European arrest warrant.

An earlier Spanish attempt to extradite Puigdemont from Belgium failed.In a stinging legal rebuke, the European Court of Justice said Wednesday that possible shortcomings with rule of law in Poland can be grounds for EU nations to deny extradition requests from Warsaw.

The European Union's top court said that the legal fight between the European Commission and Poland over recent controversial judicial reforms in Poland can be "particularly relevant" when assessing whether a suspect should be extradited.

The ruling comes after a Polish national who was arrested in Ireland last year for drug trafficking refused to surrender to Polish authorities, arguing he would not get a fair trial there. Ireland asked the EU court for guidance.

Poland has been facing increasing questions from its EU partners over an overhaul of its judicial system that is seen as a violation of Western democratic standards.

And the court added to it on Wednesday.

It said on the specific case that if "there is a real risk that the individual concerned will suffer ... a breach of his fundamental right to an independent tribunal and, therefore, of the essence of his fundamental right to a fair trial," a nation like Ireland "must refrain from giving effect to the European arrest warrant."

EU politicians say their opposition to the Polish judicial reforms has strengthened.

"This should be a stark warning for the Polish government that its path away from European democratic values is undermining its role in Europe and the world," said Philippe Lamberts, the leader of the Greens in the European Parliament. "The Polish government must reverse its recent changes to the court system and guarantee fundamental rights such as the right to a fair trial for all."

In Poland, the justice minister took a starkly opposing view. Zbigniew Ziobro said the ruling did not mean that extraditions to Poland should be automatically stopped, but only that other courts would be free to decide on it.

"The Irish court has suffered a defeat," said Ziobro, insisting that there was no problem with rule of law in Poland.

____

Monika Scislowska contributed from Warsaw.An explosion rocked a Pakistan polling station on Wednesday, killing at least 25 people, including five police officers and two children, hospital officials said.

Dr. Jaffer Kakar said he fears the death toll in the southwestern city of Quetta could rise as many of the 40 or so wounded are in critical condition.

The Islamic State claimed reponsibilty for the attack, the Guardian reported, citing the group's Amaq news agency.

Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief in Quetta, Baluchistan's provincial capital, said the explosion took place near the city's eastern bypass.

Cheema told the Guardian that the suicide bomber blew himself up after police stopped him from entering the polling station.

The attack comes as Pakistanis vote in general elections for 270 members of the law-making National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

Baluchistan also saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the run-up to election day, with 149 people, including a provincial assembly candidate, killed at a campaign this month.

Earlier Wednesday, Pakistani police say a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties has left one person dead and wounded two people in a village near the northwestern city of Sawabi.

While police said its unclear what setoff the shootout, they said the situation was under control and voting resumed in Col Sher Khan village.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.The co-founder of international nudist, anti-Putin group Femen was found dead Monday in her Paris apartment, the group said.

Oksana Shachko, the 31-year-old co-founder of the feminist protest movement, was found with a suicide note beside her, the Guardian reported.

It is with great regret and deep pain that I must confirm the death of Oksana, Inna Shevchenko, who also lives in the French capital, told the newspaper.

Another of the groups founder, Anna Gutsol, confirmed the death on Facebook, saying the members were awaiting the official version from the police.

RIP. The most fearless and vulnerable Oksana Shachko has left us, Gutsol wrote. We mourn together with her relatives and friends.

The Guardian reported Shachko was one of the four activists who founded Femen in Ukraine in 2008. She was exiled to France in 2013.

Femen, operating under the slogan I came, I stripped, I won, sought to challenge authoritarianism and racism. Russian leader Vladimir Putin was their usual target.

In 2011, three members of the group  including Shachko  were kidnapped by security agents and forced to strip naked in a forest after Femen mocked the Belarusian president in a protest. The Guardian reported security agents poured oil over the three women and threatened to set them on fire.Hundreds of people on Wednesday attended an emotional funeral service for Hatidza Mehmedovic, who headed a group of women fighting for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The somber crowd stood in silence and many cried during a commemoration ceremony and a Muslim religious service held in the eastern Bosnian town that was the site of Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Mehmedovic, who headed the Mothers of Srebrenica group comprising women who lost their loved ones in the massacre, was buried later in a village near the town.

The Mothers of Srebrenica have won praise for their struggle to have those responsible for the killings brought to justice.

"Today we are all sad, everyone who knew Hatidza, everyone who knows what the word mother means," said Munira Subasic, another women heading the quest for justice. "She wanted to send the message of peace, message of respect to others. She was seeking only one thing and that was the truth and justice."

Mehmedovic's husband, two sons and brother were among some 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed when Bosnian Serbs overran Srebrenica in July 1995.

More than two decades later, experts are still excavating more victims' bodies from hidden mass graves throughout Bosnia.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic over the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.

Although an international court has labeled the Srebrenica killings as genocide, Serbs have never admitted their troops committed the ultimate crime and nationalist politicians have viewed Mladic and Karadzic as heroes.

A Serbian far-right lawmaker, Vjerica Radeta, has sparked outrage this week by an offensive tweet mocking Mehmedovic's tragedy after her death. The tweet was widely shared on social networks and reported by the media before it was deleted and Radeta's Twitter account shut down.

Serbia's parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic has said Radeta's position does not reflect that of the assembly.ISIS claimed responsibility Wednesday for the deadly Toronto shooting and investigators are reportedly digging into the gunman's past and Internet history -- but Canadian officials continue to insist the killings aren't related to terrorism, clouding the possible motive for the attack that killed two and wounded 13.

The terror group's AMAQ propaganda agency, citing a "security source," said Toronto shooter Faisal Hussain, 29, was a "soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls to target the citizens of the coalition countries." Based on language used in previous claims by ISIS, it appeared the shrinking Islamist group looked at Hussain as having been merely inspired by ISIS, rather than having been directed.

The group did not provide further details or any evidence, such as a videotaped pledge of allegiance, for its claim. Hussain, who killed 10-year-old Julianna Kozis and 18-year-old Reese Fallon during the mass shooting, died after a gun battle with police late Sunday.

On Wednesday, Canadian officials stressed there was no national security risk despite authorities' continued investigation into what prompted the deadly rampage in the bustling Greektown neighborhood.

"These are the early stages of an active investigation being led by the Toronto Police Service," a spokesperson from Canada's Office of the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness told Fox News. "At this time, there is no national security nexus."

But while officials are publicly pushing back on any ties to terror for now, reports have emerged that investigators are questioning Hussain's past.

Hussain had visited ISIS websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group, CBS News and the Toronto Sun reported, citing law enforcement sources. A law enforcement source told the Toronto Sun the 29-year-old expressed support for a website that was seen as pro" ISIS.

Officials are also investigating if Hussain lived at one time in Afghanistan or possibly Pakistan, CBS News reported.

Hussain's online activities have previously drawn the attention of law enforcement, and he was well known to Toronto Police for investigations into past crimes involving weapons and violence," according to the Toronto Sun.

TORONTO MASS SHOOTING SUSPECT WAS KNOWN TO POLICE DUE TO MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES, REPORT SAYS

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders pushed back on those reports on Wednesday, saying there is so far no evidence of ISIS support and that that "every investigative avenue" is being examined.

Since Sunday evening, all areas of the Toronto Police Service have been involved in this investigation. We have received assistance from law enforcement partners at every level and I have been updated regularly. At this stage, we have no evidence to support these claims," Saunders said in a statement. "Accurate information about this investigation will only be released by the Toronto Police Service. We will continue to explore every investigative avenue including interviewing those who knew Mr. Hussain, reviewing his online activity, and looking into his experiences with mental health.

The gunman's family has maintained their son had a long history of psychosis and depression and had not responded to numerous treatment approaches, including therapy and medication.

"While we did our best to seek help for him throughout his life of struggle and pain, we could never imagine that this would be his devastating and destructive end," the family said in a statement. "Our hearts are in pieces for the victims and for our city as we all come to grips with this terrible tragedy. We will mourn those who were lost for the rest of our lives."

Canada's Global News reported Tuesday that Hussain had been taken into police custody twice due to concerns about his mental health. The Global News report did not specify when Toronto police had encountered Hussain, but said he had a history of mental health concerns dating back to 2010. The report also did not say what happened after police apprehended Hussain.

TORONTO SHOOTING SUSPECT IDENTIFIED AS FAISAL HUSSAIN, FAMILY SAYS HE HAD 'SEVERE MENTAL HEALTH CHALLENGES'

A police source told Global News that Hussain believed he was the Joker character from the "Batman" movies. The source added Hussain "was fascinated with death and explosions. He also liked replica handguns." A family spokesman confirmed to Global News that Hussain owned a replica BB gun, but denied he had any special obsession with the Batman movies or any particular character.

Investigators searched the low-income apartment Hussain shared with his parents and siblings on Thorncliffe Park Drive in the eastern part of the city, and removed boxes filled with potential evidence overnight, according to the Associated Press.

An autopsy on Hussain was expected Tuesday, and officials have not yet disclosed where Hussain got the handgun used in the attack.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge, Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Israeli military shelled Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing three militants, after its troops on the border came under fire.

The army issued a statement saying it targeted Hamas military positions in the territory after a Palestinian sniper fired on Israeli soldiers "under the cover of 20 children that were sent towards the border fence as decoy." It military said an Israeli officer was moderately wounded.

Three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli artillery strikes near Gaza City, the Palestinian health ministry said.

A spokesman for the Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said the three were members of the Islamist organization's armed forces.

"The level of Israeli escalation against Gaza and the deliberate targeting of fighters demonstrate the occupation's intentions to kill," spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. "We can't stay silent in front of the cruel and bloody Israeli occupation's leadership."

Hours after Wednesday's incident, air raid sirens sounded across communities in southern Israel.

The cross-border exchange took place a few days after Gaza's Hamas rulers agreed to a cease-fire with Israel to prevent weekend hostilities from escalating.

On Friday, a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border  the first casualty Israel has sustained in four years  and Israel unleashed a heavy offensive in response. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the past decade.

These latest flare-ups of violence follow months of border protests organized weekly by Hamas. Over 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since the protests began March 30.

The protests are aimed at ending the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, put in place after Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in an armed coup in 2007. The blockade has brought severe economic hardship to the territory.

The protests also demand a "right of return" for descendants of Palestinian refugees to ancestral homes in what is now Israel. More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled during the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation, and two-thirds of Gaza's 2 million residents are descendants of refugees.An American pastor imprisoned for nearly two years on terror and espionage charges in Turkey has been transferred to house arrest as his trial continues, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.

Turkish officials said Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson was moved from a jail in western Turkey to a house due to health reasons. He is banned from leaving his residence and the country.

The 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina was arrested in December 2016 for allegedly committing crimes on behalf of terror groups, a reference to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is blamed for a failed coup attempt.

Brunson, who has vehemently denied the charges, faces 15 years in prison for the terror charges and an additional 20 years for espionage.

The case has strained ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States. President Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release.

Trump tweeted in Brunson's defense last week, calling it "a total disgrace" that Brunson is being held. "He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!"

Brunson's case was among issues Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed during a recent telephone call.

Brunson's case has been adjourned until Oct. 12.

The U.S. State Department has not commented.

Fox News' Nick Kalman contributed to this report.Trade is about competition, collaboration, and above all, a great chance for win-win results. But nowadays US President Donald Trump is using hegemonic clauses like Section 301 and 232 to turn trade into a war, shaking the multilateral trading system through unilateralism, like a bull in a china shop.

Since the end of World War II, a wide range and large scale of global issues have emerged. Quite a few such problems were difficult if not impossible to solve through traditional channels of bilateral negotiations. This led to the rise of multilateralism and organizations such as the World Trade Organization.

The establishment of this multilateral system was essentially led by the US. But Washington is now turning into its destroyer, treating multilateralism as a threat to the US and bringing upon itself more losses than gains.

Many US laws, such as Section 301 and Section 232, are domestic trade laws adopted as emergency measures against declining US competitiveness.

In the 1970s, Japan's economy grew rapidly with its products occupying a growing number of international markets previously dominated by the US. In this context, Washington passed the Trade Act of 1974 in which Section 301 enforces US rights to addresses "unfair" foreign barriers to US exports and to retaliate unilaterally.

In other words, when the White House one-sidedly believes that its trading partners are practicing unfair trade, it can initiate investigation, make final decisions and reactions all by itself, bypassing the international community. Section 232 is much the same. It authorizes the US president to impose import restrictions on other countries in the name of US national security. Both sections deploy domestic law to deal with international affairs.

While Washington busies itself accusing others of jeopardizing the world order, it itself is becoming the greatest disruptor of the system it once established.

In his new book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, historian Yuval Noah Harari noted that human tribes coalesced into nations as no tribe could deal with major challenges alone. Today, countries find themselves in the same situation: No power can singlehandedly resolve the constant changes the world is facing. That's why global consensus is urgently needed.

Multilateralism is one such consensus. China is firmly opposed to unilateralism through substantial practices. It is now a major driving force of global economic growth as well as a crucial player in multilateral mechanisms.

China is doing so not only to safeguard its own interests, but also to maintain the normal operation of the global trading system. In this regard, China shares interests with many other countries.

China is not alone. Multilateralism still matters to many nations. The EU and Japan reached the world's largest bilateral free trade deal on Tuesday, which shines "light in the increasing darkness," according to European Council President Donald Tusk. China and the EU are also considering forging a free-trade agreement.

In the current global trade system, there can't be a unilateral win.A Japanese city is fighting off a bombardment of wannabe ninjas after a viral story set off a frenzy of Internet interest locals are saying is all wrong.

Iga, a small city in central Japan about 280 miles from Tokyo, has long billed itself as the home of black-clad, star-throwing, sword-wielding ninjas  even going so far as to put on shows and offering ninja experiences for tourists.

Last week, the city was featured in an NPR report that has since gone viral, and which appeared to claim that Iga faced a shortage of ninja performers.

The report went so far as to quote potential salaries, claiming performers can earn anywhere between $23,000 and $85,000 a year.

Thats wrong, all wrong, said Motoyoshi Shimai, an official of Igas tourism strategy division, told Reuters. There was no discussion about that, and we didnt mention money.

As of Wednesday, the city has received inquiries from 115 ninja wannabes from 23 countries, including Japan.

Most were questions about whether we were really hiring, but there were a few that begged us to employ them and tried to promote themselves, Shimai added. Some had real confidence in their bodies and strength.

He told the Japan Times that neither the city nor ninja performing groups have any plans to recruit new performers. The city was forced to issued a statement on its website warning people of fake news.

(The city) is the Iga-style ninja birthplace. We can feel breath of ninja at every turn of downtown, it said.

City officials said they were surprised  and not necessarily annoyed  by all the fuss and hope the interest will bring more tourists to the town.

We were made to viscerally feel how high interest is in ninjas all around the world, Shimai told Reuters.Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said Wednesday that Malaysia's new government will adopt a firmer stand in tackling a decades-old territorial row in the South China Sea amid China's aggressive expansion in the disputed area.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who won a stunning electoral victory in May, has said warships should be removed from the South China Sea.

Saifuddin said that Mahathir was "sending a signal that we want to be more firm, more serious" in handling the maritime dispute.

The 2002 declaration of conduct by claimants in the South China Sea that set loose guidelines for behavior in the disputed waters has "no fangs," and China's continued militarization of the area has raised concern and could potentially escalate regional tensions, he told Parliament.

China has sent big coast guard vessels that resemble warships to the potentially energy rich territory and has caused uneasiness among its neighbors, he said.

Malaysia's previous government rarely criticizes China, even though Chinese coast guard ships have sailed near Malaysia's waters. In the Spratly island chain, China has constructed seven man-made islands and equipped them with runways, hangers, radar and missile stations, further cementing its vast territorial claims in the busy waterway.

Saifuddin said Southeast Asian foreign ministers meeting in Singapore next week will seek to accelerate negotiations for a new code of conduct to ensure peace in the South China Sea, which is claimed by China almost in its entirety. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all dispute Beijing's holdings.

All parties should exercise self-restraint and any actions must be based on international law, Saifuddin said.

China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations earlier this year began negotiations on the new code of conduct. However, officials have warned it could take a long time, with no agreement on whether the pact will be legally binding, raising doubts over its effectiveness.

Mahathir, who previously led Malaysia for 22 years until 2003, has sought to reduce China's economic influence by reassessing lopsided Chinese investment since taking power for a second stint. The government recently suspended work on a multi-billion-dollar rail link that is central to China's Belt and Road initiative, and two gas pipeline projects to renegotiate for better terms.

Analysts however, say Mahathir's more assertive stance on the South China Sea is unlikely to amount to a challenge to Beijing, which is Malaysia's top trading partner.A close adviser to Pope Francis criticized legislation proposed by Italy's anti-migrant League party to require ports and other public institutions to display a crucifix, saying Wednesday that the religious symbol isn't "a team emblem" to be shown for political ends.

"If you remove the (religious) symbolism from the crucifix ... it becomes a parody," the Rev. Antonio Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit magazine Civilta Cattolica, said during a Rome conference on the pope.

A tweet Spardaro posted earlier in the day with a blunt "Hands off!" went viral. The crucifix, he wrote, "screams love to the enemy and unconditional welcome."

It was an apparent critique of the hard line Italy's current populist government has taken on immigration. The interior minister in the coalition government leads the right-wing League and has kept migrant rescue ships from docking in Italy.

The pending bill would require a crucifix to be displayed in all public spaces and institutions, including ports and universities. As now written, it allows violators to be fined up to 1,000 euros ($1,170.)

Although some Italian decrees technically require displaying the cross in public schools, not all schools abide by them. The issue has come before the European Court of Justice, which ruled in 2011 in favor of Italy's display policy.

The crucifix debate marked the latest dust-up over migration that has riled up the Catholic Church in Italy.

Weekly magazine Famiglia Cristiana published an issue Wednesday with a photo of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on the cover and the warning "Retreat, Salvini" in Latin.

Italy's Catholic leaders have largely taken to heart Francis' appeal for governments to accept as many migrants as possible. The magazine cover as well as Spadaro's comment reflected their growing unease with the government's position.

Salvini said the magazine cover was in bad taste.

"I'm the last among good Christians, but I don't think I deserve this," the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.

Italy isn't alone in dealing with the crucifix issue, which has flared anew as large numbers of refugees and migrants from countries that are not predominantly Christian seek asylum in Europe.

A similar debate broke out in May, when the German state of Bavaria passed a law ordering the display of the cross at the entrance of state buildings.

Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, head of the German bishops' conference, voiced opposition to the law, saying that considering the cross to be a cultural symbol reflected a misunderstanding of its meaning.

___

AP writer Frances D'Emilio contributed.Yemen's Shiite rebels caused "slight damage" to a Saudi oil tanker off Yemen's western coast, Saudi TV reported on Wednesday shortly after the rebels said they targeted a Saudi "battleship."

The coalition announcement, carried by state-run al-Ekhbariya TV channel, said the rebels, known as Houthis, "had almost caused an environmental disaster." Earlier, the rebel-run Al-Masirah TV said their "naval forces have targeted the Saudi Dammam battleship off the western coast." The report didn't elaborate.

The Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen's internationally recognized government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has been fighting to defeat the Iran-aligned rebels and restore Hadi to power since March 2015.

The coalition has repeatedly accused Saudi rival Iran of arming the rebels, allegations the Houthis and Iran deny.

In recent months, raging battles have been taking place along Yemen's west coast especially around the key port city of Hodeida as well as other rebel-held areas.

On Tuesday, the United Nations Children's Fund criticized an attack on a vital water facility in Yemen's northern Saada province, a Houthi stronghold.

UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere said the attack, which took place earlier in the week, is the third to target the same water facility. He said the attacks have left over half the project damaged, "cutting off 10,500 people from safe drinking water."

Cappelaere warned against continued attacks on water systems saying they increase the likelihood of water-borne diseases spreading in the war-torn country.

U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths held meetings with the warring parties in recent weeks amid efforts to restart peace talks after a two-year hiatus.

Yemen's three-year stalemated war has damaged Yemen's infrastructure, crippled the health system and pushed it to the brink of famine.

The impoverished country is also now in the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with more than 22.2 million people in need of assistance. Malnutrition, cholera and other diseases have killed or sickened thousands of civilians over the years.next Image 1 of 2

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An American pastor who had been jailed in Turkey for more than 1 years on terror and espionage charges was released Wednesday and put under house arrest as his trial continues.

Andrew Craig Brunson, 50, an evangelical Christian pastor originally from Black Mountain, North Carolina, was let out of jail to serve home detention because of "health problems," Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said.

Anadolu's report did not specify the nature of Brunson's health problems. He was arrested in December 2016 and had been in custody since then.

A court in western Izmir province said Brunson would be electronically monitored and barred from leaving his house. He also is prohibited from leaving Turkey, where he has lived for 23 years and served as pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison for "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member," references to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of a U.S-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt. He could receive another 20 years if he is found guilty of espionage.

Brunson strongly denies the charges.

The case has strained ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed the news of Branson's release on Twitter, but called on Turkish authorities to drop the charges.

"We have seen no credible evidence," Pompeo wrote.

The White House said Vice President Mike Pence spoke to Brunson on Wednesday from Air Force Two and told him the Trump administration would continue to be engaged until he is returned to the U.S.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release and said on Twitter last week that the pastor's detention was "a total disgrace."

"He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!" Trump tweeted.

U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Vice Chair Kristina Arriaga urged the Trump administration and Congress to "respond strongly and swiftly with targeted sanctions" if Turkey fails to give Brunson his freedom after having "deprived this innocent man of his due process rights and liberty."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has previously linked Brunson's return to the U.S. to the extradition of cleric Fethullah Gulen, the cleric Turkey's government holds responsible for the failed July 2016 military coup.

Gulen, who denies orchestrating the coup attempt, lives in Pennsylvania. Turkish requests for his arrest and extradition have not been granted.

U.S. senators have pushed to delay Turkey's acquisition of American-made F-35 fighter jets, citing Brunson's case and the Russian S-400 missile system Turkey has agreed to buy.

At the end of a recent hearing, the court inside a prison complex in the town of Aliaga in western Turkey rejected Brunson's lawyer's request that he be freed pending the outcome of the trial. The case was adjourned until Oct. 12.A woman who says she's trapped in a loveless 40-year marriage must stay with her husband because he doesnt want to divorce her, Britains Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Tini Owens, 68, is fighting to get divorced from her husband, High Owens, citing unreasonable behavior and claiming their marriage has been broken for some time. He has objected to the divorce and denied his wifes allegations about his behavior.

The Supreme Court refused to grant the divorce saying they are not able to change the law, Sky News reported.

English divorce laws say a person cannot divorce without a spouses consent, unless they can prove adultery, unreasonable behavior or desertion. The only other way is to first live apart for five years.

Mrs. Owens is devastated by this decision, which means that she cannot move forward with her life and obtain her independence from Mr. Owens, her lawyer, Simon Beccle told reporters.

He said the public would find the courts decision hard to understand.

Tini Owens must now wait until 2020, when the couple will have been separated for five years.

The couple married in 1978 and have lived in Broadway, Worcestershire. Tini Owens moved out and petitioned for a divorce in 2015. Two years ago, a family court judge refused the divorce and rejected her allegations, describing them as flimsy and exaggerated, Sky News reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Microsoft announced the Xbox One Adaptive Controller back in May, revealing a gamepad built to make games more approachable for players with limited mobility.

Today, the company has provided a glimpse into how the controller is actually packaged-- it was designed with accessibility in mind.

As detailed in a blog post, Microsoft acknowledges how essential items used in packaging like twist ties, tape, and thick plastic creates an extra challenge for those with limited mobility. It only makes sense then, that the packaging for an accessible gamepad should also be easy to unbox.

Microsofts packaging design team was tasked with developing packaging where players with limited dexterity could easily open the box and remove the controller. On top of that, it had to look like any other Xbox packaging design.

The product team was putting so much diligence into getting the controller right that to not have a package that was thoughtfully and mindfully designed for the end user would have felt like a real miss, notes Kevin Marshall, creative director of Microsofts packaging design studio.

It was crucial for the design team to create a package that would blend accessibility and branding seamlessly. "We wanted to create a package that was clearly designed with the end user in mind, and we wanted it to feel like it was just part of our ecosystem, Marshall adds. We wanted it to be empowering, but we didnt want it to stand apart from any package we create.

To start, Mark Weiser, the Microsoft designer who created the packaging, looked for examples of other accessible packaging but found himself uninspired. It was actually the back and forth with gamers and disability advocates while the Xbox Adaptive Controller was being developed that shaped the packaging's design.

The final packaging for the controller is taped down at the top, but the tape has a non-sticky loop on one end so it's easily removed. It seems like loops are a big part of Microsoft's approach to accessible packaging. The box the controller is housed in is taped as well, but there are also loops on either side of that tape.

Peel it off and a gray cloth strap falls from the front of the box, allowing for players to slide the top of the package up and open. There are actually several ways to get the controller out of the box, whether, picking it up or wiggling it out with another loop. As a plus, the box looks like any other Xbox product.

Be sure to head over to Microsoft's blog, which goes into even more detail about how the Xbox Adaptive Controller was designed. It's definitely worth a read.



[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press.]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE KATOWICE, POLAND -- JULY 25, 2018 -- Irony Curtain, the hilarious satirical point and click adventure set in a totalitarian communist country, tears down walls and arrives on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC when Artifex Mundi releases their forthcoming title in 2019. Our glorious country of Matryoshka wishes to extend an invitation to the West, and allow them to witness the glory of communism first-hand. Visitors shall be the first outsiders to bask in the light of The Leader, who is the embodiment of all that is good and not the demon, blood-drunk butcher, or godless dictator non-believers would have you fear. We welcome them to explore our beautiful country and political realm by solving puzzles and minigames to understand the depth of corruption surrounding the magnanimity of our fearless leader. This sponsored visit includes a meeting with our Minister of Propaganda Communication, Vlad. The Ministers job is completely unnecessary, but our country has zero tolerance for unemployment because it shows the West that we are stronger than them. While our guests arent busy submitting themselves to un necessary strip-searches, they will try to finagle their way through tricky scenarios using creative combinations of items. Our gorgeous, colorful hand-drawn country ensures that foreign eyes will always bask in the glory of our people and natural splendor. It is our hope that these beautiful images draw their eyes away from our impoverished wealthy citizens so they do not try to steal our secrets. Department of Propaganda Communication Irony Curtain will be available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC 2019. About Artifex Mundi Artifex Mundi made a name for itself with hidden object games like Enigmatis and Nightmares from the Deep series. Now, over 150 creators strong, the team wants to show the gaming community their strength in creating worlds. Divided into smaller crews, each team is working on passion projects of their choosing. To learn more about Artifex Mundi please visit the studios official website . Media Contact Zack Furniss / AJ Trulin Stride PR for Artifex Mundi [email protected] / [email protected]On July 16th, Chinese President Xi Jinping respectively met with, President of the European Council Donald Tusk, President of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, and Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank, to discuss topics concerning the maintenance of multilateralism.

Both the EU and China are committed to multilateralism, upholding the rule-based international order, handling international relations on the basis of mutual respect, and improving the multilateral trade system through multilateral consultations, EU leaders said.

There is a resurgence of isolationism and unilateralism in the world today, said the UNESCO chief, saying that the international community should embrace openness and inclusiveness, uphold multilateralism, and advocate dialogue and exchange, all of which are importance parts of global governance.

Kim expressed gratitude to China for its long-term great support to the World Bank. Noting that all countries should avoid shutting themselves in and abide by the rules, Kim said that the World Bank appreciates Chinas support for multilateralism and economic globalization, as well as for capital increase plan and shareholding reforms at World Bank.

The international community has showed their firm support for multilateralism in the face of trade protectionism.

Peoples hearts are the biggest political power, President Xi once said. This important viewpoint can be applied to China, and the world.

To understand the heart of the global community is essential. Opposing unilateralism, protectionism, and trade bullying, and maintaining free trade and international rules are the will of the world. A large number of countries and regions, including Canada, Japan, and the European Union, have expressed dissatisfaction with US trade friction. US trade hegemonism may benefit the American economy in the short term, but it will seriously damage the USs international image, political prestige, and long-term interests in the long term.

Multi-polarization and economic globalization is the trend. Trumps trade war with China might just be a reality show before the mid-term elections, and the additional tax on Chinese products is likely to lead a bigger trade war, which will further damage the US economy, according to a recent article published by Bloomberg.

International challenges such as terrorism and migrant crises are also on rise. Some people attribute these challenges to economic globalization, but the root cause is the insufficient global growth momentum, lagging global governance, and unbalanced global development. Therefore, creating a dynamic, fair, reasonable, and win-win model is the key to this troublesome time.

Time will eventually prove that the counter-current is just a trickle, and the trend is the ocean.Language course in neighborhood center : Bonn residents learn Arabic on the Bruser Berg

Bruser Berg Amal Ibrahim gives an Arabic language course in the neighborhood center of Bruser Berg as a thank you for her new life in Germany. Many of her students are active in helping refugees.

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Amal means hope," explains Amal Ibrahim and smiles at the class. In the small room in the neighborhood center of Bruser Berg, ten Bonn residents have gathered, mostly older people, but also a university student. For those who are not familiar with the area, Bruser Berg is part of Bonn-Hardtberg on the eastern rim of Bonn. Amal Ibrahim is there to teach her students Arabic in the next six weeks - for free. Its her way of saying thank you for the help she received when she made a new start in Germany. "Germany has done a lot for us," she says.

Ibrahim came with her family from Syria via Turkey to Germany more than one and a half years ago. In Aleppo, she had studied Arabic literature at the university and taught the language at a primary school. She and her husband and four children first fled to Turkey before the civil war. One month after the escape, her husband died.

Ibrahim completed an arts handicraft course and learned Turkish. "At the time, I really wanted my kids to go to school and get good grades," she says. Finally, she decided to go to Germany. She lives in Duisdorf with three of her children, and a son works in Turkey for the Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (German service provider in the field of international cooperation).

Her students today are primarily people who engage themselves in refugee aid and look after refugee families. "I'm here because there are so many Arab children in the schools now," says a 24-year-old teacher trainee. Another woman says, "I've been married to a Syrian for 50 years and still can not speak Arabic." Another participant is interested in African literature and wants to study the Maghreb. "I attend the classes because I used to learn the language, albeit to a limited extent. I would like to reactivate that," says Lothar Heinrich. The 72-year-old used to work and travel privately in Morocco, Algeria and Iraq. In the neighborhood center on the Bruser Berg, he tutors refugee children.

Formal and informal forms do not exist

"In Arabic, we do not say Du (informal) or Sie (formal)," explains Ibrahim. The first exercise is the alphabet. Ibrahim wrote the latin letter corresponding to every Arabic letter from A to Y. Some of the letters are difficult to pronounce for German speakers, a little bit like the English "th" which is also hard for many German native speakers to say. While the class participants are already starting jumping to the first letter in the series, Ibrahim reminds them that Arabic is read from from right to left. The participants take turns trying to imitate the foreign sounds. Ibrahim patiently corrects them and indicates the point at the neck where the sound must be made. "Shukran," she says after reading aloud - "thank you."

When she is satisfied with the result, there is the next step for course participants. It involves using simple questions and answers to make introductions. "Ma ismok?" Or for a woman "Ma ismoki?" - what is your name? "Ana ismi ..." the participants answer in turn and introduce themselves. There are questions about origin, age and place of residence. Finally, Ibrahim distributes colorful cards, each with one of the previously learned questions or answers.

In the coming weeks, the participants will meet for one hour on Tuesdays and Thursdays and learn Arabic step by step. Amal Ibrahim herself continues to learn German. Every day she attends an intensive course. Five hours a day, plus three hours for homework. Soon, she hopes, she wants to start with the C1 level and later work as a teacher herself. The hope for a new life in Germany is no longer only in her name.Chinas Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have all hit back at the irresponsible remarks about the ongoing China-US trade talks by Larry Kudlow, the US National Economic Council Director.

I think the President is so dissatisfied with China on these so-called talks that he is keeping the pressure on and I support that, Kudlow said in an interview with CNBC on July 18. He also said that it is China that does not want to make a deal and is holding things up, adding that he thinks the ball is in Chinas court.

Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng said at a press briefing on Thursday that US unreliability and failure to keep its word are why the door for bilateral negotiations is shut.

Various US officials claimed that China is responsible for the collapse in negotiations. This is not consistent with the facts, Gao said, pointing to several rounds of talks between Chinese and American officials that at one point even led to an agreement to avert a trade war.

Right in front of everyones eyes, the US went back and forth and ate its own words, and the US official still dared to call white black and tried to shift the blame onto China. That honestly entails some extraordinary imagination and is just preposterously shocking, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular press conference on July 19.

Hua pointed out that China has been sincere and patient enough to seek a settlement of the disputes through dialogue and consultation, and has done its utmost to avoid an escalation of the trade friction.

Right is right, and wrong is wrong, Hua emphasized. What the US did once again chips away at its own credibility and will not help solve the issue in any way.

Hua emphasized that Chinas position and attitude on the trade issue with the US is consistent and clear. From the very beginning, we made clear our firm position of not wanting to fight but never afraid of fighting. The US, however, holding high its baton, has been rudely threatening and coercing China, and brazenly engaging in flip-flopping and backpedaling, which is the direct and root cause for the escalation of the situation.

The US should keep in mind that today is the 21st century with a high level of economic globalization, and it is China they are dealing with. Hua added. Those in the US should drag themselves out of their quixotic fantasy and stop acting as if they were the Don Quixote of the 17th century.

Kudlow claimed on Wednesday that America is the lowest-tariff country in the world among the major countries. Our average tariff, I think, is about 2.5 percent. Now, Chinas average tariff is about 14 percent. It was worse, but they havent made any progress lately. By the way, Europes is also rising, said Kudlow.

Yet his remarks were refuted immediately in a report entitled Kudlow Overstates American, Chinese and European Tariffs by The New York Times on the same day, saying his claim is exaggerated.

Mr. Kudlow was seeking to justify Mr. Trumps trade dispute with China and the European Union with a dramatic  but overstated  comparison of tariffs that each impose, according to the report.

It noted that even among major economies, the US does not have the lowest tariffs in the world, though they are among the lowest.

According to the 2018 Economic Report of the President released by the White House in early 2018, Australias and Japans tariffs were even lower.

The report pointed out that the 14 percent figure that Kudlow cited for Chinese tariffs is close to the percent that Beijing imposes, on average, on agricultural products. Separately, the World Bank estimated that China imposed an average tariff of 7.9 percent, a weighted average of 3.5 percent against all goods.

The report said that for Kudlows claims about trade barriers imposed by China and the EU to be accurate, he would need to selectively apply different metrics in each case.

Updated figures for 2018 would almost certainly show a rise in US tariff rates, because the Trump administration has imposed new tariffs on a variety of imported products this year, according to The New York Times.



Arizona may seem barren to many outsiders, but residents know that the state is extremely diverse in weather, flora and fauna. Some of the southwestern cryptids are quite interesting, as well. And, no, there are no sightings of the fictional Jackalope, although I certainly wish they existed!





Thunderbirds







Thunderbirds cover a large range of possibilities from mistaken large birds of prey like Condors and owls and misjudged proportions of things seen on video. But, the image of the Thunderbird, or enormous bird, has been seen in Native petroglyphs and drawings from thousands of years ago and even today, upon occasion, someone reports seeing a bird of enormous size that defies anything they know of existing.

( SOURCE LINK) The story goes that two cowboys sighted an enormous flying creature in the Arizona desert in April 1890. The beast had the body of a serpent, immense wings, two clawed feet and the face of an alligator. The men got as close as their skittish horses would allow and then chased the bird on foot. It took off and landed a few times, and the cowboys opened fire with rifles and killed the monster . The enormous wingspan of the creature was said to have been 160 feet and the body was more than 92 feet long. It was smooth and featherless, more like a bat than a bird. The cowboys cut off a piece of the wing and brought it with them into Tombstone, Arizona. Or least thats the story that was allegedly told in an April 1892 issue of the Tombstone newspaper, the "Epitaph." This was the only mention of the story and it gave all of the appearances of the tall tales that were often written in the Western newspapers of the era. What makes this story different, though, is that it has given rise to an odd, modern legend.





Reptoids

In Tucson, Arizona during a bike race, a rider saw a Lizardman standing in the desert. We had been riding for about I dont know maybe nine hours, taking breaks every now and then. Then Michael says he needs to stop for a minute. We are waiting for him to finish when all of a sudden we see this long figure walking across the trail. He is maybe about 6-foot tall, very very skinny, and it had an awkward gait, like a monkeyor a man with a disease, almost robotic, kind of, he told Cryptozoology News.









The legend of the shapeshifter is based upon witchcraft of a sort. It takes an evil practitioner to change himself into other forms, parading as animals, human, and other forms.



SOURCE LINK) A Flagstaff woman claimed that one night while driving across Navajo reservation land at about 60 miles an hour, one of these apparent shape-shifters started running alongside her car, tapped on her window, then darted in front of her car and disappeared off the road. Another man reported a virtually identical experience while driving near Sedona. This type of roadside encounter, which has also been reported around Winslow and Window Rock, is by far the most commonly recorded form of modern skinwalker account. Frequently, they are said to let loose a volley of screeching laughter as they torment motorists.







Chupacabras





The original Chupacabras, or goat-suckers, were reported in Puerto Rico by locals who described a being with red eyes, wings, short, and angry fangs, supposedly draining their livestock of blood.

At some point, the legend came to be included in mainland USA when hairless and odd-shaped dogs showed up and locals began to photograph and even shoot the creepy creatures.





Bigfoots



Some have reported Arizona's Bigfoots as a being referred to as the Mogollon Monster, as a good deal of the sightings have occurred on the Mogollon Rim at high elevations, but perhaps even more occur in the White Mountains on the Native Reservations in the area.



It might surprise some to know how close to the Valley of the Sun the Bigfoot venture. This is an ongoing research for me and other Arizona researchers who find their ability to adapt and seek out the best locations to be equally on par with Native People who learned to adapt to the climate and the water sources.













Pterosaurs





No kidding, Pterosaurs, as in - flying dinosaurs! There are reports in the Southwest and I have to wonder how such a thing would adapt to desert, as their time on earth, it was wet and jungle-like. Still, people occasionally capture photos of what they believe to be flying dinosaurs, dragons, pterosaurs, and pterodactyls.



(S OURCE LINK I was visiting Arizona [in June of 2012] and I . . . [paddled] around a lake . . . While on the lake I noticed some very large birds in the sky. I thought they were vultures at first but these birds were landing on the sides of a shear cliff like a spider on a wall. These were creatures I had never seen before. I took photographs. . . . After investigating online, I learned that I was looking at a lost creature I was watching a ropen. These creatures were very active around dusk. They were feeding off of small fish along the shoreline. And it appeared that they lived in crevices on the cliff.





- Here's some vids -









This one is pretty interesting. A man said he found this in the desert -







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Edit CloseGovernments around the nation are working to design the best vaccine policies that keep both their employees and their residents safe. Although the latest data shows a variety of polarizing perspectives, there are clear emerging best practices that leading governments are following to put trust first: creating policies that are flexible and provide a range of options, and being in tune with the needs and sentiments of their employees so that they are able to be dynamic and accommodate the rapidly changing situation.In its ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 , the U.S. Supreme Court displayed striking disregard for workers' rights and democratic governance as well as decades of its own precedent. There is no easy fix for a decision invalidating more than 20 state laws that had required government workers who don't want to join a union to bear their fair share of bargaining-related costs through so-called "agency fees," a decision that greatly weakens the ability of millions of public employees to engage in collective activity.Since Janus, some scholars have proposed a legislative workaround. They suggest that pro-labor state governments could reimburse unions directly for the collective-bargaining-related services unions provide to all bargaining-unit members. This could take the form of a straightforward reimbursement for bargaining-related costs. Alternatively, it could be funded by a reduction in employees' salaries, keyed to the union's cost of providing services to bargaining-unit employees, with union dues correspondingly reduced so that union members would pay dues for members-only benefits such as political advocacy.While these proposals are intriguing, they also carry risks. Perhaps the biggest is that relying on employers to fund unions risks eroding their independence. And independent unions have a powerful democratizing effect. This is not just some hoary notion. Consider the role of independent unions in promoting democracies, like Solidarity in Poland during the 1980s or COSATU, the coalition of anti-apartheid unions, in South Africa.Consider too the negative effects of government-dominated unions. In many countries, governments effectively control "protection unions." Our own history tells us what company unions look like. These "unions" do not express real employee voice; rather, they are a vehicle by which employers control workers.Governments may also restrict freedom of association, as occurs in countries that prohibit organizing and bargaining in export-processing zones or that impose restrictions on union registration, mass gatherings and other self-help efforts. In the United States, five southern states ban collective bargaining for some or all public employees. And in recent years some midwestern states have severely curtailed public employees' ability to collectively bargain. In short, workers must retain a voice that is truly independent, relying on their own strength and resources.We don't doubt the good faith and commitment of state governments that have long supported public-sector collective bargaining. But what if a union in one of those states, reflecting the voice and intensity of its members, insists on a substantial pay raise for teachers, social workers or firefighters? Or seeks to negotiate a revival of defined-benefit pensions? Or lobbies to create or expand a right to strike? One might expect some governments, however union-friendly, to decide that direct state funding for collective-bargaining-related services should be reduced or abandoned.State governments that believe in the value of collective bargaining can surely be supportive in various ways without stepping on unions' independence. Several states, for example, have recently passed or are considering laws that will provide unions with regular access to meet and confer with interested employees they hope to recruit; will have union representatives participate at new-employee orientations; or will share addresses or email contacts for new employees at unionized workplaces. And states might consider engaging in broader forms of consultation and collaborative problem-solving with unions and their workers, provided such efforts comport with existing laws that respect exclusive representation for bargaining purposes.Unions do recognize that Janus forces them to make a virtue of necessity and recommit to their own activism. They are already seeking to organize, mobilize and make clear to agency-fee payers as well as dues-paying members why joining together through a union is vital to securing better working conditions for tens of millions of employees and their families.Given the current composition of the Supreme Court, unions and their supporters cannot hope to overturn Janus. But in moving forward, we should be wary of solutions that tie unions too closely to government funding.Mayors' Historical Disadvantages

What May Be Changing

A decade ago, it was rare for a mayor to run for governor -- and even when they did, they weren't especially successful.Today, mayors continue to face obstacles when running for governor, ranging from skepticism from rural voters to rivalries between big cities. But a mayor seeking the governorship -- and winning -- is not as rare as it once was.In 2018, a strikingly large number of current or former mayors have launched campaigns for governor: close to 20, from cities big and small.In California, for instance, the primary included not one but two former mayors. Gavin Newsom of San Francisco beat former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and is now expected to win in November.Other former mayors making prominent gubernatorial bids this year include Mark Begich of Anchorage, Alaska, Karl Dean of Nashville and Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City.So why are more mayors running now than they did a decade ago? Before we seek to answer that, let's take a look at why mayors have been reluctant to seek the governorship historically.In some ways, it's counterintuitive that so few mayors have been successful in seeking the governorship. Being a mayor should be ideal training for the job: It's an executive position that involves law enforcement, education, infrastructure and business development, and serving as a mayor often guarantees statewide media coverage.Those advantages, however, didn't help Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, who lost twice to Republican George Deukmejian. As Mark Barbarak of therecently noted , Los Angeles mayors have experienced "100 years of futility" in seeking the governorship.In New York, Ed Koch was the only 20th-century mayor of the Big Apple to have pulled the trigger on a gubernatorial run, and he ended up losing in the primary to Mario Cuomo.No Boston mayor has become Massachusetts governor since the notoriously corrupt James Michael Curley in the 1930s. Only one Illinois governor was a former Chicago mayor. And since Michigan became a state in 1837, only two Detroit mayors have made the leap to governor.That's because the challenges mayors face as gubernatorial candidates are sizable.A big one concerns policy. Favoring gun control, for instance, is popular in cities, but it becomes a major liability when trying to woo rural voters.What's more, candidates running against mayors can use crime, poverty and other urban ills as a rhetorical weapon.Then there's the urban-rural divide. Within states, resentments against big cities often flourish. Sometimes these tensions have to do with ideological differences or the distribution of public works resources within different parts of the state. Sometimes, though, they reflect deeply ingrained regional biases. "Mayors often run in states in which the suburban and rural populations hate the evil big city or at least distrust the political machines that tend to run them," says Dick Simpson, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former Chicago alderman.And being able to connect with urban voters doesn't necessarily translate into connecting with voters outside the city center.Thomas J. Volgy, a former mayor of Tucson who now teaches political science at the University of Arizona, recalls friction when he tried to campaign for Congress in Yuma, a three- to four-hour drive from his home base. "One of the first things I was constantly reminded about was that Yumans hated big cities and all that came with it," he says.Such obstacles have made many mayors uninterested in moving up the political ladder, according to data compiled by political scientists Katherine Levine Einstein, David Glick, Maxwell Palmer and Robert Pressel. Using data from 1992 to 2015, the researchers found that only 15 percent of mayors in cities with greater than 150,000 residents have run for higher office, and only 5 percent ultimately won. Female mayors ran at even lower rates."Most cities are in much better positions economically than they were a generation ago," says Eric Heberlig, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte political scientist. "Until the last year or so, crime also has decreased substantially. Having a record of increasing economic growth and decreasing crime is a powerful message of accomplishment that you can take to voters statewide."There is some numerical evidence for this. According to data collected by Heberlig and his colleagues Suzanne Leland and David Swindell, the number of mayors running for governor doubled in the immediate period after the Great Recession -- 2009 to 2012 -- compared to any other four-year cycle going back to the early 1990s."After the Great Recession, many mayors can claim that they have led comeback efforts," says Marcia Godwin, a professor of public administration at the University of La Verne in California. "As long as the economy continues to grow and downtown redevelopment is successful, those claims will be compelling."Some of the mayors who successfully ran for governor in recent years include Democrats John Hickenlooper in Colorado and Dannel Malloy in Connecticut, and Republicans Sarah Palin in Alaska, Bill Haslam in Tennessee, Paul LePage in Maine and Pat McCrory in North Carolina. Other prominent mayors who ran for governor but lost during that period were Houston Democrat Bill White and Milwaukee Democrat Tom Barrett.In 2018, the list of upwardly mobile mayors has expanded.Mayors or former mayors who are still running for governor at this writing -- including the aforementioned Begich, Cornett, Dean and Newsom -- are Democrats Walt Maddox in Alabama (Tuscaloosa); Andrew Gillum and Philip Levine in Florida (Tallahassee and Miami Beach, respectively); Carl Brewer in Kansas (Wichita); Steve Marchand in New Hampshire (Portsmouth); and Paul Soglin in Wisconsin (Madison). Democrat Stephanie Miner, a former Syracuse mayor, is running as an independent in New York.Meanwhile, the Republicans running this year include Mark Boughton in Connecticut (Danbury) and Allan Fung in Rhode Island (Cranston).A half-dozen other mayors -- a mix of Republicans and Democrats -- decided to run this year but either dropped out or lost a primary.The new image of mayors as practical-minded technocrats has made them "more appealing to a statewide electorate than in years past," says Godwin of the University of La Verne. By contrast, "state legislatures and Congress have low approval ratings, and members are often automatically judged as ideological partisans."Recent campaigns in California clearly show how the public appreciation of mayoral skills has risen, she says. "California's outgoing governor, Jerry Brown, touted his experience as Oakland's mayor as much as he did his long history in statewide office when he ran for governor eight years ago."And in this year's gubernatorial primary to succeed Brown, she says, "Newsom ran as if he was still mayor of San Francisco rather than his current office as lieutenant governor."Beaten by Trump and Tapes

Abrams' Chances

Attacks From Both Sides

Georgia voters now have a choice for governor as stark as any in the country this year.Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a self-described "unapologetic conservative," rode an endorsement from President Trump to a come-from-behind victory in the Republican runoff on Tuesday. He now faces former state House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams, an unabashed progressive and the first black woman nominated for governor by a major party in any state.The two illustrate how their parties are currently shifting.Kemp gained national notoriety with ads featuring him holding a shotgun and saying, "I got a big truck just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take 'em home myself." He is a strong supporter of gun rights and has said he would sign a religious freedom bill, a version of which term-limited GOP Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed in 2016 out of concern that it would allow discrimination against LGBT people.For her part, Abrams has embraced a progressive agenda of expanded access to health care, criminal justice reform, raising the minimum wage and increased spending on education and other programs. The two hold polar-opposite positions on issues ranging from abortion to voting rights."I look at it as shaping up to be a battle of the bases," says Kerwin Swint, a political scientist at Kennesaw State University.Both sides are coming out swinging, hoping to energize supporters and convince independents that the other candidate is unacceptable. At a rally Saturday with Vice President Mike Pence, Kemp said, "Georgians are sick and tired of these politically correct liberals like Stacey Abrams who are offended and outraged by our faith, our guns and our big trucks."For their part, Democrats didn't wait to delight in repeating statements made in recent days by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Kemp's runoff opponent, who said that Kemp was unacceptable and can't win in November."We agree with each of them -- the other one's unfit to serve," says DuBose Porter, who chairs the Georgia Democratic Party.Kemp took just 26 percent of the vote in the first round of Republican primary voting in May, finishing second behind Cagle, who took 39 percent. But Cagle's runoff campaign was dogged by one mistake after another.His first big problem was that Clay Tippins, a former Navy SEAL who was the fourth place finisher in the primary, secretly taped Cagle when he was asked for his endorsement. Tippins released portions of the recording to the media in two deadly doses.The first caught Cagle admitting that he had supported an education bill that he called "bad public policy" in order to keep education interest groups from spending millions on behalf of the third place GOP finisher, former state Sen. Hunter Hill. A week later, another portion emerged from Tippins' vault, with Cagle saying, in effect, that the primary race was all about pandering."This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest," Cagle said on the recording.Cagle ran into other problems, including accusations that he'd gotten a sweetheart deal on a condo from a lobbyist. But he appeared to be rebuilding his campaign and received Deal's endorsement last week.The governor's support, however, seemed to bring Trump off the sidelines. The president tweeted his endorsement of Kemp last Wednesday, a message he repeated through Election Day."Brian Kemp will bring the kind of leadership to the statehouse that President Donald Trump has brought to the White House," Pence said during Saturday's rally.Given the staunch support for Trump among Georgia Republicans, Cagle couldn't stop his downhill slide. Kemp won easily, beating Cagle by better than a 2-to-1 margin amid light turnout."The people who are turning out to vote Tuesday, they're not just diehards, they're the diehards of the diehards," says Tharon Johnson, a Democratic consultant.Even before the returns were in, Republicans had a unity event scheduled for Thursday. Kemp will have to win over supporters of Cagle, who at one time seemed like a sure thing and had the backing of much of the state's business community."A generation ago, Democrats were dominant, but every once in a while they'd lose an election they should have won because they could not reunite after the primary runoff process," says Charles Bullock, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. "That's a possibility, that Republicans will not be able to get everybody back in the big tent."Democrats have not won an election for governor in Georgia since 1998. A Survey USA poll released last week showed Abrams trailing either Kemp or Cagle by two percentage points.But it's possible those numbers could shift.That poll assumed that African-Americans will make up 24 percent of the electorate in November. In fact, they've cast closer to 30 percent of the vote in recent Georgia elections -- even before there was a chance of electing Abrams to be the state's first black governor (and nation's first black female governor)."One thing Stacey Abrams brings to this race that Democrats haven't had for a while is that she [gets] Democratic voters excited, with a chance to bring them out statewide," says Swint, the Kennesaw State professor.Abrams has made the idea of appealing to minorities and other core Democratic voters an essential part of her strategy. Five years ago, she founded the New Georgia Project, which has registered tens of thousands of African-American voters.We are going to inspire voters who, for the first time, see their values in the candidate, and see the investment follow those values, Abrams told this week. "I'm not going to spend a disproportionate share of our resources trying to convert Republican-leaning voters when we can invest in lifting up the voices of those who share our values."In the Democratic primary, Abrams easily defeated former state Rep. Stacey Evans, the type of more moderate, white candidate that Georgia Democrats have frequently nominated in the past."She did an exceptional job of motivating the base in the primary and she's got to double down on that strategy," says Johnson, the Democratic consultant. "But motivating the base will not be enough to get her to 50 percent plus one."Abrams will also have to appeal to suburban moderates, Johnson says, particularly college-educated women who may not support Trump and find Kemp, who is white, to be a polarizing figure. Inspiring the party's progressive base while also being alluring to centrist voters will be a difficult needle for Abrams to thread.Democrats note that Hillary Clinton beat Trump in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, populous suburbs of Atlanta that the party had failed to carry in presidential contests since favorite state son Jimmy Carter was on the ballot back in 1976. But Democratic hopes of turning the Atlanta suburbs blue were disappointed in a high-profile special congressional election last year. Democrat Jon Ossoff raised a record $30 million but nonetheless lost to Republican Karen Handel.The state as a whole is less Republican than the Ossoff-Handel district. Still, Abrams may have a hard time wooing voters in the suburbs."I don't know what Abrams is going to say to suburban voters that's going to be very appealing to them, frankly," Swint says. "Republicans will be all too happy to portray her as a Bernie Sanders type."The Republican Governors Association released an ad attacking Abrams on Tuesday, calling her "the most radical liberal" ever to run for Georgia governor.Democrats are hoping that members of the business community will be put off by Kemp's emphasis on social issues and sit on the sidelines, if not actively support Abrams."Throughout this campaign, Brian Kemp has pushed a divisive agenda that would endanger the state's economic climate and hurt Georgia families," Elisabeth Pearson, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement. "If Brian Kemp becomes the next governor, Georgia will be closed for business."Countless media features about Abrams have already touted her as the "future" of the Democratic Party, representing the attempt to energize the party's core supporters by presenting candidates who look like them and embrace liberal positions. Other Democratic candidates from Colorado to Maryland are taking similar tacks.Johnson notes that Abrams' profile will help attract funding from out-of-state donors, helping to cut the GOP's traditional financial advantage. She raised nearly $3 million between April and June alone.But Georgia remains a red state. Whether Abrams can prevail there will provide a good test of how far the progressive appeal will reach this year."In order for her to win," Swint says, "she would need a titanic blue wave."In late April, the Civil Aviation Administration of China sent a formal notice to 44 foreign airlines, asking them to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites. After an extension was granted, the foreign airlines had until today, July 25, to revise their websites. As the deadline approached, all eyes were on how the US airlines would refer to the Chinese island of Taiwan on their websites from here on.

Some background: The civil aviation authority sent the request on April 25, asking the airlines to stop labeling the Chinese territories of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao as countries within 30 days. By May 25the initial deadline, twenty-six of the 44 airlines applied for extensions due to technical reasons, and the airlines were given until July 25. Only six of the airlines had yet to revise their websites by July 23.

It was not long before the remaining airlines followed suit. Numerous non-US airlines, including Air Canada, Lufthansa, and British Airways had already made changes to their websites.

Reuters reported on July 24 that all the major US carriers were expected to change how their websites refer to Taiwan before the deadline. Later on Tuesday, Hawaiian Airlines had removed mention of Taiwan from its website. And the next day, American Airlines had followed suit.

In the end, all the major US carriers that fly to China made the right choice.

A check of Americans website on Wednesday, Beijing time, showed that it no longer lists the name Taiwan. Only the airport code and airport name is listed in the search results.

A check of Deltas website at around 1 pm on Wednesday, Beijing time, showed that it also stopped listing the name Taiwan on its website. Before the change, Taiwan was listed after the city name.

Hours after Delta revised its website, United changed its website, too. Similar to Delta, the website only lists certain city names.

At regular press briefing on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang reiterated the position that there is no room for negotiation in Chinas request that US airlines label Taiwan as part of China. The one-China principle represents the consensus shared by the international community and is the political foundation for the steady development of China-US relations, something not negotiable, Geng said.

The reason for the foot-dragging was undoubtedly the US governments behind-the-scenes efforts to prevent the carriers from caving in to the request. The White House in May described the request as Orwellian nonsense, and even tried to negotiate the one-China principle, using the global companies as political pawns. And on Tuesday, the US Embassy in Beijing expressed that the airlines should stand their ground, according to media reports.

But the US carriers saw things differently. Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address Chinas request, American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said on Tuesday, according to a report by Reuters. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate.

The carriers did the right thing by putting their business interests above the political interests of those who are determined to contain or split China. However, they are playing a little trick by not listing China as a country. Lufthansa and British Airways for instance both list "Taiwan, China" on their websites.

The action taken by American, Delta, and United airlines was a step in the right direction, but it was also a half-hearted attempt to correct their references to Taiwan.Gov. Gina Raimondo, if reelected, has pledged to expand the free college tuition program at the Community College of Rhode Island to the state's two four-year colleges at a estimated cost of $35 million.In a news conference at CCRI's Lincoln campus, she also promised to offer free tuition to all adults at CCRI.Raimondo also proposed increasing the number of training opportunities for adults through a program called Real Jobs Rhode Island. A second jobs training center in northern Rhode Island was announced during her State of the State speech earlier this year. Westerly has the first training site.Raimondo said her three-part plan will provide "universal job training for everyone in Rhode Island.""Whether you are 18 and just staring out, 35 and stuck in a job without a future, or 50 and need to start over," she said, "there will be an opportunity for you to get the training and education you need to keep up and get ahead in Rhode Island."Raimondo said she hasn't discussed these proposals with the leadership of the House and Senate. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio and House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello could not be reached for comment Monday."This is about priorities," she said, adding that her original proposal to offer two years of free tuition to qualified students entering CCRI "wasn't warmly received but I got it done."The legislature shot down the governor's original plan to offer two years of free tuition at all three of the state's public colleges, with the possibility of revisiting the proposal at a later date.Under Raimondo's latest proposal, the last two years of tuition at Rhode Island College and the University of Rhode Island would be free. This scholarship would be available to recent high school graduates who maintain a solid academic standing and are on track to graduate in four years.Currently, Rhode Island Promise requires that community college students be recent high school graduates, enroll full-time and maintain a 2.5 GPA. Her new proposal provides free tuition to full-and part-time students, but they must be enrolled for six credits per semester.In September, CCRI reported a 47 percent jump in its enrollment of full-time students who have just graduated high school, a boost that the college attributed to the promise of two years of free tuition. But the college later acknowledged that only a fraction of those students were on track to graduate in two years.Reaction from two of the state's college presidents was enthusiastic.RIC President Frank D. Sanchez said he supports the governor's plan to expand the scholarship program, adding that 70 percent of RIC graduates stay in Rhode Island, making the college "a significant pipeline to Rhode Island's professional workforce and an essential catalyst for economic growth."CCRI President Meghan Hughes said the college was deeply grateful to the governor for making college available to more Rhode Islanders and said she was "proud that the college is at the center of this initiative."University of Rhode Island President David Dooley said he continues "to believe that Rhode Island's program would be unique in that it is designed to accelerate the number of students completing degree programs while also significantly cutting the cost of their education."Ron Knox, campaign spokesperson for Democratic challenger Matt Brown, said, "Making in-state college tuition free is a laudable goal, but voters know her record doesn't match her words. She's out for herself, not for Rhode Islanders."New Jersey's attorney general immediately halted all municipal prosecutions of marijuana offenses Tuesday, effectively placing on hold thousands of cases across the state that involve possession of the drug while lawmakers continue to debate its legalization.In a memo sent to county and municipal prosecutors, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that he will issue a directive by the end of next month on whether to decriminalize marijuana, ending criminal penalties for simple possession of small amounts.In Philadelphia and more than 50 other cities and towns across the country, possession of marijuana leads to small civil fines or community service. In New Jersey, an estimated 25,000 people are arrested each year on minor marijuana charges, which can carry a maximum six-month jail term and up to $1,000 in fines.Grewal's decision was prompted by a memo that Jacob Hudnut, Jersey City's chief municipal prosecutor, sent to his municipal prosecutors on Thursday ordering the decriminalization of all marijuana-related cases in the city. Hudnut, who was recently sworn into office, said he did this in the interest of social justice, noting that three times as many minorities are prosecuted for marijuana possession than whites.On Friday, Grewal reprimanded Hudnut, saying Hudnut had no legal authority to call on prosecutors to refrain from pursuing criminal action in marijuana cases. Grewal's reaction came as a surprise, because Gov. Murphy has said he would support legalization and has frequently cited the social injustice of marijuana enforcement.But on Tuesday, Grewal ordered prosecutors to delay all municipal marijuana cases until at least Sept. 4 so that he could take a closer look at decriminalization. He said that he will include Hudnut and representatives of law enforcement and civil rights groups in discussions to potentially revise guidelines.Hudnut said adjourning the cases was a bold decision. "I am excited to work with him in the weeks ahead on this issue," he said.State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D., Union), who has advocated for marijuana legalization for a decade, was buoyed by Grewal's action."This will give us added momentum," he said, adding that he plans to reintroduce a legalization bill, weeks after he was unable to win support for a bill that would allow recreational marijuana for adults and also make improvements to the medical marijuana program."We're all of the mindset we should get this done before the summer ends, and I appreciate the Murphy administration and the attorney general's efforts to back our efforts. Sometimes legislators need a kick to get this done," said Scutari, a municipal prosecutor in Linden.Murphy campaigned last year on a pledge to support legalization, but so far no bills that would allow recreational marijuana for adults have made it to the floor. Some lawmakers favor outright legalization, while others say they would prefer decriminalization or making marijuana possession a civil offense subject to fines and community service.Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said he is pleased that the attorney general is "saying, 'Let's hit the pause button,' on marijuana enforcement" because the racial justice issue must be addressed. "It makes sense that prosecutors across the state should do whatever they can to undo the harms of marijuana enforcement," he said.Evan Nison, executive director of the pro-legalization group NORML NJ, said Grewal's decision will "at least delay and may completely prevent thousands of unfair prosecutions. These offenses can follow people around for their entire lives and make it more difficult to get a job or college education."One year ago, Camden City Council also considered taking up a decriminalization policy similar to Jersey City's. At the time, Councilman Angel Fuentes said that he would call for an ad hoc study and that he hoped the change could be made in the fall. But without explanation, the matter was dropped a few weeks later and never came up for a vote.In Philadelphia, a decriminalization bill was adopted in 2014. It calls for a $25 fine for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana, or just over an ounce. In some circumstances, the law allows police officers to use discretion and to impose criminal citations that could lead to up to 30 days in jail and $500 in fines.Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner now declines charges for anyone arrested with a small amount, 30 grams or less, intended for personal use, according to a statement provided Tuesday by his office. His office still prosecutes cases of marijuana possession with intent to distribute.Description

GIS 25 July, 2018: The Ministerial Committee on Electoral Reform has already submitted its report with proposals on, inter-alia, the introduction of a dose of Proportional Representation in the National Assembly, enhancing women representation and on the issue of mandatory declaration of community by prospective candidates at a general election. The Ministerial Committee on Electoral Reform has already submitted its report with proposals on, inter-alia, the introduction of a dose of Proportional Representation in the National Assembly, enhancing women representation and on the issue of mandatory declaration of community by prospective candidates at a general election.

The Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, gave this reply yesterday in the National Assembly while answering a Parliamentary Question on electoral reforms.

With regard to the Financing of Political Parties Bill, Prime Minister Jugnauth highlighted that it is currently under preparation at the Attorney Generals Office. As for the consultations and circulation of the Bill prior to its introduction into the National Assembly, he pointed out that he is personally in favour of having appropriate consultation on the draft Bill, while adding that he would also seek the guidance of Cabinet on the matter before proceeding.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the Ministerial Committee on Electoral Reform has been addressing the other issues in its Terms of Reference. He further added that the proposals made by the Committee are currently being examined at the level of his Office before submission to Cabinet.TOP NEWS

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One company had a big presence in Canada. One was strong in the bigger U.S. cities. One had a lot of middle-market customers. Now, they're one gov tech behemoth Mike Wons, who helped establish Illinois' existing IT strategy, was already an adviser to PayIt. Now, he's their CCO The civil rights organization is skeptical of governments' use of facial recognition software, so it put Amazon's to the test The state Board of Equalization hired Fast Enterprises to build the system, but the Department of Tax and Fee Administration took over. The system launched on-time and on-budget, but users say it's hard to navigate. Consequently, the governor is considering waiving late fees for people who don't file their upcoming returns on time.The biggest cities get the lion's share of attention, but as a market the middle-sized cities and counties are much larger. We explore the middle market in an infographic: Helping local governments set up websites, including content management and digital forms. OpenCities has offices in Melbourne, Australia, and San Francisco, and has worked with U.S. customers such as Miami and Grand Rapids, Mich.CEOis reportedly, per, and is searching for his own replacement., which makes the Casebook platform,a public benefit corporation and changed its name to, which offers mid-altitude aerial imagery to local government and other customers, has, per an informal announcement made at a recentevent in San Francisco.(Richard Kerby/Medium)(Observatory of Public Sector Innovation)(Kim Davidson/Medium)(California Dept. of Rehabilitation)(TNS) - Tuesday morning broke over Santa Fe with bright blue skies, clear as a stream, and warm, summery temperatures.There was little outward indication  from the sky, at least  of the hellacious deluge that had nearly washed away the City Different the night before.A look around town, however, made abundantly clear the impact of the extraordinary monsoon rains that struck New Mexicos capital city Monday night, an event forecasters described as almost impossibly unlikely and one that put city residents and officials on high alert for the risk of more flooding through the rest of the week.Streets were covered in banks of sand and gravel, left over by the stormwater that had turned roadways into rushing rivers of mud the previous night. Trees came down, and normally bone-dry arroyos were washed out, swamped in detritus. Low-lying homes and businesses took on water, although how many and the extent of damage to private property were not immediately known.A sidewalk on West Alameda Street collapsed as the earth beneath crumbled in the flow of water. Newly planted saplings in the Santa Fe River were uprooted and crushed.Ive never seen it this fast, that furious, said Dr. Jodi Lang, an author whose east-side dirt road became a furious flooding river, exposing gas lines. We had whitewater rapids here.City firefighter Antonio Candelaria and a few colleagues pulled a woman from her fast-sinking Cadillac off Camino Carlos Rey late Monday night. Her car was literally floating, Candelaria said.Ten city street crew members worked through the night, clearing major roadways of debris. Mayor Alan Webber, who was in New York attending a conference, said first responders performed seven swift-water rescues overnight.By midday Tuesday, more than 200 dedicated city staff were in the field. Some were assisting at a south-side firehouse, where the city made 6,000 sandbags available to the public. Thats all we have on hand, a fire official at the Siler Road filling station said. By Tuesday afternoon, some 4,500 had been filled and taken away.At City Hall, the basement flooded. The La Farge Branch Library sustained extensive flood damage and was closed until further notice, the city announced. The main lap pool at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center was closed Tuesday because floodwater had come through the sliding glass doors on the ground floor.Downtown and the citys center were the hardest-hit areas, according to forecasters, who reported 3.57 inches of rainfall south of the Plaza  more than a fourth of the citys annual average rainfall delivered in one delirious night.It was the sort of storm Santa Fe can expect to receive, statistically, maybe once every millennium.Santa Fes chances of receiving such a downpour in any given year are 0.2 percent, said David Craft, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.That translates into a 500 or 1,000-year rain event, he said.The reason he couldnt be more specific, Craft said, is simply that the National Weather Service hasnt been monitoring heavy rain events in Santa Fe for a thousand years.This was over a 1,000-year event, said Scott Kaseman, a Santa Fe County project manager who oversees the joint city-county Santa Fe River Greenway Project. This came through and wiped out everything.The project recently completed a one-mile segment of riverbed restoration and paved bike trail from Frenchys Field Park to Siler Road, with thousands of newly planted willows and 150 cottonwood saplings. The young trees had struggled to survive in drought conditions.On Monday night, rainwater rushing down the Santa Fe River wiped out all of the cottonwoods, Kaseman said, though he expects many of the willows to recover because their roots remain intact. He said the project would seek to file an insurance claim for a reimbursement.Forecasts showed a risk of heavy rainfall Tuesday night. The area is in a wet pattern, Craft said, and its going to be a situation where every afternoon and evening theres showers and thunderstorms through the end of the week.The weekend, he added, could be even wetter. And more floods are possible.The grounds completely primed, Craft said. You dont need it to be that much more rain to cause significant flooding. Even a one-inch event would probably cause significant problems for Santa Fe if that were to happen.The weather service established a flash-flood watch in Santa Fe and some surrounding areas for Tuesday afternoon and evening.City officials would continue to huddle at a makeshift emergency operations center into Tuesday night, city spokesman Matt Ross said, adding Webber had been in continuous contact with city leaders and was expected to return Wednesday.The city was not aware of any loss of life or serious injury as a result of the storm, or any disruptions to utility service beyond some power outages, Ross said. There was no estimate yet of the cost of the damage to city infrastructure.Municipal emergency services took more than 60 911 calls Monday night; a map showed the calls were concentrated downtown and in the St. Michaels Drive corridor, where rainfall was heaviest.Calls to several Santa Fe County officials were not returned.Frankie Lucero, a teacher and artist, took photographs on his phone of the 3-foot ledge carved out by the rushing water on his street.Weve seen it big before  but this was big, Lucero said.A pair of massive city trucks lumbered up and down the steep dirt street Tuesday afternoon, dumping and scraping sand into the precipitous carved-out depressions left by the flooding water.Were prioritizing our response based on public safety, said Ross, the city spokesman, who added there had been gas lines exposed in the area.Some of the public safety response was instinct more than anything else.Candelaria, the city firefighter, described a fraught scene as the rain began to intensify. He and cohorts from Fire Station 3 near Ashbaugh Park, who were in the area to try to move parked cars that were quickly becoming overwhelmed by the tide, watched in disbelief as a woman driving a Cadillac pulled into a drainage area near Franklin Miles Park.Candelaria said one colleague, John Schaumburg, simply dove in and began to swim out. That was his decision; he just made that call, Candelaria said.Firefighter Daniel Gutierrez and Candelaria grabbed life vests and followed into the water.We literally pulled her out two seconds before the roof went under, Candelaria said. If we arent there looking at those cars, they wouldve pulled her out a couple hours later. She wouldve been gone.The city encouraged residents to place water-damaged items on the curb or toward the front of their property and call 505-955-6949 to set up collections, which will begin Thursday. The city also asked residents to call the same number to report damage to public infrastructure.2018 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.)Visit The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) at www.santafenewmexican.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS)  When a blistering heat wave struck the Southland earlier this month, the regions electric grid was so overwhelmed that more than 100,000 customers in Los Angeles had at some point lost power. Some went days without electricity.Now, as Southern California endures another round of scorching heat that forecasters expect will shatter daily records in some areas on Wednesday, utility officials are hoping to avoid similar chaos by staffing extra workers and imploring residents to ease up on their thermostats to give the aging power system a chance to cool down.Its similar to running your car at 100 mph, nonstop, said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman Joe Ramallo, referring to those who blast their air conditioning day and night. Eventually, youre going to have some problems. Distribution equipment is like that  it needs a break.Southern California Edison, which brings power to much of the region, is also urging people to reduce their electricity use during peak hours. State officials have issued a Flex Alert, calling on the public to turn off unnecessary lights and hold off on running major appliances until late in the evening Wednesday.Forecasters predict daytime highs will reach between 90 and 102 degrees in the coastal plains and between 98 and 108 in the valleys. Desert areas could hover around 110 degrees, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service.Public health officials in Riverside County reported six heat-related deaths this month. Most of those who died were elderly, including a 91-year-old from Riverside who died of prolonged heat exposure in a home without cooling measures, said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman with the Riverside University Health System.Plan somewhere to go if you have to go, if you lose power, Seto said.As temperatures spiked Monday, about 3,800 customers  most in Beverly Grove  temporarily lost power. By midday Tuesday, Ramallo said only a few dozen people were reporting problems.While additional DWP crews will be available Wednesday to jump on any outages, the utility is also taking steps to address the grid problems in the long term, which could involve planned power outages in residential neighborhoods.Dan Barnes, director of power transmission and distribution, said the utility already does some planned outages for replacing equipment, but usually keeps electricity flowing to Angelenos as it replaces old cables by switching to another cable while work is underway. Shutting off the power would help crews get the work done more quickly, he said.Ramallo said the planned outages could begin after this series of summer heat waves in neighborhoods across the city where electrical upgrades are already planned. The outages would last about five hours, and residents would get as much as a weeks notice. If the weather turned out to be too hot, the department would cancel the planned outage.The utility also wants the city to loosen restrictions that prevent its crews from working in the street during peak traffic hours in the morning and afternoon. Those rules leave workers with little time to get the work done, said DWP General Manager David Wright.We can work between 9 and 3, but a half-hour for traffic control and a half-hour for a lunch  thats like five hours of work, he told the Board of Water and Power Commissioners at a meeting Tuesday.Wright said the utility also needs to encourage residents to prepare for power outages, especially if they have medical needs that require electricity, by buying a small generator or a phone charger that runs on solar power. Those devices could be crucial in an earthquake or other emergency, he said.Wright told the board that extreme temperatures are not going away. This is what the future looks like for us, he said. We are seeing real extremes in the way of what were having to deal with.Throughout the region Tuesday, people did what they could to stay cool.Leticia Castro sat in the shade of a tree on the patio of a music center, watching her 7-year-old daughter do exercises as part of a summer camp. She doesnt have air conditioning at home, so she feels suffocated there when its hot.I try to take her to the beach, Castro said. Im always looking for free events we can go to, or go to Crenshaw mall where theres A.C.For Lourdes Vargas, a housekeeper in South L.A., the air conditioning gives her headaches, but the heat makes working uncomfortable.I sweat and sweat, and sometimes that causes eye infections, she said. Theres also more heat from the vacuum.Soaring temperatures also come with a higher risk of wildfires, officials said. Parts of Yosemite National Park  including the main tourist draw Yosemite Valley  were closed Tuesday as the Ferguson fire continued to rage. Park officials said Highway 140, El Portal Road, Glacier Point Road and Arch Rock Entrance are all closed.The fire, which has claimed the life of one firefighter and injured several others, has burned more than 37,000 acres southwest of Yosemite and is now 26% contained, officials said. The fire was sending huge amounts of smoke into the Yosemite Valley as more than 3,000 fire personnel battled the blaze, aided by dozens of water-dropping helicopters, water trucks and bulldozers.Fire crews are encountering steep, rugged terrain. One particularly precarious area where the fire is burning was named the Devils Gulch many years ago by the areas first explorers, fire information officer Rob Deyerberg said.The terrain is only a place where the devil would live, Deyerberg said. We will not put firefighters down in the worst places. Thats where they build their lines, develop their plans of where can we catch this fire on our terms.Times staff writer Angel Jennings contributed to this report.2018 the Los Angeles TimesVisit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Lea Eriksen was named the director of technology and innovation for Long Beach, Calif., last month after working in that role on an interim basis since January In an interview this week, Eriksen discussed the challenges and priorities that will guide her work in the position, as well as how her lengthy background in municipal government finance is a major asset for any public technology executive.Perhaps the most telling insight into the job Eriksen is tasked with is her list of priorities. One of the top items is the citys critical technology investment program, which Eriksen described as a road map for investment that is likely to guide tech spending over the next couple of years. A major component of the program is technology for the new civic center to better meet employee needs and also enable collaboration within the building. This includes a strong enough network to support items such as conferencing and soft phones.The environment were trying to have in all of the new city hall is a more collaborative environment and more open, Eriksen said.Her background is certainly suited to work with an investment road map, both in terms of the technology it includes and in the managing of the money. Eriksen first came to Long Beach city government four years ago as the budget manager before becoming the assistant finance director. In a press release announcing her installment as the citys permanent tech exec last month, City Manager Patrick West noted that Eriksen had overseen multimillion-dollar budgets as well as managed critical projects in the city.Other priorities, she said, include making sure the technology and innovation group is a better partner to the other departments in the city, addressing the departments current 15 percent staff vacancy rate, cybersecurity, digital inclusion and continuing to collaborate on data-driven governance projects with the Long Beach Innovation Team.Work is currently underway in most  if not all of those areas  thanks to projects such as a digital inclusion effort to bolster the availability of free public Wi-Fi across the jurisdiction, as well as the citys fiber backbone.An overall goal of this work is to make sure that you can get online within two miles anywhere in the city. The city is also working on a project related to e-waste, which involves refurbishing discarded tech and finding it a good and useful home.Eriksens department is also partnering with the public library on digital literacy programs aimed at ensuring that residents are not left behind as societys reliance on technology continues to accelerate.Before coming to Long Beach, Eriksen was previously in Cincinnati for nearly eight years, serving as the citys budget director. Ericksen draws a direct connection between the work shes done in municipal government finance and her new tech leadership position, noting that the perspective is a useful one in deciding where money is best spent and how to maximize the investments to serve all central functions.(TNS)  Although California has received an all-clear from government agencies looking into Russian attempts to hack into voting data for states across the nation, safe today doesnt mean safe tomorrow, a leading computer security expert warned.The bottom line is, be nervous, said Matt Bishop, a UC Davis computer science professor who specializes in computer security.California has been pushing hard to make its voting systems more secure and more efficient since Floridas famous hanging chad election of 2000. That was the presidential election in which the final result was delayed for more than a month while partisans for Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore battled in courts and county election offices over how  or even if  thousands of contested ballots in Florida should be counted.That was the biggest election controversy of modern times  until Russias interference with the 2016 campaign that was designed to help Donald Trump win the presidential election.In September 2017, the Department of Homeland Security warned election officials in California and 20 other states that Russian hackers had tried to break into their voting systems during the campaign.Earlier this month, Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading a probe into the Russian interference, indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers and said they had hacked into one states registration database. The defendants stole information related to approximately 500,000 voters, including names, addresses, partial Social Security numbers, dates of birth and drivers license numbers, according to the indictment.There is no evidence of a breach of Californias election systems in 2016, Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in an email Monday. Muellers indictment, however, is a stark reminder that cyber threats to our elections are very real  and they wont be going away.Theres no evidence that Russian tampering altered any votes in 2016. Doing so would be difficult because of security measures that are standard in California and most of the nation.San Franciscos system is typical, said John Arntz, the citys elections chief. Theres an air gap in the electronic voting machines and the equipment that tallies the votes, he said.Those machines are never connected to the Internet, Arntz said. The way the system is set up, if someone physically hacked into one voting machine, they couldnt affect the other machines, because theyre not connected. And even then, theyd have to just about destroy the machine to hack in.California has another safeguard, which Arntz called the ultimate fail-safe: Since 2006, all touch-screen voting systems in the state have had to provide a paper receipt that confirms the electronic totals.About a dozen states allow electronic voting without requiring a paper trail audit. That requirement has been one of the most talked about election cyber-security reforms at the national level, Padilla said. But California has required a voter-verified paper audit trail for every vote for over a decade.While the prospect of outside groups changing individual ballots or flipping final vote totals are the flashiest election security issues, thats far from the only damage hackers can cause, said Bishop, the UC Davis computer science professor. He has been involved in officially sanctioned efforts to break into voting systems in California and other states. For example, the one successful Russian hacking effort cited in Muellers indictment is believed to have involved voter registration data in Illinois, officials in that state said. California and many other states allow residents to register to vote electronically, and those databases must be connected to the Internet, where hackers lurk.The leak of the voter registration data is bad, Bishop said. But whats really bad is if you can get in there and change things.Social Security and drivers license numbers are a potential treasure trove for identity thieves. But hackers looking to disrupt an election could change addresses, misspell names, flip party registrations or take dozens of other actions that could slow voting to a crawl.Who knows what they could do? Bishop said. Hackers could even scrub out the names of voters entirely, effectively disenfranchising them.Concern about hacking is one of the most important reasons for the slow progress of efforts to move toward a system in which voters could cast their ballots over their smart phones, laptops or tablets via the Internet. Computer security experts like Bishop and David Dill of Stanford University argue that the potential problems far outweigh any benefits.Computers are very complicated things and theres no way with any reasonable amount of resources that you can guarantee that the software and hardware are bug-free and that they havent been maliciously attacked, Dill, who also is a director of the nonprofit election security group VerifiedVoting.org , said in a 2016 article. From that perspective, looking at a system that relies on the perfectibility of computers is a really bad idea.State election systems arent the only concern. With only a handful of companies providing the bulk of the countrys voting machines and software, hacker attacks on those vendors could endanger systems used across the country, Bishop said.Last week, for example, Election Systems and Software, one of the nations largest manufacturers of voting machines, revealed that for a time in the 2000s, it sold election management systems equipped with remote access software that allowed its technicians to connect to the machines via the Internet.But if the technicians can get in electronically, so can hackers.Installing remote-access software and modems on election equipment is the WORST decision for security short of leaving ballot boxes on a Moscow street corner, Sen. Roy Wyden, D-Ore., said in a July 17 tweet.Since 2016, California has been working to strengthen its voting information system in advance of this years elections, Padilla said.We conducted an agency-wide security audit, replaced obsolete devices, enhanced security of our servers and upgraded firewalls and applied security patches, he said. We have also strengthened agency procedures related to security, including increased 24/7 monitoring and alert capabilities and implementing additional security tools to detect and prevent malware and viruses.The state also must certify any voting system before it can be sold in California, which means intensive testing and even red team security testing, with experts trying to hack in, Padilla said. San Francisco is among the counties looking to replace outdated machines.The most important security measure, however, could be Californias growing shift from electronic voting to vote-by-mail, where every vote is cast on an old-school paper ballot.In the June primary, more than two-thirds of the votes were cast on mail ballots. That number will only grow as more counties sign on to a state program that calls for providing every voter with a mail ballot , which eliminates any concerns about the security of the electronic voting machines used at polling places.But even if every possible measure is taken to protect the states elections, there are no guarantees, Bishop admitted. If theres corruption or incompetence, all bets are off.There is no such thing as absolute security, he said.(TNS)  Riverside Police Departments access to Ohios statewide system of law enforcement databases is suspended following multiple ransomware attacks on the citys computers earlier this year , the Dayton Daily News has learned.The department lost access to the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway on May 14 in order to shield the system from damage and protect confidential information from exposure, a spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said.Frank Robinson, the Riverside police chief, said the department is largely unable to access anything that has do with old reports or old cases in Riverside. He said it is possible that some of the inaccessible reports are for still-open cases.The gateway basically holds our old reports, Robinson said. We cant get those reports right now. Were in the process of figuring out how to get those reports for us.In addition to records, the gateway system allows officers to quickly search a deep well of databases from police departments and other sources across the state and nation. Using a name, vehicle or tattoo description, address or image, the search function dwells multiple sources to yield useful information for officers.Former Attorney General Jim Petros office launched a portion of OHLEG in 2003 and the system developed since then, adding new databases and tools as police departments joined the system. The gateway can be used for training, tracking the status of DNA tests and other evidence, sharing information among law enforcement agencies, identifying drugs, photo lineups, accessing warrants, prison inmate and parolee data, and other purposes.While many of the records are public, the gateway offers police instant access around the clock and, in some cases, offers records that are beyond the scope of Ohios public records laws due to their confidentiality.It is rare for a department to have its access suspended.It does not happen often, said Jill Del Greco, DeWines spokeswoman. The gateways rules and regulations explain that (the Bureau of Criminal Investigation) reserves the right to revoke access to OHLEG in any event that could potentially put OHLEG information resources or data at risk.Any time an agency loses access to OHLEG, we work with that agency to help them get back online, Del Greco said.Robinson said Riversides department is working toward restoring access in the next six weeks. In the interim, the department has sought other ways to get at information. One idea is to have a Riverside employee stationed at another police department to access information for the department.Two ransomware attacks hit Riverside this year. Often, a ransomware virus holds hostage a computer users data in exchange for a ransom, often cryptocurrency or bitcoin.The second attack, in May, was less damaging than the first in April that rendered about 10 months of police records inaccessible. Robinson said those records are still inaccessible.A lot of things that were on there we can still get because we have copies of them, or weve redone reports, Robinson said. If a case moved to the justice system before the ransomware case, the prosecutors office would also have a copy of the files, he said.Robinson warned other departments should take precautions to avoid becoming a victim of ransomware attacks.I think the biggest thing is to make sure that your IT service and all the information you have is locked down as secure as possible, he said. Nothing says someone still cant get to it, but its important to make sure its locked down as much as possible.Poly has a decades-long legacy in aerospace and astronomy  from our headsets on the moon in 1969 to the control room during this years Perseverance landing on Mars and NASAs historic first flight of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.Ying Yong, mayor of Shanghai, and Bai Chunli, president of Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly unveil three scientific research platforms on July 17. [Photo/sh-italent.cn]

Authorities of the Shanghai municipal government and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) jointly unveiled three science research platforms on July 17.

The Zhangjiang Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Science aims to independently develop new drugs that are affordable and effective for patients and have minimal negative side effects.

The G60 Brain Intelligence Innovation Park will take advantage of the cloned monkey technology of CAS to advance the R&D and application of technologies for the diagnosis, intervention, and treatment of key brain diseases.

The Collaborative Innovation Center for Immune Intervention of Infectious Diseases will work on developing anti-infection antibodies and new-type vaccines to improve the country's global competitiveness in the bio-medicine sector.

Shanghai's Songjiang district reaches a deal with CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology on July 17. [Photo/sh-italent.cn]

The launching of these three platforms are considered as a significant step for Shanghai's goals of becoming a scientific and technological innovation center and developing its Zhangjiang area into a national science center, according to Bai Chunli, president of CAS.

Bai vowed that CAS will give full support to the construction of these platforms, and suggested bringing in and nurturing some of the world's leading scientists and deepening reforms to encourage technological innovation.

Ying Yong, mayor of Shanghai, stated that the new platforms will boost Shanghai's innovation in life sciences, and he expected they will develop into world-class research institutes as soon as possible.

Shanghai, ambitious to become a sci-tech innovation center with global influence, aspires to be the source and origin of new academic ideas, new scientific findings, new technologies, and new industrial models, said Ying.

CAS, China's national scientific thinktank, has built a number of research institutes specializing in life sciences, pharmacy, and chemistry in Shanghai and made many great breakthroughs.

Shanghai's Fengxian district signs a cooperation agreement with the Institute Pasteur of Shanghai of CAS on July 17. [Photo/sh-italent.cn]



Germany could still have a formula one race next year.

With no 2019 deal in place for Hockenheim, a wild rumour did the rounds last weekend that the Nurburgring has made a daring bid to entice Liberty Media to organise a race on the famous Nordschleife circuit.

"I would love it," Lewis Hamilton told Frankfurther Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

But Niki Lauda, who was almost burned to death on the layout in 1976, said simply: "No."

Indeed, much more likely is that - with plans for a Miami street race now delayed until 2020 - Liberty Media is instead open to new talks with Hockenheim.

Sport Bild claims that the German automobile clubs ADAC and AVD are working on the deal and in contact with Liberty Media.

"I'm convinced that we have some very strong representatives in the ADAC and also the AVD who are working to keep the race," former Mercedes boss Norbert Haug told Bild newspaper.

He thinks Liberty would be ill-advised to let Germany drop out of formula one again.

"They have said they want traditional races as well as new ones," said Haug. "That should not be lip service.

"I think Miami is great but not if you lose Hockenheim, Monza, Silverstone. Then it's goodnight formula one."

(GMM)Lewis Hamilton should not be surprised when he is sometimes booed.

That is the view of outspoken 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve. At Hockenheim last weekend, Mercedes' British driver was booed at times during the driver parade.

"Lewis should not be surprised," Villeneuve is quoted by Auto Bild.

"He confuses formula one with Hollywood. Everything he does is staged.

"He portrays himself on social media like he is Jesus. The way he knelt next to his car after his problem in qualifying looked like the suffering of Christ. And what he said afterwards was the Sermon on the Mount.

"Then he gestured so dramatically on the podium that everyone could see who sent the sudden rain," Villeneuve said.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, however, wants Hamilton to remain being himself.

After watching the TV replay of the German grand prix, Hamilton wrote on social media that he thought Sky's ex-driver pundits could not find "a good word to say" about him.

He deleted the Instagram post.

But Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told the Sun: "I actually encouraged him to leave all that stuff online and speak his mind.

"It is what we need. We need to create stories. We need controversies. We need polarising stances," he added.

(GMM)Inside the ice-cream factory. Photo: Melissa Hom

In just a few short years, Ample Hills Creamery has grown to become one of the biggest names  if not the biggest name  in New York ice cream. It received $4 million in funding in 2015 and has been called the next Ben & Jerrys, a brand which it shares some of its more over-the-top tendencies. (And a love of chunky ice cream.) It might be more apt, though, to say that co-owners Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna approach their ice cream the way Willy Wonka approached candy: They want to turn it into pure Fantasia. And tomorrow, the couple will be unleashing their own Wonka-ish desires at Ample Hills new factory, a 15,000-square-foot facility in Red Hook with an interactive area with tubes for the kids and glass windows overlooking the production area.

As much as 15,000-square-feet of ice cream making sounds like paradise, an ice-cream factory isnt in and of itself isnt a big draw for regular people. There are only so many pints youll want to watch get packed before deciding youd rather just eat some at a local scoop shop. But the factory is just one half of the equation. Before Smith got into the scoop business, he wrote screenplays for horror movies, and his storytelling tendencies are woven into this place. For me, the factorys interactive element, the narrative of inviting people into that, is a culmination of the last seven years, he says. Its a dream for me to come to fruition, to sort of give it a physical life.

The Red Hook facility is being branded as a factory and museum, in the parlance of this social-media age. But, My interest is really in diving a little deeper, beyond just an Instagrammable picture, he says. To be able to create a narrative and story, something that connects people to the collection of milk, cream, sugar, and eggs.

The factorys interactive area includes a scrapbook that guests can add to. Photo: Melissa Hom

Along with those windows, through which you can see ice cream churn or peanut-butter cups get made, there are a number of playful aspects. There are interactive, five-foot-large spoons that operate as museum-like didactic pieces, explaining what things like the pasteurizer do with illustrated cross-sections. Those can be interacted with, to show illustrations, and there will also be smell tubes and more. Smith says hes tried to think of ice cream as a vehicle to tell stories, and the third element will echo that. Its a magnetic scrapbook, which theyll invite people to add their life story as an ice cream flavor to on postcards. Thats the way we like to try to think of it, and then once every so often well actually make those flavors and only in Red Hook, Smith says.

The centerpiece is the three-dimensional map of Brooklyn, a 15-foot-high wall that, Smith says, depicts the borough through Ample Hills collective eyes. Our name comes from a Walt Whitman poem, Smith says. We wanted to find a way to create a visualization of the spirit of his poem. The inspiration is literary, but there are aspects for the kids: tubes to crawl through and a mini Red Hook trolley car that can be controlled.

Ice cream! Photo: Melissa Hom

Its not all fun: Ample Hills expansion plans (including to Los Angeles) hinge on this space. We cant grow period until the factory opens, says Smith, who explains that all their pints are currently hand-picked. With the factory, theyll be able to expand not only their retail business but also dive deeper into e-commerce.

After, you can head to the factorys small scoop shop, where theyve quietly been serving serving Ample Hill standards like Ooey Gooey Butter and PB Wins the Cup for a few weeks now. As with other locations, itll be home to an exclusive flavor in the Hook. Made with burnt sugar ice cream, there will of course be chunky fillings. In this case, that means house stroopwaffles and chunks of salted fudge.

One of the interactive spoons. Photo: Melissa Hom

Check out the factory. Photo: Melissa Hom

The scoop shop. Photo: Melissa Hom

Ample Hills Factory and Museum, 421 Van Brunt Street, at Beard St.Pablo Villavicencios wife and daughters. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Pablo Villavicencio, the pizzeria employee who was turned over to ICE while making a delivery to a Brooklyn military base, was freed from detention tonight. In the nearly two months since he was detained, no real progress had been made  unless you count a mid-June temporary restraining order pending a hearing on the case. That changed when Villavicencios counsel won a habeas corpus motion extending his stay and allowing him to secure valid immigration status.

People are rallying outside the courthouse at 500 Pearl Street in NYC in support of Pablo Villavicencio, an immigrant man who got ICE called on him by an army base after he delivered a pizza to them. Pablo is set to see a judge today at 11am. #AbolishICE #FreePablo pic.twitter.com/Jlzl5du8AW  Ash J (@AshAgony) July 24, 2018

In advance of the hearing, Villavicencios family, activists, and New York government officials exerted pressure to try to get him out of detention. This started yesterday with a press conference at City Hall, where Villavicencios wife Sandra Chica and daughters pleaded for his return. Chica talked about the difficulty of living without him, saying shes effectively been a single mother since her husband was detained. His 4-year-old daughter, Luciana, also spoke, saying, I want him to be home every day. Chica also returned to the fact that Villavicencio has no criminal record.

Earlier today, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said that the federal government has cruelly kept Villavicencio from his family for no legitimate reasons. He called the arrest a disgraceful affront to our New York values, and his continued detainment unconscionable. Protesters, joined by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, rallied outside the downtown Manhattan courthouse where Villavicencio was having his hearing.

The hearing was focused on whether the case should be heard in New York or New Jersey. During it, federal Judge Paul Crotty asked if the U.S. government has any concept of justice in mind for Villavicencio but no ruling was, initially reached.

The Legal Aid Society, which is representing Villavicencio, released a statement around 2 p.m., saying it is our position that the Federal government wholly failed to address or justify their cruel treatment of Mr. Villavicencio. It also expressed hope that Judge Crotty would find merits in its arguments and release Villavicencio. That hope was fulfilled.

Earlier this evening, the Legal Aid Society and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP released a second statement announcing Villavicencios release.

The Legal Aid Society and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP won a habeas corpus motion today in Federal court freeing their client, Pablo Villavicencio, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention (ICE) detention and extending a stay of deportation which will allow Villavicencio time to secure valid immigration status. Judge Paul A. Crotty of the United States District Court - Southern District of New York granted the motion. On June 1, Pablo Villavicencio was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while delivering a catering order to Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn. In mid-June, a judge granted a temporary restraining order staying Villavicencios deportation pending a hearing on the entirety of his case. The rule of law, humanity and morality prevailed tonight with the Courts order releasing Pablo back to his family and community, said Adriene Holder, Attorney-In-Charge of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society. This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart. Today is also an affirmation that the Courts can still serve as a check on the Executive when it breaks with our laws and principles. The Villavicencio family has finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare and we will continue to fight alongside them to protect their right to remain in the community they call home.

This post has been updated throughout following Villavicencios release.Just try not to smile. Illustration: The Ellaphant In The Room

Funfetti cake has always been one of the worlds great inventions, made even more clear by its relatively newfound ubiquity on Instagram. That is because it is impossible to say, eat, or even think about Funfetti without smiling, at least a little. Funfetti cake  any confetti cake, really  is a party by itself (but the bonus is that it is, usually, served at actual parties), and yet, there is a way to make the Funfetti party even more fun: by serving the cake with a chilled bottle of spumante rose from the Prosecco area of Northern Italy.

You have had Prosecco. You know it. You love it. You drink it in Aperol Spritzes. But few people know how Prosecco differs from other sparkling wines, most especially Champagne. Prosecco is made via a process called charmat, in a large tank. Its similar to how Champagne is made, but Champagnes bubbles are added in individual bottles (instead of in a tank). Many people also might not realize theres a rose  or rosato  version, because pink wines cant be labeled as Prosecco due to the grapes that need to be used. What you need to know is that most Prosecco producers nevertheless make a pink bottling that they simply label as spumante  the Italian term for sparkling wine.

Even though these spumante roses have similar levels of sugar to Champagne, the wines often taste sweeter because the grapes that are used  they run the gamut, but theres usually some Pinot Noir or the little-known Raboso Veronese in the mix  give riper fruit flavors and have less acidity than the wines used in actual Champers. These wines are really good with birthday cake for a few reasons: The charmat method results in a softness to the fizz (so the bubbles arent sharp, like Champagnes), which will help make the cake feel even lighter and fluffier. The wines fruity, floral flavors and vanilla-bean-like notes are also a perfect match for the Funfettis sweetness and those Technicolor sprinkles. Grab a few bottles, and some friends, and give it a shot. Here are three options to get you started:

Mionetto Rose Extra Dry ($13)

One of the biggest players in the Prosecco game, this will be a soft, easy, peachy, and sweet wine. (Extra Dry is a bit confusing in this case because it actually means it will be a little sweeter than a typical Brut.)

Lamerti Rosato Spumante ($15)

From a well-respected producer in the heart of the Prosecco territory, this wine is made from Pinot Bianco, Pinot Nero, and Raboso Veronese. There will be a lot of apple and pear with a tangy juiciness and soft bubble.

Altaneve Rose ($28)

This is a refined version of what these niche wines can offer. It will be pretty and floral with a rainbow of of berry aromas and flavors. The blend here will be 70 percent Pinot Nero and 30 percent Glera, which is the grape used to make traditional Prosecco.Lifestyle

Qasr Al Watans souvenirs and Arabic language in spotlight

One visit to Qasr Al Watan is never enough to take it all in: the Palace of the Nation provides an enriching experience that takes visitors on a cultural journey to explore the wonders of Arabian culture and artistry, artefacts and Islamic art.Fourteen years ago, Parmigiani Fleurier co-founded the Fleurier Quality Foundation, which certifies the watchmaker's prestigious watches. In 2018, the brand is paying tribute to the first watch created by Michel Parmigiani  the Toric  by successfully subjecting it to the five stages of the Fleurier Quality certification, which tests the watch's movement, the reliability of its rate and also certifies the high-quality craftsmanship of every component.

The Toric Qualite Fleurier bears the distinctive feature of all Toric models: a bezel formed of two gadroons alternating with knurling based on the harmonious proportions of the golden ratio. An artisan has created the knurling by hand on every Toric produced since 1997. This rare form of craftsmanship consists of manipulating the material with a wheel that leaves the imprint of its notches in the metal. The bezel must be rotated somewhere between 100 and 1,000 times to obtain a perfectly knurled result. Every Toric case middle is unique, instantly showcasing the prestige of the Toric Qualite Fleurier.

Hand-guilloche dial and knurled case  Parmigiani Fleurier

The dial of the Toric Qualite Fleurier calls on the ultimate dial-crafting skill: hand-guillochage. The surface of the dial is intricately decorated with a "rice grain" pattern. Guided by an expert's hand, the guillochage gives the piece a shine unequalled by any numerically controlled machine that is instantly recognisable by the experienced observer. Each dial is therefore unique, just like the knurled bezel, and bears the special touch and sensitivity of the artisan who produced it. The Toric Qualite Fleurier is enhanced by solid gold appliques and javelin-shaped hands that elegantly mark the passing of time.

The two versions of the Toric Qualite Fleurier  Parmigiani Fleurier

The Toric Fleurier Quality is available in two versions, with a red gold or 18ct white gold case measuring 40.8 mm in diameter. This 3-hand and date timepiece houses the PF331-QF automatic movement offering 55 hours of power reserve. It is worn on a Hermes leather strap secured by a gold pin buckle.

PF331-QF automatic movement  Parmigiani Fleurier

The five criteria of the Fleurier Quality Certification

The Fleurier Quality stamp certifies flawless technical and aesthetic craftsmanship in a watch. All Fleurier Quality watches must meet the following requirements:

 100% made in Switzerland

 High-quality craftsmanship

 COSC  Swiss Chronometer Testing Institute

 The Chronofiable test

 The FleuritestIs The IGAD Peace Process Being Undermined By The Troika Countries?

"The regional effort to return peace to South Sudan suffer setbacks due to a web of conflicting interests."

By Jack Werkok

There exists an accumulating body of evidence that the effort by the IGAD to bring peace to South Sudan is being undermined by the Troika countries (mainly the United States and the United Kingdom). Norway is part of the Troika, and therefore to a certain degree goes along with the two countries.

The U.S. and U.K. have spearheaded the narrowly passed arms embargo on South Sudan. Clearly, the five Permanent Members of the UNSC disagreed on the timing of such an action as will negatively impact the ongoing peace process. The imposition of sanctions is clearly intended to hurt the current leadership of the country with the hope that it will force the governing party to be more pliable to a peace agreement that is clearly designed to produce a specific agenda: change the leadership.

This is a self-defeating activity as the efforts to ratchet up pressure on the government may cause the government to question the true intentions of the Troika in the peace process. It has not escaped the attention of the South Sudans governing coalition that the U.S. and UK are bent on weakening the government and incentivizing rebels to be intransigent.

It is easy to see how Riek Machar and other handled opposition figures could reason that if the war continues, the international community will continue to mount on the government, to the benefit of armed opposition. Ultimately, Rieks insurgents will continue to delay reaching a peace with the hope that the SPLM government will collapse, and they will be waiting to take over. This calculation has one undeniable outcome: the current efforts to reach peace appear doomed because the Troika countries want to achieve a specific goal and that is toppling the Juba government, or at least removing certain personalities from South Sudans political landscape. This effort has been nakedly demonstrated.

In its last round of unilateral sanctions, the U.S. disproportionately targeted government officials and commanders, and only sanctioned one rebel commander. The rebel commander welcomed being sanctioned; which just goes to show how hollow such actions are.

The U.S. has also imposed a unilateral arms embargo on South Sudan, forgetting that South Sudan does not buy weapons from the U.S. because they are prohibitively expensive, and a country must have the patience needed to navigate cumbersome bureaucratic and legal barriers to purchase weapons from the U.S. The U.S. is also secretly supporting the SPLM-FD group with the hope that they will take over once the Juba administration collapse. Its bizarre that the U.S., while expressing desire for peace in South Sudan, continues to pursue the very strategy that is undercutting efforts to bring about peace because it is fixated on who should govern South Sudan.

The U.S., as the leading aid donor to the war-affected South Sudan, believes it has the right to allow its activist-led (read Enough Project) policy towards South Sudan to define the outcome of the peace process in South Sudan. The regional effort to return peace to South Sudan suffer setbacks due to a web of conflicting interests. The U.S. simply wants a peace agreement that, at the end of the day, results in the removable of the current leadership and replacing it with a mix of former detainees and moderate elements from the current government and insurgents, and other actors that will tow Americas regional interests.

The regional countries such as Sudan and Uganda have security and economic interests to protect. Sudan is a curious case. Sudan has played a destabilizing role in South Sudan since the country achieved independence due to the believe that South Sudan supports rebels fighting the Khartoum regime. Without Sudans support, Rieks insurgency would have been neutralized.

On the other hand, the ongoing conflict in South Sudan has hampered oil production and this has reduced proceeds that Khartoum receives from pipeline usage fee. Khartoum is experiencing economic difficulties of its own and one would imagine that they would be interested in a peaceful South Sudan.

However, Khartoum is willing to sell South Sudan down the river because it desperately wants to restore its relations with the U.S., and to be removed from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism. Sudan, therefore, is willing to temporarily set its economic interests aside, and do the U.S. bidding. Yes, Sudan is being used to sustain Rieks insurgency to engineer the collapse of the Juba government.

Again, the leader of the Troika, U.S., is willing to engage in a covert effort to remove the leadership of the South Sudan with the hope of finding a team that can manage the post-Kiir complex environment.

Uganda is another case to consider. Uganda is interested in a peaceful and prosperous South Sudan. Itd be an economic windfall for Uganda businesses. South Sudan is also an important security consideration for Uganda. When South Sudan achieved independence, that spelt the end of the brutal reign of terror in northern Uganda where Sudan sponsored LRA to wage war against the people of Uganda.

Shortly after the end of war in South Sudan, Riek Machar played a dubious role of trying to mediate between Uganda and LRA. Riek forgot that the mood in Uganda is that the atrocities committed by the LRA were unforgivable.

Uganda was also aware that Rieks abortive effort to overthrow Dr. John Garang de Mabior in 1991 set back South Sudans struggle for at least ten years. The continuation of the war in South Sudan contributed directly to the most destructive phase of the LRAs insurgency. This explains why Uganda immediately intervened in South Sudan following the outbreak of the war, and the degree of trust deficit Uganda places on Riek Machar.

Considering such a complex web of colliding interests, what is the way to achieve peace in South Sudan? For the sake of the people of South Sudan, certain interested parties must be willing to forgo their vested interests and let South Sudanese reach some degree of compromise. The Troika led by the U.S. and U.K. must be willing to set aside the hatred towards South Sudan leadership and the need to replace leadership. Only South Sudanese can vote out their leaders.

By using Rieks insurgency to try to achieve an agreement that results in removing certain personalities from South Sudans political process, the U.S. and Troika are pursuing a narrow-minded and rigid goal that could harden the positions of the parties to the war and making it difficult for the parties to reach compromise.

The government is increasingly convinced that the Troika and U.N. are undermining effort to reach peace, and emboldening Riek to not make compromise. This was demonstrated by a choreographed release of the U.N. report of alleged atrocities committed by the government forces against civilians in Unity state. The report did not blame rebels.

Curiously, the Troika countries and the U.N. glaringly withheld statement of support for the milestones reached in Khartoum by the warring parties. Furthermore, the U.N. Security Council immediately took up the U.S.-sponsored motion to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan hoping this would have a positive impact on the ongoing peace talks. The resolution passed narrowly because many members of the UNSC believed the timing was not right because it would not help the ongoing negotiations.

These negative actions on the part of the Troika and U.N. suggest that there is a concerted effort to undermine regional efforts to push the parties towards peace. Why? Again, as expounded above, the Troika and the U.N. are more concerned about changing leadership rather than letting South Sudanese enjoy some degree of peace.

South Sudanese have the final say in the effort to return peace to the country. The government is pursuing the best strategy by being flexible and motivated to see an immediate return to peace.

While being duly cautious, the government of South Sudan should fully embrace the regional efforts as it has been doing. At the end of the day, returning peace to South Sudan is the first step followed by the transition to full democratic process that see reforms in governance and institutions.

There is no question that the government believes in effecting much needed reforms because the benefits will accrue to South Sudan. By embracing peace, the government may thwart attempts by the U.S. and others to meddle in our affairs, and subverting gains towards their own interests.Lies About South Sudanese Gaining Ground (1)

"Fr Saturnino Lohure, told parliament that there was no force in the world that would prevent the people of Southern Sudan to liberate themselves from the oppression of the Northern ruling class, if they- the Southern Sudanese- decided to do so."

By Atem Yaak Atem

It was the Nazi German propaganda minister, Paul Joseph Goebbels, who once said A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.

Falsehoods about South Sudan abound. The perception by outsiders about the countrys political leaders, and by extension the entire people, is getting more negative especially after the outbreak of the armed conflict in 2013. The five-year long civil war is universally attributed, even by the protagonists themselves, to power struggle within the then ruling SPLM, the political component that spearheaded the armed struggle from 1983-2005.

We frequently read and hear unflattering description of ourselves as a deeply divided, insensitive, greedy for power, barbaric, incompetent and myopic, lot. This tainted image of who we are or assumed to be, comes from the regional and international news media, from our own politicians and from Sudans ruling National Congress Party, its leaders and their apologists.

Although there is some truth in that judgement, the profile does not separate the wheat from the chaff. The projection therefore suffers from gross generalisation. The vast majority of South Sudanese including a sizeable number within members of educated elite, are among the best people one would wish to have around as compatriots, neighbours or members of international community of nations. But that is a topic for another day and another forum.

Since refuting entrenched lies is a vast and complex subject with a potential for controversies, I will confine this writing to only three pieces of propaganda about the affairs of South Sudan in circulation now at home and abroad.

The first of these is the claim that majority of South Sudanese now regret the 2011 secession of their region from Sudan and that the desire for unification is growing and getting stronger. The second lie is that South Sudanese, especially members of their ruling elite, are a bunch of ethnocentric and greedy incompetents who cannot manage a modern state. The final fiction is the allegation that the SPLM, the party of liberation, is responsible for all that has gone wrong in South Sudan since its inception in 1983.

I strongly disagree with those who sing or believe these and similar blanket allegations. In the three articles that I am publishing, I state an allegation, explain relevant facts surrounding the issue, and conclude with my repudiations supported by citing examples from our recent history.

Now let us begin with the first charge, the allegation that South Sudanese want to reverse the decision they made in 2011 to vote with their feet, escaping from the cage that was Sudan.

Irrelevant analogy of the 1990 reunification of Germany

While watching one of Sudans TV channels a couple of weeks ago, a certain Imam Mohammed Imam, who was commenting on the news review on the recent peace agreement signed in Khartoum by South Sudans warring parties, told his interviewer that there was a call, presumably among South Sudanese, for the reunification of Sudan and South Sudan. Imam who was introduced as a journalist and analyst, further claimed that a reunification of the two Sudans could follow the example of Federal Republic of Germany and East German Democratic Republic in 1990.

The analyst (a person who referred to the Sudanese president as His Excellency, my brother Omar el Bashir cannot be expected to make an objective analysis of the issues at hand) in his talk got it all wrong. And now over to the two sets of countries, West Germany and East Germany on the one hand and Sudan and South Sudan on the other.

Germany and Sudan compared

There is nothing in common between the German nation that existed before World War Two and the Sudan that split into two in 2011. In the case of the Germany that came into being in 1871, the Prussian politician, Otto von Bismarck, had several commonalities that helped him achieve the unity of Germany he pursued.

Among those blocks for nation building were language, provided by Deutsch or German. Second, the constituent mini-states that came to be collectively known as Germany, shared common history. Third, although the Germans by faith belonged to Catholic and Protestant sects, they were all members of one large family namely, Christendom. Finally, although this may be debatable, the peoples who came to form the German state considered themselves as belonging to one race in broad terms. This point is important to include in the list of ingredients that are assumed to contribute to national unity. As we shall see later in the case of Sudan, where since independence in 1956 to the present day, its leaders see ethnic affiliation to the ruling class as a necessary condition for full citizenship and attendant rights.

War divided Germany

During World War Two Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler was at war with Great Britain, France, and later the US and the former Soviet Union. When Germany was defeated in 1945, the Western allies occupied the western part that later became the Federal Republic of West Germany with its capital at Bonn, next door to Cologne. The eastern part where Soviet Union was an occupying power, set up German Democratic Republic, or GDR.

Berlin an epitome of division

Matters did not end there. Under the post-war agreement, Berlin the former capital of Germany, was carved up by allies with the US, Great Britain, France and the USSR, each taking a zone. While the former capital of one Germany was inside the territory that had become GDR, the divided city became one of the puzzles of the 20th century. East Berlin became the capital of GDR while West Berlin was to occupy an anomalous status: a replica of the Federal Republic of Germany in everything from free market and ungagged press to being an ocean of economic prosperity.

To prevent its citizens from fleeing to West Berlin next door, the authorities in GDR erected a physical barrier overnight in 1961, cutting off persons who had gone to visit families and relatives living across the divided city. And the communist government in East Germany meant business: the wall was to be patrolled with tanks, anti-personnel landmines and armed police ready to shoot anyone trying to escape to West Berlin. Many East Germans lost their lives while attempting to escape to the other side of the divide.

Anyone who had visited the Wall, which came down in November 1989, could not fail to observe at close quarters the two systems, communist and capitalist, and what each stood for. On the GDR side, a visitor could see drab buildings, most of them draped in scarlet flags, a police state where foreigners and citizens alike were under constant watch of secret police, a city whose citizens, mostly youth, were dying to acquire pop music (in those days in cassettes), blue jeans and other luxuries from the Western world their own government was ceaselessly denouncing as decadent and dehumanising.

To be fair, comparing life led by the East Germans then was much better than the living conditions in African countries under one-party or military rule at the time. The East Germans were missing luxury goods and sometimes basic commodities were scarce but none was starving, in rags or dying from preventable disease; the state provided employment, housing, basic education and health care for all.

Collapse of communism paved way for reunification

By the end of the 1980s the communist system was imploding in the Soviet Union and in its satellite states which included the GDR. Berlin Wall fell and soon after GDR was no more. Whether it was the triumph of an ideology over its rival that led to the demise of communism, is not the concern of this review. What is relevant here is that the German people, in the east or in the west, who had never any conflict with one another in the first place nor any of them chosen to walk out of unity, were once more able to reunite when the conditions that separated them were no longer there.

That after the reunification, the system that governed the Federal Republic of Germany- legal, education, economic, the currency and so on- swallowed their counterparts in the GDR, is again not the concern of this piece. What is relevant in this account is that the act of union was approved by the legislative and executive bodies of the then divided parts of Germany. In other words, the division of Germany was carried out by outside powers at the time the vanquished people had no meaningful say over the fate of their own country. In the reunification process, the German people from east and west, were the decision makers although the former war time allies played some role.

Neither the East nor the West was the oppressor of the other; there was no memory of past bitterness or inequality in the German situation, except the role of the Nazi party which dragged their country to disastrous European conflict, which had its roots in struggle for supremacy.

Now it is our turn to look at Sudan using the above parameters from which one could draw their own conclusion(s).

Sudan from Turco-Egyptian Sudan 1821

Sudan which split into two in 2011, on the other hand was an artificial construct created by the Egyptians with their Turkish masters and later in 1898 with their British.

What became known as Sudan was (and still remains) characterised by a bewildering mosaic of cultural and ethnic diversity during the Turco-Egyptian invasion and later after the establishment of joint British-Egyptian rule or the Condominium.

For much of its time in Sudan, the Condominium administration introduced socio-economic development in Northern Sudan by way of opening schools, health centres and setting up basic infrastructure such as railway and roads.

The problem of the South to the foreign rulers was how to administer law and order or pacification by which the authorities wanted to tame tribal peoples they considered truculent. In that respect it was not only lack of a plan by the foreign rulers to open up what is today South Sudan; they did not even know what to do with the territory and its people. The South itself was and still is a land of great diversity in language, culture and religion.

Natural barriers such as the Sudd became an obstacle to penetration of the area. This, too, has been used as an excuse for neglecting its inhabitants and its economic potential.

Diversity a pretext for exclusion

Diversity in itself is not a bad thing as long as it is managed in a way that gives all the citizens equal rights and fair deal in share of power, national wealth and citizenship. In Sudan, however, the ruling Northern elite saw such cultural diversity as an impediment to their nation-building project. If the country was to be truly united, they argued, the ingredients should be one language, Arabic; one faith, Islam; one culture, Arabism as a national calling card.

That agenda indirectly meant assimilation of others or their exclusion from the Sudanese state and their equal rights as citizens. Ali Abdurrahman of the Peoples Democratic Party that was allied to the Khatimiyya religious sect, brazenly told Southern Sudanese who questioned that racist agenda to better leave Sudan.

This is what happened immediately after independence in 1956.

When the Southern representatives in the legislature in Khartoum teamed up with their compatriots from the other marginalised peripheries to demand their rights, the sectarian leaders panicked and invited the army to take power in order to silence the regional voice of reason.

The military actually went further than that: criminalised talk about federalism, vigorously implemented forceful Islamisation and Arabicisation in the South. Bureaucrats and teachers in particular had to return to school to learn Arabic or lose their jobs.

Sunday, the day of rest in the South became a working day while the Muslim day of worship, Friday took its place. Foreign missionaries, some were also contributing to education besides their spiritual calling, working in the South were expelled en mass.

South Sudanese often forget what most of their leaders of the day did to address the problem of naked racism. Before the military took power, one of the representatives from the South, Fr Saturnino Lohure, told parliament that there was no force in the world that would prevent the people of Southern Sudan to liberate themselves from the oppression of the Northern ruling class, if they- the Southern Sudanese- decided to do so.

It is not surprising that the priest-cum-politician soon after became one of the leaders of the liberation of what is today South Sudan.

Lest we forget

Before we resume the narrative in part two of this piece in the next edition, it is important to quote a traditional maxim in reference to the allegations Khartoum is spreading around about calls among South Sudanese for reunification of the two countries. The adage goes. E jo yen e ke kke dhuk. Translated into English this Dinka saying literally means [Only] a dog is the one who goes back to [eat] its vomit. South Sudanese whose forebears fought for justice for over 70 years cannot contemplate such a bewildering act.

The writer is a South Sudanese journalist and former founding director of Radio SPLA.



Haiti - Politic : The UEH will host a scientific laboratory of RESCIF





The State University of Haiti (UEH) informs the university community in particular and the general public that the UEH will host together with the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium, a laboratory of the Network of Excellence of Sciences of the Engineer of the Francophonie (RESCIF). This laboratory will focus on the valorization of water resources and the reduction of related risks.



The principle of the creation of this laboratory was retained during the 4th Meeting of Presidents, Rectors and Directors of the member institutions of the RESCIF which was held from July 17 to 20 in Lausanne (Switzerland) represented by its Rector, the Professor Fritz Deshommes and Professor Nyankona Gonomy, Director of the Department of Rural Engineering of the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine.



Among the lines of work of this laboratory, presented by the UEH together with the University of Leuven lets quote among others :



The characterization of flood sedimentation;



Hydroelectric power;



Irrigation.



Note that the UEH will also host the next Conference of RESCIF Delegates in June 2019.



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Politic : Michel-Ange Gedeon auditioned for nearly 8 hours in the Senate





On Tuesday, Senator Joseph Lambert chaired the hearing session of Michel-Ange Gedeo, Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), on the events of July 6 and 8 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25055-haiti-flash-heavy-balance-of-riots.html



For nearly 8 hours, For nearly 8 hours, Michelangelo Gideon, perfectly mastering his case and never losing his calm answered the innumerable questions avoiding the pitfalls and provocations of some senators. He was accompanied for this exercise, of several members of the High State Major and Commissioner Berson Soljour, Departmental Director of the West of the PNH.



This long audition, which did not reveal any shattering revelations, allowed at most to have confirmation that there had been a problem in the transmission of orders and a loss of control of the situation during the riots due to lack of resources and manpower on the ground.



According to Senator Carl Murat Cantave, Gedon was informed on July 5, at a meeting of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) of the decision of the Government to announce on July 6 the increase in fuel prices at the pump.



Responding to Senator Cantave, Michel-Ange Gedeon explained that the Government had finally informed on July 5 at the end of this meeting, the temporary suspension of this decision, which would eventually be applied later Friday during the match Belgium-Brazil.



Stressing that the reactivation of this decision taken late in the night from Thursday to Friday, had not been communicated to the PNH. Gedeon recalled that it takes at least 48 hours to mobilize the troops and put in place the planned mechanism, to manage possible overflows predictable following this decision.



Consequently, the PNH not having learned this decision after the announcement of the increase of the Price of the Fuels and in spite of the instructions of mobilization of the agents and the units passed in urgency, the PNH could count only on the regular police force already in place, the reinforcements as the relief is unable to report to duty stations, since the riots, which had already broke out blocking traffic on the streets.



This hearing was used to deny the rumors of a coup, but did not reveal how in the future will better manage the next crisis. Due to the premature departure of several senators, it was agreed that the decisions to be taken, will wait for the establishment of the next government.



Despite the lack of personnel and equipment, the PNH, which lost two of its men in the riots, was able nevertheless to strengthen the presidential security, the protection of foreign nationals, embassies and several companies and to the evacuation of several personalities.



TB/ HaitiLibre

















(Hedgeweek) Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J Christopher Giancarlo and Chief Economist Bruce Tuckman have penned a letter in defence of derivatives in response to recent Vatican criticism.

To read this article:(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that a senior executive at a Silicon Valley fiber optics company has agreed to settle charges that he made nearly $200,000 in illicit profits by trading on inside information in advance of three disappointing earnings announcements by the company.

The case stems from the SEC Market Abuse Units Analysis and Detection Center, which uses data analysis tools to detect suspicious patterns such as improbably successful trading in advance of earnings announcements over time. Enhanced detection capabilities enabled SEC enforcement staff to identify the unusual trading activity.

The SECs order finds that Yao Li, as Vice President of Technology at Alliance Fiber Optic Products, Inc. (AFOP), learned during regular meetings with AFOPs senior executives that the company was likely going to miss its revenue guidance in three different quarters during 2014 and 2015. According to the SECs order, Li traded on this inside information by short selling AFOP shares for profits as well as selling AFOP shares he already owned to avoid losses before these announcements.

According to the SECs order, AFOP specifically prohibited its employees from engaging in short selling. A short sale is a type of trade used to profit when a trader expects a stocks price to decline.

Our agencys ever-evolving data analytics enabled us to detect Lis otherwise inconspicuous trading as an overall pattern to profit off multiple earnings announcements, said Jina Choi, Director of the SECs San Francisco Regional Office.

Without admitting or denying the SECs findings, Li agreed to cease and desist from further violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5, and he must pay disgorgement of $196,203, prejudgment interest of $23,062, and a $196,203 penalty for a total of $415,468. Li also agreed to be prohibited from acting as an officer or director of a public company for a period of five years.Suomen Kuvalehti reported on Friday that Paivi Anttikoski, one of the candidates for the position and the current director of government communications, was denied the position after the media company learnt that her husband and school-aged child would not move with her to Tampere.

Central Finland Police Department says it has opened a pre-trial investigation into a suspected case of employment discrimination in the process of hiring a new senior editor-in-chief for Aamulehti.

According to the news weekly, Anttikoski was told last November by Kai Telanne, the chief executive of Alma Media, the publisher of Aamulehti, that she would not be able to concentrate on her duties as the senior editor-in-chief if she lived apart from her child.

She has since confirmed the report to Helsingin Sanomat.

Both Telanne and Alma Media have rejected the allegations, insisting that the report portrays an inaccurate image of the selection process.

Central Finland Police Department states in its brief press release that it will continue its investigation by hearing the parties to the case and other relevant stakeholders.

We interviewed the injured party today and decided that we should also hear the other parties. This is how we will guarantee the legal protection of all parties. The matter has been the subject of widespread discussion in the media and speculation. We will now look into it carefully, Jari Kinnunen, the detective superintendent in charge of the investigation, said to Aamulehti.

Uusi Suomi is part of Alma Media.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Martti Kainulainen  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiChronograph chronology Chronograph chronology

Since the acclaimed premiere of the Datograph 16 years ago, the Saxon watch brand has continuously leveraged its expertise in this domain...

Since the acclaimed premiere of the...Statistics Finland on Tuesday reported that the seasonally adjusted trend of the employment rate rose to 71.8 per cent while that of the unemployment rate fell to 7.2 per cent in June.

The Finnish government will meet its objective of raising the national employment rate to 72 per cent ahead of schedule, declares Juhana Brotherus, the chief economist at the Mortgage Society of Finland (Hypo).

Seasonal variation in employment and unemployment statistics is notable particularly before and after summer and other holiday seasons that cause a temporary spike in the number of available jobs. The non-seasonally adjusted employment rate, for example, stood at 75.5 per cent in June, according to the statistical institution.

The government will meet its self-imposed employment rate target of 72 per cent ahead of the schedule. The target of creating 110,000 new jobs was met one year ahead of schedule, tells Brotherus.

Brotherus acknowledges that the improvements are largely attributable to favourable economic developments home and abroad but views that the widely criticised activation model for unemployment security has also had an impact on the employment situation.

Employment has increased moderately because of the activation models adoption at the start of the year, but mostly the recovery of labour markets is because of permanent, full-time employment relationships, he says.

The activation model prescribes that unemployed job seekers must satisfy a set of activity criteria or lose 4.65 per cent of their unemployment benefits.

The Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela) has revealed that slightly over a half (52.3%) of unemployment benefit recipients satisfied the criteria in the first, three-month monitoring period. Some 80,000 recipients, by contrast, lost a share of their benefits for failing to satisfy the activity criteria.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Seppo Samuli  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi SuomiCyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 18-07-25 Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/> Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review-25.06.18 No. 142/18 [A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS Contents [A] Turkish Cypriot Press [01] How the Turkish Cypriot press covers the Cavusoglu-Akinci joint press conference [02] The Turkish Cypriot press expresses its solidarity for the Greek people [03] Nami said that the breakaway regime will bring electricity from Turkey [04] Problems in the tenders for the works regarding the opening of Apliki and Deryneia crossing points [B] Turkish Press [01] Erdogan expresses 'deep sorrow' over Greece wildfire [02] Cavusoglu: 'No need for Turkey to go along with US Iran sanctions' [03] Ankara: No problems with delivery of F-35 fighter jets [04] Erdogan: "Israel is the most fascist, racist state in the world" [A] Turkish Cypriot Press [01] How the Turkish Cypriot press covers the Cavusoglu-Akinci joint press conference Almost all Turkish Cypriot daily newspapers today (25.07.18) cover on their front page the meetings of the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu at the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus and the joint statements he made with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci. Under the title "Cyprus talks are not starting", Star Kibris reports that Akinci said that "Lute's visit should not be interpreted as resumption of the negotiations" and Cavusoglu: "The reason of the non-solution of the Cyprus problem is that the Greek Cypriot side sees the Turkish Cypriots as a minority". Kibris, under the title "Cooperation will be improved", reports that Cavusoglu stressed that the cooperation in every issue has been evaluated. They looked into how it will be improved and how the ties between Turkey and the "TRNC" will be strengthened. Havadis reports on Cavusoglu's message to the international community that "the Turkish side will continue its constructive stance". Under the title "Dialogue, diplomacy, faith to the solution", Yeni Duzen reports on the messages that Cavusoglu sent yesterday: "Turkey still has the belief that the Cyprus issue should be solved through negotiations that are based on dialogue and diplomacy", "The reality that the two sides on the island are politically equal does not change and will never change", "Turkey has started to discuss, as a guarantor country, what steps will take and what it should be done before the negotiations". Under the title "We will never allow the Turkish Cypriots' rights to be usurped by anyone", Halkin Sesi reports that Cavusoglu stressed that the reason why the Cyprus problem has not been solved yet is that the Greek Cypriot side does not see the Turkish Cypriot side as equal and does not want to share anything with them. Kibris Postasi, under the title "Cavusoglu: The guarantor countries started to discuss unofficially", reports that Cavusoglu said: "Lute will also visit the guarantor countries. We have also started to discuss unofficially what we will do. After this, the scene will become more visible". Under the title "We explained a way out", Detay reports that Akinci said that he explained to the UN Secretary General's temporary UN envoy to Cyprus Jane Holl Lute their views on the collapsed talks and how they can overcome this, stressing that Lute's visit should not be interpreted as resumption of the Cyprus talks. Other titles, which are appeared, are the following: Diyalog: "A full diagnosis" Gunes: "We will not allow seizing the rights of the Turkish Cypriots" Vatan: "A joint press conference by Akinci and Cavusoglu" Demokrat Bakis: "Cavusoglu: The Greek Cypriots are responsible for the non-solution" Haberator: "Akinci: Lute's visit should not be interpreted as resumption of the Cyprus talks" Hakikat: "Cavusoglu met with the political party leaders" Volkan: "Our stance will be different". The paper reports that after Lute submits her report in September or October, it is expected that the Turkish side will implement the new Cyprus strategy and a road map. Nacak: "Cavusoglu: The Greek Cypriot side should resign acting as the sole owner of the island" (DPs) [02] The Turkish Cypriot press expresses its solidarity for the Greek people Almost all the Turkish Cypriot papers express today (25.07.18) their solidarity with the Greek people over the deadly wildfires near Athens that caused the lives of so many people. Havadis reports on the issue in its front page under the title: "? ????? ??? ac?m?zd?r" (Your pain is ours) and writes about the length of the disaster that hit Greece. Yeni Duzen reports on the issue also in its front page writing: "Our heart was burned w?th Greece". Afrika also reports on the issue in its first page writing: "They burned Athens". [03] Nami said that the breakaway regime will bring electricity from Turkey Illegal Bayrak (25.07.18 http://www.brtk.net/?english posts=nami-addresses-ktto ) broadcast that the "minister of economy and energy" Ozdil Nami became the guest of the 9th meeting of the 55th parliamentary session of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce (KTTO). Nami briefed the KTTO members on measures taken by the "government" on the currency crisis, fuel price hike and on the issue of bringing electricity from Turkey via cable as well as on the "laws" that have been prepared on these issues. Also responding to KTTO members' questions, Nami said: "Before making any further investments, we have decided to wait for the issue of bringing electricity from Turkey to become prominent. The cost and interconnection are important for us." Stating that in the long term the state of Turkish Cypriots was not as bad as before, Nami said: "I hope the government starts to meet your expectations in a short period of time. I hope our people can attain a new port, a new hospital, new industrial area, internet infrastructure and electricity to be brought via cable from Turkey". [04] Problems in the tenders for the works regarding the opening of Apliki and Deryneia crossing points Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (25.07.18) reports that Cafer Gurcafer, the chairman of the "Turkish Cypriot constructors' union" issued a written statement noting that due to the problems which occurred regarding the tenders opened by the "government" for the Apliki and Deryneia barricades, their opening was negatively affected. He said that the last date for making a tender for the works related to the opening of the barricades was yesterday and no Turkish Cypriot firm applied due to the problems faced by the firms when they take a contract of the "state". However he said steps were taken so that these issues are overcome since they all care about the opening of the barricades which will contribute to the efforts for solving the Cyprus problem. (CS) [B] Turkish Press [01] Erdogan expresses 'deep sorrow' over Greece wildfire Ankara Anatolia news agency (25.07.18 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkey/erdogan-expresses-deep-sorrow-over-greece-wildfire/1212639) reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday expressed "deep sorrow" over wildfire deaths in Greece and offered help to Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras over the phone, according to a presidential source. Erdogan conveyed his condolences to Tsipras on the loss of lives and wished a speedy recovery to the injured, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said. The Turkish President told the Greek Premier that he shares the pain of the Greeks, and Turkey remains ready to help Greece, the source added. Earlier on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Agriculture and Forestry Minister Bekir Pakdemirli spoke with their Greek counterparts and offered Turkey's help. Moreover, Presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin extended his condolences to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Greek people via a tweet and said Turkey was ready to help. [02] Cavusoglu: 'No need for Turkey to go along with US Iran sanctions' Ankara Anatolia news agency (25.07.18 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/todays-headlines/no-need-for-turkey-to-go-along-with-us-iran-sanctions/1212810) reports that Turkey is not obliged to go along with sanctions imposed by the U.S. or Britain against Iran, according to Turkish Foreign Minister. Mevlut Cavusoglu made the remarks while visiting Azerbaijan's capital Baku at a joint news conference alongside Elmar Memmedyarov, his Azerbaijani counterpart. Highlighting that Turkey opposes U.S. sanctions on Iran, Cavusoglu said: "We go along with UN sanctions like every country, but we do not necessarily need to go along with sanctions imposed by U.S. or U.K. against Iran." He added Turkey also does not agree with U.S. sanctions on Russia. "We do not find those sanctions right. This is a principle stance. It does not depend on any other condition," he said. U.S. officials met Turkish companies on July 19 and with Turkish officials of the Foreign Ministry, Treasury and Central Bank on July 20 about the issue of a new round of sanctions against Iran. Many Turkish companies are prime trade partners with Tehran. Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Memmedyarov, who also spoke at the news conference, said the two top diplomats exchanged views on how to use Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway "effectively". "Afghanistan is facing difficulties in its freight train transportation. Therefore, with the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, more loads can be transported along with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan," he said. Azerbaijan and Turkey have several joint projects, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Gas Pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway and Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP). [03] Ankara: No problems with delivery of F-35 fighter jets Turkish Hurriyet Daily News (25.07.18 http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankara-no-problems-with-delivery-of-f-35-fighter-jets-134962) reports that Ankara said on July 24 it was not expecting any problems with the delivery of the F-35 fighter jets despite a recent U.S. Senate decision to block the sales of the advanced aircraft to Turkey. "Following the bill's passing [in the U.S. Senate], this issue, as you know, is completely at the disposal of U.S. President [Donald Trump]. During our meeting in Brussels, Mr. Trump has also shown us the written statement he made. Such an issue [the banning of the delivery of F-35 jets] is out of question," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said when asked by reporters, referring to his meeting with Trump on July 11 during a NATO summit in the Belgian capital of Brussels. The Turkish president spoke to reporters following a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) group meeting in parliament. "We have made a $900 million payment so far [for the sale of the F-35 jets]. And the delivery of two of them was made to us there [at the defense contractor Lockheed Martin's headquarters in Fort Worth in Texas]. And our pilots are now conducting their training flights [in Luke Air Force Base in Arizona]. We do not have any concerns at this point," Erdogan noted. Erdogan's statements came after U.S. Senate and House negotiators reached an agreement on July 23 on a defense policy bill that includes a number of provisions including barring the transfer of F-35 jets to Turkey temporarily. Reporting on the same issue, Ankara Anatolia news agency (25.07.18) reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated the following: "The administration holds the authorization rights regarding this deal. There are no setbacks about the purchase of F-35 jets. Two of the jets have already been received and training [of Turkish pilots] continues." "The United States and any other country should understand this. You cannot get any results from Turkey by imposing sanctions or insisting. Dialogue, diplomacy and respect help getting results from Turkey," he added. [04] Erdogan: "Israel is the most fascist, racist state in the world" Turkish Hurriyet Daily News (25.07.18) reports that the adoption of the nation-state law is the most concrete evidence that Israel is the most Zionist, fascist and racist state in the world, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, calling all countries and international organizations to act against the Jewish state. "This [nation-state] law is the proof beyond reasonable doubt that Israel is the most Zionist, most fascist and most racist state," Erdogan said in his weekly address to his Justice and Development Party (AKP) group in parliament on July 24. "This Israeli understanding is no different from Hitler's search for a pure race," said Erdogan, comparing the Israeli Parliament's nation-state law as the emergence of Hitler's soul among some Israeli rulers. "There is nothing like war except for Israel's massacre and atrocity on Palestinians," the president said, describing Israel as a "terror state" over continued killings and oppression on Palestinians. Erdogan called on the international community and countries to move against Israeli attacks on Palestinians. "I call on the Islamic world, the Christian world, all democratic and liberal states, non-governmental organizations, and media members to move against Israel," he added. TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION (CS / ICH) Cyprus Press and Information Office: Turkish Cypriot Press Review Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleMichael Canales, Ariel Moyal, Ben Hellerstein, James Kolesar, and Tory Hanna discussed future energy policies at Persip Park in Pittsfield on Tuesday.

Environment Massachusetts Releases 'Roadmap' To 100 Percent Renewables



State Director Ben Hellerstein is urging lawmakers to "go big" with policies to quickly roll out renewable energy technology. PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Environment Massachusetts is pushing for Massachusetts to get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

On Tuesday the organization joined with those heading local renewable energy projects to release its agenda, or roadmap, to do so

"We could produce 19 times as much electricity as the state consumes each year from offshore wind. From solar power, we can get 47 percent of the state's electricity just by putting solar panels on every rooftop in the state - to say nothing of larger, ground-mounted installations," State Director Ben Hellerstein said.

"The potential is there. We are seeing new technologies like electric vehicles, energy storage, heat pumps, that are more than ever making it possible for us to imagine a world where 100 percent of the energy for our electric grid, heating, transportation, is coming from renewable sources."

Examples of how to do it are taking place right here in Berkshire, Hellerstein said. He was joined by Michael Canales, North Adams administrative officer, James Koleslar, assistant to the president for community and government affairs at Williams College, and Tory Hanna, who is heading a feasibility study to develop a downtown microgrid in Pittsfield.

"There is quite a bit that North Adams has been doing along with Pittsfield. The two cities have been really trying to lead the way in what solar, wind, and other renewable sources that are available and what we can do to promote," Canales said.

Canales highlighted the city's solar 3.5-megawatt solar project, purchasing power from other solar arrays, converting streetlights to LED, energy efficiency projects at City Hall and the skating rink. The city also joined with 11 other towns on a municipal aggregation project which provides electricity to homes from renewable sources at a lower cost than National Grid would on its own. The city is designated a Green Community and has weatherization projects lined up at the library and senior center.

Pittsfield has embarked on a number of similar energy projects and the most recent is that the city was chosen as one of 14 municipalities across the state to have a feasibility study done on an urban microgrid.

"Pittsfield is really a bastion for renewable energy projects. We have six solar farms online already. There are a number of green energy initiatives we've taken on - our Green Commission and Mayor [Linda] Tyer," Hanna said.

Hanna said just last week the study for a microgrid kicked off to develop a grid in downtown Pittsfield, providing and storing renewable power to key places such as the hospital, police and fire stations, and City Hall. The project is funded by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center at a cost of $75,000.

"We just received funds two months ago and the consultant we secured - the Microgrid Institute out of Minneapolis - began their kick-off meeting last week. In the end, the proposed findings or report is due in February of 2019," Hanna said.

In Williamstown, Williams College helped finance a solar project at the landfill. Kolesar said the college set a goal of having gas emissions 35 percent less than it had in the 1990s and be carbon neutral by 2020. The college spent $3.5 million on the solar project and a private investor chipping in $1.5 million.

"It is one that everybody wins. The town gets a greatly reduced rate of electricity, gets to lock in that rate for a long time for budgetary purposes, gets the knowledge that is completely renewable, and moves the state towards its goals, the town toward its goals, and the college toward its gas emissions goals too," Kolesar said.

Those are the type of projects and collaborations Environment Massachusetts wants to see happen all across the state. It was just in March when the organization set the goal and held summit meetings with stakeholders about how to get there. The focus was on rolling out energy efficient technology, replacing fossible fuel plants with solar and wind, and developing ways to power heating and transportation.

"We've been working steadily to build consensus both on the grassroots level as well as from key civic leaders across Massachusetts that 100 percent renewable is the direction we need to go in. We took a huge step forward in June when the Massachusetts Senate passed a bill that would put us on a path for 100 percent renewable electricity by 2050," Hellerstein said.

Hellerstein said he'd like Massachusetts' electricity to be 100 percent by 2035 and transportation and heating to follow by 2050.

"We think Massachusetts could be at 100 percent renewable energy as soon as 2035. We want to see by 2050, the entire state, not just electricity but heating, transportation, all the other ways we use energy are also being powered by renewables," Hellerstein said.

The advocacy group is calling on the state to "go big on clean energy," but that has been somewhat of a hold upon recent years, Hellerstein said. While Environment Massachusetts supports eliminating the cap on net metering, government officials have been incrementally raising the cap. That has led a number of towns to hit that cap, thus halting future solar projects.

Hellerstein said the state Senate bill passed in June is a "big step" because it sets a goal of 100 percent renewable electricity by 2050. That bill eliminates the solar net metering cap and increases the renewable energy portfolio. That still hasn't been passed by the entire legislature and there is less than a week left in the session.

"We're hoping officials come to an agreement before the end of the session on July 31 because these issues are very urgent," Hellerstein said.

Beyond that, there is a gubernatorial election coming up and Hellerstein is urging whoever is elected to follow the blueprint Environment Massachusetts has laid out to adopt policies which support clean energy.

"Whoever it is in the governor's office in January, our hope is they can take this list of recommendations and really run with it," Hellerstein said.The city's Office of Community Development has received dozens of phone calls from interested parties.

Pittsfield Receives Lots Of Interest From Marijuana Businesses

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  At any given time, Permitting Coordinator Nate Joyner is talking with 10 potential marijuana business owners.

Every since Massachusetts voters approved recreational marijuana sales, Joyner's phone has been ringing off the hook. He has become the point person in the Office of Community Development to field inquiries from individuals looking to start marijuana retail, cultivation, or manufacturing operations.

"I've been surprised with the interest and activity. I hear at least every day from somebody new," Joyner said.

As of last week, Joyner was in regular conversation with six or seven individuals with a serious interest in submitting an application for a special permit to open such a business.

That was on top of the two a step ahead and going before the Zoning Board of Appeals seeking a permit and the six others which had already gone through the process. For every one of those with a serious interest in opening a business, there are a few who call about it but the plans never formalize.

There has been somewhat of a shift in interest. Joyner said at first a larger percentage of the phone calls were from people in the early stages of consideration who just wanted more information about the process and requirements. Joyner said there was also a greater percentage of local people calling for information.

"Now most people are serious and are shopping around [for a location]," Joyner said.

As the state continued to develop regulations and its permitting process, the majority of the inquiries are from people who have a serious interest - he estimated that nine out of every 10 calls are from more serious businesses - and more businesses from out of town considering Pittsfield as a potential option.

"It is picking up at this point because people are more comfortable with the state process," Joyner said.

Overall, more than fifty different prospective businesses have reached out to ask about the local permitting. Six total companies have gotten local permitting in place - four retail establishments and two cultivators - but yet none of them have gotten the OK from the state's Cannabis Control Commission yet.

Berkshire Roots is approved for recreational and medical sales as well as cultivation on Dalton Avenue. Temescal Wellness is approved for medical and recreational sales on Callahan Drive. Timothy Mack is approved for Kryppies on East Street and Jack Carney, owner of Green Biz, is approved for a dispensary on South Street.

There are two stand-alone cultivation operations approved as well. George Whaling purchased the former Cintas building in the Downing Industrial Park and plans to lease it to cultivators Andrew and Brian Vincent. Mack is approved for a cultivation operation on Commercial Street, near his proposed retail establishment.

Last week, Nathan, Nick, and Ben Girard received approval from the Community Development Board for a retail establishment on Merrill Road, but the Zoning Board of Appeals felt it needed more information and delayed a decision on the issuance of the permit. Daniel and David Graziani are looking at a retail shop on Bank Row but the Community Development Board wanted another review of that and had asked the ZBA to table it until August as well.

Those two are still in the process. City Planner CJ Hoss said there are two more cultivation operations expected in August as well.

"And we are hearing about stuff. There is a pipeline. Over the next several months we will still see applications coming in," Hoss said.

Joyner said the two cultivators proposed at the next meeting are on Taconic Park Drive and on Cloverdale Street. He said an application just arrived for another East Street retailer.

Another two other applications had gone before the permitting boards in the past but ultimately didn't move forward. Heka Health was planning a facility on Dalton Avenue as well but ultimately withdrew the application and Carney had a proposal for a North Street store but the city determined that it wasn't in compliance with local regulations because it was too close to a school.

Girard's application, under the name Bloom Brothers, faced opposition, however, from competitors. Frank Demarinis, who is associated with Berkshire Roots, questioned if the city should limit how close these shops can be to each other. Bloom Brothers and Berkshire Roots would essentially be situated on opposite ends of Plastics Avenue.

"We do not need to have one every half mile," Demarinis said. "There are not enough consumers here."

While there has been high demand in other states that legalized marijuana, that doesn't necessarily mean there will be high customer demand here in Berkshire County. Demarinis believes there will be a number of shops closing down shortly after opening because of that.

But, in the meantime, the city is seeing its vacant storefronts poised to be filled. Joyner said the interest has been a mixed bag of size and types of businesses. He said there are requests for larger operations and there are small boutiques. But while there are a few new builds - such as Temescal - but most of the plans look to reuse current space.

"A lot of these are going into existing spaces. We're seeing some of the vacancies filled," Joyner said.

The city has placed a cap of 35 retailers and put in provisions such as not being within 500 feet of a school or playground. Retailers were expected to be in operation as of July 1, but the state Cannabis Control Commission has only approved a few marijuana companies, all on the eastern side of the state. Many on the local level have placed the delays on the state, while many involved with the state say local communities have been delaying the applications.World-renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson comes to Tanglewood this week.

Classical Music High Season is Ablaze

During late July into early August, with concerts at Tanglewood and at other celebrated regional venues, the classical music festival high season lights up with sure-fire programming. Major orchestral offerings at Tanglewood this week include Mozart's groundbreaking Symphony No. 40 and Brahms' poignant Symphony No. 3, along with solo star turns by the world-renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson and the sublimely poetic violinist Gil Shaham.



Adventurous listeners take note: Add to the above the Festival of Contemporary Music from July 26-30 in Ozawa Hall, directed by composer/conductor/pianist Thomas Ades. The musical palette broadens to present a gallery of newly composed works, showcasing the diversity of present-day composition. Read below for individual program listings.



Hungry for still more musical options? Consider Sevenars Concerts in South Worthington, Mass., and a bit further afield, Music Mountain in Falls Village, Conn., in the Litchfield Hills.



As always, the place to be for both great, heritage classical and stimulating popular and new classical music is right here in our own intimate corner of the world - the Berkshires and environs - where artistic boundaries are nonexistent.

Tanglewood

 Friday, July 27, 8 p.m. in the Shed: Boston Symphony Orchestra guest conductor Juanjo Mena takes the podium for a program to include Benjamin Britten's "Four Sea Interludes," from his great opera "Peter Grimes" and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E flat, featuring pianist Garrick Ohlsson. The program concludes with Brahms' Symphony No. 3.



 Saturday, July 28, 8 p.m. in the Shed: The 10 Academy Awards-winning film "West Side Story," based upon the 1957 mega-hit Broadway musical, with its iconic score by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, will be played live by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David Newman, while the newly re-mastered film is shown on large screens in high definition with the original vocals and dialogue intact. For more about this event, read Grace Lichtenstein's "Pops Music Beat" column on iberkshires.com.



 Sunday, July 29, 2:30 p.m. in the Shed: Maestro Mena returns to the podium to lead the BSO in a rich program of Haydn (the Symphony No. 88 in G Major,) Prokofiev (the Violin Concerto No. 1, featuring soloist Gil Shaham) and Mozart (the transcendent Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, K. 550).

Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music programs, July 26-30

 Thursday, July 26, 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Per NRGARD: "Voyage Into the Golden Screen"; Oliver Christophe LEITH: "Dream Horse"; Francisco COLL: "Four Iberian Miniatures"; Veronika KRAUSAS: "Analemma"; Conlon NANCARROW: "Studies," Nos. 2, 3c, 5, 9



 Friday, July 27, 2:30 p.m. in Ozawa Hall: Chen YI: "As In a Dream"; Rebecca SAUNDERS: "Fletch"; Poul RUDERS: String Quartet No. 4; Conlon NANCARROW: "Studies," nos. 6 and 7, performed on two pianos; Jonathan HARVEY: String Quartet No. 3



 Saturday, July 28, 10 a.m. in Ozawa Hall: Javier ALVAREZ: "Trompatufarria Al Pastor"; Gyorgy KURTAG: "Eletut Lebenslauf"; Judith WEIR: "Wake Your Wild Voice"; Sean SHEPHERD: Oboe Quartet; Andrew NORMAN: "Light Screens"

For tickets for all Tanglewood/BSO concerts (lawn and Shed seating) and special events, call 617-266-1200 or 888-266-1200 (TDD/TTY at 617-638-9289). For local information, call 413-637-1600. You can also order tickets and get information online.

$20 tickets for attendees under 40, one of the BSOs most popular discount ticket offers, will be available for select BSO and Boston Pops performances in the Shed. In addition, Tanglewood continues to offer free lawn tickets to young people age 17 and under, as well as a variety of special programs for children, including Kids Corner, Watch and Play, and the Young Peoples Concert on Friday, Aug. 10.

Sevenars Concerts

On Sunday, July 29, at 4 p.m., Sevenars Concerts presents the Piazzolla Trio, a unique tango/classical ensemble consisting of violinist Anat Almani, pianist Lynelle James and cellist Gjilberta Lucaj. The trio will present a program of works by Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and, as a special treat, the music of the immensely popular Argentinian tango maestro Astor Piazzolla.



The Sevenars Academy is located at 15 Ireland Street, just off Route 112 in South Worthington, Mass. Admission is by donation (suggested $20) and refreshments are included. Find Sevenars contact and ticket information at 413-238-5854 or go online. www.sevenars.org.

Music Mountain

Dubbed "the string quartet capital of the summer music universe," Music Mountain, America's longest running seasonal chamber music festival, in Falls Village, Conn., is celebrating its 89th season.



On Sunday, July 22, at 3 p.m., the Penderecki String Quartet, with guest artist pianist Victoria Schwartzman will perform Haydn's String Quartet in D Major, Op. 50, No. 6, the String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27 by Edvard Greig and the Shostakovich Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 57.



For a complete summer schedule, special ticket prices, and to download a ticket order form visit online at www.musicmountain.org or call 860-824-7126. Music Mountain is located near the junction of Routes 63 and 126, and on Route 7, at the traffic light near the intersection of Routes 7 and 112. Concerts are presented in air-conditioned Gordon Hall, 225 Music Mountain Road, Falls Village, CT 06031. Free parking and picnic facilities are available.'Hair' continues through Aug. 11 at Berkshire Theatre Group, which is also staging 'Tarzan' through Aug. 16.

Singing! Dancing! Naked Singing and Dancing!



'West Side Story' will be shown at Tanglewood on Saturday night, accompanied live by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Musical theater thrives in the region this week  on stage and on film. It might require a drive, but you can hear country/western music, Bernstein and great stuff for children in the coming days ... or catch up with nudity that began 50 years ago and caused a sensation on Broadway.

Tanglewood

The most famous work by Leonard Bernstein, whose centennial is being celebrated all summer worldwide, is, of course, "West Side Story." At the Shed on Saturday night at 8 p.m., Tanglewood presents the remastered movie of this iconic musical, on big screens.



But instead of canned music, the Boston Symphony Orchestra plays Lenny's great score live, while the original vocals (Natalie Wood lip-synching Marnie Nixon, among others) are left intact. I've seen this technique before, with David Newman conducting, and its a wonderfully immersive experience.



Pray for good weather; the Shed seats are sold out, but the lawn beckons. There are big screens outside, too. Info can be found online.

Berkshire Theatre Group

At the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, crowds continue to celebrate the Age of Aquarius 50 years on at the production of "Hair," complete with nudity. It is directed by Daisy Walker. Let your hair down and pay a visit. It continues through Aug. 11.



Meanwhile, the BTG on Thursday begins its run in Pittsfield at the Colonial Theatre of "Tarzan," based on the Disney film. The music and lyrics are by rocker Phil Collins, with book by David Henry Hwang. No nudity that we know of!



"Tarzan" is definitely for kids as well as adults and features more than 100 local youth. There are matinees on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays.The 100-plus-year-old Colonial was restored in 2006 and is a Berkshires landmark. The show runs through Aug. 16. For more information, visit the website.

Mac-Haydn Theatre

Cross over to nearby New York State and you'll find two theaters worth your while. At the Mac-Haydn, starting Wednesday, July 26, you can enjoy "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," with music from the Disney film. This new production features the hits by Alan Mencken and Stephen Schwartz.



The Theater Barn

This professional company on Route 20 in New Lebanon, N.Y., opens its musical season on Thursday, July 26, with "Pump Boys and Dinettes" by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel and Jim Wann.



The book was created to recall the authors' experiences at a lounge in New York City and evolved into a show about guys who pump gas and the Double Cupp diner next door. It opened off-Broadway in 1981 and moved to Broadway the next year. The music is original county and western songs. It has been a favorite of regional theater ever since. Information is available online.

Barrington Stage Company

Here's another musical aimed at young people: Ronald Dahl's "James and the Giant Peach." With words and music by Benjamin Pasek and Justin Paul, and a book by Timothy Allen McDonald, it is being performed Thursday, July 26, through Aug. 12 at the Berkshire Museum by the teens participating in Barrington Stage Youth Theatre.



Dahls story is a fanciful take about an old tree, a magic potion, a truly big peach, and a collection if singing insects. It is tuneful and fun. There are matinees Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. The Berkshire Museum is located in downtown Pittsfield at 39 South St. For more information, visit the website.



Ronald K. Brown/Evidence comes to Jacob's Pillow.

And there's more ...

Barrington Stage's Mr. Finn's Cabaret is presenting "An Evening with Jason Robert Brown" July 29 and 30. The Tony-winning composer and lyricist will present music from his career plus songs from a new album. We are told the shows are sold out, but you can check for returns.



At Jacob's Pillow July 25-29, pop music fans can check out the Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, a blend of African, Caribbean and contemporary choreography with live jazz music by Arturo O'Farrill and Resist. The company also performs pieces inspired by artist/activists Nina Simone and Fela Kuti, and Dancing Spirit, originally choreographed for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Info online.



The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington has Aztec Two Step on Friday, July 27. New York songwriter Lucy Kaplansky is the featured artist on Saturday, July 28. Info online.By Stephen Lendman

July 24, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The fascist Trump regime is humanity greatest threat, its imperial rage endangering world peace and stability.

Its in full anti-Iran regime change mode. On Sunday, DJT disgracefully raged against Iranian President Rouhani, saying:

We will not accept threats. Theyll bring us closer. Dont twist the lions tail. You will regret it  Trump tweeting in caps for emphasis saying:

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.

WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

Whos on the right side of major world issues and who supports might over right. Make your own judgment.

On Sunday, neocon extremist Pompeo delivered an imperial anti-Iran address, titled Supporting Iranian Voices the Trump regime doesnt give a hoot about.

He launched a broadside against Iranian sovereign independence, part of a campaign to stoke unrest in the country, aiming to topple its government.

His rage resembled something out of Joseph Goebbels playbook  vicious propaganda, a litany of Big Lies, an ominous warning of things to come.

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He called the Islamic Revolution (toppling US-supported tyranny), nearly 40 years of kleptocracy  a Big Lie.

Forty years of the peoples wealth squandered on supporting terrorism  a bald-faced lie.

Forty years of ordinary Iranians thrown in jail for peaceful expression of their rights  a shameful perversion of truth.

Pompeo lied claiming prosperity, security, and freedom for the Iranian people are acceptable casualties in the march to fulfill the revolution.

He lied saying its government prioritize(s) an ideological agenda over the welfare of the Iranian people.

He lied claiming its oil revenues go to terrorists, dictators, and proxy militias.

Ignoring illegal US political and economic war on Iran, he lied, blaming its economic woes on its leadership.

He lied saying its ruling authorities line (their) own pockets while (their) people cry out for jobs and reform and for opportunity.

He shamefully accused its leaders of embezzling billions of dollars from public funds.

He lied saying (t)he ayatollahs are in on the act toodevis(ing) all kinds of crooked schemes to become some of the wealthiest men on earth while their people suffer.

He falsely accused Ayatollah Kmamenei of amassing personal wealth worth $95 billion, claiming its ill-gotten andused as a slush fund for the IRGC.

He shamefully said Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government. He described America and Israel, not the Islamic Republic.

Note: In February, Project Censored reported a whopping $21 trillion gone missing from the federal budget throughout the 1998  2015 period.

Most of it went for militarism and war-making, a monumental black hole abuse of power Pompeo supports an failed to explain.

The grandest of grand theft amount is around 50 times Irans 2017 GDP, exceeding its combined GDP throughout its 39-year history.

Pompeos litany of Big Lies continued, disgracefully claiming (o)n foreign policy, (Irans) revolution has produced a decades-long campaign of ideologically-motivated violence and destabilization abroad  Americas imperial agenda, not Tehrans.

He lied claiming Iran engages in cyberattacks and threatening behavior in the waters of the Persian Gulf  a US-dominated NATO speciality.

He lied saying Iran and its allies in terror have left a trail of dissident blood across Europe and the Middle East.

The Islamic Republic and its allies support regional peace and stability. They abhor US-led imperial war on humanity, responsible for countless millions of casualties post-9/11 alone.

Pompeo lied claiming Iran covertly plot(s) terrorist attacks in the heart of Europe.

He lied accusing Iran of fighting the United States and destroying Israel, falsely claim its the Islamic Reoublics core objectives.

He lied claiming Tehran committed and supported many acts of violence and terrorism against both countries and our citizens.

When an audience member shouted Trump imprisons children. The Trump/Pence regime is kidnapping children, the audience booed, wanting disturbing truths suppressed.

Pompeos anti-Iran rage continued, supported by likeminded extremists alone, backing perpetual wars of aggression, disdaining peace and stability, blaming other nations for its imperial high crimes.

Iran hasnt attacked another country in centuries. Washington, NATO, Israel and their imperial allies do it repeatedly.

The Islamic Republic supports mutual cooperation among all nations. Religious freedom is enjoyed by all its faiths and ethnicities, including its Jewish population  polar oppose US persecution of Muslims, people of color, and unwanted aliens from the wrong countries.

Israel has been waging undeclared war on Palestinians for 70 years, accountability never forthcoming.

Neocon extremists infesting the Trump regime, Congress, and right-wing think tanks threaten everyone  risking potentially humanity destroying global war in pursuit of their pure evil imperial agenda.

Stephen Lendman: www.stephenlendman.org. Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. My newest book as editor and contributor is titled Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III. www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.By Paul Street

July 24, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Flipping through the cable news stations last Saturday morning, I came across an amusing sight at Russia- frenzied MSNBC. There was the stern host Joy Reid (#AM Joy) giving a concerned and sympathetic interview to William Browder, a worried multimillionaire financier who said that Vladimir Putin wants to murder him.

Are you afraid, Bill? Joy Reid asked, are you taking precautions for your safety?

Am I at risk of being killed by Vladimir Putins regime? Yes, Browder said, adding that theres not much he can do if theyre going to use chemical weapons to put poison on my door knob.

The grandson (hilariously enough) of former US Communist Party General Secretary Earl Browder (a dutiful servant of the Soviet Union during the Great Depression and World War II), Browder is one of at least two Americans (including former US Russian ambassador Michael McFaul) Putin told Donald Trump he wants sent to Moscow for questioning by Russian investigators. Trump nodded approvingly as Putin discussed Browders theft of Russian assets during the Russian presidents joint press conference with Trump in Helsinki last Monday. Trump initially said he was willing to consider Putins request.

Two days before his appearance on AMJoy, Browder wasgiven time on CNN.To hand me over to Putin, Browder told CNN host Kate Boldua, is basically to hand me over to my death. The Russianstheyd like to get me back to Russia  and once Im back in Russia, they would like to kill me. Anything that begins that process is effectively a death sentence for me.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

Will masses of U.S-Americans rise to the great patriotic cause of protecting William Browder from death in Putins Russia? Not likely. Communist patrilineage aside (we dont choose our grandparents), the Chicago-born William Browder isnt actually a U.S.-American. He hasnt been since 1998, when he became an American expatriate by re-domiciling to Britain in order to avoid paying US taxes on foreign investments.

Something tells me that Sam Adams and his Boston Tea Party compatriots would think twice before rallying to the defense of William Browder

Making Browder an even less likely American hero, Browder was for many years a top Russian kleptocrat, albeit one of a very curious kind.

Why does the former KGB official Vladimir Putin hate William Browder? Is it all because of Earl Browders misleadership of the American proletariat during the 1930s and 1940s? (That was a joke.) No, its about how Browder conducted his affairs when he swept into Russia and became a ruthless, spectacularly wealthy Russian financial oligarch in the wake of the Soviet Unions collapse. Backed by the mobbed-up global investors and money launderers Edmond Safra and Beny Steinmetz, Browders firm Hermitage Capital became the leading foreign investment portfolio in Boris Yeltsins Russia. Browder made a fortune off the collapse of Russian socialism, filling his coffers while the collapse of social protections and the advance of the so-called free market drastically increased Russian mortality. Browder profited from the great sell-off of Russian public and natural resources while ordinary Russian struggled with U.S-led capitalist shock therapy.

There was a brief specter haunting Browders success by the mid-1990s. Yeltsins opponent in the 1996 Russian election was the communist Gennady Zyuganov, who threatened to re-expropriate privatized Russian companies. That would have called off the great plutocratic dispossession and enclosure that was fueling the rise of a new state-capitalist oligarchy in Russia. Browders his wealth. I can stomach strikes, food shortages, and street crime, Browder (still technically a U.S. citizen) said, but not government expropriation.

A great statement of Western capitalist humanism: Browder could have dealt with people starving and mugging each other in the streets, but the Russian government taking back public resources he and other capitalist oligarchs had stolen was too much.

Faced with the specter of Zyuganov, Browder, Safra, Steinmetz and more native Russian oligarchs joined their normally contentious deep pockets hands long enough ensure the drunken Yeltsins re-election. The United States helped Yeltsin win with a little election meddling of the right kind election meddling conducted by the United States.

How did Browder make it on to the poison-door-knob shit list of the worlds most powerful man (according to CNNs Fareed Zakaria), the Russian president? Putin didnt and doesnt mind cold-blooded and hard-nosed wealth acquisition. Hes all in with gangster state capitalism.

Still, callous fortune accumulation in Russia must proceed according to Putins dictates and on Putins terms. Browder broke two of Putins rules. First, he violated Russian national sovereignty concerns by using Russian front-men to circumvent restrictions means to prevent foreigners from gaining control over Russian oil and gas.

Second, Browder got too greedy for his own good. He hired the Russian auditor Sergei Magnitsky to exploit Russian loopholes (including the establishment of dummy companies in underdeveloped tax-free Russian zones) to take over Russian companies and to avoid paying Russian taxes. Magnitsky and Browder were ingenious, deploying numerous elaborate schemes to attack Russian firms and escape government levies.

When the ruses were discovered, Browder was abroad, having taken millions of dollars with him. Magnitsky was jailed for financial chicanery and tax evasion. Browders Russian assets were seized. When Magnitsky died in jail from natural causes in 2009, Browder constructed an Orwellian narrative that was swallowed whole by Western media. In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, he told childishly and/or cynically believing establishment US politicos and media operatives that his lawyer Magnitsky had heroically exposed financial misdeeds and thievery on the part of Russian government officials. Because of this marvelous and idealist muckraking, Browder claimed, Magnitsky had been imprisoned and tortured to death at Putins command. Using Magnitsky as his moral cover, Browder demanded the recovery of his lost Russian assets. He managed along the way to charge that anti-Semitism was part of why he was being oppressed by Putin.

Browders deceptive public relations campaign against Putin became a critical development in the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations and the crystallization of the full-on New Cold War. In 2012, the US Congress passed, and president Barack Obama signed the Magnitsky Act, which said that any Russian found responsible for Magnitskys death and/or the misappropriation of Browders assets could have their U.S. assets seized and their U.S. banks accounts frozen automatically, without any due process. Adding insult to injury, these dastardly Russians could no longer travel to the U.S. It was an opening act on the path to bigger and more significant sanctions to come in subsequent years.

In the wacky aftermath of the Trump-Putin Helsinki summit debacle last week, Browder is back on the guest roster of a U.S. cable news establishment that has gone Russia wild. Last Wednesday night for just one example, MSNBCs Russia-crazed ratings star Rachel Maddow leaped from (a) reporting a Sarah Huckabee-Sanders comment on how the Trump White House was discussing whether or not to honor Putins request to hand over McFaul and Browder to Russia (which would be a bizarre and astonishing development and was obviously never going to happen) to (b) telling ordinary Americans they could soon be at risk of being picked up by the White House and handed over to Russia to be killed by Putin (or other foreign dictators).

Who was more crazy  White House Press Secretary Huckabee-Sanders, for saying that the White House was considering handing over a former US ambassador to Russian authorities (something that was never going to occur), or Maddow, for telling everyday folks that Trump or some other US president may one day mark them for rendition to Russia at the behest of the Kremlin (also never going to occur)?

FOX News may function as Trumpian state screwball television, but CNN and MSNBC have become Trump-mad dumpster fires in their own right. Their daily, hour-by-hour obsession with the latest breaking Trump-Russia story angle has gone full-on Crazy Train. The climate catastrophe proceeds at an ever-escalating pace with barely a trace of serious media attention. Anthropogenic (really capitalogenic) environmental ruin, the biggest issue of our or any time, is a non-story in the dominant Russia-Trumped media. So is just about everything else that ought to matter to citizens concerned with democracy, social justice, and the common good: the coming economic collapse, hastened by runaway deregulation of the financial sector; mass poverty and inequality at home and abroad; racially disparate mass incarceration; endemic violence, drug addiction, and suicide; under-funded and segregated schools; the already marginalized migrant family separation crisis; the U.S.-backed humanitarian calamity in Yemen; the ongoing and invisible humanitarian crisis in the Congo and other Black African statesthe list goes on. Its Trump-Russia, Trump-Russia, 24/7, the bizarre beat of a mass media gone mad  a media that wants you to care more about the fears and wealth of an absurdly opulent and dodgy expat financial mogul (William Browder) than about the fate of livable ecology or of the tens of thousands of children maimed, sickened, and murdered by the U.S and Saudi war on Yemen.

Paul Streets latest book is They Rule: The 1% v. Democracy (Paradigm, 2014)

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.The international congress of the AIESEC global youth organisation was held in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada earlier this month and saw the participation of more than 700 young people from 120 countries.

The AIESEC International Congress, which aims to celebrate youth leadership worldwide, was held under the auspices of the Egyptian presidency, the youth and sport ministry, and the tourism ministry.

Abdel-Rahman Ayman, AIESECs first Egyptian global president, said at a press conference at the start of the event that holding this years congress in Hurghada represents a significant opportunity to promote Egypt as an ideal investment and networking platform for business leaders, start-ups, and jobseekers.

This years congress was held under the slogan Egypt, where it all begins.

On Facebook, the AIESEC global page has more than one million followers and the AIESEC Egypt page has more than 240,000 followers.

Ayman also highlighted the non-profit organisations expansion in Egypt, from representation in three universities in 2013 to almost every private and public university, in addition to its expansion across 18 cities in the country over the span of three years.

With the international event being hosted for the second time in Egypt, Ahram Online had the opportunity to interview Ayman, who spoke about the organisations role, goals and achievements in Egypt.

Ahram Online: What is AIESEC in a nutshell?

Abdel-Rahman Ayman: AIESEC is a leading global youth organisation founded in 1948 and has been present in Egypt since 1984. It is currently present in more than 122 countries around the world and aims to promote peace and develop the capabilities of youth worldwide.

The organisation offers three kinds of programmes for youth aged 18 to 30 to develop their leadership skills abroad; the Volunteer, Entrepreneur and Talent programmes.

The organisation is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

AO: What are the criteria upon which an AIESEC member is selected globally or in Egypt?

AA: There are a set of tests, assessments and tasks for AIESEC applicants, in addition to personal interviews to determine the skills and capabilities of the applicant and their areas of interest.

AO: Does AIESEC in Egypt aim at marketing ideas by the youth?

AA: The primary focus of our voluntary programmes is related to the development programmes of the United Nations in Egypt and the countrys sustainable development plan for 2030, which include improving education methods, encouraging youth leadership and creating equal opportunities using advanced technologies.

The second aspect involves providing training opportunities at multinational companies abroad for Egyptian youth, so they can return and benefit the country by joining the labour market and creating social awareness and sustainable entrepreneurship.

The third aspect is developing entrepreneurship, and this falls under developing leadership skills for youth in general.

AO: What are the mechanisms for applying to join AIESEC?

AA: The application is submitted by students to the organisations representative, usually twice a year in universities at the beginning of the first and second semester, or online at any time during the year through the organisations website.

AO: How can AIESEC, an organisation with no political affiliation, control political affiliation or views inside the organisation?

AA: Members or applicants who join AIESEC undergo personal interviews. However, a members political views are their own private business, as long as they do not express or promote them within or through the organisation.

AO: What are AIESECs sources of funding in Egypt?

AA: Funding in Egypt is done in three ways. The first is through members who travel abroad on their own expense and are not funded by the organisation.

The second way is through company payments to trainees from the members of the organisation.

The third way is through interested businessmen, although this has been relatively unsuccessful in Egypt so far.

AO: How many members are there in AIESEC in Egypt and internationally?

AA: There are 2,000 members of AIESEC in Egypt, which is a big number for the organisation.

The number of members differs from one country to another; there are some countries with only five members. Globally we have 50,000 members in all AIESEC countries.

AO: What is the reason behind AIESEC's boom over the past five years?

AA: Increasing awareness among Egyptian youth in the last five years has increased significantly, the institution provides the youth with this opportunity, especially after the recent major political developments in the country.

AO: How did AIESEC manage to convince official institutions to host the event in Egypt, especially amid the tight security situation due to the ongoing war on terrorism?

AA: When young people are tasked with organising an event this big, it is their responsibility to ensure that the conference is secure of any dangers. The organisation cannot contract a private security company, hence it was the role of state institutions to support the hosting of such a conference, which in return will convey a message of peace from Egypt and reflect its safety and stability on the international level.

AO: How can you deliver a message to the world on the reality of the situation in the country?

AA: In 2013, there was a proposal to cancel the AIESEC international congress a few weeks before it was held in Sharm El-Shiekh due to the security situation in Egypt; however, we insisted that the conference be held in Egypt.

The conference having more than 700 people from over 120 different countries can send a message; when these people return to their countries they will convey the message that Egypt is safe.

AO: How do AIESEC members communicate?

AA: There are two meetings for Middle East and North Africa AIESEC members every year, in addition to the annual international congress meetings.

AO: Do all AIESEC branches in the world operate under one system?

AA: Of course, there is a general charter for the organisation; however, the internal rules differ from one country to another according to the laws and regulations of each country.

For instance, in Egypt, AIESEC is affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity as it is a non-profit organisation.

AO: What are the obstacles facing AIESEC Egypt at the moment?

AA: Sometimes there are some problems at some universities that prevent the admission of our representatives due to administrative bureaucracy procedures or the suspension of student activity at some universities.

AO: What is AIESEC Egypt's vision in the upcoming years?

AA: The main goal of AIESEC in Egypt is to expand its base among the youth and reach different social classes, as there are certain groups that cannot bear the expenses of travelling abroad.

The organisation does not receive funds from any political institutions so we are seeking alternative financing options.

For example, we reached an agreement with EgyptAir last year to pay in instalments for travel tickets for members.

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July 24, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Western states made a dramatic intervention in the Syrian war earlier this week to extricate hundreds of terrorist militants. The militants are to be fast-tracked for resettlement in Europe and Canada.

But in saving their terror assets, Western governments are risking future public safety as well as sowing seeds for increasing multicultural strife.

In a stunning revelation of the foreign links to the extremists in Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his military forces to evacuate up to 800 militants belonging to the so-called White Helmets. They are the propaganda merchants for Nusra Front and other al-Qaeda-linked terror organizations.

Netanyahu announced that the blatant intervention to rescue the jihadists in southwest Syria was made at the personal request of US President Donald Trump and the Canadian premier Justin Trudeau, among others.

Separately, there were reports of four senior jihadist commanders being given safe passage by Israeli forces out of Syria as the Syrian army closed in on the last-remaining militant strongholds around the southwest city of Daraa and Quneitra province.

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Nor was it coincidental that the evacuation operations were accompanied by Israeli air strikes on Syrian government facilities in Hama province.

Damascus condemned the extraction of hundreds of jihadists by Israel and its Western allies as a criminal operation and further proof of the foreign sponsoring that has fomented the nearly eight-year war.

Of course, Netanyahu, Western governments and news media sought to portray the evacuation of the White Helmets as a humanitarian gesture. This was at the same time that Israeli warplanes and snipers were stepping up the killing medics and civilians in Gaza.

Britains newly appointed foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt described the Israeli rescue of White Helmets as fantastic news, saying that the militants were the bravest of the brave.

We wont delay too much here on this fraud. The so-called first responders of the White Helmets are a CIA, MI6-backed propaganda outfit working hand-in-hand with the terrorist militia. Their fake videos of chemical weapons attacks and air strikes have been a key propaganda device aided and abetted by the Western news media to demonize the Syrian armed forces and its Russian ally.

The fictitious propaganda stunt alleging a chemical weapon attack in Douma on April 7 this year resulted in a barrage of air strikes by the US, Britain and France.

Created in 2013 by a British MI6 agent and former British army officer James Le Mesurier, the so-called White Helmets have been funded with hundreds of millions of dollars by the governments of the US, Britain and other NATO states.

There is abundant video evidence showing members of this fake rescue group participating in gruesome executions by the al Qaeda-aligned militants with whom they associate. One such video shows an execution of a Syrian army soldier in Daraa, the city from where the latest evacuation of jihadists by Israel took place. Daraa is also, by the way, mendaciously referred to in the Western media as the cradle of the revolution or the birthplace of the uprising against President Assads government back in March 2011. The only thing that Daraa was a birthplace of was the US-led foreign covert war for regime change in Syria.

Now heres a curious thing about the latest salvaging of terror assets in Syria. The United States and Israel are not taking any of the 800 militants for resettlement. Independent investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley, who has done much to expose the real macabre nature of the White Helmets and their terror links, says that both the US and Israeli no doubt realize that by taking in such war refugees they are inviting terrorists into their own societies.

Which makes you wonder why Britain, Germany and Canada are stepping up to the plate to offer the 800 White Helmets a home?

The case of Germany is particularly odd. Interior minister Horst Seehofer has personally authorized the resettlement of White Helmets spirited out of Syria by Israel. This is the same Seehofer who has mounted such a strong challenge to Chancellor Angela Merkels open door policy towards immigrants.

What we are witnessing is a suicidal ignorance by Western governments to take in these cadres of White Helmets. Perhaps Seehofer and other government ministers like Britains Jeremy Hunt are simply woefully misinformed. But surely the state security agencies of their respective countries know all too well the criminal, psychotic nature of the people whom they are allowing into their societies.

Such a callous disregard for public safety is not unprecedented. In his well-researched book, My Fight For Syrian Freedom, Irish peace activist Dr Declan Hayes details numerous cases of how jihadist assets were knowingly cultivated by British and French state security services for the purpose of waging the covert war for regime change in Syria and Libya. These assets have been allowed to return to Britain and France under the cover of being refugees, with the security services turning a blind eye to their true identity.

The nefarious relationship has resulted in these terror assets committing atrocities in Europe. For example, as Hayes points out, the Manchester concert bomb attack that killed 22 people in May last year was carried out by operatives belonging to a Libyan jihad cell that MI5 and MI6 had previously overseen for their objective of prosecuting the regime-change war in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi.

Similar murky connections between jihadists blooded in Syria and state secret services have been have uncovered in terror attacks in France and Belgium. It is not clear if these terror assets go rogue or whether they are being used by British, French and other military intelligence as a deliberate provocation in order to promote tighter national security laws and greater surveillance powers over their citizens.

Declan Hayes reckons that the problem of Western-sponsored terrorists returning to Britain and other European countries under the cover of claiming to be war refugees is much greater than Western governments or their media are admitting.

Hayes says that in his experience of visiting Syria many times during the war, most families loyal to the government were adamantly defiant about staying in the country and defending their communities. He reckons that there is a legitimate concern that many of the refugees fleeing from formerly militant-held cities like Aleppo and Daraa are jihadists and their families.

This view supports the right of some European governments to be wary about taking in large numbers of refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries. There is a case for rigorous vetting, but such a case is often emotionally blackmailed by naive media commentary as being heartless or racist.

There is no doubt that Western government agencies have fomented terrorist groups in Syria and elsewhere to do their dirty work for destabilizing target governments.

Now that the war in Syria is all but over with the Syrian army, backed by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, rooting out the last jihadist remnants, we are seeing Western states taking in their terror assets. Maybe as a desperate intervention to stop them from revealing the dirty secrets of Western government collusion.

The repatriation of the White Helmets terrorist propagandists to the UK, Germany and Canada is a classic illustration.

Western authorities are playing with fire. Not only are they running the risk of public safety from future terrorist incidents. They are also stoking the flames of xenophobia, racism and culture wars against many innocent refugees who have been given shelter in Western countries.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Masters graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.

This article was originally published by " Strategic Culture Foundation " -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.Syria - For The Third Time Israel Falsely Claims Iran Pull-Back Deal With Russia By Moon Of Alabama July 24, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - A typical Israeli propaganda scheme is to falsely claim that an agreement with some entity has been made and to then push that entity to stick to a "deal" it never agreed to. Israel dislikes any 'Iranian presence' in Syria. It tries to press on Russia to push Iran out of Syria by claiming that Russia offered or made such a deal. Last fall a campaign in Israeli media claimed that Russia had agreed to push Iran away from the border with Israel. Russia denied that anything like that happened. Iranian forces in Syria are legitimately there. In late May a similar campaign repeated that scheme. It claimed that the Russian Foreign Minister had agreed to move Iran out, when in fact he had called on U.S. forces to leave Syria. Moon of Alabama documented both campaigns. Yesterday we saw a third attempt by Israel to pretend that Russia had offered or made a deal to counter 'Iranian presence': A senior political source participated in the meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Sunday evening. "It was made clear again that we would not accept Iranian consolidation in Syria, not near the border, and not in the 100-kilometer strip that the Russians are talking about and committing to," the senior official said. "We said that there is long-range weapons placed beyond this area and all these forces have to leave Syria. Russia has considerable capabilities to deal with this, because it is a very significant factor within Syria." Damascus is only some 50 kilometers from the Israel occupied Golan Height. Does anyone believe that Russia can tell Iranians to not go to Damascus? That it can tell Iran to not defend its ally Syria? Such an "offer", which Russia most likely never made, would be nonsense. Russia has no means to tell Iran what to do. Even the U.S. acknowledges that: We have assessed that its unlikely Russia has the will or the capability to fully implement and counter Iranian decisions and influence in Syria, Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats said Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum. Russia would have to make significantly greater commitments [in Syria] from a military standpoint, from an economic standpoint, he said. We dont assess that theyre keen to do that. The Israeli haranguing about an 'Iranian presence' is a self fulfilling prophecy. Each Israeli attack on Syrian grounds proves that Iranian forces would have legitimate reason to be in Syria. They are obviously needed to help their Syrian allies to defend against such attacks. Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter Other news sites picked up on the alleged Russian "offer" claim and pretended that it is real. Reuters weirdly headlines: Israel rejects Russian offer to keep Iranian forces 100 km from Golan: official: JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel on Monday rebuffed a Russian offer to keep Iranian forces in Syria at least 100 kilometers from the Golan Heights ceasefire line, an Israeli official said on Monday.

...

The official said that Netanyahu told Lavrov we will not allow the Iranians to establish themselves even 100 kilometers from the border. From that quote it seems that it was Netanyahoo, not Lavrov, who introduced the "100 kilometers" line. Axios offered a similar stupid headline: Russia wants to push Iran 65 miles from Israel's border in Syria: Russia wants to push Iranian forces, Hezbollah and Pro-Iranian Shiite militias 65 miles from the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights, a senior Israeli official said after a meeting today in Jerusalem between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

...

The senior Israeli official said in a conference call with reporters that Israel's goal is to get all Iranian and pro-Iranian forces out of the entire Syrian territory, but the Russians want, in the first phase, to push the Iranians 65 miles from the Israeli border. Russia had rejected such Israeli claims last fall. It again rejected similar claims in May. It will also debunk the current nonsense. No such offer was made. Israel 'rejected' something it invented itself and has the chutzpah to make even more lunatic demands: According to the Israeli official, Netanyahu gave Lavrov a list of demands regarding Iranian military presence in Syria: Iran needs to take all of its long range missiles and weapons out of Syria.

Iran needs to stop the production of precision munitions in Syria.

Iran needs to take all its air defense systems out of Syria.

The border crossings between Syria and Lebanon needs to be monitored to prevent arms smuggling to Hezbollah from Syria.

The border crossings between Iraq and Syria needs to be monitored to prevent infiltration of Shiite militias into Syria from Iraq. Netanyahoo also asked for a pink pony. Syrian companies produce ammunition. Syrian workers manufacture missiles of various ranges and precision. They have done so for decades. There may once a while be some lone Iranian engineer visiting to give advice. The Syrian Arab Army has long range missiles and it is the SAA, not Iran, that provides air defense for Syria. There are no longer Iranian forces or other personal in notable numbers in Syria. During the war Iran helped to build up Syria's National and Local Defense Forces (NDF/LDF). Hizbullah came from Lebanon to support the Syrian efforts. Iranian advisors joined some Syrian army groups. But as the Syrian army won back more and more control over its land these groups lowered their presence: Hizbollah now only has 10% of its units compared to peak of 2016. Similarly, NDF/LDF that used to be almost 90k are now closer to 3k. ... All the Israeli harrumphing about Iran in Syria is a diversion from the fact the Israel and the U.S. lost their war on Syria. Israel openly stated that it preferred ISIS and other Jihadis near the occupied Golan Height. But now those forces are defeated. The Syrian army is back at the Golan Heights line and no shooting down of a Syrian jet or attack on this or that minor factory will change that. These are provocations to goad Syria into a response attack on Israel and to draw Iran and the U.S. into a war. The southwestern Daara region is nearly cleaned up. The Syrian army is already moving forces northwards to Idleb governorate where some 15-20,000 Jihadis are busy killing each other. An all out attack on that last governorate with significant Jihadi presence will commence in September. A local guerilla movement against the U.S. presence in northeast Syria is growing. It is unlikely that the Trump administration is willing to sustain the occupation there when it starts to cause a number of casualties. In a year from now the Syrian government will likely have regained full control over its country. This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama " - The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House. ====== Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. We ask that you treat others with respect. Take a moment to read the following - Comment Policy - What Or Who is Information Clearing House and Purpose and Intent of this website: It is unacceptable to slander, smear or engage in personal attacks on authors of articles posted on ICH. Those engaging in that behavior will be banned from the comment section.July 24, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - Ecuadors president Lenin Moreno is reportedly close to reneging on asylum granted to WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange by Ecuador. Assange, who holds Ecuadorian citizenship and is entitled to protection as such by his country of citizenship, is expected to be turned over to the UK very soon.

And for what? WikiLeaks dared to expose the perfidy of the United States to the worlds public. The pro-transparency organization enraged the US military-industrial complex by publishing a slew of classified documents, emails, and graphic accounts like the Collateral Murder video that adduced US war crimes in Iraq.

In other words, Assange is being painted as a criminal for revealing the crimes of US empire. War is peace. And revealing crimes is criminal.

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In mid-July, during president Donald Trumps visit to England, one press headline reported: Trump UK visit:100,000 take to Londons streets in astonishing show of opposition to horrible president.

And prior to the US-UK attack on Iraq (based on fixing the intelligence and facts around the policy), police estimated at least 750,000 people turned out demonstrate against partaking in the war against Iraq.

Julian Assange, as a publisher, performed a massive service to humanity in allowing those who want to be informed about what acts their governments are involved in, support, or are silent about. WikiLeaks respects our right to know.

Clarly, Assange must be protected. Now is a moment that calls for people power, and its seems this time a peoples movement stands a good shot at a moral victory. Imagine, for a moment, if a million people showed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London ready to form a swarm around Assange when he emerges, thereby barring police access to a man charged with no crime.

Imagine if the day of Assanges exit were co-ordinated worldwide by an organized resistance to empire and its cronies, and another million people plus from around the world joined the Brits at the Ecuadorian embassy. Imagine if they all of them wore Guy Fawkes masks and black hoodies and Assange were provided with the same by the crowd. Then the massive crowd raises umbrellas and plays a shell game such that Assanges whereabouts in the crowd becomes nigh impossible to ascertain.

The feasibility or probability of success of such a proposal is unknown to this writer.

What is palpable is that a man, in service of the wider humanity, has courageously put himself in the crosshairs of the 1%-ers. This poses a challenge to the 99%-ers. What are we going to do about it? It surely is incumbent to protect one of our own, gain a victory for social justice and humanity in the process, and  at the same time  slap back at the 1%-ers.

If someone co-ordinates this, I pledge to buy my ticket to London.CNN Obtains Secret Trump-Cohen Audio Tape





Listen



Trump - Michael Cohen SECRET AUDIO RECORDING - Tape 2: Karen McDougal Cash





Click here for other tape recording

Presidential candidate Donald Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording of the conversation aired exclusively on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time."

CNN airs audio from the Michael Cohen/Trump tape where they discuss paying off Karen McDougal pic.twitter.com/gRZXUE2cMF  Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 25, 2018





The recording offers the public a glimpse at the confidential discussions between Trump and Cohen, and it confirms the man who now occupies the Oval Office had contemporaneous knowledge of a proposal to buy the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, a woman who has alleged she had an extramarital affair with Trump about a decade ago.



Cohen told Trump about his plans to set up a company and finance the purchase of the rights from American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer.



"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker.

Trump interrupts Cohen asking, "What financing?" according to the recording. When Cohen tells Trump, "We'll have to pay." Trump is heard saying "pay with cash" but the audio is muddled and it's unclear whether he suggests paying with cash or not paying. Cohen says, "no, no" but it is not clear what is said next.



No payment was ever made from Trump, Rudy Giuliani, the President's attorney, has said. Giuliani has previously acknowledged that the recorded discussion related to the buying the story rights.



The recording, which was provided to CNN by Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis, was made in September 2016.



"What is this about? This is about honesty versus false disparagement of Michael Cohen. Why is Giuliani out falsely disparaging Michael Cohen -- because they fear him," Davis said on "Cuomo Prime Time."



"What do they fear, Chris? Why am I representing him? They fear that he has the truth about Donald Trump. He will someday speak the truth about Donald Trump. The truth is that when Donald Trump said 'cash,' which Rudy Giuliani knows that only drug dealers and mobsters talk about cash, it was, you heard Michael Cohen ... say what? 'No, no, no,



Court filings said federal prosecutors have obtained 12 audio recordings from the FBI raids on Cohen earlier this year. CNN previously reported that Trump's lawyers waived attorney-client privilege on the President's behalf regarding the recording involving him personally.



The discussion relates to whether Trump should buy the rights of the story from American Media, which paid McDougal $150,000 in August 2016 for her story about an alleged 10 month affair with Trump. The story was never published by AMI.



In addition to discussing the McDougal payment, Trump and Cohen are overheard running through a list of potential legal issues, including contesting a New York Times request to unseal divorce records from Trump's first wife Ivana as well as more mundane matters such as polling numbers and Trump surrogate Pastor Mark Burns.

Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda? Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

======

Join the DiscussionGovernor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom has decamped from the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

The governor announced his defection from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today.

This announcement was made during a meeting with elected local government chairmen and councillors on Wednesday at the Government House Makurdi.

According to reports, the governor made this announcement after youths, who were protesting, barred him from traveling to Abuja to attend the APC reconciliation meeting.

See reactions

If we Benue youths had Ortom's itineraries, we would have long blocked his routes and request he pay worker's money owed them for several months.

How can you diss Buhari and love Ortom at same time?

I challenge anyone to point me to any project Ortom has executed.  PaapaZane (@elugzy) July 25, 2018

Different formats. Ortom has introduced a new one.

Youths of his state stopped him from going to Abuja to hold crisis talks with APC Nat Chairman. He had to obey them. He has now completed his transfer to PDP. Medicals revealed ligament issues but the new Team will manage it.  Sam Hart (@hartng) July 25, 2018The Police in Lagos have apprehended a houseboy, identified as Mayowa Ogunmola, who sold his employers N10m Toyota Prado Land Cruiser for N50,000.

FSARS Operatives had launched a search for the suspect after his employer, Femi Mayaki, a resident of Wiliam Care Street, Anthony Village, Lagos, on July 18, petitioned the Commissioner of Police Lagos State that Ogunmola made away with his Toyota Prado Land Cruiser Jeep containing personal documents.

The suspect was eventually arrested at Ikorodu, Lagos  during interrogation, he confessed to the crime.

He later took detectives to Ijeba-Ota, Ogun State where he claimed he gave the stolen car to one Femi Ayoade whom he asked to get a buyer for it.

Femi, according to the police, was subsequently arrested and he confessed he sold the car to one Azeez Ibrahim, at the rate of N50,000 and led the Operatives to arrest Azeez Ibrahim and the stolen car was eventually recovered from him.

All three suspects in the case are now in Police custody.

Leave a Comment

commentsLisa Gaitho, a Kenyan fashion blogger, who is in a relationship with a Nigerian man, has advised women to be submissive to their men in order to get whatever they want from them.

In her latest vlog titled How to get what you want from your man, she advised women to wash their men, dry and oil their bodies.

If he wants to go take his bath, literally wash him. Scrub him, dont let him do anything, wash him, clean his ears, like how you would if he was a baby. Dry him and oil him, she says.

In the video, Lisa, who lives in Nigeria with her boyfriend, also revealed that her boyfriend caters to her needs as she cannot afford a luxurious lifestyle despite being a fashion blogger and designer.

I cannot afford to fly to amazing places or buy certain things, I cannot even afford my lifestyle, I have to face reality because Im not there yet and will rely on a man to do it for me, she adds.

Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari has suffered criticisms from Nigerians on several occasions for what they termed his indifference to the plight of ordinary citizens.

In recent times, there have been complains by a lot of people on the spate of killings in the country perpetuated by Boko Haram insurgents and Fulani militants. Also not left out, are the excesses of some members of the Special Anti-robbery Squad, SARS. In which many have claimed to be brutalised and victimized for no reason by these police officers.

However, on a lot of occasions, it always seemed like the president was silent on these issues. As nothing seems to be done, to comfort the people.

Some Nigerians on social media, have therefore criticised the speed at which president Buhari responded to the mass defection in his party, the All Progressive Congress, APC.

They stated that his response within hours was a clear pointer to what the priorities of the President are.

See reactions below

Nigerian troops were recently killed by Boko Haram. Yesterday, photos of their mass burial surfaced. They paid the ultimate price for Nigeria. Not a word appreciating them or consoling their families from President Buhari. Yet in 1 hour Buhari responded to defecting APC Senators!  Reno Omokri (@renoomokri) July 25, 2018

Don't tell me President Muhammadu Buhari @MBuhari is not aware of what's happening in his government and cabinet and the Nation at large. The ones that personally affect him he responds to within 12 hours. It's the ones that affect the people he can't be bothered with

Goodnight!  Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) July 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/faith_anza/status/1021863987279884288?s=19

If it's okay to hire a foreigner as Super Eagles head coach, can we sign a foreigner to be our President for a while?

Saraki, Kwankwaso, Buhari, Atiku all of them are Yahoo Boys!  Paul Mogbolu (@Iammisterpaul) July 25, 2018

https://twitter.com/Naijadailyfeed/status/1021771806846472193?s=19

President Muhammadu Buhari is not a slow reader, his reaction to the massive defection of his party members to PDP is the fastest response so far compared to other national issues ranging from killings to security forces brutality. Why does he slow down on key national issues?     (@yemi_adebowale) July 24, 2018President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki on Tuesday failed to honour the invitation of the Nigeria Police Force over his indictment in the Offa bank robbery.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that the police had invited Saraki to report to the Head of investigation team, of the Intelligence Response Team ( IRT) on July 24 at 8 a.m. in Guzape, Abuja.

NAN also reports that the invitation was in connection with the confession made by five suspects in the April 5 robbery that they were political thugs of Saraki.

The Force Spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, while addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, said that there was no timeline to the invitation.



Moshood said that the force would not shy away from its constitutional responsibilities of crime detection.

The Nigeria police force will not abdicate from its constitutional responsibilities of detection of crimes and criminalities, and will always treat crime as crime no matter who is involved.

The force remains focused and will not be distracted from carrying out a discreet and thorough investigation into the indictment of the Senate President,he,said.

He said that Saraki had case to answer and it was consequent upon that that he was invited to appear before the IRT.

He said that Saraki was not harassed and intimidated physically or otherwise by any police personnel as reported by some media.

It is also absolutely untrue that Saraki was harassed, threatened or intimidated physically or otherwise by any Police personnel either from the Force Headquarters or any other formation of the Force,he said.

Moshood implored members of the public to disregard and discountenance the report of the blockade of the residence, harassment and threat to Sarakis life.

Leave a Comment

commentsBlockchain chain link 320 x 215

Entrepreneurs, start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises have increasingly turned to non-traditional funding sources, such as financial services made available by financial technology (FinTech) companies, to finance their ventures.

As a result, a Financial Technology Institutions Law (FinTech Law) was passed during the early months of 2018 with the intention of providing legal certainty to Mexicos FinTech companies. It regulates their organisation and operation, while also bringing the activities performed by FinTech companies under the regulatory purview of the Mexican Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) and Mexicos Central Bank (Banxico), with the main goal of protecting investors and solicitors, providing stability to the financial system and preventing money laundering activities.

FinTech companies are now required to obtain a license from the CNBV to operate in Mexico, which is only granted if it is pre-approved by an interdisciplinary committee composed of officers of the CNBV, Banxico and the Ministry of Finance. While secondary legislation is still expected, in order to be eligible to obtain such a license under current rules, FinTech companies must be incorporated as Mexican corporations (sociedades anonimas) and specifically include in their bylaws that their business purpose is to perform any of the activities regulated under the FinTech Law.

Prior to the entry into force of the FinTech Law, most Mexican FinTech companies had been operating in a regulatory limbo, struggling to fit their business activities within the scope of Mexican law. The FinTech Law mainly regulates two types of FinTech companies: (i) crowdfunding institutions; and (ii) electronic payment companies.

Specifically, crowdfunding institutions are defined as those that carry out activities to bring together investors and solicitors through IT platforms or electronic means in order to obtain or provide funding. The FinTech Law only recognises three categories of crowdfunding activities that can be performed through licensed FinTech companies: (i) debt crowdfunding (also known as peer-to-peer lending); (ii) equity crowdfunding; and (iii) profit sharing crowdfunding. This seems to leave other types of crowdfunding (e.g. donation-based, reward-based or cryptocurrency-based) in a regulatory grey area.

From a tax perspective, the main challenge that licensed FinTech companies operating in the crowdfunding space are facing relate to being able to set up a corporate structure that allows them to be taxed only on the service fee or commission earned, while also allowing their investors to be taxed according to their specific tax nature, rather than subjecting all investors uniformly to corporate taxes at the level of the FinTech companies and then exposing them to dividend taxes, which can lead to effective tax rates of more than 50% for individuals or foreign investors.

To a large extent, this issue is caused by the requirement imposed by the FinTech Law that all licensed FinTech companies should be incorporated as Mexican corporations, as these are entities with legal personality that are not pass-through for tax purposes (i.e. not tax transparent) from a Mexican perspective. As such, the law does not allow for the taxing of income obtained by FinTech companies in the hands of the investors, as if they had obtained the income directly.

While the FinTech Law does allow licensed crowdfunding companies to act as mandataries of their clients, which could somehow seem to be a solution as the crowdfunding companies would be receiving payments from the solicitors on behalf and for the benefit of the investors and, therefore, should not liable to corporate taxes on such income, this alternative entails many practical difficulties. For instance, solicitors may be required to withhold taxes from payments made to the crowdfunding companies, taking into consideration the nature of each investor, but have no visibility as to the identity of the investors, while at the same time being burdened with having to issue individualised invoices and withholding certificates to all investors.

Other types of vehicles seem more appropriate for these types of ventures from a Mexican tax perspective. For instance, Mexican trusts could be ideal from a tax perspective, as tax transparency can generally be achieved to the extent they do not carry on entrepreneurial activities in Mexico. However, Mexican trusts have rigorous know-your-customer policies that in practice are difficult to meet because most investors in crowdfunding structures are individuals that provide little information about themselves.

A similar result could be achieved using foreign limited partnerships with no legal personality in their country of residence (e.g. Canadian or Cayman limited partnerships). This is because tax transparency can also generally be achieved provided they do not carry on entrepreneurial activities in Mexico, but it is unlikely that Mexican regulators would be willing to issue rules that would have them supervise a foreign vehicle, as opposed to a Mexican entity.

Perhaps the most straightforward solution would be for the Mexican tax authorities to issue rules to extend the tax treatment awarded under Mexican tax legislation for Mexican investment funds to licensed FinTech companies operating in the crowdfunding space, as Mexican investment funds are also required to be incorporated as corporations, but are not considered taxpayers for income tax purposes on certain types of income, which allows their investors to be taxed according to their individual tax nature.

While the regulators seem to be taking the right steps to establish a much needed legal framework to foster innovative financial services, it appears that a similar effort is needed from the tax authorities to issue regulations that are tailored to an industry that is like no other in order to promote its development.

Oscar A. Lopez Velarde (olopezvelarde@ritch.com.mx)

Santiago Diaz Rivera Bravo (sdiazrivera@ritch.com.mx)

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Share this articleThe Middle East's largest sustainable civil infrastructure conference  GeoMEast 2018  is expected to take place in Egypt by the end of November 2018, aiming to help the establishment of sustainable infrastructure in Egypt and the Middle East.

The GeoMEast series is a conference held by the Soil-Structure Interaction Group in Egypt (SSGIE) and the Egyptian Housing and Building National Research Center (HBRC) affiliated with the Egyptian cabinet.

"GeoMEast's discussions aim to maximize the outcomes of national projects that are being carried out by Arab countries, especially Egypt," said Hany Farouk Shehata, general secretary of the organizing committee, speaking to the media.

Shehata explained that the projects will include Suez Canal Area Development Project and the New Capital, among other important projects.

"The goal is to study how the conference's discussions can benefit the execution of Egypt's national projects, in accordance with principles of sustainability," added Shehata.

2018 GeoMEast will cover topics such as the challenging infrastructure issues which are to result from climate change in Egypt and the Middle East.

The conference will also discuss projects related to highways, bridges structures and tunneling, while studying means to include geotechnical and geological techniques in the structure-building process.

A number of leading international organisations are also supporting the GeoMEast congress and exhibition.

The 2018's conference is the second exhibition to be organized in partnership by SSGIE and HBRC.

The first took place last year in July 2017 at Egypt's famous Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, with 600 specialists and representatives of around 60 countries from around the world in attendance.

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July 25, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The United States currently imports most of the lithium that it consumes  with import reliance today pegged at over 70%. Due to junior lithium explorers having a hard time raising funds in North America, most have signed agreements with battery-makers in Asia. All except one - Cypress Development Corp (TSX-V:CYP), which has a monster lithium deposit in the Clayton Valley of Nevada, right next to Albemarle's Silver Peak Mine - the only producing lithium mine in the United States. This gives Cypress a compelling advantage over its competitors, in the race to tie up US lithium and create a supply chain that can feed a burgeoning electric battery and car industry, in North America.

Meanwhile, deal-making in the South American salars (evaporated salt lakes), where three-quarters of the world's lithium is produced, has never been more active. With 50% of the world's lithium resources in Chile, as well as the country being the lowest-cost producer of the mineral, if you're a junior resource company in the lithium space, Chile is the place to own lithium projects. And if you're a buyer in need of lithium, Chile is most likely on your radar.

Lithium Chile (TSX-V:LITH) has spent the last few years quietly amassing a huge collection of properties in the "lithium triangle" of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia - where about 75% of the world's lithium comes from, given its abundance and high quality. Chile is currently the second largest producer of the main ingredient of lithium-ion batteries installed in electric vehicles, behind only Australia, home to the Greenbushes hard rock lithium and tantalum mine owned by Talison Lithium. The small-cap lithium junior holds 152,900 hectares across 14 salars and one "laguna" (lagoon in Spanish), surrounding the world's most important lithium reserves in the Salar de Atacama.

LITH's land package (video) is the largest privately-owned lithium amassment in Chile.

In this article, we'll do a round-up of recent hand-shakes in both Chile and North America where, despite having significant lithium deposits, most of the lithium will be going to Asia for processing into lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate. Unless Cypress can turn the tide. We should find out soon in its upcoming PEA.

Chile: Record foreign investment

The tripling in lithium prices over the last three years has hastened a rush of new deals between lithium miners/ explorers and major players in the electric battery and vehicle space. As mentioned many are looking at Chile to lock up offtake agreements.

Mining lithium in the salars of Chile and Argentina is much more cost-effective than hardrock mining where the lithium is blasted from granite pegamite orebodies containing spodumene, apatite, lepidolite, tourmaline and amblygonite. The biggest hard-rock lithium mine in the world is Greenbushes in Australia.

Chile has become recognized as an excellent mining country, with a low risk of resource nationalism (the tendency of governments to assert control, for strategic and economic reasons, over natural resources located on their territory), a new mining code, and clear permitting rules - all major pluses for mining and exploration companies hoping to do business there.

Lithium Chile has the advantage of being in a country with significantly higher grades and reserves than its neighbor, Argentina, due to geography. The Salar de Atacama has just the right amount of heat, wind and lack of rain to ensure high evaporation rates, making it the ideal location for lithium mining.

A recent report from InvestChile notes that foreign investment has grown by a record 655% in the first four months of 2018. According to the Central Bank of Chile, US$8.4 billion entered the country between January and April, over six times more than the same period in 2017. The total is the highest amount ever recorded since record-keeping began in 2003, and is 24% more than total foreign investment last year of $6.4 billion.

"[T]his is a figure that is, without doubt, marked by large operations in our country, both as regards new investment and the acquisition of existing companies, and indicates the confidence of overseas companies in our market," said Ian Frederick, acting director of InvestChile. "Chile has an important track record as a destination for foreign investment and has attributes that stand out in the region. To this, we have added a greater capacity to attract investment and the political will - led by the Economy Ministry - to accelerate and facilitate the development of international businesses in the country. This is what we see reflected in these figures which invite us, as an agency, to continue working."

Among the recent foreign involvements in Chilean lithium:

Minera Salar Blanco, the joint-venture company that operates the Maricunga lithium project, in March secured an export permit. Lithium export permits are tightly controlled by the Chilean Nuclear Commission.

Nutrien, a company born of the merger between PotashCorp and Agrium, sold its stake in Chile's top lithium producer, SQM, to China's Tianqi Lithium, for $4.1 billion - although the sale is being blocked by Chile's development agency, Corfu.

Under a recently signed memorandum of understanding, Hong Kong-listed Prosper One International Holding Company Limited has the opportunity to earn 55% of Lithium Chile's Pintadas Norte project by spending $3 million in exploration in the next three years.

Samsung SDI, the battery-maker arm of the South Korean conglomerate, and metals supplier Posco plan to build a battery materials plant in Chile in exchange for a lithium offtake from SQM and Albemarle.

North America: The great lithium tie-up

The Clayton Valley in Nevada started producing lithium in 1966 and the Silver Peak lithium brine operation owned by Albemarle is currently the only producing lithium mine in the US.

In 2008 the National Research Council saw lithium as potentially becoming a critical mineral due to the expected growth of hybrid vehicle batteries. Two years later the US Department of Energy's Critical Materials Strategy included lithium as one of 16 key elements. Lithium is among 23 critical metals President Trump recently deemed critical to national security, and signed a bill that would encourage the exploration and development of new US sources of these metals. It's unfortunate for the United States that its dependence on lithium coincides with the ramping-up of demand for the white metal. But it's also an extraordinary opportunity for Cypress.

That's because all of the other prospective lithium projects in North America (including Mexico) are either too small, too early-stage, or have already inked deals with off-shore suppliers to be of any help to North America in securing a domestic supply of lithium that would reduce US and Canadian dependence on foreign (ie. South American, Australian or Chinese) raw or processed lithium needed for the new electrified economy. Let's take a run through the options. Note the size of each deposit, compared to what Cypress has, in the section below the list. (Note: in all cases except Nemaska Lithium, the numbers refer to contained lithium, not lithium tonnage).

Nemaska Lithium. Japan's SoftBank invested $100 million into Nemaska's Whabouchi mine and electrochemical plant in northern Quebec. Nemaska has offtake agreements with FMC, Johnson Matthey, Korea's LG Chem and Japanese battery chemicals trader Hanwa Corp/ General Lithium Corp of China, and Northvolt AV, a Swedish battery manufacturer.

37 million tonnes lithium, proven and probable reserves.

Bacanora Lithium. Bacanora inked deals in 2017 with China's NextView Capital, which took an 18.9% stake as well as an offtake agreement to supply NextView with 5,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate in stage one, and 15,000 tpa in later stages; and an offtake agreement with Hanwa Corp. Bacanora, which like Cypress has a clay lithium project, earlier agreed to supply lithium hydroxide to Tesla with joint-venture partner Rare Earth Minerals.

1.9 million tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) measured, 3.1MT indicated, 3.7MT inferred.

Lithium Americas. Its Thacker Pass project in northern Nevada is intimately tied to Ganfeng Lithium of China. Lithium Americas collaborated with Ganfeng to do the metallurgical test work for the prefeasibility study. Ganfeng is a major investor ($174 million) in Lithium Americas' Cauchari-Olaroz lithium project in Argentina, which it owns with SQM.

5,982,000 tonnes LCE, measured and indicated.

Pure Energy Minerals. The company with a lithium project in Nevada's Clayton Valley signed an agreement with Tesla Motors in 2015 to supply an unspecified amount of lithium hydroxide to Tesla for five years.

218,000 tonnes LCE, inferred.

Global Geoscience. In June Global Geoscience, whose Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada is composed of clay lithium and boron, did an A$53 million private placement. The underwriter is an Australian company and the shares were purchased by "high quality domestic [Australian] and offshore institutions."

4.1 million tonnes lithium carbonate, 11.9 million tonnes boric acid, indicated and inferred.

On May 1 Cypress Development Corp put out its long-awaited maiden resource estimate for its Clayton Valley Lithium Project in Nevada. This clay-hosted lithium deposit has 1.3 billion tonnes of lithium containing 6.4 million tonnes of LCE, including 2.857 million tonnes LCE in the indicated category and 3.683MT LCE inferred. The amount of lithium contained within Cypress' Glory and Dean claim blocks should not be underestimated. It is among the largest deposits in the world.

For more on the resource estimate, metallurgy and geology, read our Cypress has world class Clayton Valley Nevada resource estimate and The US needs Cypress's lithium.

The main point is, compared to other North American lithium deposits, the Clayton Valley Lithium Project is larger, much larger than the projects mentioned above, and it doesn't yet have a major financing in place whose shareholders it is beholden to, nor an offtake agreement that would lock up its lithium for years. Cypress is still free to decide who its customers will be and someone looking to build a US based lithium battery sector would have an unencumbered start.

Conclusion

The lithium space both in South and North America is heating up, in line with the increasing demand for electrical vehicles, government mandates to phase out fossil fuels, and auto manufacturers rolling out new EV models every year. From an investment point of view, it's important to look at companies that are early-stage enough to warrant a significant shareholder return - ones that have not yet advanced to the point where offtake agreements and major financings have already been completed. Cypress Development Corp is the only lithium junior in North America that is still not only open to suitors but is only just getting started, with a preliminary economic assessment due out soon which will piggyback on its blockbuster resource estimate.

In Chile, the investment climate has become warmer thanks to a change in government, which means that a small-cap junior like Lithium Chile has removed one potential obstacle to foreign investment - country risk.

Lithium Chile has four properties, each with multiple drill-ready targets. The drills just started turning on its first prospect, Ollague. But Lithium Chile isn't just a property owner. LITH has deep exploration and development expertise that will enable it to advance their projects to a maiden resource, PEA and beyond - giving it the option either to be a lithium miner or to hive off one or more of its projects to a major like SQM or Albemarle, a battery supplier, or even an automaker wanting to lock up a long-term lithium supply.

For these reasons, I have LITH and CYP on my radar screen.

Richard (Rick) Mills

aheadoftheherd.com

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Legal Notice / Disclaimer

This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment.

Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently verified.

Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are subject to change without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any omission.

Furthermore, I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information provided within this Report.

Richard owns shares of Cypress Development Corp. (TSX.V:CYP). Both CYP and LITH are sponsors of his website aheadoftheherd.com

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspStewart, British Columbia - July 24, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Decade Resources Ltd. (TSXV: DEC) (OTC: DECXF) ("Decade" or the Company) is pleased to report that the Company has transported its primary drill to the north side of Lydden Creek, where several drill holes have been completed from one pad. Drilling is designed to expand and extend on results at the northern most drilling at depth. Drilling will be north of and below the following drill hole intersections:

Intersection of 5.18 g/t gold over 12.65 m in DDH-09-M0N-11.

Intersection of 11.0 g/t gold over 6.86 m in DDH-11-M0N-06.

Intersection of 28.10 g/t gold over 8.9 m in DDH-11-M0N-09.

Intersection of 43.91 g/t gold over 7.47 m in DDH-11-M0N-11.

Drilling will test from 150m to 300m below surface in this area.

The Montrose zone was intersected in both holes at intersection depths of 200m to 230m. Sulphide mineralization was intersected in both holes over true widths 10-15m. A chalcopyrite stockwork zone contained visible gold in both holes.

High priority samples have been sent to an accredited lab for assays. The Company looks forward to reporting results in the coming weeks.

The property is located in the "Golden Triangle" area of British Columbia, 2.5 km from a paved highway and the power grid. The property area is among the world's most prolific mineralized districts, host to past and current mining operations including Scottie Gold, Porter  Idaho, Johnny Mountain, Red Mountain, Snip Mine, Premier Mine, Golden Bear and Valley of the Kings. The Golden Triangle has reported mineral resources (past production and current resources) in total of 67 million oz of gold, 569 million oz of silver and 27 billion pounds of copper. Pretium is milling in excess of 2700 tonnes per day from the Valley of Kings deposit. It has 1.6 million ounces gold in the proven category (grade 14.5 g/t) and 6.5 million ounces in the probable category (16.1 g/t grade) (Pretium website). Seabridge has 460 million tonnes grading 0.68 g/t gold and 0.17 % copper in the proven category as well as 1,738 million tonnes grading 0.51 g/t gold and 0.22 % copper in the probable category. This reserve is within 4 different deposits (Seabridge website).

Ed Kruchkowski, P. Geo., a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, is in charge of the exploration programs on behalf of the Company and is responsible for the contents of this release. E. Kruchkowski is not independent of Decade, as he is the president of the Company.

Decade Resources Ltd. is a Canadian based mineral exploration company actively seeking opportunities in the resource sector. Decade holds numerous properties at various stages of development and exploration from basic grass roots to advanced ones. Its properties and projects are all located in the "Golden Triangle" area of northern British Columbia. For a complete listing of the Company assets and developments, visit the Company website at www.decaderesources.ca, which is presently being updated. For investor information, please call 250-636-2264 or Gary Assaly at 604-377-7969.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DECADE RESOURCES LTD.

"Ed Kruchkowski"

Ed Kruchkowski, President

"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."

"This news release may contain forwardlooking statements. 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."

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspJuly 25, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Technical analyst Clive Maund charts a gold explorer with projects in British Columbia that are getting a lot of attention.

Juggernaut Exploration Ltd. (JUGR:TSX.V) is a bright spot in the precious metals space as it has shown remarkable strength in recent weeks, forging ahead even as the sector has weakened in response to falling metal prices. On its latest 6-month chart we can see that a fine strong uptrend has been in force driven by strong volume. The question for us now is whether this uptrend is likely to continue, because if it is set to, then we it will be worth us taking advantage of the dip of the past couple of days to buy it at a slightly better price in expectation of a resumption of the advance.

The answer to the question is that yes, it does look set to continue, for two important reasons. One is that the sector looks set to rebound imminently, for reasons that we looked at in my recent metals update, and when that happens Juggernaut will be "swimming with the tide" rather than against it.

The other reason is apparent on the longer-term 2-year chart, on which we can see that, while it may stop to consolidate here because it is at resistance approaching its 2017 highs, volume had been strong on the advance and has resulted in volume indicators rising to clear new highs and looking very strong indeed, which with the sector turning higher suggests that, despite the current overbought condition at resistance, Juggernaut is likely to break out shortly to nee highs anyway, and it is therefore regarded as a buy again here on the current minor dip. Juggernaut trades in generally reasonable volumes on the US OTC market, where rather oddly it is up today on very light volume, while being down significantly on the Canadian market. There are 80.6 million shares in issue.

Juggernaut Exploration website.

Juggernaut Exploration Ltd, JUGR.V, JUGRF on OTC, trading at C$0.50 at 11.50 am EDT on 24th July 2018.

Clive Maund has been president of www.clivemaund.com, a successful resource sector website, since its inception in 2003. He has 30 years' experience in technical analysis and has worked for banks, commodity brokers and stockbrokers in the City of London. He holds a Diploma in Technical Analysis from the UK Society of Technical Analysts.

Disclosure:

1) Clive Maund: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. CliveMaund.com disclosures below. I determined which companies would be included in this article based on my research and understanding of the sector.

2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees.

3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.

4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.

5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article, until one week after the publication of the interview or article. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Juggernaut Exploration, a company mentioned in this article.

Charts provided by the author.

CliveMaund.com Disclosure:

The above represents the opinion and analysis of Mr Maund, based on data available to him, at the time of writing. Mr. Maund's opinions are his own, and are not a recommendation or an offer to buy or sell securities. Mr. Maund is an independent analyst who receives no compensation of any kind from any groups, individuals or corporations mentioned in his reports. As trading and investing in any financial markets may involve serious risk of loss, Mr. Maund recommends that you consult with a qualified investment advisor, one licensed by appropriate regulatory agencies in your legal jurisdiction and do your own due diligence and research when making any kind of a transaction with financial ramifications. Although a qualified and experienced stock market analyst, Clive Maund is not a Registered Securities Advisor. Therefore Mr. Maund's opinions on the market and stocks can only be construed as a solicitation to buy and sell securities when they are subject to the prior approval and endorsement of a Registered Securities Advisor operating in accordance with the appropriate regulations in your area of jurisdiction.

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspNew York, NY and Delta, BC - July 25, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com (www.investorideas.com), a global news source covering leading sectors issues today's episode of its educational trading podcast featuring the founder of Stock Analyst Guru, LLC, Richard Lazarow.

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InvestorIdeas & Stock Analyst Guru - Support and Resistance Trading Ep2 - Good trading

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800 665 0411Facebook wants to keep engagement going on its platform, and considering just how much video is consumed on the social network, one way to help with that is by making it an even more social endeavor.

Real-time communication and view parties arent all that new, considering how platforms like Twitch have skyrocketed into the public consciousness. And Facebook wants in on some of that idea with what it calls Watch Party. This isnt a streaming platform or anything like that, but simply a way for you and your contact list/friends/family to watch a video together and also comment in real-time on what youre seeing.

To kick things off, Facebook users need to simply head into the Groups section, select the new Watch Party icon, and then chooses which videos to add to the group. Once thats done, they can even write a message for the group, so that when people are added they can see it. The host will then be able to add contacts and friends to the watch party, and everyone can start watching the videos that were added together.

At some point in the future, Facebook says Watch Parties will support watching videos together and adding real-time comments outside of Groups, too.

Some interesting insight about Watch Party from Facebook and todays announcement:

In our testing, weve seen Watch Parties, both big and small, with highly engaged members often generating hundreds or even thousands of comments while watching videos together. There were even groups that dedicated more than 10 hours to a single Watch Party, with different members coming in and out throughout the day. Weve heard Watch Party can be useful for smaller communities, too. For example, recently a group with less than 10 people recently hosted a Watch Party with more than 500 comments. Some describe how this shared viewing experience can be used to bridge distance between close friends and family when they cant physically be together. Imagine sitting down to watch a loved ones graduation video with your extended family when they couldnt be there in person, reliving a vacation by sharing videos and swapping memories, or even just hanging out with friends watching funny videos together. The possibilities are endless.

The company is also hosting a Weekend of Watch Parties that kicks off Friday, July 27, and will run until Sunday, July 29. Brands are going to be part of the mix, too, including Jamie Olivers 5-Day Veggie Challenge Group, Buzzfeeds Tasty Group, and others.

Up to this point, Facebook has been putting a lot of its focus on Instagram, with the photo- and video-centric social platform getting a host of new features lately, including the ability to see when your contacts are online to chat via Direct. However, Facebook itself recently expanded the translate feature within Messenger, and the company recently announced a new, dedicated Memories page for when you want to catch up on content youve shared on the social network over the years.

Our Take

This is an interesting idea, even if it isnt altogether new by any means. The fact you need to start a Group to kick things off might make it a bit hard to discover for some Facebook users, but eventually, when the company expands the feature, it could be fun to get a group together and watch movie trailers  especially during events like San Diego Comic-Con and other festivals.

[via FacebookApple and Qualcomm are not exactly seeing eye-to-eye right now, and it turns out that both companies may already be prepared for not working together in the future.

Qualcomm hosted its Q3 2018 earnings report and call on Wednesday. Perhaps unsurprisingly Apple was brought up a few different times during the call, to which the company noted that it has seen lower demand from Apple related to its CDMA Technologies business. The company has seen higher demand from device makers in China, though, which is apparently doing more than simply offsetting the lower demand from Apple.

Meanwhile, looking to the future, Qualcomm said that it believes Apple is already making preparations to solely use our competitors modems, but added that Qualcomm will continue to support Apples legacy devices moving forward. The company reiterated that point, saying that Qualcomm is not planning on being part of Apples next product launch.

We believe Apple intends to solely use our competitors modems rather than our modems in its next iPhone release. We will continue to provide modems for Apple legacy devices, Davis said on the call. Qualcomms president, Cristiano Amon, underlined that point, saying that the company doesnt expect to be part of Apples next product launch.

However, it doesnt appear to be all doom-and-gloom forever. When questioned if Qualcomm would ever work with Apple again, the company said that the industry is dynamic, and that if the opportunity presents itself, I think we will be a supplier of Apple. Of course, that doesnt guarantee anything, and a lot of the legal issues would have to be cleared up, but at least Qualcomm appears to be open to the idea of working with Apple in the future.

Moving forward, that means well be seeing Apple rely on Intel  at least for the foreseeable future. Apple went with Intel chips beginning with the iPhone 7 lineup, and they have appeared in some variants of the iPhone over the years since. With Qualcomm out of the picture, apparently, it means that we should see a lot more Intel moving forward with Apples mobile devices.

That would line up with previous reports, so the news from Qualcomm today isnt completely out of left field by any means.

It was recently reported that Qualcomm had revamped its patent deals, which boiled down to an effort to get Apple back in line with how the working partnership had functioned up until the current dustup. It is also worth noting that Apples CEO, Tim Cook, is still scheduled to be deposed on June 27.

News reports have been popping up regarding an ongoing dispute between chip manufacturer Qualcomm and Apple, with both companies leveling legal teams at one another over issues most concerned with patents and patent royalty payments.

Qualcomm even filed to block the sales of iPhones in the United States, and called out the iPhone and iPhone 8 in its own legal efforts. Meanwhile, Apples own efforts saw moves in the legal system, but also a huge shift towards introducing only Intel-based chips into its future iPhones, basically excising Qualcomm from the conversation from 2018 onward.

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Egypt's naval forces launched the joint exercise 'The Eagle Response 2018' with the US, Saudi and Emirati navies on Tuesday, the Egyptian Armed Forces announced.

The naval drill will be conducted in Egyptian territorial waters in the Red Sea for several days.

Units from the navies of Jordan, Pakistan and South Korea will participate in the exercise as observers.

The exercises will include theoretical lectures on dealing with marine mines as well as joint practical exercises on ship inspection.

The exercises come as part of the joint cooperation between the Egyptian Armed Forces and the US military on using the latest naval fighting systems and building experience for the naval forces participating in the drill.

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Imperial Valley Press Privacy Policy

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Latest Public Sector Organization Posts Dina 2021 Public Sector Organization Dina, Pakistan required candidates for the posts of Mess Waiter, Cook Mess, Cook Unit, Watchman, Class Room Attendant and Naib Qasid.

How to Apply on Public Sector Organization Job Advertisement

Apply as per details in job advertisement. In some cases, you may apply online at vacancies after registering at https://www.jobz.pk online.



Company Address: P O Box # 4, Post Office Dina, Post Code 49400

Note: Beware of Fraudulent Recruiting Activities. If the employer asks you to pay money for any purpose including processing to shortlisting, do not pay at all and report us using our contact us form. Apply as per instuctions & dates mentioned in official job ad. Govt jobs cannot be applied online here. Error & omissions excepted.Police in Athens, Georgia have released body camera footage that shows a 10-year-old boy being pinned to the ground during his father's arrest.

The video shows two officers speaking with a man, before arresting him with aggravated assault and other charges.

Several times during the video, a boy can be seen screaming at officers and being held back by family members.

When the boy's father is put into a police car, he lunges at one of the officers.

Officers took control of the boy and told him to calm down. Once he calmed down, he was allowed to go talk with his father.

The family said officers used excessive force and hurt their son.

Police said they are still investigating the incident, but the officers both remain on duty.A high-level Egyptian security and military delegation has been holding talks on US-Egyptian ties for over a week with top US military and political officials in Washington

The United States will shortly release $195 in military aid to Egypt it had suspended last year following talks with an Egyptian military delegation currently visiting Washington, sources close to the delegation told Ahram Online on Wednesday.

Washington withheld the assistance in August 2017 on the basis that it couldnt certify that Cairo had made sufficient progress on human rights and democracy, and said another $95 million in aid would be spent elsewhere in the region. Cairo at the time said the decision reflected "poor judgement" and could have "negative repercussions" on common interests between the two countries.

A high-level Egyptian security and military delegation which has been holding talks over the past week with top Trump administration officials in Washington to discuss US-Egyptian ties, said the discussions have yielded good results on this matter.

"The US Senate Appropriations Committee will release the suspended $195 million in military aid soon," one of the sources told Ahram Online on condition of anonymity.

During the talks, Egypt reiterated concerns that the suspension of the assistance was sending a "wrong message that US counterparts do not understand the nature of the challenges Egypt is facing, including the challenge of domestic and regional terrorism, the source added.

The remarks came hours after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telephoned Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry to stress that Washington is committed to providing political and economic support to Cairo, mainly through its aid programme, and pledged to "remove obstacles in this regard," according to Egypt's foreign ministry.

The US has been providing Egypt with foreign aid, including military assistance, since Cairo's 1979 peace deal with Israel. Each year, Egypt receives approximately $1.3 billion in US military aid, as well as an annual economic assistance package, which amounted to $150 million in 2016, according to the website of Egypt's foreign ministry.



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Washington is committed to providing political and economic support for Cairo, especially through its aid programme, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in a phone call late on Tuesday, according to statement by Egypt's foreign ministry.

Pompeo stressed "the US' keenness to strengthen its strategic relationship with Egypt and its commitment to providing political, economic and development support to the country through the existing mechanisms of cooperation between the two nations, including the US economic and military aid programme," the statement read.

Pompeo said that this is meant to "strengthen the Egyptian capabilities in the face of security challenges and the bolster regional stability."

Pompeo also pledged greater US support to Egypt in the near future as well as "moving towards removing any obstacles in this regard."

A source told Ahram Online on Wednesday that Washington is planning to release some military aid to Cairo  which was suspended last year  following talks with an Egyptian military delegation that is currently visiting Washington.

Washington decided in August 2017 to withhold $195 million in military aid on the basis that it could not certify that Egypt had made sufficient progress on human rights and democracy, saying that another $95 million in aid would be spent elsewhere in the region.

"The US Senate Appropriations Committee will release the suspended $195 million in military aid soon," the source told Ahram Online.

During the phone call, Pompeo told Shoukry he was looking forward to receiving him in Washington in the first week of August to discuss bolstering bilateral ties and addressing regional and international issues of mutual interests.

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EAGLE POINT, Ore.  Public health officials in Jackson County are warning about the dangers of rabies after a rabid bat made "physical contact" with someone in Eagle Point earlier this month.

The incident occurred on the afternoon of July 13, according to Jackson County Health & Human Services. In a statement, health officials did not detail the circumstances of that encounter, but said that the bat was sent to Oregon State University for testing. Results from those tests confirmed that the bat was positive for the rabies virus.

Public health officials recommended rabies prophylaxis for the exposed personwhich, according to the CDC, usually includes both the rabies vaccine and a passive antibody, or human rabies immune globulin. This generally occurs on the day of exposure, followed by more shots of the vaccine on days 3, 7, and 14 following exposure. The CDC says that not all of these doses are necessary if the individual has already received a rabies vaccination prior to the incident.

Bats are the most common carriers of rabies in this state, according to the Oregon Health Authority. About 8-10 percent of bats tested for rabies produce a positive result every year. Since the beginning of 2018, seven bats have tested positive for rabies in Oregon.

Just last month, Josephine County officials confirmed that a bat found near Williams tested positive for the rabies virus.

Officials urge the public to not approach bats, wildlife or other mammals acting strangely. If you find a bat, stray animal or other wildlife on your property, take children and pets indoors and call the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife at 866-968-2600.

The best protection against rabies for humans is to ensure that pets are vaccinated, in addition to avoiding contact with stray animals. Public health officials advise taking extreme precautions before attempting to handle a bat. If it is necessary to pick up a bat, it is best to wear heavy gloves, use a shovel or both.

If you do receive a bite or scratch from a bat, you should try to safely capture the bat for testing for the rabies virus. Efforts should be made to collect the bat without destroying the head and the bat should be kept in a cool place. Immediately seek medical attention and report the incident to Jackson County at 541-774-8045.CHICAGO, Ill.-- More than 5,200 scientists from around the world are in Chicago for the annual Alzheimers Association International Conference (AAIC). This includes a number of researchers from Oregon Health & Science University.

New research reported at the AAIC suggests a link between dementia and reproductive history. Dr. Allison Lindauer, an assistant professor at the Layton Aging and Alzheimer's Disease Center, joined NewsWatch 12 This Morning to explain what this research means and what scientists are focusing on next.

If you're interested in dementia research at OHSU, you can call the Layton Aging and Alzheimers Disease Center at 503-494-7647. Their research focuses on dementia treatment and prevention.

The phone number for the Alzheimers Association is 1-800-272-3900. This number is a 24/7 number for anyone needing information or support. You can also call the Alzheimers Association if you're interested in participating in research.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formPolice are seen around the scene of a shooting in east Toronto, on Monday, July 23, 2018. The parents of Faisal Hussain, whose shooting spree Sunday in Toronto's Greektown left two people dead and 13 injured, say their son had struggled all his life with psychosis and depression, but none of the medications or therapies he tried were able to overcome his mental illness. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher KatsarovA rare whale shark has been seen swimming in Egypt's Red Sea near the resort town Hurghada, according to several accounts from divers and the Egyptian National Institute for Oceanography & Fisheries (NIOF).

Earlier this week, the NIOF reported that a diving boat spotted a whale shark swimming near the "Small Brother" island in the Red Sea, heading to the south along with a manta ray fish and an oceanic white tip shark.

The whale shark, or "Bahloul" as it is called by local Egyptian fishermen, is the largest species of fish. It is a filter-feeder, eating plankton, and is harmless to humans.

Several whale sharks have been spotted in the Red Sea since July 2016. Sightings have occurred at Port Ghalleb, the Fanous area, and between the Geftoun islands, according to the management of Red Sea wildlife reserves.

"The whale shark's appearance in the Red Sea is an annual phenomenon, especially during the start of the spring season in the Red Sea and during the summer in the southern parts of the county," the NIOF said.

Hunting the whale shark is prohibited in Egypt, as the animal is considered an important part of the Red Sea ecosystem, which is home to several rare and endangered marine species.

The whale shark is the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of 12.65m (41.5 ft) and a weight of about 21.5 tonnes (47,000 lb), while its height commonly ranges between five to 10 metres.

The whale shark is listed as a threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Hassan El-Tayeb, the head of the Research and Environmental Protection Society, says that whale sharks have been migrating from the ocean to the Red Sea, which he says can serve as a tourist attraction.

El-Tayeb said that the appearance of the whale shark in the Red Sea affirms the success of Egypt's environmental efforts to preserve marine life and the country's commitment to international agreements on protecting migrant creatures.

The whale shark inhabits all tropical and warm-temperate seas. The fish is primarily pelagic, living in the open sea but not in the greater depths of the ocean, although it is known to occasionally dive to depths of as much as 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).

Last May, Egypt's environment ministry said in a statement that a rare blue whale, which is the world's largest animal, was sighted for the first time in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea.

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People sit along the Stanley Park seawall as others fish in Vancouver, B.C., on Sunday, August 25, 2013. The name of Vancouver's Stanley Park may be up for debate as the city's park board confronts its colonial past and pursues reconciliation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckFILE - In this July 15, 2018, file photo, a plane battling the Ferguson Fire passes the setting sun over unincorporated Mariposa County, Calif., near Yosemite National Park. California authorities will shut down Yosemite Valley for several days as crews try to stop a stubborn and growing wildfire from spreading into Yosemite National Park. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)This undated photo provided by the Toronto Police shows Julianna Kozis. Investigators said Tuesday, July 24, 2018, there was no national security risk following a shooting that killed 10-year-old Kozis and an 18-year-old woman and wounded over a dozen others, as they continued to probe the life of the 29-year-old gunman for clues to what prompted the deadly rampage in a popular Toronto neighborhood. (Family of Julianna Kozis/Toronto Police via AP)BEND, Ore. (AP) -- A community college in Oregon is cutting funding to its student newspaper because of lack of interest from both readers and potential student staff members.

The Bulletin reports Wednesday that Central Oregon Community College spokesman Ron Paradis says most young people don't read newspapers.

The decision will effectively end publication of The Broadside.

A survey found that more than half of the school's students didn't know the newspaper existed and only 7 percent read it consistently.

The paper's staff had shrunk to 10 students from 20 writers in its heyday.

The college offers two-year associate degrees and enrolls about 16,500 students on its Bend-area campus.SALEM, Ore. -- More help is on the way to fight Oregons many fires.

Approximately 200 citizen-soldiers from the Oregon National Guard will arrive in Salem for wildland firefighter training as part of Oregons comprehensive wildfire suppression efforts.

The training provided to the Oregon National Guard is the same required of all public and private wildland firefighters.CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Experts at Oregon State University said people should not be too concerned about the 11 earthquakes off the Oregon and California coast on Tuesday.

The largest one hit at 7:45 Tuesday morning. It was recorded at 5.6, about 131 miles off the coast of Gold Beach.

KEZI spoke with Andrew Meigs, a professor of geology at OSU. He said the earthquakes were moderate at best, and they are very common that far off the coast.

Meigs said the earthquakes shouldn't be a safety concern because of how far it was from land. He said he is not surprised by the number of quakes because there are usually aftershocks after the initial earthquake.

"Earthquakes will be recorded in and around in the area where this event occurred in the next hours, days, maybe weeks," Meigs said. "But it wasn't a very large earthquake so the period of time of which the associated earthquakes will occur is fairly short."

Meigs said while you can assume aftershocks will happen, earthquakes are very unpredictable.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Police have cleared out the few remaining protesters left at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement headquarters in Portland, Oregon, with no arrests.

Several news outlets report that police moved into an encampment at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday and that about a dozen remaining protesters left the area.

The activists had been protesting since June 17. They want to abolish ICE and end the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy.

Authorities on Monday told protesters to leave by Tuesday evening or be arrested, and hundreds did leave by the deadline.

Portland Police spokesman Sgt. Chris Burley says police on Wednesday morning moved "slowly and methodically" through the camp and there were no injuries and no arrests.

City workers will remove wooden structures at the camp and clean up the area.PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Authorities say a police officer fatally shot a suspect at an RV park in the coastal town of Seaside.

City spokesman say Jon Rahl says officers were dispatched Tuesday afternoon on a report of a person with a gun. The shots were fired during an ensuing confrontation.

No officers were hurt.

More details were not immediately available.

The Oregon State Police is leading the investigation.High temperatures are expected to ease in Cairo and along the northern coast of Egypt starting Thursday, the head of the country's Meteorological Authority (EMA) Ahmed Abdel-Aal told Ahram Online on Wednesday.

"The heat wave that most of Egypt's cities have witnessed during the past 48 hours is expected to ease by 3-4 degrees, with Cairo to witness 37 degrees Celsius," Abdel-Aal said.

Abdel-Aal explained that although temperatures are expected to decrease, humidity levels will still be high during the daytime, reaching 70 percent throughout the country.

"Humidity levels will decrease by almost 25 percent during the night in most cities outside Upper Egypt," Abel-Aal said.

The EMA head also said that Friday is expected to witness a further drop of 2-3 degrees in Cairo and northern coastal cities, unlike most other governorates.

Temperatures on Wednesday are forecast to be as follows:

Cairo: 40-29

Alexandria: 39-28

Nile Delta: 32-26

North Sinai: 36-25

South Sinai: 41-31

Upper Egypt: 44-28

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CLEAR LAKE, Iowa - Girl Scout Camp Tanglefoot is cutting the ribbon for a new building.

Named "Prairieview", it replaces what was supposed to be a temporary storage building which ended up being there for 20 years. The new building will not only be a storage building, but also a programming area and activity space for campers during the summer time.

Julia Mannes is the camp director, and says the dedication comes at a time where camp numbers are increasing.

"We just surpassed the 800 mark not too long ago for campers that will be here throughout the entire summer. We also serve lots of people throughout the rest of the year during rental season as well. But we're having a great year."

Lucy Walker is the program director at the camp, and says campers are looking forward to the new space.

"They're really excited about it. We've used it a couple times already this summer, even before we had the doors on the garage. They've loved using it as a rainy day space, we used it during a 'Mom and me' event, and all the moms had positive feedback too."

The plans to construct Prairieview formally began over a year ago, though it has been in the works for awhile.The Egyptian parliament voted on Wednesday in favour of newly appointed Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly's policy statement, which was delivered before parliament on 3 July, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The vote came during Wednesday's plenary session, where parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal said that he will be hearing comments by MPs on the cabinet's programme.

"Your proposals come to benefit citizens and the homeland, and we will study the possibility of implementing them," Abdel-Aal said.

In July, Madbouly said the five goals set to be achieved by 2030 are national security, improving living standards, continuing economic reform, human development and foreign policy goals.

Madbouly outlined the cabinet's vision in the programme dubbed "Egypt Takes Off."

Article 146 of the constitution states that a newly appointed prime minister must deliver a policy statement before parliament, after which MPs should vote on the policy within 30 days of the appointment of the PM.

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FOREST CITY, Iowa  A Forest City man working as a contractor was killed at a manufacturing plant in Fort Dodge.

Shannon Torkelson, 41, died as a result of the construction accident when he was hit and pinned under a steel beam Thursday evening.

Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration spokeswoman Deborah Babb says the beam was being erected as part of a construction project at CJ Bio America in Fort Dodge when the accident happened.

Eric Kingland, President of Kingland Construction Services, issued the following statement on Torkelson's death:

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of our employee, Shannon Torkelson, who died Thursday, July 19, after an accident on a job site in Fort Dodge."

"Our immediate focus is on supporting Shannons family and our staff in the aftermath of this tragic event. Shannon was a hardworking and fun-loving employee who will be deeply missed. Obviously, this is an extremely challenging time for Shannons family, as well as for our company and for anyone he worked with or who knew him. Shannon Torky Torkelson was a dedicated founding employee with Kingland Construction since 2013."

"Iowa OSHA responded to the accident and we are cooperating fully with the investigation. In addition, we have offered grief support services to our employees."

"At this early stage of the investigation, we have no further details or comments. OSHA investigators indicated the investigation may take several months."

CJ Bio America produces the amino acid lysine, which is added to feed for poultry and swine. A $51 million expansion project is underway to allow the plant to make another amino acid, L-Threonine.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.MASON CITY, Iowa  A man arrested after a stabbing is going to stand trial.

Troy Allen Burtis, 34 of Mason City, is pleading not guilty to 1st degree burglary, willful injury causing bodily injury, and domestic abuse assault causing bodily injury. Hes accused of breaking a crawlspace window to enter a home in the 600 block of South Carolina Avenue in Mason City on June 21.

Authorities say once inside, Burtis stabbed a man in the neck with a knife and pushed a woman and pulled her hair. The man was left with a one-inch cut on his neck.

Burtis trial is set to begin on September 11. He remains in the Cerro Gordo County Jail on $39,000 cash only bond.MASON CITY, Iowa  Patrick Holt, found guilty of lascivious acts with a child  fondle or touch, will spend up to 10 years in prison.

Holt, 58, was found guilty of the charge May 24 and was sentenced Tuesday. He is being held in the Cerro Gordo County Jail awaiting transfer to prison.

Court documents detailed the charges.

Holt put his hand down the inside of her pants and touched her vagina, the victim, 10 or 11 at the time, said during a child protection center interview. Holt told her they were having sex when he touched her.

Holt also showed the child his erect penis, documents state, and showed the child pornography.

The incident happened in the 1400 block of N. Federal Ave.CHARLES CITY, Iowa  A man accused of hitting a child in the head with a frying pan is pleading not guilty.

Barth Joseph Lemke, 52 of Charles City, is now scheduled to stand trial on September 20 for child endangerment.

Lemke was arrested on June 21 and accused of hitting a child with a frying pay, slapping and throwing the child around, and calling the child worthless. Authorities say the abuse took place from 2016 through 2018.

The arrest happened after a 10-year-old child was interviewed at the Child Protection Center in Waterloo.OSAGE, Iowa  Osage police are asking for the publics help after a truck was stolen Tuesday morning behind a Main St. business.

Osage police said on social media that a 2002 Chevy S-10 gold/tan in color with Iowa license plate GQK273 was taken between 9-11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The vehicle has a dent on the drivers door, a black roll cover on the bed of the truck and black fenders over wheels.

Anyone with information is asked to call Osage police at 641-732-3777.GARNER, Iowa  A plea deal is reached in a Hancock County burglary/assault case.

Jesus Roman Gallardo, 24 of Lake Mills, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of misdemeanor domestic abuse assault. In exchange, a charge of 1st degree burglary was dismissed.

Gallardo was accused of following someone back to their Hancock County home after a party in Thompson on December 16, 2017. Authorities say Gallardo repeatedly assaulted that person over many hours.

Hes been sentenced to two days in the Hancock County Jail and must pay $415 in fines and participate in the Iowa Domestic Abuse Program.ALBERT LEA, Minn.  One person is hurt after a three-vehicle accident Tuesday afternoon.

The Minnesota State Patrol says it happened around 3:45 pm on the ramp from southbound Interstate 35 to County Road 46 in Albert Lea. Timothy Thomas Schilling, 29 of Glenville, was driving west when Ashely Nicole Brown, 21 of Rochester, came off the ramp in front of him.

The State Patrol says Schilling slammed on his brakes but hit Browns vehicle and Schilling was then rear ended by a pickup truck driven by Terry Robert Sippel, 72 of Albert Lea.

Schilling suffered a non-life threatening injury and was taken to Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea. The State Patrol says all three drivers were wearing their seat belts.

The Albert Lea Police Department and Freeborn County Sheriffs Office assisted at the scene.CRESCO, Iowa  Two of three people facing drug charges in Howard County are pleading guilty.

Cresco police say they arrested Lisa Rae Ragon, Peggy Sue Schneider, and Steven Lane Geerts after the search of a North Elm Street apartment on December 8, 2017, turned up methamphetamine, marijuana, and the prescription drug Alprazolam.



Lisa Ragon Lisa Ragon

Steven Geerts Steven Geerts

Ragon, 47 of Cresco, has pleaded guilty to possession of meth and possession of marijuana. Shes been given a deferred judgment and one year of probation. If Ragon satisfies all the terms of her probation, this conviction will be removed from her record. She must also pay a $630 civil penalty.

Schneider, 60 of Cresco, entered a guilty plea to possession of meth-2nd or subsequent offense. He next court hearing is set for August 13.

Geerts, 21, is pleading not guilty to gathering where drugs are used, maintaining premises for drug use, possession of meth, possession of marijuana, and unlawful possession of prescription drugs. His trial is scheduled to begin on September 12.FOREST CITY, Iowa - A building that formerly housed the Winnebago County Law Enforcement Center may be spared from demolition.

County supervisors were supposed to hold a vote on demolishing the historic building Tuesday morning, but instead decided to table the vote until the August 14th meeting to seek input on a possible redevelopment plan for the building that dates back to 1934, and originally housed a hospital.

Supervisor Terry Durby says that proposals have been brought up for consideration, and says he thinks the building would be perfect for redevelopment.

"It had some really nice architecture to it originally, and most of it's still there. But I think some of it could be brought back and make it a really nice historical building," Durby said. "I think housing and commercial development might be a better option too. If we tear it down, we're still gonna have some costs involved there."

Durby adds the cost of selling the site would be cheaper, though he wants to have a plan to make sure that if anyone purchases it, they won't sit on it and let it deteriorate.The Midas Touch Gold Model as of July 25th, 2018

While gold and silver prices are collapsing since mid of June the Midas Touch Gold Model has been in neutral mode for the last two months already. This was a very important call to move to the sideline and watch what would enfold in the precious metals sector. In hindsight a clear and bearish sell signal would have been a good opportunity to profit from shorting these markets, but due to the relative strength seen in the mining stocks the model simply remained neutral. Besides its neutral stance, within the Midas Touch Gold Model there have been a lot of new bullish and bearish signals.

All timeframes in USD are bearish

First of all, and that is a very negative development, the monthly chart for Gold in USD has shifted to a bearish signal. It now takes a Gold price back above 1,365 to turn this signal around again. The last time this big picture signal changed was 11 months ago. Obviously, the big picture component will be negative for the next couple of months at least!

Looking at the weekly chart for Gold in USD, we find the extremely negative bearish embedded stochastic status, which is dragging the market down since many weeks already. Once this signal changes the recovery rally will have started!

On the daily chart it now takes a Gold price above 1,244 USD to shift the chart towards bullish. Actually, as it looks right now, if Gold can close above 1,237 USD the probability for an established bottom rises strongly.

Worst sentiment since 1990 is extremely bullish

One of the most bullish signals comes from the beaten down sentiment numbers. According to sentimenttrader.com the combined sentiment on gold, silver, and platinum now ranks among the worst since 1990. Statistically similar depressed sentiment levels have led to excellent returns in gold, silver, platinum and mining stocks over the following three months!

Combined precious metals sentiment currently below 24! Gold should return strongly over the next three months! In combination with the other contrarian buy signal coming from the CoT-report as well as the positive seasonal cycle, gold should be very close to a multi-week/multi-month bounce/recovery.

In this context the new sell signal coming from the Gold/Silver-Ratio does not seem to put too much negative pressure on the table. The ratio has been moving within a small range and just one or two strong silver days could quickly reverse its bearish reading.

Another positive note is the slightly returning ETF-demand. It is of course still very small but while gold is down heavily ETF investor have been buying 3.5 tones of GLD over the last two weeks. As well Gold in Chinese Yuan has issued a buy signal on Monday, while the CoT-report for the US-Dollar now shows a rather high commercial short position.

A short-squeeze is coming

Summing it up, it seems as if all the necessary parts for a massive Gold recovery and the expected summer rally are on the table. Yet, the market itself doesnt want to move but remains in this persistent downdraft. Gold is hanging around 1,226 USD and is not showing any convincing signals of an established bottom. Instead it might still need one more final sell out towards the lower monthly Bollinger Band around 1,182 USD.

If this indeed happens, bears would have totally exaggerated this down move! A fast snap back rally (short squeeze) will then probably be the only solution for this extremely oversold market. Therefore, expect the bottom somewhere between 1,180 and 1,210 USD followed by a snapback rally towards at least 1,265 USD or even 1,300 USD.

Still a bull market or back in bear market?

While a coming short squeeze is evident in the short-term, the bigger picture certainly has suffered over the last couple of weeks. As the ascending triangle has been clearly violated, Golds bear market might be back upon us. This is because Gold should not experience such a weak momentum during bull markets. Therefore this 155 USD sell-off since mid of April raises the probability that Gold is still in a bear market.

At the same time the market is extremely oversold, and this exaggeration could also create enough power for a decisive breakout through 1,365 USD. It is still too early to make a definite assumption, but the next wave up will be critical and should bring more clarity about the bigger picture.

In total, the Midas Touch Gold Model is still neutral. The model needs more bullish signals before its conclusion can finally can become bullish.

If you like to get regular updates on our gold model, precious metals and cryptocurrencies you can subscribe to our free newsletter here: http://bit.ly/1EUdt2KEgypt's top appeals court overturned on Wednesday sentences of death and life imprisonment for 16 defendants that had been convicted of involvement in street violence in the aftermath of the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The court has ordered a retrial in the case.

Two of the defendants were sentenced to death last year and 14 were handed life imprisonment terms over charges including murder, undermining public peace, the deliberate sabotage of public buildings, illegal protesting and terrorising citizens.

The charges stem from violence near the US embassy in downtown Cairo in October 2013. One person was killed and many others were wounded during clashes with security forces at the time.

Wednesday's court decision does not include convictions against others in the same case who were sentenced in absentia, who will automatically be retried if they turn themselves in, according to Egyptian law.

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(Kitco News) - Unlike gold, bitcoin has been having a great week, with prices back above $8,000, but will the rally last?

The popular cryptocurrency surprised many naysayers this week by hitting a two-month high on Tuesday while sustaining a bullish momentum.

Many analysts are now wondering if this rally will stick around and whether Decembers all-time high of nearly $20,000 is a possibility again this year.

Kitcos senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff projects more gains in the near-term. The bulls have good upside technical momentum and have the firm overall near-term chart advantage to suggest more upside in the near term, Wyckoff said.

The reason for the bright outlook is partly due to a renewed interest in the crypto market and its potential.

An inflow of positive news over the past few weeks regarding cryptocurrencies has revived investor appetite for Bitcoin and this can be reflected in the bullish price action, FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga said in a note on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have expressed interest in the cryptocurrency markets while the Financial Services Board declared that they do not pose a threat to the global financial system.

Otunuga forecasts more upside in bitcoins price in the near term as the positive momentum carries through the market, attracting more investors.

It will be interesting to see if the revived positivity over Bitcoin injects bulls with enough inspiration to challenge the $10000 psychological level this quarter, Otunuga said.

Crypto trader and CEO of BKCM LLC Brian Kelly is also positive about bitcoins 20% rise in one week. There were a lot of big sellers out there, Kelly told CNBC on Monday. That appears to be over.

Kelly added that interest around bitcoin is growing, with more investors wanting to come back after walking away from the market last year.

I can tell you from the calls that I'm getting, people that looked at [bitcoin] in December and didn't like the price are coming back now and saying, 'Alright, this thing is not going away. We need to understand what it is. Where does this asset class fit in to our portfolio?" he said.

But some analysts remain unconvinced by bitcoins jump, warning investors that a pullback in prices would be natural at this point.

Given that it has trended down so sharply since May, I wouldnt want to get too greedy, Newton Advisor founder and analyst Mark Newton told CNBC on Tuesday. We'll see a pullback in August.

Earlier in June, the popular cryptocurrency dropped below $6,000, leaving many guessing whether or not it hit bottom.

Bitcoin continued to struggle until mid-July, when the charts saw prices surge first to $7,000 and now to $8,000.

The cryptocurrency was last seen trading at $8,406.90, up 0.20%, according to Kitcos aggregated charts.Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX), the worlds largest publicly traded copper company but also a major gold producer, reports net income rose to $869 million, or 59 cents per share, in the second quarter from $268 million, or 18 cents, in the same period a year ago. After adjusting for special gains of $16 million, adjusted net income was $853 million, or 58 cents, in the recently completed quarter. "Our second-quarter results reflect strong performance from our global operations and a continued focus on productivity, cost management and capital discipline, says Richard C. Adkerson, president and chief executive officer. During the first half of 2018, we generated $2.7 billion in cash flow from operations and capital expenditures totaled $0.9 billion, enabling further strengthening of our balance sheet. Freeport says it paid off $454 million in debt in April. Second-quarter copper sales of 989 million pounds topped the April guidance of 970 million and also were higher than 942 million in the second quarter of 2017. Second-quarter gold sales of 676,000 ounces were lower than the April estimate of 700,000 primarily because of timing of shipments, but were higher than the year-ago tally of 432,000, Freeport reports. Second-quarter molybdenum sales of 24 million pounds were in line with the April estimate but below the second-quarter 2017 total of 25 million pounds. Freeport says sales volumes for 2018 are expected to be some 3.8 billion pounds of copper, 2.4 million ounces of gold and 95 million pounds of molybdenum, including 970 million pounds of copper, 700,000 ounces of gold and 24 million pounds of molybdenum in the third quarter.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Alacer Gold: Ardich Drill Results Are Positive





Alacer Gold Corp. (TSX: ASR; ASX: AQG) reports positive drill results for the Ardich gold prospect. The company has drilled an additional 25 holes, with a majority intersecting predominantly oxide mineralization with impressive gold grades, Alacer says. Key results include 50.2 meters averaging 3.01 grams of gold per tonne from a 43.4-meter depth, including one subinterval of 7.9 meters with 8.81 g/t gold, plus another hole with 68.6 meters averaging 2.21 g/t gold from a 36-meter depth, including 17 meters at 5.5 g/t. Mineralization remains open in all directions, with the new drill hole results improving the known mineralized zone to the west, east and south, the company reports. Importantly, the latest drilling confirmed that mineralization stepped across a southeastern fault. Initial metallurgical results indicate the oxide ores are suitable for heap leaching. Meanwhile, Alacer says work has started on the permitting process and a scoping study to examine options to expand heap-leach capacity.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

Fresnillo Reports Higher 2Q Output But Trims Silver Guidance

Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) has trimmed its 2018 silver-production guidance but upped this for gold. The Mexican-based company says silver production rose 5.7% year-on-year in the second quarter to 15.3 million ounces, helped by increased operations at the San Julian mine. However, the company now sees 2018 silver output of 64.5 million to 67.5 million ounces, down from the previous guidance range of 67 million to 70 million ounces. Second-quarter gold production climbed to 233,841 million ounces from 231,458 in the same period a year ago. Gold output for 2018 is now seen in a range of 900,000 to 930,000 ounces, compared to 870,000 to 900,000 previously. The company also produces base metals as a by-product. We have adjusted our full-year production guidance to reflect a better-than-anticipated gold performance due mainly to the ongoing reduction of inventories at Herradura and slightly lower-than-expected silver production due mainly to issues associated with less availability of process water at San Julian, says Octavio Alvidrez, chief executive officer. Overall however, our full-year consolidated guidance in silver-equivalent ounces remains unchanged.

By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com

McEwen Mining Encouraged By Black Fox Drilling

McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE, TSX: MUX) reports encouraging results from a $15 million exploration program at the Black Fox complex in Ontario. During the second quarter, the company undertook 129,000 feet of surface exploration drilling for a year-to-date total of 220,000. The drilling included the Stock Mine, which produced 137,000 ounces of gold between 1989 and 2005. Exploration also occurred at Froome, Gibson and Black Fox underground. A company news release listed a number of significant drill intersections. Our drilling continues to deliver very encouraging results, says Sylvain Guerard, senior vice president for exploration. Continued drilling success reinforces our view about the strong exploration potential of both the Black Fox and Stock properties.(Kitco News) - Gold prices are moderately higher, while silver prices are slightly up in early U.S. trading Wednesday. Some more short covering by the shorter-term futures traders is featured in both metals, following recent strong selling pressure that drove both to 12-month lows last week. A weaker U.S. dollar index on this day is also working in favor of the precious metals market bulls. August gold futures were last up $6.70 an ounce at $1,232.20. September Comex silver was up $0.08 at $15.60 an ounce.

World stock markets were mixed to weaker overnight. U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward narrowly mixed openings when the New York day session begins. There remains little risk aversion in the marketplace at present, which is bearish for safe-haven gold and silver.

U.S. President Trump is meeting with the European Union Commission leader Juncker today to try to de-escalate trade tensions between the U.S. and the EU. The U.S. has threatened EU automobiles with import tariffs.

In the currency markets, focus is on the Turkish lira, which has been under strong pressure. Also, the Chinese yuan has seen serious depreciation against the U.S. dollar in recent months.

The other key outside market today finds Nymex crude oil prices near steady and trading just around $68.50 a barrel.



The big U.S. economic data point of the week is Fridays first estimate of gross domestic product (GDP). The number is expected to come in at up a strong 4.4%. However, some analysts are even calling for a number of 5.0% or just above.

U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, new residential sales, and the weekly DOE liquid energy stocks report.

Technically, gold bears still have the solid overall near-term technical advantage amid a price downtrend on the daily bar chart. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close in August futures above solid resistance at $1,250.00. Bears' next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solid technical support at $1,200.00. First resistance is seen at this weeks high of $1,235.20 and then at $1,240.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,223.20 and then at this weeks low of $1,218.10. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 2.0

September silver futures bears have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $16.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $15.00. First resistance is seen at $15.75 and then at $15.90. Next support is seen at todays low of $15.47 and then at this weeks low of $15.34. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 2.0.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed long overdue news that American pastor Andrew Brunson was transferred from a jail in Turkey to house arrest on Wednesday but said the United States expects the Turkish government to do more. We welcome long overdue news that Pastor Brunson has been moved from prison to house arrest in #Turkey, but it is not enough, Pompeo said on Twitter. We have seen no credible evidence against Mr. Brunson, and call on Turkish authorities to resolve his case immediately in a transparent and fair manner. Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bill Trott

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.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday expressed disbelief that his longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen would have taped conversations with him, a day after an audio recording of a conversation between the two men was aired on U.S. television.

A lawyer for Cohen, Lanny Davis, released the recording of Trump and Cohen discussing paying for the rights to a Playboy models story about an alleged affair with Trump and it aired on CNN on Tuesday Night.

Davis told CNN he released it to dispute an assertion by Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani that tape would show that Trump made clear that if there were going to be a payment, it should be done by check, which would be easily traced. Giuliani has said the payment was never made.

In the recording, Trump can be heard saying pay with cash. Cohen counters by repeatedly saying, No.

According to Giuliani, in his transcript of the recording, Trump says on the tape: Dont pay with cash. Check.

Reuters was unable to verify the entire exchange between the two men because of the poor sound quality of the recording. Davis and Giuliani did not respond to a request for further comment.

In an interview with ABC News, Davis disputed Giulianis characterization of the call and said they method of payment was beside the point.

Its not about cash versus noncash. Its about truth, Davis said on Good Morning America on Wednesday.

The discussion of any payment could support claims by Trumps critics, including groups like the watchdog group Common Cause, that a payment benefited his presidential campaign and the failure to document it was potentially illegal.

Under U.S. election law, presidential candidates must disclose campaign contributions, which are defined as things of value given to a campaign in order to influence an election.

Legal experts have said a payment would not violate such laws if it were made for personal reasons.

People in Trumps position have all kinds of reasons for making these kind of payments, like family harmony or retaining commercial viability, said Bradley Smith, a professor at Capital University Law School and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission.

Giuliani has said the proposed payment was a personal matter and not subject to campaign finance law.

Before the election, Trumps campaign denied any knowledge of payment to McDougal, but the taped conversation could undermine those denials.

What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad! Trump wrote in a post on Twitter.

Karen McDougal, the model, alleges she began a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006. Giuliani denies that Trump had an affair with McDougal.

Davis said the tape is among audio recordings that were seized by the FBI in a raid of Cohens home and office in April. It was turned over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a filing in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

In the conversation, recorded in September 2016 at Trump Tower in New York, Cohen discusses setting up a company to make a payment apparently involving David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI) and a close friend of Trumps.

Cohen was proposing to pay AMI, which owns the National Enquirer newspaper, for the rights to McDougals story. AMI had bought them from McDougal for $150,000 but AMI did not publish her story.

I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, so that Im going to do that right away, Cohen says in the recording.

AMI acknowledged holding those rights when it relinquished them in April after McDougal had filed a lawsuit against AMI. A representative for the company did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the case, the Cohen recording or whether it held any discussion about the transfer of the rights to Trump.

Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violations linked to a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other matters related to Trumps campaign, a person familiar with the investigation has told Reuters.

Cohen has not been charged with any crime.

Davis told ABC that Cohen was not seeking a preemptive pardon from Trump and that Cohen has turned a corner in his life, and hes now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.(Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) on Tuesday reported quarterly profit and revenue that topped estimates but added fewer-than-expected monthly subscribers amid a dearth of special promotions.

Verizon Chief Technology Officer Hans Vestberg will take over as chief executive officer on Aug. 1 as the largest U.S. wireless carrier by subscribers races to launch its next-generation 5G network amid increasing competition in the industry.

Outgoing CEO Lowell McAdam said Verizon will have more opportunities for market growth as 5G brings new technologies that will let self-driving cars communicate with each other over a wireless network.

There are so many things where we have zero [market] penetration that are going to be huge five years from now, he said during an earnings conference call. Verizon said Houston will be the third of four cities where it plans to launch home internet 5G this year.

The company added a net 199,000 wireless customers who pay a regular monthly bill during the quarter, missing an average estimate of 210,000 net adds from analysts at Cowen and UBS.

On an adjusted basis, Verizon earned $1.20 per share, topping estimates of $1.14 per share.

Shares of Verizon rose 0.7 percent at $51.09.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $4.12 billion, or $1 per share, in the second quarter, from $4.36 billion, or $1.07 a share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose to $32.20 billion from $30.55 billion a year ago, exceeding estimates of $31.78 billion.

McAdam said during an earnings conference call that the company had no intention of spinning off Oath, its digital media umbrella that owns websites like AOL and Yahoo, in response to media reports.

The company said it added 369,000 connected devices during the quarter, including wearables like the Apple Watch, compared with 359,000 added in the first quarter. Customers who add tablets and wearables to their plans tend to stay with Verizon longer, Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis said in an interview.

Customers have indicated they value Verizons network, which should allow the company to continue to add subscribers as it moves to 5G, said Ted OConnor, an analyst with Cooke & Bieler. The firm owns 2.4 million Verizon shares, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Verizon said 2018 capital spending is expected to be at the lower end of its forecast range of $17 billion to $17.8 billion, despite a heavy investment in 5G.

Verizon returned to growth in revenue from wireless plans, up 2.5 percent on an adjusted basis in the quarter, signaling a business that is steadily getting healthier, said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, in a research note.

Verizon lost 37,000 Fios video subscribers during the quarter, more than the 15,000 in losses a year earlier, as cord-cutting increased and viewers moved to cheaper streaming video options.

The company added 43,000 Fios internet customers, versus 49,000 added in the prior-year quarter.

Verizon updated its outlook for full-year revenue growth to the low- to mid-single digits in percentage terms, versus the low-single digits, due to higher equipment revenue trends.Egypt presses Hamas to commit to a truce with Israel, and seeks to pave the way for Gazas reconstruction

Egypt told Hamas this week it needs to stop prevaricating over its commitment to the frail truce Cairo has managed to secure between it and Israel, according to an informed Egyptian official.

Egypt had already managed to secure Israeli consent for some food and medicine to enter Gaza late on Tuesday after Israel blocked the transport of goods in retaliation for what it said was Hamas failure to stick to the terms of the truce mediated by Egypt earlier this month.

While Hamas has been responsive, said the official, it needs to carry on being so if Cairo is to continue to try and secure a sustainable truce with Israel and encourage the US to go ahead with a reconstruction plan for the densely populated and impoverished Strip.

We have reason to believe the leadership of Hamas, whatever it agrees and disagrees, does not want to see another major Israeli strike, said the source. He then warned that in the unlikely scenario the truce failed completely and Israel does launch strikes, Egypt would not immediately side with Hamas.

Egypt has been very candid with Hamas and it is now the responsibility of the leaders of the movement to act in accordance with the interest of their people and to make wise decisions.

A Gaza-based Hamas official, speaking by phone on Tuesday, said that while Hamas is doing everything it can to avert war with Israel it cannot guarantee that there will be no escalation. If it happens it will not be because of what Hamas does or does not do, or because of the marches that our people have staged to defend their legitimate political rights, but because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu wants a war with Gaza, even if a short one, to secure internal political gains.

The Hamas member figure said his movement is in close consultation with Egypt. We have been working very well with Cairo, in relation to Gaza and on other matters, and we will continue to do so.

Neither the Egyptian official nor the Hamas figure would confirm that a meeting between a Hamas delegation and Egyptian security and intelligence officials had been delayed as part Cairos attempts to pressure Hamas. Instead, they both said channels of communication are open and meetings are only a part of the ongoing consultations.

European and Western diplomats in Cairo worry the situation on the borders between Gaza and Israel could explode accidentally.

I dont think Hamas wants a war with Israel and I dont think that Israel wants a war with Hamas, not a full-fledged conflict that would leave hundreds dead as it did in 2014. But given the frail situation there is no guarantee things do not get out of hand suddenly, and maybe even irreversibly, said one European diplomat speaking earlier this week, after Israel conducted a new round of attacks against what it said were Hamas militant targets.

A recent report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that an escalation similar to Israels aggression against Gaza in 2014 which left 2,000 Palestinians and 70 Israelis dead and caused huge damage to the Strip could not be ruled out.

Concerned diplomats say there is an increased international awareness that the harsh economic situation in Gaza is undermining stability.

On Monday the UNs humanitarian chief Zeid Raad Al-Husseini warned Israel that its shocking policies against Gaza had the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region.

Earlier in the week, UN Chief Antonio Guterres said he was gravely concerned over the escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel and said that it is the responsibility of both sides to urgently step back from the brink of another devastating conflict.

A Gaza-based Palestinian government source said people are still suffering the consequences of previous Israeli wars and it would be very hard for Hamas to justify any action that could prompt another aggression.

Hamas does not seem to be picking a fight but for Hamas to be receptive to any of the political proposals currently being promoted it needs assurances that nobody  not Cairo, the EU or the US  is able to give.

Hamas would expect Israel to commit to keeping a steady flow of food and medicine into Gaza and a prisoner exchange deal. The latter, says ICG, is likely to prove tricky, and there are no clear signs it is something to which the Israeli government could agree.

Hamas also wants guarantees it will not be excluded from the political management of Gaza in favour of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Cairo, says the Gaza-based source, might be accommodating of Hamas concerns on this front given tensions between Egypt and the PA over the so-called deal of the century, but the US and the EU remain unsympathetic to Hamas demands for a limited PA role in Gaza under any Palestinian reconciliation deal that allows for a Gaza reconstruction plan.

That reconstruction is supposed to be part of the mega political deal the administration of US President Donald Trump had promised to offer this summer.

It is unlikely now any deal will be ready by summer. In fact, there are doubts it will come this year at all, says an informed regional diplomat.

The delay in rolling out any deal is a result of Washingtons failure to secure either Palestinian or Israeli consent for its principles.

There is also an acute lack of international support for the deal. Some European capitals have all but rejected it out of hand for failing to address the long-standing Palestinian right to statehood and Palestinian concerns over Muslim and Christian religious sites in Jerusalem.

If the deal does not appear before the end of summer then the timetabling becomes ever more complex. There are UN General Assembly meetings late in September and then we are practically on the eve of mid-term Congressional elections in the US.

But once Trump is done with mid-term elections it will be close to the Christmas holidays. And while diplomacy generally picks up by mid-January elections in Israel are scheduled early in March and it is highly unlikely that Netanyahu would want to even discuss a deal that talks about Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees on the eve of elections.

According to Cairo-based European diplomats, it is more likely that the US might agree to an Egyptian proposal, supported by the UAE, to begin with the reconstruction of Gaza which could defuse a possible war neither Egypt nor Israel wants to see happen.

The same diplomats say the US is not as opposed to the Gaza first idea as it was just a few months ago though Washington would press for security arrangements between Gaza and Israel.

Informed Egyptian sources say Cairo is hard at work paving the way for a reconstruction plan and is willing to leave the mega political deal between Palestinians and Israelis for later.

In this respect Egyptian efforts to de-escalate the situation along the Gaza- Israel border, and ensure Hamas does not unintentionally provoke Israel into any strikes, remain essential.

Meanwhile, concerns about developments on the Syrian Israeli front were compounded when Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet over the Golan on Tuesday.

The UNs Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov warned that there has been a disturbing trajectory of increasingly frequent and dangerous confrontations between Israel and Syria.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 July 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Gaza first

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Iran will never take part in one-sided negotiations with the United States under threat, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Wednesday.

His comments appeared to be a reaction to US President Donald Trump's statement on Tuesday that he is ready to "make a real deal" with Iran.

"America should forget forever the idea of one-sided negotiations under the shadow of a threat," Tasnim news agency quoted Qassemi as saying.

According to the IRNA news agency, Qassemi also said that Iran has filed an official letter of objection to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which oversees U.S. diplomatic relations in the Islamic Republic.

This concerned a speech made by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in California on Sunday in which he compared Iran's leaders to a "mafia".

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Pyongyang naengmyeon served at the Okryu-gwan in Pyongyang. From DPRK Today



Residents of the North Korean capital Pyongyang are seeking relief from the heat wave sweeping the peninsula at a cold noodle restaurant beside the Taedong River, North Korean propaganda website DPRK Today reported Tuesday.



The Okryu-gwan, or Okryu Restaurant, is famous for its cold noodle called "Pyongyang naengmyeon." It is crowded all year round, but has been witnessing up to triple the number of customers a day during the sweltering conditions, the report said.



Pyeongyang naengmyeon is a buckwheat noodle dish served with cold chicken, beef or pork soup. Chopped pear, cucumber, kimchi and slices of chicken, pork and beef, together with a boiled egg, are placed on top of the noodles.



Vinegar and mustard sauce come with the dish, which is served in brassware to "stimulate appetite," the report said.











The Okryu Restaurant beside the Taedong River. From DPRK TodayPresident Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd after an address at the Veteran's of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday. AP



President Donald Trump expressed appreciation to North Korea on Tuesday following reports that Pyongyang has started to dismantle key parts of a missile test site. But Trump's top diplomat sounded a note of caution, saying inspectors would have to confirm the development.

Trump said new satellite photos indicating the North has begun to take down facilities at the Sohae site are a sign of progress from the ''fantastic'' summit he held last month in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

''We're all pursuing the denuclearization of North Korea and a new future of prosperity, security and peace on the Korean Peninsula and all of Asia,'' Trump told a VFW convention in Kansas City, Missouri. ''New images just today show that North Korea has begun the process of dismantling a key missile site and we appreciate that. We had a fantastic meeting with Chairman Kim, and it seems to be going very well.''

He spoke after the North Korea-focused 38 North website released satellite imagery taken from July 20 to July 22 that seem to show dismantlement underway at Sohae. The facilities being razed or disassembled include a rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles and a rail-mounted processing building where space launch vehicles were assembled before being moved to the launch pad, 38 North said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, expressed a note of caution. He said that while such a step would be in line with the pledges that Kim made to Trump, it would have to be confirmed by international inspectors.











This handout photo taken on July 24 and received from Attapeu on July 25 shows displaced residents arriving by boat in floodwaters in Attapeu province after a dam collapsed on July 23. AFP



South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday ordered the dispatch of an emergency relief team to Laos where heavy rains have led to the partial collapse of a dam built by South Korean firms, leaving hundreds missing and displacing thousands.

"President Moon instructed the government to come up with strong support measures, including the dispatch of an emergency relief team, to Laos," Moon's spokesman, Kim Eui-kyeom, told a press briefing.

The details of Seoul's government support measures, including the size of the relief mission, will be decided at a meeting to be held later in the day, involving vice ministerial officials from related offices, the spokesman said.

Hundreds of people are said to have gone missing while more than 6,000 others have been displaced, according to earlier reports.

Still, Moon's order comes amid a dispute over what may have led to the disaster.











About 500 people, mostly high school and middle school students on summer vacation, gather in front of the former Japanese embassy site in Seoul, Wednesday, to call on Japan to repent its inhumane act of forcing Korean girls into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



By Jung Da-min



Their absence was conspicuous because they were supposed to be at the center of it.



In the once-in-a-century heat wave, the Wednesday protest calling on Japan to repent its inhumane act of forcing Korean girls into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers was held as scheduled in front of the former Japanese embassy site in Seoul.



Instead of the aging former comfort women in their 80s and 90s, about 500 people, mostly high school and middle school students on summer vacation, gathered in front of the comfort woman statue. It was the 1,345th weekly protest.



Students from Gwacheon Foreign Language High School organized this week's demonstration. They are members of the school's chapter of Voluntary Agency Network of Korea (VANK), an organization that focuses on promoting Korea's image and historical accuracy.



"We have been participating in the Wednesday demonstrations, but this time we decided to organize it," said Lee Hye-rim and Lee Jung-min, both 18, who are VANK members. "The summer vacation started Monday and many students could participate in this week's demonstration."





Lee Hye-rim (right) and Lee Jung-min, students at Gwacheon Foreign Language High School, read a statement during the Wednesday demonstration. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min



Seventeen other student organizations participated.









"Some teachers persuaded me not to participate in the event, saying this issue is too political," said Jung Da-hee, 17, a member of The Butterfly Effect, a human rights group at a youth center in South Chungcheong Province. "But I think it should not be political and young students should be able to speak up."





Members of human rights group The Butterfly Effect including Jung Da-hee (right). Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min



Youn Mee-hyang, president of the Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, encouraged students who came from all parts of the country to participate in the demonstration amid the scorching heat.



Youn called on the government to disband a reconciliation and healing foundation established in 2016 as a result of a bilateral agreement made hastily during the Park Geun-hye administration.



"The Moon Jae-in administration should know it is the people's call to disband the reconciliation and healing foundation," Youn said.



The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed the creation of a fund of 10.3 billion won, provided from the national budget, for the former comfort women. Japan denounced it as a breach of the 2015 agreement in which the fund of an equal amount from Tokyo would be used.



"The government has decided to use the budget for the fund," Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back said on Tuesday. "We will do our best to follow up on victim-centered measures."



The move follows President Moon's pledge in January.





Students hold pickets and fans shaped like a butterfly, the symbol of supporting the former comfort women. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul





Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul



Foreign residents, mostly migrants who settled here after marrying a Korean spouse, learn English at Yeoksam Global Village Center in southern Seoul, July 19. / Courtesy of Sasaro



By Lee Suh-yoon



Every Thursday, a group of young women, mostly migrants who settled here after marrying a Korean spouse, gather to learn English at a community center in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul.



The classes are run by Sasaro, a nonprofit educational organization that seeks to provide equal education opportunities to disadvantaged youth and multiracial families.



Most of the students are women from countries in Southeast Asia or Eastern Europe who have lived in Korea for years, and many are more familiar with Korean than English.



For an hour and a half, the students read and discuss together a short article or text. The instructor stops after each paragraph to explain new vocabulary words. Students chime in with witty remarks that generate laughter from the group.



"I let the students choose the weekly topic on their own. Because they are all female, we usually end up doing topics like travel and food," Shin Ki-seon, a Sasaro English instructor who leads Thursday's classes, told The Korea Times. "I tried conducting a class on Korean politics once but no one was really interested."



Shin, 22, is currently attending university in the U.S. He is volunteering while staying in Seoul over the summer break.



"The Korean way of learning English through a grammar-centered approach does not really work with foreign students. So I usually start off the class with a conversation," he added.



The venue is provided by Yeoksam Global Village Center, jointly run by Seoul Metropolitan Government and Gangnam-gu Office. The center also provides Korean classes and various forms of counseling for foreign residents.





Kim Seol-ye, far left, and other members of Sasaro, a non-profit educational organization, pose for a photo before a meeting. / Courtesy of Sasaro



Hangang Fire Dancing Festival is set to show a performance by the world's best fire dancing artists, and also features fireworks on July 28 and 29. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government



By Kang Seung-woo



The Hangang Summer Festival has kicked off, turning Seoul's riverside parks into fun-packed destinations.



Founded in 2013, the annual fete held along the Han River has established itself as the flagship summer event in the capital, drawing more than 10 million people every year thanks to its wide range of entertainment, according to the city government.



They include water sports, film screenings, circuses, concerts, camping, dancing, night markets and ecological programs.



This year, the 31-day event from July 20 to Aug. 19 will have 80 events and programs under three themes: Cool Hangang, Fantastic Hangang and Hangang Together. The city introduced 38 new programs this year, 27 of which were devised by citizens.



Making the event more attractive, 70 percent of the entire programs, or 59, can be enjoyed for free.



The Hangang Project Headquarters of the Seoul Metropolitan Government has organized the seasonal festival in cooperation with civic organizations and private support groups.



"The festival has returned with various programs to entertain visitors. We hope all of them will have unforgettable summer memories in the event," said Yoon Young-chul, head of the Hangang Project Headquarters, adding they expect 12 million people this year, up from 11.5 million last year.



Cool Hangang focuses on water leisure programs such as Hangang Playground, Hangang Water Fight Festival and Hangang Paper Boat Competition.



Hangang Playground is the most notable program, in which visitors can enjoy 10 water leisure activities, such as kayaking, canoeing and water biking. It will be available until the end of the festival near Paradise Quay on Yeouido. Fees vary depending on each activity.





Hangang Water Fight Festival is a face-off featuring a water fight with balloons and water guns. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government

Hundreds of people are missing and several are feared dead after a hydropower dam under construction in southern Laos collapsed, causing flash flooding which swept away homes, state media reported on Tuesday (July 24).

The disaster left more than 6,600 people homeless, the Lao News Agency reported. A video on social media showed villagers wading through muddy flood waters carrying belongings.

Officials have brought boats to help evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu province, where the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam is located, as water levels rise after the collapse, ABC Laos news reported.











Lao Villagers evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu Province, Tuesday (local time). / Reuters-Yonhap



By Nam Hyun-woo





SK E&C Vice Chairman Cho Ki-haengIsrael was strongly present at the recent US-Russia summit in Helsinki, showing its determination to decide Syrias military and political fate, writes Bassel Oudat in Damascus

A notable outcome of the 16 July meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was the declaration that relations were improving between the two countries and Washingtons apparent handing over of the keys to Syria to Moscow after seven years of competition on the issue.

The outcome was not surprising, especially since Trump had announced two months ago that he wanted to withdraw US troops from Syria as soon as possible.

The Helsinki meeting merely confirmed that there was an agreement with Putin regarding Syrias political and military future.

During a news conference after the summit, the two men barely mentioned Syria, however, even though it was a prominent talking point behind closed doors. Putin told the news conference about the importance of encouraging Syrian refugees in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon to return to their homes, and he suggested using Russian planes to deliver humanitarian aid to those in need.

More importantly, he said he believed the war in Syria was over, and Trump did not contradict him.

Trump noted the outcomes of US-Russian military cooperation on Syria. Our militaries have performed better than our political leaders for years, he said, thereby removing the obstacles in the way of Russian military domination in Syria.

Trump gave Moscow the right to protect Israels security interests after it defeated the armed Syrian opposition in the south of the country, and he linked Israels security to Russias strategy in southern Syria.

Irans role was diminished, and Putin brought up the 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria and the need to restore peaceful co-existence between Damascus and Tel Aviv.

Trump reiterated that Iran would not be allowed to reap the rewards of defeating the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, which would have appealed to Russia since it has long wanted to curb Irans political and military role.

The Helsinki summit showed that the US is happy to make Putin the decision-maker in Syria, and that the interests of the two countries merge.

The US could have made southern Syria a quagmire for Russia, especially because of the presence of some 30,000 Syrian opposition fighters mostly from the region and heavily and well-armed. These fighters coordinate with the US-led International Coalitions HQ in Jordan.

However, rapprochement seems to be more important than confrontation with Russia. The US may want to trade southern Syria for northern Syria, or trade in southern Syria for ending the Iranian presence and guaranteeing the US share in the countrys reconstruction and its oil and gas.

There have been reports of a US role in facilitating the mission of troops loyal to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and Russian troops in southern Syria.

The Trump administration also wants pre-packaged gains that carry no political risks or risk of failed economic deals.

Russia can provide those gains, which is what was revealed in Helsinki.

Trump also does not want to clash with Putin, and Syria also involves Iran, important for this White House as Trump prepares for a second term.

The Helsinki meeting could be followed by other surprises regarding vanquishing the Syrian opposition in Idlib in northern Syria, along with an anticipated Turkish withdrawal.

Such things could be brought about by Russia, if the US hands over leadership on the Syrian issue.

The Syrian opposition believes the Helsinki summit decided the prospects of a solution in Syria that favours Israeli security interests. It is true we are talking about Syria, but Israel is at the heart of the matter, Trump commented, indirectly guaranteeing Al-Assads remaining in power because he is the best guarantor of Israels security.

Political bickering inside the US will not change the situation, as for Trump the Helsinki summit ended in a successful business deal that is part of the greater Deal of the Century for the Arab-Israel conflict.

Since the start of the Syrian Revolution, it has become a tool in the hands of overt and covert international and regional players, with the Syrian people being swamped in the intricacies of the conflict.

The political opposition handed over the revolution to an armed opposition that was controlled from overseas and unable to take independent decisions. The conflict became a battle over Syria and not one against the regime.

The opposition has also been led by opportunists having personal or ideological agendas using religious, nationalist and even ethnic slogans.

Mainstream slogans demanded by most Syrians in the first few months of the revolution regarding freedom, dignity, democracy and the rule of law vanished.

Meanwhile, the regime was willing to do anything to remain in power, which allowed Iran to step in and take control of military and political decisions and infiltrate Syrian society. Later, Russia intervened and took control.

The regime used every means at its disposal to make this a sectarian conflict, and it has committed war crimes, including the use of chemical weapons against its own people. It has claimed there is a universal conspiracy against it and its resilience and patriotic anti-Israel position even when Israel wants the regime to remain in power because it is the safest bet for Israel.

Current events, however, may not serve the Syrian regime because it has given Russia a green light and free hand to the US and Israel. The diplomatic bickering among these three states may have been a ruse, since their interests may not always correspond.

For the time being, it has been important to meet to decide Syrias future. That is what happened in Helsinki in the agreement between Moscow, Washington and Tel Aviv.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 26 July 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Three-way summit in Helsinki

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By Park Jae-hyuk







Hyundai Motor has signed deals with Mesh Korea, a domestic logistics startup and Chinese tech firm Immotor to seek new growth engines in the "last-mile" logistics industry, the company said Wednesday.







Last-mile refers to the movement of people and goods from a transportation hub to a final destination. In line with the recent growth of e-commerce, last-mile logistics businesses have emerged around the world to create added value.







Hyundai aims to offer innovative services to customers by adding its smart car technologies to the industry.







For this, the automaker invested 22.5 billion won ($19.9 million) in Mesh Korea.







The five-year-old startup running its own logistics brand, VROONG, provides comprehensive logistics services based on last-mile delivery by motorcycles.







Hyundai plans to come up with unmanned delivery vehicles by merging its self-driving and connected car technologies with Mesh Korea's logistics algorithm and infrastructure.







Hyundai Glovis, the logistics unit of Hyundai Motor Group, will also join the partnership to maximize efficiency, a Hyundai Motor official said.







For its expansion in the global last-mile business, Hyundai decided to invest in Immotor, a Shenzhen-based startup specializing in the e-scooter and battery-sharing businesses. The two companies declined to disclose the value of the investment.







With this strategic investment, Hyundai and Immotor will start discussing a partnership in the electric personal mobility business.







The Korean firm plans to enter the last-mile logistics industry in China by utilizing Immotor's technologies.







"Through our partnership with Mesh Korea, we now have global competitiveness in logistics platforms. We will push ahead with new businesses related to autonomous driving and robotics," a Hyundai Motor official said. "The partnership with Immotor will allow us to create a more convenient and safer mobility environment, so we will be able to provide innovative value to our customers."





Justice Antonio T. Carpio (Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines )







The July 12, 2016 Award in Essence





The July 12, 2016 Award of the Arbitral Tribunal was a landmark ruling for three reasons. First, the Arbitral Tribunal ruled that China's so-called historic nine-dashed line cannot serve as legal basis to claim any part of the waters or resources of the South China Sea. China, like all other coastal states in the South China Sea, cannot claim maritime zones beyond what UNCLOS allows, that is, not exceeding 350 NM from the coastline. The result is that about 25 percent of the South China Sea are high seas, and all around the high seas are the exclusive economic zones of the adjacent coastal states. Of course, in the high seas and exclusive economic zones there is freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight as recognized under customary international law and UNCLOS.





Second, none of the geologic features in the Spratlys is capable of generating an exclusive economic zone. The result is that the Philippines has a full 200 NM exclusive economic zone facing the South China Sea. Excluded from this EEZ are the disputed high-tide geologic features which generate a territorial sea. As between China and the Philippines, these high-tide geologic features, involving territorial disputes, are: Johnson South Reef, McKennan Reef and Scarborough Shoal. However, the Arbitral Tribunal ruled that the territorial waters of Scarborough Shoal are the traditional common fishing grounds of Filipino, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen.





Third, certain features in the Spratlys, like Mischief Reef and Subi Reef, are low-tide elevations incapable of sovereign ownership. Moreover, Reed Bank, which is fully submerged, is part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. This means that only the Philippines can put up structures on Mischief Reef, and that the gas and other resources in Reed Bank belong exclusively to the Philippines.





Tangible Acts Enforcing the Award





After two years, has the Award been enforced? The Award can be enforced in two ways: First, when the parties to the Award  the Philippines and China - comply with the Award, either jointly or individually. Second, when other states adopt the Award by state practice.





Unfortunately for the Philippines, after the Award was issued, President Rodrigo Duterte hemmed and hawed whether to demand compliance from China. Finally, in December 2016, President Duterte declared he was "setting aside" the Award to secure loans and investments from China. The Department of Foreign Affairs clarified that the President will ask China for compliance at some future time during the term of the President. Thus, effectively the President has placed in deep freeze any enforcement of the Award by the Philippines.





Fortunately for the Philippines, other states have adopted the Award by state practice. The Award affirmed the existence of high seas and EEZs in the South China Sea. This part of the Award has been enforced, and is being enforced, by many naval powers of the world by state practice through the exercise of freedom of navigation and overflight.





Immediately after the announcement of the Award, the U.S., U.K. and Australia declared that their navies and air forces will continue to sail and fly in the South China Sea in the exercise freedom of navigation and overflight. Subsequently, France declared that its naval vessels will also sail in the South China Sea in the exercise of freedom of navigation. Without much publicity, naval vessels of Canada, India and Japan also sail in the South China Sea in the exercise of freedom of navigation.





Thus, the freedom of navigation and overflight operations of many naval powers of the world effectively enforce the existence of high seas and EEZs in the South China Sea. These operations ensure that China's nine-dashed line, which encroaches on the EEZs of other coastal states, cannot claim any part of the waters or resources of the high seas and the EEZs of other coastal states.





The waters and fish in the high seas are part of the global commons, belonging to all mankind. The resources in the EEZs  the fish, oil, gas and other minerals - can be exploited solely and exclusively by the adjacent coastal state. Clearly, the affirmance of the existence of high seas and EEZs around such high seas in the South China Sea, through the navigational and overflight operations of naval powers, redounds to the immense benefit of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia  the coastal states whose EEZs are encroached by China's nine-dashed line.





These navigational and overflight operations prevent China from resurrecting the nine-dashed line, a claim that was declared legally baseless by the Arbitral Tribunal. In effect, these operations enforce the core legal ramifications arising from the Award  that there are high seas in the South China Sea, and around these high seas are the exclusive economic zones belonging to the adjacent coastal states, including the EEZ of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea.





That is why the Philippines and the other coastal states should welcome, and even encourage, more freedom of navigation and overflight operations by other countries in the South China Sea. The more freedom of navigation and overflight operations that are conducted by other states, the stronger will be the enforcement of the Award. These operations assert and affirm, in accordance with international law as affirmed by the Award, that there are high seas and EEZs in the South China Sea. With these operations, China can no longer turn the South China Sea into a Chinese Mare Nostrum. States conducting freedom of navigation and overflight operations should specifically invoke the Award to justify the actions of their navies and air forces in sailing and flying in the high seas and EEZs of the South China Sea. Specifically invoking the Award will draw stronger support for such navigational and overflight operations from the peoples of coastal states that rely on the Award to preserve and protect their EEZs from encroachment by China's nine-dashed line.





Constitutional Duty of the State to Protect Its EEZ





Under UNCLOS, the coastal state has the right to secure and protect the living and non-living resources in its EEZ by patrolling its EEZ. Naval and aerial patrols are, of course, necessary to protect a coastal state's exclusive economic zone from poachers and polluters.





The Philippine Constitution mandates that "the State shall protect its marine wealth in its xxx exclusive economic zone." Under the Constitution, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is "the protector of the State" and is mandated "to secure the sovereignty of the State and the integrity of the national territory." Thus, the Constitutional duty to protect our exclusive economic zone falls on the Armed Forces of the Philippines.





The only way to protect our exclusive economic zone is for the Philippine Navy and Philippine Air Force to conduct naval and aerial patrols in our exclusive economic zone for that is how poachers and polluters in the exclusive economic zone can be detected, identified and apprehended. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces under the Constitution, the President has the constitutional duty to ensure that the Armed Forces conduct regular naval and aerial patrols in our exclusive economic zone.





Philippine naval and aerial patrols in our exclusive economic zone is not about freedom of navigation or overflight but about protecting and safeguarding the exclusive right of the Philippines to the living and non-living resources in its own exclusive economic zone. I believe that the Filipino people would like to see such patrols conducted regularly and periodically as mandated by the Constitution. This is obviously demanded by the national interest of our country.





Enforcement of the Award by other ASEAN States





There is only one country  Indonesia - that has invoked the Award for a purpose other than freedom of navigation and overflight. In July 2017 Indonesia renamed the waters in its EEZ in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea after Indonesia's Natuna archipelago that faces the South China Sea. Indonesia premised its action by citing the Arbitral Tribunal's ruling that China's nine-dashed line has no legal effect. In short, Indonesia enforced a ruling in the Award by state practice.





Enforcement of Ruling by the Philippines





How can the Philippines enforce the ruling in a similar way, by actions that do not require China's participation? Let me cite some of these actions.





First, the Philippines and Vietnam can enter into a sea boundary agreement of their overlapping extended continental shelves beyond the Spratlys. The premise of this agreement is that there is no geologic feature in the Spratlys that generate an exclusive economic zone as ruled by the Arbitral Tribunal in the Award, and thus there are no overlapping exclusive economic zones between the Philippines and Vietnam, only overlapping extended continental shelves. The sea boundary will be the median line and there can be no dispute on this. Such an agreement adopts a ruling in the Award by state practice, even if China is not a party to the agreement.





Second, a similar sea boundary agreement can be entered into between the Philippines and Malaysia to delineate their adjoining exclusive economic zones between Borneo and Palawan. The premise of this agreement is again that none of the islands claimed by either country in the Spratlys generates an exclusive economic zone as ruled by the Arbitral Tribunal. Consequently, there are no EEZs from these islands that will overlap with the EEZ of Borneo or Palawan. Again, such an agreement adopts a ruling in the Award by state practice, even if China is not a party to the agreement.





Third, the Philippines can file with the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf an extended continental shelf claim off the coast of Luzon facing the South China Sea. This is a unilateral act of the Philippines, just like the filing by the Philippines of its extended continental shelf claim in Benham Rise in the Philippine Sea. The Philippines does not need the consent or participation of China in filing this claim. The premise of this claim is that the Philippines has a full 200 NM EEZ off the coast of Luzon, as ruled in the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal. The UN Commission will have to respect the Award of the Arbitral Tribunal because the Arbitral Tribunal, just like the UN Commission, is a creation under the authority of UNCLOS. The decision of the UN Commission will apply the ruling in the Award that the Philippines has a full 200 NM EEZ off the coast of Luzon.





The Red Line on Scarborough Shoal





Not all is doom and gloom with the Philippine Government's policy on the West Philippine Sea. I am heartened that Secretary of Foreign Affairs Peter Cayetano has drawn a red line on Scarborough Shoal. That red line is: China cannot build on Scarborough Shoal. This should be the red line of the Philippines and the Filipino people. The DFA should campaign among ASEAN states, in particular among those states prejudiced by the nine-dashed line, to make Scarborough Shoal also ASEAN's red line: that China cannot build on Scarborough Shoal. The DFA should also campaign for the United States to make Scarborough Shoal the official red line under the Philippine-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty. After all it was President Obama who originally told President Xi Jinping in 2015 that Scarborough Shoal was a red line. Moreover, the U.S. has recognized Scarborough Shoal as part of Philippine territory when the U.S. was still the colonial power in the Philippines.





A Long Struggle Ahead





I have always said that defending Philippine maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea is an inter-generational struggle. Today is just the second anniversary of the July 12, 2016 Award. We have a long way to go but we must stay the course. We have moved forward even in the face of a reluctant Duterte Administration. With the support of the Filipino people, the peoples of UNCLOS member states, and the world's naval powers that seek to maintain the rule of law in the oceans and seas of our planet, we shall persevere, and we shall prevail.





Justice Antonio T. Carpio (Acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines )





A journalist was murdered Tuesday in southeast Mexico, not far from tourist hotspot Cancun, the government said -- the seventh such killing this year in one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters.



Ruben Pat, the editor-in-chief of the Playa News weekly, was shot dead outside a bar in Playa del Carmen in the early hours, the Quintana Roo state government and prosecutors said.



He was the second journalist from Playa News based in Playa del Carmen, which is located south of Cancun on Mexico's Gulf coast, murdered in less than a month, after his colleague Jose Guadalupe Chan.



The killing prompted outrage in Mexico, the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists last year, behind only civil war-wracked Syria, with 11 murdered, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).



"It is imperative that a prompt, exhaustive and effective investigation is carried out," said Jean Jarab, the representative of the United Nations rights agency to Mexico.



That probe should focus on stories that Pat and Playa News had worked on, as well as "previous examples of threats and attacks against members of the press," he added.



According to the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Pat claimed in June he had been "arrested, threatened and tortured" by police in Playa del Carmen, which is also a tourist hub.



The slain journalist said he had "published information that would link local officials to organized crime," according to the UN agency.



Pat spoke to AFP in late June about threatening phone calls received by Chan, who worked as a correspondent in an indigenous Maya area.



RSF said Pat had sought protection after receiving threats "but had been given just a GPS and a panic button," the latter being a direct communications line with authorities.



"The Mexican authorities must draw the inevitable conclusion from this terrible event, namely that the Federal Mechanism for Protecting Journalists failed in its duty to protect Ruben Pat although his situation of vulnerability had been known for a long time," said RSF Latin America chief Emmanuel Colombie.



The Quintana Roo Human Rights Committee demanded action by local authorities over the two murders, saying: "Enough attacks against freedom of expression," which it described as "a fundamental pillar of democracy."



Prosecutors said the incident was meant to "intimidate" other journalists.



On its Facebook page, Playa News demanded answers from the state government about Pat's murder.



The European Union spoke of the "alarming recurrence of murders of journalists" in Mexico, and urged the "authorities to make use of all the means at their disposal to guarantee the protection of those who practice journalism."



It also called for an evaluations of the protective mechanism so that it can be rendered more effective.



Danger zone for journalists



According to various freedom of speech organizations, more than 100 journalist have been killed in Mexico since 2000. The vast majority of those crimes have gone unpunished.



The other five murders this year happened in several states: Tamaulipas in the northeast (two), Guerrero in the south, and Veracruz and Tabasco in the east.



All of those areas are known for high levels of organized crime -- authorities are often accused of colluding with crime lords.



Intimidation of journalists in those areas is common, but journalism isn't the only risky profession in Mexico.



Between September and presidential elections on July 1, at least 145 politicians were killed.



Five of the eight most violent cities in the world are located in Mexico, according to government statistics for 2017.



Los Cabos in the country's northwest topped that list with 111 murders per 100,000 citizens.



Also Tuesday, authorities said they found the bodies of six men in the western state of Michoacan near a known people-smuggling route to the US. In the same state, a former local council candidate was also shot and killed Tuesday, the state attorney general's office said.



Mexico saw a total of 15,973 murders in the first semester of this year, up from 13,503 over the same period in 2017, until now the bloodiest year of record, according to official figures. Quintana Roo state has suffered its share of drug-related violent crime.



Five people were killed in January 2017 in Playa del Carmen after a gunman opened fire in a crowded nightclub during a music festival.



Some 279 people were killed in drug-trafficking related violence in the state in the first half of the year, according to Semaforo Delictivo, an organization that compiles crime statistics.



Quintana Roo nonetheless is home to many of the most popular tourist destinations in Mexico, particularly among visitors from the United States and Europe. (AFP)



(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) President Donald Trump was met by protests during a visit to downtown Kansas City on Tuesday to speak to veterans.

President Trump addressed thousands of veterans at Municipal Auditorium at the at the Veterans of Foreign Wars' national convention.

According to the Facebook page for the event, "Protest Trump - Bring Your Own Balloon (BYOB)" a number of groups including The Human Rights Campaign-Kansas City, the Women's March on Washington in Kansas City, Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains Votes and Kansas City Veterans for Peace signed up for the protest.(CNN) -- President Donald Trump urged the audience before him on Tuesday to support a Missouri Republican's Senate campaign, smeared Democrats and warned the crowd not to "believe the crap you hear from (the media.)"

The speech amounted to a typical political stump speech for Trump, all except for the setting. Instead of a political rally draped in campaign signage, Trump was addressing the annual convention of the nonpartisan Veterans of Foreign Wars, which invites the sitting U.S. president every year -- regardless of party -- to address its members.

Past U.S. presidents have typically focused their remarks at the annual veteran's event on policy issues, leaving little room for partisan political attacks or political endorsements. President Barack Obama, though, in 2015 used his speech to take shots at Republicans over their budget proposal at the time.

Politics were on Trump's mind as he began his speech -- which was welcomed with raucous cheers and at times boos aimed at the Democrats Trump attacked -- by remarking that the roll call of "nay" votes on his Veterans Affairs secretary's confirmation amounted to a list of Democrats who will likely challenge him in 2020.

From there, Trump welcomed Missouri's Republican attorney general, Josh Hawley, on stage and told the crowd "we need him so badly" in the Senate. Next -- much like a political rally -- Trump ticked down a list of accomplishments and promises kept since he came into office before delivering fierce criticism of the news media and leveling attacks against Democrats.

"Don't believe the crap you hear from these people -- the fake news," Trump told the crowd of veterans. "What you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening."

Raising the issue of immigration, Trump claimed many Democratic politicians are "disciples of a very low IQ person," Rep. Maxine Waters, a frequent Democratic critic of the President's. He also falsely accused Democrats of being "OK" with crime in the US.

"They want open borders, and crime's OK," Trump said. "We want strong borders and we want no crime."

Trump arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday after a local newspaper rolled out a welcome mat in the form of an editorial warning about his bellicose rhetoric toward Iran.

His appearance came amid a confluence of controversy involving Trump on the world stage, including an all-caps tweet two days earlier warning Iran that continued threats would result in "consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."

Trump's tweet prompted an editorial from The Kansas City Star urging Trump to take the opportunity "to listen -- and we mean really listen -- to some of the heroes who will be on hand to hear him."

"They surely will have something to say about the realities of war and the horrors of combat," the newspaper's editorial board wrote. "Those insights would be good for Trump to hear now as he continues to rattle his saber at foes around the globe."

Trump on Tuesday said he was open to negotiations with Iran and said he is "ready to make a real deal, not the deal done by the previous administration, which was a disaster."

Trump's earlier saber-rattling toward Iran also came as he has sought out a less confrontational approach to Russia that has left the President's critics and supporters alike accusing him of adopting a weak posture in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week in Helsinki, Finland, Trump refused to back the US intelligence community's assessment of Russian interference in 2016 over Putin's denials, before later attempting to walk back his remarks and reaffirm his support for US intelligence agencies.

Trump has sought to sweep away that controversy with another, signaling on Monday that he may revoke the security clearances of several former national security officials who have criticized him.

The President's trip to Kansas City will also include a political component. Trump will also hold a roundtable with supporters and will deliver remarks at a fundraising luncheon benefiting Josh Hawley, the Republican seeking to unseat Missouri's Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.Top French officials were to appear for fresh hearings Wednesday over the rogue security aide scandal which has engulfed the government of President Emmanuel Macron, who has broken his silence over the case by saying he bears the sole responsibility for the events.

The disgraced aide, 26-year-old former bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, was dismissed last Friday after videos emerged of him beating a protester while wearing a police helmet and armband during a May Day protest in Paris.

"What happened on May 1 is terrible, serious, and for me it was a disappointment and a betrayal," Macron told a group of lawmakers in his majority Republic on the Move (LREM) party late Monday.

"The only person responsible for this affair is me, and me alone," he said, according to lawmakers present at the gathering.

"The one who knew about and approved the punishment decided by my aides, it's me and nobody else."

Benalla was given a two-week suspension without pay days after the incident and removed from organising the president's security during his trips.

But the alleged assault of the young man was not reported to prosecutors, who opened a probe after French daily Le Monde published the video last week.

Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of a cover-up and have paralysed parliamentary debate while launching investigative committees in both the National Assembly and Senate.

Several cabinet members and security chiefs were to appear before the panels Wednesday, including a Senate hearing for office director Patrick Strzoda.

Strzoda had already told lawmakers Tuesday that he decided there weren't enough elements to justify turning Benalla over to prosecutors, not least because no criminal complaint had been filed against him.

Macron's chief of staff Alexis Kohler will appear before the Senate committee on Thursday.

Opposition lawmakers say Macron still needs to answer questions over what has been dubbed "Benallagate", including reports that the former chief of security during his 2017 campaign enjoyed a series of perks unusual for someone of his rank.

"It's not among his LREM deputies, among his own, that the president should discuss this, but before the French people," Gerard Larcher, the Senate president, told French daily Le Figaro.

"My feeling is that our fellow citizens are a bit stunned by this. The government should be careful," he said.

After the first video emerged of Benalla striking a young man at least twice during scuffles at the picturesque Place de la Contrescarpe in Paris as riot police looked on, another showed him violently wrestling a woman to the ground.

Benalla has been charged with assault and impersonating a police officer, while also illegally receiving police surveillance footage in a bid to claim his actions were justified.

Vincent Crase, an associate and security agent employed by the LREM who was also at the scene, has also been charged, as have three police officers.

It remains unclear how Benalla obtained the police armband.

The head of the police oversight body, Marie-France Moneger-Guyomarc'h, also testified on Tuesday that police had no reason to believe the person in the Benalla video was not an officer and that the violence "was not illegitimate (if) carried out by police officers".

The scandal comes as Macron's ratings slump, with 60 percent reporting an unfavourable opinion in an Ipsos poll published Tuesday -- a record low for the centrist.

An Elabe poll, released before Macron spoke on the issue, found 80 percent were "shocked" by the "Benallagate" affair.

"The problem isn't Alexandre Benalla's misconduct but rather the structure that made it possible," said Bruno Cautres, a political scientist in Paris.

"No matter the administrative or judicial consequences of this affair, it will mark a before and after for Emmanuel Macron."

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The grants will be spent agriculture, higher education, science and technology, healthcare and governance

Egypt's Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) signed on Tuesday five agreements for grants worth $45 million, according to a statement by the ministry issued on Wednesday.

The grants will be spent on projects in the sectors of agriculture, higher education, science and technology, healthcare, and governance.

The signing of the agreements affirms the strategic and economic relations between Egypt and the US, Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said.

A $5 million healthcare grant will be spent on family planning as well as a 2018 survey on health and demographics.

Another $27 million grant will be allocated for higher education and scientific research to prepare graduates for the needs of the job market.

The $27 million grant will be spent on increasing partnerships between universities and the number of awarded scholarships, as well as offering training for teachers.

The third grant is worth $4 million, and targets deepening relations between scientific communities in Egypt and the US, and increasing scientific and technological development for peaceful purposes through an exchange of technology, information and skills.

A $3.5 million grant will be allocated to increasing the income of agriculture workers in Upper Egypt by working on increasing production and connecting them to international markets.

The fifth grant, which targets governance, is worth $5.3 million and will be provided to the ministries of justice and of social solidarity, the National Council for Women, and the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.

The grant is set to boost the capacities of the justice system, improve the electoral process, and consolidate the political and legal frameworks to deal with violence against women.

Minister Nasr said the grants are about investing in the Egyptian citizen.

Sherry Carlin, USAID Mission Director in Egypt, said Egypt and the US are cooperating to achieve sustainable outcomes of programmes that are tailored to the needs of Egyptian citizens.

Carlin stressed on the strong partnership between the two countries through such grants, which are part of $30 billion spent by USAID in Egypt since 1978.

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The documentary was made by members of the Shofoha Beoyona campaign, with hopes to boost tourism in the Mediterranean city

Mohamed Sultan, governor of Alexandria, has honoured the filmmakers of the short documentary titled, Alexandria: Pearl of the Mediterranean, in a small ceremony held Sunday.

The short film was made by youth organising the campaign "Shofoha Beoyona" (See it Through Our Eyes) in an effort to showcase the beauty of their city and encourage tourism.

It highlights touristic spots in Alexandria, with a focus on lesser known areas that hold the citys heart.

Sultan applauded the filmmakers for their efforts in creating something that benefits the city, and encouraged the use of documentaries and films for promoting tourism.

For their part, members of Shofoha Beoyona expressed their pride in completing the film, adding that they plan on creating more films for the different governorates in Egypt, starting with Cairo and Giza, according to Al-Ahram Arabic news site.

The film was screened within a pitch to host the ICOM 2022 conference. The city of Alexandria won against Prague and Oslo, and will be hosting the international conference in 2022.



For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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An over 4,400-year-old pottery workshop has been discovered near Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan, Upper Egypt as maintenance work was being carried out to reduce the level of underground water beneath the temple.

The workshop, the oldest ancient Egyptian workshop ever discovered, dating back to the Fourth Dynasty (2,613 - 2,494 BC), was found in the area located between the Crocodile Museum and the Nile's shore.

The structure has semi-circular holes of different sizes and contains a collection of cylindrical stone blocks used to melt and mix clay.

A pottery manufacturing wheel and its limestone turntable were also discovered.

"The discovery is an important and rare one," Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Ahram Online, adding that this is the oldest workshop ever found in the country.

Waziri explains that the discovery gives insight into the daily lives of ancient Egyptians as well as the development of pottery and industry throughout Egypt's different dynastic periods.

Waziri asserted that this is the first pottery manufacturing wheel to be found from the ancient Egyptian era, adding that several reliefs and paintings showing the development of pottery in ancient Egypt had been previously discovered.

Egyptologist Morslav Verner had discovered just the head of a pottery manufacturing wheel made of burned clay in a pottery workshop found at Queen Khentkawes II's temple in Abusir necropolis.

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You may have noticed it's hot in Los Angeles. Sizzling hot. Perhaps hot enough to bake something on the dash of your car? Spoiler: yes.

Turns out you can cook a full meal -- albeit with almost zero nutritional value -- using your sun-soaked car as the oven. We devised a plan to reinvent a demo Buzzfeed shared about Arizonans baking cookies on their dashboard in the blistering summer heat.

But our Take Two staff wanted to expand on this experiment. So we took a short trip to our local Trader Joe's and created a full dining experience from appetizer to dessert -- perfect for a hungry reporter or radio producer.

A note on food safety: the USDA advises that food should be cooking thoroughly to the temperature of 140 degrees, which keeps it out of the "danger zone." And to REALLY keep yourself safe, food should be kept hot -- at or above 140.

PREPPING OUR MEAL

Using a cookie sheet and tin foil we laid out the bounty.

(Photo by Tamika Adams/LAist)

On the menu:

Frozen Thai vegetable gyoza

Quesadillas with Mexican cheese blend

Glorious chocolate chip cookies

With our courses set, we head to our kitchen, conveniently located in the KPCC/LAist parking lot. The oven is a 2011 model from Honda. She gets pretty good mileage, but can she cook?

TWO HOURS IN

(Photo by Tamika Adams/LAist)

At the two hour mark in the midday sun, the dash temperature reached the levels of a standard toaster oven -- about 181 degrees.

We saw that the cheese in our makeshift quesadilla had melted and the gyozas had oil seeping out the bottom. They were nearly done, but the cookies had a ways to go.

(Photo by Tamika Adams/LAist)

FOUR HOURS IN

In the span of 4 hours, our four-wheeled oven went from 110 degrees to over 190 degrees on the dash where our tray was cooking.

Important Question: Can you cook a three-course meal on your dashboard? Spoiler Alert:YES @taketwo #summerheatwave pic.twitter.com/dnlWGiHWRm  tamika adams (@_tamika_adams) July 25, 2018

Time to get the bakes inside for eating.

(Photo by Julia Paskin/LAist)

GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT

We checked the internal temperatures of the food to confirm they were safe for eating, then shared them with the rest of our newsroom. Here was the consensus of our cooking:

Gyoza - Inside delish but the edges are waaaay overdone

Quesadilla - Dry but the cheese saves the dish!

Cookies - Tops are baked but the bottoms were soggy. Similar to a microwavable mug brownie. These were the crowd pleaser.

TIPS AND TAKEAWAYS

This experiment works best in a black car. The heat absorbs and creates a true hellscape to cook up your goodies.

Maybe steer clear of combining everything on a single tray. Our cookies were a bit messy and touched the other foods.

Make sure you flip the food halfway through to get even cooking top to bottom.

And as always, don't leave a living organism in a hot car. That would literally amount to putting someone in your oven at home.

Southern California heat waves are powerful and dangerous, but it turns out that with a little ingenuity and food safety in mind, you can get something sweet out of it.

You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. Donate now.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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Another of Southern California's threatened mountain lions has died.

P-55, a roughly 3-year-old cougar who made headlines earlier this year for making a house call in Westlake Village, was found dead by biologists with the National Park Service's Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.

"He was a beautiful animal who survived longer than most males in the Santa Monica Mountains, but ultimately met his end at a relatively young age," NPS spokeswoman Kate Kuykendall wrote on social media.

The mountain lion was also locally famous for successfully crossing the 101 Freeway last August (actually he crossed the freeway twice). The NPS shared a video showing P-55 rubbing his cheeks on rocks, not knowing he's on hidden camera.

Exactly how P-55 died is unknown. The collar he was wearing didn't emit a "mortality signal," Kuykendall explained, adding that his remains were too decomposed when biologists finally found them. But researchers suspect the "seemingly healthy" puma may have been the victim of rodenticide poisoning.

This typically happens when cougars eat other hunters, like foxes or bobcats, that had eaten rats, squirrels or other smaller animals that ingested the poison.

Wildlife officials also said it's possible he lost a fight with another male mountain lion, though there were no signs of a struggle in the area.

P-55's home range was on the northwestern end of the Santa Monica Mountains, Kuykendall said, "generally west of Las Virgenes Road and mostly north of Mulholland." He had no known offspring, she later told LAist.

There are an estimated 10 to 15 cougars in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the small population is rapidly becoming inbred, researchers say. Within 50 years, the local lion population could go extinct due to inbreeding, according to a 2016 UCLA study.

News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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For years, people living on the coast of Southern California waved off the idea of air conditioning. Instead, they had open windows and cool sea breezes.

But climate change is changing that, as extreme heat becomes more common. Now, coastal residents are buying air conditioners faster than people living inland or in the desert, according to data from the California Energy Commission.

In the coastal territory of Southern California Edison, AC usage jumped 36 percentage points between 1985 and 2015. That's 9 percentage points higher than SoCal Edison's desert territory.

So what changed?

Americans are increasingly saying they can't live without air conditioning.

According to a survey from Pew Research, in 2006 (the most recent year available), 70 percent of adults said AC was a necessity, up from 51 percent in 1996.

Also, it's hotter now than in the '80s. And it's going to get hotter still.

By the middle of the century, researchers at UCLA project that the average temperature in greater Los Angeles will be 4 degrees hotter than it was, on average, from 1981-2000.

And all areas will experience far more days above 95 degrees.

PEOPLE WHO FLIPPED THE SWITCH

For one Torrance resident, the breaking point for getting AC was seeing his 2-year old squirm uncomfortably in the heat earlier this month. "We couldn't do it anymore," Paul Zayat said. "Your home is supposed to be a place you go to relax and be comfortable, and we didn't have that feeling."

For Sandie Bass, who has lived between Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey for 18 years, it was when her mother, who lives in Chicago, told her she would never visit again until she got air conditioning.

I had to cave in two years ago. We have been out here for 10 and managed fine, completely unbearable now. The rest of my complex has gone out and bought portable units as well. Interior temps in apt can hit the mid 90's without cooling.  Southern California OSINT (@SoCalOSINT) July 23, 2018

And for David Hermann, who lives less than two miles from the ocean in Redondo Beach, it was being miserable during the heatwave of July 2016.

"I've lived in Redondo since 2008," he said. Back then, he remembers "one time where we had a hot day. And now it's basically every fricking week."

THE SENSITIVITY FACTOR

A recent UC San Diego study also found that people in coastal San Diego County were much more sensitive to heat than people living inland. Residents there got heat sickness, experienced renal failure and had breathing problems at much lower temperatures than people living inland -- 73 degrees compared to 90 for people living in the desert.

"People living in hot environments are just physiologically better equipped to handle that," said lead author Kristen Guirguis, a climate researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

But, unsurprisingly, Guirguis found that air conditioning helps, a lot. The thing is, a lot of people on the coast don't have it; even though AC ownership rates are increasing rapidly there, they're still far lower than they are inland.

In SoCal Edison's territory, just 51 percent of people living on the coast have AC, compared to 85 percent in the desert. It was similar in San Diego County, where less than 40 percent of coastal residents had central air compared to close to 100 percent in the desert.

My family and I live in South LA and considering it's only JULY, we finally sucked it up and bought A/Cs. The disappearance of our marine layer is noticeable. #LAHeatwave #climatechange  Jackie Cornejo (@JackieCornejoG) July 23, 2018

INCOME AND RACE

According to the San Diego County study, people making more than $150,000 were three times more likely to have AC than the poorest residents.

Renters were less likely to have AC than homeowners.

And Latinos were also less likely to have AC than white people, although Latinos were less likely to go to the hospital from heat-related sickness than white people, despite having less access to AC.

This story is part of Elemental: Covering Sustainability, a multimedia collaboration between Cronkite News, Arizona PBS, KJZZ, KPCC, Rocky Mountain PBS and PBS SoCal.

News happens every day. Here at LAist, our goal is to cover the stories that matter to you and the community you live in. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) are made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism isn't cheap, but with your support we can keep delivering it. Donate now.Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was reduced to rubble early Wednesday morning, courtesy of a man with a pickax.

Los Angeles Police Department officers were called around 3:30 a.m. to the star's location on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue to investigate a vandalism call, authorities said.

Multiple people  including police  tell me a man walked up with a guitar case and pulled out the pick axe. Then, its believed, he called police himself to report it, but left the scene before they got here. Now, hes nowhere to be found. @NBCLA pic.twitter.com/mJNh1dbO0J  Jonathan Gonzalez (@JonathanNBCLA) July 25, 2018

One witness to the vandalism told NBC4 he confronted the man.

"I'm like, 'Why are you hitting that star? What did Donald Trump do to you?'" David Palmer said. "Then he went around the corner and I think he left."

Not long after, the suspect turned himself in to Beverly Hills police, according to LAPD officials.

This is the second time in as many years that Trump's star has been destroyed in a similar fashion. In October 2016, a man dressed as a city construction worker tried to dislodge the star with a sledgehammer and pickaxe in the early morning hours.

The star has also been defaced or coopted for political statements several times in recent years.

Someone Tagged Donald Trump's Star On The Walk Of Fame With A Swastika https://t.co/sR5CSUlL7F pic.twitter.com/A5twYfWA6J  LAist (@LAist) January 31, 2016Freely accessible local news is vital. Please power our reporters and help keep us independent with a donation today.

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We love our SoCal amusement parks, but the outdoor portions aren't looking super exciting during the excessive heat warning we're facing All. Week. Long. But there's a brand new billion-dollar theme park opening somewhere even hotter this week: Abu Dhabi. And they've got one up on us -- that park is indoors.

The new Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi offers six lands across 38 acres: Warner Bros. Plaza, Bedrock, Dynamite Gulch, Cartoon Junction, Gotham City, and Metropolis. It's got 29 different attractions, with characters from DC Comics, Looney Tunes, and Hanna-Barbera.

Metropolis at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.(Photo courtesy Warner Bros. World)

It's part of the United Arab Emirates' efforts to become a world tourist destination. Abu Dhabi's Yas Island (yaaaaas!) already features Ferrari World, which includes the world's fastest rollercoaster, and Waterworld. (No, not that Waterworld.) You also have Dubai as a major travel center, with other local parks including Legoland, IMG Worlds of Adventure, and Motiongate.

Excited yet? Look, you can book a flight here! We've seen prices as low as $800 round-trip (though it'll be around $2,500 if you want to leave, like, NOW).

You enter the park through Warner Bros. Plaza, which features old-school Hollywood style in an art deco setting. Like Disney's Main Street U.S.A., it's the portal to the rest of what this park offers. Then you can venture into the bright superhero world of Superman's Metropolis or the darker realm of Batman's Gotham City, as well as checking out the other cartoon-themed realms.

And like we mentioned, it's indoors -- and fully air-conditioned. Sorry that the idea of a cooled indoor theme park is sending our hearts wandering, SoCal. You'll even get a bit of Los Angeles inside of their Green Lantern attraction: according to Theme Park Insider, it's a planetarium inside a reimagining of Griffith Park Observatory.

But you don't need to travel to Abu Dhabi to experience much of what you get there. Sure, there's a fresher coat of paint and some brand new attractions, and the whole indoors thing, but Six Flags Magic Mountain -- partially owned by Warner Bros. -- features some of the same rides, just north of L.A.

There are some subtle differences:

Gotham City at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.(Photo courtesy Warner Bros. World)

But you're going to get at least a taste of that Abu Dhabi experience, right here.

We've also got one Warner Bros. property that Warner Bros. World doesn't: Harry Potter, at Universal Studios. Their exclusive rights mean you're not going to be seeing the Boy Who Lived show up anytime soon at Warner Bros. World.

You made it! Congrats, you read the entire story, you gorgeous human. This story was made possible by generous people like you. Independent, local journalism costs $$$$$. And now that LAist is part of KPCC, we rely on that support. So if you aren't already, be one of us! Help us help you live your best life in Southern California. Donate now.Fire burns one acre in La Jolla Alta area

A blaze that broke out Saturday afternoon in a La Jolla canyon spread over an acre before firefighters and aircraft got it under control.

The fire, reported about 2:10 p.m., was between Caminito Genio and Rutgers Road. About 100 firefighters from San Diego, Coronado, Federal and Miramar Marine base  with three helicopters  worked to prevent flames from spreading to nearby homes.

No evacuations were ordered.

As of 3:30 p.m. the fire was holding at an acre, fire officials said.

The blaze was in the same canyon where a fire at a homeless encampment on Friday spread to about half an acre before being extinguished.

That fire started accidentally between Rutgers and Caminito Bayo, San Diego Fire-Rescue Department Monica Munoz said.

She said Metro Arson Strike Team investigators interviewed witnesses and two men seen near the fire, but could not determine the cause of the Saturday blaze.

Taxi driver attacked in Bird Rock

After a late night ride home into Bird Rock, a resident attacked his taxi driver, leading to serious injuries. Police report around 3:42 a.m. on July 16 on the 800 block of Agate St., at the conclusion of the ride, the resident refused to pay the driver for the fare and attempted to leave, leading the driver to follow the resident.

The resident punched the driver in the head and ran into his residence, where he was later contacted by police. The resident was cited for misdemeanor battery and released.

Resident stabbed while walking

A La Jolla resident was attacked and stabbed by a naked man in the Beach Barber Tract area, and reported the encounter on the neighborhood-based social media site Nextdoor.com

Police were not able to provide additional details by La Jolla Light press deadline. The victim describes the assailant as an African-American male with a tall and muscular build, not wearing any clothes. Details such as the date were not available, but the victim reports the altercation took place around 11 a.m.

I was walking on La Jolla Boulevard (at Gravilla Street) when suddenly I felt pain in my back and leg. A completely naked man had run up behind me and stabbed me in the back and behind the knee with a sharp object. I screamed and someone  stopped to help. He called the police for me. They arrived a few minutes later and finally caught up with my attacker. Apparently this deranged man had been wreaking havoc all morning around La Jolla, the post states.

The sharp object used to stab the victim was a vape smoking device.

Police Blotter

Jun 29

Transportation of a controlled substance, 7700 block Ivanhoe Ave., 2:30 a.m.

June 30

Transportation of a controlled substance, 7700 block Ivanhoe Ave., 2:31 a.m.

July 7

Open container in park, 300 block Fern Glen, 12:31 p.m.

July 8

Possession of substance paraphernalia, 900 block Turquoise St., 10:37 p.m.

July 12

Open container in park, 7000 block Neptune Place, 3:24 p.m.

Open container in park, 7000 block Neptune Place, 3:36 p.m.

Open container in park, 6600 block Neptune Place, 3:38 p.m.

July 14

Fraud, 800 block Agate St., 10 a.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 6400 block La Jolla Blvd., 11 p.m.

July 15

Grand theft, over $950, 2:45 p.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 8300 block Calle del Cielo, 8:55 p.m.

Assault, the victim was attacked by a former friend and sustained minor abrasions and did not require medical attention, 1200 block Coast Blvd., 10 p.m. July 16

Petty theft, 8000 block Girard Ave., 5:50 p.m.

July 17

Vehicle break-in/theft, 5200 block Dawes St., 3:15 a.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 5200 block Chelsea St., 6:25 a.m.

Assault with serious bodily injury, 5600 block La Jolla Blvd., 10:30 a.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 6300 block La Jolla Blvd., 5:30 p.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 6400 block La Jolla Blvd., 7:55 p.m.

July 18

Petty theft, 300 block Nautilus St., 9 a.m.

Fraud, 900 block Agate St., noon

July 19

Vehicle break-in/theft, 2000 block Soledad Ave., midnight

Assault, 900 block Prospect St., 10:30 a.m.

July 20

Vehicle break-in/theft, 7800 block Ardath Lane, 7 p.m.

July 21

Commercial burglary, 7500 block Girard Ave., 5:39 a.m.

Possession of unlawful paraphernalia, 7900 block La Jolla Shores Drive, 9:12 a.m.

Grand theft, 2000 block Spindrift Drive, 4:20 p.m.

Vehicle break-in/theft, 6300 block La Jolla Blvd., 10:30 p.m.

July 22

Vandalism ($400 or more), 700 block Sapphire St., 4:15 p.m.

 Compiled by Ashley Mackin-SolomonPresident Trump is not happy that the Federal Communications Commission has not embraced Sinclair Broadcast Groups proposed acquisition of Tribune Media.

So sad and unfair that the FCC wouldnt approve the Sinclair Broadcast merger with Tribune, Trump said Tuesday on Twitter. This would have been a great and much needed Conservative voice for and of the People. Liberal Fake News NBC and Comcast gets approved, much bigger, but not Sinclair. Disgraceful!

The FCC has not voted to reject the merger. But it did vote last week to have the proposal reviewed by an administrative court, a process that has a history of killing such deals. Tribune Media has already said it is assessing its options beyond a sale to Sinclair and can walk away from the deal if it is not closed by Aug. 8.

Sinclairs plan to buy Tribunes 42 TV stations for $3.9 billion was expected to benefit from Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who is seen as a champion of deregulation of the broadcast industry.

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But Pai raised concerns about how Sinclair planned to divest some Tribune stations in order to meet the national cap on TV-station ownership. Under that plan, Tribune stations in Chicago, Dallas and Houston would have been sold to entities that had business ties to Sinclair for prices well under market value.

Sinclair has offered to amend the deal to address the FCCs concerns, saying it would divest the stations to buyers not affiliated with the company. But the FCC will not consider any amendment until the administrative court reviews the deal.

Sinclair executives may have been overconfident about FCC accepting such a plan because of their companys favorable news coverage of Trump. The company forces its local TV stations to air segments and commentaries supporting the Trump administrations policies, and former Trump campaign advisor Boris Epshteyn is chief political analyst for Sinclair.

There has also been speculation that Sinclair would use the clout of its expanded national reach provided by the addition of Tribune to launch a conservative-leaning news service to compete with Fox News Channel.

Christopher Ruddy, chairman of the conservative site Newsmax, said in April that Trump favors the Sinclair merger because he believes Sinclair could launch a conservative-leaning national evening newscast to counter ABC, CBS and NBC. Ruddy told Trump that such an endeavor is unlikely as the vast majority of Sinclair stations are network affiliates committed to running the existing evening newscasts.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) criticized Trump for chastising the commission for doing its job.

The FCC is also an independent agency, and the President should not be trying to influence its work to protect consumers, Pallone wrote on Twitter. The Sinclair-Tribune merger was bad for local news, competition and diverse viewpoints.

stephen.battaglio@latimes.com

Twitter: @SteveBattaglio

UPDATES:

10:40 a.m.: This article was updated with details on Sinclairs proposed acquisition of Tribune and comments from New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone

This article was originally published at 9:35 a.m.AT&T plans to boost HBOs programming budget to help the network retain its perch as the leader in premium television programming, the new chief of WarnerMedia said Tuesday.

We want to increase our investment in premium content, John Stankey, head of AT&Ts newly acquired business unit WarnerMedia, said during the Dallas telecommunications giants second-quarter earnings call. Its new division is composed of HBO, Turner channels, including CNN, and the Warner Bros. television and movie studio in Burbank.

The network is facing rising competition from Netflix, Amazon and other deep-pocketed tech companies that have been stocking their streaming services with big-budget dramas and comedies.

Tuesdays earnings call was Stankeys first opportunity to provide Wall Street with a glimpse into his strategy for HBO and other businesses since AT&T finalized its $85-billion takeover of Time Warner Inc. The U.S. Justice Department sued to block the merger, but AT&T prevailed in court. The department is appealing the decision.

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Stankey has been trying to tamp down speculation that he was unhappy with HBOs programming  or its management team. In a recent town hall meeting, he told HBO staff to prepare for a difficult year.

The problem was not one of management  or programming taste  but the fact that HBOs production pipeline was restricted as the network waited for government approval of the AT&T-Time Warner merger, Stankey said. Consequently, HBO did not have enough programming to keep customers engaged year round.

My goal is to give the HBO team the resources to green light additional projects already in the development funnel, Stankey said. We want to invest more in original content while still retaining the high quality and unique brand position of HBO.

Stankey declined to specify how much more HBO would be given to spend on content. The premium network currently spends about $2 billion a year for programming, including licensing fees for Hollywood movies, according to research firm Kagan. Much of that goes toward HBOs original productions, such as its cinematic Westworld series and comedies such as Silicon Valley and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

In contrast, Netflix is expected to spend at least $10 billion on programming this year, according to an estimate by Goldman Sachs. Earlier this month, Netflix surpassed HBO in the number of Emmy nominations it garnered with 112. HBO claimed 108 nominations, including 22 for Game of Thrones, but it was the first time since 2001 that HBO failed to receive the most nominations.

Stankey also noted that Warner Bros. would produce more than 75 television series this year  the most ever by the venerable Burbank studio.

Revenue at WarnerMedia increased to $7.8 billion, compared with $7.3 billion in the second quarter of 2017, fueled by growth at Warner Bros. and HBO. HBOs revenue in the second quarter grew 13% to $1.7 billion from a year ago, due to gains in subscriptions.

The gains helped AT&T compensate for another quarter of traditional TV subscriber losses, including at its El Segundo-based DirecTV. The company lost 286,000 satellite-TV customers during the quarter  considerably more than the first quarter of the year, when DirecTV shed 188,000 customers. However, the DirecTV Now streaming service added 342,000 customers in the quarter, boosting its total to 1.8 million.

AT&Ts overall profit in the second quarter totaled $5.13 billion, or 81 cents a share, up from $3.92 billion, or 63 cents, a year ago. Revenue dropped 2.1% to $38.99 billion.

John Stankey, CEO of WarnerMedia (AT&T / TNS)

meg.james@latimes.com

@MegJamesLATThe biggest airlines in the U.S. have begun to comply with a demand from Chinese aviation officials that independent regions such as Taiwan be referred on airline route maps and booking websites as part of China.

The demand was made in May by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and so far, at least 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, have complied by referring to Taiwan as part of China on their global websites  not as an independent region.

China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory even though the two have been ruled separately since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s. The White House has called the demand by China Orwellian nonsense.

As of Wednesday morning, American Airlines was the first of the biggest carriers in the U.S. to eliminate the name Taiwan from its route map, listing only the two airports American Airlines serves on the island, Taipei and Kaohsiung. The airlines drop-down menu still lists Taiwan when booking flights to those airports.

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Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address Chinas request, American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate.

American Airlines had requested a 60-day extension  until Wednesday  from the Chinese order.

Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have both issued statements, suggesting that they also plan to comply with Chinas demand.

U.S. carriers including Delta are in the process of implementing website changes in response to the Civil Aviation Administration of Chinas request, and we will remain in close consultation with the U.S. Government throughout this process, Delta said.

United Airlines released a similar statement:

United Airlines has begun to roll out changes to its systems to address Chinas requirements. United abides by and respects local laws and regulations in all markets and jurisdictions where we operate and conduct business. United flights to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will continue to operate normally.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.Students who are defrauded by their schools would have a harder time getting their federal loans erased under new rules proposed by the Trump administration Wednesday.

The proposal, which aims to replace a set of Obama-era rules that were never implemented, drew applause from the for-profit industry but sharp criticism from advocacy groups that represent student borrowers.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the proposal lays out clear rules schools must follow to avoid trouble, while also protecting students harmed by deception.

Our commitment and our focus has been and remains on protecting students from fraud, DeVos said.

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Under the proposal, students would be eligible for loan relief if they can prove their schools knowingly misled them with statements or actions that directly led them to take out loans or enroll at the school.

That would be a higher bar than the borrower defense rules finalized under Obama in 2016 after the collapse of two for-profit schools, Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute. Those rules allowed relief in a wider range of cases dealing with breach of contract.

Education Department documents supporting DeVos proposal argue that while students should be protected from fraud, they also have an obligation to do research before picking schools.

Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions if they have access to relevant and reliable data about program outcomes, the department said.

The new proposal is estimated to save nearly $13 billion over the next decade compared with spending estimates under the Obama rules, primarily by reducing the amount of loan relief awarded to students.

Department officials say they have received more than 100,000 fraud claims since 2015, and most are still under review. But the new rules would apply only to loans taken out after July 1, 2019, officials said.

Schools would gain an opportunity to respond to claims of fraud under the new proposal, which says schools deserve to defend themselves against accusations that could damage their reputations and revenue.

It also would allow schools to force students into arbitration agreements barring them from suing the school. Some for-profit colleges use that practice, which would have been banned under Obamas rules.

Opponents blasted the proposal, saying it places schools ahead of students and discourages victims from pursuing financial relief.

It encourages abusive and predatory institutions to continue to rip off students with impunity, while slamming the door on the debt relief that Congress has instructed the department to provide to cheated students, said Toby Merrill, director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard University.

Bob Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a former education official under Obama, said the proposal is perhaps the most damaging action Betsy DeVos has taken since assuming office.

These changes would effectively strip students of their right to recourse if they believe that a college or university has misled them, making it next to impossible for defrauded students to get the relief they are entitled to, he said.

But the changes were hailed as an improvement by the for-profit college industry and some Republicans.

Steve Gunderson, president and chief executive of the trade group Career Education Colleges and Universities, said previous versions of the rules allowed for carte blanche approval of fraud claims, to the detriment of schools and their students.

The department has undertaken a thoughtful and deliberate approach to this rule, and we applaud their hard work on this important matter, Gunderson said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee and chairman of the Senate education committee, said DeVos proposal will prevent taxpayers from footing the bill for unreasonable or unsubstantiated claims of fraud.

The Obama administration went too far in rewriting this provision by setting overly broad and vague standards and as a result, put taxpayers on the hook for too many loans, he said.

Obamas education officials created new rules to clarify the debt relief process after thousands of students said they were defrauded by for-profit colleges. Before that, the process was rarely used and relied on a patchwork of state laws to determine if students deserved loan forgiveness.

The updated rules were scheduled to take effect in July 2017, but DeVos delayed them after a California group representing for-profit schools sued to block the regulations. DeVos began the process to replace them soon after.

Meanwhile, the department has only recently begun to process a backlog of fraud claims, announcing in December that it will provide only partial relief to borrowers, based on their incomes. Under the Obama administration, students were granted full relief for their loans.

On Wednesday, the department said it will be gathering public input on the proposed rules for the next 30 days. Along with opinions on the rules, officials are also asking if borrowers still making payments on their loans should be able to apply for forgiveness at all, or if it should be reserved for those who default.Two farming companies that do business in San Diego County agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that accused them of allowing at least four female farmworkers to be sexually harassed and later denied work in retaliation for refusing sexual advances, federal regulators announced Wednesday.

The payment, which will go to the victim workers, resolves a lawsuit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed in April 2017 in San Diego, the commission announced Wednesday. The lawsuit said two Holtville-based companies, Bornt & Sons Inc., and its former labor contractor, Barraza Farm Services, broke federal discrimination laws starting as early as 2010.

The companies have denied the EEOCs allegations against them and did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlements.

Along with the payment, the companies also agreed to terms including immediately reinstating the workers they retaliated against, creating new policies, providing training to help prevent similar harassment in the future and creating a system to track complaints, according to the commissions announcement Wednesday. Regulators said the promised changes will take place over three years.

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In this case, the farmworkers exhibited great courage in reporting the harassment and showing others that there are resources to combat such abuse, Rosa Viramontes, director of the EEOCs Los Angeles district office, said in a statement the commission released Wednesday to announce the settlement.

The lawsuit alleged a male manager sexually harassed four female employees, including groping their buttocks and breasts without their consent, trying to kiss them, offering them money and extra work benefits in exchange for sex and making unwelcome sexually charged comments about their bodies including, Your  look nice, you must have breastfed.

In one case, a female employee was pulled away from her work to clean an office, the lawsuit said. The manager came in, locked the door, removed his clothes, sat naked on a chair and asked her to [perform a sex act].

The manager fired or refused to rehire employees who reported, complained about or refused his sexual advances, the lawsuit alleged. The companies also were accused of firing at least three male farmworkers because they were related to the harassment victims.

When the companies learned of the federal investigation into complaints of sexual harassment, they failed to take action beyond moving the manager to another farm, where he continued to harass women, according to the lawsuit.

Cook writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.The Trump administration navigated its widening trade war Tuesday, preparing to meet the top European Union executive to defuse a fight over auto tariffs and offering $12 billion in aid to American farmers hurt by retaliatory measures from China.

Even as Trump tweeted Tuesday that Tariffs are the greatest! and boasted that his tough approach to trade was pushing partners like the EU to come to the table, the cost of his tariffs and threats are causing increasing economic pain at home and creating a domestic political problem for the president.

China, Canada and European countries have countered with levies on U.S. goods, focusing on agricultural products from the Farm Belt  the sector that is a pillar of Trumps support. And so to alleviate the pain to some farmers, Trumps administration on Tuesday announced a $12-billion plan for aid to those hurt by retaliatory tariffs.

The relief is intended mainly for Midwest soybean producers, as well as producers of sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, hogs and dairy exports. Apart from dairy, California stands to get little benefit from the direct-payment programs being boosted in the Trump package because the states farmers tend to cultivate so-called specialty crops  nuts, fruit and produce.

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Annie AcMoody, director of economic analysis for Western United Dairymen, an advocacy group, said producer prices already have fallen by 9% after Trump opened the trade war earlier this year  bad news for an already beleaguered industry. Dairy processors, she said, could benefit from the USDAs buy-back provisions, as they have in the past. California is the top dairy producer in the country, and accounts for about a third of U.S. dairy exports.

Welcome as the supports may be for some, Casey Guernsey, a spokesman for Americans for Farmers and Families, blasted the aid package and urged the Trump administration to back away from trade wars.

Rather than accepting retaliatory tariffs and seeking to offset them with federal assistance, Americas producers believe the administration should look toward solutions that will enable them to export their homegrown goods to critical markets around the globe, he said.

My family got into farming to sell beef, not to accept government assistance, he added. While we need to hold our trading partners to account and ensure fair deals are reached, our government must also pursue long-term and sustainable solutions.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), representing a big agricultural producing state, said in a statement: His trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches. Americas farmers dont want to be paid to lose, they want to win by feeding the world.

The political problems that the trade disputes have already started to cause in the Farm Belt could be multiplied as higher tariffs increasingly hit U.S. manufacturers. On Tuesday, American users of foreign steel and aluminum brought lawmakers their complaints about the administrations 25% tariffs on the metals. The Commerce Department is trying to work through more than 20,000 applications for exclusions from the tariffs, but have been repeatedly criticized for their slow response and the difficult process they have put in place.

The arrival to Washington of Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, offered some hope of easing the increasingly acrimonious transatlantic relations.

Trump is threatening to impose 20% tariffs on imported autos and auto parts.

While hefty tariffs on imported cars could prompt more companies to manufacture in the United States in the long haul, domestic employment in the auto sector is likely to take a hit if trading partners retaliate. Consumers, meanwhile, will almost certainly pay more as car firms pass on the cost of tariffs and higher expenses from disruptions in supply chains to buyers.

Analysts at the Peterson Institute for International Economics have estimated that Trumps auto tariffs will cause an average price hike of as much as $2,057 on compact cars and up to $6,971 on high-end SUVs, as the latter products have higher foreign content.

In a highly anticipated meeting with Trump set for Wednesday, Juncker is preparing to offer a possible deal that would slash or remove existing automobile tariffs imposed by some members of the World Trade Organization.

Juncker also could propose negotiating a limited free-trade agreement with the EU that would cover autos and other industrial goods, said a senior European official, who spoke about Junckers two possible offers at a briefing Tuesday in Washington.

Trump has repeatedly complained about the EUs trade surplus with the United States, specifically railing against the existing 10% tariffs that the 28-nation union places on imported cars. The comparable U.S. levy is 2.5%.

The president is threatening to impose the new tariffs on the basis of national security. That is the same controversial rationale that he used to slap 25% levies on steel and aluminum from Europe and elsewhere, prompting retaliatory tariffs from Americas closest allies, the EU and Canada.

We have to find some way to get out of this downward spiral, said the official, who emphasized that both offers were contingent on Trump removing the threat of auto tariffs.

Whether Trump would accept any such proposal from the EU, however, looked doubtful, some analysts said, given the presidents increasingly aggressive and zero-sum perspective on trade.

If thats the approach, how do you come up with a deal that is a win-win, asked Peter Sparding, a transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

For the Europeans, they cant be seen as giving in and forced into concessions, he said. At the same time, I dont know if the president is willing to accept anything less.

In recent days Trump has called the EU a foe as far as trade is concerned. And the president seemed to taunt Juncker before his upcoming visit by saying at a VFW Convention on Tuesday in Kansas City that trading countries were eager to negotiate now because of the threat of tariffs. They send millions of cars  Mercedes, all of them, BMW. So many cars. I said, Were going to have to tariff your cars. They said, When can we show up?

Trumps tariffs on autos would raise the stakes, economically and politically. In proposing steep duties on auto imports, Trump is apparently aiming to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and boost domestic production and employment at home. But most economists say such actions will have little effect on the deficit, which reflects broader national investment and savings trends.

Europes leading car brands such as BMW and Mercedes manufacture hundreds of thousands of cars at U.S. plants in the South annually, but it would take time to ramp up production in the U.S. to match the demand of vehicles sold here. Many of their U.S.-assembled cars are exported to other countries, such as China, and European and Asian automakers export tens of billions of dollars of cars to the U.S.

The U.S. imported nearly $58 billion of motor vehicles and parts last year from the EU, with Germany leading the way.

EU leaders have publicly stated their refusal to make a deal with the threat of tariffs hanging over their heads, but they are eager to resolve a brewing trade fight that would be costly to all sides. At the same time, the EU is drawing up a list of U.S. goods that would be subject to retaliatory tariffs if Trump goes through with the new duties on cars.

People are struggling to understand what this administration wants and how it is negotiating and whether it is in good faith, said the senior European official, who spoke anonymously to talk candidly about internal discussions. Constantly threatening more tariffs or unilateral actions may seem a clever negotiating tactic, but its counterproductive. We want to stop putting tariffs on the United States, and we want the United States to stop putting tariffs on us.

While not assured, the official said that Juncker, in his meeting with Trump, could float the proposal that essentially every major car producer drop its tariffs on autos to zero or the same 2.5% level, in accordance with rules under the World Trade Organization. France and Italy will not be happy with zero or 2.5% tariffs across the board, as they could come under greater pressure from from Japanese and Korean automakers.

Still, all the EU member states may go along with it for the greater goal of drawing the Trump administration into what would amount to trade liberalization under the framework of the WTO  the international arbiter of trade disputes that Trump has suggested the U.S. could do without, said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute.

Its ultimately about whether Juncker can get Trump to bite or not, he said.

The latest from Washington 

More stories from Don Lee 

don.lee@latimes.com

Follow me at @dleelatimes

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson

geoffrey.mohan@latimes.com

Follow me: @LATgeoffmohanWith over 5 million customers, genetic testing firm 23andMe sits on a trove of human data it believes can help drugmakers develop treatments more efficiently in an industry where 90% of medicines on trial never reach market.

The Silicon Valley startup now has a major partner and investment to tap that potential: It announced Wednesday that it sold a $300-million stake to British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

The two companies agreed to a four-year deal to develop new drugs and more quickly identify patients for clinical studies through 23andMes customers, 80% of whom agreed to share their personal information for research.

By working with GSK, we believe we will accelerate the development of breakthroughs. Our genetic research  powered by millions of customers who have agreed to contribute  combined with GSKs expertise in drug discovery and development, gives us the best chance for success, 23andMe Chief Executive Anne Wojcicki said in a blog post.

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23andMe is best known for its saliva test to determine a persons ancestry and potential health risks. The company is one of the bigger names in the quickly growing field of consumer genetic testing that has resulted in unusual discoveries such as the identity of the Golden State Killer suspect.

Last year, the Food and Drug Administration deemed the companys tests accurate enough to sell reports that show customers whether they have a greater genetic risk of developing certain diseases and conditions. The FDA had previously warned 23andMe about sending health reports because it lacked the agencys approval.

Founded in 2006, the company has garnered investment from major venture firms including Sequoia Capital and Google Ventures. The company declined to disclose its valuation.

One of the first things 23andMe plans to do with Glaxo is recruit patients to help the British company test its new treatment for Parkinsons disease. The treatment, which is in preclinical development, inhibits a gene called LRRK2 thats a contributor to the illness. 23andMe customers with defined LRRK2 mutations will be asked to participate in the trial.

Glaxo is trying to catch up with its rivals when it comes to research. Last year, it ranked No. 11 among 13 big pharma companies in a Bloomberg Intelligence analysis measuring research-and-development returns, and investors have expressed concern about its ability to boost productivity while also funding its dividend.

By buying a stake in 23andMe, Glaxo is addressing a major issue for the pharma industry, which is the fact that theres this incredibly low probability for success among potential drugs, CEO Emma Walmsley told reporters. The deal could be transformational in making the process more efficient, she said.

As costs of finding and testing drugs increase and successes become harder to achieve, more drugmakers are streamlining their research and development. Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan has set a course to cut the failure rate for new products and boost efficiency with projects such as an operations center to predict enrollment and evaluate costs of clinical trials in real time.

AstraZeneca has said that overhauling its research strategy improved productivity fourfold from 2012 through 2016. And like Glaxo, Roche Holding has tapped into the promise that the Human Genome Project made possible 15 years ago with the first human DNA sequence: Roche bought Foundation Medicine and its technology for testing cancers to find ways to treat them.

Glaxo also announced a restructuring program that will cost about $2.2 billion over a period that ends in 2021. Its expected to deliver annual savings of about $530 million during that time  money that will be reinvested in R&D and used for commercial support of new products.

The agreement with 23andMe could substantially change the cost it takes to develop drugs, or put differently, we could develop twice as many drugs for the same amount of money, said Glaxos chief science officer, Hal Barron. We see it as critical to our future strategy.

The two companies also could work together on programs 23andMe has initiated in areas including immunology, cancer, heart disease, skin disorders and liver disease, according to Richard Scheller, who joined the startup in 2015 as chief science officer. 23andMe announced its ambitions to translate that information into new drugs three years ago.

A key dilemma for the pharmaceutical industry is that only 1 in 10 of the treatments that start in early-stage testing make it all the way to patients, according to Barron. Average costs to bring a new medicine to market surged to almost $2 billion in 2017, while big pharma companies have seen returns on R&D spending plunge, Deloitte estimates.

The idea of pursuing genetically validated targets provides us with an opportunity to have a significantly higher probability of success, Barron said. It also helps with pace. Well be able to do programs faster. So it will help with two or three of the biggest challenges facing our industry.

Paton writes for Bloomberg News.

david.pierson@latimes.com | Follow me @dhpiersonTheres a Yayoi Kusama installation in town  again.

The Marciano Art Foundation announced that it has acquired the installation With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever (2011) by the Japanese artist who drew fans by the thousands last year to her show at the Broad museum. The immersive artwork, featuring three fiberglass-reinforced plastic potted tulip sculptures in a stark white environment thats plastered with red dots, will debut to the public on Thursday. Its the first time the artwork has been displayed on the West Coast.

With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever first went on view at David Zwirner in New York in 2017 as part of the gallerys Festival of Life exhibition. Maurice Maricano, whose Wilshire Boulevard art museum owns multiple paintings and sculptures by the 89-year-old artist, fell in love with it there.

At the Broad in downtown Los Angeles, the Kusama Infinity Mirror Room titled Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (2013) remains one of the most popular artworks. When the museum put advance tickets on sale last September for its survey of Kusamas Infinity Mirror Rooms, it caused an online frenzy. About 50,000 tickets sold out in less than an hour. The excitement was partly due to the fact that the rooms  popular selfie backdrops that are widely seen on social media  had rarely been on view.

In March, after the Broad exhibition closed, the museum announced that it had acquired another Kusama Infinity Mirror Room, Longing for Eternity (2017), a hexagonal-shaped, LED light-filled chamber that visitors peer into through portholes.

Which raises the question: If the rules of supply and demand apply, will Kusama-mania in L.A. simmer down? Or does the Marciano expect just as much excitement when it opens With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever?

Were not sure what to expect, Marciano Deputy Director Jamie G. Manne said during a sneak peek of the work. We do anticipate lines. We hope people will get excited about it. But the thing about Marciano Art Foundation is, we really limit the number of people who are allowed in at any one time. That mitigates crowds, Manne said. The museum plans to let 15 to 20 people at a time into the new installation.

The Marciano Art Foundation has acquired Yayoi Kusama's "With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever (2011). The art work goes on view to the public Thursday. Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times

A detail in Yayoi Kusama's "With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever. Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times

The Marciano Art Foundation owns Kusama works dating to the early 1980s, including the artists infinity net paintings and tulip sculptures, but the addition of a large-scale, immersive Kusama work was key, Manne said.

This is something that was really missing from the collection, Manne said. Not every collection can acquire a room like this, so youll find them in more institutional settings, because of space and logistics. The institutions that house these are kind of few and far between.

The version of With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever at the Marciano is more expansive than what appeared at David Zwirner. The artwork takes over an entire third-floor gallery thats more than 1,700 square feet. Other Kusama works from the Marciano collection will be on view nearby, and an exhibition of Jennifer Guidi paintings adjacent to With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever appears in conversation with Kusamas infinity net paintings, though Manne said that was a happy accident.

With its repetitive mix of organic and geometric shapes, and with the ceiling, floor and walls plastered with red dots, the Kusama installations flattened visual effect can be delightfully dizzying. The works red and white palette and spotted tulip planters are reminiscent of Kusamas first Infinity Mirror Room, Phalli's Field, which she finished in 1965.

The exhibition that was at the Broad is still traveling, currently on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art before heading to the High Museum in Atlanta.

But Kusama overkill is not a concern, Manne said.

I think Kusama is such an important figure in art history, Manne said, especially because shes a woman and shes been so prolific. Shes become almost a household name in a way. But there are always going to be people who dont know about her and want to learn more, experience more.

deborah.vankin@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter: @debvankinMartyna Majok, the Polish-born American playwright whose play Cost of Living won the Pulitzer Prize for drama this year, invites us into worlds that theatergoers have been trained to look past.

Her characters are the supernumeraries of the stage, domestics with foreign accents, factory workers who labor silently in the shadows. Their struggles constitute the plots of her plays, which can be testing for audience members who prefer diversion to social realism. But Majok  educated at elite institutions (University of Chicago, the Yale School of Drama) but always mindful of being the daughter of a hardscrabble immigrant worker  is an artist, not a commercial hack.

Ironbound, produced at the Geffen Playhouse earlier this year, focuses on a Polish immigrant scratching out a living in the industrial wastelands of New Jersey, a woman whose brutal economic reality has turned even her intimate relationships into small change haggling. Unrelievedly grim is a phrase I used in my mostly admiring review, and one reader emailed to say I should have stopped there.

In Cost of Living, which is slated to have its West Coast premiere this fall at the Fountain Theatre, its not always clear who has it harder, the disabled or their caretakers, whose lives can be just as precarious emotionally and financially. The human condition is one that not even the comparatively lucky can escape  a sentiment more common in Romanian and Polish art films than in traditional subscription-based theater. Im not complaining.

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In Queens, the West Coast premiere of which at La Jolla Playhouse closes Sunday, Majok takes a broader look at immigrant women as they cycle through an unlawful basement apartment in the New York City borough that may have partly inspired the title. The dramatic scope is larger both in terms of the number of characters and the time period, which stretches from 2017 back to the months immediately following the 9/11 attacks.

Produced this year at Lincoln Centers Claire Tow Theater, Queens succeeds as sociological study but falters as drama. The tense domestic life of the women, who hide their liquor and measure the levels of milk left in the carton, is unflinchingly captured. At a time when the plight of migrants and refugees has been thrust into the political spotlight, the plays humane exploration of this population couldnt be timelier. But the complicated theatrical structure, full of flashbacks and narrative layering, dissipates rather than concentrates our emotional involvement.

Brenda Meaney as Renia, left, and Rae Gray as Inna in Queens, written by Martyna Majok and directed by Carey Perloff at La Jolla Playhouse. (Jim Carmody)

The play begins on a false note. Inna (Rae Gray), a Ukrainian woman looking for her mother, shows up at the door of Renia (Brenda Meaney), a Polish immigrant who appears to be the buildings landlord. Frustrated by the sneering responses to her questions, Inna punches Renia, who then rents her a room in the empty basement apartment.

New Yorkers who get pounded in the face by strangers dont usually permit them to become tenants. But Renia glimpses her own daughter in belligerent Inna, and Majok allows playwriting to momentarily supersede psychology.

Queens then turns the clock back 16 years to 2001, when Renia was a diffident newcomer to the apartment, which is occupied by a group of cynical, overworked women: Pelagiya (Leslie Fray) from Belarus, Aamani (Jolly Abraham) from Afghanistan and Isabella (Xochitl Romero) from Honduras. The way these roommates negotiate their boundaries, defending limited turf while dealing with the cramped camaraderie imposed by their unenviable situation, is the most gripping aspect of the play.

Majok specializes in anti-sentimentality. Her female characters, too downtrodden to play nice, are a truculent lot. So used to being abused, they have their fists up in anticipation of being assailed even in situations that arent obviously threatening.

Isabella, who must return home to be with her sick mother who is caring for her daughter, acts like the last thing in the world she wants is a going-away party. She can neither chip in for beer and chips nor afford the emotional debt of being grateful. I dont come to this country for so you people can know me, she says in her irregular but bracingly clear English.

Isabella has a tender side, but like nearly all of Majoks female characters, privation and a lack of safety have taught her to keep it under wraps. Softer feelings emerge but only grudgingly. The economic exile of these women is a prison that cant be wished away by comforting words and kindly gestures.

But by being so scrupulous about her subject matter, Majok paints herself into a corner. What some theatergoers find disaffecting about her work isnt the exposure of immigrant misery but the repetitiveness of the dramatization.

Its movement that one longs for in the theater. Majok finds a limited amount of this in the prospect of intimacy between characters whose capacity for trust has been grievously wounded. Renia would like a do-over with her daughter, whom she had to leave behind to earn a living. But the economic trauma of her existence has entrenched self-protective reflexes. After all the sacrifices, her reward is to become either victim or perpetrator, and the latter seems, to her, marginally preferable.

The smaller canvas of Ironbound conceals to a degree the dramaturgical conundrum that Majok faces, but even in that play, scenes accrue rather than build. Cost of Living, which has a parallel structure that prevents us from getting stuck in either of the two emotionally complicated situations of caregivers who have their own burdens, is more involving. But the play still has to contrive a resolution that is as much a playwriting maneuver as the punch Inna throws at Renia at the start of Queens.

The framework for Queens is more elaborate and cerebral. Additional characters arrive at the apartment, only to have their hopes and dignity dashed. Connection is fleeting, perhaps even futile. (The good that is attempted is ineffectual and not always convincingly depicted.) The discursiveness of the drama compounds the sluggishness of the plot.

Director Carey Perloffs production has trouble finding a storytelling rhythm that can propel the action, or our interest, forward. The staging handles the overlap of scenes with grace, but content dominates form. The play chugs along, proud of its grit, oblivious of its grind.

Grim reality will always be with us. But its the complexity of a characters moral response to difficult circumstances that most deeply touches our humanity.

Narrative development isnt the only way out of the impasse, but Majok is working in a realistic mode that makes this the most obvious solution to the problem shes assigned herself. Yet she seems to have more conviction about what she doesnt want her stories to do than what she actually wants them to accomplish.

Earnest uplift is taboo, and anything that sugarcoats or simplifies the suffering is forbidden. But emotional movement doesnt have to be paralyzed for the sake of avoiding sentimentality. Majok, not wanting to betray the experiences of characters too beaten down to even dream of happy endings, seems locked into a false choice.

George Bernard Shaw, in an essay comparing the acting of Sarah Bernhardt and Eleonora Duse, writes that while Bernhardt is able to harrow us with her sorrows, Duse reveals in her considerate representation of inner pain the desire to shield others from the infection of its torment. For Shaw, this exquisitely sympathetic awareness is an expression of moral charm that allows Duse to dwarf Bernhardt in her artistic range.

Majoks work is full of discreet and considerate touches that Duses genius would have been able to fully draw out. But theres a larger point, as applicable to playwriting as it is to acting, about what moves us most in the theater. Grim reality will always be with us. But its the complexity of a characters moral response to difficult circumstances that most deeply touches our humanity. A protagonist whos a frozen fortress, however understandable her condition, will take a writer only so far.

If Majoks talent werent so impressive and her subject so imperative, it would be easy to leave her in peace with her Pulitzer. But the American theater needs her sensibility right now, and I hope she finds the right directing collaborator (the way Annie Baker, say, found Sam Gold) to help her dislodge and develop her theatrical vision. The ambition of Queens should augur an even richer playwriting future for Majok, but first she must free herself from the fear of falsifying what she has witnessed firsthand.

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnultyLast September, months before winning the Academy Award for best picture, The Shape of Water received the Golden Lion, top prize at the Venice International Film Festival. It was a harbinger of accolades for Guillermo del Toros movie, but for Venice itself, it was a symbolic victory  an assurance that the worlds longest-running international film festival had come into its own as a major awards-season player.

The Shape of Water was not the first awards winner to debut at Venice. Like the Toronto and Telluride film festivals, Venice has often benefited from its early fall timing: Gravity (2013), Birdman (2014), Spotlight (2015) and La La Land (2016) all landed first on Venices Lido en route to a big Oscar-night haul.

Although Venice has long been one of Europes most important festivals, in the U.S. it has never boasted the same cachet or coverage as Toronto, Telluride or its chief European rival, Cannes. But that could change this year; a strong showing by Netflix and a bumper crop of titles that were once expected to play at Cannes in May and did not puts Venice in an especially prime position.

Running from Aug. 29 to Sept. 8, the 75th annual Mostra Internazionale dArte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, as it is officially known, will host the world premieres of First Man, Damien Chazelles follow-up to La La Land, as well as Bradley Coopers directorial debut, A Star Is Born (that star being pop-music icon Lady Gaga).

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Del Toro himself will be back in Venice as president of the main competition jury, giving him the chance to help anoint a new awards-season Goliath from the titles announced Wednesday morning by festival artistic director Alberto Barbera.

The main competition slate includes new works by Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino (a remake of Suspiria for Amazon), Alfonso Cuaron (the semi-autobiographical family drama Roma) and, in the biggest surprise, Joel and Ethan Coen. The brothers latest, the western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, began life as a limited anthology series but has been reconceived as a feature film and will receive a U.S. theatrical release later this year.

Roma and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs hail from Netflix, as does another competition entry, 22 July, Paul Greengrass dramatic reconstruction of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway. While Cannes took a firm stand against Netflix this year, Venice has welcomed six of the streamers titles with open arms.

Among the competition entries, anticipation is running high for The Favourite, an 18th-century British costume drama from the gifted Greek satirist Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster); The Sisters Brothers, a comic western starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Frances Jacques Audiard (A Prophet); and Suspiria, a grisly remake of Dario Argentos horror classic from Italian filmmaker Guadagnino.

As already announced last week, Chazelles space-race drama First Man, starring Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, will officially open the festival in competition. (Chazelle also kicked off the festival two years ago, with La La Land, and went on to win the directing Oscar.)

Also competing are Peterloo, an epic re-creation of a bloody 1819 massacre from British director Mike Leigh, who won the Golden Lion in 2004 for Vera Drake; Olivier Assayas Non-Fiction, a Juliette Binoche-starring drama set in the Paris publishing world; and Sunset, a pre-World War I drama from Oscar-winning Hungarian filmmaker Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul).

One of the festivals most hotly anticipated titles isnt even playing in the competition: Coopers A Star Is Born, the latest iteration of that well-worn Hollywood touchstone, casts the first-time filmmaker opposite six-time Grammy winner and one-time Oscar nominee Lady Gaga. Also playing out of competition: the Mel Gibson-Vince Vaughn cop thriller Dragged Across Concrete, from the rising grindhouse auteur S. Craig Zahler, whose Brawl in Cell Block 99 memorably enlivened Venice last year.

Despite its established role in kicking off the awards-season ecosystem  and more importantly, the consistently high quality of its program  Venice typically remains one of the calmer, more manageable destinations on the festival calendar. It can often seem like Cannes minus the madness, an opportunity to experience some of world cinemas best and brightest without having to push your way through lines and crowds.

This is partly because relatively few North American journalists make the trip to the Lido each year, preferring instead to attend the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, which begin shortly after Venice and will play many of the same titles. To give you some sense of the tight scheduling and logistical madness involved: After screening in Venice, A Star Is Born, The Sisters Brothers, Non-Fiction and Sunset will go on to Toronto, while First Man and Roma will play both Telluride and Toronto, with nary a break in between.

As usual, the festival will inherit a number of titles  among them Non-Fiction, Sunset and Peterloo  that either were not ready in time for Cannes (which is held in May) or were rejected by Cannes outright.

Notably, however, a number of films, including The Sisters Brothers and Suspiria, are known to have bypassed Cannes altogether in favor of a more strategic Venice berth, likely because the motion picture academy and other awards-giving bodies increasingly favor films that premiere in the fall or later.

Cannes, much criticized for this apparent loss in star power and auteur prestige, was hoping to premiere at least two Netflix titles, Roma and The Other Side of the Wind, a long-gestating, painstakingly restored version of a project Orson Welles shot in the 1970s. But Cannes programmers alienated Netflix by banning the companys titles from competition, in accordance with the demands of French exhibitors who feel threatened by the ever-growing streaming market.

Venice has no such restrictions against Netflix, and indeed put the streaming service on the festival map by premiering Cary Joji Fukunagas Beasts of No Nation in competition in 2015. In addition to slotting Roma, 22 July and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs in competition, the festival will premiere The Other Side of the Wind, as a special event.

Further representing the streaming service, Morgan Nevilles Welles documentary, Theyll Love Me When Im Dead, also is screening as a special event. And Italian director Alessio Cremoninis Sulla Mia Pelle (On My Skin) will open the Horizons sidebar.

By giving Netflix perhaps its most robust, high-profile festival showing, Venice is sending a hard-to-miss statement: Unlike the younger but more hidebound Cannes, this festival will gladly break with tradition and embrace a new cinematic reality of less rigidly defined distribution methods.

But if Venice is stealing a bit more of Cannes thunder than usual, it also stands to reap some of the same scrutiny  and criticism  that Cannes has weathered over the years.

Only one of this years 19 competition titles is directed by a woman: The Nightingale, a revenge thriller from Australian director Jennifer Kent, who scored a major critical success years ago with The Babadook. Female filmmakers are better represented outside the competition, including Mary Harron, who will bring her Charles Manson drama Charlie Says, and the Italian French filmmaker Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who will premiere her family drama The Summer House.

Latin American cinema will have a decent competition showing with Roma; Nuestro Tiempo, from Mexicos Carlos Reygadas; and Acusada, from Argentinas Gonzalo Tobal, though only one competition title, Shinya Tsukamotos samurai thriller Zan (Killing), is directed by an Asian filmmaker.

Outside the competition, however, the festival will feature new Asian-directed titles such as Shadow, from Chinas Zhang Yimou; Your Face, a nonfiction work from Taiwans Tsai Ming-liang; and Graves Without a Name, a documentary portrait of life under the Khmer Rouge from Cambodias Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture).

Other potentially noteworthy nonfiction titles include Errol Morris American Dharma, a conversation with former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon; Monrovia, Indiana, a portrait of a farming community from Frederick Wiseman; and Process, from Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa.

That Venice, like other festivals, so often is dominated by awards hype is both a blessing and a curse: It draws the requisite star wattage and some media attention to the Lido each fall, but worthy, under-the-radar titles are inevitably overshadowed.

Among the possible competition highlights: Nuestro Tiempo, the latest from the gifted Reygadas (Silent Light); Vox Lux, a musical drama starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, from actor-turned-director Brady Corbet (The Childhood of a Leader); and Rick Alversons 1950s period drama The Mountain, starring Jeff Goldblum as a doctor who pioneered the lobotomy.

Willem Dafoe plays Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabels At Eternitys Gate. (CBS Films)

Julian Schnabel, last on the Lido with Miral (2010), returns to the Golden Lion race with At Eternitys Gate, starring Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh.

And while the Oscar-winning triumph of The Lives of Others (2006) may seem like distant history, German writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is back in competition with Werk ohne Autor (Work Without Author), which sounds like a promising dramatic return to the traumas of life under the German Democratic Republic.

A potential comeback at this particular festival would be especially meaningful: This is Von Donnersmarcks first feature since the 2010 Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie vehicle The Tourist, a movie whose many sins included making Venice seem boring.

justin.chang@latimes.com

UPDATES:

2:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 10 a.m.When it reopened last spring, the Los Angeles State Historic Park held the promise of becoming one of the citys better spots for outdoor concerts. Such was a vision held not only by those who worked with the space but artists who had previously performed there.

Anton Zaslavski, better known as the dance-music star Zedd, took over the 32-acre former rail yard in Chinatown in early July for his very own Zedd in the Park mini-festival. Having appeared at the venue as part of Hard Summer, Zaslavski and his team went in with numerous ideas for how to take advantage of the locale.

There are not many places like this in L.A. that are easily accessible with public transportation that is more or less in the middle of L.A. I think there is also a little bit of history to this place, and people really missed going there for electronic shows, Zaslavski said. His Zedd in the Park featured not just music but summertime activities such as a water balloon contest.

After about a three-year closure, the L.A. State Historic Park has been dipping back into concerts. Last year, the KCRW-aligned Skyline Festival brought a host of electronic acts to the space. Rock group Interpol performed there in the fall. The park rose to prominence as a concert venue thanks to success of FYF Fest and Hard Summer, both of which eventually outgrew the space.

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Zedd in the Park was produced by Insomniac Events, the company known best for the Electric Daisy Carnival mega-rave. The latter is now located in Las Vegas after being booted from the L.A. Memorial Coliseum following the 2010 death of 15-year-old girl who attended the event.

While some in the city then expressed concerns about hosting large-scale dance events on public land, Sean Woods, the superintendent of California State Parks Los Angeles sector, has long believed music belongs in the spot.

Woods acknowledged he had received some complaints from locals when Hard Summer occupied the locale, but he has worked to better regulate the events. Although the park can host 25,000 people, Skyline kept the crowd to about 5,000 and reduced the volume of music.

Zaslavski was pleased to host a festival in the space.

I think that there have been a couple of cases that didnt go well in the past, Zaslavski said, but its also important to highlight the cases where everybody went above and beyond to produce a festival or a show that runs extremely smoothly and safe for everyone whos going. You just need to do the right work and have the right security.

After seeing the success of Skyline Festival, Woods gave Insomniac the green light to return with Zedd in the Park. More than 15,000 people attended.

At Zedd in the Park, fans were treated to a mix of artists, from the upbeat dance-pop of Oliver Tree to a host of DJs, including the melodic electronic producer Medasin and tropical house producer Whethan.

I just felt that was a really cool mix of electronic genres that isnt your go-to EDM festival lineup, said Zaslavski.

The headlining artist closed the night with a nearly two-hour set.

Its funny because I didnt realize how big it was until I was standing on that stage, to be honest with you, he said. It compares to any great festival that I have ever played.

Today, however, festivals are not just built around music. Zedd in the Park had a lighthearted vibe, thanks to the water balloon contest for fans and games such as croquet.

Think about it from their perspective, Zaslavski said. Its a long time to be on your feet and essentially just stand or wait for whatever you want to see.

Although the dance scene may never fully shake the stigma of drug use, Zaslavski is relieved Los Angeles is slowly welcoming it back to public spaces.

They gave us the trust, and I think we took care of everything that needed to be taken care of for it run smoothly, he said.

And while even though there is no concrete plan to make this an annual festival, Zaslavski added that hopefully it will be an event that everybody in L.A. will one day know and want to go to, every third of July.

diego.medrano@latimes.comThe code-cracking sleuths of ITVs 2013 series The Bletchley Circle bring their formidable skills to the U.S. for a new round of crime solving in The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco.

Set three years and 5000 miles apart from its predecessor, the eight-episode series, which premieres Thursday on streaming service BritBox, takes place in 1956 San Francisco.

Despite the changes, the dramas returning and new characters face many of the same circumstances as they did back in England. Theyre all women who deciphered enemy code during WWII and therefore helped end the war.

But its peacetime; the men have returned home, and now these accomplished women are expected to return to more traditional female roles. The excitement of defeating an enemy versus domesticity and typist pools? Theres no contest.

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Bletchleys leading ladies defy the status quo, deploying their code-cracking skills to pursue a murderer whos hitting close to home, despite the dissuasion of male law enforcement officials and disapproving husbands. After all, there are clothes to iron and dinners to prepare. How does a gal fit solving murderous rampages into her busy schedule and still have a drink waiting for hubby when he arrives home at 5? She does most of it in secret.

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco is the ITV and BBC streaming services first original series, and although the first four episodes available for review present a compelling murder mystery, the unique plot of cryptographers-turned-detectives isnt unique anymore. That novel premise, and the nostalgic charm of the 2013 series, is hard to duplicate, especially since theres been an abundance of other wonderfully crafted streaming series dramatizing the challenges of mid-century women and nonconformists, including The Crown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and A Very English Scandal. Reliving that post-war era doesnt feel as fresh as it did when the first Bletchley aired on PBS.

Though this round of sleuthing isnt as full of surprises as the series set in the U.K., it does effectively play with a different set of era-specific hurdles unique to the U.S.

The show starts in England with Jean (Julie Graham) and Millie (Rachael Stirling)  the shows returning characters  struggling to find meaning in their jobs and life. Then they read of a homicide in San Francisco thats eerily similar to the unsolved, wartime slaying of a former colleague.

Once overseas, they find Americans Iris (Crystal Balint) and Hailey (Chanelle Peloso), cohorts in code-breaking. Together they set out to solve the riddles left behind by a what appears to be a serial killer, or is it?

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco, which also stars Jennifer Spence (Van Helsing) and Ben Cotton (The X-Files), folds timely American issues into the mix. For instance, its the dawn of the civil rights movement. Iris and her family exemplify the struggles and dangers faced by African Americans who remained silent and those who spoke out against systemic racism.

In the series, a city-planned gentrification points toward bloody changes in the Fillmore district and the move/push of the black community toward Oakland.

The fallout of Japanese American internment is also part of the story here, as is the dawning of the Cold War  all issues that feel depressingly timely in 2018.

But its not all heavy. Dialogue sprinkled with of-the-era humor and a colorful backdrop of brightly painted, affordable Victorian houses and hilly inclines traversed by cable cars rather than Google buses adds to the retro whimsy here. Its San Francisco before the great tech boom thats made the city untouchable for most Americans.

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco isnt as rich and meaningful as its predecessor, but its evocative and entertaining, with a little murder thrown in for good measure.

The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco

Where: Britbox

When: Any time, starting Thursday

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)

lorraine.ali@latimes.com

@lorrainealiHorror guru Stephen King, in his career spanning 45 years, has produced a robust body of work that has made him one of the most adapted storytellers in Hollywood. So its perhaps inevitable that his universe would get a remix.

Enter Castle Rock. The new Hulu anthology drama, from creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan), is an original narrative that pulls from Kings extensive catalog. Premiering Wednesday, the series is set in Castle Rock, the ill-fated fictional Maine town that has been the backdrop in Cujo, Needful Things and other King tales.

The drama introduces Henry Deaver (Andre Holland of Moonlight), a death row attorney who returns to his hometown after a mysterious young man (Bill Skarsgard) is found in a cage inside a hidden area of Shawshank State Penitentiary.

The town is like the most cursed plot of land on the planet, Shaw said. And Henry is a native son of Castle Rock, who has spent the intervening decades of his life trying to put as much mileage between himself and the town as he possibly can. Until he cant.

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While past film adaptations of King novels and stories such as The Shawshank Redemption and Dolores Claiborne have grappled with how faithful they should be to the authors work, the challenge for the Castle Rock producers was expanding the King world without overindulging in it.

For the viewers, we wanted them to be able to engage with the universe and understand how it fits in the shared universe that came before  at the same time, if you start having Dolores Claiborne waving while shes walking Cujo down the street, it starts to get weird, Thomason said.

The long-suffering housekeeper and murderous St. Bernard from Kings oeuvre may not make a cheeky cameo, but fans of the prolific author will recognize the character of Alan Pangborn, a former sheriff of Castle Rock played by Scott Glenn. Then theres the more indirect infusion of King veterans in the series: In addition to Skarsgard, who will reprise his role as Pennywise in the upcoming It: Chapter 2, Sissy Spacek, who made her breakthrough in 1976 as the title character in the big screen adaptation of Kings Carrie, also stars in the series.

Theyre joined by other alums from King productions: Melanie Lynskey (Rose Red), Terry OQuinn (Silver Bullet), Ann Cusack (Mr. Mercedes) and and Frances Conroy (The Mist).

King, who gave his approval for the shows concept, is credited as an executive producer. Shaw and Thomason said the author reviewed scripts  describing the hand-offs as white-knuckle moments  but otherwise left them to their own devices.

We were gratified he gave us the keys to the city and let us tell the story of the town that he obviously cares a lot about, Thomason said. There werent a set of hard and fast rules at all. He gave us license to tell the story.

The psychological horror drama, which also counts genre veteran J.J. Abrams as an executive producer, serves as Hulus second King-inspired project. (The event series 11.22.63, based on Kings 2011 novel, was released on the platform in 2016.)

We saw this as a unique opportunity to have a series thats home to Stephen Kings legendary stories and characters, said Craig Erwich, senior vice president of originals at Hulu.

Thomason and Shaw said they took a cue from FXs Fargo in crafting an original narrative that captured the tone of a known property  or, in Castle Rocks case, properties  while being distinct from it. (Former Los Angeles Times film editor Marc Bernardin is a writer on Castle Rock.)

It became a really fun approach to the material because it involved a lot of introspection and discussion about what makes a Stephen King story a Stephen King story, Thomason said.

One question, the duo said, that drove the narrative revolved around the idea of what makes people stay in a town thats been inflicted with serial killers, devils and rabid dogs.

In thinking about that question in the real world, we came to the realization that the answer is: everyone, Shaw said. People stay because its home. We were fascinated with the idea of what it is to live through that experience. And thats why the Castle Rock that we embraced for this show was not the picket fence Castle Rock of yore, but rather, what does a small town in modern day America look like now?

If they achieved their mission, it looks pretty Kingsian.

 There are twists and turns around every corner at the hotel, set up at Comic-Con ahead of the Stephen King shows July 25th debut.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealyCastle Rock, which begins streaming Wednesday on Hulu, takes its name and setting from the fictional Maine hamlet that has provided a backdrop to a variety of novels, novellas and short stories by Stephen King, Americas Master of Horror.

King is a producer of the show, along with J.J. Abrams, Americas Master of Sci-Fi Franchises, and it is very much his milieu, but it is the work of Sam Shaw (creator of the A-bomb drama Manhattan) and Dustin Thomason (also a vet of Manhattan and himself a bestselling novelist).

In every respect its the equal of, and largely superior to, any of the actual King adaptations that have come to television lately  the ongoing Mr. Mercedes, last years The Mist, the 2016 11.22.63, of which Abrams was also an executive producer. There is perhaps an advantage in starting fresh.

Andre Holland (Moonlight) plays Henry Deaver, a Houston-based death row attorney called back to Castle Rock when a strange person (Bill Skarsgard, who played Pennywise the clown in last years film adaptation of Kings It) is found locked up in an abandoned portion of the local prison  Shawshank, if you must ask  and pronounces Henrys name. Ann Cusack plays the new warden, replacing old warden Terry OQuinn, who disappears quickly from the present-day narrative, but not the series; she is not what youd call a reformer.

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The prisons dank and violent air infects the community  a place, according to one resident, where bad things happen because bad people know theyre safe here. How many times can one town look the other way?

Henry himself left town under a cloud involving the death of his adoptive father and a mysterious disappearance in the dead of winter of which he claims to have no memory  his secrets are secrets to himself. Not everyone believes him; one who does is his childhood neighbor, Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey), a real estate agent with a dream to revitalize Castle Rocks depressed downtown. (This town is not Great Barrington, its Fallujah, says her skeptical sister, played by Allison Tolman, who reportedly suggested her own, smart casting).

Bill Skarsgard plays a mysterious young man, discovered in an abandoned wing of Shawshank Prison in the Hulu series Castle Rock, inspired by the works of Stephen King. (Patrick Harbron / Hulu)

Molly is taking OxyContin  half a pill once a day just to muffle other peoples noise, she tells her sister, speaking literally. She is not crazy, except insofar as uncontrollable empathetic telepathy, which she refers to as a medical condition, makes her so. Another character seems able to exert psychic control over other minds and bodies, and perhaps they will engage in an epic battle eventually  I am in no rush for that, and Castle Rock doesnt appear to be either.

There are hints of an apocalypse to come, and the suspense and horror are deftly executed  an incidental scene featuring a mock trial with kids in homemade masks I found especially disturbing  but its the quality cast and solid writing, especially in scenes having nothing to do with horror or hocus-pocus, that make Castle Rock easy to inhabit.

Sissy Spacek (who was the title character in the 1976 film adaptation of Kings Carrie) plays Henrys adoptive mother, Ruth, who is at the near edge of dementia; her scenes with Scott Glenn as Alan Pangborn (a character in Kings The Dark Half and Needful Things), now a retired sheriff and Ruths live-in boyfriend are tenderly played, and though they account for a relatively small part of the story, enrich it immeasurably.

Likewise, whatever understanding is blossoming between Henry and Molly is handled in a way that makes one hope for a future beyond this series, perhaps sharing a coffee at some sunny sidewalk cafe, a world away from this world. There is an appealing, even necessary lightness in their complicated relations; Mollys stumbling speech to Henry might have been written by Nora Ephron, OK, you know when you get a song stuck in your head and you cant think about anything else?  When we were kids you were that song for me, and Im not saying youre a bad song, youre obviously a very handsome song, and charming and smart and you dress better than the rest of the songs in this town "

Its quixotic I know to want to turn a horror story into a romantic comedy, but in a world where many strange things are possible, this cannot be the strangest.

ALSO:

Sissy Spacek talks about returning to the Stephen King universe in Castle Rock at Comic-Con

Were in the throes of Stephen King mania, again. Heres why his scary stories resonate

The latest Stephen King adaptation, The Mist, is creepy but lacks fun

Stephen Kings Mr. Mercedes hits TV in the slow lane, but thats not a bad thing

Castle Rock

Where: Hulu

When: Any time, starting Wednesday

Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 14)

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

Follow Robert Lloyd on Twitter @LATimesTVLloydNeed a bit of 9 to 5 news while working your 9 to 5?

While promoting an upcoming HBO documentary about her life at the Television Critics Assn. press tour Thursday in Beverly Hills, Jane Fonda talked about the anticipated sequel to her beloved film 9 to 5 thats being developed.

For right now, Dolly [Parton], Lily [Tomlin] and I are all intending to be in it, Fonda said during a panel for Jane Fonda in Five Acts. Fonda also noted she and her costars from the original film would serve as executive producers.

News that 20th Century Fox was working on a modern version of the 1980 workplace comedy, about female workers fighting against a sexist boss, made the rounds this year.

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And if ever there was a timely moment to revisit the film, its now. Fonda said she thinks things may be worse for women today than in 1980  suggesting that the contracting out of key human resources positions can cause confusion in the workplace.

If theres a problem, where do you go? Who do you complain to? Who do you fight with? Fonda said. She also drew attention to the hazards of social media and technology that makes it easier to monitor employees.

Being somewhat optimistic, Fonda did say she expects sexual harassment in the workplace could decrease because guys are scared  referring to the impact of the #MeToo movement.

Asked if those shifts would be reflected in the film in a specific way, Fonda quipped: If theyre not, Im not going to be in it.

yvonne.villarreal@latimes.com

Twitter: @villarrealyAnsel Elgort is revving up for Ralph Laurens newest fragrance.

The actor-musician-DJ, who received a Golden Globe nomination for his starring role in 2017s Baby Driver, is the new face of Polo Red Rush, the fourth addition to the Polo Red franchise. Elgorts casting as the new global ambassador is part of a larger strategy by Ralph Lauren Fragrances to cast people who embody the individual personality of each fragrance, according to Ginny Wright, global deputy general manager of Ralph Lauren Fragrances. Also, Elgort is seen targeting an audience Wright called the hardest to reach: Millennial men.

They have different values and interests. Were looking at those music lovers, people who are car enthusiasts, as well as female gift givers cause thats a huge part of the mens fragrance business, too, Wright said, characterizing the 25 to 35 crowd as a huge group.

Ansel Elgort (Jenna Greene / WWD)

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According to a recent report from NPD Group, both Polo Red and Polo Blue are among the top 10 mens fragrance parent brands ranked on dollar sales, with Polo Red at number seven and Polo Blue at number eight. Asked if shes at all concerned about Red Rush cannabalizing the other offerings, Wright maintains that the fragrance is geared toward a different demographic and psychographic. She declined to offer sales projections, but industry sources estimate Red Rush will pull in $100 million in retail sales in its first year.

We have a very loyal customer, so the Polo Red customer stays with us and has maintained a top 10 since its launch, she said. [Red Rush] will bring a new consumer into the brand.

Infused with red mandarin, fresh mint and red coffee fine-tuned with cedar wood, Red Rush is a new interpretation of the Polo Red scent, which launched in 2013. Red Rush will make its U.S. debut on Aug. 1 with a global launch to follow in 2019. It will be sold at Macys and Ralph Lauren stores, as well as online at macys.com, sephora.com and ralphlauren.com. Prices range from $50 for a 40-ml. bottle to $85 for 125-ml.

Recognizing that Millennial men are forever on their phones, Ralph Lauren will roll out a series of digital assets  mini-storytelling moments  in addition to more traditional print and TV advertisements tied to the U.S. launch. Three different crews dedicated to capturing social media content were on the set of the campaign shoot, according to Wright, who added that they are also looking to partner with music festivals, streaming services and high-profile DJs, as the Millennial man spends 80 or 90 percent of his [free] time [listening] to music through Spotify, iTunes.

Set in Los Angeles, the campaign video features Elgort and model Alanna Arrington, who portrays a DJ and Elgorts love interest. After meeting in a club, the two race to the desert, where they ultimately jump off of a cliff. Elgort, who was a co-collaborator on the storyline, said the decision for Arrington to jump off of the cliff first was inspired in part by his girlfriend, ballerina Violetta Komyshan, who would also be the first one to jump off the cliff.

Elgorts single Home Alone serves as the soundtrack to the video, which also draws on his newfound love for vintage cars. Having grown up in Manhattan, he learned to drive in the Hamptons and now exclusively drives a stick shift  thats because of Baby Driver. His growing car collection includes a Jaguar F Type, the Subaru WRX he drove in Baby Driver and a red Mustang. He has yet to meet Lauren, who possesses a museum-worthy collection of vintage racing cars, but would like to go driving with him.

Elgort, whose aunt is a former Ralph Lauren model, said he started wearing cologne every day in middle school  and even at summer camp, in hopes of meeting girls. It was a theater camp, so there were a lot of girls around, he said. When youre young, summer camp is the place where you have your first experiences. So if someone else has cologne, they smell better than you, you got no chance.Craft lovers are going to DIY for Making It, a craft contest styled after the good-natured British television baking competition The Great British Bake Off.

Hosted and executive produced by Parks and Recreation costars Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, the reality show will spotlight eight makers from across the country, including Los Angeles felt artist Billy Kheel and master crafter Robert Mahar.

Each week, contestants will tackle two different challenges using unusual materials, culminating in a craft off overseen by judges Simon Doonan of Barneys, Dayna Isom Johnson of Etsy, Poehler and Offerman, who has a woodshop in East Los Angeles.

In press materials, NBC promised to emphasize friendly camaraderie over cutthroat competition, with heartfelt encouragement, guidance and plenty of laughs, courtesy of hosts Poehler and Offerman. Just think of it as The Great British Bake Off  where contestants were known to encourage one another in the process  with felt and wood instead of Swiss rolls and strudel.

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------------

Making It

When: 10 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC, beginning July 31.

Info: nbc.com/making-it

lisa.boone@latimes.com | Twitter: @lisaboone19

For an easy way to follow the L.A. scene, bookmark L.A. at Home and join us on our Facebook page for home and garden design, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

lisa.boone@latimes.com

Twitter: @lisaboone19

For an easy way to follow the L.A. scene, bookmark L.A. at Home and join us on our Facebook page for home design, Twitter and Pinterest.

ALSO

This L.A. designer is putting an elegant spin on the DIY craft of marbling

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Juggling kids, dogs and a rock band, an L.A. ceramist creates one-of-a-kind objects at homeHow quickly can immigrant families be removed from the U.S. after being reunited?

Its the latest question that a San Diego federal judge will be considering in light of the Trump administrations massive effort to reunify parents separated from their children at the border.

More than 1,000 children age 5 and older have already been reunified with their parents under U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraws court order, and hundreds more are expected to be by Thursdays deadline  an achievement Sabraw called remarkable during a hearing Tuesday.

Although, clearly, not all 2,551 children will be reunited. More than 400 parents are believed to have already been deported, while possibly a couple hundred others were released throughout the U.S. and havent been located. At least 64 parents have criminal records or are ineligible for reunification for other reasons.

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For the 900 parents eligible for reunification who have final orders to be deported, the American Civil Liberties Union wants to make sure they dont leave the country until they fully understand their rights  and their childrens rights.

The ACLU, which brought the class-action lawsuit on behalf of separated parents, is proposing a seven-day waiting period between reunification and removal. The time allows for the families to meet with attorneys and advocates that have been assigned to the children during separation to determine if the children have unique immigration claims to pursue. That could be an important factor for parents in deciding whether to leave the country as a family unit, or to leave their children behind.

Sabraw last week decided to halt all deportations of reunited families until the issue could be briefed further. He could issue a ruling as soon as Friday, following a hearing.

The government calls the waiting period unwarranted and pointed out that most of these families have had the past week to discuss their options  either because theyve been reunified or because theyve been in communication with their children.

This Court should not be the arbiter of a seven-day waiting period during which families would be charged with choosing a second time  after they have already chosen to be together under this Courts procedures  whether to leave their children in the United States, the government argued in a motion filed Tuesday morning. Class members have no entitlement to such a waiting period, and no entitlement to be re-separated at all.

In a declaration, David Jennings, an acting assistant director at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said that such a waiting period would further exacerbate a backlog in removals and tie up limited bed space in family detention facilities.

A longer time frame would create inefficiencies, increase cost, and significantly hamper ICEs efforts to expeditiously enforce removal orders, he wrote. Each additional day delay in removal would not only deplete limited taxpayer resources, but they also extend aliens time in detention and exclude detention beds being used during the delay.

Perhaps more importantly, the government argues that the district judge does not have the legal authority to order a stay in removals.

The government says that the current process in place notifies parents of their rights and options with a court-approved form. The form gives them 48 hours to either elect to reunite with their kids, to waive reunification and be removed alone, or to discuss the issue further with an attorney.

The government said as many as 200-plus parents have so far elected to be removed without their children.

While attorneys for the government said they might agree to a four-day waiting period, they would not agree to making it retroactive for the parents who have already waived reunification, saying an accommodation of this nature  is not appropriate.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt argued that volunteer attorneys who have been sent to counsel families are reporting how difficult it has been to have meaningful consultations at detention centers.

Things are really a mess on the ground, Gelernt told the judge  a characterization that Deputy Assistant Attn. Gen. Scott Stewart said he strongly contested.

Gelernt said the government has spoken of potential plans to use one facility  Karnes Family Residential Center in Texas  to process hundreds of these families and allow for volunteer attorneys to counsel them. Gelernt said that cant possibly be done in a few days.

We desperately need those seven days, said Gelernt.

In a press call with reporters earlier in the day, immigrant advocate volunteers provided some context, describing chaotic scenes of families that dont understand their options or what is about to happen to them.

Shalyn Fluharty, managing attorney of Dilley Pro Bono Project, described mothers and children arriving at the South Texas Family Residential Center with palpable trauma.

We cannot engage in conversations with our clients that have anything to do with separation because the parent and child completely crumble in tears, she told reporters.

Many of the parents have final orders for removal but their children have notices to appear in separate immigration proceedings, she said, presenting parents with a difficult decision.

Katie Shepherd, national advocacy counsel for Immigration Justice Campaign, told reporters that the government was using multiple layers of coercion to remove families, including asking parents to sign paperwork they did not understand, not giving them the chance to ask questions, and telling parents that signing the papers would be the quickest way to be reunited with their children.

Reunifications have been happening at eight designated immigration facilities and at the offices of local social service agencies.

At three detention facilities near El Paso, Texas, some reunions are happening in the parking lots, with parents outfitted with ankle monitors so they can be released into the community while their immigration cases are pending, according to immigrant advocates monitoring the situation.

Some families are being detained together, but it is unknown how many. When the judge asked government attorneys for a number, they could not answer.

When the deadline passes Thursday, attention will turn toward finding hundreds of parents deported without their children, many likely back in Central America.

Sabraw expressed disappointment that families remain apart and has ordered the government to produce a list of those parents to the ACLU by Wednesday so partner organizations can help with the search mission.

He placed blame on the Trump administration for having a policy in place that resulted in a large number of families being separated without forethought as to reunification and failing to track separated children and parents as family units.

Thats the deeply troubling reality of this case, he added. There has to be an accounting.

Staff writer Kate Morrissey contributed to this report.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavisMike DAngelo, who looks after his elderly mother, went to the store Saturday in Silver Lake to pick up a couple of items.

Some pasta for his mom. Some dog food for their pooch.

I was grabbing stuff and then I heard a screech and then the car crashing into a pole, said DAngelo, 43, who saw a man running from the car while firing shots.

Boom, boom, boom, said DAngelo, who told me he has suffered from a learning disability since childhood.

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And so began a harrowing three-hour ordeal for DAngelo, who became a hostage in the Trader Joes shootout and standoff, which left store manager Melyda Corado, 27, dead.

In that time, DAngelo was face to face with the shooter. He said he was terrified but kept his composure as he asked the gunman for permission to check on the fallen employee, who went down near the entrance of the store.

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday that an officers bullet had killed Corado, and that the officers involved were devastated. The shootout followed a long chase, with police in pursuit of Gene Atkins, who allegedly shot his grandmother in South Los Angeles and then fled north before trading bullets with cops at the popular market on Hyperion Avenue.

That TJs, which I shopped in for years, has always been as much a centerpiece of Silver Lake culture as a place to shop, and flowers and cards were placed outside the store by neighbors.

Given the death of Corado, people will talk for years about whether police acted appropriately. Based on accounts Ive read and videos Ive seen, I think its too soon to make a judgment one way or another.

More on that in a minute, but first lets get back to Mike DAngelo, whose neighbors called him a longtime Silver Laker who has worked at odd jobs, including dog walker. At his home, DAngelo told me hes not working at the moment and likes to ride his chopper bicycle or fly his drone with the neighbor who had told me about DAngelos ordeal at Trader Joes.

I couldnt verify every detail, but police confirmed that DAngelo was a hostage, and much of his account of what happened in the store was backed up by another hostage.

He was amazing, that hostage said of DAngelo, who smoked a cigarette and paced in his frontyard as he recounted the hours in Trader Joes.

I heard like, six or seven shots, and I ran over by the water cases. I didnt know where else to go. I slid in and had my head covered, said DAngelo. I heard an employee say the gunmans in the house. I called my mom and told her what was going on. I was terrified. Im still shaking.

Some of the shoppers and employees took cover in a storage area, and some managed to escape through a window. DAngelo was among a small group of hostages who were in the presence of the gunman.

He had two bullet holes in his arm and he was bleeding badly, said DAngelo. He kept saying he didnt want to hurt anybody.

By that point, he already had, and DAngelo thought the safest course of action would be to comply with the gunmans demands.

I got him whatever he needed. Some water, orange juice and a bottle of Jack Daniels, said DAngelo, who rounded up the items from the aisles.

He said the gunman drank some of the Jack Daniels and poured some on his wounds. Then the gunman asked DAngelo for his T-shirt to dab at the blood on his arm.

DAngelo said he complied with the gunmans request to dial a number, on his own phone. The gunman wanted to speak to his grandmother, but she was unreachable in an emergency room.

DAngelo said his phone died and another hostage used her phone for him to talk to an LAPD negotiator who was trying to talk the gunman into letting the hostages go.

DAngelo said that at one point, he asked the gunman if he could go check on the store manager, who lay on her stomach near the exit.

He said, Yeah, go ahead, and I went with an employee. I kept shaking her, saying, Maam, are you OK? No response. So I went to put two fingers on her neck, like that, to check her pulse, but she was gone.

DAngelo said he moved the victims body to the door, then went back into the store because he feared hed be shot by the gunman if he left.

The gunman was eventually arrested, and DAngelo said he borrowed a shirt from a Trader Joes employee to walk out of the store with a police escort. He and other hostages were then interviewed at a nearby church.

Im not a hero or anything, said DAngelo, who insisted that his photograph not be taken. If anyone was heroic, he said, it was the diabetic woman  whose name he didnt know  because she kept the gunman calm and helped end the crisis.

Im sorry, DAngelo said. But Im really exhausted. I havent slept much. I keep having dreams of the whole thing in the store. I need to go lie down.

DAngelo said he had not seen everything that happened in all the chaos, and he did not see the store manager get shot.

It may turn out that police could have used better judgment in the shootout, but they were being shot at themselves and its not clear what they saw or did not see as they returned fire in an attempt to prevent a massacre. We need more information before a fair judgment can be made.

Ron Jacobs, who read The Times account of the shooting over a cup of coffee across the street from Trader Joes, said bullets were flying in a chaotic situation, but he couldnt fault the police based on what is known at the moment.

Yitz Weiss, who stood at the shrine outside Trader Joes, shared that view.

Its terrible that someone gets killed like this, but its also difficult to judge the police when they have to make a quick decision under duress, Weiss said.

Whats undeniable is that a young store manager died, first and foremost, because of the reckless actions of the gunman.

And that regular people, like Mike DAngelo, found the strength to make it through a horrible day theyll never forget.

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopezThe interior of one of Los Angeles best known Catholic churches was badly damaged by a vandal who broke into the building Wednesday morning and caused more than $100,000 in damage, police said.

The perpetrator also set fire to trash bins along Moorpark Street, damaged two cars and scrawled graffiti on a Chase Bank building. The perpetrator used a pole to smash a window to enter St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church at 10800 Moorpark St. The Spanish colonial style church is known for its distinctive bell tower.

Los Angeles Police Deputy Chief Horace Frank said the vandals motive remains unknown, but given the randomness of the targets, investigators do not believe the incident is a hate crime.

Inside the church, several statues and stained glass windows with ornamental fittings were smashed.

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There is significant property damage; paper was strewn about, things spilled, said LAPD Sgt. Barry Montgomery.

Masses for Wednesday were canceled but they were expected to resume Thursday.

The parish remains home to Cardinal Roger Mahony, who led the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for decades, but whose reputation was severely tarnished by cover-ups involving child sexual abuse by priests and more than $700 million in legal settlements with victims.

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @lacrimesWhen a blistering heat wave struck the Southland earlier this month, the regions electric grid was so overwhelmed that more than 100,000 customers in Los Angeles had at some point lost power. Some went days without electricity.

Now, as Southern California endures another round of scorching heat that forecasters expect will shatter daily records in some areas on Wednesday, utility officials are hoping to avoid similar chaos by staffing extra workers and imploring residents to ease up on their thermostats to give the aging power system a chance to cool down.

Its similar to running your car at 100 mph, nonstop, said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spokesman Joe Ramallo, referring to those who blast their air conditioning day and night. Eventually, youre going to have some problems. Distribution equipment is like that  it needs a break.

A woman walks past the fountain at Exposition Park, where temperatures reached into the 90s. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

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Southern California Edison, which brings power to much of the region, is also urging people to reduce their electricity use during peak hours. State officials have issued a Flex Alert, calling on the public to turn off unnecessary lights and hold off on running major appliances until late in the evening Wednesday.

Forecasters predict daytime highs will reach between 90 and 102 degrees in the coastal plains and between 98 and 108 in the valleys. Desert areas could hover around 110 degrees, said Stuart Seto, a weather specialist with the National Weather Service.

Public health officials in Riverside County reported six heat-related deaths this month. Most of those who died were elderly, including a 91-year-old from Riverside who died of prolonged heat exposure in a home without cooling measures, said Jose Arballo Jr., spokesman with the Riverside University Health System.

Plan somewhere to go if you have to go, if you lose power, Seto said.

As temperatures spiked Monday, about 3,800 customers  most in Beverly Grove  temporarily lost power. By midday Tuesday, Ramallo said only a few dozen people were reporting problems.

While additional DWP crews will be available Wednesday to jump on any outages, the utility is also taking steps to address the grid problems in the long term, which could involve planned power outages in residential neighborhoods.

A surfer wipes out while riding a wave at the Wedge in Newport Beach. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Dan Barnes, director of power transmission and distribution, said the utility already does some planned outages for replacing equipment, but usually keeps electricity flowing to Angelenos as it replaces old cables by switching to another cable while work is underway. Shutting off the power would help crews get the work done more quickly, he said.

Ramallo said the planned outages could begin after this series of summer heat waves in neighborhoods across the city where electrical upgrades are already planned. The outages would last about five hours, and residents would get as much as a weeks notice. If the weather turned out to be too hot, the department would cancel the planned outage.

The utility also wants the city to loosen restrictions that prevent its crews from working in the street during peak traffic hours in the morning and afternoon. Those rules leave workers with little time to get the work done, said DWP General Manager David Wright.

We can work between 9 and 3, but a half-hour for traffic control and a half-hour for a lunch  thats like five hours of work, he told the Board of Water and Power Commissioners at a meeting Tuesday.

Wright said the utility also needs to encourage residents to prepare for power outages, especially if they have medical needs that require electricity, by buying a small generator or a phone charger that runs on solar power. Those devices could be crucial in an earthquake or other emergency, he said.

Wright told the board that extreme temperatures are not going away. This is what the future looks like for us, he said. We are seeing real extremes in the way of what were having to deal with.

Throughout the region Tuesday, people did what they could to stay cool.

Leticia Castro sat in the shade of a tree on the patio of a music center, watching her 7-year-old daughter do exercises as part of a summer camp. She doesnt have air conditioning at home, so she feels suffocated there when its hot.

Lisa Rotunno shares water with her horse, Lexi, during a daily walk in their Chatsworth neighborhood. Normally, she would be riding but it was too hot to put the tack on the horse so she decided to walk instead. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

I try to take her to the beach, Castro said. Im always looking for free events we can go to, or go to Crenshaw mall where theres A.C.

For Lourdes Vargas, a housekeeper in South L.A., the air conditioning gives her headaches, but the heat makes working uncomfortable.

I sweat and sweat, and sometimes that causes eye infections, she said. Theres also more heat from the vacuum.

Soaring temperatures also come with a higher risk of wildfires, officials said. Parts of Yosemite National Park  including the main tourist draw Yosemite Valley  were closed Tuesday as the Ferguson fire continued to rage. Park officials said Highway 140, El Portal Road, Glacier Point Road and Arch Rock Entrance are all closed.

The fire, which has claimed the life of one firefighter and injured several others, has burned more than 37,000 acres southwest of Yosemite and is now 26% contained, officials said. The fire was sending huge amounts of smoke into the Yosemite Valley as more than 3,000 fire personnel battled the blaze, aided by dozens of water-dropping helicopters, water trucks and bulldozers.

Fire crews are encountering steep, rugged terrain. One particularly precarious area where the fire is burning was named the Devils Gulch many years ago by the areas first explorers, fire information officer Rob Deyerberg said.

The terrain is only a place where the devil would live, Deyerberg said. We will not put firefighters down in the worst places. Thats where they build their lines, develop their plans of where can we catch this fire on our terms.

Times staff writer Angel Jennings contributed to this report.Early each morning, computers spit out maps of Los Angeles, marked with red squares where a complex algorithm has judged that property crimes are most likely to occur.

As police officers patrol the streets, they keep these areas in mind, perhaps taking a detour to pass through on the way to a call, or warning people not to leave valuables in their cars.

But so-called predictive policing and other ways that the Los Angeles Police Department uses data to fight crime are sounding alarm bells for civil liberty and privacy groups, who engaged in a heated debate with department brass at a Police Commission meeting Tuesday.

The activists lambasted the methods, which identify crime hotspots as well as chronic offenders who are likely to commit crimes, as biased against blacks and Latinos, with some calling for them to be abolished.

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The crime statistics that fuel the computer models could be skewed by racial bias, with the result that more policing is concentrated on blacks and Latinos, many said.

Data is a weapon and will always be used to criminalize black, brown and poor people, said Jamie Garcia of the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which released a report in May critiquing the departments data policing techniques.

Members of the coalition held signs with messages such as Crime Data is Racist and Data Driven Evidence Based Policing: Pseudoscience.

From the Compstat crime analysis meetings started by former Police Chief William J. Bratton to the adoption of predictive policing for property crimes in 2015, the LAPD has been at the forefront of using data to refine its crime-fighting tactics. Station captains are still grilled by higher-ups at weekly Compstat meetings about how to reduce crime, and crime statistics for each station are updated online every few weeks.

For violent crime, the department draws LASER  Los Angeles Strategic Extraction and Restoration zones  devised by a human crime analyst, not a computer  indicating where many crimes have occurred and therefore where more police officers should go.

Perhaps the most controversial LAPD program targets people rather than geography, using a matrix of factors, including gang membership and violent crime arrests, to identify chronic offenders who will receive extra police scrutiny.

In 2016, after a spike in violent crime in South Los Angeles, the department set up a numbers-crunching center to collect crime data from the previous 24 hours and review it with command staff each morning. The approach continues to be used and has expanded to other areas of the city.

Were trying to get better about where to put scarce police resources to prevent crime from happening in the first place, Deputy Chief Sean Malinowski said at the meeting.

Police Commissioner Cynthia McClain-Hill said she was particularly concerned about programs like those targeting chronic offenders that are people-based as opposed to place-based.

She asked the departments inspector general to review the costs and benefits of data-based policing.

Any cost in terms of public trust is something we should take very seriously, she said.

Police Chief Michel Moore, who was sworn in last month after serving as the LAPDs second-in-command, said he supports an inspector general review. He acknowledged that the data used in the models are imperfect and that the department must convince residents that it is being put to good use.

Moore, who is considered by LAPD insiders to be second to none in his mastery of crime statistics, said the goal is not making more arrests but helping the people and neighborhoods targeted by predictive policing and other data-intensive methods.

Identifying communities in need of intervention and prevention is what were trying to do, Moore said.

Deputy Chief Dennis Kato, who oversees South Bureau, gave examples of how that has been done in recent years.

In South Park, after a spate of armed robberies, police officers spent time at a senior center in the area, causing the culprits to go elsewhere and strengthening the officers relationships with the elderly residents, Kato said.

At Rosecrans and Vermont avenues in the Harbor Gateway area, where aggravated assaults were high, officers found that school buses were dropping off students from different gangs at the same time. They solved the problem by staggering the arrival of the buses.

Focusing on chronic offenders has a benefit, too, allowing police to concentrate on those people while cutting back on random stops of innocent drivers, Kato said.

We always knew who the bad guys were, Kato said. Were making sure we dont stop others in the community if we can figure out who those violent people are.

But many speakers at the meeting said the programs were riddled with racial bias, and the only solution was to dismantle them.

Predictive policing is nothing but a Stasi, Nazi Germany style for targeting people of color, Yasmin Adan, an immigrant from Somalia in her 40s, said.

Alexis Takahashi, 26, a program manager for a nonprofit, was more measured in her criticism.

Methods developed by the LAPD under the guise of science end up magnifying racial bias, she said. She expressed concern that people identified by the data as criminals are more likely to be approached by the police, possibly leading to a violent encounter.

I support an audit by the inspector general and a public dialogue to see whether were helping those communities or causing more harm, Takahashi said.

cindy.chang@latimes.com

For more news on the Los Angeles Police Department, follow me on Twitter: @cindychangLAA lawyer for former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner argued Tuesday that his clients attempted rape conviction should be overturned. Turner never intended to rape an unconscious woman, he said.

Eric Multhaup told a California appeals court in San Jose that Turner had his clothes on when he was discovered by two Swedish graduate students on top of a half-naked, intoxicated woman, the Mercury News reported.

But the poker-faced justices appeared skeptical of his argument. The panel has 90 days to issue a ruling.

I absolutely dont understand what you are talking about, Justice Franklin D. Elia said, adding that the law requires the jury verdict to be honored.

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Assistant Atty. Gen. Alisha Carlile argued that Multhaup had presented a far-fetched version of events that didnt support the facts of the case.

Turner was convicted of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman outside an on-campus fraternity house in 2015. After a trial in June 2016, a jury convicted Turner of sexual assault, and Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in jail.

The sentence was widely criticized as too lenient.

After the victims 7,200-word letter to Turner that she read in the courtroom during sentencing was published online, the case drew national outrage. The case exploded on social media and ignited a debate about campus rape and the criminal justice system.

I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives, she wrote. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect.

Santa Clara County voters recalled Persky in June after a campaign to unseat him raised more than $2 million in nationwide contributions. Critics of the judge and the sentence said Turners short jail term underscored how law enforcement minimized sexual assault and highlighted how privileged defendants who can afford private attorneys often fare better in court.

Turner, 22, lives outside of Dayton, Ohio, with his parents. He is required to register as a sex offender for life.A fast-moving fire swept toward the mountain community of Idyllwild on Wednesday, burning 4,700 acres and five residential structures while threatening hundreds of homes.

The Cranston fire began about noon and spread rapidly, San Bernardino National Forest officials said. It has forced evacuations of more than 2,100 homes and is sending a massive tower of smoke rising over the San Jacinto Mountains. By 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, it was 5% contained.

Authorities said a suspected arsonist set multiple fires  including the Cranston fire in Riverside County on Wednesday. The fires burned in southwest Riverside County and on federal land along State Highway 74 in the San Bernardino National Forest.

Brandon N. McGlover, 32, of Temecula was booked on suspicion of five counts of arson to wild land, according to the San Bernardino National Forest officials.

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1 / 33 Cows graze as a DC-10 air tanker drops fire retardant on the Cranston fire burning along Highway 74 near Hemet Lake. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 33 An Orange County firefighter douses hotspots along the road above Highway 74 while battling the Cranston Fire in Idyllwild. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 33 The Cranston fire has burned more than 11,500 acres in Idyllwild and forced the evacuation of thousands of residents. Above a burned car on McCall Park Road in Mountain Center. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 33 A helicopter drops a load of water as the air assault on the Cranston fire continues in Garner Valley in Lake Hemet, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 33 Former firefighter Josh Whitney was able to save his McCall Road house, but the wildfire destroyed his lumber and sawing machines in an adjacent lot. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 33 Firefighters extinguish hot spots along Highway 74 near Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 7 / 33 The Cranston fire burns on a hillside off Highway 74 near Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 8 / 33 Smoke lingers after the Cranston fire burned through an area off Apple Canyon Road near Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 9 / 33 A plane drops fire retardant as seen from Highway 74 near Mountain Center. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 33 The Cranston fire burns Thursday near Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 11 / 33 The Cranston fire burns off Apple Canyon Road near Mountain Center and Lake Hemet on Thursday afternoon. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 12 / 33 A Cal Fire inmate crew captain cleans the windshield of his crews buggy after it was hit with flame retardant from an air tanker drop Thursday afternoon in Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 13 / 33 Riverside County firefighters extinguish hot spots in the Cranston fire off Highway 74 near Mountain Center. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 14 / 33 A road sign near Mountain Center lies on the ground after its wood support beams were destroyed in the Cranston fire. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 15 / 33 Hand crews march to fight the Cranston fire raging along Highway 74 in Mountain Center. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 33 Steve and Suzanne Coffer hug in the driveway of their fire-retardent covered home that was saved from the brush fire. The Coffers have lived in Idyllwild for 40 years. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 33 The Cranston fire rages near Mountain Center, viewed from Highway 74. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 33 A helicopter makes a water drop on the Cranston fire raging along Highway 74 in Mountain Center. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 33 A firefighter takes care of a hot spot surrounding a burned structure on Deer Foot Lane in Idyllwild. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 33 Structures on Deer Foot Lane burned by the fast-moving Cranston fire near Idyllwild. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 33 Structures on Deer Foot Lane burned by the fast moving Cranston fire in Idyllwild. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 33 Structures on Deer Foot Lane burned by the fast moving Cranston fire in Idyllwild. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 33 The Cranston fire burns late Wednesday evening off Highway 243 near Idyllwild. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 24 / 33 An Orange County Fire Authority firefighter hoses down a smoldering tree near homes off Marian View Drive in Idyllwild. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 25 / 33 A structure destroyed by the Cranston fire smolders under a nearly full moon early Thursday morning. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 26 / 33 Outbuildings and industrial equipment burn off McCall Park Road near Mountain Center early Thursday morning. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 27 / 33 An Orange County Fire Authority firefighter hoses down a smoldering tree in Idyllwild late Wednesday evening as the Cranston fire burns nearby. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 28 / 33 The Cranston fire burns late Wednesday evening near Idyllwild off Highway 243. (Stuart W. Palley / For The Times) 29 / 33 A fire crew keeps an eye on the Cranston fire near the town of Idyllwild in the San Bernardino National Forest. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for Idyllwild, Pine Cove, Fern Valley and other areas. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 33 Smoke from the Cranston fire clouds the skies over Highway 243, south of Idyllwild. (Richard Lui / The Desert Sun) 31 / 33 The Cranston fire burns off Highway 74 near Idyllwild, forcing evacuations. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles TImes) 32 / 33 A house is covered in pink fire retardant as the Cranston fire burns near the town of Idyllwild. The fire broke out on a day of extreme heat across Southern California. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 33 A smoky haze fills the landscape in Idyllwild. The Cranston fire began about noon and spread rapidly, San Bernardino National Forest officials said. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Witnesses described a vehicle possibly involved in starting the fire to authorities, California Highway Patrol spokesman Darren Meyer said. Authorities spotted a vehicle matching the description about 12:30 p.m. at the intersection of Newport and State roads south of Hemet. Hemet police officers pulled the vehicle over for an enforcement stop, Meyer said.

About noon, Joe Achtner, 65, noticed the sky above his Idyllwild home getting dark and flakes of ash falling in his yard. He drove for about a quarter-mile and saw flames cresting a nearby hillside, threatening homes in his neighborhood of 30 years.

By the time he and his family loaded up their trucks with their three dogs and suitcases full of clothes, sheriffs deputies had swarmed the area, ordering evacuations.

It came up on us really, really quickly. Within a half-hour, the whole town was overwhelmed with flames, Achtner said. This one seemed to come up on us without any notice at all. And all of a sudden, it was right there  and it was huge.

While Achtner lives in Idyllwild permanently, many of his neighbors live there only part time and their homes were empty.

I just pray for the town. We live in a beautiful town, he said. The whole the town is the trees and the town is the people and its all jeopardized right now.

Tamara Friemoth, 56, and her husband, Steve, own the Chevron Idyllwild Garage on State Route 243. She was working at the gas station and auto shop when she heard about the evacuation.

She rushed home, grabbed some clothes and family heirlooms, and ran back to the Chevron, where she watched the fire wrap around the mountaintops in front of the gas station.

Soon, she would hear that houses about a block from her own had burned, including the home of one of her mechanics.

Its the scariest feeling you can have because youre helpless, she said. But you move forward and do what you can do.

An evacuation center has been set up at Banning High School.

Mandatory evacuations were expanded to include residents in Idyllwild, Pine Cove, Fern Valley, McGaugh Road and McCall Park Road.

Leave immediately, forest officials urged in a tweet.

Roads are closed at Highway 74 from Cranston Fire Station to Lake Hemet and Highway 243 between Pine Cove and Mountain Center.

The fire broke out on a day of extreme heat across Southern California and as the deadly Ferguson fire continued to rage west of Yosemite.

The Ferguson fire grew to more than 41,500 acres as of late Wednesday and was 26% contained. At its closest point, the fire is two miles from the park, Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Visitors were given until noon to evacuate Yosemite Valley, the heart of the 1,200-square-mile park. Officials have also closed Highway 41, the north-south artery that carries travelers from Southern California to Yosemite, and Glacier Point Road.

A stream of cars, campers and trailers flowed out of the park in the morning as the blaze inched closer. Heavy smoke from the blaze has blanketed the valley and created air quality conditions worse than in Beijing, Chinas heavily polluted capital, Gediman said.

With this hot, dry weather pattern, you just got the smoke sitting here, he said. The air quality fluctuates throughout the day but its really poor midday  noon to 6 p.m.

Officials have been handing out high-grade filtration masks and set up clean air centers around the park where employees and visitors can get a break from the smoke-filled air, Gediman said. Still, after days in the smoke, he said his voice has become raspy and he feels a dryness in his throat.

On Tuesday night, officials taped evacuation notices on hotel doors and campers. Even before the order went out, however, visitors had begun packing up when they saw dark clouds of smoke filling the sky.

Forecasters said temperatures Wednesday were expected to break records. At UCLA, a predicted high of 96 degrees would beat the 1943 record of 91; in Burbank, a forecast of 103 degrees would beat the record of 101; and in Palmdale, the forecast of 110 degrees would beat a 1975 record of 109.

Downtown Los Angeles could hit a sizzling 97 degrees, but that wont best the record of 109, which was set in 1891, forecasters said.

The blistering weather comes courtesy of a heat dome that settled over the desert Southwest this week and has shifted gradually toward Southern California. Though the coasts have been relatively cooler than inland areas, humid conditions have helped equalize the misery.

The notoriously sweltering towns of Thermal, Palm Springs and Borrego all broke heat records Tuesday with temperatures reaching 122, 121 and 118 degrees, respectively. Theyre expected to reach similar temperatures Wednesday before seeing a slight decrease Thursday.

Impressive #pyrocumulus cloud developing in very hot, unstable airmass surrounding #CranstonFire in San Bernadino County. Convection column of this magnitude/height can produce dangerous, unpredictable winds & perhaps even generate a few lightning strikes of its own.#CAwx #CAfire https://t.co/4A3JjfKshn  Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) July 25, 2018

angel.jennings@latimes.com

Twitter: @AngelJennings

UPDATES:

11:20 p.m.: This article was updated with an interview with a resident.

10:45 p.m.: This article was updated with new acreage and containment figures.

9:20 p.m.: This article was updated with information about the arson suspect.

8:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a new acreage figure.

6:55 p.m.: This article was updated with an interview with an Idyllwild resident who evacuated.

5:55 p.m.: This article was updated with a new acreage figure and information about the Ferguson fire.

5:45 p.m.: This article was updated with a new acreage figure.

5:20 p.m.: This article was updated to include expanded evacuation orders.

4:50 p.m.: This article was updated with the arrest of a suspect in starting the fire.

2 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background on weather conditions.

This article was originally published at 1:50 p.m.Authorities are asking for the publics help in finding an 11-year-old girl who went missing from a group home in Rosemead two days ago.

Italy Ann Johnson was last seen shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday walking away from the group home alone, according to the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department. Authorities said the girls family members, who live in South Los Angeles, are concerned and asking for the publics help to find her.

Detectives visited Italys friends home in Palmdale, but the missing girl was not there and the friend  who was recently released from the same group home  did not know where she was, said Sheriffs Deputy Joana Warren.

Warren did not have details on the group home, but said Italy does not have a cellphone or a debit card.

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Investigators on Wednesday plan to hand out missing-person fliers in South Los Angeles and Rosemead, and to ask residents to check their surveillance cameras for leads on the girls whereabouts.

Italy is white, has long brown hair and hazel eyes, stands 4 feet, 7 inches tall, and weighs 85 pounds, the Sheriffs Department said.

Anyone with information about Italy is asked to call sheriffs detectives at (626) 292-3318.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchekAuthorities evacuated U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters district office in South Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon after someone noticed a suspicious package that was addressed to Anne Thrax, officials said.

Hazardous materials crews rendered the package safe, but the Los Angeles Police Departments Major Crimes Division launched an investigation, said Officer Mike Lopez, spokesman for the department.

There was no evidence of any dangerous substance at all, he said. Theyre probably going to investigate to see where this item came from.

Authorities were called to the Democratic congresswomans office at 10124 S. Broadway St. shortly after 2:30 p.m. There were no injuries reported. One person came into contact with the package but did not have any medical complaints, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

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Officials said only affected portions of the two-story office building were evacuated, and people were eventually allowed to return inside.

Rep. Maxine Waters district office was evacuated after someone saw a suspicious package. (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

1of2 #HazardousMaterials; INC#0993; 2:55PM; 10124 S Broadway St; https://t.co/wsNXSXdNh5; Broadway-Manchester; LAPD on scene and requested a hazardous materials response by LAFD for suspicious package (reportedly labeled "anthrax"). There are no reports of any patients requiring  LAFD (@LAFD) July 24, 2018

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

8:30 p.m.: This article was updated with more information.

This article was originally published at 4:25 p.m.Orange County prosecutors agreed Wednesday to review a decades-old murder investigation after an attorney said she detected similarities to attacks by a notorious California serial killer.

The district attorneys office agreed to review the conviction of William Evins in the killing of a 28-year-old woman in 1979 as part of a long-standing program that looks into old cases upon request. But the office said that its too soon to tell where the review will lead and that the evidence will have to be examined to determine whether DNA testing is a possibility.

Attorney Annee Della Donna, who runs the pro bono Innocence Rights of Orange County, said she made the request after detecting apparent similarities in the now-deceased Evins case with those connected to the so-called Golden State Killer.

Authorities in Northern California arrested former police officer Joseph DeAngelo, 72, in April and said they believe he is the killer who had long proved elusive to authorities. DeAngelo is charged with 12 killings throughout the state from the 1970s and 1980s, including one in Orange County in 1980.

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As a teen, Della Donna said, she was the victim of an abduction attempt and years later saw a sketch of the Golden State Killer suspect that she thought resembled her attacker. She started looking into rape and murder cases that had occurred nearby and came across Evins case, she said.

She said that she lived six blocks from victim Joan Anderson, 28, and that the way Anderson was killed bears similarities to cases involving the serial killer. She also said Evins, who died in 2013, pleaded guilty after a jailhouse informant said he had confessed to the crime.

We believe that this murder was another Golden State Killer case, she told reporters, adding that she had also contacted Sacramento County sheriffs officials and the FBI.

Its too early to tell if theres similarities or not, said Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for the prosecutors office. We dont know.A federal appeals court decided Wednesday that Chino Valley school board meetings may not include prayers, proselytizing or the citing of Christian Scripture.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2016 injunction against the religious practices, which the court said dated back to at least 2010.

In its appeal, the Chino Valley Unified School District board argued that it was covered by an exception for traditional prayer at the start of state legislatures, Congress and town hall meetings.

The 9th Circuit disagreed, noting that the school board meetings include children and teenagers who are more vulnerable than adults to outside influence and who have been obligated to attend to give presentations, perform or receive awards.

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These prayers typically take place before groups of schoolchildren whose attendance is not truly voluntary and whose relationship to school district officials, including the board, is not one of full parity, the court said in an unsigned decision.

Unlike sessions of Congress, state legislatures and town boards, the Chino Valley school board meetings function as extensions of the educational experience of the districts public schools, the 9th Circuit said.

Two other federal appeals courts have previously ruled that prayer was off-limits for school board meetings. Another circuit allowed it, but in that case there was no student on the board. Chino Valleys board had a student member.

The board defended its opening prayer as a sign of respect for religious diversity.

But the court said the boards list of congregations that could be invited excluded several religions.

Roughly 2% of Californias population is Buddhist, 2% Jewish, 1% Mormon and 1% Orthodox Christian, and none of those religions were included on the boards list, the court said.

The court also noted that atheists and agnostics comprise 4% to 5% of the states population.

A group called Freedom from Religion Foundation Inc. sued the San Bernardino County school district, charging that in addition to the opening prayer, board members read from Christian Scripture at various times.

At a meeting in January 2014, a board member urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find him. At another meeting that year, another board member thanked God for sending his son Jesus Christ so our sins would be forgiven.

Wednesdays decision was made by 9th Circuit Judges M. Margaret McKeown and Kim McLane Wardlaw and Colorado Dist. Judge Wiley Y. Daniel, all appointees of President Clinton.

The court based its decision on the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Establishment Clause, grounded in experiences of persecution, affirms the fundamental truth that no matter what an individuals religious beliefs, he has a valued place in the political community, the 9th Circuit said.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolanThe Beverly Hills City Council on Tuesday banned the use of motorized scooters in the city for six months, citing public safety concerns as the two-wheelers have become more popular.

Under the ordinance, people are not allowed to ride the scooters  or leave them behind  on any public right of way. The council voted 4 to 1 during a special meeting to implement the ban. Vice Mayor John Mirisch was the sole dissenter.



For the record: A previous version of this article said Bird is based in Santa Monica. Bird is based in Venice.

City officials have noticed a dramatic uptick in recent weeks in the use of electric scooters, operated by scooter-share start-ups such as Bird, based in Venice, and Lime. The devices have popped up on sidewalks and street corners, and their riders have been involved in several traffic collisions in Beverly Hills, officials said.

Recently, police began cracking down on their use. During one week this month, the Police Department handed out more than 100 warnings and citations to riders for not wearing helmets or having a valid drivers license. Authorities have also removed scooters from sidewalks and streets when they blocked traffic or pedestrians.

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In its vote, the council pointed to safety risks and the lack of outreach done by scooter companies. City officials indicated that they hoped to meet with representatives of the scooter companies to work on setting rules for their possible future use.

In the meantime, police will enforce a zero-tolerance policy, including impounding the scooters and handing out citations for vehicle code violations, officials said.

Lime said in a statement Wednesday that it hopes to work with the city to roll out a scooter-share program that prioritizes safety while offering clean and affordable alternatives to cars.

Beverly Hills has a history of embracing innovation, from self-driving cars to fiber optic technology. Last night, the city broke from this tradition by slowing down the adoption of innovative mobility solutions that would lead to fewer cars on the road, less traffic congestion and improved air quality, Sam Dreiman, Limes director of strategic development, said in the statement.

Last month, Santa Monica approved a 16-month pilot program that will allow electric-scooter and electric-bike rental companies to continue operating in the city. The pilot, which begins Sept. 17, was framed as a fact-finding mission to help the city craft longer-term regulations.

Cities nationwide have struggled to draw up rules for the use of the scooters, which are popular among riders. They can find the nearest available one by using a mobile app, then rent it by scanning a code on the handlebar with their phone.

There are public safety concerns, as riders tend to drive and park on sidewalks, and not wear helmets. But advocates say the scooters offer a convenient, eco-friendly and low-cost transportation option. Thats appealing to cities, which want to keep traffic and pollution down but have limited funds for public transit.

Both Bird and Lime charge $1 to rent a scooter, plus 15 cents per minute of use. Riders can abandon the scooters anywhere when theyre done. Bird and Lime operate in dozens of U.S. cities and have attracted millions of dollars in venture capital funding.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

July 25, 4:31 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from Lime.

This article was originally published on July 24 at 11:15 p.m.A man who said he took a pickax to Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame early Wednesday has given himself up to police, authorities said.

The man strode up to Trumps star off Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue about 3:30 a.m. and proceeded to destroy the majority of it, including bashing through Trumps name plate, police said.

The man was carrying the pickax in a guitar case, according to KNBC-TV.

President Trumps star on the Walk of Fame has been vandalized again. Details @ABC7 pic.twitter.com/PyocRok5Ki  John Gregory (@abc7johngregory) July 25, 2018

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Donald Trumps star completely destroyed along the Hollywood walk of fame. pic.twitter.com/b1bpLhmG2X  Ryan Parker (@TheRyanParker) July 25, 2018

After bashing through the plaque, the man called police and advised he had vandalized Donald Trumps star and basically called on himself and said, See you soon, said Lt. Karen Leong of the LAPDs Hollywood Division.

Private security officers in the area attempted to intervene but couldnt stop the man because they dont have police powers, she said.

I think they did the best they could, she added.

By the time officers arrived at the scene, the man was gone, Leong said.

However, about an hour later, officials say he walked up to Beverly Hills police headquarters, identified himself and said he wanted to turn himself in.

LAPD officers picked him up soon afterward and took him into custody.

Police identified the man as 24-year-old Austin Clay. He was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and is being held on $20,000 bail, jail records show.

Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Trumps star has endured several publicized episodes of vandalism, including a spray-painted swastika and mute icon. People who notice it as they pass by have been seen stomping on it, spitting on it and writing on it. A photo of a pile of dog poop on the star went viral two years ago.

In October 2016, a man was caught on video bashing the star with a sledgehammer. He was charged with felony vandalism.

Thus far, Walk of Fame officials have not blinked in the face of the repeated attacks on the star and continue to keep it publicly displayed.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna

UPDATES:

Noon: This article was updated with the identity of the suspect.

6:30 a.m.: This article was updated with additional background on vandalism to President Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

This article was originally published at 6:15 a.m.Sergio Marchionne, the former chief executive officer of Fiat Chrysler and architect of the automakers dramatic turnaround, has died. He was 66.

His death was confirmed Wednesday by Exor NV, the holding company of Fiats founding Agnelli family, just days after Marchionne was replaced as CEO. His health had declined suddenly following complications from shoulder surgery.

Selected as CEO of Fiat SpA in June 2004, Marchionne took the Italian manufacturer from the brink of bankruptcy to the New York Stock Exchange, where he rang the bell on Oct. 13, 2014, to mark the debut of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the London company created when Fiat bought the Detroit automaker.

Marchionne, who described himself as a corporate fixer, was Fiats fifth CEO in less than two years when he took over. He replaced Giuseppe Morchio, who quit after the billionaire Agnelli family refused to give him the joint title of chairman and CEO when then-Chairman Umberto Agnelli died of cancer.

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Marchionne was handed a company that lost more than $7 billion in 2003. By 2005, he had returned the company to a profit by wringing about $2 billion from an alliance with General Motors Co., laying off thousands of workers, introducing new models and slashing the time it took to get a new car to market to just 18 months, from four years.

In 2009, President Obamas administration announced that Fiat would take control of Chrysler LLC, rescuing the American company from bankruptcy.

I dont care what a tough guy he was to work for, he saved our company, said Cass Burch, a Chrysler and Jeep dealer in Georgia. He deserves a bronze statue.

The deal gave Marchionne a huge sense of responsibility, he said in a 2011 interview. His office on the fourth floor of Fiats Turin headquarters was adorned with a black-and-white poster of the word competition and a Picasso print bearing the motto, Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.

Marchionnes direct manner and frumpy demeanor  he was rarely seen wearing anything but jeans and a black pullover sweater  made him stand out in buttoned-down Italy. He knew how to move fast and enjoyed driving his half-dozen Ferraris.In October 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia was interfering in the U.S. presidential election at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to help the candidacy of Donald Trump. They have been unwavering in that finding.

But its hard to keep track of where President Trump stands on the issue.

In a recent seven-day stretch, he suggested that Russia didnt meddle in the election, then he sided with the intelligence communitys findings, at least in part, and then appeared to reverse himself again when he tweeted that it is all a big hoax.

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The CIA, FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence and other agencies have found that Russian intelligence operatives were behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails that were released by WikiLeaks in July 2016  the eve of the Democratic National Convention  and showed favoritism by party leaders for Hillary Clinton over opponent Bernie Sanders.

The agencies also concluded that Russians ran fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter to spread anti-Clinton and pro-Trump propaganda.

The Obama administration had evidence of Russian interference at least as early as August 2016, but chose not to make it public until a month before the November election, in part because of concerns about appearing to get the intelligence agencies involved in politics.

That December, after Trump was elected, the Obama administration imposed sanctions against Russia, kicked out 35 of its diplomats and closed its compounds in New York and Maryland. Less than a month later, in January, U.S. intelligence officers briefed Trump on their conclusions.

Trump has been consistent in at least one respect  denying that he or his campaign team worked with the Russians to influence the election, a key element of the current investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference.

Heres a look at what Trump has said about Russian involvement in the election, as well as Trumps relationship with Putin and the familys business dealings in Russia:

Trump on Russian interference in the election:

June 15, 2016

We believe it was the DNC that did the hacking as a way to distract from the many issues facing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. Too bad the DNC doesnt hack Crooked Hillarys 33,000 missing emails.

 In a statement referring to Clintons use of a private email server during her time as secretary of State

Republican nominee Donald Trump and nominee Hillary Clinton speak during the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York on September 26, 2016. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

July 27, 2016

Russia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press.

 At a news conference in Doral, Fla.

July 27, 2016

No, thats not what I said, and I was having fun. We were all having fun.

 In an interview with the Detroit News, saying he was joking earlier in the day when he asked Russia to find Clintons emails

Sept. 26, 2016

It could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds.

 In a presidential debate with Clinton, speculating about the hacking of the DNCs email

Nov. 11, 2017

He said he didnt meddle. He said he didnt meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times. But I just asked him again, and he said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what theyre saying he did.

 In comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, describing a brief conversation he had with Putin during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam

As to whether I believe it or not, Im with our agencies, especially as currently constituted with their leadership. I believe in our intel agencies, our intelligence agencies.  Now, at the same time, I want to be able  because I think its very important  to get along with Russia.

-- Speaking later that day during a news conference in Hanoi.

July 16, 2018

There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it.

 In remarks after meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, with only their translators present

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, with President Donald Trump, left, during their joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)

July 16, 2018

I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

My people came to me  [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me and some others  they said they think its Russia. I have President Putin; he just said its not Russia. I will say this: I dont see any reason why it would be.

 In the same news conference with Putin in Helsinki

July 17, 2018

I actually went out and reviewed a clip of an answer that I gave, and I realized that there is a need for some clarification. It shouldve been obvious. I thought it would be obvious, but I would like to clarify just in case it wasnt. In a key sentence in my remarks, I said the word would instead of wouldnt. The sentence should have been, I dont see any reason why I wouldnt or why it wouldnt be Russia.

 In an Oval Office statement, taking back his remark from the previous day

July 17, 2018

I have the strongest respect for our intelligence agencies, headed by my people. Were doing everything in our power to prevent Russian interference in 2018.

 Speaking to reporters pressing about his stance on Russian meddling

July 22, 2018

So President Obama knew about Russia before the election. Why didnt he do something about it? Why didnt he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, thats why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!

 In a tweet

On his relationship with Putin:

June 18, 2013

Do you think Putin will be going to the Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow  if so, will he become my new best friend?

 In a tweet

November 2013

I can tell you that hes very interested in what were doing here today. Hes probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and hes going to be seeing it in some form.

 In an interview with MSNBCs Thomas Roberts to promote the Trump-owned Miss Universe Pageant, when asked, Do you have a relationship with Vladimir Putin?

Feb. 17, 2016

I have no relationship with [Putin] other than he called me a genius. He said Donald Trump is a genius and he is going to be the leader of the party and hes going to be the leader of the world or something.

 At a campaign event in Bluffton, S.C.

On his business connections in Russia:

Oct. 17, 2013

Well, Ive done a lot of business with the Russians.  Theyre smart and theyre tough.

 In an interview with talk show host David Letterman, when asked: Have you had any dealings with the Russians?

Feb. 16, 2017

And I can tell you, speaking for myself, I own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I dont have any deals in Russia. President Putin called me up very nicely to congratulate me on the win of the election.

 At a news conference announcing his choice for a new labor secretary

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @melissaetehad

UPDATES:

5:55 p.m., Aug. 1: This article has been updated to include Trumps statement on Nov. 11, 2017, supporting U.S. intelligence agencies.

This article was originally posted at 3 a.m. on July 25.An Ecuadorean immigrant who was held for deportation after delivering pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation walked out of an immigration detention center Tuesday night, hours after a judge ordered his immediate release.

Pablo Villavicencio exited the detention center shortly before 9 p.m. He was greeted with hugs from his jubilant wife and two young daughters. He thanked supporters and the media before being whisked away in an SUV.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty said Villavicencio, who was being held at a New Jersey lockup, can remain in the United States while he tries to gain legal status.

Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen, the judge wrote.

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Villavicencio applied to stay in the U.S. after he married a U.S. citizen, with whom he has two young girls.

The judge noted that those children are also U.S. citizens.

He has no criminal history, the judge wrote. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family.

Pablo Villavicencios wife Sandra Chica leaves federal court with their daughters after a hearing on his release on July 24 in New York. (Bebeto Matthews / Associated Press)

The U.S. government, which had wanted the case moved from New York to New Jersey, did not immediately comment on the judges action.

Attorney Adriene Holder of the Legal Aid Society said the rule of law, humanity and morality prevailed and the Villavicencio family has finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare.

This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart, Holder said in a statement.

The judge ruled after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday, when he put a government lawyer on the spot over the effort by immigration authorities to enforce a 2010 deportation order. He questioned the need to detain and quickly deport Villavicencio, whos 35 years old.

Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must, the judge said after hearing Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Cordaro defend the governments actions.

I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to? the judge asked. Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country.

Pablo Villavicencio talks to reporters after being released July 24. (Julio Cortez / Associated Press)

Cordaro argued for the case to be transferred to New Jersey because Villavicencio was detained there. He said legal precedent dictated that New Jersey was the proper venue, an argument the judge rejected.

Cordaro said Villavicencio would have still been able to pursue his application to become a legal U.S. resident after he was deported.

The case has attracted widespread attention amid the Trump administrations crackdown on illegal immigration. President Trump has said his policies are designed to keep the country safe.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the federal government has cruelly kept Villavicencio from his wife, Sandra Chica, and two daughters for no legitimate reason.

Villavicencio was arrested on June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison at Fort Hamilton. When he arrived, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the United States in 2010.Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. Its Wednesday, July 25, and heres whats happening across California:

TOP STORIES

The Los Angeles Police Department announced Tuesday that one of its officers fired the bullet that struck and killed a Trader Joes employee in the frantic moments they exchanged gunfire with a suspect over the weekend. On behalf of myself and the rest of the department, I want to express my deepest condolences and sympathy to her family and everyone that knew her, Chief Michel Moore said of the store manager, Melyda Corado, 27. Los Angeles Times

Plus: Breaking down the dramatic videos that show LAPD officers chasing and exchanging fire with the Trader Joes shooting suspect. Los Angeles Times

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And: Could the death of a Trader Joes manager have been avoided? Columnist Steve Lopez writes that its too soon to know. Los Angeles Times

Plants: the new avocado toast

Though houseplants have never gone out of style as low-budget home decor, sales of flowers, seeds and potted plants have increased since 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The recent surge in sales coincides with the fact that some millennials, defined by the U.S. Census Department as Americas youth born between 1982 and 2000, are delaying homeownership. Los Angeles Times

A powerful force

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, an activist and researcher who uncovered key documents that proved the U.S. government had racist motives for incarcerating Japanese Americans during World War II, died July 18 in Torrance. Los Angeles Times

Get the Essential California newsletter 

When she was a teenager, Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga was removed from her Los Angeles High School senior class and imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. STORIES

Another heat wave: Temperature records are likely to fall across Southern California over the next two days as a heat wave smothers the western United States, according to the National Weather Service. Residents are being urged to conserve power. Los Angeles Times

History lesson: Former Dodgers outfielder Ron Fairly looks back on the highs and lows of being a boy in blue when the team first moved to the city. Los Angeles Times

Watch out! Here are the top 10 spots for freeway accidents. Crosstown Traffic

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Of course: The candidates for California governor are debating about how many times to debate. Democratic front-runner Gavin Newsoms campaign says he will commit to just one faceoff before the November election, while Republican John Cox is calling for a series of five debates around the state. Los Angeles Times

Ready for battle: California and like-minded states are girding for a legal battle with the Trump administration on whether those states have gone too far in controlling greenhouse gases from automobiles, a prospective case that legal scholars say  barring a last-minute settlement  is sure to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. McClatchy

That may explain it: An audit says a state Department of Motor Vehicles worker slept at least three hours a day on the job for nearly four years, slowing down processing times in an agency known for its long waits. San Francisco Chronicle

CRIME AND COURTS

Possible hate crime: Relatives of a Long Beach man who was shot and killed during a family reunion in a city park over the weekend said they believe the victim was targeted because he is black. Los Angeles Times

Heated debate: LAPD officials responded to concerns from privacy and civil liberties groups about the departments use of data in fighting crime at a special meeting of the Police Commission on Tuesday. Los Angeles Times

Returning to the limelight: Judge Alex Kozinski, who quit over harassment allegations, has reemerged cautiously in public life, dismaying those who accused him. Washington Post

On TV: Women are speaking out, accusing former USC gynecologist George Tyndell of sexual misconduct. He denies the charges. ABC News

THE ENVIRONMENT

Off limits: Parts of Yosemite National Park have been closed as the raging Ferguson fire moves closer, authorities said Tuesday. Los Angeles Times

Sad: A Huntington Beach man was found dead after he apparently fell and hit his head while hiking in Death Valley National Park last week, authorities said. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Its not over: Although Walt Disney Co. has reached a tentative contract agreement with four unions at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, the media giant and its workers have plenty of fight left in them when it comes to wages for the resorts 30,000 staffers. Los Angeles Times

Good news: Your Tesla Model 3 is finally ready. Bad news: It may take weeks to get it serviced. Los Angeles Times

Bummer: A primo crop of marijuana was destroyed after a fire ripped through a grow facility in Monterey County on Monday. Leafly

Nice! The Vista Theatre in Los Feliz is getting an ice cream shop in the same building. Eater LA

Now you get your shot: Hamilton may be coming to movie theaters, exactly as audiences saw it on Broadway. Wall Street Journal

Click! The website L.A. Taco bears news of an evolving city. Columbia Journalism Review

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles area: Partly cloudy, 94, Wednesday. Sunny, 92, Thursday. San Diego: Partly cloudy, 83, Wednesday. Partly cloudy, 82, Thursday. San Francisco area: Partly cloudy, 68, Wednesday. Cloudy, 68, Thursday. San Jose: Sunny, 85, Wednesday. Sunny, 84, Thursday. Sacramento: Sunny, 105, Wednesday. Sunny, 103, Thursday. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Todays California memory comes from Christina Pettro:

My aunt worked as a secretary at the sheriffs station in Malibu in the 60s. I would visit her on weekends, and after I got my drivers permit, shed let me drive up Highway 1 to Ventura. Wed leave early, about 8 a.m., on Sunday and I would drive her 57 T-Bird. It wasnt unusual for me to exceed the speed limit, and usually we wouldnt see more than a couple of cars on the highway. Its hard to imagine little or no traffic or speeding up the highway on a Sunday morning these days.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to Benjamin Oreskes and Shelby Grad. Also follow them on Twitter @boreskes and @shelbygrad.The Trump administrations practice of separating young children from their asylum-seeking parents and detaining them in prison-like facilities was abhorrent and so inhumane that even the administration chose not to defend it to an outraged public.

The ongoing detention of families is less barbaric, though still bad policy. But it is good business for the private corrections companies that contract with the government to house detainees. And it may get even more lucrative. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Trump administration has requested $2.8 billion in the coming fiscal year to pay for 12,000 more beds in immigration detention centers.

Among the investors that may profit from the demand for detention centers is the California State Teachers Retirement System, which has $12 million in investments in two private correction companies, CoreCivic of Nashville, Tenn., and GEO Group of Boca Raton, Fla. But hundreds of teachers and activist groups are now demanding the CalSTRS board divest from these companies because they say it is immoral to make money from human misery.

We are here to serve diverse communities not profit from them, one teacher said during an emotional moment at a CalSTRS investment committee meeting on Friday.

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We agree that its repugnant that misery can be monetized, and we have issues with the government outsourcing of corrections in general. But lets be clear: The villain in this dark moment in U.S. history is the federal government  and in particular, the Trump administration  not private prison companies.

As Gov. Jerry Brown points out year after year, the good times never roll on forever.

The California Teachers Assn., the states largest teachers union, has taken a more measured approach, raising concerns about the conditions in the private facilities and asking the manager of CalSTRS pension fund to investigate whether the investments continue to meet the funds guidelines on human rights. But even this inquiry seems to be politically motivated, considering the time required to police an investment thats a tiny sliver of the funds $224 billion in assets.

We are concerned about the increasing pressure to politicize the states largest public employee retirement funds, and think teachers ought to be as well. CalSTRS is deeply underfunded (even more than the California Public Employees Retirement System) with a staggering $107 billion in unfunded liabilities that threaten not just the school districts that will be squeezed to make up for the shortfall, but also the states taxpayers, who would have to pay any pensions CalSTRS couldnt finance.

The calls for divestment used to be rare, focusing on truly toxic substances, such as tobacco, or countries targeted for global sanctions, such as South Africa during the apartheid era. But in recent years, activists have used divestment as a way to turn their political agendas into action.

Last year the state Legislature considered a bill pushing CalSTRS and CalPERS to divest from the companies that financed the Dakota Access Pipeline. This year, state Treasurer John Chiang urged both retirement funds to divest from assault rifle companies. CalPERS resisted, but CalSTRS agreed to put pressure on gun retailers.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

Both funds prefer to use their holdings as leverage, engaging with companies to try to change policies they find problematic before they take the drastic step of divesting, which can take as years to fully accomplish and can reduce investment returns. CalPERS divested from tobacco companies in 2000, and although it was the moral and sensible thing to do, it cost the fund an estimated $3.68 billion in earnings.

Sacrificing some future revenue might seem like no big deal at the moment, with better-than-expected returns coming in. CalPERS reported an 8.6% rate of return for the fiscal year that ended June 30. CalSTRS did even better, reporting a 9% return for the same period, and for the second year in a row beating its own 7% expectations.

But as Gov. Jerry Brown points out year after year, the good times never roll on forever. And with such enormous unfunded liabilities, CalSTRS (and CalPERS) already need an exceptionally long run of better-than-expected earnings. The dark clouds seem to be gathering on the horizon already, seeded perhaps by the presidents trade war with the rest of the globe, which CalSTRS chief investment officer warned could hurt returns in the future. This is no time to force CalSTRS to use its pension funds to make a political statement, especially one directed at the wrong target.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookLess than a month into his tenure as chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, Michel Moore has had to guide his department, and indeed the entire city, through Saturdays tragic incident in Silver Lake. Thats where a Trader Joes manager was killed by police crossfire following a horrid spasm of violence that began, police say, when a man shot his grandmother and another woman in South Los Angeles, then kidnapped the woman and drove from the scene, shot from his car at officers when they spotted him in Hollywood, crashed near the crowded Silver Lake store, engaged in a shootout with police, and held shoppers and employees hostage in the store during three hours of tense negotiations.

Of course there remain unanswered questions about police tactics and protocols, and profound grief at the death of an innocent bystander.

For the present though, one thing stands out: Moore has responded with welcome candor. In quickly releasing segments of in-car and officer-worn body camera video, he and the LAPD gave residents a revealing view of police response and an understanding of the circumstances that officers faced. The Police Commission recently adopted a policy that gives the department up to 45 days to release bodycam or dashboard video of an incident. Moore showed good judgment in releasing portions almost right away.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

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And in disclosing Tuesday that it was a police bullet that ended the life of store manager Melyda Marciela Corado, Moore was forthright and exhibited a convincing and appropriate measure of sympathy to Corados family, friends and co-workers. Its a horrible thing to have to acknowledge, and Moore could have delayed the announcement or buffered it with defensive statements. He did neither.

He also was correct in laying ultimate responsibility for the killing at the feet of the suspect, identified as Gene Atkins. As Moore noted, the death shows the destruction that a lone person with a handgun can wreak on a community.

In coming weeks, lets hope that the chief will be equally candid with any conclusions he and his command staff reach regarding the decision-making that occurred as the incident unfolded. It is easy enough for non-experts to draw conclusions after the fact about whether the right personnel were called in at the right time, or whether officers were right to have fired under the circumstances, but the department owes the public  after adequate time for full investigation  an accounting of what mistakes were made and what lessons learned, if any.

Its important as well to remember that the outpouring of grief for Corado is echoed with depressing frequency across the city by other families who lose loved ones to police bullets. Some victims are as innocent as she, others less so. But in all cases, the LAPD should work to be as candid as in the Trader Joes incident  and as focused on minimizing future losses of life.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.As if President Trumps America needed more reason to hate California, here comes news that San Francisco began to register noncitizens last week to vote for local school board races this November.

Actually, its old news: Voters OKd the plan in 2016 with the passage of Measure N. But its implementation has triggered Fox News and their peers, and has Republican politicians whispering that this is the latest Democratic plot to use undocumented Mexicans to destroy America  never mind that most of the people now eligible to vote in San Francisco are actually Chinese.



For the record: This column initially stated that Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra would run in 2020. Actually hes running in 2018.

Conservatives need to calm down. Noncitizen voting already is happening in some Maryland towns, and democracy there is still alive. Giving them access to the ballot box is a great gesture  it lets more people hold government accountable, adds a shot of vitality to our democracy, blah blah blah.

But why stop at San Francisco? The state Legislature should move toward letting noncitizen residents  over 18, of course  vote in all local and state elections.

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California already grants drivers licenses for undocumented folks and is a sanctuary state. Why not take the next logical step?

Its a steep task that will require changing Californias Constitution. But the achievement would ensure that at a time when the state is more inequitable than ever, everyone has a voice.

Noncitizens, legal and not, are ready. Many have been residents for decades; the younger ones learned the principles of American democracy in our school systems, and some use that knowledge to volunteer for candidates and causes. Their economic power and concern for our collective future is qualification enough to earn a place in the voting booth.

How is it just that an adult whos lived in El Monte for more than two decades has less of a say in California politics than a native New Yorker whos lived in Highland Park for less than a year only because the latter is a citizen and the former isnt?

Barring noncitizens from voting is not only illogical but also ahistorical. Noncitizens participated in local, state and even federal elections almost from the start of the Republic. The book Democracy for All: Restoring Immigrant Voting Rights in the U.S. discusses at length this phenomenon, noting that this 150-year history has been eviscerated from national memory.

Our founding fathers and pioneers knew in their time what should seem obvious today: People who have a stake in the well-being of their communities should have the chance to choose who represents them, regardless of documentation.

Of course, those same men also denied suffrage to groups they deemed dangerous. Slaves. African Americans decades after emancipation. Women. And as more people came from countries that werent considered white, immigrants.

Bigotry, not lack of citizenship, has always driven disenfranchisement. So it makes perfect sense that conservatives are angry about the San Francisco case: Noncitizens are the bogeyman of the moment.

But Id argue that including noncitizens in elections might be the last chance to make the Republican Party relevant again in California.

Imagine if GOP firebrands like Devin Nunes or Kevin McCarthy suddenly had to moderate their message lest they face the wrath of the angry, undocumented farmworkers who make up a significant chunk of their rural congressional districts. Then they might appeal to citizens too. Besides, conservative politicians might find immigrant voters more receptive than not to the GOP message of less government and more family values.

Too bad the GOP wont even consider this possibility  an example of a political party that cant see the burrito for the beans.

So forget them. California already grants drivers licenses for undocumented folks and is a sanctuary state. Why not take the next logical step?

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

In 2020, there are no statewide offices up for grabs. So lets have Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra travel the state and urge noncitizens to push for the vote. Theyll surely value enfranchisement more than born-and-bred citizens, who make a true mockery of democracy through low participation. (Only 37% of registered voters bothered with this years primary.)

The year 2020 is also when Trump plans to run again, and hell no doubt rail against our grand experiment. But thats another opportunity for California to act as the vanguard against Trump and his posse.

Whats the worst that can happen? Trump and U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions target us even more? Meh. They who have no voice or vote in the electing of representatives do not enjoy liberty, Benjamin Franklin wrote back in the day, but are absolutely enslaved to those who have votes and their representatives.

Slavery ended more than 150 years ago. Let noncitizens vote.

mexicanwithglasses@gmail.com

Follow @GustavoArellano on Twitter

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookIntoxicated by talk of co-equal branches, and blinded by our monomaniacal focus on the White House, many Americans could be forgiven for forgetting that it is Congress, not the presidency, in which the Constitution invests the lions share of the power.

Not only does Congress enjoy the capacity to remove officers from the other two branches, while remaining untouchable itself, it also bears responsibility for the gravest decisions that a government may be called upon to make. Congress decides whether or not the country will go to war; with which nations we will ally; under what federal statutes we will live; and, crucially, how and from where federal revenues will be derived. Unsurprisingly for a group whose rallying cry was no taxation without representation, it was to the legislature that the Founders accorded the Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imports, and Excises. The power to tax, Daniel Webster proposed, is the power to destroy. The Founders chose Congress as the form of their destructor.

Do we still know this? I wonder. Peruse the headlines even briefly and you will notice that a familiar name pops up without fail. The Trump administration intends to impose tariffs on  , President Trump contends that trade wars are good ... , Today, Mr. Trump slapped tariffs on steel  , etc., etc., etc. How peculiar these words would have sounded to James Madison. And how astonished he would have been to see that the response of the nations lawmakers was to cavil on cable, or to commentate from the sidelines as if wholly disengaged from the process.

We need a new president! many of protectionisms critics have insisted. A new president? How about a new Congress?

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Trumps approach to trade is, indeed, disastrous. Evidently, the president does not grasp even the basics of the realm. But if the system were working as intended, this would not greatly matter. If the system were operating as designed, the president would have no capacity to impose tariffs without congressional acquiescence. Inspect the Constitution and you will find it grants the executive precisely no power in this domain  which, of course, means that the authority he is presently wielding is the result of legislative delegation. More specifically, it is the result of a handful of statutes that can be amended or repealed at will. Should it wish to, Congress could stop this folly today.

Upon craven theories of self-interest has Congress abdicated its role for 80-odd years.

And stop it Congress should, for the sword they have handed the White House is being hideously abused. As is so often the case, the argument in favor of legislative delegation revolves around national security. If there is a crisis, the theory holds, the White House will be more agile than will the unwieldly national legislature. And so, Congress must give up some of its powers for the broader good.

I must confess that I do not find this convincing, even in a vacuum; rather, I see the national security cry as an excuse for the adoption of bad constitutional habits, and for the permanent usurpation of power. Moreover, the idea that the Trump administrations trade war can be justified on national security or emergency grounds is farcical.

We are watching the chickens coming home to roost. For almost a century now, the advocates of congressional supremacy have warned that deputizing the executive to play the legislatures role was a fools game  and not solely on tariffs, but also on other matters of great import, such as war-making, immigration, healthcare, economic regulation and more. Is it sufficiently obvious now why those exhortations were made?

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

Will lawmakers be led to reform by their present experience? Probably not, since the incentives for impotence remain strong. Allowing the president to take tough decisions inoculates representatives and senators from having to put on the record a difficult and divisive vote, and spares them from doing the elementary research that their job requires. Besides, at any given point both Democrats and Republicans can use the executives Caesarism to their political advantage. If their guy is in power, there exists little motivation to reduce his capabilities. And if the other guy is in, well, then his conduct makes the case for his replacement! Upon these craven theories of self-interest has Congress abdicated its role for 80-odd years.

At some point, however, the fever will have to break. The great genius of the American system lies in its comprehension of human nature: Rather than heaping power on one person in the hope that he will turn out to be virtuous, the Founders of the republic fractured it among many. When they want to, those many can take back the control that is rightfully theirs  and over a veto if necessary.

Charles C. W. Cooke is editor of NationalReview.com and author of The Conservatarian Manifesto.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookOn Monday, Americans woke up to an all-caps diatribe from President Trump aimed at the Iranian government. The message, in essence, was a warning to Tehran: Stop threatening the United States with violence or risk exposing yourself to an American response the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before.

Some may dismiss Trumps tweet as an isolated event or empty bluster, but when it is combined with Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeos speech to the Iranian diaspora community in Los Angeles last weekend, the presidents threat is one more piece of evidence that the administrations policy on Iran is all about regime change.

A strategy focused exclusively on economic and political pressure to the detriment of hard-nosed, pragmatic diplomacy will not weaken the mullahs to the point of collapse  nor is it in the U.S. national security interest to foment such collapse.

No one would defend the Iranian government as currently constructed. No one argues with Pompeos description of the regime: The mullahs have monopolized a large chunk of Irans economy, thrown political dissidents in prison on flimsy and politicized charges and used state-sponsored terrorism against their neighbors. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last decade and a half.

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Iran is unquestionably a national security problem for its neighbors, but it is a largely immaterial nuisance to the United States.

No one can look at Irans leadership with impartial eyes and conclude that the Iranian people have been anything other than shortchanged and ill-served.

But these facts cannot be the main issue for U.S. policymakers. The issue instead is whether inciting domestic rebellion, cutting off Tehran from the international financial system and conditioning dialogue on wholly unrealistic demands is a wise course of action to achieve those or any ends. Given Americas dismal record in the Middle East, the answer is no.

Iran is unquestionably a national security problem for its neighbors, but it is a largely immaterial nuisance to the United States. Core U.S. national security interests in the region are relatively limited: preventing transnational terrorist groups from attacking the homeland and Americans abroad, ensuring the oil market is stable, and maintaining as many constructive Middle East diplomatic partnerships as possible.

Tehrans threat to shutter the Strait of Hormuz justifies an aggressive U.S. posture to some observers. But such a closure would hurt Irans bottom line more than it would hurt the United States. In a country that depends on its ability to export crude oil to the global market for much of its government revenue  and whose people are already taking to the streets to protest a plummeting domestic currency  the mullahs would be making a potentially catastrophic mistake to take such a gamble.

For the United States to try to inspire a democratic movement in Iran amounts to a case of dangerous amnesia. In close to two decades of military engagement in the Middle East, the foreign policy establishment in Washington should have learned some valuable lessons about how futile it is for the United States to force through a change of government in a foreign land.

In every instance the United States has attempted to pressure a regime into submission or topple it outright, the results have been catastrophic for regional stability, enormously expensive for the American taxpayer, and a major distraction to American grand strategy that aspiring competitors such as Russia and China swiftly and cleverly exploit.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

The American people are often told that regime change will be quick, easy, relatively cost-free, and a prelude to Western-style democratic governance. The reality, however, has consistently been the opposite: intercommunal violence leading to civil war, the overpowering of moderates by extremist forces with more absolutist agendas, the proliferation of terrorism and unaccountable armed groups and new calls (often by the same people who lobbied for regime change in the first place) for the United States to invest more resources in order to prevent the situation from spiraling into anarchy.

The American people have learned these lessons even if the Washington establishment hasnt. They see an Iraq now consumed by Iranian influence, a Libya composed of a collection of armed militias fighting one another for territory and oil, and an Afghanistan that remains deep into its 17th consecutive year of war with no end in sight. You would be hard-pressed to find an American outside of the Beltway who genuinely believes Americas policy in all three countries has made the United States safer or more prosperous. Americans, to be blunt, have no desire to attempt in Iran what the United States couldnt do in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or Libya: overthrow a regime, however despotic and corrupt.

U.S. foreign policy cannot be about do-goodism or charity. It should about one thing only: Advancing prosperity at home and safety abroad. Picking an unnecessary and counterproductive fight with Irans regime in pursuit of an unattainable ideal does not qualify as sound judgment.

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities and a columnist at the American Conservative.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.The technology was terrifying.

James Watson, Nobel-Prize-winning co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, said it would lead to all sorts of bad scenarios. But not just bad. He stated unequivocally that all hell will break loose, politically and morally, all over the world. It was condemned by scientists and clergy alike. The Vatican decried it as the younger sister of eugenics and the science magazine Nova called it the biggest threat since the atom bomb. People were determined to stop it. The American Medical Assn. wanted to halt all research in the field. Individuals involved with the technology received sacks of hate mail, some doused in something that looked like blood. A bomb threat forced people to evacuate. A family had to move.

What was this monstrous threat that caused such widespread panic? In vitro fertilization, in which scientists fertilize an egg in a lab and then implant it into a womans womb.

Now in vitro fertilization, or IVF, is positively mundane, and many young people at least would be surprised to hear it had ever been controversial. Although some Catholic ethicists and clergy continue to raise objections  and the Church has not really softened its stance  tens of thousands of couples turn to IVF annually in order to conceive.

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Clean energy is energy that is better for the environment, and clean meat is meat that is better for the environment.

This year, the first IVF baby turned 40. The procedure is so commonplace that 1.5% of the babies born in Western Europe, North America and Australia owe their existence to the technology.

This means that if you walk around any school of more than a few hundred kids, you will probably encounter students conceived using this Frankenbaby technology  a procedure that called into question the idea of the humanness of our human life and the meaning of our embodiment, according to University of Chicago bioethicist Leon Kass.

Although the ferocity of the initial reaction to IVF was extreme, an angry backlash is the norm for new technologies, even those without the moral implications of IVF. It is nearly impossible to find a technology that wasnt met with fear and derision. Walk backwards through time and almost every next big thing was attacked and vilified by some portion of the population.

The internet, computers, television, movies, radio, telephones, ice makers (yes, really), the telegraph, the automobile, trains, clocks. Even books were going to destroy the oral tradition, according to Plato, and take time away from more important pursuits like courting and family.

And thats why Im not concerned when polls show some portion of the population is no more eager to accept in vitro meat than their grandparents were to accept in vitro babies.

In vitro meat, commonly referred to as clean meat, is grown directly from cells, no animal necessary. The technology requires far fewer resources than raising animals, who are not very efficient as grain-to-meat conversion machines. Its called clean meat as a nod to clean energy  clean energy is energy that is better for the environment, and clean meat is meat that is better for the environment.

Enter the Fray: First takes on the news of the minute from L.A. Times Opinion 

No matter how scary pollsters make their question  lab meat!  a significant percentage of people are eager to eat meat produced without the animal. Indeed, even the most pessimistic polls show 20% to 30% of people willing to switch over to clean meat. Thats 40 times the size of the current plant-based meat market, worth $40 billion to $60 billion per year in the United States alone. And clean meat wont be marketed in a vacuum. Rather, it will be sold as the alternative to conventional meat from industrial animal agriculture.

Polls consistently show that the public really doesnt like industrial farms. Last year, Oklahoma State University researchers found that 47% of those they surveyed want to ban slaughterhouses, and 47% support banning factory farming. Fully 68% said they had discomfort with the way animals are used in the food industry. Once we can offer those 68% of people the animal meat they want without that discomfort, clean meat will be the obvious choice.

There will always be Luddites who decry and resist new technologies. Thats to be expected. But the rest of us will happily enjoy conscience-clearing clean meat.

Bruce Friedrich is co-founder and executive director of the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes alternatives to industrial animal agriculture.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookTo the editor: Democratic politicians should consider 2012 Obama campaign official Michael Wears op-ed article regarding their stance on abortion and Roe vs. Wade.

Most voters and virtually all Democrats, I think, do agree that abortion should remain safe, legal and rare. But many voters who are sickened by President Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress are compelled by their religious beliefs to fervently and absolutely oppose abortion.

If 2018 is to be the year of the blue wave, Democrats would be wise to soft-pedal on the abortion debate, at least for now. There are too many other important issues at stake to let this one topic take center stage.

David Williams, Santa Barbara

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..

To the editor: Abortion is not so much a pro-choice or a pro-life issue as it is about womens autonomy.

Democrats do agree with Bill and Hillary Clinton that abortion should be safe, legal and rare. To that end, women should have information freely and widely available to practice family planning and be able to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

Even now in this country, I still meet women who never heard of the morning-after pill. When was the last time we had public announcements about pregnancy prevention? We should all strive to make family planning a universal right for all women around the world.

Donna Handy, Santa Barbara

..

To the editor: Wear is right that Democrats should not focus on a single issue, like abortion rights, during the confirmation hearings of federal appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaughs nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion is certainly a big issue, but not the only one in these hearings.

Kavanaugh believes, evidently, that a sitting president should not be investigated or indicted for anything. This belief says the president is effectively above the law, which is ludicrous. Kavanaugh is telling us he would not vote to require Trumps compliance with investigators should the matter come before the Supreme Court.

What more do we need to know about Kavanaugh? And when will we stop using the terms pro-life and pro-choice? How about pro-choice and anti-choice?

Marlene Bronson, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookNewsoms budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimers research, brain task force By Melody Gutierrez Amyloid plaques, shown here in human brains, are a hallmark of Alzheimers disease. (UCLA School of Medicine) Gov. Gavin Newsom will call for the creation of a brain health task force and dedicate $3 million annually from the states general fund to Alzheimers disease research in the budget proposal he will release Thursday, a source close to the administration said. The money for Alzheimers research would target the new grants at understanding why the disease is more prevalent in women and people of color. Former California first lady and Alzheimers activist Maria Shriver pushed for the funding to be included in the state budget. Shriver said in a statement Wednesday that the funding would make California the first state to make understanding our brains a priority. The states former first lady, whose late father Sargent Shriver was diagnosed with Alzheimers, founded the Womens Alzheimers Movement, an advocacy group raising awareness about womens increased risk for developing the disease. In 2011, she wrote a comprehensive assessment on the disease, to which Newsom  then mayor of San Francisco  contributed a portion called What one city is doing. This is personal to me, just like it is to millions of California families, Shriver said. Alzheimers is one of the largest medical, social and economic crises in our state, and of our time. I am so proud that, once again, California is leading the way. Wiping out Alzheimers is going to require bold thinking, and there is no doubt in my mind that California is home to bold thinkers who can make this happen. Facebook

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Gov. Gavin Newsom orders reinvention of troubled California DMV By Patrick McGreevy A line of people stretches around the South L.A. location of a California Department of Motor Vehicles Office on Aug. 7. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which has been plagued by hours-long wait times at field offices, computer crashes and voter registration errors involving tens of thousands of customers. Just a few days after taking office, Newsom appointed a top advisor to a new DMV Reinvention Strike Team to revamp the beleaguered agency over the next six months. By any metric, California DMV has been chronically mismanaged and failed in its fundamental mission to the state customers it serves and the state workers it employs, Newsom said in a statement, adding Its time for a reinvention. The governor appointed state Government Operations Agency Secretary Marybel Batjer to lead the strike team with a goal of modernizing the agency and enacting changes that improve customer satisfaction, employee performance and transparency. Newsom also ordered an accelerated review of initial findings of an ongoing audit ordered last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. The action was welcomed by lawmakers who have been critical of the DMV, including Assemblyman Vince Fong (R-Bakersfield). The egregious management failures of the DMV have been self-evident, which is why I have been calling for new leadership and a comprehensive independent audit of this troubled state agency over and over again as the problems grew significantly worse, Fong said. Last summer, Californians seeking new driver licenses complained of wait times of four to six hours at DMV offices, which the agency blamed partly on snafus caused by a rush of people trying to get Real IDs, a new identification card design required for airline passengers starting in late 2020. Delays were also blamed on computer crashes at DMV offices as the agency struggled to update its aging automation systems. The DMV also admitted that there were an estimated 23,000 errors as people either were unknowingly registered to vote or mistakes were made in their registration status as part of the states new motor voter program. The agency registered to vote as many as 1,500 people with legal U.S. residency but no citizenship. Last month, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto retired from the agency. Legislators were angered earlier this week when the DMV said it needed an additional $40 million to prevent the return of long lines at its field offices. In addition, the agency has been under fire for issuing driver licenses in the last year that do not comply with the federal Real ID standards requiring two forms of identification by applicants. Facebook

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California police unions are preparing to battle new transparency law in the courtroom By Maya Lau Just as a landmark police transparency law is going into effect, some California police agencies are shredding internal affairs documents and law enforcement unions are rushing to block the information from being released. The new law, which begins to unwind Californias strictest-in-the-nation protections over the secrecy of law enforcement records, opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. But the lawsuits and records destruction, which began even before the law took effect Jan. 1, could tie up the release of information for months or years, and in some instances, prevent it from ever being disclosed. The fact that police unions are challenging this law is on some level not surprising, said Peter Bibring, director of police practices at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, one of the principal supporters of the new law. They have a long history of fighting tooth and nail against transparency. Read More Facebook

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Secretary of State Alex Padilla begins second term with challenge to ensure every Californian is counted By Jazmine Ulloa Secretary of State Alex Padilla takes the oath of office as his family stands by his side on Monday in Sacramento. (Jazmine Ulloa / Los Angeles Times) Secretary of State Alex Padilla was sworn in for a second term on Monday, saying he would continue the battle to protect the right to vote at a time when voter suppression efforts, online disinformation campaigns and interference from foreign adversaries have polarized the public and threatened to undermine trust in U.S. elections. I am doubling down on our fight here in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., to defend our democracy, he said. Working on the front lines with so many of you, I know that our collective resolve has never been stronger. But the loudest applause came when Padilla promised to fight back against the Trump administrations changes to the U.S. census, saying he will ensure every Californian gets counted. Padilla, a former state senator and Los Angeles City Council member from the San Fernando Valley, led the cause for a new motor voter registration law in 2015, and a new system for online business registrations. But the programs have had experienced problems: More than 23,000 Californians were registered to vote incorrectly by the state DMV, the agency reported last year. On Monday, Padilla said he would continue to push back against false claims of voter fraud in California and pointed to the states voter turnout as proof that his office was involving more people in the democratic process, a promise he made when he was first sworn in four years ago. More than 12.7 million voters cast ballots in the Nov. 6 midterm election, representing roughly 65% of the states registered voters, the highest number of any midterm election since 1982, according to state certified results. I made that promise based on a shared belief that we are a stronger democracy and a better California when we hear all voices from all corners of California, and when those voices are not just heard but counted, Padilla said. Facebook

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Ricardo Lara, Californias first statewide officeholder to come out as gay, sworn in as insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara on the floor of the state Senate in 2016. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) Ricardo Lara took the oath of office as California insurance commissioner on Monday, pledging action to boost healthcare coverage and combat climate change. Lara, a Democrat from Bell Gardens, is the first elected statewide officeholder in California who has come out as gay. He began his speech in downtown Sacramento by thanking LGBTQ leaders who came before him and celebrated the occasion. Today, because of you, weve shattered the pink ceiling, Lara said. In his inaugural speech, Lara announced the creation of an executive position in his office to address climate change. There is no other industry that has the necessary expertise to ensure that California is prepared to mitigate and reduce risk to our communities and our environment, Lara said. Our planet cant wait. Im ready, and I hope you are too. Lara served as a state legislator and in 2017 introduced a bill to create a single-payer healthcare system in the state. He promised to work with new Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand coverage across California. Lara was sworn in by retired U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared unconstitutional Californias Proposition 8 gay marriage ban. State Sen. President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) was on hand for the ceremony along with multiple other state lawmakers. Facebook

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New California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis says she will help expand access to universities in the state New Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, center, is shown in June talking with attendees at the Power to the Polls rally in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) More Californians should be given access to public universities, Eleni Kounalakis said as she took the oath of office Monday to become the states first woman elected lieutenant governor. Kounalakis was given the oath of office by Gov. Gavin Newsom, her predecessor in the job, who pledged they would work together. As lieutenant governor, Kounalakis serves on the University of California Board of Regents and the California State University Board of Trustees, she noted in a speech at her swearing-in ceremony at the main Sacramento Library. In that role, she said, she will be committed to expanding access to affordable public higher education here in our state. Its wise, its smart and it is the best way to address our rapidly changing digital economy. Kounalakis is former president of a development company founded by her father, Angelo Tsakopoulos, and served during the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary. In November, she won her first run for statewide office. Also attending the ceremony were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Facebook

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California meets Dutch Newsom, who steals the show at his fathers inauguration By Taryn Luna Gov. Gavin Newsom gives his inaugural address while holding his youngest son, Dutch. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) In the California political world, all eyes were on Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday until his 2-year-old son stole the show. Dutch, the youngest of four children in the Newsom brood, climbed onstage in the middle of his fathers inaugural address in a tent outside the Capitol on Monday. The unplanned moment saw the 51-year-old governors big day interrupted by the toddler, bringing levity to the ceremony. Newsom was recounting Gov. Jerry Browns last inaugural speech and reference to the Sermon on the Mount, a biblical story about two men who built separate homes on sand and rock, when Dutch approached his father, a pacifier in his mouth and blanket in hand. Now more than ever we Californians know how much a house matters and children matter, Newsom said, improvising as he scooped the boy into his arms. The governor kissed Dutch on the cheek and held him for several minutes as he continued with the speech. This is exactly how it was scripted, Newsom joked. Newsom eventually put his child down and Dutch walked to the edge of the stage before retreating behind the podium to hide from his mother, First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The crowd roared. Siebel Newsom was able to briefly divert her son only for him to return to the stage minutes later. She grabbed him again and this time, the crying toddler did not reemerge. When fires strikes, when kids cry and the earth shakes, well be there for each other, Newsom said. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who said the moment humanized Newsom, threw cold water on any theories that Dutchs cameo was planned. No, I know it was not, Garcetti said with a laugh after Newsoms speech concluded. I could see that look of absolute abject terror [on Newsoms face]. Weve all been there. Kids always think its about themselves and theyve proved it. California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) agreed. I worked in early childhood education for 20 years and theres no way you can ever get a child to do anything when you want them to do it, Rendon said. Facebook

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Fiona Ma takes oath as Californias new treasurer By Liam Dillon State Treasurer Fiona Ma. Fiona Ma took the oath of office in Sacramento on Monday as the states 34th treasurer, promising to boost Californias economy. Ma previously served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the state Assembly and on the California Board of Equalization. I want to thank everyone for entrusting me with this important job. I understand my role here as your state treasurer is to build that financial wall around California so that we will remain the fifth-largest economy, Ma said in brief remarks. That is my promise to you. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye administered the oath to Ma. Following the ceremony, Ma held an ice cream social for guests. On Wednesday, she will host a public event in San Francisco to celebrate her swearing-in. State Treasurer Fiona Ma takes the oath of office. (Liam Dillon / Los Angeles Times) Facebook

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Expectations are high for newly sworn-in state schools chief Tony Thurmond Tony Thurmond shakes hands with retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco after taking the oath of office. (Melody Gutierrez / Los Angeles Times) Tony Thurmond took the oath of office as Californias state superintendent of public schools on Monday, promising a labor-friendly agenda before the teachers, students and Democratic officials who filled an auditorium at McClatchy High School in Sacramento to watch him being sworn in. We cant close the achievement gap without a great teacher at the head of every class, Thurmond said Monday to applause. We have to make sure we provide quality compensation and support to our teachers and our classified staff and all the educators who support our kids. Thurmond, a Bay Area Democrat who served in the state Assembly, won a hotly contested and expensive race with the help of labor leaders against charter school executive Marshall Tuck. The race took several days to sort out after Tuck held an initial lead in early returns on election night before falling behind thereafter. Thurmond was sworn in Monday by retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gordon Baranco. He was joined on stage by labor rights leader Dolores Huerta and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount). Thurmonds former colleagues in the state Assembly took turns praising him and promising to be an ally in improving schools. Many said they expected Thurmond would be a strong leader focused on improving student outcomes. We know we are going to work hard to give you the money you need and the budget you need to fully fund education and our schools so we can put our money where our mouth is and make sure our children have everything they need, Assemblywoman Connie Leyva (D-Chino Hills) said. As state superintendent, Thurmond will oversee the education of 6.2 million students at 10,000 schools. Thurmond was a member of the West Contra Costa County School Board and a Richmond city councilman before he was elected to the state Assembly. Tony is the right man at the right time to fight the federal, Donald Trump, Betsy DeVos anti-child, anti-education, anti-civil and -human rights agenda, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) said. Tony is going to do that for us. Facebook

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State Controller Betty Yee takes oath of office with call for more affordable housing and healthcare State Controller Betty Yee California Controller Betty Yee took the oath of office Monday for a second term, saying she still has work to do addressing problems that include a lack of affordability in housing, healthcare and higher education. A San Francisco native, Yee is the chief financial officer of California  the fifth-largest economy in the world  having first won election to the post in 2014 before winning reelection in November. No region is spared from the widening inequality and increased poverty that plague our state, fueled by the lack of affordable, stable housing, the cost of healthcare and transportation, limited educational opportunities, student loan debt, displacement caused by disasters and more, she said. Yee was administered the oath of office by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento before an overflow crowd that included state Senate leader Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and San Francisco Mayor London Breed. As a public official it is about governance that delivers results and stays accountable while upholding the underlying value of dignity for all, Yee said. Facebook

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California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra begins new term promising to fight Trump policies California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra ( (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press)) California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra on Monday took the oath of office for a new term, saying he would continue his role as a leading challenger to Trump administration actions that he believes are counter to the states interests. Becerra, a former 12-term congressman, has become a national opposition figure to Trump, having sued the federal government 45 times since he was appointed as the states first Latino attorney general in 2017. Weve been a little busy stopping the dysfunction and insanity in Washington, D.C., from infecting California, Becerra told an audience during a swearing-in ceremony at the California Museum in Sacramento. Whether its the criminals on our streets or the conman in the boardrooms or highest office of the land, Becerra said, the California Department of Justice, well, weve got your back. Becerra won his first statewide election as the states top cop in November, two years after he filled the post vacated when predecessor Kamala Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate. He has peppered the Trump administration with lawsuits challenging federal policies on healthcare, the U.S. census, the environment and immigration. Our state builds dreams, not walls, he said in a direct criticism of Trumps proposal to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Just last week, Becerra led a coalition of 17 Democratic attorneys general in announcing an appeal of a federal judge in Texas that ruled the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. The ACA has been the law for nearly a decade and is the backbone of our healthcare system, Becerra said last week. This case impacts nearly every American  workers covered by employers, families, women, children, young adults and seniors  so we will lead the ACAs defense as long and far as it takes. Facebook

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California Democratic Party Vice Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall announces bid to lead group By Christine Mai-Duc Daraka Larimore-Hall. (Dominic Parisi / Courtesy of Daraka Larimore-Hall) Daraka Larimore-Hall, a top official at the California Democratic Party, said Monday hes running to replace former chairman Eric Bauman, who resigned abruptly in November after being confronted with allegations of sexual misconduct. Larimore-Hall, a longtime state party activist and former chairman of the Democratic Party of Santa Barbara County, was one of the party leaders who urged Bauman to resign following the allegations. In an email to supporters announcing his bid, he urged both structural and cultural change at every level of our Party. He also repeated his call for a top-to-bottom investigation of the allegations, the party and its culture. In a Times investigation, 10 party activists and staff members said Bauman made crude sexual comments and engaged in unwanted touching and physical intimidation in professional settings. In order to be where we need to be for 2020, we have to confront the culture of abuse and fear that allowed someone to behave in such a vile way for so long, Larimore-Hall said in an interview. We cant brush it aside or think that our activists or our candidates or our donors are going to forget about this overnight. Larimore-Hall said his first priority would be to fully investigate the allegations and restore rank-and-file confidence in the partys leadership. The second would be to refocus the party on political priorities as the 2020 presidential election nears. The Bauman episode, Larimore-Hall said, threatens to derail the Democrats plans to help defeat President Trump and keep the seven congressional seats gained in the midterm elections. Its definitely a crisis, Larimore-Hall said. But the component parts  the energy, the enthusiasm, the volunteers, the infrastructure  its still there. We just need to direct it toward something. Larimore-Hall was elected vice chairman of the state party in February following Baumans razor-thin victory over Bay Area activist Kimberly Ellis. Ellis has announced another bid for the chairmanship and former state Senate leader Kevin de Leon is also mulling a run. The vote will take place at the partys May convention in San Francisco. Facebook

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Newsom will vow to seize this moment, and swipe at Trump in Monday inaugural address By Melanie Mason Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family attend an Inauguration Family Event at the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Building on the theme of California exceptionalism that defined his campaign, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will depict the state as a guardian of progressive values and a counterweight to President Trump in his inaugural address Monday, according to excerpts of his prepared remarks. What we do today is even more consequential, because of whats happening in our country, read the excerpts obtained by The Times. Peoples lives, freedom, security, the water we drink, the air we breathe  they all hang in the balance. The country is watching us. The world is waiting on us. The future depends on us. And we will seize this moment. The speech casts Californias political stakes in a decidedly national scope, promising an agenda that will unify and be an example to the rest of the country. It contrasts the governing goals of Newsom, a Democrat, with that of Trump, the incoming governors perennial foil. We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House, the excerpts say. Our government will be progressive, principled, and always on the side of the people. Newsom campaigned on an ambitious and wide-ranging platform, promising sweeping solutions on housing, healthcare, education and other issues that rank among Californians top concerns. In the weeks after his election, he struck a more muted tone, taking pains to emphasize his fiscal caution and need for patience in achieving those goals. The inaugural excerpts indicate a return to lofty pledges. While Newsom will vow to prepare for uncertain times ahead by building budgetary reserves and paying down debt, the prepared remarks quickly turn to a vow to be bold. Newsom has already floated several proposals for his first budget that carry significant price tags, including a nearly $2-billion plan to boost early childhood development for low-income families and a dramatic expansion of paid family leave from six weeks to six months. When asked for a preview of his inauguration speech during a news conference Sunday evening, Newsom predicted pundits would criticize his address as short on specifics. Well, of course, Im at an inaugural, Newsom said. But Ill be very detailed in the budget, a few days later. And then we will architect, in much more nuance and detail, in state of the state. I really see this as three opportunities  to communicate over the next few weeks our agenda, our vision for the state. Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report. Read More Facebook

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Newsom-hosted benefit concert raises nearly $5 million for wildfire victims By Taryn Luna Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom speaks at a concert to benefit wildfire victims at the Golden 1 Arena in Sacramento on Jan. 6. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) On the eve of the gubernatorial inauguration, Californias political class rubbed elbows in Sacramento for a benefit concert hosted by Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and headlined by the rapper Pitbull. Newsom told the crowd gathered at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday evening that the fundraiser brought in nearly $5 million for the California Wildfire Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that supports the families of fallen firefighters and communities affected by wildfires. You know, a lot of folks feel anxious about not just politics, but government, Newsom said on stage before introducing the rapper and activist Common. But those firefighters, they are the antidote to the fear and cynicism; they are the manifestation of why government matters and why you should care. Top sponsors, including Salesforce, Kaiser Permanente and other interest groups, paid up to $1 million each to support the cause and curry favor with the new administration. Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said organizers sold more than 7,000 tickets. Several state lawmakers attended the concert alongside Capitol staff, lobbyists and business types, who mingled on the floor of the arena and offstage in private VIP areas. The rock band X Ambassadors and a duo called the Cold Weather Sons from the town of Paradise, which was destroyed by fire in November, were among several performers who entertained the crowd during the four-hour event. The California Rises concert is the final in a series of festivities held Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Californias 40th governor. Earlier in the day, Newsom attended a private brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum and his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront. Newsoms inauguration is set to begin at 11 a.m. Monday on the steps of the Capitol. Facebook

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Inauguration fever hits Sacramento as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom prepares to take office By Phil Willon Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom holds his son, Dutch, as he and his family attend an inaugural event at the at the state Railroad Museum Sunday. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) Incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom doesnt officially take the oath of office until Monday, but the parties celebrating his inauguration were in full swing all day Sunday. Newsom and his family were mobbed by well-wishers at the California State Railroad Museum at the Old Sacramento Waterfront in the afternoon, where his inaugural committee hosted a free party for families. He just has charisma. Hes able to really connect with people, said Rosielyn Pulmano, an attorney from Elk Grove who came to see Newsom with her husband, two sons and her niece. I think he cares about working Californians and a lot of their issues. Newsom arrived with his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and their four young children, and the governor-elect spent a good deal of his time wading through crowds, taking selfies with supporters and signing autographs as music boomed in the background. As the family toured the inside of the museums locomotives and the bevy of exhibits, Newsoms two-year-old son, Dutch, was wide-eyed, impressed by all the train cars and seemingly a little overwhelmed by the crowd. Newsom said that for his son, all that was missing from the museum was Thomas the Train, popular fictional locomotive in childrens books and cartoons . If theres one thing I can contribute to Sacramento maybe its getting a Thomas the Train exhibit for the two years olds, Newsom joked when talking with reporters afterward. Newsom said he wanted to include such an event in his inaugural festivities to highlight families and children, whose wellbeing will be among the top priorities of his administration. Youll see that not only as a preamble to the inaugural and the budget that well be submitting next week, but I think itll be a big part of the administration, Newsom said. The museum event followed a private, high-dollar brunch at Sacramentos Crocker Art Museum. A steady rain failed to dissuade as many as 200 guests who sipped wine and dined on chicken and salmon while waiting for a photo with Californias new first couple. Seen at the event were representatives of some of the states most powerful political interests, among them organized labor, healthcare companies and tribal gaming interests. A few other high-profile guests attended, too, including Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants, and Erika Jayne, a singer and cast member of the reality TV show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Im excited to see someone like Gavin  young, vibrant  taking over the state and leading us into the future, Jayne said after attending the brunch with her husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Hes got a lot of great plans. Attendees said the event, which was closed to reporters and held under a tent in the museums outdoor atrium, did not include prepared remarks by Newsom. Among those seen leaving the event were representatives of AT&T, the California Medical Assn., Uber, Kaiser Permanente and the State Building and Construction Trades Council. A fundraising invitation obtained by The Times offered bundled tickets to all of the inauguration events, including those on Sunday and the Monday ceremony, ranging in price from $25,000 to $200,000. The money will be collected by a committee specifically organized to pay for Newsoms inaugural weekend. Sundays festivities are scheduled to end with a benefit concert headlined by Pitbull at the Golden 1 Center, home of the NBAs Sacramento Kings, to raise money for the victims of Californias recent deadly wildfires. Among the attendees at @GavinNewsoms pre-inaugural leadership brunch: Real Housewife of

Bev Hills @erikajayne. Im excited to see someone like Gavinyoung, vibranttaking over the state and leading us into the future. Hes got a lot of great plans. pic.twitter.com/561NHiy2XQ  Melanie Mason (@melmason) January 6, 2019 Facebook

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As Newsom inaugural events begin, he unveils more state budget promises on education and paid family leave Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, seen here last April, will propose new state budget efforts on paid family leave and education subsidies. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Californias incoming governor, who must send his first state budget plan to the Legislature this week, has already signaled a significant new focus on programs to help families and children from infancy to college. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom campaigned on a platform that included a number of child-focused efforts specifically aimed at helping lower-income families. The price tag for the initial efforts is expected to approach $2 billion  a cost paid out of an unrestricted tax revenue windfall that could be one of the largest in state history. Newsom may also seek help for families through new subsidies paid by California employers. The governor-elect is expected to propose a dramatic expansion of paid parental leave  from six weeks to six months  according to an internal document provided by a source close to the Newsom transition team, first reported on Sunday by the New York Times. The document doesnt offer a full explanation for how the program will be funded, saying instead that the budget will set a goal of ensuring that all newborns and newly adopted babies can be cared for by a parent or a close family member for the first six months. Employers across the state are currently assessed a payroll tax that helps offer a subsidy to parents who temporarily leave their job to care for a newborn. Newsoms plan, according to the document, would pay for some of the new costs by shrinking the mandated cash reserve of the state fund that administers the program, allowing more of the money to be paid in benefits. The increase in paid leave would not all happen at once but instead be phased in over a multi-year period. A task force to help implement the expanded care plan is also envisioned, according to the document. It would determine whether two parents could split the six months of paid leave and whether an extended family member could be enlisted to help care for the child of a single parent over the six-month period. The incoming administrations focus on young children will also include $1.8 billion in new spending on early childhood education programs, with a particular focus on training childcare workers and pushing for more California schools to offer full-day kindergarten. Those costs, according to an overview memo obtained by the Los Angeles Times, are considered to be a one-time expense while leaving the long-term costs of the effort to be determined later. More community college students would get free tuition under a third initiative expected in the new governors budget plan. Newsom will propose spending $40 million to offer a second year of tuition-free college to California students, according to an outline provided by a transition official, first reported by Politico. Students are already eligible for a single year of paid tuition under a plan agreed to by Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers in 2017. The incoming governor embraced the idea of free community college during the 2018 campaign as part of a broader focus on additional investments in higher education. Education is an economic development strategy, Newsom said at a higher education forum last spring. We need to significantly increase the investment from the general fund of this state on higher education. Theres no greater higher return on investment. Whether the proposal would be targeted to students based on a familys financial need is unclear. Many low-income students are already eligible for fee waivers at community colleges. The new governor must submit his full state budget plan to lawmakers no later than Thursday. Facebook

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Gavin Newsom and his family decide Sacramento is the place to be The Old Governors Mansion State Historic Park in Sacramento. Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will move his family into the mansion. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom and his family will give up the Marin County life and move to the Victorian-style governors mansion in Sacramento after he takes the oath of office Monday. Newsom and his wife, documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, had debated whether or when to relocate to the state capital since his election in November. The couple have four young children and expressed reservations about moving in the middle of a school year. To best serve the people of California while also maximizing family time together, the Newsoms have therefore decided to move to Sacramento, said Newsoms spokesman, Nathan Click. On Monday, they will move into the Governors Mansion  along with their four children, their two family dogs, and their family bunny rabbit  and reside there for the immediate future. The Newsoms currently live in Marin County. Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust Brown, moved into the grand house in 2015 after it underwent $4.1 million in renovations to update electrical and plumbing systems, as well as to remove lead-based paint and install a fire sprinkler system and other security features. The mansion was built in 1877 and has been home to 14 governors, but before Brown it had not housed a California governor for nearly half a century. The state bought the mansion from a wealthy Sacramento hardware merchant, Albert Gallatin, in 1903 for $32,500. It was one of the few California homes at that time to have indoor plumbing. Facebook

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Newsom announces top labor, business liaisons as he prepares to take office Julie Su will be secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency for Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday named two advisors on issues related to the California economy, each recognized for their expertise on business and labor. The incoming governor will appoint Julie Su as secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency and Lenny Mendonca as chief economic and business advisor and director of the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development. Su, 49, has served as state labor commissioner under Gov. Jerry Brown since 2011 and has led an office tasked with the enforcement of Californias labor laws. She won a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 2001 and previously worked as a civil rights attorney representing low-wage workers. In her new position, Su will be tasked with coordinating the work of several workforce departments in state government, including those that administer unemployment benefits and oversee the relationship between agriculture workers and employers. Mendonca, 57, has been a longtime advocate for rethinking government operations as co-chairman of the nonprofit organization California Forward. Previously, he was partner at McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm. While he will be a key advisor to Newsom on the states economy, Mendonca will also lead the office often referred to as Go-Biz, designated as a high-level way to encourage job growth and economic development. In his new role, Mendonca will help ensure that California is rolling out the welcome mat to current and future California businesses and growing a sustainable economy for every Californian, said a statement from the Newsom transition team. Newsom will take the oath of office as governor Monday. He has previously selected key advisors on the state budget, legislative affairs and the executive branchs wide array of agencies and departments. Facebook

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Joshua Groban, aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, sworn in to California Supreme Court By Taryn Luna California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban gives remarks after he is sworn into the court by Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday. (Taryn Luna) California Supreme Court Justice Joshua Groban, a lawyer and longtime aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, was sworn into the states highest court Thursday in Sacramento. The ceremony marked Browns fourth appointment to the state Supreme Court and gave the seven-member bench a Democratic majority. We live in a highly chaotic, ever-changing and ever-confusing world, Groban said in prepared remarks at the Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building. But Im happy to report that Im joining an institution whose fundamental purpose, at core, is to provide stability and consistency amidst this chaotic place we live. I look forward to doing that with a sense of reflection, respect, fidelity to the law and compassion. None of Browns appointees, Groban included, have judicial experience. Groban served as legal counsel to Browns 2010 gubernatorial campaign and joined the administration as a senior advisor to the governor, overseeing the appointments of some 600 judges over the last eight years. Prior to working with Brown, Groban, 45, practiced law for more than a decade. In perhaps his final public appearance before his successor, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, takes office next week, Brown pushed back on notions that he stacked the court. I dont want this to be known as a Brown court, the governor said before administering the judicial oath of office. First of all, the so-called Brown appointments do not agree with themselves and nor should they. They are individuals. They will differ. Its not anybodys court. The governor called the court a high calling and said Groban possesses the values for the job. Probably, next to my wife, Ive talked to no person as much as Ive talked to Josh Groban, Brown said. I think youve talked to him more, Californias First Lady Anne Gust Brown interjected. I cant tell you what the hell hes going to do, Brown later quipped. I warned him, dont screw up, at least not at first. Facebook

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California campaign watchdog agency seeks law barring use of campaign funds to fight harassment claims Former state Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia). ( (Steve Yeater / Associated Press)) Elected officials accused of harassment or discrimination would be barred from using political contributions to cover their legal defense costs under legislation proposed by Californias campaign watchdog agency. The state Fair Political Practices Commission has agreed to pursue a law change to clear up confusion after an attorney for one former state lawmaker argued political funds could be used in such legal defenses. Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said putting a prohibition into the law would provide some much needed clarity. As chair, I would like to show the public their lawmakers are held to a standard that is above reproach, Germond said in a statement. People dont give money to campaigns for lawmakers to use it to defend their own bad behavior, so lawmakers shouldnt be able to use it in that manner. The issue came up a year ago when an attorney for former Sen. Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) sought a formal opinion from the FPPC after the Senate launched an investigation that later concluded Mendoza likely engaged in a pattern of harassment against female aides. Mendoza resigned in February under threat of expulsion by the Senate. In a Jan. 10, 2018, letter, Cassandra Ferrannini, an attorney for Mendoza, wrote to the FPPC that she believed Mendoza should be allowed to establish a legal defense fund able to defray his legal expenses in defending himself against the allegations. The use of campaign funds for attorneys fees under these circumstances would fall squarely within the scope of legislative matters, since it involves the alleged conduct of a legislator with regard to legislative staff that he supervised, Ferrannini wrote. The commission staff originally issued an advice letter that said Mendoza may use campaign and legal defense funds to defend himself from claims of sexual harassment that arose directly out of his activities or status as a candidate or elected officer. But the panel later rescinded the letter after some members questioned using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims. That left uncertainty about what was allowed, which Germond said could be cleared up by a new law. The FPPC is still looking for a legislator to carry the bill, a spokesman said. Facebook

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Californias landmark police transparency law takes effect after court denies police union effort to block it California Supreme Court building (Eric Risberg / Associated Press) A new state law allowing the public disclosure of internal police shooting investigations has gone into effect after the California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid by a police union to block it. The law opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. challenged the law last month, asking state Supreme Court justices to decide that the law only apply to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. The court rejected that request Wednesday, allowing members of the public to seek all applicable records held by police departments. Union president Grant Ward said in a statement that his organization was disappointed with the decision and is now seeking other legal options. We feel this is a statewide issue and should be considered accordingly, Ward said. Last month, the city of Inglewood authorized the destruction of more than 100 police shooting investigations and other records in advance of Jan. 1, when the disclosure law was scheduled to take effect. California law requires police departments to keep such records for five years, and Inglewood City Council voted to destroy records older than that. Mayor James T. Butts has said the decision had nothing to do with the new law. In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore has said that complying with the new disclosure rules could take hundreds of thousands of hours of work. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of the transparency law, has said she has no immediate plans to propose changes to it. Facebook

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Few complaints of racial profiling are sustained by police agencies in California, state panel finds CHP Officer J. Nelson stands outside the office of Gov. Jerry Brown as activists in 2015 support requiring the tracking of police stops. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Law enforcement agencies in California sustain few citizen complaints of racial or identity profiling, according to a report Wednesday by a state panel set up to help reduce bias in policing. The states Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board recommended in its annual report that law enforcement agencies improve training and adopt clear guidelines for tracking and reporting data on who is stopped by officers. The panel said that 453 law enforcement agencies in the state received 9,459 civilian complaints in 2017, including 865 complaints alleging racial or identity profiling. Of the racial and identity complaints that reached a disposition that year, 1.5% were sustained, 14.6% resulted in officers being exonerated and 83.9% of complaints were not sustained or were determined to be unfounded, the report said. A clearer picture of the issue is expected from a 2015 law that requires police agencies to report demographic data on all detentions and searches. The first reports by the eight largest agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, are due to be submitted in April. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, whose office oversees the board, said tracking of all detentions and searches will be helpful to understand the scope of the issue. The Boards recommendations will help make our law enforcement agencies more transparent and promote critical steps to enhance, and in some cases, repair the public trust, Becerra said in a statement Wednesday. Facebook

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California housing crisis podcast: What Minneapolis decision to end single-family zoning might mean for California A view of downtown Minneapolis in 2014 (Stephen Maturen / Getty Images) Theres a national movement brewing to roll back zoning rules in cities that only allow one house on a plot of land. The epicenter of that movement is Minneapolis, which passed a plan last month to eliminate single-family zoning citywide and let landowners build duplexes and triplexes on residential property. On this episode of Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast, we talk about the reasons why Minneapolis leaders took this action, including their desire to combat a history of racial exclusion and spur more housing density to fight climate change. We also debate how Minneapolis decision might affect housing politics in California. Our guest is Minneapolis City Council President Lisa Bender, who helped shepherd the new zoning rules to passage and a former San Francisco city planner. The episode also crowns 2018s Avocado of the Year  the most ridiculous story exemplifying Californias housing woes  and includes our predictions for the most under-the-radar important themes in housing politics in 2019. Gimme Shelter, a biweekly podcast that looks at why its so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times Sacramento bureau, and Matt Levin, data and housing reporter for CALmatters. You can subscribe to Gimme Shelter on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, Google Play and Overcast. Facebook

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How young immigrant Dreamers made flipping control of the House a personal quest By Jazmine Ulloa Gabriela Cruz, who was brought to the U.S. illegally when she was 1, couldnt vote, but in the final hours before the Nov. 6 election, she was making one last run to get people to the polls. The sun was setting in Modesto when she found Ronald Silva, 41, smoking a cigarette on a tattered old couch behind a group home. He politely tried to wave her off until she reminded him he had a right that she as an immigrant without citizenship didnt have. It could really make a change for us, said Cruz, 29. Read More Facebook

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Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose almost $2 billion for early childhood programs (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times) Seeking to frame his new administration as one with a firm focus on closing the gap between children from affluent and poor families, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom will propose spending some $1.8 billion on an array of programs designed to boost Californias enrollment in early education and child-care programs. Newsoms plan, which he hinted at in a Fresno event last month, will be a key element in the state budget proposal he will submit to the Legislature shortly after taking office Monday, a source close to the governor-elects transition team said. The spending would boost programs designed to ensure children enter kindergarten prepared to learn, closing what some researchers have called the readiness gap that exists based on a familys income. It would also phase in an expansion of prekindergarten and offer money to help school districts that dont have facilities for full-day kindergarten. The fact that hes making significant investments with his opening budget is really exciting, Ted Lempert, president of the Bay Area-based nonprofit Children Now, said Tuesday. Whats exciting is the comprehensiveness of it, because its saying were going to focus on prenatal through age 5. A broad overview document reviewed by The Times on Tuesday shows that most of the outlay under the plan  $1.5 billion  would be a one-time expense in the budget year that begins July 1. Those dollars would be a single infusion of cash, an approach favored by Gov. Jerry Brown in recent years. Most of the money would be spent on efforts to expand child-care services and kindergarten classes. By law, a governor must submit a full budget to the Legislature no later than Jan. 10. Lawmakers will spend the winter and spring reviewing the proposal and must send a final budget plan to Newsom by June 15. Though legislative Democrats have pushed for additional early childhood funding in recent years  a key demand of the Legislative Womens Caucus  those actions have typically come late in the budget-writing season in Sacramento. Quite frankly, to start out with a January proposal that includes that investment in Californias children reflects a new day, state Sen. Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) said. The governor-elect will propose a $750-million boost to kindergarten funding, aimed at expanding facilities to allow full-day programs. A number of school districts offer only partial-day programs, leaving many low-income families to skip enrolling their children because kindergarten classes end in the middle of the workday. Because the money would not count toward meeting Californias three-decades-old education spending guarantee under Proposition 98, which sets a minimum annual funding level for K-12 schools and community colleges, it will not reduce planned spending on other education services. Close behind in total cost is a budget proposal by Newsom to help train child-care workers and expand local facilities already subsidized by the state, as well as those serving parents who attend state colleges and universities. Together, those efforts could cost $747 million, according to the budget overview document. An expansion of prekindergarten programs would be phased in over three years at a cost of $125 million in the first year. The multiyear rollout would, according to the budget overview, ensure the system can plan for the increase in capacity. Lempert said the Newsom proposal is notable for trying to avoid the kinds of battles that in recent years pitted prekindergarten and expanded child care against each other for additional taxpayer dollars. The reality is we need to expand both simultaneously, he said. Another $200 million of the proposal would be earmarked for programs that provide home visits to expectant parents from limited-income families and programs that provide healthcare screenings for young children. Some of the money would come from the states Medi-Cal program, and other money from federal matching dollars. Funding for the home visits program was provided in the budget Brown signed last summer; the Newsom effort would build on that. Emphasizing a policy area with broad appeal in his first state budget could reflect Newsoms political sensibility about the challenges ahead. Democratic lawmakers and interest groups will be especially eager to see how Newsom addresses the demand for an overhaul of healthcare coverage in California  especially after a 2017 effort to create a single-payer, universal system fizzled. The path forward on healthcare is complex and costly, making early childhood education a more achievable goal in the governor-elects early tenure. Newsom is likely to face considerable demands for other additional spending. In November, the Legislatures independent analysts projected that continued strength in tax revenues could produce a cash reserve of some $29 billion over the next 18 months. Almost $15 billion of that could be in unrestricted reserves, the kind that can be spent on any number of government programs. Kim Belshe, executive director of the child advocacy organization First 5 LA and a former state health and human services secretary, said the initial Newsom budget proposal suggests the next governor will focus on a comprehensive approach to improving outcomes for children from low-income families. School-ready kids deserve quality early learning, strong and well-supported families, and access to early screening services, Belshe said. Newsom understands the whole child, multifaceted needs of our kids and is clearly ready to lead. Mitchell, the chair of the Senate budget committee, said shes eager to see the details of the governor-elects proposal to determine whether it might signal the beginning of an even broader expansion of early education efforts. Similar efforts have been hindered by a lack of money and ongoing debate over which services to help children 5 and younger need state funding the most. Universal preschool, in particular, has been debated for more than a decade. California voters rejected a ballot measure to fund a full prekindergarten system in 2006. Its clear theres a new movement afoot trying to engage on investment for universal preschool, Mitchell said. How we invest, and how we prioritize that investment, is going to be a great conversation for the coming months. Facebook

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California Politics Podcast: A final conversation with Gov. Jerry Brown No Californian has served longer as governor, signed more laws, granted clemency to more felons or waged more high-profile campaigns than Gov. Jerry Brown. Brown will leave behind a unique legacy when he packs his last belongings for the trip from the governors mansion in Sacramento to his Northern California ranch. His final two terms in office could be his most consequential. The governor reviewed some of the more notable moments from the past eight years in a far-reaching interview with The Times on Dec. 22. This weeks podcast episode includes extended portions of that conversation. Facebook

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A sagging economy could doom a 2020 ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes, Gov. Jerry Brown says Gov. Jerry Brown, at his Colusa County home on Saturday, said a ballot measure to raise commercial property taxes could struggle in 2020. (Randall Benton/For The Times) An effort to remove commercial property in California from the tax limits imposed by the landmark Proposition 13 could be felled by an economic slowdown, Gov. Jerry Brown said. In a Saturday interview with The Times at his Northern California ranch, Brown said liberal activist groups that have successfully placed the proposal on the November 2020 statewide ballot shouldnt read too much into early poll numbers showing support for the plan. That isnt as easy as you think, Brown said. Because youre going to be in a downturn of the business cycle. And youre talking many kinds of business. And the cost of doing business in California is already high. The ballot measure would allow counties to more frequently assess the market value of commercial property in California than allowed under Proposition 13, a 1978 ballot initiative that amended the state constitution to place strict limits on assessing property values and taxation for both homeowners and businesses. An analysis of the new measure, which qualified in October for the 2020 ballot, estimates it could bring in some $10.5 billion a year in new tax revenue. The business community will fight it, Brown said. And the minimum wage, the family leave, the environmental rules  business[es] have left California, thats going to be the big argument. And I think thats something you really have to think a lot about. The governor, who leaves office early next month due to term limits, declined to either endorse or oppose the ballot measure. He said Californias economic health in two years time could be a key factor in how voters weigh the proposal. Well be in a recession by then, Brown said. So its anybodys guess. Facebook

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Inglewood to destroy more than 100 police shooting records that could otherwise become public under new California law By Jack Dolan Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts (Maria Alejandra Cardona / Los Angeles Times) The city of Inglewood has authorized the shredding of more than 100 police shooting and other internal investigation records weeks before a new state law could allow the public to access them for the first time. The decision, made at a City Council meeting earlier this month, has troubled civil liberties advocates who were behind the state legislation, Senate Bill 1421, which takes effect Jan. 1. The law opens to the public internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The legislature passed SB 1421 because communities demanded an end to the secrecy cloaking police misconduct and use of force, Marcus Benigno, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said in a statement. Inglewood PDs decision to purge records undermines police accountability and transparency against the will of Californians. California law says police departments must retain records of officer shootings and internal misconduct investigations for five years. The city of Inglewood, however, had kept records longer than that, including case files of police shootings dating to 1991. State Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), the author of SB 1421, intended for her bill to allow public access to all qualifying records held by a department, no matter the date of the incident. Inglewood City Council approved the destruction of records that have been in the police departments possession  more than 100 cases  longer than required by law. The city staff report and council resolution describing the action makes no mention of the new police transparency law. Instead it says the affected records are obsolete, occupy valuable space, and are of no further use to the police department. It added the traditional method of destroying such records is to shred them. It is unclear whether the records have since been destroyed. A spokesman for the Inglewood Police Department along with Inglewoods city manager, attorney, clerk, four council members and Mayor James T. Butts, a former Santa Monica police chief, did not respond to requests for comment. Inglewoods City Hall is closed the last two weeks of December. The Inglewood Police Department has a reputation for secrecy and using excessive force. In 2008, the departments officers fatally shot four men in as many months, three of whom turned out to be unarmed. The U.S. Department of Justice launched a civil rights probe and found significant flaws in the way the department oversaw use-of-force cases and investigated complaints against officers. Civil rights advocates still question why Inglewood police opened fire on a couple found sleeping in a car in 2016, killing them both. California police have a long history of shredding records to avoid scrutiny of their actions. In the 1970s, the LAPD famously destroyed more than four tons of personnel records after defense attorneys began requesting them as part of criminal cases against their clients. The move resulted in the dismissal of more than a hundred criminal complaints. In response, the Legislature demanded that records be preserved but then took other measures, supported by police unions, to ensure the public had very little access to them, making California the most secretive state in the nation when it comes to police misconduct. Skinners legislation begins to unwind those laws, which have been on the books since 1978. No video or audio of the Dec. 11 council action is available on the citys website and neither are meeting minutes or any record of the decision. A city spokeswoman, Courtney Torres, confirmed that the council had voted in favor of the police records purge, and said all the relevant reasons for the decision were included in the city staff report. The Jan. 1 implementation for SB 1421 has prompted other police officials to act. A police union in San Bernardino is asking the state Supreme Court to determine that Skinners bill only applies to incidents that occur in 2019 or later. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner earlier this month warning that complying with the law in regard to older records in the departments possession could take hundreds of thousands of work hours. Facebook

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Federal officials question California DMVs process for issuing Real IDs (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has notified the California Department of Motor Vehicles that its process for providing residents with federally recognized identification cards is not adequate. DMV spokesman Armando Botello said Friday that 2.3 million residents who received Real IDs under the current process will have to submit additional documentation when their cards are renewed in five years but will be able to use them in the meantime. The DMV is developing a way for residents to submit more documentation online or via email to comply with the stricter federal requirement, he said. But some state legislators are upset about delays in notifying them of the problem and say Homeland Security could eventually require additional documentation provided by current holders. The DMV has known for a month that millions of Real IDs theyve been dolling out are potentially invalid, Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) said. The DMVs only hope is that the Department of Homeland Security takes pity on California and gives the DMV more time to fix this mess. Real IDs are a new kind of driver license and identification card that federal law will require legal residents to present when boarding domestic flights or visiting military bases and other federal facilities starting Oct. 1, 2020. The DMV has only been requiring one form of documentation, including a current lease or utility bill, to verify the residence of a card applicant. But the federal government said in a Nov. 21 letter to the agency that two such documents are needed. On Friday, DMV Director Jean Shiomoto released a letter defending the current process but said her agency will start requiring a second document to prove residency in April. In order to minimize confusion among our customers, the CADMV will work to inform individuals who have been issued a Real ID under the current process that their card will be accepted for official federal purposes, even if their renewal occurs after the October 1, 2020, final enforcement date for Real ID, Shiomoto wrote to the federal agency. Legislative officials worry there is still a possibility that those issued Real IDs in the past might be required to present a second document to have their cards designated as compliant. The more complex process for obtaining Real IDs has led to hours-long waits for customers at DMV field offices this year, although wait times have been reduced recently by an increase in staffing. Shiomoto last month announced that she is retiring amid problems with the motor voter registration system and after the governor ordered an audit of her agency in response to the long wait times. On Friday, Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron of Escondido blasted the DMV for waiting a month to tell legislators of the problem. This is unacceptable and flies in the face of security for our citizens, which is what Real ID was created for in the first place, she said in a statement. Facebook

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Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom taps Keely Bosler to be his finance director Keely Bosler, the director of the California Department of Finance, will continue in that role under Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom. (California Department of Finance) Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom on Friday appointed Keely Martin Bosler as director of the California Department of Finance, continuing the role she has served under Gov. Jerry Brown since August. Bosler will become Newsoms chief fiscal advisor, and will play a pivotal role in shaping Newsoms spending plan for the state that will lay the foundation for his top policy priorities. Newsom must roll out his first budget plan within days of taking office on Jan. 7. Californias brighter future depends on a strong, stable fiscal foundation, Newsom said in a statement released Friday afternoon. Keely is an accomplished public servant of sound fiscal judgment. She understands that state budgets are more than numbers on a page  they are value statements affecting the fate and future of millions of families reaching for the California Dream. We are fortunate to have her on our team. Prior to being appointed finance director, Bosler served as Browns cabinet secretary for two years and, before that, as the chief deputy director for budget in the Finance Department for three years. Earlier this year, Brown picked Bosler to lead an audit of the Department of Motor Vehicles, which had come under fire for long wait times at DMV field offices and numerous computer problems, including errors in the new motor voter program that registered Californians to vote. As we have discussed, long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles do not reflect the high standards of service that Californians expect from their state government, Bosler wrote in a letter in September to DMV Director Jean Shiomoto. The audit is still ongoing, but Shiomoto has since announced she will retire at the end of the year. Facebook

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Californias legislative analyst, after decades of nonpartisan research for lawmakers, calls it a career Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, who has led the state research unit since 2008, will retire on Dec. 31. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Only five people have led the independent research office of the California Legislature since its creation in 1941. And each of them has had a pretty simple mantra to live by in reviewing public policy proposals and government programs: Call it like you see it. The job of any analyst, to me, is you maintain that nonpartisanship, Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said. Taylor, 65, will retire from the post at the end of December after a four-decade career with the research team that began, as he likes to tell it, just after the passage of the landmark property tax rollback, Proposition 13, in 1978. He became the leader of the office, with the title of legislative analyst, in October 2008. Two months later, state government found itself in arguably the worst fiscal crisis in its history  a projected shortfall that ultimately grew to $42 billion by the following winter. There were forces beyond our control, Taylor said of that time. But dont underestimate the policy changes that were made afterward. Those changes, most notably a boost in taxes paid by high-income earners and a robust state budget cash reserve fund, have helped lead to successive years of fully funded government services. The state is projected to have some $24 billion in reserves by the end of the current fiscal year. Taylor announced his intention earlier to step down this year. Leaders from both houses of the Legislature select the analyst, who leads a staff of almost five dozen researchers. The office provides in-depth reports on pending legislation, as well as on broader policy topics like education and healthcare, and produces an independent analysis for every proposed ballot measure. A succession of lawmakers and governors alike have praised or panned the work of the Legislative Analysts Office based on their own political worldview. Taylor said his staff is mindful that they work for legislators, but try to ignore the rhetoric that follows the release of a major report. People are going to do what theyre going to do with our information, he said. They dont always like it, but they appreciate that we give them our best advice. Taylor oversaw a transformation in the way the Legislative Analysts Office distributes its information, embracing the release of research reports through social media instead of relying on traditional printed copies and journalist roundtable events. But he said the work of the researchers has remained largely unchanged through the decades. Having an independent take on things, I think, is good for the Legislature, he said. No replacement for Taylor has been announced, which means a short transition for his eventual successor before Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom sends his first budget proposal to lawmakers in early January. Taylor, who lives in the Sacramento suburbs, said he will honor the tradition of his predecessors in stepping away from public policy debates in order to give the new analyst space to lead the team as he or she sees fit. He said he hopes to travel in the coming years and spend time with his children who have moved to the East Coast. Forty years in state government, Taylor said in why he was stepping aside now. Isnt that enough? Facebook

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Gov. Jerry Brown sues to save California sentencing laws By Don Thompson, Associated Press (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown sued Thursday to protect one of his signature actions in office, a voter-approved measure that allows most prison inmates to seek earlier release and participate in rehabilitation programs. His administration filed a lawsuit challenging a pending 2020 initiative that seeks to toughen criminal penalties as part of an effort to roll back reforms adopted by voters within the last decade. Browns lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court contends the measure lacked enough valid signatures to overturn a previously approved constitutional amendment. County officials and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the signatures in July but said they were submitted too late to qualify for last months election. The lawsuit names Padilla and the ballot measures official proponent, Nina Salarno Besselman, president of the advocacy group Crime Victims United. Padilla said the measure exceeded the required roughly 366,000 valid signatures, equal to 5% of votes cast for governor in 2014. Browns lawsuit says he used the wrong threshold. It says changing the state Constitution requires 8%, or more than 585,400 signatures. That makes the pending initiative more than 150,000 signatures short, the lawsuit says. Hes wrong, said Jeff Flint, a spokesman for the campaign backing the measure. He predicted a judge will be reluctant to reject a measure that already has qualified for the ballot. The secretary of state told us how many signatures are required, and thats how many we collected, Flint said. Padillas office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The measure would reverse reforms adopted by voters through Proposition 47 in 2014 and Proposition 57 in 2016. Proposition 57 allows most inmates to seek earlier paroles, and Proposition 47 reduced some drug and property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The combination has helped keep Californias inmate population below a population cap set by federal judges. Corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters said the measure gives corrections and parole officials broad discretion to protect our communities and fashion a rational system of rehabilitation and punishment. This new initiative unlawfully seeks to supplant the departments constitutional authority to implement these critical reforms to our criminal justice system. The pending initiative would shorten the list of crimes that qualify for earlier parole and change some theft crimes from misdemeanors back to felonies. It would also increase the number of crimes for which DNA is collected, a list that was limited when some crimes went from felonies to misdemeanors. Those supporting the tougher penalties say easing criminal penalties has increased the number of dangerous criminals on the streets, but those backing the changes say they have helped reduce mass incarceration and rehabilitate convicted criminals. Facebook

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California Supreme Court orders records unsealed in pardon of ex-state Sen. Roderick Wright Former state Sen. Roderick Wright (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times) The California Supreme Court has granted a request to unseal court records involving Gov. Jerry Browns decision last month to pardon former state Sen. Roderick Wright for felony convictions involving lying about living in his legislative district, officials said Thursday. The court order was in response to a request by the nonpartisan First Amendment Coalition, which argued that the public has a right to know what information went into the governors decision to grant clemency to Wright. This is an important victory for public access to court files involving the exercise of executive clemency, said coalition spokesman Glen A. Smith. We are gratified the court has recognized that these decisions should be subject to the same public access rules that apply to other judicial records under California law. The court gave Browns office until Jan. 2 to redact confidential material before giving the court documents that can be released to the public. The court files submitted by the governors office include letters of support for a pardon and an internal review of Wrights case. The court denied a motion to unseal the records of all clemency cases but left open consideration of requests on other individual cases. Browns office is currently evaluating the courts decision, said spokesman Brian Ferguson. The governor argued against unsealing records in a recent court filing that said confidentiality is consistent with historical practice and is supported by state law. In pardoning Wright on Nov. 22, the governor wrote: He has shown that since his release from custody, he has lived an honest and upright life, exhibited good moral character, and conducted himself as a law abiding citizen. Facebook

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California political watchdog agency fines BART, urges prosecution over using public funds for campaign A Bay Area Rapid Transit train leaves the station in Oakland in this 2013 file photo. (Ben Margot / AP) Californias state political watchdog agency on Thursday imposed a $7,500 fine against the Bay Area Rapid Transit District and called for a possible criminal or civil prosecution over allegations the district used public resources to campaign for a 2016 bond measure. The state Fair Political Practices Commission levied an administrative fine against BART for its failure to disclose spending on YouTube videos, social media posts and text messages to promote Measure RR, which authorized $3.5 billion in general obligation bonds. Though the panel lacks authority to seek criminal charges over the misuse of public funds, it also urged county district attorneys in the BART service area and the state attorney general to pursue possible criminal or civil charges over the spending of taxpayer dollars for campaign purposes, Commission Chairwoman Alice Germond said. It is the concept of misusing public funds that I think we all here are very disturbed about, and we want to send a warning and not create a precedent that is a minor, little slap on the wrist, Germond said, adding that the referral to criminal prosecutors would further send a message that this is wrong. Commissioner Brian Hatch also called for the state Legislature to consider granting the FPPC power to go after public agencies that spend taxpayer money on campaigns. Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) called on the agency to increase the fine to the maximum level of $33,375. The proposed $7,500 fine represents a slap on the wrist for a very serious violation of the law and the publics trust, Glazer said in a letter to the panel. In supporting the fine recommended by the staff, Germond said BART has agreed to pay the penalty. Somebody did something wrong and they have admitted it, she said. A staff report said there were factors in favor of a fine below the maximum. Although the Commission considers BARTs violations to be serious, the absence of any evidence of an intention to conceal, deceive, or mislead; the voluntary filing of the delinquent campaign statement; and the absence of a prior record are mitigating, the report said. Facebook

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California police union seeks state Supreme Court review of new law disclosing internal investigation records Los Angeles Police Department officers. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) A police union is asking the California Supreme Court to block the release of internal officer investigations before a new state law takes effect next year. The San Bernardino County Sheriffs Employees Benefit Assn. filed a petition Tuesday asking justices to rule that only investigations of incidents that occur after Jan. 1 would be available under the law  and not those the department has on file from years prior. The litigation comes after this years passage of Senate Bill 1421, which opens to the public for the first time internal investigations of officer shootings and other major uses of force, along with confirmed cases of sexual assault and lying while on duty. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, and the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department has told the union it intends to make available in response to public records requests all the information it has. The union is very concerned about any plans to retroactively apply Senate Bill 1421, Grant Ward, the unions president, said in a statement. We believe retroactive application violates our members rights and we hope the California Supreme Court will consider the serious issues raised by our legal challenge. The bills author, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), does not agree with the unions interpretation. She has said her legislation should apply to all the records in a police departments possession because the law simply declared that affected records were no longer confidential. If the record exists, its disclosable, Skinner said. A decision on what records will be available under the law is key to how far-reaching it will be. If the court restricts access to incidents that occurred prior to 2019, those cases will not be subject to public scrutiny. The police union in San Bernardino County is not the only one raising concerns about the law. Earlier this month, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore sent a letter to Skinner expressing concern that his agency would be overwhelmed if the law required the department to disclose older incidents. Even if the law only applied to the previous five years, Moore wrote, it could take nearly 300,000 hours of work to comply with its provisions. The LAPD operates with a guiding principle of Reverence for the Law; as such, we will diligently comply with SB 1421, Moore wrote. We maintain, however, that a retroactive implementation of SB 1421 will be exceptionally burdensome and would require significant reallocation of front-line investigative personnel. Skinner said if complying with the law becomes untenable for law enforcement agencies that maintain records for a long time, she would consider modifications. But she said agencies did not raise this concern during discussion over the bill. SB 1421 went through multiple committee hearings, multiple floor debates, extensive opportunity for all parties to weigh in on concerns with its structure, she said. That was not an issue that was raised by law enforcement at the time. Facebook

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Gov. Brown warns of backlash for Republicans in 2020 if Obamacare repeal is upheld Gov. Jerry Brown at the National Press Club in April. (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Gov. Jerry Brown warned Republicans on Tuesday that repeal of the Affordable Care Act would devastate the partys political chances in the 2020 election. Brown, speaking at a Sacramento Press Club event moderated by Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton and Brown family historian Miriam Pawel, said a federal judges ruling last week to strike down the 2010 law  if upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court  will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only take over the Senate, theyll win the presidency and will win with the kind of momentum, particularly on the issue of healthcare, that [the law] will be replaced probably with something even better. The governor, who leaves office in less than three weeks, said he did not believe the ruling by a Texas judge would ultimately prevail. I think the decision will probably be overturned, Brown said. Few states have embraced the law championed by former President Obama more than California, both through its healthcare exchange, Covered California, and by expanding access to government-funded services under Medi-Cal. Some 12 million Californians now receive healthcare through Medi-Cal, and Brown said a final ruling affecting the federal dollars that subsidize that care would be a serious blow. California would not be able to afford it without the subsidy, the governor said. Facebook

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Bars in Los Angeles, San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks (acuna-hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses, and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors, and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook

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Bars in Los Angeles and San Francisco could stay open until 4 a.m. under new bill A bar in Sherman Oaks. (Acuna-Hansen) For the third year in a row, a California lawmaker is trying to keep bars open until 4 a.m. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) is reintroducing legislation that would allow Los Angeles, San Francisco and seven other cities to extend the sales of alcohol in bars, clubs and restaurants by an additional two hours. Nightlife brings people together, fosters creativity and innovation, supports small businesses and creates middle-class jobs, Wiener said in a statement. Its time to embrace our nighttime economy and give our cities the tools they need to foster the best nightlife possible. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill by Wiener, writing: I believe we have enough mischief from midnight to 2 without adding two more hours of mayhem. Should this years measure, Senate Bill 58, advance through the Legislature, Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom would decide whether to sign it into law. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed SB 58, saying the city should have more flexibility than it does now. Every community has its own needs, and cities should be able to make informed decisions about what nightlife hours make sense for residents, visitors and neighborhoods, Garcetti said in a statement. The bill would create a five-year pilot program where Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Coachella, Cathedral City and Palm Springs could decide to allow restaurants and bars within their cities to serve alcohol until 4 a.m. with the approval of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Facebook

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Californias DMV director announces retirement amid problems with motor voter program (Kent Nishamura/Los Angeles Times) The director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles will retire at years end with a number of questions unanswered about the implementation of a major voter registration system and long wait times experienced by customers for much of the past summer. Jean Shiomoto will not continue in her current role as Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom takes office, and announced to staff several weeks ago her intent to retire at the end of the year after 38 years in state service, spokesman Armando Botello said in an email to The Times on Friday. Newsoms transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who might lead the department in 2019. Shiomoto was appointed DMV director by Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall of 2013, having served in prior leadership roles with the department. DMV officials have been sharply criticized by lawmakers in recent months for delays in serving customers at its field offices across the state. Last week, DMV officials revealed errors in registering California voters for the November election  mistakes that followed a series of problems in the rollout of the states new motor voter registration system. Secretary of State Alex Padilla last week said he had lost confidence in Shiomotos leadership as a result of the voting registration problems. Facebook

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New law could break the stalemate over housing on the site of a near-vacant Cupertino mall By Liam Dillon For more than a decade, developers have tried to build new housing on the site of an all-but-empty mall in Cupertino, a city in the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Apple headquarters. A well-organized group of neighbors, upset about traffic, building heights and the potential loss of the communitys suburban lifestyle, turned away every plan. Now, for the first time, the stalemate might be broken  thanks to a decision made in the state Capitol. In an effort to address Californias housing affordability problem, legislators passed a law last year that requires cities and counties to approve housing projects if they comply with local zoning rules and other standards, forcing some resistant communities to agree to new homebuilding. In September, the city of Cupertino, citing the state law, approved developer Sand Hill Property Co.s proposal to build an office park and more than 2,400 homes where the Vallco Shopping Mall sits. Read More Facebook

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Local government was a last bastion for struggling California Republicans. Not anymore By Mark Z. Barabak Theres no shortage of watery metaphors to describe the disaster that befell California Republicans this midterm election. A blue wave. A Democratic tsunami. But the most apt may be a flood, with the casualties steadily rising as the vote count climbed in the days and weeks following Nov. 6. Eventually half the GOP congressional delegation was washed away, along with the entire slate of statewide Republican candidates. In Sacramento, Democrats claimed 29 of 40 state Senate seats and seized three-quarters of the 80-member Assembly  the largest number since 1883, when Chester A. Arthur was serving in the White House. Read More Facebook

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For the Republicans left in Californias Legislature, fewer lawmakers will have to do more work By John Myers From January to late summer every year, the California Legislature is a perpetual motion machine. And in the new year, the people most likely to struggle in keeping up will be Republicans, vastly outnumbered but still responsible for representing millions of the states residents. There are 22 standing committees in the state Senate, plus at least a dozen more subcommittees or special committees. And after Novembers election, only 11 Republican senators will be left to divvy up the work. To the victors go the spoils. To the vanquished go the extra assignments. Read More Facebook

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Californias DMV failed to finish registering 329 new voters before November election (Los Angeles Times) Officials at the California Department of Motor Vehicles said Friday that the agency failed to send information for 329 new voters to state elections officers in time for the November election, the latest revelation in a string of mishaps regarding voter registration. Secretary of State Alex Padilla responded with a blistering letter, calling on Gov. Jerry Brown or Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom to replace Jean Shiomoto, the DMV director. The Director of DMV has lost my confidence and trust, Padilla wrote. In all, the agency revealed that 589 mailed voter registration records that should have been processed under election deadlines werent sent to Californias secretary of state until late November, including forms from 260 drivers who had intended to update their address on existing voter registration records. The DMV had been instructed to not send registration forms that came in after Oct. 22, but the voters in question had forms that were postmarked before the deadline. In some cases, when the postmark wasnt legible, the agency said, documents inside indicated the voter had intended to finish their registration in time for the Nov. 6 election. The DMV recognizes the pause in transmittals was an error and affected the timing of the registration of the 589 individuals referenced above relative to the November election, Shiomoto wrote in a letter to Padilla on Friday. The pause was due to a misunderstanding on the part of the department, for which we take responsibility. Those who were trying to update their address for voter registration would not have been blocked from casting ballots. But officials said its unclear whether any of the 329 new voters were able to participate in the election. Shiomoto said in her letter that DMV will work with elections officials. The errors were not related to previous DMV mistakes about registering voters, problems associated with the rollout of the states new motor voter law. In those cases, multiple registration forms were sent to local elections offices for some voters, some people were assigned the wrong political party preference and others who are noncitizens were incorrectly placed on the list of registered voters. DMV officials have yet to respond to questions posed by The Times over the last several weeks about who knew of those mistakes and when. Facebook

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Newsom appoints a labor advocate and a former staffer as his chief deputy Cabinet secretaries By Taryn Luna A labor advocate and a San Francisco political operative have accepted positions in Gov.-elect Gavin Newsoms new administration. Angie Wei, a Capitol insider with deep ties to organized labor in California, will serve as a chief deputy Cabinet secretary with a focus on policy development. As a legislative director and chief of staff at the California Labor Federation, Wei has represented more than 1,200 unions and 2.1 million workers in Capitol fights over a host of policy issues, including drug-pricing transparency and paid family leave. The governor-elect also tapped Jason Elliott, a policy advisor to Newsom during his time as mayor of San Francisco and a chief of staff to San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, as another chief deputy Cabinet secretary overseeing executive branch operations. Elliott and Wei will serve under Ana Matosantos, Newsoms previouslyAfter months of demanding transparency from President Trump on his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, Michael Avenatti convinced a federal judge on Wednesday to block the news media from covering his testimony about his law firms bankruptcy.

Eagan Avenatti, his Newport Beach firm, has defaulted on millions of dollars in debt and fallen years behind in paying its payroll taxes.

Avenatti, the firms owner and managing partner, was subpoenaed by former firm employee Jason Frank to testify Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana. Frank is trying to collect on a $10-million judgment he won against the firm.

Judge Catherine Bauer granted Avenattis request Wednesday morning to bar the media from covering his court testimony. Avenatti argued that his firms finances and client roster should not be exposed despite a voluminous public case file that already chronicles its troubles in great detail.

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They want to embarrass me, Avenatti said of Frank and unnamed others.

Avenatti also asked Bauer to seal the transcript of his testimony. The judge made no immediate decision on the request.

Bauer refused to allow attorneys for The Times and other news organizations to argue that Avenattis testimony must take place in open court. Another bankruptcy judge, Scott C. Clarkson, declined to overturn her order at an emergency hearing Wednesday afternoon after hearing objections from Dan Laidman, an attorney for The Times, ABC and CNN. Clarkson said the media organizations could file further challenges to the closure with Bauer.

For Avenatti, a fixture on cable news since he began representing Daniels nearly five months ago, the demand for secrecy was a notable change in posture.

For weeks, he has been demanding that the presidents former lawyer Michael Cohen come clean and release tapes and documents involving the payment of $130,000 to Daniels in return for her silence about an alleged one-night stand with Trump in 2006.

But as Avenatti has savored the publicity that the case has brought him, his firms financial troubles have deepened, due mainly to Franks $10-million judgment. Frank has alleged that Eagan Avenatti cheated him out of millions of dollars in pay, a charge that Avenatti denies.

Eagan Avenatti agreed to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in March 2017 after a Florida vendor filed a petition alleging the firm had failed to pay a $28,700 invoice. At the time, Avenatti & Associates, owned solely by Avenatti, held 75% of the firms equity, and the rest belonged to San Francisco attorney Michael Eagan.

Avenatti & Associates now owns 100% of Eagan Avenatti, Avenatti said Wednesday.

As part of a court-approved settlement to resolve the bankruptcy, Avenatti personally guaranteed in December that the firm would pay Frank $4.85 million. When the firm missed the first of two promised installments, Frank sued Avenatti personally in state court to collect the money.

The settlement also enabled Frank to get the $10-million Bankruptcy Court judgment against Eagan Avenatti, which the firm did not contest.

The firm has also defaulted on more than $880,000 in federal payroll taxes, penalties and interest that Avenatti had promised that it would pay. The Internal Revenue Service asked Bauer to hold the firm in contempt of court, but set aside the request Wednesday after reaching a deal for payment, according to the U.S. attorneys office in Los Angeles.

Your honor, the payroll taxes need to be paid as soon as possible, Assistant U.S. Atty. Najah Shariff told Bauer shortly before Avenatti began testifying behind closed doors in a courthouse conference room.

Nonetheless, Avenatti said by email, All issues with the IRS are fully resolved.

Two weeks ago, Bauer issued a restraining order to block Eagan Avenatti from spending any fees it collects while its debts to Frank and the IRS remain unpaid.

The order covers fees from 54 court cases, including the suit that Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, filed against Trump to void the nondisclosure pact. In court papers, her attorneys are identified as Avenatti & Associates, which operates out of the same Newport Beach office as Eagan Avenatti.

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

Twitter: @finneganLAT

UPDATES:

6:10 p.m.: This article was updated with results of the hearing before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Scott C. Clarkson and background on Eagan Avenatti.

This article was originally published at 1:00 p.m.The calls for help started coming in to immigration lawyers across the country just before Memorial Day. Immigrant detainees, many fleeing gangs and violence and seeking legal asylum in the U.S., were flooding courtrooms along the Southwest border.

Dozens were parents reporting that Border Patrol agents had taken away their children, and many were under the impression they would see their sons and daughters again within hours.

We had to break the news to them that that wasnt true, said Efren C. Olivares, who was among the attorneys with the Texas Civil Rights Project to come to the aid of public defenders in McAllen. And then the question became, If not today, then when?

We didnt have an answer to that.

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Nine weeks of chaos and confusion later, many still dont.

Under an order issued by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego, Thursday is supposed to be the deadline for reuniting the more than 2,500 children who were taken from parents apprehended while crossing the border.

Government lawyers have conceded they will fail to reunite all the families by that deadline  hundreds of parents already have been deported without their children, and the government has been unable to locate many others. Officials said in court Tuesday they expected to have reunited just over 1,600 families by the deadline.

Despite the administrations professed zero tolerance policy, hundreds of those families have been released on immigration parole, pending hearings on their asylum claims, typically with the adults wearing ankle monitors. Scores of other families, however, have been sent to immigration detention centers, including two in Texas where at least 80 families are being held in custody.

Why some families have been released and others detained remains unclear, as is how long those detentions may last, according to lawyers for the families. Government officials have refused to provide answers. A federal court settlement dating to the 1990s generally limits the lockup of children in immigrant detention centers to 20 days.

As of Wednesday, the government was still working to reunite more than 1,500 parents with children. About 900 parents were fighting final deportation orders. American Civil Liberties Union lawyers have asked Sabraw to delay those deportations to give the parents more time to decide whether to leave the country with their children or separate from them and have the children continue to press for asylum claims of their own.

Government lawyers say about 130 parents voluntarily left their children behind. But in affidavits filed Wednesday, lawyers said some parents believed they were signing forms to release their children to relatives in the U.S. Others were coerced or frightened, and many were given documents they could not read, the lawyers have said. Some of the families primarily speak indigenous languages and are not literate in Spanish or English.

More than 450 parents already have probably been deported without their children, government lawyers told Sabraw this week. The precise number, perhaps 463, remains under review, they said. An additional 64 were deemed ineligible to be reunited with children because they had criminal records or other reasons that government officials said made them unfit.

At least 217 parents were released into the U.S. without their children, government lawyers said. Both the government and volunteer lawyers for the ACLU are trying to locate them in efforts to reunite the families.

The continued confusion, Sabraw said in court this week, was the unfortunate result of a policy adopted without forethought to reunification or keeping track of people.

People show solidarity with migrants at an interfaith service at St. Patrick Cathedral in El Paso. (Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

Along the Southwest border, immigration lawyers have described a reunification process as chaotic and scurried as the separations themselves. With family reunions often taking place in the parking lots of detention centers, activist groups have flooded the Texas border to provide help to exhausted, traumatized parents and children.

Annunciation House in El Paso has assembled hospitality centers with beds, meals, showers and a change of clothing for families. So far, it has helped 250 families who were released from detention after being reunified, the group said in a statement.

In the Rio Grande Valley, to the southeast, Catholic Charities had taken in another 100 families on Wednesday, and hundreds of volunteers were cooking meals and soliciting food donations.

We are providing them a place to be with their children  making sure they have a safe space, a tranquil space, said Brenda Riojas, the charitys spokeswoman.

Money raised from private donors and congressional organizations, faith groups and nonprofits under the Families Belong Together coalition has allowed advocates to purchase airline and bus tickets to help parents travel to the homes of relatives or friends across the country.

Lawyers groups, such as the American Immigration Council, have been taking donations to provide counsel to parents seeking asylum or other forms of immigration relief. But ensuring families have access and can connect with lawyers has been trying.

A little before noon Wednesday, Jaqueline Aranda Osorno, an attorney at Public Counsel in Los Angeles, got word that her client, a Guatemalan father, had reunited with his 13-year-old daughter. From her home, Aranda coordinated with volunteers in McAllen to get the pair out of town.

Buses destined for a Texas town where a sponsor family waited for them were sold out. A local church was already packed with recently reunited parents and children. Multiple families were sharing rooms.

Its been incredibly hard to figure out how to get this family out, Aranda said.

Other advocates said they hadnt been allowed on the grounds of some shelters, hurting their access to families. Some are told to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a week but may not understand what to do to avoid being detained again, said Bethany Carson, an organizer with Grassroots Leadership in Austin, Texas.

Hundreds more children remain in the hands of the government  and as many as 37 have not been matched with a parent. Congressional Democrats, immigrant rights advocates and lawyers continue to clamor for answers about whats next for the separated families and other migrant children.

We are going to continue to ask the questions, said Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. We are going to continue to track where parents are and where children are, and we are not going to let it go until every child is reunited.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions announced the zero tolerance policy at the border in April. It took effect in early May. Under the policy, all adults who crossed into the country illegally were prosecuted for illegal entry. That offense is a misdemeanor, and in nearly all cases, the immigrants were sentenced to time served, but the fact that they were taken into custody provided legal justification for the government to take children away from their parents.

With parents moved into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, federal officials shuffled children into tent camps or more than 100 shelters nationwide.

Pentagon officials said the military has been directed to build more tent camps at two bases in Texas to temporarily house migrants.

On June 20, with pictures of children behind fences generating an international outcry, President Trump suspended the separations through executive order. Sabraw subsequently required the government to reunite children younger than 5 with their parents within 14 days, and older children by this week.

At least 57 children under 5 and more than 1,185 older children have since been reunited with families under the court order. Nearly 500 more were reunited within hours by Border Patrol agents in June.

Administration officials first floated the idea of separating migrant families at the border as a form of deterrence as early as March 2017. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen initially denied the existence of a family separation policy, then denied that Trump ordered it as a deterrent.

She and Sessions since have defended the decision to prosecute anyone who is caught crossing the border between legal ports of entry. Asked last week whether she had been notified of the family separation policy ahead of time, she said her answer was yes and no.

We had always done this at DHS. In other words, we had always enforced the law. The last administration enforced the law, which means they enforced the law against families, she told an audience at the Aspen Institute. Before May, however, most families with asylum claims were released pending a hearing, and few were prosecuted for illegal entry.

Through letters and private briefings, members of Congress have continued to press federal officials on how the family separation policy was crafted and rolled out, including details on the budgets and coordination among agencies under the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and Justice.

The response from agencies and Trump administration officials has ranged from mixed messages to silence. In the latest briefing on Wednesday, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said Nielsen had expressed confidence the government was on pace to meet the deadline.

But members said Nielsen and other federal officials accounts often conflicted with what constituents are seeing. In some cases, they said, parents in detention are being charged for phone calls to their children or can see them for only an hour a day.

The latest from Washington 

Court declarations, a scathing report from attorneys and records from at least five lawsuits against federal agencies have given glimpses into the treatment of children and families in immigration custody.

At one Customs and Border Protection facility in El Centro, Calif., families with children as young as 3 were sleeping on cold, concrete floors with no padding, according to the case filings. Detainees, including juveniles, were not given adequate access to drinking water and basic hygiene products.

The cases have prompted support from doctors, psychiatrists and pediatricians.

Members of the American College of Physicians have called for congressional oversight on the health effects of family detention on children.

We have two main concerns, said Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which is representing more than 60 parents, grandparents and other relatives separated from children at the border. Will the government meet its deadline? Are families going to be locked up or treated with dignity?

Times staff writer Ulloa reported from Washington and San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Davis reported from San Diego. Times staff writers Molly Hennessey-Fiske in Roma, Texas, and Cindy Carcamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

More stories from Jazmine Ulloa 

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

UPDATES:

3:45 p.m.: The article was updated with additional comments from aid organizations and descriptions of events at the border.

The article was originally published at 1:50 p.m.For patients with high blood pressure who hope to ward off dementia, doctors have the same advice for those looking to protect their hearts and kidneys: Go lower.

In a comprehensive new study, researchers found that driving down patients systolic blood pressure readings to a new lower target level reduced their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, by close to 20%. MCI is a decline in memory and thinking skills that is slight but noticeable, and it affects between 15% and 20% of people over 65. For as many as half of those diagnosed with MCI, a diagnosis of dementia will come later.

The new research found that compared to subjects whose blood pressure control regimen was more relaxed, subjects whose blood pressure was more strictly controlled were 15% less likely to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and subsequent dementia.

The new findings, presented Wednesday at the Alzheimers Assn.s International Conference in Chicago, come a year after the American Heart Assn. and the American College of Cardiology adopted a new target for those with hypertension. Physicians groups had long considered blood pressure readings of 140/90 mmHG to be an acceptable target for those with hypertension, but in 2017, they urged physicians to get their patients with high blood pressure to 130/80 mmHG.

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The new research suggests that there are powerful benefits to getting the first number in that reading  systolic blood pressure  to an even lower target: 120 mmHG.

Systolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure in a persons arteries during the contraction of her heart muscle. Because it is the highest pressure to which the blood vessels are subjected, systolic blood pressure is thought to have the most detrimental impact on the delicate capillaries that nourish the brain as well as the kidneys, heart and liver. In large populations, lowering that reading to 120 already has been found to reduce rates of cardiovascular disease and kidney failure.

The new findings emerge from a clinical trial called SPRINT (short for Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial), which began in 2010 and ran for less than five years. After trial subjects had been followed for an average of just over three years, the trial was shut down because the trials findings showed so strongly the benefits of the lower systolic blood pressure goal in protecting peoples hearts. In August 2015, a board of safety monitors said it no longer could justify maintaining some of the trials subjects at the systolic target level of 140 mmHG.

What SPRINT has shown is that what is good for your heart is also good for your brain, said the SPRINT Mind studys lead author, Dr. Jeff Williamson of Wake Forest Medical School, who presented the findings on Wednesday in Chicago.

Williamson called it very encouraging that even a brief period of more intensive blood pressure control would show such powerful protective effects for the brain as well. Had the trial run longer, he said, theres reason to believe that even more cases of mild cognitive impairment and dementia might be prevented.

The SPRINT Mind trials 8,626 subjects ranged in age from 50 to 100. None had diabetes, but all were considered to be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease. After a year in the trial, those assigned to have their blood pressure treated to the stricter target had achieved an average systolic blood pressure reading of 121.4 mmHG. Those assigned to the standard treatment group had an average systolic blood pressure reading of 136.2 mmHG.

Dr. Lon Schneider, an Alzheimers specialist at USCs Keck School of Medicine, hailed the findings. But he suggested that the average age of the trials subjects  68  may obscure an important point: that strict blood pressure control will likely prevent dementia most effectively if it starts early and is followed through midlife.

Thats so because hypertension causes harm to blood vessels cumulatively over many years. Research suggests that decades before declines in memory and thinking skills are noticeable, high blood pressure may begin to damage the brains complex network of tiny blood vessels and set the stage for further damage, Schneider said.

Blood pressure control is important at all ages, he said. But in midlife, stricter control may prevent the onset of blood vessel damage. If it doesnt begin until a person is already in later age, it may be too late to stop that slide toward end-organ damage and, in the case of the brain, dementia, he said.

melissa.healy@latimes.com

@LATMelissaHealySome registered nurses at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center are concerned about a recent procedural change they say is already having negative consequences for patients.

Members from SEIU Local 121RNs, St. Joes chapter, spoke during a Burbank City Council meeting last week, saying shift cuts made at the hospital mean there are now fewer nurses to assist patients on each shift.

Before July, each hospital floor would have three certified nursing assistants, or CNAs, for every 24 patients. However, union members said management decided to change that model, which now allows three CNAs for every 30 patients, said Lou Bautista, a registered nurse at Providence St. Joseph, during the meeting.

Bautista, who has been working at the Burbank hospital for eight years, said she and her colleagues were already stretched thin before the change was made.

With the new policy, Bautista said it is more difficult for her and her fellow nurses to provide the high level of care for which Providence St. Joseph is known.

Our certified nursing assistants are our backbone, she said. So without them, were pretty much stuck, and its detrimental to all nurses working on the floor.

Joyce Powell, union chapter president at St. Joseph and an emergency room registered nurse at the hospital, said on Monday that the staffing change is a safety concern for not only the patients but for the nurses themselves.

She said that, because of a heavier workload, registered nurses and certified nursing assistants have been scrambling from patient to patient, and at times responding to calls late.

Theres a lot of work that the certified nursing assistants and nurses do up there, and these cuts put the patients at a risk, Powell said.

Bautista said last week that the change has already affected her. Just a few weeks ago, Bautista was notified to help a patient go to the restroom, but she was already tending to another patient with an intravenous medication.

While tied up with her current patient, the certified nursing assistant who was supposed to help Bautista with the patient who needed to go to the restroom was also busy, giving another patient a bath.

In addition to that, the other certified nursing assistant was clocked out for lunch.

Eventually, Bautista was able to help the patient who had been waiting for a while, but they had already soiled themselves.

Its horrid to have somebody go through that, Bautista said. She was very upset and wondered why it took so long for someone to give her assistance. All I could do was apologize as I was cleaning her up.

Officials from Providence St. Joseph Medical Center issued a statement on Friday saying that the hospital devotes resources to comply with safe staffing levels under the states nurse staffing laws and guidelines.

We design and adjust staffing models to best meet the needs of our community, said Patricia Aidem, spokeswoman for Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, in the statement. The issue raised by SEIU is a staffing and scheduling change that is specifically permitted by our union contract.

Aidem added that management is currently in labor negotiations with SEIU, whose contract ends on Dec. 31.

Although hospital officials say they are dedicated to providing high-quality care for patients, Bautista and Powell said they think otherwise.

In addition to not addressing the calls from some patients on time, Powell said she and some of her colleagues are worried about fatigued nurses and nursing assistants who could injure themselves while on the job.

She said that because of the increased workload, some nurses are not taking their required breaks because they are tied up assisting multiple patients.

Unfortunately, theres only so many hands to help the people that come through St. Joseph, Powell said.

What she, Bautista and other nurses at Providence St. Joseph want is for management to reverse the staffing changes so that the level of service can go back to what it was before.

It takes a team to provide care, but we cant do that if theyre cutting our team members, Powell said.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioSwati Dlamini Mandela took it to heart when her late grandfather, Nelson Mandela, South Africas first black president, issued a call to action when he turned 90: He had done his part, he said, and now was the time for others to step up to make the world a better place.

She and her sister decided to wage a battle for equality in the workplace. They founded Qunu Workforce, an organization that assists South Africans living with disabilities and the resulting stigma. Some of their passion stemmed from the struggles of their brother, who suffers from epilepsy, Mandela said.

In February, her path crossed with Irvine-based Free Wheelchair Mission  a humanitarian organization that has produced and delivered more than 1 million wheelchairs to those in need around the world  at a home for the elderly in Alexandra, one of South Africas poorest townships.

Mandela said she was particularly struck by one wheelchair recipient, a man appearing to be in his 60s who was unable to walk after a stroke.

He didnt think his disability would be permanent, she said. I was taken by his spirit. It reminded me of my grandfathers spirit. The power of positive thinking. That you can overcome any situation you are in.

Mandela will share that story and others Thursday as keynote speaker at Free Wheelchair Missions 15th annual Miracle of Mobility event at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa. The event has raised more than $1.5 million to provide more than 20,000 wheelchairs each year, organizers said.

Free Wheelchair Mission founder Don Schoendorfer thanks former recipients for traveling to the United States to attend the Miracle of Mobility gala in 2017. From left are Gregory Grizzle, Amilcar Hernandez and Vo Thi Thuy Hien with translator Hieu Ha Quang. (Courtesy of Phil Flintzer)

Free Wheelchair Missions goal is to provide mobility to disabled people, who in some developing countries may be forced to crawl or be carried to get around. And that mobility can lead to hope and independence  a chance to go school, to work, or just participate in the community, said founder Don Schoendorfer.

All you need to do is get someone off the ground, Schoendorfer said. If they have the use of their hands they can get a place of their own. They are meeting people at eye level. They are not dirty from the ground. They can shake hands without being embarrassed. These are all things we take for granted.

Schoendorfers inspiration was a trip to Morocco, where he saw a disabled woman dragging herself across a busy street. After he returned home, he tinkered around in his garage on designs for inexpensive and durable wheelchairs and eventually quit his job as a biomedical engineer to start the mission in 2001.

The wheelchair designs have evolved over the years, with the latest featuring adjustable seats and the ability to fold up for easier travel. They have been distributed to 93 countries, including Vietnam, India, China, Peru and the Philippines.

Swati Dlamini Mandela serves refreshments at a senior home in Alexandra, South Africa, in February as part of a Free Wheelchair Mission distribution event. (Eugene Nagel)

Schoendorfer clearly relishes the success stories. Flor Jasmine, a 12-year-old girl living in a remote village in the Andes of Peru, got the millionth chair last year. A bout of meningitis had left her unable to walk, and she had to be carried from place to place by her mother or father, he said.

The wheelchair allows her to continue school, he said, adding that her story is featured in the PBS documentary series The Visionaries.

And theres Indra (her last name was not available), who lives in India and was the fourth person to receive a wheelchair. She was 15 at the time, and the chair allowed her to finish high school, Schoendorfer said. She went on to get a degree in computer science and a masters in teaching.

And now she is dedicating her life to help teach disabled people in India, he said.

With the 1 million goal achieved last year, the organization is launching a new drive: One Million by One Million 2025. This goal: to distribute the second set of 1 million wheelchairs in half the time. The group estimates that 70 million people worldwide are in dire need of a wheelchair.

Mandela said she has been amazed by the missions success.

That speaks to impact, she said. There are so many people in need across the world, and this gives people so much hope.

IF YOU GO

What: Free Wheelchair Missions Miracle of Mobility with Swati Dlamini Mandela

When: 5:30 p.m. Thursday (program begins at 7:15 p.m.)

Where: Renee & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: $195 per person

Information: freewheelchair.ejoinme.org/MyEvents/MiracleofMobility2018/tabid/927738/Default.aspx

Learn how to donate a wheelchair for $80: freewheelchairmission.org/donate

Susan Gill Vardon is a Times Community News contributor.The Costa Mesa Sanitary and Mesa Water districts have reached a truce in their lengthy public feud over whether to consider a merger, announcing in a joint statement that the water districts board will not support consolidation unless the sanitary district, which has consistently opposed the idea, changes its position on the subject.

As part of the settlement between the agencies, the sanitary district agreed to dismiss a lawsuit it filed last year alleging that Mesa Water had failed to provide certain requested documents. The sanitary district also agreed to withdraw its current public records requests.

In addition, Mesa Water and the sanitary district declared they will not support California Fair Political Practices Commission investigations of one another resulting from complaints against the districts.

Our districts have a multi-decade history of providing outstanding water, wastewater and solid waste services in Costa Mesa, and we look forward to working collaboratively with Mesa Water on shared services and continuing to look for ways to improve efficiencies and cost-effectiveness for both agencies, sanitary district board President Mike Scheafer said in a statement Monday.

Mesa Water board President Jim Atkinson said: We are pleased that we have resolved the differences between our two districts. Mesa Water looks forward to continued collaboration with CMSD on matters important to both districts for the benefit of our shared customers and community members.

This weeks announcement effectively ends a war of words the agencies have waged since 2016, when Mesa Water asked whether the sanitary district would join in studying the possibility of a merger.

In the months that followed, sanitary district officials accused Mesa Water of using flawed and misleading information to try to stage a takeover. Water district representatives rejected that criticism and said consolidation could result in millions of dollars in one-time and annual savings that might lead to rebates or lower rates for residents.

The quarrel eventually found its way to the ballot box in November 2016 with Measure TT, an advisory question asking voters whether they wanted the districts to look into a possible merger.

Though the measure passed with 54.7% of the vote, the consolidation front has been largely quiet  at least publicly  for months.

The sanitary district provides sewer and curbside trash collection services to about 116,700 ratepayers in Costa Mesa, parts of Newport Beach and unincorporated sections of Orange County.

Mesa Water provides service to about 110,000 people in an area that is similar, though not identical.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyThe state attorney generals office has denied a request to allow further legal action on the question of whether Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Allan Mansoor can remain on the City Council. A complaint filed against Mansoor in March alleged he lived in Newport Beach for part of last year in violation of state law.

An opinion dated Friday and bearing the names of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Anya Binsacca states the complaint does not raise a substantial question of law or fact that warrants initiating a judicial proceeding and that permitting a proposed quo warranto action to move forward in court would not serve the public interest.

A quo warranto requires a person to show what authority he or she has to hold an office.

The March complaint  signed by Art Perry, a local resident who is a member of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District board  alleged Mansoor and his family lived for a time last year in a house owned by his in-laws in the 1600 block of Pegasus Street in Newport Beach.

By doing so, the document claimed, Mansoor violated a state law requiring a council member to be a resident of the city he or she represents and therefore should be removed from the City Council.

I am pleased with the attorney generals decision finding no reasonable basis to doubt my familys connection to Costa Mesa, Mansoor said Tuesday. It reinforces that I have always acted within the spirit of the statutes requiring residency for City Council members while we were in search of new housing.

Mansoor was elected to the council for a third time in 2016, and his current term runs through 2020. He also served from 2002 to 2010.

Mansoor, who previously had said he planned to run for mayor this year as the city holds its first direct election for that post, said Tuesday that he instead intends to seek the City Council seat representing District 5, which covers Costa Mesas downtown and about half the Westside.

Perry could not be reached for comment Tuesday, but Liz McNabb  chairwoman of Costa Mesas Parks and Recreation Commission and part of a group that collaborated to bring the legal action forward  said Mansoor may have won on a legal technicality, but he has certainly lost the public trust.

She said the complaint served its purpose by exposing the fact that he lived outside of Costa Mesa, she wrote in a text message. That in itself is a victory.

Mansoor said in legal documents that he lived in the Enclave apartment complex near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa from about 2010 until June 2017, when his last lease expired.

Determining that that apartment no longer met his familys needs, Mansoor began looking for a new home with the help of a real estate agent, he said.

He said he found an apartment for rent on Canyon Drive in Costa Mesas Westside around Aug. 1 but wasnt able to move in until Oct. 17 because it needed some extensive remodeling.

During the time between Enclave and Canyon, there was never a moment that I ... intended to live anywhere other than Costa Mesa, which has been my home for most of my life, he said in a document. He did not disclose where he and his family lived between apartments. The attorney generals statement says Mansoor does not deny that he lived in the house on Pegasus Street for some time in 2017.

According to the AGs office, intent is a crucial factor in determining a public officials legal residence.

Given the evidence before us, we do not believe that temporarily staying with relatives for a few months while making efforts to secure permanent housing is sufficient to effect a change in domicile, the opinion states.

Though documents supporting Perrys complaint included declarations from two Pegasus Street residents that they observed Mansoor regularly staying at the Newport Beach house last year, the attorney generals office determined that Perry had presented no evidence that Mansoor intended to remain in Newport Beach either permanently or indefinitely.

Mansoor has declared, under penalty of perjury, his intent at all times to remain a resident of Costa Mesa, the opinion states. Moreover, that intent is supported by Mansoors conduct in searching for apartments, employing a Realtor and signing a lease on an apartment that had yet to undergo substantial renovation.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyNewport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis is getting a $9,000-a-year raise.

The pay bump, which the City Council approved unanimously Tuesday night, brings the citys top cop from an annual base salary of about $224,700 to about $233,700, a 4% increase.

Lewis last contract indicated a base salary of $213,500, but he received two cost-of-living pay adjustments since being appointed chief in 2016 that were not reflected in the contract on file or in the staff report prepared for Tuesdays meeting, City Manager Dave Kiff said.

Kiff said the raise approved Tuesday is a merit increase.

Councilman Kevin Muldoon said he would normally pause before approving such a raise but said the citys crime reports are at a five-year low and the Police Department has good morale under Lewis leadership.

I would offer you a lot more money to continue this trend because we are bucking the negative trend in the state of California, Muldoon told Lewis, a 27-year Newport Beach Police Department veteran.

Tourism budgets

The council agreed to allot $4.9 million this year to Visit Newport Beach and $4.2 million to the Newport Beach Tourism Business Improvement District.

Visit Newport Beach, a nonprofit destination marketing organization under contract with the city, is funded mostly by local bed taxes, receiving 18% of all hotel and short-term rental bed tax revenue.

The Tourism Business Improvement District is a voluntary consortium of nine of the citys largest hotels and resorts, which agrees to tax a percentage of the hotels room rental revenue to help fund local tourism promotion.

The city collects the taxes on the member hotels behalf.

Finance Committee appointment

The city Finance Committee has a new member. Muldoon appointed Patricia Eckert to fill out the seven-member advisory panel, which is made up of three City Council members and four other residents.

Eckert is a Loyola Marymount-trained lawyer who was a member of the California Public Utilities Commission from 1989 to 1995, including one year as its president. She has most recently been a consultant in the energy and telecommunications industries.

Muldoon was on the Finance Committee until last month, when he stepped down to allow Councilman Scott Peotter to take his place. Peotters appointee, Patti Gorczyca, also stepped down around the same time, leaving one spot to fill.

Street work

The city will spend close to $1 million to rehabilitate several short stretches of road.

The projects include repaving two miles of Marguerite Avenue in Corona del Mar between Fifth Avenue and San Joaquin Hills Road and less than a quarter-mile of Hospital Road between Superior and Placentia avenues, and reconstructing the intersection of Irvine Avenue and Cliff Drive near Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Heights.

Excel Paving of Long Beach will get the roughly $888,000 construction contract. With contingencies, geotechnical services and incidentals added, the city plans to spend about $958,000 on the jobs.

Work will begin after Labor Day and is expected to be completed within about two months.

hillary.davis@latimes.com

Twitter: @Daily_PilotHDSeveral Newport Beach police officers served as celebrity hosts Monday at Javiers restaurant on East Coast Highway for a Tip-A-Cop fundraiser benefiting Special Olympics Southern California.

The event raised $8,254, according to the Police Department.

Special Olympics athlete Max Grasso, an animation artist who attends Cal State Long Beach, shared his story with customers.

Even though I have a disability, autism, I have many abilities, he said. Being on a team changes your outlook on life, because its a family.

Susan Hoffman is a contributor to Times Community News. Staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with the amount of money raised.

This article was originally published at 2:30 p.m.The Planning Commission recently approved extending the hours of operation at a facilities yard for the Glendale Unified School District, where repair supplies and equipment are stored, while still taking into consideration residents complaints primarily about noise.

Last week, commission members voted to extend the operating hours at the yard, located at 333 W. Magnolia Ave., from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. during the week, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Previous hours of operation were 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the week, but the school district applied to extend the hours so employees could arrive earlier and work later, if needed.

In addition to the extended hours, a masonry wall being built along Palmer Avenue will be no higher than 7 feet, according to the commissions decision.

Nearby residents expressed concerns about the extended hours to the school district individually, complaining about noise levels and fumes from trucks.

At the commission meeting, Michael Lee, property manager for an apartment complex on West Palmer Avenue, said workers were not courteous to the residents.

Lee regularly heard residents complain about noise, loud talking and loitering at the facilities yard, even on the weekends.

People would park their cars against the fence, shout back and forth and keep their engines running, he said. Those fumes would make people sick.

The new conditions mandate that signs be placed on the walls facing the parking lot, warning workers to not be noisy or loiter.

Our law firm spent a lot of time and resources trying to find a middle ground, said Steve Dickinson, Glendale Unifieds chief business and financial officer. There are some things we cant agree to. The hours was the biggest difference.

Once the wall is completed, Dickinson said residents concerns will be mitigated.

This could be solved by understanding what the applicant and [those complaining] want, said commissioner Talin Shahbazian. I want to try and see if we can solve this issue by working together, and the main problem is the hours.

Folks who are working in that yard need to keep their voices down so they do not disturb residents, said Greg Astorian, commission chairman.

michael.livingston@latimes.com

@MLivingston06Twenty-four years ago, my daughter, Eleanor Green, 4 years old, was sleeping next to her 7-year-old brother, Nicholas, on the back seat of our rented car on a family vacation in southern Italy when he was shot in an attempted carjacking. The tragedy captured the worlds imagination when my wife, Maggie, and I donated his organs and corneas to seven very sick Italians, four of them teenagers.

On July 14, Eleanor, whose sadness and composure as a child had pierced hearts everywhere, was married at the memorial tower we built for Nicholas and all children who have died. A hundred and forty bells hang from the tower, sent by families who think of their children playing in a safe place with other children like themselves. They came from all over the world, though mostly from Italy, where organ donation rates, until then almost the lowest in Western Europe, have tripled, a rate of increase no other country has come close to.

The centerpiece bell was sent by Pope John Paul II, who was deeply moved by the story, and blessed by him. Some bells were made for the occasion by grieving parents, others had been in families for generations and had at last found their true home.

There were so many bells that the Italian government arranged for an air force transport plane to bring them to Alameda Naval Base. The captain of the plane told me the crew had been to Russia recently to collect the remains of Italian soldiers killed in World War II that the Soviets had held on to for 50 years as a cynical bargaining chip. I thought of those families  wives, children, even a few aged mothers and fathers  waiting at an airfield in Italy for those pathetic body bags and said Bringing a cargo of bells must seem very bland after all that.

No, he replied, I have the same feeling of great love and great sorrow I did then.

The tower, which was designed and built by Bruce Hasson, a San Francisco sculptor, is in Bodega Bay, the village in Northern California where Alfred Hitchcock made The Birds and where we lived before moving to La Canada. Eleanor attended La Canada High, as did her twin siblings Laura and Martin, and then went on to study economics and government at Pitzer College. She is now a teacher at the Bert Corona High School in Pacoima. Her husband is Matthew Burgette, a sound mixer who works on movies and commercials.

Asked why they had chosen this spot for their wedding, Eleanor replied: Nicholas has served as an inspiration for so many people around the world, but to me hes still simply my big brother and I want him there on one of the most meaningful days of my life.

Reg Green lives in La Canada Flintridge and regularly writes commentary pieces for the La Canada Valley Sun. He can be reached via nicholasgreen.org.Kevin Love isnt leaving Cleveland anytime soon.

The All-Star forward signed a new four-year, $120-million contract with the Cavaliers, who are beginning anew following LeBron James departure.

Love signed the extension Tuesday and immediately posted a photo on Instagram showing himself surrounded by construction workers inside Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavaliers downtown home, which is undergoing a renovation similar to the one taking place with the four-time defending Eastern Conference champions.

When I first came to Cleveland, I came with a long-term mind-set, said Love, who joined the team in 2014 after six seasons in Minnesota. I came here to win. We developed a culture here that reflects that. Im super excited and I couldnt be happier. Its a big commitment for me and its a big commitment from the Cavaliers. ...

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I enjoy playing here, Im excited about the team that we have and look forward to our future together. Cleveland fans have been special from Day One and Im also looking forward to continuing to be a part of this great community.

Love will make $24.1 million next season before the extension begins, making the whole package worth $145 million over five years. Love waived his option for 2019-20 and there are no other options or trade clauses within the new deal. He will be paid $28.9 million in 2019-20, $31.3 million in 2020-21 and 2021-22, and $28.8 million in 2022-23.

Etc.

Free agent guard Yogi Ferrell has signed with the Sacramento Kings, the team announced. The third-year guard spent last season with the Mavericks after splitting the previous year between the Nets and Dallas.Dance, dance, dance this fall when the 30th annual Groove Cruise Cabo sails round- trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with dozens of musicians on board and a day-to-night roster of activities.

The four-day cruise aboard the Norwegian Pearl will feature electronic music legends and up-and-coming acts with 96 hours of music across nine stages.

Headliners include Marc Kinchen, Duke Dumont, Green Velvet, Benny Benassi and Cosmic Gate. The itinerary includes a private party at Blue Marlin Ibiza Los Cabos resort.

Dates: Oct. 10-14

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Price: Inside cabins from $1,069 per person, double occupancy. Includes transportation, accommodations, food and activities. Airfare and transfers not included.

Info: Groove Cruise Cabo, (877) 438-9438

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travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelIf you were planning to visit Yosemite Valley this weekend, its time for Plan B. The valley as well as the Wawona area of Yosemite National Park closed Wednesday to support firefighting operations in the Ferguson fire.

Visitors who had reservations for hotels, tent cabins, campgrounds and visitor activities inside the southern and western parts of the park Wednesday to Sunday will be eligible for rebooking or refunds.

About 1,000 reservations will be canceled, according to media reports.

Yosemite Valley, Wawona areas of the national park to close through Sunday because of the Ferguson fire 

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Heres a rundown of whats open, whats closed and what you need to know about Yosemites closures, which officials say will remain in effect through Sunday.

Entrances and roads

California 140, one of the main roadways on the parks west side, has been closed from Midpines to Big Oak Flat Road almost since the fire began July 13. The Arch Rock Entrance is closed, and the parks South Entrance and Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias closed Wednesday.

California 41 from Wawona to the tunnel entry into Yosemite Valley closed Wednesday.

Visitors in those areas had been asked to leave.

However, Tioga Road (California 120) and the Tioga Pass Entrance, about 87 miles northeast of the South Entrance, will remain open. That means you could do some backcountry exploring at Tuolumne Meadows or Hetch Hetchy.

Hotels and tent cabins

If you have a reservation in the Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly the Ahwahnee Hotel), Yosemite Valley Lodge and Half Dome Village tent cabins, you will be allowed to change your reservation dates or receive a refund, spokeswoman Lisa Cesaro said.

Guests who were forced to leave their lodgings by noon Wednesday wont be charged for additional nights, but they also wont receive any compensation for the curtailed visit.

Only people who were scheduled to stay Wednesday until Sunday may be eligible for an easing of the cancellation policy.

You may also receive a refund if you booked an activity such as horseback rides or a rafting tour.

Smoke from the Ferguson fire fills Yosemite Valley on Wednesday, July 25, in Yosemite National Park (Noah Berger / Associated Press)

However the cancellation policy  forfeit the deposit of a nights lodging if you cancel less than seven days before your reservation  remains in effect for places on the the east side of the park, such as White Wolf Lodge, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge and the High Sierra Camps. Those sites, as well as the Hetch Hetchy area, remained open as of Tuesday.

Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp is also open.

Campgrounds

Recreation.gov makes reservations for many of Yosemites campgrounds on the west side, such as Lower Pines, Upper Pines, Hodgdon Meadow and Crane Flat.

Its website said campers concerned about heavy smoke and conditions who have reservations may receive a full refund by calling (888) 448-1474. Right now, there are no reservations being taken for some of the sites.

The Wawona Campground, nearest the fire, is closed and will remain closed indefinitely. Reservations through Aug. 6 will be canceled and fully refunded, the website said.

Resources

The Ferguson fire has burned more than 36,000 acres as of Tuesday evening, according to the U.S. Forest Service. It is 25% contained.

To learn more about the Ferguson fire, go to InciWeb.

To learn more about the hazardous air quality caused by the fire, go to San Joaquin Valleys air quality website. The Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program gives smoke updates too.

Check for national park alerts and updates at Yosemite National Park.

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travel@latimes.com

@latimestravelA Mexican journalist who was enrolled in a government protection program after he was attacked by police was shot dead Tuesday morning in the Caribbean resort city of Playa del Carmen, authorities said.

Ruben Pat was the second journalist killed in a month from Semanario Playa News, the online publication he founded. He was at least the seventh journalist killed this year in Mexico, one of the deadliest countries for journalists.

Pat was shot shortly before 6 a.m. outside a bar in Playa del Carmen, about 40 miles south of Cancun, authorities said. They did not name a suspect or a motive.

As the sites news editor, Pat published stories about crime, politics and accusations of government corruption. He had complained in the past of being targeted because of his work, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists.

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In an interview with CPJ in June 2017, Pat said he was detained and beaten by local police officers after publishing a story about a banner hung by a drug cartel that accused the local police chief of being in the pocket of a rival cartel.

Pat said police beat him for about 40 minutes and issued a warning: They told me to stop publishing articles about a local police chief and that I knew what would be coming to me if I didnt, he said.

I have hardly left my home since it happened, he told CPJ. Police cars have been driving past my house the last few days. I am afraid to leave.

Pat was subsequently enrolled in the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, a federal protection program established in 2012.

Under the program, more than 360 Mexican journalists under threat have been provided with panic buttons to summon authorities and, in some cases, security guards. But at least one other journalist enrolled in the program has turned up dead. Last year, newspaper reporter Candido Rios Vazquez was killed in a drive-by shooting in Veracruz state. Like the vast majority of slayings of journalists in Mexico, the Rios killing remains unsolved.

Journalists and press freedom advocates from around the world on Tuesday called for justice in Pats slaying.

In a statement on Facebook, Playa News demanded that the governor of Quintana Roo state do more to protect citizens from growing violence there. The states homicide rate has increased by 132% in the first six months of this year.

Thats two from our team, Governor, the statement said. When will the lack of public safety in our state end?

The June 29 slaying of Jose Chan Dzib, a reporter at Playa News, also is unsolved. Chan was shot to death in the town of Saban, also in Quintana Roo state.

Jan Jarab, the Mexico representative for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Tuesday that his organization had spoken to colleagues of the slain men, who told us of the risk and fear they face in order to carry out their work.

Many of them have recently received threats, which is extremely worrying, Jarab said.

Last year, a U.N. team visited Mexico to investigate an increase in journalist killings. The effect of such violence runs deep, Jarab said, resulting in self-censorship in some cases and a mistrust in public authorities.

The Mexican government, he said, must replace this paradigm of impunity with one that guarantees effective investigation and prosecution.

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

Twitter: @katelinthicumMore than three months of political turmoil, demonstrations, looting and street battles have convulsed the Central American nation of Nicaragua.

President Daniel Ortega, the leader of the leftist Sandinista revolution who has long dominated the countrys political scene, has rejected opposition demands that he step down as leader of this country of 6 million. Here is a brief overview of the crisis, and the developments that led up to it.

What are anti-government protesters seeking?

The protests began in April against Ortegas proposed reforms to the nations reeling social security system. Under pressure, Ortega withdrew his proposals for increased contributions from social security participants. But the protest movement evolved into broader demands for the resignation of Ortega and his Sandinista leadership.

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What is the chief criticism of Ortegas government?

Critics say Ortega, 72, has become an autocratic leader who has lost touch with the people and is intent on imposing a family dynasty in Nicaragua. His wife serves as vice president and other family members hold various key business and media posts. The opposition charges that Ortega has throttled dissenting voices, overseen mass repression in recent months, consolidated power in the legislative and judicial branches, and pushed for an end to presidential term limits that allowed him to run successfully for a third five-year term in 2016. Detractors say the one-time leftist icon has become a septuagenarian mirror-image of former dictator Anastasio Somoza, overthrown by Ortega and other Sandinista revolutionaries in 1979.

A young man fires a makeshift mortar during a march calling for President Daniel Ortega to be ousted in Managua, Nicaragua, on July 23, 2018. (Jorge Torres / EPA/Shutterstock)

Who is the opposition?

The opposition says its ranks include a broad array of Nicaraguan society, including merchants, peasants, middle-class professionals and former Sandinista loyalists who have rejected Ortega. The government says it retains majority support among Nicaraguans and calls the opposition largely an upper-class movement backed by Washington.

How many people have died in the recent violence?

About 300 people have been killed, mostly by pro-government gunmen, according to human rights groups and the opposition. But the government says dozens of police and Sandinista loyalists have been killed by opposition bands and terrorists.

What is the situation now?

An uneasy calm reigns as government security forces have moved in recent weeks to evict protesters from university campuses and other sites where the opposition had become entrenched. Hundreds have been arrested and some may face terrorism charges under new laws. Street rallies for and against the government continue, and many Nicaraguans remain fearful of going out at night.

What is Ortegas response to opposition demands?

Ortega has rejected calls that he step down or move up presidential elections next scheduled for 2021. He has accused opponents of mounting a coup with the support of the U.S. government and the Roman Catholic Church. He has said he is open to dialogue, but not with coup backers, and has denied persecuting church leaders. He says his Sandinista leadership retains popular support.

A Sandinista supporter marches in Managua, Nicaragua, on July 23, 2018. (Cristobal Venegas / Associated Press)

What has been the response of the Catholic Church?

The church remains a powerful institution in this overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, and Ortega has identified himself as a Catholic. Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, the archbishop of Managua, has denied any church backing for a coup and labeled as a falsehood Ortegas charges that some churches housed armed protesters. The church says it remains ready to serve as a mediator.

How has Washington responded?

The Trump administration has put the blame squarely on Ortega and called for early, free, fair, transparent elections and the protection of universal human rights in Nicaragua, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday. Washington condemns the violence and intimidation by the Ortega-controlled armed groups in Nicaragua, Nauert said. She also assailed the arbitrary arrests of 700 government opponents and the cowardly attacks on the Catholic Church.

Who is Daniel Ortega?

Ortega was a commander of the Sandinista uprising that swept to power in 1979, toppling the Somoza family dictatorship that had long ruled with U.S. backing. Ortega, once a mustachioed idol of the international left, led the country from 1979 to 1990, when he lost a reelection bid. Ortega modified his Marxist political stance, reached out to business leaders and Washington, and was again elected president in 2006. He is now serving his third consecutive term. Ortega won in a landslide election in 2016 amid an opposition boycott and allegations of fraud that the government denied.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega delivers a speech next to his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo during the commemoration of the 39th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution at La Fe square in Managua on July 19, 2018. (Marvin Recinos / AFP/Getty Images)

Who is Rosario Murillo?

Murillo, 67, Ortegas wife, serves as the vice president. She is especially despised by many in the opposition, who view her as the real power behind the president and a possible successor to Ortega. Anti-government protesters gleefully toppled many of the metal structures that represent her signature civic beautification initiative  the so-called Trees of Life, multi-colored, stylized sculptures of trees, including one embedded with the image of late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, that adorn streets and parks in Managua.

Who are Ortegas major foreign allies?

Ortega has received strong support from the left-wing governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Bolivia. Last week, as Ortega marked the anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista revolution, Bolivian President Evo Morales condemned U.S. criminal strategies against brother Ortega.

Has Nicaragua been a stable country?

Until this years protests, Nicaragua had experienced relatively stable times during Ortegas presidency, despite criticism of what opponents call his authoritarian leadership. While Nicaragua remains one of the poorest countries in the Americas, its economy had been growing steadily and Nicaragua lacked the major crime problems that have devastated neighboring El Salvador and Honduras. However, the economy has suffered major losses since the crisis erupted as businesses have been shuttered and infrastructure and commercial establishments damaged. Once substantial financial aid from Venezuela has also dried up as that South American nation faces its own crisis.

What was the Contra war?

The U.S. administration of President Reagan viewed the emergence of the left-wing Sandinista government in Managua as a threat to Washingtons regional interests during the Cold War. U.S.-backed forces known as Contras fought the Sandinista government during much of the 1980s, resulting in more than 30,000 deaths. Reagan lauded the Contras as freedom fighters, despite allegations linking the CIA-backed forces to human rights abuses and drug trafficking.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @PmcdonnellLATA hospital official said Wednesday that an explosion outside a crowded polling station in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta killed 25 people and wounded 40.

Jaffer Kakar, a doctor, said five policemen and two children were among the dead. He feared the death toll could rise because many of the wounded were listed in critical condition.

Wednesdays attack came as Pakistanis voted in general elections for 270 members of the law-making National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

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Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief in Quetta, Baluchistans provincial capital, said the explosion took place near the citys eastern bypass.

Baluchistan also saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the run-up to election day, with 149 people, including a provincial assembly candidate, killed at a campaign event this month.The Fort Myers Police Department has issued the following statement in reaction to community support:

The Fort Myers Police Department would like to extend our gratitude for the overwhelming response to a call for blood donations for Officer Adam Jobbers-Miller. The large number of donors who arrived and waited in line at Lee Memorial Hospital was a true symbol of community support and a testament to the spirit of SWFL law enforcement members and citizens.

Lee Health reports that that the surgeries and following treatments have helped and Officer Jobbers-Miler is showing positive signs. His status is still listed as stable but critical.

Lee Health is continuing to accept blood donations and has four locations in Lee County that donors can visit; Lee Memorial Hospital, Cape Coral Hospital, Summerlin Crossings and the Bonita Community Health Center. For more information or donor center hours please call (239) 343-2333.

FMPD has established a Go Fund Me account to collect donations to help with anticipated future health and rehabilitative needs Officer Jobbers-Miller will be requiring. For anyone interested in assisting please visit the website www.gofundme.com/officer-adam-jobbersmiller-fund.

Thank you all for your support, prayers, best wishes and incredible words of encouragement!Those 21 years old and older are invited to join the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce and the Seminole Casino/Hotel Immokalee for the annual Casino Night event next month.

Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce Special Events Coordinator Susan Kostyk said Casino Night turned into an annual event three or four years ago. She encourages members of the Chamber, as well as community members, to take part.

We try to do events to get the community and businesses involved. This way you get to meet your neighbor and talk to people, pass out business cards and get referrals. You can chat with whomever you are sitting next to, Kostyk said. It is a fun event for people to get together. The casino is a fun place to go. Right now we are having lunches on Meet the Candidates for political reasons. This is just a fun, neutral event that people can attend.

Casino Night will be held at the Zig Zag Lounge at Seminole Casino/Hotel Immokalee from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 9. Reservations and prepaid tickets are required no later than Tuesday, July 31. Tickets are $15 per person and can be purchased at LehighAcresChamber.org, by calling (239) 369-3322, or in person at 25 Homestead Road, N, Suite 41 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday.

We are not collecting any money the day of the event. All tickets must be prepaid, Kostyk said.

Tickets include appetizers and two drinks. In past years, Kostyk said the casino has provided such appetizers as chicken fingers, potato skins, veggies and dip, nachos, chips and salsa, crackers and dip and deserts.

They will provide free play to the guests, she said.

Round trip transportation is also being provided by the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce for an additional $5. The mini vans will leave the Chamber at 5:15 p.m. and return at 10 p.m.

Kostyk said they are providing two mini vans for the transportation, beneficial for those who either do not want to make the trip to the casino, or who might enjoy a few alcoholic beverages while there.

Last year the event attracted between 75 and 80 people, which Kostyk hopes they will either meet, or surpass this go-around.

This is a good opportunity for them to go without having to fight the crowd, she said. You can get to the different machines that you want to play. Its fun because its not real crowded. There is usually a lot of room to move around.

The Chamber is also asking businesses to sponsor the event through either $100 donation, which will grant them an ad in their program, or bring an item for the raffle.

We are hoping to have them listed online, either on our Facebook page, or Chamber website before the actual day of the event, she said of the raffle items.

Casino Night is sponsored by the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce and Seminole Casino/Hotel Immokalee.Dog lovers looking to help the Senior Paws Sanctuary can drop pet supplies and food at the Lee County Tax Collectors Lehigh Acres Service Center.

Even sweeter, donors can buy a $1 candy bar help the office raise money for the nonprofit organization.

Debbie Goldsberry, founder of Senior Paws Sanctuary, said what the Lee County Tax Collectors Office has done for them is great.

Not only did they get a donation bucket, they also dropped off dog food and dog beds, she said.

Lehigh Service Center Senior Customer Service specialist Monica Daniels said the staff believes they are helping a really good cause.

We had a few options of local charities. We as a group selected Senior Paws. John (Goldsberry, who assists his wife, Debbie, in running the sanctuary), has brought a few of the dogs in before work, so we can see them and spoke about the organization and what they do, she said.

Goldsberry said they did a couple of presentations during their employee meetings in the morning and passed out literature about the organization.

It was nice that the whole group of people came together and wanted to help us, she said.

The office has been selling candy bars since March 2017 to help raise funds for the nonprofit organization. Daniels said the only time they do not sell the candy bars is when they are collecting for other sponsored events, such as for a United Way drive.

Other than that, it is pretty much year round, she said.

They have raised, and donated, $1,566 since last March.

We also have a collection bin where we collect used towels and blankets and people who want to donate food. That is coming from our clerks and the community, Daniels said.

Goldsberry said they are always in need of typical dog supplies such as dog shampoo, leashes, collars and dog beds. In addition, they are in need of baby rice cereal and baby jars of meat.

She said some of the senior dogs live on baby food and goats milk because they can no longer digest dog food.

Other items that Senior Paws Sanctuary has shared they are in need of includes pack and plays for children, which are used for dogs to sleep in, as well as dog clothes.

They like to get dog clothes because some of the dogs when they come in are malnourished, or dont have hair. They are easily cold, Daniels said. Their biggest thing right now is medical care, so the donations go a long way. Monetary donations are helpful as well.

She said they have a lot of people come in and buy a $1 candy bar with a $20 bill, which all goes towards the sanctuary.

Monetary donations are gratefully accepted because it goes towards vet visits. Goldsberry said they use two different veterinary offices that balance an account for them.

Last year Senior Paws Sanctuary spent $40,000 in veterinary medical bills alone.

There are signs posted in the lobby, as well as posters with Senior Paws Sanctuary information in multiple areas, at the Lee County Tax Collectors Lehigh Acres service center, 3114 Lee Blvd.

We have a commitment to service, and our staff felt strongly that Senior Paws Sanctuary was deserving of our support, Lee County Tax Collector Larry Hart said in a prepared statement. Animals enrich our lives in so many ways. When our team goes this far to help local animals in need, its just one more way to show the community that, Weve got your back.'

For more information about Senior Paws Sanctuary, call (239) 470-7022, email seniorpsanctuary@aol.com, visit seniorpawssanctuary.com, or their Facebook page, Senior Paws Sanctuary.

Individuals are encouraged to follow Senior Paws Sanctuary Facebook page. All events and the organizations needs are posted to their page.

Senior Paws Sanctuary, Inc. started the rescue in 2015. To date, 160 adoptions have been completed in those three years. The original plan was to rescue three or four senior dogs (8 years old or older) at a time, find them homes and then move on to another three or four.

That plan quickly changed when they found themselves with 26 dogs. Once the dog enters the Senior Paws Sanctuary they enter a foster home and receive veterinary care, nutrition and any surgeries, or medications needed. Once a vet releases them, they become adoptable.

Goldsberry said they are always in need of foster homes, as well as transporters.

We have six foster homes and they each take one dog, she said. Sometimes the dogs are in such poor condition that it takes two or three months (before the vet deems them adoptable.) That home is tied up until their dog gets adopted.

Most of the animals Senior Paws Sanctuary receives come from Lee County Domestic Animal Services through a call, or email with a list of dogs that are in need of homes.

Those who are interested in meeting the senior dogs and adopting them can do so every Sunday at Petco, located at the Forum, from noon to 3 p.m.

Depending on the medical attention the dog has received, the adoption fees range from $75 to $250. Many times, Senior Paws Sanctuary receives sponsors that help with medical care for the animals, which keeps the adoption fees down.Stock Market News

London Market Today - Residential lettings market in London remains neutral, but rents falling in some locations 25-07-2018 02:10



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukKochi : A Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) special court in Kerala has sentenced two cops to death and three for jail term in the custodial murder of Udayakumar in 2005.

In a verdict after 13 years, the court had found them guilty and awarded death penalty for K. Jithakumar SV Sreekumar, the first and second accused in the case. Besides the six years jail term, the court also slammed a fine of two lakhs against SP Ajith Kumar, EK Sabu, Haridas, the rest of the convicts.

KV Soman, their colleague who was also accused of murder died during the trial. In 2005, Udayakumar, was spreadeagled on a bench and crushed with an iron pipe during his interrogation. He was subjected to brutal torture at the police station and the injuries lead to his death.

In a rarest of the rare case, the court had awarded capital punishment to the two of the cops, who are still serving the police department.President Rodrigo Duterte plans to visit Kuwait and Israel after his third State of the Nation Address, the Palace confirmed Wednesday. Special Assistant to the President Christopher Bong Go said Dutertes visit to Israel will take place in September, with the exact dates up for discussion with the Jewish state. Duterte would be the first Philippine leader to visit Israel. Israeli authorities were expecting the Presidents arrival in May last year, but it did not materialize owing to the Marawi City siege, Go said. According to Israeli news reports, Duterte will sign agreements concerning Filipinos who provide long-term care in Israel and in relation to the drug trade. He is also expected to discuss matters of agriculture, security, and the establishment of a direct flight route between Israel and the Philippines. Meanwhile, Dutertes plan to visit Kuwait in October is to honor the Kuwaiti government for a deal that gives overseas Filipino workers better treatment in the Gulf state. The visit [to Kuwait] is in October depending on the availability of the Emir, said Go, referring to Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. Back in September 2016, Duterte controversially compared himself to the infamous Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, saying he would also be happy to slaughter three million people involved in illegal drugs just like how Hitler committed genocide against the Jews. The President later personally apologized to the Jewish community in Manila, saying he never intended to offend them.In February this year, Duterte imposed a departure ban on Filipinos planning to work in Kuwait after reports of OFW-related abuses reached Manila, particularly the death of Filipino maid Joanna Demafelis, whose body was found inside a freezer a year after she was reported missing. The tensions following a diplomatic row over the alleged mistreatment of OFWs urged officials from both countries to sign a deal providing better protection for Filipino workers in the state. The eight-page memorandum aims to provide a 24/7 hotline for Filipino workers to report abuses, a special police unit to respond to such complaints, provision of food, housing, clothing, health insurance system, bank account, and even the use of cellular phones to communicate with their relatives. During his third Sona last Monday, Duterte vowed to make sure that the well-being of Filipino migrant workers remains a priority. We admire our Filipino migrant workers for their selflessness and courage in enduring the hardships of living away from home to provide for their families. You epitomize the innate resilience of the nation. You have shown your willingness to toil and sacrifice day in and day out, for the long-term good of your family and loved ones, said Duterte, adding they have greatly contributed to the national economy. This is why we strongly condemn the deaths and abuses experienced by Filipino migrant workers in the hands of their foreign employers. I have said this before and I say it again: I am a worker of government, and it is my vow to make sure that your well-being remains our foremost foreign policy concern, he stressed. Duterte then appealed to host governments to truly and dependably help the country ensure the welfare of the Filipinos abroad.Indonesian tattoo remover Sandi Widodo does a brisk business zapping sin from skinat bargain-basement prices. But theres a catch for pious Muslims keen to shed body art at his Jakarta shop: Theyve got to recite 50 Koranic verses from memory and repent for their tattooed past. Thats a small price to pay for Riki Irawan, who hopes that getting rid of three tribal-style tattoos will bring him closer to God. But he has another reason for ditching the inkhis fiancees devout parents wont let him marry their daughter unless he is tattoo-free. The joy of having a tattoo is temporary, the 31-year-old said. It only lasts for a few weeks and after that your life is ruined. Irawan is not alone in his regret judging by the volume of business at Widodos clinic, which has a waiting list of over 1,000 people. The stigma over tattoos has long faded in the West, with everyone from college kids to celebrities and athletes happy to display their body art in public. But in some Asian countries, tattoos are often associated with crime and loose morals. Tattoos are also frowned upon in Islam, making it especially tough for wearers in the worlds largest Muslim majority country. It was uncomfortable to go into a mosque, said Widodo, who still has a fading tattoo on the side of his face. I tried to act normal but people were looking at me.Widodos current profession is a long way from his former life as a successful tattoo artist in the Hindu-dominated resort island Bali, where local men frequently sport body art and there are few hang ups about the practice. His tattoo-seeking clients asked for everything from relatives names to elaborate, centuries-old designs still worn by the Southeast Asian archipelagos indigenous people. A traditional practice known as hand-tappingartists gently tap a stick mounted with a needle on a subjects skinhas even enjoyed a revival in recent years. But for Widodo, finding religion marked a turning point and he turned his back on the business. Tattoos are associated with negative stuff like drugs and partying, he said. So I decided to quit and sold my equipment.Indonesias Muslim clerics say the choice is clear. Tattoos are not allowed in Islam because youre not only hurting yourself, but it is altering Gods creation, said Huzaemah Tahido, an official at top religious body the Indonesian Ulema Council. If possible, remove your tattoo and repent. If you cant remove your tattoo because its too painful, then leave it but you must still repent. Renny Rengganis, a practizing Muslim, has no plans to repent or ditch her tattoos. In fact, she wants to enlarge a design depicting a mother and son that covers three-quarters of her back, despite the objections of her devoutly religious relatives. I didnt get tattoos to rebel against anything or to express my right to do what I want with my own body, said the 35-year-old public relations professional. I simply like tattoos that have meaning and wanted [them] inscribed on my body forever.For those who do regret their body art, plenty of Indonesian clinics offer tattoo removal services. But most charge several thousand dollars for the repeated treatments necessary to clear color pigmentation putting them out of reach for many ordinary Indonesians. In response, cheaper tattoo removal shops have opened in recent years including a service in Indonesias second-biggest city Surabaya that also requires clients to recite Koranic verses. Islamic lender Bank Muamalat has sponsored a mobile tattoo removal van on the countrys main island Java. Years ago, cheaper options werent available for regretful tattoo enthusiasts like Widodo. So he set out to start a tattoo removal shop with a crowd-funding campaign that raised about $6,500enough for a pair of laser removal machines. His shopwhich has a sign that reads Drop your sins, clasp the hand of a Muslim brotheropened its doors last summer. Widodo has since removed tattoos from a few hundred customers and many more are eager to tap his 150,000 rupiah ($11) service. One of them, Maulidul Irfan, was so desperate to remove his tattooswhich he chalks up to teenage rebellionthat he tried everything from cashew sap and breast milk to harsh chemicals that scarred his skin, all without success. Im studying to be an Islamic study teacher so it would be embarrassing to have tattoos, the 23-year-old said at the clinic. People dont always judge us on who we are now, but rather what we did in the past.Get ready, beauty junkies: the month of July has been chock-full of new beauty launches and frankly, we dont know where to begin.

From the fresh launches of American beauty cult-favorites Tatcha, Huda Beauty, and Sunday Riley at Sephora stores island-wide in Singapore, to innovative releases by J-beauty giants like Hada Labo and Utena, it seems like Singapore is finally, finally up-to-date on beauty and skincare trends of 2018.

Whether its FOREOs new game-changing 90-second masking device or IT Cosmetics matte rendition of its bestselling CC cream (perfect for these hot and humid summer months  FYI), heres all the newest beauty launches were excited about this July!

Kanako Sugawara

READ MORE:

Blingin Beauty: 10 Skincare & beauty products infused with gemstones and crystals

Beauty Wonderland: An exclusive peek at Sephoras first ever playhouse

10 Bestselling beauty products flying off the shelves in different countriesIS THE BRIC FUTURE ON TRACK - 10TH BRICS Summit at Critical Crossroads

Even amid trade wars and eroding global growth prospects, the large emerging BRIC economies remain positioned to surpass the largest advanced economies in about 15 years.



The 10th BRICS Summit will take place in Johannesburg, South Asia. Led by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the international conference highlights the rising power of large emerging economies in the world economy.





When the first BRICS Summit took place in Yekaterinburg, Russia, after the global crisis, the combined economic power of the major BRIC countries amounted to some $10 trillion, or about a third of the largest economies of the West, as reflected by the US, the core European countries (Germany, UK, France, Italy), and Japan  the so-called G6 economies.Today, the BRICs are coping with a fragile global recovery that is overshadowed by Americas new protectionism.

China and India on track, Russia and Brazil penalized by politics



In 2000, Chinas economy was barely a tenth of the US GDP. Brazil was stabilizing after years of turmoil. Russian economy had been crushed by the US-led shock therapy. And reforms were intensifying in India.



A decade later, the world economy looked very different. The US economy was still more than twice as big as that of China but Japans growth had been penalized by stagnation. Chancellor Merkels Germany and President Sarkozys France led the ailing Europe. In Brazil, the Lula era brought about a dramatic catch-up, while reducing historical income polarization. In Manmohan Singhs India, growth was accelerating. In Russia, President Putin had multiplied the size of the economy by almost six-fold.



Is the world economys structural transformation on track? The short answer is an emphatic yes, but there are significant differences among the BRIC economies.



Lets use the largest economy, the United States, as a benchmark to compare the original BRIC assumptions (dashed line) in the early 2000s with the real economic development in the past two decades and the expected decade (Figure 1).

Figure 1 BRIC Economies, 2000-2030







Sources: Goldman Sachs; IMF; Difference Group.

According to this simple exercise, Chinas economic expansion accelerated dramatically, even word-historically, in the course of the 2000s, when its share of the US economy more than tripled from 12% to 40%. The original BRIC estimate was that China would surpass the U.S. in the late 2020s; and that remains the case under Xi Jinpings leadership. If current trends prevail, Chinese economy would be 13% larger than that of the U.S. by 2030 (only 1% less than the original BRIC projection).



While Indias growth trajectory slipped in the past few years, it has been largely restored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If things go right, Indias economy would double relative to the U.S. in the next decade. It could also soar to about a third of the U.S. by 2030 (4% higher than the original BRIC projection).



However, Brazil and Russia have slipped significantly from the original projections.



Under Lulas visionary leadership, Brazils GDP grew even faster than expected by the original BRIC projection. And the first term of Dilma Rousseff was still not far behind the projection. Nevertheless, since the mid-2010s and Rousseffs contested impeachment, political turmoil has harmed Brazils growth trajectory, which has penalized middle classes, working people and the poor. If Brazil had been steered by Lulas administration, its economy would have been almost a fifth of the US GDP by 2030. Now, Brazils economy is positioned to be about 13% of that of the US by 2030 (more than 40% smaller than originally expected).



In Russia, President Putin was able to reverse the economys drastic fall in the 1990s and restore the growth trajectory in the 2000s. For all practical purposes, Russian economic prospects are very much in line with the original BRIC projection; it is the sanctions by the West that account for the negative difference. Without the controversial sanctions, the Russian economy would have been about a fifth of the U.S. economy by 2030. Thanks to the US-led new Cold War, Russian economy could be less than a tenth of the US GDP by 2030 (some 55% smaller than expected).

Two caveats



There are two major caveats to the BRIC future projections. The first involves international trade prospects amid rising US protectionism. The second has to do with the impact of these trade actions on the consequent global prospects.



After a year of threats, the Trump administration initiated a tariff war against China last March. The measures became effective in early July. What began with national security reviews on steel and aluminum soon spread to intellectual property rights and technology. Moreover, the bilateral friction with China soon broadened to US trade conflicts with the NAFTA, Europe, East Asia and the rest of the world.



If the Trump administration will keep moving away from the postwar trading regime, these bilateral frictions will broaden and multilateralize. And if a full-scale trade war cannot be avoided, then the nascent tariff wars have potential to spread across industry sectors and geographic regions.



After the first half of 2018, the IMF growth projections have already been revised down for Europe, Japan and the UK, and for Brazil and India. As economic uncertainty is rising, investors can no longer ignore it. Given the right adverse triggers, a sudden reassessment of fundamentals and risks by investors is now a viable possibility.



Yet, in the long-term, even negative turns  if they remain short-term cannot alter  but can slow - the relative rise of the large emerging economies. If trade risks grow elevated, secular stagnation in major advanced economies will deepen as well. Second, amid the 2008 global crisis, China accounted for almost 50% of global growth and continues to account for some 30% of global prospects today.



The implication is that how China goes, so will the world go. In positive scenarios, such economic spillovers support global growth. In negative scenarios, such spillovers would penalize those growth prospects  and the collateral damage would likely be the worst in emerging and developing economies.



What will the catch-up by the BRIC economies under these conditions mean in terms of global economic power?

BRICs positioned to surpass G6 in early 2030s



The peak of the advanced economies global power was in the 1980s and 90s. Despite continued absolute expansion, their relative erosion has increased. In 2000, the economies of the major advanced nations of the West, as reflected by the G6, were still almost ten times bigger than the BRICs. However, the global crisis sped up their relative erosion (compare Figure 2).

Figure 2 G6 and BRIC economies, 1980-2030 ($ Billions)







Sources: Goldman Sachs; IMF; Difference Group.

By 2010, the G6 were almost three times bigger than the BRICs. Today, their edge has shrunk to about 30 percent.



Despite trade war against China, Indias struggle against poverty, Brazils internal turmoil and sanctions against Russia, the BRICs are still likely to surpass the major advanced economies around the early 2030s. By 2030, the G6 economies will be about 5 percent behind the original estimate; the BRICs a bit more, about 7 percent.



Indeed, if G6 were to be balanced with six large emerging economies  rather than just four BRIC nations  by including Indonesia, Mexico or Turkey, or Nigeria or South Africa, the trend line would prove even more prominent.



While advanced economies have been penalized by their sovereign debt crises, large emerging economies have been harmed by political turmoil in Brazil and sanctions against Russia. In other words, the challenges in these two countries are political by nature and both have had to cope with external efforts to shape their sovereign future.



In contrast, as advanced economies have not even begun to reduce their debt burden, their economic leverage may decline relatively faster sometime in the future. In other words, their challenges are largely economic by nature.

There is only one viable way to deliver the economic promise of the BRICs (and the G6), and that is economic development. Any political, quasi-political (e.g., sanctions, regime changes) or military efforts that undercut development will penalize the economic future of both set of countries.

Dr Steinbock is the founder of the Difference Group and has served as the research director at the India, China, and America Institute (USA) and a visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more information, see http://www.differencegroup.net/

 2018 Copyright Dan Steinbock - All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.



With the appearance of electrically powered AWD, the Model 3 is playing a grand finale thats going to be epic.

What should be a newsworthy momenta road drive of the Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Performanceis being sharply curtailed by the cars PR handler, who insists that we have less than one hour to evaluate the vehicle before it needs to return. What, did she steal it from Elons parking space while he was on a conference call?

by Words: Kim Reynolds Photos: William Walker

https://www.motortrend.com/cars/tesla/model-3/2018/2018-tesla-model-3-dual-motor-performance-review/

Many thanks to Ben T. for sharing.In an attempt to attract employees to local restaurants and businesses, Supervisors Ahsha Safai and Aaron Peskin are co-sponsoring an ordinance that would ban "employee cafeterias" from new office buildings in the city. This comes as local retailers, particularly those downtown, complain of a drop in business as more companies offer their workers meals in private corporate cafeterias, Safai said.

By Trisha Thadani

https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tech-industry-s-coveted-office-cafeterias-could-13101014.php?t=b9e33bac72BCC School Pailles has organized free eye testing for more than 100 people and distributed 47 pairs of reading glasses free of charge on Thursday 1 August 2019. The reading glasses were distributed by the students of Grade 6 of BCC School.



It has always been a culture of BCC School to do something for the elderly people and people who have eye sight problem. Elderly people have contributed massively in the development of the country and made us educated. Even at this age they help families in different ways such as, purchasing necessary items for families, taking grand children to tuitions etc. Hence, they deserve a good care at this age. Many of our citizens including elderly people have difficulties to see. However, many cannot afford to buy a pair of glasses as they are very expensive in Mauritius and often it takes a very long time to get a pair of glasses from the sponsors. Meanwhile the patients continue suffering. Eye sight problem is very common among the very young children nowadays. It is mainly due to overuse of computer, mobile phones etc. and poor food habits. Hence, BCC School has tried to help both elderly people and school going children.

It is our sincere hope that this effort will be fruitful and will be able to put a smile on the faces of the people who did or doing everything to make us smile! Also the school going children will get relief and will be able to concentrate more in their studies. We intend to organize this type of activities again in near future. We request one and all to pray for the continuous success of our school, its students, staff and especially for the students of Grade 6.  Said Muhammmad Shahin Uddin Sardar, the founder and Director of BCC School.

Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School Second Edition of Free Eye Testing and Distribution of glasses by BCC School

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LinkedIn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.Two women accused of stabbing three men in a July 7 altercation in downtown Morgan Hill will remain in jail at least until their next hearing, despite their attorneys pleas to reduce their bail from $175,000.

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Alexandria Campos, 23, of Morgan Hill, and Tori Sanchez, 22, of Freedom, appeared at South County Courthouse July 20 for a plea hearing. Neither suspect entered a plea, but Judge Kenneth Shapero scheduled formal bail hearings for both women for Aug. 13 at the Morgan Hill

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courthouse. Both suspects are also set for a plea hearing Aug. 17.

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Campos and Sanchez are each charged with three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The charges stem from an early morning incident in which they allegedly stabbed three men in the area of Monterey Road and Third Street July 7. The altercation followed a late night of drinking alcohol at area bars.

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Campos attorney, Jennifer Redding of the Santa Clara County Public Defenders Office, argued adamantly for the womans bail to be reduced to an affordable amount, or to allow her release on supervised own recognizance. Redding presented several letters written by community members, attesting to Campos character and supporting the request to release her until trial. A Community Solutions advocate and church leader are among the writers of these letters, which show overwhelming support for Campos, as well as her extremely strong ties to the community, Redding said.

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These allegations are completely outside her character, Redding told the judge.

<

Furthermore, the current bail of $175,000 is not affordable for Campos, Redding said. She recently qualified for Section 8 housing and was living with her sister, who depends on Campos, before the July 7 arrest.

<

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Patricia Henley argued against reducing Campos bail. She said the evidence related to the July 7 incident shows Campos and Sanchez pursued the victims into the street and stabbed them, producing great bodily harm. The three male victims were backing away from the suspects as they allegedly attacked them.

<

No evidence supports the claim of self defense, Henley said.

<

Campos and Sanchez told police in a statement after their arrest that they stabbed the men in self defense after being harassed by them earlier in the evening.

<

Shapero left both Campos and Sanchez bail unchanged at $175,000.

<

When Redding asked for a formal bail hearing for Campos, Shapero became frustrated because he thought the suspect has received the required reviews for consideration of bail. Redding argued the July 20 request was in accordance with a law that allows automatic review of a suspects bail within five days after bail was originally set.

<

Campos bail on the July 7 charges was first set by the judge on July 11. Shapero agreed to schedule a formal bail hearing for Aug. 13.

<

Sanchez attorney, Al Lopez of the countys Alternate Defenders Office, did not argue for reduced bail at the July 20 hearing. He requested a formal bail hearing for Aug. 13, which the judge granted.

<

Morgan Hill Police arrested Campos and Sanchez in the area of Monterey Road and Dunne Avenue while they were walking away from the early morning July 7 incident, and perhaps hiding, according to police reports. They were both covered in blood when officers contacted them, and a bloody knife was found in Sanchez pocket.

<

The incident was reported about 2:15am. One of the victims suffered a stab wound to the groin area, another was stabbed in the stomach, and one suffered deep cuts to his lower back and forearm, according to police. The victims had begun to walk away from the area where the altercation begannear Monterey Road and Third Streetbefore officers arrived.

<

The victims told officers the attack was unprovoked, and witnesses said it appeared Campos and Sanchez were pursuing them during the altercation. Police determined the two women were the aggressors.LO, AE Jobs, Non-QM and e-Recording Products; Fannie/Freddie Conforming News

Rob, are you hearing that residential lenders are nervous about releasing their 2nd quarter results to warehouse banks, correspondent investors, and other counter-parties since they arent as good as hoped? Or even delaying them? Yes, I am hearing rumblings of that, but hopefully plenty are anxious to release them to show how well they did. No one is immune to cutbacks and changes in business models, the latest example being Pacific Unions shift in El Paso. (Applications were down again last week.) As an industry were coming up on the 10-year anniversary of a heckuva lot, and with it various write ups. For example, RPM Mortgages Lepre produced, Lessons from Lehman Brothers 10 Years Later: Watch for these signs to guard against a repeat of the financial crisis.

Freddie and Fannie

From Fannie Mae comes news that Tim Mayopoulos will step down as CEO by year end. Dave Benson was appointed President of Fannie Mae and Celeste Brown was promoted to EVP and CFO. Congrats to both! In this role, Benson will report to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and manage the day-to-day business and operations of the company, including the ongoing execution of the companys strategy. Mayopoulos will remain CEO until his departure at the end of the year, and he will work closely with the Board of Directors to ensure a smooth transition and succession. The Board of Directors announced that it will conduct a search for a successor to Mayopoulos.

In an internal memo Tim wrote, Our team has achieved more in my years here than I or anyone else would have thought possible. We returned to profitability and paid taxpayers nearly $50 billion more in dividends than we received in support. We have improved our business model, making the companys revenues more reliable and predictable, and reducing risk to taxpayers. We worked hard to keep families in their homes during the crisis, and we have helped millions of Americans buy, rent and refinance homes in the years of recovery. I have pride in all that we have achieved together, and confidence that Fannie Mae will keep delivering innovative solutions that make housing finance stronger.

Fannie Mae has added a "Vacancy Posting" line item to LoanSphere Invoicing under "Category 19: Property Services" and "Subcategory 8089: Vacancy Posting." And, coming soon, it will add a new "Referral Date" field to further simplify expense reimbursement. Beginning Sept. 1, servicers must populate the new field in the "Title Cost - Foreclosure" expense line item with the foreclosure referral date, which is required for reimbursement of foreclosure title cost expenses. Visit the Servicer Expense Reimbursement page for more information and view the full list of LoanSphere Invoicing servicer expense categories and subcategories for conventional loans.

Consumers who buy a condo, or refinance an existing condo mortgage, may now be eligible for the Freddie Mac automated appraisal waiver. In some instances, borrowers could save approximately $500 on appraisal fees, and potentially close 7-10 days faster. To find out if a condominium property is eligible for an ACE waiver, lenders must submit loan data through Loan Product Advisor, Freddie Macs automated underwriting system. ACE for condominium purchases and refinances will be available beginning July 16, 2018.

The PennyMac Correspondent Group has posted a new announcement on updates to Freddie Mac Condos and Multiple Financed Properties. Also posted is PennyMac announcement regarding various topics including HomeOne, FHA Gift Donor Statements, and Underwriting Help.

AmeriHome Mortgage overlays for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase transactions where the property transferred within 91-180 days prior to the subject transaction resale date are removed. Additionally, the Conventional Agency Overlay Matrix and impacted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac program guides have been updated to clarify existing requirements that apply to resale transactions within 90 days of prior sale date (as measured from closing date of the previous transaction to purchase contract date for the new transaction). Generally, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase transactions with resale within 90 days are not eligible.

FAMC will no longer require the transfer or assignment of the UCD file on loans submitted successfully to both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The UCD submission certificate from both agencies must be delivered in the closed loan file. The transfer or assignment of the UCD file will continue to be required prior to purchase on those loans where the UCD file is submitted to only one agency.

Freddie Macs HomeOne Mortgage Loans are not currently eligible for purchase by Wells Fargo Funding. It is currently assessing the new low-down-payment option change and building necessary system enhancements to support HomeOne Mortgage Loans. Watch for future Wells Fargo Funding communications announcing system support and updates to the requirements.

PennyMac Correspondent Group has posted a new announcement regarding Freddie Mac updates.

Mountain West Financial Wholesale has implemented new flexibilities for the Fannie Mae HomeStyle Energy program. The program now allows borrowers to use this product to make resiliency upgrades that will improve the home's ability to withstand environmental hazards, in addition to making their home more energy efficient. The max LTV has been increased to 97%.

Property assessed clean energy (PACE) loans are now eligible to be paid off with no dollar restrictions (previously restricted to 15% of the appraised value). Radon remediation is now eligible. And, an energy report is no longer needed for certain energy-related improvements or refinances of existing consumer debt incurred to purchase and/or install energy-related improvements.



Capital Markets

Rates go up, rates go down. After jumping up 7bps on Monday, the 10-year dropped back down 2bps to close at 2.95% as markets digested strong earnings reports from technology and health-care companies, while China State Council pledged to make fiscal policy more proactive. This will include a larger allowance for companies to deduct R&D expenses from tax, speeding up of disbursement of tax rebates, and accelerated issuance and disbursement of local government bonds to support infrastructure development. Worries over international trade disputes were dwarfed by Google parent Alphabet, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron all beating analysts expectations. As far as economic releases went, the FHFA Housing Price Index increased 0.2% in May, failing to meet 0.4% expectations after a revised 0.2% increase in April. Prices are still rising at an unsustainable pace in the West and Mountain regions, while the Middle Atlantic, including NY and NJ, is bringing up the rear.

Mortgage applications from the MBA for the week ending June 20 kicked off today's calendar: -1%. Next up, we have June new home sales at 10AM ET, where expectations are for 675k annualized versus 689k previously. The Treasury conducts two auctions with $18 billion of new 2-year FRNs followed by $36 billion of 5-year notes. European Commission President Juncker is scheduled to meet with President Trump at the White House where they will discuss, among other things, trade issues amongst the two counterparts. We start Wednesday with the 10-year yielding 2.94% and agency MBS prices basically unchanged versus Tuesdays close.





Lender Products and Services

The old saying that, Its cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to replace one, couldnt be more meaningful in todays real estate lending industry. Statistics show that it costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain an existing customer. HomeScout offers lenders cost saving solutions when it comes to customer retention by engaging buyers with real estate search where they are advertised; and its buyer reporting interface helps nurture them throughout the entire home buying process. With dwindling purchase numbers and shrinking margins, operating cost containment is critical to originators big and small. HomeScout can offset the costs associated with lost leads and preapproved buyers. To help mitigate these financial challenges, HomeScout-HBM is offering Chrisman subscribers $1,200 of incremental services free. Find out more by contacting them HERE and scheduling a demo or give them a call at 952-831-0623.

E-recording is one of the most overlooked digital mortgage processes  and one of the easiest to implement. Now that the GSEs will accept e-recorded security instruments, theres really nothing stopping lenders from adopting this process today. The latest white paper from Simplifile, What Lenders Dont Know About E-recording, outlines why lenders need to make e-recording the next step in their path to a completely electronic mortgage transaction. For example, did you know that 83 percent of the U.S. population is covered by e-recording? Learn more about the benefits of e-recording by downloading this FREE white paper here.

Floify, the leading end-to-end mortgage point-of-sale solution, is rolling out an impressive set of integrations to boost efficiencies for enterprise lenders next week. Following a recent partnership with Fannie Mae, Floifys newest integration with Desktop Underwriter (DU) will instantly help LOs slash loan processing times by enabling automatic pre-qualification, delivering branded letters to prospects upon the submission of a loan application, and seamlessly updating DU findings throughout the lifetime of the loan  all thats needed is an active LOS and credit reporting integration to automate this tedious process. Additionally, Floifys integration with Day1 Certainty provider AccountChek by FormFree can now be leveraged within their interview-style 1003, effectively eliminating the need for LOs to collect paper statements from borrowers. To see the power and efficiency of Floifys newest integrations and how they can boost productivity for your enterprise operation, request a live demo.

Non-QM volume continues to grow at a robust pace. Now that we are past the halfway point of 2018, the velocity of growth, interest in the product and capital investment are at all-time highs. Deephaven Mortgage, founded in 2012, was one of the first entrants into the market. It continues to lead the way by providing capital, liquidity, technology, and process to this growing segment. Deephaven is solely focused on the Non-QM marketplace. It invests in new products, new processes, and most recently, new technology to help the originator. Deephaven is proud to announce the Identifi Scenario Calculator which is available to both Wholesale and Correspondent partners. The Identifi Scenario Calculator makes the pre-screening exercise simple, easy and fast. Give it a try today by visiting Deephaven and click on the applicable channel. Find out more about how Non-QM can help you grow your business by contacting us at brokerinfo@deephavenmortgage.com (Wholesale) or sales@deephavenmortgage.com (Correspondent). Providing solutions to clients nationwide that dont fit the government box.

Most lenders I meet are always looking for ways to grow their business. The great ones, though, stand out because they refuse to accept the status quo. They hunger for new tactics and thrive on experimenting with new methods to drive leads, all while searching for new ways to enhance the borrower experience. As consumer expectations continue to shift, it is incumbent on every lending team to meet prospects where they are to scale your business in a predictable way. A recent eBook from Maxwell, Six Ways to Master Mortgage Leads, provides ample strategic insight to help you increase inbound lead volume and grow your business. From website optimization and digital campaigns to creating an ideal borrower profile, the eBook provides tips and links to free resources to help lenders outpace their competition every step of the way. Download it free here.



Employment

A new Augusta, Georgia branch hit a hole-in-one when they joined perennial powerhouse and top 10 national lender, PrimeLending. And the timing is perfect, as more and more homebuyers look to call The Masters hometown (and a Newsweek Top 100 Best Place to Live) their own home. Branch Manager Bob Lacey and the entire Augusta team are already climbing the leaderboard by offering 400-plus loan programs, faster processing and better service than the competition. For instance, the companys no lender fee VA loan program  Your Home Our Mission  is a real draw for areas veterans and active Fort Gordon military members. Are you tired of feeling trapped at a company who makes your life rough? Join PrimeLending to score the best situation for your career. Contact Sherri White (469.737.5743) to tee up your transition.

Carrington Mortgage Services Wholesale is seeing great success with its new Non-QM programs. As a result, Carrington is expanding and hiring in the following markets: For Wholesale Account Executives - Houston Tx, Austin, TX; San Antonio TX, Philadelphia, PA; and Minneapolis, MN. If interested, please email John Cervantes.

How many more residential loans could you and your branch team close with better back office support? You work too hard to experience the same chokepoints over and over again. Assurance Financial offers you a committed team of experts who have spent the last 17 years with only one objective: Help you close loans on time, every time. If you even THINK you may be losing origination opportunities to build your business in your current situation due to poor support, contact Paul Peters, CMB (225.239.7948). Assurance Financial is a growing full-service independent mortgage banker seeking dynamic producing branch managers and MLO teams throughout the South, Southeast, Southwest, East, and Midwest, U.S. Watch this 2-minute video now.

Executive moves from Home Point? Yup. Paul Wyner has been named Senior Managing Director responsible for the national Third-Party Originations team having previously served as Managing Director for the Third-Party Originations East team. Hell report directly to Chief Production Office Lisa Patterson.

Official talks between delegations of Angola and China in the field of military justice.

Source: Agency Angola Press

Luanda - Delegations from the Angolan Military Courts and of the People's Liberation Army of China began Monday in Luanda exchanges of experiences in the field of the judicial organs, within the framework of existing bilateral cooperation.

The Chinese delegation is led by the chairman of the Chinese People's Liberation Army's Military Court, Liu Ligen, accompanied by magistrates of the Chinese Supreme Court started Monday an official visit to Angola.

The Angolan delegation is headed by the presiding judge of the Supreme Military Court, general Antonio dos Santos Neto "Patonio". Judge Patonio informed that his institution is committed to the creation of Laws concerning the military Careers including junior officers and in the elaboration of others that aim at the organic protection of the Supreme Military Court and the Statute of Magistrates, with a view to their safeguard and future existence.

The meeting also served to present the Chinese delegation, the historical evolution of the Angolan military body, since the creation of the 1st Angolan Military Supreme Court in 1975, formerly designated by the Commission of Justice that had the mission to instruct, indict and prosecute crimes.

For three days, the Chinese delegation will meet with the President of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Military Prosecutor, the Chief of Staff of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and the Army Commander.

The delegation will also visit the Antonio Agostinho Neto Memorial, the Quissama National Park, the Museum of the Angolan Armed Forces, among others.



Official conversations between delegations from Angola (right) and from China (left) in the field of military justice.MERIDEN  A mother and daughter were injured and a man and woman have been charged following an armed robbery on West Main Street Tuesday night.

Angel Rodriguez, 48, and and Keishla Garcia-Hernandez, 27, both of 148 Hobart St., Meriden were taken into custody by police Tuesday night.

Rodriguez was charged Wednesday with first-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny, carrying a dangerous weapon, brandishing a facsimile firearm, weapon in a motor vehicle, breach of peace, first-degree threatening, interfering with police, conspiracy, two counts of first-degree assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Garcia-Hernandez was charged Wednesday with first-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny, two counts of first-degree assault, conspiracy, possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Police responded to 251 W. Main St., Tachuelas Grocery Store, around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday for a report of a possible stabbing, according to police spokesman Sgt. Darrin McKay. Officers found two women, a mother and daughter ages 60 and 29 years old, outside the store with injuries from an armed robbery.

The daughter had a stab wound to her arm that was serious but non-life threatening, McKay said. The mother had a serious injury to her face.

Police learned two suspects, later identified as Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez, fled before police arrived, McKay said. The description of their vehicle was unique due to the hood of the car being a different color than the body.

A Meriden detective recognized the description of the cars colors, make and model as one he had seen in Hartford on an unrelated matter earlier in the day, McKay said. Police went to the location in Hartford where the detective saw the car and found Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez, McKay said. Hartford police assisted Meriden officers, and they were taken into custody without incident.

Police found a knife that was used in the incident and seized it. Police also noted a handgun was displayed during the incident, and officers found a BB gun inside a vehicle.

Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez are being held on $1 million bonds and are scheduled to be arraigned in Meriden Superior Court Wednesday.MERIDEN  Two city residents charged in an armed robbery and stabbing Tuesday night were apprehended in Hartford after a Meriden police detective noticed an SUV matching the description of the suspects vehicle.

Angel Rodriguez, 48, and Keishla Garcia-Hernandez, 27, both of 148 Hobart St., were taken into custody by police Tuesday night.

Rodriguez was charged with first-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny, carrying a dangerous weapon, brandishing a facsimile firearm, weapon in a motor vehicle, breach of peace, first-degree threatening, interfering with police, conspiracy, two counts of first-degree assault and three counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Garcia-Hernandez was charged with first-degree robbery, sixth-degree larceny, two counts of first-degree assault, conspiracy, possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Police responded to Tachuelas Grocery Store, 251 W. Main St. around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday and found a mother and daughter, ages 60 and 29, outside the store with stab wounds, said police spokesman Sgt. Darrin McKay.

The daughter had a wound to her arm that was serious, but not life threatening, and the mother had a serious injury to her face.

Security video showed a man and woman, later identified as Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez, enter the store and approach the mother and daughter brandishing a knife and firearm.

Rodriguez walked behind the counter while pointing the gun at one of the women. When he attempted to take the cash register one of the women fought back and Garcia-Hernandez attempted to stab her, according to a police report.

Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez fled before police arrived. Police obtained descriptions of the suspects and an SUV, a gold Jeep with a black hood, the report said. A Meriden detective, in Hartford on an unrelated matter, recognized the descriptions of the suspects and recalled the SUV parked on Broad Street in Hartford.

Police went to Broad Street and found Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez, who were wearing the same clothing as seen in security video, the report said. They were taken into custody with assistance from Hartford police, McKay said. Authorities seized a knife, BB gun and $247.

Tachuelas Grocery Store was closed Wednesday.

Rodriguez and Garcia-Hernandez were arraigned in Meriden Superior Court on Wednesday. Bond was set at $1 million each and the cases were transferred to New Haven Superior Court, where they are both scheduled to appear on Aug. 7.HARTFORD (AP)  A state panel has agreed to borrow up to $10 million to study the possibility of reinstating tolls on Connecticuts highways, despite strong opposition from Republican politicians who argue its a waste of taxpayer money considering there will be a new administration and General Assembly in January.

Wednesdays vote by the State Bond Commission marked a small victory for the outgoing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who called for the study in a recent executive order. The Democrat, who chairs the commission, has argued it makes sense to begin the process of studying electronic tolls now and determining how much money they could generate because the states main transportation account will not have enough money to cover the cost of many transportation infrastructure projects in five years.

Our Special Transportation Fund needs a new, reliable revenue source, said Malloy, noting how recent fixes to the fund addressed only immediate, short-term concerns. In order to ensure our bridges dont collapse or close due to unsafe conditions, and to ensure that our highways remain open and operational, we need to explore additional revenue options.

Malloy, who is not seeking a third term in office, acknowledged it will likely take nine months to find a vendor to conduct the study. That would give his successor or a future legislature time to scrap it. The General Assembly last session failed to vote on a tolling study bill. Tolls have become a hot-button issue in the 2018 governors race, with both Republican and Democratic candidates calling the study wasteful spending.

Republican Rep. Chris Davis of Ellington, a commission member, tried unsuccessfully to prevent Wednesdays vote. He argued the legislature made it clear that it doesnt support tolls by not acting on the study. He said his constituents dont see a need to spend more money for another analysis, pointing out how millions of dollars have already been spent on previous tolling studies.

Ten million dollars, overall, is a lot of money, at least where I come from, he said.

Malloy suggested the study might not ultimately cost $10 million. He said his administration wanted to reserve enough money to attract the best people who can craft a study that would comply with federal standards, in case the state ultimately decides to seek federal permission to reinstate some form of tolling. In the 1980s, the legislature ordered various toll stations removed from Connecticut highways. The last toll was ultimately paid in 1989.

Connecticuts study comes after neighboring Rhode Island began tolling just trucks in June. The state is currently operating two electronic truck tolls out of a planned 14-gantry system. The first two are located on Interstate 95 in Exeter and in Hopkinton, which are both close to the Connecticut border. Rhode Island billed truckers about $625,000 in the first month of tolling. A national trucking industry group is fighting Rhode Island over the new tolls in court, arguing large commercial tractor trailers are being unfairly targeted, therefore violating the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Malloy said Wednesday that the Rhode Island lawsuit is another reason why Connecticut needs a comprehensive study.

I think that we need to study the implications of a tolling system and that the legislature and future governors will make appropriate decisions about what type of tolls, what will be charged for tolls, what will not be charged for tolls and the like, said Malloy, who has not been a strong proponent of tolls over his seven-and-a-half years in office, despite the criticism he is receiving now.

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano argued that Malloy has become so blinded by his sudden, end-of-term vision to pickpocket the people of Connecticut through tolls that he cant see the value in other ideas to financially shore up the states transportation fund. Republican lawmakers have proposed a plan they say reprioritizes state transportation spending. Malloys transportation commissioner, however, said it falls short of whats needed.

___

Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.Berlin Reporter Milan woman sues state claiming son was unjustly incarcerated

by Jody Houle

Nancy Heath (left) and her son Anthony are suing the state for holding him at the secured psychiatric unit at the state prison in Concord instead of the New State Hospital. (Courtesy Photo) (click for larger version) MILAN  Nancy Heath, of Milan, is suing Gov. Chris Sununu, the state Corrections Commissioner and the Health and Human Services Commissioner claiming that the civil rights of her adult son, Anthony Heath, 32, are being violated. She claims he should be in the New Hampshire State Hospital instead of in the secured psychiatric unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord where he is currently being held.



Anthony has been held for two years in the secured psychiatric unit at the prison. His mother claims that he was tasered and placed in restraints after he refused blood to be drawn.



In the suit, the Heaths allege that "Staff at the (Secure Psychiatric Unit) treat individuals civilly committed as de facto prisoners, in violation of their 14th Amendment rights. Upon admission, the civilly committed are required to submit to a strip search, which includes a visual inspection of their oral and anal cavities. Their personal property is taken from them. They are issued prison uniforms. Once confined, they are commingled with convicted felons and pretrial detainees. They are subject to pat searches conducted by guards and cell 'shakedowns.' Staff at the (Secure Psychiatric Unit) treat individuals civilly committed as de facto prisoners, in violation of their 14th Amendment rights."



Furthermore, Anthony Heath claims his rights were violated when employees of the Department of Corrections screened his mail and monitored his phone calls without cause or consent, and subjected him to a strip search in the presence of female guards.



Also, Nancy Heath noted that her son was held in a cell for 23 hours a day during his first eight months at the unit. She said he has not been properly given mental health treatment, which is a violation of the Americans with Disability Act.



State officials have claimed that certain civilly committed patients are sometimes put in the prison unit if they are found too dangerous, found not competent to stand trial, found not guilty by reason of insanity or convicted as a mentally ill criminal.



Anthony was found not competent to stand trial. His mother claims that he has not shown any violence while being held at the prison unit, and should be transferred to the New Hampshire Hospital. Additionally, she says he is being held at the prison unit due to a lack of available beds at the hospital.



She says treatment at the hospital is very different than treatment at the prison unit. For instance, Anthony was assigned a job to show how well he interacts with others, but is being paid wages equal to prisoners' wages, and she says that is a violation of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution.



She also claims that people who are civilly committed to the prison unit have less freedom than the convicted inmates.



She claims her son is being criminalized for being mentally ill instead of getting proper metal illness treatment.



"It occurs only because New Hampshire has chosen not to establish an adequate number of treatment beds in New Hampshire Hospital or a separate forensic facility to meet the needs of civilly committed citizens," Nancy Heath wrote in the suit. "New Hampshire is the only state in the country that imprisons people for mental illness treatment."



About two years ago, Anthony was involuntarily committed and was found not competent to stand trial for charges of first-degree and second-degree assault for two different incidents that occurred in 2015. Those charges have since been dropped, but could be reinstated. MILAN  Nancy Heath, of Milan, is suing Gov. Chris Sununu, the state Corrections Commissioner and the Health and Human Services Commissioner claiming that the civil rights of her adult son, Anthony Heath, 32, are being violated. She claims he should be in the New Hampshire State Hospital instead of in the secured psychiatric unit at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord where he is currently being held.Anthony has been held for two years in the secured psychiatric unit at the prison. His mother claims that he was tasered and placed in restraints after he refused blood to be drawn.In the suit, the Heaths allege that "Staff at the (Secure Psychiatric Unit) treat individuals civilly committed as de facto prisoners, in violation of their 14th Amendment rights. Upon admission, the civilly committed are required to submit to a strip search, which includes a visual inspection of their oral and anal cavities. Their personal property is taken from them. They are issued prison uniforms. Once confined, they are commingled with convicted felons and pretrial detainees. They are subject to pat searches conducted by guards and cell 'shakedowns.' Staff at the (Secure Psychiatric Unit) treat individuals civilly committed as de facto prisoners, in violation of their 14th Amendment rights."Furthermore, Anthony Heath claims his rights were violated when employees of the Department of Corrections screened his mail and monitored his phone calls without cause or consent, and subjected him to a strip search in the presence of female guards.Also, Nancy Heath noted that her son was held in a cell for 23 hours a day during his first eight months at the unit. She said he has not been properly given mental health treatment, which is a violation of the Americans with Disability Act.State officials have claimed that certain civilly committed patients are sometimes put in the prison unit if they are found too dangerous, found not competent to stand trial, found not guilty by reason of insanity or convicted as a mentally ill criminal.Anthony was found not competent to stand trial. His mother claims that he has not shown any violence while being held at the prison unit, and should be transferred to the New Hampshire Hospital. Additionally, she says he is being held at the prison unit due to a lack of available beds at the hospital.She says treatment at the hospital is very different than treatment at the prison unit. For instance, Anthony was assigned a job to show how well he interacts with others, but is being paid wages equal to prisoners' wages, and she says that is a violation of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution.She also claims that people who are civilly committed to the prison unit have less freedom than the convicted inmates.She claims her son is being criminalized for being mentally ill instead of getting proper metal illness treatment."It occurs only because New Hampshire has chosen not to establish an adequate number of treatment beds in New Hampshire Hospital or a separate forensic facility to meet the needs of civilly committed citizens," Nancy Heath wrote in the suit. "New Hampshire is the only state in the country that imprisons people for mental illness treatment."About two years ago, Anthony was involuntarily committed and was found not competent to stand trial for charges of first-degree and second-degree assault for two different incidents that occurred in 2015. Those charges have since been dropped, but could be reinstated.

Berlin Reporter Dana found competent to stand trial for daughter's murder

by Jody Houle LANCASTER  Roger Dana, the man accused of murdering and sexually assaulting his two-and-a-half year old daughter, Madison Dana, was recently found competent to stand trial.



Dana, 44, of Berlin, is being charged with murdering his daughter in Berlin in 2016. Although the court ruled for his competency to stand trial, his attorneys are planning to use an insanity defense with a bifurcated trial that will entail two separate phases  one for guilt, and one for sanity. The court granted Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin a court order to have Dana psychologically evaluated by an expert.



Dana has requested to have his trial moved from Coos County to Grafton County. His attorneys argue that potential jurors have been subjected to extensive publicity that could alter their perspectives.



Dana's defense attorney, Jeremiah Newhall, stated that extensive media coverage on the case can show "presumptive prejudice."



He added that jury selection will mostly be provided out of Grafton County. Also, Dana is currently being held in the Grafton County House of Corrections.



Attorney Strelzin objects to transferring the trial to Grafton County stating that most of the media coverage was reported near the time of the incident in 2016.



Strelzin also noted that many jurors will be coming from Coos County. Furthermore, he said that family members will be coming from Berlin and Lancaster to attend the trial.



Strelzin added that Dana is being held in Grafton County because of behavioral issues in Coos County.



Jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 10, and the trial is expected to start soon after.



Dana was indicted on March 17 of last year on charges of first and second degree murder. Investigations led to the discovery that the child had also been sexually assaulted.



Dana pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail at the Grafton County Jail in North Haverhill.



The charges handed by the Coos County grand jury indicate that Dana caused the child's death "by physically assaulting Madison before, after and/or while engaging in the commission of, or while attempting to commit felonious sexual assault, in that Roger Dana subjected Madison to sexual assault."



A 911 call on Nov. 27 of 2016 alerted emergency responders that a two-and-a-half year old girl had been injured at her home at 109 York St. in Berlin. It was later ruled a homicide and Dana was arrested the later that week for allegedly causing her death.



Major Crime Unit officers stood guard at the residence overnight.



After Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Jennie Duval conducted an autopsy of the girl, her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt-impact injuries.



According to one source, a neighbor reported that the mother of Madison, Ashley Bourque, who had allegedly been at work during time of the incident, received a call and went to her York Street home and sat on the steps waiting for the ambulance. The neighbor claims Bourque told her that Madison had fallen off of a bunk bed and hit her head.



New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati stated that Madison sustained external as well as internal injuries from a strong force other than just a fall.



According to a combined statement from New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster, State Police Colonel Christopher Wagner and Berlin Police Chief Peter Morency, Dana was arrested last Friday afternoon and charged with second-degree murder for allegedly "recklessly causing her death under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of life, by physically assaulting Madison multiple times."



Dana was arraigned at Coos County Superior Court a few days after his arrest.



Dana has a long list of criminal activities dating back to 2002. His convictions include domestic violence, simple assault, violation of a protective order, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct among other convictions.



In September of 2015, Dana was found guilty of a domestic violence charge for assaulting Bourque.



A first degree murder charge carries a life sentence without parole. A second degree murder charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison. LANCASTER  Roger Dana, the man accused of murdering and sexually assaulting his two-and-a-half year old daughter, Madison Dana, was recently found competent to stand trial.Dana, 44, of Berlin, is being charged with murdering his daughter in Berlin in 2016. Although the court ruled for his competency to stand trial, his attorneys are planning to use an insanity defense with a bifurcated trial that will entail two separate phases  one for guilt, and one for sanity. The court granted Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Strelzin a court order to have Dana psychologically evaluated by an expert.Dana has requested to have his trial moved from Coos County to Grafton County. His attorneys argue that potential jurors have been subjected to extensive publicity that could alter their perspectives.Dana's defense attorney, Jeremiah Newhall, stated that extensive media coverage on the case can show "presumptive prejudice."He added that jury selection will mostly be provided out of Grafton County. Also, Dana is currently being held in the Grafton County House of Corrections.Attorney Strelzin objects to transferring the trial to Grafton County stating that most of the media coverage was reported near the time of the incident in 2016.Strelzin also noted that many jurors will be coming from Coos County. Furthermore, he said that family members will be coming from Berlin and Lancaster to attend the trial.Strelzin added that Dana is being held in Grafton County because of behavioral issues in Coos County.Jury selection is scheduled for Sept. 10, and the trial is expected to start soon after.Dana was indicted on March 17 of last year on charges of first and second degree murder. Investigations led to the discovery that the child had also been sexually assaulted.Dana pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail at the Grafton County Jail in North Haverhill.The charges handed by the Coos County grand jury indicate that Dana caused the child's death "by physically assaulting Madison before, after and/or while engaging in the commission of, or while attempting to commit felonious sexual assault, in that Roger Dana subjected Madison to sexual assault."A 911 call on Nov. 27 of 2016 alerted emergency responders that a two-and-a-half year old girl had been injured at her home at 109 York St. in Berlin. It was later ruled a homicide and Dana was arrested the later that week for allegedly causing her death.Major Crime Unit officers stood guard at the residence overnight.After Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Jennie Duval conducted an autopsy of the girl, her death was ruled a homicide caused by blunt-impact injuries.According to one source, a neighbor reported that the mother of Madison, Ashley Bourque, who had allegedly been at work during time of the incident, received a call and went to her York Street home and sat on the steps waiting for the ambulance. The neighbor claims Bourque told her that Madison had fallen off of a bunk bed and hit her head.New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati stated that Madison sustained external as well as internal injuries from a strong force other than just a fall.According to a combined statement from New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph A. Foster, State Police Colonel Christopher Wagner and Berlin Police Chief Peter Morency, Dana was arrested last Friday afternoon and charged with second-degree murder for allegedly "recklessly causing her death under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of life, by physically assaulting Madison multiple times."Dana was arraigned at Coos County Superior Court a few days after his arrest.Dana has a long list of criminal activities dating back to 2002. His convictions include domestic violence, simple assault, violation of a protective order, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, theft, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct among other convictions.In September of 2015, Dana was found guilty of a domestic violence charge for assaulting Bourque.A first degree murder charge carries a life sentence without parole. A second degree murder charge carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

Berlin Reporter Berlin boys shut out Lakers in Meredith COVID cases surge, officials urge community first approach Recent Jody Houle State funding cuts force closure of Brown School

2019-Jan-23 Grenier testifies in support of House Bill aimed at overturning education cuts

2019-Jan-23 Film made in Berlin now available for purchase

2019-Jan-17 School board continues to discuss reorganization of grades

2019-Jan-17 AVH hosting forum on addiction treatment services

2019-Jan-09 Police apprehend armed man following standoff

2019-Jan-09 More... Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.comCarroll County Independent Lands Advisory Committee considers placing county land under conservation easement

by Melissa Seamans

A view of a portion of the county-owned land the Forest Society would like to see placed under a conservation easement. (Photo by Melissa Seamans) (click for larger version) OSSIPEE  The Carroll County Lands Advisory Committee welcomed Tom Howe of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests July 20 to discuss putting 800 acres of county-owned land into a conservation easement.



First formed in Spring 2016, the committee has changed its membership and its course under the leadership of Chairman Steve Knox of Albany, but has maintained the goal of recommending the best use of the Ossipee acreage now and in the future. Knox said the committee held listening sessions throughout Carroll County and the idea of conservation easement on the Ossipee land came up several times in discussions.



Howe explained that a conservation easement is, "a written promise by the landowner that the land will never be developed further into the future. That written promise takes the legal form that is typically called a conservation easement deed document that gets recorded at the registry of deeds and becomes a permanent part of the title associated with that piece of real estate."



The easement holder, whether a trust or agency (such as SPNHF), then assumes all responsibility for monitoring the landowner's compliance with the easement restrictions.



The easement has a series of prohibitions, said Howe, designed to protect the significant conservation features and natural resources of the property including agricultural, working farm and forest land, scenic value, wildlife habitat, support of high quality water and outdoor recreational opportunities.



Once the easement takes effect, it is permanent, and not to be entered lightly, said Howe. In fact, there are only two ways a conservation easement can be removed. The first is "condemnation" of all or a portion of the property by a government agency. Howe said SPNHF holds about 800 conservation easements in New Hampshire, and the most common reason a government agency takes a portion of conservation property by this eminent domain process is for the construction or expansion of roadways. The only other way a conservation easement can be removed is if the landowner proves in court that the reason the easement was placed no longer exists. For example, if an endangered species found on the property is no longer listed as endangered. Howe said he has never seen a case, nationwide, where this reason has lifted an easement.



An easement does not mean, explained, Howe, that the property must remain in its current state, so long as improvements or activities support the easement intent. For example, if the County land was placed in easement for agricultural and the County later wanted to build a pole barn, sap house, dairy barn, or install solar arrays, these things could be permitted with input from the easement holder.



Getting the conservation is a multi-step process. First, the County would have to find an agency interested in holding the easement. Fundraising, including grant seeking, by the agency would be done to raise enough money to not only buy the easement from the County but plan for management and long-term stewardship costs. A survey of the proposed easement area would need to be done as well as an appraisal. Then through a negotiation process, the County would come to an agreement how much to sell the easement for. Howe said it takes about two years to get all of the work and the fundraising done.



Much of the July 20 conversation focused on vision. Much work will need to be done to envision what the County government needs will be in the future and what amount of land will be devoted to easement forever.



The entire county property is in Ossipee. Only one of the decision makers lives in Ossipee, County Commissioner David Babson. The committee includes Knox, Dale Drew of Conway, Wakefield residents Susan Gaudette and County Commissioner Amanda Bevard, State Rep. Mark McConkey of Freedom and Sandra Brocaar of Madison. The third county commissioner, Mark Hounsell, lives in Conway. None of the 15 members of the county delegation live in Ossipee.



Most of the county land is tax exempt though at least one portion is taxed at the current use reduced property tax rate. Of note, according to the annual property inventory form, Ossipee has 44,338 acres of land. Of that, 28,033 (about 63 percent of all Ossipee land) is either exempt from property tax or (23,933 acres) listed in current use. OSSIPEE  The Carroll County Lands Advisory Committee welcomed Tom Howe of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests July 20 to discuss putting 800 acres of county-owned land into a conservation easement.First formed in Spring 2016, the committee has changed its membership and its course under the leadership of Chairman Steve Knox of Albany, but has maintained the goal of recommending the best use of the Ossipee acreage now and in the future. Knox said the committee held listening sessions throughout Carroll County and the idea of conservation easement on the Ossipee land came up several times in discussions.Howe explained that a conservation easement is, "a written promise by the landowner that the land will never be developed further into the future. That written promise takes the legal form that is typically called a conservation easement deed document that gets recorded at the registry of deeds and becomes a permanent part of the title associated with that piece of real estate."The easement holder, whether a trust or agency (such as SPNHF), then assumes all responsibility for monitoring the landowner's compliance with the easement restrictions.The easement has a series of prohibitions, said Howe, designed to protect the significant conservation features and natural resources of the property including agricultural, working farm and forest land, scenic value, wildlife habitat, support of high quality water and outdoor recreational opportunities.Once the easement takes effect, it is permanent, and not to be entered lightly, said Howe. In fact, there are only two ways a conservation easement can be removed. The first is "condemnation" of all or a portion of the property by a government agency. Howe said SPNHF holds about 800 conservation easements in New Hampshire, and the most common reason a government agency takes a portion of conservation property by this eminent domain process is for the construction or expansion of roadways. The only other way a conservation easement can be removed is if the landowner proves in court that the reason the easement was placed no longer exists. For example, if an endangered species found on the property is no longer listed as endangered. Howe said he has never seen a case, nationwide, where this reason has lifted an easement.An easement does not mean, explained, Howe, that the property must remain in its current state, so long as improvements or activities support the easement intent. For example, if the County land was placed in easement for agricultural and the County later wanted to build a pole barn, sap house, dairy barn, or install solar arrays, these things could be permitted with input from the easement holder.Getting the conservation is a multi-step process. First, the County would have to find an agency interested in holding the easement. Fundraising, including grant seeking, by the agency would be done to raise enough money to not only buy the easement from the County but plan for management and long-term stewardship costs. A survey of the proposed easement area would need to be done as well as an appraisal. Then through a negotiation process, the County would come to an agreement how much to sell the easement for. Howe said it takes about two years to get all of the work and the fundraising done.Much of the July 20 conversation focused on vision. Much work will need to be done to envision what the County government needs will be in the future and what amount of land will be devoted to easement forever.The entire county property is in Ossipee. Only one of the decision makers lives in Ossipee, County Commissioner David Babson. The committee includes Knox, Dale Drew of Conway, Wakefield residents Susan Gaudette and County Commissioner Amanda Bevard, State Rep. Mark McConkey of Freedom and Sandra Brocaar of Madison. The third county commissioner, Mark Hounsell, lives in Conway. None of the 15 members of the county delegation live in Ossipee.Most of the county land is tax exempt though at least one portion is taxed at the current use reduced property tax rate. Of note, according to the annual property inventory form, Ossipee has 44,338 acres of land. Of that, 28,033 (about 63 percent of all Ossipee land) is either exempt from property tax or (23,933 acres) listed in current use.

Carroll County Independent Knight girls battle to hard-fought win over Kennett School officials detail ESSER grant expenditures Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.comThe satellite images show the dismantling of a rail-mounted processing building, where space launch vehicles are assembled before being moved to the launch pad, and the nearby rocket engine test stand, where liquid-fuel engines are developed for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles, 38 North said.

"We appreciated that," Trump said of the images first reported by the U.S.-based North Korea monitoring group 38 North.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised recent satellite images showing North Korea beginning the dismantling of key facilities at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on the country's northwest coast.

38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step towards fulfilling a commitment" North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made during his summit with Trump in Singapore.

"We had a fantastic meeting with Chairman Kim and it seems to be going very well," Trump said Tuesday. A day after the summit last month, Trump said in a tweet.

But their agreement contained no details about when or how North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons program or shut down its existing nuclear facilities. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in Pyongyang recently with North Korean officials to try to advance discussions, but there appeared to be little progress. Some diplomats say the North Koreans have canceled meetings and failed to maintain basic communications with the U.S.

Trump has publicly professed satisfaction at the pace of negotiations with North Korea, saying last week there was "no rush" in completing talks because U.S. and UN economic sanctions against Pyongyang remained in place.

On Monday, the U.S. State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments said, "The international community cannot let up on pressure" until North Korea ends its nuclear weapons program.

Trump said last week that U.S. relations with North Korea "are very good and the process is moving along." He tweeted that with eventual denuclearization, there would be "big benefits and exciting future for North Korea at end of process!"

But several news outlets have reported in recent days that behind the scenes at the White House, Trump has voiced his displeasure to aides at the pace of talks in pushing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Coos County Democrat Woodburn pushes to legalize marijuana

by Jody Houle REGION  District 1 Sen. Jeff Woodburn has kicked off a campaign to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in New Hampshire.



"The governor and other politicians need to hear from the people that the time has come," Woodburn said. "My focus is on strict regulation to keep marijuana away from minors and organized crime; closely regulated private cultivation, distribution and retail system with a local option to participate; taxation that is competitive with neighboring states; and a tax revenue plan that benefits children and families impacted by substance misuse and education."



New Hampshire is the only state in New England that hasn't legalized recreational use of marijuana, and Woodburn feels it might be too late to turn that around if New Hampshire misses the boat in this election year. He has started a petition hoping to get 5000 signatures set to be given to Governor Chris Sununu on Aug. 1.



Massachusetts, Maine, and most recently, Vermont have legalized possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana. Canada will also be legalizing recreation marijuana.



Former Governor Maggie Hassan legalized medical marijuana in 2013. Dispensaries were constructed and the law went into effect in 2015. She was against decriminalization, however. Medical marijuana was restricted to certain chronic conditions, but certain other ailments, including post traumatic stress disorder, was added as a qualifying condition.



Gov. Chris Sununu was in favor of decriminalization, and current New Hampshire law finds anyone with possession of three quarters of an ounce charged as a violation opposed to a misdemeanor and is fined $100 for first and second offense. No jail time is imposed under this law.



Sununu has stated over and over that he is against legalization and points to the major opiate crisis.



Woodburn argues that taxation from legal marijuana could help fund to combat the crisis.



In the past, Berlin Police Chief Peter Morency stated that small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized but opposed full legalization. REGION  District 1 Sen. Jeff Woodburn has kicked off a campaign to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in New Hampshire."The governor and other politicians need to hear from the people that the time has come," Woodburn said. "My focus is on strict regulation to keep marijuana away from minors and organized crime; closely regulated private cultivation, distribution and retail system with a local option to participate; taxation that is competitive with neighboring states; and a tax revenue plan that benefits children and families impacted by substance misuse and education."New Hampshire is the only state in New England that hasn't legalized recreational use of marijuana, and Woodburn feels it might be too late to turn that around if New Hampshire misses the boat in this election year. He has started a petition hoping to get 5000 signatures set to be given to Governor Chris Sununu on Aug. 1.Massachusetts, Maine, and most recently, Vermont have legalized possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana. Canada will also be legalizing recreation marijuana.Former Governor Maggie Hassan legalized medical marijuana in 2013. Dispensaries were constructed and the law went into effect in 2015. She was against decriminalization, however. Medical marijuana was restricted to certain chronic conditions, but certain other ailments, including post traumatic stress disorder, was added as a qualifying condition.Gov. Chris Sununu was in favor of decriminalization, and current New Hampshire law finds anyone with possession of three quarters of an ounce charged as a violation opposed to a misdemeanor and is fined $100 for first and second offense. No jail time is imposed under this law.Sununu has stated over and over that he is against legalization and points to the major opiate crisis.Woodburn argues that taxation from legal marijuana could help fund to combat the crisis.In the past, Berlin Police Chief Peter Morency stated that small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized but opposed full legalization.

Granite State News Restored East Wakefield School hosts all-class reunion

by Thomas Beeler

Wakefield Heritage Commission members and volunteers pose with East Wakefield School alumni at Reunion Day at the school on Wednesday afternoon, July 18. (Photo by Thomas Beeler) (click for larger version) WAKEFIELD  Last Wednesday, July 18, the Wakefield Heritage Commission officially opened the restored East Wakefield Schoolhouse and invited all graduates to an all-class reunion.



The one-room East Wakefield School was built in 1906 and for a time was one of 10 schools in Wakefield. It served the East Wakefield community for 35 years before being closed in 1941 at the beginning of World War II. The growth of the Wakefield after the war led to its reopening in 1953, and it stayed open until 1969. All students now go to the Paul School in Sanbornville village.



The town continued to own the school and property. Most recently it leased the building to a church. The congregation shrank and the town repossessed the property in 2016. Selectmen considered putting the property up for auction last year, but the Heritage Commission persuaded the board to allow it to restore it and reopen it as a school museum, as long as its repair and maintenance would not cost taxpayers anything.



As it turned out, there were few issues with the building. According to Rick Poore, who is an expert on old buildings and organized the work, "The building was in good shape."



Last year, the exterior was painted and the grounds cleared. This year the interior was painted, some plumbing replaced and setup of exhibits has begun. The Heritage Commission is still looking for a teachers desk, a school globe, more student desks and any other school-related items that residents may have. The commission would also like to record memories of students. According to a handout provided to visitors, "Future plans include expanded exhibits, more photographs of the school, classes and students, additional roll up maps, air conditioning, a new flag pole, window shades, buff the floor, replace the sink and" last but not least "establish a Friends of the East Wakefield School group."



Last Wednesday's event marked the reopening of the restored building and an opportunity for those residents who went to school there the gather and share memories. The oldest alumna present, from the first period the school was open, was Dorothy Wentworth. Lists of students and the years they attended were made available, as well as two notebooks with photos in them. Alumni were asked to correct any errors in the list, identify the photos and the people in them, and offer comments on the school, the teachers and what a school day was like.



If you would like to donate items, help financially, become a docent or a "friend," please contact the Heritage Commission at 2 High St. in Sanbornville, call either Adele Schweizer at 522-3012 (or email her at 1969aandd@gmail.com) or Pam Wiggin at 387-3698 (email pwiggin@kw.com).



The school will be open to the public beginning Aug. 1. Hours will be Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m to noon for August and September. WAKEFIELD  Last Wednesday, July 18, the Wakefield Heritage Commission officially opened the restored East Wakefield Schoolhouse and invited all graduates to an all-class reunion.The one-room East Wakefield School was built in 1906 and for a time was one of 10 schools in Wakefield. It served the East Wakefield community for 35 years before being closed in 1941 at the beginning of World War II. The growth of the Wakefield after the war led to its reopening in 1953, and it stayed open until 1969. All students now go to the Paul School in Sanbornville village.The town continued to own the school and property. Most recently it leased the building to a church. The congregation shrank and the town repossessed the property in 2016. Selectmen considered putting the property up for auction last year, but the Heritage Commission persuaded the board to allow it to restore it and reopen it as a school museum, as long as its repair and maintenance would not cost taxpayers anything.As it turned out, there were few issues with the building. According to Rick Poore, who is an expert on old buildings and organized the work, "The building was in good shape."Last year, the exterior was painted and the grounds cleared. This year the interior was painted, some plumbing replaced and setup of exhibits has begun. The Heritage Commission is still looking for a teachers desk, a school globe, more student desks and any other school-related items that residents may have. The commission would also like to record memories of students. According to a handout provided to visitors, "Future plans include expanded exhibits, more photographs of the school, classes and students, additional roll up maps, air conditioning, a new flag pole, window shades, buff the floor, replace the sink and" last but not least "establish a Friends of the East Wakefield School group."Last Wednesday's event marked the reopening of the restored building and an opportunity for those residents who went to school there the gather and share memories. The oldest alumna present, from the first period the school was open, was Dorothy Wentworth. Lists of students and the years they attended were made available, as well as two notebooks with photos in them. Alumni were asked to correct any errors in the list, identify the photos and the people in them, and offer comments on the school, the teachers and what a school day was like.If you would like to donate items, help financially, become a docent or a "friend," please contact the Heritage Commission at 2 High St. in Sanbornville, call either Adele Schweizer at 522-3012 (or email her at 1969aandd@gmail.com) or Pam Wiggin at 387-3698 (email pwiggin@kw.com).The school will be open to the public beginning Aug. 1. Hours will be Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m to noon for August and September.

Littleton Courier Woodburn hits up Jerry Jam seeking support for legalization push

by Tara Giles

Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter Sports reporter - Coos County Democrat and Berlin Reporter write the author

Sen. Jeff Woodburn presented a state resolution celebrating Jerry Jam's 23rd anniversary to the festival's founder and organizer Daniel Webb of Bethlehem. Around 7,000 music lovers were on the farm in Bath over the weekend. (Courtesy Photo) (click for larger version) BATH  Over the weekend Senator Jeff Woodburn gathered more than 2,500 signatures for a petition that supports the legalization of marijuana in New Hampshire. Woodburn hit the mother ship of support while attending the 23rd Annual Jerry Jam music festival in Bath.



Pulling double duty, Woodburn presented Jerry Jam founder Dan Webb with a state resolution celebrating the festival's 23rd anniversary. Jerry Jam, now a well oiled machine, boasted more than 7,000 people in attendance this year.



Earlier this month, Woodburn kicked off an online campaign for the 'Live Free or Die' state to join Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine in the legalization of marijuana. Woodburn has plans to file legislation to legalize the plant and tax it in 2019.



Woodburn offered his rationale, saying "It's not too late to join our neighbors and many other states across the country. New Hampshire adults deserve access to the health and wellness benefits and consistent quality, variety and safety of legalized cannabis, and all of our citizens will benefit from associated job creation and other economic opportunities."



The North Country Senator is looking to build a strong, organized campaign to showcase the broad support for legalizing cannabis and has plans to develop a revenue stream that will keep the state on par with its neighbors. Woodburn has a goal of gathering 5,000 signatures to deliver to Gov. Chris Sununu by Aug. 1.



"The governor and other politicians need to hear from the people that the time has come," Woodburn said with enthusiasm. "My focus is on strict regulation to keep marijuana away from minors and organized crime; closely regulated private cultivation, distribution and retail system with a local option to participate; taxation that is competitive with neighboring states; and a tax revenue plan that benefits children and families impacted by substance misuse and education."



A concern Woodburn has is that if New Hampshire waits to pass legislation, the state will become irrevocably disadvantaged in the region. Along with the three New England states in which marijuana is already legal, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York are considering legislation to legalize. Canada will formally legalize cannabis in October 2018.



"We can't, and shouldn't, fight against the tide, especially when there is so much the state stands to gain through legalization. We're more pragmatic than that here and need to protect the New Hampshire advantage," said Woodburn.



Colorado, the first state to legalize cannabis, has an average of 16,000 new residents per month moving in, with the bulk of them in their mid twenties and thirties. Woodburn feels that a move to legalize cannabis in New Hampshire would attract millennials to the state.



Those in favor say that tax revenues could exceed $50 million annually and create hundreds of new jobs.



Woodburn said, "This could boost capital investment and disrupt the illicit drug trade that currently provides unregulated, unsafe and untaxed marijuana to New Hampshire residents." BATH  Over the weekend Senator Jeff Woodburn gathered more than 2,500 signatures for a petition that supports the legalization of marijuana in New Hampshire. Woodburn hit the mother ship of support while attending the 23rd Annual Jerry Jam music festival in Bath.Pulling double duty, Woodburn presented Jerry Jam founder Dan Webb with a state resolution celebrating the festival's 23rd anniversary. Jerry Jam, now a well oiled machine, boasted more than 7,000 people in attendance this year.Earlier this month, Woodburn kicked off an online campaign for the 'Live Free or Die' state to join Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine in the legalization of marijuana. Woodburn has plans to file legislation to legalize the plant and tax it in 2019.Woodburn offered his rationale, saying "It's not too late to join our neighbors and many other states across the country. New Hampshire adults deserve access to the health and wellness benefits and consistent quality, variety and safety of legalized cannabis, and all of our citizens will benefit from associated job creation and other economic opportunities."The North Country Senator is looking to build a strong, organized campaign to showcase the broad support for legalizing cannabis and has plans to develop a revenue stream that will keep the state on par with its neighbors. Woodburn has a goal of gathering 5,000 signatures to deliver to Gov. Chris Sununu by Aug. 1."The governor and other politicians need to hear from the people that the time has come," Woodburn said with enthusiasm. "My focus is on strict regulation to keep marijuana away from minors and organized crime; closely regulated private cultivation, distribution and retail system with a local option to participate; taxation that is competitive with neighboring states; and a tax revenue plan that benefits children and families impacted by substance misuse and education."A concern Woodburn has is that if New Hampshire waits to pass legislation, the state will become irrevocably disadvantaged in the region. Along with the three New England states in which marijuana is already legal, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York are considering legislation to legalize. Canada will formally legalize cannabis in October 2018."We can't, and shouldn't, fight against the tide, especially when there is so much the state stands to gain through legalization. We're more pragmatic than that here and need to protect the New Hampshire advantage," said Woodburn.Colorado, the first state to legalize cannabis, has an average of 16,000 new residents per month moving in, with the bulk of them in their mid twenties and thirties. Woodburn feels that a move to legalize cannabis in New Hampshire would attract millennials to the state.Those in favor say that tax revenues could exceed $50 million annually and create hundreds of new jobs.Woodburn said, "This could boost capital investment and disrupt the illicit drug trade that currently provides unregulated, unsafe and untaxed marijuana to New Hampshire residents."

Meredith News Floating fundraiser brings in more than $151,000 for Make A Wish

by Erin Plummer

The 19 teams in this year's Rafting for Wishes gather for one last photo at the end of 30 hours. (Photo by Erin Plummer) (click for larger version) MEREDITH  A day and a half on a raft added up to more than $151,000 raised for children across the state during the sixth annual Rafting for Wishes.



Last Friday, 19 teams from across the state came to Hesky Park, where representatives from each team stayed aboard a raft on Meredith Bay for 30 hours for Make-A-Wish New Hampshire, some staying for the full 30 hours.



When the event ended on Sunday, event co-chair Holly Blanchard announced that they had officially raised $151,003 for the event with much more expected to come in.



Throughout the 30 hours, numerous activities and events went on in Hesky Park such a live music, a movie and fireworks display on Friday, and yoga and Zumba in the park. among many others. Atlas Pyrotechnics donated the fireworks for Friday night's display.



Blanchard said there were more activities for kids this year, including a professional face painter.



There was also a lot of information on Make-A-Wish and opportunities to contribute.



Make-A-Wish New Hampshire grants wishes to children and teens who have life threatening illnesses.



Last year's goal was to raise $100,000 and they ended up raising around $140,000. This year's goal was to raise $150,000. Before the event started, they had raised around $83,000 and climbed to around $106,000 by the opening ceremonies.



"It's truly heartwarming and amazing that we're working really hard to get to a place to grant the wishes of all children," said Make-A-Wish NH CEO Julie Baron.



By Aug. 31, they will have granted around 82 wishes, granting a wish every four days. Baron said she would love it if they could grant a wish every two and a half days.



Baron said a medical study indicated that these wishes greatly improve the lives of children with life-threatening conditions. She said this propels her to continue this work.



Baron said they have gathered an amazing group of volunteers, including Wish Granters who work with kids and families.



Blanchard said they had an "awesome" committee and an "amazing logistics team."



"It's been really great to have the support of everybody that's been involved," Blanchard said.



Baron praised the work of Blanchard and Nikki Lyons, as well as the committee.



At the end of the event awards were presented to the top fundraisers.



The top individual fundraiser was event co-founder Jason Perry, raising more than $17,500, and his team Survivors was the top team.



The second top individual fundraiser was Steve Donovan and the third was Carolyn Gaudet.



The second biggest fundraising team was the Common Man and third was Landlubbers.



As of the end of the event, a total of $151,003 was officially raised. Blanchard said this didn't include a $15,000 match and a few other matches by different teams. Blanchard said the unofficial total could be closer to $180,000.



"Thank you all very much for everything you've did because it's amazing and it's all going to help significantly," Blanchard said.



Perry and Jason Tremblay were the event's founders, starting with just the two of them floating on a raft in the Piscataqua River for 44 hours. This year Perry stayed on the raft for the full 30 hours, saying it was much easier than the 44 hours they did before.



"It's a breeze with the great weather we had," Perry said.



He said it is "absolutely phenomenal" to see what was achieved.



"It's so hard to wrap the head around how much this has raised," Perry said.



He said he felt "fortunate" that him and his team raised that much. Perry said he knows so many people who know the importance of Make-A-Wish and know how important this fundraiser is. MEREDITH  A day and a half on a raft added up to more than $151,000 raised for children across the state during the sixth annual Rafting for Wishes.Last Friday, 19 teams from across the state came to Hesky Park, where representatives from each team stayed aboard a raft on Meredith Bay for 30 hours for Make-A-Wish New Hampshire, some staying for the full 30 hours.When the event ended on Sunday, event co-chair Holly Blanchard announced that they had officially raised $151,003 for the event with much more expected to come in.Throughout the 30 hours, numerous activities and events went on in Hesky Park such a live music, a movie and fireworks display on Friday, and yoga and Zumba in the park. among many others. Atlas Pyrotechnics donated the fireworks for Friday night's display.Blanchard said there were more activities for kids this year, including a professional face painter.There was also a lot of information on Make-A-Wish and opportunities to contribute.Make-A-Wish New Hampshire grants wishes to children and teens who have life threatening illnesses.Last year's goal was to raise $100,000 and they ended up raising around $140,000. This year's goal was to raise $150,000. Before the event started, they had raised around $83,000 and climbed to around $106,000 by the opening ceremonies."It's truly heartwarming and amazing that we're working really hard to get to a place to grant the wishes of all children," said Make-A-Wish NH CEO Julie Baron.By Aug. 31, they will have granted around 82 wishes, granting a wish every four days. Baron said she would love it if they could grant a wish every two and a half days.Baron said a medical study indicated that these wishes greatly improve the lives of children with life-threatening conditions. She said this propels her to continue this work.Baron said they have gathered an amazing group of volunteers, including Wish Granters who work with kids and families.Blanchard said they had an "awesome" committee and an "amazing logistics team.""It's been really great to have the support of everybody that's been involved," Blanchard said.Baron praised the work of Blanchard and Nikki Lyons, as well as the committee.At the end of the event awards were presented to the top fundraisers.The top individual fundraiser was event co-founder Jason Perry, raising more than $17,500, and his team Survivors was the top team.The second top individual fundraiser was Steve Donovan and the third was Carolyn Gaudet.The second biggest fundraising team was the Common Man and third was Landlubbers.As of the end of the event, a total of $151,003 was officially raised. Blanchard said this didn't include a $15,000 match and a few other matches by different teams. Blanchard said the unofficial total could be closer to $180,000."Thank you all very much for everything you've did because it's amazing and it's all going to help significantly," Blanchard said.Perry and Jason Tremblay were the event's founders, starting with just the two of them floating on a raft in the Piscataqua River for 44 hours. This year Perry stayed on the raft for the full 30 hours, saying it was much easier than the 44 hours they did before."It's a breeze with the great weather we had," Perry said.He said it is "absolutely phenomenal" to see what was achieved."It's so hard to wrap the head around how much this has raised," Perry said.He said he felt "fortunate" that him and his team raised that much. Perry said he knows so many people who know the importance of Make-A-Wish and know how important this fundraiser is.

Meredith News Sandwich Fair returns with big crowds Lakers start strong, battle by Belmont Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.comMeredith News Safety officials say rollover at Hart's prevented a worse incident

Driver's quick thinking praised



A semi truck rolled over and struck a section of Hart's Turkey Farm last week, though there were no serious injuries or serious damage to the building. (Photo by Erin Plummer) (click for larger version) MEREDITH  A tractor trailer crashed into a section of Hart's Turkey Farm, though a split second decision by the driver and a newly built section of building are credited with preventing a more serious situation.



On Friday morning, a truck containing pool water flipped over in the Hart's parking lot, damaging a newly built section of the building. The driver sustained a minor cut and no one else was injured.



Herbert Rollins was driving down the hill in the truck for his company HLR Trucking and Poolwater of Nottingham. Meredith Fire Department Deputy Chief Andre Kloetz said Rollins said his brakes failed while coming down the hill.



"He made a split second decision to pull into Hart's parking lot because they were still not open," Kloetz said.



Kloetz said the vehicle wasn't going fast, but the inertia of the turn resulted in the truck falling over on the side of the entry alcove.



Kloetz said Rollins got out with only a small cut on his forehead.



"He showed great split second decision making to do what he did," Kloetz said. "Had he had to go down the whole hill with no brakes, it could have been a much more serious accident. (A) vehicle of that weight  who knows what kind of damage it would have done? He took a very good calculated risk."



Kloetz said the damage to the building amounted to two broken windows and likely the need for wall reframing. He said the damage was likely under $7,000. He said tractor trailer sustained more significant damage and was likely totaled.



Hart's co-owner, Russ Hart, was sitting in the same corner as the impact having a meeting. He said they didn't notice the truck coming down.



"There was a huge noise and the air pressure changed," Hart said.



Hart said he looked out the window and saw a liquid pouring out of the truck, then checked with the driver,



"I yelled 'Are you okay?' and the guy said yes," Hart said.



Thinking that the liquid from the truck could be fuel, Hart yelled for employees to evacuate the building, then they called 911. The liquid fortunately ended up being pool water.



Employees were not aware of the incident until they were told to evacuate. Cook Richard Perry said he didn't feel any impact and didn't know what was going on at the time.



"All I know is, we just got evacuated," Perry said.



Hours later, Hart's Restaurant opened as usual.



Hart said the section that was damaged was a freestanding entrance to the the Copper Kettle lounge.



"Because of that new entrance, it actually saved the truck from taking the wall of the restaurant," Hart said.



Hart said that new section will need to be rebuilt. He said as bad as it looked, no one was hurt and the building will be fine. MEREDITH  A tractor trailer crashed into a section of Hart's Turkey Farm, though a split second decision by the driver and a newly built section of building are credited with preventing a more serious situation.On Friday morning, a truck containing pool water flipped over in the Hart's parking lot, damaging a newly built section of the building. The driver sustained a minor cut and no one else was injured.Herbert Rollins was driving down the hill in the truck for his company HLR Trucking and Poolwater of Nottingham. Meredith Fire Department Deputy Chief Andre Kloetz said Rollins said his brakes failed while coming down the hill."He made a split second decision to pull into Hart's parking lot because they were still not open," Kloetz said.Kloetz said the vehicle wasn't going fast, but the inertia of the turn resulted in the truck falling over on the side of the entry alcove.Kloetz said Rollins got out with only a small cut on his forehead."He showed great split second decision making to do what he did," Kloetz said. "Had he had to go down the whole hill with no brakes, it could have been a much more serious accident. (A) vehicle of that weight  who knows what kind of damage it would have done? He took a very good calculated risk."Kloetz said the damage to the building amounted to two broken windows and likely the need for wall reframing. He said the damage was likely under $7,000. He said tractor trailer sustained more significant damage and was likely totaled.Hart's co-owner, Russ Hart, was sitting in the same corner as the impact having a meeting. He said they didn't notice the truck coming down."There was a huge noise and the air pressure changed," Hart said.Hart said he looked out the window and saw a liquid pouring out of the truck, then checked with the driver,"I yelled 'Are you okay?' and the guy said yes," Hart said.Thinking that the liquid from the truck could be fuel, Hart yelled for employees to evacuate the building, then they called 911. The liquid fortunately ended up being pool water.Employees were not aware of the incident until they were told to evacuate. Cook Richard Perry said he didn't feel any impact and didn't know what was going on at the time."All I know is, we just got evacuated," Perry said.Hours later, Hart's Restaurant opened as usual.Hart said the section that was damaged was a freestanding entrance to the the Copper Kettle lounge."Because of that new entrance, it actually saved the truck from taking the wall of the restaurant," Hart said.Hart said that new section will need to be rebuilt. He said as bad as it looked, no one was hurt and the building will be fine.

Meredith News Sandwich Fair returns with big crowds Lakers start strong, battle by Belmont Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.comNewfound Landing Reckless driving cited as cause of fatal accident in Bristol

by Donna Rhodes write the author

An accident on Lake Street last Friday evening resulted in the death of one woman and left another man injured when her white Cadillac sedan crossed into the oncoming lane and struck his GMC Yukon. (Courtesy Photo) (click for larger version) BRISTOL  On Friday, July 20, one person was killed and another injured as the result of a motor vehicle accident on Lake Street (Route 3A) in Bristol, near the intersection with Deangelo Drive, causing the closure of the busy roadway for more than two-and-a-half hours.



Bristol Police Chief James McIntire said safety and rescue teams were called to the scene at approximately 7:10 p.m. that evening when multiple calls to 911 reported the accident, which was witnessed by many people attending Cruise Night activities at nearby Village Pizza.



Upon arrival, police discovered that the driver of a white Cadillac sedan was killed as a result of the two-car collision. She was later identified as 60-year-old Margaret M. Kirsch of North Port, Fla. The driver of the second vehicle, a full-size GMC Yukon SUV, was injured and Bristol Fire Department quickly transported him to Spear Memorial Hospital for evaluation and treatment. His name was not released. Both were the sole occupants in each vehicle.



McIntire said that according to numerous witnesses, the Cadillac was seen just moments before the crash traveling south along Lake Street at a "high rate of speed," passing vehicles in both the breakdown and the oncoming lanes. As the vehicle rounded a bend in the road by Deangelo Drive, the driver lost control, swerved back into the oncoming lane of traffic and hit the SUV, which was travelling north along Lake Street. The impact sent both cars spinning off onto the side of the road where police found them upon their arrival.



The chief said the accident is still under investigation, but at this time, it appears that speed, reckless operation and encroachment of the oncoming lane of traffic were contributing factors to the deadly collision. They are awaiting additional reports that will indicate whether or not any type of impairment was also involved.



Assisting Bristol's police and fire departments that evening were members of the New Hampshire State Police who helped reroute heavy weekend traffic around the scene.



Anyone with additional information on the accident is asked to contact Bristol Police at 744-6320. BRISTOL  On Friday, July 20, one person was killed and another injured as the result of a motor vehicle accident on Lake Street (Route 3A) in Bristol, near the intersection with Deangelo Drive, causing the closure of the busy roadway for more than two-and-a-half hours.Bristol Police Chief James McIntire said safety and rescue teams were called to the scene at approximately 7:10 p.m. that evening when multiple calls to 911 reported the accident, which was witnessed by many people attending Cruise Night activities at nearby Village Pizza.Upon arrival, police discovered that the driver of a white Cadillac sedan was killed as a result of the two-car collision. She was later identified as 60-year-old Margaret M. Kirsch of North Port, Fla. The driver of the second vehicle, a full-size GMC Yukon SUV, was injured and Bristol Fire Department quickly transported him to Spear Memorial Hospital for evaluation and treatment. His name was not released. Both were the sole occupants in each vehicle.McIntire said that according to numerous witnesses, the Cadillac was seen just moments before the crash traveling south along Lake Street at a "high rate of speed," passing vehicles in both the breakdown and the oncoming lanes. As the vehicle rounded a bend in the road by Deangelo Drive, the driver lost control, swerved back into the oncoming lane of traffic and hit the SUV, which was travelling north along Lake Street. The impact sent both cars spinning off onto the side of the road where police found them upon their arrival.The chief said the accident is still under investigation, but at this time, it appears that speed, reckless operation and encroachment of the oncoming lane of traffic were contributing factors to the deadly collision. They are awaiting additional reports that will indicate whether or not any type of impairment was also involved.Assisting Bristol's police and fire departments that evening were members of the New Hampshire State Police who helped reroute heavy weekend traffic around the scene.Anyone with additional information on the accident is asked to contact Bristol Police at 744-6320.

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Plymouth Record Enterprise Forest industry believes biomass is key to survival

by Thomas P. Caldwell BRIDGEWATER  New Hampshire has some of the highest electric costs in the country, and Gov. Chris Sununu said any further increases would drive away businesses, but the hundreds of people employed in forestry and logging say the $5.15 per month increase contained in Senate Bill 365 is a small price to pay to preserve the state's second-largest industry.



Sununu vetoed the bill that had bipartisan support in the New Hampshire Legislature, calling it a subsidy to the state's six biomass plants. Nevertheless, he went on to sign a separate bill that guarantees that "subsidy" for the Berlin biomass plant, saying it was vital to that region's economic recovery.



Logger Jared King of Wentworth says all of the biomass plants, which burn wood to generate electricity, are vital. With no place to sell the low-grade wood, it is not economically feasible to do some forest operations, leaving loggers with high debt and no market for the timber. Wood chippers used in whole-tree harvesting cost $400,000 to $500,000, and with the market for wood chips in jeopardy, the manufacturers are no longer accepting trade-ins. Without the means to sell off their equipment, logging companies may find it hard to avoid bankruptcy.



Michael O'Leary, plant manager at Bridgewater Power Company, said the governor is missing the big picture.



"It's much bigger than electric rates," he said. "I look upon the electric rate part as a very small piece. Forest products play a significant role in what makes this state great  it's sustained by the forest industry. The recreational use of forest land for snowmobiling, hiking, and fishing  to put that in jeopardy to me seems very short-sighted."



O'Leary explained, "The issue is that it's not economically viable for us to operate for many months of the year when the power prices in the market are so low."



The Bridgewater plant employs 20 people and it relies upon about 25 suppliers, which O'Leary said translates into 100-125 forest jobs. The forestry industry supports 932 jobs in New Hampshire.



"Everybody's looking at the market," O'Leary said, "and we definitely can't operate under the current market conditions."



Distributors of electricity are able to purchase power from low-cost natural gas generating plants, which has made other forms of generation relatively expensive and, therefore, less competitive. SB 365 was passed in order to ensure a diversity of sources so that, if natural gas prices should go up, there would be other options.



"The general court finds that the continued operation of the state's 6 independent biomass-fired electric generating plants and the state's single renewable waste-to-energy generating plant are at risk due to energy pricing volatility," the bill states. "These plants are important to the state's economy and jobs, and in particular to the state's sawmill and other forest products industries and employment in these industries, and these indigenous-fueled renewable generating plants are also important to state policies because they provide generating fuel diversity and environmental benefits, which protect the health and safety of the state's citizens and the physical environment of the state."



As part of the vetting of the bill, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission calculated that the requirement for distributors to purchase power from the biomass plants would increase the cost of electricity for Rate G small-business customers by $5.15-per-month. That amount represents the additional "stranded costs" that electric distribution companies would incur by purchasing biomass energy at above-market rates.



The PUC did not calculate the impact for residents, but Amanda Noonan, the PUC spokesman, said that, although residential customers as a whole are responsible for almost twice as much of the stranded costs, individually, they purchase less energy than a business would, so the increase in their bills would be comparable.



Since Sununu's veto announcement, three biomass plants have said they plan to shut down as soon as they use their current inventory of wood chips, and many logging companies are preparing to follow.



The InDeck biomass plant in Alexandria already had ceased operations because of the poor market for power.



Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, said a study by economists at Plymouth State University found there were 120 people employed directly by the biomass plants, with 583 commercial loggers supplying them, and 228 in service and support positions. That total payroll is $50.9 million, and the economists calculated that they contribute $254.5 million in economic activity in the state.



Stock said that, when the forest products industry is included, there are 7,700 people affected.



He also noted that the six biomass plants contribute $7.3 million in state and local revenue from property and generation taxes, and communities  especially the smaller ones that do not have large retail or industrial taxpayers  rely on revenue from timber harvests.



Shaun Lagueux of New England Forestry Consultants in Bristol said closure of the biomass plants would deprive loggers and sawmills of a place to get rid of the low-grade trees, slabs, and sawdust that make up more than 40 percent of the timber harvest in the state. Central New Hampshire, he said, would be especially hard-hit because the northern and southern tiers have some options in other states.



Lagueux said whole-tree harvesting has both environmental and recreational benefits. He has been overseeing a timber harvest in Danbury in such a way that the logging operation will provide important wildlife habitat  "early successional habitat" where weedy areas, grass, shrub thickets, and young forest provide both food and cover for animals  while leaving two-thirds of the forest standing.



"The lack of young forest is one of the biggest problems" for wildlife, Lagueux said.



Proper forest management allows for both old-growth and young trees, and the roads used for the logging operation can be transformed into recreational trails. Lagueux pointed to one such trail on the Danbury lot where ferns have grown in to provide a pleasant green area.



Without a place to send the low-grade wood, Lagueux fears that such stewardship will come to an end, and both forests and wildlife will suffer.



Stock agreed that, without markets for the low-grade timber, landowners may be unable to economically improve forest health.



"I have already had landowners contact me, stating that if this is how the Governor treats sustainable forestry and timberland owners, perhaps I should veto his Trails Bureau and Fish and Game Department from using my private land to promote their programs."



Those concerned about that impact met last week at Michael Sharp Enterprises in Bridgewater to discuss how they might promote an effort to have the legislature overturn the governor's veto. Several legislators attended the session as well, to show their support for biomass and, by extension, the loggers and foresters that depend upon them. BRIDGEWATER  New Hampshire has some of the highest electric costs in the country, and Gov. Chris Sununu said any further increases would drive away businesses, but the hundreds of people employed in forestry and logging say the $5.15 per month increase contained in Senate Bill 365 is a small price to pay to preserve the state's second-largest industry.Sununu vetoed the bill that had bipartisan support in the New Hampshire Legislature, calling it a subsidy to the state's six biomass plants. Nevertheless, he went on to sign a separate bill that guarantees that "subsidy" for the Berlin biomass plant, saying it was vital to that region's economic recovery.Logger Jared King of Wentworth says all of the biomass plants, which burn wood to generate electricity, are vital. With no place to sell the low-grade wood, it is not economically feasible to do some forest operations, leaving loggers with high debt and no market for the timber. Wood chippers used in whole-tree harvesting cost $400,000 to $500,000, and with the market for wood chips in jeopardy, the manufacturers are no longer accepting trade-ins. Without the means to sell off their equipment, logging companies may find it hard to avoid bankruptcy.Michael O'Leary, plant manager at Bridgewater Power Company, said the governor is missing the big picture."It's much bigger than electric rates," he said. "I look upon the electric rate part as a very small piece. Forest products play a significant role in what makes this state great  it's sustained by the forest industry. The recreational use of forest land for snowmobiling, hiking, and fishing  to put that in jeopardy to me seems very short-sighted."O'Leary explained, "The issue is that it's not economically viable for us to operate for many months of the year when the power prices in the market are so low."The Bridgewater plant employs 20 people and it relies upon about 25 suppliers, which O'Leary said translates into 100-125 forest jobs. The forestry industry supports 932 jobs in New Hampshire."Everybody's looking at the market," O'Leary said, "and we definitely can't operate under the current market conditions."Distributors of electricity are able to purchase power from low-cost natural gas generating plants, which has made other forms of generation relatively expensive and, therefore, less competitive. SB 365 was passed in order to ensure a diversity of sources so that, if natural gas prices should go up, there would be other options."The general court finds that the continued operation of the state's 6 independent biomass-fired electric generating plants and the state's single renewable waste-to-energy generating plant are at risk due to energy pricing volatility," the bill states. "These plants are important to the state's economy and jobs, and in particular to the state's sawmill and other forest products industries and employment in these industries, and these indigenous-fueled renewable generating plants are also important to state policies because they provide generating fuel diversity and environmental benefits, which protect the health and safety of the state's citizens and the physical environment of the state."As part of the vetting of the bill, the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission calculated that the requirement for distributors to purchase power from the biomass plants would increase the cost of electricity for Rate G small-business customers by $5.15-per-month. That amount represents the additional "stranded costs" that electric distribution companies would incur by purchasing biomass energy at above-market rates.The PUC did not calculate the impact for residents, but Amanda Noonan, the PUC spokesman, said that, although residential customers as a whole are responsible for almost twice as much of the stranded costs, individually, they purchase less energy than a business would, so the increase in their bills would be comparable.Since Sununu's veto announcement, three biomass plants have said they plan to shut down as soon as they use their current inventory of wood chips, and many logging companies are preparing to follow.The InDeck biomass plant in Alexandria already had ceased operations because of the poor market for power.Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, said a study by economists at Plymouth State University found there were 120 people employed directly by the biomass plants, with 583 commercial loggers supplying them, and 228 in service and support positions. That total payroll is $50.9 million, and the economists calculated that they contribute $254.5 million in economic activity in the state.Stock said that, when the forest products industry is included, there are 7,700 people affected.He also noted that the six biomass plants contribute $7.3 million in state and local revenue from property and generation taxes, and communities  especially the smaller ones that do not have large retail or industrial taxpayers  rely on revenue from timber harvests.Shaun Lagueux of New England Forestry Consultants in Bristol said closure of the biomass plants would deprive loggers and sawmills of a place to get rid of the low-grade trees, slabs, and sawdust that make up more than 40 percent of the timber harvest in the state. Central New Hampshire, he said, would be especially hard-hit because the northern and southern tiers have some options in other states.Lagueux said whole-tree harvesting has both environmental and recreational benefits. He has been overseeing a timber harvest in Danbury in such a way that the logging operation will provide important wildlife habitat  "early successional habitat" where weedy areas, grass, shrub thickets, and young forest provide both food and cover for animals  while leaving two-thirds of the forest standing."The lack of young forest is one of the biggest problems" for wildlife, Lagueux said.Proper forest management allows for both old-growth and young trees, and the roads used for the logging operation can be transformed into recreational trails. Lagueux pointed to one such trail on the Danbury lot where ferns have grown in to provide a pleasant green area.Without a place to send the low-grade wood, Lagueux fears that such stewardship will come to an end, and both forests and wildlife will suffer.Stock agreed that, without markets for the low-grade timber, landowners may be unable to economically improve forest health."I have already had landowners contact me, stating that if this is how the Governor treats sustainable forestry and timberland owners, perhaps I should veto his Trails Bureau and Fish and Game Department from using my private land to promote their programs."Those concerned about that impact met last week at Michael Sharp Enterprises in Bridgewater to discuss how they might promote an effort to have the legislature overturn the governor's veto. Several legislators attended the session as well, to show their support for biomass and, by extension, the loggers and foresters that depend upon them.

Thanks for visiting SalmonPress.comBy PTI

NEW DELHI: About half of the land out of 45,711 hectares notified for 373 special economic zones (SEZs) are lying vacant as on August 2017, Parliament was informed today.

The vacant land is primarily with private sector or state public sector unit developers, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said that the land development and allotment of units by the developers are done based on the demand and market conditions.

"Out of total notified area of 45,711.64 hectares in respect of 373 notified SEZs, 23,779.19 hectares are lying vacant in these SEZs as on 30.08.2017," he added.

He also said that at present 223 SEZs are operational and 150 are non-operational in the country.

Replying to a separate question, he said that Comptroller and Auditor General of India in a report of 2014 observed that there were gaps in the projections about employment, investment and export from SEZs.

Those observations "were based on the performance of SEZs in the initial 5 - 6 years from the enactment of SEZ Act, 2005," he said.

The minister said that SEZs are essentially industrial infrastructure with long gestation period.

"However, significant growth has been registered in terms of employment, investment and export from SEZs thereafter," the minister added.

In 2017-18, exports from SEZs increased to Rs 5.81 lakh crore from Rs 5.23 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The Congress today accused the government of trying to weave a web of deception on the issue of black money to save its "crony capitalist friends".

The main opposition party also challenged the government to bring even one of the fugitive economic offenders back to the country during a discussion on the Economic Offenders Bill in Rajya Sabha today.

"Basically this government continues to try to weave a web of deception on the issue of black money because they have absolutely no intention of following through on their statements as they want to save their crony capitalist friends," Congress Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda told reporters.

Pointing out at media reports of fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi given the citizenship of Antigua, Gowda expressed suspicion on whether there was any connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the prime minister of Antigua before Chowksi getting the citizenship of that country.

"Prime Minister and met the Antigua Prime Minister, and a few months later we found that Mehul Choksi was given Antigua citizenship. What is the link between the two only those people know. But we have our suspicions," he said.

Criticising the Economic Offenders Bill, the Congress leader said it was full of flaws that would result in Constitutional violations.

"This suggests that the government is not serious and it only intends to try and project an image of going after black money and fugitive economic offenders but does not want to follow through," he said.

Gowda also accused Finance Minister Piyush Goyal of "deliberately omitting" a vital statistic from the BIS database which Goyal was quoting yesterday.

"Goyal failed to tell us that in the last quarter, the same data showed that Indian deposits in the Swiss banks had gone up by 23 per cent," he stated.

Alleging that the NDA government's fight against black money is nothing but "headlines management" and "fake stories" planted in the media without any factual backing, Gowda underlined that the Congress-led UPA government had presented a white paper whereby it tracked down black money worth Rs 1,30,800 crore in the last two years of its tenure.By PTI

BENGALURU: Karnataka government is to organise 'Bengaluru Tech Summit' from November 29 to December 1.

The theme of the summit would be 'Innovation and Impact'.

"We will be holding the summit, which would be a global event," Minister for IT/BT, Science and technology and Large and Medium Scale Industries K J George told reporters here today.

The summit was being organised under the guidance of the Vision Group on Biotechnology, Vision Group onInformation and the organising committee, KrishnakumarNatarajan, officials said.

The summit would focus on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, among others, principal secretary to IT/BT Gaurav Gupta said.

He said, "We have changed the focus and brought all kinds of technology like biotechnology, nanotechnology for which global experts and multi-national companies will be invited and discuss on research collaborations, research and development ecosystem that exist here.

Startups would also be one of the key focus areas, especially in the areas of impact like health care, education and agriculture among others, he added.

Noting that NITI Ayog would also be participating, Gupta said they were likely to share insights into the use of technology for a new India that would have a digital economy.

Various corporates, startups and accelerators also were likely to attend, the officials said, adding that the focus would be more on research, collaboration and product development.U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday to slap tariffs on countries that don't negotiate with the United States in good faith and suggested they are a panacea to global trade issues.

"Tariffs are the greatest!," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. Its as simple as that - and everybodys talking! Remember, we are the "piggy bank" thats being robbed. All will be Great!"

Hours earlier, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Europe won't cave in to Trump's threats.

"No one has an interest in having punitive tariffs, because everyone loses in the end," Maas wrote on Twitter. "Europe will not be threatened by President Trump," he added. "If we cede once, we will often have to deal with such behavior in the future."

Trumps threats of new tariffs were made hours before he departed the White House for speaking engagements at several events in Kansas City, Missouri.

Trump is due to meet in Washington Wednesday with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, who hopes to prevent a full-blown trade war by convincing Trump to hold off on imposing punitive tariffs on European cars.

By Express News Service

CHENNAI:As the nationwide strike, called by All India Motor Transport Congress, entered its fifth day on Tuesday, vegetable traders were worried that it could impact the arrival of farm products if the strike continues. The prices of few vegetables have shot up alarmingly. Traders have appealed to Deputy Chief Minister, O Paneerselvam, to ensure that vegetables and other farm products supplied to Koyambedu Wholesale Market does not get disrupted.

President of Koyambedu Vegetable Wholesale Merchants Association, S Chandran, and president of Koyambedu Vegetable, Fruit and Flower Sellers Welfare Association, M Thiagarajan, told Express that price of carrots have spiralled because lorries did not arrive from Ooty and other parts of western Tamil Nadu. The wholesale price of carrot which was `35 per kg has increased by `15 to `20. In retail, it could be sold at around `70 per kg, said Chandran. The price of coconut is likely to shoot up on Wednesday. Currently, a coconut is being sold at `25 to `30 and we expect it to go up to `40, he added. When pointed out that ladies finger and green brinjal are being sold at `40 in retail markets in Koyambedu, Chandran said that the prices for both the vegetables at the wholesale market are still `20 a kg.

Paneerselvam, in a meeting with traders on Sunday night, had promised to provide government trucks to ensure vegetable supply is not hit. We have been getting regular supplies from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and the prices are unlikely to get affected. But, if the strike continues then the prices might soar depending on the availability of vegetables, added Chandran.Usually, 500 trucks supply vegetables to the market and traders say the numbers have been reduced by 50 trucks.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: While railway officials remain clueless about the sudden spike in the accidents at the St Thomas Mount station, Chennai Divisional Railway Manager Naveen Gulati said that suburban trains including fast locals would not be operated in the fast lines until further notice.The wall, which is dividing platform Nos. 3 and 4, was built a few years ago in view of the merger of the Velachery-Beach MRTS with St. Thomas Mount.

The Chengalpattu-Chennai Beach fast locals during morning hours run with overcrowded passengers and pass through the fast line. Similarly, four fast trains operated in the fast lines between Chennai Beach and Chengalpattu pass through the fast lines at St. Thomas Mount.While four fast trains have been regularly operated in the stretch for several years, the Railways fully blamed the rail passengers for the accidents.

Tamil Nadu Railways Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) C Sylendra Babu, who visited the St. Thomas Mount station, said he would recommend to the Railways to remove the wall. However, the Southern Railway said the wall cannot be removed.By UNI

NEW DELHI: Delhi Commission for Women rescued 16 girls, who were brought from Nepal and being trafficked to Gulf countries in the wee hours on Wednesday.

According to DCW chief Swati Maliwal, on a tip-off, commission's team informed the police and reached Munirka area, where the girls were confined.

On reaching the spot, they found 16 girls kept in a small room, while their passports were said to be stolen by the traffickers who brought them here on the pretext of employment.

''The 16 girls who were brought from Nepal on pretext of employment were kept here in a small room and the traffickers were in a bid to further send them to Gulf nations'', said DCW chief.

''Around 15 days ago, several girls have already been sent to Gulf by these people,'' she added.

Ms Maliwal also questioned how could the police be unaware of the racket when the location was just 500 metres away from the police station.

''Unless the accountability of the police is not strictly set, such incidents and rackets will continue,'' she said.

UNI APS SV 1044By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: After a star-studded leg in Mumbai with some of the biggest names from Bollywood, WWE Superstar Braun Strowman moved onto the second leg of his tour in India. Braun arrived in Hyderabad on the weekend and took out time to meet with the kids of Special Olympics Bharat as well as made a special visit to Apollo Hospital.

The Monster Among Men was seen interacting and spending quality time with his little fans in the city. He started with meeting 20 athletes from Special Olympics Bharat who were excited to take pictures with Braun Strowman as well as get an autograph.

The athletes showered Braun with their love and presented him with miniatures of Charminar and gifted him a special shawl and personalised plaque. The Gentle giant then proceeded to Apollo Hospital to meet the little champions at the cancer institute. Braun brought smiles to the faces of his young fans and cherished some quality time with them.

The WWE Superstar was here to talk about WWEs efforts to step up talent recruitment in India. The launch of wweperformancecenter.com as a big milestone in WWEs global recruitment strategy, giving athletes and performers from all over India a clear path to WWE. The website gives an overview of the state-of-the-art 26,000 square-foot WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL, while highlighting all it has to offer prospective talent.

The website also features - the application process, what recruits can expect on their journey to WWE, information about past try outs and many more details. WWE has implemented an aggressive recruiting strategy in India scouting Kabaddi and Kushti athletes, Olympians, and entertainers.By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Maratha quota agitation on Wednesday took a violent turn as the police had to resort to lathicharge, burst teargas shells and even fire in air at different places, reports have said.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha and the Sakal Maratha Samaj the umbrella organizations of Maratha community had given a call for shutdown in Mumbai and adjoining districts of Thane, Palghar and Raigad. However, districts like Akola and Satara where the bandh had not been observed yesterday too joined in the protests today.

The protests remained peaceful only for a brief time in the morning. Protestors had gathered at several places and appealed people to observe bandh. They also resorted to rasta roko and rail roko at several places. However, they lacked numbers and the traffic normalised once the police took them away.

However, after around 1 pm the protests took a violent turn. There were reports from Satara where protestors outnumbered police force and beat them up. Some of the police vehicles too were vandalised.

At Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai protestors tried to block the Mumbai-Pune expressway. The police used teargas shells after the caning and then had to resort to firing to disperse the mob there, Maratha Kranti Morcha sources have said.

The mob at Kalamboli also vandalised a BEST bus and set it on fire.

State Transport buses were vandalised at Akola also, the protestors said.

What are the protesters demanding?

The protestors have been demanding immediate implementation of the quota for Maratha community, while the government said that though it has already given a quota, the High Court has put a stay on it and referred it to state backward class commission, which is likely to take a few more months to submit its report.

Marathas quota agitation

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

Fadnavis had cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur on Monday after protesters threatened to disrupt the event.

Despite assurances from the chief minister, nothing concrete has been done till now over the demands, community leaders have claimed.

"We will continue our agitation until the CM apologises to the Maratha community (for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur)," Morcha coordinator Ravindra Patil said yesterday.By PTI

MUMBAI: John Abraham believes regional cinema is far ahead of Bollywood in terms of content as the industry concentrates on story instead of worrying about "huge unnecessary budgets".

The actor-producer has entered the regional space with his first Marathi production "Savita Damodar Paranjpe."

"I sometimes feel the best content, unfortunately, I'd like to say this being a Hindi film actor, doesn't come from Hindi films. It comes from regional cinema. Because when you don't have huge unnecessary budgets, you concentrate only on content," John told reporters here.

"The content here is fantastic. I think after this, I'm sure there'll be a trend which has already started, this film will be remade in hindi. You'll be really happy with this film," he added.

The actor was speaking at the trailer launch of the film, directed by Swapna Waghmare Joshi.

John, who has also produced Hindi films, said every script demands to be made in a certain language and "Savita Damodar Paranjpe" was best suited for Marathi.

"When I first heard the script, (I felt) it was meant to be in Marathi. When we got the director and the cast, it was like 'Alice in Wonderland' for me," he said.

When asked if he wishes to also act in Marathi films in the future, John said, "I'd love to do a Marathi film because I'm a Marathi boy. I am proud of it. I was born and brought up in this city, I belong to this city. Marathi is our first language, we must speak it more often but unfortunately we don't."

Based on a popular play of the same name, the film features Subodh Bhave, Trupti Toradmal and Raqesh Bapat in the lead.

It is scheduled to release on August 31.Shevlin Sebastian By

Express News Service

The start of the shooting of the film, Johnnie Walker (1992), took place in Bangalore. It was a time when there was trouble between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the sharing of the Cauvery waters. Many Tamil Nadu registration cars were set on fire.

Director Jayaraj was shooting a song called Minnum Palunkukal featuring Mammootty inside Christ College at midnight. There were 1500 junior artistes present, which included a few Tamilians. Soon, we heard that a mob had gathered outside the gates, he says. They started throwing soda bottles and bricks. We could see this. It was a panicky situation.

Jayaraj stopped the shoot. Mammootty was herded inside a room in the college, while security guards stood outside. We called for police help, says Jayaraj. Thankfully, the protestors did not enter the campus.

In the Pemandu hill, near Ooty, for the picturisation of the song, 'Poo Mariyil', for the same film, many buffaloes along with carts had been requisitioned. One evening, a young helper took a few buffaloes to the lake at the bottom of the hill to give them a wash. Somehow, one buffalo gave him a kick and the boy slipped and fell into the water, says Jayaraj. And since he did not know swimming he drowned. It was a tragedy.

Throughout the shoot, there were other disturbing events. There was a scene when Mammootty was supposed to be thrown off a bike at high speed. A stunt driver did the scene. Unfortunately, when he fell from a height, he hurt himself, says Jayaraj. He had to be rushed to the hospital.

Later, in Cubbon Park, there was a night scene where a group of youngsters were riding bikes. To stop them, several beer bottles were rolled across in a bid to stop them. Unfortunately, one bike skidded and it came and hit the camera and the rider was injured too.

Jayaraj pauses and says, I am convinced there are negative forces in the universe. But there are positive forces, too. In Bhayanakam (2017), there was a scene where Renji Panicker as a postman returns home when suddenly a stray brown dog accidentally enters the frame. When I looked through the camera lens, it seemed appropriate, says Jayaraj. After the first scene, we gave the dog biscuits in the hope that he would stay. Instead, it vanished.

There were four major scenes when the dog came in and it was always at the right time. There was one scene when the postman is leaving his home and I felt the presence of the dog would be appropriate. And suddenly, it appeared, says Jayaraj. Later, I felt that Nature and some power in the Universe had helped me during the making of the film.

In the film, Ottal (2015), while on a location search, Jayaraj decided that if he spotted somebody who would suit the role, he would select him. One day, next to a river, he saw a man rowing a boat. And I immediately realised that he would be suitable to play the grandfathers role, says Jayaraj.

This film is about a young boy and his relationship with his grandfather.

The boatmans name was Kumarakom Vasudevan. He was a fisherman in real life and ended up playing the role. These accidental discoveries were there from the start of Jayarajs career. In my debut film, Vidyarambham, I wanted to place a school against the backdrop of a few hills, he says. So, Jayaraj, along with a few crew members travelled around in Palakkad for several days. But they could not find what they were looking for.

However, one day, in Muttikulangara, Jayaraj was going down a road, when he spotted a narrow lane. He asked the driver to turn into it. It led us to the perfect location I had in my mind, says Jayaraj. I was shocked. I now firmly believe what the author Paulo Coelho had once said: When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it'.

Sometimes, the Universe also gives an advance warning. In the film, Kudumbasammetham (1992), the climax was supposed to take place at the Thyagaraja Aaradhana Temple at Thiruvaiyaru. But the authorities for various reasons did not allow the shoot to take place. Monisha Unni had a role in it.

While the arguments were taking place, we had taken shots of Monisha as she had to leave to Chennai the next day to catch a flight to Dubai for a programme, says Jayaraj. In fact, her last dialogue was 'I don't have the luck for anything'.

Unfortunately, two weeks later, on March 5, 1992, Monisha died in a car accident at Cherthala. When I heard the news, I immediately remembered her last dialogue, says Jayaraj. It seemed as if the Universe was telling us something. It was almost like a farewell.By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and Gujarat MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani were booked by police on trespass and other charges after allegedly leading a "raid" at a house where they claimed that liquor was illegally stored, an official said today.

Thakor, a Congress MLA, along with independent legislator Mevani and Patel, on Thursday "raided" the house of a woman, identified Kanchanben Makwana, with over a dozen supporters claiming they wanted to expose the alleegd "liquor den" operating there.

The house is located near the office of Gandhinagar Superintendent of Police.

Makwana filed a complaint at the Gandhinagar Sector 21 police station.

The complainant said the trio and their supporters entered her house when no male member was present there.

"They even planted two pouches of country-made liquor there to prove her house was a liquor den," Makwana was quoted as saying by inspector V N Yadav.

"Makwana, in her complaint, said she does not sell liquor and the two pouches recovered from her house were planted by the people who entered her home," Yadav said.

He said an FIR was lodged against Thakor, Mevani and Patel besides over a dozen others under various section of the Indian Penal Code including for house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint (452), intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace (504), and intentionally giving false evidence (193 ).

Yadav said no arrest has been made so far in the case.

Gujarat has a law in force since 1960 that bans manufacture, storage, sale and consumption of alcohol.

Taking to micro-blogging site Twitter, Patel alleged that the "liquor mafia" can do anything in Gandhi's Gujarat, with the police and the ruling BJP giving them support.

The three leaders "raided" Makwana's house at Adivada village after meeting four people who were hospitalised after allegedly consuming spurious liquor in Ahmedabad.

Thakor, who has led anti-liquor agitations in the past, said the aim of the "raid" was to expose the police and the government's "inaction" to curb alcohol menace in the state.

The three leaders had taken on the BJP in the Gujarat assembly elections held last year.By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel today announced that he will sit on an indefinite fast from August 25 to press for reservation to the community members in government jobs and education.

The 24-year-old activist, who shot to prominence in 2015 with his agitation over the quota issue, vowed to continue his fast till his demand for reservation was met.

In a video message posted on his official Facebook page, Patel said getting reservation for the members of his community was his primary concern.

He added that the fast would be his "last fight".

"This is our last fight. Either I will give my life or we will get reservation. I need your support for this. The fight has come to the last phase."

"Reservation is our primary issue and we will continue to fight for it. From August 25, which is observed as the 'Patidar Kranti Divas', I am going to sit on an indefinite fast and will not eat anything until we get reservation," Patel said, interacting with his supporters via a video-streaming feature on Facebook.

On the same day three years ago, the Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) had organised a mega rally here to put forth the demand for reservation to the community members.

The rally had turned violent, leading to a police crackdown on the participants and the eventual detention and incarceration of Patel on sedition and other charges.

Around 14 Patidar community members were killed in the violence.

Making an emotional appeal to his supporters and the Patidar community members, a section of whom had criticised him recently for "diverting" from the core issue of reservation, Patel sought their united support.

"We will get the reservation, but only when we come together to fight for it. If we are fighting among ourselves, then this is not going to happen. We are lagging behind due to unnecessary debates and opposition (from within the community)," he said.

Patel also defended his decision to support Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor on the issue of prohibition, saying it was his responsibility to fight against the menace of liquor.

The Congress MLA, who represents the Kshatriya-Thakor community in Gujarat, has been a vocal critic of the way prohibition has been implemented in the state.

Thakor, Independent legislator Jignesh Mevani and Patel were yesterday booked by the police on trespass and other charges after they allegedly led a "raid" of a house, where they claimed liquor was kept stored illegally.

Patel said fighting for reservation was his top priority, but he will also continue to raise issues related to farmers, prohibition and unemployment.

PAAS convener Alpesh Kathiriya said the venue for Patel's fast next month was yet to be decided.

"We will soon inform about the venue, where the indefinite fast will be organised. Patel's supporters will also join him," he added.

From August 25, every day one of Patel's supporters would get his head tonsured to highlight the issue of reservation and make the government take note of their demand, Kathiriya said.Fayaz Wani By

Express News Service

SRINAGAR: A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan was killed and another injured in a militant attack in Batamaloo area in the heart of Srinagar on Tuesday. Militants fired from close range towards CRPF jawans near the Fire and Emergency Service headquarters at Batamaloo, close to the Civil Secretariat, at around 4 pm, Ravideep Singh Sahi, Inspector General (IG) CRPF, told The New Indian Express.

Sahi said the militants apparently fired from AK-47 rifles towards the CRPF patrol party, injuring two CRPF men. The injured CRPF jawans were evacuated to a nearby hospital, where one of the critically injured men succumbed to his injuries. The deceased jawan was identified as constable Shaker Lal of 23 Bn, CRPF. He was posted at Karan N Srinagar. After the shoot-out, the militants managed to escape from the area.

The firing caused panic in the area, with people running helter-skelter. Immediately after the attack, police and paramilitary personnel laid a siege around the area and conducted searches. However, no arrests were reported during the half-an-hour-long operation. Sahi said they suspect that two militants were involved in the attack. He said a massive manhunt had been launched to track down the militants. Asked whether militants were present in Srinagar, Sahi said such sporadic incidents happened but things were under control.

After the attack, security in Srinagar was beefed up and additional security personnel were deployed at sensitive areas to keep a close watch on the movement of people. Militant group Hizbul Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack. Hizb operations spokesman Burhan-ud-din, in a tele-statement to local newspapers, claimed responsibility for the attack. He said that two CRPF men were killed and many others injured in the attack.

Two militants involved in attack

Police suspect that two militants were involved in the attack. A massive manhunt has been launched to track down the militants. Security in Srinagar has been beefed up and additional security personnel were deployed at sensitive areas.Fire officials in Greece said Tuesday at least 74 people have been killed and more than 140 injured in wildfires raging through resort towns near the country's capital.

Regional authorities have declared a state of emergency in areas east and west of Athens and deployed the army to help fight the blazes.

Athens has asked the European Union for aerial and ground support to help battle the flames. Greece said Cyprus offered to send firefighters, while Spain offered water-dropping aircraft. BBC News reported countries, including Italy, Germany, Poland and France, have sent planes, vehicles and firefighters.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia on Monday and returned to Athens to preside over an emergency-response meeting.

"We are doing everything humanly possible to try and tackle these fires," Tsipras said. "What concerns us is that there are fires occurring simultaneously."By PTI

NEW DELHI: As many as 8,363 Indian nationals have sought asylum in foreign countries, the government told the Lok Sabha today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said according to the information available in the ministry, as of July 16 this year, approximately 8,363 Indian nationals are living illegally in foreign countries and have sought asylum there.

His response came in reply to a question on whether over thousands of asylum seekers from India have been branded as illegal migrants and are in jails in different countries.

In his reply, Singh said approximately 8,000 are in Germany, but not in jail, 359 in the US and in detention, two in Denmark and in jail, two in Brazil and in jail, one in Finland, but not in jail.

"Our missions and posts abroad regularly liaise with the local authorities, and upon verification of their identity and nationality, extend possible consular assistance and issue a necessary travel document to facilitate their return to India," he said.

To another question, the minister said according to the information provided by the CBI, there were 23 Indians living abroad, who are involved in financial irregularities with banks as well as those under criminal investigation in the last three years.

The 23 people, include diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as well as liquor baron Vijay Mallya.Ejaz Kaiser By

Express News Service

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court on Wednesday directed banks to ensure the charges levied by them on multiple transactions and the other services they offer to the customers be "uniform and reasonable". A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra issued the order on a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by an advocate Saleem Kazi.

Kazi challenged the notifications issued by various banks on transaction charges and the minimum Monthly Average Balance (MAB) in the bank accounts. The court though didn't comment on the minimum MAB.

"The court affirmed that there should be uniformity and reasonableness in the charges raised by the banks. We have cited about the wide disparity in the charges imposed by different banks to their customers. Earlier the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has filed its response to the court stating that the banks do not need its approval for imposing charges on their customers", Kazi told the Express.

In September last year, the high court has issued notices to the central government, RBI, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd on the PIL. The petitioner had contended that the instructions issued by the respondent banks and the actions initiated by them are in serious violation of the RBI Act 1934 on banking regulations and further violates the Constitutional rights granted under the Article 19 (1)g, Article 21 and Article 300A. The high court based in Bilaspur disposed of the PIL on Wednesday.By PTI

NEW DELHI: Congress leader K C Venugopal today asked the government order an inquiry into the "serious issue" of leak of data of almost two lakh students who had appeared for the NEET exam this year.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Venugopal said the NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) data leak was a "serious issue of theft of personal data that has compromised the privacy of candidates across the country".

According to reports, personal data including names, phone numbers and email addresses, of over 2,00,000 candidates who appeared for the examination this year were available for a price on some online portals, he said.

The NEET was held on May 6 in 136 cities and conducted in 11 languages. The results were announced on June 4.

The incident also raises questions about the ability of the Central Board of Secondary Education to ensure the sanctity of the examination process, the Congress MP said.

"I would strongly demand that the government order an inquiry into the matter and take action against the people behind this crime.

"I would also request the government to take proper measuers to protect the privacy of the citizens of our country by taking strong measures to curb the data theft," he noted.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: An abandoned stillborn baby was found an Imphal-New Delhi AirAsia flight on Wednesday.

The airline in a statement confirmed that the body of the baby was found 'abandoned and lifeless' in one of the plane's toilets when the aircraft was being prepared for landing.

According to sources, the infant was found with its mouth stuffed with toilet paper. AirAsia said that a medical examination was conducted on the woman suspected to be the mother by a doctor at the New Delhi airport and also confirmed that the baby had been delivered onboard.

Sources said that the woman, who is suspected to be the mother, is a 19-year-old. The Delhi Police said that they were informed about the baby by a manager of AirAsia and cops boarded the aircraft once it landed.

"The baby's mother is believed to have boarded the flight from Guwahati," a senior police officer said and added that investigations are on to prove if it is a case of forced abortion.

According to an AirAsia statement, after questioning of all female passengers, a suspect was held back by the police for further questioning.

Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (airport) of Delhi Police, said that police was informed about by an AirAsia flight manager that 'during journey a foetus was found in the lavatory. Police officials were then dispatched to the aircraft, which docked at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport, DCP Bhatia said, adding that initial probe suggests that the baby was delivered stillborn.

The matter has been reported to the DGCA, the airline said. "We will be assisting in the investigation and cooperating with all concerned agencies. AirAsia India would like to apologise to all guests experiencing disruptions in their flight schedule," it added.By PTI

MUMBAI: From a series of huge, silent and disciplined marches to violent demonstrations, the protest by the Maratha community now is an antithesis of their efforts to seek reservations in jobs and education.

Representatives of the Maratha community attributed the stepping up of pressure by the community to the "arrogance and lies" told to its members by the BJP-led government, and the "uncontrolled anger" among its youth over the delay in getting reservations.

They said the protest would be carried out in a non-violent manner and asked the government to look for an out of court resolution to the issue till the Bombay High Court delivers its verdict in a related case.

The Marathas, who form around a third of the state's nearly 13 crore population, held over 50 'mook morchas' (silent marches) in 2016 and 2017 across Maharashtra pressing for reservation among other demands.

The state legislature in 2014 passed a bill to grant quota to the community.

That law was stayed by the Bombay High Court.

The present government had then approached the Supreme Court.

With no relief in sight in the apex court, the state government again approached the High Court, which asked it to form a backward commission and submit a report through it.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently told the state legislature that the Constitutional process was still on.

Asked about the trigger for the latest acts of violence and suicides by protesters, Rajendra Kondhare, general secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh, said members of the community were losing patience.

The Mahasangh was clueless about who were the people engaged in violence under the guise of the protest, he said.

"People are not ready to listen now. The anger now is beyond control. The layman won't understand that the court procedures take time. So, people and courts can't be blamed," he said.

Kondhare underscored a need to convene a meeting of all the political parties in the state immediately to resolve the issue.

"Opinions should be sought on what the government can do to resolve the issue immediately out of court," he said.

Sambhaji Brigade chief and state coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha Pravin Gaikwad charged the government with being arrogant and apathetic towards the demands of the community.

"Some community members staged protest in Parali (in Beed) recently. No government representatives went to them. Then they announce of staging protest in Pandharpur on the day of Ashadhi Ekadashi," Gaikwad said.

"The Chief Minister chose not to perform the maha puja, saying there were inputs about possible disturbances. Two of his ministers said the protesters had political patronage. All this led to the current protest," he said.

Both Kondhare and Gaikwad, however, maintained that the protest would be conducted in a peaceful manner.

Protesters attacked buses, stopped train services and blocked highways in parts of the state as part of their latest round of agitation, which has seen a youth commit suicide flinging himself in Godavari river in Aurangabad, while a demonstrator who consumed a poisonous substance in the same district died today.

(With inputs from Express News Service)By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The centre on Wednesday made it clear that it would deport Rohingya refugees and said talks with Bangladesh were on for their deportation because "Rohingyas are illegally staying in India".

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh told the Rajya Sabha that centre has issued orders to all states and union territories to ensure that illegal immigrants, including Rohingyas, do not possess Indian documents.

The Home M informed the Parliament that the Centre has sent an advisory to state governments to identify illegal immigrants and take their biometric and ensure that they don't have any such document to claim Indian citizenship in the future.

"After we get report from states, we will send to the External Affairs ministry," Singh said, adding that if the need arises, India will talk to both Bangladesh and Myanmar so that Rohingyas refugees are deported. Singh's deputy Kiren Rijiju also spoke about the issue of deportation and said that as many as 52 illegal Bangladeshis will be deported on July 30 from Assam.

"GoI is impressing on them to take these people back. The process will be as per the discussion we have with a sovereign country. I cannot give assurance here," he said, responding to a supplementary questioning the Foreigners Act to defend the Centre's stand, the minister said that the centre has powers to identify, detect and deport anyone who is staying illegally in India.

Maintaining that Rohingyas have entered India illegally, Rijiju said they are staying in various states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur. "The central government has clearly given direction to states to identify, detect and start the process of deportation of Rohingyas who have entered illegally.

The Bangladesh government has agreed, identified and accepted the identity of 52 people as Bangladeshis. So, they have agreed these 52 people including one minority will be deported on July 30 at 11 am at Mankachar IPC in Assam," Rijiju said. To another supplementary question on keeping Indians in detention camps with an ulterior motive, the minister said no motive can be attached to anybody kept in detention. "Only those declared as foreigners by tribunal can be kept in detention camps.

The government on its own cannot declare anybody as foreigner and put them in a detention camp," he added. Rohingya Muslims fled to India after violence in the western Rakhine State of Myanmar. Almost 700,000 refugees have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar and arrived in Cox's Bazar since August 2017, according to the UN.By IANS

KAMPALA: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his country is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

"If I compare India-Uganda trade ties, I can see that we are in a win-win situation," Modi said while addressing the Uganda-India Business Forum here.

"But we are falling short and to correct that we need to strategise," he said.

Stating that Ugandan President is right in saying that there is trade imbalance between India and Uganda, the Prime Minister said: "India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda."

He exhorted the business community to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda.

"India is ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in this country," Modi stated.

He also stressed on innovation saying that without this the world cannot go ahead.

"Uganda can go ahead if the youth of Uganda and India work together," he said, adding that the East African country can play an important role in the overall development of Africa.

On his part, Museveni, while exhorting the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment, said: "You are in the right place in the right time."

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.Siddhanta Mishra By

Express News Service

ALWAR: Three days after alleged cow smuggler Rakbar Khan died following an assault by a vigilante group, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria on Tuesday recommended a judicial probe saying there was prima facie evidence of custodial death. Akbar may have lived had the police taken him to the hospital immediately, Kataria agreed. All information we have till now points towards his death in police custody. Keeping an injured victim in the police station was a clear error of judgement. So was taking the cattle to the shelter before shifting Rakbar to the hospital, Kataria told the media after visiting the crime scene in Lalawandi village of Ramgarh in Alwar.

We have written to the additional chief judicial magistrate to initiate a probe, Kataria said. Whether or not anyone is a cow smuggler, killing cannot be justified, he added. Kataria was accompanied by Chief Secretary D B Gupta and Director General of Police O P Galhotra. He also met the victims family. They will get an initial compensation of rs1.25 lakh.

The developments came on a day when the autopsy report pointed to death due to shock as the body had 13 injuries from a blunt weapon or object. Also, 750 ml of blood was found in his left lung, indicating internal bleeding. He had two broken ribs and a fractured arm.By PTI

PATNA: The wife of one of the accused in the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal today alleged that her husband, a government official, was falsely implicated to shield the husband of a state minister who frequented the facility.

The minister, however, dismissed the allegation as politically motivated and said none of the victims had given statements that could corroborate what was being alleged.

I demand a CBI inquiry into the case. My husband is being framed to save some big people. He was doing his duty honestly," the accused official's wife said, demanding investigation into the role of Chandeshwar Verma, the husband of social welfare minister Manju Verma.

Shibha Kumari, wife of Muzaffarpur District Child Protection Officer Ravi Roshan, who was arrested a month ago, told TV channels he used to visit the shelter home frequently and his role needs to be probed.

My husband had been pressing for necessary renovations, replacement of CCTV cameras, things which were essential for the security of the girls lodged there," she said.

"He appears to have paid the price. I have been told that the minister's husband used to visit the shelter home with other people, who waited downstairs while he himself spent time on the upper storey, she alleged.

However, the minister rejected the allegation, saying, It is a disgusting example of a politically motivated smear campaign. Nearly a month has passed since the official was arrested and the allegation has been made only now, on a day when the leader of the opposition in the assembly Tejashwi Yadav visited the town.

Asked whether her husband had, indeed, ever visited the Muzaffarpur shelter home, the minister said, I visited the balika griha in February this year and he had accompanied me." "I can say that had I been more experienced, I would not have taken my husband along on an official tour. But all this talk of his frequent visits is nonsense and intended to tarnish our reputation," she said.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The anti-terror commando force, NSG, has been deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for strengthening the existing security grid, Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said today.

The government has decided to deploy a task force of the National Security Guard (NSG) in the Kashmir Valley to strengthen the existing security grid and undertake capacity building training of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Armed Police Forces, he said in the Rajya Sabha.

In another written reply, the Minister of State for Home said during the Ramzan ceasefire, from May 17 to June 17, 2018, as many as 117 incidents of stone pelting were reported in Jammu and Kashmir as against 219 during in the period of April 15 to May 16, 2018.The Defense Ministry will pull troops and equipment out of guard posts in the demilitarized zone under an agreement the leaders of the two Koreas reached on April 27.

In a report to the National Assembly Defense Committee on Tuesday, the ministry said, "The two Koreas agreed to demilitarize the Joint Security Area and turn it into a peace zone. As a first step, we will pull some troops and equipment out of the guard posts on a trial basis before withdrawing all of them."

The ministry did not specify any conditions or timetable for the pullout. It mentions a possible "survey of historical relics and the area's ecology" along the way. There was also no mention of any reciprocal steps from the North.

"We will make the proposal in cross-border military talks," a ministry official said. "This doesn't mean that we will pull out troops unilaterally."Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Regardless of who comes to power in Pakistan, chances of a thaw in ties with India are bleak, feel Indian analysts.

In fact, some believe that New Delhi should expect a ratcheting up of the Kashmir issue and a possible spike in terrorist infiltration as the new leadership tries to deflect attention from the economic and political crisis it will inherit on assuming office.

After asserting that the election in Pakistan was a purely internal matter, an Indian official said that the new government would face multiple domestic as well as external challenges and expectations which require urgent attention.

Economically, the impact of the greylisting of Pakistan by the Financial Action Task Force in June will start being felt now, as investors and global financial institutions start reviewing their involvement in Pakistan, he said. While this by itself is not a crisis, combine it with a growing trade and current account deficit and the rise in oil prices, and the common Pakistani will soon feel the pinch, and pressure on the new government will mount.

Externally, growing American and Western pressure to act against terrorist outfits, as well as deeply hostile and distrustful neighbours in the east and the west, both of which accuse Islamabad of using terror as a state policy, will continue to pose a challenge to the new government.

Internally, the rise of the religious right, and the subsequent pressure to evolve into a more rigid Islamic state will also clash with the secular elements which still exist in the country, he felt. "Ensuring enough power, water, and civic amenities, particularly in cities with large populations like Lahore and Karachi" will also need urgent attention and money, which is already in short supply.

And then, of course, even a pliant Prime Minister who toes the establishment/military line will eventually realize that being a puppet PM is not as easy as it sounds. Remember that Nawaz Sharif too was originally brought to power by the same military which has ensured his political castration this time, he said.

Under these circumstances, the new government might might find it convenient to distract attention by further ramping up the Kashmir issue and attacking India at international forums, while at the same time stepping up support for terrorists in the valley. Pakistani efforts to get China and Russia involved in the Kashmir dispute under the auspices of the SCO provoked indignant responses from New Delhi. But these attempts are likely to increase, and further strain any bilateral peace-building attempts, he felt.

As Mohammed Akthar, a Pakistani journalist, noted, India was not an election issue, but Kashmir is, with both the PTI and the PML(N) asserting that they would do their best to ensure that entire Kashmir becomes a part of Pakistan.

On the Indian side, there is New Delhi's 'peculiar conundrum' when it comes to dealing with Pakistan. We all know that it is the military that actually calls the shots, particularly when it comes to relations with India. But we dont talk directly with the military for fear of undermining the already hamstrung democratic civilian government, said another Indian official. Therefore, as long as the military calls the shots in Pakistan, the more things change, the more they remain the same.By PTI

NEW DELHI: The 'Institution of Eminence' status to Reliance's proposed Jio Institute and Chinese firm Alibaba's stake in Paytm were among issues law makers raised in the Rajya Sabha today.

Through a zero hour mention, K K Ragesh (CPM) said government has granted the status of 'Institution of Eminence' to six institutions of higher education - three each in public and private sector.

One of them is Jio Institute, an institute which is non-existent, he said adding the institute "plans to earn Rs 100 crore as fee" from students annually, which comes to Rs 1 crore per student.

It has been placed on par with the Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi and Bombay, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the Birla Institute of Technology at Pilani, Rajasthan and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Parliament Monsoon Session Day 6 UPDATES: Lok Sabha Speaker accepts privilege motion against PM Narendra Modi, Nirmala Sitharaman

Narendra Jadhav (Nominated) raised the issue of Chinese firm Alibaba's stake in Paytm, which he saw as a "grave danger to national security".

With Paytm applying for a non-banking finance company (NBFC) license, the Chinese company is seeking to capture domestic lending market through predatory pricing and dumping, he said, adding Alibaba would get access to private data and expose India to "geopolitical risks".

He saw this as "surreptitious Chinese aggression" and said unfettered access can destroy strong fabric of services sector in India.

Ritabrata Banerjee (TMC) asked the government not to sell Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Ltd as it has started to make profits.

Instead the central government should extend support to the company, he said.

Vishambhar Prasad Nishad (SP) raised the issue of compensation for farmers whose land is being acquired for the Jhansi-Khajurao National Highway, saying they were being paid on the basis of 2008 circle rates.

The farmers, he said, should be paid four times the present circle rate and not two times.

Madhusudan Mistry (Cong) sought land rights for non- tribal forest dwellers by reducing the criteria of proof of living in forests.By Express News Service

MUMBAI: Even as the Maratha quota stir turned violent, the politics around the issue has started heating up. While at least two MLAs have resigned from their posts till now, the NCP and the Congress have targeted Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis blaming him for letting the situation escalate and Shiv Sena said that the BJP is contemplating changing the Chief Minister.

Shiv Sena MLA Harshavardhan Jadhav, who represents Kannad assembly constituency from Aurangabad district offered to resign in support of the Maratha quota demand.

He had recently announced to step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met. He was participating in a sit up stir at the collector's office since two days and had given a deadline till 5 pm today. Accordingly after 5 pm he sent a letter to Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav.

The letter stated that he was tendering his resignation this afternoon. He is the son-in-law of BJP's state unit president Raosaheb Danve. Another MLA from adjacent district Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar, who represents Vaijapur assembly constituency for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) too announced that he is resigning to push for the Maratha quota cause.

NCP chief Sharad Pawar, in a statement released here last night had blamed Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil for failing to handle the situation in the state in a sensibly.

State Congress chief Ashok Chavan accused the government of planning to destabilize communal harmony by forcing Maratha leaders to escalate the agitation. "The government is planning to isolate the Maratha community by letting the leaders to escalate the agitation and pitching the other social groups in the state against the community," Chavan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Leader of opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil accused the government of assigning duties to revenue and police officers based on their castes while handling the Maratha stir."Such an utterly casteist things had never happened in the state in past 60 years. But, the BJP government has done so in just 4 years.

I have credible information that the officers were called over phone and asked to name their castes before assigning duties to them. This amounts to questioning integrity of the officers based on their cast," he said. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut told the media persons that the BJP is contemplating to change the Chief Minister. However, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil quickly refuted the claim.

"The state government has completely failed to handle the situation and hence Modi-Shah duo should take a decision on leadership change," Raut had said while adding that whatever Pawar had said too is true.Ramananda Sengupta By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Indian community in Rwanda, estimated at around 3,000, is delighted with the visit of Narendra Modi to their country, the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister. During his interaction with the community leaders in Kigali on Monday evening and Tuesday morning before leaving for Kampala, Uganda, Modi invited them to attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas next year as well as other business and cultural events in India.

On behalf of the Indian community, I would like to convey our sincere thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for visiting Rwanda and giving us this wonderful opportunity. It is indeed a great milestone between these two countries for further strengthening bilateral relations, trade partnership and socio-economic exchange. We were honoured to have listened to his kind words and received the personal invitation for Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, along with other occasions well packaged by our PM himself, Mukesh Sahu, Chairman, Indian Community in Rwanda (INAR), told The New Indian Express.

Its a great honour for Indians in Rwanda to receive Narendra Modi ji in Kigali, concurred INAR Vice-chairman Srinath Vardhineni. His visit will certainly help Indians in Rwanda and enhance our bilateral relationship with Rwanda. Opening of the Indian High Commission in Rwanda is another milestone in foreign policy of the government of Mr Modi to make India a global power, he said. Apart from the community in Rwanda, several Indians from the neighbouring states of Democratic Republic Of Congo and Burundi had also come to Kigali to interact with Modi.By PTI

AURANGABAD: With the Aurangabad district emerging as the epicentre of Marathas' agitation for reservation after the death of two protesters, a Shiv Sena MLC joined the stir, demanding an ordinance for the quota and threatening to resign by 4 pm today if no decision was taken on the issue forthwith.

Sena MLC Harshwardhan Jadhav, who represents the Kannad constituency in Aurangabad in the state's in Marathwada region, staged a protest today outside the collector's office and demanded that the government bring an ordinance to provide reservation to the community.

"I have urged the government to bring an ordinance and call a special session of the state legislature to discuss the issue and give reservation to the community," he told reporters here.

Both Maharashtra and the Centre are ruled by the same party (BJP), so there will no problem in getting clearance for the ordinance, he said.

"If no decision is taken in this connection till 4 pm today, I will resign as the member of the Legislative Council," he said.

Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire and Congress MLC Subhash Jhambad were manhandled yesterday during the last rites of one of the protesters, Kakasaheb Shinde (27).

Shinde had jumped to death from a bridge over the Godavari river in Aurangabad on Monday.

Another protester, Jagannath Sonawane, 55, consumed a poisonous substance yesterday during the agitation.

He died at the Government Medical College and Hospital here this morning.

Besides, protester Jayendra Dwarkadas Sonawane (28), who jumped from the bridge on river Venganga on Nashik-Aurangabad road yesterday, was undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Another agitator, Amol Jagtap (26), from Latur district had set himself ablaze but was over-powered by the police.

He was undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Latur for his injuries.

Amid the protests, Shyam Lakhan Kadgaonkar, a head constable from Osmanabad, died yesterday near Shinde's funeral venue.

"The postmortem report is awaited. Some injury marks were seen on his hands and legs," a police official had earlier said, adding another constable got injured there in stone-pelting.

Protesters had yesterday torched at fire brigade van and a state transport (ST) bus during the agitation.

Internet services were also suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district yesterday to prevent any untoward incident.

As the stir for reservation in jobs and education intensified, the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, took its battle to Mumbai today where it has called for a shutdown.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday informed the Parliament that Maoists and terror groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen may be using children in their operations.

However, the Home ministry said there is no information that children were being used as human bombs by these terror groups. There are reports some terrorist or extremist groups in the country, such as the Maoists, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen, are misusing children to further their agenda, said Union Home Minister for state Kiren Rijiju.

In the left-wing extremism affected states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, there were reports that "some groups use children in their nefarious designs to destabilise the state", the minister said during the question hour.

The minister, however, added that the government was trying to open schools and carry out skill development activities to bring the children in left-wing extremism affected areas to the mainstream.

Union Home Minister for State Hansraj Gangaram Ahir also responded to a similar question posed by parliamentarian KVP Ramachandra Rao who wanted to know children were being forcibly recruited into antisocial armed groups.

Ahir said,"The government is aware that some terrorist/extremists groups in the country forcibly induct children as armed cadres and for other supporting activities. 'Police' and 'Public Order' being state subjects, action with respect to maintenance of law and orderlies primarily in the domain of the State Governments concerned, who deal with the various issues related to extremists and terrorist activities in the States. The State Governments initiate legal action on a case-by-case basis in such matters.

The Central Government supports the States by providing CAPFs and helping States to build their capacities to tackle terrorists/extremists groups. The government has also enacted "Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 making punishable use of children by militant groups or adults for illegal activities."

While replying to supply questions, the minister said there was a reference in the United Nations about armed conflicts in India, to which government has objected. "There is no armed conflict in India. We have objected to a reference in the UN," he said.Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Dubbing Congress president Rahul Gandhi's hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament a mere political stunt, UP CM Yogi Adityanath dared the Congress chief to try and hug him. Disapproving of such acts, the CM said that Rahul Gandhi would think at least 10 times before making an attempt to hug him.

The CM was talking to a news channel here on Tuesday. On being asked if he would reciprocate the hug in a given situation, Yogi said: "Such political stunts are not acceptable to me at any cost." Calling Rahul Gandhi's behaviour childish, Yogi said he neither had the wisdom nor the ability to take his own decisions. "A sensible person will never do such things (hug)," observed the CM.

ALSO READ | Fearing a hug, BJP MPs take 'two steps back' whenever they see me: Rahul Gandhi

He said instead of hugging leaders, the Congress chief embrace the people of the country. It may be recalled that on Sunday, Congress Working Committee adopted a resolution projecting party chief Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the big battle of 2019. Even the CWC also authorised Rahul Gandhi to take decision on alliance with like-minded party to keep the BJP away from power after next elections.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath (File | PTI)

Raising the leadership issue of any prospective grand alliance, the CM wondered if Akhilesh and Mayawati would accept Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate against Narendra Modi.

"Will Sharad Pawar of NCP agree to work under Rahul Gandhi?" asked CM Yogi. He asked why the opposition, so desperate to oust BJP government, was not able to announce their leader.

"Each opposition party leader is humming his/her own tune," said Yogi adding that 2019 would compel the voters to compare six decades of Congress rule with four years of Modi government. On the issue of mob lynching, the CM said it could not be allowed at any cost but he believed that even cow smuggling and slaughter would have to be stopped as well.

"Killing in the name of Gau Raksha cannot be allowed at any cost. Incidents of mob lynching are being highlighted more now. People should not take law in their hands and those who will try to take law in their hands will have to face strictest action," said CM Yogi Adityanath.

Meanwhile, he did not mince words in blaming the previous SP regime for leaving the state in a situation where lawlessness ruled the roost. On the frequently collapsing buildings, the CM called it a construction racket run by corrupts and flourishing in the previous regime.

"But now no such racket would be allowed to thrive on tax payers money," he claimed.By PTI

AHMEDABAD: The opposition Congress today alleged that the BJP government in Gujarat "misused" the state machinery to influence the outcome of the Visnagar rioting case, in which Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and two of his aides were sentenced to two years jail by a court.

Hardik, along with Patidar leaders Lalji Patel and A K Patel, were today sentenced by a Gujarat court to two years jail in a case of rioting and arson in Visnagar town in July 2015. The court later granted bail to them.

Reacting to the court order, state Congress chief Amit Chavda said the BJP government was trying to "suppress" the voice of the youth who are fighting for the rights of their community so they do not dare to stand against the government.

"The dictatorial BJP government committed atrocities against the youths fighting for their community by slapping false cases on them in an attempt to suppress their voice," Chavda told reporters.

"Judiciary is supreme, and I am not here to comment on the order. But to suppress the voice of the agitators, the government produced false evidences and misused the government machinery to influence the outcome of the case. Everybody has faith in judiciary. When the matter goes to the higher court, things will become clear," he said.

Chavda also pointed out that ahead of the last year's state polls, the government had promised to withdraw the cases against the Patidar community members.

"The government had said that cases against Patidar agitators will be withdrawn. Now that the elections are over, the BJP government is trying to suppress the voice so that the agitators do not fight for their rights," he said.

Reacting to the court judgement, the ruling BJP said the identity of Gujarat as a state believing in "non-violence, love and peace" should not be disturbed.

State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said, "Gujarat believes in non-violence, love and peace. This identity of Gujarat should not be disturbed."

Dilip Sabva, a member of Hardik's team said the court verdict has "exposed" the state government's claims regarding withdrawal of cases related to the Patidar agitation.

"The court's order has exposed the state government's

claims that it has withdrawn cases related to the quota agitation. But so far no case has been withdrawn," he said.

In the run up to the 2017 polls, the state government had said that it would withdraw cases filed against most of the individuals from the community related to the 2015 quota agitation. It had later claimed that 109 cases have been withdrawn, and assured to withdraw another 136 cases.

Visnagar MLA Rushikesh Patel, whose office was vandalised during the 2015 rioting, said the court's judgement is based on the evidences, including witnesses' accounts, and hence cannot be questioned.

"Any judgement is based on various facts, including

the evidences and witnesses' accounts. We cannot question a court's judgement. Whatever decision it took is right," he said.

Congress MLA Lalit Vasoya, former member of Hardik

Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), said the court order will be challenged in the high court. He also appealed to the youth of the Patidar community to maintain peace.

"We accept the order. We will appeal against the order in the high court. I also appeal to the Patidar youths in the state not to take any steps that could affect the outcome of the case," he said.

Visnagar Sessions Court Judge V P Agarwal today held

Hardik Patel and his aides guilty under the Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to rioting, arson, damage to property and unlawful assembly and sentenced them to two years imprisonment. They were later granted bail by the same court.

Hardik has been leading an agitation for reservation to the members of his Patidar community in government jobs and educational institutes. He has been booked in several cases including that of sedition.Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Four men--two Hindus and two Muslims--were thrashed, dragged and abused by a mob of villagers on charges of cattle theft in Hathras, 200 km from Delhi, early on Monday morning.

The men were assaulted after the residents of Nagla Mandhati village in Purdilnagar locality of Hathras caught them transporting a dead buffalo in a pickup van.

The infuriated villagers vented their ire on the four men, charging them with stealing the animal and killing it. Meanwhile, someone informed the police at Hasayan police station. Police rushed to the village to control the violent mob which was beating up the four men.

After receiving assurances from the police, the mob handed over the four men to the cops.

The villagers alleged that the buffalo had been poisoned by the four men.

The police took the men to Hasayan police station, around 50 km from where the incident took place. They claimed that the buffalo owner was called to establish the facts.Girl group A Pink will embark on a tour of Asia next month, the group's agency said Tuesday.

The tour will kick off in Hong Kong on Aug. 11, followed by shows in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Sept. 9 and Jakarta, Indonesia on Sept. 26.

It will be the third Asian tour for the group following their tours in 2016 and 2017.

The agency said, "The members are giving all they have to put on a great performance for their fans."By Express News Service

KOLKATA: A mute woman was gang-raped by four persons when she visited a local fair in Patrasayer in Bankura district of West Bengal. The incident occurred when a neighbourhood woman took the victim to a local village fair on the occasion of 'Ulta Rath' on Sunday evening.

However, the woman returned alone after losing contact with the victim in the rush at the fair. Later at night, the victim's father, a daily wager, heard that his daughter was found at a bamboo grove.

"My daughter indicated through sign language that she had been tied up and gang-raped. Upon asking the name of the perpetrator, she wrote the name of Shyamsundar Khanra of Moukuchi village. I summoned Shyamsundar to our house that very night and he confessed his crime and gave the names of the remaining accused whom we also summoned. As soon as my daughter identified them, the accused fled from the village," the victim's father said. The victim's father lodged a police complaint on Monday and accused Shyamsundar Khanra was arrested on Tuesday from Moukuchi village.

"We have recovered liquor bottles from the bamboo grove and have arrested one person. A manhunt has been launched for the remaining accused. The victim's family has demanded police protection from the accused which will be provided to them," Bishnupur SDPO Sukamal Kanti Das said.

A case has been lodged under Indian Penal Code Sections pertaining to gangrape and physical assault. The accused was produced in Bishnupur dub-divisional court on Wednesday and police was awarded three-day custody of the accused.

The victim's statement has been recorded and her medical tests were done. Meanwhile, it has been alleged that a group of local Trinamool Congress leaders barged into Patrasayer Police Station on Monday evening and forced the victim's family to withdraw the complaint and threatened to kill them if they did not withdraw the complaint.

However, Patrasayer TMC block core committee member Naba Pal said: "These are baseless allegations. We also want that the accused be punished."By PTI

NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi today asserted that the Congress along with other opposition parties will fight the BJP without hating it, but wondered whether he can expect the same from the rival party.

Speaking at an event here, he said the atmosphere in India from his perspective was "coloured with a lot of hatred, anger and frustration".

"You can fight someone with all your might, but hate is a choice... I may disagree with Mr (L K) Advani, I may have a completely different conception of the country from that of Mr Advani.

"And I can fight Mr Advani on every single inch, but I don't need to hate him," Gandhi said at launch of journalist Karan Thapar's book 'Devil's Advocate -- The Untold Story'.

ALSO READ | Fearing a hug, BJP MPs take 'two steps back' whenever they see me: Rahul Gandhi

A host of leaders like former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former vice president Hamid Ansari, senior BJP leader and former deputy prime minister Advani, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, and former Union minister Karan Singh among others were present at the event.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani greets Congress President Rahul Gandhi as his daughter Pratibha Advani looks on during the book launch of Karan Thapar's 'Devil's Advocate' in New Delhi. (Photo | PTI)

"Karan Singh ji has taught me a lot about our country, about our religion. There is one thing that our religion teaches us, is that you absolutely cannot get imprisoned by hatred," Gandhi said.

He said it has been his endeavour to keep hate out.

"I will take on Narendra Modi ji, all the Congress people sitting here, my friend on the left there Mr (CPI-M chief Sitaram) Yechury, we will all take on the BJP and they will fight us, but we don't need to hate them. I don't know if I can expect the same from them," Gandhi said.

He said that politicians tend to see the world as either "them or us".

"This is not my natural way, but as Advaniji or Manmohan Singhji will tell you that this is the design of our politics, it's confrontational and it's winner takes it all. But this is not how I am designed inside and I am sure this is not how many of you are designed inside," Gandhi said.

He also took a swipe at the BJP over his hugging Prime Minister Modi in Parliament, saying now the party's MPs take "two steps back" on seeing him fearing he may embrace them too.

Gandhi narrated an incident during his visit to Vietnam about 10 years ago to emphasise that one can fight someone with all might but does not need to hate.

He said he had hired a boatman to take him for a ride on the river Mekong during which the man told him that he had fought against the Americans during the Vietnam War.

The Congress president said the boatman showed him several injury marks on his body.

Gandhi said when he asked the boatman if he hated the Americans, he replied that he fought them but did not hate them.

Thapar, speaking after Gandhi, talked about many interesting interviews he conducted throughout his career, but singled out his 2007 interview with Modi that was ended by the then chief minister within two or three minutes after a few questions.

Asked why he goes to London every year during the time of New Year, Thapar said, "I am a great believer that you have to begin a year in a civilised country."

Later on, when asked what is the one question he would like to ask Advani, Thapar said he would ask whether he would wear a suit with his name printed on the stripes.Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Former chief of Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) does not think his country will hand over Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in which 164 people were killed, to India.

Asad Durrani has gone on record to state that the cost of handing over Saeed to India would be too great. His conversation with former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) chief AS Dulat on Saeed and other topics related to India- Pakistan tiesthe surgical strikes, Kulbhushan Jadhav, Nawaz Sharif, Kashmir, Hurriyat and Burhan Waniare part of a new book titled The Spy Chronicles: RAW ISI and the Illusion of Peace.

The book has been written by Dulat, Durrani and senior journalist Aditya Sinha. In a freewheeling talk with Dulat and Sinha about Saeed, Durrani admits that the LeT chief being put under house arrest may have been choreographed to let the storm blow over and that he may be free within six months.

Saeed was released in November 2017 after 10 months of house arrest. One would expect that theres an arrangement with Hafiz Saeed. Isnt that what happens most of the time?...

The Chilcot Report blames Tony Blair, yet he is still not been hauled up, Durrani says, while comparing cases pending against Saeed to legal matters against Blair, former prime minister of Britain.

The Chilcot Report, published in 2016, was an inquiry into the 2003 Iraq invasion which found Blair guilty of exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Husein and of going to war before exhausting all peace options.

Durrani also says, If you prosecute Hafiz Saeed, the first reaction will be: its on Indias behalf, youre hounding him, hes innocent etc. The political cost is big, now. To this, Dulat asks Durrani as what is Saeeds value in Pakistan, apart from his involvement in terror attacks and the fact that he keeps abusing India. Durrani responds, The cost of prosecuting him is too great.The prime minister is the boss, not the army chief. This is what the constitution says. In hindsight, it seems that there will be no remark former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will regret making more than this one, said around the time of his 2013 election victory. The seeds of discord and power struggle between the civilian government and the army sown since 2013 finally culminated in the passing of three judgments.

The first two judgments were by the Supreme Court of Pakistanthe first led to the removal of Nawaz as prime minister last year; subsequently the second judgment led to his permanent disqualification from holding any political office, including his right to be the president of his own political party, the PML-N.

The third and most recent judgment authored by Justice Muhammad Bashir of the National Accountability Court in Islamabad, sentencing Sharif to 10 years imprisonment along with a fine of $10.6 million, is virtually the death knell for Nawazs long-term political future and immediate prospects in the July 25 general elections. Apart from sentencing Sharif, his daughter and political heir Maryam, and son-in-law Safdar Awan were also sentenced to imprisonment for seven years and one

year respectively.

The coercive role of the military establishment behind the aforementioned three judgments cannot be understated. Nawazs ouster and subsequent annihilation are no departure from the culture of democratic murder seen in Pakistan, where no prime minister has completed his full term, with the first peaceful democratic transition from one civilian government to another having taken place as late as 2013. From Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to Nawaz and now Imran Khan, the blue-eyed boys of the military have kept changing, but what has remained constant is the Pakistan militarys control over the civilian government.

Last year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified Nawaz as prime minister on grounds of violating Islamic injunctions under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitutionintroduced under the military dictatorship of General Zia-ul-Haq in 1985which requires a Member of Parliament to be possessing sagacious virtues (the Prophets virtues) of being ameen (honest) and sadiq (morally upright).The judgment was an antithesis of the spirit of rule of law on many counts. While Nawazs involvement in the Panama Papers case was still not proven, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, it seemed, was on an all-out fishing expedition against him. The shocking grounds for the dismissal lie in his failure to declare a sum of 10,000 dirhams (a measly sum by all yardsticks) that he was entitled to receive, but indeed never received, as the chairman of a Dubai-based company.

More shocking, however, was the blind acceptance of the findings of the joint investigative panels report by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. It is pertinent to note that two of the six members on this panel were members of the armed forces and were also involved in previously investigating Nawazs government over the Dawn media group leaks, thus clearly having reasons to be biased against him.

The blanket denial of the right to free and fair trial, a prerequisite to the concept of rule of law, was indeed unprecedented and points towards a larger trend of tacit support of the judiciary for the military. Can the ingenious doctrine of necessity evolved by the Supreme Court, designed to validate military coups, ever be forgotten?

The Supreme Court subsequently imposed a life ban from holding any political office on Sharif. Article 62 (1)(f) nowhere mentioned the quantum of punishment. In a clear case of excessive punishment, the apex court, departing from past precedents of one year and five years punishment, went on to impose a life ban.The issue before the National Accountability Court was of a limited nature: Whether the four undeclared apartments in London were procured by corrupt, dishonest or illegal means. The motivated intention of the judge was at full display by the fact that despite acquitting Nawaz of the charges, he was yet convicted for his failure to explain how he came to own the properties in question.

Nawaz, at least in recent memory, was the most pro-development and pro-peace PM of Pakistan. A major reason for his strained relations with the Pakistan army was his desire to have peaceful relations with India and Afghanistan. The Dawn media group leaks of 2016 highlighting the rift between the civilian government and army, over the latters use of terrorist groups against India in Kashmir, is a clear case in point.

With a resurgent army and the consequences of taking on the army aptly visible to the civilian leadership, the armys increased say in foreign policy is but, a natural corollary. Foreign policy is synonymous with security issues handled by the army and has been a tool employed in legitimising the armys control over the country. Projecting India as a perennial existential threat while looking at Afghanistan as a strategic deep asset serves the interests of the army well by drawing attention away from its own domestic failings.

Pakistan desires to have Afghanistan as her client state. Her support to insurgent groups like the LeT, Haqqani network and Mullah Nazir network is well documented; this support is likely to only increase further. Due to Pakistans new domestic equations, India and Afghanistan getting targeted further is very likely. Its about time that India stands shoulder to shoulder with her beloved Kabuliwalas and strengthens her security co-operation with Afghanistan even further.

(Najibullah Azad is a former spokesman for the President of Afghanistan E-mail: nj.aazad&gmail.com

Aditya Manubarwala is a former Attache to the Office of the Speaker of the LokSabha E-mail:adityamanubarwala@gmail.com)By Express News Service

VISAKHAPATNAM: A two-member gang, which cheated poor people out of their hard-earned money by promising huge sums for their kidneys came to light here. Police found that the racketeers administered several injections to the victims claiming it was a necessary procedure to be followed before retrieving their kidneys. Though they did not retrieve the organs from the victims, the procedure badly affected their health and each victim was made to cough up `45,000 towards treatment cost.

The fraud which had occurred a year ago, came to light on Monday night when 5 victims approached PM Palem police.

According to the victims, the fraudsters included wife of a retired assistant sub inspector of police and a fake doctor. Police in the preliminary investigation found that the duo had collected ` 45,000 from each of the victims in the name of treatment.

Hours after receiving the complaint, police nabbed the woman, M Lakshmi, a resident of BC Road in Gajuwaka and wife of retired ASI Appala Swamy. However, the main accused, Shankar alias Karthik, is yet to be nabbed.

According to PM Palem Inspector K Lakshma Murthy, its Lakshmi, who initially approached the poor and wooed them to sell their kidneys. She assured that each donor would earn as much as `35 to `40 lakh. Lakshmi would then take them to Shankar, who introduced himself to the victims as Karthik, a doctor at King George Hospital. The modus operandi was that once the victims gave their approval to donate their kidneys, Lakshmi would take them to the KGH.

They were made to wait at some place. Then Shankar would emerge from the hospital wearing white coat and stethoscope to make them believe that he was indeed a doctor. He used to convince them that they would get `35 lakh each, but for that organ removal, they had to take some injections, for which they should `45,000, the CI told TNIE.

After the victims paid the amount to the fake doctor, he used to visit their homes and give a series of injections to them.

The police said that five persons had approached them from various parts of the city, complaining that Shankar had administered such injections to them about a year ago. But he never turned up. The police said the duo enacted an elaborate drama just to cheat the poor and gullible people.

According to the victims, there were about 30 to 40 persons who fell into the trap of the cheats. The five victims informed police that they had agreed to donate their organs in the hope that their families would lead a happy life.By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Taiwanese firm Wistron Technologies is planning to set up the countrys biggest facility to manufacture Apple products in Karnataka with an investment of `3,000 crore. The company officials, who met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday, sought land at Narasapur industrial area in Kolar district for the greenfield project.

The company that was assembling iPhone SE and iPhone 6S at its facility at Peenya in Bengaluru, is looking to expand its operations in the country. Sources said it plans to set up facilities at Narasapur for assembling all Apple products.

According to CMO officials, during the meeting, a senior executive from the company explained to the CM that the iPhone manufacturing unit, which is being established in an area of about 43 acres, is going to be the biggest project of its type in the country. It will generate employment opportunity for 10,500 people and the company intends to expand the unit, executives from the firm told the CM.

The CM welcomed the idea and asked the company to submit proposal for grant of land required for expansion. He also suggested the company to set up a mobile repair and technology facility in the area as technicians in this field are in demand.

Revenue minister R V Deshpande, who was also present, said that an MoU in this regard can be signed in seven days, provided the company assures to provide employment to Kannadigas. Deshpande was Industries minister in the previous Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.M G Chetan By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The conspirators of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh murder, who meticulously executed the killing, had also taken care not to give away their real identity even to those involved in the murder and its planning. They operated using multiple aliases so that even if other accused were caught, the police would not get their real names and identities.But that very plan backfired, rendering them sitting ducks when special investigation team (SIT) came knocking on their doors  because every time an arrest was made they assumed it was the wrong man that was held and did not take any measures to avoid the SIT.

SIT sources  which feel it is on the brink of completing the probe soon  said Amol Kale, Amit Degwekar, Sujeet Kumar, Manohar Edave and Nihal alias Dada, who played a key role in the conspiracy and recruitment of men to carry out the murder, had not revealed their real identities to those who joined their team at various stages. Till now, police are not sure of the real name of Nihal alias Dada, as he is still at large.

Kale, who played a key role in conspiracy and planning, had met other accused persons at different places and at religious meetings. He never introduced himself using his real name. They used to address him as Bhai or Bhaisaab. Even when they introduced him to newcomers, they addressed him as Bhaisaab. So, everyone in the gang was referring to him as Bhaisaab; and during the interrogation, too, they told they worked for Bhaisaab, an official said.

Similarly, Sujeet Kumar, who worked as a recruiter, operated using aliases such as Praveen and Manjunath. When we first took K T Naveen Kumar into custody, he told us he had operated with a person called Praveen. When asked to share more details about him, it started and ended with Praveens name. Only after we gathered information about him, we discovered his real name was Sujeet, the official said.

It was tough to gather information: official

Edave, who was also asked to identify youths who were willing to fight for the Hindu religion, was operating in the name of Manoj, while Amit Degwekar, who allegedly actively participated in the conspiracy, was using Pradeep Mahajanas his identity. The accused, who were caught at different stages, were not aware of the real identities of their handlers. It was an Herculean task to gather information about the handlers and conspirators through other means and get to them, the official added.

This, on the flip side, made the accused at large thinking SIT had caught the wrong people and were confident that the police would not suspect them. As the names of the arrested were different in news reports, other accused thought they were safe as the police had got the wrong persons. Some of them did not abscond and easily fell into our trap, police said.

SIT RECEIVES PAT ON BACK FROM ACCUSED

When the police nabbed the suspected biker Ganesh Miskin and Amith Baddi, they were reportedly surprised on how the police tracked them. Initially, they claimed that they did not know the other accused. But when we produced clinching evidence against them, they were taken aback and admitted to their involvement. After a while, they also expressed curiosity to know how we got track of them. They were surprised to know it and also praised us for the way we had got information about them, another official said.

One more held in Gauri case

The SIT probing journalist Gauri Lankesh murder has arrested a 50-year-old man in connection with the killing. This is the 10th arrest made in this case. Rajesh D Bangera, a Madikeri resident, is the arrested. He is said to be a government employee but there was no official confirmation.

Link to Kalburgi case

Sources said that the SIT team probing the murder of Gauri Lankesh may crack the Prof M M Kalburgi murder as it believes that one of the arrested in the Gauri Lankesh killing case could be the person who pulled the trigger on Kalburgi.

More than 2k GRILLED

SIT has interrogated more than 2,000 youths across Vijayapura district alone in connection with Gauri murder. Before the arrest of Manohar Edave, who was the first one to be arrested from the district in the case, the SIT had interrogated about 500 youths.By Express News Service

BENGALURU:In a clear indication that neither he nor his ministers appreciate unsolicited questions from the media, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has asked the police to restrict movement of journalists inside Vidhana Soudha.

After relentlessly accusing the media of being unfair and biased against him and his government, Kumaraswamy has asked for a designated place to be assigned for journalists and not allow them access to all areas of Karnatakas power corridor. The CM has specifically given oral instructions that journalists not be allowed near ministers chambers.

You (journalists) are seen hounding ministers, including me, holding mics asking us questions on topics that we sometimes arent even aware of. Each person tries to get responses as and when they want. You ask us questions when we are in a hurry or in some other mood, Kumaraswamy said stopping short of declaring a ban on medias free movement within the corridors of Vidhana Soudha.

The Chief Minister on Tuesday was compelled to confess that he had instructed the police to restrict media movement after being confronted by reporters. He, however, chose to mask his move as a special arrangement with better amenities to help media report better. Considering the suggestions and criticisms we have received, I have given directions to give you a separate room where ministers and officials will come and address you, Kumaraswamy said.Meanwhile, the Congress, while in agreement with the Chief Minister that media is unkind to the government, is not too happy with Kumaraswamys decision.

Government restricting media is not democratic: BJP

To justify his attempt to curb press freedom in Vidhana Soudha, Kumaraswamy said that middlemen and agents were moving around Vidhana Soudha, as captured on CCTV cameras, and interrupting ministers work and there was a need to curb illegal activities in the secretariat.

The Congress, while in agreement with the CM that media is unkind to the government, is not too happy with the decision. Some restriction is required but there really was no need to go about it this way. The CM could have called for a meeting with journalists and expressed concerns to arrive at an amicable solution. We are not sure if cabinet ministers were consulted before making such announcements, a senior Congress legislator said.

While Kumaraswamy doesnt want to be on the backfoot when confronted by the media, his cabinet colleagues have a different view. We believe in the freedom of the press. CM is perhaps concerned about security arrangements. We welcome the medias criticisms, said D K Shivakumar, Minister for Medical Education and Water Resources.

The BJP has called the decision as undemocratic. The governments order restricting media is undemocratic and against the principles of freedom of the press. The government that doesnt have a majority is imposing a dictatorial regime, said BJP spokesperson S Prakash.By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the film fraternity was beginning to find itself on two platforms over the choice of a chief guest for the Kerala State Film Awards function, the state government has decided to go ahead with plans to invite actor Mohanlal.

Announcing the decision on Tuesday, Culture Minister A K Balan said, The state government will invite actor Mohanlal as the chief guest for this years Kerala State Film Awards function.

Following the valedictory function of the 11th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala held here, Balan told reporters he will invite Mohanlal officially on Wednesday.

There is no merit in any sort of controversy. Mohanlal has taken part in the state awards functions earlier too as the chief guest. Not only Mohanlal, many others, including Tamil actor Surya and Manju Warrier, were invited as chief guests in previous awards functions, he said.

The Minister termed baseless the demand by a section of film personalities not to invite the actor.

There is nothing wrong in inviting Mohanlal as the chief guest. Even Indrans who won the Best Actor award has no disagreement on this. I hadnt invited Mohanlal earlier. But there was an unwanted controversy, Balan said.

Function on Aug 8

The award function will be held at the Nishagandhi Auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram on August 8. The controversy was triggered after award-winning director Biju said in a Facebook post that he would not participate in the Kerala State Film Awards distribution event if Mohanlal was the chief guest.

Later, many artists, technicians, media persons and cultural heavyweights signed a statement endorsing the sentiment that people from the film industry should not be invited as chief guests. Meanwhile, sources alleged it was in protest against the actor, the new AMMA president, for the decision to reinstate actor Dileep into the association even after he was removed following his arrest in the actor assault case.By Express News Service

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI Special Court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to two policemen in the custodial murder of Udaya Kumar, a 27-year-old, at Fort Police station here, on September 27, 2005.

K Jithukumar and S V Sreekumar, who were given the death sentence, are the first and the second accused in the case, where a total of six policemen are involved.

CBI special court judge J Nasser pronounced the verdict. The two took Udaya Kumar and his friend Suresh Kumar to the station from a park in the city, were found guilty of murder while T Ajith Kumar (then SI), E K Sabu (then CI) and T K Haridas (then Assistant Commissioner) were found guilty of fabricating evidences and hatching conspiracy.

ALSO READ | Crime Branch report reveals 59 criminals in Kerala police force

The other three policemen have been given a jail sentence for a term of 3-5 years. The third accused, Soman, who was an additional SI at the time of murder, died during the trial.

The case

Udaya Kumar and Suresh were whiling away time at Sreekandeshwaram Park when constables Jithukumar and Sreekumar apprehended them after they found Rs. 4,500 in his pocket. Suspecting that the cash was stolen, the policemen took them to the Fort Station for interrogation. The duo was subjected to brutal third-degree treatment in a bid to extract confession from them.

Udaya Kumar was also subjected to Uruttal  a colloquial term used to mention the torture method where the lower limbs are crushed using a heavy wooden pestle, something that was widely used on naxal sympathisers in Kerala during the Emergency.

Prabhavati gets justice after 13 long years

It was the steadfastness exhibited by Prabhavati Amma, mother of Udaya Kumar, which brought the culprits to the dock. Udaya Kumar was her only child and the pangs of his death never went away.

Prabhavati Amma breaking down outside the court after the CBI Special

Court pronounced six policemen guilty of murdering her son Udaya

Kumar while he was in police custody | B P Deepu

On the morning before he went out, Udaya Kumar had promised his mother that he would be back soon. A promise that was never fulfilled.

On Tuesday, Prabhavati said, It was his body that came back to me. After his death, I havent slept for the past 13 years, she said before breaking down into tears. I wanted to provide my son justice so that when I meet him hereafter, I could tell that I have done enough for him..

Prabhavati added that mothers who had gone through similar experiences should come out and fight against the police brutality.

Had mothers come out against the brutality earlier, such cases wouldnt have repeated. No other mothers and children should go through such an experience again, she said.The fleet review is an event held every 10 years to mark the anniversary of the armed forces. Top naval officials from 30 countries are invited, and 20 to 30 foreign warships will take part. President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to attend and inspect the vessels.

The International Fleet Review in Jeju scheduled for October faces stiff opposition from locals who do not want the noisy display of maritime force in their backyard.

But residents near the naval base and left-wing civic groups have teamed up to oppose the event.

Residents of Gangjeong Village held a debate on Sunday, where government officials tried in vain to convince them to support the fleet review.

The Defense Ministry and the Navy have been trying to impress on the villagers the importance of the 70th anniversary of armed forces. The Navy says time is running out, since it needs to select a venue by the end of this month so that invitations can be sent out and accommodation arranged.By Express News Service

CHENNAI: In an unexpected development, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam was denied an audience by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at her office in New Delhi, on grounds that he had no appointment. However, Panneerselvams confidante, Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan, met the Minister.

The development has upset AIADMK functionaries, more so as it comes days after the party supported the BJP-led central government during the no-confidence motion. On returning from Delhi, Panneerselvam reacted, saying Arignar Anna has taught us edhayum thaangum idhayam vendum (we should possess a heart that withstands everything), indicating Sitharamans act had hurt him but he was taking it in his stride.

Earlier in the day, when mediapersons asked about Panneerselvams sudden visit to New Delhi, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said, It is not a sudden visit. He has gone to thank the Defence Minister for providing air ambulance to bring his brother from Madurai to Chennai for emergency medical treatment recently. Later, that afternoon, Panneerselvam, at New Delhi, said the same. My visit is neither political nor official, but personal. It is to thank the Defence Minister, he told mediapersons.

Panneerselvam, accompanied by Maitreyan, went to Sitharamans office in South Block. However, only Maitreyan was allowed to meet the Union Minister. This was revealed when her office tweeted that the appointment was only for Maitreyan and she did not meet Panneerselvam.

Appointment was given to Shri V. Maitreyan, MP Rajya Sabha.



Deputy CM of Tamil Nadu, Shri O. Panneerselvam has not met Smt @nsitharaman @OfficeOfOPS @maitreyan1955 @ThanthiTV  NSitharamanOffice (@nsitharamanoffc) July 24, 2018

However, high-level sources revealed that Maitreyan had, a week ago, fixed an appointment with Sitharaman on Panneerselvams behalf. He is said to have requested that the meeting, ostensibly to thank the Minister, be kept confidential. In this context, sources said Sitharaman was irked to find Panneerselvam revealing details of their confidential meeting to media. When Panneerselvam and Maitreyan reached her office, only the latter was ushered in. In the short meeting, Sitharaman is learnt to have asked the MP why a meeting that was to be kept confidential  at his request  was revealed to media. Maitreyan could not be reached for comment.

Interestingly, Municipal Administration Minister SP Velumani, ahead of boarding a New Delhi flight on Tuesday, denied that Panneerselvams Delhi trip was a result of a rift between the Deputy CM and Palaniswami. Velumani was scheduled to meet a few Union ministers, including Sitharaman, in New Delhi on Wednesday. However, it is learnt that the Defence Minister has cancelled his appointment.

Meanwhile, a key AIADMK functionary expressed dismay at Tuesdays developments. India is a federal polity. The Defence Minister could have met the top representative of a State at least for a few minutes as he had come to her office. Just imagine if this happens to Union ministers coming to Tamil Nadu, the functionary told Express.Political observers read much more into the matter and are waiting to see how things unfold in coming days.

Defence craft given on payment basis

It is learnt that it was RS MP V Maitreyan who called Sitharaman, a few weeks ago, and put Panneerselvam on the line with her. Panneerselvam asked her if a defence aircraft from Sulur air base could be arranged to transport his ailing brother after the private aircraft hired had developed technical issues. Sitharaman said she would see what could be done. The defence aircraft was finally arranged on a payment basis.By Express News Service

HYDERABAD: Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will launch, besides Kanti Velugu and farmers insurance scheme on August 15, a scheme for Backward Classes probably in the first week of August. The government will provide Rs 50,000 to Rs 80,000 directly to BC youths for starting self-employment enterprises.

Chief secretary SK Joshi held a video conference from the Secretariat on Tuesday with district collectors on the launch of these three schemes.

While 48.26 lakh farmers have received Rythu Bandhu cheques, officials have so far registered the names of 40.64 lakh farmers for the life insurance scheme. The chief minister will formally launch the insurance scheme by distributing policy documents to some farmers on August 15.

Meanwhile, officials have asked the district collectors to hire the services of private doctors if there is any shortage of government doctors in the districts for conducting the Kanti Velugu programme. The government will provide tabs to ANMs and the senior officials will monitor the Kanti Velugu programme online every day. The CM will launch Kanti Velugu in Gajwel.

The CM will also launch a scheme for the welfare of BCs in the next two or three weeks. Under the scheme, the government will give Rs 50,000 grant to small traders belonging to BCs for self-employment. BCs doing petty businesses and wishing to upgrade it will get Rs 80,000. The beneficiaries have to make a matching contribution of Rs 20,000.

BC Scheme

The government will give Rs 50,000 grant to small traders belonging to BCs for self-employment. The beneficiaries have to make a matching contribution of Rs 20,000By AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump called Chinese trade practices "vicious" on Wednesday, his latest blast at the world's second-biggest economy as the two sides slug it out in a deepening trade war.

"China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S.," Trump said on Twitter, while his protectionist trade policies face increasing criticism from within his own Republican Party.

"They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year."

The United States earlier this month imposed 25 per cent tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products, drawing a tit-for-tat response from Beijing which targeted politically sensitive US agricultural products.

Washington has since threatened tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese exports, then upped that to $500 billion, prompting Beijing to vow further retaliation.

Trump has also accused Beijing of manipulating its yuan currency to give its exporters an edge, a charge rejected by China.

On another front, Trump's administration has hit even its close allies the European Union, Canada and Mexico with levies on steel and aluminium exports to the United States, prompting retaliation against iconic US products including bourbon whisky and orange juice.

Trump on Wednesday was to meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has dampened hopes that their talks would resolve that trade dispute.

Trump's latest tweets came a day after his administration's first acknowledgement that the aggressive trade actions are causing domestic pain, with the announcement of $12 billion in aid for farmers who have been the primary targets of Chinese retaliation.By PTI

WASHINGTON: Accusing Iran of constantly demonstrating a destabilising influence, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said today it was time Tehran shaped up and behaved responsibly, as tensions between the nations remained high after an all-caps Twitter warning from Donald Trump.

"On Iran, I think that what we have to look at is the destabilising influence that Iran has consistently portrayed and demonstrated throughout the region," Mattis told reporters during a US-Australia ministerial.

He alleged that the "only reason" Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime was in power was because Iran has "stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him.

" "We see the same kind of malfeasance down in Yemen, where they're fomenting more violence down there.

We've seen their disruptive capabilities demonstrated from Bahrain to the kingdom," he said.

"It is time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation.

It cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organisation that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the (Middle East) region," Mattis said in response to a question.

Mattis's warning came two days after US President Donald Trump threatened Iran of risking consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have suffered before".

Trump's Twitter warning had come in all caps.

"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," Trump tweeted, adding that "WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH.

BE CAUTIOUS!" Reacting to Trump's tweets, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards had suggested that it was part of US's broader strategy.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani too had cautioned that America's hostile threats against his country may trigger "the mother of all wars.

" The exchange of rhetoric came weeks after the US exited a landmark deal signed in 2015 which curbed Iran's nuclear activities in return for lifting of international sanctions.

Today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley reiterated that Iran has to stop its "destabilising behaviour".

"It has to stop its sponsor of terrorism.

It threatens consistently this country, not to mention our only ally in the region, in Israel.

And it's one of the reasons the president got out of the Iran deal, because we now know that the Iran deal did not prevent the pathway to a nuclear weapon, but in fact paved it," he said in response to a question.

Gidley said Trump was working with America's partners and allies across the world.

Iran will be a topic tomorrow for the discussions with the European Union and get Iran to stop this kind of behaviour, he said.

The president was serious in what he tweeted and said multiple times about holding Iran accountable and demeaning it stop this kind of behaviour, Gidley said.

The US is in talks with countries around the world to re-impose sanctions and hold the Iranian government responsible for the acts its government has been involved in many parts of the world, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her news conference.By IANS

LAHORE: With the two front-runners, PTI and PML-N, thought to be neck and neck, voting in the Pakistan general assembly elections ended with more than 30 political parties and 12,570 candidates in the fray.

What time will the results come in?

Voters took to the polls at 8 a.m. and it ended at 6 p.m. Votes will be counted on the spot, with results being reached in the next 24 hours.

An exact time for the announcement of the results was not yet known although a likely indicator is expected at 2 a.m.

IN PICTURES: Pakistan General Elections: Polling for the 11th general election officially ends, results awaited

However, the voting commission in Pakistan will release the results by constituency, as well as projections and votes polled for the candidates on each seat.

The election results will also come in live on the official Pakistan election website: www.ecp.gov.pk.

A poll carried out earlier this month on 3,752 people showed Khan's PTI was ahead by four per cent.

The latest opinion polls have hinted at a possible coalition with the PPP, as neither Khan nor Sharif seem likely to win a clear majority.By AFP

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump meets Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who has dampened hopes that their talks would resolve a festering trade dispute between the two key economies.

"I am not very optimistic. I know Mr Trump pretty well. I have met him frequently and know how to deal with him and know how he deals with others. We will negotiate as equals," Juncker told German public broadcaster ZDF on Wednesday.

Juncker said that the EU is "not in the dock -- we don't need to defend ourselves."

"We are here to explain ourselves and explore ways to avoid a trade war," he said.

Juncker renewed his pledge of retaliatory measures should Trump make good on his threat to slap new tariffs on EU car imports.

"We are ready to do that," he said. "We are in a position to respond appropriately right away."

Trump on Tuesday crowed that it was his tough stance and threats of auto tariffs that brought the European leader to the bargaining table.

But at home, Trump is facing increasing criticism as consumers, farmers and businesses are taking a hit from the retaliation to the raft of US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and tens of billions of dollars in products from China that he has imposed in recent weeks.

"What the European Union is doing to us is incredible," he said. "They sound nice, but they're rough."

But when threatened with tariffs on autos and auto parts, EU officials rushed to come to Washington, Trump claimed.

"Countries that have treated us unfairly on trade for years are all coming to Washington to negotiate," he said in a pre-dawn tweet. "Tariffs are the greatest!"

'We are ready': Juncker'

While Juncker is set to make a last effort to talk Trump out of the auto tariffs, which would hit Germany's dominant carmakers hard, the EU has vowed a withering response if the US goes ahead.

In his remarks to ZDF, Juncker said "we are ready" with retaliatory measures if Trump slaps tariffs on EU car imports.

"We are in a position to respond appropriately right away," he said.

Brussels has already retaliated against the steel and aluminum tariffs, imposing punitive duties on more than $3 billion of US goods, including blue jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as well as orange juice, rice and corn.

White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said last week that Juncker could be coming to Washington with a "very important free trade offer," but the Commission dismissed that idea.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said over the weekend: "We refuse to negotiate with a gun to the head."

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who will accompany Juncker, expressed hope for a "de-escalation" of the tensions, but said the EU is drawing up a list of more US products that could be hit with retaliatory duties if the trip fails.

Canada, Mexico and China -- the main target of Trump's trade offensive -- have also hit back with steep duties on US goods, and have filed complaints against Washington at the World Trade Organization.

While the US claims the retaliation is "illegal," the Trump administration recognized that it is doing damage to American farmers.

The Agriculture Department announced it will provide up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by trade tariffs.By AFP

BEIRUT: The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a weekend shooting that killed two people in Canada's Toronto.

The group's propaganda agency Amaq said the attacker was "one of the soldiers of the Islamic State".

"He carried out the attack in response to calls to target nationals of countries of the coalition" fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014, it said.

Faisal Hussain, 29, killed an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl in the shooting rampage on a Toronto street on Sunday evening, Canadian police said.

He was found dead near the scene of the shooting after an exchange of gunfire with police.

The attack in Toronto's bustling Greektown neighbourhood at around 10:00 pm Sunday also wounded 13 people aged 10 to 59, officials said.

Hussain's family, in a statement to CBC News, denounced his "horrific actions" and said he was suffering from mental problems.

The said he had battled "severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life".

They said medications and therapy had been unable to treat him.

Video footage posted by Canadian media showed Hussain, clad all in black, walking on a sidewalk and suddenly pulling out a handgun and shooting into a restaurant.

Witnesses said the shooting rampage lasted just a few minutes and sparked panic in the district, popular for its bars and restaurants.

Andrew Mantzios told The Globe and Mail newspaper he had seen the shooting as he sat with friends drinking coffee.

He said "a lady tried to run and she fell down", after which the shooter "turned around and shot her point blank, two or three times".

Toronto Mayor John Tory called the shooting "evidence of a gun problem" in the city.

IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but have since been ousted from most of that territory.

The jihadist group has claimed a string of deadly attacks in the West in recent years.

Canadian citizens have also been intercepted trying to reach Syria to join IS.By IANS

GENEVA: The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has urged countries to take bold action to address the HIV prevention crisis amid the ongoing 22nd International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Around 1.8 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2017 and around 50 countries experienced a rise in new HIV infections, as HIV prevention services are not being provided on an adequate scale or with sufficient intensity, UNAIDS warned on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

In its latest report, "Miles to Go: Closing Gaps, Breaking Barriers, Righting Injustices," the UN agency shows that 47 per cent of new HIV infections globally are among key populations, including sex workers, people who inject drugs, and gay men and other men who have sex with men.

ALSO READ | Scientists propose new class of antibodies against AIDS

Although combination HIV prevention approaches work for the key populations, many countries are unwilling to invest in approaches viewed as culturally or religiously inappropriate, unpopular or counter to the bad laws that may exist in a particular country.

"Health is a human rights imperative and we are deeply concerned about the lack of political commitment and the failure to invest in proven HIV programmers, particularly for young people and key populations," said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe. "If countries think they can treat their way out of their epidemics, they are dangerously mistaken."

The report warns that HIV prevalence can be high as up to 70 per cent among sex workers in some southern African countries; however, about three-quarters of countries reporting to UNAIDS criminalise some aspect of sex work and sex workers report that condoms are often confiscated by the police.

In eastern Europe and central Asia, one-third of all new HIV infections are among people who inject drugs; however, 87 per cent of countries reporting to UNAIDS criminalise drug use or possession of drugs, driving people underground and out of reach of HIV services.

"If countries don't provide comprehensive sexuality education, condoms, harm reduction or pre-exposure prophylaxis for key populations, this will ultimately translate into more new HIV infections, higher future treatment costs and a higher burden for health-care budgets and systems," Sidibe said.

In 2017, a Global HIV Prevention Coalition of UN member states, donors, civil society organisations and implementers was established to address the HIV prevention crisis.

It hopes to strengthen and sustain political commitment for primary HIV prevention by setting a common agenda, the HIV Prevention 2020 Road Map, to accelerate progress towards reducing new HIV infections by 75 per cent by 2020.

The progress, however, has not been fast enough, UNAIDS said, which enlists more efforts to move from political commitment to strong actions on the ground. That's why one of the major agendas of the ongoing International AIDS Conference, started in Amsterdam on Monday, is to discuss the urgency for scaling up HIV prevention and address persisting challenges.By PTI

UNITED STATES: US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley today criticised Middle Eastern countries for not doing enough to help Palestinians and move the peace process forward, saying that they need to "step up." "It is time for the regional states, in particular, to step up and really help the Palestinian people, instead of just making speeches thousands of miles away," Haley said at a monthly meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East.

"Where are the Arab countries when it comes to encouraging reconciliation between Palestinian factions, which is essential to peace? Where are the Arab countries when it comes to denouncing Hamas terrorism? Where are the Arab countries when it comes to supporting compromises that are necessary for peace?" Haley highlighted American assistance to the Palestinians, saying that Washington provided USD 300 million in bilateral aid last year, and "over six billion - with a B - dollars in bilateral assistance to Palestinians" since 1993.

She also mentioned US aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) - but without saying that total has been significantly cut.

Since January, US financing for humanitarian programs serving Palestinians has been suspended.

"How much have the Arab countries - some of whom are wealthy countries - how much have they given to the Palestinians?" she asked.

"Last year, Iran's contribution to UNRWA was zero.

Algeria's contribution to UNRWA was zero.

Tunisia's contribution to UNRWA was zero," Haley said.

Her French counterpart Francois Delattre asked the US to reconsider its decision to cut aid to UNRWA, calling on Washington "to shoulder its responsibilities" to help fill the agency's estimated USD 200 million gap.

Saudi Arabia has over the past two decades provided "USD 6 billion to the Palestinians in humanitarian assistance, development aid and relief," its ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, responded.Washington wants Seoul to foot a bigger portion of the cost of keeping U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula, including the entire bill for the deployment of so-called strategic assets.

The two sides have been in talks since March on how to split the costs.

U.S. and Korean officials held a fifth round of talks last Wednesday and Thursday at a military base near Seattle. A Korean official who took part said Tuesday, "The U.S. side demanded the addition of a new category called 'operational support' in the joint cost-sharing plan" that would be paid for by Seoul alone and covers the dispatch of strategic assets like nuclear-powered submarines or aircraft carriers.

Under the defense cost-sharing agreement signed in 1991, Seoul has been paying more than half of the upkeep cost of the U.S. Forces Korea. This year, it must shoulder W960.2 billion (US$1=W1,135).

The money covers building military installations, maintaining troops and weapons and pay for base personnel.

The U.S. argues that Korea needs to share the cost of joint training involving nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and strategic bombers since they will join the USFK troops in the event of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula.By AFP

TAMPA: A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising the possibility that more water -- and maybe even life -- exists there, international astronomers said Wednesday.

Located under a layer of Martian ice, the lake is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, said the report led by Italian researchers in the US journal Science.

It is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet.

"Water is there. We have no more doubt," co-author Enrico Flamini, the Italian space agency's Mars Express mission manager, told a press conference.

Mars is now cold, barren and dry but used to be warm and wet. It was home to plenty of liquid water and lakes at least 3.6 billion years ago.

Scientists are eager to find signs of contemporary water, because such discoveries are key to unlocking the mystery of whether life ever formed on Mars in its ancient past, or if it might persist today.

"This is a stunning result that suggests water on Mars is not a temporary trickle like previous discoveries but a persistent body of water that provides the conditions for life for extended periods of time," said Alan Duffy, an associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, who was not involved in the study.

Being able to access water sources could also help humans survive on a future crewed mission to Earth's neighbouring planet.

This particular lake, however, would be neither swimmable nor drinkable, and lies almost a mile deep (1.5 kilometers) beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment.

Whether microbial forms of life could lie within is a matter of debate.

Some experts are skeptical of the possibility since the lake is so cold and briny, and mixed with a heavy dose of dissolved Martian salts and minerals.

The temperature is likely below the freezing point of pure water, but can remain liquid due to the presence of magnesium, calcium, and sodium.

"This is a discovery of extraordinary significance, and is bound to heighten speculation about the presence of living organisms on the Red Planet," said Fred Watson of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

"Caution needs to be exercised, however, as the concentration of salts needed to keep the water liquid could be fatal for any microbial life similar to Earth's," added Watson, who was not involved in the research.

This image provided by the ESA/INAF shows an artist's rendering of the Mars Express spacecraft probing the southern hemisphere of Mars. The blue triangle indicates an area of very high reflectivity, interpreted as being caused by the presence of a reservoir of water, about a mile below the surface.

(Photo | AP)

Being able to access water sources could also help humans survive on a future crewed mission to Earth's neighbouring planet.

This particular lake, however, would not be drinkable and lies almost a mile deep (1.5 kilometres) beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment. Whether microbial forms of life lie within is a matter of debate.

ALSO READ | ISROs space academy eyeing Mars and Venus

Some experts are sceptical of the possibility since the lake is so cold and briny, and mixed with a heavy dose of dissolved Martian salts and minerals.

The temperature is likely below the freezing point of pure water, but can remain liquid due to the presence of magnesium, calcium, and sodium.

"This is a discovery of extraordinary significance, and is bound to heighten speculation about the presence of living organisms on the Red Planet," said Fred Watson, of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

"Caution needs to be exercised, however, as the concentration of salts needed to keep the water liquid could be fatal for any microbial life similar to Earth's," added Watson, who was not involved in the research.

Radar detection

The discovery was made using a radar instrument on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, which launched in 2003.

The tool is called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) and was designed to find subsurface water by sending radar pulses that penetrate the surface and ice caps.

MARSIS "then measures how the radio waves propagate and reflect back to the spacecraft," said the study.

These reflections "provide scientists with information about what lies beneath the surface."

A team of researchers led by Roberto Orosei of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Bologna, Italy, surveyed a region called Planum Australe, located in the southern ice cap of Mars, from May 2012 until December 2015.

A total of 29 sets of radar samplings showed a "very sharp change in its associated radar signal," allowing scientists to map the outlines of the lake.

"The radar profile of this area is similar to that of lakes of liquid water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, suggesting that there is a subglacial lake at this location on Mars," said the report.

Researchers said they are not sure how far down it goes, but maybe around three feet (one meter) deep.

Italian astrophysicist Roberto Orosei, right, meets the media during a press conference at the Italian Space Agency headquarters in Rome.

(Photo | AP)

Confirmation needed

"This is the first body of water it has detected, so it is very exciting," David Stillman, a senior research scientist in the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute in Texas, told AFP in an email.

However, Stillman, who was not involved in the research, said another spacecraft, or other instruments, need to be able to confirm the discovery.

He noted that a higher-frequency radar instrument made by the Italian space agency, SHARAD, on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005, has been unable to detect subsurface water.

"It is strange that SHARAD cannot confirm this discovery. In fact, SHARAD cannot penetrate through the ice here and no one understands why it can't," Stillman said.

"This suggests that something strange is going on here. Thus, I'm skeptical about this discovery."

But researchers are excited about the potential for future finds, because if liquid water could be found at Mars' south pole, it might be elsewhere too.

"There's nothing special about this location other than the MARSIS radar on the Mars Express spacecraft is most sensitive to that region meaning there are likely similar water deposits below the ground all across Mars," said Duffy.By PTI

LAHORE: For the first time, Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has publicly acknowledged that militant organisations are active in the country and questioned the policy to allow the "non-state actors" to cross the border and "kill" people in Mumbai, a media report said.

Sharif, who has been disqualified to hold public office for life by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, said Pakistan has isolated itself.

"We have isolated ourselves. Despite giving sacrifices, our narrative is not being accepted. Afghanistan's narrative is being accepted, but ours is not. We must look into it," Sharif told Dawn.

Without naming Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar's militant organisations -- Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Jaish-e-Mohammad, -- operating in the country with impunity, Sharif said: "Militant organisations are active in Pakistan."

"Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill over 150 people in Mumbai? Explain it to me. Why can't we complete the trial."

The Mumbai attacks-related trials are stalled in a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court.

He further said: "It's absolutely unacceptable (to allow non-state actors to cross the border and commit terrorism there). President (Vladimir) Putin has said it. President Xi (Jinping) has said it."

US President Donald Trump had accused Pakistan of giving nothing to the US but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.

Sharif, 68, was disqualified by the Supreme Court for not being "honest and righteous" as he failed to declare in 2013 a salary he got from the company of his son in the UAE.

In February, the apex court also disqualified Sharif as the head of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Citing the military and judiciary establishment, Sharif further said: "You can't run a country if you have two or three parallel governments. This has to stop. There can only be one government - the constitutional one."

"The relations between the military and the Sharif government were at its lowest ebb in October 2016 when the latter told the former to act against homegrown militant groups or face international isolation.

The Mumbai attack case has entered into the 10th year but none of its suspects in Pakistan has been punished yet, showing that the case had never been in the priority list of the country that appears to be keen to put it under the carpet.

A number of Pakistani witnesses both official and private testified and provided evidence against the seven accused, but the Pakistani authorities have been insisting on sending Indian witnesses for reaching a verdict in the case.

Some 166 people were killed in the attack carried out by 10 LeT men.

Nine of the attackers were killed by police while lone survivor Ajmal Kasab was caught and hanged after being handed down death sentence.Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Reporter

Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk).'We've worked on that (internal culture),' said the man who announced he is leaving to become deputy director of public safety for the city of Columbus, Ohio, where he was an officer for 29 years. 'And that has improved. I think we're moving in the right direction.'Reporter

Noelle McGee is a Danville-based reporter at The News-Gazette. Her email is nmcgee@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@n_mcgee).Our County Editor

Dave Hinton is editor of The News-Gazette's Our County section and former editor of the Rantoul Press. He can be reached at dhinton@news-gazette.com.Land prices in Korea rose 2.05 percent on average in the first half of this year, the fastest clip since the first half of 2008.

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Tuesday, land prices in 17 cities and provinces across the country rose in the first half of this year.

The biggest increase was in Sejong City at 3.49 percent, followed by Busan (3.05 percent), Seoul (2.38 percent), Daegu (2.35 percent) and Jeju Island (2.23 percent).

Areas that are expected to benefit from a thaw in inter-Korean relations saw the biggest growth rates. In Paju, Gyeonggi Province near the border, land prices rose 5.6 percent. The ministry said prospects of improving inter-Korean relations and expectations of an express railway linking the city with Seoul drove up prices.One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021Nathaniel Cullars arrested for battery; investigation ongoing Confrontation leads to the arrest of City Councilman Nathaniel Cullars on the charges of simple battery. Washington City Councilman Nathaniel Cullars has been arrested by the Wilkes County Sheriffs Office...

Board of Education addresses issues; receives project updates On Monday, October 18, at 2 p.m., the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Education was called to order. Sherry DuBois, W-WPS, Principal addressed the board. DuBois stated that...(Newser)  It has become traditional for American presidents to offer "readouts" summarizing their phone calls with world leadersbut President Trump didn't get where he is today by bowing to tradition. Sources tell CNN that amid the backlash to Trump's Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin, the White House has decided to stop offering the public summaries. Business Insider notes that while such calls tend to be highly coordinated, with "sterile and terse" descriptions of what was discussed, they often contribute to a good picture of an administration's foreign policy plans. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently spoke to Trump, but the administration didn't report the conversations, per CNN. (Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  A judge on Tuesday ordered the immediate release of an Ecuadorean immigrant who was held for deportation after he delivered pizza to a Brooklyn Army installation, the AP reports. "Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," US District Judge Paul Crotty wrote of Pablo Villavicencio. The Manhattan judge said Villavicencio, who was being held at a New Jersey lockup, can remain in the United States while he exhausts his right to try to gain legal status. Villavicencio applied to stay in the US after he married a US citizen, with whom he has two daughters, ages 2 and 4. The judge cited those children and said they are US citizens. "He has no criminal history," the judge wrote. "He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family."

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The US government, which had wanted the case moved from New York to New Jersey, did not immediately comment on the judge's action. Attorney Gregory Copeland, representing Villavicencio, said his lawyers expected him to be released Tuesday night. Villavicencio's wife said she was home in Hempstead waiting for a car to take her to the detention center, where she would meet with him and lawyers. The judge ruled after hearing arguments earlier Tuesday, when he put a government lawyer on the spot over the effort by immigration authorities to enforce a 2010 deportation order. He questioned the need to detain and quickly deport Villavicencio, who's 35 years old. He was arrested on June 1 while making a delivery to the garrison in Fort Hamilton. When he arrived at Fort Hamilton, guards requested identification, and he produced a city identification card. A background check showed he had been ordered to leave the United States in 2010 but stayed.

(Read more immigration stories.)(Newser)  "Bigfoot" has been found, just not the apish version. An international team of paleontologists has announced the discovery of the largest known dinosaur foot, which belonged to a close relative of the Brachiosaurus now dubbed "Bigfoot." Appropriately so, as a nearly complete left hind-foot fossil totaling 13 bones, found two decades ago in the Black Hills area of Wyoming alongside separate and smaller brachiosaur remains, shows the 80-foot-long sauropod had feet that were about 3 feet wide, report Live Science and Gizmodo. "There are tracks and other incomplete skeletons from Australia and Argentina that seem to be from even bigger animals, but those gigantic skeletons were found without the feet," researcher Emanuel Tschopp explains in a release. Described in journal PeerJ, "this beast was clearly one of the biggest that ever walked in North America."

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Researchers, who compared the foot to those of other dino species, believe it came from a brachiosaur that lived 150 million years ago, making it the first brachiosaur foot known to come from North America's Late Jurassic Period, per Mashable. Though it's not enough to identify a specific species, it's evidence that brachiosaurs covered a larger area of North America, from eastern Utah to northwestern Wyoming, than previously known. "This is surprising" as "many other sauropod dinosaurs seem to have inhabited smaller areas," Tschopp says. Noting the discovery occurred "several hundreds of miles from where we thought these guys were," fellow researcher David Burnham will look to answer new questions: "Is it a different species than the brachiosaurs down south? Or maybe they were migrating north to south?" (These tire-sized dino prints hid in plain sight.)(Newser)  "Who got such a prominent burial in the church?" It's the question archaeologists believe they know the answer to, though only timeand DNA analysiswill tell. Scientists working in Jamestown, Va., have unearthed remains they suspect might belong to Sir George Yeardley, the first governor of Virginia, one of the Colonies' first big slaveholders, and the man who established the first representative assembly in the New World, reports the BBC. The grave, found where one of Jamestown's first churches stood, immediately piqued the archaeologists' interest. At 3-feet-wide, the grave shaft was 50% wider than the graves previously found in the church, reports the Williamsburg Yorktown Daily, leading them to suspect it was no usual burial.

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Smithsonian reports there are indications they're on the right track: Yeardley died in 1627 at age 39; the skeleton belongs to a man of that age, the condition of the grave suggests it was dug before the church was deconstructed in 1639, and the grave's position in the church's central aisle means someone of prominence was likely buried there. The process of unearthing the remains began by using high-frequency ground-penetrating radar, which detected a headless skeleton with a number of teeth; the teeth were discovered to fit into a skull that had been discovered nearby in 2017. The researchers hope to have the final word on whether they've found Yeardley by the middle of next year. (Jamestown archaeologists have also been on the hunt for another prominent man's bones.)(Newser)  After an initial refusal to resign, Georgia state Rep. Jason Spencer is doing just that. The Republican who pulled down his pants and yelled racial slurs during what he believed to be anti-terrorism training with an Israeli military expert on the latest episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's Who Is America? will step down at the end of the month, according to a letter sent to Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, CNN reports. Ralston had been among the Republicans calling for Spencer's resignation given his "reprehensible" actions. "Georgia is better than this," Ralston said, while Gov. Nathan Deal said he was "disgusted" by Spencer's "appalling and offensive" behavior.

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Spencer apologized for Sunday's "ridiculously ugly episode," but initially said he would remain in office until January, having lost his primary election in May. Had he done so, Spencer's eight years in office would've made him eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health insurance for life, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But the 43-year-old physician assistant representing the Woodbine area of southeast Georgia continued to feel the pressure, with talk of a bipartisan ethics complaint. It's unclear if his resignation will factor into any legal action. Last week, Spencer told the Journal-Constitution he was considering suing the show's producers, who "took advantage of my fears that I would be attacked." (Read more Who Is America stories.)(Newser)  A Swedish student took a standliterallyagainst an Afghan man's deportation from her country, and it worked, at least temporarily. Asylum activist Elin Ersson learned the man was to be flown to Istanbul from Gothenburg and then on to Kabul and bought a ticket for that same Monday flight. She boarded and began a campaign in support of the 52-year-old asylum seeker. At some point she began live-streaming her effort. "I don't want a man's life to be taken away just because you don't want to miss your flight," she says in what BuzzFeed News reports is a 14-minute video that's been viewed 2.4 million times. "I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane," she says, repeatedly telling the flight attendant she won't quit, even as he calls her unruly and continually tells her to turn off her phone.

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Ersson didn't waver, saying the pilot could not depart so long as she was standing, that her actions were legal, and that the pilot had the power to order the man removed from the plane. The Washington Post reports things got heated, with a passenger at one point grabbing for her phone; a flight attendant returned it. The Guardian has more from her: "I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my countrys rules, I don't like them. It is not right to send people to hell." Some passengers clapped; others stood with her, and the Afghan man and the security personnel accompanying him ultimately deplaned. Deutsche Welle reports authorities still plan to deport the man, and adds that Ersson could face fines or jail time for refusing a pilot's orders, though it's unclear whether any action will be taken. One Facebook commenter called her "our Young Swedish hero!!" (Read more deportation stories.)Indonesian President Joko Widodo will send special envoys to Seoul and Pyongyang to invite their leaders to the Asian Games that open in Jakarta and Palembang on Aug. 18.

"Indonesia had also hoped to host the U.S.-North Korea summit, which was held in Singapore in June," a government source here said. "Indonesia seems to be trying to bring itself into the international spotlight by hosting a fresh inter-Korean summit there and become a second Singapore."(Newser)  State and federal agents are investigating the disappearance of a 20-year-old University of Iowa student who has been missing for nearly a week from her Iowa hometown. Volunteer searches for Mollie Tibbetts of Brooklyn were called off this week as the FBI and state investigators took over, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation rep Mitch Mortvedt says. "We're still asking for the public's help," Mortvedt said, per the AP. "The more eyes and ears we have, the better." Mortvedt said officials have little to go on, but they're "leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will." Tibbetts was dogsitting at her boyfriend's home when she disappeared; he was working a construction job about 100 miles northeast. A neighbor reported seeing her go for a jog Wednesday evening.

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The boyfriend, Dalton Jack, said he received a Snapchat photo from Tibbetts late Wednesday after she would have returned from her jog. He tells the Des Moines Register he can't recall the caption but "it looks like she is inside a house." Tibbetts was reported missing Thursday when she didn't show for work. The FBI is also using an array of computer forensicssuch as studying online history and cellphone app usagein an effort to pinpoint where she might be. Dozens of volunteers in the town of about 1,500 had been searching fields around her house and the house where she was staying. Tibbetts' aunt says the family is frustrated by the lack of progress. "We're racking our brains, thinking what can we think of to tell the investigators," Kim Calderwood said. "It's the worst thing, to want to fix something you can't fix."

(Read more Mollie Tibbetts stories.)(Newser)  An employee responsible for logging changes in address and vehicle ownership at the California DMV slept at least three hours a day at her desk for nearly four yearsand still has a job. The woman's 2,200 hours spent napping between February 2014 and December 2017 meant she completed less than half of her expected amount of work and cost the state more than $40,000, according to a worker misconduct report released Tuesday by the state's auditor. Per USA Today, the woman's doctor told the DMV that she was unable to perform her work duties, though a later doctor's note said the opposite. The employee continues to work for the state, per the Sacramento Bee. (Read more DMV stories.)(Newser)  "Till death do us part" may have sounded good to Tini Owens in 1978, but the British woman changed her mind on that timeline years ago and has been vying to end what she calls a "loveless," deteriorated marriage. But the UK's Supreme Court has dealt her a harsh blow, unanimously ruling that just because she's unhappy in the union doesn't mean she can end it, the Guardian reports. The 68-year-old has been mulling a divorce from 80-year-old husband Hugh Owens since 2012, claiming he has behaved unreasonably, but he refuses to agree to the split, saying that any issues in their marriage are because she had an affair or is simply "bored." Per the BBC, UK law decrees a divorce can only be granted without a spouse's OK in cases of adultery, desertion, or "unreasonable behavior"; if those aren't the case, a divorce will be granted only after the spouses live apart for five years.

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That means Tini Owens, who moved out of their shared home in February 2015, will have to wait until 2020 to sever all legal ties, unless Hugh Owens changes his mind. A family court judge turned down her divorce request in 2016, a decision that an appeals court panel agreed with last year. The Supreme Court judges say their decision was made with reluctanceone said she agreed to the ruling with "no enthusiasm whatsoever"but that it's up to Parliament to change the law to allow no-fault divorces so people can get out of "wretchedly unhappy marriages." Tini Owens' lawyer says she's "devastated" by the ruling and "cannot move forward with her life." The Owenses have two adult children. (A Mississippi woman fled to Washington state to get her divorce.)(Newser)  After leaving a celebration of the couple's pending nuptials, a bride-to-be fatally stabbed her fiance over a potential wedding guest, according to police. Jacqueline Souza, 31, called 911 from a home in Colorado Springs shortly after midnight Saturday, soon after leaving a local bar. When authorities arrived, they found a bloody steak knife on a kitchen table near Souza's 33-year-old fiance, Brandon Watkins, who was unresponsive on the floor, per KKTV. He was pronounced dead at the scene, reports KRDO. Souza then admitted the couple had been fighting about whether to extend a wedding invite to a woman with whom Watkins had an affair, police say. Watkins was all for the idea, but Souza, suspecting the affair was ongoing, apparently wasn't a fan. Still, she initially denied any involvement in her fiance's death.

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First, police say Souza claimed to have returned from the bathroom to find Watkins with a knife sticking out of his chest, per the Colorado Springs Gazette. Claiming a sliding glass door was ajar, Souza raised the possibility of an intruder, then said Watkins might have stabbed himself, police say. Finally, she allegedly said Watkins had grabbed her by the throat and held a knife to her face after she accused him of cheating with multiple women. Police say Souza claimed she pushed Watkins in the chest and he fell into the knife. Despite that, authorities found a bruise "roughly the size of the butt end or finger grip portion of a steak knife" on Souza's right hand. She has since been charged with second-degree murder. A neighbor tells KKTV: "To find out that kind of emotion could lead to that result, it's sad." The couple planned to wed in Las Vegas. (Read more murder stories.)(Newser)  "Four trapezoidal bars aligned on a rectangular base" may not be instantly recognizable. Put that setup in chocolate form, however, and many people would be able to distinguish it as a KitKat. Even if that's the case, the European Union's highest court just ruled that the shape of the sweet treat isn't unique enough to merit trademark protection, meaning other confectioners can potentially produce KitKat knockoffs, the Guardian reports. Nestle, which makes KitKats, has been fighting Cadbury (and then Mondelez, which ultimately bought Cadbury) in the courts for more than a decade on this issue.

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The BBC notes that Nestle first applied for trademark protection for the candy's shape in 2002, and it was granted that protection four years later. Cadbury's pushback began in 2007, and Wednesday's decision by the European Court of Justice essentially tells the EU trademark office it now has to "reconsider" its original decision. What that means, however, is that if the EU Intellectual Property Office finds, based on more recent evidence, that the KitKat bar's shape is recognizable in enough countries, it can retain the trademark protection, per Reuters. The brand name itself of "KitKat" is not being contested. (Atari accused Nestle of ripping off one of its popular video games in an ad for KitKat.)(Newser)  A recording of then-candidate Donald Trump and longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen discussing a hush money payment involving a former Playboy model over an alleged affair was made public by CNN Tuesday nightand the president had something to say about it on Wednesday. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before?" Trump tweeted. He went on to suggest a favorable portion of the recording was withheld.

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"Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!" It wasn't the only topic the president addressed in the morning hours on Twitter. He also offered a congrats to Brian Kemp, went after "vicious" China's moves against American farmers, and says that tariff negotiations "are going really well, be cool." More on the recording here. (Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer convicted in 2016 of sexually assaulting a woman outside a 2015 campus party, wasn't interested in intercourse but rather "outercourse," his lawyer claims. Eric S. Multhaupwho's hoping to overturn Turner's conviction for the attempted rape of an intoxicated person, which came with a lifelong requirement to register as a sex offender in addition to a three-month prison stayargued Tuesday that Turner was seeking fully clothed sexual contact when he was found thrusting on a half-naked, unconscious woman. Per USA Today, Multhaup appeared before a three-judge panel in San Jose, claiming that Turner had his clothes on and never intended to rape his victim. The "poker-faced justices ... appeared skeptical of his argument," reports the San Jose Mercury News.

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Indeed, Justice Franklin D. Elia announced, "I absolutely don't understand what you are talking about." Multhaup went on to argue that the jury had insufficient evidence to convicthe said it was unclear when the intoxicated victim known as Emily Doe fell unconsciousand improperly "filled in the blanks" in the case, per the BBC. "Intent is rarely proved by direct evidence," Elia responded, citing reliance on circumstantial evidence, per the Mercury News. "We are not in a position to say [of the jury], you should have gone a different way," he added, while Deputy Attorney General Alisha Carlile said there was "ample" evidence to convict. Turner, 22, lives in Ohio and wasn't present for the hearing, which follows the June ousting of his sentencing judge. A ruling is expected by late October. (Read more Brock Turner stories.)(Newser)  Italian scientists searching for evidence of water on Marseven signs that it was there billions of years agobelieve they've found a lake filled with the liquid just a mile beneath the Red Planet's southern polar ice cap. Though outside experts have yet to confirm the finding, the body is thought to be 12 miles wide and potentially saturated with salts like sodium, magnesium, and calcium that would lower the water's melting point and allow it to stay in liquid form despite the cold temperatures, Popular Mechanics reports via the study published in Science. Per CNN, it's based on 29 observations of Mars Planum Australe region during a 3.5-year radar survey, completed in 2015 by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft.

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A mile below the ice-covered surface, variations in radar signals revealed what appeared to be a lake similar to those found beneath Earth's ice sheets. The AP notes the researchers weren't able to establish the depth of the lake, which it reports prevents them from specifying "whether it's an underground pool, an aquifer-like body, or just a layer of sludge." Still, the scientists say they "interpret this feature as a stable body of liquid water on Mars," and they're already imagining a connecting system of waterways. There's a major caveat, though: Subsequent radar scans, including by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, have failed to find the same signs. They remained elusive "even when we recently summed together [thousands] of observations to create CATSCAN-like 3D views of both polar caps," a scientist tells CNN. That said, the research team claims it, too, had difficulty establishing the lake's presence until it fixed a data processing issue. (Read more Mars stories.)(Newser)  An 18-year-old Oregon student who was forced out of class for refusing to cover up his pro-Trump T-shirt won't end up getting the last word in the matterwhich is the outcome he wanted. The last word will go to the principal of Liberty High School in Hillsboro, who agreed to issue a letter of apology as part of a settlement in the case. Addison Barnes sued the school, Principal Greg Timmons, and the Hillsboro School District, accusing them of violating his First Amendment rights. KOIN reports that Barnes initially covered up the "Donald J. Trump Border Wall Construction Co.'' he wore to school in January, but then decided to reverse course. He was then told to cover it again or go home, and he chose the latter option, which the school recorded as a suspension.

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The Oregonian reports a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order two months ago that prevented the school from banning the shirt for the remainder of the school year, with the judge saying the censorship wasn't legally justified. The school had argued the shirt could fuel a "hostile learning environment." The settlement, announced Tuesday, will also see the district pay $25,000 to cover Barnes' legal fees. Willamette Week has a statement from Barnes, who has since graduated from the school: "Everyone knows that if a student wears an anti-Trump shirt to school, the teachers won't think twice about it. But when I wore a pro-Trump shirt, I got suspended. That's not right." (Read more President Trump stories.)(Newser)  The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's proposed Washington meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin had been delayed until 2019, citing the ongoing probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Putin had already sent signals that the fall White House meeting wasn't going to happen, the AP reports. National security adviser John Bolton said in a statement that Trump believed his next meeting with Putin should take place "after the Russia witch hunt is over," a reference to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Bolton said they agreed the meeting would be "after the first of the year." While the statement signaled optimism that the Mueller probe would be completed by the end of this year, no timetable has been given for when it will be wrapped up and it could very well stretch into 2019.

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The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to visit Washington in the fall, moving quickly for a follow-up meeting amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit last week. Many members of Congress had objected to the two leaders meeting again in the fall and also said Putin would not be welcome on Capitol Hill. The decision came days after the White House rejected a Putin-backed effort to hold a referendum in eastern Ukraine on the region's future. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday, prior to the announcement, that the US would never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea and demanded that Ukraine's territorial integrity be restored. The statement was released shortly before Pompeo appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he testified he has personally told top Russian officials that there will be "severe consequences" for any interference in US elections or the American democratic process.

(Read more Vladimir Putin stories.)A court on Tuesday refused an arrest warrant for disgraced Korean Air heiress Cho Hyun-ah sought by the Korea Customs Service on charges of smuggling luxury goods.

Prosecutors in Incheon said Tuesday that the court called for more solid evidence proving the alleged offenses.

Customs officials sought the arrest warrant on charges that Cho smuggled W600 million worth of goods aboard Korean Air flights (US$1=W1,135).

Cho told prosecutors that the expensive clothes and accessories she bought were all presents for friends abroad and she did not bring them into Korea.

This is the fifth time a court has refused an arrest warrant for a member of the Cho family as multiple criminal investigations close in.Country

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Three sisters - aged two, four and eight years, respectively, died due to starvation in east Delhis Mandawali area, police said on Wednesday, quoting their initial post-mortem reports.

However, police said that the second autopsy will establish the cause of death with finality. They added that there were no traces of food found in the stomach of the girls.

The girls, who were brought to a hospital by their mother and a neighbour at around 1 pm, were declared brought dead by the hospital. The mother of the girls was reportedly mentally unstable and their father, a rickshaw puller was missing since Tuesday.

According to reports, the family had shifted to a small room in Talab Chowk on Saturday after their shanty in the slums of Mandawali was damaged due to rains.

Also Read | Old man held for stealing books worth Rs 3 crore to recover unpaid rent from tenant

Meanwhile, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that the government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the deaths of the girls. The area where the incident took place falls under his constituency.

However, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari attacked the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi over the incident, saying that the such a "mishap" occured in the national capital where the government claims to championing ration distribution to the poor.

"It saddens us beyond expression that such an incident happened in the constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia," Tiwari said.

Reacting to Tiwari's attack, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the Delhi government was trying to implement the doorstep delivery of ration, but the BJP was stopping it.New Delhi:

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Wednesday rescued 16 women, who were allegedly trafficked from Nepal some Gulf countries. Delhi Police conducted a raid and rescued these girls from southwest area of New Delhi's Munirka, the police said on Wednesday.

The police were informed by DCW at around 9 pm on Tuesday, they said.

Subsequently, the police conducted a raid in Munirka at around 1.30 am early this morning, following which 16 women were rescued.

Among the 16 women rescued, 14 are married, the police said, adding that they were aged between 20 and 40 years.

DCW has alleged that these women were brought to Delhi on the pretext of employment but were housed in a small room for several days.

The police said these women were promised jobs in Kuwait.

The state womens panel alleged that the traffickers had been running this racket at Munirka for last eight months and several women had already been sent aboard.

The police said these women were brought to Delhi by a Nepali man who also stayed in Munirka. He had allegedly kept the passports of these women with him.

A case has been registered in the matter, the police said, adding that a search is underway to nab the Nepali man.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on Wednesday had sentenced capital punishment to two serving police officers charged over the custodial death of a 26-year-old Udayakumar in 2005.

CBI Special court judge J Nazeer sentenced the capital punishment to assistant Sub-Inspector K Jithakumar and Civil Police Officer S V Sreekumar. The special court had also ordered them to pay a fine of Rs two lakh each.

The sentenced of capital punishment is believed to be the first time been awarded to the active uniform officers in Kerala.

The three other accused in the case, Former fort assistant T K Haridas, former circle inspector E K Sabu and former sub-inspector Ajit Kumar, who were found guilty of destruction of evidence and conspiracy have given three years imprisonment each.

The three accused were also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 each.

Also Read | Maratha reservation: 10 reasons Maratha Kranti Morcha stir turned violent

The third prime accused K V Sonam had died during the trial, while another accused, V P Mohanan was acquitted by the court earlier.

According to the prosecution, Udayakumar was taken into custody with a theft charge in September 27, 2015 and had died in a police station after third degree torture to extract confession.

Jithakumar and Sreekumar, who took Udayakumar into custody, were held responsible for the murder, while three others were found guilty of conspiracy and destroying evidence.

Read More | Delhi Police rescued 16 women, being trafficked from Nepal to Gulf nations

The case had triggered widespread protests across the state.

The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case following a high court order on a petition filed by Udayakumar's mother Prabhavathi.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Maratha Kranti Morcha called off its day-long Mumbai bandh on Wednesday after violence marred the protests and one more protester died after consuming poison. Angry protesters threw stones at policemen deployed for the security, attacked state-run buses and stopped trains in several parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai and adjoining Thane.

The protesters also indulged in arson and blocked Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Goa highways for several hours, prompting police to use tear gas shells and baton charge to disperse them. Three policemen, including a Superintendent of Police, sustained critical injuries in stone pelting by the protesters.

Maratha Kranti Morcha was spearheading the agitation to press their demand for reservation for Maratha community in education and jobs.

Also Read | Maratha Reservation should go up from 50 pc to 75 pc: Ramdas Athawale

10 reasons why it turned violent:



1. The agitation for reservation for Maratha community in jobs and education, spearheaded by Maratha Kranti Morcha, on Wednesday reached the financial capital of India, Mumbai.

2. A day-long bandh was called in Mumbai by several Maratha groups to press for their demands. However, the bandh was called off just before 3 pm after violence in several parts of the state.

#WATCH: Maharashtra police fires tear gas shells on #MarathaKrantiMorcha's protesters who were blocking the Mumbai-Pune highway in Kalamboli over demand for reservation in govt jobs & education, earlier today. The organisation has called off #MumbaiBandh now. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/7PdrwMOfH2  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

3. The Morcha distanced itself from the violence and claimed political hands. Maratha Kranti Morcha leader Virendra Pawar said We suspect some people carried out violent activities with political motives. Otherwise, it was supposed to be peaceful like before.

4. Pawar said that they wanted to peacefully and their motive behind the Mumbai bandh, which was to prove their unity, was achieved successfully. We only wanted to prove that we are together and proved it. We never wanted protests to get violent and therefore, we are calling off our bandh in Mumbai for today, he said.

Also Read | Mehsana Riots case: Hardik Patel, aides get two-year jail term

5. Another Morcha leader said that the bandh may be called again on August 9. He, however, said that the final decision to call the bandh again would be taken after consulting all senior members of all Maratha morchas.

6. Maratha is a politically-influential community which constitutes around 30 per cent of Maharashtras total population. They have long been demanding reservation in jobs and education and had even called a huge rally in Mumbai in 2017.

7. The protests, which were being carried out by the members of Maratha community across the state turned violent on Sunday after a 27-year-old protester, Kakasaheb Shinde, jumped off a bridge over Godavari River in Aurangabad and died.

8. On Tuesday, another protester identified as Jagannath Sonawane, consumed a poisonous substance during the protest in Aurangabad, the epicentre of the protest. He died on Wednesday at a local government hospital.

Also Read | CJI Dipak Misra says mob lynching incidents surged in recent times

9. The Maratha Kranti Morcha was also demanding an apology from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who cancelled his visit to Pandharpur temple in Solapur district. Fadnavis had alleged that some protesters were planning violence in the Pandharpur during his visit.

10. So far, the protesters claimed that not a single representative of Maharashtra government has approached them for any negotiations. They also slammed CM Fadnavis and said that he was confining himself to his AC room and never bothered to address their demands.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which has been demanding for reservation in government job and education since last few days, has intensified their protest on the second day of Maharashtra Bandh Wednesday.

A large-scale violence marred the state-wide protest with protesters attacked public buses in Mumbai, and the neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

In wake of this massive protest, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis called for an emergency high-level meeting and has promised to review the aprogressa made by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on the issue.

Fadnavis had also initiated a recruitment drive for the Maratha community, saying that "There would be no injustice meted out to the Maratha community".

MarathaA Kranti Morcha protest: As it happened

# 02:46 pm:A Maratha Kranti Morcha calls off Mumbai bandh.

# 02:28 pm:A Due to unavoidable circumstances, train services between Thane-Vashi/Nerul on Transharbour line is not running: PRO Central RailwayA

#01:49 pm:

# 01:45 pm:A Mumbai: Miscreants pelted stones and set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during Maratha Quota Stir. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders.

# 01:26 pm:A I support Maratha Reservation demand. I appeal protesters to protest peacefully. We need to make a law in parliament and raise reservation cap from 50% to 75%, will also raise this issue in NDA: Union Minister and Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale.

# 12:15 pm:A Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block Mumbai's Eastern Expressway in Chembur during their agitation for Maratha Reservation.

# 10:37 am:A Clashes break out between two groups in Udgir in Latur district of Maharashtra when one group was forcibly trying to get people to shut shops and overturned a vegetable cart while attempting to enforce Maharashtra bandh. Police is on the spot and situation is contained.

# 10:23 am:A Maratha Reservation Protest: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block a local train in Thane.

# 10:03 am:A Mumbai: A group of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers request with folded hands, the shopkeepers in Bandra to shut their shops.

# 09:54 am:A Maharashtra: Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide by consuming poison on Tuesday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, dies in a hospital.

# 09:48 am:A Tires set ablaze on Majiwada bridge in Thane.

# 09:31 am:A Maratha Reservation protests: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha forcibly shut shops on Thane's Gokhale road.

# 09:25 am:A We are not blocking any road. We are carrying out a peaceful protest. We have told our workers that there should be no inconvenience to the police or govt due to our protest. We are asking people to shut down their shops: Maratha Kranti Morcha.

# 09:18 am:A Maratha Reservation protest: A Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) bus vandalised in Wagle estate area of Thane.

#MarathaReservation protest: A Thane Municipal Transport(TMT) bus vandalised in Wagle estate area of Thane. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/IzMutlrp4l a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 08:57 am:A Police deployed outside BJP office in Mumbai in wake of Maratha Reservation protests..

# 08:52 am:A Maratha outfits intensify their reservation protest in Thane's Teen Haath Naka.

# 08:29 am:A Protesters pelted stones on two Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses near Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli this morning. BEST bus services from Airoli to Vashi have been completely stopped today in the light of Maharashtra bandh.

# 07:48 am:A Strike called by Maratha Kranti Morcha enters the second day.

However,A community leaders have claimed that despiteA assurances from Fadnavis, nothing concrete has been done till now over the demands.A Hence, the protesters are now plannig to gherao aVarshaa, the official residence of the chief minister in Mumbai and will press for his resignation anytime soon.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had earier cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur as protesters threatened to disrupt the event.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Parliament on Wednesday passed The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 that seeks to prevent big economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from fleeing the country and evading the legal process.

The bill, whose measure was cleared by the Lok Sabha on July 19, was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote on Wednesday.

aThis bill is an effective, expeditious and constitutional way to stop these offenders from running away.A Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders till they donat present themselves in front of the courts. We will also work out what has to be done with the confiscated assets,a Finance MInister Piyush Goyal said.

Goyal, while justifying the financial limit of Rs 100 crore for invoking the provision of this new law, said it was being done to catch the big offenders and not to clog the courts and added that the Enforcement Directorate will be the investigative agency under the Act.

Here are the LIVE updates from day 6 of Parliament Monsoon Session:

# 15:10 pm:A A special court will be designated to declare a person as fugitive economic offender and confiscate his properties: Piyush Goyal

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 seeks to lay down measures to empower Indian authorities to attach and confiscate proceeds associated with crime, scheduled economic offences & the properties of such fugitives who run away from the country: @PiyushGoyal a Piyush Goyal Office (@PiyushGoyalOffc) July 25, 2018

# 14:40 pm:A Minister of Finance Piyush Goyal presented the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 in Rajya Sabha.

# 14:46 pm:A Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha proceedings begin after lunch.

# 14:10 pm:A We've issued orders to all states that no Rohingya should possess Indian documents, so that we can talk to government of Myanmar & EAM Sushma Swaraj can speak with the foreign minister of Myanmar, Rajnath Singh said in Rajya Sabha.

# 13:54 pm:A PM is out on a 5-day tour when the Parliament session is on. The meeting could have been avoided. It was not an inevitable meeting. But, since he has the absolute majority, he chooses to go on foreign tours and skips Parliament sessions: Kharge.

PM is out on a 5-day tour when the Parliament session is on. The meeting could have been avoided. It was not an inevitable meeting. But, since he has the absolute majority, he chooses to go on foreign tours and skips Parliament sessions: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress pic.twitter.com/6t66tOP7gC a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 13:53 pm:A A Parliament Joint Committee should be made, as it was done in Bofors case, to state facts of Rafale Deal. If it is cheaper, then PM should have stated it during No Confidence Motion. Now statements by BJP are just afterthoughts to mask corruption: Congress's Kharge.

# 13:50 pm:A Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha adjourned till 2 pm.

# 13:41 pm:A Privilege notices against PM, Defence Minister being considered: Mahajan

# 13:18 pm:A MPs should stay in limit while in Parliament, says Sumitra Mahajan after resuming the lower house proceedings.

# 12:22 pm: Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned Lok Sabha till 12:30 pm.

# 12:20 pm:A NEET data leak raises questions on the sanctity of CBSE to conduct exams: Congress's Venugopal.

# 11:52 am:A Mallikarjun Kharge raises questions on cost of bullet train project; Piyush Goyal says holistic development.

# 11:46 am:A Women safety issue raised in Rajya Sabha.

# 10:58 am:A Congress MP KC Venugopal has given adjournment notice in Lok Sabha over NEET data leak matter.

# 10:45 am:A Delhi: TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dresses up as freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy to protest over the demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh. Sivaprasad has earlier dressed up as a woman, a washerman and a schoolboy among others.

Delhi: TDP MP Naramalli Sivaprasad dresses up as freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy to protest over the demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh. Sivaprasad has earlier dressed up as a woman, a washerman & a schoolboy among others #MonsoonSession pic.twitter.com/yjcinnHCcL a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

Apart from that, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, Jyotiraditya Scindia, KV Thomas and Rajeev Satav on Tuesday movedA a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who acording to Rahul Gandhi lied to the nation on the Rafale deal issue.

The Gandhi scion also said Sitharaman had herself said earlier that she would disclose the details about the deal, but later cited a secrecy clause.

The Congress chief said the French president had clearly conveyed to him that there was no problem in sharing details relating to the Rafale deal worth Rs 58,000 crore.

Alleging corruption in the deal, the Congress has been demanding details, including cost of equipment and weapons, but the government has refused to share them citing a secrecy pact with France.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday arrived in Chattisgarhs Bastar district on a two-day visit amid high security during which he will take part in various programmes.

Along with some of cabinet ministers, Chief Minister Raman Singh and other officers welcomed him at Jagdalpur airport at around 10:30 am, a government official told PTI.

President Kovind left for Jawanga in Dantewada district soon after his arrival in a helicopter.

He is scheduled to reach Heeranar village by road from Jawanga, where he will interact with farmers and self-help groups (SHGs) at the Integrated Farming System centre, the official said.

Chhattisgarh CM @drramansingh receives #PresidentKovind on his arrival in Jagdalpur, Bastar. The President will interact with farmers, women SHGs, students and inaugurate a BPO today pic.twitter.com/GtWnN26u8T  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2018

ALSO READ: Jammu and Kashmir: 2 LeT terrorists killed in encounter in Anantnag district

He is set to interact with students at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Heeranar and have lunch with them.

In Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Education City premises in Jawanga, President Kovind will interact with students of Saksham School and Astha Vidya Mandir.

President Kovind will also inaugurate YUVA BPO centre and will have a word with its employees, the official said.

The president is scheduled to dedicate the Jagdalpur Medical College Hospital to the nation on Thursday and will address a public gathering following an overnight stay at the rest house in Chitrakote area.

ALSO READ: Pakistan Election 2018: All you need to know

From there, President Kovind will leave to Delhi from Jagdalpur airport, the official added.

About 7,000 security personnel are part of the three-layered water-tight security arrangements, a senior official said.

The security cover includes personnel of the states special forces, comprising of Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG), along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), he said.

(With inputs from PTI)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The communal harmony in India was on the brink under the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as 111 people were killed in 822 incidents of communal violence in the country in 2017.

Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir on Wednesday told the Rajya Sabha that the incidents of communal violence increased from 751 in 2015 and 703 in 2016 to 822 in 2017.

aAs many as 111 people were killed in 822 incidents of communal violence in the country in 2017. 86 people were killed in 703 incidents of communal violence in 2016 and 97 people lost their lives in 751 such incidents in 2015,a Ahir told Parliament.

Also Read |A Mehsana Riots case: Hardik Patel, aides get two-year jail term; fined Rs 50,000A

While holding the states responsible for maintaining the peace and communal harmony, the minister said that the role of Centre was only to assist the respective governments in the state and union territories.

aThe responsibility of maintaining law and order, peace and communal harmony, and actions against culprits rest primarily with the state governments and Union Territories,a the minister of state for home said in his written reply.

In order to maintain communal harmony in the country, the Centre assists state governments in a variety of ways like sharing of intelligence, sending alert messages and advisories from time to time on important developments, he added.

Also Read |A Rahul Gandhi's 'hugplomacy' hits streets of Delhi: Government tells Rajya Sabha

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Will Priyanka Gandhi join active politics? This most sought-after question was posed to her brother and Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his interaction with womens rights activists and journalists at a gathering in New Delhi on Tuesday evening. And Rahul replied, saying that Priyanka had her familys responsibilities. Yet, he would be most happy in case she decided to join politics whenever and in whatever capacity though the choice is hers.

Somehow, this clarification by Rahul silenced the votaries ready to bet for Priyanka. But the Congress chief was further probed by the gathering about the possibility of making a suitable woman leader the Oppositions prime ministerial candidate against Narendra Modi. And in what looked to be remarkable resilience and flexibility vis-a-vis narrowing down upon Oppositions bet for the prime minister post in the next Lok Sabha elections, Rahul indicated his willingness to relent and make way for a potentially winning woman candidate for the top post of the country in 2019.

Such positive vibes from Rahul for a candidate from the fair sex to take on Modi succeeded in sending visible signs of appreciation in the gathering of women drawn from different walks of life. This was more so since it can be a shrewd move to beat the BJP at its game and hoist a veritable Opposition front against Modi.

Leaders like Mayawati or Mamata Banerjee have virtually been looking for such a step on the Congress part. And all the three sides main concern as also that of the rest of the Opposition largely is to win over the BJP and the RSS which Rahul articulated on the Congress part before the gathering as the main precondition that is going to guide the Oppositions choice of its candidate for the post of PM.

Also Read | Challenging time ahead for new Congress leadership

Mayawati has asked for a reasonably good number of seats for any alliance with the Congress. This applies for the next general elections as well as Assembly polls to be held before 2019 in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Congress is going to be the main contender against the BJP in these states which are at present ruled by the saffron party. And West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been pitching in for a Federal Front with chief ministers of a few other states to try their luck against the BJP.

In view of these efforts by the leaders of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rahul has tried to go a step beyond what is being expected by the two ladies and went on to indicate that anyone of the two could well be the claimant for the coveted post of the prime minister. This is what this writer has been told by some of those present through Tuesdays interaction with Rahul though the discussion, according to them, was informal and meant to give feedback about the state of womens rights and womens groups grievances that were sought by the Congress chief.

The question for the PM post arose because there has been no woman in the top post after Rahuls grandmother Indira Gandhis assassination about three-and-half decade ago. Rahul did not disappoint the gathering despite expectations in his party that he would lead the Opposition alliance. Rahul exhorted those gathered to wait till the dice is cast. This has obviously been meant to say that his party backing him has to wait until the outcome of the next polls for clarity regarding numbers.

Taken together the indications given by Rahul point to his keenness to form the broadest possible alliance of Opposition parties where he does not mind putting forward the best bet from the available choices which can well turn out to be a woman. So much so that he showed inclination to give up his or his partys claim for the premiership of the country. Significantly, Rahuls women-savvy move is also in keeping with his recent letter to Prime Minister Modi to assure his partys support in Parliament to the government for getting through the womens quota bill to reserve one-third seats in Parliament as well as State legislatures.

Read More Opinion | How Modi punctured the Oppositions power bubbles

The BJP is surely going to be confounded by such latest salvos fired by the Congress chief. This is more so since the BJP has often been blaming the Congress to be focused at only one top family in the party whose scions have always been controlling the party besides vying to be in the government. Rahul virtually tried to deflate these charges by showing preference for a woman candidate other than his sister Priyanka at least for now and over and above himself.

Priyanka and Rahuls mother Sonia Gandhi had already declined to become prime minister when the chance came to her after winning elections over 14 years ago.

Moreover, the BJP had pitched forth one of its women leaders, Nirmala Sitharaman to be exact, to take on Rahul on his recent meeting with Muslim intellectuals which eventually led Modi to dub the Congress as a party of Muslims. This sparked off a row which went on until the monsoon session of Parliament began. And when in the debate on no-confidence motion moved by Opposition Rahul charged the government with maintaining unwarranted secrecy over the French fighter aircraft Rafale deal, it was Sitharaman who took on Rahul before the prime minister in his reply called it to be deeply related to security and, thus, not worth disclosing.

The BJP has also been blaming the Congress for coming in the way of the bill against triple Talaq at the cost of the interests of some of the Muslim women grappling with outcome of marital discord. It is amid such wrangling between the BJP and the Congress that Rahul has tried to turn the tables on the BJP by virtually agreeing for a womans candidature for the post of the prime minister and, thus, virtually playing the women card before a gathering of informed and influential women in Delhi."We're shocked how many helmets have disappeared," a city official said.

But an inspection on Tuesday showed 47 percent of the 858 helmets were missing.

The city started providing helmets at 30 public bike rental stations in Yeouido last Friday in preparation for their mandatory use starting Sept. 28.

Half the bicycle helmets the Seoul Metropolitan Government began lending cyclists free of charge four days ago have already disappeared.

The helmets are put in the bikes' carrier baskets or in separate containers, and users should have returned them that way. But many simply made off with them.

City officials initially considered putting tracking chips on the helmets, but the cost of W1.2 billion a year put them off (US$1=W1,135). Instead they decided to trust people's better instincts, and were sorely disappointed.

Now the city may scrap the helmets altogether.

This is not the first time that a free public sharing project has flopped. Attempts to share books, umbrellas and medicine have failed because there has always been a significant proportion of thieves.

Seoul Metro started lending around 1,300 books at 13 subway stations for free but stopped after just two years because most of the books were never returned. It also started providing band aids and sanitary towels at 35 subway stations but scrapped them after just six months because people scooped them up and hoarded them.

Gangnam District Office began providing 450 umbrellas at 22 ward offices in July last year, but a staffer said, "We now have only 30 to 40 umbrellas left."

Experts attribute the failure to a lack of civic spirit in an increasingly fragmented megacity.

Yoon In-jin at Korea University said, "Many people still consider products offered as public services freebies. Our society is still in transition to becoming a trust-based society, so it's probably better to charge a small amount or check ID when providing such services."Bengaluru:

Hints through the media that the Congress may be willing to support Mayawati or Mamata Banerjee for prime ministership or anyone else, so long as the person keeps a safe distance from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and from Narendra Modi, shows the level of desperation of the presiding deities of the partySonia Gandhi and son Rahulto see Modi out of power.

Evidently, the Sonia-Rahul combine and their minions are fearful that they would be in deep trouble if the National Herald case judgment were to go against them in a Delhi court. The threats by firebrand BJP member of Parliament Subramaniam Swamy that he is hopeful that they would be behind bars in a few months is not lost on the Gandhis though they may pooh pooh it.

In any case, they do not trust Modi by the way he has devalued Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi in the last four years of being in power.

Although there has been no dissent within the Congress at the anointment of Rahul Gandhi as Congress president, many of the party veterans are smarting under being bossed over by a young man who is regarded as a cipher in politics. Yet, so deeply is the Congress enmeshed in sycophancy that its leaders regard it as unthinkable to question the duo on anything.

Also Read Opinion | How Modi punctured the Oppositions power bubbles

Whatever remained of inner party democracy in the Congress had vanished when Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar were forced to quit the party and set up the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) a few years ago.

Today, Pawar is still nurturing hopes of being able to cajole the duo to support his candidature as prime minister in the event of a hung Parliament based on the kind of you-scratch-my back-I-scratch-yours deal that he reckons he is capable of swinging. He knows only too well that Rahul will not be acceptable as prime minister to many regional leaders and that with his (Pawars) skill at cultivating regional chieftains he could be the dark horse.

The Gandhis are clearly wary of Pawar because they know he is ambitious and crafty and would not opt for Rahul without extracting his pound of flesh which could be too much for the Gandhis to accept.

By the same token, Mayawati and Mamata too are no pushovers---they are fiery characters in their own ways---and it is most unlikely that Rahul, under Sonias tutelage, would serve the Congress support on a platter to either of them. Rahul apparently fancies that if there is a stalemate, his minions would ensure that he is brought back into reckoning.

Read More | Congress golden boy Rahul misses golden opportunity to redeem himself

The important thing is that if names like Mayawati and Mamata begin to be bandied about by the Congress, the electorate, howsoever upset it may be with Modi, would willy nilly go with him than experimenting with leaders who wield no acceptability outside their own states.

Mayawati may style herself as a messiah of the oppressed Dalits but rolling as she is in much accumulated wealth she cannot carry credibility as a prime ministerial candidate for people across the country. The national stage would even otherwise be too much for her to manage, with its myriad challenges of dealing with dignitaries from abroad and corporate honchos within.

With a vision that is appallingly narrow, she can hardly meet the aspirations of the growing middle class in India which is looking at a prime minister who is not obscurantist and casteist but is modern, and progressive.

Mamatas narrow vision and her propensity to remain steeped in old ways is no certificate for her suitability. The way she forced the House of Tatas to quit Bengal would not be easily forgotten.

Modi, by contrast, has shown extraordinary adaptability and his charisma is undeniable, whether in India or abroad. Some parties may brush him aside for their own selfish gains but people at large still get drawn towards him and would even more if the alternative to him is of the likes of Mayawati or Mamata.New Delhi:

For the first time, a massive underground lake of liquid water has been detected on Mars, raising the possibility life in the red planet, according to international astronomers.

Where was the underground lake of liquid water on Mars found?

The underground lake of liquid detected by scientists using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (Marsis) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft, lies underneath Marss southern pole and stretches 20km across, according to scientists detected the lake.

MARSIS was designed to find subsurface water by sending radar pulses that penetrate the surface and ice caps.

What is the significance of this underground lake of liquid water on Mars?

The underground lake of liquid is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet. The discovery is the latest piece of evidence of a stable body of water detected on Mars.

If these researchers are right, this is the first time weve found evidence of a large water body on Mars, said Cassie Stuurman, a geophysicist at the University of Texas who found signs of an enormous Martian ice deposit in 2016.

This is a discovery of extraordinary significance and is bound to heighten speculation about the presence of living organisms on the Red Planet, said Fred Watson, of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

Being able to access water sources could also help humans survive on a future crewed mission to Earths neighbouring planet.

Would the water of the underground lake of liquid water on Mars be drinkable?

Most definitely no. The lake lies almost 1.5 km beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment.

Some experts are skeptical of the possibility since the lake is so cold and briny, and mixed with a heavy dose of dissolved Martian salts and minerals.

Caution needs to be exercised, however, as the concentration of salts needed to keep the water liquid could be fatal for any microbial life similar to Earths, Watson said.

(With inputs from agencies)

For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The long and eventful day of voting in Pakistan to elect its new prime minister ended at 6 PM on Wednesday. Despite the unprecedented security, the 11th general elections in Pakistan were marred with violence as 31 people, mostly voters, killed in a suicide blast outside a polling booth in Quetta.

Apart from that, a grenade attack at a polling station in Koshk village of Balochistanas Khuzdar left a policeman dead and three others injured. Incidents of firing were also reported at several polling stations across the country.

Earlier, millions of voters flocked to polling booths across the country to choose their new leader. According to a data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan, a total of 3,459 candidates a 1,623 from Punjab, 824 from Sindh, 725 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 287 from Balochistan a were in the fray for the 272 seats of the national assembly.

The counting of votes at several polling stations began soon after the voting ended and the final results were likely to be out by the late Wednesday night.A The majority mark to form the government in the 272-member National Assembly is 137. If no single party secured required numbers, a coalition government will be formed.

Pakistan Elections 2018: As it happened

#08:30 PM: Imran Khan's PTI takes an early lead over PML-N as counting of votes is underway in Pakistan, according to Dawn news. The PTI was leading in 35 seats against PML-N's 20 seats.

#07:00 PM: Counting of votes begins. Trends will start pouring in soon and the final results are likely to be out by 2 am late in the night.

#PakistanElections2018: Counting of votes begins, final results to be out by 2 am pic.twitter.com/E9yisCzc79 a News Nation (@NewsNationTV) July 25, 2018

# 06: 42 pm:A Polling for the 11th election in Pakistan officially closed; those inside the polling stations will still be able to cast their votes.

# 06: 33 pm:A Pakistan Election CommissionA summonedA PTI chief Imran Khan on July 30 for breach of secrecy of ballot: the PTI chief's vote wasA televised on electronic mediaA

# 06: 31 pm:A Voting concludes in polling station number 76 in NA-10 constituency

# 06: 00 pm:A The Election Commission of Pakistan has receivedA 600 complaints so far, from all over Pakistan regarding the ongoing elections, according to Geo News.

# 05: 41 pm:A Pakistan Election Commission rejects requests to extend polling time;A The PML-N, PPP, ANP and the Awami Muslim League, among other parties, had requested the Election Commission to extend voting time.A

# 05: 01 pm:A The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sent a notice to PTI Chairman Imran Khan for voting in full public view and in front of the cameras, which is a violation of the ECP's code of conduct.

# 04: 28 pm:A Polling suspended in Shahpur polling station of NA-10, Shangla, Khyber after clashes between Awami National Party (ANP)and Pakistan Peopleas Party (PPP); several injured

#04: 26 pm:A Three injured in firing incident in Dadu; 7 arrested

# 04: 10 pm:A Pakistan Peoples's Party (PPP) chief Asif Ali Zardari cast vote in Nawabshah

# 03: 48 pm: Four deadA in Battagram's Allai tehsil as a mini jeep carrying voters falls into gorge.

# 03:40 pm: COAS Gen Bajwa casts his vote in Rawalpindi.

# 02:55 pm:A Sanam Bhutto votes in NA-200 Larkana.

# 02:48 pm:A The media discussions pertaining to PTI chief Imran Khan and PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif were a violation of ECP code of conduct: The Election Commission of Pakistan.

# 02:12 pm:A Jamaat-i-Islami chief Sirajul Haq casts his vote in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

# 02:10 pm:A Former Minister of Affairs Khawaja Asif casts his vote inA Sialkot.

# 01:59 pm:A PML-N posts Election Day audio message from Nawaz Sharif.

# 01:42 pm:A Bilawal Bhutto Zardari casts his vote in Larkana NA-200

# 01:35 pm:A Hafiz Saeed is a terrorist. Pakistan's democracy is in danger because of these kind of people: Union Minister Hansraj Ahir on Hafiz Saeed.

# 01:27 pm:A Some voters at a poll station in Lahore say Army isn't allowing entry. Women say 'They're saying there are many women inside and we won't be let in'; voters also say 'They're saying there are 2 booths inside so they won't allow those who are allotted 3rd booth'.

# 12:30 pm:A 31 killed, 36 injured in violence across Pakistan on Election Day

# 12:16 pm:A 25 killed, several injured in Quetta blast.

# 12:15 pm:A Mawra Hocane votes, hopes to see a 'Naya Pakistan'.

# 12:01 pm:A Two people were injured after polling station in Naseerabad, Balochistan was fired on.

# 11:57 am:A The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority directed the private satellite TV channels to stop airing any content related to Pakistan's 11th general election.

# 11:56 am:A 15 dead, 20 injured in Quetta NA-260 blast.

#UPDATE 15 killed and more than 20 injured in a blast near eastern bypass in #Balochistan's #Quetta: Pakistan media. #PakistanElections2018 a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 11:53 am:A Islamabad: Imran Khan casts vote in Bhara Kahu polling station.

# 11:40 am: AML chief Sheikh Rasheed casts his vote.

# 11:39 am:A 5 dead, 12 injured in Quetta blast.

# 11:44 am:A Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed casts his vote at a polling booth in Lahore.

Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed casts his vote at a polling booth in Lahore. #PakistanElections2018 pic.twitter.com/nKdXt3kQZA a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 11:30 am:A Several injured in a blast near eastern bypass in Balochistan's Quetta, according to Pakistan media.

# 09:57 am:A Daughters of Benazir Bhutto- Bakhtawar and Aseefa cast their votes in Sindh's Nawabshah.

Daughters of Benazir Bhutto- Bakhtawar and Aseefa after casting their vote in Sindh's Nawabshah. #PakistanElections2018 pic.twitter.com/6iZTPSozGb a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 09:50 am:A There's a healthy turnout of voters in Quetta so far.

# 09:48 am:A Mustafa Kamal, chief of the Pak Sarzameen Party, has cast his vote in NA-243.

# 09:40 am:A Voting yet to begin in several polling stations due to load shedding.

# 09:37 am:A The people of Pakistan - especially women - the power is in your hands. Get up, go and vote! Democracy shall win, tweets Malala Yousafzai.A

The people of Pakistan - especially women - the power is in your hands. Get up, go and vote! Democracy shall win! #Election2018 YYY pic.twitter.com/LqVRUK9cjO a Malala (@Malala) July 24, 2018

# 09:35 am:A Clash between PTI, ANP and PML-N workers reported from different places across the country. Clash between party workeers left 1 dead and 2 injured.

# 09:32 am:A Farooq Sattar of MQM-P fame has cast his vote; says will push for new province.

# 09:29 am:A PPP leaders Murad Ali Shah and Khursheed Shah have cast their votes in Sehwan.

# 09:22 am:A Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif urged the voters 'not to waste time' and cast their votes for a better future of Pakistan.

# 09:13 am: PTI chairman Imran Khan will cast his vote at 10:30 am.

# 08:59 am:A Women queue up outside a polling booth in Lahore to cast their votes.

# 08:40 am:A PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif stand in a queue outside a polling station in Model Town to cast his vote for Pakistan general elections 2018.

Lahore: PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif stand in a queue outside a polling station in Model Town to cast his vote for #PakistanElections2018 pic.twitter.com/d6AErF3LSv a ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

# 08:09 am:A Election postponed in eight constituencies in Pakistan.

# 07:52 am: July 25 has been declared a public holiday by the Pakistan government so that the 11the geeneral election since 1970 may witness maximum voter participation.

A fierce battle is expected between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's PML-N and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in Punjab, the most populous province often known for deciding the next government in the country.

The election campaign concluded at Monday midnight after about two months. All parties have claimed that they will grab most of the seats.

While several polls put Khan's party marginally ahead of the rivalsa other surveys suggest the result is too close to call.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Intense heat continues to grip Japan on Wednesday. Temperatures are soaring, especially in western and eastern Japan.

The Meteorological Agency says that by 4:30 PM, the mercury had hit 38.8 degrees Celsius in the city of Yamaguchi, 38.7 degrees in the city of Takahashi in Okayama Prefecture, 38.6 degrees in the town of Akiota in Hiroshima Prefecture, and 38.5 degrees in the city of Kyoto and the city of Shimanto in Kochi Prefecture.

Weather officials are urging people to take strict precautions against heatstroke amid what they call a "life-threatening" condition.

Many people across the country have been rushed to hospital with symptoms of heatstroke. Some have even died.

Authorities are urging people to avoid physical exercise during the day, use air conditioners, drink plenty of water and take moderate amounts of salt.

They are urging those in areas hit recently by record rainfall to take extra care, as they face a higher risk of heatstroke due to fatigue and stress from abnormal living conditions.Japan's so-called sharing economy, including "minpaku" private lodging businesses, totaled 470 billion to 525 billion yen in 2016, according to Cabinet Office estimates released on Wednesday.

The estimates were the first by the government on the nation's sharing economy.

But the government agency said it was difficult to precisely figure the size of such economy, with as much as a quarter of it yet to be reflected in gross domestic product statistics.

By category, economic value produced from exchanging goods is estimated at around 300 billion yen, thanks to the spread of flea market apps, followed by up to 180 billion yen from sharing space, including the minpaku service, and maximum 25 billion yen from utilizing skills and time for the sake of others, namely homemaker services.

Crowdfunding and other shared activities directly involving money were worth up to 20 billion yen, the estimate also showed.Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, has defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Samuel Ortom, governor of Benue state, has defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The governor announced his defection at a meeting with local government chairmen and councillors at government house, Makurdi, on Wednesday.





He said his resignation letter had been sent to the chairman of the APC in his ward.





I have formally resigned from APC to PDP and have presented my letter of resignation to the partys chairman of my ward, he said.





The chairman and other officers of my ward also indicated their interest to join me in my new party. I am too young to retire from politics.





Recall, we had listed Ortom as one of the three APC governors that would join the opposition party.





Ortoms defection comes a day after Terkimbi Ikyange, speaker of Benue state house of assembly, was impeached.





The APC had also lost 52 lawmakers at the national assembly on the same day.





Ortom was a member of PDP who served as minister of state for trade and industry under ex-President Goodluck Jonathan. He left the PDP for APC in 2014.





Earlier on Wednesday, some youth in the state prevented Ortom from attending a reconciliation meeting with APC stakeholders.





The protesters comprising youth groups carried various placards and chanted songs, calling on the governor to leave the ruling party.





Addressing journalists, Terrence Kuanum, leader of the youth, said: We are openly telling you this because if you fail to heed our advise and attend the meeting we will ensure that you are voted out in 2019.



President Muhammadu Buhari and some ministers have returned the sum of N118 billion to the national treasury as unused capital budget for ...

President Muhammadu Buhari and some ministers have returned the sum of N118 billion to the national treasury as unused capital budget for the 2017 fiscal year





This amount represents 8.1 percent of N1.4 trillion which was the total capital budget released and almost four times the size of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) budget in 2017, which was N30.3billion.





Out of the N10.9billion released to the presidency as its capital budget, only N10.7 billion was utilised leaving a total of N200million as unused which was returned to the treasury according to the document.





According to a document titled, 2017 capital performance for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as at June 12, 2018 obtained from office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, Mr. Babatunde Fashola of the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing topped the list of Ministers with highest amount of capital budget balance returned to the government coffer.





While Ministries of Works, Power and Housing has N66.9billion, Ministry of Trade and Investment returned N22.8 billion as unused capital budget.





Other ministries and agencies of the Federal Government in the category of top ten unused capital budget include, Office of the National Security Adviser with N6.1billion, Ministry of Finance, N4.3billion, Ministry of Health N3.5billion, office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation N3 billion.









Also, Ministry of Education has N1.8b, while Ministry of Solid Minerals and Water Resources with N1.4b and N1.1b respectively.





The National Population Commission (NPC) has N33.4 million, Ministry of Environment with N24.8 million and Head of Service, N13.1 million.





The Ministry of Youth Development has N1.9 million followed by Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has N2.5 million and Ministry of Labour and Employment that has N3.2million,





Others are Ministry of Interior, N4.5million, Fiscal Responsibility Commission N5.7 million, Niger Delta Ministry, N5.9 million and Defence which has N6.9million. This amounted to N101.5million.





However, the National Emergency Agency (NEMA) whose emergency readiness has been suspect has as much as N193million unused capital budget.





Out of the total releases which stood at N266 million, only N72.5 million was utilized leaving a balance of N193.5 million at a time the agencys air ambulance and rescue helicopters were grounded over expired insurance policy that cost between N20million and N17 million for the two aircraft respectively.





The document also revealed that the National Pension Commission (PENCOM) did not utilize the entire N375 million released to it for capital project while the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) also failed to use its allocation of N298 million.



Nigerias President, Muhammadu Buhari has mocked the decamped members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, saying they decided to leave ...

Nigerias President, Muhammadu Buhari has mocked the decamped members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, saying they decided to leave the party because they have issues with their home states, especially on zoning which barred some of them from seeking another term in their constituencies.Fifteen members of the APC decamped to the PDP at the Senate while another 37 members decamped to the PDP and ADC at the House of Representatives on Tuesday.In his reaction to the developments on Tuesday morning at the National Assembly, the President noted that none of the defecting federal lawmakers of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had any specific grievances against him or the government he leads; neither did he harbour anything against any of them.As the saying goes, all politics is local. We understand that some of the distinguished and honourable lawmakers have issues with their home states, especially on zoning which bars some of them from seeking another term in their constituencies, he said.Buhari expressed his total commitment to the values of democracy, freedom of choice as well as total willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party, for the benefit of the nation.The president, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that the APC had done its utmost to stop the defections.The President commended the leadership of the party for relentlessly working for its unity and ensuring success in the upcoming elections.Buhari assured members of the APC of his total support and urged party faithful not to despair but to see the defections as a seasonal occurrence that happens on election eve.He expressed confidence that no harm or injury will be done to the party and its aspirations by the movements.The president said he wished all the decamped members the best in their future undertakings.The aftermath of Tuesdays defections of 15 Senators might be spewing crisis in the Senate as Senators of the All Progressives Congress (A...

The aftermath of Tuesdays defections of 15 Senators might be spewing crisis in the Senate as Senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Tuesday afternoon insisted that they remained the majority despite defections that hit their fold.





Addressing Senate Press corps after an hour closed door meeting, Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan who was flanked by APC lawmakers in the upper chamber boasted that they were still in control of the red Chamber, saying that their numbers currently stands at 52.





Those who defected to the APC at various times in the past that made up the number of APC are Senator Sunny Ogbuji (Ebonyi South) Senator Hope Uzodinma Imo West), Senator Fatima Raji Rasaki (Ekiti West) , Senator Ovie-Omo-agege (Delta Central).





Buttressing their stand, Ahmed Lawan, before presenting a list of APC Senators to journalists, said, Senator Buruji Kashamu (PDP) representing Ogun East Senatorial District has been expelled from the party, hence, cannot be said to be a bonafide member of the party anymore.





This is contrary to the position of Senator Joshua Dariye (APC) representing Plateau South Senatorial district who was convicted and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for fraud and money laundering.





Asked why Dariye was reflected as a member despite his conviction. He said: He is on appeal and he cannot be removed yet.





Though Sarakis name was not on the APC list handed over to journalists, APC Senators believed that he was still a member.





The position of APC Senators was at variance with that of PDP who earlier in the day claimed majority in the Senate.





Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio in an interview with correspondents at DSPs residence told journalists that PDP has assumed majority status in the Senate, adding that more Senators would defect in a matter of days.





We further learnt that Godswill Akpabio, who was the governor of Akwa Ibom State for eight years has began lobby to replace Senator Ahmed Lawan as Senate leader.





He was seen having a closed door meeting with DSP, Ike Ekweremadu when other Senators who were on solidarity visit left. Effort by our correspondent to have details of Akpabios discussion with DSP proved abortive on Tuesday, but sources close to DSP confirmed on Wednesday that the making of Akpabio as the next Senate leader was being perfected.





I can confirm to you that Godswill Akpabio will be the next Senate leader. The issue was discussed with DSP who is the highest office holder on the platform of PDP, sources said.





However, Ahmed Lawan claimed that the Senate President, whose name was not on the roll call was still a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).



Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, says whoever is behind the siege laid to his residence and that of Senate President Bukola Sara...

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, says whoever is behind the siege laid to his residence and that of Senate President Bukola Saraki is not a friend of the country. Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, says whoever is behind the siege laid to his residence and that of Senate President Bukola Saraki is not a friend of the country.





In a statement on Wednesday, Uche Anichukwu, media aide of Ekeweramdu, quoted the deputy senate president as calling on Nigerians to condemn the incident.





He said for over six hours, a combined team of policemen, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other agencies prevented him from leaving his house.





The deputy senate president said he was worried because the nations democracy is allegedly being derailed by the current administration.





On Tuesday morning, some people laid siege to my house. They left at about 12:20pm after spending about six and half hours,the statement read.





We anticipated that a number of our colleagues in All Progressives Congress (APC) would defect and join Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In anticipation of that, the APC leadership had tried to stop them. When that didnt happen, the first thing they did was invite President of the Senate to come to the Police. They believed that once the President of the Senate goes to the Police, I would be the one to preside and probably give effect to the letter of defection.





In anticipation of that, the Police, EFCC, and other security agencies came together, about 200 of them, to stop me from going to the national assembly. They said I should come to the EFCC to give explanation over the things I was accused of. I agreed to follow them even though there was no prior invitation, but they were not eager to let me go to answer the invitation.





The plan was to stop me and the president of the senate from going to the national assembly today. Unfortunately for them, the president of the senate was already at the senate to preside over the plenary session.





This is not good for democracy. We must respect the law, respect institutions because that is the only way we can make progress as a nation. This is total embarrassment to our nation. I hope this will not happen again.





Ekweremadu said his official quarters is like an aspect of the national assembly, wondering why such could happen there.





He also said the advisers of the president ought to counsel him properly.





I am very worried. This is a decline in our democracy. I want to call on the media and Nigerians to stand up for Nigeria and ensure we save our democracy, he said.





This is a dangerous development. The whole world expects Nigeria to lead in democracy in Africa. We need to make progress and show the world that Nigerians are indeed leaders in every aspect of life.





When you invade the national assembly, you are invading the temple of democracy. That is exactly what has happened today. This is a major assault on democracy.



Shanghai Party chief visits Peru and calls for closer cooperation and more exchanges

From:Shine | 2018-07-24 16:29

Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang headed a delegation of the Communist Party of China to visit Peru from July 19 to 22.

During his visit, Li met Perus Prime Minister Cesar Villanueva; Gilbert Violeta, president of Peruvians for Change; and Luis Castaneda Lossio, mayor of Lima.

While meeting Violeta, Li said at the invitation of Peruvians for Change, this visit can help increase political mutual trust and exchange ideas on issues concerning China and Peru, and to promote the Sino-Peru relations.

The CPC is the largest party in the world and the largest governing party in a developing country with the largest population, and it has 69 years of experience in managing the country. Ever since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the CPC Central Committee has been strengthening the building and the disciplining of the leadership of the CPC to align the partys goals with the peoples needs.

The CPC is willing to share its experience with Peru, focus on the common concerns, and increase the top leadership exchanges in China and Peru, and to promote the practical cooperation and the sustainable development of the Sino-Peru Strategic Partnership, Li added.

Violeta said Peruvians for Change is dedicated to promotion of the social and economic development in Peru. It is also willing to foster the friendly cooperation with China and increase the understanding of people in both countries.

The Peruvians for Change hopes to further deepen the inter-party communications with the CPC and learn from its experience in managing the country, and to promote the strategic partnership with China to benefit the people in both countries, Violeta added.

At a subsequent meeting with Mayor Castaneda, Li said both Shanghai and Lima are economic center cities, and the two have carried out cooperation in many forms in the industries such as trade, urban development, health and hygiene, and talent cultivation.

Shanghai is working hard to accelerate the process of turning itself into an international economic, finance, trade, shipping center and also a technology and innovation center. At the same time, it is trying to build itself into an excellent and influential metropolis and a socialist modern city.

The city is also striving to grant its citizens a sense of gain, happiness and security. Shanghai is willing to explore new management mechanisms that fit a metropolis such as Shanghai, and it also wants to cooperate with other big cities in the world and learn from their experience.

Shanghai hopes to take the opportunity to further expand the existing exchanges with Lima and promote the practical cooperation in both cities, Li added.

Castaneda said as an international modern city, Shanghai has its advantages in social and economic development, especially in urban management, which Lima can learn a great deal from.

As the two cities have formed the twin city tie, Lima hopes it can deepen the cooperation with Shanghai in trade, cultural industries, tourism, and urban construction and management, Castaneda added.

After the meeting, Li and Castaneda attended the signing ceremony of a friendly agreement between Shanghai and Lima. According to the agreement, the two cities will carry out cooperation and exchanges in various forms in urban planning, construction and management, trade, technology, cultural industries, education, sports, health and hygiene, and talent cultivation.

Shanghai Municipal Government donated five new energy vehicles, produced by SAIC Motor Corporation, to the city governments of Lima and Cuzco to encourage the green urban development.

Later, Li visited the Port of Callao and inspected Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Companys installments such as travelling cranes and mobile cranes at the port. Li was briefed on the companys global strategic layout and its business operations in Latin America.

Li said to further expand into the overseas markets, the company needs to take the Latin Americas markets as a strong foothold, and work hard to become a model for the Shanghai Manufacturing brand and other Chinese companies. The company should stick to independent innovation and focus on the improvement of its manufacturing ability and services, and its intelligent equipment.

During the tour, Li also visited the picture exhibition of Shanghais 40-year achievements of opening-up and reforms with Perus political officials.

Jia Guide, Chinas ambassador to Peru; Li Jun, deputy minister of International Department of the CPC Central Committee; and Zhou Bo, executive vice mayor of Peru, also attended the related events.

Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang meets Gilbert Violeta, president of Peruvians for Change.

Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang meets Luis Castaneda Lossio, mayor of Lima.Following the defection of fifteen senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has said that it is time to impeach @Buhari.Fani-Kayode in a series tweet welcomed the defection of the Senators and the House Representative members said1. I congratulate the entire nation and particularly the leadership of the Senate and @bukolasaraki on successfully thwarting a coup detat against our hard-earned democracy today by preventing @MBuhari and his forces of darkness from taking over the National Assembly1/2 Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) July 24, 20182I welcome those that courageouslydecamped from the imploding APC and joined the ranks of the @OfficialPDPNig. We now have a PDP majority in the Senate and I urge the House of Reps to do same. It is time to impeach the monster @Buhari and send him back to Daura!2/3 Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) July 24, 20183. ..Both @MBuhari and APC are finished.They will soon be out of power. ICC get ready to prosecute and jail the greatest war criminal and genocidal maniac in the history of Nigeria.The time for the tyrant to pay the price for his tyranny, cruelty and wickedness is almost here. Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) July 24, 2018Oshiomole is badluck to our party, APC. Its on record that I never supported his nomination-Rotimi Amaechi.Our party APC is not Oshiomoles fathers property-Chris Ngige.They turn their swords against one another and scatter their own ranks. The Lord honored His word! Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) July 25, 2018Dino Melaye, lawmaker representing Kogi west senatorial zone, was on Wednesday arraigned at a federal capital territory high court (FCT) o...

Dino Melaye, lawmaker representing Kogi west senatorial zone, was on Wednesday arraigned at a federal capital territory high court (FCT) on a six-count charge, bordering on attempted suicide, attempt to escape from custody and damage of police property.





Melaye who denied committing the offences, while Silvanus Oriji, a judge, granted him bail in the sum of N5 million





Oriji also ordered him to produce two sureties in like sum, as part of the bail condition.





The judge ordered that the sureties must be directors in the civil service, reside in the FCT, and depose to affidavits of means.





The prosecuting counsel, Alex Izinyon (SAN), had told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences on April 24.





He said the defendant while being conveyed in a police vehicle to Lokoja, forced his way out and escaped.





Izinyon added that the defendant sat on the ground, holding a substance in one hand threatening to drink it to kill himself so that he can put the police officers in trouble.





The prosecutor also said that the defendant broke the glass of the vehicle with his elbow and caused damage to police property.





He said the offences contravened the provisions of sections 148,153,173,231, 326 and 327 of the penal code.





Mike Ozekhome, counsel to the defendant, prayed the court to allow the bail granted to the defendant at the magistrates court, Wuse on the same charges to continue.





The prosecution opposed the application, adding that bail is at the discretion of the court.





The judge upheld the submission of the prosecution and gave the new bail conditions.



A House of Representatives member, Rep. Abdulrazak Atunwa, who with 36 others defected from All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday, said more members would leave the party in the coming weeks.Briefing newsmen in company of some of the members who moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atunwa said that Tuesdays defection was just the first batch of members that would leave the APC.He said that the public should expect more as many members had indicated interest to defect from the party.Atunwa said that the APC was a party they all laboured for as people came from various parties, campaigned and formed a government in 2015.According to him, we came together because of what was being proposed to the people of Nigeria as we believed in change and a better Nigeria.The legislator said that they believed in respect for the rule of law, improved education, social welfare of the people as the men, women and youth of the country deserved better among other ideals.Sadly, no sooner we formed government in May, 2015, the party put itself on course to be derailed and that derailment has continued to today.Some of us have been agitating that we should go back to the ideals that brought us together, but the party was not listening.The party rather embarked on victimization and criminalisation of its members, those perceived as opponents and have divergent views, he said.He said that the party set itself on the line of destruction when the aggrieved members brought up their concerns but were castigated and referred to as inconsequential and as nobody.Putting all that together and the interest of the country, particularly as the APC has derailed from the ideals that will propel Nigeria to advance, we felt we have to take this step we took today, he said.Atunwa said the defectors were interested in economic development, respect for parliament and rule of law, while the APC was concerned about membership to form majority.He, however, said that the PDP in the past three years had learnt its lesson.The lawmaker added that they had monitored and had seen that the PDP had taken corrective measures.He said that having been beaten at the polls in 2015, the PDP had got its acts together and was now a reformed party, adding that it was the reason they felt confident to return to the party.Also, Rep. Hassan Saleh, who also defected, said that from the ward congress up to the national convention of the APC, no fewer than 25 states in the country had parallel congresses.He questioned the process that brought about the national convention given the issues at ward levels, saying that the foundation was faulty.According to him, we cannot continue to hide our faces like nothing is wrong when the problem is there.Rep. Alliyu Madaki said some of the defectors joined the APC because it campaigned and promised to ensure security of lives and properties.He said section 14 of the Constitution said that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians.According to him, nobody is safe today in Nigeria; under the PDP administration, l could drive from Abuja to Kano with myb eyes closed but now, I depend on consistent prayer to arrive safely.Newsmen report that 33 lawmakers in the lower chambers defected from the APC to PDP, four others to African Democratic Party (ADC) while one resigned.The house, however, adjourned to proceed on eight weeks break and will resume plenary on Sept. 25.Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, says he is not afraid of being suspended by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, says he is not afraid of being suspended by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).





He said this in response to the threat issued by Adams Oshiomhole, chairman of the APC, over the inauguration of the board members of federal agencies and parastatal under his ministry.





The parastatals and agencies are the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), National Directorate of Employment (NDE), National Productivity Centre (NPC), and Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS).





Oshiomhole had threatened to move against the minister if the inauguration did not take place within a stipulated period.





The APC chairman said under his leadership, the party will not tolerate ministers who abuse their office and disrespect President Muhammadu Buhari by refusing to carry out his directives.





But faulting Oshiomholes comment at Aso Rock on Wednesday, Ngige said the APC chairman was talking out of ignorance.





He explained that the board of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) was yet to be inaugurated because of reports of alleged diversion of funds to the tune of N48 billion.





When asked if he would comply and if he was not afraid of suspension from the party, Ngige said, How? In a party that we formed and brought them in? The man is talking out of ignorance. Im not afraid of suspension.





Ngige had earlier written to Oshiomhole over the issue





He said: Our national chairman, I am in receipt of a letter referenced APC/NHDQ/ GEN-S/28/018/003 dated July 11, 2018, which was sent from your office and received by me on July 12, 2018. Ordinarily, I would not believe the letter was from you except for the barrage of media statements that came before I saw the letter. I read the contents of this letter with both amazement and utter disbelief.



The Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, has reacted to Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortoms resignation from the All Progressives Congress (A...

The Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, has reacted to Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortoms resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and his decision to now join PDP.





Recall that Ortom on Wednesday announced his resignation from the All Progressives Congress, APC.





The Governor in a Statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Tever Akase said he has now joined the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.









However, reacting the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Twitter welcomed Governor Ortom to the party.



Jimoh Moshood, spokesman of the Nigeria police force, says the siege at the residence of Senate President Bukola Saraki was stage-managed...

Jimoh Moshood, spokesman of the Nigeria police force, says the siege at the residence of Senate President Bukola Saraki was stage-managed for public sentiments.





Speaking on a Channels TV programme on Wednesday, Moshood said the force had no hand in the incident.





In the early hours of Tuesday, some police vehicles and officers were seen stationed at the entrance of the senate presidents residence in Abuja.





Footage which emerged online also suggested that the officers were trying to block his convoy from leaving the area, although Saraki later made it to the national assembly.





The incident generated widespread criticisms of the force, with some Nigerians describing it as a clampdown on the nations democracy.





But speaking on the programme, Moshood said there was no official command for a deployment of police officers to the senate presidents house.





We have the responsibility to protect him so we cant block him. If we were expecting him at 8am, why should we block him? he said.





He said over 140 security personnel of the police are attached to the national assembly and about 40 are attached to the senate president, including other units.





So what happened yesterday was not a blockade by the security personnel from the force. The personnel seen in the footage are those attached (to) the convoy of the senate president and to his residence. Those you see are those attached to him, Moshood said.





The IGP has directed an investigation into the incident. The ADC has been invited, he should be with the principal all the time. So if he is not aware of the whereabouts, we want to know why. Why should we go and block an empty house?





The video footage was circulated in the media to embarrass us. These are leaders of the legislature who we have the responsibility to protect. So we should allow the investigation to be completed before we give you the outcome of investigation.



President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to Nigerian neurosurgeons in the diaspora to support efforts made by the government to improve the health and well-being of citizens.He said the need for specialised and quality healthcare services in Nigeria necessitated the call for stronger collaboration with relevant stakeholders at home and diaspora towards reversing the countrys poor health indices.The President, who was represented by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made this known at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Continental Association of African Neurosurgical Societies (CAANS) 2018), held in Abuja.According to the President, his administration would provide the enabling environment for neurosurgery to thrive in the country; adding that the federal government was pleased with the renewed focus by stakeholders to strengthen the capacities of doctors in the specialised area.Buhari stressed that his government had paid considerable attention to five strategic pillars for National Strategic Health Development Plan II with focus on provide the enabling environment for the attainment of sector outcome, increasing the utilization of essential package of health care services, and protecting health emergencies and risk.He said: I appeal to Nigerian Neurosurgeons in the diaspora to join their counterparts in the country and the Government towards the great task of national development.Government will provide the enabling environment for the practices and growth of neurosurgery in Nigeria.We are in support of the renewed focus of the West Africa College of surgeons and the National Post Graduate of Medical Colleges determination to build capacity in these specialized areas.Nigeria has developed the new National Strategic Health Development Plan II which is a robust five year roadmap for the Nigeria Health Sector. It is geared towards the realization of our goal of increasing access, improving health outcomes and achieving universal health coverage.Mr. President commended Development Partners, CSOs, NGOs and the private sector for the continuous support to the Federal Government of Nigeria, adding that his administration will remain accountable for every support made to improve the health and wellbeing of our citizens.In his remarks, the President of CAANS,Prof. Abderrahmane Sidi Saidi, said that neurosurgeons from all parts of Africa were committed towards working together to meet the important needs of Neurosurgery in the region including populations in Sub- Saharan Africa.In recent years, we are particularly pleased to see the dynamism, willingness and enthusiasm of young African doctors for neurosurgery within CAANS, he added.The Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), which recently pulled out of the mainstream ruling party, has hailed the lawmakers who def...

The Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), which recently pulled out of the mainstream ruling party, has hailed the lawmakers who defected Tuesday saying the move will redirect the compass for better politics.





The spokesperson of the R-APC, Kassim Afegbua made this known in a statement on Tuesday.





The statement reads in part:





We salute our gallant lawmakers for their bold decision to exit from this colony of maximum rulers called the APC and helping to redirect the compass for better political engagements and sustenance of our hard-earned democracy.





We salute the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, for his bravery, courage and boldness in confronting agents of the oppressors to preside over the Senate for legislative duties. He was firm and calm in his disposition, and collected in his delivery of the message of hope during plenary.





While the nation is suffering in the hands of bandits, Fulani herdmen, terrorists and kidnappers, as if it were unpoliced, the Inspector-General of Police has suddenly developed erection in trying to undermine the institution of the Legislature. We say never again shall we allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to undermine our democracy.





Also, speaking on the seige by security operatives on the residences of the senate president and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, in the early hours of Tuesday, the group described the situation as pathetic and ridiculous.





We woke up on Tuesday, 24th July to the very pathetic, ridiculous, fascistic, gangsteristic, and gestapoeic realities that have occupied our democratic space when President Buharis police decided to lay siege on the house of the leadership of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki. He was prevented from proceeding to the hallowed chambers to carry out his legitimate duties as the duly elected Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.





Barely three days after our earlier note of caution, the well-scripted drama to undermine the rights of our members have come to light but in a very disturbing and utterly condemnable, Gestapo manner similar to that of members of the Jacobian scandal club of mideaval ages in American 16th Century political history.





According to the group, the police, who should serve as the custodian of the democratic rights of the people and provide a good anchorage to safeguard the lives and properties of the people, have suddenly become instrument of oppression, suppression and willing tools in the hands of the xpowers-that-be.





We are particularly disturbed that those who glorify themselves as democrats and fighters for democracy, by condemning military rule have suddenly maintain conspiratorial and ominous silence.





They have not only endorsed this act of ignominy, but also watching with rellish in the closet of their homes as the nation drifts on the plane of fascism, democratic militarism, gangsterism, and bare-faced dictatorship. It baffles us that while we are putting in place concerted efforts to secure our democracy by fighting brazen injustices and outright abuses, the APC government that prides itself as fighters of corruption have been trying hard to crumble this democracy.





It also flayed the APC national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for his dismissive remarks over the defections.



Cape Coral police are searching for an armed robber who held up a convenience store this morning.

The gunman entered the Seven Eleven cat 2604 Skyline Blvd. around 4 a.m., brandished a silver-colored handgun, and demanded money from the two clerks.

He left with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the store on foot.

He is described as white male was wearing a black ski mask, gray long sleeve shirt, blue sweatpants, and orange and white gloves.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. J. Hicks at (239) 574-3223.

To submit an anonymous tip, go to www.capecops.com/tips or text a tip- text CCPD+Your Message to CRIMES (274637).

Source: Cape Coral Police DepartmentA request to spend more than $14,000 to prevent municipal middle schoolers from using their cell phone while at school was soundly rejected by Cape Coral City Council on Monday.

The elected board voted 6-0 to deny the Cape Coral Charter Schools plan to address the problem of student cell phone use by buying magnetic pouches to prevent service.

The Charter School Authority was looking to enter into a lease agreement with Focally, a company that makes Yondr pouches. Officials planned to have students at Oasis Middle School put their cell phones into the pouches at the start of the school day. The pouches would then be locked and the phone would be unable to be used for the rest of the school day.

According to a memo from the Charter School Authority, the students would have possession of the phone which could be unlocked in the event of an emergency. The Wall Street Journal said more than 600 schools are using the pouches with success.

The Charter Schools were looking to spend $14,050 for the pouches for all 850 students who attend Oasis Middle School, up to 90 percent of whom bring cell phones to school.

Donnie Hopper, Oasis Middle School principal, with the help of charter school superintendent Jacquelin Collins, said that simply telling them to put their phones away no longer works.

Kids go to the rest rooms or use their phones under their desks. You can see how this is disruptive, Hopper said. Oasis has been an A school for 10 years. This is how we can change the culture by eliminating the use of cell phones. Even having the phone next to them inhibits learning.

Council members were not so sure. Councilmember Rick Williams pulled the consent item for discussion and said the idea gave him heartburn, and that the schools should use old-fashioned discipline.

I dont think this will do the job. Just tell them they cant use the phone. I can see the kids just unlocking the phones, Williams said. Teachers run the classrooms, if they say they cant use phones they shouldnt use them.

Councilmember John Carioscia said teachers should offer other forms of punishment for cell phone misuse.

Why not confiscate the phones and set up a meeting with the parents the first time and suspend them the second. A no-tolerance policy would stop it, Carioscia said. A meeting is cheaper than $14,000 in pouches.

Cell phones and social media have become a major obstacle for learning as they create distraction and even mental health issues in students, Collins said.

During pubic comment, Dan Sheppard said his daughter was a Lee County school teacher but left because her hands were tied when it came to disciplining students who abused the use of cell phones.

Councilmember Marilyn Stout was intrigued by Hoppers argument and gave it consideration. Still, two council members who might have had sway on the argument, council/charter school liaison Jennifer Nelson and her predecessor, Jessica Cosden, were both absent and the motion to deny passed 6-0.

In other business City Council:

* Appointed seven members and two alternates to the nuisance abatement board;

* approved a resolution to adopt an action plan for the Community Development Block Grant Entitlement Program;

* agreed to represent the city at the annual Police Law & Order Ball, and

* approved designating $40,000 to Good Wheels.Metro operations to be challenged by baby expo

From:Shine | 2018-07-24 16:29

The National Exhibition and Convention Center will hold the 18th Children Baby Maternity Expo of China from Wednesday to Friday, which is expected to put pressure on the Metro system.

Some 270,000 people are expected to venture out and see the expo, according to the organizer.

Metro East Xujing, Hongqiao Railway Station, and Zhuguang Road stations will possibly face large passenger flows, Shanghai Shentong Metro Groups said.

During the expo, Line 2 will put extra trains into operation. A temporary bus line will shuttle between the north plaza of the expo venue and Hongqiao public transport hub near Terminal 2 of Hongqiao Airport.

The bus service will operate from 3pm to 7pm on Wednesday and Thursday, and from 10am to 5pm on Friday. The departure interval is 15 minutes.

At East Xujing Station, some of the exits will only be open for entering or leaving alone, and metro operators will have more staff at the station to guide passengers.

The Metro operators also mentioned that as the expo takes place on work days, the passenger volume of Line 2 might be quite large. They suggested those who are going to the expo from the city take Line 10 and change to Line 2 at Hongqiao Railway Station to ease pressure on the line.The Lee County Arts Center of North Fort Myers will present its inaugural Art Walk from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 28, at the Hancock Bridge Square Shopping Center.

It is an event North Fort Myers community leaders hope will be a game-changer for the area as well as the shopping plaza where it will be held.

More than two dozen artists (along with others interested in setting up a spot) will display and sell their artwork in the area near the Sewing Boutique and where the Lee County Arts Center is possibly looking to locate nearby.

Maryanne Howard, president of the Lee County Arts Center, has been busy promoting the event. She spoke to the North Fort Myers Civic Association during its meeting July 10, where the idea was well received.

With the revitalization of the business corridor, we are excited to share in the process, Howard said. We want this area to be a place where people can come and experience what we have to offer. We want to be a destination, not a direction.

The civic association put the event on its new website and president Doug Dailey said he would offer volunteers.

The following day, the arts center held its final meeting before the event to plan its marketing strategy, which will include signs, fliers and media coverage.

Among the artists expected to attend are photographers, painters, and sculptors. Another are the Char-Lee Weavers, a group which promotes the art of hand weaving and spinning.

Future events are being planned at other shopping centers throughout the area. Another class is planned at the Sewing Boutique on Aug. 3 for painting on fabric.

There will also be two food vendors selling donuts and barbecue with one or two more being sought, and raffles are planned where people can win artwork.

The cost is $25 for a 10- by 6- foot space and $15 for a 5- by 6- foot space. Food vendors are $50.

The Lee County Arts Center of North Fort Myers was founded last June during the renaissance celebration at the Shell Factory. Since then it has applied for 501 3 status and is looking for a place to set up a co-op and classroom area so local artists can display and sell their work and so future artists can learn their craft.

It is a cultural organization dedicated to the enrichment of the lives of those who seek enjoyment and knowledge through exposure to the arts.

The Hancock Bridge Square Shopping Center is at 13500 N. Cleveland Ave.

For more information, visit leecountyartscenter.com.A business that has been part of the North Fort Myers community for six years will hold Giveaway Sunday, this weekend, complete with backpacks, supplies and a hot dog lunch.

The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, July 29, at Cowboy Crab and Seafood, 1984 N. Tamiami Trail.

Stefan Lippke said he and his family decided to do a back-to-school event as a way to give back to the community. The idea came together quickly with a great deal of support from the community and other businesses.

We reached out and asked if anyone wanted to donate anything, he said. We have some amazing people and small businesses in the community that came together for each other. And I personally do business with most of them.

The event will include handing out free backpacks with supplies. Lippke said they will have 200 backpacks and, if the need arises, he will go out and purchase more.

Anyone that needs them, we just wanted to give back, he said.

Lippke said they will also have a waterslide, bounce house, snow cone machines and hot dogs.

Were going to bring our grill from home and cook hot dogs for everybody, he said. We originally were going to do it by ourselves, but when we posted it on Facebook a lot of great people that own small businesses decided to chip in.

One of the businesses, Off the Hook Comedy Club, is donating free tickets to a show for everyone.

One hundred Cowboy Crab T-shirts will also be among the giveaways.

Lippke said they are running a commercial on FLY 98.5 about the event, and staff from 105.5 are sending volunteers to the event to provide a helping hand.

If its successful wed like to do one for Christmas and back to school each year, he said.

For more information, all (239) 599-2470, or visit cowboycrabandseefood.com.A local watchdog group has a suggestion for Lee County School District officials who say the district is facing a severe shortage of funds and so is in need of a half-cent sales tax: Stop DROP.

The Taxpayers Action Group says participation in the state-approved Deferred Retirement Option Program costs the district money that could be redirected if retiring employees were replaced with freshly trained, recent graduates at a much lower salary.

The group is bringing DROP program costs to the communitys attention because the school district claims it cannot find additional ways to meaningfully cut its budget and so is asking voters to approve the new sur tax, said Dave Jaye, Taxpayers Action Group.

By eliminating the program we would save over $32 million a year (in salary). Its how much it costs, he said. If we replaced every one of those positions with a brand new individual, we would save $20.8 million, which reduces the need for more than half of the sales tax proposal.

According numbers provided by the School District, there are 483 employees participating in the Deferred Retirement Option Program as of June 20.

DROP allows key retiring government employees in the state of Florida to continue working for up to five years with the benefits they would have earned held in a special account that the employee then receives upon retirement.

Its not as easy as saying The District wont take part, a teacher representative said.

There is no forced retirement and teachers can teach for as long as they wish. There are also contract protections and federal discrimination laws that do not allow for letting people go due to their age, said TALC President Kevin Daly.

Nor is it easy to find entry-level replacements for retiring teachers, he said.

While it is true that newer teachers are less expensive than more experienced teachers, there is currently a teacher shortage in the United States and universities are not producing graduates at a large enough rate to cover the shortage, Daly said. So, allowing more experienced teachers to work in DROP helps keep classrooms staffed with experienced employees. More experienced teachers also serve as mentors to the newer teachers in the district. Their institutional knowledge of pedagogy and real-world experiences can help a newer teacher survive in the first few years, which are critical for continued success.

Ron Pure, also a member of the Taxpayers Action Group. said it is time for the program to go.

It has been 40 years or longer since these double dipping school bureaucrats earned their college degrees, he said in a prepared statement. Students, employers and the taxpayers would hugely benefit from having fresh, newly educated and trained entry level employees. Think about how much technology, finances, business and training has changed over the last 10 years and many of these Lee School bureaucrat double dippers havent been in college since 1978.

Daly said he cannot think of any benefits to wholesale replacement of experienced teachers with new-to-the-profession educators.

He believes that the benefit to the employee is the opportunity to continue to work in a position they love for additional time.

Teaching is a career many people enter at a young age and reach retirement, based on experience, at a fairly young age when compared to other industries, he said. The DROP program allows them to continue to teach for a specified length of time. Monies that would be normally put into an employees FRS account are placed in an interest-bearing account that the employee receives when they leave DROP.

The program is voluntary and staff are not required to stay enrolled in the program for the full five years, he said.

Jaye said a majority of DROP employees are not teachers and the savings could  and should  be put in the classroom

Only 13.6 percent, 66 out of 482 are traditional classroom teachers, Jaye said. The rest are bookkeepers, cooks, janitors, bus drivers, secretaries, mechanics and bureaucrats.

Daly said Florida law restricts the use of capital dollars for operations, but allows for operation dollars to be used for capital, which the district already does.

I think there are savings to be found in any budget, from the kitchen table to Washington D.C. However, Im not sure they can find the level of savings in operations to deal with the current and future capital shortfalls, he said. Some of our local Legislative delegation have also suggested that restoring impact fees and an increase in millage would also be a solution. These fixes combined do not provide enough dollars to cover the shortfalls of a growth district.

DROP, a voluntary retirement program, is made available to FRS Pension Plan members who qualify for normal retirement. Participants of the Deferred Retirement Option Program begin accumulating their retirement benefits while delaying their termination for up to 60 months from the date they reach their normal retirement date.

While an individual is in the DROP program they simultaneously earn a salary, as well as their monthly retirement benefits, which are held in a FRS Trust Fund. In addition, their monthly retirement benefits accumulate in the FRS Trust Fund and earn tax-deferred interest as they continue to work.

The Florida Retirement System states that if the individuals DROP begins on, or after July 1, 2011, they receive a monthly interest at an annual rate of 1.30 percent.

According to the Florida Retirement System, once the employment is terminated at the end of the DROP participation period, the individual receives their DROP payout, as well as their monthly retirement benefit, as well as any cost of living increases.

Daly said the money that they receive at the end of DROP is only the amount the district sets aside for them, plus any interest accrued during their time in DROP.

Florida pensions are based on an average of a high five for annual benefit. DROP freezes the amount of money used to calculate the pension amount to the salary of the employee when they enter DROP, he said. This lowers the amount of the pension the employee receives when compared to the amount received if they employee did not enter DROP and worked those additional five years as a regular employee.

An individual receives his or her DROP accumulation in one of three ways  a lump sum payment with 20 percent withheld for federal income taxes; a direct rollover to an eligible retirement plan, or a combined partial lump sum payment and direct rollover.

Pure said the taxpayer group has been on the war path for a long time as far as the DROP program is concerned.

If we keep the folks hanging around beyond regular pension date where they can start collecting it (money) that precludes younger people from coming on board with starting salaries that have fresh ideas just out of college, he said. Its costing us a lot of money. Clearly it would offset if we say, Look you earned your pension and we will see you again at the supermarket, or the beach.

He said the district should be able to fill vacated positions with qualified personnel.

With the state of Florida having a population of 20 to 22 million people, the talent pool is pretty large at this point, he said. If we had to fill those jobs that are now occupied by people in the DROP program there would be a significant savings of money.

Its savings that could be used for where the school board has reported a potential shortfall, Pure added.

The Taxpayers Action Group has other suggestions as well.

Jaye said he has spent more than eight months putting together a document that includes more than $266 million of budget cuts and budget reforms.

Some of the potential cost saving measures include adjusting bell schedules so buses are not sitting idle and not allowing employees to cash out unused sick days.

Another area where the district could save money lies within the 13 pay grades and 18 step increases. He said the Lee County School District respects, honors and compensates for job seniority where the highest pay step increase is approximately 62 percent higher than the entry level.

Its imperative that citizens try to put our public servants under a request that they tighten their belt, that the tax increase is less than 4 percent of the budget, Jaye said.Whenever Charlie Porter sees a customer walk into Bayshore Truck & Auto Service at 6371 Bayshore Road, its like hes seeing an old friend.

Thats because it very likely is.

The business opened in 2006 and has become the go-to place for many people in the area for simple maintenance, engine rebuilds and everything in between.

That work has earned Bayshore Truck & Auto a Best of North Fort Myers award for auto repair, to go with its award for Best Transmission Service in 2016.

The Best of awards are a readers choice ballot recognition program sponsored by The Neighbor.

Porter said when they bought the place, it wasnt really meant to become an auto repair place.

We had a little fastener business and we needed a place for a storefront, so we bought this in hopes the trucking business that was here would maintain it, Porter said. But that was in 2007 and the economy changed our plans.

Porter diversified into auto repair and was able to get through the hard times. As people werent buying new cars but rather maintaining the old ones they had, that was a good thing.

Porter said he sold the fastener business in February.

Bayshore Truck & Auto is a full-service repair shop that will perform nearly any kind of work needed except for body damage.

They will do transmissions, brakes, engines, oil changes, tire repair, basically everything a car or truck needs, Porter said, at rates that are at or better than the competitors.

The key to success, Porter, said, it an appreciation of his customers, many of whom have gone to him for years.

Our main thrust is customer satisfaction and making the customer feel welcome and comfortable and important, said Porter, who employs nine full-time people. Our customers are more like friends.

It has also become a family affair. Charlies son, Clay, came to work with him last year after more than 30 years as a trucker.

He called and told me that something was calling him to come with me. That thrilled me to death and he came, Charlie said.

I was raising a family and I did a lot of local driving, with nine years going all over the place, Clay said. The people here makes it a great place to come and work.

The shop runs some specials with a coupon such as a free tire rotation with an oil change and free inspections of the air conditioning and electrical system provided they do the repair work. Be sure to check to see what specials are available.

Bayshore Truck & Auto Service is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Porter joked that they have a sign that says theyre closed for lunch, but that the sign doesnt work.

For more information, call 731-6868.To the editor:

Please join me in voting for Mary Fischer for District 1 on Aug. 28. A candidate endorsed by Island Coast FEA (TALC/SPALC), The Hispanic Vote Political Action Committee and the Southwest Chapter of the South Florida AFL  CIO.

In her eight years on the Lee County School Board she has led with integrity  always. She defines the meaning of integrity. Mary has pushed for Anti-Bullying programs, Comprehensive Health Education and strives to enhance school safety and security in the future. Having been a School Counselor and a Nationally Certified Trainer, BullySafe USA to name just a few, there is no one who can ever say that she doesnt care about all childrens health, safety and academic growth.

Mary Fischer is dedicated to another term to Lee County as school board member for District 1 and she undoubtedly deserves it. Mary is as genuine as it gets and leaves politics out of it, and rightly so, as this race is non-partisan. I can tell you that she is the best choice for the future leaders of Lee Co.

We know who and what we have with Mary Fischer. We must remember that change takes time and she has worked very hard to make some very positive changes.

Please, re-elect Mary Fischer District 1 for school board again, a woman with integrity.

Kathleen Cherasia

Cape CoralTo the editor:

As a father with two kids attending a Lee County School and a candidate for the Lee County School Board, I am very upset to learn from several school district personnel this week that they still have serious school safety concerns.

Since the end of last school year, little has changed. There are 28 days until the first day of school. Many schools still lack implementation of safety measures, such as the single point entry touted so many times by the board and superintendent. Why, in the 109 days since the March 25th letter Dr. Adkins sent to all parents, have not all schools been reduced to a single entry point?

I have watched as our school board tried to use safety to push the sales tax referendum. Obviously, the safety of our kids and district personnel does not appear to be a priority, unless they can have their half penny.

Safety cant wait until November!

My message to the board and superintendent:

Our kids safety is NOT your bargaining chip.

Do your job!

Don Armstrong

North Fort Myers

Candidate for the Lee County School Board, District 4New visa center launched to boost number of Chinese visitors to Israel

From:Shine | 2018-07-24 18:29

The Israel Visa Application Center opened in Shanghai on July 24 to offer a faster and more efficient application process accommodating the rapidly increasing number of visitors from China.

The center will shorten and simplify the process and allow online payment. Applicants can receive their visas as quickly as the following day when using the express service, making it much easier for those needing to travel urgently.

Zvi Heifetz, Israeli ambassador to China, said his government and the embassy are keen on enhancing bilateral relations. He believed that the new visa center will further boost the rapidly growing number of visitors from China.

Shanghai is Israels second visa center after Beijing and will soon be followed by another one in Guangzhou, capital of southern Chinas Guangdong Province.

The number of visas issued by the Israeli Consulate General in Shanghai increased by 30 percent in the first six months of this year, compared with the same period in 2017.Home  Just In  16 Nepali women rescued from traffickers clutches in New Delhi

Kathmandu, July 25

Officials of the Delhi Commission for Women and local activists have said the Commission on Tuesday night arrested as many as 16 Nepali women from traffickers clutches.

It has been learned that the alleged victims were lured into following the traffickers as they were assured of lucrative jobs in Kuwait and Iraq via Delhi.

The Commission is a statutory body under the Government of Delhi, which is a union territory of India.

The Commissions Chairperson Swati Maliwal held a meeting with Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Maneka Gandhi, and briefed her about the event today, according to reports.

Meanwhile, some activists have accused the government of ignoring such incidents as police who were just close to the place where the girls were rescued could not know anything about the trafficking activities there.Kathmandu, July 25

Former leaders of dissolved Nepal Democratic Forum, who joined the Nepali Congress party along with their Chairman Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar before provincial and federal parliamentary elections last year, have complained that they did not get any role in the party.

Though an agreement made between the two parties for the unification mentioned that leaders and cadres of Democratic Forum would be given appropriate roles at all levels, no leader from the party has been included in the 83-member Central Working Committee.

Even Gachhadar is taking part in the CWC meetings as an invitee. He, however, has been made the partys deputy leader in its Parliamentary Committee and holds the second position after President Sher Bahadur Deuba.

Our status in the Congress party is that of a general member, the dissolved partys Vice-Chairman Ram Janam Chaudhary says, Our role is almost nil here.

Consequently, some leaders are taking rest in their own places whereas those residing in Kathmandu also do not have any responsibility. Some people are in contact with Bhanuram Tharu, who has launched a mission to revive the Nepal Democratic Forum.

Meanwhile, the partys spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma says leaders and cadres who have come to the party from the Democratic Forum will be fully integrated to the Congress after its statute will be amended in December.Two major issues that have been highlighted on the front pages of major Nepali and English broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Wednesday are the beginning of formal talks between the government and a team representing medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC and resignation of Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang over a controversial statement that he made last week.

News reports about protests launched by doctors in solidarity with the activist, the adjournment of National Assembly meeting and few other issues from political, sociocultural and financial sectors have also been featured on the front pages of the broadsheets published from Kathmandu.

Important

Talks between Dr KC, govt positive

On the 25th day of the fast-unto-death of Dr Govinda KC, a team formed by the government for negotiations with Dr KC has held a formal meeting with the fasting doctors representatives, according to Nagarik.

Other newspapers comment that the meeting was positive about reaching a conclusion agreeable to both sides and the talks will continue today as well. Nepal Samacharpatra says the two sides may sign an agreement today, thereby effectively ending Dr KCs fast.

The meeting was held at the Ministry of Education for around three hours yesterday, Gorkhapatra reports, adding coordinators of both sidesKhaga Raj Baral and Abhishek Raj Singhhave said agreements have been forged on many demands raised by Dr KC and hoped the negotiations are likely to materialise on Wednesday.

Naya Patrika says the agreement is coming closer as Dr KCs side has turned flexible about resistance on the new medical education bill whereas the government has become ready to withdraw the bill already registered in Parliament.

NCP forces lawmaker to resign to bring Bamdev Gautam to Parliament

Naya Patrika reports on its front page that the ruling Nepal Communist Partys leadership is putting pressure on its lawmaker Dhan Bahadur Budha to resign from his position of lawmaker representing Dolpa districts only constituency in the House of Representatives as it wants to bring its Secretariat member Bamdev Gautam to Parliament.

Gautam had lost the 2017 polls to Nepali Congress candidate from Bardiya. As he was a key figure to bring then CPN-UML and CPN-Maoist Centre together, chairmen of the partyKP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahalhave requested Budha to resign, accoridnig to the report.

Now, if the partys plan works, the Election Commission will hold a byelection in Dolpa, in which the party will field Gautam. He will defeat the opposition and get elected the House of Representatives member.

Ignored

Distribution of licence to new radio, TV stations put on hold

The government has put the distribution of operation licence to new radio and television stations on hold, reports Nagarik.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has argued that the halt was imposed as studies are underway on various issues including radio frequency distribution and capacity building.

The Ministrys spokesperson Ram Chandra Dhakal says the distribution will resume once the studies will be over.

Nakhkhu jailbird poisons mate to death

Gorkhapatra reports in its anchor story that a jailbird at Nakhkhu Jail in Lalitpur has allegedly killed his peer inside the prison around two and half months ago.

Abhishek Raj Singh from Bageshwari of Banke has been accused of killing Bhakta Bahadur Sunar from Thakurdwara of Bardiya by poisoning, according to an investigation carried out by the Nepal Police Central Investigation Bureau. He has prepared the poison inside the jail itself.

Oxygen bottlers withdraw price hike

A group of medical oxygen bottling industrialists has collectively decided to withdraw the hike made in the price of oxygen gas recently, Karobar reports in a snippet. As the companies decided to hike the price by as much as 125 per cent, the government had warned of booking them under the Black Marketing Act, 1975.

Frenchmen held for paedophilia

A four-column story in Republica says the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police on Sunday arrested two French nationals for their alleged involvement in paedopilia in Kathmandu.

With their arrest, the number of paedophilia suspects arrested in last two years has reached 12, and 10 of them are foreigners, according to the report.

The two sexually abused more than eight children in the capital, the report informs.

Interesting

Seven road tunnels in next five years

The government plans to build as many as seven road tunnels, stretching around 20 kilometres in total, in next five years, reports Abhiyan in a box story on the front page.

A five-year strategy prepared by the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport says road tunnels will be constructed along Tokha-Chhahare, Koteshwor-Jadibuti, Thankot-Chitlang, Khurkot-Chiyabari, Siddhababa and Khuttiya-Dipayal routes, according to the report.NZ jumper wins on the flat in Australia

Quality New Zealand jumper Monarch Chimes showed his versatility at Sandown on Wednesday when winning on the flat in the Mypunter.com Handicap (2400m).

The David and Emma-Lee Browne-trained runner was using the race as a lead-up for his two Australian targets next month, the A$125,000 Crisp Steeplechase (3900m) and the $350,000 Grand National Steeplechase (4500m), and that was duly reflected in his $38.40 win price.

Fleet-footed jumper Monarch Chimes showed his flat ability at Sandown today ahead of steeplechase targets. Photo: Trish Dunel

It has come as a little bit of a surprise, Emma-Lee Browne said. Obviously he is nice and well and that is why we have come over here.

He has run the odd cheeky flat race, but I just said make sure he gets a good hit-out up that last bit in preparation for the Crisp and he did that well.

The Shinko King six-year-old duly obliged and showed a good turn of foot in the closing stages of the race, under the urgings of jockey Jordan Childs, to score by a head over the Liam Howley-trained Latin Beat.

The main thing was just to get him to relax early and he did that, Childs said. The field really bunched up at the top of the straight and he did a really good job to lengthen out to the line and keep going.

Monarch Chimes had just the one run in New Zealand since his Warrnambool carnival campaign, where he finished in the minor placings, and showed enough in his victory in the 3100m open hurdle at Hastings to warrant a trip back across the Tasman.

Were heading for the national and he won the hurdle race at home before he came here so that gave us the confidence to come again, Browne said.

I think he was just still a bit fresh at Warrnambool, that is why I really wanted the run today, which will help pay a few expenses along the way.

He loves it here, Im really proud of him.  NZ Racing Desk.Wallace the Great, an 11-year-old rescued mule from Gloucestershire, recently made history by becoming the first ever mule to win an official horse dressage competition in Britain.

Wallace and his trainer, Christie Mclean, had been turned down from official dressage events several times on grounds that he wasnt a true horse, but a cross between a horse and a donkey, which technically makes him a totally different species, with different chromosomes. However, earlier this month, British Dressage finally ruled in favor of allowing mules to compete in official dressage competitions alongside horses and ponies, as a testament to inclusion and diversity in dressage, making the sport more accessible to all. Wallace the Great finally had a chance to prove that when it came to dressage, mules could be just as good, if not better than purebred horses, and on July 22nd he did just that, winning his first British Dressage competition.

Photo: Wallace the Great/Facebook

Wallace won first in the intro class, out of nine. Well be having a glass of bubbly this evening to celebrate the UKs first mule in dressage, Christie Mclean said after the memorable win. He was competing against cobs, ponies and horses. There was a bit of everything and he blew them all out of the water.

This is what youd call a Cinderella story. Not long ago, Wallace was aimlessly wandering around a village in Ireland, surviving on scraps offered by kindhearted locals. He was rescued from a bus shelter by the people at Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary, brought to England, and nurtured back to health. Lesley Radcliffe, who runs the Donkey Sanctuary with her husband Steve, is a good friend of Christies, so six months ago she started training with him and his aptitude for dressage became clear.



Wallace performed so well that, when two of Christies horses went lame before a dressage competition, she thought the talented mule could replace them. Thats when she learned that mules werent accepted by British Dressage, so she started campaigning for their right to complete against horses.

When British Dressage said the rule book only refers to horses and ponies within its affiliated criteria, I was really surprised and disappointed, Mclean said. I dont think its a case of equine racism but more a case of the rule book being very out of date.



Luckily, the story of Wallace the Great, a dressage mule that wanted to compete against horses but wasnt allowed, spread like wildfire through the UK and received unexpected support from the public. People started pressuring British Dressage to change its archaic rules, and soon the association ruled that all animals born to a mare can take part in official dressage events.

It is like a mule version of Babe the pig. Babe wanted to be a sheep dog, and Wallace is the mule that wants to be a horse, Christie said after their win at Summerhouse Equestrian, in Gloucestershire. I think this shows that mules are equal in ability. I believe Wallace wants to do this. Its a double achievement  hes made history for mules, and British Dressage. It is a historic day which will never be repeated, a landmark.



The pressure was firmly there, wed come this far, Mclean said on Wallaces Facebook page. He did everything I asked of him he rode beautifully. I cannot thank everyone enough for the huge amounts of support for Wallace, knowing that he has a chance in life makes it even more heart-warming.

So there you have it. Who knew a mules story could be so inspiring?Of all the places to advertise on a living human being, the armpits are probably at the bottom of the list for most people, but one Japanese company believes they are prime real-estate and is currently recruiting young female models willing to walk around with ads on their armpits.

Living, breathing advertising billboards are not exactly a novel concept. Brandon Chicotsky has been leasing his bald head as ad space for companies willing to pay him hundreds of dollars per day for years, and hes just one example. Theres also the case of Hostgator M. Dotcom, who once tattooed company logos on his face for profit, or that of Jason George, a self-described human billboard who tattooed hundreds of company logos that had affected his life in some way, all over his body. But while most of these people offered up the most visible parts of their bodies, like the head or face, but the Wakino Ad Company is betting it all on the armpits.

Photo: Wakino Ad Company

If youre an executive whos had enough of traditional advertising, maybe youd like to give armpit ads a try. For a fee as low as 10,000 yen ($89.99) per hour, Wakino will plaster your custom ad on the armpits of a young model who will do her best to make it as visible as possible. Its unclear how that will work though, as apart from holding on to the handrail on public transportation or stretching your arms up from time to time, there arent too many ways of making your armpits visible.

Photo: Wakino Ad Company

The Wakino Ad Company has just started operations, so its though to know how successful its going to be, but it has released several concept stills to help potential customers better visualize the possibilities. Theyve even landed their first client, a beauty treatment and dermatology chain that is using armpit ads to promote its painless underarm hair removal procedure.

Photo: Wakino Ad Company

Interestingly, the Wakino Ad Company itself is a sort of advertising, as it is owned by Liberta, a beauty products company that specializes in armpit beautifying products. Showing off the effectiveness of your products while charging other companies advertising fees? Now thats genius!

Photo: Wakino Ad Company

Interestingly, Wakino isnt the first company to use live women as advertising billboards. Back in 2013, Absolute Territory PR made headlines for advertising on young womens thighs.Kathmandu, July 24

The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu says it will shut its Biratnagar-based field (camp) office from August 1 as the government had earlier announced.

All services including issuing of motor vehicle permits, registration certificates for Indian nationals, attestation of documents and miscellaneous services (birth/death registrations) being rendered by Embassy of India Camp Office, Biratnagar will cease with effect from August 1, 2018, the Embassy informed in a statement today, For any services, hitherto being rendered by Embassy of India Camp Office, Biratnagar, please contact Embassy of India, Kathmandu.

Earlier in May, some days after the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nepal, the New Delhi government had said it already decided to close the office.

The purpose for which this Camp Office was opened has been fulfilled. GoI had already decided to wind up the Camp Office and re-locate the personnel, the Embassys statement stated then.

India had established the office in Biratnagar for security check of Nepalis entering India after a flood in Saptakoshi in the monsoon of 2008 created a havoc in eastern Nepal.

Stan Steinreich

I am a confessed news junkie! Nothing is as exciting as getting my morning stack of newspapers and thumbing through the pages with a hot cup of coffee and CNN in the background.

So, it is with great sadness that I read of the further staff amputations  mutilation may be a better word for it  at the New York Daily News. When I was a journalist covering metro stories for the New York Times, it was always the tabloid folks, from the Daily News and New York Post who seemed to swoop in, know every cop and firefighter, and be able to get on the other side of the police tape first. Those of us from the papers on the other side of the tracks (New York Times) had to be far more enterprising in those days to get the real scoop. The tabloids also had multiple street editions in those years, so they could update a story several times during the night.

Here we are, mourning the slow death of one of Americas great news institutions. The paper that gave rise to Jimmy Breslin, Liz Smith and many others, is now a skeletal version of itself. They had the best photojournalists in the business and headline writers who would duke it out with The Post every day.

But while we watch the bleeding of the Daily News, I cant help but ponder why some traditional news organizations thrive in todays environment and others just cant make it.

The Wall Street Journal went from being a niche financial newspaper that most executives got mailed to their offices every day, to an absolute powerhouse of general, financial, business and lifestyle news delivered through multi-platforms. The New York Times, the slowest to recognize the power of new media, is thriving today. Jeff Bezos deserves kudos for breathing new life into the Washington Post. Lest I forget, even the New York Post is doing better today. It smartly re-defined its portfolio, investing heavily in sports, gossip and local coverage.

What these successful news organizations have done is grown, not shrink. All media companies are faced with similar challenges  less people paying for their news today  but instead of cutting swatches of staff, they invested in the news product and in recruiting more journalists. More, richer content was added in each of the cases I outline above, and that is why they are doing well. There is no shortcutting the formula  invest to survive and flourish, cut costs and you will die.

I am writing this column from our offices in High Point, North Carolina (we are the largest PR firm in the home furnishings category and this is home base for that industry). The High Point Enterprise, the local daily, has an editorial staff you can count on one hand. Down the road in Greensboro, the News & Record struggles with an albeit larger but still very small team. The locals here struggle to get in-depth local news these days, most of them relying on television stations, who interestingly enough have more reporters than do the print outlets. But broadcast is still limited. If it bleeds, it leads. Tough to get a city council meeting or board of education story well vetted.

What was Tronc thinking? When you cut editorial staff, the essence of the product, you are not merely trimming the bushes, you are pulling them right out of the ground!

***

Stan Steinreich is president and CEO of Steinreich Communications, an international PR firm with offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Tel Aviv, London, Frankfurt and High Point

Rick French

French | West | Vaughan CEO Rick French has joined the board of directors of Teen Cancer America, a nonprofit launched in 2012 by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who. FWV also serves as the pro bono public relations agency for the Los Angeles-based organization. TCA brings together physicians and healthcare specialists in the fields of pediatric and adult oncology to develop age-specific programs for teens and young adults with cancer, and help finance new facilities to support them. French also serves on the board of trustees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum in Cleveland and The Buddy Holly Educational Foundation.



Amy Prenner

Allied Integrated Marketing has named Amy Prenner senior vice president, national publicity. Prenner has run her own company, The Prenner Group, since 2007. She has also worked as a unit publicist for cable and satellite television network EPIX, a publicity consultant for Fremantle Media, and has consulted on Emmy campaigns for several NBC shows, including The Office, Parks and Recreation and Americas Got Talent. In her new post, she will manage publicity efforts for Allieds film, television, streaming and brand clients, and she will oversee the agencys national publicity teams in Los Angeles and New York. Allied CEO Clint Kendall said that Prenner has an incredibly impressive track record of executing impactful campaigns for clients.



Betsi Schumacher

Chicago-based 3rd Coast PR has announced the promotions of Betsi Schumacher, Rachel Johnson, Madeleine Zenz and Mary Kelly. Schumacher has been named executive vice president and managing director, overseeing all elements of the agency and its growth. She previously served as director of client services. Johnson moves into the director of client services position. Before coming to 3rd Coast in 2016 she was a global account manager at Edelman. Zenz has been upped from senior account executive to account manager, and Kelly has been promoted from account executive to senior account executive. In addition to the personnel changes, 3rd Coast has moved to a new space in Co-Optim, a co-working space in Chicagos West Loop.Boy that didnt take long.

Donald Trump took to Twitter today to suggest that the hush money tape made by his fixer Michael Cohen may have been doctored.

What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!

Inquiring minds would like to know 1) What were the presumably positive things that the president said about paying $150K to buy the silence of former Playboy model Karen McDougal, and 2) Who told him that Cohen taped "other clients and many reporters?"

But thats another can of worms to open.

Now that president Trump has put the doctored tape ball into play, hell probably be denying that Cohen was his personal lawyer by tomorrow.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984: Reality exists in the human mind, and nowhere else.

The reality in Trumps mind is that he can make lovey-dovey with Vladimir Putin, smear US intelligence services, trash allies, launch a global trade war, massively cut taxes, increase the deficit, separate families, cage young kids, destroy ObamaCare and continually lie without undermining the standing of the US before the world and its own people. That's hogwash. It will take years for our country to get over the damage brought about by Trump.

As in George Orwell's classic, 1984, Trump operates his own version of the Ministry of Truth to spread lies and propaganda.

Consider these three news stories.

CNN reported July 24 that the White House has ended the long-time practice of releasing the transcript of presidential phone calls with foreign leaders. One can now only imagine what popped into Trump's mind when he recently chatted with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The HuffPost reported today that the White House edited from the transcript and video of Trumps horror in Helsinki with Vlad a question that Reuters reporter Jeff Mason posed to Putin about whether he wanted Trump to win the presidential election. Da, Da, smiled the Russian.

The New York Times also weighed in today with how Trump was enraged that First Lady Melania tuned into CNN (FAKE NEWS CENTRAL) while on Air Force One. She violated Trump Rule No. 1 that all TVs should show only Fox, which tosses bouquets to its faithful watcher-in-chief.

The White Houses Ministry of Truth works hard to keep Americans misinformed and confused about reality, so they dont stand up to Trump, or egad impeach him.

Ignorance is indeed its strength.Americans increasingly expect CEOs to be activists as well as managers, according to research just released by Weber Shandwick.

The results of CEO Activism in 2018: The Purposeful CEO, the agencys third annual nationwide poll on CEO activism, show that the public is both becoming more aware of CEO activism and more supportive of the ideaespecially when that activism takes the form of a CEO defending a companys values.

Out of the 1,006 U.S. adults age 18 or over who were surveyed, 42 percent said that they have either heard or read about CEOs taking positions on controversial issues. Thats a five percent hike from 2017, and eight percentage points up from 2016s figure of 34 percent. Respondents also said that they expect the number of CEO activists to grow, with 46 percent predicting an increase over the next few years.

When it comes whether or not they think CEO activism is a good thing, 38 percent of survey respondents said that they have a favorable view of CEOs voicing their opinion on hotly debated topics, with 25 percent saying that they took a negative view of the trend. In 2017 and 2016, just 31 percent of those surveyed were in favor of CEO activism.

Perceptions of the political influence of CEO activism are also on the rise. Nearly half (48 percent) of those surveyed said they felt the opinions voiced by CEOs did have an influence on the government, up 10 percent from 2017.

Party affiliation did not seem to be a major indicator of how effective CEO activism was deemed to be: 54 percent of respondents who said they were Democrats saw it as influential, as opposed to 51 percent for Republicans. Independents were a bit more skeptical, with just 43 percent finding CEO activism influential.

The proper scope of CEO activism was the source of some conflict, however. When respondents were asked if CEOs should take positions on social issueseven if those issues were not directly related to their business64 percent of Democrats agreed, while only 44 percent of independents and 32 percent of Republicans approved.

The workplace-related topics that respondents took a positive view of CEOs weighing in on were: jobs skills/training (80 percent), equal pay in the workplace (79 percent), sexual harassment (77 percent), privacy and personal data protection (71 percent), healthcare coverage (70 percent) and maternity/paternity leave (69 percent)

Quite likely the most important effect a CEOs activism can have is in its influence on purchasing behavior. For respondents who were aware of CEO activism, 35 percent said they decided not to buy from a company, or to boycott that company, based on a CEOs stance regarding a particular issue. In 2017, that number was 28 percent. Those who made a positive purchasing decision in response to CEO activism was 18 percent, even with 2017s number.

Over the past 12 months, it has become more common for leaders of companies to speak out on policy issues, and the American public is paying attention to this new brand of CEO, said Weber Shandwick CEO Andy Polansky. While most CEOs are not accustomed to participating in the political arena, they and their companies need to be prepared to navigate these uncharted waters, whether they remain silent or not.

To see the full study, go to Weber Shandwicks website.FiscalNote, DC-based tech and data outfit, says it intends to acquire CQ Roll Call from The Economist Group. As part of the deal, The Economist Group would gain an 18 percent equity stake in the company. The Economist Group CEO Chris Stibbs is to join the FiscalNote board of directors, with FiscalNote founder Tim Hwang remaining CEO. Hwang told the Washington Post that his plan is to make FiscalNote a global data and information provider along the lines of Thompson Reuters, Bloomberg and LexisNexis, which have also combined subscription-based data services with news reporting and analysis.



Troy Young

Hearst has named Troy Young president of its magazine division, succeeding David Carey, who is stepping down. The appointment is effective immediately. Carey is expected to remain with Hearst through 2019 as chairman of the magazine division. Young has been president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media since 2013. In that position he restructured Hearsts management hierarchy, creating digital teams for each brand, with site editors reporting to him instead of to the editor-in-chief of the print title associated with the site. He also oversaw the development of MediaOS, a proprietary content management, ad sales and data analytics platform, as well as the opening of a 26,000-square-foot video and multimedia production studio. Before coming to Hearst, he was president of digital publishing company Say Media. He will now have responsibility for Hearst Magazines global business, which includes more than 300 print editions and 240 digital brands.



Ben Berkowitz

Storyful has named Ben Berkowitz editor-in-chief. Storyful, which bills itself as a social insights and content company, says it helps clients find and verify user-generated content. Founded in Ireland in 2008, the company was acquired by NewsCorp in 2013. Berkowitz was previously vice president, digital at WNBC and has also worked for CNBC, Thomson Reuters, the Associated Press and AOL. He will assume responsibility for Storyful's global editorial operation in August, driving long term strategy and maintaining day-to-day oversight of Storyfuls newsroom including offices in Dublin, New York, London, Hong Kong and Sydney. He will also lead new initiatives such as News Intelligence, an investigative research service for newsrooms, and training programs designed to combat misinformation on social media.Kathmandu, July 25

Until few weeks back, the number of Kathmanduites to have known marsi chamal, a type of rice cultivated in highlands of Karnalil Province in Nepal in particular, was very small. Now, it has been one of the most sought-after thing in big groceries of Kathmandu, thanks to recent political discussions.

Marsi chamal today has been a symbol of aristocracy as it is expensive and consumed by the rich though it is cultivated in Karnali, the poorest part of the country. It came to the limelight after controversial medical college operator Durga Prasain offered the marsi chamal delicacy to KP Sharma Oli and Pushpa Kamal Dahal while they were preparing to merge their parties.

Prasain is struggling to get his medical college recognised by a university and medical education reform activist Dr Govinda KC and his supporters have been protesting it citing the college does not have sufficient infrastructure. They have been accusing the current government and ruling Nepal Communist Party of trying to grant the affiliation to Prasain just because he fed them marsi chamals delicacy.

As protesters used this metaphor to attack Oli, Dahal and the government, members of the general public, on the other hand, have developed a natural curiosity on what it is, hence the demand has surged, according to grocers.

One of the most popular supermarkets of the city, Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket, says it is importing 10 tone marsi chamal from Jumla within a couple of days.

We could not afford ignoring demands of our regular customers, the stores Pushpa Thapa comments.

Big Mart, another chain grocer in Kathmandu, says it had been selling marsi chamal for last few months; but its demand has significantly increased since last month.

The stores Purchase Manager Milan Budhathoki says, Earlier, those conscious of health hazards would buy it. But, everyone is buying a kilo or two these days.

A kilogram of marsi chamal costs above Rs 200 in Kathmandu.Home  Just In  Nepal sure to achieve middle-income status by 2030: Minister Gyawali

Lisbon, Portugal, July 25

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Pradeep Kumar Gyawali, has said that the country has been on track in its aim to develop Nepal a middle-income country in the next 12 years.

The country is advancing towards the path to development and prosperity with the end of instability and transition. The people have given a mandate for establishing stability and prosperity. The incumbent government is working towards that end, he said at an interaction organised jointly by the Pravasi Nepali Manch, Nepali Janapragati Manch, and Non-Resident Nepali Association, in Lisbon of Portugal on Tuesday.

The Minister is on an official visit to Portugal at the invitation of his Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva.

The government is working to create environment conducive to attract foreign investment, he said, adding Nepal will use various channels like neighbouring countries, development partners, labour receiving countries and United Nations in this regard.

Saying that Nepal is enjoying hands-off approach from neighbouring India and China, he said the ties with them were moving ahead through a new level.

RSS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.UPM CEO Reports Strong Second Quarter Results on Product Demand and Improved Pricing "UPM delivered yet another successful quarter of earnings growth. Customer demand for our products continued to be strong and we succeeded in increasing prices in most of our businesses also during the quarter."  Jussi Pesonen, President and CEO, UPM. July 24, 2018 - UPM's President and CEO, Jussi Pesonen, reported strong demand and improved pricing for UPM's products played key roles in driving earnings during the second quarter of 2018. Mr. Pesonen's Q2 2018 comments follow: UPM delivered yet another successful quarter of earnings growth. Customer demand for our products continued to be strong and we succeeded in increasing prices in most of our businesses also during the quarter. This enabled us to expand our margins and recover the impact of clearly higher input costs. We carried out several significant scheduled maintenance shutdowns during the quarter, which held back our operating profit by approximately EUR 90 million. However, earlier challenges in wood harvesting and logistics were solved and no longer impacted our performance. Our sales grew by 5% and our comparable EBIT increased by 24% to EUR 334 million. Operating cash flow was strong at EUR 329 million. UPM paid a dividend of EUR 613 million and net debt was EUR 401 million at the end of the quarter. UPM Biorefining increased its earnings clearly. Customer demand was strong for pulp, biofuels and sawn timber, and sales prices increased. Scheduled maintenance shutdowns were carried out at the Fray Bentos and Kaukas pulp mills and at the Lappeenranta biorefinery. During the Kaukas shutdown, the pulp mill expansion was completed, providing 30,000 tons of additional pulp capacity. UPM Communication Papers grew both its sales and earnings in tight markets. The business area achieved high operational efficiency and increased prices. UPM Raflatac performed well and managed to resume earnings growth after a challenging Q1. UPM Plywood had a steady performance in a good market situation. UPM Energy improved earnings due to higher electricity prices and volumes. Electricity generation was held back by the annual maintenance shutdown at Olkiluoto power plant and weakened hydropower availability during the quarter. UPM Specialty Papers enjoyed good market demand and increased prices, but was not able to fully offset the higher pulp costs. We look to the future with confidence. In the second half of the year we have every opportunity to respond to customer demand with growing deliveries. Our ongoing focused growth projects enable us to develop our market position while maintaining and growing our earnings. During the quarter we announced new focused growth investments in Germany and in China in the attractive release liner business. Our transformative prospects provide us with unique and exciting opportunities for significant long-term earnings growth. In Uruguay, the second preparation phase for the potential new world-class pulp mill is proceeding well. In attractive biomolecular businesses we continue to prepare for the potential first industrial-scale biochemical refinery in Germany and study the potential biofuels scale up in Finland. In 2009, we redefined UPM as the Biofore Company, creating a new, future-oriented industry category characterized by efficiency, innovation and sustainability. This positioning gave a name to our transformation, energizing both UPMers as well as our stakeholders. We continue to be inspired by the limitless opportunities of bioeconomy. We are committed to delivering renewable and responsible solutions and innovating for a future beyond fossils." Outlook 2018 UPM's comparable EBIT is expected to continue growing in 2018 compared with 2017. H2 2018 comparable EBIT is expected to be significantly higher compared with H1 2018. The fundamentals for UPM businesses in 2018 are favourable. Sales price increases in 2018 are expected to outweigh the increase in variable cost, compared with 2017. H1 2018 results were impacted by four significant maintenance shutdowns and weather-related wood harvesting limitations. H2 2018 is scheduled to have one significant maintenance shutdown." Through the renewing of the bio and forest industries, UPM is building a sustainable future across six business areas: UPM Biorefining, UPM Energy, UPM Raflatac, UPM Specialty Papers, UPM Paper ENA and UPM Plywood. To learn more, please visit: www.upm.com SOURCE: UPMSupermodel Karlie Kloss announced on Instagram today her engagement to entrepreneur Joshua Kushner, brother of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner. Kloss broke news of the proposal saying "I love you more than I have words to express. Josh, you're my best friend and my soulmate. I can't wait for forever together. Yes a million times over."

The announcement comes as no surprise as the two have been reportedly dating since 2012 with a source close to People saying that Kloss already had converted to Judaism in early June in preparation for Kushner's proposal. (Ivanka Trump, who is married to Joshua's brother Jared, also converted as well ahead of their wedding).

Kloss is the founder of an initiative called Kode with Klossy, that teaches young women computer programming and coding skills along with being the face of campaigns for Adidas, Carolina Herrera, Estee Lauder, Express, and Swarovski. Kushner is a venture capitalist and co-owner of Oscar Health, most notable for his relation to father Charlie Kushner who was convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering in 2005 as well as his brother Jared Kushner who is son-in-law and senior adviser to sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Kloss and Kushner have both gone on record as Democrats, having stated in the past election that they would be voting for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, and posting pictures together from the March for Our Lives this past spring. A date has yet to be set for the wedding but in the meantime the couple have jetted off to Italy to celebrate with Sir Paul McCartney and David Geffen.

Photo via InstagramI fervently believe Michael Arceneaux 's new book should replace the Gideon Bible in every hotel room across America. His debut collection of essays, I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyonce (Atria/Simon & Schuster), chronicles his upbringing in Beyonce's hometown (formerly known as Houston, Texas) at the intersection of being queer, Black, and raised in a religious household.

Arceneaux's ability to effortlessly oscillate between the hysterical and illuminating, yielding a soul-searching body of work that offers a refreshing perspective at minority life in America today, is why he's my new personal Jesus. And I'm not the only one proclaiming "amen" after reading his book; he's garnered praise from other holy figures like Roxane Gay, Samantha Irby, Lena Waithe, Janet Mock and... why are you still reading this? Go buy his book now! Related | Janet Mock on Why FX's 'Pose' Is 'Deeply Revolutionary' I'm honored to have sat down with the author and speaker to discuss the role faith has played (or rather, hasn't) in shaping the writer he is today, why Beyonce is worthy of worship, how he's carved his space as a queer Black man in media today, and more, below.

Why is Jesus off limits? One of the most remarkable things about religion to me is that it can make intelligent people suspend their better senses. There are so many Christians who absolutely know that you are born gay. They know we can't help our feelings and urges yet they want us to suspend them solely because a book that begins with a tale about a scammer ass snake conning a woman to eat some forbidden fruit effectively derailed the path for humanity set forth by God said so. They act like allegory and metaphor don't exist; they purposely choose to ignore the notion that perhaps many of these words like abomination have meanings that have changed over time. Reason no longer applies, so we are encouraged to effectively lead a life devoid of pleasure because we have to make sure we are on the VIP list for heaven. I try to be respectful of people's beliefs, but it's dumb and dangerous. To be fair, there are more reasonable Christians who pushback on this common belief that being gay is an affront to Jesus. Unfortunately, I didn't know them growing up, so I was suppressing what was innate for the big maybe that one day I'll get to share a mango mojito with Aaliyah in heaven. And as I write in the book, to this day, I have been told that's the way to live. Nah. Jesus may be a good lay for some, spiritually speaking, but he can't satisfy me in the other ways any human being with sexual urges deserves.

"Jesus may be a good lay for some, spiritually speaking, but he can't satisfy me in the other ways any human being with sexual urges deserves."

I want to talk about the role faith has played  or rather, hasn't played  in shaping the prolific writer and pop cultural commentator I'm speaking to now. What is one thing you're thankful for in regards to how faith affected you growing up? A lot of my childhood is met with volatility. That said, my mom is the strongest person I know and I know that her faith is largely the source of that. When it came to what happened in our home, the faith she raised me in was helpful because it gave me hope that somehow, someway it would get better  eventually. Some of us learn sooner than others how vital it is to have something to believe in. For that reason alone, I will always have a respect for the purpose of religion. I just wish the religion I was raised in was truly more accepting of queer people.

When was the exact moment your love of Beyonce transcended from die-hard fan to someone worthy of your worship? I was immediately drawn to Beyonce from the very beginning, but by the time the "Bills Bills Bills" video dropped, I just knew she was gonna be that girl. I love her for so many reasons, though, but you know, I don't literally think of her as my new Jesus. Having said that, Jesus never gave me "Kitty Kat" so...

"I will always have a respect for the purpose of religion. I just wish the religion I was raised in was truly more accepting of queer people."

You mention the barbershop as a sanctuary for (straight) Black men. Have you found a space where you feel seen in the same totality, and, if so, where? I guess I can say there are queer spaces where I am obviously more comfortable, but generally speaking, I feel really comfortable in Harlem all around. It's not perfect; homophobia can meet you anywhere, but generally speaking, I am comfortable. Gentrification be damned, it's still a Black-centered space and that's comforting for many reasons particular in Minute Maid Mao's America.

As a writer I know what it's like to lay yourself bare in front of the world. How do you get past that veil of trepidation and write with unfettered vulnerability like you do in this book? Well, for transparency's sake, while I am forthright about most of what happened, I didn't tell everything because it isn't my place to give away everyone else's story. I said what was necessary in order to add proper context when describing events that happened to me. I tried to be as respectful as possible  especially because I was raised to "not tell my business." I clearly do not believe in that, but I really tried to be cognizant of the reality that there is only so much of someone else's story I should share. I don't know if I got it totally right, but I really tried to be respectful.

Related | 100 Women Revolutionizing Pop You mention that female recording artists provided you with real sex ed, even though growing up your mother has always been open and honest about how babies were made. What truths did these female pop cultural icons unearth for you concerning sex? Pop culture was my access point for discovering much of the unknown and sex was another aspect of that. For one, female artists, particularly female rappers, talked about men in ways I could relate to given I have an innate attraction to men. That said, as I write in the book, an artist like Janet Jackson talked about sex in both her music and interviews that I just found incredibly helpful. She made me realize I wasn't alone in having these urges even as a kid. She made me see that sex was natural, vital, and could be even more beautiful when it came with a particular type of connection. I'm not sure if she would consider herself to be a late bloomer, but the janet. album was released in her late twenties; I was too young to totally get everything, but as I got older, so much of it made sense, and for that, I am forever grateful.

"[Janet Jackson] made me see that sex was natural, vital, and could be even more beautiful when it came with a particular type of connection."

You used to never think, "This could be me," when it came to marriage. Has your attitude shifted? It has changed in that I am very open to one day becoming a divorcee and that was not the case years ago. I didn't grow up with an idealistic view of marriage or any declared partnership. Watching two people you know that would likely be better off without a marriage certificate or even a family really makes you question how much you want to devote to someone. I have since learned to looking like other folks' problems and assume it's contagious.

As a gay Black man working in an industry that's predominantly white, how do you honor and protect your narrative from being edited into a trope or some form of clickbait? You argue with small-minded people all the damn time to the point in which you regret not going to law school. Rinse, repeat.

"I want to create culture rather than just constantly critique it."

Your book is finally out in the world. What's next for Michael Arceneaux? I want to create culture rather than just constantly critique it. That's not a diss to those whose dream is solely to serve as a cultural critic; I think it's necessary and important, but it's not necessarily my greatest talent. I want to write more books  I already am working on another  but I am hoping that I Can't Date Jesus gets to live off of the page. There is no queer Black male led and centered show. I want to create one and I think my book is a great basis for that. I also want to live more off the page in general. I was a broadcast journalism major in college and sort of fell into full-time writing. I may not get to be Katie Couric with a dick as I initially envisioned, but I want to offer my perspective in more accessible ways. I love being on-air. I'm probably my happiest when on there. See any of my appearances on Desus & Mero. Like, no matter what is going on in my life, when I get the opportunity to present myself in that medium, I'm very happy. Writing is lonely and hard, particularly in this climate and in this economy. When you know you should be doing more, it eats at you. This book has thus far been my biggest opportunity to present my total self to the world. I hope it leads me to more ways to do so. I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyonce is out now.

Photography: Steven DuarteFrom its roots in New York and Japan to a proliferation around the world thanks to the connectedness of social media, intricate, over-the-top nail art is alive and well and has never been more inventive. Each day, Nailed It will highlight a manicure or style we love, from both celebrity and underground nail artists.

Related | Nailed It: Catholic Glamour

Stilet-Toes Login  Instagram Sometimes when you're getting a fresh set of acrylics, the clear tips themselves look so clean and new that you hesitate for a moment to lacquer them in polish. Creative director and stylist Jamie-Maree Shipton took that desire to the next level by creating an extra-long, clear stiletto nail moment as an impractical but sickening pedicure. Photographed by fashion photographer Tom Blesch, the look makes us want to kick off our shoes and wear toenails so long we could kill a man with one kick.

Photo via Instagram

The Minneapolis Institute of Art is holding an exhibition called "Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists." Curated by Jill Ahlberg Yohe and Teri Greeves, it will open in June 2019 and will include more than 115 objects including sculpture, photography, textiles, and digital art. The exhibition has been made in collaboration with 22 scholars from across the country, and is organized into three themes  Legacy, Relationships, and Power.

According to the museum's website, "legacy" is an examination of "the ways in which Native women artists acknowledge their lineage, making works that simultaneously embody the experience of previous generations, address the present moment, and speak to the future." "Relationships" is about the ways relationships transcend just interactions with other people and extend to things like the earth, animals, and weather. "Power" explores ways to empower oneself and others.

The objects on display have been taken from the Minneapolis Institute of Art's collection and from more than 30 other museums and private collections. The show's curators have also commissioned two new pieces: a wool tapestry that uses Navajo weaving techniques to depict a snowy Minnesota landscape, and a contemporary version of an Osage wedding coat. It is the first large exhibition dedicated to Native women, and spans centuries of art, from ancient to contemporary work. The exhibition will also travel nationally to the Frist Center in Nashville, the Renwick Gallery in Washington DC, and the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ahlbery Yohe released a statement saying, "Women have always been central to Native art, though their contributions have largely gone unrecognized. This exhibition challenges prevailing assumptions in Native art scholarship, which for the most part has considered women artists to be anonymous. By contrast, 'Hearts of Our People' delves into how the works on view are tied to the intricate personal and cultural histories of each individual artist." Read more about the exhibition here. Image via Minneapolis Institute of Art website







A Trump policy informally called "Deploy or Get Out" prevents anyone living with HIV from serving in the military. Nicholas Harrison, a 41-year-old U.S. soldier from Oklahoma, has filed a lawsuit in Alexandria, Virginia to protest the policy. The suit says, "People living with HIV have served in this nation's armed services with distinction for decades. For much of that time, their service has been unjustifiably restricted based on misconceptions regarding the consequences of an HIV diagnosis."

The new policy was introduced on February 14 of this year, and requires the military to, "separate anyone who is considered undeployable for more than 12 consecutive months," according to them. The military must adhere to this new ruling by October 1. It will affect about 1,200 people who currently serve in the American military.

Under the Obama Administration, people living with HIV could serve in the military but could not be deployed.

An outdated policy that prevented people with HIV from being deployed was put in place at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis, but since then, HIV has been increasingly more treatable. There is no reason people living with it should be prevented from serving, Carlos del Rio tells them. The military provides people with treatment for other things like malaria, for example. He says, "Living with HIV today is much different than it was 25 years ago. Today, with appropriate treatment, there is no reason a person living with HIV shouldn't be able to serve in any capacity in the military."

The decision is being critiqued as an anti-LGBT policy. It follow's last year's attempt to ban transgender people from serving in the military, a ruling that has been banned in numerous courts.

Image via BFA

Who doesnt want to look fit and perfect, right? I mean, almost all of us have been running in this...Robert Porter Jackson, US Ambassador to Ghana, has lauded the Presidents choice of Electoral Commissioner describing Jean Mensahs nomination as a good choice.



The US Ambassador stated that the new EC nominee commands a great deal of respect from him.



President Akufo-Addo on Monday forwarded the nomination of Jean Mensah, IEA Executive Director and three others to the Council of State for consideration as the new Electoral Commissioners of Ghana.



Main opposition party, NDC has criticised the decision of the President, accusing him of stuffing the Commission with pro-NPP sympathisers.



They also questioned the timing of the appointment as this has come in the wake of several petitions filed in Court over the removal of former EC Chair Charlotte Osei and her deputies.



Responding to a question during a roundtable conference with selected media personnel, Ambassador Robert Jackson admonished the NDC and other political parties who may have issues with nomination of the new Chairperson to bring them up during vetting.



I was here during the 2016 election process, very involved, we did indeed work with our diplomatic colleagues and also with the Electoral Commission and the National Peace Council and Civil Society. We invested in the capacity of all three of those entities and of course Ghana had a very successful and peaceful elections. I know Jean Mensah, I respect her. From what I know I think she is a good choice to head the Electoral Commission. If the opposition, whether it is the NDC or other parties have concerns about her fitness for the job then they should bring those concerns up during the vetting process and let everyone have their say, people can make a decision and the public can make its own views known he remarked.

Source: Ghanaweb.com









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Featured VideoA Ghanaian missionary, Apostle Isaac Attoh, has been murdered by soldiers in Cameroon.



The deceased, formerly of Destiny Impact Ministry at Barn Yard in Accra, travelled to Cameroon to run his own ministry.



According to his family, he arrived at Batibo Cameroon on July 13, 2018 and was gunned down by military men alleged to be loyalists of President Paul Biya and his body dumped on the walkway of a street.



The family said National Telegraphs secret stringers have confirmed that the corpse of the 28-year-old match one in a mortuary at Bali, a neighboring town to Bamenda.



Information reaching us [family] from Cameroon indicates that, the military is trying to bury the body to conceal the evidence.



The deceased was dressed as a pastor in his clerical when he was killed.



Observers have condemned the death of the Pastor but the church in Cameroon is yet to make an official intervention.



Reports say Attoh was killed alongside two other Ghanaians who are yet to be identified.



Efforts by some stranded Ghanaian pastors and friends in Cameroon to retrieve the body of the deceased have proven futile, as the military is unwilling to release the body to anyone.



The late Isaac Attoh, the third of four siblings is survived by his wife and a 2-month-old baby boy.



His family is urging the Ghanaian Government and the International Community to intervene and get his remains ferried to Ghana for burial.



It is unclear why the pastor will be shot, but there is currently a fast-escalating chaos in Cameroon after some activists began peaceful protests to request that English language is used in the courtrooms and public schools of the countrys two anglophone regions including Bamenda.



Dozens of people have so far died, with hundreds imprisoned, and thousands have escaped across the border to Nigeria as a result of the situation.



If the situation is not defused through dialogue, the entire country could be destabilised ahead of elections in the autumn, according to the International Crisis Group.









Source: citinewsroom.com









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Featured VideoWa Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV, the Overlord of Waala Traditional, Area has appealed to President Akufo-Addo to listen to their long standing plea for the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS) to be granted autonomy.



The seeming delay in getting us the long deserving autonomous university only leaves us at the mercy of some authorities of the Universitys Central Administration who are bent on rendering the Wa Campus poor of its programmes, he said.



Naa Pelpuo made the plea when the President paid a courtesy call on him at his palace in Wa as part of his two-day tour of the Upper West Region.



Your Excellency, some recent move by the authorities to continue to dismember the Wa Campus by transferring many of its programmes to Tamale nearly got the youth of the region onto the streets, but for the timely intervention of the Regional Minister, he said.



Naa Pelpuo also expressed worry that the conversion of the Wa Polytechnic into a Technical University still hanged in the balance.



Apart from that, the Rector of the Polytechnic had been in a protracted dispute with the Polytechnic Council, the general administration and the lecturers since his investiture earlier this year.



We need you to intervene in this tussle to save the Polytechnic from imminent collapse, the Paramount Chief of the Waala Traditional Area appealed.



President Akufo-Addo thanked the people of the region for the support and said his visit was to enable him to update himself with the concerns of the people in each region in order to guide the actions of his government.



He said the introduction of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy attracted 90,000 more students in its first year of implementation, adding that this year the figure would double to 180,000 more students.



President Akufo-Addo also hinted that 8,000 more teachers would be recruited to help teach the increasing number of students at the SHS level and urged parents to ensure they enrolled their wards in school to benefit from the opportunity.



Responding to the UDS Wa campus autonomy issue, President Akufo-Addo said the University was started during former President Kufuors era and that it would be good if granting of the autonomy also happened in his era.



On the Wa Polytechnic impasse, the President said he would surely do something about it through the Minister of Education.



President Akufo-Addo later inspected an on-going youth centre project in Wa after which he commissioned an Amatrol Teaching and Learning System Laboratory which was funded by the Ministry of Education/Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) Ghana.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoFiling of nominations for various portfolios for the Greater Accra Regional branch of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is under way at the Party's Regional Office in Accra.



The positions being filed for include Chairman, Vice Chairmen, Secretary, Organisers, Treasurer, Women's Organiser, Youth Organiser, Zongo Caucus Organiser with their deputies.



Mr Kobina Ade Coker, incumbent Greater Accra Regional Chairman, after filing his papers for re-election in a press interview, said the NDC would win the 2020 election.



"As for NDC winning the 2020 General Election, it is forgone conclusion," he said.



Following the defeat of the NDC at the 2016 polls at the hands of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Mr Coker urged party faithful to bury the hatchet and move forward as united family.



He appealed to members to work harder for victory in 2020.



Mr Derrick Myres, a contestant for the office of Regional Organiser in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, urged delegates to endorse him to enable him translate his vision into an NDC victory in the Greater Accra Region at the 2020 general election.



He pledged to work harder as an organiser to ensure that all Parliamentary seats the NDC lost in the 2016 elections to the ruling NPP in the region are captured.







Source: GNA









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Featured VideoThe trial of Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, former Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA) and four others hasbounced back at the Accra High Court after a long break.



The long break was to enable the accused seek interpretation at the Supreme Court over the pre-trial disclosure of documents during trial.



When sitting resumed today, Mrs Yvonne Atakora Obuobisa, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) informed the Court that 52 documents have been filed by the Prosecution at the courts Registry.



According to her the documents include those that they would not be tendering in court. When presiding Judge, Justice Eric Kyei-Baffour ascertained from the various lawyers for the accused these facts, it came to light that the lawyers have not been served.



The court, therefore, adjourned the matter to enable defence counsels to be served with the 52 documents.



The substantive matter has been adjourned to October 16.



Meanwhile, the court has slated July 30, to hear an application filed by Samuel Cudjoe, counsel for Nana Owusu Ensaw.



Baffoe-Bonnie is charged along with William Matthew Tetteh Tevie, a former Director- General of NCA; Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former Board member, NCA; Alhaji Salifu Mimina Osman, former Deputy National Security Coordinator; and George Derrick Oppong, a Director of Infralocks Development Limited (IDL).



They have been arraigned at the Commercial Court (High Court Division) over the alleged fraudulent purchase of Cyber Security Surveillance systems at eight million dollars.



The system, which was to be used in the fight against terrorism, reportedly has some of its components missing, while it cannot be utilised.



The five officials have been variously charged with wilfully causing financial loss to the State, conspiracy to steal, stealing, using public office for private gain, in contravention of the Public Procurement Act, Money laundering and intentionally misapplying public property.



They have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have been admitted to bail in the sum of one million dollars each with three sureties each.



Madam Gloria A. Akuffo, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, who presented the facts, said sometime in 2015, the accused without authorisation, took a decision to purchase a Cyber Surveillance system, which they claimed was to be used for anti-terrorism operations.



Madam Akuffo said Baffoe Bonnie, Tevie and Osman without going through the process as established by law, engaged Mr Peninat Yanyi, an Israeli lawyer and businessman, who selected NSO Group Technologies Limited an Israeli company to supply the system.



The Minister of Justice said Baffoe Bonnie, Tevie, Ensaw and Osman decided to purchase the system through a re-seller.



Baffoe- Bonnie, therefore, nominated Oppong, his business partner and a Director of IDL to be the re-seller of the system.



The IDL, the Minister explained, was a company registered to provide logistics and infrastructure development.



She said investigations revealed that the supply of the surveillance systems was not the object of IDL, adding that, in furtherance to the decision of Baffoe-Bonnie, Tevie, Ensaw and Osman to purchase the cyber surveillance system, Osman signed a letter on February 2016 in the name of the National Security Coordinator and addressed it to Tevie, in his capacity as the Director General of NCA, and copied Baffoe Bonnie.



By the letter, Ms Akuffo said the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) solicited financial support from NCA for the surveillance system at a cost of GH 8million dollars.



The Minister of Justice said on the same day of February 24, 2016, Tevie endorsed a letter to the Director of Finance of NCA authorising payment of the system.



Prior to this request, Ms Akuffo said the accused without going through procurement process had already executed a contract for the supply of same cybersecurity system that the NSCS was soliciting funds for the two contracts namely the purchase of Pergasus systems and Cyber Security System.



According to her, the NCA on December 2015 executed an agreement with IDL for the purchase of the Pergasus system at a cost of 5.4 million dollars which was later revised to six million dollars to include the commission of Mr Peniate, the Israeli lawyer for facilitating the business.



The Attorney General said investigations further disclosed that prior to the request made on February 24, 2016, Osman to the NCA, Tevie had already written to ECOBANK to transfer four million dollars to IDL from the accounts of NCA.



She said the transfer was done on March 11, 2016, to IDLs account which was controlled by Oppong.



Out of the four million paid to IDL, Oppong transferred only one million to NSO Group Technologies Limited for the supply of the equipment leaving 3-million which was withdrawn over a period.



The Minister of Justice said the 3-million dollars was shared among the five accused and the equipment which was shipped by NSO Group of Technologies arrived on May 31, 2016.



According to Ms Akuffo, the equipment was however delivered at a private warehouse on Spintex road owned by Alhaji Baba Kamara the then National Security Advisor.



She said the equipment was installed and tested in the private warehouse in the presence of Baffoe- Bonney and Henry Kanor, the Deputy Director General, NCA in charge of Technical Operations.



She said after the installation, in May this year, Oppong reported irregularities to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) which led to investigations into the purchase.



Ms Akuffo told the court that investigations revealed that the Board of NCA was not aware of the purchase of the Pergasos system nor the institutional support to NSCS to purchase the equipment.



According to the Attorney General it also came to light that NSCS Coordinator had also not asked Osman to sign the letter dated on 24 February 2016.



During the course of investigations, Osman led investigators to a warehouse on the Spintex road where the equipment was retrieved.



The Justice Minister said the investigators were informed that the equipment was brought to the warehouse on the instructions of Baba Kamara.



Inventory taken by the investigators showed that some components of the equipment were missing and there was no software to facilitate its operations hence same had been rendered unusable.

Source: GNA









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Featured VideoPresident Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has inaugurated a motorcycle assembling plant at Lamashegu, Tamale in the Northern Region.



This is the first factory under the One District-One Factory programme in the region.



The plant is a public-private partnership between the government of Ghana and a Chinese private company known as Motorking Company Limited.



The factory is expected to assemble different kinds of tricycles including farm tricycles, rural ambulance tricycles and mobile library tricycles.



Mr Akufo-Addo urged citizens of the Northern Region to patronise the companys products.



The companys Managing Director, Dr Gau Yong promised to deepen managements relationship with the chiefs and people of the area.



She said: The company is to support the community and promote quality standards in healthcare services, agricultural productivity and education among others, through cost-effective transportation for all.



We have so far covered Tamale, Techiman and Accra with warehouse and assembling centres.









Source: 3news.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Former Deputy Finance Minister, Fifi Kwetey, has said the Akufo-Addo-led government is too proud to admit its mistakes in the implementation of the free Senior High School (SHS) programme.



According to him, government is struggling to raise revenue to finance the flagship programme, yet officials of the administration are unable to tell Ghanaians this difficulty.



The Ketu South MPs comments come on the heels of suggestions by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that the free SHS policy must be implemented discriminatorily so that those who have the means, pay for their childrens second-cycle education.



Mr Ofori-Atta, speaking to Citi TV, said: I dont think it [Free SHS] is something any of us can compromise on, adding that: It may be that there have to be changes in the way in which we are administering it.



I cant take my child to Achimota or Odorgonno and then leave him or her and drive away and Ken Ofori-Atta not pay anything while I can pay for 10 people.  You need to get the data to then be discriminatory in how and who pays and who doesnt pay, he said.



Speaking about the next academic year, he said: You actually going to have, maybe, 180,000 more people but its so important, youd rather make that mistake  if it is a mistake  to get everybody in the system for the nation to then begin to have a conversation and say: OK, this is good for us because we want that human capital and to a certain level, but maybe lets begin to adjust it this way



But in a discussion on Metro TVs Business Edition on Tuesday, 24 July, Mr Kwetey noted that: Until the introduction of the free SHS, rich people were paying taxes and yet they were still paying the fees of their own children. Now you come and claim that you want to relieve everybody including the rich and then you say they should not pay anything for the education of their wards.



Then a year on, you come and tell us that you want to do a progressive tax. The reason for the progressive taxes they introduced in the mid-year budget is because the burden of the free SHS has become such a herculean burden that they cant carry anymore.



Instead of just being honest with the people of Ghana and telling them that all of you rich people who used to pay the school fees of your children, we want you to start paying and that we cant continue this burden, they are too proud, they dont want to own up to this mistake and now they are hiding under progressive taxation. They should be more candid to the people.

Source: classfmonline.com









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Featured VideoChiefs from the Upper West Region have expressed their appreciation to the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for the implementation of his manifesto pledges and several other pro-poor policies over the last 18 months, the period of stay of the Presidents government in office.



Speaking on behalf of the Chiefs from Jirapa, Sissala East, Sissala West, Nadowli/Kaleo, Daffiama-Bussie-Issah and Wa East, on Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, which marked the end of the Presidents 2-day visit to the region, Naa Puowele Karbo III, Paramount Chief of the Lawra Traditional Area indicated that the decision taken by President Akufo-Addo to interact with them is a show of the respect and love you have for chiefs and the institution of chieftaincy at large.



He added that we are very elated, Your Excellency, for upgrading Lawra, Jirapa, and Tumu districts into municipality status, as part of your commitment to bring democratic governance to the level of our people.



It was a timely move, and it is anticipated that they will serve as growth poles to propel development within our corridor, and, further, pull along surrounding districts socio-economically. We are proud of you.



The Lawra Naa also commended the Akufo-Addo government for the commitment, speed and zeal with which it is rolling out its campaign promises to better the lives of the citizenry.



They include the 1-district-1-factory, 1-village-1-dam, Free SHS, Planting for Food and Jobs policies, and also creating employment for the youth through the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO). I am most delighted with the support for cashew plantations, which will facilitate afforestation, giving that the desert is fast closing in on the region, as well as means of empowering the population economically, he said.



The Lawra Naa continued, We also commend the other interventions being implemented by your government to stimulate the economy. These include tax reliefs, electricity tariff reductions, and abolishing of so-called nuisance taxes to ease pressure on business, and bring relief to ordinary Ghanaians. This is, without doubt, the quality leadership required for the attainment of your vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.



He, thus, urged all qualified youth in the Upper West Region to take advantage of all the above-mentioned policies of government to improve on their socio-economic status, and, thereby, stem the massive migration of our youth down-south in search of non-existent jobs.



As traditional leaders, Naa Puowele Karbo III assured President Akufo-Addo that they will continue to give their candid advice and support, and partner government in the implementation of policy initiatives to bring about the much-needed development of Ghana.



It is common knowledge that our people are predominantly farmers, operating within a one-season rainfall regime, usually followed by a very long dry season. It means that, for half the year, our people have nothing to do, leading to large-scale migration to other parts of the country, he said.

The 1-village-1-dam policy, he added, is the solution to all-year agricultural production in the region. We are anxiously awaiting the rollout in the selected communities in our region. With regards to the rural industrialization of our region, we see the current efforts to promote the cultivation of cashew, shea and mango as critical to its takeoff.



The Lawra Naa urged President Akufo-Addo to create a Shea Development Board, with a renewed mandate to develop the shea industry, and indicated that the Northern Development Authority could see to its realization.



He also appealed to Government to construct the Hamile-Nandom-Lawra, Han-Zilli-Gwollu, Wa-Tumu-Jefesi, Hamile-Tumu, and Jirapa-Nandom roads.



The construction of these roads will trigger the social and economic transformation of our areas. We are mindful of the challenges confronting government. But we wish to appeal to government for the construction of these roads into 1st class roads for improved accessibility, which will promote commercial activities in the region, he added.

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The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Wednesday, 25th July, 2018, ended his 2-day tour of the Upper West Region, bringing to an end his week-long tour of the three Northern Regions.



As part of his activities on Monday, 24th July, in the Upper West Region, President Akufo-Addo paid a courtesy call on the Wa Naa, Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo IV; commissioned the newly constructed Amatrol Laboratory of the Hilla Liman Polytechnic.



The President also inspected ongoing works on the construction of a multi-purpose youth centre in Wa, which is expected to be completed in 9 months time; and also commissioned the new Upper West Regional House of Chiefs building.



On the second day of his tour, President Akufo-Addo inspected the 76 kilometre Wa-Han Road, which links thirteen (13) important towns with three (3) big markets at Jang, Bussie and Han. This road serves as a major arterial for the Nadowli/Kaleo, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa districts, and the Jirapa Municipality



With 22 kilometres of this stretch not constructed, the President revealed that procurement processes are currently ongoing, and it is envisaged that, by the end of 2018, physical works would start.



President Akufo-Addo also paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of the Ullo Traditional Area, Naa Alhaji Baburonon Amadu Seidu II, who congratulated the President for the implementation of initiatives such as the Free Senior High School policy, the programme for Planting for Food and Jobs, and the restoration of the nursing and teacher training allowances.



He also commended the President for elevating Jirapa from the status of a district to a municipality, a development, he stressed, will improve the standard of living of the people.



Naa Alhaji Baburonon Amadu Seidu II also urged President Akufo-Addo to consider carving out a new district from the Jirapa municipality to quicken further the pace of development.









President Akufo-Addo also visited the Ullo Senior High School, where he commissioned newly constructed classroom units for the school, and pledged governments commitment to meet the infrastructural needs of the school.



Prior to ending his tour, the President interacted with chiefs and queen mothers from Jirapa, Sissala East, Sissala West, Nadowli/Kaleo, Daffiama-Bussie-Issah and Wa East, at a durbar held in his honour.

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Ghanaian actress, Nana Ama McBrown has signed an ambassadorial deal with Kasapreko Company Limited to promote their Royal Drinks products.



The actress who was unveiled weeks ago, signed the contract at the office of the company yesterday, July, 2, 2018.



At the unveiling ceremony, Mrs. Eunice Adjei Bonsu, Director of Sales and Marketing for Awake Water and Carbonated Soft Drinks at Kasapreko Company Limited said having the talented actress on board as a brand ambassador will help promote Royal Drink products.



According to her, Kasapreko Company Limited selected Nana Ama McBrown as the brand ambassador for the Royal Drinks brand because the actress possesses key attributes of the six drinks.



Royal Drinks which was introduced onto the market in 2016 comes with different flavours such as Choco Malt, Orange, Ginger, Cocktail, Honey Bee and Apple. Kasapreko has from its establishment grown to become one of the most successful beverage manufacturers in Ghana and internationally.



Royal drinks are manufactured and produced locally in Ghana and meets all regulatory standards with approval by the Food and Drugs Authority.



Watch her sign the contract below







Source: kasapafmonline









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FILE - In this Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018, file photo, John Goodman arrives at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Goodman is featured in a radio ad opposing a right-to-work law on Missouri's Aug. 7, 2018, ballot. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the ad is airing in the St. Louis market. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland speaks at a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, May 31, 2018. A trio of Trudeau cabinet ministers are sitting down today with the man elected to be Mexico's next president hoping to find some common ground in NAFTA talks. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick DoyleA photograph of Julianna Kozis is seen at a memorial assembled by the city of Markham, at the Markham Civic Centre on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The ten year-old was named last night as the second fatality in a mass shooting on the Danforth, in Toronto which happened on Sunday night. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Gabrielle RoyPakistani election staff empty the ballot boxes to start counting following polls closed at a polling station for the parliamentary elections in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 25, 2018. After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government, a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)A Florida woman shows a robocall she received on her home phone in Orlando. Despite consumer awareness, state and federal efforts to crack down, and apps for blocking unwanted calls, robocalls have increased dramatically in the first half of 2018. Read more

Robocalls  those nettlesome autodial telephone calls from both scammers and legitimate businesses  skyrocketed in the first half of 2018, and have prompted the most complaints to federal and most state enforcement officials of any consumer topic in recent years.

But as much as top state law enforcement officers would love to go after the robocallers, who often operate outside the law, the combined hurdles of technology, economics and geography make the job difficult.

Robocalls jumped dramatically nationwide this year, from 2.9 billion in January to 4.1 billion in June, according to YouMail Inc., a company that tracks robocalls and sells software to block them.

Unwanted calls are the biggest complaint to the Federal Communications Commission, making up about 60 percent of complaints the agency gets. Robocalls also are the top complaint at the Federal Trade Commission, which in fiscal 2017 received more than 4.5 million robocall complaints.

While states are trying to crack down  a tougher law was enacted in Connecticut, for example, and legislation is pending in a handful of other states  they face almost insurmountable obstacles because often the callers are offshore. And while telephone companies are taking steps to help combat the calls, state officials imply they are not helping enough.

"There is a problem with a lot of these calls emanating from overseas," said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat. "The practicalities of enforcement become problematic."

State Efforts

State attorneys general know what makes their constituents mad because they hear it. And the calls are not just nuisances  consumers are cheated out of an estimated $350 million a year by phone scams, many involving automatic dialing, according to the Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports.

States are trying to act. Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, in June signed a bill adding criminal fines and penalties to the state's anti-robocall statute. The law goes into effect in October.

In Massachusetts, a bill making its way through the Legislature would prohibit robocalls to mobile devices and impose penalties including fines starting at $10,000 for each violation.

In New Jersey, a bill urging the FCC to require landline and wireless telephone service providers to implement technology to block robocalls to customers, free of charge, is also working its way through the Legislature.

A New York bill similarly would limit autodialed telephone calls to state residents and require telephone service providers to provide free "call mitigation technology."

Ian Barlow, the FTC's Do Not Call program coordinator, acknowledges that state efforts to subvert illegal robocall scams are limited, but he said states also serve an important function in coordinating with federal agencies to crack down on large scam operations.

Barlow pointed to a 2015 case involving the FTC and 10 states from Florida to Washington that resulted in Caribbean Cruise Lines being barred from robocalling.

"I think there are some challenges for states," Barlow said, adding that states were at the forefront of the Do Not Call lists before the effort spread nationwide. He said states often identify "bad actors" quickly. When states sue bad actors, they stop operating there, though they often move on to other states until the feds get involved.

Among the challenges, Barlow said, is that cellphone owners can take their mobile numbers with them when they move across state lines. "Number portability makes it a trickier issue," he said. "That doesn't mean [states] are ineffective."

Phone customers are simply fed up, said Maureen Mahoney, a Consumers Union public policy fellow. She urged all levels of government, along with the phone companies, to use all methods to stop the unwanted calls.

"I think it's important for every consumer to have strong legal protections against robocalls," she said. "If we see progress in one or two states, that could lead to more states and help push the FCC and the Congress to take action. FCC has said addressing robocalls is a priority, but the problem continues to get worse."

Robocalls are the No. 1 consumer complaint to the Federal Communications Commission, its chairman said last year. "It's the No. 1 consumer complaint," said Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, referencing the national figures. "The Do Not Call list doesn't work."

That list is not the real problem, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which is the lead federal agency, along with the FCC, in tracking and prosecuting unlawful telephone scams, which often involve robocalls.

The Do Not Call Registry, on which telephone customers can put their numbers and request not to be bothered by telemarketers, does work  up to a point.

The call registry does the job it was intended to do by blocking calls from companies that follow the law, said Barlow, of the FTC. "If people are speeding on the highway, does that mean speed limits are broken?"

The problem is that many companies, both in the United States and overseas, don't obey the law.

That's because the risk is worth the reward, said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, the Irvine, California-based company that sells other enhanced telephone and email services in addition to its call-blocking app.

"It's so easy to make them and so cheap to make them," he said of the calls. "You don't even need expertise to become a robocaller. You upload an audio file and upload numbers, press a button, and it makes the calls."

And if the scammers are getting thousands of dollars every time they succeed, "it becomes 'why not?' if you are a bad guy," he said.

Jon Banks, senior vice president for law and policy at USTelecom, the trade group for phone companies, agreed. "It's part of the blessing and curse of the internet," he said. "It is cheap to send these calls over the internet. And it appears, sadly, you can make money with these robocalls."

A recent robocall scam involved asking people  in Mandarin Chinese  to get in touch with "the embassy" to "pick up an important document" and to press zero for more information. Some of the calls apparently ask for money, others for personal information, after zero was pressed.

>>>Listen to the audio of a recent robocall scam (WMA) | Translation (PDF)

The calls were directed at area codes where a significant number of Chinese immigrants live, though many calls to non-Mandarin speakers would have to be made in a city like Washington to find enough susceptible Mandarin speakers to prove profitable.

People often inadvertently give consent to receiving robocalls by failing to read the fine print in documents they sign regarding loans, doctors, prescription drug companies and hundreds of other legitimate uses.

If a drugstore automatically calls to say you need to refill a prescription, that's a "good" robocall. A school system calling to say that it's a snow day is another example.

"But the good ones are being swamped now by the ones people don't want," Quilici said.

He attributes the dramatic rise in the number of calls, ironically, to enhanced efforts to stop them, including people refusing to answer calls from numbers they don't recognize. If more people put blocking software on their phones, or let the calls go to voicemail routinely, that means the automatic callers must dial more numbers to succeed.

Battling Technology

Madigan, the Illinois attorney general, called for more blocking by phone companies.

"What needs to be done is the carriers need to start blocking them," she said. "A lot of states are not going to have the investigative capacity to look into overseas calls."

Telephone carriers say they are doing it already.

Banks, of the trade group, said the networks internally block unwanted calls as well as offering consumers apps to curb the calls such as Nomorobo. Some apps are free but many require payments, he said.

Nomorobo costs about $2 a month for cellphones and is free for land lines, according to its website. The blocking software won a 2012 contest organized by the Federal Trade Commission to develop the best concept to thwart robocalls. Since then, many imitators have sprung up.

"We've put together a group of over 20 carriers to help [law enforcement] trace calls back to try to get to their origins," Banks said. Finding where the calls originate is complicated by robocallers' "spoofing"  creating a familiar-looking fake number that may use a phone customer's home area code or three-digit neighborhood number.

Both Banks and YouMail's Quilici agreed that coming technology may be the ultimate solution to dampening the robocalls to the point that they parallel email spam. While spam was a pervasive problem just a few years ago, spam filters slowly became better, to the point where today most spam ends up in a junk folder or is blocked altogether.

The FTC is working on a way to identify spoofed numbers that mirror legitimate area codes and exchanges and trace them back to their real origins.

The technology was given acronyms only a government bureaucrat would love: SHAKEN (Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) and STIR (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited).

Stateline, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts, provides daily reporting and analysis on trends in state policy.The University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science will offer its master of computer and information technology (MCIT) program online, making it the university's first entirely online degree. It is slated to start in January.

This master's program admits students with no computer science background, and the online version will cost around one-third of its on-campus counterpart. The standard program typically accepts about 80 new students each year, but the online effort will allow Penn to accept several hundred more from around the world, said Boon Thau Loo, associate dean at Penn Engineering, who oversees the school's master's programs.

Loo said the ability to graduate in two years with a master's degree in computer science without any background in the subject makes MCIT one of Penn Engineering's most popular programs. "It has a very transformational impact on the lives of its students," allowing them to go on to computer science jobs at places such as Google and Amazon.com, Loo said. "We're looking to potentially tap into mid-career professionals who have been working for a while and are looking at this as a way to upscale or are looking for a career change."

Not only will MCIT be Penn's first fully online degree, it will also be the first Ivy League degree launched on its online partner, Coursera, said the site's CEO, Jeff Maggioncalda. He said this step will help to reduce the "perception that online degrees are from lower-ranked or for-profit universities."

"The future of degrees, especially master's degrees where people are working, is going to be online," Maggioncalda said. "When people are working, quitting your job to get a master's degree is very costly and can be very disruptive to your family."

Graduate and professional studies programs now make up the majority of online learning, said Howard Lurie, principal analyst for online and continuing education at Eduventures, a higher education research and advisory service in Boston.

He said Eduventures' research shows around a third of graduate studies are now "wholly or partially online."

"The idea of online courses and online learning is no longer niche," Lurie said. "It used to be an outlier for most schools, and now it's pretty common."

What isn't common, Lurie said, is offering online programs at a lower price than on-campus ones. Most schools price online courses at or just below the cost of on-campus learning to avoid lowering on-campus enrollment for the same programs, Eduventures' research shows.

Between tuition, additional fees, and room and board, the Penn on-campus MCIT program can cost between $70,000 and $80,000. The online version, however, is roughly one-third that price at $26,300.

Lowering the cost too much would make students question the value of an online degree, Lurie said.

Coursera, based in California, is providing the technology necessary to offer the classes digitally. Penn's faculty members will be able to focus on developing and teaching the course.

Penn was one of Coursera 's first partners after its founding in 2012, previously offering individualized courses for no credit on the platform. Maggioncalda said the platform now has 34 million registered learners, with 80 percent from countries outside the United States.

The largest degree program that Coursera offers is a master of business administration at the University of Illinois, which has over 1,000 students online. Maggioncalda said the retention rate for that program has been "over 90 percent, which is higher than many on-campus programs."

Vijay Kumar, the Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering, said he expects the online version of MCIT to open the program up to new graduate student demographics and attract up to 500 students without detracting from its current pool of on-campus students. He said it was "important that we make it available to the broadest range of learners. Education is getting more expensive, and we want to drive it in the opposite direction."

Kumar said this MCIT program will be almost exactly the same as the on-campus version, with faculty members who currently teach the courses on campus also doing so online. Certain Coursera features  such as a team that helps faculty members make the transition to online teaching and analytics that tell professors how much time students are spending on certain sections of a recorded lecture  will help get the program off the ground.

Students will be able to work through the courses at a rate of their own choosing. But there will be a limit to how fast the first group can move since not all of the courses will be immediately offered in January.

Despite the lack of face-to-face interactions between students and professors, Kumar said, faculty members will strive to give the "same, individual online attention to each student in the class" as they give to on-campus students. As someone who has taught online classes before, he said the technology available sometimes makes it possible to "respond to individuals and their needs in a way that is not possible in a face-to-face setting."

"I've learned personally that one thing about the online world, it's easier to hide in an actual classroom than it is to hide in an online world," he said.The U.S. Department of Education also is investigating the misreporting of rankings data by Temple University's business school. Read more

The U.S. Department of Education is investigating whether Temple University's business school misled prospective students about the quality of its online M.B.A. program by providing false information for a magazine's rankings, a department official said Tuesday.

If the inquiry finds Temple at fault, students could have their federal loans forgiven under a provision known as "borrower defense," the department official said, and Temple could be on the hook for the money.

"We're looking at what misrepresentations did occur, and what impact that had on students who used federal programs and federal dollars to seek their education there," said the department official, who asked not to be named because the department does not discuss open inquiries.

The department's probe was launched earlier this year, before the university disclosed findings of an investigation that determined the Fox School of Business, sometimes knowingly, provided false data to U.S. News and World Report for its rankings.

In a three-page letter dated May 24 and obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News, Nancy Rosario, an enforcement investigator in the federal student aid department, asked Temple a series of questions, seeking data on online M.B.A. enrollment, program marketing, recruitment practices, and data provided for the rankings.

Temple president Richard M. Englert said in a July 9 letter to the Temple community that the university was providing information to various agencies, including the Education Department, about the issue.

Temple spokesperson Ray Betzner said Tuesday evening that the university is complying with the department's request for information.

"At the same time, the [university's] examination of the Fox School's rankings data and processes continues," Betzner said.

Several other probes also are underway. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office announced last week that it was looking into the matter. One accrediting agency also said it is investigating, while another is monitoring. And some students have filed a lawsuit, claiming that they had been defrauded and that the reputation of their degree had been harmed.

The federal Education Department probe is in its initial stages and is ongoing, the official said. It was prompted by the student lawsuit (filed earlier this year), complaints, and news coverage of misreporting, the official said.

Problems started in January when U.S. News dropped Temple's online M.B.A. from its rankings after the school self-reported that it had provided inaccurate data. The program had been ranked No. 1 for the previous four years, and the school had been touting that ranking. The university hired a law firm to investigate how the misreporting occurred.

Earlier this month, Temple released the firm's findings, including that the business school supplied false data  sometimes knowingly and over a period of years  to the magazine, and that the false reporting was not contained to the online M.B.A. program. A "rankings-focused" strategy led to some of the misreporting, the firm found. Temple forced out its long-time business school dean, Moshe Porat, and announced a series of steps to ensure that such misreporting does not reoccur, including hiring an external auditor.

The Education Department will look at whether Temple misled students to get them to enroll in the online M.B.A. program and whether they suffered harm as a result, the official said.Tyrant

Shakespeare on Politics

By Stephen Greenblatt

W.W. Norton. 212 pp. $21.95

Reviewed by Glenn C. Altschuler

When the presidential election of 2016 confirmed his "worst fears," Stephen Greenblatt, a professor of the humanities at Harvard University and the author of Will in the World, Shakespeare's Freedom, Swerve, and The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, decided to "do something" by writing something.

In Tyrant, Greenblatt analyzes the characteristics and paths to power of the archvillains in Shakespeare's history plays, and the roles of enablers and resisters. Through Shakespeare, he suggests, we can become more aware of our own circumstances.

In Elizabethan England, Greenblatt indicates, criticism of the sovereign constituted an act of treason. And so Shakespeare set none of his plays in contemporary England and rarely referred to current events. Nonetheless, the Bard, "a master of displacement" and indirection, "found a way to say what he wanted to say" about politics and the devastation visited on societies ruled by tyrants.

Unlike Shakespeare, Greenblatt does not choose a strategy of indirection. The allusions to Donald Trump throughout Tyrant are impossible to miss. Populism, Greenblatt writes, is "in reality a form of cynical exploitation." Jack Cade, Henry VI's demagogic "master of voodoo economics," promises the people "he will make America great again." Richard III is "pathologically narcissistic and supremely arrogant." His triumph is based on "lies and fraudulent promises." He exhibits no interest in uniting or governing his country. During his reign as king, Greenblatt indicates, Macbeth can expect little more than "the mouth honor" of sycophants. The "monstrously self-absorbed" King Lear does not "traffic in facts." He expects "immediate, unreserved confirmation of his views and a willingness to carry out his orders without hesitation." And the plot twist in Coriolanus reminds Greenblatt of "the leader of a political party long identified with hatred of Russia" secretly offering his services to the Kremlin.

As they join Greenblatt in venting their spleens, the Never Trump readers of Tyrant may be puzzled by his discussion of how tyrannical regimes end. Once a tyrant controls the state, Greenblatt suggests, "there is almost nothing the ordinary mechanisms of moderation can accomplish." Imagining a tyrant's sincere repentance, as Shakespeare did in The Winter's Tale, Greenblatt claims, is almost as difficult as imagining a statue coming to life.

But he also reads into the record Shakespeare's view that tyrants do not last long. Incompetent, isolated, suspicious, angry, and overconfident, Shakespeare implied, they cannot gain support from the masses, crush all their opponents, or overcome the "sheer unpredictability of collective life."

That said, Tyrant leaves you wondering whether Shakespeare (who also thought most people "easily manipulated by slogans, cowed by threats, or bribed by trivial gifts")  or, for that matter, Greenblatt  really has all that much "faith in the political action of ordinary citizens."

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.Aquaria (aka Giovanni Palandrani) is a finalist on RuPaul's Drag Race. He grew up in West Chester Read more

It's official: The latest winner of RuPaul's Drag Race is a West Chester native.

In Thursday's 90-minute season 10 finale, Aquaria beat out fellow competitors Eureka, Asia O'Hara, and Kameron Michaels to be declared the next drag superstar. Her grand prize includes $100,000, a year supply of cosmetics, and a scepter and crown.

"Sometimes in life," Aquaria, 22, said during Thursday's finale, "you're not always given a second chance, but if you do, take advantage of it and go out with a bang."

The episode featured Aquaria squaring off against Michaels and Eureka in a lip-synch battle  the first time in the show's history that three queens competed for the crown. Asia, meanwhile, was eliminated after a butterfly malfunction during a performance in the episode.

For the final rouns, Aquaria, Michaels, and Eureka lip-synched to Jessie J.'s "Bang Bang" featuring Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.

Aquaria, known offstage as Giovanni Paladrani, has been a favorite to win for most of this season of RuPaul's Drag Race, as well as a fierce competitor. Of all the contestants in season 10, Aquaria is the lone contestant to win three of the show's challenges  including the beloved "Snatch Game," in which Aquaria dressed as Melania Trump. Asia and Eureka won two challenges each, while Michaels won one challenge.

Aside from her performance on the show, Aquaria also has an established following in the drag world. Prior to appearing on RuPaul's Drag Race, she already had some 100,000 followers on Instagram. That number has since swelled to more than 830,000 followers.

As Aquaria recently told LGBTQ magazine Them, she became interested in dance as a child, and trained professionally for four years. At the same time, he became interested in YouTube makeup tutorials from the likes of Gigi Gorgeous, and eventually started pursuing drag in high school.

Her win this season makes Aquaria the first drag queen from the Philadelphia area to win RuPaul's Drag Race. Across the show's 10 seasons, just two local queens  Mimi Imfurst and Willam Belli  competed on the show, neither of whom won.

Imfurst appeared on the show back in 2011 for its third season, but ended up being the third competitor sent home that year. These days, Imfurst, also known as Braden Chapman, stars in a revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Ruba Club in Northern Liberties. Last month, Chapman was accused of sexual harassment by two male drag artists who told Philadelphia magazine that he had engaged in unwanted sexual conversation with them online. Chapman has since apologized, saying that he has "made great mistakes" that he is "humbled by."

Belli appeared on RuPaul's Drag Race in 2012. Belli notoriously vomited on the runway prior to leaving the show, and has since claimed that RuPaul's Drag Race creates a toxic environment for competitors.

"Now prance," RuPaul told Aquaria after she was announced as the winner on Thursday. "Prance, my queen."Despite limited evidence, Americans have an increasingly positive view of the health benefits of marijuana. Nearly two-thirds believe pot can reduce pain, while close to half say it improves symptoms of anxiety, depression, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis, according to a new online survey of 9,003 adults.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey are among the 30 states, along with the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico, that have legalized medical marijuana. But scientists say hard data on the health effects of pot  both positive and negative  are largely missing. Because marijuana is considered an illicit drug by the federal government, research has been scant, though there are efforts underway in Pennsylvania and nationally to remedy that.

"I am not surprised at all [by the survey]. At the same time, I'm a little bit disturbed," said Antoine Douaihy, senior academic director of addiction medicine services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He was not involved in the study.

Douaihy, who helped legislators craft Pennsylvania's medical marijuana bill, believes "organizations are not educating the public well" when it comes to what is known about the benefits and risks of smoking, vaping, and eating marijuana.

"We don't have enough studies that demonstrate the benefits of medical cannabis," he said. "And the perceptions about the risks related to cannabis are going down, particularly among adolescents."

In the survey, a majority of Americans  65.7 percent  said that marijuana can help with pain management. "There is some evidence which is moving in that direction, but we need more studies," said Douaihy. Among the 14.1 percent of respondents who reported using marijuana in the past year, 87.6 percent identified pain management as a benefit.

Other purported benefits included the treatment of diseases such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis; relief from stress, anxiety, or depression; and improved sleep and appetite. Close to a quarter of all respondents  23.3 percent  also believe using marijuana can make it easier to get off other medications.

"Unfortunately we don't know much about that at all," said Douaihy. Apart from the lack of evidence for disease treatment, few studies have examined the interactions between cannabis and other prescription drugs. Patients with chronic health problems often take many medications. Adding marijuana to that list worries Douaihy, whose research has largely focused on treating patients with complex conditions such as addiction coupled with psychiatric disorders.

>> READ MORE: Could marijuana help treat opioid addiction? Pennsylvania may soon find out

The survey, published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was conducted by researchers at the University of California campuses at San Francisco and Davis, the Northern California Institute for Research and Education (a nonprofit veterans health research institute); and Columbia University.

In addition to unsupported beliefs about marijuana's benefits, the survey also found that more than one in five marijuana users believe pot has no risks at all.

Although the risk of developing dependence on marijuana is lower than with opioids, for instance, "we have clear evidence that [marijuana] is addictive," said Douaihy, though half of all respondents denied the link. Among marijuana users, only 20.8 percent recognized the potential for addiction. "One out of six adolescents who smoke cannabis gets addicted to it, and one out of 10 adults can get addicted and have serious consequences," such as withdrawal, Douaihy said.

Among all respondents, 18 percent said that exposing adults to secondhand marijuana smoke is somewhat or completely safe. For marijuana users under 35, roughly 26 percent agreed. That's despite the fact that inhaling any form of particulate matter damages cardiovascular health, the authors noted.

Why is public perception at odds with medical research? The survey authors cite aggressive cannabis marketing, "slanted" media coverage, and the ongoing trend towards legalization, including for recreational use.

"It's concerning," said Salomeh Keyhani, lead study author and professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco. "Commercialization has been accompanied by marketing. The internet is inundated with articles that include inaccurate information that describe marijuana as not only safe but potentially beneficial for a wide variety of conditions," she said by email.

Keyhani said there is evidence that purified cannabinoids have some effect in the treatment of neuropathic pain, as well as nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. Cannabinoids may also improve pain and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis, she noted.

But she cautioned that "the idea that smoking marijuana prevents health problems has no evidence to support it. Smoking any substance is hazardous to health as inhalation of particulate matter is harmful."

Douaihy said the medical community "wants to be open-minded. But at the same time, I'm not going to undermine the risks related to the use of cannabis."

Keyhani, who received funding for the survey from the National Institutes of Health and the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, believes a "coherent federal policy" is needed for researchers to make progress, as well as more investment in research and public health education.Sisters Bernice Klostermann and George Ann Biscan, both Roman Catholic nuns, in front of an arbor, that some call a prayer chapel, erected in a clearing on the order's Lancaster County farm in an attempt to protest the planned Atlantic Sunrise pipeline that would run through the field. Read more

An order of Roman Catholic nuns has lost an appeal over a religious freedom suit against a natural gas pipeline run beneath the order's Lancaster County cornfield.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District agreed Wednesday with a lower court that the Adorers of the Blood of Christ had failed to make their religious objections known during the federal process that approved construction of the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline. In other words: It's too late now.

Some of the nuns appeared with 75 supporters during a January hearing before the appeals court in Philadelphia. The nuns described the pipeline as a violation of their religious beliefs, which are heavily influenced by environmental concerns, including treating land as sacred and reducing fossil fuel use.

The appeals panel, however, had to decide if the district court even had jurisdiction to consider the merits of a religious freedom case. The lower court said it did not.

In the end, the courts agreed that the nuns should have made religious objections during the process of awarding Transco the right to build the pipeline in 2017. The pipeline runs from the Marcellus Shale across Pennsylvania and into Maryland.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved the pipeline and gave Transco the right to use eminent domain to take private property after compensation.

But the appeals court noted in its ruling that the nuns made no religious objection during the FERC process. Separately, the nuns had filed a suit to stop the condemnation of their land, but they did not cite religious reasons then. They lost the condemnation case.

The nuns then filed a civil suit under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA).

But Transco, which had already been given federal approval, began burying a 42-inch pipeline under their West Hempfield cornfield.

>> READ MORE: Why Pa.'s fracked-up spending deal is an environmental nightmare

Construction had already been completed when their attorney J. Dwight Yoder appeared in court in Philadelphia in January, arguing that the religious freedom act was written by Congress and makes no mention of when or where a religious freedom suit had to be filed. The nuns' religious freedoms were not impacted until the pipeline was being built and buried, he said. The Adorers were an "innocent" third party and not part of the FERC application process, he told the appeals panel.

"We disagree," the panel said in its ruling, issued Wednesday. The appeals court said procedures of the Natural Gas Act were clear on how aggrieved parties should proceed.

"If the Adorers had participated in the administrative process, FERC may have denied or modified the conditions of Transco's certificate," the appeals court concluded. "Or, if FERC failed to do so, the reviewing court of appeals may have ruled in the Adorers' favor. Under these circumstances, the Adorers would have, at the very least, had the opportunity to seek the relief they so desire today."

Yoder maintained Wednesday that the court had erred.

"In adopting the RFRA, Congress made it clear that the free exercise of religion is an unalienable right that cannot be substantially burdened by the federal government without compelling justification," Yoder said by email.

"In my opinion and with all due respect to the Court, the decision today by a panel of the Third Circuit that elevates the provisions of the Natural Gas Act over the protection of religious freedoms is inconsistent with both the express purpose of RFRA and with its statutory mandate," he said.

Christopher Stockton, a representative of Transco, said in an email: "Clearly, we believe the court made the correct decision. Throughout the pre-construction and construction process, our goal has been to respect and treat every landowner fairly. While we respect the Adorers' position, we disagree with their opinion with regard to this important infrastructure project. "Heaven Gonzalez, 8, closes her eyes and goes under the water during her swim time at the Germantown Life Enrichment Center. Read more

Brandi Mapp-Evans admits the deep end of the pool scares her.

"I don't know how to tread water," said the 37-year-old teacher from Lawncrest in Northeast Philadelphia. Swimming was never part of her life  probably because she has feared being in a pool since she was a child, she said.

She worried that her daughter, Savannah, would follow suit when, as a preschooler, she wouldn't budge off the ladder of the pool, Mapp-Evans said.

The difference: Savannah wanted to follow her cousins into the water, so she soon was off the ladder and splashing around in the shallow end.

Mapp-Evans seized the opportunity to sign her up for swimming lessons at Germantown Life Enrichment Center. Savannah, now 10, is on the swim team and looking forward to swimming in high school.

Those lessons helped Savannah and the other children at GLEC defy a dangerous trend: Too many American children can't swim well enough to escape drowning.

A 2017 study by researchers at the University of Memphis found that 64 percent of African American children, 45 percent of Hispanic children, and 40 percent of Caucasian children in the United States have no or low swimming ability, putting them at risk for drowning. Pools may be easy enough to avoid, but children have drowned even in circumstances that might not seem to require swimming ability, such as going to the shore or a lake and promising to avoid deep water.

The study, commissioned by the USA Swimming Foundation, surveyed swimming ability in youth ages 6 to 16 in different cities.

From 2005 to 2014, there were about 3,500 drownings in the U.S. One in five were children 14 and younger, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Income is a big factor, simply because children whose families don't have pools or access to one are far less likely to learn to swim. Swimming ability of the parents is another. If a child's parents don't know how to swim, there is only a 19 percent chance that the child will learn, according to the CDC.

In 2008, USA Swimming debuted its Make a Splash program, which offers grants to facilities in low-income neighborhoods that promote water safety. The program has been credited with the increased number of kids  about 5 percent to 10 percent  who have learned to swim since its inception.

GLEC is one of three Philadelphia-area pools that are part of the program.

The center, which occupies the historic YMCA on Greene Street, offers swimming lessons, lifeguard training, water aerobics, swim team, water safety instructor courses, and lap and recreational swim times.

All kids are required to take a swim test at the start of every summer before they are allowed in the deep end of the pool, said Doris Swarn, 29, aquatics coordinator at GLEC. They must swim the pool's length and tread water for 60 seconds, she said.

"Knowing how to swim can get them out of danger," Swarn said. That danger extends beyond a pool. There are streams to play in and boats to fall from, she said. "Kids are adventurous."

Dominique McConnell, a forensic investigator for the city, brought her daughter Khy Pullins to GLEC to learn how to swim when she was about 6. Khy now competes on the swim team year-round.

"I drive from South Philadelphia to Germantown twice a week so we can participate in swimming," she said.

McConnell, who said she is a self-taught swimmer, recalled summer days in her youth when she and friends would hang out at the Marian Anderson Recreation Center pool at 17th and Catharine Streets.

Philadelphia maintains 78 public pools, including four year-round indoor pools that are owned by the School District, said Kathryn Ott Lovell, commissioner of parks and recreation.

Swimming lessons are offered at all city-maintained pools, Ott Lovell said. Lessons are free at the outdoor pools, and at low cost or free at the indoor pools, with the goal of getting as many children as possible ready to swim, she said.

"In Philadelphia, we are really, really lucky," said Ott Lovell. "We have more pools per resident than any other city." In comparison, New York City has 30 public pools, she said.

But the pools are more expensive to operate and staff than the city's 170 spray parks, Ott Lovell said.

The spray parks do not require or encourage swimming ability  which can mean more lost opportunities to encourage learning to swim. McConnell said that when her family moved to Grays Ferry, there was only a sprinkler park nearby. Her younger brother did not have access to a pool and does not swim, she said.

Methodist Services in West Philadelphia is also part of the Make a Splash program. It offers swim lessons as well as caps and goggles to about 220 summer campers ages 5 to 15, said Kathrine Martin, senior vice president and executive director. Some of the children have gone on to compete on USA Swimming teams.

Now that more kids can swim, the camp has broadened its field trips to include a visit to the beach, she said.

"We feel like they are able to handle being in the ocean now," Martin said. "Without the swimming lessons, we would never have taken them to the Shore."

For Mapp-Evans, knowing her daughter can swim has provided her with peace of mind when Savannah goes to the beach or a pool with friends and family.

"I'm extremely comfortable with her abilities," she said. Though Mapp-Evans knows the risks she faces as an adult who can't swim, her fear of deep water still holds her back from taking lessons.

"I wish I had done it at her age," she said.

According to the American Red Cross, there are five critical water safety skills swimmers need to be able to complete to save their life in the water. They are:

Step or jump into the water over their head.

Return to the surface and float or tread water for one minute.

Turn around in a full circle and find an exit.

Swim 25 yards to the exit.

Exit from the water. If in a pool, be able to exit without using the ladder.

Philadelphia Media Network is one of 19 news organizations producing Broke in Philly, a collaborative reporting project on solutions to poverty and the city's push towards economic justice. Follow us at @BrokeInPhilly.A photo of the newly-opened East Village Target, which has gotten backlash for its corporate homage to the neighborhood's past. Read more

This week, the new East Village Target store in New York City drew ire for a grand opening that sought to pay homage to the neighborhood's past with a mural of old tenement buildings, a hip-hop dancer performing on a fake stoop, and an awning that mimicked an iconic punk dance club that closed when rent got too high.

The awning, a callback to the CBGB club, spells out TRGT in a similar typeface.

"It's the most deplorable act of neighborhood commodification I've ever seen," said Vanishing New York blogger Jeremiah Moss (a pen name for Griffin Hansbury). "It was almost like a parody."

Moss, who has been writing about New York's changing neighborhoods for 11 years, called Target's marketing decision reflective of a trend to "attempt to use authenticity as a way to market" businesses, especially in gentrifying neighborhoods.

"The authentic culture of the place gets destroyed," he said. "And the forces that destroy it then use it to sell whatever they're selling to the new population that has moved in."

It's not the first instance of a business making national headlines for what many see as tone-deaf marketing choices.

A year ago, Summerhill, a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, bar and restaurant, opened with fake bullet holes in the walls and 40-ounce bottles of rose served in paper bags. Protesters complained to the owner that the design capitalized on racial stereotypes. The restaurant has since painted over the "bullet-ridden" wall (which was where an industrial refrigerator was once mounted) and, with the help of its chef, regained favor in the neighborhood, particularly with black clientele.

In Denver, ink! coffee in the Five Points neighborhood boasted on its signs that it was "proudly gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014." Another sign read, "Nothing Says Gentrification Like Being Able to Order a Cortado." The owners said the signs were meant to be cheeky but quickly apologized when met with national outrage. The cafe was vandalized last year but remains open.

While Philadelphia has not had such marketing faux pas, real estate agents and developers have long tried to rebrand neighborhoods here, and businesses that signal gentrification  think cafes, cross-fit gyms, and craft breweries  must determine how to engage with the communities they move into.

>>READ MORE: Searching for a new identity, Philadelphia's most gentrified neighborhood looks to its African American past

"I think there's a lot of people that don't get gentrification and don't appreciate the true history of a neighborhood before they go in and start making changes," said Ken Weinstein, a developer in Germantown. "I also think to defend some developers, some of the time, that there's a lot of definitions to gentrification, and some people define gentrification in such a way that it's a positive and so their marketing may reflect that."

Weinstein said the discussion shouldn't start with how to market a business to a community but what that business should be. "What appeals to the neighborhood?" he said. "You can't just go into a community and be a bull in a china shop. You really have to pay attention to what a community wants."

John Schlichtman, coauthor of Gentrifier, which he wrote with Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, said there's a way to be inclusive and honor a neighborhood's history with sincerity.

"If you're paying homage to a place, that place has people in it, and you need to figure out what's going on on the ground," Schlichtman said. "For instance, the poetry of the East Village. What's the current-day iteration of that? If you're giving a nod to a neighborhood's black history, don't go back to the '80s or '70s. What's going on today? If it's not connected to local people, local organizations, then it's probably empty and hollow, and just a commodification of the neighborhood."

Schlichtman held up Hill's bookstore and cafe, Uncle Bobbie's in Germantown, as an example of a new business successfully appealing to longtime residents and newcomers.

"Businesses increasingly want to give a nod to particular moments in history that make the statement that this place has some roots," Schlichtman said. They can do that well or poorly.

Schlichtman noted that even New York's CBGB music club, in its time, was channeling the reputation of the East Village of the 1980s and 1990s. "They were capitalizing on the grit of that neighborhood and the authenticity of that grit," Schlichtman said. "The just-enough-crime, just-enough-edge to give an edge to that club. That was problematic in that time the same way Target is in this time."

Dave Waxman, managing partner of MMPartners LLC, in Brewerytown, said he thinks engagement trumps a marketing campaign when it comes to being a good neighbor. His firm sponsors Little League teams, backpack drives, and a forthcoming field trip for elementary kids in the area to see college campuses. One of the local coffee shops employs foster kids who have recently aged out of the system. A yoga studio offers discounted community classes.

"We try to be sensitive and understand that these neighborhoods were here way before we got here," Waxman said. "The nature of the retailers we've brought on are kind of all very woke. They all understand what's happening and that they need to be good stewards."Bruce Gondeck dances in the street during the Budweiser Made In America festival on the Ben Franklin Parkway in 2017. Read more

After years of griping over parking, noise, and litter associated with the 19 or so major events that take place each year on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, neighbors finally got the city to do something. Working with residents, the Parkway museums, and other institutions, officials conducted extensive research and created a scorecard to determine what events should be held there.

Then  after an angry op-ed from Jay-Z sparked a media firestorm  Mayor Kenney threw it out the window.

At least that's how it feels to area residents like Drew Murray, who worked on the Parkway events study. Though he is also president of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, he did not learn until after the fact that Kenney on Monday had walked back his decision to banish the Made in America music festival from the Parkway.

If Jay-Z, who founded the festival, was blindsided by the initial decision, neighbors have been just as startled by its reversal.

"We were surprised and disappointed that the mayor revised the decision without speaking to the residents first, and most likely not factoring in the scorecard that was developed as part of the Parkway events study," Murray said. "Roc Nation [Jay-Z's company] is a stakeholder, but the residents are stakeholders as well. We would have rather had those conversations before the final decision was made."

>> READ MORE: Made in America staying on the Parkway is a win for Jay-Z, and for Philadelphia

Murray emphasized that the group does not take a position on Made in America, as residents' views are mixed.

Neighborhood resident Alan Niederman, on the other hand, had no such hesitation.

"It smothers our lives for close to three weeks," he said. "It's like a military occupation."

He provided emails from a mayoral spokesperson dating from early June assuring him that the festival would no longer be sited on the Parkway. He wrote a letter to the Inquirer "congratulating Mayor Kenney for prioritizing the basic rights of the people who live in the Parkway area over the demands of Jay-Z."

Now, he's irate.

"He caved so quickly, and why?" Niederman said. "The mayor isn't representing the people that voted for him. He's representing a billionaire from Los Angeles."

The city said outreach is underway.

"City officials reached out to several Parkway institutions before the joint statement was released yesterday," Sarah Reyes, Kenney's deputy communications director, wrote in an email. "We've continued to contact local stakeholders today and plan to meet with residents, civic associations and other institutions to garner feedback on ways we can overcome some of their concerns."

>> READ MORE: Made in America is staying on the Parkway

And not everyone who lives nearby is concerned.

Christopher Varano, president of the 2601 Parkway condo association, said his building is divided: "You have people who don't care for the hassle, the traffic, the road closures, and then you have people who love seeing our building on national television and love seeing the Parkway turned into this magical landscape."

He acknowledged that there was some whiplash: "People that do not want it here were thrilled to have it go, and upon hearing it's back were like, 'What?' "

The Parkway events study, which included a series of surveys, found a stark divide between the views of residents and event-goers. More than 60 percent of visitors said they like having music festivals on the Parkway, while only 26 percent of residents felt the same way.

>>READ MORE: What does eviction of Jay-Z's Made in America mean for the Parkway?

Personally, Varano thought Jay-Z's op-ed made some sound points about the economic impact of Made in America, the $3.4 million it's paid in rent to the city, the 1,000 local people it employs each year, and the $2.9 million it's given in local charitable donations.

He just hopes that Kenney got some concessions from Jay-Z and his team in the latest round of discussions about the event. For instance, he'd like to see Roc Nation commit to investing more in event cleanup.

As for Murray, the top complaint he hears is the noise level  and he's not sure how that could be mitigated. But other fixes, like shortening the setup and breakdown time for the event, providing residents with parking passes to nearby garages as the city did during the 2015 papal visit, and limiting road closures could go a long way toward restoring goodwill. He would also like to see an increased police presence in the neighborhood, where late-night disorderly conduct and public urination are frequent problems after Parkway concerts.

Kenney on Monday told reporters he was eager to put the Made in America fiasco behind him. "I just wanted to get this out of the way  this got so complicated and convoluted, I wanted to end the speculation," he said.

But as far as residents are concerned, the conversation is far from over.

"There are too many events on the Parkway," Murray said. "The Parkway is overstressed, and we do need to find other locations for some of the events."When Rob Magee was house-hunting in 2002, two things appealed to him about a two-bedroom home on Latimer Street: "The area and the street," he said.

The street off Rittenhouse Square is just one block long. "At night it's so quiet, due to the no outlet," he said.

Over 16 years of ownership, Magee said, he has updated the kitchen, as well as the master bedroom. Today the kitchen includes granite counters and stainless-steel appliances. The property also boasts cherry-inlay hardwood flooring, restored hardwood moldings, and exposed beams.

There are also three outdoor spaces, including a first-floor patio, a second-floor deck, and a space off the third floor, which has been slated for future development for a roof deck. Magee said the second-floor deck is his favorite feature in the home.

He has recently decided to list the 1,132-square-foot property for sale.

"I'll be living in Colorado full time," he said. "Owning a second home  or even renting one out  is something I'm not interested in doing."

Magee said he suspects new owners will be as excited about the location and the privacy as he was. He also expects buyers to react to the neighborhood.

"All of the neighbors were great, and we've had some good times on that street, just hanging around out front," he said. "Access to all of the restaurants nearby was an added bonus."

The home is listed with Liz Lutz at RE/MAX One Realty for $450,000.After Ari Goldstein's hearing last week on sexual assault charges, his lawyer said the accuser had ulterior motives  that it is simply a case of "#MeToo gone wild."

"The atmosphere of #MeToo," lawyer Perry de Marco Sr. said in an interview Tuesday, "has infected this case."

The point of #MeToo, the movement that originated on social media and has brought down dozens of powerful men accused of everything from workplace harassment to rape, started as a sort of cultural workaround to a failing in the legal system  a way to call out men who had committed sexual misdeeds but who might never be prosecuted.

But what about the men who are prosecuted? Some are now using the name of that very movement to launch their own defenses  in the courtroom and outside it  in a way that calls back to earlier defense strategies implying that accusers are just out for attention.

During a preliminary hearing in Goldstein's case last week, the accuser, a Temple University student, testified that during a February encounter, she "kept saying no" while Goldstein, a former Temple fraternity president, allegedly pinned her to his couch, dug his knee into her thigh, and pushed her to perform oral sex on him against her will. Municipal Court Judge Lydia Y. Kirkland held Goldstein, of Wrightstown, Bucks County, for trial on charges of attempted rape, indecent assault, and simple assault.

District Attorney Larry Krasner was critical of de Marco in an interview Tuesday, saying the defense lawyer has named the accuser publicly, an "unacceptable" move that is "exactly why sexual assault victims do not come forward." The Inquirer and Daily News do not identify victims of alleged sex crimes without their permission.

"His efforts to make what is frankly a commonly known situation a reality  that women are disbelieved  into some kind of a trial issue," he said, "is outside of normal thought and outside the rules of evidence."

De Marco said he may not mention the #MeToo movement by name during trial but said he'd work to pick jurors who are sympathetic to a man facing sexual-misconduct allegations during a time when he says "a man doesn't even know how to talk to a woman anymore."

"There are more jurors who will see this the way I see it," he said, "rather than the way the #MeToo people see it."

The movement has been invoked by defense lawyers elsewhere. In January, a man accused of sex trafficking asked a federal judge in Chicago for a delay in his case, saying he couldn't get an impartial jury while the #MeToo movement was grabbing daily headlines. In June, a Georgia defense lawyer argued that prosecutors tried a case against a pediatrician accused of groping only because of political pressure mounting as a result of #MeToo. The man was found not guilty of two counts of sexual battery.

Zak Goldstein, a Philadelphia-based criminal defense lawyer who has represented clients accused of sexual misconduct, said the biggest way #MeToo could be used by defense attorneys is during jury selection to try to seat people who "are still going to have an open mind."

"There's tension between 'believe the victim' and the criminal system," he said, "where, given the consequences of years in jail, the defendant [should be] presumed innocent." He is no relation to Ari Goldstein.

Potential jurors could be asked about their feelings related to #MeToo by both sides. Just last week, prosecutors trying a sexual-assault case involving ex-University of Tennessee athletes asked potential jurors about the movement, including their attitudes about celebrities accused of sexual harassment.

In March, a jury acquitted a suspended Yale University student accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student after his lawyers worked to discredit the woman's account.

Jurors said after that trial that #MeToo didn't factor into their decision. But lawyers for defendant Saifullah Khan asked about it during jury selection. Khan's lawyer Norman Pattis, who is based in New Haven, Conn., said they asked potential jurors about the movement without actually saying the words "#MeToo." This strategy, he said, allowed for jurors to show their hand based on how they answered the question.

For example, if a juror responded that he or she had heard about the #MeToo movement and was shocked by the volume of crimes that had been committed, that would be a red flag for defense lawyers trying to seat jurors who see #MeToo as a flood of allegations, not proven crimes.

Pattis said that beyond jury selection, de Marco might not even be allowed by a judge to talk about #MeToo in the courtroom, saying, "It's not a crime or exculpatory to be involved with #MeToo."

In April, lawyers asked potential jurors about their knowledge of #MeToo while picking a jury for the retrial of Bill Cosby. Although all the jurors selected said they'd heard about #MeToo, they said they could put aside their knowledge to come to a fair decision in the case.

Cosby's defense team didn't invoke #MeToo often during the trial itself, but it did attempt to paint Cosby's accuser, former Temple employee Andrea Constand, as a con artist who was only out for money. During closing arguments, defense lawyer Kathleen Bliss compared the #MeToo movement to lynchings, witch hunts, and McCarthyism.

"It was stunning, the things that woman was saying," said Dolores M. Troiani, a lawyer who represented Constand. But, she said, "it was another miscalculation. Nobody wanted to hear the things that she was saying."

Cosby, 81, was found guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Legal scholars have picked apart the case, speculating on what implications it might have for other sexual misconduct cases in the #MeToo era.

Of course, Goldstein, 21, isn't a celebrity or the target of dozens of accusations. Pattis said that no matter the defendant, the landscape for men charged with sexual assault has shifted.

"The presence of the #MeToo movement has changed how sexual contact between men and women is perceived," he said. "This is no longer 2015."A raucous group of Occupy ICE protesters held a City Hall stairwell for more than an hour on Wednesday afternoon, at points locking arms to block foot traffic and bumping chests with police officers who sought to clear the way.

They left only after winning the promise of a Friday meeting with Mayor Kenney to address their demand for an end to all city cooperation with the federal immigration enforcement agency.

"We got somewhere," said Xelba Gutierrez, 34, who helped lead the demonstration. "We want to make sure, as a sanctuary city, he keeps up with what it means."

Shortly after 4 p.m., about 15 demonstrators left the stairwell and headed into the street, met by a chorus of horns. They circled City Hall once before returning to an encampment on the concrete curtain that surrounds the building.

They had intended to stage a sit-down strike outside the mayor's office, but when stopped by police, they quickly claimed ground by the east-side elevators, blowing whistles, and shouting and chanting "Abolish ICE!" and similar slogans. Some people trying to do business in City Hall were kept from passing. Others retreated and made their way up or down the stairway.

Organizers wanted to confront Kenney with a demand that the city withdraw from an agreement that allows ICE access to a real-time police database known as PARS. Two protesters were allowed into the mayor's office to deliver a letter on the matter.

Mayoral Communications Director Deana Gamble confirmed that a meeting with a delegation of demonstrators has been set for 3:30 p.m. Friday.

The mayor will announce his decision on PARS before the Aug. 31 deadline, she said. Having gathered and shared information on PARS and ICE with key constituencies, she said, "we are now focused on deciding whether renewal is in the best interest of the city and its residents."

The demonstrators never got within 30 yards of Kenney's office, blocked by locked hallway doors and a phalanx of police.

PARS, or Preliminary Arraignment Reporting System, is a real-time computer database of arrests, operated by the city and, via contract, shared with ICE.

That tracking system became central to a protest that evolved outside the ICE office in Center City this month, where pro-immigrant demonstrators demanded the city government cancel the agreement when it expires at the end of August. Police arrested 36 people during two days of demonstrations at Eighth and Cherry Streets.

Cleared from the street and corner, a small band of protesters set up a new camp on the east side of City Hall.

The actions come amid a growing national call from immigration advocates to abolish ICE, with some Democrats saying the agency has become a deportation force that targets black and brown people. In response, some Republicans say eliminating ICE would mean abolishing U.S. borders and opening the country to crime, drugs, and terrorism.

The Philadelphia Occupy ICE protest has been organized by groups including Philly Socialists and the Democratic Socialists of America, and supported by Juntos and Asian Americans United, among others. Nationally, propelled in part by social media, Occupy ICE has reached about a dozen cities, including New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Detroit, and Portland, Ore.Adrianne Gunter walks outside her Philadelphia apartment with a help of a steel cane, due to her Multiple Sclerosis condition. Wednesday, January 3, 2018. Gunter who waited 788 days for a hearing in Philadelphia, all while her Multiple Sclerosis worsened and she continued to be unemployed and dependent on her motherOs in between jobs. The Social Security Administration says it doesnOt have enough judges and support staff to keep up with the pace of applications and appeals. Read more

In an effort to reduce its massive backlog of disability determination appeals, the Social Security Administration plans to reinstate an additional step in the appeals process for Pennsylvania and nine other states.

Social Security officials say the extra step  called reconsideration  would create a more uniform system across the country and help the administration reach its goal of resolving disability appeals within 270 days. Critics have said it could have the opposite effect, possibly lengthening the appeals process.

"While some people might get a decision sooner under reconsideration, for others this step is effectively a rubber stamp of the initial decision," Rep. Sam Johnson (R., Texas), who serves as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Social Security subcommittee, said during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday. "It simply further delays their hearing with an administrative law judge."

Earlier this year, the Inquirer and Daily News wrote about the backlog of appeals for people seeking to be declared disabled and eligible to begin collecting Social Security benefits. The average waiting time for appellants nationwide to get a decision in their case has hovered around 600 days, but Philadelphia had the longest average wait in the country 26 months.

One West Philadelphia woman with multiple sclerosis, Adrianne Gunter, waited 878 days before getting a favorable ruling.

The process that the agency wants to extend is a second review of a rejected claim for disability payments. The step was once uniform across the country, but in 1999 the administration eliminated it in 10 states, including Pennsylvania, in a pilot program.

Critics say states with reconsideration in place report that seven out of every eight appeals are denied at that stage.

In Pennsylvania, SSI applicants who are denied benefits can apply directly for a hearing with an administrative law judge. Reconsideration would be a step before that hearing.

Jennifer Burdick, a lawyer with Community Legal Services who represented Gunter in her appeal, said a reconsideration process would almost certainly have extended her wait for a final determination.

"Reconsideration is a useless administrative procedure that is designed to hurt Pennsylvanians with disabilities by creating an additional administrative hurdle to getting benefits, which often discourages continued pursuit of appeal and adds additional time to the process," Burdick said.

Social Security officials say the process would let them shift the burden from overworked judges to less-taxed examiners, whose caseload of initial applications has decreased.

"We all agree 600 days is unacceptable," Patricia Jonas, a deputy Social Security commissioner, told House members. "Having a uniform step will play a significant role in getting to 270 days' [appeal] wait time."

The administration plans to reinstate the reconsideration step in the 10 states in January.

Several of the subcommittee members, including Johnson, asked that Social Security hold off on any changes until the Senate confirms a new commissioner. President Trump has nominated Andrew M. Saul, a New York businessman, but he has not had a confirmation hearing.THE PARENTS: Katie MacTurk, 31, and Megan MacTurk, 31, of South Philadelphia

THE CHILD: Kieran Lynn, born June 12, 2018

WHY THEY CHOSE AN OPEN-IDENTITY DONOR: "We never want her to struggle with her identity," Katie says. "Maybe she will have questions [about her donor], and maybe she won't. But that option is open to her."

The fireworks, splayed on the eastern horizon as their wedding guests danced at the Top of the Tower, felt as if the universe were saying "yes."

"I didn't plan to be in a relationship with a woman; I didn't plan to meet Meg," Katie says. "Everybody was there, having a great time, and you could see fireworks in the distance  something we didn't plan. A nice little bow."

It was July 6, 2013, three days after the women had a small, legal wedding in Washington, D.C. (marriage equality had not yet come to Pennsylvania) and nearly five years since they first spied each other at a meeting of the LGBT support group at St. Joseph's University, where both were seniors.

Katie was in her self-described "gay infancy" then, so nervous that she could barely sputter out her name. "Meg had been very out; she's a social butterfly and talked the entire time. I noticed that she was cute. She noticed that I was new."

Their first date was in a campus cafeteria; as a resident assistant, Megan could swipe in a guest for dinner. Both recall a conversation in which they agreed to take the relationship slowly. Both remember the next morning, when Megan asked Katie to be her girlfriend.

"It was a solid month of seeing each other every day," Katie recalls. "I was more closed off. I was hiding part of who I was. To meet Meg, who is so outgoing and warm and open, was so refreshing. I thought: This is exactly what I have been waiting for my entire life."

By 2010, they were living together, along with two geriatric cats, in an apartment near 17th and Callowhill. The following fall, Katie proposed a picnic in their favorite spot behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art; though she's generally terrible at keeping secrets, she'd managed to order a personalized wine bottle and keep it hidden, along with an engagement ring.

Megan unpacked the wine and noticed the label with their photograph and an invitation to spend the rest of their lives together. Katie was already in tears.

"It was important, whether it was legal or not, to have something that symbolized our commitment," Megan says. "It was important to  establish ourselves as a couple."

Early on, they had a debate about their hypothetical kids: not whether to have them, but whether they would attend public school or private school. First, they had to figure out where those kids would come from. The women had a friend who was willing to donate sperm, but when his samples were tested, the sperm count was too low for success with regular inseminations. Dr. Jacqueline Gutmann, the fertility doctor at Reproductive Medicine Associates of Philadelphia, recommended a round of IVF.

That cycle yielded 17 embryos. But the morning Megan was to go in for the egg transfer, she got a call: Not one of the embryos had survived. "That was a huge blow," Katie says. "We had been so tied to this donor."

They turned, instead, to the roster from Fairfax Cryobank, eventually selecting a donor who shared some of Katie's traits  her blue eyes, her half-Irish background  and who was willing to be identified to any offspring once they turned 18.

The second round of intra-uterine inseminations brought good news, though Megan was slow to embrace it. "It took me a long time to fully be able to get excited about being pregnant," she says. "It wasn't until the third trimester that we thought: Yes, we're having this baby," Katie adds. "It was exciting to think about who this little human was going to be."

Knowledge, they decided, was power, so they took a comprehensive six-week childbirth class and read voraciously about stages of labor, comfort techniques and what to expect post-partum. "I am analytical," Katie says. "I like to know all the different options. I realized I had no idea what birth was like, so being able to be super-nerdy and read all the things, to formulate some sort of plan, helped put my mind at ease."

The baby's due date was June 17. On June 12, Katie woke up and said, "I had a dream that you went into labor today." Megan responded, "I hope not." But Katie's forecast was spot-on: By mid-afternoon, Megan was leaning over the birth ball, unable to speak through contractions that were less than two minutes apart.

At Pennsylvania Hospital, Megan labored for six more hours, then pushed for 90 minutes. "They asked if she wanted a mirror, or to touch the head. She said, 'No, I'm doing this,'" Katie recalls. The baby had her fists clamped near her face, and her elbows out.

"I was exhausted," Megan remembers, "and had my eyes closed, bracing myself: I've got to get through this push. I'm determined to get her out."

When she did, the moment felt both immersive and surreal. "It was like an out-of-body experience. I had no concept of time. It was so emotionally powerful that I was almost numb."

Kieran is still new  and so are they, as parents, still brimming with surprise and questions: Why is the baby screaming from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.? Why does she, just as abruptly, calm down and go to sleep? How will they know whether something is wrong? What's going to happen next? "There are moments of self-doubt: Are we going to be able to do this?" Megan says.

Their lives, pre-baby, were full. Now the days spill over. "I was perfectly happy with the two of us and our extended life with friends and family," Katie recalls. "Having a kid will change that  in some ways that are great, in some ways, a little limiting. That still makes me nervous. Change is scary."

For now, they are navigating cluster-feeding and post-partum recovery and sleep-starvation, reading Harry Potter aloud (they're both huge fans of the series), and watching their daughter watch them, her huge eyes searching out this strange, new world.A 26-year-old man was fatally wounded in a shooting Tuesday night in West Philadelphia, police said.

The victim was shot in the face just after 9 p.m. in the 200 block of South Ithan Street. He was rushed by police to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 9:31 p.m.

Police reported no arrest or motive.Residents and local officials had one major message for the Environmental Protection Agency at a Montgomery County meeting Wednesday: Do more to help communities like theirs that are dealing with tainted water and to develop regulations for the chemicals that polluted their towns  and don't make them pay for it.

Hundreds of residents and officials attended the daylong meeting convened by the EPA in Horsham, part of a summer tour to visit communities affected by water contamination from chemicals known as PFAS used on military bases.

It is the first such coordinated outreach in local communities since the contamination was discovered four years ago. Throughout the morning, a Washington-based contingent representing the EPA, the Department of Defense, and other agencies laid out its findings and plans to address the contamination. Then the group heard from state, local government, and community panels before beginning a public comment session scheduled to last until 9 p.m.

The discourse was largely civil  but many residents made heated pleas to the EPA, and a handful held protest signs outside the event in the Hatboro-Horsham High School auditorium during a break. Dozens inside took advantage of the opportunity to question, challenge, or implore the federal officials to say and do more.

"It would be easier to believe if you would follow through and do anything," said Lauren Woehr, a mother from Horsham who worried about her 16-month-old daughter's health and, like many residents, wants the agency to arrange testing. "If you want us to start believing you, then prove it by providing the testing."

Lisa Daniels, one of the many state environmental officials on hand, said the cleanup and remediation demanded federal coordination.

"I'm here to say states cannot do this work alone. We're just not capable of doing this on our own," said Daniels, of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "People will continue to question the safety of their water if we don't do this at the national level."

Firefighting foams used for years on former military bases in the area tainted the drinking water of at least 70,000 residents in Horsham, Warminster, and Warrington Townships, and similar reviews are underway near hundreds of current and former military sites nationwide.

Wednesday's meeting came weeks after the release of a government analysis suggesting that PFAS are potentially more hazardous to humans than the EPA had previously indicated.

Four years after the water contamination was discovered, scores of residents are paying higher water bills due to the costs of making the water supply safe, and dozens report cancers and other illnesses. Some residents with tainted private wells are still drinking bottled water supplied by the military, waiting for hookups to public water.

People are also, and more commonly, exposed to the chemicals through consumer products. The PFAS class of chemicals is complex, largely unstudied, and vast  containing between 3,500 and 4,500 chemicals, officials said  which makes the cleanup tasks even more challenging.

The EPA detailed its goals for addressing various issues caused by the contamination, including a lack of knowledge about the PFAS chemical class, toxicity and human health, drinking-water treatment technology, cleanup of contaminated sites, disposal of contaminated materials, and understanding how people become exposed.

Officials also said they are developing ways to assist states and communities dealing with contamination, including a "PFAS management plan" that the EPA committed to at a national summit in May. The agency is considering listing PFAS as hazardous substances and creating enforceable guidelines.

"We're trying to develop data and tools people can use to make actual decisions about managing risk," said Andy Gillespie, an associate director in the EPA Office of Research and Development.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will soon launch a Pentagon-funded study to examine exposure in eight communities near current or former military bases. Military officials were also authorized by Congress this week to begin an assessment of health effects on veterans, said Maureen Sullivan, an assistant director at the Department of Defense.

In local communities, officials have ignored the EPA's advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for drinking water and aimed to get their drinking water as close to zero as possible. Speakers Wednesday asked the EPA to set a stricter drinking-water standard for the chemicals  one that is legally enforceable.

"We are very confident in the value we have that supports the 70 ppt," said Peter Grevatt, director of EPA's Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water. "And, that said, we're going to continue to work very closely with ATSDR and others to make sure we've got the best science underlying what we have."

<< READ MORE: Nearly 400 military bases must be tested for tainted water >>

Still, many of the attendees expressed frustration over the pace of the federal response. One after another, health and environment officials from mid-Atlantic states called on the agency to spearhead a uniform national response. On one panel discussion, local officials said federal agencies needed to pay for the cleanup, much of which is currently shouldered by residents and localities.

"Our customers, our residents, our family has not caused contamination of the water supply, and they certainly shouldn't be responsible for the cleanup costs," said Tim Hagey, general manager of Warminster Township's public water system.

The meeting was part of a series scheduled by the EPA across the country  the first was in New Hampshire in June, and officials will go to Colorado in August before visiting North Carolina and other states.

They say they will release their management plan in the fall  one that some attendees hope will help turn the corner on the issue.

"Every community across the country needs a consistent and coordinated action plan," said Joanne Stanton, a lifelong area resident and member of the National PFAS Coalition. "We ask you to act now and please make public health your number-one priority."Kevin Bean, a grade-school teacher in Montgomery County, has performed as "Blitzkrieg" for professional wrestling organization based in Pennsylvania. Read more

An elementary school teacher is under investigation by a Montgomery County school district after video surfaced last week of him performing as a local professional wrestler under the name Blitzkrieg and shouting "Sieg Heil!" while raising his hand in a Nazi salute.

Kevin Bean, 36, who is listed on the Spring-Ford Area School District website as a grade-school teacher in Royersford, is seen wearing a black shirt with a white lightning bolt as he waves a flag bearing the German Iron Cross. A young boy holds up a sign that declares, "BLITZKRIEG RULES!"

The video has gained widespread attention and condemnation since it was posted last Wednesday on Twitter by Ryan Satin, who runs a professional wrestling news site.

"A wrestler named Blitzkrieg 'The German Juggernaut' using a nazi gimmick at a recent local show in Pennsylvania. This video makes me sick. Watching the guy do nazi salutes on his way to the ring while children in the crowd cheer him on like a good guy is terrifying," Satin wrote.

In a message posted on the school district's website on Monday, superintendent David Goodin said that his administration became aware of the video late last week and that an "ongoing internal investigation" was launched immediately.

"I want to assure you that the actions portrayed in this video do not represent the core values of the school district," Goodin wrote. "As an educational organization, we pride ourselves in providing a safe and nurturing learning environment."

He did not elaborate, saying the situation was a "personnel matter."

Bean could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. He has worked for the Spring-Ford district since 2004, according to the district's website.

The video reportedly was from a World Wide Wrestling Alliance show in Quakertown on July 23.

Dino Sanna, owner of the WWWA, told the Blast news site last week that Bean is a "good guy and not a hateful person," and that his Blitzkrieg character had become a popular villain.

As of Tuesday night, Bean's character was still featured on the WWWA's website. The video of his Quakertown match, however, had been removed from the organization's YouTube channel, which has 45 subscribers.

In the video snippet Satin posted on Twitter, Bean enters the small venue to heavy metal music and is both applauded and heckled. His personal boasting is later countered by chants of "USA! USA!"

Bean was defended by some commenters responding to Satin's tweet.

"He has done this gimmick for almost ten years, and it makes the show fun," wrote @DenisD206.

"I was at the show in Quakertown that you reported on along with maybe 50? other people. We paid to be there, we enjoyed the show. We love Blitzkrieg and know what he's actually about. He is a heel character and he's there to be hated and booed," wrote @MariahCaravan.A homeownser's protest singagainst the Mariner East 2 pipeline along Pennell Road in Delaware County. For months, the county council had debated whether to commission a study analyzing the pipeline's risks to residents. Read more

After nearly seven months of debate, the Delaware County Council has initiated a countywide risk-assessment of Sunoco Logistics' embattled Mariner East 2 pipeline.

At the council meeting Wednesday, four members voted to approve a contract for G2 Integrated Solutions LLC to perform the study for $115,000. Council President John McBlain abstained due to concerns raised by some of his colleagues about business his law firm, Swartz Campbell, has done with Sunoco.

The study will also examine Adelphia Gateway's plan to convert a decommissioned oil pipeline to carry natural gas through the county. G2 is expected to complete its work in 14 weeks.

The Houston firm will use publicly available data from the pipeline operators to determine "the most likely release of material and the most likely cause," according to Tim Boyce, director of the county's Office of Emergency Management.

"This process we realized today, I know it took longer than some members of the community would have liked, but we're in a new era of bipartisanship in the county," said Kevin Madden, one of two Democrats on the council, who has pushed for the risk assessment since taking office in January. "And for this council to be able to work through the emotions that surfaced from time to time and let cooler heads prevail is commendable."

Madden's statement referenced the gridlock the issue caused among the board. Initially, some of his colleagues doubted the necessity of the study, delaying a vote for several weeks. In March, a request for proposals was finally issued, but it faced additional hurdles.

Some members felt Quest Consultants, the only company that responded with a bid, was biased, given a similar study it had completed for the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety. Other concerns were raised about the scope of the proposed risk assessment, which initially was set to study every pipeline in the county.

In the meantime, public outcry for a better understanding of the risks presented by Mariner East 2 continued to mount. The pipeline, part of Sunoco Logistic's $5.1 billion effort to transport natural gas liquids to the Marcus Hook refinery, has been plagued by reports of leaks, sinkholes, and other setbacks. Despite this, the company says the pipeline is near completion and is in compliance with all federal and state safety regulations.

"This was a great way for us to come together for the needs of the our county," said Councilwoman Colleen Morrone, a Republican who initially supported the idea of a risk assessment, but expressed some doubts about Quest. "I see it as an opportunity for us to work together for the best interests of our residents. Politics don't get into it at all. It's about doing the right thing."

Last month, the council agreed to the terms of a new proposal, which solicited 12 bids, according to Boyce. Some of the responding companies were suggested by the public, others by members of council, Boyce said. A few came from Boyce and colleagues "cold calling" certain firms, one of which was G2.

Boyce said the company was the only one of the bidders that hadn't "formed their own ideas" about the pipeline risks, and understood the demand from county residents for more information on the pipelines running, sometimes literally, through their backyards.

G2's efforts will run parallel to an independent risk assessment recently commissioned by DelChesco United for Pipeline Safety, a coalition of community groups in Delaware and Chester Counties. Last week, the group formally reached its funding goal for the two-county study being handled by Quest.

Eric Friedman, a spokesperson for DelChesco United, said Wednesday that he appreciated the council's efforts to finalize its study.

"We're glad they decided to move ahead," Friedman said. "Nobody's going to guarantee that this company won't have further leaks. And these materials are dangerous, especially to an area as densely populated as Delaware County."Marijuana plants in the vegetative phase grow at the Compassionate Care Foundation medical marijuana dispensary and cutivation center in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Read more

New Jersey's attorney general immediately halted all municipal prosecutions of marijuana offenses Tuesday, effectively placing on hold thousands of cases across the state that involve possession of the drug while lawmakers continue to debate its legalization.

In a memo sent to county and municipal prosecutors, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that he will issue a directive by the end of next month on whether to decriminalize marijuana, ending criminal penalties for simple possession of small amounts.

In Philadelphia and more than 50 other cities and towns across the country, possession of marijuana leads to small civil fines or community service. In New Jersey, an estimated 25,000 people are arrested each year on minor marijuana charges, which can carry a maximum six-month jail term and up to $1,000 in fines.

Grewal's decision was prompted by a memo that Jacob Hudnut, Jersey City's chief municipal prosecutor, sent to his municipal prosecutors on Thursday ordering the decriminalization of all marijuana-related cases in the city. Hudnut, who was recently sworn into office, said he did this in the interest of social justice, noting that three times as many minorities are prosecuted for marijuana possession than whites.

On Friday, Grewal reprimanded Hudnut, saying Hudnut had no legal authority to call on prosecutors to refrain from pursuing criminal action in marijuana cases. Grewal's reaction came as a surprise, because Gov. Murphy has said he would support legalization and has frequently cited the social injustice of marijuana enforcement.

But on Tuesday, Grewal ordered prosecutors to delay all municipal marijuana cases until at least Sept. 4 so that he could take a closer look at decriminalization. He said that he will include Hudnut and representatives of law enforcement and civil rights groups in discussions to potentially revise guidelines.

Hudnut said adjourning the cases was a bold decision. "I am excited to work with him in the weeks ahead on this issue," he said.

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D., Union), who has advocated for marijuana legalization for a decade, was buoyed by Grewal's action.

"This will give us added momentum," he said, adding that he plans to reintroduce a legalization bill, weeks after he was unable to win support for a bill that would allow recreational marijuana for adults and also make improvements to the medical marijuana program.

"We're all of the mindset we should get this done before the summer ends, and I appreciate the Murphy administration and the attorney general's efforts to back our efforts. Sometimes legislators need a kick to get this done," said Scutari, a municipal prosecutor in Linden.

Murphy campaigned last year on a pledge to support legalization, but so far no bills that would allow recreational marijuana for adults have made it to the floor. Some lawmakers favor outright legalization, while others say they would prefer decriminalization or making marijuana possession a civil offense subject to fines and community service.

Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, said he is pleased that the attorney general is "saying, 'Let's hit the pause button,' on marijuana enforcement" because the racial justice issue must be addressed. "It makes sense that prosecutors across the state should do whatever they can to undo the harms of marijuana enforcement," he said.

Evan Nison, executive director of the pro-legalization group NORML NJ, said Grewal's decision will "at least delay and may completely prevent thousands of unfair prosecutions. These offenses can follow people around for their entire lives and make it more difficult to get a job or college education."

One year ago, Camden City Council also considered taking up a decriminalization policy similar to Jersey City's. At the time, Councilman Angel Fuentes said that he would call for an ad hoc study and that he hoped the change could be made in the fall. But without explanation, the matter was dropped a few weeks later and never came up for a vote.

In Philadelphia, a decriminalization bill was adopted in 2014. It calls for a $25 fine for possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana, or just over an ounce. In some circumstances, the law allows police officers to use discretion and to impose criminal citations that could lead to up to 30 days in jail and $500 in fines.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner now declines charges for anyone arrested with a small amount, 30 grams or less, intended for personal use, according to a statement provided Tuesday by his office. His office still prosecutes cases of marijuana possession with intent to distribute.

Staff writer Sam Wood contributed to this article.U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta with Donald Trump at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre during the presidential campaign. Read more

President Trump will headline a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta in Wilkes-Barre next week, the second half of a one-two political punch after Vice President Pence stumped Monday in Philadelphia to boost Barletta's bid for the Senate.

Trump's campaign website on Wednesday started accepting reservations for next Thursday's rally at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza. Trump held campaign rallies at the 10,000-seat stadium in April and October 2016 for his presidential campaign.

The event was first reported by the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader and the Scranton Times-Tribune.

Barletta, who served as cochairman of Trump's 2016 campaign in Pennsylvania, has said it was Trump in June 2017 who first urged him to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey's bid for a third term.

He said Wednesday that "next Thursday, voters will hear the truth from President Trump that Bob Casey obstructing tax cuts and blocking well-qualified judicial nominees is hurting Pennsylvania workers and families."

The presidential visit comes as Republicans in both Pennsylvania and Washington have grown pessimistic about Barletta's challenge  dismayed by his soft fund-raising and a concern that he is relying too heavily on trying to re-create Trump's coalition. Public polls have shown Casey with a double-digit lead in the race, and the Democrat has a massive edge in campaign funds, with nearly $10 million on hand as of June 30, compared with about $1.56 million for the challenger.

Barletta is hoping the president's personal involvement and outside political spending groups will help carry his campaign, but those kind of organizations will want to see progress before investing in the race. And conservative groups have many options to choose from, since 10 Democratic senators are seeking reelection in states Trump won.

When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in May listed nine races that he thought would be key to control of the Senate, Pennsylvania's contest wasn't among them.

"Lou Barletta has not yet shown this is a viable pickup opportunity, but perhaps President Trump's visit can help jump-start that effort," said a Washington Republican operative tracking Senate races.

Trump has a fondness for Pennsylvania and Barletta. He went to college at the University of Pennsylvania, scored one of his biggest Election Day upsets in the Keystone State, and has continued to return regularly for campaign events and rallies. Barletta, a longtime hard-liner on illegal immigration, was one of the first elected Republicans to support Trump, and the president values personal loyalty.

Though his support is thin in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Trump remains popular in many other parts of the state. Republicans believe the polls will narrow if they can boost Barletta's name recognition, particularly in places like the Northeast. Luzerne County, where Wilkes-Barre sits, was one of three statewide that turned red for the 2016 election and helped Republicans end a three-decade drought here in presidential elections.

Trump appeared at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Oct. 10, 2016, three days after his presidential campaign was rocked by the public release of the Access Hollywood video that included graphic audio of the candidate boasting about sexually assaulting women and getting away with it because of his fame. Barletta initially called Trump's comments "indefensible, demeaning, and totally inappropriate."

But he was on stage with the candidate at the October rally, as Trump railed about illegal immigration, trade deals, taxes, the media, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump also praised the group WikiLeaks, which had just released emails describing a speech Clinton had delivered to Wall Street banks.A Salem County, N.J., woman checking on a bird feeder in her yard reportedly ended up strangling a rabid fox that attacked and bit her repeatedly.

NJ.com reported that the fox pounced on Tammy DuBois, 52, of Pittsgrove Township, on July 18 and bit her leg. DuBois told the news site that she tried to flee into her house, but the fox pursued her.

When it bit her again as she tried to get through the back door, she grabbed the animal, holding its snout shut with her left hand and strangling it with her right until it went limp.

"I couldn't do anything else to get it away from me," DuBois told NJ.com. "I don't like to kill anything."

County health officials said results came back Monday confirming the fox had rabies.

DuBois began a two-week rabies treatment immediately after the attack.FILE  In this July 10, 2018, file photo, Hillary Namba, left, of Seattle, holds a wire coat hanger and a sign that reads "We Won't Go Back," as she takes part in a protest in Seattle against President Donald Trump and his choice of federal appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his second nominee to the Supreme Court. If a Supreme Court majority shaped by President Donald Trump overturns or weakens the right to abortion, the fight over its legalization could return to the states. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File) Read more

For many on the left, Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court has prompted worried speculation, especially in relation to reproductive health and rights. To understand what's at stake in his potential rise to the court, though, we need look no further than the recent trends of the institution he'd be joining, which are in alignment with the Trump administration's own priorities. The Supreme Court's recent public sector union and crisis pregnancy center decisions, with President Trump's appointee Justice Neil M. Gorsuch voting with the majority, will bolster the conservative assault on women's health and economic security that has been underway for the past decade.

These recent developments will embolden conservative lawmakers to step up their attacks on both reproductive and labor rights, with detrimental impact on women and their families.

Economic inequality in the United States is greater today than at any time since the Great Depression, and that inequality is deeply radicalized and gendered. White women remain trapped in a wage gap where they are paid 82 percent of what their white male counterparts are paid, with black and Hispanic women being paid 65 and 58 percent, respectively. Disparities persist even in occupations that are dominated by women, and more than eight times as many women as men work in jobs that pay poverty-level wages. Many of these jobs do not offer benefits, such as paid sick leave, paid family leave or employer-based health insurance, and the race and gender wealth gap leaves women without the resources to pay for benefits not provided by their employers or the safety net. The economic insecurity that results is a pathway for a host of negative health outcomes for women and their children.

>> READ MORE: I fought to preserve abortion rights in 1992. Here's why I'm terrified about the Supreme Court now | Perspective

Just as economic insecurity affects health, so too, does reproductive health access affect economic opportunities. Women report that using contraception allows them to get and keep a job, to advance their careers, to further their education, and take care of themselves financially. Indeed, the increased use of the birth control pill has been credited with women's increased labor market participation. The Turnaway Study  a research endeavor that aims to understand the effect of unintended pregnancy on women's lives  illustrates the revolving door between poverty and a lack of reproductive health access. Forty percent of the study's participants had incomes below the poverty line. Forty percent of participants reported that they sought out abortion services because they couldn't afford to have children.

Unions, and especially those in the public sector, have been important sites for combating race and gender inequities, and the Janus v. AFSCME decision strikes at their heart by cementing more than a decade of GOP attacks on labor rights. The fallout will negatively affect all workers but will especially hurt women, who make up the majority of public sector workers and who are disproportionately women of color.

>>READ MORE: How the Supreme Court ruling on labor unions in Janus vs. AFSCME could upend politics in Pennsylvania

There's certainly more where that came from. As women's already precarious work becomes even more insecure, their need for publicly funded health services will increase. The problem, of course, is that conservatives also have reproductive rights  and health access more broadly  squarely in their crosshairs.

In the past seven years, states have enacted 401 abortion restrictions, accounting for more than a third of all such restrictions put in place in the 45 years since Roe v. Wade was decided.

We are witnessing the willful destruction of the institutions and infrastructure that are key to the health and well-being of women and families and also to that of our economy and our democracy. This is what the war on women  which is also a war on workers  looks like.

Andrea Flynn is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. This first appeared in the Washington Post.The Beacon of HOPE is now offering a new community-based program to help local veterans navigate the VA system for possible benefits.

if youre a veteran who seeks help with understanding eligibility, guidance and assistance, you should contact the Pine Island Beacon of HOPE, executive director Betsy Haesemeyer said. You can set up a meeting with a Veteran Service officer and a local volunteer veteran to help you navigate the sometimes cumbersome system.

Some of the most common requests for medical help are regarding eligibility for and enrollment in VA Healthcare. If you are eligible for VA healthcare, you can benefit in several ways. Benefits include direct mental health care or access to VA resources and services that can support the care that you need in the community. The first step is finding out if you are eligible. From there you can find additional resources that can support the care that is provided (for example, group treatments, specialty care, housing resources).

Generally, if someone has served 24 consecutive months of active duty service in the military and separated under conditions other than dishonorable, they may be eligible. In some cases eligibility may be based on income.

Determining the eligibility status and possible co-payment information for a veteran can be complicated. Because of this we strongly encourage you to apply for enrollment even if you feel you may not be eligible.

We can help any honorably discharged service man or woman, Haesemeyer said. The most often sought after benefit in the VA is for hearing loss. It is also the number one benefit paid to veterans by our government.

Hearing loss is a direct result of being in the proverbial right place at the wrong time without hearing protection. This is, in many cases, a wartime disability, and is now a prominent factor in complicating a veterans daily quality of life.

Testing, treatment and hearing aids can be supplied by the VA if you have an in-service related problem, Haesemeyer said. Getting tested by an audiologist is a start.

Please schedule an appointment with the Beacon of HOPE for the morning of Friday, Aug. 3, between 9 and 11:30 a.m., to discuss any benefits for which you may be eligible. Call 239-283-5123.As of the beginning of the month, the Harry Chapin Food Bank has eliminated their shared maintenance fees for their partner agencies, which includes Lehigh Community Services.

Harry Chapin Food Bank President and CEO Richard LeBer said when the Food Bank began 35 years ago, a co-op of local organizations helping others decided to chip money into a pot to get food for everyone to share, as well as share expenses of gas.

This past year, the Harry Chapin Food Bank distributed 24 million pounds of food to 170 of their partner agencies. All of those partner agencies have been chipping money into the pot since the beginning.

We decided this year to eliminate what remained of it, he said.

That elimination is about $400,000 out of Harry Chapin Food Banks $8 million annual budget.

Its a significant amount of money. Many years ago it was almost all the money we raised, LeBer said.

With the elimination of shared maintenance fees, he hopes it will make it easier on all of their partner agencies, especially the smaller organizations.

We have big organizations (such as) St. Vincent de Paul and many small organizations that are small pantries in a neighborhood church, he said. The small organizations do not have a large staff, or fundraisers, but rather the pastor allows the panty to get what is needed from the collection plate during mass. I dont want that to limit how many they can help.

Lehigh Community Services Execu-tive Director Carolyn Peplow said the Harry Chapin Food Bank has really helped their agencies immensely.

Lehigh Community Services receives 90 percent of their food supply from the Harry Chapin Food Bank. The other 10 percent comes from the Post Office food drive, community donations and food drives.

Without having to pay the shared costs, she said it has allowed them to put that money towards purchasing other types of food for the pantry. Those foods include such items as jelly, spaghetti, rice, beans, canned green beans, corn, mixed vegetables and canned meats, all items purchased frequently.

We are able to keep our pantry stocked even better than before, she said. We do our best with what weve got. The more money we have to put in the pantry the better.

Currently, Peplow said their food pantry is in pretty good shape.

The Harry Chapin Food Bank has a long term goal of growing twice as big as they are now.

We think that is how much food it is going to take to adequately feed everyone hungry in Southwest Florida, LeBer said, adding that eliminating the maintenance fee will hopefully make it easier for all of our member organizations to step up and try to feed as many people as they can.

Partner agencies of the Harry Chapin Food Bank have to go through an application process establishing that they are providing food to feed the hungry. They have to be a registered nonprofit, have a proper facility to store food, which is checked to ensure the food is properly and safely handled.

In terms of how much food they receive is determined on how many people they serve.

We try to figure out how many families an organization is serving and set limits based on that, LeBer said. We share as fairly as we can.Dr. Marcus Sherry and Riverside Dental Associates have welcomed Dr. Eric Stevens to the Pine Island practice. Since graduating dental school, Stevens has been practicing dentistry for four years in his fathers Bonita Springs practice. He has been seeing patients on the island since July 9.

Stevens grew up in Bonita Springs and after graduating Barron Collier High School attended the University of Miami as an undergraduate and then University of Louisville Dental School.

I didnt plan on becoming a dentist, Stevens said. My fathers a dentist and I saw how hard my father worked and I just didnt think it was something I wanted to do. When I was in college I was interested in a number of things and my dad suggested I work in his office for a while. Thats when I became interested in dentistry.

After graduating dental school, while working at his fathers Bonita Springs office, he completed a one-year implant continuum (intensive implant training) with his father.

Stevens interest took a turn towards TemporoMandibular Joint and occlusion known as TMJ. Occlusion is a fancy term for the way your teeth fit together. Almost 1/3 of the population suffers from TMJ occlusion. Stevens spent 3 months with Dr. Piper in St. Petersburg. The Piper Clinic is recognized internationally as one of the leading surgical clinics treating TMJ joint disorders.

TMJ is the foundation for the mouth and a simple bump on the chin can cause the jaw to shift, Stevens said. When this occurs it causes shifting and can cause problems with the teeth. It causes wearing and cracking and can create a number of problems: migraine pain patterns, fibromyalgia and neuropathic pain. Modern dentistry needs to focus more on TMJ.

Once Stevens completed his work at the Piper Clinic, he returned to southwest Florida looking for work.

I was looking for two things, Stevens said. Ive always wanted to live and work on an Old Florida island and I was looking for more independence. Its like it was destiny when Dr. Sherry called me about working on Pine Island.

Stevens started working at Riverside Dental on July 9 and on Friday, July 13, rented a place to live on Pine Island.

In the short time Ive been here, Ive noticed the people are very nice, Stevens said. I believe in treating people with what they need. I practice dentistry from a medical perspective trying to reduce problems with the mouth to improve their lives. This is my dream job and Id love to be a positive influence here for the long time to come.

The Riverside Dental office is at 10484 Stringfellow Road, Suite 3, St James City, FL 33956. Call 239-449-8744To the editor:

Thank you for your detailed response and your awareness of the history of the issue. Understanding the questionable decisions in the past 80 years, it is incumbent on all of Florida lawmakers and government entities to take more decisive actions to reverse these past decisions and return the natural flows into the Everglades.

It appears to those who are not in the loop that Big Sugar and the Army Corps of Engineers have been the culprits from the beginning, and that Big Sugar money is still the driving force. I also understand that Big Sugar provides jobs and income to a large number of voting Floridians so to remain in office you need to walk a fine line. But I also believe that your responsibility is to serve the better good. Southwest Florida waters have been a tourist mecca and a major fishing and shellfish industry helping to support the entire state. The damages being done to Florida waters can be greater than a major Gulf oil disaster.

Several years ago the Florida voters approved the funding for repairs to the Lake O problems including dike repairs and other solutions. As far as I can determine that voter authorized funding was never spent for the purposes intended, and I would appreciate your input on what happened to that voter allocated money.

I am naive to the machinations of todays politics to get elected and then to remain in office, but I do pride myself with having good common sense. In the past decade this countrys governance is becoming more and more non-sensical, and I pity coming generations trying to provide for the destiny promised to all citizens of the greatest country in the world; but I guess nothing lasts forever. Sad.

Ronald Lueth

BokeeliaTo the editor:

Area newspapers, TV stations, radio broadcasts and more to date are providing excellent coverage of the algae/green slime situation in our local waterways. Yet we fail to see positive action taking place at any level  state, county, city, municipality, Corps of Engineers  lots of chatter, no proven results.

Americas petrochemical industry maintains vast arsenals of components  skimmers, sweepers, vacuums, sludge removers, massive suction pumps, pontoons and more may be made accessible for cleaning up major oil spills, subsea leakage, ship damage, offshore platform catastrophes, biohazard accidents. More than likely this type equipment, properly utilized, could vacate or redirect all or most of the algae and waterborne contaminants from our waterways. Have our news media or elected officials reached out to our giant petrochemical companies for assistance or professional advice?

Given COEs decades of engineering prowess in similar circumstances one presumes a pro-active stance would be taken, rather than waiting for puppet strings to be pulled from more concerned levels. What is the feasibility of placing filters, pumps, pollution screens at Lake Os discharge sluices to create a collection process of algae before they reach our rivers, lakes, and streams?

Experiments are being conducted today to consider algae, a natural occurrence, as a possible substitute for hyrdo-carbons as a viable fuel source. Rather than pumping algae into ground wells or land fills, where it may stagnate and pollute our ground water, Americas creativity may find positive, beneficial uses as agricultural sprays, soil enrichment, pesticide, insecticide, agricultural nutrition  sprayed over hundreds of undeveloped or under-developed land on both side of Hwy 82 between Daniels Parkway and Hwy 29 algae may become wild bird feed.

Just a few thoughts from the deep end.

Tom Dolan

Cape CoralKAMPALA  The United Nations Development Programme has handed over vehicles, motorcycles and computers to Uganda to help various stakeholders mitigate the effects of climate change.

Uganda is one of the countries cooperating under the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that is making a renewed commitment to fight environmental

degradation.

According to the Ministry of Water and Environment, Uganda is one of the countries cooperating under the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and that it has made a renewed commitment to fighting environmental degradation.

And this commitment is flying under the wings of COP 16s Green Climate Fund through which participating countries receive support for activities designed to mitigate the effects of climate change, particularly in the developing world, said Mr Chebet Maikut, a Commissioner at the Climate Change Department, Ministry of Water and Environment.

The UNDP on July 18 handed over four vehicles, 20 motorcycles and computers to help in implementation of climate change adaption mitigation efforts and to strengthen the resilience of rural populations and agricultural production systems in the country.

Mr Sam Cheptoris, the Water and Environment minister said at the handover ceremony in Luzira that the project, Building resilient communities and ecosystems through restoration of wetlands and associated catchments in Uganda marks a milestone.

As we receive this equipment and tools to facilitate institutions and local governments participating in the implementation of the project and to ensure timely delivery of project outputs, National Wetlands Restoration Programme is one of the flagship programmes initiated by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and promoted during Ugandas presidency of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, he said.

It is hoped that US $100 million will be raised to undertake countrywide restoration of degraded wetlands over a period of 15 to 20 years and the this project is at the highest level which is why the government is investing $18.1 million alongside UNDPs $2 million, added Mr Cheptoris.

And given that wetlands are highly vulnerable to changes in the quantity and quality of their water supply, climate change will substantially alter ecologically important attributes of wetlands. The loss of wetlands could worsen the impact of climate change as temperatures continue to rise.

Ms Rosa Malango, UNDP country representative, said the project is very important as it is responding to commitments made in the Paris agreement on climate change.

She said the well-being of humanity, the environment, and the functioning of the worlds economy ultimately depend upon the responsible management of the planets natural resources.

At the Paris climate conference (COP21) in December 2015, 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal and the agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2C.

Paris agreement commitments included; -a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average

temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels;- to aim to limit the increase to 1.5C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change;- on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries;- to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science.

RelatedThe FBI affidavit in support of Butinas arrest notes the Russian Federations goal was to reduce Americans trust and confidence in democratic processes, degrade democratization efforts, weaken U.S. partnerships with allies, undermine U.S. and UK sanctions, and foment anti-U.S. political views.

An American political operative in the Butina complaint referred to as U.S. Person 1 (media sources report the operative fits the description of conservative North Dakotan Paul Erickson), arranged Butinas introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics, including giving her access to the conservative National Prayer Breakfast and an organization promoting gun rights (elsewhere identified as the NRA). The prayer event and gun-rights group were to be a communication channel for friendship and dialogue with supporters of Political Party 1 and its candidates.

According to Radio Free Europe, the Russian Foreign Ministry chief Sergei Lavrov phoned his U.S. counterpart Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Saturday and urged him to release Butina because the FBI had fabricated charges. Butina is being held without bail as a flight risk.

Meantime, a dozen Russian military officers named in a different indictment the previous week for gaining unauthorized access into the computers of U.S. persons and entities involved in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are out of reach for questioning. Putin conditionally offered to let Special Counsel Robert Mueller observe their interrogation in Moscow but Mueller has been characteristically silent on that option.

While detailing the spear-phishing and cyber theft leading to public release of then-candidate Clintons and the Democratic National Committees campaign documents in October 2016, the indictment refers to a U.S. Person...in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump who communicated with the conspirators. Roger Stone, a longtime associate of Donald Trump and advisor to his campaign, has acknowledged in press reports that he was in contact with the anonymous Russian Twitter persona Guccifer 2.0 near the time Democratic Party documents were publicly released, but Stone insists that connection provides no evidence of collaboration or collusion. (The indictment also notes the Guccifer 2.0 persona received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for the U.S. Congress and indeed sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidates opponent.)

Last February, Special Counsel Mueller issued yet another indictment detailing the St. Petersburg, Russia-based Internet Research Agencys work to conduct "information warfare against the United States of America."

We know the St. Petersburg online operation staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. personssolicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates, and contacted unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.to coordinate political activities. We also know Internet Research operations infiltrated American social media platforms for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016 by supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump.

Thirteen high-level employees of the so-called troll factory were charged in the February indictment, but they reside in Russia safe from prosecution. There is no extradition treaty between the United States and Russia.

The very first U.S. Person to face criminal charges associated with his communications with Russian interests was George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old foreign policy aide for the Trump campaign. He was also the first Trump for President 2016 staffer to plead guilty last year for lying to the FBI about it.

His pleading, filed last October, stated that after becoming an adviser to the campaign, Papadopoulos met a female Russian national in March 2016. He was told the woman was a relative of...Vladimir Putin with connections to senior Russian government officials, and subsequently advised a Trump campaign supervisor and members of the campaign's foreign policy team of his discussions "to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump." The campaign supervisor replied, "Great work."

These indictments do not and should not be expected to answer a number of important questions, such as: did the Russian efforts lead to the election of their preferred candidate? Did the efforts effectively influence American voters choices? Those mysteries linger. Congress has authority to unravel them, but so far unknowns remain.

The available documentation presents a cliffhanger narrative, but the real-world script of intrigue and espionage has yet to arrive at a satisfying denouement. Perhaps a few unnamed U.S. persons referred to in the legal documents will eventually be compelled to testify publicly. More chapters are soon to be written in this thriller.Some Royal Canadian Mounted Police dogs are being retired or sold to other agencies because they have been trained to search out marijuana. Pot will soon be legal in Canada. (Photo: Screen shot from CBC video)

The upcoming legalization of marijuana in Canada is putting a group of police dogs out of work.

Fourteen Royal Canadian Mounted Police interdiction dogs, which are used primarily to search for drugs, are being retired or sold to other forces because their training to sniff marijuana could cause problems for Crown prosecutors once pot is no longer illegal to possess.

"Our interdiction dogs are often used to form grounds to continue searching or to arrest people," said Staff Sgt. Gary Creed, a senior trainer with the RCMP's police dog service in Innisfail, Alberta., where all of the national police force's dogs are trained. If they are trained to sniff marijuana, some of their evidence would not be admissible in court, he told the CBC.Unprecedented EU decision prevents Hungary from losing more funds

It is important to recognise that the European Commission has taken an unprecedented measure to limit financial losses for member states and without these Hungary would also lose much more than 24% beyond 2020 compared to the current fiscal cycle, the Director-General, of the European Commissions Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy told Portfolio in an exclusive interview. Marc Lemaitre reminded that Hungary received the largest funding from the EU as a share of its GDP in both this cycle and the one before that, so the restriction will be particularly favourable for it. The DG denied that the new budget proposal of the Commission is aimed at penalising Hungary due to its stance in the migration crisis. He acknowledged, however, that they uncovered so serious problems in Hungarian programmes co-financed by the EU that the transfer of EU funds has been frozen for now, and that Hungarian authorities have been sent several written warnings to clarify the disputes as soon as possible.

The Commission certainly rejects outright notions of the punishment. The Commission is there to make the best possible proposals for the EU and for all Member States and this is what has driven us. The circumstances for these proposals were extremely challenging. The first reason is the foreseen exit of the UK from the EU, which means that the EU will lose 15% of its GDP, so the EU will be significantly poorer than before. And therefore its a challenge to adjust the budget to this new reality and to ask for more contribution from all other Member States to the budget. Its not so easy.The second significant difficulty we faced was that there were obvious new needs on the horizon. And you mentioned our migration policy, and how well ore badly we are equipped for that. The Commission is working day and night for a consolidated common approach by all Member States on the difficult question on how to handle the migration pressure, how to handle the asylum applications in the future, and I think we have make recently significant progress on that.

We are not saying that one Member State is right and other Member State is wrong on migration, because its a difficult question and we are working towards a consensus.

In our proposals we believe that we have developed the dimensions which are anyway consensual. We are enforcing the control of the external borders in collective means. We are supporting Member States in their efforts to return illegal migrants, the ones whose asylum claims, for instance, have been refused. And we are also trying to make a difference about the root causes of the migratory pressures by deploying investments in the regions of origin of the migration flows, which comes from Africa and Asia as well. So this is why we have proposed to reinforce the EU Budged needs into these different areas. So certainly there cannot be a suggestion that the Commission would be pursuing some kind of punishment or revenge for Member States positions.Before our official proposal we had to see to what extent we can ask for more money from the Member States following Brexit, and to cover the new needs, and to what extent we also needed to ask some budgetary efforts from some present spending areas. The Commissions proposal is a bit of middle way between the two. That means that we wanted to demonstrate that some of the needs we would cover by some restraint, especially in the Common Agriculture Policy and in Cohesion Policy. And this meant very specifically for the Cohesion Policy, that we would cut. The Cohesion Policy budget would be cut off in real terms by 10%. If we look it in nominal terms, the cut is much less.Normally, Cohesion envelops are determined on the basis of GDP per head and this continues in the future. And Hungary had made progress as compared to seven years ago in terms of GDP per head. Hungary came closer to the EU average. There are some Member States which were hit in a dramatic way by the economic crises. Greece is the most prominent example, but Spain and Italy have lost very significantly as compared to the EU average as well. So we had to account these quite different developments, while trying not to have too brutal evolution from the present budget to the next budget. This is why we have proposed a safety net meaning that no Member State could lose more than 24% money in real terms between one budgetary period and the next.

It is important to recognise that this is an unprecedented measure because in the past Member States between one budget period and the next could lose much more than 24%, and were losing much more.

For example, Greece in the present period lost more than 30% as compared to the previous period. So we believe that we made the best from a very difficult situation.

When it comes to Hungary, I think its also important to look at the track record in the past in Cohesion Policy. Hungary was both for 2007-2013 period and for 2014-2020 period the No. 1. in terms of support as the share of its GDP among all Member States , among poorer Member States as well.

In 2007-2013 based on the definition which back then included rural development Hungary received 4% of its GDP in support. In the present period Hungary will receive more than 2.6% of its GDP under Cohesion Policy and that is again the highest percentage of all member States. And compared to this highest percentage of all Member States we would determine this maximum of minus 24%.So even in the coming period this would result Hungary would receive again more in terms of support than the normal new-rule we would propose.

For a country like Hungary - and this would apply to Poland - the normal support level would be 1.55%, and Hungary - according to our rules, thanks to this protective measure - will still benefit form a support of 1.7%, so around 10 percent more than Poland.

We have proposed to go back to the principle which existed in the 2007-2013 period which means the poorer you are the more you should receive, at least as the share of GDP. Of course, you might receive less in Euros per head. In the present period this principle didnt exist. It was flat 2.35% for everyone, but Hungary and three Baltic States were exceptions for higher rates.

So we want to return to that logic of fairness and these five percent steps are in fact an inspiration for what existed already in the 2007-2013 period.

But obviously you have to look at your budgetary needs altogether. We have an overall 10% cut in the budget, and we wanted to ensure that the overall outcome for each and every Member States could be seen as fair.Obviously, the notion of fairness depends on who is looking at the proposal but we see very objectively that our proposal is a very fair one overall. So we proposed these three categories for capping: one below 60%, one between 60% and 65% and one above 65% for all other Member States.

It is the first time in fact that a country like Latvia receives more than Hungary as a share of its GDP. Until now it always received less even though it was much poorer than Hungary.

So we see an element of justice in our proposal and certainly not an element of punishment or some way to treat one country or another in an incorrect way.Budgetary negotiations are just starting now and its extremely hard to predict the outcome of the very difficult negotiations. One determinant of the outcome for each and every Member State for Cohesion Policy and for Common Agricultural Policy will be obviously the overall level of the budget, and we know that many Member States dont want to contribute that much. Consequently, there will be pressure to reduce the budget overall compared to the Commissions proposals.I think there will be an overall strong defence by Member States of the Common Agricultural Policy and of Cohesion Policy but ultimately we will have to see what the negotiations bring including the balance between Member States in different areas.

All I can say is that Hungary improved its position at least under Cohesion Policy as compared to the original Commissions proposal. So its not something which hasnt been seen in the past. But I certainly think that at this point its impossible to anticipate the dynamics and the ultimate outcome of the negotiations.

The Commission is responsible for protecting the EU budget and for the sound financial management of the budget, but we came to the conclusion that there is an element that is missing from our toolbox. Many EU funds are managed by a shared management system, which means that the Member States national authorities do a lot of the individual decisions, e.g. what projects are selected and which receive funding, we need to ensure that if a potential beneficiary or a beneficiary feels that its rights have not been respected, than that beneficiary can benefit from a well-functioning national judiciary system where that party will be able to plea its case.

So we see this as a fundamental ingredient for a well-functioning system of ensuring the sound financial management of the EU budget.

And this is exactly what we are proposing that the Commission could suspend the Funds if the independence of the judiciary is put into question and not just by the Commission but also by international bodies, such as the Venice Commission, that analyse the situation.Yes, exactly. It would not just be the Commissions view. The decision would be based on a number of converging elements that give rise to reasonable doubts that the independence of the judiciary system is not guaranteed. In such cases, the Commission would propose to suspend budgetary flows to certain Member States. As youve mentioned this would be subject to control by the Council, so the Member States themselves who could overrule the Commission if they are not convinced by the evidence provided.

This procedure should not be mixed up with the Treaty procedure which is under the Article 7 of the Treaty to protect the fundamental values of the EU.

This is a much broader Article and it is unrelated to the EU budget. This Article 7 procedure is ongoing in the case of Poland around issues of rule of law.Cohesion Policy is largely managed by the Member States themselves through Managing Authorities which they set up, and Member States have control systems, and Audit Authority, etc. The Commission itself needs to make sure that all the rules are respected, so it also checks the Audit Authority. Sometimes it is the latter that finds weaknesses in the management system, while other times it is the Commission that discovers weaknesses which were not spotted by the national system overall.

Hungarys case is not something extraordinary, it happens in other Member States too. We have, however, uncovered problems with several Operational Programmes in Hungary.

Some are related to public procurements, while others are related to the way the projects are selected outside public procurement. So in the normal way we address these issues.We have now sent out so-called warning letters to the Hungarian authorities indicating to them the weaknesses we found and what should be done in order to remedy theses weaknesses. Today we agreed with the Hungarian authorities that we should intensify the analysis and the dialogue about these issues.

We started working on these today [Marc Lemaitre was in Budapest last week, the interview was conducted on 17 July] in order to resolve these questions as soon as possible, because its true that when we are faced with such a situation we cannot proceed with the reimbursements as we would normally do.

So its a common interest to try to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this





Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found herePerus Minister of Interior, Mauro Medina, and the National Superintendent of Migrations, Eduardo Sevilla Echevarria, were on hand at Limas Jorge Chavez International Airport (LIM) last week for a ceremony to officially announce the expansion of the Vision-Box Automated Immigration Control Platform for arriving and departing passengers. Also present for the ceremony were Juan Jose Salmon, La Paz Airport CEO, and IATA representative Ramon Jimenez, both of whom closely collaborated with the project.

Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones (Migration Authority) of Peru, Lima Airport and Vision-Box have closely cooperated in redesigning the airports border management and passenger clearance model for the past few years. The first stage of the new border control solution was completed in 2016 with the deployment of an integrated monitoring and control platform. It included opening six innovative Automated Border Control eGates offering robust self-service biometric and ePassport checks.

Since then, passengers have benefited from an enhanced experience, clearing the border in just a few seconds. Proving its performance in increasing passenger processing capacity, the solution has now expanded to accommodate the pronounced growth of passenger numbers.

Since last week, passengers have an additional twelve eGates to self-process through the border. Peruvian authorities, in turn, have now achieved an even greater capacity to process passengers with an extended agile, efficient, and secure immigration infrastructure, in line with modern international biometric identification standards and passenger experience trends.

Peruvian officials stated at the opening ceremony that this important milestone in border digital transformation will assist airport authorities to meet the needs of the 30 million annual passengers projected to pass through LIM by 2021, and with the expected influx of thousands of daily travelers for the 2019 Pan-American Games.

Interior Minister Medina touted the systems effective security measures:

This modern platform, with its active connection to national police, Interpol, and judiciary databases, forms a powerful information network free from manipulation risks.

In fact, the system currently includes the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), with Passenger Name Record (PNR) information to be added soon. This combination will form a potent security suite that puts LIM on the forefront of the worlds most advanced airports.

This project is a significant achievement for Vision-Box and its commitment to build better seamless travel and identification frameworks serving governments, citizens and communities in Latin America that now includes Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, among others.

https://www.vision-box.com/pressroom/press-releases/vision-box-expands-automated-immigration-control-platform-at-lima-airport-in-peruWelcome Guest! You Are Here:Invest In Violence Intervention This week U.S. Senator Charles Schumer advocated for at least $5 billion in funding for Community-based Violence Intervention (CVI) programs to be included in the...

Pumpkin Month At Queens Farm! October is Pumpkin Month at Queens Farm and there were pumpkins as far as the eye could see at the Queens County Farm Museums Pumpkin...SWEDEN: The first two of eight Transmontana electric locomotives which Green Cargo has ordered from Romanian manufacturer Softronic were formally handed over at the freight operators Eskilstuna depot on July 24.Russian ombudsman calls for inspection of penal colonies after recent torture scandal

 RIA Novosti

10:59 25/07/2018

MOSCOW, July 25 (RAPSI)  Russian Human Rights ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova has called for a complex inspection of national penal colonies following the public outrage sparked by a video showing torture of an inmate.

According to the press-service of the Human Rights commissioner, appeals against ill-treatment of inmates in penitentiary facilities alongside reports made by regional ombudsmen filed within last 2 years should be examined.

On Tuesday, it was reported that a criminal case over the beating and torture of an inmate in the Yarsolavl Penal Colony One was transferred to the main directorate of the Investigative Committee. Six members of the colonys staff were detained on suspicion of abuse of office with use of violence.

Earlier, Novaya Gazeta newspaper published a video showing an inmate being tortured by some persons wearing grey camouflage uniforms. Later, it was revealed that the victim in the video had been identified as Yevgeny Makarov, who is serving his term in the Yaroslavl penal colony. The video was filmed by one of the staff members according to lawyers representing Makarov.

Irina Biryukova, the inmates attorney, who handed the footage to the media, has asked the Federal Chamber of Attorneys to ensure her safety because of threats from the prison staff. She also announced that she was leaving Russia.

The Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov visited the penal colony on July 23. The Council filed its reports to the Investigative Committee and the General Prosecutors Office.Practical Pistol Training combining these three words can take you down a variety of paths. With the influx of social media gun celebrities, competition shooting, former military and law enforcement trainers and the overall growth of shooting communities, some key practical pistol skills are overlooked.

The definition of the word Practical is: of, relating to, or manifested in practice or action; not theoretical or ideal.

Right off the bat, we are looking at situations that can, and are more likely to, actually happen. If we now put that definition in the context of Pistol Training, several popular drills and practices come immediately to mind as not being very practical. The odds of getting in a gunfight against ten static enemy combatants while wearing your plate carrier and warbelt are relatively slim as a civilian. In fact, I bet that you have a higher chance of being struck by lightning twice in a row while riding a unicycle.

Then why are so many people training like this? Well, its largely for the same reasons people play video games, watch action movies, etc. A lot of people are living out a fantasy on the range.

Of course, there are instances where this type of training makes sense. Military, Law Enforcement, even Prepared citizens, may have the need or want, to train with the gear they may use in a worst-case scenario. But, a lot of people tend to do it just because it looks cool. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on gear to be proficient with a pistol.

Looking at situations surrounding a violent encounter where you need to use a firearm for defense, we can see a pattern of likely scenarios. According to a study conducted by the FBI from 2008- 2012, justifiable homicides involving private citizens taking someones life during the commission of a felony in self-defense is a much smaller number than you might imagine. 2012 saw the highest number of the 5 years with 310 justifiable homicides, and of those, 193 used a pistol.

With an estimated 100 million gun owners in the United States and just over 300 million people, we can easily see that the odds of being involved in a justifiable homicide are extremely low. Even looking at the cases of self-defense involving a handgun in which no one was killed, even though statistics on this topic vary dramatically, the odds are still very low. That doesnt mean we shouldnt be prepared to use a firearm, but being practical is very important.

Taking this type of information and adapting training to become as proficient as possible in the elements that have a higher likelihood of occurring in real life, means that less time is wasted on fantasy scenarios. And a higher PRACTICAL skill level can be reached.

Here are some critical elements of likely scenarios that you may want to consider adding to your training regime if you havent already:

DRAW FROM CONCEALMENT

Drawing your pistol when it is covered by clothing, in a bag, or however you personally choose to carry it, is a complex skill and requires a lot of practice. I know it takes longer to run drills from concealment than having a warbelt, OWB holster, etc. But the fact is, thats probably not how you carry every day. You dont want to be messing around with your shirt for the first time when you need to draw your pistol quickly.

A common technique for getting clothes out of the way is to extend the thumb of the firing hand, place it under the article of clothing, and use a sweeping motion to ensure that the will not interfere with drawing the pistol. The most important part is that you practice both dry and live fire, with the type of clothing that you wear.

DRAW STROKE

Draw Stroke is the term used to describe the path that the pistol takes from the holster to being fired. This can vary tremendously based on the person and their training, but efficiency and accuracy are key. There are very few people in this world that are fast enough to outdraw someone who pulls a gun on them. So instead of working on your quick draw, you may want to consider how you are going to react if you hear gunfire in the building youre in and work towards drawing the exact same way every time.

Dry fire practice is a great way to increase your draw skills, but remember to focus on consistency and not worry about breaking speed records right off the bat. Speed comes with practice.

TRAIN ONE HANDED

Shooting and pistol manipulation with one hand is largely overlooked by most civilians. Surprisingly, a vast amount of people who have had to use a pistol to defend themselves have had to do so with one hand. This is because the world is still going on around us. There is a multitude of things that may require your nondominant hand to be used for something other than supporting your pistol. For instance, carrying my 8-month-old daughter, opening a door, applying a tourniquet, etc. Practice drawing as well, using only your firing hand to clear clothing.

MALFUNCTION DRILLS

I've seen countless people have their first malfunction and stop to stare at the pistol in disbelief. Its not an if but when when it comes to malfunctions. Guns are mechanical devices, and any mechanical device has the potential to fail. If this occurs when you need it to keep you alive, then fixing the issue should be instinctive because of your training.

Because you cannot predict what type of malfunction will occur, becoming familiar with the different types and how to correct them is an invaluable skill. One of the best ways Ive found to replicate malfunctions is to have a friend load your magazines and randomly place expended brass of the same caliber throughout your magazines. Unlike the popular Snap Caps that are commonly used for this type of training, brass will not produce the same type of malfunction every time. This will make you react to what is happening instead of being able to smoothly fix the problem.

TRAIN TO REACT

Too often people train using drills where they shoot 1 or 2 rounds, perform a magazine change, then fire another round. These drills have some merit, but they arent practical for defensive shooting. Practicing the same drill over and over again makes you better at that drill that's it. Repetitive practice improves speed, and you're able to complete the drill without much thought. But, in a real-life situation, you don't get a reset. You react to what you're given and make the best split-second decision possible. Instead of practicing to beat a buzzer, practice seeing what your sights are doing and what you see on the target.

Having several targets of different colors and a friend to call out which one to engage, loading a random number of rounds in each magazine instead of a set number, or scenario training in which you are distracted or must make a decision or perform an action unrelated to shooting, are all excellent ways to force yourself to react. Your imagination is your only limitation when it comes to this, but dont let it run wild. Practical is the goal. Shot timers are excellent tools for improving speed, but if we condition ourselves to only react to sounds, we may find that we are very slow when reacting to visual or other stimuli. Real life gunfights never start with a beep.

This list is not all-inclusive, but it should get you thinking about ways to towards practical pistol training. But if staying alive in a situation is more important to you than winning a competition or getting likes on social media, then it becomes to take a hard look at whether or not your training is practical. Once you are proficient in these skills, go ahead and progress to more technical things.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Justin Vititoe has over 20 years firearms and survival experience, 17 serving as an Infantryman in the United States Army, including 4 combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. More than half of his career has revolved around sniper skill sets, to include; three years instructing at the U.S. Army Sniper School and Long Range Marksman course and two combat tours as a sniper team and section leader. Justin is an expert in marksmanship, survival, surveillance, counter- surveillance, and almost any hand-held weapon. He has instructed military personnel and civilians all over the world in survival, marksmanship, camouflage, tracking, small unit tactics, planning, land navigation and numerous other skills. Justin was also a participant of season 2 of Historys ALONE series, where he survived by himself with minimal gear for 35 days.

Justin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alonejustinv/Nissan' exit from the light commercial vehicle joint venture has helped speed up consolidation and growth for the company

In recent years, commercial vehicle maker Ashok Leyland has demonstrated its knack for turning adversity into advantage more than once.

After it broke up with Japanese partner Nissan in 2016 over management and funding differences, it showed it could not just survive but thrive alone.

The company bought out Nissans stake in the light commercial vehicle joint venture and turned the loss-making subsidiary around within a year, riding on just two products.

Then, it scripted a similar story at Hinduja Foundries.

Investors baulked at the plans to merge its affiliate Hinduja Foundries with itself, as it ran counter to the companys long-running strategy of exiting loss-making ventures.

Today, however, Hinduja Foundries is well on the way to recovery, turning EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation) positive in 2017-18.

Ashok Leyland itself is on a growth path as well.

On Tuesday, it announced a three-fold jump in standalone net profit at Rs 370 crore in the first quarter ended 30 June, beating analysts expectations.

With its strategy reaping success, the company now wants to merge the LCV business with itself.

Ashok Leyland believes the move will help it to widen market reach and product segments.

While Ashok Leyland continues to do well in the domestic truck business, it is keen to have a stronger footing in other areas such as defence and after-market so that it can reduce its reliance on the truck business, where the demand is highly cyclical in nature.

So how did the company turn the two subsidiaries around?

Ashok Leylands CFO Gopal Mahadevan credits Hinduja Foundries recent growth to the focus on product quality, reduced rejection levels, operation costs and overheads, besides some action on the pricing and dealership front.

For Ashok Leyland, Hinduja Foundries is the beating heart of its entire operations, supplying over 90 per cent of its demand for cylinder blocks.

The company could come to a standstill if this supply is disrupted. Mahadevan says the merger of Hinduja Foundries has also resulted in financial synergies.

The company will get tax benefit from Hinduja Foundriess accumulated loss of around Rs 1,100 crore when the merger is complete.

Ashok Leyland deployed a multi-pronged strategy at Hinduja Foundries that saw rejection levels reduce from double digits to single digit and productivity increase by 15 per cent to 97,126 million tonnes.

According to Ashok Leylands 2017-18 annual report, it has repaid long-term loans of Rs 1,055 crore from internal generation (Rs 662 crore by Ashok Leyland and Rs 393 crore by the Foundries division).

The focus in future, says Mahadevan, will not be on adding new customers, but rather on putting the foundry business on an even firmer ground.

Last year, Ashok Leylands capital expenditure was at Rs 625 crore, of which around Rs 55 crore was spent on the foundry business.

It is a similar strategy of driving synergies that Ashok Leyland wants to implement at the LCV business as well.

An overhaul of the LCV business strategy was undertaken after Nissan exited the venture in 2016.

Nitin Seth, president-LCV, Ashok Leyland, says the decision-making was streamlined, the business structure was rationalised, and new variants were launched on the existing platform.

In addition to launching a variant of its best-selling truck DOST+, the company also brought back Partner and MiTR, and the efforts have had visible impact on sales.

It increased 37 per cent to 43,441 units in 2017-18 from 31,770 units in 2016-17, garnering 16 per cent share of the market.

Whats noteworthy is that Ashok Leyland has only three products to take on 38 products currently vying for customer attention in the market.

Ashok Leyland Vehicles Limited, formerly known as Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles, reported a profit of Rs 134 crore in 2017-18. In the previous year it had run up a loss of Rs 2.49 crore.

Other subsidiaries from the Nissan partnership, too, are on the growth path. Ashley Powertrain, earlier know as Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain, which is engaged in making power train, reported a profit of Rs 85.9 lakh in 2017-18, as against Rs 1500,000 in 2016-17.

Turnover rose to Rs 361 crore from Rs 65.98 crore during the period.

Similarly, Ashok Leyland Technologies, earlier known as Nissan Ashok Leyland Technologies, recorded a profit of Rs 20.96 crore in 2017-18, against Rs 4.09 crore in 2016-17, while its turnover rose to Rs 60.09 crore from Rs 15.32 crore.

Post acquisition, the LCV business has been able to generate cash and total debt in the LCV subsidiaries has reduced from Rs 510 crore in March 2015 to Rs 177 crore in March 2018.

The profitability of the business has also been significantly enhanced and the gross margins are on a par, if not better, than the group's other businesses.

Mahadevan says the goal is to take the share of the LCV unit in overall business to 12-14 per cent from 7 per cent currently in five years.

Big plans are already afoot to meet this target.

Seth says Ashok Leyland has set aside around Rs 400 crore to introduce five to six new products and build a new platform for the LCV business in the next 12 to 24 months.

The new products will come with both a right-hand drive and a left-hand drive variant for local and international markets.

Ashok Leylands products costs around five per cent more compared to competition, but it gives 18 per cent extra value and this is what makes Dost stand out in the crowd, says Seth.

Analysts have given their thumbs-up to the strategy.

We expect the companys total sales (domestic+export) from LCV segment to rise to Rs 55,000 units in FY20E from 31,774 units in FY17.

"LCV sales in FY18 stood at Rs 38,000 units, a growth of 34 per cent over FY17, say analysts from NirmalBang.

With the investments into the LCV business already amortised, analysts also expect the merger to result in tax benefits.

However, Ashok Leyland may face short-term headwinds because of the foundry business.

The merger of Hinduja Foundries has impacted the companys EBIDTA margin, which has reflected in its profit and loss account.

"The impact is expected to continue for another four to five quarters, till the foundries business turns profitable, says another analyst.

Photograph: PTI PhotoMumbai Monorail was to be built in two phases - Phase I of 8.93 km and Phase II of 11.20 km.

The first phase ran operations for around three years before services were abruptly halted, owing to a fire incident last year.

The second phase now stands completed, but is lying closed.

India's first monorail, which came up in Mumbai at Rs 2,500 crore, has been lying abandoned and unused since last year - a fact that may dampen the enthusiasm for experimenting with different forms of rail-based urban transport system.

Industry experts observe that though such advanced transit systems have great utility, Indian cities may not be ready for them.

In a latest, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is reportedly planning to re-open part of the monorail even as it awaits an operator and rakes for the entire stretch.

"As a priority, Indian cities need metros, which carry large volumes, and then buses, minibuses, taxis and monorails serve as last-mile connectivity. In that context, monorails are useful where roads are narrower," said Manish Agarwal, partner and leader capital project & infrastructure, PwC India.

MMRDA opened the first phase of Mumbai Monorail for public use in February 2014. With this, India also witnessed announcements of such projects for various cities, including Chennai, Patna and Kolkata. However, so far not much work has happened on the ground.

The Mumbai project was awarded to Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Scomi Engineering, in a joint venture and on a contract basis, where the bidder was to construct and operate the project for the first three years.

L&T maintains it has completed the required three-year clause by operating the first phase.

The MMRDA, however, thinks otherwise. The network is also awaiting new rakes to be supplied through Scomi Engineering, which was earlier facing financial difficulties, but is now expected to deliver the required rakes.

In its first three years of operations, the Mumbai monorail project suffered poor ridership, as the first phase did not connect busy transit points.

"The issue is whenever the network is small and concentrated, one is not able to connect the relevant points of the city, keeping the ridership low. There will be some impetus as the network grows, but until important areas are connected, ridership will be an issue," said Shubham Jain, vice-president and group head for corporate ratings, ICRA.

This could be one of the reasons why the project failed to garner a private interest for its operations and maintenance contract.

After failing to find bids in multiple rounds, the MMRDA's latest tender attempt received interest from Reliance Infrastructure and IL&FS Group in June.

A decision on the final bidder is yet to be announced. Repeated attempts to reach out to MMRDA spokesperson drew a blank.

Agarwal from PwC said ridership on Mumbai Monorail could improve over time, once the planned Mumbai Trans Harbour link starts its operations.

This could also be holding back other monorail projects in the country, where the main transit system is yet to be built.

Vishwas Udgirkar, partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, pointed out that most city transit systems posed various limitations in attracting private sector.

These projects face challenges such as lack of city planning and land acquisition issues. They are also capital-intensive. Unless there is significant financial support, it is difficult to attract a private sector interest to urban transportation, he added.

A grave question also looms on whether India is ready for such advanced transit systems.

Why can we not first develop simpler systems such as a rapid bus system and improve our roads? Maybe we do not necessarily need fancy projects, which need testing in the Indian context before they prove to be useful, said an infrastructure consultant.

Mumbai Monorail was to be built in two phases - Phase I of 8.93 km and Phase II of 11.20 km.

The first phase ran operations for around three years before services were abruptly halted, owing to a fire incident last year. The second phase now stands completed, but is lying closed.

In India, and also worldwide, transport systems such as metros and monorail have seen limited success in private sector investment.

In India, for instance, Reliance Infra had to withdraw from the Delhi Airport metro line, while in Mumbai the same company is fighting a legal battle to raise fares for Mumbai Metro One.

The capacity of systems like monorail is less, but the cost remains high. State could rather spend on buses, flyovers and roads, said another industry expert.

In addition to the funding, advanced projects such as SkyBus have faced several other concerns.

The SkyBus project was shelved after a mishap during its trial run on a 1.6 km-test track in Maharashtra. However, agencies continue to announce plans.

News reports in July suggested the Chandigarh city administration was considering a monorail system though it has decided to give its earlier metro plan a miss.

Nitin Gadkari, minister for road transport & highways, plans to run a metrino system - a driverless pod taxi, between Delhis Dhaula Kuan and Haryanas Manesar.

The consultant earlier quoted in the story said, The minister can give a push, but the final execution still is with the urban development ministry and city authorities.

The private sector lends support to projects which appear viable at the planning stage, yet instances of companies quitting them at the operation stage also keep increasing.

Photograph: Sahil Salvi'The generals couldn't care less about political corruption, being complicit themselves.'

'Coup d'etats are out of fashion.'

'Their only desire is backroom control,' says Sunil Sethi.

Past edicts by founding fathers of nations have a way of hovering sepulchre-like over the present.

Here is Muhammad Ali Jinnah writing to his friend, M A H Ispahani, the Pakistani diplomat and legislator, in 1945: 'Corruption is a curse... amongst Muslims, especially the so-called educated and intelligentsia. Unfortunately, it is this class that is selfish and morally and intellectually corrupt. No doubt this disease is common, but amongst this particular class of Muslims it is rampant.'

Mr Jinnah, a self-made and wealthy barrister, with a client list that was the envy of his peers, knew a thing or two about jiggery-pokery in high places.

As a shrewd investor, he possessed a portfolio of valuable properties, and even shares in Air India, but was never touched by the taint of corruption.

When he left India in 1947 he sold his impressive mansion in Lutyens's Delhi for exactly what he had paid for it (Rs 300,000) nine years earlier.

He had no wish to profit personally from a country he was leaving behind.

The Quaid-e-Azam's probity was not inherited by his political descendants in the Land of the Pure.

Most leaders in Pakistan, civilian or military, have enriched themselves and their families beyond measure though the affliction is hardly unique in the subcontinent.

The arrest of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Sharif by an anti-corruption court (after they had already been barred from holding office) is utterly specious on election-eve, like cornering a big fish with a leaky net.

Moreover, catching him on his family's holding of some posh flats in London is small change.

As a billionaire-politician and brains behind the rise of Ittefaq Industries steel conglomerate, Nawaz Sharif's net assets grew from Rs 166 million in 2011 to over Rs 1 billion in 2017. The novelist Mohammed Hanif put it like this: 'If Sharif wasn't from the dominant province Punjab, where most of the army elite comes from, if he didn't represent the trading and business classes of Punjab, he would still be begging forgiveness for his sins in Saudi.'

The three-time prime minister's suzerainty of Punjab (where his younger brother Shehbaz was chief minister from 2013 till two months ago) and spread of money power are part of the bone that sticks in the gullet of Pakistan's military establishment.

The big bit is the challenge he poses to the supremacy of the generals.

Deconstructed, the history of Nawaz Sharif is his fluctuating relations with the overlords of the Rawalpindi cantonment.

If one general, Zia-ul Haq, made Mr Sharif's fortune, his successors -- mainly Pervez Musharraf -- hated him. If Musharraf had his way after taking over in the coup d'etat of 1999, he would have sent him to the gallows like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

King Fahd of Saudi Arabia saved Nawaz Sharif by negotiating his exile to Jeddah. But the army neither forgot nor forgave.

His stay in Saudi was roughly co-terminus with that of Benazir Bhutto's exile in Dubai on corruption charges including a vast overseas estate amassed by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who, in his get-rich-quick days, was nicknamed 'Mr Cent Per Cent'.

If Benazir hadn't been assassinated in late 2007 Mr Sharif's PML-N party would have been in the doldrums.

But such are the quirks of politics that, from being relegated to the doghouse, he became top dog again.

And now? Can Nawaz Sharif return and whip up a sympathy vote to wrest proxy power again in the election on July 25?

In October 2016, Cyril Almeida, the Dawn columnist, broke the story of a showdown between Mr Sharif's government and the generals (over anti-terrorist operations) that proved a flashpoint in the escalating confrontation.

Both sides denounced the scoop as fabricated though Dawn stoutly defended his account as 'verified, cross-checked and fact-checked'. For a time Mr Almeida was gated from leaving the country.

Mr Almeida is a soft-spoken Rhodes Scholar and lawyer-turned-journalist. When I met him on his first visit to Goa in 2012 (from where his family had migrated to Karachi many decades earlier) he remarked how much he enjoyed listening to Konkani and regretted his inability to speak it.

Cyril Almeida's writing is notable for its prescient, trenchantly expressed analysis and ironic style. Two weeks ago in Dawn he argued how Nawaz Sharif will find the odds stacked against him: 'The Supreme Court (is) packed with future chief justices as far as the eye can see who have already declared Nawaz disqualified for life; a military high command that is virtually hardwired to regard him with suspicion or loathing; and a parliament and federal government stuffed with his political enemies.'

Pakistan's democracy is about to be put to the test.

The generals couldn't care less about political corruption, being complicit themselves.

Coup d'etats are out of fashion -- not only problematic to execute with the unstoppable use of social media but infected with the nasty odour of international opprobrium.

Their only desire is backroom control.

Imran Khan, anyone?Is North Korea really dismantling its nuclear programme?

Rajaram Panda explains the many challenges to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.

IMAGE: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a nuclear device, September 3, 2017. Photograph: KCNA via Reuters

Did United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo succeed when he made his third trip to Pyongyang on July 7 since April and his first since the Singapore summit on June 12 to talk on denuclearisation issue?

As was rumoured, Kim Yong Chol, the senior ruling party official and North Korea's former intelligence chief, remained in office unchanged.

This meant, the voices of hardliners remained undiluted.

After North Korea, Pompeo also travelled to Japan, Vietnam, Abu Dhabi and Brussels, where he joined US President Donald J Trump at the NATO summit.

The visit was to seek clarity on how Pyongyang was planning to dismantle its nuclear programme, besides how to recover the remains of US troops missing from the Korean War.

Though Pompeo spent a night in Pyongyang this time -- unlike his previous two visits which were one-day affairs -- no details were provided what transpired during the Pompeo-Chol talks.

It also remained unclear for some time if Pompeo met Kim Jong Un as was expected, but later confirmed that he did not.

As the Trump administration's top diplomat, Pompeo conveyed that the US was committed to reaching a deal under which North Korea would denuclearise and realise economic benefits in return.

Both wished to clarify 'things', but neither gave any explanation what exactly needed to be clarified, though it is not difficult to guess that there was lack of clarity on how 'denuclearisation' would be interpreted to the satisfaction of both.

For the US, unless the three basic goals -- complete denuclearisation of North Korea, security assurances, and the repatriation of the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War -- are met, no further progress could be expected.

This leaves subject to interpretation if it was a departure from its earlier demand that an agreement must cover 'complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation' or CVID.

The stopping of the use of this phrase gave rise to speculation that the US had begun to dial back its demands.

Despite the three-hour Pompeo-Chol talks and over dinner, no clarity emerged if Kim Jong Un would honour his promise made in Singapore and translate into concrete action.

US President Donald J Trump with Kim Jong Un before their meeting at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore, June 12, 2018. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Besides the nuclear issue, Pyongyang is yet to return the remains of US troops killed during the 1950-1953 Korean War already identified, though Kim committed their 'immediate repatriation' at the Singapore summit on June 12.

North Korea also does not rejoice if the issue of human rights violation is ever raised.

Trump faced criticism from human rights activists for not raising this issue in Singapore.

Just before Pompeo's visit, North Korea's State-run Uriminzokkiri Web site warned Washington not to provoke the North with an 'anachronistic human rights racket' when diplomatic attempts are being pursued to improve ties.

The issue gets further complicated as no framework or guideposts were agreed at in Singapore for working toward 'complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula'.

Trump administration officials deflected criticism of the agreement and described it as the first step in a negotiated process to persuade Kim to give up his nuclear weapons.

But if the analyses by researchers and the media suggesting that North Korea is continuing efforts to increase fuel production, build more missile launchers and expand a key rocket-engine manufacturing facility is correct, then Kim's real intentions could be doubted.

North Korea's real intentions could possibly be to test Trump's patience and extract maximum concessions, which is why there are no clear sign of any progress on denuclearisation.

Be that as it may, the truism is that the Trump administration's plan to dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles in a year is both unrealistic and risky.

It was not desirable on Trump's part to make the claim soon after the Singapore summit that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat when there was plenty of ambiguity in the joint statement.

Trump was expected to be circumspect keeping in mind that his predecessors have failed to achieve denuclearisation of North Korea in the past quarter century since Pyongyang began producing fissile material for bombs.

Further, Pompeo's claim that North Korea would take 'major' nuclear disarmament steps within the next two years before the end of Trump's first term in January 2021 was bullish given Pyongyang's history of evasion and reluctance to allow verification of disarmament agreements.

Even Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton went further and asserted that the denuclearisation process can be completed within a year so that Pyongyang can win sanctions relief and receive aid from Japan and South Korea.

Such assertions made in undue haste smacked of diplomatic immaturity.

That Trump, Pompeo and Bolton believed Kim without the North Korean leader being transparent meant that they were naive and open to being deceived.

In a secretive regime such as North Korea it is extremely difficult to know exactly the number of nuclear warheads in its possession as well as the existence of undisclosed facilities used to manufacture fissile material for nuclear bombs.

Since North Korea and the US have not yet negotiated the terms under which Pyongyang would relinquish its weapons, Pyongyang shall surely seek leverage in discussions.

 Denuclearisation is no simple task. There is no precedent for a country that has openly tested nuclear weapons and developed a nuclear arsenal and infrastructure as substantial as the one in North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. 

If the US overlooks this possibility, it could be to North Korea's advantage.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association rightly observed: 'Denuclearisation is no simple task. There is no precedent for a country that has openly tested nuclear weapons and developed a nuclear arsenal and infrastructure as substantial as the one in North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.'

David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security suggests the US get Kim to disclose a complete list of all his nuclear program sites and materials, including uranium and plutonium.

Albright further suggests that Trump and Kim should decide whether to move the nuclear weapons out of North Korea to dismantle them or do it inside the country.

Japan's offer to send experts to dismantle and money should be accepted.

According to nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, a leading expert on North Korea's nuclear programme, the magnitude of dismantling its weapons of mass destruction programmes that encompass dozens of sites is so huge that it could be necessary to have a 10-year roadmap, based on the belief that Pyongyang will not give up its weapons and weapons programme until its security is guaranteed.

North Korea's stockpile is estimated to include as many as 60 nuclear devices.

Hasty promises or written agreements are not enough to achieve the denuclearisation goal.

Kim could still conceal parts of his stockpile and production facilities, intending to preserve a nuclear weapon capability that he views as the ultimate guarantor of his dynasty's survival.

There is no sign that Kim has changed his view that possessing a nuclear capability is his best insurance.

The root of the confusion is that Trump and Kim did not establish an agreed definition of 'denuclearisation'.

Trump seemed to have accepted North Korea's position that a disarmament process encompasses the entire Korean Peninsula, which would include the US military presence in South Korea and the region, not just North Korea's assets.

In a fast-track move, Trump agreed to Pyongyang's long time demand, and that of its chief ally China, to stop long-standing joint military drills with South Korea.

IMAGE: Kim at one of North Korea's nuclear facilities. Photograph: Reuters

Since the annual drills are meant to shore up protection for the South against possible aggression from the North, America's two Asian allies in the region -- South Korea and Japan -- were shocked as neither was consulted before such an announcement was made, though it pleased both Pyongyang and Beijing.

There were more confusion in store and Pompeo had a tough time answering probing questions from the media.

The joint statement signed in Singapore called for 'complete' denuclearisation, but did not include two other elements of the US' long-standing demand that the process also be 'verifiable' and 'irreversible'.

Later, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha clarified that North Korea had balked at a written pledge for 'complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation' for historical reasons, but stressed that the goal remained the same whether that exact phrase was used.

Complicating the confusion was the mixed signals sent out by Trump, Pompeo and Bolton by their contradictory statements.

The optimism demonstrated by the US in portraying the talks as productive despite obvious setbacks was surprising.

No wonder, Pompeo parroted his boss' views in stating that his July 7 talks in Pyongyang with Kim Yong Chol were 'productive', though he admitted that 'there's still more work to be done' to be dealt with by working groups from both sides.

But the fact is such groups had been a feature of past nuclear agreements with the North and had served only to postpone their eventual failure.

So, forming small working groups means another stalling, ensnaring, tactic to keep the momentum and create the illusion of cooperation.

What transpired subsequently was that the definition on the word 'denuclearisation' remained inconclusive.

Hours after Pompeo left Pyongyang after calling his talks 'productive', North Korea accused the Trump administration of pushing a 'unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearisation' and called it 'deeply regrettable'.

While refusing to divulge details of his talks with Chol, Pompeo expressed in private his doubts that Kim would ever give up his nuclear weapons.

By blasting Pompeo's claim of talks being 'productive' as 'regrettable' and its 'unilateral, gangster-like demands', Pyongyang was contending that the US was demanding everything and offering nothing, and warned of 'a dangerous phase' that could "rattle our willingness for denuclearisation".

The tough talk might have been part of a negotiating strategy and for domestic consumption to appear strong in the face of a long-time bitter foe.

Several analysts have endorsed, and with some convincing reasons, Kim's claim of being winner in dealings with Trump, including Kim's recognition on the world stage as a statesman worthy of a sit-down with an American president.

Trump's sudden acquiescence to the North's demands for the US to end joint military drills with exercises is cited as another proof of equality.

Such vitriolic diatribesm -- this time one-sided though -- show how complex the negotiation with North Korea is. It could take years, if not decades.

This throws up the real challenge for Pompeo to decipher what Kim's real intentions could be. If his doubts are real, one is back to square one and the world ought to learn to live with a nuclear North Korea.

Seen from this productive, Pompeo's trip have been the least 'productive' as claimed by him.

Pompeo was rather circumspect not to provoke North Korea by reacting to the 'gangster-like' remark saying that 'the world is a gangster' because the same demands are part of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

The confusion stemmed from the manner in which negotiations took place between Trump and Kim in Singapore with no one present but interpreters.

There were no note-takers or aides, something unheard of in the world of high-stakes diplomacy.

No one really knows what Trump might have said or promised Kim, leaving analysts to interpret by following post-summit statements by both sides.

From North Korea, Pompeo flew to Tokyo where he met with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea, Taro Kono and Kang Kyung-wha.

He admitted that denuclearisation would be difficult and that much works remains to be done.

Not to spoil the momentum, he shrugged off Pyongyang's 'gangster' rebuke and harshly critical statement, while citing progress.

But he reiterated the US stand that there shall be no sanctions relief until Kim's pledge to get rid of his nuclear weapons is met.

But it was clear that North's statement undermined hopes for a quick deal and raised questions about Kim's intentions to give up ever his nuclear arsenals.

Though Kono pledged to stand 'hand in hand' with Pompeo on nuclear talks 'to the end', and Kang Kyung-wha shared Pompeo's assurance that the shared defence posture would remain 'ironclad' and 'watertight', despite the cancellation of military exercises, the worry in Tokyo and Seoul does not seem to be eased a bit.

From Tokyo Pompeo travelled to Hanoi where he made some meaningful statements which North Korea could consider to be in its interests.

He appealed to North Korea's leaders to follow Vietnam's path in overcoming past hostilities with the US.

He called on Kim to replicate Vietnam's 'miracle' of economic growth by improving ties with the US, vowing that America keeps its promises with former foes.

Since the normalisation of relations between the US and Vietnam in 1995, Vietnam has prospered.

This has been possible despite decades of conflict and mistrust between the two former adversaries.

There are reasons why North Korea cannot replicate Vietnam's path for the nation's economic growth and people's prosperity.

If the US continues pursuing a 'maximum pressure campaign' of economic and diplomatic isolation and keeps sanctions in place, it could only harden Pyongyang's stance.

UN and US sanctions delete 90 per cent of North Korea's export revenues.

But so long as China continues to remain as North Korea's principal ally and backer despite maintaining cosmetic sanctions in place, the geo-strategic matrix could continue to weigh in the North's favour.

Therefore, Pyongyang remains unperturbed.

Amidst all these development, Japan reported on June 29 a suspected ship-to-ship transfer of goods in the waters around North Korea.

This is believed to be the eighth instance in 2018 itself.

Such clandestine dealings keep the North's economy afloat.

The denuclearisation issue is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.

Dr Rajaram Panda, former Senior Fellow at the IDSA, was until recently ICCR Chair Professor at Reitaku University, Japan.'Let us not, with all our drive for modernisation of the armed forces, send the forces to battle this time with second rung leadership,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).

IMAGE: An Indian Army brigadier and a People's Liberation Army senior colonel take the salute in the Daulat Beg Oldie area along the Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Kindly note that the image has been published only for representational purposes.

A bolt from the blue hit serving officers and veterans of the armed forces alike, with lead articles in many newspapers announcing the possibility of the government abolishing the rank of brigadiers in the Indian Army.

According to these articles, officers are to be promoted directly from the rank of colonels to the rank of major generals.

We have in the past done something similar though that move had lesser TNT packed in it. It was abolishing the rank of 2nd lieutenant. It was to put the army's hierarchical model more at par and in alignment with the civil services model.

The military model had 10 ranks in the upward mobility ladder staring with the 2nd lieutenant at the bottom to a general on top. The civil services have a six rung model.

It was done to ease equations of pay and allowances between the civil services and the armed forces. The exercise has not led to any benefit for easing of functional equations.

Though such a proposal being offered or accepted by the army is unimaginable, it is necessary to provide some insight into the ramifications of such a move.

The Indian armed forces could in the foreseeable future operate in a multi-national environment even if it comes to hot war.

The fact that we participate in exercises with the forces of many countries is to enhance inter-operability with these countries.

There are, of course, a few that are undertaken for cosmetic reasons, without any joint military capability building being an objective, like exercises with the Chinese.

But, even in such odd cases, intero-perability may be required for combined deployment in anti-terror or anti-piracy operations.

Imagine a scenario where each country deploys a brigade and the Indian brigade is commanded by a major general. His compatriot will necessarily be more involved with protocol issues rather than running a smooth exercise. He will also detest the experience.

We will possibly reach a stage where the equation between the two commanders is a hugely mixed experience and we end up as laughing stock.

Unlike every other rank, a brigadier is associated with the command of a brigade by virtue of the nomenclature of the rank.

To put a general in command of a brigade would be anathema for anybody steeped in military culture.

I am not aware of such practices in any regular army. Yes, in certain insurgent organisations, ranks are bestowed on individuals, and a brigadier could be commanding 20 to 30 men perhaps. But that is about the limit, done more to satiate the dreams and fantasies of an insurgent.

The Chinese army does not have the rank of brigadier. However, they have a colonel and a senior colonel as a formalised rank structure to cater for officers commanding a brigade.

More than a decade back, we thought of addressing the lack of promotional prospects in the army by upgrading the command of a battalion to a colonel from a lieutenant colonel.

In spite of the fact that certain countries do have colonels commanding units; if not all battalions at least some nominated types of units or specialised ones; it has led to problems.

Protocol issues are faced by our unit commanders when they interact with their compatriots on UN Missions. However, that is an act already done and dusted. It can't be reversed because of the huge impact it will have on officers holding that rank who today number the maximum as tenants of any single rank.

Such exercises as doing away with a particular rank in the armed forces are driven inevitably by the need to align military ranks with grades in the civil hierarchy.

The Indian Army has nine ranks today against the six such designations in civil services.

It is a fact that the civil services have explosively increased their top echelons while the Indian Army's pyramidal structure has not allowed either faster promotions or vacancies at the top echelons in tune with the civil services.

The answer to the problem cannot be found by abolishing a few ranks from the military hierarchy. It would be more sensible to club a few army ranks as equivalent to a designation in the civil ranks.

The basic factor that needs to drive the argument is of service officers being equated at par with IAS and IFS officers for pay, perks and equivalence based on years of service.

Officers with the same length of service need to be equated as equals subject to having cleared promotion boards in their own streams.

Thus, if a joint secretary reaches that designation in 18 years, colonels on clearing their promotion boards in the 18th year would be at par with a joint secretary.

A brigadier and a major general would also be at par with a joint secretary, depending upon the criterion of years of service required to be an additional secretary.

Should a major general have more service than additional secretaries of the government, he should be equated with an additional secretary for all purposes.

It would be prudent to mention here that we have brought down the status of service officers, repeatedly. In the recent past there was an attempt to equate them with Class B services too.

The Indian Army is hugely officer driven. It is quite unlike the American army that relies heavily on its sergeants.

Our army's performance will depend heavily on the quality of young men and women who join the officers corps.

In 1962 we sent an army without adequate weapons to fight the Chinese and lost a war.

Let us not, with all our drive for modernisation of the armed forces, send the forces to battle this time with second rung leadership.

Technology ingress in the battlefield in any case calls for the best boys to be inducted into the armed forces to optimise combat potential.

There is an old saying: 'An army is as good as its officers are.''What will work is not fear of the law, but of real and swift prosecution under the law.'

'That can now be a possibility thanks to the Supreme Court judgment.'

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Last week, the Supreme Court, hearing petitions filed by social activists Tehseen Poonawala and Tushar Gandhi, recommended that a new law be drafted against lynching.

Supreme Court Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, founder of the Human Rights Law Network, while welcoming the judgment, explains to Jyoti Punwani why he feels that a new law is unnecessary.

Do you think a new law against lynching is necessary?

No new law is necessary for the reason that provisions of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) already exist.

There are very comprehensive provisions not only on hate speech, but also on hate action.

So it's not as if lynchings are going on uncontrolled because of an absence of adequate laws. It's because of total non-implementation of existing laws.

The reason for this is that people enjoying political power and religious leaders have engaged fearlessly in hate speech.

A new law would have a limited impact.

Perhaps, instead of the punishments currently prescribed in the IPC for hate speech and hate action, there would be stricter punishments.

But lynching is murder, and the punishment for murder is life imprisonment. You can't have anything more than that.

The judgment says that a new law would 'instil a sense of fear for law amongst the people'.

What will work is not fear of the law, but of real and swift prosecution under the law. That can now be a possibility thanks to this judgment.

The Court has directed the appointment of a nodal officer in each state to head a special task force which will monitor individuals involved in spreading hate speech and fake news.

The nodal officer will have to take immediate action under criminal law -- file an FIR and register an offence. The judgment is very good in this respect.

So if Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ajay Singh Bisht) or any chief minister or any sadhvi says, for example, that those who eat beef should be hanged, the authorities will have to register an FIR.

I can foresee Adityanath becoming careful of what he says now.

But who will force the nodal officer to take action?

The courts will do it.

If anyone witnesses a hate crime, they will not have to go and file an FIR themselves, something they may be afraid of doing.

The onus is not on the individual now to prosecute.

For instance, if anyone sees Adityanath make a hate speech, the person can make copies of the speech and send it to the nodal officer, saying, here is his speech, please implement the law on hate speech.

If the officer does not act, one can go to the high court to force him to do so.

This judgment is an improvement on the existing situation. Because contempt of court can be invoked if the nodal officer does not take action. Also, the judgment prescribes disciplinary action against officers who fail to act.

So you think this judgment will help?

It seems to me that the court is hesitant to give an all-out judgment.

But despite the hesitancy, its language is quite firm. It will surely slow down the attacks.

But nothing will happen on its own. It will depend on us to make the judgment effective.

It requires people to be alert.

Everywhere these politicians go, somebody must take videos of what they say. These videos can then be used to prosecute. It will require people to file cases in court.

We will have to be specially alert in BJP-ruled states.

I think we will have to rely on our own resources everywhere.

The Congress is not going to file cases against the BJP.

It will be up to civil society to take steps against lynching and hate speech.

But the judgment helps in taking these steps. Therefore, I say it may not be an ideal judgment, but it is a good judgment. It is a first step.

Recently bail was granted to eight persons convicted for a Jharkhand lynching, because though the video of the incident showed them as part of the mob, they were not shown assaulting the victim. Do we need a new law to address this?

You don't need a new law because there already exists a law regarding common intent.

If you establish common intent, the person is as culpable as anyone else.

You must prove, for instance, that these eight persons came together from the same village, they chased you together.

So even if some of them did not do any overt act, if you show their involvement in the crowd, they can be convicted.

But this can't apply to bystanders. You can't have a law that says bystanders who just happen to be there are also part of the assaulting crowd.

What if the Centre uses this judgment to say that because the Supreme Court has directed us to draft a new law against lynching, we can't take any action against lynching mobs till that is done?

In my opinion, framing a new law is neither here nor there. It is not of any significance. Because the judgment directs the authorities to take action under existing IPC provisions (Sections 153A and other provisions).

There is a 2014 judgement (Pravasi Bhalai Sanghatan vs Union of India) in which the Supreme Court has analysed the law against hate speech and found it to be very comprehensive.

Our hate speech and hate action law is very well developed. So there is no way the Centre can say we can't do anything.

One report says that some provisions of the law may be changed to shift the onus of proof on the accused in mob lynching cases. That may be a good idea, don't you think?

I think that's dangerous, because it sort of puts the legal system upside down.

Currently, in cases of custodial death, the onus has been shifted on the accused. But there you are in the custody of a person. I'm not sure if mob lynching cases require this.

It could result in a lot of injustice.

Instead of a presumption of guilt against the accused, why not have a different presumption?

The problem with the lynching mobs getting away is one of interference by the political establishment, isn't it?

So, have a presumption that the prime minister and the chief minister are responsible. After all, these are your armies.

Instead of making the accused prove they are innocent, why not make an assumption about the lynch mobs? That they are acting in an unrestrained manner leads to a presumption of criminal conspiracy with their party leaders.

Let these party leaders be held liable.

Don't play around with the law by turning the basic principle of 'innocent until proven guilty' upside down.

But even fixing the liability on the PM or CM will require a change in law.

I would certainly support a change in law that makes the assumption that the party leaders are responsible.

When the rank and file acts repeatedly in a particular manner, they are doing so as part of a criminal conspiracy. I am not talking of isolated instances.

Where there is a pattern of members of one party indulging openly in these acts of violence, you can definitely fix liability on their party leaders.

Let the CM of Rajasthan where so many lynchings have taken place, be also assumed to be responsible.

I would support a change in the law that makes this presumption.Raging wildfires have killed 74 people including small children in Greece, devouring homes and forests, in what officials are calling the worst fires the country has seen in a decade.

Around 500 firefighters, aircraft and helicopters have been mobilised to tackle the fires, while a state of emergency was declared in western and eastern Attica.

Take a look at the devastation the fires have brought on in Greece.

The first fire broke out in a pine forest near the seaside settlement of Kineta 50 kilometre west of Athens between the capital and Corinth. Major fires broke out Monday afternoon in the area northeast of Athens (Penteli, Viotza, Mati, Rafina, and Agios Andreas). Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

According to latest reports, 74 people including small children in Greece have died while another 172 people have been injured. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The fire is so severe that the mayor of a town called Rafina said that Mati, another village no longer existed. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said "15 fires had started simultaneously on three different fronts in Athens" on Monday. Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also cut short his visit to Bosnia to return home and has announced a three-day mourning period. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

The number of casualties could rise further as more gutted homes and cars were checked, the emergency services warned. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Descrbing the devastation, Red Cross spokeswoman Georgia Trisbioti said, "People are shocked, lost. Some of them have lost everything: children, parents, homes." Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Burned-out cars were scattered outside gated compounds where three- and four-storey buildings bore signs of fire damage. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

Orange flames have reduced thousands of homes to ash, causing damage that could easily run into millions of euros. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

Coastguard vessels and other boats rescued almost 700 people who had managed to get to the shoreline and plucked another 19 survivors and four dead bodies from the sea where they had fled to save themselves, the coastguard said. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Ambulance Service deputy director Miltiadis Mylonas said the death toll is likely to rise. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

The European Union activated its Civil Protection Mechanism after Greece sought help. Several countries said they were sending aircraft to help fight the flames. European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted Tuesday that the EU "will spare no effort to help Greece and the Greek people". Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Fires are a common problem in Greece during the summer. Blazes in 2007 on the southern island of Evia claimed 77 lives. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Wildfires have also caused widespread damage in northern Europe in recent days. Sweden, Finlands, Norway, Latvia have also witnessed fires in the recent times. Photograph: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

There are slight chances for rain in forecast for Athens this week. Most of the rain chances are at least 30 per cent, with Thursday looking like the most likely day for rainfall. But that's necessarily good news: These will be hit-and-miss afternoon-type storms, and they will not produce too much rainfall. In fact, they can end up making firefighting efforts harder by increasing winds and swirling the wind directions. Photograph: GIANNIS LABROPOULOS/ReutersWait, did that statue really move?

It may have been the question many people asked while taking a walk in Marche-en-Famenne, a tiny town in Belgium, during the International Living Statues Festival.

Heres a collection of the best scenes from Europes biggest living statue festival.

Thats what you call a sweet kiss! Artists called Le couple en chocolat take part in the festival. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Off with his head, we say! A living statue named The Headsman does what he knows best. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The genius scientist, Albert Einstein, comes back to life to explain his E = mc^2 theory. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Forget e-mails, forget SMSes The post is here! Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Aladdin, wheres your magic carpet? Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

Isaac Newton explains his law of gravity, with what else, but apples. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The mermaid takes part in the festival. Photograph: Yves Herman/ReutersUnited States President Donald Trump believes he should not meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin till the witch hunt over Moscows alleged interference in American elections concludes, and as such the next bilateral meeting between the two would take place next year, his top national security adviser said on Thursday.

The two leaders had held their first bilateral summit in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, vowing a fresh start to troubled relations between their countries.

The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, National Security Adviser John Bolton said.

Trump last week had asked Bolton to explore the possibility of meeting Putin this fall.

During their meeting, they had also expressed a desire to cooperate on global challenges, after talks on an array of issues from Syria, Ukraine and China to trade tariffs and the size of their nuclear arsenals.Parliament reconvened on Wednesday, a day after the Congress moved a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha over the Rafale deal.

On Tuesday, the government rejected the opposition;s demand to extend special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

Watch all the action LIVE here.Italian telecom giant Telecom Italia (TIAOF.PK,TI) reported that its Group net income for the first half of 2018 rose 3.7 percent to 618 million euros, from 596 million euros last year.

EBIT in the first half of 2018 totalled 1.644 billion euros. Comparable EBIT in the first half of 2018 totalled 1.728 billion euros, compared to 1.871 billion euros in the prior year.

The revenues of the first half of 2018 were 9.441 billion euros. The comparable revenues of the first half of 2018 totalled 9.512 billion euros, 2.7% down compared to the first half of 2017.

The Board of Directors has examined the financial implications that could derive from the Company's participation to the 5G auction and has started an evaluation process of the strategicoption related to its subsidiaries, confirming that the Persidera sale should continue.

On Wednesday July 25, 2018, at 2:00 PM CET (1:00 PM GMT) the Telecom Italia Group will present it's the second-quarter 2018 Results approved by the Board of Directors.

Separately, Bloomberg reported that Telecom Italia is considering asset sales, including undersea-cable Sparkle.

The former phone monopoly is contemplating ways to free up cash that it could spend on cutting debt and paying dividends, the report said. As part of the retrenchment, the company also is looking to refocus on its home market.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsGroupe SEB, a French producer of small appliances, reported Wednesday that its first-half profit attributable to owners of the parent increased 9.5 percent to 91 million euros from last year's 83 million euros.

Operating profit increased 4.2 percent from last year to 186 million euros, while operating result from activity dropped 2.3 percent to 208 million euros, in a more challenging raw material and currency environment than anticipated.

Sales grew 2.9 percent to 3.03 billion euros from 2.91 billion euros a year ago. On a like-for-like basis, sales grew 7.4 percent.

Looking ahead, the company said it is revising upwards its objective of organic growth in sales for 2018, which should exceed 7%.

Further, the company confirmed its objective of an over 5% increase in Operating Result from Activity versus that of first-half 2017, excluding the one-off impacts of the WMF purchase price allocation.

Thierry de La Tour d'Artaise, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "The coming months should see continued growth momentum in the Group. The outlook is favorable in many of our large and we have implemented vigorous action plans to take best advantage of that outlook, through increased marketing investments and the build-up of stocks."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsA number of cryptocurrency luminaries dominate Fortune's New "Ledger 40 Under 40 List" - a supplementary honor roll of the most impressive, young superstars under the age of 40, who are transforming at the leading edge of finance and technology.

Every year, Fortune prepares a list of "40 Under 40", ranking the most influential young people in business.

This year, for the first time ever, the New York-based business magazine introduced "The Ledger 40 Under 40 list." Compiled by Fortune's fintech team, it highlights the pioneers who built some of the world's fastest-growing businesses. Most of them are leaders in the fields of digital payments, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, and blockchains, or distributed accounting ledgers.

Brian Armstrong, the Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, tops the list.

Armstrong is building Coinbase, the biggest U.S. Bitcoin exchange, into what his team hopes, will become "the Google of crypto," according to Fortune.

He is followed by Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. Jihan Wu, who co-founded Bitmain, the world's biggest Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer, comes third.

Other prominent cryptocurrency personalities who figure in the list include Amber Baldet, CEO and co-founder of Clovyr; Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of financial services company Robinhood; and Christine Moy, who is the blockchain guru for JPMorgan Chase.

The Winklevoss twins - Cameron and Tyler - who turned the proceeds from a legal settlement over the origins of Facebook into a billion-dollar Bitcoin investment, are placed at No. 8.

Some of these names also appear in the 2018 "40 Under 40" main list, Fortune's annual ranking of the most influential and inspiring young people in business under the age of 40.

Brian Armstrong is ranked 20 in the main list. The name of Vitalik Buterin can be seen two steps down, while Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt are in 24th position.

Fortune will be hosting "Brainstorm Finance", a new conference based on the theme - the intersection of finance and - in Montauk, New York, next year.

For comments and feedback contact: 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.The strong surge in Bitcoin and its peers lost some steam Wednesday morning, after the top cryptocurrency met resistance as it approached $8,500 late Tuesday. Bitcoin continues to remain above $8,000.

Overall cryptocurrency market capitalization eased to $298 billion around 10 am ET Wednesday on CoinMarketCap, after crossing $300 billion a day earlier, which was the first time since April.

Here is a wrap of the main news from the cryptocurrency and blockchain space over the past 24 hours.

Bitwise Files With SEC For Crypto Index ETF

Crypto asset manager Bitwise has filed with the Securities Exchange Commission for a publicly offered cryptocurrency index exchange-traded fund or ETF. The new ETF called the Bitwise HOLD 10 Cryptocurrency Index Fund, will be a market-cap-weighted index of the 10 largest cryptocurrencies, rebalanced monthly. Read more...

Singapore Airlines Unveils Blockchain-based Loyalty Wallet KrisPay

Singapore Airlines or SIA has launched a blockchain -based airline loyalty digital wallet, claimed to be the world's first of its kind. SIA's KrisFlyer frequent-flyer program unveiled miles-based wallet KrisPay. It converts frequent KrisFlyer miles into digitized KrisPay miles instantly that can be used to pay for retail purchases at partner merchants through a mobile app. Read more...

Google Develops Blockchain-based Cloud Service

Google will now allow its cloud customers to explore ways to use Blockchain's distributed ledger technology (DLT) frameworks on Google Cloud Platform (GPC) by using Digital Asset and BlockApps. Digital Asset is a New York-based startup which makes tools to build blockchain-based apps and BlockApps is another startup which helps people make decentralized apps. Read more...

Gibraltar Opens Trading At GBX Digital Asset Exchange To Public

British Overseas Territory Gibraltar has opened up the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) to the public after a soft launch on June 4 that saw 300 participants gain early access to the exchange. The GBX Digital Asset Exchange platform is now live with 6 cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, Rock Token, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ethereum Classic - available for trading on the exchange. Read more...

PwC To Conduct Tezos' External Audit

For the first time, a large scale blockchain organization has hired a Big Four financial firm to conduct its external audit. The Tezos Foundation announced that PriceWaterhouseCoopers' Switzerland branch (PwC Switzerland) will be the external auditor for the Foundation's finances and operations. Read more...

Current Prices

As of 10.04 am ET, Bitcoin was down 0.4 percent at $8,202.05 and Ethereum was lower by 1.66 percent at $471.42 on Coinbase.

For comments and feedback contact: 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.South Korea will on Thursday release an advance estimate for Q2 gross domestic product, headlining a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In the three months prior, GDP was up 1.0 percent on quarter and 2.8 percent on year.

Australia will release Q2 numbers for import and export prices. Import prices are expected to rise 1.9 percent on quarter, slowing from 2.1 percent in the previous three months. Export prices are predicted to tumble 1.3 percent after jumping 4.9 percent in the three months prior.

Japan will see June figures for producer prices, which are forecast to hold steady from the May reading at 1.0 percent on year.

For comments and feedback contact: 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) - The one-day interbank deposit futures rates (DI rates) in Brazil opened lower while investors await news on the scheduled meeting between the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, to discuss trade. Europeans want to prevent Americans from imposing import tariffs on cars exported by the bloc.

"While the macroeconomic implications of trade frictions are likely to be limited in the long run, we think events and the flow of news should be a key determinant of prices and confidence in the short term," Scotiabank said in a report.

In the domestic market, investors monitor Geraldo Alckmin' pick as the vice in his presidential bid. After PR's Josue Gomes apparently has dismissed that possibility, "an official decision is expected for tomorrow when the 'center' should officialize support for the PSDB in the presidential race," said Ignacio Crespo, the economist at Guide Investimentos.

Near the middle of the session, the January 2019 DI contract rate was at 6.655%, from 6.69% in the previous settlement, while the January 2020 DI rate was at 7.99%, from 8.05%. The January 2021 DI contract rate was at 8.99%, from 9.05%.

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.Mattel Inc. (MAT) reported a second quarter adjusted loss of $0.56 per share after the close Wednesday, compared to the loss of $0.14 per share last year. Street expectations were for a loss of $0.30 per share.

The company also announced that it will reduce its workforce by 2,200 positions.

Mattel pulled back in early trade Wednesday and finished with a loss of 0.19 at $16.29. Shares are now down 1.04 on 42K shares after the close.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsAt least 32 people were killed and several injured mostly in a suicide bombing in Balochistan on Wednesday as millions of voters queued up across Pakistan to elect a new government.

The Balochistan bombing targeted the convoy of Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema near a polling station. It left 31 persons, including some policemen, dead. The senior police official escaped unhurt, Geo News reported.



Civil Hospital Quetta officials confirmed the casualties.



The area was crowded as people were making their way to vote at Tameer-e-Nau Model School. Polling was halted at the polling station.



While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m. Voting will officially end at 6 p.m. while as counting of the votes was being done simultaneously.



Results for the 11th general elections are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.



A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to Express News.



The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area.



Two people were also injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.



In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family.



Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.



As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.



The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's PTI.



In an effort to increase voter participation, the Election Commission has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.





Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning, inlcuding the July 13 bombing that killed 150 people.



According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.



The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.



Sharif's PML-N has condemned the legal cases facing its members, and reported pressures to leave the party along with harassment to prevent it from returning to power after its absolute majority in 2013.



These elections are the second in Pakistan's history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi is right. There is nothing unusual about a business taking out a loan as part of its daily operations.

It happens everywhere in the world, even to the biggest of businesses. Samoa Airways therefore is certainly no exception.

But perhaps someone should remind Tuilaepa and his administration that Samoa Airways is a publically owned company. As such, when they do take out a loan, whatever spin they put on it, members of the public will end up paying.

That is the undeniable truth.

Besides, we are not talking about a few hundred talas; were talking millions here that will take years to pay.

For the uninitiated, the countrys national airline Samoa Airways has asked the Unit Trust of Samoa (U.T.O.S.) for a $12 million loan. Confirming the application, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lautafi Fio Purcell, told your newspaper that it is part of the back up plan to help the airline, which has been flying since November last year.

It is no secret that a lot of questions have been raised about the profitability of the venture and whether it has the ability to survive the cut throat business of international aviation. This is why the idea that Samoa Airways is already loaning immediately raised eyebrows.

But the Minister was quick to shoot down the suggestion that the loan is a rescue package to bail out the airline from its financial struggles.

Every new company must have a backup plan, he said, that calls for additional funding in case of an emergency.

This, he said, is why Samoa Airways has asked U.T.O.S. for help.

With any starting company, especially an airline which is very costly, during its first 24 months, it will operate on a loss.

The Minister insisted that the Airline was not in a financial conundrum.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa also showed the same confidence, dismissing suggestions that the Airline is desperate for some cash.

That would be the move taken by an intelligent C.E.O. when there are no funds to carry out the operations of the business, Tuilaepa said.

Now lets just slow down a bit. Is the Prime Minister saying the Airline has no more funds? And if that is the case, what happened to them? Where did they disappear? And how can they continue to operate under such circumstances?

Now getting back to the Prime Minister, he continued: We are all aware that businesses at times have issues with their cash flow. While the Samoa Observer is questioning the (airlines) request, even they have loans too like every business.

He concluded that there are no hidden agendas behind the Airlines loan request.

Said he: I am happy the question is being posed by the Samoa Observer, as we all know that their questions insinuate there are hidden agendas. But I am telling the newspaper there are no hidden agendas.

Where did the Prime Minister come from with this hidden agenda garbage? Since when did a media company asking a simple question about a public company borrowing money classified as a hidden agenda?

Never mind the Samoa Observer. It is a private company.

When it comes to Samoa Airways, we are talking about a publically-funded airline that the poor taxpayers of this country will have to fork out money to bail out if they dont get it right.

Besides its not the Samoa Observer that nearly bankrupted this country a few years ago.

Remember Polynesian Airlines and how its finances became a serious threat to the national economy?

Has this Government forgotten how the airline had jumped from a one Boeing aircraft to a four-Boeing fleet all the while its debt had ballooned to over $50million that it nearly bankrupted this countrys economy?

Lets hope we are not seeing a repeat of history here.

Have a wonderful Wednesday Samoa, God bless!New Zealands High Commissioner to Samoa, David Nicholson, has resigned.

The resignation was confirmed in a statement yesterday from New Zealands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in response to questions from the Samoa Observer.

David Nicholson has resigned from his position as New Zealand High Commissioner to Samoa, effective from 6 August 2018. The Ministry thanks David for his service and wishes him well in his future endeavors, the statement read.

Staff at the New Zealand High Commission were informed on Monday of his resignation. A farewell dinner is planned for Friday before he departs next week. The Samoa Observer understands former High Commissioner, Nick Hurley, will take over in the interim period until a permanent appointment is made.

In the meantime, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged Mr. Nicolsons contribution as Head of Mission and made specific mention of the personal and professional relationships he built during his 17-month posting.

They acknowledged his work to improve and implement New Zealands aid programme. His work added to New Zealands role and reputation in Samoa.

Mr. Nicholson took over from his predecessor Jackie Frizelle when he was appointed at the end of 2016.

Prior to that he was director of the Pacific Development Division before becoming divisional manager of Melanesia, Micronesia and Northern Pacific within the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Mr. Nicholson is married to Dr. Suitafa Deborah Nicholson and they have three children.

The diplomat had referred questions relating to his exit to the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

On Tuesday, he and Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi officiated the groundbreaking ceremony for the Apia Waterfront development project.

New Zealand has been involved in supporting the development of the Apia waterfront since 2015, he said.

New Zealand is pleased that through this investment, we are a part of the waterfront initiative co-financed by the Green Climate fund with whom I would like to commend for its ongoing commitment and contribution in ensuring that climate resilience infrastructure in Samoa proceeds.

Mr. Nicholson described the event as a milestone in the relationship between Samoa and New Zealand.There has been a mixed reaction to the decision by the Cabinet to cut the salary of Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi from $187,500 to $182,070.

There was a split among members of the public on whether the Prime Minister deserved to get a pay cut or should have been paid more. Some members of the public praised his contribution to the success of Samoa as a nation, while others decried the level of poverty in the country and said the decision to cut his salary was proper.

The decision by the Government to tax church ministers alofas also came under scrutiny with members of the public arguing that the salary cut was justified due the Prime Minister taking on the churches through his Governments tax policy.

Here are some views by members of the public on the issue.





Maluseu Faavi Junior, 67, Vaiusu

I fully support the decision on cutting the salary of our Prime Minister. The reason being is that our people have suffered enough under their administration. He already has a lot of money, but he has gone so far to tax pastors. He should be more concerned about raising the wages of our local people, who are struggling to earn a living for their families. Our country is in so much debt but who is to blame for that? Who is in charge of making those decisions? Who will take up the responsibility of those debts? I will tell you who will suffer from that, it is the future generations of our country, our children and their kids. I think that he deserves a pay cut but it would be better if he stepped down from office.

Lusia Sala Mika, 67, Moamoa

I agree with the Prime Ministers pay cut due to reasons that he should help his people more often. At the moment, so many have been affected by all these taxes that they have imposed. Even those that are struggling with just small businesses to try and help caring for their families, but it has gotten to the extent of taxing our own pastors. They are known to be representatives of God on earth to spread his word. I just wish our Prime Minister could focus more on the people of the country he is looking after, instead of focusing on those big buildings which he calls developments, but the people that put him in office are living in poverty.

Fialauia Hunt, 43, magiagi

I think that the Prime Minister should contribute through his pay cut because we are all contributing for the benefit of our nation. It makes it worse with the high cost of living in Samoa and then not getting paid enough to sustain family expenses and caring for members of their families. It really is a struggle, you see not many people are fortunate to have that amount of money and so just $5,000 deducted well many families do not have access to even a thousand, so I think that it is deserving for our prime minister to have a pay cut.

Sesilia Iosefa, 52, Aleisa

I do not agree with our Prime Minister getting a pay cut. In my own opinion he has worked so hard for so many years to make Samoa a better country in terms of its development. Our country is more advanced compared to other Pacific Islands. There are great improvements of roads and accessibility through transportation. I have high respect for him and so that sort of treatment of him is unfair in my eyes. I think that his willing to go through that was out of his love for his people and help them in any way he can.

Ana Lealofi, 61, Leauvaa

I disagree with the decision to cut the Prime Ministers salary. He has done such significant works to make Samoa a better country. Just because he is the Prime Minister does not mean he has a lot of money. His contributions to our country through so many things not many people are aware of that. His salary is the value of the work that he has done or he is equipped to do, running a country not many people can do that job.Think a minuteHenri Latour was the greatest detective in France during the 19th century. He was a mastermind at finding evidence and clues, then fitting it all together to find the criminal and bring him to justice. But mysteriously, this living legends career ended suddenly.

Detective Henri Latour was called to the scene of a horrific, violent crime. An elderly couple had been robbed and brutally murdered.

The police had already arrested a suspect, but shortly after studying the crime scene and evidence, Latours instincts convinced him that the police had arrested the wrong man. Latour promised the heartbroken, grieving family that he would find the missing pieces of the puzzle and the vicious murderer.

So began what many have called the most brilliant investigation and tracking of a criminal in Frances history. Henri Latour carefully gathered all of the evidence, one piece at a time, until he finally found his man and criminal.

The newspapers praised Latours brilliant detective work and spread the news of his fame across France. But after solving this case, Latour suddenly retired and moved away. In fact, he lived alone for the remaining 25 years of his life. It was only after he died that the true identity of the last criminal whom Latour had tracked down was made known to the public.

In his last case, Latour had refused to back down from the truth, even when his investigation revealed that the murderer was none other than Latours own son!

Sometimes the truth can be extremely painful. But sooner or later we each must face it, hopefully sooner rather than when it is too late. It is a fact of life that we each have done many wrong things: wrong thoughts, wrong words, wrong attitudes, wrong relationships, wrong behavior and habits.

So we have separated ourselves from our Maker, God, Who is pure and perfect goodness. Until we truly feel the shame and guilt of our pride and sins against Him, and confess it to Him, our heart is not truly humble and open to receive His forgiveness and new life. Jesus lovingly warned us that this small price we pay of hurting our pride is nothing compared to us losing our relationship and everlasting life with our caring Creator.

Jesus clearly explained that if we refuse to honestly and humbly admit that we are rebellious sinners against our Maker, we will live alone in the pain and torture of Hell, completely separated from Him and all love, truth and goodness forever.

God Himself paid the penalty for all our sins with His death and resurrection, so we must sincerely and wholeheartedly ask Jesus to forgive us and change our heart and way of life. The truth of our sins hurts, but it also heals and restores usif we repent and confess it to our only Rescuer and Lord, Jesus. That is the only way we can start changing to become the person He created each of us to be forever. Just think a minuteThe irony is simply hard to ignore. On the front page of last Sundays Samoa Observer was a story titled Cabinet approves salary increases for Judges.

As the headline reveals, a Cabinet paper received by the Samoa Observer confirmed that a proposal by the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration to raise the salaries of Justices in the Supreme Court, Judges of the District Court and the Land and Titles Court had been given the nod.

But there was something far more interesting in F.K. (18) 17. Buried among the salary raises for the Judges of the Court was a small note at the bottom about the Prime Ministers salary.

It just said that the Prime Ministers salary of $187,500 per annum is subjected to a restructure as recommended by the Salary Tribunal so that it would eventually be reduced to $182,070 per annum. That is a reduction of $5430.

Now in the bigger scheme of things, the amount is probably insignificant. There are other ways where the holder of the Prime Minister position can make up for it.

Still, the idea that the Prime Ministers salary has been slashed will no doubt raise eyebrows with people asking a lot of questions.

Which should be the case. Folks, here we have all Judges of the Court being given salary raises and yet the holder of what is arguably the most important position on the land has had his pay cut.

What message is the Government sending out with this decision?

Now enter outspoken Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, who is an ardent critic of Tuilaepa and his administration. Two days after the news broke, he described the decision as insulting.

This is where the Government should apply common sense, Olo said. The Prime Minister has been a public servant for many years and this is what he gets in return? A reduction on his salary? This is an insult and this Tribunal recommendation should not be considered at all.

And to ensure his point is well and truly hammered home, Olo struck an emotional nerve.

Listen to him again: I am not speaking as a politician, rather I speak as a citizen of this great country. Considering the accomplishments and how Samoa has come since independence if anything, his salary should at least be $300,000.

And why should the Prime Ministers salary be increased to that amount, Olo was asked.

He has numerous commitments, Olo said. Not only that he is the leader of the Government, but hes also Head of Parliament. Hes the Chairman of the Samoa Rugby Union, the Patron for the Samoa Faafafine Association; the current Chairman of the Pacific Island Leaders Forum.

In Parliament, Tuilaepa is the Leader of the House as he is the Leader of the party in Government, and as identified in Standing Order.

Now thats a new one, in as far as most people are concerned.

Asked to elaborate on what he meant by saying that the Prime Minister is the Leader of Parliament, Olo said: Under our new standing orders since our election into office, any Government Bill may be presented to the Assembly by the Prime Minister as Leader of the House and its clear under the Standing order of Parliament for our sitting this term.

On top of that the Prime Minister also advises the Head of State.

But thats not all, Olo said.

He also heads the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Public Service Commission, Legislative Assembly, Office of the Attorney General, Office of the Ombudsman, Samoa Law Reform Commission, Ministry of Police and Fire and Emergency Services Authority.

That is why I resent the move to reduce the Prime Ministers salary.

There is no doubt about it, Olo has a valid point, one many Samoans would agree with. The fact is that whether you love or loathe Prime Minister Tuilaepa, his work over the years speaks for itself.

Come to think of it, there must be method to thy madness.

We know Tuilaepa is the man lording over Cabinet, which means that he would ultimately have had the final say in this matter.

Obviously Prime Minister Tuilaepa is sending out an encrypted message not just to his party, public servants but also the entire population.

Coming at a time when the Government has come under enormous scrutiny for raising taxes and forcing Church Ministers to pay taxes, this decision is well calculated and well timed. And what is the message?

Well dont be shy, tell us what you think?

Have productive Thursday Samoa, stay tuned and God bless!A coronial inquest into the death of two babies at Savaii following their vaccination has been adjourned to August 8 and will be held in Apia.

Lannacallystah Samuelu and Lameko Si'u, both aged 1, died after receiving their measles, mumps and rubella (M.M.R.) shots at the Safotu Hospital.

The inquest was scheduled to start at Tuasivi, Savaii yesterday.

But the lawyer representing the families of the two babies, Mauga Precious Chang, made an application for an early hearing on Tuesday at Tuasivi.

This was held and subsequently led to the Court agreeing for the matter to be moved to Apia.

It was called on Tuesday and Precious Chang who is representing the two families made an application to refer the matter to Apia. The application was granted and the matter will be called again in the Coroner on the 8th of August for mention, said police prosecutor Khamtahn Stanley

Yesterday, the families of the babies turned up at Tuasivi.

The parents appeared in the District Court yesterday afternoon before Judge Fepuleai Ameperosa Roma.

They told him that their matter was scheduled to be called yesterday.

But Judge Fepuleai told the parents that it was heard on Tuesday and has been adjourned to August 8.

Outside the Court House at Tuasivi, the parents of the two babies told the waiting media that a letter from the Police was given to them stating that the case involving their babies was to be called yesterday.

Thats why we came because we received a letter from the Police saying our case will be called on the 25th which is today, said Punipuao of Safotu.

We havent been informed by our lawyer about any changes.

She added that are still waiting for the results of the postmortem and were advised that they will be notified after two weeks.

So up until now we havent heard anything else."

My husband and I as well as our whole family said our farewell to our baby boy on Tuesday last week as we laid him to rest."

It was the hardest thing we have ever done so thats why this case is very important because we want to know what really happened on the day.

Mareta and Samuelu from Sasina bid farewell to their baby girl last Friday.

Mareta said: We still miss our baby girl because she is our only child and because of that I had adopted my sisters baby boy to raise as my own because I miss my daughter so much."

The wound is still there and it will never go away and that is why the results is very important for us.Samoan hip hop superstar, Dei Hamo, is in the country.

The man, whose real name is Sanerivi Sagala, posted about his trip on his Facebook page last night.

He writes: Awesome Day 1 Shooting in #Samoa with the team Kas Futialo Aaron Taouma Tatsuya Sasaki The Crossroads: Le Magafa, Where Samoa meets Hip Hop 1 down, 3 more to go. Much love to all our supporters who've helped us make this happen.

How long Dei Hamo is in Samoa for could not be confirmed but the Samoa Observer understands he is performing this weekend.

Dei Hamo is a hip-hop artist, producer and director. He has won various awards for his chart-topping music and his first album First Edition, released in 2005.

He has supported a number of international acts including The Black Eyed Peas and Busta Rhymes.

Dei Hamo went to Aorere College, Papatoetoe in the late 1980s where he was first exposed to the hip-hop genre.The Samoa Digital Company Ltd (S.D.C.L.) has been endorsed by Cabinet to oversee the switchover from analog to digital broadcasting systems in Samoa.

The regulator, Lefaoalii Unutoa Auelua-Fonoti, confirmed this in response to questions from the Samoa Observer. But the ownership of the company is unclear at this stage with both the Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Afamasaga Rico Tupai and the Associate Minister Lealailepule Rimoni Aiafi unsure who owns S.D.C.L.

Last week, the Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi said the Government will have a television channel dedicated to broadcast initiatives such as public reforms, developments, projects including Parliamentary sessions on the proposed Digital Television that Cabinet has approved. The television channel is one of the components of the Digital TV initiative.

Speaking to Samoa Observer, Lefaoalii said the project had been in the pipeline for five years and involved extensive consultations with all the relevant stakeholders.

These sessions led to the development of a Digital TV Roadmap and a technical plan which outlined a solution suitable for Samoa. There were numerous assistance from the International Telecommunication Union (I.T.U.), in terms of advising our office on possible solutions to use for the Digital Platform and drawing the roadmap for the project.

In response to questions sent through email, Lefaoalii said there are sites identified for this project, but some of them are new and will need to be built.

As part of the upgrade to a digital broadcasting systems, a single multiplex will be construction to provide the platform for Digital TV according to Lefaoalii. Tests will need to be done following its installation to ensure all technical requirements were met.

The Office of the Regulator will also look at cost effective ways for household antennas and set top boxes with a serious of awareness workshops to keep the community informed on how to benefit from this project technically and socially. This will follow by the switch off of analog TV and switch on the Digital TV, he said.

The benefits of upgrading to a digital system are immense, with Lefaoalii saying it will boost the private sector in terms of marketing and give wider exposure to Samoan creativity and innovation. The upgrade also creates room for the encouragement of local content and creation of material unique to Samoa with the regulator indicating that the digital TV services will have more channels.Samoas national carrier, Samoa Airways, has been operating since last November. Last week, it was revealed that it is taking out a $12 million loan from the Unit Trust of Samoa (U.T.O.S.) to fund its operations. What do you think of Samoa Airways so far? And what are your thoughts about the loan? Adel Fruean asked in todays Street Talk and this is what people said:





Anna Ifopo, 34, Tapatapao

Im disappointed. Samoa Airways was established to make the fares cheaper but that is not what has happened. Their fares are increasing. Not only that, it hasnt even been a year and yet theyve already applied for a loan. Its just another disaster waiting to unfold. There is only one reason why anyone would loan and that is to pay off other loans. So who knows if our countrys airlines has already faced tremendous losses which is why they have succumbed to such actions. But all in due time, eventually everything will be revealed.

Siaosi Ulugia, 26, Vaiusu

Its a risky move. If they are already asking for a loan, then that tells you something, doesnt it? It is only the beginning of what will be a never ending cycle of debt. I think its too early to make that call. They have just started and already are in need of financial assistance. This only points to poor planning.

Rosemarie Ah Lin, 40, Tuanaimato

I do not support the loan. We are seeing history repeat itself. Our first airline was a complete failure, and so with our new airline there was hope for new positive changes yet, now they state they need money and are asking for it. Our Prime Minister Tuilaepa Lupesoliai Dr. Sailele Malielegaoi specifically spoke about it on television that with our new airline, he assured that there would be no problems whatsoever. But what happened? In a few months, they are already in debt.





Junior Junior, 37, Pesega

I do not agree with any financial support given to Samoa Airways requesting for a loan. The reasons being are that it has just been launched but it has already resorted to a loan. It has only been a couple of months but they are in need of financial assistance. $12 million is not cheap. Samoa is already in debt and yet they want to add another burden.

Patrick Leuo, 70, Faatoia

From my experience, there are only positive things to say about the airline. The service is great and so is the food, so in my opinion if they need the money to have further improvements for whatever reason, then it is worth the investment. I dont really have any concerns about them loaning, you need to have money in other to make money, thats all there is really, its just business. My only advice for them is to lower the cost of first class seats so people can fill it, due to the fact that first class is always empty.Qualcomm has abandoned its $43 billion acquisition of Dutch automotive chip maker NXP Semiconductors as Chinese regulators balked at approving the deal amid rising U.S.-China trade tensions.

The San Diego company said on Wednesday that it would step away from the merger at 9 p.m. Pacific Time unless China came through with a last-minute approval.

That deadline passed without a green light from regulators. Qualcomm has now officially confirmed that the merger is dead, and Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf made the companys stance clear during Qualcomms fiscal third quarter earnings conference call Wednesday afternoon.

We intend to terminate our purchase agreement to acquire NXP when the agreement expires at the end of the day today, pending any new material developments, said Mollenkopf.

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Meanwhile, Qualcomm posted better than expected quarterly earnings  fueled by an unexpected $500 million patent royalty payment from a smartphone maker thats in a dispute with Qualcomm.

Qualcomm didnt identify the device maker, but it is believed to be Huawei. The two companies have been in talks for months over patent fees. Qualcomm called the $500 million a good faith payment of past royalties that indicate negotiations, for now, are headed in a positive direction.

The death of the NXP deal brings to an end a 21-month saga to complete the largest merger ever proposed in the semiconductor industry.

Regulators in eight other countries approved the merger. China remained the lone holdout. The Qualcomm-NXP combination appears to become entangled in the Trump administrations tariffs on a rising number of Chinese imports and that countrys steps to retaliate.

It was very clear to us that the macro environment was very difficult to get something of this size through, and it was not clear that was going to change in the future dramatically  particularly in the time window that we had to really move, Mollenkopf told Wall Street analysts.

 Qualcomm has now officially confirmed that the merger is dead, and Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf made the companys stance clear.

Qualcomm is expected to pay a $2 billion breakup fee on Thursday to NXP, which Qualcomm first agreed to buy in October 2016.

The San Diego cellular technology giant plans to use up to $30 billion earmarked for the NXP purchase to buy back its own shares. The move aims to deliver an increase of $1.50 per share in adjusted annual earnings in 2019 that executives promised shareholders in the midst of Broadcoms failed hostile takeover bid earlier this year.

The buyback target is equal to what NXP would have delivered to Qualcomms bottom line had the deal gone through.

The company promised accretion by hook or by crook, said Stacy Rasgon, an analyst with Bernstein Research. There are not a whole lot of other things they could buy that would be as accretive as NXP. You cant promise Wall Street something and then take it away.

Calling it quits now strikes a blow to Qualcomms efforts to diversify its business beyond the stagnant smartphone market, where it faces headwinds from slowing sales, rising competition and customer disputes with Apple and Huawei over patent fees.

With NXP, Qualcomm would have become a chip powerhouse with a much larger product portfolio of semiconductors used for mobile payments, security, automotive micro-controllers and sensors and industrial Internet of Things products.

Qualcomm also would have gained new distribution channels and NXPs significant intellectual property portfolio. There was little product overlap between the two companies.

The deals collapse doesnt necessarily negatively position NXP or Qualcomm, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst with Tirias Research. Both have continued on with their product plans. It makes it a little bit harder to go after (alternative markets). Qualcomm has had success in those segments, but not nearly to the level of NXP.

Now Qualcomm must try to grow into at least some of these markets on its own.

While it is making progress  the company said it has a $5 billion backlog in orders from car makers  its diversification efforts are likely to narrow and take more time.

The deal has been headed south for a while, said San Diego State University finance lecturer, Seth Kaplowitz. I think Qualcomm has enough rocket fuel to return to growth. It is not going to happen overnight.

For its third quarter, Qualcomm reported sales of $5.6 billion and earnings of $1.2 billion, or 82 cents per share, for the quarter under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

For the same quarter last year, Qualcomm posted revenue of $5.4 billion and earnings of $900 million, or 58 cents per share under GAAP.

On an adjusted basis, which is how Wall Street analysts track results, Qualcomm reported non-GAAP sales of $5.6 billion and earnings of $1.01 per share for the June quarter.

That beat analysts forecast of 71 cents per share in earnings on sales of $5.19 billion.

The company sold 199 million mobile chips in the quarter, slightly ahead of analysts estimates of 191 million shipments.

Its patent licensing business performed better than expected, with revenues of $1.47 billion in quarter. Analysts forecast patent licensing revenue at $976 million.

The gain in patent licensing stemmed from the $500 payment from the smartphone maker, Huawei, and lower than expected legal expenses in Qualcomms ongoing legal war with Apple over patents.

The Apple fight continues to take its toll on Qualcomm. The company said Apple will not use its cellular modems in upcoming new iPhones models released this fall.

Intel, which currently supplies modem chip for about half of Apples iPhones, will likely be the beneficiary. Qualcomms chips will continue to be used in older iPhones.

Looking ahead, Qualcomm forecast sales of $5.1 billion to $5.9 billion for the current quarter ending in Sept. 30. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at 75 cents to 85 cents per share.

Qualcomm released financial results after markets closed. Its shares ended trading Wednesday up 57 cents at $59.42 on the Nasdaq.

The stock jumped 5 percent to $62.80 in early after-hours trading.

Business

mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973

UPDATES:

This story was updated at 3:15 p.m. following Qualcomms earnings conference call.The task facing Eli Lilly, the giant pharmaceutical company, sounds simple enough: Find 375 people with early Alzheimers disease for a bold new clinical trial aiming to slow or stop memory loss.

There are 5.4 million Alzheimers patients in the United States. Youd think it would be easy to find that many participants for a trial like this one.

But its not. And the problem has enormous implications for treatment of a disease that terrifies older Americans and has strained families in numbers too great to count.

The Global Alzheimers Platform Foundation, which is helping recruit participants for the Lilly trial, estimates that to begin finding participants, it will have to inform 15,000 to 18,000 people in the right age groups about the effort.

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Of these, nearly 2,000 must pass the initial screening to be selected for further tests to see if they qualify.

Just 20 percent will meet the criteria to enroll in Lillys trial: They must be aged 60 to 89, have mild but progressive memory loss for at least six months, and have two types of brain scans showing Alzheimers is underway.

Yet an 80 percent screening failure rate is typical for Alzheimers trials, said John Dwyer, president of the foundation. There is just no good way to quickly diagnose the disease.

The onerous process of locating just 375 patients illustrates a grim truth: finding patients on whom to test new Alzheimers treatments is becoming an insurmountable obstacle  no matter how promising the trial.

With brain scans, lab tests and memory tests, the cost per diagnosis alone is daunting  as much as $100,000 for each person who ends up enrolled in a trial, Mr. Dwyer said  even before they begin the experimental treatment.

Complicating the problem, the number of trials has exploded in recent years. There are more than 100 Alzheimers studies looking for a whopping 25,000 participants, Mr. Dwyer said.

To begin filling them all, 37.5 million patients in the right age group would first have to be informed. Ten percent would be referred to a trial site for screening.

Twenty percent of these would drop out, given the current rate, leaving just 150,000 to be screened. And with an 80 percent screening failure rate, that leaves 25,000 participants of the 37.5 million who were first informed.

The numbers make it clear: Theres no way scientists are going to find 25,000 participants for all of the Alzheimers trials that have been approved.

The irony is that the science has never been more promising, Mr. Dwyer said. How many promising drugs will be abandoned or their evaluation seriously delayed? Some good science is going to be left on cutting-room floor.

These trials are not just expensive; so far, they have been expensive failures.

For the most part, researchers have focused on a target that seemed obvious and approachable: a protein, beta amyloid, that starts to accrue in patients brains years before their memories falter. It is believed to be the first sign of Alzheimers disease.

For more than a decade, companies tried again and again with anti-amyloid drugs to slow or halt the disease, spending billions of dollars in clinical trials. Lilly alone invested more than $3 billion. Pfizer, after a series of failures, announced in January that it was getting out of the Alzheimers race altogether.

Yet the need is as urgent as ever. No treatments have yet been found to slow the degenerative brain disease.

Lilly has an advantage: This is a well-known company that can afford a vigorous recruitment effort. It is studying a two-drug combination, the first of its kind.

Even so, recruitment for the trial will be difficult, Mr. Dwyer said: Nine other trials are looking for patients with mild memory loss.

Some seek patients with no Alzheimers symptoms but who have genetic conditions or biomarkers  like telltale brain proteins  that make it very likely or almost certain they will develop the disease. Other scientists are seeking people whose Alzheimers disease is already well underway.

Even worse: Most Alzheimers patients never think about entering a trial.

There are no successful drugs that might fuel interest. The patients are elderly and simply getting to the trial sites can be difficult. And Alzheimers patients tend to be seen by private doctors who do not know about or suggest trials.

The stigma of Alzheimers disease contributes to a natural tendency among patients and family members to deny or hide early signs of memory loss.

It can take a long time to get a diagnosis, said Dr. Ira Goodman, neuroscience medical director of Bioclinica Research in Orlando, Fla., a site for the Lilly trial. Even the primary care doctors say, Oh, dont worry about it, youre just getting older.

Another reason trials might have failed: Alzheimers diagnoses are wrong more often than is generally realized. So patients who entered trials for Alzheimers drugs might not have had the disease.

Dr. Goodman and his colleagues studied the brains of 382 patients whose doctors gave them a diagnosis of dementia before death. The autopsies showed that Alzheimers was not the cause of dementia in 89 of them.

Yet 58 of those 89 patients, or 65 percent, had been incorrectly told that they had Alzheimers.

With a new type of brain scan, rarely used in doctors offices, an Alzheimers diagnosis can be more precise.

Daniel Skovronsky, the chief scientific officer at Lilly, vigorously pushed for the new trial, arguing that previous studies that failed involved weaker drugs and tested just one drug at a time.

So his plan is to use one experimental drug that stops the poisonous amyloid from being made and another experimental drug that clears away amyloid already produced in the brain.

One-third of patients will get a placebo, one-third will get one of the drugs plus a placebo, and one-third will get both drugs. Dosing will be high, Dr. Skovronsky said. The goal is to get rid of 90 percent of existing plaque and block 90 percent of plaque production.

We know the outcome if we do nothing, Dr. Skovronsky added.

Some experts not involved with the study are optimistic.

Its a really important experiment and very likely to work, said Dr. Randall Bateman, an Alzheimers researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

This is the cutting edge, combining two drugs, said Dr. Paul Aisen, an Alzheimers researcher at the University of Southern California. I do think its going to work.

Recruitment began in December. Among the patients who have enrolled is 72-year-old Vicki Staehr, who lives in Orlando, Fla., with her son and daughter-in-law.

I cant remember anything for more than a few seconds, she said in a telephone interview. If you asked me what I had for lunch today, I couldnt tell you.

Her great-grandmother and grandmother had dementia, she said, so she realized a tendency to develop Alzheimers might run in her family.

She saw her grandmother decline and knew what the disease does to people. About a year ago, she realized her memory was starting to falter. It was frightening, Ms. Staehr said.

When her neurologist suggested testing to see if she qualified for the Lilly study, she was both surprised and intrigued.

Im not sure it would help me, Mrs. Staehr said But if it could help someone else. Whether you get it or not, watching it is terrible.Little Flower Haven in La Mesa is about to become an apartment complex.

The former convent and senior retirement community at 8585 La Mesa Blvd. was bought for $6 million from the Carmelite Sisters, a Roman Catholic order, on July 11 by Silvergate Development LLC with real estate investment group Pathfinder Partners LLC.

The La Mesa City Council agreed last September to support findings from its Design Review Board about the aesthetics of the project, and allowed Silvergate to change Little Flower Havens footprint into apartment units.

A 130-unit development will be built on the 4.1-acre property starting in September or October, said Mitch Siegler, senior managing director of Pathfinder Partners. Scheduled finish date will be sometime at the end of 2019 or beginning of 2020, he said.

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Siegler said the developer will keep as much of the feel of the downtown landmark that dates back to the 1930s as it can. Little Flower Havens Mission-style structure and stained glass windows are a part of La Mesa history.

The developers plan includes keeping the existing chapel and church bell tower.

This is a special project, Siegler said. This is not some piece of farmland in the middle of nowhere with no history, no pedigree. This is an heirloom in the community and goes back nearly 100 years or thereabouts and were very mindful of what that means. We want to honor that, and evoke as much of the architectural design that is there and bring it forward with our project.

Little Flower Haven closed as a nonprofit home for the elderly in 2015 and went on the market soon after.

The remodeled structure will have new east and west wings that will include 50 apartments, a recreation room with kitchen and a fitness facility overlooking the exterior decks and pool area. There will also be six new three-story residential buildings.

The property will have 68 one-bedroom/one-bathroom units, 55 two-bedroom/two-bathroom and seven studios, averaging 777 square feet.

The City Council faced some community pushback last year on the project, mostly from residents concerned about lost parking spots and increased traffic in the area.

Siegler said the development meets all the citys regulatory requirements for parking. Plans shared last September with the city for the complex show 193 spaces

karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comChula Vista residents will have the final say on marijuana.

On Tuesday, the City Council placed a cannabis tax on the November ballot by a 4-1 vote.

In February, the council adopted a set of marijuana regulations. But those regulations are dependent on voters approving a cannabis tax in November.

If the citizens want to legalize the sale of marijuana, they will have that choice in November, said Councilman Mike Diaz.

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Estimates say the city could generate $6 million a year in tax revenues.

Chula Vistas tax measure calls for a range of 5 percent to 15 percent on all marijuana businesses except cultivation and a $5 to $25 per square foot tax for cultivation facilities.

The original measure called for a $10 to $25 range on cultivation but Councilman Stephen Padilla widened the range to allow the council more flexibility to react to market conditions.

Tuesdays vote came after two hours of public testimony and council deliberation. The majority of the people who spoke against the measure were concerned about children having easier access to marijuana.

State laws prohibit selling recreational marijuana to anyone 20 years or younger.

The councils lone dissenter, Councilman John McCann, said he thought associating Chula Vista with marijuana is a mistake.

Ive spent my entire life trying to increase the quality of life for the residents of Chula Vista and working to elevate the communitys image, he said. Creating the biggest narcotic drug market for recreational marijuana in the county will only reduce the quality of life for families and children and tarnish the citys image.

McCann was also concerned about the scale of Chula Vistas regulations, arguing that they are less restrictive than San Diegos even though Chula Vista is four time smaller.

Chula Vistas regulations put the city in a position to have the most active marijuana market in the county  particularly when it comes to testing, manufacturing, and cultivation facilities.

While San Diego limits cannabis businesses to storefront recreational dispensaries, Chula Vista is open to a wider range of businesses.

But there are limits.

The city will only approve up to 12 marijuana retailers  either storefronts or delivery businesses. There can only be three retailers in one of Chula Vistas four city council districts and no more than two storefronts in each district.

Additionally, the city can only approve 10 cultivation businesses.

There is no limit on testing and manufacturing facilities, which produce edibles and oils from cannabis extract.

The measure forbids anybody who has operated an unlicensed marijuana business from opening a legal store in Chula Vista.

Padilla and the citys mayor said establishing clear resolutions will help the city crack down on unlicensed shops around the city and the tax revenue generated by the measure can help enforcement efforts.

Over the last four years, the city has shut down more than 35 illegal pot shops.

Padilla specifically criticized prohibitionists who are asking the council to vote against the measure but did not offer alternatives to dealing with illegal operators.

It makes absolutely no sense to rail against commercial marijuana businesses in our city that are illegal and not do anything to take control of that scheme or provide a revenue stream to do anything about it, he said. Especially when the city is already facing economic concerns.

Novembers marijuana tax measure is a general tax, meaning it requires a simple majority to pass and revenues generated form the tax can be spent on a variety of municipal services.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or TwitterThe Philippines and Mexico are thousands of miles apart. But in Chula Vista, both cultures live side-by-side.

Filipino and Mexican cultures are so intertwined in the South Bay that people even have a name for it: Mexipino.

That is also the name of a restaurant on Broadway between Anita and Main streets in Chula Vista that opened in January.

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I grew up eating both cultural foods, said chef Roger Buhain. My mother is Mexican and my father is Filipino.

Buhain and Richard Corpus, who is also Mexican and Filipino, decided to open a breakfast restaurant that celebrates both cultures.

Their menu includes traditional dishes like chilaquiles and huevos rancheros but also features unique fusions that blend Mexican, Filipino and American classics.

Nothing captures Mexipinos multicultural spirit better than the Mexipino hash. The dish comes loaded with achiote chicken, longaniza, purple yam, avocado, queso fresco and two fried eggs.

Differentiating between dishes that sound good versus those that actually taste good was a challenge. Buhain and Corpus spent a month trimming down 200 potential menu items through trial and error.

We gained 15 pounds that month, Corpus joked.

And they arent done. One of the most popular menu items, the adobo fried chicken and waffles, was added two days before they opened.

Buhain still experiments with new dishes at home. The restaurant currently has a breakfast and lunch menu but Corpus plans to have dinner options as well in the future.

Mixing both of their Mexican and Pilipino heritages, Richard Corpus (l) and Roger Buhain offer the MexiPino Breakfast Sandwich. Served with prime smoked brisket, spam,chorizo, avocado and egg on a Mex conchita bread and a side of fries. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Mexipino people have lived in San Diego for generations, according to Rudy Guevarra Jr., a fourth-generation Mexipino who is an associate professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University and published a book about the history of Mexicans and Filipinos in San Diego.

The two cultures first came together under Spanish colonial rule. They exchanged food, language and culture through the Manila-Acapulco trade route, Guevarra said.

Here in San Diego, Mexican and Filipino immigrants generally worked in some of the hardest and lowest-paying jobs like agriculture and fish canning. This, along with racially motivated redlining, kept them in close proximity to each other and over time they developed strong relationships, according to Guevarras research.

Mexipino culture has largely been overlooked by academia. One of the few articles Guevarra found while researching his book was from a 1930s sociologist who suggested they would die out.

Were still here and theres more of us, Guevarra said.

Guevarra grew up in San Diego but now lives in Arizona. A friend called him about the restaurant and he plans to dine there during his next visit.

Buhain and Corpus werent aware of the areas Mexipino history before they opened the restaurant. Initially, they werent sure how people would react.

But opening the restaurant introduced them to a large community of fellow South Bay Mexipinos they didnt know existed.

Many people who identify as Mexipino visit the restaurant because of the name and return because of the food.

Im surprised to see how many there are, Corpus said. Honestly, I thought we were a unique mix but theres been a bunch. Were bringing communities together and thats great.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or TwitterImagine a neighborhood in which everything you need or desire  such as a grocery store, park, hospital and restaurant  is within a 10-minute walk, ride on public transit or drive from you home.

Thats the kind of neighborhoods National City wants to create.

Its an idea that a team of consultants hired by the city will look into for the next year and a half. The architectural consultants will prepare plans for improvements to the citys neighborhoods and recommend changes to land-use plans and policies to support the vision.

The hope is the idea will come to fruition down the road.

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Its a planning initiative where we aim to provide a guide for improving neighborhoods so that its residents can walk, take transit, bike or take a short ride to meet their daily needs of work, play, education, shoping and other local services, said Chatherine Thibault of Circulate San Diego, a transportation nonprofit that is involved in the effort.

In other words, were aimming to look at every neighbohood in National City and identify programs, amenities and infrastucture improvements that could support and encourage residents to walk or bike more, or take transit, Thibault said.

During a recent city-sponsored roundtable, consultants said a so-called 10-minute neighborhood has the potential to reduce traffic, mitigate the enviromental impacts of vehicles, promote healthier lifestyles, encourage social interactions and support local businesses.

Consultants, city staff and representatives from the Navy, a housing nonprofit and Southwestern College discussed how 10-minute neighborhoods can cater to residents, particularly the citys three largest growing demographics: students, military members and seniors.

Rosalind Ross, project manager for Community HousingWorks, an organization that develops and manages affordable housing, said senior housing properties usually already include many of the amenities seniors use, such as lounge areas, outdoor spaces and multi-purpose rooms.

Outside of common areas used to socialize, seniors seek transportation options, Ross said.

David Zajac, Naval Base San Diegos community planning and liaison officer, said military members look for housing and options to engage in social activities. He said they want an escape when they leave work.

Although the base provides housing and amenities such as fitness centers for about 5,000 junior-level sailors, the Navy looks to the city to provide housing for senior-level sailors, Zajac said.

He supported the idea of 10-minute neighborhoods, saying the Navy considers traffic congestion around the base a problem.

Christine Perri, dean of Southwestern Colleges Higher Education Center at National City, noted the economic impacts of students. The roughly 20,000 students who attend a Southwestern College campus spend about $25.4 million annually  on groceries, rent, transportation and other expenses.

She said Southwestern College is looking into expanding in National City, with hopes that it can offer housing for students.

In the next 18 or so months, consultants plan to determine the land-use characteristics of a 10-minute neighborhood, engage in discussions with the community to pinpoint improvements needed to streets, public spaces and other areas so each neighborhood can fall in line with a 10-minute neighborhood.

Currently, the consultants are mapping the neighborhoods across the city and assessing the current conditions and elements in each. Theyre looking at the schools, parks, public transportation options and other aspects.

The city hired the consultants from KTUA with funds from a CalTrans grant. KTUA and Circulate San Diego helped the city write the grant proposal.

Other cities that have laid out a similar concepts include Portland, Detroit and Kirkland, Wash.

Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandezFor months after federal agents raided the offices of a Los Angeles charter school network, seizing documents and electronic records, the Celerity Educational Group tried to overhaul its image.

The nonprofit cut financial ties with its parent organization and replaced its chief executive. It launched a rebranding effort to distance itself from allegations of financial wrongdoing that have hovered for more than a year.

But in a sign that all is not well, the charter management organization made the decision last week to close one of its seven schools in Los Angeles County: Celerity Rolas, in Northeast L.A.

In a letter to parents, Nadia Shaiq, the groups CEO, said that Rolas had been unable to attract enough students to justify the costs of keeping it open.

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Closing a school is always a disappointment for our entire community, Shaiq wrote. But keeping the school without the enrollment necessary for a balanced budget would threaten the overall health of our other schools, impacting students, parents and employees.

A spokesman for Celerity did not respond to requests for comment.

Rolas closure means that several hundred students will be forced to find new placements  and without much time. The first day of school in the Los Angeles Unified School District is Aug. 14, and many of the deadlines for enrollment lotteries at the most sought-after charter schools have passed. Celeritys leaders have encouraged families to switch to its school in Glassell Park, Celerity Octavia.

The closure is the first public sign that Celerity is under considerable financial strain.

In the aftermath of the January 2017 raid and news that the FBI was investigating the nonprofit and questioning its employees, Celerity was thrown into turmoil. The State Board of Education refused to renew two of its charter schools, and although both schools were able to reopen under different names, the network said some its families never came back.

At Celerity Rolas, an elementary and middle school split between two sites  one in Eagle Rock and one in Highland Park  the school needed 435 students to break even, according to the organizations correspondence with the state. But only 309 students enrolled last year.

The loss of students meant less funding from the state. Meanwhile, the organizations legal fees were rising.

Facing investigations by federal agencies and L.A. Unifieds Office of the Inspector General, the group hired the law firm Gibson Dunn to aid it during the inquiries and help it separate from its founder, Vielka McFarlane, a target of the investigations. Celerity has also continued to pay a separate firm that specializes in charter school law.

The groups most recent financial projections show that while its individual schools are bringing in more money than they are spending, the organization that manages them is on less firm ground.

An L.A. Unified analysis described the fiscal condition of the group as weak. Within a year, the nonprofits expenses are expected to exceed its revenue by $826,000. Out of its total budget of $5.3 million for the coming school year, the group expects to spend more than $500,000 on legal fees alone.

Last month, the organizations board voted to hire a consultant  Aristos Strategies, run by City Hall lobbyist Gustavo Valdivia  to recruit students and boost enrollment.

Some of the decline, though, may be beyond the groups power to address.

In her message to parents, Shaiq attributed some of the enrollment loss to demographic shifts in Northeast L.A., writing: Unfortunately, Highland Park and Eagle Rock are transforming and have declining populations of school-age children.

anna.phillips@latimes.com

Twitter: @annamphillipsPresident Trump has selected the former president of a large brewing company to lead a commission on veterans mental health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced Tuesday.

Thomas Jake Leinenkugel will lead the Creating Options for Veterans Expedited Recovery Commission to examine the VAs evidenced-based therapy model, the VA said in a news release.

Leinenkugel was the president of Leinenkugel Brewing Company for 26 years and is a former Marine captain. In January 2017, Trump tapped him to be his VA white house senior adviser.

In that role, Leinenkugel clashed with former VA Secretary David Shulkin. His appointment Tuesday comes on the heels of Mondays senate confirmation of Robert Wilkie as VA secretary and reports of purges of VA employees disloyal to Trump.

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These changes are part of a sweeping reorganization of the VA that critics  including its former secretary in a New York Times opinion story  have said is an attempt to further privatize the department.

At a speech Tuesday at the national annual convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Trump talked up the changes hed made to the VA.

Last year, I signed a law  the VA Accountability Act  which nobody thought wed get approved, Trump said. Now, when a bad person, maybe a federal employee, abuses our great veterans in their time of need, we can look at them and say youre fired.

On Friday, the VA announced it had implemented Trumps May 25 executive order limiting how much paid time government employees could spend conducting union business.

The Executive Order has led to chaos at the VA, a union attorney told GovExec.com, an independent government news website.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America released a statement Monday responding to Wilkies confirmation and the tumult at the VA.

We finally have a Secretary after months of disruption, controversy and leadership changes, Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of IAVA, said in the statement. After decades of empty promises and failed results, our members are rightfully skeptical now about VAs ability to make the changes we need quickly  especially in such a divisive political environment.

The recovery commission is not wasting any time getting started  the VA said the first meetings will be held July 24 and 25.Police officers and sheriffs deputies, some in riot gear, lined a road outside the National City council chambers Tuesday night after protesters and activists interrupted a fourth consecutive council meeting to demand answers in the death of Earl McNeil, who died after his arrest in May.

Tuesdays meeting began as others had over the last two months, with activists taking over the public comment portion of the council meeting. All but one of the two dozen or so speakers Tuesday night talked about McNeils case.

Soon after the public comment portion of the meeting concluded and the City Council moved onto another matter, a group of protesters stood up with their hands in the air and walked up to the dais.

You have blood on your hands, the protesters chanted.

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The protesters, who had red paint on the palms of their hands, laid down in front of the dais as law enforcement officers formed a line to keep other people back.

Officers then dragged the protesters out of the council chambers, with some demonstrators wailing and crying out as they were pulled from the room.

It wasnt immediately clear how many people were arrested, though activists outside City Hall said it was six. Photos and first names of those arrested were already circulating on social media about an hour after they were detained.

Tasha Williamson was believed to be among those arrested. Williamson is a community organizer with the group Building Justice and was arrested last month for protesting McNeils death at a City Council meeting.

After the protesters were detained, they were kept inside City Hall for more than two hours as tempers flared outside, where other demonstrators shouted toward a line of at least a dozen sheriffs deputies on East 12th Street. The deputies were wearing riot helmets with face masks.

Behind the initial line stood two deputies in full SWAT gear. Dozens of other police officers from National City and Chula Vista formed a loose ring on the streets surrounding City Hall.

Shortly after 9 p.m., about five or six dozen additional officers and deputies marched down East 12th Street, outnumbering the people waiting outside the building to see the detainees brought out.

Tuesdays protests came a day after National City police and county officials met with McNeils family members and their attorney to update them on the investigation into his death, which included listening to a call McNeil made to police from the after-hours phone at department headquarters, police said.

Acting police Capt. Alex Hernandez said investigators outlined a timeline of events the morning McNeil was arrested, and officials with the county medical examiners office shared with the family the preliminary findings from McNeils autopsy.

Police have said McNeil went to the National City police station shortly before 5:30 a.m. on May 26 and used a telephone outside the station to speak with dispatchers. He told them, among other things, that he had a warrant out for his arrest, was high and wanted to kill Jesus.

Police said they suspected McNeil was under the influence of drugs. His family has said he suffered from bipolar disorder.

When officers met McNeil outside the police station, they said, he was agitated and paranoid and made irrational statements. They said McNeil became combative as officers tried to detain him.

McNeil was placed in a restraint called the Wrap, and was taken to County Jail, where he went into medical distress. Police said he was being checked out by paramedics when he stopped breathing.

He remained hospitalized on life-support until June 11.

Police said officers found a controlled substance on McNeil during the arrest.

Separate investigations have not been launched, but the county district attorneys office, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are monitoring the case.

Riggins writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

alex.riggins@sduniontribune.com | Twitter: @Alex_RigginsTwo Los Angeles police officers tore through traffic on Rowena Avenue on Saturday afternoon in a high-speed pursuit of an attempted murder suspect driving a Toyota Camry.

Suddenly, the back window of the Camry shattered.

Shots fired! the police officer at the wheel shouted to his partner as he swerved into oncoming lanes. Broadcast.

6A67 shots fired, she radioed. Officer needs help.

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Forty-five seconds later, the Camry veered into a utility pole in front of a Trader Joes and the driver bolted for the entrance, firing his gun wildly from his hip, according to dashboard and body-cam footage released by the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday.

(Kyle Kim)

The officers had less than two seconds to react before the gunman fled into a store full of shoppers. But a bad shot could hit a bystander. The video showed a man by the entrance and another behind the wreck, but not who was behind the glass front doors.

The officers opened fire. The suspect was hit in the arm but made it into the store, shooting at least three times at police from inside. A beloved Trader Joes manager, Melyda Corado, 27, died in the shootout.

On Tuesday, the police chief announced that one of the officers bullets had killed her.

On behalf of myself and the rest of the department, I want to express my deepest condolences and sympathy to her family and everyone that knew her, Chief Michel Moore said of Corado. I know that its every officers worst nightmare to hurt an innocent bystander during a violent engagement. I spoke with the officers this morning  theyre devastated. They were devastated in the immediate aftermath of this event.

Moore said she was coming out of the market and was close to the suspect. Gene Atkins, who allegedly had shot his grandmother earlier Saturday, survived the gunshot wound and surrendered to authorities hours later. No one else was injured.

1 / 16 Paolo Singer, 27, of Silver Lake prays at a memorial outside of Trader Joes in Silver Lake, where a shooting left one woman dead and at least two wounded Saturday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 16 A portrait of Melyda Corado, who was shot and killed Saturday, is pinned to a memorial outside Trader Joes in Silver Lake. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 16 Fiona Shields, of Los Feliz, leaves a note at a memorial outside of Trader Joes in Silver Lake on Monday. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 16 A couple embrace at a memorial Sunday night for Melyda Corado, a store manager who was killed in Saturdays shootout involving a gunman and LAPD officers at Trader Joe s in Silver Lake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 16 Members of the community pay their respects Sunday night to Melyda Corado, a store manager who was killed in Saturday s shootout involving a gunman and LAPD officers at Trader Joe s in Silver Lake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 16 Members of the community pay their respects Sunday night to Melyda Corado, a store manager who was killed in Saturday s shootout involving a gunman and LAPD officers at Trader Joe s in Silver Lake. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 16 Community members mourn for Melyda Corado, the Trader Joes store manager who was killed Saturday in Silver Lake. Photographs by Marcus Yam Los Angeles Times (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 16 People embrace outside a Trader Joes market after a gunman took dozens of people hostage inside the store before surrendering to police. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 16 A woman is evacuated on a gurney outside the Silver Lake Trader Joes where a gunman held hostages for several hours. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 16 A gunman suspected of shooting two people at a South L.A. home before opening fire outside a Trader Joes in Silver Lake is in custody after a tense standoff. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 16 The scene around the Trader Joes in Silver Lake after a police pursuit ended near there and a hostage drama ensued. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 16 Officials push a gurney to the scene of the Silver Lake Trader Joes where a gunman held hostages for several hours. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 16 Los Angeles police SWAT officers escort a group of people who were held for their safety by police at businesses surrounding a Trader Joes market after a gunman took dozens of people hostage inside the store before surrendering to police. (Damian Dovarganes / AP) 14 / 16 Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, center, and Police Chief Michel Moore, right, brief the media at a news conference after a gunman held dozens of people hostage inside a Trader Joes market before surrendering to police in Los Angeles. (Damian Dovarganes / AP) 15 / 16 A woman is evacuated on a gurney outside the Silver Lake Trader Joes where a gunman held hostages for several hours. (Damian Dovarganes / AP) 16 / 16 In this image from video provided by KNBC-TV, Los Angeles police remove a passenger from a car that crashed after police pursuit of a driver who then ran into a nearby Trader Joes market in Silver Lake. (KNBC-TV via AP)

Atkins, 28, was charged Tuesday with 31 felonies, including one count each of murder, kidnapping, two counts of premeditated attempted murder and four counts of attempted murder of a peace officer. He waived his arraignment and is being held on $18.75-million bail.

The chief said he would wait until the investigation was completed before determining what consequences, if any, the officers involved in the gun battle would face internally. But on its face, he said, their decision to shoot at Atkins appeared justified.

I believe its what they needed to do in order to defend the people of Los Angeles, defend the people in that store and to defend themselves, Moore said. I ask that you place yourself in these two officers positions and ask yourself what would you have done?

Moore noted that he was releasing details of the shooting along with police dashboard and body camera video of the incident earlier than is typical in order to frame the circumstances that these officers found themselves in.

The videos show three perspectives of the chaotic car chase, veering through busy Hollywood and Silver Lake on Saturday afternoon.

At 3:20 p.m., the suspect shot out the back window.

After calling for help, the female officer said: All right, partner, I got my gun out.

Do not, do not shoot, the male officer responded. Get distance. We are getting distance.

The dash camera video then shows the suspects car swerving left onto Hyperion Avenue toward Trader Joes before crashing head-on into a utility pole.

Seconds later, the police car stops and gunfire can be heard as the suspect springs from his vehicle, holding a weapon, and dashes into the market. It was about that time that one of the officers bullets struck Corado, passing through her arm before entering her body, the police chief said.

After the initial exchange of gunfire outside Trader Joes, the officers moved to a low wall opposite the market. Atkins allegedly shot three more times at police from inside, striking the wall and a pole near police, Moore said. One round landed with a loud ping.

Get your head down, an officer yelled.

The shooting stopped, and the incident, by then a hostage crisis, ended hours later with Atkins surrender.

After Moores announcement, Mayor Eric Garcetti released a statement supporting the chiefs choice to release the videos and circumstances of Corados death.

Saturday was a dark day for the family of Melyda Corado, and it is our responsibility to shed light as quickly as possible on what happened, the statement read. Melydas loved ones are entitled to answers  and Angelenos deserve complete transparency in understanding the full circumstances of her death.

I met with Melydas father on Saturday to share my sorrow over his daughters death, and he has my commitment to a thorough investigation and helping the family in any way possible  as they take those first, enormously difficult steps toward coping with the trauma of losing such a vibrant, compassionate young woman who was loved by so many.

The series of events that led to the shooting began hours earlier in South L.A. Police said Atkins had an argument with his grandmother at their home in the 1600 block of East 32nd Street. Atkins shot the woman multiple times before forcing his girlfriend into his grandmothers Toyota Camry, authorities said.

Police used an anti-vehicle theft system to track Atkins to Hollywood hours later, when he fled.

The decision to engage in a firefight at the busy shopping center led some to question the LAPDs response, while others were quick to praise the officers for risking their lives in an effort to stop Atkins.

Charles Sid Heal, a retired L.A. County sheriffs commander and expert on law enforcement shootings, said the video reflects the realities of the life-and-death decisions officers face when a suspect fires at them in a public place.

The suspect created the situation and law enforcement inherited it, Heal said. The alternative was to surrender the lives of hostages inside the store, plus he could have killed those officers  you can play the scenario over and over again, but nobody is going to have a better option.

Heal, a former SWAT supervisor, said Atkins could have entered the store and shot those inside.

People in a case of a tragic loss of life will look for solutions, but sometimes there isnt one, Heal said. The standard is not perfection. As an officer, if you dont shoot here, you are risking the lives of hostages and your officers.

We try to have a clear field of fire, but obviously the suspect has a substantial, even a decisive, advantage if we dont return fire, he said. There is no easy answer.

Still some were critical of the LAPDs decision to shoot.

How are police deciding to open fire in a packed place, in the afternoon, on a Saturday? asked Jesse Palmer, 38, who was Corados neighbor. Its not like its an empty lot. Its not like its an abandoned warehouse. What sort of protocol is required before you shoot into an area thats congested and booming with commerce?

Ed Obayashi, a police shooting expert and Plumas County sheriffs deputy, agreed with Moore that this is a cops worst nightmare.

He said the way the officers handled the pursuit was textbook calm. But it was risky to shoot given the distance, the backdrop and the moving target.

He said in such cases, officers can get tunnel vision.

They might not have even had the time to realize there was a glass door behind Atkins when they fired their last two shots.

The brain doesnt process that information that fast, Obayashi said.

Moore moved far quicker than his predecessors to release footage that usually takes weeks to be made public.

It is a credit to the police chief that he decided to be so transparent with video and [an] explanation of what his officers did, said Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and a former police officer in Florida. Nothing is more important than maintaining public trust.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna

richard.winton@latimes.com

Twitter: @LAcrimes

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

Twitter: @joemozingoIn many ways, San Diegos first Sunlight Retreats session looked like any other womens getaway weekend. It was held in a bucolic setting. There were yoga classes and acupuncture treatments. There were lessons in healthy cooking.

There were also visits by therapy dogs. And multiple workshops with trauma specialist Dr. Shiva Ghaed. And classes in self-defense.

In fact, the first Sunlight Retreats weekend  held in January in an undisclosed location  was not like anything its 15 attendees had ever experienced before. The retreat was designed for rape survivors by a rape survivor, and the goal was to jump-start a healing process that founder Brittany Catton Kirk knew from experience could be a long time in coming.

I feel like I was swimming in quicksand for the first year or two after the rape, Kirk said of her assault, which happened in 2012. My progress was slow. I gained 60 pounds in one year. I couldnt leave the house. I was just shutting down.

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You hear about these tech start-up environments where people can come together and grow their ideas in a much more accelerated way, and that is what my hope and goal for Sunlight Retreats is. You can experience all sorts of services right here. We jump-start things so people dont feel stuck in their PTSD and where theyre at.

Kirk came up with the idea after attending a YMCA womens retreat in Maryland. As great as it was to get away from the stresses of everyday life, Kirk was finding there was no getting away from the trauma of her assault. But what if you combined the serenity and togetherness of a weekend retreat with a full-immersion healing experience?

It seemed like the thing Kirk herself was looking for. And if she was looking for it, surely other survivors would be looking for it, too. On Aug. 3, 2017  five years to the day after she was raped  Kirk posted an interest list on Facebook to see if she was right.

She was.

I think without the retreat, I would have felt alone, like, forever, said Aly, a former San Diegan who attended Januarys event. To be surrounded by people who get it, that helped me get it. I feel like I can actually move on with my life. I have never felt the same since that retreat.

Because of lodging limitations, the first Sunlight Retreat was limited to 15 attendees. The at-cost fee was $250 for the weekend, which covered food, lodging, insurance and liability, and workshops and training sessions. It was such a success, Kirk has organized another one.

The second Sunlight Retreat will be held Aug. 24 through 26 at a private home in San Diego County. While the August retreat runs three days instead of two, the fee is still $250. The overnight slots have been filled, but there is still room for a small group of day visitors at a discounted rate.

Scholarships are available. Kirk has also opened up an interest list on her website for a male-only retreat. As with the retreats for women, trans and non-binary participants are welcome.

The August retreat will be a lot like the January retreat. There will be restorative yoga, acupuncture and classes in cooking for PTSD, depression and anxiety, all provided by practitioners who are volunteering their time. Dr. Ghaed, a San Diego-based clinical psychologist who specializes in trauma and anxiety disorders, will talk about the science of trauma and how to start the recovery process.

There will be tears and laughter and a-ha moments. Thanks to feedback from earlier participants, there will be an extra session with the therapy dogs from Love on a Leash, San Diego Central Chapter.

And there will be breakthroughs. Lots and lots of breakthroughs.

For me, when Dr. Shiva talked about the patterns of behavior that survivors have, that really struck me, said Aly, who said she found her dream job and got back into working out and volunteering after the retreat.

I did all of the things she discussed. Things like throwing away all of my clothes. Crazy things that I laugh at now. I felt like I had all of these strange things that I was doing, and having her confirm to us that all of these things are normal, that was the most eye-opening thing. It changed my life.

When she founded Sunlight Retreats, Kirk was hoping some transformative stories would result. She wasnt expecting to be one of them. Its a bonus she didnt see coming, and yes, it changed everything.

I felt like I was doomed to suffer for the rest of my life, and I dont feel that way anymore, Kirk said. If we dont do anything with the pain, then it is just wasted pain. I think trying to make something positive out of it will help us all.

For information on Sunlight Retreats, go to sunlightretreats.org.

Twitter: @karla_peterson

karla.peterson@sduniontribune.comAs the white, 55-gallon drum emerged from the San Diego Bay, harbor police officers knew by the foul odor that something was bad.

It took moments for them to open the lid and discover a badly decomposed body stuffed inside. It took a little longer to learn that it was the body of a 28-year-old South Bay music producer, Omar Medina, who had been stabbed more than 60 times.

Medinas family had been looking for him for about a week when the barrel holding his body was found on Oct. 12, 2017, by a diver in the bay between Chula Vista and the Coronado Cays.

Omar Medina (GoFundMe)

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On Tuesday, a prosecutor in a Chula Vista Superior Court preliminary hearing began laying out a case alleging that Timothy John Cook, 53, of Chula Vista stabbed Medina more than 60 times and Derrick Jefferson Spurgeon, 38, of El Cajon, helped him dispose of the young mans body.

Cook is charged with murder and Spurgeon with being an accessory after the fact. Both have pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have not revealed a possible motive for the killing.

The hearing was expected to last two days. Then Judge Stephanie Sontag will decide whether enough evidence against the defendants was presented to order them held for trial.

Spurgeon faces two other unrelated court cases, one involving alleged torture, kidnapping, extortion and robbery and the other case concerning narcotics sales and narcotics possession in prison.

San Diego Harbor Police Officer Claudio Asiong testified on Tuesday that he and two colleagues took their boat south in the bay off Chula Vista to meet a man who was aboard a dinghy. The man had found a metal barrel while diving, as it floated about four feet below the surface, anchored by a metal cable and weighted down by three cinder blocks. Some chemical labels on the barrel raised concerns that it might contain hazardous material, Asiong said.

As we were lifting the barrel, we could smell a strong odor, the officer testified. A rancid odor.

He said they saw holes in the barrel and some gooey matter and hair showing through one hole.

At that point it became a little more serious, Asiong testified.

He said they hauled the barrel onboard and opened the lid. He saw a fuzzy brown blanket inside, and a hand. Chula Vista homicide detectives then were called in.

One of those detectives, Manuel Salazar, testified that he attended the autopsy the next day, when the barrel was opened again and the body examined.

An autopsy revealed that Medina had been stabbed more than 60 times, including a cluster of 15 wounds on the left side of his chest and 21 clustered on his back. He was identified by his fingerprints and distinctive tattoos.

Surveillance video at the Chula Vista marina led detectives to Cooks home on McIntosh Street in Chula Vista, where he was arrested on Dec. 13. Spurgeon was arrested the same day at his home on Rios Canyon Road in El Cajon.

Cook had already been interviewed by Chula Vista patrol officers because Medina had been living with Cook and working for Cooks brother in a scaffolding business, Officer Robin Garrette testified.

She said that on Oct. 1, she was sent to meet some people on Oak Lawn Avenue regarding a missing person. Alicia Villeagas told officers that they had found a white Cadillac belonging to her missing brother, Medina. Family and friends had last seen Medina on Sept. 30.

She didnt seem hysterical, she just seemed concerned and wanted to know where her brother was, Garrette said.

The car was unlocked and belongings were neatly piled inside, but there was no evidence of a crime, Garrette said. But she and another officer went to talk to Cook.

On body-worn camera footage, shown in court, Cook can be heard agreeing to let the officers look at a small, weather-beaten residence behind the main house, where he said Medina had stayed for a month before being asked to leave. The place was stripped of all belongings.

Deputy District Attorney Cherie Somerville showed photos taken by police inside the main house, where a kitchen sink and flooring had been ripped out, and a flooring and drywall pulled out of a bedroom. It wasnt immediately clear whether she would suggest that Medina was killed in that room, which was later taken apart to eliminate evidence.

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepardAn Oceanside man with a diagnosed mental illness bought a gun legally two months ago, then emptied the five-shooter into a woman who lived downstairs last week, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

After the ambush killing on Friday, detectives found the 24-year-old victims name  as well as two others names  scrawled in ink on the radiator tank under the hood of the accused shooters brand new Toyota.

They also found the words rest in peace and references to the Quran, Deputy District Attorney Keith Watanabe said.

The prosecutors detailed account of the apparently unprovoked killing of Devon Rideout came during an arraignment at the Vista courthouse for 25-year-old former Marine Cpl. Eduardo Arriola.

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Arriola is accused of gunning down Rideout, a Navy corpsman, shortly before 4 p.m. Friday at their apartment complex on Los Arbolitos Boulevard, north of state Route 76.

The defendant pleaded not guilty to murder and a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait  an allegation that means he faces life in prison or the possibility of execution if convicted.

Arriola, who was reportedly attending a community college, lived with his family in the apartment above the victim, Watanabe said. There is no indication that Rideout and the defendant had any sort of relationship.

Arriolas defense attorney said in court that her client had been born and raised in Oceanside and had no criminal record.

According to the Marine Corps, Arriola joined the military in August 2011  the same year he graduated El Camino High School, according to his Facebook page. His job in the military was aircraft technician.

Arriola, who had no deployments, was discharged last September. The Marine Corps was not able to say what sort of discharge Arriola was given.

He was last assigned to the Wounded Warrior Battallion in San Diego, according to the military.

Watanabe said Tuesday that Arriola had deserted the military in 2016, fleeing to Mexico. In 2017, he returned to the United States, turned himself in and was arrested by the military, the prosecutor said.

He also said Arriolas diagnosis of schizophrenia was made after his return from Mexico.

It was not immediately clear how he was able to purchase a gun legally in California in May. Watanabe said the gun dealer did not have access to military records.

He said it appeared that Arriola lied on the application, which asks if the buyer has been diagnosed with a mental illness. We dont believe he would have been allowed to purchase a firearm had those questions been answered truthfully, the prosecutor said.

On the afternoon of the shooting, Rideout had just arrived home from work at the hospital at Camp Pendleton. Still wearing her uniform, she started to take her puppy for a walk when she was ambushed steps from her front door, Watanabe said.

The assailant emptied a .38-caliber Smith and Wesson five-shot revolver, shooting Rideout three times in the chest and twice in the head. As she struggled through her last breaths, the gunman prevented bystanders from helping her, the prosecutor said.

Arriola remained at the scene. Oceanside police took him in for questioning, and arrested him about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, less than nine hours after the fatal encounter.

Watanabe said Arriola confessed to being the shooter, telling investigators he shot Rideout because she was trespassing.

We believe this was a pre-planned killing in which he ambushed the victim in broad daylight, the prosecutor said.

Superior Court Judge Robert Dahlquist granted the prosecutions request to hold Arriola without bail.

After court, Watanabe said police detectives have not yet been able to identify the other two people whose names were written on Arriolas car radiator.

The prosecutor called Rideouts death senseless and tragic, and said there was nothing the victim could have done to prevent this killing.

Rideouts family attended the arraignment, and cried as they listened to details of the attack on Rideout. Afterward, they issued a statement through Watanabe in which they said she was a faithful servant in the military.

The prosecutor said Rideout was about to start schooling to become an occupational therapist, and her family believes she had a very bright future.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTTwo gang members convicted in an ambush shooting that killed a teenage girl on an Oceanside playground were given decades-long prison sentences Wednesday.

Daniel Ramos, 22, and Elias Ramos, 21, were both found guilty in March of first-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Annebell Flores in the early morning hours of Sept. 3, 2016.

The North County jury also found the two men  who are not related  guilty of attempted murder for shooting at a friend who was with Annebell on the playground at Balderrama Park.

Further, the jury found it had been done for the benefit of a street gang.

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Authorities said the two Oceanside men had gone to the park in the middle of the night, intent on shooting members of a rival gang, which claims the park as its turf.

Annebell was not a gang member.

Annebell Flores (Courtesy photo)

Vista Superior Court Judge Sim von Kolinowski sentenced both men to the maximum terms available under state law. He gave Daniel Ramos  the triggerman  92 years to life in prison. Elias Ramos got 84 years to life in prison.

This was not impulsive, the judge said of the ambush. This was a premeditated, planned attack to kill (rival) gang members.

Despite the long sentences, both men will be eligible for a parole hearing after serving 25 years, because their crimes were committed before they were 23 years old.

Annebell was sitting on the playground structure at Balderrama Park, talking with a family friend when they were attacked about 2:30 a.m.

Surveillance video caught some of the ambush, but Annebell cannot be seen in the recording. She had tried to hide in a tube on the play structure.

Defendant Elias Ramos listens to his attorney John Patterson at his sentencing Wednesday at the Vista courthouse for his role in the murder of Annebell Flores, 15. (Don Boomer)

The video shows Annebells friend suddenly take off running, chased by someone with a gun. Flashes  presumably gunfire  can be seen in the footage.

Before the judge handed down the sentences, Annebells mother, also named Annebell Flores, spoke of the pain from the loss of her daughter, her oldest child.

She was my little Annebell, the mother said. All I have is memories now.

Flores also said that while the two defendants will still get to see their families, I gotta go to Eternal Hills to talk to my daughter  and she isnt even there.

The young victims grandfather, Robert Espinosa, spoke of loving and missing his granddaughter. He also had words for the defendants.

You guys chose the gang lifestyle, Espinosa said. This is the ultimate in the lifestyle. You guys are going to prison for the rest of your lives. You killed my granddaughter. She was innocent. She was 15 years old.

The attack on a teenage girl on a playground shook Oceansides Eastside neighborhood  a tightly knit, working-class community, but one that has struggled with gang violence.

In this December 2016 file photo, family and friends of Annebell Flores attend a vigil at Balderrama Park, where she was killed. It was one of several events marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting death of Oceanside Police Officer Dan Bessant. (Edward Sifuentes/San Diego Union-Tribune file photo)

Annebells death was the third homicide in or near Balderrama Park  a popular gathering spot  in the summer of 2016.

In the wake of the shooting, her grandfather became a neighborhood activist. He has spoken at City Council meetings and joined Save Our Streets, a community group formed about a decade ago to prevent violence in the area.

Asked his thoughts on the long sentences, Espinosa said: Its hard, but satisfying that justice has been served.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTWhile everyone agreed that a comprehensive review of San Diego Countys psychiatric resources is warranted, there were no solutions Tuesday for the upcoming closure of Tri-City Medical Centers mental health units.

Acting on a request from board chair Kristin Gaspar, county supervisors ordered a wide-ranging assessment of local psychiatric services. But, while that report is to be delivered for discussion on Oct. 30, there was no firm timeline for replacing the capacity of the units that the Oceanside hospital plans to close in late August.

Meanwhile, Tri-City received a letter Tuesday that claimed its decision on June 26 to close its psychiatric wards violated public meetings law.

The Oceanside public hospital district hospital has cited three main reasons why it plans to close its 18-bed locked psychiatric unit and its 12-person crisis stabilization center: Federal regulations require an investment of $3 million to eliminate hanging risks, the units currently operate at a multimillion-dollar annual loss and staffing the facilities is a continual struggle.

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Though urged to take more aggressive action on the matter, the board stuck with ordering long-term assessments rather than short-term workarounds.

Nick Macchione, director of the county Health and Human Services Agency, said that his office and UC San Diego Health offered to work with Tri-City to lobby at the state and federal levels for a temporary reprieve on the guidelines that require it to make the expensive changes which, among other issues, require changes to drop ceilings which suicidal patients can use to hang themselves.

Even though UCSD and our county folks had started working together, the board at Tri-City then made the decision to close that unit, Macchione said.

After the meeting, Aaron Byzak, Tri-Citys chief government and external affairs officer, said that the idea of lobbying for change was considered too slow and narrow to address the hospital boards broad and deep range of concerns.

Even if somebody came up with a concrete financial solution to the ligature issues, we still have staffing issues, we have the fact that its an underfunded service, Byzak said.

It remains unclear exactly where coastal North County psychiatric patients on 5150 holds will be taken for care after Tri-Citys units close.

Former state assemblyman and current county board of supervisors candidate Nathan Fletcher noted at Tuesdays meeting that the countys psychiatric hospital on Rosecrans Street in San Diegos Midway District has only 45 psychiatric beds in use though the state lists its total capacity at 109.

He said the county can deal with the situation right away by making better use of its existing resources on Rosecrans and by simply giving Tri-City the cash it needs to make renovations in exchange for remaining open.

Open the beds, Fletcher said. You dont have to wait for a 90-day assessment. Those two actions alone would bring up almost 80 inpatient psychiatric beds that could help provide the foundation for the long-term solutions you need.

Alfredo Aguirre, director of the countys Behavioral Health Department, said that an additional 18 beds in the county hospital are being used for an emergency response unit, but the remaining 45 beds are currently used for training. He said the county is considering using the space for patients, but has not yet decided whether the capacity should be used to handle those brought in through the 5150 process or for long-term care when patients are discharged from state mental hospitals.

It was clear Tuesday that the supervisors are not finished with the Tri-City issue. North County supervisor Bill Horn said that transporting 5150 patients far out of their communities for hospitalization is just not going to work.

We dont want our hospitals and our jails overflowing, Horn said. We dont want to be taking public safety officers out of service just to transport patients.

But a new front opened Tuesday in the battle to keep Tri-Citys units open. The hospitals board received a letter from an attorney representing the Service Employees International Union Tuesday, demanding that the board rescind layoff notices sent to 80 employees who work in the hospitals two psychiatric units. Deliberations on the 26th, the letter alleges, were a sham because directors communicated and came to a consensus before the meeting was held, a violation of the Ralph M. Brown Act.

The fact that Tri-City was able to take extensive action just one day after it deliberated, the unions letter says, suggests that hospital directors were planning the move through one-on-one communications long before they formally met to make a decision.

There is no other explanation for the immediate June 27 announcement to the public, the filing with the (California Employment Development Department), and the approximately 80 letters to the affected employees, than that the decision was made before the sham deliberations held on June 26, the letter states.

The union also alleges that Tri-City misled the public about the nature of its deliberations. An agenda for the meeting stated that the board would consider suspension of services, but a layoff notice provided to the Employment Development Department indicates permanent closure.

Tri-City did not immediately comment on the letters allegations Tuesday, but, under the law, it has 30 days to respond to the union in writing.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly indicated that results will reconvene on Oct. 29.

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(619) 293-1850

Twitter: @paulsissonHundreds of people have signed up to march near San Diego Bay on Aug. 4 to raise awareness about San Diegos homeless population in the second annual A Short Walk Home, a benefit for Father Joes Villages.

People can participate by forming their own teams, joining existing ones or becoming a virtual participant by visiting my.neighbor.org.

Ive always been a fan of Father Joes, said the Rev. John Dolan, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego. I worked there myself about 25 years ago. I was a fundraiser, working with Father Joe Carroll himself.

Dolan still is raising funds for Father Joes Village. His team, which he put together by organizing 25 parishes, is the top fundraiser of all the teams so far, having pledged more than $13,000. Team St. Joseph was in second with $5,300.

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As of Wednesday, the fundraiser had received $42,000 in pledges toward its goal of $50,000.

Money will be used for a variety of services at Father Joes Villages, including housing programs and various supportive services.

This years walk is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Spanish Landing Park. Registration costs $30 for adults and $15 for youths 17 and younger. Registration for active military members and veterans is $25, and others can join as virtual participants for $20.

After walking a two-mile route along the promenade at Spanish Landing Park, hundreds of participants will pass through an oversized front door at the finish line, symbolizing a walk home and their commitment to helping the homeless find their own safe and affordable place to live.

Dolan encourages people to form their own teams, as he did last year shortly after he was ordained a bishop.

The primary focus is to bring awareness to homeless-related issues in San Diego, but its also a good fundraiser for Father Joes, he said.

The official count of homeless people in San Diego County this year was 8,576. The actual number was higher, as about 300 people staying in the San Diego Rescue Mission were not counted this year.

Among the participants in last years walk was Dawn ODonnell of Point Loma, who brought her 7th-grade daughter, Megan, and a small group of other girls from her neighborhood who were in a group called San Diego MADCAPS, or Mothers and Daughters Club Assisting Philanthropies. She said the walk was a way of getting the children out of their bubble.

They have good friends and a good family so its important they see that there are other families with challenges and children that are not living in as nice conditions, ODonnell said. They dont know until they see it.

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Twitter: @GaryWarthUT

760-529-4939San Diego City Council will keep moving forward with its plan to require contractors to disclose whether they work on President Donald Trumps border wall.

At a budget committee meeting on Wednesday, council members voted 3-1 to have city officials draft an ordinance that would require contractors competing for city projects to disclose any past, present or planned bids or actual work on parts of the presidents promised border wall.

It was not clear from Wednesdays decision whether that disclosure might affect a contractors ability to get city work or whether the city might publish a list of contractors who have connections to the wall.

Council President Pro Tem Barbara Bry and council members Georgette Gomez and Chris Ward voted in support of the motion.

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Trumps border wall does nothing to promote San Diegos robust economy and our positive international ties with Mexico, Bry said. Our region is stronger because of our cross-border exchange with our neighbors to the south.

Councilman Ward said he knows of at least one company that made a bid on border wall construction that may end up working on a major construction project for the city.

A spokesman for Gomez, who has led the citys push against the proposed border wall, said the councilwoman is happy to see the city moving forward.

Councilman Chris Cate was the lone vote against the move. He called the idea a bad precedent meant to shame employers and employees.

These folks rely on jobs to provide for their families, Cate said.

During the meeting, the committee reviewed approaches that other cities have taken to show opposition to the promised wall along the southwest border. The report, presented by Jeff Kawar of the Office fof the Independent Budget Analyst, was the result of a resolution that the council passed in September.

Kawar said of the six cities with similar resolutions that his office studied, Oakland had the most aggressive rules. The city requires contractors to file a statement that they have not and will not seek work on the border wall.

Los Angeles, he said, requires contractors to explain any affiliation with the wall and keeps those filings as public record.

Other cities are still debating how they will enact such ordinances and whether they should include only work on actual border wall projects, like the prototypes at Otay Mesa, or also include other fencing replacement work.

Benjamin Prado of the American Friends Service Committee, the only member of the public to address the committee over the border wall issue, urged the city to publish a list of contractors who have border wall affiliations.

Paige Folkman, a deputy city attorney, cautioned the committee that asking for companies to disclose information about border wall participation might open the city up to litigation risks. She said the City Attorneys office would have to work closely with other departments to review ordinance plans for legal concerns.

This is not a slam dunk, Folkman said.

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterAfter her staff found sub-par detention conditions at an El Centro Border Patrol station, Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent a letter Monday calling on the Department of Homeland Security to immediately address concerns about what custody is like for migrants along the southwest border.

The California Democrat sent two members of her staff to visit the Border Patrol station on Friday after a court filing last week monitoring detention conditions for children reported problems with food, access to water, overcrowding and basic hygiene in Customs and Border Protection facilities along the southwest border.

Her staff reported that they found families with children as young as three sleeping on concrete floors with no padding in the Border Patrol station. Migrants there didnt have access to drinking water or basic hygiene products, Feinstein said.

A room designated for men was so crowded that the people held inside couldnt all lay down comfortably, Feinstein said.

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It appears that El Centro is not equipped to handle the number of detainees currently there, and I am concerned that similar conditions may exist at other CBP temporary detention facilities, Feinstein said.

When asked about the letter, CBP deferred to DHS. A representative for DHS did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.

A CBP official tasked with monitoring facility conditions for children has found the agency to be in compliance in recent reports.

Feinsteins staff visiting El Centro found that migrants, including children, had been in the temporary holding facility for longer than theyre supposed to be.

Children who had come to the border alone, called unaccompanied minors by the federal government, had been in one of the rooms for up to five days, which Feinstein said may be a violation of the Trafficking Victims and Protection Reauthorization Act.

Adults had been held for up to 10 days, well beyond the 72 hours that is part of CBP policy.

She asked the department for more data about how many migrants are in CBP facilities along the southwest border and for how long theyre held.

I hope that we will be able to work together to put in place a statutory framework that prohibits the separation of children from their parents and ensures that DHS has the resources needed to implement a humane, effective immigration system, Feinstein told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in the letter.

She said she plans to send staff members to other facilities along the border as well.

Other politicians, including Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, and Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., have visited a variety of detention facilities in recent months as public outrage grew over a Trump administration policy that resulted in family separations at the border.

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterAn often-defensive Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo struggled Wednesday to explain President Trumps often confusing and secretive handling of foreign policy as senators demanded details about the presidents conversations last week with Russias Vladimir Putin.

In testimony that began shortly after the White House announced that a planned Putin visit to Washington would be put off until next year, sparing Republicans an unwanted election-season distraction, Pompeo attempted to dispel the criticism that Trump has been soft on Russia.

Citing a series of economic sanctions that Washington imposed on Moscow and the expulsion from the U.S. of dozens of Russian spies, Pompeo contended that Trump has overseen a defensive military buildup that frightens the Russian president.

Our approach has been  to steadily raise the costs of aggression until Vladimir Putin chooses a less confrontational foreign policy, while keeping the door open for dialogue, Pompeo testified.

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He also unveiled a Crimea Declaration that repeated U.S. condemnation of Russias 2014 attacks on Ukraine and its invasion and annexation of Crimea, and demanded Putin respect international boundaries.

The declaration was designed, in part, to put to rest ambiguity created by Trump when he chose not to condemn Putins actions when the two appeared together in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.

In nearly three hours of often-tough questioning by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo refused to answer questions that demanded explanations of Trumps often contradictory comments, including his back-and-forth statements on Russian interference in U.S. elections and his boasts that he already has resolved the North Korean nuclear threat after a one-day summit last month with leader Kim Jong Un. He repeatedly deflected questions about Trumps one-on-one meetings with Putin and Kim.

Presidents are entitled to have private meetings, he said as he declined to answer questions from the committees senior Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

All Democrats on the committee, and several Republicans, voiced frustration over the administrations refusal to provide more detailed answers.

Its not about you; its not about Mattis, said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the committee chairman, complimenting Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis.

Its the president who causes people to have concerns, Corker said, listing a series of statements Trump had made this month that he said appeared purposefully designed to create tremendous distrust in this nation and our allies.

Why does he do those things? Corker asked.

Pompeo said he disagreed and implored senators to pay more attention to policy than to presidential tweets and remarks. He also insisted that Trump was clearly in charge, even though he often contradicts his own Cabinet members.

In one such contradiction, Pompeo forcefully insisted that the U.S. would never allow former ambassadors or other officials to be interrogated by Russian agents. The United States will defend our team thats in the field, he said. Both during their time in service and thereafter. He declined to acknowledge that in their joint news conference in Helsinki, Trump had complimented Putin for suggesting just that sort of interrogation of several Americans, including a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Michael McFaul.

The hearing began on a contentious note.

You come before a group of senators today who are filled with serious doubts about this White House and its conduct of American foreign policy, Corker said. We really need a clear understanding as to what is going on, what our president is agreeing to, and what our strategy is on a number of issues.

Within minutes, Pompeo was exchanging barbs with Menendez, who branded Trumps actions and statements incoherent and untruthful that cause chaos and confusion, or worse, and asked whether there was a strategy behind what he called the art of concessions that weaken the United States.

Pompeo retorted: I understand the game that youre playing.

Repeatedly asked about specific points or topics in Trumps two-hour private talk with Putin, Pompeo would only restate U.S. policy  not whether an item was discussed or what was said.

When Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) noted that he was avoiding the question, Pompeo curtly responded that he was addressing what matters.

In high-stakes summits with Putin and Kim, Trump took the unusual tack of sitting down with experienced, wily adversaries without advisors or note-takers. That has led to unverifiable speculation over any agreements that might have been made and widespread unease among lawmakers, politicians and even the Pentagon.

In the absence of U.S. statements, Russian officials and media have reported on verbal agreements they say Trump made, often leaving U.S. officials scrambling.

The Pentagon has been struggling to find out, for example, whether Trump and Putin agreed to a U.S. withdrawal of troops from Syria, as Moscow has said. Pompeo appeared to downplay that, saying that Trump and Putin had agreed only to further talks on Syria to see if we cant get Russia to be more cooperative.

Foreign policy experts say the risks of Trump making concessions to Russia are real, given his apparent affinity for Putin and Putins ability to manipulate inexperienced world leaders.

Corker said that Trump presented the United States as a pushover and that the Helsinki event was a sad day in American history.

Menendez, meanwhile, launched a bipartisan effort Tuesday to place additional economic sanctions on Russia, something Trump has repeatedly resisted. On Wednesday he described Trumps Helsinki performance as an appallingly self-serving circus that undermined U.S. democracy.

Trump has shown himself ambivalent toward sanctions, and imposed many on Russia only when Congress forced his hand.

He has also publicly doubted the extent to which Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election despite the evidence of meddling. That has colored much of his positive posture toward Putin  and given ammunition to his critics who say he is weak before Moscow.

Pompeo refused to say whether Trump discussed easing sanctions with Putin. Pompeo said he favored additional sanctions and insisted that Trump understood the scope of Russian interference.

He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened, Pompeo said.

Pompeo is a Republican former congressman from Kansas and former CIA director and has often appeared cool and collected, if not always forthcoming, in past command appearances before his former colleagues. But he was also known for being combative when crossed or when championing a favorite cause.

In announcing the delay of the White House invitation to Putin, John Bolton, the White House national security advisor, said the meeting would take place early next year after the Russian witch hunt is over, a reference to the special counsel investigation into the Kremlins campaign interference and Trump associates possible coordination.

In fact, Putin has yet to accept any White House invitation. Leaders of the Senate and House have said they opposed the idea and would not invite Putin to speak to Congress, an honor they said should be reserved for allies.

Republican elected officials were particularly insistent that Putin not come to Washington this fall during the run-up to the midterm election, a period during which they do not want voter attention focused on Trumps foreign policy controversies.

tracy.wilkinson@latimes.com

For more on international affairs, follow @TracyKWilkinson on Twitter

UPDATES:

5:00 p.m.: This article was updated with testimony and questioning from the hearing.

11:50 a.m.: This article was updated with Pompeos comment about Crimea.

This article was originally published at 7:20 a.m.LOS ANGELES  NASAs Curiosity rover has uncovered signs of an ancient freshwater lake on Mars that may have teemed with tiny organisms for tens of millions of years, far longer than scientists had imagined, new research suggests.

The watering hole near the Martian equator existed about 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists say it was neither salty nor acidic, and contained nutrients  a perfect spot to support microbes.

This just looks like a pretty darn ordinary Earth-like lake in terms of its chemistry, said project scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. If you were desperate, you could have a drink of this stuff.

The lake likely was around for tens of thousands  perhaps hundreds of thousands  of years. Even when the lake dried up, scientists said microbes could have migrated underground, extending the timeframe for habitable conditions to potentially tens of millions of years. Curiosity, though, lacks the tools to search for any fossilized microbes.

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The findings were published online Monday in the journal Science and presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

The new results definitely reinforce the idea that past life on Mars was possible, planetary scientist David Paige at the University of California, Los Angeles said in an email.

Paige, who is not part of the Curiosity team, added: The question of whether life existed or exists on Mars today is still open.

Present-day Mars is dusty and harsh, with no signs of water on the surface. But the red planet wasnt always a radiation-scarred frozen desert.

Early in its history, Mars was more tropical, with streams and rivers. With water plentiful, scientists think it was a place where primitive life could have thrived by feeding on rocks and minerals similar to tiny organisms on Earth that hide in caves and underwater vents.

Around 3.5 billion years ago, Mars underwent a shift and raged with volcanic activity. NASAs older rovers Spirit and Opportunity found geologic evidence that water flowed during this time, but it was highly acidic and considered too caustic for life.

Scientists thought much of the planet had been awash in acidic water until Curiosity found signs of an old streambed near its landing site with a neutral pH.

Analyzing a sedimentary rock known as a mudstone, the nuclear-powered rover next found evidence of a bigger body of water  the ancient lake  that was theoretically drinkable, harboring some of the key ingredients for life including carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus.

A roving science laboratory, Curiosity touched down in a massive depression called Gale Crater near Mars equator last year, toting high-tech instruments to drill into rocks, forecast the weather and track radiation.

Now that the $2.5 billion mission has accomplished a main goal  finding a habitable environment  attention has turned to the hunt for elusive carbon-based organic compounds that are fundamental to all living things.

Before setting off on that search last summer, the six-wheel rover used its instruments to determine the age of a rock  the first time this has been achieved on another planet or celestial body.

The rock turned out to be 4.2 billion years old  not entirely surprising since observations from space suggested the bedrock in the crater was this old. Scientists also calculated the rock has been exposed on the surface  and to galactic cosmic rays  for 78 million years, another study found.

This knowledge should help the team find rocks in the foothills of Mount Sharp that have not been too zapped by radiation, said mission scientist Ken Farley of Caltech.

Scientists hope Curiosity will reach the mountain by next June, just a few months shy of its second landing anniversary.A 44-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach Tuesday afternoon when an argument escalated in East Village, a San Diego police officer said Wednesday.

The assailant slipped the knife into his backpack and took off after the confrontation, just before 4 p.m. at 16th Street and Imperial Avenue, Officer John Buttle said.

Its not clear what the two were arguing over, he said. The victim was taken to a hospital with an injury not considered to be life-threatening.

The assailant was described as a black man in his 50s with bleached highlights in his hair.

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Detectives are investigating the incident.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTThe driver shot after a police chase ended in a marsh in San Diego last week was a 21-year-old San Marcos man, police said Wednesday.

Jose Trujillo was shot in the upper torso by sheriffs deputies on Friday night during the encounter by the Los Penasquitos Lagoon. He is in stable condition, San Diego police Lt. Anthony Dupree said.

Trujillo  who called 911 during the chase and told dispatchers he wanted to commit suicide by cop  is expected to be charged with drunken driving and trying to evade officers, Dupree said.

Dupree also released the names of the two deputies involved in the shooting as Frank McRoberts with the sheriffs North Coastal station in Encinitas and Nicholas Jehl with the sheriffs Vista station.

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McRoberts has been with the department for five years, and Jehl has been a deputy for two years.

The chase started in Vista, which is patrolled by the Sheriffs Department. The shooting occurred in the city of San Diego, which is why San Diego police are handling the investigation.

The pursuit started shortly after 8:40 p.m. Friday, when the driver of a 2005 Audi ignored a deputy trying to pull him over for suspected drunken driving in the area of Poinsettia Avenue and Linda Vista Drive in Vista.

The Audi took off, eventually heading west on state Route 78, then taking southbound Interstate 5  at some points going faster than 100 mph, Dupree said.

The driver called 911 and told dispatchers he had a loaded handgun, a woman in the car with him and wanted to be shot to death by law enforcement officers.

Eventually, the Audi got off the freeway at Carmel Valley Road and headed west toward the ocean.

Suddenly, the driver veered the car across the oncoming traffic lanes and drove about 200 yards into the marsh of the Los Penasquitos Lagoon.

When car ended up stuck, the driver got out and moved toward the deputies, who had followed him into the marsh on foot.

The driver took a shooting stance and pointed something at the deputies, according to Dupree.

Two deputies opened fire, shooting the driver in his upper torso.

Trujillo was taken to the hospital. No one else was injured in the incident.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTDonald Trump appeared familiar with a deal that a Playboy model made to sell the rights to her story of an alleged affair with him when Trump discussed the matter in September 2016 with his attorney Michael Cohen, according to a transcript of their conversation.

The transcript, which was provided by President Trumps legal team, shows that the then-GOP presidential nominee does not register confusion or surprise when Cohen refers to a plan to purchase the rights to model Karen McDougals story from American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer.

AMI, whose chief executive is David Pecker, had signed a $150,000 deal with McDougal in August 2016 for her story, but never published it.

Um, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, Cohen says, according to the transcript.

So what do you got to pay for this . . . one-fifty . . . Trump says.

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Yes, Cohen replies. Um, and its all the stuff.

On Tuesday night, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani disputed the idea that the recording shows that Trump knew about the McDougal deal.

It doesnt, he said in an interview with The Washington Post. Thats open to interpretation, and we can have a fight about that.

To me it sounds like Cohen is explaining something to [Trump] that he doesnt understand, Giuliani said, adding: He doesnt seem that familiar with anything. There is nothing to indicate he knew anything in advance.

The presidents legal team released the transcript after one of Cohens attorneys, Lanny Davis, provided CNN with the audio of the tape - marking a dramatic escalation of rhetoric and turn against Trump by the Cohen camp.

Davis told The Post that Cohen, who is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud and election law violations, decided to release the tape following extensive discussions with his lawyers.

The Cohen team was pushed to act by statements Giuliani had made about Cohens role in the conversation, Davis said.

It became necessary to rebut false statements, he said. We were not going to let Michael become a punching bag.

When asked whether the Cohen team would release more recordings of Trump in the coming weeks, David said he would not comment, but acknowledged, There are a lot of other tapes.

Trumps legal team does not believe that he was captured saying anything of substance on any other recording made by Cohen, according to people familiar with the material.

The Wall Street Journal first reported four days before the November 2016 election that McDougal had been paid by the National Enquirer. At the time, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks called McDougals claims totally untrue.

We have no knowledge of any of this, she said.

The revelation of the existence of the recording last week showed for the first time that Trump knew of her claims and efforts to keep her quiet at least two months earlier.

The transcript and audio released Tuesday indicate that Trumps knowledge of McDougals claims to AMI predated that early September 2016 conversation with Cohen.

In the audio released by CNN, Trump sounds matter-of-fact as Cohen walks through his plan, saying at one point, Yeah, I was thinking about that.

There is no sign that Cohen followed through with the plan to purchase the rights to McDougals story from AMI.

However, the timing of the conversation between the GOP nominee and his longtime fixer also provides more evidence that Cohen was trying to quash embarrassing stories about Trump before the election - a major focus of the investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

In rival cable news appearances Tuesday, Cohen and Trumps attorneys clashed over who on the tape suggested the transaction be completed with cash.

On the audio released by Cohen, Trump says something muffled and then can be heard saying, pay with cash.

In the transcript released by the presidents legal team, Trump is quoted as saying, Dont pay with cash.

Davis zeroed in on Trumps use of the word cash to suggest the then-candidate was seeking to mask his activities - a claim that Giuliani fiercely disputed.

Its outrageous that someone would tape his client surreptitiously and its also foolhardy for them to yell and scream and make believe whats on the tape, he said on Fox News.

Alan Futerfas, an attorney for Trump Organization, said Tuesday that the context of the word cash in the conversation is a reference to paying one time with liquid currency - rather than financing a transaction with a loan. He said the reference is clear because Trump was raising the idea of financing as another option.

The notion that they were discussing using a bag of cash or green currency is ridiculous, Futerfas said.

The transcript and the audio also show that Cohen told Trump he had discussed buying the rights to McDougals story with Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.

Futerfas disputed that Tuesday.

The notion that Mr. Cohen would have spoken to Mr. Weisselberg about a proposition he had yet to even make to the president does not ring true, he said. Mr. Weisselberg is a bookkeeper who simply carries out directions from others about monetary payments and transfers. There would be no reason for Mr. Cohen to have any conversation with Mr. Weisselberg prior to him recommending and obtaining approval for the purchase he was suggesting. 

The Washington Posts Philip Rucker contributed to this report.

Published by Washington Post.President Trump lashed out at his former personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday for releasing a recorded conversation between the two, asking on Twitter, what kind of lawyer would tape a client?

Trumps comments came the morning after Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, released a recording of a September 2016 conversation between Trump and Cohen that makes it appear Trump was familiar with a deal that Playboy model Karen McDougal made to sell the rights to her story of an alleged affair with him.

So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Trump wrote, adding: I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!

Trump also expressed concern that the recording had been terminated while I was presumably saying positive things. He did not elaborate.

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Davis shared the recording with CNN on Tuesday night.

New York is a one-party consent state, meaning that, in general, it is legal to record a conversation as long as at least one party agrees, even if that person is the one doing the recording. In addition, Trumps attorneys have not claimed the recording is of a privileged attorney-client conversation.

A transcript, provided by Trumps legal team, shows that the then-GOP presidential nominee does not register confusion or surprise when Cohen refers to a plan to purchase the rights to McDougals story from American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer tabloid.

AMI, whose chief executive is David Pecker, signed a $150,000 deal with McDougal in August 2016 for her story but never published it.

Tuesday night, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani disputed the idea that the recording shows that Trump knew about the McDougal deal.

Cohen, who once said that he was prepared to take a bullet and do anything to protect Trump, is under scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

They are investigating his business practices, as is the team led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating matters connected to Cohen as part of the broader probe of Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice by the president.

In recent weeks, Cohen, who has not been charged with any crimes, has shown increasing signs of a willingness to turn against Trump.

During an interview Wednesday on ABCs Good Morning America, Davis said Cohen has turned a corner.

Hes now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and well have to see what happens, Davis said.

Trump also vented over Twitter on Saturday after news broke that the FBI had seized recordings that Cohen made of Trump.

In that tweet, Trump said it was inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client, adding: The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!Two farming companies that do business in San Diego County agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that accused them of allowing at least four female farmworkers to be sexually harassed and later denied work in retaliation for refusing sexual advances, federal regulators announced Wednesday.

The payment, which will go to the victim workers, resolves a lawsuit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed in April 2017 in San Diego, the commission announced Wednesday. The lawsuit said two Holtville-based companies, Bornt & Sons, Inc., and its former labor contractor, Barraza Farm Services, broke federal discrimination laws starting as early as 2010.

The companies have denied the EEOCs allegations against them, and did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreements.

Along with the payment, the companies also agreed to settlement terms including immediately reinstating the workers it retaliated against, creating new policy, providing training to help prevent similar harassment in the future and creating a system to track complaints, according to the commissions announcement on Wednesday. Regulators said the promised changes will take place over three years.

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In this case, the farmworkers exhibited great courage in reporting the harassment and showing others that there are resources to combat such abuse, Rosa Viramontes, director for the EEOCs Los Angeles District Office, said in a statement the commission released Wednesday to announce the settlement.

The lawsuit alleged a male manager sexually harassed four female employees with actions including groping their buttocks and breasts without their consent, trying to kiss them, offering them money and extra work benefits in exchange for sex and making unwelcome sexually-charged comments about their bodies including, Your (breasts) look nice, you must have breastfed.

In one case, a female employee was pulled away from her work to clean an office, the lawsuit said. The manager came in, locked the door, removed his clothes, sat naked on a chair and asked her to (perform a sex act).

The manager fired or refused to rehire employees who reported, complained about or refused his sexual advances, the lawsuit alleged. The companies also allegedly fired at least three male farmworkers because they were related to the harassment victims.

When the companies learned of the federal investigation into complaints of sexual harassment, they failed to take action beyond moving the manager to another farm, where he continued to harass women, according to the lawsuit.

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

morgan.cook@sduniontribune.comA mysterious package labeled anthrax led to an evacuation of Congresswoman Maxine Waters office in Los Angeles on Tuesday, officials said.

Police responded to the location around 2:30 p.m. and called in a hazardous materials team from the Los Angeles Fire Department, an LAPD source told the Daily News.

There was an investigation of an item somehow left behind at the office. It turned out to be nothing dangerous whatsoever, the source said.

The information we got was that it was a package labeled anthrax, a source with the fire department said.

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The police source said the investigation would be turned over to federal officials for a possible probe into who was behind the apparent hoax.

Waters is a prominent Democrat known for being one of President Trumps most outspoken critics.

She recently made comments urging people to confront White House officials they encounter in public.

A woman answered the phone at the Los Angeles office around 5 p.m. local time but declined to comment on the days drama. Emails sent to spokespeople for the congresswoman were not immediately returned.

The suspicious package turned up just days after a right-wing militia group called The Oath Keepers planned a protest of the Los Angeles office but then backed out at the last minute.

The groups founder, Stewart Rhodes, said the group bowed out at the request of the LAPD.

They strongly advised us to not proceed, he told The News in a brief phone interview Thursday evening.

Rhodes said the action was organized by his groups California chapter and that he never planned to attend in person.

I think that they probably made the smartest decision theyve made in a long time, community resident Cliff Smith said in phone interview after attending a counter-protest that day in support of Waters.The FBI has joined the investigation into the disappearance of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts, who has now been missing for a week.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt said Tuesday that the FBI and state agents are taking over with volunteer searches called off.

Were still asking for the publics help, Mortvedt said. Wed like to get any information we can. The more eyes and ears we have, the better.

Mollies boyfriend Dalton Jack tells KCRG that he received a Snapchat from her at about 10 p.m. on July 18 when she was dogsitting for him. She did not show up for work the following day.

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Relatives believe earlier reports that Mollie vanished while jogging are not correct.

I read somewhere that she was running in a cornfield. Thats obviously not true, aunt Kim Calderwood told KCRG. The run happened and then she was at the house as far as we know. I dont think she wouldve run in the dark.

Investigators are leaning more and more toward something happening to her against her will, according to Mortvedt.

University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts went missing on July 18. (AP)

Authorities are focusing on areas that Tibbetts has known to have gone to in the past. The FBI are hoping computer forensics will help narrow where she might be.

This could shake out a bunch of different ways, Mortvedt said. We are hoping and praying for the best outcome.

Dozens of volunteers had been searching for the 20-year-old University of Iowa student, but had been hindered by the farm ground.

Were racking our brains, thinking what can we think of to tell the investigators, Calderwood told the Des Moines Register. Its the worst thing to want to fix something you cant fix.

Tibbetts was born in California but moved to Iowa when she was in fourth grade, according to KCRG.

Youve seen her pictures. Shes obviously a physically beautiful girl but shes more beautiful on the inside, Calderwood tells the station.

With News Wire ServicesObama is just as guilty as Trump on Russia

Re Trump: I misspoke on meddling (July 18): The lefts histrionic response to President Trumps Finnish summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin is intellectually dishonest. Apparently, speaking to Russians is akin to being a modern Benedict Arnold.

I pose this question to liberal activists spreading these baseless accusations: Is Barack Obama a traitor? At a 2012 summit in Seoul, South Korea, then-President Obama attempted to secretly convey a message to the Russians about missile defense and other matters: This is my last election, he said. After my election I have more flexibility. He asked them, the nefarious Russians, for space, due to his tough re-election bid. In response, Russian President Dimitri Medvedev stated, I will transmit this information to Vladimir.

A hot mic caught this shady transaction. Why was the left not apoplectic about Obamas very open dialogue that could be seen as collusion? Should Obama be tried for treason as well? This dangerous demagoguery must end.

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Benjamin Holmes

San Carlos

Trump reeling from lie to lie harming us all

Re Trump: I misspoke on meddling (July 18): I was brought up to understand that once you start lying, you will probably continue to lie. The more often you lie, the more you wont remember what you have previously said.

We now have a president who apparently wasnt brought up that way. Trump obviously changes his story so much, he needs news conferences to cover up one lie with another.

Only Congress can impeach a president, but Congress must take action soon, because Trump is starting to destroy America and our system of government.

Larry Knost

San Diego

What about Obamas slights against U.S.?

Re Trump blaming America for Russian tensions hits a new low (July 16): Your editorial said, Every American president ever has stood up for America  until July 16, 2018. Really?

Have you forgotten already about President Barack H. Obama, who criticized America constantly during his presidency?

Please make an effort to be more honest and fair in your publication.

Lee Wirth

Mission Hills

Trumps fans are still buying his fantasies

It is clear that we have passed through the Donald Trump looking glass and now live on the other side: where the E.U. is a foe and Russia is a smart competitor, our allies are treated disrespectfully and our enemies are deferred to; where massive tax cuts for the wealthy are sold as tax cuts for the struggling middle class; where the EPA is busy gutting regulations that have cleaned up the environment for 60 years; where Trumps claim of being the toughest ever on Russia is at odds with his delay in approving Congress-imposed sanctions for almost a year.

Putins claims of innocence are accepted by Trump over his own intelligence agencies evidence that Russia meddled. Trumps apologists have come through the looking glass to explain why this all makes sense. The vast majority of registered Republicans approve of Trumps performance. For a tyrant like Vladimir Putin, this is a dream come true.

We, like Alice, seem to have lost our way back to the other side, formerly known as the real world. Fasten your seat belts  its going to be a bumpy ride.

Bill Loeber

Del Cerro

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.The momentum behind the movement to ban plastic straws in cities across the country doesnt seem likely to slow any time soon, especially in California.

San Francisco supervisors voted unanimously to ban restaurants, bars and retailers from selling or using on Tuesday, becoming the largest city to block establishments from giving out plastic straws among a group that includes several smaller ones in California, and at least one other major city  Seattle  in the U.S.

Heres what you should know about plastic straw bans in California.

Whats happening in San Francisco?

San Franciscos board of supervisors not only voted to ban plastic straws but also takeout containers treated with fluorinated chemicals. The proposal  which requires a second vote next week  also prohibits restaurants from offering napkins and utensils with takeout or delivery orders unless they are requested by customers or there is a self-serve station.

The board cited environmental impacts as well as litter on streets and waterways as reasons for the ban.

Businesses in San Francisco will have to meet the new guidelines by Jan. 1, 2020 when the law takes affect.

What other California cities have plastic straw bans?

Malibu, a beachside city in the Los Angeles area, voted in February of this year to ban plastic straws and cutlery in retail stores and restaurants over environmental concerns and a desire to keep the plastic off of its beaches.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles County, Manhattan Beach followed two months after Malibu by passing a ban on bars and restaurants dispensing straws in April.

Near the Central Coast, San Luis Obispo passed ordinances last year that require plastic straws to be available only by request in the city. Its also banned plastic bottles and cups from city farmers markets and concerts.

In Northern California, Santa Cruz has banned plastic straws and cutlery in food service businesses since 2017.

Businesses setting the tone across the country

While some U.S. and California cities have decided to ban plastic straws, some big businesses arent waiting around for government to act. Starbucks, for one, announced earlier this month that it plans to eliminate them from its stores by 2020.

Also this month, Marriott International announced it would remove plastic straws and drink stirrers from all of its hotels worldwide by next year. Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corp. have said the same, according to The Associated Press.

American Airlines is also planning to replace plastic straws and drink stirrers with biodegradable alternatives.

Pushing back against plastic straw bans

As of now, cities choosing to ban plastic straws through legislation are among a small minority and not everyone is supportive.

After San Franciscos vote, some social media users said city officials had bigger problems to focus on.

Plastic straw bans have also been criticized by some advocates and people with disabilities.

Its as if people who rely on straws  older adults, children, and disabled people  dont matter and that our needs are less important than the environment, Alice Wong, founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, wrote for eater.com. I feel erased by these attitudes.

Are you in favor of banning plastic straws? Why or why not? Let us know.

Email: abby.hamblin@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @abbyhamblinEvery time the White House shifts from one party to another, there is a whirlwind of activity as the new administration issues guidelines on how it will wield its authority in running the federal government. Such changes often have partisan overtones. For example, Republican White Houses like to restrict the use of project labor agreements (PLAs), which require the payment of union-scale wages and benefits, on federal construction projects, while Democratic White Houses welcome them.

While such partisan maneuvering may be the norm in some agencies, it is not universal. The Environmental Protection Agency, for one, may seem a rich target for partisan policy reversals. But its history suggests otherwise. The EPA was created in 1970 by Republican President Richard Nixon and soon emerged as a powerful regulatory agency under the aggressive guidance of its first director, GOP attorney William Ruckelshaus. Under subsequent Republican Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, there was only one strong challenge to the EPA executing its basic mission, in the early Reagan years.

Until 2017. President Donald Trump has done more to undermine environmental protections in 18 months than all his predecessors combined. Under previous GOP presidents, key green officials were open to the argument that rules could be excessive. But under this one, some officials appear to question the very need for environmental regulation. In May, The New York Times reported that automakers were nervous that Trump was too eager to roll back rules requiring them to improve the average fuel mileage of their fleets. This prompted Myron Ebell, the think-tanker who led Trumps EPA transition team, to liken automakers to victims of the Stockholm syndrome  hostages who identify with their kidnappers, i.e., environmentalists.

This is a shocking comment about U.S. CEOs. But it is what one would expect from an administration full of people who reject the view of scientists and the Pentagon that the world is at risk from warming caused by the atmospheric buildup of greenhouse gases  especially the billions of tons of carbon dioxide emitted annually by vehicles.

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Now there is a fresh example of this dangerous mind-set  one that threatens California directly. The White House is reportedly prepared to revoke the longstanding EPA waiver that allows California to have even stricter air-pollution rules than those established for the nation with the 1970 Clean Air Act. The waiver was prompted by the fact that air pollution was particularly acute in the Golden State, especially Los Angeles. But it has allowed California to become the recognized world leader in environmental regulations, with its emissions laws being not only adopted by 12 other states but also copied by entire nations. Trump administration officials seem to believe that never should have happened, according to a Bloomberg News report that said they plan to assert that California is barred from regulating auto emissions because no such carve-out was included in the 1975 law that was the first to set federal fuel-efficiency requirements.

This legal argument may sound valid. But it reflects a Trump worldview that Ruckelshaus and two other EPA chiefs who served under Republican presidents wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post amounts to a perilous embrace of ignorance over knowledge. This is a point made in the suit already filed in May by California and 16 other states over changes in federal mileage rules.

Donald Trumps many defenders arent inclined to believe Democrats or members of the media who criticize him. But when revered Republicans join anti-regulation automakers in thinking the president has gone too far in reversing established environmental policies, its a sign Trump is way off base.

Twitter: @sdutIdeas

Facebook: San Diego Union-Tribune Ideas & OpinionHeat wave wisdom: How real San Diegans are cooling off amid high temperatures

Hot and bothered, San Diego? Youre not alone.

Theres a heat wave hitting much of the western U.S. and things are so hot that authorities issued a heat advisory Tuesday morning that will run through Thursday night for much of San Diego County.

That makes the obvious question: What are you doing to stay cool in this heat wave? Seriously, we need some tips.

We wanted to know how real San Diegans were staying cool during this (relatively) oppressive heat, so we asked. (Editors note: Were still listening and looking for ideas. If you want to tell us how you stay cool, just fill out this form.)

Heres what 10 San Diegans told us about how they stay cool.

I go surfing. Mayor Serge Dedina, Imperial Beach

Go to work, lounge in the coolness of my office. When work day is over, go to my car, turn A/C full blast. Then maybe hit up a grocery store on the way home. Michelle Metschel, El Cajon

Becoming an amphibian and submerging myself in the swimming pool for as long as biologically possible. Will Fritz, Temecula, self-identified "honorary San Diegan"

I head over to Black's (nude) Beach! Daniel Smiechowski, San Diego

We go to the movies. Brett Austin, Downtown San Diego

Going to the beach, turning the fans on and closing all the doors/windows to keep the heat from entering my house. Jennifer Vazquez-Gonzalez, Southcrest

Heading to Mission Beach to do some surf fishing. Adam McLane, College Area

A/C indoors, baby. Who needs the 'outside'? Ray Chen, Scripps Ranch

We installed ductless A/C and insulation so at this point we just stay inside. Dale Huntington, Mount Hope

Snacking on frozen grapes while enjoying the ocean breeze. April Wensel, Cardiff

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.

ALSO

What exactly is a flex alert and why does California need one?When summer rolls around, the tastebuds (and waistline) crave a lighter, more vibrant cocktail to pair with those beach days and warm, breezy evenings. Bartenders around San Diego County have created inventive and delicious fruit-based cocktails to answer the siren call of summer.

Packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber and antioxidants, like beta-carotene, anthocyanins, and flavonols, fruit contains zero fat and keeps the body and skin looking fresh and healthy. So why not dive into these fruit cocktails this summer and hold on to that beach bod?

Jalisco Cantina

Mango Serrano Margarita from Jalisco Cantina. (Courtesy photo)

After a day of surfing, refresh and recharge with the Mango Serrano Margarita with mango puree, 100% blue agave tequila, Ancho Reyes chile liqueur, fresh lime and orange curacao. Or for less spice, try the Oceanside Refresh, made with fresh strawberry puree, grapefruit vodka and fresh squeezed lemon.

213 N. Coast Hwy, Oceanside, 760.429.1679, thejaliscocantina.com

Catania

Barrio Italiano cocktail from Catania. (Courtesy photo)

Its hard to beat looking over the Pacific Ocean while sipping on a cocktail. Head to La Jolla and sample a few fruity cocktails from Bar Manager Cesar Sandovals cocktail list, including the Fortunella with kumquat puree, vodka, orange blossom and prosecco, or the Barrio Italiano with strawberry, lemon, mezcal, Averna, mint and ginger beer.

7863 Girard Ave. #301, La Jolla, 858.551.5105, cataniasd.com

Barbusa

Its all about the fruits this season from Bar Manager Wendy McGlinnens summer list, with her Paradiso crafted with white peach, rum, rhubarb bitters, vanilla and ginger beer, the Inferno with fresh strawberry and lemon juice, tequila, and Serrano peppers, and the Tropicale with guava puree, vodka, fresh mint, lime and sparkling water.

1917 India St., Little Italy, 619.238.1917, barbusa.com

Sycamore Den

This neighborhood favorite rolls out the fruits with a range of cocktails including the Desert Crossing with watermelon, mezcal, sotol, chamoy and lemon; the Crime of Passion with passionfruit, gin, LOrgeat, lemon and cayenne; a House Verdita with pineapple, mint, cilantro and Serrano pepper; and the House Sangrita with pomegranate, grapefruit, tangerine, Clamato, roasted bell peppers, tomato and jalapeno.

3391 Adams Ave., Normal Heights, 619. 563.9019, sycamoreden.com

Fruit-forward cockatil offerings from Sycamore Den. (Courtesy photo)

Charles and Dinorah

Try the most interesting fruit cocktail of the summer courtesy of Bar Manager TJ Majeske and his So Pitted cocktail with avocado (yes, its a fruit), vodka, Ancho Reyes Verde, agave, cilantro and a Tajin rim. If you like to keep your avocado on toast, try the Spice of My Life with honeydew melon, arbol infused gin, lime, cucumber and soda.

1410 Rosecrans St., Point Loma, 619.226.6100, thepearlsd.com

Greystone Prime Steakhouse & Seafood

For a little bit of pampering to end a perfect sun-filled day, head downtown and try the Luxe Mule, with black cherry puree, bourbon, angostura bitters, lime juice, ginger beer and sage.

658 Fifth Ave., downtown, greystonesteakhouse.comA 20-year-old Ramona man who stole tip jars from four Poway restaurants, a coffeehouse, and an ice cream parlor, gaining instant notoriety on social media, has been sentenced to serve 10 days in county jail.

Kenneth Dalton McDaniel distracted employees at six establishments along a commercial stretch of Poway Road and walked out with the tip jars on January 13 and 16.

Greens Please, an organic foods restaurant, captured the crime on surveillance video and posted the thiefs photo on Facebook with this message: This dirt bag felt entitled to grab the tip jar of our valued employees today. Somehow he felt he deserved the generosity you give for the great customer service in our establishment more than them. Help us make him famous.

Members of the public came forward and identified McDaniel from the social media post and he was arrested by investigators from the San Diego County Sheriffs Department. The San Diego City Attorneys Office, which prosecutes misdemeanor crimes in the City of Poway, filed petty theft charges against him.

McDaniel was arraigned on July 12, and pled guilty to three counts of petty theft. The court sentenced him to 10 days in custody and three years of probation. He must also attend a shoplifters course and pay a $696 fine. If he reoffends or violates the terms of his probation, he could be ordered to serve up to an additional 18 months of custody (minus what he has already completed).

As part of the plea agreement, McDaniel was also ordered to stay away from the following businesses for three years and to pay restitution for the tips he stole, as indicated:

Greens Please, 12202 Poway Road, $10; The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, 12314 Poway Road, $20; Five Guys, 13301 Poway Road, Poway, CA, $20. Taco Taco Poway, 13429 Community Road, $15; Everbowl, 13538 Poway Road, $20 and Baskin-Robbins, 13477 Poway Road, $8.

As a former waitress, I know that restaurant employees count on tips to supplement their wages. Im glad that these hard-working employees will be made whole, San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott said. As a prosecutor, I applaud the citizens who helped our law enforcement officers bring this criminal to justice.

Email: editor@pomeradonews.comIn the Anza-Borrego desert, where a puff of wind can leave you choking on peach-colored dirt, Andrea Taylor got straight to the point Tuesday when asked to describe the weather.

Its hotter than hell, said Taylor, who works in the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association office in Borrego Springs. I think thats the official statement.

The temperature peaked at 118 degrees at Borrego Springs on the second day of a heat wave that is expected to last until Thursday, when it fades, like air leaking from a balloon.

The deserts were insufferable Tuesday, even if you caught their maroon hue at dawn and dusk.

Advertisement

The 118 degrees in Borrego Springs broke the July 24 record of 116, set in 2014. Nearby Ocotillo Wells hit 121.

The heat moderated as you wandered west, but not by much.

Campo hit 107 degrees, Valley Center 105, Ramona 103, Poway and Alpine 101, and Escondido 100. Further west, Del Mar hit 86, San Diego reached 85, and Oceanside clocked in at 78.

Campo, Ramona and San Diego tied all-time-high records.

No one got too bent about it; these sorts of heat waves happen several times each summer. Like a three-minute egg, theyre predictable. But everyone likes to talk about the weather, even though our neighbors from Arizona roll their eyes and say, You havent seen anything.

For the record, Tuesday was an icky-sticky day in San Diego County, thanks to a high-pressure system that baked the state. But a strong south swell rolled ashore along the entire coastline, and the ocean was like bathwater, inching above 75 degrees.

Surfer Gary Austin rolled into Carlsbad State Beach and surrendered to the beauty of it all.

Im down here beating the heat, Austin said. Ive got chairs and the umbrella and the scooter. Its the only way to fly, no parking problems.

Daniel Lorch showed up at Windansea Beach in La Jolla and gave his hosannas:

Im from up north near Ventura, so the water is like a jacuzzi down here, Lorch said. Im dying out here on the beach, and the water aint cooling me down all that much. Its still nice, though.

Todd Prodanovich also gave thanks at Ponto Beach, saying, This is one of the biggest south swells weve had this summer, with most of North County spots breaking well overhead. Pair that with an outgoing tide, and youre gonna get some strong rip currents, for sure.

The electric grid across the state appeared to handle the hot weather pretty well.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), which oversees the grid for about 80 percent of Californias electricity consumers, forecast a peak demand of 46,907 megawatts. The highest single-day peak was 50,270 megawatts, on July 24, 2006.

CAISO on Tuesday reported 54,716 megawatts of available capacity from electricity generators but officials said figures can vary due to conditions, such as a wildfire outbreak or a utility power outage.

Demand for power peaks at about 6 p.m.

People are coming home from work and theyre turning on their air conditioners, turning on their lights, charging their electric vehicles, CAISO spokeswoman Anne Gonzales said.

Another reason for the 6 p.m. peak? Thats when the sun starts to set and results in a loss of solar energy production.

CAISO has issued Flex Alerts through Wednesday, asking the public to voluntarily reduce power consumption between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Officials at San Diego Gas & Electric said the utility has secured sufficient electricity supplies for the coming days.

SDG&Es highest demand day occurred in 2014, hitting about 4,800 megawatts, SDG&E communications manager Allison Torres said. The utility forecast about 4,100 megawatts for Tuesday and Wednesday. Torres said demand hovers around 3,000 megawatts on a typical day.

The weather service has not issued any fire-weather watches or warnings for San Diego County, despite the heat inland. National Weather Service forecaster Brandt Maxwell said the humidity levels are higher than they were during the last hot spell earlier this month, and the winds are expected to be light.

But the length of the current heat wave is a concern. Temperatures should remain well above normal in the inland valleys through Thursday, and because the nighttime lows may not drop below 70 degrees in many areas, there could be little escape from the heat.

The desert could see lows in the 90s.

What tends to happen when it gets like this, youll open the door at 10 oclock (at night), and a wall of hot air hits you, said Taylor, the Borrego Springs resident. She said it could still be 100 degrees at 10 p.m.

An excessive heat warning is in effect for the entire county, except the coastal strip, through 8 p.m. Thursday. The weather service recommends rescheduling strenuous activities to early morning or evening, wearing lightweight and loose-fitting clothing when possible, and drinking plenty of water.

Matt Clark, president of El Cajon Roofing and ECR Logistics, said his approximately 35 roofers know to take electrolyte tablets and drink extra water. Crews are getting an hour for lunch instead of the usual half hour. If it gets too hot, he said, the workers are pulled from the roofs in the afternoon and return in the cooler evening.

We tell them to take it easy but still get the job done, Clark said.

The weekend should bring some relief from the heat, with highs at the coast around 80 while the inland valleys reach the low 90s and the desert drops below 110. Thunderstorms are possible in the mountains on Sunday as another wave of monsoonal moisture arrives.

Staff Writer Robert Krier contributed to this report.

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.NATO was created following World War II, but it was during the Korean War that it truly began to develop its international military forces and strategies.

Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join

This column by American studies professor Ben Railton explores the connections between Americas past and present.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed in the aftermath of World War II, as an attempt to establish collective defenses against emerging Cold War threats from the Soviet Union and its allies. Five Northern European nations (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the UK) began the process with the March 1948 Treaty of Brussels, and then brought their alliance to the United States and its Secretary of State George C. Marshall. With Marshalls guidance those six nations, joined by Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, signed the April 1949 North Atlantic Treaty, officially forming NATO.

Yet the Cold War of course extended far beyond the North Atlantic worlds, and NATO likewise was not limited to that sphere of influence. Indeed, it was in response to a Southeast Asian military conflict that began the following year, the Korean War, that NATO truly began to develop its international military forces and strategies, reflecting interconnections between these regions and issues that remain vital to this day.

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While the Korean Wars background and origins were as complex and multi-faceted as any military conflicts, the war began in earnest with North Koreas June 25th, 1950 crossing of the 38th Parallel and invasion of South Korea. The United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the invasion on the same day, and two days later President Truman ordered U.S. air and sea support for South Korean forces. By July 5th U.S. armed forces were on the ground and taking part in the Battle of Osan alongside South Korean troops, a military alliance that would continue for the remaining three years of the war.

While Truman and new Secretary of State Dean Acheson focused their initial public statements on the specific need to defend South Korea from the Norths aggressions, Truman very much believed that the war was part of larger Cold War conflicts as well. As he later argued in his memoir, Years of Trial and Hope (1956), Communism was acting in Korea, just as Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese had ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. If the Communists were permitted to force their way into the Republic of Korea without opposition from the free world, no small nation would have the courage to resist threat and aggression by stronger Communist neighbors.

NATO saw the Korean conflict and its ramifications in the same way, and responded accordingly. In September 1950 the NATO Military Committee called for a buildup of military forces to counter potential Soviet and allied aggressions around the world, and shortly thereafter the organization formed the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), appointing Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower as its first leader. These efforts culminated in the February 1952 North Atlantic Council meeting in Lisbon, at which a number of key steps were taken: the creation of a Long-Term Defence Plan; the proposed expansion of combat-ready forces to 96 divisions (reduced to 35 the following year, which was still a significant increase); and the creation of a new Secretary General position, with the UKs Lord Ismay appointed as the first NATO Secretary General.

NATO followed these efforts by undertaking its first major maritime exercise, Exercise Mainbrace, in September 1952. Although Eisenhower had by then resigned his position to run for the presidency, two American military officers and NATO leaders coordinated the exercise: General Matthew B. Ridgway, who had succeeded Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander Europe after commanding all U.S. and United Nations troops in Korea from 1951 to 1952; and Admiral Lynde D. McCormick, the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic and himself a veteran of World War IIs Pacific Theater. Under their lead, more than 200 ships and 80,000 men participated in twelve days of military exercises, what New York Times reporter Hanson Baldwin called the largest and most powerful fleet that has cruised in the North Sea since World War I.

The headline of Baldwins article linked the exercises to NATOs Important Role in Defense of Europe. Yet the exercises timing, along with Ridgways Korean War experiences and other overt links, made clear just how much the ongoing conflict in Korea served as a vital context and inspiration for these early 1950s NATO buildups and plans. By the July 1953 final armistice that ended the Korean War, NATO had largely become the sizeable, vital international military and diplomatic organization it would remain for the Cold Wars subsequent decades, one that, while centered in the North Atlantic, reflects a world in which Russia, Southeast Asia, and every region and nation are interconnected in the eras issues and conflicts.New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/25/2018 -- The Aluminum Phosphide industry is further segmented on the basis of product application, classification, and geography. The all-encompassing study provides access to a comprehensive data on customer preference, spending power, production volume and consumption volume to help business owners streamline their business operations likewise.



Download Free Sample Report @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/sample-enquiry-form/2861



The latest report, Aluminum Phosphide market attempts to explain as well as understand the buying pattern to help companies design a marketing strategy that can attract more buyers. The approach empowers stakeholders to target audience more accurately and reap highest profits. The product research carried out during the study of the Aluminum Phosphide market for the forecast period, 2018 to 2025 aims at helping product owners tweak their products or services according to the taste customers.



Subject matter experts behind the study dive deep into the competitive landscape to assess the top performers across the world and unearth the strategies that have given them a competitive edge over others operating in the Aluminum Phosphide industry.



Application of interview and investigation technique is clearly visible in research report especially when it comes to the analysis of the growing investment pockets, technology advancements, and new entrants. Researchers further take a closer look at some of the intangible elements of the Aluminum Phosphide industry including but not limited to profits, product value, product price, demand and supply, import and export status, supply chain management and gross margin.



Ask For Discount @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/discount-enquiry-form/2861



Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers

- Degesch

- Agrosynth Chemicals

- Royal Agro Organic

- Sandhya

- Jiangsu Shuangling

- Shenyang Harvest

- Shengcheng Chemical

- Ocean Agricultural

- Hongfa Chemical

- Yongfeng Chemical

- ORICO

- Shengpeng Technology

- Kenvos

- Longkou City Chemical

- Anhui Shengli



Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers

- North America

- Europe

- China

- Japan

- Southeast Asia

- India



Read More Categories Reports @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/report/category/Materials-and-chemicals



On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into

- Light Yellow Powder

- Green Powder



On 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, including

- Soil

- Warehouses



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Websites: https://www.marketexpertz.com/report-detail/global-aluminum-phosphide-market-research-report-2018North Ryde, New South Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/24/2018 -- COPYNET Business Technology is based in Sydney Australia and was founded in 2003 by supporting businesses to run more efficiently and smoothly and providing essential IT and business technology solutions support. With the realisation that in this fast-moving technology world, not every business has access to the best IT solution partner that can provide businesses with all their IT requirements. COPYNET Business Technology was formed to complete the full cycle and bridge the gaps by providing Sydney business community with one stop solution for all their business IT support and technology needs, from office automation process to network hardware/software and office multifunction devices or managed print and IT services. They work with businesses in a wide variety of industries and of all sizes, small, medium and large corporates.



"Our headquarters in North Ryde and by operating two warehouses both in the north and south western suburbs of Sydney," said the Managing Director of COPYNET Business Technology. "Our family-owned and run business, specialising in IT and office solution support that is geared towards improving business technology for the business communities in and around the Sydney area. Being a technology business ourselves, we are in a good position to understand the needs and requirements of all our clients. Our services are needed by all types of businesses, whether big or small, medium or start-ups. Whatever the industry a business is involved in, we care and will work with them, providing the solution and support they need to excel in what they do best."



COPYNET Business Technology provides the best it services in Sydney. They provide services that range from IT consulting, sales and support of all IT-related hardware and software to network design and business automation process by providing reliable support. COPYNET Business Technology also takes care of all your business and office needs by supplying and servicing of office printers and multifunction devices. They also offer print and document management services to paperless office and content management solutions that streamline their clients' businesses and increase productivity.



The Managing Director also said, "Business in Sydney need not struggle in meeting so many IT overhead costs that they can hardly function or increase any productivity. Our solutions will simplify the way you run your business and help reduce your costs as well as increase the security of your data and documents with our Complete managed IT solutions. We source our IT and office equipment from some of the world's best-known brands so that we are in a position always to provide our customers with high-quality, effective solutions. Our integrated office solutions are reliable and come at very competitive prices. At COPYNET Business Technology, we are committed to taking care of all your IT and printing needs and give you support that will take your business in Sydney to the next level."



To help businesses avoid clutter and the need to come up with filing solutions for too many content documents produced in the line of work, COPYNET Business Technology offers managed document services. The managed document solution can help in centralising and integrating all the business' content management. With a Managed print Service, also provided by COPYNET Business Technology, a business can become more efficient and easily manageable. The complete managed content and print solutions goes a long way towards achieving business automation process and data security goal.



About COPYNET Business Technology

COPYNET Business Technology is a Sydney-based managed IT support company, that was formed to offer IT and office solutions to businesses in the Sydney area. The Company has a dedicated team of professionals who are available to provide advise and support in areas such as IT solutions and consulting, document management, and office equipment supplies, including regular service and support as well as managed print services in Sydney. COPYNET Business Technology is a complete business solution provider that helps other business in around Sydney run their businesses, professionally, efficiently and at affordable costs by getting rid of unnecessary overheads.



Contact Information

Company Name:COPYNET Business Technology

Address: Level 5, 7 Eden Park Drive, Macquarie Park, North Ryde NSW 2113 Australia

Phone: 1800 820 074

Email: info@copynet.com.au

Website: https://www.copynet.com.au/New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/24/2018 -- Hydrated silica is a form of silicon dioxide, which has a variable amount of water in the formula. When dissolved in water it is usually known as silicic acid. It is found in nature, as opal (which has been mined as a gemstone for centuries), and in the cell walls of diatoms. It is also manufactured for use in toothpaste. Once dehydrated the gel is used as a desiccant known as silica gel. It is also used in various paints and varnishes and in the production of beer.



Download Sample Copy of Fine Hydrate Market Report @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/sample-enquiry-form/14654



Scope of the Report:

The research methodologies used for evaluating the Fine Hydrate market are inventive and also provides enough evidence on the demand and supply status, production capability, import and export, supply chain management and investment feasibility. The investigative approach applied for the extensive analysis of the sale, gross margin and profit generated by the industry are presented through resources including tables, charts, and graphic images. Importantly, these resources can be easily integrated or used for preparing business or corporate presentations.



Market Segment by manufacturers, the report covers the following companies:

Nabaltec, Huber, Hindalco, Sumitomo, Alumina Castables & Chemicals, Aluminium Corporation of China, JINAN CHENXU



Buy Fine Hydrate Market Research Report @ https://www.marketexpertz.com/checkout-form/14654



Market Segment on the basis of Product, the report covers:

- <95%

- 95%-97%

- 97%-99%

- >99%



Market Segment on the basis of application, the report covers:

- Cable Compounds

- Sheet Molding Compounds

- Bulk Molding Compounds

- Others



The research lays down a robust groundwork for obtaining a vast amount of information that potential customers can use to increase their profits and reduce costs. The inclusion of data on market segmentation by type, application, and geography offers clarity presents an analytical picture of, what manufacturers are aiming for.



Browse the full Report@ https://www.marketexpertz.com/industry-overview/fine-hydrate-market



The research provides answers to the following key questions:

- What is the estimated growth rate of the Fine Hydrate market for the forecast period 2018 - 2025? What will be the market share and size of the industry during the estimated period?

- What are prime factors expected to drive the Fine Hydrate industry for the estimated period?

- What are the major market leaders and what has been their winning strategy for success so far?

- What are the significant trends shaping the growth prospects of the Fine Hydrate market?

- What are the key challenges expected to restrict the progress of the industry for the forecast period, 2018 - 2025?

- What the opportunities product owners can bank on to generate high profits?



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+1-800-819-3052New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/24/2018 -- Japan Proton Therapy Industry



The report titled "Japan Proton Therapy Market Research Report 2018" examines the market dynamics, competitive landscape and discusses major trends. The report offers the most up-to-date industry data on the actual and potential market situation, and future outlook for proton therapy in Japan. The research includes historic data from 2012 to 2017 and forecasts until 2025.



Longterm Growth Projection:



- Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric Agree to Integrate Proton Therapy System Business

- Japan is anticipated to be the most attractive market in the proton therapyindustry.

- The potential Japan proton therapy market is likely to reach more than USD 3 Billion by 2025

- Mitsubishi Electric is a technology leader in the field of proton therapy in Japan.

- Hitachi has thesecond highest share in the treatment rooms segment.



Try Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2984830-japan-proton-therapy-market-research-report-2018



The report contains a granular analysis of the present industry situations, market demands, reveal facts on the market size, volume, revenues and provides forecasts through 2025. A comprehensive analysis has been done on market share of Japan proton therapy center (installed base) and treatment room by company. The report also provides information on the proton therapy current applications and comparative analysis with more focused on pros and cons of proton therapy and competitive analysis of eight companies.



The report further sheds light on the number of treatment rooms, current and upcoming proton therapy centers. In addition, the report also provides essential insights on number of patients treated at Japan proton therapy centers from 2008 to 2016.



The report also includes assessment of Japan reimbursement scenario, proton therapy clinical trials and offers a clear view of the proton therapy center component analysis. Key trends in terms of venture capital investment, collaborations, partnerships, licensing and development agreements are analyzed with details. The report also explores detailed description of growth drivers and inhibitors of the Japan proton therapy market.



The report concludes with the profiles of major players in the Japan proton therapy market. The key market players are evaluated on various parameters such as company overview, product portfolio, Japan proton therapy centers developed by the companies and recent development & trends of the proton therapy market.



The Major Companies Dominating this Market for its Products, Services and Continuous Product Developments are:



Mitsubishi Electric,Hitachi, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd. and Ion Beam Applications(IBA)



The Latest Industry Data Included in this Report:



- Proton Therapy Current Applications

- Pros and Cons of Proton Therapy, Radiotherapy and Carbon Ion Therapy

- Proton Therapy Competitive Analysis: By Company

- Market Size & Analysis: Japan Proton Therapy (2012  2025)

- Market Opportunity Assessment: Japan Proton Therapy (2012  2025)

- Japan Number of Treatment Rooms and Forecast (2012  2025)

- Japan Proton Therapy Center (Installed Base) and Treatment Room Market Share: By Company

-Japan Proton Therapy Center Infrastructure Analysis: Treatment Rooms & Proton Therapy

Accelerator

- Japan Number of Patients Treated at Proton Therapy Centers (2008  2016)

- Japan Proton Therapy Reimbursement Scenario

- Proton Therapy Center Component Analysis

- Proton Therapy Clinical Trail Insight by Phase, Institute & Country

- Proton Therapy Market  Major Deals

- Key Market Drivers and Inhibitors of the Japan Proton Therapy Market

- Major Companies Analysis



For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2984830-japan-proton-therapy-market-research-report-2018



Some Major Points from Table of content:



1. Executive Summary



2. What is Proton Therapy?



3. Proton Therapy Current Applications



4. Proton Therapy Comparative Analysis

4.1 Pros and Cons of Proton Therapy, Radiotherapy and Carbon Ion Therapy

4.2 Proton Therapy Competitive Analysis: By Company



5. Market Size & Analysis: Japan Proton Therapy (2012  2025)

5.1 Proton Therapy Patients Treated Statistics (Volume)

5.2 Proton Therapy Market Analysis (Value)



6. Market Opportunity Assessment: Japan Proton Therapy (2012  2025)

6.1 Potential Proton Therapy Patient Base (Volume)

6.2 Potential Proton Therapy Market Demand Analysis (Value)



7. Key Market Drivers and Inhibitors of the Japan Proton Therapy Market

7.1 Market Drivers

7.2 Market Inhibitors



8. Japan Number of Treatment Rooms and Forecast (2012  2025)



9. Japan Proton Therapy Center (Installed Base) and Treatment Room Market Share: By Company

9.1 Proton Therapy Center (Installed Base) Market Share

9.2 Treatment Room Market Share



10. Japan Proton Therapy Center Infrastructure Analysis: Treatment Rooms & Proton Therapy Accelerator

10.1 Current Proton Therapy Centers

10.2 Demand for Proton Therapy Centers



11. Japan Number of Patients Treated at Proton Therapy Centers (2008  2016)



12. Japan Proton Therapy Reimbursement Scenario



13. Proton Therapy Center Component Analysis

13.1 Proton Accelerator

13.2 Beam Transport System

13.3 Beam Delivery System

13.4 Nozzle

13.5 Treatment Planning System

13.6 Image Viewers

13.7 Patient Positioning System (PPS)

13.8 Human Resource



14. Proton Therapy Clinical Trail Insight by Phase, Institute & Country

14.1 Year 2017

14.2 Year 2016



15. Proton Therapy Market  Major Deals

15.1 Collaboration Deals

15.2 Licensing Agreement

15.3 Exclusive Agreement

15.4 Partnership Deals

15.5 Venture Capital Investment

15.6 Development Agreement



Continued..



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Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wise-guy-research-consultants-pvt-ltd-?trk=biz-companies-cymNew York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/24/2018 -- Future Market Insights (FMI) recently announced the release of its report titled "Residential Water Treatment Devices: Middle East Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment 2015-2025." According to the report, the middle east residential water treatment devices market was valued at US$ 414.1 Mn in 2014 and is anticipated to reach US$ 855.3 Mn by 2025, expanding at a CAGR of 6.8% throughout the forecast period.



View complete report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/middle-east-residential-water-treatment-devices-market



Total population of Middle East & Africa stood at approximately 346 million in 2015 and is expected to grow at the rate of 2% per annum. The Middle East & Africa is also witnessing mass migration of people to urban centers, thereby leading to increased demand for water purifiers in these centers. Economies of North Africa, on the other hand, have also been registering healthy growth rates over the last few years, which in turn is expected to fuel growth of the residential water treatment devices market in the overall MEA region. Due to large scale industrialization, quality of water in the GCC and Levant countries has deteriorated during the recent years. Water availability in these regions is estimated to be merely 1,200 m3/person/year, which is substantially lower than the global average of 7,000 m3/person/year. These factors are also prompting urban masses in Middle East countries to opt for water purifiers. Furthermore, the GCC region is witnessing entry of globally established water purifier brands, which has resulted into increased competition in the market. Increased competition, in turn, ensures marginal decline in prices of residential water treatment devices in the retail market in these regions. However, price decline has been largely reported on the reverse osmosis-based water purification devices only, the sales of which have witnessed an upsurge in recent years.



Around 44% of the Middle East & Africa population lives in rural area and is not aware about the necessity and techniques to purify and filter water. Penetrating these markets may be a challenging task for the concerned market participants as most of the vendors would have to begin by creating awareness regarding water purifier and filters and the importance of these products.



Combination water purification system employs two different treatment technologies in one system. Players such as AquaPro and Kent have started offering RO+UV-based combination water purifiers in the GCC and Levant countries.



Request for sample report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-eu-1299



Geography-wise, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dominated the GCC residential water treatment devices market in terms of value in 2014, accounting for more than one-third value share of the GCC residential water treatment devices market. On the other hand, Turkey dominated the Levant residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% value share of the overall market in the region. Furthermore, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period and is expected to maintain its revenue share dominance till 2025 end. The governments in the Levant and GCC regions are investing and opening up to Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and promoting industrialization, which has been leading to an increase in the per capita income of the residing population in countries such as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan are expected to register significant Y-o-Y growth during the forecast period. Besides, these countries are projected to bestow more focus on their non-oil and manufacturing sectors in the coming years, which in turn is expected to encourage the water purifier and water filter manufacturers in these countries to go in for domestic production and enhance sales. Countries such as Bahrain, Iraq, Palestine and Syria are currently witnessing moderate growth in demand for residential water treatment devices, and the trend is expected to continue during the forecast period as well.



On the basis of filtration devices, the filtration faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a significant CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the water tap faucet segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than half volume share of the overall market.



On the basis of purification devices, the reverse osmosis segment dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014 in terms of revenue, and is foreseen to expand at a relatively high CAGR during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the gravity segment purification devices dominated the Middle East residential water treatment devices market in 2014, accounting for more than 40% volume share of the overall market.



Key market players covered in the report include KENT RO Systems Ltd., Eureka Forbes, Britannic Water Treatment Company W.L.L., Panasonic Corporation, LG Electronics, Pure It LLC, Waterlife, Coolpex Pure Water System, Ultra Tec Water Treatment LLC and AQUA PRO UAE. Most players in the market are engaged in various activities, such as mergers and acquisitions, increasing investments in technological and product developments, geographical expansion and brand building via strong marketing strategies, in order to sustain their position in the competitive market.New York, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/24/2018 -- Taiwan International Travelers Visitation, Spending Analysis



Taiwan will attract more than 12 Million international travelers and generated US$ 16 Billion revenues by 2024.



The report "Taiwan International Travelers Visitation, Spending Analysis 2012  2017 and Future Forecast 2018 - 2024" offers the most up-to-date industry data on the actual market situation and future outlook for Taiwan inbound tourism market. The report uses data and analysis to discuss future trends related to international travelers arrivals, spending, purpose of visits and main destination markets. The report provides clear insight into current and future tourism developments in the region. Furthermore, this report uses regional and country focused analysis to explore inbound tourist markets in Taiwan.



A detailed country-wise analysis of the market is provided, covering a total of 15 nations and 5 regions. The research study limelight growth drivers and investigates market inhibitors of Taiwan travel & tourism.



Try Sample Report @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/2719876-taiwan-international-travelers-visitation-spending-analysis-2012-2017-and-future



The countries included in this report are Hong Kong & Macao, Mainland China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Canada, United States, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa



The regions included in this report are Asia, North America, Oceania, Europe and Africa



Key Findings:



Mainland China is the largest source market for Taiwan tourism, but its share will decline in the forecast period

- Hong Kong and Macau will be leading source market with nearly 20% share by 2024

- International tourists most commonly travel to the Taiwan for pleasure purposes

The Latest Industry Data Included in this Report:



Total International Travelers in Taiwan & Forecast (2012 - 2024)

- Total International Travelers Spending in Taiwan & Forecast (2012  2024)

- Total International Travelers Spending Share & Forecast (2012  2024)

- By Region Travelers Spending Share & Forecast (2012  2024)

- 5 Region Travelers Visitation, Spending & Forecast (2012  2024)

- 5 Region Travelers Purpose of Visit & Forecast (2012  2024)

- 15 Countries Travelers Visitation & Forecast (2012 - 2024)

- 15 Countries Travelers Purpose of Visit & Forecast (2012 - 2024)

- 15 Countries Travelers Spending & Forecast (2012 - 2024)

- Identification of Key Drivers and Inhibitors of the Taiwan Travel & Tourism

For Detailed Reading Please visit WiseGuy Reports @ https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/2719876-taiwan-international-travelers-visitation-spending-analysis-2012-2017-and-future



Some points from table of content:



Executive Summary

2. Taiwan  Total International Travelers Visitation, Spending & Forecast (2012  2024)

2.1 Total International Travelers

2.2 Total International Travelers Spending

3. Taiwan  Total International Travelers Spending Share & Forecast (2012  2024)

3.1 Total International Travelers Spending Share

3.2 By Region  Total International Travelers Spending Share

4. Key Market Drivers and Inhibitors of the Taiwan Travel & Tourism

4.1 Market Drivers

4.2 Market Inhibitors

5. Taiwan  Total International Travelers Visitation, Spending & Forecast (2012 - 2024): Regional Analysis

5.1 Asia

5.1.1 Asia Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

5.1.2 Asia Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

5.1.3 Asia Travelers Spending to Taiwan

5.2 North America

5.2.1 North America Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

5.2.2 North America Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

5.2.3 North America Travelers Spending to Taiwan

5.3 Europe

5.3.1 Europe Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

5.3.2 Europe Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

5.3.3 Europe Travelers Spending to Taiwan

5.4 Oceania

5.4.1 Oceania Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

5.4.2 Oceania Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

5.4.3 Oceania Travelers Spending to Taiwan

5.5 Africa

5.5.1 Africa Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

5.5.2 Africa Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

5.5.3 Africa Travelers Spending to Taiwan

6. Taiwan  Top 15 International Travelers Markets

6.1 Hong Kong & Macao Travelers Visitation, Purpose of Visit, Travelers Spending & Forecast

6.1.1 Hong Kong & Macao Travelers Visitation to Taiwan

6.1.2 Hong Kong & Macao Travelers Purpose of Visit to Taiwan

6.1.3 Hong Kong & Macao Travelers Spending to Taiwan

6.2 Mainland China Travelers Visitation, Purpose of Visit, Spending & Forecast

6.2.1 Mainland China Travelers Visitation to Taiwan & Forecast

Continued.



For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.com



About Wise Guy Reports

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 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 9349

Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wise-guy-research-consultants-pvt-ltd-?trk=biz-companies-cymESAs Mars Express orbiter has used radar signals bounced through underground layers of ice to find evidence of liquid water trapped below the south polar cap of the Red Planet. The results appear today in the journal Science.

Evidence for Mars watery past is prevalent across its surface in the form of vast dried-out river valley networks and gigantic outflow channels clearly imaged by orbiting spacecraft.

Orbiters, together with landers and rovers exploring the Martian surface, also discovered minerals that can only form in the presence of liquid water.

But the climate has changed significantly over the course of the planets 4.6 billion year history and liquid water cannot exist on the surface today, so scientists are looking underground.

Early results from Mars Express already found that water-ice exists at the planets poles and is also buried in layers interspersed with dust.

The presence of liquid water at the base of the polar ice caps has long been suspected; after all, from studies on Earth, it is well known that the melting point of water decreases under the pressure of an overlying glacier.

Moreover, the presence of salts on Mars could further reduce the melting point of water and keep the water liquid even at below-freezing temperatures.

But until now evidence from Mars Express MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) instrument, the first radar sounder ever to orbit another planet, remained inconclusive.

Wed seen hints of interesting subsurface features for years but we couldnt reproduce the result from orbit to orbit, because the sampling rates and resolution of our data was previously too low, said MARSIS operations manager Dr. Andrea Cicchetti, a researcher at the Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Roma, Italy.

We had to come up with a new operating mode to bypass some onboard processing and trigger a higher sampling rate and thus improve the resolution of the footprint of our dataset: now we see things that simply were not possible before.

Between May 2012 and December 2015, Dr. Cicchetti and colleagues used MARSIS to survey a region called Planum Australe, located in the southern ice cap of Mars.

Thr team obtained 29 sets of radar samplings, mapping out an area exhibiting a very sharp change in its associated radar signal, about 1.5 km below the surface of the ice and extending sideways about 20 km.

The radar profile of this area is similar to that of lakes of liquid water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, suggesting that there is a subglacial lake at this location on Mars.

This subsurface anomaly on Mars has radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments, said MARSIS principal investigator Dr. Roberto Orosei, a researcher at the Istituto di Radioastronomia, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Bologna, Italy.

This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered.

This thrilling discovery is a highlight for planetary science and will contribute to our understanding of the evolution of Mars, the history of water on our neighbor planet and its habitability, said Mars Express project scientist Dr. Dmitri Titov, who was not involved in the study.

_____

R. Orosei et al. Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars. Science, published online July 25, 2018; doi: 10.1126/science.aar7268In their announcement, Enterprise said Based on initial designs, the project could include approximately 80 miles of 42-inch diameter pipeline to an offshore terminal capable of loading and exporting crude oil at approximately 85,000 barrels per hour. They added that: A final investment decision will be subject to receiving the requisite state and federal permits and customer demand.

This announcement comes a month after the EPD-linked Seaway Pipeline, which sources oil at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub, and terminates in Texas City, in Galveston Bay, loaded a VLCC with export oil. Seaway Pipeline said: The FPMC C Melody, chartered by Vitol, Inc, is the first VLCC to be loaded at a Texas port. The Texas City facility features two docks, a 45-foot draft, an overall length (LOA) of 1,125 feet, a 220-foot beam and the capacity to load crude oil at a rate of 35,000 barrels per hour.

They explained that roughly 1.1m barrels were loaded at the Texas City facility with the balance lightered in the Gulf of Mexico. In mid July, a second VLCC, Eagle Victoria, was loaded in Texas City, and topped off, by an aframax, out in the US Gulf. These loadings followed a late April call in Texas City by another VLCC, Nave Quasar, reportedly to test the loading facility.

US crude oil exports, which stood at around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) when President Obama lifted restrictions in late 2016, have now surged- reaching as much as 3m bpd briefly in late June.

Loadings have occurred at LOOP Terminal and through reverse lighterings where VLCCs are filled up in offshore lightering areas in the US Gulf. Logistics will be changing and oil from the burgeoning Permian Basin (in western Texas) is presently stranded inland,resulting in a huge price discount, due to lack of capacity to bring it to the coast; new pipeline throughput currently under construction will feed the VLCC loadings in Corpus Christi.

One side-show attracting attention are possible reductions in shipments to China from the US Gulf as a result of trade war friction; other Asian destinations may or may not pick up the slack.

The story also has a port finance component. Importantly, the ceo of EPDs General Partner, Jim Teague, in discussing the incipient offshore facility, said: Capital and infrastructure to support our project would be solely provided by private capital and would not be reliant nor contingent upon state or federal government agency financial support or infrastructure development. We believe this would enable us to deliver this project in a timely manner once permits are granted and the project is underwritten.

Though the Trump administration seeks to ease all manner of legislative back-ups across the entire infrastructure spectrum, port related projects generally have seen notorious delays due to funding constraints on the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) which handles dredging and many aspects of permitting. Indeed, one Texas port, Corpus Christi and also has aspirations for loading VLCCs full of the above-mentioned Permian Basin crude, and will see exports of LNG beginning in early 2019 as Chenieres terminal comes online, has taken the step of raising $217m in bond financing to support deepening and other capital needs, without waiting for the USACE.The judging panel, led by Joe Brincat, former Vice President of ABS - Middle East, includes: H.E. Shaikh Daij Bin Salman Al Khalifa, Chairman, ASRY; Jasamin Fichte, Managing Partner, Fichte & Co.; Romesh David, CEO, South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT); Rene Kofod-Olsen, CEO, Topaz Energy and Marine; Dr. Ahmed Al Abri, CEO, Ports Management & Operation Company (MARAFI); Capt. Brian Course, Senior Quality Assurance & Compliance Manager, Bahri Oil Transportation; Fazel Fazelbhoy, CEO, Synergy Offshore FZ LLE; and Engr. Ashik Subahani, Chairman & Managing Director, Great Waters Maritime LLC (RINA UAE branch) and Nawfal Al Jourani, Director, Dubai Maritime Cluster Office at Dubai Maritime City Authority.

The Seatrade Maritime Awards presentation ceremony, set to take place on October 28, 2018 at the Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai, celebrates the 15th edition of the largest and longest established awards scheme for the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa regions, showcasing the most outstanding achievements of the regions leading maritime companies and their teams.

Chris Hayman, Chairman of Seatrade, said: The caliber of this years judges attests to our unwavering commitment to the highest standards of excellence and quality. The judges who are experts in their fields will carefully assess and evaluate all entries based on the approved criteria and only the best will be chosen out of the hundreds of nominations that are expected to be submitted.

Joe Brincat, Former Vice President of ABS - Middle East, said, When Seatrade invited me to chair this year's judging panel for the third year in a row, I felt more than happy to accept the task again. The awards prove to be very significant for the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent and Africa maritime sector  giving recognition to innovative and advanced businesses that will lead the industry to further growth and progress.

The Seatrade Maritime Awards covers all areas of the maritime and shipping industries. It is the must-attend maritime awards event of the year, bringing together hundreds of key maritime industry leaders and government officials from different parts of the region.The ninth annual Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition will feature a new venue and a format change designed to provide greater value to all participants.

The statewide pitch competition awards $1 million in cash and prizes, including a $500,000 grand prize. Companies must register for the competition by Aug. 15 and submit their application packets by the end of August.

The competition, a program of Invest Detroits ID Ventures, allows startups to network, show off their innovations, and gain the attention of investors. Many Ann Arbor-area startups have won prizes over the years, including Ann Arbor-based Mi Padrino picking up the first runner-up prize of $100,000 in 2017.

This year, a new format on the day of the final competition will allow more opportunity for entrepreneurs to have one-on-one meetings with mentors, investors, and other entrepreneurs. That will help them brainstorm and refine their business plans, according to Chris Rizik, CEO of Renaissance Venture Capital Fund and Invest Detroit board member.

"Overall, this year the shift in focus is to be less like Shark Tank and more founder-focused," Rizik says. "We're providing more value to all participants because, whether or not they win any money, they should come out with more relationships and more good ideas for their business."

Semi-finalists will be announced Oct. 3, and those companies will get a chance to meet with mentors and other entrepreneurs on the afternoon of Nov. 13. Those meetings will be followed by a dinner and a chance for the audience to hear the finalists' presentations at the Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave. in Detroit. After dinner, winners will be announced and prizes awarded.

On that final evening, Rizik says, judges will be looking for ideas that are "unique and scalable, and that are solving a real problem in the world, led by teams that appear to have the ability to execute that vision."

Those interested in attending the final night of the competition can find more information through the Accelerate Michigan website.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Accelerate Michigan.#government S. Korea to cut fuel taxes by record 20 pct amid soaring oil prices South Korea said Tuesday it will temporarily cut fuel taxes by a record 20 percent in a bid to ease upward pressure on consumer inflation as oil prices have surged amid the global ...

#LPGA Ko Jin-young back on top of women's golf rankings after latest LPGA win Fresh off her fourth LPGA win of the year, Ko Jin-young is once again the top-ranked female golfer in the world. The South Korean star climbed one spot to reach No. 1 in the new...Press Release

July 24, 2018 CO-SPONSORSHIP SPEECH

House Bill No. 7449 under Committee Report No. 395

Supplemental Appropriations for Dengvaxia Vaccinees Assistance Mr. President and distinguished colleagues, I rise today to co-sponsor a very important appropriations measure under Committee Report No. 395 which appropriates the sum of One Billion One Hundred Sixty-one Million Seven Hundred Ten Thousand Pesos (P1,161,710,000) as supplemental appropriations for FY 2018 and for other purposes. Said measure, considered under the Senate Committee on Finance chaired by its hardworking Chair, Senator Loren Legarda, will ensure the protection and welfare of the Dengvaxia recipients. This supplemental appropriation will be used as support fund to cover the medical needs of the children who received the vaccination. This representation filed a similar measure - Senate Bill No. 1769, which aims to establish a Medical Assistance Program for the Dengvaxia Vaccinees. Said bill was initially referred to the Committee on Health and Demography but was later on transferred to and considered by the Finance Committee. Mr. President, According to the Department of Health there are more than 830,000 children inoculated of the Dengvaxia vaccine which is supposed to prevent the occurrence of severe dengue among the population. However, instead of attaining this objective, the children have been reported to have allegedly developed different adverse effects, from headache to death. These alarming incidents among the vaccinees are attributed to the earlier announcement of Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, regarding a new clinical finding on the vaccine's adverse effect to its recipients. Nagkaroon nga po ng imbestigasyon ang Blue Ribbon Committee joint with the Committee on Health and Demography upang malaman ang panangutan ng mga opisyal ng gobyerno sa pagpapatupad ng programa. Nagkaroon din po tayo ng pagkakataon upang mapakinggan ang mga magulang ng mga batang nabakunahan. Nakakalungkot po na marinig ang pangungulila ng mga magulang na namatayan ng mga anak at ang pangamba ng mga magulang na baka isang araw anak naman nila ang magkaroon ng malubhang karamdaman dulot ng natanggap na vaccine. In view of this and the public interest involved, immediate action should be taken to guarantee the welfare of the children. The fund that will be allocated shall finance the assistance to the Dengvaxia vaccinees which shall include but not limited to their hospitalization, outpatient health care services, and deployment of health personnel, among others. Mr. President, Malaking tulong po ang alokasyon na ito upang masigurado natin na mabibigyan ng karampatang lunas at medical attention ang mga bata. Dahil po sa takot na dulot ng Dengvaxia vaccination, pati po ang ibang vaccination programs ng gobyerno ay naapektuhan na. Malaking tulong po ito upang maalis ang pangamba ng mga magulang at maibalik ang tiwala nila sa mga programang pangkalusugan ng gobyerno. In view of the foregoing premise, this representation urge this august body to support the immediate approval of this measure. Maraming salamat po!Press Release

July 25, 2018 Sen. Leila M. De Lima's Manifestation on the Ratification of the Bicameral Committee Report on the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao

(Entered into the Senate Record on 24 July 2018) "Mr. President, my esteemed colleagues: "My current situation prevented me from participating in yesterday's historic occasion as the Senate of the Seventeenth Congress of the Republic of the Philippines ratified the Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). For decades, peace has eluded the Land of Promise and the Food Basket of the Philippines. Years of violence have led to tens of thousands of families internally displaced, hundreds of thousands of our countrymen killed, and billions of pesos in lost economic activity. But alas, our legislative contribution to the peace process has finally crossed the Rubicon. "This Organic Law proves that federalism is not the solution to our country's woes. The present form of government under the 1987 Constitution already enshrines decentralization and grants local governments autonomy over their jurisdiction. Charter change is not needed to foster national unity, to address insurgency and terrorism, to uplift the economic condition of the vulnerable sectors of society, and to ensure the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty. "It is my fervent hope that this landmark legislation will be the catalyst in achieving lasting peace in Mindanao and for our impoverished countrymen in the BARMM to finally enjoy the blessings of prosperity and democracy under a united Philippines. Assalamualaikum!"Press Release

July 25, 2018 Gatchalian urges passage of telco bills to attract more players Senator Win Gatchalian on Wednesday urged Congress to prioritize the passage of three bills that would allow for the entry of more players into the Philippine telecommunications sector. Gatchalian issued the call in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's comments during his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) calling for the entry of a third telco player in the country. "The enactment of the Lifetime Cellphone Number Act, Open Access in Data Transmission Act, and amendments to the Public Service Act will help ensure that our country's telecommunications services will be reliable, inexpensive, and secure, in line with President Duterte's vision," Gatchalian said. Gatchalian's Mobile Number Portability Act, more commonly known as the Lifetime Cellphone Number Act (Senate Bill 1636), requires telcos to allow subscribers to retain their mobile phone numbers if they choose to switch providers or change from postpaid to prepaid and vice-versa. The bill has already hurdled the Senate and is currently pending in the House of Representatives. "Gone will be the days of people text-blasting their contacts, 'please save my new number and delete my old one' every time they switch providers or change their type of service," he said. The senator also said his proposed Open Access in Data Transmission Act (SB 1644), meanwhile, will allow for the entry of additional telco players without requiring a congressional franchise by shifting towards an Open Access Model in data transmission instead of a single, vertically integrated network. The bill seeks to open up the different segments of the market to other players by breaking down regulatory barriers, lowering the cost of entry, and institutionalizing a technology-neutral policy framework. "What this proposed law will basically do is to level the playing field among telco service providers, which will hopefully entice more new players to come in," he said. "If the market is configured to be more conducive to the entry of new telco players, it will be beneficial for the public. More players means healthier competition. Healthier competition, in turn, will mean more competitive prices offered by service providers. Ibig sabihin nito, mas maganda at mas murang serbisyo para sa lahat," Gatchalian added. The bill is currently in the period of interpellations in the Senate while the House version was already passed on third reading. Meanwhile, SB 1594, which amends Commonwealth Act No. 146 or the Public Service Act (PSA), aligns the provisions of the PSA with the current focus on fostering competition and creating a more conducive investment climate in the operation of public services -- "so the general public will have more choices, better services, and enjoy lower prices," Gatchalian said. The senator stressed that the confusion in the definition public service and public utility has contributed to the lack of competition in the telco industry. "The current Public Service Act only provides a list, and not a definition of public services, and no definition of a public utility so both terms are often used interchangeably. The effect is that all basic services with even a semblance of public utilities or public services are automatically subjected to the 60-40 restriction as provided in the 1987 Constitution," he said. "These restrictions lead to lack of competition and encourage monopolies, or in the case of our current telco setup, a duopoly," he added. Gatchalian's amendment provides for a definition of what a public utility is and removes foreign ownership restrictions in telecommunications, including landline, mobile, and internet.Press Release

July 25, 2018 Co-Sponsorship Speech

Senate Bill No. 1843 / Committee Report No. 397

The Seal of Good Local Governance Act of 2018

July 25, 2018 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon

Session Hall, Senate of the Philippines, Pasay City Delivered by HON. WIN GATCHALIAN, Senator of the Republic: Mr. President, esteemed colleagues, good afternoon to you all. As a long-time city mayor, I can attest to the immense role that the Seal of Good Local Governance and its predecessor programs have played in raising the efficiency and transparency of local governance in LGUs across the entire country. The institutionalization and expansion of the program through the passage of Senate Bill 1843 will help further amplify the program's positive contributions to improving the state of local governance in the coming years. As an advocate for education reform, I am also proud that we were able to add "Programs for Sustainable Education" as a criterion for awarding the Seal of Good Local Governance. Based on my experiences as a local public servant, I am convinced that meaningful reforms to improve educational quality and access can only be achieved with full cooperation and dedication on the part of LGUs. In line with this, LGUs will now be incentivized to implement smart and innovative programs to address the specific education criteria mentioned in the bill -- including increases in student participation rates, decreasing drop-out and out-of-school youth rates, increases in cohort survival rates, increases in achievement scores, and better access to alternative and special education programs. Thus, LGUs will become genuine partners for reform and change in our local and national educational systems. For these reasons, Mr. President, I am proud to join my good friend and Seatmate, Senator Sonny Angara, in sponsoring this pivotal local government legislation. Thank you Mr. President.Press Release

July 25, 2018 HONTIVEROS' BILL SEEKING MANDATORY PHILHEALTH COVERAGE FOR PWDS PASSES SECOND READING The Senate on Tuesday night approved on second reading a proposed measure providing mandatory Philhealth coverage to persons with disabilities [PWDs]. Authored and co-sponsored by Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros, Senate Bill No. 1391 provides that all PWDs are automatically enrolled and covered under the National Health Insurance Program or NHIP. "I am happy with this development. I laud the Senate's commitment to ensure that PWDs will be given better access to long-term medical care," Hontiveros said. Hontiveros, who is Vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Health, said that differently-abled Filipinos have a greater likelihood to needing medical assistance. "There are 1.4 million Filipinos with disability, comprising 1.53% of the country's population, according to a 2010 census. The majority of PWDs are poor and cannot keep up with the rising costs of medical care," she said. The measure will amend Republic Act No. 7277 or the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons. The bill mandates that the premium contributions of all PWDs will be paid by the national government, while the premium contributions of those employed in the formal economy will be shared by the employer and the national government. Premium payments will be sourced from sin tax collection. "This will amplify the PWDs' access to the country's healthcare services," according to Hontiveros. "Persons with disability face many barriers in availing of the government's healthcare services. This bill, once enacted into law, will remove some of those barriers," explained Hontiveros. She urged the immediate passage of the bill into law, recognizing the government's duty to provide an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development. "Once enacted into law, this bill will enable all Filipinos with disability to enjoy the benefits of Philhealth", Hontiveros said. "With this measure, we hope that our PWDs will be able to fully enjoy their rights, freedom and dignity," she concluded.Press Release

July 25, 2018 Privilege Speech of Senator Loren Legarda

"The Economic Cost of Undernutrition in the Philippines"

25 July 2018 | Senate Session Hall Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, The Philippines has been showing an impressive performance in terms of economic growth. Our growth rate of more than 6% annually, which is one of the highest in Southeast Asia, the growing trust of investors as proven by the increasing inflow of investments in the country, and the upgrade in our credit rating by Fitch Ratings, to name a few, are accomplishments to be proud of. But all of these should also have meaning to our people. All of these should translate to services that will improve the lives of Filipinos. One of the urgent things we must attend to affects the children of today and the future of our society--undernutrition. Our nutrition indicators not only lag behind most of our neighboring countries in the ASEAN region but even when compared to developing countries in Africa. Undernutrition is the direct or indirect cause of almost half of child deaths. Over 29,000 Filipino children below five die each year due to undernutrition. This is about 38% of all deaths among Filipino children under five. While one million Filipino children suffer from severe or moderate acute malnutrition each year, 14 of the nutrition indicators show that over 28 million children suffer from undernutrition. This is alarming for both our children and our society as a whole. Undernutrition is not only associated with child survival and physical health, it is also a threat to psychological, cognitive development. The damage is largely irreversible. It not only affects children's physical growth, it also diminishes their learning capacity and school performance[1]. Later in life as adults and professionals, they have lower productivity and reduced earnings by half. Moreover, the negative impacts of undernutrition erode the most basic foundation of economic growth: people's strength and energy, creative and analytical capacity, initiative, and entrepreneurial drive. It is unfortunate that we did not reach many of the targets in the last two Philippine Plans of Action for Nutrition (PPAN) covering 2005-2010 and 2011-2016. Further, we did not achieve the food and nutrition security goals of the Millennium Development Goals. The Joint Assessment of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement also reported that key challenges in implementing the Plans of Action for Nutrition, and achieving our target outcomes, include weak political commitment at both the national and local levels; and limits in using a proper nutrition lens in developing and implementing regular and specialized programs by key player agencies. All of these should compel us to work even harder, together, across all sectors, to mitigate this issue. Value of economic losses due to undernutrition The Department of Health, with UNICEF and the National Nutrition Council, published two reports[2] on the economic implications of the status of national nutrition, as well as a business case for nutrition investment in the Philippines. According to the first report, the Philippines is losing and will continue to lose around $4.5 billion per year if current rates of undernutrition are not mitigated. In 2015, this loss was equivalent to around 1.5% of the country's GDP, which has made a significant dent in the national economy.[3] The report presents a case for investing in nutrition in the Philippines and outlines evidence-based and nutrition-specific intervention packages to address nutrition concerns in the country. Apart from posing grave survival and health risks, undernutrition impacts serious human capital development deficits that result in lower work productivity and earnings. The said report estimates that the total economic burden emerging from the various cases of undernutrition is estimated at around PhP220 billion annually--equivalent to a 1.5% loss in our GDP in 2015. Adult productivity deficits caused by childhood stunting and micronutrients deficiencies entails the greatest loss from undernutrition, which reaches more than PhP150 billion every year. Stunting alone contributes to more than 50% of the economic costs of undernutrition at PhP115 billion or $2.3 billion. Beyond our moral obligation and humanitarian imperatives, the high economic cost of not doing anything to lift the burdens of undernutrition in the Philippines should compel and drive urgent action. By investing in the available effective, affordable and equity-focused nutrition with 90% coverage of all interventions, we can reduce the burden of national undernutrition by more than Php78 billion per year. In short, addressing the huge economic burden of undernutrition is highly cost-effective for the country in the long-term. If implemented over the next 10 years and costing only around PhP5.7 billion per year, this suggested strategy can yield very high returns and an attractive cost-benefits ratio of one is to 12 (1:12). This means that every Php50 investment in these interventions can save around Php624 in forgone earnings or in health expenditures because of undernutrition. Mr. President, as legislators and representatives of our people, we owe this to every Filipino child, to every Filipino citizen. As Congress has the power of the purse, it is incumbent upon us to ensure our citizens are able to benefit from the economic success we are enjoying. Only then, can we help this administration fulfill the promises made to the Filipino people. Incidentally, my office already received last night the President's Budget Message for 2019, and the budget theme for next year is "Building a Bright Future for the Philippines and its People". As the Committee on Finance shall soon commence the task of reviewing the 2018 budget and scrutinizing the proposals for next year, we will make sure that human capital development, starting with the need to address the problem of undernutrition, will be the main component of the government's strategy in securing a bright future for our people. I want to emphasize that strong government commitment and strategic budget allocation at both national and local levels is highly critical. The DOH, the NNC, and many other line agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Education, will all need to invest in evidence-based nutrition-sensitive interventions to target nutritionally at-risk populations or areas in their program activities. Particular attention should also be given to underserved sectors, such as indigenous populations, poor families, and families with children with disabilities. It is only this way that we will be able to provide equitable services to all Filipinos. To respond to the alarming situation of undernutrition, the Philippines has adopted and approved the Philippine Plan of Action for Nutrition for 2017-2022. This is very much in line with President Rodrigo Duterte's 10-point Economic Agenda and promise of long-term, strategic development plan. The All for Health towards Health for All Agenda of the DOH is an integral part of the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022. This Plan of Action concretizes our commitment to pursue the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG No. 2, which seeks to end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition. It also recognizes the importance of the 'First 1,000 Days' of the life of the child as the most critical window of opportunity to avert malnutrition, and allow for optimal growth and development. We have to sustain the momentum we have gained in the economic progress we have achieved. We need stronger political will and accountability to ensure effective, strategic and equitable implementation of our Plans of Action to address the pressing issue of undernutrition among our children. The proposed package of the Plan of Action also relies on strong and motivated community workforce, such as our Barangay Nutrition Scholars and Barangay Health Workers. They need to be adequately supported by our LGUs and provided with the needed tools, skills, attitudes and knowledge to be able to do their job well. We need to empower them and one way to do this is to re-think our publicly-funded plantilla posts. Let us please remember that they, too, have families to feed and children to send to school. Finally, being identified as a priority legislative agenda item in the Philippine Development Plan, the proposed provisions of Senate Bill 383 -- or the Strengthening of the Barangay Nutrition Programme -- that I filed right at the start of this Congress, will ultimately address the many critical policy and capacity gaps in the Philippines. I enjoin my colleagues in this Chamber for support and approval of this bill. Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, it is high time for our government to start investing in its biggest, most important resource -- the Filipino people, particularly our children. Let us invest in long-term solutions that will allow us to harness our economic progress more strategically and effectively, with our people at the heart of our work. It is high time for us to invest in every Filipino - starting in the early years, in the first 1,000 days of a child's life - so we can leave a definite brighter future for this country. Thank you, Mr. President. ________________________________________ [1] Stunting may reduce a child's IQ by 5 to 11 points. [2] Economic Consequences of Undernutrition in the Philippines: A Damage Assessment Report; & Business Case for Nutrition Investment in the Philippines. [3] Foreword by Ms. Lotta Sylwander, Country Representative of UNICEFPress Release

July 25, 2018 Statement of Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, Partido Liberal president, On floods and government assistance to farmers It has been raining and flooding for the past week. Every time this happens, our farmers and fisher folk are hardest hit. Nakakalungkot. In these calamities, the agriculture sector often sustains the biggest damage. We thus exhort the Department of Agriculture (DA) and other related agencies to immediately come to the aid of our farmers who have lost their crops and fisher folk who have not been able to go out to sea. The DA should make an inventory of the damage to agriculture and make available calamity relief assistance to the affected farmers and fisher folk.

All concerned government agencies should come together and pool their resources to help our distressed countrymen, especially in areas that remain under water.

The National Irrigation Administration, in coordination with local government units, should provide temporary jobs to farmers and fishermen in the repair of damaged dikes and irrigation infrastructure to help them tide over the difficult times.

The Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation must fast-track the release of funds to compensate the losses suffered by farmers, so that they can recover and plant again.

Farmers should also gain access to the government's seed assistance program consisting of aid package of assorted vegetable, rice, and corn seeds to help them make a quick turn-around from their crop losses.

The government has quick response funds, especially for provinces declared as calamity areas, that may be tapped through loans to farmers and other assistance.Press Release

July 25, 2018 Take Cue from President's SONA Message, Fast Track Telco Improvement - Pimentel "Now that the President has declared very adamantly in his SONA that improvement of telecoms services is a top government priority, the lead agencies should take their cue and fast track the rules on the entry of a third telco player." Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, who chairs the Senate's Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship Committee, made the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte mentioned in his State of the Nation Address last July 23 that the administration remained firm in its resolve to ensure that the country's telecommunication services are "reliable, inexpensive, and secure." Just last June, Pimentel criticized the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the multi-agency Oversight Committee for the Entry of a New Major Player in the Public Telecommunications Market over the languid pace with which the long-delayed rules on the assignment of radio frequencies were being formulated. These frequencies would be needed by a new entrant to the domestic telco market. The Senator noted that no concrete and positive steps had been taken by the concerned government agencies since he called their attention last month. "The President's SONA message is a strong wake-up call. Or should the agencies just treat it like one of those dropped calls or lost text messages that telco consumers experience every day? Would the DICT and the oversight committee say Message Not Sent Mr. President?" the lawmaker remarked. "Telecommunications is just as potent an economic driver as physical infrastructure. It's as important as sound economic policy. The President knows this, that's why he reiterated the need for a robust telecom industry, with emphasis on efficiency and low cost," the senator noted. Government statistics show an estimated 73 million cellphone users in the country today, with the figure ballooning by another 3 million by 2020. Furthermore, Filipinos spend an average per day of 3.2 hours online using cellphones and 5.2 hours on other mobile devices and desktop PCs. Despite widespread mobile usage, the Philippines lags behind major ASEAN neighbors Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia in terms of Internet and 4G LTE speeds while charging one of the highest usage rates in the region. Consumers and experts alike attribute the slow and expensive mobile service to the country's telco duopoly. "We need quicker and cheaper telco service, and we need it now. If no less than the President says so, that's the time to act fast," Pimentel said.Press Release

July 25, 2018 Cynthia Villar leads tree planting for Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday Green warriors led by environment advocate Sen. Cynthia A. Villar have bonded together for a tree planting activity at the Las Pinas-Paranaque Wetland Park in celebration of Nelson Mandela International Day. Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, was the guest of honor of the event, which was organized by United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Manila to commemorate the 100th birthday of the late South Africa president Nelson Mandela. 'Let us all continue to work together to bring back ecological balance, which has been severely affected by climate change caused by man's abuse of our natural resources. Activities like this encourages the public to stop their environmental negligence and do something to bring back the grandeur of Mother Nature,' Villar said. Villar also said: 'We should all learn to care for our environment. The damages made on our natural resources have been been very costly, as we have all recently experienced when floods inundated our streets due to incessant strong rains.' Over 500 participants joined Villar in the tree planting activity, including Ambassador of South Africa in Manila Marthinus Nicholaas Slabber, Carlito P. Castaneda of the DENR's Protected Areas Management and Biodiversity section, and actress Antoinette Taus, founder of Planet CORA foundation. The volunteers planted 100 trees in the Las Pinas - Paranaque Wetland Park grounds in the activity dubbed as '100 Trees for Nelson Mandela's 100th Birthday.' The United Nations marks July 18 of every year as Nelson Mandela International Day to remember his legacy as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Last year, UNIC Manila conducted a cleanup drive at Las Pinas - Paranaque Wetland Park, and picked it as its focus venue for its future environmental actvities. The Las Pinas - Paranaque Wetland Park was declared as the country's first critical habitat in 2007. It covers around 175 hectares of wetland ecosystem and consists of two islands--Freedom Island and Long Island--with mangroves, ponds and lagoons, mudflats, salt marshes, and mixed beach forest all over. On March 15, 2013 Las Pinas - Paranaque Wetland Park was recognized as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention because of the critical role it plays in the survival of threatened, restricted-range and congregatory bird species. It is the sixth Ramsar Site in the country to date. The park was also declared a protected area under Republic Act 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-NIPAS) Act, which was signed into law by President Duterte on June 22, 2018.Press Release

July 25, 2018 Villar: Bicam set to approve final version of coco levy bill Sen. Cynthia Villar today said the bill creating the P100-billion coconut levy trust fund is nearing enactment into law with the holding of the bicameral conference committee meeting next week, August 1, to reconcile the bill's disagreeing provisions. Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture and Food, also said that despite substantial differences between the versions of the House of Representatives and the Senate, she is "confident that members of the bicam panel will be able to find a common ground." "It will not be very difficult to convince our colleagues to agree on provisions that will make sure that benefits from the coconut levy fund will be protected, maximized and will directly go to the 3.5 million coconut farmers themselves," Villar said. Senate Bill 1233 or the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Act was among the priority legislative measures pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte during his State of the Nation Address. The bill is among Villar's pet bills to address the need to allow the sustainable development of the coconut industry as it has the highest potential for growth through productivity enhancement, diversification, and industry value-adding. Villar noted that reforms are urgently needed given that the Philippines has the lowest yield in coconut production among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, with only 4.4 metric tons as compared to 9.6 MT of Vietnam, 5 MT of Thailand, and 6.5 MT of Indonesia. During interpellations on the bill, Villar introduced amendments gathered from her consultations with industry stakeholders, among them are provisions safeguarding the coconut levy funds and making its earnings available to support the livelihoods of small coconut farmers. Villar pushed for a provision that will mandate "the investment of the trust fund only in Philippine government securities to ensure the safety of the fund and for assured returns." "In terms of the deployment of the trust fund for investment purposes, I strongly feel that as a business woman, investing in stocks, commodities, futures and options would be very risky for a trust fund that is endowed with public interest, even where the services of fund managers are engaged," she said. She also pushed for the earmarking of the income or interest earning of the trust fund to the following programs: Shared facilities program, 35%; b. Scholarship program, 15%; c. Empowerment of coconut farmer organizations and their cooperatives, 15%; and d. Farm improvements (to encourage self-sufficiency), 35%. The Nacionalista Party senator also introduced amendments to make sure that the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) will have a yearly appropriation in the General Appropriations Act to fund programs for the development of the coconut industry. The amended version provides that the PCA will have a mandated appropriation of not less than P10 billion to augment the coconut farmers and development fund, increase the income of coconut farmers and support the developmental activities of the PCA. Said amount will be allocated as follows: a. Infrastructure program (farm-to-market roads), 20%; b. Planting and replanting, 20%; c. Intercropping, 10%; d. Shared facilities, 20%; e. Research and development, 10%; f. Fertilization, 5%; g. New products and marketing, 5%; and h. Credit through Landbank and Development Bank of the Philippines, 10%. Villar also added amendments in the bill that will promote the propagation of hybrid coconut seedlings that can produce 150 nuts per year per tree, intensive effort on inter-cropping of alternative farm crops such as cacao, coffee and banana; livestock raising; and the establishment of Coconut Industry Farm Schools in every coconut producing province to support and enlarge the trained human resource pool of coconut farmers by the PCA and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. "We are very hopeful that with these safeguards and reforms in place, we can finally see the day when poverty incidence is no longer the highest among our coconut farmers," Villar said. "We remain true to our commitment to improve the lives of our coconut farmers. Our commitment is to pass carefully-crafted laws that will benefit coconut farmers in the long term," she added. The Senate bicam panel is headed by Villar, with members Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Francis Pangilinan, Francis Escudero, and Joseph Victor Ejercito. The House of Representatives panel is composed of Representatives Sharon Garin, Jose Panganiban, Jericho Nograles, Celso Lobregat, Manuel Sagarbarria, Edcel Lagman, Evelina Escudero, Angelina Helen Tan, Conrado Estrella III, and Cecilia Leonila Chavez.Hence, they have called off the agitation before the "offices get over". Tension had gripped Navi Mumbai as protests for reservation turned violent. Police had to fire in the air to disperse the crowd.

: In a major relief, the Maratha groups have called off the protests in Maharashtra. Maratha Kranti Morcha, which had called the stir yesterday, also withdrew the protest in Mumbai, saying that they do not want residents of Mumbai to face inconvenience.

A BEST bus, with 15 passengers was set ablaze by a violent mob in Mankhurd. However, no casualty was reported. Meanwhile, Baramati MP Supriya Sule raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, asking government to support the community's demand.

"We are Marathas, we don't hurt anyone. Our bandh was successful, women and children, all were out on roads. But in the wake of the violent protests, we have to call off the protest. We are normal employees, working in some service or the other, hence, we know what inconvenience residents might be facing. Though, we are sure that our protesters did not resort to violence. We will check and see where all violence occurred and who all were involved. They could be anti-social elements as well," says Virendra Pawar, convener of Maratha Kranti Morcha, Mumbai.In the notices, the party said Modi and Sitharamans contention in Lok Sabha on Friday that a 2008 agreement between India and France prevented the government from revealing the price details of the deal was not correct.

: The Congress on Tuesday gave notices for bringing a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha for misleading the House on the Rafale deal.

The notices were given to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan by leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, K V Thomas, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajeev Satav over the statements made by Modi and Sitharaman during the debate on the no-confidence motion.

According to procedure, it is for the speaker to decide whether to refer the matter to privilege committee or not.

Justifying its move, the Congress said the 2008 agreement does not state that commercial costs of procurement of defence deals cannot be revealed and that both the prime minister and defence minister mislead the parliament and the nation on the issue.

The prime minister has along with the defence minister deliberately misled the House. It is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privileges be accepted and referred to the privilege committee of the House for further proceedings, the notice for the privilege motion against the prime minister said.

The Congress has been demanding price details of the Rs 58,000 crore deal the Modi government had signed with France in 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The party claimed that the per aircraft price under the deal came to Rs 1,600 crore as against the Rs 520 crore negotiated during the United Progressive Alliance.

The government has refused to divulge the detailed price of each aircraft citing a secrecy clause in the Indo-French pact.

In its notice for bringing the privilege motion against Modi, the Congress said the French government, in its statement, nowhere mentioned that the prices of the Rafale jets cannot be disclosed, adding that it had merely referred to the 2008 Confidentiality Agreement between the two countries.

The French government had issued a statement on Friday after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi raised the Rafale deal issue in Lok Sabha during the debate on no confidence motion.

The prime minister was fully aware that the 2008 Confidentiality Agreement is regarding defence cooperation, including acquisition, purchase and transfer of technology, between the two countries, the notice submitted to the Speaker said.

The 2008 agreement does not state that commercial costs of procurement of defence deals cannot be revealed, it said.

Article 1 of the 2008 agreement clearly defines classified information and material as material which requires protection...in the interest of national security, the notice said.

It is not specific to the Rafale jet fighters and nowhere prohibits the disclosure of purchase price to Parliament, the party argued in the letter.

The prime ministers claim of transparency in the agreement is factually incorrect, untrue, and deliberately made with the intention to mislead the House, according to the notice.

The prime minister and his cabinet, as per the Constitution, are collectively accountable to Parliament and through it to the people of the country, it said.

The notice also said that the government, through the Minister of State for Defence, had on November 18, 2016, in reply to a question in Lok Sabha, revealed the price of Rafale aircraft as approximately Rs 670 crore.

Again on March 19, 2018, the price was disclosed by the Minister of State for Defence in Rajya Sabha, it claimed.

The prime minister, in his speech, endorsed the defence ministers claims, which contradicted the reply of his minister of state for defence, the opposition party claimed.

The defence minister had knowingly and intentionally misled Parliament by withholding the information that the government is obliged to reveal to Parliament, the notice against Sitharaman said.

It alleged that Sitharamans assertions on the floor of the House were absolutely false.

The honourable member has wilfully misled not only members of the House, but also the entire nation, the notice alleged.BRICS emerging economies meet as US trade war looms



Johannesburg, July 25 (AFP) Jul 25, 2018



Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- will gather in Johannesburg on Wednesday for a three-day meeting focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump's hardening stance has compounded fears of an all-out trade war after he slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars and imposed tariffs on other international imports.

China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer will attend the annual summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests.

Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering, saying that "the Johannesburg summit has special significance for BRICS cooperation in the new circumstances".

China this week sharply rejected accusations by Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge, saying Washington appeared determined to provoke a trade war.

Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice -- as well as achieving sharply different growth rates.



- Trade war unity? -



Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed unity.

Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders would "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members".

"They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said.

Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said last week the Johannesburg meeting was "about the context -- we are at a time when the US and China announce new measures almost every week".

"This is a trade war, so leaders' discussions are particularly important in coordinating our positions," he added.

Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India's Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.

The meeting opens on Wednesday afternoon with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks on Thursday.

African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme on Friday include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

"South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP.

"BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade."

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines.

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/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/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 129 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 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd35d0390)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3640990)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd35d0390)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3640990)') 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 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3688250)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3640990)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd3640990)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd2995e98)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3606050)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3606050)') 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:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/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 129 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 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd32c5b40)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32cf478)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd32c5b40)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32cf478)') 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 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3285bc8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32cf478)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32cf478)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd2995808)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3258b50)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3258b50)') 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:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/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 129 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 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3266728)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32b1f20)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd3266728)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32b1f20)') 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 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd32c9e70)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32b1f20)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd32b1f20)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd2997180)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3295550)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd3295550)') 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:951

/var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/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 129 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 160 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd2e68e70)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 951 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd30220d8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/1784076917/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd2e68e70)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1305 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 958 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd30220d8)') 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 138 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x7f3fd2eba270)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1303 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1295 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 484 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 436 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd30220d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd30220d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x7f3fd2997108)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd2ebad80)') called at (eval 487) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x7f3fd2ebad80)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0Vandana Anchalia wants to help change the world, one dog at a time.

The Singaporean lass, is the founder of Kannan Animal Welfare (KAW)  an animal welfare project of the Kannan foundation  which has a care centre based out of Noida, near New Delhi that houses around 80-90 resident dogs.

Many of the abandoned dogs are now finding new homes in Canada and the US, reports the Hindustan Times.

Theres great demand for adoption of desi dogs and other breeds abroad, and we tie up with rehoming partners to help us get these dogs to their new homes, said Anchalia.

Weve sent about 48 dogs till now, and none of them have been returned to us..plus I get regular updates about them, too.

The choice of adopting a desi dog was not something I consciously decided. We wanted another dog, and we wanted a special needs dog. In my search, I found my first desi girl, and once she was with us we fell in love with her. After that, it was an easy choice to adopt another desi with special needs, said, Mary-Ann Eastman from Canada, in a message to KAW.

My partner, Cam and I adopted our desi dog (originally called Sugar, now named Bowie) from KAW last March during a trip to India. I had been there 10 years earlier, and was really affected by the stray dog problem, so I made a promise to myself to come back at some point and adopt a little Indian desi pup. We had considered adopting another breed or mixed dog from Canada, but desi dogs are just so incredibly sweet, smart and aware, and we fell in love with our Bowie right away. He has brought so much joy into our lives over the past year and were so grateful for everything KAW did in organizing the adoption for us, wrote Sarah Dickens from Canada.

An estimated 35 million stray dogs live in India and according to World Health Organisation (WHO) India faces about 18,000 to 20,000 cases of rabies every year. According to the WHO report an estimated 45 pc of all deaths from rabies occur in South- East Asia out of which about 36 pc of the worlds deaths from rabies happen in India itself.

The incidents from rabies in India have been constant for a decade, without any obvious declining trend, and reported incidence is probably an underestimation of true incidence because in India rabies is still not a notifiable disease.

In March 2016, civic authorities from Mumbai disclosed in the Supreme Court that dog bites in Mumbai have taken 434 lives in the time period 1994 to 2015. According to reports more than 1.3 million people were bitten by dogs in Mumbai during this period. In November 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the Kerala government to stop the vigilante from the slaughter of stray dogs.

Kolkata has a population of more than 80,000 stray dogs, according to the NGOs in the city. But the number is constantly rising due to a sluggish sterilisation drive. Activists in the city blame the administration for not pushing animal control policies, including spaying and neutering, which would have possibly helped avoid some of the current problems. Similarly in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh there are around 16,000 stray dogs in the city and according to officials the population has increased by 3,000 due to failed efforts by civic bodies in administering sterilisation and other vaccinations to reduce the population.

The biggest reason behind the problem is open garbage. Stray dogs rely on garbage while hunting for eatables. Countries that have garbage kept in bins and are cleaned regularly see lesser number of stray dogs.

India also has fewer government and NGO services that deal with stray dogs. In many developed and developing countries, the government spays and neuters stray dogs to decrease their population growth. Many countries have organisations like Animal Control, the Humane Society, the SPCA, private shelters, and rescue organisations, that take care of the stray dog problems. The Indian government has to come up with large scale interventions and organisations that can deal with the problem. Rules for prevention of cruelty to animals that came in 1960 got amended in the year 2017, but the judicious implementation of regulations needs to be renewed and implemented in a more organised way.

Kashika Arora an entrepreneur of pet management company called Kashikas Pampered Paws, based in Kolkata told Media India Group, Stray the word itself is wrong. They are our Indian breeds, which we Indians dont want to accept. People should drive safely so as to not hurt or kill them and also adopt street dogs rather than adopting a fancy breed.

Meanwhile, a team of scientists in India is investigating why packs of stray dogs in villages near the north Indian town of Sitapur have mysteriously started killing children.

In just a week in May, six children between 5 and 12 years old were killed by strays while more than two dozen other children have been injured in attacks.

The attacks have terrorized the town. According to local reports, school attendance has dropped and residents say they believe the killer beasts are hyenas, not dogs. Vigilante dog-catching squads have started shooting and strangling animals, while local authorities have recruited police officers, municipal workers and a team of expert monkey catchers to apprehend the strays.

The World Wildlife Fund and the Indian Veterinary Research Institute have sent teams to figure out what has turned the dogs into child killers.Pizza delivery man reunited with US family



New York, July 25 (AFP) Jul 25, 2018



An Ecuadoran father of two has been reunited with his US family, nearly two months after he was arrested and earmarked for deportation while delivering pizza to a New York military base.

A federal judge ordered his immediate release late Tuesday and for him to stay in the United States to exhaust an application for permanent residency, which he had already begun.

Pablo Villavicencio, 35, an undocumented migrant, was detained on June 1 at the Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn, after a military policeman was not satisfied with his New York identity card and a background check confirmed that he was not a legal resident.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement were called and moved to deport him. He remained in custody until Tuesday when activists said he was back home with his family.

"Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order or removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," Judge Paul Crotty wrote in the order.

"He now has two children, both of whom are United States citizens. He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family," he added.

The case sparked outrage among pro-immigration groups and Democrats, widening the gulf between the city and the federal government's determination to crack down on illegal immigration.

"The Villavicencio family has finally received a crucial measure of relief from their 53-day nightmare," said Adriene Holder of The Legal Aid Society.

"We will continue to fight alongside them to protect their right to remain in the community they call home," she added.

Villavicencio married his wife in 2013. Their daughters are age two and four.

Villavicencio entered the United States in 2008 and in 2010 ignored an order to leave voluntarily.

At a federal court hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Crotty had questioned the rationale for deportation, given Villavicencio's pending application for permanent residency.

"Is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing it because we want to?" Crotty asked. He later issued a written ruling, ordering the father's release from detention in New Jersey.

The Trump administration has sought to get tough on undocumented migrants, moving to deport even those without criminal records and with deep family ties to the United States.N. Korea still making nuclear material: Pompeo



Washington, July 25 (AFP) Jul 25, 2018



North Korea is still making nuclear material, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers Wednesday, six weeks after President Donald Trump said the nuclear threat from Pyongyang was over.

"Yes, they continue to produce fissile material," Pompeo told senators during a closely watched appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12, where the US said Kim had agreed to totally get rid of his nuclear weapons.

After the historic summit, Trump tweeted that "there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea," but in recent days he has faced criticism about the lack of clear progress towards denuclearization.

Pompeo insisted that "progress is happening" and that Trump is "upbeat about the prospects of North Korean denuclearization."

The top US diplomat said Trump "would agree that the primary systems that have threatened America continue to exist."

"I think what his comment was that the tension had been greatly reduced," Pompeo said.

Still, he warned, Washington will not let nuclear negotiations with Pyongyang continue indefinitely.

"We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said.

Pompeo said he had emphasized this position during "productive" discussions he'd had with Kim Yong Chol, Kim's powerful right-hand man.

"Progress is happening. We need Chairman Kim Jong Un to follow through on his commitments made in Singapore."

In a sign of potential progress, new satellite imagery shows that Kim has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Pompeo added that "every single nation" must maintain enforcement of US sanctions against North Korea.

China and Russia have argued that North Korea should be rewarded with the prospect of eased sanctions for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.

When asked if North Korea is still advancing its nuclear program, Pompeo demurred.

"May I answer that question in a different setting?" he said, referring to a closed-door meeting with senators where classified information can be discussed.The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2018 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement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.Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money.

Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.In Russia, there is increasing popular opposition to the growing number of mercenary organizations, especially those working directly for the government. Such activity is illegal and efforts to legalize this sort of thing continue to have problems getting through a largely pro-government parliament. The problem is that there are already some illegal armed groups in the Caucasus that are pro-government and tolerated. And now the Cossacks are being revived, but not yet as armed groups with any degree of independence. Then there are the PMCs (Private Military Companies) that not only exist in Russia but work for the government. Actually, PMCs existed in Russia, in one form or another, since the 1990s. There were largely security firms (personal and facility protection) but many of them attracted paratrooper and Spetsnaz (commando) veterans who were sometimes equipped with infantry weapons, especially for assignments outside Russia.

In addition to the security firms inside Russian, there were other Russian firms that largely operated outside Russia providing legal semi-military services. These activities included providing Russian made transport helicopters, with crews and maintainers, for projects (economic, peacekeeping or smuggling) in remote areas. The flood of Cold War surplus weapons coming out of East Europe and Russia in the 1990s had to be delivered and there were plenty of Cold War surplus An-12 (similar to the U.S. C-130) and An-26 (and two engine version of the An-12) transports available to move the weapons (including over 20 million AK-47 assault rifles and nearly as many machine-guns, pistols RPG rocket launchers and other portable stuff like mortars). Heavier stuff (tanks, artillery, disassembled aircraft) moved by ship, often from Ukrainian ports because Ukraine became independent in 1991 and inherited enormous quantities of Soviet-era weapons because Ukraine was where a lot of this stuff was built (and the factories now belonged to newly independent Ukraine) and even more of it was stored there in anticipation of a war with NATO. Soviet war plans called for waves of mechanized infantry and tank divisions, most of them manned by reservists, picking up their equipment in Ukraine and heading west. That never happened and in the 1990s Ukraine found itself with a lot of fairly modern weapons that it didnt need.

Ukraine did need cash and legal, illegal and semi-legal ways were found to sell those weapons. There was also a lot of money to be made in delivering the weapons to remote parts of the world. There was also a need for instructors or, in an emergency, operators of more complex systems (like artillery, electronics, jet fighters or helicopters). The Soviet-era armed forces of Russia and East Europe largely demobilized in the 1990s leaving a lot of unemployed troops who had skills weapons exporters could use. The trainers, operators and maintainers could make good money if they were willing to serve in dangerous parts of the world. It was understood that these foreign experts were former military and that they arrive armed for self-defense. In most cases, the weapons were never used and when they were it was usually for self-defense. But sprinkled among all those support personnel were a growing number of former paratroopers and Spetsnaz who were hired to fight. Many of these highly trained combat troops found legal or illegal work back home as bodyguards, security specialists or assassins. With the end of the 1990s, most of the cheap and illegal weapons were gone and there were a lot of men with experience moving them and operating in foreign countries as para-military specialists. After 2000 the Russian government had become more efficient and many of the key elected or appointed officials were former KGB and Spetsnaz officers, including Vladimir Putin.

By 2014 Putin found himself with a lot of friends and associates who were very familiar with para-military and mercenary operations. One of these Putin cronies, former Spetsnaz officer Dmytro Utkin had helped revive the Soviet era disinformation (influencing foreign media) operations. Utkin realized that the Internet was the best way to create and spread disinformation and organized the Internet Research Agency and was cited as influencing the 2016 American elections. Russians had been doing this since the 1920s but thanks to the Internet the Russians could do a lot more damage at less cost than in the past.

Utkin also took the lead in forming legal Russian PMCs. His first one, the Wagner Group, got around Russian laws against this sort of thing by registering the company in Argentina and only taking assignments from the Russian government. There were already other Russian PMCs but these were technically (and actually in most cases) security firms that provided trained, armed and legal personnel to guard facilities and key people in Russia and abroad. Some of these security firms did illegal work and the KGB veterans were familiar with this because during the communist period some criminal gangs survived by doing special tasks for the KGB. Utkin suggested the use of such PMCs for special tasks his boss had in mind for Ukraine. Thus it was Utkin who supplied the unidentified armed men in unmarked uniforms who showed up in Crimea as part of a carefully planned and executed operation to transfer Crimea to from Ukraine to Russia. The PMCs were less successful in grabbing another valuable area, a portion of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbas (Donets River Basin industrial region). That takeover operation stalled and the KGB and PMCs are still trying to make it work. T

The PMCs, particularly Utkin's Wagner Group showed up in Syria by late 2015 and after that in other parts of the world. Details of what was going on with these Russian PMCs was successfully kept out of the mass media, in part because Utkin was also quite adept at disinformation and media manipulation in general. But by 2016 details began to get out, usually through the Internet, an information tool that is not easily tamed.

By late 2017 Ukrainian military intelligence analysts presented convincing evidence that a Russian military contractor (that they identified as Wagner) had become, in effect, president Putins private army in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere. Ukrainians identified Russian Special Operations colonel Dmytro Utkin as the organizer of Wagner. The name Wagner was originally the radio call sign for Utkin. The Ukrainians already had a lot of experience with the Wagner firm, which was, and still is, used for a variety of special tasks in rebel-controlled areas of Donbas.

Wagner is believed to have several thousand highly skilled (and highly paid) personnel on the payroll. Ukraine and foreign analysts documented that the Wagner firm was a major Russian military contractor providing most of the PMC personnel in Ukraine and Syria. What little was publically known about Wagner was collected from Internet posts (usually in social media) about the death of Wagner employees in Ukraine or Syria. There is so much data like that freely available that it is possible to get a good idea about the size and activities of Warner and other military contractors Russia uses.

By early 2018 Russian officials were scrambling to conceal the impact of a major defeat of Wagner Group combat troops when they tried to attack an American base in eastern Syria (Deir Ezzor province). Russia admitted that the dozens of foreign troops were killed in eastern Syria during a February 7th battle were no Russian military personnel were present but there were armed Russians there working for Russia. Many of the dead were Russian and the rest were from nations that used to be part of the Soviet Union. The officials admitted that the many wounded Russian military contractors were being treated in Russian military medical facilities in Syria. Russia never revealed the official number about Wagner Group casualties in that battle and as many of 200 Wagner Group personnel may have died. Those who work for Wagner Group sign a non-disclosure agreement which stipulates that if their next of kin provide any details of Wagner Group operations they will not receive the death benefits (up to $80,000) Wagner Group operatives receive if killed.

Initially, Russia would admit that only five Russians were killed. But it turned out all the Russian casualties were military contractors from the Wagner Group, the largest military contractor in Russia. While most of the PMS personnel handled security for Russian facilities, in the case of the Deir Ezzor attack, Wagner had formed one of their special combat units normally used to go after ISIL or other difficult foes on the ground. Working for Wagner was not a military secret in Russia and death benefits (up to $80,000 depending on rank and job) are paid promptly and in most cases the body is quietly returned to the family. Friends and family of the Wagner casualties will at least mention the loss on the Internet and after a while, an accurate estimate of contractor casualties could be maintained. Private posts via the Internet or other communications with family tend to become public after a while.

Russian military personnel in Syria are paid nearly as well as the Wagner personnel and receive bonuses in addition to their regular pay. But deaths among Russian military personnel in Syria, even though all of them are volunteers, is a much bigger deal back in Russia than the death of a Russian mercenary. This became obvious when opinion polls were conducted and the average Russian saw the much higher pay of the PMC men as fair compensation for the risk of getting killed, rather than dying in the defense of Mother Russia (which is what members of the armed forces do, even volunteers, for lower pay). This attitude could be confirmed by a perusal of the Russian language social network discussions.

The social network chatter drives Russian security officials nuts because even with non-disclosure agreements, you cant keep chatter about what PMCs do a secret. Foreign intelligence services already knew how to use this OSINT (open source intelligence) to form an accurate assessment of how Russia was using PMC forces and estimating how many men were hired and deployed by the Wagner Group. The Internet also provided, for those willing to dig, info on the growing number of similar PMCs the Russian government was hiring for overseas efforts that could not be defined as defending Mother Russia, at least not in the traditional sense.

As of the end of 2017, it was estimated that Russia had about 5,000 military and contractor personnel in Syria and admitted to 45 Russians killed in Syria since mid-2015. The actual number was believed to be 30-80 percent higher because of the growing use of Russian military contractors, who are not, for record keeping purposes, members of the Russian military. Because of the disastrous February encounter with the Kurds (SDF) and Americans in eastern Syria the Russian death toll has gone way up, at least for the contractors. As many as 200 died in the February debacle. The Syrian war effort, despite the low number of Russian casualties, was not popular with most Russians who saw Assad and most other Middle Eastern governments (especially former Soviet allies) as losers. More Russian casualties mean lots more unrest back home so the PMCs were increasingly used for situations where Russian troops, usually Spetsnaz commandos or other highly trained volunteers could do the job. It wasnt that the PMC men were more effective, often they were not, but the PMC men were more expendable, at least when it came to media and political backlash in Russia.

In early 2018 the Ukrainian government released the results of their investigation into the Russian use of PNCs, especially the Wagner Group. Ukraine had captured a number of Wagner Group contractors operating in eastern Ukraine and some had been forthcoming with details of how Wagner operates. For example, Russia transported a number of Wagner Group men to Syria via the Russian missile cruiser Varyag. This is a large ship (11,000 tons) with a crew of 480. The Russian navy has been short of sailors and many ships go to sea short 10-20 percent of their crew. So it made sense that the government could fill some of those empty berths with Wagner men which Russia wanted to keep quiet about. Many more Wagner men were flown to Syria via a Syrian airline that operated a flight to Rostov-on-Don, an out of the way city where it is easier to hide things.

In mid-2018 it became public that a second Russian PMC had shown up in Syria. This one, called Patriot, was apparently more elite (highly paid Russian combat vets for dangerous missions) than the existing Wagner Group. Although these companies are still illegal according to Russian law moves are being made to change the law. These contractors have been showing up in Africa, providing security for Russian commercial operations. Contractors are still doing a lot of the base security work in Syria. But Patriot group appears to be supplying elite combat units for special missions that will avoid the February 2018 debacle in which many Wagner mercs were killed. Patriot PMC personnel are apparently more careful and methodical and seen as able to avoid getting ambushed like the Wagner personnel were.

It was now widely accepted that to make their Syria intervention work, Russia had quietly resorted widespread use of PMCs. By the end of 2017, there were at least 1,200 PMC personnel in Syria. It turned out that not all of these were from Wagner and that the Russian government had allowed more PMCs to organize and compete for the Russian government (and Russian firms operating overseas) contracts. In Syria about half these PMC personnel were believed to have been part of organized combat units that were reliable enough to be used in place of scarce army special operations troops.

By monitoring Russian language social media activity (which anyone can do) it was noted how many recent military veterans were working for several of these PMCs. These fellows would often post pictures from Syria and Ukraine. Casualties were suffered in both places although the duties of the contractors were different. In Syria, the security contractors mainly guarded Russian bases but were also used in combat when they provided security for Russian artillery units supporting Syrian Army troops. In a few cases, the contractors were sent in to assist Syrian troops who got themselves in trouble. Russia described these men as special operations troops because outside Russia the security contractors often wear Russian military uniforms. But social media revealed that many of these dead Russians in Syria were actually contractors. In Ukraine, at least one PMC was used as enforcers to punish troublesome pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels. Often this just meant arranging an accidental death for a disobedient rebel leader but in a few cases, a larger number of rebels had to disappear. The Russian supported rebels came to call these contractors cleaners and were justifiably terrorized and impressed. Cuban troops were also reported in Syria, brought in to help train and assist Syrian troops. Some of the Cubans are believed to be special operations (commando) forces. Cuba, Russia and Syria deny the presence of Cuban troops in Syria. More PMCs are being seen in Africa, South America and any place Russian firms have operations that local security forces cannot adequately protect. In these situations, PMCs are strictly high-end (and very expensive) site or personnel security.by Austin Bay July 24, 2018

It's time the world recognized Sub-Saharan Africa's newest economic and military imperialist: Communist Party-ruled China.

China's immense economy needs natural resources and markets to continue generating wealth. Sub-Saharan Africa offers both -- rich mineral deposits in particular -- so China is there, with money and weapons.

Since China's major mineral and oil companies are state-owned enterprises, Chinese business strategies and economic aid programs synchronize with Chinese foreign policy. The result is no surprise: In Africa's autocratic but fragile states, China wields enormous political and economic leverage.

In August 2017, China officially opened its first permanent foreign overseas military base in Djibouti. That did not raise eyebrows. Djibouti already hosts a French and American base. China participates in anti-piracy operations along the nearby Somali coast and had previously operated a support facility in Djibouti.

However, in early July 2018, money followed the guns as China opened the "first phase" of its Djibouti International Free-Trade Zone. The $3.5 billion project follows the revival of the Bagamoyo, Tanzania "mega-port and special economic zone." China plans to invest $10 billion in that project, which includes improving the port's land connections with the interior of central Africa. Both projects are part of China's long term "Belt and Road Initiative" development program that is supposed to accelerate development in participating Asian and African countries.

Mao Tse-Tung's China trained revolutionary movements throughout the developing world. In the 1960s, Beijing made common cause with African leaders confronting colonial powers. China claimed, with factual support, Western imperialists had stunted African economies. In contrast, Maoist relations with African countries would always be based on what China called "the principle of equality and mutual benefit."

Twenty-first century Beijing continues to try to exploit the Maoist propaganda of equality and mutual benefit, while ignoring the fact that Mao's Cultural Revolution savaged China's economy.

Since 1995, China's expanding semi-free economy has needed resources, especially oil, to feed its 10 percent annual growth.

The BRI is no sure thing, for the developing nation participant or China. China's huge 2008 Congo development deal signed in 2008 has encountered problems.

A Chinese consortium agreed to build $9 billion in infrastructure in return for access to Congolese mineral resources. The 2008 deal specified China would receive reserves of 10 million metric tons of copper and 600,000 metric tons of cobalt. At the time, analysts thought China would ultimately make a couple of billion dollars on the deal, possibly more. The deal also guaranteed China political access to Congo's leaders.

Congo, however, could not provide the electricity it promised. By 2012, Chinese operators were buying electricity from Zambia. The expenses have mounted. Business analysts argue China could lose billions.

But what if control was the goal, not profit? One source claimed that Chinese companies own 60 of Katanga's 75 processing plants and China buys around 90 percent of Katanga's mineral exports.

China's actual deeds no long reflect its altruistic narrative. Here is a telling example. In a June 2017 analysis of the BRI (then known as the Belt and Road Initiative), StrategyPage.com reported: "Africans and Asians living near...Chinese foreign operations complain that China is the major investor in illegal extraction of raw materials and keeping local gangsters and corrupt politicians in business. The Chinese also violate local labor laws with impunity and often hire their own armed security personnel who will shoot to kill if threatened by angry workers or local residents. Keeping local tyrants in power serves Chinese interests when it comes to things like establishing new military bases or preventing other nations from doing so."

Perhaps it's not an accident that between 2013 and 2017, Chinese weapons exports to Africa increased by 55 percent. In 2016, The Independent reported 34 African countries use Chinese-supplied light infantry weapons and heavy weapons. The BRI's goal includes developing markets for China. Africa is definitely a market for Chinese weapons. Extracting minerals, supplying guns -- sounds a bit imperialist, doesn't it?Although Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram still gets most of the publicity for its continuing violence, most of the religion-based deaths this year were in central and southeastern Nigeria where Moslem Fulani raiders are increasingly active with their attacks on local tribes (most of them Christian) that rely on farming. In the first half of 2018 Fulani violence accounted for over 1,700 deaths, more than five times what Boko Haram caused in the same period. The Fulani violence has been present since January but escalated in March when Fulani raiders killed about 25 Christian villagers during a few days of violence that were accompanied by considerable property damage. By the end of March over fifty were dead. Despite growing pressure from the Christian community to recognize the escalating (since 2010) threat in a band stretching from the northwest (Zamfara state) through central Nigeria (Plateau, Jos, Kaduna, Benue and Nassarawa states) and the southeast (Taraba State). This is largely about Fulani herders moving south to find more grazing land and water for their animals. While these attacks often trigger reprisals by local militias the Fulani are seen as the source of constant tension and violence. Most of the victims of the Fulani violence are Christian. This has been going on for a while and the Fulani suffer far fewer losses because they are usually the attacker. The violence declined a bit in 2017 but nothing was done to diminish or eliminate it. To make matters worse the raiders have also been attacking soldiers or police who intervene to protect the farmers. Attempts to negotiate peace deals with the Fulani generally fail. In the last three years, the Fulani violence is believed to have left nearly 9,000 dead.

In the northwest (Zamfara state) numerous groups of bandits add to the Fulani violence between them have caused at least 3,000 deaths in the last two years. Most of the attacks are raids for the purpose of looting and leaving. The Fulani raiders often run into Hausa self-defense militias and the resulting battles leave many on both sides dead or wounded. The Fulani raids are usually after cattle and other loot. Both Hausa and Fulani are Moslem so religion is not a factor here. Moslem leaders want attention paid to the growing tribal feuds between Moslem tribes, especially like the battles between Fulani and Hausa in Zamfara. The violence in Zamfara state has led to the national police sending in hundreds of additional paramilitary personnel to deal (or try to deal) with that situation. The police have not had much impact.

President Buhari, a Fulani and retired general, was elected in 2015 because he was honest and a reformer. The coalition that got Buhari elected is falling apart largely because the Christian politicians are abandoning him over is inaction when it comes to the Fulani violence. Buhari did motivate the military to finally defeat Boko Haram but the Islamic terrorists are still around and Buhari has been distracted by economic problems (the falling oil prices) and popular unrest in the oil-producing areas (all in the Christian south). Half the population (mostly in the south) is Christian and they are increasingly blaming Buhari for the continuing violence against Christians. Losing much Christian support, plus corrupt (and indictable) politicians fighting back to get rid of Buhari seems likely to prevent Buhari from willing a second term in early 2019. The next president will likely be less effective against corruption but probably take a hardline on anti-Christian violence.

President Buhari proclaims Boko Haram defeated and to a certain extent they are. But Boko Haram is still a problem in the northeast, mainly as bandits that raid for loot so that they can survive. Boko Haram has plenty of places to hide on both sides of the borders with Niger, Chad and Cameroon. Then there is the Sambisa forest which still harbors many Boko Haram even though it is regularly patrolled by soldiers, local defense volunteers and surveillance aircraft. This 60,000 square kilometers of hilly, sparsely populated woodland straddles the borders of Borno, Yobe and Adamwa states and until 2016 was largely inaccessible to the security forces and served as a base area for Boko Haram. No longer safe enough for major Boko Haram bases it still shelters hundreds of the Islamic terrorists operating in smaller groups.

Endless Anarchy Over Oil

GDP growth depends a lot on oil production as well as the world oil price. Production appears to be permanently stalled by a culture of anarchy in the oil producing states. For example it is common for oil fields to be shut down for maintenance or repairs. Worldwide the average is about nine percent of the time. In Nigeria production is shut down 50 percent of the time, mainly because of damage done to pipelines by oil thieves, in addition to riots, strikes and other problems that are worse in Nigeria. The core problem is corruption and a culture of mistrust.

Increased oil production is unlikely to be achieved much less sustained unless there are some fundamental economic and political changes in the Niger River Delta oil fields. That is happening, but at a glacial pace because so many of the local politicians and government officials have gotten rich from corrupt practices and are still opposing change. There are still tribe based groups in the Delta that threaten a return to large-scale attacks on pipelines and pumping stations if the pollution is not reduced and local men do not get more jobs with the oil companies. These demands are largely extortion because most of the oil spills are caused by oil theft gangs that puncture pipelines to collect as much oil as they can and flee before troops arrive. There is constant pressure on the oil theft gangs by the security forces but the money is too good and the gangs remain in business. The demands for jobs ignore the fact that many of the jobs require technical skills that locals do not have.

By the end of 2017 Nigerian oil production had hit 2.03 million BPD (barrels per day) and so far in 2018, the average has been 1.8 million BDP because of long-delayed maintenance and refurbishment of the oil production facilities in the Niger River Delta (where most of the production is). At the end of 2016 Nigerian oil production was rising to levels not seen for years. That has been the trend for most of 2017 because the new government had negotiated a peace deal with the local rebels (against corruption and bad treatment of locals in general). Production rose and is on the way to the goal of 2.5 million BPD by 2020 but achieving that level of production depends on keeping the peace in the Delta. Continued corruption and rampant oil theft makes it difficult to increase production and sustain those higher production levels.

July 23, 2018: In the northeast (Borno State) a Boko Haram suicide bomber entered a mosque during early morning prayers and killed eight people while wounding another five.

July 21, 2018: In the northeast (across the border from Borno state in southeast Niger) ten Boko Haram gunmen died when they attacked an army outpost near the border town of Diffa. One soldier died and two others were wounded. Diffa has been the scene of clashes between the Niger troops and Boko Haram forces for years.

July 19, 2018: In the northeast (Borno State) Boko Haram in six pickup trucks ambushed a convoy of 27 vehicles, killing 30 people and looting vehicles before fleeing. Most of the people in the convoy fled on foot during the attack.

Across the border in Chad Boko Haram gunmen raided a village at night, killed 18 men, kidnapped nine women and looted the place.

July 17, 2018: In the northeast (Borno State) a Boko Haram ambush near the Cameroon border killed six civilians in a convoy that was escorted by soldiers. Vehicles were looted and burned.

July 15, 2018: In the northeast (Yobe State) a large group of Boko Haram attacked a military base at Geidam, near the Niger border. Over sixty soldiers were killed and many more wounded or missing. The base held about 700 soldiers. Boko Haram can hide out across the border in Niger or in the nearby Sambisa Forest where they can gather large numbers of gunmen for night attacks like this. Most of the soldiers in the base eventually found their way to other bases

July 14, 2018: In the northeast (Borno State) soldiers clashed with a group of Boko Haram and killed five of the Islamic terrorists.

July 9, 2018: In the southeast (Taraba State) Fulani gunmen raided over a dozen Moslem Hausa and Christian Yandang villages, leaving 73 dead, over 3,000 refugees and enormous damage (mainly from setting fire to buildings). This violence lasted for year days before security forces could mobilize and end it over the last 34 hours.Maria Victoria Campa, 37, and Carlos Zamora, Jr., 41, are being held in Logan County Jail, Sterling, Colo., following her arrest on July 18.

The pair, were arrested, along with two juveniles, on U.S. Highway 138 near Iliff in Logan County. One of the juveniles was a six-week-old infant taken from the Sidney area. According to a press release from the Sidney Police Department, the infant was taken in the early hours of July 17. Authorities spent the day attempting to contact the Campa and Zamora Jr. when they learned the family was enroute to Kansas or Arizona.

On Wednesday, July 18, arrest warrants were issued for Campa and Zamora, Jr., for Violation of a Custody Order, a Class 4 felony. An Amber Alert was also activated.

According to the Logan (Colorado) County Sheriff's Office release, the two were contacted when deputies recognized Campa as the driver of a vehicle on Highway 138. A juvenile female was sitting in the passenger seat, and a child was sitting in a carseat in the back. Deputies also observed a man laying down in the back seat who was immediately identified as Zamora, Jr.

In addition to the Cheyenne County charges of Violation of a Custody Order (Class 4 Felony), the two are facing charges in Logan County for First Degree Aggravated Motor Vehicle Theft (Class 5 Felony) and Second Degree Burglary (Class 3 Felony).

Campa is scheduled for a Status Conference in Logan County District Court on Aug. 15. Zamora, Jr., is scheduled for a Status Conference on his charges Aug. 22. According to Operations Lt. Dennis Aulston of the LCSO, Zamora, Jr., and Campa entered the residence of an associate in Iliff, Colo., taking the keys to the associate's vehicle and driving away. The victim of the theft said neither Campa nor Zamora Jr. had permission to take the vehicle.LINCOLN  Many rural Nebraskans are saving money and generating income by using the internet, according to the 2018 Nebraska Rural Poll.

Six in 10 rural Nebraskans surveyed are using the internet to save money by price matching or bargain hunting, and about one-third are generating income by buying or selling items online. Seven percent of respondents estimated the impact on their household as $1,000 or more annually.

"Persons living in or near smaller communities are more apt to use the internet to earn money by running and growing a home-based business and making their family farm more efficient and/or profitable," said Becky Vogt, survey research manager for the Rural Poll - the largest annual poll of rural Nebraskans' perceptions on quality of life and policy issues.

Just under one-quarter of respondents living in or near towns or villages estimated some annual economic impact from the internet by making the family farm more efficient and/or profitable. Twelve percent estimated that annual impact as being at least $1,000.

People with occupations in agriculture are also generating income by running and growing a home-based business, making the family farm more efficient and/or profitable and regularly selling online. Fifty-three percent of those people surveyed generated income from the internet by making the family farm more efficient and/or profitable, with 24 percent reporting at least $1,000 of impact.

The proportion of rural Nebraskans accessing the internet from their cellphone increased from two years ago, from 70 percent to 77 percent. However, the proportion subscribing to a high-speed internet service at home remained about the same as 2016.

A digital divide still occurs in the state, as residents of larger communities are more likely than those in smaller communities to subscribe to a high-speed internet service. More than one in 10 respondents reported being significantly limited or not being able to play real-time video games or stream online video content. Two in 10 respondents living in or near towns and villages and about 7 percent of respondents living in or near cities reported those limitations.

The response rate for this year's poll was 27 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percent. Complete poll results, including rural Nebraskans' thoughts on the federal tax bill and workforce training, are available at http://ruralpoll.unl.edu.

Although the Grand Island area (Hall, Hamilton, Howard and Merrick counties) was designated a metropolitan area by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, the Rural Poll continues to include those counties in its sample. Also, Dixon and Dakota counties were added to the poll in 2014.

The University of NebraskaLincoln's Department of Agricultural Economics conducts the poll in partnership with the Nebraska Rural Futures Institute with funding from Nebraska Extension and the Agricultural Research Division in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.The Sidney School District Board of Education met Thursday, July 19, for a Work Session.

Much of the meeting involved the Advanced Education visit and setting goals for the District. Nebraska public schools undergo an Engagement Review every five years, Sidney Supt. Jay Ehler said. The review is held in January and involves state officials interviewing students and staff, as well as reviewing procedures, visiting classrooms, and interviewing the Sidney Public Schools continuous improvement team.. Part of the goal is to track continued improvement in the District, he said. The Sidney High School and Middle School were reviewed with the AdvanceED process and the elementary schools with the Nebraska Framework review.

The assessment is part of the AQuESTT (Accountability for a Quality Education System, Today and Tomorrow) program. The State Board of Education believes student engagement through positive partnerships and relationships is fundamental to successful schools and districts, according to the aquestt.com website. The State Board encourages best practices in student, family and community engagement to enhance educational experiences and opportunities, the site says.

The AquESTT Action Plan for Continuous Improvement for this year includes areas such as Positive Partnerships, Transitions, Educational Opportunities, College and Career Ready Opportunities, Assessment and Educator Effectiveness.

Rule 10 of Nebraskas Regulations and Procedures for the Accreditation of Schools is one of the primary rules school districts in the state have to follow. One of the requirements under Rule 10 is for schools to reach a specific level of Highly Qualified teachers in each building. A teacher is considered highly qualified if he or she is teaching within their teaching endorsement; for example, a social studies teacher is teaching social studies, a teacher with an high school math endorsement is teaching math and a teacher with a health and fitness endorsement is teaching P.E.

The goal is for 90 percent of high school and middle school teaching staffs to be Highly Qualified, 95 percent with elementary schools.

The Sidney School Board also discussed the Districts Strategic Plan. Ehler said the strategic plan outlines what the District does and charts the course toward improvement. The goal is efficient learners, according to Ehler.

So many jobs are changing, not defined yet, that kids are studying for now, he said.

The board also reviewed the financial operations of the District. Ehler said the District has a strong cash flow because of its conservative financial practices. He said moving forward the District will continue with its conservative approach to budgeting. He said some of the challenges the District is bracing for include decreased valuation in the county and possibly more loss of students.

Nebraska schools are funded through the States Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA). TEEOSA traces its roots to LB1059 which was introduced in the 91st Legislature in January 1990. The Bill as introduced explained the method for computation and distribution of state equalization aid to public schools.

The board Thursday also reviewed facility needs and maintenance projects scheduled for the summer.At home on the range

With hunting season now in full swing throughout the State of Iowa, a new business in the Tama-Toledo area looks to ...Amsterdam, Netherlands -- Terrorizing immigrants. Family separations. Detentions. Targeting sex workers and LGBTQ communities. Global Gag Rule. War on people who use drugs. Closed borders. The wall. Police brutality. Racist violence grounded in white supremacy. This is Trump's U.S.A.

Despite this hostile environment, this March, the International AIDS Society (IAS) announced San Francisco as the host city for the next International AIDS Conference, which will take place in 2020. Overnight, 11 global key population networks and over 60 U.S.-based human rights organizations, including all the U.S. based national networks of people living with HIV, heavily criticized and opposed the decision, calling for IAS to immediately announce their decision to relocate the conference.

"The decision to bring the International AIDS Conference to the U.S.A in 2020 reflects a gross disregard to the expressed requests of gay men, people who use drugs, and sex workers that the conference be hosted in a country where our participation is possible. Further, the choice of the Bay Area, literally one of the most expensive places in the world, underscores a growing divide in the AIDS movement between the public health elite and community advocates," said George Ayala, executive director of MPACT Global Action for Gay Men's Health and Rights, based in Oakland, California.

The U.S. last hosted an International AIDS Conference in 2012. At that time, although the U.S. political climate was more supportive of human rights overall, global networks of sex workers were forced to organize an alternate conference in Kolkata and networks people who use drugs organized an alternate conference in Kiev as a result of visa restrictions that prohibit sex workers from entering the United States, though many advocates had attempted to get these restrictions waived for the conference.

"Across the U.S., large numbers of sex workers who have lost online advertising platforms due to the passage of FOSTA/SESTA are working the streets, leading to plummeting market prices, unsafe sex work practices, and increased criminal legal system involvement. This is not a safe environment to ask our global allies to enter into, even if they could get in," says Magali, president of the Sex Workers Outreach Project U.S.A.

Despite heroic and powerful efforts among and across targeted communities, and from grassroots to powerful elites, to stop the attacks and mitigate the damage from them, advocates point out that the U.S. is currently unsafe even for immigrants, people of color, and LGTBQ communities already living in the U.S. Further, they note that securing visas to the United States will be gravely challenging for communities most impacted by the global HIV epidemic as a result of the travel bans on current and former sex workers, people who use drugs, several Muslim countries, and an emerging track record of detentions of human rights activists at U.S. borders and denials of entry visas for activists from the Global South despite full sponsorship.

"Long-standing biases, acts of discrimination and human rights violations against people of color, immigrants, trans people, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and other key populations are rapidly escalating. Perhaps IAS does not understand that nothing -- including the rule of law, international agreements, political action, or standards of civility -- is currently curtailing the escalation of federal or vigilante violence against our communities," said Larry Walker, CEO of Thrive SS, an Atlanta, Georgia-based network of Black gay men living with HIV.

"From fear-based visa policies and immigration raids to direct attacks on the safety of sex workers, from transphobia to the resurgence of white supremacy -- the United States of America is anything but united," says Cecilia Chung of Transgender Law Center, an Oakland, California-based legal advocacy organization for people of transgender experience. "Hosting AIDS 2020 in California, which has already become a target of the Trump administration, goes against the International AIDS Society's own values of being inclusive, human-rights focused, and evidence-based. A U.S.-based conference during a politicized election year will be inaccessible and will expose our communities to grave harm."

"No act of goodwill from the IAS, its network, or even individual members of U.S. Congress can ensure visa approvals. Nor can they prevent detention, interrogation, intimidation, or exposure to violence and harm once in the U.S.," said Naina Khanna, executive director of Positive Women's Network-USA, an Oakland, CA-based national network of women living with HIV. "We have a statement which organizations and individuals are signing onto in droves available at bit.ly/AIDS2020SignOn. We are asking IAS to meet with concerned members of civil society here in Amsterdam so we can partner with them to help move this important biannual conference so it can be truly accessible for communities most affected by HIV."

Bay Area and global advocates will be hosting multiple events and actions during the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam. Follow #AIDS2020ForAll on twitter and visit AIDS2020ForAll.org for further information.

[Note from TheBody: This article was originally published by PWN-USA on July 23, 2018. We have cross-posted it with their permission.]A group of advocates at this week's International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is calling for the next conference -- scheduled for July 2020 in San Francisco and Oakland, California -- to be moved out of the U.S. entirely. The activists cite current U.S. policies that prohibit the entry of sex workers, people who use drugs, and citizens of several majority Muslim countries. Trump administration policies and pronouncements have also contributed to a hostile climate for LGBTQ people, immigrants, and people of color, activists argue.

"A U.S.-based conference during a politicized election year will be inaccessible and will expose our communities to grave harm," said Cecilia Chung, the senior director of strategic projects for Transgender Law Center, in a press release from Positive Women's Network-USA (PWN-USA).

The San Francisco Bay Area is also one of the most expensive places in the world, making conference attendance impossible to afford for many community advocates and other populations impacted by HIV, protest organizers point out.

After the location of the 2020 International AIDS Conference was announced earlier this year, a number of U.S.-based HIV activists spoke out against holding the event there. To date, a statement calling on the International AIDS Society, the conference organizer, to change the location has been signed by more than 100 organizations and individuals. Activists are also holding protests at the Amsterdam conference:

Some AIDS 2018 conference speakers, such as Naina Khanna, the executive director of PWN-USA, are wearing "No AIDS 2020 in Trump's USA" stickers. During the opening plenary session, Robert Suttle, the assistant director of the HIV advocacy organization Sero, received a standing ovation for his call from the stage to move the 2020 conference. Advocates supporting the effort have adopted the Twitter hashtag #AIDS2020ForAll.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Editorial Board (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 07:42 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef841e2 4 Editorial #Editorial,criminals,prison,prison-reform,corruption-case,bribery,prison-sukamiskin,corruption-eradication-commission,KPK Free

It is a storyline that would make Dostoevsky turn in his grave. The story that came out of Sukamiskin Penitentiary last week was more like Becketts absurdist humor than the guilt-ridden tale of Crime and Punishment. Not only are those locked up inside Sukamiskin Penitentiary free from the guilt of having stolen taxpayers money, graft convicts there can continue living large behind the prison walls, and while we are not looking they can get out of their gilded cells anytime they want.



Over the weekend, thanks to the work of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), we again found evidence that the countrys prison system is corrupt, and the prison where the government locks up most graft convicts particularly so. Sukamiskin warden Wahid Husein appeared to make light of his arrest and was in a jovial mood, laughing and smiling, while being questioned by KPK investigators.



Wahid was arrested by KPK investigators on suspicion that he accepted bribes in the form of cash and luxury SUVs in exchange for allowing graft inmates to stay in what looks like an upmarket studio apartment, equipped with a flat screen television, a compact kitchen, air-conditioning and water heater. For this VIP cell, Wahid allegedly charged inmates at least Rp 200 million (US$13,750). For Rp 500 million, inmates could get additional services such as access to cell phones. For those with deep pockets, it is likely possible to spend more time outside the prison, as in the case of Fuad Amin, a former regent of East Javas Bangkalan, as well as businessman Tubagus Chaeri Wardana, aka Wawan, the brother of former Banten governor Ratu Atut Chosiyah, who were missing from their cells when the KPK raided Sukamiskin. It was not immediately known where the two inmates had spent the night, but the Law and Human Rights Ministry later claimed Wawan had returned to the prison, while Fuad was hospitalized at Borromeus Hospital in Bandung.



The most heartbreaking thing about this is that the whole episode is a betrayal of the KPKs hard work in investigating corrupt individuals and building cases against them. It doesnt matter if the KPK has a conviction rate of 100 percent if those who end up in jail continue to live the high life thanks to their ill-gotten wealth.



But there is unlikely to be any serious fallout from what happened in Sukamiskin. Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly is a political appointee, representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) no less, so it is difficult to expect President Joko Jokowi Widodo to fire him as punishment for the latest mess.



On the other hand, it is impossible for the KPK to set up its own prison given that the Law and Human Rights Ministry is the only authority in charge of the countrys correctional system. And as the countrys correctional system is plagued by corruption, maybe we should consider seizing all assets from graft convicts as the primary means of punishment.



Maybe jail terms should be optional.Japan's lifelong education-to-nursing service group Human Holdings Co. has opened a daycare center in Indonesia that aims to increase local children's exposure to advanced early education.

The company says it now jointly operates Starchild Daycare & Learning Center in Jakarta with an arm of local conglomerate Radiant Centra Nusantara, providing expertise in the learning of the English language, multiplication tables and the cultivation of reading skills.

Human Holdings' first foray into the Indonesian market in the daycare and child education businesses comes as more women enter the workforce in the world's fourth most populous nation.

The daycare facility in southern Jakarta can accommodate 40 children, from newborns to 5-year-olds, from 7:30 a.m. through 5:30 p.m., offering three meals and snack time twice a day. A dozen children have enrolled at the facility, the Tokyo-based company said.

Registration and monthly fees are 2.8 million rupiah ($193) and 5.4 million rupiah, respectively. Care time extension is also available for 50,000 rupiah per hour, according to the Japanese company.

Safalina Ganis, country director of Starchild Daycare & Learning Center, said, "We hope women in Indonesia can continue their career and move forward without obstacles."

Former nurses and midwives provide various services such as massage and gymnasium activities while a pediatrician offers monthly health checkups and vaccination programs.

Read also: Jakpost guide to recreational places for children

Human Holdings has teamed up with Radiant as its local partner in opening several hospitals in recent years, with more than 100 babies born monthly at the facilities.

The two sides aim to open similar daycare centers at 20 locations by March 2021.More than 1,000 species of animals would face serious threats to their survival if US President Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico is built, scientists warned on Tuesday.

Iconic creatures such as the Peninsular Bighorn sheep, Mexican gray wolf and the Sonoran pronghorn antelope -- all of which are already endangered -- would see their populations dangerously fragmented by a wall, said the letter published in the journal BioScience.

Jaguars (panthera onca) and ocelots (leopardus pardalis) would be among the species that would have "residual US populations" covering 7,800 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) or less, raising their risk of dying off completely in the United States.

More than 2,700 global scientists signed on to the letter by lead author Robert Peters of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation group.

The letter details threats to biodiversity along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico border, which Trump wants to wall off in an effort to stop the flow of illegal migrants.

"Fence and wall construction over the past decade and efforts by the Trump administration to complete a continuous border 'wall' threaten some of the continent's most biologically diverse regions," said the letter.

"Already-built sections of the wall are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation," it added, lamenting that "political and media attention... often understate or misrepresent the harm done to biodiversity."

Read also: Hotter seas threaten marine wildlife with extinction: Researchers

When populations of animals are fragmented, they have a harder time finding mates, food, water and safe habitat, and face higher risks of extinction.

"Cut off like this, the bighorn and other animals and plants will become zombie species -- populations that are demographically and genetically doomed," said co-author and Stanford University biologist Rodolfo Dirzo.

The border region includes more than 1,000 animals and over 400 plants.

A total of 62 of these species are "already listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature," said the letter.

Co-author and Stanford University professor of biology Paul Ehrlich said in a statement that the wall, and "the accompanying construction and maintenance infrastructure would be a crime against biodiversity."

The letter urged US officials to identify species at risk from the wall construction, design barriers that allow wildlife to pass through as much as possible, and purchase or restore replacement habitat when environmental harm is inevitable.

As it stands, a US law passed in 2005 gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to waive protections such as the Endangered Species Act if they are deemed to be factors in slowing the wall's construction.

Trump's wall has still not secured major financing. A bill that would have included $25 billion to fund it failed last month in the House of Representatives.Many people associate the word loan with bad things such as financial problems, interest, big installments and even bankruptcy. However, thanks to improvements in financial literacy, people have become more aware that the right loan can be an investment, too. Loans for business, home purchases, or maybe cars are things that people consider investments, but how about a loan for education?

If we compare with those in the United States, based on data from Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2018, student loans reached almost US$1.5 trillion, spread over 44 million borrowers in 2017. More than 70 percent of students graduate with debt. According to the World Bank (2018), as of 2017, the US had gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of $59,531, while Indonesia $3,846.

Taking these facts into account, one may roughly conclude that people in the US consider education an investment so they are willing to take a loan out in order to get a promising job or build a solid business after graduation to make good money.

Of course, the takeaway is not as simple as that. Around 4.3 million students who took out loans faced default in their repayment. Other factors contribute to GDP per capita that wont be further discussed. Student loans can be a doomed decision. So, is it an investment or just another term of loan?

I am currently an MBA student at Imperial College Business School in London. Lucky enough, I got a Chevening scholarship from the UK government and a merit-based scholarship from the university to cover my tuition fee, otherwise I probably wouldnt be here. I never considered a student loan back then. It was not an option. Only a scholarship could help me. No plan B.

I was quite shocked when I found out that around half of my classmates had actually taken out loans. However, as I learn and observe more from my friends, I gradually understand the position of student loans. Indeed, it can be an investment if you decide and treat it right.

Lets begin with the benefits of a student loan.

1. It will force you to study harder and more seriously

Sounds cliche, but thats the truth. Those with student loans will think about how they can repay the loan installments but still manage to have a good life. They want the best job available or build the most promising business. They wont waste their time doing unimportant things, because studying or making connections are priorities.

2. You become more responsible with money

You do not want to spend your student loans on anything unrelated to your education. You are on a tight budget, thus you will be more organized with spending money. It is no longer a secret that some Indonesian scholars take their scholarships for granted. They misuse the money for other stuff that do not have a positive impact on their studies.

3. You will be encouraged to get a part-time job, internship or join a competition

You are being responsible with your money from your loan, but you also want to enjoy life. Many of my friends were very motivated to search for a good internship and take part in competitions to earn additional money. We had a full-time school schedule almost everyday, making it hard to have part-time jobs, but I believe that some other courses are more flexible and you can utilize your free time to not only earn more money by getting a part-time job but can actually gain some work experience.

4. You are not obliged to return to your home country

Scholarships such as Chevening and LPDP require you to return to Indonesia after finishing school, meaning you will not be able to work overseas. However, it is a different story if you do self-funding or get a student loan. You can apply to any company in the country where you study or anywhere around the world.

Now, at least student loans do not seem that cruel anymore. However, people can only obtain those benefits if they make the right decision to take out a loan. Student loans are not always the best solution, and I would recommend considering these points before making a big decision that will change your life:

1. You know why you need this specific education and what you want to do after

In order for an education to be an investment, it needs to generate some returns in the future. Returns can be salary, promising business, connections, publication, etc. If you think you still can achieve your dream without this education, then you need to reconsider. If you can enroll in a similar course of the same quality at a university in Indonesia, why go abroad? If you are certain the course will give you value but you cannot see yourself doing anything related to it, then why bother?

Students often pursue a master's degree because of awry reasons such as social pressure or just to get an overseas degree. In that case, their education is no longer an investment and they need to stay away from student loans.

2. Your school is one of the best and well-known in the world

When some crowds say that school ranking is no longer important nowadays, they are wrong. I can see from my own experience that only top schools get invited to big company events, including recruitment events. Connections are wider in top schools. Most respected people graduated from top schools and they sometimes return to be a guest speaker. Alumnus from top schools are spread out in giant corporations or on the government ladder.

Last but not least, venture capitalists usually only look into projects from top schools. When you receive an offer from a top 10 school in the world for the subject you are in enrolled in, then student loans will definitely be worth it.

3. High possibility to work in the country where you study

If one of your plans is to work overseas, then this point is significant. In some countries in Europe, such as the Netherlands and Germany, it is easier to obtain a work permit. It is, however, much harder in the UK, especially during Brexit. However, four universities get the privilege of having a longer student visa period, where students can remain in the UK for six months after their course finishes, to support their postgraduate students in securing a job. They are the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London and University of Bath. There are, however, 23 other UK universities that just joined the scheme. But you may need to check the details and requirements for each university.

It is usually more convenient to search for a job in a country where you already have basic knowledge on how the country works. On top of that, universities usually have more connections with companies and people within the country.

If you treat your student loan right, it can turn into an investment that can change your life.

***

The writer is a masters of business administration candidate at the Imperial College Business London and a Chevening scholar. Linkedin URL: https://uk.linkedin.com/ in/monika-pratiwi-09b76b34With various ethnicities calling the coastal city of Malacca in Malaysia their home, it is no surprise the people there would want to celebrate their heritage. The Encore Melaka Impression Series sets about doing just that.

The 70-minute multilingual performance seeks to immerse its audience, including invited members of the press, in a time machine spanning six centuries, from Malaccas establishment around the year 1400 to present day.

Encore Melakas first scene portrays Parameswara, the last king of Singapura (now Singapore) and the founder of Malacca hunting a mouse-deer. As the mouse-deer outwitted his hunting dogs, Parameswara decided to name his kingdom after the tree he rested under.

The following scene tells the story of Admiral Zheng Hes (Cheng Ho) drummers arriving in Malacca, with a visual projection of tumultuous waves and ships serving as the backdrop.

The energetic performance sets up the next scene featuring the drummers descendants, called the Baba and Nyonya, the honorific for the men and women respectively.

Dainty: The Baba-Nyonya (Peranakan honorific for men and women) are among the groups represented in Encore Melaka. (Encore Melaka/File)

A lone woman holds up a lantern to a door as a dance number is performed, culminating with a scene of a traditional Peranakan wedding, complete with the groom and bride wearing traditional attire.

The wedding scene marks the first audience interaction in Encore Melaka, as it ends with performers holding lanterns walking up the audience aisle and handing out treats to audience members.

When the promotional flyer cited Encore Melaka as an immersive performance, it certainly was true to its words.

Subsequent scenes depict stories of the Malaccan people, from the old man retelling a story of his six mothers who found him amid a shipwreck in 1948 to another celebrating the importance of Malaccas artisans and cultural inheritors.

Eternal love: The Peranakan marriage scene also includes audience participation. (Encore Melaka/File)

Encore Melaka ends with all 200 performers going up the stage to bid farewell to the audience, as they too become part of the performance thanks to a cameraperson recording the audience reactions, which is shown in a projection on the main stage.

Audience members in their first viewing would certainly be dazzled by the dancers fluidity, the touching storyline and the technological wonders that support the entire experience.

The rotating audience platform moves subtly enough to ensure a smooth transition from one scene to another, while the visual effects projected onto the main stage do an adequate job to convey a sense of dynamism while obscuring the seams on the stages panels.

While one can break the immersion by looking upward to see the ceiling stationary as the platform rotates or by focusing on the little sounds and seams noticeable at times, to do so is to miss the point of the performance entirely.

Heritage: A number of Malaccan traditional crafts are featured, such as the wau (traditional Malaysian kite). (Encore Melaka/File)

Each scene carries a message that should be digested and pondered upon.

For example, the year 1948 in the old mans story carries a significant undertone, as 1948 was the year the Federation of Malaya was formed, which would then become Peninsular Malaysia.

Meanwhile, the six mothers mentioned in the story represent the different ethnicities that have lived in Malacca, from the Portuguese to the Chetty.

My story comes to an end. Please remember my mothers name. They are Melaka, the old man said in his final scene.

Also notable was the date of Encore Melakas opening show on July 7. The date marks the 10th anniversary of Malaccas inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with illustrious guests such as the Malaysian tourism, arts and culture minister, Mohammadin bin Ketapi, and chief minister of Malacca Adly Zahari in attendance.

Spirited: Some 200 local performers are involved in Encore Melaka. (Encore Melaka/File)

The mastermind of Encore Melaka is none other than Wang Chaoge, famously known for being the director of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games opening ceremony.

Chaoge, who spent two years in Malacca studying its people and culture, picked the Malaysian city to be the first Impression Series set outside her native China.

I handpicked Malacca to be the first coveted home for the Impression Series outside China because it has remained true to its history and people, while welcoming outsiders with warm and hospitality, Chaoge said.

As Encore Melaka under Chaoge requires a great deal of input from her as chief director, the stage and the theater itself was built with her requests in mind.

The Encore Melaka Theater is located in Malaccas waterfront future city-within-a-city Impressions City. The porcelain-tiled building, billed as Southeast Asias first theater equipped with a 360-degree rotating audience platform that can seat up to 2,000 people, is the brainchild of architect Wang Ge.

Many times in architecture, people focus on the technology, the technical aspect [of architecture]. [...] The first thing I want to portray in this project is the performance part the minute you see the building, Ge said, adding that he also wanted to give people space for thinking.

Indeed, those wanting to appreciate Malaccan culture will certainly do a lot of thinking, on their own heritage as well as living with other cultures in harmony,

As Chaoge said. I hope people leave the show with a new or rediscovered respect and admiration for this city.Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, has undoubtedly become a lucrative market for modest fashion.



In general, modesty means wearing clothes that show less skin. However, it is often narrowly defined as merely wearing a hijab and shapeless clothes that cover everything. In order to move away from this, Jakarta Modest Fashion Week will be displaying non-hijab designs.



Turkish fashion entrepreneur Ozlem Sahin and Indonesian-born fashion consultant Franka Soeria saw the potential of the modest fashion market in Indonesia.



They developed a strong partnership over the years in Turkey, which culminated in the launch of a fashion consulting and branding company called ThinkFashion.



Both observed that the modest fashion niche was still relatively untouched by big brands.



Utilizing their expertise in the fashion industry, they decided to introduce a regular event to cater for this niche market and called it Modest Fashion Week.



After its success in Istanbul, London and Dubai, Franka and Ozlem will be staging the event, branded Jakarta Modest Fashion Week, at Gandaria City in South Jakarta from July 26 to 29.



Jakarta will become the center of global modest fashion, Franka said during a recent press conference at Plaza Kuningan in Central Jakarta.



Meanwhile, Ozlem said Jakarta was very unique compared to the other cities where modest fashion events took place. For him, Jakarta offers a chance to showcase the more inclusive concepts of modest fashion.



Ozlem and Franka  through their Dram and Design for Disabled Community Movement  collaborated with the Aksi Cepat Tanggap (ACT) voluntary humanitarian group and the Asian Paralympic Games to empower disabled fashion workers in Indonesia as part of their inclusive concept campaign.



Franka added that Jakartas beautiful mess characteristic would become the core theme of Jakarta Modest Fashion Week.



The main aim of the event is long-term collaboration with and the promotion of talented Indonesian designers on the modest fashion scene.



Jakarta Modest Fashion Week will connect Indonesian designers to global retailers and buyers, giving them the opportunity to compete and introduce their products to the global modest fashion market.



Some of the Indonesian designers and brands that will feature their products at the event are Sayee, Dhienda Nasrul and 2Madison Avenue.



Sayees work will feature a mix of Korean Hanbok and Indonesian modest style, Dhienda Nasrul took inspiration from the refugee issue for her collection and 2Madison Avenue will utilize bright colors and bold designs for their products.



Both Franka and Ozlem said they believed Indonesian designers have what it takes to survive in the global market.



Indonesia has amazing talent, creativity and quality. As an Indonesian I want to help expose this to the global fashion industry, Franka added.

***

The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post.LVMH (LVMH.PA) on Tuesday posted robust results for the first half of the year and said Chinese shoppers were still lapping up goods at its major brands like Louis Vuitton, easing fears of waning demand in the luxury industrys biggest market.

A brewing trade spat between Washington and Beijing, which hit stocks and the yuan, has raised concerns of a trickle-down effect on Chinas economy and on luxury purchases even though tit-for-tat tariff hikes have not directly hit the sector.

Chinese consumers appetite for branded goods appears to have largely weathered the dispute so far, however, in an encouraging sign for LVMH rivals like Paris-based conglomerate Kering (PRTP.PA), owner of Gucci.

At LVMHs powerhouse Louis Vuitton - which ranks alongside independent label Chanel as one of the worlds top luxury labels by sales - Chinese demand was even slightly stronger in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year, Financial Director Jean-Jacques Guiony said.

The threats...are there but I dont think they have materialized yet in any way, Guiony told a conference call with analysts, referring to currency volatility and the fallout from trade tensions.

Guiony sounded a note of caution for the remainder of 2018, however, when comparison bases for earnings will be tougher and underlying trends - as well as the context on trade tariffs - could change.

And across the group as a whole, revenue growth in Asia excluding Japan dropped to 15 percent in the second quarter on a like-for-like basis, which strips out currency swings, from 21 percent in the first quarter.

Although the luxury industry is not on the frontline on this, such a risk would certainly bear some negative consequences for us, Guiony said of tariff hikes.

Frances Hermes HMRS.PA, known for its luxury leather handbags, last week said Chinese demand had remained solid, a trend also noted by British trench coat maker Burberry (BRBY.L).

Read also: Kering's Gucci aims to steal luxury crown from Louis Vuitton

Cognac blip

LVMH, which also owns fashion labels like Fendi and Krug champagne, saw strong performance across most divisions.

The groups profit from recurring operations rose 28 percent in the first six months of 2018 to 4.65 billion euros ($5.43 billion), beating expectations.

Excluding accounting effects linked to the integration of German luggage maker Rimowa, like-for-like sales growth in LVMHs key fashion and leather goods unit would have accelerated to 17 percent between April and June from 16 a quarter earlier, Guiony said.

The unit is also home to labels like Givenchy, the couture house behind the wedding dress Meghan Markle wore for her marriage to Britains Prince Harry in May.

One sore spot was LVMHs wine and spirits division.

Like-for-like sales growth in the division weakened to 3 percent in the second quarter from 10 percent in the first. The company said its Hennessy cognac sales by volume dropped in China in the period, as its distributors worked through stocks accumulated in the first quarter for Chinese New Year.The third edition of "Make Me a Zalora Model" initiated by online fashion retailer Zalora is set to begin on Aug. 3 and will run over a four-week period.

The model competition encourages the participation of wannabe models from countries across Asia, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Said to be the first contest of its kind held via social media, Make Me a Zalora Model uses Instagram to find two new faces and give them a chance to achieve their dreams of becoming a professional model. Each week, participants from each country with the best photo will be selected by the judges to move on to the next stage. Twelve selected participants will then fly to Manila for the grand final where the winner will be announced.

Read also: Grey Jason Wu x Sometime by Asian Designers collection available on Zalora

The competition is open for men and women aged 18 years old and above. Those interested in participating can start by uploading their best selfie or full length photo to Instagram with the hashtag #MMAZMCycle3 and tagging @zaloraid.

Among the prizes on offer are an exclusive contract with Singapore-based model agency UpFrontModels, a three-month paid contract with Zalora and the chance to appear in Zalora magazine campaigns as well as in its fashion editorial.

As an Asian e-retailer, we aim to create opportunities for locals, especially models who have high dreams, and give them a chance to appear on the international stage, said Giulio Xiloyannis, chief operating officer of Zalora, in a statement. The competition is a way to celebrate the diverse beauty in Asia and send an inclusive message as an Asian representative on the international stage.

Established in 2016, the model search contest has seen the participation of 6,000 people over the past two years. (wir/kes)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Margareth S. Aritonang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 10:48 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef8b1a4 1 Politics 2019-elections,2019-presidential-election,Susilo-Bambang-Yudhoyono,Prabowo-Subianto,Agus-Harimurti-Yudhoyono,political-parties Free

In working toward forming a coalition, Democratic Party chief and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the vice presidential bid of Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono, his eldest son, is open to negotiations.

For the Democratic Party, [the proposal for] vice presidential candidacy is not undisputed, Yudhoyono said after saying that all political parties would of course prioritize their own members to contest the presidential race.

He made the statement on Tuesday evening after a two-hour closed-door meeting with Gerindra Party patron Prabowo Subianto at the formers residence in South Jakarta.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Prabowo asserted that he and Yudhoyono agreed that other names would be considered.

[] But if Agus name [as a vice presidential candidate] later emerges [during negotiations], why not? said Prabowo.

The Dems have been touting Agus as the partys candidate in next years presidential election. The party has also assessed various scenarios of pairing him with people deemed potential candidates to contest the 2019 race, including with Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Political parties are scrambling to form coalitions as candidate registration draws near. The General Election Commission (KPU) will open registration for candidates of the presidential election on Aug 4 to 10. (rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Andi Muhammad Ibnu Aqil (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 18:19 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efaafe8 1 City Amnesty-International,shooting,police,street-crime Free

Amnesty International Indonesia and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) have called on authorities to investigate police shootings, following the deaths of criminals in several cities as part of a special operation to beef up security ahead of the Asian Games, which begin on Aug. 18.

Amnesty International stated that, in a span of three weeks since June 29, police officers in Jakarta, South Sumatra and Lampung shot dead 15 suspected criminals and injured another 41.

Since Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Idham Aziz instructed his team to crack down on street crime in Jakarta, 320 people have been detained and 52 have been shot, 11 of whom were shot dead.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono argued that the suspected criminals were shot for resisting arrest.

Amnesty International Indonesia spokesman Haeril Halim said that the police should only use weapons for self-defense or to prevent others from being killed.

The use of deadly firearms on purpose should be done only if absolutely necessary to save someones life, Haeril said in written statement on Wednesday.

He said that, despite claims from the police that the shootings were lawful, it was unclear whether they acted purely out of self-defense or if they were following a superior's orders, as no independent investigation had been launched.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 20:08 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efaed56 4 Business G20-meeting,finance-minister,trade-war,Indonesia,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati Free

Bank Indonesia (BI) has projected this years current account deficit to hit US$25 billion, a significant increase over last years $17.53 billion or 1.73 percent of the gross domestic product.

BI senior deputy governor Mirza Adityaswara said that, despite the change in deficit, the economic situation was still stable as $25 billion was under the 3-percent threshold.

He said that, to reduce the deficit, Indonesia needed to record an increase in foreign capital inflow.

The change in deficit was the reason why BI reissued BI promissory notes (SBIs) in an auction on Monday, he said.

Foreign investors are allowed to buy the SBIs, unlike the BI deposit certificate, which can only be bought by domestic investors, he said as reported by kontan.co.id.

Mirza added that he hoped that the SBI could be an alternative instrument for foreign investors who wanted to invest in Indonesia.

BI led the auction for the reissued SBIs with nine and 12-month tenors. The central bank welcomed Rp 14.2 trillion (US$979.29 million) in total incoming bids and took in Rp 5.9 trillion from investors.

The winning bids were given a weighted-yield average of 6.04 percent for SBIs with a nine-month maturity period and 6.71 percent for those with a 12-month maturity.

BI head of monetary management Nanang Hendarsah said investors had shown strong interest in the reissued SBIs, as reflected in the high value of the incoming bids. (ris/dmr)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Winny Tang (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 19:08 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efaca91 1 Business Citibank,growth,Performance,loan,banking-industry Free

Citi Indonesia, a wholly owned subsidiary of United States-based Citigroup Inc., looks forward to achieving double-digit loan growth amid concerns over global circumstances that might affect the companys business.

The private lender claimed that its financial performance from January to June this year was quite good. Citi Indonesia will announce its first half results soon in August.

The global conditions will impact Citi clients' businesses. Our clients include importers, exporters. In retail, we have credit card customers and Citigold customers; all of them will have different responses, Citi Indonesia CEO Batara Sianturi said, referring to the global turmoil, mainly caused by the ongoing trade war between the US and China, and the Feds plan to lift its benchmark rate.

Citi Indonesias loan growth so far was contributed by institutional and retail banking segments. As of May, the lender disbursed Rp 44.35 trillion loans, up by 14.86 percent year-on-year (yoy).

For consumer banking, specifically in the wealth management business, Citi has relaunched Citigold, targeting affluent customers. It has so far gained 10,000 customers, and aims to grow the number of customers by double digits this year.

Despite satisfying loan growth, Citis net income from the January to May period was down by 22 percent to Rp 848.27 billion, yoy. Our NIM [net interest margin] was pressured due to the increase in benchmark rates, Batara said.

Citi Indonesia has not raised lending rates yet, although it increased deposit rates to 6.9 percent last week. (dmr)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25 2018

The Jakarta Police said shootings during their special operation to secure the Asian Games were conducted according to their standard operating procedure. During the operation, which took place from July 3 to 12, the police had shot 52 suspected criminals in their legs and shot dead 11 others.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Argo Yuwono argued that the suspected criminals were shot because they had resisted and attacked the officers during arrests.

When one resists and retaliates against us during an arrest, we obviously should take firm action, though not by shooting [the suspect] immediately, he said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Tangerang  Wed, July 25 2018

Numerous women were reportedly trampled on at a job fair that was held by the Tangerang Manpower Agency at the Metropolis Town Square shopping mall in Tangerang, Banten, on Monday.

The fair, which will run until Thursday, attracted thousands of jobseekers who scrambled to hand in job applications at dozens of booths at the venue.

A jobseeker, Renny, received medical treatment after being trampled on by the crowd.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25 2018

DJ and actor Eza Gionino says he has officially married his girlfriend, Meiza Echa Aulia.

The marriage, however, came with mixed emotions for Eza because his mother, Ruch Gaya, did not approve of his decision.

This [marriage] is quite nerve-racking to talk about because of all the situations right now, Eza said as quoted by tribunnews.com during a press conference in Cimanggis, Depok, West Java, on Monday.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Kusumasari Ayuningtyas (The Jakarta Post) Magelang  Thu, July 26, 2018 08:37 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efa806a 1 National tobacco-control,cigarette,tobacco,children,child-protection,smoking,Magelang,Excise Free

In a tobacco-producing district in Magelang, Central Java, smoking has become part of the rite of passage for boys.

The long-ingrained tradition, coupled with regional revenue from the tobacco industry, has made regency officials hesitant to send a strong message against tobacco control.

Katon Wijaya began smoking when he received four packs of cigarettes from his father as a gift for his circumcision. He was 11. Some cultures in Indonesia regard circumcision as the mark of when a boy becomes a man.

Now, when he has a craving, he spends more than half of his pocket money, Rp 5,000 (34 US cents), to buy two cigarettes.

But the resident of Butuh village in Kaliangkrik district would love to smoke more often. When he turned 14, Katon got seven packs of kretek (clove) cigarettes as a birthday gift from his brother. Containing 12 cigarettes each, the seven packs lasted only a week. I smoked a pack a day, the teenager said.

Katon always carries a lighter in his pocket. How could I not [always bring it]? he said as he lit a flame.

His close friend, Sulistiyanto, also 14, began smoking when he was 9 years old when he received cigarettes as a gift for his circumcision. Like Katon, Sulistiyanto also spends about half of his pocket money on cigarettes. When he wants more, he rolls the bitter-tasting cigarettes himself.

Both dismissed the warnings that smoking is bad for their health. They said they had never been sick.

Dare to plant, dare to smoke

Kaliangkrik has long been known as a center of tobacco production. According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Kaliangkrik has the largest tobacco fields, with 2,193 hectares, among the 21 districts in the regency in 2015.

Markodi, a community elder in Butuh village, Kaliangkrik believes smoking is not harmful and instead heals, as his ancestors taught him. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)

The total size of tobacco fields in the regency in 2015 was 6,613 ha. Among other plantations managed by smallholders, tobacco topped the list, followed by coconuts with 5,023 ha and coffee with 813 ha. The whole regency also had 702 ha of smallholders clove fields, which is essential for kretek cigarettes.

Daring to plant tobacco means daring to smoke too, said Markodi, 53, a resident.

He said he was proud that he could give his second son two boxes of cigarettes as a gift for his circumcision. Smoking is common in Butuh village, even among children, so he sees nothing wrong with giving cigarettes as a gift.

Since the time of our ancestors, tobacco has been seen as a medicine. It doesnt harm us; it instead heals us, he said.

Health vs income

Chairperson of Magelang Muhammadiyah Universitys Muhammadiyah Tobacco Control Center (MTCC), Retno Rusdjijati, said the case of Kaliangkrik put tobacco-control campaigners like her in a dilemma.

On one hand smoking is a part of the culture in the village. On the other, these children have to get help to quit smoking, said Retno.

The Magelang regency administration launched an intensive campaign against children smoking early this year. They go to junior high schools to explain the dangers of smoking to teenage students.

The head of the Magelang Health Agencys Non-Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Section, Bambang Prihutomo, said they were aware of children smoking in Kaliangkrik. But it is difficult [to tell them to stop] because it has been a tradition and to my knowledge, their own mothers give the cigarettes to the children, he said.

Besides campaigning in schools, they have also drafted a regulation on smoking-free zones.

Bambang said his office had submitted the draft in 2014. However, he said, the draft stopped at the regency administrations law bureau.

The law bureau does not dare to propose it further, saying it was like defying the administration, Bambang said. He referred to the fact that tobacco is considered a lucrative commodity in Magelang.

Kaliangkrik district in Magelang regency has about 2,000 hectares of tobacco fields, making it the district with most tobacco fields among 21 districts in Magelang, Central Java. (JP/Kusumasari Ayuningtyas)

Magelang councillor Suroso Singgih said he preferred campaigning rather than applying regulation on smoke-free areas. He said the regency administration would face a big challenge when it came to enforcing a regulation on tobacco control.

Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said smoking was an individual choice. Every region has its own approach to tobacco control, he said. It is either through regulation along with the sanctions, and directly through parents and their children.

Not all regulations are effective. Without regulation it may be even more effective because of the approach conducted directly with parents and their children, Ganjar said.

Parents and government play a role

Researcher Rosita Eva of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) once expressed concern on how easy it is for children in Indonesia to obtain cigarettes.

The 2016 Survey on Health Indicators in Indonesia by the Health Ministry found the government could not reach the target of reducing the prevalence of smoking among people aged 10 to 18 years old. The survey found in 2016 it stood at 8.8 percent, much higher than the government's target of 5.4 percent by 2019.

Rosita blames the condition on, among others, weak implementation of the regulation requiring cigarette consumers to be at least 18 years old. She also blamed the uneven implementation of smoke-free areas and retail sales of cigarettes that made purchasing easy for children.

She said ideally cigarettes had to be sold at Rp 50,000 per pack, thus making it less affordable for children with an average of Rp 10,000 per day in pocket money.

This is where the parents and the government play important roles, Rosita said.

She added that parents must be responsible their childrens smoking habits, while the government is in control of increasing excise.

Unfortunately, excise that should be used to control consumption has in fact become a source of income, she said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Wimar Witoelar (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25 2018

It was an odd event that was held at Bogor Palace. President Joko Jokowi Widodo and heads of six political parties held a four-hour meeting, apparently to solidify their consensus on a running mate for the upcoming presidential election.

As curious reporters swarmed the departing participants, they received a newsworthy answer from several party leaders that the President and the six coalition parties had decided on a single candidate for vice president.

Under prevailing regulations, the candidates for president and vice president must appear on a single ticket for a party or party coalition that holds a minimum number of seats in the House of Representatives.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Wed, July 25 2018

Gadjah Mada Universitys (UGM) Smart Car MCS team took home wins at the Shell Ideas 360 Awards in London earlier this month, beating four other finalists in a global competition organized for students to develop game-changing ideas to tackle energy, food and water issues.

The team, comprising four students from the universitys chemical engineering department, won the competitions judges choice and audience choice awards for their idea of developing a smart car capable of turning plastic waste into fuel that emits low levels of carbon dioxide.

Alhamdulillah [All praise to Allah], we were able to win in both categories, the teams manager, Herman Amrullah, said on Monday.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 07:47 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef84422 1 National JAD,Jamaah-Ansharut-Daulah,terror-attack,terrorist-group,#SurabayaBombings,#MakoBrimobRiot,Surabaya-bombings,mako-brimob Free

Prosecutors from the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) indicted on Tuesday home-grown extremist group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) for playing a significant role in recent terror attacks in the country and demanded the court name JAD a forbidden organization.



In the first trial at the South Jakarta District Court, JAD was represented by Zainal Anshori, the leader of JADs East Java chapter, who is considered to be the groups second-in-command after Aman Abdurrahman, the groups founder and a terror convict currently on death row.



Prosecutor Heri Jerman said JAD was a terrorist network and therefore could be held responsible for various past terror attacks masterminded by its members.



The prosecutors indicted JAD for violating Article 17, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Terrorism Law, which could hold an institution, regardless of whether it is a legal entity registered with the government or not, and its administrators responsible for terrorism.



JAD, the largest local terror group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, is believed to be responsible for multiple deadly bombings in East Java and the killing of six police officers at the Mobile Brigade headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok, West Java, in May.



JAD is indicted as a corporate entity [as stated in the Terrorism Law], or in this case, as an organization. The Terrorism Law states that, if an organization harms the public, a request to declare it forbidden can be made, Heri said after the hearing, as quoted by Kompas.com.



There have been a number of incidents that harmed people, such as suicide bombings, which were claimed by JAD.



Concerns surfaced over the indictment as JAD was not an entity registered legally in the governments database, which could lead to the notion that such an indictment was void.



Heri, however, dismissed such concerns, saying that Article 17 allows us to prosecute an organization not registered legally in order to have it declared a prohibited organization.



Zainal did not refute the indictment, allowing the trial to proceed, with testimonies from at least four other JAD members being heard.



Prosecutors also summoned University of Indonesia law professor Sutan Remy Sjahdeini as an expert witness.



In the first trial, the prosecutors said JAD was established by Aman in 2014 while he was serving a prison sentence for another terrorism-related case on Nusakambangan prison island in Central Java.



JADs indictment came about a month after the same court sentenced Aman to death after finding him guilty of inciting several deadly attacks in Indonesia, including the Thamrin shootings and suicide bombings in 2016 on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta and the 2017 Kampung Melayu bombings in East Jakarta.



However, this is not the first time a terror group has been declared illegal in the countrys history. In 2008, the South Jakarta District Court named Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), an al-Qaeda-linked group that orchestrated the 2002 deadly bombing in Bali, a forbidden organization. At the time, the court found the group guilty of violating Article 17 of the Terrorism Law.



The ruling came after the same court found JI members Abu Dujana and Zarkasih guilty of committing terrorist acts and sentenced both men to 15 years behind bars.



Terrorism expert Solahuddin lauded the indictment, saying: It was the right thing to do, as more than 200 members and caretakers of the organization, which pledges allegiance to IS, have committed terror acts.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 14:27 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef9dcf6 1 City kali-item,lamps,pollution,river,Asian-Games-2018 Free

The Jakarta administration has decorated Sentiong River, also known as Kali Item (the black river) for its severe pollution, with colorful lamps after covering it with a black nylon net prior to the Asian Games next month.

The river, which is located across the athletes village in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, was covered by the net amid concerns that it would be too smelly for foreign athletes.

The industry and energy agency started installing the decorative lamps on the black net on Monday.

[The decorative lamps] have been installed to make the river look better, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said at City Hall on Tuesday.

Anies move to cover the river, instead of cleaning it, has been met with criticism.

The governor said even though the river was covered, city workers would attempt to clean the river to rid it of its foul smell.

He went on to say that the problem had been inherited from the previous administration.

The problem didnt emerge overnight. Its been severely polluted for ages. We [the current city administration] only inherited the problem, Anies said.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 10:07 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef8a51a 1 Politics Jokowi,2019-presidential-election,2019-elections,2019-legislative-election Free

President Joko Jokowi Widodo is requiring regional heads to ask for his permission to run for president or vice president.

A government regulation signed by the President on July 18 stipulates that all regional heads must ask for the presidents permission should they seek candidacy in the 2019 presidential election.

Governors, deputy governors, regents, deputy regents, mayors or deputy mayors supported by political parties to serve as their presidential or vice presidential candidate must ask permission from the president, Article 29 of the regulation says.

The regulation, implemented on July 19, further explains that the president will give permission, at the most 15 days after receiving official letters from those seeking candidacy. Moreover, if within 15 days a candidate does not receive an official response from the president, permission can be considered to have been granted.

The political parties backing the regional heads running for the countrys top posts must also submit a copy of the permission request to the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and West Nusa Tenggara Governor M. Zainul Majdi, aka Tuan Guru Bajang (TGB) are among those being touted by political parties and analysts as possible candidates in the 2019 presidential race.

The regulation also stipulates resignation procedures for officials running in the legislative election held concurrently with the presidential election, next year.

In 2014, Jokowi, who then served as Jakarta governor, had also asked then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's permission to take leave to run in the presidential election that same year. (rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 13:08 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef91c4f 4 National KPK,prison,Law-and-Human-Rights-Ministry,penitentiary Free

The Law and Human Rights Ministry is overhauling the countrys approach to managing its penitentiaries, after the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) last week uncovered rampant corruption taking place in a West Java prison housing graft convicts.

There will be four categories of prisons: super maximum security, maximum security, medium and minimum security, a spokesman for the ministrys Directorate General of Corrections, Ade Kusmanto, said on Tuesday as reported by tempo.co.

The ministry has been hit by a string of scandals relating to its penitentiaries, ranging from prison breaks, drug rings operated from behind bars and prisoners bribing their wardens for better facilities.

The latter was exposed in a recent KPK arrest of the Sukamiskin prison warden and graft convicts in Bandung, West Java, for alleged bribery.

In the discussed new scheme, there will be no more specialized prisons, such as those for graft convicts, Ade said.

Convicts will be placed in facilities that are in accordance with their crime, behavior and security threat.

[Inmates] that are likely to repeat their offenses or harm others will be put in the highest security-level prison, he said.

Inmates showing good behavior will then be moved to a lower-security prison. The assessment, Ade said, would be made by prison staff every day based on indicators that are still in discussion.

In the current system, convicts are housed in various facilities according to their prison sentence.

The new concept aims to encourage good behavior among inmates and prevent prison authorities from abusing their power, Ade added. (nor/rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nick Wadhams (Bloomberg) Washington, United States  Wed, July 25, 2018 16:31 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efa6c2b 2 World trump,US,Helsinki,North-Korea,Trade,Mike-Pompeo Free

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will find one of his rare appearances on Capitol Hill rough going Wednesday as he seeks to soothe the ire of senators exasperated by President Donald Trumps strategy on everything from Russia and NATO to North Korea.

As bipartisan fury over Trumps summit with Vladimir Putin last week reverberates in Washington, Pompeo will hear from senators demanding to know what happened during the presidents one-on-one meeting with the Russian president, what Trump meant when he called the European Union a foe and whether the US is being duped again by North Korea.

The question is: What the heck do you think youre doing? said Heather Hurlburt, director of the New Models of Policy Change project at New America, a Washington think tank. Im finding it very difficult to find clever, original things to say other than this is unprecedented, astonishing and hard to fathom regardless of ones ideological starting place.

Pompeos earlier appearances before lawmakers werent so fraught. The former CIA director and House member was greeted with relief because he replaced Rex Tillerson, who had little support in Congress or his own department by the time Trump fired him via Twitter in March. And Pompeo, who took over at the State Department in April, had some early successes engaging with North Koreas Kim Jong Un and winning freedom for three Americans detained there.

Those days are over. From the moment Trumps news conference alongside Putin ended on July 16, Republican and Democrats have found common ground in efforts to rein in the presidents apparent desire to forge better ties with Russia without confronting Moscow over election meddling.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Bob Menendez said theyll introduce legislation to increase US sanctions against Russia that would target its sovereign debt as well as the countrys energy and financial sectors.

While the president tweeted as recently as Tuesday that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, Congress produced the most severe sanctions yet against Russia without White House support. Trumps willingness to entertain having Russian investigators visit the US to watch interviews of American officials -- including a former ambassador to Moscow -- was so roundly opposed that the Senate passed a resolution 98-0 expressing its disapproval.

Even as Trump continues to proclaim the Helsinki summit with Putin a great success, his top aides havent explained what was agreed to when the president met alone with Putin, leaving Russian officials to fill the vacuum. And hes been almost alone in defending remarks -- since walked back -- that he viewed Putins denials of interfering in the 2016 election as more credible than evidence compiled by US intelligence agencies.

The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally, House Speaker Paul Ryan said after the summit. Republican Senator John McCain was more blunt: Trumps trip resulted in one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory, he said, and no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.

Senators will have much more to ask about than Russia, however, when Pompeo appears before the Foreign Relations Committee at 3 p.m. EST.

Id like to find out what if anything was said in the meeting with Putin, Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said. Theres so many issues, though.

NATO

Trumps repeated berating of NATO allies for not spending enough on defense doesnt appear to have resulted in any additional financial commitments at the alliances annual summit earlier this month despite Trumps boasts to the contrary. Trumps comments in the days since -- he called Montenegro very aggressive -- raised doubts about the US commitment to defend alliance partners and maintain penalties on Russia for its annexation of Crimea.

Iran

The president ramped up his rhetoric against the Islamic Republic on Sunday, saying on Twitter that the U.S. wont tolerate Irans DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH -- a response to a warning Irans president made to Trump. Trumps comments followed a speech by Pompeo in which he stopped just short of advocating regime change and reiterated the administrations determination to impose sanctions on countries, including U.S. allies, that dont significantly cut their imports of Iranian oil.

North Korea

Pompeo has been the point man on US-North Korea talks since he was at the Central Intelligence Agency. But hes had little to say since a vaguely worded declaration was signed by Trump and Kim in Singapore last month. Theres still no time line for Pyongyang to disclose details about its nuclear arsenal let alone a schedule for dismantling it under the gaze of international inspectors. As Pyongyang appears to stall for time, the sanctions regime heavily touted by Trump and Pompeo is showing signs of weakening.

The secretary of state can point to some recent success: Newly released satellite photographs suggest that North Korea has begun to dismantle a satellite launch site that was considered a cover for its ballistic missile program. And estimates from South Koreas central bank show the gross domestic product in North Korea contracted 3.5 percent in the 12 months through December, the biggest drop in two decades.

Trade

The same day Pompeo is testifying, Trump will be meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to talk trade, another issue where many Republican lawmakers disagree with the White House. Juncker will seek to convince Trump that his threat to raise tariffs on European car imports would jeopardize a $1 trillion dollar trade relationship and 15 million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the administration may raise tariffs on more than $200 billion in Chinese imports and a long-promised rewrite of the Nafta agreement with Canada and Mexico remains unfulfilled.

Trump has been unrepentant on the issue. Tariffs are the greatest, he said on Twitter Tuesday morning.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 10:52 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef8bf77 1 Business astra,automotive-exhibition,Gaikindo,automakers Free

Six of Astra International's 10 financial companies have joined hands to support the upcoming 2018 Gaikindo Indonesia International Auto Show (GIIAS).

PT Astra International director Suparno Djasmin said on Tuesday that this was the first time those companies have served as main GIIAS sponsors under a new entity, Astra Financial.

"Our participation in the Gaikindo event has been consistent since 1986. This year, we introduce Astra Financial to the public," said Suparno, who is also Astra Financial director in charge.

The group includes PT Astra Sedaya Finance, PT Toyota Astra Financial Services, PT Asuransi Astra Buana, PermataBank, PT Federal International Finance and PT Astra Aviva Life.

Suparno said the group would mainly provide financing for car brands managed under Astra International, such as Toyota, Daihatsu and Isuzu.

"However, we are open to providing financing for other brands as well during the auto exhibition," he added.

GIIAS 2018 will showcase around 250 brands of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and other automotive industry products from Aug. 2 to 12 at the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Tangerang, Banten.

In the first quarter of 2018, the companies under Astra Financial have contributed Rp 1.06 trillion (US$73.09 billion) in net income to the corporation, a 5.69 percent year-on-year decrease, compared to Rp 1.12 trillion in the same period last year.

The contribution accounts for 21.29 percent of Rp 4.98 trillion in attributed net income from Astras seven business sectors. (dmr)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 13:02 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef8fa07 1 Business Sarana-Multigriya-Finansial-SMF,sharia-business,housing,developer Free

State-owned secondary mortgage company Sarana Multigriya Finansial (SMF) has officially launched a standard operating procedure (SOP) for Islamic banks in providing funds to housing developers.

SMF president director Ananta Wiyogo said the SOP, developed by SMF in cooperation with the Public Works and Housing Ministry, provided technical instructions for developers in applying for working capital at sharia banks.

The procedure also includes steps sharia banks can take to disburse working capital among developers, he said.

With the SOP, we hope sharia banks and housing developers will be able to work together to meet the housing demand nationwide, he said during a ceremony on the handover of the SOP to sharia banks in Jakarta on Monday.

Speaking at the same occasion, Lana Winayanti, the general director of housing finance at the Public Works and Housing Ministry, said many developers were currently unaware that they could obtain funds from sharia banks to increase their financing capacity and build more houses.

Meanwhile, Achmad Wijaya Putra, deputy director of Islamic banking at the Financial Services Authority (OJK), said as of April, the domestic sharia financing sector had grown 19.54 percent year-on-year (yoy) while gaining a market share of 8.29 percent.

Total sharia banking assets stood at Rp 435.16 trillion (US$30.114 million) or 5.79 percent of the total banking assets in Indonesia, he said.

In addition, the household subsector dominated sharia financing, accounting for 41.84 percent of transactions. From the subsector, 63.09 percent was distributed for house purchases. (sau/dmr)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Wed, July 25, 2018 14:45 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef9e182 1 National crystal-methamphetamine,shabu-shabu,Thailand,Semarang,drugs,BNN Free

Airport personnel in Semarang, Central Java, thwarted on Tuesday an alleged drug smuggling attempt by a Thai national, according to the provincial branch of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN).

Wilaiwan Boonyiam, 22, who hails from Nakhon Pathom province in Thailand, was caught by customs officials at Ahmad Yani International Airport with 1.6 kilograms of sabu sabu (crystal methamphetamine) on July 1.

Boonyiam flew from Bangkok to Singapore via Singapore Airlines flight SQ-973 before flying to Semarang with SilkAir. She admitted to receiving instructions from someone in Thailand [to smuggle the drugs], head of the Central Java BNN, Tri Agus Heru Prasetyo, said in a press conference on Tuesday in Semarang.

The woman reportedly told investigators that she had been instructed to stay at a hotel in Semarang before meeting someone who would retrieve the crystal meth.

She allegedly received US$1500 for the job.

Boonyiam will be charged under the 2009 Narcotics Law, which carries a maximum penalty of death, Tri said.

He further said that Central Java had become a growing target market for drugs coming from Thailand. On Oct. 13, 2016, BNN and customs personnel arrested a courier traveling from Bangkok who was caught with 180 grams of crystal meth hidden in the sole of his shoe.

On March 15, 2017, authorities confiscated 57 gr of meth sent through the post from Thailand.

The Central Java BNN revealed that in several joint operations, it had seized a total of 7.65 kg of crystal meth from 21 suspects between January and July. (nor/rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Panca Nugraha (The Jakarta Post) Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara  Wed, July 25, 2018 16:40 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efa72eb 1 National tidal-floods,tidal-wave,Lombok,West-Nusa-Tenggara Free

Tidal waves hit Induk Beach at Taman Ayu village in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, on Wednesday morning, forcing hundreds to flee following tidal floods that had inundated their village.

Seawater started to enter residential areas in the village at 8:35 a.m on Wednesday, causing knee-deep flooding, said Mataram Search and Rescue Agency spokesman I Lanang Wiswananda said.

To anticipate worsening conditions, we immediately evacuated villagers [from the area], he said, adding that the floods had affected 178 residents.

The agency, along with other personnel and volunteers, helped in the evacuation.

Wiswananda explained that the flooding was caused by tidal waves up to 4 meters high hitting the coastal village.

It had been reported that one house was severely damaged, and three fishing boats could not yet dock because of high waves.

Village head Lalu Imran said the tidal waves had been hitting the village since 4:30 a.m., followed by floodwater entering peoples houses from 7 a.m. Panicked residents then asked for help from the authorities to be evacuated to safer place. (nor/rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, July 25, 2018 17:48 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efa94f5 1 City vandalism,mural,Asian-Games-2018,South-Jakarta Free

Unfinished Asian Games murals painted by Pondok Pinang Public Facility Maintenance Agency (PPSU) workers have been vandalized near the Pondok Indah Mall and Lebak Bulus intersections in South Jakarta.

I am angry, but what can I do. We work all day under the heat to paint the Asian Games murals, but somebody else has drawn graffiti on them, PPSU worker Setyo said on Wednesday, kompas.com reported.

He said that he and his coworkers had been painting a mural since Friday, but before they were able to finish it, they found graffiti on the mural wall.

The workers, he said, had to stop painting because they had to cover up the graffiti before finishing the mural.

We have worked hard. Its still art, but somebody else vandalized our works, so were disappointed, Muhajar, another PPSU worker, said.

Another worker, Yacub, said that, although he was also disappointed, he was trying to let it go.

I am just being patient, because what can I do. Just let it go, he said. (ami)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Julia Suryakusuma (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Wed, July 25 2018

Do you remember Alan Kurdi? Tragically, his claim to global headlines fame was having his lifeless 3-year-old body washed up on a beach in Turkey after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on Sept. 2, 2015.



Kurdi was the child of Syrian refugees of Kurdish descent, who trying to escape the civil war, had settled in Turkey but hoped to join family members in Canada. On that fatal day, he and his family boarded a small plastic dinghy filled to twice its capacity, and no life vest to boot. Doomed from the start, the boat capsized five minutes after it left the shores of Bodrum, a city on Turkeys southwest coast.



Given the heartbreaking starkness of the image of Kurdis corpse, youd have thought it would move anyone and everyone to actually do something. Yet a year later, in 2016, 200 children have drowned in the Mediterranean. How many more have died since in the same manner and in other ways through neglect, violence, disease and suicide?



World Refugee Day is observed June 23 each year to raise awareness of the plight of refugees worldwide. The theme this year is Now more than ever, we need to stand with refugees. And with good reason.



According to the United Nations, 68.5 million people worldwide  a record high  have been displaced worldwide due to war, poverty and persecution. Thats more than the size of the United Kingdom and a little less than that of Thailand, and it would be the 21st largest country in the world!



National Childrens Day falls on July 23 in Indonesia, commemorated since 1984, so why not combine the two observance days to look at the plight of child refugees, who are the most vulnerable?



The theme of this years National Childrens Day, decided upon by the Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry, this year is Genius, which stands for gesit (agile), empati (empathetic), berani (courageous), unggul (excel, superior) and sehat (healthy).



Does the ministry differentiate between Indonesian kids and kids in Indonesia? The law certainly does. Indonesian kids are supposedly protected by the Child Protection Law, which doesnt apply to refugee kids. However, Indonesia also signed the Convention for the Rights of Children in 1990 by presidential decree, which doesnt care about a childs migration status.



Apparently its the most widely ratified human rights treaty ever, signed by 192 countries. It includes four articles especially relevant to child refugees: the principle of non-discrimination (Article 2); best interests of the child (Article 3); right to life and survival and development (Article 6), and the right to child participation (Article 12). The question is, can the Convention override the fact that Indonesia has not signed the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees?



There are about 14,000 refugees from 49 countries in Indonesia, over one-fourth of them are children. Because Indonesia has not yet signed the 1951 Convention, refugees in Indonesia dont have any rights, including the children among them. They often suffer from trauma, have difficulty going to school due to language and financial barriers, or no access to health care when sick, which are basic human rights. So forget about the ministrys Genius theme. Never mind refugee kids, many Indonesian kids escape it too.



The fact that Indonesia ranks 105th (out of 175) on the recently released Save the Children annual global index, and that it is among the big five among countries with the largest number of stunted kids in the world (35.6 percent of under-5) is hardly consolation for refugee kids.



There are three categories of refugee children: unaccompanied minors who fled their country without any family members, separated minors who came with someone they know but not immediate family, and children who came with one or both parents.



They live in a variety of circumstances, none remotely satisfactory: in tiny tents on the streets outside Kalideres Detention Center or on the sidewalk outside the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Central Jakarta, in detention centers or community housing with their families. The luckier ones live in Indonesian communities.



The conditions most of them live in are inhuman, overcrowded, lacking basic amenities and proper sanitation. Its extremely difficult for adults and harrowing for children.



Unaccompanied child refugees are especially vulnerable to neglect, abuse, violence and sexual harassment.



Children in detention were brought to the worlds attention through Trumps immigration policy. But its not just Trump. Indonesia has also faced criticism for the detention of refugees and asylum seekers, especially children.



Apparently even short periods of detention harms childrens well being, health and development [] [and is] always a child rights violation.



This July, enter the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration to save the day! It establishes a common agenda for managing migration and protecting the human rights of all migrants. The final text was agreed upon by leaders of 192 UN member states, except Somalia and the US, this month. Under Trump, should we be surprised?



Its a very child-friendly text: The Global Compact promotes existing international legal obligations in relation to the rights of the child, and upholds the principle of the best interests of the child at all times.



The implementation of the text will only be in December. Its time for governments to come good on their promises and really make a difference to the societies that they govern.



But its not just about governments, its also about societies and people.



Indonesia is fraught with contradictions: on the one hand its a friendly and relatively open society; on the other hand, its also xenophobic. Children are central to family life, on the other hand children face many problems: besides stunting, they face issues arising from poverty: high infant mortality rate (23 deaths per 1,000 live births), poor health, inadequate nutrition, poor sanitation especially in remote areas, and violence (psychological, physical and sexual).



Besides the complex interplay between national and international laws, the fate of child refugees in Indonesia exists in this context. Not easy to be a child these days, refugee or not.



Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children, said humanity owes the child the best it has to give. Easy to say.



Problem is, what is the current state of humanity in the world today? If we go by what Nelson Mandela once said, There can be no keener revelation of a societys soul than the way in which it treats its children, what a rotten soul  and humanity  we have!





______________________________

The writer is the author of Julias Jihad.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Nezar Patria (The Jakarta Post) Taipei, Taiwan  Wed, July 25, 2018 17:36 1188 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9efa8a13 1 Business Taiwan,Taipei,migrant-workers,Trade,Indonesia,New-Southbound-Policy Free

The woman combed the hair on the mannequins head, judging how much was needed to be cut based on the newest hairstyle. At times she chose the wrong scissor or combed the wrong way, but 34-year-old Sri Purwati, who came from Pacitan in East Java, insisted on learning. Next to her, an instructor gave instructions in Mandarin. Behind them, an old, handicapped man was asleep in his wheelchair. The old man is her employer.

This is the fifth year that Purwati has worked in Taipei, Taiwan, as a geriatric nurse. She plans on returning to Pacitan next year, leaving her job as a migrant worker behind to fulfill her wish: opening up her own beauty salon. I have saved enough to open up a small salon in the village, she said. This is why she has been taking beauty courses every Saturday and Sunday in a middle school building.

The course is part of the Upskill Program that was initiated by the Global Workers Organization (GWO), which offers training courses to migrant workers who are returning to their country of origin. We want them to open up their own businesses and provide employment for their families or partners, Karen Shu of the GWO told a number of Indonesian journalists visiting Taiwan early this month. Training courses offered include Mandarin and making bubble tea.

In one class, about 45 Indonesian migrant workers were learning Mandarin. In another, tens of workers dutifully jotted down bubble tea recipes. They assembled in several small groups and divided tasks, from boiling water and tapioca flour mixture to cooking liquid sugar. I dream of becoming an entrepreneur once I go back to my village, said Sriatun who comes from Pangandaran, West Java.

Indonesian migrant workers learn how to make bubble tea. (JP/Nezar Patria)

GWOs training courses have helped countless migrant workers in Taiwan. There are around 670 000 workers in Taiwan from a number of countries, with 260 000 of them coming from Indonesia. They work in various sectors, such as manufacturing, agriculture and health. There are even around 30 000 Indonesians in the country who are married to Taiwanese citizens, said Kendra Chen of Taiwans Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Working in Taiwan does have its perks. Purwati, who plans to open a salon, earns around NTD 17,000 (US$555). A migrant worker on average earns NTD 17,000 to NTD 23,000 before a NTD 1,500 cut for agent fees. I can set aside around NTD 10,000 every month for my family, said Purwati who is a mother of one.

Read also: Taiwan eyes cooperation with Indonesia in biomedical industry

The Upskill Program is in line with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wens New Southbound Policy (NSP). With rising competition in the region, Taiwan is turning south. The country, which has a population of 24 million, is trying to strengthen its trade cooperation with neighboring countries in the south. This is not about politics, but more about economic partnerships, said Bruce Chih-yu Chien, a negotiator from the Taiwan Trade Partnership Office.

The soft-power strategy is considered important especially in light of the One China Policy, which hinders Taiwan from having diplomatic relations with a number of countries in the south. With this strategy, Taiwan is trying to embrace Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. We are focusing on trade partnerships, for instance agriculture, Chih-yu Chien said.

The trade office recorded that there were 133 Taiwanese investments in those countries worth over US$43.68 billion last year, a 54.52 percent increase from the previous year. From January 2017 to November 2019, Taiwan has agreed on 521 investments in NSP countries worth over $270 billion, which is an increase of 15.8 percent from 2016.

Taiwans Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu understands that the country must operate outside of its conflict zone with China. Turning south is considered a wise solution, and Indonesia is becoming an important country to Taiwan. Exports from Indonesia to Taiwan reached $5 billion, while imports stood at $3.2 billion.

Hence, Taiwan is improving its service to Indonesians living in the country. We would like to cooperate with Indonesia. The migrant workers going back to their country will be a bridge for both countries in business as well as culture, said Wu.Personnel of the Armys Special Forces (Kopassus), accompanied by sniffer dogs, rappel from a helicopter during a mock terror attack in Jakarta on Wednesday. With the involvement of military and police personnel, the training was held by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) as part of security preparations for the upcoming Asian Games. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)(Kopassus), accompanied by sniffer dogs, rappel from a helicopter during a mock terror attack in Jakarta on Wednesday. With the involvement of military and police personnel, the training was held by the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) as part of security preparations for the upcoming Asian Games. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Shafira Chairunnisa (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 26 2018

Indonesia and Japan have a host of events lined up to commemorate 60 years of diplomatic relations this year  with young people the main focus of the celebrations.

The events in Indonesia include a logo contest, music festival and speech contest, while those in Japan include a concert by pianist Joey Alexander and an Indonesian festival.

While some Indonesian youths seem to be in the dark about the ongoing festivities, most having only basic knowledge of the historical connection between the two nations, at least one government official downplays the importance of their lack of information.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (Reuters) Yangon, Myanmar  Wed, July 25, 2018 09:58 1189 a7124a1e87885b91d244660f9ef889ae 2 SE Asia #Myanmar,#HumanRightsAbuse,#journalists,#SoutheastAsia Free

A Reuters reporter on trial in Myanmar had his head covered with a black hood, was deprived of sleep and forced to kneel for hours at a secret police interrogation site after he was arrested with a colleague last year, he told a court on Tuesday.

Kyaw Soe Oo, one of two Reuters journalists accused of obtaining state secrets, said the interrogators focused on a story the reporters had been working on about the murder by soldiers of 10 Rohingya Muslims, showing no interest in the documents they are accused of obtaining.

During two weeks of questioning by officers from military intelligence and police special branch, the reporters were denied access to their families and lawyers, Kyaw Soe Oo told Judge Ye Lwin, overseeing proceedings at the court in Yangon.

The 28-year-old reporter and his colleague Wa Lone, 32, face charges brought under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, in a case seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar. Both have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.

The reporters say the documents were planted on them by a police officer during a meeting at a restaurant on the outskirts of Yangon on Dec. 12. Defence lawyers have said the evidence put forward by the prosecution shows the police entrapped the journalists to interfere with their reporting.

In his testimony, Kyaw Soe Oo said they were arrested immediately after leaving the restaurant and taken to a nearby police station, before being driven to a special police interrogation site in northern Yangon called Aung Tha Pyay.

"They put black hoods on us outside the Htaunt Kyant police station and we stayed hooded until we arrived at Aung Tha Pyay," said Kyaw Soe Oo.

"There were around 10 interrogation officers who took turns interrogating me. They didn't let us rest and asked questions for three days straight while I was in handcuffs."

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, defence lawyer Than Zaw Aung likened such treatment to how Myanmar's former military rulers used to interrogate political opponents.

"Asking questions repeatedly for three days without letting them sleep made them mentally weak. This kind of mental and physical torture is a human rights' violation," said Than Zaw Aung.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said the government has "asked the police force whether they have illegal torture or not - the police said they guaranteed that they don't do any illegal torture".

Zaw Htay also said Myanmar's courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law.

Prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung declined to comment at the end of the day's proceedings. Police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe did not answer calls seeking comment.

Captain Myint Lwin, the officer in charge of the Htaunt Kyant police station, denied that the reporters were deprived of sleep or made to kneel when he testified to the court in June, saying officers were not allowed to "do such a thing".

Kyaw Soe Oo testified throughout the day, before Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the proceedings. The trial will resume on Monday.

ORDERED TO KNEEL

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmar's Rakhine State.

The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations officials have said constituted ethnic cleansing. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since August last year, according to UN agencies. Myanmar rejects almost all accusations of wrongdoing and says its armed forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation after coming under attack by Rohingya militants.

Kyaw Soe Oo, who comes from the violence-torn Rakhine region and is a member of the Rakhine ethnic group, said the non-stop questioning ceased only after the police found photographs of the 10 men from Inn Din on the journalists' phones.

Then, one of the interrogators burst into Kyaw Soe Oo's cell and asked angrily: "Why haven't you told us about this?" referring to the picture of the 10 kneeling men tied together, taken shortly before they were killed last September.

At one point, a military intelligence officer brought print-outs of the Inn Din photographs and asked Kyaw Soe Oo whether he had "sent the photos from my phone to human rights organisations from foreign countries".

Kyaw Soe Oo denied sending the photographs to anyone and told the officer: "I'm a reporter and I follow journalistic ethics."Togean International Oceanic Festival (TIOF) is slated to be held from Aug. 7 to 11 at Togean islands, Tojo Unauna regency, Central Sulawesi.

Franki Raden, representing TIOF organizer, said to The Jakarta Post that the team was finishing up some preparation. He went on to say that a number of activities had been scheduled, and that local and foreign guests had confirmed their attendance for the festival.

The TIOF is set to take place in three locations, namely Kabalutan, Malenge and Papan islands. Each island will perform their art and culture shows.

A unique part of this festival is its venue in the middle of the ocean, said Franki.

He went on to say that he felt Indonesia as an archipelago did not have enough signature maritime events; therefore, he expects that Togean islands can contribute to the list of maritime festivals in the country.

A number of activities in the TIOF include a food security program conducted by Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), ocean-themed music performances, social activities for women, a talk show on seafood potential and a photo competition.

Deputy regent of Tojo Unauna, Admin Lasimpara, on behalf of the regency, fully supports the event, for instance by allocating funds from the regional budget. The regency is hopeful that the TIOF will result in a boost in tourist visits.

Admin went on to say that previously some festivals had been held at Togean island, but the effect had not been significant enough. He thought that the festival had probably not found the right concept. His hopes are also high with Franki Raden, an ethnolomusicologist, composer and director of many music events, on board the festival organizer team.

Read also: New airport, Wings Air connect Central Sulawesi cities

Togean islands, part of Tojo Unauna regency, is situated in the middle of the World Coral Reef Triangle. It is inhabited by a number of tribes, namely the Togean, the Bajo, the Babongko and the Saluan.

For the natives of Togean islands, the sea is their lives. The sea is where their culture is rooted and developed, and on which their livelihoods depend. (mut)Its been a big summer for the local photographers James and Karla Murray. Their new installation, Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S., has been garnering lots of attention. And this evening a new show, Storefront: The Disappearing Face of New York, debuts just a few blocks away, at The Storefront Project, 70 Orchard St.

The Murrays are well known for their series of books documenting the disappearing storefronts of New York City. Tonights opening takes place at 70 Orchard St., from 6-9 p.m. The four-sided structure in Seward Park features nearly life size photos of three defunct businesses (including the Canal Street diner Cup & Saucer) and one stalwart (Katzs Deli) which, thankfully, isnt going anywhere.

The Murrays are profiled today in the New York Times. They talked about their personal connection to Cup & Saucer:Unfortunately, The Content Is Not Here

You have arrived at this page because the page or post you were looking for no longer exists. Please check our main navigation pages for other content: 

Home PageHighlights include Captain Ginger #1, High Heaven #2, and Wrong Earth #2.

Source: Ahoy Comics

CAPTAIN GINGER #1

AUG181476

(W) Stuart Moore, Grant Morrison (A) Phil Hester, Shannon Wheeler (A/CA) June Brigman, Roy Richardson

When the human race died out, the cats inherited the Earth! Or at least one starship. Now the intrepid Captain Ginger struggles to keep his fellow felines united against a hostile universe. Thirty-five pages of comic adventure-with a bite-by writer Stuart Moore (Deadpool the Duck, Batman: Noir Alley) and artist June Brigman (Power Pack). Plus: An all-new text story by comics legend Grant Morrison, "The Electric Sky Bear That Inspired Ben Franklin," illustrated by Phil Hester, and a cartoon by Shannon Wheeler!

In Shops: Oct 17, 2018

SRP: $3.99

EDGAR ALLAN POE'S SNIFTER OF TERROR #1 (MR)

AUG181477

(W) Tom Peyer, Mark Russell, Cienna Madrid (A) Fred Harper, Peter Snejbjerg, Carly Wright, Shannon Wheeler, Hunt Emerson (CA) Richard Williams

Edgar Allan Poe mangles classic tales and brand new stories in this cross between Drunk History and Tales from the Crypt! First, meet AHOY's own alcohol-damaged version of Poe in "The Facts in The Case of M. Valdemar," adapted by Tom Peyer (Batman '66) and drawn by Fred Harper. Then: Sugary cereal meets vampirism in "Dark Chocolate," by writer Mark Russell (The Flintstones) and artist Peter Snejbjerg (Starman). EXTRA! Comics by Hunt Emerson, unsettling verse by Cienna Madrid illustrated by Carly Wright, and a cartoon by Shannon Wheeler!

In Shops: Oct 31, 2018

SRP: $3.99

HIGH HEAVEN #2 (MR)

AUG181478

(W) Tom Peyer, Austin Wilson (A) Greg Scott, Chris Giarrusso (CA) Richard Williams

What's worse than being sentenced to Hell? For self-pitying David Feathers, it's an eternity in Paradise, where he runs afoul of a monstrous angel. EXTRA! The surly science-heroes of Hashtag: Danger adopt an alien pet! Plus a short story by Austin Wilson!

In Shops: Oct 24, 2018

SRP: $3.99

WRONG EARTH #2

AUG181479

(W) Tom Peyer, Paul Constant, Kek-W (A) Juan Castro, Carol Lay, Tom Feister (A/CA) Jamal Igle

The saga of two world-swapped heroes continues! On gritty Earth-Omega, the cheerful Dragonflyman faces off against corrupt, violent police. Meanwhile, the naAve authorities of colorful Earth-Alpha enrage the grim Dragonfly. EXTRA FEATURE! Dragonflyman and Stinger confront the dastardly menace called NIMBY! Plus a text story by Kek-W, illustrated by Carol Lay!

In Shops: Oct 10, 2018

SRP: $3.99News

featured

Pointe Claire prioritizes transparency on pending Pioneer demolition

Robert Frank / Photo Robert Frank We think there is a huge need to keep the pool in Bourgeau Park, said Mayor John Belvedere. Heritage expert Martin Dubois would prefer a restoration in the spirit of the period over rebuilding an identical structure. Photo Chloe Ranaldi One less West Island live-music venue.

Mayor John Belvedere has committed to making municipal documents more readily available to the public by posting them on Pointe Claires web site.

The city has started the process as its demolition committee considers a controversial proposal to raze the historic 1901 Charlevoix Hotel building that since 1979 had served as Pointe Claires main live-music venuethe Pioneer barlong known affectionately to many local residents simply as The Pi.

Weve instituted a new process to permit people to go on the site and see all the documents pertaining to the project, Belvedere told The Suburban. Before, the information was [only] available either at city hall where you could come in and see the information or at the demolition committee meeting. Now, they can go to our web site. Its all out there on the web site.

The city has convened a public consultation at the Pointe Claire Holiday Inn hotel, Aug. 9, where it will weigh input on the bid to build 15 condos on the property where the Pioneer currently stands and on the adjacent parking lot. An online petition Save the Pioneer had already garnered 3,342 signatures as of press time.

Im sure that there will be a lot of discussion, the mayor anticipated.

Not surviving

The owner just wants out, he said in an interview. We cannot control what she does with it. She has the right to sell it, which shes done and shes moving forward. Once a project is put on the table, thats when we get involved. Thats where were at now.

Were following a process, Belvedere continued. There are some things that we can get involved in. There are some things that we cant. We cant force the lady to keep it open.

The city is not currently contemplating an alternate live-entertainment venue, he concluded.

Its not up to us. Were not in that type of business, Belvedere said. It might have been the last venue or the only venue like that, but obviously it wasnt a thriving business. The lady is getting out of it because it is not working. Because the Pioneer is not surviving.Online reviews of 'The Mayor's' worldwide money transfer service couldn't be more glowing.

'I tried the transfer service and I'm happy to say that my first-ever payment went through for me today,' says one elated customer.

'This is going to be a good business relationship! I can feel it! Thank you Mayor.'

Another customer writes effusively: 'Left Western Union with $4,725, I'm surprised at how easy it was.'

Accompanying the testimonials are photographs showing wads of cash strewn across car seats, sofas and customers' laps.

Ill gotten gains: A 'customer' of the credit card fraudster known as The Mayor posted this picture of wads cash said to be the proceeds of a successful credit card scam

Clearly, users of the service find it a reliable way to move cash between countries. But something sinister is going on behind the gleeful reviews and triumphant pictures.

'The Mayor' is an internet user part of an underground network of fraudsters who hack bank accounts and steal bank card details to flog to other crooks. And his customers posting on this online forum know full well what is going on.

On Monday, the Mail revealed that internet giants are struggling to stop the likes of The Mayor from operating.

Today, Money Mail exposes the terrifying criminal underworld that is right under our noses. Using Google, Facebook, YouTube and webpages that anyone can find, crooks trade all the information they need to raid your bank account and spend on your credit card.

Your cash could be up for sale

For anyone unsure of what The Mayor is actually offering, he spells it out on his forum post, which is really just an advertisement: 'I specialise in carding and transferring funds from hacked bank accounts and credit card data to you by Western Union, Money Gram or bank transfers worldwide.'

To put it in even simpler terms, The Mayor steals money from the online bank accounts of innocent victims and then 'sells' the money to unscrupulous buyers.

The buyer pays a small sum and The Mayor transfers them far more in stolen funds via Western Union, the legitimate international payments service.

The customer is given a 'secret' code to take to Western Union to collect the money in cash in their local currency.

They don't even need to show their ID, The Mayor says. In one post, a U.S. buyer says they paid $600 to receive $3,500.

The Mayor's reference to 'carding' is a sign that he runs a sophisticated operation. This is the slang fraudsters use to describe the trading of credit card, bank account and other stolen personal information.

The Mayor claims to have 'endless suppliers of hacked bank accounts and PayPal accounts in most countries' for those willing to contact him privately.

This type of data is used to commit identity fraud, where criminals go on a spending spree using their victim's money, or apply for a mobile phone or loan in their name.

Identity fraud has hit an all-time high. In 2017, almost 175,000 cases of identity theft were recorded by Cifas, the body that tracks this type of crime  that's more than double the figure recorded a decade ago.

Such fraud now costs the UK 5.4 billion a year, according to Action Fraud, which works with the police to stop cybercrime.

On top of this, there were 1.9 million unauthorised transactions on cards and bank accounts in 2017, worth a total of 731.8 million.

This number, from banking trade body UK Finance, includes fraudsters using stolen card details online and opportunistic thieves spending on lost contactless cards they have picked up in the street.

The legitimate-looking KiCarding Premium app claims to offer more than 20 tools, including tutorial guides and a temporary email inbox - which are used for credit card fraud

Banks are obliged to refund unauthorised transactions and ID theft where the customer was not at fault. So, in theory, it's the banks  and not innocent customers  who suffer from the criminal activity being carried out by The Mayor and his buyers.

But every pound a bank has to pay to cover fraud losses eats into its profits. And to keep profits high, they cut costs elsewhere. That can mean lower savings rates, higher fees and interest charges for borrowers, or even closing branches.

Phone apps to make fraud easy

The Google Play store is an online marketplace where smartphone users can download applications, from messaging service WhatsApp to music streaming service Spotify.

But Money Mail found that alongside legitimate apps were programs designed to make fraud easy.

Google itself is not responsible for creating the apps, it merely allows programmers to upload their software so other users may download it. One such app, called KiCarding Premium, was removed from the Play store by Google during Money Mail's investigation.

The app was free to download and, before it was taken down, had been reviewed by 180 users, garnering an average score of 4.3 out of five.

It is still available to download on unofficial Android app stores and on its own website.

When we sent the details of the app to fraud experts, they confirmed that it contained all the tools a crook would need to spend money on someone else's card.

This included software enabling the user to find stolen card details online and then check if the cards were still active in order to use them to purchase products from internet retailers.

Consultants from cyber security firm Secarma say the app also featured a global chat room that connected users with other hackers and 'carders' who steal, trade and use card details.

It also offered links to websites where the user could find stolen credit card information.

In total, the KiCarding Premium app claimed to offer more than 20 tools, including tutorial guides and a temporary email inbox.

Similar apps are still available on the Google Play store if you search for 'carding', including Pro Hacking Tutorials, Daz Bins Generator and Bin Credit Card Checker. All have four-star ratings.

Fraud experts at Secarma say most carding tools hide the user's real location and computer details (known as their IP address).

Many tools also offer a Bank Identification Number (Bin) checker. This allows the hacker to find out information about a credit card, such as the balance.

Another app, Social Bins, says it is designed for 'bineros'  the slang for Latin American cybercriminals. The app allows users to share information and includes tutorials which promise to teach you about 'the world of carding'.

Daz Bins Generator says in its description: 'Our application will show you the bank name, card type, country code and brand.'

It says this information can be 'used for educational purpose and also commercial purpose [sic].'

Epidemic: Identity fraud now costs the UK 5.4 billion a year, according to Action Fraud, which works with the police to stop cybercrime

So brazen they hijack forums

Until recently, the illegal trade in personal data was mostly confined to the dark web.

This is a specific corner of the internet that is difficult for ordinary users to access. You can't stumble upon it by accident without the right program and web address.

But now, hackers and traders such as The Mayor are using public forums and message boards listed on the Google search engine. This increases their exposure to a larger number of potential customers.

In some cases, the websites are set up specifically for the hacking community to trade the information they've harvested, share tips and sell tools.

Others are forums designed for legal purposes that have been hijacked.

For example, on the Poker News forum, one person posting under the username Henry777188 has advertised the sale of personal data, including contact details, dates of birth and financial information.

Another user on the same message board, going by the name of Minh Tuan, has posted a list of information that is up for sale, including credit card details, account numbers, sort codes and other personal data.

Minh Tuan sells the full details for one British person for $35.

Another user explains how to use credit card details to obtain the owner's phone number, date of birth and their mother's maiden name.

Other websites advertise lists of 'trusted' online shops where stolen information can be bought.

One example, trickscity.com, claims to do this for 'educational purposes' so people know 'what the shops look like'.

While another website listed on Google describes how to build your own card skimmer  a device that criminals attach to cash machines to record the information on cards that are inserted. It then creates a copy of the card, which can be used to commit fraud.

The instructional page includes links to stores where the parts for card skimming devices can be purchased.

It also offers a video tutorial for $320, with payment to be made in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Facebook pages to swap secrets

Fraudsters have become so bold that they now communicate openly on social media about their activities.

Money Mail found Facebook pages  including World Hackers Page and Hacking Tricks  where cybercriminals are selling bank logins, card PINs and information from PayPal accounts.

The World Hackers Page appeared to operate as if it were a legitimate business. A Facebook Messenger window pops up as soon as the page loads, giving customers the chance to ask the seller any questions directly.

It offers suggestions such as: 'What's your return policy?', 'Where is your shop located?', 'Can I give feedback?' and 'Could you give me a call, I'd like to speak to someone?'

There were 1.9 million unauthorised transactions on cards and bank accounts in 2017, worth a total of 731.8 million

Both this page and the Hacking Tricks page have been taken down since the Mail reported them to Facebook.

But security experts say this will not deter criminals, who will simply set up more.

Neil Hare-Brown of Storm Guidance, which advises on cyber security risks, says it would be easy to prevent these pages from appearing, but it would be costly to recruit staff to monitor them.

'There's a ton of stuff out there that shouldn't be, but tech giants take a pragmatic view,' he says.

'They will only take down sites when they are asked or forced to with a court order.'

Youtube tutorials with 16,000 views

Video site YouTube has strict policies on inappropriate content; nudity and graphic violence, for example, are banned. But it struggles to police more than a billion users, who upload 300 hours of video every minute, so it relies on users to flag illegal content.

Money Mail found hacking tutorial videos on the site. These provided tips on how, for example, internet users could change their computer IP addresses, which give away their locations, to the same one that would have been used by the bank customer whose card details they have stolen. In theory, this trick could enable a cybercriminal to use a stolen card without triggering a fraud alert at the customer's bank.

One video gives a demonstration of someone using stolen credit card details to buy a Canon camera online for $874.09. It has been viewed more than 16,400 times and has 190 likes.

Users can post comments on these videos, and some share information on where to source credit card numbers or promote their supplies of stolen information.

Chris Underhill, from Equiniti Cyber Security, says stolen financial information and personal data is just 'lying around online waiting to be found'.

He adds: 'If you know the right search terms, you'll be able to find hacking programmes and tutorials within seconds.'

But Mr Hare-Brown says it's difficult to tell what information posted by cybercriminals is genuine and what is fake. He adds, in some cases, the fraudsters are selling data that isn't real in order to scam amateur carders.

Glyn Whittick, of the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), admits the trading of financial information online is a real issue.

'The selling of card details online is a major problem and the DCPCU continues to target criminal gangs involved in this kind of fraud,' he says. 'Working closely with the banking industry and our law enforcement partners across the world, we are cracking down on online fraud and bringing those responsible to justice.'

Google has removed the videos on YouTube reported by Money Mail.

A spokesman says: 'Our policies are designed to provide a great experience for users and developers. That's why we remove apps from Google Play that violate those policies.'

Facebook says: 'We do not allow people to promote fraudulent activity on Facebook.

'We have removed the content brought to our attention by the Daily Mail for violating our Community Standards. We are conducting a wider investigation into the matter and are removing similar groups and accounts.

'We urge people to use our reporting tools to flag content they suspect may be illegal or violate our standards so we can take swift action.'

Western Union was approached for comment and had not responded by the time we went to press.

a.murray@dailymail.co.ukIncreasing numbers of local councils are introducing licensing schemes for landlords, costing them up to 1,000 to register.

One in five boroughs are now operating such schemes, which can require all landlords in a given area to obtain a licence or face criminal charges.

Their introduction leads to the question of whether councils are ushering a potential buy-to-let register by the back door, as calls for national landlord licensing have so far not been acted on.

Failing to obtain a licence is a criminal offence and can result in prosecution or fines

In some cases, landlords could have to fork out up to 1,000 to gain a licence, at a time when tax and regulatory changes are forcing many smaller landlords out of the sector.

Meanwhile, figures show that in some locations many more landlords have been prosecuted for not being licensed than for letting substandard properties.

This has led property industry figures to question whether these schemes actually protect tenants, or are just a council money-spinner and added cost to an already squeezed industry.

There are three main types of licensing scheme; mandatory, additional, and selective.

The first two apply only to houses of multiple occupation, such as house shares, while selective licensing can apply to any privately rented home within a designated area.

For this type of licence, the landlord can expect to pay anywhere between 500 and 1,000. Charges are then added if the landlord needs to make changes to their licence type.

A selective licence requires tenants as well as landlords to be vetted, and is usually implemented in boroughs with high levels of anti-social behaviour, low housing demand, poor property conditions, high levels of migration, high levels of deprivation, or high levels of crime.

Failing to obtain a licence in these cases is a criminal offence and can result in prosecution or a financial penalty of up to 30,000.

On conviction, the landlord can face an unlimited fine.

Campaign groups argue that these schemes have been necessary to bring living conditions in certain areas up to acceptable standards - and have in fact led to the prosecution of hundreds of rogue landlords.

As an example, London's Newham Council, which piloted the scheme in 2012, reported that in its first two-and-a-half years it made 611 prosecutions against 492 landlords.

Polly Neate, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: 'Too many renters suffer at the hands of landlords who regularly exploit their tenants.

'Licensing schemes, alongside the new national database of law-breaking landlords, and banning orders, are all tools that can help councils to identify and stamp rogues out.'

Dan Wilson Craw, director of campaign group Generation Rent, agreed: 'Providing a home is a huge responsibility so it's reasonable to have safeguards in place to ensure that homes that are let out are safe.

'Licensing also gives councils a streamlined process to tackle criminal landlords that can save them months of work building up a case that isn't guaranteed to be successful.'

Landlords have accused councils of implementing the schemes as a way to increase revenue

Are the councils fleecing landlords?

Trade bodies and lobbyists argue however that the schemes are ineffective at rooting out criminal landlords, with some accusing local councils of viewing licensing schemes as money-making opportunities.

David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords Association, said: 'Licensing by its very nature relies on landlords to pro-actively make themselves known to their local authority.

BUY-TO-LET YIELD CALCULATOR This calculator shows the rental return on your investment property as a percentage of its value Property value:  Monthly rent:  ::: Calculate ::: Annual rent: Yield:

'Criminal landlords who fail to provide secure and safe accommodation to their tenants will not come forward.

'Councils need a much smarter system that frees them up to find and root out those criminals who will never willingly make themselves known.'

Chris Norris, of the National Landlords Association, went as far as to suggest that councils were using licensing schemes as money-making operations.

'There has been a noticeable increase in selective licensing schemes across the country,' he said.

'More are likely to be introduced as councils look to increase their revenue under the guise of improving housing standards and cracking down on anti-social behaviour.'

While these schemes do generate plenty of cash for the councils, millions of pounds in some cases, by law the revenue is ring fenced and councils cannot make a profit  the money must be spent on raising standards in the local private rented sector.

Selective licensing does not always lead to a widespread crackdown on rogue landlords

Are tenants better off?

The introduction of selective licensing does not always lead to a widespread crackdown on rogue landlords.

For example, Croydon Council, whose controversial licensing scheme had collected an estimated 6million as of last year, only made a single prosecution in the whole of 2017, according to local reports.

In many other publicized cases, prosecutions tended to result from a failure to hold the correct licence rather than a breach of the housing act - which in no way proves that the landlords were not providing adequate housing to their tenants.

For example, as of 2016 Thanet District Council had made 26 successful prosecutions against landlords, of which only three were for breaches of the housing act, while 23 were for failing to obtain a selective licence.

NLA's Chris Norris said: 'If selective licensing schemes are used appropriately and in a targeted fashion, they can be an effective tool for councils to improve housing standards.

'However, they need to be implemented properly, fully resourced, and enforced.'

Shelter's Polly Neate agreed: 'We know when councils are able to take full advantage of the powers available, including licensing, they can make a big difference.

'But often, they simply don't have the resources to use all of their policing powers effectively.

'With the private rental market expanding, the government must act by giving councils the proper funds needed to get the job done.'Business Secretary Greg Clarke has embraced the cause of probing overseas takeovers

Better late than never. This paper has long advocated tougher scrutiny of mergers and financial transactions where national security might be involved.

The US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has been examining such transactions for many years.

In 2006, when P&O Ports was sold to Dubai Ports World for 5billion, the Americans blocked the sale of East Coast ports because of fears that allowing strategic assets to fall into Middle East hands could pose a threat.

It is to the credit of Business Secretary Greg Clarke that he has embraced the cause of probing overseas takeovers. This change did not just simply happen.

There has been concern at the Ministry of Defence, which created a song and dance about the Melrose takeover of GKN. And the security services have been unhappy about Chinese involvement in the Hinkley Point nuclear project in Somerset.

The big regret must be that the aggressive new policy, which could see as many as 200 transactions a year reviewed and as many as 50 held up, was not in place when Britains leading-edge tech company ARM, designer of smart chips, was sold to Japans Softbank in 2016.

Whitehall was enthusiastic for the 24billion deal, coming as it did in the aftermath of the Brexit referendum.

The Government wanted to show Britain was still the most open economy in the world and would hug all-comers.

The inevitable has since happened and Softbanks boss Masayoshi Son has sacrificed ARMs Chinese offshoot at the altar of Beijing for a knockdown price of 583million.

If ever there was a case of winning political favour at the expense of draining UK-tech genius it was this. No wonder that ARMs former chairman Stuart Chambers wishes the deal hadnt been done.

The worry must be that lowering the drawbridge on overseas takeovers and imposing criminal penalties on entities which seek to pursue them by nefarious means will be seen as a blow against free movement of capital.

This just at the moment that the UK is resetting its sights on the rest of the world. The trigger for scrutiny by ministers under the proposed new law is wide-ranging, from land sales near national security facilities, to loans to sensitive companies to disguised takeovers of assets which could have defence uses.

Sand is being put in the wheels but it is regrettable so much technology, the product of our great research universities at a cost to the taxpayer, has been gratuitously sold by compliant, short-term investors.

Technology and intellectual property transfer overseas is the biggest threat to a Brexit which works.

The change of tack comes none too soon.

Retail therapy

Seems like only yesterday that Hammerson boss David Atkins was extolling the wonders of Intu and his groups skills in turning underperforming shopping centres and retail parks into must-visit destinations for consumers.

With activist investors Elliott Partners looking over his shoulder and the share price going nowhere, Atkins has unsheathed a grand plan to release value for investors.

He wants to sell 13 retail parks, having disposed of Imperial Retail Park in Bristol and Fife Central Park to property investor Leo Noes family controlled Capreon group this week.

The last-ditch survival strategy from Atkins looks familiar. Gavin Patterson unveiled a radical new strategy at BT before being given the heave-ho.

Mark Sebba

A shocking email from Crete informed me that my friend Mark Sebba, aged 69, died suddenly while on holiday with family and friends.

Formerly an investment banker at City firm Charterhouse, Mark moved into the digital world, working in radio and video before starting a new career as chief executive of online fashion retailer Net-A-Porter.

Under his leadership from 2003-14 the upmarket fashion site grew into Britains most brilliant success in e-retailing.

Sebba was a trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum, chair of its commercial arm and held a number of non-executive jobs.

Most importantly, Mark was a fine, astute and kind person who balanced business life with unseen charitable and public service.

He leaves a huge hole in the lives of his wife Anne, family and all who knew him.When I began this column back in May, I bemoaned the turmoil inflicted on my investments and home life by my wife's brilliantly conceived kitchen extension.

Many of you, it seems, share my pain  at least in part.

Your spouse might not have scurried to work, abandoning you to a houseful of builders, but you do feel your investments need a structural overhaul.

You made good decisions 20 or 30 years ago, investing in Peps, pensions and Isas, but life took over. I asked some experts for their thoughts on addressing a stale portfolio.

Check first: Several websites, including Morningstar, Trustnet, Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity allow you to compare the performance of funds with their benchmark

Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown, says: 'Look at the performance, charges and risk. Focus on the basic things you can control, such as tax-efficiency and balance.'

In other words, decide whether you are making enough money, being charged too much and how comfortable you are with the risks you're taking.

When it comes to performance, there are simple tests. If it's a UK fund, has it delivered more than the FTSE All Share?

This index essentially represents the average return you could have expected from the UK stock market.

Global funds can be compared with worldwide indices such as MSCI World or S&P Global 1200.

Several websites, including Morningstar, Trustnet, Hargreaves Lansdown and Fidelity allow you to compare the performance of funds with their benchmark (i.e. similar funds), a stock market index or, in some cases, other funds of your choosing.

I like Legal & General's FTSE All Share tracker for a neat, low-cost comparison to UK funds. If your fund hasn't delivered over the long-term, check how it's done recently before ditching it.

You're most likely to be in a wreck of a fund if you were flogged something by your bank or insurance company.

Take Scottish Widows UK Growth, a 2.8 billion monster that Lloyds sold through its branches.

Figures by Morningstar show that, over ten years, it has turned 1,000 into 1,726, ranking it 169 out of 184 similar UK funds.

Meanwhile, an alternative that was popular at the time, Fidelity Special Situations, turned 1,000 into 2,635.

Next, charges. A lot of the big bank and insurance company funds basically shadow the stock market, but charge a premium price for doing it.

The candid money.com website has a calculator that shows how those charges erode your money.

If you've got 100,000 saved and it grows by 6 per cent a year with a 1.5 per cent fee, you would after 20 years have 241,175, having lost 79,539 to charges.

Cut that fee to 0.5 per cent  the most you are likely to pay for a tracker fund that simply follows the market  and you'd have 291,773, with charges accounting for 28,941.

It's up to you: pay big fees and buy a yacht for your fund manager or pay low fees and fly business on your holidays.

The final point is risk and, for that, you need to know what you're holding.

Rebecca Robertson, an independent financial adviser at Evolution Financial Planning, says: 'There is a lot of jargon in our industry and the fund name may not reflect what it does.

'It may even be a series of numbers. So ask the manager what it is supposed to do and what it's investing in. Aim for a good mix around the world and of different types of assets.'

Tom Stevenson, investment director for personal investing at Fidelity International, says: 'A sensible approach would be to build a well-diversified portfolio that blends riskier assets, such as equities, property and commodities, with lower-risk assets, such as bonds and cash.

'Once you have your portfolio in shape, you can't just ignore it again. A review once a year should be sufficient, as you don't want to fiddle too often.'

If you're approaching retirement, you may want less invested in riskier funds. These won't give you table-topping returns but, as part of your portfolio, they could offer some protection if the markets turn.

If you don't plan to monitor your investments, then trackers can control the fees. Legal & General ones tend to be cheap, as are some from Vanguard and M&G, among others. If your tracker costs more than 0.5 per cent a year, you're paying too much.

As retirement nears, income becomes more important. Income funds have struggled, but they're still part of my portfolio.

Mr Khalaf mentions Artemis Income, Newton Global Income and Jupiter Income. I hold the first two. How many funds do you need?

Ten to 20 for the average portfolio, he says, adding that you should not have more than 50,000 in any one fund.

The toughest decision is likely to be on any fund that has had a brilliant run and now makes up a far bigger proportion of your portfolio than you had planned.

You may wish to stick with it, or sell some and put the money into another fund to rebalance.

That's a happy dilemma and, I'm afraid, you really must decide that for yourself.

t.hazell@dailymail.co.ukA friend gave me some Thomas Cook Travel Bonds worth 350 to go towards paying for a holiday.

It states on the back of each: 'This bond is valid indefinitely.'

My local Thomas Cook said it had not seen them before and would have to make enquiries. It didn't contact me again, so I went back a week later.

This time, I was told that it would accept only the 25 Travel Bonds. I asked why and the assistant replied that she didn't know.

R. B., Rhyl, Denbighshire.

Thomas Cook refused to accept one reader's travel bonds despite them having 'valid indefinitely' printed on the bank

Well, I know. It's because she was wrong. The bonds you held were issued in June 1989  and, 29 years later, they are still valid.

They were rather grand-looking things bearing a picture of Mr Cook.

The 100 bonds featured a drawing of his first steam train excursion, from Leicester to Loughborough, in 1841, while the 25 ones showed the London to Paris Imperial Airways service in the Thirties.

When I contacted Thomas Cook, it resolved the problem swiftly, telling me: 'Travel Bonds are an early version of travel vouchers and were phased out as we introduced our latest gift cards more than 15 years ago.'

It added that it was very sorry for the mix-up in store.

It has contacted you to advise it will be happy to accept your Travel Bonds towards the holiday of your choice.

I must say, given a choice between a gift card as a present and these lovely-looking bonds, I'd pick the bonds every time.

Incidentally, these days, gift cards expire after two years  that's progress, I suppose.

You Have Your Say Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some from last weeks article about banks charging families thousands of pounds to act as executors of their loved ones wills... I am a qualified solicitor and offer basic wills for 40. Why? Because Im not greedy  unlike every other member of my profession. L. B., Neath, West Glamorgan. Banks are for banking and nothing else. Get a solicitor to draw up your will, take investment advice from an independent financial adviser and get insurance from an insurance company. J. M., Altrincham, Greater Manchester. A lot of this kind of information is hidden in the small print. That is why people get caught out so easily. I. K., Staffordshire. Banks are always saying they have learnt their lesson from past mis-selling scandals. Then another one comes along and they carry on regardless of fines and warnings from watchdogs. N. W., Halifax, West Yorks. A hundred years ago, hardly anyone had any serious assets. Today, many people die with complex estates. Executors should be recompensed, but the very idea that a percentage charge is legitimate is absurd. J. J., Farnborough, Hants.

On January 24, a delivery van pulled into our driveway, then reversed off very fast, hitting our 2005 Ford Fiesta.

Our car has very low mileage and had previously been in excellent condition.

I passed details to our insurer, M&S Insurance, and, after a few days, an accident management firm called to say the incident had been placed in its hands.

We then heard that an engineer's report had said it would be uneconomical to repair the car.

We were told we would receive a cheque and that a salvage agent would contact us to arrange the collection and disposal of the vehicle.

I do not wish my car to be written off! I fail to see how the repair work can be estimated at around 2,500.

Finally, we agreed M&S would send a cheque and I would get the repair work done myself.

This was months ago. But the 'at-fault' insurer still has not raised payment.

It now seems that the delivery driver had been in a hire car, so the management firm has been chasing the wrong insurer.

Mrs S. R., Essex.

Why do insurers insist on adding complexity by employing accident management companies? They regularly seem to be a source of frustration, complication and misunderstanding.

M&S Insurance argues that, despite its excellent condition, the market value of your car is lower than the cost of the repair, hence the initial proposal to write it off.

When someone is involved in a non-fault accident, their insurer will typically pursue the third party's insurer.

So why the delay, then? M&S diplomatically says the insurance status of the third-party vehicle is 'inconclusive'.

Usually, when it is not possible to recover the costs from the third party, customers can claim via their own insurance, but they have to pay the excess agreed on their policy.

Having said this, M&S accepts you have had to wait a long time so, as a gesture of goodwill, it has offered to send you the money and cover the cost of your policy excess, rather than wait for the third party to settle the claim.

Your car is now insured under what is known as Category S, meaning that it is listed as having been written off as a result of structural damage.

As long as M&S is able to recover the money, your policy will not be affected  but if it cannot, then I'm afraid it will affect your no-claims discount.

Straight To The Point I heard that people who applied for power of attorney between April 2013 and March 2017 are entitled to a refund. Will I get the full amount back? And does this apply to people in Scotland? B. H., by email. You can claim a refund only if you applied in England or Wales. Scottish laws are different. If you are eligible, you will get a portion of the application fee back  from 34 to 54. How much you get depends on when you paid to register your document. Youll also get 0.5 per cent interest. For details, visit gov.uk/power-of-attorney-refund or call 0300 456 0300. *** I read a recent Money Mail article about equity release that mentioned a guide by editor Dan Hyde. How do I obtain a copy? H. T., Wiltshire. Call 0800 156 0150 for a free copy of the Daily Mail guide, produced in partnership with expert adviser Key Retirement. That number puts you through to someone at Key Retirement who will send you the guide in the post and provide information on how to pursue equity release further. Alternatively, you can visit keyretirement.co.uk/mail *** I am 74 and use my mobile phone very little  my bill averages 4 a month. In March, my daughter gave me her old smartphone. By June, my bill was 84.50. Virgin said I had been charged 3 a day for internet for which I have no use. It is refusing to refund me. A. S., Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Virgin says that it believes your phone automatically connected to the internet due to the existing settings on the handset. A spokesman says the company has written off the full 84.50 bill as a goodwill gesture.

Write to Tony Hazell at Ask Tony, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email asktony@dailymail.co.uk  please include your daytime phone number, postal address and a separate note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Tony Hazell.

We regret we cannot reply to individual letters. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.A surge in bitcoin trading has boosted IG

BITCOIN BOOST Profits at online trading firm IG jumped 31 per cent to 280.8million in the year to June.

Bosses said it was down to a surge in bitcoin trading in December, and market turmoil earlier this year.

TRADE WARNING Swiss bank UBS says a trade war between Europe, the US and China could damage global growth.

It said international tensions and rising protectionism have hit confidence.

LOANS BACKED A lender support ing growth in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa called The New Development Bank has backed 450million of loans for projects.

TERROR PAYOUTS Car insurers have agreed to jointly shoulder the costs of payouts for terror attacks involving vehicles.

The Motor Insurers Bureau, an industry body funded by member companies, will pay any bills if a firm wrote the policy for a vehicle used by terrorists.

RISK ROLE Shamed accountant KPMG has hired its first chief risk officer in a bid to avoid future scandals, poaching Mary OConnor from rival Willis Towers Watson.

BANKS FINED Five Scandinavian banks have been fined 2.2million by EU regulators for providing credit ratings without official approval.

STAKES SALE Two major investors in finance IT firm FNZ are plotting to sell their stakes in a deal that values the firm at as much as 2billion. General Atlantic and HIG Europe each have 33 per cent of the company.

FLOAT DELAY The 1.5trillion float of Saudi Arabias state oil firm Aramco could be delayed until at least 2020 by an investment programme in the Middle Eastern country.

It would be a blow to London and New York, which are fighting to host the Aramco listing.

TRANSFER PROGRESS Communications giant BT says it has made significant progress in transferring 31,000 workers to the separate Openreach business.

Consultations with unions end in September, with a planned transfer on October 1.

XBOX PROJECT Tech giant Microsoft is developing a cheaper version of its Xbox device, to stream video games from the internet.

TARIFF WOE Motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson says tariffs imposed by the US and EU as trade tensions grow will hit it harder than previously thought. It expects margins to shrink by up to 3 per cent.Its the claim he will be hoping he will not regret as millions jet off on holiday.

The boss of Heathrow admitted the airport was a national disgrace 12 years ago  but is now something to boast about.

A record 38.1m passengers flew from the west London hub, pictured, during the six months to the end of June, a 2.5 per cent rise.

A record 38.1m passengers flew from Heathrow during the six months to the end of June, a 2.5 per cent rise

Revenues were up 2.3 per cent to 1.4billion.

Just last week passengers were left stranded after a computer meltdown. But chief executive John Holland-Kaye, 53, said: Remember where Heathrow has come from.

'We were a national disgrace 12 years ago when these investors came in.

'They have rebuilt the airport, its now something we can all be proud of.Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is aiming to save 400 million per year by 2021 through a 'major restructuring programme' the firm has revealed.

GSK will be reviewing its supply chain and cutting back on admin costs as it seeks to save big money and run a tighter ship.

The company said savings from the restructuring programme will be redirected into research and development as it seeks to develop new profit-making drugs and treatments.

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is aiming to save 400 million per year

The pharma giant said it expects to take a 800million cash hit as a result of the programme's implementation, and a 900million 'non-cash charge', over the next three years.

The details on the cost cutting plan came as GSK announced its second quarter results, with it reporting sales were flat at 7.3 billion. When adjusted for currently fluctuations, turnover grew 4 per cent.

This translated into pre-tax profit of 614 million, representing a strong turnaround from a loss of 178 million a year earlier.

There was no mention of a demerger of GSK's consumer healthcare unit as had been expected by some in the City.

Shares in the FTSE 100 company responded well, climbing 1.2 per cent to 1,575p.

Chief executive Emma Walmsley said GSK had delivered 'encouraging results across the company' in the second quarter.

'With the recent new product launches, development of the new R&D approach and the successful buyout of the consumer business, we have evaluated the group's cost base and what is required to deliver competitive long-term growth and performance in each of the group's three businesses.'

Chief executive Emma Walmsley said GSK had delivered encouraging results

'As a result, we are today announcing a new major restructuring programme, which aims to significantly improve the competitiveness and efficiency of the group's cost base with savings delivered primarily through supply chain optimisation and reductions in administrative costs,' Walmsley added.

Ketan Patel, manager of the Amity UK fund at EdenTree Investment Management commented: 'GSK CEO Emma Walmsley has made her mark in a very short time via strategic decision making and assembling a high-quality management team  especially in the pharmaceutical division. The decision to buy out the Novartis joint venture took the market by surprise but went a long way to provide greater comfort on the dividend, which had been under considerable pressure.'

'Long-term investors will welcome the revised financial guidance, the new approach to R&D and the restructuring programme  which is forecast to save 400m annually,' Patel continued.

'In addition, the company has a fertile drugs portfolio, which is expected to play out over 2018-2020. The fall in sterling versus the US dollar and a lower tax rate in the US, post the recent reforms by the Trump administration, augur well for the company over the rest of the year.'Glaxo boss Emma Walmsley is focusing on data and technology

GlaxoSmithKline has revealed a major revamp of its research division in a bid to produce the blockbuster drugs of the future.

Emma Walmsley, the company's boss, said a focus on data and technology was at the heart of the overhaul, which is being led by new science chief Dr Hal Barron.

It will be boosted by a 1.7billion cost-cutting drive to free cash to plough into research and development.

Walmsley, 49, also revealed a big push into genetics which could cut the time it takes to develop medicines.

A 230million investment in Silicon Valley gene tester 23andMe will give it access to 5m people's genomes, allowing it to investigate links between genetics and disease.

And a push into oncology and HIV drugs could see new treatments being launched within two years.

Pouring cold water on speculation that Glaxo could spin off its consumer arm, which makes Sensodyne toothpaste and Panadol painkillers, Walmsley said: 'The board's position remains unchanged. We like the structure we have.'

Launching her plans for the future, she added: 'This is all about innovation. We have this great history at GSK of leading in HIV, respiratory, global health and, of course, in vaccines, where we are the world leaders.

'However, it is time to think about how we will reinvent ourselves and build on all of that history to make sure that we can provide for the next wave of growth.'

The mother-of-four was speaking as Glaxo reported its second-quarter results. Strong sales of its shingles vaccine, Shingrix, led the firm to hike full-year forecasts.

And Glaxo said it expected to launch two new treatments for HIV and its most advanced oncology therapy so far by 2020.

But it was hit by exchange rates and pricing pressures in the US. Overall, it reported flat sales of 7.3billion in the quarter, above analyst predictions of 7.2billion.

And Glaxo is also poised for sales of its top-selling lung inhaler Advair to be hit by competition, saying they could be 3pc lower if a rival emerges by October.

That has added further urgency to Walmsley's mission to revamp the company's pipeline of new drugs.

Since taking over from Sir Andrew Witty last year, she has cut costs, culled managers and lured high-flying executives to her top team, including Barron and former Walmart information chief Karenann Terrell.

To bolster its research efforts, Glaxo announced a restructure to save 400million per year. Walmsley refused to say whether this could see UK jobs lost.

Barron said he would focus on science related to the immune system and investments in advanced technologies.

He said: 'Human genetics is going to represent a core component of our drug discovery strategy. We think we can cut the cost of development in half.'Ex-Asda boss Allan Leighton has turned down the Stobart job

City grandee Allan Leighton, 65, has ruled out taking the reins at troubled Stobart Group.

The ex-Asda boss was suggested by shareholder M&G as a temporary candidate for the top job amid a major boardroom bust-up.

But he does not want the permanent post when chairman Iain Ferguson leaves this year.

Stobart Group has also hired top employment lawyer Alice Mayhew at Devereux Chambers to investigate whistleblowing and bullying claims.

Bosses are in a tizzy after a toxic row with ex-chief executive Andrew Tinkler, 54.

After stepping down, Tinkler tried to oust Ferguson, 63, and was then sacked from the board amid accusations he was trying to destabilise the firm.

At a fiery annual general meeting earlier this month, he was re-elected to the board by shareholders but sacked a the second time. He is now suing several directors for defamation.The Midlands and the North West of England saw the UKs strongest house price growth over the last year, new figures suggest.

Manchester returned the highest annual growth of 7.4 per cent, followed by Liverpool (7.2 per cent), Birmingham (6.8 per cent) and Leicester (6.5 per cent) in the 12 months to June 2018, according to Hometrack's UK Cities House Price Index.

By contrast, London prices were only up a marginal 0.7 per cent, while Southampton was 2.1 per cent, Oxford (1.9 per cent) and Belfast (1.4 per cent).

Northern powerhouses: Manchester returned the highest annual growth of 7.4%, followed by Liverpool (7.2%), Birmingham (6.8%) and Leicester (6.5%) in the 12 months to June 2018

Cambridge was down 0.2 per cent and Aberdeen (2.8 per cent) too.

Overall, UK house prices increased an annual 4.6 per cent, and 4.4 per cent for the first half of this year.

On a quarterly basis, prices in the capital reversed six months of decline, rising 1.8 per cent in the three months to June.

That trend is supported by the fact that 61 per cent of London postcodes are registering month-on-month price rises.

This modest improvement in market conditions reflects greater realism by sellers in the wake of a two-year re-pricing process.

The discounts sellers must give buyers to achieve a sale has also started to narrow across London, reversing a two-year upward trend where the discount grew from one per cent in the second quarter of 2016 to five per cent during this years first quarter.

Manchester also posted the lowest level of discounting from the asking price to achieve a sale (2.2 per cent), where market conditions have remained strong for the last two years. Discounts have fallen in Liverpool, where prices are rising off a low base, but remain above average at 4.8 per cent.

Capital returns: London's price growth increased 0.7% y-o-y, while prices in the capital reversed six months of decline, rising 1.8% in the three months to June

Hometracks insight director said: The UK market is operating at two-speeds at the moment, with growth in regional cities in the Midlands and North West far outstripping those in the South.

However, affordability pressures in the South East in particular are having a slowing effect on house prices as borrowers are priced out of the market.

He added: After two years of falling sales volumes and rising discounts to achieve a sale there are some signs of life returning to the London housing market.

Low discount: Manchester also posted the lowest level of discounting from the asking price to achieve a sale (2.2%), where market conditions have remained strong for the last two years

Discounts are finally starting to narrow as sellers become more realistic over pricing.

While prices in London have picked up over the last quarter, we expect the annual rate of growth to remain weak for the foreseeable future.

The positive news is that greater realism on the past of sellers will support transactions, which have fallen by 20 per cent since 2014.

London rates: The lowest discounting in London was in outer city and commuter areas

Separately house sale completions fell 5.7 per cent last month compared to a year earlier as potential buyers were put off by stamp duty and higher prices in urban areas, according to HM Revenue and Customs data.

Residential sales also declined three per cent between May and June to 96,370, HMRC figures showed.

It follows the Office for National Statistics house price index which last week revealed that house price growth in May slowed to its lowest annual rate in almost five years.Business secretary Greg Clark wants ministers to be able to intervene in foreign takeovers

Foreign companies could be blocked from buying land in the UK or loaning cash to UK companies under sweeping new powers to protect national security.

Ministers plan to ramp up their control over the ownership of UK businesses amid concern rapid changes in technology, communication, energy networks and warfare is leaving the UK exposed.

It is estimated new rules could lead to about 200 cases being referred to the Business Department each year.

Around 100 could have further investigation, and ministers could be forced to act in 50. It currently intervenes about once a year.

Until now, the Government has blocked foreign takeovers above a certain size if they believe deals might harm national security, by sending key industry or expertise into foreign or hostile hands.

However, a White Paper presented by business secretary Greg Clark outlines plans for ministers to be able to intervene on national security grounds on deals of almost any value, including sales of patents, other assets and land, and even loans and futures options.

Ministers are concerned vital bits of technology or information are not caught by current regulations; that hostile foreign powers might gain control of key assets as security on loans; or spy on key infrastructure.

The Business Department says changes are needed at a time when foreign powers are using cyber warfare and technology to threaten the Government and national infrastructure, secretly influence government policy, steal commercial information, and disrupt the private sector.

The paper adds: 'The Government is clear that its current powers are no longer sufficient to address the challenging and changing national security threats the UK faces.'

It will be a criminal offence to fail to comply with the new rules  for example by refusing to tell the government about a new deal  punishable by up to five years in prison.

Experts warned the Government was treading a delicate path. Around 1.2 trillion was invested by foreign firms or individuals in 2016, making the UK the third-highest recipient of foreign investment behind US and China including Hong Kong.

Last year, foreign companies spent 35billion acquiring 254 UK companies, while UK companies spent 77billion acquiring 150 overseas companies.

China has a central role in Britain's nuclear industry, part-owning Hinkley Point C, the nuclear power station.

'Edwin Morgan, from the Institute of Directors, said: 'The UK's openness to investment is an asset, and government must tread carefully to ensure this isn't compromised.'

The Government has recently intervened on national security grounds, allowing the takeover by Chinese firm Hytera of Sepura, the UK firm that makes walkie-talkies, for 74million.

Dr John Hemmings, director of the Asia Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society, a foreign policy think-tank, said: 'Authoritarian powers like China and Russia have sought to buy and steal sensitive technologies in the West... this White Paper looks like a step in the right direction.'Nearly one in five workers aged over 65 have attempted to retire but then taken up another job, new research reveals.

The reasons offered by people for reversing retirement plans were to top up their income and a desire to get back into a routine.

But research by the Post Office also shows older people also attach great importance to work, with 58 per cent believing it is linked to status in society and how they are perceived by others. A similar number of over-50s it surveyed think work gives people a 'sense of purpose'.

Retirement reversal: Nearly one in five workers aged over-65 tried to retire but changed their plans, new research found

The number of people who are over retirement age but still working has doubled to nearly 1.2million since the early 1990s, according to official statistics. One in 10 over-65s are currently employed.

The Post Office study found many older people believe the traditional idea of retirement, where someone gives up work for good in one leap, no longer exists.

Some 46 per cent of those aged 65 and over believe that modern retirement is about still fitting work into your life rather than stopping work completely.

Official statistics show that the average household spending of over-65s is 20,592 a year, which is roughly matched by average income.

The Post Office said retired households have an additional buffer of an average 47,000 in combined assets.

It also found:

* One third of over-65s depend on the state pension alone in retirement

* One in four have been called on for financial help from younger family members

* One in 10 see remortgaging, loans and equity release as sensible options to borrow money

* Some 30 per cent see their main goal as retaining financial stability.

Chrysanthy Pispinis, director of Post Office Money, said: 'Our findings demonstrate that the role retirement plays in peoples ambitions and goals for life is changing.

'While some people may need to remain in work for the income, weve seen that many actually enjoy working and the sense of purpose work provides.

'Whatever the personal reasons and circumstances, its clear that the over-65s are culturally redefining what retirement means to us collectively.'

The Post Office surveyed more than 2,000 over-50s, half of whom were above the age of 65, earlier this year.Money Mail's crusade to give five million pensioners the right to cash in their annuities has secured a major breakthrough in Parliament.

Six MPs have signed a motion asking the Government to help those savers denied the freedom to cash in their retirement funds.

They are calling on ministers to 'level the playing field' so all can take out as much as they want, as often as they want.

The MPs say it is wrong that some retirees cannot access their own money 'in times of need' as they are locked into contracts that give them small monthly payments for life.

Backing our campaign: (Top, from left) MPs Paul Masterton, Stephen Lloyd, Ruth George and (bottom, from left) Sir David Crausby, Jim Shannon and Sir Peter Bottomley

And they accuse ministers of breaking a 2016 pledge to tackle the annuity scandal.

Those affected all bought annuities before 2015 when the rules were changed to allow entire pension pots to be cashed in from the age of 55.

The six MPs want to persuade Chancellor Philip Hammond to launch a consultation on annuities in the Budget later this year.

If they are successful, savers stuck with annuities worth as little as 1 a week could be allowed to swap the paltry amounts for lump sums worth thousands of pounds.

The powerful backing for Money Mail's Unlock Our Pensions drive comes from across the political spectrum.

And in a further boost, lobbying  backed with cash from a big U.S. pension firm  has begun to convince other MPs, consumer groups and the pensions industry to join in.

Paul Masterton, Tory MP for Renfrewshire East and a former pensions lawyer, says: 'There is an inherent unfairness in the fact that someone who retired a month before the new pension freedoms came in doesn't get full access to their savings.

'If we are saying pension freedom and choice is intrinsically good and enables people to get better value in retirement, then why should we be saying to existing pensioners that you need to stick with a system we accept was broken, poor value and didn't allow you to shape your retirement to your needs?'

Millions are barred from taking their retirement cash in a lump sum by arcane rules and insurers' obstinate refusals to help.

Money Mail has battled for two years to persuade politicians and regulators to act. We have published dozens of articles about the injustice and spent hours meeting Treasury officials, the head of the City regulator and chief executives of Britain's biggest insurers.

Hundreds of readers have written letters supporting our campaign. Many have explained how a lump sum would transform their lives  for example, allowing them to pay off debts or carry out urgent home improvements.

The powerful backing for Money Mail's Unlock Our Pensions drive comes from across the political spectrum

Annuities are life-long contracts where you swap your pension pot for a guaranteed monthly income.

This can be undone only if your insurer agrees  and the rules are so vague most firms have refused.

Many feel the Government has betrayed them twice  first in 2015, when then Chancellor George Osborne gave cash-in freedoms to all except those already retired.

And again in 2016, when a plan to extend these rights to existing pensions via an annuity re-sale market was ditched.

The Government said the decision was taken over fears that savers would get poor cash-in values. In June, we told how ministers broke a promise to review the secondary annuity market decision.

Money Mail has spent months talking to political lobbyists operating under the banner Your Pension Your Choice, who are promoting our drive for fairness.

They have set up a website, Twitter page and online petition at change.org/p/philip-hammond-extend-pension-freedoms-to-pre-april-2015-retirees. The website yourpensionyourchoice.co.uk  has a template letter you can send to urge your MP to join in.

GK Strategy, the London public affairs agency behind this, will ask MPs to tweet campaign material and whip up support among colleagues when Parliament resumes after its summer break.

Its work is being funded by DRB Pension Assistance Ltd, the UK offshoot of U.S. annuity firm DRB Capital, which is looking at ways British savers could draw cash from annuities.

The Early Day Motion has been signed by Paul Masterton, Sir Peter Bottomley, Tory MP for Worthing West, Sir David Crausby, Labour MP for Bolton North East, Stephen Lloyd, the Lib Dem pensions spokesman and MP for Eastbourne, Ruth George, Labour MP for High Peak, and Jim Shannon of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party.

Stephen Lloyd MP says: 'I think the laws of natural justice should allow the many hundreds of thousands of people who took out their annuities before 2015 be allowed to revisit them in light of more recent legislation to draw down some of the financial capital. I support wholly the long-standing Daily Mail campaign over this important issue.'

Ruth George MP says: 'People who already have an annuity know how much they need to get by in retirement.

'They are less likely to leave themselves short than someone who has yet to retire, so there should be more reason to trust them with their own pensions and unfair not to let them access at least part of their annuity fund.'

Sir David Crausby says: 'It's patronising for the Government to say to people: 'you'll just blow your money on foreign holidays if you receive a lump sum'.

'At the end of the day, people put their money into a pension scheme and it's their money to do what they want with it, regardless of how much they've got.'

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, told Parliament in a written answer in April: 'There are no plans to review the decision not to continue with proposals for a secondary market in annuities at this time.'

d.hyde@dailymail.co.ukThe future of the Lifetime Isa is in doubt just weeks after a second provider finally started offering accounts to young savers.

Lifetime Isas allow adults under 40 to save for their first home or pension in one pot with a 25 per cent bonus from the Government. They were revealed in the 2016 budget and launched in April 2017.

However, the Treasury Committee has today called for them to be scrapped due to their 'perverse incentives and complexity.'

Under threat: Just two providers offer a savings version of a Lifetime Isa showing a lack of appetite from banks and building societies

Concerns have previously been raised that if people are saving for later life into a Lifetime Isa, it could discourage them from saving into a workplace pension.

In the latter, they get the benefit of employer contributions into their pot.

Critics have also argued that a home and a pension are two very different savings goals.

The committee said: 'This inquiry has received strong criticism of the Lifetime Isa over its complexity, its perverse incentives, its lack of complementarity with the pensions saving landscape and its apparent lack of popularity with the industry and pension savers.

'The Government should abolish it.'

The Lifetime Isa has been a relative flop since being made available in April 2017. For more than a year, only one provider offered them, Skipton Building Society, with a 0.5 per cent rate.

This is offset by the bonus the Government gives. On the maximum 4,000 that is allowed to be saved, there is a potential 1,000 bonus on offer.

Last month, Nottingham Building Society became savings provider number two to make a Lifetime Isa available, with a 0.75 per cent rate.

The lack of appetite from banks and building societies may give an indication about how it is seen as a gimmick with a short shelf life.

Investment firms have been a touch more interested, but even then just six offer stocks and shares versions.

You must be under 40 to open a Lifetime Isa and you can pay in money until the age of 50 to earn the 25 per cent bonus on contributions.

However, it has to go on a first home or you can't access it until the age of 60, without a hefty penalty.

Furthermore, MPs have urged that stronger action is needed to help hard-pressed households with debts save for a rainy day and pension.

The committee's wide-ranging report said households are facing a series of challenges 'that are putting the health and sustainability of their finances under pressure.'

This includes pressures from weak income growth, the growth of the gig economy and self-employment and an ageing population.

It said the Government's principal savings incentive takes the form of tax relief on interest, mainly through Isas.

The committee continued: 'Yet there is little evidence that tax relief is an effective way of encouraging potentially vulnerable households to save for a rainy day.

'There is, however, more evidence that cash bonuses and direct matching schemes, such as the Help to Save scheme, are better at helping people build a precautionary savings buffer.

'The Government should update Parliament on the usage of such schemes and its efforts to increase take-up. It should also consider widening the eligibility criteria.'

House vs pension: Critics argue that saving for either of the two are completely different goals

Looking at pension saving, the committee highlighted a previous review which found there are still 12million people in the UK who are not saving enough for their retirement. This is creating a 'looming crisis' it said.

It also highlighted growing concerns about self-employed people who have not been brought into workplace pension saving under automatic enrolment.

The committee said: 'There is, therefore, an urgent need to bring the self-employed into the auto-enrolment system, but the Government has no clear strategy or timetable for doing so.

'The Government should consider making use of self-assessment and national insurance contributions to auto-enrol the self-employed.'

In the next Budget, the Treasury should report on the state of household finances, identify the key risks to the financial resilience of households, and set out its strategy for tackling them, the committee said.

Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Treasury Committee, said: 'Many households are facing challenges that are putting pressure on the health and sustainability of their finances.

'Over-indebtedness, lack of rainy day savings and insufficient pension savings are some of the weaknesses in the household balance sheet identified in this inquiry.

'The committee's report makes a series of recommendations for the Government to consider that would help households ensure that their finances are as resilient as possible.

'Whilst financial service regulators and guidance bodies have important roles to play, the Government should not pass the buck to them.'

The Treasury Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of HM Treasury, HM Revenue & Customs, and associated public bodies, including the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority.ON July 30, Zimbabweans will elect a new president for the first time without Robert Mugabes name appearing on the ballot. Most poll watchers expect the vote, at least on a surface level, to be peaceful and orderly. Given the woefully low bar set by Zimbabwes political leadership, which has presided over nearly four decades of violent and brazenly manipulated polls, this could even be the least-worst election in a generation.



It is now less than a week until the polls open. However, the actions taken by the new government of Emmerson Mnangagwa have already made a free, fair, and credible election impossible. Just last week, for example, the countrys electoral commission, already viewed as a partisan institution that favours the ruling party, changed the position of polling booths so that they are now in full view of officials and political party agents, a move that fatally undermines the secrecy of the ballot.



Mnangagwa rose to power last November in the aftermath of a military coup, which played out live on national television. Mnangagwa and his cabal of generals-turned-politicians desperately need international approval and political legitimacy. They are anxious to have a mountain of debt owed to the World Bank and other lenders forgiven so they can start borrowing again. Some international observers appear ready to rubber stamp the vote despite rising concerns. The AU, for example, is hoping for elections to be minimally acceptable, with anything short of widespread violence likely to be given the stamp of approval. One ominous signal: to lead their delegation, the AU has tapped former Ethiopian leader Hailemariam Desalegn, whose party often won elections with 100 per cent of the vote. The British Embassy in Harare is also thought to be especially eager to normalise relations with Zimbabwe if the poll is good enough. A crude ethos has seemingly developed that a lack of violence somehow equates to a credible election. It does not.



On the contrary, however, the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union have been more skeptical. They collectively argue that Zimbabwes standard should not be merely surpassing its deeply flawed past, but rather following the countrys constitution, as well as regional standards and international norms, including the AU Charter on Democracy Elections and Governance.



Superficially, voting on July 30 will almost certainly appear better than past charades. A new biometric voters roll was created and international observers were invited. In a first for Zimbabwe, and a sign of how low the bar has become, opposition candidates have even been allowed to campaign relatively openly this time around. But election observers should not be fooled. The lack of blood in the streets does not mean the vote reflects the will of the Zimbabwean citizenry.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) acts like a hyper-partisan arm of the ruling party, ZANU-PF, and its repeated behaviour has gutted any credibility of the vote. No significant opposition party or civil society organisation, or credible diplomat, has any confidence that the ZEC can manage a fair poll.



The ZEC resisted multiple requests for transparency in how the vote will be conducted. It released a final register without any process to fix existing errors. The opposition is convinced ballot paper alteration is a high risk, but ZEC officials have refused to disclose any details of how ballots were procured and printed, or why the ballot design inexplicably gives Mnangagwa a prime spot.



The ZEC has yet to clarify rules on vote counting, while the computer servers that will tally reports from the field are unknown. Fears are understandable after Kenyas experience, where its High Court annulled an observer-endorsed vote after it was found the elections computers were hacked. Zimbabwes Constitution and regional guidelines say all parties should have equal access to the dominant State media. Yet the main newspapers, radio and TV continue to be blatant propaganda mouthpieces for Zanu-PF.



Zanu-PF agents have systematically spread rumors that fingerprints from voter registration will allow the government to trace individual votes. This is both an effective and chilling threat since citizens, especially those in rural areas, recall 2008, when poll data was used to target violent attacks against opposition supporters. Three hundred people died, while others were beaten, raped and brutalised, and thousands had their homes burned to the ground.



Unknown militants (known locally as mabhinya) have suddenly appeared in villages as a flagrant effort to intimidate opposition supporters and voters. When your home has already been burned down once, it only takes a thug shaking a matchbox for people to receive the message.



The army, which ousted Mugabe to install Mnangagwa last year, says it will transport ballot boxes to tallying centers. This is a clear violation of the Constitution and another golden opportunity to manipulate votes. Recent viral videos have shown uniformed soldiers herding citizens to attend Mnangagwa rallies and policemen voting early under the watchful eye of their commanders.



Military leaders have in the past declared that they would only accept a Zanu-PF president. A sitting Cabinet minister recently repeated this claim, and kept his job. A common belief is that the coup makers did not take such a risk only to hand power to an opposition party eight months later.



Observers have already begun to arrive in Zimbabwe to assess the validity of the vote on July 30. At this time, segments of the international community appear untroubled by the double standard that flagrantly flawed elections are somehow acceptable in Africa. This is disrespectful and unsustainable. Election observers need to start doing their jobs. Too often, the election cops are letting the election thieves get away or, worse, they are aiding and abetting the theft.



Under the current conditions, it is apparent that a free, fair and credible election is not possible in Zimbabwe. That so many people across the country  particularly the youth  remain undaunted by these major trials, offers a ray of hope. The world should speak up and stand with them.MBABANE  The celebration of Swazi Mobiles one-year anniversary has come with good news for the companys subscribers.



The fast growing mobile company, which officially went live countrywide at the end of July last year, is on the verge of introducing the much loved Mobile Money service to its customers.



The company has allegedly been given the go-ahead by the Central Bank of Eswatini to now offer the service which has been regarded by many as one of the most convenient.

Mobile money is an electronic wallet service which is available in many countries and allows users to store, send and receive money using their mobile phones.



Its safe and easy electronic payments make Mobile Money a popular alternative to bank accounts.

It can be used on both smart phones and basic feature phones.



Locally, it was introduced by Swazi MTN and is currently used by over 500 000 of its subscribers.

The service has grown as it is now considered one of the most convenient ways of purchasing items in shops, pay bills, school fees and topping up airtime.



Secure



It stores funds in secure electronic accounts linked to mobile phone numbers and ensures that they are secure as is the case with banks.

Worth noting is that the service is more convenient for places where people were less likely to have bank account.

Swazi Mobile Corporate Communications Manager Nosipho Shongwe confirmed that the company had received the approval.



Granted



Yes, we have been granted our Mobile Money licence by the Central Bank of Eswatini. The product will be rolled out to all customers at a date that will be announced soon. Mobile networks across the region operate Mobile Money businesses to meet their customers needs.MBABANE  Widows who have an intention to partake in the nomination process of the national elections should not fear anything.



This is because while they are culturally not allowed to enter royal kraals while in their mourning gowns, they would be accommodated and allowed to nominate their candidates.



As a means of accommodating them, royal kraals would be expected to select alternative venues for the nomination exercise in the event that widows showed interest in taking part.



In an interview with Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) Chairman Chief Gija, he stated that the kingdom had a culture of respecting dead relatives, which is why women underwent the mourning period and wore black gowns.



He said those women who had lost their relatives (bomake labamnyama) were automatically known at the umphakatsi since funerals were reported and that when they showed an interest in participating in the nomination process, an alternative nomination centre would be selected nearby.



It is just pure respect that when a woman is still in mourning, they do not enter the royal kraal. It is the case even in the Bible. I know for a fact that such women, when they come to the umphakatsi, do not get inside the premises but are attended to outside, he said.

He said while nomination took place at imiphakatsi, the authorities would ensure that all people were involved and not discriminated against by identifying alternative nomination centres which could be a school situated nearby.



So the umphakatsi decides that no one should be left behind so let us all go to an alternative place. If a woman in mourning wants to take part they have to be accommodated in every possible way. Elections are for everyone, Chief Gija said.



He made an example of a former Member of Parliament, Jennifer Dupont, who he said after reporting her wish to take part in the elections, the authority of the area, Chief Magudvulela, rightfully found an alternative venue as she could not be allowed at the umphakatsi due to the fact that she was in mourning.



He clarified that there would be no element of discrimination in that the nomination centres would be openly changed and everyone would go to the alternative ones.

On another note, families who have funeral plans this weekend should also not fear anything.



This is because the EBC has dispelled fears that families would not be allowed to bury their loved ones on both Saturday and Sunday due to the national elections nomination process.



Since last week, members of the public have been asking questions on social media networks on whether they were allowed to bury their loved ones.

Some even stated that they were disappointed with the way things were done as they felt they needed to bury their loved ones even if there were important national events.MBABANE  The Crown is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Sipho Shongwe is convicted of the alleged murder of Victor Gamedze.



This is so because the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has engaged the services of prominent South African Advocate Michael Hellens - Senior Counsel (SC).

The prominent advocate has been roped in to assist the Crown in Shongwes prosecution and in all the other applications he has filed at the High Court.

Hellens is currently representing former South Africa President Jacob Zuma in his corruption trial.



He replaced Advocate Kemp J Kemp who represented Zuma for over a decade. He would represent for the former president when he appears in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on July 27.



Homicide



Hellens also represents Zumas son Duduzane in his culpable homicide trial. Zuma junior was charged for the deaths of Phumzile Dube and Jeanette Mashaba whom the State alleged died as a consequence of his negligent driving.

Duduzanes Porsche crashed into a minibus in which the women were travelling, in February 2014. Dube died on the scene and Mashaba who was injured passed away in hospital.



Zuma senior has been charged with corruption racketeering and tax evasion, related to his allegedly corrupt dealings with his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik and French arms company Thint.



Hellens also represented the Guptas.

This was in the case in which Gupta-linked companies and individuals were seeking to stop a new preservation order on properties worth about R250 million.

The application was brought by Oakbay Investments (Pty) Ltd, Aerohaven (Pty) Ltd, Ashu Chawla, Oakbay acting Chief Executive Officer Ronica Ragavan and former Director Varun Gupta, Westdawn Investments (Pty) Ltd and Annex Distribution (Pty) Ltd.



In the Kingdom of Eswatini, he is not only expected to assist the Crown to prosecute Shongwe but to also convince the court why he (Shongwe) should not be provided with evidence or have charges against him withdrawn.



Through his attorney Sipho Mnisi, Shongwe has moved an application to be provided with evidence linking him to the murder of Gamedze.



He is also demanding that he be provided with the list of witnesses or have the charge against him withdrawn. Shongwe asserted that police were failing to arrest the people who were behind the murder of Gamedze and that he was allegedly being made a sacrificial lamb. This application is being vigorously opposed by the Crown and is pending before High Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza.



The Crown is still to indict Shongwe, who has been languishing in custody for six months now.

The Supreme Court recently reserved its judgment where the Crown is seeking to stop Judge Sipho Nkosi from proceeding with Shongwes bail hearing.

The matter was heard by Judge Majahenkhaba Dlamini, sitting with Judge Stanley Maphalala and Judge Jacobus Annandale.

Judge Nkosi vowed to continue hearing Shongwes bail application on July 9, 2018, despite that there was also a directive from the chief justice to the effect that the matter should not proceed pending the appeal filed by the Crown.



When Judge Nkosi informed all and sundry that he would hear the murder suspects bail hearing, come rain or shine, Judge Fakudze had ordered that the High Court should wait until the Supreme Court determined the appeal noted or filed by the Crown.

Bail

The order by Judge Fakudze, according to the Crown, had not been appealed or reviewed. The Supreme Court also directed that the bail hearing in the High Court should be held in abeyance.Nawah Energy Company, the nuclear operating joint venture company established by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (Kepco), recently celebrated the graduation of 195 students of its scholarship programme.



The students had specialised in nuclear energy as part of the Energy Pioneers scholarship programme, said a statement from the organisation.



The graduates successfully completed nuclear science and technology focused courses from various institutions of higher education in the UAE and abroad, including Khalifa University (Abu Dhabi), Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, and Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University and North Carolina State University in the US, it said.



Nawah chief executive officer Mark Reddemann, congratulated the students in his speech, and emphasised their responsibility towards building and developing the nuclear energy sector in the UAE for future generations.



Reddemann said: It is with great pride that we witness the graduation of an outstanding group of energy pioneers, who have demonstrated great diligence, commitment and passion to become future leaders in the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program.



In line with the Abu Dhabi Plan, these energy pioneers will play a critical role in supporting operational readiness and safe operations of the four units at Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant for decades to come, and contribute to the social and economic prosperity of the UAE, he added.



Nawahs education programmes align with Abu Dhabi Plan and aim to give young UAE Nationals the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a career in the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program, said the statement.



By offering scholarships in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) subjects and highly technical fields, the Energy Pioneers program has been successful in helping students gain the skills needed to fill highly-skilled, technical positions at Nawah, the company that will operate and maintain the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the Al Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi.



The Energy Pioneers programme was launched by Enec in 2010 with the aim of developing human capability and ensuring a talented and committed workforce that will lead the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program throughout its construction and operational phases.



Once completed, the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant will operate for at least 60 years, providing high-quality jobs and supporting the development of a knowledge-based economy in the UAE for decades to come.



To date, over 500 UAE Nationals have benefitted from a scholarship through the Energy Pioneers programme. In addition, Nawah currently has approximately 200 young Emiratis in training to become reactor operators and senior reactor operators.



Alongside Nawahs international experts, they will operate the nuclear reactors at Barakah and will ensure the safe generation of clean, efficient and reliable electricity at each of the four units, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceGlobal travel prices are expected to rise sharply in 2019, with hotels going up 3.7 per cent, and flights 2.6 per cent, driven by a growing global economy and rising oil prices, according to an industry forecast.



Airfares are likely to become more expensive due to rising oil prices, the competitive pressure from the shortage of pilots, potential trade wars and increasing fare segmentation to improve yield.



In some countries, including New Zealand, India, Germany, Chile and Norway, airfares are expected to rise by more than 7 per cent, said the annual Global Travel Forecast released by Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT).



Hotel rates in 2019 will also rise, driven by the overall increase in air travel, which will fuel demand for rooms. Hotel prices are expected to rise by over 5 per cent in Asia and Europe, by 2.1 per cent in North America and to fall by 1.3 per cent in Latin America.



"While most major markets appear to be trending in the right direction, downside risks remain for the global economy given the rise of protectionist policies, the risk of stoking trade wars and Brexit uncertainty, said Michael W. McCormick, GBTA executive director and COO. - TradeArabia News ServiceThe Monterey Museum of Art, as part of its Year of the Woman 2018 at MMA, has announced the opening of an exhibit, Salon Jane: The Ethereal Zone, featuring the works of six renowned Monterey Peninsula-based women photographers, on Sept. 20.



(TRAVPR.COM) CA - July 24th, 2018 - Monterey, CA, July 24, 2018  The Monterey Museum of Art, as part of its Year of the Woman 2018 at MMA, has announced the opening of an exhibit, Salon Jane: The Ethereal Zone, featuring the works of six renowned Monterey Peninsula-based women photographers, on Sept. 20.

Salon Jane is composed of six women  Martha Casanave, Susan Hyde Greene, Jane Olin, Anna Rheim, Robin V. Robinson, and Robin Ward  in the Monterey Peninsula who formed a group in 2014 to support one another as artists.

Although all of these women use photography in their art, the finished products are remarkably diverse. From aerial to underwater, abstract to representational, digital to darkroom, wall art to books, the work produced by these artists is wide ranging. Their diversity is an asset for promoting each artist strong sense of individuality.

The differences between members include careers, ages, and backgrounds, but each member of Salon Jane shares a passion for expressing her deepest concerns through art. The group meets quarterly to share work and plan exhibitions and educational adventures together.

According to Salon Jane member Jane Olin most of its members have been working as artists for more than 30 years and this MMA exhibition is their first opportunity to express their ideas through their work to the larger Monterey community.

Salon Janes exhibition at MMA provides a platform to promote our work to an expanding audience, not only reaching our own community, but beyond, said Olin. MMAs Year of the Woman is an extremely important first step in making known the depth and richness of the work of our local women artists. We are thrilled to be part of that movement.

Olin added that only 20% of MMAs collection consists of women artists and that most museums are far below that number.

This struck a note with us. We want to be part of the solution, said Olin. Even with our diverse points of view and working methods, we as a group are cohesive when showing work. The thread that weaves our work together is authenticity and originality.

Olin said the group intends to reach out to other museums to promote The Ethereal Zone as a traveling exhibition through the MMA.

Salon Jane: The Ethereal Zone, opens Sept. 20 and runs through Nov. 26, 2018.

Anna Rheim

Artist Statement

I am a storyteller. Indeed, I believe that the women in our culture are the primary custodians of family stories. Many of my images end up in hand made books, some with words, some without words. The images and words in this exhibition are part of a series that explores the life of my mother, Marguriette, my father, Perry, and their influence on me and on others.

Throughout my 40 years in photography, I have discovered the value of an intimate support group for pushing ones creativity and nurturing the expression of ones deepest emotions. The five women in Salon Jane are my artist family. They are a valuable source of encouragement and inspiration.

Bio

Anna graduated from Stanford University with a BA in History in 1966. She studied black and white photography and mixed media at Monterey Peninsula College with Henry Gilpin, Roger Fremier, and Don Anderson, and color photography and printing at University of California Santa Cruz with Jack Fulton. Anna has taken private classes with many noted photographers including David Bayles, Ruth Bernhard, Martha Casanave, Lisl Dennis, Tom Millea, and Ted Orland.

Martha Casanave

Artist Statement

Explorations Through A Fabricated Microscope: A Compendium Of Tears

Before I knew what postmodernism was, I decided to make a lifetime performance piece of collecting my tears. I made a tiny, padded green velvet pouch to wear around my neck for this purpose; it contains a tiny dropper, and a few microscope slides. After the tears dry on the slides, I store them in carved wooden boxes with slots. Each slide is numbered, and labeled with the date and place the tears were collected, for example: Tear # 958: Boiler Room of Apartment Building on Moskovskii Prospekt, Leningrad, USSR, 1987.

Recently, I decided to make microscope photographs of these tears. The decision to actualize the images was inspired by two things: first, by the recent activity of making an index for the 30 volumes of photo albums I have assembled over my lifetime. And second, by the beautiful, round images I have seen of 19th C photomicrography. Oddly, though I don't label the slides as such, I remember, upon looking at them in the microscope, exactly what emotion caused the tears.

I have captioned the images accordingly. Because I am often keeping the captions ambiguous, I find that some of the captions can apply to more than one incident in my life, and perhaps in others' lives as well. Many deal with loss. Miscommunication. Things that are done and cannot be undone. On the other hand, some captions are very specific, for example my eyes welling from a frisson of mixed emotions upon landing again at Pulkovo International Airport in Leningrad, USSR.

Most of my tears are mere wellings, not flowings. The only time I have produced copious flowing tears was/is during uncontrolled hysterical laughter, and after the death of a whippet. What prompts tears to arrive? Regret, loss, happiness, confusion, cold wind, foreign body in eye. Real trauma doesn't cause tears, at the time it is happening anyway, because the body dissociates, and is preoccupied with survival. Tears require some kind of presence, some kind of realization, and with traumatic events, this usually happens later (if at all), with recollection. With memory.

Bio

Old enough now to say in retrospect, Casanave graduated from the Monterey Institute of International Studies with a degree in Russian Language and Literature and began her working life as a translator in Washington, D.C. She engaged in photography from early childhood, however, and later came back to the Monterey Peninsula, built up a portrait clientele and began teaching photography, while continuing to pursue her personal work. She has been an exhibiting and working photographer and educator for more than 40 years.

From 1984 to 1995, Casanave used her knowledge of Russian language and culture to take groups of American photographers to the Soviet Union/Russia, and has made a number of trips on her own to work on photographic projects, making a total of 14 trips to the USSR/Russia to date.

She was awarded the Imogen Cunningham Photography Award for her portraiture in 1979, and also was a 1989 recipient of the Koret Israel Prize. Her first book, Past Lives  Photographs by Martha Casanave, was published by Godine in 1991. This was followed by Beware of Dog (Center for Photographic Art, 2002). A book of pinhole images, Explorations Along an Imaginary Coastline, was released by Hudson Hills Press in 2006. Her most recent publication (Image Continuum Press, 2013) is Trajectories: A Half Century of Portraits.

Casanaves photographs are included in many major collections, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Stanford Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Monterey Museum of Art and the Graham Nash private collection.

Casanave has taught master classes on the portrait, human figure, the creative process, and lensless photography for many national workshop programs. She teaches regularly at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, CA, and at Monterey Peninsula College.

Jane Olin

Artist Statement

My photographs always begin with a question or some curiosity that arises within me. In more than 30 years, I have rarely photographed the external world for its own sake, but for the ways in which it helps to reveal subconscious processes and evoke meaning. I generally focus on a single subject in a related series of images, which allows me to hone in on the heart of what I am after. I also have a contemplative awareness practice that is of central importance to me, and which guides and enhances my working methods and my output.

As an artist who has always liked to experiment, I find that pushing the boundaries of what is possible with both camera and darkroom techniques motivates my best work. I photograph with film and sometimes use a pinhole or Holga camera for making images. I love the darkroom process and take advantage of every tool and technique at my disposal.

Playing with exposure, focus, and a wide variety of photographic chemicals, I embrace creative accidents, and willingly abandon rules of darkroom procedure, with the intention of expressing a distinctive vision by whatever method seems right. I sometimes print my gelatin silver pieces digitally, but only after darkroom work is completed.

Bio

Olin has lived and worked as a photographer in Californias Monterey Bay area for more than 25 years. Living at the epicenter for the West Coast photography movement, she learned the skills of straight photography and the tenets of the historic Group f/64 from the assistants and students of Ansel Adams. She participated in workshops with prestigious photographers, including Ruth Bernhard, John Sexton, Joyce Tenneson, Brian Taylor, Martha Casanave, Holly Roberts, and Christopher James, which enriched and broadened her perspective.

Olin has traveled widely and, of all countries she visited, Japan had the most profound impact. Its aesthetics and its Zen Buddhism resonated deeply, particularly its emphasis on beauty found in nature, in simplicity, the imperfect, the transient, and in the values of grace and subtlety, which all suited her well. She maintains a mindfulness practice today, and present moment awareness is imbedded in her photographic process.

Although subtle influences from straight photography remain, Olin has developed a distinctly personal vision. She works in series of related images, a practice that allows for extended explorations of her subject. An adventurer, she enjoys experimenting both in camera and in the darkroom.

In her previous bodies of work, Greta and Thirteen Crows, Olins unconventional handling of her pinhole camera and darkroom enlarger challenged traditional expectations of focus and exposure. Her recent series of abstractions, Site/Sight Unseen, arose from an unfixed print mistakenly overlooked in the darkroom sink. When rediscovered, its unexpected beauty prompted a new way of working, in which process rather than a preconceived idea took precedence.

Pushing the boundaries of analog photography, Olin purposely pours, sprays, and drips chemicals onto her exposed gelatin silver paper, manipulating and closely monitoring changing effects using intuition and an alchemists attention to detail. These one-of-a-kind silver gelatin images are enlarged and printed using the digital process.

Olin continues to innovate in this vein, experimenting with new subjects and approaches as her latest and still-evolving tree project, Intimate Conversation, clearly reveals.

Robin Ward

Artist Statement

The images in Echoes from a Future Past are playful examinations of the enigmatic nature of reality and the quirky essence of time and space. In this work, I blend together original photographs of nature, architecture and artifacts to portray hybrid spaces and to experience intermingling realities. I layer unexpected juxtapositions in color and black and white to allude to infinite possibilities.

Each composite renders pure states captured in close proximity. I am influenced by the Surrealist ideas of uniting distant realities to create a new one and the play of thought where an image is a pure expression of the mind.

Bio

Ward was born in Atlanta, Georgia, where she developed a lifelong habit of spending time in nature. Her first creative effort was painting, then poetry and ultimately photography, a medium in which she could blend the other two endeavors. Ward discovered her love of photography at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, where she received a bachelors degree in English. She continued her photography studies by participating in various workshops, including Brooks Institute of Photography and the Center for Photographic Art where she served as a Trustee from 2010-2016. In November 2017, she received her remote pilot certification.

Robin is a member of Salon Jane, Image Makers of Monterey, and San Diego Made. She has received several international awards, including International Photography Awards and Black & White Spider Awards and exhibited her work in numerous galleries and museums, including Triton Museum of Art and Museum of Monterey.

Robin V. Robinson

Artists Statement

Robin V. Robinson explores mystery and metaphors found in all forms of life, but focuses especially on the way we look at the planet and ourselves. She is fascinated with the idea of seeing but not knowing and the feelings which result when looking at something impossible to comprehend  when ones mind fills in the blanks with blind reasoning and unconscious associations.

Grounded in the darkroom, Robinson embraces the element of chance in creating images: My time in the darkroom is full of what-ifs. I use the experimental nature of chemistry to explore pathways which are magical, alchemical in feeling, transformational in the end. This type of play and chance are what I love about the analog photography process, not to mention a satisfying original print.

Robinsons newest work is based on ideas about the human species and the relative permanence of the earth, with questions about our brief time here. This unique moment on the planet is unsettling and desires perspective. Robinsons images provide intimate suggestions of our place in this liminal state.

Ongoing work includes in-water images evoking curiosity about the oceans deep landscape, how it relates to dry land, and what is normal for human beings, now and in our rapidly changing environment. Robinsons Surfacing series explores the tension we feel on the water and in life, on the edge between what is above and below, between the known and unknown.

Bio

Robinson is a fifth-generation California central coast native residing in Carmel. Employing mainly darkroom-based processes, her images convey meaning through suggestion, feeling, and metaphor.

Mentors have played the most important role in Robinsons artistic development. She has studied, lived and worked with West Coast photographers on the Monterey Peninsula and in the Bay Area for over 20 years. Robinson also studied photography at City College of San Francisco and Foothill College. Her degrees in engineering and music from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Stanford University and her personal studies of depth psychology contribute to her distinctive style of seeing and creating art.

Robinson actively exhibits and presents her work and has received top awards in international photographic competitions. She was awarded Best Photography in the Monterey Museum of Art Biennial 2005, where her work is in the permanent collection. She is also in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Mariners Museum in Virginia. She is a past board member at the Center for Photographic Art and is a board member of the Monterey Friends of C.G. Jung.

Susan Hyde Greene

Artist Statement

As I became aware that the history of art is the history of people, I saw that it is possible to bring people together through the language of art. Following the tradition of women using stitches to create, mend, and heal, my quiet pictures portray the fragile wonder and miracle that is our world. Through photos cut apart and fractured pieces stitched back together, they offer hope that humans will come together, assuring succeeding generations a healthy, peaceful, safe, and breathing world.

Bio

I studied photography, textiles and art history, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah, Manoa. While completing my Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Utah, I was awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship Award as well as selected for membership in Phi Kappa Phi. Additionally, I received a Master of Science degree in Special Education from Dominican University in order to develop methods of making art accessible to all people.

I taught art in schools and programs throughout Marin County, California, where I founded Very Special Arts Marin with Youth in Arts in addition to Art Pals, an arts program pairing school children with isolated seniors. I taught art at the University of Utah, Santa Clara University and Napa Valley College.

As an access advisor for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, I led workshops inspired by current exhibitions from 1996-2015. I have been the fortunate recipient of several awards and grants, including a Marin Arts Council Individual Artist grant for photography and First Place in the 2013 and 2015 Carmel, CA Center for Photographic Art International Juried Exhibition.

My work is represented by Smith Andersen North, San Anselmo, California and Green Chalk Contemporary, in Monterey. Works are included in private and public collections, including Adobe Systems, The Institute of Health and Healing Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, Bread and Roses, Corte Madera, California, Smith Andersen North, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, as well as the University of Utah and the University of Hawaii.

Recently, my pieces have been exhibited at Green Chalk Contemporary, Smith Andersen North, Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California, The Carl Cherry Center, Carmel, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, and Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco.

Personal interests include the ballet, music, spending time with my family and the out of doors. My husband and I fly fish and hike in the mountain west in the summer and we love to travel to as many new and different places as possible.

ABOUT THE MONTEREY MUSEUM OF ART

The Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) was established in 1959 to uphold the artistic legacy of the region by collecting, preserving, and presenting the art of California and the Central Coast. The only nationally accredited museum between San Jose and Santa Barbara, the MMAs goal is to expand a passion for the regions visual artspast, present, and future. Exhibitions and programs are designed to demonstrate Californias vibrant, diverse spirit, and to inspire, engage, and connect art and community.

Visit montereyart.org for public programming opportunities and guided tours.

Monterey Museum of Art

559 Pacific St., Monterey, CA 93940

(831) 372-5477

http://www.montereyart.org

Contact:

Marci Bracco Cain

Chatterbox PR

Salinas, CA 93901

(831) 747-7455

http://www.montereyart.org

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Published July 24, 2018

As part of the Regents Awards to Louisiana Artists and Scholars (ATLAS) Program, a panel of out-of-state experts evaluated a grant proposal written by Dr. Jana Giles, University of Louisiana Monroe associate professor of English, and deemed it "excellent." Based on the panel's recommendation, the Board of Regents funded Giless project, allowing her a year-long sabbatical to complete her project. Giless grant of $38,057 was one of only eight awarded in the state.

Im so very grateful to the state of Louisiana and ULM for this investment in my research, Giles said. The generous time and resources provided will allow me to dedicate myself full time to finish my book.

Her project, The Post/Colonial Sublime: Aesthetics, Politics, and Ethics in the Twentieth-Century Novel, explores the aesthetic turn in postcolonial and colonial studies, addressing six British Anglophone authors: Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, Jean Rhys, Joan Lindsay, J.M. Coetzee, and Amitav Ghosh.

Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Eric Pani complimented Giles for her work at ULM and the grant, saying, "Dr. Giles is an excellent scholar who has diligently pursued research even with a full teaching load. I am very pleased that the grant will allow her more time for that work and advances ULM toward our strategic research goals."

Giles is in her third year as Endowed Professor in English. Other scholarly achievements include a Cambridge Overseas Trust Research Scheme Equivalent Bursary and The J. Barbara Northend Scholarship from the British Federation of Graduate Students. Presently, she serves as the managing editor of Conradiana, the premiere journal in North America dedicated to Joseph Conrad, which received the Phoenix Award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals in 2017.

Giles, who has worked at ULM since 2009, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Philosophy at St. Johns College. She earned a Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico, and her Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

ATLAS supports major scholarly and artistic productions with potential to have a broad impact on a regional and/or national level, thus strengthening the educational, artistic, and research bases of Louisiana institutions. ATLAS is a subprogram of the Board of Regents Support Fund's Research and Development Program.

The award will provide Giles with the time needed to complete her project.The University of Montana's New Student Orientation provides all the information you need to transition to campus. The orientation and transition experience extends beyond course registration; we deliver relevant and informative programming to prepare students for success.

New Student Orientation is a program for students who have already applied, been admitted and intend to enroll at either UM's Mountain Campus or Missoula College. All incoming first-year and transfer students are expected to complete an orientation program.Kathmandu, July 25 (UNI) The law minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Tamang, has resigned following intense criticism for his controversial remarks on Nepali girls studying in Bangladesh.

Tamang announced his resignation at a press conference in Kathmandu on Tuesday, the Kathmandu Post reported.

He came under fire after commenting at a programme on July 20 that Nepali girls who are studying or have studied MBBS in Bangladesh were bound to compromise their honour to claim their certificates, according to the report.New Delhi, July 25 (UNI) Delhi Commission for Women rescued 16 girls, who were brought from Nepal and being trafficked to Gulf countries in the wee hours on Wednesday.

According to DCW chief Swati Maliwal, on a tip-off, commission's team informed the police and reached Munirka area, where the girls were confined.

On reaching the spot, they found 16 girls kept in a small room, while there passports were said to be stolen by the traffickers who brought them here on pretext of employment.

' The 16 girls who were brought from Nepal on pretext of employment were kept here in a small room and the traffickers were in a bid to further send them to Gulf nations', said DCW chief.

'Around 15 days ago, several girls have already been sent to Gulf by these people,' she added.

Ms Maliwal also questioned how could the police be unaware of the racket when the location was just 500 metres away from the police station.

'Unless the accountability of the police is not strictly set, such incidents and rackets will continue,' she said.

UNI APS SV 1044New Delhi/Beijing, July 25 (UNI) Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, China has expressed the hope that the two leaders would explore the possibility of Sino-Indian cooperation in third countries.

"We hope that the two sides will follow through on the consensus between the two leaders and vigorously explore "China-India plus one" or "China-India plus X" cooperation model to achieve mutual benefits and win-win outcomes for China, India and other countries, and jointly make contributions to promoting regional and world peace, stability, development and prosperity," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang.

Till now, both countries have only agreed to have joint projects in Afghanistan for capacity building.

This April, Modi and Xi held an "informal" summit in Wuhan. In June, they met again on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Qingdao.

Geng said the two leaders meeting again on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit will be the third in just several months, which "fully showcases the positive momentum" in China-India relations.

On July 23, President Xi paid a state visit to Rwanda and held talks with President Paul Kagame. Both agreed to strengthen strategic synergy and work for more fruitful outcomes of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides. They also witnessed the signing of an array of bilateral cooperation documents under the Belt and Road Initiative.

On the same day, Prime Minister Modi also led a business delegation to Rwanda and signed bilateral cooperation agreements in areas like defence and agriculture with that country.

The spokesperson was asked to evaluate both Xi and Modi's trips to Africa at the weekly briefing on Tuesday. In response, he said that China and India, as the two largest developing countries and emerging markets in the world, are willing to help Africa within the South-South cooperation framework to accelerate its industrialisation and achieve self-driven development.

"We are also ready to deepen cooperation in various fields with African countries to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. China and India are on the same page in this regard," said Geng.

Asked about the purpose of Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou's July 22 to 24 visit to Bhutan, he said Kong met the fifth King of Bhutan, the fourth King of Bhutan and the Prime Minister, and held talks with the Foreign Secretary. Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui accompanied him during the visit.

"The two sides exchanged in-depth views on the China-Bhutan relations and border issues and reached common understandings."

On Pakistan where a new government will be formed following elections, he said the China-Pakistan "all-weather strategic cooperative partnership" is now developing with a sound momentum.

"We are ready to work with the new Pakistani government to stay committed to consolidating political mutual trust, deepening across-the-board practical cooperation and making new progress in our all-weather strategic cooperative partnership."

UNI SRJUN, Egypt help avert another Israel-Palestine war in Gaza

United Nations, July 25 (UNI) Intense diplomatic efforts by the United Nations and Egypt have helped avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza that appeared just minutes away over the past weekend, a senior UN official has said.

After intense efforts by the United Nations and Egypt, I can report that the situation is calming down, although tensions remain, Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council on Tuesday via video link from Jerusalem.

He said that last Saturday we were minutes away from another devastating confrontation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London on Jul 24, 2018. (Photo: Matt Dunham/POOL/AFP)

"I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (Dominic Raab) deputising on my behalf," she said in a statement to parliament.

Raab was appointed on Jul 9 after his predecessor, David Davis, quit in protest at May's plan for close economic ties with the EU.

Before he left, Davis had been increasingly sidelined and had spent little time with the EU's top negotiator Michel Barnier in recent months.

Instead, May's Brexit adviser Olly Robbins, a senior civil servant, was increasingly been seen as the man in charge.

Giving evidence to a committee of MPs shortly after May's announcement, Robbins denied the prime minister would be directly negotiating with Barnier in Brussels.

"I doubt it," he said when asked the question, adding that the "key interlocutor" would be Raab.

Raab told the same committee that he and Robbins had been working "very closely together from day one to make sure there is one team".

Raab went to Brussels last week where he met Barnier and agreed the need to step up negotiations, which have become stalled in recent months in a row over the Irish border.

He said he still hoped to get a deal by October, to allow its ratification by the European and British parliaments before Brexit in March 2019.

Another meeting is planned with Barnier this week, Raab said, adding that he hoped to see him again throughout the coming months.

In her written statement to parliament, May said: "It is essential that in navigating the UK's exit from the European Union, the government is organised in the most effective way."

She said Raab's Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU), which was set up after the 2016 referendum to lead the Brexit process, would be refocused on domestic preparations, including for no deal being struck with Brussels.

The Cabinet Office, the department which supports the prime minister, "will have overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations".Neo Gim Siong Bennett, new chairman of Chuong Duong Beverages

Chuong Duong Beverages has just announced the resolution of the Board of Management on appointment of Singaporean businessman Neo Gim Siong Bennett as new chairman and legal representative of the company in 2018-2023 to replace the former chairman Tran Duc Hoa.

At the annual general shareholders meeting of Chuong Duong on July 19, Neo Gim Siong Bennett was elected as a member of Chuong Duongs Board of Management, recommended by Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco). He also represents Sabeco holding 2.38 million shares, equivalent to 28.06 per cent of Chuong Duongs charter capital.

The Singaporean businessman was appointed deputy general director of Sabeco in May 2018, and chairman of VND10-million-charter-capital Saigon Beer Company Limited, established last week.

The new Board of Management of Chuong Duong has five members, most of whom were recommended by Sabeco. The annual general shareholder meeting also approved the business plan with VND387 billion ($17.05 million) of total sales and VND4.7 billion ($0.2 million) of pre-tax profit.

Earlier, leaders of Chuong Duong stated that the business results in 2017 recorded a loss of VND3 billion ($0.13 million) meaning the company could not pay dividends at 20 per cent as per the plan proposed at last years general shareholders meeting.

However, Sabeco, which holds 62 per cent of Chuong Duongs charter capital, asked the company to pay dividends. They proposed to take VND17 billion ($0.75 million) of development investment fund for dividends payment.

Business results of Chuong Duong Beverages over recent years

In 2017, Chuong Duongs net revenue declined 47 per cent on-year to VND88 billion ($3.9 million) due to consumption falling by over 7 million litres. While the beverage market maintains a stable growth momentum, the companys revenue and profit fell sharply. In 2017, accumulated revenue hit VND339 billion ($14.93 million) and pre-tax profit was a negative VND2.2 billion (nearly $0.1 million).

The difficulties the company is facing have arisen from slow adaptation to the changing market and consumer taste, as well as lack of capital. Chuong Duong still uses old production lines from the 2000s, forcing them to outsource a large portion of their production. This has pushed costs and products prices too high, making it difficult for them to compete on the market.

Chuong Duong is one of the largest beverage companies in Vietnam offering popular products such as carbonated soft drinks such as saxi, soda, orange and strawberry, non carbonated soft drinks and pure bottled water.Dak Nongs avocado industry is getting the support it needs through a three-year technical assistance project between these parties, which has been signed on July 20, 2018. This comes as part of the co-investment funding model that aims to create a solid foundation for and improving the productivity and quality of Dak Nongs fresh and processed high-value avocados, including Hass avocado.

The new model is being delivered as part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between New Zealand G2G Partnerships Office, Plant and Food Research, SAM Agritech, and the Dak Nong Peoples Committee during Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs visit to New Zealand in March 2018.

Vietnam has a diversity of avocado varieties flowing through the market from different sources, but most of them are non-standard and mainly West Indian green-skin types.

Such local varieties are great for domestic and regional exports, but the potential for local varieties for high-value international markets is low, given the fact that Hass avocado is the most popular and accounts for 80 per cent of the global avocado consumption.

Dak Nong's avocado exports will be boosted through this three-year technical assistance project

New Zealand consul general to Vietnam Karlene Davis shared: Similar to Vietnam, the agriculture and food sectors are crucial to New Zealands economy. More than 80 per cent of New Zealands total agricultural production is now exported.

In 2017, New Zealand exported $155.5 million of avocados into international markets, such as Australia, Japan, Singapore, Korea, and Thailandwith the previous highest export value being $103 million in 2014, according to 2017 data from the Ministry for Primary Industries.

To get to this point, New Zealand invested heavily in food safety and quality control, productivity, and distribution. As a result, we have developed world-leading expertise, which we believe will be relevant as Dak Nong grows its own avocado value chain.

Plant and Food Research, a New Zealand-based science company that provide research and development services, meanwhile, has deep expertise and offers innovative solutions in high-tech agriculture, which, combined with SAM Agritechs knowledge of the local market, will increase demand from the domestic and export markets for quality avocado, fresh fruit, and avocado added-value products, such as avocado oil.

Dak Nong Hass avocados are in high demand

There will be huge opportunities for Dak Nongs avocado sector as a result of this innovative partnership. This is the first time New Zealand and Vietnam have signed such a co-investment funding model, said Dr Emmet McElhatton, commercial manager of New Zealand G2G Partnerships Office.

As a Dak Nong-based company specialised in sustainable agricultural projects, SAM Agritech has made considerable investments in the local avocado value chain. This partnership is an important milestone, enabling SAM Agritech to scale up our investment and to earmark our resources for long-term investment in developing the avocado industry of Dak Nong, noted Nguyen Thu Hoai, chairwoman of Sam Agritech.

Dak Nong is one of the largest avocado producers in the country, with an area of around 2,600ha, or one-fifth of its total fruit growing area. The average annual yield of avocado in the province is 10-15 tonnes per hectare.

Given its health benefits and popularity, avocados have been fetching a relatively high price in the local market in recent years. A hectare of avocado plantation can yield around VND300-500 million ($13,333-22,222) a year.Korean seafood companies hoping to find Vietnamese partners at a B2B meeting in HCM City on July 24.-Photo Viet Dung

The Korean firms were looking to export raw and processed seafood to Vietnam and import raw seafood from Vietnam for processing.

Bae Byeong-Cheol, chief representative of K-fish, said: Korean seafood is plentiful in terms of variety, and because of the difference in climate and location, Korea can supply a great deal of high-quality products unavailable in Vietnam. We are striving to help more Vietnamese enjoy Korean seafood.

Consumers in both countries have reacted favourably and would like to try out more of each others seafood products, he said.

Le Thi Nguyet of Van Kim Commercial Joint Stock Company said Korean seafood products are very safe and of very high quality, but are usually more expensive than products from Southeast Asian countries, which could deter many Vietnamese from consuming them.

Bae said several Korean companies are facing difficulties in exporting raw seafood to Viet Nam because of the lengthy customs and other formalities involved, and would like to see the process streamlined.

Vietnam exports three times the seafood to Korea that it buys from the country, he added.

Vietnamese seafood exports to South Korea reached US$390.7 million in the first six months of this year, accounting for 9.8 per cent of the total seafood export turnover of the country, the General Department of Vietnam Customs reported.Phan Van Anh Vu

According to Article 25 of the Criminal Procedure Code 2015, for special cases involved in state secrets, national traditions, protection of persons aged below 18 or personal privacy as per litigants rational requests, a court may try in closed session but must pronounce its judgments publicly.

43-year-old Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu Nhom) is a well-known real estate giant in the central city of Danang. On December 21, 2017, Vu Nhom was prosecuted for the charges of deliberately disclosing state secrets (Article 263 of 1999 Penal Code). On January 4, he was taken back to Hanoi after spending tens days hiding in Singapore with three passports.

Three months later, the Ministry of Public Securitys (MoPS) investigation agency announced the arrest of Phan Huu Tuan (former deputy general director of the MoPS General Department of Intelligence) who is now retired and Nguyen Huu Bach (former security officer) for the same charge of deliberately disclosing state secrets.

According to the investigation agency, Vu is also defendant in another case related to public land and property in Danang and other locations. In this case, the MoPS has already prosecuted Tran Van Minh (former Chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee in 2006-2011) and Van Huu Chien (former Chairman of the Danang Peoples Committee in 2011-2014) for the same charges of Offences against regulations on the management and use of state-owned property that lead to losses or wastefulness (Article 219) and Offences against regulations on land management (Article 229 of 2015 Criminal Code).(L to R): Australian Minister for Defence Marise Payne, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense James Mattis attend a joint press conference. (AFP/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)

Nowhere "is the need for innovation more critical than in cyber, which continues to be a pervasive threat to our militaries and to our businesses," Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne said at a US-Australian summit in California.

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the two countries had signed a memorandum of understanding "to deepen cybersecurity cooperation."

The move comes amid ongoing hacking thefts of sensitive information from military networks, and Russia's continued attempts to subvert democracy in America and elsewhere.

On a separate topic, an Australian reporter asked Mattis whether he thought the Australian navy should conduct a so-called "freedom of navigation" operation to challenge Chinese claims of sovereignty on militarised islets in the South China Sea.

The longstanding issue poses a dilemma for Canberra, with Australian lawmakers debating how much the country should align itself with its longstanding ally America, or pay more heed to the desires of China, its biggest trade partner.

"As far as freedom of navigation decisions by Australia, that's a sovereign decision by a sovereign state," Mattis said. "We'll just leave that decision with the people of Australia, which is exactly where it belongs."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop also attended the annual summit.

Pompeo was asked about US views of holding Russia to account over its role in the 2014 shootdown of Malaysia Airlines flight MH-17 over Ukraine, when 298 people, including 38 Australian citizens and residents, were killed.

"We need the Russians to continue to be held accountable for that," Pompeo said.

"We take this matter seriously and we committed over these last two days, as we have for the last months, to continue to support every effort through the Joint Investigative Team to hold the perpetrators for this heinous activity accountable."Vietnam power plant will drive Jaks profit growth

Jaks Resources plans to take a step back from the property segment to focus more on infrastructure and power generation projects, including the one being developed in Vietnam, as well as searching for other opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

In the next two years, Jaks Resources sees the $1.87 billion, 1,200-megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant in the northern province of Hai Duong driving the companys profit growth, the company stated in its latest report recently released.

According to another Jaks Resources report on its property development and investment division, the company recorded a pre-tax loss of RM14.8 million ($3.64 million) in the first quarter of this year, lower than a pre-tax loss of RM10 million ($2.46 million) in the same period last year.

Jaks Resources chief financial officer Steven Ang Si Eeng said that profits generated from the Vietnam-based engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract would be more than enough to cover the losses incurred from the Evolve Concept Mall, which recorded high operating expenses, large depreciation charges, and vast financing expenses in the financial year ending on December 31, 2018.

The Hai Duong build-operate-transfer (BOT) power plant, licensed in 2011, is the Malaysian companys first foray into Vietnams power generation secctor. It started construction in March 2016 through a joint-venture between Jaks Resources and China Power Engineering Consulting Group. Golden Keen Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Jaks Resources also secured a $454.5 million EPC contract for Hai Duong BOT power plant. Future earnings look promising as the company has a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the power plant. The project is expected to come online in 2020, and it is expected to enjoy recurring concession-type earnings with state-run Electricity of Vietnam from the generation and sale of power under the signed PPA.

Affin Hwang Investment Bank Bhd pointed out that the Vietnam EPC and commissioning contracts will remain the main earnings driver for Jaks Resources, as it contributes around 69 per cent year-on-year to the companys profits.

We believe that management will complete the project on time, as it will play a significant role in bolstering Jaks Resources chances of securing new power-related projects in Vietnam, Hwang affirmed in a statement. Hence, we believe the risk of delay is minimal, providing better forecasts and lower risk in the earnings delivery from the Vietnam EPC contract.

Jaks Resources is actively exploring several renewable energy projects in Vietnam, which will help to compensate for the shortfalls in its construction earnings until 2020.Investors at a trading house of Tan Viet Securities Company.- VNS Photo Doan Tung

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange fell 0.28 per cent to close at 934.08 points after falling as much as 1.11 per cent during the day.

The southern market index gained 0.36 per cent on Monday.

A similar pattern could be seen on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange as the HNX Index ended Tuesday down 0.71 per cent at 105.55 points, narrowing its intraday declining band of 1.81 per cent recorded earlier in the session.

The northern market index lost total 1.92 per cent in the last two sessions.

More than 263.5 million shares were traded on the two local exchanges, worth VND5.23 trillion (US$232.5 million).

Foreign investors finished Tuesday as net sellers, posting VND351.8 billion in net sell value. They net-bought VND88 billion on Monday to end the previous seven straight days of net selling with a total VND927.5 billion.

The market trading breadth was negative with 199 gaining stocks against 332 declining ones and 95 stocks ending flat.

According to Sai Gon-Ha Noi Securities JSC (SHS), large-cap stocks were to blame for the markets decline on Tuesday as they were hit by short-term profit-taking pressures.

Blue chips that pulled the stock market down included high-end property developer Vinhomes (VHM), steel producer Hoa Phat (HPG), VPBank (VPB), budget carrier Vietjet (VJC) and Techcombank (TCB)  whose losses ranged from 0.8 per cent to 4.2 per cent.

The market conditions on Tuesday for both VN Index and HNX Index showed that the stock market was undergoing a strong uncertainty, SHS said in its daily report.

Cash continued flowing into and lift the market when the indices went down deeply, but net foreign selling somehow affected investors confidence badly, SHS said.

While profit-taking pressure rose onto large-cap stocks, mid-cap and small-cap ones became safe haven for investors.

According to vietstock.vn, some mid-cap and small-cap stocks that drew attention of investors included Vietinbank Securities (CTS), property developer FLC Group (FLC), Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAG) and its agriculture arm HAGL Agrico (HNG).

There will be more opportunities for investors with mid-cap and small-cap stocks at the moment but it showed investors are now more speculative and unwilling to make long-term and mid-term purchases, vietstock.vn wrote in a report.

The change of cashflow would make it harder for the stock market to recover as there would be more intraday fluctuations and the decline of blue-chip liquidity would signal more market risks, it said.

SHS forecast the VN Index would move sideways on Wednesday between 920 and 950 points and listed firms with forecast of higher-than-expected second-quarter earnings reports should be targeted.Casey Bloys Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

HBOs president of programming Casey Bloys came to his session at the summer Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills armed with optimism about the future of the premium network, now that AT&T has purchased it from Time Warner.

The future of the network has been hotly debated since details of a company town hall meeting earlier this month were published in the New York Times, highlighting comments made by John Stankey, who now oversees HBO as the chief executive of Warner Media. At the session, attended by 150 employees and simulcast to several offices, Stankey said he wanted HBO to compete more in the TV landscape with more hours a day as opposed to hours a weekand hours a month.

Bloys said his boss Richard Plepler has often spoken internally and publicly about the need for more financial investment in programming and they both view Stankeys assessment as a step in the right direction.

Let me put this as clearly as I can: there are no plans to dilute the HBO brand in favor of volume of programming, Bloys said. No one has come to us and asked us not to do what we do. John and AT&T have been every complimentary about what we do  One of the challenges weve had in the past couple of years working for Time Warner  we were at a corporate entity that was preparing itself for sale as opposed to investing in programming. So this is the first time in a long time weve heard anyone talk about investing in programming. So I took that as very exciting. No one has talked about diluting our brand or increasing the volume to a point where we lose quality control.

Bloys said he empathizes with HBO employees, who might be anxious about the changes, but hes confident that HBOs brand will remain intact. Im just glad I can be here to tell you there are no plans to dilute programming, no one is asking us to take pitches of the Love Boat reboot or anything like that, he said.Photo: Patrick Harbron/Hulu

It was only a matter of time before someone attempted a series like Castle Rock. Its sort of a Stephen King Expanded Universe project, combining an original story with references to the horror novelists established works set in and around the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. Andre Holland (The Knick, Moonlight) stars as Henry Deaver, a young adopted boy and one of the towns only black residents, who disappeared and reappeared under strange circumstances back in 1991 and is now a lawyer representing death-row inmates in Texas. He returns home to represent a creepy young man played by Bill Skarsgard (Pennywise in last years film of Kings It), who was discovered in a cage in the basement of Shawshank Penitentiary. The Kid has no known personal history and seems to have been hidden there for the good of humanity by the prisons previous warden, Dale Lacey (Terry OQuinn).

This primal good-versus-evil parable forms the spine of the show and echoes several King stories, including The Stand, the 1999 mini-series Storm of the Century, and the pseudonymously written series The Dark Tower. Around it, Castle Rock weaves the stories of other characters, including Molly Strand (Melanie Lynskey), a real-estate agent and empath with severe social anxiety and a drug problem; Warden Porter (Ann Cusack), Laceys successor at Shawshank who wants to keep the subterranean creeps existence a secret until they find out who he is and what he wants; and Henrys adoptive mother Ruth Deaver (Sissy Spacek, star of one of the very best King adaptations, 1975s Carrie), whose memory is decaying from Alzheimers disease.

King is listed as one of the executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, whose Lost ushered in a craze for mystery box plotting that animates this series as well. But the main showrunners are Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason of WGNs late, lamented Manhattan, and at its best, Castle Rock captures that shows sense of an expansive community buzzing with activity, even if the first four episodes sent out for review are a bit of a mixed bag. As the series unfolds, there are King-like touches aplenty, including spectacular acts of violence, unnerving monologues by folksy keepers of Castle Rock lore, and flashbacks that give you just enough information to chill the blood but not enough to resolve ongoing mysteries.

Like FXs Fargo, the show struggles to prove itself equal to source material that it wouldnt exist without, even as it packs the narrative with characters and incidents that connect with beloved King fiction (as well as performances by actors who have appeared in King adaptations, like Spacek). Also like that pastiche of the Coen brothers movies, this Hulu series is high-toned fanfiction on a big budget, piggybacking on established intellectual property while trying to do something new thats in the same spirit but has a life of its own. (As if to encourage the Fargo comparison, Allison Tolman co-stars as Molly Strands sister.) But unlike Fargo, you never ask yourself if the creator intended for all the other, earlier stories to be connected, because King has always seeded his own work with self-referential and cross-referential touches. If you read enough of his novels and short stories, youll hear characters casually mention the boy who was found dead by the railroad tracks (Stand by Me/The Body), or the St. Bernard who went on a rabies rampage (Cujo), or the kids who disappeared in Derry (It). So you could say that Castle Rock is just doing what King already had established it was okay to do.

Sometimes the references are straightforward (as in Laceys narrated montage of the towns history, which includes multiple allusions to existing King books); sometimes theyre things that only a die-hard King fan would immediately get (Scott Glenn plays Alan J. Pangborn, sheriff of Castle Rock from 1981 to 91 and a character with connections to both The Dark Half and Needful Things); and other times theyre rib-bruisingly obvious (Jane Levy plays a nosy character named Jackie Torrance, a la The Shinings family). But they always feel a bit superfluous. I often found myself wishing that Castle Rock were a stand-alone, horror-inflected story of life in a decaying Maine town with a Stephen Kinglike flavor, as opposed to a tie-in project, even though Hulu probably wouldnt have green-lit it without the King connection. Fargo does this too, of course, though more sparingly and somewhat more successfully, at least in its first two seasons. Im not sure why the interplay of existing and original work doesnt feel as seamless here. Maybe its because the Coens are extremely self-conscious formalists even when the material is emotionally affecting, while King at his best jumps right in there and tells ripping yarns that youre supposed stay up all night reading. Its as much a credit as a criticism to say that Shaw and Thomasons original Castle Rock material is King-like yet strong enough to stand on its own without Kings pedigree, and that constant need to connect to his work makes the series seem less confident than it is.

One fascinating point of departure is the way Castle Rock treats race. King cared about the subject as well, but the treatment here is more sophisticated and consistent and seems more informed by knowledge of contemporary life. One of Kings major Achilles heels is his tendency to resort to magical Negro characters, and at least in the first four episodes, its absent here. Deaver is a fully formed, plausible human being, thanks in large part to Hollands wary, reflective performance, which suggests that the character is outside of himself looking at the world even as he moves through it. He has an inner intellectual and emotional life, and that goes a long way toward making Deaver seem like much more than a mere symbol or token. (Theres a great moment in the third episode where another character drops an unexpectedly thoughtful observation into their conversation, and Deaver blurts out, Huh! as if he genuinely appreciates the insight.) The series also turns the periodic racial conflagrations that flare up in Kings fiction into a simmering undercurrent that informs everyday conversations between Deaver and the white characters, who often go out of their way to preemptively establish that they arent racists (even his adoptive mother does this). Deavers fish-out-of-water status also connects him, subtly, with Skarsgards Kid, who likewise seemed to just spontaneously appear in the midst of a world that never asked for his existence.

Castle Rock is also very good at showing the economic desperation afflicting American small towns. Mollys big plan entails purchasing an old mill downtown and converting it into a mixed-use facility that will spark the kinds of daily human interactions that have been lost since Castle Rocks manufacturing base collapsed. At one point, the place is likened to Fallujah, with the implication being that capitalism devastated the place so completely that it might as well have been shelled by Marines. More than one character points out that the town now has just one major employer, Shawshank Penitentiary. All the shows subplots are festooned with references to the prison-industrial complex that keeps the community on life support even as it makes the place feel exploitative and desperate. A few episodes in, Molly chances across a group of children participating in a bizarre mock trial that seems to replicate a parole-board hearing or criminal trial (or maybe just the idea of a trial), and were suddenly keenly aware of the devastating impact on childrens lives when their parents go behind bars. All this stuff feels closer to early Bruce Springsteen (whose lyrics are referenced in more than one King work) than to the master himself, and the lead performances are so consistently thoughtful  Hollands and Lynskeys especially  that when the supernatural inevitably intrudes, it makes Castle Rock feel less special. The real-life horrors inflicted on these people are as disturbing as any ghouls, vampires, or devils that King might dream up.A scene from Hulus Castle Rock. Photo: Hulu

Stephen King has never made Castle Rock, Maine, sound like a nice place to visit. The fictional small town appears or is referenced frequently in Kings writing, starting with Kings 1979 novel The Dead Zone and going beyond the 1993 novel Needful Things (despite it being billed on the cover as The Last Castle Rock Story). In Kings fiction, its been the site of, among other menaces, a serial killer, a rabid St. Bernard, an antiques shop possibly owned by the devil, and a spooky Polaroid camera. (Thats to say nothing of the nearby Shawshank Prison, which has troubles of its own.) The new J.J. Abramsproduced Hulu series Castle Rock puts the town at the heart of the action again and, frankly, the place is looking a little rough.

The times have been hard on Castle Rock and its residents. Mostly filmed in the Massachusetts towns of Orange, Lancaster, and Devens, the Hulu series setting resembles one of Richard Russos failing Rust Belt New England towns, once-thriving, now emptied-out places where theres little for those left behind to do but drink and get in each others business. But theres more at work here. People think were just one of those dead towns they hear about, Terry OQuinns Shawshank warden Dale Lacy says in an early episode. A run of bad luck, worse judgment, broken promises. We know different, dont we? Its not luck. Its a plan. And not Gods either. The hard-luck look masks a deeper problem.

But Castle Rock hasnt always looked like that, at least not exactly. Each Castle Rock appearance Stephen King adaptations has been reshaped for the productions own purposes. Ahead of the Castle Rock premiere, heres a look at the onscreen history of Stephen Kings most famous setting, a place youd probably keep driving past if you ever find yourself stumbling on it.

19471966: The Shawshank Redemption

Frank Darabonts beloved 1994 adaptation of Kings Different Seasons novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption isnt, technically speaking, a Castle Rock story. But Shawshank Prison looms large in the mythos of Kings Maine, and it plays a major role in the Castle Rock series, whose narrative is set in motion by the discovery of a mysterious secret deep within its walls.

Darabont shot much of the film at Ohios Mansfield Prison, a facility that had only stopped serving as a penitentiary a few years earlier. Its an imposing place, and the film effectively captures the dispiriting efficiency of an operation that keeps prisoners in place with walls and bars and also via the systematic dehumanization of those trapped within. The film also depicts it as a place where secrets thrive. Unlike in Castle Rock, theres no supernatural element to this version of Shawshank, but the prison serves as the home to violent cliques, a secret economy, and a money-laundering operation. By the time we see it in Castle Rock, its become run-down and dank, a decline underlined by our having previously seen it in better days (if better is the right word).

1960: Stand by Me

Adapting The Body, another selection from Different Seasons, for his 1986 film Stand by Me, director Rob Reiner moves the action to Castle Rock, Oregon. But the Northwests Castle Rock seems very much a sister city to the Maine version found in Kings fiction. Set in 1960, the film casts the past in a sentimental light, but only up to a point. The four boys who set off to find a dead body in the woods outrun trains, tell wild stories, and riff on rock and roll and cartoons. But they also, like so many kids in King stories, have to deal with parental abuse, neglect, and the looming specter of adulthood. Still thriving as part of Americas post-WWII boom, their hometown looks like a fine place to grow up. Look beneath the surface, though, and youll find economic disparity, crushed dreams, bullies, and other alarming threats and problems set to grow worse in the years to come.

1983: Cujo

The divide between the haves and the have-nots is even more pronounced in Cujo, a 1983 take on Kings novel about a rabid dog and the mother and child who find themselves trapped in a broken-down Ford Pinto while it tries to kill them. (Ford had stopped making that troubled model by the time of the film, but its use here is pretty much the opposite of product placement.) Director Lewis Teague doesnt put too fine a point on the economic divide in this no-nonsense film, one of the best of the early King adaptations. But its there in the way the central family lives in a stately country home, thanks to its patriarchs fancy advertising job, while the rural community around them has a hard time keeping up. The 80s have come to Castle Rock, and as with poor Cujo, what was once familiar and welcoming has started to mutate into new, more dangerous forms.

Early 80s: The Dead Zone

Times a little fuzzy by design in the haunting 1983 film The Dead Zone. Its protagonist spends years unconscious, awakening in a world thats changed. But the film ends in the midst of an election season that, the surrounding technology suggests, places it sometime in the early 80s. Other elements suggest it, too: The economic disparity seen in Cujo has led to a deepening political division, paving the way for Martin Sheens Greg Stillson, a sinister politician with a populist agenda that hides craven and possibly insane motivations who freely attacks the press (ahem), to take advantage of the situation.

Director David Cronenberg portrays Castle Rock as a snowy, overcast place, an idyllic small town turned dreary when its not outright nightmarish. Christopher Walken stars as Johnny Smith, a schoolteacher who awakens from a coma with the power to see the future. This leads Castle Rock sheriff George Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) to enlist him to search for the Castle Rock Strangler, a serial killer plaguing the town. (Played by Sandy Ward, Bannerman also makes an appearance in Cujo where hes mauled to death by the dog. RIP Sheriff Bannerman.) That the Strangler can even claim victims in Castle Rocks scenic, central gazebo suggests just how far the town has fallen. Even more disturbingly, the film treats the Strangler as a herald for Stillson, whose seductive message draws in seemingly right-minded people like Johnnys old flame Sarah (Brooke Adams), intensifying his dislocation and despair. Changing times can make the places we love and the people who live there unrecognizable, even repugnant.

1991: The Dark Half

Castle Rock is largely seen as a place for the rich to get away from it all in George Romeros adaption of Kings novel about a writer forced to battle the evil embodiment of the pseudonym he thinks hes put to rest. Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) teaches at a university miles away, but he relaxes at a Castle Rock lake house when his schedule allows. And, some come to suspect, he also commits murders there when his fingerprints start to show up at crime scenes. Thad finds an ally, however, in Sheriff Bannermans successor, Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Michael Rooker), a dogged detective who senses the case against Thad doesnt quite add up.

1993: Needful Things

We mostly see Castle Rocks outskirts in The Dark Half, which depicts it as the sort of rural town where the post office and the local bait shop share space. But its center stage in Needful Things, in which Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow), a sinister (but easily amused) owner of an antiques shop arrives from Akron. Stocking his business with items of particular interest to Castle Rocks residents, he uses their desires as leverage, turning them against each other by asking them to perform a series of favors that sow discord in the town.

Director Fraser Heston (son of Charlton) treats Castle Rock as a picturesque small town where turkey farmers come to town to buy feed, autumn leaves fall like rain, and the diner doubles as a place to get terrific pie and catch up with local gossip. But there are signs modernity has started to creep in, like a strip mall and Shell station on the outskirts of town. Then theres the matter of how easily Gaunt can prey on Castle Rocks citizens, as if he only needed to bring long-simmering tensions to a boil. Only Sheriff Pangborn (played here by Ed Harris) keeps his head, but even his steady guidance cant fully avert a disaster. Maybe its no wonder that in Castle Rock, as played by Scott Glenn, Pangborn seems so world-weary, and possibly less virtuous than before. The town has exacted a heavy price from him, as it does on anyone without the means or good sense to get out.Chris Hardwick. Photo: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images

Chris Hardwick will return to hosting his AMC after-shows about two months after his ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra came forward with sexual and emotional abuse allegations against him. Below is the statement AMC just released announcing its decision to bring Hardwick back next month as host of Talking Dead and Talking With Chris Hardwick:

Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of Talking Dead and Talking with Chris Hardwick. We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step.

Hardwick will return to host Talking Deads midseason premiere on August 12. Yvette Nicole Brown, who has served as Talking Deads replacement host since Hardwicks departure, will appear as a guest on the August 12 episode.

Since Dykstra published her allegations against Hardwick on Medium in June, Nerdist removed Hardwicks name from its website, the Kaaboo Festival dropped him from its September lineup, San Diego Comic-Con removed him as a moderator of two panels, and NBC announced it would review his position as host of The Wall. Hardwick denied the allegations not long after they were made public and has since received support from his wife Lydia Hearst and ex-girlfriend Jacinda Barrett, among others.Costanzo. Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Who is Elena Ferrante? Thats the famously debated question behind the Italian authors beloved Neapolitan Novels, a series whose allure is only intensified by the fact that Elena Ferrante is a pseudonym and the authors true identity is unknown. Even Saverio Costanzo, the director behind HBOs upcoming adaptation of My Brilliant Friend, the first novel in the Neapolitan series, hasnt met the real writer.

We have been mailing to each other, Costanzo told journalists during HBOs Television Critics Association press session in Beverly Hills on Wednesday. I dont know who she is and I dont want to know  she is, in my opinion, a very good scriptwriter  Ive been mailing to the publisher. The publisher would send it to her and then back to me. And then we have tons of paper.

I think its one of the most well-kept secrets in Italys history, added Lorenzo Mieli, one of the producers. At the end of the day, nobody cares because we know [the secret of her identity] is very important to her.

All of that secrecy has also shaped the Brilliant Friend adaptation, which is produced by HBO and Italys RAI and will premiere this fall  especially when it comes to adding subtitles. Because Ferrante wrote her novels in Italian, Costanzo said it would have been impossible to do the series in English. He added that HBO was firmly committed to maintaining the books Neapolitan dialect with English subtitles because the dialect is part of the dramaturgy. Not just in America, though: Mieli explained that the show would be subtitled in Italy, too, because were Romans and we dont understand the Neapolitan dialect.Photo: Nick Drnaso / Drawn + Quarterly

Very mild spoilers for Nick Drnasos Sabrina below.

Talk to Nick Drnaso for more than a few seconds and you hear in his laconic, muted voice a longing to be somewhere  anywhere  other than in the spotlight. The Chicago-based Drnaso (pronounced dur-NASS-oh) was already one of the most acclaimed cartoonists working today and his latest graphic novel, Sabrina, is spoken of with hushed awe in comic-book circles. But yesterday morning, the world learned that Sabrina had also become the first-ever comic to make it onto the Man Booker Prize long list. Hes just made history and the eyes of the literary world are pointed his way. Alas and alack for him.

Sabrina is a book thats difficult to describe, and probably best left undescribed for those who havent read it yet. Suffice it to say that it follows a group of unremarkable Americans in unremarkable environments who go through a remarkable trauma and are sucked into the horror that is the contemporary internet rumor cycle. The deliberate and controlled narrative is unnerving enough, but the visuals make the book downright terrifying. The characters are drawn with simple, cartoonish lines, but Drnaso wields each line like a watchmaker pondering how one tiny gear should fit into another, ultimately building something fully realized and unforgettable. But its not good enough for Drnaso. Vulture caught up with him by phone on the evening after the long-list announcement.

How and when did you find out youd been long-listed?

Oh, it was just last week, from the publisher at Granta. They sent me an email giving me a little bit of a heads-up, which was much appreciated.

And how did you feel?

Its hard not to  Its hard to convey it without seeming dismissive or ungrateful or something. But I kind of just glossed over the email. For whatever reason, the way I approach making art over the years has just kinda sapped any feeling of satisfaction or excitement I would have about something like that. And I dont even mean that in such a negative way. I think I just have this wall built up of some kind of self-preservation thing where I dont let stuff like that in too deeply.

Are there other examples of times youve received honors and felt that way?

Yeah, I think anytime its something like a prize  which hasnt come along too often, but when it does, I have a similar feeling. When its on a more personal level, like a face-to-face exchange or a friend saying something nice about something Ive made, its a little bit easier. But this one, its just so large, its hard to know what its fully all about. This just feels like this very abstract, far-away thing.

Were you someone who followed the Man Booker Prize in the past? Was it something you were even that aware of?

No, honestly not. Not really.

Have you received more praise for Sabrina than you did for your last book, Beverly?

Yeah, considerably more. I mean, it was sort of an incremental step up. Nothing outrageous. Im always a little taken aback by press, so I shouldnt sound so nonchalant about it. Its more than  I mean, honestly, it sounds like false modesty or something, but its more than I feel like the book deserves. I mean, thats genuinely how I feel, so I might as well just put it out there, whether it sounds genuine or not.

Were you frustrated with the finished book? What do you mean by that?

Yeah, my feelings were pretty intense. I mean, I canceled the book when I finished it. Definitively. For, like, a month. And I tried to move on and then couldnt and was in a state of complete inaction, going through some personal things, too, but I wound up with what I thought was just this massive failure of a project that was years in the making. And then sort of had some realizations about what I could do to alter the story and started to feel a bit better about it. And obviously, I came around, but it was a real struggle. So it kinda complicates this process of getting recognition for something that was so difficult to make.

Excerpt from Sabrina. Photo: Nick Drnaso / Drawn + Quarterly

What made it so difficult to make? What made that first draft so flawed? That is, if you dont mind talking about that.

No, no, not at all. I just dont wanna depress you for the rest of the day.

Go for it, please.

Its just that the subject matter was taken from very real concerns and fears I was experiencing. So throughout the course of making the book, my girlfriend and I moved in together and those fears only got worse. Luckily, its gotten better. We just got married. But at the time, it was kind of a new experience and I didnt really know what to do about it. It wasnt going away. And then making the book certainly didnt help. And by the time it was close to being finished, I just looked at the product and looked at what was going on in the culture and just said, I just made this book about an innocent person whos abducted and slaughtered and her death is disseminated online and sorta looked at my own life and my own behavior and really just didnt feel that good about putting out anything personal. It would take too much time to go into, but very personal. It was as much a personal decision as anything. It just felt like too much. So I kinda cracked, a little bit.

I guess Im having trouble understanding here. Are you saying you didnt want the book out there because it was too personal, or because the quality of the work was low?

Well, I thought that the book wasnt  It was a little bit of feeling like it didnt live up to  It was gonna be a 200-page-plus hardcover graphic novel for upwards of $25 and I sort of have an idea in my mind of what that should be, and I felt like it didnt live up to that. But then, more so, it was the idea of putting out something with my name on it felt somehow weirdly indulgent. I just had a lot of weird feelings. So I guess it makes sense that its coming out really disjointed and not making sense, because some of the stuff I was going through was pretty illogical. I dont know if that clears it up at all.

You mean events outside your control were illogical? Or your emotions were illogical?

I think they were somewhat illogical. Im not sure. Its an entirely fictional story, but at a certain point, it felt  The feeling of having created a fictionalized character that I then murdered for the purpose of a fictional story felt weirdly like  I just felt weirdly awful about it. I couldnt face it and felt like I was weirdly being exploitative of other peoples pain and misery. It just stirred up a lot of feelings. That might sound kind of wacky, too, but its the best way I can explain it.

The second version of the book  you felt better about that one?

I think, when I made the decision, somehow, something just snapped in where I thought, Im gonna just do my best. There was enough I recognized in the book that I thought Id put some honest work into it and was working on it harder than Id worked on anything in my life, and I think I was maybe just dealing with some exhaustion, too. I dont know if even the finished version was that drastic. Maybe it was more of a mind-set where the change of heart kind of was more internal than anything I actually did to change the book.

About how much of the book was changed from the first version to the second?

Hm. Yknow, I probably only took out six or seven pages, and then added about 30 or so.

Im guessing the answer is no, but can you tell me what you took out and put in?

I dont wanna talk about about what I took out, if thats all right.

Thats fine.

But one of the miscalculations, I thought, which I tried to rectify was, towards the end, Sabrinas sister, Sandra, was becoming a character I was more interested in. I realized there were a lot of missed opportunities of exploring her story in the book. That was just weirdly neglected in my first draft. So I ended up creating a lot of those scenes and kinda placing them throughout the book and hoping it would just seem natural to the progression. Hopefully its some needed breathing room from the other narrative of the story. Actually, that was last summer that I was working to add those scenes in, and kind of got more enjoyment out of those sequences than a lot of stuff Id drawn in the book. So it does feel a little lopsided now. Not that I ever would, but if I had to do it all over again, I would rethink things like that.

Photo: Nick Drnaso / Drawn + Quarterly

What was the overall timeline from initial conception of the ideas for the book to finishing it?

I had the idea in fall and winter of 2014. The character in the air force is based on a friend, so to generate ideas and take photo reference, I went and visited him in Colorado Springs and spent a week with him. He gave me a lot of guidance and assistance in creating that character and filling in the background of that job and that life. Started drawing at beginning of 2015 and finished that first draft in the spring of 2017. Didnt actually finally finish the book until November, December of 2017.

And what was the initial germ of the idea for the book? Knowing your friend?

I think there was this thought in my mind before Id met my wife that if, for whatever reason, I wanted to go and have a life do-over  Wed been friends since we were kids and he was sorta living in this isolated situation in Colorado in the air force. I thought I could entertain this thought that I could just take off and live with him if something ever happened. I dont know why that was in my head. And then, at a certain point, thoughts of abduction and things started occurring to me, somehow they linked up and I imagined this character bowing out and escaping and living in this hermetic bubble. All the other things in the plot just developed pretty organically after that.

What were these thoughts about abduction? Was it that youd be abducted? Someone you know?

It was all concerns about my wife  girlfriend at the time. We were living separately. Its not as if anything had happened. I guess those things are just unreasonable fears. But it all depends on how you look at it. If you choose to read a certain kind of news story, then theyre not unreasonable at all and its perfectly logical to have a gun in your house because home invasions happen. So that was sort of the feeling: waffling between how accurately Im seeing the world, the city I live in, walking down the street. I do remember there was a vague kind of threat from someone supposedly involved with the Islamic State that appeared on social media, of them holding a sign in front of a financial or government building in Chicago saying, Were in your streets or something like that. And then Paris and the rash of European terrorist attacks happened not long after that. And then, obviously, it was around the time of a lot of domestic terrorist shootings, which are dealt with in the book: Sandy Hook, those sorts of things.

One thing you didnt mention there is Infowars and the right-wing online fever swamps that the book deals with. Were you hanging around those communities and observing them?

Not  Well, I think I just had a sense of the narrative that was going on just because I have a morbid curiosity in certain cultures or subcultures. But I honestly didnt think of my fictionalized version of that world as even being right-wing necessarily. I just didnt think in those terms. I guess those lines have been drawn really distinctly where some of those rants and diatribes in the book seem very clearly to some people as a lot of right-wing kinds of talking points. But I guess that was kinda lost on me at the time. I just saw something different in those ways of thinking and seeing the world which was almost a childlike fear of something being ripped away from you or something being lost, which I tried to convey in that character. Seemingly very vulnerable and clearly his personal life and personal worldview is skewing to the way he sees the world.

Photo: Nick Drnaso / Drawn + Quarterly

Have you been inundated by people getting in touch with you today? Is that overwhelming or painful, maybe?

Its been fine. I feel a little uncomfortable being almost the representative of the comics medium, at least for today. Theres this  Im pretty sheltered and pretty protected in my world of comics, which just has this mom-and-pop small feel to it. I just dont think about it that much. But now, Im getting in touch with people for whom comics are a bit of a novelty, which is fine, Im not insisting that they deserve some larger place in the culture or something. Actually, strike all that. I mean, you can include it if you want, but its just  I just dont know why  Yeah, I dont know what to say about it. I guess I feel a little uncomfortable being on the list, to be honest.

For the reasons you already said?

Yeah, kinda just the same stuff. I dont know. I just feel uncomfortable with the attention, is what it boils down to. I would honestly be happy if I heard that one of the many, many other cartoonists I love were getting recognition. I could feel happy for them. But I wasnt really expecting to be the person, for whatever reason, that they singled out. That book, that they decided to put it on the list, its just  I dont understand the process or how that happened.

Are you hoping that you dont win?

Between you and me? Well  I dont know. Im not gonna think about it, actually. I dont think its deserved, Ill just say that. And thats genuine. Thats just like how I feel about it. Clearly, its all wrapped up in how I feel about myself, so its tricky.

Is all this attention distracting you from whatever youre working on now?

Yeah, thats always a fear, too, in the back of my mind. Im sort of easing into another long-term project. I feel like I have to sort of protect and honor the routine of drawing. I guess there is that superstition that something is gonna affect that or spoil it, and it hasnt been that bad. But when I read something like a New York Times review, it does invite some thoughts into my mind that dont necessarily help the creative process. Theres a  It kind of slows it down or makes it more self-conscious. Youre more aware of the choices youre making, which can be good and bad. I guess I should just see it as a good thing. But I think somethings lost. You cant get as lost or maybe as risky. I might feel a little more stifled. But hopefully that doesnt happen.

The work youre doing now: its in the early stages? Will it be a while before we see another book from you?

Yeah, I think unfortunately so. Im 13 or 14 pages in. Its gonna be more vignetted, like my first book [Beverly]. Itll just be pieced together more organically. Im hopefully just gonna think about things in a different way and really try to scrutinize decisions Im making. I guess I just realized after Sabrina, I cant make a book like that again. Wouldnt want to be redundant, and just wouldnt want to go through that experience again. So thats all I can hope for, that theres some growth or some new perspective.

One thing I find fascinating about your visuals is the little smile you sometimes put on a characters face, even when horrible things are happening and theyre presumably unhappy. Can you talk about why you do that? Or is it not even intentional?

Oh no, theres a lot of care and concern put into those little tilts and curves in the mouths and stuff, and the tilts of the eyebrows. Thats the thing that Im always kinda chasing, is having some greater control over what  If I have a specific kind of facial expression that I wanna convey, seeing if I can actually achieve it is the daily struggle and fun of making comics. So all those things, thats what I get lost in. Those little details. Because the way I draw, actually, the tilts of those mouths are so slight that any slight downward or upward or slanted or sucked-in or gritting the teeth or anything, hopefully  Im glad you noticed that theres some slight variation and theyre not all frozen dolls.

Photo: Nick Drnaso / Drawn + Quarterly

Did the Zadie Smith blurb get you excited at all, or was that another thing that made you feel bad?

That was one thing, just because it was someone who I really admire  I mean, I had been on a kick of reading like four of her books in the past year. Ive still never had any contact with her, but shes an amazing writer. That was nice. I can sort of take that in and appreciate that.

Have people who have gone through similar traumas to the ones described in Sabrina reached out to you?

No, its never happened. I dont know what that experience would be like. I guess I shouldnt think too much about it. That wasnt really on my mind when I was working on it. And it hasnt happened yet, so well see.

Are you doing anything to celebrate tonight?

No.Alfonso Cuarons Netflix drama Roma is the directors most personal film yet, a family drama set in Mexico City in the early 1970s. Two young domestic workers  Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) and Adela (Nancy Garcia), both of Mixteco descent  work for a family in the middle-class neighborhood of Roma. As their employer Sofia (Marina de Tavira) deals with her husbands absence, the three women construct a new sense of love and solidarity in a context of a social hierarchy where class and race are perversely intertwined, per the movies description.

Cuaron acted as his own cinematographer on Roma, a first for the director. He told IndieWire he didnt want to hire an English-speaking DP and have to translate his own memories. Ninety percent of the scenes represented in the film are scenes taken out of my memory, Cuaron said. Sometimes directly, sometimes a bit more obliquely. Its about a moment of time that shaped me, but also a moment of time that shaped a country. It was the beginning of a long transition in Mexico. Roma will screen in select theaters starting November 21 and will appear on Netflix on December 14.Photo: Altimeter Films

This piece originally ran during the Toronto Film Festival.

When we first meet Scotty Bowers, the protagonist of the sure-to-make-headlines documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, hes on the way to his 90th birthday party. Bowers gives his wife a farewell kiss, honks her breasts affectionately, and sets off for a penthouse at Hollywoods Chateau Marmont where, in short order, several hunks in underwear emerge holding a birthday cake shaped like a cock. Scottys smile is huge, and so is the cock.

Suffice it to say that while Bowers fought in World War II, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood is not your typical Greatest Generation hagiography. Thats because shortly after the war ended, Bowers landed work at a Hollywood Boulevard gas station that he turned into a brothel to the stars using not much more than his good looks, easy smile, and equal-access sexual availability. Actor Walter Pidgeon was the first to hit him up, and from there, word spread fast among the best-known and best-looking people that Bowers could satisfy you for just 20 bucks, or at least hook you up with someone else who could. Bowers and the documentary are quick to tell you exactly which celebrities partook of his services and just what it was they were into, and those sexual reveals paint a picture of a closeted yet swinging Hollywood at odds with the carefully stage-managed PR narratives of this Golden Age of cinema.

Were there three-ways with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott? Check. Did Bowers have hotel assignations with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor? That was on the menu, too. By the time he recounts late nights steering women to Katharine Hepburn, then bedding Spencer Tracy next door, youll start to think Bowers has done it all  or, to put a finer point on it, that hes done just about everybody.

To say the least, this documentary is juicy and full of the sort of lines, casually tossed off by a still-spry Bowers, that would make any documentarians day. In the space of just two minutes, I jotted down four of those Bowers bon mots. Context is wholly unnecessary.

I wanna suck 15 guys off, one after the other!

I fucked Bette Davis in World War II.

I went to bed with J. Edgar Hoover. He was in drag. Not a great beauty, either.

Cary Grant just happened to be there. So I fixed him up with Rock Hudson for 20 bucks.

Hes talking about what you dont usually hear older people talking about, which is sex, director Matt Tyrnauer told me. But Bowers is hardly the lascivious granny thats a sitcom staple: He recounts his sexual escapades in the easy way you or I might talk about a Starbucks run. All these people lived in a society where homosexuality was shunned and they had to live lives in the shadows, said Tyrnauer. Now theyve lived into a period of tremendous openness, by comparison, and its interesting to see.

Not that Bowers, who is married, would necessarily describe himself as homosexual. Some of these squares think, Oh my God, youre weird, youre different, he recalls in the documentary. Ladies have said to me, Just what are you? I said, Im everything.

Photo: Altimeter Films

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood premiered at the Toronto Film Festival  and Bowers made the trek up north, his first time hopping on a plane in decades  but it hits theaters this week, so you can expect to hear plenty more about it in the year to come, given who the film talks about. Did Tyrnauer have any compunction about the private stories that are told in it, some of which were revealed in a recent book co-authored by Bowers, Full Service?

I didnt find Scottys book to be offensive, in that it outed people, said the director. I think he was making a larger point about Hollywood and the hypocrisy of the period. A lot of people had diverse sexualities but were part of a system that insisted on putting out the white picket fence morality. Thats in the past.

And though Tyrnauers documentary only deals with the sex lives of stars who have passed away  though one carefully worded mention of Clint Eastwoods buddy-buddy friendship with a male hustler raised my eyebrows  he thinks the closet is increasingly a thing of the past.

I think weve kind of moved past the outing debate in our culture, he told me. It seems like its so 90s. Were lucky in the U.S. that weve reach a point of openness, certainly since I was a kid. Its just a different world and people mostly dont feel like they have to hide their sexuality.

If anything, at least Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood will have you looking at Turner Classic Movies in a whole different way  and hopefully, itll inspire you to reevaluate the elderly, too, once Bowers relates a life lived in full. In American culture, old people become invisible and I think thats very sad, said Tyrnauer. The media is so geared toward its obsession with chasing youth, and I dont think people listen to old people. It would serve them very well to.

When Scotty Bowers is talking, who wouldnt listen?The Captain.

The Captain has the structure of a classic mistaken-identity farce and the tone of a serial-killer film. Its too bleak to laugh at and too absurd to cry over. That its true adds another insanity-inducing element. But it was an insane time: April 1945, months from the end of World War II, when exhausted German soldiers deserted the collapsing front in huge numbers. One such deserter, a barefaced young private named Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), has scarcely escaped death at the hands of a vindictive German patrol when he comes upon an abandoned jeep and a suitcase containing the uniform of a Luftwaffe Hauptmann  a captain. After donning the captains heavy overcoat to stay warm, Herold begins to clown around, taking both sides of a dialogue between his own meek self and an imperious Nazi officer. Thats when another lone private, Freytag (Milan Peschel), spies him from afar and assumes that hes the real thing. And so begins la commedia.

Its a commedia with a single joke, though that joke becomes larger and more consequential at every stage: To escape detection  and certain death  the young Herold must not just pretend to be a captain, he must also exercise dominance over anyone liable to discover his secret. Again and again hes challenged  Where are your papers? Who are you working for? What is your actual mission?  and again and again he gets the better of his challengers, either by demanding to see their papers, announcing that hes working directly for the Fuhrer, or, eventually, ordering executions willy-nilly. His Task Force Herold is composed of ex-deserters now charged with finding and killing other deserters. Only little Freytag seems to register the larger absurdity: that these men are in effect murdering themselves, mutatis mutandis. In a nihilistic endgame, says the captain, if youre not fucking death, death is fucking you  which might have lost something in translation, but we get the gist.

Written and directed by Robert Schwentke, The Captain plays like political satire, of the kind that no American could have conceived. It flies in the face of our deeply held notions of individuality and free will: Were convinced that both things exist, while Germans have learned from experience that identity is elastic and most wills are too weak to escape the pull of prevailing norms. If that sounds reductive, so is the film, but its the kind of reductiveness that kept Germans like Bertolt Brecht up at night, convinced that the world needed to be changed because humans  especially when starving  cannot be trusted to act without murderous self-interest. What Schwentke has identified are the storys dramatic beats, those precise moments of decision in which trying not to be fucked by death becomes fucking death  which Im sure would sound better with the requisite fricatives.

Schwentke must have felt that he was coming off a death-fuck when he started The Captain: Hed just made a hash of the last two Divergent movies  which, given the basic material, couldnt have been good but might not have bombed so resoundingly. (Hollywood looks more fondly on serial killers than franchise killers.) I can almost hear Schwentke and his cinematographer, Florian Ballhaus, say, Lets get the nihilism right this time! So theyve shot The Captain in a black and white thats both exquisite and stark, that eats into the mind, transforming a frigid landscape into a canvas suitable for existential tragedy.

Which is not to say The Captain has a tragic hero. Hubacher drains emotion from every feature except his eyes, which dart from side to side when he finds himself in yet another farcical corner and needs to take his game to the next, more lethal level. Eventually his face settles into a mask of entitlement, albeit pale and soft, like Conrad Veidts somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari  a fitting likeness given that the journey to evil is here a kind of sleepwalking, an instinct that takes over when all the other senses are worn down or plunged into chaos.

There are good Germans in The Captain, among them the placid head of a prisoner camp who watches men dig burial pits for their own future corpses and demands to know on whose authority Captain Willi Herold is acting. But for every man who objects, there are more who murder with a sense of relief, on the fallacious assumption that a bullet in someone else means one less in the world for them. It is lightly noted by a Nazi higher-up that, if nothing else, Willi Herold did much to curb the defeatist mentality in those he did not murder. We are left to contemplate this vision of Fascism as a machine that, once turned on, can sustain itself even in the absence of explicit direction from above. The key is keeping that infernal switch from being thrown.

*This article appears in the July 23, 2018, issue of New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!Everyone knows that a good soap opera is built on tropes. The long-lost secret sibling is one of the very best, and if you havent noticed, the CW absolutely loves using it. At least 11 different CW shows have utilized this specific trope in all sorts of twisted ways  from evil stalkers to illegitimate royalty  and the bizarre circumstances of their secret existences seem to know no bounds. This past year alone, both Riverdale and Dynasty unearthed secret older brothers who are introduced to their families via an imposter: one involved covering up an murder, and the other involved an amputated finger!

Why so many secret siblings? Being a teenager is essentially a dumpster fire of emotion and hormones, so maybe the trope is meant as a metaphor for the way a persons knowledge of the world shifts as they grow older. After all, the trope confronts the idea that parents are people who had lives before their kids came along: Even on TV, theyre full people who exist outside of making a teens life miserable.

You could argue that the secret sibling is a well that the CW goes back to far too often. (The Charmed reboot hasnt even premiered yet and its already got a secret sibling.) But what would be the fun in that? As one of the most reliable venues for campy teen drama, why mess with a formula that works? Lets break down the best secret siblings of the CW, ranked from least to most utterly chaotic. Spoilers for each show throughout, of course.

11. The Flash (2014present)

Photo: Katie Yu/Katie Yu/The CW

As far as secret siblings go, discovering that your supposedly dead mother actually abandoned you as a child due to her drug addiction  and was pregnant with your brother when she left  is a fairly tame development when it comes to the CW. In the midseason finale of season two, Central Citys favorite citizen journalist Iris West (Candice Patton) is reintroduced to her estranged mother and the younger brother she didnt know existed. Though Wally West (Keiynan Lonsdale) is initially resistant to join their little meta-family, he eventually lets his father and sister in, and joins Team Flash after being imbued with powers given to him by a mythical time demon, only to be shunted off the show to join the Legends of Tomorrow team. Super-simple stuff, right? Wally was a great addition to the show who was criminally wasted in favor of repetitive plots, but when he was there, he acted as a great youthful counterpoint to Barrys elder statesman. Wally, we hardly knew ye.

10. Arrow (2012present)

Photo: Jack Rowand/The CW

Saving the city is a lot of work, but does anyone ever think about Batman Jr.s little sister? After the death of her father and return of her declared dead brother, Thea Queen (Willa Holland) falls into a routine of hard partying and drug use, as well as a crush on her brother Olivers (Stephen Amell) best friend Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell). But surprise! Tommy is actually her paternal half-brother, and she is the result of an affair her mother had with trained assassin Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), whose attempted mass murder was fueled by the (very racist!) presumption that the slums of Starling City were in need of literal eradication. While Tommy dies in said attempted mass murder, Thea eventually comes to terms with her new identity, becoming an assassin in her own right under her biological fathers tutelage and joining Team Arrow as Speedy. She also murders a friend while under the influence of psychotropic drugs (and is resurrected by the mythical Lazarus Pit after being stabbed in the chest), but those things are mercifully unrelated to the parts about the super-brother she didnt know about.

9. The 100 (2014present)

Photo: Diyah Pera/THE CW

What do you do when youre living on a dying spaceship and having a second child is punishable by being sucked into the vast emptiness of space? Why, you hide your baby in the floorboards of your state-sanctioned living quarters, of course! And then that baby grows up to be a murder warrior who invents an underground colosseum. Octavia Blake (Marie Avgeropoulos) starts The 100 as the illegitimate daughter whose very existence is a crime, and over time grows to become a skilled tactician and leader. In short, theyd never have survived on Earth without her  and after a cataclysmic nuclear meltdown in season four, she keeps hundreds of people alive in an underground bunker by unifying several warring clans. A beloved character, Octavia turned her feelings of isolation and rejection into focused rage that fuels the endurance of her people. As far as secret siblings go, you could do a lot worse than someone who manages to hold things together during the literal apocalypse.

8. Reign (20132017)

Photo: The CW

A gone-too-soon series about the life and times of Mary, Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane), Reign was a historical drama that treated the concerns of young women with gravity and respect. (It also dealt in magic and prophecy and ghosts, as one does.) In the pilot episode, Mary is warned off some drugged wine by a shadowy figure who continues to look out for her. Initially thought to be a ghost, the figure is eventually revealed to be the illegitimate first-born daughter of Catherine de Medici, Clarissa (Megan Follows). The product of an early affair, Catherine sent Clarissa away to hide her adultery and later thought she had died. But lo and behold, Clarissa had been haunting the castle all this time via a series of secret passages! She later kidnaps her two younger brothers and threatens to murder them in retaliation for her mothers abandonment, but is thwarted and killed by Mary. The fun of Clarissas reveal was that, like so much else in Reign, it was a natural explanation for a seemingly supernatural event.

7. Gossip Girl (20072012)

Photo: The CW

Strangely enough, the reveal that lead characters Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) shared a secret half-brother born from their parents teenage love affair is one of the least explosive things to happen on this teen soap favorite. Initially a secret from everyone but his mother Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford), Lily and Rufus (Matthew Settle) go looking for their son Scott Rosson (Chris Riggi) in Boston, only for his adoptive parents to panic and say hes dead. Scotts a clever boy, though, and tracks his family down through Dans piece in the New York Times, pretends to be a student at NYU, and even dates Dans ex-girlfriend Vanessa in a twisted bit of recon. Though he hesitates to tell his parents who he is, quintessential Mean Girl Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) reveals the info at Lily and Rufuss wedding. Scotts existence did very little to add to the plot except make it more irritating that Serena and Dan kept breaking up and getting back together. I mean, how is poor Scott supposed to explain this family arrangement to his friends? Plus, as dramatic as that all sounds, it will never top the fact that Serena married the man who spent six years actively making her life miserable!

6. The Originals (20132018)

Photo: Quantrell D. Colbert/The CW

Klaus Mikaelson (Joseph Morgan) always had a complicated relationship to family, so its no surprise that hes immediately suspicious when his newly revealed older sister Freya Mikaelson (Riley Voelkel) turns up in New Orleans. Originally thought to have died from the plague, Freyas mother actually surrendered her to her aunt as a payment for a fertility spell that would allow her to have more children. After spending years being tortured and used for her youth and beauty (you know, regular witch stuff), Freya escaped to rejoin her family, and has been an ally ever since. As a spinoff of The Vampire Diaries, The Originals began with a lot of world-building and rules already in place, so Freyas existence allowed for a novel surprise that added context and intrigue.

5. Dynasty (2017present)

Photo: The CW

Led by the patriarch Blake Carrington (Grant Show), his new wife Crystal Flores Carrington (Nathalie Kelley), and his daughter Fallon Carrington (Elizabeth Gillies), this reboot of the 80s ABC soap largely revolves around the various political and business shenanigans of the Carrington familys company and the interpersonal drama of their adversaries. One of the first seasons final plot points is the reemergence of Blakes estranged ex-wife, Alexis (Nicollette Sheridan), who claims to have spent the last several years using the money she won in her divorce to find their lost son, Adam, who was kidnapped as a baby and never heard from again. Adams existence was kept a secret from Fallon  that is, until Alexis manipulates her son into going on a wild goose chase to find the man shed hired to pretend to be Adam (Brent Antonello), in a bid to lay claim to the family trust and dilute her ex-husbands voting power in his company. This ruse included cutting off the same finger her real son lost to the kidnapper all those years ago! This was such a fun plot point specifically because it was entirely expected. Dynasty knows exactly what it is  a campy, trashy, obscenely opulent drama  and it leans into that identity every chance it gets. The second you think something is too wild to be true, there it is!

4. Riverdale (2017present)

Photo: The CW

The CWs moody take on Archie Comics is delicious, juicy fun  and of course, theres a secret sibling, because what would a teen soap be without one? In season one, Betty Cooper (Lili Reinhart) learns that her mother Alice (Madchen Amick) gave up her son after a teenage pregnancy, and in the second season, she goes looking for him. She finds the shadowy figure Chic (Hart Denton), and Betty and Alice invite him to stay in their home. Chic immediately creeps everyone out, specifically the Cooper patriarch Hal (Lochlyn Munro), who moves out in protest. Obviously, it doesnt take long for Chic to start making trouble for the rest of the Coopers. After an accidental death, a concealed body, and lots of questions and threats, Bettys growing suspicions lead her to discover that Chic isnt her brother at all, but her brothers roommate, who murdered the real Chic in a fit of rage and then assumed his identity. Let that be a lesson: There are no happy family reunions on the CW.

3. The Secret Circle (20112012)

Photo: The CW

This failed attempt at a Britt Robertson star vehicle lasted only one season, but managed to pack all kinds of narrative nonsense into its 22 episodes. The most notable one, for our purposes, is the new best friend who turned out to be her half-sister. After her mother dies in a fire and she moves to Chance Harbour to live with her grandmother, Cassie Blake (Robertson) discovers that her late mother was a witch (and that she is one too). Once shes coerced by local teens into joining their karmically predestined mini-coven, Cassie sets to work unraveling the mystery of a fire that happened 16 years prior, which killed many of the Circles parents. Aided by her friend Diana Meade (Shelley Hennig), whose boyfriend is cosmically destined to end up with Cassie, her search leads back to her fathers family. Cassie eventually learns that her father specializes in dark magic in order to sire several children. One of those children is  you guessed it, Diana Meade! Although The Secret Circle was canceled before this twist could fully be explained, it was a savvy reveal: Making Cassie and Diana secret sisters forced them together in exactly the right way to maximize teenage awkwardness.

2. Jane the Virgin (2014present)

Photo: The CW

Although Jane the Virgin isnt exactly a teen drama, its elaborately orchestrated telenovela secret-twin plot cant be left out. Anezka, twin sister of Petra Solano (both portrayed by Yael Grobglas) first appears in season two at the behest of their mother in a bid to take over Petras stake in the Marbella Hotel. Anezkas schemes follow a fairly standard evil-twin playbook  she grew up in a Czech orphanage  and she subjects Petra to everything from medical petrification, assuming her identity, sleeping with her ex-husband Rafael (Justin Baldoni) under false pretenses, faking her death, and straight-up blackmail before she actually falls to her death in season four. Eager to please, Anezkas fluid loyalties perpetually bounced between her mother and her sister, and her hilarious presence often served as a last-minute plot complication. Although her introduction felt like yet another telenovela bait-and-switch, she became integral to the shows rhythm of surprises and reveals. RIP, Anezka, you will be missed.

1. One Tree Hill (20032012)

Photo: The CW

The original CW teen drama was actually a holdover from the networks days as the WB, but it still set the high-water mark for many credibility-straining secret siblings to come. After meeting her biological mother, Peyton Sawyer (Hilarie Burton) discovers that she also has a half-brother named Derek. Peyton uses her internet radio show to request that Derek reach out to her and initially embraces the blonde young man who responds. But, of course, this wouldnt be a teen drama without a twist: Psycho Derek is actually a crazed internet stalker named Ian Banks (Matt Barr), who sublimated the guilt he felt from killing his girlfriend in a car accident by obsessing over Peyton.

Ian soon insinuates himself into Peytons life by watching her on a constantly streaming webcam (the NSA is shaking!) and sending her instant messages from a creepy handle. He also makes a habit of sniffing her hair, and then later steals her jacket and hires a prostitute to dress up as Peyton before beating her up. Ian subsequently attempts to rape Peyton when she discovers his ruse, only to be thwarted by Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and the real Derek (Ernest Waddell). Naturally, Ian escapes and fakes his capture, only to return at prom and kidnap both Peyton and Brooke (Sophia Bush) before Peyton stabs him and turns him over to the authorities. Basically, One Tree Hill invented Catfish and we should all acknowledge this.Hulk Hogan on the stand during his trial against Gawker. Photo: John Pendygraft/Pool/Getty Images

In the IP era, there are few things juicier than an unclaimed bit of public-domain real estate, which could explain why Gawkers death at the hands of Hulk Hogan and Peter Thiel has become the object of the latest Hollywood gold rush. So far, weve seen three different projects in development from filmmakers dreaming of making the next Social Network. Theres John Garys Gawker vs. Thiel, a wide-angle view of the sites various controversies, informed by dozens of interviews with ex-Gawkerites. Theres Kenny Kyles Just the Facts, a biopic of former Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio. And then theres the adaptation of Ryan Holidays book Conspiracy, written by The Big Shorts Charles Randolph, with Francis Lawrence attached to direct.

Its unclear how many of the projects, if any, will end up panning out, but drafts of the first two have been going around the film and media worlds for a few months now. (Randolphs script doesnt seem to be making the rounds yet, so hes presumably still hard at work.) But what do the people who lived through the whole ordeal think? We decided to ask the Gawker diaspora, a cadre of writers who were never shy about sharing their opinions, what they thought about the idea of a movie about the demise of their beloved site.

Many politely declined, saying they were put off by the whole idea of a Gawker movie. Others would only give their opinions off the record. Even those who would talk about the scripts were not exactly enthused by the prospect of having to relitigate Hogan vs. Gawker one more time. The idea of any of these being made is so soul-sucking to think about, said one ex-Gawker writer. I have a hard time seeing why anyone would want to watch a movie about us, but I guess theres people who want to write them, at least.

Gawker vs. Thiel

John Gary spent countless hours talking to ex-Gawkerites for his script, which has Modern Familys Jason Winer attached to direct. His level of investment shows in the screenplays parade of details, down to the names of the bars the staff frequent. Its clear that he got a lot of the environmental details right: the physical geography of Lower Manhattan, what it was like to walk into Nick Dentons apartment, says former writer Keenan Trotter, who spoke to Gary briefly for the project.

Garys affinity for Gawker is also reflected in the scripts character descriptions, which are a treat to read even if they wont make it into any prospective film version. (Managing editor Tom Scocca is what happens when an L.L. Bean model majors in biological anthropology at Harvard but wastes it by going into journalism.) To the ex-staffers, the descriptions have an additional utility. I love them because theyre very fun to make fun of the person about, says the ex-writer. Theyre really good for owning my friends.

Garys script periodically zooms out to check in on people like Hogan and Thiels lawyers, but its clear his heart is with the writers. (The final line is a real kicker: Never forget that Gawker was murdered because a billionaire didnt like it.) Some on the staff give it credit for at least trying to stay balanced. There does seem to be an effort in the script to complicate the narrative, says Trotter. Its not even attempting to suggest that Gawker was innocent; its attempting an analysis of the cultural and social forces that were behind all of this, without necessarily trying to absolve anyone. Not everyone thinks that will matter. Its super-sympathetic to Gawker, says the ex-writer. Even if Gawker vs. Thiel gets made, people will be like, Oh, its fanboy bullshit.

Just the Facts

This spec from Hawaii Five-O writer Kenny Kyle takes an approach you might call heavily inspired by Martin Scorsese, with Goodfellas-style narration from Daulerio charting his rise and fall. (The Gawker diaspora has been calling it Wolf of Blog Street.) The draft I saw ends with Daulerio refusing a plea deal that would leave him unable to speak out about the trial, then typing away at the script that weve just seen  the implication being, this is the official A.J. Daulerio version of the story. But by all accounts, the former Gawker editor has no involvement with the project, and some insiders expressed irritation that Daulerio, who had his assets seized after the trial, would not be the one to profit off his own life story.

Just the Facts seems to be slightly ahead of Gawker vs. Thiel in the race to get made, and reading both scripts, you can see why: While Garys screenplay can sometimes come off as just a collection of scenes, Kyles reads much more like an actual movie. But the strain of hammering the story of Gawker into a familiar Hollywood story arc is pretty obvious, especially when the Daulerio character has a moment of contrition at the very end. All the shit about A.J. looking back and being like, How could we have been so cruel? is insane, says the ex-writer.

The Conspiracy adaptation

The ex-employees I spoke to had varying opinions on a lot of things related to the fall of Gawker, but on one issue they were united: Basically everyone hated Ryan Holiday, the PR-flack-turned-author Gawker previously called a lying dick and a known fraud. As you might expect, then, no one was too keen on seeing his recent book about Thiel and Gawker get a big-budget adaptation from the director of The Hunger Games. The parts [of the book] Ive seen are littered with factual inaccuracies, and Ryan Holiday being a piece of shit, says the ex-writer. I still cant believe somebody paid him to write it. Still, they see some poetic irony in the idea of Holidays version of the story being the one that gets made: The option that is the biggest slap in the face to Gawker is the one that usually happens.

Which one would they prefer?

As you might expect, most of the writers and editors I talked to slightly preferred Garys version, even if it too takes occasional liberties. But if they had a choice? Says the ex-writer: My ideal world is that no Gawker movie gets made and we all get to move on with our lives one day.Today, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice of intent to sue Mazda-Toyota Manufacturing, and the city of Huntsville over the construction of an auto plant near the habitat of one of Alabama's rarest fishes.

This comes one day after construction resumed after being halted for a week. During this time the manufacturing company met with the Center for Biological Diversity to review the site.



Mazda-Toyota chose this TVA megasite in Limestone County. Mazda-Toyota chose this TVA megasite in Limestone County.

Independent environmental experts evaluated the project design and determined the best management practices are robust, and protect the endangered fish.

Mazda-Toyota is being build on a 2,400-acre area west of Huntsville. The $1.6 billion automotive assembly plant, known as the "Huntsville Mega Site."

The Center of Biological Diversity says, the construction threatens to pollute and degrade springs, steams and wetlands that support the endangered spring pygmy sunfish.

The City of Huntsville released a statement saying the following:

The threat of this type of development led the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the sunfish under the Endangered Species Act in 2013. The act requires Mazda-Toyota and the City to prepare a habitat conservation plan and apply for an incidental take permit before they begin construction.

Elise Bennett, The CBD's Attorney told WAAY 31," they haven't seen any type of comprehensive plan on how their plant will affect the fish and how they are going to be sure the fish won't go extinct."

Mazda-Toyota's communication analyst, Kim Ogle said, "we are confident that the pygmy fish and it's habitat will be adequately protected, and we are ready to move forward.

The agency said, this development located adjacent from the Beaverdam Spring/Creek system would directly impact the Spring Pygmy Sunfishes' habitat by decreasing water quality and quantity.

The Center for Biological Diversity's Attorney told us, "they have not received a response to their letter from either the city of Mazda-Toyota.WAAY 31 talked to a farmer who harvests a soybean field. He told us that the price of soybeans are down about two dollars right now but he said that's normal for this time of year. He does say he doesn't know the long term effect of the tariff.

"It's hard to say exactly how much is related to the tariff's. That is kind of yet to play out," said farmer Stan Usery.

Usery said the impact from tariff's could play out this fall when he goes to sell around 500 acres of soybean.

"In those pods will form the actual soybeans."

Soybeans have many uses from foods to plastics. Which is why they are exported around the world and China is one of it's biggest customers.

"About every two rows of these soybeans, one of them is going to China."

As President of the Alabama Soybean and Corn Association, Usery talks to other farmers about how the price of soybeans is going down now because of the tariffs . He said they are happy the government is offering help.

"We're at least on their radar as far as folks that have been negatively impacted by these taiffs."

Usery said right now the farmers are taking a wait and see approach on how the tariff will effect them long term.

"Who's to say this isn't long term beneficial? We may correct some trade imbalance and it may improve trade relations with China," said Usery.

Despite the tariff's usery and other farmers are remaining optimistic and focused on their crops.

"Farmers are tough and we'll find a way to get through it."

Usery said if soybean prices continue to drop, soybean farmers would need to find ways to cut costs or may decide to plant other crops instead.

The plan is only a short term solution that will directly pay farmers and purchase their excess food, and provide programs to create new export markets -- that's what agriculture officials are saying.A developer spent $5 million for 900 acres of prime real estate in the Shoals.

This wooded area along Second Street in Muscle Shoals is now officially owned by muscle Shoals LLC, a company representative told us they want to hear from people on the types of businesses or industries they want to see come in.



"900 acres is a lot of land. My reaction is what are they planning on doing with this," said Sonya Crittenden.

She works right across the street from the 900 acres of TVA land recently bought by Muscle Shoals Holadings LLC.

She hopes to see more shopping options.

"I'd like to see something like a Bridge Street type area. Some type of center for children to hang out and also to keep the money in this area than going to Huntsville to shop."



Patrick King, a representative with Muscle Shoals Holdings LLC, said he's taking trips to The Shoals to find out what people want.

He said all options are on the table, from possible tech industries, to some spin off automotive businesses to align with the Mazda Toyota plant.



"Huntsville has got a lot of stuff coming in like Redstone Arsenal and the Space Center so something here like that would be great," Jean Bogus told WAAY 31.

She wants to see more job opportunities for the younger generation in the Shoals.

"A lot of people that's going to college now are getting computer degrees and having to leave and go to other places to get a job."

King told us many of the investors want to remain anonymous.

He said they will be picky and are in this project for the long haul.Kimball Public Schools hired a new superintendent, Dr. Elizabeth Owens, formerly of Virginia.

Her ancestors have been in Virginia for over 400 years. After growing up on a farm near the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Dr. Owens stayed close to home, working for the Virginia Department of Education in the Office of School Improvement, where she provided technical assistance to school districts to increase student achievement.

She was also superintedent of Grayson County Public Schools, also found in Virginia, for more than six years.

Earlier this summer, Dr. Owens and her husband were welcomed into Kimball.

Although Kimball is far from her hometown, Dr. Owens describes it as "Beautiful Western Nebraska." She hopes for visits from family members and possibly even relocation to Kimball.

Dr. Owens has received many invites to different churches and events. Kimball and the Kimball Board of Education planned an ice cream social for the community to meet Owens.

"The people in Kimball are incredibly kind," said Dr. Owens. "It is certainly a privilege and honor to be a part of this community."

Owens takes the helm as many changes are being made throughout the school district. Recently the board approved a one-one ratio for computers and students grades 7-12. The intercom system at the high school has been updated and the mathematical series has changed for all grades kindergarten-12.

Although many adjustments have already been made, there are many other goals still to accomplish, according to Dr. Owens.

Some that she has set for herself is building strong parent and community partnerships, which is very important when working in such position.

"I am very excited to work with the school board, the district staff, the parents and, most importantly, the students of Kimball Public Schools," she said. "All of which are essential for student success."

While she is very happy about this school year, she is also enjoying time with her horses. She loves trail riding along with training horses.

"I have competed in a variety of horse events including fox hunting and barrel racing," she said.

With school beginning in less than a month, Dr. Owens is excited and students are ready to introduce themselves to the new superintendent.

"This will be an exciting year for the students of Kimball Public Schools," she added.According to Kimball County Commissioner, Daria Anderson-Faden, the Kimball County Manor announced the opening of two new spas, anyone can call and make an appointment for a low cost.

A public hearing was held to receive comments for or against a conditional use permit application from Ray Freeburg (Travis Freeburg) to request approval for mining excavation in Section 31, Township 16 North, Range 58 West, Kimball County.

Travis Freeburg attended the hearing to elaborate on the permit request. According to Freeburg the application for mining excavation usage has been used for many years, however, the new permit request is just for expansion.

We are basically moving the site further west to find some better material, he said.

The Planning Commission set this matter for approval by the Commissioners on June 25 at a past meeting.

County Highway Superintendent, Dave Hottell, stated to Freeburg that a pit in that area is a necessity.

We would be more than happy to work with the county for pit runs or what is needed, this is a military grade material, Freeburg said.

There was no other public at the hearing to protest, the board saw no concerns allowing the permit to expand the mining excavation.

Christy Warner, County Transit Service Administrator, addressed the Board of Commissioners last Tuesday, July 17, during the regular meeting to discuss the need for an out-of-town Veteran Service Officer (VSO) to sign off for the Highway Rural Transportation Grant. A VSO signature is needed for completion of this grant application.

The Highly Rural Transportation Grant makes available up to $50,000, including three options on how to use the funds received. According to Warner one option is to purchase a vehicle strictly to offer veterans free rides, a second option is to ask for a certain amount of dollars to pay out fares for each vet riding; the third option is to ask for a percentage of matched funds. Warner believes the third option is the best way to go, she added this option is clean and easy.

Once accepted, during the new applicant process, the organization has the option to apply for this grant annually, but, in order to have the annual application option, the organization must first apply during the new applicant process.

We have neighboring states that have applied but no one from Nebraska has applied for this grant yet, Warner added. This process occurs every three to five years.

Part of this, she believes, is because a highly rural area is considered seven people or less per square mile. A large majority of the counties in Nebraska do not fall under that category.

This grant will allow veterans in Kimball, Banner and even Cheyenne Counties to ride for free, along with one immediate family member each.

The Board was more than willing to allow an out-of-town VSO to sign the grant application. John Brehm, the Banner County Veterans Service Officer, was approached to sign the grant, he greatly agreed, according to Warner.

Warner added that she will know if Kimball County Transit is awarded the grant sometime in October.

In other transit system news, most have likely seen the new wrap on the shuttle. The red, white and blue wrap is very eye-catching and easily noticed.

Its only Tuesday and we are already hearing good comments and more talk around town, Warner added.By Leah Long Jul. 24, 2018 | 10:34 PM | PADUCAH

Paducah's City Commission got its first look Tuesday evening at a traffic engineering study of Buckner Lane between and including intersections with Pecan Drive and Pines Road. The study, which Commissioner Sarah Stewart Holland had been asking for for several months, she pointed out had been completed since February.In November 2017 the city engaged the services of HDR Engineering to conduct the traffic study, which was presented to the council by City of Paducah Engineer and Public Works Director Rick Murphy and HDR's Highway Section Manager Chad Stoerger.Signal warrant, traffic operations, and safety analysis were performed for both intersections. There were four alternatives presented concerning the intersection of Buckner Lane and Pecan Drive. The first is to do nothing, the second is to make the intersection a three-way stop, the third would be to add a traffic signal and the fourth option would be to widen Buckner Lane to include a dedicated right-turn lane for traffic turning onto Pecan along with the combination of a signal and right-turn lane.According to HDR, their recommendation would be to add a right turn lane with a traffic signal to help decrease the intersection delay and the back up of traffic. The second recommendation would be to install only a traffic signal. Murphy said the cost for adding just a signal would be $125,000 to $150,000. He said if the city chose to add the signal and widen the lane, that cost would be approximately $250,000 to $275,000.According to Stoerger, the all-way stop would be the poorest option.Cost was a concern to the commissioners as well as increased traffic flow. Commissioner Stewart-Holland said she would rather have increased traffic with increased safety. "To me the lane has to happen. That's the biggest problem. It's the most obvious solution," she said."Is an hour long pain worth $250,000 to our community, I mean that's the question," said Paducah Mayor Brandy Harless.In regard to the intersection at Buckner Lane and Pines Road, according to HDR, the intersection will continue to operate acceptably from a traffic standpoint. However, safety improvements were considered and the recommendation is to re-configure the southbound right-turn channelization to flatten the approach angle, which could reduce the frequency of rear-end collisions.Murphy said the information in the study is "food for thought," for the commission. After over an hour-long discussion the commissioner agreed to spend the next month digesting and reviewing the study, as well as talking with constituents. The commission plans to discuss the issue further at its August 28 meeting.An ordinance introduced at the previous commissioner meeting pertaining to annexation of properties was approved. The ordinance annexed several properties adjacent to Paducahs west side. The properties total nearly 70 acres and have five different property owners.Three property owners requested the annexation of their properties: Nancy Bergfield requested the annexation of 5201 Hinkleville Road; Alberta Davis requested the annexation of 5310 Harris Road and 5325 Hinkleville Road; and Falconite Real Estate Holdings, LLC requested the annexation of Tracts 2 and 3 on an annexation plat in addition to 2705 Olivet Church Road.To facilitate growth, the City also intends to annex Tract 5, (19.95 acres owned by Menard, Inc.), and Tract 6 (8.0 acres owned by Harriett Reed, Trustee of Walter Reed Trust) as shown on the annexation plat. Plats showing all of the properties can be found in the meeting packet at http://paducahky.gov/2018-city-commission.Tom ONeil who works in real estate acquisitions for Menard, Inc. was in attendance at the meeting after spending time Tuesday with the City Manager Jim Arndt and staff discussing the annexation and the business plans and designs for Paducahs Menards store which is expected to open in late 2019 or early 2020. ONeil said, We [Menards] are looking forward to becoming a member of the community, he said.The commission also approved an ordinance for change order number two for the City Hall Phase I project. The change order involves nine elements that have either been deleted or added to the project. The net result of the nine elements increases the contract with A&K Construction by $16,836. A portion of the cost increase is due to the repair needed to the beams and canopy after the removal of paint and concrete filler revealed several areas in need of patching. Another addition is due to the need to increase the roof slope for drainage. The change order adjusts the total contract with A&K to little over $4.1 million dollars.The contract with A&K to rehabilitate City Hall was approved by the Paducah Board of Commissioners on January 23rd of this year. The contractor began working March 4. This project includes the rehabilitating and improving of City Halls roofing membrane, concrete overhang (canopy) through steel beam stabilization of roof cantilevers, heating and cooling systems, skylights, windows, and exterior doors.Currently, the building has a screen around it as crews have been removing layers of paint and debris from the exterior. The screen helps keep the debris on the concrete podium area for containment and removal. The project is expected to be completed around Thanksgiving, which is ahead of schedule.The commission also approved an agreement with HDR Engineering in the amount of $166,500 for data collection and pavement inspections in order to implement the pavement management software program, PAVEr, which will provide cost information about street repairs, as well as maintain an inventory and generate reports that will help the city objectively identify streets in need of repair.One ordinance, involving street closures, was introduced Tuesday evening. It would close Adams Street from the intersection with South 25th until the street ends; South 24th Street from the intersection with Jackson Street until the street ends; and two alleys that parallel Adams Street on this block. The closures were requested by the Paducah Independent School District which owns the adjacent properties. The Planning Commission held a public hearing July 2 and is makes a positive recommendation for the closures. The closures are associated with the school districts planned Innovation Hub. The commission will vote on this ordinance at it Aug. 14 meeting. To view the board agenda, packet or watch the meeting in its entirety, visit paducahky.gov/2018-city-commission.

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Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required.By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 24, 2018 | 09:22 PM | GRAVES COUNTY

A one-vehicle crash Tuesday afternoon in Graves County sent the driver to a Nashville hospital.

According to the Graves County Sheriff's Office, the wreck happened at the intersection of State Route 339 North and State Route 408 West, between Lowes and Fancy Farm. Deputies said a vehicle, driven by 65-year-old William Allen Cash, was traveling west on State Route 408 West when he failed to stop at the intersection.

Police said Cash tried to negotiate the turn onto State Route 339 North, but the vehicle dropped off the side of the road. The vehicle then travelled down a small hill and began to flip, ejecting Cash. The vehicle continued flipping, coming to rest on its roof.

Cash was transported to the parking lot at Fancy Farm Elementary School by Mayfield Fire & EMS and then airlifted to Skyline Medical Center in Nashville.

Deputies shut down a small section of State Route 339 North for about an hour while an investigation was conducted.By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 25, 2018 | 03:10 PM | HICKORY

The Kentucky State Police is seeking the publics help in finding 35-year-old Jonathan D. Mahan, of Melber. Mahan is described as a white male, standing 6 feet tall and weighing 175 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes.

Mahan is wanted by State Police on 10 counts of 1st degree criminal abuse child under 12 years of age, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, 4th degree domestic assault and other charges out of Graves County. Mahan was indicted by a Graves County Grand Jury in 2017 on those charges. Mahan failed to show up for his court appearance in January.

Mahan was reported missing by his sister on Feb. 2. According to her, Mahan was last heard from on or about January 28. His vehicles were located at his home, but he has been known to hitchhike.

Troopers have searched the post 1 area for him along with KSP Post 10, and 11 where state police had received tips of his whereabouts, but he was not located. Troopers are continuing to search for Mahan, who is entered NCIC as a wanted person. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Kentucky State Police Post 1 at 270-856-3721 or anonymously at 1-800-222-5555.By The Associated Press Jul. 24, 2018 | 07:57 PM | WASHINGTON

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, meeting with several senators, including his chief GOP critic, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Kavanaugh, the appellate court judge tapped by President Donald Trump to fill the seat of retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy, had a roster-full of meetings with Republican senators as he shores up votes before a confirmation hearing.

Paul is the one Republican in the narrowly divided Senate who has outwardly wavered in possible support. The libertarian-leaning senator says he's keeping an "open mind," but few expect he would actually oppose Trump's choice.

The senator is particularly concerned about Kavanaugh's views on the Fourth Amendment, which protects against undue search and seizure. Paul let Trump know he preferred other potential nominees he viewed as more conservative. But he has since said he's undecided.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was less worried about Paul on Tuesday than about Democrats, who are demanding reams of documents from Kavanaugh's time as a judge and political official.

Republicans are eager to have Kavanaugh confirmed before the midterm elections as an accomplishment they can bring home to voters, and McConnell warned Democrats not to try to delay it.

"We're going to finish this nomination this fall," McConnell said. "So let there be no misunderstanding that there would be any kind of delay tactic that would take us past the first Tuesday in November."

Democrats want background on Kavanaugh's 12 years as an appellate judge as well as his earlier jobs on Ken Starr's team investigating Bill Clinton; the 2000 presidential election recount; and as staff secretary in the George W. Bush administration. The documents could top 1 million pages.

Some Democrats have declined to meet with Kavanaugh while they wait on documents.

But several Democratic senators from Trump-won states who are up for re-election in November are under pressure to back the nominee in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim 51-49 majority and every vote matters.

One key Democrat, Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, said Tuesday that he was set to meet with the judge in August. Others have said they, too, will meet with him.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.UTICA, NY  Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi, the Democratic candidate for the 22nd Congressional district in New York, held a town hall in Utica Tuesday evening.

Brindisi has held a number of town hall meetings throughout the 22nd district since April.

Tuesdays event at the thINCubator on Broad Street, is his 7th.

Some of the topics brought up by the audience included the downtown hospital, medical marijuana, corporate campaign funding, and net neutrality.

Before taking questions from the audience Brindisi spoke with the media on a variety of topics, including the federal tax cuts that were implemented earlier this year.

Many of the major corporations out there are not using that money to increase the wages of their workers. There is a report out today that shows the average workers wage has fallen, not increased, while many of these companies that have been the real beneficiaries of the tax bill have used that money to increase the profits of their shareholders.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenneys campaign issued the following statement in response.

While parroting Cuomo and Pelosi in a phony town hall stocked with his liberal supporters and the impeach Trump crowd, Brindisi should listen to the people of the Mohawk Valley. 95 percent of whom have received a tax cut, and go into local small businesses who have created jobs and put more money into their employees' pockets thanks to tax reform.REMSEN  Local authorities are searching for a man following a 911 hang-up call and a foot chase in the Remsen area, according to the Oneida County Sheriffs Office.

Around 3:23 p.m. Wednesday, deputies responded to a 911 hang-up phone call at 9584 Main St. in Remsen. When a deputy arrived at that address, a man  later identified as 56-year-old Tomas Zavalidroga  ran away on foot from the deputy. The deputy then took off after Zavalidroga, but lost sight of him between houses in Remsen.

New York State Police, the Boonville Police Department and New York State Department of Environmental Protection Police all responded to assist with the search, but they did not find Zavalidroga.

Deputies say Zavalidroga also has an open warrant from the Oneida County Sheriffs Office for misdemeanor criminal contempt.

Back in 2016, Zavalidroga was found guilty of second-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree falsely reporting an incident after he left his 83-year-old mother in the woods two years prior to that. Officials say Zavalidroga reported his mother missing in 2014, and she was found several days later in the woods in Oneida. His mother said Zavalidroga had left her there.

Deputies say the 911 hang-up call is still under investigation. Theyre asking anyone who knows where Zavalidroga is to call the Sheriffs Office at 315-736-0141 or call 911.The Rome man who was charged in connection to a fatal motorcycle hit-and-run crash in Westmoreland last year has pleaded guilty to the charges.

In Oneida County Court on Tuesday, 23-year-old Everett Taylor pleaded guilty to two counts of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, one for each victim and one of which resulted in death.

Police say in the afternoon of May 27, 2017, Taylor was driving a 2008 Hundai vehicle eastbound in the passing lane of the Thruway in Westmoreland when he changed lanes to the driving lane and struck the front tire of a motorcycle driven by 47-year-old Joseph Perrotti of Utica.

Police say both Perrotti and his passenger were ejected from the motorcycle, and Taylor continued driving before getting off exit 32 in Westmoreland.

Perrotti and his passenger both sustained serious injuries, and Perrotti later died of his injures on June 2, according to police. Taylor was not injured in the crash.

Taylor was then stopped on Furnace Street in Westmoreland after a sheriffs deputy saw the damage on his vehicle while authorities were searching the area for a suspects vehicle.

Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced in Oneida County Court on Sept. 18.A Rome man who admitted to having sexual contact with a child has been sentenced to jail time, according to the Oneida County District Attorneys Office.

In Oneida County Court on Wednesday, 25-year-old William Lighthall was sentenced to 6 months in Oneida County Jail with 10 years of probation, sex offender registration and an order of protection on behalf of the victim.

Lighthall was arrested back in May after authorities say he had sexual contact with a male child less than 17 years old in the city of Rome at the end of April. Lighthall then pleaded guilty to the charge.WASHINGTON (AP)  Democratic Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly said he'll meet with President Donald Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee next month.

Donnelly is considered one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents on the ballot this year. Now the GOP is ratcheting up pressure on him to support appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh, despite widespread opposition to the nominee from his fellow Democrats.

Donnelly's office said Tuesday that he'll meet Kavanaugh on Aug. 15.LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)  Organizers of the Nelly concert are back to square one when it comes to where the show will be held.

Plans were in place to bring the concert to Main Street in downtown Lafayette, but those plans were tabled at today's Lafayette Board of Works meeting.

The owner of Main Street Live Nate Pientok hopes Main Street will be filled with 4,000 people on October 6, but after a verbal complaint at Tuesday's meeting, he is re-working all of his plans.

The Nelly concert was originally scheduled to be held at the Tippecanoe County Amphitheater on June 14, but that was canceled when organizers couldn't agree on security costs on time.

Since then organizers have drawn up a new footprint that includes closing down Main Street from 6th street to 8th street.

All of the appropriate paperwork was signed and permits granted, and owner Nate Pientok thought he was finally done and ready to announce the new concert venue.

But one business owner on Main Street isn't happy with the plans, now Pientok is starting over.

"99% of the businesses that were affected are on board, it's just that one percent that we kind of have to overcome and or change the whole layout forWe reached out to that businesses owner to hear his concerns and haven't heard back yet," said Pientok.

Owner of Professor Joe's Joe Wenig said he doesn't understand how closing people in on Main Street, could ever be a bad thing for businesses.

"We all struggle with getting people downtown and we all support the idea of getting more foot traffic and this is just an opportunity that I hope we don't miss," said Wenig.

Pientok doesn't want to miss it either, he hopes this compromise can help.

"We're looking at going from...blocking 6th street from South to somewhere past Ferry...just depends on capacity," explained Pientok.

Although he hopes he can still get the Main Street location approved, he is still drawing up new plans.



No word on when those will be presented to the board of works, but we will continue to follow the progress.TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind (WLFI)  The Tippecanoe County Fair hosted its fourth annual pie eating contest tonight inside the special events tent.

The champion was Tyler Britton, who has now won every single pie eating competition.

He beat out the rest of his age group by a landslide.

There were four seperate age groups in the contest, which meant four seperate competitions.

In the age group two-to-six, kids enjoyed one slice of the pie, while the rest of the competitions featured one pie. The chocolate creme pie weighed one pound, thirteen ounces.

Every competitor has three minutes to finish the pie in front of them. No hands. No vomiting.

If a tie were to happen, then the judges would weigh what was left of the pie to determine the winner. That was the case in every age group other than eighteen-and-up.

Some competitors wore goggles, but West Lafayette Police Chief Jason Dombkowski preffered a garbage bag over his shirt. Dombkowski enters every year.

Each age group had one champion and one runner up.

As Tyler Britton demolished his pie in about two minutes the crowd cheered him on.

The stands were full and so were the bellies of the competitors.

The results for the competitions are as follows:

Age Group (2-6) 1st Place - Alexander Buck / 2nd Place - Erin O'Shields

Age Group (7-12) 1st Place - Alyssa Nicholson / 2nd Place - Jonah Brouwer

Age Group (13-17) 1st Place - Aiden Grines / 2nd Place - Evelyn Hoefer

Age Group (18+) 1st Place - Tyler Britton / 2nd Place - Magdelene PearlINDIANA (WLFI) Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly said he'll meet with President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee next month.

Donnelly is considered one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents on the ballot this year.

The GOP has recently put added pressure on him to support appeals court Judge Brett Kavanaugh.

This comes despite widespread opposition to the nominee from his fellow Democrats. Donnelly's office said he'll meet Kavanaugh on August 15.

Wednesday he told News 18 that his goal is to walk away with a better understanding of Kavanaugh's views.

"I want to determine his qualifications, I want to go over with him some of his views on the law and so to learn more about him so I can make a better decision when it comes time," said Sen. Donnelly.

The announcement comes after Donnelly's Republican opponent Mike Braun accused him of joining other Democrats in refusing to meet with Kavanaugh, in order to slow-walk the process.Police confirmed Tuesday night that a missing Merrillville woman's body was found in Lake Michigan.

Tiara Hardy's body was found at around 6p.m. using sonar imaging.

Authorities say Hardy, 24, went missing Monday evening. She was last seen struggling in choppy Lake Michigan waters off of a northwestern Indiana beach. A second person was rescued.

Police in Gary say crews looked for the woman Monday evening near Marquette Beach until the search was temporarily suspended due to weather conditions and darkness.

The search resumed for her Tuesday morning. The DNR says she'd been swimming with friends.

Daniel Harman, of Portage, was at the beach with his girlfriend and two daughters when he saw three people drifting away. He says he swam out and grabbed a man while another swimmer got to land on her own.

The third swimmer, however, disappeared in the water.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

7/24/2018 10:57:05 AM (GMT -4:00)



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This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 25th, 2018

Two North Wales MPs have hit out at the UK Governments failure to bring in tougher sentences for those who cause death by dangerous driving.

Following a number of high-profile cases and pressure from the families of victims, campaigners and MPs, the UK Government announced it intended to introduce harder sentences in October last year. However, nine months later no legislation has yet been brought forward.

In June this year Justice Minister Rory Stewart said: In October last year we published the Government response to the consultation on driving offences and penalties relating to causing death or serious injury. In that response we confirmed our proposals to: increase the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving from 14 years imprisonment to life; increase the maximum penalty for causing death by careless driving under the influence of drink or drugs; and create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving.

These proposals will require a change to primary legislation. The Government propose to introduce a Bill as soon as Parliamentary time allows and we continue to look for appropriate opportunities to present these provisions to Parliament.

Ian Lucas, MP for Wrexham, and Susan Elan Jones, MP for Clwyd South, joined more than 70 of their colleagues in signing a letter to the Justice Secretary asking when the government would take the action it promised. In response, the Justice Minister did not confirmed an exact date when the tougher sentences can be expected to be introduced.

Ian Lucas said: Families of victims and road safety campaigners were delighted last October when the government announced it intended to toughen the sentences for causing death by dangerous driving, so that the punishment better reflects the serious nature of the crime. Since then, whenever Ministers have been questioned about the delay they have said that the changes will be introduced as soon as parliamentary time allows. It was hoped that a letter signed by more than 70 MPs from various parties might prompt a different and more positive response, but sadly not.

Susan Elan Jones added: The government are continuing to use lack of parliamentary time as an excuse, but just last week they proposed starting the summer recess early and cancelling next weeks business. If whatever is on the parliamentary agenda next week is so unimportant that it can be scrapped, then why not use that time instead to introduce this important legislation which was promised nine months ago? Since last October other families have sadly joined the many already suffering the double injustice of losing a loved one and having their killer receive a derisory sentence.

Earlier this year the killer of brothers Corey Platt-May, six, and Casper, two, in Coventry was sentenced to nine years in prison. Robert Brown was high on cocaine when he drove his Ford Focus into the young siblings.

The case has been referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

Two weeks ago Coventry Souths MP Jim Cunningham asked: In the light of the tragic hit-and-run accident in Coventry some time ago, in which two children were killed and a family devastated, are there any plans to review the law and sentencing in that area?

The Justice Minister replied: Absolutely. We remain very committed to this. We have undertaken extensive consultation on extending the maximum sentences for causing death by dangerous driving, and we are looking at those for causing death by careless driving. We intend to introduce legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.

A spokesperson for the road safety charity Brake said: The governments response is cold comfort for families across the country who have lost loved ones on our roads and seen the killers escape with far too lenient sentences. More than nine months on from the government announcement it is clear that no progress has been made and this is simply unacceptable.

The government must act now and deliver justice for road crash victims.Man arrested after burglary at Johnstown takeaway

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 25th, 2018

A man has been arrested in the early hours of this morning, as the police helicopter helped locate a man after a burglary.

Police have said the burglary occurred this morning in Johnstown at a local take away.

Officers from Wrexham Rural, Wrexham Town, the Roads Policing unit and the helicopter from NPAS Barton in Manchester quickly attended the scene at 3am and a male was arrested.

The man is now in the cells awaiting interview.

Local police said: Thanks to local residents for their help and understanding, sorry if the helicopter woke you up!

Top: Archive pic, second, helicopter track.Minister visits Wrexham youth projects making a difference to communities

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 25th, 2018

Welsh Government Minister for Children, Older People and Social Care, Huw Irranca-Davies, has today visited programmes making a real difference to children in Wrexham.

The Ministers first stop was at the Coedpoeth Youth and Play Project which has benefited from the Welsh Governments All Wales Play Opportunities Grant to adopt a joined up approach to the delivery of play work and youth work provision in the local community.

One of the aims of the project is to facilitate more interactions between different ages of children. The project began simply with a small, donated shipping container for resources, but now a more substantial and insulated space is being provided for children and young people with more shelter and one they can call their own. This will also help to raise the profile of the project in the local area.

More than 140 young people attended the project between April 2017 and April 2018.

The Minister then visited the Take Five group in Caia Park which is weekly drop in session to support the perinatal mental health of mothers from the antenatal period up to the child being one year of age. Within the group, the mothers have the opportunity to try new activities and experiences aimed at wellbeing. The group runs twice a week, with 90 per cent of families attending benefiting from the Welsh Governments Flying Start scheme.

Following his visits, Huw Irranca-Davies said: I was really pleased to visit the Coedpoeth Youth and Play Project and the Take Five group which are playing a vital part in improving peoples lives in the Wrexham area.

In Coedpoeth, children and young people are being brought together to participate in a range of valuable opportunities to play and enjoy their leisure time which will help develop their mental and physical wellbeing.

The Take Five group in Caia Park is proving essential in meeting the needs of perinatal mothers with early indicators or who are at risk of developing a post-natal mental health issue.

These programmes are helping strengthen peoples feelings of happiness, enjoyment and engagement which in turn build positive life experiences. Todays visits really show the tangible difference Welsh Government funding is making.Wrexham student circumnavigating Wales on foot raising funds for the Alzheimers Society

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Jul 25th, 2018

A local student has set out to walk more than 1,000 miles and, in the process, raise funds for the Alzheimers Society.

Laura Bentley, a former pupil of Ysgol Deiniol, Marchwiel and Maelor School, Penley, is studying Psychology at Cardiff University. Now four weeks into her walk, Laura is in Ceridigion, having completed more than 400 miles.

Laura said: This summer, I have set myself the challenge of circumnavigating Wales on foot. I started in Chester on the 29th June, and am attempting to cover all 1,047 miles of the Wales Coast Path and Offas Dyke Path, finishing at Prestatyn in mid-September.

Although a personal challenge, I am hoping to raise as much money as possible for Alzheimers Society along my way. Alzheimers Society is a charity close to my heart. They provided advice and support for my family, and helped to ensure my grandmother had the care she needed before she sadly passed away from dementia in 2011.

Over this last year I have been on placement with Cardiff Memory Team, where I have seen the excellent work Alzheimers Society is still doing for other families like mine, and the massive appreciation from those who receive their help.

Living with dementia can be difficult, but Alzheimers Society strives to make it a little bit easier. A small amount can go a long way. I believe the work they do is worth every penny.

If you would like to make a donation to the Alzheimers Society in recognition of Lauras effort, please visit her Just Giving page via www.justgiving.com/laura-bentley11

Lauras progress around Wales can be followed on her Instagram which contains some beautiful shots of Wales  have a look here: www.instagram.com/laurabentley97Since the 2008 Wall Street crash, the 500 richest Frenchmen have tripled the percentage of the economy that they hold in their personal fortunes. From 2009 to 2018, their collective fortune passed from 10 percent to 30 percent of Frances Gross Domestic Product (GDP), reaching a record level of 650 billion, according to the 2018 ranking by Challenges magazine. National production has not tripled, however, but only increased 12 percent.

These vast sums have been accumulated through social austerity policies and structural reforms imposed by successive governments since 2008, to destroy social rights established by the working class after the Liberation from Nazi Occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime.

The growth of such fortunes refutes all the arguments that workers must accept cuts to wages and social benefits because they are too expensive and there is no money. In fact, attacks on wages and working conditions have served to build up the fortunes of a parasitic financial aristocracy that is pushing official politics far to the right.

President Emmanuel Macron is boosting their fortunes by trampling underfoot the opposition of the vast majority of the French population to his attacks on pensions, wages, health care, and unemployment insurance. His denunciation of the crazy amounts of money that he said France spends on social services reflects the boundless arrogance of the bankers and super-rich that dominate French and European society.

According to a Bloomberg report published in May, Frances 13 wealthiest people have gotten 23.67 billion richer just since the beginning of 2018. Since January, French billionaires have increased their wealth by 12.2 percent, and the 100 wealthiest individuals have increased their wealth by 15 percent over the last year.

Among Frances billionaires, Bernard Arnault was in the top slot for the second year running. From 2008 to 2018, the fortune of the owner of luxury conglomerate LVMH has gone from 18 billion to 73.2 billion. His fortune is the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. Over the last year alone, his fortune has increased by 19.1 billion, which is 52 million per day.

The fortune of the joint owners of Chanel, Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, has reached 40 billion, rising from the sixth to the second slot. Then come the fortunes of Axel Dumas, the manager of Hermes (39.6 billion), and Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, the owner of the LOreal corporation (39.3 billion). Gerard Mulliez (Auchan corporation, 38 billion) and Francois Pinault (luxury holding firm Kering, 30.5 billion) take the fifth and sixth positions.

These billionaires have benefited from Macrons massive cut to the Tax on Wealth (ISF) hitting the top tax brackets, and from state subsidies for anti-worker merger and acquisitions operations.

The Arnault family started out by running a regional construction firm in the north, built its fortune using its political connections and public subsidies to restructure and downsize the textile industry. It ultimately acquired LVMH in the 1980s, leaving in its wake a trail of shuttered factories and devastated communities across northern France. That region has now become one of the main electoral bases of the neo-fascist National Front.

Arnault, who became fabulously wealthy due to strategic acquisitions of various fashion and luxury firms, backed Macron in last years election.

This unprecedented concentration of wealth is an international phenomenon. In 2017, 82 percent of the wealth created in the world was taken by the wealthiest 1 percent of the worlds population. The poorest half of humanity saw no increase in its wealth.

The Wealth-X report found that the global population of billionaires has increased by 15 percent since 2016, to reach 2,754 people, and that the wealth of these billionaires has increased 24 percent to a record level of $9.2 trillion. This is 12 percent of the GDP of the entire planet.

At the same time, across the world, the workers and the impoverished masses have no say in the economic decisions of the worlds governments. While states adopt policies that enrich the billionaires, millions of people pass under the poverty level each year.

Already in 2010, the top 10 percent in France owned 62 percent of the national wealth, while the bottom 50 percent only had 5 percent of the wealth.

An Ifop poll for Atlantico found that more than half of the French population fears falling into poverty, and that 55 percent fear it more than they did before. Political analyst Christophe Boutin told Atlantico, It was the retirees, who give relatively low percentages, who produced this 55 percent score for the entire French population, whereas French people who are still of working age would have led to an average closer to 60 percent. For the unemployed, it is 82 percent who fear falling into poverty.

The Challenges report underscores that French capitalismdespite its pretensions to being a relatively soft, conciliatory and regulated social orderis torn apart by the same insoluble social contradictions as global capitalism as a whole.

The social inequality revealed in this report is a political indictment of capitalism, and in particular of the organizations that have long claimed to represent the left in France. At the Liberation, the National Council of the Resistance (CNR) justified the maintenance of capitalist rule in France, despite the crimes of fascism in France and across Europe, by promising that France would forever after be a social Republic. The Stalinist, social democratic and Gaullist components of the CNR all promised to abolish economic and financial aristocracies in France.

Not only did the financial aristocracy survive the Liberation, but over the decades they have established a degree of economic hegemony that they had not enjoyed since the blackest hours of the Great Depression of the 1930s and the Second World War. Faced with the rise of these politically illegitimate fortunes and of the attendant social inequality and repression, workers will ultimately find no other way forward than to expropriate these ill-gotten gains.After 13 months of investigation, the Metropolitan Police announced last week that they have carried out a grand total of three interviews under caution in relation to the Grenfell Tower fire last June. The inferno killed 72 men, women and children, with hundreds more made homeless by the blaze.

In a statement, the Met Police announced that these interviews, which have been carried out since late June, mark a new phase in their investigation into the inferno. More interviews were likely to be conducted in the coming weeks and months, they declared.

According to the police statement, offences being considered include gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health and Safety Act.

The Met said that the remains of Grenfell Tower will soon be handed over to the local Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council, as the police forensic work on the building nears completion. What will become of the tower once the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council retake control of it in August is unclear.

The fact that more than a year after the fire only three interviews have been conducted is a devastating indictment of the investigation. The entire criminal investigation is a fraud, with the police dragging the investigation out and refusing to issue any substantive details, on the basis that to do so would be sub judice .

No details have been disclosed as to the identities of those interviewed by the police, or even whether the three interviews have been conducted with three separate suspects, or whether the same individual has been interviewed on multiple occasions.

It remains unclear if this person or these people questioned hold positions of responsibility in the RBKC, in the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) that ran the building on behalf of RBKC, or in companies such as Rydon and Harley Facades, which oversaw and installed the flammable cladding resulting in the rapid spread of a small fire on Grenfells fourth floor.

No specific information about what these individuals are being questioned in relation to has even been released.

According to housing magazine Inside Housing, when asked whether more information about the police interviews would be made public, a police spokesperson made it clear that no details about the interviews will be made available and the public will be kept as little informed as possible.

We will not be providing details of the interviews that have been carried out or a running tally of the numbers of interviews completed, the spokesperson said.

Updates will be given at points when we are confident the families affected have been informed and we have a significant update. Nothing should be read into the numbers of interviews, nor the order in which they are conducted.

This new stage in the police investigation is part of the state cover-up of the events and decisions that led to the fire. The investigation and parallel public inquiry, led by Sir Martin Moore-Bick, are not aimed at revealing the truth, but concealing it. They do not intend to hold the guilty to account, but to protect the criminals in central and local government and the corporate entities who signed off on the refurbishment of Grenfell that turned a relatively safe concrete structure into a death trap.

More than a year after the inferno, no arrests have been made, let alone charges laid against any individual or company for the social murder of 72 people. Details of the investigation are being deliberately obscured and the criminal parties protected.

That the police are only now beginning to interview suspects in relation to the fireand the absence of arrests of those guilty of mass murderis in sharp contrast to the fact that the same police team have lost no time in prosecuting a handful of people making fraudulent claims related to the Grenfell fire. Enormous social crimes have been committed by individuals within the political and corporate elite who have the blood of 72 people on their hands, and those jailed so farsix people for a total of 14.5 yearshave committed minor crimes in comparison.

On July 13, two Jamaican migrants were each sentenced to three years in jail for fraudulently claiming to be survivors of the fire and receiving around 125,000 in relief money destined for former Grenfell residents. The couple, who had no fixed address or legal immigration status, are among around 10 individuals who have been arrested on suspicion on fraud.

At the start of June, police also opened an investigation into the London Fire Brigade (LFB) for the stay put strategy it implemented during the Grenfell fire. Not a word was said about the fact that the advicewhich has generally been sound in high-rises up until the Grenfell fireproved so disastrous because of what the counsel for the Fire Brigades Union described as multiple safety failings that meant the building was a highly combustible death trap.

This was made clear by other recent fires in London where the high-rises were not clad in flammable material, such as last Fridays tower block fire in Edmonton, north London, and one a few weeks ago at Whitstable House, which is located only yards from Grenfell tower. The fire at the Edmonton block, as with Whitstable, was brought under control within less than two hours and without a single fatality.

That the police laid out the possible offences of gross negligence manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and breaches of the Health and Safety Act also points to a future whitewash.

If charges of corporate manslaughter are brought under the 2007 Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act, this means that no individuals responsible will be brought to justice. The Act stipulates that only corporations as an entity can be found guilty of such a charge, not those leading the companies. The most that will happen, if the council and/or KCTMO are found guilty of corporate manslaughter, is that they will receive a fine and carry on with business as usual. As public entities, the taxpayers will foot the bill.

Although the Common Law offence of gross negligence manslaughterunder which those convicted can go to prisonis reportedly being considered, in reality next to no corporations are ever found guilty of either offence and charges of gross negligence manslaughter against an individual director of a business are often dropped.

Two academics who have studied the impact of the Act, Professors Steve Tombs and David Whyte, wrote in July last year: In five of the 21 convictions under the [2007] Act so far, the prosecution was accompanied by or as a result of charges of gross negligence manslaughter being dropped against an individual company director and then a guilty plea being entered for the company.

Those guilty of social murder at Grenfell Tower must be arrested and charged, including former London Mayor Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Theresa May and her predecessors, David Cameron, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

Those who were instrumental in the decision to add the cladding to Grenfell must also be arrested and charged, including former Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council leader Nicholas Paget-Brown; his then-deputy, Rock Feilding-Mellen, the former head of the councils housing management organisation; the CEO of Rydon, Robert Bond; and the managing director of Harley Facades, Ray Bailey.

Justice for Grenfell means no cover-up and no inquiry whitewash!

Arrest the political and corporate criminals responsible!

Stop the scapegoating of firefighters!

Quality public housing is a social right!

For an emergency multibillion-pound programme of public works to build schools, hospitals, public housing and all the infrastructure required in the 21st century!

The Grenfell Fire Forum, initiated by the Socialist Equality Party, will be discussing these issues and those around the Whitstable and Grenfell fires at its next meeting on Saturday, July 28, at the Maxilla Social Club in North Kensington, London. All are welcome to attend.

Grenfell Fire Forum meeting

Saturday, July 28, 4 p.m.

Maxilla Social Club, 2 Maxilla Walk

London, W10 6SW (nearest tube: Latimer Road)

For further details visit facebook.com/GrenfellforumAs many as 463 immigrant parents may have been deported without being reunited with their children, according to filings made by the Trump administration in federal court on Monday. Previously, the government had admitted to only 12 parents being deported without their children.

The official status of the 463 parents remains uncertain. Federal lawyers stated in court Tuesday that they were reviewing these cases individually to determine whether these parents were deported or had voluntarily elected to leave without their children. Officially, about 130 of this group have agreed to be deported while leaving their children in the United States, either to stay with relatives or to exhaust their legal avenues to asylum.

The total number of parents and children separated under President Donald Trumps infamous zero tolerance policy initiated in May has been constantly shifting in government accounts, with the total number of children being given as anywhere from between 2,000 and 3,000 over the last month. The uncertain and shifting figures demonstrates not only the governments bureaucratic incompetence but a cruel indifference to the fate of families caught in Trumps anti-immigrant dragnet.

The 463 are part of a larger group of 917 parents whom the government has deemed either ineligible or not yet known to be eligible to be reunited with their children. Other parents have been denied access to their children on the pretext of criminal records, communicable diseases or other issues, according to USA Today.

The Trump administration has reunited only 1,012 children with their parents since a federal judge ordered a halt to its cruel and vindictive policy of separating families of undocumented immigrants after being detained. The federal government has declared only 1,637 of 2,551 separated migrant children to be eligible for reunification, and it is likely the government will fail to meet tomorrows court-imposed deadline to reunify all of these children with their parents.

The fact that hundreds of parents were deported without their children raises the terrible prospect that they may never see their children again, or at best only after a lengthy bureaucratic delay.

Immigration lawyers who spoke to the New York Times said that it was likely that many of the deported parents had signed forms without realizing that they were agreeing to their own deportation, or without understanding that they would be required to leave their children behind. Our attorney volunteers working with detained separated parents are seeing lots of people who signed forms that they didnt understand, an El Paso, Texas, immigration attorney told the Times. They thought the only way they would see their child again is by agreeing to deportation.

Yesterday, the ACLU argued before US District Judge Dana Sabraw in favor of increasing the period of time from 48 hours to a week between when detained families are reunited and when they can be deported, in order to allow them more time to make the heartbreaking decision of whether to be deported as a family or to leave their children behind.

Audio recordings of two immigrant mothers in court released by CNN give a glimpse of the enormous mental anguish and duress with which workers are forced to navigate the byzantine immigration court system. The recordings were made during a credible fear review, in which a judge determines whether an applicant has standing to pursue asylum.

Please do not remove me from this country, one mother, fleeing gang violence in her home country, can be heard saying in Spanish, audibly fighting back tears. Do it for me or for my son. I have nothing else. I have no one else. I am a single mother. She told the judge that she was distraught during her initial interview and did not understand many of the questions that were asked of her. At that time I was feeling very desperate because I was separated from my son. My son remained back at the ice box, he was on the floor, and I didnt know anything about my son at that time.

The judge determined that the mother was not eligible for asylum and ordered her to be deported.

The presiding judge in both cases reported by CNN, whose courtroom is located in the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas where many immigrant children are being sent to be reunited with their parents, has denied almost 80 percent of the asylum cases he hears. Just last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions declared that domestic abuse and gang violence are not legitimate grounds for asylum.

The chaotic and disorganized reunification proceedings implemented by the Trump administration have created Kafkaesque situations for immigrants whose court cases are still ongoing. Denver newspaper Westword reported that many of the dozens of parents who have been transferred from Colorado to Port Isabel to meet their children have missed scheduled court dates back in Colorado. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, this legal Catch-22 has occurred in other parts of the country as well.

In spite of Trumps June 20 executive order ending the practice of separating children from parents in detention, the number of children detained in Texas has actually increased since the end of June from 4,919 to 5,024, a figure which includes unaccompanied minors, according to Houston Public Media. A nonprofit has already received permission to build an additional detention center in Houston, and three other applications for private, for-profit prisons are currently pending.

The treatment meted out to child detainees in such facilities, staffed by fascistic and anti-immigrant fanatics, is nothing short of deplorable. Court documents from Virginia and Texas first reported by the Associated Press last month showed that children have been beaten, stripped down and drugged. Complaints filed in previous years under the Obama administration revealed widespread physical abuse and even rape of detained immigrant children by ICE.

Bloomberg News reported yesterday that human rights lawyers have asked a federal judge to appoint a special monitor after compiling 225 firsthand accounts of abuse by immigrant children, arguing that the government has conducted a full-scale assault on court precedent limiting the detention and mistreatment of immigrant minors.

Adults in custody have fared little better. A report last month on a detention facility in Massachusetts included details reminiscent of Abu Ghraib, with guards encouraging detainees to fight for their amusement and literally treating others as dogs. Immigrants at another facility in the state launched a hunger strike last week to protest inhumane treatment.

In other news, a federal judge has ordered the release of Pablo Villavicencio, the Ecuadorian immigrant who was detained and arrested by military police while delivering pizza to an Army facility in Brooklyn. Immigration authorities initiated deportation proceedings against him when they discovered that he had been the subject of a deportation order in 2010.

Judge Paul Crotty excoriated assistant US Attorney Joseph Cordaro during the court proceedings. Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must, Crotty declared. I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to? Why do we want to enforce the order?

While Villavicencio is no longer under threat of imminent deportation, he must still fight in court to gain legal status. Villavicencio is married to an American citizen, with whom he has two young daughters.Written and directed by Boots Riley

Sorry To Bother You is a dark comedy written and directed by Boots Riley, the artist, political activist and rapper from Oakland, California. He is best-known as a longtime member of the music group The Coup.

The film, which reportedly took Riley eight years to get to theaters, is a satire about the oppressive work environment many people currently face and its connection to other aspects of their lives. The plot relies on magical realist touches, with the film taking place in a city that is both Oakland  and not-quite-Oakland. An intriguing and distinct score by the music group Tune-Yards permeates throughout.

Jermaine Fowler, Steven Yeun and Lakeith Stanfield in Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You contains certain refreshing insights and sequences, and Riley at his sharpest captures some of the hypocrisy so rife in official American business and political life. The film makes no bones about its intention to skewer capitalism, as well as its sympathies for the working class. This is to Rileys credit. However, these merits dont make the various problems and limitations disappear.

The film centers around Cassius Cash Green, impressively played by actor Lakeith Stanfield ( Atlanta ). Cash is a young person struggling to make ends meet in Oakland. Living in his uncles garage and racked by anxiety, out of desperation he takes a telemarketing job at a company called RegalView.

Cashs girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson) is an artist also struggling to get by, working as a sign twirler for various companies. Outside of work, she creates performance art installations and takes part in a guerrilla art movement, the Left Eye activists, who attack corporate advertisements around town.

Early scenes convincingly and often comically capture Greens painful situation. When buying gas on the way to his first day at work, he asks the attendant to put 40 on 2, handing her 40 cents. An early love scene with his girlfriend Detroit is interrupted when he accidentally opens the garage door of his room.

Along the way, there are ubiquitous advertisements from a company named Worry Free, which touts lifetime contracts for its workers, and showcases a video of a dozen workers discussing their happiness living in a single makeshift, highly decorated prison-like room.

Once at RegalView, Cash experiences discomfort, even misery, with his initial cold calling. Riley exposes something about the callousness of the job and its painful impact both on the workers and the targets of their phone calls. As Cash reaches strangers, his work desk magically crashes into their homes, interrupting families eating dinner or couples making love or a woman grieving for her terminally ill husband. Cash awkwardly and nervously tries to sell them things they clearly dont need. Self-important and overbearing managers watch and critique every exchange.

Lakeith Stanfield and Danny Glover in Sorry to Bother You

Two plot developments early on in Sorry to Bother You will have later repercussions. First, while at RegalView, Cash meets Squeeze (Steven Yeun), who turns out to be a covert union organizer and who sees in Cash and his friend/co-worker Sal (Jermaine Fowler) potential allies in helping to create a telemarketers union.

Second, in the midst of his difficulties on the phone, Cash speaks to an older telemarketer, Langston (Danny Glover), who teaches him to use a white voice to generate more sales. Langston demonstrates the latter, and Sorry to Bother You employs a magical over-dub mechanism whereby a white actor speaks in Langstons stead. Langston explains, Its not even how white people necessarily talk. But with your white voice you are acting like you dont need any money; youve never been firedonly laid off; things in your life are taken care of

Cash finds this white voice (performed by comedian David Cross), and his ensuing success leads him to be promoted as a power caller on RegalViews elite top floor. Meanwhile, Squeeze sets in motion plans for a strike by the telemarketers.

Faced with choosing between his career and his fellow workers, Cash decides to become a ladder-climber, while the other workers picket against armed guards outside RegalViews premises. Now one of the power callers, Cash learns he will be selling subtly disguised slave labor for the Worry Free company.

Invited to a Worry Free company party presided over by CEO Steve Lift (played with convincing energy by Armie Hammer), Cash is exposed to the debauchery and empty-headedness of the upper-middle class. At some point in the evening, Lift demands Cash rap for the benefit of the half-naked, drugged-up revelers at the party. In one of the more amusing and hard-hitting sequences in Sorry to Bother You, Cashwho visibly can neither rap nor wants to!decides to mimic gangster rap tropes, repeating a derogatory racial slur dozens of times. The crowd eats it up. In mocking the backwardness of gangster rap here, Riley is on healthy and firm ground.

Without giving too much away, Cash ultimately learns of a ghastly project aimed at maximizing productivity and profits for Worry Free. He eventually reconnects with Detroit and Squeeze. A final showdown ensues with somewhat cartoonish qualities.

All told, the strengths and weaknesses of Rileys film are often at war with each other.

Lakeith Stanfield and Armie Hammer in Sorry to Bother You

On the one hand, the writer-director has a certain feeling for the overall rottenness and untenability of the present situation. Sorry to Bother You suggests that large numbers of people are trapped in impossible conditions or face intolerable choices. Several phenomena are admirably lampooned: telemarketing and its dehumanizing impact on everyone involved; the relentless selfishness of those determined to join the ranks of the upper-middle class; the degraded character of much of what passes for popular art and culture; and the filthiness of Wall Street (in one especially pointed scene, the stock market responds with overwhelming approval to news that appalls the viewer).

Riley also places in the background elements of life generally neglected in filmmaking. Shots of homeless encampments are scattered throughout the film. Men and women of every race and many ethnicities are shown struggling.

In other words, there are some relatively humane, entertaining and sensitive features to Rileys film. On the other hand, these features and the more interesting observations are trapped within a very narrow framework, which seriously hinders the film.

The fight against RegalViewa company that helps sell slave labor and military weaponsis reduced to the building of a trade union.

Even those who have not paid close attention to the evolution of the unions into corporatist organizations hostile to their own members could hardly find this tepid solution inspiring, let alone believe it represents a meaningful response to the corporate criminality in question. Here is Rileys Achilles Heel, the product of his long history on the middle-class left.

There is also the device of the white voice that various news outlets ( New York Times, Washington Post ) and pseudo-left groups (Socialist Worker) have generally hailed as a brilliant device. In fact, it is a weak point in the film and damages its overall tone and impact.

To his credit, Riley largely avoids racialist narratives, but the white voice business is a concession to bankrupt white privilege theories. To its credit, the film itself contradicts the notion that one gets ahead because of ones whiteness. As Cash progresses, it is his willingness to betray his friends and to sell slave labornot his white voicethat ultimately ingratiates him to RegalView and the despicable Lift.

The device is of a piece with other elements in Sorry to Bother You that the filmmakers have not really bothered to work through. The most serious criticism one might make of the film is that Riley doesnt sufficiently challenge himself in a number of critical ways, political and aesthetic. The writer-director, who has a political background in black nationalism, Maoism and the Occupy Wall Street movement, ultimately does not want to or cannot avoid simplistic, inadequate solutions to a very difficult social situation.Nancy Johnson, the top aide to former United Auto Workers Vice President for Fiat Chrysler Norwood Jewell, pleaded guilty Monday to charges related to ongoing investigation into illegal payments by Fiat Chrysler management to UAW officials, aimed at securing favorable contract terms.

The guilty plea by Johnson was part of a deal with prosecutors based on her agreement to cooperate in the federal corruption investigation. She is the seventh person to plead guilty in the case, which involves the siphoning off of at least $1.5 million in funds from the UAW-Chrysler National Training Center (NTC) into the pockets of union officials.

For her part Johnson admitted to receiving illegal funds transfers that she used for lavish parties, trips to California resorts and expensive personal purchases including jewelry and clothing. She could face up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is set for November 19.

Following the plea agreement, the UAW again claimed that the payoffs from Fiat Chrysler management had no impact on contract negotiations. In a statement released Monday the union asserted, The UAW has taken strong measures to prevent a reoccurrence of this type of misconduct and our new leadership team continues to oversee improvements in our operations and financial controls.

Johnson played a leading role in the 2015 contract negotiations with Fiat Chrysler. So far, four of the eight members of the UAW negotiating team have either been indicted or implicated in the illegal payouts, which were intended to keep the UAW fat, dumb and happy. The sellout deal provoked a rebellion by Chrysler workers, who voted down the contract by a 2-1 margin. The contract was then repackaged and forced through using threats and intimidation.

The plea deal by Johnson follows by two weeks the sentencing of Monica Morgan, the widow of General Holiefield, the late UAW vice president for Fiat Chrysler. Morgan received a token 18-month prison sentence on tax evasion charges for failing to report $201,000 in money skimmed from the NTC on her 2011 taxes. That represented only a fraction of the money stolen by Morgan, a well-connected Detroit photographer, and her late husband. Misappropriated money was used to pay off the $262,219 mortgage on their home and to buy tens of thousands of dollars in luxury items. Morgan helped funnel some $350,000 in NTC money into a fake hospice and pocketed another $80,000 for her photography business by invoicing for bogus courses.

Johnson is the third UAW official to plead guilty in the case. Two other assistants to Jewell, Keith Mickens and Virdell King, have also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Jewell took early retirement in January, but has so far escaped indictment. Johnson reportedly told King to buy a $2,180 shotgun for Jewell as a birthday present through the improper use of an NTC-issued credit card.

The federal investigation points to a far broader conspiracy reaching to the top levels of the UAW. As part of the plea agreement for former Fiat Chrysler executive Michael Brown, who helped administer the NTC, the government charged that Fiat Chrysler conspired with officials at the UAW and with the UAW itself to violate the Labor Management Relations Act. As part of the conspiracy, the UAW allegedly presented padded invoices to FCA for reimbursement of expenses connected to the NTC on behalf of UAW officials who did little or no actual work.

FCA management also authorized Holiefield and others to offer sham employment status at the NTC to a number of their friends, family and allies who were hired by the NTC under a special assignment status.

The crisis in the UAW takes place amid turmoil in Fiat Chrysler management, with the sudden incapacitation of CEO Sergio Marchionne, as well as signs of increasing militancy among rank-and-file workers.

Workers at three Kokomo-area Fiat Chrysler transmission plants, members of UAW Local 685, have voted overwhelmingly for strike authorization over local grievances. The workers build transmissions for virtually all the Chrysler vehicles built in North America. A strike at these facilities would quickly bring FCA production to a halt. While the UAW is absolutely hostile to a genuine struggle, intending to use the strike vote to merely adopt a militant pose, workers anger is simmering over the abusive treatment of temporary part-timers, who are being forced to work overtime in violation of contract provisions.

The newly appointed head of the UAW Chrysler department, Cindy Estrada, is herself deeply discredited. Estrada, who formerly headed the unions General Motors department, earned the hatred of workers for imposing contract changes at the Lake Orion and Lordstown assembly plants allowing management to hire lower-paid contract workers to take jobs previously performed by regular GM employees.

Estrada is currently under investigation by federal authorities regarding the operation of a charity she heads. The Estrada Charity Fund received $139,032 from the UAW. One banquet in 2015 raised $357,506, including $322,206 in contributions from unspecified sources.

Phony charities run by Holiefield were used as a conduit for illegal payments from joint training funds. A charity run by Jewell, the Making our Children Smile Foundation, has also been labeled by prosecutors a conduit for misappropriated funds.

Seven top UAW officials who headed private charity funds, including Estrada, quietly allowed their state registrations to expire a year before the first indictment in the UAW corruption scandal.

The corruption in the UAW expresses the anti-worker essence of this organization. It is not the result of a few bad actors but illustrates the actual relationship between the auto corporations and the unions on one hand and the working class on the other. In the face of this reality workers have no alternative but to build their own organizations of struggle to take over the functions long abandoned by the unions.

The World Socialist Web Site Autoworkers Newsletter calls for the building of rank-and-file factory committees independent of the UAW to spearhead the defense of jobs, wages, working conditions and safety. These committees should fight for the nullification of all the contracts signed by the UAW and the restoration of all concessions, as well as workers control over line speed and safety issues.This article was written by a New York City Verizon worker.

Verizon, the second-largest telecom company in the US in terms of revenue, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) cut an unprecedented deal to extend current labor contracts, with modifications, for four years beyond their current expiration date in August 2019. What is unprecedented is the four-year length of the extension as well as the fact that the agreement was reached nearly one full year before expiration. While the deal is being called an extension, it is in fact a new contract.

In 2016, 36,000 Verizon workers conducted a courageous seven-week strike, which was isolated and betrayed by the CWA. The union imposed a deal brokered by Obamas labor secretary that imposed substantial concessions, particularly regarding out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. With the telecom giants making huge profits and squandering billions on mergers, stock buybacks and dividend payments to their richest investors, the CWA fears a rebellion by rank-and-file workers and hopes to ram through the contract extension as a preemptive blow against workers.

Verizon workers on strike in New York City

The deal comes as the CWA is keeping thousands of AT&T workers in the Midwest and other regions on the job despite the expiration of the contracts. The deal, which workers are expected to vote on in a few weeks, was hailed by Fortune magazine in an article, titled, Verizon Extends Union Contract, Avoiding Possibly Tough Labor Talks Next Year.

One of the key provisions of the tentative agreement is the continued shifting of medical costs from the company onto the backs of its aging workforce. At the time of this writing, full details have yet to emerge. The company and union have issued statements confirming that there will be higher healthcare costs for employees and retirees.

It is unlikely, however, that the full extent of the burden will be known until workers and their families go to medical providers, hospitals and pharmacists and are confronted with higher and unexpected costs. After the signing of the 2016 agreement, members in New York City were not provided copies of the full contract until spring of 2018. One can expect that members will not know the full details of the current deal for a long time.

The wage increases in the contract start at an insulting 2.5 percent the first two years, 2.75 and 3 percent in each of the last two. This is in line with the union bureaucracys determination to prevent any significant increase in wages, which would threaten the current stock market bubble and the investments of the union bureaucracy itself. The paltry raises will not keep pace with the increasing cost of living, especially in the already expensive urban centers in the Northeast where many of the workers reside. Increases to the existing pension bands are a negligible 1 percent.

And nothing will be done to oppose the abusive conditions on the job, which all worsened after the sellout of the last strike. This includes electronic monitoring of workers to extract ever-greater productivity, resulting in greater stress and physically exhausting conditions.

For its part, Verizon is under pressure from Wall Street to cut its debt load. Verizon and other telecom monopolies have announced that they will be building out a 5G wireless network. 5G is a wireless technology, which provides a sharp increase in bandwidth for high-speed data transmission compared to the existing 4G system.

Due to the nature of the radio frequencies used in 5G, the cell sites it uses cover a much smaller geographical area than traditional cell towers. The greater the density of these new 5G transmitters, the greater the bandwidth will be and the number of devices that can be connected.

For this reason, Verizon will need to install thousands, even tens of thousands of new smaller 5G transmitters on existing telephone poles, light poles and elsewhere. This involves the placing of multiple thousands of miles of fiber optic cable to connect the mini sites to the network. All of this requires a great deal of labor and money.

The company intends to extract these costs from workers by ridding itself of higher-paid workers with better medical plans and retiree benefits, who installed its original land lines, which allowed the company to reap huge profits, and increasingly replace them with lower-paid workers with substandard healthcare and retiree plans.

Other issues affecting Verizon are creating a strong demand for labor. Verizon has for years been placing new telephone poles in the ground alongside old ones without removing the old ones or even the attachments to these old facilities. They are now under pressure by regulators to remove the so-called double wood, which is both unsafe and unsightly.

New York City took Verizon to court and is forcing them to stop cherry-picking areas to install its profitable FiOS Internet and TV service. Verizon had been installing the service only in areas where it could maximize profits and avoid competing with other carriers. Verizon top executives have in the past commented on how they stay out in their own sandbox as they sometimes call it, referring to the way the telecom cartels have carved out their own service areas. Where those areas overlap there is essentially no difference in pricing or service options.

Verizon asked for the contract extension because it was looking for givebacks in advance of the contract expiration, and the CWA was more than happy to accommodate, signing the deal behind the backs of workers. The announcement that talks to extend the contract were planned was delivered to employees in an email from Verizon Vice President Marc Reed, not the CWA. The announcement came as a surprise to employees. Even local CWA officers seemed surprised by the seemingly abrupt deal by the national union and it took them some time to respond.

With the company in need of so much experienced labor to install the new technology over the next few years, it is clear that rank-and-file workers have greater leverage if they strike. That is precisely why the CWA, which boasted that it saw a marked improvement in its relationship with management after the last strike, wants desperately to prevent any struggle.

The CWA, which postures as an ostensibly left union and has the closest ties to Bernie Sanders, functions as a labor management syndicate for the big telecoms. It has deliberately blocked the efforts by Verizon workers to unite with the ATT and Spectrum workers in New York and New Jersey, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) who have been on strike for nearly 16 months with no end in sight.

Well aware of the growing radicalization of the working class, highlighted by the wave of teacher rebellions earlier this year, the CWA is desperately trying to beat back the rising opposition of telecom workers.

If workers are to defend their conditions, they will have to elect rank-and-file committees to take the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the CWA. A campaign must begin now to demand the full contract, including all secret codicils, and sufficient time to read and discuss it so workers can reject the sellout with the contempt it deserves.

Rank-and-file committees should reach out to AT&T, Spectrum and other telecom workers, as well as workers in other industries facing struggles, like the UPS workers rebelling against Teamsters-backed concessions. They should also reject the nationalism of the unions and reach out to telecom workers internationally. This is the road to build a powerful movement of telecom workers against the giant monopolies, the Wall Street banks and both big-business parties.There is a gold rush underway in Alaska.

A rush to tap the black gold of oil beneath the pristine coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the north.

A rush to blast free the yellow gold, silver and copper hidden in the hills above Bristol Bay in the south.

But while the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1896 was touched off by a few lucky prospectors and the glint of creek-bed precious metal, this one began on election night, 2016.

Donald Trump set out to deregulate the environment on a scale unseen in generations, much to the delight of oil, gas and mining companies eager to tap Alaska's natural wealth.

But as he appointed climate change deniers and anti-EPA warriors to his Cabinet, his win also brought dismay to fishermen and wildlife guides, conservationists and native tribes who believe that the true wealth of the Last Frontier is unspoiled wilderness and unrivaled biodiversity.

This tension pits neighbor against neighbor, tribe against tribe, Republican against Republican in a battle over the future. And like any great debate or heavyweight bout, this fight has a clock.

Both sides are counting the days until election night 2020.

The beauty and politics of ANWR

As the little plane descends into the heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, I notice our "runway" is nothing more than a grassy meadow, marked by a pair of antlers. The pilot makes a low pass to check for the random caribou or grizzly bear that might complicate our landing, but finds it clear.

The wheels bounce down, the engine goes quiet and we step out onto one of the wildest -- and most controversial -- bits of real estate in America.

This refuge (commonly pronounced as "An-wahr") is the size of South Carolina, made of mountains and sweeping coastal plains that serve as calving grounds for one of the last great migrations left on Earth. Hundreds of thousands of caribou wander down from the Brooks Range each summer to give birth and find relief from the relentless bugs in the coastal breeze.

With bears, both brown and polar, musk oxen, Arctic foxes and the nests of birds from all 50 states, this place is a North American Serengeti, which is why it was first set aside in 1960 and protected by an act of Congress in 1980.

The nation was facing its second oil crisis in a decade at the time, so Congress decided to defer the fate of a plot along the coast the size of Rhode Island. Known as the "ten-oh-two," this has been an ideological battleground, pitting Republican "sourdoughs" -- the nickname for hardy, long-time Alaskans -- like former senators Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens against their more conservation-minded rivals on the other side of the aisle.

For "drill, baby, drill" Republicans, opening ANWR became a mission, and if successful, "we feel very, very confident we will be able to crack the backs of radical environmentalists," former House Leader Tom DeLay said in 2001. But they never had the votes.

But then, in December of 2017, Sen. Lisa Murkowski saw her chance to do something her father could not. By slipping a provision into the Tax Cut Bill, they could open ANWR with 51 votes instead of 60.

And the President was soon on board.

"One day a friend who's in the oil business called and said 'Is it true that you have ANWR in the bill?'" President Trump said after signing the bill into law. "I said 'I don't know, who cares?' What is that? What does that mean? He said, you know, 'Reagan tried, every single president tried and not one was successful.' I said 'you've got to be kidding. I love it now.' And we fought like hell to get ANWR. He talked me into it!"

Threat to life

"He just scribbled his name over our culture," says Louie John, a Gwich'in elder in Arctic Village. "I don't think that Trump cares about any human issue in this world."

As the northernmost tribe of Native Americans, the Gwich'in live in a necklace of mountain villages bordering the Arctic Refuge where they have survived on caribou for 25,000 years.

In their native language, the coastal plain is "the sacred place where life begins," and scarring it with roads, wells and pipelines would be both a cultural abomination and a legitimate threat to the caribou herd.

While the animals have legal "right of way" on the oil fields of the North Slope, some worry that disturbing the 1002 area will alter migration patterns that have held for millennia.

"Look what happened to the plains Indians and the buffalo," says Faith Gemmill. "That's not going to happen to my people. We're not going to allow that to happen again."

The Gwich'in are the main local allies of environmental groups vowing to use every legal weapon they can to stop the rush to lease two plots of 400,000 acres each to the highest bidder as early as next year.

"We are going to continue to fight at every stage," says Nicole Whittington-Evans of the Wilderness Society. "We won't give up and we will stand by the Gwich'in. We will take the administration to court, we will fight legal battles. We will continue to try to convince members of Congress that this is not the right way to go. We're hopeful for the midterm elections, and then we'll see how the next presidential election turns out."

But in this fight, the greens and the Gwich'in are David against a Goliath of energy companies and the lawmakers that support them. And within this alliance is another tribe of indigenous people, equally defiant and determined.

Pushing back on outsiders

"Now that the US is saying we can finally do this, we have the other side, the environmentalists saying we can't do this! What's wrong with this picture?"

The anger and passion is evident in the voice of Edward Rexford Sr. as he addresses the small crowd gathered in the one school building in Kaktovik. The Department of Interior is gathering public comments, and as the midnight sun blazes outside, they've come to this hamlet of native Alaskans on the edge of the sea, the only community inside ANWR.

"Human rights violations, genocide," Rexford barks. "Lot of folks don't know our history. All the minerals in the mountains, all the gold, all the oil, and they give us only 92,000 acres. Are we gonna stand up for our people?"

Unlike the Gwich'in in the mountains, the Inupiaq lost much of their land in 1971 after oil was discovered in nearby Prudhoe Bay. In exchange, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act gave indigenous people with no concept of profit motive shares in 13 regional corporations, which now reap billions in oil company royalties.

But a stroll through this hardscrabble town provides plenty of proof that those riches do not trickle down. Most folks here cheered the act of Congress and the Donald Trump signature that might finally bring the jobs, wealth and sovereign dignity they crave.

"Without the oil industry, we wouldn't have this police station. We wouldn't have this community school or the roads and we're walking on," Charles Lampe tells me. "We are the best stewards of our land."

I point out that nature lovers from Florida to Iowa feel a protective sense of ownership over ANWR, as they do for Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon.

"They will never set foot here," he says, eyes blazing. "I don't think it's right for them to be able to tell us what we can and cannot do with our own land."

As we speak, a woman on a four-wheeler rides by and calls out "Watch out for the nanook!" A skinny polar bear has wandered into town, an event that has become much more common since the Arctic began melting at a staggering rate.

As the bears' seal-hunting grounds disappear, they are forced to spend more and more time on land foraging for whale scraps or whatever nourishment they can find. The people of Kaktovik are seeing more freakish rain storms in winter, blizzards in summer and even had to move the airport away from the coast due to sea level rise.

But profit motive is a powerful force, and many remain eager to tap into the one product that is changing their land in alarming ways. Even as other villages retreat from rising seas (and Sen. Murkowski suggests using oil money to move them) the man in the White House is eager to wave away any fear.

"There's a cooling and there's a heating," President Trump said in January, when asked if he believes the climate is changing. "The ice caps were going to be gone by now, but now they are setting records."

NASA satellites show that they are indeed setting records, but in the exact opposite direction. The polar caps are smaller than they've been since data gathering began and, by some estimates, most populations of polar bears will be extinct by 2050.

Iceland is melting: See climate change in 360

Pebble causes new ripples of worry

At the other end of the state, our little plane lands on a beach covered in driftwood, flotsam and the paw prints of creatures great and small: bears, wolves, foxes and a handful of humans hoping to protect it from invasion.

Amakdedori Beach on the Kenai Peninsula is the newest battleground in the war between development and conservation, but instead of oil and gas, this fight is over gold and copper.

"I mean they're basically talking about putting a 175-mile gash across this pristine habitat," says Drew Hamilton, a wildlife guide and grizzly bear expert.

He casts a wary eye on the three strangers walking toward us down the beach. We exchange greetings, eyeing their equipment as they eye ours. "Are you guys working for Pebble Mine?" I ask.

They refuse to answer, admitting only they are a survey crew out of Anchorage studying the tides. I later confirm that they are scouting a possible port for the mine, but their reticence is understandable.

Pebble Mine is one of the most controversial projects in Alaska history.

It all began over a decade ago when a helicopter survey team noticed as strange red spot and Canadian mining company Northern Dynasty discovered a mother lode near Iliamna, the largest lake in Alaska.

They estimate that red spot marks 100 million ounces of gold and 80 billion pounds of copper, silver and molybdenum spread deep and wide in a windswept stretch of land north of Bristol Bay.

It could be worth over half a trillion dollars.

But to get it all, Northern Dynasty would need massive amounts of explosives and machinery to turn this pristine wetland into the biggest man-made hole in the world.

Current plans call for a 100-mile natural gas pipeline running alongside an active volcano, across Amakdedori Beach, through 35 miles of wilderness and around or under lake Iliamna. Ore would be trucked and ferried for over 80 miles through pristine habitat. But that is not what worries opponents most.

Blasting and digging an open pit of this size also creates lakes of toxic waste water, tainted with sulfuric acid, and they would be held back by earthen dams -- known as tailings dams -- in a wetland prone to earthquakes.

"If pollution gets into that water supply," Dan Schindler, head of the Alaskan Salmon Project says, "it's going to be nearly impossible to contain."

An ecologist based at of the University of Washington, he's spent his life studying how tens of millions of king and sockeye salmon surge through Bristol Bay each summer, on their way to spawn in the exact lake or stream of their birth.

As these squirming schools defy gravity and current by surging upstream, they inject ocean nutrients into the land, feeding every form of life, from bears to eagles to humans. With a constitutional mandate to protect the run, Alaska limits the catch but still manages to net half of the world's supply of sockeye each July.

Over two billion salmon have been caught in Bristol Bay since records began and fish are the lifeblood of local industry.

In 2014, after three years of peer-reviewed study, the Obama-era EPA determined that the fishery was too valuable to risk and too complex to mine. With a damning report, it invoked a rarely-used provision of the Clean Water Act to protect Bristol Bay.

As mining partners bailed out and Northern Dynasty stock dropped from $20 to 20 cents a share, the company spent millions suing the EPA. The "Stop Pebble Mine" stickers faded around Dillingham and Naknek, and it appeared that the fishermen and environmentalists had won.

But then Donald Trump became President.

In May of 2017, hours after meeting with Tom Collier, the CEO of Pebble Partnership, new EPA chief Scott Pruitt withdrew his agency's plan to protect Bristol Bay.

Since Pruitt resigned amid scandal, the new man in charge of the EPA is Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist at one of Pebble Mine's law firms.

But Collier tells me he would have fought for a permit even if Hillary Clinton had won.

"Nobody can guarantee there won't be an accident," he says in his boardroom in Anchorage. On the table sits one of the many core samples from the mine site, mounted over a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. "But we've done a hell of a lot to minimize the possibility of there being an accident on the site."

His office wall holds a picture of his days as a lawyer in Bill Clinton and Al Gore's Interior Department. The self-described Blue Dog Democrat-turned-Independent admits that Amakdedori "won't look great" if they decide to dredge the bay and turn the beach into a massive port. But he argues that some native tribes would appreciate the roads and jobs, and expresses frustration that no one on the other side will consider the possibility that his mine would never harm more than a handful of fish.

"If there is an accident, we've looked at modeling which relies upon the Obama administration's Bristol Bay Watershed Assessment," he says. "If tailings come out, it will kill fish for about 20 miles down the north fork of the Koktuli. And that's it. And in 10 years, they'll come back naturally."

That is cold comfort for even the most pragmatic of fishermen.

"The minerals that they're talking about are the kinds of minerals that people use every day, in your cameras, in your cell phones, in Fort Knox," Gaylord Lee Clark tells me as he pilots his salmon boat through Bristol Bay. "You are already exacerbating the situation by demanding the minerals that ... you positively must have for your life, at the same time as you're trying to maintain a salmon run so that you can eat well. What do we do?"

Interactive: See the places, the people and the issues as Alaska stands at a crossroads

But Drew the bear guide knows what to do: Leave well enough alone.

"I say there are already jobs here. You look at the town of Homer in the bear viewing industry, there are millions of dollars being made here already in its current wilderness state," he says. "You look at the other side of the mountain. There are tens of millions of dollars already being generated in a fashion that can be sustained for decades and decades and decades. Salmon fishing. Why can't we just keep that going? Because when it's gone, it's gone."TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - A Clinton, Indiana man is behind bars for allegedly slashing a woman's tires.

68-year-old Jerry Huxford was arrested on Wednesday morning.

According to court documents, he was caught on Union Hospital security camera deflating a woman's tires.

Police chased Huxford down near 4th Street and 8th Avenue in Terre Haute.

During the arrest, police say they were able to locate the knife, sweatshirt, and sunglasses that were used in the crime.

The documents also indicate this is not the first time Huxford has stalked this female and slashed her tires.

His bond is set at $35,000 with no 10 percent.PLAISTOW, N.H. (AP)  A man who stripped naked before working out at a New Hampshire gym told police officers that he thought he was in a Judgement Free Zone, before being arrested.

NECN reports 34-year-old Eric Stagno, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, was charged with indecent exposure, lewdness and disorderly conduct on Sunday for taking off his clothes and exercising at a Plaistow Planet Fitness.

Police say he walked back and forth and started doing poses on a yoga mat. He allegedly referenced Planet Fitness slogan that it is a Judgement Free Zone.

Stagno is free on bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 21 in Plaistow District Court.

Stagno could not be reached for comment, and his attorney could not be immediately identified.TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Some Terre Haute city council members are working with the mayor to keep costs down on a federally mandated project to upgrade the city sewer system.

Terre Haute, like many communities, must make improvements to it's water system to prevent waste from flowing into area waterways.

According to Mayor Duke Bennett, work is already a few months behind schedule to begin the second phase of the water pollution control project.

The administration and city council have squabbled over the price tag before. Last year, the mayor requested a $70 million bond for the project but he withdrew the request when the council raised concerns.

Now, the mayor is including some city council members on a committee so they can work together to keep costs down.

Mayor Bennett says, "At least the three councilman that have been a part of this, they've been there all along and they kind of see, okay I understand why you need to do that and can ask questions and so that's kind of where we're at."

The latest estimate puts construction costs around $55 million. It could cost an estimated $7 million for planning and design.

The Sanitary District board approved a $20 million bond for planning and design last week. That portion of the project will be paid for through sewer rates.

City Councilman Karrum Nasser is not part of the committee discussing the overall project but says he gives the mayor credit for including his peers. He says the committee has found some savings but he thinks the total cost is still too high.

Councilman Nasser says, "I think that's a lot better than what it was originally at. I think there's still some opportunities. There's still going to be a meeting to see if they can find some other savings because at the end of the day, you know, we do need to do the next phase of a long term control plan but it is our responsibility as the fiscal body to protect the taxpayers and the rate payers that they don't have to pay anymore than they have to."

The mayor says he can go to market for bids when the design is complete and to the council for bond approval.

Mayor Bennett says, "They're kind of up against it when it comes to this because we have no choice. We have to do it. We have the funds. We've already got approval from the state for the money so all of the things are in place accept the city council wants to wait to see what the final amount is and I'm perfectly fine with that."

The mayor says he expects to go to the board on this matter in September or October. He says he is also confident sewer rates will not need to be increased for this phase of the project.INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTHI) - Opioid addiction claims nearly 115 people a day.

It's a nationwide epidemic.

County leaders from across Indiana met in Indianapolis on Wednesday for an Opioid Summit.

It brought nearly 1,000 law enforcement and judicial figures from 92 counties together to the convention center.

They left the summit with the knowledge to help fight the growing national issue.

For roughly seven hours they sat through presentation after presentation.

Each one brought something new to the table.

They looked at issues like the use of medical treatment for addiction.

Presenters also talked about different approaches to help repeat offenders stay out of jail.

The goal is to bring a solution for the State of Indiana.

On top of talking to many state officials, we also talked with people representing the Wabash Valley.

One of the biggest takeaways...how some officers will now see these addicts from a different perspective to help them recover.

"I think we're all trying to learn about the different ways of treatment," Parke County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jason Frazier said. "How to deal with these individuals. Hopefully to treat them better in the drug court program, maybe have less relapse's in the long term."

Now, law enforcement was just one of many roles addressed.

In the coming days, News 10's Garrett Brown will break down more elements from the summit.SULLIVAN COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - Police say a semi driver reached to grab something from the floor when his truck traveled off of the roadway and ultimately rolled onto its side.

Sullivan County Sheriff Clark Cottom said the crash happened Wednesday moring at the intersection of U.S. Highway 41 and Washington St. just west of Sullivan.

The driver of the semi, Nathaniel Hill of Clarksville, Tennessee, told police he reached down to pick up an article from the floorboard, when his vehicle ran off the right side of the roadway. He tried to steer back onto the roadway, but the weight of his load caused the trailer to overturn.

The truck was hauling plastic pallets and was en route to Terre Haute.

Both northbound lanes of the highway were closed for two hours as crews cleaned up the crash site. They also cleaned up a small diesel fuel spill.

No injuries were reported.INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A special prosecutor has been named to help investigate allegations that Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill drunkenly groped a lawmaker and three legislative staffers.

A Marion County judge on Tuesday appointed Fort Wayne attorney Daniel Sigler to review the state inspector generals eventual findings and determine whether Hill should face criminal charges.

Sigler is a Democrat and former prosecutor. He was also the special prosecutor in a case that led to then-Indiana Secretary of State Charlie Whites conviction on voter fraud charges in 2012.

Hill is accused of groping the women at an Indianapolis bar in March. The Republican has denied the allegations and rejected calls to resign from the Republican governor and legislative leaders.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry sought a special prosecutor for Hill, citing legal entanglements between his and Hills office.CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ill. (WTHI) - Police are investigating a Tuesday night shooting in Crawford County, Illinois.

Crawford County Sheriff William Rutan confirmed new information to News 10 Wednesday morning.

Rutan said two people are facing charges in connection to the death of Sandra Kendall, 62. Police said she died after being shot. Through investigation, police found the death to be a suspected homicide.

Jason Strawbridge, 45 and Kristine Phillippe, 40 are in the Crawford County Jail after an investigation into Kendall's death. Rutan said Strawbridge is facing a charge for First Degree Murder. Phillippe is facing a charge for First Degree Murder Accountability.

The shooting happened around 7:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday. Officers were called to a home on North 25th Street in the town of Bellair. Rutan said both subjects were found within about half an hour.

Illinois State Police detectives are now handling the investigation.US airlines are changing their websites to keep China happy, just hours before a deadline for them to do so.

Beijing had demanded that American Airlines, Delta and United change how they refer to Taiwan by Wednesday, or risk sanctions in one of the world's biggest markets for air travel.

American Airlines and Delta updated their websites on Wednesday to show they fly to Taipei, with no mention of Taiwan. A few hours earlier, both websites offered flights to "Taipei, Taiwan."

United also removed some references to "TW" - short for Taiwan - from the front of its website, but other references to Taiwan were still showing up in searches.

Related: Why US companies are changing their websites to please China

China and Taiwan have been governed separately since 1949 following the Communist victory on the mainland after a civil war, although a shared cultural and linguistic heritage mostly endures.

But China considers Taiwan to be an integral part of its territory, and comes down hard on any suggestions to the contrary.

"Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate," American spokeswoman Shannon Gilson told CNN.

United did not respond to a request for comment outside of regular office hours. Delta declined to comment and referred questions to Airlines for America (A4A), which represents the US airline industry.

"The US airline industry is a global business that must contend with a host of regulations and requirements," the association said in a statement on Tuesday.

"A4A and the affected US airlines appreciate the engagement and counsel we have received from the administration as carriers begin to implement a solution," it added.

The instructions from China provoked a strong reaction from the United States earlier in the year. The White House slammed the demands as "Orwellian nonsense," describing them as "part of a growing trend by the Chinese Communist Party to impose its political views on American citizens and private companies."

Related: How China gets what it wants from American companies

But international airlines and other global brands are caught in a bind. It's vital for their business that they stay in China's good books. The International Air Transport Association forecast last year that China would surpass the United States as the world's top aviation market by 2020.

Many airlines, such as Australia's Qantas, Air Canada and Air India, have already changed their websites.

Geng Shuang, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Wednesday that the government had "noted some positive developments" in the way in which foreign airlines refer to Taiwan.

"We agree with the changes made by the relevant foreign airlines," he told a regular press briefing.

China hadn't spelled out what the punishments might be for airlines that failed to comply with its demands.

Earlier this year, it blocked Marriott websites and apps for a week in the country after the hotel company listed Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan as separate countries in emails and apps.

Hong Kong and Macau are former European colonies that were returned to China in the late 1990s, becoming regions with a large degree of administrative autonomy. Tibet has been under Beijing's control since 1951.

Related: Delta flies into China trouble over Tibet and Taiwan

Marriott issued a profuse public apology over the matter and conducted a full review of its Chinese website and apps.

China has orchestrated boycotts of foreign companies in the past. Last year, it squeezed the economy of South Korea, which had angered the Chinese government with the deployment of a US missile defense system.

The measures included an unofficial order to Chinese travel agencies to halt tour groups to South Korea. Within months, the number of Chinese tourists visiting the country had fallen by almost 50%, hurting South Korean operators of hotels, duty free stores and other travel businesses.

-- Steven Jiang and Tim Schwarz contributed to this report.(WTVA) - One man has pleaded guilty and another requested he go to trial in a federal investigation into stolen trailers full of merchandise in Mississippi.

William Braddock, 54, of Memphis, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to steal merchandise being shipped in interstate commerce.

He is among six people accused of in a conspiracy to steal trailers at truck stops in Mississippi, Tennessee and other states.

Among locations where trailers were stolen in Mississippi included Fulton, Oakland, Hickory Flat, Baldwyn and Okolona.

The merchandise was driven to a warehouse in Nashville and unloaded before being transported to Michigan.

The items taken included personal hygiene products, food, motor oil and antifreeze.

Braddock will be sentenced at a later date.

Brian Lucas, 31, of Memphis, notified the court he wanted to proceed to trial in the case.

The judge says jury selection will begin Monday in U.S. District Court in Oxford.High pressure will dominate our weather forecast for our Tuesday. This means we will see some good weather for our Tuesday. However, some rain and thunderstorms will be in our weather forecast down the line with some more low pressure in our area.

Radar Temperatures Severe WeatherGRENADA, Miss. (WTVA) - About 40 people were displaced following an apartment fire in Grenada.

The fire happened Sunday night into Monday morning at the Dogwood Park apartments.

This affects eight families.

Grenada City Manager Trey Baker says some of the families are either in hotels or with family members.

The American Red Cross was able to give some funding to assist the families.

Donations are being accepted at the Lewis Johnson Senior Citizen Complex.TUPELO, MISS. (WTVA) - Mississippi Department of Transportation recently awarded contracts to multiple companies for construction and maintenance projects throughout the state.

One of those contractors will be fixing any damaged cable barriers in District 1.

MDOT reported this contract is worth $500,000.

The contractor is Simmons Erosion Control.

The maintenance engineer, Mark Holley, says the company will repair any damages done to the barriers.

These barriers are used to prevent vehicles from driving off of the road.

He says they have to make the repairs within two weeks.

Holley says if they don't make the deadline, the company would be fined $750 a day.

He says there are 120 miles of cable running through District 1.WEST POINT, Miss. (WTVA) - The City of West Point says it's enforcing its "animal control ordinance" on a regular basis.

The ordinance is not a new one for the city, but police say they have received a rising amount of complaints about dogs.

"Basically, it starts off that we've been getting complaints about vicious dogs, and once we get complaints from the citizens, we try to just crack down on it," said Assistant Police Chief Kennedy Meaders.

According to the ordinance, a "vicious animal" is described as any animal that constitutes a physical threat to human beings or other animals."

The following breeds have been declared vicious animals, according to the city's ordinance: Rottweilers, Pit bulls, any mixed cross-breed German shepherds and Chows.

The ordinance states every "vicious animal" shall be confined by the owner within a building or secure enclosure and shall be securely muzzled or caged whenever off the premises of its owner.

Police say a rising number of complaints has led to a crackdown on dog owners.Fearsome cheatgrass taking over land can generate enough horror to reach for silver bullets.

But there are no silver bullets for cheatgrass, University of Wyoming Extension specialist Dan Tekiela told those attending the July 11 cheatgrass management field day in Sybille Canyon.

More than 45 people attended the event in the relatively isolated Tom Thorne/Beth Williams Wildlife Habitat Managemen...Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 02:41:52|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Italian agrifood industry exports registered a record high in 2017, slightly exceeding 41 billion euros (48 billion U.S. dollars), a report by the National Institute for Services to Agricultural and Food Markets (ISMEA) said on Tuesday.

"In the last decade, the prolonged economic crisis has fuelled a reconstruction in the fabric of our enterprises favoring those financially more solid, which -- according to (National Institute of Statistics) ISTAT -- coincide with those exporting," ISMEA stated.

The country's agrifood exports had been worth 37 billion euros in 2015 and 38.4 billion euros in 2016, respectively, according to data by the Agriculture Ministry.

ISMEA also noted the industry boosted its sales on foreign markets by 23 percent in the last five years, exceeding the European Union (EU) average of 16 percent in the same period.

In terms of value, EU agrifood exports almost reached 525 billion euros between 2013 and 2017, and the Italian products accounted for about 8 percent of that, according to the study.

"The primary role of the 'made in Italy' within the European sector clearly emerges from disaggregated data," the report said. "If we take the first five items of Italian agricultural exports, and compare them at EU level, (we see that) Italy is always the first exporter."

For example, the report mentioned, Italy accounted for 35-36 percent of the whole EU apple and grape exports, some 47 percent of EU kiwis exports, and 61 percent of EU shelled hazelnuts exports.

The Italian agriculture's value added was equal to 31.5 billion euros last year (not including fisheries and forestry), some 18 percent of the value added of the EU-28 (still with UK) agriculture, ISMEA further highlighted.

Such value would "put Italy in the first place, ahead of France (28.8 billion euros in value added) and Spain (26.4 billion euros), and leaving Germany behind by over 14 billion," it stated.

According to latest data available by statistical office Eurostat, the gross value added of the EU-28 agriculture amounted to some 165.65 billion euros in 2016.

According to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, the report would confirm the industry's "huge potential".

"Ours is one of the best functioning agriculture in Europe, but there is still much to do," Gian Marco Centinaio noted, after the study was unveiled in a conference.

"We need to further boost the export, make our agro-tourism companies more competitive, and offer more jobs to young people in a safe and balanced supply chain," he added.

Moreover, ISMEA sounded moderately worried on the evolution of the global market in the short term, and more optimistic in a medium-term perspective.

"The (current) neo-protectionist mood cannot but harm the Italian agrifood, which in latest years has showed an increasing level of openness," the report said. "In a longer term, however, it should be emphasized the evolution of the global demand of food appears to be fitting the features of the 'made in Italy'." (1 euro=1.17 U.S. dollars)A gas flare on an oil production platform in the Soroush oil fields is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Gulf, Iran, on July 25, 2005. (Reuters File photo)

TEHRAN, July 24 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian senior official said his country has "many options" against the U.S. pressures to cut its oil revenue, Financial Tribune reported Tuesday.

"If we cannot continue our (oil) exports, others will not be able to do so either," said Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi.

Araqchi, also a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, did not elaborate on the possible steps Tehran would take to dampen the U.S. oil sanctions, but said blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for international oil supplies, is not Iran's only option.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to quit the historic Iranian nuclear pact on May 8, Washington vowed to re-impose sanctions against Iran and inflict punishments on countries that have business links with Tehran.

The White House has announced that it would bring Iran's oil sales down to "zero."

Iranian officials described the U.S. move as an economic war.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that the United States should avoid economic war against the Islamic republic.

Iran has many straits of oil transit and the Strait of Hormuz (in the Persian Gulf) is one of them, Rouhani warned.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 03:22:05|Editor: Yurou

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LONDON, July 24 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May announced Tuesday she was taking control of negotiations with Brussels on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union (EU).

May told MPs about her decision in a written answer to the House of Commons as it was preparing to close for its long summer recess.

The main opposition Labour Party responded to the announcement with shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman saying May's newly appointed Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab had been sidelined.

The Independent newspaper's political sketch writer headed a commentary: "Theresa May has taken control of the Brexit negotiations. God help us all".

"Still, now that Theresa May has taken 'personal control' of Brexit away from the Brexiteers, perhaps a positive outcome is possible," said the commentary ... "Fingers crossed then. There is still time for 'Take Control' Theresa to work her unique magic."

In her statement, May said that Raab, who she appointed following the resignation just over two weeks ago of her previous Brexit secretary David Davis, would be her deputy in the negotiations with the EU.

Earlier Raab, who has already held talks with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, appeared in the House of Commons to announce the publication of a new government White Paper explaining how Britain's EU withdrawal agreement will be put into law.

May said both she and Raab will be supported by the Cabinet Office's Europe Unit, with the unit having overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations, drawing upon support from the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) and other departments as required.

May said DExEU will continue to lead on all of the government's preparations for Brexit: domestic preparations in both a deal and a no-deal scenario, all of the necessary legislation, and preparations for the negotiations to implement the detail of the Future Framework.

Insisting there was no sidelining, Raab said later there was no tension and that he will attend all meetings with May. He said the announcement amounted to some shifting of the Whitehall deckchairs.

Addressing MPs about the new withdrawal bill, and later facing a select committee of MPs, Raab said again that the 39 billion pounds (52 billion U.S. dollars) that Britain has agreed to pay as its so-called divorce settlement with the EU was conditional on a future trade deal between Brussels and London.

Raab said the new bill is aimed at providing further certainty at home and in the negotiations that Britain is getting on with the job of delivering a smooth and orderly Brexit while giving parliamentarians an opportunity to consider the detail of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill before it is introduced.

The new bill was announced in November but its publication today is the first time that the government has presented detail on how key parts of the Withdrawal Agreement will be made reality in British law.

It follows the EU (Withdrawal) Act which received Royal Assent from Queen Elizabeth, aimed ensuring Britain's statute book functions after Brexit, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.

Britain is due to leave the EU next March and there will be an implementation period until December 2020 when EU rules and regulations will continue to apply in Britain. This so-called transition period is to allow both sides to acclimatize to the new relationship with the remaining 27 EU member states.

Britain's negotiating team will be in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the future relationship, the border issue between Northern Ireland and Ireland and remaining issues on the withdrawal agreement.

By the fall, it will become clearer whether the Brexit project is on target for meeting the result of the 2016 referendum which made it clear the majority wanted Britain to leave the EU.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 04:52:25|Editor: huaxia

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RABAT, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's flag carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM), cancelled Tuesday 12 more flights, the highest number of daily cancels since the airline's pilots started their partial strike on last Friday.

According to RAM's data published on its official website, the cancellations involve flights between Morocco's largest airport in Casablanca and airports in Tunisia, France and Spain.

Tensions between RAM and its pilots have intensified since Monday after bilateral talks ended up without an agreement.

For months, the pilots association has negotiated with Moroccan airlines' officials about the issues related to raising wages, providing an annual compensation and other social demands.

The pilots association said in a statement on Friday that a "heavy social climate" prevails over the company, adding that the situation was "exacerbated by 20 months of sterile social dialogue."

RAM Director Abdelhamid Addou has criticized in a letter to the association what he called "the absence of willingness to see the company's development," stressing that organizing a strike "will have devastating effect" on the company. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 07:12:46|Editor: Lu Hui

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UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) on Tuesday urged Israel to refrain from excessive use of force against unarmed civilians while calling on all relevant parties to exercise restraint.

Addressing the UN Security Council open debate on "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question," Joanne Adamson, charge d'affaires of the EU delegation to the UN, said that "the use of force taken must be proportional at all times."

"Israel should reverse its punitive measures and work with the international community to ease conditions in Gaza, including opening movement and access for all humanitarian actors," Adamson said.

The situation in the Gaza Strip "has been like a pressure cooker for some time and is on the verge of explosion," she said.

In order to prevent further escalation of violence, the EU strongly urges all relevant parties "to respect international law, de-escalate tensions, exercise restraint, and prevent incidents that could jeopardize the lives of Palestinians and Israelis," she said.

"Serious efforts must be made towards a resumption of meaningful negotiations aimed at a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders that meets Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation and resolves all final status issues in order to end the conflict," she said.

Adamson reiterated the EU's "strong opposition" to Israel's settlement policy and actions, including demolitions, confiscation, evictions and forced transfers. "Settlements are illegal under international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible."

She also criticized the "continued provocation and unacceptable violent action by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," saying it "represents a real and concerning threat, with communities in southern Israel paying the consequences."

While noting that "the status of Jerusalem is a final status issue," Adamson said that "a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states."

The past month has witnessed "one of the largest escalations since the 2014 conflict," Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council in his briefing.CHICAGO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Dozens of students from China are visiting Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Midwest U.S. to attend a summer camp program, as the university works to draw in more international students.

Sixty-three students and four faculty members from Northeast Normal University (NENU) in China are visiting the SIU campus for a two-week long summer program to experience the region, test out business classes and get a feel of what the university has to offer, according to the official site of SIU.

SIU said in a press release that the SIU School of Accountancy and NENU School of Business worked collaboratively to offer a joint degree program. Students who complete two years at NENU and then transfer to SIU for their junior and senior year will receive a bachelor's degree in accountancy from both universities.

Andrew Carver, who is overseeing the program, sees this as way to strengthen the students and encourage future enrollment to SIU.

"The majority of these students are currently enrolled at NENU in the first two years of our joint degree program in Accountancy," Carver said. "Their summer experience in our campus will factor heavily in their decision to enroll at SIU as a degree-seeking student."

Of those attending the current summer program, 20 have committed to transferring to SIU in the fall of 2019, while many of the others are still considering their choices.KATHMANDU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Two French nationals were arrested in the Nepalese capital on the charge of pedophilia on Tuesday, police said here.

The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police arrested the two French men, aged 42 and 38, based on tip-off that they were abusing children using money, sport items, food items and chocolates as baits, the CIB said in a statement.

The two Frenchmen namely Christophe Guilloux, and Denis Mathiey Michel Chupau had been staying in a rental house in Kathmandu since Oct. 15, 2017, police said.

CIB Spokesman Krishna Hari Sharma said that they have started investigations.

Sharma said that eight victims have filed complaints against the two French men so far.

In recent years, many foreigners have been arrested in Nepal for sexually abusing and molesting under-aged children, police said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 10:23:16|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto (R) and Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos pose for photos prior to a meeting during the 13th Pacific Alliance Summit in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on July 24, 2018. Latin America's two key trade blocs Pacific Alliance and Southern Common Market (Mercosur) Tuesday signed a joint declaration at a summit in Mexico to promote free trade and social inclusion. (Xinhua/Francisco Canedo)

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Latin America's two key trade blocs Tuesday signed a joint declaration at a summit in Mexico to promote free trade and social inclusion.

Heads of state of the Pacific Alliance and Southern Common Market (Mercosur) gathered in Mexico's Pacific Coast resort of Puerto Vallarta for the 13th Pacific Alliance Summit held on July 23-24.

"Today we approved a joint declaration in which we endorse our commitment to free trade that benefits social inclusion," summit host and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said, following the signing of the document.

Accompanied by his counterparts from alliance members Chile, Peru and Colombia, as well as Mercosur's Brazil and Uruguay, Pena Nieto added: "We presidents are sending the world a clear signal that together we are promoting regional integration and free trade."

"We are convinced that opening up trade and respect for the multilateral trade system are essential for the economic growth and sustainable development of our countries," said Pena Nieto.

They also agreed on an action plan that is considered a roadmap for strengthening trade and cooperation in a range of fields, including helping small- and medium-sized companies access global markets and promoting the knowledge economy.

When referring to the plan, Pena Nieto said: "The nations of the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur have taken our first step towards bringing our blocs closer together."

Argentina and Paraguay also sent high-level envoys to sign the joint declaration.

The two leading trade and integration blocs together receive 88 percent of the region's total foreign direct investment and account for 85 percent of the GDP in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to figures from the Mexican government.

The 13th Summit of the Pacific Alliance marked the first official gathering of the two blocs.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 10:53:24|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses the opening ceremony of the South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. Xi and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa attended the opening ceremony here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

PRETORIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa jointly attended the opening ceremony of a high-level dialogue between the two countries' scientists here on Tuesday.

China and Africa, who have stood together through thick and thin, have always been a community with a shared future and a community of shared interests based on win-win cooperation, Xi said during a speech at the dialogue.

Recalling the successful Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in December 2015, Xi said he is glad to see that the science and research cooperation projects inked in the outcome documents of the summit have been well implemented with remarkable achievements.

With joint efforts from both sides, the China-South Africa innovative cooperation in science and technology has been actively advancing, Xi said.

With important progress in technology cooperation in various fields, and multiple achievements in cutting-edge technology and industrial application cooperation, the breakthrough in science and technology made by Chinese and South African scientists have caught global attention, which enriched the contents of China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership and became a new growth point in expanding their mutually beneficial cooperation, said Xi.

The China-South Africa and China-Africa science and technology cooperation is faced with important new opportunities, as the FOCAC Beijing summit will kick off in September, the Chinese president said.

We should actively build new platforms for joint innovation, deepen exchanges and cooperation, boost exchanges among young scientists, proactively involve ourselves in the global innovation network, promote open cooperation in innovation ability with countries around the world, so as to push forward the China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation to keep up with the global trend of science and technology development, and endeavor to become top players in such development, Xi said.

He urged representatives from the Chinese and South African science and technology and industrial circles to continue to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two countries, actively expand innovation and enhance coordination, in order to find a win-win development path for China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation.

The Chinese president expressed confidence in the smooth realization of the goals through persistent endeavor.

For his part, Ramaphosa thanked Xi for his close attention and support to South Africa-China science and technology cooperation, noting the fruitful results from bilateral cooperation in recent years.

The South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue demonstrated the two countries' resolution in promoting growth through science and technology innovation, and their cooperation potential in this field, he said.

The South African government is committed to strengthening science and technology innovative cooperation, so as to better cope with the fourth industrial revolution, Ramaphosa said, stressing that China is a reliable science and research cooperation partner to his country.

He also thanked China for its commitment in helping Africa's development and in promoting the Africa-China science and technology innovative cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC.

Xi and Ramaphosa together toured a photo exhibition of the achievements in China-South Africa science and technology innovative cooperation before the opening ceremony of the dialogue.

Among the exhibits were photos of Africa's flagship projects in science and technology, South Africa and China's respective science and technology achievements and their cooperation results.

The two leaders listened to the introduction of the South African Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope project, which is a major project involving multinational scientists including those from China, and a major bilateral science and technology cooperation project between China and South Africa.

They encouraged scientists from both countries to continue making efforts to smoothly complete the SKA project.

The two presidents also witnessed the first vehicle rolling off the line from Beijing Automobile Works' investment project in South Africa through a video link.

Xi arrived in Pretoria on Monday to pay his third state visit to the "rainbow nation."

South Africa is the fourth stop of Xi's five-nation Middle East and Africa tour, which has taken him to the United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Rwanda. He will also visit Mauritius during a stopover.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 10:58:26|Editor: Liangyu

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by Edna Alcantara, Wu Hao

MEXICO CITY, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Latin American trade bloc the Pacific Alliance, in conjunction with its older counterpart the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), is poised to spur regional trade ties with China, according to Mexican experts.

The bloc held a summit in Mexico's Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta on July 23-24, gathering leaders of its members -- Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile, as well as of Mercosur members Brazil and Uruguay, and concluding with a joint declaration and an action plan to promote regional integration and free trade among the two blocs' members.

Argentina and Paraguay, the other members of Mercosur, sent high-level envoys to sign the documents.

Raquel Leon de la Rosa, who teaches international business at central Mexico's Autonomous University of Puebla, said the younger Pacific Alliance serves as "a bridge to greater dynamism," bringing new vitality to the equation, with its push to liberalize trade, and promote competitiveness and transparency.

Together the blocs can "create a hub to increasingly strengthen the link with the Asia-Pacific, primarily China," said Leon.

Founded in 2012, the Pacific Alliance today has four associate members -- Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and some 50 observer countries, including China.

Some experts believe that alliance countries, concerned about rising protectionism, especially from their long-time trade partner the United States, are looking to diversify their markets, particularly in Asia, a region Mercosur has longer and stronger ties with.

Ignacio Martinez Cortes, an expert on China and a professor of international relations at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), believes the blocs, while exploring ways to boost cooperation and regional integration, are seeking closer trade ties with the Asian market.

That goal, he noted, coincides with China's aim to "establish regional strategic alliances to form a common front against protectionism."

Senator Mariana Gomez del Campo, president of the Senate's Latin American and Caribbean foreign affairs committee, noted that the Pacific Alliance was intended to promote the members' trade and economic ties "with a special emphasis on the Asia-Pacific."

Following the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Pacific Alliance became a "perfect vehicle" for greater trade with Asia, said Gomez.

Data show the regional bloc represents some 37 percent of Latin America's GDP and 52 percent of its total trade, and attracts 45 percent of the foreign investment in the region.

Gabriela Cuevas Barron, president of the Senate's foreign affairs committee, said the alliance is part of Mexico's efforts to expand trade, which took on greater urgency after the United States threatened to quit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is currently being renegotiated.

Mexico became aware it must "take steps and adopt strategies to expand our import and export potential to overcome the enormous dependency we have on the country (the United States)," said Cuevas.

"The Pacific Alliance is our third global trade partnership. After the U.S. and Canada, the bloc ... accounts for a third of our country's exports and 24.4 percent of its imports, amounting to 31 percent of total trade in Latin America and the Caribbean," added the Senator.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 11:03:26|Editor: Liangyu

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 90 percent of Chinese railways are subject to anti-smoking regulations, but enforcement remains poor, particularly on slower services, Wednesday's China Daily reported.

State and local tobacco control policies require that station waiting areas, platforms and train cars be smoke free.

But compliance is far from satisfactory, according to research released by Yang Jie, deputy director of tobacco control for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, during a symposium earlier this week, the paper reported.

Health officials and experts at the gathering, held by the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, called for tougher enforcement of tobacco control laws and regulations.

Currently, 21 cities in China ban smoking in indoor public areas, with the latest regulation taking effect in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Another five cities have prohibited tobacco use on public transportation, according to Yang.

China prohibits smoking on airlines and high-speed trains, but slower trains that carry more than one-third of the total 3 billion train passengers in China still have smokers on a daily basis, according to the association.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 11:18:30|Editor: Yurou

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UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Permanant Observer of Palestine to the United Nations (UN) Riyad Mansour on Tuesday refuted the U.S. attack on Arab states' aid to Palestinians.

"You cannot come to the Security Council in an arrogant way to say that you are the only one who is helping and others are not doing anything. That is not the case," Mansour said outside the council chamber.

In her earlier speech given during an open debate on the Middle East situation, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the Palestinians' Arab neighbors "are generous with their words," but those words "do not feed, clothe, or educate a single Palestinian child."

Their contribution "does not come anywhere close to what the United States has done," Haley said, adding that the United States has provided over 6 billion U.S. dollars in bilateral assistance to the Palestinians since 1993.

The ambassador, however, did not mention that this year, Washington cut its funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which helps Palestinian refugees, from a promised 365 million dollars to 60 million dollars.

The cuts render the UNRWA still 217 million dollars short for sustaining its work this year even after it stepped up fundraising efforts, according to the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov.

"You do not stop 300 million dollars away from UNRWA under any pretext and say you care about the humanitarian situation of the people there," said Mansour, criticising Haley's speech.

He also cited Saudi Arabia's ambassador as saying, in response to Haley's remarks, that as an Arab country, Saudi Arabia has over the years contributed more than 6 billion dollars to help Palestinians.

"She (Haley) was insulting close allies of the United States, such as Arab countries in the Gulf region, including Saudi Arabia," said Mansour.

After Washington's decision on the cuts, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Eirates each gave 50 million dollars to the agency, according to UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 11:18:31|Editor: Liangyu

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SHIJIAZHUANG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- North China's Hebei Province has released technical standards for glass suspension bridges and walkways at scenic areas to better ensure the safety of tourists, local authorities said.

According to the Hebei Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the standards provide specific guidelines for materials, location, design, and construction of glass bridges and walkways.

Glass suspension bridges should not be built in areas with high seismic activity. Additional protective equipment and warning signs written in Chinese and at least one foreign language should be installed in potentially dangerous sections, the standards said.

Glass suspension bridges and walkways should be closed during bad weather and natural disasters, such as typhoons, heavy rain, thunderstorms, mountain torrents and mudslides.

The number of pedestrians on glass bridges and walkways will be limited to no more than three per square meter.

The technical standards will take effect on Aug. 1.

Chinese tourist sites in mountainous areas often install glass bridges to attract visitors. The most famous is at Zhangjiajie, a tourist destination in central China, where a 430-meter-long, six-meter-wide bridge hangs between two steep cliffs 300 meters above the ground.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 11:28:33|Editor: Yurou

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Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education, addresses a graduation ceremony for pre-school teachers in Pretoria, South Africa, July 24, 2018. Peng was accompanied by Tshepo Motsepe, wife of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the event. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

PRETORIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Peng Liyuan, wife of Chinese President Xi Jinping and a UNESCO Special Envoy for the Advancement of Girls' and Women's Education, attended a graduation ceremony for pre-school teachers in the South African capital of Pretoria on Tuesday.

Peng was accompanied by Tshepo Motsepe, wife of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, and a representative of the African Self Help Association Trust at the event.

The pre-school teachers performed South African songs and dances to welcome the Chinese guests.

Teaching is a noble profession, Peng said.

In order to help the children realize their dreams and eventually carry forward the cause of national rejuvenation and prosperity, teachers should always bear in mind the expectations and responsibilities entrusted to them by their country, maintain a high standard of professional and personal ethics, stay benevolent and never give up learning, she said.

She urged the teachers and students to dedicate themselves to the cause of friendly cooperation between China and South Africa and make contributions to the development of bilateral relations.

The pre-school teachers training program is undertaken by the African Self Help Association Trust, which has covered thousands of people in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.HO CHI MINH CITY, July 25 (Xinhua) -- In an imported steel scrap container at Cai Mep port in Vietnam's southern Ba Ria Vung Tau province, local customs officers detected 100 cakes of heroin weighing around 35 kg, the provincial authorities said Wednesday.

The container, arriving Tuesday, is among 17 containers imported by a Vietnamese steel firm to manufacture steel, and the other 16 containers have hidden no drugs. All the 17 containers were transported by a Liberia-flagged cargo ship.

The provincial police are investigating the heroin's source and its final destination.

According to Vietnamese law, those convicted of smuggling over 600 grams of heroin or more than 2.5 kg of methamphetamine are punishable by death.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 12:38:44|Editor: Yurou

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by Xinhua writer Qu Junya

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- With the 10th BRICS summit set to take place in South Africa on Wednesday, the bloc of emerging-market economies is opening a new chapter in their all-round cooperation after a successful decade.

At their three-day gathering in Johannesburg, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa will join hands to further promote common development amid changes on the international scene.

Furthermore, building on the achievements of the previous BRICS summit in Xiamen, China, the member countries will seek ways to ensure their own growth benefits other developing countries.

WORTHWHILE COOPERATION

Over the past 10 years, the BRICS countries have carried out substantial cooperation in an array of areas, laying a firm foundation for the bloc to play a larger role on the world stage, including in the global efforts to tackle climate change and promote sustainable development.

The New Development Bank, the bloc's financial arm, offers a glimpse. Since its launch in July 2015, the Shanghai-headquartered bank has approved 21 projects worth 5.1 billion U.S. dollars.

This year, the bank will be opening its Americas regional office in Sao Paulo, Brazil; its Johannesburg-based African center began operations in 2017. This latest move will further extend and facilitate the bank's financial services, making it a major player in South-South cooperation.

The bank focuses particularly on infrastructure and sustainable development. It funded four renewable energy projects in 2016 with its first batch of loans in an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

With similar business decisions, the bank has helped BRICS to honor its commitment to the Paris climate deal and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, promote common development, and build its leadership in South-South cooperation.

Over the years, the BRICS have increased people-to-people ties, including through museum exhibitions, film festivals and educational programs, in order to boost understanding and trust between member states and consolidate the foundation for closer partnerships.

The organization has also established mechanisms for consultations at different levels and in various fields, seeking to speak in one strong voice on major regional and global issues of common concern.

BETTER GOVERNANCE

BRICS has illustrated how countries of the South can actually work productively together, said Yazini April, a researcher at South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council.

"The BRICS has set up a new stage for emerging economies which is what we are in need of," April said.

That echoes sentiments by Reginah Mhaule, South Africa's deputy international relations and cooperation minister.

"These countries are joined together by a strong desire to change the world system with the purpose of reflecting the diversity of the world power, economies, culture and the societies in general," she said at a BRICS workshop in June.

"We can agree that it is a force to be reckoned with in the international arena and has contributed to an increased dispersal of global political and economic power," Mhaule noted.

Furthermore, BRICS has grown into a significant force to safeguard and promote international fairness and justice.

For example, its members have helped increase the representation of developing countries in the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in recent years, making the bloc -- representing about 40 percent of the global population and a quarter of the world economy -- an accelerator in reforming the global economic governance system.

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, chairman of the Kuhn Foundation and a longtime China expert, once commented: "Properly positioned, BRICS can facilitate the continuing emergence of the largest developing countries to participate fully in a new kind of global governance, which humanity so badly needs in the 21st century."

In the opinion of Richard Levin, head of South Africa's National School of Government, the BRICS could enhance global governance merely by reducing poverty, one of the priorities on the UN sustainable development agenda.

"It is one of the most important instruments to tackle poverty. The BRICS wants to play a role in transforming global governance not for the sake of transformation but for the sake of the people," he said.

TACKLE NEW CHALLENGES

At a meeting in June in Pretoria, South Africa, BRICS foreign ministers made an appeal to safeguard multilateralism and a rules-based international order.

In a joint statement, they "reaffirmed the centrality" of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and international law. Also, they called for greater representation of emerging markets and developing countries in global decision-making, including in global economic governance, in order to reflect the current global landscape.

Meanwhile, the foreign ministers pledged support for "an open and inclusive world economy enabling all countries and peoples to share the benefits of globalization," with a firm commitment to free trade and a rules-based multilateral trading system.

In particular, the BRICS members voiced their opposition to "the new wave of protectionism and the systematic impact of unilateral measures that are incompatible with WTO rules," and they highlighted the role of the WTO "to enhance security and predictability in international trade."

CONFRONTING UNILATERALISM

At the start of a second decade of BRICS cooperation, just as Chinese President Xi Jinping has put it, for the bloc to gain enough strength, like five fingers of a hand, it should work together to form a fist that can punch.

China, seeking common growth amid new challenges, has urged the BRICS countries to find new economic growth drivers while coordinating macroeconomic policies, and to expand intra-BRICS cultural and people-to-people exchanges to beef up the foundation for the bloc's solidarity and coordination.

Chen Fengying, a senior researcher on the global economy at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that strengthening people-to-people and think-tank ties will help the BRICS countries unite in pushing for global governance reforms and confronting unilateralism in global trade.

On security cooperation, apart from fighting terrorism and extremism, she suggested that BRICS countries extend their cooperation to cover sectors including the internet, energy and finance.

Noting that the problem of imbalanced development worldwide is still undermining global growth, Chen emphasized the need to further economic cooperation among developing countries and emerging economies in a range of areas such as financing, e-commerce, intellectual property rights protection and investment facilitation.

"This is exactly where such a platform as BRICS can play a better role," she said. "And by developing itself well, it can take the lead in South-South cooperation so as to benefit more countries."PHNOM PENH, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian authorities are ready to enhance security during Sunday's general election, officials said on Wednesday.

"We are ready to ensure safety, security, and public order for the sixth general election," Gen. Chuon Sovann, deputy National Police commissioner and Phnom Penh Municipal Police chief, said during a gathering of nearly 5,000 security personnel here.

He said the security forces are obliged to prevent, thwart, and quell every attempt to spoil the election.

Phnom Penh Municipal Governor Khuong Sreng called for the people to vote in Sunday's election, saying that it is the only chance in every five years to elect national leaders they like.

National Election Committee (NEC) member Hel Sarath said last week that nearly 70,000 security personnel will be deployed at all 22,967 polling stations across the kingdom on the voting day.

The Southeast Asian country is scheduled to hold the general election for the 125-seat parliament on Sunday, July 29.

Twenty political parties will contest in the election, which will see some 8.38 million people cast their ballots, according to the NEC.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 13:33:55|Editor: mmm

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MAIMANA, Afghanistan, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Seven civilians sustained injuries in a blast that rocked Maimana city, the capital of northern Faryab province on Wednesday, provincial police spokesman Abdul Karim Yurash said.

"The blast happened at 09:00 a.m. local time today, leaving seven civilians injured including a 12-year old child," Yurash told Xinhua.

Without providing more details, the official said that investigation is underway and details would be made public after completion of investigation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 13:43:57|Editor: Liu

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DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) - As many as 32 people were killed in the suicide bombing and Islamic State (IS) attacks in the southern Syrian province of Sweida early Wednesday, a monitor group reported.SEOUL, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Childbirth in South Korea kept falling for 30 straight months through May, boosting worry about a so-called demographic cliff, a government report showed Wednesday.

The number of newborn babies was 27,900 in May, down 7.9 percent from a year ago, according to Statistics Korea.

It was the lowest May figure since the statistical agency began compiling the data in 1981, maintaining a downward trend for 30 months since December 2015.

The continued fall in childbirth fueled concerns about the demographic cliff, which refers to a sudden drop in the heads of households leading to a consumption cliff.

According to the statistical agency's estimate, the number of South Korean population was forecast to begin falling in 2028.

The low birth rate has been a headache for the South Korean economy as it can lead to the lower workforce amid the fast-aging population, which would drag down the economy's growth potential.

The low birth rate was attributable to the social trend of delayed marriage and the falling number of women who are of childbearing age.

The number of women aged 30-35, who give the highest birth during their entire lifetime, declined 5.3 percent in May from a year earlier.

The number of marriages shed 7.1 percent over the year to 25,000 in May, while the number of divorce gained 4.3 percent to 9,700.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 13:53:58|Editor: Liu

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LANZHOU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- More than 110 scientists from 30 countries and regions have gathered in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, to prepare a special climate change report on the world's oceans and cryosphere.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body assessing scientific research related to climate change, started to draft its Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) Monday.

It is in its sixth assessment cycle to provide policymakers with scientific support. The report is due in September 2019.

"We will develop and refine the draft of the report here in Lanzhou by addressing more than 12,000 comments from experts," said Ko Barrett, vice chairman of the IPCC.

The report will focus on the impacts of climate change on oceans and frozen regions, the two most vulnerable layers of the climate system, said Barrett. Cryosphere includes ice sheets, frozen lakes and rivers, regions covered by snow, glaciers, and frozen soil.

"The world's most developed regions with over half of its population are located within 60 kilometers from the coastline. That is why the oceans and cryosphere in a changing climate draw high concern," said Debra Roberts, co-head of a research group of the IPCC.

Besides the SROCC, another two special reports on greenhouse gas emissions and desertification controls are also underway.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 13:53:59|Editor: zh

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Lao soldiers carry rescue equipments in Attapeu, Laos, on July 25, 2018. About 19 people were dead and 49 others remained missing after an under-construction dam collapsed in south Laos, local media quoted unofficial reports from Attapeu Administration office as saying on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

VIENTIANE, July 25 (Xinhua) -- About 19 people had been confirmed dead and 49 others remained missing after an under-construction dam collapsed in southern Laos, local media quoted unofficial reports from Attapeu Administration office as saying on Wednesday.

The collapse of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam triggered flash flood in seven villages of Sanamxay district, in Lao's southern Attapeu Province.

Some 6,000 people of 1,300 families in the villages were affected by the flooding, Sanamxay district Governor Bounhom Phommasane told the Vientiane Times.

He said about 2,851 people had been rescued till Wednesday morning in the district.

"A second step for us will to recover and identify the deceased, but for now we hurry to find those who are still alive in the area," he said.

Meanwhile, the Lao government website reported that at least seven bodies had been recovered and 20 villagers missing.

The seven bodies were recovered from the village of Mai and 20 missing from the village of Saydounkeng. Rescue personnel were still collecting the number of casualties from other villages.

Video clips and photos on social media showed flood-water levels going up to the ceiling, forcing villagers and animals to seek shelter on rooftops.

Initial reports said several were killed and hundreds missing following the accident in the landlocked country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 13:53:59|Editor: ZX

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Aerial photo taken on May 8, 2018 shows the Chinese-built Maputo Cross-sea Bridge in Maputo, Mozambique. (Xinhua)

by Xinhua writer Zhu Shaobin

NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- From the Horn of Africa all the way south to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, is an extensive stretch of thousands of kilometers of the West Indian Ocean coastline.

Historically, the famous Chinese navigator Zheng He during the Ming Dynasty, had led trade envoys and reportedly reached the eastern and southern Africa coastal region four times, sowing the initial seeds for China-Africa friendship, and carving out an ancient maritime silk road trade route.

More than 600 years have passed since those first voyages. This region now boasts some of Africa's fastest growing economies, which seek to boost regional integration with better infrastructure through cooperation under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative.

The China-Africa cooperative projects such as the electrified railway connecting landlocked Ethiopia with Djibouti, the Mombasa-Nairobi standard gauge railway in Kenya, the Maputo Cross-sea Bridge in Mozambique and various industrial zones established in recent years, have been a reflection of the successful cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative.

A DREAM COME TRUE

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which aims at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

An open and inclusive platform for economic cooperation between nations and governments, the initiative has helped change people's lives.

Tesfay, 38, used to be a taxi driver in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa with an income that could barely support his family.

"Actually, I have always had this dream of owning a house in Addis Ababa," he said.

Yet compared with the average salary of a local employee, the housing price is simply too high for him to realize his dream.

Because of his driving skill and extensive knowledge of the city, he was employed six years ago by the China Railway Group (CREC), one of the contractors of the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway.

"Tesfay was just the kind of guy we needed when we first arrived in Addis Ababa years ago, when streets in the city barely had names and houses did not have doorplate numbers. He was a walking map of the city," said Yuan Qiang, an expert with CREC No.2 Group at the project for operation and maintenance.

With help from the project and his Chinese colleagues, Tesfay finally managed to buy his dream house in the city with a down payment four years ago.

"The price of the house has now even gone up quite a lot, which equals to many years of my salary," said Tesfay.

Examples of African workers benefitting from various projects under the Belt and Road Initiative abound.

The Nairobi-Mombasa railway project has created nearly 50,000 jobs for locals, and trained more than 5,000 technicians since construction began in late 2014. The Maputo Cross-Sea Bridge, due to be launched soon, has also created over 20,000 jobs for the locals, both full-time and part-time, since the project commenced in June 2014, data from the China Road and Bridge Corporation showed.

TRENDY TOPIC IN AFRICA

As the Belt and Road Initiative seeks to promote connectivity among nations, more African countries are eager to know how they could benefit from it as they strive to promote regional integration through upgrading roads, ports, railways and telecommunication networks.

In June, officials, scholars, and think tanks gathered in Kenya for a case study of the Nairobi-Mombasa railway, a pioneer project of the Belt and Road Initiative in East Africa.

James Macharia, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Transport, said the project is a model for cooperation with China in infrastructure development and socio-economic transformation.

Describing the project a game changer, Macharia said that the extension of the modern railway project toward the border with Uganda will stimulate trade and industrialization along its corridor.

Gerishon Ikiara, an international economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, said that the China-proposed initiative and the BRICS Development Bank have enriched cooperation among countries and regions, and have been important engines for global economic growth.

The Maritime Silk Road connects east Africa with Asia and Europe, and the extension of standard gauge railways in east Africa will greatly improve the region's transport and reduce trade costs, he said.

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian said earlier that Africa is an important destination for the Belt and Road Initiative.

"The construction of the projects under the initiative will bring unprecedented new opportunities for China-Africa cooperation," he said.

NEW MOMENTUM FOR TIES

This year marks the fifth anniversary since the Belt and Road Initiative was first put forward in 2013.

Over the years, after some nations in East Africa have taken their first steps to boost domestic development under the initiative, countries in West Africa, including Nigeria, Mauritania, and Cote d'Ivoire have expressed interest in joining in the Belt and Road construction.

Nigeria's newspaper Leadership published a full-page article last month, which urged Nigeria, Africa's largest economy and most populous country, to take a stand and make itself a key player to attract this initiative to its shores.

"In Nigeria, China is doing quite well. The Abuja-Kaduna railway, the Abuja light rail from the city center to airport, among other projects, are all in spirit of the Belt and Road," the article said.

African leaders will gather this September in Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, and it is expected that the Belt and Road Initiative is going to be a major topic.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said earlier this year that Zimbabwe will fully participate in the initiative for the benefit of its economy.

"The Belt and Road Initiative is indeed a vision for the future," Mnangagwa said.

Tanzania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Mahiga told Xinhua that the philosophy of the Belt and Road Initiative is to open economic opportunities, to give the countries worldwide better access to resources, technology, and to have closer connectivity.

"That is the essence of the connectivity of the world economy. If you want another word for Belt and Road, it is user-friendly globalization of the economy," he added.

(Xinhua reporters Wang Shoubao in Addis Ababa, Jin Zheng in Nairobi, Zhang Yuliang in Harare, Li Sibo in Dar es Salaam contributed to the story)

(Video editor: Luo Hui)SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The world's largest social media network Facebook has signed a new agreement with the U.S. west state of Washington to ban discriminatory advertisements on its platform, Attorney General (AG) of Washington state Bob Ferguson said Tuesday.

Under the legally binding agreement, Facebook will make significant changes to its advertising platform, so as to end the practice of allowing advertisers to exclude certain groups based on race, religious belief and sex orientation from viewing advertisements of housing, credit, employment, insurance and public accommodations.

Ferguson said these changes will be completed within 90 days and go effective nationwide, though the agreement is legally binding in Washington.

"Facebook's advertising platform allowed unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation, disability and religion," said Ferguson. "That's wrong, illegal, and unfair."

The new agreement was a result of a 20-month probe by Ferguson's office, which found that the advertisers were excluding users by race when they use Facebook's "multicultural affinity" category in its ad targeting tool.

Because of the advertisers' discrimination, African-American, Latinx and other ethnic affinities were prevented from seeing their ads.

Facebook had promised to improve enforcement of its prohibition against discrimination in advertising for housing, employment or credit in February 2017, but the Washington AG Office said the social media giant had failed to implement its commitment.CANBERRA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Australia's national transport safety body has launched an investigation into the safety procedures of a Malaysia Airlines flight after a near-disaster earlier in July, officials said Wednesday.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) on Wednesday opened a probe into flight MH134 after equipment failure forced it to return to Brisbane Airport shortly after take-off on July 18.

Airspeed indicators on the A330-200 failed on take-off, forcing the pilots to dump fuel and return to Brisbane Airport where the plane could not return to the gate after a heavy landing, forcing the airport to close the runway for 90 minutes.

The flight was bound for Kuala Lumpur with 226 passengers and crew on board.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the incident was due to a failure to remove covers from pitot tubes that measure airspeed and altitude.

A similar problem was found to be responsible for Air France Flight 447 crashing into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people on board.

The failure to remove the covers has been described as a "shocking" oversight by aviation experts.

"There should be an engineer checking the aircraft before it departs and then the pilot should check it. If those checks are not happening, they shouldn't be flying a plane," Steve Purvinas, secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association, told News Corp Australia on Wednesday.

He said that the rough landing was no surprise given that the pilots didn't know their altitude as they descended.

A spokesperson for the airline said they were "unable to comment while investigations are in progress."

The incident came only one month after Malaysia Airlines resumed flights between Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur after suspending the service in 2014.CANBERRA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Almost 85 percent of international students who study in Australia do not stay in the country long-term, a report has revealed.

The "Shaping a Nation: Population Growth and Immigration Over Time" report, compiled by the Treasury and Department of Home Affairs, found that five out of every six international students left for opportunities abroad once their study was complete.

According to the report international students are no longer the biggest source of skilled migrants to Australia.

That drop-off comes after a crackdown in 2010 on hopeful migrants using students visas as a pathway to permanent residency, making it more difficult for international students to remain in Australia once they completed their studies.

The growing number of international students in Australia has become a political hot topic in recent months with some calling for a hard cap on the number of international students allowed into the country each year.

Brendan O'Connor, an employment spokesperson for the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), said it was clear that "there are circumstances where people are coming only to work."

According to the report, 90 percent of the 1.6 million temporary migrants in Australia, of which international students are the second biggest group, have the right to work.

"Why do we allow the overuse and abuse when we know youth unemployment is more than 11 percent?" he said on Sky News.

"I think we need to see whether we could either cap the scheme or make sure it's being used properly for the purpose it was intended."CANBERRA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Australian wine exports have hit a new record high with China remaining the most lucrative market.

According to Wine Australia data the total value of exports rose 20 percent in financial year 2017-18 to 2.76 billion Australian dollars (2.05 billion U.S. dollars) while the total volume of wine exported rose 10 percent to 852 million liters.

Exports to China were worth 1.12 billion Australian dollars (832 million U.S. dollars), or 40 percent of the total export value, a 55 percent increase from the previous year.

Even with strong growth in China continuing, Wine Australia chief executive Andreas Clark said the industry could not afford to rely on one market.

"It is a great story, but like all these things, past success does not guarantee anything into the future," Clark told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday.

"We need to continue to work hard to cultivate and nurture the opportunities that sit in China as well."

Britain remained the biggest market in terms of volume despite the value of exports to the country being worth only a third of those to China.

Anne Rushton, Australia's Assistant Minister for Agriculture said the strong growth was indicative of a changing attitude within the industry.

"I think it is a recognition that at last the Australian wine industry has turned a corner, and they are focusing very much on the quality of our product," she said.

Wine Australia has targeted the United States for major marketing campaigns as part of the Federal Government's 50 million Australian dollars (37.1 million U.S. dollars) regional wine support package.ISLAMABAD, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least five people were injured when a blast went off near a police vehicle in Pakistan's southwest Quetta city on Wednesday, local Urdu TV channels reported.

According to the reports, the explosion occurred in the eastern bypass area of Quetta, the provincial capital of the country's southwestern Balochistan province.

The attack happened when a police vehicle was passing by a polling station in the area, the reports said.

Nature of the explosion has not been officially confirmed yet.

Security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the injured to nearby hospital in the city.

Security forces condoned off the area and kicked off a search operation. No group or individual has claimed the attack yet.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 15:19:19|Editor: ZX

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NANJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- For almost four decades, Yu Huanqin, a peach farmer in Yangshan Township, east China's Jiangsu Province, has kept records of peach prices in every harvest season.

Yu, 63, has seen the surge of peach prices from a few cents per kilo in the late 1980s to over 50 yuan (about 7.4 U.S. dollars) per kilo now.

After the harvest, she plans to embark on her annual trip around China. "I have visited almost all the famous tourist spots in China, with the money earned from my peach business," she said.

Yu was a television antenna saleswoman before she returned home in 1984 to plant peaches in her family's orchard. The decision was made as Yangshan switched its focus from grain to peach cultivation after China's economic reform 40 years ago.

Yu's business took off quickly and has seen steady growth over the decades. "I made less than 5,000 yuan in 2000, but last year I earned over 100,000 yuan," she said.

Yu's success is indicative of Yangshan's booming peach industry.

Yangshan has around 2,133 hectares of peach trees, yielding 50,000 tonnes of peaches per year, worth over 500 million yuan. The town known across China as home to remarkably sweet and succulent honey peaches, dubbed "the best peach on earth" by the Wall Street Journal in 2009.

Like Yu, Luo Shengkang returned to Yangshan to join the peach boom, setting up a peach production cooperative in 2010 after graduating from a university in Nanjing, the provincial capital.

"Shanghai (about 165 kilometers away from Yangshan) has a big market," Luo said. "And I saw great potential in scale production of honey peaches in Yangshan."

In 2008, local authorities pledged to facilitate land transfer in Yangshan to promote large-scale peach production in the form of farmer cooperatives, family farms and joint partnerships. Yangshan currently has 200 peach production cooperatives and over 30 family peach farms.

Luo's cooperative, Youyou Orchard Cooperative, has a peach farm that occupies about 6.7 hectares, with a revenue of nearly five million yuan last year.

The cooperative mainly sells peaches through e-commerce platforms, such as popular Taobao and WeChat stores. The peaches are packed in fancy gift boxes, instead of being sold by the kilo or in baskets as in the past.

Farmers like Yu Huanqin are also selling their peaches online. Though Yu still retains the habit of keeping her accounts by hand, she no longer needs to carry her peaches for sale as her daughter helps her sell them online.

"When I was a kid, peach farmers in Yangshan carried their peaches to the pier, and the peaches were later shipped to nearby Suzhou and Shanghai. In the 1980s, I put peaches in baskets and carried them on my bicycle to sell," she said.

Now she only needs to wait at home for staff from courier companies to collect her peaches and transport them to customers across the country.

"It's like living in a dream," she said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 15:29:23|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BRASILIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's tax revenue rose 2.01 percent in June compared to the same period a year ago, Brazilian Department of Federal Revenue said on Tuesday.

The country collected almost 110.85 billion reais (about 29.64 billion U.S. dollars) in federal taxes in June, the largest amount for the month since 2015.

According to the tax agency, June marked the eighth consecutive month of Brazil's federal revenue year-on-year growth.

In the first half of 2018, Brazil's tax collection amounted to 714.25 billion reais (190.98 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.88 percent year-on-year.

However, Claudemir Malaquias, the department's head of tax and customs studies, said the country's earnings were hit by the 11-day truck drivers' strike in late May.

The collection of the Industrialized Products Tax (IPI) in June fell 14.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

Consequences of the strike would last in the coming months, Malaquias added.

Tax revenue is key to help the Brazilian government to meet its fiscal targets.

Brazil's public deficit is currently 159 billion (42.51 billion U.S. dollars).HANOI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chairman and chief executive officer of state-run Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel), major general Nguyen Manh Hung, became Vietnam's Acting Minister of Information and Communications (MIC), the government portal announced on Wednesday.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc decided to assign the position of MIC to the 56-year-old general, two days after the Political Bureau under the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee appointed Hung as head of the Party Committee of the MIC.

Huang has served as Viettel's CEO since 2014 and also as its chairman since last month.

Viettel has become one of the world's 15 largest telecommunications providers with nearly 100 million subscribers in Vietnam and some other foreign countries, Hung was quoted by Vietnam News Agency last month.

Viettel has expanded its operations to telecommunications-electronics, high-tech weapon, and cyber security industries, he noted.

Huang's appointment followed the dismissal of his predecessor Truong Minh Tuan earlier this month. Tuan was also suspended as information minister by Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang on Monday.

Tuan must bear responsibility for the violations and wrongdoings committed by the ministry's party committee during the 2011-2016 term when he was serving as a member of the ministry's party committee and deputy minister of the ministry.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:04:30|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Security officials inspect the blast site in southwest Pakistan's Quetta, on July 25, 2018. At least 29 people, including three policemen, were killed and over 40 others injured in a suicide attack near a polling station in Quetta city of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Wednesday, according to a hospital official. (Xinhua/Stringer)

ISLAMABAD, July 25 (Xinua) -- At least 29 people, including three policemen, were killed and over 40 others injured in a suicide attack near a polling station in Quetta city of Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province on Wednesday, according to a hospital official Waseem Baig.

Balochistan Inspector General of Police Mohsin Butt said that a suicide bomber riding on a motorcycle attacked a police vehicle in front of a polling station in the eastern bypass area of Quetta.

Police, rescue teams and security forces rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the Civil Hospital of the city. The security forces cordoned off the area and kicked off a search operation. A high security alert has also been announced across the province.

The hospital official confirmed to Xinhua that the death toll might further rise as five of the wounded are in critical condition. At least two children were among the killed.

Emergency has been declared in all the hospitals in the city.

The police officer said that the bomber attacked the vehicle of Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq, but he remained unhurt in the attack. Most of the victims were going to cast their votes when they came under the attack, the officer added.

According to the Bomb Disposal Squad, about 10 to 15 kilograms of explosives along with nuts, bolts and ball-bearings were used in the blast.

Apart from the Wednesday attack, over 180 people, including three candidates, have been killed and over 200 others injured in various terrorist attacks during the month of July.

Earlier on July 13, at least 152 people were killed and over 150 others sustained injuries in a suicide attack at a political gathering in Mastung district of Balochistan.

Pakistanis started voting for the country's one-day general elections on Wednesday morning to elect the next central as well as provincial governments.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, overall 820,000 security personnel have been deployed to maintain law and order during the election process, of which 371,000 are from the Pakistani army and 450,000 are from civilian law enforcement agencies.

Pakistani caretaker Prime Minister Nasir-ul-Mulk has condemned the terrorist attack and ordered relevant authorities to provide the best available medical treatment to the injured.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:09:32|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Kashmiri people carry the body of a militant of of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit during his funeral procession in village Khudwani, about 60 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 25, 2018. Two militants were killed Wednesday in a fierce gunfight with contingents of police and army in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said. (Xinhua/Javed Dar)

SRINAGAR, Indian-controlled Kashmir, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Two militants were killed Wednesday in a fierce gunfight with contingents of police and army in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

The gunfight broke out in Anantnag town, about 52 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.

"Two militants were killed here today in a gunfight with joint contingents of police and army," a senior police official posted in Anantnag told Xinhua. "The gunfight triggered after the area was cordoned off on specific intelligence information suggesting presence of militants."

According to police, government forces have not suffered any damage in the stand-off.

"No sooner we reached close to the suspected house, the militants holed up inside fired upon our positions thereby triggering a gunfight," the police official said.

The two slain militants were identified as local cadres of Lashkar-e-Toiba militant outfit.

Reports said government forces have imposed restrictions in the town to prevent clashes and protests.

"A curfew has been imposed in the town and police and CRPF are not allowing us to come out," Sameer Ahmad, a local resident in a telephonic interview from Anantnag said.

On Sunday three militants were killed in a similar gunfight in adjacent Kulgam district.

A guerilla war is going on between militants and Indian troopers stationed in the region since 1989.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:14:36|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government expressed on Tuesday its condolences to Greece over the massive forest fires which swept over the Attica region, causing dozens of deaths.

So far, local authorities confirmed at least 74 deaths, including children and teenagers. Another 170 people were injured, some of whom severely.

The Greek government declared three days of national mourning for the tragedy.

The Brazilian government reported that there has been no record of Brazilians killed by the forest fires, which are the worst in over a decade.

"The Brazilian government has received with regret the news of the forest fires that occurred in the Attica region of Greece, which caused dozens of deaths and a large number of injuries, as well as economic losses," said a statement released by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry.

"In expressing its condolences to the families of the victims, the Brazilian government expresses its solidarity with the people and the government of Greece," the Ministry added.

At least three villages were already evacuated and rescue workers still have not accessed all areas. Authorities declared a state of emergency and are struggling to put out the fire, which has spread quickly due to strong winds.SUVA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Global Employers Climate Action Forum opened in Suva on Wednesday under the theme Fiji Declaration: Resilient Businesses and Communities.

Fiji's Attorney-General and Minister responsible for Climate Change Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the Fijian government, businesses and citizens were at the front line of climate change and needed to show how they could work together to drive positive change.

He told the participants that they must set a bold example on how the public and private sector must work together to drive decisive climate action.

Discussion at the forum focused on scaling up private sector climate finance, promoting climate insurance and building resilient businesses and support for blue and green businesses.

Khaiyum said Fiji's national energy provider, Energy Fiji Limited, was continuing to grow its renewable energy portfolio, investing in hydro dams, and in large scale solar farms in the near future.

More Fijian manufacturers and tourism operators were installing solar rooftop panels. For example, the Coca-Cola factory outside of Suva now operates a 1.1 MW solar rooftop system; the largest privately-funded solar grid in the South Pacific.

Another great example of private sector investment was the development of the Nabou Biomass Power Plant outside Sigatoka that uses biomass for clean energy generation.

These are a few examples of how the private sector can help bridge the sustainable financing gap brought about by limited government resources, which was particularly important in developing countries like Fiji and the rest of the Pacific.

"We also need government donors and multilateral development agencies to help provide measures that de-risk investments," Khaiyum added.File photo: Syrian soldiers are seen during a military operation in the desert of Sweida province, on July 11, 2017. (Xinhua)

DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 38 people were killed and 37 others wounded in a series of bombings and attacks that rocked government-held areas in the southern province of Sweida on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists reported.

Sweida locates around 100 km south of the capital Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said suicide bombers from the Islamic State (IS) detonated bomb vests and explosive devices in Sweida city in tandem with an attack by this terror-designated group on towns in the eastern countryside of Sweida on Wednesday.

Three suicide bombers set off their bomb vests near the grocery market, as well as the roundabouts of Mashnaqa and Najmeh in Sweida city, adding that explosive devices were detonated in the same areas.

State news agency SANA said one bomber detonated himself in the market area, adding that two others were killed as they were hunted down by the authorities.

For his part, Amer al-Ashi, the governor of Sweida, said that two suicide bombers were killed and their explosive devices were dismantled. He added that a third bomber was apprehended alive.

In the northeastern countryside of Sweida, the IS militants launched simultaneous attacks on several towns amid confrontation between the Syrian army and the IS militants in an attempt by the army to restore the points taken by IS, according to the observatory.

The Syrian warplanes are also taking part in striking the IS fighters in the areas where clashes are ongoing northeast of Sweida.

Meanwhile, SANA said the army, with the help of the locals in some of the towns that were attacked by IS in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, succeeded in pushing IS out.

While the countryside of Sweida has witnessed battles between rebels, including IS, and the Syrian army, the city of Sweida has remained largely calm during Syria's seven-year-long war as it is inhabited by people of the Druze minority, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad rule.

The IS attacks and bombings in Sweida have come to divert the attention of the Syrian army and release the pressure on the IS-held areas in the nearby western countryside of Daraa province near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian army has been relentlessly striking IS positions in the areas of Yarmouk basin in the western countryside of Daraa near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The army has also been fighting against IS in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, as part of the Battle of the South, which include battles against the rebels and IS in the countryside of Daraa, Sweida, and Quneitra.

With the mediation and help of Russia, the army has already captured 90 percent of Daraa through battles and reconciliations as well as evacuation of rebels.

The rebels in Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights have also accepted to leave all their areas toward rebel-held places in northern Syria.

In the eastern countryside of Sweida, some areas in the remote eastern countryside are under IS control.

After Wednesday attack, some tribal leaders in Sweida said hundreds of young men are ready to take part in defeating IS in the areas they stormed in the countryside of Sweida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:29:40|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A relief fund of 96 million yuan (about 14 million U.S. dollars) has been allocated to northwest China's Gansu Province to support local disaster relief work, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM).

Granted by the Ministry of Finance and MEM, the relief fund will mainly be used to aid the rescue and relief operations of a landslide in Zhouqu County of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

The work consists of rescuing victims, evacuating villagers, investigating local dangers and supporting local telecommunication and transport.

A series of natural disasters have hit Gansu Province since July. Heavy rainstorms triggered a landslide in Zhouqu on July 12, with no casualties.

A working team had been sent by the MEM to lead and assist the local government in relief work.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:29:40|Editor: ZX

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CHENGDU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A leopard has been caught on camera in a nature reserve that is a major habitat for giant pandas, the administration of the reserve in southwest China's Sichuan Province said Wednesday.

The pictures and videos caught by an infrared camera showed the yellow and black leopard roaming in an area at an altitude of 4,080 meters in Wolong National Nature Reserve.

Experts have not yet confirmed which sub-species the leopard belongs to.

Due to habitat fragmentation and less prey, China's leopard population has been decreasing. The animal is rarely seen in the wild.

Leopards are under China's highest national-level protection and are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

The same camera has previously captured the pictures of snow leopards on seven different occasions. The footage has provided important information for research on wild highland animals.

Li Sheng, a researcher with the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, said that thanks to a large habitat with abundant prey, different species of leopards co-exist in the reserve.

Li said that the long-term protection efforts of the reserve have yielded good results. A complete and sound ecosystem has been preserved for endangered wildlife and rare plants.

Wolong National Nature Reserve, covering 200,000 hectares in Sichuan's Wenchuan County, was founded in 1963 as the "home of the giant panda."Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:34:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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BAGHDAD, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A total of four people were killed Wednesday and another was kidnapped in separate incidents across Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, a provincial security source said.

A roadside bomb explosion, planted by Islamic State (IS) militants, in the orchard of a tribal leader at the Zahra Village, some 25 km northeast of the provincial capital Baquba, killed the tribal leader, Colonel Ghalib al-Attya, spokesperson of Diyala provincial police, told Xinhua.

Two more farmers were killed in the same village when gunmen opened fire on them inside their orchard before they fled the scene, Attya said.

The two attacks prompted the security forces to intensify security measures and to launch an investigation into the incidents, Attya added.

Elsewhere in Diyala, IS militants attacked at dawn a village at the edge of the volatile town of Udheim, some 60 km north of Baquba, killing a villager and kidnapping another, he said.

Despite repeated military operations in the Diyala province, remnants of IS militants are still hiding in some rugged areas near the border with Iran, and in the sprawling areas extending from the western part of the province to the Himreen mountainous area in north of Baquba, which itself located some 65 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the IS extremist group.

However, small groups of IS militants have since regrouped in rugged areas, carrying out attacks against security forces and civilians despite the military operations from time to time to hunt them down.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:34:41|Editor: ZX

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Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations Ma Zhaoxu speaks at the UN Security Council's open debate on the Middle East situation at UN headquaters in New York, on July 24, 2018. Ma said Tuesday that the "two-state solution" is the fundamental way to resolve conflicts between Palestine and Israel while calling for increased efforts to resume talks. (Xinhua/Li Muzi)

UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese ambassador to the UN Ma Zhaoxu said Tuesday that the "two-state solution" is the fundamental way to resolve conflicts between Palestine and Israel while calling for increased efforts to resume talks.

The Chinese envoy made the remarks when speaking at the United Nations Security Council's open debate on the Middle East situation.

Describing the situation between Palestine and Israel as "deeply worrying" and "fragile", Ma said, "'The two-state solution' is the fundamental way to resolve conflicts" between them.

"The international community should adhere to the relevant UN resolutions, the principle of 'land for peace' and the Arab Peace Initiative in scaling up its efforts for the resumption of talks," he added.

In particular, Ma said, "Concrete actions should be taken to implement Security Council resolution 2334, cease all settlement activities on the occupied territory and the demolition of Palestinian houses and property."

While urging to stop violence against civilians and take steps to meet each other halfway so as to create necessary conditions, the Chinese envoy also proposed to convene a new international conference for an early resumption of talks.

"We support convening a new international conference on the question of Palestine and exploring innovative mechanisms to facilitate peace in the Middle East to break the deadlock in Palestinian-Israeli talks as soon as possible," Ma said.

Ma reiterated China's support for the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign state of Palestine based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Meanwhile, "China will continue to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Palestine and make an additional contribution of 2 million U.S. dollars to UNWRA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East)," he said.

To improve the security situation in the Middle East, Ma added, "China stands ready to work with regional countries to enhance the alignment of strategies and actions."SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- About 300 U.S. companies will gather in Seattle on Friday for a preliminary round of a nationwide competition on tech innovation, organizers said Tuesday.

The companies, selected from nearly 1,000 U.S. candidate firms, will compete for cash prizes and business expansion opportunities in China at the semifinals of the 2018 InnoSTARS Competition scheduled for September this year. The grand finale is to take place in China on Nov. 11.

The event was organized by the U.S.-China Innovation Alliance (UCIA), a Houston, Texas-based technology advancement nonprofit, and its Chinese partner, the Convention on Exchange of Overseas Talents and Guangzhou Convention of Overseas Chinese Scholars in Science and Technology (OCS), a high-level official platform. VestLink, a leading player in the U.S.-China cross-border investment space in Seattle, also provided support.

Winners of the competition will be offered a free field trip to China where they will have opportunities to meet their business partners and investors.

More preliminary contests will also be held in other U.S. cities such as Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Boston.

"China is actually an easier place to start for some of us entrepreneurs. As a country, it is moving very fast and you will want to be there," said Freidoon Rastegar, CEO of Solid State Battery, a participating company at the InnoSTARS Competition.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 16:54:45|Editor: Yamei

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Chinese President Xi Jinping addresses a banquet hosted by his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa for his state visit and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic ties between China and South Africa, in Pretoria July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

PRETORIA, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on China and South Africa to continue striving to develop closer ties and join hands to achieve their dreams in development.

"There is huge potential for bilateral ties, but we cannot stop racing ahead. As the two countries embark on a new journey of development, we should work hand in hand and heart to heart to assist each other in achieving our dreams in development," he said.

Xi made the remarks while attending a welcome banquet hosted by his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and South Africa.

The two countries established diplomatic ties on Jan. 1, 1998, opening a new chapter in bilateral ties.

"The China-South Africa relationship has taken a major leap forward over the past 20 years," Xi said, adding that the rapid development of ties not only embodies the constant deepening of China-Africa cooperation, but also manifests the solidarity and coordination between major developing countries.

Such fruitful outcomes of bilateral ties in just 20 years mainly resulted from the fact that the two sides always support and rely on each other, maintain mutual respect and trust, and promote mutual understanding and win-win cooperation, he said.

Xi called on the two sides to bear in mind the big picture of the direction of bilateral ties, cement political mutual trust, and always treat each other as sincere comrades and brothers sharing weal and woe.

He also urged the two sides to constantly tap their development potential, advance practical cooperation, strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

The two countries should enhance high-level strategic coordination and continue to support each other in international affairs, so as to jointly build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, Xi said.

For his part, Ramaphosa extended warm welcome to Xi, saying that he was glad to celebrate with the Chinese president the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Hailing the close contact between the two ruling parties, countries and peoples, as well as the sound cooperation on bilateral, regional and global level, Ramaphosa said that South Africa-China relationship is at the best period in history.

Xi's visit shows that the South Africa-China relationship is of strategic significance, surpassing the usual scope of bilateral ties, he said.

The South African president also pledged to implement the consensus reached between the two sides and deepen all-round cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, technology and people-to-people exchanges.TOKYO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo shares closed higher Wednesday on stronger U.S. stocks overnight ahead of trade talks between the United States and the European Union.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average ended up 103.77 points, or 0.46 percent, from Tuesday at 22,614.25.

The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange finished 6.62 points, or 0.38 percent, higher at 1,753.48.

Trading volume on the main section came to 1,138.15 million shares, down from Tuesday's 1,246.50 million shares.

Among all shares listed on the First Section, advancing issues outnumbered decliners 1,267 to 729, with 106 ending the day unchanged.

Gainers were led by oil and coal product, nonferrous metal, and iron and steel issues.

The day's turnover was around 1,984.6 billion yen (17.85 billion U.S. dollars).COLOMBO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka will get a 100 million U.S. dollars concessionary loan from the World Bank to diversify and upgrade the general education system in the country to global standards, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

The General Education Modernization Project will modernize and diversify the curriculum of general education in keeping with the transformation taking place in Sri Lanka's society and economy, the statement said.

Greater emphasis will be on strategic subjects that are key for economic development such as English and Mathematics.

Learning material for English language and Mathematics will be developed digitally and the focus will be on children from schools located in more disadvantaged regions.

"Sri Lanka has made impressive progress in expanding access to education. However, to reach the status of an Upper Middle-Income Country, it needs to further improve the overall learning outcomes," Idah Z. Pswarayi-Riddihough, World Bank country director for Sri Lanka and the Maldives said.

"Sri Lanka's education policy makers recognize that a high-quality general education system will enable students to meet the demands of 21st century jobs," Idah added.

The World Bank said the project will benefit school students both at the primary and at the secondary levels.

Technical education and vocational training institutes, academic and managerial staff of the schools will also benefit from this project.

World Bank lead economist and task team leader for the project Harsha Aturupane said the project will support the Sri Lankan government to modernize primary and secondary education in line with international standards that have been established in middle-income and high-income countries.WASHINGTON, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Scores of U.S. companies and industry associations rejected in a hearing Tuesday the unilateral extra tariffs the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed on imports from China.

Testifiers from a wide array of industries, including semiconductors, cable, chemical and retail, said slapping additional tariffs on Chinese goods will erode the competitiveness of U.S. businesses and burden U.S. consumers with price hikes.

During her testimony, Hun Quach, vice president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, showcased a collection of Chinese-made merchandise including Christmas lights, plastic straws, cling wrap and markers, saying the household items are dominantly produced in China.

If Washington were to levy additional tariffs on them, the increased cost would mostly be passed on to U.S. holiday shoppers, she said.

When U.S. trade officials pressed the testifiers on the question whether it was feasible to outsource their manufacturing work to China, most of them firmly dismissed the suggestion, citing unbearable time and financial cost and irreplaceable production power.

Robert Hinsch, who works at a textile company, said it took 20 years for his company to forge ties with Chinese partners, and that switching suppliers would take at least two years.

U.S. Congressman Kevin Cramer noted that previously imposed U.S. tariffs against China have already damaged the U.S. farming industry, sinking soybean prices to a level that could put many U.S. farms out of business.

Cramer said he hopes Washington and Beijing would soon find a way to resolve their trade disputes through negotiation.

The United States slapped an extra 25 percent tariff on 34 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese imports beginning July 6, to which China was forced to respond with an equivalent retaliatory measure. The USTR is now mulling a 25-percent additional tariff on another 16 billion dollars' worth of Chinese goods.BANGKOK, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Thailand delivered 5 million baht (about 147,000 U.S. dollars) grant aid to Laos on Wednesday in the face of a severe flooding due to a damaged dam in southern Laos.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha provided the 147,000-U.S. dollar aid in cash via Lao Ambassador to Thailand Seng Soukhathivong at the Government House.

In addition to the money, the Thai government is also providing drinking water, food, medicine and plastic tents for the flood victims in Attapeu province in southern Laos.

Hundreds of Lao villagers were reportedly missing and thousands of others were considerably affected by the severe flooding after Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam was broken by heavy rains.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 18:20:00|Editor: Yamei

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BEIRUT, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Public transportation drivers in Lebanon started a wide protest Wednesday, blocking streets to claim for their rights, according to local National News Agency.

Streets in Beirut, Tripoli, Chtaura, Zahle and Akkar were blocked by the protesters, who were calling for implementation of traffic law and a better management of foreign drivers.

"Our protest today is peaceful and it aims at claiming for our rights while calling for a proper implementation of the traffic law in Lebanon," said Bechara Asmar, president of the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers.

"We tried to get in touch with the interior minister several times in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Works, but we failed," he said.

Chadi Sayyed, head of Public Transport Syndicate, called upon all public drivers on Saturday to join the protest, urging Lebanese authorities to solve problems in the transportation sector.

Sayyed said that the government should track cars with forged plates and stop foreign drivers from operating and competing with local public drivers.

He added that their demands also include putting an end to the chaotic fuel prices and drafting a local transportation strategy.

Abdel-Amir Najde, head of the Public Transportation Unions, said the protest also aims at opposing the privatization of inspection centers and the increase in the cost of automotive inspections.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 18:25:00|Editor: Yamei

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by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkey is steadily building its presence in Africa and its leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan's new visit to the continent this week is the latest in Turkish attempts to increase its weight and profile there, said local experts.

President Erdogan embarked on a four-day official visit on Wednesday to attend the BRICS summit, which gather heads of states of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Johannesburg.

He will subsequently pay an official visit to Zambia to discuss trade.

This will be the first ever official visit from a Turkish president to Zambia but just one of Erdogan's many visits to the world's second most populous continent where Turkish presence is increasing at a fast pace since the NATO and G20 launched a diplomatic offensive towards Africa about two decades ago.

Erdogan has made it a foreign policy priority to establish new ties with emerging economies in Africa.

Before this week's trip, Erdogan had visited 23 African nations within 15 years, a record number of visits for a non-African leader, indicating, according to observers, the strategic importance given by his administration to the continent and its potential for development.

Many bilateral agreements have been signed between Turkey and African countries and the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination agency (TIKA) currently operates 21 offices across the continent, managing a wide range of development and humanitarian projects.

Furthermore, some 5,000 African students were granted scholarship in Turkey.

Historically, the Ottoman Empire, which ruled some parts of the Middle East for more than five centuries, had a foothold in North Africa.

Since Erdogan's conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, Turkey has been very active on the African continent, contributing to development projects there up to 800 million U.S. dollars.

The same year, the African Union granted Turkey observer status amid Ankara's determined policy to increase economic, cultural and political ties with various states of the continent.

Ankara now operates 41 embassies in Africa, with the latest opening of representations in Sierra Leone and the Equatorial Guinea. In turn, 32 African states have opened embassies in the Turkish capital in less than a decade.

The main bulk of dignitaries who participated in President Erdogan's inauguration ceremony after his election victory in June, was namely from African states.

Turkish Airlines has recently added new African destinations, increasing its total to 52, becoming one of the largest network on the continent.

Despite Turkey's rough international neighborhood plagued by conflict, this dire situation has not diverted Ankara's ambitions and attention towards Africa at a time when its own economy is showing signs of weaknesses, commented experts.

"On the contrary, I believe that Turkey's attention to Africa is gaining a bigger momentum. The fact that president Erdogan is making one of his first visits to Africa as the president of new political system is a clear indication of the importance given to the continent," said researcher Halil Ibrahim Alegoz from the Istanbul Ibn Haldun University to Xinhua.

This expert on African studies insisted that the "opening" towards Africa launched in 2002 had become a "state policy" and that Turkey, by a string of development schemes and humanitarian diplomacy, acquired a respectable place in this part of the world, mostly forgotten by the western public.

"We are not going to Africa to take their gold and natural resources as westerners have done in the past, we are going there to build a solid and sustainable partnership based on mutual benefits," said the Turkish president.

Erdogan frequently calls western countries to reconsider their relations with the rest of the world on the basis of a new partnership based on mutual benefits rather than hegemonic ambitions of the past.

As trade with the African continent reached 20 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, nearly a fivefold increase compared with 2003, more potential could be reached if Turkey would also cooperate there with China, which is one of the biggest investors, doing more trade with Africa than any other nation does, said Alegoz.

"I see no obstacle for a Sino-Turkish cooperation on matters of interest in Africa, this is a big continent," emphasized Alegoz.

At a time of a trade war launched by the U.S. President Donald Trump, imposing a protectionist policy, Africa harbors many opportunities, said Altay Atli, lecturer at Koc university to Xinhua.

"The 'America first' vision is something unacceptable for global trade and in this vehement outburst of anger and distrust against the rest of the world, the United States seems to forgot Africa, like many other places," said Atli.

"Turkey has been a growing player in Africa and has a lot of motivations, from cultural to geopolitical. In this time of global economy, Turkey does not have the luxury to withdraw into oneself," added Atli.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 18:35:02|Editor: ZX

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JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's signed article published by South Africa's mainstream media Sunday has raised expectations for a new era of friendship between the rainbow nation and China.

The article, "For a New Era of China-South Africa Friendship", was carried by South African newspapers -- The Sunday Independent, Sunday Tribune and Weekend Argus.

Explaining the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and South Africa, Xi said in the article that the relationship between the two countries has stood the test of time and a changing international environment.

From a partnership to a strategic partnership, and then to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the relationship has made big strides and demonstrated a strong growth momentum in political trust, economic and trade cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and strategic coordination.

Lindiwe Sisulu, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation, said her country attaches great importance to the comprehensive strategic partnership, adding that the government hopes to consolidate the friendly relationship with China and is committed to enhancing bilateral cooperation.

South Africa, looking forward to President Xi's state visit and his participation in the BRICS summit, will work closely with China to make the visit a success with pragmatic results, she said.

Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba, minister of state security, said South Africa and China are not only partners but also brothers.

South Africa is ready to take the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of its diplomatic relations with China to review the development of bilateral ties and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, Letsatsi-Duba said.

Buti Manamela, deputy minister of higher education and training, said he agreed with President Xi that the two countries have seen expanding cooperation in such areas as education, culture, science and technology, and health, and growing exchanges between youths and women.

He said cross-cultural dialogue between South Africa and China can promote the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind, adding that it is also an important cornerstone for opening a new era of friendship between the two countries.

BRICS Business Council Chair Iqbal Surve said the mutual benefit and common development Xi mentioned in his article showed the value of South Africa-China economic and trade cooperation.

He said South Africa welcomes Chinese companies to expand their investment in the country, promote scientific and technological progress and innovation, facilitate the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, and push forward their development with innovation.

Xi said in the article that this year's summit will be the first one held in the second "Golden Decade" of BRICS cooperation, and China will go all out to support South Africa in hosting this event.

"Under the theme of 'BRICS in Africa: Collaboration for Inclusive Growth and Shared Prosperity in the Fourth Industrial Revolution,' we will deepen BRICS strategic partnership, enhance BRICS solidarity and cooperation, and facilitate the inter-connected development of BRICS countries," Xi said.

In an article titled "BRICS summit a wonderful opportunity", The Sunday Independent said, "We share the optimism and expectation of the People's Republic of China's President Xi Jinping that something new will emerge from this gathering, packed with potential for the future of South-South cooperation."

BRICS "could bring about a much needed rebalancing of the global financial and trade governance system" and is "a tremendous opportunity to come up with a new perspective of co-operation and development," it added.

Xi arrived in Pretoria on Monday for his third state visit to South Africa. He will attend the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg from Wednesday to Friday.

South Africa is the fourth stop of Xi's five-nation Middle East and Africa tour, which has taken him to the United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Rwanda. He will also visit Mauritius during a stopover.ULAN BATOR, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has begun installing a device designed to remove diesel particulate matter on public buses, in an effort to reduce air pollution in its capital, officials said on Wednesday.

"We are planning to install the device on 25 buses within July in the first phase," Khurelbaatar Bulgaa, deputy head of the Ulan Bator city's transportation department, told Xinhua.

According to Khurelbaatar, the installation of diesel particulate filter (DPF) on public buses has just started with non-refundable aid by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency.

He added that the filter can remove 80 percent of diesel particulate matter.

"The filter should be cleaned after every 250 kilometers. A public bus runs in the capital city 200-300 kilometers per day. So, we decided to install the three DPFs on a bus in order to not disrupt the operation of public buses," he said.

Currently, more than 930 public buses are operating in the capital Ulan Bator, he said, and the cost of the installations of three DPFs on a bus is some 40 million Mongolian Tugriks (16,200 U.S. dollars).

Air pollution is the most pressing issue in Ulan Bator where more than 800,000 residents, over half of the city's population, live in slums. They have to rely on burning raw coal and other flammable materials such as plastics and old tires to stay warm and cook meals during the six-month-long winter season.

The Mongolian government announced in March that it would impose a ban on the burning of low-grade coal for domestic use in the capital beginning on May 15, 2019.

Since the early 2000s, the government of Mongolia in cooperation with international organizations have carried out a number of measures directed at reducing air pollution in Ulan Bator. However, the city has not seen a significant reduction in air pollution levels.

The city's air pollution on Jan. 30 exceeded 133 times above the safety level set by the World Health Organization.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 19:20:11|Editor: ZX

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FUZHOU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Yang Dong, a construction project manager for a Chinese company, returned to Africa on a new project in 2017, a few years after completing a water storage project that benefits thousands of residents in northern Kenya.

Yang was posted with the project in Kenya by his firm China Wu Yi, headquartered in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. He was responsible for the digging of water storage ponds along the under-construction Turbi-Moyale road that connects Kenya and Ethiopia.

The 130-km road traverses the savanna in north Kenya, which suffers from water shortages in the dry season, causing intermittent tribal clashes over access to water sources.

Apart from providing more economic opportunities for the whole country, especially the underdeveloped north, the road has also changed the lives of thousands of residents.

Yang's project was designed to supply water for construction needs, but they were soon surprised to find that their ponds were frequently visited by residents and their livestock.

Yang recalled that in the beginning, when digging the ponds, he and his colleagues were visited, even threatened by some tribal elders escorted by men with knives and machetes, who were apprehensive of the workers' tools and the noise and dust they created.

As more residents benefited from the project, the Chinese construction workers were welcomed with gifts.

More ponds were dug to meet the needs of residents.

Yang became well-known in the region and was nicknamed "Mr. Think" because he always reminded his workers to think before doing anything, to think about what to do first, and how to work more efficiently.

One day, Yang received six sheep as gifts from a resident. "I was really happy when they gave me the sheep," said Yang. "It means that my project has really benefited them and made their lives better."

Thanks to the ponds, tribal groups no longer instigate conflicts over limited water resources.

More than 200 households have chosen to settle near the ponds, and herdsmen from Ethiopia cross the border to get water from the ponds, according to Wan Dongsheng, deputy general manager of China Wu Yi.

The ponds will be able to provide water for residents for up to 10 years, even considering sediment accumulation, said Wan.

The firm invested 9.5 million yuan (1.4 million U.S. dollars) to dig 17 ponds along the Turbi-Moyale road, which can meet the need for water by 100,000 residents and 500,000 animals.

The project began in 2012 and was completed in 2016. It is part of the Trans-Africa Highway, which runs from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa.

The experience of the Turbi-Moyale road project has been introduced in other road projects, including the one that Yang now is working on in Tanzania.

According to Wan, the firm has carried out contracts in over 10 countries and regions in Africa and created around 10,000 jobs for locals since it entered the African market in 2002.

"We will continue to dedicate ourselves to improving local people's living standards while trying to expand our business in Africa," said Wan.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 19:35:13|Editor: ZX

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HAIKOU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China's southernmost province Hainan has teamed up with domestic home-sharing platform Xiaozhu.com to promote shared accommodation in villages to boost rural tourism.

The two parties will promote the island's beautiful villages and build demonstration villages using bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation for poverty alleviation, according to a strategic agreement signed Wednesday by Hainan's tourism development commission and Xiaozhu, the first home-sharing service provider to partner with the island.

They also set up a B&B industry association and plan to launch a B&B design and entrepreneurship contest to seek international talent and promote home-sharing. Xiaozhu will also offer home-sharing business courses to help train local residents.

The sharing economy has offered fresh impetus to power China's economic transition as more people and services are connected by the internet, said Zhang Xinhong, director of the sharing economy research center at the State Information Center (SIC).

Home-sharing in rural areas has huge growth potential as more and more Chinese tourists are traveling to villages for unique rural experiences, Zhang added.

A SIC report showed that China's home-sharing market transaction volume surged 70.6 percent year on year to stand at about 14.5 billion yuan (2.14 billion U.S. dollars) last year, and the number is expected to reach 50 billion yuan in 2020.

Hainan, blessed with a tropical climate and coastal views, has been working for years to turn the island into a popular destination for both domestic and international tourists.

There are about 516 rural tourist sites across the island, bringing about 1.75 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of this year, up 14.2 percent year on year, according to Ao Liyong, deputy director of the Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, adding that rural tourism has become a key engine to power the rejuvenation of the countryside by increasing rural incomes and living standards.

As one of the leading home-sharing market players, Xiaozhu rolled out a brand village home-sharing service in 2016 and has over 30,000 rural B&B listings so far. Each B&B room can create six local jobs, according to Wang Liantao, Xiaozhu's COO and co-founder.

Founded in 2012, Xiaozhu now has over 420,000 listings in 652 cities across the globe, with over 35 million active users. The start-up secured 120 million U.S. dollars in funding last November and signed strategic partnerships with Alibaba's travel branch Fliggy and Booking's online reservation platform Agoda in the first half of this year.WELLINGTON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters on Wednesday announced a renewed government funding agreement with the New Zealand Red Cross to assist with disaster preparedness and response in the Pacific and across the world.

"The New Zealand Red Cross is an important humanitarian response partner and provides critical assistance to vulnerable communities around the world prior to and in the aftermath of a disaster," Peters said in a statement.

This partnership will help the New Zealand Red Cross to continue building community resilience and expand existing initiatives, including deploying highly skilled New Zealanders to support life-saving actions by their Red Cross partners overseas, said Peters who is now acting prime minister and deputy prime minister.

"The work the New Zealand Red Cross does ensures that communities that are better prepared for disasters, and therefore able to respond to and recover from such events, thus preventing loss of life and livelihoods," he said.

This partnership will also deliver community first-aid training and replenish disaster relief supplies stored in five countries across the Pacific in preparation for future events, he said.

Funding has been increased from a three year to a five year period allowing the Red Cross to plan with greater certainty and expand their program across the Pacific, Peters said.

The New Zealand Red Cross will receive government funding of 10.67 million NZ dollars (7.27 million U.S. dollars) over a five-year period, and the Red Cross will contribute more than 14 million NZ dollars (9.5 million U.S. dollars) to the renewed partnership, he added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 19:40:15|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Wednesday that there was "no winner in a trade war," calling on the United States to withdraw from the wrong path and not to go any further.

The Trump administration announced it would provide up to 12 billion U.S. dollars in aid to U.S. farmers impacted by ongoing trade disputes. However, U.S. lawmakers and farmers were critical of the plan, saying that farmers wanted more trade rather than subsidies.

"There is no winner in a trade war, and the trade disputes provoked by the United States will achieve nothing but detriment for everyone," Geng said.

He called on the United States to "listen to the voice of reason at home and the common appeal of the international community, recognize the situation, and withdraw from the wrong path and not to go any further."WASHINGTON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- U.S. lawmakers and farmers were critical of a 12-billion-U.S.-dollar aid plan announced by the government on Tuesday, saying they "want trade, not aid."

According to the Trump administration, the proposal aims to help farmers impacted by the ongoing trade disputes between Washington and others.

The aid plan is unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and includes both direct payment and other temporary measures for farmers. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue called it "a short-term solution" to allow the United States time to negotiate with other economies on "long-term trade deals."

Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska was apparently no fan of the plan, describing it as spending billions on "gold crutches" as the U.S.-initiated trade disputes are "cutting the legs out from under farmers."

"America's farmers don't want to be paid to lose -- they want to win by feeding the world," Sasse said. "This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again (the beginning of the Great Depression)."

"Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers," tweeted Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. "If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers -- the answer is remove the tariffs."

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday that lawmakers are trying to persuade President Donald Trump out of levying tariffs on imports, saying it is "not the way to go."

"I've made it pretty clear I don't think tariffs are the right answer," the Republican leader said.

"Time and time again I've heard farmers that they want trade, not aid," Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said in a statement.

"Instead of throwing money at a problem we've helped create, the better option is to take action to make it easier for our farmers and manufacturers to sell their goods at fair prices to consumers around the globe," Johnson added.

For the agriculture-heavy state of Iowa, the proposed aid is viewed as only a short-term fix instead of a long-term solution. Governor of Iowa Kim Reynolds, who has repeatedly said "nobody wins in a trade war," urged continued efforts to expand and open markets.

Brian Kuehl, executive director of trade group Farmers for Free Trade, said that "farmers need contracts, not compensation, so they can create stability and plan for the future," adding that the administration's proposed action "would only be a short-term attempt at masking the long-term damage caused by tariffs."

Farmers were indifferent to government aid. Brad Kremer, a soybean farmer in Pittsville, Wisconsin, told Xinhua that most American farmers have a longer vision. "We need a strong farm bill and a strong safety net to ensure we are around in the future," Kremer said.

"We want more trade, not subsidies," said Don Lutz, a soybean farmer in Scandinavia, Wisconsin.

According to the USDA, farmers will either receive direct payments or sell their excess products to the government under the aid proposal.

The measure intends to help producers of soy, sorghum, corn, wheat, pork, dairy, fruit, rice and nuts, all products affected by tariffs imposed by other economies in response to U.S. actions. Perdue said his department put trade damage caused by retaliatory tariffs at 11 billion dollars.

Officials said they were still working to set up the programs which do not need congressional approval and are expected to be ready by early September.

Under the "America First" protectionist policies, the Trump administration has slapped high tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, as well as 25 percent tariffs on 34 billion dollars of Chinese products, escalating trade tensions with its major trading partners.DHAKA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Two major incidents of rain-triggered mudslides have claimed five lives including four children in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, some 292 km southeast of Dhaka, police said on Wednesday.

The children, three girls and their only brother, were buried alive after huge chunks of mud collapsed on their house on the slope of a hill, Farid Uddin Khandaker, a police officer in Cox's Bazar, told journalists.

The children's mother narrowly survived the mudslides that occurred at about 6:00 a.m. local time when the children were asleep, he said.

A body of a woman was recovered from another place in the district, he added.

Many dwellings in places of the district and elsewhere in the country were also reportedly damaged in rain-triggered landslides that are frequent in Bangladesh's hilly areas during monsoon seasons.

At least 153 people were reported killed and hundreds of others injured in the landslides that devastated five districts in Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh in June last year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:00:21|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that resistance is the most powerful response to the United States' anti-Iran policies .

"The Iranian nation has from the start stood up to the American rulers' intransigence, misconduct and breach of promises in all areas, and has chosen to follow the path of resistance," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV.

He lashed out at the recent comments by the U.S. officials against Iran as "baseless and unfounded," saying that their "hollow threats" do not even warrant a response.

On Sunday, the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a gathering of group of Iranian-American in California that "the level of corruption and wealth among Iranian leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government."

Following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the United States vowed to re-impose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments on nations that have business links with the Islamic country.

The White House has announced that it would bring Iran's oil sales down to "zero."

Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran has undertaken legal international efforts to confront the United States' misdeeds.

He said the proceedings have yielded their "first success" with the International Court of Justice announcing to the United States that it was not allowed to take any action that would influence the tribunal's potential rulings before "Iran's complaint is addressed."

"This is a warning to the United States by the world's most senior legal authority," he said.

"Today, an absolute majority of world states condemn or view U.S. actions as wrong," said the president, describing it as proof that the Iranian nation's resistance has been fruitful.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:15:29|Editor: ZX

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CHENGDU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Afoluke Olufuwa looks closely at an exhibition board showing flight routes between Chengdu and cities in Africa, as she participates in a forum in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Olufuwa, who works with the Policy Planning Division in the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was one of 88 representatives from 30 African countries and 50 organizations to attend the fifth China-Africa People's Forum, held Monday to Tuesday. More than 100 representatives from China also attended.

"The forum is an important occasion to get to know China better and look for new opportunities for cooperation," said Olufuwa. "For example, we should learn from China because it ensures anti-corruption efforts are effective."

Economic cooperation between China and African countries has grown fast. According to Chinese customs, from January to May this year, trade between China and African countries was worth 81.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 17.7 percent year on year.

"The most popular Chinese goods include clothing, furniture, jewelry and synthetic hair. Rural people particularly like China-made solar lights because many parts of our country are still not electrified. The lights can be used to charge phones and small machines," said Selma Theresa Philemon, chief parliamentary clerk for the Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Social Development and Family Affairs in Namibia's Parliament.

Cooperation between China and Africa has gone beyond the economy and trade to include broader areas.

"China has helped us a lot in education, infrastructure and health," Philemon said. "I hope China can continue to help in manufacturing and add values to our products, especially in mining and fisheries."

Nicholas Ekow De-Heer, head of programs at the Institute of Fiscal Studies in Ghana, said the success of relations between China and African countries lied in cooperation carried out through the principle of equality.

"Africa needs China in the building of industrial parks, agricultural modernization and infrastructure," he said.

The forum also witnessed the launch of the China-Africa People-to-People Friendship and Partnership program, which lasts from 2018 to 2020. It includes vocational training, humanitarian aid, donations, personnel and cultural exchanges.

"Guided by a win-win spirit, mutual respect and trust, the ties between China and Africa will grow stronger," De-Heer said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:30:33|Editor: ZX

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Outstanding loans extended by China's micro-credit companies amounted to 976.3 billion yuan (143.6 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of June, according to central bank data Wednesday.

The volume was up 2.2 billion yuan from the end of 2017.

By the end of last month, the number of micro-credit companies in China came in at 8,394, the People's Bank of China said in an online statement.

Micro-lenders largely target small companies and low-income groups in need of capital. In recent years, micro-lending companies have become an important channel for medium and small firms as well as individuals to access funds.

The central bank report showed east China's Jiangsu Province had 637 small-credit companies by June, the most of any provincial-level region, followed by northeastern provinces of Liaoning and Jilin.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:40:35|Editor: ZX

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SHENZHEN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Zhao Kezhi has called for deeper police reforms and a modern management system for police affairs.

Zhao made the call at a symposium, gathering police chiefs from across the country, held Wednesday in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

He ordered police officers to "strengthen political integrity, think in terms of the big picture, follow the leadership core, stay aligned with the central Party leadership, and have full confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics."

"Efforts are needed to remove institutional barriers to police development, and address structural contradictions and deep-seated problems, Zhao said.

He stressed advances in reforming police management system and mechanisms for the exercise of law enforcement, simplifying procedures for applications and approval, and deepening reform of household registration system.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:40:39|Editor: ZX

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Li Zhanshu (R), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, meets with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the Japanese House of Representatives, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Li Zhanshu on Tuesday held talks with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament, urging both sides to keep bilateral relations on the right track of peace, friendship and cooperation.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said this year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship.

He said leaders of the two sides have reached important consensus on promoting the improvement and development of China-Japan relations following the spirit of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship as well as the principles of the four political documents signed between the two countries.

"With the joint efforts of all parties in the two countries, China-Japan relations have returned to the normal development track," he said, calling on both sides to cherish the cause of peace and friendship initiated by the older generation of politicians and promote the stable and long-term development of China-Japan relations, he said.

He said the two sides should solidly advance the improvement of bilateral ties in accordance with the consensus reached by both leaders and keep their ties on the right track of peace, friendship and cooperation.

"Both sides should abide by and implement the four political documents including the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, draw lessons from history and face up to the future, to ensure the healthy development of Sino-Japanese relations and prevent disturbances in and deterioration of the relationship," he said.

He said China and Japan should regard each other's development as a greater opportunity, deepen pragmatic cooperation and provide a solid foundation for the strategic and mutually beneficial relations between the two sides.

Li said this year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up.

"China has rolled out a series of specific measures to expand its opening up," he said, calling on Japan to seize the opportunity of China's new round of opening up.

Li also called on China and Japan to strengthen cooperation in international affairs, jointly safeguard economic globalization and trade liberalization, and promote the development of the global governance system towards a more fair and reasonable direction.

"The NPC is willing to enhance cooperation with the Japanese parliament in the areas of legislation, law enforcement supervision as well as policy communication and coordination," he said, suggesting both sides exchange experience on state-governance to provide legal and institutional guarantees for Sino-Japanese friendly cooperation.

He also called on the two sides to boost local cooperation and promote non-governmental friendship in a bid to consolidate public support for bilateral ties.

Oshima said Japan and China should "create a new situation in their relations on the basis of remembering history." He said strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation with China was the consensus of all circles in Japan.

"The Japanese parliament is willing to strengthen exchanges with the NPC, conduct candid dialog, promote mutual understanding among the two peoples and push forward pragmatic cooperation in various fields, so as to make new contributions to the development of Japan-China relations," Oshima said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:45:41|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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LOS ANGELES, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Private U.S. spaceflight company SpaceX launched 10 more satellites from California Wednesday morning as part of an ambitious project to build a network of satellite telephone relay stations.

A Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:39 a.m. PDT (1139 GMT), carrying 10 Iridium NEXT satellites for Iridium Communications, an American company providing satellite communications.

About 7.5 minutes later, the first stage of the rocket successfully landed on a droneship stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

"Despite challenging weather conditions, Falcon 9 first stage booster landed on 'Just Read the Instructions (droneship),'" SpaceX tweeted.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:45:42|Editor: ZX

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XI'AN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Over 100 teachers from the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao participated in a Mandarin training course in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The 10-day training course, beginning on Tuesday, included Mandarin learning and tests, and academic lectures.

Besides language study, the teachers will visit several historic places of interests in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi, such as the famous Terracotta Warriors.

"The course gave us an opportunity to improve our Mandarin and deepen understanding of our culture," said Tse Lai-Wah, a primary school teacher from Hong Kong.

The first course was held in 2016 and more than 300 teachers have been trained since then.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 20:50:42|Editor: ZX

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SHENZHEN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China plans to set up internet courts in Beijing and Guangzhou based on the experience of the internet court in Hangzhou, according to a statement from China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Wednesday.

The decision was announced during an SPC's videoconference.

China opened its first internet court in Hangzhou last August to cater to the increasing number of online disputes.

The SPC will toughen its stance on online rumors and fraud, trading personal information and others, said the statement.

The SPC promised strong action on food and drug safety, pollution, violence towards medical personnel and school bullying.

The SPC also pledged to combat gang crime and remove "protective umbrellas" -- officials who shelter criminal organizations by concealing their crimes and shielding them from punishment.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:05:46|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith speaks during a press conference in Vientiane, Laos, on July 25, 2018. The prime minister said Wednesday that some 131 people were still missing after a hydropower dam collapsed in southern Laos earlier this week. (Xinhua/Li Sha)

VIENTIANE, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Lao Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said Wednesday that some 131 people were still missing after a hydropower dam collapsed in southern Laos earlier this week.

The collapse of the under-construction Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam triggered flash flood in seven villages of Sanamxay district in Lao's southern Attapeu Province.

He did not mention the exact death toll of the disaster although reports from the Lao New Agency said 26 people were confirmed dead.

The prime minister told a press conference that all villagers stranded on roofs of submerged houses or on trees had been transferred to safe places Tuesday.

"The number of homeless persons has climbed to 3,060 and 131 people are missing. As the flood is still flowing, another five to six villages are now being affected by the flood," he said.

Thongloun said authorities were helping victims in the villages affected by the flood.

The prime minister added a special committee was established to deal with the situation and it would cooperate with relevant departments to investigate the the incident.

He also thanked the international community in helping the rescue work.

Initial reports said several were killed and hundreds missing following the dam collapse in the landlocked country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:05:49|Editor: ZX

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XINING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Qinghai Province launched an investigation into peat bogs in the province Wednesday, the first investigation of its kind conducted on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The investigation aims to collect peat bogs materials, to protect and manage peat bogs and ensure such resources are exploited properly.

Peat bogs are a type of wetland, among the most valuable ecosystems on Earth. They are the largest natural terrestrial carbon store, but a major source of greenhouse gas emissions if damaged. The restoration of damaged peatlands can bring significant reductions in emissions.

The investigation focuses on every peat bog above one hectare and collects information such as on natural environment, categories, biomass, carbon stores and soil.

Peat bog drainage, exploitation and restoration since 1990 will also be included in the investigation.

"We have lacked peat resource data, the most worthy resource in wetlands, for a long time, resulting in no targeted measures to protect peat bogs," said Wang Enguang, deputy director of the provincial forestry department.

The investigation is scheduled for completion in December 2019.

Qinghai has 8.14 million hectares of wetland, the most of any province-level region and accounting for 15.19 percent of the entire wetland in China.

China has invested 10.2 billion yuan (1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in the protection of wetland since 2013, implementing more than 1,600 wetland conservation projects across the country.

China plans to investigate peat bogs in 11 provinces and regions. Since the program was launched in 2014, investigation has been undertaken in six provinces and regions, namely the northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north and southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:30:55|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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HARARE, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean main opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa said Wednesday his party will not boycott the July 30 polls despite the electoral body refusing to address some of its concerns.

The opposition party accuses the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of being biased in favor of the ruling ZANU-PF and of refusing to implement electoral reforms including ensuring greater transparency on the voters' roll and the ballot paper.

The ZEC has denied the accusations.

Chamisa told reporters that his party has put in place anti-rigging mechanisms to stop any vote manipulation.

"We cannot boycott our victory. The talk of boycotting is a machination by ZANU-PF to try and get us in a state of despondency," Chamisa said.

He urged his supporters to vote overwhelmingly on July 30, saying this is the only way to overcome any possible vote rigging.

The 40-year-old Chamisa is President Emmerson Mnangagwa's main challenger in the presidential polls where 21 other candidates are vying for the top political post.

Mnangagwa has promised to deliver credible elections and has told the aggrieved opposition to seek recourse in courts on their electoral concerns.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:46:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Wang Yang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), presides over the seventh chairman and vice chairpersons' meeting of the 13th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, July 25, 2018. At the meeting, the chairman and vice chairpersons held a group study about reforms since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) will convene from Aug. 20 to 22 in Beijing.

The decision was made at the seventh chairman and vice chairpersons' meeting of the 13th CPPCC National Committee presided over by Chairman Wang Yang, according to a statement issued after the meeting.

At the meeting, the chairman and vice chairpersons held a group study about reforms since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012.

Members of the CPPCC should further study and understand the policies of the CPC Central Committee, conduct field studies on difficult reform issues and provide constructive advice, Wang said.

Being a united front organization that have connections in all sectors of the society, the CPPCC should play a better part in explaining the policies to the public, reducing misunderstanding, soothing dissatisfaction, settling disputes and enhancing consensus, he said.

At Wednesday's meeting, draft revisions to working protocols of the CPPCC National Committee were adopted and will be submitted to the Standing Committee meeting in August.

The drafting and revision of various regulations will lay a solid institutional foundation for the innovation and development of the CPPCC, Wang said.

The chairman and vice chairpersons also adopted a decision to revoke the membership of Zeng Zhiquan in the CPPCC National Committee, which will be submitted to the August meeting for final confirmation.

Zeng is under investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and National Supervisory Commission for "suspected serious violation of Party disciplinary rules and law," according to a CCDI statement on July 11.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:51:02|Editor: ZX

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MOSCOW, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia will deliver fresh humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine on July 26, the Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The delivery of the humanitarian aid to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from the Don Rescue Center is planned for tomorrow," the ministry said in a statement.

The federal state institution Don Rescue Center under the ministry is located in Russia's Rostov region.

The 79th batch of humanitarian cargo includes medicines and medical equipment. It was jointly collected by the ministry, federal executive bodies, executive authorities of constituent entities and public organizations.

Russia has sent over 74,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Lugansk, collectively called Donbas, since August 2014. Conflict broke out there in April 2014 after the Ukrainian government launched its "anti-terror" operation against armed groups, which seized cities and towns in the eastern Donbas region and declared independence.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 21:56:03|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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TEHRAN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- An Iranian UN official slammed the recent approval of the "Jewish Nation-State" law by the Israeli parliament as a "racist" law, Tasnim news agency reported on Wednesday.

The approval of the law "proves that racism is in the very nature of the Israeli regime," Iranian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Eshaq Al-e Habib said.

"The occupation of Palestine (by Israel) has been the root cause of the conflicts in the Middle East," he said, addressing a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Tuesday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has also strongly condemned the law approved by the Israeli parliament as "racist."

The Israeli parliament passed the "Jewish Nation-State" law on last Thursday that makes Hebrew the country's national language, and Jerusalem as its capital. It will also grant diaspora Jews the right of return to Israel.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:01:05|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The curtain of the BRICS Business Forum, which is part of the 10th BRICS Summit, was raised in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

According to organizers, about 1,000 delegates from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are gathering at the Sandton Convention Center for the event.

South African Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies said on Tuesday that delegates will deliberate on strategic economic matters affecting the future of BRICS at the event.

"The Business Forum will deliberate on the current global political economy and its implications for BRICS member countries, the implications of the 4th Industrial Revolution on inclusive growth and transformation, facilitating intra-BRICS trade, as well as fostering BRIC-Africa partnerships," Davies said in a statement.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:11:08|Editor: Shi Yinglun

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DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 150 people were killed Wednesday in a spate of attacks and bombings carried out by the Islamic State (IS) in the southern province of Sweida, a war monitor reported.

The high death toll includes victims that fell by three suicide bombings in Sweida and also those who held arms to face the IS attack on towns in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said 30 IS militants including the suicide bombers were killed in the attacks.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:31:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BUCHAREST, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Romania on Wednesday sent two airplanes to Greece to assist the southern European country in battling the ongoing deadly wildfires.

According to the Romanian Defence Ministry, the planes are a C-27 J Spartan aircraft, configured for firefighting, and a C-130 Hercules aircraft for logistical support.

They were made available by the ministry within the framework of the Civil Protection Mechanism of the European Union (EU), which coordinates responding to natural and man-made disasters at EU level.

"We are talking about a firefighting aircraft, a Hercules airplane for logistic support, and 20 soldiers manning these aircraft," Defence Minister Mihai Fifor was quoted by local media as saying.

"If more is needed, we will certainly be with our Hellenic colleagues," Fifor added.

Fifor had a series of telephone conversations on Tuesday with his Greek counterpart Panos Kammenos on the devastating wildfires in the Attica region, assuring of the full availability of the Romanian Armed Forces to help with soldiers and means, according to official Agerpres news agency.

The devastating blazes have been raging since Monday in the Attica region around Athens. At least 74 people died in the wildfires.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:36:12|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China-Africa economic ties have come under the spotlight as Chinese President Xi Jinping is now in the continent for state visits to a number of African nations and the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg that opened Wednesday.

The following are some key facts and statistics on economic and trade ties between China and Africa.

-- China-Africa trade grew from a mere 765 million U.S. dollars in 1978 to 170 billion dollars in 2017, an increase of more than 200 times. In the first five months of 2018, China-Africa trade gained 17.7 percent year on year to nearly 82 billion dollars.

-- By the end of 2016, China's investment in Africa reached over 100 billion U.S. dollars, growing over 100 times in a dozen years. According to a report released by Ernst & Young, China became the single largest contributor of foreign direct investment in Africa in 2016, having invested 66.4 billion dollars and created 130,750 jobs from 2005 to 2016.

-- Some 3,100 Chinese enterprises have invested in Africa, working on projects in areas of transport, electricity, telecommunications, industrial parks, agricultural technology centers, water supply, schools and hospitals.

-- Infrastructure construction has been one of the priorities in China-Africa cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, which involves more than 20 African countries and covers areas such as railways, highways, ports and power generation. Last year, a 480 km China-funded railway opened to connect Nairobi and Mombasa, reducing traveling time between Kenya's two biggest cities by half and creating 46,000 jobs.

-- In 2015, China announced 10 major plans for China-Africa cooperation to help the continent speed up industrialization and agricultural modernization. A 10-billion-dollar China-Africa production capacity cooperation fund has also been established to support cooperation projects such as economic zones and industrial parks in Africa.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:36:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Joseph Musonye rotates a drum mixer with vigor until beads of sweat form on his forehead.

He wipes them with his handkerchief and then dips his hand inside the equipment, scoops the content and checks it.

Not satisfied, he continues to rotate the mixer another 10 minutes, before he removes the content and puts in a gunny bag.

Musonye, a fish farmer in Ruai on the outskirts of Nairobi, is making feeds using such ingredients as fishmeal, maize germ, cottonseed cake, and wheat bran.

He now makes feeds himself to cut production costs, as are many other farmers keeping poultry, dairy cows, fish and pigs, the majority of whom after attending feed formulation classes.

"This has helped me cut costs by 20 percent," Musonye said.

He bought the drum mixer for an equivalent of 200 U.S. dollars.

Feeds usually account for up to 40 percent of the production costs in livestock keeping, and the farmers can cut that to 25 percent by making their own feeds.

"It costs 25 dollars for a 50kg bag of fish feeds. For my 1,000 fish, I need at least a bag and a half a week or less. This is very expensive if I buy commercially formulated feeds," Musonye said.

He now buys feeds ingredients in kilos, with a 2kg tin of fishmeal going for 1.3 dollars and the rest of the ingredients at between 0.20 dollars and 0.40 dollars.

Samuel Mutinda, a chicken farmer in Kitengela, south of Nairobi, also makes feeds by himeself.

"Making feeds for my chickens enables me not only to save costs but I am also assured of quality," he said.

Mutinda noted that he chose the path after realizing low-quality commercial feeds were affecting his birds' egg production.

"I tested the feeds and realized they were low in crude protein content," he said.

Mutinda spent 100 dollars on feed formulation classes offered by a veterinarian.

"I think it was the best thing I have ever done for my business," said Mutinda, who now knows the science behind feed formulation. "If I was not formulating my feeds, I would have closed shop."

Simon Ndirangu, a veterinarian who offers feed formulation lessons to farmers, says demand for the classes has doubled as people take to poultry, dairy and fish farming.

"I conduct classes of at most 15 people twice a month. I charge 70 dollars and it entails both theory and practical lessons," he said.

Poultry farmers lead in the uptake of the lessons, followed by fish and dairy.

"Many pig farmers don't come for the lessons because they keep the animals on contract with the buyer dictating most activities," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:46:15|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese caretaker Public Works and Transportation Minister Youssef Fenianos called upon public drivers to stop their protests in the absence of a government in Lebanon, local media reported Wednesday.

"I have met with Prime Minister designate Saad Hariri and contacted caretaker Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk hoping to find a solution to the demands of public drivers before their next protest," he was quoted by Elnashra, a local news agency.

Bassam Tleis, head of the Union and Leagues of Land Transport, warned earlier this morning that public drivers will escalate their protests next Wednesday until the government meets their demands.

"Authorities promised to implement a proper transport plan over two years ago but nothing has been done yet," he said.

Public drivers in Lebanon started a wide protest Wednesday blocking streets in Beirut, Tripoli and other cities to claim for their rights.

Their demands include the need by the government to track cars with forged plates in addition to stopping foreign drivers from operating and competing with local public drivers.

They also urged for putting an end to the chaotic increase in fuel prices and drafting a local transportation strategy to solve traffic problems.

The protest also aims at opposing the privatization of inspection centers and the increase in the cost of automotive inspections.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:51:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Saudi-led coalition has foiled an attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea by Houthi militia, Al Arabiya local news reported on Wednesday.

The coalition involved in a war in Yemen in support of Yemeni elected government confirmed that the tanker suffered minor damage.

It warned of the ongoing threats of the Houthi militias on the freedom of navigation and global trade in the Red Sea, which could cause an environmental disaster if allowed to continue.

The coalition has been accusing Iran of supporting the Houthi rebels through the supply of weapons and missiles.

The militias frequently respond to the airstrikes by the coalition with missile attacks against Saudi Arabia, mainly its border cities. Most of them are intercepted by the air forces.TOKYO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan and Germany agreed on Wednesday to further promote free trade following the signing earlier this month of a free trade deal between Japan and the European Union (EU).

"The free trade deal sent a clear signal against protectionism," said visiting German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas during talks with his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono here on Wednesday.

Kono, for his part, said that closer cooperation between Japan and Germany is now "more important than ever."

The two sides also agreed to enhance cooperation on a number of other issues such as climate change.

Later in the day, Maas also met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Japan and the EU signed a free trade agreement earlier this month, eliminating tariffs on the majority of their products amid rising international trade tensions.

The agreement will lead to the creation of one of the world's largest economic blocs and will constitute around 30 percent of global gross domestic product, according to economists' predictions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 22:56:18|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The first meeting for 11 years of the British and Irish intergovernmental conference was held at the Cabinet Office in London Wednesday.

Ireland's Tanaiste (deputy prime minister), the foreign affairs trade minister Simon Coveney, said later a no-deal Brexit would be bad for both Ireland and Britain.

Coveney added: "I do not think that is a likely scenario and if it were to happen, it would be a failing of politics on a very significant scale."

The meeting was held against a background of the collapse of devolved government in Northern Ireland following a major fall-out between the main party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the second biggest party, the pro-republican Sinn Fein.

Under the agreement which ended three decades of troubles in Northern Ireland, the Stormont assembly was established in the basis of the two major parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein, taking the major leadership roles.

So far attempts to broker a solution between the two sides have failed, leaving Northern Ireland to be run by civil servants.

The last meeting of the conference, which took place in the Irish Republic, was held in 2007, just before the DUP and Sinn Fein agreed to a power-sharing arrangement at Stormont, seat of devolved power in Northern Ireland.

Taking part in today's conference was the British government's Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley, Cabinet Office Minister and prime minister Theresa May's de-facto deputy David Lidington, Coveney and the Irish Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

The agenda included legacy issues, security cooperation, political instability in Northern Ireland and east-west co-operation post Brexit.

After the meeting Coveney said: "It is very clear that we do not deal with devolved decision making. This is about protecting the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement because there's been an absence of government in Northern Ireland for 19 months now and that's impacting communities in Northern Ireland in negative way."

Britain and the Irish Republic joined the European Union on the same day in 1973, meaning there have been no border issues. But that will change when Britain's membership of the bloc ends, but both sides are striving for a frictionless border between the republic and Northern Ireland.

Coveney added: "British ministers and Irish ministers simply won't be meeting in the future in the same way and as frequently as we have done for more than four decades now, and so we have instructed senior officials to come up with definitive proposals on how an Irish government and British government in the future can have structured and interactive dialogue at cabinet level in the same way that France and Germany have, for example. This sends a very clear signal that Britain and Ireland are going to remain very close, regardless of the challenges we face."

A spokesperson at the Cabinet Office said later: "The conference considered the strength of the bilateral relationship between the United Kingdom and Ireland and welcomed the high levels of bilateral cooperation across a range of important policy areas."

"The conference agreed that this level of bilateral co-operation needed to be maintained and, where possible, strengthened following the departure of the UK from the European Union."

The official communique added that officials were asked to take forward work with a view to coming forward with proposals for future east-west cooperation, including at cabinet and ministerial level, for consideration by the Irish and UK Governments at a future meeting of the conference.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:06:20|Editor: Li Xia

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BRUSSELS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Amid brewing trade tensions between the United States and the European Union (EU), Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, is visiting Washington Wednesday in a bid to persuade the White House to change course.

The key question to judge the outcome of his visit is whether U.S. President Donald Trump will follow up his threat to introduce custom duties for European cars, Gerhard Stahl, a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, told Xinhua.

The EU pundit saw the visit as a follow-up to the G7 meeting in Canada in June, which failed to quell the transatlantic spat over trade.

Asked about his expectation on the visit, Stahl said: "this discussion should help President Trump understand better the EU-position for a rule-based international system and an open international economy."

"It should also help address the weaknesses of the current WTO system. The discussions should focus on ideas on how to improve the world trading system without taking unilateral protectionist measures," added Stahl, warning that U.S. unilateral behavior creates the risks of harmful trade wars.

However, citing a study of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the professor said the United States, in comparison to other major powers, will be most affected by the negative consequences of a trade war.

Stahl, also a former secretary general of the European Committee of the Regions, believed that the EU is in a position to defend its interests but is in no mood to aggravated the condition.

"The interest of the delegation of President Junker is not to increase tensions, but hopefully to find some common grounds for the future development of the world trade system, assuming that a dialogue with the Trump administration might become easier after the November U.S. mid-term elections," he said.

He stressed that Trump's "America First" policy, which intends to replace the rule-based international system by increased national competition and bilateral agreements, is against the policy orientation of the EU, a strong supporter of the international world trade system and international agreements.

As long as the U.S. government is following protectionist policies, the EU has to look for other partners to defend an open international economy, he noted.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:06:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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MOGADISHU, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Africa Command (Africom) on Wednesday denied conducting airstrikes against al-Shabab on Tuesday night, two days after local forces killed 87 militants in southern Somalia.

"U.S. Africa Command has not conducted a strike within the past 24 hours," Africom spokesman Karl J. Wiest told Xinhua hours after local reports said unidentified warplanes carried out strikes on a village about 60 km north of Mogadishu.

Quoting local military sources, local media reported that the airstrikes targeted senior al-Shabab commanders in a remote area between Bal'ad and Jowhar towns.

No casualties were reported in the airstrikes.

Residents confirmed hearing sounds of fighter jets bombing Qalimow village.

The strikes came a few hours after the insurgents briefly took over the village before fleeing on Tuesday evening, local reports said.

On Monday, the Somali National Army said its soldiers killed 87 al-Shabab militants during heavy fighting at a military base in Bar-Sanguni, about 50 km north of Kismayo.VIENTIANE, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A medical contingent from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) arrived in Laos' southern Attapeu province Wednesday to help with relief work after a hydropower dam collapsed earlier this week.

Approved by the Central Military Commission, a PLA medical team, which is on the "Peace Train-2018" Humanitarian Medical Rescue Joint Training Mission in the Lao capital of Vientiane, dispatched the epidemic prevention unit to Attapeu.

The 32-member contingent is the first fully-equipped international rescue team arriving in the flood-hit area. It will offer medical service together with the Lao medical and sanitary teams.

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam, which has been under construction, collapsed Monday in Sanamxay district, Attapeu province, leaving at least 26 people dead and 131 missing.

The PLA medical team is participating in a seven-day "Peace Train-2018" humanitarian joint exercise and providing medical service to soldiers and people in Laos.Like the 6M dead in the Ukraine that died of starvation because the grain they grew was 'required' as a debt payment to the entity you mentioned. They also set the standard for what is done when an overthrow is in the works, lets hope the rules stay the same when they fall from the top.



Walnut, are you indicating you feel no sorry for the ones growing the grain were the ones that died while the ones in Kiev lived high on the hog and did no work at all??



You sometimes confuse me with those one finger replies you are so fond of. I keep expecting more from you for some odd reason. I'll work on correcting that flaw in my personality. There are so many of them it is hard to decide where to start some days.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:36:28|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ZAGREB, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin visited the former Jasenovac concentration camp on Wednesday to pay tribute to the victims during the Second World War.

"It is a moral obligation for Croatia to face the past and not to ignore it. It is an obligation for all not to forget the victims and not to bring laws that violate what the Nazis and collaborators did," said the Israeli president, who was on the second and last day of his visit to Croatia.

Grabar-Kitarovic expressed deep sorrow for all victims of the Holocaust and the Ustasha regime in the Second World War, when massacre of Jews, Serbs, Roma and Croats took place in the concentration camp.

"The contemporary Republic of Croatia was founded on the anti-fascist struggle and the Homeland War, which was extremely important to us because it finally gave us freedom," said Grabar-Kitarovic.

The Croatian president condemned every totalitarian regime and stressed that education is the most powerful weapon against radical ideology, division, hate and racism.

Established in 1941 by the Ustasha regime who followed fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest detention camp in Croatia. Many Serbs, Jews, Roma and Croats were brought to the camp, and tens of thousands of people were killed.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:41:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LUANDA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Angola continues to be a transition zone for illegal trade of ivory, rhinoceros horn, pangolin scales, gorillas and wild birds, Secretary of State for Forest Resources Andre de Jesus Moda said Wednesday.

The official made the statement when speaking in the capital Luanda at the second meeting of the group of experts on the implementation of the African Union strategy to tackle illegal wildlife trade.

According to the secretary of state, the year 2017 alone recorded about 1.2 tonnes of ivory and other parts of the mentioned species seized from poachers.

The official said that poachers who cross the Angolan forests come from various countries.

He pointed out that the long maritime, land and air borders of the country leads to the need of funding as well as reinforcement in the inspection and control services.

Angola is hosting the second meeting of the group of experts on the implementation of the African Strategy to Combat the Illegal Exploitation and Trade of Wild Fauna and Flora in Africa from July 25 to 27 in Luanda.

The meeting aims to prepare the implementation of the Wildlife Strategy and the participation of Africa in the next meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP18) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in May 2019.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:46:36|Editor: Li Xia

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RABAT, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Morocco's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Mounia Boucetta discussed Wednesday in Rabat with Robert Karem, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, means to promote peace and stability in Africa.

During this meeting, the two officials hailed the excellent military and security cooperation between the two countries, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Moroccan minister highlighted Morocco's mediation efforts in solving and avoiding crises in several African countries, the same source noted.

She also voiced her country's support to U.S. initiatives and efforts to ensure peace and security in Africa, it added.

Karem leads a large delegation on a two-day working visit to Morocco.

On Tuesday, the U.S. official held a meeting with Abdeltif Loudyi, Moroccan minister delegate for national defense, during which they vowed to further strengthen bilateral security cooperation.File photo shows a worker at Bole Lemi Industrial Park in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, April 6, 2017.(Xinhua/Michael Tewelde)

JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- South African government officials on Tuesday reiterated their opposition to the growing isolationist policy and anti-globalization as harming global trade.

They said this during a high-level panel discussion as a build-up to the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. South African Minister of Finance Nhlanhla Nene said there is a consensus on many countries that the correct path is the rules-based open market as opposed to protectionist policy.

"There is an onslaught on multilateralism and all of us will loose. The isolation is not sustainable. There is a consensus that current trade tensions pose one of the biggest challenges to strong and sustainable growth," said Nene.

Nene said BRICS, Bretton Woods institutions and multilateral organizations have to find each other and coordinate to create a better world.

South African Reserve Bank (SARB) governor Lesetja Kganyago took a swipe at protectionism saying it creates uncertain political and economic uncertainty.

"Its not everybody who wants protectionism but one country -- the U.S. Let's protect multilateralism. The future of the world is better acting together rather than going alone."

Kganyago stated that after the 2008 global economic crisis, the world coordinated at the multilateral level to achieve a speedy recovery. He warned that protectionism is detrimental to the global trade.

"There is stupidity in protectionism ... You can't produce everything in your countries. That is the heart of the global trade system. You want to have access to ther countries' market but you do not want them to have access to yours," said Kganyago.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-25 23:56:39|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HELSINKI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Finnish Defense Minister Jussi Niinisto said on Wednesday more dialogue is needed between Finland and Russia to avoid misunderstandings about the military cooperation that Finland and Sweden are taking part in.

Niinisto commented on a speech by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu a day earlier. The Russia minister had said that the increasing cooperation of Finland and Sweden with NATO would make it necessary for Russia to take counter measures. Shoigu did not specify what those counter measures would be, however.

Niinisto said the bilateral defense agreement between Finland and Sweden is not connected with NATO in any way. The agreement was signed in early July.

Niinisto told national broadcaster Yle on Wednesday he would be willing to meet Shoigu to clarify what kind of cooperation Finland is engaged in. However, the current sanctions against Russia prevent ministerial level meetings.

Defense Minister Niinisto has not met Shoigu personally.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Finnish President Sauli Niinisto will be meeting in Moscow in August.

Defense Minister Niinisto considered the timing of the statement by Shoigu to be somewhat unusual, against the backdrop that Putin has publicly praised the relationship between Finland and Russia.

"In that respect this is surprising, but this is then a matter that Niinisto and Putin can talk about, if they think it is worth a discussion," Defence Minister Niinisto said.

Defence Minister Niinisto added that the message from Shoigu is very clear. Russia does not want Finland or Sweden to join NATO. "This has been heard many times," Niinisto said.

Besides the recent bilateral agreement with Sweden, a tripartite agreement between Finland, Sweden and the U.S. was signed in May this year. In 2014 Finland signed a hosting agreement with NATO.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:42:41|Editor: Liangyu

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JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered on Wednesday a speech titled "Keeping Abreast of the Trend of the Times to Achieve Common Development" at the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The following is the full text of the speech:

Speech by H.E. Xi Jinping

President of the People's Republic of China

At the BRICS Business Forum

Johannesburg, 25 July 2018

Your Excellency President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa,

Your Excellency President Faure Gnassingbe of Togo,

Your Excellency Deputy President David Mabuza of South Africa,

Ministers,

Friends from the business community,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

Good afternoon! I am delighted to visit South Africa, the "rainbow nation," once again and meet you here in the beautiful city of Johannesburg. The first international summit I attended after taking office as Chinese president five years ago was the fifth BRICS Summit held in Durban. Three years ago, right here in this convention center, I attended the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit with African leaders.

Nearly three years on, as I once again set foot on the African continent, I am struck by its robust growth and strong vitality.

Thanks to the strong support of all participating parties, China successfully hosted the BRICS Xiamen Summit last September. We as BRICS leaders unanimously agreed to strengthen our strategic partnership, consolidate the cooperation architecture with its three main drivers, namely, economic cooperation, political and security cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges. We thus laid out a vision of BRICS+ cooperation and jointly ushered in the second Golden Decade of BRICS cooperation.

I understand that in the Nguni language, Johannesburg means the "Place of Gold." We cannot find a better place to chart the course for our Golden Decade than in this city of gold. Here in Johannesburg, I look forward to working with other BRICS leaders to embark on a new journey of BRICS cooperation and fulfill our new mission.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

The BRICS mechanism owes its birth and growth to evolution of both the global economy and the international landscape. In its first decade, BRICS cooperation got off the ground and bore rich fruit. We five BRICS countries, guided by the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, have deepened our cooperation, enhanced our solidarity and mutual trust, improved the lives of our peoples, and made our bond of interests and friendship even closer. Indeed, our cooperation has contributed much to global economic recovery and growth.

We are witnessing major changes unfolding in our world, something unseen in a century. This is a world of both opportunities and challenges for us emerging markets and developing countries. We should pursue BRICS cooperation in the historical process of global transformation, and we should promote the development of our own countries in the historical course of promoting the common development of both BRICS countries and other countries in the world, thus making new advances in the next Golden Decade.

-- The next decade will be a crucial one in which new global growth drivers will take the place of old ones. A new round of revolution and transformation in science, technology and industries featuring artificial intelligence, big data, quantum information and bio-technology are gaining momentum. They are giving birth to a large number of new industries and business forms and models and will fundamentally change global development and people's work and lives. We must seize this important opportunity to enable emerging markets and developing countries to achieve leapfrog development.

-- The next decade will see faster changes in the international landscape and the international alignment of forces. Emerging markets and developing countries already contribute 80 percent of global economic growth. Based on exchange rate calculation, these countries account for nearly 40 percent of the global economic output. Growing at their current rates, these countries will see their economic output approach half of the global total in a decade. The collective rise of emerging markets and developing countries is unstoppable, and it will make global development more balanced and global peace more firmly based.

-- The next decade will see a profound reshaping of the global governance system. The world is moving toward multi-polarity and greater economic globalization amid setbacks. Geopolitical hotspots keep emerging, and the dark shadow of terrorism and armed conflicts still haunts us. Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime. The international community has reached a new crossroads; and we are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening-up and a close-door policy, and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbor approach. Thus, the evolution of global governance system will have a profound impact on the development of all countries, particularly emerging markets and developing countries, and indeed on the prosperity and stability of the whole world.

We BRICS countries should keep abreast of the historical trend, seize development opportunities, jointly meet challenges, and play a constructive role in building a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

First, we should pursue win-win cooperation to build an open economy. Openness and cooperation are the sure way to achieve progress in science and technology and growth of productivity. A trade war should be rejected, because there will be no winner. Economic hegemony is even more objectionable, as it will undermine the collective interests of the international community; those who pursue this course will only end up hurting themselves.

As the world economy is going through profound transition and changes, only by opening themselves can different countries achieve mutual benefit, shared prosperity and sustainable development. This should be the right choice for all countries. We BRICS countries should firmly promote an open world economy, be resolute in rejecting unilateralism and protectionism, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and jointly steer the global economy toward greater openness, inclusiveness, balanced growth and win-win outcomes for all. We should ensure that economic globalization will deliver more benefits. We should help emerging markets and developing countries, African countries and the least developed countries in particular, fully involve themselves in international division of labor and share in the benefits of economic globalization.

Second, we should pursue innovation and seize development opportunities. Science and technology, as the primary production forces, have provided inexhaustible power driving progress of human civilization. Humanity had made giant leaps forward as it progressed from an agricultural civilization to an industrial civilization, a process which created both huge gains in social productivity and growing pains. The world today has once again reached a critical historic juncture. In the unfolding new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, new things will inevitably emerge and take the place of old ones. Indeed, this will be a difficult and painful process. But if countries succeed in seizing opportunities that have presented themselves, they will be able to achieve new dynamic growth and deliver better lives to their people.

In the face of new opportunities brought by new science and technology, every country has an equal right to development. Those who fail to keep abreast of the trend of the times will fall behind and become irrelevant. What we can and should do is to seize opportunities, increase input in innovation, focus on creating new areas of growth and replace old growth drivers with new ones. We should endeavor to advance structural reform, remove all institutional barriers to innovation and fully unlock innovation potential and energize the market. We should develop a global perspective, boost international exchanges and cooperation in innovation, and fully leverage each other's comparative strengths and resource endowment, so as to enable more countries and people to benefit from scientific and technological advances. At the same time, we should ease the impact of application of information technology, automation and smart technology on traditional industries and create new job opportunities in the process of fostering new industries.

Third, we should pursue inclusive growth to deliver benefits to people of all countries. Uneven and insufficient development is a common challenge facing all countries. The North-South gap, namely, the gap between developed countries and emerging markets and developing countries, remains huge. And there are also development gaps of varying degrees within countries.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a comprehensive action plan for the international community. We BRICS countries should, basing ourselves on our actual national conditions, follow the guidance of the 2030 Agenda as we pursue our own development strategies. We should put people first, ensure coordinated economic and social development and protect the environment, thus giving our people a stronger sense of fulfillment and happiness. We should ensure harmony between man and nature and encourage the international community to fully implement the Paris Agreement. We should treat nature with awe and do more to foster an ecological system conducive to green development. It is necessary to promote international development cooperation, urge developed countries to fulfill their promises on official development assistance and increase support to developing countries.

Home to more developing countries than any other continent, Africa has more development potential than any other region in the world. We should strengthen cooperation with Africa, support its development and make BRICS-Africa cooperation a model for South-South cooperation. We should actively carry out cooperation with African countries in such areas as poverty reduction, food security, innovation, infrastructure development and industrialization in a way compatible with their national conditions. We should help African countries develop their economic structure, contribute to the implementation of Agenda 2063 of the African Union and thus enable Africa, an ancient continent, to gain strong vitality.

Fourth, we should uphold multilateralism and improve global governance. An enabling and stable external environment is crucial for the development of all countries, especially emerging markets and developing countries. Obviously, the current international order is not a perfect one. But as long as it is rule-based, aims to be equitable and pursues win-win outcomes as its goal, such an international order should not be discarded at will, still less should it be dismantled and rebuilt all over again.

We BRICS countries must uphold multilateralism. We should urge all parties to fully observe collectively adopted international rules, and we should treat all countries as equals regardless of their size, address issues that matter to all through consultation and oppose hegemony and power politics. We should promote common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, get actively involved in mediation efforts for resolving geopolitical hotspot issues. It is important for us to firmly support the multilateral trading regime, advance global economic governance reform and increase the representation and voice of emerging markets and developing countries. When new rules are made on such issues as innovation, trade and investment and intellectual property protection or on new frontiers including cyberspace, outer space or the polar regions, we should make sure that the views of emerging markets and developing countries are heeded, their interests and demands are taken into consideration, and there are sufficient opportunities for their development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Success only comes through hard work. During the past 40 years, China has come a long way. With strenuous efforts, China has blazed a path of building socialism with distinctive Chinese features. Proceeding from China's realities and developing a global vision, we in China have both drawn strength from the wisdom of the time-honored Chinese civilization and learned from other countries, both east and west. We have embraced the world and integrated our country fully into it. While pursuing its own development, China has also made important contribution to peace and development of mankind.

As the world's biggest developing country, China will ride the trend of the times and pursue innovation-driven, coordinated, green and open development for all. We will step up efforts to pursue innovation-driven development and fully engage in international cooperation on innovation and technologies. We will take an active part in South-South cooperation to foster greater opportunities for common development of emerging markets and developing countries.

China will continue to develop itself with its door wide open. At the annual conference of the Boao Forum for Asia held last April, I announced a number of new initiatives to open China further, and these initiatives are being speedily pursued. China will build a more investment-friendly environment that is aligned with international standards, more transparent and law-based and encourages competition and opposes monopoly. China will take tough law enforcement steps to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights and make IPR infringement even more costly. We encourage companies to maintain normal technological exchanges and cooperation, and will see to it that their lawful intellectual property rights are protected. China will also increase imports to promote balance of payment under the current account.

China will host the first China International Import Expo in Shanghai this November, a major move to firmly support trade liberalization and open its market. The Expo will serve as a new platform for the world to access the Chinese market. By now, over 130 countries and regions and more than 2,800 companies have confirmed participation and over 150,000 buyers in and outside China are expected to attend this fair. I welcome business leaders from other BRICS and African countries to attend the Expo.

China will continue to vigorously pursue the Belt and Road Initiative to create new opportunities of social and economic development for participating countries and for them to implement the UN 2030 Agenda. The Belt and Road Initiative, guided by the principle of seeking shared benefits through extensive consultation and joint contribution, originated in China but belongs to the world. It is our sincere hope that other BRICS countries, African countries and other emerging markets and developing countries will forge strong partnerships with this initiative so that its benefits will reach more countries and their peoples.

China and African countries are destined to be good friends, good brothers and good partners, and China-Africa cooperation stands as a fine example of South-South cooperation. This coming September will see a reunion of China and African countries at the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing. Themed on "China and Africa: Toward an Even Stronger Community with a Shared Future through Win-Win Cooperation," the Beijing Summit aims to enhance complementarity between China-Africa joint efforts to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative, the 2030 Agenda and the 2063 Agenda on the one hand and the development strategies of African countries on the other. This will enable China and Africa to pursue high quality and high standard cooperation for mutual benefit and common development.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

Business cooperation is the most important and fruitful aspect of BRICS cooperation. Thanks to our joint efforts, new advances have been made in this cooperation this year. We BRICS countries will forge a partnership on the new industrial revolution, which involves more coordination of macro economic policies, closer cooperation on innovation and industrialization and joint efforts to accelerate economic upgrading and the replacement of growth drivers. Our five BRICS countries have also made good progress in cooperation on trade facilitation, service trade, e-commerce, intellectual property rights and in other fields. These steps will enable us to seize opportunities and meet challenges in a changing world and enrich the BRICS Economic Partnership Strategy.

The business community is the mainstay of BRICS economic cooperation and a dynamic force driving it. As business leaders, you have a great role to play in shaping the second Golden Decade of BRICS cooperation. I hope that you will fully leverage your strengths to enhance win-win cooperation for common development between our five countries. As business leaders, you should take bold steps to explore new ground in pursuing reform and innovation. And working together, you can surely open up new horizon for the development of our five countries and other emerging markets and developing countries. I also hope you will keep in mind the needs of the people and pursue both economic and social returns, so as to increase public support for BRICS cooperation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Friends,

This year marks the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. Let me quote one of his famous sayings, "After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb." Indeed, the history of BRICS cooperation is a journey of our five countries climbing great hills only to reach new heights. I am convinced that when our five countries forge ahead together, we will scale new peaks, reach new heights, and make even greater contribution to peace and development of mankind.

Thank you.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:01:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 150 people were killed Wednesday in the spate of attacks and bombings carried out by the Islamic State (IS) in the southern province of Sweida, a war monitor reported.

The high death toll includes victims that fell by three suicide bombings in Sweida and also those who held arms to face the IS attack on towns in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Britain-based watchdog group said 30 IS militants, including the suicide bombers were killed in Wednesday's attacks.

Earlier in the day, a series of explosions, which were carried out by IS, rocked several parts of the city of Sweida.

The state media outlets said the two bombers were killed while being hunted down at the time of early explosions.

The suicide bombing comes in tandem with attacks by the IS militants on towns in the northeastern countryside of Sweida after dawn Wednesday.

People took up arms to confront the IS attacks in the countryside of Sweida amid reports that the army with help of locals succeeded in pushing back IS from some of their areas they entered.

While the countryside of Sweida has witnessed battles between rebels, including IS, and the Syrian army, the city of Sweida has remained largely calm during Syria's seven-year-long war as it is inhabited by people of the Druze minority, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad rule.

The IS attacks and bombings in Sweida have come to divert the attention of the Syrian army and release the pressure on the IS-held areas in the nearby western countryside of Daraa province near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian army has been relentlessly striking IS positions in the areas of Yarmouk basin in the western countryside of Daraa near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The army has also been fighting against IS in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, as part of the Battle of the South, which includes battles against the rebels and IS in the countryside of Daraa, Sweida, and Quneitra.

With the mediation and help of Russia, the army has already captured 90 percent of Daraa through battles and reconciliations as well as evacuation of rebels.

The rebels in Quneitra near the Golan Heights have also accepted to leave all their areas toward rebel-held places in northern Syria.

In the eastern countryside of Sweida, some areas in the remote eastern countryside are under IS control.

After Wednesday attack, some tribal leaders in Sweida said hundreds of young men are ready to take part in defeating IS in the areas they stormed in the countryside of Sweida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:06:40|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ANKARA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Turkish parliament on Wednesday ratified a new anti-terrorism law proposed by the ruling party, six days after the two-year-long state of emergency ended.

The law was backed by lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party and Nationalist Movement Party.

The new legislation empowers governors and security forces with certain powers that they could previously exercise under the state of emergency for another three years.

With the law, governors can prohibit individuals from leaving or entering a defined area for 15 days over security concerns, while suspects can be detained without charge for 48 hours or up to four days if there are multiple offenses. This period can be extended on two occasions under special circumstances.

The law also authorizes the government to dismiss personnel of Turkish Armed Forces, police and gendarmerie departments, and public servants and workers if they are found linked to a terror organization.

On July 18, the country's state of emergency rule came to an end since it was not renewed by the cabinet. The opposition Republican People's Party had criticized the new anti-terror legislation as a ploy to make "emergency rule permanent."

The law will be forwarded to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his formal approval and will be published later in the official gazette.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:21:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The death toll from weekend clashes in Ethiopia's central Oromia regional state has risen to 11, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday.

In a press statement, Negeri Lencho, head of Oromia regional government communications office, said clashes in Goba city, 416 km east of Ethiopia's capital city Addis Ababa, has so far left 11 people dead and more than 100 people injured.

Lencho further said regional and federal security forces have been deployed in the city to prevent a recurrence of violence.

He also said discussions are currently being conducted with local community members to pacify the tense aftermath of the weekend clashes.

On Monday, Oromia Police Commission Commissioner Alemayehu Ejigu said clashes over ownership of a park in Goba city had left at least six people dead, and the number could rise as several others sustained critical injuries.

Witnesses who spoke to Xinhua said the park had been used as a spot for Ethiopian Timket (Epiphany) celebrations by a mostly migrant Christian population but locals who are mostly Muslims wanted to build a statue to a local hero on the same spot.

The dispute turned bloody over the weekends with the two sides using rocks, sticks and knives to fight each other.

Ethiopia is a heavily religious country with about 98 percent of the East African country's estimated 100 million population professing to follow a religion.

Muslims make up about 33 percent of the population and are generally well integrated into the wider Ethiopian society, although in recent years the Ethiopian government has warned of a danger of rise in extremism among a section of the Muslim community.

Christians of various denominations make up more than 60 percent of Ethiopia's population and generally live in harmony with their Muslim peers.

However, disputes over land rights and resource sharing have at times taken on a religious character leading occasionally into deadly clashes.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:31:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces captured Wednesday a local leader of extremist Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala, while an Iraqi court sentenced a prominent IS leader to death penalty.

Maj. Gen. Faisal al-Abadi, chief of Diyala's provincial police, told Xinhua that a joint force from police intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Service carried out an operation in Tabaj area in northeast of the provincial capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and captured an IS leader and three of his aides.

The leader is responsible for movement of IS militants and suicide bombers in Himreen mountainous area which stretches on the provincial border between Diyala and its northern neighbor Kirkuk, al-Abadi said.

The captured leader was "emir" of IS responsible for applying the law of the extremist group in the town of Hawijah, but he ran away after the Iraqi forces liberated the areas in west of Kirkuk in October last year.

Despite repeated military operations in the Diyala province, remnants of IS militants are still hiding in some rugged areas near the border with Iran, and in the sprawling areas extending from the western part of the province to Himreen mountain range.

Meanwhile, Nineveh Criminal Court in Iraq's northern province of Nineveh issued a verdict of death penalty for an IS leader, known as al-Muhajir.

He was sentenced for his role in slaughtering civilians in the town of Sinjar, some 120 km west of Mosul, and fighting against the Iraqi security forces during the battles to liberate IS major stronghold in Mosul in 2017, Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said in a statement.

In another statement, Biraqdar said the Central Criminal Court in Baghdad issued two verdicts of life imprisonment for two terrorists for joining IS group and involvement in terrorist acts against civilians and Iraqi security forces.

On Dec. 9, 2017, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi officially declared full liberation of Iraq from the IS extremist group.Los Angeles, July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles today announced it will commemorate its grand opening through an official ceremony on August 24, opening all its doors to the public starting August 25, 2018.

Located in the heart of Hollywood, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles serves to showcase the best of Japanese art, design, gastronomy, innovation, technology, and more, offering a rich experience that intrigues the five senses. It also provides a forum for creative and intellectual exchange to deepen mutual understanding. Open seven days a week, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles will showcase these values in the form of:



A gallery for local and travelling exhibitions

A retail shop with the expertly curated selection of unique Japanese retail products

A small cafe

An event space hosting a wide variety of programs including seminars and lectures on various issues of mutual interest as well as world-class gastronomy events in partnership with the local community and Japanese organizations

A relaxing library lounge where visitors can peruse a well-curated selection of books and digital resources in various categories related to Japan.

A restaurant featuring exquisite Japanese cuisine



JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles is located on the 2nd and 5th floors at the landmark Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles, California, the entertainment capital of the world. Thousands of visitors from around the globe visit the complex each day, conveniently located steps away from the world-famous Walk of Fame, and home to the Dolby Theater, home of the Academy Awards.

LARRY ELLISON JOINS JAPAN HOUSE LOS ANGELES AS HONORARY ADVISOR

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles also proudly announced that Larry Ellison will serve as Honorary Advisor. Mr. Ellison is an American businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who is co-founder, executive chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corporation. His active involvement in Japan and his appreciation for Japan's art and culture is widely known.

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles offers a bridge-building cultural experience that will be exciting to anyone who is curious about Japan. By bringing Japan to America, the project will give those of us living in North America an exceptional opportunity. said Mr. Ellison. Japan has enriched my life in so many ways since I was young. Im proud to be associated with this initiative and encourage those who are interested in Japan to come experience it.

JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles thanks Mr. Ellison for his commitment and generous support to the project, said Ms. Yuko Kaifu, President, JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles. We are honored to welcome him as an Honorary Advisor. JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles is more than simply a hub where science and technology, design, fashion, food, lifestyle and values come together to inspire global interest in Japan. It is the embodiment of a nation that continues to evolve in our global community. Mr. Ellisons advice will be invaluable as we seek to showcase the many diverse facets of Japan and Japanese life.

Current members of JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles Steering Committee include:



Akira Chiba, Consul General of Japan in Los Angeles

Douglas G. Erber, President, Japan America Society of Southern California

Gil Garcetti, Photographer, Los Angeles County District Attorney (1992-2000), UNESCO-IHE Cultural Ambassador (2014-2017)

Thomas Iino, Founding Chairman, US-Japan Council; Director, First Choice Bank

Satoshi Okawa, President, Japan Business Association of Southern California

Leslie Ito, Former President and CEO, Japanese American Cultural and Community Center

Gary N. Jacobs, Chairman Emeritus, American Jewish Committee Asia Pacific Institute

Mickey Kantor, United States Secretary of Commerce (1996-1997); United States Trade Representative (1993-1996); Partner, Mayer Brown LLP; Chair, Lexmark International, Inc.

Beth Marlis, Vice President, Musicians Institute; Chair Emeritus, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce

Peter OMalley, President, Los Angeles Dodgers (1970-1998)

Jeff Yamazaki, President, Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Southern California









ABOUT JAPAN HOUSE

JAPAN HOUSE is an innovative, worldwide project with three hubs - London, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo - conceived by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Kenya Hara is Chief Creative Director for the project. It seeks to nurture a deeper understanding and appreciation of Japan in the international community. JAPAN HOUSE Los Angeles occupies two floors in the Hollywood & Highland Center. The second floor features a gallery space and shop. The fifth floor hosts a Japanese restaurant, relaxing library, and event venue, along with spectacular views of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. The 2nd floor has been opened since December 2017, and, with the completion of the 5th floor, it officially opens its doors to the public as a place of new discovery that transcend the physical and conceptual boundaries creating experiences that reflect the best of Japan.

-ends-Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:36:49|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ZAGREB, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A small airplane crashed on Wednesday at Dubrovnik Airport in southern Croatia while landing, Croatian aviation news portal AvioRadar reported.

According to latest information, all three persons who were in the plane were injured, one seriously.

The Cessna 182L Skyline was flying from Graz, Austria to Croatia's renowned tourist destination Dubrovnik, but crashed at around 4:30 pm local time while landing.

The Dubrovnik Airport was closed for 40 minutes because of the accident.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:36:52|Editor: huaxia

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PARIS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- French shares fell on Wednesday, with the benchmark Paris CAC 40 down by 0.14 percent, to close at 5,426.41 points.

Group SEB has emerged as the king of the Paris market Wednesday with a jump of 9.22 percent. Investors have welcomed the rise of the growth target of the small appliance manufacturer.

Up 1.81 percent to 306.55 euros, LVMH signed one of the strongest growth of the CAC 40 behind its competitor Kering (2.59 percent to 503.6 euros).

Hermes climbed, from 1.2 percent to 555 euros. Investors welcome the half-year results, they are also reassured by China, where the demand for Louis Vuitton, the flagship of the group, does not falter.

In France, in all markets (domestic and foreign), industrial product prices rose again in June 2018 (0.3 percent after 0.6 percent in May), according to INSEE. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:46:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JUBA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan said Wednesday the security situation in the country is calm, contrary to the travel advisory by the British government depicting the situation as worsening amid gun attacks.

Mawien Makol Ariik, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, told Xinhua the government remains in control of the security situation and both the civil population and foreigners are safe.

"We are not concerned about the (British) travel advisory. The situation is calm; the government is in control of the situation and is securing both the civil population and foreigners," Makol said in Juba.

The response followed travel warning by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) which cautions Britons against traveling to South Sudan.

"If you are in South Sudan, you should leave if it's safe to do so. There are daily reports of fighting between armed groups across the country, and regular reports of serious criminality in Juba," said the advisory.

The South Sudanese government also earlier this month dismissed a travel advisory by the United States government warning Americans to take security precaution before traveling to the country.

The South Sudan warring parties are expected to finalize the power-sharing deal in Khartoum on Thursday after they agreed to permanent ceasefire and withdraw of respective troops from urban areas.

South Sudan descended into civil war in late 2013, and the conflict has created one of the fastest growing refugee crises in the world.

A 2015 peace agreement was shattered when the warring parties renewed fighting in July 2016 in the capital.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 00:56:55|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the U.S. government should forget talks with Iran under sanction threats.

"Iran will never accept one-way negotiations that are based on excessive demands," Spokesman of Foreign Ministry Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by official IRNA news agency.

"Iran has never hesitated to defend the people's rights, territorial integrity, or independence of the country," said Qasemi.

U.S. President Donald Trump hinted on Monday that Washington was open to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Tehran ahead of looming deadline for Washington to snap back gold and oil sanctions on Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said that any negotiation with the United States to solve the existing mutual problems was an "obvious mistake."

However, Khamenei stressed that negotiations with the Europeans should continue to secure Iran's interests from the 2015 international nuclear deal following the U.S. withdrawal from it on May 8.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 01:06:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TEHRAN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force announced Wednesday to equip the IRGC's fighter jets with long-range cruise missiles, Tasnim news agency reported.

The air-to-ground cruise missiles with pinpoint accuracy and a range of 1,500 km will be installed on the bombers in near future, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, was quoted as saying.

Hajizadeh made the announcement on the sidelines of a ceremony in the capital Tehran on Wednesday to deliver 10 Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets overhauled and upgraded by domestic experts at the IRGC Aerospace Force.

With the upgrade, the jets will also be able to carry and fire smart and cluster bombs, as well as air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles with pinpoint accuracy, Hajizadeh said.

Iran's Defense Ministry on Monday launched the mass production of an indigenous air-to-air missile.

The mass production of missile Fakour, which can be used on all types of fighter jets, was inaugurated by Iran's Defense Minister Amir Hatami.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 01:22:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SANAA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi rebels said they attacked a Saudi warship off the Yemeni western coast on Wednesday, in a statement published by Houthi-controlled Saba news agency.

"The naval forces today targeted the Saudi Dammam warship," read the statement.

However, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported that the Yemeni rebels attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, causing slight damage.

A top Houthi official at the group's political bureau, who asked not to be named, told Xinhua that "the Saudi ship was in a war zone."

On June 13, the Yemeni government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition began an all-out offensive to retake the strategic port city.

Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates, which also led the coalition operations, declared a pause in the military operations inside the densely populated Hodeidah city to support the UN envoy's peace efforts, which is aimed at convincing the rebels to withdraw from the city to avoid military conflicts and more casualties.

On July 10, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths met the internationally-recognized President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in his office in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden to push for resuming stalled peace efforts with his government's foe Houthi rebels.

Griffiths' visit came a week after his meeting with Houthi leader AbdulMalik Houthi in Sanaa, which he described as "fruitful."

Humanitarian agencies have warned that any military attack on the port could lead to the world's biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history.

Hodeidah is the single most important point of entry for food and basic supplies to Yemen's northern provinces controlled by Houthis, including the capital Sanaa.

The rebels stormed the capital Sanaa, Hodeidah and other northern populated cities in late 2014 and forced Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh. They said their move was a revolution against alleged government corruption.

The coalition intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Houthi rebels and reinstate exiled government of Hadi.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 01:37:04|Editor: Liangyu

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by Murad Abdu

ADEN, Yemen, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Drive-by shooting attacks and roadside bomb blasts are escalating in the Yemen's government-controlled province of Aden, triggering fears that terror groups might maintain presence in the southern city.

Government officials including high-ranking security commanders and intelligence officers have been the prime target of armed attacks launched by unknown gunmen in recent days.

The wave of assassinations resumed after a brief noticeable improvement in the security situation in Aden, where various military factions loyal to regional countries have different agenda.

On Monday, a motorcycle-riding suicide bomber blew himself up and targeted a vehicle carrying a high-ranking military commander near a police checkpoint in Enma area of Aden.

The suicide blast aimed to assassinate the Fourth Security Battalion commander named as Abu Muhtam who was inside his armored vehicle at the time of the incident, but he escaped unharmed, local sources told Xinhua.

The targeted commander received military support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) operating as part of the Saudi-led Arab coalition and participated actively in fighting terror groups in Aden and other neighboring provinces.

An official of Aden's Police Command told Xinhua that local authorities backed by UAE adopted a package of security measures to counter terrorist threats against government institutions in Aden.

"The security vigilance was raised in Aden and the situation is under control. Some terrorists want to maintain presence by carrying attacks in Aden but that will be an impossible thing," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Security forces backed by armored vehicles were deployed in Aden's entry points to thwart infiltration of potential terror elements from the neighboring provinces into the city, according to the local source.

However, two coordinated armed attacks rocked different locations in Aden later in the day despite the heavy security deployment in the city's key checkpoints.

A bomb attached to a vehicle of government official exploded and injured three of his bodyguards in Aden's neighborhood of Sheikh Othman.

Elsewhere in Aden, unknown gunmen tried to target a military convoy by remotely detonating a roadside bomb in Mansourah district, causing a huge explosion with no casualties.

The chief of Basateen Police Station also survived a third attack when gunmen opened gunshots toward his vehicle in Aden.

The southern port city of Aden is sinking in chaos, and daily armed attacks are occurring while leaders of local security forces are divided and keep exchanging accusations of failure, according to local political activists.

Leaders of the pro-secesssion Southern Transitional Council (STC) accused local Yemeni parties loyal to Qatar of being behind the latest wave of armed attacks aimed at destabilizing the city that is largely controlled by armed forces loyal to the UAE.

A member of the STC told Xinhua by phone saying that "the prominent allies of Qatar including the Islamic Islah party are carrying out these armed attacks in a desperate way to fight the UAE presence in Aden and make it unstable."

The STC member said on condition of anonymity that "the pro-Qatar political Yemeni parties participated in financing armed groups in the southern provinces. The STC leadership banned the Islah activities and blacklisted it."

"Some leaders are still receiving financial support from Qatar to recruit terrorists for launching sabotage acts and abort the efforts exerted by our forces in fighting terrorism," the STC member said.

On the other hand, members of the Muslims Brotherhood Islah party accused military leaders backed by the UAE of failure in managing the situation in Aden despite the large logistic support provided from the Saudi-led coalition.

"The UAE-backed military leaders are ruling Aden and have the upper hand there but they are using Qatar intervention as a pretext to hide their failure in management and fighting terrorism," said one of the Islah members in Aden named as Farooq Ali.

In January, forces loyal to the STC engaged in fierce armed confrontations with the government Presidential Protection Forces over the control of Aden.

During January's fighting, the forces loyal to the STC took control of the port city of Aden and other government headquarters after two days of clashes that left more than 38 people killed and scores others injured.

There have been rising tensions between southern separatist leaders and ministers of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government over control of the southern half of the country after expelling the Iranian-backed Houthis.

Saudi Arabia and UAE conducted mediating efforts and succeeded in preventing the military escalation at that time but Yemeni observers expect new street fightings as the situation is getting tense between the two rivals every day.

The southern port city of Aden is considered as Yemen's temporary capital and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government based itself there since 2015.

Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for more than three years been battling Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The anti-Houthi coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to the power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.Photo taken on May 5, 2017 shows the construction site by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), a Chinese company undertaking the first phase of the Vision City project, which is part of the Rwandan government's efforts to solve housing challenges in the capital city Kigali. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

KIGALI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China remains a sincere partner for most of African countries, Rwandan experts told Xinhua in recent interviews.

China and Rwanda enjoy a long history of friendship and fruitful cooperation in various sectors such as business, health, education, tourism, infrastructure, said Ismael Buchanan, Dean of the School of Economics and Governance at the University of Rwanda.

"China is a sincere partner for most of African countries," said Buchanan, who recognized China's long-time support of Rwanda and Africa.

He observed that the relations between China and Rwanda, China and Africa are based on principles of mutual respect, improving people's livelihood and promoting development.

Eric Ndushabandi, director of Kigali-based Institute of Research and Dialogue for Peace, said China is becoming a more major source of investment in Africa.

The past 40 years has seen Chinese investment in Africa grow from scratch to a cumulative stock of 110 billion U.S. dollars, Assistant Foreign Minister of China Chen Xiaodong said earlier this month at the opening ceremony of the Seventh China-Africa Think Tank Forum in Beijing.

"China is offering more credible alternative to the more traditional investments by Western countries," said Ndushabandi.

Ndushabandi suggested Africa can be a destination of China to export practical knowledge in various sectors such as mining and agriculture.

According to Ndushabandi, African countries weary of harsh conditions attached to loans from the IMF, the World Bank and Western donors can take advantage of China's support to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

China has participated in infrastructure construction in East Africa in key projects such as standard gauge railways, highways and power plants, which Ndushabandi believes can be a powerful tool in deepening regional integration.

On Rwanda, Ndushabandi said China offers a good opportunity for the country to benefit in various aspects, noting agriculture as one of major sectors that have greater potential for exporting to China.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 01:42:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BERLIN, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The German Fire Brigade Association (DFV) warned on Wednesday that unusually-hot and dry weather currently experienced in large parts of Europe could spark forest fires in Germany as well.

"The risk of forest fires in Germany is extremely high and we urgently need rain for this risk to be reduced again", DFV president Hartmut Ziebs told the German press agency (dpa).

Greece and Sweden have already experienced devastating forest blazes as temperatures continued to soar across the continent in July.

At least 74 individuals were reported dead on Tuesday as fires raged in the Greek Attica region near Athens, a popular destination among tourists during the summer months.

Ziebs said, however, that such an extreme scale of destruction was unlikely to be witnessed in Germany given differences in vegetation.

According to DFV, the northern German states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony and parts of Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt faced the biggest risk of forest fires.

The German Meteorological Service (DWD) is predicting highs of up to 36 degrees Celsius in Germany on Wednesday. A DWD spokesperson said the country had already recorded a "tropical" night on Tuesday with widespread temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius in spite of clear skies.

Speaking to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland consortium of newspapers, DWD meteorologist Andreas Matzarakis urged German citizens to take heat warnings released by authorities seriously.

"If your employer offers you flexi-time, consider starting work earlier in the morning and leaving around midday to avoid spending too many hot hours in the office," Matzarakis said.

Germany is only one of several European countries which is currently being gripped by a heatwave.

Parts of England have not had any rain since late May in the longest dry spell recorded in the country since 1969. The French national weather agency Meteo France has also placed several departments in the greater Paris region on orange alert, the second highest heat warning issued by local authorities.

Hot temperatures and lack of rain are particularly problematic for many European farmers. Although vintners in England can look forward to a bumper year thanks to the Mediterranean-style summer, grain farmers in Germany have expressed concerns that many of them face the prospect of bankruptcy due a resulting fall in annual harvests.

Commenting on the worrying trend on Wednesday, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) noted that temperatures which were still considered unusual for July could become normality in Europe within the coming decades.

"In Germany, average temperatures have already risen by 1.4 degrees since the industrial revolution," PIK researcher Fred Hattermann told press. Higher average temperatures caused by man-made climate change were hereby likely to lead to more extreme heatwaves in the future.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 01:52:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Italian President Sergio Mattarella warned against discrimination of Roma people on Wednesday, in the date that marked the 80th anniversary of the approval of racial laws under Fascism in the country.

The "Manifesto of the Race" -- published in July 1938, and laying the groundwork for racial policies passed by Fascism later that year -- was "a shameful page" in Italian history, the head of state wrote in a statement.

"Signed by professors, physicians, intellectuals, it remains the most serious offence the Italian culture and science have made to the cause of humanity," Mattarella said.

"The aim was to provide racism with a scientific basis, with an act of servility (by the signers) towards the regime that represented a reversal of human ethics."

In his long statement, the president recalled those racial laws brought about a ferocious persecution of Jewish people, the "premise of what would soon become the Holocaust."

At the same time, Mattarella stressed, the racial laws "persecuted Roma and Sinti populations, and those horrific discriminations led to the extermination of the Gipsies."

"The poison of racism continues to penetrate the rifts of society and those between peoples," the president warned.

In mid-June, soon after being formed, Italy's right-wing cabinet led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte showed the intention of carrying out a "census" on the large Roma population living in the country, and of deporting those without regular documents.

Interior Minister Matteo Salvini -- who also serves as deputy PM, and is the leader of anti-immigrant far-right League -- declared he had tasked ministerial officers with preparing "a dossier on the Roma question."

The goal of the announced step was to get to know "who they are, where they live, and how many of them are here."

"As far as Roma people with Italian citizenship are concerned, unfortunately we will have to keep them, because we cannot expel them," Salvini said at the time.

His announcement sparked outcry from human rights groups, associations working with the Roma, the Italian Jewish community, and opposition figures.

It also led to a confrontation with the other party forming the coalition government, the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which took a clear stance against the proposal.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio -- Labor Minister and Deputy PM in the cabinet -- warned the major ally that the idea of a Roma census was "unconstitutional."

According to the Community of Sant'Egidio -- one key group long working with Roma and Sinti -- the Roma minority's roots in Italy dated back to the 15th century. Currently, they were estimated between 120,000 and 140,000, and some 70,000 of them were Italian citizens.

A previous attempt to make a census of the Roma was launched by the interior minister of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government in 2008, and declared illegal by a regional court.Dublin, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Power Discrete Packaging Comparison 2018 Complete Teardown Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.



The most recent market forecast by the publisher shows the global rise of power devices. The market for discrete devices will follow that trend, increasing in value by an estimated $1.5 billion in the next five years.



In recent years the packaging market industry has stabilized around some standard formats and footprints. But the race for optimization is far from over.



The electric and hybrid electric vehicle markets are evolving fast, as are other aspects of electrification of transportation. This, and more generally the power electronic market's growth, has induced competition between component manufacturers.



In the race to innovation and efficiency, the semiconductor die itself isn't the only key to success. In fact, when chasing after the optimum configuration for electrical, thermal and mechanical performance, manufacturers also must battle with the mechanical reliability and cost of packaging. More than a simple shell, the packaging surrounding the dies can make or break a design.



To satisfy an industry where standardization and return on experience' are key elements of success, seemingly small but smart tweaks around common packages can turn out to be highly differentiating.



Through physical analyses, including chemical opening, cross-sections, and various measurements, this report tries to summarize the state of the art of packaging power semiconductors at a discrete level. With a cost-oriented viewpoint, we reveal the hidden details that make the difference between over 20 types of packages, ranging from mW to kW designs.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Overview/Introduction

Executive Summary

Reverse Costing Methodology

Devices Analyzed



2. Introduction

Discrete Market



3. Physical Analysis

31.3mm SOT23



31.6mm TSOP6



3x3mm SON3x3 TSMT8



4.52.5mm SOT89 SOIC-8



5x6mm PowerFLAT 56 PowerFLAT 56 double island PowerFLAT 56 dual side cooling SOP advance



10x10mm D2PAK7 H2PAK PSOFA-008 TO-220



15x20mm TO-247



4. Manufacturing process flow



5. Cost Simulation



6. Comparison

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/lqjkpg/complete_power?w=12



Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:07:13|Editor: huaxia

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JUBA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The South Sudanese government on Wednesday announced creation of a high-level security committee to probe the recent attacks on aid workers and facilities in the Upper Nile region.

Michael Chiengjiek, South Sudan's Interior Minister, said President Salva Kiir authorized formation of the high-level committee to investigate the latest attack on aid workers.

"The president formed a high-level facts-finding committee that will go to the ground and investigate the details of the attack," Chiengjiek told reporters in Juba.

The minister said the meeting condemned the burning of the international organization headquarters in Maban, located in the Upper Nile region.

On Monday, youth in Maban attacked aid workers and facilities in the northwestern part of the country to protest lack of job opportunities for local communities, triggering a violent confrontation with security personnel.

The UNHCR and UN humanitarian agency in South Sudan condemned the violent attacks on Monday. International medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) announced suspension of its medical activities in the region on Tuesday.

According to UNHCR, South Sudan hosts nearly 300,000 refugees, mostly from Kordofan and Blue Nile States. Over 144,000 of those refugees live in four camps in Maban County.

UN said thousands of humanitarian agencies are providing aid to millions of people in South Sudan affected by war, hunger and disease in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

South Sudan's conflict that has now entered its fifth year erupted in 2013 after forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar engaged in combat.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital, Juba, forcing Machar to flee into exile.

Millions of South Sudan's civilians have sought refuge in neighboring countries as the conflict rages on despite attempts by international players to end it. EnditemSource: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:12:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Fruits are seen scattered on the ground after a suicide bombing in Sweida, in southern Syria, on July 25, 2018. (Xinhua Photo)

DAMASCUS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- At least 215 people were killed and 180 others injured Wednesday in a spate of attacks and bombings carried out by the Islamic State (IS) in Syrian's southern province of Sweida, according to the Health Department of Sweida.

The high death toll includes victims killed by three suicide bombings in Sweida, and those who held arms to face the IS attacks on towns in the northeastern countryside of Sweida.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 IS militants, including the suicide bombers, were killed in Wednesday's attacks.

Earlier in the day, a series of explosions, which were carried out by IS, rocked several parts of the city of Sweida.

State media outlets said the two bombers were killed while being hunted down at the time of early explosions.

The suicide bombings came in tandem with attacks by the IS militants on towns in the northeastern countryside of Sweida after dawn Wednesday.

People carried arms to confront the IS attacks in the countryside of Sweida amid reports that the army, with help of locals, succeeded in pushing back IS from some of their areas they entered.

While the countryside of Sweida has witnessed battles between rebels, including IS, and the Syrian army, the city of Sweida has remained largely calm during Syria's seven-year-long war as it is inhabited by people of the Druze minority, who are loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The IS attacks and bombings in Sweida have come to divert the attention of the Syrian army and release the pressure on the IS-held areas in the nearby western countryside of Daraa province near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian army has been relentlessly striking IS positions in the areas of Yarmouk basin in the western countryside of Daraa near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The army has also been fighting against IS in the northeastern countryside of Sweida, as part of the Battle of the South, which includes battles against the rebels and IS in the countryside of Daraa, Sweida, and Quneitra.

With the mediation and help of Russia, the army has already captured 90 percent of Daraa through battles and reconciliations as well as evacuation of rebels.

The rebels in Quneitra near the Golan Heights have also accepted to leave their areas toward rebel-held places in northern Syria.

In the eastern countryside of Sweida, some areas in the remote eastern countryside are under IS control.

After Wednesday's attack, some tribal leaders in Sweida said hundreds of young men are ready to take part in defeating IS in the areas they stormed in the countryside of Sweida.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:27:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN on Wednesday launched a program to boost sustainable urbanization in Kenya amid challenges of pollution, crime and mushrooming informal settlements.

Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), said the strategy covering 2018-2021 will be critical to the realization of urban renewal in Kenya.

The Habitat Country Programme Document (HCPD 2018-2021) has also been aligned with the UN Development Assistance Framework for Kenya (UNDAF 2018-2022).

Sharif, who is also the UN under-secretary-general, said the program will provide guidance on improved land management and sustainable planned settlements as well as improved access to quality urban basic services and infrastructure.

Sharif said UN-Habitat's knowledge and expertise in policy advice, technical assistance and collaborative actions will assist Kenya to immensely achieve its Big Four Agenda on affordable housing, manufacturing, universal healthcare and food security.

James Macharia, cabinet secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, said the UN document aims at galvanizing state and non-state actors towards sustainable human settlements and effective national urban development and planning.

He noted said the country program document is timely given the exponential population growth and the rapid rate of urbanization being experienced in Kenya.

He noted that Kenya's population was estimated to be about 47 million last year, with projections that it will reach 65 million by the year 2030.

The CS added that the country's urban population was estimated to be 34 percent in 2017 and is projected to be about 54 percent in 2030.

"This population growth and emerging urbanization trends have constrained existing services and infrastructural development, particularly in our cities and towns, causing acute shortage of decent housing, resulting in the growth of slums and informal settlements," Macharia said.

As part of plans to roll out the affordable housing scheme, Kenya has already developed a housing delivery model and a financing framework that envisages private-sector financial and resource mobilization in the delivery of housing projects, with the government providing the requisite incentives and facilitation.

In addition, the country's national treasury, the World Bank and other stakeholders intend to operationalize the Kenya Mortgage Refinancing Mortgage Company (KMRC) to provide medium and long-term liquidity to mortgage lenders.

Macharia added that the National Housing Development Fund (NHDF) will provide a housing aggregator and off-take, with an online housing demand portal to mitigate developer market risk and boost the supply of housing units in scale while lowering developer financing cost.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:42:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Wednesday offered its backing to UN special envoy for the Syria crisis, Staffan de Mistura, at the upcoming intra-Syria negotiations in Russia's Sochi, said the council president.

"Members of the Security Council have reiterated their full support for his leadership to facilitate a viable and durable solution to the Syrian conflict," Swedish ambassador to the United Nations Olof Skoog, whose country holds the council presidency for the month of July, told reporters.

The council members reaffirmed their strong commitment to the Syrian-led political process facilitated by the United Nations, said Skoog after the Security Council heard a briefing from de Mistura in closed-door consultations.

The members of the Security Council called on Syrian parties to engage "constructively, in good faith and without preconditions" with de Mistura regarding the formation of a constitutional committee, said the Swedish ambassador.

Participants to a previous Sochi meeting within the the framework of the Astana process agreed to establish an inclusive constitutional committee, which will draft a new constitution for the war-torn country.

The participants to the Sochi meeting in January 2018, including the three guarantors of the Astana process -- Russia, Turkey and Iran -- agreed to put de Mistura in charge of the formation of such a committee within the framework of the UN-led Geneva process.

"He will now take the strong commitment of the Security Council members with him to Sochi, where this will be discussed and he will take the lead proactively to get the constitutional committee going," said Skoog.

Security Council members also emphasized the need for safe, rapid and unhindered humanitarian access in Syria and full respect for international humanitarian law, he said.

At Wednesday's consultations, Sweden and several other council members mentioned the fact that the ongoing military offensive of the Syrian government does not create the best environment for a credible political process, said Skoog.

Speaking to reporters before the start of Wednesday's consultations, Skoog warned against "an inflated belief" that stability can be established in Syria through a military victory.

"The political process is going to be flawed and difficult to get started until we get a true cessation of hostilities on the ground," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:47:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIGA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A young black vulture born and bred at Riga Zoo has been sent this week to Bulgaria where it will be released into the wild as part of a reintroduction program, the zoo informed on Wednesday.

Riga Zoo, which prides itself on successfully breeding black vultures since 2014, is contributing two young birds that hatched this spring to the European Endangered Species Program for the black vulture.

Representatives of Riga Zoo said that the first nestling was flown by plane to Bulgaria on July 24, to prepare for its first independent flight over Balkan mountaintops. The other bird is scheduled to travel from Riga to Bulgaria in August.

On the same day, two other birds of this species, which has gone extinct as a nestling species in Bulgaria, were sent by Zoo Ostrava (Czech Republic).

The vulture from Latvia was named Riga after the zoo.

Upon their arrival in Bulgaria, the birds from Latvia and the Czech Republic were equipped with GPS tracking devices and taken to an adaptation aviary in the eastern Balkans. When they feel ready, the captive-born vultures would leave the aviary on their own to make the first flight and start their new life as wild birds.

The black vulture (Aegypius monachus) was added to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in 1988. The main threats to these birds of prey include shortage of appropriate nesting sites, scarcity of food sources, hunting, destruction of nests and the use of poisoned baits for predator extermination.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 02:52:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech titled "Keeping Abreast of the Trend of the Times to Achieve Common Development" at the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said here Wednesday that only by opening themselves up can different countries achieve mutual benefit, shared prosperity and sustainable development.

Therefore, BRICS countries should pursue win-win cooperation to build an open economy, Xi said while addressing a business forum at the 10th BRICS summit scheduled from July 25 to 27.

Openness and cooperation are the sure way to achieve progress in science and technology and growth of productivity, he said.

Xi called on BRICS countries to firmly promote an open world economy, be resolute in rejecting unilateralism and protectionism, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and jointly steer the global economy toward greater openness, inclusiveness, balanced growth and win-win outcomes for all.

"We should ensure that economic globalization will deliver more benefits," he said.

He also called on BRICS countries to help emerging markets and developing countries, African countries and the least developed countries in particular, fully involve themselves in international division of labor and share in the benefits of economic globalization.

The Chinese president added that a trade war should be rejected, because there will be no winner, and that economic hegemony is even more objectionable as it will undermine the collective interests of the international community.

"Those who pursue this course will only end up hurting themselves," he said.

BRICS gathers the world's major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 03:22:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday announced the appointment of Victor Kisob of Cameroon as assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).

Kisob succeeds Aisa Kirabo Kacyira of Rwanda upon assuming office. In his new role, he will assist UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN-Habitat Maimunah Mohd Sharif in the overall management and ongoing reform of the body.

Kisob brings to the position more than two decades of service in human resources management, spanning international affairs, policy, strategy, operations, knowledge management and partnerships, coupled with a comprehensive background in the field within the UN system in Somalia, Israel, Palestine, Zambia and Ethiopia.

He is currently director of the Learning, Development and Human Resources Services Division in UN Office of Human Resources Management (OHRM) in New York, a position he assumed in 2015.

Kisob holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Saint John's University in Minnesota and a master of arts in development banking from the American University in Washington.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 03:32:36|Editor: Liangyu

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Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech titled "Keeping Abreast of the Trend of the Times to Achieve Common Development" at the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on BRICS members to seize opportunities, increase input in innovation and focus on creating new areas of growth.

In the unfolding new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, new things will inevitably emerge and take the place of old ones, said the Chinese president while addressing the BRICS Business Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa.

He said BRICS countries should focus on creating new areas of growth and replace old growth drivers with new ones.

Xi urged member nations to advance structural reform, remove all institutional barriers to innovation and fully unlock innovation potential and energize the market.

"Those who fail to keep abreast of the trend of the times will fall behind and become irrelevant," said Xi, adding that every country has an equal right to development in the face of new opportunities brought by new science and technology.

"We should develop a global perspective, boost international exchanges and cooperation in innovation, and fully leverage each other's comparative strengths and resource endowment, so as to enable more countries and people to benefit from scientific and technological advances," he noted.

He also pointed out that countries should ease the impact of application of new science and technology on traditional industries and create new job opportunities in the process of fostering new industries.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 03:32:37|Editor: Li Xia

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Google announced Wednesday the release of a USB key that was developed by its own to boost online login security of its users.

The new Google security solution, which came in the form of a USB key called Titan Security Key, is an innovative context-aware access approach aimed at replacing only passwords for logging into computers, in order to prevent phishing hacking and other illegal online hacking activities.

The security key, which is currently available only to its Cloud customers, will soon be sold to the general public on the online Google Store in the coming months. It is used to authenticate logins via Bluetooth and USB when it is plugged into a computer's USB port to bypass the process of typing in users' passwords.

Google said it has long advocated the use of security keys as the strongest, most phishing-resistant authentication factor for high-value users, especially cloud administrators, to protect against the potentially damaging consequences of credential theft.

"Titan Security Key gives you even more peace of mind that your accounts are protected, with assurance from Google of the integrity of the physical key," Jennifer Lin, product management director at Google Cloud said an official blog post Wednesday.

Google said the security key was developed in conjunction with the Fast Identity Online (FIDO) alliance, an industry consortium that focuses on creating better login alternatives. The authentication standard complying with the FIDO specification is supported by a number of apps and browsers such as Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Edge or Firefox in their latest version.

Google has tested the security key internally since early 2017, and it did not publicly announce the price of the key.

Media reports said the key could be sold for 50 U.S. dollars in bundle or about 20 dollars for each stand-alone piece.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 03:32:38|Editor: Li Xia

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Representatives of South Sudan's conflicting parties sign an agreement on power-sharing and governance in Khartoum, Sudan, July 25, 2018. South Sudan's conflicting parties on Wednesday signed an agreement on power-sharing and governance in Sudan's capital Khartoum. (Xinhua/Mohamed Khidir)

KHARTOUM, July 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's conflicting parties on Wednesday signed an agreement on power-sharing and governance in Sudan's capital Khartoum.

The agreement, read out by Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, said Salva Kiir will continue to serve as President of Sudan during the transitional period, while the opposition leader Riek Machar will assume the position of First Vice President.

There will be four vice presidents from different political parties as stated in the agreement.

It also stipulated that the transitional cabinet would be composed of 35 ministers from both the government and the opposition, including 20 ministers from the government, and nine from the Machar-led Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO).

The deal further stipulated a transitional national legislative body composed of 550 members, with 332 from the government, and 128 from the SPLM-IO.

Concerning the boundaries and the number of states of South Sudan, it is agreed that an Independent Boundaries Commission will be established to address the issue.

According to the agreement, the commission will work for three months in an attempt to resolve the issue, and if it fails, a referendum will be held before the end of the third month.

Still, Ahmed said the parties disagree on the power-sharing at the level of local governments, but they are determined to solve the issue before the final signing of the document on Aug. 5.

On June 27, the South Sudanese conflicting parties signed a comprehensive cease-fire deal in Khartoum.

South Sudan has been witnessing a civil war since December 2013, which has left about 10,000 dead and millions of others displaced.CHENNAI, India, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS:

Revenue for the quarter was INR 4683 Million, an increase of 3% over the same quarter last year.





EBITDA for the quarter was INR 741 Million, an increase of 6% over the quarter last year.





Net Profit for the quarter was INR 201 Million, an increase of 16% over the same quarter last year.





CAPEX during the quarter was INR 1001 Million.





Cash balance at the end of the quarter was INR 1710 Million.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS



Sify Technologies Limited Unaudited Consolidated Income Statement as per IFRS (In INR millions) Quarter ended Quarter ended Year ended Description June June March 2018 2017 2018 (Audited) Revenue 4,683 4,555 20,686 3 % Cost of Revenues (2,845 ) (2,807 ) (13,435 ) Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (1,097 ) (1,049 ) (4,395 ) EBITDA 741 699 2,856 6 % Depreciation and Amortisation expense (387 ) (461 ) (1,755 ) Net Finance Expenses (134 ) (92 ) (367 ) Other Income (including exchange gain) 34 28 190 Other Expenses (including exchange loss) (53 ) - - Profit before tax 201 174 924 16 % Income tax expense Profit for the period 201 174 924 16 % Profit attributable to: Reconciliation with Non-GAAP measure Profit for the period 201 174 924 16 % Add: Depreciation and Amortisation expense 387 461 1,755 Net Finance Expenses 134 92 367 Other Expenses (including exchange loss) 53 - - Income tax expense - - - Less: Other Income (including exchange gain) (34 ) (28 ) (190 ) EBITDA 741 699 2,856 6 % Quarter ended June 30, 2018 Rs Mln Capex 1,001 Cash Balance 1,710

MANAGEMENT COMMENTARY



Mr. Raju Vegesna, Chairman, said, We are at the point where Domestic enterprises are utilizing multiple services from our portfolio to navigate the Indian IT landscape. Global MNCs are also viewing us as a reliable partner to commission their India projects. The profile of our client engagements is also shifting to broader implementation across multiple services, translating into more strategic relationships.

Mr. Kamal Nath, CEO, said, "Our sustained focus on our Cloud@Core service lines, along with the investments being made around this model, is adding a distinct character to our revenue, profitability and new order book. Clients are seeing the merits in our vertical-based business strategy and the flexibility to opt for either a subscription or a build model. Our positioning as a digital transformation partner, our comprehensive set of services and demonstrated speed-to-market are key differentiators that will propel our growth.

Mr. M P Vijay Kumar, CFO, said, Our business is supported by our continuing investment in infrastructure, tools and people to augment our growing portfolio of services. While we continue to exert greater fiscal discipline, our mix of DC and Network value added services should help broaden our revenue streams.

Our cash balance at the end of the quarter stands at INR 1710 Million

Revenue from Telecom centric services grew by 18% over the same quarter last year.

Segment-wise, revenue from Data and Managed Services grew 27% while revenue from the Wholesale Voice business grew by 2% over the same quarter last year.

The Telecom Centric Services added 117 new customers in the quarter.





Revenue from Data Center centric IT Services fell by 14% during the same quarter last year.

Segment-wise, revenue from Data Center Services and Cloud and Managed Services grew by 28% while the revenue from Technology Integration services and Applications Integration Services fell by 41% due to customer specific projects under implementation.

Data Center centric IT Services added 87 new customers in the quarter.

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

GROWTH DRIVERS

Digital transformation in India market continues to accelerate because of Government programs as well as Private initiatives aimed towards citizens and consumer experience. In line with this trend, our investments and initiatives are focused on creating infrastructures and services which has Cloud @core as the central theme. These investments and initiatives cut across Data Center, Cloud, Network and Applications.

Sify expanded capacity at its Data Center at Mumbai to cater to increased demand from the BFSI, eCommerce and Government clients.

Sify launched Hosting and Managed Services on Azure Stack services, a Hyper Converged Cloud Platform from its Data Centers. The platform also provides direct connectivity to Azure Cloud through Express Route to enable a hybrid cloud environment.

Sify launched Oracles Exadata as a Service, hosted from its private cloud, incorporating the benefits of Cloud with Managed Services.

Sify established a strategic partnership with Nutanix to enable customers to migrate from legacy platforms to hyper converged infrastructures.

Sify augmented the CDN portfolio by expanding its support for the AWS CloudFront service, to support small and medium segment customers.

Sifys upgrade to 400G ready fiber networks will cater to demand from multiple industry verticals for their data-rich telecom requirements. The SD-WAN and network security services portfolio will complement this upgrade.

KEY WINS

An International telecom player, an upcoming payment bank, a large mobile wallet player, the insurance division of a large Public sector bank, and a domestic appliance major are some of the key customers to have subscribed for capacity at Sifys Data Centers.

A Healthcare major has outsourced their complete DC and DR operations to Sify, to be run on hybrid cloud environment.

A State Government which is aggressively implementing Digital India and Smart Cities concepts empanelled Sify for Microsoft Azure-based Services to support their Government Community Cloud.

Sify also signed a multi-year contract to build and operate a concurrently-maintainable Data Center for a State Government, on Nutanixs hyper-converged infrastructure platform.

One of the State Governments also contracted Sify as their system integrator for a complete revamp and physical expansion of their Data Center under the National eGovernance Plan. This contract involves design and implementation of the Data Center and Private Cloud.

In one of the largest multi-year hyper converged infrastructure deals, the Capital Markets division of one of the countrys largest Public-sector banks contracted for multiple services implemented at two major DC locations.

A large Public-sector Insurance company contracted to revamp and implement security services in line with the regulatory authoritys new guidelines.

A market leader in packaged foods in India and a Public-sector bank have signed network outsourcing contracts, including network management, security, enterprise-mobility and connectivity.

A pharmaceutical major has contracted for a complete network transformation that will include the deployment of a secure managed service to support their hybrid IT strategy.

A global CDN player has also signed up to deploy nodes across India to cater to the tremendous growth of data traffic out of the country.

AWARDS/RECOGNITIONS

Sify has been elevated to the position of Platinum partner by Dell and Premier partner by VMware for Virtualisation and Orchestration.

Sify has been also been recognised as an Emerging partner for rendering services by Nutanix in India.

CORPORATE COMMENTARY

As informed earlier, Dr. Siripurapu Kesava Rao, Director has resigned from the Board due to ill-health. The Board has commenced the search for his successor.

About Sify Technologies

Sify is the largest ICT service provider, systems integrator, and all-in-one network solutions company on the Indian subcontinent. Weve also expanded to the United States, with headquarters in the heart of Californias Silicon Valley.

Over 8500 businesses have become Sify customers. We also partner with other major network operators to deliver global network solutions. Our customers can access Sify services via Indias largest MPLS network. Among the very few Enterprise class player in India, Sify, today has presence in more than 1550 cities in India and in North America, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Sify, www.sify.com, Sify Technologies and www.sifytechnologies.com are registered trademarks of Sify Technologies Limited

Forward Looking Statements

This press 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. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

For a discussion of the risks associated with Sifys business, please see the discussion under the caption Risk Factors in the companys Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended March 31, 2018, which has been filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov , and Sifys other reports filed with the SEC.

For further information, please contact:Lorries, part of a Russian humanitarian convoy, approach to the Ukrainian border at the Donetsk-Izvarino border checkpoint on September 19, 2014. (AFP PHOTO)

MOSCOW, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia will deliver fresh humanitarian aid to eastern Ukraine on July 26, the Emergencies Ministry said on Wednesday.

"The delivery of the humanitarian aid to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from the Don Rescue Center is planned for tomorrow," the ministry said in a statement.

The federal state institution Don Rescue Center under the ministry is located in Russia's Rostov region.

The 79th batch of humanitarian cargo includes medicines and medical equipment. It was jointly collected by the ministry, federal executive bodies, executive authorities of constituent entities and public organizations.

Russia has sent over 74,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Donetsk and Lugansk, collectively called Donbas, since August 2014. Conflict broke out there in April 2014 after the Ukrainian government launched its "anti-terror" operation against armed groups, which seized cities and towns in the eastern Donbas region and declared independence.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 03:47:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SANAA, July 25 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths arrived in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday for talks with Houthi rebels over peace process with the government.

Griffiths made no statement upon his arrival at the Sanaa Airport and headed to his residence.

The Yemeni government has demanded for a full withdrawal of the rebels from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah as a condition to stop its offensive and resume peace talks, Yemeni Foreign Minister Khaled al-Yamani was quoted as saying by pro-government local almasdaronline news website on Tuesday.

The minister said the government forces are ready to advance into the port city if the mediation fails.

Meanwhile, the Houthis said they have proposed handing over the management of the port to the United Nations, but would defend the city in case of any military attack, according to a statement aired by the group-run Al Masirah TV on Wednesday.

On June 13, the Yemeni government forces, backed by the Saudi-led Arab coalition, began an all-out offensive to retake the strategic port city.

Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates, which also led the coalition operations, declared a pause in the military operations inside the densely populated Hodeidah to support the UN envoy's peace efforts, which is aimed at convincing the rebels to withdraw from the city to avoid military confrontations and further casualties.

The UN official said Hodeidah seaport is operational, but roads leading to Hodeidah airportv and seaport, as well as the Houthi-controlled main road linking Hodeidah with Sanaa, remain blocked by sand and concrete barriers.

On July 10, Griffiths met with Yemen's internationally-recognized President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in his office in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden to push for resumption of the stalled peace process.

Griffiths' visit came a week after his meeting with Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in Sanaa, which he described as "fruitful."

Humanitarian agencies have warned that any military attack on the port could lead to the world's biggest humanitarian catastrophe in modern history.

Hodeidah is the single most important point of entry for food and basic supplies to Yemen's northern provinces controlled by Houthis, including Sanaa.

The rebels stormed into Sanaa, Hodeidah and other northern cities in late 2014, forcing Hadi and his government into exile in Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia.

They said their move was a revolution against alleged government corruption.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen's conflict in March 2015 to roll back the Iran-allied Houthis and reinstate exiled government of Hadi.Fruits are seen scattered on the ground after a suicide bombing in Sweida, in southern Syria, on July 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

MOSCOW, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Russia's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned the series of bombings and attacks in Syria earlier during the day that left at least 150 people dead and dozens of others wounded.

The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks in the southern province of Sweida.

"We strongly condemn these atrocities," the ministry said, calling for joint efforts from the international community to combat terrorism.

It said terrorist groups such as IS and Al-Nusra Front, fearing "imminent defeat" in light of the Syrian Army's progress, were resorting to large-scale violence against civilians.

"The latest criminal attack by the IS terrorists has reaffirmed the misanthropic essence of the ideology and practice of terrorism and the importance of coordinating energetic international efforts to stamp out this global evil in Syria," the ministry said.

In May, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his administration has nearly won the seven-year war in Syria with the army making major progress in the fight against the rebels.

Russia has participated in anti-terrorist operations in Syria since September 2015 at the request of the Syrian government.A house is seen burning amid wildfire in the town of Kineta near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed deep condolences to the relatives of the victims and the Greek government after wildfires killed over 80 people in the country.

Speaking through his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, Guterres also commended the national response by the Greek authorities.

In addition, Dujarric said the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is concerned with the raging wildfires in Greece.

"The United Nations stands ready to support the government and international efforts in responding to this disaster," he added.

A man looks at burned vehicles in Mati, a seaside town east of Athens, Greece, on July 24, 2018. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)

On Monday afternoon, wildfires started in Mount Penteli on the Attica Peninsula of Greece, scorching seaside resorts and sending thousands fleeing.

By Wednesday, at least 80 people have lost their lives and 187 others are injured in the deadliest wildfire tragedy in over a decade.

Local mayors fear the number may exceed 100 soon as emergency crew continued to search thousands of scorched homes and cars.

Greece has been in national mourning since Tuesday.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 04:27:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China's drug regulator launched a thorough investigation into all vaccine producers across the country on Wednesday.

From July 25, teams will be dispatched to thoroughly investigate the whole process and entire chain of vaccine production of all vaccine producers, the State Drug Administration (SDA) announced Wednesday.

The investigation is conducted after an earlier examination of 45 vaccine producers that began at the beginning of the year, and follows an illegal vaccine production case revealed recently.

Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Limited, a Chinese vaccine maker, was subject to an unannounced inspection by the SDA and Jilin provincial food and drug bureau on July 6 and July 8 following a tip-off.

On July 15, the SDA announced that the company had illegally produced freeze-dried human rabies vaccines after a comprehensive investigation the same day.

The inspection found that the company had fabricated production and inspection records, and arbitrarily changed process parameters and equipment during its production of freeze-dried human rabies vaccines.

The SDA had revoked the company's drug GMP certificate following its serious violations of relevant law and regulations, and demanded a recall of unused vaccines.

The SDA said that none of the batches of human rabies vaccines examined during the recent unannounced inspection have left the factory and are not sold on the market.

"All the inspected vaccines are under control," the agency said.

In October 2017, two batches of DPT vaccine produced by the Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Limited and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd were found to be defective. All the DPT vaccines involved have been sealed up and recalled by the two companies.

The DPT vaccine production of the Changchun-based company has been suspended since then. The Wuhan-based company has resumed production after correcting the problems.

DPT refers to a combination of vaccines against three infectious diseases: diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus.

In March 2018, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDCP) issued a plan for replanting DPT vaccines for those children who had used unqualified DPT vaccines.

By implementing a national immunization program, China has effectively taken control of the targeted infectious diseases, the CCDCP said Wednesday.

According to the CCDCP, China has stopped the spread of indigenous poliomyelitis since 1995 through vaccination. The annual infections of measles in China used to stand at as high as 9 million in the middle of the 20th century, but the number had been reduced to less than 6,000 in 2017. In the 1960s, up to 3 million people were affected with epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis in a single year, and the number dropped to less than 200 in 2017.

"The national immunization program has effectively protected the health and life of the children," the CCDCP said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-26 05:13:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The chief of a Lebanese non-governmental organization (NGO) said on Wednesday that the Lebanese-Chinese cooperation must be boosted on all levels.

"The Lebanese-Chinese relations are very important and are witnessing positive growth on economic, cultural, artistic, educational and social levels," Warek Kumayha, head of the Lebanese-Chinese Dialogue Road association, was quoted as saying by the National News Agency.

His remarks came during his meeting with a delegation from the Chinese Embassy in Lebanon.

The meeting discussed ways to enhance Chinese-Lebanese ties under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

The initiative, proposed by China in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which aim at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of the Silk Road.

Meanwhile, Raed Khoury, Lebanon's caretaker Minister of Economy and Trade, told Xinhua that China's government and private sectors are highly interested in investing in the country.

"We have been told by the Chinese that they are very much interested in investing in Lebanon, especially in infrastructure, roads, telecommunications and power plants," he said.

Lebanon signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese government during the China-Arab States Expo held last September in China's northwestern city of Yinchuan.

The MoU aims at promoting economic cooperation between the two countries under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.Security officials inspect the blast site in southwest Pakistan's Quetta, on July 25, 2018. (Xinhua/Stringer)

UNITED NATIONS, July 25 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned Wednesday's suicide attack outside a polling station in Pakistan's Quetta that killed 31 people, said his spokesman.

Guterres extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Pakistan, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement.

The United Nations stands in solidarity with and supports the efforts of the government of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, said the statement.

The election day attack outside a polling station in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province in the southwest, killed at least 31 people and injured about 40 others.

In mid-July, a suicide bombing killed 149 people at an election rally in the town of Mastung in the same province. Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State.A worker removes the remains of the Star of US President Donald J. Trump on the Hollywood Walk of Fame after it was destroyed by a vandal in the early morning hours on July 25, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Xinhua/AFP PHOTO)

LOS ANGELES, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The damaged Hollywood Walk of Fame star of U.S President Donald Trump will be repaired immediately after it was vandalized again early Wednesday, said the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce which administers the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark," read a statement of the institution in wake of the incident.

The chamber urged people to make a difference by voting instead of destroying public property.

"The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees," said Leron Gubler, president and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Gubler said the chamber is working with the police in regards to the felony and intends to prosecute to the full extent of the law.

The Hollywood Historic Trust will repair the star immediately but requires several days of seasoning before it is polished. During that time, the star will be covered.

The suspect took out a pickax from a guitar case about 3 a.m. local time and began swinging it at the star on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles County, leaving chunks of concrete across the sidewalk, a local news outlet, the KFSN-TV, reported.

The suspect turned himself in to the Beverly Hills police about one hour later.

LAPD told the Hollywood Reporter that the suspect is 24-year-old Austin Mikel Clay. He was booked on felony vandalism and jailed on a 20,000-U.S.-dollar bond.

Damaging any Walk of Fame star will result in arrest and prosecution, said officials.

Trump's star has been vandalized several times since the beginning of his presidential run. This is the second time the star was totally destroyed.

In October 2016, Los Angeles man James Otis, dressing as a construction worker, took a pickax to the star and destroyed it. Otis struck a plea deal with prosecutors in February 2017 that saw him avoid jail time in exchange for paying 4,400 U.S. dollars to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Hollywood Historic Trust.

Trump was honored with the star in 2007 for his work producing the Miss Universe pageant and for his hit NBC reality television show The Apprentice.SAN JOSE, Calif., July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Crowdstaffing, a high-tech, high-touch hiring marketplace, announced staffing industry veteran Scott Giroux has joined the company as Vice President of Operations. With Mr. Giroux taking the reins of operations, the company is expanding its leadership team and enhancing its delivery model, which has disrupted the traditional staffing industry through a crowd-based, networked approach to talent acquisition. A long-time innovator with extensive leadership experience, Scott most recently served on the Volt Workforce Solutions executive team leading North American staffing operations. At Crowdstaffing, Scott will lead the companys global operations and account management team and also drive growth of the Talent Supplier side of Crowdstaffings hiring marketplace. To learn more about our global team or to join us visit www.crowdstaffing.com.



The hiring industry stands at a pivotal point. The emergence of the gig economy and the rapid evolution of digital marketplaces are creating new challenges and new opportunities for hiring organizations, recruiters, and candidates alike. Today in the United States, 33% of jobs remain unfilled for three months or more. To fill these roles, the average enterprise uses 30 different staffing agencies, ten different technology solutions, and reviews 250 resumes per open role. Yet 63% of corporate recruiters say qualified talent shortage is their biggest challenge.



Crowdstaffing is leading the industry with an innovative approach to not only evolve as the market does but bring together a high-quality talent ecosystem that combines the best of technology with what recruiters do best - find qualified talent, noted Giroux. I am thrilled to join the team and look forward to expanding the company's network of high-quality talent suppliers.



Giroux comes to Crowdstaffing after an esteemed career with Volt Workforce Solutions. There he continuously embraced new responsibilities and gained extensive leadership experience managing major vendor relationships, contract negotiations, national account implementations, while driving sales and recruitment efforts for the company.

With 20 years in the staffing industry, Scott has seen firsthand the evolution of our market. The old ways of matching candidates and employers are no longer relevant as technology plays a disruptive yet critical role to improving the hiring process, said Sunil Bagai, CEO of Crowdstaffing. Scotts experience and reputation cant be matched, and his enthusiasm for helping talent suppliers be successful will drive amazing hiring outcomes for our clients today and long into the future.

Girouxs appointment is the latest in a series of strategic hires by Crowdstaffing to realize its vision of a comprehensive hiring marketplace and technology platform. By bringing hiring organizations, talent suppliers, and candidates together into one connected talent ecosystem, Crowdstaffing is helping its customers make more precise connections, gain richer insights, and make hires faster. For more on how Crowdstaffing is helping the biggest brands find talent visit www.crowdstaffing.com.



About Crowdstaffing

Crowdstaffing is the first modern hiring marketplace that combines the benefits of machine, network and human intelligence to deliver outstanding hiring outcomes. The marketplace brings together hiring organizations such as Walmart, SpaceX, Illumina, Whirlpool, Philips, Rockwell Automation, Gap, Ebay Uber, and Experian together with talent suppliers and candidates in one talent ecosystem, enabling precise connections, richer insights, and faster hiring. This unique hiring model leverages crowdsourcing, connected talent pools, artificial intelligence, personal curation, and end-to-end hiring technology in a single fully-integrated solution. Crowdstaffing is a profitable, privately held, and certified diversity corporation headquartered in San Jose, CA. To join the crowd or learn more, visit crowdstaffing.com. Join us on our journey. Lets prosper together.

Contact:

Sarah Murray

Phone Number: 7813782674

Email: sarah@attunecommunications.com



NEW DELHI: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP)  BJP's estranged former NDA ally  is reportedly planning to bring a privilege motion against the Narendra Modi government for making misleading claims over Andhra Pradesh.

New agency ANI quoted sources as claiming that the N Chandrababu Naidu-led party is mulling to bring a privilege motion against the Centre for making false claims that it has fulfilled 90% of the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has reportedly directed his party MPs to consider moving a privilege motion against the Prime Minister and Union Ministers over the issue.

Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu asks his MPs to consider moving a privilege motion against the Prime Minister and Union Ministers. Naidu said Centre claiming it has fulfilled 90% of the promises made in AP Reorganisation Act: is misleading: Sources (file pic) pic.twitter.com/q15itNdXVm  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

It is to be noted that the TDP had recently tabled a no-confidence motion against the Modi government, which was supported by several opposition parties, including Congress in the Lok Sabha for not delivering on its promise made to the people of Andhra Pradesh and a host of other issues.

The motion was defeated in the Lok Sabha as 325 MPs voted against it while 126 supported it.

Amidst loud protesting voices, TDP on July 20 made use of time allotted to it in the no-confidence motion moved by the party to accuse the BJP government of having discriminated against Andhra Pradesh on the issue of providing special category status.

Representing the party, Jayadev Galla began by accusing the Centre of having ignored Andhra Pradesh and of having gone back on promises made to the state.

"I move the debate that the opposition doesn't have confidence in the council of ministers. The current government is a government of empty promises. BJP has declared war on TDP and it is a war of discrimination and a war between majority and morality because of which, Andhra Pradesh is suffering," he said.

"The gap between Andhra Pradesh and other south India states is clearly visible. The state's growth is the highest among all south India states but per capita income is among the lowest," Galla said.

Highlighting that it is Andhra Pradesh, which is the new state and not Telangana, Galla said that TDP is facing difficulties in building institutions and industry. "I am neither tinkering, twisting or tweaking facts. The division between Telangana and Andhra was done in a crude manner," the TDP MP said.

Gulla then went on to accuse PM Modi himself of having gone back on promises made. "PM Modi has campaigned in Andhra and said that concerns would be addressed. What happened to the assurances, the promises? More money is being given to build statues than for the capital city of Andhra" he said.

The TDP lawmaker said that his party is committed to the people in the state of Andhra and that special category is a crucial need of the hour.

However, later replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha, PM Modi rejected the charges made by the TDP and reassured that the Centre will do everything to meet the aspirations of the people in Andhra Pradesh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the people of Andhra Pradesh that they will not be left behind and the Government will ensure their welfare and development.

PM Modi said that his government stands with the people of Andhra Pradesh and their aspirations.

I want to assure the people of Andhra Pradesh that they will not be left behind, and the Government will ensure their welfare and development, Modi said.

I assure my sisters and brothers of Andhra Pradesh that the NDA Government will always work for their welfare and the state's growth. pic.twitter.com/4DOtN3YkWD  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 21, 2018

The Andhra Pradesh's ruling party had pulled out of the Modi Government and the NDA earlier this year after the latter denied its demand of special category status to the State.Mumbai: Bhojpuri diva Rani Chatterjee was probably in a funny mood this afternoon. The actress took to her Instagram page to share a photograph with a hilarious caption.

Check out the pic embedded below with the caption - "Ek main cute aur tum cute baki sab churail aur bhoot #lolz #lovebird #cuto (sic)."

Going by Rani's Instagram stories, it looks as if she is in love.

Check out the screenshots of her Insta stories:

Chatterjee was unwell a few days back and was on a break. She suffered a painful skin allergy. She was shooting for Zero Banal Hero when she fell sick. The team of the film gave her the much-needed break to recover.

Rani is one of the most outspoken actresses in the Bhojpuri film industry. She shares her opinion without inhibitions.

A few days back, Rani was visibly miffed with the detractors of the Bhojpuri film industry. She hit out at those who give free advice. She believes that the Bhojpuri industry doesn't need any undue suggestions from people who foster negativity within them.

She also extended support to Dinesh Lal Yadav aka Nirahua after he slammed a journalist for allegedly slinging mud at him and his film Border.

Chatterjee is one of the most popular Bhojpuri film actresses.

She made her debut in 2004 with Manoj Tiwari starrer Sasura Bada Paisawala and has worked in a number of super-hit films since then.CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday set aside the lower court's order discharging former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran in BSNL illegal telephone exchange case.

According to ANI, the Madras High Court also ordered framing of charges against the Maran brothers within 12 weeks.

Maran brothers were discharged earlier this year in March after the prosecution failed to prove the case.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had accused Maran brothers of causing a loss of Rs 1.76 crore to the national exchequer.

In November 2017, the CBI had made a strong case before the special court to dismiss the discharge applications moved by the duo and also filed an additional affidavit.

The CBI had maintained that all charges framed against them were supported by material and documentary evidence.

According to the CBI, Dayanidhi Maran, during the check period of June 2004 to December 2006, when he was Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, allegedly misused his office and installed a private telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai and utilised the facility for business transactions involving privately-owned Sun Network.

The agency said that he had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer.

More than 700 telecom lines were installed at their residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram in Chennai, the agency stated.

Former BSNL general manager K Brahmnathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy and Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman were among the other accused.

Nearly four years after receiving complaints regarding the scam, the probe commenced in 2011 and an FIR was filed in October 2013.

After a detailed probe, the CBI filed the charge sheet on December 9, 2016.New Delhi: The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aimed at preventing culprits from evading the legal process and fleeing the country was on Wednesday passed by the Rajya Sabha.

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

Here are the highlights of the Bill and Ordinance

The Bill allows for a person to be declared as a fugitive economic offender (FEO) if: (i) an arrest warrant has been issued against him for any specified offences where the value involved is over Rs 100 crore, and (ii) he has left the country and refuses to return to face prosecution.

To declare a person an FEO, an application will be filed in a Special Court (designated under the Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002) containing details of the properties to be confiscated, and any information about the persons whereabouts. The Special Court will require the person to appear at a specified place at least six weeks from issue of notice. Proceedings will be terminated if the person appears.

The Bill allows authorities to provisionally attach properties of an accused, while the application is pending before the Special Court.

Upon declaration as an FEO, properties of a person may be confiscated and vested in the central government, free of encumbrances (rights and claims in the property). Further, the FEO or any company associated with him may be barred from filing or defending civil claims.

Key Issues and Analysis

Under the Bill, any court or tribunal may bar an FEO or an associated company from filing or defending civil claims before it. Barring these persons from filing or defending civil claims may violate Article 21 of the Constitution i.e. the right to life. Article 21 has been interpreted to include the right to access justice.

Under the Bill, an FEOs property may be confiscated and vested in the central government. The Bill allows the Special Court to exempt properties where certain persons may have an interest in such property (e.g., secured creditors). However, it does not specify whether the central government will share sale proceeds with any other claimants who do not have such an interest (e.g., unsecured creditors).

The Bill does not require the authorities to obtain a search warrant or ensure the presence of witnesses before a search. This differs from other laws, such as the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, which contain such safeguards. These safeguards protect against harassment and planting of evidence.

The Bill provides for confiscation of property upon a person being declared an FEO. This differs from other laws, such as CrPC, 1973, where confiscation is final two years after proclamation as absconder.

(Highlights and Analysis text courtesy: prsindia.org)New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aimed at preventing culprits from evading the legal process and fleeing the country. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

(Also Read--Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill: Key highlights)

The new law is different from the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, which also provides for confiscation of assets of economic offenders. The Bill was been proposed to address the lacunae in the present laws and lay down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

The law, though it was announced in the Budget for 2017-18, has been hastened after Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi allegedly defrauded state-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) of Rs 12,700 crore and left the country and are refusing to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.MEHSANA: Patidar leader Hardik Patel has been sent to jail for two years in connection with a case of vandalism at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Rushikesh Patel's office in Visnagar during 2015 Patidar protests. Hardik, the convener of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), was found guilty by the Visnagar Court in Gujarat on Wednesday. A fine of Rs 50,000 has also been imposed on the Patidar agitation leader.

Along with Hardik, Sardar Parel Group (SPG) convener Lalji Patel and another Patidar leader Ambalal Patel have also been found guilty and have been sentenced to two years in jail each with a fine of Rs 50,000. The other 14 accused were let off by the court for want of enough evidence against them.

Hardik Patel is one of the accused in the FIR which was filed at Visnagar in Mehsana district on July 23, 2015, when a rally of the Patel community seeking reservation turned violent, resulting in damage to property and assault on some media persons. During the violent agitation, the mob had torched a car and vandalised the office of local BJP MLA Rishikesh Patel.

Hardik's Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti has been protesting seeking reservation for the Patel community under Other Backward Classes in Gujarat for reservation in government jobs and education. He was also booked with sedition charges in October 2015 over his provocative remarks where he had asked his supporters to kill policemen rather than commit suicide for the cause of reservation. he was arrested and imprisoned in Surat after he led a huge revolt of the Patidar community against the ruling BJP government in the state. His arrest was followed by large-scale arson and violence by his supporters in some towns in the state.WASHINGTON: US border patrol agents have arrested two Indian nationals on charges of illegally staying in the country, the law enforcement agency said on Wednesday.

The two persons, arrested over the weekend, are now being processed for removal, the agency said in a media release.

The US Border Patrol said they encountered the Indian nationals during a routine immigration check operations of all passengers at a bus terminal in Spokane, Washington.

Agents spoke with one individual who presented an expired B-2 tourist visa issued more than a year ago. They took the man into custody due to his expired visa, the release stated.

The B-2 visa is issued for short visits to the US for vacation or medical treatment. Agents determined the other individual illegally crossed into the US from Mexico in May 2011. Investigation revealed he was also in possession of a fraudulent social security card.

Both individuals were processed for removal and transported to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma to await their immigration hearing.

"The use of fake documents, while commonly used, is often difficult to detect due to the limited amount of interaction that our agents have with the public while conducting enforcement operations at the transportation facility," patrol agent-in-charge Zach Crosson said.NEW DELHI: Days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi surprised the whole nation by giving a warm hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a heated debate in Lok Sabha over the no-confidence motion against the NDA government, his party has come up with a 'free hug' campaign to 'remove hate and spread love'.

According to ANI, the Congress workers organised a 'free hug' campaign at the Connaught Place on Tuesday during which they hugged people on the street and spread the message of love.

The Congress workers held placards carrying slogan 'remove hatred, save the country'.

Delhi: Congress workers organised a 'free hug' campaign at Connaught Place, yesterday. pic.twitter.com/wCLMAdKYLv  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

The party said that the 'free hug' campaign replicates the gesture of party chief Rahul Gandhi when he hugged PM Narendra Modi in Parliament during the debate over no-confidence in the Lok Sabha on July 20.

The Gandhi scion had virtually surprised everyone by giving an unexpected hug to the Prime Minister, seconds after completing his speech in the Lok Sabha during which he made a blistering attack on the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre over a host of issues.

Rahul, however, subjected himself to a barrage of attacks from the Treasury benches as he returned to his chair and winked while looking at a Congress colleague in the Lok Sabha.

While Rahul Gandhi's gesture was appreciated by many including his party leaders, others including BJP chided him for the drama and 'hugplomacy'.

While the Mumbai unit of the party put up posters of Rahul Gandhi giving a hug to PM Modi, the ruling party ridiculed him for the camaraderie. The saffron party even threatened to bring a privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi for making false allegations against PM Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in connection with the Rafale fighter jet deal.

BJP's estranged ally Shiv Sena too praised Rahul Gandhi for stealing the show during the debate on the no-confidence motion against Modi government which was later defeated in the lower house.

A day later, mocking Rahul Gandhi, the PM said that the Congress chief can see nothing but Prime Minister's chair. Replying to this, Gandhi tweeted that he would tackle PM's hatred with love and compassion.Company Expects to Report Sales of $12.3 Million, up 203% from the same quarter in 2017



Will Host Earnings Call on Wednesday, August 1, 2018

LAS VEGAS, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CV Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:CVSI) (the Company, CV Sciences, our or we), preeminent supplier and manufacturer of hemp-based phytocannabinoids including cannabidiol (CBD) oil and developer of specialty pharmaceutical therapeutics, today announced unaudited second quarter 2018 revenue and selected business highlights for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Revenue and Business Highlights for Second Quarter 2018

Second quarter 2018 revenue is expected to be $12.3 million, up 203% compared to the second quarter of 2017, and a 53% sequential increase over Q1 2018.



Company increased retail store count to 1,968 natural and organic health food stores as of June 30, 2018, representing an 11.1% sequential increase over the Companys retail store count for the first quarter of 2018.

Q2 2018 was a pivotal quarter for the Company, as it validates our continued momentum in driving growth and sales, stated Joseph Dowling, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CV Sciences. In Q1 of 2018, we reported our first quarter of profitability, and with these Q2 results we have demonstrated the strength of our products and the power of our brand recognition within the industry. Our PlusCBD product line is now positioned for mainstream acceptance and expanded distribution as the health and wellness markets continue to embrace CBD commercialization and standardization.

As a reminder, CV Sciences will be hosting its Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Call on Wednesday, August 1, at 1:15pm PT/4:15pm ET. CEO Joseph Dowling will lead the call to provide an operational and financial summary of the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Event: CV Sciences Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Call

Date: Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Time: 1:15pm PT/4:15pm ET

Telephone access (U.S. and Canada): 877-407-8293

Telephone access (International): 201-689-8349

Live webcast: www.cvsciences.com under the Investors section

On Saturday, August 4, 2018, the Company will host its Annual General Meeting and Investor Day at its corporate headquarters in San Diego, California. The Investor Day will feature a corporate presentation from the Company's senior management team who will review the Companys business strategy and highlights of its recent earnings quarter, followed by a tour of its new facility. Institutional investors, financial analysts, and media interested in attending may contact Investor Relations at ir@cvsciences.com.

About CV Sciences, Inc.

CV Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:CVSI) operates two distinct business segments: a drug development division focused on developing and commercializing novel therapeutics utilizing synthetic CBD; and, a consumer product division focused on manufacturing, marketing and selling plant-based CBD products to a range of market sectors. CV Sciences, Inc. has primary offices and facilities in San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Additional information is available from OTCMarkets.com or by visiting www.cvsciences.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties.A Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable has saved the life of a woman by preventing her from getting under a train at Kanujmarg railway station in Mumbai. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera and the video was shared on microblogging site Twitter by Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.

Lauding the heroic attempt by the RPF constable, the Union Minister said that the Railway family was working non stop to ensure safety and convenience of our passengers.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader tweeted, Heroic attempt by RPF constable Raj Kamal Yadav who saved the life of a woman by pulling her from getting under the train at Kanujmarg Station near Mumbai. I am very proud of our Railway family which is working non stop to ensure the safety and convenience of our passengers.

Heroic attempt by RPF constable Raj Kamal Yadav who saved the life of a woman by pulling her from getting under the train at Kanujmarg Station near Mumbai. I am very proud of our Railway family which is working non stop to ensure the safety and convenience of our passengers. pic.twitter.com/BBY0FrVW5p  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) July 25, 2018

Just a few days ago, an alert constable of the Railway Protection Force had saved a woman from being crushed between the platform and a train at the Egmore railway station in Chennai. The incident took place when the woman who was trying to board a moving train slipped and fell into the gap between the train and the platform. Constable RK Meena who was at the platform rushed to her to save her. he along with others on the platform managed to pull the woman back quickly. The woman suffered minor injuries in the accident.

In another such incident from Mumbai, an RPF constable had in February this year saved a seven-year-old boy from falling into the gap between the platform and the track at Naigaon railway station. The incident took place on platform number 2 of the station at around 9 pm. The boy was boarding a Churchgate-bound train along with his mother when the mishap happened. While boarding the train, the mother managed to get into the train's compartment, but the child was left hanging outside the gate. Constable Sunil Napa who was on duty at the platform rushed to the boy and pulled him away safely to the platform.NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi-led Congress party has now called for constituting a Parliamentary Joint Committee for examining and stating facts of the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France.

Speaking to ANI, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, ''A Parliament Joint Committee should be made, as it was done in Bofors case, to state facts of the Rafale jet deal. If it is cheaper, then PM should have stated it during no-confidence motion.''

A Parliament Joint Committee should be made, as it was done in Bofors case, to state facts of Rafale Deal. If it is cheaper, then PM should have stated it during #NoConfidenceMotion. Now statements by BJP are just afterthoughts to mask corruption: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress pic.twitter.com/kiCAJpWrgF  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

Kharge today charged the ruling BJP of making misleading statements on the deal.

''Now, statements being made by BJP are just afterthoughts to mask corruption,'' Kharge said.

Kharge also lashed out at PM Narendra Modi's tour of East Africa.

''The PM is out on a five-day tour when the Parliament session is on. The meeting could have been avoided. It was not an inevitable meeting. But, since he has the absolute majority, he chooses to go on foreign tours and skips Parliament sessions, '' Kharge said.

Congress party has earlier hinted that it will be moving a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha over the Rafale deal even after France admitted that the information about the deal is protected under secrecy agreements.

Hitting out at the Centre, senior Congress leader AK Antony said that the price of the aircraft should be revealed.

"The government's claim of secrecy clause in Rafale deal is totally wrong. They have to reveal price details of each aircraft. The government cannot hide price details of Rafale deal as it has to be scrutinised by the CAG and the Public Accounts Committee," Antony said.

He added that the scope of the pact extends to tactical, technical details of the weaponry.

"Indo-French pact of 2008 doesn't mention that commercial cost of procurement relating to defence deal can't be revealed. It is clear that the PM and Defence Minister have misled the nation on the issue," he said.

Congress leader Anand Sharma too said that the government owes an explanation to Parliament on why the PM and the Defence Minister 'misled' the nation on price issue in Rafale deal.

"The French government had no objection in revealing the price of Rafale aircraft, this was conveyed by French President to Rahul Gandhi," Sharma said.

While speaking in the Lok Sabha during the debate on the no-confidence motion against the government on July 20, Rahul had alleged that Defence Minister Sitharaman had lied to the nation by claiming that India was bound by a secrecy clause in the Rafale fighter jet deal signed with France.

Rahul Gandhi had claimed that French President Emmanuel Macron had clearly conveyed to him that there was no problem in sharing details relating to the Rafale deal worth Rs 58,000 crore.

Alleging corruption in the deal, the Congress has been demanding details, including the cost of equipment and weapons, but the government has refused to share them citing the secrecy clause.

However, France refuted Rahul's remarks and said that the information is protected under secrecy agreements.Congress president Rahul Gandhi continues to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the controversial Rafale fighter jets deal between India and France. In his latest attack, the Congress chief took to microblogging site Twitter alleging that India has had 4 Rafale Mantris.

Pointing that since coming to power the NDA government has seen four Defence Ministers, the Gandhi scion alleged that the purpose of the same was to ensure that Prime Minister Modi got the space to personally re-negotiate Rafale with the French.

Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French. India has had 4 RAFALE Mantris. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he wont speak! pic.twitter.com/exNkm9mn8T  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 24, 2018

Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French. India has had 4 RAFALE Mantris. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he wont speak!, tweeted Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress chief tweeted the same along with a satire by Amul highlighting the controversy over the Rafale fighter jets deal.

This comes even as the Congress party submitted a notice for privilege motion against Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, alleging that they misled the House over secrecy clause in the Rafale deal.

According to the opposition party, the clause that both Indian and French governments refer to does not call for secrecy over the price of the aircraft. Former defence minister and senior Congress leader AK Antony said that the clause concerned the tactical and technical details of weaponry but not the pricing aspect. He alleged that the government was misleading the nation.

During the no-confidence debate in Lok Sabha on Friday, Rahul Gandhi had attacked the government saying that Nirmala Sitharaman had lied to the nation under pressure from Prime Minister Modi. He cited that the French President had told him in the presence of other senior leaders that there was no clause that prevented the government from revealing the price of the jets.

However, shortly after his speech, the French government released a statement saying that a secrecy clause was signed between the two countries in 2008 itself. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his response, had said that he found it unfortunate that both the government had to issue clarifications on such issue of national importance.Mumbai: The 12-hour-long debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha might have entertained many people but for lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, the session was an insult to poetry.

Javed on Tuesday took to his Twitter account and wrote: "With folded hands and utmost humility, I want to request the MPs of all the parties in the Lok Sabha to at least have some mercy on poetry. Without any exception, each and every couplet recited during the 12-hour session was wrongly worded, out of meter or mispronounced."

With folded hands and utmost humility I want to request the MPS of all the parties in the lok sabha to at least have some mercy on poetry . With out any exception Each and every couplet recited during the 12 hour session was either wrongly worded, out of meter or mispronounced  Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) July 24, 2018

During the debate, many politicians including Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered poetic lines, while AAP leader Bhagwat Mann recited a poem making fun of BJP`s slogan `Achhe din`

The no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government was defeated in the Lok Sabha on July 20 after the debate that also saw the government and opposition trade charges. There was also a moment of drama when Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, after a blistering attack on the government, walked over to hug the Prime Minister.

Javed Akhtar also voiced his outrage over the increasing instances of lynching and pressed for justice for the victims. He said mob violence had not been justified with "such shameless audacity" even during the bleakest moments in history. "Even in the days of Ku Klux Klan and slavery in USA or at the peak of White supremacist rule in South Africa no one had justified lynching with such shameless audacity," the veteran writer-lyricist said on Twitter.KAMPALA, UGANDA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on became the first India PM to address the Parliament of Uganda. But his audience was not just the Ugandan government - he addressed Africa as a whole. And in this address, he offered a vision of cooperation that placed India as the only viable alternative to growing Chinese engagement on the continent.

He did not name China even once, and did not even refer to it indirectly. But the subtext was clear in the sense that whatever he promised India would or wouldn't do was at easily understandable contrast to the kinds of behaviour that China has been faulted for as it seeks to expand its footprint across Africa.

For instance, PM Modi said India's growing role in Africa would be predicated on the priorities of Africans, not Indians. The terms, he said, would be those that African nations would find comfortable. He even assured that Indian projects in Africa would use African labour and not an imported workforce. He also underlined the need for freedom of navigation in the seas, specifically mentioning the eastern Indian Ocean region. Not direct, but the stress was clear - India is not China.

Here are the 10 principles PM Modi said would guide India's engagement in Africa:

"One, Africa will be at the top of our priorities. We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular.

Two, our development partnership will be guided by your priorities. It will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate your potential and not constrain your future. We will rely on African talent and skills. We will build as much local capacity and create as many local opportunities as possible.

Three, we will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India. We will support our industry to invest in Africa.

Four, we will harness India's experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development; improve delivery of public services; extend education and health; spread digital literacy; expand financial inclusion; and mainstream the marginalised.

This will not just be our partnership to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but also to equip the youth of Africa for their place in the digital age.

Five, Africa has 60 per cent of the world's arable land, but produces just 10 per cent of the global output. We will work with you to improve Africa's agriculture.

Six, our partnership will address the challenges of climate change. We will work with Africa to ensure a just international climate order; to preserve our biodiversity; and, adopt clean and efficient energy sources.

Seven, we will strengthen our cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism; keeping our cyberspace safe and secure; and, supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace;.

Eight, we will work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations. The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean. That is why India's vision of Indian Ocean Security is cooperative and inclusive, rooted in security and growth for all in the region.

Nine, and, this is especially important to me: as global engagement in Africa increases, we must all work together to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions, but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth.

Ten, Just as India and Africa fought colonial rule together, we will work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India. India's own quest for reforms in the global institutions is incomplete without an equal place for Africa. That will be a key purpose of our foreign policy."

Modi's speech to the Ugandan Parliament came just before he left for South Africa's Johannesburg to take part in the BRICS Summit. He is expected to hold a bilateral meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS meet.New Delhi: A body of a newborn baby was found on an Air Asia flight on Wednesday. The Delhi-bound flight was coming from Imphal via Guwahati.

The Delhi Police and airport security have initiated an investigation. The infant's body has been sent for a forensic test.

The biological mother of the baby, who was also travelling on the flight, has not been identified yet. She is reportedly a minor from Imphal, as per preliminary investigations.

The body of the infant was found inside the toilet by a flight staffer. Media reports suggest that the baby's mouth was stuffed with toilet paper. The toilet paper was used apparently to prevent the kid from crying which would have alerted the passengers on board.

"A newborn infant was found lifeless and abandoned onboard the aircraft. Delhi Police were alerted and a doctor from the medical team at Delhi IGI airport confirmed that the baby was delivered onboard. A suspect has been held back by police for further investigation," Air Asia said.

A case of murder has, meanwhile, been registered by Delhi Police.

(More details awaited)DELHI: The Centre has issued orders to all states to ensure that no Rohingyas possess Indian documents of any kind. Minister of Home Affairs Rajnath Singh said that this would enable the government to speak to Myanmar over the refugee issue.

"We've issued orders to all states that no Rohingya should possess Indian documents, so that we can talk to the government of Myanmar and EAM Sushma Swaraj can speak with the foreign minister of Myanmar," Rajnath Singh said in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The government is firm on its decision to deport Rohingyas back to Myanmar.

Earlier on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju also said Rohingyas are living illegally in India. "They are illegal and won't be allowed to thrive in India," Rijiju said.

This is also not the first time that the Rijiju spoke against the Rohingyas. In September 2017 also, Rijiju had mentioned that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants and should be deported. "I want to tell the international organisations whether the Rohingyas are registered under the United Nations Human Rights Commission or not. They are illegal immigrants in India," Rijiju had told reporters.

"As per law, they stand to be deported because they are illegal immigrants. We are a nation with great democratic tradition." "India has absorbed a maximum number of refugees in the world so nobody should give India any lessons on how to deal with refugees," he added.

Coming down hard on the people raising voice against the deportation of Rohingyas, Rajnath Singh too, has in the past, said that one shouldn't mistake illegal immigrants with people residing with refugee status. "The Rohingyas who have illegally entered India are not refugees," Singh categorically said, adding that there is a proper process to get refugee status, which needs to be followed.

Rohingya Muslims fled to India after violence in the western Rakhine State of Myanmar. Almost 700,000 refugees have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar and arrived in Cox's Bazar since August 2017, according to the UN.New Delhi: Parliament on Tuesday passed a bill to amend the 1988 anti-graft law by seeking to punish bribe-givers for the first time along with the bribe takers, as the Lok Sabha gave its nod to it. Moving the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill for passage in the Lower House, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh said its aim was to enhance transparency and accountability of the government and also to make the provisions under the law stringent.

The measure reflects the Narendra Modi government's zero tolerance towards corruption, he said.

Replying to the debate before the bill was passed by a voice vote, Singh said through this measure, it is also being ensured that honest officers are not harassed. Not only taking bribe, but giving bribe would also be a crime, he said.

The Minister said that now prior approval for investigation will be required in cases of all government officers. Earlier, it was restricted to officials above the rank of a Joint Secretary.

The bill, which got the Rajya Sabha's nod last week with 43 amendments, seeks to set a timeframe within which a court would decide on corruption issues, he said, adding that verdicts in such cases has to be given "ordinarily" in two years.

He also said that immunity from arrest would be available to all levels of officers, as against the existing provision of joint secretary and above.

The Minister said the bill had many provisions to ensure speedy trial of corruption cases, besides providing protection to bureaucrats, even after their retirement, from malicious complaints. For the bribe takers, the bill proposes to increase the punishment to a minimum of three years of imprisonment, which may extend to seven years, besides fine.

During the debate, K H Muniyappa (Cong) said electoral reforms were badly required to check corruption in the system.

Corruption can be tackled to some extent if money is not involved in polls right from the panchayat to Parliament.

Earlier, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the opposition will support the government if they fought corruption in reality rather than making claims. "Under your rule, India, which was known as land of saints, has turned into land of scamsters....Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and many others fled the country after defaulting on banks' money," he said.

Chowdhury also raised the issue of Rafale deal and asked the government why it was unwilling to share the entire information about the deal with the House.

Countering his charges, the BJP MP Prahlad Joshi said it was during the rule of UPA government, the money was given to all these businessman who have now fled. "The loans were sanctioned by banks after they were pressurised by the top people in the UPA government," Joshi alleged while speaking on the bill. He said the NDA government has adopted a progressive approach by bringing this bill and was working to root out corruption from the system.

K Nimala (TDP) alleged that the central government was using the anti-corruption laws for their vested political interests. There is a need to effectively implement these laws, he said.

APJ Reddy (TRS) wondered whether graft can be prevented effectively. He said that corruption was involved from birth to death as, at every stage of life, one should have to pay bribe for any work. He said there is a problem in the clause where it talks about punishing bribe givers. This would discourage whistleblowers to come forward, he said, adding "we need to hit the root cause of the menace".

B Khan (CPI-M) said nothing has happened so far in the Saradha scam in West Bengal. He also raised the issue of delay in the appointment of the anti-graft ombudsman Lokpal.

Idris Ali (TMC) refuted graft allegations against the TMC saying these were false and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was a "symbol of honesty".

K Geetha (YSRCP) said that excessive regulation, lack of transparency and lack of transparent laws led to corruption. Citing an example, the member of parliament said that she herself was a victim of corruption.

Expelled RJD MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav said corruption was worse than terrorism. He alleged that politicians only crib about corruption and they should resign.

Yadav said that people including officers and politicians need to be investigated by Enforcement Directorate and other agencies, it should be started "from Paapu Yadav". He also said that funding of political parties should be made more transparent as it impacted the election process.

Shiromani Akali Dal's Prem Singh Chandumajra and AAP member Bhagwant Mann also spoke.NEW DELHI: A day after sources close to the Congress said that it is open to having a Prime Ministerial candidate from alliance partners, party president Rahul Gandhi has too hinted that he would back anyone who will defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Rahul reportedly made this remark while replying to a question posed by a woman journalist on whether he would back All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee or Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati as the face of Prime Minister in the upcoming general elections.

Not disclosing the Congress' strategy for the 2019 General Elections, the Gandhi scion said that the key agenda would be to seal their victory in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which jointly constitute 22 percent share of seats in Lok Sabha.

For this, Rahul said the Congress was ready to form alliances in the two states to defeat the BJP.

Rahul also noted that his party can benefit from the fact two top BJP's allies - Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Shiv Sena - were already miffed with the saffron party, which would be an added advantage to the Congress.

Rahul, however, reportedly said his chances of becoming the next Prime Minister would be subject to where the dice falls.

In a separate interaction with the media too, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor too said that he was at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Sunday where the mood around the table was unanimously in favour of forming alliances and working with other parties.

I was at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Sunday and I can assure you that the mood around the table was unanimously in favour of alliances and working with other parties: Shashi Tharoor, Congress (24/7/2018) pic.twitter.com/K9LbkqYTDH  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

Earlier in the day, the Congress had shared images on social media from the party president's interaction with women journalists in the national capital.

"Congress President @RahulGandhi met and interacted with women journalists earlier this evening and what a wonderful interaction it was!" the party posted from the official Twitter handle.

Congress President @RahulGandhi met and interacted with women journalists earlier this evening and what a wonderful interaction it was! pic.twitter.com/FskLSXhciF  Congress (@INCIndia) July 24, 2018

Congress party sources had on Tuesday said that to prevent the BJP from coming back to power in 2019, the party will attempt to stitch up alliances with various parties in major states.

On whether Rahul Gandhi will step aside for a woman candidate from a possible Opposition alliance, the sources said he "is comfortable seeing any prime minister other than an RSS-backed one".

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee are doing the rounds.

After the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Sunday, the Congress said that Rahul Gandhi will be its prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It also authorised Rahul Gandhi to forge alliances with "like-minded" political parties to take on the ruling BJP.

Stating that it's going to be an "ideological fight", the sources said the Congress has to bring all the opposition parties together to defeat the BJP.

"India in 2004 is different from 2014. This is beyond our regular political battle. It is for the first time all institutions are attacked," the sources said and added, " the more the RSS attacks Congress, it will help the party to build."

The sources further said that the Congress does not believe in "right or left" views but for a liberal and pragmatic space.

According to the sources, the Congress leadership is of the view that the BJP will be decimated without any "anger and disrespect".

The BJP will not get enough seats to win the next general polls as parties like the TDP and the Shiv Sena are not happy with the saffron party, the sources added.

For Narendra Modi to be the prime minister again, he has to get seats in the range of 280 and that is not going to happen, they said.

The sources said if grand anti-BJP alliances in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar work out fine, then it will be difficult for Modi to retain power.

While Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats, Bihar has 40 and the two together comprise over 22 percent of the total strength of Lok Sabha members of 543.

(With Agency Inputs)Maharashtra Minister Eknath Shinde has blamed the builder for the collapse of a portion of a three-storey building in Rasulbagh area of Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, that killed at least one person. Accusing the building of negligence, the minister said that strict action would be taken against the culprit.

"The building was constructed six years back and the incident proves that it was not constructed well. It has collapsed due to builders negligence that claimed one life. Strict action will be taken," the minister told reporters on Tuesday.

A portion of a three-storey building in Rasulbagh area collapsed on Tuesday night, leaving one person dead.

A member of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) told news agency ANI that the situation had been brought under control. "The building was in a dilapidated state and was empty. It collapsed and fell on a nearby chawl, where some people were trapped. All have now been rescued, one person died," said Mahesh Nalawade.CALGARY, Alberta, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (TSX:ECA) (NYSE:ECA) Encana Corporation will release its 2018 second quarter results on Wednesday, August 1, 2018. The news release detailing Encana's 2018 second quarter results will provide operating and financial information. Financial statements will be available on the company's website.

A conference call and webcast to discuss the 2018 second quarter results will be held for the investment community the same day at 7 a.m. MT (9 a.m. ET). To participate, please dial 888-231-8191 (toll-free in North America) or 647-427-7450 (international) approximately 10 minutes prior to the conference call.

The live audio webcast of the second quarter conference call, including slides, will also be available on Encana's website, www.encana.com, under Investors/Presentations & Events. The webcasts will be archived for approximately 90 days.

Encana Corporation

Encana Corporation is a leading North American energy producer that is focused on developing its strong portfolio of resource plays, held directly and indirectly through its subsidiaries, producing oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. By partnering with employees, community organizations and other businesses, Encana contributes to the strength and sustainability of the communities where it operates. Encana common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ECA.

Further information on Encana Corporation is available on the companys website, www.encana.com, or by contacting:

Investor contact:

Corey Code

Vice-President, Investor Relations

(403) 645-4606



Patti Posadowski

Sr. Advisor, Investor Relations

(403) 645-2252 Media contact:

Simon Scott

Vice-President, Communications

(403) 645-2526



Jay Averill

Director, Media Relations

(403) 645-4747

SOURCE: Encana CorporationPakistans external spying agency ISI is bolstering terror outfit Al Badr to carry out fresh terrorist attacks in Kashmir and Afghanistan. Sources told Zee Media that since the focus of Indian intelligence agencies is on groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, the ISI plans to carry out the attacks through Al Badr.

According to the sources, at least 15 terrorists from Kashmir have joined Al Badr in the last three months. Of these, three terrorists have joined the group in Pulwama and Shopian regions.

Notably, Al Badr supremo Bakht Zameen had, during a rally in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir in June, had claimed that the outfit would soon emerge as the voice of Kashmir.

Intelligence reports have suggested that the terror outfit has been collecting donations in different parts of Pakistan to fund its anti-India and anti-Afghanistan operations. Al Badr has also been reportedly getting help from LeT and JeM.

Meanwhile, intelligence sources also told Zee Media that the ISI is relying more on JeM, rather than LeT and Hizbul Mujahideen. The JeM has reportedly formed a group named Ansar-e-Jaish on instant messaging mobile app Telegram. Attempts are being made by the outfit to lure Kashmiri youth into terrorism.NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday took to Twitter to congratulate President Ram Nath Kovind on completing one year in the country's highest office. Rashtrapati Bhavan also tweeted a video feature on Kovind's first year in office.

Kovind was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar on July 25, 2017. He became only the second person from a Scheduled Caste community to occupy the highest constitutional office of the country, after KR Narayanan.

"Congratulations to Rashtrapati Ramnath Kovind Ji on completing 1 year in office. He's endeared himself to every Indian with his wisdom and humility. He is extremely well versed in key policy issues. Rashtrapati Ji is also passionate about empowering the youth, farmers & poor," read the congratulatory tweet from PM Modi.

Congratulations to Rashtrapati Ramnath Kovind Ji on completing 1 year in office. He's endeared himself to every Indian with his wisdom and humility. He is extremely well versed in key policy issues. Rashtrapati Ji is also passionate about empowering the youth, farmers & poor.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 25, 2018

Incidentally, neither PM Modi not President Kovind are in New Delhi. Modi is presently in Africa, where he would up a visit to Uganda on Wednesday. He is now scheduled to travel to South Africa's Johannesburg to take part in this year's BRICS Summit.

Chhattisgarh CM @drramansingh receives #PresidentKovind on his arrival in Jagdalpur, Bastar. The President will interact with farmers, women SHGs, students and inaugurate a BPO today pic.twitter.com/GtWnN26u8T  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2018

President Kovind began a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh. He spent Wednesday in Jagdalpur, in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-affected Bastar District. The President met farmers and members of women's self-help groups (SHGs) at the Integrated Farming System facility in Heeranar, Jagdalpur.

Delighted to spend time with children from Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram School, Jagdalpur. They are full of energy and have big dreams. My best wishes for their future #PresidentKovind pic.twitter.com/78idt92Nlc  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2018

He will also interacted with students of the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram school, and visited the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Education City, Jawanga, interact with differently-abled children of the Saksham School and the Ashta Vidya Mandir. He also inaugurated a BPO.

Witnessed the integrated farming system and interacted with farmers and women SHGs at Heeranar, Jagdalpur. They are all doing good work in animal husbandry, poultry, honey production, organic farming and running a rice-mill. My best wishes to them #PresidentKovind pic.twitter.com/37vRhwmfoI  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) July 25, 2018

President Kovind is set to inaugurate a medical college and hospital on Thursday, and is scheduled to address a public gathering at the Baliram Kashyap Memorial College Campus in Jagdalpur.

A lawyer by profession, Kovind had been the Governor of Bihar when he had been named the NDA's candidate for the 2017 Presidential election. He had defeated former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, the opposition candidate, in the election. Kovind had earlier served two consecutive terms in the Rajya Sabha, and had been one of the national spokespersons of the BJP.Jaipur: In a dramatic rescue, a quick-thinking Rajasthan MLA Mangal Ram used his turban to pull out a man, stuck on a flooded bridge over a nullah, moments before he could have been swept away.

Riding a bike, Kishori Lal Meena (50) was crossing the submerged bridge over the Kartarpura nullah near Imli phatak when he got stuck midway.

Hearing his cries for help, BJP MLA Mangal Ram who lives near the nullah rushed to his aide along with his security personnel.

Ram took off his turban and threw it towards Meena who latched on to it. The legislator along with his security officers pulled out Meena just in time.

The man was shouting for help and hearing this, I along with my gunmen and others rushed there and saw him trapped," the MLA who represents the Kathumar constituency of Alwar district told PTI.

"Without any delay, we reached near him in the flowing water and saved him in time," he added.

Last year in August, a CA student was washed away in the same nullah. His body was found days laterNew Delhi: Three minor girls of a family in Delhi's Mandawali died after starving for eight days. The postmortem report of these girls confirmed that they died due to malnutrition.

The girls, who were sisters, died on Monday. They were taken to the hospital by neighbours.

On reaching the hospital, they were declared brought dead. Their bodies have been handed over to their family.

The father of the girls, who is said to be a labourer, has not returned home since Tuesday. The mother of the deceased is mentally unstable.

Delhi government has, meanwhile, ordered a magisterial inquiry into the deaths of the three girls.

According to neighbours, the family had recently moved into this new place and are staying on rent. Mandawali is the constituency of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.

"They were declared dead on arrival at the hospital. Their father is missing. Bodies are under examination, we can confirm the cause of death once the reports come, it's premature to say they died of hunger: PoliceDELHI: BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday moved Supreme Court over his plea seeking enforcement of the right to pray at the controversial Ram janambhoomi in Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court said that the judgement has been reserved in the main matter regarding the reference to Constitution Bench and will consider the plea after the judgment is pronounced, ANI reported.

This is the second time in July that Swamy has moved Supreme Court with his plea. Earlier on July 3, Supreme Court had declined Swamy's plea over the fundamental right to worship at Ayodhya site. The court had asked him to mention it 'later on'. "You mention it later on," the bench said. Swamy had said that the term "later on" was very subjective and added that he would mention his plea for hearing after 15 days again.

On March 14, a special bench of the CJI and Justices Ashok Bhushan and SA Nazeer had dashed the hopes of activists like Shyam Benegal and Teesta Setalvad to intervene in the Ayodhya land dispute case and made it clear that only the parties to original lawsuits would be allowed contest.

It had also disallowed Swamy, at whose instance the cases were fast-tracked, from intervening in the main case.

However, the bench considered Swamy's submission that he had not sought to intervene in the matter but had filed a separate writ petition seeking enforcement of his fundamental right to worship at the birthplace of Lord Ram in Ayodhya.

"I had filed a writ petition saying that I have a fundamental right to worship and this is a superior right than property right," Swamy had said.

"As we are not inclined to permit the intervention application, the writ petition filed by the applicant (Swamy) shall stand revived and it shall be dealt with by the appropriate bench in accordance with law," the bench had said.

The special bench of the apex court is considering 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties -- the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.NEW DELHI: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi has said he and his party are willing to bitterly fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP, but that they will not hate them. His also addressed the rising political polarisation, saying Indian politics is confrontation and winner-takes-all.

Rahul's comments came at an event in New Delhi to launch the most recent book by journalist Karan Thapar. The event saw the participation of a number of key Congress faces such as former PM Manmohan Singh, Shashi Tharoor, Sheila Dikshit and Digvijaya Singh, apart from former Vice President Hamid Ansari and others.

"The atmosphere in politics, we tend to see the world as either them and us and this is not my nature. But this is the design of our politics, its confrontational and winner takes all," said Rahul in his speech at the book launch.

"You can fight someone with all your might but hate is a choice that you make. We, the Congress, will take on the BJP and they will fight us, but we won't hate them. I don't know if we can expect the same from them," he said, taunting the BJP and its leadership.

"Now whenever I come across BJP MPs, they take two steps back thinking I'll hug them. One thing that religion teaches us is you can't get imprisoned by hatred. We'll take on PM and the BJP, but we don't need to hate them," he said.

Rahul Gandhi had hogged the headlines for his speech during the debate on the recent failed no-confidence motion moved by the opposition in the Lok Sabha. Attention had been particularly focussed on Rahul for waling over to the treasury benches to give PM Modi a hug.SRINAGAR: Two terrorists have been gunned down by security forces in the encounter which started in Anantnag on Wednesday morning. More terrorists are reportedly hiding in the area, sources told Zee Media.

Combing operation is currently underway.

#Visuals from #JammuAndKashmir: Two terrorists have been gunned down in the encounter which started in Anantnag this morning. The encounter has concluded, combing operation is underway. (visuals deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/CR9G2Lzm6M  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

An encounter is broke out between terrorists and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag.

#Spotvisuals: Encounter underway between terrorists and security forces in Anantnag. More details awaited. (Visuals deferred by unspecified time) #JammuAndKashmir pic.twitter.com/sNUhiNUUTS  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

The operation is jointly being conducted by the Indian Army, CRPF and J&K Police.

Earlier, the terrorists threw hand grenades on the patrol party.

Authorities have cordoned off the entire area.

Last week, A Pakistani militant belonging to terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was killed by the security forces in an encounter on July 19 in the Handwara area of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

With agency inputsBENGALURU: The Uttara Karnataka Horata Samiti has called for a bandh across 13 districts of north Karnataka on August 2 over their demand for a separate state for North Karnataka.

The Uttar Karnataka Horata Samithi had earlier also launched a signature campaign to seek public opinion on a new state for North Karnataka. It had cited that the region had been repeatedly ignored by all governments.

They had said that the new state should be formed bringing 80 taluks of 13 districts under its territorial jurisdiction. Spread over an area of 1.87 lakh sq.km., they demanded that the state should consist of 96 assembly segments, 12 parliamentary constituencies and 22 legislative council constituencies.

Just recently, the Samiti had warned the government of protests if it failed to protect the interests of the North Karnataka region. Samiti President Nilesh Bannur had alleged that the state government sanctioned only detrimental projects to North Karnataka, while welfare projects went into South Karnataka's kitty.

"We feel jealous to see the development projects sanctioned to South Karnataka. The government only sanctions projects like thermal power plants to NK that are detrimental," he was quoted as saying.

He had also claimed that the recent budget cleared by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's government had also failed to do justice to the entire state as it only concentrated on Mysuru region.Kollam: A seven-year-old girl was branded with a hot spatula at home by her step-mother, angry over the child wetting her bed, police said in Kollam on Tuesday. The incident, which took place last week, came to light on Tuesday after the child revealed her ordeal to her teachers when she attended school, they said.

Seeing the child's discomfort in the class, teachers questioned her and she showed the burn marks on her stomach, thighs and private parts, a teacher at the school said.

School authorities immediately informed childline, an NGO, which contacted police.

The step-mother and father, a lorry driver, have been arrested and a case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and the Juvenile Justice Act was registered, police sources said.Kottayam: The bodies of a stringer of a Malayalam news channel and a car driver, who had gone missing after their country boat capsized in a canal near Vaikom, were found on Tuesday, police said. The body of Saji, stringer of 'Mathrubhumi' news channel, was found soon after the diving teams of fire force and Navy resumed search operations this morning, they said.

His body was handed over to his relatives after autopsy at the government medical college hospital, Kottayam.

The body of Bipin, the car driver of the channels Thiruvalla bureau, was found in the canal at 7.30 pm around 300 metres from the accident site. His body has been sent for autopsy, police said.

The two, part of a media team that had gone to cover the flood-hit areas near Vaikom, were reported missing yesterday after the country boat carrying them capsized.

Mathrubhumi channel's Kottayam staff reporter K B Sreedharan and cameraman Abhilash, who were also in the boat, were rescued by local people in another boat. The ferryman was also rescued by them.

Police, fire and rescue service personnel and locals had launched a search soon after the incident last afternoon but called it off by night fall. They resumed rescue operations this morning.

A Naval disaster relief team, comprising five personnel, was also engaged.

Sreedharan and Abhilash have been admitted to a hospital.SILVER SPRING, Md., July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Senior Service America, Inc. (SSAI) is a chief recipient of the United States Department of Labor (DOL) Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) grant for services in 13 states from July 1, 2018  June 30, 2019. SCSEP is operated under a DOL grant and in cooperation with SSAI, the second largest administrator of the program, which provides on-the-job skills training to individuals 55 or older. For 50 years through its local partnerships, SSAI has helped the larger Senior Community Service Program nationally get more than 1 million first-time or returning 55+ Americans into the workforce.



Industry needs a skilled older workforce due to shifting rates of employment by young and old workers. Those 55 and over are projected to make up 25 percent of the civilian labor force by the year 2024 while the number of younger workers in America is set to decrease within a few years.

As the only federal program targeted to help low-income older workers, SCSEP provides experience and training to those who live at or near the poverty level. Training that leads to permanent employment for many. The program places participants in part-time positions at community-based organizations and the participants earn wages from the program. They can be enrolled in the program for up to four years.

SCSEP is an equal opportunity program that provides a bridge back into the workforce for a population vulnerable to ageism in a changing workforce with increased emphasis on the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

The need for those over 55 to work is a matter of survival, said Gary A. Officer, SSAI President and CEO. The reality for this population is that over 60 percent of workers over 55 do not have or are ineligible for a pension. They also suffer long-term unemployment, considered over 27 weeks, at a higher rate than young workers. The DOL grant in support of SCSEP is critical to getting these workers trained and working. It helps resolve a significant hurdle to financial self-sufficiency.

In receiving this grant, SSAI celebrates its 50 years of workforce development to reengage older workers into financially viable positions. According to Officer, Overall our organization has trained nearly half a million older Americans for their next career in life and now SCSEP is a cornerstone of our work.

For more information about SSAI visit www.seniorserviceamerica.org.

Media Contact:

SSAI.Press@ssa-i.org

About Senior Service America, Inc.

Senior Service America, Inc. (SSAI) is committed to making it possible for low-income and other disadvantaged older adults to participate fully in determining their own future and the future of their communities. SSAI provides employment opportunities to low-income and other older adults in 34 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. For 50 years, SSAI has operated the Senior Community Service Employment Program and currently partners with a diverse network of local organizations in 13 states. For more information, please visit www.seniorserviceamerica.org.MUMBAI: Amid ongoing protests in Maharashtra over Maratha Reservation, a Maratha outfit Maratha Kranti Samaj has called for a 'peaceful' bandh across the state on Wednesday. The band has been called in areas like Palghar, Thane Raigad and Navi Mumbai. Schools, colleges, ambulances and hospitals are exempted from the bandh.

"We will observe a peaceful bandh on Wednesday. Thane, Navi Mumbai, Raigad to remain closed on Wednesday. Schools and colleges will not be included in this bandh as we do not intend to trouble anyone," Maratha Kranti Samaj said on Tuesday.

The ongoing protest is likely to have a major impact in Western Maharashtra and Marathwada districts such as Aurangabad, Osmanabad, Beed and Ahmadnagar.

Vinod Tawde, a minister in the Maharashtra government, said that local authorities and police will be assessing law and order situation on Wednesday. He said that after the assessment it will be decided if schools and colleges will remain operational in the above-mentioned areas on Wednesday.

Another Maharashtra Minister and Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai said, "Maratha reservation has been delayed. How the court will react to it must be kept in mind. Shiv Sena supports Maratha reservation. People who promised reservation to solve the issue should come forward."

Maratha outfits had called for a bandh across the state after a man demanding reservation for the community jumped to his death in a river in Aurangabad district.

A pro-reservation Maratha leader said they have called the bandh across the state and that they would continue their agitation until Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis apologises to the community.

On Monday, a 27-year-old protester, Kakasaheb Shinde, jumped off a bridge over Godavari River in Aurangabad. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared dead, police said.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha had on Monday demanded an apology from Fadnavis for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur town in Solapur district, where the chief minister was earlier scheduled to perform puja at a temple on 'Ashadhi Ekadashi'.

The outfit, which led the 'jal samadhi' protest in which Shinde died, is leading the agitation seeking reservation for the community in government jobs and education.

Shinde's death had triggered a fresh set of protests in several parts of Maharashtra, with opposition leaders seeking to put the onus on the BJP-led government in the state.

(With inputs from agencies)New Delhi: Ishaan Khatter proved his mettle as an actor long before the release of 'Dhadak' with 2017 released 'Beyond The Clouds'. However, not many know that the young actor was approached by Karan Johar's for a meaty role in 'Student Of The Year 2' and had shot for few sequences for it.

A Mid-Day report claimed that Ishaan was cast along with Tiger Shroff by Karan Johar in SOTY 2. The film stars Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria as female leads. At that time, Ishaan and Tara were in a relationship and were a hot couple. Unfortunately, their affair ended on a bitter note and the two parted ways with each other and were not even on talking terms. By that time, Ishaan had already shot for few action sequences for the film.

The report claimed further that because of the splitsville between the duo, Karan thought that it won't make a wise decision to cast the ex-lovers together in a film. Therefore, the filmmaker decided to keep the two away from each other and hence let go off Ishaan from the film. He, however, retained Tara as the female lead of SOTY 2.

Tara, at present, is reported to be going strong with Vinod Mehra's son Rohan Mehra, who recently made his debut with 'Bazaar'.

We all know that Ishaan appeared in his second film 'Dhadak' opposite Janhvi Kapoor, which recently made a splash at the theatres and earned him all the rave reviews for his performance. The film was produced by KJo.

What's ironic that is though Ishaan's relationship with the lady cost him SOTY 2, it did not happen so in her case. Tara, who is yet to make her Bollywood debut, went on to bag her second meaty project with none other but Ishaan's half-brother Shahid Kapoor in the Hindi remake of Telugu superhit 'Arjun Reddy'.New Delhi: The Brazilian beauty Bruna Abdullah, who made a mark in Bollywood, has got engaged to her Scottish boyfriend. The model-actress took to her Instagram account and shared an adorable video which shows how her boyfriend Al proposed to her.

From the looks of it, the couple seems to have been out on a vacay and that's where the guy popped the question taking Bruna by surprise. In fact, she appears so stunned by the ring that she can't control her happy tears.

Watch it here:

A post shared by Bruna Abdullah (@brunaabdullah) on Jul 24, 2018 at 3:44am PDT

A post shared by Bruna Abdullah (@brunaabdullah) on Jul 22, 2018 at 8:59pm PDT

The Brazilian model was first seen in an item song in 'Cash'. The song was titled 'Reham Kare'. The she was seen in 'Grand Masti' and in filmmaker Punit Malhotra's 'I Hate Luv Storys'. She then went on to star in 2012 Tamil movie Billa II. Most of her dance numbers became chartbusters and people still groove to them at parties.

Her popular dance track 'Subha Hone Na De' in Akshay Kumar and John Abraham's 'Desi Boyz' got her instant fame. Mika Singh crooned the peppy number.

She was seen Salman Khan's 'Jai Ho' and did a special cameo in 'Mastizaade'.

Congratulations, Bruna!Mumbai: Kangana Ranaut spent some time at the Adishakti Ashram of Isha Foundation in Coimbatore. The Bollywood diva, who is very spiritual, felt blissful during her stay at the Adi Yogi's abode and it is evident from her photographs. Her social media team took to Instagram to share a few images of Kangana spending some time there.

Check out the pictures embedded below:

Kangana's photo with the statue of Adi Yogi in the background had gone viral on the internet.

The 112-feet tall Adiyogi's statue made of steel represents Lord Shiva. It has been declared the largest bust by the Guinness Books of World Records. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unveiled the statue on February 24, 2017, on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.

Kangana's visit to Coimbatore proves that the curly-haired beauty is spiritually inclined. And Kangana's Grihapravesh Puja (housewarming ceremony) a few weeks back proves that Kangana believes in the power of worshipping.

The actress, who hails from Himachal will be seen in Prakash Kovelamudi's psychological thriller Mental Hai Kya opposite her Queen co-star Rajkummar Rao. The film will release on 22 February 2019.

She will also make a splash on the silver screen as Rani Lakshmibai in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, a magnum opus slated to release on 25 January 2019.

Here's wishing Kangana, all the very best for her films.CHENNAI: DMK leader MK Stalin has said there is no truth to rumours that his father and party chief M Karunanidhi is in a serious condition. His statement to clear the air came after forwards on some instant messaging platforms claimed either that the veteran leader was dead or that he was in a terminal stage.

"Don't believe them. These are rumours," Stalin told reporters outside Karunanidhi's residence in Chennai's Gopalapuram. "He has a mild fever, and is receiving treatment. There is nothing to worry about and nothing shocking here," he added.

Karunanidhi, who turned 94 last month, was admitted to hospital in Chennai on July 18. The hospital had said he had undergone a procedure to replace his tracheostomy tube. He had the tube placed in December 2016 to help improve his breathing. Karunanidhi had been discharged after the procedure two days ago.

He had been taken to the hospital in that instance with breathing difficulty caused by a throat and lung infection that doctors said had been caused by some of the medication he had been taking.

Karunanidhi has hardly been active in politics since mid-2016, when his health began taking a turn for the worse. Since then, his DMK has retained him as its president, with Karunanidhi's son MK Stalin running things as working president.

The five-time Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has been confined to a wheel chair for close to a decade now, and last held office in 2011, when his party lost the election to the AIADMK.RAMPUR: In view of intense political bickering over the Alwar lynching incident, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan has appealed to the members of his community to stay away from cow for their own safety. Reacting to several provocative statements made by right-wing outfits and politicians in the aftermath of the Alwar lynching incident, the SP leader urged the Muslims to stay away from dairy business and cow trading for ''the safety of their upcoming generations.''

"My request to Muslims who are in dairy business and cow trading is to stop it for the safety of their upcoming generations. At a time when some politicians are saying that one must face dire consequences of just touching a cow, Muslims should stay away from such trade," Khan said.

Remarks from the SP leader  a prominent Muslim face of the party  came days after a 28-year-old man identified as Rakbar Khan aka Akbar was allegedly beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan's Alwar district in the intervening night of July 20-21.

The post-mortem report said that Khan died of "shock as a result of ante-mortem (before death) injuries sustained over the body."

The autopsy further stated that the 28-year-old victim suffered 13 injuries in total, including eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, a fracture in the wrist and another in left femur.

The Alwar Police has also come under attack for wasting several hours in rushing the victim to a nearby hospital, which was just 6-km away from the incident site.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who vowed strict action against the culprits, suggested that the Alwar lynching incident looked like a case of custodial death.

The minister, who met the victim's family, further said that they are satisfied with the action that has been taken so far.

"I met the victim's family and they told me that they are satisfied with the action taken so far. I told them to come and meet me whenever they want if they want to tell me something more," Kataria told news agency ANI.

Kataria too blamed the police for wasting time who first send the cows to cow-shed and then took the lynching victim to the hospital. He said that the life of the victim - Akbar Khan - could have been saved, had the police acted in a responsive way.

Last year in April, a 50-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in the same district triggering a national outrage.

Condemning the growing incidents of mob lynching across the country, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on Tuesday said that the Centre is deeply concerned and even ready to make a new law over the issue.

As per the figures provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 45 people were killed in 40 different cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and 3 March this year.

(With ANI inputs)LUCKNOW: Amid rising cases of mob lynching and cow vigilantism, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that humans are important but so are cows. "Humans are important and cows are also important. Both have their own roles in nature. Everyone should be protected," he said.

The CM also added that the government will provide protection to everyone, but added that it is the responsibility of 'every individual, every community and every religion' to respect each others sentiments.

Blaming Congress for giving undue importance to lynching cases, Adityanath recalled the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. "These incidents are given unnecessary importance. If you talk about mob lynching, what was 1984? Law and order is a matter of state. Congress' intention to make mountain out of a molehill won't be successful," he said.

He also hit out at Congress President Rahul Gandhi and dubbed his act of hugging Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament as 'childish'. "The entire nation has already rejected Rahul Gandhi's childish acts. The no-confidence motion has exposed Congress. The statements and acts of opposition during the motion were immature and reveal their actual personality," Adityanath said.

Last year, Adityanath had ordered a crackdown on illegal slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh. He had said that the protection of cows was "very important" for state government as well as the BJP government at the Centre. He had said that the rural economy was centred around cows, and hence the government will be taking steps to encourage cow protection.

Speaking on cow vigilantism, he had earlier said that no action should be taken against any innocent person. "I feel the government is doing its work and no one should take law in their hand We want to assure that there would be no action against any innocent person but the state government will not spare any criminal or mafia," Adityanath had said.RAMPUR: Tanzeem Fatima, the wife of veteran Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, has returned a cow gifted to them by a revered seer over mob lynching fears in the aftermath of the recent killing of a Muslim man in Rajasthan's Alwar over suspicion of cow smuggling.

Speaking to Zee Media, Rajya Sabha MP Tazeem Fatima said, ''With deep pain, we have returned a beautiful cow gifted to us by a seer over fears that someone might kill the animal and put the blame on us.''

It was a painful decision for Khan family to return the cow, she stressed.

The cow was gifted to the Khans by Adhokshjanand Maharaj, the Shankaracharya of the Govardhan Peeth.

The firebrand SP leader's politician wife also blamed the present NDA regime for unleashing a reign of terror in the country during past four years.

Past four years of BJP rule has unleashed a reign of terror, especially against the members of the minority community,'' she said.

Rajya Sabha MP Tanzeem Fatima had sometimes back urged people to focus on the issue of cow protection, Ganga pollution and Bhagwat Gita. Fatima also announced that she will contribute Rs 25 lakh for the upkeep of a gaushala (cow shelter home) in Goverdhan under Mathura district.

However, Fatima today said that she will never return to the gaushala again.

In view of intense political bickering over the Alwar lynching incident, Azam Khan had appealed to the members of his community to stay away from the cow for their own safety.

Reacting to several provocative statements made by right-wing outfits and politicians in the aftermath of the Alwar lynching incident, the SP leader urged the Muslims to stay away from dairy business and cow trading for ''the safety of their upcoming generations.''

"My request to Muslims who are in dairy business and cow trading is to stop it for the safety of their upcoming generations. At a time when some politicians are saying that one must face dire consequences of just touching a cow, Muslims should stay away from such trade," Khan said.

Remarks from the SP leader  a prominent Muslim face of the party  came days after a 28-year-old man identified as Rakbar Khan aka Akbar was allegedly beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan's Alwar district in the intervening night of July 20-21.

The post-mortem report said that Khan died of "shock as a result of ante-mortem (before death) injuries sustained over the body."

The autopsy further stated that the 28-year-old victim suffered 13 injuries in total, including eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, a fracture in the wrist and another in left femur.

The Alwar Police has also come under attack for wasting several hours in rushing the victim to a nearby hospital, which was just 6-km away from the incident site.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who vowed strict action against the culprits, suggested that the Alwar lynching incident looked like a case of custodial death.

The minister, who met the victim's family, further said that they are satisfied with the action that has been taken so far.

"I met the victim's family and they told me that they are satisfied with the action taken so far. I told them to come and meet me whenever they want if they want to tell me something more," Kataria told news agency ANI.

Kataria too blamed the police for wasting time who first send the cows to cow-shed and then took the lynching victim to the hospital. He said that the life of the victim - Akbar Khan - could have been saved, had the police acted in a responsive way.

Last year in April, a 50-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in the same district triggering a national outrage.

Condemning the growing incidents of mob lynching across the country, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had on Tuesday said that the Centre is deeply concerned and even ready to make a new law over the issue.

As per the figures provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 45 people were killed in 40 different cases of mob lynching across nine states between 2014 and 3 March this year.

(With ANI inputs)RAMPUR: A woman hailing from the Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh has alleged gang-rape by four persons, including her husband, in the name of 'Nikah Halala'.

According to ANI, the woman alleged that she was given triple talaq by her husband after which she was married to someone else for three months.

The victim further claimed that the man with whom she was married for three months later got married to another woman.

''After my husband gave me triple talaq, I was married off to someone else for 3 months but he later married another woman,'' the woman said.

The Rampur Police have registered a case against nine people in this connection.

The fresh incident of gang-rape in the pretext of 'Nikah Halala' highlights the plight of Muslim women who are being subjected to such cruelty after getting an instant divorce from their husbands as per the Sharia law.

Several Muslim women's rights organisations have come out in support of the Narendra Modi government's new legislation banning triple talaq with provision for jail up to three years to those who give instant divorce to their wives.

The Modi Government formulated a bill called The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017 and introduced it in the Parliament which was passed on 28 December 2017 by the Lok Sabha.

The bill makes instant triple talaq (talaq-e-biddah) in any form - spoken, in writing or by electronic means such as email, SMS and WhatsApp ''illegal and void'', with up to three years in jail for the husband.

MPs from RJD, AIMIM, BJD, AIADMK and AIML had opposed the bill, calling it arbitrary in nature and a faulty proposal, while Congress supported the Bill tabled in Lok Sabha by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Triple Talaq is a form of divorce that is practised in India whereby a Muslim man could legally divorce his wife by pronouncing the word 'talaq' three times.

'Nikah Halala' is a practice intended to curb the incidence of divorce under which a man cannot remarry his former wife without her having to go through the process of marrying someone else, consummating it, getting divorced and observing a separation period called 'Iddat' before coming back to him.

The Supreme Court had earlier this month agreed to consider the listing of a batch of petitions challenging the practices of polygamy and 'nikah halala' among Muslims.Washington: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is neither in Chicago nor in hospital, his lawyer said on Tuesday, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in Chicago nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer said. Media reports had said that Headley was attacked by two inmates at a Chicago prison on July 8 and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

"I am in regular communication with Mr. Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. Headley, who recced various Indian cities including Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks, was arrested in 2009.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the reports. "We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago said in a brief email response to PTI when asked about the reported prison incident.English French

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canadian entrepreneurs know the path to commercial success often begins with research and development. When business people partner with researchers, they can test their bright ideas in a state-of-the-art lab until it works for todays marketplace. In return, scientists advance their work and students gain valuable hands-on experience that prepares them for the jobs of today and tomorrow.



This is how the Government of Canada is putting science to work  by investing in the tools researchers need to support top talent and partnerships with businesses.

Today the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport, announced more than $10 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) for new research infrastructure at 11 colleges and polytechnics across Canada.

The Minister made the announcement at Red River College , which is receiving more than $1 million in funding through the CFI to support the creation of a research space dedicated to addressing the growing demand for culinary research from the food and agriculture sectors.

Researchers at the Advanced Culinary Research Laboratory will collaborate with industry on projects including food safety research, adapting to changing consumer needs and addressing industry challenges such as food waste. The skills and experiences students gain from such partnerships gives them the valuable experience they need for jobs in the culinary industry.

Quotes

Our Government is committed to harnessing the power of science to fuel a stronger economy and a growing middle class. By investing in modern labs and equipment we are supporting students and researchers to turn made-in-Canada ideas into commercial success. Through investments like these, we are proudly putting science to work.

The Honorable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science and Sport

The Canada Foundation for Innovation is pleased to support the fine work of the colleges and polytechnics across the country as they bring together the latest technological developments and basic knowledge. They are creating veritable laboratories for ideas  exceptional environments that combine hands-on experience and community outreach. Their talented faculty and students will be leaders in building a strong economy and a better future for their communities.

Roseann OReilly Runte, President and CEO, Canada Foundation for Innovation

Red River College is a leader in culinary research and innovation. To date weve worked on more than 40 different projects with local food and agricultural producers in Manitoba to help them innovate and bring new products to market. This support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation means that we can expand our research capabilities to meet this growing demand, and create a dedicated state-of-the-art facility for researchers, instructors and students to work collaboratively, shoulder-to-shoulder with industry, to make the impossible possible when it comes to new food product creation and culinary innovation.

Paul Vogt, President and CEO, Red River College

Quick Facts

Budget 2018 made the largest single investment in basic research and science in Canadas history.

The Government of Canada aims to create two million more jobs in science and technology-related fields by 2025.

The CFI is contributing $8,214,094 for tools and equipment through the College-Industry Innovation Fund (CIIF) to 11 projects at 11 institutions

As part of this announcement, an additional $2,464,228 is being awarded under the Infrastructure Operating Fund, which helps institutions with the operating and maintenance costs associated with the new infrastructure.

Quick links

Canada Foundation for Innovation

College-Industry Innovation Fund

The CFI Research Facilities Navigator: An online database of labs and facilities that are open to working with business



Related products

A full list of the funded projects and stories about the facilities are available online at Innovation.ca. For updates, follow us on Twitter @InnovationCA and subscribe to our mailing list, along with our YouTube channel for videos and SoundCloud for podcasts about the CFI and its many transformative research projects.

Contacts

Elizabeth Shilts

Director of Communications

Canada Foundation for Innovation

613-612-1658

elizabeth.shilts@innovation.ca

Ann Marie Paquet

Press Secretary

Office of the Minister of Science

613-404-2733

ann-marie.paquet@canada.ca Media Relations

Innovation, Science, and Economic

Development Canada

343-291-1777

ic.mediarelations-mediasrelations.ic@canada.ca

About the Canada Foundation for Innovation

For more than 20 years, the CFI has been giving researchers the tools they need to think big and innovate. And a robust innovation system translates into jobs and new enterprises, better health, cleaner environments and, ultimately, vibrant communities. By investing in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment in Canadas universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions, the CFI also helps to attract and retain the worlds top talent, to train the next generation of researchers and to support world-class research that strengthens the economy and improves the quality of life for all Canadians.Washington: A US Congressional committee on Tuesday proposed waivers for countries like India from punitive sanctions against those doing business with Russia's defence industry. The Senate and House Armed Services Committee in a joint conference report to the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2019 provided a modified waiver to section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA.

A conference report refers to the final version of a bill that is negotiated between the House of Representatives and the Senate via conference committee. CAATSA waiver though general in nature is intended at preventing US sanctions on India, which is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems for around USD 4.5 billion from Russia.

Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations, and sensitive technology, said a statement issued by the Senate Armed Services Committee after the two committees announced details of the conference report.

The John McCain National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons.

At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyberattacks.

The move comes days after US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis asked the Congress to give the Secretary of State the waiver authority.

"Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment," he said.

"The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining a once-in-a-generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis said.

The Pentagon, the State Department and the Indian Embassy here did not immediately respond to request for their comments on the latest CAATSA development.

Before the NDAA 2019 is signed into law by President Donald Trump, the conference report, which aligns the different House and Senate versions of the defense budget, needs to be passed by the two chambers of the US Congress.

Traditionally, it is considered to be a done deal, as this has the support of leadership of both the ruling Republican party and the opposition Democratic party.

The proposed legislative amendments would provide a valid ground to the Trump administration to provide necessary waiver to India, even if it goes ahead with its decision to buy S-400. India's dependence on Russia for its military hardware has experienced sustained reduction over the last one decade. At the same time, India's defence trade with the US has increased.

India is in the process of placing orders worth of billions of dollars to the US ranging from fighter jets to unmanned drones. Over the past few months, CAATSA had emerged as a major irritant to India-US relationship.

An India-centric top American business advocacy group today welcomed the Congressional move. "The language (of the report) would represent a special carve-out for India on a delicate political issue," Mukesh Aghi, the president of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said.

"If enacted, the language advanced by the NDAA conference committee demonstrates the US Congress' bipartisan commitment to the US-India relationship," said Aghi.

"The exemption provides flexibility for strategic partners and allies to move away from the use of Russian military equipment to American equipment, while ensuring that US defence and security interests remain protected," the USISPF said.

Early this month, influential US lawmakers had indicated that they were working to get a waiver for India.

The Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, said India was not the target of the federal law and it should not become collateral damage of it. The administration has to find a way in which they can find a waiver for the partner on this particular thorny issue, he had then said.Officially the Communist Party is not banned, however, the Ministry of Justice has a right to prohibit it from participating in elections

Read the original text at 112.ua.

Open source

Is the Communist Party banned in Ukraine? Probably, the most of the readers would answer yes. This impression is facilitated by all the informational noise around this issue, but in fact the answer yes is wrong. Or rather it is not quite right. Let us understand the picture fully.

In early May 2014, when then acting president Oleksandr Turchynov asked the Ministry of Justice to check the Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) for the sake of legality and stated about the possibility of its prohibition. The reason was "the possible participation and active support of the pro-Russian actions in the southeast".

By June 14, then head of the Security Service (SBU), Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, presented the Ministry of Justice documents on the ban of the party. Some members of the CPU were accused of supporting separatists of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics.

July 8, the Ministry of Justice and the State Registration Service appealed to the court with a request to consider the possibility of banning the activities of the CPU in Ukraine. At the end of July 2014, the Verkhovna Rada voted for dissolving the faction of the Communist Party of Ukraine. At the same time, amendments were made to the regulations, according to which a faction with the number of deputies less than the prescribed minimum is subject to dissolution.

Dissolution of the Communist faction was issued on the same day. Later, at that time, the Speaker of the Rada, Oleksandr Turchynov, stated the following: "This is a historic event, my colleagues! I hope that there will never be any Communist factions in the Ukrainian parliament!"

However, in September the CPU was registered for the early parliamentary elections. However, as a result, the Communists were not elected to the Rada, gaining only 3.88% (with 5% threshold).

November 5, 2014, the Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended consideration of the Ministry of Justice's claim to ban the CPU, until the lawsuit filed by the CPU against the Ministry of Justice was reviewed. December 24, 2014, the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal reversed the court's decision of November 5 to suspend the proceedings on the ban on the CPU. That is, the case returned to the court of the first instance.

April 9, 2015, the Rada adopted the draft law "On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols." President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed this law on May 15. Then it came into force.

December 16, 2015, the Kyiv District Administrative Court granted the full amount of the Justice Ministry's claim by prohibiting the activities of the CPU.

December 28, 2015, the CPU appealed. January 25, 2016, the Supreme Administrative Court denied the CPU in the consideration of the cassation. The court's decision to ban the CPU did not come into force.

The Court of Appeal suspended the proceedings on the case BEFORE CONSIDERATION by the Constitutional Court of the deputies request about the constitutionality of the law on decommunization.

So, the CPU is not prohibited? Is it allowed to participate in elections?

The conclusions are as follows:

Officially, CPU is not prohibited. The party has been active on the Internet (the website, however, was closed), and sometimes it conducts some party meetings.

And yes, it might try to take part in the elections, but it might not succeed in doing this. Second secretary of the CPU, Adam Martyniuk, explained the reason: "Unfortunately, this so-called decommunization law, which is condemned by the Venice Commission (both our president and other leaders of the state promised to take into account these remarks), contains a norm that allows the Ministry of Justice to prohibit the Communist Party from participating in elections. This is a paradox: we are not officially banned by the court (as prescribed by law), but the Ministry of Justice does not allow us to participate in the elections."

Once more. CPU is not prohibited. And what about the decommunization law? It is about symbols. Here is the link to the party channel on YouTube, you can pay attention to how the party logo has changed (and the name that is being written in a shortened version).

In January 2017 (that is, two years after the allegedly final ban), the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption stated that since the Communist Party of Ukraine is not officially banned yet, it must report on its property and finances.

Recently, the Office of the CPU was visited by cyberpolice. It has conducted searches and stopped the site's activities "due to the demonstration of communist symbols."

According to the CPU leader Petro Symonenko, the reason for the website closure was posting the photo of the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1972-1989), Volodymyr Shcherbytsky.Open source

On July 24, Russian mercenaries violated the ceasefire regime in Donbas six times. The press centre of the HQ of the Joint Forces Operation reported that on Tuesday.

'The occupants opened adjusted fire from IFV armament, RPGs, heavy machineguns and small arms, attacking the Joint Forces positions in the areas of Krymske, Zolote, Pivdenne and Pavlopol', the message says.

There are no casualties among the Ukrainian military, the HQ marked.He will tell about the role and activity of the OSCE in Ukraine

Open source

Thomas Greminger, the Secretary General of the OSCE will visit Kramatorsk, Donbas this Friday as the OSCE press service reported.

During the visit, Greminger will hold a briefing where he is going to tell about the role and activity of the OSCE in Ukraine.

As we reported the OSCE SMM in Ukraine expressed the concern that its internal documents, including the dossiers on the OSCE staff, were passed to the Russian side. It was said that they contained a lot of personal information about the OSCE workers, including the types of women they were attracted to, their financial situation and whether they were susceptible to alcohol.

Later it was specified that the OSCE SMM did not collect personal and financial information about its workers.

Also, the OSCE documented the reduction of the number of attacks during the so-called grain ceasefire "in Donbas. Yet, the primary cause of the violence has not been eliminated.

Earlier the OSCE SMM observers saw a body of an 80-year-old man who died at Maiorsk checkpoint on June 27. He was waiting in a queue to enter the uncontrolled territory and then fell down.If Kyiv suspends the action of the bill, Moscow will have legal grounds to claim that Ukraine does not want to live up to Minsk agreements, the U.S. Special Envoy says

Open source

Ukraine adopted the bill on the special status of Donbas; but it doesn't work since Russia did nothing to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine. U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine's Affairs Kurt Volker said that as quoted by the Voice of America.

'I understand the disappointment of the Ukrainian lawmakers and the society. They did some necessary steps, such as passing the law on the special status and the amnesty law. Russia, on its part, did nothing to bring the conflict to an end, to withdraw the troops', the official said.

He admitted that the law was adopted, but never actually implemented.

'There's actually no special status. It won't start working until there's an agreement, until Russia withdraws troops and local elections take place', Volker added. 'I don't see any harm in renewing the bill. Nothing will change from today till the moment when it's extended. I don't think there's any harm. On the other hand, Russia will use the suspension of the law as a reason to complain about Ukraine's behavior. They'll say Ukraine doesn't want to live up by Minsk agreement. So just don't give Russia that kind of argument'.

As we reported, on July 24, Russian militants landed 33 attacks on the positions of Ukraine's government forces. No casualties were reported among the Ukrainian troops.

According to the HQ of the Joint Forces Operation, the enemy used Minsk-banned weapons three times.

Militants opened fire in the areas of Krymske, Zolote, Luhanske, Pivdenne, Novhorodske, Zalizne, Avdiivka, Mariinka, Opytne, Pisky, Novotroitske, Vodyane, Pavlopol, Talakivka, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne.

The occupant forces used 120-mm mortars near Vodyane and Lebeydnske; 122-mm artillery shells hit Lebedynske, too.

One enemy fighter sustained combat wounds over the mentioned period of time.The 'Superior Court' of the annexed Crimea upheld the sentence in the case of Hennadiy Lymeshko, the Ukrainian citizen accused of preparing the acts of sabotage. Radio Liberty reported that, specifying that the self-styled authority made the respective decision on July 24.

Lymeshko asked the jury to exclude the political hostility motive from the verdict; however, the court turned down his request.

The defendant and his lawyer filed an appeal against the court's decision. The defense considers the verdict inappropriate - in terms of violation, he committed, asking to cut down the prison term to four years. The actual term makes eight years behind the bars.

Previously, Ukraines Defense Ministry reported that the Ukrainian citizen Hennadiy Lymeshko, detained in the Crimea and announced to Ukraines Security Service officer by the FSB, was a contracted professional soldier and was dismissed in May 2017 due to his incompetence.

Russian special forces published the video of this detention and interrogation. On camera, he named himself Hennadiy Lymeshko and admitted his guilt in alleged sabotage on the territory of the annexed Crimea.Artists and social activists from across Ukraine wrote Oleg Sentsov a letter, asking the political prisoner to cease the ongoing hunger strike. Over 50 people put their signatures, including poets Lina Kostenko, Ivan Malkovych, Serhiy Zhadan, actress Rymma Zyubina, painter Borys Yegiazaryan and others. Yevhen Zakharov, the head of the Directors Board of Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights posted this on Facebook.

'There aren't so many people with the willpower like yours. We know you don't like it when people say good things about you. But we need such volitive and stout-hearted man alive - so that one can go on and struggle for all of our guys you are ready to die for. We need you. Even from behind the bars, you managed to unite us all for this struggle', reads the message.

'Sooner or later, in the near future, we will set you free. We are Ukraine and many people of good strong will in the civilized world. We ask you (to stop starving, - 112 International) on the behalf of all of us. On the behalf of those who value life and will above all. We ask you with respect and love', the letter says.

Earlier, it was reported that according to Nataliya Kaplan, Sentsov's cousin, he was in a terminal state. Though later, Kaplan herself denied this statement.

As it was reported earlier, Ukrainian movie director Oleg Sentsov and Crimean activist Oleksandr Kolchenko were detained by the Russian FSB in the annexed Crimea. Both were taken to Russia. Sentsov was charged with preparing a terrorist act in Crimea and sentenced to 20 years in the high-security penal colony. Kolchenko was sentenced to ten-years-long imprisonment.

Oleg Sentsov announced a hunger strike on May 14. This way, he demands that all Ukrainians detained in Russia and annexed Crimea be released. Sentsov said he was ready to die if the requirements were not fulfilled.Railway platforms are constructed near the left wing of the landing hall of Boryspil International Airport's Terminal D. Avianews.com reported that, specifying that the two platforms will service the transfers between the Ukrainian capital and the airport itself.

Besides, construction workers built the embankment for the new railroad tracks of the current railroad; the new tracks lead to the conjunction point with the highway, which connects Kyiv and Kharkiv.

As we reported earlier, Boryspil International Airport headed ACI Europe, the International Airports Council rating based on the results of May.

The airport takes the first place among other major airports, according to the results. The press office of the airport reports this on their page on Facebook.

ACI Europe ranked 229 airports, which represent 88 percent of the European passenger traffic.

Boryspil International Airport is the biggest Ukrainian Airport. It accounted for 67 percent of all passenger traffic through the airports of Ukraine, according to the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine. The airport set his record on the number of serviced travelers in the amount of 8.65 million, which is 19 percent more than in the previous year. The passenger flow has been growing yet for the third year in a row mainly due to the share of transfer passenger traffic. Last year it grew by 50 percent to 2.3 million passengers and amounted 27 percent of the total volume.

As it was reported earlier, Boryspil Airport serviced more than 2.3 million passengers for the first quarter of 2018.Naftogaz insists on the resolution of the problem with Kyivenergo debt to resume the gas supply to TPP-5 and TPP-6 (thermal power plant)

Open source

Kyiv authority calls the government to consider the situation of the city gas supply in the Committee of Emergencies as there is a risk of TPP suspension, which are producing heat and electricity, as the press office of Kyiv City State Administration reports.

It is noted that the situation will get worse from August 1, as the plants will have to be suspended due to the absence of the gas. Petro Panteleev, Deputys head of Kyiv City State Administration claimed.

According to him, the situation in Kyiv is nearly critical, as Naftogaz didnt sign an agreement with Kyivenergo for the gas supply. As a result, several thousand houses are left without water.

We have literally come from the office of the head of Naftogaz, as we continue the negotiations. You know the position of the city: we are ready to solve the problem of the debts but not to put it in dependence on the conclusion of the basic agreement. There is a courts decision, which justifies the position of the city within a legal framework. But we understand that the judicial perspective is a very long way. TPPs have a risk of suspension from August 1, as there are no gas supply contracts, Panteleev said.

He called to consider the problem of electricity supply in Kyiv at the meeting of the State Commission on Technogenic-Environmental Safety and Emergencies.

The Vice-Chairman of the Kyiv Administration noted that Kyivenergo has all permissions, tariffs, and licenses needed for management of TPP but the absence of gas is a threat for the vital activity of the city.Detroit, Michigan & Queretaro, Mexico, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DELTA AIR LINES AND AEROMEXICO LAUNCH NEW QUERETARO-DETROIT SERVICE

Detroit is known for its automotive industry and extensive cultural diversity.

Queretaro features a blend of history, modernity, and industrial development.

Detroit, July 25, 2018.  Delta Air Lines and its partner Aeromexico will connect the city of Detroit with Queretaro starting September 17, 2018, creating a bridge between these two major industrial cities.

This is the 13th route launched under the Joint Cooperation Agreement (JCA) between both airlines, strengthening the power of the network in the transborder market.

Detroit is famous for its automotive industry; however, the city also offers extensive cultural diversity. Travelers will be able to discover the citys theater district, the second largest of its kind in the United States after Broadway in New York City, or visit the Eastern Market that has served the city for more than 170 years.

The city is home to the Detroit Institute of Arts, housing a collection regarded among the top six museums in the United States, featuring The Detroit Industry Murals, one of the works of the leading exponents of muralism in Mexico, Diego Rivera.

On the other hand, the capital city of Queretaro offers a blend of history and modernity. Its historic center considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, offers ample information not only about the states past but also about the history of Mexico. Its architecture, dating back to the 16th century, offers enviable panoramic views that take visitors back in time.

Connectivity is crucial to a tourist destination like Queretaro. Due to its geographic location, our state is strategically close to the countrys main ports and cities. Queretaro has been strengthening its international connectivity in recent years and, today, Aeromexico indisputably contributes as it bets on Queretaro once again, and its potential for tourism, industry, and business, with this new flight that unites us with Detroit, a major hub for travelers from across the globe. Our state thus strengthens its presence in our main international tourist market, the United States, said Hugo Burgos Garcia, Secretary of Tourism of the State of Queretaro.

The destination has also welcomed modernization as it ranks first in economic innovation in Mexico according to the National Competitiveness Institute (IMCO). The state of Queretaro holds fourth place in aerospace investment worldwide, and 45% of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the aerospace industry in Mexico.

We are pleased to see Aeromexico flying four routes from Detroit just one year after the airline returned to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, said Wayne County Airport Authority Interim CEO Chad Newton. Queretaro is another route important to our revived and vibrant auto industry. It is also an example of DTWs growth. Queretaro will become the third new international destination from Detroit added by an airline this year.

At Aeromexico, we strive not only to connect these two destinations and boost the regions industrial corridor, but also to promote the tourist and cultural potential offered by both cities. We are confident that our passengers will be able to enjoy both destinations to their fullest, said Paul Verhagen, Senior Vice President of International Sales at Aeromexico.

The route will be operated on Embraer 190 aircraft with 99 passenger seats, 11 in Clase Premier Aeromexicos Business Class Cabin, with the following schedule:

Detroit-Queretaro**

AM 2721 1:50 p.m. 5:25 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday

Queretaro-Detroit**

AM 2720 7:10 a.m. 12:25 p.m. Monday, Thursday, Friday

*Times published are local to each country and are subject to changes without notice.

The new route provides customers more options to connect from Deltas second-largest hub to cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, and Milwaukee, as the new service drives business and boosts the economy of both countries, while offering customers the possibility of discovering new experiences through the distinctive service provided by Mexicos global airline.





About Aeromexico / Delta

The Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines Joint Cooperation Agreement (JCA), creates an expanded transborder route network enhancing competition between Mexico and the United States. With more than 1,100 weekly transborder flights, the airlines have added new destinations providing convenient schedules benefiting the customers of both companies, while deepening the relationship they have shared for more than 18 years as founders of the SkyTeam global airline alliance.

Aeromexico offers greater access to Mexico through its hubs in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, and Delta provides service in the United States through its connecting hubs in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York-JFK, Salt Lake City, and Seattle.

The airlines are enhancing the customer experience through increased connectivity, by investing in airport facilities, boarding gates, VIP lounges, and frequent flyer benefits through Club Premier and SkyMiles accruals. For more information on Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines visit: delta-aeromexico.com

AttachmentsHungary is also ready to provide 15 tons of chlorine, which is enough for uninterrupted operation of 18 enterprises of the water utility within a month and a half

Open source

Hungarys Government sent three tons of liquid chlorine for drinking water disinfection to Zakarpattia region as a humanitarian aid. The website of Zakarpattia Region State Administration reported.

Yesterday, on July 24 a truck with liquid chlorine arrived at the international checkpoint Tisza on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border accompanied by Jozsef Buhajla, Hungarys Consul General in Uzhgorod. Zakarpattias Governor Hennadiy Moskal himself accepted the cargo.

Moskal stated that he asked Hungary for help right after a critical situation with the chlorine supply in Ukraine emerged.

And we heard an affirmative answer right away. Today, three tons of chlorine arrived in Zakarpattia for Uzhgorod water utility. We will spread this strategically important substance throughout the regions depending on the need, Zakarpattias Governor stated.

Moskal also stressed that Hungary was ready to provide 15 tons of chlorine, which is enough for uninterrupted operation of 18 enterprises of the water utility within a month and a half.

We understand clearly what the absence of this substance at the enterprises can lead to, so we could not refuse to help, Buhajla said.

He emphasized that Hungarys aid concerns all the regions residents regardless of their nationality. Buhajla also added that their government will continue providing various humanitarian aid for the region.

As we reported the Security Service of Ukraine began the check of the actions of the "Dniroazot" officials that led to the creation of the liquid chlorine deficit, the main reagent for the continued provision of the drinking water for the population.

As it was reported earlier, the stocks of the liquid chlorine in Kyiv are running extremely low; the lack of the substance used for cleansing of the water may result in the situation where the residents may be left without supplies of drinking water.

Previously, Ukrainian water companies faced a tough situation with the disinfection of water supplies, since Dniproazot company, the manufacturer of liquid chlorine announced that it would stop production of the substance and, thus, stop the supplies. Due to the fact, some water pipeline companies have enough chlorine for up to no more than 20 days.

In spite of the fact that the government already reached the agreement with Dniproazot, the production still has not been restored so far.Vitaly Gidevan, an artist from Kyiv, created a mural painting  owls head above a book, as Segodnya reports.

The artist has been working on the painting of five days. He noted that he used more than 35 spray paint cans for this.

Owl symbolizes wisdom, it seems like it leafs through a book. An enormous universe is hiding in a book. We are connected with it since the birth. The alphabet, fairytales, and then  a fascinating world of science, fantasy and love It gives us an opportunity to discover other dimensions, to live a new life. Reading the same book, we all imagine a unique plot. This wealth of knowledge gives one a strong power to make the greatest discoveries, immense constructions and heroic deeds, Gidevan told.

The artist specified that he interlaced the symbols of his own life into the painting. The number of the pages in the book, which turn into birds, symbolize 11 years of the artists activity.

Earlier, Gidevan created a graffiti of a roller bird on Sevastopil square and a painting of a lynx surrounded by the blue birds this spring.

As it was reported, the residents of a high-rise apartment house spoiled a mural with a thermal insulation. Last month the artists created a huge graffiti with the Cossacks in Kharkiv region.Also, the OSCE was reminded of the unfinished investigation of the murder of the SMM members in Donbas

The representatives of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group have appealed to the OSCE with a request to hold an investigation of the messages on the possible stealing of the personal data of the OSCE SMM members as Iryna Gerashchenko reported on Facebook.

"Ukraine strongly stands against that Russians, who are present in the mission, spying instead of the observers work defined by a mandate. Ukraine demanded from the Russian representatives the answers on the involvement in the espionage and illegal activity to exclude such activity of the Russian special services in the diplomatic, security and humanitarian missions in the future," she claimed.

Also, the OSCE was reminded of the unfinished investigation of the murder of the SMM members from the US and Europe in Donbas. Also, Ukraine expects the investigation and punishment of the militant who attempted to rape the OSCE SMM observer.

As we reported the OSCE SMM in Ukraine expressed the concern that its internal documents, including the dossiers on the OSCE staff, were passed to the Russian side. It was said that they contained a lot of personal information about the OSCE workers, including the types of women they were attracted to, their financial situation and whether they were susceptible to alcohol.

Later it was specified that the OSCE SMM did not collect personal and financial information about its workers.Also, Poroshenko ordered the embassies to work out the issue on other possible foreign suppliers

Open source

Ukraine will purchase a liquid chlorine for the water utilities in Uzbekistan and Romania. Hennady Zubko, the Minister for Regional Development, Building and Housing of Ukraine claimed this as RBK-Ukraine reported.

The minister noted that the situation with a deficit of the liquid chlorine posed a threat to a lot of the citizens of Ukraine who get the drinking water from the central water supplying system.

"The enterprises in Kharkiv, Kropyvnytsky, Mykolaiv were on the verge of stopping. Another five enterprises claimed about small amounts of the chlorine's stocks. As we got this message, we could take two tanks from "Dniproazot" and sent them to Kharkiv and Kyiv. Then we started the supplies from Romaniaand know Kyiv uses the chlorine from Uzbekistan. As for today, the Romanian chlorine is used by a few water supply systems. We also expect the supplies from Uzbekistan," the minister said.

He also reported that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko interfered in the situation and ordered the embassies to work out the issue on other possible foreign suppliers.

"I think that we will separately make a decision on the order of the Prime Minister for the provision of the state reserve with chlorine at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers tomorrow," Zubko specified.

As we reported the Security Service of Ukraine began the check of the actions of the "Dniroazot" officials that led to the creation of the liquid chlorine deficit, the main reagent for the continued provision of the drinking water for the population.

As it was reported earlier, the stocks of the liquid chlorine in Kyiv are running extremely low; the lack of the substance used for cleansing of the water may result in the situation where the residents may be left without supplies of drinking water.

"Dniproazot" resumed work on July 20.The prosecutors have already filed the motion on the forcible blood and hair withdrawal of the driver

The investigation on the case of a deadly car accident in Pechersk district of Kyiv is taken under the personal control of Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yury Lutsenko as he reported on Facebook.

Also, he noted the correctness of the actions of the police in this situation.

"The police in Kyiv as well as in Kharkiv earlier, worked tough and correctly. The driver is detained; the analysis of urine for the alcohol and drugs was taken. The motion for the forcible blood and hair withdrawal of the driver is already filed for the full results of the analysis," the prosecutor general said.

Also, he said that the prosecutors have begun the preparatory work for the appeal to the court on the restrictive measure. The prosecutors will ask for the detention without a right for a bail.

As we reported Hummer vehicle ran over a girl, which resulted in her death in the ambulance car on the evening of July 24. He flew the scene after the run over but was detained.

The driver of the car is already served charges due to the violation of the traffic rules or exploitation of the transport by persons who drive it. Now, the suspect is at the detention facility.English Icelandic

Strong revenue and EBIT growth







Financial highlights

Orders received were EUR 291.1m (2Q17: 272.7m).

Revenues were EUR 296.7m (2Q17: 244.0m).

EBIT* was EUR 43.2m (2Q17: 35.9m), translating to an EBIT* margin of 14.6% (2Q17: 14.7%).

Net result was EUR 29.5m (2Q17: 18.6m) and earnings per share (EPS) were EUR 4.31 cents (2Q17: 2.62 cents).

Cash flow from operating activities before interest and tax in the quarter was EUR 56.4m (2Q17: 61.2m).

Net debt/EBITDA was x1.8 at quarter-end (1Q18: x2.0). Targeted capital structure is x2-3 net debt/EBITDA.

The order book was EUR 523.2m (YE17: 472.3m).





Arni Oddur Thordarson, CEO:

We continue on a good note with record revenues and stable profit margins in the second quarter. In the first 6 months of the year, revenues and EBIT were up 18% compared with the same period last year. It requires the passion and dedication of our 5,500 employees, as well as great partnership with our customers and suppliers, to deliver double digit organic growth as we anticipate this year. The order book is strong and cash flow remains robust enabling us to continue to invest in the platform to support further growth and value creation.

We are pleased to announce that Marel has reached an agreement to acquire MAJA, a German food processing equipment manufacturer focused on skinning, portioning and ice machines. Having worked with them through Sulmaq in Brazil in recent years, we know them to be a highly innovative and well managed business with around 200 employees and annual revenues of roughly EUR 30 million. We expect to finalize the transaction later this year.

Market conditions have been exceptionally favorable in recent quarters and are now adjusting towards more normalized levels. Driven by innovation and market penetration complemented with acquisitions, we aim to continue to grow faster than the long-term market rate.







BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

Acquisition of MAJA, German food processing equipment manufacturer

Marel has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of MAJA-Maschinenfabrik Hermann Schill GmbH & Co. KG and related companies (MAJA). This transaction is in line with Marels strategic objective to be a full-line supplier of advanced food processing solutions and accelerate market penetration through acquisitions.

Since its founding in 1955, MAJA has been a highly innovative manufacturer of food processing machinery, specializing in skinning and portioning with main focus on the meat market as well as ice machines for the preservation of fresh food. Based in Kehl-Goldscheuer in Germany, MAJA has around 200 employees and annual revenues of roughly EUR 30 million in 2017.

With MAJAs innovative product offering and complimentary geographical reach, Marel is able to offer full-line solutions for the meat industry globally and strengthen its market presence. Marel also aims to utilize MAJAs high-quality innovation and manufacturing site as an addition to existing production sites. MAJAs experienced management team will stay on board and continue to lead MAJA.

The closing date of this transaction is expected to be in the third quarter of 2018. Closing is subject to anti-trust approval and standard closing conditions. The transaction will be funded from cash on hand.

Changes in the organizational structure and Executive Team

In June 2018, Marel announced an organizational change where the Commercial function was split into two new functions, Service and Global Markets and new appointments were made to Marels Executive Team. This new structure will allow for closer proximity to customers and better scalability to support Marels ambitious growth strategy going forward.

Ulrika Lindberg was appointed as the Executive Vice President of Service, and Einar Einarsson was appointed as the Executive Vice President of Global Markets. Ulrika has over 20 years of experience in global services having held senior positions at large international organizations such as Alfa Laval and Tetra Pak. Einar has managed Marels sales and service operations in North America since he became President of Marel Inc. in the US in 2003. Prior to his US posting, Einar held several positions within Marel as a Sales Engineer, Area Sales Manager and Product Manager. Simultaneously, Petur Gudjonsson stepped down from his position as Executive Vice President of Commercial and will take on a new role within Marel.





FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN 2Q 2018

Order book at good level, balanced across geographies

There was a solid intake of orders over the quarter. Marels commercial position continues to benefit from its full-line offering and steady launch of innovative high-tech products for smarter processing. On the back of exceptionally strong orders received in 1Q18, orders received in 2Q18 totaled EUR 291m, up 7% from the EUR 273m in 2Q17. Orders were well spread geographically and across the three key industries.

The order book was EUR 523m at quarter-end, compared to 472m at year-end 2017. Greenfields and projects with longer lead times constitute the vast majority of the order book. The strong order book continues to provide a good foundation for the full operational year 2018. The order book was at a very good level at the end of 2Q18, equaling 46% of 12-month trailing revenues.



Strong revenue growth with a stable profit margin

Marel continues to deliver strong revenue growth with a stable profit margin. Revenues were a record EUR 296.7m in 2Q18 and the adjusted EBIT margin was 14.6%. EBIT was EUR 43.2m, up 20.3% year-on-year.

Assembly and manufacturing load was very high in key locations. The recently implemented co-location strategy for manufacturing has allowed for better production management, which in addition to the recently extended Nitra facility and outsourcing has been a key success factor in the improved management of the production load.

Non-recurring advisory costs, relating to recently announced changes in the organizational structure to strengthen the global sales and service platform, M&A activities and the review of possible listing alternatives, were unusually high in the quarter and not especially adjusted for.

All industries delivered strong revenues in 2Q18. Poultry continues to be the biggest driver with 52% of total revenues and EBIT of 17.4%. The meat industry showed marginal improvement in the quarter with 32% of revenues and EBIT* of 12.8%. The fish industry is on track with 15% of revenues and showing good margin for the second quarter in a row with EBIT margin of 8.5% in 2Q18, up from 5.0% at 4Q17.

Robust cash flow continues to support substantial investments in innovation and the future platform

Cash flow remained robust in 2Q18. Cash flow from operating activities before interest and tax in the quarter was EUR 56.4 (2Q17: 61.2). Marel continues to invest in the business to prepare for future growth and its full potential. Investment activities are expected to be, on average, above normalized levels for the coming quarters.

Net interest bearing debt decreased by around EUR 28m in 2Q18. Net debt/EBITDA including lease liabilities was x1.8 at the end of 2Q18, compared to x2.0 at the end of 1Q18. Currently leverage is below the targeted capital structure of x2-3 net debt/EBITDA, which underpins the financial capacity to support further growth and value creation.

Net result in 2Q18 was EUR 29.5m, up 59% compared to EUR 18.6m in 2Q17, translating to Earnings per share (EPS) of EUR 4.31 cents (2Q17: EUR 2.62 cents).

IFRS impact minimal and in line with previous estimates

On January 1, 2018, Marel implemented the new IFRS standards. For detailed impact and explanations of these new standards reference is made to the 2017 Consolidated Financial Statements and 2Q18 Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements. The impact in 2Q18 was minimal and in line with previous estimates.

Impact of new IFRS standards in 2Q18:

IFRS 9 (Financial instruments): Very limited with main impact on net finance costs which was EUR 0.3 m higher. Non material impact on adjusted EBIT.

IFRS 15 (Revenues from contracts with customers): Very limited impact on revenues of negative EUR 0.1m and positive EBIT effect of EUR 0.5m. Revenues and adjusted EBIT are therefore EUR 297m and EUR 43m respectively both before and after IFRS.

IFRS 16 (Leases): Minimal in 2Q18 and in line with what was estimated at year-end 2017. Non-material impact on adjusted EBIT, annual effect on EBITDA is estimated around EUR 8m and net interest bearing debt increased by EUR 31m.

Impact of new IFRS standards in 1Q18:

Impact of IFRS 9 (Financial instruments): Very limited with main impact on net finance costs which was EUR 0.3 m higher. Non material impact on adjusted EBIT.

Impact of IFRS 15 (Revenues from contracts with customers): Revenues were EUR 288m with an adjusted EBIT of 44m, but would have been EUR 292m and EUR 47m respectively before the IFRS 15 effect.

Impact of IFRS 16 (Leases), was minimal in 1Q18 and in line with what was estimated at year-end 2017. Non-material impact on adjusted EBIT, annual effect on EBITDA is estimated around EUR 8m and net interest bearing debt increased by EUR 31m.

Impact of main items on opening balance sheet as at January 1, 2018:

IFRS 9: an increase in retained earnings of EUR 4m relating to modifications in the Groups loan facilities.

IFRS 15: deferred revenues of EUR 16m resulting in a decrease in retained earnings of EUR 9m, which deferral leads to an increase in the order book of EUR 16m (one time effect).

IFRS 16 (early adopted): recognition of right of use assets and lease liability of EUR 33m. No impact on retained earnings.

INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE IN Q2 2018

Marel Poultry - 52% of total revenues and 17.4% EBIT margin

Marel Poultry contributed EUR 155 million in revenues in 2Q18, or 52% of total revenues, and adjusted EBIT margin was 17.4%.



With the most complete product range and the largest installed base worldwide, Marel Poultry is a leading global provider of advanced food processing systems and services for broilers, turkeys and ducks. Strong orders were received across all product groups in 2Q18. Projects were well distributed geographically with large orders booked in the UK and Oman.

Revenues for Marel Poultry in 2Q18 were up 16% YoY or EUR 155m (2Q17: EUR 133m), EBIT was EUR 27m (2Q17: 25.0) and the EBIT margin was 17.4%.

Marel Meat - 32% of total revenues and 12.8% EBIT* margin

Marel Meat contributed EUR 94 million in revenues in 2Q18, or 32% of total revenues, and the adjusted EBIT margin was 12.8%.

Marel Meat had good order intake in 2Q18. Projects were well distributed geographically, with large orders booked in Russia, Vietnam, Spain and China.

Revenues in 2Q18 were good for Marel Meat. Manufacturing load was very good in the quarter which improved revenues. Revenues were EUR 94m, up 19% YoY (2Q17: EUR 79m) and adjusted EBIT was EUR 12m, up 16% YoY (2Q17: 10m), resulting in an adjusted EBIT margin of 12.8%.

Recent acquisitions have made Marel Meat a full-line supplier to the meat processing industry, from live animal intake to finished consumer product, and larger installations and greenfield projects have become more prominent. To better align execution with strategy and ensure the best customer journey for our customers in the meat processing sector, Marel Meat introduced some internal organizational changes in April 2018. The two business units of primary and secondary processing were combined under a new management team, and a more focused approach was defined for the sales organization and other facets of the segment to ensure better scalability.

The agreement to acquire MAJA, a German food processing equipment manufacturer, will better position Marel in its full-line approach in the meat processing sector and support its growth objectives. MAJA is a highly innovative manufacturer of food processing machinery, specializing in skinning and portioning with main focus on the meat market as well as ice machines for the presentation of fresh food. With MAJAs complimentary product offering and geographic reach, Marel will be able to further accelerate market penetration in the meat processing sector.

Marel Fish - 15% of total revenues and 8.5% EBIT margin

Marel Fish contributed EUR 45 million in revenues in 2Q18, or 15% of total revenues. The adjusted EBIT margin of 8.5% is in line with 1Q18 however still below long term targets.

2Q18 was a good quarter for Marel Fish who have shown continued operational improvements, although results are still below long-term targets. Projects were well distributed geographically and between different products. Marel Fish is focused on becoming a full-line provider for wild whitefish, farmed salmon and farmed whitefish. Large orders were secured in Chile and Iceland.

In 2Q18, Marel Fish generated EUR 45m in revenues and EUR 4m in EBIT, translating to an EBIT margin of 8.5%. This is a 54% increase in revenues and a significant rebound in EBIT compared to 2Q17.

Marel Fish has been transformed in recent years and is delivering higher EBIT margins for the second quarter in a row. Higher investments in innovation to close application gaps, and greater emphasis on standardization of the business have delivered good orders received and improved margins. The landmark next generation salmon plant for Leroy in Norway is a recent example of excellent project execution for Marel Fish.





Outlook

In light of the results delivered in the beginning of the year and robust order book, we expect strong organic revenue growth and good operational results for the full year 2018. The third quarter is expected to be softer than other quarters in 2018 due to seasonality and product mix.

Market conditions have been exceptionally good in recent quarters and are expected to adjust towards normalized levels. Marels management expects 4-6% average annual market growth in the long term.

In the period 2017-2026, Marel is targeting 12% average annual revenue growth through market penetration and innovation, complemented by strategic partnerships and acquisitions.

Marels management expects 4-6% average annual market growth in the long term. Marel aims to grow organically faster than the market, driven by innovation and market penetration.

Maintaining solid operational performance and strong cash flow supports average 5-7% revenues growth annually by acquisition.

Marels management expects Earnings per Share (EPS) to grow faster than revenues.

Growth will not be linear but based on opportunities and economic fluctuations. Operational results may vary from quarter to quarter due to general economic developments, fluctuations in orders received and timing of deliveries of larger systems.





Investor meeting and webcast 26 July 2018

On Thursday July 26, 2018, at 8:30 am (GMT), Marel will host an investor meeting where CEO Arni Oddur Thordarson and CFO Linda Jonsdottir will give an overview of the financial results and operational highlights. The meeting is conducted in English and will be held at the Marel headquarters in Iceland.

Please note that the meeting will also be webcast live on marel.com.





Financial calendar

Marel will publish its interim and annual Consolidated Financial Statements according to the below financial calendar:

Q3 2018 results - 31 October 2018

Q4 2018 results - 6 February 2019

Annual General Meeting - 6 March 2019

Financial results will be disclosed and published after market closing.





Investor relations contact

Tinna Molphy, Manager in Investor Relations, investors@marel.com and tel: (+354) 563 8603.





Forward-looking statements

Statements in this press release that are not based on historical facts are forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based on managements current estimates and expectations, forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. We therefore caution the reader that there are a variety of factors that could cause business conditions and results to differ materially from what is contained in our forward-looking statements, and that we do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement.

Market share data

Statements regarding market share, including those regarding Marels competitive position, are based on outside sources such as research institutes, industry and dealer panels in combination with management estimates. Where information is not yet available to Marel, those statements may also be based on estimates and projections prepared by outside sources or management. Rankings are based on sales unless otherwise stated.

AttachmentsTARPON SPRINGS, Fla., July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thunder Energies Corporation, a publicly traded company at the OTCQB under the stock symbol TNRG, announces that its Chief Scientist Dr. Ruggero M. Santilli has delivered an invited Keynote Talk on July 11, 2018 at the International Conference on Pure and Applied Mathematics (ICPAM) held at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary (http://www.icpam.org/). The invited presentation was on the mathematical, theoretical and industrial aspects related to the synthesis of the neutron from the hydrogen (patent pending) and its application for National Security (http://www.icpam.org/ks.html). The successful Keynote Talk was followed by special sessions on the new isomathematics, isomechanics and isochemistry underlying the novel neutron technology (http://www.santilli-foundation.org/docs/Budapest-Schedule-2018.pdf).



Dr. Santilli states" "It was very rewarding for me as the Founder and Chief Scientist of Thunder Energies Corporation to see such an interest from scientists from various continents who participated to the ICPAM 2018 Conference. Particularly rewarding for me was the interest shown by participating engineers in the main applications of our Directional Neutron Synthesis for the detection of concealed nuclear material, precious metals in mines and other applications, as well as their interest to commercialize the DNS technology in various primary countries. All in all, I believe that this growing interest worldwide will soon promote sales of our neutron equipment for national security" (http://thunder-energies.com/docs/TEC-DNS-3Za.pdf)



Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.



Brian Buckley

Media Manager

Thunder Energies Corporation

Info@Thunder-Energies.com

727-940-3944

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ca58e39d-e910-4c84-841a-667fd30e786bNot for distribution in the United States or through United States wire services

TORONTO, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Mint Corporation (TSXV:MIT) ( Mint  or the  Company ), is pleased to announce that Mr. Brian Hendry has been appointed as the Companys Chief Financial Officer.



Mr. Hendry, CPA, CMA and CFA, is a seasoned financial executive with over 25 years experience. During his career, he has worked as the Chief Financial Officer of Canadian companies within the software and venture capital sectors, as well as having conducted financing, mergers and acquisition, and initial public offering transactions for technology, business services and consumer products companies.

Mr. Hendry replaces Ms. Kym No who served as Interim CFO and who has left the Company to pursue other opportunities.

Vishy Karamadam, CEO of Mint, said We welcome Brian Hendry to our management team. His finance and capital markets background will be a valuable addition to the Mint senior management team as it continues its global expansion plans. We would also like to thank Kym No for her valuable contribution to Mint as Interim CFO.

Mr. Hendry has been granted options to purchase 400,000 common shares of Mint, exercisable for $0.175 per share on or before July 23, 2021, subject to vesting.

Mint also announces the termination by mutual agreement of the payment processing services agreement which was announced by Mint on July 5, 2018.

About Mint

The Mint Corporation (TSXV:MIT), through its majority owned subsidiaries (the Mint Group), is a globally certified payments company headquartered in Toronto, Canada with its primary business in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Mint Group is approved by the UAE Central Bank, Mastercard and UnionPay as a third-party payment processor. Mint processes over US$1 billion in payroll annually for hundreds of corporate clients and financial institutions and the Mint community consists of approximately 400,000 cardholders. Mints clients include some of the leading blue-chip companies in the UAE. Gateway is 51% beneficially owned by Mint.

Mint provides employers with automated payroll services and a proprietary Automated Teller Machine (ATM) network for their unbanked employees. Mint community members are issued a personalized, globally accepted, MasterCard or UnionPay card and a linked mobile wallet, where their salaries are deposited. This mobile wallet effectively becomes the employees bank account.

Mint intends to offer a comprehensive suite of services through the mobile wallet, including remittance, overdraft, loans, mobile phone top-up, rewards, and insurance, among others. The mobile wallet enables unbanked employees to purchase services and spend through the wallet.

For further information:

Vishy Karamadam

Email: vishy@themintcorp.com

Tel: (647) 352-0666

www.themintcorp.comWelcome to the Thunderdome, friend: New York is about to experience an "extended period of severe weather and excessive rainfall," according to a warning from the office of Governor Andrew Cuomo and also the weather widget on my phone, which is just a scroll of lightning bolt icons forever. After allowing us a brief respite from hail and heavy rains, The Weather is coming back for more.

What kind of apocalyptic monsoon are we looking at this time? The governor's office warns of "heavy downpours and thunderstorms," especially in the central and southern portion of the state, until Wednesday at least. All the rain could translate to flash floods and washed out roadways, making travel a particularly precarious proposition, especially north of the city. The National Weather Service has issued a rip current warning for all Atlantic ocean beaches in New York.

CBS News reports that a tropical storm is battling its way up the East Coast, from North Carolina toward New York. This bullying weather system has been hunkered over Pennsylvania, pummeling the state with heavy rains. Here's a taste of what's to come:

Rounds of heavy rain caused severe flooding in Tremont, Pennsylvania, this morning. Several water rescues were conducted in the area. The flood risk will continue in the Northeast for the next several days: https://t.co/XfdbgbB3Yu pic.twitter.com/iwlFmIlgJR  AccuWeather (@breakingweather) July 23, 2018 WATCH: A groundhog in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania is trying to figure out what to do. It is stranded on a chain link fence in the middle of flooding near Swatara Creek. There are flash flood warnings for parts of Pennsylvania after several inches of rain. pic.twitter.com/vi36NU8Kym  KTVO Television (@KTVOTV) July 24, 2018

Heavy thunderstorms are predicted off and on throughout the day on Wednesday, but unfortunately we will continue to toil in the heat and humidity into forever, despite torrential downpours. According to the Weather Channel, Sunday is the only thunderstorm-less day in the coming week and a half, so plan accordingly. But don't worry, you can always cool off in a refreshing subway waterfall.

Update, 6:40 p.m.: A federal judge ordered the government to release Pablo Villavicencio from his detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and also blocked him from being deportedabout six hours after hearing the case on Tuesday. Villavicencio was detained in June while delivering pizza to the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty agreed with Villavicencio's attorneys that he had the authority to rule on the casebecause it started in New Yorkinstead of sending it to a court in New Jersey. The government had argued for moving it across the river because Villavicencio is being held in the Hudson County jail.

"The rule of law, humanity and morality prevailed tonight with the Court's order releasing Pablo back to his family and community," said Adriene Holder, Attorney-In-Charge of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society. "This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart."

Crotty ruled that Villavicencio has the right to stay in the U.S. while his application for a green card is pending. His U.S. citizen wife sponsored him and they began the process in February.

BREAKING: Judge Crotty grants writ of habeas corpus to New York pizza delivery man Pablo Villavicencio Calderon and stays his deportation.https://t.co/HYtCPX6n1i pic.twitter.com/i1zXlbSjgb  Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) July 24, 2018

Read Crotty's order here (PDF).

Earlier story: A federal judge in Manhattan heard arguments Tuesday on whether to release Pablo Villavicencio, the 35-year-old undocumented immigrant who was detained while delivering pizza to the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn last month.

Although Villavicencio's lawyers are trying to get him freed, they spent much of their time focusing on why case should be heard in New York instead of in New Jersey, where he has been detained for more than 50 days.

Villavicencio is at the Hudson County Correctional facility, which is under a federal contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The government's attorney, Joseph Cordaro, told U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty that a New Jersey Court would be the proper venue for the case because that's where Villavicencio is being detained.

Listen to Beth Fertig's afternoon report on WNYC:

However, Villavicencio's counsel countered that the original decision to detain him was made by ICE officials in New York City, and that the Hudson County jail cannot release him without approval from ICE.

Villavicencio came to the U.S. a decade ago from Ecuador. An immigration court gave him three months to leave the country voluntarily in 2010, but he stayed and is now considered deportable.

This information surfaced when he was stopped by a guard at the Fort Hamilton military base in Brooklyn while delivering pizza on June 1st. His job had taken him there many times before. But on that night his New York City municipal ID card was questioned and a guard conducted a background check. He was then turned over to ICE when the deportation order was discovered.

The incident stunned immigrant advocates, who see this caseand a similar detention involving a Brooklyn couple visiting a military base upstate on July 4th (just released after three weeks in detention)as a sign that undocumented immigrants are increasingly vulnerable in places where they previously felt safe. There have been several rallies for Villavicencio including one in front of the federal courthouse Tuesday morning.

During the court hearing, Villavicencio's attorneys argued that the government also violated his right to due process by detaining him while he is still in the process of applying for a green card. Villavicencio's wife is a naturalized U.S. citizen and they started the application process together in February.

The couple's two young daughters sat with their mother, Sandra Chica, in the front row of the courtroom. Both wore dresses and pink flowers in their hair and one played with stuffed animals. During family visits to the jail where Villavicencio is being detained, Chica reportedly tells their daughters that they're visiting their father at work.



Villavicenio's wife and daughters leave the courthouse (Beth Fertig / WNYC)

Villavicencio's attorneys, Ann Marie Domyancic and Matthew Forbes of the firm Debevoise and Plimpton (which is working with the Legal Aid Society), explained how a 2016 decision by the Department of Homeland Security allows undocumented immigrants such as Villavicencio to apply for legal permanent residency without having to leave the U.S.

At one point, the attorneys seemed unprepared when Judge Crotty asked why Villavicencio had not applied for a green card before February of this year. But they argued that he is legally entitled to continue the process, and that the government blocked that by detaining him and seeking to deport him. He has an interview scheduled in August.

But Cordaro argued that Villavicencio could continue his application even if he is deported to Ecuador. This didn't appear to satisfy the judge, who questioned why the government was even trying to deport a man with no criminal record.

"The powerful do what they want and the poor are suffering what they must," Judge Crotty mused. Later he added, "What is the danger to the community for a man who has not committed a crime?"

Crotty did not issue a decision today, and did not indicate when a ruling could be expected.

Afterwards, one of Villavicencio's Legal Aid lawyers, Gregory Copeland, said he found the judge's remarks "reassuring."

"It doesn't sort of indicate which way he's going to roll, but I think at least the judge saw that a person that's not a danger and not a flight risk is now being detained for 52 days."

If the case does get moved to New Jersey, he said Villavicencio's team would make the same arguments for his release. But it would take longer to get another court hearing.

"This case is about a family that was torn apart and I think that having that family reunited as soon as possible is what matters here," he said.

Beth Fertig is a senior reporter covering courts and legal affairs at WNYC. You can follow her on Twitter at @bethfertig.A group of alumni of ultra-Orthodox yeshivas who have long claimed the schools are not meeting minimum education requirements now allege that a powerful state senator has successfullyand unconstitutionallyforced the state to ease its oversight of the religious institutions.

Filed Monday by Young Advocates For A Fair Education [Yaffed], the suit takes aim at the recently-passed Felder Amendment, which will exempt a highly specific set of schools from state guidelines that require private schools to offer a "substantially equivalent" curriculum to their public counterparts. The exemptionfor nonprofit institutions offering long school days and bilingual programswould allow the religious institutions to continue spurning secular instruction in favor of an education almost exclusively limited to Judaic studies, the complaint alleges.

"It's an attempt to shield the ultra-Orthodox yeshivas from the law, because only they meet these requirements," Naftuli Moster, the founder of Yaffed, told Gothamist. "At this point, there are tens of thousand of children here in New York who are literally being denied a basic education the likes of which we just don't see in modern, developed countries."

A report released last year by the group claims that the lack of secular education leaves "young men lack[ing] the requisite skills to obtain employment with a decent income to support themselves and their (often large) families." Girls, who are prohibited from becoming rabbis or studying the Talmud, actually receive better educations, Moster noted.

The suit names the state education commissioner and the chancellor of the State Board of Regents as defendants, as well as Governor Andrew Cuomo, who signed the amendment into law in April of this year.

According to the complaint, the amendment was the brain child of ultra-Orthodox Jewish community leaders opposed to educational oversight in the Satmar community of Kiryas Joel, New York. With the help of state Senator Simcha Felder, those leaders were able to execute "a deliberately timed plan to hijack the negotiations for the New York state budget," the suit alleges, "to inoculate the ultra-Orthodox Jewish non-public schools from scrutiny."

While technically a Democrat, Felder caucuses with Republicans, providing them with a one-vote margin in the 63-member body. In exchange, the GOP leadership has been known to shower the Borough Park representative with money and political support, even when he's threatening to derail a $168 billion budget.

While the laws governing New York's yeshivas are passed in Albany, enforcement of those laws falls to local districts. After Yaffed filed specific complaints in 2015, the city's Department of Education said they were investigating the yeshivas, though they were later accused of stalling the investigation for "political reasons." In the midst of that probe, Mayor Bill de Blasio effusively praised Crown Heights yeshiva Oholei Torah, which has reportedly left students without basic reading and writing skills.

But three years into the DOE's investigation, and after they'd blown past several deadlines, the state education department was finally set to roll out new guidelines that, according to Mosher, could bring yeshivas under compliance with New York's laws. "The state was finally going to get its act together and start revising how the law is enforced, and the yeshivas got nervous, and that's why they got Simcha Felder to change the law," says Moster.

A spokesperson for the DOE told Gothamist that "New York City students must get a high-quality education," and added that they intend to deliver a report soon. The agency has visited 15 of 30 schools for which they've received complaints, the spokesperson added.

Attempts to reach Felder were not successful.Child abuse reports increased in the wake of two high-profile cases from 2016 involving New York City's Administration for Children's services, a recent report found.

The horrifying deaths of six year-old Zymere Perkins and three year-old Jaden Jordan in 2016 provoked outrage over the handling of the children's cases by the ACS, which was made aware of abuse complaints involving the boys but ultimately did little to remove them from their dangerous homes. But it appears the high-profile tragedies increased the public's willingness to report child abuse; the NYC Independent Budget Office says there was an increase of reports and subsequent investigations of child abuse in the months that followed.

In October through December of 2016, investigations of suspected child abuse or maltreatment rose by 1,383, a ten percent increase from the same period of time in the previous year. (Perkins died in September 2016, Jordan in early December 2016.) And the number of abuse reports that were substantiated rose by twenty percent compared to the previous yearfrom 19,980 to 23,981.

The report also revealed that city spending on ACS investigative staff increased in the wake of the tragedies. Despite the fact that budgeting for investigative staff was a projected $105.3 million, actual spending totaled $127.8 million.

But while the number of hearings in family court increased significantly after the boys' deaths and now totals nearly 10,000, the number of children in foster care has continued to decline, the report says, "from an annual average of more than 34,350 in fiscal year 2000 to 9,900 in 2016 to 8,765 through April of this year." This means that the total number of children placed under court-ordered supervision has grown, with the rise in investigations not resulting in more children being separated from their parents. The report adds that children in foster care have been achieving "permanency," i.e., being reunited with their parents, adopted, or released into the custody of another guardian, more quickly than in previous years.

This increase in reports and investigations comes after ACS bureaucracy failed both Perkins and Jordan, serially abused children who, due to blunders on ACS's end, were not removed from their abusive households.

Six year-old Zymere Perkins was beaten to death with a broomstick by his mother's boyfriend, despite repeated reports to ACS that he was being physically and emotionally abused. And three year-old Jordan Jaden was found unconscious at his home after allegedly being beaten by his mother's boyfriend; the child later died after being taken off life support. ACS had received a tip of an abused child days before Jaden was hospitalized, but the tipster gave them the address of the home next door. ACS workers were apparently unable to figure out the correct address until after Jaden was taken to the hospital.Immigrant rights advocates gathered in the pouring rain early Wednesday morning outside Jamie Dimon's Upper East Side home to protest and shame the JPMorgan Chase CEO for his company's leading role in financing the private prison and immigrant detention industry.

Dressed in orange jumpsuits and carrying banners that read "$top Financing Oppression," approximately 100 protesters arrived at the arch of Dimon's Park Avenue building at around 8:00 a.m., where they blared audio of crying immigrant children who'd been separated from their families. Eight people were arrested after blocking the street outside the building's courtyard, organizers said. Others attempted to deliver boxes of petitions with more than 100,000 signatures condemning the prison profiteers, though Dimon's security apparently refused.

.@AnaMariaArchil2 of @CPDAction, Yaritza of @MaketheRoadNY, and Perla Silva, whose parents were detained by ICE, tried to deliver 3 boxes of petitions asking JPMorgans Jamie Dimon to divest from private prisons and detention centers.



Security refused to accept the petitions. pic.twitter.com/Xy2fgsKhbO  Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (@JFREJNYC) July 25, 2018

Happening now: Immigrants and activists outside of the condo of @Chase CEO Jamie Dimon playing the recordings of the children from detention centers demanding that they stop financing hate #BACKERSOFHATE #FamiliesBelongsTogether @MaketheRoadNY @CPDAction pic.twitter.com/bgOCP5GAgQ  NY Communities (@nychange) July 25, 2018

The demonstration's goal, according to organizers with Make the Road and New York Communities for Change, was to call attention to JPMorgan Chase's bankrolling of Geo Group and CoreCivic, two private prison contractors that help operate ICE's sprawling detention network. CoreCivic runs the detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where detainees have complained of a litany of "harsh and inhumane conditions," including maggots in their food, bleach-tasting water, and a lack of ventilation.

According to a report by the research and policy center In the Public Interest, JPMorgan holds the largest share of both groups' corporate bonds, totaling $166 million. Other major Wall Street backers of private prisons include Bank of America and Wells Fargo, whose board members got their own protest in New Jersey on Tuesday.

In return for their financing, the banks collect hundreds of millions of dollars in interest and fees on outstanding debt from the corporations. "Private prison companies rely on debt financing from banks to expand their control of the criminal justice system and immigration enforcement system," notes the In the Public Interest report.

Dimon, a one-time member of President Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, spoke out last month against the administration's child separation policy, while warning that "immigration problems [are] tearing apart our body politic and damaging our economy." Protesters on Wednesday seized on that apparent hypocrisy, and took issues with the ways in which Dimon has portrayed himself as a Trump opponent.

"It is time for Jamie Dimon to stop pretending to stand with immigrants while financing our suffering," said Melissa Nunez, a Make the Road member and former detainee at a CoreCivic facility. "As long as he and his bank is bankrolling CoreCivic and the Geo Group, they'll be backers of hate."

On Wednesday, activists vowed to continue "to protest Dimon at his various homes" until his company stops bankrolling private prisons. We've reached out to Dimon to see if the protests have forced him to reevaluate his company's financing decisionswe'll update if we hear back.

More arrests in the Nxivm "sex cult" case came Tuesday, as authorities took four peopleincluding the group's co-founder, its bookkeeper, and its benefactorinto custody upstate. Clare Bronfman, of the Seagram's liquor Bronfmans, who has reportedly been footing Nxivm's bill, posted $100 million bail (one of the highest set in the U.S.).

Scrutiny around the purported self-help group, led by former multilevel-marketing entrepreneur Keith Raniere, intensified after an October 2017 NY Times article detailed allegations of emotional manipulation and physical torture. According to former members who spoke to the Times, leaders who deemed themselves "masters" recruited other women, dubbed "slaves," into their ranks, promising personal and professional advancement, but instead inducted "slaves" into ritualistic sexual servitude to Raniere. "Masters" are said to have branded new members with a symbol that bore an uncanny resemblance to Raniere's initials, K.R., on their hips.

Raniere, of course, has denied that his groupco-founded with Nancy Salzman in the late 1990swas a cult, but experts have rejected that claim. Federal investigators seem to have rejected it, too: After fleeing Nxivm's upstate headquarters, he was arrested in Mexico in March and, in April, Raniere, known to his subjects as "Vanguard," was indicted for sex trafficking and forced labor conspiracy.

Bronfman, who was charged with money laundering and identity theft, has been a member of the group for years, and Vanity Fair reported in 2010 that she and her sister Sara reportedly funneled $150 million into Nxivm. Their devotion reportedly caused an estrangement with their father.

The other women arrested Tuesday also face assorted racketeering charges: Nxivm President Nancy Salzman, her daughter Laurenwhose charges include labor trafficking, forced labor, extortion, and conspiracy to commit wire fraudand bookkeeper Kathy Russel. Those three were arraigned in Albany, while Bronfman was arraigned in Brooklyn. The U.S. Attorney's office outlined the group's disturbing alleged behavior:

- Raniere and Bronfman conspired to commit identity theft arising out of a scheme to obtain the e-mail usernames and passwords of perceived enemies and critics of Raniere in order to monitor their electronic communications. - Raniere and Bronfman participated in an identity theft conspiracy involving the use of credit card and banking information belonging to one of Ranieres sexual partners after her death in November 2016. Bronfman sent Raniere regular emails documenting expenses charged to the womans credit card for Ranieres review and approval. Those expenses included payments to a chiropractor for Ranieres benefit, as well as thousands of dollars worth of clothing and shoe purchases for the mother of Ranieres child. - Bronfman encouraged and induced the illegal entry into the United States of an alien for Bronfmans financial gain, engaging in international wire transfers to make it fraudulently appear that the victim had the financial resources to obtain an investor visa. - Raniere and Lauren Salzman trafficked a victim, who was once a sexual partner of Ranieres, for labor and services. The victim was confined to a room in Clifton Park, New York, for nearly two years as punishment for having romantic feelings for a man who was not Raniere. The victim was told that if she left the room she would be sent to Mexico without any identification documents. As threatened, she was driven to Mexico and her family was instructed by co-conspirators, including Lauren Salzman, not to send the victim her identification documents. - Raniere and Lauren Salzman obtained property and services from their slaves through fraud and extortion. After DOS was exposed, Salzman was one of the leaders of a disinformation campaign designed to spread lies about DOS and Nxivm members in order to discredit victims. - Nancy Salzman, in her role as second-in-command to Raniere within Nxivm, conspired with Raniere and others to obstruct justice by altering records in connection with a civil lawsuit initiated by Nxivm against a former Nxivm student. As part of the discovery in the former students countersuit, Nancy Salzman was ordered to turn over videos of courses the student had taken. Nancy Salzman engaged in a scheme to edit videos of courses she had taught to remove materials that she and her co-conspirators believed would have supported the former students claims. - Raniere and Russell conspired to commit identity theft as part of a scheme to smuggle an alien into the United States through Canada after the alien was denied entry. Russell provided the alien with an identification card bearing the last name and birthday of a dead woman.

Raniere and Smallville actress Allison Mack were added to Tuesday's indictment. Mack, considered to be Raniere's lieutenant, was originally charged in April and released on house arrest after posting $5 million bond. It's believed that she was part of Raniere's strategy to lure other actors into the group.

Bronfman's lawyer, Susan Necheles, maintains her client's innocence. "Clare Bronfman did nothing wrong," she wrote in a statement, emailed to Gothamist. "Nxivm was not a criminal enterprise but instead was an organization that helped thousands of people. The charges against Clare are the result of government overreaching and charging an individual with crimes just because the government disagrees with some beliefs taught by Nxivm and held by Clare. This is not how things should be done in America. We are confident that Clare will be exonerated."

And Bronfman, for her part, has defended Raniere. As the Post reports, she wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post that he had "not coerced nor abused anyone," and that "the sorority has truly benefited the lives of its members, and does so freely."

"I find no fault in a group of women (or men for that matter) freely taking a vow of loyalty and friendship with one another to feel safe while pushing back against the fears that have stifled their personal and professional growth," she added. If convicted, Bronfman faces up to 20 years in prison.

Bronfman is supposed to appear in court today and tomorrow to detail her bail/bond request.Hours after a court hearing about his fate, an undocumented pizza delivery worker who was detained while bringing food to the Fort Hamilton army base in Brooklyn was released from detention. Pablo Villavicencio had been facing deportation for nearly two months, but federal judge Paul Crotty ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release himand stayed his deportation while he continues to pursue his green card.

"Removal is no longer reasonably feasible," Crotty wrote.

An overwhelmed Villavicencio told reporters, "Im very happy to be free. Im happy to be reunited with my wife and children," and "I am well so happy for my wife, my daughters, my lawyers. Thank you! Thank you for everything."

Villavicencio's ordeal began on June 1st while making a delivery to the Bay Ridge base. After showing his NYC ID, a soldier asked him for proof of citizenship, and detained him when Villavicencio was unable to show any. Military Police notified ICE, and Villavicencio was taken into custody and slated for deportation.

Villavicencio entered the United States 10 years ago and reportedly applied for a green card in February. His wife, Sandra Chica, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and their two toddler daughters are citizens as well.

After Judge Crotty's order, which was issued around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Villavicencio was released from the detention facility in Kearny, NJ, and embraced his family:

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson was there for Villavicencio's release, and he told the NY Post, "Its a very emotional day. This family has been traumatized. The city puts forward a lot of money every year for legal representation, and on a day like this we know that every penny is well worth it."



Pablo Villavicencio carries one of his daughters after being releases from the ICE detention facility in Kearny, NJ (Julio Cortez/AP/Shutterstock)

Johnson also issued a statement:

"Finally - some good news! Tonight a federal judge ordered the release of Pablo Villavicencio from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention (ICE) detention, which will pave the way for him to secure valid immigration status. I am so happy for his family, especially his wife Sandra and his daughters Luciana and Antonia. I know this has been beyond painful for all of them. Frankly, this has also been painful for all of us New Yorkers who care about justice and our status as a sanctuary city. What happened to Pablo was inhumane. This decision rights an incredible wrong, and sends a clear message to President Trump that the rule of law still applies."

"The rule of law, humanity and morality prevailed tonight with the Court's order releasing Pablo back to his family and community," Adriene Holder, Attorney-In-Charge of the Civil Practice at The Legal Aid Society, told WNYC's Beth Fertig after Crotty's order. "This decision should serve as a rebuke against the Trump Administration and its merciless crusade to tear families apart."At a press conference held to excoriate the Trump administration for its woefully inadequate response to natural disasters in Puerto Rico, Governor Andrew Cuomo said there wasn't much he could do to force the Republican-controlled State Senate to save New York City's school zone speed cameras, which officially expire at 5 p.m. today.

"They refused to extend the speed cameras for months, and months, and months, in Albany, or they wanted some backroom deal trade, for yeshivas, something," the governor said. "The bill is on their desk, the Assembly passed it. Just go back to Albany and pass the bill you refused to pass. You don't need a special session, you don't need a lightning bolt from heaven."

While the governor cannot summon lightning, he can order the Senate back to Albany for a special session, forcing Senate Republicans to either vote to pass the legislation or risk looking petulant or reckless. There is also the possibility of issuing an executive order, something that Brooklyn Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte asked the governor to do at a press conference yesterday on Staten Island.

"I'm gonna actually call on Governor Cuomo to even supercede, and call for a special session, call for a special session, or write an executive order, because our children matter, we have to save our children's lives," Bichotte said.

Asked about a possible executive order today, the governor replied, "That is something that we are looking at, but, the simplest way to do this, cleanest way to do this is a state law."

"There's no need for me to do anything but sign the bill once they pass it," Cuomo said.

Last week, the governor's office said that using his executive power to call for a special session would result in a waste of taxpayer money and cause a circus in Albany, without guaranteeing the passage of the legislation.

The governor's remarks angered safe streets advocates.

What a fucking coward. Of course this is his fault in the first place for backing the IDC that tipped the scales to Senate Republicans. https://t.co/aRUFb8WGGS  Chris O'Leary (@ohhleary) July 25, 2018

Andrew Cuomo will brave an ancient booby-trapped temple to make sure the Pantone color is correct on a tile, but he won't call a special session to keep life-saving speed cameras on. We know you get what you want dude. Save us the excuses and just admit you're a coward. https://t.co/AsHXwUfzTR  Travis R. Eby (@travis_robert) July 25, 2018

Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan issued a statement yesterday saying that the speed cameras will go dark as a result of Governor Cuomo and the Assemblys unwillingness to engage senators with a larger vision for street safety to protect children."

Cuomo compared this to "yelling at the person in the mirror."

"It is them. This is like me saying, 'I call on Governor Cuomo to sign the bill as soon as it's passed.' OK. I am Governor Cuomo, right? Call on myself. The Senate Republicans do not want to pass the bill. They don't wanna say that. But they don't want to pass the bill."

The governor also blamed Brooklyn State Senator Marty Golden, who said last week he was "involved in negotiations" to bring the Senate back to Albany.

"Senator Golden says well, I'm gonna call Senator Flanagan. They are part of the same conference," Cuomo said. "If Senator Golden wanted to pass the bill you know what would happen? Senator Golden would pass the bill, because it is about his district. Senator Flanagan is in Suffolk County...It's all about Senator Golden."

A spokesman for Golden responded that the Senator wants Cuomo to call a special session.

"Governor Cuomo owes it to all of us to call the Legislature back, have us pass the bill, and sign it into law before someone is hurt, or God forbid, killed, Golden said in a statement.

Spokespeople for Flanagan and the Republican Senate majority did not return our requests for comment. Nor has the office of Brooklyn Democrat Simcha Felder, who gives the Republicans their one-seat majority, and has sought to tie the speed cameras to funding police officers in schools.

Streetsblog has noted that the NYPD's biggest union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, which opposes the cameras, has donated $68,000 to the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, and $48,000 to the governor since 2015. NYPD officers who are caught speeding by a camera cannot talk their way out of a ticket.

WNYC's Jessica Gould asked the governor if he thought the PBA's opposition to speed cameras had anything to do with the Republicans' resistance. "I don't know their position," the governor replied.

The PBA has not returned our phone messages, but in a written statement, PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said, Speed cameras will certainly raise revenue for the city but they cannot do the job of a live, professionally trained police officer who, having stopped a speeder, may make an arrest for driving under the influence, driving without a license or insurance or even worse offenses like carrying an illegal weapon... The city would be better served and public safety could be vastly enhanced by hiring more police officers and assigning them to traffic enforcement.

The speed cameras have been shown to reduce speeding by 63 percent and pedestrian injuries by 23 percent; 40 of the 140 cameras are mounted on mobile units, and this afternoon the City's Department of Transportation will roll them into storage. The rest of the cameras will remain in place and turned on to record data, not issue summonses, the mayor's office said today.

[UPDATE] Scott Reif, a spokesman for the GOP Senate majority, sent us this statement:





Our Senate Majority cares deeply about the safety and well-being of students and pedestrians, and we remain open to having discussions to resolve this issue in a positive way. Thus far, the Governor and Assembly have been unwilling to engage in those discussions, and as a result have put the speed cameras in jeopardy. In fact, the Governor never even sent us a straight extender of the program until after the Assembly packed up and left town in June. How serious was he about getting a result? We urge the Governor and Assembly to reconsider their hard line position and work with us to find a solution that keeps all New Yorkers as safe as they can be.

The spokesman for Assembly Majority Leader Carl Heastie responds:This week Yelp announced that it would be expanding its use of health scores to restaurant profiles in New York, California, Illinois, Texas, and Washington D.C. The initiative is made possible by Yelp's Local Inspector Value Entry Specification (LIVES) program and HDScores, two platforms that pull hygiene inspection reports from government data. Though it's worth noting that you can very easily just skip Yelp, and look up current restaurant grades on the Dept. of Health's website.

The company first tested this out on San Fransisco restaurant profiles in 2013, but has since run into some controversy, as old scores can linger long after the restaurant has fixed its marked violations.

In a blog post, Yelp's Luther Lowe wrote, "Our goal has always been to give consumers as much information as possible about local businesses. We know from a study of the Los Angeles restaurant industry that when consumers have better access to restaurant hygiene scores, the number of hospitalizations due to foodborne illness drops, and best practices improve across the industry. Just this year a different study found that posting restaurant hygiene scores prominently on Yelp leads to a 12% decrease in purchase intentions for restaurants with poor scores relative to those with higher scores."

In the coming months, Yelp plans to issue health scores to 750,000 restaurants in cities throughout the country. Maybe they can also link out to articles about rat-infested kitchens, bug salads, rat wraps, and frog salads on each applicable restaurant's page.The list also includes the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, France, Spain, Italy, and Romania.

"Today, you become part of Peru as you have obtained your Peruvian citizenship certificate. Peru is a peaceful and democratic country that respects human rights. I urge you to continue your commitment and make (this) a better country contributing to its enhancement," Sevilla stated.

Netherlands-born Jade Isadora Brunsting spoke on behalf of the brand-new Peruvian citizens, saying citizenship procedures have been simplified.

"This a special day to us because we've become Peruvian citizens. Peru is a country with a rich culture . I've become naturalized prompted by a feeling," she expressed.YEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. On the first couples recent trip overseas, US First Lady Melania Trumps television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. US President Donald Trump was not pleased, New York Times reported.

He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox  his preferred network over what he considers the fake news CNN  and caused a bit of a stir aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times

At the end of the email chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would be standard operating procedure going forward.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. The death toll in the wildfires in Greece has grown to 74, according to the Greek state owned AMNA news agency.

Search operations for more victims continues in Mati on Atticas eastern coast, AMNA said.

Local firefighting officials have said that 164 people, including 23 children have been injured.

The victims are being transported to a morgue in Goudi for identification, AMNA reports.

All the dead have so far been found in the area between Rafina and Nea Makri, especially in Mati and Kokkino Limanaki, where they were trapped by the flames in homes and cars or drowned in their attempt to escape from the sea, according to AMNA.

"Another 26 charred bodies were found in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri," Rafina-Pikermi mayor Evangelos Bournous told AMNA.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Russian Federal Security Service (FSS) agents have apprehended five border trespassers while patrolling the Armenian-Turkish border.

The five trespassers attempted to illegally cross into Armenia, the Border Department of the FSS said.

The five individuals have been identified as Afghani citizens. They have been handed over to Armenian law enforcement agencies. The FSS said the trespassers are a "criminal group".

The incident is under investigation.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. 230 students of the Vazgen Sargsyan Military University, the Marshal Armenak Khamperyants Military Aviation University and the Yerevan State Medical Universitys military-medical faculty graduated today and were awarded the titles of Lieutenant.

Galina Karapetyan, a young woman who completed her 4-year studies in the military aviation university, says she will serve in the military as platoon commander. We are the first women to study for 4 years and get enlisted to service as platoon commanders, she said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited the graduation ceremony to personally congratulate the new officers. Pashinyan highlighted particularly the role of female officers.

The Premier said in his remarks that being an Armenian military officer means to be responsible not only before the soldiers, but also for the very soldiers.

Tomorrow the Armenian army will not be the way it was yesterday, because it will have you. I am sure that each and everyone of you realizes that your presence will change something in the army and that the future of it depends on you, Pashinyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Three workers of an industrial plant who were injured in an explosion earlier today in southwestern Yerevan are under intensive care.

The three workers, aged 29, 31 and 46, are hospitalized in three different hospitals of Yerevan.

Two of them are being treated for burns.

The blast occurred in a glass industrial plant in Artashisyan Street, Shengavit district.

Authorities are investigating the incident.

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister attended the graduation ceremony of class 2018 of military academies, which took place in the headquarters of the defense ministry.

The Prime Minister congratulated the graduates and personally awarded certificates to a group of the officers.

What does being an Armenian Army officer mean, it means to dedicate your life to the protection and security of the fatherland, it means to dedicate your life for the peaceful life, calm sleep and tranquil life of your fellow countrymen, the PM said in his remarks.

Tomorrow the Armenian Army wont be the same as yesterday, because tomorrow the Armenian Army will have many of you, Lieutenants, as officers, commanders, whereas yesterday it didnt have you in this status, Pashinyan said.

To be a commander means to be responsible before others and be responsible for others, be a commander means to have will and determination to give orders to die at the most important moment and this is an extremely heavy responsibility, and this is an extremely powerful responsibility, and only people with truly strong and unbreakable will can bear this responsibility. And in your eyes I see that you have the will not only to serve, but to triumph, to bring victories to our people, our state, our fatherland. I see the victories of our future in your eyes, the PM said.

The Armenian people have won the war, the Armenian people have won in building statehood and the Armenian people have won in establishing its power in its country and no one neither from outside or inside can and will not dare to take away this victory from the people. And the number one, most important protectors of this victory are you. Long live the Republic of Armenia, long live the Armenian Army, long live the armed forces of Armenia and the glorious soldiers and officers of Armenia.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian has held a meeting today with the Coordinating Council of National-Cultural Organizations of National Minorities of Armenia.

Members of the council represent 11 national minority communities of Armenia.

The participants of the meeting talked about the councils activities and status, as well as a number of other issues relating to national minorities. Members of the council emphasized the significance of the structure, productive work and the need to maintain it.

The president expressed readiness to cooperate with institutions representing national minorities regardless of its status and mentioned that national minorities are the wealth of any country.

You must be proud with both Armenian citizenship and your national identity, Sarkissian said.

Sarkissian offered the representatives to submit clear proposals about issues of their concern.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Armed Forces have already taken measures over Azerbaijans advancement in the neutral zone at the Nakhijevan section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, defense minister Davit Tonoyan told reporters today. Tonoyan says the Armenian Armed Forces are in control of the situation in the Nakhijevan section.

Azerbaijani forces continue engineering works at the Nakhijevan section to reinforce their positions, while we are taking measures accordingly, in order to neutralize these actions, Tonoyan said.

Speaking about the statement of Artsakhs military commander about the possibility of an escalation at the border in September-October, the Armenian defense minister said that the Armenian Armed Forces are always expecting such developments.

We always expect a re-launch of military operations, moreover not only from Azerbaijan, he said.

Tonoyan also spoke about corruption risks in the military. He said that while corruption discoveries and dismissals happen in the defense ministry also, it doesnt give much publicity over such cases because there is no need to.

He said that the ministry is undertaking great work for reducing corruption risks, incidents and criminal occurrences.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. During her visit to Moscow, Russia, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyans spouse Mrs. Anna Hakobyan visited the State Tretyakov Gallery on July 24 and met with its director Zelfira Tregulova.

At the meeting, Hakobyan and Tregulova discussed a number of issues concerning cooperation with the gallery, including issues related to the possible opening of the Tretyakov Gallerys Yerevan branch.

Afterwards Hakobyan met with a number of women figures of different Russian sectors.

The PMs wife informed the participants of the meeting about her Women For Peace campaign, asking them to accept her speech exclusively as a speech of a woman and a mother.

Noting that the main mission of the initiative is to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Hakobyan particularly said: I actually think that it isnt important how this conflict originated. What matters is the human lives, the young human lives which are paid before this conflict.

Hakobyan recalled the 2016 April War, when she was an executive of a news media, and followed both Armenian and Azerbaijani news, watched all coverage.

Believe me, when looking at Azerbaijani soldiers, their [faces], I was noting that these children arent different from our soldiers with anything, the expression in their eyes was the same  fearful and anxious, she said.

I would like to say that no politics and no political interest can justify the violent death of children who are newly entering their lives, the pain of the parents and the longing of orphaned children, Mrs. Anna Hakobyan said.

Hakobyan called on the political decision-makers of all sides to do their best to bypass the cannons, and asked the participants of the meeting to join the campaign aimed at establishing peace for the sake of preserving the young lives standing at both sides of the border.

With this purpose Hakobyan invited the participants of the meeting to visit Armenia and Artsakh and to make the call from there. She also requested the women to use their opportunity to address this call from the other side of the border, Azerbaijan, as well.

The women emotionally and warmly accepted Hakobyans speech and expressed willingness to join the campaign and to unite their voices for peace in the region and other parts of the world.

The women who took part in the meeting included lawmakers, politicians, bankers, media executives and others.

The full transcript of Anna Hakobyans speech is available in Armenian.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyans spouse Anna Hakobyan says she loves the Armenian countryside, adores Artsakh, Stepanakert, Shushi, the Gandzasar Church, but still continues to dream about a big trip to Africa.

Hakobyan gave an interview to the Russian Express Gazeta newspaper, talking about her personal life, her family, work, new duties and dreams.

We met back in the university years when Nikol was studying in the 5th course of the Yerevan State Universitys Faculty of Journalism, while I was a freshman in the same faculty. I immediately heard his name  Nikol Pashinyan  when I entered the lecture hall. Lecturers, the dean, students - everyone was talking about him. Nikol was the pride of the faculty, I was hearing about this without knowing the protagonist, Hakobyan said.

By the time they met in 1995, Nikol already had an accomplished career. He was already collaborating with an opposition newspaper in his early university years. Pashinyan was the legend of the Journalism Faculty in the 5th course. It isnt a coincidence that Pashinyan was expelled from university in 1995 because of his political views.

During her freshman year Anna was tasked to write an article for a newspaper  the very same newspaper for which Nikol Pashinyan was working at that time. I wrote the article and presented it to the editorial board. Thats how me and Nikol met. Nikol fell in love with me at first sight, but I..a bit later, Hakobyan said.

Regarding the political views of her husband, Hakobyan said she always knew that Nikol will be engaged in politics and she is ready to overcome all difficulties together with him.

After their marriage Nikol Pashinyan increased his struggle. By late 90s he was already famous as a courageous personality in his profession. Pashinyan doesnt hesitate to name criminal figures, which is the reason why he was summoned to court several times.

We appeared under the focus of public attention during the revolution. People were recognizing in the street, were saying good wishes, now it is the same. This is very pleasant, and this love is mutual. Overall no fundamental changes occurred in our lives after my husband became Prime Minister. Our place of residence changed, and now a security service exists, she said.

Hakobyan also talked about her dreams, one of which is a journey in Africa.

I love the Armenian villages very much. I adore Artsakh, Stepanakert, Shushi, the Gandzasar ChurchBut I still dream about traveling to Africa on a journey. Anyhow I know prefer to take a vacation in Armenia. I am currently searching for new ideas, I am studying life from a bit of another perspective. But, as previously, I attach importance to honesty, liberty, kindness and fairness in people, Anna Hakobyan said.

Edited and translated by Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills on July 25 signed an agreement with Armenias minister of education and science Arayik Harutyunyan and COAF Deputy Director Innesa Grigoryan, according to which English language learning courses will be held in rural communities through the Embassys English Access Microscholarship Program for a two-year term, reports Armenpress.

This is a truly partnership under which three organizations  the Embassy, COAF and the ministry united their efforts so that the children of provinces will better know English. I am sure that they will use their new knowledge and skills for improving their life, strengthening of communities and development of the country. I am proud that we can continue this important initiative as English plays key role in our daily global market environment, the US Ambassador said.

Minister Arayik Harutyunyan said within the framework of this program, it would be possible to improve the knowledge of English of the participants and develop capacities of English teachers by implementing the upcoming actions in provinces, especially in rural communities. We attach importance to such cooperation in the education sphere and the assistance of the US Embassy and the COAF aimed at ensuring quality of English learning. The implementation of the program can create a platform for development of English learning methodology in schools and more effective implementation of teachers targeting training processes, he said.

The total cost of the program is 411.000 USD, 300.000 out of which will be provided by the US Embassy and 111.000 by the COAF. The program is scheduled to be implemented until 2021.

The Children of Armenia Fund (COAF) views education as a driving force to boost the potential of the youth and constantly improve it. In this sense teaching English is an integral part of the COAFs educational programs, and today we are marking another major achievement together with the US Embassy and the ministry of education and science. We are happy and satisfied when we see the confidence of our students and determination to build brighter future, which is given to them in line with the knowledge of English, Innesa Grigoryan said.

Within the frames of this initiative 500 students aged 13-18 of 15 rural communities will have an opportunity to improve their knowledge of English and develop their leadership skills. The courses will be held in schools or community centers, for instance, in COAFs SMART center in Lori province.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, 25 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 25 July, USD exchange rate up by 0.07 drams to 480.88 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 0.56 drams to 562.77 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.02 drams to 7.64 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 2.26 drams to 632.89 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price up by 55.32 drams to 18991.09 drams. Silver price up by 0.42 drams to 239.79 drams. Platinum price up by 156.47 drams to 12971.48 drams.YEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian finance minister Atom Janjughazyan on July 25 received the delegation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) led by Francis Malige, Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting the officials discussed the future strategy of bilateral cooperation, outlining the priorities set by the governments program.

Minister Janjughazyan attached importance to the continuation of initiatives in partnering relations.

Commenting on the reforms in the tax field, the EBRD official expressed hope that the expected changes will boost the countrys future economic development.

Other issues were also discussed at the meeting.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Attempt is made to find a way to make the meeting of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US President Donald Trump happen, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told reporters at a briefing, reports Armenpress. He added that no decision has been made yet on the meeting.

We are looking at whether it might be possible for President Trump and Prime Minister both to meet in New York around the margins of the UN General Assembly, he said.

Richard Mills said the US government and the Embassy in Yerevan are satisfied with the high level of bilateral relations. Just in the last six weeks we had President Sarkissian in Washington to meet with the Secretary of State, we had the first deputy prime minister, the minister of justice is there this week, the US Ambassador said.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will depart for New York in September.

First deputy prime minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan on July 24 commented on the possible meeting of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and US President Donald Trump via a video on Facebook. Within the frameworks of the upcoming visit PM Pashinyan will depart for the US in September to participate in the UN General Assembly, and therefore on the sidelines of the visit the Congressmen find it appropriate to organize Pashinyan-Trump meeting: they launched a petition in the Congress for this purpose and address letter to President Trump, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. There is a lot of interest right now towards Armenia in terms of investments and trade after the events in April-May, US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told reporters at a briefing, reports Armenpress. He also attached importance to the Armenian governments efforts to ensure the attractiveness of the investment climate for the US investors and all foreign investors in general.

Investors are watching some of the changes here in the country which they welcome. They are also watching the investigations into corruption and tax evasion that the government has launched. And I can tell you that the US investors welcome that. They want to make sure that these investigations are done in accordance with the rule of law, and so that anyone who did investment here in good faith is not mistreated, he said.

The US Ambassador said Armenia and the US have strong cooperation in many areas. The one is the cultural area. Recently the Armenian ministry of defense was in Brussels and had a chance to meet with the senior defense department officials during which they discussed the opportunity to deepen our existing cooperation in the military field. Both for us and Armenia its very important to see the deepening and expansion of our economic and commercial relations, he said.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Minister of economic development and investments Artsvik Minasyan met with Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Head of the EU Delegation to Armenia, the ministry told Armenpress.

The meeting was also attended by EU delegation official, deputy ministers and etc.

During the meeting minister Minasyan said last week was full of meetings with the EU high-ranking officials, which is very important, and reaffirmed the readiness of the ministry to conduct en effective work.

The minister introduced the process of ongoing reforms in the country, touched upon the economic signals, investment policy and issues on improving the business environment.

In particular, talking about the economic indicators, minister Minasyan said as of the first half of the year 8.9% of economic activity has been registered, export and import volumes have increased, there is development in almost all areas which shows that the economy positively reacted to the ongoing anti-corruption operations and the governments commitment to form a competitive environment. At the moment the formation of institutional systems and legislative reforms are a necessity. In this context the minister highlighted the public-private partnership and the importance to adopt respective bills for the protection of foreign investments.

The meeting also touched upon other issues relating to the capacity development, promotion of exports, intellectual property.

At the end of the meeting the sides again reaffirmed their readiness to develop the cooperation.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will depart for Russia on a working visit on July 26-27, the government told Armenpress.

PM Pashinyan will participate in the session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in St. Petersburg.

On July 25 the PM posted a note on Facebook on his participation at this session: As you know, as a result of the status obtained after the constitutional changes Armenias Prime Minister is involved in the Supreme Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), in the format of heads of state, and this issue is also solved de jure, in other words here Armenia will be represented by the Prime Minister.

But the legal regulations of the EAEU Intergovernmental Councils work have not yet been in accordance with the new text of the Constitution of Armenia and in case of my non-participation in the PMs Council session decisions could not be adopted and the format would be paralyzed.

As I have announced during the recent velvet revolution that paralyzing the EAEU is not our goal, quite the contrary, we must do everything to make our countrys membership to that organization more effective, I made a decision to depart for St. Petersburg, PM Pashinyan said.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on July 25 visited the Hrant Matevosyan center-museum building in Yerevan where he got acquainted with the construction works, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

Accompanied by Davit Matevosyan, son of the renowned writer, the President toured the building. Davit Matevosyan introduced the President on the works carried out so far, the entire design and concept of the center-museum, as well as its mission. It was stated that the center-museums activity will be directed for spread and propaganda of not only Hrant Matevosyans literary heritage, but also the Armenian culture and literature.

President Sarkissian attached importance to the works aimed at maintaining and spreading the renowned writers literary heritage, the completion of the center-museum before 2020, the 85th jubilee of the writer.

Its important that people will have a little Ahnidzor [village in Armenia where the writer was born] here, will be able to come here and communicate with the great masters works and life, the President said.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on July 25 visited the Hrant Matevosyan center-museum building in Yerevan where he got acquainted with the construction works. Accompanied by Davit Matevosyan, son of the renowned writer, the President toured the building.

Hrant Matevosyans 85th jubilee is marked in 2020. The great master deserves that his art, literature are presented beautifully in our homeland, and people will have a little Ahnidzor [village in Armenia where the writer was born] here, will be able to come here and communicate with the great masters works and life. I will assist with everything to make this turn into a reality on time, the President told reporters.

He said he wants the center-museums area to turn into a beautiful environment, and added that will assist the implementation of the project as much as he can.

During the tour Davit Matevosyan introduced the President on the complete design of the center-museum, as well as its activity goals. He told Armenpress that the Armenian President has been the old friend of Hrant Matevosyan. They became friends when Armen Sarkissian was appointed Prime Minister of Armenia, Davit Matevosyan said, adding that the President may visit Lori province, the birthplace of the renowned writer, in the future.

Davit Matevosyan said modern exhibitions will be held in the center-museum. He stated that the center-museums activity will be directed for spread and propaganda of not only Hrant Matevosyans literary heritage, but also the Armenian culture and literature.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Police Chief of Armenia Valeri Osipyan on July 25 had a meeting with a group of citizens, the Police told Armenpress.

During the meeting the citizens presented applications, complaints and proposals to the Police Chief. Most of the citizens previously were affected by crimes and asked to discover these cases as soon as possible. The Police Chief assured that the Police carry out a decisive fight against crime, and everything will be done to discover the undisclosed cases as soon as possible. There were citizens who complained about the actions of concrete police officers.

The Police Chief immediately tasked to examine the complaints and give proper solutions to the issues, as well as to inform the citizens about the results.

The citizens thanked the Police Chief for the warm reception, listening to their issues of concern and supporting them.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. Consultation was held in the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during which the preparation works for holding the 17th summit of the heads of La Francophonie state and government were discussed, the government told Armenpress.

PM Pashinyan attached importance to holding the summit at a high level. We have a big list of foreign guests, presidents and prime ministers of dozens of countries will arrive in Armenia. Ensuring their comfort and security is a very important task for us. The proper organization and holding of this large-scale event is the issue of our countrys reputation and honor, even the shortcomings caused are unacceptable, and we should hold the event at the highest level, PM Pashinyan said.

Members of the working group led by deputy prime minister Tigran Avinyan reported the PM on the ongoing works aimed at ensuring infrastructures and solving several technical problems and stated that they are being carried in accordance with the timeframe and respective solutions are given to the emerging problems. French-speaking volunteers will also be involved aimed at better organizing and holding the events.

Three days before the two-day summit, the forum of foreign ministers will be held. Wide presence of companies and enterprises of La Francophonie states is expected at the economic business forum which will be held within the frames of the summit: it is expected their number will reach 350, and during the forum memorandums of cooperation will be signed. The works on adopting the Living Together Pact, the fundamental document of the La Francophonie, were presented. On the sidelines of the summit, the congress of the union of La Francophonie journalists will also be held, reporters of different countries have already submitted applications for covering the summit and the events to be held within the frames of it. It was also reported that the logo, slogan  Living Together, have also been approved, a special website has been developed.

PM Pashinyan gave respective instructions to the responsible persons and attached importance to the coordinated work of the agencies to detect all possible problems on time and quickly solve them.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, JULY 25, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, wife Nune Sarkissian on July 25 visited the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia (Cinema House), got acquainted with the Unions ongoing activities, as well as the construction program of the Armenian Cinematek of the future cinema museum, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

Accompanied by President of the Union Harutyun Khachatryan, the President toured the territory of Cinematek, visited the recently renovated big hall of the Cinema House and thereafter met with the representatives of the commission coordinating the works on creating the cinema museum.

During the meeting the President was introduced on the Cinematek project, concept and creation goals. It was stated that the cinema museum will not only collect, maintain and screen the Armenian cinema heritage, but also will be a museum with latest infrastructures, educational and scientific components, as well as will serve as a cultural and tourism center.

The meeting also touched upon the issues relating to the implementation of the project and etc.

President Sarkissian also left a note on the memorial wall of the fireplace hall.

Edited and translated by Aneta HarutyunyanArrests skyrocketed by more than 730 percent last year in China's far-western Xinjiang as the government ramped up a security crackdown in the traditionally Muslim region, activists said Wednesday. The ruling Communist Party has justified increasingly tight policing of Xinjiang by saying it faces a threat from Islamic extremism and separatism, but many Muslims in the region accuse Beijing of religious and cultural repression. Authorities in Xinjiang arrested nearly 228,000 people on criminal charges in 2017, according to data compiled from official government sources by rights group China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD). That's around 21 percent of all arrests in China last year, the group said, even though the sparsely populated region has only around 1.5 percent of China's nearly 1.4 billion population. The dramatic increase in arrests followed the introduction of draconian new restrictions on religious practices in Xinjiang, where about half the population of around 22 million are ethnic minorities. "Though the government does not provide the data disaggregated by ethnicity, criminal punishment would disproportionately target the Uighur Muslim group based on their percentage of the population," CHRD wrote. The report drew on public data released by Chinese prosecutor's offices at the national and local levels. Indictments in Xinjiang also increased at a rate "far out of proportion" to its population, amounting to a 422 percent increase year-on-year in 2017, it said. The increases follow significant drops in both statistics in 2016, when arrests fell by 20 percent and indictments by 15 percent, respectively. China's legal system has a conviction rate of over 99.9 percent, virtually guaranteeing any indictment will end in a conviction. - Three forces - China says its policies in Xinjiang are aimed at rooting out the "three forces" of separatism, religious extremism and terrorism. Simmering resentment exploded in deadly rioting by Uighurs in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009, and Uighurs have since been tied to mass stabbings and bombings that have left dozens dead across the country. Civil unrest and clashes with government forces have killed hundreds more. Last year marked a dramatic turning point in Beijing's approach to the strategic region as the government in 2017 pushed its plans to foster greater trade with Central Asia and Europe, a programme that puts a premium on security. In March, local authorities introduced stringent new restrictions on religious practices, forbidding beards and the wearing of veils and the distribution of "extremist" religious content including everything from songs with Arabic lyrics to unofficial editions of the Koran. Members of the Uighur diaspora say relatives have been arrested for seemingly innocuous acts such as sending Ramadan greetings to friends or downloading popular music. Authorities are also believed to have detained hundreds of thousands of Muslims in a secretive network of extra-judicial political re-education centres, where inmates are given language and ideological training and forced to participate in military-style drills. The local government pumped more than 58 billion yuan ($9 billion) into security spending in 2017, nearly double the year before, according to Adrian Zenz, a China security expert at Germany's European School of Culture and Theology. It also flooded the region with tens of thousands of security personnel, Zenz's research has shown. Police patrol as Muslims leave the Id Kah Mosque in the old town of Kashgar in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous RegionNew Braunfels, TX (78130)

Today

Overcast. High 86F. Winds SSE at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early. Thunderstorms likely late. Low near 65F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.The bodies of 17 people have been recovered after flash floods caused by a dam breach in southern Laos, a Thai consular official at the scene told AFP Wednesday. A wall of water was unleashed Monday after parts of the dam were washed away, sending floods surging downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people missing. "There are 17 bodies recovered so far, but we can not estimate the number of missing yet," Chana Miencharoen, said, adding roof-level flood waters have submerged several villages near the Xe-Namnoy dam. "All the dead are Laotian... more than 6,000 are affected from eight villages near the dam," he said, from the relief centre in Attepeu province, where the disaster occurred on Monday. The remote area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged by the flash flooding or completely washed away. Communist Laos is criss-crossed by a vast network of rivers and scores of dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand. The South Korean partner in the hydropower project said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed. SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time. "We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream," it said in a statement. Updated map of Laos locating a dam collapse.

Shocking video has emerged of police pinning down a 10-year-old boy who was upset about his dads arrest.

The Athens-Clarke County Police Department, in the US state of Georgia, released the footage after officers were accused of using excessive force when a video taken from a different perspective by a family member went viral.

Police body cam footage shows officers arresting a man and a young boy becoming distressed, trying to defend his dad.

He didnt shoot nobody, the boy can be heard yelling.

The boy then moves towards police officers and one catches him mid-air.

An officer catches the 10-year-old mid-air. Source: Athens-Clarke County Police Department

In a statement police said the 10-year-old became upset as they arrested a domestic violence suspect.

On more than one occasion, the other adults on scene attempted to restrain the child without success, police said.

As an officer was walking the suspect to his patrol car, the child attempted to block his path and again had to be removed and restrained by the adult family members.

As the suspect was being placed in the back of the patrol car, the video clearly shows the child run past family members and again ran towards our officer and lunged at one of the officers.

The officers handcuffed the boy but told him he was not being arrested. Source: Athens-Clarke County Police Department

Police said after the officer caught the child, the momentum of the boy caused the officer and the 10-year-old to land on the patrol car.

The child continued to be emotionally distraught, and continued with the outburst, at which time our officer placed him on the ground. While on the ground, the officer continued to attempt to de-escalate the situation, assuring the child that he was not under arrest and that he would let him up if he would remain calm.

Once the officer believed the child had calmed down, he allowed him to return to his feet. The child continued to be emotionally distraught but was not resistant towards our officers.

The boy was upset by his fathers arrest. Source: WSBTV

Police said in the statement officers consoled the child and explained what was happening to his dad. Officers then allowed the boy to speak to his father through the patrol car window.

Story continues

The police chief at the Athens-Clarke County Police Department ordered an internal affairs investigation and ordered the release of the body cam footage.

CNN reports the video filmed from a family members perspective shows the officer pinning the boy to the ground, twisting an arm behind his back while the other officer puts his hands on the boys shoulders.

How you gonna do a child like that, somebody can be heard yelling from the background.

About 40 seconds into the video, the boy is no longer on the ground.Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- will gather in Johannesburg on Wednesday for a three-day meeting focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war. US President Donald Trump's hardening stance has compounded fears of an all-out trade war after he slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars and imposed tariffs on other international imports. China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer will attend the annual summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests. Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering, saying that "the Johannesburg summit has special significance for BRICS cooperation in the new circumstances". China this week sharply rejected accusations by Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge, saying Washington appeared determined to provoke a trade war. Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation. The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice -- as well as achieving sharply different growth rates. - Trade war unity? - Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed unity. Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders would "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members". "They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said. Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said last week the Johannesburg meeting was "about the context -- we are at a time when the US and China announce new measures almost every week". "This is a trade war, so leaders' discussions are particularly important in coordinating our positions," he added. Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies. Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India's Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit. The meeting opens on Wednesday afternoon with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks on Thursday. African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme on Friday include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. "South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP. "BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade." Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines. China has rejected accusations by US President Donald Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge Key economic data on each member of the BRICS group of countries: Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa. Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gatheringOne day after Luis Dagua last left his farm in Colombia's southwest his body was found, his head shattered with a rock. He was a 64-year-old farmer and rights activist and left behind four children. At around the same time, the body of Iber Angulo, an activist for black rights in the region, was found floating in a river. He had been abducted by an armed group on May 5. Colombia is in the grip of terror with rights activists the primary targets for violent gangs battling for control of the lucrative drug trafficking trade. Since the landmark peace deal signed between the government and Marxist guerrillas FARC in December 2016, 326 human rights activists have been killed. One indigenous, black or peasant rights activist is murdered every three days, and many in the Cauca department where Dagua lived, in which 43 percent of the population are indigenous or black. Military checkpoints at the entrances to Cauca warn of the dangers lurking in the region, which has accounted for 81 of the 326 murders, according to the Ombudsman's Office. Juan Carlos Chindicue is amongst those trying to escape a similarly gruesome fate. He's come to the village of Toez, near where Dagua was found, to hide out amongst the indigenous guard -- but they're armed only with sticks. - 'Phantom of death' - He left behind his wife in nearby Cali, one of the most violent cities in the world, with almost 50 murders per 100,000 citizens last year. "There's always been this anxiety, this fear of dying in the streets, in the towns, in the country," Chindicue, who looks after his two children aged six and nine, told AFP. "Now, the phantom of death has awakened once again." After taking part in a demonstration aimed at protecting a wetland, Chindicue was threatened by two men on a motorcycle and later his name appeared on a leaflet. Terror has become an epidemic in Colombia where social and human rights activists and leaders, as well as journalists, receive threats by leaflets, social media, phone calls and SMS messages. "We don't have as much joy as we used to have, now there's more sadness, tears and despair." Since seeking protection amongst the indigenous guard, Chindicue says his children have been terrified and never leave his side. "When I think about this it gives me greater strength to carry on," he added. Threats have been issued against 35 rights leaders in northern Cauca through leaflets, some of which arrived at their homes or, having been thrown from vehicles, were photographed by passers by and uploaded to social media. In the case of Dagua, he had received an intimidating phone call in March but wasn't threatened directly. - Anyone a target - He belonged to an indigenous peasant movement created 20 years ago during the 50-year-long Marxist insurgency to protect their territory from guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug-traffickers and the army. "Here, anyone who speaks out is a target," said a local leader, who requested to remain anonymous. He questioned the army, which patrols the area but has failed to protect locals. Indigenous groups here have found themselves caught up in the explosion violence perpetrated by armed gangs fighting over the drug trade. Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine, much of which is destined for the US market. What's changed since the end of FARC's 50-year insurgency and the peace deal that turned the former guerrillas into a political party is that various dissident groups have splintered away to continue their armed struggle. "For many years we knew who was responsible for the strife, so much so that we saw them, chased them and captured them," said Eduin Capaz, human rights co-ordinator for the North Caute Association of Indigenous Councils. But now, he says "it's much more difficult to pursue and identify" members of the armed groups because "sometimes we don't know who's threatening us." The indigenous guard keep copies of the threatening leaflets emblazoned with the seals of the various armed gangs. But faced with enemies carrying automatic weapons, they have only brightly coloured sticks with which to defend themselves, and those who seek their protection. "They only go for the leaders, those who speak out the most, those whose voices speak loudest, those are the ones they look for," said Joseiver Collazos, a 50-year-old farmer who manages one of the indigenous guard posts. Chindicue is one of those, and so too was Dagua. Relatives and friends of Luis Dagua, a slain peasant leader, attend his funeral in Cauca department of ColombiaOksana Shachko, one of the founders of the Femen feminist protest movement, has been found dead in her Paris apartment, the group said on Monday.

Activists from Femen, known for its bold topless protests, said the 31-year-old Ukrainian had been found on Monday with a suicide note next to her body.

It is with great regret and deep pain that I must confirm the death of Oksana, said Inna Shevchenko, one of Femens leaders, who also lives in the French capital.

Controversial feminist Oksana Shachko has been found dead in a Paris hotel room. Source: AFP

Another Femen founder, Anna Gutsol, wrote on Facebook: RIP. The most fearless and vulnerable Oksana Shachko has left us.

We mourn together with her relatives and friends, she said, adding that the group was awaiting the official version from the police.

Shachko was one of four feminist activists who founded Femen in Ukraine in 2008.

Exiled in France since 2013, she had since left the group and was working as an artist.

Operating under the slogan I came, I stripped, I won, Femen quickly drew attention around the world with its bare-breasted protests against sexism.

Their protests eventually started targeting authoritarianism and racism, with Russias Vladimir Putin a particular target, alongside Frances far-right National Front party.

Oksana Shachko in 2015. Source: AAP

But in recent years the group has struggled with internal divisions as well as legal proceedings against its members.

In 2011, Femen said Shachko was among three members kidnapped by security agents and forced to strip naked in a forest after staging a topless protest mocking Belarussian strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

The agents had poured oil over the three women, threatened to set them on fire, and cut off their hair, Femen said.

She was abducted again by unknown assailants during a visit by Putin to Ukraine, according to the group.

Femens lawyer said Shachko was beaten so badly that she was briefly hospitalised.

For support and information about suicide prevention, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.Major consequences of the tit-for-tat tariffs being levied by top economies are not evident yet "but they will come" and will wreak havoc across the global economy, the World Trade Organization chief warned Wednesday. Roberto Azevedo said he feared "this dynamic of an eye-for-an-eye" that has seen major powers slap trade barriers on each other's goods could become "the new normal." "The situation requires an urgent response," Azevedo told reporters in Geneva. The call came as the 164-member WTO launched a report documenting that trade restrictive measures are on the rise, an unsurprising trend amid the escalating trade war. "A lot of the negative effects of the kind of measures that are being put in place today are not visible yet but they will come," Azevedo said. "So, if we continue down this road I am sure that we are going to see a slowdown in the economy," he added, voicing fear that the repercussions will be vast. "I fear for everything, for jobs... I fear for salaries that will be compressed," he said. In the report covering mid-October 2017 to mid-May 2018 the WTO documented 75 new trade restrictions imposed by its members, an average of 11 per month. That marks an increase compared to the previous reporting period of October 2016 to October 2017, which saw nine new restrictions per month. Azevedo declined to pin blame for the pattern on the US President Donald Trump, whose "America first" trade policies have included tariffs on tens of billions of goods from major trading partners like China, the European Union and Canada. Most nations targeted by Trump's tariffs have retaliated. The US Agriculture Department announced it will provide up to $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by trade tariffs, as Trump faces increasing criticism from consumers, farmers and businesses taking a hit from the global retaliation against US goods. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker was heading to Washington on Wednesday to meet Trump in an attempt to avert further escalation. "I am sure that if the situation continues to aggravate the way it is it will be pretty evident for everyone that some kind of solution needs to be found," Azevedo said. "We are calling everyone who believes that trade is a force for good to speak up," he added. World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general Roberto Azevedo is seen on camera's viewfinder during a press conference amid escalating US-China trade war, on July 25, 2018 in GenevaCatalonia's deposed president Carles Puigdemont said Wednesday he will head to Belgium where he will keep pressing for his region's independence after a Spanish judge dropped a European arrest warrant for him. Puigdemont was detained in Germany at the end of March on Madrid's request but he now no longer runs the risk of extradition to Spain after the Spanish court cancelled the warrant. "This weekend I will return to Belgium," the separatist leader told a news conference in Berlin. "My political activity will be based in Belgium, of course with the aim of pursuing the mandate by the people" for an independent Catalonia, Puigdemont said. Sacked as Catalan president after a failed secession bid on October 27, Puigdemont, as well as several members of his executive, fled to Brussels several days later. He was then arrested in Germany at the end of March on his return from a trip to Finland. Puigdemont was freed on bail around 10 days later and set about waiting for a German court decision on an extradition request by Spain, where he is wanted over his role in the independence drive. But the German court ruled that he could be extradited only on possible corruption charges and not for "rebellion" as sought by Madrid but which is not recognised under German law. Following that decision, Spain's Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, in charge of the case against separatist leaders, dropped the international arrest warrant. From Belgium, Puigdemont will be able to travel where he wants, save Spain where he is still wanted for rebellion, which carries up to 25 years in jail, and for misuse of public funds. In theory, he could remain in self-exile for 20 years, which in Spain's legal system is the time limit after which the rebellion charge would no longer be valid. - 'Time for action' - Puigdemont is set to be greeted by a welcoming party comprising members of Catalonia's government as well as other pro-independence organisations. Although power is now officially in the hands of his designated successor Quim Torra, Puigdemont continues to exert strong influence in the region. Torra considers Puigdemont to be still the "legitimate president" of the region. In an illustration of Puigdemont's influence, he managed to reverse his party's stance for greater openness for dialogue with Madrid. "In Brussels, we will continue... to develop activities linked to that which the people of Catalonia approved on October 1," said Puigdemont, in reference to the referendum that was banned by Spain's courts and which was marred by police violence. "It's no longer a Spanish affair that can be resolved internally; a European view is necessary for the Catalonia question," said the region's former president, who expects to travel to other European countries to push his case. Besides Puigdemont, five other leading members of his pro-independance movement are in Belgium, Switzerland and Scotland. Torra met Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in early July, with the socialist leader promising to find a way out of the crisis. Puigdemont wants Sanchez to allow a referendum on the question of independance for Catalonia -- something that the prime minister has refused categorically. He also wants Spain to release nine separatists. "The change in Spain's government is supposed to come with a change in style and climate... but it's not the time for gestures, it's the time for action," he said. Catalonia's deposed president Carles Puigdemont fled to Brussels after a failed secession bid on October 27A string of suicide attacks in Syria by the Islamic State group has killed at least 40 people, mostly pro-regime fighters, in one of the jihadists' deadliest operations in months, a war monitor said Wednesday. "Three bombers with explosive belts targeted Sweida city alone, while the other blasts hit villages to the north and east," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Observatory, said the group then followed up with further attacks, seizing three of the seven villages it had targeted. He said 26 pro-government fighters had been killed and more than 30 people wounded in the attack on populated areas close to Sweida city. Syria's official news agency SANA confirmed the attack had killed and wounded people in the provincial capital. State television also reported casualties in villages to the north and east, adding that the army was "targeting positions of the Daesh (IS) terrorist group" Sweida province's eastern countryside". Abdel Rahman said unidentified warplanes were also targeting IS fighters in the area. Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters. The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has in recent weeks ousted rebels from a majority of the country's south, part of which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The regime controls almost all of Sweida province but IS retains a presence in desert areas of its north and east. It is now closing in on a patch of territory in nearby Daraa province held by jihadist group Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, which has pledged allegiance to IS. The group, which has around 1,000 fighters in the region, has been the target of an intense campaign of bombing by Russian and Syrian jets in recent days. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group made up mostly of ex-members of the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, also has a few hundred men in the south. A Syrian military source accused Israel on Tuesday of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in southern Syria. Israel's army earlier said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation in the sensitive border zone. The Observatory later said air operations had dramatically decreased following the incident. The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS and other opposition factions. Clashes raged Tuesday between regime troops and IS jihadists on the northern edges of the border town of Saida, the Observatory said. A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removes an Islamic State group flag in the Syrian town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa city, on April 30, 2017A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State group killed more than 220 people in southern Syria on Wednesday, in one of the jihadists' deadliest ever assaults in the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region. The bloodshed came almost a week into a Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south. IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying "soldiers of the caliphate" attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated explosive belts. The Britain-based Observatory said four suicide bombers targeted Sweida city while others hit small villages to the north and east and shot residents in their homes. At least 221 people were killed, including 127 civilians, the Observatory said. The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, mostly residents who took up arms to defend their homes, it said. The overwhelming majority of the dead "were in (Sweida's) northern countryside, where the bodies of civilians executed inside their homes were found," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011. "It's the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war" and one of the deadliest ever IS attacks in Syria, the Observatory chief said. He said regime forces eventually ousted IS from several villages its fighters had seized and put an end to the attacks. "Some residents who fled the attacks on their villages are returning and finding people dead in their homes," Abdel Rahman said. At least 38 IS fighters were also killed, including the suicide attackers. - Abandoned shoes - State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east but did not give a specific toll. "Today's crime shows that countries supporting terrorism are trying to breathe life back into the terrorist organisation to keep it as a card in their hand that they will use to achieve political gains," Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he received Russia's envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev. "These attempts will only succeed in... shedding more innocent blood," he added, in comments carried on his social media accounts. Omar, a resident of Sweida city, told AFP explosions began rocking the city around 5:30 am local time (0230 GMT). "The blast was sudden and unexpected. Never in its history has Sweida seen such a tough day," he told AFP. State news agency SANA published images from the city of the attack's aftermath, showing a victim's remains sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall. Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilt out of cartons. An eyewitness said Sweida's national hospital was "packed". He said he saw "people bringing in a lot of wounded in their own private cars.. Others were coming to the hospital to ask if loved ones they had lost track of were there". The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari condemned the "terrorist bombing in Sweida city", saying all civilians should be protected. Government ally Russia said the IS attacks "confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory". Pro-government forces ousted IS from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, but IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters. The jihadists still hold some territory in Syria's south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighbouring Daraa province, to the west. That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to IS. After ousting mainstream rebels from most of the south, Assad's troops backed by his Russian allies are now closing in on the IS pocket in Daraa. SANA said the attacks on Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside". - Desert holdouts - On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces pressed their heavy bombardment of IS territory in Daraa. At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, while clashes have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists, says the Observatory. Last month, Assad's forces launched a lightning assault that battered rebel areas in the south and brought most of Daraa province under his control. They then moved on to Quneitra, the neighbouring province which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. On Tuesday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in Quneitra. Israel's army on Tuesday said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone. The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS, which overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014 but has since lost most of that territory. More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests. A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on July 25, 2018 shows a member of the Syrian security forces walking past a truck damaged in a suicide attack in the southern city of Sweida Map of Syria locating Sweida A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) removes an Islamic State group flag in the Syrian town of Tabqa, about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of Raqa city, on April 30, 2017 A picture taken on July 24, 2018 from the Tal Saki hill in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights shows smoke rising across the border in Syria during air strikes as regime forces pressed an offensive against Daraa provinceThe European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday called on Russia to provide "appropriate treatment" to jailed Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov who has been on hunger strike for two months. Arguably Russia's most prominent prisoner, Sentsov launched his protest on May 14 in a bid to win the release of Ukrainian political prisoners held in Russia. He is serving a 20-year sentence in the far north of Russia after being convicted on terrorism charges over an alleged arson plot in Crimea. "The Court decided to apply an interim measure and to indicate to the Russian government that Mr Sentsov should receive without delay, at a medical establishment, medical care adapted to his condition," the ECHR said in a statement. It also called on 42-year-old Sentsov to "put an end to his hunger strike and accept the vital care which would be offered". Sentsov's lawyer had referred the case to the Strasbourg-based court on Tuesday. The statement said the "emergency measures" for Sentsov "apply only in case of imminent risk of irreparable damage". Western governments led by French President Emmanuel Macron and celebrities including Pedro Almodovar, Johnny Depp and Stephen King have repeatedly urged the Kremlin to release Sentsov. But Moscow has shown no sign of caving in to his demands and concern had been raised about whether Sentsov would make it out of his Russian prison alive. The vocal Kremlin critic was detained in Crimea in 2014 after Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine. People walk past a poster in support of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov in KievAn angler has died after contracting an infection from a flesh-eating bacteria commonly found in oyster-inhabited waters.

According to health officials, the elderly man, from Texas in the US, was fishing in the Gulf of Mexico with open wounds where he began complaining of discomfort.

He was taken to hospital with severe leg pain and classic signs of vibrio bacterial infection, The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District said.

The fisherman died after contracting vibrio bacterial infection while wading in the Gulf of Mexico. Source: Getty, file.

Despite attempting to fight the infection via amputation, the patient died just a day after contracting the infection.

Health officials described common symptoms as diarrhoea, abdominal cramping, vomiting and blistering skin lesions.

The death was the second in the space of a week involving the bacteria after a Florida man died from eating oysters with the bacteria.

Professor at Texas A&M University College of Medicine Dr William Burgin Jr advised people at risk of contracting the infection to avoid eating raw shellfish and to stay out of salt water if you have a wound.A German court on Wednesday sentenced a Vietnamese man to nearly four years in jail for taking part in a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping ordered by Hanoi of an oil executive from a Berlin park. Judges at the Berlin court said the 47-year-old Czech-Vietnamese national, identified as Long N.H., was guilty of aiding an abduction and working for a foreign intelligence service. But they handed him a relatively mild sentence of three years and ten months after he confessed to his involvement. Long N.H. admitted during his trial that he rented the vehicle used in last July's abduction of fugitive Vietnamese state company official Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was spirited back to Hanoi. In a statement, the presiding judge described the kidnapping as "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Germany, unprecedented in recent history". But judges also agreed that while the accused knew about the kidnapping plans by the Vietnamese secret service, he did not belong to the top level of command. The kidnapped man, Thanh -- a senior Communist party functionary who was seeking political asylum in Germany -- has since been sentenced to two life terms in Vietnam on corruption charges. The 52-year-old and his female companion Thi Minh P. D. were walking in Berlin's Tiergarten park when they were dragged into a van in broad daylight and smuggled back to Vietnam. The German government was outraged, calling it a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty. It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats and summoned the ambassador several times. Communist-ruled Vietnam has always insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges. Thanh's German lawyer, Petra Schlagenhauf, has described the kidnapping as "like a story from the Cold War". - Slovakian plane? - Long N.H., was once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany. He was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague. He was arrested there last August and extradited to Germany days later. He admitted renting the van used in the abduction in Prague and driving it to Berlin, but he was not at the wheel during the kidnapping. He then drove the van back to Prague. He also rented another vehicle involved in the operation. It remains unclear exactly how Thanh was transported back to his home country, but judges said in their statement they believed he was flown to Hanoi via Bratislava and Moscow. German media have reported that a Slovakian government plane lent to a visiting Vietnamese delegation at the time was involved in the transfer. Slovakia has said it noticed nothing suspicious about the delegation or their flights, but warned Hanoi of harsh consequences if the allegations proved true. A German court sentenced a Vietnamese man to nearly four years in jail for taking part in a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping, ordered by Hanoi, of oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh (centre) who was jailed for life on corruption charges in VietnamAn Instagram celebrity is coming under harsh criticism after ranting about her maid having a day off.

Sondos Alqattan, a Kuwaiti makeup artist, shared her outrage around new legislation allowing maids to take one day off each week and to keep their passports in their own possession.

The labor laws were introduced to protect the rights of Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait, but Alqattan isnt a fan.

How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them? asked Alqattan in a video that has since been removed.

Whats worse is they have one day off every week If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? Honestly I disagree with this law. I dont want a Filipino maid any more.

Sondos Alqattan, a Kuwaiti makeup artist, posted a video rant about new legislation allowing maids to take one day off each week and to keep their passports in their own possession. Photo: Instagram

Seated in her luxury car ranting to her more than 2.3 million followers, the beauty blogger sparked outrage in the Philippines and Middle East.

Migrante International, a Filipino advocacy group, likened Alqattans comments to those of a slave owner with an outlook that literally belongs to the dark ages. The group is calling on the social media star to publicly apologise for her demeaning comments.

The agreement between the Philippines and Kuwait came after months of strained relations. In February there was a temporary ban on Filipino workers traveling to Kuwait after a domestic worker was found dismembered in the freezer of a flat.

How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them? asked Alqattan in a video that has since been removed. Source: Instagram/Sondos Alqattan

The agreement was signed to eliminate tension and improve the human rights of Filipino workers in Kuwait.

As for Alqattan, two major beauty brands have ended their contracts with her as a result of her rant. She continues to defend her position, sharing a follow-up post addressing the rumors.

She has since disabled comments on her social media accounts.

The outrage continues as people call for other high-profile brands that sponsor the influencer  most notably Max Factor and MAC Cosmetics  to cancel their contracts.Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday urged Croatia to "deal with its past" while paying respect to the victims of the Balkan country's most brutal World War II death camp. Rivlin was visiting a memorial at the site of the Jasenovac camp, known as "Croatia's Auschwitz", where the country's pro-Nazi Ustasha regime brutally murdered tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Romas and anti-fascists. Croatia's current government has come under criticism in recent years for failing to tackle lingering intolerance and celebrations of Ustasha slogans and ideology. "There are some who prefer to repress their past and see it as a 'black hole' which requires no study or soul searching," Rivlin said in Hebrew in front of the memorial site, a towering concrete flower that looms over lush farmland. "Croatia's ability to deal with the past and not to ignore it is a moral obligation which is a fundamental part of any just society," he said, according to an official translation. It "will continue to be an important element of the friendship between Croatia and Israel," the Israeli leader added. Rivlin, who arrived in Zagreb on Tuesday for a two-day visit, was accompanied by his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. The two presidents visited the camp's museum and laid wreaths for the victims at the monument. Rivlin also recited a traditional Jewish prayer. Grabar-Kitarovic also voiced deep sympathy for victims of the Ustasha regime. "No political goal or regime can justify crimes committed in its name," she said, pledging to continue to take care of the "collective memory of the crimes committed here." The number of people killed at Jasenovac, which lies 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Zagreb, remains disputed. It varies from tens of thousands to 700,000, according to Serbian figures. The site remains a place of controversy. The country's ethnic Serb and Jewish minorities have snubbed the official commemoration at the Jasenovac memorial for the past three years, accusing authorities of tolerating strains of pro-Nazi ideology in society. They were particularly incensed by the placing of a plaque with an Ustasha slogan near the memorial in November 2016. The plaque, laid by former paramilitaries, was removed from the camp's immediate vicinity nearly a year later -- only to be displayed at another location around 10 kilometres (six miles) away. Relations between Croatia and Israel took a dip during the 1990s under president Franjo Tudjman, who led the country's breakaway from Yugoslavia. Israel accused him of failing to make a strong denunciation of the Ustasha regime, who murdered an estimated 75 percent of the country's 40,000 Jews. The ties between the two countries have improved since Tudjman's death in 2000. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (left) and his Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic (right) pay tribute to the victims killed at the Jasenovac Nazi concentration camp in World War IIPakistani women who had pledged to defy men in their village by voting for the first time ultimately did not exercise their democratic right in Wednesday's election, citing intimidation by their husbands. Male elders banned females from voting in Mohri Pur, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the central Pakistan city of Multan, around 1947 and the women have obeyed ever since. This year many had vowed to cast a ballot following changes to Pakistan's election laws and amid shifting attitudes towards women in parts of the deeply patriarchal South Asian country. Some 3,200 women were listed on the electoral register in Mohri Pur -- but not one voted, according to election officials and an AFP journalist at the village's sole polling station. "We have threats from our husbands that they will divorce us if we cast our vote," 25-year-old Tanya Bibi told AFP as she walked past the polling station, without going in. Around 8,000 men were registered to vote in the village. Large queues of them -- each clutching identity cards -- formed at the polling station, located in a school. "We are here to cast our ballots, but our women didn't cast their votes because it is our old tradition which we have been preserving," Muhammad Shamsher told AFP. Even Qasir Abbas, a lawyer who campaigned for the women's vote, said in the end he did not bring his wife to the polling station, explaining: "I was afraid ... the villagers might boycott my family." Bismillah Iram, from a local NGO, said announcements were made from the village mosque warning that women should not come to the polling station. Elders in Mohri Pur, which is located in Punjab province, banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling booth would "dishonour" them. So-called "honour" describes a patriarchal code across South Asia that often seeks to justify the murder and oppression of women who defy conservative traditions by acts such as choosing their own husband, or working outside the home. Women in Mohri Pur told AFP recently that they had tried to vote in previous elections but had been prevented. In 2015, one woman, Fouzia Talib, became the only one in the village to vote in local elections. She was ostracised. - 'Elated' - Hopes were raised this time after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared that at least 10 percent of voters in each constituency must be women, otherwise its results will be voided. Nearly 20 million new voters were registered in the rapidly growing country of some 207 million people, including 9.13 million women, the commission said. It was not immediately clear how many had voted once polls closed, but queues of women voters could be seen in major cities such as Lahore and Karachi. Not so in Mohri Pur, where "not a single female voted," said Asia Bibi, an assistant presiding officer, adding that she was "surprised and upset". Women reported better experiences in conservative rural areas elsewhere, however, notably in parts of Lower Dir, in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where they were allowed to vote for the first time. Bakht Sania Bibi, a 46-year-old mother-of-three from Samarbagh town, said village elders had previously stopped women from voting. Announcements used to be made through mosques' loudspeakers saying women would not be allowed to vote. "I have voted today and feel elated to get my basic right," she told AFP. Sajida Haleem, 27, a first-time voter from Lower Dir's Koto town said she had been prevented from voting in elections in 2013 and 2015. "I had always thought, 'Why do men decide for us? Can we as women decide for them?'" Haleem, who has a Masters degree in social work, told AFP. "Today I feel I'm a complete Pakistani. I have got my right which had been denied to me since I was 18," she added. strs-mmg-pdh/st/amz Some 3,200 women were listed on the electoral register in Mohri Pur -- but not one voted, according to election officials and an AFP journalist at the village's sole polling station Elders in Mohri Pur, which is located in Punjab province, banned women from voting decades ago, claiming that visiting a public polling booth would "dishonour" themPoland's Senate approved early Wednesday a controversial bill to reform the Supreme Court in a move that critics say puts the judicial system under government control and is a threat to the country's democracy. The changes, backed by 60 senators with 30 against and one abstention, will make it easier to replace Supreme Court Chief Justice Malgorzata Gersdorf, who refused to step down earlier this month. As the bill was debated in the Senate in Warsaw, cries from hundreds of demonstrators outside of "Shame!" and "Senator, do not sign!" could be heard inside the chamber. The new law, which has already been approved by the lower house of parliament, is part of a raft of controversial judicial reforms by the government to replace scores of judges all the way up to the Supreme Court. Opposition senator Aleksander Pociej from the liberal Civic Platform (PO) party described the bill as "an assault" on the court. The opposition, democracy watchdogs and the European Union have warned the changes undermine judicial independence, the rule of law and ultimately democracy. But the government insists the proposals tackle corruption and overhaul a judicial system still haunted by Poland's communist era. The proposals still need to be signed by President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS), to become law. The new legislation comes after weeks of turmoil over the forced early retirement of Supreme Court judges under a law lowering their pension age from 70 to 65. Protesters demonstrated against the judicial reform in front of the Senate in WarsawPoland's Senate on Wednesday torpedoed a bid by the president for a non-binding referendum on a new constitution in a move that analysts said underscored tensions within the governing right-wing camp. Senators voted 10 in favour to 30 against and 52 abstentions in the 100-member upper house of parliament that is dominated by the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party. PiS protege President Andrzej Duda proposed last week that the referendum could focus on issues like giving the president greater powers to the supremacy of Polish laws over EU ones. Analysts in Warsaw said Wednesday that the Senate's overwhelming rejection of Duda's idea was meant to let him know that he is not a leading figure in the party. "It's about showing him his place; he is a PiS candidate who depends on the party, not a PiS leader who can decide about policy matters," Warsaw University political analyst Anna Materna Sosnowska told AFP. "It's meant to show the president that he doesn't stand a chance of forming his own political camp" ahead of elections in 2020, she added. Duda was catapulted into the presidency in 2015 thanks to PiS backing after holding various senior administrative government posts without substantial political clout. The PiS is controlled by party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is also widely regarded as Poland's de facto decision-maker despite only being an MP. Kaczynski recently said that the PiS would back Duda again in 2020. Having taken office in 2015, the PiS government is highly critical of the current constitution drafted by its leftist and liberal political opponents. Under Polish law, it is up to the Senate to decide whether to proceed with presidential proposals. PiS party protege Polish President Andrzej Duda proposed that a referendum for a new constitution could focus on issues like giving the president greater powers to the supremacy of Polish laws over EU onesThe longest "blood moon" eclipse this century will coincide with Mars' closest approach in 15 years to offer skygazers a thrilling astronomical double bill on Friday, astronomers say. For about half the world, the moon will be partly or fully in Earth's shadow from 1714 to 2328 GMT -- six hours and 14 minutes in all. The period of complete eclipse -- known as "totality", when the moon appears darkest -- will last from 1930 to 2113 GMT. "Totality will last for 103 minutes, making it the longest eclipse of the 21st century!" said the Royal Astronomical Society in London. At the same time, Mars will hover near the moon in the night sky, easily visible with the naked eye. Our neighbouring planet will appear unusually large and bright, a mere 57.7 million kilometres (35.9 million miles) from Earth on its elliptical orbit around the sun. "We have a rare and interesting conjunction of phenomena," Pascal Descamps, an astronomer with the Paris Observatory, told AFP. "We should have a coppery red tint on the moon with Mars the 'Red Planet' just next to it, very bright and with a slight orange hue itself." Amateur astronomers in the southern hemisphere will be best-placed to enjoy the spectacle, especially those in southern Africa, Australia, India and Madagascar, though it will also be partly visible in Europe and South America. - Celestial bodies align - A total lunar eclipse happens when Earth takes position in a straight line between the moon and sun, blotting out the direct sunlight that normally makes our satellite glow whitish-yellow. The moon travels to a similar position every month, but the tilt of its orbit means it normally passes above or below the Earth's shadow -- so most months we have a full moon without an eclipse. When the three celestial bodies are perfectly lined up, however, the Earth's atmosphere scatters blue light from the sun while refracting or bending red light onto the moon, usually giving it a rosy blush. This is what gives the phenomenon the name "blood moon", though Mark Bailey of the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland said the colour can vary greatly. It depends partly on "how cloudy or transparent those parts of the Earth's atmosphere are which enable sunlight to reach the moon", he told AFP. "During a very dark eclipse the moon may be almost invisible. "Less dark eclipses may show the moon as dark grey or brown... as rust-coloured, brick-red, or, if very bright, copper-red or orange." The long duration of this eclipse is partly due to the fact that the moon will make a near-central passage through Earth's umbra -- the darkest, most central part of the shadow. - 'Eerie and beautiful' - Our constant companion will also be at the farthest point on its orbit from Earth, making its movement across the sky slower from our perspective, thus spending longer in the dark. NASA, meanwhile, has called out social media hoaxers claiming that Mars will appear as big as the moon during the eclipse. "If that were true, we'd be in big trouble given the gravitational pulls on Earth, Mars, and our moon!" the NASA website states. Mars will more likely appear as a very bright star, and viewers will need no protective eye gear. "All you have to do is dress warmly and go outside!" the Royal Astronomical Society advises. "If you want a close-up view of the moon as it turns red, a pair of binoculars is helpful." "All eclipses are spectacular," the society's Robert Massey added. "In the middle of a lunar eclipse it can look as if a red planet has taken up residence near the Earth -- they are both eerie and beautiful and I'll certainly be looking out for it!" A "blood moon" seen in January: On Friday, the longest such eclipse this century can be seen in the sky near Mars, which will be its closest in 15 years The parts of the world that will be able to view the total lunar eclipse on July 27Sergio Marchionne, who died Wednesday at the age of 66, was little known when he took the driving seat at Fiat in 2004. But he won the respect and admiration of Italy's politicians, unions and media alike by turning the ailing Italian carmaker around without massive job cuts. And he subsequently merged Fiat with the troubled US group Chrysler in 2009, transforming the combined entity into a global player that boasted a record performance in 2017. The visionary Italian-Canadian executive had already been preparing to hand over control of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2019. But FCA announced at the weekend that he was gravely ill in hospital in Zurich after suffering serious complications following surgery on his right shoulder last month. And FCA's holding company Exor, which is owned by the Agnelli family, announced his death on Wednesday. "It is with the deepest sadness that Exor has learned of the passing of Sergio Marchionne," it said in a statement. The eulogies had already begun to pour in at the weekend on the news that Marchionne was stepping down as head of FCA. Marchionne's "story is a great Italian story," former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had said on Sunday, saying he had come to "symbolise Italian ingenuity" for the world. Born in 1952 in the central Italian town of Chieti, Marchionne emigrated with his family to Canada, when he was just 14, settling in Toronto. He studied philosophy, law and management in Canada and his first job there was as a tax specialist at Deloitte and Touche. "I spoke English with a strong Italian accent, it took me over six years to lose it. That was six years lost with girls," he said in an interview with Turin-based daily La Stampa in 2009. - Outspoken workaholic - Marchionne's outspoken nature and Anglo-Saxon outlook on business frequently raised hackles in Italy. But his strategy for turning Fiat around -- slashing costs, launching new models and focussing on design -- enabled the Italy's biggest private-sector employer to drive back to profit after four years in the red. A notorious workaholic, Marchionne never shied away from making tough demands on Fiat's 65,000-strong workforce, either, as in 2007 when he decided to bring forward the launch of the new Fiat 500 by three months. "We had our differences... but together we challenged the lazy little Italy that prefers to close factories rather than roll up their sleeves," said Marco Bentivoglio, general secretary of the CISL union's metalworkers branch, on hearing about Marchionne's illness. The financial crisis of 2008 didn't faze him either, and he made possibly his smartest move just as the walls of the global economy were crashing down. In January 2009, Fiat announced a strategic tie-up with Chrysler. And after the US company emerged from bankruptcy in June that year, Fiat -- and Marchionne -- took operational control without having to pay a penny. A car fanatic and especially passionate about the luxury car brand Ferrari, Marchionne divided his time between his three homes in Turin, Switzerland and Detroit. A divorced father of two, he died on Wednesday surrounded by his partner Manuela, and his two sons, Alessio and Tyler. Sergio Marchionne has died at the age of 66 after serious complications from an operation on his shoulderRecent mystery illnesses that have injured 26 US diplomatic personnel and their families in Cuba have prompted a surprise visit by three senior State Department officials to the communist island nation. The apparent victims of what Washington has called sonic "attacks" have suffered symptoms consistent with mild brain trauma -- including, in some cases, disorientation and hearing loss. Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Management William Todd and Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Michael Evanoff traveled to Havana to "visit embassy personnel in light of new health attacks against US diplomats at Embassy Havana," a State Department spokesperson said. Although the length of the trip was not revealed, CBS News reported that they left Cuba on Tuesday. "The trip provided an opportunity for our senior officials to gain deeper insight into the unique challenges posed by these attacks and their impact on US operations on the ground," the US official said. In June, the State Department indicated that two US diplomats experienced the previous month similar health ailments at an American diplomatic residence where they were both present. The two cases were the first in Havana since August 2017, bringing the total to 26. The ailments first began in late 2016. Some American officials in both China and Cuba reported hearing an unidentified noise before falling ill, and initial reports suggested they may have been hit by a secret sonic weapon. But US intelligence and medical experts have been investigating for more than a year and seem no closer to identifying the cause. After holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect its officials, the US recalled more than half of its staff from the embassy and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington. This marked a major diplomatic crisis following the countries' cautious revival of ties in 2015, but Cuba has firmly denied any role in or knowledge of the incident. On June 10, the Cuban foreign ministry said: "We can confirm that we have no credible hypothesis or scientific explanation that justifies the retaliatory US measures." US Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri is among three senior American officials who made a surprise visit to Cuba to investigate mystery health ailments affecting US diplomatic staff and their familiesA US state lawmaker is resigning after a humiliating appearance on comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's television show during which he exposed himself and shouted racial slurs. Jason Spencer, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives, had been under pressure from his own party to step down following the embarrassing appearance on Cohen's series "Who Is America?" Spencer, 43, finally announced on Wednesday that he planned to resign on July 31. He had already lost a primary in May but he could have remained in office until November. Spencer was one of several Republican figures pranked by Cohen on the Showtime series. Others included former vice president Dick Cheney, who signed a "waterboarding kit" and former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. In the episode of "Who Is America" with Spencer, Cohen pretends to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, Colonel Erran Morad, offering self-defense training. At one point, Spencer is persuaded to expose his buttocks and chase Cohen while yelling "USA" and racial slurs. Spencer, in a statement this week to The Washington Post, said Cohen "took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked." Spencer told the Post he had received death threats after introducing a bill that would ban Muslim women from publicly wearing burqas. Palin, the former governor of Alaska, denounced the show as "evil, exploitive, sick 'humor.'" A US lawmaker has resigned after being pranked on the television show of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, pictured hereDid Donald Trump make secret promises to Vladimir Putin? What did the American president tell his Russian counterpart at their Helsinki summit? US senators, distressed by the Republican billionaire's recent behavior, will demand answers from his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday, when he provides the most closely watched congressional testimony of his young tenure as the nation's top diplomat. Lawmakers have been eager for Pompeo to report back about a previous critical summit June 12 in Singapore between Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un. Their demand became all the more urgent after Helsinki, in particular the joint press conference during which Trump was seen by Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike as betraying American interests and being too conciliatory towards Putin. "The Helsinki press conference was a sad day for our country, and everyone knows it," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an occasional Trump critic, told reporters Tuesday. Russia will therefore be the primary focus of Pompeo's 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) appearance before the committee. But Corker made it clear his panel will also grill Pompeo about his recent trip to Pyongyang, Trump's "undermining" of NATO and the alliance's principal of mutual defense, and the president's controversial tariffs which appear to be mushrooming into a trade war. "I will testify about a lot of things including the relationship between the United States and Russia" and the "incredibly important" Trump-Putin summit, Pompeo said. The closed-door meeting was panned by US lawmakers and observers, but Pompeo insisted it was "one I think the world will have benefited from when history is written." More Trump-Putin history may be made in the coming months. The White House has announced that Putin has been invited to Washington for another meeting later this year, even as Pompeo lamented that Congress was unimpressed with Trump's unprecedented determination to push back against Russia's "malign behavior around the world." Congress has been rattled by Trump's Helsinki performance, particularly when he appeared to accept Putin's denials rather than US intelligence conclusions that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. The criticism was so swift that Trump subsequently said he misspoke and that he believed Russia had indeed interfered in the election. - Americans 'deserve answers' - Congressional leaders in Trump's Republican Party were quick to stress that the Russian strongman was not welcome in the US Capitol. The political turmoil has only grown in the past week, with Trump launching bellicose tweets at Iran and doubling down on his tariff plans. With Moscow stressing that "agreements" had been reached between the two leaders over the situation in Syria, the content of their two-hour conversation with no one else but their interpreters present has been the subject of conjecture. "I gave up NOTHING," Trump wrote on Twitter. The US State Department said three "modest proposals" have emerged from the summit: a high-level business leaders' working group; a council of US and Russian political experts, diplomats and military officials; and discussions between the two presidents' national security staffs. The Democratic opposition has launched withering attacks on Trump, demanding additional transparency and going so far as to haul the president's interpreter before Congress. "The American people deserve answers about what they agreed to in private," said Senator Robert Menendez, top Democrat on the committee, who is working on a bipartisan bill to strengthen sanctions on Russia. Corker agreed, stressing he hoped Pompeo was "in the loop" and briefed on the details of the Helsinki tete-a-tete. "I'd be disappointed to find out that he wasn't," Corker said. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be in the hot seat when he testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 25, 2018 about President Donald Trump's closed-door summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir PutinUS President Donald Trump on Wednesday delayed a second summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin, while his top diplomat insisted there was no let up against Moscow following the two leaders' controversial meeting in Helsinki. Facing mounting calls to release the details of Trump's closed-door talks with Putin, the US administration stepped up its damage control operation, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo going before Congress to defend his boss. The US president himself, under fire for plans to invite Putin to the White House in the fall, opted to delay until 2019 -- pushing the talks back until Robert Mueller has completed his probe into Moscow's election interference, according to National Security Advisor John Bolton. And Pompeo went on the offensive to stress steps Trump has taken to show resolve against the Kremlin, stepping into a white-hot spotlight during a three-hour grilling by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The top diplomat said he would back bipartisan efforts in Congress to slap new sanctions on Russia in response to their meddling in the 2016 US election, and as a deterrent against meddling this year or in 2020. "I personally made clear to the Russians that there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes," he said in his opening statement. But Pompeo remained frustratingly vague about perhaps the biggest question of all: what transpired in the private meeting between Trump and Putin? Pompeo reaffirmed as official policy that the United States "rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea" -- an issue on which Trump had appeared to waver. And with the US president accused -- including by members of his own Republican Party -- of casting doubt on the alliance's founding principle of mutual defense, Pompeo sought to smooth ruffled feathers. "NATO will remain an indispensable pillar of American national security," he said. "We know weakness provokes our enemies, but strength and cohesion protect us." On the North Korea front, Pompeo also struck a resolute tone, warning that Washington will not let nuclear negotiations drag on with no success, amid criticism that Trump's June Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un has so far yielded few results. "We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said. But while he insisted that North Koreans "understand precisely our definition of denuclearization and have agreed to denuclearize," Pompeo also confirmed in the hearing that Pyongyang continues to make nuclear fissile material. And he said he believes North Korea remains the most urgent national security threat to the United States. - 'Submissive and deferential' - Lawmakers -- and America's allies around the world -- have been eager to learn the details of Trump's one-on-one July 16 meeting with Putin, including whether Trump made any secret promises to Putin or as-yet-undisclosed verbal agreements. Republicans and Democrats alike have described Trump's performance as a betrayal of US interests and too conciliatory towards the Russian leader. The hearing quickly turned testy as lawmakers sought details on what exactly transpired in the Finnish capital. "I don't think that's unfair to know," Senator Robert Menendez, the panel's top Democrat, told Pompeo. "Did he tell Putin that he'll release or ultimately relax sanctions?" "Senator, what you need to conduct your role, your appropriate role, I will provide you today," a steely Pompeo shot back, without answering the question. While Pompeo gave no hints of any secret promises or deals between the presidents, the US State Department has said three "modest proposals" emerged from the summit: a high-level business leaders' working group; a council of US and Russian political experts, diplomats and military officials; and discussions between the two presidents' national security staffs. As Democrats launched broadsides against Trump and Pompeo's performance, Pompeo responded in kind, accusing Menendez for example of making a "political soliloquy" at the administration's expense. But even Republican ranks remained unconvinced by Pompeo's reassurances. Republican Senator Bob Corker, the committee's chairman, delivered withering criticism, accusing Trump of appearing "submissive and deferential" standing next to Putin in Helsinki and saying "it's the president's actions that create tremendous distrust in our nation, among our allies." Congress has been rattled by Trump's Helsinki showing, particularly when he appeared to accept Putin's denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- dismissing US intelligence conclusions. The intensity of the criticism prompted days of conflicting statements from the White House, and ultimately an extraordinary U-turn from Trump who said he misspoke and did, in fact, believe Russia meddled in the election. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said President Donald Trump has taken a firm stance against Russia US President Donald Trump (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands before a joint press conference after their summit in HelsinkiThe United States on Tuesday warned Nicaragua to halt violence against opposition groups as at least four more people were killed in unrest that has gripped the country for three months. US Vice President Mike Pence said it was "undeniable" that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government was behind the violence, despite his denials. Pence used Twitter to call on Ortega to "end the violence NOW" and bow to opposition demands to hold early elections. "The world is watching!" Pence added. On Monday Ortega gave an interview to US television channel Fox News saying that he would not step down and would see through his current term to 2021. He also asserted that "the turmoil has stopped" in his country after offensives over the past couple of weeks against protest hubs, and he denied his security forces and coordinating paramilitaries were attacking peaceful demonstrators. Speaking on Venezuelan television, Ortega on Tuesday accused US senators in Miami of being behind a "conspiracy" to try to effect regime change in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela. - Brazilian killed - According to a non-governmental rights group, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, Nicaragua's death toll stands at 301 since the turmoil started in mid-April. Other groups give higher figures. An AFP photographer in the city of Jinotega, north of the capital, saw funerals for two of three people locals said were killed by police and pro-government paramilitaries. Those killed included a boy, said the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights. In Managua, a 32-year-old Brazilian medical student was fatally shot while driving home in the middle of the night, one of her professors at the American University in the capital said. Brazil's government expressed "profound outrage" at the killing. In a statement, it demanded the killers be brought to justice, and condemned the "disproportionate and lethal use of force, as well as the use of paramilitary groups in operations with security teams." Ortega, in his Fox News and Venezuela state television interview, spoke only of dozens of police officers killed in the violence. He also denied controlling paramilitaries acting against protesters. Those assertions prompted Pence to tweet: "State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing." In his interview with Venezuela's Telesur channel, Ortega said US senators in Miami were bankrolling "criminal gangs" in Nicaragua, with the help of extreme-right groups in the country to try to topple government. He also slammed a mooted US law, the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, which aimed to curb international loans to Nicaragua unless it can satisfy Washington that it is promoting democracy. - Stalled talks - US lawmakers are reportedly mulling a resolution condemning Nicaragua, and preparing possible additional sanctions on Ortega's government. The Organization of American States has also backed early elections as a way out of the crisis. But talks between Ortega's administration and the opposition, mediated by Catholic bishops in the country, have stalled for over a month, with the president refusing to bring forward polls. Managua's archbishop, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, told AFP that the Church "is not an enemy" of Ortega's government, and urged the administration to "listen" to the people. He said that, while conditions were not right now to resume dialogue, "without talks there could be more deaths." For Nicaragua's 72-year-old president, a former leftwing guerrilla who has ruled over his poor nation for 22 of the past 39 years since his Sandinista rebels toppled a US-backed dictator, the unrest has been the worst he has faced since returning to power in 2007. The protests were prompted by cutbacks to the social security system, but quickly spread as they tapped into broad disgruntlement with Ortega and his wife, whom he has made his vice president. Critics liken their government to a corrupt leftist dictatorship. Nicaragua's President Daniel Ortega has refused to step down and vowed to see through his current term to 2021Lake Arpi National Park,in Armenias northeastern Shirak Province, is both home to the lake after which it is named and to Lake Ardenis, a smaller body of water, that nevertheless hosts a unique variety of flora and fauna.

Environmentalists and residents say Ardenis, a spring-fed lake covering some ten hectares, is slowly dying.

Instead of hosting tourists, Lake Ardenis has turned into a sewage storage site within the last 8 years. This has impacted the lakes fauna - the fish have disappeared, and so have unique migratory birds that used to nest here.

Shakro Ghazaryan, a resident of Ardenis who turned a part of his house into a small B&B, says the lake is slowly dying because of the waste of the dairy plant and pig farm that operate nearby. They belong to the family of Mergel Gharibyan, who was elected mayor of the village of Ardenis in 2008, was re-elected in 2012, and became the mayor of the enlarged community in 2016.

Shakro Ghazaryan

Shakro petitioned the Ministry of Nature Protection eight years ago to look into the matter, when the plant and farm started polluting the lake, but the issue remains unresolved. He says the situationhas worsened.

He believes nothing being done because the Gharibyan family has an influential sponsor - Davit Lokyan, the former minister of territorial administration and development.

"To be more precise, whomever you ask here, theyll say that all this belongs to Lokyan, and that's why the Ministry of Nature Protection hasnt intervened. Lokyan frequently comes here. If it doesnt belong to him, or hes not a shareholder, why would he come to a pig farm? " Shakro asks.

The pig farm was founded in 2005, and the dairy plant - a bit later.

"We started our business in 2008, when Mourad Gharibyan registered as a private entrepreneur. Later on, we registered the dairy plant in the name of Golden Love LLC, and the pig farm is registered in Gyulvard Gharibyans name," says the director of Golden Love LLC Samvel Gharibyan (elder brother of the Arpi community mayor). In the beginning, we bought an old barn, then weve built the other buildings step by step. What you see here, was created with our sweat, " says Gharibyan.

Samvel Gharibyan

The owners, however, dont seem concerned with polluting the lake. When asked whether they had ever thought of constructing a septic well in order not to pollute the environment, Gharibyan replied, "We have done so much. We have provided many people with jobs. Why should we have thought about a septic well? Theres no sewage in the village. Where do they throw the livestocks waste, have you asked them? I am against polluting the lake, too, but what can we do?

At the beginning of the operation, the company was twice fined for pollution  50,000 drams and one million drams. Thats all that the National Park and Environmental Inspectoratehas done so far for violating the lakes ecosystem.

All subsequent complaints have gone unanswered.

Gharibyans operation covers an area around six hectares and is considered a major taxpayer in the enlarged community of Arpi. But he was unable to indicate the amount of tax paid by the business to the community budget. Neither could he recall the number of its employees.

Instead, he clearly recalled and mentioned the total amount of loans the business has taken - $360,000.

"I did so much, and nobody thanked me. Now theyre complaining about the lakes pollution. I already regret having invested so much, I want to sell it all and move from here, says Samvel Gharibyan.

However, hes in the middle of a new and large construction project.

"I have demolished the old plant and Im building a new one. Once I finish, and if theres any money, I'll solve the issue of the septic well. On the other hand, I'm sure that it wont be of help. We have long winters and it will freeze, and my money will be wasted, says Gharibyan.

In addition to 1,600 pigs kept in the farm, the company also has 100 goats. They buy milk from residents of eight villages, paying 150 drams per liter. The company sells its product in Yerevan, and also exports to Russia.

Gharibyan says that they exported 30-40 tons of cheese last year and have already exceeded 40 tons in the first seven months of this year.

When the Arpi Lake National Park was being formed, World Wildlife Fund representatives visited the area and promised to support the construction of the septic well, but never did.

Hovsep Simonyan

According to its statute, the Arpi Lake National Park SNCO is obliged to prevent processes that violate the natural park ecosystem as a result of human activity and take measures to restore the ecosystems.

Hovsep Simonyan, just finishing his first year as park director, says hes repeatedly urged the Gharibyans to solve the problem since fining them has gotten nowhere.

When Simonyan asked the Gharibyans, in writing, about the specific steps they were taking, the family replied that they were ready to build a septic well if the government allocated a 20 million AMD interest-free loan.

This is Gharibyans estimate, and the director says he doesnt know how much it will cost to build a septic well. Simonyan says they wrote a letter to the Ministry of Nature Protection on July 10, requesting they discuss the matter and make a decision. He promised to inform Hetq once they get a reply.





After we left the pig farm, we met some zoologists from Yerevan who had come to birdwatch.

Mamikon Ghasabyan, Laboratory Head of Vertebrates Zoology, Institute of Zoology, of Armenias National Sciences Academy, says hes been addressing the issue for almost ten years, writing letters to the ministers and asking them to solve the issue either by closing the pig farm or forbidding to dump wastewater into the lake. Hes going to send a letter to the new minister, too.

Mamikon Ghasabyan

Ghasabyan says the issue must be resolved in natures favor.

"The fish have disappeared, some birds can no longer be found here, and the reproduction of several bird species that live by this lake is endangered. We still do not know how the food affects them - we need to conduct research. Its not only wastewater flowing into the lake. It's all those cleansers and washing chemicals as well. I have a photo where boxes of medicines are floating on the water. If we need to choose between the pig farm and the lake, we choose the lake. Otherwise, we will lose all this natural wealth forever, says Ghasabyan.

Gevorg Petrosyan, Chairman of the Biosophia environmental NGO, says that this is not only an environmental issue. All these violations have been backed up by the local authorities. Petrosyan considers it an abuse of official position.

"Someone gets rich, paying 50-60,000drams to a dozen people. As a result, we lose an entire natural environment. Even if there were no fish and birds there, no one has given them the right to dump wastewater into the lake formed by mountain springs. As for the chances of the septic well getting frozen, it will definitely not freeze. I suggested to Mergel that he dig two wells, in order to use the second once the first one gets filled. There are special cars to empty them. Water will be soaked in the soil, and solid masses can be used as fertilizers. There is always a solution if there is a desire, says Petrosyan.

The environmentalist is convinced that even if the company's business is suspended, around a decade will be needed to restore Ardenis Lake's natural state.President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed by a man with a pickax early Wednesday morning, according to Los Angeles police officer Ray Brown.

Hollywood division officers responded to a call at 3:33 a.m. (6:33 a.m. ET) to the tourist area. The LAPD said a man is in custody and is being questioned. Police said a man turned himself in at the Beverly Hills Police Department Wednesday morning.

Patricia Cox, a witness, told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS that she saw a man "going to town" on the ground "like it was his business just to be tearing up the ground," she said. "I thought it was work going on over here."

Video from KCAL/KCBS shows tourists taking photos of the defaced star in front of the Hollywood & Highland center, a major tourist spot in Hollywood.

CNN has reached out to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce for comment.

Trump's star has repeatedly been the target of vandalism and protests since the reality TV star's turn to politics. In April 2016, a Superman impersonator on Hollywood Boulevard said he had seen visitors make obscene gestures next to the star, deface it with paint, and allow a dog to relieve itself on the landmark.

"People often stomp with anger on the star, others kick their heels over the star, and some spit. The last time, someone put a sticker over the star," Francisco Javier, another street performer who was dressed like Superman, said at the time.

A street artist constructed a tiny wall around Trump's star in July 2016, and in October of that year, the LAPD arrested a man who they said vandalized the star with a sledgehammer and a pickax.

Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0LOS ANGELESBryan Deneumostier, the owner of the now defunct StraightBoyz gay porn site accused of taping himself having sex with unsuspecting straight men for profit, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Miami federal court.

Deneumostier will remain in jail until trial, according to the Miami Herald. He was arrested last week in Miami on an indictment for allegedly posting illicit porn videos shot without victims consent as well as violations of the 2257 federal record-keeping law.

Federal agents charged the Homestead, Fla., resident with five counts related to the operation of StraightBoyz, which promised gay men videos of straight men being tricked into sex actsall while blindfolded or wearing blacked-out goggles.

The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations Miami Field Office, which released the following statement about the arrest, saying that Deneumostier surreptitiously produced pornographic audio and video recordings of himself engaging in sexual activity with multiple men and then caused the videos to be posted on one or more subscription-based pornography websites without their knowledge or consent.

The statement continued, Bryan Deneumostier, 32, also known by the screen name 'susanleon33326,' was charged in a five-count indictment in the Southern District of Florida with two counts of illegal interception of oral communications and three counts of record keeping violations.

The indictment, which was unsealed July 18, references three victims whose identities are being withheld to protect their privacy. Without two of the referenced victims knowledge or consent, Deneumostier allegedly recorded his sexual encounters with them, and then caused these videos to be posted on one or more websites. These two allegedly non-consensual recordings form the basis of the surreptitious-recording charges. The indictment further alleges that Deneumostier was a producer of pornography, used performers portrayed in a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct, and did not ascertain the performers identification or age, as required by federal law.

The case marks only the second time a porn producer has been charged with 2257 violationsJoe Francis, the founder of Girls Gone Wild, faced multiple legal actions in the mid-2000s and early 2010s, pleading guilty in one high-profile case in 2006.

The 2257 law is intended to protect minors by requiring producers to create and maintain age and identity records for every performer in sexually explicit media. Francis in 2006 pled guilty to charges his company Mantra Films Inc. filmed two 17-year-olds in one of his explicit videos shot during Spring Break of 2003. He was sentenced to community service and his company agreed to pay $1.6 million in damages.

Prosecutors in the StraightBoyz case claim Deneumostier duped men into believing they were going to a South Miami-Dade house for a casual encounter with a housewifewho was actually Deneumostier in cross-dressing attire.

Investigators say Deneumostier ran the sitewhich featured more than 600 videosfor at least four years, according to the Miami Herald.

While StraightBoyz is no longer operating, many of the videos are still viewable on other adult websites.

According to the Herald, agents believe Deneumostier solicited men in a series of Craigslist ads.SAN FRANCISCOToday, the Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) announced a change to its legal strategy in the case of ESPLERP v. Gascon, which challenges the constitutionality of Penal Code 647(b), Californias anti-prostitution law.

According to a statement released today, ESPLERP will no longer pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court of the Ninth Circuit Appellate Courts decision in the case. The organization will instead pursue a revamped legal strategy to challenge the constitutionality of 647(b), but this time in the California state court systemstarting in California Superior Court.

We were disappointed that the Ninth Circuit missed an opportunity to declare that the Constitution protects the right of consenting adults to engage in private sexual activity, said ESPLERPs lead attorney, H. Louis Sirkin. We were also disappointed that their decision relied on a 1998 case (IDK, Inc. v. Clark Cnty.), which has since been clearly superseded by Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case which struck down sodomy laws nationwide and established a constitutional right to sexual privacy.

ESPLERP Board Member Phil Thomas noted, With Justice Kennedy now retiring and no longer available to review his majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, an opinion that affirmed sexual privacy, and being the key cases underpinning our case, there are too many unknowns in the federal court system.

Thomas continued, With him gone, and whoever is appointed, we are assuming that the Supreme Court will swing significantly against civil rights in general. So we do not see the sense of filing an appeal to a hostile Supreme Court. Better to seek protection in the California State court system.

Tomorrow morning, ESPLERP will host a press conference to explain the decision. Watch AVN.com for coverage.OAKLAND, Calif.Adult boutique Feelmore 510 has decided to do its part for the environment, and will discontinue sales of plastic penis straws.

The past several years, local city ordinances were enacted to deter the use of plastic bags in retail and now the replacement of plastic straws have gained equal support in the Bay Area.

Feelmore is located in a port city which drains directly into the San Francisco Bay.

You can literally look into the water to see the debris. Having had a plumbing problem, at home, I saw straws surface which I had no idea their origin. That let me know that I had to do my part personally and professionally, said Nenna Joiner, owner of Feelmore 510.

Plastic opponents have worked to educate the community how to help the environment and are now working with local government to ensure businesses do their part. With plastic straws taking up to 200 years to break down, the environment is suffering. China recently said they would stop taking trash from countries such as the United States (U.S.).

The U.S. and local businesses that procure straws have an opportunity to help. Feelmore wants to help do its part in the community and environment, Nenna said.

Customers searching or asking for straws to pair with their naughty themed Bachelor or Bachelorette party will now be informed about the reason they will not find them at Feelmore. Feelmore feels it is time to stop selling them all together.

As an alternative, Feelmore is carrying kitsch water bottles that keep the fun and laughter going while maintaining their stance on the environment. As of July, Feelmore no longer carries straws or other items that are not bio-degradable.

For further information, visit Feelmore510.com.Now that it is fully apparent, to all who have the ability to pay some modicum of attention, that Imposter President Biden has extreme cognitive issues, in addition to being an inveterate liar: Can OUR Republic continue with this Executive Office that has completely failed, so many times, on far too many issues here at this early date in this abysmal presidency?

No, Joseph R. Biden is completely unqualified, morally and cognitively, to represent real Americans, and lead this Republic of disparate peoples.

Yes, Joseph R. Biden has started whispering again, even softer now than before; so, I know he still cares, plus, OUR media will soon stop reporting on Afghanistan in favor of OUR Socialist ideals.SAN FRANCISCO - It takes a considerable amount of money to not only buy handguns in Illinois, but those that want to exercise their Second Amendment rights in the Democrat-controlled state must jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops, obtain state approval in the form of FOID cards, conceal & carry licenses, training and now those wanting to defend themselves must wait 72 hours to legally buy guns.

Everyone knows that criminals adhere to none of those laws - and they energetically exercise their Second Amendment rights until the law catches up with them.

But despite all that, Illinois is not an "open carry" state - it's barely a "conceal carry" state.

That may be changing, if a ruling in the liberal 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals stands. From the ABA Journal:Those Czechs who personally know a Muslim are friendly towards the Muslim minority

25. 7. 2018

cas cteni 2 minuty







Those Czechs who personally know a Muslim are friendly towards the whole Muslim minority living in the Czech Republic, says the Czech sociologist Daniel Prokop, referring to the contact theory. The attitudes of the whole Czech community is shaped by Czech media and its hostile attitude to Muslims. This is connected to the fact that viewers of commercial TV in the Czech Republic are considerably isolated from the outside world and have no other sources of information. The same applies to the readers of Czech tabloid newspapers and to the followers of so-called "alternative" (i.e. hate speech) websites. The recipient's age and education play a major determining role in shaping these attitudes.



Cesi, kteri nejakeho znaji muslima, jsou vyrazne vstricnejsi cele minorite (contact theory). Postoje souvisi s medialnimi zdroji (uzavrenost konzumentu kom. TV, bulvaru, alt webu). Ve srovnani napr. se vztahem k Romum hraje velkou roli vek a vzdelani.https://t.co/wAy9WLNPio pic.twitter.com/QWy9RgXcv0  Daniel Prokop (@dan_prokop) July 25, 2018 Those Czechs who personally know a Muslim are friendly towards the whole Muslim minority living in the Czech Republic, says the Czech sociologist Daniel Prokop, referring to the contact theory. The attitudes of the whole Czech community is shaped by Czech media and its hostile attitude to Muslims. This is connected to the fact that viewers of commercial TV in the Czech Republic are considerably isolated from the outside world and have no other sources of information. The same applies to the readers of Czech tabloid newspapers and to the followers of so-called "alternative" (i.e. hate speech) websites. The recipient's age and education play a major determining role in shaping these attitudes.









Most Czechs underestimate the education of those Muslims who live in the Czech Republic. They think that only 7 per cent of Czech Muslims have university education, in fact it is 35 per cent, further 47 per cent have secondary education. Most Czechs do not mind meeting Muslims in public places, at work or in schools. They however do not like if they live in their vicinity. Czechs feel that Muslims should be dispersed throughout the Czech Republic and should not be allowed to create Muslim communities. Those Czech citizens who have a hostile attitude to Muslims also refuse to accept refugees, whether these are Muslims or Arab Christians.





Almost all Czechs receive information about Muslims solely from the Czech media, including the internet.

0

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79 per cent of Czechs think Muslim women living in the Czech Republic should not be allowed to wear a nikab, 80 per cent of Czechs think they should not be allowed to wear a burka.79 per cent of Czechs are afraid of Muslims coming from Arab countries.65 per cent of Czechs have a negative attitude towards Muslims. More than 76 per cent of people without completed secondary education have a negative attitude towards Muslims, 83 per cent of people older than 65 have a negative attitude towards Muslims.On the other hand, only 46 per cent of Czechs with a university education have a negative attitude to Muslims. Only 42 per cent of Czechs aged 18-24 have a negative attitude to Muslims.These are the results of an opinion poll carried out in the Czech Republic between 25th May and 9th June 2018. 817 respondents were questioned.You need people who you can email, and you need them quickly. Oh, and if you could get them pretty cheap, that'd be great, too.

That's the mindset many marketers find themselves in when they're on the phone with a list-purchasing company: We need new people to email to support our sales team. Acting on that moment of desperation, however, can cause them more harm than good.

Yes, thousands of contacts are a credit card swipe away, but your email marketing program -- a critical part of a well-rounded inbound marketing strategy -- can seriously suffer. Curious why buying email lists is a legitimate email marketer's kiss of death? Read on.

Plus, we'll give you a list of squeaky-clean and effective ways to build your email marketing list without simply buying one.

Methods of Acquiring an Email List

Before we get into the pitfalls of buying email addresses, let's review three ways marketers are currently able to acquire their email lists:



1. Buy an email list.

You work with a list provider to find and purchase a list of names and email addresses based on demographic and/or psychographic information. For example, you might purchase a list of 50,000 names and email addresses of people who live in Minnesota and don't have children. There are several sustainable ways to use email marketing to grow your business. This isn't one of them.

2. Rent an email list.

Also working with a list provider, you identify a segment of people to email -- but you never actually own the list. As such, you can't see the email addresses of the people you're emailing, so you must work with the provider to send out your email.

3. Own an opt-in email list.

Someone voluntarily gives you their email address either online or in person so you can send them emails. They may pick certain types of email content they wish to receive, like specifically requesting email alerts when new blog posts are published. Opt-in email addresses are the result of earning the interest and trust of your contacts because they think you have something valuable to say.

When it comes to rented or purchased lists, you may come across vendors or marketers who say, "This email list is totally opt-in!" This means the people on the list opted in to an email communication from someone at some point in time -- the list provider, for example -- by filling out a form or checking a box to receive more content from that provider.

What "opt-in" lists don't mean, however, is that email recipients opted in to receive email communications from your business. This is a critical distinction, and the next section of this post will go into more detail on why this type of "opt-in email list" (should be read with air quotes) is not a good idea for your email marketing program.



Why You Shouldn't Buy Email Lists You'll violate the rules of consent under GDPR. Reputable email marketing services don't let you send emails to lists you've bought. Good email address lists aren't for sale. People on a purchased or rented list don't actually know you. You'll harm your email deliverability and IP reputation. You can come across as annoying. Your email service provider can penalize you.

1. You'll violate the rules of consent under GDPR.

Most email marketers around the world are legally required to allow recipients to opt out of emails they no longer want to receive. Contacts must be able to do this directly in the email message. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a European data privacy act that went into effect in May 2018, doubles down on the opt-in side of this relationship. And purchased email lists are simply not compliant.

The GDPR has revamped numerous aspects of a digital marketer's use of customer data throughout Europe -- on a website, in social media, and via email. You don't even have to work in Europe to fall under the act's jurisdiction; if your recipients live in Europe, they're protected by the GDPR.

With the GDPR now governing all email correspondence across Europe, adding an opt-out option to your email template no longer cuts it. Under this act, you must have explicit consent from your contacts to send them emails. Explicit, in this case, means the checkbox a person must click to opt in to an email subscription isn't pre-checked when they see it on your website. And when you buy your email lists, the people on it haven't been given this option -- making you non-compliant with GDPR before you send your first email.

Want some non-legal reasons to avoid the purchased email list? We've got those as well, below.

2. Reputable email marketing services don't let you send emails to lists you've bought.

If you're using email marketing software now or plan to in the future, you'll find that reputable companies will insist that you use opt-in email lists. You might be saying, "I'll just use a non-reputable email marketing vendor."

Alas, ESPs on shared IP addresses that don't require customers to use opt-in email lists typically suffer poor deliverability. Why? One customer's ill-gotten email address list can poison the deliverability of the other customers on that shared IP address. You're going to want to hitch your wagon to the light side of the email marketing force if you want your emails to actually get into inboxes.

3. Good email address lists aren't for sale.

Unless your company is in the middle of a merger or acquisition, you're not going to come across a high-quality email list you can purchase. If it's for sale, it means the email addresses on it have already been deemed non-responsive or unqualified for marketing outreach.

While bought email addresses might've at once time had value, they've likely been spammed to the ends of the earth -- otherwise they'd still be in the desiring hands of the company selling them. Think about it, would you sell or share the email addresses of those who have voluntarily opted in to receive email from you?

4. People on a purchased or rented list don't actually know you.

I referenced this earlier, but it's worth going into some more detail on this subject. Rented and purchased lists are sometimes scraped from other websites, which, I think we can all agree, is a dirty way to acquire email marketing contacts.

But let's say the email addresses you're looking to purchase were not taken from another site but rather earned legitimately. Email list purchase and rental companies might tout that those lists are "opt-in." Sounds great, right?

Not really. Email addresses that belong to an "opt in" list have opted to receive emails from, say, the list-purchasing company -- not your company. Even if the opt-in process includes language like, "Opt in to receive information from us, or offers from other companies we think you might enjoy," the fact is the recipient doesn't recall having a prior relationship with you, specifically. This makes it highly likely for the recipients to mark you as "spam" when you arrive in their inboxes. Hey, if they don't recognize you or remember opting in to communications from you ... can you blame them?

This takes us to our next point.

5. You'll harm your email deliverability and IP reputation.

Did you know there are organizations dedicated to combating email spam? Thank goodness, right? They set up a little thing called a honeypot, which is a planted email address that, when harvested and emailed, identifies the sender as a spammer. Similarly, things called spam traps can be created to identify spammy activity; they're set up when an email address yields a hard bounce because it's old or no longer valid, but still receives consistent traffic. Fishy, eh?

As a result, the email address turns into a spam trap that stops returning the hard bounce notice, and instead accepts the message and reports the sender as a spammer.

If you purchase a list, you have no way of confirming how often those email addresses have been emailed, whether the email addresses on that list have been scrubbed for hard bounces to prevent identifying you as a spammer, or from where those email addresses originated.

Are you really willing to risk not only your email deliverability, but also the reputation of your IP address and your company? Even if you find the light after purchasing or renting email lists and decide to only email those who have opted in with your company, it'll take you months (or maybe years) to get your Sender Score up and rebuild the reputation of your IP.

6. You can come across as annoying.

How do you like it when you get an email in your inbox from a company you've never heard of? I bet that's not the kind of company you want to buy from or work for.

If someone didn't ask to hear from you yet, it doesn't mean they won't want to hear from you later. It's your job to prove to them -- through helpful content and valuable offers -- that they should stay up to date with your company via email. If you force your email content on anyone too early, even if you know in your bones they're a great fit for your products or services, you risk preemptively losing their trust and their future business.

7. Your email service provider can penalize you.

Buying email lists doesn't just damage your deliverability and brand reputation -- it can also put your email account at risk. Email clients like Gmail, Yahoo!, and Outlook don't want to be associated with accounts that recipients repeatedly flag as spam. Email service providers like AWeber go as far as immediately closing your account if it suspects you're sending unwanted content.

How to Grow an Opt-In Email List for Free

Now that you've learned about a few ways to acquire email lists, let's explore how you can acquire them through the third method stated earlier in this article -- the opt-in method.

Generating your own list of email contacts who have opted in to receive content from you doesn't just comply with legal regulation and protect your brand reputation. It also presents you with opportunities to grow this list through genuine relationships with new customers. We've already written a post of clever ways to go about doing this, which you can check out here. But below are the basic best practices that have a very big bang for their buck when it comes to consistently growing an email list.

1. Create gated assets so there's a reason for people to give you their email address.

Webinars, ebooks, templates, etc. -- these are all good long-form, premium content assets that people may find valuable enough to give over their email address. The more gated assets you have to put behind landing pages, the better -- a wider variety of content will make it easier for you to attract a wider swath of people.

2. Create useful tools.

If ebooks aren't your jam, create tools instead. I don't recommend a one-or-the-other approach, necessarily, but if you have more development talent than writing talent, this may be a more attractive option for you. These tools can be valuable enough to some of your website visitors that they'll trade you their email address for a free demo of the product you built. Then, for your first email, ask them what they thought of the tool. It's the perfect icebreaker.

For example, we created Marketing Grader (formerly Website Grader, HubSpot's first tool) -- which is free to use, but prompts you to input an email address. We also took a similar approach to a more recent tool, the Blog Topic Generator.

3. Promote those gated assets on your marketing channels.

Now that you have some gated assets that can capture email addresses, spend a considerable amount of time making sure the world knows about them. You have plenty of channels at your disposal -- social media, PPC, and email are common ones to turn to. But none will provide lasting returns quite like your blog. Consider this scenario:

You promote your new gated assets by blogging about subject matters related to the content assets you've created, and then put CTAs that lead to the asset's landing page on every one of those blog posts.

Now let's say, hypothetically, your blog posts get about 100 views per month, and your visitor-to-lead conversion rate on the blog is about 2%. That means you'd get two leads from a single blog post each month.

Then, let's say you write 30 blog posts a month. That means you'd get 60 leads in a month -- 2 from each blog post. Now keep doing that for a year. The work you did to blog that first month will continue to drive leads throughout the year. That means you're actually getting 4,680 opt-in contacts a month by the end of a 12-month period because of the compounding effects of blogging -- not just 720 opt-in contacts (60 leads*12 months).

4. Run creative email marketing campaigns.

Most people don't think of email as a lead- or contact-generating channel. But because people forward helpful emails to colleagues or friends, it can actually expand your database if you simply make forwarding or sharing email content easy for recipients. Include calls-to-action in your emails that make sharing an obvious choice for recipients, particularly with your most useful assets.

If you already have a pretty large database, you also likely have some contacts that have gone quite stale. If so, I recommend running a re-engagement campaign that can help you both scrub your list and prevent the kind of spam and IP issues I addressed earlier, as well as reawaken old contacts that might have forgotten about you, but would actually be great fits for sales.

5. Include sharing buttons in your emails.

Consider adding share buttons to your email so your email recipients can forward the emails they liked most to friends and colleagues they think would like it too.

Have a few different buttons on your email template: separate social media buttons that produce pre-written social posts linking to a webpage version of your email, and an "Email to a Friend" button that transfers the email into a compose window so your contacts can instantly forward the message. Just make sure your email has an opt-in button so each new viewer can subscribe to more emails from you if they like what they see.

Need help structuring an email send like that? Check out this blog post.UPDATE x1: Wed 7:05 PM - The SunTimes is now reporting that Governor Rauner WILL sign the letter after initially not signing on.

"The RGA said Rauners exclusion from the letter was a simple miscommunication and a new one with Rauners signature was being sent Wednesday afternoon," the ST now reports HERE.

WASHINGTON (AP)  Nearly all of the nations Republican governors have signed a letter backing Senate confirmation for President Donald Trumps Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

In a letter to Senate leaders, first obtained by the AP, GOP governors from 31 states and territories ask that senators move expeditiously to confirm Kavanaugh to the court.

They write: Judge Kavanaughs impeccable credentials demonstrate he is worthy of this nomination.

The letter is part of a coordinated campaign by the White House to build public support for Kavanaugh, in hopes of securing his confirmation in time for the beginning of the Supreme Courts term this fall.

The four Republican governors who didnt sign the letter are from Democratic-leaning states. They are: Massachusetts Charlie Baker, Marylands Larry Hogan, Vermonts Phil Scott and Illinois Bruce Rauner.Are you sitting down? After months of anti-government protests, over 300 civilian deaths and, more recently, the rounding up of protesters and intellectuals who were designated as terrorists or linked to risks to Nicaragua's sovereignty, the country's president-cum-dictator Daniel Ortega announced today that he refuses to step down from his post. On the bright side, Ortega told Fox News (the preferred network of dictators and kleptocrats, apparently) that he has fabulous news: the violence that's plagued his nation for months is over! Just like that!

Except, it isn't.

From CBS News:

Thousands of people marched yesterday in Nicaragua to demand that President Daniel Ortega step down. The demonstrations over proposed benefit cuts, which began three months ago, are expected to continue today. CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reports an eerie quiet during much of the day in the capital city of Managua, as people stay home and business owners close up shop for their own safety. But after the calm, the sounds of protest pierce the air, and the fear of bloody confrontations returns. Within minutes of arriving in the capital, Bojorquez encountered an anti-government protest and the sound of mortar fire.

It didn't take long for Bojorquez to find the source of the mortar fire. He spoke with a group of young men who'd DIY'd their mortars, firing them off as a warning that government forces and para-militaries were drawing near. The mortar crews provide the warning with good reason: over the past few weeks, violent attacks against protestors by loyalist paramilitaries and Nicaraguan police have intensified. Barricades in towns rebelling against Ortega's stranglehold on the nation go up, paramilitaries sweep in by the truckload to knock them back down. Intellectuals and those thought to be organizing the protests have been rounded up after being labeled as terrorists. As the New York Times points out, protesters are dying daily.

During his interview with Fox News, Ortega denied that any protestors were killed in a church, contrary to news last week that two civilians were shot dead by paramilitaries after they, along with approximately 200 others, took shelter from sustained gunfire at a church in the Nicaraguan city of Managua on July 13 and 14.

Image: by Fundscion Ong DE Nicaragua  Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, LinkFrom Final Fantasy 7 to Ghost of Tsushima, PlayStation has been pumping out some of the best games for as long as you can remember. Needless to say, you understand the value of a reasonably priced PlayStation subscription when you see one. And these nine deals not only include one, two, and three-year subscriptions to this beloved gaming universe, but READ THE RESTSteve Moriarty of MoreGems.com works with designer Christopher Michael to create beautiful faceted gemstones, like this hyalite opal that glows under UV light.

Rare, natural, and unique fluorescent opal cut and polished by Steve Moriarty. This gem is from Zacatecas, Mexico and came out to weigh 7.27 carats! It was cut into a shield shape. This faceted rock really glows in sunlight and direct UV light!

They can indeed be quite brilliant out in the daylight:

 Glowing Gemstones  Faceting Hyalite Opal (YouTube / MoreGems.com)A team of researchers examined 2,101 commercial experiments facilitated by A/B splitting tools like Google Optimize, Mixpanel, Monetate and Optimizely and used regression analysis to detect whether p-hacking (previously), a statistical cheating technique that makes it look like you've found a valid cause-and-effect relationship when you haven't, had taken place.

They found that 57% of experimenters were p-hacking by halting the experiment once it looked like their initial hypothesis was borne out, without bothering to complete the run and possibly discovering some disconfirming data.

The researchers hypothesize that the cheating is the result of poor statistical ability, bugs in the tools that encourage bad statistical practice, and a desire to please your boss by either proving that you had an idea that was borne out by data, or by proving that your boss was right when they pronounced that things would work a certain way.

The behavior of experimenters in our data seems to deviate from profit maximization. If the

experiments are run to maximize learning about effect sizes while ignoring short term profits, we

should not observe p-hacking that inflates FDRs. If, in contrast, experiments are run to maximize

profits, we should not observe experiments with larger effect sizes being terminated later, as this

prevents the most effective intervention from being rolled out quickly.

p>

Finally, on a more positive note, we find that stopping an experiment early or late is not driven

solely by p-hacking. Specifically, we find a pronounced day-of-the-week pattern, a 7-day cycle in

the first 35 days, and a tendency to terminate sooner when observing effects small rather than large

in magnitude.



p-Hacking and False Discovery in A/B Testing [Ron Berman, Leonid Pekelis, Aisling Scott and Christophe Van den Bulte/SSRN]





(via Four Short Links)





(Image: http://www.beeze.de, CC-BY)Convicted rapist Brock Turner is seeking to have his rape conviction overturned, claiming he only wanted "outercourse" and didn't intend to rape his victim.

It is amazing what rich parents will pay for.

Via HuffPo:Brazil escaped the clutches of a military dictatorship three decades ago. But fascism is really hot right now, so the nation may be about to get back on its bullshit once more.

From The New York Times:

Retired generals and other former officers with strong ties to the military leadership are mounting a sweeping election campaign, backing about 90 military veterans running for an array of posts  including the presidency  in national elections this October. The effort is necessary, they argue, to rescue the nation from an entrenched leadership that has mismanaged the economy, failed to curb soaring violence and brazenly stolen billions of dollars through corruption. And if the ballot box does not bring change quickly enough, some prominent former generals warn that military leaders may feel compelled to step in and reboot the political system by force.

For those in Brazil old enough to have lived through the last time the country was run by a bunch of violent tools in matching slacks, it's a worrisome notion. The last time that nation was ruled by its military, 434 people "disappeared" or were killed by Brazil's military government, not to mention the scores tortured and abused during the dictatorship's 21-year reign.

A lot of analysts believe that the possibility of the military taking over the Brazilian government again is remote. However, given the jump to right-wing politics, authoritarian rule, kleptocracy and dictatorships that countries like Nicaragua, Poland, Turkey, the United States and the Philippines have been wallowing in of late, anything is possible  especially in light of the nation's rising violent crime rates, a 13% unemployment rate, and a growing underground economy.

Image: by Victor Soares/ABr  Agencia Brasil [1], CC BY 3.0 br, LinkFly Geyser was accidentally created in 1964 by well drilling for geothermal energy. In the ensuing half century, the continuously-spouting geyser has accumulated quite a mound of travertine terraces from dissolved minerals.

If you're thinking that's going to take a lot of CLR to clean up, think again. This year, the geyser reopened to the public for the first time in 20 years, and researchers have found it contains unusual levels of silica, not limestone:

Since purchasing the ranch in 2016, Burning Man has been researching the land so they can guide visitors in an environmentally sound way. There's also an added level of danger as some of the pools of water top 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Carolina Munoz Saez  formerly at UC Berkeley  was one of the researchers who studied the geyser. I spoke to her via Skype from her native Chile. "I took some water samples to analyze the origin of the water," Munoz Saez said. Munoz Saez said the inside of Fly Geyser is lined with quartz. And quite a bit of it. Quartz takes a very long time to develop, so it's more common in much older geysers, like in the 10,000 year old range.

 4K Drone Footage FLY GEYSER (YouTube / Backwoods Beast TV)"Having a plan to stop the bleeding from the unfunded liability does not mean we shouldn't stop the pension abuses," Batinick told Illinois Review. "There should be a moratorium on benefit enhancement."

That, Batinick said, would stop the bleeding - not correct the problem. But for him, it's a place to start.

Batinick, who serves on the Illinois House's pension reform committee, suggested the state enact a reverse ramp - by beginning with paying in larger amounts to the pension debt in order to save the 7% interest the state now owes on unpaid contributions.

PLAINFIELD - State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) proposed a solution to Illinois' $130 billion pension earlier this week - something he says the state's Democrats have yet to offer - but Batinick was a bit stunned when groups he considers like-minded fiscal conservatives and friends sharply criticized his idea.

The criticism from once-friendly sources focused on Batinick appeared after he posted on his website support for the Center for Budget Accountability's pension solution. Batinick wrote:

The CTBAs plan would level pension payments out over the next 25 years until we reach the required funded status. However, this plan would require the state to contribute additional funds over the next 8 years. The initial additional investment by the state would be $2.4 billion which would then slide downward to $320 million in the eighth year. Over the course of eight years additional, and significant funds, would be invested into the pension plans. In total roughly $11 billion extra would be invested quickly. The net effect of this would be that our annual pension payment would never rise above $12 billion. In fact, around the tenth year, our pension payments would actually start to decrease. One important note is that if our system was fully funding pensions in the past, our ongoing costs would only be $2 billion per year.



The CTBA recommends borrowing the additional $11 billion investment. That is where the plan can be tweaked. Borrowing another $11 billion adds additional pressure to the budget. It also does not allow us to phase in property tax relief which is part two of the plan. We need to, and can, find the additional $2.4 billion per year elsewhere.

That $2.4 billion and Batinick's support for the CTBA plan caused Wirepoints writer Ted Dabrowski to blast Batinick.

Perhaps Batinicks handlers didnt tell him what exactly was in the CTBA plan. Or maybe hes just so frustrated with whats going on in Springfield that hes convinced himself parts of their plan make sense. But if you read the CTBA plan  and take into account the groups goal to defend the current pension scheme at all costs  its pretty easy to see that Batinick is way off course.

Dabrowski pointed out three egregious errors in Batinick's misguided plan. He then handed over the arguments to his Wirepoints colleague Mark Glennon, who didn't hold back biting words in his piece entitled "Rep. Batinick's sham pension and property tax fix for Illinois" ...

If you thought fiscal quackery in Illinois came only from Democrats, you havent read How to solve the Illinois pension crisis and dramatically lower property taxes. Its by State Rep. Mark Batinick, a Republican from Plainfield. The article also appears under a different headline this week in the Herald-News. What Batinick did is add distortions on top of an already phony pension plan offered by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. Thats right, a Republican is using the union-backed CTBA as his foundation.

For most Illinois taxpayers, their eyes glaze over when the pension mess becomes the topic. It's not an easy topic to consider and when one does, the situation is overwhelmingly depressing and hopeless.

Wirepoints' proposals are dramatic, detailed and would work in states with legislatures committed to reform. Batinick's are maybe less drastic, but they're still solutions that are on the table that are causing discussion in a deeply-divided state legislature controlled by Democrat liberals that see no reason to keep taxes low.

"It's the art of doing," Batinick said.

And what's it like to have your ideas publicly rejected by folks that have been your friends and associates up until now? we asked Batinick.

"At least we are actually having a discussion about the biggest problem in the state. It would be nice if the Democrats would lay out their plan."

That is what we're all waiting to see ...Elin Ersson is a 21 year old Swedish social work student who boarded a plane at Gothenburg airport yesterday and refused to sit down until an Afghan asylum-seeker who was to be deported that day was offloaded and allowed to remain in Sweden.

Ersson livestreamed her protest, which was planned when she and other asylum activists learned that the man was due to be deported. Ersson tangled with stewards who insisted that she stop streaming and sit down, and passengers who wanted the flight to take off  as well as passengers who supported her protest.

Eventually, the Afghan man was spared deportation and removed from the plane, to applause from the other passengers. The crew declined to use force to remove Ersson.

The Swedish government is performatively demonstrating its toughness by deporting asylum-seekers in the runup to an election. A Swedish police spokesman said that they would deport the man at a later date.

Facing both sympathy and hostility from passengers, the footage shows Ersson struggling to keep her composure. "I don't want a man's life to be taken away just because you don't want to miss your flight," she says. "I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane." Repeatedly told by a steward to stop filming, Ersson says: "I am doing what I can to save a person's life. As long as a person is standing up the pilot cannot take off. All I want to do is stop the deportation and then I will comply with the rules here. This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime." When an angry passenger, who appears to be English, tries to seize her phone, she tells him: "What is more important, a life, or your time?  I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my country's rules, I don't like them. It is not right to send people to hell."



Swedish student's plane protest stops man's deportation 'to hell'

[David Crouch/The Guardian]News / National

by BBC

An accidental fashion accessory is helping Zimbabwe's new president rebrand the country  and distance himself from his predecessor Robert Mugabe and his 37-year rule.Since the Davos summit in January, Emmerson Mnangagwa is hardly ever seen without a scarf in the colours of Zimbabwe's flag around his neck  no matter the temperature.It was perfect for the freezing Swiss mountain village in mid-winter  and the Zimbabwean president proudly wore it during a BBC interview, later tweeting a clip of it saying, "Zimbabwe is open for business."But the scarf now has a life of its own, beyond the World Economic Forum  and even has its own hashtag #EDscarf The president, popularly known by his initials ED, got his hands on the scarf by chance when a mother-and-daughter fashion start-up contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Saturday before the Zimbabwe delegation left for Davos.'Such a shock'There had been much hype ahead of the summit with Zimbabwe's new leader anxious to attract urgent investment to revive an economy that has been on its knees for the last decade."We called and were like, 'We've got these products, we're not sure how you can use them.'And next thing you know the president is wearing the scarf.It was really such a shock on our end," Celia Rukato told the BBC's Newsday programme.She said it was one of the first products she and her mother, Hesphina Rukato, produced when they formed their company in 2014  and it was sold, with little fanfare, at a curio shop at Zimbabwe's Harare International Airport.It was a way for Zimbabweans to show they were "proud to be Zimbabwean".Pride in the scarf chimes with the #ThisFlag social media movement of 2016 that protested against Mr Mugabe's rule and the dire economic situation.It was launched by a pastor angered by the state of the nation.He posted a video on Facebook of himself wrapped in the Zimbabwean flag, explaining why the colours were significant."They tell me that the green is for the vegetation and for the crops.I don't see any crops in my country," Evan Mawarire said."The yellow is for all the minerals  diamonds, platinum, chrome  I don't know how much of it is left; I don't know who they sold it to and how much they got for it."The red they say that is the blood that was shed to secure freedom for me and I'm so thankful for that  I just don't know that if they were here, they that shed their blood, and saw the way this country is that they would demand their blood be brought back."Before Mr Mugabe was ousted, vendors were even banned from selling flags without authorisation.But during the unprecedented protest days before Mr Mugabe's resignation, the flag was everywhere  around the necks of many Zimbabweans, no matter their political party.'National dress'Following the scarf's outing at Davos, it has become a must  near enough a uniform with slightly different designs  for those representing the country abroad.For the Rukatos the success of the scarf feeds into their ambition to start a debate about creating a national dress for Zimbabwe."One of the things we've noticed over the years is that most nationalities have a national dress and Zimbabweans have not had anything.So the scarf is just one of the things we're beginning to put out there," Hesphina Rukato told journalist Hopewell Chin'ono.Creating a national dress is now a manifesto promise for the main opposition Movement Democratic Change Alliance, whose leader Nelson Chamisa is Mr Mnangagwa's main rival in presidential elections later this month.For the scarf, things have also got a little more political because of the president's passion for it.At nearly every campaign rally for the ruling Zanu-PF party  whether or not it is cold  he is seen with it around his neck.It has even got the head of the electoral commission into trouble, when a photo of her posing in the scarf with its creator, Celia Rukato, next to her began circulating on social media.Priscilla Chigumba said the photo was taken before she was appointed in January to head the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec)."That scarf was designed by a brilliant young Zimbabwean girl who then approached a group of us when I was a high court judge to say, 'Look I've designed this scarf in an effort to build national consciousness.'And I did want to support her, and I was very grateful for the present that she gave me and I took a picture," she told Zimbabwe's Capitalk FM earlier this month.It didn't help that one of the Zec chair's aides said last month it was must have been faked  not realising it was an old photo."He obviously thought in his mind it must be a Photoshop as he knew I'd never jeopardise the image of the commission," Ms Chigumba said.Despite the controversy, the scarf remains popular  and a bestseller for the Rukatos.One young man returning to university in neighbouring South Africa last week wanted to buy one of the last ones for sale that day for $24 (18) at Harare's International Airport."Of course I wouldn't wear it in Harare at home  but it looks cool in Port Elizabeth," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

HOME Affairs minister Obert Mpofu has said all State security organs have been put on high alert ahead of tomorrow's planned demonstrations by opposition political parties to force the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) to address their concerns before elections set for July 30.Without referring directly to the MDC Alliance, Mpofu yesterday told journalists in Harare that those planning the demonstrations would face the full wrath of the law."The government is doing all it can to ensure that every citizen exercises his or her democratic right to vote. We have, therefore, put all State security organs on high alert and all those bent on causing disorder are being warned that the law will be applied without fear or favour," Mpofu said.MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa warned last week that his party would embark on countrywide protests from today until July 30, if Zec does not accede to their demands for a transparent ballot paper printing process, among other issues.Mpofu, however, admitted that previous demonstrations held by the MDC Alliance have been peaceful and stressed that all demonstrations should be held within the confines of the law."As the Minister of Home Affairs, let me state that we will not condone or tolerate any acts of violence, intimidation and incitement to commit lawlessness in the country. As government, we take an exception to such conduct, which is meant to derail the peace that is currently prevailing in the country," he said.News / National

by Staff reporter

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa recently officially commissioned the upgrading of Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport funded through a $153 million loan facility from China's Eximbank.Addressing delegates at the ground-breaking ceremony, Mnangagwa said his government was committed to improving the national infrastructure, particularly airports, roads and the railway system, adding that it would go a long way in the country's quest for economic revival."Today's event is taking place following the commissioning of the commencement of works on the modernisation and upgrading of Beitbridge Border Post and other similar infrastructure, investment initiatives in mining, energy, ICTs, agriculture, education sectors, among others," Mnangagwa said.The upgrading of the airport was long in the pipeline before Mnangagwa took over power from his predecessor, President Robert Mugabe.In November last year, when the airport was renamed from Harare International Airport, Transport and Infrastructure Development minister Joram Gumbo disclosed that the project would soon kick off after the Zimbabwean and Chinese governments signed the funding agreement.Gumbo said the Chinese government had since given the go-ahead for Zimbabwe to start accessing the money and all that was left was to sign the official funding agreement.The airport, with a passenger capacity of 2,5 million per year and a capacity utilisation of 45%, was last upgraded in 2001.The Victoria Falls International Airport was refurbished in 2016 through a loan from China's Eximbank.Mnangagwa said the commencement of the airport project, a sign of pragmatic co-operation between Zimbabwe and the Asian giant, would improve the country's tourism and economic trade."Furthermore, the project will facilitate trade and agricultural produce, minerals and other products with China, the Far East and Europe through enhanced air connectivity in line with existing air service agreements and the emphasised envisaged growth of every sector of our economy," Mnangagwa said.Speaking at the same event, Gumbo said plans to upgrade Charles Prince, Buffalo Range, Kariba, Masvingo and Hwange airports were underway. He said Zimbabwe would have commercial airports in Mutare and Beitbridge.He said Victoria Falls International Airport, which has now been refurbished, has a monthly average growth rate of 20% in passenger movement.Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Huang Ping said the RGM International Airport would include the expansion of international terminal building and aprons, installation of four brand new air bridges, a secondary radar system, an airfield ground lighting system, communication system, check-in system, construction of a VVIP pavilion and a new satellite fire station.News / National

by Staff reporter

The Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (Zinara) has been prioritising VIP routes in Harare, an official has said.Harare City Council (HCC) environmental committee chairperson Herbert Gomba yesterday said every year Zinara makes full disbursements for VIP roads while neglecting those in other parts of the city.His remarks came after residents argued that roads in most high density suburbs had become extremely bad to the point they had resorted to using gravel to cover up potholes."Zinara has an uneven distribution of funds as money is always readily available for these VIP routes but for other roads they bring the money in batches or never at all. We have tried to engage them on the issue but to no avail. We hope that in the next council they will change and start doing things differently," Gomba said.He said road maintenance in Harare is solely an HCC project which should not be hijacked by politicians.Gomba also emphasised that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) should swiftly release foreign currency so that council brings in equipment that is stuck in South Africa."We have equipment that has now spent 10 months in South Africa because of a lack of foreign currency to import it into the country.That is part of the reason why some of our works are slow but if RBZ gives us the money everything will go according to plan," he said.HCC roads operations manager George Munyonga said council was currently working on spending their entire disbursement for 2018 in order to get more funds for other roads.He said if their 2018 allocation, which has amounted to over $24 million is depleted, they will be approaching the city fathers for extra money for more repairs and maintenance works."Our target for this year was 134 kilometres and so far we are over 60 kilometres complete."Some contractors that were not working were given a final warning or that they faced ejection from the project."Once we complete our target we hope to get more money to fix other roads that need repairs," Munyonga said.The engineer also said that council was also looking for external funding for repairs of Harare's entire road network which requires more than $600 million."We are still far from bringing our roads to a manageable state which is why we are looking for funders in the road project.News / National

by Staff reporter

Despite the latest survey suggesting a possible dead heat in next week's crunch polls, any hopes of Zimbabwe stitching together another government of national unity (GNU) are dead in the water - with both President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa ruling out such an arrangement yesterday, the Daily News reported.This comes as the MDC Alliance and Nelson Chamisa were said to be considering pulling out of the July 30 elections over their disagreements with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).It is at the same time that the recent Mass Public Opinion Institute and Afrobarometer survey has indicated that Chamisa has clawed his way back into serious contention to become Zimbabwe's next leader, after he cut Mnangagwa's lead to a mere three percentage points - suggesting that the July 30 presidential plebiscite will likely be very tight.Chamisa, who assumed the leadership of the MDC early this year from the party's late founding president, Morgan Tsvangirai - who succumbed to colon cancer in February -has cut Mnangagwa's pre-poll ratings from 44 to 40 percent, which leaves him within striking distance of the Zanu-PF strongman, at 37 percent.The results of this survey also came as the youthful MDC Alliance presidential candidate has been packing venues for his campaign rallies to the rafters - even outside of the usual opposition strongholds in the urban areas - although Mnangagwa has also been attracting similarly huge crowds in former opposition territories.According to the country's Constitution, if Mnangagwa and Chamisa finish level, they will be required to go into a run-off, whose results will then decide the ultimate winner.But before such a run-off can come into play, whoever commands 50 percent plus one vote in Monday's high-stakes elections will automatically assume the top political office in the country.Zanu-PF legal secretary and elections spokesperson, Paul Mangwana, told the Daily News yesterday that Zimbabwe was not "in a state of crisis" - meaning, in his view, that there was no chance of witnessing another GNU in the country as had happened a decade ago."The Constitution of Zimbabwe does not provide for a GNU. If you go back to the GNU in 2009, it was formed because of a political contestation. Remember Tsvangirai did not participate in the run-off election alleging violence ... and Sadc then intervened saying there should be a GNU."Now we have a completely different situation. If any of the presidential candidates wins with one vote, then they can form the next government. All over the world, it is known that governments of national unity are weak and are transitional mechanisms."That was the case in 2009 ... but this time around, we don't want a GNU because the people of Zimbabwe are united already and this time Zanu-PF will win with no need for a run-off."In this case, the winner will take all. We debated this (as political parties) and we all agreed that we will not have another GNU," Mangwana said.MDC secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora also told the Daily News that they would not enter into an electoral pact with Zanu-PF "whatever the circumstances"."We are going to score an outright win. All the surveys show that we have gained significantly in the past weeks ... where we were lagging behind by 11 percent, now it is only three percent."What the law says is that if there is no winner, we can only go for a run-off where a winner will be decided. But there is no way we will lose to Zanu-PF or form a coalition with them," Mwonzora said.This comes as the election run-up has been characterised by multiple court challenges and protests against the national elections management body, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) - which stands accused of frustrating the oppositions' demands for conditions which would lead to a non-disputed poll outcome.The ensuing political tension has triggered fears that Zimbabwe is once again headed for a disputed poll - with the MDC Alliance also insisting that it will announce the results of the keenly-anticipated plebiscite before the under-fire national elections management body does so.Chamisa and the MDC Alliance have also twice held successful demonstrations against Zec, as they pressed for a raft of electoral reforms which include demands to witness the printing of ballot papers and being told how these would be transported.Mangwana claimed yesterday that Chamisa and his allies wanted to create "ideal conditions to contest the outcome of the presidential elections"."We are aware that they want to set conditions for disputing the elections, but we will not negotiate with anyone."The MDC has refused to participate in by-elections since 2014 and they can do that now (boycott polls)  let them make their choice," he said.In 2009, former President Robert Mugabe was forced into forming a GNU with Tsvangirai after the hotly-disputed 2008 polls.In those polls, Tsvangirai beat Mugabe hands down. However, the results of the elections were withheld for six long weeks by stunned authorities - amid widespread allegations of ballot tampering and fraud, which were later revealed by former bigwigs of the ruling Zanu-PF.In the ensuing sham presidential run-off, which authorities claimed was needed to determine the winner, Zanu-PF apparatchiks engaged in an orgy of violence in which hundreds of Tsvangirai's supporters were killed, forcing the former prime minister in the inclusive government to withdraw from the discredited race altogether.Mugabe went on to stand in an embarrassing and widely-condemned one-man race in which he declared himself the winner.This year's elections, which have generated a lot of interest among both ordinary people and ambitious politicians alike, will be the first since Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980 not to feature Mugabe - who resigned from office last November after Parliament had started damaging proceedings to impeach him.The elections will also, for the first time in two decades, not include the popular Tsvangirai.Mnangagwa, 75, is seeking a substantive term in the July 30 harmonised elections, in which he will face Chamisa and 21 other presidential aspirants.And for the first time in post-independent Zimbabwe, there will also be female presidential candidates - four of them - taking on their male counterparts for the right to occupy the most powerful political office in the country after the plebiscite.News / Regional

by Stephen Jakes

Mthwakazi Republic Party President Mqondisi Moyo today met France radio journalist to discuss Gukurahundi issues and elections.MRP spokesperson Mbonisi Gumbo said today marked the long awaited interview between MRP President and Laura Angelo from France Radio International, Mqondisi Moyo has been in touch with Laura since the incarceration of eight MRP officials who got arrested on the 31st of December 2017 at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, when the coup President Emerson Mnangagwa the chief Gukurahundist visited the city of the Kings through the invitation of Andrew Wutawunashe another Gukurahundist who is believed to be the CIO dating back from the days of Robert Mugabe and is understood to be the close ally of Emerson."Laura covered the arrests of that day through her radio station and promised the MRP President that she will visit Bulawayo and cover the challenges of Mthwakazi and true to her words she landed to Harare today in the morning and boarded the second plane to Bulawayo from Harare after Lunch and landed in Bulawayo Slightly after 3pm and her first port of call was to meet the MRP President who extended the invitation to Mbuso Fuzwayo the secretary general of Ibhetshu Likazulu as one of the leaders pursuing the Gukurahundi matter through civic activisim, the President also invited on board Charles Thomas Gumpo one of the survivors of the Gukurahundi Genocide to give testimony on the brutalities he went through," he said."Laura was very much pleased of the valuable information she got from the MRP President, Mbuso Fuzwayo and Charles Thomas."Opinion / Columnist

"President Mnangagwa as tried and tested politician, held separate meetings with chiefs, church leaders, youths, students, whites and business community as well as farmers. The President realised that for his message to be sector appropriate he had to meet these interest groups separately so as to understand their needs," wrote Elijah Chihota in an article in Bulawayo 24.The article praised President Mnangagwa to the high heavens. An interesting narrative but sadly it was both false and incomplete. It was all flesh and even bone and so instead of the human ED Chihota had an overgrown slug!Chihota did not mention that President Mnangagwa came to be President following a military coup that ousted a corrupt and ruthless tyrant, Robert Mugabe, whom Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters had ruthless imposed on the nation the last 37 years by rigging elections and even stage a pre-emptive coup in 2008 to stop MDC taking power.The narrative fails to mention that when he took office, President Mnangagwa promised to hold free, fair and credible elections but clearly never meant to honour his promise as he has stubbornly refused to implement even one democratic reform to make this possible. How can these elections be free and fair when there is no free public media?ZEC has failed to release a cleaning verified voters' roll a month before nomination day, 14 June in this case, at the very latest as is required by law. Up today, 5 days before voting day there is still no credible, clean and verified voters' roll. How can any one judge these elections to be credible when something as basic as a voters' roll is missing!President Mnangagwa and his junta are blatantly rigging these elections not that anyone with half a working brain is surprised. After all these are the same thugs who staged a military coup only 8 months ago; if they had no qualms committing a clear cut act of high treason then why would they shy away from a much more subtle act of rigging elections. Besides they have been rigging elections for the last 37 years; if they stopped now, even their small-house mistress would divorce them disappointed they are no longer the thug they were!"Where is the evidence that the elections were rigged!" retorted President Mnangagwa just two months ago, when a UK Economist reporter reminded him of the rigged 2008 elections.Mugabe has since admitted to losing the March vote to Tsvangirai's 73% of the vote. Mugabe wanted to hand over power and it was none other than Mnangagwa himself who told Mugabe to stay put.Mnangagwa and his junta ordered ZEC to recount the votes and after six week whittled down Tsvangirai's vote to 47% to force a run-off.During the runoff it was again Mnangagwa and many of his fellow November coup plotters who masterminded and carried out some of the worst acts of wanton election violence in human history. No one, not even SADC and the AU who have often turned a blind eye to dodgy Zanu PF elections in the past, would pretend the 2008 elections were free, fair and credible."Where is the evidence that the elections were rigged!" What an insult!Chihota, the real President E D Mnangagwa is a corrupt, vote-rigging and murderous thug. Since the coup he has tried to rebrand himself as Mr Nice Guy with his big smile and colourful scarf; only the naive are fooled. A skunk soaked in several bottles of Channel 5 is still a skunk, a flick of the tail will end all doubt. By rigging these elections; ED has proven that behind the smile and scarf double act hides the real ED, a seasoned and ruthless thug!"His (ED) electoral theatrics over the past few weeks have sold him for who he really is, more than the over 60 campaign rallies which he has held so far. His candidature has been made an open book from which the electorate needs to carefully study before casting their votes next week," concluded Elijah Chihota.With no credible, clean and verified voters' roll, only Zanu PF knows who these voters are and, more significantly, that they will deliver a landslide victory for ED and Zanu PF, guaranteed! What matters now is whether the international election observers will buy the theatrical electoral fraud."The Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission will not endorse a bogus election in Zimbabwe," reported Spotlight Zimbabwe."SADC representatives led by Angola's secretary of state in the External Relations Ministry Tete Antonio said after meeting political parties in Harare at the weekend that they would not endorse a sham election as their mandate was to witness democratic processes."Zimbabwe's economic meltdown and political turmoil have brought heart breaking human suffering to millions of ordinary Zimbabweans and many have paid with their very lives! The root cause of the economic and political mess is the country's failure to hold free, fair and credible elections.It is in SADC's interest to end Zimbabwe's scourge of bogus elections not only to alleviate the tragic human suffering in Zimbabweans but for the development and political stability of the region.SADC leaders tried to end Zimbabwe's political crisis following the blatant cheating and wanton violence of the 2008 elections. They tasked the GNU to implement a raft of democratic reforms only to be disappointed when not even one reform was implemented at the end of the five years. These rigged elections are giving SADC another golden opportunity to revisit the reforms and make sure that this time they are implemented.Opinion / Columnist

On March 4, 1980, Prime Minister-elect Robert Mugabe gave his first ever speech to an independent Zimbabwe which captured the attention of the world as he promised to bury the country's past after years of conflict with the then Rhodesian government and its forces.Zimbabwe had just come out of a bitter and bloody conflict which resulted its independence from Britain on April 18, 1980.In a rousing speech - Mugabe, who is now firmly domiciled at his palatial Blue Roof Borrowdale mansion after his stunning resignation in November last year on the back of a military operation - called for reconciliation and unity."Surely this is now time to beat our swords into ploughshares so we can attend to the problems of developing our country and our society."My party (Zanu-PF) recognises the fundamental principle that in constituting a government it is necessary to be guided by the national interest rather than strictly party considerations," he said.And on Saturday, 38 years after making that speech, his long time aide and now successor Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose ascension to power was on the back of the military intervention, held a historic rally with whites at Borrowdale Race Course.What was so significant about Mnangagwa's meeting with the white community was his message of never repeating the mistakes of the past, particularly violation of property rights and ill-treatment of this minority group by Mugabe and Zanu-PF in the early 2000.Mugabe and Zanu-PF's treatment of the white community was a result of their alleged support for the MDC in its early formative years, one of the reasons why Zimbabwe embarked on the chaotic agrarian reforms in 2000.Mnangagwa on Saturday demonstrated that he wants to lead an all-inclusive Zimbabwe, in the event that he is substantively elected in the July 30 elections, by meeting this group.It would be narrow-minded to try and paint Mnangagwa as an opportunist seeking for political gain ahead of elections, without looking at the big picture, which is to build a culture of acceptance and unity among Zimbabweans.One of his rivals, Nelson Chamisa, has shown deep resentment for the Asian community which he promised to chuck out of the country if he's elected.What Mnangagwa has done is to turn past hostilities into ploughshares just like Mugabe did with his 1980 speech.On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Michael McFaul, ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, had a lot to say about the much-maligned summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki  specifically about an unsubstantiated accusation Putin made.

When Putin floated that little scheme, it sounded crazy to me, right? Because he was suggesting that American intelligence officers helped this British businessman, Bill Browder, to launder money out of Russia and then help the Clinton campaign, McFaul said.

Browder is a billionaire financier who, like McFaul, has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin. Browder also championed the Magnitsky Act, which levied harsh sanctions against Russia. Putin said he wanted help from the U.S. in investigating the supposed money laundering. In exchange, he would help special counsel Robert Muellers team gain access to the 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the 2016 election. Trump called the offer incredible, but McFaul had a big problem with it.

The notion that were going to go interview their intelligence officers, theyre going to lie to our people just like Vladimir Putin stood next to our president and lied in Helsinki, he said. So that was an empty offer.

McFaul said he didnt even know he was included in Putins claim until he was on a plane back to America. He said Russian journalists he knows told that he was being considered a criminal and a conspirator with Browder. It should come as no surprise that Putin would single out two people who have criticized his autocratic government as criminal, said McFaul, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

Lets be clear: I did not do that. Nobody did that, McFaul said. Lets be a little stronger: This is crazy. This is crazy stuff Putin was talking about.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 on CBS.

Check out Stephen Colberts presidential intervention for Trump:

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We pause now in our ongoing coverage of the end of Western democracy for a brief consideration of the end of the world. Along with Robert Frost, we can say that the question of fire versus ice as the agent of destruction has been settled in favor of fire, and we even know where the fire is likely to start: above the Arctic Circle, where an unprecedented heat wave has sent temperatures in the far north of Sweden as high as 86 F. The Washington Posts climate writer, Jason Samenow, recently reported that the temperature (calculated by extrapolation) in a part of northern Siberia reached 90 degrees earlier this month, 40 degrees above normal. It is absolutely incredible and really one of the most intense heat events Ive ever seen for so far north, wrote meteorologist Nick Humphrey. And after years of increasingly hot, dry summers, the great forests in the far north, all around the globe, are starting to burn.

A forest fire, like virtually all fires, releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, accelerating the greenhouse effect that drives global warming. This is especially true of wildfires at high latitudes, where trees grow back slowly, and where there are the additional risks of carbon-dense peat bogs drying and burning, and also of melting permafrost releasing huge quantities of methane. This illustrates one of the perverse facts about climate change, that almost all the feedback effects are positive (in the technical sense of self-reinforcing, not as in good.) As one example, global warming melts ice and snow cover, which tends to reflect the suns radiation out to space, while bare earth and seawater absorb it.

Higher temperatures also cause more evaporation, putting more water vapor into the atmosphere. Water vapor  humidity to those living in the rain forest, or commuting to work on the subway  doesnt just make the air feel hotter; its a greenhouse gas all by itself, which is why the temperature drops more at night in New Mexico than it does in New Jersey. Some climatologists have hopefully suggested that more water vapor would increase cloud cover and mitigate warming (a negative feedback loop), but the most recent assessment by the International Panel on Climate Change suggests that the net effect of increased evaporation on temperature will be either neutral, or positive  i.e., worse.

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Almost the entire Northern Hemisphere has been hotter than normal this summer; Denver hit an all-time high of 105 in June, around the same time that Oman reported the highest nighttime low temperature ever recorded anywhere in the world, 109. As I write this, at 10 a.m. Sunday in the East, it is 79 degrees in Austin, Texas, with a forecast high of 105, going up to 108 on Monday. It was so hot there last week that the Austin Fire Department responded to a blaze caused by the spontaneous combustion of tortilla chips (technically, the crumbs and waste from a chip factory that had been left outdoors in the sun). A heat wave in Japan last week put 10,000 people in the hospital; at least 30 died.

It is a convention of the media that any article about heat waves (or forest fires, droughts or hurricanes) must be footnoted with the observation that no one weather event can be definitively attributed to climate change. That reflects both an appropriate caution on the part of scientists, and a preemptive rebuttal to climate-change deniers like Sen. James Inhofe, who a couple of years ago noticed that it was cold in February and sought to cast doubt on decades of climatology by bringing a snowball to the floor of the Senate. But that consensus is beginning to break down. The rule that where theres smoke theres fire, which political reporters have begun to apply metaphorically to evidence of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, should apply equally to science reporters covering actual fires.

Inhofe, a mentor to former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, has come in for occasional ridicule for his belief that weather and the climate are entirely in Gods hands, absolving the coal and petroleum industries of responsibility. That is a fairly common belief among extreme conservatives. Of course, not all his Republican colleagues get their scientific information from the Bible. As reported in Climatewire, Scott Wagner, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania, placed the blame squarely where it belongs, on human activity. Unlike most scientists, though, the activity he had in mind wasnt burning fossil fuels, but, uh procreation: We have more people, he mused at a panel discussion last year. You know, humans have warm bodies. So is heat coming off?

Its true, an average person at rest generates as much heat as a 100-watt light bulb  which if you think about it, isnt really that much. But human beings are fueled by food, which is to say, ultimately by sunlight, so their metabolism doesnt actually contribute any net gain of heat to the atmosphere  its just moving calories around, from cropland to the places people live. If people walked instead of drove, they would generate (marginally) more body heat, but fewer greenhouse gases and less climate change.

Wagner had another possible explanation. I havent been in a science class in a long time, but the Earth moves closer to the sun every year  you know the rotation of the Earth, Wagner said, at the same panel discussion at which he unveiled his theory that global warming is caused by an excess of people. Were moving closer to the sun.

The Earth does move closer to the sun during the course of each year  and then further away for the next six months  but on average it isnt noticeably closer than it was before scientists noticed that the climate was changing. Also, inconveniently for Wagners theory, July is actually when the Earth is farthest away from the sun. (To save him the trouble of going back to high school, the change in seasons is a factor of the way the Earths axis is tilted, not how far it is from the sun.)

His comments were meant to illustrate that there are a lot of theories about what causes global warming, his campaign manager told reporters. Scott is running for governor, not to be a scientist, so he will leave it up to scientists to figure out what the cause of global warming is.

But scientists actually have figured it out, and if politicians would just listen to them and act on that basis  as they are doing in the rest of the world  we could go a long way toward solving the problem. One Republican who understands that is Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida, who is introducing a carbon-tax bill this week. Curbelo, not by coincidence, represents a district that stretches south from Miami to the Keys, an area that is considered vulnerable to both a Democratic wave in November and the kind of wave that comes from the ocean with rising sea levels. Curbelo is a co-founder of a bipartisan group called the Climate Solutions Caucus, which currently claims 43 Republicans; together with the entire Democratic caucus, that adds up to a majority of the House. But getting a proposal with tax in its name through Congress and signed by a president who is fond of boasting about how much he loves coal has (extrapolating to sometime in the not-too-distant future) a snowballs chance at the North Pole.

As for Wagner, he didnt say where he got his theory. Presumably it wasnt in science class, but one possibility is this memorable episode of The Twilight Zone from 1961. As Rod Serling so presciently put it:

The time is five minutes to twelve, midnight. There is no more darkness. The place is New York City and this is the eve of the end, because even at midnight its high noon, the hottest day in history, and youre about to spend it in the Twilight Zone.

We are there now.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:By Asif Shahzad and Saad Sayeed ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan led in projected partial results of a general election on Thursday, as the party of his jailed chief rival, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rejected the eventual result as "blatantly" rigged. Khan's camp was increasingly confident, but it still appeared likely to fall short of a clear majority in the National Assembly. Full results are expected later in the morning. As the counting continued, projections from four local TV channels put Khan's party ahead, estimating it would win between 107 and 120 seats of 272 elected seats available, while Sharif's outgoing ruling party was estimated at between 42 and 69. However, those projections were based on only about 20 percent of votes counted. Khan's party spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, showed confidence as the early projections were broadcast, saying in a tweet "Congratulations to the nation on a new Pakistan! Prime Minister Imran Khan". Sharif's brother Shehbaz, who now leads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), rejected the count after complaints soldiers stationed in polling stations had thrown out political parties' monitors during the tabulations. "It is a sheer rigging. The way the people's mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable," Shehbaz told a news conference as the counting continued. "We totally reject this result," he said. "It is a big shock to Pakistans democratic process. Wednesday's election will be only the second civilian transfer of power in Pakistan's 71-year history. But campaigning has been plagued for months by allegations the powerful armed forces have been trying to tilt the race in Khan's favor after falling out with the outgoing ruling party of Sharif, who was jailed on corruption charges this month. About 371,000 soldiers have been stationed at polling stations across the country, nearly five times the number deployed at the last election in 2013. Pakistan election: https://tmsnrt.rs/2LMxD5b "SERIOUS THREAT" Wednesday's voting was marred by a suicide bombing that killed 31 people near a polling station in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Islamic State claimed responsibility. During the count, outgoing PML-N Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir-Khan tweeted that official result forms were not given at hundreds of polling stations, decrying what he called "blatant, callous, shameless rigging". The third major party, the Pakistan Peoples Party, also complained that its polling agents were asked to leave during the vote count in a number of voting centers. "This is the warning bell of a serious threat," said PPP senator Sherry Rehman. "This whole election could be null and void, and we don't want this." Several smaller parties made similar complaints in public statements. Whichever party wins, it will face a mounting and urgent in-tray, from a brewing economic crisis to worsening relations with on-off ally the United States to deepening cross-country water shortages. An anti-corruption crusader, Khan has promised an "Islamic welfare state" and cast his populist campaign as a battle to topple a predatory political elite hindering development in the impoverished mostly-Muslim nation of 208 million people, where the illiteracy rate hovers above 40 percent. "This is the most important election in Pakistan's history," Khan, 65, said after casting his vote in the capital, Islamabad. "I ask everyone today - be a citizen, cherish this country, worry about this country, use your vote." PROSPECT OF WEEKS OF HAGGLING Khan has staunchly denied allegations by PML-N that he is getting help from the military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history and still sets key security and foreign policy in the nuclear-armed nation. The army has also dismissed allegations of meddling in the election. Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has inched ahead of PML-N in recent national polls, but even if it gets the most votes, it will likely struggle to win a majority, raising the prospect of weeks of haggling to form a messy coalition government. Such a delay could further imperil Pakistan's economy, with a looming currency crisis expected to force the new government to turn to the IMF for Pakistan's second bailout since 2013. PTI has not ruled out seeking succor from China, Islamabad's closest ally. The PML-N has sought to turn the vote into a referendum on democracy, and has said it was campaigning to protect the "sanctity of the vote", a reference to a history of political interference by the military. The PPP, which has been overtaken by Khan's PTI as the main challenger to PML-N, has also alleged intimidation by spy agencies. PML-N spokeswoman Maryam Aurangzeb also said there had been complaints about the vote counting. "We have serious reservations. Our political agents have been pushed out and results are being withheld," she told a press conference. PML-N's campaign had been reinvigorated by the return to Pakistan of Nawaz Sharif, 68, who was earlier this month convicted and sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison over the purchase of upscale London apartments using offshore companies in the mid-1990s. Sharif has denied any wrongdoing and accused elements of the judiciary and military of conspiring to bring down his government. (Additional reporting by Syed Raza Hassan in Karachi and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, and Drazen Jorgic and Idrees Ali in Islamabad. Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by Alex Richardson and Nick Macfie)A photo of a Nigerian child has caused a stir on social media. (Photo: Instagram/mofebamuyiwa)

A photo of a 5-year-old Nigerian girl has hit it big on social media, racking up compliments such as beautiful, absolutely stunning, and doll-like.

On Friday, photographer Mofe Bamuyiwa Instagrammed a photo of the young girl named Jare, writing, Oh yes shes human! Shes also an angel! The lifestyle-and-wedding photographer based in Lagos, Nigeria, explained that by positioning Jare in a more mature pose, she illustrated the intersection between child and adulthood.

Twenty-thousand people reacted on Instagram, writing that the photo was a true work of art and that Jare is the new Barbie.

Jare isnt a professional model, Bamuyiwai tells Yahoo Lifestyle, adding that the girls two sisters, Jomi, 7, and Joba, 10, with their striking features and strong characters, have also posed for photos.

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Bamuyiwai says she inspired the childrens mother to launch an Instagram page for her daughters called The J3 Sisters, where they already have more than 5K followers. The girls mother did not respond to Yahoo Lifestyles request for comment.

Bamuyiwai is surprised by the response to her photos. All I want is for everyone to see Jares powerful potential.  I want the photo to speak to her when she has reached her adulthood.

17 !!!!!!  A post shared by Thylane (@thylaneblondeau) on Apr 4, 2018 at 3:21pm PDT

Jare is one of several child models to dominate social media. Seventeen-year-old French model Thylane Blondeau was branded the most beautiful girl in the world after her photos were published in a Vogue Paris supplement called Vogue Enfants, at the age of 6. By then she had already walked the runway for two years.

And in December, a 6-year-old Russian model named Anastasia Knyazeva was crowned by social media as Blondeaus successor.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.







The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are preparing for their first royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, but theres one thing Meghan Markle reportedly wont be packing.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex attend the Endeavour Fund Awards (Photo via Getty Images)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are preparing for their first royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, but theres one thing Meghan Markle reportedly wont be packing.

According to the Daily Mail, Prince Harry fully shut down Meghans hope to wear a Stella McCartney suit to an event on the tour. Apparently, he asked her to ditch the tux because of Queen Elizabeth IIs affinity for dresses and skirts when it comes to female attire in the royal family.

ALSO SEE: Princess Eugenies fiance wont receive a royal title

Meghan Markle wears a stunning Ralph Lauren ensemble at Wimbledon (Photo via Getty Images)

Meghan is being told she needs to stop dressing like a Hollywood star and start dressing like a royal, the fashion team source at Kensington Palace told the Daily Mail. Meghan wanted to wear a tuxedo-style suit but Harry said it wasnt traditional enough.

Its well known the Duchess prefers to wear the pants in the relationship. At this winters Endeavour Fund Awards Ceremony, Markle donned a black Alexander MacQueen suit paired with a chic, white blouse. She was later pictured at Wimbledon alongside Kate Middleton in a Ralph Lauren ensemble, featuring white, flared trousers. But Prince Harry is putting his foot down.

Believed to be sitting in on the Duchesss meetings with special projects teams from several designers, the Prince is encouraging Markle to dress according to royal standards set by the Queen. With her current style reportedly barely tolerated by royal aides, there is pressure on the Duchess to fit within the royal style.

Markle isnt the first female royal to sport a tux. Following in Princess Dianas 1988 Wembley Stadiums footsteps, Markle is testing the waters with how to express herself. Much like her late mother-in-law, the Daily Mail reports the Duchess is struggling with the royal familys strict rules.

ALSO SEE: How Meghan Markle is adjusting to a lonelier life with the royals

Story continues

Princess Diana at Wembley dog racing event in 1988 (Photo via Getty Images)

Markles passion for cigarette trousers and flared dress pants will hopefully overrule Her Royal Highnesss traditional take on style  and we cant wait until October to see!

Check out our brand new podcast, Make It Reign  our hot takes on all things royals in a non-stuffy way  on iTunes and Google Play.

Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA!

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.



Photo - Tronson du Courday art 'Wind'

In an on-line article from The Guardian (Australia) from my archive I found a surprising economic statistic from the book sellers trade, that is the new on-line book sellers, that Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf has become an e-book best seller.

In her article, Alison Flood quotes author Chris Faraone that this tome is an e-success as it can be downloaded in the privacy of one's own ipad. Now this is an very informative paragraph and perhaps why Alison Flood expresses concern as to who is watching when purchasing an e-book occurs: This is the critical paragraph -

Writing on the website Vocativ.com author and journalist Faraone claims that "more than a dozen free English-language versions of Mein Kampf have been downloaded in excess of 100,000 times from the non-profit Internet Archive alone", while paid-for e-versions are outselling Glenn Beck on iTunes and entering the charts on Amazon.com - with a 99-cent version currently topping the retailer's propaganda and political psychology chart.

There you have it

Quite realistically, there may be a thousand reasons or more why one might want to read Mein Kampf. I have it in my library, not that I bought it (it is free on-line as above), rather it was given to me and I took the time to read it.

There were several reasons why I read it. One, it's an historical tome for which, as an historian, is of significant academic interest. Two, its key components give a literary source of the philosophy of not only its author but to the enacted policies of the Nazi regime.

Three, it provides a particularly interesting literary style, (mind you the way that more and more people are writing, especially with the Internet)  that is, Mein Kampf reads as though the author is conveying to the reader, his 'thinking processes', as he writes.

It is this third response which has drawn my attention as academics over the past eighty years have claimed Adolph Hitler was an indifferent writer, where ideas get jumbled up without a clear and precise outcome. The Internet has shown us, that blogs and Facebook and other such mechanisms provide a place whereby the 'thinking process' is itself the explanation and its raw data (as it were).

Photo - Tronson du Courday art 'Aspirations'

A book of mazes with words

Reading Mein Kampf with these set of eyes brings its core philosophy right out into the open. But to get there, the reader with such eyes, follows the author down a wide variety of side paths that explore this way and that way, but which comes to political dead ends.

Mein Kampf is like a book of mazes but with words. There is a central pathway and hundreds upon hundreds of side tracks that lead nowhere along his political trajectory. Where a pathway leads to renegotiating core political tenants, he turns around and checks out at a different pathway. Main Kampf reads as if you can hear its author thinking (not speaking).

We should not be surprised at any of this, as the experience of WWI trench warfare from the German side, the men could not talk about it in polite conversation, rather they discussed the 'politic' endlessly amongst themselves in beer halls and only a few could write it down. But when written it was in this 'thinking' style.

Take one example of his Mein Kampf discussion, his subject was the Jew. Hitler comes out of the trenches and seen the horrendous hardship of the common German family, then looks at the opulent Jewish sector with their different dress and hair. He asks himself (he's writing as if he is having a thinking conversation): viz - Is this person a German at all? He's writing what he's thinking (it's a questioning process) and it lent itself to already German prejudices (largely from Martin Luther).

Historians have now been re-evaluating his tome in the light of this literary style, and are now affirming, he didn't find an audience, the audience found him. He pulled off the greatest political hoist of the 20th century. The conservatives were themselves swept aside - as so many of them likewise - felt deeply this same political national heart beat.

But had they read Mein Kampf with the eyes of those who had experience of the trenches, and followed his thinking processes more carefully, and not like the comedy Hogan Heroes, where Commandant Col. Wilhelm Klink has his copy of Mein Kampf as an ornament of 'political correctness' on his desk, history would undoubtedly have been very different.

Photo - Tronson du Courday art 'Busy and Pressured'

Lessons in history and theology

Yes, big business knows who is and who is not buying what. Surely, you don't think those shopping cards that jamb up your wallet / purse are for your benefit? Someone somewhere knows who is purchasing what as the books sellers know that Mein Kempf has hit enormous sales.

But what does all this mean for the bible scholar? For me, it seems like a wake up for those ivory tower biblical scholars who dismiss too readily those who read the bible carefully but without such scholarly honours after their names, just as those same political masters dismissed Hitler and the Nazi's in the twenties and early thirties.

We hear a lot about end times and the biblical announcements where an honest reading of the bible provides possible interpretations that can lend themselves to a range of possible events - past, present and future (particularly that of Israel).

My cautionary word to the professional biblical scholar is not to be too much of a stick-in-the-mud. Sometimes, just sometimes, these passionate students of the bible - get it right.

Photo - Tronson du Courday art 'Images of the Tweed'

Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.

Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at

http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.htmlIve always wondered what Esther was thinking on the first night she invited her husband, the King of Persia, and Haman, a high-ranking senior official in the Kings court, to dinner.

That night she was meaning to tell King Xerxes that Haman schemed a cunning plan to kills all the Jews in the Kingdom of Persia. Haman had tricked Xerxes into signing a decree that allows all people to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women in one day and to plunder their possessions (Esther chapter 3 verse 13).

Esther herself was a Jew but she didnt reveal her identity when she was chosen to be in the running to be the next Queen of Persia. And now, an opportunity has come up for Esther to confront the villainous Haman in front of her husband, King Xerxes.

But she didnt.

She asked the King if he and Haman could return the next night for dinner and then shed reveal whats on her mind. It was a bold thing for her to do considering she was frightened about asking her husband for dinner the first night.

When her adoptive father, Mordecai, persuaded Esther to ask the King for help, Esther was afraid, telling him that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned they be put to death unless the king extends the gold sceptre to them and spares their lives. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king (Esther chapter 4 verse 11).

Its been a month since Esther saw the King, and Esther had bravely went up to see him and was  luckily  pardoned for requesting to see the King. Now in her first time in a long time to see Xerxes and have a meal with him, this should be the best time to tell him of Hamans treacherous plans.

But for some reason she wanted to wait one more night.

Against all odds: The ominous day of genocide approaching and Hamans fixation on eliminating Mordecai, Esther decided to wait. The timings not right. Just one more day. She asked the King to come back again with Haman tomorrow night.

And that timing changed everything.

If it wasnt for another night, Haman wouldnt have presumptuously prepared a 23-metre pole, ready to ask the King to impale Mordecai on it. If it wasnt for another night, King Xerxes wouldnt have got insomnia and found out that he hadnt honoured Mordecai for saving him from an assassination attempt in the past.

Those two key changes were good timing to help Xerxes see the man that Haman really was and the noble character of Mordecai, which had surely cemented his trust in Esther when she told him: I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king (Esther chapter 7 verse 4).

The reveal of Hamans plan wouldnt be as satisfying without that one extra night.

Esthers intuition along with Gods providence had shaped the course of Jewish history forever.

From her story, Ive learnt the power of good timing: Good timing to make a request good timing to deliver bad news good timing to confront an adversary

In a world where speed and instant is everything. I believe that good timing is much needed. Good timing may involve an extra day or two to think on it but it could also involve immediacy to action. Good timing can make a positive difference.

Where in your life do you have to slow down in your choices and decisions?

Where in your life do you have to act faster and seize the moment?

Rachel is a youth pastor at Northern Life Baptist Church. She also teaches SRE at a public school in Sydneys North Shore. Besides working in ministry, Rachel loves studying at Morling College. She is about to finish her Master of Divinity there. You can also find Rachels previous article here: https://christiantoday.com.au/news/when-envy-rears-its-ugly-head.htmlIf your government goes rogue and begins smothering civil liberties and basic freedoms how do you resist it?

Phil Goff the sitting Mayor of Auckland recently banned a pair of visiting Canadian political commentaters and activists from speaking at a councel venue. His reasoning was that their controversial opinions on immigration issues would stir up racial division. They have now cancelled their visit to New Zealand.

So if any future mayor decides he doesn't like someone's political or religious views, banning them from speaking or using public facilities will now be considered acceptible practice.

In the UK street preachers have been arrested on account of their message offending Muslims and thereby creating a public disturbance.

So why is this bad? Democracy is established on the idea that people should be able to hear all sides of the story. To be informed on issues which affect them, and then gather representatives to themselves who will act to take up their own agenda and concerns in government.

This freedom of ideas and expression isn't just important politically but also spiritually. How are we to make decisions that affect our eternal lives if we have no exposure to the gospel because it is silenced by the authorities - as is the case in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

We need to hear all points of view, the good and the bad, so that we can make judgements and decisions based on all the evidence available to us. Greedy politicians always seem to want to silence the opposition. And you know full well that our spiritual adversary seeks to silence us, in order to snuff out the light of truth in our nations.

We live in a time of deception, evil people suppress the truth in unrighteousness, those who have rejected it and prefer convenient lies that enable and approve of their ungodly lifestyle preferences. Such people hate hearing the truth as it exposes their misdeeds and makes them feel uncomfortable.

They would rather not be reminded of their guilt, and prefer to live in wilful ignorance. Their only recourse then is to resist and suppress the truth, and the ability for people to freely express it. So they take political power and use it to silence people who love the truth.

Our only course of action then is to actively defend the right of people to express the truth and any controversial points of view in public because freedom of speech is the foundation of civil society and democracy....not to mention the good of humanity and the opportunity for salvation, when that speech happens to be the gospel.

We should be tolerant of those we disagree with and respect their right to speak and meet, so that we intern can preserve ours. Therefore free-speech rallies have been organised recently in NZ in protest of the speaking ban of Stefan Moleneux and Lauren Southern. That is a good start.

Amos Sale is a Press Service International young writer from Auckland.Share this: Twitter

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New York, July 24, 2018The Committee to Protect Journalists today strongly condemned Sundays attack on editor Mahmudur Rahman in Kushtia, a city in Bangladesh, and urged the authorities to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Supporters of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, a pro-government student organization, attacked and injured Rahman as he was leaving a defamation hearing in Kushtia city, Rahman told CPJ by phone from the hospital. Chhatra League denied involvement in the attack, according to Dhaka Tribune.

Rahman was the editor of the privately owned, opposition-aligned newspaper Amar Deshbefore it was forced to shut down in 2013. Rahman has been jailed in the past in connection with his journalistic work.

The attack against Mahmudur Rahman is illustrative of the environment in which journalists critical of the Sheikh Hasina government struggle to do their work, said Robert Mahoney, CPJs deputy executive director. Authorities must condemn and take swift action against those who attacked Rahman and bring them to justice.

Rahman had just been granted bail in the defamation case when around 100 activists assembled outside the courtroom, according to news reports. The men confined him to the courtroom for several hours and then attacked him with stones and sticks when he tried to leave, Rahman said.

Rahman said he requested police help but they were slow to respond and did not offer any first aid after the attack, despite his profuse bleeding. Rahman said he received several head injuries, including a gash on the back of his head and on his cheek, which required stitches. He said he spent one night in the intensive care unit.

Kushtia police did not immediately respond to CPJs emailed request for comment.

Rahman is currently fighting several court cases, such as sedition charges related to his comments critical of government officials during a National Press Club event, according to the news reports.

Bangladeshs journalists face a diverse range of threats, from criminal defamation, to enforced disappearances, and intimidation from government and authorities, leading to high rates of self-censorship, CPJ has documented. CPJ has also documented how Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas government has targeted opposition press.India and Rwanda have signed eight agreements in the fields of defence, trade, agriculture, leather and allied products and dairy. The agreements were signed following delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. PM Modi became first Indian Prime Minister to visit Rwanda.

Highlights of Bilateral meetings

PM Modi and Kagame held wide-ranging talks and discussed a host of measures to boost bilateral strategic ties. India assured Rwanda that India will continue to its development efforts. India also extended two lines of credit (LoCs) worth $200 million to Rwanda for development of industrial parks and Kigali Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and for development of three agricultural projects in Rwanda. PM Modi also announced opening of the first Indian diplomatic mission in Rawanda, which will help to establish communication between governments of two countries and also enable facilities for consular, passport and visa. Both countries also agreed to set up task force to enable digital learning mediums for children.

Signed Agreements are

Amendment on MoU on Cooperation in field of Agriculture and Animal Resources: It focuses on cooperation in agriculture and livestock with strong emphasis on research, technological development, capacity building and human resource development as well as investment mobilization.

It focuses on cooperation in agriculture and livestock with strong emphasis on research, technological development, capacity building and human resource development as well as investment mobilization. Agreement on Cooperation Defence on Capacity Building, Defence, Industry, Science and Technology: Capacity Building, Defence, Industry, Science and Technology.

Capacity Building, Defence, Industry, Science and Technology. MoU on Cultural Exchange Program for year 2018-22: Music and Dance, Theatre, Exhibitions, Seminars and Conference, Archeology, Archives, Library, Museums, Literature, Research and Documentation etc.

Music and Dance, Theatre, Exhibitions, Seminars and Conference, Archeology, Archives, Library, Museums, Literature, Research and Documentation etc. MoU on Agricultural Research and Education between RAB and ICAR: Training and Research in Dairy, Processing of Dairy Products, Quality and Safety of Mil, Biotechnological Intervention in Livestock.

Training and Research in Dairy, Processing of Dairy Products, Quality and Safety of Mil, Biotechnological Intervention in Livestock. Trade Cooperation Framework: Facilitate, diversify and promote trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

Facilitate, diversify and promote trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. MoU on Collaboration in the Areas of Leather and Allied Sectors between NIRDA and CSIR-CLRI

LoC Agreement for US $ 100 million for development of Industrial Parks and expansion of Kigali Special Economic Zones

LoC Agreement for US $ 100 million for Agriculture irrigation scheme in Rwanda

Girinka programme

Prime Minister Narendra Modi gifted 200 cows to villagers from Rweru villages as part of Rwandan Governments Girinka Programme. The programme was initiated by President Paul Kagame in response to alarmingly high rate of childhood malnutrition and as way to accelerate poverty reduction and integrate livestock and crop farming. Under this programme, poorest residing in region get cows from Government and gift first female calf to neighbour to promote brotherhood. The programme is based on premise that providing dairy cow to poor, transforms livelihoods, reconciles communities improving agricultural productivity through use of manure as fertilizers. The program has contributed to increase in agricultural production in Rwanda  especially milk production and products and has reduced malnutrition and increased incomes.The Parliament has passed Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill 2018 to enhance transparency and accountability of the government and make anti-graft provisions under the law stringent. The Bill amends various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988

Key Features of Bill

Giving bribe made punishable offence: The Bill introduces offence of giving a bribe as direct offence. Person who is compelled to give bribe who reports matter to law enforcement authorities within seven days will not be charged with this offence. It makes specific provisions related to giving a bribe to a public servant, and giving a bribe by a commercial organisation

Redefines Criminal misconduct: The bill redefines provisions related to criminal misconduct to only cover two types of offences viz. illicit enrichment (such as amassing of assets disproportionate to ones known income sources) and fraudulent misappropriation of property.

Prior approval for investigation: It makes mandatory for taking prior approval of relevant Government or competent authority to conduct any investigation into offence alleged to have been committed by a public servan. Such approval will be not necessary in cases that involve arrest of person on spot on charge of taking a bribe.

Trial Time limit: The bill set trail time period within two if it is handled by special judge. In case of delays, reasons for it must be recorded for every extension of six months obtained. However, total period for completion of trial may not exceed four years.

Penalties for offences: The Bill modifies definitions and penalties for offences related to taking bribe, being habitual offender and abetting offence. It also introduces powers and procedures for attachment and forfeiture of property of public servants accused of corruption.

Indian Air Force (IAF) for first time will participate in multinational air exercise Pitch Black  18 (PB-18) in Australia hosted Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It will be three week multi-national large force employment exercise (27 July to 17 August 2018) conducted from RAAF Base Darwin and RAAF Base Tindal.

Pitch Black  18

PB-18 Exercise will host up to 4000 personnel and up to 140 aircraft from 12 participant countries including Australia, Canada, India, Germany, Indonesia, France (New Caledonia), Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and United States.

The multilateral exercise will feature range of realistic, simulated threats found in modern and dynamic battle-space environment. It will provide opportunity to test and improve our force integration, utilising one of largest training airspace areas in the world  Bradshaw Field Training Area and Delamere Air Weapons Range. It will include day and night flying.

IAF contingent comprised of 145 air-warriors including Garud commando team, four Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter planes and C-130 and C-17 transport aircraft. IAF men and planes will undertake simulated air combat exercises in controlled environment and mutual exchange of best practices towards enhancing its operational capability.

After completion of exercise, on its return leg from Darwin to Subang (Indonesia), IAF fighters will be refuelled in air for the first time by RAAF KC-30A. Moreover during transit to Australia, IAF contingent will also have constructive engagement with Indonesian and Malaysian Air Forces. This will be IAFs overall third participation in multilateral air combat exercises over last three years after Red Flag exercise held in United States in April-May 2016 and Blue Flag air combat drill in Israel in November 2017.

Exercise Pitch Black

It is a biennial warfare exercise hosted by Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It is normally held in Northern Australia, primarily at RAAF Bases Darwin and Tindal. The aim of the exercise is to practice Offensive Counter Air (OCA) and Defensive Counter Air (DCA) combat, in simulated war environment. It traditionally consists of red team and blue team based at separate locations, with one attacking other. The first Pitch Black exercises took place in 1981 between different RAAF units. Later in 1990, it began as training exercise between Australia and Singapore and then was expanded as multilateral exercises by inviting international air forces with which Australia has defence ties.A death row inmate in Dizelabad Prison of Kermanshah was executed on Wednesday, July 18, 2018, while he was given just a few hours notice before he is hanged, and relatives are not notified until the prisoner is already dead.





Identified as Saleh Khanizadeh, 65, who spend 10 years on death row, was found guilty of murder.





His family could not visit him before his execution as the prisoner was not told of his execution until hours before he is led to the gallows.





A source from inside the prison said, He contacted his family even one day before the execution, but he had no information about the date of his execution. He was sent to the gallows without prior warning.





Prison authorities delivered the corpse to the family after they received US$ 27 for the rope used for the execution.





Another prisoner was hanged on July 22, at Shirvan Prison, in Northern Khorasan Province.





The condemned, Salman Khodayari, was also found guilty of murder.





In yet another case, at least three prisoners were hanged on July 23, at Central Prison of Urmia, north west of the country.





Convicted of murder the victims are identified as Farough Daryaei, Mahmoud Hamzehzadeh and Kamal Soltani.





Farough Daryaei and Mahmoud Hamzehzadeh had currently been held at the youth ward.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeIran Human Rights (Jul 24, 2018): A prisoner was executed at Rasht Central Prison on murder charges.





According to a close source, on the morning of Saturday, July 21, a prisoner was executed at Rasht Central Prison.





The prisoner, sentenced to death on murder charges, was identified as Seyyed Morteza Mohammadi.





A close source told IHR, Morteza was from Rasht and was dating a girl named Fariba. He murdered her and burned her body after a fight in 2015.





He had a 9-year-old son who was present in front of the prison gate at the time of the execution.





The execution of this prisoner has not been announced by the state-run media so far.





According to Iran Human Rights annual report on the death penalty, 240 of the 517 execution sentences in 2017 were implemented due to murder charges.





There is a lack of a classification of murder by degree in Iran which results in issuing a death sentence for any kind of murder regardless of intensity and intent.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeEight of the 97 Papua New Guinean villagers convicted of killing seven people in a sorcery-related attack four years ago in Madang have been given the death penalty.





The National Court judge Justice David Cannings imposed life sentences on the remaining 88 after one of the accused died last month in hospital.





The 97, from villages on Madang's Rai Coast, were found guilty of the murders of three elderly men, two children and two young men at Sakiko village near Ramu Sugar town.





They were each charged with seven counts of wilful murder.





The eight on death row were found to be directly involved in the murders.





Justice Cannings said the 97 villagers had marched into Sakiko village on April 14, 2014, motivated by concerns about the number of deaths in the area attributed to sorcery.





He said a genuine belief in sorcery cannot be regarded as an extenuating circumstance to lessen the gravity of the crimes.





Belief in witchcraft, sorcery and the occult is known locally as sanguma which is widespread in some provinces.

Eight sentenced to death in PNG for sorcery killings

SYDNEY (AFP) - Eight people have been sentenced to death and 88 jailed for life over the sorcery-related killings of seven men and children in Papua New Guinea, a report said on Wednesday (July 25).





The frenzied murders happened in April 2014 in the Pacific nation's Madang province, with the National Court hearing a "berserk" crowd used bows and arrows, knives and axes to kill the victims.





Of the 97 people charged, eight were handed the death penalty and 88 imprisoned, The National newspaper reported. The other person died last month.





AFP was unable to reach the court in Madang to confirm the verdicts.





Local PNG media have previously reported that the crowd marched on Sakiko village, motivated by concerns about several deaths in the area attributed to sorcery.





The National said on Wednesday the mob first killed a man travelling to work at a sugar cane farm. He was shot with an arrow and hacked to pieces. Another was also hit with an arrow then slashed with knives and axes.





Three other men were killed before two children, aged five and three, were snatched from their mother's arms, the newspaper said. Previous reports said they were "chopped to pieces".





In sentencing, Justice David Cannings said there was no proven connection or justification between the belief in sorcery and what happened.





"So the genuine belief in sorcery is not a mitigating factor. It cannot be regarded as an extenuating circumstance to lessen the gravity of the crimes," he was cited as saying.





"Black magic" and cannibalism sometimes occur in PNG, a sprawling and poor nation where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune, illness, accidents or death.





Rights groups have waged campaigns for justice for victims of sorcery-related attacks, spurred by the horrific murder of a young woman accused of witchcraft in 2013.





In that case, Kepari Leniata, 20, was stripped naked, tied up, doused in petrol and burned alive in front of a crowd by relatives of a boy who died following an illness in the Mount Hagen area.





Following Leniata's murder, in 2013 PNG repealed the 1971 Sorcery Act which allowed a reduced sentence for anyone who committed assault or murder if they believed their victim had been involved in sorcery.





It also revived the death penalty for violent crimes.





The law allows for execution by lethal injection, hanging and firing squad, but it has not been carried out since 1954.

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,

but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar WildeLouisiana hasn't held an execution since 2010, despite having 72 people sitting on death row -- and it won't be resuming executions anytime soon





At the request of state authorities, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick agreed this week to a 12-month extension of an order temporarily delaying all executions in Louisiana for at least another year. The state is being sued in federal court over its lethal injection protocol for the death penalty.





Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, said this week that Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, is also dragging his feet on resolving the execution issue.





Edwards countered that Landry is using the state's difficulty with executions to score political points, but the governor has also declined to say whether he supports the death penalty at all.





The two men often get into public political squabbles, and Landry is considering running against Edwards in the 2019 gubernatorial election.





There are some challenges for Louisiana when it comes to resuming executions. But Edwards, Landry and the Louisiana Legislature have the ability to address some of these issues -- if they want to get executions moving again.





Here are [several] challenges Louisiana faces:





Louisiana can't get the drugs to perform lethal injection





Louisiana can't put anyone to death because it can't find someone to sell the drugs needed to carry out executions, said Natalie LaBorde, deputy secretary at the Department of Corrections.





This has been a problem Louisiana has faced for several years . The state's execution protocol has been changed a few times in recent years to try using different drugs that might be easier to acquire -- with no success.





The state's current protocol allows for both a one-drug and two-drug combination to be used in executions, but LaBorde said the state hasn't been able to get the drugs for either procedure.





"The drug companies will not sell them to us," she said in an interview Thursday (July 19).





Changing the type of drugs that the state tries to use again might not help either.





The Edwards administration and Landry's office had discussed using another drug, like fentanyl, in executions. But at least some drug companies ban Louisiana from using their products for any purpose unless the state agrees not to use them for executions.





The state has had to sign agreements with drug companies saying they won't use the company's products for the death penalty, in order to get access to them for medicinal purposes.





Louisiana is far from the only state to face this problem. A execution in Nevada was blocked earlier this month when a drug company sued over its product , midazolam, being used to carry out the death penalty. The drug company is accusing Nevada of acquiring the drug through illegitimate means, according to NPR.





In 2015, Nebraska attempted to purchase lethal injection drugs it wanted to use from India. The U.S. government said it would not permit the drugs to be imported, according to the Omaha World-Herald





Execution drugs became particularly hard to get after 2016, when Pfizer Inc. joined European drug manufacturers in banning their products from being used for executions. Thirty-one states have the death penalty on the books, but only eight states have managed to carry out executions since the Pfizer ban went into place, according to Reuters



Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for boosting economic ties between India and Rwanda as he believes the two nations can do a lot together. (Photo: AP)

Rwanda: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday called for boosting economic ties between India and Rwanda as he believes the two nations can do a lot together.

Prime Minister Modi's comments come during his maiden visit to Rwanda, where India and Rwanda also signed eight agreements in an effort to bolster bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

"We want to boost economic ties between India and Rwanda. Our nations can do a lot together. There are several opportunities in rural development and small scale industries," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing meet at the Business Forum in Kigali.

"India is growing exponentially but our mantra is 'Sabka saath sabka vikas'. We will grow but we will also help those grow, who are with us. We will walk together," he added.

Thanking Rwanda for the warm reception, Prime Minister Modi stated that this meeting would help to strengthen economic and cultural relations between the two countries.

"I thank the wonderful people of Rwanda for their warmth and affection. This visit adds tremendous strength to closer economic and cultural relations between India and Rwanda," he noted.

Furthering ties of trade and commerce, Prime Minister Modi and Rwandan President Paul Kagame addressed leading CEOs from India and Rwanda.

"The Girinka Programme is helping transform the lives of people across rural Rwanda. I also told President Paul Kagame about the initiatives we are taking in India for the development of our villages," Prime Minister Modi asserted.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister gifted 200 cows to villagers as a part of Rwandan Government's Girinka Programme.

Under this programme, the poorest residing in the region get cows from the government and gift the first female calf to a neighbor to promote brotherhood.

In the last leg of his three-nation Africa tour, the Prime Minister will visit South Africa to attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit, which is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg.The rescued girls have been sent to a shelter home. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Wednesday rescued 16 girls from an apartment in Delhi's Munirka area who were trafficked from Nepal.

Speaking to ANI, DCW chief, Swati Maliwal said that the girls were being trafficked to Iran and Kuwait in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

"An Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) had informed us that the girls are being trafficked to Iran and Kuwait on the pretext of jobs offer. Apart from these 16 girls, there were at least seven others who have already been trafficked to the two gulf nations," she said.

"I reached Munirka with my team and informed the Delhi Police. We rescued the girls together. The girls told us how the agents had promised them jobs in Iran and Kuwait. They were cramped up in a small room," the DCW chief added.

She also appealed to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene in the matter and direct the police to take stringent action.

Meanwhile, the rescued girls have been sent to a shelter home.Britains government is keen for the United Kingdom to remain a leading centre for blockchain. (Photo: Pixabay)

A revamped Bank of England payments system should be able to hook up with fintech firms using distributed ledger technology (DLT), the central bank said on Monday in a boost to the development of blockchain in Britain.

The BoE is aiming to revamp the system that underpins British banking and trading in the City of London by 2020 to strengthen defences against cyber-attacks and widen the number of businesses that can use it.

Its Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system handles transactions worth around 500 billion pounds - equivalent to almost a third of Britains annual economic output.

In March this year, the BoE announced a proof of concept with several firms to see what changes would be needed to the proposed revamp of RTGS to support settlement with firms that use blockchain, the technology used to record transactions in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Britains government is keen for the United Kingdom to remain a leading centre for fintech innovation like payments and blockchain.

Berlin, Paris and other EU cities are seeking to lure fintech firms from Britain, worried about access to the blocs single market after Brexit next year.

All participants confirmed that the functionality offered by the renewed RTGS service would enable their systems to connect and to achieve a settlement in central bank money, the BoE said in a statement on Monday.

A number of recommendations were received to ensure optimal access to central bank money.

One recommendation will be to investigate if the revamped RTGS system could provide and use cryptographic proofs that stop data being stolen or altered.

The BoE will continue to engage with fintech firms to keep up to date with innovation in payment technology.

RTGS suffered a major outage in October 2014, and BoE Governor Mark Carney wants to make it easier for smaller firms to use the system directly rather than via large incumbent banks to help boost competition and innovation.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Kigali: In an unusual gift, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today presented 200 cows to poor villagers in Rwanda to support President Paul Kagame's ambitious initiative for poverty reduction and tackling childhood malnutrition.

The Girinka Programme was initiated by President Kagame in 2006 to provide one cow per poor family for their nutritional and financial security.

PM Modi, who is on a two-day state visit, gifted these cows to poor families during a function at Rweru Model Village.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Modi appreciated the Rwandan government's 'Girinka Programme'. He said people in India too would be pleasantly surprised to see the cow being given such importance as a means of economic empowerment in villages, in faraway Rwanda. He said that the Girinka Programme will help transform villages in Rwanda.

"Being part of a transformative project towards economic development of Rwanda! PM @narendramodi donates 200 cows under #Girinka - One Cow per Poor Family Programme at Rweru village. Girinka is an ambitious projects that provides both nutritional and financial security to the poor," Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, tweeted.

PM Modi said that the Rwandan government can also work on honeybees on the lines of the Girinka programme. "Honey can be produced along with milk and both businesses can be run together which would provide additional benefits," PM Modi said, adding that the Indian government is ready to provide every support to the Rwandan government for this.

The word Girinka can be translated as 'may you have a cow' and describes a centuries-old cultural practice in Rwanda whereby a cow was given by one person to another, as a sign of respect and gratitude, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

The Girinka Programme was initiated by Kagame in response to the alarmingly high rate of childhood malnutrition and as a way to accelerate poverty reduction and integrate livestock and crop farming, the statement said. The programme is based on the premise that providing a dairy cow to the poor transforms livelihoods, reconciles communities improving agricultural productivity through the use of manure as fertilizers which would lead to improving soil quality and reducing erosion through the planting of grasses and trees, it said.

Since its introduction, hundreds of thousands have received cows through the Girinka programme. The programme has contributed to an increase in agricultural production in Rwanda - especially milk production and products, reduced malnutrition and increased incomes.Two Vietnamese firms have been hit by the dam collapse in Laos, and 26 citizens are among thousands trapped in flooded Attapeu Province.

Villagers evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos July 24, 2018. Picture taken July 24, 2018. Photo by Reuters/Stringer

The 26 Vietnamese citizens are employees of Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), a major Vietnamese investor in Attapeu.

Doan Nguyen Duc, HAGL chairman, said he plans to dispatch a helicopter on Wednesday afternoon to rescue the trapped workers and offered to help Lao authorities in their rescue efforts.

HAGLs assets in Laos consist of 17,000 hectares of rubber plantation, a hydropower project 200 kilometers away from the collapsed dam and a small-scale fruit farm, where the employees are trapped.

The financial damage it has suffered is not remarkable, HAGL has said in a statement.

Military-run telecom giant Viettel has lost four transmitting towers in the provinces Sananxay District, where the dam as located, and the flooding has rendered equipment inoperable, said Dang Quang Hieu, Viettle deputy manager of Viettels branch office in Attapeu.

Two more towers are currently out of reach because of fast rising waters, he said.

CMVietnam is the only Vietnamese contractor involved in the construction of the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam which just collapsed. But the company has said the dam breach has not affected the construction work that it is in charge of.

CMVietnam is a subcontractor for SK Engineering & Construction, a South Korean builder that is one of the partners in the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam project.

CMVietnam is responsible for constructing a factory, pressure pipes, distribution stations and electromechanical systems.

It said that the construction has been basically finished and was ready to be handed over.

Although there has been no direct damage, CMVietnam chairman Pham Minh Khuc said that there would be delay in handing over the project as the result of the flood.

As of Wednesday afternoon, nineteen people have been confirmed dead and more than 3,000 trapped, Laos media reported.

Hundreds were reported missing after walls of water washed away villages and rescuers on Wednesday continued to search floodwaters for survivors, a government official told Reuters.

Laos has planned a dam-building spree in order to become the battery of Asia. The dams will be built by foreign companies under deals wherein power is exported to countries like Thailand.Real estate is expected to lead the local M&A market this year.

The real estate sector dominated by far Vietnams merger and acquisition (M&A) values in the first half of 2018.

The property sector accounted for a whopping 66.75 per cent of the total value, followed by banking and finance at 19.1 percent and manufacturing at 9 percent, according to a new report put out by the Vietnam M&A Forum.

Last year the consumer goods sector had topped, accounting for 57 percent of the total value, followed by real estate with 27 per cent.

The M&A deals in Vietnam were totally worth $3.35 billion in H1 2018, up 39 per cent year-on-year.

In the period, Singapore was the top M&A player in the realty sector, with state investor GIC Pte Ltd leading the way.

GIC bought a stake in real estate firm Vinhomes, Vietnams second-biggest listed company by market capitalization, for $853 million in April. It also bought into Vincom Retail earlier this year.

2018 started off with the acquisition of a 24 percent stake in the Sun Wah Tower, a Grade A office building in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 1, by Japans Nomura Real Estate Development.

In another major case, Malaysias Berjaya Land Bhd sold its entire 32.5 per cent stake in Berjaya Vietnam Financial Centre Ltd. to Vinhomes JSC and Can Gio Tourist City Corporation for VND884.9 billion ($38 million).

The residential segment witnessed five major M&A transactions in the first six months of the year. Among the foreign investors involved in these deals were CapitaLand, Frasers Property, and Keppel Land, according to JLL Vietnam, a real estate services firm.

In the first half of 2018, the Vietnamese real estate market continued to show irresistible appeal to foreign investors and continued to witness high-value M&A transactions in a variety of segments such as residential, commercial, and industrial, said Khanh Nguyen Associate director of Capital Markets at JLL Vietnam.

The Vietnam M&A Forum report forecasts that real estate, consumer goods, and banking and finance sectors will lead the Vietnamese M&A market this year.

Investors are most interested in property projects in big cities or new urban areas with a high population density, resorts and hotels in the downtown areas.

In the consumer goods sector, they are looking to invest in quality local brands with good distribution networks.

In banking and finance, consumer finance, cards and financial services companies are major draws.

Telecommunication, energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals and education sectors are also likely to attract M&A interest, the report says.

Most of the foreign companies striking M&A deals in Vietnam over the past years have been from Asia, including Thailand, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea.

Thai companies have been big players, acquiring some major firms like retailers Big C and Nguyen Kim, wholesaler Metro Cash & Carry, maker of ceramic tiles Prime Group, cement producer Holcim, Binh Minh Plastics, and Tien Phong Plastics.

Late last year came the biggest deal of them all when Thailands TCC Group bought 53.59 per cent of Vietnams number one brewer Sabeco for $4.89 billion.

This made Thailand the biggest M&A player in Vietnam last year.

M&A experts see bright prospects for Vietnams M&A landscape despite challenges like the U.S. pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the U.S.s trade spat with China, continuing difficulties like the slow equitization of state-owned enterprises, few major divestments by the state, a shortage of quality enterprises for acquisition, and policy hiccups.A man climbs on steel packages at Hoa Phat steel mill in Hai Duong Province, Vietnam. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Overseas government and international organization has to take safeguard actions to protect local companies.

The EU and Canada are taking safeguard measures to protect their steel companies from exports from Vietnam.

The EU claimed it is taking the protective measures due to a surge in imports from many countries in recent years.

Imports of steel products had been 18.8 million tons in 2013 but jumped to 30.5 million last year, according to the Official Journal of the European Nation published on July 18.

Vietnam is listed among the developing countries which face provisional measures lasting 200 days starting July 19.

Three of its products  non-alloy and other alloy cold-rolled sheets, metallic coated sheets and stainless cold-rolled sheets and strips -- now attract a 25 percent additional tax.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it is considering if Vietnamese carbon steel-welded pipes are being sold at unreasonable prices making it harder for local companies to compete.

According to PRNewswire, other countries are also being investigated, including Pakistan, the Philippines and Turkey.

The investigation, which began on July 20, came after Novamerican Steel Inc. in Montreal city alleged that local steel companies could not compete because of price undercutting by the countries listed subsequently.

The CBSA will work with local authorities to investigate and expects to release its preliminary evaluation on October 18.

Vietnam exported 4.71 million tons of steel worth $3.15 billion last year, 35.6 percent and 55.1 percent up from 2016 in terms of volume and value.

ASEAN member countries are its main importers, accounting for 59.2 percent of exports, and the U.S. ranks second at 11 percent, a Vietnam Steel Association report said earlier this year.The 26 Vietnamese people trapped in the aftermath of the dam collapse in Laos have been airlifted to safety.

The 24 employees of a subsidiary of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) group, and their two children, suffered no injury during their two-day ordeal and are in stable condition.

They are set to return to Vietnam on Thursday.

The rescue operation, which used helicopters, was organized by HAGL on Wednesday afternoon.

A helicopter team who joined the rescue of Hoang Anh Gia Lai workers trapped after the Laos dam collapse on Wednesday. Photo by VnExpress/A Hoa

The 26 people had been stranded on a hill in the rubber plantation cultivated by their company since Monday night when a hydropower dam just 600 meters away collapsed in Laos' southeastern province of Attapeu.

The workers said theyd just returned to their tents on top of the hill after work on Monday afternoon when they heard thundering sounds and saw raging waters sweeping trees away right under them.

"We knew immediately that it was a dam breach. We panicked. Many of us started to cry, said Nguyen Van Hai, deputy director of the plantation that was set up two years ago.

The workers said there were heavy rains several days earlier. We did not imagine that the dam would break because it was new and looked firm, one of them said.

They had enough food while they were stranded, but the spirit was low, Hai said.

Some of the Vietnamese workers who have been rescued from the dam collapse zone in Laos. Photo by VnExpress/A Hoa

Meanwhile, Lao authorities have found 26 bodies and listed 131 people as missing. 17 injured people have been hospitalized and over 3,000 are believed to be trapped amidst the floods triggered by the dams collapse.

Theres been no report of Vietnamese casualties and none of the missing are from Vietnam, according to Laos authorities.

Vietnams agriculture officials have warned that the incident could send water level in the border province An Giang to rise seven to 10 centimeters this weekend.

The dam is part of a hydropower project being built by the Vientiane-based Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, a joint venture between Laos, Thailand and South Korea formed in 2012.

Work on the $1.02 billion dam had started in February 2013 and was scheduled to be completed later this year.

The 410MW hydropower plant was to export 90 percent of its electricity output to Thailand, and send 10 percent to the national grid in Laos.A Vietnamese fishing boat seized after being spotted sailing near Indonesias Natuna islands in a file photo. Photo by AFP

42 Vietnamese fishermen have been released after being arrested and detained for more than three months for illegally fishing in Indonesian waters.

The Indonesian government and the Vietnamese embassy in Jakarta completed the necessary paperwork to hand over the fishermen to Vietnam on Tuesday at the Soekarno Hatta International Airport, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

Most of the fishermen, who hail from southern provinces including those in the Mekong Delta, were captured by Indonesian coast guards last April.

Due to limited geographical knowledge, many fishermen were unaware that they were violating international maritime laws and unwittingly straying into foreign waters to catch fish, said Pham Vinh Quang, Vietnamese Ambassador to Indonesia.

Some fishermen said they would quit fishing after returning home because of their age and poor health.

Hundreds of Vietnamese fishermen have been arrested for illegal fishing in recent years in the waters of nearby countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Vietnams Fisheries Resources Surveillance Department has been trying to raise awareness about maritime boundaries and international maritime laws, and conducts frequent patrols to prevent potential violations.

In June last year, Indonesia released 690 Vietnamese fishermen detained for illegal fishing in its waters, the largest release of Vietnamese fishermen in history, followed by another 239, four months later.Vietnamese restaurant owners, chefs and customers are complicit in the crime of catching, advertising, serving and eating an endangered species.

Marc Goichot, the Water Program Lead at WWF-Greater Mekong.

Most people in Vietnam knows it is illegal to sell tiger meat or pangolin scales or rhino horn.

It is common knowledge that trading elephant ivory is a criminal offense, punishable by fines and jail time. But few of us seem to know that it is just as illegal to sell a Mekong Giant Catfish or Giant Barb.

But it is. Every restaurant advertising these endangered giants is breaking the law. Every time you eat a plate of Mekong Giant Catfish in Hanoi or Da Nang or Ho Chi Minh City, you are helping a criminal. In fact, you are paying a criminal.

And you are also helping to drive this extraordinary species toward extinction.

Instead of choosing one of these dishes from the menu, you should choose to contact the Provincial Department of Fisheries. The government and Vietnamese people have taken significant steps in recent years to tackle wildlife crime and trafficking of species like tigers, elephants and rhinos. It is time we ended the illegal trade in the Mekongs most magnificent fish.

Did you know that four of the 10 biggest freshwater fish in the world live in the Mekong River? No other river comes close to having as many giants. Back in 2005, a colossal Mekong Giant Catfish was hauled out in northern Thailand; it was the size of a car  2.7m long and weighed 293kg. Then there is the Giant Barb, which  as its name suggests  is the biggest barb around. And then theres the Giant Freshwater Stingray, which can grow to five meters in length and weigh 600kg  around the same size as its largest marine cousins.

There is also the Dog Eating Catfish, which despite its name doesnt commonly eat live dogs, instead feasting on carcasses of dead animals or smaller fish and shrimp. And there is even less likelihood of one devouring your pet dog since the chance of ever coming across one of these majestic creatures is vanishingly small.

Cambodia Fisheries personnel release a Mekong giant catfish. Photo by Reuters

Indeed, all the Mekongs giant fish are disappearing rapidly despite the fact that they are amazingly unique and irreplaceable assets. The Mekong Giant Catfish is listed as critically endangered  the last step before extinction. International trade in it has been banned by CITES since 1975.

Even if a Mekong Giant Catfish is trapped accidentally in a net, it must be released and the authorities notified. Meanwhile, the population of the Giant Barb and the two other giants has declined dramatically across Cambodia, Laos and Thailand where they were formerly found in abundance, and there is an urgent need to protect them with equal status as the Mekong Giant Catfish.

Yet demand still exists, particularly here in Vietnam where most people do not know that trading and selling these fish is against the law. While momentum builds against the well-known illegal trade in tiger parts and rhino horns with outraged media coverage, public petitions and government promises, no one is fighting to save the Mekongs iconic fish. Indeed, the opposite is true. Whenever a Mekong Giant Catfish is caught and sold, local media usually celebrate the event and trumpet its monetary value. You do not hear an outraged pledge from the authorities to stamp out the crime. You even see Facebook posts with people smiling next to huge dead fish.

How many of these people would post happy selfies next to a poached elephant or butchered tiger? How quickly would a video of a rhino horn sale provoke an official promise to ensure that those responsible face justice? And why do the media not report the real value of these immense and irreplaceable fish?

These giants may not be as charismatic or cute as a tiger or elephant, but their value to the Mekong River is many times greater than a few incredibly expensive plates of fish. They are an indicator of the health and ecological integrity of the river itself, which sustains the fish stocks and rice paddies of the delta that feeds millions of people in Vietnam. Millions of people who would never be able to afford to buy a fillet of illegal Mekong Giant Catfish, even if they wanted to.

Like all crimes, there are always victims. In this case, it is not just the giant fish being poached and illegally traded from Cambodia to restaurants in Vietnam. It is the health and future of the river itself.

Why should a few criminal chefs and ignorant consumers be allowed to threaten the existence of the most monumental fish in the Mekong? Increased awareness has already made it socially unacceptable in Vietnam to eat tiger flesh or drink tiger bone wine. We should all feel the same way about ordering any of these giants in a restaurant  most of which could already be extinct in Vietnamese waters.

It is not too late. Customers must stop ordering these fish. People on the streets or online should start reporting to the police any restaurants that openly advertise and sell Mekong giants. And the authorities must enforce existing laws and clamp down on the criminal chefs and wild fish traffickers.

If this happens, these incredible fish will be thrown a lifeline.

There are still many long term threats to these fish  and so many other freshwater species in the Mekong, from smaller fish to turtles to the last 92 river dolphins. Existing dams on the Mekong have already fragmented the river and interrupted fish migrations. Planned dams in Cambodia and Laos would wreak havoc. Sand mining is disrupting critical ecosystems. Water pollution is increasing.

Unless action is taken, these threats could doom the Mekongs giant fish  the barometers of its overall health. In particular, we need to deal now with the most immediate and direct threat by reducing demand for these fish and increasing efforts to prosecute criminals involved in the illegal giant fish trade.

Attitudes toward tigers, elephants and rhinos have changed in time. Now the alarm bell is ringing for the Mekongs giants. Its time for Vietnam to wake up and save them.

If you see a Mekong Giant Catfish, Giant Barb, Dog-Eating Catfish, or Giant Freshwater Stingray for sale in Vietnam, contact Education for Nature-Vietnam: English speaking toll-free hotline number (within Vietnam) 1-800-1522.

*Marc Goichot is the Water Program Lead at WWF-Greater Mekong.Villagers evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos, July 24, 2018. Photo by ABC Laos News/Handout via Reuters

Vietnamese leaders have offered assistance to Laos after a partly-constructed hydropower dam collapsed leaving at least 70 dead and hundreds missing.

The accident, which happened on Monday night at a hydropower dam in southeastern Attapeu Province's Sanamxay District, unleashed flash floods on nearby villages.

The floodings have reportedly killed at least 70 people, while over 200 are still listed as missing and over 6,600 people have lost their houses, according to the Office of Vietnam's National Committee for Incident, Disaster Response and Search and Rescue.

While there has been no report of Vietnamese casualties, 24 workers of Vietnam's Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, a major investor in Attapeu Province, are currently trapped floods.

Vietnam's defense ministry has instructed Military Region 5, the Army's 3rd Corps, the Air Force and its 18th Corps to be prepared to assist Laos on request.

Doan Nguyen Duc, board chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, said he plans to dispatch a helicopter to rescue the trapped workers and offered to help Lao authorities in their rescue efforts.

Hoang Van Thang, vice minister of agriculture, said late on Tuesday that the incident "will not cause significant impact" to Vietnam.

The dam is 650 kilometers (404 miles) from Vietnam and the water can reach the border province of An Giang after five days, possibly raising its water level by five meters, Thang said.

Vietnam offers to help Laos after dam collapse disaster Hundreds missing in Laos after hydropower dam collapse

The collapsed dam is part of a hydropower project being carried by the Vientiane-based Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, a South Korea, Thailand and Laos joint venture formed in 2012. Work on the $1.02 billion dam started in February 2013 and was scheduled to be completed later this year.

The 410MW hydropower plant was to export 90 percent of its electricity output to Thailand, and send 10 percent to the national grid in Laos.The CEO of military-run telecom giant Viettel was appointed to lead the Ministry of Information and Communication starting on Wednesday.

Vietnams Prime Minister signed the decision to give Nguyen Manh Hung, 56, the position, two days after the Politburo, the Communist Partys decision-making body, named him the new Party head of the ministry.

Hung, a major general, studied telecommunication electronics in Russia, and won his master degrees in telecommunication in Australia and business administration in Hanoi.

The native of Phu Tho Province, two hours northwest of Hanoi, has been with Viettel Corporation since 1989, when it was known as Sigelco. He rose quickly from a technical assistant to an investment manager in 1995. He has served as Viettel's CEO since 2014 and also as its chairman since last month.

He is said to play a key role in the development of Viettel, which is currently Vietnam's top telecommunications service provider with operation in 10 overseas markets. Last year, the firm had revenues of VND249.5 trillion ($11.1 billion) and it aimed to enter the global top 10 telecommunication enterprises in the next two years.

Viettel's success is thanks to people who have "unlimited belief in themselves and their company," Hung said at a company's meeting in June.

His appointment followed the dismissal of his predecessor Truong Minh Tuan earlier this month. Tuan was also suspended as Information Minister by President Tran Dai Quang on Monday. In Vietnam, the appointment or dismissal of a minister will be made official with the approval of the legislative National Assembly, which will meet for the next session in October.

Tuan, who had been deputy information minister from 2011 to 2016, was punished for signing a decision to approve the acquisition of private pay TV firm AVG by the state-owned telecom firm, MobiFone, without the Prime Ministers approval.

It is the first time in many years that an active minister in Vietnam has been suspended.

MobiFone, the country's third largest telecommunications firm, had made headlines early in 2016 when it announced it was breaking into the pay TV market with the acquisition of a 95 percent stake in AVG.

But government inspectors concluded that the deal had violated investment laws and caused an estimated loss of about VND7 trillion ($307 million) to the state budget.A U.K. magazine which focuses on royalty and celebrities has named Hanoi among seven best backpacking destinations in Asia.

As a city that celebrated its millennial anniversary in 2010, the capital of Vietnam has attractions aplenty to meet varied interests of travelers, be it history, culture or cuisine.

When all this can be accessed with a great degree of affordability, Hanois attractions are further magnified.

In choosing Hanoi as one of seven best backpacking destinations in Asia, the Hello! magazine says: Not only is accommodation and food remarkably affordable, but youll be spoiled for choice of things to see and do in the city, which has a mix of Southeast Asian, Chinese and French influences.

Apart from the many popular places like the Sword Lake and the Hoa Lo Prison Museum, the magazine highlights a special attraction  bia hoi. It notes that backpackers often spend their evenings gathered at bia hoi bars across Hanoi, where youll find the cheapest beer in the world at around 25p a glass.

Six other Asian cities on the list are Singapore, Luang Prabang in Laos, Bangkok in Thailand, Pokhara in Nepal, Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Kuta in Indonesia.

Last April, users of popular travel guide and review website TripAdvisor voted Hanoi into the list of top 25 destinations for 2018.

International arrivals to Hanoi in the first half of this year rose 26 percent year-on-year to more than three million.Villagers are evacuated after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Attapeu province, Laos, July 24, 2018. Photo by Reuters

Rescuers recovered 26 bodies and hundreds remain missing after a dam collapse swamped several villages in southern Laos on Wednesday.

Survivors have questioned why they got little warning of the deluge, as two South Korean contractors said they reported damage at least a day before parts of the Xe-Namnoy dam gave way Monday and unleashed a wall of water.

A Thai consular official, Chana Miencharoen, at the scene of the relief effort in Attapeu province told AFP that by Wednesday late afternoon 26 bodies had been recovered.

"Seventeen others are injured and in hospital," he said, adding roof-level floodwater was hampering rescue efforts in a remote area of the poor, landlocked Southeast Asian country.

In an update on Wednesday afternoon state-run Laos News Agency said hundreds of people remained unaccounted for, with at least 50 missing from the village of Ban Mai alone.

Footage on Laos television showed people huddled on roofs awaiting rescue as muddy water swirled menacingly just below them, with the army and local volunteers leading the relief effort.

Questions began to emerge over the collapse, with some of the displaced saying they were warned to evacuate homes only hours before disaster struck.

"It happened quickly, we had little time to prepare ourselves," Joo Hinla, 68, from one of the worst-hit villages of Ban Hin Lath, told AFP from a warehouse crammed with over 700 displaced people in a neighbouring province.

"All of the houses in my village are under water. Four of my family are missing, we don't know about their fate yet."

Hundreds of other displaced people, including women, children and the elderly, sat on the floor nearby surrounded by plastic bags crammed with meagre belongings.

The damming of Laos

Laos, poor but blessed with abundant natural resources, aims to become the "Battery of Asia" allowing dozens of foreign-funded dam projects across its network of rivers.

But fears over the environmental impact of the projects, which export most of their electricity to neighboring Thailand and China, go virtually unvoiced inside the tightly controlled country.

Villagers across the country have been moved, some several times, to make way for dams whose benefits are mainly enjoyed outside of the country, campaigners say.

Once complete, around 90 percent of the electricity generated by the Xe-Namnoy dam was destined for Thailand.

The remote flooded area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged or completely washed away.

Rescue officials in neighbouring Thailand were reportedly stuck at the border because Laotians were sluggish in allowing access to the country.

South Korea was sending a relief team to the area, President Moon Jae-in's spokesman said Wednesday in Seoul.

"Although we are still determining the cause of the dam accident, our government must actively take part in on-site relief efforts without delay as our companies were involved in the construction of the dam," Moon was quoted as saying.

Questions over warning

Two South Korean companies involved in the $1.2 billion project said damage was reported a day before the dam collapsed following heavy monsoon rain.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered that the upper part of the structure had washed away at around 9:00 p.m. on Sunday.

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

Repair work was hampered by rain which had damaged roads, it said, and early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam -- one of the two main dams in the project -- to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.

The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.

Dam operator Korea Western Power Co. said one of the auxiliary dams -- "Saddle D" -- broke under heavy rain.

But according to a timeline the firm provided in a report to a South Korean lawmaker and obtained by AFP, it said "11 centimetres of subsidence was found at the centre of the dam " as early as Friday.

Emergency repair equipment could not be used as the subsidence worsened.

"It remains unclear what caused the dam to subside in some places and develop cracks," a Korea Western Power spokesman told AFP.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019.

The project consists of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers.An aerial view of the flooded plains in Attapeu province after a dam collapsed the day before. Photo by AFP

The South Korean firm said it had sent a crisis team to the site, dispatching helicopters, boats and rescue workers.

The South Korean partner in a Laos hydropower dam said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed, engulfing villages and leaving hundreds missing.

The wall of water unleashed Monday by the failure of the dam in the country's southeast surged downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people feared dead.

SK Engineering & Construction, a South Korean builder that is one of the partners in the project, said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time.

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

Repair work was hampered by heavy rain which had damaged roads, it said, and early on Monday water was discharged from the Xe-Namnoy dam -- one of the two main dams in the project -- to try to relieve pressure on the auxiliary structure.

The government was warned about further damage to the dam at around noon, prompting an official evacuation order for villagers downstream, and the structure collapsed a few hours later, it said.

By Tuesday morning, seven out of 12 villages located downstream were flooded, it said. Aerial pictures showed a vast brown inundation swamping houses and jungle alike over a huge area.

Another video showed families waiting for rescue on the rooftop of their house, with a nearby Buddhist temple partially submerged.

The South Korean firm said it had sent a crisis team to the site, dispatching helicopters, boats and rescue workers.

"Currently, SK E&C is actively working on personnel recovery and damage relief with the Laotian government," it said.

Communist Laos is traversed by a vast network of rivers and several dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries such as Thailand.

The $1.2 billion dam located near the border with Cambodia is part of a project by Vientiane-based Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, a joint venture formed in 2012 between a Laotian, a Thai and two South Korean companies, according to the project's website.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the venture's website.

The project consists of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers in Champasak province.

It planned to export 90 percent of its electricity to energy-hungry Thailand and the remainder was to be offered up on the local grid.

Under the terms of construction, PNPC said it would operate and manage the power project for 27 years after commercial operations began.Over 360,000 Ukrainians leave their country since March 2018 for work abroad

Two Ukrainians leave their country every minute in search of a better life.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterYuzhnoukrainsk NPP's power unit 3 starts operating on U.S.-made fuel: Poroshenko

Poroshenko says during his recent meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, he agreed the issue of nuclear fuel supplies.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterWhat do you think about our new website?

Share your opinionUkraine's parliament approved amendments to the new law needed to set up the court on July 12 after a previous version was deemed by the Fund to be too loose.

The International Monetary Fund has given its backing to Ukraine's revised plans for an anti-corruption court, fulfilling one condition for unlocking the next $2 billion instalment of aid to Kyiv.

The court is being set up as part of Ukraine's $17.5 billion bailout package and has become a symbol of its efforts to stamp out high-level corruption that has blighted the country for decades, Reuters said.

"The legislative framework for the High Anti-Corruption Court, once the recently adopted amendments are signed into law, will be consistent with the authorities' commitments under Ukraine's IMF-supported program," an IMF spokeswoman told Reuters.

Ukraine's parliament approved amendments to the new law needed to set up the court on July 12 after a previous version was deemed by the Fund to be too loose.

It is meant to ring-fence court decisions from political pressure or bribery in Ukraine, where corruption deters foreign investors and is estimated to knock two percentage points off economic growth each year.

Read alsoUkrainian lawmakers amend Law on High Anti-Corruption Court

A number of other issues remain to be resolved, however, before Kyiv finally receives the next instalment of IMF money. There is a standoff over plans to raise gas prices as well as over implementing additional spending cuts or money-raising measures needed to plug some shortfalls in revenues earlier in the year.

Kyiv has received only half the $17.5 billion earmarked for its aid programme which is due to run out next year. It has not had any fresh money since April last year and needs to repay around $15 billion of foreign currency debt over the next two years.

"Discussions on other outstanding issues, including gas prices and the government budget, are ongoing," the spokeswoman said.The Department of Labor has rescinded the harmful and unnecessary persuader rule put in place by the Obama administration in 2016.

The persuader rule would have forced employers to report to the Labor Department all contact with attorneys regarding labor-related matters. Those attorneys would have been required to report all other labor-related clients and the amounts that those clients paid them. Both are a violation of attorney-client privilege.

Employers never had to comply with the rule because a preliminary injunction was issued in June 2016, before it was due to go into effect. In November 2016, U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings permanently blocked the rule and the Trump administration did not appeal his decision. Now the rule is rescinded.

Rescission of the persuader rule reduces future compliance costs and increases potential GDP growth. When the Obama DOL proposed the rule, it estimated it would cost about $826,000 annually in compliance. However, the Department only counted the time it would take for the affected companies to fill in the forms. In reality, many more companies would have to spend resources to calculate whether they had to comply with the rule, and what information had to be entered on the forms.

In its decision, DOL cited former Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Diana Furchtgott-Roths estimates as an example of a comprehensive cost analysis of the rule.

Furchtgott-Roths more comprehensive cost analysis concludes that the persuader rule could impose a cost between $7.5 billion and $10.6 billion in the first year, and between $4.3 billion and $6.5 billion each subsequent year. This means that the persuader rules cost would be enough to buy a $97 ticket to Disneyland to every one of the 58 million American childr en aged 3 through 17.

Rescission of the rule is a victory for the rule of law since, according to Judge Cummings, the rule compromised attorney- client privilege. A rule that requires private individuals to report and make public their contacts with lawyers on any matter blatantly violates this principle. In the landmark case Upjohn Co. v. United States (1981), the Supreme Court ruled that attorney-client privilege extends two-way protections that cover not only the lawyer's guidance but also information provided by the client to the lawyer that assist the lawyer in offering that guidance.

Streamlined and straightforward regulations are essential for the rule of law and therefore for economic growth. Countries with a more efficient justice system and stronger protection of fundamental rights do better economically than those that do not enforce the rule of law.

The Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project measures the effectiveness of the rule of law across eight factors for more than 100 countries and scores them from 0 to 1. One of the factors is regulatory enforcement, which encompasses whether regulations are applied and enforced without improper influence, that administrative proceedings are conducted timely, that due process is respected in administrative proceedings, and that there is no expropriation of private property without adequate compensation. Taking the scores from all the countries surveyed on regulatory enforcement and their real GDP per capita in U.S. dollars shows that a 0.1 improvement in this category is associated with a nearly $10,000 increase in real GDP per capita.

The damaging persuader rule is one of many rules ended by the Trump Administration. Executive Order 13771, issued by the president on January 30th, 2017, prohibits government agencies from proposing a regulation without identifying two other regulations to repeal. Furthermore, the order requires agencies to fully offset the cost of all new regulations by repealing others. These two provisions are reinforced by guidance from the Office of Management and Budget which set annual regulatory cost reduction goals for government agencies.

As is the case with the persuader rule and many others, regulations frequently impose a large burden on Americans with little benefit. The Trump Administration should build on the current momentum to work even faster to repeal more costly and unnecessary regulations, increasing opportunities for all Americans.

Daniel Di Martino is a contributor to Economics 21. Follow him on Twitter @DanielDiMartino

Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

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Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

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Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

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Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

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UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak HanesyanMigration agencies discuss reintegration of repatriates

Reintegration of repatriates in the context of the overall activities of various structures of the industry The reintegration of repatriates from different countries and for various reasons can most effectively be organized within the framework of one common concept and in the format of programs of various actions developed within its framework. This is the point of view of the head of the migration service Armen Kazaryan, expressed during the forum on repatriation and reintegration, which was held today within the framework of the Program of Measures Ensuring the Effective Implementation of the RA Migration Policy Strategy in 2017-2021. "We can have programs of separately developed actions for only recognized returning refugees, Syrian-Armenians, this is a good solution for effective organization of the process," he said. The three-month forum, which is a platform for cooperation between organizations involved in the reintegration of repatriates, is open to membership. According to the agenda of the meeting, the participating organizations presented their programs and results. The French-Armenian Development Fund (FFMS) has helped over 1800 voluntary repatriates, through social assistance, retraining and business training, during its activities. "In the first quarter of this year, we have 123 repatriates, during this period we created 12 enterprises," said Arpine Stepanyan, coordinator of the FFMS programs. The Armenian mission of the International Migration Organization (IMO) is the only one organizing a purposeful return and cares for migrants before departure, during departure and at the stage of integration. "Throughout 2017, we had 780 repatriates," Karine Khodzhoyan noted, indicating the sectors of employment most interested in migrants. "Greenhouse farms, livestock, and often taxis and hairdressing, in which case the daily income is noticeable," she said. Integration of about 400 voluntary and forced migrants in two years will help the International Center for the Development of Migration Policy (ICMPD), under the new program, which will begin in September-October. "Prior to the visit, we will visit the EU countries to reach agreements with relevant migration structures and work with the sector where potential repatriates are visible," Andrey Apoyan presented, noting also the priorities they set: start-ups, medical assistance, housing problem. Head of the Labor Migration Department of the State Employment Agency Gagik Torosyan presented a website https://www.imigrantarmenia.eu/, prepared jointly with the Swedish Employment Agency, designed to be a platform for potential investments of successful migrant workers, with the aim of developing their communities, and creating new jobs and employment in the community. "We will gather the ideas of startups and the automatic counter - IQ score - select the program according to the established criteria, for which the collection of money should be made," Gagik Torosyan explained. Among those present, including the representative of the US Embassy in Armenia, the staff of the bureau of the Security Council of Armenia, the representative of the Children's Support Center, individual researchers, initiated discussions of problems and programs in the industry, exchanged experience, set priorities and tasks for the next meeting.President Sargsyan meets with representatives of national minorities (video)

President of the Republic of Armenia Armen Sargsyan met today with the members of the coordinating council of national-cultural organizations of national minorities of Armenia, representing 11 Armenian minority communities. The meeting touched upon a number of issues related to the activities and status of the council, as well as to national minorities. Council members stressed the importance of the structure, conducted effective work and the need to preserve it. Having expressed willingness to cooperate with the structure representing national minorities, regardless of the status that it will have, the President noted that national minorities were the wealth of each country. "You should be proud of both the citizenship of the Republic of Armenia and your national identity," said Armen Sargsyan. The President of the Republic called on representatives of national minorities to submit clear proposals on issues of concern.PM Pashinyan: We will be equivalent (video)

RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan considers the statement of Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan addressed to the Azerbaijani authorities as right. "It is the job of the Minister of Defense not only to make such a statement, but also to ensure the content of those statements, if necessary," said Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. "In addition to making statements, based on the spirit and preparedness of our armed forces, we will do it," said Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan. In an interview with the international press, the Defense Ministry said that in 2016, In case of repeating the April aggression scenario, the Armenian sidemay not resist the temptation to use all the available resources in its arsenal to counteract the bulwark against the enemy. Did the RA revise its strategy towards Azerbaijan? "If we use the word "review" we must be equivalent to the situation. I think this is the most important approach, that is, no position is hardened, it should be adequate in this regard. That is, we think that yes, the peaceful settlement of the issue is important, and we know that it is possible, but we think that an appropriate atmosphere is necessary for that," Nikol Pashinyan said. Meanwhile, according to him, Azerbaijan with its actions and rhetoric destroys the atmosphere of peace. "If Azerbaijan reconsiders its approach and contribute to the establishment of an atmosphere of peace, we will be equal to that right, if we go to another situation, we will also be equivalent to that situation." The Minister of Defense responded to artsaakh Sefense Minister Levon Mnatsakanyan's statement, according to which large-scale military operations are not ruled out in autumn. "They are always expected, not only by Azerbaijan." Davit Tonoyan attended the 2017-2018 graduation event of military facilities, having 230 graduates, with the Prime Minister and other members of the Government.Vardan Khachatryan: A national front must be created to protect the interests of the Armenian Apostolic Church (video)

A national front must be created to protect the interests of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Today, religious scholar Vardan Khachatryan told about this at a meeting with journalists. According to him, the creation of the front solves the problem on the agenda. It is not created to protect the Catholicos. "The protection of the Catholicos is first and foremost not a purely personal issue, and then, I personally visited those people who protested and tried to listen impartially to the arguments, which did not impress me. Such a process can lead only to tensions and collisions, behind which shame can be seen." According to Vardan Khachatryan, the front can solve both external problems and hot problems of the internal world. "We do not have one universal institution, and the formation of this front can solve the problem of obtaining a new diaspora."Gevorg Safaryan: The days when the seat or position was to make money, are gone (video)

About a month ago it was announced that the "Constituent Parliament" was going to take part in the Parliamentary elections. Gevorg Safaryan, member of the "Constituent Parliament" secretariat, did not hurry to say at the meeting with journalists whether they will participate alone or cooperate with any political force. This will become clear during the pre-election campaign. Before that, he assures that they participate in elections not for the sake of office. "The days when the seat or position was to make money, are gone, now this chair and position is a burden, that is, now people are trying to take on the state burden, so we do not have any desire to take up the chair, we come to take the burden of the state." As for the elections to the Council of Elders of Yerevan, Gevorg Safaryan noted that there were no discussions on the issue in the "Constituent Parlament". The latter did not want to comment on the last statement of "Sasna Tsrer" member Pavel Manukyan, only noting that there was no split either inside the "Constituent Parliament" or in relations with "Sasna Tsrer".Robert Kocharyan to appear for interrogation, terms expire

The second president of RA Robert Kocharian is expected tomorrow in the National Security Service, the term expires. Robert Kocharyan was invited to be interrogated in the NSC as a witness on the case of March 1. 2008. From the information service of the SIS informed "A1 +" that nothing was said about Robert Kocharyan not coming to the interrogation: "He received a summons and a day of interrogation - July 26." It should be noted that the former Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia Yuri Khachaturov should also appear for questioning on the case of March 1. And the search for the former defense minister, Mikayel Harutyunyan, continues. According to the National Security Service, he was accused of violent destruction of the constitutional order together with other persons. It should be noted that the press for a long time is interested in who will interrogate Robert Kocharyan or who is the leader of the investigation group on the case of March 1 in general. But the name of the head of the investigation team is kept secret.Ameriabank. 62.5% Growth in Taxes YOY

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans have provided 300 million AMD to overcome the infertility in Armenia

UCOM has officially launched the sale of IPHONE 13

Six servicemen were wounded by the attack of the Azerbaijani armed forces in Artsakh, two of them in critical condition

S&P Improved the Outlook on Ameriabank to Positive

Ararat Mirzoyan to visit to Minsk

Foreign Minister of India visits the Memorial of Armenian Genocide

1217 new cases

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

At UCOM only: Tv sets at 10% discount + 1 month free UMIX package + 4k tv channel

Ameriabanks Special Offer for New Clients of Hrazdan Branch

"Fall forward": Gurgen Khachatryan, the Co-Founder of the Galaxy Group of Companies, addressed a message to young people in Armenia

UCOM hosted interns of Russian CBOSS corporation for a month

The 20-episode Bloody bet thriller to be broadcast on Ucom's Armenia Premium TV channel

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

Google Ad

UCOM offers affordable gadgets at bigger discount

Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will pay a working visit to New York

Governments preventing publication of Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper during state of emergency

UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak HanesyanThe Join Up! tour operator stops using Airbus 330-200 aircraft, which SkyUp Airlines affiliated with the tour operator was taken for wet leasing from Egypt's Air Leisure) and will carry tourists using Boeing 737 planes, the press service of Join Up! reported on Tuesday.

"In connection with the inability to obtain permission to fly to Kharkov airport on a permanent basis for a large aircraft of this type, the company decided not to use this aircraft in Ukraine," the press service said.

According to the press service, flights are redistributed between smaller planes of SkyUp Ailrlines and partner airlines of Join UP!

"Today the first flight Kharkiv-Sharm-el-Sheikh, which was to be carried out by one plane, is carried out by two planes: Bravo Airways flight BAY2731 and SkyUp Airlines flight KUP 7311," the press service said.

In the flight program of tours from Kharkiv to Sharm El Sheikh, in addition to flights on Tuesdays and Fridays, one flight was added on Sunday.

At Lviv airport, SkyUp Airlines canceled a number of Airbus A330-200 slots: on July 25 and July 28 flights Hurghada-Lviv-Hurghada (KUP5414 and KUP5413), on July 26 and July 29 flights Sharm-el-Sheikh-Lviv-Sharm El Sheikh (KUP5314 and KUP5313). These flights will be serviced on the same dates, but by two planes of partner airlines, the press service said.PepsiCo Ukraine, one of the largest producers of food and beverages, is considering the localization of production of Lay's chips.

"PepsiCo Ukraine to further meet the demand of consumers is working to improve the efficiency of work. Localization of production is one of the ways. To this end, we are studying and analyzing the Ukrainian agrarian sector, its potential," the press service of the company told Interfax-Ukraine.

PepsiCo produces chips under the Lay's brand in Poland.

PepsiCo in Ukraine owns five enterprises: a plant for processing fruits, vegetables and juice production (Mykolaiv region), a plant for production of juices, carbonated drinks and cold tea (Mykolaiv region), Kharkiv Dairy Plant (Kharkiv), Kyiv Dairy Plant (Kyiv region), where Agusha baby food factory, launched in 2012, is also located.Russian hybrid occupation forces have mounted 33 attacks on Ukrainian troops in Donbas in the past day, using heavy weapons in three instances with no casualties reported, the press centre of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) has reported.

"The enemy opened fire 33 times on the positions of our troops, including three times from heavy weapons, which is prohibited by Minsk agreements ... Over the past day, there have been no casualties among the JFO personnel," the press center of Ukraine's JFO said in its update on Facebook on July 25, 2018.

It says that the Russian occupation forces opened aimed fire at the defenders of Krymske, Zolote, Luhanske, Pivdenne, Novhorodske, Zalizne, Avdiyivka, Maryinka, Opytne, Pisky, Novotroyitske, Vodiane, Pavlopil, Talakivka, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne. Along with this, the invaders used a 120mm mortar near Vodiane, 122mm artillery systems in Novotroyitske, as well as launched 122mm artillery shells, 120mm and 82mm mortar shells toward Lebedynske.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, one militant was injured.

"Since Wednesday midnight, Russian-led forces have mounted two attacks on the Ukrainian positions near Luhanske and Pivdenne," the report reads.Hungary send to Zakarpattia region a lot of liquid chlorine for the disinfection of drinking water, the press service of Zakarpattia region's head Hennadiy Moskal has said.

"The Hungarian government sent over a batch of liquid chlorine for disinfection of drinking water, which is centrally supplied to the population. On Tuesday (July 24), a truck with chlorine arrived from Hungary via the Tisa international checkpoint on the Ukrainian-Hungarian border accompanied by a Consul General of Hungary in the city of Uzhgorod Buhajla Jozsef," the press service said.

According to Moskal, after a critical situation with the supply of domestic chlorine was created in Ukraine, an official appeal was sent to the Consulate General of Hungary in Uzhgorod with a request for help.

"We immediately received a positive response. Today, three tonnes of liquid chlorine arrived in Zakarpattia. It will be used by the Uzhgorod Vodokanal, and from there we will distribute this strategically important substance to the regions depending on need. Hungary is ready to supply 15 tonnes of chlorine, which is sufficient for uninterrupted work of 18 enterprises of Zakarpattia Vodokanal over six weeks," Moskal said.Special representative of the U.S. State Department on Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker has said that Ukraine will be at a disadvantage if it does not prolong the law on the special status of Donbas, Voice of America has reported.

I do not see any harm in extending of the law. Nothing will change from today and till the day the law is extended. I do not see any harm in this. However, Russia will use the suspension of the law as a reason to accuse Ukraine of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements. So, do not give Russia this argument. The continuation of the law will not really change anything, Volker said in an interview with Voice of America.

He also noted that the Russian Federation did nothing to end the conflict in Donbas.

I understand the disappointment of Ukrainian legislators and society. They took the necessary steps, such as the adoption of this law on the special status and the amnesty law, but Russia did nothing to end the conflict and withdraw troops, Volker said.

Also, the U.S. Special Representative stressed that the conditions for the operation of the law will appear only after the withdrawal of their military groups from the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Currently, there is no special status. It will work only when certain agreements are reached, when Russia withdraws troops and local elections are held, he added.The meetings of the working subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) for the settlement of the situation in Donbas are taking place on Wednesday.

"A meeting of the working subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group for the settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine is being held in Minsk," the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported on its official page on Twitter on Wednesday.

In turn, a representative of Ukraine in the subgroup on security issues of the TCG Yevhen Marchuk said on Facebook: "My regards to all from Minsk. The 90th round of the working group on security issues begins."About 50 Ukrainian cultural figures and public figures have asked the imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov to stop the hunger strike he has been holding since May 14, demanding the release of all Ukrainians illegally detained in Russia.

"There was an experience in Ukrainian society: do we have the right to ask you to stop a hunger strike? We were very worried. We did not dare to turn to you. On the one hand, we are one with you and support your demands. On the other, we fear for your life. All people of goodwill both abroad and in Ukraine support your demands for the release of Ukrainians held illegally," the letter says.

"We ask you on behalf of all of us, on behalf of all who value life and will above all, with reverence and with love for you ... we ask you to stop the hunger strike," the letter says.

Andriy Kurkov, Serhiy Zhadan, Yuriy Andrukhovych, Oleksandr Roitburd and Taras Wozniak are among the 50 signatories to the letter.

Sentsov on May 14, 2018 went on a hunger strike demanding that all Ukrainians held illegally in Russia be released.

As earlier reported, in August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court sentenced Sentsov, who was detained in Crimea in 2014, to 20 years in a high-security penitentiary.

Sentsov is held in the Russian colony Bely Medved beyond the polar circle in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District. He went on hunger strike on May 14,2018, demanding that all Ukrainians held in Russia be released.Switzerland hands over documents to Ukraine about possible plundering of Ukrkhimtransammiak funds by its ex-director Bondik

The Federal Office of Justice of Switzerland in the end of June handed over to the Office of the Prosecutor General's of Ukraine documents proving the possible plundering of the funds of state-owned company Ukrkhimtransammiak by ex-director of the enterprise Viktor Bondik, the DW newspaper has reported.

Swiss law enforcers suspect that the money withdrawn by Bondik from Ukraine can be stolen from the state enterprise. In the account controlled by Bondik, according to the Swiss registry, EUR 7 million and $21 million have been arrested. Ukrainian law enforcers will be able to return these funds to the state, if they prove the illegal origin of money, the newspaper said.

We are talking about the accounts in Bank Vontobel AG, opened by Spes Asset Management B.V. company.

As reported, on June 15, 2016 the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade sacked Viktor Bondik from the post of director of the state enterprise Ukrkhimtransammiak due to violation of the law and obligations under the contract, as well as for failure to comply with the requirements of the State Financial Inspectorate.

In March 2017, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine informed Viktor Bondik of suspicion of embezzling state property for $2.3 million.

Ukrkhimtransammiak manages the Ukrainian part of the Togliatti-Horlivka-Odesa ammonia pipeline. The total length of the ammonia pipeline is 2,418 km, in the territory of Ukraine 1,018 km.Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova does not plan to update the list of Russian prisoners whom she would like to visit in Ukraine and expects to be given such an opportunity.

"We can't talk about updating the lists when I haven't had a chance to visit any Russian citizens on the old list and the Russian consul was denied a visit to Odintsov in Kyiv. We didn't see any understanding from Ukraine during our first visit. We're waiting to get an opportunity to visit even one Russian citizen," Moskalkova told reporters at the forum Territory of Meanings on the Klyazma.

Most citizens on the list of 34 prisoners she provided have dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship, she said.

"This situation requires agreements between the parties on the status of these people, on the provision of consular assistance to them, and on the solution of the issue of visits to them by non-consular officials, including the human rights commissioner," Moskalkova said.

Another list of 51 names was provided to Ukraine by the Russian Foreign Ministry, and Ukraine has also sent a list "containing more than 50 people," she said. "I am ready to use any list that will meet with understanding in Ukraine," she said.

Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova has said that the Russian authorities had applied for permission to visit 51 people imprisoned in Ukraine, but that only 13 of them have Russian citizenship, and that some of them refused to meet with the Russian human rights commissioner.KYIV. July 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) - Promotion Outsourcing and Promotion Staff have filed an appeal against the Kyiv prosecutor's office getting temporary access (and permission to withdraw) to their documents and bank accounts.

"This court ruling, which is also illegal, leads to the blocking of work of our companies. And given the fact that we work with Ukrainian representations of transnational companies and the largest Ukrainian companies, the matter also concerns Ukraine's reputation as a reliable partner for professional international business. It's about Ukraine's investment rating," CEO of Promotion Outsourcing and Promotion Staff Artyom Mikhailov said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

He stressed that the companies do not recognize the charges that law enforcement agencies are trying to put forward, and have already filed appeals.

"Our companies are included in the list of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine, not in the top 100, but in the top 200 definitely. We work in full compliance with the Ukrainian legislation and international business standards. Our staff includes more than 2,000 specialists who provide services to our customers. From 2014 to the first half of 2018 we had paid more than UAH 1 billion in taxes to the national budget of Ukraine," he said.

The lawyer of the companies, partner of the Lavrynovych & Partners law firm Denys Ovcharov, in turn, noted that criminal proceedings, in which Promotion Outsourcing and Promotion Staff are involved, are being conducted with the gross violations of the Ukrainian legislation.BERLIN, July 24 (Reuters)

Iran has expanded its cyber attack capabilities and poses a danger to German companies and research institutions, Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency said in its annual report.

The report, released on Tuesday by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the BfV agency, cited steadily increasing cyber attacks with a likely origin in Iran since 2014, and said numerous such attacks were seen on German targets in 2017.

While fighting to preserve the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran after the U.S. withdrawal, Germany has also become increasingly vocal with its concerns about Iran's missile development activities, its backing for militant groups in regional conflicts, and spying activities.

In January, the foreign ministry summoned Iran's ambassador to reprimand Tehran for spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel, calling such acts a completely unacceptable breach of German law.

The new intelligence report said cyber attacks believed to be backed by Iran were mainly aimed at the German government, dissidents, human rights organisations, research centres and the aerospace, defence and petrochemical industries.

"The observed cyber campaigns are developing such efficacy that the operations initiated and guided by intelligence agencies to gain information could pose a danger to German companies and research institutions," the report said.

It said Iranian hackers mainly used malicious software that was publicly available, along with social engineering tools, often exhibiting great patience until sites were infected.

"Compared to Russian or Chinese attacks, a qualitative difference can no longer be ascertained," it added. "Iran has established itself as a capable and potent actor in the realm of cyber espionage. A further expansion of its capacities and the willingness to use these possibilities is likely."

The 355-page report said Russia, China and Iran constituted the biggest cyber and espionage threats to Germany, but other countries such as India and Vietnam, and even some western states, were also active.

Moscow continued to expend significant organisational and financial resources to target German political, economic, academic and technical targets, as well the military, through espionage and cyber activities, the report said.

It said Russian intelligence agencies continued their efforts to affect public opinion in Germany through propaganda and other means, and those were likely to continue even after the 2017 German election.

"Such disinformation and propaganda campaigns are meant to destabilise the German government and weaken its position as a proponent of extending (European Union) sanctions against Russia," the report concluded.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Angus MacSwan)The Iranian Parliament has shelved the bill on joining the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), until learning the explicit stance of the Iranian supreme leader over it.

The bill, known as the Palermo Bill in Iran, already approved by the parliament on June 10, faced the Guardian Council's (GC) opposition, which found incompatibility between the text of the bill and its translation.

UNTOC is the UN-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime, including money laundering and human trafficking.

Iran, along with Bhutan, Republic of Congo, Palau, Papua New Guinee, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan and Tuvalu, is the only member of the UN that is not a signatory to the convention.

President Hassan Rouhanis administration has proposed four Palermo Bills concerning the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), UNTOC, and the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), hoping to reduce international pressures on Irans deteriorating economy.

Nevertheless, in an orchestrated response, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his close allies in the GC and influential Expediency Discernment Council (EDC) have repeatedly barraged the bills with bitter criticism.

Ten days after the parliament initially approved the bill concerning UNTOC, Khamenei personally stepped in on June 20 and called the bill unacceptable.

According to Khamenei, UNTOC had been cooked up by foreign powers and the parliament should shelve it.

It is not necessary to join conventions the depths of which we are unaware of, he said, proposing instead that the parliament create its own laws to combat money laundering and terrorism funding rather than join an international convention.

Furthermore, state-run news agency IRNA cited GC spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei as saying on July 14, Irans membership in UNTOC is against both the security policies of the country and the resistance economy.

The parliament's Legal and Judicial Commission was assigned to discuss the returned bill and amend it as required by the GC.

The spokesman of the sommission, Hassan Norouzi, said on July 25, "The commission held its session on Tuesday and decided to suspend discussions over the bill, until learning the supreme leaders explicit and final stance over UNTOC.

Reportedly, the session was also attended by Irans number two nuclear negotiator and deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, the Intelligence Ministers deputy and a representative from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Intelligence Organization.

Araqchi had earlier said that although joining UNTOC and FATF is not directly related to Tehrans talks with the EU to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) alive, it could have a significant impact on the negotiations.

There were two approaches against Khameneis stance over the bills, Hassan Norouzi said, adding, While several members of the Legal and Judicial Commission argued that the supreme leader has explicitly expressed his opposition with passing the bills, other members believed that, during a discussion with President Rouhani, Khamenei had agreed to let MPs consider and review the bills.

The mid-ranking cleric Hassan Norouzi maintained, The commission decided to write a letter to the supreme leader, requesting him to present his explicit and final decision over the bills.

Iran has been on the blacklist of FATF since 2009, but the international organization has suspended Tehran from the list during the past two years, giving a chance to Iran to lay the necessary groundwork for joining international conventions against money laundering and financial assistance to terrorism.

FATF took a harder line on June 29 on Tehran. The group warned Iran of "appropriate and necessary actions" if it does not to enact amendments in full compliance with its standards.

In order to get off the FATF blacklist, Tehran needs to pass the bill, but conservative MPs are concerned over certain limitations that the convention might impose on Irans ties with what they describe as resistance groups," including Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.ISTANBUL (AP)

Turkey's president has argued against severing economic ties with Iran as the United States readies for sanctions.

Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it goes against the independence of states to cut ties with its "neighbor and strategic partner" because the U.S. demands it.

President Donald Trump announced in May that he would pull out of a 2015 agreement over Iran's nuclear program and would re-impose sanctions. His administration threatened countries with sanctions if they don't cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.

Turkey imported 3 million tons of crude oil from Iran in the first four months of 2018, amounting to 55 percent of crude supplies and 27 percent of its total energy imports.

Erdogan asked Wednesday: "Who will heat my country throughout the winter?"Doha, July 24, 2018 (AFP)

The United States is looking to "build some momentum" towards resolving the Gulf crisis ahead of a possible summit in the autumn, a US diplomat said Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Doha in June last year, accusing Qatar of funding terrorism and cosying up to Iran, Riyadh's regional rival.

"We want to build to a point where there will be a meeting of all of the heads of state ... it might be September or it might be October", Ryan Gliha, US charge d'affaires to Qatar, told journalists.

The US will "try to build some momentum" ahead of the summit to make it a "big success" when President Donald Trump calls Gulf leaders together, the charge d'affaires added.

Gliha did not specify a venue for the proposed initiative.

In late May, Kuwait's deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah told AFP a summit between the US and Gulf nations would be "an opportunity to put an end to the crisis".

Kuwait has attempted to mediate the spat between Doha and its Gulf peers.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

Iran has abolished a duty of $600 levied on each truck traveling from Azerbaijan to Qatar in connection with the transportation of agricultural goods, Deputy Head of the State Road Transport Service under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies Ibrahim Aliyev said at a conference dedicated to innovations, problems and upcoming tasks in passenger and cargo transportation July 25.

Ibrahim Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan mainly exports agricultural products to Qatar. "This cargo transportation is carried out through Iran," he said.

He added that earlier the Iranian side charged $600 as a customs duty from each trailer truck for cargo transportation to Qatar. The decision to abolish this duty was adopted at the last meeting of the joint Azerbaijan-Iran commission dealing with issues in this sphere.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 90 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said July 25.

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, July 25

Trend:

The OSCE monitoring held on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia on July 25 passed without incidents, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said.

The monitoring was held under the mandate of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative in the direction of Azerbaijans Tovuz District.

On the Azerbaijani side, the monitoring was held by Gennady Petrica and Martin Schuster, field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

On the Armenian side, the monitoring was held by Mikhail Olaru, Ognyen Yovic and Simon Tiller, field assistants of the OSCE chairperson-in-office personal representative.

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, July 25

Trend:

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order regarding measures to construct Lokbatan-Gizildash road in Garadag district of Baku.

Under the presidential order, 7,900,000 manats will be allocated to the Azerbaijan High State Agency for the construction of the road connecting four residential areas with a total population of 46,000 people.Details added (first version posted on 14:37)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Ganja resident Agha Sarkhani, who organized the assassination attempt on Head of Azerbaijan's Ganja Executive Power Elmar Valiyev, has been eliminated during an armed resistance.

Together with Yunis Safarov, Sarkhani prepared an assassination plan against Valiyev. Sarkhani was wanted upon such articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code as "terrorism", "deliberate murder" and "assassination attempt on a statesman".

It was revealed that in 2016 he was trained in armed groups in Syria and regularly traveled to Iran.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

The guided missile boats Peykan and Jovshan of Iranian Naval Forces have arrived in Baku to participate in the international competition Sea Cup 2018, which will be held in the territorial waters of Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea, the press service of the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

The draft agreement "on cooperation in the field of labor and social protection between the Ministry of labor and social protection of the population of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of social security and labor of Lithuania" is ready for signing, Minister of labor and social protection of the population Sahil Babayev said at a meeting with Lithuanian Ambassador Valdas Lastauskas in Baku, the Department of public relations of the Ministry of labor said in a statement.

The Azerbaijani minister invited his Lithuanian counterpart Linas Kukuraitis to Azerbaijan to sign the agreement.

The meeting was attended by resident of the Twinning project "Support of the Ministry of labor and social protection of the population of Azerbaijan in the modernization of public employment services" Audra Mikalauskaite.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

US Agency for International Development (USAID) is providing assistance to Uzbek producers of fruits and vegetables in expanding their business in the domestic and international markets, Podrobno.uz reports.

The assistance is provided in establishing links between Uzbek companies and American suppliers of new materials and equipment, as well as the entry of these companies into new international markets so that they can increase exports of their products. Gold Dried Fruit Export LLC (GDF) is one of such companies.

GDF was founded in 2012 for the processing of fresh and production of dried and frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as their packaging and delivery to local and export markets.

GDF has purchased with the assistance of USAID a seedling stock from an American producer from California in order to improve the quality of walnuts. The company has also acquired agricultural machinery from the US in order to improve the efficiency of on-farm operations.

"Companies like the one we are visiting today are important because they create jobs throughout Uzbekistan and improve the quality of fruits and vegetables sold," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Henry Ensher said during his visit. "USAID has supported for many years the development of the agricultural sector in Uzbekistan. USAID has worked together with the government of Uzbekistan to help manufacturers meet the requirements of international markets."

In order to expand the markets of GDF, USAID put the company in touch with potential buyers in export markets and provided advice on improving the quality of products. GDF signed letters of intent to export products with six Latvian and Lithuanian companies, worth over $17 million, as a result of a trade mission and a study tour on transport and logistics in the Baltic states, organized by USAID on April 9-14.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Ilkin Shafiyev - Trend:

Azerbaijan has started exporting fruit and vegetable products to Latvia, the Chairman of the Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association Bashir Guliyev told Trend.

He noted that the volume of exports to that country is small at this stage, but the Trade House of Azerbaijan in Latvia, the opening of which will be held today in Riga, can help in this matter.

However, in addition to entering new markets, it is important to maintain the positions in the traditional markets of Azerbaijan, such as Russia and other CIS countries, Bashirov believes.

Trade turnover with Latvia in 1H2018 amounted to $15.1 million, according to the data provided by the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. Some $1.1 million fell to the share of the export of Azerbaijani products.

The exports of fruit and vegetable products from Azerbaijan amounted to $276.7 million in January-June 2018, which is 27 percent more than in 2017.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyevAshgabat, Turkmenistan, July 25

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Refinery in the Pre-Caspian Turkmenbashi city has started production of biaxially oriented polypropylene film (BOPP), the "Turkmennebit" State Concern said in a statement.

"The establishment of large-scale production facilities for the production of polymers, which are the main component for the production of hundreds of products used in industry, construction, transport, agriculture, as well as a wide range of household goods, is one of the promising areas of development of the oil and gas industry," the message says.

The total cost of this project is about 31 million euros. The annual capacity is 21,000 tons of products.

The contract for the construction of a packaging film plant of two types-transparent single-layer film and co-extruded film has been concluded with P. T. Istana karang Laut company (Indonesia). More than 20,000 tons of films of various types and purposes, including those intended for packaging of food products and industrial goods, will be produced from local raw materials every year. Propylene films are also used in the textile industry and for packaging of disposable medical materials.

A significant portion of the plant's production is exported to Russia, Japan, Italy, Turkey, China, Iran, UAE, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Georgia and other countries.

The production of three types of film  simple and three-layer, 10, 20 and 30 microns thick was set up at the refinery during the operational tests.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

A meeting between the delegations of the State Civil Aviation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Turkey has been held in Baku, the ministry said in a statement July 25.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of airlines from both countries. The parties discussed the issue of liberalization of air communication between the two brotherly countries.

As a result of the negotiations, it was decided to increase the number of passenger flights between cities in the territory of the parties almost three times (from 45 to 127 flights per week).

The right of flights will be extended to all airlines of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

In addition, the parties agreed to start discussions on a new draft Air Service Agreement. Once signed, this document should replace the current Intergovernmental agreement on air transport, signed on May 2, 1992.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

Azerbaijan has exported 8,000 seedlings of pomegranate trees to Colombia this year, the Head of the State Service for Registration of Plant Varieties and Control of Seeds under the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan Imran Jumshudov said during a press conference July 25.

"They are planted in Colombia by Azerbaijani technology," Jumshudov said.

He noted that in general, the material and technical base in the field of plant growing is improving in Azerbaijan, and work in this area continues.

"Every farmer can check for free in the regional service laboratories the quality of the seeds that will be used for planting. In addition, the enterprises which will deal, in particular, with the cleaning, packaging and certification of seeds, are being built in five regions of Azerbaijan. We continue the work for obtaining high-quality seeds that will help reduce dependence on imports in this area, and can also be exported," said Jumshudov.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The National Bank of Georgia has revoked the license of subsidiary of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), the National Bank said in a statement July 25.

As noted, the decision was made on the basis of the appeal of the International Bank of Azerbaijan itself. Georgian subsidiary of the IBA will continue its activities as a non-bank business organization.

The shareholders of the International Bank of Azerbaijan decided to leave the markets of Georgia and Russia in March.

"Naturally, this decision is based on a detailed analysis. We took into account the economic efficiency of the above mentioned structural units for the future activities of the bank and decided to stop their activities. This decision is related to the preparation of the International Bank of Azerbaijan for privatization," Abbas Ibragimov, the then acting IBA Board Chairman said, when commenting on the decision to leave the Russian and Georgian markets.

"IBA-Georgia" has been operating since 2006. The bank has been serving both Azerbaijani and Georgian clients. The International Bank of Azerbaijan was founded in January 1992.

The International Bank of Azerbaijan has been at the stage of recovery since July 2015, which is associated with the preparation for the privatization of the state-owned shares of the bank. The bank has been operating since 1992 and is one of the two state-owned banks in the country.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @AzadHasanliBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Jizzakh region of Uzbekistan is going to host Jizzakh International Investment Forum on Aug. 29-30, Uzbek media reported.

The forum is organized by the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Investments jointly with the administration of Jizzakh region.

For the first time, the international investment forum will be held on the territory of the Jizzakh Free Economic Zone.

The purpose of the event is to familiarize business circles and representatives of international organizations accredited in Uzbekistan with social and economic development of the Jizzakh region, with measures taken to improve the investment climate, as well as with favorable conditions and preferences created for foreign investors and business entities.

The two-day investment forum is planned to include a business forum, an exhibition of products of the Jizzakh region, B2B negotiations, visits to industrial enterprises of the region etc.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Russia has invested almost $4 billion in the economy of Azerbaijan, the Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev said in Moscow, at a meeting with the Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Maxim Oreshkin.

Mustafayev noted that, Azerbaijani investments in the Russian economy exceeded $1 billion.

It was noted that, Russia is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan, and the trade turnover between the countries increased by 22 percent in 2017.

The dynamics of growth of trade relations continued in 1H2018, and the trade turnover between the countries increased by 20 percent during this period.

Russia ranks first in the export of non-oil products from Azerbaijan.

Maxim Oreshkin noted that the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia attach great importance to the further expansion of cooperation between the countries, stressed the high potential for the development of trade and economic relations.

Such issues as the development of relations in the agricultural, financial, tax, customs, tourism, humanitarian spheres, as well as in the fields of education, sports, etc., expansion of business cooperation, the organization of joint ventures in various fields, the establishment of Trading houses of Azerbaijan and logistics centers in Russia, increasing exports of wine products, strengthening cooperation in the transport sector, the development of the transport corridor "North-South" were discussed at the meeting.

At the bilateral meeting, the sides exchanged views on issues related to the legal framework, the Azerbaijani-Russian regional forum, which is scheduled to be held in September, and other issues of mutual interest.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Ilkin Shafiyev  Trend:

Latvia is interested in Azerbaijans joining the Zubr transport project, the Latvian Ministry of Transport told Trend July 25.

Latvian Railways sent a letter of invitation to Azerbaijan Railways with a proposal to join the Zubr project, but it has not yet received a response in a written form.

"Azerbaijan in the context of further development of the Zubr project plays a very important role, the ministry said. Latvia sees potential for development of the Zubr project in Azerbaijan to attract cargo from Central Asia and China through the TRACECA corridor, as well as cargo from India, Iran and other countries of the Middle East and South Asia through the North-South corridor."

The Zubr project will provide an opportunity for export and transit of goods from Azerbaijan to Latvia, as well as the possibility of further distribution of goods in the Baltic countries, Scandinavia, other European countries and for imports in the opposite direction.

Transportation of goods with the Zubr container train was organized in 2009 by the railway administrations of Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Ukraine. In 2013, the Railway of Moldova joined the project. Georgia expressed interest in the project.

The Zubr container train runs through Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @IlkinShafiyevBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Italian Saipem oil and gas company is pursuing new opportunities in Azerbaijan, the company said in its statement for Trend following the Azerbaijan-Italy business forum held in Baku.

"In continuous cooperation with our partner Bos Shelf we are pursuing new opportunities in the country such as the development of the Absheron Project, now in bid phase," said the company.

"Saipem and Azerbaijan have had a long and successful history of cooperation, in large part thanks to the open and constructive approach of the national institutions of both countries.

"We have been continuously present in Azerbaijan, which today has become a key country of operations for Saipem.

"In addition to our work on the Shah Deniz upstream development, we are also active along the whole value chain to bring Azerbaijani gas into Europe.

"We are involved in the construction and commissioning of the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion project in Azerbaijan and Georgia, the SCPX project, and we have been awarded the contract for the installation of the offshore section of the TAP pipeline between the coastlines of Albania and Italy, crossing the Adriatic Sea.

"We are proud to be able to contribute to delivering the overall development of the Southern Gas Corridor, linking Azerbaijani resources to their natural consumer market, and supporting the EU and Italys strategy of diversifying natural gas import sources.

Saipem is also working with SOCAR outside Azerbaijan: in consortium with Tecnicas Reunidas from Spain, GS Engineering & Construction from South Korea, and Itochu from Japan, Saipem has been awarded a contract by SOCAR Turkey Enerji A.S. for for the SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) in Aliaga.

"In Azerbaijan, we contribute to value creation mainly through our input into the local economy by purchasing products and services from local suppliers, paying local taxes, employing Azerbaijani people and contributing to their development through training and capacity building initiatives".

"In Azerbaijan we have a history, we have a present and we greatly count on the future of our company in the country," said Stefano Cao, CEO of Saipem, on the sidelines of the business forum.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

Uzbekistan will export internet access services to Afghanistan, the press service of Uzbektelecom said.

Corresponding agreements have been achieved upon negotiations between the state Internet provider of Uzbekistan Uzbektelecom and Afghan telecommunications operator Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC).

During the negotiations, the companies signed a Memorandum of Cooperation and an agreement on construction of a new international cross-border interface between the two providers on the international border of the two countries.

During the negotiations, technical and commercial issues related to provision of mutual telecommunication services were also discussed.

It was earlier reported that bandwidth of the external internet channel of Uzbekistan reached 140.034 Gbps, which is 1.5 times more than the figures in early 2018 (94.034 Gbps).

Farhod Roziev, CEO of Uzbektelecom JSC, said that Uzbekistan will increase the capacity of its external internet channel to 1,200 Gbps by the end of 2018. Another 2,000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines will be laid till the end of 2018.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @FDolukhanovBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

VTB Bank Azerbaijan has announced a tender for purchase of licenses and technical support for PaloAlto Networks PA-3020 equipment, the bank said in a message July 25.

Tender documents are available in the bank's office at: 38 Khatai Avenue, Maecenas Plaza, VTB Bank Azerbaijan, AZ1008

Tender bids must be in closed envelopes and sent until August 6, 2018 to the abovementioned address.

Contact person: Elshan Mahmudov

Phone: 012 492-00-80 (ext. 1233)

Fax: 012 437-71-21

Mobile phone: 055 212-03-31Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Kazaviaspas Joint Stock Company of the Emergency Situations Committee of Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry will double its fleet size, the Kazakh media quoted Andrei Kosolapov, director general of the company, as saying.

The company intends to buy about 20 helicopters and 19 planes, Kosolapov said.

"A road map titled 'Centralization of Aviation Services' has been adopted, he said. It envisages the expansion of our fleet through the purchase of airplanes used in sanitary aviation, extinguishing fires, transferring personnel and cargo inside Kazakhstan."

Thus, 130 billion tenge has been envisaged in the road map for the purchase of aviation equipment, Kosolapov said, adding that the road map will be implemented within 3-5 years.

Presently, there are 27 helicopters in the companys fleet.

(344.64 tenge = $1 on July 25)Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are expected to sign an agreement in military intelligence sphere, as a Kazakh military delegation led by the Defense Minister Colonel-General Saken Zhasuzakov has arrived in Bishkek.

A meeting with participation of the Kazakh military delegation was held at the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan, Kabar reported.

This is the first official visit in the history of Kyrgyz-Kazakh relations since the two countries gained independence.

During the visit, Zhasuzakov met with President, Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov.

Moreover, a meeting with Rayimberdi Duishenbiev, Major General, Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Kyrgyzstan is being held July 25.

During the talks, the sides will discuss the situation in the Central Asian region and exchange experience on ensuring joint security.

Following the talks, the sides are expected to sign an agreement on cooperation in the field of military intelligence.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

The leadership of the National Bank of Tajikistan expects the resumption of concessional lending to the country from the International Monetary Fund in the second half of this year, Asia-Plus reported.

"Almost all the preconditions set by the Fund for obtaining a preferential loan under the new program entitled as "Extended credit mechanism" have been fulfilled," First Deputy Chairman of the NBT Jamoliddin Nuraliev said at a press conference in Dushanbe on July 25.

He noted that, a working group was created in July last year from among the employees of the relevant ministries and departments, which were engaged in the implementation of the IMF preconditions.

Nuraliev stressed that, almost all conditions have been met to date, in particular, new legislative acts in the banking sector, the strategy of the Ministry of Finance's fiscal policy have been adopted and other measures have been taken.

He added that, a regular mission of the IMF will arrive in Tajikistan in September of this year, and it is expected to reach specific agreements on a new program of support for Tajikistan from the Fund during this visit.

The new program is planned to focus on supporting of the economic strategy of the Republic of Tajikistan, achieving of macroeconomic and financial stability and sustainability along with economic growth and poverty reduction, as well as maintaining of the balance of payments and sustainability of the country's international reserves.

The negotiations on granting a preferential loan to Tajikistan under the new IMF program have been going on for several years.

The previous three-year program, under which the IMF provided Tajikistan with a soft loan worth more than $160 million, was completed in July 2012.

The negotiations of the official delegation of Tajikistan with the IMF on the development of a new program under the above mechanism began in October 2015.

Tajikistan intended to attract a soft loan of $ 500 million under the new program.

The representatives of the Fund said at the end of the IMF mission to Tajikistan in May this year, the Tajik authorities were seeking to discuss a possible program to support the country.

It was noted in the final statement that, the negotiations on the new program could begin in the coming months, after "careful preparation of both parties, the authorities of Tajikistan and the IMF staff."

"They (the authorities of Tajikistan) have already taken steps to demonstrate the progress of reforms in order to pave the way for negotiations on the program," the statement says.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 25

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has confirmed his country's readiness to develop strategic partnership with Turkmenistan during a telephone conversation with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the Turkmen government said in a statement July 24.

"The Republic of Uzbekistan sincerely values friendly and trusting relations with fraternal Turkmenistan, which in recent years, based on mutual desire of the parties to develop strategic partnership, have found new stimulus," said the message.

The sides specified the key areas of Turkmen-Uzbek cooperation, built on the principles of equality, respect for each other's interests and mutual support.

Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted the broad prospects for further strengthening of productive cooperation.

As noted, the cooperation in trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres has reached a qualitatively new level thanks to regular productive meetings and negotiations at the top of the bilateral political dialogue.

The parties also exchanged views on a number of topical issues of regional and global agenda of mutual interest.

At the same time, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reaffirmed their commitment to constructive cooperation in the international arena in order to ensure universal peace, security and progress.

Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have impressive reserves of hydrocarbon resources, are in favor of diversification of energy flows. A good example of such favor is the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-KazakhstanChina gas pipeline project, which was put into operation in 2009.

Recently Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited business circles of Uzbekistan to participate in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. Construction of the Turkmen section of that pipeline was started in December 2015.

Uzbekistan was also invited to start developing oil and gas fields on the Turkmen shelf of the Caspian Sea. Ashgabat is ready to intensify cooperation in the framework of the project on the supply of electricity from Central to South Asia through the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan route.

At this stage, the two countries are also discussing a project to establish the UzbekistanTurkmenistanIran-Oman transport route. This will significantly increase international transit traffic and provide a new communication corridor to world markets.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 25

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

Turkmenistan supports the resolution of the UN Security Council aimed at further strengthening the efforts of the UN member states in international support to Afghanistan, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement July 25.

This touches upon such regional initiatives as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, the Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transit, trade and transport corridor agreement, and a project for a railway from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

This issue is expected to be considered during the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, which will be held in New York in late September.

"Turkmenistan is ready to provide a platform for further discussion of the necessary financial, economic, investment and organizational conditions to consolidate the efforts of the international community in support of the implementation of these transnational projects," the message says.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 25

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Turkmenistan will propose to consider the issue of convening a high-level conference on disarmament in Ashgabat during the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, which will be held in New York in September, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement July 25.

Turkmenistan considers the further joint efforts of states in disarmament, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other types of weapons, fighting terrorism and extremism, and combating the illicit trafficking of drugs and their precursors as priority areas in activity of international community.

Turkmenistan supports the early entry into force of the treaty on the universal prohibition of nuclear tests and strengthening the verification mechanism of this document as one of the effective tools for ensuring non-proliferation, disarmament and nuclear safety in the world.

In this context, it is proposed to consider the issue of convening of a high-level conference on disarmament in Ashgabat. "Such a conference, in our opinion, will serve as an important step in identifying and bringing together different approaches and views in the field of arms control and limitation in the region as a whole, ensuring and strengthening the system of regional security and stability," the message says.

Turkmenistan carries out a proactive policy of cooperation with the UN Counter-Terrorism Office in the implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. The Ashgabat Declaration adopted in 2011 and the Action Plan on Combating Terrorism in Central Asia have become a significant contribution to the unification of multilateral efforts to combat the terrorist threat.Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 25

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Turkmenistan intends to put forward its candidacy for membership in the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs for 2020-2023 in order to actively participate in the efforts of the world community to combat drugs, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

This issue is expected to be considered during the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly, which will be held in New York in late September.

Drug trafficking continues to be a serious concern, and remains a threat to international peace and security. Turkmenistan has a border with Afghanistan, the territory of which, according to the UN, is actively used for cultivation of drugs.

Turkmenistan is actively cooperating with the UN, being a party to three international conventions on combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, adopted by the UN in 1961, 1971 and 1988.Tehran, Iran, July 25

By Kamyar Eghbalnejad, A. Shirazi - Trend:

The International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project is going ahead smoothly and as planned despite the new US sanctions, an official with Islamic Republic of Iran Railway official said.



"The work on the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) is proceeding ahead as planned and no changes have been made to the project," Abbas Nazari told Trend.



He added Iran is facing no problem in implementing the international project, noting, "We are even moving ahead of the schedule".



Nazari also referred to impending US sanctions against Iran and said, "This is not the first time that Washington is imposing sanctions on us".



The sanctions cannot affect the project and we will attend to problems whenever they arise, he concluded.



US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to reimpose sanctions on Tehran next month. The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.



The International NorthSouth Transport Corridor (INSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Afghanistan, Central Asia and Europe.

The route primarily involves moving freight from India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia via ship, rail and road. The objective of the corridor is to increase trade connectivity between major cities such as Mumbai, Moscow, Tehran, Baku, Bandar Abbas, Astrakhan, Bandar Anzali, etc.



Dry runs of two routes were conducted in 2014, the first was Mumbai to Baku via Bandar Abbas and the second was Mumbai to Astrakhan via Bandar Abbas, Tehran and Bandar Anzali. The objective of the study was to identify and address key bottlenecks. The results showed transport costs were reduced by "$2,500 per 15 tons of cargo".

Other routes under consideration include via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.Tehran, Iran, July 25

By Kamyar Eghbalnejad, A. Shirazi - Trend:

The secretary general of the Iran Entrepreneurship Association emphasized the importance of the governments financial support for new business start-ups.

"Today, our entrepreneurs are grappling with the problem of finance," Ehsan Qassemi told Trend.

He added that it is essential that the Iranian government and ministries back business start-ups at this juncture.

Qassemi further said Iranian entrepreneurs welcome challenges and have innovative plans in mind despite the ongoing problems and impending US sanctions.

"We need to support them and encourage them to go ahead with their plans through incentive packages".

The UAE is hijacking the ideas of Iranian businesspeople as no one inside the country cares about them, Qassemi concluded.

US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to reimpose sanctions on Tehran next month. The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Irans cabinet of ministers appointed Abdolnaser Hemmati as the new head of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI).

The decision for replacing Valiollah Seif with Hemmati was announced after a session of the ministers cabinet on July 25, Irans state-run IRINN TV reported.

Hemmati, who is a faculty member at Tehran University, had previously served as the president of Central Insurance of Iran and CEO of Irans Bank Melli.

He recently was appointed as new ambassador of Tehran to China.

Valiollah Seif, served as the CBI head since 2013, had over 30 years of banking experience as Finance Director, Board Member, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of several Iranian banks.

Last week, the Iranian presidents Chief of Staff, Mahmoud Vaezi, confirmed that there would be some changes in the countrys cabinet posts in the near future, saying President Hassan Rouhani is considering some changes in his cabinet, given the fact that the country is facing new conditions, following the US withdrawal from nuclear deal and re-imposition of sanctions.

Vaezi added that Rouhani will make changes in his economic team as well.

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.

The first part of the US sanctions targeting Iran's automotive sector, trade in gold, and other key metals will be re-imposed on August 6.Tehran, Iran, July 25

By Kamyar Eghbalnejad, A. Shirazi - Trend:

Hassan Ahmadi Jazani, the deputy head of Irans Seafood Exporters Union, called on the government to help non-oil exporters to sell their currencies in the open market.

I think that the government should be convinced and allow the firms that are not among petrochemical exporters as well as major private and state exporters to freely sell their currencies in the open market, Ahmadi Jazani told Trend on July 25.

"There is no reason not to allow the exporters that are not much active to bring in their currencies," he added.

Ahmadi Jazani further said small businesses only make up 20 percent of the country's exports and the government needs to create a mechanism so that they can direct their currencies into the country.

I think the government should monitor the foreign exchange market indirectly, and that the open market should resume its official activity, he said.

Iranian authorities announced in April they were unifying the dollars official and open market exchange rates at a single level of 42,000, and banned any trade at other rates under the threat of arrest.

Elsewhere in the interview, he pointed to the countrys seafood industry, saying, Exports of aquatic animal products will witness a boom in the second six months of the current Iranian fiscal year (started March 21).

The deputy head of Irans Seafood Exporters Union said 1,000 tons of shrimps are ready to be exported to China from the city of Bandar Abbas.

China, the Philippines, Spain, South Korea, France, Denmark, Belgium, Malaysia and India are among the main exporters of Irans seafood products.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between Irans Astara and Azerbaijans Lankaran border forces to put up a concrete wall along Astarachay river, said Colonel Nozar Moradi.

The commander of Astara border made the remarks after signing the MoU on Tuesday in Astara, Mehr news agency reported July 25.

The wall is aimed to prevent seasonal floods which annually damage some villages along this border line, he added.

According to the MoU, the building process of this 600-meters concrete wall will begin from the next week, the Colonel said, adding that some 1,800 meters of this wall has already been built.

He went on to say that four main points of Astarachay river has been dredged up in the previous [Iranian calendar] year 1396 (March 2017-March2018) to decrease the intensity of floods.

The complete security of the Astara border strip is the result of the cooperation of border guards and citizens in both countries, Moradi highlighted.

Astrachay is a small river which defines part of the border between Iran and Azerbaijan. The river stems from northwestern Alborz Mountain Range and ends its 38 km journey in the Caspian Sea.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

Trend:

Iran unveiled 10 Sukhoi 22 fighter jets, which were overhauled and upgraded by the Aerospace force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The fighters were unveiled in a ceremony on July 25 during a ceremony attended by IRGC Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari and Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh in southern city of Shiraz, Tasnim news agency reported.

Hajizadeh said that the fighters were grounded for 28 years but they have been equipped with new domestically produced military equipment.

He added that the upgraded fighters now are capable to carry and launch smart and pin-pointing cluster bombs, air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles.

The commander said that this fighters also will be able to transmit data from drones from a several-kilometer distance.

Hajizadeh said that an air-to-ground cruise missile system with a range of 1,500 kilometres also will be installed on Sukhoi 22 jets in the near future.

Iranian media outlets reported that in recent years, Tehran made great strides in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential military equipment and systems.

In March 2018, the countrys Air Force experts successfully overhauled a US-made F-4 fighter.

Earlier in February, Iranian media outlets reported that Islamic Republic experts successfully overhauled US-made F-7 and F-14 fighter jets as well as a PC7 Turbo Trainer.

In 2015, Iranian Air Force experts reportedly overhauled US-made F-7 and F-14 fighter jets.

Also in 2014 Iran overhauled grounded F-4 and F-14 fighter jets.At least 38 people were killed and dozens were wounded on Wednesday in a series of terror attacks in the As-Suwayda Governorate in southwestern Syria, TASS with reference to the Alikhbaria TV channel reported.

According to the report, the terror attacks were carried out by the Islamic State in the areas controlled by the Syrian government.

Earlier, the official SANA news agency reported that a powerful explosion hit the city of As-Suwayda (92 km from Damascus). The terrorists detonated explosive devices near a market. Police killed four out of six suicide bombers.

The terror attacks were carried out along with the assaults on the settlements in the outskirts of As-Suwayda. The National Defense Forces repelled some these attacks. The armed gangs had intruded the territory from the border between Iraq and Jordan. The government troops were deployed to help the militias. The battles against terrorists are underway in Douma, Tell Buseir, Aradja and El Mtuna.Islamic State militants killed more than 200 people in a coordinated assault on a government-held area of southwestern Syria on Wednesday, local officials and a war monitor said, in the groups deadliest attack in the country for years, Reuters reported.

Jihadist fighters stormed several villages and staged suicide blasts in the provincial capital Sweida, near one of the few remote pockets still held by Islamic State after it was driven from most of its territory last year.

The head of the Sweida provincial health authority told the local Sham FM that 215 people were killed and 180 injured in the attack, as well as 75 Islamic State fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the attackers had killed more than 200 people including many civilians. Islamic State said in an earlier statement that it had killed more than 100 people in the attacks.

The jihadists launched simultaneous attacks on several villages northeast of Sweida city, where they clashed with government forces, state media and the Observatory said.

In the city itself, at least two attackers blew themselves up, one near a marketplace and the second in another district, state television said. State news agency SANA said two other militants were killed before they could detonate their bombs.

The Observatory said jihadists seized hostages from the villages they had attacked.Terrorists carried out deadly attacks in As-Suwayda, in southwestern Syria, over fear of an imminent defeat, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, TASS reports.

"Amid the success of the Syrian government forces, supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, on liberating the Syrian territory from the armed groups of the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra and other terror groups, the extremists feel that their defeat is imminent and desperately use mass violence against the civilians," the ministry said.

The Foreign Ministry stresses that the Islamic State terror group has claimed responsibility for the terror attacks. "The new crime committed by the IS militants once again shows the man-hateful essence of ideologists and perpetrators of terrorism and confirms the need for the most energetic and coordinated efforts of the international community on eradicating this universal evil on the Syrian soil," the statement said.

"We strongly condemn these acts of atrocity. We offer condolences to the families of those dead and wish a speedy recovery to those wounded," the ministry stated.

A powerful explosion hit the area near a vegetable market in As-Suwayda (92 km from Damascus) on Wednesday. Later a blast near Al-Musalleh was reported. The terror attacks were carried out along with the assaults on the settlements in the outskirts of As-Suwayda. At least 100 people were killed in the string of attacks, AFP reported citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkey does not intend to stop relations with Iran and join anti-Iranian sanctions for the sake of the US, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Turkey believes that sanctions against Iran are unacceptable, Erdogan said.

"Iran is one of the important strategic partners for us," the Turkish resident said.

He stressed the high level of relations between Turkey and Iran, noting that this level will be maintained in the future as well.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced that the US is withdrawing from the agreement with Iran on the nuclear program reached by the "six" international mediators (Russia, the US, the UK, China, France, Germany) in 2015. Trump also announced the restoration of all sanctions, which were suspended as a result of the deal.US President Donald Trump has proposed a mutual cancellation of "all tariffs, barriers and subsidies" in trade with the European Union in order to provide for a "fair trade", Sputnik reported.

Trump will hold trade talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday.

"The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!" Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday.

US House Speaker Paul Ryan in a press conference on Tuesday said that he hopes current trade tensions between the United States and the European Union results in a mutual reduction of barriers to commerce.

EU-US trade relations have been tense since Trump imposed high tariffs on steel and aluminium imports in June. The European Union imposed its own barriers on US goods after Trump lifted the EU's exemption from those tariffs.

During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to change the countrys trade policies by resorting to protectionism. After his inauguration, Trump started to fulfil his promises by withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and imposing additional tariffs on its trade partners.KYODO NEWS - Jul 26, 2018 - 02:18 | World, All

At least 26 people have died after a dam collapse in southeastern Laos caused floods downstream, local media reported Wednesday, while Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith said 131 others are missing.

The English-language Vientiane Times, citing a district governor, reported that the flooding left the homes of over 6,000 people under water. Thongloun said at a news conference that about 2,800 people in need of rescue have all been saved.



[Handout photo by ABC Laos News via Getty/Kyodo]

A total of 5 billion cubic meters of water escaped when an auxiliary dam of the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Hydroelectric Power Project under construction in the Sanamxay district of Attapeu Province collapsed late Monday, according to the Lao News Agency, or KPL.

Thongloun has since traveled to the affected area while instructing government officials to work on rescue efforts, the reports said.

Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding PCL, a Thai company involved in the dam construction project, confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that the "Saddle Dam D," built to divert water around the Xe-Namnoy reservoir, had fractured and collapsed.

The company attributed the collapse of the 8-meter-wide, 770-meter-long and 16-meter-high dam to a rainstorm that caused a "high volume of water to flow into the Project's reservoir."

The company added that Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Co. -- a joint-venture formed by the Thai company, two South Korean companies and a Lao company -- and others have evacuated residents in the area to temporary shelter, while assessing the situation in a bid to resolve it once the water level of the dam falls.

[Handout photo by ABC Laos News via Getty/Kyodo]

With SK Engineering & Construction Co. and Korea Western Power Co. being the two South Korean partners in the joint venture, South Korean President Moon Jae In on Wednesday ordered the government to send an aid team to Laos, a presidential spokesman said.

"Though we are still looking for the reason behind the accident, President Moon said the government should actively be engaged in the aid as our (South Korea's) companies were part of the dam construction," Kim Eui Kyum said in a briefing.

Construction on the build-operate-transfer project was roughly 90 percent complete when the disaster struck, with plans to begin commercial operation next year.

According to the joint venture's website, the project involves the construction of a series of dams, reservoirs and water transfer conduits to contain and divert waters of the Xe-Namnoy and Xe-Pian rivers in Attapeu Province to a downstream hydropower generating plant in Champasak Province.

Upon completion, the project is expected to generate 1,879 gigawatt hours per year, with 90 percent of the electric power it generates to be exported to Thailand and the remainder to be sold to the local grid.KYODO NEWS - Jul 25, 2018 - 07:02 | All, World

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he "appreciates" a report based on new satellite imagery that North Korea has started dismantling key facilities at a major missile engine testing site.

"We appreciate that," Trump said in an address to a veterans group in Kansas City, Missouri, a day after 38 North, a U.S. research group that monitors North Korea, released the analysis based on images taken from Friday to Sunday.



[Satellite imagery courtesy of Airbus Defense & Space / 38 North]

Trump said nuclear talks with Pyongyang seem to be going "very well."

Separately, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said North Korea's reported activity at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Tongchang-ri in the country's northwest would be "entirely consistent with the commitment" that leader Kim Jong Un made to Trump during their historic summit on June 12 in Singapore.

However, Pompeo told reporters in California that the United States has been pressing North Korea to ensure that outside inspectors be on the ground when Pyongyang dismantles the site.

The chief U.S. diplomat urged Kim, chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea, to "completely, fully denuclearize."

"That's the steps that Chairman Kim committed to and that the world has demanded through U.N. Security Council resolutions," he said.

In the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit, Kim committed to "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Kim also promised that Pyongyang would destroy a major missile engine testing site soon, in an apparent reference to Sohae.

Speaking at the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on Tuesday, Trump said he hopes Pyongyang will repatriate remains of American servicemen who died in the 1950-1953 Korean War soon.

"As you may know we're also working to bring back the remains of your brothers in arms who gave their lives to Korea, and I hope that very soon these fallen warriors will begin coming home to lay at rest in American soil," he said.

Aside from denuclearization, Trump and Kim committed to recovering more American remains, including "the immediate repatriation of those already identified."By Mohammad Gharebag, KYODO NEWS - Jul 25, 2018 - 15:40 | World

Tensions between Tehran and Washington have escalated to the highest level in a decade, after both Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened each other in bone-chilling terms over recent days.

Speaking on Sunday to high-ranking diplomats in Tehran, Rouhani warned Trump that "war with Iran will be the mother of all wars" and cautioned Washington not to "play with fire." Yet at another point, he also struck a conciliatory tone by saying "peace with Iran is the mother of all peace."

However, the more bellicose part of the message quickly stimulate Trump, who on May 8 pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, to tweet -- IN ALL CAPS -- unprecedented punishment if Iran ever, EVER threatened the United State again.

"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!" Trump wrote.

That in turn prompted Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday to urge the U.S. president himself to "be cautious."

"The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago," Zarif wrote on his own Twitter account, in an apparent reference to Trump's threat, in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last September, to "totally destroy North Korea."

Some U.S. news analysts have suggested Trump's latest outburst against Iran was actually motivated by Trump's desire to deflect attention from his performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, and to do something quickly to appear strong and feared.

Be that as it may, Trump's latest Twitter tantrum has prompted the Iranian leadership to contemplate actions that really could lead to actual conflict.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday supported Rouhani's suggestion of blocking oil shipments through the Persian Gulf if Iran is prevented from selling its oil by U.S. sanctions which come into effect in November.

Rouhani did not elaborate on how Iran would do so. But he apparently meant closing the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the Persian Gulf, one of the world's most strategically important choke points, or making it risky for oil tankers to pass through the Persian Gulf.

Abbas Araghchi, a veteran Iranian diplomat and the chief nuclear negotiator in negotiations with the European Union to salvage the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and world powers, said Monday that Iran can't sit idle and watch as other Gulf countries export oil while its oil exports are blocked.

"We have various options to face with new oil sanctions and the Strait of Hormuz is just one of those options," Araghchi said on state television.

Tensions have spiked between Iran and the United States before. They did so when Iran seized two U.S. navy riverine command boats in Iranian territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and its Revolutionary Guards arrested 10 U.S. navy commandos. Or when the U.S. Navy fired warning shots at speedy Iranian military boats. But always the two sides were careful to avoid serious conflict.

But after the recent exchanges between Tehran and Washington, Iranians are increasingly worried about the potential for conflict, and their buying of precious metals such as gold and gold coins reflects that heightened concern.

The price of gold soared more than 30 percent over a single day recently because of all the Iranians rushing to buying the yellow metal, commonly viewed as a good way to preserve wealth in volatile times.

Ali Vaez, the Washington-based director of the Iran section at the International Crisis Group, believes there is so much friction between Iran and the United States and their respective regional allies that any increase in tensions raises the risk of an intended or inadvertent clash across a range of flash points.

At the moment, the highest risk of a limited -- yet perilous -- clash is over Yemen or Syria, Vaez said.

Tehran claims that Trump's belligerent foreign policy has isolated the United States globally, and that the European Union and many other countries stand with Iran.

But some of Iran's neighbors who are U.S. allies clearly support putting pressure on Iran. Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in particular feel empowered by the Trump administration's overt hostility toward Iran.

In Iran itself, Rouhani was elected president mainly because of his moderate approach toward seeking a detente with the West. But that approach faces an uncertain future now that Washington has withdrawn from the nuclear deal with Iran, and quickly moved to use its tremendous economic leverage to pressure all other nations to stop importing Iranian oil, the life-blood of the Iranian economy.

Rouhani's own rhetoric is already more similar to that of hardliner groups. Unlike during his first term, he now uses harsher language when speaking about the West these days.

Rouhani has been burned by advocating dialogue with the United States and at this stage has no choice but to sound and act in ways that protect him against hardliner criticism. The irony of this situation is that Rouhani has to become a hardliner himself in order to survive politically, Vaez said, referring to how Rouhani has changed since May 8.

On May 8, President Trump withdrew the United States from the accord struck under his predecessor Barack Obama and pledged "the highest level of economic sanction" against Iran, calling it "the leading state sponsor of terror."

Under the deal struck between Iran and six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in Vienna in 2015, Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of crippling economic sanctions.KYODO NEWS - Jul 25, 2018 - 18:17 | Feature, All

Japan has set a target of accepting 10,000 Vietnamese caregivers by the summer of 2020 to address a chronic labor shortage in the nursing sector, a government official said Wednesday.

Japan first aims to receive 3,000 Vietnamese within one year through an existing training program for foreigners, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Due to the country's rapidly graying population, the labor ministry estimates the need for an additional 550,000 caregivers in fiscal 2025 compared to the fiscal 2016 total.

Vietnam is willing to send caregivers to Japan and the two countries are expected to soon sign an agreement, the official said.

Japan is also considering inviting caregivers from other countries, including Indonesia and Cambodia, the official said.

As of March last year, there were roughly 1.9 million caregivers in Japan. The labor ministry estimates Japan will need about 2.45 million care workers in fiscal 2025.

A new Japanese law was enacted in November to add nursing care to the list of fields in which foreigners can work under the training program.

Despite the change, Japan is struggling to secure caregivers from abroad as they are required to be able to speak enough Japanese to have a basic conversation, and possess certain other qualifications.

As of July, there were only two nursing care trainees under the government program, both from China.

Japanese and Vietnamese officials have been holding talks on bilateral cooperation in the field of nursing care, and agreed in June to put in place a system to enable more caregivers from the Southeast Asian country to work in Japan.

One measure to be taken is to enable companies to employ Vietnamese caregivers to pay for them to attend Japanese language schools before coming to Japan, instead of the trainees paying themselves.

Already 12 Japanese companies have been selected which are able to take a total of 3,000 workers, according to the official.

The training program for foreigners was introduced in 1993, aimed at transferring skills to developing countries by training workers who would then return home. The government is now looking to allow them to stay more than five years, the current maximum for those trainees.

In a related development, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that Japan aims to accept more foreign workers from April next year by creating a new residency status.

To fill labor shortages not just in nursing care but also in other sectors including agriculture and manufacturing, the government has suggested it may begin admitting hundreds of thousands of blue-collar workers from abroad.The woman had reportedly told her rescuers that the assailant was 'a chubby and fair person with no facial hair'.Registration (Or Failure Thereof) Leads

to Confiscation in South Africa

By Dean Weingarten. July 22nd, 2018

Original Source

On June 7th the Constitutional Court in South Africa, overruled a lower court's decision that parts of South Africa's gun laws were unconstitutional. The ruling will force hundreds of thousands of gun owners who didn't renew their permits to turn in their firearms. There's no provision for appeal or legitimate reasons for delay, such as hospitalization or death.

From citizen.co.za:

Section 24 of the Act requires that any person who seeks to renew a licence must do so 90 days before its expiry date. Section 28 stipulates that if a firearm licence has been cancelled, the firearm must be disposed of or forfeited to the state. A 60-day timeframe was placed on its disposal, which was to be done through a dealer. In 2017, North Gauteng High Court judge Ronel Tolmay ruled that these two sections were unconstitutional. She stated that firearms due for renewal in terms of section 24 of the act "will be deemed to be valid, until the Constitutional Court has made its determination on the Constitutionality of the aforesaid sections". The effects of yesterday's ruling are far-reaching. It is estimated that there are at least 300 000 firearm owners who - either negligently or intently - failed to renew their firearm licences. These people will have to hand their firearms in at their nearest police stations, from where they will be destroyed.

Compensation is allowed under the firearms act, but is at the discretion of the firearms act registrar. Maximum compensation is only 500 Rand ($37) per pistol or 1000 Rand ($75) per rifle. Those amounts are laughably short of market values.

The South African government required all legal firearms in South Africa to be registered. Now it requires about 300,000 of them to be turned in without any reasonable compensation. It is unknown how many $10,000 rifles or even $400 pistols will actually be destroyed as a result of the ruling.

The South African government has become amazingly corrupt in the last 23 years. The legislature recently voted to allow a Constitutional change so that land from white landowners could be confiscated without compensation.

This latest move toward tyranny will hasten the departure of more productive people from South Africa which seems determined to follow the example of Zimbabwe with a blend of corruption, property confiscation and economic mismanagement.

Constitutional limits are only effective if they can be enforced.

2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch

Back to Top

16 Nepali women rescued from New Delhi

A joint team of Delhi Commission for Women, KI Nepal and Indian police personnel rescued 16 Nepali women from a house in Munirka area of Indian Capital New Delhi, on Tuesday night India, after prolonged efforts.Quantum chemistry expected to be one of the first applications of full-scale quantum computers

An international group of researchers has achieved the world's first multi-qubit demonstration of a quantum chemistry calculation performed on a system of trapped ions, one of the leading hardware platforms in the race to develop a universal quantum computer.

The research, led by University of Sydney physicist Dr Cornelius Hempel, explores a promising pathway for developing effective ways to model chemical bonds and reactions using quantum computers. It is published today in the prestigious Physicial Review X of the American Physical Society.

"Even the largest supercomputers are struggling to model accurately anything but the most basic chemistry. Quantum computers simulating nature, however, unlock a whole new way of understanding matter. They will provide us with a new tool to solve problems in materials science, medicine and industrial chemistry using simulations."

With quantum computing still in its infancy, it remains unclear exactly what problems these devices will be most effective at solving, but most experts agree that quantum chemistry is going to be one of the first 'killer apps' of this emergent technology.

Quantum chemistry is the science of understanding the complicated bonds and reactions of molecules using quantum mechanics. The 'moving parts' of anything but the most-simple chemical processes are beyond the capacity of the biggest and fastest supercomputers.

By modelling and understanding these processes using quantum computers, scientists expect to unlock lower-energy pathways for chemical reactions, allowing the design of new catalysts. This will have huge implications for industries, such as the production of fertilisers.

Other possible applications include the development of organic solar cells and better batteries through improved materials and using new insights to design personalised medicines.

Working with colleagues at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Innsbruck, Austria, Dr Hempel used just four qubits on a 20-qubit device to run algorithms to simulate the energy bonds of molecular hydrogen and lithium hydride.

These relatively simple molecules are chosen as they are well understood and can be simulated using classical computers. This allows scientists to check the results provided by the quantum computers under development.

Dr Hempel said: "This is an important stage of the development of this technology as it is allowing us to set benchmarks, look for errors and plan necessary improvements."

Instead of aiming for the most accurate or largest simulation to date, Dr Hempel's work focused on what can go wrong in a promising quantum-classical hybrid algorithm known as variational quantum eigensolver or VQE.

By looking at different ways to encode the chemistry problem, the researchers are after ways to suppress errors that arise in today's imperfect quantum computers and stand in the way of near-term usefulness of those machines.

Error suppression is at the core of research pursued in the University of Sydney's Quantum Control Laboratory, led by Professor Michael Biercuk, who recently launched Australia's first private quantum start-up, Q-CTRL. Dr Hempel, who did the experiments while at the University of Innsbruck, now hopes to leverage Sydney's expertise to improve what can be accomplished with these kinds of simulations.

The paper, published today in leading journal Physical Review X, was jointly written with Innsbruck Professor Rainer Blatt, a pioneer in quantum computing, and former Harvard professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik, who has since moved to the University of Toronto.

Professor Blatt, from IQOQI in Innsbruck, said: "Quantum chemistry is an example where the advantages of a quantum computer will very soon become apparent in practical applications."

Head of the University of Sydney Nano Institute's quantum science domain, Dr Ivan Kassal, said: "This work is a remarkable implementation of one of the most promising approaches to quantum chemistry, proving its mettle on a real quantum-information processor."

He said that Dr Hempel's decision to move to the University of Sydney in 2016 was an excellent addition to the strong quantum team on campus. "Theoretical chemistry and materials science are strengths at this university and they will be augmented by these latest techniques in quantum computation," he said.

###Chandan Kumar Mandal is the environment and migration reporter for The Kathmandu Post, covering labour migration and governance, as well as climate change, natural disasters, and wildlife.Logos are seen on the cups for sale at a Luckin Coffee store in Beijing, China July 17, 2018. Picture taken July 17, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee

By Pei Li and Adam Jourdan

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Qian Zhiya may be Starbucks worst nightmare.

The 42-year-old Chinese entrepreneur says she is betting that her fledgling Luckin Coffee brand will eventually have more cafes in China than Starbucks (SBUX.O), and she has Singapores sovereign wealth fund and other investors bankrolling her plan.

Luckin, which only officially launched in January, has opened more than 660 outlets in 13 Chinese cities thanks to a supercharged growth plan based on cheap delivery, online ordering, big discounts and premium pay for its staff.

Its assault comes at a crucial time for Starbucks, which has 3,400 stores in China  its second biggest market after the U.S. - and plans to almost double that number by 2022.

And the speed of the attack is a warning to other established consumer brands in China that they too could be vulnerable to a start-ups attempt to reinvent a market, brand consultants say.

Starbucks shares were pummelled in June after it warned same store sales growth in China had plunged to zero or worse last quarter, against 7 percent growth a year earlier. Its fiscal third-quarter results are due out on Thursday.

Starbucks said some new cafe openings were cannibalising customer visits at nearby stores and it also blamed a drop-off in orders through delivery firms.

While it did not mention increased competition, investors and analysts said it is clear that Luckin does represent a threat.

However, they also point out that Starbucks brand has been very resilient to challenges from rivals around the world over the years, largely because of the ambience of its stores, its service and the consistent quality of the coffee served.

There is also no sign that Chinese consumers have turned against such a very American brand as a protest over U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of punitive tariffs on Chinese exports.

BIG PROMOTIONS

Reuters spoke to 30 consumers in Beijing Yintai Center, a shopping mall that has a Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Luckin outlet, among others. Half of those polled said they had tried Luckin; most said they liked it, though more than two-thirds said their top choice remained Starbucks.

Story continues

The majority drank coffee in-store or bought to take away, with only a small number saying they had coffee delivered, a potential challenge for Luckin's delivery-focused strategy. Taste, convenience and environment were their top three priorities, more than price.

Luckins customers can order coffee via an app, watch a livestream of their coffee being made, and have it delivered to their door in an average of 18 minutes, the company says. A regular latte, roughly the size of a Starbucks grande, costs 24 yuan plus 6 yuan for delivery (free delivery for orders of more than 35 yuan), but can be half price after promotions. A grande latte at Starbucks costs 31 yuan.

More than half of Luckins stores are larger "relax" outlets or pick-up stores with some seating. The rest are delivery kitchens.

The speed of Luckins growth is extraordinary  it took Starbucks about 12 years to open as many stores. In many ways it echoes the way in which some major Chinese technology firms, such as ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing, have burned through cash to grab market share and been valued highly as a result.

Qian, who was previously chief operating officer at Chinese ride hailing firm Ucar, says Luckins focus now is all about increasing customers.

"I don't have a timeline for profit," Qian told Reuters at the firm's Beijing headquarters as she sipped her third Luckin coffee of the day. "For us, what we care about now is the number of users and if they are coming back to us, whether they recognise us, whether we can take market share."

The firm raised $200 million this month to help fund its expansion, including an undisclosed sum from Singapore government fund GIC, a funding round which Luckin said valued the firm at $1 billion.

In the future we will have more cafes than Starbucks, she declared.

One of the investors in the latest fundraising said it is the logical time for there to be a shake-up of the coffee world in China.

This model will appeal to young customers amid the country's consumption upgrade, said David Li, former head of Warburg Pincus Asia Pacific. He led the financing round for Luckin via his new investment firm Centurium Capital.

The use of online ordering and delivery should be enough to unnerve many established brands, said Bruno Lannes, Shanghai-based partner with consultancy Bain & Co.

"It's a big threat, that's why western brands need to pay attention," he said.

"FLASH MOB"

Still, not everyone agrees the internet model translates easily to the coffee business, given the need for costly stores and quality control.

"It remains to be seen if they can really hook consumers in and create a monopoly in the market, like those we see in sectors like cab-hailing," said Liu Xingliang, president of tech consultancy China Internet Data Center.

And some of the consumers Reuters spoke to in the Beijing mall saw hurdles ahead for Luckin.

Liu Xu, 23, an advertising professional, who compares Luckin to a flash mob that came out of nowhere, said he tried the firms coffee out of curiosity but prefers hand-drip single-origin coffee.

And Lian Yiheng, 22, a student, said she was attracted by Luckin's promotions and the convenience of delivery, but felt it needed to improve its selection of coffees and store decoration to lure people in the longer run.

Qian said the plan was to have more sit-in stores and reduce the proportion of delivery-only outlets, which would require higher spending on setting up in better locations and on decor. On the question of quality, she says that it uses select arabica beans from Ethiopia.

Luckin's expansion comes as Starbucks global rivals, like Canadian chain Tim Hortons, are also pushing hard in China. Tim Hortons plans to open 1,500 outlets in China over the next 10 years, while smaller local chains are also popping up fast.

As Chinas middle class continues to increase in size and the coffee chains move into many smaller towns and cities, the market is growing at 5-7 percent a year, according to research firm Mintel.

Li Yibei, owner of Double Win Cafe, which has a chain of eight coffee shops in Shanghai, said Luckin would have an impact on the market, but there was plenty of space left.

"Maybe they will hit Starbucks to some extent, but remember Starbucks has many die-hard fans. Maybe they can grab some followers from them, but I don't think that many," she said.

Starbucks may also soon be moving more formally into online delivery in China. Howard Schultz, Starbucks' departing executive chairman, said in Shanghai this month that he was close friends with Jack Ma, the head of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N), which controls food delivery platform Ele.me., and suggested the two could work together on Starbucks online delivery in China.

Schultz also said he isnt wasn't worried about the China slowdown.

"The more good coffee and competition that comes into the market, the more the Chinese people will be exposed to good coffee," he said. "Emerging new players that are coming into the market will actually benefit Starbucks."($1 = 6.8142 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Pei Li in BEIJING and Adam Jourdan in SHANGHAI; Additional reporting by Julie Zhu in HONG KONG and BEIJING newsroom)LOS ANGELES, July 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Madonna is currently visiting Malawi, where she has worked since 2006 with her charitable organization, Raising Malawi. The musician and philanthropist is marking the first anniversary of the Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery and Intensive Care, an ambitious project undertaken by Raising Malawi to improve specialized paediatric healthcare in Malawi. Located on the campus of Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH)  the largest referral hospital in the country  the Mercy James Centre includes Malawis first paediatric intensive care unit, three operating theatres dedicated to surgery in children, a day clinic, and 50-bed ward.

Malawi is a second home for me and my family, and every time we come here is a homecoming. Its a thrill to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Mercy James Centre, its talented staff, and the committed partners who have worked with Raising Malawi to make this effort a success, said Madonna. Our achievements this past year have exceeded our expectations, and we will continue with our mission to better serve the children of this country.

Raising Malawi funded the Mercy James Centre for Paediatric Surgery and Intensive Care (MJC) to provide Malawis youth with the best medical care possible. Since opening July 11, 2018, the talented staff of Mercy James Centre have:

Performed 1,690 paediatric surgeries  more than double the annual average before the Mercy James Centre

Admitted nearly 300 patients into the paediatric ICU

Seen 2,300 patients in the outpatient clinic

Admitted nearly 1,500 patients into the ward

The MJC is setting a new standard of paediatric surgical and intensive care in the region. Highlights from year one include Malawis first successful operation of conjoined twins. A team of 20+ doctors, nurses and anesthesia staff, led by long-time Raising Malawi partner Dr. Eric Borgstein, successfully separated two baby boys. The effort was a testament to spirit of collaboration and excellence that is imbedded in the culture of Mercy James Centre.

We are able to tackle cases that we never could have done in the past. Because of the Mercy James Centre, we are saving more childrens lives, particularly those with complex medical issues. The support of Madonna and Raising Malawi has transformed paediatric surgical and intensive care in Malawi, said Dr. Borgstein.

In addition to increasing paediatric surgical capacity, the Mercy James Centre is growing into its role as a training center of excellence. It houses the sole paediatric surgery training program in Malawi, supported by Raising Malawi. Partners like Physicians for Peace and Oslo University Hospital drive bedside education in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the first PICU in Malawi.

Madonna is also a global leader in promoting education for the worlds most vulnerable children. In 2012, she launched a partnership between her foundation, Raising Malawi, and the global nonprofit buildOn. Today, Madonna has served nearly 10,000 Malawian students  fulfilling her commitment to making learning and school accessible to Malawian youth. During her latest trip, Madonna traveled to Northeast Kasungu Province to officially open four primary schools constructed with buildOn  in total Raising Malawi has built 14 schools in rural Malawi. As a part of the partnership, Raising Malawi and buildOn have educated community members about the importance of girls education, and as result, all schools have gender-parity (equal numbers of girls and boys enrolled).

Madonna concluded the trip with a meeting with His Excellency President Arthur Peter Mutharika, who appointed her Malawis Goodwill Ambassador for Child Welfare in 2014.

About Raising Malawi

Madonna founded Raising Malawi in 2006 to address the poverty and hardship endured by Malawi's orphans and vulnerable children. Raising Malawi partners with local organizations to provide Malawian children and their caregivers with critical resources including education and medical care. http://www.raisingmalawi.org

About buildOn

At home or abroad, buildOn's goal is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education. Across the U.S., buildOn empowers urban youth to transform their neighborhoods through intensive community service and to change the world by building schools in some of the economically poorest countries in the world. Since 1991, buildOn has constructed 864 schools worldwide, with more than 110,000 children, parents and grandparents attending these schools every day. For more information, visit www.buildon.org. buildOn has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator

CONTACT:

Sarah Ezzy

Executive Director, Raising Malawi

sarah@globalphilanthropy.com

Brian Bumbery, BB Gun Press

brian@bbgunpress.com

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/66e63706-e56f-485c-a39c-8f41bbf5dfa7

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0e44a256-1560-40ba-82ec-91a35618be72

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b9967552-15cd-4d24-a0ec-11ba897ae3efNEW HAVEN, Conn., July 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Continuity, a provider of automated compliance management technology for financial institutions, today announced that $3.1 billion-asset, Affinity Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union headquartered in New Jersey and proudly serving the tri-state area, has implemented Continuitys RegAdvisorPro and RegControls solutions to streamline and enhance its compliance management.



Previously, the tools Affinity leveraged to manage compliance were largely manual. Because of Continuitys strong presence and reputation in the industry, Affinity ultimately decided to partner with the company to centralize and automate its compliance efforts. The credit union now has a comprehensive compliance management system that allows them to effectively analyze regulations and implement necessary compliance actions, consistently monitor activity and easily create reports.

At Affinity Federal Credit Union, we realize that the more compliant we are, the better we can serve our members, explained Olivia Leach, compliance officer at Affinity. Continuitys technology takes the guess work out of compliance by helping us to easily determine how regulations impact us, and then supporting associated implementation and training actions. The platform assigns different tasks to the appropriate employee, boosting accountability and transparency of the overall compliance management process.

Continuitys RegAdvisor Pro solution analyzes regulatory changes and delivers an easily digestible summary to the credit union, freeing employee time that used to be spent reading and trying to understand compliance updates for other strategic and growth-focused activities. RegControls contains hundreds of pre-built compliance procedures that enables employees to automate previously manual processes. By leveraging these solutions, Affinity is able to better prioritize tasks and more quickly and accurately complete necessary compliance updates.

Several areas of the credit union are being onboarded to Continuitys platform, including marketing and public relations, loan administration and consumer lending and mortgage origination. Leach added, Compliance touches everything, which is why its a priority for us to maintain a strong and pervasive culture of compliance. Continuity provides employees with detailed steps for understanding and applying compliance management to their daily functions, making the entire process easier and delivering new levels of transparency.

Savvy institutions like Affinity realize that in todays complex and uncertain regulatory landscape, it simply no longer makes sense for compliance management to be manual, said Mike Nicastro, chief executive officer of Continuity. By leveraging our automated, streamlined compliance management system, Affinity is benefitting from increased regulatory expertise while boosting process efficiency. We are thrilled to work with forward-thinking institutions like Affinity that understand the importance of proactive compliance management.

About Continuity

New Haven, Connecticut-based Continuity is a provider of regulatory technology (RegTech) solutions that automate compliance management for financial institutions of all sizes. By combining regulatory expertise and cloud technology, Continuity provides a proven way to reduce regulatory burden and mitigate compliance risk at a fraction of the cost. Continuitys solutions are designed to automate all aspects of compliance management, from interpretation of regulatory issuances through intuitive task delegation, vendor management, and board reporting. Continuity serves hundreds of institutions across the United States and its territories. For more information about Continuity, visit Continuity.net.

About Affinity Federal Credit Union

With more than 20 branches across the tri-state area, Affinity is the largest credit union headquartered in the state of New Jersey, proudly ranking in the top 2% of all credit unions in terms of asset size1. As a member-owned, not-for-profit, full-service financial institution federally insured by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Affinitys products and services are designed to fit member needs, all while offering great rates and fewer fees. For more information, visit affinityfcu.com , and follow us on Facebook (AffinityFCU), Instagram (AffinityFCU) and Twitter (@AffinityFCU).



1Source: CUDATA.com

Amber Bush

+ 1 678-781-7219

amber@williammills.comLatvian English

Riga, 2018-07-25 10:14 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 20, 2018 SIA BaltCap AIFP managed fund KS BaltCap Latvia Venture Capital Fund acquired 182 000 AS HansaMatrix (HMX1R) shares, obtaining 9.95% voting rights in the Company.

As a result of the transaction the qualifying holding of SIA MACRO RIGA in AS HansaMatrix has decreased to 898 065 shares or 49.09%.

The free float of AS HansaMatrix has increased as a result of the transaction.

Additional information available in the documents (in Latvian language) attached.

Investor and media contact:

Maris Macijevskis, CFA

Finance director, Member of Management Board

Phone: (+371) 6780 0002

E-mail: invest@hansamatrix.com

http://www.hansamatrix.com

About AS HansaMatrix

HansaMatrix is a fast-growing, high-technology company offering product design, industrialization and complete manufacturing services in data networking, Internet of Things, industrial segments and other services to high added value business segments. In addition to complete manufacturing services of OEM products, the company offers an ODM business model to both start-up and established companies that seek product development partnerships.English French

Growth in EBITDA (5%) and net income, Group share (28%)

Albioma's Board of Directors, which met on 25 July 2018, approved the Group's first-half consolidated financial statements at 30 June 2018.

Key figures as at 30 June 2018

In millions of euros First half 2018 First half 2017 Change Revenue 202.3 196.9 3% EBITDA 72.0 68.4 5% Net income (Group share) 20.6 16.2 28%

The good availability of thermal installations in France and the contribution of the riders to contracts for the purchase of electricity have resulted in a 3% rise in revenue over the period (202.3 million) compared with the first half of 2017 (+1% excluding the impact of changes in fuel prices). EBITDA is up 5% compared with the first half of 2018 to 72.0 million. Net income, Group share, amounted to 20.6 million over the period, up 28% compared with the first half of the previous year, including 3.5 million of non-recurring items, related in particular to the refinancing of existing debt in the Indian Ocean area.

First-half 2018 highlights

France

Satisfactory performance of thermal power plants and continuation of the programme to bring the plants into compliance with standards

The installations recorded an availability rate of 86.9% over the period, compared with 89.7% in the first half of 2017. This availability is mainly affected by the scheduled shutdowns related to the compliance of the fume treatment systems (IED) of unit 1 of the Le Gol plant and unit 1 of the Bois-Rouge plant, each contractually compensated for a duration of six weeks by EDF.

The restated availability stood at 90.5% in the first half of the year, as the excellent performance of the plants in the West Indies compensated for some unforeseen unavailability of facilities on Reunion Island.

In Martinique, the EDF duty rate of the Galion combustion turbine remained very high at 27.4% (28.8% in the first half of 2017).

In this context and given the fall in the duty rate of the base-load plants in the Overseas departments, the total output of the Overseas thermal installations amounts to 910 GWh, down compared to the first half of 2017 (1,031 GWh).

EBITDA for the business amounted to 56.2 million in the first half of 2018, up by 7% compared with the first half of 2017 (52.7 million). In 2017, it included non-recurring items amounting to 4.5 million mainly corresponding to the contractual compensation for additional costs borne by Albioma Caraibes since 2013 for the management of its combustion by-products.

Solar Power: performance slightly down due to unfavourable sunshine conditions

The performance of the photovoltaic plants is slightly down in the first half of 2018. The photovoltaic electricity production for the period reached 44 GWh, down 4% compared to the first half of 2017 (46 GWh) following the intense rainfall that hit Reunion Island during the first months of the year and unfavourable sunshine conditions in the other regions.

EBITDA for the business totalled 13.8 million, compared with 15.5 million in the first half of 2017.

Continued development of projects

Thermal Biomass

During the first half of the year, the Galion 2 bagasse/biomass plant was energised. The facility was connected to the sugar refinery and was able to supply it with steam continuously throughout the sugar season. Electricity production has started (6 GWh) and the full commissioning of the plant should take place by the end of September, following compliance tests with the EDF standard. This 40 MW plant will be the first 100% biomass cogeneration plant in Martinique and it will supply, over a full year, 15% of the island's total electricity consumption. Based on a virtuous exchange with the Galion sugar refinery, it aims to ensure the future of the refinery by making it more efficient and by increasing the share of renewable energy in Martinique from 7% to 22%, thus promoting the energy transition of the island in compliance with the strictest environmental standards.

The Saint-Pierre combustion turbine on Reunion Island is due to be brought into service in the second half of 2018. This 41 MW plant will be the first French peaking plant to operate essentially using bioethanol produced by distilling sugar cane molasses.

Solar Power

The Group continued the construction of photovoltaic power plants with energy storage, and was awarded the latest calls for tenders initiated by the French Energy Regulatory Commission in 2015 and 2016, consolidating its position as the leader in Solar Power Overseas. Albioma is planning to commission the Grand Port Maritime power plant on Reunion Island (1.3 MWp on the rooftop) during the summer of 2018 and the Sainte-Rose plant in Guadeloupe (3.3 MWp on the ground at a non-hazardous waste storage facility) is to be commissioned in 2019.

On 26 April 2018, Albioma entered into a strategic partnership with the SHLMR (low-income housing rental company on Reunion Island), to build 51 photovoltaic power plants on the roofs of residences, across all municipalities of Reunion. The construction works will begin in the second half of 2019, with full commissioning at the end of 2019, for a capacity of 4.8 MWp.

Lastly, on 15 May 2018, Albioma carried out the refinancing of the portfolio of photovoltaic projects in the Indian Ocean and established credit facilities to finance the Group's new projects in the same area for the next 18 months. The financing, amounting to 110 million, will enable the Group to optimise the financing of its existing projects and extend the maturity of the current debt while securing the future financing of projects won under recent invitations to tender launched by the French Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission de Regulation de l'Energie - CRE) or under a purchasing obligation.

Mauritius

Excellent performance of Terragen and OTEO Saint-Aubin - accidental outage of OTEO La Baraque

Terragen and OTEO Saint-Aubin achieved excellent performances over the period. Following the annual maintenance shutdown of the OTEO La Baraque plant, the failure of one of the generators resulted in a drop in average availability from 91.4% to 76.4% in the first half year. Repair work was completed on 23 June and the three plants are fully operational again. In this context, the production for the region is down to 506 GWh over the period, compared to 609 GWh in the first half of 2017.

EBITDA came to 1.1 million, down 23% compared with the first half of 2017 (share of income from associates).

Brazil

Very good start to the sugar harvest

Against a relatively stable macro-economic backdrop, the Group's Brazilian thermal power plants have delivered excellent operational performance.

The volume of milled cane is up by 16% compared to the previous year. The good start of the sugar campaign, together with the bagasse stock built up at the end of the previous year and additional biomass inputs, enable electricity production to increase significantly and take advantage of supported electricity prices during the months of May and June 2018. It stood at 88 GWh against 65 GWh in the first half of 2017, an increase of more than 35% over the period.

The EBITDA for the business reached 1.6 million over the period, compared with (0.3) million in the first half of 2017.

Development according to the operating plan

The last conditions precedent for the finalisation of the acquisition of 60% of the bagasse cogeneration unit of the Jalles Machado group located in Goianesia should be lifted during the second half of the year. The arrangement of long-term financing, which will cover 60% of the investment, is underway. The agreement signed with Jalles Machado on 18 December 2017 provides for the renovation of the existing boilers as well as the installation of a new 25 MW turbine, bringing the site's total capacity to 65 MW.

BNDES financing of the Vale do Parana project is also under negotiation. The capital expenditure for this project will total around BRL 100 million. The aim is to increase to 48 MW the generating capacity of an existing cogeneration plant. The Group will have a 40% stake in this project which will be consolidated using the equity method. The first orders are scheduled for the second half of 2018.

The Group is continuing to examine new development opportunities and confirms its goal of a project every 12 to 18 months.

Strong balance sheet and rising cash

As a result of new drawdowns to finance projects under construction, gross financial debt increased by 6% to 751 million, compared with 707 million at 31 December 2017. It includes 666 million in project debt at 30 June 2018, compared to 622 million as at 31 December 2017.

Consolidated cash and cash equivalents amounted to 98 million, up 4 million compared to 31 December 2017 (+4% excluding guarantee deposits).

Consolidated net borrowings amounted to 653 million, up by 7% compared 31 December 2017 (613 million).

2018 targets

The Group confirms its 2018 guidance for EBITDA (158 to 166 million) and net income, Group share (37 to 42 million).





Appendices

Simplified consolidated income statement for the first-half ended 30 June 2018

In millions of euros H1 2018 H1 2017 % change Revenue 202.3 196.9 3% EBITDA 72.0 68.4 5% Impairment, depreciation and provisions (26.5) (25.0) -6% Operating profit 45.5 43.4 +5% Net financial income (7.9) (12.3) 36% Income taxes (13.5) (12.7) -6% Effective tax rate 37.0% 43.2% Consolidated net income 24.1 18.4 31% Net income, Group share 20.6 16.2 28% Consolidated earnings per share (in euros) 0.68 0.54 26%

Consolidated income statement as at 30 June 2018

In millions of euros 30/06/2018 31/12/2017 Assets Goodwill 12 12 Intangible assets and property, plant and equipment 1,170 1,141 Other non-current assets 33 34 Total non-current assets 1,215 1,186 Current assets 162 140 Cash and cash equivalents 96 92 Total assets 1,473 1,419 Equity and liabilities Shareholders' equity, Group share 386 389 Non-controlling interests 75 78 Total shareholders' equity 461 467 Current and non-current financial liabilities 751 707 Other non-current liabilities 117 119 Current liabilities 143 125 Total equity and liabilities 1,473 1,419

Simplified statement of consolidated cash flows as at 30 June 2018

In millions of euros H1 2018 H1 2017 Cash flow from operations 73.9 70.4 Change in the working capital requirement (30.0)1 (8.1) Tax paid (13.5) (9.4) Net cash flow from operating activities 30.4 52.9 Operating capex (5.6) (11.8) Free cash-flow from operating activities 24.8 41.0 Development capex (59.1) (67.2) Other/Acquisitions/Disposals (0.2) 1.4 Cash flow from investing activities (59.3) (65.9) Dividends paid to Albioma SA shareholders - - Borrowings (drawn down) 73.5 79.5 Borrowings (repaid) (22.9) (28.0) Cost of debt (11.4) (12.0) Other (0.1) 3.5 Net cash flow from financing activities 39.1 43.0 Currency effect on cash (1.0) (0.7) Net change in cash and cash equivalents 3.6 17.5 Opening cash and cash equivalents 92.1 96.0 Closing cash and cash equivalents 95.7 113.5

Notes

1. Of which 25.7 million receivables from EDF paid on 2 July 2018.

Next on the agenda: revenue for the third quarter of 2018 on 25 October 2018 before trading.

About Albioma

An independent renewable energy producer, Albioma is committed to the energy transition thanks to biomass and photovoltaics.

The Group, which is established in Overseas France, Mauritius and Brazil, has developed a unique partnership for 20 years with the sugar industry, to produce renewable energy from bagasse, a fibrous residue from sugar cane.

Albioma is also the leading generator of photovoltaic power overseas where it constructs and operates innovative projects with integrated storage capabilities.

For further information, please visit www.albioma.com

Investor contact

Julien Gauthier+33 (0)1 47 76 67 00

Media contact

Charlotte Neuvy+33 (0)1 47 76 66 65presse@albioma.com

Albioma shares are listed on Euronext Paris (sub B) and eligible for the deferred settlement service (SRD) and PEA-PME plans.

ISIN FR0000060402 - Ticker: ABIO84pc success in money laundering cases

Department of Money Laundering Investigation (DoMLI) has said that it has won over 80 percent of the money laundering cases it had filed at the Special Court although there is a concern over clean chit given by the court to some notorious dons.

Do you have the smarts that Stanford GSB is looking for? What are the qualities that Stanford GSB is looking for as they build their class? How do successful applicants stand out from the crowd? At a school as competitive as Stanford, its a fact that many smart, accomplished applicants wont get inso how can you demonstrate that you have that it factor? Let us walk you through Stanfords evaluation criteria and give you some advice.

Criteria: Intellectual Vitality

 They nurture and refine their raw intellect to make it a powerful force that draws them to explore new and challenging territory; to question and probe. They turn it into energy (something vital, as in  yes  vitality). Now thats attitude! (Attitude being part of intellectual vitality, per the website.) No wonder Stanford wants it.



1. Zest for ideas.



When you encounter a new or challenging idea, youre tantalized. You have to find out more. What does it really mean? Where did it come from? And how, and why? You relish ideas for their inherent meaning and for their potential implications; theyre alive to you. You value them as a new lens to see through.



2. Dynamic, engaged mind.



Youre always mentally comparing and contrasting, probing limits and boundaries, seeing overlaps between disparate points and differences between similar ones. To you, an event is not static, but rather part of a continuum, with a history to explore and future ramifications to consider. You never take things at face value!



3. But why?



When you were a child, you probably were told youre too curious. But curiosity underpins intellectual vitality. It drives you to learn more and more and more about something, to set off on thrilling learning journeys. (And you sometimes snag other people along for the ride!)



4. The reasons behind what you believe and what you do.



Back to ideas  they animate you. Whether youre politically conservative, moderate, or liberal, youre not that way because your family or friends are, but because youre interested in and think about the issues  from multiple angles  and come to certain conclusions. Your thought process informs your decisions, beliefs, actions.



5. Open, as in unafraid.



So, you have your beliefs, your ideas. But you dont hide behind them. You welcome them being challenged  its actually fun. Intellectual fun. And you challenge back, thoughtfully. Youre a skillful devils advocate, able to argue from multiple perspectives, even ones you personally disagree with. You relish discerning what drives and underlies opposing ideas and beliefs (theres that curiosity again).

Related Resources:



Youre smart. But this isnt about smart. Most of the people Stanford GSB rejects are smart (usually very smart). A person of average IQ may have enormous intellectual vitality, while a person with a stratospheric IQ may have scant intellectual vitality. Pretty much everyone uses their raw intellect, whatever its degree, in practical application  to get things done. People with intellectual vitality do that and more:Lets parse it further. Here are 5 key components (separated for discussion purposes only, as theyre interconnected).Hopefully the above points make clear that intellectual vitality is not something ponderous  its a thrill! Yes, it engages matters of seriousness and gravity. But its fundamentally invigorating. It fuels you. And it scintillates others.Now, how do you let Stanford know you have it? The application essays are the perfect venue for showcasing this quality  integrate it into anecdotes, details, and reflections. If you are invited to interview, thats an ideal place to demonstrate intellectual vitality.Cindy Tokumitsu has advised hundreds of successful Stanford applicants, helping them gain acceptance to Stanford along with other top MBA and EMBA programs in her 15+ years with Accepted. This article originally appeared on blog.accepted.com Applying to a top b-school? The talented folks at Accepted have helped hundreds of applicants get accepted to their dream programs. Whether you are figuring out where to apply, writing your application essays, or prepping for your interviews, we are just a call (or click) away.Contact us, and get matched up with the consultant who will help you get accepted! _________________For a group of dairy farmers, the Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center has been a vision for over eight years. A dedicated group of board directors, staff, and volunteers whose passion is to educate consumers have planned, fundraised, and built the 10,000-square-foot exhibit.

Julie Maurer, Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center board president, shared that if Farm Wisconsin never came full circle, she would still be striving to educate the public. The fact is that many Americans dont always understand the great responsibility farmers have to feed communities and how diligently we work to find the most productive, efficient, and safest way to do just that. Maurer should know. Not only has she worked tirelessly to get Farm Wisconsin off the ground, she is a dairy farmer and part owner of her familys dairy, Soaring Eagle Dairy.

Now, Wisconsin farmers will have some help educating the public. The Farm Wisconsin Discovery Center, located right off Interstate 43 in the northeastern part of Wisconsin, will be an epicenter for consumer information about all things farming in the state.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Secretary of Agriculture Sheila Harsdorf, along with other dignitaries, were in support of this project. The government awarded the center a $5 million nonstate grant.

At a preview event and ribbon-cutting ceremony held last week, Secretary Harsdorf explained how critical agriculture is to the states economy and why this educational center is essential to maintaining that thriving relationship.

Governor Walker said a few words about agricultures vast amount of job opportunities. He commends Farm Wisconsin for not only teaching young people about where their food comes from but also about careers they may be interested in pursuing. More comments by Maurer, Harsdorf, and Walker can be viewed in this video.

The center includes six displays that address dairy farming, Wisconsins diverse agriculture, field to fork, the environment, technological advances, and the people of agriculture. A birthing barn that will show about five live births a day along with a tour of the neighboring Grotegut Dairy Farm is a part of the experience as well.

Along with the exhibits, the center will also have a Wisconsin-themed cafe along with a catering business. There is also space for farmers and others to utilize the facility for workshops, meetings, and so forth. It is located at 7001 Gass Lake Road in Manitowoc, Wis., and the grand opening is on July 28 and 29 from noon to 6 p.m.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.

(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2018

July 23, 2018After HoR, opposition Congress obstructs National Assembly

After the House of Representatives (HoR), the opposition Nepali Congress obstructed the National Assembly meeting on Tuesday as per its strategy to protest against the government move to come up with a bill on National Medical Education bypassing the recommendations made by Kedar Bhakta Mathema-led task force.As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQBeat the clock

Parliament must reconvene immediately so that pending Acts are endorsed on timeThe confrontational language has generated predictable responses from Iranian officials. As CBS News pointed out, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif issued the first direct response to Trumps tweet on Monday, also via Twitter. It declared the regime to be unimpressed with American bluster, intimating that the long-term survival of Iranian culture is indicative of the nations resilience in the face of foreign threats, even from the most powerful enemies. Meanwhile, other officials utilized Iranian state media to boast about their readiness to retaliate against any actual measures the US government takes to follow through on its warnings.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, for instance, declared that Tehran would take equal countermeasures if the US blocked Iranian oil exports. Most such exports are expected to be obstructed by US sanctions after they take effect over the next few months, following President Trumps withdrawal in May from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Qassemis remarks were reminiscent of a number of earlier statements, including one by President Hassan Rouhani, regarding Irans supposed readiness to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the important maritime passage through which roughly one-third of the worlds oil passes.

Al Jazeera reported on Tuesday that Naghavi Hosseini, a senior Iranian national security official, had specifically affirmed the regimes commitment to a strategy that includes the potential closure of the strait. Meanwhile, CBS noted that Iranian military officials such as Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri have been simultaneously less specific and more rhetorical in their boastful comments regarding possible conflict with the US. Bagheri warned of a strong, unimaginable, and regrettable response to any American threats.

The initial volley of public statements from the White House and the various responses emerging from Tehran have naturally prompted an outpouring of commentary and speculation regarding the prospects of actual conflict between the two countries and about how the assertive language of the Trump administration fits into its larger strategy. One article by CNN highlighted two competing interpretations of the administrations intentions. In the first place, some have suggested that it foreshadows direct measures that could even include an attack on the Islamic Republic. But others have looked to the history of Trumps foreign policy, especially toward North Korea, and suggested that he may be striving to present an image of strength before pivoting to diplomatic engagement.

In previous statements, Trump has personally predicted that after experiencing newfound pressure from re-imposed sanctions, the Iranian leadership would call his office to offer a better deal than the JCPOA, which he had criticized before taking office, partly on the basis of its failure to address Irans regional role and support of terrorism. Tehran has, of course, rejected that notion, even suggesting that it is far more likely the US president will be the first to call and offer a deal. But Trumps unusually ideological commentary on Iranian affairs can easily be viewed as a unique rejection of negotiations with that regime, in contrast to his willingness to speak openly with adversaries like North Koreas Kim Jong-Un.

This interpretation of the White Houses stance was seemingly bolstered on Sunday by Pompeos remarks before the Supporting Iranian Voices event. As the State Department transcript of that speech shows, the Secretary of State directed some of his most pointed criticisms at Irans President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif, whom he called wolves in sheeps clothing, in reference to their dubious reputations as moderates according to the standards of the clerical regime.

Pompeo further claimed that the Rouhani administration had effectively served as a mouthpiece for hardliners associated with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, presenting a friendlier image to the international community but endorsing the same interventionist foreign policies and anti-Western perspectives. Trumps tweet arguably highlighted this same belief, insofar as it was issued in response to a statement by President Rouhani in which he told the US that war with Iran would be the mother of all wars.

But if the White House does indeed reject the notion that Rouhani is comparatively moderate and worthy of diplomatic engagement, then this is sure to fuel more concerns about the possibility of the administration seeing war as the only viable alternative. Statements from White House officials may further fuel this speculation, with one example being National Security Advisor John Boltons elaboration on Trumps tweet.

According to Axios, Bolton doubled down on the presidents warning after saying that the two men had spoken and had mutually affirmed that Iran would face consequences for anything at all to the negative. However, Bolton was not specific about what these consequences would be, and it is entirely possible that he was referring not to military actions or the threat thereof, but rather to economic sanctions and other forms of non-military pressure.

Bolton has long maintained that regime change in Iran should be a declared objective of Iranian foreign policy. But he has expressed this view, for instance, in the context of rallies organized by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which advocates specifically for regime change at the hands of the Iranian people, without recourse to foreign intervention. The Trump administration has long been characterized as envisioning a change of government in Iran, but there has been comparatively little speculation about the means by which it might strive to achieve it.

Yet Mike Pompeos meeting with Iranian expatriates on Sunday may point to the emergence of a strategy that is more in line with that of the NCRI. The Los Angeles Times touched upon this possibility in its assessment of the diverse reactions that attendees of that event had to Pompeos remarks. Some determined that the Secretary of State was expressing opinions without elaborating upon an actual strategy. However, his speech outlining the administrations Iran strategy in May referred to the imposition of the strongest sanctions in history while eschewing military threats.

The LA Times noted that many of the expatriates in Sundays meeting expressed support for such sanctions and for the administrations strong stance on Iran in general. Although some accepted that sanctions could have a negative impact on their families in Iran, they placed the ultimate blame for this on the clerical regime and affirmed that the trade-off was worthwhile in order to further destabilize that regime and encourage the continuation of anti-government protests that have continually highlighted the potential for domestic regime change ever since Iran was rocked by a nationwide uprising at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018.On Sunday evening, Trump tweeted a warning to Iran in all-caps that if their threats continued that they would suffer CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.

Trumps tweet is believed to be in response to Iranian President Hassan Rouhanis comments to diplomats in Iran on Sunday that Americans must understand that war with Iran is the mother of all wars and peace with Iran is the mother of all peace.

This comes after a threat by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz  through which a fifth of global oil exports pass  if the US continued to put pressure on Irans oil sector.

Diplomacy via Twitter

This tweet took his staffers by surprise and triggered fears about a potential nuclear showdown among some, but people should remember Trumps comments of fire and fury against Kim Jong-Un, which many also predicted would lead to a nuclear war. That brought Kim to the negotiating table and to the Singapore summit in June.

Could Trump be trying the same tactic on the mullahs? Well, Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to talk strategy on Monday, but she said that Trump is being very clear about his red lines when it comes to Irans behaviour.

However, it is obvious that the mullahs cannot be swayed from their path of destruction. This is set out in their constitution which says that the Islamic Revolution should be exported throughout the world. Thats why Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, in spite of the 2015 nuclear deal, and why they are starting or exacerbating conflicts across the Middle East.

If Trump really wants to get tough on Iran, then he should, by all means, continue with his sanctions, which began rolling back after he pulled out of the nuclear deal in May, but he should also reach out to the Iranian Resistance and promote them as the democratic alternative to the barbaric mullahs.

The Iranian Resistance, led by Maryam Rajavi, has been fighting for democracy and freedom in Iran since the days of the Shah. They already have the support of many prominent figures across the world and many in Trumps inner circle, from national security adviser John Bolton to personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Trump should tweet out a message of support to Rajavi as that would really draw a line in the proverbial sand.by Jazeh Miller

Donald Trumps latest tweet on Iran  an all-caps warning to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about threatening the US  has generated worldwide attention. Some may have written this off as Trump being Trump until the tweet was endorsed by his national security adviser John Bolton and now it is being seen as an official declaration of US policy on Iran.

Trump tweeted: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

To be clear, theres a lot of reasons why the US would need to warn Iran about ending its threatening behaviour against a country that it calls the Great Satan. Iran has been abducting US citizens and dual nationals, threatening to disrupt global oil supply by closing key shipping lane the Strait of Hormuz and has even attacked US troops, allies, and interests in the Middle East in its proxy wars. As recently as last year, the Regime was ordering attacks on US boats in the Persian Gulf, which equated to roughly 2.5 unsafe incidents per month.

Iran has yet to issue an official response to the tweets, with only foreign minister Javad Zarif tweeting a somewhat awkward reply which basically called Trumps tweet uncivilised, while attempting to parody it. We can expect a harsher response from the Revolutionary Guards and the supreme leader in the coming days.

Still, it would be wrong of us to imply that the Iranian Regimes response in any way reflected the Iranian peoples view on the matter.

The Iranian people have been involved in a nationwide uprising against the Regime since December 2017 and they welcome the strong US policy on the Regime, including the nuclear-related sanctions that will begin springing back into place on August 6.

The Iranian economy is already fixed in favour of the mullahs, leaving the people to starve whilst the Supreme Leader and his cronies line their pockets and fund terrorism and warfare across the Middle East and the world. If the US sanctions bankrupt the Iranian economy, it will take the mullahs down much more heavily than it will the people and this will allow the people to achieve their desire of regime change by and for the people of Iran.

The Iranian people are protesting the Regime on a number of issues from air pollution to human rights to the economy, but they see that the mullahs are at the center of all of these problems and that getting rid of them will allow the people to fix the problems.By INU Staff

INU  Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Tuesday that Donald Trumps all-caps tweet to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was meant to show that Iran is on the wrong track and highlighted exactly what the Regime was doing wrong.

Mattis told reporters at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, California: I think what we have to look at is the destabilizing influence that Iran has consistently displayed and demonstrated throughout the region.

Mattis, who has been meeting with Austrailian officials alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said that he believed the president was making very clear that theyre on the wrong track.

He said: The only reason that the murderer [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is still in power  the primary reason  is because Iran has stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him. We see the same kind of malfeasance down in Yemen where theyre fomenting more violence down there. Weve seen their disruptive capabilities demonstrated from Bahrain to the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], and its time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation.

Indeed, the Iranian Regime is involved in many conflicts across the Middle East that are contrary to US interests, from keeping the animal Assad in power in Syria to supplying weapons and ballistic missiles to the Houthi militants in Yemen. These missiles have been used to target US ally Saudi Arabia in this four-year-long conflict, who is not only leading the US-backed coalition to restore the Yemeni government but is also one of Irans many foes.

Mattis said: [Iran] cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organization that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the region.

Trumps tweets

On Sunday, Trump tweeted: To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

This was in response to Irans threat of the mother of all wars if the US continued to act against the Regime by cutting off its oil exports.

Neither Mattis nor Pentagon spokespeople have said whether the US forces based in the Middle East will be adjusting their strategy because of this war of words. However, the commander of the US Central Command in Bahrain has previously said they would be countering Irans threats, while Pentagon spokeswoman Rebecca Rebarich said on Monday that US forces are more than capable at defending themselves should the need arise.Pompeo was making a speech before Iranian-American leaders at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library when he began to attack the Iranian Regime for stealing money from its own people to line their own pockets and commit acts of warfare and terrorism around the world, even comparing them to mob bosses and calling them hypocritical holy men.

He said: The level of corruption and wealth among regime leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the Mafia more than a government.

This speech happened just three weeks before the USs banking sanctions on Iran will roll back into place, following the USs withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal in May. These sanctions were already in place but were suspended whilst the US was a party to the nuclear deal. More sanctions, specifically targeting Irans oil industry, will snap back in November.

Pompeo also addressed US demands that the Iranian Regime stops repressing dissidents and funding terrorist groups.

He said that the US Broadcasting Board of Governors was going to attempt to circumvent Internet censorship in Iran by creating a slew of Farsi media outlets (including television, radio, digital and social media) to show ordinary Iranians inside Iran and around the globe [that] America stands with them.

This shows that the US policy on Iran is peaceful and democratic regime change, something long advocated by Iranian dissidents, including the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Trump on Twitter

On Sunday, Iranian president Hassan Rouhani threatened the US over the mother of all wars if the US stuck to their policy of cutting off Irans oil exports by November. This threat follows earlier threats about closing the Strait of Hormuz  through where one-fifth of global oil flows  if their oil exports were harmed.

Trump responded to this on Twitter, warning Iran that they faced dire consequences if they attempted to threaten the US again and leaving no doubt that this was a line that the Iranian Regime should not attempt to cross.

He tweeted: To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!This is why the people of Iran instigated a major uprising at the end of last year. Their only hope of ever experiencing a free and democratic Iran is through regime change. They are determined.

Many agree that regime change cannot be forced by a foreign government  it is something that needs to come from within the country. This is certainly the case with Iran and, if it was not for the appeasement policies, the regime would have toppled years ago. However, it is essential that the people are supported by the international community.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke to an audience of Iranian-Americans about what the Trump administration is doing for Iran. He reassured the audience that the United States dreams the same dreams for the people of Iran as you do.

During his Supporting Iranian Voices speech, Pompeo said that the U.S. is piling as much financial and diplomatic pressure on Iran as possible because it is absolutely imperative for the regime to be cut off from the funding that it uses to spread terror and destruction.

The time is now because for decades the people of Iran have been waiting and hoping for reformation. They were told time and time again to be patient. Even influential figures in the West promised that the reformist agenda would improve the situation in Iran.

However, they waited and waited and nothing happened. The country is in a mess because of the regimes mismanagement and corruption. Not only is the economic situation very serious, the environmental situation is critical too.

The so-called reformists have not achieved any of the reforms that they promised. Furthermore, they have played a big role in preserving the corrupt values of the Islamic Republic including the corruption and anti-America rhetoric. It is not just the hard-liners that have created the current political climate, it is all of the officials no matter what they may be labelled as.

The moderate Hassan Rouhani, the current president, promised to resolve the nuclear crisis with the 2015 nuclear agreement that was supposed to bring prosperity to the people of Iran with economic opportunities. The people did not benefit from the deal  instead the regime lined its own pockets and spent billions of dollars on its military activities across the region, namely Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

History have proven that a totalitarian and absolutist regime will never be able to reform. Iran needs a new political system; one that is based on democracy and secularism. Once Iran has this, the numerous conflicts the current regime is fuelling in the region will fizzle down enough for them to be extinguished and the whole region will be able to move towards times of peace and security.Next stop, the clouds

Whats the number one advantage of cloud computing? Nearly endless scalability! Google aims to build on this prospect by announcing the Cloud Services Platform, a set of foundational services and technologies that is about to rock your serverless world!

Google Cloud Next 18 day 1 has concluded and Google made sure not to send us home disappointed!

Numerous announcements were made during the first day of the event but one was sure to get our undivided attention!

Google aims to build on the nearly endless scaling capabilities of cloud by launching the Cloud Services Platform, a set of foundational services and technologies that deliver advanced operational and management capabilities to your IT environment, in the cloud and on-premises.

Googles business is information. We have a cloud thats been built to efficiently take in the information, organize it and put it back out with a lot of intelligence. And this is what every company needs today. Information is driving the business, information that is supercharged. Global cloud is an unbelievably complex set of technologies and capabilities; innovation is continuously required as you scale it. Theres been 20 years of scaling an optimizing Googles rather huge cloud Diane Greene, CEO at Google Cloud

Cloud-coated candy

Cloud Services Platform is a hybrid cloud software for application modernization. It provides consistent, automated operations on-premise and in the cloud.

But its also so much more than that! It combines Kubernetes and Istio with Googles infrastructure, security, as well as operations practices to increase velocity and reliability and manage governance at scale.

And the best part is that the Cloud Services Platform is an open ecosystem, offering impressive extending capabilities!

You can find all the information you need about the newly released platform here. But for now, lets dig into some of the most interesting Cloud Services Platform-related announcements in a bit more detail.

Serverless delight vol.1

To start things off, we present to you Google Cloud Functions, an event-driven serverless compute platform that offers an easy way to run and scale code in the cloud with performance, networking and security features. More precisely, Cloud Functions includes:

No server management

Payment required only while code runs

Automatic scaling

Code running in response to events

Ability to connect and extend services

Support for code written in JavaScript (Node.js) and Python

You can try it for free here.

Serverless delight vol.2

Moving further on, we have Cloud Build, Googles new continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) service.

Whats most fascinating about Cloud Build is that its integrated with popular developer tools and lets you build serverless applications:

Native Docker support

120 free build-minutes per day and up to 10 concurrent builds included

Powerful insights into build results along with build errors and warnings for easy debugging

Automatically perform package vulnerability scanning for Ubuntu, Debian, and Alpine

Build locally or in the cloud

Give it a go for free here.

Serverless delight vol.3  Kubernetes edition

Google aspires to help you build all your applications serverlessly, even if you use Kubernetes. So guess what! We have more Kubernetes stuff for you!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Knative, a Kubernetes-based platform to build, deploy, and manage modern serverless workloads.

Not only does it sound interesting and helpful, Googles branding makes it hard to resist:

Knative enables developers to focus just on writing interesting code, without worrying about the boring but difficult parts of building, deploying, and managing an application.

To put it simply, Knative is:

A developer-friendly software offering a set of reusable components that focus on solving many mundane but difficult tasks such as orchestrating source-to-container workflows, routing and managing traffic during deployment, auto-scaling your workloads, or binding running services to eventing ecosystems.

Offering support for common development patterns such as GitOps, DockerOps, ManualOps, as well as tools and frameworks such as Django, Ruby on Rails, Spring, and many more.

Designed to plug easily into existing build and CI/CD toolchains.

Designed to be run as a service by all major cloud providers.

Helping developers orchestrate builds, serving, and events with a single click, enabling the benefits of an idiomatic developer experience with the flexibility and control of GKE.

You can find all the information you need on Knative in the GitHub repo and you can also try out the GKE serverless add-on here.Mother of Slain Teen Jordan Davis Wins Georgia Congressional Primary

Lucia Lucy McBath mother of slain teen Jordan Davis has won the Democratic nomination in Georgias 6th Congressional District after winning a runoff election on Tuesday. She joins the list of a growing number of black women who want to shake up Washington.

ADVERTISEMENT

McBath stepped onto the national stage at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, joining eight other mothers whose Black children were killed by cops or gun violence.

Jordan Davis, was the 17-year-old who was shot to death at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012 when a white man opened fire into the car he was sitting in with friends after he complained about their loud music.

I am at a loss for words. Thank you to my supporters, friends & family. And I want to thank my dear Jordan, my rock & inspiration. We deserve better representation in DC, and I intend to show the good people of #GA06 what a tough, determined mother can do. On to November! pic.twitter.com/OqXCbw53cu  Lucy McBath (@LucyWins2018) July 25, 2018CMC, Sinohydro win 140MW Tanahu hydro contract

Tanahu Hydropower Limited (THL) has selected CMC Ravenna of Italy and Sinohydro Corporation of China to build the 140 MW Tanahu Hydropower Project.Suspicious Package Delivered to Rep. Maxine Waters Los Angeles District Office

According to LAPD spokesperson Mike Lopez a suspicious package was delivered to Congress member Maxine Waters district office located at 10124 S. Broadway. The office was evacuated after the item was found about 2:35 pm. The package was labeled anthrax, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The L.A. Police Department and a hazardous materials (HazMat) crew removed the package, which was determined to not be dangerous, according to a notice from the Los Angeles Fire Department.

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There was no evidence of any dangerous substance at all, Lopez said. Theyre probably going to investigate to see where this item came from.

Waters is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and has called for his impeachment. Last week, the militant group known as the Oath Keepers planned to protest outside Waters office in South Los Angeles, accusing her of inciting violence against members of the Trump Administration who are seen out in public. The protest fell flat when dozens of counter-protesters showed up.

The College Board has answered criticism about proposed changes to the Advanced Placement World History exam. Educators and others had objected to its plans to make the exam cover history beginning in the year 1450. Now, the group says the exam material will cover history beginning about 250 years earlier.

The College Board announced the latest plan on its website last week. In the same announcement, the organization also proposed creating a new AP world history class, called AP World History: Ancient. That class would cover events from earlier than 1200 Common Era.

The College Board said it values the thoughtful comments from the teaching community about the first proposal. The Board said the reaction showed that it and educators share the same goals of engaging students in the rich histories of civilizations and making sure learning communities have enough time to cover such study.

Changing history

The College Board is a not-for-profit group that directs the AP program and AP exams in American high schools. Schools pay for use of College Board AP teaching materials, including tests. The material on AP exams influences what information is covered in AP classes.

The current AP World History class covers history from 10,000 years ago to the present.

In May, the College Board announced that it wanted to limit the amount of material covered in its AP exam. It said it was acting partly because of messages from teachers who said they could not cover all the exam material in one AP course.

The College Board also said that its AP history program should more closely copy college world history programs. They generally cover the subject in two to three separate courses.

However, the College Board's first proposal of starting with the year 1450 received wide criticism from the U.S. teaching community. Many felt such a change would give Western European history higher importance in the class over other cultures.

Mixed feelings

Reactions to the newest plan have been mixed.

Peter Stearns, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, is pleased.

Theyre really trying to get a start date that avoids any impressions that somehow world history has been guided by the rise of the West.

Stearns added that starting in 1200 permits the AP exam to include material, On all sorts of societies that are not affected by western influence at that point at all.

However, other educators are not so happy.

Merry Wiesner-Hanks is a history professor at the University of Wisconsin, and president of the World History Association. She sent a letter to Trevor Packer, head of College Boards AP program. Wiesner-Hanks wrote that changing the course to begin at year 1200 will not address the foundational claims of world history as a field.

She also said that the speed in which these changes are being made is too fast. She said it does not provide enough time for thoughtful discussion on creating a new teaching program.

And that issue, has been one of the major issues expressed by teachers, Wiesner-Hanks wrote in a separate e-mail to VOA.

Last month, the World History Association posted an open letter to the College Board online. The letter protested the changes. They called instead for an examination of the density of subjects covered.

Is a new class realistic?

Many educators are wondering if a whole new AP history class can be created. The College Board says on its website that to develop such a course, it would first need to confirm that colleges would be willing to give credit for an additional exam. And it said it would have to measure interest among high schools in offering two, separate AP world history courses.

GMUs Peter Stearns is not sure the idea is realistic.

Where Im concerned more is I dont think lots of high school have the resources or interest level to try and do two different AP World History courses

He argues high schools are more interested in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and math.

Wiesner-Hanks agrees, saying she fears only the wealthier schools will be able to offer two separate AP World History courses.

I'm Caty Weaver.

And Im Phil Dierking.

Phil Dierking reported this story for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

Do you think high schools should teach history from before the year 1200 Common Era? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

______________________________________________________________

Quiz

Quiz - 250 Years Might Return to AP World History Course After Criticism Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

course - n. a series of classes about a particular subject in a school

engage - v. to get and keep (someone's attention, interest, etc.)

impression - n. the effect or influence that something or someone has on a person's thoughts or feelings

society - n. people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values

foundation - n. something (such as an idea, a principle, or a fact) that provides support for somethingNorth Koreas state media have greatly reduced criticism of the United States and South Korea while the countries are involved in diplomatic talks. But North Korea has increased sharp words for another target: Japan.

Japan has held a harder line against North Korea than South Korea or the U.S. As a result, the North has increased its criticism possibly in an effort to divide Japan from its allies.

In recent days, North Koreas official media denounced Japan for discriminating against its large ethnic Korean community. And it has brought more attention to South Koreans anger over a territorial dispute with Japan.

North Korea also strongly criticized Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono. He recently suggested that Japan provide some financial support for inspection efforts related to North Koreas planned removal of nuclear weapons.

Historic tensions, historic meetings

Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910 to 1945. There has been a long history of bad feelings between the sides. Japan and North Korea have never had diplomatic relations.

In addition, North Korea has demanded that Japan pay for damage caused during its colonial rule. North Koreas ruling party newspaper recently repeated the demand for a full apology and payments.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met with the leaders of China, South Korea and the United States. But, so far, he has not met with any Japanese leaders.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly considering a meeting with Kim. However, Japan has kept firm in maintaining economic and political pressure on North Korea.

The Japanese leader could meet Kim at a Russian development meeting in Vladivostok in September. That is where Kim is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Abe faced with hard choices

Experts note that Abes position is difficult.

The Japanese public is fearful of North Korea. Japan remains concerned about the Norths medium-distance missiles although North Korea has announced a freeze on missile launches.

Also, Abe aims to solve a long dispute over the fate of more than 10 Japanese citizens taken by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 80s. Japan says North Korea has not been fully truthful about their fate or whether they are still alive.

North Korea, however, has said that it has dealt with the issue.

Possibly the biggest problem is North Koreas demand for payment related to Japanese colonial rule. Such payment could cost Japan billions of dollars.

Japan says it paid North Korea many years ago. But, experts say, changing relations between North and South Korea and the U.S. could increase pressure on Japanese leaders to reconsider North Koreas demands.

Im Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter adapted this AP news story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

_______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

fate n. the things that have or will happen to a person or thing; the path or direction that events will take

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.A German court has sent to prison a Vietnamese man for helping his country carry out a kidnapping in Berlin last year.

German officials identified the man as Long N.H. He appeared before a German court last week and admitted guilt in the kidnapping of Vietnamese citizen Trinh Xuan Thanh.

Long N.H. reportedly worked with Vietnamese security forces to carry out the crime. The court sentenced Long N.H. to almost four years in prison.

Thanh, a former oil businessman, had requested asylum in Germany. The government there says armed Vietnamese agents forced Thanh, and a woman with him, off a Berlin street and into a car on July 23, 2017. Many people reported seeing the kidnapping.

A few days later, both Thanh and the woman were in Hanoi, Vietnams capital.

But, Vietnam says Thanh returned to his homeland voluntarily.

The government had sought him for trial on corruption charges. It accused him of causing losses and other failures at PetroVietnam Construction JSC. He is now serving a life sentence in Vietnam.

Thanhs case is part of a major anti-corruption campaign in Vietnam. More than 100 people, many from state-owned businesses, have been tried, found guilty and given prison terms in connection with the campaign. A few have received death sentences.

The kidnapping damaged relations between the two countries. The German Foreign Ministry expelled two Vietnamese diplomats and accused Vietnam of violating international law.

Im Caty Weaver.

Susan Shand adapted this story based on Reuters news report. Caty Weaver was the editor.This week Krebs on Security reported that none of Googles more than 85 thousand employees had fallen prey to phishing attacks since early 2017. Thats when the company issued physical security keys for 2-factor authentication (2FA) to all of its employees.

Now Google plans to begin selling its own security keys to businesses and individuals.

According to CNET, the new Titan Security Keys will sell for around $20 to $25 and theyll provide an extra form of protection when logging into websites or apps. If your security key isnt connected to your device, then no login for you.

Multi-factor authentication has been around for a while. The idea is that even if someone manages to steal your password, they wont be able to login to your accounts if they dont have access to that secondary factor.

For example, you can use your phone for multi-factor authentication by having your bank or other services send a one-time code via SMS. Or you can install an authenticator app on your phone to skip the SMS (Google, Microsoft, LastPass, and Yubico all offer free apps, and if you prefer an open source option, theres andOTP).

The Titan Security Key, on the other hand, is a physical device that you connect to a computer or mobile device. It will come in two forms: a USB key and a Bluetooth fob.

You can plug the USB key into a computer to easily login to apps, services, and sites. Remove it and you wont be able to login. The Bluetooth version is a wireless option that should work with a smartphone or other device that may not have a full-sized USB port.

Since theres no code sent to your phone, theres no chance of someone peeking over your shoulder and spying the code. And it also makes it harder for a website to phish you to gain access to your accounts.

Google is hardly the first company to offer a hardware-based 2FA solution.

In fact, as pointed out by 9to5Google, the new Google Titan Security keys bear an uncanny resemblance to Feitans existing USB/NFC and Bluetooth security keys.

Its unclear if Feitan (or the manufacturer used by Feitan) is building the hardware for Google, but CNET says the software on the keys was developed by Gogole and its expected to be compatible with the FIDO U2F (Universal 2-Factor) standard.

Up until now Google has been recommending keys from Yubico, one of the early pioneers in this space.

Yubico doesnt seem entirely thrilled at the new competition: the company published a blog post today pointing out, among other things, that the reason it doesnt offer a Bluetooth security key is that Bluetooth does not provide the security assurance levels of NFC and USB. Its hard not to see that as a dig at Googles decision to offer a Bluetooth option, while Yubicos YubiKey devices are only available in USB and NFC versions.

As for Googles Titan keys, the company says they offer phishing control, work with G Suite and Google Cloud, and are compatible with many websites including Facebook, Dropbox, and Github.

Overall, hardware-based security keys should offer a nice balance between ease-of-use and additional security assuming youre not the sort of person whos constantly losing your keys.

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India field office closes on Aug 1

The government of India has decided to close its filed office in Biratnagar from August 1.The last time the U.S. and China engaged in serious trade negotiations, President Xi Jinpings top economic aide got burned.

Following intense talks in Washington this May, Vice Premier Liu He declared that a trade war had been avoided after China agreed to significantly increase purchases of U.S. goods. In interviews with Chinese media, Liu said Donald Trump showed him respect as Xis special representative, and he had a very strong feeling the U.S. president wanted good relations with Beijing.

But just days later, Trump said the U.S. would slap tariffs on as much as USD50 billion of Chinese imports, a precursor to further escalations. The move torpedoed any progress, and was an embarrassment for Liu.

Now, as both sides hint at the possibility of restarting talks, China is worried that it might get played again, according to three Chinese officials who asked not to be identified discussing strategy. Xis administration still wants to cut a deal with the U.S. and is open to talks, but it will be hard for Chinese negotiators to trust their American counterparts, the people said.

Chinas hesitation shows the difficulty in deescalating trade tensions between the worlds two largest economies, a spat that has increased risks to global growth. It also reflects the high stakes for Xi, who has faced rare rumblings of discontent for his administrations handling of the trade spat after he was elevated to become Chinas most powerful leader in decades.

If another deal is rejected it would also reflect badly on Xi, said Ether Yin, a partner at advisory firm Trivium China in Beijing. Negotiations are about who has the upper hand. If youve been rejected once and then you approach the other party again, it makes you look weak.

In consolidating his rule over the past year, Xi laid out a decades-long vision to bolster the Communist Partys strength at home and turn China into a leading global power abroad. Now Chinese academics, economists and some officials have begun to question whether the leadership couldve done more to avoid a confrontation that may hurt the economy.

Trump has threatened to put tariffs on all Chinese imports to the U.S., and accused China of weakening its currency to gain an advantage on trade. On top of that, Chinas stock market is the worlds worst performer this year among major indexes and an infant vaccine scandal has shocked the nation, making the challenges facing Xis government all the more daunting.

Some people are blaming the backlash against China in all the advanced industrial countries on Xis over-reaching both in foreign policy and domestic politics, said Susan Shirk, a former deputy assistant Secretary of State for East Asia who was in Beijing recently for meetings. They are calling for greater moderation and restraint.

As the impasse drags on, China has experimented with new messages and tactics in a bid to ease tensions, including reaching out to U.S. allies and toning down its rhetoric. In doing so, it has stuck to the red lines it stated previously, including that subsidies for key sectors like artificial intelligence and robotics  a key part of its Made in China 2025 policy  arent up for negotiation.

In early rounds of talks with the Trump administration, China focused on reducing the U.S.s trade deficit, a favorite topic of the American president. Officials in Beijing now recognize that this approach was too narrow, according to two of the people.

One area where they see a possible compromise is regarding intellectual property rights, according to one official. The U.S. has justified tariffs in part based on a Section 301 investigation released earlier this year that accused China of stealing American intellectual property in an effort to dominate the development of advanced technology.

The narrative is that China has been stealing tech from the West and poses a strategic threat, said Yin from Trivium. Thats a charge that China must counterbalance otherwise China will be viewed as a disruptor of international commerce.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang made a point of addressing concerns about intellectual property in China during a session with European business leaders on July 16.

I want to hear if any big company here would like to make a complaint here on the theft of intellectual property, so that I will take great measures, he told a BMW executive. Even after the executive told Li that his biggest concern wasnt intellectual property, the premier persisted in saying how seriously the government takes the issue.

Not only does a focus on intellectual property appeal to the moderates in Trumps cabinet who want a deal, but it could also help China court allies in the fight like Europe and Japan.

European officials in Beijing for the EU-China Summit last week said China adopted an unusually conciliatory tone in discussions, something they attributed partly to what they called the Trump effect. The two sides exchanged offers on a bilateral investment treaty, agreed to their first joint statement in three years, and signed an action plan on protecting intellectual property.

Beijing has also recently taken a more low-key approach to propaganda as it seeks to avoid antagonizing the U.S. and potential allies against Trump. State media have been told to downplay the Made in China 2025 initiative, as well as to avoid talking about Chinas greatness, and focus instead on how China has helped other countries, according to a person familiar with the instructions.

Asked this week if Made in China 2025 was still underway, a spokesman for Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology avoided any sweeping rhetoric while insisting that the initiative was proceeding step by step and at our own pace.

Still, while China has adjusted its tactics, the anger at the U.S. for making one of Xis senior aides look bad remains one of the biggest obstacles to an agreement. Gao Feng, a spokesman at the Ministry of Commerce, said last week that the U.S. is to blame for the standoff.

Some U.S. officials said China is to blame for the collapse of trade talks, which totally goes against the truth, Gao told reporters. Looking back at the entire process, it is the U.S. who behaved capriciously and hasnt honored its words, closing the door for bilateral negotiations. BloombergChina says there will be no room for negotiation in its demand that U.S. airlines describe self-ruled Taiwan as part of China ahead of a deadline this week.

Beijing has insisted that carriers change references to Taiwan on their websites to Taiwan, China by today. Taiwan separated from China amid civil war in 1949 but Beijing continues to claim it as its own territory.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said yesterday that China hopes the U.S. government will urge businesses to follow Chinas requirements. He did not specify how China would punish defiant carriers, saying only that it will wait and see.

The White House has previously criticized the Chinese demand as Orwellian nonsense.Indian nationals arrested with smuggled gold

The metropolitan police airport security office has arrested five Indian nationals with 3.36 kilograms of smuggled gold.Two flight attendants for a Chinese airline were fined and ordered to leave the United States within 72 hours for attempting to smuggle dozens of spotted and box turtles in carry-on bags from Los Angeles to China.

U.S. District Judge S. James Otero ordered Chinese nationals Huaqian Qu, 41, and Renfeng Gao, 31, to pay USD5,500 each to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before returning to China within three days.

They were also sentenced to three years of probation.

The two China Eastern Airlines attendants pleaded guilty last month to a federal conspiracy charge, which carries a possible penalty of up to five years behind bars, said the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Qu and Gao were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on May 12 after special agent Juan Ramirez Amezcua found a total of 31 live spotted turtles and 14 live box turtles in both attendants luggage, according to an affidavit filed in the case.

The two attendants were flagged for inspection after a Transportation Security Administration inspector detected unusual round objects in their bags while conducting an X-ray luggage check, the document shows.

Flight crewmembers could take advantage of the exemptions that crewmembers have to smuggle prohibited items such as wildlife, TSA officials said in the document.

The turtles could have been worth more than $40,000 in Asia, where there is a robust market for turtle species native to the United States, according to Amezcua.

While prosecutors argued for 10-month prison sentences, Otero said the smuggling offense was not violent, and the probationary sentences with fines were sufficient. Ariel Tu, Los Angeles, APThe majority of the members of the 3rd Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) have agreed with the proposal to ban non-Chinese national judges from ruling on cases related to national security, the president of the committee, Vong Hin Fai, said to the media after the meeting held this week.

The majority believes that this amendment is not contrary to the Basic Law, nor to the independence of the courts and the judicial system, Vong said in a Macau Radio report. Vong added that the government believes that, taking into account the sensitive matters that are referred to in the State Security and Defense Law, it is justified that the proceedings relating to these crimes should [be decided using] the competence of permanent judges and Chinese citizens [only], arguments which he said that the majority of the committee members agreed with.

Despite the apparent consensus, the president of the 3rd Committee noted that the members expressed several concerns regarding how the judges permitted to rule on such cases would be chosen. It is only known that the selection will be made by the Council of Judicial Magistrates, headed by the president of the Court of Final Appeal, Sam Hou Fai, but the criteria that guides such a choice remains undisclosed.

For this reason, Vong said that the committee needs to ask for further justification from the government about how the principles of natural justice will be safeguarded and how the distribution of cases will be made.

It was also clear at this stage that in relation to the Public Prosecutions Office, prosecutors will follow the same rule, being selected among those who hold permanent nominations and who are also Chinese citizens.

According to TDM, there are inconsistencies between the Portuguese and the Chinese versions of the law, as in the Portuguese language version it is clearly stated that in cases involving national security, the cases would be judged by more than one judge, but this requirement is in need of clarification in the Chinese version.Jason Chaos defense argued in court yesterday that Macau Concealers was not the first media outlet to publish the name and identity of a University of Macau professor who is being investigated for several cases of sexual harassment.

Chao, a well-known political activist who served as director of Macau Concealers when the 2015 story was published, was unable to attend yesterdays court session, but nominated several of his colleagues at the New Macau Association (ANM) to testify on his behalf.

ANM President Kam Sut Leng testified in court that Macau Concealers was in fact quoting online Chinese media outlet Today Macao when it published the identity of Professor Wang Jianwei as a suspect in the sexual harassment investigations.

She also pointed out that Macau Concealers had contacted the university to verify the story and that the institution had acknowledged that three investigations were pending against the professor.

However, Wang was not satisfied with the response. Though the professor admitted he had no knowledge of the Today Macao report, he argued that Macau Concealers still had a duty to verify that information before publication. He also said that the media outlet had failed to contact him directly.

Wang is suing Jason Chao for MOP50,000 and demanding a public apology on the basis that the report has damaged his personal and professional reputation.

He has previously alluded to Jason Chao and Macau Concealers harboring ulterior motives for wanting to discredit him, but that suggestion was refuted yesterday by Kam who said that Chao had no reason to go after the professor.

Instead, the purpose behind the article was to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual harassment, she said.

Scott Chiang, another ANM activist and former association president, said on the sidelines of the hearing that he was optimistic about the outcome.

He stressed that not only was Macau Concealers not the first to identify Wang, but prior to that specific article, the news outlet had published two other pieces without revealing any information that could definitivelybe said to refer to him.

The court will convene to announce its judgment on September 6. DBThe Court of Final Appeal has ruled that the tender for the construction of a depot for the Light Rail Transit system will need to be reassessed, after one of the interested parties appealed the decision to award the project to China Construction Engineering (Macau) Co. in 2016.

An appeal was initially filed by China Road and Bridge Corporation on the basis of what it deemed was an incorrect assessment of the companys points performance in the bid.

Points were awarded to the seven contenders on the basis of their price (55 percent), experience gained through previous projects (26 percent), plan for the depot project (15 percent), as well as their honesty and integrity (4 percent).

The difference between the winning bid of China Construction Engineering (Macau) and the appellant, China Road and Bridge, was a matter of less than two points.

But China Road and Bridge argued that the government had not fully taken into account the companys experience with previous projects and filed an appeal.

Ultimately, the company said, the decision of the government did not comply with the criteria defined in the tender, thus it must represent a miscalculation.

Earlier this year, the Court of Second Instance decided to cancel the existing contact and halt the construction work.

At the time of the Court of Second Instances ruling, Chief Executive Chui Sai On filed his own appeal arguing that the courts had no authority to intervene in the awarding of a contract, which was a purely administrative matter.

The intervention was rejected by the Court of Final Appeal, which found that the administrative entities behind the tender had no legal basis to compel the courts to respect the governments decision.

The Court of Final Appeal said that the administration is now bound to re-calculate the final scores and determine which proposal has attained the highest, which is done by mere arithmetical operations.

The administration has no margin of discretion, it added.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Transportation Infrastructure Office (GIT) said it was still studying the judgment from the Court of Final Appeal.Twenty-two-year- old Debora Lopes de Oliveira has been chosen to represent Macau in this years Miss Grand International Beauty Pageant.

Currently working as a professional dancer and a fashion model, Debora recently graduated from the University of East London, where she studied Urban Dance Practice. She then joined a female hip-hop group in London with whom she has been performing in different events.

Interviewed by the Times, Debora Lopes de Oliveira talks about her expectations as a local representative in the international contest.

Macau Daily Times (MDT)  How did you get involved in the pageant?

Debora Lopes de Oliveira (DLO)  I visit Macau every year to see my family and friends and this year I came back and I learned about the beauty pageant [Miss Grand Macau] and my brother supported me and motivated me to apply. I really never thought about applying to this kind of contest, as my goals have always been focused on dancing. But, I did look into it and it looked pretty fun and like a really good experience. Then I start to realize that I might be a good representative for Macau as I am part-Chinese and part-Portuguese and also because when I was in England I realized that many people do not know about Macau and its culture, so I was starting to feel like that I wanted to be the voice to promote Macau (through the pageant).

MDT  How does participating in an International Pageant like this change or challenge your daily activities? What are your advantages?

DLO  It is going to be something new to me and definitely is going to be a challenge, but I am a very hard-working person and I want to work hard for this and really help to promote Macau. I think I can use what I already have and the experiences I collected from my years in London, and also the fact of being a dancer. I feel that somehow that part already prepared me to get into this beauty pageant. I think my stage experience will also help me, as I have been performing all my life, since I was very young and that gives me a lot of confidence on stage.

MDT  As with any pageant, this is also composed of several activities and would call for your performance in different areas. What is it that allows you to feel more comfortable and what can provide you with an extra advantage?

DLO  I have been modeling already for some time for my brother [designer Nuno Lopes de Oliveira] for his collections and new fashion designs, so I have also that runway walk experience and I am pretty confident with that. That is one of the areas where I want to shine.

MDT  Do you think that the fact that you were living abroad for some significant time gives you a different sense of belonging to Macau?

DLO Yes, definitely! Going abroad contributed to me learning how to be more independent as well. Macau is quite small and many people are quite reserved  sometimes overprotective. I went to England to study when I was 15 years old and that gave me some sense of independence. Also, because I was abroad, I often had to explain where Macau is and what it is like. That pushed me to learn more and search more about my own place.

MDT  Talking about dance, how do you see the Macau scene at the moment?

DLO  I think it is definitely getting a lot better. I remember that when I was studying in Macau in high school there was not much dancing going on, and that is what pushed me to go abroad to study dance. Now I see a lot of dance studios appearing and also some events happening in the dance industry, and I think it is going to grow. Macau is a diverse city itself. It has a cultural side and a glamorous side but my feeling is that people do not really know much about the cultural side. That is what I will try to do, to provide more insights in[to] this field.

MDT  We have been talking about your experience but we also know about your brother. Do you think there is space in Macau and opportunities for this generation that both of you can be a part of? To return to Macau with the added value of the learning collected abroad.

DLO  Yes, I do think there are some opportunities, but most importantly I would like to say I am really grateful that I have my parents. Not all parents would allow their daughter to go and pursue their dream when they are 14. My parents really believed in me and my brother. They understood that we had a goal, and they really wanted us to be able to do what we wanted to do. I feel that Im very lucky to have parents like my own. That was definitely a very important part, that support from my parents, that I am really grateful for. I know a lot of people who did not have that chance and I am very grateful for all the support that my parents provided along the way.

MDT  Is this the year that Macau will get its first Miss Grand International Winner?

DLO  I sure hope so [laughs]. I will work very hard for this and I really hope I can be the one to boost Macau and let the world know more about our region.

Finals to be in Myanmar

Established in 2013, the Miss Grand International has been gaining momentum over the last couple of years. Among the previous winners are Maria Jose Lora, Peru (2017), Ariska Putri Pertiwi, Indonesia (2016) and Claire Parker, Australia (2015), among others. In Miss Grand Macau 2017, Kayii Lei represented Macau in the contest. Debora will now represent Macau in this years Miss Grand International finals to be held on October 25 in Myanmar.Wildfires raged through seaside resorts near the Greek capital, torching homes, cars and forests and killing at least 74 people, authorities said yesterday. Twenty-six of the dead were believed to be groups of families or friends who were found huddled together, some of them hugging.

Rescue crews were searching the charred remains of homes and cars in the deadliest of the fires, the one in the Rafina area northeast of Athens, and there were fears the death toll could rise. More than 170 people were treated in hospitals for injuries including burns.

The countrys prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, declared three days of national mourning for those killed in the deadliest fire season to hit Greece in more than a decade.

With the flames whipped up by gale-force winds that frequently changed direction, many tourists and residents fled toward the coastline. Some swam out to sea, braving rough water and strong currents to escape the ferocious flames and choking smoke. A flotilla of boats, including some from the coast guard, evacuated more than 700 people by sea from threatened beaches overnight, authorities said.

It happened very fast. The fire was in the distance, then sparks from the fire reached us. Then the fire was all around us, said resident Nikos Stavrinidis, who had gone with his wife to fix up his summer home for a visit by his daughter.

Stavrinidis, his wife and four friends swam out into the sea to escape the smoke, but they quickly became disoriented, losing sight of the shore and being swept out further by the wind and currents.

Two of the group didnt survive.

It is terrible to see the person next to you drowning and not being able to help him, Stavrinidis said, his voice breaking. The remaining survivors were picked up by a fishing boat with an Egyptian crew who jumped into the water to rescue them.

Others never made it to the beach.

The head of Greeces Red Cross, Nikos Oikonomopoulos, told Skai television that a Red Cross rescue team found 26 bodies in a compound northeast of Athens, some of them clutching each other in groups of threes and fours.

Everything happened in seconds, said Andreaas Passios, who lives next to the compound. I grabbed a beach towel. It saved my life. I soaked it, grabbed my wife and we ran to the sea.

Passios said he and his wife stayed by the sea for two hours.

It was unbelievable. Gas canisters were exploding. Burning pine cones were flying everywhere, he said.

When the flames died down, Spyros Hadjiandreou came searching for loved ones.

My niece and cousin were staying here on holiday. I dont know if they made it out, he said. I dont know if they are OK. I havent heard from them.

The death toll stood at 50, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said yesterday morning.

Later, the Health Ministrys emergency operations said 71 adults continued to be hospitalized, 10 of them in serious condition. Twenty-three children were also being treated for injuries in hospitals, none of them in serious condition. APChinese vaccine maker Changsheng Bio-Technology is now subject to a police investigation after the countrys drug regulator accused it of fabricating production and inspection records for a rabies vaccine given to infants.

The investigation has prompted fears that mainland consumers will opt to have their children vaccinated in either Macau or Hong Kong, as has happened during previous scandals. Observers are warning that it could lead to another shortage in the two special administrative regions of China.

The Health Bureau stated yesterday that it is not supplied by the company that is under investigation.

Changsheng is subject to investigations by multiple mainland authorities, including the drug regulator and Chinas top anti-corruption body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), which opened an investigation into suspected corruption yesterday.

The CCDI said it would severely punish any local regulatory officials found guilty of dereliction of duty in supervising Changsheng. Some clues and reports of corruption related to Changsheng and its executives have already been received, the corruption watchdog said in a statement.

Although there are no reports of anyone being harmed by the product, Changsheng has been ordered to halt production and recall the vaccine in its entirety. This may account for some 252,000 substandard DPT vaccines, intended to protect children against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

The firms stock plunged by its daily limit of 10 percent early yesterday following news of the production halt and police investigation. The fall is the seventh straight session of maximum decline, taking the stock to its lowest level in three years. Reuters reported that the loss is equivalent to USD1.8 billion being wiped from Changshengs Shenzhen-listed shares over the last two weeks.

The incident has sparked public outcry on the mainland, with Chinese netizens swarming in the millions to express their anger, and Chinas Global Times describing the reaction as an internet tsunami.

The anger was fueled by whistleblower reports that suggested regulators found production problems at Changsheng as early as November, but did not publicize their findings or announce a recall until July.

Chinese internet censors were quick to monitor such reports, but have provided significant leeway for online news outlets to pursue the story. The hashtag Changsheng makes fake vaccines has garnered over 100 million views on microblogging platform Weibo.

Meanwhile, the top leadership in the country is still scrambling to shore up public confidence, reported the Associated Press.

Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement that Changsheng violated a moral bottom line. He pledged an immediate investigation of the company and to resolutely crack down on violations that endanger public safety.

President Xi Jinping echoed those remarks, while police in Changchun, a city in northeastern China, announced that the companys chief executive and four other executives had been placed under investigation. MDT/AgenciesPeople often ask Japanese tidying queen Marie Kondo what containers they need to achieve her brand of organizational success. They expect her to reveal some hitherto secret storage weapon, she explains in her popular book.

Instead, she advised when The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was first published in Japanese in 2011, You can solve your storage problems with things you already have in the house.

But Kondos thinking has evolved as shes leveraged her massive, global fan base to expand her empire. Shes now got an upcoming Netflix show, a fledgling corps of consultants working around the world to help her fans declutter their homes, and, yesterday, shes launched her first product line: six-piece sets of beautiful, sturdy paper boxes for USD89 a pop.

In a recent appearance in Manhattan to announce the show and merchandise line, Kondo said she thinks lovely storage options will spark the life-changing joy she wrote about in her book, which has sold more than 10 million copies in 40-plus countries. She also hopes the boxes will motivate more people to actually complete all the steps in her laborious KonMari Method of sorting, tossing and putting things away in their right and righteous locations.

The new storage sets are the shape and size of shoe boxes. (Her book had recommended using real shoe boxes for organizing.) Smaller boxes in the set are akin to iPhone boxes (another reuse hack she recommends). All are intended to be of service on shelves or in drawers (the sets are called Hikidashi, which means drawer in Japanese) to hold such things as sunglasses, handbags, papers, socks, undergarments and T-shirts, the latter three lovingly folded in the flat, KonMari-sanctioned way so they stand upright.

Im probably the only person in the world who makes such an official occasion to introduce empty boxes, the soft-spoken mother of two recently told a small gathering of journalists through a translator as she unveiled the containers. These are meant to enhance your experience of the KonMari Method.

The boxes will also enhance her bottom line. Since Kondo unleashed the best-selling Life-Changing Magic, including an English translation in 2014, shes published three other books, earned a spot on Time magazines 2015 list of 100 most influential people and given birth to two girls, now 3 and nearly 2.

She has given birth to a new business as well: consultants certified by her and sent forth into homes in 23 countries, from Europe and the Americas to Australia and the Middle East. As for her new show, Netflix ordered an initial eight episodes of her series of home consultations but will say little else on the record.

For now, its all about the boxes, in pale pink, soft gray, taupe and purple watercolor designs. The sets are dubbed Wonder, Harmony, Clarity and Balance. Customers ordering the containers, for delivery in mid-September from her website, konmari.com , will receive a series of emails and other help online to guide them through the tidying process.

Perhaps more importantly, she hopes to connect devotees to one another online via her take on social networking.

I often hear that it is very difficult to sustain your motivation to tidy when youre doing it all by yourself, so I very much feel that having this community is very important, Kondo said. Leanne Italie, New York, APA hydroelectric dam collapsed in southeastern Laos, leaving an unknown number of people dead and hundreds missing, state media said yesterday. Rescue efforts were underway as top government officials rushed to the site and public appeals were launched for aid.

The official Lao news agency KPL said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam in Attapeu province collapsed Monday evening, releasing cascades of water that swept away houses, flooded villages and made more than 6,600 people homeless.

The dam was made by a joint venture led by South Korean companies with Thai and Lao partners, and was still under construction. KPL described the portion that collapsed as a saddle dam, which is an auxiliary dam used to hold water beyond what is held by the main dam.

South Koreas Yonhap News Agency quoted an unidentified official at SK Engineering & Construction, one of the two South Korean partners in the project, as saying rain in the area was triple the usual amount, and one of five auxiliary dams had overflowed.

Many areas of Laos have recently been hit by floods from heavy seasonal rains.

KPL said the disaster claimed several human lives and left hundreds of people missing, without providing details.

Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended the planned monthly meeting of the government for August and led his Cabinet members and other senior officials to Sanamxay [district] to monitor rescue and relief efforts being made for flood victims, KPL said.

Provincial authorities issued a call for emergency aid  clothing, food, drinking water, medicine, cash and other items  from the party, government organizations, business community, officials, police and military forces and people of all strata.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in Asia. It has transitioned from communism to a market economy but remains a single-party state where freedoms are limited. There is virtually no freedom of the press, and foreign reporters who visit operate under tight restrictions, limiting the flow of information.

Electricity from several hydroelectric dams provides a large share of Laos export earnings, with Thailand being a major buyer.

KPL said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy project cost an estimated USD1.02 billion. Much of the financing came from Thai lenders.

According to the website of the company that built and runs the dam, it is majority-owned by SK E&C and Korea Western Power. The Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Co. Ltd of Thailand holds a 25 percent stake and the Lao Holding State Enterprise holds 24 percent.

The dam was built to divert the Houay Makchanh, Xe-Namnoy and Xe-Pian rivers into reservoirs that feed into a 410-megawatt power plant that is due to begin operations in 2019. Only 10 percent of the power generated was to be used locally, with 90 percent exported to Thailand.

Laos is supposed to receive taxes, royalties and other income estimated at $33 billion per year from the dam.

According to project assessment documents, about 30 villages were affected by the project with more than 2,000 people in eight villages resettled. Roughly 10,000 people live in the affected area, with most belonging to ethnic minorities.

The project was supposed to be a cash cow for SK E&C, a part of the SK Group, one of South Koreas top three conglomerates whose businesses include SK Hynix, the worlds second-

largest chipmaker, and SK Telecom, South Koreas largest telecoms carrier.

South Koreas Yonhap News agency reported that SK E&C sent its president to Laos and set up an emergency team in Seoul. The company did not respond to several calls seeking comment.

SK E&C was still trying to find out whether water had overflowed the dam or if the dam had collapsed, but efforts were mainly focused on rescuing people stranded by the flooding, Yonhap said. Elaine Kurtenbach & Youkyung Lee, Bangkok, APThe month-long 32nd Macao International Music Festival (MIMF) will be held from September 28, offering 16 programs across 22 performances, with the budget predicted to remain at MOP30 million.

Themed Enjoy  The Moment in Music, this years MIMF kicks off with the opera LElisir DAmore by the Zurich Opera House, inviting the renowned German director Grischa Asagaroff.

The festival will close with two concerts by the Staatskapelle Dresden and conductor Christian Thielemann, who will interpret Schumanns complete symphonies, presenting the work of the romantic German composer of the 19th century.

Acting president of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Ieong Chi Kin, announced in a press conference yesterday that this years budget is similar to last years.

The amount of money predicted [to be spent] is thirty million, which is quite similar to last years amount, Ieong told the press.

Highlights of the show will include a quartet from Salzburg, who will perform a concert of German and Austrian classics which will allow the public to experience the evolution of the string quartet through a musical journey.

Jamaican jazz pianist Monty Alexander will take to the stage with his trio to present A Life in Jazz and interpret jazz songs, while British choir Stile Antico will present the concert, Queen of Muses, featuring a selection of British Renaissance music composed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

The same ensemble will further offer the concert, Tenebrae Responsories, taking the audience on a journey of Catholic music by Spanish Renaissance composer Tomas Luis de Victoria.

Combining the rumba flamenco with Portuguese fado, the Portuguese ensemble, Sangre Iberico, will present a night of Latin music in the concert, Portugal Meets Spain.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Italian composer Gioachino Rossini, the MIMF will present the opera, Il Signor Bruschino.

The Camerata Salzburg, hailing from Mozarts hometown, will also join hands with acclaimed French violinist Renaud Capucon to present two of Mozarts violin concertos and two contrasting symphonies by Haydn.

The renowned Brazilian cellist, Antonio Meneses, is also set to perform in the city to present a repertoire, including Bachs Cello Suite.

Meanwhile, the music director of the Macao Orchestra, Lu Jia, will join hands with the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra to present the original version of Anton Bruckners magnum opus, Symphony No. 8 in C Minor (1887).

Conductor Liu Sha will lead the Macao Chinese Orchestra and join with Guo Yazhi, an icon of the suona circle of China, to present Nostalgic Lane, while the Guangdong National Orchestra will present Cantonese Rhyme along the Silk Road.

Two electronic music bands, EVADE from Macau and FM3 from Beijing, will perform at the soon-to-open Navy Shipyard No 2.

In addition, the special concert Bravo Macao! will bring to the stage two young local percussionists, Hoi Lei Lei and Raymond Vong.

Meanwhile, the MIMF Outreach Programme will feature a total of 13 activities in six categories, including talks, pre-show talks, backstage tours, master classes, meet-the-artists sessions and workshops.

Highlights will include Brazilian cellist Antonio Meneses, who will conduct a master class in this edition of MIMF, mentoring local cello students, while the organizer will hold a backstage tour of the opera LElisir dAmore, to explore how the costumes, props and sets help to create the scene of an Italian village in the 19th century.

Navy Shipyard No 2 to open for public use in October

The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) has announced that the Navy Shipyard No 2 will open to the public in October to host a concert included in the Music Festival.

Earlier in July, the IC completed a sound test and concluded that the noise will not heavily affect the surroundings. The venue is next to Navy Shipyard No 1, nearby A Ma temple, which holds art exhibitions. It took three years to revamp and cost MOP13 million. It has a capacity for 100 persons.

The place will focus on performing electrical music, modern music and orchestras. While we are doing some finishing touches now, we hope to open this place for users in the latter half of the year, said Ieong.

We hope to have more sites for different types of local music bands to reveal their talents and abilities. [] We hope to regenerate the place into a more relaxing and cultural site, the acting president added. He pledged that musical associations will be able to use the space for free.Industry of terror

Abduction, extortion and looting have been the backbone of insurgency and terrorism in IndiaU

.S. talks with North Korea and trade tensions with China were among the topics U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis were expected to discuss with their Australian counterparts at a two-day meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Pompeo, Mattis, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne were scheduled to hold a news conference today [Macau time] at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University  the second day of the gathering.

The annual meeting between the two countries always includes discussions about security.

The U.S. Department of State said this years talks would focus on threats in the Indo-Pacific region and cooperation to defeat Islamic State militants. China and North Korea were also on the table.

The U.S. and China are locked in a trade dispute playing out in a tariff tit-for-tat between the two nations. The U.S., meanwhile, is pushing North Korea to dismantle its nuclear and missile programs entirely.

Pompeo was recently in North Korea to continue talks. President Donald Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a historic summit in Singapore on June 12, but the North has yet to take concrete steps toward denuclearizing, nor has it returned the remains of some U.S. service members, as was promised as part of the two-page agreement signed in Singapore. APNorth Korea appears to have started dismantling key facilities at its main satellite launch site in a step toward fulfilling a commitment made by leader Kim Jong Un at his summit with President Donald Trump in June.

While Pyongyang could be trying to build trust with Washington as they engage in talks to resolve the nuclear standoff, analysts say dismantling a few facilities at the site alone wouldnt realistically reduce North Koreas military capability or represent a material step toward denuclearization. And they expressed concern that the work is being done without verification.

The North Korea-focused 38 North website said commercial satellite images from July 20 to 22 indicate the North began dismantling key facilities at the Sohae launch site. The facilities being razed or disassembled include a rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles and a rail- mounted processing building where space launch vehicles were assembled before being moved to the launch pad, according to the report.

Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the Norths intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea, analyst Joseph Bermudez wrote in the report.

An official from South Koreas presidential office said yesterday that Seoul has also been detecting dismantlement activities at the Sohae launch site but did not specify what the North was supposedly taking apart.

Other analysts said North Korea is giving up little in dismantling the rocket engine test site when its clear the country is satisfied with its current design of long-range weapons and could easily build other similar facilities if needed in the future.

Adam Mount, a senior defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said its also troubling that the North has been apparently allowed to duck verification by unilaterally dismantling parts of its nuclear and missile facilities without the presence of international inspectors. In May, North Korea invited foreign journalists to observe the destruction of tunnels at its nuclear testing ground, but did not invite outside experts capable of certifying what had been destroyed.

The actions at Sohae are a helpful signal that Pyongyang wants to continue negotiations, but do not in themselves advance nuclear disarmament, Mount said in an email. North Korea still has not disclosed or offered to dismantle facilities that produce or store nuclear or missile systems, or the means to transport the missiles. So far, the facilities dismantled have been peripheral to these core functions.

Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Koreas Science and Technology Policy Institute, said the Norths supposed move to dismantle the rail-mounted processing building was the more meaningful development as it potentially indicated to broader dismantlement activities at the site.

If North Korea goes further and dismantles the entire Sohae site, that would meaningfully reduce the countrys long-range missile capability by eliminating a facility where it could fire multiple ICBMs in succession, Lee said. The North can also fire ICBMs from transporter erector launchers, but their technology with these vehicles isnt stable.

However, Mount said the military consequences of a broader dismantlement would be marginal. North Korea has invested a great deal of effort in ensuring its missiles can be fired from austere locations and doesnt require a site like Sohae, he said.

Dismantling a test site does not seriously constrain the existing arsenal or even future designs, said Mount. While it would be a significant step for the regime to shut down its space launch programs, it has always argued that these programs are distinct from military ones. Easing the missile threat would require restrictions on the number, types, or capabilities of missiles or the vehicles that transport and fire them.

After his summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12, Trump said he was told by Kim that the North was already destroying a major missile engine testing site without identifying which site. The leaders concluded their summit by declaring their vague aspirational goal of moving toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but theres lingering doubts on whether Kim would ever agree to fully give up the nuclear weapons that he may see as a stronger guarantee of his survival than whatever security assurances the United States can provide.

In late 2017, Kim declared his nuclear weapons and missile program was complete, following a torrent of nuclear and missile tests that included the detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and flight tests of three developmental ICBMs potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Kim announced the mission of his nuclear testing site as finished weeks before inviting foreign journalists to observe the destruction of the tunnels.

The South Korean presidential official, who didnt want to be named, citing office rules, said the supposed dismantlement activities shows the North is moving gradually.

We need further analysis to figure out why the North didnt turn the dismantlement activities into an event and whether the country is trying to control the speed of the process to maintain a pace it wants, he said. Kim Tong-Hyung, Seoul, APThe process of Portugal issuing public debt in the Chinese market by means of Panda bonds or debt contracted by foreign entities in Chinese currency is in its final phase, Finance Minister Mario Centeno recently stated.

The Portuguese government hopes to raise up to 380 million euros (nearly 3 billion yuan) in bonds in Chinese currency, an operation that has been worked on for more than a year, following the finance ministers visit to Beijing in May 2017.

In September of that year Portugal announced the issue of public debt in Chinese currency and named the Bank of China, HSBC and Portugals state bank Caixa Geral de Depositos to work on issuing the Panda bonds authorized by Beijing. On that occasion Minister Mario Centeno announced that the bonds to issue would have a maturity of five years.

Portugal has become one of the main destinations of Chinese investment in Europe, with Chinese companies acquiring significant parts of EDP Energias de Portugal, Redes Energeticas Nacionais (REN) and the Fidelidade insurance company, for example.

Last May the state group China Three Gorges launched a bid to take shareholding control of the groups EDP Energias de Portugal and EDP Renovaveis. If it succeeds, that operation will require a financial effort of more than 10 billion euros. MDT/MacauhubVictims of a mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival said they were outraged when they learned they were being sued by the company that owns the hotel where the gunman opened fire.

Jason McMillan, a 36-year-old Riverside County sheriffs deputy who was shot and paralyzed, said he cant believe MGM officials would try to foist blame onto anyone but themselves.

I just cant believe the audacity, McMillan said at a press conference in Southern California where survivors, victims relatives and attorneys railed against the decision to file lawsuits against hundreds of victims.

Im not just a victim from the concert. Im a survivor, and theyre not going to get away with anything. Well keep this going as long as it takes, McMillan said.

MGM Resorts International sued victims in at least seven states last week in a bid to get federal courts to declare the company has no liability for the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

In October, high-stakes gambler Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds at the festival by firing onto the crowd from his room at the Mandalay Bay casino-resort in Las Vegas. Paddock then killed himself.

MGMs lawsuits  which target victims who have threatened to sue or who have sued the company and voluntarily dismissed their claims  argue that that the shooting qualifies as an act of terrorism and that federally certified security services were used at the concert venue, which is also owned by MGM.

After 9/11, the U.S. enacted a law giving companies a way to limit their liability if their federally certified products or services failed to prevent a terror attack.

The companys decision to file the lawsuits stoked a public outcry. On Monday, MGM Resorts spokeswoman Debra DeShong said the company has faced dozens of lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions and resolving each case on its own would take years.

We believe Congress determined these cases should be in federal court and that getting everyone in the same court is the best and fastest way to resolve these cases, she said.

McMillan said he felt helpless at the concert when he fell to the ground and couldnt feel his legs. His girlfriend helped drag his body over a fence and others helped load him onto the back of a pickup truck where he lay staring at the night sky, struggling to breathe, while the driver plowed over curbs and through bushes to rush him and other victims to the hospital.

When he woke, doctors told him he had a bullet in his spine. He was afraid his 4- and 7-year-old daughters would look at him differently in a wheelchair. He was afraid of what they might miss out on, he said, because of him.

It was insulting to learn he was being sued by MGM at the same time he was struggling to rebuild his life, McMillan said. And it brought him right back to feeling helpless again.

It enrages me to think that this company can just try to skip out on their responsibilities and their liability for what happened, he said. Amy Taxin, Newport Beach, APChildren in traditionally Buddhist Tibet have been banned from taking part in religious activities over the summer holidays, an official Chinese Communist Party newspaper has reported.

The Global Times quoted an education official in the regional capital of Lhasa as saying that students were required to sign an agreement to not take part in any form of religious activity during the break.

The policy appears to reflect increasingly harsh restrictions on the Himalayan regions traditional Buddhist culture, largely aimed at reducing the influence of the regions spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India.

The students are following the regulation under the guidance of their parents and teachers, the paper said, quoting Choephel, the head of the political education department at Lhasa Middle School, who like many Tibetans uses just one name.

No phone number was available for the department and Chinese authorities severely limit foreign journalists access to Tibet. The report was viewed on the papers website yesterday.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for more than seven centuries and regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist.

Many Tibetans insist they were essentially independent before the Communist Partys Peoples Liberation Armys battled its way into the Himalayan region in 1950.

The presence of security forces was increased significantly after deadly anti-government rioting broke out in Lhasa in 2008 and spread quickly through Tibetan-inhabited areas in western China.

Buddhist religious institutions that form the backbone of the regions culture have become a particular target of the authorities.

The overseas-based International Campaign for Tibet reported earlier this month that young Tibetan monks were forced to leave one of the biggest monasteries in a Tibetan region of western China as part of a drive to replace monastic life with secular education.

That threatens to cut the transmission of religious knowledge and monastic tradition between monks of different generations, the organization said.

Recent months have also seen sweeping crackdowns on traditional Muslim culture among the Uighur ethnic minority group in the northwestern region of Xinjiang and among Christians in eastern China. APThe exchange of rhetorical fire between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and U.S. President Donald Trump was aimed mainly at their respective domestic audiences. Both leaders are under political pressure, and hope to relieve it by a show of verbal force against a familiar enemy. Both will probably find that the tactic backfires.

Rouhani kicked things off on Sunday, saying: Mr. Trump, dont play with the lions tail, this would only lead to regret. Trump responded with an all-caps blitz on Twitter: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE.

Its revealing that Trump chose to rise to Rouhanis bait, given the daily barrage of taunts from Tehran (including some from the more powerful and much more conservative supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei). Rouhani happened to catch the U.S. president at an especially vulnerable moment: Trump is fighting the perception that he came off the loser in his Helsinki summit with Russias Vladimir Putin.

Rouhani has problems of his own. When the U.S. abrogated the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal  his signature achievement  he was forced to tack to the right. Egged on by hardliners in Tehran, he has threatened to prevent other countries from exporting oil if Irans own exports are halted by U.S. sanctions.

The escalation in threatening language is dangerous: A single Iranian speedboat captain, overreacting to his presidents tough talk, could spark a crisis on the Strait of Hormuz. But even if things dont go that far, neither leader is likely to profit from these outbursts. Rouhanis use of Saddam Husseinesque language  War with Iran is the mother of all wars  wont earn him the political capital to restart his long-stalled reform agenda. And Trumps upper-case thundering will serve to unite Irans moderates and hardliners, undermining efforts by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to foment greater dissent.

Trump should stand back and let the sanctions do their work  choking the Iranian economy, deepening ordinary Iranians dissatisfaction with their government, and pressuring the regime to sue for terms. His energies are better spent on persuading allies, still smarting from his unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, that constraining Iran will get results. Thundering tweets wont help: Germanys government admonished the U.S. that threats of war are never helpful.

Much the same goes for Rouhani. He should stop playing the tough guy. It doesnt suit him, and it will earn him no respect from the hardliners who regard him with open contempt. Hed be wise to use what little room for maneuver he has to push for reforms that would relieve Iranians economic and political frustrations. And if he cant do that, it would be better to say nothing. The Editors, BloombergBank Alkhair has pulled out of Alkhair capital 10 years after getting 75 per cent of the Turkish investment firm.

The Bahraini entity, according to Reuters, received approval to transfer its 95.79 per cent shareholding of Alkhair Capital to Ankara-based A1 Capital.

Bank Alkhair acquired Alkhair Capital in 2007 after it bought 75 per cent of the firm. Business constraints in the Turkish market forced the bank to review its operation plans and consider an exit.

The bank early this year announced cease of its Islamic banking activities in Bahrain and convert the loss-making business into a holding company, Reuters notes.

It also withdrew from Pakistan after selling its stakes in local Burj Bank.Morocco will see returns from a fisheries deal with the EU rise to 52.2 as the two parties concluded negotiations for a new agreement Tuesday in Rabat.

The new deal kept unchanged at 128 the number of vessels allowed to fish in Moroccan waters. The amount of the catch was also kept un-changed, the agriculture and fisheries ministry said in a statement.

The two parties also agreed to make the local population benefit from the deal through increasing the number of Moroccan staff in EU vessels, improving infrastructure, basic social services and vocational training, inter alia.

The deal also provides for environmental protection and the preservation of bio-diversity, agriculture and fisheries minister Aziz Akhannouch said at the signing ceremony of the deal in Rabat.

Morocco welcomed the deal after the end of negotiations as a milestone in bilateral cooperation with the EU and voiced satisfaction that the new deal will cover all Moroccan waters including those adjacent to the Sahara provinces.

Morocco has defended its rights and interests through this agreement that will allow bilateral relations to break the impasse since the Moroccan Sahara provinces were included in this agreement, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita was quoted by the media as saying.

Minister of Agriculture and Maritime Fisheries Aziz Akhannounch, one of the main negotiators for the renewal of this agreement, confirmed that the 4-year agreement includes the Saharan provinces and offers the local populations the possibility to benefit from the advantages of this agreement.

EU ambassador to Morocco, Claudia Wiedey welcomed the deal, which she described as beneficial for Morocco and the EU.

The agreement includes fishing in the Saharan areas of Morocco, she confirmed during the signing ceremony. It is a win-win agreement, she said.

The deal will come into force upon approval by the European Council and the European Parliament.Madhes movement campaigners decry discriminatory relief

Some victims of 2007 and 2015 Madhes movements have accused Province 2 government of discrimination during relief distribution.July 25, 2018 22:20

Scientists have cautioned that soaring climate temperatures around the globe could put our physical health at risk, such as with the spread of certain infectious diseases or food shortages.

Now, a new study sheds light on the possible mental health implications of climate change.

According to CNN, the study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Monday, suggests that when there are abnormally hot temperatures in a month, there also tend to be higher suicide rates for that month, compared with the suicide rate that occurs when the month has normal average temperatures.

Then, when using the data to make predictions, the study suggests that suicide rates in the United States and Mexico could rise with each 1-degree Celsius increase in a month's average temperature.

"So we take a specific location and we take a specific month, and we compare cooler versions of that month to hotter versions of that month, and we ask, 'Are suicide rates different during those two months?' We indeed find that they are," said Marshall Burke, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and lead author of the study.

"We find a very consistent relationship between temperature increases and increases in suicide risk," Burke said, adding that the study findings in no way suggest that temperature is the only -- or most important -- factor associated with suicide.

"Suicide is a very complex phenomenon. It's still not that well-understood, and there are many other risk factors beyond climate that are important for suicide risk," he said.

Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death overall in the United States, claiming the lives of nearly 45,000 people in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Globally, close to 800,000 people die by suicide each year, and 78% of global suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.

Full article: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/23/health/climate-change-suicide-rates-study-intl-wxc/index.html

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and TwitterCredit: University of Nottingham

Children and young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at an increased risk of injury, a study at the University of Nottingham has found.

The research, published in the journal Child: Care, Health & Development, shows that children with the developmental disorder are more likely to suffer a broken bone, sustain a burn or become the victim of an accidental poisoning.

The researchers say the results support the need for paediatricians and healthcare professionals to provide injury advice to the children and their families at the time of diagnosis and at regular reviews with paediatricians, GPs, nurses and pharmacists.

The research was carried out by Dr. Vibhore Prasad as part of his Ph.D. at Nottingham in collaboration with Professor Denise Kendrick in the University's Division of Primary Care and was supported by the National Institute of Health Research. Collaborators also included Dr. Joe West from the Division of Public Health and Epidemiology and Professor Kapil Sayal from the Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Prasad, who is now NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in General Practice at King's College London, also works as a GP in Nottingham.

He said: "It may come as no surprise that children and young people with ADHD, who are more impulsive and less attentive than children without the disorder, are at an increased risk of injuries. However, these are the most detailed estimates to date for the risk of fractures, burns and poisonings, which are common types of injury."

"The results are significant because injuries are a leading cause of ill-health and deaths in children. So educating parents and carers of children with ADHD about the risks and what they can do to prevent injury could prevent a major cause of illness or even deaths."

Common injuries

The study looked at medical records of children and young people aged between three and 17 years old from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a primary care database containing the records of around 12 million people from 625 GP practices and representing around eight per cent of the population of the UK. The findings were based on around half of the patients from England who also had linked hospital medical records.

The research focused on the three common forms of injury in children  fractures, burns and poisonings  after diagnosis of ADHD and results showed a significant increase in the risk of injury.

Children and young people with ADHD were four times more likely to be accidentally poisoned, twice as likely to sustain a burn and had a 25 per cent increased risk of breaking a bone.

Children and young people with ADHD regularly see paediatricians, GPs and pharmacists but guidance from organisations such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the American Academy of Pediatrics does not currently recommend counselling parents and carers on the risk of injury.

The researchers say this study shows that more should be done at diagnosis, medication reviews and follow-up visits to educate families on age-appropriate injury prevention.

More information: Vibhore Prasad et al. Injury among children and young people with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the community: The risk of fractures, thermal injuries, and poisonings, Child: Care, Health and Development (2018). Vibhore Prasad et al. Injury among children and young people with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in the community: The risk of fractures, thermal injuries, and poisonings,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/cch.12591Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of tiny molecules that work together to make cancer cells less aggressive has been discovered by Australian researchers.

The molecules, called microRNAs, could potentially be combined with chemotherapy to more effectively block cancer growth.

The teamwork was discovered by systems biology research, which applies mathematical and computational science to study complex regulatory networks within cells.

The research, published in this month's issue of Cell Systems, was led by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists Dr. Melissa Davis and Dr. Joseph Cursons, along with collaborators at the University of South Australia.

The study focused on a reversible switch, called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), that allows cells to detach and spread through the body. Dr. Davis said cancer cells that have made this switch are often more deadly and difficult to treat.

"Tumours that have undergone EMT are often more aggressive, more likely to metastasise and respond poorly to standard chemotherapy. EMT is linked to poor outcome in many cancers, particularly breast cancer," Dr. Davis said. "Our goal is to shift cancer cells back to a less aggressive state where they are more sensitive to treatment."

MicroRNAs are small DNA-like molecules encoded in the genome that can alter the expression of other genes. The research team focused on a microRNA called miR-200c that has been shown to partially reverse EMTpotentially reducing the spread of tumours.

"We found that the main player, miR-200c, is much more powerful at reversing EMT when it cooperates with other microRNAs," Dr. Davis said.

Dr. Cameron Bracken from the University of South Australia's Centre for Cancer Biology said that microRNAs could potentially be used as a treatment for cancer.

"There is tremendous hope that microRNAs can be used as therapy for cancer sufferers, ultimately leading to safer and more effective treatment strategies," he said.

Dr. Cursons said that by combining the molecules in an 'all-star team,' they could reduce the amount of each individual player, making potential therapies safer and more feasible.

"Laboratory experiments are usually performed with far greater amounts of microRNAs than ever seen in the body, triggering unintended consequences. Combining the molecules in a team meant we could use less of each player and avoid these dangerous side effects," he said. "These small changes in microRNA level would also be easier to achieve therapeutically."

Dr. Davis believes the microRNAs they discovered will be most useful in combination with other standard treatments.

"This team of microRNAs could help shift cancer cells to a state where they are more susceptible to being killed by standard treatments, advancing the goal of destroying the cancer cells and making it less likely for patients to develop drug resistance," she said.

Dr. Davis said their systems biology approach had allowed them to uncover subtle relationships between molecules that had not been appreciated before.

"If we had just looked at the microRNAs one at a time, we would not have detected this cooperation," Dr. Davis said. "This shows the value of using a holistic, network-based approach to unravel the complexities of cancer."

Explore further Molecular 'rabble-rouser' fuels pancreatic cancer growth

More information: Joseph Cursons et al, Combinatorial Targeting by MicroRNAs Co-ordinates Post-transcriptional Control of EMT, Cell Systems (2018). Journal information: Cell Systems Joseph Cursons et al, Combinatorial Targeting by MicroRNAs Co-ordinates Post-transcriptional Control of EMT,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2018.05.019Do you have a persistent cough, or do you feel like your hair is thinning? These issues may signal that you need to visit a doctor. Baylor College of Medicine expert Isabel Valdez, a physician assistant and instructor of family and community medicine, discusses some clues your body may giving you about your health.

Cough

"Often when patients come in with a cough that has been going on for several months and there are no signs of an infection, we consider rare causes like acid reflux," Valdez said. "Many people don't usually associate a cough with acid reflux but it is one of the top causes of cough when you have stomach problems like indigestion."

A cough also could be a sign of allergies. A chronic cough can develop over time because mucus is draining through the back of the throat and irritating it.

Certain blood pressure medications also can cause a cough so it is important to visit with your doctor if you are on these medications and develop a cough.

Unintentional weight loss

If you are experiencing unintentional weight loss, it is a good idea to visit your doctor and have bloodwork done to check for a deficiency, blood sugar problems or thyroid issues, Valdez explained.

Weight loss can be a sign of a problem in patients that already have other medical conditions such as diabetes. If a person with diabetes notices that they are losing weight, it could be mean that their blood sugars levels are not in the range of what they should be or it could be suggestive of a complication of their diabetes.

"Although rare, severe and sudden weight loss can signal that a cancer such as leukemia is present," Valdez said. "If this is suspected, we do a blood test called a complete blood count."

Changes in bowel movements

If you are having frequent stomach aches or changes in the bowels, Valdez said it could signal that you have developed an intolerance to a certain food that you are eating.

Bowel habits also can change if you have been on antibiotics, she said. This can occur because antibiotics, especially strong ones, can kill off the good bacteria that help keep your gut flora balanced so it is important to replace that good bacteria with probiotics.

Bowel problems and stomach aches can be caused by stress or anxiety as well. Sometimes when you are extremely anxious, you may eat or drink foods that are less healthy for you, which can irritate the lining of your stomach or even change your bowel movements.

Thinning hair

If you feel like your hair is thinning and falling out excessively, this could be a signal that there is an issue with your thyroid, she said. Additionally, thinning hair or changes in the hair can be a sign of vitamin or nutritional deficiency.

If you have had any major change, such as a pregnancy or are recovering from a surgery, your hair can thin out because your body is focusing all of its energies into helping you heal, which takes away from its ability to produce the cells that help your hair grow at the rate it usually would.

Changes with your skin

Valdez said that if you have dry skin, this could mean that there may be an issue with your thyroid. However, dry skin also can be a sign that your body is not properly hydrated.

If you notice rashes that are pink in color on your legs, particularly near the ankles, that do not cause itching or discomfort, it is important that you see your doctor to make sure that you are not having circulation issues. These patches of pink are called venous stasis dermatitis.

If you notice that you are bleeding easily and frequently or bruises take too long to heal, it could mean that you are having a clotting issue that may require testing.

"While it can be tempting to put off getting these issues checked out until your yearly physical, it is extremely important that if you have had any unusual symptoms for more than a month to go visit your healthcare provider sooner rather than later," Valdez said. "However, if you've had a problem and you are using your physical as a way to broach that issue with your doctor, mention the issue as soon as your doctor walks in so that your doctor can use the time with you appropriately and make the right decisions as far as testing and follow-up."

Explore further How to tell if your symptoms are cold, flu or allergiesAs summer winds down, parents and children are preparing for the start of the school year, but for children with food allergies, heading to school for the first time can come with significant stress and anxiety. When a child is at school, they're away from the watchful eye of their parentsthose who can best control their children's exposure to allergens and recognize symptoms of a reaction. This issue affects more families than ever before as the number of children with food allergies has risen to one in 13, or about two per classroom.

"Ensuring that parents and school personnel are all on the same page as far as preventing exposures and treating symptoms is critical to keeping food-allergic children safe," said BJ Lanser, MD, Director of the Pediatric Food Allergy Program at National Jewish Health in Denver. "In severe cases, a child doesn't even have to eat a food to have life-threatening anaphylaxis. Just sitting next to a student who has food they're allergic to can trigger a reaction."

Lanser says a few simple preparations before the school year starts can go a long way in protecting a child from an accidental exposure to allergens.

"The simpler you can make it for everyone at the school, the better," said Dr. Lanser. "Things like food allergy alert bracelets can be useful to make sure that anyone who comes in contact with that student throughout the day can easily identify them and assist them when needed." Dr. Lanser offers four simple tips that can help parents prepare to send their food-allergic child to school and provide some peace of mind that they will remain healthy in the classroom.

Meet with school staff members  Before the school year begins, meet with teachers, principals, nurses and cafeteria staff members. This ensures that everyone is informed and allows a parent to understand how their child's school manages food allergies. "Given the prevalence of food allergies, it's something that schools are certainly aware of and there are policies in place to ensure students' safety," said Dr. Lanser. "Meeting with school personnel allows parents to ask questions and inform staff members about their child's specific needs. It also helps put a parent's mind as ease to see for these precautionary measures for themselves.

Create a written planOutline all necessary information on your child's allergy, including how to prevent accidental exposures and how to recognize and treat symptoms of an allergic reaction. And don't forget to include your contact information. "An allergist can help you prepare this plan so that it includes clear and comprehensive information," said Dr. Lanser. "It should be on file with the school, and everyone who comes in contact with that child throughout the day should have a copy."

Post picturesTape pictures of your child to the classroom wall that includes information on their allergies to alert anyone that comes into the room. You can also post one on your child's desk, which can serve as a secondary reminder when snacks are served. "If there is a substitute or another parent that visits the classroom, they may not be aware of a student's food allergies," said Dr. Lanser. "Posting a photo is a quick and easy reference for anyone who does not have that child's action plan."

Make safe snacksPack allergen-free snacks for your child in case someone brings in a treat for the class. Send the snacks to school with a label specifying that they are safe, or leave some with their teacher so your child won't feel left out during classroom celebrations. "We certainly don't want a child with food allergies to feel excluded or different from everybody else," said Dr. Lanser. "Allowing them to participate in classroom activities with treats and snacks that are safe for them lets them be a part of the fun just like any other kid."

In addition to these tips, Dr. Lanser says every student with food allergies should have a supply of emergency medications readily available, including oral antihistamines and an epinephrine autoinjector. "It's really all about being prepared and vigilant," said Dr. Lanser. "Taking these steps and keeping kids safe allows them to enjoy the school day and concentrate on learning rather than their food allergies."

Open and frequent communication with your child's teacher is also extremely important. Jennifer Ware's 7-year-old son, Jacob, is severely allergic to milk, eggs and shellfish. She says her son's second grade teacher would call and text her during the school day with any questions.

"Sometimes there would be little classroom parties or maybe an art project, and if she wasn't sure about an ingredient or a snack, she would just send a quick text to ask me about it," said Ware. "A lot of times you really have to read through a label to see if a milk or egg product is hidden in the ingredients, so it was reassuring that his teacher was careful and could reach out to me if there were any issues. I've already met with his third grade teacher to keep that kind of communication flowing next school year."

Allergists at National Jewish Health helped Ware develop a school action plan for Jacob that includes clear communication to staff members on what his allergies are, how to prevent exposure and what to do if he has an anaphylactic reaction. Ware also left a supply of medication and an epi pen in Jacob's classroom should he need it.

Explore further Parents have concerns over food allergy precautions at schoolsDiane Havlir, MD and Jane Kabami, MPH survey a community health fair as part of the SEARCH study in Western Uganda. Credit: Tamara Clark

A new community-based model to treat HIV and other health conditions in rural East Africa led to 20 percent fewer HIV deaths, reduced the incidence of HIV and tuberculosis (TB), and improved control of hypertension and diabetes, according to results presented today at the 22nd International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam.

The results are the latest from the Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH) study, an ongoing trial in which whole communities are randomized either to the intervention or to a control group. The trial includes more than 350,000 adults and children in rural Kenya and Uganda to evaluate the effect of a "test-and-treat" strategy on HIV, community health, and economic outcomes.

Nearly two million people are infected with HIV each year, and a million die from AIDS-related complications. Despite the wide availability of effective treatments, of the 37 million people living with HIV worldwide, only 22 million are receiving treatment. This gap exists largely because health workers in developing countries still often struggle to reach HIV-infected individuals. Many people are unaware of their infection, have limited access to care, or fall out of care.

"The challenge is finding those who are not yet in care, and tailoring approaches to engage and keep them in care," said Diane Havlir, MD, chief of the University of California, San Francisco's Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine and principal investigator of SEARCH.

In 2014, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launched the "90-90-90" campaign, a call for 90 percent of people with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of all people diagnosed with HIV to receive antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 90 percent of people on ART to be virally suppressed. Viral suppression is the reduction of HIV in a patient's blood to an undetectable level, which prevents it from being sexually transmitted. If met, the UNAIDS goals would result in 73 percent of people living with HIV being virally suppressed. Globally, only 47 percent of those living with HIV are virally suppressed, well below the target.

In 2015, the World Health Organization issued a recommendation to treat all HIV-positive individuals with ART, regardless of their CD4+ T-cell count. Before that, patients had to wait until these immune cells, which are destroyed by HIV, fell below a certain level.

To work toward the UN goals, SEARCH investigators designed a new approach that offered comprehensive health care, including immediate treatment for anyone diagnosed with HIVto reduce new HIV infections and to improve community health.

"We aim to pave the path to HIV elimination through the entry point of improving community health," said Havlir, also professor of medicine at UCSF.

In rural Uganda and Kenyawhere HIV is endemicadditional barriers to HIV care exist, including stigma and practical limitations to care, such as long wait times for appointments. The SEARCH team wanted to provide respectful care that was attentive to their patients' desire for privacy. So they provided care for a variety of health conditions, along with HIV testing and treatment, at health fairs that were accessible to villagers and had flexible hours. They supplemented the health fairs, which were not billed as being specific to HIV, with home-based HIV testing for those who could not attend.

Thirty-two rural communities in Uganda and Kenyaincluding 150,395 people who were 15 years old or olderwere randomly assigned to either the intervention group, which received HIV testing and treatment as well as screening for other health conditions, or the control group, which received HIV testing at baseline, followed by referral, if appropriate, to the standard HIV treatment available in their country.

In intervention communities, the SEARCH team held annual two-week mobile community health fairs that included health education; screenings for HIV and diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and tuberculosis; and immediate care or referral for any health problems.

After three years, improvements in community health were significant. Deaths among people living with HIV in the intervention communities were 20 percent lower than in communities receiving HIV standard care. New TB cases among HIV-infected people also fell by 59 percent in the intervention community, while hypertension control improved by 26 percent.

"These findings suggest that a multi-disease community approach to testing and treating HIV can have a broad impact on overall community health extending beyond HIV to mortality, TB, and other important non-communicable diseases," said UCSF's Edwin Charlebois, MPH, PhD, professor of medicine and vice-chair of the study.

HIV outcomes were also significantly affected. At the start of the study, investigators tested 90 percent of the population for HIV in both the intervention and control communities. Of those, 43 percent were virally suppressed before the intervention. After three years, 80 percent of people living with HIV in intervention communities were virally suppressed (surpassing the "90-90-90" target of 73 percent by 2020), compared to 68 percent in communities that received standard HIV care.

After three years, new cases of HIV infection declined by 32 percent in intervention communities. But even though the people in intervention communities had a 12 percent higher rate of viral suppression, people in both groups were equally likely to become infected with HIV. This may be due to the success of the health fairs at baseline, which provided HIV testing and referral to care for all participants, and the expanded eligibility of ART for those in standard care, as implemented by national guidelines early in the study.

The study results suggest a novel and promising path in the continuing fight to eliminate HIV, and "may have a profound impact on how we test and treat large populations in East Africa," said Moses Kamya, MBChB, MMed, MPH, PhD, study co-principal investigator from the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC) and Makerere University in Uganda. "It will guide our global effort to end AIDS and to improve community health."

Havlir and team continue to collect data for the second phase of SEARCH that is developing strategies for implementing pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to prevent HIV acquisition in uninfected persons.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Fewer people sought hospital treatment for the toxic effects of so-called legal highs following temporary restrictions, a study based at an Edinburgh hospital suggests.

The marked drop led to healthcare savings and suggests that the government restrictionscombined with local council measureswere successful in preventing drug harm, researchers say.

The research is the first to evaluate the impact on hospitals of public health crackdowns on this type of drug, which has since been outlawed.

To swiftly tackle a rise in the use of these novel psychoactive substances (NPS), the UK Government brought in two temporary class drug-ordersor TCDOsin 2015. These banned import and supply of common types for 12 months.

NPSsynthetic chemical compounds that affect the brain and alter behaviourwere also targeted by trading standards curbs brought in by the City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with the police.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh and NHS Lothian looked at anonymous health records documenting patients who came to hospital suffering harmful drug effects. The data spanned almost three years, covering time before and after TCDOs and trading standards restrictions were brought into force.

Complications from the toxic effects of NPS can include psychosis, seizures and death.

In the six months following the introduction of TCDOs, researchers identified a large and rapid fall in people presenting to hospital for harms from NPS.

Admissions relating to one particularly common drug typeethylphenidatealmost completely disappeared in this time, researchers say.

There was an 80 per cent reduction in hospital admissions for all forms of NPSincluding the drug known as spicefollowing trading standards actions later in 2015 that removed NPS from local shops in Edinburgh.

The restrictions were also associated with a reduction in the number of post-mortem examinations where NPS drugs were detected.

Over the same period there was a small increase in people seeking hospital treatment after taking classic stimulants such as MDMA and amphetamines. There was no such increase in admissions linked to use of opioids such as heroin, the study shows.

In 2016, NPS were banned by law under Psychoactive Substances Act (2016). The effect of this law on hospitalisations was hard to define, researchers say, as TCDOs and trading standards enforcement had already had such a marked effect.

Experts caution that their findings do not prove that the restrictions cause the change but maintain that this is the strongest evidence to date that such restraints can prevent harm.

Lead researcher, Michael Eddleston, Professor of Clinical Toxicology at the BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh and consultant NHS toxicologist, said: "Our findings suggest that TCDOs, combined with local trading standards, were very successful in reducing NPS harm in Edinburgh.

"Widespread adoption of trading standards enforcement, together with focused legislation, seemed to turn the tide against these highly-damaging drugs. These restrictions may have offered health benefits and saved the NHS substantial funds each year."

Explore further US painkiller restriction linked to increase in drug trading

More information: Janice Pettie et al, New drug controls and reduced hospital presentations due to novel psychoactive substances in Edinburgh, British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology (2018). Journal information: British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Janice Pettie et al, New drug controls and reduced hospital presentations due to novel psychoactive substances in Edinburgh,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/bcp.13672(HealthDay)It's common for heart attack survivors to develop depression. Now a new trial has found that antidepressant treatment may help those patients avoid a second heart attack.

The study, of 300 heart patients with depression, found that treatment with the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro) almost halved the risk of suffering another heart attack in the next eight years.

Patients on the medication also had a lower death rate and less need for angioplastya procedure that opens blocked heart arteries.

Experts said they were encouraged by the findings.

"This is a very important clinical trial," said James Blumenthal, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.

Blumenthal, who was not involved in the trial, studies the role of psychological factors in heart disease.

He said it's known that heart attack patients with depression typically fare worse than those without the condition. That includes a higher risk of a repeat heart attack.

But proof has been lacking that depression treatment can translate into a better outlook.

The new findings, Blumenthal said, show that it can.

"Treating depression results not only in improved quality of life, but also improved clinical outcomes," he said. "This is good news for heart patients with depression."

For the trial, Korean researchers led by Dr. Jae-Min Kim, from Chonnam National University Medical School in Gwangju, screened over 1,100 heart patients for depression. All of the patients had experienced an "acute coronary syndrome" within the past two weeks. The term refers to heart attacks, as well as unstable anginasevere chest pain caused by obstructed blood flow to the heart.

Over 400 of those patients met the definition of either mild or major depression. Ultimately, 300 entered the trial and were randomly assigned to take either escitalopram or placebo pills for six months.

Over the next eight years, nearly half of all patients either died, had a repeat heart attack or needed angioplasty. However, the rate was lower among patients taking antidepressants: just under 41 percent, versus almost 54 percent among placebo patients.

The benefit was most clear when it came to the risk of suffering another heart attack: less than 9 percent of antidepressant patients did, compared with over 15 percent of placebo patients, the findings showed.

The death rate was also lower for those taking antidepressantsabout 21 percent, versus 24.5 percent for those taking a placebo. That difference was not significant in statistical terms, however.

The trial was funded by Korean government grants. The report was published in the July 24/31 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

If antidepressant treatment does thwart future heart trouble, it's not clear why from this study, Blumenthal said.

One possibility, he suggested, is that when patients see their depression lift, they become more physically active or better able to stick with lifestyle changes.

But, improvement in depression might also have direct effectsincluding less inflammation in the arteries and a healthier heart rate, Blumenthal suggested.

Donald Edmondson is director of the Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health at Columbia University, in New York City.

He called the findings "exciting and important."

Why did this trial show benefits when past studies turned up empty? A likely reason, Edmondson said, is the long-term follow-up. It may take years for the benefits of depression treatment to show up.

The bottom line for patients and families is that they should never dismiss lingering psychological symptoms, he explained.

After a heart attack, Edmondson said, people sometimes want to "move on and forget it happened."

But close to 40 percent of the initial group in this study screened positive for depression. "It's common," he said.

Edmondson suggested that family members be aware of that, and remember to check in: "Ask questions. Ask them how they're feeling."

There are non-drug treatments for depression, including "talk therapy." This trial did not test thembut Edmondson said he suspects any therapy that sends depression into remission might improve patients' heart outlook.

In this study, he pointed out, patients whose depression went into remission within six months fared bettereven if they were in the placebo group.

Those on medication were, however, more likely to see a remission: Over half did, versus 35 percent of placebo patients.

Blumenthal said that some research has found that regular exercise can help ease depressionand may be as effective as antidepressants.

He is currently leading a trial that's testing exercise against escitalopram for treating anxiety in heart disease patients.

Explore further Antidepressant does not reduce hospitalization, death for HF patients with depression

More information: James Blumenthal, Ph.D., professor, psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.; Donald Edmondson, Ph.D., M.P.H., director, Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; July 24/31, 2018, Journal of the American Medical Association, online James Blumenthal, Ph.D., professor, psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.; Donald Edmondson, Ph.D., M.P.H., director, Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York City; July 24/31, 2018,, online The American Heart Association has more on heart disease and depression. Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.A clinic staff shows boxes of Infanrix and Pentaxim vaccines for infants at a children's clinic in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as they see a rise in the number of mainland parents bringing their children to Hong Kong for vaccinations following the vaccine scandal in China. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Chinese state media say a total of 15 people have been detained in a growing scandal over the faking of records by a rabies vaccine maker.

Those detained include the CEO of Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., which has been accused of fabricating production and inspection records following a surprise visit to company offices by inspectors last week.

The other 14 were also executives at the company, state broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday.

Both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have demanded urgent attention to the matter, underscoring the government's concern over public outrage about a series of public health scandals, especially ones concerning children.

The World Health Organization applauded the government's action, saying it shows "when regulatory oversight works well, potential risks can be averted."

"While the current incident is clearly regrettable, the detection of this event by an unannounced inspection shows that the regulatory authority's system of checks and balances to protect population health is working," WHO's Beijing office said in a statement.

While there have been no reports of injuries, authorities have impounded the vaccines and suspended production at the company's plant in northeastern China.

A clinic staff shows a box of Pentaxim vaccine for infants at a children's clinic in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as they see a rise in the number of mainland parents bringing their children to Hong Kong for vaccinations after the vaccine scandal in China. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The disclosure of the scandal has ricocheted around social media, reviving memories of past scandals involving faulty medications and bogus infant formula that contained little more than starch.

A similar scandal erupted two years ago after police broke up a criminal ring that sold millions of faulty baby vaccinesbut did not disclose the case for months.

Boxes of Pentaxim vaccines for infants are stacked at a children's clinic in Hong Kong, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, as numbers of mainland parents are bringing their children to Hong Kong for vaccinations following the vaccine scandal in China. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up public confidence and oversight of the pharmaceutical industry after a rabies vaccine maker was found faking records, the latest in a slew of public health and safety scandals that have outraged Chinese parents. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Explore further Chinese premier orders investigation of vaccine makers

 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.The lamp built by the team has 32 different bulbs which emit infrared, red or ultraviolet light. Eight patients with 14 ulcers between them had the treatment. Credit: Michael Hughes

University of Manchester and Salford Royal NHS Trust scientists have developed a lamp which could treat chronic ulcers with light.

The Arthritis Research UK funded trial led by Dr. Michael Hughes tested the therapywhich combines infrared, red and ultraviolet lighton finger ulcers caused by a condition called systemic sclerosis, where the immune system attacks the body's fingers and toes.

Dr. Hughes said the results were so emphatic, the device is a potential treatment for other ulcers, including diabetic and venous ulcers, a huge problem for tens of thousands of patients

People with diabetes are at risk of ulcers or open wounds that don't heal because of poor circulation, a complication of the condition.

Venous ulcers occur when blood doesn't flow from the lower legs back to the heart, causing a build-up of pressure in the veins.

The lamp built by the team has 32 different bulbs which emit infrared, red or ultraviolet light. Eight patients with 14 ulcers between them had the treatment.

In the study, published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment today, the patients were treated using the lamp for 15-minute sessions, twice a week for three weeks.

After treatment, there was an average 83 per cent improvement in the ulcers, with no side-effects.

Scientists believe ultra-violet light, which cannot be seen by the naked eye, kill the bacteria and reduce the inflammation that prevents healing.

Red light is believed to boost blood circulation, increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients needed for wound healing.

It is also thought to stimulate the production of the protein collagen in the skin, which provides the natural scaffolding to help new tissue grow.

And infrared light, used in TV remote controls, is associated with increasing blood flow and oxygen.

Patients having light therapy for ulcers, using lasers, are currently treated in hospital over five days and are forced to take medication which lower their blood pressure.

However, the new therapy can be administered at home and, says Dr. Hughes, with SIM card technology can even be used to monitors patients' progress remotely.

He said: "We believe this technology is a game changer; the implications are huge.

"Ulcers cause much distress to patientsand current treatments are costly to the NHS and problematic for patients who can only receive them in hospital.

"But this technology is cheap and practical- it's really a no brainer as it can be administered at home.

"There are future possibilities as well: we think this device could be easily adapted to monitor ulcers remotely using cameras. They could also be programmed to recognise different parts of the body so that the treatment is given accurately.

"In the next 6 to 12 months we shall be refining the machine and within 12 months we hope to trialling it on diabetic ulcers."

Explore further Hyperbaric oxygen Tx beneficial for systemic sclerosis ulcers

More information: M Hughes et al, A Feasibility Study of a Novel Low Level Light Therapy for Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis, Journal of Dermatological Treatment (2018). M Hughes et al, A Feasibility Study of a Novel Low Level Light Therapy for Digital Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis,(2018). DOI: 10.1080/09546634.2018.1484875Mineral deficiency on 25th day of fast

On the 25th day of his indefinite hunger strike, campaigner Dr Govinda KCs health condition remained critical with his heartbeat and blood pressure read as unstable.A study of 16 Nigerian women living with domestic abuse has shown how they are too frightened of being deported to ask for help from the UK authorities.

Dr. Omolade Femi-Ajao from The University of Manchester says though the Government is committed to tackling domestic abuse, the policy bypassed the Nigerian women who have conditional visas.

"Because these women are subject to immigration control, they are terrified they will be accused of breaching the conditions of their visa. That could mean they are deported or could lose their children." said Dr. Femi-Ajao who led the study which is the first of its kind to be carried out.

"So rather than seeking help from GPs, healthcare professionals, hospitals and local authorities, it's community and faith groups who are stepping up to fill the gap. I therefore argue there is an urgent need for the authorities to work collaboratively with them.

"But many of the women I spoke to, however, feel completely isolated; there's no one they can really turn to. They are hidden from view."

The women in the study, published in the journal BMC Women's Health, told Dr. Femi-Ajao they had been subjected to beatings, physical assaults, threats, humiliation and intimidation for in one case as long as 37 years

The women, aged between 18 and 54, all had mental health issues including suicidal thoughts and panic attacks, said Dr. Femi-Ajao. They reported experiencing the abuse from between 2 and 37 years; an average of 10 years.

But if local authorities do help, it will be targeted at children, not their mothers.

She said: "This research can't tell us the scale of the problem. But do we know it is a problem: 1 in 4 women in the UK suffer from domestic abuse so it's fair to assume the Nigerian community is no different from any other.

"The Government also needs to recognise that Nigerian women are much less likely to call a helpline which is partly down to the way they are brought up. They need face to face help with someone from their own community they can trust.

"And though there's a worry that an abusive partner might have some influence on community organisation and faith groups, it does seem from these women that leaders of these community groups and faith-based organisations are able to mediate and provide support.

"Much has been done to help women in other communities but we don't really know the scale of the problem in Nigerian communities.

"In fact, the scale of the problem is unknown in African communities as a whole. So now it is time we recognise that much needs to be done."

Ehinor Otaigbe, who worked with Dr. Femi-Ajao, is Director of Wonderfully Made Woman, a charity which supports Nigerian women and has worked with victims of domestic abuse.

She said: "Nigerian women go through domestic violence in the UK and some have come to Wonderfully Made Woman to seek help.

"Many of the women I see do not report abuse because of their immigration status. Many lack confidence and have problems with English, which means they have great difficulty communicating effectively with officialdom."

Explore further Suicide must not appear to be the only escape for some victims of abuse, warns new study

More information: Omolade Femi-Ajao. Intimate partner violence and abuse against Nigerian women resident in England, UK: a cross- sectional qualitative study, BMC Women's Health (2018). Omolade Femi-Ajao. Intimate partner violence and abuse against Nigerian women resident in England, UK: a cross- sectional qualitative study,(2018). DOI: 10.1186/s12905-018-0610-4Gord Boyd uses the KINARM to examine the connection between the kidneys and the brain. Credit: Matthew Manor

Kidney disease doesn't just affect a patient's body, it's hard on their brain toobut no one really knows to what extent.

Now, new research by Queen's University researcher Gord Boyd (School of Medicine) at Kingston Health Sciences Centre is offering intriguing insights into the kidney-brain connection that could change the way that kidney disease is assessed and treated in future.

For the first time, patients on dialysis are being assessed by the KINARM, a state-of-the-art robotic system developed at Queen's University, to measure the brain effects of kidney disease. The KINARM precisely measures what's happening in an individual's brain or nervous system by testing their ability to perform ordinary movements and tasks.

Leading the research is Dr. Boyd, a critical care doctor and neurologist at Kingston Health Sciences Centre who looks at the links between oxygen levels and brain injury in intensive care patients. He says the project was sparked by a casual conversation with Dr. Rachel Holden, a kidney disease specialist at KHSC whose patients are often in intensive care. "We were talking about sensors for tissue oxygenation in the brain, she suggested that we should use them on her patients," says Dr. Boyd.

Early indications have been startling, he says. "We've been told by the KINARM team that our cohort of patients are some of the most cognitively impaired they've ever seen."

While there is some evidence showing that kidney disease, especially in its later stages, can affect some brain functions such as attention and memory, the conventional pen-and-paper tests used to track these effects produce variable and subjective results  and they can't diagnose the motor effects of brain injury, says Dr. Boyd.

"There's no gold-standard test for the effects of kidney disease, so it's hard to know the patient's degree of cognitive impairment," says Jessica Vanderlinden, a Ph.D. candidate who is working with Dr. Boyd on the project.

Credit: Queen's University

Over the past two years Dr. Boyd and Ms. Vanderlinden have been studying patients on hemodialysis, a four-hour procedure usually done in hospital, and patients on home dialysis, a less intensive process that cleanses the blood of the body's toxins overnight. The patients do KINARM tests before beginning dialysis, then follow-up testing at three months and one year.

The researchers will compare patients' test scores and oxygenation data to study which procedure  hemodialysis or home dialysishas the better effect on patients' cognitive function.

They've now expanded the scope of their research to include patients at all stages of kidney disease  from mild to moderate, chronic and end stage, which requires dialysis.

They're also collaborating with nephrologist Sam Silver to include patients with a single episode of acute kidney injury. "No one has ever looked at the brains of this specific group of patients," Boyd says.

"We're hoping to come up with a really good description of the neurological complications of kidney disease," says Ms Vanderlinden.

This research could provide new insights on treating patients, the researchers say. For example, KINARM tests have shown visuo-spatial issues in some dialysis patients, so driving is a concern, Boyd says.

As well, it could show that hemodialysis itself may need to be re-examined, he says. "If hemodialysis patients have accumulated impairments, how can we make dialysis more gentle on the brain? Or it may suggest that we start dialysis sooner, or do transplants sooner."

This data can also point to the need for end-of-life conversations. "If we know how much they are impaired, we can develop a plan to start these conversations with them, or if they're very impaired, with their substitute decision-makers," Boyd says.

Explore further New research may explain the link between hemodialysis and brain function declineHarvard ethicist Robert Truog discusses why brain death remains controversial 50 years after a Harvard Medical School panels landmark report on the condition. Credit: Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer

In August 1968, a committee at Harvard Medical School published a landmark document titled "A Definition of Irreversible Coma." In addition to the traditional way of defining death, in terms of the loss of cardiorespiratory function, the committee suggested a new definition of deathbrain deaththat focused on the loss of neurological function. The report provided a foundation for the eventual adoption of legislation that established brain death as legal death in all 50 states.

The question of whether brain death is "really" death has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, due in large part to the case of Jahi McMath, whose brain death was contested by her family for nearly five years, during which time the California girl grew, developed, and even went through puberty. McMath died on June 22, following liver failure.

In a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Harvard bioethicist Robert Truog called attention to how the McMath case highlighted ambiguities around brain death. We spoke to Truog about Harvard's role in establishing guidelines for the condition, why those guidelines have been controversial, and more.

GAZETTE: Can you talk about the 1968 report that helped lay the foundation for the concept of brain death?

TRUOG: In the 1950s, medicine developed mechanical ventilation, which provided a way of keeping people alive who had very severe brain injury who otherwise would have died from respiratory arrest. There was a lot of concern about whether these people with very severe brain injury would even want to be kept alive and whether it was something we ought to be doing.

This question merged with others that came out toward the end of 1967, when Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant in Cape Town, South Africa, and really captured international imagination about what was going to be possible with organ transplantation. But there was also a question of whether the donors were dead at the time that the heart was removed, or whether it was the removal of the heart that actually killed the donors.

There were a number of groups around the world that began to consider this, but the one that I think certainly had the biggest impact was the one that was formed by Henry Beecher at Harvard Medical School. Early in 1968, Beecher went to the dean of the Medical School and convinced him that this was a very important emerging issue and that he should put together an ad hoc committee to think about it.

The committee was confident that they had developed criteria for defining a state of "irreversible coma." They were able to diagnose when a patient was never going to wake up again. It was in the subtitle that they mentioned this as a possible new definition of death. If you think about it, it's not entirely intuitive that just because somebody is permanently unconscious, they are therefore "dead." And I think the committee recognized this when they wrote the paper. They were confident about the irreversible unconsciousness part. They were tentative about saying that maybe this could be a new definition of death.

And this is really the root of the controversy that has persisted for the past 50 years. That link, between being irreversibly unconscious and being dead, has never really been made in a convincing way.

GAZETTE: Just because the brain isn't working, why would you say this is deaththat's the controversy?

TRUOG: That's right. There are two ways to approach it. One is to say that this is an entirely new way of thinking about death. When a human being has lost the capacity for consciousness, now and in the future, we should consider them to be dead. But that's really more of a moral judgment than a biological fact.

As the years went by, people became uncomfortable with the notion that we would consider individuals to be dead on the basis of a moral judgment. So in 1981, when a president's commission came along and actually proposed the law that we have now for brain death, it was very interested in finding a way to think about brain death as a biological fact and not just a moral judgment.

James Bernat, a neurologist at Dartmouth, proposed a rationale for why brain death and biological death could actually be one and the same. He claimed that when patients have the devastating brain injury that represents brain death, it turns out that they always have a cardiac arrest within a very short period of time, no more than a few days.

His idea was that the brain is the master integrator of the body, and when the brain is severely damaged, the body just falls apart. In fact, this was probably true in 1981. But it is definitely not true today. With modern ICU care, once patients with brain death have been stabilized for a few weeks, it turns out that, in some cases, their bodies may survive for years. Jahi McMath was one good example of this.

So the problem is that the central justification equating brain death with biological death is now known to be false. In some casesparticularly involving children and otherwise healthy young adultspatients diagnosed as brain-dead can actually survive biologically many years, provided they receive basic life support like mechanical ventilation and tube feedings.

GAZETTE: Has anybody who has been diagnosed as brain-dead ever recovered? Could technology someday make a difference?

TRUOG: Really good questions. One of the reasons that we are comfortable with the notion of brain death is because there's never yet been a case of anyone who's been correctly diagnosed as brain-dead who's ever had any neurological recovery.

So, in my role as an intensive care unit physician at Children's Hospital, when I talk with parents whose child has been diagnosed as brain-dead, I've been able to look them in the eyes and say with certainty that, tragically, their child will never regain consciousness.

But it turns out that at least one of the neurologists who examined Jahi McMath thinks that she may have shown signs of consciousness in the months and years before her recent biological death. His findings were not confirmed by other neurologists, and now we may never know, but if other cases arise where this turns out to be true, then we may need to refine the testing we do for brain death to be absolutely certain that recovery of consciousness is impossible.

The second point you raise is whether with new technologies like deep-brain stimulation we might actually be able to reverse brain death. It's a good question, but we need to remember that brain death is really a devastating degree of brain injury. At this point I think there is absolutely no reason to believe that any conceivable type of technology will be able to reverse it. I do think new treatments like deep-brain stimulation have potential, but this will be in patients who have much less severe degrees of brain injury.

GAZETTE: Where does this debate stand now? Are we searching for a new rationale for why brain death is "really" death?

TRUOG: It's a bit of a paradox. The standard view is still that brain death is no different from regular cardiorespiratory death. I think, however, that it is pretty clear that this standard view is false.

There's lots of evidenceincluding this very striking case of Jahi McMathwhich really demonstrates that it's not true. So I think this has been one of the challenges for the medical community. How do we talk about brain death in a way that is both factually correct and yet also captures the view that brain death is a very reasonable place to draw the line between life and death?

I believe brain death is a reasonable way of defining death, not because it necessarily represents biological death, which I don't believe it does, but because drawing the line at the level of a very, very severe degree of brain injury is a reasonable point at which to allow patients and families to recognize that their loved one is never coming back, to initiate the mourning and other procedures we do around the death of a person, and most importantly to permit that person to be able to donate their organs in order to save the lives of others. Since 1968 literally hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved or improved because we've been able to view this diagnosis as a legitimate point for saying that these patients may be considered legally dead.

Explore further Potential liver recipients may have new option

More information: A Definition of Irreversible Coma: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death. JAMA (1968). A Definition of Irreversible Coma: Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death.(1968). DOI: 10.1001/jama.1968.03140320031009 Robert D. Truog. Defining DeathMaking Sense of the Case of Jahi McMath, JAMA (2018). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.3441 Journal information: Journal of the American Medical AssociationThe Government of the Republic of Namibia, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and ICAP at Columbia University (ICAP) released new data today at the 2018 International AIDS Conference demonstrating that the HIV epidemic is coming under control in Namibia.

Results from the Namibia Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA) show that 77 percent of all HIV-positive adults in Namibia have achieved viral load suppression, a widely used measure of effective HIV treatment in a population, surpassing the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) target of 73 percent by 2020. Compared with the UNAIDS 2015 estimates, Namibia has reduced its HIV incidence rate by over 40 percent in the past two years.

Namibia has made this tremendous progress by either reaching or exceeding the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets among women and, nationally, by attaining 86-96-91 among adults. Namibia accomplished this through the strategic expansion of HIV prevention and treatment services, with a focus on viral load suppression at the individual and community level, and the swift implementation of forward-leading HIV policies.

NAMPHIA results also suggest that women ages 15-24 still have a far higher HIV incidence rate (0.99 percent) than same-aged young men (0.03 percent) in the country. This highlights the continued need for expanded primary HIV prevention in young women, including through the PEPFAR-led DREAMS Partnership, and ensuring all men 25-35 are virally suppressed, such as through the new MenStar Coalition.

"These exciting new data demonstrate that a community-centered approach results in high community viral suppression, which decreases the rates of new HIV infections. Several African countries are now on track to reach HIV epidemic control by 2020, accelerated progress that was only possible because of partner country political leadership and their rapid adoption of policies focusing primary prevention and treatment resources for maximum impact," said Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D., U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. "Together, we are making the impossible possible, moving farther and faster toward ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030."

"The results of this survey demonstrate the importance of providing innovative, data-driven prevention, care and treatment to those affected by HIV," said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D. "CDC continues to support Namibia's efforts to control its HIV epidemicand we remain committed to global efforts to change the course of the HIV pandemic and help save lives."

The PHIAs evidence important advances being made under the PEPFAR Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020). Among the ten countries (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)that have released PHIA results, Namibia has achieved the highest level of viral load suppression among all HIV-positive adults. Other countries surveyed show varying levels of progress toward reaching the viral suppression target of 73 percent, highlighting key areas for improvement, particularly the need to increase the coverage of HIV testing among adult men, adolescent girls, and young women.

"The impressive findings from the NAMPHIA survey demonstrate the Government of Namibia's successful commitment to confronting the HIV epidemic," said Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, ICAP global director. "The survey findings also provide a blueprint to guide HIV policies and programs in-country moving forward."

New data from PHIAs in Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire released earlier this week highlight substantial gaps in western Africa toward reaching epidemic control despite significant investments, pointing to the depth and breadth of key policy barriers to HIV service uptake that need to be addressed.

Overall, the PHIAs reveal key gaps in HIV prevention and treatment programming for women ages 15-24 and men ages 25-34 that require urgent attention and action. In all countries surveyed, lower percentages of these groups reported knowing their HIV status, current use of HIV treatment, and had viral suppression than older adults. PEPFAR is aggressively addressing these challenges, including through its innovative public-private partnerships.

Explore further Five African countries approach control of their HIV epidemicsCredit: Kjpargeter/ FreePik

Tune in, turn onand boost your focus? A new study from U of T Mississauga reveals fascinating insights into how people use small doses of psychedelic drugs for therapeutic effects.

Microdosing is the practice of taking drugs like LSD or psilocybin (the key ingredient in "magic mushrooms") in amounts too small to produce a "high" but are anecdotally reported to quell anxiety, boost mood, or improve focus and creativity. Because the drugs are illegal in many jurisdictions, microdosing remains an underground practice and, until recently, was not subject to close scientific investigation. That has changed with a new study that examines how and why people microdose and the reported effects of the practice. According to study co-author Thomas Anderson, it is the first study of its kind.

Anderson is a PhD candidate and cognitive neuroscientist with the Regulatory and Affective Dynamics (RAD) Lab of psychology professor Norman Farb. His main research focuses on attention and meta-awareness, however, Anderson's interest in the study of microdosing was inspired by a professional literature review group where he noticed there were plenty of anecdotal reports but a dearth of scientific research into the practice.

"There's currently a renaissance going on in psychedelic research with pilot trials and promising studies of full-dose MDMA (ecstasy) use for post-traumatic stress disorder and of psilocybin use within healthy populations or to treat depression and end-of-life anxiety," Anderson says. "There hasn't been the same research focus on microdosing. We didn't have answers to the most basic epidemiological questionswho is doing this and what are they doing?"

In 2017, Anderson launched a collaborative investigation with Rotem Petranker, a graduate student studying social psychology with York University's Department of Psychology, UTSC psychology student Le-Ahn Dinh-Williams and a team of psychiatrists from Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Anderson and Petranker targeted microdosing communities on reddit and other social media channels with an anonymous online survey that queried participants about the quantity and frequency of their psychedelic use, reasons for microdosing, effect on mood, focus and creativity, and the benefits and drawbacks of the practice. The survey, which ran from September to November 2017, drew more than 1,390 initial responses, with 909 respondents completing all questions. Two-thirds of the group were currently practicing microdosers, or had some past experience. "We wanted to ensure the results produced a good basis for future psychedelic science," Anderson says.

The data yielded interesting results, including important information about how much of the drug participants were taking, which had previously been unknown. "Typical doses aren't well established," Anderson says. "We think it's about 10 mcg or one-tenth of an LSD tab, or 0.2 grams of dried mushrooms. Those amounts are close to what participants reported in our data." The data also revealed information about frequency of use. Most of the microdosers reported taking the drug once every three days, while a small group microdosed once a week.

Qualitative data from the survey revealed that microdosers reported positive effects of the practice including migraine reduction, improved focus and productivity, and better connection with others. In quantitative results, microdosers scored lower than non-microdosing respondents on negative emotionality and dysfunctional attitude.

Microdosing respondents also reported a number of drawbacks. "The most prevalently reported drawback was not an outcome of microdosing, but instead dealt with illegality, stigma and substance unreliability," Anderson says. "Users engage in black market criminalized activities to obtain psychedelics. If you're buying what your dealer says is LSD, it could very well be something else." Anderson adds a standard caveat about safety. "We wouldn't suggest that people microdose, but if they are going to, they should use Erlich reagent (a drug testing solution) to ensure they are not getting something other than LSD."

Dose accuracy was another issue. "With microdoses, there should be no 'trip' and no hallucinations," Anderson says. "The idea is to enhance something about one's daily activities, but it can be very difficult to divide a -cm square of LSD blotting paper into 10 equal doses. The LSD might not be evenly distributed on the square and a microdoser could accidentally 'trip' by taking too much or not take enough."

Anderson and Petranker recently presented their findings at the "Beyond Psychedelics" conference in Prague, which drew researchers, physicians, mental health practitioners, policy makers, and technology and business participants from around the globe. The team will publish results from the survey in three upcoming research papers that will cover the survey results, psychiatric diagnosis analysis, and the benefits and drawbacks of microdosing.

"The goal of the study was to create a foundation that could support future work in this area, so I'm really excited about what these results can offer future research," Anderson says. "The benefits and drawbacks data will help ensure we can ask meaningful questions about what participants are reporting. Our future research will involve running lab-based randomized-control trials where psychedelics are administered in controlled environments. This will help us to better characterize the therapeutic and cognitive-enhancing effects of psychedelics in very small doses."

More information: Microdosing Psychedelics project page: Microdosing Psychedelics project page: www.researchgate.net/project/M  odosing-PsychedelicsExperiences of LGBTQ young people coming out in the care system are revealed in a new animated film premiering this weekend. Credit: University of East Anglia

Experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning (LGBTQ) young people coming out in the care system are revealed in a new film premiering this weekend.

The six-minute animation promotes the findings of SpeakOuta national study led by researchers at the University of East Anglia's (UEA) Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF).

The research focused not only on vulnerability and risk, but also on the strengths and resilience of these young people and the support offered by foster families and professionals working with them. It is the first and largest research project of its kind in England.

Six young researchers, who identify as part of the LGBTQ community and spent time living in care, made the film with UEA and the Creative Research Collective (CRC). They were keen to use their own experiences to help others in care, and to raise awareness of the needs of LGBTQ people in the care system and improve services.

The film with be screened at a public launch event on Saturday, July 28, as part of Norwich Pride celebrations.

The study itself involved interviews with 46 LGBTQ young people, together with 26 foster carers with experience of caring for LGBTQ young people. There was also a survey of 152 local authorities and focus groups with professionals, including social workers and those working in education and youth offending.

Excerpt from the animated SpeakOut film on the experiences of LGBTQ young people coming out in the care system. Credit: University of East Anglia

Lead researcher Dr. Jeanette Cossar, of CRCF and UEA's School of Social Work, said: "The responses from the young people in particular provide powerful insights into both their personal journeys and their varied experiences of services. Their contribution enhanced every stage of this project.

"We hope the film and the recommendations we've made for those working in the care system will lead to a better understanding of the issues facing LGBTQ young people in care and ultimately improve services and support."

One of the young people involved in the project and featured in the film is Brett Service, from London. He said: "As a gay care leaver I got involved in this amazing project to improve services offered to both the current generation of LGBTQ children in care and care leavers, as well as any future generations.

"It is important that LGBTQ young people get the correct support from professionals involved in their care so they don't feel alone, unwanted or unsupported. In this project we have all been able use our expertise as care leavers as well as our expertise as members of the LGBTQ community to advocate on behalf of other young people who are LGBTQ to make the changes needed."

Findings from the project include:

Support for LGBTQ young people was said to be limited by a lack of both knowledge and confidence and local authorities were keen to improve practice.

Several young people concealed their sexual orientation from carers and professionals resulting in isolation, increased vulnerability and sometimes placement breakdown.

Some young people feared that coming out in care would result in rejection and placement breakdown, but for others living in care offered an opportunity to explore their LGBTQ identity.

When young people came out in care as LGBT it helped when foster carers were accepting and reassured the young person of their commitment to them. However, several young people had experienced reactions which they found unhelpful.

Across the interviews with the young people there was widespread experience of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

There was recognition among professionals of inter-generational differences in understandings of sexuality and gender and the need for them to examine, and sometimes re-evaluate, their own attitudes.

It was felt that professionals might avoid discussing sexuality with young people because of a general cultural unease about talking about sexuality

Young people said that social workers were not overtly homophobic but that some were awkward and uncomfortable when discussing sexuality with them.

The process of making the film involved three full-day workshops, during which the young people gathered with researchers and the CRC team to explore both their experiences and the main themes to emerge from the research. Through group exercises, discussions and interviews they decided on the message, the audience and the tone of the film. Artwork created by the young researchers was then animated and edited by CRC's Lizzy Hobbs.

Explore further LGBTQ teens experiencing high levels of stress, says national survey

More information: The film will be available from July 28 on the SpeakOut project website: The film will be available from July 28 on the SpeakOut project website: www.uea.ac.uk/speakoutCows graze in Bossost in the Aran Valley in northwest Catalonia, hit by a controversy on raw milk which caused alarm due to the potential health risks involved

Catalonia is in the eye of the storm again, but not for its independence drive. This time, the controversy is all about... raw milk.

The Spanish region's decision last Thursday to allow the sale of unpasteurised cow's milk directly from producers to consumers after it was banned 28 years ago has caused alarm due to the potential health risks involved.

Spanish media has published article after article outlining the bacteria-induced danger, health experts have come out against it and the issue has gone viral on Twitter, echoing similar vivid debates in countries such as the United States.

Catalonia's food and agriculture regional minister Teresa Jorda argues raw milk has "spectacular" health properties and is safe due to the "technological improvements in farming equipment" and strict hygiene standards.

"There is the same level of danger as opening the fridge, grabbing a chicken thigh which has been there for four weeks and eating it," she told Catalonia's RAC1 radio on Sunday.

But critics are sceptical.

They retort drinking raw milk is dangerous as it can transmit potentially deadly bacteria such as salmonella, E.coli, and even illnesses like bovine tuberculosiswhich is why pasteurisation was introduced in the first place in the early 1900s.

On Tuesday, Spain's health ministry revealed that a decree allowing the sale of raw milk nationwide had been in the works under the previous conservative government.

But the new Socialist executive has decided to suspend this until a "full analysis" of the issue is done, it said in a statement.

This suspension does not affect the decision in Catalonia, which has autonomy in food safety matters.

Help small farmers

Jorda also argues the measure will help small farmers increase their earnings as they will be selling milk directly to customers.

Spain's UPA small farmers' union has asked for the measure to be implemented nationwide.

It says Spain's livestock are in good condition which means drinking raw milk is safe, "always bearing in mind the milk must be boiled and preserved correctlya maximum of 72 hours from milkingto eliminate potential micro-organisms".

But Gemma del Cano, a food safety expert who works in the food industry, points out this is a complex process as it involves boiling the milk three times, then making sure the temperature goes down quickly.

She stresses it's a fine line between boiling the milk so it kills all bacteria and over-boiling it which will kill all nutrients, hence the usefulness of pasteurisation, a heating process which proponents deny destroys the goodness of milk.

Further afield, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, where many states allow raw milk, warns strongly against it.

"Germs can multiply and grow in milk between the time it's collected and when someone drinks it," it says on its website.

It adds "healthy animals may carry germs that can make people sick".

According to its most recent statistics from 2007 to 2016, "32 states reported 144 outbreaks linked to raw milk".

In Europe, raw milk is legally available in France and Italy.

Explore further CDC issues warning on contaminated raw milk

 2018 AFP(HealthDay)Struggles with infertility can take an emotional toll. But a new study finds the stress that a woman often experiences during infertility treatment won't limit her chances of success.

The analysis looked at 20 studies that explored the stress surrounding infertility, a condition that touches millions of women around the world.

"Infertility and its treatment are highly stressful experiences that can cause substantial emotional distress," explained senior study author Marci Lobel, director of the program in social and health psychology at Stony Brook University in New York.

Prior research has shown that "the inability to conceive leads some women to feel different, defective or out of step with their peers, resulting in loneliness, depression or anxiety," she noted.

"Feeling that one's emotional distress is somehow responsible for treatment failure only adds to the anguish experienced by many infertile women," Lobel added.

But, she said, the review found "that women's emotional distress is not associated with poorer treatment outcomes," regardless of age, prior treatment history or how long a woman has been infertile.

The researchers noted that roughly 70 million women worldwide are infertile, meaning they are unable to conceive after a full year of trying. In the United States alone, that figure is about 1.5 million.

Approximately half of these women will end up seeking infertility treatment, with the two most common being in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Many meet with success. Just over a third of all European patients who undergo IVF become pregnant, while more than half of all IVF-assisted women under the age of 35 in the United States ultimately deliver a baby.

But that figure drops with age, with less than a 7 percent success rate among American women over the age of 42. Treatment can also prove to be an arduous and lengthy experience, involving repeated blood testing, hormone injections, ultrasounds and surgical procedures. It's also expensive, costing American women between $10,000 and $15,000, depending on individual insurance and location.

That the experience is stressful is not the question. But the new research looked at whether that stress affects outcomes.

Taken together, the studies involved more than 4,300 women, at an average age of 30 to 36. Some investigations had tracked anxiety, depression and stress levels before fertility treatment began, while others looked at anxiety and depression during treatment.

In the end, the Stony Brook team found no connection between any form of emotional distress and an increased risk that fertility treatment might not work.

The findings were published recently in the journal Social Science and Medicine.

Lobel noted that even if there is no detrimental impact on outcomes, "there is a pressing need to alleviate distress associated with infertility, infertility treatment and treatment failure."

"Stress management and coping skills training may help reduce the considerable personal impact of infertility and its treatment. In fact, many couples cease treatment because of the intensity of strain they experience," Lobel said. "What is at stake for many women and their partners is the ability to fulfill a vital life goal of bearing children."

Those thoughts were seconded by Dr. Jennifer Kawwass, medical director of the Emory Reproductive Center in Atlanta.

Even the most relaxed couples will find that "the infertility journey has [the] potential to be incredibly stressful for both individuals in a relationship," she said. And ascertaining how that stress will manifest in terms of pregnancy outcomes can be very difficult, she added.

"Nonetheless, it is reassuring that no difference in outcomes was observed between those under differing degrees of stress," Kawwass said.

Dr. Norbert Gleicher, medical director and chief scientist at the Center for Human Reproduction in New York City, agreed that "the [study] results have to be interpreted with caution." But he also suggested that the findings weren't that surprising.

"If stress really affected outcomes we would know it," he said, explaining that women have become pregnant in the midst of all kinds of high-stress catastrophic disasters, whether natural or man-made.

"Of course, stress probably does have an effect at the margins," added Gleicher, who is also president of the Foundation for Reproductive Medicine.

"And stressing about the stress will make things worse for the patient. So when patients ask what they need to change to have a better chance at pregnancy, I always say change nothing. Changing your daily routine will increase stress. So try to live your regular life," he advised.

Explore further Study shows women's emotional distress is not associated with poor infertility treatment outcomes

More information: Marci Lobel, Ph.D., professor, psychology, and director, program in social and health psychology, department of psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.; Norbert Gleicher, M.D., medical director and chief scientist, Center for Human Reproduction, president, Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, and researcher, Rockefeller University, New York City; Jennifer Kawwass, M.D., medical director, Emory Reproductive Center, and assistant professor, division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Emory University, Atlanta; July 13, 2018, Social Science and Medicine Marci Lobel, Ph.D., professor, psychology, and director, program in social and health psychology, department of psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.; Norbert Gleicher, M.D., medical director and chief scientist, Center for Human Reproduction, president, Foundation for Reproductive Medicine, and researcher, Rockefeller University, New York City; Jennifer Kawwass, M.D., medical director, Emory Reproductive Center, and assistant professor, division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, Emory University, Atlanta; July 13, 2018, The U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has more on infertility. Journal information: Social Science and Medicine

Copyright  2018 HealthDay. All rights reserved.Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers from King's College London have assessed just how much sun protection people actually receive, based on typical use. It is well known that people don't receive the full ultraviolet radiation blocking benefit of sunscreen, because they are applying it more thinly than manufacturers recommend. The findings are published in journal Acta Dermato-Venereology.

In the first experiment of its kind, the King's team assessed the DNA damage in the skin after lowering sunscreen application thickness below 2mg/cm2the amount manufacturers use to achieve their SPF rating.

Results showed that sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50, applied in a typical way, would at best provide 40% of the expected protection. The findings have prompted the King's team to suggest that consumers use a much higher SPF sunscreen than they think necessary, to ensure they're protected from sun damage.

As part of the research scientists divided a cohort of 16 fair-skinned volunteers into two groups of eight - (three women and five men in each). One group received a single UVR exposure, to simulate sunlight, to areas treated with high SPF sunscreen of varying thickness, ranging from 0.75mg, through 1.3mg up to 2mg/cm2.

The other group received exposures on five consecutive daysto mimic continuous holiday exposure. The amount of UVR exposure was varied during the course of the experiment, in order to replicate the conditions in holiday destinations, such as Tenerife, Florida and Brazil.

Biopsies of the UVR exposed areas of skin showed that, for the group that were repeatedly exposed to UVR, considerable DNA damage was found on the areas that received no sun protection, even though the UVR dose was very low.

Damage was reduced when sunscreen was applied at a thickness of 0.75mg/cm2 and considerably reduced when 2mg/cm2 of sunscreen was applied, even with much higher UVR doses.

Five days of exposure to high dose UVR with the sunscreen at 2mg/cm2 showed significantly less damage than just one day's low UVR dose exposure without sunscreen across all samples.

Report author, Professor Antony Young from King's College London said: "There is no dispute that sunscreen provides important protection against the cancer causing impact of the sun's ultra violet rays. However, what this research shows is that the way sunscreen is applied plays an important role in determining how effective it is.

"Given that most people don't use sunscreens as tested as tested by manufacturers, it's better for people to use a much higher SPF than they think is necessary.

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: "This research demonstrates why it's so important to choose an SPF of 30 or more. In theory, an SPF of 15 should be sufficient, but we know that in real-world situations, we need the additional protection offered by a higher SPF.

"It also shows why we shouldn't rely on sunscreen alone for sun protection, but we should also use clothing and shade. An extra consideration is that when we apply sunscreen, we are prone to missing patches of skin, as well as applying it too thinly."

Explore further Sunscreen reduces melanoma risk by 40 per cent in young people

More information: A Young et al, Sub-optimal Application of a High SPF Sunscreen Prevents Epidermal DNA Damage in Vivo, Acta Dermato Venereologica (2018). A Young et al, Sub-optimal Application of a High SPF Sunscreen Prevents Epidermal DNA Damage in Vivo,(2018). DOI: 10.2340/00015555-2992This graphic shows how improving flow within lymphatic vessels surrounding the brain could improve brain health and potentially prevent Alzheimer's and age-related memory loss. Credit: University of Virginia Health System

Do you know someone afflicted with Alzheimer's disease? Odds are the answer to that question is yes, since Alzheimer's is one of the most common age-related disorders in the United States. It's also the fifth-leading cause of death among adults aged 65 and older.

But as pervasive as the disease may be, one of its most recognizable symptomsa pronounced decline in cognitive functionis not isolated to Alzheimer's. Mild cognitive impairment and even dementia can be a normal part of aging and can carry serious implications for an older adult's autonomy and quality of life. Both Alzheimer's and age-related dementia are notoriously difficult to treat, due in part to scientists' lack of understanding about these diseases.

Now research from a collaborative team of neuroscientists and engineers at Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia is shedding light on the underlying mechanisms of brain aging, along with associated neurological diseases. The team was led by Jonathan Kipnis, chair of neuroscience at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

The study, published this week in Nature, demonstrated that meningeal lymphatic vessels in the brain, newly discovered in 2014 by several members of the same team, play an essential role in maintaining a healthy homeostasis in aging brains and could be a new target for treatment.

"Our results showed that someday this method could be used as a potential treatment to help alleviate the effects not only of Alzheimer's, but also other age-related cognitive ailments," said Virginia Tech's Jennifer Munson, a study co-author and an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics within the College of Engineering

Researchers found that these vessels drain fluid from the central nervous system into the cervical lymph nodes and dysfunction of that drainage aggravates cognitive decline as well as Alzheimer's disease pathology.

Moreover, when the researchers treated healthy aged mice with a molecule that increased meningeal lymphatic vessel size and fluid flow within those vessels, the mice showed improved performance on learning and memory tasks.

"As you age, the fluid movement in your brain slows, sometimes to a pace that's half of what it was when you were younger," said Munson. "We discovered that the proteins responsible for Alzheimer's actually do get drained through these lymphatic vessels in the brain along with other cellular debris, so any decrease in flow is going to affect that protein build-up."

Virginia Tech's Jennifer Munson works with cell culture media in her lab. Munson and her collaborators at the University of Virginia discovered that dysfunction of drainage pathways in the brain can aggravate cognitive decline as well as Alzheimer's disease pathology. Credit: Virginia Tech

To see if that flow could be manipulated, Munson and study co-author Chase Cornelison engineered a hydrogel that contained a molecule known as vascular endothelial growth factor C or VEGF-C.

"Basically, this hydrogel diffuses VEGF-C through the skull and onto those lymphatic vessels in the brain, which causes them to swell." said Munson. "Together with our collaborators at UVA, we used MRI technology to show that as a result of this treatment, the bulk flow of fluid in the brain actually increased, and that seemed to have a positive effect on cognitive abilities."

Hydrogels, which are commonly used in research to deliver proteins or molecules to a specified site on the body, find frequent applications in tissue engineering, wound healing, and stem cell research.

"The hydrogel itself in this study isn't novel, but the application is," said Munson.

Munson noted that older mice with normal, age-impaired cognitive abilities experienced the biggest gains in memory and learning from the treatment.

Obstructing lymphatic vessels (in green) in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease significantly increased the accumulation of harmful plaques in the brain. Credit: Kipnis lab

Cornelison, a postdoctoral research associate in biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech, said he and Munson hope to use similar hydrogels in future studies as a noninvasive method to alter flow in the brain.

"We want to characterize the cellular response to these changes in flow," he said. "We know that increased flow in these vessels appears to increase cognitive function, but we don't know why. Why is slower flow a problem? Is it because you have decreased nutrient transport or increased waste accumulation? Outside of Alzheimer's disease, we're not really sure what could be in that fluid that's causing just normal, age-related cognitive decline."

Munson, who studies flow in the fluid and matrix-filled space surrounding cells known as interstitial space, thinks the answers to those questions might lie upstream from the brain's major drainage pathways.

"Right now everyone is really focused on bulk flow in the brain, or the overall movement of flow in the brain," said Munson. "But to really understand the mechanisms of why flow is linked to cognitive outcomes, we need to look at what's happening around the neurons and astrocytesall the cells that are in the brain."

Because Munson's lab works with interstitial fluid flow, she says her team already has the systems in place to take that next step.

"That's what we're primed to do," she said. "We're excited about moving forward."

Explore further A first look at interstitial fluid flow in the brain

More information: Sandro Da Mesquita et al, Functional aspects of meningeal lymphatics in ageing and Alzheimer's disease, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Sandro Da Mesquita et al, Functional aspects of meningeal lymphatics in ageing and Alzheimer's disease,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0368-8Minister quits over controversial remarks

Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sher Bahadur Tamang announced his resignation on Tuesday following widespread criticism of his controversial remarks concerning female students pursuing medical degrees in Bangladesh.The first image shows germ cells in an untreated baby diagnosed with juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia, with the arrows pointing at germ cells that shown in green. The second image shows germ cells in a nine-year old boy with a type of blood cancer called myelodysplasia, who has been treated with non-alkylating chemotherapy. Both show germ cell counts comparable to the normal controls. Dashed yellow lines delineate tubules included in the evaluation of germ cells per tubular cross-section. Credit: Dr. Jan-Bernd Stukenborg, Karolinska Institutet and University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

Scientists have discovered that some treatments for cancer and sickle cell disease can destroy the germ cells that go on to develop into sperm in the testes of young boys. In some pre-pubescent boys, the treatment for sickle cell disease results in complete destruction of all their germ cells, which are called spermatogonia.

The study, which is published today (Wednesday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world's leading reproductive medicine journals, is the first to describe the effects of these treatments on spermatogonial quantity, although boys who have undergone chemotherapy or radiotherapy are known to be at risk of reduced fertility in adulthood.

As a result of their findings, the researchers say that if doctors plan to remove and freeze testicular tissue for fertility preservation, this should be performed before boys undergo a type of chemotherapy that uses high doses of drugs called 'alkylating agents'. This would give the boys some hope of restoring their fertility when they become adults. Before puberty, boys are usually unable to produce sperm samples that can be frozen and preserved for a time when they might want to start a family. Transplantation of testicular tissue back into the patients after treatment is a possible way of restoring fertility, but, at present, ways to generate sperm from preserved immature testicular tissue are experimental and there have been no pregnancies so far. It may also depend on having sufficient quantities of successfully preserved healthy spermatogonia.

Led by Dr. Jan-Bernd Stukenborg, associate professor at the Karolinska Institutet and University Hospital (Stockholm, Sweden), a group of international researchers analysed testicular tissue taken for fertility preservation between 2014 and 2017 from 32 boys with an average age of six, living in Sweden, Finland and Iceland, who were facing treatments that carried a high risk of infertility: testicular irradiation, chemotherapy or radiotherapy as a preparation for a bone marrow transplant because they had cancer or blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, thalassaemia major or Fanconi anaemia. Sickle cell disease is the major reason for bone marrow transplantation in children who do not have cancer. Twenty boys had the tissue taken after initial chemotherapy and 12 had it taken before starting any treatment. In addition, they looked at 14 healthy testicular tissue samples stored in the biobank at the Karolinska hospital.

They counted the number of germ cells found in a cross-section of little tubes in the testes where spermatogonia are created, called seminiferous tubules. "We could compare the number of spermatogonia with those found in the healthy boys as a way to estimate the effect of medical treatment or the disease itself on the future fertility of a patient," explained Dr. Stukenborg.

"We found that the numbers of germ cells present in the cross-sections of the seminiferous tubules were significantly depleted and close to zero in patients treated with alkylating agents. The germ cell pool in five boys with sickle cell disease were totally depleted and very low in another; all six had received hydroxyurea. This was not seen in patients who had not started treatment, or were treated with non-alkylating agents, or in the biobank tissues."

Alkylating agents are used in some chemotherapies, killing cancer cells by damaging their DNA. Hydroxyurea is a chemotherapy agent that is often used to treat the effects of blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, where it improves the function of red blood cells. It reduces the symptoms of the sickle cell disease but is not a cure. Bone marrow transplants offer the best chance of a cure or long-term remission. However, before a transplant, the patient's own bone marrow has to be destroyed and the immune system suppressed by radiation or chemotherapy so that the body does not reject the transplant from another person.

Co-author, Dr. Cecilia Petersen, a senior consultant in paediatric oncology at the Karolinska Institutet, said: "Our findings of a dramatic decrease in germ cell numbers in boys treated with alkylating agents and in sickle cell disease patients treated with hydroxyurea, suggest that storing frozen testicular tissue from these boys should be performed before these treatments are initiated. This needs to be communicated to physicians, as well as patients and their parents or carers.

"However, until sperm that are able to fertilise eggs are produced from stored testicular tissue, we cannot confirm that germ cell quantity might determine the success of transplantation of the tissue in adulthood. Further research on this is needed to establish a realistic fertility preservation technique."

The authors point out that for some boys the disease itself may have already affected the number of spermatogonia before any treatment has even begun, and so for them preserving testicular tissue may not be a viable option. Co-author, Professor Kirsi Jahnukainen, a senior consultant in paediatric oncology at the Children's Hospital, University of Helsinki, Helsinki University Central Hospital (Helsinki, Finland), said: "Among patients who had not been treated previously with chemotherapy, there were several boys with a low number of germ cells for their age. This suggests that some non-malignant diseases that require bone marrow transplants may affect the fertility of young boys even before exposure to therapy that is toxic for the testes."

The researchers say that it is possible for germ cells to recover to normal levels after treatment that is highly toxic to the testes, but that high doses of alkylating agents and radiotherapy to the testicles, including total body irradiation, is strongly associated with permanent or long-term infertility.

Prof Jahnukainen added: "The first group of boys who received bone marrow transplants are now reaching their thirties. Recent data suggest they may have a high chance of their sperm production recovering, even if they received high dose alkylating therapies, so long as they had no testicular irradiation."

A limitation of the study was that the samples of normal tissue from the biobank had no detailed information regarding previous medical treatments and testicular volumes for these patients.

Explore further New method to preserve boy cancer patient fertility being developed

More information: "Spermatogonial quantity in human prepubertal testicular tissue collected for fertility preservation prior to potentially sterilizing therapy," by J-B Stukenborg et al. Human Reproduction (2018). "Spermatogonial quantity in human prepubertal testicular tissue collected for fertility preservation prior to potentially sterilizing therapy," by J-B Stukenborg et al.(2018). DOI: 10.1093/humrep/dey240 Ieva Masliukaite et al. Establishing reference values for age-related spermatogonial quantity in prepubertal human testes: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Fertility and Sterility (2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2016.09.002 Journal information: Human Reproduction , Fertility and SterilityMore than half of all U.S. truck drivers exceed the federal limit of 60 hours per week. Credit: 5m3photos/shutterstock.com

Research shows that economic pressure pushes drivers to work extremely long hours, contributing significantly to truck crashes.

A 2010 survey by the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health showed that, on average, long-haul truck drivers work 50 percent more hours than typical workers and regularly violate U.S. regulations limiting commercial driver work hours for safety reasons.

Long working hours and intense economic pressure are important to everyday motorists, because the truck driver's workplace is everyone's roadway. Trucking casualties claim not only the lives of truck drivers, but a significant number of other roadway users  pedestrians, bicyclists, and automobile drivers and passengers. In 2015, 3,836 people lost their lives in heavy vehicle crashes in the U.S.

My team's research, as well as numerous other studies, shows a strong link between pay and safety. We calculated that, at 60 cents per mile, truck drivers will trade labor for leisure, working fewer hours and thereby reducing crashes and improving highway safety.

Dangerous driving

In one study, we looked at the University of Michigan Trucking Industry Program truck stop-based driver survey of 573 mostly long-haul truckers.

Most truck drivers do not get paid for loading, unloading and other delay time, so they regularly record that work time as "off duty," conserving their available work hours and allowing them to extend their work week. Because this work time goes unpaid, cargo owners feel free to waste this time, costing American truck drivers more than US$1 billion per year. The Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Transportation finds that each 15 minutes of excessive delay time increases the average expected crash rate by 6.2 percent.

Truckers log this unpaid labor as off-duty so that they can drive more hours during the week. Indeed, the long-haul truck driver survey shows that more than half of all U.S. truck drivers exceed the weekly limit of 60 hours per week. One in 5 of these drivers work more than 75 hours per week.

An articulated truck is a tractor-trailer of any description. A heavy rigid truck is a heavy truck with no trailer. Credit: Chart: The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Australian Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities

In addition to long hours and low pay, truck drivers face dangerous workplace pressure. My study looked at the U.S. Large Truck Crash Causation Study of more than 1,000 truck-involved crashes. This study shows the last action that a driver took  such as failing to brake for stopped traffic  before the crash. The data suggests that fatigue and driver aggressiveness  in addition to the already substantial economic pressure  make it significantly more likely that the truck driver is responsible for the crash.

There are no good public data on mileage rates. However, according to one private survey, the average dry van truck driver with three years experience made 35 cents per mile in 2010. Wages have gone up since then and may be about 40 cents now, but this is in an unusually tight labor market. No matter how you cut it, wages are far lower than the predicted "safe rate" or safety wage.

Political battles

In Australia, the Transport Workers Union has called on the government to increase truck driver safety by increasing rates. This month, they asked the federal government to reintroduce a road safety watchdog that would mandate minimum wages and working conditions for interstate truck drivers.

Australia actually once had a road safety watchdog, the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, but that was scrapped in 2016. The government decided to kill it based on a private consulting report that claimed that the link between pay rates and safety was bogus.

However, the report actually showed a 50 percent decline in fatal heavy truck crashes after the tribunal was established in 2012, failing to quantify the benefit of the approximately 25 percent decline in the number of deaths.

Safe rates are not just an Australian or American problem. In 2015, trucking employers, labor organizations and 25 governments signed a tripartite global consensus agreement at the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland. All parties agreed that low rates paid to truck and bus companies and their drivers contributes to unnecessarily dangers on the world's highways, pledging to conduct further research on the problem.

In my view, a "safe rates" program  raising pay rates by about 50 percent and paying drivers for all working time  would go a long way toward reducing this risk and the cost borne by victims of crashes.

Explore further Report reveals overworked truck drivers fear raising safety concerns

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Trying to determine how best to treat a patient, doctors often look to randomized clinical trials to guide their choice of what drug to prescribe. One of the most common illnesses is heart disease, and in recent years it's been proven that, contrary to popular belief, more women have heart problems than men do; similarly, it's more common for older people to have a heart condition than younger people. But do clinical trials reflect this reality?

Apparently not. According to a new study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes by Quoc Dinh Nguyen, a professor at Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Medicine, researchers continue to test new heart drugs mostly on men (71 per cent), even though the majority of people affected by heart disease are women. Moreover, the male subjects have an average age of 63, when in fact the average age of people with the two most common heart diseases is between 68 to 69.

In the last 20 years, the sex-and-age gap in drug trials has barely diminished, even though the population is ageing rapidly, said Nguyen, a geriatrician at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (University of Montreal Hospital Center).

"This under-representation of women and older people in clinical trials could have adverse consequences on care for both of these patient groups. The body of an older person doesn't respond to many treatments and medications like that of a younger person. The correct dosage or intervention are often different for older patients and so, too, are the side effects, but we can't know the specifics unless clinical trials are performed on a significant number of older people. This is also true for women."

"The current lack of representation means that physicians have to apply findings based on a male dominant and younger population without being sure that these results should be extrapolated to women or older people in general."

Nguyen decided to look into the issue while still a resident in geriatric medicine, prompted by discussions with colleagues and the concern they shared about effective treatment of heart disease. Resident physicians in other fields such as anaesthesiology, psychiatry, emergency medicine and cardiology joined him in the effort.

A closer look

Already, 20 years ago, researchers had begun to raise the alarm that the under-representation of many segments of the population, especially women, in clinical trials was problematic. "Our research team wanted to know whether practices had significantly improved since then," Nguyen said.

To find out, his team of residents took a close look at the 25 most frequently cited (i.e. most influential) clinical trials for each year in the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. They compared the age and sex of participants to data published in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015-2016 on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in America.

The research team examined data on coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and hypertension, along with cardiovascular risk factors. It also looked at diabetes, since people with that disease are two to four times more likely to suffer from heart disease as well.

Disappointing results

"Our research team was disappointed to see that, although the situation has improved slightly, it will still take decades to eliminate representational bias in clinical trials," said Eric Peters, an anaesthesiologist at CHU Saint-Justine children's hospital who is the new study's second author. "Based on our calculations, it'll be another 90 years before parity is achieved in studies on coronary heart disease. And that's before we factor in population-ageing, which is accelerating."

In the 500 clinical studies they analyzed, the team found that women represented a median of only 29 per cent of participants and that the average age of participants was only 63. "This is nowhere near the reality of what we see in hospital emergency rooms and departments of internal medicine, cardiology and geriatric medicine," said Nguyen.

Women and older people were least represented in clinical trials for coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure, the study shows. Although 54.6 per cent of CAD patients in the U.S. are women, only 27.4 per cent of participants in clinical trials for CAD are women.

Heart disease: a man thing?

It's a myth that heart disease primarily affects men; medical research has proven otherwise. As the second leading cause of death in Canada, heart disease kills more women than men. And it affects women later in lifein the case of coronary artery disease and heart failure, about 10 years later.

While death from heart disease has been falling among women, it has been falling at a faster rate among men. One of the most plausible hypothesis, according to the scientific literature: physicians underestimate the risk for women, and so treat them less often than men.

Why the gap?

Historically, women have long been excluded from drug trials due to the fact they could become pregnant while on medication. But this shouldn't apply to trials of heart drugs, since participants are already over 60 years old. Age also plays a factor in how women get selected. If researchers want to make sure women are adequately represented, they would need to recruit older participants, since cardiovascular disease afflicts women later in life than men.

But recruiting older people makes things more complicated for clinical researchers. Older people often have more difficulty getting around, making it harder for them to come in for testing. Furthermore, the older they are, the more likely they have a variety of ailments that require taking other medications; researchers often prefer to exclude them from clinical trials so as not to confuse the results. Also, older people are generally more fragile and less able to tolerate the side effects of the drugs tested.

Baby boomers: the next wave

In the U.S., it's estimated the number of people aged 65 and older will double over the next 30 years. With the first baby boomers now turning 73, the demand for cardiac care is expected to skyrocket, not just in the U.S. but in Canada and elsewhere as well.

"We have to do better," Nguyen said. "We must recruit more women and older people for clinical trials by relaxing eligibility criteria and adopting measures that encourage them to participate, such as arranging transportation and asking their families to help. As well, regulatory agencies should be more stringent in order to improve representation of both groups."

"It's a question of quality of care."

More information: Quoc Dinh Nguyen et al, Evolution of Age and Female Representation in the Most-Cited Randomized Controlled Trials of Cardiology of the Last 20 Years, Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes (2018). Journal information: Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes Quoc Dinh Nguyen et al, Evolution of Age and Female Representation in the Most-Cited Randomized Controlled Trials of Cardiology of the Last 20 Years,(2018). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.118.004713Family and friends have an important role to play in detecting suicide risk and supporting the person. Credit: Thomas Peham/Unsplash

Australia's leading mental health organisations have launched a new campaign  #YouCanTalk  to encourage Australians to ask people they're concerned about if they're thinking about taking their own life or have made a plan to do so.

This recommendation runs counter to commonly-held fears that talking about suicide might make matters worse by further upsetting the person or even putting the idea in their head.

So what does the research show, and what should you say and avoid?

Research shows it's better to talk

There are two types of evidence on this issue. The first comes from studies that ask people about suicidal thoughts and then assess whether this causes them further distress or increases their suicidal thoughts.

In one US study, a large group of high school students was randomly assigned to either fill out a questionnaire about suicidal thoughts or not.

The researchers found no increase in suicidal thoughts or depressive feelings in the days following answering these questions. In fact, the students who were most at risk of suicide (because they were depressed or had previously attempted suicide) experienced a small decrease in suicidal thoughts and depression.

There were similar findings from a study of Singaporean adults. The researchers randomly assigned participants to answer questions about suicidal feelings and reasons for living or dying, or to a control group that answered questions on quality of life.

No ill effects were found of asking about suicide, and a few of the participants commented that participation in the study gave them the chance to share suicidal feelings for the first time.

The second type of evidence is based on the advice of suicide experts who are either mental health professionals who work with suicidal people, or those who have been suicidal in the past and taken on an advocacy role.

Both types of experts agree that talking about suicidal thoughts can be a relief to a suicidal person. It allows them the chance to talk about their problems and feel that somebody cares.

The same has been found when asking suicide experts from a wide range of countries and cultures, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health experts. There is overwhelming agreement from all these experts that we should talk about these issues openly.

Everyone has a role to play

Suicidal thoughts are quite common. A national survey of Australian adults found that 13% had considered suicide at some time in their life, while 3% had made an attempt.

In adolescents, the rates are higher. A national survey found that 7.5% had considered attempting suicide over the past year and 2.4% had made an attempt.

While health services play an important role in helping people who are at risk of suicide, many people who die by suicide are not in contact with health services in the month before their death.

Every one of us is likely to have close contact with a person who is suicidal. This means family and friends need to play a role in detecting suicide risk and supporting the person.

How to help a suicidal person

There are three important things to know about helping a person who may be suicidal.

First, ask the person directly about suicidal thoughts and intentions, such as, "Are you having thoughts of suicide?" or "Are you thinking about killing yourself?" Asking the person about suicidal thoughts will allow them the chance to talk about their problems and show them that somebody cares.

But avoid asking in leading or judgemental ways, such as, "You're not thinking of doing anything stupid, are you?"

Second, listen to the person's responses without judgement. Let them talk about why they want to die. This can be a relief to the person.

Don't try to convince the person that suicide is wrong, or tell them how much they would hurt their family if they died. Such judgemental approaches will shut down communication and the opportunity for the person to get support.

Third, tell the person at risk that you care and want to help. Ask them how they would like to be supported and if there is anything you can do to help.

What do you do then?

If someone has told you they are thinking of ending their life, discuss the options for getting help. They may want help to make an appointment with a health professional such as a GP or counsellor, or to call a crisis line.

Detailed guidelines for helping people who are thinking about suicide also cover signs a person may be suicidal, how to approach the person, how to talk with them, how to assess the urgency of the situation, how to keep them safe, what to do if a person has acted on suicidal thoughts, and how to deal with confidentiality issues.

There are also guidelines available on how to help an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person or a person from an immigrant or refugee background who is suicidal.

Short training courses are also available for the public and have been found to improve the quality of support to a suicidal person. These courses can give information and skills specifically about how to recognise and assist a person who is suicidal and how to keep the person safe until professional help is found.

Around 3,000 Australians die by suicide every year, and more than 60,000 attempt to end their lives. Health services can only provide part of the solution. If we are to reduce this alarming toll, we need every Australian to play a part.

Explore further What to do when someone is suicidal

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Zika virus particles (red) shown in African green monkey kidney cells. Credit: NIAID

Concern about the zika virus may have waned since the disease spiked in the months before the 2016 Rio Olympics, but the epidemic is not over, a Brazilian expert told AFP.

Gustavo Correa Matta said government spending cuts in Brazil could hamper the ability to control the virus that caused panic, and a small number of deaths, after an outbreak starting in 2015.

"Zika is diminishing in numerical terms and today there are few cases," said Matta, a specialist at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation scientific research institution in Rio.

"The subject has practically disappeared from the press and the political agenda, but ... the zika epidemic is not over, because its repercussions persist."

According to Brazil's health ministry, zika contributed to an increase in infant mortality in 2016, the first such rise in 26 years.

The virus, first identified in Uganda in 1947, was relatively unknown until it began appearing in northern Brazil in 2015, transmitted by a type of mosquito known as Aedes aegypti.

It quickly grew into an epidemic that exploded throughout Latin America and was blamed for a spike in babies born with microcephalya brain abnormality that results in a smaller head.

The World Health Organization declared a worldwide emergency in February 2016, six months ahead of the Rio Olympics, before lifting it in November.

Brazil ended its own alert in May 2017 after observing a decline in new cases.

But Matta insists there is no reason for complacency.

Zika can be transmitted not only by mosquitoes but by sexual contact.

"In that case, we don't know exactly what the viral load or transmission capacity are," Matta said, adding that questions remain about transmission through the placenta.

"Why were the microcephaly cases more severe in the northeast (of Brazil) than other states?" he said.

It's the uncertainty that worries Matta, given the relative newness of zika.

"We don't have a history to the zika epidemic like we do, for example, with dengue fever," he said. "We don't know what the public's immuno-resistance is, and even less so if those who've contracted it can do so again."

Matta said several studies indicate that Brazil could suffer another epidemic in three or four years, maybe less.

"In the case of dengue, which we've been studying for 30 years, we've seen that it's cyclical, with new epidemics every two or three years."

Matta added: "There are lots of unanswered questions."

Explore further Brazil calls off Zika emergency

 2018 AFPMinistries complete draft laws on fundamental rights

Draft laws related to all fundamental rights as envisioned in the constitution have been finalised. They will be forwarded to the Cabinet for approval before being tabled at the federal parliament for endorsement.The fees Napa charges developers to foster affordable housing will no longer be charged to those creating the citys smallest dwellings  the kind most likely to be affordable.

Those applying to build accessory dwelling units (ADU) of less than 500 square feet  a type of housing often created in outbuildings or even existing bedrooms  will be exempt from the citys housing impact fee, saving about $2,700 per application, under an ordinance the City Council unanimously approved last week. The move will take effect 30 days after a second approval vote by the council.

It didnt make a lot of sense for us to ask for a small, affordable ADU  and then go and charge an affordable impact fee on that, Scott Sedgley said of the paradox that has dissuaded some would-be builders, even as applications to build junior-size housing have increased in the past year and a half.

A variety of fees charged by the city, Napa Sanitation District and the Napa Valley Unified School District currently total nearly $20,000, according to city Housing Manager Lark Ferrell. To make such construction more cost-effective, Napa Sanitation and the school district already have passed their own fee breaks for units of less than 500 square feet, slicing about $12,000 from the cost of junior units  nearly 60 percent of the total.World gold prices dropping

Armenia ex-President Kocharyan, former deputy PM and now MP Gevorgyan criminal case court hearing resumes

2 more persons die of coronavirus in Artsakh

Dead body of Armenia village girl, 11, taken to hospital

Lawyer: Armenia military given time to either submit vaccination certificate or resignation from service

World oil prices going up

1,517 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

State minister: It will be possible to reach final settlement of Karabakh conflict through long, difficult struggle

Azerbaijan border issue to be discussed in Armenia National Assembly behind closed doors

Russia MFA: Moscow is optimistic about prospects of investing in Armenia

Armenia opposition MPs greet released fellow opposition lawmaker with applause in legislature

2 foreigners get lost in forest near Armenia lake

3 dead, 1 injured after SUV falls into gorge in Armenia

Armenia parliament kicks off regular sessions

Elephant tramples poacher to death in South Africa's famed Kruger National Park

Newspaper: Amnesty to be declared in Armenia

Newspaper: Opposition Armenia bloc to run in Vanadzor local elections?

Famous Istanbul Armenian linguist is deported from Greece

Erdogan renounces threats to expel ambassadors of 10 countries

Official: Armenia universities to hold classes online, schools to extend autumn break for a week

Commemorative fountain unveiled in memory of Armenia serviceman who fell in 44-day Karabakh war

Armenia army's General Staff deputy chief's attorney on client's case over missiles, demands that they are fired

Earthquake hits 8 km east from Armenia's Bavra, felt in Shirak and Lori Provinces

China FM to meet with the Taliban in Qatar

Armenia Parliament Speaker, Cyprus FM discuss issues on regional and bilateral agendas

Armenia Parliament Council holds session, 18 items on agenda for plenary session on Oct. 26

Armenia Deputy Prosecutor General discusses nature protection rights in basin of Araks River and cooperation with Iran

Armenia parliament sets up committee to lead probe into facts impeding fair trial

Armenia Deputy PM Suren Papikyan visits Zangezur Copper-Molbydenum Combine

Erdogan to leave for Azerbaijan to attend opening of airport in seized Varanda of Karabakh

Armenia Parliament Speaker-led delegation meets with Cyprus defense minister

Armenia Parliament Speaker holding meetings in Cyprus

NATO Secretary General: Too early to comment on Turkey's decision to declare 10 countries' envoys 'persona non grata'

Earthquake hits Armenia, felt in Gyumri, Spitak and Tashir

Dollar goes up in Armenia

Azerbaijan defense minister receives NATO delegation

Iran, Armenia reach agreement on use of alternative routes for transport of goods

EU is closely following situation created after Turkey decided to expel envoys

Turkey offers Russia to join NATO

Armenia National Security Service left several examinations incomplete in ex-defense minister case, says his lawyer

Armenia Finance Ministry: Construction and industry might become main engine of economic growth in 2022

Finance minister: Armenia government national debt payment spending will continue to increase in 2022

Opposition 'Armenia' faction MP: Rallies and marches might be held sooner than Nov. 9

Azerbaijans levying of tolls from Iranian trucks is against trilateral agreement, says Iran ambassador to Armenia

Direct passenger flights between Yerevan, Vilnius to kick off mid-December

Artsakh offers to return Azerbaijani paintings in exchange for Armenian ones remaining in now-occupied Shushi

Armenia ruling party, opposition ARF to run for post of Ijevan mayor

One more person dies of coronavirus in Karabakh

Artsakh state minister, US lawmaker discuss cooperation

Armenia opposition MP, ex-defense minister: 'Unblocking of transport roads' will lead to deeper blockade

Premier: Armenia has no intention to conquer territories

Pashinyan: Border delimitation start to create favorable conditions for Azerbaijan army withdrawal from Armenia

1,184 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

PM: Projects launched to turn Armenia from raw material exporting country to developed metallurgical nation

Garden of the Eternal: Parents of about 200 soldiers killed in Artsakh war partake in tree planting first phase

Premier: Absolute record number of paid jobs registered in Armenia in September

Russia peacekeepers, philanthropists deliver 1.25 tons of humanitarian aid to Karabakh kindergartens, schools

Sudan soldiers detain country's PM

Turkey, Azerbaijan presidents to meet in Istanbul

PM on Armenia 2022 state budget draft: We forecast 7% economic growth

World gold prices going up

World oil prices on the rise

Armenia village head: No compensation paid for 80 cows that came under Azerbaijan control since June 5

Armenia PM visits late statesman, writer Vano Siradeghyans family

Armenia President holds discussion with Yandex Deputy Director Tigran Khudaverdyan

Armenia Ombudsman meets with France Ambassador, presents urgency of Armenian POWs' return

Armenia village head: No news about conscript who has gone missing from Vardenis since May 18

Earthquake hits Armenia, felt in cities and villages of Shirak and Lori Provinces

Armenia opposition to hold rallies on Nov. 9 and 10

How Armenians of Cyprus greeted Armenia Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan

Opposition 'Shant Alliance' releases list of candidates for local self-government elections in Armenia's Kapan

Facebook accused of inciting religious hatred in India

Russia has refused collaboration with NATO, says presidential spokesman

China launches Shijian-21 satellite to test space debris mitigation technology

Shantnews.am: How are Gyumri municipal council seats distributed?

Peskov speaks on prospects of Putin's next meeting with Biden

Armenia ruling party releases list of candidates for local self-government elections in Kapan

Armenia health minister: Hospital bed stock is almost empty

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake hits Taiwan

47 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Artsakh, 14 patients are in critical condition

COVID-19 vaccination kicks off at Opera Square in Yerevan

Germany responds to Erdogan's assignment to declare Ambassadors 'persona non grata'

Armenia Health Ministry: Pregnant women in COVID-19 risk group can avoid difficult course through vaccination

Pakistan providing assistance to the Taliban in fight against ISIS in Afghanistan

2,354 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Uzbekistan holding presidential elections

Armenia defense minister, Red Cross delegation discuss missing persons as result of both Artsakh wars

Yerevan-Gyumri motorway passenger van accident death toll rises to 6

Aliyevs newfound pugnacity, provocation towards Iran risks undermining Azerbaijans long-term security

Armenian Legal Center files new cases before ECHR regarding Armenian captives disappearance

Azerbaijan kicks off military exercises in Artsakhs Kashatagh

MFA spokesman: No Armenia PM-Azerbaijan president meeting planned at this time

4 killed, 3 injured in China chemical plant explosion

Peskov comments on possible Russia-Armenia-Azerbaijan summit

Artsakh President visits capital Stepanakert district, Askeran region (VIDEO)

Armenia parliament foreign relations committee chair briefs Italy ambassador on post-war situation in region

Timeframe of next Putin- Pashinyan-Aliyev meeting in Moscow is known

Pope Francis is presented with PSG shirt signed by Messi

Passenger dies on board plane

Minister of State in Los Angeles, lauds Armenian diasporas assistance to ArtsakhYEREVAN.- Armenian Minister of education and science Arayik Harutyunyan wants the Mayor of Yerevan to solve the problems of ordinary citizens.

"In the program we want to see what we were trying to change over the past year when we were members of the Yerevan Council of Elders - transport, schools, kindergartens and garbage disposal. Everything that an ordinary citizen wants. I will try to find a candidate who will offer the most optimal solution to these problems, "he told reporters after the session of the Civil Contract party on July 24.

Asked whether there can be a coalition with other forces, Arayik Harutyunyan replied: "It is possible to involve some forces, but there is no word about coalition."One killed, three injured in Bhaktapur car crash

A person died and three others injured in a car accident at Madhyapur Thimi-4 on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Range, Bhaktapur said. Car driver Ramesh Raj Raut, 47, of Sindhuli died when the private car (Ba 3 Cha 8317) heading towards Bhaktapur from Kathmandu crashed into a concrete road divider at Thimi.We had planned activities at the UN, and which relate to the presentation of Armenias priorities in the socioeconomic domain, in terms of the implementation of the UN Development Agenda.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, told the abovementioned to the Voice of America Armenian Service, as he spoke about the results of the Armenian delegations recent visit to the US.

Within the framework of this trip, the Armenian FM had talks also with the UN leadership, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Our conversations were built around all the priorities on the joint agenda of Armenia and UN, Mnatsakanyan noted, in particular.

Security, including the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict, also was among the matters that were discussed. In this connection, the Armenian FM said the UN always supported this conflicts pacific resolution within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group.

In September, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan is expected to pay a visit to the US, in order to attend the next session of the UN General Assembly.

We [Armenia] will do everything so that we will be able to engage in a dialogue with our partners () in the best way, said Zohrab Mnatsakanyan. We are very excited and happy to be able to make use of this opportunity.In recent months, the Armenian side has repeatedly reported about mobilization of Azerbaijani troops near the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and movements in the neutral zone in the Nakhchivan section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. In this regard, the Armenian News - NEWS.am correspondent asked the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk to comment on the situation.

Tension on the Nakhchivan section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border has increased recently. Is any monitoring planned in this direction?

My Office has conducted a number of monitoring exercises on the Nakhichevan section of the border in recent years.

We continue to do our utmost to visit all of those parts of the border and of the Line of Contact that are affected by reported ceasefire violations.

How do you assess the situation when one of the parties cuts the neutral zone, moves positions and uses it as propaganda and militaristic rhetoric? In general, how important, in your opinion, is to refrain from encroachments in neutral territory? It is not for the first month that the Armenian side is reporting about mobilization of Azerbaijani troops at the borders of Armenia and on the line of contact with Nagorno-Karabakh. How do you assess these reports?

Any such violations as well as activities which lead to an increase in tension or which increase the risks of military miscalculations in frontline areas should be avoided.

We can regrettable note that from year to year the number of violations of the ceasefire regime is growing. How can you get the parties to comply with the arrangements?

Having said that, in the past few months, the sides have reported relatively low levels of ceasefire violations. The sides also did not report any use of more lethal weapons such as mortars and grenade launchers.

The issue of pulling back the snipers from the front line was actively discussed in the past. Is it possible?

This stable situation on the front lines and a low level of casualties creates a better perspective for the renewed dialogue. Our Office continues to regularly monitor the front lines with the continued support of the sides, enabling us to fulfil our mandated tasks.

At what stage is the issue of expanding your office?

After the Presidents agreed to the expansion of my Office, the details were discussed in Krakow in January 2018 by the Foreign Ministers. They agreed in principle to the concept paper for the implementation of the expansion, but still some details remain to be agreed upon.

My staff and I stand ready to support the sides in implementing any agreed confidence-building measures.Province 2 Cabinet inducts 3 state ministers

Province 2 government has inducted three state ministers from Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal to the Cabinet on Wednesday.The weapons and ammunition, which we will receive from the Russian Federation, are in production.

The Defense Minister of Armenia, Davit Tonoyan, on Wednesday told the aforesaid to reporters at the Ministry of Defense, and during the graduation ceremony for the 2017/18 academic year graduates of military education institutions from Armenia and abroad. He noted this commenting on Armenias purchasing of arms, and with the $100mn loan from Russia.

And when asked whether an increase in the salaries of Armenias military servicemen was planned, the minister responded that although an increase in the salaries of soldiers and officers was not envisaged in 2019, the countrys military budget was to increase considerably.During her visit to Moscow, Russia, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyans wife Anna Hakobyan visited the State Tretyakov Gallery on July 24 and met with its director Zelfira Tregulova. At the meeting, Hakobyan and Tregulova discussed a number of issues concerning cooperation with the gallery, including issues related to the possible opening of the Tretyakov Gallerys Yerevan branch.

Afterwards Hakobyan met with a number of women figures of different Russian sectors.

The PMs wife informed the participants of the meeting about her Women For Peace campaign, asking them to accept her speech exclusively as a speech of a woman and a mother.

Noting that the main mission of the initiative is to contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Hakobyan particularly said: I actually think that it isnt important how this conflict originated. What matters is the human lives, the young human lives which are paid before this conflict.

Hakobyan recalled the 2016 April War, when she was an executive of a news media, and followed both Armenian and Azerbaijani news, watched all coverage.

Believe me, when looking at Azerbaijani soldiers, their [faces], I was noting that these children arent different from our soldiers with anything, the expression in their eyes was the same  fearful and anxious, she said.

I would like to say that no politics and no political interest can justify the violent death of children who are newly entering their lives, the pain of the parents and the longing of orphaned children, Mrs. Anna Hakobyan said.

Hakobyan called on the political decision-makers of all sides to do their best to bypass the cannons, and asked the participants of the meeting to join the campaign aimed at establishing peace for the sake of preserving the young lives standing at both sides of the border.

With this purpose Hakobyan invited the participants of the meeting to visit Armenia and Artsakh and to make the call from there. She also requested the women to use their opportunity to address this call from the other side of the border, Azerbaijan, as well.

The women emotionally and warmly accepted Hakobyans speech and expressed willingness to join the campaign and to unite their voices for peace in the region and other parts of the world.

The women who took part in the meeting included lawmakers, politicians, bankers, media executives and others.Saarc to enforce common standard for edible items

The member nations of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) have agreed to enforce common standards in edibles such as biscuits, processed sugar and dairy products.The body of soldier Jorik Petrosyan, born in 1999, was found on Tuesday in the military position located in Armenias south-western direction, with a fatal gunshot wound on his head, the defense ministry reported.

Investigation is underway to clarify the details of the incident.

A 3-year-old Armenian boy has fallen from the window of a building in Saint Petersburg, Russia, when he was left unattended, according to Piter.tv.

The child fell from 15 meters, but he survived the fall. The little boy is hospitalized, and he is in critical condition.

The boy was left unattended by his grandmother, who, subsequently, had called an ambulance.

The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group proposed holding a meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers, Armenian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tigran Balayan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

According to him, there was a proposal from the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs over the new meeting of Mnatsakanyan-Mammadyarov.

If the terms and venue of the meeting are agreed upon, we will certainly inform about it," Balayan said.

As reported earlier, the Azerbaijani MFA said a new meeting of the FMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan may take place in September during the UN General Assembly or even earlier.

The US President Donald Trumps meeting with the Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in New York within the UN General Assembly is under the consideration, the US Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills told reporters on Wednesday.

According to him, both sides want to hold a meeting, however the leaders have very tight schedule, so the spare window should be found to hold a meeting between the US President and Armenian Prime Minister.

The Russian Federal Security Service border troops, which are carrying out their military service in Armenia, have detained five border trespassers, at the border with Turkey, the press service of the Russian Federal Security Service Border Guard Department in Armenia reported.

This criminal group had attempted to illegally enter Armenia. It was found out that these border trespassers are Afghan citizens.

They were handed over to Armenian law enforcement. The details of this incident are being ascertained.

Congressional defense lawmakers have officially barred deliveries of the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkish forces, and due to Ankaras plan to field the Russian-made S-400 missile defense system, reported The Washington Times.

The decision was approved by both chambers of the US Congress.

This ban has been inserted into the final version of the Pentagons budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year.

But the final decision on the cancelation of F-35 shipments to Turkey will be made after the US Department of Defense report.

Several people are injured after an explosion Wednesday in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. It was found out that the explosion had taken place at a glass workshop, and the latters walls had partly collapsed.

According to preliminary information, two people were hospitalized, while another person was rushed to hospital by local efforts.

The weapons and ammunition, which we will receive from the Russian Federation, are in production. The Defense Minister of Armenia, Davit Tonoyan, on Wednesday told the aforesaid to reporters at the Ministry of Defense, and during the graduation ceremony for the 2017/18 academic year graduates of military education institutions from Armenia and abroad. He noted this commenting on Armenias purchasing of arms, and with the $100mn loan from Russia.

And when asked whether an increase in the salaries of Armenias military servicemen was planned, the minister responded that although an increase in the salaries of soldiers and officers was not envisaged in 2019, the countrys military budget was to increase considerably.YEREVAN.- Consultation was held in the Armenian government led by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan during which the preparation works for holding the 17th summit of the heads of La Francophonie state and government were discussed, the government reported.

PM Pashinyan attached importance to holding the summit at a high level. We have a big list of foreign guests, presidents and prime ministers of dozens of countries will arrive in Armenia. Ensuring their comfort and security is a very important task for us. The proper organization and holding of this large-scale event is the issue of our countrys reputation and honor, even the shortcomings caused are unacceptable, and we should hold the event at the highest level, PM Pashinyan said.

Members of the working group led by deputy prime minister Tigran Avinyan reported the PM on the ongoing works aimed at ensuring infrastructures and solving several technical problems and stated that they are being carried in accordance with the timeframe and respective solutions are given to the emerging problems. French-speaking volunteers will also be involved aimed at better organizing and holding the events.

Three days before the two-day summit, the forum of foreign ministers will be held. Wide presence of companies and enterprises of La Francophonie states is expected at the economic business forum which will be held within the frames of the summit: it is expected their number will reach 350, and during the forum memorandums of cooperation will be signed. The works on adopting the Living Together Pact, the fundamental document of the La Francophonie, were presented. On the sidelines of the summit, the congress of the union of La Francophonie journalists will also be held, reporters of different countries have already submitted applications for covering the summit and the events to be held within the frames of it. It was also reported that the logo, slogan  Living Together, have also been approved, a special website has been developed.

PM Pashinyan gave respective instructions to the responsible persons and attached importance to the coordinated work of the agencies to detect all possible problems on time and quickly solve them.Story Highlights From the 1940s to the 1970s, about two in five U.S. adults smoked

Smoking rate has fallen most sharply among young adults

Middle-aged adults now more likely to smoke than youngest adults

WASHINGTON, D.C -- Sixteen percent of U.S. adults say they smoked a cigarette in the past week, by one percentage point the lowest level on record since Gallup first asked this question in 1944.

These latest data come from a July 1-11 Gallup poll.

In 1944, 41% of U.S. adults said they smoked; this figure held steady for the next several decades, even after the federal government warned the public in the early 1960s that smoking was a health threat.

At the start of the 1970s, four in 10 Americans still reported smoking, but by 1977, the rate had fallen to 36%. Twelve years later, in 1989, the smoking rate fell below the 30% mark for the first time. However, over the next two decades the smoking rate was relatively stable with about a quarter of Americans saying they smoked.

In the late 2000s, smoking levels began to slowly drop again, when many cities and states started passing public smoking bans. In 2013, the percentage of Americans who smoked fell below 20% for the first time, where it has remained for four out of the five years since, including this most recent reading of 16%.

Smoking Rate Among Young Adults Has Fallen by Half Since 2001

Smoking rates among young adults, those aged 18-29, have declined most dramatically since 2001. Over the past three years, 15% of adults aged 18-29 say they smoked a cigarette in the past week, compared with the 34% who said so in the early 2000s. By contrast, smoking rates among Americans aged 30-49 have fallen by eight percentage points over this time period and, among older Americans, have essentially not budged.

Percentage of U.S. Adults Who Smoked a Cigarette in the Past Week by Age Group, 2001-2018 2001-2005 2006-2010 2011-2015 2016-2018 % % % % U.S. adults 25 22 20 17 18-29 34 28 22 15 30-49 28 25 23 20 50-64 24 22 21 24 65+ 11 11 11 8 Gallup

Notably, the two middle-aged categories are now slightly more likely than their younger counterparts to say they smoke -- reversing the long historical association between smoking and age. For much of the time Gallup has tracked the U.S. smoking rate, the youngest adults were the most likely of any age cohort to light up regularly. But since around 2011, young Americans have been about as or less likely to smoke than the next two oldest age categories.

Bottom Line

While smoking among U.S. adults has fallen considerably since the 1970s -- and hit a low again this year -- the decline has been most striking among 18- to 29-year-olds, at least in the last 20 years. Young adults are now slightly less likely than their middle-aged compatriots to actively smoke, a result that runs contrary to the historical association between smoking and youth.

Many factors may be turning young Americans against cigarette smoking. Though public anti-smoking campaigns were well established by the time this age cohort came along, many of these young adults came of age when public smoking bans became more commonplace throughout the country. These bans may have made smoking seem like a more stigmatizing behavior, while older adults remembered a time when indoor smoking was more common. For instance, a 2015 Gallup poll found that 18- to 29-year-olds are the most likely of any age group to say they have an "unsympathetic" view of smokers.Cubas top lawmakers made changes to the Cuban Constitution the weekend of July 21 that appear to be a way to move the island into the 21st century. Among the changes are the acknowledgement of private property and the legalization of same sex marriage.

UM News asked several of the University of Miamis experts on Cuba what these changes might mean for the future of the island.

UM News: Why are these Constitutional changes significant?

Andy S. Gomez, former UM assistant provost and former interim director of UMs Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies:

These are the most significant changes since the start of the revolution. Raul Castro is very pragmatic and understands that the revolution needs to streamline its system in order to survive. These are domestic policy changes that demonstrate how the Cuban government will move forward once Raul Castro is no longer alive.

One of the most significant changes was creating the role of a prime minister who will run the day-to-day operations of the country, as well as creating provincial governors, which they never had before. The role of the prime minister is to coordinate the work of the state and provincial governments. I believe they want to create an infrastructure to facilitate local and state economy and attract more investment.

Lillian Manzor, associate professor of Modern Languages and Literature, UM College of Arts and Sciences:

These changes to the Cuban constitution, although they are being voted upon now, are the result of discussions that were started about ten years ago about the role of the PCC (Communist Party of Cuba) in Cubas economic and political system as well as about private enterprise. Some changes, such as the redefinition of marriage, for example, and setting limits on the presidential term (five years with option to be reelected only once) are significant but overall the main tenets of the proposed constitution are the same as the previous one: the state will continue to regulate economic activity centrally. From the press coverage it seems that the proposed constitution is catching up with the times. Cuba today is not the Cuba of the 1970s, and its relation to the world is also different than what it was 40 years ago.

UM News: Why was the word Communism removed from the Constitution?

Michael Touchton, assistant professor of political science, UM College of Arts and Sciences:

This is cosmetic, from a policy perspective, but it is a serious, important public relations move. The government gains legitimacy by no longer fighting a battle for global communism that was so clearly abandoned everywhere else with the end of the cold war. Fighting instead for socialism, equality, and sustainability represents a much more palatable rebranding that may resonate with the Cuban people and contribute to perceptions of government legitimacy.

Andy S. Gomez, former UM assistant provost and former interim director of UMs Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies:

Former Cuban President Raul Castro has been talking about the advanced socialist state and current Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel continues to be clear that the Communist ideology will be a guiding force in ruling Cuba. However, removing the word communism from the constitution is a recognition that the majority of Cubans, especially the youth, no longer support the Marxist Leninist ideology.

UM News: Why make same sex marriage legal at this time?

Andy S. Gomez, former UM assistant provost and former interim director of UMs Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies:

Mariela Castro (Rauls daughter) has advocated for this issue for years. To me, this is a way to allow a bit of pressure out of a social pressure cooker and allow certain segments of Cuban society, including the LGBT community, to have some breathing room.

Lillian Manzor, associate professor of Modern Languages and Literature, UM College of Arts and Sciences:

Same sex marriage will require legal changes. However, the redefinition of marriage as between two people as opposed to between a man and a woman is significant. Again, Cubas approach to homosexuality has been changing because society has changed and Cubans have changed. This is not to say that there is no homophobia; homophobia continues to exist and there is bullying in schools. Mariela Castro along with the team at CENESEX and other groups have been working very hard for many years to bring about changes with respect to sexuality in medicine, in education, etc. Homosexuality was de-penalized in 1997 and the Labor Code in 2013 was changed in favor of regulating against discrimination because of sexual orientation. So these changes reflect what the society has accepted in spite of the opposition from various religious groups. The constitutional change may then facilitate changes in the legal system.

Michael Touchton, assistant professor of political science, UM College of Arts and Sciences:

One way to look at this is as a concession to rapidly changing social norms and a drive for civil rights, but without extending political rights, like freedom of speech or assembly. Thus, the move is likely to be popular among young Cubans and seen as progress, but does not threaten the partys power in any way.

UM News: Acknowledging private property could be perceived as weakening the power of the state. Why now?

Lillian Manzor, associate professor of Modern Languages and Literature, UM College of Arts and Sciences:

Private property has already been recognized. Cubans have been buying and selling homes for quite a while. We have not seen the text of the constitution but I dont think there is any weakening of the power of the state. It recognizes various types of property that can coexist and it includes private property but it seems clear that the state will continue to control and plan the economy centrally.

Andy S. Gomez, former UM assistant provost and former interim director of UMs Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies:

The Cuban government wants to give the perception that they will acknowledge personal property. It is a way for them to attract foreign investment. What foreign investor will invest in the island if there is no acknowledgement of personal property?

UM News: What remains the same in this constitution?

Andy S. Gomez, former UM assistant provost and former interim director of UMs Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies:

The Cuban government is still firmly in power. The upper echelon of the Cuban National Assembly and the Council of States is still the same, not many ministers have changed. We may be seeing a more open model, but the government is still in power.Smartphone dealers to launch new models

With the festive season coming up soon, smartphone dealers in Nepal are gearing up to launch new models in the market.Sun Young Jung  Sun Young Jung with her mother at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial in Taipei, Taiwan (Photo provided).

Professor builds internship model that improves language fluency at remarkable rate

by Hannah Erickson

CARBONDALE, Ill.  For most American students, foreign language is an educational requirement. But while years might be spent studying grammar in the classroom, Shu-Ling Wu, assistant professor of Chinese at SIU, discovered there had been little research conducted about how foreign language education can better prepare learners to function in a real work setting.

Armed with this discovery, Wu developed an international internship model that would better prepare her students to succeed with language use.

The seven-week program places a student in a full-time working position and requires each student to set up learning objectives that they plan to achieve through their internship experience. To help students take ownership of their own learning progress, they participate in proficiency assessments before and after the internship, engage in weekly oral journals and Skype meetings with a professor, and self-assess their language use and learning strategies.

Following this pattern, Wu found that language proficiency improved dramatically for her students. In just a seven-week time period, language improved at a rate that would typically take at least one year of training in a university setting.

Student looking globally for her future

Coming from a home that spoke both Korean and English, Sun Young Jung, a senior studying toward a double major in foreign language and international trade and economics, always had an interest in international relationships. When she discovered the program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale that allowed her to learn Chinese and business at the same time, she was hooked.

Growing up, one of my best friends was from Taiwan, and she was one of the biggest reasons I wanted to learn Chinese, Jung explained.

Now, by experiencing an international internship, Jung is looking to build her future globally.

Language translation

To fulfill her seven-week internship requirement, Jung sent out her professional resume in English and Chinese to interested companies. After a successful Skype interview, she earned an opportunity to work as a translator in Korean and English at a Titanium Jewelry Brand in Taipei, Taiwan.

I am learning how Asian businesses work compared to the States, which is a bit stricter, and how to interact with the boss, Jung said. I have to translate our products descriptions, so I have to research the true meanings of the name a lot, and because of that I learn each product in depth.

While not fluent in Chinese when she began her summer, Jung is fully immersed in the language and is being pushed to expand her understanding of the language.

All of the workers in the office speak Chinese and very little English, so I have to speak and listen in Chinese, Jung said.

This is quickly challenging and pushing her to improve her language skills.

Improving East Asian and American relations

Jung, originally from Springfield, Missouri, has big plans for her future. After completing her degree, she hopes to work in foreign affairs and work to improve East Asian and American relationships. Jung credits her language training as the key to her future success.

I [have] learned so many new things from language, culture, business and economics, Jung said.

While there are many opportunities for students to study abroad while in college, there are a limited number of foreign language programs that provide students with real experiential learning opportunities. But as more students are able to jumpstart their skills with similar international internships, the path towards fluency is starting to appear more possible.Chuka is an experienced certified web developer with an extensive background in computer science and 18+ years in web design &development. His previous experience ranges from redesigning existing website to solving complex technical problems with object-oriented programming. Very experienced with Microsoft SQL Server, PHP and advanced JavaScript. He loves to travel and watch movies.Home | News | General | Offa robbery: Saraki reportedly shuns police invitation

- Senator Bukola Saraki has failed to honour the invitation of the Nigeria police force over his indictment in the Offa robbery

- Force spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, however said that there was no timeline to the invitation

- Moshood also said that the force would not shy away from its constitutional responsibilities of crime detection

President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki on Tuesday, July 24, failed to honour the invitation of the Nigeria police force over his indictment in the Offa bank robbery.

The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that the force had invited Saraki to report to the head of investigation team, of the Intelligence Response Team ( IRT) on July 24 at 8 a.m. in Guzape, Abuja.

NAN also reports that the invitation was in connection with the confession made by five suspects in the April 5 robbery that they were political thugs of Saraki.

READ ALSO: Fayose visits Saraki, Ekweremadu

The force spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, while addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, said that there was no timeline to the invitation.

Moshood said that the force would not shy away from its constitutional responsibilities of crime detection.

The Nigeria police force will not abdicate from its constitutional responsibilities of detection of crimes and criminalities, and will always treat crime as crime no matter who is involved.

The force remains focused and will not be distracted from carrying out a discreet and thorough investigation into the indictment of the senate president, he said.

He said that Saraki had case to answer and it was consequent upon that that he was invited to appear before the IRT.

He said that Saraki was not harassed and intimidated physically or otherwise by any police personnel as reported by some media.

It is also absolutely untrue that Saraki was harassed, threatened or intimidated physically or otherwise by any police personnel either from the force headquarters or any other formation of the force, he said.

Moshood implored members of the public to disregard and discountenance the report of the blockade of the residence, harassment and threat to Sarakis life.

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NAIJ.com had reported that the inspector general of police, Ibrahim Idris, sent a letter to Senate president, Bukola Saraki asking him to appear at the office of intelligence response team in Abuja.

Nigeria News: Offa bank robbery - The untold story (NAIJ EXCLUSIVE) | - on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Fayose visits Saraki, Ekweremadu, says senators decamped from APC because of Nigerians

- President Muhammadu Buhari's administration has once again come under attack from Governor Fayose

- Fayose who came to pay solidarity visit to Saraki and Ekweremadu over their problems with security operatives praised some lawmakers who defected from the ruling party

- He said everybody must come together to drive away the ruling party

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state has once again hit out against President Muhammadu Buharis administration.

The governor made his displeasure known when he visited the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and the deputy senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, on Tuesday, July 24.

Fayose said who said he came on a solidarity visit condemned the siege on the residences of the national assembly leaders.

READ ALSO: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

Why we are here is to equally salute their courage for doing what they have done to salvage from these government of beasts which have no use for humanity. Beasts destroy, beasts cannot be cultured, beasts cannot be managed, beast have come to destroy the country.

Let me say that we want to condemn in totality what happened early this morning, last night. Invitation of Senator Bukola Saraki and the letter from the EFCC to the deputy senate president, Ekweremadu.

It shows the level of their status. They behave like defeated souls who will stop at nothing to remain in power. If PDP had done this ahead of 2015 election, these people will not be in power. I want them to know that every plan without God will fail. I want the senators not to be intimidated. They should continue to struggle to make sure that this country is freed from the shackles of these taskmasters.

Going further, Governor Fayose commended the 15 senators who defected from the APC.

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It is long overdue. All the shenanigans in Ekiti, all the manipulations in Ekiti, this was one of the reasons they did that to make sure they intimidate and prevent them from carrying out this national defection. They are defecting because of Nigerians, not PDP. Just that PDP is the credible alternative.

Everybody needs to come together to drive away this government. If this man should return as president, we will be doomed financially. If you look at killings, nobody even counts anymore. It has gone beyond counting. What they do represents the feeling of Nigerians.

NAIJ.com had reported that hours after 15 senators defected from the ruling All Progressives Party (PDP), Senate president Olusola Saraki disclosed that the National Assembly will continue to work together to strengthen Nigeria's democracy.

Street Gist: Should the Nigerian Senate be scrapped? - on NAIJ.com TV.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | 18-year-old talented boy who can build an aircraft using plastic waste goes viral

NAIJ.com has sighted a photo of a young Ghanaian boy who has manufactured an helicopter from plastic waste.

The eighteen-year-old boy called Gabriel Boadu, according to sources, is able to craft anything from plastic scrap.

Boadu has not seen an helicopter before, but from what he has seen on television, he has made one branded in Ghanas colours  red, yellow, green, and black.

Apart from the helicopter, Gabriel has also invented a locally-made tricycle popular called Aboboya

READ ALSO: These photos show the luxurious interior of Mercy Aigbes new house

He has also made a phone charger using cooking oil and also from plastic waste.

Gabriel hails from Kwahu Affram Plains North District of the Eastern Region of Ghana.

He attends Tease Presbyterian Junior High School in Kwahu.

READ ALSO: Bobrisky steps out in a head-turning outfit for an event

According to his manager, Quajo Aboagye, who got in contact with NAIJ.com on behalf of Gabriel, indicated that the boy is indeed talented and would need support to keep up with the good work he is doing.

Mr. Aboagye further indicated his desire to have Gabriel and his work shown to the world at large so he could obtain the necessary support.

This is just one of the many exploits being championed by many young boys in Ghana these days.

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Talented Nigerian man with 28 skills says he did not learn from anybody on NAIJ.com TV:

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Rep member, Tony Nwulu, dumps PDP, joins UPP to contest Imo governorship polls in 2019

- This is a season of defections in Nigeria's politics

- A member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Tony Nwulu has dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

- Nwulu representing Oshodi/Isolo federal constituency in Lagos is now a member of the United Progressive Party (UPP)

A member of the House of Representatives, Tony Nwulu (Lagos-PDP) has dumped this due to what he termed, irreconcilable conflicts in the party.

Nwulu made this known at a news conference on Tuesday, July 24, shortly after the plenary session where he also announced his defection to the UPP.

He said he had written a letter of notice on his defection to the House Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, dated Tuesday, July 24 on his decision.

READ ALSO: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

The federal lawmaker said he had informed the House leadership to take notice that effective from the date above, I have resigned my membership of the PDP.

He said in his letter: I wish, therefore, to by this letter convey my membership of the United Progressive Party (UPP) and to be accorded all rights and privileges emanating there from.

This defection is as a result of irreconcilable conflicts in my party and in accordance with Section 68 1(g) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

While assuring you of my continuous support to your leadership, my cooperation and loyalty to the legislative agenda of the House, please accept the assurances of my warmest regards as always.

When asked why he chose UPP as his new party, he said besides having a governorship ambition, the new platform was a better party to achieve his political ambition in Imo. (NAN)

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Earlier in the day, 32 lawmakers at the lower chamber joined the PDP while four others joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC).

The defection of the lawmakers was announced at the plenary on Tuesday, July 24, by Speaker Dogara. The defectors cited division at all levels of the ruling party as the reason for their decision.

Street Gist: Should the Nigerian Senate be scrapped? - on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Inye Marshall-Harry joins Degema-Bonny fed constituency race

PORT HAR-COURTINYE Marshal Harry, son of assassinated Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, key founding member, Marshall Harry, has declared to contest the 2019 Degema-Bonny federal constituency seat in Rivers State.

elections

He said that the public declaration of his aspiration with the All Progressives Congress, APC, at a gathering of party faithful in Obuama, Degema Local Government Area of the state, became auspicious after far reaching and rigorous consultations in the past few months.

If given the ticket,and eventually win, I will prioritize education, skills acquisition and economic empowerment of our youths and middle aged, he promised constituents in the area.

Leader of South South APC and Transport Minister, Mr Chibiuke Amaechi, represented by Degema council APC Chairman, Igoma Loveday, assured the aspirant of level playing field in the determination of all candidates to fly the partys flag in the 2019 elections.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Credible candidacyll unify Delta APC  Ajobena

By Onozure Dania

A chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Delta State, AVM Frank Ajobena (retd), has said that a credible candidate like Prof. Pat Utomi, remains the best option for the party in Delta State if it wants to really take over the state next year.

Minister for Niger Delta Development, Pastor Usein Uguru (r) exchanging greetings with a delegate from Kogi State, Mr. Frank Nneke while the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Prof. Steve Ocheni (2l) and another delegate looked on at the 2018 All Progressives Congress National Convention at the Eagle Square, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

He stated this at a retreat organised by Prof Utomi Campaign Organisation for supporters of Pat Utomi drawn from the 25 local governments area of the state at Abraka, adding that Utomis candidacy will unify the party as he is amiable to both camps.

Speaking at the retreat, the governorship hopeful charged the warring factions in the crisis rocking the party in the state to bury their hatchets and embrace peace.

He said that most parts of his life had been in the struggle to free the society from poverty induced by poor leadership.

He said that the thrust of his government, if elected governor of the state, will be encapsulated in a three- point agenda: To end poverty, infrastructural development and empowering communities.

He noted that Delta State compared to Edo and Anambra was a big embarrassment, adding that many Deltans who talks to him expressed shame over what a leading state like Delta has become, a situation he says, motivated him and other to call Deltans to arise to rescue Delta.

He explained that the easiest way to end poverty in the state was by revamping the educational system, providing qualitative health care which is affordable and accessible as these will save the money the parents would have spent on education and healthcare, while provision social security for poor women, will bridge income bracket.

God has enormously bless Delta State with talents and resources, that Delta should be the base for Nigeria development, but sadly it is lagging on all human indices, stressing that Asaba residents now go to Onitsha for medical needs because of the lack of standard state owned medical center in Asaba.

He stated further that he has the contacts and the global network to attract development partners to invest in the infrastructural development, adding that his approach to governance will be bottom to up, bringing the communities into planning and projects execution.

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Abuja  President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki on Tuesday failed to honour the invitation of the Nigeria Police Force over his indictment in the Offa bank robbery.

Saraki

The force had invited Saraki to report to the Head of investigation team, of the Intelligence Response Team ( IRT) on July 24 at 8 a.m. in Guzape, Abuja.

The invitation was in connection with the confession made by five suspects in the April 5 robbery that they were political thugs of Saraki.

The Force Spokesman, acting DCP Jimoh Moshood, while addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja, said that there was no timeline to the invitation.

Moshood said that the force would not shy away from its constitutional responsibilities of crime detection.

The Nigeria police force will not abdicate from its constitutional responsibilities of detection of crimes and criminalities, and will always treat crime as crime no matter who is involved.

The force remains focused and will not be distracted from carrying out a discreet and thorough investigation into the indictment of the Senate President,he,said.

He said that Saraki had case to answer and it was consequent upon that that he was invited to appear before the IRT.

He said that Saraki was not harassed and intimidated physically or otherwise by any police personnel as reported by some media.

It is also absolutely untrue that Saraki was harassed, threatened or intimidated physically or otherwise by any Police personnel either from the Force Headquarters or any other formation of the Force,he said.

Moshood implored members of the public to disregard and discountenance the report of the blockade of the residence, harassment and threat to Sarakis life.(NAN)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralTeams start sorting KCs issues

The government team and representatives of Dr Govinda KC, whose hunger strike marked 25th day on Tuesday, are said to have reached agreements on some of the demands.Home | News | General | Opinion: With Atiku's exit, Bindow is like an orphan in APC - Analyst

Editor's note: James Dauda a public affairs commentator in Yola writes on the politics of Adamawa state and the implication of the recent defection of a former vice president Atiku Abubakar and Senator Abdul-Azeez Nyako from the ruling party.

Dauda also highlights the challenges to be faced by the governor of the state in the ongoing political crisis.

As 2019 draws nearer and the political shadow games gradually crystallises, it is now becoming clear that the political atmosphere in Adamawa would not be as favourable to some aspirants and indeed candidates as it was in 2015.

Adamawa state has a peculiar political setting that is not tenable anywhere else. Indeed, Adamawa is a mini Nigeria, with high net worth political stakeholders playing Russian roulette, and the political battlegrounds shifts like quick sands.

Governor Bindow in spite of his achievements, in areas of roads reconstruction, is being confronted with some many challenges today with barely a year to the end of his mandate, that it is no longer a sure thing that he might win back his mandate in 2019.

Bindow is faced with a myriad of challenges and obstacles, some, as a matter of fact self inflicted. Bindow's inability to sustain political association with any of the major blocks in the state, is eventually turning to be his major Achilles heel.

He had rode to power on the platform of the former governor Murtala Nyako in 2015 , only to ditch the group for the platform of the former vice president Atiku Abubakar.

He had claimed then that Atiku spent over N500million on his governorship elections, a claim which had irked not only the Nyako group but also the Buhari Presidency.

But with the exit of Atiku out of the APC back in to the PDP, Bindow is like an orphan in the APC as he is viewed with suspicion by all the major groupings in the APC structures in the state.

Alhaji Mijinyawa Kugama, a political chieftain on the Nyako platform described Bindow as an unreliable person, who cannot be trusted. "We brought him to power only for him to ditch us. We spent our money and political capital."

READ ALSO: I killed police inspector for trying to arrest me - Suspected herdsman

Today the Nyako group, a formidable political machine, is waiting to have their pound of flesh. As a matter of fact , the group has moved out enmasse to the African Democratic Congress, ADC. An emergent new party , which is at arrowhead of political alliances geared towards uprooting the APC from power in 2019.

The recent APC elective delegates conference, from the ward to the national level, has exposed the weakness of Bindow with the party leadership in the state, and its fractionalizations in the state. In fact it is not sure if party leadership would go along with him.

As at the time of filing this report, a faction of the party led by Eszra Dimas has approached a Yola based high court seeking to nullify the state congress of the party on grounds of exclusion.

Other stakeholders like the former Secretary to Federal Government, SGF, Babachir David Lawal have also disclaimed the congress.

Apart from his tenuous hold on the party structure, Bindow is not on the same page with any of the power blocks in the state. Apart from the Nyako group, he has issues with Gen.Mohammed Marwa .

There are about 5 five major issues confronting the incumbent Governor, Senator Mohammed Bindow that would determine the 2019 elections.

1. Security

The other ethnic minorities are also not too happy with the Governor over the recent spate of farmers/ herders violence rocking the state .

The violence may also count against the Governor. The violence had the mostly christian Bwartye ethnic communities of Demsa, Numan, Lamurde, Girie, local Government areas against the Fulani cattle herders.resulting in carnage , death and destruction.

Although relative is gradually being restored in the affected areas, there is deep seated anger and suspicion against the Bindow for not doing enough to contain the violence.

Some even openly accuse the Government of complicity in the massacre. The Pene da Bwartye, an umbrella socio- cultural association of the Bwartye speaking people and the Christian association of Nigeria, CAN, have carpeted the state and the federal government for its extremely poor handling of the crisis.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

Likewise the Amnesty international report issued in the aftermath of the crisis. The president of Pene da Bwartye, Engineer Griffith Pakai, said that the failure of Government to address cases of violence against farming communities in the past has fueled the current spate of violence.

He stressed that the panel of inquiry set up by the state government, to investigate the root cause of the crisis was just a ruse and a political gimmick.

One major impact of the farmer/herders crisis is the poisoning of the relationship between the APC controlled state and Federal government and the communities, to the extent that it would take a major policy thrust to regain the confidence of the voters to vote candidates of the party in any elections, no matter how strong that candidate might be.

2. Isolation of major political stakeholders

Some of the major political gladiators in the state has expressed annoyance with Bindow over the ways and manner, Bindow runs the state without consulting them. He is almost totally not on the page with any of the powerful voting blocks in the state. This came to the fore right from the inception of his administration,

The Fulanis, a major powerful political ethnic group in the state, have vowed to oust him from power in 2019. They accused him of marginalising them in the power equation in the state.

They point out the fact that in the Governor, Deputy Governor, speaker, deputy speaker, SSG, and the late Chief of staff to Governor, are all minority ethnic groups in the state.

Bindow is of the Njenyi ethnic stock, while his deputy , Martins Babale is Chamba. The SSG, Dr Umar Bindir is a laka(godogodo), while the late COS Abdulrahaman Abba Jimeta was Batta.

Both the speaker and his deputy are also minorities, Speaker Mijinyawa is a Verre, while his deputy Emmanuel Tsamdu is Higgi speaking.

The Fulani's alluded to the recent controversy where the SSG, Bindir said that the Fulani's were the major obstacle to the development of the state, as one insults to many.

They also accused Bindow of being disrespectful to their leaders. The Fulani have vowed to end his tenure at the Dougirie lodge, seat of power in Adamawa. Bindow opponents made much political capital out of his known character flaws, especially when it comes to maintenance and sustenance of relationship.

Only recently the family of the late former Governor of the state, Alhaji Saleh Michika disclosed at his funeral that their patriarch died becos the Bindow withheld his entitlements amounting to N40m , when he needed the funds to go to hospitals abroad.

Munir Saleh michika, son to the late Governor was prevailed upon to allow the Governor attend the funeral prayers, as he had sought to bar the Governor.

But he later address the press narrating the circumstances of his father death. Bindow also failed to condole Admiral Murtala Nyako when he lost one of his wives, Hajia Zainab Nyako . an issue which received condemnation across the political spectrum.

The Saleh Michika episode typifies the disconnect between Bindow and the rest of the Adamawa society

3. High debt profile of Adamawa state

Inspite of collecting a total of N193.5 billion from the federation account and allocation committee, FAAC, in the last three years, [ from may 2015 to may 2018,] as the states share of the federation remittances, The debt portfolio of Adamawa state has risen from N35.75 billion to N69.7 billion between 2015 to 2018, just within three years.

READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara still in APC to bid for time, create bigger impact - Report

The amount translates to a staggering sum of N34 billion debt secured under the current Bindow administration, which is thrice the debt portfolio left behind by governor Murtala Nyako, after his seven yearstint.

The amount translates to a staggering sum of N34 billion debt secured under the current Bindow administration, which is thrice the debt portfolio left behind by governor Murtala Nyako, after his seven year stint superintended the illegal removal of Nyako from office in 2014, had in a world press conference accused governor Murtala Nyako of leaving debts to the tune of N12.5 billion behind.

But a report by Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative NEITI in 2014, indicated that the state owed the sum of N15 billion including interest accruals, as at the time governor Nyako was impeached.

In between the time Nyako was impeached on July 15, 2014 and May 29, 2015, when governor Umaru Jibrilla was sworn in, the debt portfolio of the state shot to N35.75 billion.

In other words , meaning that the duo of Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri and Bala Nggilari have secured more than N20 billion loan in eight months, that is OVER N 5 BILLION of what Nyako took in 7 and half years

But Three years after, the state debt portfolio rose exponentially to N69.7 billion, according to a data, provided by the Debt Management Office, (DMO) meaning that under three years, Adamawa state government under Bindow has increased the indebtedness of the state by a staggering N34 billion.

That is doubling the total indebtedness of the state in the last eight years.

The government had secured these loans inspite of the receipt of Paris club refunds and other bailout assistance packages from the federal government, to the tune of N16 billion paid to the state in two tranches.

This is also outside of the internally generated revenue base, IGR of about N13 billion, annually in the period under review.

4. Salary arrears and allowances

Despite the staggering resources that has been accruing to the state, both from the FAAC , bailouts, IGR, and loans , the Bindow administration is indebted to the state civil servants as some category of workers are still owed salary arrears to the tune of six months.

As the time may 2018, local government workers and teachers across the 21 local government council areas are being owed salaries and allowances for about six months. Health and allied workers are also owed salaries and allowances of seven months.

The main civil service workers in the state also being their leave grants for the past three years, although their basic salary is up to date.

5. Integrity

Another challenge confronting Bindow is the issue of integrity. His opponents have been strident in accusing him of amassing wealth through corruptly inflating road contracts and collecting kick backs.

They alluded to the fact that only a selected few labanese contractors have handled over 95% of all the road contracts since 2015.

The critics said he has stifled local contractors and the economy of the state. There was a major uproar in the state, when a picture surfaced on the internet showing Bindow collecting kickback from a Labanese contractor.

READ ALSO: More defections loom in the House of Representatives - Lawmaker warns

The picture have however been discredited as a photo-shop, by government officials. Martins Dickson, a media aide of Bindow called it an act of desperation by Bindow's opponent to tarnish the Governor's image.

Limiting Government patronage to a close circuit of friends is likely to boomerang against the Bindow administration. Abdullahi Girie, a political stalwart and a major opponent of Bindow challenged Bindow recently to name any person or community that has benefited up to one million naira in empowerment program from the state resources in the last three years.

According to him," there are three persons that are benefiting from the Bindow administration, Mohammed , Umaru, and Jibrilla." The full names of the Governor. Bindowo , has also been accused of awarding several contracts outside budgetary provisions and and without prior house of assembly approvals.

These in itself is an impeachment offence but for the weakness of the assembly.

The Adamawa state Govt has also been dening allegations by the opposition political party, the PDP, that it spend N710 million for the visit of president Mohammed Buhari to the state last week.

The state commissioner of finance , Alhaji Mahmud Sani Yunusa said the total amount spend on the presidential is about N60 million Naira.

Yunusa stated that the Governor had deliberately placed a ceiling on the scope of expenditure for the visit.

"Its not true that N710 million was expended for the visit. If we have that kind of money , we would have built more roads."

"It's balant lies."

But the opposition PDP organising secretary. (Name withheld) accused the state government of spending N710 million for the three hour visit of the President to Yola, the state capital

They alleged that N105 naira was spend on a especially designed Agbada called Bullam , for the presidential entourage. And that over N70 million was used to decorate the banguet hall of the Government house for the visit.

He further alleged that another N200million was said to have been spend to mobilise the security agencies, while the cabinet office under the secretary to state government, headed by DR Umar Bandir SSG , was allocated N150 million for his 45 minutes power point presentation at the event..

Also that about N12 million was expend on live coverage of the visit.

But a source within the cabinet disclosed to pressmen that the figures being quoted was outrageous and certainly not the true situation.

But Mohammed Santuraki, a public analyst based in YOLA, questions the integrity of the APC in even expending N60 million for a 3 hour visit. Santuraki said it was unfortunate for a Party said to be fighting corruption to expend. N60 million and even above for a 3 hour. Visit of a President to open a 2-day Anti- corruption seminar.

It is the height of irresponsibility.

For the Adamawa state to engage in such deflationary behaviors. Santuraki carpeted the state govt for engaging in so many falsehood that one hardly know the true situation on the ground. How can one say there were only 15 keke Napeps on Yola road before the coming of Governor Bindow. There are so many falsehood going round.

But a source close to Adamawa state Govt house disclosed of a nest fisticuffs altercation between some Top Government officials over the money released for the Presidential visit

A source said that the state commissioner of works and Housing was yet to report to her duty post almost two weeks after the Presidential visit.

House of Assembly also of late has been threatening court action against Habu Umar Jibrilla brother to the governor for non-implementation and shabby execution of road rojects awarded to his company Muraj Construction Company.

The chairman House Committee on Rural Development Hon. Mohammed Abubakar Maikanti , who spoke to journalist in Yola, described the companys diversion of N96million as tax deduction from the N200 million counter funding released by the Adamawa state government as fraudulent.

Apart from the awards of contract to his brother, governor Bindow critics are alleging that Bindow is the sole beneficiary of the so called infrastructural development and promised to prove this assertions in due time. They also said Adamawa state is witnessing the worst form of degeneration in the area of human capital development along socio-economic survival of the state .

This coupled with the rumour that he is developing a five star hospitality and holiday resort in the United Arab Emirates. Bindow also has problems within his cabinets and among his core supporters as 2019 encroaches.

Over 6 of his commissioners, close supporters and associates of Atiku Abubakar , may go to the former vice president.

Only recent two commissioners, and 6 members of the Adamawa house of Assembly including the speaker, Mijinyawa, went to Dubai to hold close consultations with the former vice president.

Also the commissioner of local Government and chieftaincy affairs, Kaura Barkindo Aliyu Musdafa, is currently, having issues with Governor Bindowo pertaining to illegal deductions from the local government joint account said to amount to over N28 billion, allegedly squirreled away for 2019 elections which the Kuara reportedly said he was dubbed of the funds by fraudsters.

Even as the chairman of the Adamawa chapter of Association of Local government councils, ALGON and Chairman of Fulfore, Barrister Aliyu Wakili Boya, and 6 others, staff of the ministry of local government and accountant General's office , having been regular visitors of the EFCC, in Abuja, over similar deductions from local government joint account said to be excess of over N14 billion.

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Even among the cabinet members are serious rivalries and dissensions.

Some of the commissioners are believed to owe loyalties to outside influences while some compete with each other over Ego. The SSG, BINDIR is believed to be having problems with some cabinet colleagues over his domineering influence and tendencies in the cabinet.

Other cabinet members are also not too comfortable over the comments of the DR Bindir on the demise of the late chief of staff, Abdulrahaman Abba Jimeta, which they described as demeaning and inhuman.

But what would have greater debilitating. effect on Bindow' chances is his tendency to play one supporter against the other. For instance, in Adamawa central senatorial constituency, over four close allies of Bindowo are in the race, each claiming his sponsorship.

Barrister Aliyu Wakili Boya, Engr Umar Suleiman, Hajia Aishat Ahmed are all believed to have been lured in the race against each other by the Governor.

In Adamawa North, where the Governor hailed from, he is said to have drafted Isa Abdullahi Abubakar, Anna Sini, and Dr Belel against the incumbent , Sen Binta masi Garba.

In the south senatorial zone, he has drafted Ahmed Barata in to the race against Moh'Allaah Idi , the incumbent.

Veteran Senator Jonathan ZWINGINA is also in the race and is believed to be closely associated to Bindow.

The fall out of the recriminations in the aftermath of the failed expectations is likely to tell on Bindow chances.

Barr. Tukur Shehu, PDP, ADAMAWA state Chairman, said what is happening is just the law of karma. Bindow is being caught by his intricate web of lies. He (Bindow) likes dribbling, he has dribbled almost everybody and he has succeeded in dribbling himself in to the corner.

He called Bindow unreliable and untrustworthy.

Adding that it was height of deceit for The Bindow administration to spend over N 100 million on holding 3 hour summit on anti corruption.

Can Bindow be beaten in 2019 elections?

Bindow can be defeated inspite of the support of the presidency.

In fact protest votes against the president Buhari might likely lead to his defeat. In other words, presidency support for Bindow is more a liability.

Bindow is a lame duck Governor that can be defeated if his weakness are properly harnessed and capitalized.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of NAIJ.com.

NAIJ.com welcomes writers, bloggers, photographers and all sorts of noise makers to become a part of our Bloggers network. If you are a seasoned writer or a complete newbie  apply and become Nigerias next star blogger.

Send us some info about your career, interests and expertise and why youd like to contribute to the Blogger Network at blogger@corp.naij.com

Also, please send us the link to your blog and three examples of your work. More details in NAIJ.coms step-by-step guide for guest bloggers.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | APC governors make special move after massive defection of lawmakers

- Governors on the platform of the APC will meet in Abuja to come up with strategies to save the party

- The governors expect an implosion in the PDP soon with the caliber of lawmakers that have defected to the party

- A source claims that some of those who suffered for the PDP will not allow the party hijacked from them

Governors in Nigeria elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) will be meeting in Abuja, the capital of the country, to brainstorm on the best strategy to counter the mass defections that have hit the party.

This revelation is contained in a report by Daily Trust, which quoted a source as saying: More than 20 governors would attend and they have a strong agenda which is to ensure that there would be no ripple effects in the states where we all know the bulk of the problem lies.

READ ALSO: Fayose visits Saraki, Ekweremadu

And you know what governors can do; they are all out to fight back because the fight is mostly at the state level; Buhari will definitely defeat whoever the PDP would field as candidate.

But most importantly, we are not losing sleep because all those that left for the PDP would meet a worst scenario there; there are people who suffered for the PDP and would not agree to be dislodged.

And you know what? Even Saraki is looking for the presidential ticket. Kwankwaso is also looking for the presidential ticket and do you think the likes of Atiku, Sule Lamido, Makarfi, Shekarau and multitude of presidential aspirants would just swallow their ambitions?

Common, just wait and see, they would fight themselves to finish ahead of the primaries, he said.

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Currently, the APC has control of 24 of the 36 states in the federation, including Ekiti that the party recently won.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his total commitment to the values of democracy, freedom of choice as well as total willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party, for the benefit of the nation.

The presidents statement is in response to the mass defection of some All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmakers to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, July 24.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Why Bukola Saraki, Dogara opted to remain in APC

- A report says Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara decided to remain in APC to bid for time

- The report reveals that the two leaders want their defection to have a greater impact on the APC

- The two are expected to move out of the APC with some governors and more lawmakers

It has been learnt that the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara respectively, have decided to remain in the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a reason.

The duo refused to join their defecting colleagues on Tuesday, July 24, despite reportedly being among members of the ruling party who had recently had grievances.

Daily Trust reports that all the lawmakers from Kwara state and a few loyalists to Dogara from Bauchi moved into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

READ ALSO: Fayose visits Saraki, Ekweremadu

However, the report claims Saraki and Dogara are delaying their movements to create a bigger impact on the troubled party.

For now, Saraki and Dogara are closely watching how the events of yesterday would be responded to by the Presidency, other power brokers and Nigerians.

"However, I want to assure you that many PDP legislators would defect to APC soon.

But one thing is certain, the two principal officers are already out of the APC, I can assure you that in the coming days, they would move to the PDP alongside some governors, more senators and Rep members just the way we would receive some, so it is not yet over, the report quoted a source as saying.

The source added that right now, it was certain that Governors Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) and Samuel Ortom (Benue) would defect to the PDP.

The same source reportedly expressed doubts on where Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto) stands.

If you remember, some APC governors led by Abdulaziz Yari and Kashim Shettima had met with Tambuwal in Sokoto.

They actually cautioned him against moving to the PDP because he would not get what he wants, which is the presidential ticket; I think he agreed, he said.

The report quoted another source as saying there was a huge difference between the defections of nPDP in 2015 and what happened on Tuesday, July 24.

All those that defected yesterday were much stronger and influential politically in 2015. With the exception of Saraki, many of them have lost out in their states, the source said.

It also quoted someone in the PDP as speaking on phone and saying the two leaders would leave soon.

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It wont be long at all. Saraki and Dogara are principal officers in the National Assembly so they dont want to rock the boat yet. The two officers are like shepherd.

They cant stay behind when the flock is gone. So the defection is going to be holistic; they are already half-way into the PDP, there is no two ways about it, he said.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that President Muhammadu Buhari expressed his total commitment to the values of democracy, freedom of choice as well as total willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party, for the benefit of the nation.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | More defections loom in the House of Representatives - Lawmaker warns

- A lawmaker has said warned Nigerians to expect more defections from members of the House of Representative

- Abdulrazak Atunwa said Tuesday, July 24, defection was just the first batch of members that would leave the APC

- According to Atunwa, the defectors were interested in economic development, respect for parliament and rule of law

A House of Representatives member, Abdulrazak Atunwa, who with 36 others defected from All Progressive Congress (APC) on Tuesday, said more members would leave the party in the coming weeks.

Briefing newsmen in company with some of the defected members, who moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atunwa said that Tuesday, July 24, defection was just the first batch of members that would leave the APC.

He said that the public should expect more as many members had indicated interest to defect from the party.

Atunwa said that the APC was a party they all laboured for as people came from various parties, campaigned and formed a government in 2015.

READ ALSO: I killed police inspector for trying to arrest me - Suspected herdsman confesses

According to him, we came together because of what was being proposed to the people of Nigeria as we believed in change and a better Nigeria.

The legislator said that they believed in respect for the rule of law, improved education, social welfare of the people as the men, women and youth of the country deserved better among other ideals.

Sadly, no sooner we formed government in May, 2015, the party put itself on course to be derailed and that derailment has continued to today.

Some of us have been agitating that we should go back to the ideals that brought us together, but the party was not listening.

The party rather embarked on victimization and criminalisation of its members, those perceived as opponents and have divergent views, he said.

He said that the party set itself on the line of destruction when the aggrieved members brought up their concerns but were castigated and referred to as inconsequential and as nobody.

Putting all that together and the interest of the country, particularly as the APC has derailed from the ideals that will propel Nigeria to advance, we felt we have to take this step we took today, he said.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

Atunwa said the defectors were interested in economic development, respect for parliament and rule of law, while the APC was concerned about membership to form majority.

He, however, said that the PDP in the past three years had learnt its lesson.

The lawmaker added that they had monitored and had seen that the PDP had taken corrective measures.

He said that having been beaten at the polls in 2015, the PDP had got its acts together and was now a reformed party, adding that it was the reason they felt confident to return to the party.

Also, Hassan Saleh, who also defected, said that from the ward congress up to the national convention of the APC, no fewer than 25 states in the country had parallel congresses.

He questioned the process that brought about the national convention given the issues at ward levels, saying that the foundation was faulty.

According to him, we cannot continue to hide our faces like nothing is wrong when the problem is there.

Alliyu Madaki said some of the defectors joined the APC because it campaigned and promised to ensure security of lives and properties.

He said section 14 of the Constitution said that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians.

According to him, nobody is safe today in Nigeria; under the PDP administration, l could drive from Abuja to Kano with my eyes closed but now, I depend on consistent prayer to arrive safely.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 33 lawmakers in the lower chambers defected from the APC to PDP, four others to African Democratic Party (ADC) while one resigned.

The house, however, adjourned to proceed on eight weeks break and will resume plenary on Sept. 25.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that 15 Senator defected from APC to PDP causing a rowdy session at the red chamber on Tuesday.

Also, 36 other lawmakers from the House of Representatives dumped the ruling party to join the PDP and ADC.

The lawmakers blamed highhandedness and leadership crisis in the party for the defection.

Source: NAN

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Agbakoba's NIM announces readiness to merge with 15 political parties

- The movement led by Olisa Agbakoba has announced its readiness to merge with 15 political parties

- Nigeria Intervention Movement said its planned merger is expected to help the movement dislodge APC in 2019

- According to NIM, Nigerias political history is clearly replete with failures of the electoral alliance

The Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM) has said it is set to merge with 15 political parties ahead of the 2019 general election.

A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba who is leading the group said that NIM has finalised plans to merge with these parties, Punch reports.

A statement signed by NIM's secretary, Olubori Obafemi, said the aim of the proposed merger is to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) 's number one candidate from power.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

The movement also debunked claims that neither NIM nor former President Olusegun Obasanjos Coalition for Nigeria Movement spearheaded the coalition of parties which birthed the United Political Parties two weeks ago.

Nigerias political history is clearly replete with failures of the electoral alliance, especially as it concerns adopting common platforms or candidates of past alliances at the critical point of elections," the statement said.

READ ALSO: APC will work to ensure the return of defected senators - Lawan

It is to that extent that the National Secretariat of NIM was mandated in June to embark on a national consultation with leaders of political parties for the purpose of exploring the prospects of initiating a formidable alliance or merger of frontline political parties as well as groups that have yet to apply for registration with INEC or those with pending registration towards an understanding for a fusion into a common political platform for the 2019 elections in order to enable the required cohesion for ousting the ruling political platform in Nigeria," Olufemi said.

He also added that the final stage of NIMs merger was being driven by its leaders - Olisa Agbakoba, Donald Duke, Buba Galadima, Ghali NaAbba, Umar Dangiwa, Abdujalil Tafawa-Balewa, Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, John Darah, Olu Agunloye, Isa Ozi Salami, among many others.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com reported that 36 members of the House of Representatives and 15 Senators on Tuesday, dumped the APC.

Most of the lawmakers decamped to the major opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while others joined the ADC.

Also the ruling party reacting to defection of the lawmakers said the movement would not affect APC's chances of leading the elections in 2019.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | I killed police inspector for trying to arrest me - Suspected herdsman

- A suspected herdsman has been paraded by the Nigeria Police

- The herdsman was said to have killed a police inspector in Kebbi state

- Confessing to the crime, Bubuga Kuaara said he killed the officer for arresting him

The Nigeria Police has on Tuesday, July 24, paraded a suspected herdsman for allegedly killing a police inspector, Umaru Danladi.

The Kebbi police command during the parade said Bubuga Kuaara killed Danladi who was before his death attached to Koaje police division in Baguo local government of Kebbi state.

Speaking on the alleged crime committed, Kuaara said he killed the police inspector with a cutlass.

READ ALSO: Agbakoba's NIM announces readiness to merge with 15 political parties

Kuaara said: I killed the policeman for arresting me, because a farmer had reported me to the police."

Paraded alongside the suspected herdsmen were eleven other suspected inlcuding kidnappers, ex-convict turned car snatcher, Peter James, who was caught while stealing a vehicle in Birnin-Kebbi, and 291 other other arrested during various raids in July.

The Kebbi state commissioner of police, Ibrahim Kabiru, said Kuaara would be charged to court.

The command has embarked on raiding of criminal hideouts in order to make Kebbi State safe and secure for more economic growth and development," Kabiru said.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

He added that out of the 291 suspects arrested by his command, 44 had been released, while six were under investigation.

He said 24 other suspects have also been charged to court, while 201 had been convicted while 17 were awaiting trial.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a civil society organisation has threatened to drag the perpetrators of the herdsmen/farmers crisis to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The organisation, Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC), condemned the alleged ongoing politically masterminded killings in Nigeria.

The group, while threatening to drag those behind the bloodletting in the country to the ICC said the endless clashes between herders and farmers, which has led to lost of lives and valuables worth millions of naira had political undertone.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | We steal MTNs inverter batteries, sell for N20,000 instead of N70,000  Suspects

By Victor Arjiromanus

Lagos State Police Command has arrested four persons for allegedly stealing inverter batteries worth several millions of naira from MTN installation at Mowo area of Badagry Lagos, yesterday.

The suspects

The suspects, Monday Ogbonna, 40; Bamiji Akanni, 42; Sunday Odewale, 51 and Anthony Ibe, 30, according to the commands boss, Imohimi Edgal, were about selling the vandalised batteries when they were apprehended.

Recovered from them were a white coloured Mazda Bus with number plate MUS 175, one Navy blue Toyota Hilux van with number plate KTU 658 EW and 16 pieces of inverter batteries.

Explaining how they were arrested, Edgal said: On July 17 2018 information was received from a credible source that MTN installation at Mowo, Badagry had been vandalised by four men suspected to be robbers.

Reacting promptly to the information, the command dispatched a team to monitor the facility. Their efforts paid off when they intercepted a white Mazda Bus with number plate MUS 175 XW and five occupants at the front Arena Shopping complex, Oshodi , Lagos.

Speaking with Vanguard, the suspects who admitted to have committed the crime, blamed their indulgence on poverty.

One of them, Adewale Sunday, said he was introduced to the crime by his partner, Monday, adding that after vandalising the batteries, they would take them to Oshodi market where they sold to ready buyers at give away prices.

He said: We sell them for N20,000 each, whereas the market price is between N50,000 and N70,000. We stole this particular set at MTN office in Badagry.

The second suspect, Bamiji Akanni , said his role was to drive the vehicle with which the vandalised machines were conveyed to the sales point.

On his part, Monday Ogbonna, who claimed to be leader of the gang, said: I have been in the business since 2016. I was arrested last month over same offence but was bailed by my friend. I continued after I was released.

What made me to continue was because my new wife is pregnant and I needed money to take care of her. My former wife and two children left me because of the kind of business I do.

The fourth suspect, Anthony, said: I dont know Monday (gang leader) and I dont deal directly with him. I get the equipment from a guy called Ebuka, who gets the equipment from them and sells to me for N10,000 . Thereafter, I would dismantle them and sell them as parts.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | R-APC hails defection of lawmakers

Kazeem Afegbua

By Henry Umoru

THE Reformed All Progressives Congress, R-APC, which recently pulled out of the mainstream ruling party, has hailed the lawmakers who defected Tuesday saying the move will redirect the compass for better politics.

The spokesperson of the R-APC, Kassim Afegbua, who made this known in a statement yesterday, said: We salute our gallant lawmakers for their bold decision to exit from this colony of maximum rulers called the APC and helping to redirect the compass for better political engagements and sustenance of our hard-earned democracy.

We salute the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, for his bravery, courage and boldness in confronting agents of the oppressors to preside over the Senate for legislative duties. He was firm and calm in his disposition, and collected in his delivery of the message of hope during plenary.

While the nation is suffering in the hands of bandits, Fulani herdmen, terrorists and kidnappers, as if it were unpoliced, the Inspector-General of Police has suddenly developed erection in trying to undermine the institution of the Legislature. We say never again shall we allow anyone, no matter how highly placed, to undermine our democracy.

Also, speaking on the siege by security operatives on the residences of the senate president and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, in the early hours of Tuesday, the group described the situation as pathetic and ridiculous.

We woke up, Tuesday, 24th July to the very pathetic, ridiculous, fascistic, gangsteristic, and gestapoeic realities that have occupied our democratic space.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | PDP senatorial aspirant laments over Taraba killings

- A senatorial aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mathias Agbu, said that the killings in Southern Taraba are disheartening

- Agbu explained that the level of poverty in the state has also contributed to the security crisis.

- The senatorial aspirant called for the need to reduce the poverty level in local communities especially

Mathias Agbu, a senatorial aspirant to the Taraba south senatorial district on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has described the incessant killings in southern Taraba as disheartening, Vanguard reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Agbu said: the incessant attacks on villages in southern Taraba and the rising criminality in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital is worrisome.

The PDP senatorial aspirant continued saying: Conflicts are rampant in our country because, among other challenges, majority of our people are seriously very poor.

READ ALSO: Offa bank robbery: Court grants Kwara governor's aide bail

Studies have confirmed that conflicts thrive where poverty is endemic.

Agbu also noted that, part of the problem is that like most others do, Taraba do not have a proper representation at the federal level.

Theyve been surcharged for a long time because politics has been played as a selfish game by majority of the leaders.

Agbu called for measures to reduce poverty level in our local communities especially, if were interested in reducing the current level of conflicts.

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In a previous report by NAIJ.com, the alleged masterminds of the killings in Taraba state have been arrested by the Nigerian Army.

The director of army public relations, Brig Gen Texas Chukwu, in a statement obtained by NAIJ.com on Saturday, April 14, said that two persons connected with killings in Taraba state had been caught by troops involved in a military operation in the area.

TY Danjuma, Nigerian army and the herdsmen crisis | Naij.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Create unforgettable image with these bright Ankara styles for pregnant ladies

The change of wardrobe is almost inevitable when the body of a pregnant lady starts to change. But should the style be changed as well? If you are looking for the latest Ankara styles for pregnant ladies, there is no need to look for another post, you will find everything here. We will tell you about the most stylish and no less comfortable models that are must have in your wardrobe this season. We hope that the compilation of the images from our post will inspire you.

Ankara designs for pregnant women

A lot of pregnant women give preference to comfortable outfits that are not always beautiful and fashionable. We want to prove that even during pregnancy every lady must look gorgeous and stylish wearing comfortable clothes.

Ankara maternity styles keep the leading position among other styles created especially for expecting mothers. The cool thing about Ankara is that it can be used for the creation of different styles relevant in everyday life and for special occasions such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Latest Ankara styles for pregnant include dresses, tops, gowns, trousers, skirts, jackets, and shorts. Are you ready to dive into the bright and exciting world of fashion and style for pregnant ladies? We assure that you will definitely find something for you!

Ankara dresses for pregnant fashionistas

If to compare the latest dress designs for pregnant women with the designs that were relevant several years ago, the old-fashioned models in most cases looked like loose tunics without any hint on feminity and style. During the last seasons, the situation has improved significantly, and any pregnant fashion monger can create an ideal image with Ankara dresses. Do not hide your attractiveness; on the contrary, open to the world your sense of style and feminity facets.

First of all, we would like to emphasize the main characteristics of Ankara dress for a pregnant lady:

Practicality

Feminity

Comfort

Relevance

Pink and blue colors are relevant this season, so if you choose this color combination for your Ankara dress than you undoubtedly will stand out as a real fashionista at any event. Off-shoulder dresses and dresses with a wrap over are trends number one this season in the fashion for pregnant ladies. It will help you to create an alluring and feminine look. Do no limit your hotness just because you are pregnant.

P.S. Stylish and trendy ear-rings-tassels will help to finish your ideal look.

Photo from latestankarastyle.com

Picture from latestankarastyle.com

A short off-shoulder dress will create a no less playful and feminine look. Choose pastel colors and small patterns. A thin belt of trendy this season golden and silver colors will finish the image of a fashionable lady who knows how to look stylish at any occasion.

Image from latestankarastyle.com

Photo from www.eagleee.com

A- silhouette knee-length dresses sleeveless, with  sleeves, and long dramatic sleeves also will diversify your everyday look.

Picture from from www.eagleee.com

One more interesting style for the wardrobe of a pregnant lady is a dress-robe. A real fashionista can create an unforgettable look with this item especially added by a stylish hat.

Photo from www.ankaraxclusive.com

We stress in our post that hotness and pregnancy can go hand in hand. One more element that can help you to create an alluring and feminine look is a vent or even two vents and lace decorative elements.

We should not omit office fashion because many expectant mothers continue to work until the last months of their pregnancy. In this case, a bright but at the same time strict Ankara dress is a must-have in your wardrobe.

Photo from www.vibe.ng

Tops as a part of Ankara fashion for pregnant

If you are a businesswoman or work in the office, Ankara fashion will help you to create a look for work. A blouse-shirt with small patterns and not too bright decoration will be relevant in the office if to combine it with strict trousers or skirt.

This season, designers propose Ankara tops and blouses for almost every occasion. For everyday hangout with friends, shopping, visiting your doctor, etc. you can choose loose tailoring but free knee-length top or tunic and combine them with jeans and leggings of different colors. There are special leggings and jeans for pregnant ladies that have a stretch band for the convenience, so you will not only look stylish but will enjoy comfort.

Photo from madailygist.ng

Asymmetrical Ankara tops can help to create both everyday and a festive look. The back can be a bit longer than the front part or even till the toes. One more very cool thing about such tops is that they can be combined both with leggings and skirts.

Photo from www.sisiyemmie.com

Do you like off-shoulder blouses with dramatic sleeves? We do not see reasons to say no to such designs if you are pregnant. Wise designers have created very comfortable models with a wrap over, so you will regulate the width of the blouse to feel comfortable. By the way, you can create different stylish bows and experiment with your look. Wear jeans leggings, bid bead necklace and shoes of the same color, and become a fashionable queen.

We will commit a crime if not mention Ankara peplum styles. They are just perfect for pregnant ladies. Peplum can hide your belly if you want to keep your pregnancy a secret for a while and of course, it is very convenient and will not hinder movements.

Trendy styles made with Ankara

The latest and trendiest styles made with Ankara are not limited to dresses and blouses. If you are a fan of fashionable trousers, then you will be impressed by the variety of Ankara trousers created especially for pregnant ladies. Just remember that the blouse or top should be self-colored and the color of the top should be presented in the Ankara print. Also, please remember that high-waist trousers are trendy this season.

Pregnant fashionistas also can ring the changes with new looks that include stylish Ankara jackets. You can create a casual look wearing jeans shorts or Ankara shorts of the same pattern and a top of one color, even a simple white T-shirt or top will look amazingly stylish.

Those who are tired of different dresses can experiment and choose a crop top and high-waist skirt or wrapper. Complete your look with elegant shoes and a clutch and impress everybody with your sense of style.

Pregnant Chic Ama shows how to rock Ankara while expecting

You will hardly imagine, but such three words as bold, chic, and hot, can be associated with the fashion styles for pregnant ladies. This was proven by one of the brightest fashion bloggers Chic Ama. The fashion guru has recently welcomed her second child. She has changed the perception of styles for expecting mothers.

Chic Ama wearing Ankara dress

The bold and bright images of the famous fashion blogger prove that when you are pregnant, you shouldnt fit the fashion, vice versa, the fashion should fit you.

Chic Ama in bright and extremely stylish dress

Chic Ama shows how pregnant lady can look fashionable when she is going to work, on festive occasions, and just in everyday life. She looks really unforgettable! Do you want to make the same impression?

Amazing Chic Ama

Chic Ama wearing gorgeous dress

We hope our post will inspire you to look beautiful and enjoy your pregnancy. When a lady looks gorgeous she feels good, if a mother feels good, a baby inside her feels good as well. Now you know that beauty can be combined with convenience. Choose Ankara fashion for ladies and you will be the most stylish future mom. Do not hesitate to look adorable you deserve this for sure!

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The issues that Dr KC has raised are what a socialist government should be pushingHome | News | General | Murder of PDP chieftain: Lagos CP tells party officials to come forward with evidence

- The Lagos state police command has commenced investigation into a murder case

- The murder case is that of Late Borishade Adeniyi, a Lagos-based politician

- Late Adeniyi was the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Apapa local government area of the state before his murder

The Lagos state police commissioner, Imohimi Edgal, has called on members of the PDP with evidence on the mystery surrounding the death of the Apapa local government PDP chapter chairman, Borishade Adeniyi, to bring it before him to aid investigation by detectives.

The commissioner's request was disclosed to newsmen by the spokesman of the command, Chike Oti, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).

He said the attention of the command has been drawn to the claim by the PDP in the state that it has evidence as regards the circumstances surrounding the murder of Adeniyi at Igbosuku village, Eti-Osa local government area of Lagos on Saturday, July 21, during a political meeting.

READ ALSO: Lagos safest city in Africa - Ambode

His words: The Lagos CP urges the party to come forward with the evidence it claimed to have as reported in some sections of the media to the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, SCIID Panti Yaba for necessary action. The command assures the party of diligent investigation.

Meanwhile, all 11 suspects arrested in connection with the murder have been charged to court. However, this does not preclude further investigation into the case with a view to arresting other suspects linked to the crime. The CP warns all political parties in the state to conduct their affairs peacefully as the command will not tolerate political brigandage that can result in a breach of the public peace.

The police had arrested 11 suspects after a shooting incident that claimed the life of Adeniyi during the meeting.

The deceased known as the doyen of PDP in the area, was shot and injured on the leg. He was rushed to First Consultant Hospital, Obalende, Lagos, where he was treated but eventually died.

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Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) recently described the PDP as a dead party, not capable of capturing Lagos in 2019.

The assistant publicity secretary of the APC in the state, Abiodun Salami made the remark in an interview with a news agency in Lagos.

Salami was reacting to an assertion by the publicity secretary of PDP in the state, Taofik Gani that the opposition party would win Lagos and take over government in 2019.

Lagos CP Tells Lagosians What to Do to Erring SARS Officers | Naij.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Nigerian Air Force achieves another feat, reactivates C-130H aircraft

- The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says the capability of the service has been improved following the extension programme on one of its C-130H aircraft

- Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar states that the force would continue to intensify efforts at reactivating unserviceable aircraft in its inventory

- The presidency publishes a detailed report on Buhari-led administration's efforts to tackle insecurity in Nigeria

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has said it had successfully completed the in-house life extension programme on one of its C-130H aircraft, NAF 913.

The spokesperson for the force, Olatokunbo Adesanya, in a statement on Wednesday, July 25, said the airlift capability of the service has been improved following the extension programme the aircraft.

READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara still in APC to bid for time, create bigger impact - Report

Adesanya stated that the chief of the air staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, noted that NAF would continue to intensify efforts at reactivating unserviceable aircraft in its inventory to enhance its operational effectiveness.

The spokesman said that Air Force boss made the statement when assessing the progress of work on the in-country Periodic Depot Maintenance (PDM) of another NAFs C-130 aircraft at 631 Aircraft Maintenance Depot (ACMD) in Lagos.

Abubakar stated that the reactivation of NAF 913 was another major feat recorded by the current NAF leadership to further improve NAFs capability to provide logistics support across multiple theatres of operations.

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The Air Force chief expressed appreciation to President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the enabling environment for NAF to raise the serviceability status of NAF operable aircraft from about 31% in 2015 to an average of 80% as at date.

He also commissioned two newly-completed and furnished officers residential quarters at the Sam Ethnan Air Force Base (SEAFB), Ikeja, and the Armed Forces Resettlement Centre (AFRC), Oshodi.

Abubakar reiterated the commitment of the present administration toward meeting the welfare needs of personnel.

Meanwhile, in reaction to allegations and accusations levied at the Buhari-led regime about the fight against the nation-wide insecurity, the presidency on Monday, July 17, decided to release steps it has taken so far in that respect.

Femi Adesina, special adviser on media and publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari listed efforts taken by presidency targeted at curbing violence and large-scale insecurity in the country.

He faulted claims that the president was not doing enough to combat the insecurity in parts of the country.

Nigerian Air Force Day Celebration 2018 (54th Anniversary) | Naij.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Kylie Jenner overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo, Beyonce, others to top Instagram rich list

- Kylie Jenner has -for the first time- topped the annual Instagram rich list

- According to Instagram-scheduling tool Hopper HQ, each of her post is worth $1 million (N361m)

- She beats the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Beyonce, Selena Gomez and others to the top

NAIJ.com had earlier reported that Kylie Jenner was recently named by Forbes magazine one as the worlds highest earning celebrities.

Another report has confirmed that she has the most valuable Instagram page amongst celebrities in the world. Instagram-scheduling tool Hopper HQ recently unveiled its annual Instagram Rich List with Kylie at the number one spot.

The list was curated based on Hopper HQ's internal data, as well as public data on the value of a post, which was based on how much brands pay currently and what a post is worth in terms of engagement, reach and audience.

READ ALSO: Mercy Johnson finally returns to work after mother's death

Coming in first place was the teenage, almost-billionaire Kylie Jenner, who apparently can charge up to $1 million (N361m) per post Harpers Bazaar reports.

Selena Gomez comes next with $800,000, Cristiano Ronaldo in third with $750,000, Jenner's half-sister Kim Kardashian was in fourth place with the potential to charge $720,000 and Beyonce in fifth with $700,000. Kendall Jenner and Khloe Kardashian also featured in the top 11.

When broken down into fashion, supermodel Bella Hadid came out on top. Hopper HQ estimated that she can charge up to $27,000 per post.

Emily Ratajkowski was next with $26,500. Chiara Ferragni came next, making her the highest-ranking influencer, with Gianluca Vacchi in fourth and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley coming in fifth place. British presenter-turned-designer Alexa Chung came in 10th place, with an estimate that she can charge up to $4,500 per post.

It is however important to note that these figures to necessarily be completely accurate and influencers and brands will likely never disclose how much money really does change hands.

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Star Chat: We are not lovers - Broda Shaggi and Aunty Shaggi | Naij.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Stable power supply is not possible until 2023 - Discos

- The electricity distribution companies say there won't be uninterrupted electricity supply till 2023

- They say uninterrupted electricity supply will not be possible until the challenges facing the power sector are addressed

- The Discos made the revelation at a press conference in Lagos on Tuesday, July 24

Nigeria will not be able to achieve uninterrupted electricity supply until 2023 if the challenges hampering the progress of the power sector are not addressed.

Punch reports that this was stated by the electricity distribution companies on Tuesday, July 24, which described the liquidity crisis in the sector as a major issue, stressing the need for the government to put in place a cost-reflective tariff.

NAIJ.com gathers that speaking on behalf of the Discos, the executive director, research and advocacy, Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, said at a press conference in Lagos: There is a need for collaboration among stakeholders in the sector to proffer solutions to the problems. So, we are willing any day; if we are called today for discussions, we will be there because we know that our businesses are at risk. This is very important for all of us to note: if the Discos collapse today, many Nigerian banks will collapse too.

In case you dont know, when they were selling the entities, only one of the Discos had foreign direct investment. All the others borrowed money from local banks, and they paid for the assets in dollars. The point is that those who have put their money in the sector will be the first persons to wish that the system succeeds, because the failure of the system means their money is also going down the drain.

READ ALSO: Ekiti governorship election: Olusola cries out, says INEC, tribunal frustrating his petitions

So, it is in our interest for all of us to work together and find solutions to the problems of the sector. If we do that, everybody will be happy; the customers will be very happy.

The issue of metering is no more in the hands of any Disco in Nigeria. The regulator, of course, through the federal ministry of power, works and housing, has taken over the issue of metering; that is the reason for that MAP regulation.

They are the ones that should now tell us what we should do, and we are ready and willing to cooperate with the NERC to ensure that this thing becomes successful. However, our own metering that we have been doing, sometimes in trickles, will continue. But we are waiting for the MAP regulation to start so that we can all meter our customers.

According to him, the provision of meters to customers would eradicate the issue of estimated billing and contention over it.

He said: But we should not miss the point, because I remember that our honourable minister still advised us to go and meter our customers. Maybe he has forgotten that he has removed that from our own duties, and that now is the duty of the MAPs.

We are hoping to do everything possible to make the MAPs successful from our end as Discos, and we are ready to partner and cooperate with the federal government in any way possible but we should not all forget that the sector is bleeding, and that is why we are where we are.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that owners of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the aegis of Sura Association in Lagos state lamented the lack of electricity in the business community and staged a protest to register their grievances.

The headquarters of the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKDC) in Marina, Lagos, was besieged by members of the association.

Nigerian Electricity Crisis Explained | on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Offa bank robbery: Court grants Kwara governor's aide N10million bail

- Court has granted a bail to Kwara state governor's chief of staff, Yusuf Abdulwahab

- Abdulwahab was detained in police custody over alleged link to Offa bank robbery

- The court granted him a bail in the sum of N10million with two sureties in like sum

Yusuf Abdulwahab, the Chief of Staff to the Kwara state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, arrested for his alleged involvement in the April 5, 2018 Offa bank robbery, has been granted bail in the sum of N10 million by a state High Court in Ilorin.

Premium Times reports that Justice M.O. Adewara granted the bail for a sum of N10million and two sureties in like sum.

READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara still in APC to bid for time, create bigger impact - Report

Abdulwahab was arrested and detained on June 2, after he honoured a police invite to appear and help with the investigation into the Offa robbery. He was eventually transferred the the police headquarters in Abuja.

Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara state has faulted those linking him and Senate President Bukola Saraki to the robbery incident that claimed many lives in Offa.

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The governor condemned the action during an interview after the police sent an invitation to Senator Saraki over the robbery that led to the death of over 30 people.

He said he wondered how such allegation could be made against him and the senate president despite the fact that they have spent many years trying to improve service delivery to the people.

Nigeria News: Offa bank robbery - The untold story (NAIJ EXCLUSIVE) | - on NAIJ.com TV:

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Breaking: Benue youths prevent Ortom from attending APC meeting

- Some youths in Benue state have blocked Governor Samuel Ortom from meeting APC leaders in Abuja

- Ortom had recently said that nothing would stop him from leaving the ruling party

- The youths were said to have told Ortom to go back and sleep if he did not have any other thing to do

The Benue youths have prevented Governor Samuel Ortom from traveling from Makurdi to Abuja to honour a meeting with the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Sun reports that the youths numbering over 2,000 on Wednesday, July 25, blocked the governors convoy at the Government House roundabouts and told him to go back and sleep if he did not have any other thing to do.

READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara still in APC to bid for time, create bigger impact - Report

NAIJ.com gathered that they chanted songs saying the state did not not want to belong to the ruling party any longer.

Governor Ortom is scheduled to meet with the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole and some other party members.

The youths asked the governor to resign his membership from the APC.

The leader of the protesting youths, Dave Ogbole, dared the governor to crush them and embark on his trip.

Ogbole said: If the governor insists on travelling to Abuja for the APC meeting, he will risk losing the support of the people.

Despite the governors plea to allow him attend the meeting as agreed by party members in the state, the youths stood their grounds until the governors convoy made a U-turn.

The youths have continued to stay guard to ensure the governor does not travel.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state declared that he is leaving the All Progressives Congress (APC) for good.

The Nation reported that Ortom told members of OnTiv Professionals Association in Abuja that he would not return to the party for any reason.

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It was gathered that he spoke a few hours after emerging from a peace meeting with the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, where he said he had not dumped the party and had expressed hope of a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the party.

APC chieftains in Benue state say PDP has nothing to offer - on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | We would not allow Nigeria to slide into military dictatorship  IYC

Perez Brisibe

UGHELLI  THE Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, yesterday expressed worries over the siege on the residence of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki and his Deputy, Sen. Ike Ekeremadu noting that Nigerians would not fold their arms and allow the country slide into a full blown military dictatorship.

President Buhari, Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. TY Buratai, Minister of Defence Monsur Dan Ali and General Officer Commanding 7th Division Maj. Gen. Olabanji as he attends the Grand Finale of the 2018 Nigerian Army Day Celebration in Monguno Borno State on 6th July 2018

The youths also advised security agencies in the country not to make themselves available as pawns in what they described as political chessboard for the executive arm to be used to harass other arms of government.

IYC in a statement by its President, Pereotubo Oweilaemi, expressed worry that if the siege on the residence of the two national assembly leaders is to prevent them from attending yesterday plenary so as to unconstitutionally impeach them, then the countrys democracy is under imminent threat.

The statement reads in part, The democracy that Nigerians have nurtured to this far cannot be truncated. The electorates will revolt against any move to subvert our fledging democracy.

Even if lawmakers choose to defect from one political platform to another, the government cannot upturn the institutions of democracy as there can be no government under our democracy without the legislature.

If however the executive arm is preventing the National Assembly from exercising its constitutional functions as the legislative arm then we see such unbridled political brigandage as an executive coup against democracy.

Nigerians will not fold their arms and allow the country to slide into a fully blown military dictatorship. We have conquered the military brute force and will not allow agents of government to reenact the old military order of fascism.

The failed political coup being perpetrated by political players in the ruling government to impeach the leadership of the National Assembly today has justified our calls for the devolution of powers to the component States.

The ugly incident has also lend credence to the demands for restructuring, state police and true fiscal federalism. Over concentration of power at the centre is the cause of this executive lawlessness.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Breaking: Why I left APC - Governor Ortom

In what appears to be one of his reasons for returning to his old party, Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Wednesday claimed that the state chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress had continued to launch an attack on him.

Speaking at a gathering in which he formally announced his return to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Ortom added that 10 out of the 17 state lawmakers elected on the platform of the All Progressive Congress are ready to follow him to PDP.

Ortom had formally announced his return to the opposition PDP, from where he had defected to APC on whose platform he was elected as governor in 2015.

Ortom made the declaration of his defection during a meeting with local government chairmen and councillors at the new banquet hall of Government House, Makurdi.

Thirteen local government chairmen and 276 councillors were in attendance.

The state chapter has continued to launch an attack on me, Ortom claimed, saying that was despite the intervention of APC national leadership.

This morning, I had wanted to go to Abuja to attend the meeting but some youths in the state refused, they asked me to go back.

But let me formally inform this gathering that I have forwarded my resignation letter from the APC to the chairman of my council ward and he has promised to join me in the new party.

Immediately he announced his resignation from APC, the governor displayed his resignation letter to the people.

As I talk to you, ten (10) out of seventeen (17) state lawmakers of All Progressive Congress, APC are ready to follow me to the new party.

May I formally announce to you that I have formally moved to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governor Ortom declared.

Earlier, the 13 council chairmen and leaders of the legislative council in attendance promised to follow the governor to the new party to ensure his re election aspiration.

Source: Naija.ng

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Army seeks support of trade unions and cooperative societies to counter insurgency campaign in northeast

- The Nigerian Army, has called on trade unions and cooperative societies to support the military to facilitate the success of the counter insurgency campaign

- Brig.-Gen. Abdulmalik Biu, said such cooperation would enhance the military campaign in the northeast

- Biu reiterated the commitment of the military to end insurgency and restore peace

Brig.-Gen. Abdulmalik Biu, Acting General Officer Commanding, 7 Division, Nigerian Army, has called on trade unions and cooperative societies to support the military to facilitate the success of the counter insurgency campaign in the northeast.

In a statement in Maiduguri on Wednesday, Brig.-Gen. Texas Chukwu, Director, Army Public Relations, said Biu made the call when members of the associations paid him a courtesy visit at Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri.

Members of the association are Borno Fish Traders Association; Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Nigerian Legion and the management of Radio Ndarason International.

READ ALSO: Governor Ortom dumps APC for PDP ahead of 2019

Biu said such cooperation through sharing of vital information would enhance the military campaign in the northeast.

As critical stakeholders, your collaboration is vital towards ending the insurgency.

I call on you to come forward with relevant information that will aid security operatives in the region, he said.

While reiterating the commitment of the military to end insurgency and restore peace, Biu assured them of military support to enable them to do their legitimate businesses through the provision of adequate security.

In their separate remarks, Alhaji Abacha Mandalam, the Chairman, Fish Traders Association, lauded the successes recorded by the military in the war against insurgency and peace building.

Mandalam said the efforts had encouraged the growth of commercial activities in the state and pledged support for the military to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.

Also, Bulama Biu of RTEAN, Mr William Mamza, Nigerian Legion and Mr Maude Gwadabe, Radio Ndarason International, said the visit was to enhance cordial civil-military relations.

Mamza pledged the associations support through information sharing in the on-going operation in the northeast.

On his part, Gwadabe said the radio station was funded by development partners to promote peace building and provide a platform for discussing solutions to the security crisis in the northeast and the Lake Chad region.

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In a previous report by NAIJ.com, the Nigerian Army has alerted members of the public to be wary of escaping members of Boko Haram finding their way into isolated communities.

The warning is coming at a time the terrorists has suffered heavy casualties due to the army's Operation Deep Punch II in the Sambisa forest.

This was issued in a statement sent to journalists by the Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman on Saturday, January 28.

Exclusive: Freed Dapchi Girl Recounts Her Ordeal with Boko Haram (Nigeria Breaking News) Naij.com

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | BREAKING: Governor Ortom dumps APC for PDP ahead of 2019 elections

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has officially announced his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governor made the announcement at the Government House, Makurdi, hours after some Benue youths blocked his convoy, preventing him from visiting APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, in Abuja.

There have been insinuations that the governor will quit the ruling party after he announced on Monday, July 16, that he has been sent out of the APC, and is currently exploring a new option to actualise his future ambition.

The Benue state governor met with leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party on Wednesday, July 18, in Illorin the Kwara state capital, alongside other aggrieved political office holders under the APC sparking further rumours that he is set to leave.

Last minute efforts by Oshiomhole to prevent the governor from leaving didn't yield any results.

The announcement by the governor has however sparked massive jubilation among residents of the state in Makurdi, the Benue state capital.

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Meanwhile, the publicity secretary of the APC in Benue state, Agbo Terkula, has resigned both his membership of the party and his position.

In a letter of resignation, dated Wednesday, July 18, addressed to the state chairman of the party, Terkula claimed the APC controlled federal government did not represent the interests and yearnings of the people of the state.

The APC which controls the government at the centre does not represent the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Benue state," he said.

Benue Elders Speak on Herdsmen Attacks on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Senator Dino Melaye arraigned, granted N5m bail

- The senator representing Kogi west at the Senate has been arraigned and granted bail by an high court in Abuja

- He was arraigned for allegedly making attempt to take his own life among others

- Melaye denied committing the offences while Justice Silvanus Oriji granted him bail in the sum of N5 million

Senator Dino Melaye was on Wednesday, July 25, arraigned in an FCT high court, Apo, on a six-count charge bordering on attempt to escape from custody and damage of police property.

Melaye who represents Kogi west senatorial zone denied committing the offences, while Justice Silvanus Oriji granted him bail in the sum of N5 million.

Oriji also ordered him to produce two sureties in like sum, as part of the bail condition.

READ ALSO: Saraki, Dogara still in APC to bid for time, create bigger impact - Report

The judge ordered that the sureties must be directors in the civil service, reside in the FCT, and depose to affidavits of means.

The prosecuting counsel, Dr Alex Izinyon (SAN), had told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences on April 24.

He said the defendant while being conveyed in a police vehicle to Lokoja, forced his way out and escaped.

Izinyon further said that the defendant sat on the ground, holding a substance in one hand threatening to drink it to kill himself so that he can put the police officers in trouble.

The prosecutor also said that the defendant broke the glass of the vehicle with his elbow and caused damage to police property.

He said the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 148,153,173,231, 326 and 327 of the penal code.

The counsel to the defendant, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had prayed the court to allow the bail granted to the defendant at the magistrates court Wuse on the same charges to continue.

The prosecution opposed the application, adding that bail is at the discretion of the court.The judge upheld the submission of the prosecution and gave the new bail conditions.

He said that the case would be assigned to another judge by the chief judge after the vacation.

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NAIJ.com had reported that Senator Dino Melaye, the lawmaker representing Kogi west in the Senate enjoyed the support of some of his colleagues and citizens of Nigeria as dozens of placard carrying protesters thronged an Abuja court on Thursday, March 1, to declare support for him.

Kogi West senatorial district to recall senator Dino Melaye from the Nigerian Senate on NAIJ.com

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Mass defection: We are meeting Dogara, Saraki - Former Jonathan minister

- The PDP said it was going to meet with politicians who looked not have parties at the moment

- A former minister said the party would specifically meet with Dogara and Saraki

- He said Obasanjo was on the party's side

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is reportedly making plans to meet with the senate president, Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara to encourage their defection to the party.

Vanguard reports that a minister who served during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they were hoping to meet with politicians who seemed to be neither in the PDP or the All Progressives Congress (APC).

READ ALSO: Breaking: PDP chieftain, Akinbade, dumps party, gives reasons

He said the party was focusing on politicians neither in the APC or in PDP at the moment.

The talks have been on for several months now. I can say without fear of contradiction that we started this journey immediately we got the historic Supreme Court Judgement on July 12, 2017 which affirmed the leadership of the former chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of our party, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi. But recent events have convinced us the more on the need for continuous engagements with these critical stakeholders.

As early as next week, representatives of the party will meet with Saraki, Dogara, the Kwara governor and all those that left the APC but yet to identify with any party. Our mission is not to destabilise the ruling party as I read earlier today (Wednesday) but to rescue Nigeria. Today, the nation is sinking but we cant allow what is happening now to proceed beyond May 29, 2019.

He also said Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was part of them considering his preferred party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) was in coalition with the PDP.

He said: What Nigeria is facing today is beyond party nomenclature. You will agree with me that the tension in the land today is troubling for everyone. Just a few days ago, travellers including a Professor were murdered on their way to Abuja. Baba (Obasanjo) is a man who is not afraid to speak his mind and we are happy, he wrote a public statement not long ago wherein, he called the attention of President Muhammadu Buhari to issues of urgent national importance.

ADC and PDP are part of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, and if you ask me, I will say that is a sign of a working relationship. It can only get better.

Meanwhile, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue state has officially announced his resignation from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

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The governor made the announcement at the Government House, Makurdi, hours after some Benue youths blocked his convoy, preventing him from visiting APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, in Abuja.

There have been insinuations that the governor will quit the ruling party after he announced on Monday, July 16, that he has been sent out of the APC, and is currently exploring a new option to actualise his future ambition.

Benue Elders Speak on Herdsmen Attacks on NAIJ.com TV

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Anambra community thrown into mourning as 40-year-old man kills mum over plot of land

- A 40-year-old man, Chinedu Ikegwuonwu, killed his mum over a plot of land belonging to his brother

- The deceased was cooking when her son allegedly approached surreptitiously from behind and slit her throat with a machete

- The alleged murderer had been involved in a running battle with his mother over his attempt to grab his younger brothers land

The people of Okpunoeze village in Uraugu community of Nnewi, Anambra state, were on Wednesday, July 25, thrown into mourning over the murder of Mrs Bene Ikegwuonwu, 70, by her son, Chinedu Ikegwuonwu, 40.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the incident occurred at about 8am after an altercation between the duo over a piece of land belonging to the suspects younger brother.

READ ALSO: Defection: Kwankwasos supporters in Kano set brooms ablaze, fly PDP flag

NAIJ.com gathers that a source, who pleaded anonymity, said the deceased was cooking when her son allegedly approached surreptitiously from behind and slit her throat with a machete.

The suspect left the house immediately after the incident, leaving behind his wife and son, the source added.

The late woman is said to be blessed with four boys and three girls, one of who died recently in a fatal accident.

A family member, who pleaded anonymity, said the suspect returned to Nnewi from a failed business in Aba, Abia.

The source said that the suspect had had a running battle with his mother over his attempt to grab his younger brothers land.

The woman gave Chinedu some money to raise the foundation of his building because he was unable to do anything about it after a year and half.

She even went to the extent of taking money from her late daughters bank account for the suspect to complete his building after which he then turned around to take over a portion of land belonging to his younger brother, the source said.

When contacted, Haurna Mohammed, the state Police public relations officer (PPRO), confirmed the incident, noting that the Police had launched an investigation into the case.

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Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that a 33-year-old man, Segun Ogunlusi, was arrested for allegedly killing his mother, Abimbola Ogunlusi, and burying her in a soakaway.

The incident occurred at Oketunde Street, Molatori, Ogijo, Sagamu local government area, Ogun state.

How i took the lives of four people - 20-year-old lady confesses - on NAIJ.com TV:

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Comply with import guidelines or face sanctionNBMA

imports

The National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA) has asked Seed and Grain dealers to comply with import guidelines or face sanction.

Dr Rufus Ebegba, the Director General of the Agency, gave the charge during an interactive meeting with the seed and grain dealers in Abuja on Wednesday.

There is ignorance among the seed and grain dealers, particularly those that import from America, South and North America and South Africa about the process of importing Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO).

So since the establishment of NBMA, we find it very necessary to constantly let the dealers to be well enlightened about the law and regulations of importing Genetically Modified (GM) seeds and grains into the country.

Some companies still feign ignorance about where GM grains are produced across the globe and continue to import from such countries, this meeting is to enlighten the companies and ensure that everybody key into the Biosafety system.

Companies have been importing GMOs for years even before the establishment of NBMA, so now that a regulatory agency is in place, the need to abide by the NBMA Act 2015 is necessary, he said.

According to him, the federal government is interested in providing a conducive environment for businesses to thrive but it is the responsibility of the business community to comply with the necessary laws and guidelines provided by the government.

Dealers are encouraged to ensure that their activities are in compliance with the Agencys import guidelines, he said.

He informed the companies that border agencies of the federal government would not allow any bulk importation of GM seeds or grains into the country without a Biosafety permit.

He, however noted that some companies had already been granted Biosafety permits by the agency, adding that the agency would not compromise its stand in ensuring that the health of Nigerians and the environment are not threatened by any potential risk posed by GMOs.

One of the stakeholders, Ms Tola Johnson of Agboola Farms Ltd. congratulated the NBMA for helping seed and grain dealers in making the application process easy.

The process is not as complicated as I had earlier thought, its not cumbersome and NBMA helps all through the way of the application process, she said.

Mr Unarmed Ahmed, of Commodities and Products Inspectorate Department, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment also commended the NBMA.

Thank you for this meeting, carrying everybody along in all your activities. Our Ministry will continue to support NBMA to increase our GDP and regain our lost glory, he said.

Dr Mathew Dore, Country Coordinator, Programme for Biosafety Systems (PBS) urged the companies to work together and cooperate with NBMA for successful execution of the import guidelines.

Most of the participants at the meeting, which attracted over 50 grain importers and representatives from ministries and agencies, agreed to work with NBMA.

They also agreed for the formation of a strong and viable seed and grains importers network that would allow for effective monitoring and supervision. (NAN)

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralHome | News | General | Make other seaports functional, Ambode urges FG

Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Wednesday urged the Federal Government to ensure that seaports in other parts of the country become functional to decongest Apapa port and ease gridlock.

Ambode also said that whatever had led to continual use of trucks to lift fuel should be addressed immediately.

He made the plea at the 2018 Third Quarter Town Hall held at the Community Primary School, Iberekodo in Ibeju-lekki Local Council Development area of the state.

Akinwunmi Ambode

Ambode called for the reduction of the numbers of tank farms to prevent the perennial occurrence of traffic congestion in Apapa and its environs.

He said that the distribution of tank farms to other parts of the state was necessary as concentration of about 68 tank farms in one place was risky in the long run.

According to him, the problem in Apapa is that there are too many agencies and establishments disturbing the fundamentals within the axis, that every layer of government should collaborate to resolve the crisis.

As it is now, other seaports in Nigeria must begin to work immediately to decongest the gridlock in Lagos.

It is pathetic that gridlock in the axis has become perennial in the state; it goes and comes.

But the challenge is to give a permanent solution. It is a national issue and must be addressed as same immediately.

Also, we do not need tank farms within Lagos metropolis anymore. There are 68 tank farms in Apapa alone; that is a serious danger waiting to happen.

Beyond Apapa, they have approved tank farm in Ijegun axis and that is where we have huge population.

We need to distribute tank farm establishment to other parts of the state. This is what we believe should be done at this moment to free Lagos roads, Ambode said.

The governor, however, restated his resolve to grow the gross domestic product of the state to improve the standard of living of the residents.

He said the all inclusive governance policy of his administration was yielding results, adding that all efforts to put Lagos on a solid pedestal of growth and development were much on track.

On the achievements of his administration since the last Town Hall in April, Ambode said that lots of construction had been ongoing in the state to enhance infrastructure development of the state.

He, however, urged Lagos residents to be tolerant with ongoing reforms in the state, noting that it was in the best interest of all.

On his projections, Ambode promised that the Murtala Muhammed Airport Road would be completed by December.

He also promised that the network of 27 roads in Ojokoro area of the state would be inaugurated in the next four weeks.

The governor promised the completion of the Ayinke House at the Lagos State University Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, by the end of the fourth quarter.

Responding to a request during questions and answers session, Ambode granted immediate employment to a physically challenged, Mr Michael Ogunyemi, a 2014 Computer Science graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University.

The Town Hall saw the governor attending to myriads of issues cutting across traffic, works and infrastructure, education, and empowerment.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: GeneralDear Newsie Readers,

Newsie has now permanently ceased it's services as of Friday 20th December 2019.

Newsie has been an owner-funded operation since day one.

Coming up to three years old, while we still firmly believe Newsie has a place in the New Zealand media landscape, the cost in both time and money has become too burdensome for the owners to continue alongside other ventures.

With the current government looking to restructure public broadcasting, and seemingly supporting NZME buying a ring-fenced Stuff, the time seems right to call it a day.

Should it happen, the combination of NZME and Stuff will ensure New Zealands national media will die a death by a thousand opinion-based articles.

Newsie has always tried to stick to balanced news, to inform readers of the facts of a situation, amid being largely ignored by government. Hopefully, one day someone else will take up the challenge to fight the good fight.

The good news, however, is that there were no job losses as a result of Newsie closing. Thanks to careful structuring, everyone involved in Newsie will retain their current positions.

We hope you all have a happy Christmas and new year. Stay safe, and stay out of the news.

The team at Newsie1. Yes. It makes me wonder why Killeen is having the problem and other cities arent.

2. Yes. The city also had water issues after the winter storm, so this is rather troubling.

3. No. Its good that the city is dealing with the problem and playing it safe with consumers.

4. No. Its more of an annoyance than a concern. The city will take the necessary steps.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say until more information about the issue becomes available.

Vote

View ResultsCristiano Ronaldos medical has revealed he has the body of a 20-year-old

Cristiano Ronaldos Juventus medical has revealed that the 33-year-old has the body of a 20-year-old.

Ronaldo has previously claimed to have the biological age of a 23-year-old, but the results reportedly show that he is even fitter than that.

After completing his move from Real Madrid to Juventus, Ronaldo remarked that most players his age move to China or the US to make more money.

READ MORE: Ronaldo skips Juve training to promote CR7 brand with Chinese kids in Beijing

READ MORE: One for Wenger? Leyton Orient need help clearing foxes from the box

READ MORE: Arsenal legend Henry agrees to become new Villa boss

He insisted he was fit enough to carry on playing at the top level for at least four more years and the incredible figures from his medical show that may well be the case.

On average, a professional footballer has between 10 and 11 per cent body fat; Ronaldos is just seven per cent, according to Spanish newspaper AS.

Ronaldo was put through his paces ahead of the high-profile move

The 33-year-olds muscular mass is 50 per cent, four per cent more than the average in football, while he also recorded the fastest speed at the World Cup in Russia, sprinting at 21.1mph during one of Portugals games.

After netting 451 goals in 438 games for the Spanish giants, Ronaldo will be hoping to replicate his success in Serie A and cement his place as one of the very best to have ever played the game.

His medical results show that barring a serious injury, he is in the perfect condition to do just that.



India has offered Uganda a cancer therapy machine. The machine will be installed at the Uganda Cancer Institute.



India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi who started a two-day state visit in Uganda told journalists after bilateral talks with his host President Yoweri Museveni that the machine will serve cancer patients in the East African region.



During the closed-door talks, Museveni proposed that a section of Indian entrepreneurs come to Uganda and invest in health care.



"You know what this means, most of our people travel to India for treatment and this proposal can help us reduce on the number of people travelling out for treatment," said Museveni.

President Yoweri Museveni (R) with Indian PM Narendra Modi

Modi also announced a Shs 780 billion loan for electricity transmission and agriculture projects in Uganda.

Addressing journalists after the talks which were attended by several cabinet ministers, Museveni said that the loan will also be used to procure value addition equipment from India saying that the country makes good machinery for food processing, maize milling, and textile making machines, shoemaking machines and others.



Museveni further added that the loan from India will enable Uganda assemble its own solar power water pumps for irrigation purposes.



Modi said that Uganda and India enjoy a long history of defence cooperation and that India has decided to supply the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) with ambulances and other vehicles.



India-Uganda relations cover a broad range of sectors including technology, cultural, commercial, economic and commercial cooperation. Modi's visit to Uganda follows a meeting with Museveni on the sidelines of a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) meeting in London earlier in April.



The economic bond between Uganda and India is strong, with Uganda being a market for India's high-value finished products, ranging from medicines to motor vehicles like lorries, buses and even motorcycles.



According to Bank of Uganda July 2018 data, India's exports to Uganda, for 2017, were worth Shs 2.1 trillion, up from Shs 505.9 billion in 2007.



India's exports to Uganda were highest in 2013 at Shs 3.2 trillion before they started to drop. Meanwhile, Uganda's exports to India increased from Shs 5.5 billion in 2007 to Shs 159 billion in 2017.



Modi will on Wednesday address parliament. He will be accompanied by his host President Museveni. During his four-year tenure as prime minister, Modi has visited over 20 African countries with Uganda being the latest. His visit marks the third time an Indian prime minister visits Uganda with earlier visits in 1997 and 2007.



According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, there are about 20,000 Indian families in Uganda, making 0.1% of Uganda's total population currently estimated at 40 million.As one of the countries cooperating under the Conference of the Parties (COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Uganda has made a renewed commitment to fighting environmental degradation.

Ugandas commitment is flying under the wings of COP 16s Green Climate Fund through which participating countries receive support for activities designed to mitigate the effects of climate change, particularly in the developing world.

As the countrys national implementing entity, the water and environment ministry on July 18 received four vehicles from UNDP. UNDP also handed over 20 motorcycles and computers to help various stakeholders implementation efforts.

Water minister Sam Cheptoris said at the handover ceremony in Luzira that the project, Building resilient communities and ecosystems through restoration of wetlands and associated catchments in Uganda marks a milestone.

As we receive this equipment and tools to facilitate institutions and local governments participating in the implementation of the project and to ensure timely delivery of project outputs, National Wetlands Restoration Programme is one of the flagship programmes initiated by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and promoted during Ugandas presidency of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, he said.

It is hoped that US$100 million will be raised to undertake countrywide restoration of degraded wetlands over a period of 15 to 20 years, he said. Cheptoris added that this project is at the highest level which is why the government is investing $18.1 million alongside UNDPs $2 million.

This is in addition to the $24 million provided by the Green Climate Fund; so, failure is not an option, he said.

In recent years, Uganda has begun feeling the negative effects of climate change, which coupled with other human activities is contributing to the degradation of wetlands and their associated ecosystems.

Given that wetlands are highly vulnerable to changes in the quantity and quality of their water supply, climate change will substantially alter ecologically important attributes of wetlands. And the loss of wetlands could worsen the impact of climate change as temperatures continue to rise.

Rosa Malango, UNDP country representative, said the project is very important as it is responding to commitments made in the Paris agreement on climate change.

alfredodcho@gmail.comAs the new Bugiri municipality elects its maiden leadership this Friday, Justice Forum party president, Asuman Basalirwa, is counting on two things which have defined this campaign to help him defeat Eunice Namatende of the Forum for Democratic Change and ruling party NRM candidate, John Francis Oketcho.

A week into the campaigns, it seemed like this was an election for Namatende to lose  after all the statistics from the previous elections rated her highly against her competitors.

In the 2016 elections, Namatende stood for woman MP and returned 4,000 votes compared to Basalirwas 300 votes in Bugiri Town Council, which is now the municipality. At the time, Basalirwa was standing for Bukooli North MP seat, which he lost to the National Resistance Movements Gaster Mugoya.

Bobi Wine with Asuman Basalirwa (R) earlier

So, even on nomination day, although Basalirwa drew the biggest crowd, Sulaiman Tibasula, a coordinator for Basalirwas campaigns since 2011, said they were still bothered by those statistics, which Namatende kept waving each time a discussion about her pulling out for Basalirwa popped up.

A substantial part of the opposition, including those in the FDC wanted Basalirwa to carry the opposition flag since he carries a bigger profile than Namatende, but the latter disagreed, Tibasula said.

Obviously, as a leading civil liberties advocate, a lawyer and articulate voice for opposition politics on the national stage, Basalirwa would be a useful addition to their vastly outnumbered  though admirably vocal  representatives in parliament.

But his candidacy placed the leading opposition party, the FDC, in a difficult position: they have a candidate in the race and yet everybody seems to acknowledge Basalirwas credentials. Namatendes waving of happy figures from an old election only complicated things further.

At one of the meetings where such an arrangement was to be reached, she told us that I have the numbers, if you wish for a sole candidate for the opposition. It is you to stand down for me. But, as we told her then, voter perceptions and support change based on context, circumstances and even the competition.

Basalirwa admits that this statistical reality made it difficult for him to rally both moral support and resources from colleagues in the broader opposition. It has also distracted some of his close associates.

Whenever I would call people, including those I have been with in the trenches, they were not forthcomingLuckily, they remained on the fringe, Basalirwa said.

But the change in circumstances has helped win them to my side. I have received moral and financial support from many, including those who appeared at Namatendes rallysome senior people in FDC have even promised not to appear in Bugiri, as a compromise arrangement with me since doing so would attract some sanctions from the party. And it is okay, he said.

But, how did this happen?

Opposition discord

When the campaigns had just started, Lydia Namayengo, an election observer working with Citizens Coalition for Electoral Democracy in Uganda, told The Observer that when FDCs former presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye chose to campaign for Namatende, the entry of Kyadondo East MP, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, on Basalirwas side created a new context for voters.

There are many youthful voters in this municipality who are influenced and moved by [Bobi Wines] political messaging since it appeals to their age and aspirations. Those are the things they are sharing with us, Namayengo said then.

Basalirwas team admits that the Kyagulanyi effect inevitably defined the election.

So, when they extended the election from July 17 to July 27, it was an opportune thing for us in the sense that we planned on how to frame our campaigns; to make the Kyagulanyi effect take root but also make the FDC national structure lose interest in this race, Tibasula explained.

To have the Kyagulanyi effect take rootwe had to convince Hon Kyagulanyi to spend more time here, which he did for not only a few days but weeks; this helped us to win over the youth stations that were previously Namatendes stronghold. Among these include places like Mabira, Kamwokya, Industrial Area, Musongola, Sipio Base, [and]Backstreet.

The Basalirwa team says, with the allowance of time and a friendly media, the narrative was framed to expose the selfish nature of FDC. This made it hard for some rational FDC members, especially those belonging to Gen Mugisha Muntus wing, to show up in BugiriIn fact, Dr Besigye has not been here since the nominations and this also worked in our favour.

So, this is how we managed to raise money from most of the pro-Muntu MPs, and other forces in the opposition who detest Besigye dominance of the national political opposition, Tibasula said.

Overtly, Muntu and his close associates have stayed away from Bugiri. Notables like Abdu Katuntu (Bugweri MP), Alice Alaso (FDC deputy president Eastern), Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda (Kira municipality MP), Gerald Karuhanga (Ntungamo municipality), Abedi Nasser Mudiobole (FDC secretary for legal affairs) et al have not been seen here.

But Namatende has taken a philosophical view of things.

There are people claiming that I am defiance (the Besigye faction within FDC) which could be the reason, but that is not true. I am his supporter. But, even if it was the case, I dont think that he would refuse to come because of that. He is not pettyHon Katuntu comes from the neighbouring constituency and he has contributed heavily. Well, they could have supported me because of the party but dont forget most of these people are friends with Basalirwa, she said.

Besigye seems to have chosen not to spend precious political capital by turning up and confirming that he is going toe to toe with Bobi Wine, a much younger politician albeit one who is trying to replace him as the oppositions leading voice of the masses.

This distraction had presented an opportunity to the NRM candidate who was benefitting from the cat-fighting between opposition candidates. But that was until the occurrence of the second defining event.

Lyavala switch

As the opposition tore at each other, Oketcho, who is a fresher in the Bugiri politics and at the beginning of the campaigns looked like a minnow, was quietly gaining support.

Faizah Nakisuyi, a social worker observing the elections with a local NGO, notes that the NRM people had their issues because of the volatile primaries but all that got overshadowed by the Besigye-Bobi Wine fight. In the end, Oketchos rating went up until recently when Hajji Siraje Lyavala, an NRM-leaning independent, declared that he will be supporting Basalirwa, she said.

Lyavalas switch to Basalirwa is said to have mobilised for him considerable support amongst especially Muslim voters, some of whom are influential businesspeople in this trading outpost.

Lyavala has a substantial following; so, when he decided to back Basalirwa, it was always going to bring issues. Indeed, some of the prominent businessmen, who are Muslim, have decided to back him and that is a big boost because it boosts his logistical base as we head to the final days of the campaigns, Nakisuyi said.

The benefits of the Lyavala alliance would be boosted by an unlikely sub-event: the shooting of Basalirwas bodyguard, Ramathan Walyendo, by a a police officer.

Walyendo is believed to have been shot by government security personnel during a campaign rally. The moment he died from gunshot wounds, Basalirwa went riding on a tidal wave of sympathy.

One local, Jimmy Mutumba, observed that the shooting of Basalirwas bodyguard has strengthened the belief that he is the true opponent of the NRM. Now it is clear

Namatende, however, claims this was a blessing in disguise for her too.

You see now people know that I am the peaceful candidate. I am a woman, who will unite the warring factions and I know that I will lead, she said.

skakaire@observer.ugIn the blueprint to national airline revival, the current government proposes to implement the delicate venture in three phases  starting with consolidating regional routes and then international routes in 2021, writes ALON MWESIGWA.

Uganda will spend $319 million (Shs 1.2 trillion) in aircraft acquisition to ply regional and international routes in phases 1 and 2, according to the blueprint laid out by the government.

The country also needs additional start-up capital of $70m (Shs 270bn) required to launch the airline. There was an option for leasing aircraft which would have been cheaper but government says purchasing the core fleet of airplanes would be more appropriate.

Members of the aviation fraternity like Capt Francis Babu say it would have been better to first lease the aircraft as the government studied the performance.

But the 136-page blueprint written for the government by an audit and consulting firm (names withheld) says: In contrast, cash outflows in the form of lease charges would only work to benefit international lessors with aircraft title remaining outside the company.

Newer aircraft are more fuel-efficient compared to old ones and benefit from technological advances that lower the fuel burn. The acquisition of new aircraft is accompanied by support packages that help start-up airlines to build own internal capacity to operate and maintain aircraft efficiently.

Government, therefore, says the decision to buy was also because several countries are enforcing lower carbon emissions from airlines flying into their airspace. New aircraft have lower carbon emissions  meaning they will have no problem entering certain airspaces.

Efforts to revive the national airline come against a backdrop of heavy pessimism from many ordinary Ugandans and some top public officials. The Observer understands that even Bank of Uganda wrote to the president dissuading him from the venture, saying it will be a financial burden to the country.

Some officials at the ministry of finance, which will own 99 per cent of the airline according to the plan, have also spoken against the venture.

Ministry of Works and Transport will own one per cent of the airline. In a carefully worded article in 2016, Jim Mugunga, the ministry of finance publicist, said: The reality is that post-2016 airline management has to be professional, experienced and competent. The government appointments and interference, failed ideology, backward thinking and corruption have no place here.

Indeed, early in the plan document, government interference is identified as the biggest threat to the airline. It says: Government involvement in the business operations of a national carrier can deter the primary business objective of profit maximisation and hinder optimal efficiency.

Slow, legislative decisions have the potential to impair operations of the airline, the plan says.

It refers to successful national carriers such as Ethiopia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Egypt Air which have categorically rejected government involvement in management and as a result they have remained profitable and sustainable.

Failure to run the company as a separate legal entity from its stakeholderswould create bureaucratic-slow systems, which are inadequate to address dynamic markets, the plan reads.

This means that even the consultants who wrote the document acknowledge that it will take unwavering discipline for the airline to succeed.

And it can succeed, said Babu, adding only if it can rise above the culture of corruption, nepotism, [and] intrigue.

Babu observes, the political will is there because they have started the airline. The onus is on government to make sure the industry works.

The retired flight captain, however, points out the reality that the airline can only begin to see a profit after five to seven years. The consultants gave the ambitious target of one year to profit.

The government must martial significant resources in order to meet operational, maintenance and expansion costs essential in the very competitive aviation industry.

Poor financing usually pushes management to cut corners, which is detrimental to the business, the blueprint reads.

In the first two years, Uganda National Airlines will fly regional routes, introducing international flights at the third year. For the regional network, the plan says, the Bombardier CRJ900 next-generation aircraft was found suitable.

The Montreal-based airplane maker Bombardier announced last week it had signed an MoU with Uganda National Airlines to sell four of such planes. It has 12 business-class seats and 64 economy class.

The plan projected that had the purchase agreement been signed in January 2018, the planes would have been available in August and September. Since they signed this month, it will take another eight months to have the planes ready.

According to the official analysis of regional routes, the Entebbe-Nairobi leg had the largest market. It is followed by Kilimanjaro, Kigali, Johannesburg and Juba.

It also found underserved markets to Khartoum, Mogadishu, Kinshasa, Lubumbashi, Goma, Mombasa, Lagos, and Accra. These will be the national airlines regional routes, according to the plan.

Long-haul routes that come into the picture around 2021 will be flown by the Airbus A330-800 Neo aircraft which, though not flown by any carrier anywhere in the world, is highly praised in the blueprint.

This aircraft uses proven technology to deliver economic advantages on long haul flights and has a seating capacity of 257 in the chosen three class layout. This improved version of the classic A330-200 is equipped with new technology engines that leverage on geared fan advantages to lower maintenance costs and deliver efficiency in fuel consumption, says the plan, despite the fact that Uganda is the first country to buy this model since 2014 when it first came onto the market. Most countries go for the A330-900 model.

For the routes, based on 2016 data compiled by airline industry-tracking concern, Sabre, the countrys planners found that Dubai, London, Mumbai and Guangzhou in China will return the most profit  accounting for 60 per cent of the origin traffic.

The initial long-haul network for the airline is, therefore, based on flights to these key points with the market size being used to determine the aircraft capacity required, the plan reads. These routes will be launched using the Airbus A330Neo aircraft, configured in a three-class layout as per market requirements with feed from the short-haul intra-Africa regional network.

As at the end of 2016, passengers carried through Entebbe were 1.6 million  a two per cent growth from the year before. The plan notes that lack of convenient scheduling and affordable pricing on the majority of routes has stifled growth which in turn has resulted in the stagnation of tourism.

PROFITABLE

Government plans to borrow all the money that will be initially invested in the airline. It estimated it would be at five per cent interest and payable between five and 10 years. The overly-ambitious plan claims that in the first year of operation (2019), the airline will post a profit of $3.9m. This will jump to $ 7.2m in the second year.

Profitability is impacted by the introduction of long-haul flights resulting into a loss of $6.1 million in 2021, the third year of the operation.

According to the plan, the international flights section is expected to make losses for the first five years. The airline is cash-positive throughout the plan period with bank and cash balances increasing significantly after year 10 when the majority of the loans for aircraft purchase should have been repaid. Net cash generated from operations increases from $10.6 million in year 1 to $28.7 million in year 5.

Ugandas discovery of oil is also seen as an advantage that will boost the airline business. Other minerals like gold, copper, tantalite and tin, all around the country, the plan reads, have led to an increase in economic activity throughout the country.

The role played by air transport in this light cannot be understated, it said. But it said for its sustainability, Uganda must ensure Ugandans disposable income improves so they are able to travel a little bit more.

The industry is highly regulated with licensing and registration procedures that require significant effort to complete. In addition, airlines do not have control of traffic rights and require permission from their home countries and the respective government authorities in all targeted markets before any flights can commence.

Fuel will be the biggest outlay (27%) to grapple with as direct operating costs. This will be followed by maintenance, flight crew costs, lease charges, handling and dispatch fees, respectively. These costs make the aviation industry one of the most expensive and, therefore, a need to carefully think through whatever decision is made.

Market access will be key. Uganda already has agreements it signed before the collapse of the defunct Uganda Airlines. It can probably still use them to access certain markets. However, it will have to leverage free market access agreed on by African countries in the framework of the 2017 Yamoussoukro Decision taken in Cote dIvoire, which liberalises the continents air-spaces.

Yet even with these glowing numbers, one thing is for sure: government must not repeat the past mistakes: under capitalisation, political interference, grand corruption and non-commercial decision-making which condemned the past airline to its grave.

amwesigwa@observer.ugIn less than 24 hours, five justices of the Constitutional court led by Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo, Remmy Kasule, Kenneth Kakuru, Cheborion Barishaki and Elizabeth Musoke are expected to deliver a decision that could decide the political direction of Uganda for the next 10 years, writes BAKER BATTE LULE.

After the controversial December 2017 constitutional amendment that saw the scrapping of presidential age limits, the extension of all political offices from five to seven years, and the reintroduction of the two presidential term limits, dissatisfied Ugandans went to court.

As things stand, President Museveni, who would be over the 75-year age limit at the next election, is a singular beneficiary of the amendment. Critics point out that the amendment opened the door for him to become a life president. His position, and with it the countrys very destiny, awaits the outcome of almost two months deliberation by the judges.

Led by the leader of opposition in parliament Winnie Kiiza, the petitioners challenged the legality of the amendment as unconstitutional. Now court is set to deliver a highly anticipated ruling tomorrow, July 26.

Opposition MPs filing their petition earlier this year

Publicly, no one can say which way the judges will rule. In fact, in his closing remarks during the hearings in the eastern Uganda town of Mbale, Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana beseeched the bench, pleading that if they find some elements of the amendment inconsistent with the constitution, those elements should be struck down, not the entire law.

It was headache enough for the government to muscle the bill through, involving the paying-off of regime MPs, the staging of a very violent attack on parliament by soldiers from the presidential guard; and an unprecedented beating up of MPs in the House precincts which left some like Mukono municipality representative Betty Nambooze hospitalised with life-threatening injuries.

Even with these extreme efforts, the amendment only squeaked past the threshold of three thirds majority by just 17 votes. That number has since been reduced by three following the fatal shooting of Arua Municipality MP Ibrahim Abiriga in June and by-election reversals. Abiriga was one of the most visible proponents of the amendment.

By-elections saw the ruling partys Nathan Igeme Nabeta thrown out of Jinja Municipality East by voters angered by his support for the amendment which drew countrywide opposition. He was replaced by Forum for Democratic Changes (FDC) Paul Mwiru.

Similarly, Winnie Matsiko lost her Rukungiri woman seat to FDCs Betty Muzanira. Pundits suggest that President Museveni would prefer to avoid a re-run of such a nerve-wracking experience if court decided to quash the entire bill.

Those in the know about the goings-on inside the attorney Generals chambers say they are already readying themselves for a potential appeal in the Supreme court. Male Hassan Mabirizi Kiwanuka, one of the petitioners, also believes that the matter will ultimately go to the highest court in the land.

Either way the justice decide, we shall end up in the Supreme court. If our petition is allowed, I know the government is going to appeal. Likewise, if the government side wins, we are going to appeal, Mabirizi told The Observer on Saturday, July 21.

That the ruling should be delivered in less than 24 hours constrains speculation on which way it will go. However, looking at how the five judges have decided prominent political cases in the past, an educated guess can be attempted based on a brief look into their respective records.

Remmy Kasule

Of the five justices, Kasule has been on the bench longest. He was appointed judge of the High court in 2004 and elevated to the Court of Appeal in 2011.

Since then, he has sat on the coram of almost all constitutional petitions, issuing landmark judgements along the way. His most outstanding ruling dates back to 2014 when he dissented from four of his colleagues; Steven Kavuma, Augustine Nshimye Ssebuturo, Faith Mwondha, and Richard Butera to rule that MPs Muhammad Nsereko, Barnabas Tinkasiimire, Wilfred Niwagaba and Theodore Ssekikubo cannot vacate their seats in parliament simply because they have been expelled from the ruling NRM party on whose ticket they were elected to parliament.

The Supreme court upheld his ruling. Kasule was also part of the four justices who ruled in 2014 in a majority 4-1 ruling that it was unconstitutional for Museveni to reappoint Benjamin Odoki as chief justice after his retirement on attaining the mandatory 70 years of age.

Justice Remmy Kasule

In 2011, Kasule and others quashed former vice president Gilbert Bukenyas arguments that he couldnt be charged by the inspector general of government for the offences of abuse of office before the Anti-Corruption court. The charges leveled against him were based on actions done in his official capacity as the vice president.

That same year, Kasule with others also ordered that the trial of former Lords Resistance Army fighter Thomas Kwoyelo was inconsistent with the constitution as it deprived him of equal treatment under the Amnesty Act. Kwoyelos co-accused had been granted amnesty.

A year later, Kasule also ruled in a petition filed by one Severino Twinobusingye that parliaments order for ministers Amama Mbabazi, Sam Kutesa and Hilary Onek to step aside pending investigations by an ad-hoc committee into corruption allegations in the oil sector was unconstitutional and, therefore, null and void.

Kasule with others also set a notable precedent when he ruled that the Inspectorate of Government cannot prosecute or cause prosecution in cases involving corruption, abuse of authority in public office when it is not duly constituted.

Foreign Affairs minister Kutesa, who had been dragged to court by the then acting IGG Raphael Baku for alleged corruption during the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting preparations, had challenged his trial in the Constitutional court.

Cheborion Barishaki

He was appointed justice of the Court of Appeal in 2013 after working for a long time as the director for Civil Litigation in the Attorney Generals Office.

According to constitutional judgements that we reviewed, none of them were decided by Barishaki. However, he played quite a dominant role in deciding several 2016 parliamentary election petitions.

Justice Cheborion Barishaki

He appears on almost every appeal that was decided by the former deputy chief justice Steven Kavuma. And in most of them he is part of Kavumas majority ruling that upheld the victory of majority of the NRM MPs whose elections were being disputed.

Kenneth Kakuru

He was appointed justice of the Court of Appeal in 2013, having been a sometimes activist advocate for over 30 years. Some of the high-profile cases that Kakuru decided include the 2012 challenge by Asuman Irumba and Peter Megelah of the 1965 Land Acquisition Act which they said was inconsistent with Article 26 of the Constitution.

Kenneth Kakuru

In a unanimous judgement, the panel of five judges which included Kakuru and Kasule ruled that, Section 7(1) of the Land Acquisition Act is hereby nullified to the extent of its inconsistency with Article 26(2) of the Constitution. That is to say, to the extent that it does not provide for prior payment of compensation, before government compulsorily acquires or takes possession of any persons property.

The government appealed the ruling in the Supreme court where it again lost.

Government then tabled the controversial Land Amendment Bill 2017 to provide for compulsory land acquisition for public infrastructure projects before compensation. The proposal seemed to be dead on arrival, given the overwhelming public rejection.

Elizabeth Musoke

Elizabeth Musoke was appointed High court judge in 2008 after a long career in the Directorate of Criminal Prosecution and the Inspectorate of Government.

She is amongst that new crop of judges which is gradually replacing the old war horses, many of whom were respected for their brilliance and juridical depth. In 2015, she together with Cheborion Barishaki, Catherine Bamugemereire, Paul Mugamba, Owiny-Dollo, Simon Byabakama, and Hellen Obura were nominated to and duly confirmed on the Court of Appeal/Constitutional court bench.

Justice Elizabeth Musoke

According to the Constitutional court judgements reviewed for this piece, there were a few where Elizabeth Musoke was part of the coram.

The most outstanding was in 2017 when together with Kakuru and Justice Engonda-Ntende, she ruled that all interim orders issued by a single justice of the Constitutional court were null and void and of no effect. They said it was unconstitutional for the court to hear cases under either a single justice or a coram of three.

In legal circles, however, the jury is still out on where she stands on political questions given her establishment background.

Owiny-Dollo

A former minister in charge of pacification of northern Uganda during the war years, Owiny-Dollo would seem to wear two hats.

He was appointed judge of the High court in 2008, then on to the Court of Appeal in 2015 but he was not to take office until 2016 when he finished delivering his judgement in the 2010 terror bombings in Kampala.

Deputy Chief Justice Alphonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo

He notably handed down long jail sentences to most of the accused. On the political scene, together with Paul Mugamba, he disagreed with the rather disappointing Steven Kavuma and nullified the election of Winfred Matsiko as the Rukungiri Woman Member of Parliament. She subsequently lost the by-election to Betty Muzanira of FDC.

bakerbatte@observer.ugFor a long time, Ugandans have admired neighboring Rwandas RwandaAir. The good news is that our very own national carrier is on the way.

Having Uganda Airlines airborne, for the first time since the late nineties (its starting point was in 1977) is great for national pride because it means Ugandas national flag will finally be back in the skies. It also makes sense economically, since we are a landlocked country.

Preparations for the revamp of Uganda Airlines have already gone into high gear. The soon-to-be-revitalized airline has six planes so far: four CRJ900

aircraft from Canadian firm, Bombardier, and two A330-800 neo aircraft from Airbus.

The return of Uganda Airlines is an automatic creation of jobs that will help to lower the current unemployment levels. It will also make air travel cheaper for Ugandans, thereby promoting our tourism sector.

Justifying the revival of Uganda Airlines, President Museveni said recently that a national airline would help the country save $420 million per year that Ugandans spend on air travel with foreign-owned aircraft. No doubt, Ugandans everywhere are eagerly looking forward to the official launch of Uganda Airlines in April 2019.



Josepha Jabo,

Kampala.

We need to redefine our priorities



Of recent, there has been a lot of controversy over the current decision by the government to provide security cars to members of parliament, with many arguing that that money should be diverted to other areas because security should be enhanced for all Ugandans.

This goes back to the simple question: what are our priorities in Uganda?

I believe this is an area we have to take more seriously. I personally believe one of the major and fundamental obligations of the government is to ensure that peoples lives and property are protected.

When we talk of lives, we envisage also the notion that people are in good health. What I see, though, is an ordinary teacher being diagnosed with kidney failure and requires a kidney transplant that will cost up to Shs 200 million. Where do we expect an ordinary Ugandan to raise that money from?

It is on this note that we have to find solutions to the growing predicament because sooner or later it catches up with us. Many Ugandans cannot afford medical treatment.

When we talk about Vision 2040, we cannot achieve it when all the good people are dead or many have died unnecessarily.

My humble plea is that government takes keen interest in the health sector.

A special fund needs to be set up to curb this problem. For the good of our country, the health sector should be made a priority. Anybody who knows and has tried to learn some economics and understood the concept of economic development will know that health is one of the parameters for obtaining sustainable development.



Patrick Gukiina

gukiimeni@gmail.com



Do LC chairpersons have public offices to hand over?



I was irked and also entertained by recent warnings and threats to the outgoing local council (LC) chairpersons over their delay to hand over office.

The warning implied there was a lot to be handed over. I dont intend to exaggerate but in many places (except in a few urban settings), there havent been any distinguished village LC offices. Instead, the chairpersons residence has in effect been the LC office address.

The letterheads and stamps were also just improvised (they were not supplied by government).

There are not so many village LC leaderships that had files/records about their residents, save for a mere book (residents register). Others couldnt even retain copies of letters they would endorse, and there are no official financial records to hand over.

Therefore, when I heard our over the top authorities sounding warnings for handover, it begged the question: are outgoing chairpersons being asked to vacate their residences and other personal possessions which they had improvised to smoothen their duties?

I think the authoritarian reminder for handover was exaggerated. Handover shouldnt have been commanded and if we were more organised, they should have been given some token of appreciation for their services as some just volunteered to serve and helped to fill a leadership vacuum.



Julius Zaake

jwasswa@uos.de



Help fishing communities with light



Recently, I visited the fishing communities along Lake Albert at Kaiso and Kyehoro landing sites, Tonya parish Buseruka sub-county, Hoima district. One of the things that struck me was the image of lights along Lake Albert. This happens from about 7pm to 6am.

The fishing communities have resorted to using solar energy to fish all night with battery-charged bulbs to catch silver cyprinid (mukene) and other species.

Not long ago, the communities stopped using steamer pressure lamps and kerosene lamps, which were expensive to maintain although they offered brighter light.

The method of solar light fishing has been adopted from neighboring landing sites. It is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. It is also believed to contribute to an increase in the amount of fish caught, although some fishermen say it has also reduced the catch of other types of fish.

As the fishing communities move towards energy security through access to the cleaner solar energy, government must decentralize energy sites to increase access, especially to marginalized communities.

More investments, by all players in the energy sector, must focus more on off-grid solutions and micro grid options. This will also help to reduce energy costs. There must be tax subsidisation of imports on clean energy products to make it cheaper for consumers to buy them.



Sandra Atusinguza

atusinguzasandra@afiego.org



Unjust transport fares should be tackled



All of us know that oil prices have increased all over the world but we also know that government can deal with these issues through the ministry of works and transport.

The time has come for government to make legislation that reintroduces price controls. I firmly believe that people, especially the mini-bus operators, are taking advantage of the open market policy to charge passengers ridiculously high fares.

The government must take full control of bus and taxi fares if it cares for its citizens. I am very sure these transport operators have made it a norm to always introduce new fares whenever they feel like.

The price increases are not only done when fuel prices shoot up, but also sometimes when there is too much traffic jam in the city. Also, during the festive seasons, taxi owners hike prices.

The government has to make life easier for the travelling public by setting reasonable price structures. I wish to suggest that government issues official fare structures, which should be displayed in all passenger vans.

Only those who accept an official fare structure should be allowed to operate. Failure to display the fare structure should be made unlawful.

I really feel government can intervene for purposes of creating sanity and also saving the local people from being overcharged for services.



Michael Woira





letters@observer.ugSeveral public health facilities ran out of polio and rotavirus vaccines last week, casting a long shadow of fear over parents eager to immunise their newborns against both diseases.

A mother interviewed by Daily Monitor at the weekend said she delivered her baby by C-section at Kawempe hospital, an affiliate of Mulago national referral hospital, but her newborn wasnt immunised against polio because the hospital had no vaccines.

For all the advances made so far in immunising, treating and preventing transmission of preventable but debilitating diseases like polio, a constant availability of vaccines or drugs remains elusive. This undermines any meaningful progress.

Each month, each year, we hear saddening stories of drug stock-outs in hospitals, or of the expiry of essential drugs on the shelves of the National Medical Stores. Just the other day, the government loudly announced the roll-out of a new rotavirus vaccine to protect children less than five years old from diarrhoea.

Rotavirus infection is the leading cause of diarrhoea in children under five. It is highly contagious and if left untreated can lead to death.

The free-of-charge rotavirus vaccine, the 11th vaccine addition to the national schedule of the expanded immunisation programme in Uganda, officials said, would be available in health facilities throughout the country.

Lamentably, only weeks after the launch date the new addition is in short supply!

This plainly suggests an unacceptable lack of commitment to proper service delivery by the very authorities handed the key responsibility of making sure drugs are procured and are available in health centres.

While health facilities always point an accusing finger at the National Medical Stores, in its defense, the government corporation, charged with procuring, storing and distributing essential medicines and medical supplies to all public health facilities, usually hides in the thicket of procedure and law.

Interviewed, UNEPI manager Dr Bernard Opar said the shortage of vaccines was brought about by the annual stock taking exercise at NMS in July. He promised that supplies for that month would be delivered soon. And yet, NMS general manager Moses Kamabare simply said they dont have money to buy vaccines. So, there we go again.

This vaccine stock-out reflects darkly on governments promises and commitment to basic health services delivery.Ever since the passing on of my wife about two weeks ago, I have followed the news rather scantily. Time is a blind guide.

The next hour or the following day allows us little preparation and sometimes arrives with deeply shocking events.

Losing a friend, as close as a spouse, imposes a heavy emotional and physical demand on the surviving partner as life is reassembled afresh from very close quarters: the bedroom, kitchen and living room. These take new shapes. (I am grateful for the incredible amount of friendship and love I have continued to receive).

As I returned to the newsstands early this week, I learned we were still debating governments decision to impose taxes on innovations in technology  mobile money services and social media.

Sadly, the debate has been trapped under the language-games of taxes for development, then promoting a cashless society, etc. As government continues to depoliticize these taxes, the intellectual response has simply echoed it.

There is a book I read early this year, which puts this debate in good perspective. This is Iginio Gagliardones, The Politics of Technology in Africa: Communication, Development and Nation-Building in Ethiopia.

With Ethiopia as the example, Gagliardone argues that ICT innovations in Africa are not innocent spaces or forces for development, democratisation and globalisation but, rather, politics.

Being that ICTs were not invented on the continent, and have instead been marketed to the continent by international forces  such as United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)  Gagliardone argues that ICTs became acceptable only after regimes in power had found ways of appropriating them to serve their political goals.

If any ICT innovation did not serve the powerful, it had to be contained. Among other things, this has meant slower breakthroughs and generally poor-quality ICTs.

Central to this conversation is the understanding that ICTs should never be depoliticized. The author actually challenges unenlightened claims that development is a technical matter requiring technical solutions.

Technology, as is the development discourse, is a space of power and politics, and often technology and politics reinforce each other.

To make this argument more succinctly, Gagliardone uses the notion of techno-politics and techno-political regimes which are the result of layers of decisions made by actors tied to denser or looser networks, and employing technology to achieve political goals in ways that [open] politics could not allow.

Specific to the Ethiopian example, when UNCTAD and Word Bank heavily supported ICTs in the late 1990s and through the 2000s, Ethiopia was skeptical about this thing called ICT.

Thus, it did not allow the country to enjoy it under claims of development, democratization and globalisation. Governed under notions of ethnic federalism, and the obsessive promise to deliver services to the people as a way of legitimating their hold onto power, the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which took power in 1991, embraced ICTs through the twin experiments of Woredanet and Schoolnet.

These were meticulously tailored to serve a political agenda: Woredanet, which means network of districts, enabled mainly Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to deliver a uniform message to all officials in the decentralized government, and gave the country a sense of unity under an ethnicized order.

Schoolnet, on the other hand, was designed to ensure equality in service delivery, here being uniform quality education across the country. These were the only spaces for the application of ICTs and they took the shape they did as long as they proved to serve the dreams of former rebels now in government.

To this end, Ethiopia was smarter than many other African countries whose leaders were not only ignorant but also easily excitable. With the ICT-guided protests in North Africa and the Middle East, governments that openly embraced ICTs were terribly exposed.

Ever since, other endangered regimes have taken their lessons and are constantly finding ways to bring ICT under tight control.

Besides switching off social media platforms during moments of high intensity politics (such as during the general elections and the presidential swearing-in ceremony, both in 2016, etc), Uganda has made another breakthrough: taxing social media so as to reduce/control participation. But this has to find a technical language in its execution: taxation for development.

The author is a PhD fellow at Makerere Institute of Social ResearchThere is something surreal and bewildering about authoritarian rulers. They dazzle many among the unsuspecting public, passing off as mythical, invincible and mysterious.

The thing, though, is that to effectively manage an authoritarian system of rule, rulers have to mask their vulnerabilities and inadequacies. They do so in part by projecting a superhuman image, often portraying a god-like persona.

Ugandas current ruler is on record claiming he is Gods deputy! His is a classic case of paternalistic rule. He believes he is the father. Everyone is a child. Colonists too saw African subjects this way  as permanent children.

It is only him who knows the problems of Uganda. Only he has the strategic mind and foresight to provide solutions to myriad societal problems. There is a predisposition to the delusional attitude that sees everyone as unqualified and not up to the task, indirectly devalues everyone and directly ostracizes all critics.

Quite predictably, at public occasions he will causally and disrespectful refer to an old woman as that young girl, with the derogatory gesture mostly reserved for those who are political opponents.

Ironically, the same ruler while wanting to present himself as the old and wise through a sleight of hand wants us to believe that he is young and energetic to continue ruling for life.

Unfortunately, the course of nature is utterly random and has no regard for being a president even if you are a military ruler: you cannot shoot nature with an AK-47 nor can you use your presidential power to obstruct aging.

There can never be doubt that after ruling for more than three decades, Mr Museveni is an invariably tired human being. Anyone would. But if one has imbibed an authoritarian streak, as Robert Mugabe, Paul Biya, Theodore Obiang, and of course Yoweri Museveni, among others, part of the trap of power is the obsessive belief that you still have a lot to achieve and have the capacity to last longer.

There is a potential danger of unimaginable proportions. The MPs who opportunistically cashed in to change the constitution last December scarcely understand the implications of their grave actions.

The last standing hurdle against a permanent imperial president was the age-limit in the constitution. If Mr Museveni wanted to stay on after 75 using extra constitutional means, that would have had its own ramifications and responses.

But the assault on the constitution, and whatever good is left in it, was a major boost to Musevenis paternalism  MPs basically endorsed his belief that only he knows how to manage Uganda.

The decay and dysfunction in Ugandas public sector which Mr Museveni overseas is simply staggering. Yet the paternalistic ruler will not see what the rest of society sees as problems; he will for example downplay most problems and ills, referring to waves of insecurity and biting poverty as small matters, which he will defeat!

The obsession with infrastructure  roads and dams  while talking down the issues that affect people is part of the paternalistic attitude that sees solutions in grand projects. He likes to emphasise that he spent many years fighting Joseph Kony and did not focus on the structural bottlenecks to economic development.

Now that Kony and other terrorists has been defeated and the whole country pacified, it is time to deal with energy generation and road construction. And since he defeated Kony, theres nothing and no one he cant defeat.

In the single-minded pursuit of what he believes the country needs, there is little regard for building prudent systems and lasting mechanisms for managing public affairs. Because the ruler believes he knows it all, he has no time to waste with unnecessary procedures and bureaucratic processes.

He sidelines whatever established channels and operates under decidedly irregular methods that breed cronyism, malfeasance and what we generally refer to as corruption. The only strong institution that thrives under a system of paternalistic rule is, well, paternalism itself!

So, everything goes to the ruler to decide. State House has for long been a clearing house of deals, be those of the much-hyped investors getting free public land (it is not fully free as they have to buy their way to reach the ruler) or the many big-money infrastructural projects that tend to pit one Chinese company against another or the Chinese against Western construction companies.

We have a monumental problem staring at us. The paternalism of the ruler makes him believe he must stay in power forever even when systems are crumbling and the quality of government degenerates.

The latent factional struggles, glimpses of which we have seen as in Henry Tumukunde, who is rumoured to represent a State House faction, against Kale Kayihura who probably was leader of his own faction, will in quick order become drawn-out fights in the absence of the master.

The ruler is trapped in power by his own hubris and unmitigated paternalism. But we as citizens are stuck with the ruler. The day of reckoning will unfold before us and the outcome will most unlikely be pleasant.

Sections of the faithful and especially those engaged in the prosperity gospel have told us to keep praying, including praying for the ruler. The times we live in are simply incredible.

moses.khisa@gmail.com

The author is an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State UniversityUgandans who regularly travel and those deployed by the state at its various missions have two difficult audiences to address  diaspora and potential tourists.

I didnt know I would be required to defend Uganda, including some of the decisions our revolutionary rulers have forced down our throats, to these audiences. Ugandans living in Sydney, Australia organized for us a dinner at a place called Parramatta last week and served us real Ugandan food that made us momentarily forget we were in Australia.

Five of us who sit on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) led by our chairperson Angeline Osegge, were in Australia to receive responses to queries raised in various reports of the auditor general from our embassy in Canberra.

An association of Ugandans heard about our presence and offered to host us at the residence of Geoffrey Kakaire, who has lived in Australia for more than three decades. He formerly worked with the East African Community.

After chewing their delicious food, the real questions we have faced at all diaspora meetings began.

Why do you deprive us of our Ugandan citizenship? went the first question from a representative.

Even after changing the constitution to provide for dual citizenship, the processes of regaining Ugandan nationality is still an irritant to many. You have to apply and pay $400.

In the case of Australia, you even have to travel to Kampala because Canberra is not one of the four diplomatic missions authorized to process citizenship.

In this digital era, cant these things be processed online? asked one Ugandan.

As we struggled to answer this, another question on property rights was raised. Our constitution doesnt permit a non-citizen to owning land on a freehold basis.

Non-citizens can only acquire leasehold. And this is the most difficult question to answer. Some of the fellows living outside and have acquired citizenships of other countries are heirs to their parents and have transferred titles in their names.

And like all other ambassadors, Prof. Joyce Kikafunda, who represents us in Australia, had just spoken about the remittances Ugandans make and how they have overtaken coffee as our main source of foreign exchange.

We are good Ugandans when we are sending money and non-Ugandans when it comes to owning land? one lad fired from the audience.

After a disclaimer, I attempted to answer some of the questions only to face another barrage on mobile money and social media taxes. This is something that will require a time out in volleyball but there was no such opportunity.

Eventually, our delegation assigned me the responsibility to squeeze the answers from the government using my parliamentary platform and the fellows are waiting for feedback.

Those are the formal questions that you face in an organized interaction. But as you are being shown around places, the common question is what do you do when you see these good things?

And I faced it in Australia like I have faced it repeatedly elsewhere. In an attempt to market Uganda, the ambassador was asked why a tourist should choose Uganda and it was a hard sell.

We have gorillas, good climate, our people are social, etc. Is this enough? I asked myself quietly.

We later learnt from John Cox, a lawyer in Sydney and Ugandas consul general there, that Kenya receives more Australian tourists than Uganda. And Australia is the fifth most travelling nation. John Cox advised Uganda to record a quick video presentation that should be made available to tourist agencies.

I later saw an advert in a local newspaper of a South African company that was luring tourists to Nelson Mandelas land. What hurt me more was their list of other key destinations. They included Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana. Uganda was missing on this list.

Overall, I think even before marketing ourselves to other people, we need to first put our house in order. South Sudan is on fire and those who have run away from it are the face of crime in Australia, according to a news report quoting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnball on a local TV.

Ugandas problems with Rwanda are also not ending. Then there is Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al-Shabab in Somalia, something in Central Africa Republic, etc. Yet Africa is viewed as one by many people in the world. That is why the story of Ethiopia and Eritrea making peace is a welcome relief.

For me, even if the heads of state dont sign a trade pact but end wars and dictatorship, tourists will simply pour in Africa. We then wont have the burden to defend these regimes in European capitals before foreigners and their own nationals.

semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament.



Edited at 2018-07-24 10:28 pm (UTC)

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why

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Lmao

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Id be sad for her if she didnt find other ways to fucking profit.



Fuck her and her family.

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How do you say, "Bye Bitch," in evil speak?

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Bye

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Has someone who works for Dillards this makes me extremely happy 

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Also Calvin Klein made the clothes

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Omg I know. My dad and one of my friends works for Dillard's and it's been so disappointing seeing her clothing there.

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HAHAHAHAHAHA

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made in china

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First thing I noticed! I guess Ivanka Trump is no for #Americafirst

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lmaooooooo

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BLOOP! I always see her shit at Marshall's and it's ALWAYS FUGLY.



Edited at 2018-07-24 10:48 pm (UTC)

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LMAO

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lol irl

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Lmao. Too damn expensive!!! Eat the rich tbh!!!

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heh heh heeh hehhe hehheh hee :)))

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Lolz everything about this picture goes against what their stupid family is preaching, I love it. Hope nobody buys this shit. I also hope no charity is going to end up with the leftovers. Maybe isolate soms homes with it idk

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Not a great loss, people will just have to buy the original designs.

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That lady watching protesters descend on Ivanka's apartment is a modern art piece.

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The use of negative space is something else



put it in the MoMA tbh!!!

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I came here hoping someone wouldve posted this picture, bless you sis!! 

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Obligatory. I love this so much.

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Nobody voted for his fucking kids, why are they allowed to be so involved? Of course, Republicans have no problem with it.

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mte... How is that not illegal somehow?

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Trump is skirting the nepotism rules because Ivanka's position is unpaid and the nepotism rules in place specifically talk about paid positions.

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teehee

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oh poor thing

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not everyone can be stuff by hilary duff

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Hahaha I recently got my glasses from Hilary's line with Glasses USA and I keep reminiscing about Stuff by Hilary Duff

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D.C.? bitch, you mean prison?

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LinkClint Eastwood files lawsuit alleging he was swindled out of medical patents https://t.co/VZxYqoymx6 pic.twitter.com/yF6R00oIaX  Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 24, 2018

According to the filing, he had invested in the work of Dr. Harry Demopoulos, who was a medical researcher.Demopoulos' company went through restructuring, consolidating various businesses under the umbrella of a newly formed company, Molecular Defenses Corporation."In the midst of this allegedly voluntary restructuring, however, Dr. Demopoulos unexpectedly suffered a massive stroke in early 2016," states the complaint. "It was at this tragic time when Defendants pounced, seizing Dr. Demopoulos business (and six U.S. patents) for their own ends."Eastwood is now suing Molecular Defenses Corporation and its chief.Eastwood says he didn't know that the original company had already technically dissolved 15 years earlier without distributing any assets to shareholders like as himself.Sources: The Hollywood Reporter tweetVicki and Porsha should have been tossed out on their asses. I don't love Kenya, but this feels like an excuse to get rid of her

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Insert it came true.gif

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I'm gonna miss her.

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GOOD. I can't stand her. The entire show needs to be recast at this point, I'm tired of most of them.

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Start with that boring one in your gif. Yet she keeps getting spinoffs.





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Say what you want about Kandi but every spinoff of hers gets high ass ratings; even this stale ass reboot of Kandi Koated Nights.

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They're seriously all terrible (especially Kandi!). Once upon a time, I was obsessed but then they fell really frickin' hard. Scrap the franchise or the scrap the cast to save it, imo.





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agreed...damn near all of their storylines are tired and thru.

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Agreed on all counts.

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whos the guy on your pic?

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this! I havent watched in forever

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The thing that kills me about people who dont like Kenya is that they are the same ones who would also complain about Cynthia, claiming she brings nothing to the show. Bitch, do you want a messy bitch who lives for drama or not?

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Hate her or love her, Kenya is the perfect example of Andy Bravo's racism. They're vile. And good luck keeping that show going. Out of all the franchises is by far the most scripted. None of those women interact off season.

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Plenty of them interact off screen...



While I like Kenya, she is far from the first housewife to be let go after having next to nothing their previous season.

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My favorite reality tv character of all time!



That season when she had absolutely no friends and no one to film with and still managed to break Nene, expose Phaedra and cause an all out war just by showing up 1 hour late to a pajama party. 

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Kenya is my favorite housewife. Watching Andy treat her terrible through every reunion and on top of that making her appear on WWHL with known racist Michael Rapaport (she didn't know he was going to be there until she showed up

) I don't blame her. She knows her worth. I'm excited for her to have her baby!

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Nene, Kandi, Cynthia, Porsha, Eva



lol.

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omg BLEAK. Shan't be watching. Shan't.

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and gutter ass Marlo!

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Marlo is the very definition of a problematic fave LMAO

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There was a recent blind item that said someone who is very obviously Andy Cohen is gonna have a whole horde of guys accusing him of indecency.

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I feel like people in circles have known that for a long time and he just has kept himself pretty protected in a lot of ways.

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Ready

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I'm surprised this hasn't come happened earlier. He's so inappropriate with the male models on WWHL.

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so true. he's always been a grade A creep and I would love to see him come down.

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It felt like she was barely on last season and tbh I don't understand why she didn't just balance that better. I understand that her husband didn't want to film but plenty of other HW's have husbands who don't film but still show up and deliver. She does bring the drama on the show though so they would be crazy not to do everything to get her back.



Atlanta needs to quit with the friends, they are boring and terrible and desperate for a peach.



I love her but just meant she could have pushed harder last season since she was barely on at all.



Edited at 2018-07-25 07:24 pm (UTC)

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well, i won't be watching

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I like Kenya but after last season we dont need a redo of Kim during s5. I think it's best to have her sit out a season, enjoy her pregnancy then come back with a vegence the season after with a baby in tow. Or just pull a RHONJ and put the season on hold lol.

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Lmao I enjoy ha but she definitely doesn't have the pull her stans say she does

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In other news, Carole is leaving RHONY.



http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/carole-radziwill-will-not-return-to-the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city?cid=soc_tw_Bravo_RHONY_Dish I'll miss Kenya. She entertained me.In other news, Carole is leaving RHONY.

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And nothing of value was lost

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LinkChina National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will invest the equivalent of more than US$22 billion by 2020 on boosting its oil and gas production in the western region of Xinjiang to mitigate the impact of declining production from oil and gas fields in Chinas northeast.

CNPC said on Wednesday that it would invest more than US$22.1 billion (150 billion yuan) in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the west to boost production in the region to more than 50 million tons of oil equivalent between 2018 and 2020.

According to Reuters calculations, the investment that CNPC announced today would be equivalent to the total upstream investment made by CNPCs listed unit and Chinas largest oil and gas producer, PetroChina, in 2017.

The investment in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region would serve several purposes, according to analysts. First, boosting production in the region would help offset declining production from the ageing fields in the Daqing oil province in the northeast. The investment would also serve to increase Chinas domestic natural gas production as Beijing looks to switch from coal to the more environmentally friendly fuel. In addition, China would be looking to boost the economy, infrastructure, and natural gas access in the unruly autonomous region in its far west bordering Central Asia that has seen ethnic unrest in recent years. Related: Is This The Next Coal Megaproject?

I think that the primary factor is to support the central government policy to invest more and support economic development in the west, Liutong Zhang, director at Hong Kong-based WaterRock Energy Economics, told Reuters.

Boosting oil production in the western part of the country is not expected to affect Chinas crude oil imports because the higher production would offset declining output at mature fields elsewhere in the country.

Chinas crude oil production dropped by 2.3 percent on the year in June, and was also down compared to the production in May. Between January and June, crude oil production declined by 2 percent annually.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:By Damali Mukhaye

As campaigns in new municipalities come to a close today, all eyes will be on Bugiri, where all the big wigs from the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the opposition are headed to drum up support for their respective candidates.

President Yoweri Museveni who is also the NRM national chairman is expected there this afternoon to campaign for the partys parliamentary candidate Francis Okecho.

According to the NRM Communications Officer Rodgers Mulindwa president Museveni will hold one rally at Bukooli technical school in Bugiri.

Meanwhile, Forum for Democratic Changes Dr. Kiiza Besigye will lead a team of senior party officials to campaign for Eunice Namatende.

Also expected there is Kyandodo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi in a last minute vote hunt for Justice Forums Asuman Basalirwa, another candidate in the race Bugiri Municipality parliamentary seat.

Elections in Bugiri and the other new municipalities are slated for Friday this week.Oil could be back to US$45 a barrel within 12 months, Citigroups commodities chief Ed Morse said in an interview with the Financial Post, noting that the bullish case for crude is based on a faulty analysis.

The top oil forecaster who warned about the 2014 price collapse and also accurately predicted that the OPEC+ club would end its production cut deal earlier than everyone expected, has said that the capital efficiency and technological advancements that have improved oil recovery goes against the bullish scenario, because the better the recovery rate, the more oil that can be produced on the cheap. Also, he said, the bulls make a mistake in estimating a global acceleration in total oil production decline when this acceleration will only take place in mature fields, which represent about 45-50 percent of the global total.

It is illogical, Morse said, to forecast a decline of production in places where production will not be declining, such as the Canadian oil sands. The analyst also noted OPEC as a case in point, given, he said, its ability to consistently produce an average 35 million bpd over a 50-year period.

The assumption of a decline rate of 5 percent for these mature fields yields a supply fall of 2-3 million bpd, which is about half of what bulls are forecasting based on their all-embracing assumption of production decline. Related: Can China Replicate The U.S. Shale Boom?

Citigroups commodities head allowed that spare capacity is a legitimate concern in global oil, but he added that deliverability is the real issue and it is actually looking good at the moment. Saudi Arabia, he said, can deliver 15 million bpd through its ports and has some 300 million barrels of crude in storage at home plus more abroad. In other words, the Kingdom could hypothetically deliver 15 million bpd, but it is only producing 10.8 million bpd.

In the immediate term, however, Morse agrees oil will continue strong. It cant really be any other way: the supply disruption potential in Libya and Venezuela, the Iran sanctions, and the U.S.-China trade war are all arguments for the bullish case for oil and they will remain on the scene in the next few months.

Next year, however, Morse believes Brent could drop back to between US$45 a US$65 a barrel.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Tullow Oil has stopped all operations in its Kenyan oil fields, citing unaddressed security fears as local hostility mounts.

Tullow Oil had threatened over the weekend to shut down its oil wells in the Lokichar basin if the government does not act soon to remedy production, security, and transportation problems. Tullow pulled the trigger not even three days later as it finds it difficult to transfer oil to the Kenyan coast as locals continue to interfere with transportation and operations unabated.

Meetings were scheduled between the local community, Tullow officials, and national government to find a resolution that all parties could live with, but according to the East African, those meetings never happened.

What you saw locally was the local people, the community... using the trucking operation as a lever really to demonstrate to the national government that the security situation on the ground had to improve, Paul McDade, Tullow Oils Chief Executive Officer said on Wednesday.

Despite the shutdown, McDade said he expected to be up and running again soon, adding that Tullow expected to be up there working, getting the field back operating again and trucks moving again the near future. But its important to take the time out so that when we do return... we have a more secure environment.

But Tullows risk appetite is substantial, suffering many hardships in Kenya since it found oil there in 2012 after almost six decades of exploring.

Tullows recent oil production and exports was part of Kenyas Early Oil Pilot Scheme that sought to move crude oil from Turkana County to Kenyas coast until a pipeline could be built. Commercial production was expected to start up after the pipeline was in placethe completion of which is expected in 2021.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Iranian officials have suggested that they could shut the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. moved to completely disrupt Iranian oil exports, a dire scenario that would present a supply shock to the oil market.

The prospect of an outage at the Strait of Hormuz repeatedly crops up when tensions between the U.S. and Iran deteriorate, but most analysts dismiss the idea as fanciful.

But the scenario may not be as outlandish as is commonly thought. Bob McNally, founder and president of energy consultancy The Rapidan Group, said that the U.S. is waging economic war against Iran and when a country is backed into a corner like that, there has to be some risk that the country will lash out, even if its against a bigger power.

I think the market's a little complacent, he told CNBC, referring to the lack of movement in oil prices following the exchange of threats between Rouhani and Donald Trump. He said that Iran has much less leverage compared to 2012 when it was enriching uranium and oil prices were much higher. With oil prices much lower, Irans leverage is weaker, which could lead it to take drastic measures, such as shutting the Strait of Hormuz. Its a credible threat, McNally said.

Obviously, that would send oil prices skyrocketing. When you talk about Iran's exports, that's about 2.5 million barrels per day, but if you talk about interrupting the Strait of Hormuz, that's 19 million barrels a day, he said. About 30 percent of...seaborne-traded oil goes through that strait. So that's a much bigger problem. Related: Iran Vows Equal Countermeasures If U.S. Tries To Block Oil Exports

The real pain would depend on the length of the outage. Most analysts argue that the U.S. Navy would beat back Iranian attempts to close the Strait and would manage to reopen the shipping lane in a matter of days. McNally said it isnt that easy. Id be a little careful about two to three days, he said, referring to sanguine forecasts about how quickly the Strait could be up and running again following a disruption. If the Iranians got the jump on us, and they were able to sow mines especially, it could be several weeks before its safe for commercial ships to pass through. Retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis illustrated a hypothetical scenario in which the Strait were shut in a Bloomberg Opinion column.

The Strait is only about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, and because nearly a fifth of total global supplies passes through that narrow shipping lane, it is often described as the most significant choke point in the world.

An outage, even for a brief period of time, would be on the scale of something the oil market has never seen. And spare capacity remains very thin at around 2 million barrels per day. Worse, much of those additional barrels would need to travel through the Strait to reach the global market.

Again, the likelihood of Iran taking such a drastic action is still slim. After all, one of the biggest losers from a disrupted Strait of Hormuz would be Iran. The country that would suffer the most from the Strait of Hormuz being cut off would be Iran. Its a muted threat. Because it's like I'm going to threaten my trade if you don't allow my trade, Brenda Shaffer, an adjunct professor at Georgetowns School of Foreign Service, told Oilprice.com in early July.

Related: Oil Markets Stabilize On Major Crude Draw

But the more Iranian oil that the U.S. government disrupts, the less that Iran has to lose. Taking Irans oil exports to zero, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said is the objective, would be a calamity for Iran.

Still, the Trump administration faces its own obstacles that could prevent it from pursuing the belligerent course that it wants. Trump will surely be reluctant to cause an oil price spike, which would happen if the Strait were to be closed. The hesitation from American officials is clear  they have vacillated in public statements on how far they will go to disrupt Iranian supply, clearly afraid of the political fallout from high gasoline prices at home. In that sense, the U.S. may tread carefully, hoping not to provoke Iran too much, while also trying to ratchet up the pressure on Tehran. How this works in practice, and how much Iranian supply is knocked offline, remains to be seen.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Occidental Petroleum hopes to raise more than US$5 billion as it is exploring the potential sale of its pipeline assets, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting people familiar with the plans.

Through the possible sale of its pipeline business, Occidental Petroleum will be looking to free up capital for more investment in exploration and production to take advantage of the rising oil prices.

According to Reuters sources, Occidental is working with investment banks on an auction for its pipeline assets.

Occidentals midstream assets include the Centurion Pipeline in the Permiana common-carrier oil pipeline and storage system with approximately 2,900 miles of pipeline and 7.1 million barrels of storage capacity. Occidental also has an equity interest in the General Partner of Plains All-American Pipeline.

Occidental also owns the Oxy Ingleside Energy Center (OIEC) Terminal at the Port of Corpus Christi in Ingleside, Texas, a crude oil storage and export terminal that provides access to international and domestic markets. The terminal has approximately 2.1 million barrels of total oil storage capacity and throughput capacity of 300,000 bpd.



Related: Can China Replicate The U.S. Shale Boom?

The takeaway capacity bottlenecks that have recently emerged in the Permian and the growing U.S. crude oil exports could help Occidental fetch top dollar for its midstream assets, according to Reuters sources.

Last year, Occidental tried to sell its stake in the Ingleside Energy Center. The crude oil storage and export terminal is included in the package of midstream assets that Occidental is looking to sell now, one of the sources told Reuters.

If it manages to sell the pipeline assets, Occidental will become the latest U.S. oil company to have divested pipeline assets, looking to capitalize on potentially high valuations for midstream assets as takeaway capacity constraints start to weigh on oil production growth in the Permian. Hess Corporation and Oasis Petroleum are two of the companies that have spun off or divested pipeline assets over the past year.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:Petrobras has entered exclusive talks with Ouro Preto Oleo e Gas, a company backed by EIG, for the sale of two mature oil field clusters, Reuters reports, citing sources in the know. The EIG-backed bid was the highest one Petrobras received, the sources said, beating Trident Energy, which was financially backed by Warburg Pincus.

For EIG this would be the second recent acquisition in Brazil, after the private equity major earlier this year bought port operator Prumo Logistica. The Brazilian company operates the Acu port, which is in proximity to the Pampo and Enchova field clusters off the Rio de Janeiro coast, in the prolific Campos Basin. The clusters span nine fields with combined production of 38,600 bpd. The production rights to the clusters will be sold until 2025.

The deals size has not been disclosed, but it could bring some US$1 billion into Petrobras coffers, which would be a very welcome addition to previous divestment proceeds that will go towards reducing the companys still sizeable debt pile, which as of last year was still the highest in the industry. In 2017 and 2018, Petrobras plans to sell assets worth US$21 billion.



Related: Is The Solar Industry Really In Trouble?

Earlier this week Petrobras announced it will also put up for sale its stake in four other offshore blocks. The stakes cover exploration, development, and production rights in the four concessions.

The Brazilian energy major is also selling its stakes in four refineries and assets abroad to slim down its debt and improve its position, which was badly damaged, not just by the 2014 price collapse but by the biggest corruption scandal in Brazils history that saw senior Petrobras executives receive prison sentences for partaking in a graft scheme involving a number of top politicians as well. The scheme saw company executives embezzle billions of dollars between 2003 and 2013.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:A year after two environmental activists claimed responsibility for causing at least US$2.5 million in damage to the Dakota Access Pipeline project in Iowa, the two protesters have gone into hiding, and federal prosecutors have not filed charges against them yet, the Des Moines Register reports.

On July 24, 2017exactly a year ago, Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya held a news conference and explained what they had done to try to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the state of Iowa. They said that they had burned at least five pieces of heavy construction machinery in the Buena Vista County. Damages to the equipment have been estimated to exceed US$2.5 million.

Reznicek and Montoya, who had been involved in other protests in the past, said that they also used oxyacetylene cutting torches to damage pipeline valves along the pipeline route in Iowa and in part of South Dakota. The protesters also used tires and gasoline-soaked rags to burn valve sites and electric units along the route of the project that was still in its construction stage at the time of the sabotages.

After the news conference they held last year, the two protesters were arrested, but not for the sabotages to the project. They were arrested by Iowa troopers for having damaged a state-owned sign outside the offices of the Iowa Utilities Board. Reznicek and Montoya were charged with minor offenses for damaging the sign and were fined with fines they havent paid yet, the Des Moines Register reports, adding that some people in Iowa are now wondering if the two protesters will face justice for the millions of dollars of damages they claimed to have caused.



Related: Can China Replicate The U.S. Shale Boom?

Rachel Scherle, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Des Moines, declined to tell the Des Moines Register last week why criminal charges have not yet been brought against the two protesters, but confirmed that the federal prosecutors havent dropped the case.

Frank Cordaro, an activist at the Catholic Workers movement, with which Reznicek and Montoya were involved, told the Des Moines Register that the two women left Des Moines late in September last year, and have dropped out to places they are not disclosing.

Theories on why federal charges havent been brought yet range from Dakota Access not wanting a trial, to not enough evidence that the two women did what they claimed they did, according to various activists and lawyers who spoke to the Des Moines Register.



By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:ESAs Aeolus wind mission will provide timely and accurate profiles of the worlds winds and further information on aerosols and clouds. The mission will advance our understanding of atmospheric dynamics. It will also provide much-needed information to improve weather forecasts and contribute to climate research. The satellite carries a single instrument: a Doppler wind lidar called Aladin. This sophisticated instrument is designed to probe the lowermost 30 km of the atmosphere along the satellites orbital path. Comprising a powerful laser, a large telescope and a very sensitive receiver, Aladin will be the first wind lidar in space. In cloud-free air the lidar will probe the atmosphere down to the surface, or to the top of dense cloud. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

The launch of AeolusESA's mission to map Earth's wind in real-timeis getting tantalisingly close, with the satellite due for lift-off on 21 August from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. With the wind in their sails, mission teams are busily preparing this unique satellite for its upcoming journey.

Aeolus will carry a sophisticated atmospheric laser Doppler instrument, dubbed Aladin. Combining two powerful lasers, a large telescope and extremely sensitive receivers, it is one of the most advanced instruments ever put into orbit.

The spacecraft has already been tested to handle the rigours of space, and recently made a 12-day crossing of the Atlantic from France to Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Lift-off is set for 21 August at 21:20 GMT (23:20 CEST) on a Vega rocket.

"Aeolus' arrival at the launch site marks the end of 16 years of intensive planning, testing and construction, by literally generations of engineers and scientists" says Juan Pineiro, Spacecraft Operations Manager for Aeolus.

"We now look forward to seeing the skill and dedication of these countless individuals come to fruition, as Aeolus takes flight and we begin receiving evidence that the satellite can fulfil its very ambitious mission objectives."

The complex world of winds

Currently one of the biggest challenges in making accurate weather predictions is gathering enough information about Earth's wind. Aeolus will be the first-ever satellite to directly measure winds from space, at all altitudes, from Earth's surface through the troposphere and up 30 km to the stratosphereproviding information that will significantly improve the quality of weather forecasts.

Named after Aeolus, who in Greek mythology was appointed keeper of the winds by the Gods, the novel ADM-Aeolus mission will not only provide much-needed data to improve the quality of weather forecasts, but also contribute to long-term climate research. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Paolo Ferri, Head of Mission Operations at ESA adds, "The Aeolus mission will be a wonderful addition to our fleet of satellites that continually observe Earth bringing us incredible insights into our planet, in particular into the complex world of atmospheric dynamics and climate processessystems that not only affect our everyday lives but also have huge consequences for our future."

Aeolus will orbit continuously from pole to pole in a so-called 'Sun-synchronous' orbitpassing over any given point on Earth's surface at the same local time each revolution, always maintaining the same orientation in relation to the Sun.

Specifically, Aeolus will follow a 'dawn/dusk' orbit, appearing to follow the borderline between sun and shade, day and night on Earth, meaning its solar panels will always receive the same amount of light from the Sun.

Simulating every eventuality

In preparation for this unique mission, teams at ESA's European Space Operations Centre have spent months practising to handle any possible scenarios in a series of launch simulations in the centre's Main Control Room.

The movement of air constitutes the general circulation of the atmosphere, transporting heat away from equatorial regions towards the poles, and returning cooler air to the tropics. Atmospheric circulation in each hemisphere consists of three cells - the Hadley, Ferrel and polar cells. High-speed wind fields, known as jets, are associated with large temperature differences. Credit: ESA/AOES Medialab

Once a satellite has been launched into space, it goes through the critical and complex 'launch and early orbit phase', during which control systems and, later, instruments, are progressively switched on and their health and proper functioning assessed.

This is a risky time when the satellite is unusually vulnerablenot yet fully functional but still exposed to the hazards of space.

Pier Paolo Emanuelli, Flight Director for Aeolus, describes this unique period:

"Every satellite has its own unique objectives, orbit and quirks, and Aeolus is no exception. Teams of highly trained engineers, flight dynamics specialists and experts in control systems and ground stations have been practising exactly what Aeolus needs to do, when, and how they will instruct it to do so."

"It's a challenging but very exciting time!"

The SMOS satellite in sun-synchronous orbit. Credit: ESA - AOES Medialab

Explore further Full steam ahead for Aeolus launchBrewed coffee, oil extraction, and now communication in bacterial communities can be explained by a phenomenon known as percolation. Credit: Suel Lab, UC San Diego

It's the way we end up with a fresh cup of coffee from a clump of beans. It's how ocean oil rigs extract petroleum from dense rock formations beneath the seafloor. It even helps explain how forest fires spread.

A theory known as "percolation" is now helping microbiologists at the University of California San Diego explain how communities of bacteria can effectively relay signals across long distances. Once regarded as a simple cluster of microorganisms, communities of bacteriaalso called "biofilms"have been found to utilize ion channels for electrochemical communication that helps the community thrive and survive threats, such as chemical attacks from antibiotics.

The findings, led by Joseph Larkin and senior author Gurol Suel of UC San Diego, are published July 25 in the journal Cell Systems.

Biofilm communities inhabit locations all around us, from soil to drain pipes to the surface of our teeth. Cells at the edge of these communities tend to grow more robustly than their interior counterparts because they have access to more nutrients. To keep this edge growth in check and ensure the entire community is fit and balanced, the "hungry" members of the biofilm interior send electrochemical signals to members at the exterior. These signals halt consumption at the edge, allowing nutrients to pass through to the interior cells to avoid starvation.

"This keeps the interior fed well enough and if a chemical attack comes and takes out some of the exterior cells, then the protected interior is able to continue and the whole population can survive," said Larkin, a UC San Diego Biological Sciences postdoctoral scholar. "It is essential that the electrochemical signal be consistently transmitted all the way to the biofilm edge because that is the place where the growth must be stopped for the community to reap the most benefit from signaling."

Cells colored blue (firing cells), black (not firing) and orange/pink (part of a "percolated" cluster) illustrate the strategy communities of bacteria employ to communicate through electrical signals. Credit: Suel Lab, UC San Diego

In approaching their new study, the researchers sought to explain how bacterial communities are able to propagate these electrochemical communication signals. Unlike neurons that have designated structures to relay electrochemical signals known as axons, bacterial communities lack such sophisticated structures. This provoked the question of how bacteria could relay signals so effectively over long distances within the community.

After sifting through vast amounts of bacterial data, the UC San Diego researchers began collaborating with Purdue University's Andrew Mugler and Xiaoling Zhai, who proposed the idea that percolation theory could explain how bacterial communities may be propagating signals from cell to cell.

Percolation theory has been around since the 1950s and has helped physicists describe how signals are transmitted across a medium or network of diverse components. In a coffee maker, hot water percolates through individual coffee grounds into a carafe. In the oil industry, drillers maximize their yield by extracting petroleum from percolated sands, where the bedrock is porous enough to allow oil to flow over a large area.

In a community of bacteria, signals pass from cell to cell in a connected path over a distance of hundreds of cells. Using fluorescence microscopes, the researchers were able to track individual cells that were "firing" (transmitting a signal). The scientists found that the fraction of firing cells and their distribution in space precisely matched theoretical predictions of the onset of percolation. In other words, the bacterial community had a fraction of firing cells that was precisely at the tipping point between having no connectivity and full connectivity among cells, also known as a critical phase transition point.

"We're all familiar with how we make coffee through percolation and it's an interesting twist that bacteria appear to use the same concept to accomplish the very complicated task of efficiently relaying an electrochemical signal over very long distances from cell to cell," said Suel.

"It's interesting that these bacteria, which are so-called simple, single-cell organisms, are using a fairly sophisticated strategy to solve this community-level problem," said Larkin. "It's sophisticated enough that we humans are using it to extract oil, for example."

Explore further Bacteria recruit other species with long-range electrical signalsBy Samuel Ssebuliba

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is today expected to address parliament as he concludes his to-day state visit to Uganda.

Mr.Modis visit to Uganda is the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 21 years.

On arrival yesterday, he held bilateral discussions with President Museveni at State House, Entebbe during which both leaders agreed that terrorism poses a grave threat to global peace and stability and reiterated their strong commitment to combat it in all its forms and manifestations.

Meanwhile, President Yoweri Museveni has asked Modi to encourage Indian investors to start assembling solar powered water pumps in Uganda.

While addressing the Asian community at Kololo Airstrip on Tuesday evening, Museveni said Uganda is lagging behind in irrigation systems and thus Indian investors can take advantage of that gap.

He said that Uganda often experiences climatic challenges like prolonged drought that affects agriculture, requiring irrigation.

The president also praised the contribution of the 30,000-strong Indian Diaspora towards Ugandas national development and economic growth, adding that Ugandas import bill is slowly shrinking largely due to production from Indian owned factories.

Museveni explained that in a period of four years Ugandas import volumes have dropped by $500 million due to presence of import substitution companies that have been set up by Asians.

The Asian Community in Uganda forms just 1% of the countrys population but contributes upto 65% of the countrys revenue in taxes.New pylon towers used in power distrubution, coming from hydro power plants, run through Pak Se district in the Champasak province of Laos on July 25, 2018

Mountainous and landlocked Laos, known as the "Battery of Asia", is building dozens of dams at breakneck speed so it can sell energy to power-hungry neighbours as a fast track out of poverty.

But the communist country's ambitious power plans are highly controversial.

Most energy is exported to neighbouring countries Vietnam, Cambodia and China, with the lion's share going to Thailandwhose Bangkok mega-malls alone suck up huge amounts of power.

That leaves local communities with little of the revenue from projects that often require compulsory resettlement of hundreds of villages and reshape the landscape and river systems.

The dam collapse this week in southern Laos that left at least 26 dead and scores missing has shed light on the perils of the country's big bet on hydropower.

Here are a few key questions:

Why so many dams?

With a vast river system, mineral-rich mines and a population of just six million, Laos is richer in natural resources than manpower.

As revenues from timber exports and gold and copper mines have tailed off, the countryand foreign investorshave ploughed billions of dollars into hydropower development, billed as a clean source of energy to electrify Laos and supply its power-hungry neighbours.

There are currently 46 operating hydropower plants with a capacity of 6,400 MW, with another 54 under construction and set to go online by 2020, according to the Laos News Agency.

If all goes to plan, Laos wants to generate a whopping 28,000 MW of power in just two yearsalmost enough to power all of Thailand for a year.

It has targeted graduating from a lower-middle income country by 2020, according to its World Bank classification, and raise its annual per capita GDP from $2,457 today.

Where does the power go?

About 85 percent of all energy generated in Laos is exported, mostly to Thailand where two-thirds of it is sucked up in and around the sweaty capital Bangkok, according to the International Energy Agency.

Almost 90 percent of Laos has access to electricity but supply can be patchy, especially in rural areas.

"Even if it could be enough... to power all the homes, it doesn't reach all the homes, so there is a gap there at the very least in terms of access," said Vanessa Lamb, geography lecturer at the University of Melbourne.

So who's making the money?

Laos's government is earning revenues by selling power to its neighbours. Although figures are not public, the World Bank says investments in the sector are not on par with how much goes towards the national budget.

The real rewards may still be decades away.

Many contracts stipulate that hydro plantsoften built and operated by foreign firms, including those from China or Thailandwill be handed over to the Laos government in 20 or 30 years, according to Keith Barney, a lecturer at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific.

"Although there's been a lot of dam construction, the actual royalties and budget revenueswhich are opaquehave not been that lucrative so far," he told AFP.

"They're coming down the line as these projects move toward their mature phases."

Do local communities benefit?

Most agree that so far, revenues have yet to trickle down to village level.

Unlike in some other countries, residents are not paid a percentage of the money earned from exporting power and may suffer from hydropower projects.

Villagers are routinely resettled to make way for plants and dams, and farmers have complained that diverting river water destroys farmland, while damming rivers interrupts fish flows.

An April report from the Mekong River Commission predicted that up to 40 percent of fish species in the Mekong River basin could be disrupted by dam-building in the region, a warning echoed by others.

"Poor people in the project areas are worse off because of these dams, not better off," said Ian Baird, assistant professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"People aren't being properly compensated and then when the revenue comes in it's not getting back to those people," he told AFP.

Explore further Laos says building of controversial dam on hold

 2018 AFPStephan Heinitz, Dorothea Schumann and Emilio Maugeri (from left to right) of the Isotope and Target Chemistry research group in their laboratory. Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Mahir Dzambegovic

Shortly after the Big Bang, radioactive atoms of the type beryllium-7, among others, came into being. Today, throughout the universe, they have long since decayed and do not occur naturally, in contrast to their decay product lithium. Now researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have helped to better understand the first minutes of the universe: They collected artificially produced beryllium-7 and made it into a sample that could be investigated. The beryllium-7 was subsequently probed by researchers at CERN. The joint study by PSI, CERN, and 41 other research institutions addresses the so-called cosmological lithium problem: There is a marked discrepancy between the amount of lithium the Big Bang theory predicts should be in the universe and the amount of lithium actually observed. According to the present study, it now appears more likely that the cause of this cosmological lithium problem lies in the theoretical description of the origin of the universe. The scientific community will thus have to keep searching for a solution to the cosmological lithium problem. The researchers now published their results in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute have provided a hard-won puzzle piece towards a better understanding of the universe's origin: They were able to produce a sample of extremely rare and short-lived atoms of the isotope beryllium-7. Subsequently, at CERN, it was possible to probe this beryllium-7  in practice, its interaction with neutrons  with far more precision than ever before.

Since through its radioactive decay beryllium-7 becomes lithium-7, studying it can help to crack a fundamental problem of the Big Bang theory: The theory predicts a three to four times greater amount of lithium in the universe than actual measurements show. This so-called cosmological lithium problem is one of the last great riddles of the current theory of the origin of the universe, because for all other elements produced shortly after the Big Bang, the theory conforms well to the measured data.

Virtually all of the present-day lithium-7 in the universe comes from the decayed beryllium-7 which in turn was formed shortly after the big bang. Thus the researchers were looking into the question of whether there might have been less beryllium in the beginning than previously believed, which could clear up the cosmological lithium problem. One of the last possibilities still open to be checked was the so-called neutron capture cross-section of beryllium-7. This value predicts the probability that a beryllium-7 atomic nucleus will capture a free neutron and subsequently decay.

"The neutron capture cross-section of beryllium-7 was last measured, imprecisely by comparison, around 50 years ago," explains PSI researcher Dorothea Schumann, head of the Isotope and Target Chemistry research group. This key figure should now be investigated at CERN, more accurately than ever before. The beryllium-7 sample needed for this was provided by the PSI researchers.

Years of preparation and test runs

The production and measurement of the beryllium-7 sample was like a one-time theatre performance, for which the researchers had to do around three years of preparatory work and test runs. Beryllium-7 disappears so rapidly through radioactive decay that its quantity is reduced by half roughly every 53 days. Therefore everything had to be in position before the actual run at both PSI and CERN, as well as for transportation between the two institutions  so that as little time as possible would elapse between the production of the sample and the measurement.

The idea for the experiment arose in 2012. PSI researcher Schumann knew that she could extract the rare beryllium-7 from the cooling water of the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source SINQ, which is operated at PSI for experiments with neutron beams.

"Here at PSI, with SINQ and the other large research facilities, we have unique sources for harvesting rare radioactive isotopes," Schumann says. "For the researchers who operate and use these facilities, these isotopes are a by-product  but for many other research institutions, they are very useful and urgently needed." Like gold prospectors, Schumann and her research group extract these rare isotopes. "And then we act as an interface to other researchers outside PSI who are interested in enriched samples of these isotopes."

CERN is interested

Researchers at CERN showed interest in obtaining a sample of beryllium-7. "With it, they knew they could tackle the cosmological lithium problem," Schumann explains.

So Schumann and her team set about the preparations: Within PSI, Schumann made contact with the scientists and engineers who operate SINQ. A special filter system meeting the isotope researchers' specifications was connected to the cooling water of SINQ, which could collect material containing a suitable amount of beryllium-7 over a period of about three weeks. "To the layperson, our filter can be thought of as being quite similar to the familiar household filter for tap water," says Stephan Heinitz, scientist in the research group of Schumann.

Then, among other things, the materials gathered in this way had to be chemically separated. "This requires special expertise  which luckily we have in my research group," Schumann says. Nevertheless, this procedure took another week and had to be carried out, for protection against radiation from the material, in a so-called hot cell  a laboratory set up for the manipulation of radioactive materials.

A transport weight of 800 kilograms

From there, the concentrated sample of beryllium-7 had to be transferred into a suitable mount, and this in turn into an apparatus about the size of a cooking pot, which met specifications for use in the experimental setup at CERN. "The apparatus as well as the radiation-proof containers for transferring the material  all of it was custom-made," relates Emilio Maugeri, another researcher in Schumann's group.

Finally, arrangements had to be organised and approved to transport a heavy load of radioactive materials from PSI to CERN.

"The actual sample that we delivered to CERN contained only a few millionths of a gram of beryllium-7," Schumann explains. "But the required shielding brought the transport weight up to 800 kilograms."

Within the critical time period, everything succeeded according to plan. The CERN researchers were able to carry out the experiment with the PSI sample and determine the thus-far insufficiently known neutron capture cross-section of beryllium-7.

The cosmological lithium problem remains unsolved

The CERN and PSI scientists and their collaborators from 41 other research institutions were especially interested in a particular decay path of beryllium-7: the probability of a process by which an atomic nucleus of beryllium-7 traps a free neutron  that is, an elementary particle with no net charge. At the same time one of the protons leaves the beryllium nucleus. Thus, since the nucleus now contains one less proton (and one more neutron), the beryllium atom transforms itself into an atom of the element lithium: It becomes lithium-7. The so-called neutron capture cross-section  that is, the probability of this entire process  depends on the energy that the free neutron has. Therefore the researchers took advantage of the possibility at CERN to vary the energy of the neutrons, and they made a measurement series for a wide range of neutron energies.

Yet these latest measurements of the neutron capture cross-section have not solved the cosmological lithium problem. Schumann says, "With the new measurements, the CERN researchers were able to determine the neutron capture cross-section so precisely that it now is clear: The cosmological lithium problem can't be solved in this way; it still persists. The scientific community will have to keep looking for an explanation."

Explore further Unresolved puzzles in exotic nuclei

More information: L. Damone et al. Be7(n,p)Li7 Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN, Physical Review Letters (2018). Journal information: Physical Review Letters L. Damone et al. Be7(n,p)Li7 Reaction and the Cosmological Lithium Problem: Measurement of the Cross Section in a Wide Energy Range at n_TOF at CERN,(2018). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.042701In January 2003, President George W. Bush asked Congress to back the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with a $15 billion commitment "to turn the tide against AIDS." Congress agreed, and the programwhich was continued by the Obama and Trump administrationshas, as noted in The New England Journal of Medicine, "had an unprecedented impact on the pandemic of HIV and AIDS."

But how do we really know that? Yes, HIV rates havewith the exception of a few countriesdeclined, but can we say the programs PEPFAR funded in countries with the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS were responsible for those declines? After all, childhood mortality rates from AIDS dropped in sub-Saharan countries that did not receive PEPFAR funding.

Unfortunately, PEPFAR didn't create a statistical plan at the outset that could easily answer these questions. A statistical plan is a bit like asking your accountant what data you should record before you start your businessso you'll know whether you're making or losing money. The question facing PEPFAR was whether they had collected enough data over the years to evaluate their program interventions.

These kinds of after-the-fact analyses are fraught with difficulty. "Planned evaluations are preferable, of course, but we can still learn a lot from post-hoc evaluations," says Donna Spiegelman, the newly appointed Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health. "I would never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Few were as qualified as Spiegelman to take on the challenge of figuring out whether PEPFAR had worked. With a joint doctorate from Harvard in biostatistics and epidemiology and rigorous training in mathematical statistics, Spiegelman had become an expert in developing methods to evaluate public health prevention science. In 2014, she was the first (and as yet only) biostatistician to receive the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, a sort of MacArthur genius grant for biomedical researchers that frees and funds them$500,000 per year for five yearsto pursue bold, risky, innovative research.

At around the same time as Spiegelman received the Pioneer Award, she met the newly appointed U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Ambassador-at-Large Deborah Birx. Birx, a physician and former colonel in the U.S. Army, had been director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global HIV/AIDS and worked as a physician in Kenya. As Kenya was one of the original recipients of PEPFAR funding, Birx thought it would be a good candidate for Spiegelman to look at; it would be the most data-rich environment among PEPFAR's recipients.

With doctoral student Dale Barnhart, Spiegelman focused on 10,000 clinics running what they call PMTCTprevention of mother-to-child transmissionof AIDS. PEPFAR had spent $248 million supporting PMTCT in Kenya between 2004 and 2014, and child mortality for those aged under five years had halved during this period. "The basic idea," says Spiegelman, "was to see if child mortality went down as funding went up."

The rationale behind the intervention is that, in order to prevent the transmission of HIV to children, pregnant mothers have to be tested. "If they are tested," says Spiegelman, "they can be treatedand that treatment will drastically lower the transmission rate from 30 or 40 percent to below 1 percent."

That was the basic idea, but teasing out causal inferences was anything but simple. Thankfully, as PEPFAR is a U.S. government program, it has to report to Congress how much it spends each quarter. From this data, Barnhart extracted a decade's worth of spending on PMTCT. They then obtained neonatal and infant mortality data from the Kenyan government and other agencies.

By doing a "difference in difference" analysis, they were able to look at the effects of varying levels of funding for PMTCT among the Kenyan provinces over time, along with trends in local infant mortality, and then compare them to other provinces with similar demographics that did not have PMTCT programsor had them but with less financial support. The team did a wide range of sensitivity analyses to model missing data, but these had little impact on the outcome.

"The results were quite dramatic," says Spiegelman. Provinces in the top quartile of PEPFAR spending in any given year over the study period experienced more than 30 percent lower infant mortality than those in the bottom quartile. "Cumulative PMTCT spending significantly reduced infant mortality, saving the lives of many Kenyan children," she says. "We've shown, and rigorously, that the U.S. investment in PEPFAR delivered on its promise."

All of this research was carried out while Spiegelman was professor of epidemiologic methods in the departments of epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition and global health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Since July 1, she has been director of the new Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS) at Yale University's School of Public Health. "We're hoping to be the go-to place for implementation and prevention science methods in the world. It is my dream job."

Explore further 15 years later, PEPFAR continues to save livesA plaster cast of a nest built by a colony of the harvester ant Veromessor Andrei. Credit: Noa Pinter-Wollman

How do spaces affect us, and animals? UCLA biologist Noa Pinter-Wollman had the idea that we can learn from the way animals use space, and, with several colleagues from the U.S., England and France, she is launching an effort to create a new field of study. Her goals are ambitious.

Does she hope her research will lead to better homes, better offices and better communities?

"Of course," said Pinter-Wollman, an expert on ants, spiders and how environments influence collective behavior. "Who doesn't? I want to know how collective behaviors emerge; what causes them, and how they can be improved."

It all started when Pinter-Wollman was studying harvester ants in Southern California called Veromessor andrei; the ants live in nests and the same colony, which contain thousands of ants, can move between different nest sites, more than 50 feet away.

"A colony behaves differently in different nest sites," Pinter-Wollman said. "The environment definitely influences collective behavior. That started my whole interest in this area."

Shortly after conducting this study, Pinter-Wollman attended a conference in 2014sponsored by the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative, a program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicinethat brought together scientists who study collective behavior in cells, animals and humans. She met scholars in an academic field of which she was unaware, called environmental psychology. She also met a social scientist from the University of Central Florida who was studying team work of humans in different structures.

"It sounded a lot like my ant research," she recalled thinking.

Among the similarities, both humans and ants use spaces to quarantine the sick; humans don't want lead in paint, while bees and birds also use materials that promote healthy lives; for example, birds put bay leaves in their nests, containing compounds that decrease parasites from entering the nest. Bees and ants use resin in their nests to reduce parasites.

"Just like we clean out spaces and use materials that promote health and enrich our environments, animals do this, too," Pinter-Wollman said.

That conference led to a workshop last October that brought together life scientists, social scientists and architects.

And that led to a new publication this month: a special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The Royal Society dates back to the 17th century. Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are among the published authors in its journals. The July 2018 issue is titled "Interdisciplinary Approaches for Uncovering the Impacts of Architecture on Collective Behavior." Its focus is on quantifying and analyzing the impact of the physical environmentsuch as buildings and nestson the collective behavior of humans and animals.

The scholars currently call their new field architecture and collective behavior. The research has important implications for health and disease, teamwork and collective behavior.

In one of the journal articles, on which Pinter-Wollman is lead author, she and her co-authors declare that the articles serve as the foundation for a new line of interdisciplinary research on the effects of architecture on collective behavior that have far-reaching scientific and practical implications. Of particular importance the researchers will share methods, theory and concepts across fields that cross traditional scholarly boundaries.

In a second article, on which she is also lead-author, Pinter-Wollman and her co-authors argue that the environment plays important roles in health and disease, in humans and animals. In humans, the environment affects chronic and infectious diseases. Throughout history, overcrowded and unsanitary urban living conditions have been linked with infectious diseases; mega-cities have been plagued with epidemics, and likely will be again. The physical environment is linked to chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers, dementia, obesity and depression, she said, citing many studies.

Cul-de-sacs in the suburbs discourage, and lead to reductions in, walking. On the other hand, offices that provide space to park bikes and store bike helmets and gym clothes encourage greater physical activity. Spaces for parks, community centers and easy access to nature reduce stress, lead to increased interactions and positive mental health, and decrease isolation and loneliness.

The journal also includes research led by Ethan Bernstein, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, on a company that removed its cubicles and placed its workers in open space. Among the findings: With no privacy, workers, perhaps surprisingly, decreased their face-to-face interactions and relied more on email to communicate.

"There's probably some good middle ground between having corridors with closed doors that don't facilitate interaction and having open space with no privacy," Pinter-Wollman said.

One of the challenges of bringing together researchers from very different fields is finding a common language with which to discuss their work.

"Through my interactions with architects and cognitive scientists, I've learned a lot of words," Pinter-Wollman said. "For example, I now like using 'affordance,' which is the quality of an object that makes its use clear, like a door handle designed so that it is obvious one has to pull down on it to open the door. 'Bio-mimicry' refers to making buildings like habitats in nature. 'Space syntax' refers to a method for quantifying space."

Can people really improve the way they live from studying how animals live?

"Not everything can be translated from ants to humans, but there are some parallels, and identifying those parallels is a worthwhile goal," Pinter-Wollman said. "There are definitely things to consider when designing buildings that might not apply to animals. People need privacy, and emotions influence their well-being.

Pinter-Wollman wants to conduct studies and collect data, and not just rely on self-reports (which of course you can't do with animals; you can do so with people, although their self-reports could be biased, she noted). She uses a wide variety of techniques, including field studies, computer simulations, laboratory research and theoretical work, and draws from biology and other disciplines.

She serves on a UCLA advisory committee on the re-design of the university's botany building. When recommending where a coffee area should be located, she was inspired by her research on ants to help determine where interactions are most likely to occur; she recommended placing the coffee area close to exits.

"I hope we can create new space designs inspired from animals, but not replicating what they do; there's a middle ground," she said.

Explore further Study finds more tunnels in ant nests means more food for colony

More information: Noa Pinter-Wollman et al. Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2018). Journal information: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Noa Pinter-Wollman et al. Interdisciplinary approaches for uncovering the impacts of architecture on collective behaviour,(2018). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0232Schematic illustration of the two atmosphere/ocean oscillations that contribute to the complexity of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation and its impacts on various sectors of society. Identified by computer models, these oscillations with periods of 2-3 and 3-7 years are associated with central and eastern equatorial Pacific warming, respectively. Credit: ICCP

A new research study, published this week by an international team of climate scientists in the journal Nature, isolates key mechanisms that cause El Nino events to differ. The team found that the complexity and irregular occurrence of El Nino and La Nina events can be traced back to the co-existence of two coupled atmosphere-ocean oscillations, with different spatial characteristics and different frequencies.

"Our study reveals that there is a hidden structure in the seemingly chaotic and unpredictable occurrence of El Nino events," said Axel Timmermann, Director of the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University and lead author of the study.

El Nino events are characterized by an unusual warming of the central to eastern equatorial Pacific, which can last up to one year. Many events subsequently transition to a La Nina (cold) state, with a typical duration of one to two years. El Nino events, which tend to peak in boreal winter, typically lead to a drying of Southeastern Asia and the Western tropical Pacific while enhancing rainfall near the eastern Pacific shores in countries such as Ecuador and Peru. El Nino's remote "ripple effects" can not only be found in the atmosphere, but also in ocean currents, ecosystems, the occurrence of natural disasters, global markets and national economies.

Climate scientists have long recognized that not every El Nino is alike. Some are weak, others are strong. Some occur in the central Pacific, others in the east. These differences will determine which areas will be hit hardest by climatic extremes and which ones will be spared. Accurately predicting El Nino events requires a deeper understanding of its diversity or as some scientists call itits "flavors."

Credit: ICCP

To elucidate the origin of El Nino diversity, a group of 40 climate scientists from 11 countries met in October last year at the IBS Center for Climate Physics and Pusan National University, South Korea. Analyzing large amounts of climate observations and computer model simulations, the team unraveled the mechanism behind El Nino's capricious behavior. When the upper tropical Pacific Ocean stores more heat, El Nino events tend to peak in the Eastern Pacific and during boreal winter, whereas a cooler upper ocean system leads preferably to the development of Central Pacific El Nino events, which exhibit a weaker seasonal coupling.

By running El Nino computer model simulations for different temperature, wind and ocean current configurations, the research team found that Eastern Pacific El Nino events are characterized by a return time of three to seven years, whereas Central Pacific events tend to recur on average every two to three years (Figure 1). The different character of these modes is determined by how strongly the atmosphere and ocean interact with each other. In the observations, however, the co-existing Eastern and Central Pacific warm/cold swings are far from periodic. The tropical Pacific climate systems requires additional excitation, either through random weather events or through atmospheric circulation changes induced by temperature changes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. These interactions are an important source for El Nino irregularity, and limit how far ahead Tropical Pacific climate anomalies can be predicted.

"Finally, we can attribute the observed complexity of the most powerful natural climate engine to the co-existence of two oscillatory states of the underlying mathematical equations," said Fei-Fei Jin, professor for atmospheric sciences at the University of Hawai'i, U.S., and co-author of this study.

"More comprehensive climate modeling studies have to be conducted now to test our new ideas in a more realistic setting and to determine whether we can expect shifts in El Nino characteristics in our warming world," said Jeongseong Kug, one of the coordinating lead authors of the study and professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.

Explore further Why the central Pacific El Nino is harder to predict than eastern Pacific El Nino

More information: Axel Timmermann et al, El NinoSouthern Oscillation complexity, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Axel Timmermann et al, El NinoSouthern Oscillation complexity,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0252-6Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Children's friendship groups in secondary school remain consistent over time and are often structured around gender, with boys forming the most tight-knit bands, according to new research published in PLOS ONE. The findings suggests boys might be more 'cliquey' than girls, and that factors such as location and timetable may have an impact on the social networks that children develop.

Social mixing patterns are commonly used in mathematical models of infectious disease which can play a vital role in public health planning, such as determining effective vaccination strategies. Children's mixing patterns are recognised as particularly important, as they represent a key risk group for disease transmission. As school is the primary location for many of their interactions, understanding how children socialise there is vital.

Led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in partnership with the University of Cambridge, the study examined the features and structure of children's social networks within different schools. Previous research on social interactions among children has generally focused on just a single day. However, in this study the team surveyed the self-reported contacts of 460 year 7 pupils across four UK secondary schools over a five month period (between January and June 2015).

In total pupils completed 1,254 surveys, reporting contact information such as who they spend the most time with. The schools in the study were selected to be representative of different geographical and socioeconomic settings, for example including rural and urban and single-sex and mixed-sex schools.

Researchers found that while the overall structure of contacts within children's networks was generally consistent within schools, the patterns of interactions varied considerably between each school. In most schools, children formed well-defined groups, whereas in one school, children interacted more widely.

Interestingly there were only small differences reported in individuals' contacts and networks over the five months, suggesting that well connected and weakly connected, i.e. popular or less popularchildren remain that way over time.

The characteristics of social networks were found to be mainly dependent on gender and to a lesser extent on other factors, such as school class. In particular, males tended to cluster together more in each mixed-sex school in the survey.

Dr. Adam Kucharski, lead author at LSHTM, said: "Previous studies have typically looked at social interactions over a single day, so there has been limited information available on how much variation there might be in social mixing patterns over time in schools. Showing boys are potentially more cliquey than girls, perhaps going against gender stereotypes, and that popular children remain popular over time, is an interesting social insight but for mathematical modellers this type of information is also extremely valuable.

"Understanding age-specific social mixing patterns is vital for studying outbreaks of infectious diseases like flu and measles which can spread rapidly, particularly among children. It's useful to find that mixing patterns are fairly consistent, as this suggests it will be easier to analyse social interactions among children than was previously thought. It also shows the value of working directly with schools to study these questions."

'Citizen Science' was a crucial part of the study, with year 10 pupils from the four schools working with researchers on the logistics and design of the study along with collecting data from participants.

Future work could include extending the data collection period over a year or two, to look at whether the consistency in contact patterns is held over multiple school years. The researchers say it would also be interesting to examine how the physical structure of buildings and timetabling might influence social contacts, especially as one of the schools in this study allocated classes for each subject based on ability, and had less well-defined social networks than the others.

Mathematical models are regularly used to investigate how diseases might spread, and what sort of control measures may be required to stop transmission. For example, models based on social mixing patterns helped health agencies assess vaccination strategies during the 2009 influenza pandemic .

The authors acknowledge there are some limitations of their study, including contacts being recorded using self-reported questionnaires and differences in the timing between rounds of data collection across the schools in the study (often resulting from logistical constraints such as term dates).

More information: Adam J. Kucharski, Clare Wenham, Polly Brownlee, Lucie Racon, Natasha Widmer, Ken T. D. Eames, Andrew J. K. Conlan. Structure and consistency of self-reported social contact networks in British secondary schools. PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pne.0200090 Journal information: PLoS ONE Adam J. Kucharski, Clare Wenham, Polly Brownlee, Lucie Racon, Natasha Widmer, Ken T. D. Eames, Andrew J. K. Conlan. Structure and consistency of self-reported social contact networks in British secondary schools.Students in Rachel OBriens lab are spending the summer creating aerosols, which they will extract and mix with a combination of brown carbon molecules and cloud water. The goal is to make and study a synthetic version of real-world dirty clouds. Credit: Stephen Salpukas

To the uninitiated, the back corner of ISC 1233 might be mistaken for a moonshiner's still. A series of plastic tubes corkscrew into an oversized glass jug resting inside a ventilated hood. But instead of making bootleg whiskey, Rachel O'Brien is cultivating aerosols.

"This is my aerosol farm," O'Brien says proudly, gesturing toward the hood. "The students are making the aerosols and we're collecting them. See, I've got some little guys in there."

The little guys are actually freshly minted versions of highly prevalent components of Earth's atmosphere. Aerosols are created when fine solid particles or liquid droplets are suspended in air or another gas. Dust, haze and smoke are all examples of aerosols. They play a vital role in influencing air quality and the Earth's climate.

This summer, O'Brien, assistant professor of chemistry at William & Mary, is teaming up with Nathan Kidwell, also an assistant professor of chemistry. The two chemists have set their sights on brown carbon, a class of organic molecules that primarily result from fossil fuel emissions and biomass burning.

Brown carbon absorbs visible sunlight, which has an overall warming effect on the atmosphere. In fact, brown carbon absorbs such a high level of visible radiation it's classified as a greenhouse gas.

"They're like atmospheric sunscreen molecules," Kidwell said. "They absorb light and can have warming implications, but they can also impact the atmosphere's chemistry."

To figure out exactly how brown carbon impacts the atmosphere's chemistry, Kidwell and O'Brien plan to use the exact same brown carbon samples and examine the molecules in both the gas and condensed phase to model what happens in the wild. The duo recently received a grant from the Jeffress Memorial Trust, which supports interdisciplinary projects at Virginia research institutions.

Nathan Kidwell (left) and his research students are using brown carbon samples to study how the molecules break down when they are exposed to sunlight. Credit: Stephen Salpukas

The ultimate goal is to be able to show how the pollutant breaks apart with sunlight, as both a gas and a cloud droplet. Meeting that goal requires a sizeable group of dedicated students. Kidwell's student researchers are Naa-Kwarley Quartey '20, Sarah Chen '20, David Hood '21 and master's candidate K. Jacob Blackshaw. O'Brien's student researchers are Lydia Dolvin '20, Michael Ambrose '19, William Perrine '19, Corey Thrasher '21, Jacob Shusterman '19 and master's candidate Emma Walhout.

The students in O'Brien's lab are spending the summer creating aerosols, which they will extract and mix with a combination of brown carbon molecules and cloud water. The goal is to make and study a synthetic version of real-world dirty clouds.

"A lot of brown carbon comes from pollutants, so it's coming from combustion and reactions that occur in cities," O'Brien said. "What we don't understand is the fate of it, the lifetime it has in the atmosphere. In basic terms, we want to know how fast these things are destroyed by sunlight and what happens when they're destroyed."

Kidwell's lab will be using the same brown carbon samples to study how the molecules break down when they are exposed to sunlight. They are also working to understand the fundamental properties of brown carbon chromophores, which give rise to the enhanced light-absorption properties of aerosols, he explained.

Their toolkit involves a series of lasers that are tuned to mimic the exact frequencies emitted by the sun. To get the highest accuracy possible, they zap samples in the gas phase.

"We have these molecules and we know that they decompose in the atmosphere," Kidwell said. "When they absorb visible light, something happens. They can break bonds to make new productsand those products can go on to do further chemistry. What we're doing is effectively mapping the routes of how these molecules break apart."

The molecules break apart differently depending on what phase they are in. When sunlight hits brown carbon in the gas phase, the molecules absorb the solar radiation and form radicals, molecules with an unpaired electron.

Jacob Shusterman 19 collects a filter coated in secondary organic aerosol he made in a small chamber in OBriens lab. Credit: Stephen Salpukas

Radicals are highly reactive, as they look to pair off or lose their extra electron. That electron scavenger hunt leads radicals to further oxidize other organic molecules in the atmosphere and create a cascade of chemical reactions.

"Hydroxyl radical is a big one we're watching for," said Kidwell. The molecule consists of one hydrogen and one oxygen atom and is one of our planet's most reactive molecules. In fact, it is commonly referred to as the "atmosphere's detergent." "It's so incredibly reactive that if it hits a molecule, it instantly makes a chemical reaction."

There are plenty of other radicals on Kidwell's radar. He recently received funding from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund to characterize chemical reactions involving nitric oxide radicals and ambient molecules such as oxygen.

"This chemistry is important to those modeling atmospheric and combustion processes," he said.

While brown carbon may enter the atmosphere as a gas, it doesn't always stay that way. Brown carbon is often dissolved into cloud water droplets, which moves it to liquid, also known as the condensed phase. This is where O'Brien comes in. She specializes in aerosols, a central component in clouds.

"Every cloud in the atmosphere, every droplet of it has an aerosol seed," O'Brien said. "We don't nucleate clouds in the atmosphere without the aerosols, so knowing what material forms in cloud droplets can be helpful."

In the condensed phase, brown carbon traps sunlight and warms up, which evaporates cloud droplets and drives secondary reactions with other condensed phase organic material, O'Brien explained. Since there is very little data on brown carbon in the condensed phase, she is hesitant to make predictions about what kind of chemicals will be produced as the molecule decomposes with sunlight.

Lydia Dolvin 20 collects a sample from her photolysis experiments involving brown carbon and secondary organic aerosols. Credit: Stephen Salpukas

"I tell people I do synthesis, but the truth is I don't try to control my products," O'Brien said. "We just let it rip."

Letting it rip has worked out well so far. O'Brien is coming up on her first year at William & Mary and recently received funding from the National Science Foundation for her work pairing aerosol measurements with satellite data. She is part of an international team of researchers working to integrate image data from space with air quality data on the ground.

"Aerosols are a major contributor to premature death worldwide," said O'Brien. "The problem is that we don't have measurements of how many there are, especially in locations where it's really important to have those measurements."

O'Brien will be analyzing air samples from all over the globe inside her lab, with the help of a newly installed Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer. The instrument traps ions and converts their signals to a mass spectrum, which provides a detailed chemical analysis of what molecules the sample contains.

Hongmin Yu, a rising junior and chemistry major, is one of O'Brien's chief collaborators on the project. She's spending her summer combing through the data produced by the mass spectrometer. Yu grew up in Shanghai and witnessed firsthand the effects of air pollution on the environment. When she enrolled at William & Mary, she knew she wanted to focus on atmospheric science.

"The work we're doing here is extremely important," Yu said. "It's crucial not only for us, but for the next generations. What I'm doing is meaningful, not just for science, but for mankind."

Explore further The 'radical' ways sunlight builds bigger molecules in the atmosphereThe production of this leather-like textile is considered to be zero impact as it is created from grape marc - a waste material from wine production. Credit: Vegea

A fashion collection made from the remains of grapes from the wine industry and plastic made from chicken feathers are two new twists on the practice of making new products from waste, and a growing demand for sustainability from consumers mean there could be a ready market for this type of innovation.

Food waste isn't just the result of groceries that have gone off or uneaten meals. As food is processed for consumption, huge amounts of waste are generated. The European poultry industry, for example, generated about 3.1 million tons of discarded feathers in 2014. And during wine production, around 25% of the weight of grapes, such as the skins and seeds, are wasted.

These byproducts could soon be given a second life, as scientists work out how to transform them into new materials.

'The idea of unlimited resources is not valid anymore so it is necessary to look for alternative sources of raw materials,' said Sarah Montes, research scientist with Spanish company Cidetec. She coordinates a project called KARMA2020, which is looking at how to transform unwanted feathers into biodegradable plastics.

Chicken feather waste, which is generated almost all over the world in large amounts, is typically incinerated or ends up in landfills or as low grade animal feed. But it has the potential to be a valuable resource. Feathers are made up of about 90% keratin  the same fibrous protein that gives hair, hoofs and horns their toughness.

'Most of the waste is a profitable material,' said Montes. Due to its high keratin content, feathers are likely to produce plastics that are stronger and more tear-resistant compared to those using modified starch or plant proteins, for example.

However, there are challenges involved in using feathers as a raw material. First and foremost, they need to be sanitised before processing to remove any pathogens. Since feathers are very light, it can also be hard to get them to flow through machinery, says Carsten Niermann from German bioplastics company FKuR, one of the project engineers.

One-and-a-half years into the three-year project, the KARMA2020 team has so far figured out how to pre-treat feathers so that they are clean and safe to handle, and how to turn them into a raw material. They have also created samples of feather-based materials that could be used for packaging, using a process where heated material is injected into a mould to shape it.

Economic feasibility

The next challenge is to scale up their production process for industrial manufacturing and test how well feather-based raw materials work in particular end products. At the moment, the researchers are primarily looking at how to make food packaging from feathers, although they are also developing other applications such as slow-release fertilisers, composite materials and flame-retardant coatings, depending on economic and technical feasibility.

Demand for products from the circular economy  where byproducts from one industry are used as the raw materials for another  could benefit from a phenomenon known as conscious consumerism. A 2017 report from Unilever showed that a third of consumers prefer sustainable brands. And this is likely to grow, as a company's environmental credentials are increasingly important among young people.

Chicken feathers can be used as raw material for composites (left) or for moulded plastic alternatives (right). Credit: Cidetec

Italian company Vegea, is counting on this trend to help them compete with existing players in their field  leather production. Both animal and synthetic leather production are well-established, but Vegea believes that a bio-leather made from grape waste could help build up their own market niche if they demonstrate that their process is cost-effective and eco-friendly.

Through a project called WineLeather, Vegea is producing their bio-leather using grape marc  the solid parts of grapes that are waste products from wine production. The team has been focusing on the development of natural textiles to satisfy the demand for sustainable alternatives in the clothing and apparel industry.

'After looking at several potential feedstocks, grape marc was selected because it contains both oil and lignocellulose, two components that are optimal for the creation of bio-based textiles with our technology,' said Marco Bernardi, Vegea's research and development manager.

To make their fabric, leftover grapes are first dried in order to preserve them so that the raw material is available year-round and not just during wine-making season. Then the feedstock is processed in different ways depending on its end use.

'It is refined with specific treatments to obtain different grades of weight, width, elasticity, embossing and colour,' said Bernardi. The end product is then spread to form a textile.

Fashion collection

They have already produced sample products using their material for apparel company H&M that were showcased in an exhibition last year. 'We prepared an entire fashion collection for them, with dresses, shoes and bags made with our wine-based material,' said Bernardi.

The WineLeather project is now scaling up their production capacity so they can move from prototype stage to a commercial venture.

Although the production method makes use of existing technologies, the team has come up with greener alternatives to the toxic and environmentally harmful chemicals that are typically used. Their production process is considered to be zero impact since they are solely using waste as their raw material, don't use chemical reagents or additional water and don't produce any byproducts.

Bernadi thinks their material could eventually be used as a substitute for any leather product. However, although there has been considerable interest from the automotive industry and furniture manufacturers, producing a suitable fabric for use beyond clothing is more of a challenge.

The recipe for their material and the process must be tweaked to meet the requirements of each application. 'The specs are way more stringent than what we are used to in fashion,' said Bernardi.

Explore further Mushrooms, feathers combine in biodegradable shoesStacie Tibos, Associate Principal Engineer from PepsiCo, was one of the attendees at the 138th ESGI hosted by the IMI. Credit: University of Bath

Optimising the frying time of crisps may not be an obvious application of mathematics, but this is one of the problems delegates to the 138th European Study Group with Industry (ESGI) were asked to solve last week.

Mathematicians from around the world met at the University of Bath for the five day workshop to solve a variety of real and important problems faced by industry.

The workshop was organised by the University's Institute for Mathematical Innovation, the University of Bristol and Innovate UK and brought together top mathematicians, other scientists and engineers from the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America to work alongside industrialists from PepsiCo, Airbus, Heathrow, Syngenta, Phytoponics, Crowd Vision and the NHS.

PepsiCo, which owns the crisp brand Walkers, asked delegates to investigate two problems during the week involving the manufacture of stackable fabricated potato chips.

The crisps are manufactured as a dough mix, which is pressed and ovals are cut out. These travel down a conveyor belt into the fryer. As the snacks cook, the moisture is driven off, making them float to the surface of the oil where they are lifted out onto another conveyor belt.

The problem set by PepsiCo asked whether mathematicians could predict how quickly the crisps cook and rise to the top and whether they can speed up the process and optimise it.

A second challenge set by the company looked at how chips collected from the fryer moved down a chute to another conveyor.

Stacie Tibos, Associate Principal Engineer from PepsiCo, said: "The chips are a curved shape which makes their behaviour down a chute very interesting.

"It's important they are in alignment so they can be stacked together in the tube. We would like to optimise the chute design to get the best possible crisp position.

"They may seem like minor problems but we make a lot of fabricated potato chips so solving these challenges could make a big difference to the efficiency of the process.

"Study groups like this one in Bath are a wonderful opportunity to get the best brains working on your problem in a focused collaborative way, getting initial results in just five days.

"Working in this way brings together expertise from a variety of fields with different perspectives on the problem, so the resulting mix is more than just a sum of its parts.

"Over the five days, the delegates take the challenge, redefine the problem and focus on solving it. Study groups like the ESGI can really help build a better product and equipment that will help improve the productivity of processes in the long term.

"I would definitely recommend that other businesses get involved in these workshops."

Deputy Director of the Institute for Mathematical Innovation and co-organiser of the study group, Professor Chris Budd, said: "We're delighted to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first study group this year, and it's the third time we've hosted the ESGI at Bath.

"These study groups enable businesses to do feasibility studies in a very short timescale. Whilst not all the problems are solved within five days, there is always some progress made by the end of the week.

"The workshop model gives businesses a low cost way of solving their higher risk problems they wouldn't be able to work on in-housethese are usually the more interesting challenges for academics to solve, so they are happy to give their time for free.

"They are a hugely effective way of setting up new collaborations and it's also a really good training ground for students.

"We are delighted to be applying maths to the complex problems of the food industry, which is the largest industry in the world. The same maths that is being used in the study group this week can be applied to solving major global problems, including curing cancer.

"I would argue that is definitely time very well spent."

Dr. Joanna Jordan is Manager of the IMI and was also a co-organiser of the study group. She said: "It has been an intensive and very productive week and all our partners are pleased with the large amount of progress achieved in a short time.

"It has definitely laid the ground work for several new industrial collaborations".

Explore further Pigs and chocolate: Using maths to solve problems in farmingA pair of 3-D printed scaffolds made from bio-inks rest in a petri-dish. The bio-ink (right) used to create these structures is a mix of chitosan (a compound made from the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans) and alginate. Credit: Troy Fedderson/University Communication

A trauma victim is wheeled into an emergency room, his thigh caked with blood-soaked bandages.

Doctors work quickly to assess the wounda large, deep laceration; numerous puncture points; flesh missing; bone broken. Definitely a bite, most likely from a shark as reported by the paramedics who transported the young surfer from the beach.

A nurse responds with a specialized scanner that is designed to map the wound, generating digital models of the missing muscle, bone, capillaries, sinew and skin. She forwards the scans to the hospital's 3-D bio printing lab andas the surfer is prepared for surgerya technician generates the tissue that will be used to close the wound.

While science fiction today, University of NebraskaLincoln researchersincluding Ali Tamayol and Prahalada Raoare striving to make this scenario a reality.

"Today, if you lose a leg, shatter a knee or break a bone, we can print custom replacement implants," said Rao, assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering. "But, to replace functional tissue around those structures is still something that only happens on Star Trek.

"I do think it's an achievable process. It is just going to take time."

Rao and Tamayol are approaching the problem from different angles.

Rao, a recent winner of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, is working to perfect the 3-D printing process. He is focused on creating new 3-D printing methods that generate flawless partsfrom replacement knees to airplane turbinesevery time.

Tamayol, an assistant professor of mechanical and materials engineering, is researching ways to craft bio-inks3-D-printed mixtures of cells and gel that can be used to create regenerative tissue implants.

Working with researchers at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, Tamayol was part of a team that recently showed how bio-ink infused with platelet-rich plasma can accelerate healing of small scratches.

"The ultimate goal is to generate functional tissue that can be implanted to replace or repair damaged tissues," said Tamayol. "While we have shown some progress, we still face a number of biological hurdles in the field of tissue engineering."

Many hurdles center on creating necessary functions within the tissue itselffrom establishing the flow of oxygen and nutrients through microscopic capillaries to linking nerves that allow muscle fiber to respond. Plus, the creation of replacement tissue must be completed quickly as it dies in less than 30 minutes unless blood flow is established.

And, while their work may lead to processes that can quickly and reliably create replacement tissues, there remains the issue of rejection by the body.

"Developing techniques to stop the immune response to new biological material introduced into the body is key as we move forward," Tamayol said. "We also need to examine biological factors that can engage cells from the host body to regenerate tissue."

A possible solution to reduce the immune response is to mix a patient's own cells and platelets into bio-inksa process that showed promise in Tamayol's recent study.

Based on the pace of advancement within the industry, Tamayol and Rao estimate that engineered replacement tissues will be will become a reality within the next decade.

Husker-led research in 3-D printing is supported by the Nebraska Engineering Additive Technology, or NEAT, Labs. The space, located in the Scott Engineering Center, features four cutting-edge printers that can add or subtract a variety of materials. Nebraska Engineering also has a state-of-the-art bio printer with a second one going online later this year.

"Ten years ago, there was no way we could print an engine. Last year, Space X released the SuperDraco, a 3-D printed rocket engine," Rao said. "Innovation in this field is moving very quickly. And, through investments made in equipment and new partnerships being formed with industry and colleagues around the world, Nebraska is poised to be a leader in the future of 3-D printing."

Explore further Smart bandage could promote better, faster healingThe President went on to note that members of the Assembly talk about Kazakhstan abroad, familiarize foreign guests with the culture of the Kazakh people, calling for the continuation of such work.Contrary to most common theories that greater liquidity is necessarily better for financial markets overall, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers contend in a new paper that liquidity comes at cost: it increases market risk.

Prof. Haim Kedar-Levy of the BGU Department of Management and Prof. Shmuel Hauser of the Department of Business Administration in the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management presented their theory in "Liquidity might come at cost: The role of heterogeneous preferences" at the 25th Annual Conference of the Multinational Finance Society held in Budapest, Hungary.

Financial literature contends that liquidity of specific assets, such as a stock, is an important and positive attribute that can reduce risk and add value to the stock. Kedar-Levy and Hauser agree, however their findings on the impact of liquidity on the whole market is different.

"The model we developed is richer than the classic theory because, among other reasons, it takes into account a more realistic treatment of financial markets in which various investors have different investment strategies," the researchers say. "Investors differ in the amount of risk they are willing to assume, and therefore choose different proportions of investments in risky assets, such as equities."

In this more realistic scenario, the study shows that the more liquid the market is, the more volatile becomes the average appetite for risk in the whole market. At reasonable risk appetite parameters, trading volume and liquidity of the stock market as a whole peak. When that occurs, there is a massive exchange of shares between investors with different risk appetites. This attribute causes the market price of risk (a.k.a. Sharpe ratio) to be highly volatile, and makes all stocks more risky.

The Sharpe ratio measures how much excess return an investor is receiving for the extra volatility that he endures for holding a riskier asset. Investors need to be compensated for the additional risk vs. holding a risk-free asset, like cash.

However, if the investors in the market are either very similar or very different in their appetite for risk, then trading volume and liquidity drop, and market risk declines, as well.

"This is not to say that we favor less liquid markets over highly liquid ones, but we find that liquidity comes at cost," the researchers say. "It is not a free attribute of stock markets."

The study was published in the Journal of Financial Markets.

Explore further Bank network shifts signaled financial crisisand may prevent another

More information: Shmuel Hauser et al, Liquidity might come at cost: The role of heterogeneous preferences, Journal of Financial Markets (2018). Shmuel Hauser et al, Liquidity might come at cost: The role of heterogeneous preferences,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.finmar.2018.03.001Rice University students collect water samples from a flooded Houston home after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Rice researchers have issued the first report to quantify levels of contamination in floodwaters and sediments deposited by the storm. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Rice University scientists have released the first results of extensive water sampling in Houston after the epic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. They found widespread contamination by E. coli, likely the result of overflow from flooded wastewater treatment plants.

The microbial survey showed high levels of E. coli, a fecal indicator organism, trapped in homes that still contained stagnant water weeks after the storm, as well as high levels of key genes that indicate antibiotic resistance.

The study led by Rice environmental engineer Lauren Stadler appears in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. A pair of National Science Foundation RAPID grants helped the team collect and analyze samples.

Rice environmental engineers Stadler, Qilin Li and Pedro Alvarez and their students were on the front lines, even before Harvey subsided, to take samples from floodwaters near the overflowing Brays and Buffalo bayous, in public spaces and inside and outside residential homes to compare their microbial content. Samples of stagnant water were taken from homes that had been closed off for more than a week, while others were taken from homes that had floodwater flowing through them.

Early samples from each location carried elevated levels of E. coli. But most striking was the fact that sampled water and, later, sediment showed abundant levels of two indicator genes, sul1 and intI1, that mark the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, even weeks after the flood. In particular, samples from floodwaters inside closed homes showed concentrations of sul1 were 250 times greater and intI1 60 times greater in than in bayou samples.

"Sul1 is a gene that confers resistance to sulfonamide antibiotics," said Stadler, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "IntI1 is not an antibiotic-resistant gene, but an integron-integrase gene that encodes for a system of gene capture and dissemination and can lead to the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes among bacteria. A lot of antibiotic-resistant genes are on or associated with mobile genetic elements like plasmids that can be shared among bacteria.

"We target intI1 because integrons are often found on mobile genetic elements and indicative of the genetic mobility of a gene," she said. "They are also often associated with antibiotic resistance, and the abundance of these genes gives us a sense of the potential for horizontal gene transfer among bacteria.

"That matters because while we see these genes in environmental bacteria all the time, we really worry when pathogenic bacteria acquire resistant genes from environmental bacteria," Stadler said. "That's when there's an issuewhen there's an antibiotic-resistant pathogen. If you're exposed to one of those, that's when you see infections that are really hard to treat."

The immediate takeaway from the study, she said, is that people should take extra care to avoid direct contact with stagnant floodwaters, especially in flooded homes with niches for pathogens to grow.

"Wear protective gear, and don't go in at all if you're immunocompromised or have open wounds," she said.

Stadler's research group is using the experience gained during Harvey to advance development of tools to measure horizontal gene transfer as it takes place in the environment.

Explore further The hidden hazards of antibiotic resistance genes in air

More information: Pingfeng Yu et al, Elevated Levels of Pathogenic Indicator Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Genes after Hurricane Harvey's Flooding in Houston, Environmental Science & Technology Letters (2018). Journal information: Environmental Science & Technology Letters Pingfeng Yu et al, Elevated Levels of Pathogenic Indicator Bacteria and Antibiotic Resistance Genes after Hurricane Harvey's Flooding in Houston,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00329Isotopic records obtained from caves show how rainfall distribution in Brazil varied during global climate changes that affected Europe in the Middle Ages . Credit: Novello et al. / Geophysical Research Journal

A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that the so-called Little Ice Agea period stretching from 1500 to 1850, during which mean temperatures in the northern hemisphere were considerably lower than presentexerted effects on the climate of South America.

Based on an analysis of speleothems (cave formations) in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso do Sul and Goias, the study revealed that in the 17th and 18th centuries, the climate of southwestern Brazil was wetter than it is now, for example, while that of the country's Northeast region was drier.

The same Brazilian cave records showed that the climate was drier in Brazil between 900 and 1100 during a period known as the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), when the northern hemisphere's climate was warmer than it is now.

The study's authors are physicist Valdir Felipe Novello and geologist Francisco William Cruz, researchers at the University of Sao Paulo's Geoscience Institute (IGC-USP), in collaboration with colleagues in Brazil, the United States and China. The study detected dry and wet periods in the Brazilian paleoclimate by analyzing the oxygen isotopes in calcium carbonate molecules found in speleothems. "In Professor Cruz's group, we traveled throughout Brazil collecting samples of cave rocks. The composition of oxygen isotopes in the calcium carbonate deposited over centuries and millennia to form speleothems [stalagmites and stalactites] shows whether the climate was drier or wetter in the past," said Novelo.

Dry and wet season isotopes

Isotopes are variants of a chemical element. While all isotopes of any element have the same number of protons in each atom, different isotopes have different numbers of neutrons. For example, oxygen 16 (16O) has eight protons and eight neutrons, while oxygen 18 (18O) has eight protons and ten neutrons.

"In nature, there is approximately one atom of oxygen 18 for every 1,000 atoms of oxygen 16," Novello explained. 18O is heavier than 16O, so when it starts to rain, water molecules with 18O precipitate first.

As a result, the amount of 16O in the rain cloud rises relative to the amount of 18O, which necessarily decreases since most of the original 18O precipitates as rain. "When it rains heavily, the rain's isotope profile changes," Novello said.

To determine how changes in past rainfall regimes can be measured, Novello and Cruz analyzed records of the 16O/18O ratio preserved in speleothem calcium carbonate.

Caves form during long rainy periods in regions of karst, a type of landscape comprising carbonatic rocks such as limestone. Rainwater comes into contact with carbon gas (CO2) dissolved in the air and soil. The result of this chemical reaction is slightly acidic water, which penetrates the soil until it reaches underground calcareous rock.

Calcareous rock is insoluble in water with neutral pH but dissolves in the presence of acidic water (which has a moderately low pH), leading to the formation of the natural underground voids we call caves.

The researchers explained that speleothems form when calcium carbonate-loaded rainwater that has penetrated the soil reaches the cave's roof. Slow continuous dripping over thousands of years precipitates the calcium carbonate dissolved in each drop in the form of speleothems, as stalactites suspended from the roof of the cave and as stalagmites rising from the floor.

Any calcium carbonate precipitating from the roof is deposited on the floor in layers that build up to form stalagmites. Speleothems preserve the isotope signature of the oxygen in the rain that fell at the time when each layer of calcium carbonate was deposited.

"So, in a region with heavy rainfall, for example, you tend to find speleothems with sequences of layers containing less 18O. Conversely, in regions with a dry climate, the small amount of rainfall contains more 18O. When this water penetrates the soil and dissolves calcium carbonate, it ends up creating speleothems with a relatively high level of 18O."

Rock dating and isotope analysis

Novello collected rock samples from two stalagmites in Jaragua Cave, near Bonito, Mato Grosso do Sul, and from stalagmites in Sao Bernardo Cave and Sao Mateus Cave, located in Terra Ronca State Park, Goias.

Two samples from two different stalagmites were collected in Jaragua Cave. One of them grew continuously for 800 years according to uranium-thorium dating, between 1190 and 2000, a period that included the LIA. The other sample grew continuously in 442-1451, a period that included the MCA.

In Goias, Novello collected a rock sample from Sao Bernardo Cave which covered the period 1123-2010, which included the LIA. Sao Mateus Cave yielded sample dated to the period 264-1201, which included the MCA.

The study showed that the 18O profile of the samples from Jaragua Cave displayed declining levels of oxygen in the period 400-1400, suggesting a moderately wet climate in central Brazil during the period (which included the MCA in the northern hemisphere).

Levels of 18O in the samples from Jaragua Cave fell between 1400 and 1770, reflecting a rise in moisture during the period (which included the LIA in the northern hemisphere), but rose between 1770 and 1950, in line with falling moisture.

A similar analysis of the samples from Sao Bernardo Cave and Sao Mateus Cave in Goias did not show any clear trend, but there were a number of long wet periods, mainly 680-780 and 1290-1350, with spikes in 1050, 1175 and 1490.

On the other hand, the wet period documented by the record from the Jaragua Cave during the LIA in 1500-1850 is consistent with the wet conditions favored by passage of the South Atlantic Convergence Zone (SACZ), a large cloud system with a northwest-southeast orientation that extends from southern Amazonia to the central South Atlantic in the summer.

"The SACZ is the cloud mass responsible for the long periods of rain that occur in Brazil's Southeast region. The isotopes tell the full story of this wet mass and its movement across the continent," Novello said.

In a previous study using isotope records from caves in Brazil's Northeast region (at Iraquara, Bahia), Novello had inferred that a drier climate prevailed during the LIA in that region, which is outside the SACZ.

"The data from speleothems in Bonito, associated with known paleoclimate data from Peru, show that during the LIA, the SACZ more frequently stalled further to the southwest over an area that extends from Peru to Sao Paulo via Mato Grosso do Sul," he said. "On the other hand, the data from the caves in Goias and Iraquara suggest the SACZ didn't reach Goias, Bahia and the Northeast during the LIA, but stayed put over the Southeast. As a result, the Northeast became drier."

Although the records from the two caves in Goias (and three other caves) showed no significant change in the average proportion of 18O during the periods that included the MCA and LIA, they did point to strong variability on a multidecadal to centennial timescale during the period of transition from the MCA to the LIA (1100-1500).

Convergence zones

"There's coherence between climate changes in South America and the climate data for the northern hemisphere," said Cruz, principal investigator for the FAPESP-funded project. "Earth's climate is entirely interconnected. If there are anomalies in high-latitude regions, this will be reflected in the tropics."

"When we look at the paleoclimate data for the period corresponding to the LIA, we see more cold in South America, but the rainfall patterns changed," Novello said. From this information, it can be concluded that if the climate grows colder in the northern hemisphere, it rains more in the southern hemisphere. The moisture convergence ends up moving south. Conversely, when the climate warms up in the northern hemisphere, it rains less in the southern hemisphere.

"In the equatorial regions, there's a belt of cloud called the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. Its location corresponds to the area where the ocean surface is warmer. This warmer region creates a low-pressure zone to which all the moisture converges, and so more rain falls."

During the LIA, when the difference between the cooler climate in the northern hemisphere and the warmer climate in the southern hemisphere was greater, the winds that converged from the northern hemisphere to the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) carried more moisture than they do now. This greater moisture contributed to an increase in the volume of cloud in the ITCZ, which advanced east-west over the equator from the Atlantic to the Amazon, where it began raining torrentially. This was when all the 18O contained in the clouds precipitated.

"The cooling of the North Atlantic during the LIA intensified the northeast trade winds, which favored the transport of moisture to the Amazon. This is the opposite of what happens in years when the northeast trade winds are less intense: they tend to be drier years," Cruz said.

Once the cloud masses in the ITCZ reach the Amazon, they contribute moisture that is richer in 16O to the SACZ. The extra amount of this isotope is recorded by speleothems.

During the MCA, the northern hemisphere's warmer climate formed a low-pressure zone to which wet winds converged from the South Atlantic. "The ITCZ moved further north. All of South America became drier," Cruz said.

Explore further Stalagmites in Northeast Brazilian Caves Confirm 9,000-Year Model of Diminishing Rainfall

More information: V. F. Novello et al, Two Millennia of South Atlantic Convergence Zone Variability Reconstructed From Isotopic Proxies, Geophysical Research Letters (2018). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters V. F. Novello et al, Two Millennia of South Atlantic Convergence Zone Variability Reconstructed From Isotopic Proxies,(2018). DOI: 10.1029/2017GL076838Anolis lizards have specialized toepads that enable them to cling to smooth surfaces. Researchers took macro photos of the toepads and measured their surface area, as it predicts clinging strength. The toepads of the surviving lizards after the hurricane were significantly larger than those from before. Credit: Colin Donihue

Nobody knows exactly what happens at the eye of the storm. But biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have published a first-of-its-kind look at the physical characteristics of lizards that seem to make the difference between life and death in a hurricane, as reported in the July 25 issue of the journal Nature.

Hint: long, strong back legs do not help like you think they might.

The hyperactive 2017 hurricane season was one of the worst ever experienced in the Atlantic Ocean region. Damage from totals for the hurricane season topped $282 billionthe costliest on record. Hurricane Harvey hit in mid-August 2017, followed just a few weeks later by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in September. Each of these storms had winds in excess of 125 mph, with Irma up to 170 mph.

For humans, the devastation to homes and businesses was extreme. For tropical anole lizards living on the more remote cays of Turks and Caicos, there was only the ones who survivedand the ones who didn't.

And that's where the researchers came in, using data serendipitously collected just before the storms hit, and again weeks afterward, to demonstrate for the first time the effects of hurricane-induced natural selection.

"Hurricanes are in the news, and it seems that they're becoming more destructive," said Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished Professor at Washington University and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences. "Something like this has never been documented before because it's so difficult. The timing had to be just right."

Last eyes on the lizards

Colin Donihue is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University who is conducting research with Losos, who was previously at Harvard. Last September, Donihue was just wrapping up his measurements of endemic Turks and Caicos anole, Anolis scriptus, as a baseline for a long-term invasive species eradication project when Hurricane Irma started to brew.

The sky was still bright blue, but the weather forecasters were getting anxious. As Donihue quickly gathered his stuff and headed for the airport, his local cab driver was more skeptical: This storm would blow over, he told Donihue, just like others had done in the past.

Four days later, Hurricane Irma made landfall on Sept. 8, 2017. Donihue read the news of its devastation from his apartment in Boston. He realized his lizard data might have value outside of its original intent.

Donihue had the last eyes on the population before an unthinkable natural disaster. Now, it was time to determine if the storms had been a "selective event"an event with the power to change the course of life not just for the lizards that had weathered them, but potentially for the generations that followed.

Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria caused considerable damage to the vegetation on Pine Cay and Water Cay, which are located in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indes. Credit: Colin Donihue

So Donihue started making calls. The Turks and Caicos government was in recovery mode; clean water, electricity and shelter were priorities, and basic phone and Internet services were still not available across the islands. But Donihue had made good connections during his recent trip, and one government scientist in particular was sympathetic to his pleas. A new set of biological permits was granted, and Donihue and study co-author Anthony Herrel of the Paris Museum were back on a plane.

Before and after the storm

Back on the experimental islands, it was a mess. Trees were down and tree-limbs strewn about, making it difficult to walk in some places. But there were signs of life.

"Heading back to Pine Cay, we weren't sure what we'd find, but when we got to the field and saw a few lizards running around, we were eager to get catching and start measuring," said Donihue, who holds a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded fellowship that will bring him to Washington University in the winter of 2019.

"We walked exactly the same transects we had the last time," Donihue said. "There were definitely fewer lizards. We had to work harder to catch our sample size."

The team spent two days collecting just shy of 100 lizards on two separate islands, then measured their forelimbs, hindlimbs and core body lengths, and took pictures of their toe pads.

The vital statistics of the survivors could be compared with the measurements of the general lizard population that had been collected before the storm.

In this Oct. 19, 2017 photo provided by Colin Donihue, an anoles lizard hangs onto a pole during a simulated wind experiment in the Turks and Caicos Islands. According to a study in the Wednesday, July 25, 2018 edition of the journal Nature, lizards who survived 2017's Hurricanes Irma and Maria had 6 to 9 percent bigger toe pads, significantly longer front limbs and smaller back limbs, compared with the population before the storms. Credit: Colin Donihue

"The prediction was that if we saw any changes, they would be changes in the features that help lizards hold onthey would be related to clinging ability," Donihue said. "For example, the sticky toe pads on their fingers and toes, maybe they would be larger."

Comparing lizards collected before and after the storm, the researchers found that the survivor populations on both islands had larger toe pads on both their forelimbs and hindlimbs.

The survivors had proportionately longer fore legs than the initial/pre-hurricane population, while the long bones in between their hips and knees on their back legs (their femurs) were shorter. The survivor population had smaller bodies, too. The observations were statistically significant and consistent at both island sites.

Natural selection favors certain characteristics

Hurricanes bring death and destruction to those in their paths. There are well-documented recent examples of hurricanes killing off large numbers of individuals from many species as diverse as plants, sea sponges, insects, birds and monkeys.

The endemic Turks and Caicos anole, Anolis Scriptus. Credit: Colin Donihue

"With regard to evolution, the question is whether hurricanes cause selective mortality: do individuals with certain traits survive better than individuals with different traits? The alternative possibilitythat devastation is so massive that mortality is indiscriminate, not favoring some individuals over othersis certainly possible," Losos said.

The results of this studythat the island populations of lizards both changed significantly, and in the same way from before the hurricanes to aftersuggest that natural selection favored individuals with certain characteristics.

Of course, as the authors point out, there are other possibilities.

"Perhaps the hurricane blew in lizards with bigger toepads and shorter hindlegs from another island. Or perhaps the act of clinging to the branches in high winds actually caused their forelegs to get longer," Losos said. "We can't rule these possibilities out because this study was the result of serendipity, rather than specifically being designed to test the effect of hurricanes.

"Still, hurricane-induced natural selection seems like the best explanation for these findings," Losos said.

Behavioral piece is still unknown

The missing piece of the story is still a behavioral one. Researchers don't know what lizards actually do in the middle of a hurricane. Do they abandon their typical tree perches and go to the ground? Or do they try to seek cover in notches or crevices within the trees? Or do they just hang on?

A pilot study exploring wind threshold provides some insight into this aspect of the lizard decision-making process.

When the researchers exposed lizards from the survivor population to hurricane-force winds, the lizards almost uniformly swiveled around their perches to the side opposite from the wind sourceand just held on tight. As wind speeds increased, they lost hold with their hindlimbs first, and were left hanging by their forelimbs.

It appears that lizards are built to cling, but because of their stance on the perch, their big hindlimbs make them vulnerable to getting pushed off by high winds. This could explain the pattern that survivor lizards have longer forelimbs and shorter hindlimbs after a hurricane, the researchers speculate.

A future with bigger, and more frequent storms

Understanding how storms select for species survival is an important area of future study, worthy of a dedicated study design.

"We know that hurricanes are getting more frequent, and we know that they're getting more strong," Donihue said. "So, setting up a network of sites that are actually set up to investigate the question of how hurricanes are changing the evolutionary trajectory of species I think could be really useful."

More information: Colin M. Donihue et al, Hurricane-induced selection on the morphology of an island lizard, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Colin M. Donihue et al, Hurricane-induced selection on the morphology of an island lizard,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0352-3Artistic impression of the Mars Express spacecraft probing the southern hemisphere of Mars, superimposed to a color mosaic of a portion of Planum Australe. The study area is highlighted using a THEMIS IR image mosaic. Subsurface echo power is color coded and deep blue corresponds to the strongest reflections, which are interpreted as being caused by the presence of water. Credits: USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Arizona State University, ESA, INAF. Credit: USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Arizona State University, ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga  Media INAF

A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising hopes that more waterand maybe even lifeexists there, international astronomers said Wednesday.

Located under a layer of Martian ice, the lake is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, said the report in the US journal Science.

It is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet.

"Water is there. We have no more doubt," co-author Enrico Flamini, the Italian space agency's Mars Express mission manager, told a press conference.

Mars is now cold, barren and dry but it used to be warm and wet. It was home to plenty of liquid water and lakes at least 3.6 billion years ago.

Scientists are eager to find signs of contemporary water, because such discoveries are key to unlocking the mystery of whether life ever formed on Mars in its ancient past, and whether it might persist today.

"This is a stunning result that suggests water on Mars is not a temporary trickle like previous discoveries but a persistent body of water that provides the conditions for life for extended periods of time," said Alan Duffy, an associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, who was not involved in the study.

Being able to access water sources could also help humans survive on a future crewed mission to Earth's neighboring planet, with NASA aiming to send explorers in the 2030s.

This particular lake, however, would be neither swimmable nor drinkable, and it lies almost a mile deep (1.6 kilometers) beneath the icy surface in a harsh and frigid environment.

Whether microbial forms of life could lie within is a matter of debate.

Some experts are skeptical of the possibility since the lake is so cold and briny, mixed with a heavy dose of dissolved Martian salts and minerals.

Artistic impression of the Mars Express spacecraft probing the southern hemisphere of Mars, superimposed on a radar cross section of the southern polar layered deposits. The radar cross section has been tilted 90. The leftmost white line is the surface radar echo, while the light blue spots along the basal radar echo highlight areas of very high reflectivity, interpreted as being caused by the presence of water. Credit: ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga  Media INAF

The temperature is likely below the freezing point of pure water, but the lake can remain liquid due to the presence of magnesium, calcium and sodium.

"This is a discovery of extraordinary significance, and is bound to heighten speculation about the presence of living organisms on the Red Planet," said Fred Watson of the Australian Astronomical Observatory.

"Caution needs to be exercised, however, as the concentration of salts needed to keep the water liquid could be fatal for any microbial life similar to Earth's," added Watson, who was not involved in the research.

Radar detection

The discovery was made using a radar instrument on board the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, which launched in 2003.

The tool is called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), and was designed to find subsurface water by sending radar pulses that penetrate the surface and ice caps.

MARSIS "then measures how the radio waves propagate and reflect back to the spacecraft," said the study.

These reflections "provide scientists with information about what lies beneath the surface."

A team of researchers led by Roberto Orosei of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Bologna, Italy, surveyed a region called Planum Australe, located in the southern ice cap of Mars, from May 2012 until December 2015.

A total of 29 sets of radar samplings showed a "very sharp change in its associated radar signal," allowing scientists to map the outlines of the lake.

"The radar profile of this area is similar to that of lakes of liquid water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, suggesting that there is a subglacial lake at this location on Mars," said the report.

ESAs Mars Express has used radar signals bounced through underground layers of ice to find evidence of a pond of water buried below the south polar cap. Twenty-nine dedicated observations were made between 2012 and 2015 in the Planum Australe region at the south pole using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding instrument, MARSIS. A new mode of operations established in this period enabled a higher quality of data to be retrieved than earlier in the mission. The 200 km square study area is indicated in the left-hand image and the radar footprints on the surface are indicated in the middle image for multiple orbits. The greyscale background image is a Thermal Emission Imaging System image from NASAs Mars Odyssey, and highlights the underlying topography: a mostly featureless plain with icy scarps in the lower right (south is up). The footprints are colour-coded corresponding to the power of the radar signal reflected from features below the surface. The large blue area close to the centre corresponds to the main radar-bright area, detected on many overlapping orbits of the spacecraft. A subsurface radar profile is shown in the right hand panel for one of the Mars orbits. The bright horizontal feature at the top represents the icy surface of Mars in this region. The south polar layered deposits  layers of ice and dust  are seen to a depth of about 1.5 km. Below is a base layer that in some areas is even much brighter than the surface reflections, highlighted in blue, while in other places is rather diffuse. Analysing the details of the reflected signals from the base layer yields properties that correspond to liquid water. The brightest reflections are centred around 193E/81S in the intersecting orbits, outlining a well-defined, 20 km-wide zone. Credit: Context map: NASA/Viking; THEMIS background: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University; MARSIS data: ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome; R. Orosei et al 2018

Researchers said they are not sure how far down it goes, but that it may be around three feet (one meter) deep.

Confirmation needed

"This is the first body of water it has detected, so it is very exciting," David Stillman, a senior research scientist in the Department of Space Studies at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, told AFP in an email.

However, Stillman, who was not involved in the research, said another spacecraft, or other instruments, need to be able to confirm the discovery.

He noted that a higher-frequency radar instrument made by the Italian space agency SHARAD, on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005, has been unable to detect subsurface water.

"It is strange that SHARAD cannot confirm this discovery. In fact, SHARAD cannot penetrate through the ice here and no one understands why it can't," Stillman said.

"This suggests that something strange is going on here. Thus, I'm skeptical about this discovery."

But researchers are excited about the potential for future finds, because if liquid water could be found at Mars's south pole, it might be elsewhere too.

"There's nothing special about this location other than the MARSIS radar on the Mars Express spacecraft is most sensitive to that region," said Duffy.

"There are likely similar water deposits below the ground all across Mars."

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield said on Twitter that the discovery gets to one of the fundamental questions about existence.

"On Earth, where there's water, there's life. Could be we're not alone."

Explore further Searching for signs of ice on Mars using radar

More information: R. Orosei et al. Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars, Science (2018). R. Orosei et al. Radar evidence of subglacial liquid water on Mars,(2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7268 Anja Diez. Liquid water on Mars, Science (2018). DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1829 Journal information: Science

 2018 AFPAustralians love their food. Cooking shows have us spellbound and are rating juggernauts for TV networks, celebrity cooks and judges are treated like rock stars, and we're spending billions eating out  and in.

Revenue for the restaurants industry is estimated to be worth $20.1 billion in 2017-18, and that doesn't include the cafes and coffee shops proliferating in suburban strips. The cafes and coffee shops' industry revenue in 2017-18 is estimated to be $8.3 billion.

And still, the average household spends about $237 a week on food and non-alcoholic beverages, about $12,300 a year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Expenditure Survey.

Yes, we love our food, but this story isn't about the food we love to eat. It's a story about the food we don't eat. Or more precisely, what we can do with the food we waste and those parts of the food we would normally throw away, such as the pith, the peel and the pips. Because there's mountains of it in landfill.

Food waste is estimated to cost the Australian economy about $20 billion every year, with consumers throwing away around 3.1 million tonnes of it. Another 2.2 million tonnes is disposed of by the commercial and industrial sector.

In a May 2018 report, Sustainability Victoria estimated that the average value of household food wastage in the state was $2136.68 a year. That equates to an estimated cost of $5.4 billion annually.

Globally, it's even more alarming. Every year around the globe, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted  that's one-third of all food produced for human consumption, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.

Breaking down global food losses and waste by commodity, it estimated that

30 per cent of cereals products (286 million tonnes) are thrown out in industrialised countries

20 per cent of dairy products (29 million tonnes) are lost or wasted every year in Europe

35 per cent of fish and seafood

45 per cent of fruits and vegetables

20 per cent of meat

20 per cent of oils and pulses

45 per cent of roots and tubers.

In 2016, the Commonwealth Government released the National Food Waste Strategy: Halving Australia's food waste by 2030 report, in which it said "wastage costs the global economy around US$940 billion."

And all that food that ends up as landfill garnish? It produces eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Further to this is the waste of resources in growing, packing, transporting and marketing the products. This includes the water, land, energy, fuel and natural resources. For example, food waste accounts for 24 per cent of the world's fresh water; it's estimated that 1000 litres of water is required to produce one litre of milk, and throwing out a kilogram of potatoes means 500 litres of water is wasted.

Generating value

Tony Patti is a professor at Monash University's School of Chemistry. In collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, researchers from the school are working with the Monash Food Innovation Centre, industry and farmers to help transform this food waste into profits.

They call it "biomass valorisation." The word valorisation comes from the German word verwertung, the general meaning of which is, according Wikipedia, "the productive use of a resource, and more specifically the use or application of something (an object, process or activity) so that it makes money, or generates value."

Professor Patti said biomass valorisation looks at the entire fruit or vegetable, not just what is eaten, which is what currently provides value to the grower.

"The skins, seeds, kernels, leaves and offcuts were seen as 'waste," adding to their disposal costs. These byproducts are not waste, but a potential valuable resource, providing several components, identified as being of high market value," Professor Patti said.

"Monash is working with Australian growers and businesses to diversify the potential market opportunities where these food byproducts can be recovered, including expansion into the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and pet food industries."

Which means that, in the future, that skin, seed and husk from a mango, those spent coffee grounds or pomegranate or pineapple skins could be sources of everyday health supplements, oils, antioxidants, cosmetics, organic fertilisers and even resources for making biodegradable plastics.

This also extends to fresh produce that's disposed of for not meeting 'cosmetic standards'; the misshapen apple, for instance, or the banana that's too short and has been rejected by the major supermarkets because it doesn't meet specifications.

"Using this research, food and agricultural companies can tackle costly waste challenges, improve their environmental footprint and create a sustainable business that takes full advantage of growing demand in domestic and export markets for high-quality products," Professor Patti said.

Breaking it down

Victoria Haritos is an associate professor in Monash University's Department of Chemical Engineering. Her research combines biology and engineering to develop solutions for processing food waste.

She doesn't see, say, a tomato, like we do, a juicy red fruit. She sees its constituent parts and then focuses on developing biological processes to separate and extract those parts.

"When we look closely at the components of discarded foods such as proteins, sugars, fats, water, antioxidants, natural colours and flavours, we can see a range of valuable products that can be made from these," she said.

"We use nature's catalysts, enzymes and good microbes like yeast and lactic acid bacteria to undertake the conversion of the food," she said.

They have, for instance, been able to extract from wheat bran an antioxidant called ferulic acid, which is used in expensive cosmetic formulations.

They've also used enzymes to release starch and other sugars from waste vegetables that then becomes food for yeast that make high-value fats.

These fats, she said, can be used for a wide range of products, from biodiesel to face creams.

"We should view waste food as a resource rather than a problem," she says enthusiastically.

But she said turning food waste into viable products isn't simple, and that aspects such as the volume, availability and quality of waste need to be considered.

"Food waste has high water content so it's expensive to move around, and what are the nature and size of markets for your products derived from waste?" she asks.

"These are areas where research can help. We can match waste sources and product types in addition to developing processing technologies to convert them."

Graeme Pearson is an industrial chemist who works for an Australian-based company called Axieo. It's been collaborating with Monash for the past three years in the University's Green Chemical Futures building on the Clayton campus.

At a recent symposium on turning food waste into money organised by Monash, Pearson spoke about overseas studies that were investigating how 'nanoplatlets' in the fibre of root vegetables such as carrots and beetroots could be used to create super-strong concrete.

Or how the silica from rice husks and ground glass is being used to create lightweight low-carbon bricks that are fire and termite-resistant.

Or how the organic extract from those same rice husks was being used to make raw materials used in moisturisers and creams for cosmetics, and these materials were "synthesised at Monash."

Or how the pip from a mango, which makes up a large proportion of the tropical fruit and has a high percentage of wax, could be used to make surfboard wax.

"These sorts of collaborations between industry and academia have proven very useful for medium and long-term projects, some of which are blue-sky problems like what we do with food waste," Pearson said.

Explore further Less food wasted in South Africa than in EuropeMap of Europe shows areas currently inhabited by brown bears (blue), areas that are suitable habitat for bears according to the new study, but which are currently not populated (green) and areas unsuitable as bear habitat (grey). Note that several potential bear habitats are geographically isolated and unlikely to become naturally recolonised. Credit: Nestor Fernandez

Great opportunity for European brown bears: A new study spearheaded by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) shows that there are still many areas in Europe where bears are extinct, but with suitable habitat for hosting them. Effective management of the species, including a reduction of direct pressures by humans (like hunting) has the potential to help these animals come back in many of these areas, according to the head of the study. It is now important to plan the recovery of the species while taking measures to prevent conflicts.

Some 500 years ago, there were brown bears almost everywhere in Europe. However, in the following centuries, they were wiped out in many places, including Germany. The reasons for the decline of bears were primarily habitat loss and hunting. Today, around 17,000 animals still live in Europe, distributed over 10 populations and 22 countries. Some of these populations are at risk due to their relatively small size.

Excellent opportunity for species conservation

In recent years, the hunting of brown bears has been banned or restricted in Europe, and in the future, bears could recolonise parts of the continent. A new study led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) reveals that there are still many areas in Europe where there are currently no bears, but which would, in principle, be suitable as habitat. Of an estimated amount of more than 1 million square kilometres of suitable habitat in Europe, about 37 percent is not populated, equivalent to an area of about 380,000 square kilometres. In Germany, there are 16,000 square kilometres of potential bear habitat. However, the probability of future recolonisation varies widely. For example, in Germany, potential bear habitats outside the Alps are geographically isolated and unlikely to be recolonized naturally.

Female bear with her two cubs roaming in search of bilberries in September, Tatra mountains, Polish Carpathians. Credit: Adam Wajrak

"The fact that there is still suitable habitat for brown bears is a great opportunity for species conservation," says the head of the study, Dr. Nestor Fernandez from the iDiv research centre and the University of Halle. Scientists are already seeing around 70 percent of Europe's populations recover, and it is likely that bears will return to some of the currently unoccupied areas. "In Germany, too, it is very likely that some areas will, sooner or later, be colonised by brown bears , especially in the Alpine region," says Fernandez. So, there is reason to hope that bears will be native to Germany once more, 200 years after their extermination.

Pre-emptive action important

For many people, this would probably be good news. "In recent years, the attitude of Europeans towards wildlife has changed a lot. Today, many people feel positive about the return of large mammals," says Fernandez. Nevertheless, the fact that bear comeback can lead to conflicts with some human activities needs to be considered at an early stage. Such conflicts mostly arise when bears eat crops or damage beehives, and they also occasionally attack sheep. Direct attacks by bears on humans are, however, extremely rare; bears themselves generally steer clear of people.

Close-up view of the two cubs. Credit: Adam Wajrak

The map developed by Fernandez and his colleague Anne Scharf (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology) makes it possible to predict the areas into which bears could return. These maps can help policymakers identify potential areas of conflict early and counter these with specifically targeted measures. For example, compensation payments should be coupled with preventive measures being taken in advance, explains Fernandez. Such preventive measures can be, for example, the construction of physical barriers such as closures for apiaries, electric fences, or the use of guard dogs to protect fields and grazing pastures, and increasing public awareness. A look at the map also makes it clear that bears do not stick to national borders. "That's why a common management policy for the brown bear and other wild animals at the European level would be desirable," says Fernandez. At present, policies between member states regarding the protection and management of bears is very heterogeneous, and there is disparity in how compensation schemes are structured in different states.

For their study, Scharf and Fernandez have collated the results of all relevant previous bear habitat studies. These each focused on a delimited area in which bears live, and, for this area, analysed which requirements the animals have for their habitat. By bringing together the results of these local studies, the scientists were able to create a computer model that would identify further potential bear habitat across Europe. The predictions made by this model are more reliable than if the data from one region were merely applied to the whole of Europe. Scharf and Fernandez have published their results in the journal Diversity and Distributions .

More information: Anne K. Scharf et al, Up-scaling local-habitat models for large-scale conservation: Assessing suitable areas for the brown bear comeback in Europe, Diversity and Distributions (2018). Journal information: Diversity and Distributions Anne K. Scharf et al, Up-scaling local-habitat models for large-scale conservation: Assessing suitable areas for the brown bear comeback in Europe,(2018). DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12796

Provided by German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-LeipzigThis July 2018 image provided by Animal Adventure Park shows the April the Giraffe at Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, N.Y. April, the giraffe whose pregnancy became an internet sensation, is pregnant again. Jordon Patch of Animal Adventure Park announced the pregnancy Wednesday, July 25, on NBC's "Today" show. Patch says the calf is due during the early part of spring around March. (Animal Adventure Park via AP)

You don't need to stick your neck out to predict that this bundle of joy is going to get some attention.

April, the giraffe whose YouTube pregnancy in 2017 made her famous, is due again around next March.

Jordon Patch of Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, New York, announced the pregnancy Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show.

April's pregnancy drew more than 232 million YouTube live views during a seven-week period in 2017 before she gave birth to Tajiri (tah-JEER'-ee).

Patch says Tajiri's father also sired the new calf.

April's progress can be followed online at aprilthegiraffe.com.

 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.In an Electron-Ion Collider, a beam of electrons (e-) would scatter off a beam of protons or atomic nuclei, generating virtual photons ()  particles of light that penetrate the proton or nucleus to tease out the structure of the quarks and gluons within. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

The case for an ambitious new particle accelerator to be built in the United States has just gotten a major boost.

Today, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have endorsed the development of the Electron Ion Collider, or EIC. The proposed facility, consisting of two intersecting accelerators, would smash together beams of protons and electrons traveling at nearly the speed of light. In the aftermath of each collision, scientists should see "snapshots" of the particles' inner structures, much like a CT scan for atoms. From these images, scientists hope to piece together a multidimensional picture, with unprecedented depth and clarity, of the quarks and gluons that bind together protons and all the visible matter in the universe.

The EIC, if built, would significantly advance the field of quantum chromodynamics, which seeks to answer fundamental questions in physics, such as how quarks and gluons produce the strong forcethe "glue" that holds all matter together. If constructed, the EIC would be the largest accelerator facility in the U.S. and, worldwide, second only to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. MIT physicists, including Richard Milner, professor of physics at MIT, have been involved from the beginning in making the case for the EIC.

MIT News checked in with Milner, a member of MIT's Center for Theoretical Physics and the Laboratory for Nuclear Science, about the need for a new particle collider and its prospects going forward.

Q: Tell us a bit about the history of this design. What has it taken to make the case for this new particle accelerator?

A: The development of both the scientific and technical case for the EIC has been in progress for about two decades. With the development of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in the 1970s by MIT physics Professor Frank Wilczek and others, nuclear physicists have long sought to bridge the gap between QCD and the successful theory of nuclei based on experimentally observable particles, where the fundamental constituents are the undetectable quarks and gluons.

A high-energy collider with the ability to collide electrons with the full range of nuclei at high rates and to have the electrons and nucleons polarized was identified as the essential tool to construct this bridge. High-energy electron scattering from the proton was how quarks were experimentally discovered at SLAC in the late 1960s (by MIT physics faculty Henry Kendall and Jerome Friedman and colleagues), and it is the accepted technique to directly probe the fundamental quark and gluon structure of matter.

Significant initial impetus for the EIC came from nuclear physicists at the university user-facilities at the University of Indiana and MIT as well as from physicists seeking to understand the origin of the proton's spin, at laboratories and universities in the U.S. and Europe. Over the last three long-range planning exercises by U.S. nuclear physicists in 2002, 2007, and 2015, the case for the EIC has matured and strengthened. After the 2007 exercise, the two U.S. flagship nuclear facilities, namely the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at Jefferson Laboratory, took a leadership role in coordinating EIC activities across the broad U.S. QCD community. This led to the production in 2012 of a succinct summary of the science case, "Electron-Ion Collider: The Next QCD Frontier (Understanding the glue that binds us all)."

The 2015 planning exercise established the EIC as the highest priority for new facility construction in U.S. nuclear physics after present commitments are fulfilled. This led to the formation of a committee by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to assess the EIC science case. The NAS committee deliberated for about a year and the report has been publicly released this month.

Q: Give us an idea of how powerful this new collider will be and what kind of new interactions it will produce. What kinds of phenomena will it help to explain?

A: The EIC will be a powerful and unique new accelerator that will offer an unprecedented window into the fundamental structure of matter. The electron-ion collision rate at the EIC will be high, more than two orders of magnitude greater than was possible at the only previous electron-proton collider, namely HERA, which operated at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, from 1992 to 2007. With the EIC, physicists will be able to image the virtual quarks and gluons that make up protons, neutrons, and nuclei, with unprecedented spatial resolution and shutter speed. A goal is to provide images of the fundamental structure of the microcosm that can be appreciated broadly by humanity: to answer questions such as, what does a proton look like? And what does a nucleus look like?

There are three central scientific issues that can be addressed by an electron-ion collider. The first goal is to understand in detail the mechanisms within QCD by which the mass of protons and neutrons, and thus the mass of all the visible matter in the universe, is generated. The problem is that while gluons have no mass, and quarks are nearly massless, the protons and neutrons that contain them are heavy, making up most of the visible mass of the universe. The total mass of a nucleon is some 100 times greater than the mass of the various quarks it contains.

The second issue is to understand the origin of the intrinsic angular momentum, or spin, of nucleons, a fundamental property that underlies many practical applications, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). How the angular momentum, both intrinsic as well as orbital, of the internal quarks and gluons gives rise to the known nucleon spin is not understood. And thirdly, the nature of gluons in matterthat is, their arrangements or statesand the details of how they hold matter together, is not well-known. Gluons in matter are a little like dark matter in the universe: unseen but playing a crucial role. An electron-ion collider would potentially reveal new states resulting from the close packing of many gluons within nucleons and nuclei. These issues are fundamental to our understanding of the matter in the universe.

Q: What role will MIT have in this project going forward?

A: At present, more than a dozen MIT physics department faculty lead research groups in the Laboratory for Nuclear Science that work directly on understanding the fundamental structure of matter as described by QCD. It is the largest university-based group in the U.S. working on QCD. Theoretical research is focused at the Center for Theoretical Physics, and experimentalists rely heavily on the Bates Research and Engineering Center for technical support.

MIT theorists are carrying out important calculations using the world's most powerful computers to understand fundamental aspects of QCD. MIT experimental physicists are conducting experiments at existing facilities, such as BNL, CERN, and Jefferson Laboratory, to reach new insight and to develop new techniques that will be used at the EIC. Further, R&D into new polarized sources, detectors, and innovative data-acquisition schemes by MIT scientists and engineers is in progress. It is anticipated that these efforts will ramp up as the realization of the EIC approaches.

It is anticipated that the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science will initiate in the near future the official process for EIC by which the U.S. government approves, funds, and constructs new, large scientific facilities. Critical issues are the selection of the site for EIC and the participation of international users. An EIC user group has formed with the participation of more than 700 Ph.D. scientists from over 160 laboratories and universities around the world. If the realization of EIC follows a schedule comparable to that of past large facilities, it should be doing science by about 2030. MIT has a long history of providing leadership in U.S. nuclear physics and will continue to play a significant role as we proceed along the path to EIC.

Explore further A domestic electron ion collider would unlock scientific mysteries of atomic nuclei: report

This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.In 2014, megafires in Canada's Northwest Territories scorched more than 7 million acres of forest, releasing half as much carbon back into the atmosphere as all the plants and trees in Canada typically absorb in an entire year. Credit: NASA/Peter Griffith

The 2014 megafires in Canada's Northwest Territories burned 7 million acres of forest, making it one of the most severe fire events in Canadian history.

A new study shows that as those fires scorched a region of boreal forest the size of Maryland, they released half as much carbon back into the atmosphere as all the plants, shrubs and trees in Canada typically store in an entire year.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth, and as it does, environmental scientists expect large fires to increase in frequency and intensity. But they have struggled to understand these fires' effect on ecosystems and ultimately carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning that it helps trap heat in the Earth's lower atmosphere. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more trapped heat, causing global temperatures to rise.

The megafires paper is one of two recently released studies based on data from NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE, that will help scientists better understand and predict both short- and long-term changes in the ecosystems of Alaska and Northern Canada.

The authors of the megafires paper constructed models to help them understand what made the 2014 fires so large and what impact they had on the environment. The authors of the second study used images from the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat program to not only observe changes in Alaska's environment, but determine their causes and potential future effects. Together, the studies improve scientists' understanding of boreal forests' recent past and will help them predict the future of these vulnerable ecosystems, one of the primary goals of the ABoVE project.

Modeling megafires

To be termed a "megafire," a wildfire must burn an area measuring more than 25,000 acres, an area slightly smaller than Long Island, New York. The massive wildfires of 2014, in comparison, burned 7 million acres of boreal forest in Northwest Territories. Boreal forests are found in the northernmost regions of the world and mainly contain spruce, pine, birch, aspen and other evergreen trees.

The authors of the megafires paper constructed two models to assess carbon emission from the fires. The first, based on field measurements, such as types of trees and soil drainage in burned and unburned forests, helped them discover what made some areas more vulnerable to burning and large carbon emissions than others. The second model deduced how much carbon the megafires emitted, based on land characteristics that they detected in satellite images from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments on the Aqua and Terra satellites.

According to the second model, the 2014 fires released 94.3 teragrams of carbon into the atmosphereabout 103 million tons.

The 2014 megafires in Canadas Northwest Territories scorched more than 7 million acres of spruce, pine, aspen and other evergreen trees, releasing 103 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Credit: NASA / Xanthe Walker, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University

"We found that one megafire can release huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere," said Xanthe Walker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University and the study's lead author. "Our results will allow future research to model carbon emissions over larger temporal and spatial scales."

Historically, boreal forests in Canada have been both carbon "sinks" and "sources" depending on the fire and insect damage occurring at any given time. If warming trends continue and fires become even more frequent, they could become stronger carbon sources, which could amplify climate warming, Walker said.

Using the past to predict the future

Another recent ABoVE-funded study was led by the USGS in conjunction with researchers from the University of Minnesota and Northern Arizona University. While past research had already confirmed that significant portions of Alaska's landscape are experiencing flooding, permafrost melt and other changesup to 13 percent of the state, according to this study, or an area larger than Floridathe team created a model to analyze 30 years of satellite imagery from the Landsat program and attribute causes to those changes.

The team found that Alaska's rising temperatures are driving changes in how and where plants grow, especially toward the end of the growing season, and even causing lakes and ponds to grow larger, among other changes.

"Observed land and surface water changes have substantially impacted natural and man-made systems in Alaska," said Neal Pastick, a physical scientist at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science. "For instance, erosion and increases in evaporative demand have negatively impacted human and vegetation communities, spurring relocation planning for entire villages and drought-induced stress, respectively."

Using a data set that spanned three decades allowed the researchers to see how Alaska's ecosystems respond to damage and stress as well. After a wildfire, for example, it may take up to 60 years for evergreen trees like spruce to regrow and reach maturity. In the meantime, deciduous trees such as aspen and birch, which regrow more quickly, increase the reflectivity of the land's surface in the winter and increase the amount of energy used to evaporate water from the tree canopy. This has a cooling effect on temperatures. Furthermore, less flammable deciduous forests tend to decrease fire activity.

"Studying, in a spatially explicit way, shrub and tree expansion, coastal dynamics, and the collapse of land areas as ice in the ground thaws (thermokarsting) is something you can only do with the combination of space-based remote sensing and modeling," said Peter Griffith, director of NASA's Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Office, which provides logistic and data management support to ABoVE. "This work is a significant contribution in that it demonstrates a way to analyze this."

The next step for this project, Griffith said, is to use the model and results to create a system model, which can generate data-rich, realistic forecasts of this rapidly changing region's possible futures.

Explore further Alaskan boreal forest fires release more carbon than the trees can absorbFor every movie I see that's the occasional disappointment, such as last weekend's RIDE, VAQUERO! (1953), there are plenty more discoveries of previously unseen gems. THE BOY FROM OKLAHOMA (1954) is one such film, a Western available on DVD from the Warner Archive The movie was directed by Michael Curtiz with his usual energy and polish.In his book on Curtiz, biographer Alan K. Rode notes that the film was made at the end of Curtiz's Warner Bros. career, and he and star Will Rogers Jr. unsuccessfully lobbied to change the title to something more appropriate and exciting, especially given that Rogers was no "boy." There were other issues, such as a tight budget and leading lady Nancy Olson 's fear of horses.At the time the film was perhaps seen as a not-very-impressive end to Curtiz's storied career at the studio, but despite its production issues, viewed today it's a real charmer, with appealing leads supported by a terrific cast of character actors. Within the framework of a standard Western plot, screenwriters Frank Davis and Winston Miller created something a little more unusual, based on a story by Michael Fessier titled "The Sheriff Was Scared."The movie's tale of a quirky law student turned lawman somewhat echoes James Stewart's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) and strongly plays like a forerunner of James Garner's SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF! (1969), what with a man (Rogers) on his way somewhere else becoming sheriff of a wild town, maintaining order with unusual methods while also courting a tomboy (Olson).I also read today that THE BOY FROM OKLAHOMA inspired the TV Western series SUGARFOOT, which like this film featured a lawyer named Tom Brewster. Will Hutchins played Tom in SUGARFOOT, and three of the supporting cast members of this film also appeared in the SUGARFOOT pilot!Rogers had made a few other films, including playing his father in THE STORY OF WILL ROGERS (1952), but not having seen him in a movie before I had no idea what to expect. Rogers handles the role with relaxed ease, so patient and reasonable that he talks a man (Lon Chaney Jr.) shooting up the town to walking right into the jail, where he'll have a respite from his wife and free meals. When Tom meets Billy the Kid (Tyler McDuff), who's itching for a showdown, he talks to Billy about the kind of life he wishes Billy could have, until the exasperated Billy backs down and leaves the saloon.I've always liked Nancy Olson, so as much as I also like Janet Leigh, I'm glad the budget was such that the production couldn't afford Leigh! Olson is perfect as spunky Katie and has a nice chemistry with Rogers. According to Rode's book, she remembers Rogers as a "dear human being." (And if it's not clear by now, Rode's Curtiz bio is "must" reading! He's also got a neat photo of Olson and husband Alan Jay Lerner and their daughter on the set with Curtiz.)The film is quite enjoyable, with great support from actors like Louis Jean Heydt (a favorite of this blog), Anthony Caruso, Wallace Ford, Clem Bevans, James Griffith, and Slim Pickens. Joan Weldon has a tiny role as a saloon girl, the very same year she starred in the sci-fi classic THEM! (1954). Also seen in a small role is future TV talk show host Merv Griffin.This 87-minute movie was shot by Robert Burks in WarnerColor. WarnerColor doesn't always hold up well but happily this is a good-looking DVD.There are no extras.The iconic hump-backed mahseer. Credit: J. Bailey, Author provided

The mahseers are an iconic group of fish found throughout the fast-flowing rivers of South and South-East Asia. Characterised by their large scales, attractive appearance and potentially vast size, the mahseers have long been afforded saintly status as "God's fishes". They are also known to anglers as some of the world's hardest fighting freshwater game fish, earning them the reputation of "tigers of the water".

But despite lots of interest in mahseers, their future is under serious threat as their rivers become polluted and blocked by hydropower dams in order to support a rapidly growing human population. Those fish that do survive are vulnerable to illegal "dynamite fishing" in which a blast kills or injures all aquatic life, allowing poachers to harvest anything that floats to the surface.

Of the 18 currently valid species of mahseer, the official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists four as endangered, one as vulnerable, and one as near threatened. The rest either lack enough data to reach a conclusion or haven't been evaluated.

Recent research published by colleagues and I in PLOS ONE focused on the hump-backed mahseer, the largest and most endangered of all mahseers. The fish was once common throughout the Cauvery river and its various tributaries in southern India, but it is now limited to just a handful of small isolated populations. Weighing as much as a small adult human (55kg), this freshwater giant qualifies as megafauna, yet bizarrely it has remained a taxonomic enigma without a valid scientific name.

Until now. Colleagues and I discovered that the hump-backed mahseer is actually the same species as Tor remadevii: a mahseer that previously lacked a common name. Scientists first described Tor remadevii as a new species in 2007, based on a small sample of juvenile fish from the most southerly tributary of the Cauvery catchment in the state of Kerala. Little did they realise that the small fish they had discovered from this remote sub-catchment was the same as the monster mahseer found in the upper and middle reaches of the main river Cauvery.

The Cauvery and its tributaries flow through the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Credit: Central Ground Water Board, India

The rise and fall of a freshwater icon

The hump-backed mahseer was first brought to the attention of the world's anglers in Henry Sullivan Thomas's 1873 classic, The Rod in India. During British rule, several huge specimens were recorded, including the still-standing world rod-caught record, a 120lb (54kg) monster captured in 1946 by a taxidermist from Mysore known as de Wet Van Ingen. Indian independence followed soon after, and the mahseer was largely forgotten by the outside world, with many believing the fish had been dynamited to extinction.

That was until 1977, when the Trans World Fishing Team  comprised of three Englishmen travelled to India and spent several months exploring the country's rivers before reaching the Cauvery. There they found the hump-backed mahseer very much alive, and realised their sporting dreams by recording individual catches up to 92lbs (42kg).

This reignited global interest, and catch-and-release anglers from around the world flocked to the River Cauvery in search of the legendary fish. Local villagers found employment as angling guides, cooks or drivers, some of them rehabilitated poachers who realised that a live mahseer had renewable value, unlike the single value of a dead one at market. Patrols were set up to protect the species 24/7, allowing the ecology of the river to flourish.

But all was not what it seemed. Since their establishment in the 1970s, the angling camps had been collecting invaluable data which shed new light on the situation. When colleagues and I analysed these detailed catch records, we realised the hump-backed mahseer had almost disappeared. Although overall mahseer stocks were rising, the humpback itself was being rapidly replaced by a non-native and highly invasive species of mahseer, which had been deliberately introduced to the River Cauvery to boost stocks in the late 1970s. This led us to publish a paper in 2015, outlining the threat of imminent extinction facing the hump-backed mahseer.

Martin Clark of the Trans World Fishing Team with one of the fish caught in 1978. Credit: Trans World Fishing Team, Author provided

So, what's in a name?

The hump-backed mahseer has been known around the world by its common name, but confusion over its scientific name has prevented its inclusion in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Given the fish is on the edge of extinction, it proved a significant challenge finding wild specimens from which to collect the DNA and associated evidence required to support a formal taxonomic clarification. Only after three years of expeditions was our team finally successful in finding a small population of humpbacks in a remote jungle section of the River Moyar, a tributary of the Cauvery.

The paper we recently published fixes the scientific name as Tor remadevii and should see the iconic species assessed as "critically endangered" in the next update of the Red List. The significance of the research published will afford this iconic fish the recognition and legislative protection it so urgently requires to develop robust conservation planning.

However, in the long term, the fish's future rests in the hands of the three Indian states with stakes in the highly-contested Cauvery river system  Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. One hope is that the humpback mahseer will become a unifying force and bring these states together to protect the rich biodiversity and natural function of the Cauvery from further decay, allowing the river to continue to support the many millions of people who depend on it.

Explore further Iconic Indian fish on the brink of extinction

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.The expedition officially starts on 1 August 2018. Credit: iStock

EPFL scientists will spend at least the next four years studying some of the world's biggest glacier-fed streams. By collecting microorganisms from the streams and extracting their DNA, they hope to better understand how these creatures have adapted to their extreme environments. The project, slated to start on 1 August 2018, will be the inaugural research program for the Alpine and Polar Environment Research Center (Alpole) at the EPFL Valais Wallis campus in Sion.

What else besides water do we lose as glaciers vanish? That's the question a team of scientists led by EPFL will set out to answer on an unprecedented expedition set to last at least four years. They will travel to the world's largest mountain glacier systems, collecting microorganisms from hundreds of glacier-fed streams and analyzing their genomes. Through a combination of environmental sciences, life sciences and geology, they hope to learn how these microbiomes have adapted over the millennia to the extreme conditions they are exposed to.

Through this project, which officially starts on 1 August 2018, the international team of scientists will explore the "third pole" through glacial streams in Alaska, the Himalayas, the Andes, Greenland, Scandinavia, Pamir, Kamchatka, Caucasus, New Zealand and the European Alps. It's the inaugural research program for the Alpine and Polar Environment Research Center (Alpole) in Sion and is being made possible thanks to funding from the NOMIS Foundation, which exclusively supports insight-driven scientific endeavors.

The scientists will collect samples from biofilms, which are thin, viscous films of microbes that form on sediment surfaces in glacier-fed streams. They will then use deep sequencing on the microbial DNA to unravel the structure and biological processes of the biofilms' microbiomes. The sequencing data will be used for two purposes. First, to look back in time, since it may contain ancient biosignatures that could help the scientists to unravel the microbes' strategies for adapting to their surroundings over time. And second, to get a glimpse into the future, since it will help the scientists to better understand how biofilms are being affected by the melting of glaciers and, consequently, the role that biofilms play in ecosystem functioning and the biogeochemistry of Alpine glacier-fed streams.

"Glaciers and their streams have often been abundant on Earth. But today they are vanishing as a result of climate change. Glaciologists predict that 50% of the small glaciers in Switzerland will disappear within the next 25 years. The same holds true for their glacier-fed streams  and the ecosystems those streams support. We owe it to future generations to better understand the microbial life in these vanishing ecosystems," says Tom Battin, the project's research director and head of EPFL's Stream Biofilm and Ecosystem Research Laboratory. "We can achieve that only with the support of foundations like NOMIS, and only by taking a cross-disciplinary approach bringing together experts from ecology, biogeochemistry, molecular biology and glaciology."

"I am pleased that EPFL is at the center of an initiative to document the microbial life found inside glaciers through this study on glacial runoff," says EPFL President Martin Vetterli. "This research has global importance and is a natural fit for the new Center for Changing Alpine and Polar Environments at EPFL Valais Wallis." This enthusiasm is shared by Markus Reinhard, Managing Director at NOMIS: "We are delighted to support this exciting research project, which reflects NOMIS' vision of encouraging interdisciplinary, novel research that has the potential to provide transformational insights about our world."

The first expedition will begin in February 2019. It will be led by Mike Styllas, a geologist and Himalayas specialist, with the help of two mountain experts from Canada and Italy. The genome research will be carried out in association with Professor Paul Wilmes and his team at the University of Luxembourg. Michael Zemp, a research associate at the University of Zurich, will provide his expertise in glaciology. The scientists will start training this summer in the Swiss Alps.

Even before the first expedition gets underway, Battin is already looking ahead to his next challenge. He would like to archive DNA from glacier-fed-stream microbes in a repository that would be housed at the EPFL Valais Wallis campus. This archive would give tomorrow's researchers a "map" of the microbiomes as they stand today. It won't be long before advancements in molecular biology, and especially genetic sequencing, lead to new discoveries in microbiome processes and bring new perspectives on the use of bioprospecting in the field of biotechnology. Battin's DNA archive would also include samples from any research institution wishing to contribute, thereby creating a unique global repository of genetic information on the life in vanishing ecosystems and extreme environments.

Explore further Alpine streams produce more CO2 after a warm winterA Eurasian Coot sits on a nest built from human litter, including plastic straws, inside a half-sunk boat in an Amsterdam canal. Credit: Shutterstock

The "straw bubble" has burst.

We're midway through 2018, and we have seen an explosion of efforts and local action to eliminate plastic straws. Some of the world's largest companies, including McDonald's and Starbucks, have banned them from some of their operations.

McDonald's announced recently that it would replace plastic straws with paper ones in all restaurants in the U.K. and Ireland by September 2018. Similarly, Starbucks will eliminate plastic straws from all of its stores globally by 2020.

Airlines, hotel chains and local restaurants in droves are all removing the ubiquitous plastic from their consumer services.

Dramatic and evocative statements and statistics, including the infamous "plastic will outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050" prophecy, are inciting some incredible interventions from governments, large multinationals and individual citizens. Although these kinds of statements may not be entirely accurate, the overwhelming response has been the removal of straws from day-to-day society.

Anti-straw backlash

Along with these recent "anti-straw" endeavours, there comes an accompanying "anti-anti-straw" rhetoric that opposes such interventions on various grounds.

For instance, disability rights activists have weighed in on the plastic-straw ban. Some people with disabilities need straws to drink because they have trouble swallowing or cannot lift or hold a cup.

A plethora of alternatives to plastic straws exist to provide practical solutions, including silicone, paper and stainless steel. Ultimately, this means all consumers have an ethical choice to make: planet or plastic?

We don't contest the importance of accessibility, which is why we do not argue in favour of an absolute outright ban on straws. Rather, we believe that "having a disability and doing your part to help the environment are not mutually exclusive."

The anti-anti-straw arguments we take issue with are often either libertarian (hands off my straws) or pessimistic (this does not address the root cause of the problem) in nature. Some of these arguments are a mix of both.

A slew of journalists and writers have recently put forward counter-arguments to interventions seeking to reduce ocean plastics. They write that targeting straws specifically will not make a significant difference to the ocean.

Quantitatively, sure, straws make up a small portion of the plastics that enter and contaminate the ocean (roughly four per cent of litter). This does not mean, however, that straws aren't worth addressing.

Why is a targeted effort towards four per cent of marine litter being attacked as useless or ineffective, when the posited alternative is no effort at all?

Target "gateway plastic"

Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup's annual Dirty Dozen list highlights the items most commonly found on marine and freshwater shores. Straws rank ninth, below cigarette butts, food packaging, bottle caps and plastic bags.

Other studies have found similar contributions to marine litter from plastic straws. The UNEP 2018 State of Plastics report also ranks straws and stirrers in seventh place for plastics found in the environment.

However, these other plastics require an entirely different approach to mitigating their entry into the environment.

Should we focus on an outright ban on cigarettes with the same vigour as we have straws? Can we vilify single-use plastic bottle beverage industry players in the same manner?

Presumably, those who are anti-anti-straw would respond accordingly, if not an order of magnitude greater, to these kinds of petitions.

War on straws

Dune Ives, the executive director of the Lonely Whale Foundation, has called straws "the gateway plastic" for those on the verge of environmentalism. For example, something as mundane or "playful" as a straw can open up a larger, more serious conversation about plastic pollution, or global mass consumption even more broadly.

This point is both the crux of the "war on straws" and the crucial piece moving forward in the overall endeavour to reduce marine plastic pollution: changing the norm.

Comparisons may also be made with plastic bag bans. For example, many countries and jurisdictions around the world have successfully implemented plastic bag bans or taxes to reduce plastic environmental pollution.

Like plastic straws, some groups suggest that because plastic bags are ultra-lightweight, they likely make negligible contributions to municipal waste. These groups also claim that banning plastic bags is more about appearances and idealism than about protecting the environment. However, like plastic bag bans, the concept of eliminating or replacing single-use plastic (SUP) straws requires a revolution in consumer mentality.

Changing habits

There is no radical extreme call to immediately stop the production of plastic products. Indeed, shaming plastic use has been seen as an ineffective way to get more people on board.

Plastics are imperative in many contexts, including sterile packaging and disposable tools in medicine, reducing food spoilage and increasing food safety. The movement to remove SUP straws, or even bags, should consider these nuances, but it is far from destroying the foundation of modern society.

With about eight million to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic entering our oceans each year, there is an urgent need to address our pervasive plastic problem.

We need a broad-scale and widespread approach that questions our throw-away culture, and the overwhelming trend to buy more, buy bigger and buy more often. Avoiding the use of a plastic straw may seem trivial, but it counts.

It may seem like a drop in the ocean, but what is an ocean anyway but many, many, drops?

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.After a few weeks in soils, numerous soil microorganisms colonized the surface of the PBAT films and had begun to biodegrade the polymer. (Electron microscopy image) Credit: ETH Zurich / Environmental Chemistry Group

The world is drowning in a flood of plastic. Eight million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Agricultural soils are also threatened by plastic pollution. Farmers around the world apply enormous amounts of polyethylene (PE) mulch films onto soils to combat weeds, increase soil temperature and keep the soil moist, thereby increasing overall crop yields.

After harvest, it is often impossible for farmers to re-collect whole films, particularly when they are only a few micrometers thin. Film debris then makes its way into the soil and accumulates in the soil over time, because PE does not biodegrade. Film residues in soils decrease soil fertility, interfere with water transport and diminish crop growth.

Soil microbes mineralise films composed of alternative polymer

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) have now shown in an interdisciplinary study that there is reason to be hopeful. In their recent study, they demonstrate that soil microbes degrade films composed of the alternative polymer poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT). Their work has just been published in the journal Science Advances.

In the research project coordinated by Michael Sander, Kristopher McNeill and Hans-Peter Kohler, former ETH doctoral student Michael Zumstein succeeded in demonstrating that soil microorganisms metabolically utilised the carbon in the PBAT polymer both for energy production and also to build up microbial biomass.

"This research directly demonstrates, for the first time, that soil microorganisms mineralise PBAT films in soils and transfer carbon from the polymer into their biomass," says Michael Sander, Senior Scientist in the Environmental Chemistry Group in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich.

Like PE, PBAT is a petroleum-based polymer that is used to make various products, including mulch films. Because PBAT was already classified as biodegradable in compost, the ETH and Eawag researchers aimed at assessing whether PBAT also biodegrades in agricultural soils. By comparison, PE does not biodegrade in compost or in soil.

Labelling of polymer with carbon-13

In their experiments, the researchers used PBAT material that was custom-synthesised from monomers to contain a defined amount of the stable carbon-13 isotope. This isotope label enabled the scientists to track the polymer-derived carbon along different biodegradation pathways in soil.

Fungal hyphae colonize the PBAT film surfaces and use the PBAT carbon in their metabolism. (Electron microscopy image) Credit: ETH Zurich / Environmental Chemistry Group

Upon biodegrading PBAT, the soil microorganisms liberated carbon-13 from the polymer.

Using isotope-sensitive analytical equipment, the researchers found that the carbon-13 from PBAT was not only converted into carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of microbial respiration but also incorporated into the biomass of microorganisms colonizing the polymer surface.

True biodegradation

"The beauty of our study is that we used stable isotopes to precisely track PBAT-derived carbon along different biodegradation pathways of the polymer in the soil," says Michael Zumstein.

The researchers are the first to successfully demonstratewith high scientific rigorthat a plastic material is effectively biodegraded in soils. Not all materials that were labelled "biodegradable" in the past really fulfilled the necessary criteria. "By definition biodegradation demands that microbes metabolically use all carbon in the polymer chains for energy production and biomass formationas we now demonstrated for PBAT," says Hans-Peter Kohler, environmental microbiologist at Eawag.

The definition highlights that biodegradable plastics fundamentally differ from those that merely disintegrate into tiny plastic particles, for instance after exposure of the plastic to sunlight, but that do not mineralise. "Many plastic materials simply crumble into tiny fragments that persist in the environment as microplasticseven if this plastic is invisible to the naked eye," Kohler says.

In their experiment, the researchers placed 60 grams of soil into glass bottles each with a volume of 0.1 litre and subsequently inserted the PBAT films on a solid support into the soil.

After six weeks of incubation, the scientists assessed the extent to which soil microorganisms had colonised the PBAT surfaces. They further quantified the amount of CO2 that was formed in the incubation bottles and how much of the carbon-13 isotope the CO2 contained. Finally, to directly demonstrate the incorporation of carbon from the polymer in the biomass of microorganisms on the polymer surfaces, they collaborated with researchers from the University of Vienna.

At this stage, the researchers cannot yet say with certainty over which timeframe PBAT degrades in soils in the natural environment given that they conducted their experiments in the lab, not in the field. Longer-term studies in different soils and under various conditions in the field are now needed to assess the biodegradation of PBAT films under real environmental conditions.

Too early for an all-clear

"Unfortunately, there is no reason to cheer as of yet: we're still far from resolving the global environmental problem of plastic pollution," says Sander, "but we've taken a very important first step in the direction of plastic biodegradability in soil."

At the same time, he cautions against unrealistic expectations for biodegrading plastics in the environment: "As we have demonstrated, there is hope for our soils in the form of biodegradable polymers. The results from soils should, however, not be directly transferred to other natural environments. For instance, biodegradation of polymers in seawater might be considerably slower, because the conditions there are different and so are the microbial communities."

New tool created

The researchers anticipate that their study will be noticed by industry. "We've developed analysis techniques that open the door for industry to test the environmental impact of their plastic products," says co-author Kristopher McNeill. "Thanks to our method, they can switch to using biodegradable materials in the production of thin mulch films instead of non-degradable PE," he adds.

So far, only a few chemical companies have started to produce and market the more eco-friendly, but also more expensive, PBAT films. Among these is the German company BASF, which supported this study. "In comparison to the total volume of plastic that is brought into circulation, biodegradable mulch films play only a minor role. Yet, these products are an important starting point to decrease stress on agricultural soils and protect them from plastic accumulation in the long term," Sander says.

An additional option to reduce the volume of plastic entering agricultural soils is to employ thicker mulch films, which are also used in Swiss agriculture. These films can be re-collected after use and then either reused or disposed of via waste incineration.

Explore further Corn with straw mulch builds yield, soil carbon

More information: M.T. Zumstein el al., "Biodegradation of synthetic polymers in soils: Tracking carbon into CO2 and microbial biomass," Science Advances (2018). advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/7/eaas9024 Journal information: Science Advances M.T. Zumstein el al., "Biodegradation of synthetic polymers in soils: Tracking carbon into CO2 and microbial biomass,"(2018). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aas9024Rice field, Colombia: Colombian farmer, left, and John Crawford, right. Credit: Rothamsted Research

An ambitious collaboration project to harness space technology and bring sustainable productivity to rice and oil palm farmers in Colombia entered a crucial phase this month with the start of technical training workshops in Cali, the country's second largest city and Pacific gateway.

Fewer than one in ten of Colombian farmers currently have access to technical assistance to help them to manage their land more efficiently at a time when the country sees agriculture as making a significant contribution to diversifying the country's economy and reducing inequalities.

"Moreover, Colombia's agriculture is subject to challenges from climate change," says John Crawford, who heads the Integrated Solutions Lab at Rothamsted Research, which is leading the project. "So, productivity increases have also to be met against the threat of weather extremes."

The new project, known as EcoProMIS (Ecological Production Management Information System), is designed to create a commercially viable solution for sustainable agriculture in Colombia by April 2021; a solution that is free to farmers and funded by industrial stakeholders.

EcoProMIS aims to combine space data with in-situ observations from smart sensors and to deliver that information to farmers in near real-time and in a way that enables them to increase productivity and minimise the environmental footprints of their oil palm and rice crops.

Oil palm, Colombia. Credit: Rothamsted Research

"Through outreach programmes, smallholders and land managers will develop their skills and understanding of how crop management affects productivity, income and ecosystems," says Crawford. "Smartphones will communicate data and knowledge directly from and to farmers in the field."

He adds: "The system will also allow risk to be better managed and monitored, making it easier to provide financial services, such as loans and insurance, in a country where the vast majority of farmers cannot access these services."

The 38-month project is supported by a grant of 3.9M from the UK Space Agency, under the second call of its International Partnership Programme. The IPP, a 152 million fund launched in 2015, uses UK organisations' space knowledge, expertise and capability to provide a sustainable, economic or societal benefit to undeveloped nations and developing economies.

Eleven projects won support in this second round, IPP2, and join 22 existing projects. All IPP projects are match-funded, with consortium members and international partners providing further funding or contributions in kind.

"This exciting project in Colombia will help farmers to improve their land management to diversify the country's economy and stabilise food supplies," says Graham Turnock, Chief Executive of UK Space Agency. "Innovations from space, like Rothamsted's EcoProMis, have the ability to expand skills and technology at home whilst bringing benefits abroad; I'm delighted to see this project progressing."

Oil palm, Colombia. Credit: Rothamsted Research

Rothamsted signed the contract with the UK Space Agency in February, and then appointed Agricompas, a data analytics company based in the UK, to jointly forge and manage a public-private partnership, which was established in mid-May.

While Rothamsted excels in project management and crop science, Agricompas is experienced in analysing data to develop services that support decision making, notes Roelof Kramer, the company's chief executive.

At the end of the project, Agricompas will own all the resulting intellectual property that it will be able to commercialise in Colombia and elsewhere in the world: "Revenues, crucial for the system's maintenance, will be generated from services to processors, financial institutions and governments," says Kramer.

Rothamsted's partners also include, from the UK, Elastacloud, for data science, and Pixalytics, for satellite earth observation; from Colombia, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cenipalma and Fedearroz, for local agricultural knowledge; and Solidaridad, the international organisation behind the Fair Trade movement, for socio-economic expertise.

"We are very proud to bring public and private partners together in a holistic approach that improves crop productivity while it reduces environmental impact and improves socio-economic conditions of the stakeholders," says Kramer.

Explore further Key crops are focus of farming researchCredit: CC0 Public Domain

For three years, Jenny Calahan led fellow undergraduate students at the University of Arizona (UA) in research to help unravel the mystery of how the galaxy's most massive stars are born.

On July 23, just two months after Calahan graduated with a bachelor's degree in physics and astronomy, the resulting research paper, "Searching for Inflow Towards Massive Starless Clump Candidates Identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey," was published in The Astrophysical Journal. Her co-authors include students who assisted with the survey and research.

"There's still a pretty open question in astronomy when it comes to massive star formation," Calahan said. "How do stars weighing more than eight solar masses form from clouds of dust and gas?"

Astronomers understand this process for stars the size of our Sun. Particles in clouds are attracted to each other and begin to clump together. Gravity takes hold and the gases flow to the center of the cloud as it collapses. Over millions of years, the gas is put under so much pressure that it begins to burn, and the star is born when nuclear fusion finally begins in the core of the compressed gas.

Theories about how much gas and time it takes to make a star like our Sun can be proven through observations, because each stage of a Sun-like star's lifefrom the collapse of gas clouds into a pre-stellar core to the star's expansion into a red giant and collapse into a white dwarfcan be been seen throughout the galaxy.

But astronomers have yet to understand how stars more than eight times the mass of our Sun form. Stars of this size explode into supernovae at the end of their lives, leaving behind black holes or neutron stars.

"There are a few theories for massive star formation that work in simulations, but we haven't seen those initial conditions out in the wild universe," Calahan said.

One theory is the formation of massive cores, says Yancy Shirley, associate professor in the UA's Department of Astronomy. The massive cores are dense collections of gas several times larger than the star they create. For massive stars, the cores must be at least 30 times the mass of our Sun.

"People are having trouble finding objects like that," Shirley said.

The other theory is that multiple low-mass cores form within a gas clump. The low-mass cores grow as they compete for material in the clump, and eventually, one of the cores grows large enough to form a massive star.

"This is the debate: which of these two pictures is more correct, or is it some combination of the two?" Shirley said.

The first step in answering the question is identifying the earliest phase of star formation, so Calahan, under the advisement of Shirley, set out to find clumps showing signs of collapsing gas motion, called "inflow."

Calahan selected 101 subjects from a list of more than 2,000 huge, cold and seemingly starless clouds of gas called starless clump candidates, or SCCs. Though astronomers have studied SCCs in the past, many of them focused on the brightest and most massive objects. Calahan's study was unique in that it was a blind survey.

Ranging in size from a few hundred times the mass of our Sun to a few thousand solar masses, the SCCs Calahan selected are a representative sample of all gas clouds that have the potential to form massive stars.

Using the Arizona Radio Observatory's 12-meter radio telescope at the UA's Steward Observatory on Kitt Peak, Calahan detected and tracked radio waves emitted by the molecular gas oxomethylium (HCO+), which emits a specific radio wavelength.

Once Shirley and the undergraduate students he advises use the telescope to identify objects of special interest, like collapsing SCCs, the clumps of interest are then further studied using ALMA, which can peer deeper into the gas and find stars or other objects that cannot be seen with the 12-meter telescope.

Oxomethylium, one of the more abundant ion molecules in space, is a highly reactive ion that would not survive in our Earth's atmosphere. When oxomethylium moves towards an observer, the wavelengths are compressed; when the gas moves away from an observer, the wavelengths are stretched.

By analyzing the wavelengths, Calahan identified six SCCs that showed the telltale signs of collapse, suggesting that gas collapse happens quickly, accounting for only 6% of the formation process of massive stars.

"One side is falling away from us and one side is falling towards us," Calahan said.

Surveys take many dozens of hours to complete. Calahan and Shirley spent 19 weekends over the course of eight months to study the SCCs.

"I've now seen every part of this research," Calahan said. "I got to be part of asking the question, observing and doing the data reduction."

Groups of undergraduate students traveled with Calahan and Shirley to the telescope, where they learned astronomical observation and data analysis techniques.

"The first time we went up, I learned how to use the telescope and I learned how to analyze the data," Calahan said. "By the third time, I could teach other students."

Shirley has served as adviser to several students who have published the research they did at UA, but Calahan is the first student of his whose paper was accepted before graduation.

"I don't think I could have done this at any other university," Calahan said. "We have the resources and the faculty to teach us how to reduce real-life data and observe on a real-life telescope. That's really unique to this institution."

Explore further The laws of star formation challenged

More information: Jenny K. Calahan et al. Searching for Inflow toward Massive Starless Clump Candidates Identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey, The Astrophysical Journal (2018). Arxiv: arxiv.org/abs/1805.00036 Journal information: Astrophysical Journal , arXiv Jenny K. Calahan et al. Searching for Inflow toward Massive Starless Clump Candidates Identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey,(2018). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aabfea , OnCredit: Kate Ter Haar via Flickr CC

A killer combination of high heat and high humidity is gripping much of the midwestern and northeastern U.S., Canada, and the U.K., and producing disturbing headlines. Among them: some 70 deaths are attributed to the recent Canadian heat wave, and roads in Pennsylvania are said to be melting; meanwhile, new research suggests prolonged heat exposure can create measurable declines in cognitive ability.

The frequency of lethally hot weather is increasing, as is the duration of high-risk heat. These facts are grim reminders of the findings of a report, published late last year, by climatologists from Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The researchers reported that, considering the present climate change trajectory, heat stress could exceed human endurance by the end of the century.

"Climate change has already loaded the dice in favor of more frequent extreme heat events," said Lamont-Doherty climatologist and study author Radley Horton. "Since 2000, the U.S. has experienced approximately twice as many record-breaking high temperatures as record breaking low temperatures."

The report discusses "wetbulb" measurements, an index of the combination of heat and humidity. The news is not good, especially for those in southeastern U.S., South America, Africa, India and China.

"The conditions we're talking about basically never occur nowpeople in most places have never experienced them," said lead author Ethan Coffel, a graduate student at Lamont-Doherty. "But they're projected to occur close to the end of the century."

Although the report's most grim projections are set in the future, the increasing periods of high heat and humidity are already having dramatic health impacts.

"The health dangers associated with extreme heat and humidity remain grossly underappreciated," said Horton. "As temperature and humidity rise in the future, more and more regions will experience conditions in which outdoor labor is dangerous, and air conditioning is essential."

While the news isn't pleasant, these findingsnot to mention this summer's record-breaking temperatures and oppressive mugginessare great reminders that we need to cut our carbon emissions. Here are a few things you can do to make a difference.

Explore further Global warming's humidity could put lives in danger

Provided by Earth Institute, Columbia University

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.Forests in tropical regions, such as this forest in Trinidad, could soon become a source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming rather than helping to counteract it, according to research led by the University of Edinburgh Credit: Ed Mitchard

Forests in tropical regions could soon become a source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming rather than helping to counteract it, according to research.

Loss of trees to agriculture or livestock in tropical regions and the impact of climate change is limiting the forests' ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a study shows.

This could make it impossible to meet the main goal in the Paris Agreement of 2015, which seeks to limit the global temperature rise to 2C compared with pre-industrial levels.

Researchers estimate that tropical forests currently take in as much carbon from the atmosphere through growth as they generate through deforestationthe loss of forest to commercial activitiesand degradationthe removal of trees for timber or fuel.

Tropical forests are at risk of becoming a major source of emissions in coming decades as climate change accelerates and deforestation continues, driven by agriculture, animal grazing and mining in South America, Asia and Africa.

Loss of forest to deforestation and degradation, mainly in tropical regions, accounts for about one-fifth of recent man-made greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say. Currently, an equivalent amount of CO 2 is absorbed by the remaining forests. This is aided by increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere, which makes it easier for trees to grow.

Forests in tropical regions, such as this forest in Trinidad, could soon become a source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming rather than helping to counteract it, according to research led by the University of Edinburgh. Credit: Ed Mitchard

If deforestation and degradation were to stop and forests allowed to recover, they would once again help to absorb significant greenhouse gas emissions, researchers add.

It is hard to predict the fate of tropical forests under current conditions, scientists say. Climate change will cause higher temperatures and droughts, killing more trees, but at the same time higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will aid tree growth.

Predicting the outcome could be helped by more field experiments and by countries sharing their data, to take advantage of observations from forthcoming satellites.

The study, published in Nature, was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Space Agency.

Forests in tropical regions, such as this forest in Trinidad, could soon become a source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming rather than helping to counteract it, according to research led by the University of Edinburgh. Credit: Ed Mitchard

Dr. Ed Mitchard of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "Predicting how tropical forests will affect climate is a complex challengewe do not know how climate will affect forests, nor if countries will meet their commitments to safeguard them. Worryingly, research indicates that forests could soon stop counteracting warming, and instead become a major source of greenhouse gas."

Explore further Saving trees in tropics could cut emissions by one-fifth, study shows

More information: The tropical forest carbon cycle and climate change, Nature (2018). www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0300-2 Journal information: Nature The tropical forest carbon cycle and climate change,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0300-2The African Bush Elephant or Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana) used to be widespread across the whole continent and despite its high-profile status and conservation investment the pressure from ivory hunters still threatens it with global extinction; the loss of elephants triggers all sorts of other ecosystem changes Credit: Alexander Lees/Manchester Metropolitan University

A global biodiversity collapse is imminent unless we take urgent, concerted action to reverse species loss in the tropics, according to a major scientific study in the prestigious journal Nature.

In their paper 'The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems' an international team has warned that a failure to act quickly and decisively will greatly increase the risk of unprecedented and irrevocable species loss in the most diverse parts of the planet.

The study is the first high-level report on the state of all four of the worlds most diverse tropical ecosystemstropical forests, savannas, lakes and rivers, and coral reefs.

The authors found that although the tropics cover just 40% of the planet, they are home to more than three-quarters of all species including almost all shallow-water corals and more than 90% of the world's bird species. Most of these species are found nowhere else, and millions more are as yet unknown to science.

"At the current rate of species descriptionabout 20,000 new species per yearit can be estimated that at least 300 years will be necessary to catalogue biodiversity," said Dr. Benoit Guenard, Assistant Professor of the University of Hong Kong and an author of the study.

And across tropical ecosystems, many species face the 'double jeopardy' of being harmed by both local human pressuressuch as overfishing or selective loggingand droughts or heatwaves linked to climate change.

Dr. Alexander Lees, from Manchester Metropolitan University explained that while over-harvesting of wildlife was responsible for the annual loss of millions of highly trafficked animals such as pangolins, it also affected many other less-well known species.

He said: "Even many small songbirds are at risk of imminent global extinction due to their capture for the pet trade in South East Asia. The rainforests where they live are increasingly falling silent."

The declining health of tropical ecosystems also threatens the well-being of millions of people across the planet.

Lead author Professor Jos Barlow from Lancaster University said: "Although they cover just 0.1% of the ocean surface, coral reefs provide fish resources and coastal protection for up to 200 million people. And between them, humid tropical forests and savannas store 40% of the carbon in the terrestrial biosphere and support rainfall in some of the world's most important agricultural regions.

Whilst the conclusions are bleak, the study also outlined the actions that are needed to turn the health of these vital ecosystems around.

The researchers have called for a step-change in efforts to support sustainable development and effective conservation interventions to preserve and restore the tropical habitats that have been the home and last refuge to the overwhelming majority of Earth's biodiversity for millions of years.

Professor Barlow said: "The fate of the tropics will be largely determined by what happens elsewhere in the planet. While most of us are familiar with the impact of climate change on the polar regions, it is also having devastating consequences across the tropicsand without urgent action could undermine local conservation interventions."

Dr. Christina Hicks from Lancaster University said, as a powerful economic driver of change, the role of developed countries was also felt deeply in the tropics.

She said: "Conservation strategies must address the underlying drivers of environmental change whilst avoiding exacerbating deeply rooted inequalities. Environmental aid has remained static in recent years, and remains a drop in the ocean compared to the income generated by resource extraction."

Dr. Toby Gardner, Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute highlighted the importance of innovation.

He said: "The past decades have seen a boom in proposals, innovations and insights about the science, governance and management of tropical ecosystems from remote sensing and big data to new legal frameworks for business. The clock is ticking for these proposals and insights to be properly tested."

Dr. Joice Ferreira, a researcher in the team from the Brazilian governments agricultural research institution Embrapa, emphasized that a big part of the solution needs to be in strengthening the capacity of research institutions in the tropics.

She said: "Despite some notable exceptions the vast majority of biodiversity-related data and research is concentrated in wealthy, non-tropical countries."

"An international approach to science is vital to help avoid the loss of tropical biodiversity."

Professor Barlow said: "Fifty years ago biologists expected to be the first to find a species, now they hope not to be the last."

The Review is part of a special package of articles in an Insight on the tropics in this week's Nature.

Explore further Protecting tropical forest carbon stocks may not prevent large-scale species loss

More information: Jos Barlow et al, The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems, Nature (2018). Journal information: Nature Jos Barlow et al, The future of hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0301-1Taxi drivers march during a strike in Barcelona on July 25, 2018

Uber and Cabify suspended their services in Barcelona on Wednesday after some of their drivers were attacked during a taxi strike, the association representing the ride-hailing companies said.

"Our priority is that drivers and travellers are as safe as possible and right now the city of Barcelona cannot offer that security," Eduardo Martin, president of Unauto VTC, told AFP.

"Given the nature of the assaults we have suffered in the past few hours the most prudent thing to do was stop offering our services."

Hundreds of taxi drivers, some of them from other parts of Spain, protested in the centre of the Mediterranean seaside city, lighting firecrackers and flares.

At the airport, meanwhile, where dozens of Ryanair flights had been cancelled due to a cabin crew strike, the taxi stand was empty.

According to a police spokeswoman, stones were thrown at the vehicles of Uber-style licensed private drivers, with some ending up with flat tyres.

Martin said at least two drivers had been taken to hospital.

One was beaten up while another had a substance thrown in his face that provoked light burns, he added.

"There are others suffering anxiety crises," he said.

A police spokeswoman said she knew of one incident in which protesters threw a "liquid" into the face of a Uber driver, "causing him irritation."

The taxi sector called a 48-hour strike after the Spanish government appealed a ruling approved by Barcelona authorities that limited the number of VTC licences given to professional, non-taxi drivers.

The ruling, which has been suspended pending a decision, stipulated that one VTC licence could be awarded for every 30 taxi licences in Barcelona.

Explore further Uber returns to Barcelona with licensed service

 2018 AFPJuly 25, 2018 - Hannah Farrington

Former Dean and Professor Ted Parnall with ADALAT colleagues and professors from Bost and Nangahar Universities.

Former UNM Law Dean and Emeritus Professor Ted Parnall recently completed his seventh visit to Afghanistan, continuing his work with the USAID-funded Assistance for the Development of Afghan Legal Access and Transparency (ADALAT) Project implemented by the Washington D.C. based Checchi and Company Consulting, Inc.

Checchi and Company has worked to support law development in Afghanistan for many years, and, with its current ADALAT Project, seeks to achieve its main purpose by advancing three specific sub-purposes: increased effectiveness and reach of the formal justice sector, strengthened linkages between the formal and traditional justice sectors, and increased citizen demand for quality legal services. The ADALAT Project is in place to improve the quality of legal services for Afghan citizens by working directly with entities like the Afghan Supreme Court and Afghanistan Independent Bar Association to improve the quality of professional training and legal education for judges and lawyers, in addition to working with a number of civil organizations to improve citizens awareness of their legal rights and resources. Adalat is also the word for justice in one of Afghanistans main languages.

Professor Parnalls recent work has been focused on the efforts to address improvement in the quality and access to legal education. ADALATs activities in this area primarily involve supporting private university law faculties in improving their curricular offerings (including increased integration of the clinical legal education method into the curriculum), strengthening their teaching methods and strengthening the teaching of practical lawyering skills. Before departing, Parnall received some significant insight to bring to the endeavors in Afghanistan from colleague Professor Scott England, a Principal Lecturer in UNM Laws Legal Analysis and Communication Program. England provided Parnall with a useful overview and update on how the UNM School of Law is currently teaching legal analysis, writing and oral advocacy to its students here in New Mexico.

During his June visit, Professor Parnall met with Afghan experts in law clinics and curricular reform, as well as approximately 30 persons representing five potential grantees of the ADALATs grants to encourage practical legal skills and clinical education. These grants are intended as a complement to other efforts now being made under the auspices of the Ministry of Higher Education to reform Afghan legal education. Despite on-going security concerns, Parnall was pleased with the progress made and the work done with his Afghan colleagues. As a result of the cooperative efforts, he developed a program to support both pre-clinic skills courses and the initiation of law clinic at each of five universities located in Kabul, Herat, Nanghahar and Helmand provinces.

Two Pre-clinic courses are scheduled to take place between August and December of 2018. These courses are about developing and explaining legal analysis, and beginning to prepare a group of students from each grantee to perform services as lawyers before joining the Law Clinic scheduled to operate from December 2018 until March 31, 2019. In other courses at the university, students have learned the theory or doctrines of the legal system, but in these two interrelated pre-clinic courses, they will learn how to apply and use these doctrines and theories in order to assist clients, whether using traditional justice institutions, and/or the courts. The Pre-Clinic instructors in both the Clinical Legal Writing and Clinical Advocacy courses intend to help them learn legal argumentation through improving their legal analysis and communication skills.

The ADALAT grants will also support the operation of a Law Clinic at each of the grantee institutions. The Law Clinic course, limited to a small group of students at each grantee, allows them to work under the supervision of a practicing lawyer to obtain knowledge and experience in the practice of law. Students will have the opportunity assist their supervising lawyer/instructor to interview and counsel clients, assist in negotiations with lawyers and others, make presentations in traditional justice settings and or courts, draft legal documents, and interview witnesses. These students will develop their own practical lawyering skills by assisting their lawyer/instructor in various tasks necessary to help clients resolve their legal problems.

Parnall said that he drew heavily not only on his own background working in many other countries, such as Indonesia, Egypt and China, but also on the extensive emphasis the UNM School of Law has placed on its mandatory clinical legal education program. At least since 1970, the UNM School of Law has been a leader in Clinical Legal education, and this was initially encouraged by grants from the Ford Foundation under the leadership of William (Bill) Pincus. Using Professor Englands input on what we are currently doing with our legal writing curriculum, I tried to adapt some of our experience and practices in legal writing and clinical legal education to the very different Afghan conditions. I am sure that Fred Hart, Tom Christopher, and Bill Pincus are, or would be, surprised to see the far reaching potential impact of their vision, shared Parnall.

For more information on former UNM Law Dean and Emeritus Professor Ted Parnall, please click here. For more information on Checchi and Company Consulting, Inc. and the ADALAT Project please visit their website.Weipa bandy bandy. Credit: Dr. Freek Vonk

Researchers at Swansea University's College of Science are part of an international team that has discovered a new species of venomous snake in Australia.

The Vermicella parscauda (Weipa bandy-bandy) is a small (50-100cm) black and white banded snake found only in Australia. It belongs to a group of venomous snakes known as burrowing elapids. But despite being part of a highly venomous family including cobras and the infamous Australian taipans, bandy-bandys pose no risk to humans and their venom could actually contain medicinal properties.

Dr. Kevin Arbuckle is leading the molecular data analysis part of the research at Swansea. He said: "We are extremely excited to have identified this new species. After conducting the analyses of molecular data, we found that we had indeed found a distinctly different species than the bandy-bandys known previously."

It could be said that the last thing Australia needs is another venomous snake but as Dr. Arbuckle points out, this new species could have distinct benefits. "Due to their secretive habitats, small size, and venom that is not highly toxic to humans, the Weipa bandy-bandy is of no threat to us. In fact, once the venom of this new species is investigated, its complex mixture of biologically active chemicals has the potential to lead to future drug developments that could help humans."

The Weipa bandy-bandy was discovered by Dr. Bryan Fry (University of Queensland) and Dr. Freek Vonk (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre) in 2014, during a field trip to the Cape York Peninsula. Dr. Vonk and Dr. Fry suspected that the specimen was different to other bandy-bandy species. During a later trip in 2016, another team member from Dr. Fry's lab came across another of the snakesa sign that the first wasn't simply an unusual individual but might represent a new species. New genetic samples and morphological data were collected for these individuals and compared with all other bandy-bandy species. It was then up to Dr. Arbuckle to use the genetic data and test whether the new specimens represented a new, evolutionarily distinct species and to compare this to previously known species.

The Weipa bandy-bandy might pose no threat to humans, but as Dr. Arbuckle says, the opposite is unfortunately not true: "Despite only just being discovered the new species already faces significant threat through potential habitat disruption due to mining activities and will likely be classified as endangered or even critically endangered once formally evaluated.

Identifying the species is the first step towards making efforts to conserve it and provides a strong argument to avoid greatly extending the current mining enterprises that threaten its habitat."

The paper detailing the discovery of the Weipa bandy-bandy has been published in the journal Zootaxa.

Explore further Australia has a new venomous snake  and it may already be threatened4 hours ago

Billionaire tax hits critics as Biden pushes for budget deal

WASHINGTON (AP)  The Democrats' idea for a new billionaires tax to help pay for President Joe Biden's social services and climate change plan quickly ran into criticism as too cumbersome with some lawmakers preferring the original plan of simply raising the top tax rates on corporations and the wealthy. Biden said Monday hes hopeful the talks with Congress can wrap up overall agreement on the package this week.

Read ArticleEthel Cofie at the Golden Tulip hotel

By Ethel Cofie

Entrepreneur Ethel Cofie runs EDEL Technology Consulting, a digital transformation and IT consulting firm, and founded Women in Tech Africa, the continents largest professional group for women working in technology. It has members from more than 30 countries.

Favourite view

My favourite view in Accra is from the lobby of the Golden Tulip hotel. Combining my roles usually drags me from one meeting to another. In order to keep up with the pace, I tend to use public spaces not only as places to relax but also to meet like-minded people, potential clients and to people watch.

I spend up to five hours a week sitting in the lobby of the Golden Tulip watching how people interact with their technological devices, mainly because I build software and consult on digital transformation. An understanding of a typical Africans interaction with technology is fascinating to me.

A large number of people meet at and work from the Golden Tulip. It is always lovely to eavesdrop on the conversations  the anger, the frustration and the celebratory moments remind of me of the ups and downs in life. I always choose a seat with a view of the pool as it provides me with the sense of work and play at the same time.

Where to live

I live in West Legon, which is 13km north of the city centre. I would recommend it for anybody who wants to live away from the centre of town in a nice, expanding residential area. It does not have many serviced apartments or hotels, but it does have a good number of houses. Its relatively quiet and thats what I love about it.

Where to eat breakfast

I usually have my breakfast in my home gym after a workout, but once in a while I go out. I love the set-up at Peduase Valley Resort, which is about half an hour from the capital, with beautiful lush greenery and a petting zoo.

Escaping the city at Peduase Valley Resort

Peduase lodge has a good mix of local and continental dishes. I love that they have plantain and kontomire (a spinach-like vegetable) as well as waffles on the table.

Breakfast at Peduase lodge mixes local and continental cuisine

Where to drink cocktails

I love sipping cocktails at Skybar 25 after a hard days work. Its small and exclusive, so you always have to call and book a table. Admittedly, Skybar is a cliched name for a bar at the top of a high-rise building, but there is a lot of variety in the scenery and it gives you an amazing view from what might be one of the highest points in Accra. It is a great place to watch planes taking off and landing at the airport, as well as the night-time traffic.

Skybar 25 serves cocktails with city views

Where to relax

The Coco Lounge restaurant at Stanbic Heights gives me a view of Airport City Accra and the hustle and bustle of the traffic when people are leaving work. At night, there is a beautiful array of lights zipping across as you look down. The food is great  a little pricey, but worth it.

Their coco chips, tilapia rolls and coco starter combo does a good job of taking local foods such as tilapia and cocoyam and making them continental.

Dining at Coco Lounge

Where to discover music and culture

+233, a jazz bar and grill, has a live band six days a week. The bar is designed to host multiple bands per night, with a small stage upstairs and a large terrace. It boasts of hosting musical legends such as Bessa Simons from Osibisa, the Ghanaian Afrobeat band, and many contemporary Afropop artists.

Jazz bar +233 attracts acts including Ghanaian Afrobeat band Osibisa

Where to spend time outdoors

The beaches across Keta, a town in Ghanas Volta region, are vast and beautiful  a great place to run and commune with the sea. Its two hours east of the city by car, and quiet and secluded because its not a well-known tourist location. It is a place to be quiet with oneself, to rethink and re-strategise.

Ketas secluded beaches are a great place to unwind

Photographs: Emmanuel Bobbie; Howard Denner/ Photoshot/Getty Images; Rene Mayorga.[AMSTERDAM] HIV research must focus on young women and girls that still see growing rates of infection despite a global downturn, a conference has heard.



Women between 15 and 24 years of age are the only population in which the global rate of HIV infections is increasing, delegates heard at the AIDS 2018 conference this week (23-27 July) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.



Young women and girls also carry a larger share of the HIV burden compared with men and boys in many parts of the world. In East Africa, around 2.5 per cent of women aged 15-24 carry the virus, compared to around 1 per cent of men.



Part of the problem is that studying women as a subgroup is difficult, scientists told the event. This is because women in poor areas are often less literate and mobile than men, meaning they can struggle to contribute their experience to science. They may also face specific obstacles to seeking treatment or getting involved in research, such as duties of care towards children and the elderly.



Understanding these obstacles is particularly important when it comes to marginalised women such as sex workers, said Stefan Baral, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the United States.

It is fundamentally important to understand who is living with HIV, and why. Stefan Baral, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Baral pointed out that in South Africa, one-third of female sex workers carry HIV, yet little to no research is looking at their behaviour and healthcare needs. Sex workers are often not considered relevant in epidemics, he said.



According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 37 million people living with HIV/AIDS, leading to a million deaths every year. The focus of research and awareness-raising has long been on men who have sex with men, the conference heard, and this has been successful: infection rates among men are falling across the globe.



But for young women, traditional gender roles add to the difficulties of accessing healthcare and getting tested  and this contributes to the increase in infections seen globally.



In many parts of the world, a woman has little power to make her own decisions or manage money. Stigma is also a problem, Caroline Thomas, the programme manager for Persaudaraan Korban Napza, a network of organisations in Indonesia, told SciDev.Net.



Thomas explained that many Indonesian women will avoid seeing a doctor, or even getting tested because they dont want to be ostracised by their community or risk their chance of marriage.



Another obstacle is that women may practice risky behaviour that is socially taboo and so hidden, which makes it difficult to study. One panel discussed transactional sex, where women agree to sexual contact with a man in return for favours, status or material goods.



The practice is common in many African countries but remains woefully understudied as most women are reluctant to talk about or acknowledge it, according to Kirsten Stoebenau, a sociologist at the American University in the United States. Her research found that an estimated 45 per cent of East African women between 15 and 24 had engaged in transactional sex in the past.



Poor measurements make it really hard to understand its contribution to HIV, Stoebenau told the event.



According to the 2018 Global AIDS Update, a report released in anticipation of the conference, infections may also be increasing among indigenous people, even in countries such as Australia and Canada where overall infections are in steep decline.



Although experts believe rates are worryingly high among such groups, a lack of adequate data makes it difficult to estimate the true extent of the problem, the conference heard. Research on the Warao, an indigenous community in Venezuela that consists of only 600 people, found that 10 per cent carried the HIV virus and none were receiving treatment.

In response to the discussion, policymakers at the conference renewed calls for universal healthcare, one of the Sustainable Development Goals. This would allow marginalised and poor people to access care despite financial and social restraints. No one should go without treatment or die from HIV because of lack of access to basic healthcare, said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHOs director general.But for the scientists, its also important to increase research into specific communities, their response to the disease and the obstacles to seeking treatment.Lets move away from the concept of a general population, Baral told the audience. It is fundamentally important to understand who is living with HIV, and why.Username: Password: or Register Thread Rating: 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average

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Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 348173

07-25-2018 12:07 AM











Post: #1 Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Advertisement



A Kuwaiti Instagram star has been slammed for criticising new laws introduced to improve conditions for Filipino domestic workers.



Make-up artist Sondos Alqattan, who has 2.3million followers, was outraged that 'servants' would have a day off every week and be allowed to keep their passports.



She posted her furious rant online and it has since gone viral, attracting critical comments from social media users in the Middle East and Philippines.











'How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them?' she raged, adding: 'Whats worse is they have one day off every week.'



She continued: 'If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? Honestly I disagree with this law. I dont want a Filipino maid any more.'



Reforms were introduced in May to protect the rights of Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait, which lies between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.



The agreement followed months of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries over treatment of overseas employees.



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ights.html



https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07...bemoaning/ [ ]'How can I have a servant who keeps their own passport?': Kuwaiti Instagram star is slammed after posting video criticising new laws that give domestic workers better rights[/size]A Kuwaiti Instagram star has been slammed for criticising new laws introduced to improve conditions for Filipino domestic workers.Make-up artist Sondos Alqattan, who has 2.3million followers, was outraged that 'servants' would have a day off every week and be allowed to keep their passports.She posted her furious rant online and it has since gone viral, attracting critical comments from social media users in the Middle East and Philippines.'How can you have a servant at home who keeps their own passport with them?' she raged, adding: 'Whats worse is they have one day off every week.'She continued: 'If they run away and go back to their country, who will refund me? Honestly I disagree with this law. I dont want a Filipino maid any more.'Reforms were introduced in May to protect the rights of Filipino domestic workers in Kuwait, which lies between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.The agreement followed months of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries over treatment of overseas employees. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 445976

07-25-2018 12:08 AM











Post: #2 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Slavery is real. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 348173

07-25-2018 12:10 AM











Post: #3 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

LoP Guest Wrote: (07-25-2018 12:08 AM) Slavery is real.

Yep, now get back to work you.. Yep, now get back to work you.. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 292344

07-25-2018 12:12 AM











Post: #4 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

I pay you

I own you GrimShaw

Asinus Asinum Fricat

User ID: 447734

07-25-2018 12:14 AM



Posts: 32,482









Post: #5 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Well. She's dumb. Now her pocketbook is going to feel that hit. The ghost of capn crunch

Registered User

User ID: 448885

07-25-2018 12:15 AM



Posts: 855









Post: #6 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

she will burn in hell LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 452389

07-25-2018 12:16 AM











Post: #7 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

tRumps best friend LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 451148

07-25-2018 12:17 AM











Post: #8 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

S;avers and people traffickers here do that - and some seedy employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants - all take their passports from them.



It's standard slave operating procedure. Hans Ocelot

lop guest

User ID: 349891

07-25-2018 01:35 AM











Post: #9 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Reminds me of that rich lady in Australia, business mogul who wants to drop min wage to $4.00 hr level. She feels the common man has it too good. LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 443285

07-25-2018 01:47 AM











Post: #10 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

If the law does not adversely effect Israel, no one cares in America



Connect the dots LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 451148

07-25-2018 01:52 AM











Post: #11 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Hans Ocelot Wrote: (07-25-2018 01:35 AM) Reminds me of that rich lady in Australia, business mogul who wants to drop min wage to $4.00 hr level. She feels the common man has it too good.

that witch who owns mining companies over there? that witch who owns mining companies over there? LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 452389

07-25-2018 01:54 AM











Post: #12 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Hans Ocelot Wrote: (07-25-2018 01:35 AM) Reminds me of that rich lady in Australia, business mogul who wants to drop min wage to $4.00 hr level. She feels the common man has it too good.



another one of tRumps buddies another one of tRumps buddies LoP Guest

lop guest

User ID: 406166

07-25-2018 02:19 AM











Post: #13 RE: Kuwaiti Instagram star blasts new law allowing servants to keep passports

Make me a ham sandwich, bit*h.















AFPTV

Arab nations that normalised ties with Israel last year have "sinned" and should reverse such moves, Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei says. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco all agreed to normalise ties with Israel in 2020, as Washington under the administration of then US president Donald Trump made Arab-Israeli rapprochement a foreign policy priority.Catalonia's deposed president Carles Puigdemont said Wednesday he will head to Belgium where he will keep pressing for his region's independence after a Spanish judge dropped a European arrest warrant for him. Puigdemont was detained in Germany at the end of March on Madrid's request but he now no longer runs the risk of extradition to Spain after the Spanish court cancelled the warrant. "This weekend I will return to Belgium," the separatist leader told a news conference in Berlin. "My political activity will be based in Belgium, of course with the aim of pursuing the mandate by the people" for an independent Catalonia, Puigdemont said. Sacked as Catalan president after a failed secession bid on October 27, Puigdemont, as well as several members of his executive, fled to Brussels several days later. He was then arrested in Germany at the end of March on his return from a trip to Finland. Puigdemont was freed on bail around 10 days later and set about waiting for a German court decision on an extradition request by Spain, where he is wanted over his role in the independence drive. But the German court ruled that he could be extradited only on possible corruption charges and not for "rebellion" as sought by Madrid but which is not recognised under German law. Following that decision, Spain's Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena, in charge of the case against separatist leaders, dropped the international arrest warrant. From Belgium, Puigdemont will be able to travel where he wants, save Spain where he is still wanted for rebellion, which carries up to 25 years in jail, and for misuse of public funds. In theory, he could remain in self-exile for 20 years, which in Spain's legal system is the time limit after which the rebellion charge would no longer be valid. - 'Time for action' - Puigdemont is set to be greeted by a welcoming party comprising members of Catalonia's government as well as other pro-independence organisations. Although power is now officially in the hands of his designated successor Quim Torra, Puigdemont continues to exert strong influence in the region. Torra considers Puigdemont to be still the "legitimate president" of the region. In an illustration of Puigdemont's influence, he managed to reverse his party's stance for greater openness for dialogue with Madrid. "In Brussels, we will continue... to develop activities linked to that which the people of Catalonia approved on October 1," said Puigdemont, in reference to the referendum that was banned by Spain's courts and which was marred by police violence. "It's no longer a Spanish affair that can be resolved internally; a European view is necessary for the Catalonia question," said the region's former president, who expects to travel to other European countries to push his case. Besides Puigdemont, five other leading members of his pro-independance movement are in Belgium, Switzerland and Scotland. Torra met Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in early July, with the socialist leader promising to find a way out of the crisis. Puigdemont wants Sanchez to allow a referendum on the question of independance for Catalonia -- something that the prime minister has refused categorically. He also wants Spain to release nine separatists. "The change in Spain's government is supposed to come with a change in style and climate... but it's not the time for gestures, it's the time for action," he said.By Paul Carrel

BERLIN (Reuters) - Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, facing charges of rebellion in Spain, said on Wednesday he would return to Belgium from Germany and continue to campaign for the region's secession.

Spain's Supreme Court dropped a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont last week after Germany refused to extradite him for declaring the northeastern region's independence last year, an act that Madrid ruled was illegal.

Puigdemont said he would return to Brussels with his family on Saturday.

"Everyone knows that this is no longer an internal Spanish affair," he told a news conference in Berlin, adding that the independence campaign he would continue to pursue from Belgium had taken on a European aspect.

Spain's withdrawal of the arrest warrant offered a clear illustration of the difficulties the country has had trying to persuade its EU partners to cooperate with its attempts to bring former members of Catalonia's regional government to trial over the secessionist campaign.

Authorities in Madrid removed the government from office in response to the independence declaration, which followed a banned referendum on a split from Spain held in October.

Puigdemont was in Berlin awaiting an extradition order after German authorities arrested him in March at a petrol station in the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein as he was returning to Belgium after a journey to Finland.

Six members of Puigdemont's former cabinet are now in jail facing rebellion charges, while he and several others are scattered across Europe from Scotland to Switzerland, where they so far have successfully avoided Spanish efforts to have them sent home.

A German court ruled a week ago that Puigdemont, 55, could be extradited to Spain to face a separate charge for misuse of public funds, but not for the rebellion charge. Under European law, that means Spain would have been barred from trying him on the more serious charge if the extradition were to proceed.

Story continues

The Spanish court rejected that proposal, lifting the arrest warrant altogether.

The charges against Puigdemont and the five other former Catalan leaders in self-imposed exile remain in place despite the lifting of the European warrants, meaning they would be arrested if they returned to Spain.

(Reporting By Paul Carrel, Writing by Sonya Dowsett and John Stonestreet)By Maha El Dahan and Raya Jalabi

TAL ABU AL-DHAHER, Iraq (Reuters) - One day in June, a giant irrigation pump deep in the Mosul Dam Lake sputtered briefly into life. The successful test brought a rare moment of celebration for the facility's supervisor, Assem Abdel Rahman, and his small team of engineers from Iraq's Water Resources Ministry.

The pump had lain idle since 2014, when Islamic State fighters swept into Nineveh, then a lush province capable of producing almost a quarter of Iraq's wheat. When Iraqi forces and their allies drove out the militants three years later, the pump was out of action and the irrigation canals it supplied were in ruins. That June test showed there was hope for the pump, at least.

"If you could have seen this area before, it was full of green as far as your eyes could see," said Abdel Rahman, gesturing towards the barren land.

Getting the pump to work is only a beginning. This year the rains failed, too, and a new Turkish dam threatens to reduce flows from the Tigris River into the Mosul Dam Lake. Nineveh is becoming a dust bowl, and farmers, who came home after Islamic State fled, say they feel abandoned by Iraq's leaders.

Hani Habib Youhanna, a farmer from the Christian town of Qaraqosh, said he had poured his savings into planting wheat on his 125 hectares of land this year, but the crop was disastrous. "Support? There is no support from the government here at all. No irrigation, just nothing," he said.

His complaints are echoed across a country overwhelmed by the cost of rebuilding from its war with Islamic State and struggling with water shortages that have led to street protests this year. Much of the city of Mosul, 30 km to the northwest of Qaraqosh, is still rubble more than a year after the militants were expelled. In Iraq's long-neglected south, there have been angry demonstrations over water shortages. The government has promised to release funds to help. It estimates the total cost of Iraq's reconstruction at $88 billion.

Story continues

Nineveh's farmers say for them time is running out. In interviews, a dozen farmers and grain traders said government wheat production forecasts for 2018 were hopelessly optimistic. Some farmers said they were considering leaving the land. Others have joined local militias to get a regular wage.

"If farmers are pushed to look for another way of life, all the choices will basically be bad, whether it is smuggling, turning to extremism and militancy or migration," said Fadel al-Zubi, the Iraq representative of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), based in Baghdad.

Drought could be mitigated by irrigation but, critics say, Iraq's political leaders are too consumed by infighting to pay attention to the needs of farmers in places like Nineveh. Zainab al-Taaey, a member of the outgoing parliament's Committee on Agriculture, Water and Resources, said the Ministry of Water Resources was not doing enough to tackle water shortages. The ministry responded that it was working to clean up the water supply in Nineveh and dig wells to help farmers.

Other critics say inefficiency and corruption are starving Nineveh of funds. Iraq ranks 169 out of 180 countries on Transparency International's corruption index. Another committee member, Sherouk al-Abaigy, said successive governments had failed to come up with a comprehensive water plan. The ministry said the security situation across Iraq, where Islamic State still poses a threat, and a lack of funds were complicating its efforts, but it continued to work in Nineveh. It said its engineers were capable of implementing big projects and noted that Minister of Water Resources Hassan Janabi was a technocrat with a PhD in water management.

As farmlands diminish, Iraq's wheat import bill will rise. That's extra spending the country can ill afford. This year, the state Grain Board expects to import around two million tonnes of wheat at a cost of around $1.5 billion. The Farmers Union reckons the board may need to bring in an additional one million tonnes because of the poor harvest.

WAR AND DICTATORSHIP

The pump in the Mosul Dam Lake sits at the start of the North Al-Jazeera irrigation system, built three decades ago on the order of Saddam Hussein. Abdel Rahman has worked there since the beginning. North Al-Jazeera was part of an ambitious irrigation project, the biggest at the time in the Arab world, that was to include a southern and eastern facility. Had it been completed, it would have watered 250,000 hectares of the Al Jazeera plain.

But Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 led to U.N. sanctions, and foreign firms involved in the irrigation project, such as South Korea's Hanyang Corporation, left Iraq. Plans for the east and south facilities were abandoned.

Working as a standalone, the north pump provided thousands of farmers with a steady supply of water, enabling them to grow summer vegetables and winter grains. The irrigation system reached 60,000 hectares of land, around a quarter of Nineveh's potentially fertile land.

When a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the area where the pump is located was relatively unscathed. Some U.S. troops even used it as a base because of its concealed location inside a hill, Abdel Rahman said. "When the Americans came here in 2003 and saw the control panel inside the hill, they joked, 'What is this, a nuclear station?'" he recalled. The panel, which is still on display in the control room, was replaced by two laptop computers in 2012.

In the summer of 2014, Islamic State fighters arrived, and Abdel Rahman fled to the safety of Erbil, in Kurdish northern Iraq. He said the militants tried to make the pump work but they didn't know what they were doing and damaged the equipment. Fighters looted cables from the station, and most of North Al-Jazeera's smaller subsidiary pumps, bridges and canals were wrecked in the battle for Nineveh that started in 2016. When that conflict subsided, another threatened: The pump sits in territory also claimed by Iraq's Kurds. In Oct. 2017, Iraqi forces launched another offensive and took back control of the area.

When the fighting stopped, Abdel Rahman was eager to resume his work. But he found a scene of destruction. One hundred of the irrigation system's 280 canals are still out of commission, according to the United Nations. Many are filled with debris and explosives planted by the militants in an attempt to keep government forces at bay. Thirty of the 38 metal bridges have been blown up and 800 sections of elevated canal have been destroyed.

The U.N. set about fixing North Al-Jazeera with the help of international donors. The cost is estimated at over $9 million, excluding repairs to a local factory that manufactured components for the pipes. Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources has cooperated with the U.N. on technical details but hasn't allocated any of its own funds to the effort. Ministry adviser Zafer Abdullah said the North Al-Jazeera project needed a large budget and the ministry was prioritising "needs that touch people's everyday lives."

The first phase of repairs  demining, restoring power and fixing the main pumping station  is due to be completed by the end of 2018. The U.N. says more work will be needed to get water flowing to the subsidiary pumps and into the network of canals. "Within two years or so we hope to have it functional," said the FAO's Iraq representative Zubi.

"NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE HERE"

Farmers say they can't wait that long. When Islamic State fled, Nineveh's farmers began returning, hoping to rebuild their homes and livelihoods. Some, like Qaraqosh farmer Youhanna, who came home last year, are already giving up. "I'm not going to plant anything anymore. Where will I get the money from?" he said.

Islamic State burned Youhanna's home and stole his equipment. He found his tractor in Mosul amongst a pile of goods looted by the militants. Youhanna's teenage son lost three fingers when a mine exploded as they set about rebuilding their home. Like several other farmers, Youhanna now relies on a salary from a local militia.

"I know that in terms of politics, it is all the same. Nothing will ever change here. But I support them because they are the ones who are supporting me now," he said.

Another Qaraqosh farmer, Sami Nissan Yessi, said his equipment too had been ransacked and his barns burned. His prospects are poor. "My kids are in Germany and Canada. I returned with my wife and younger child. This is me, I'm a farmer. What will I do abroad?" he said.

Only two farmers in Qaraqosh managed to grow wheat this year. One of them, Tawfiq Abosh, 70, credited the small irrigation system he built eight years ago. When Islamic State left his family's farm, they stole or destroyed irrigation equipment, including the motors needed to power the pumps. Abosh sold the family's gold and took out loans to rebuild the system. Today it is working once more, watering Abosh's melon and cucumber crops.

He said he spends roughly $250 a month on petrol and electricity to power the pumps, an outlay he says he can no longer afford without government help. During two visits by an Agriculture Ministry official in December and March, Abosh said he asked for financial help to keep his farm going. He said he has yet to hear back. The Agriculture Ministry told Reuters it was supporting farmers, like Abosh, by giving them subsidized seeds and fertilizer and by paying them good prices for their crops.

Knowing there will be a long wait to restart the North Al-Jazeera project, some farmers have moved closer to the reservoir. Small-scale farmers planting summer vegetables have paid the government to be allowed to connect pipes to the reservoir as makeshift irrigation systems.

"What else can we do?" said Naif Mohammed Khalaf, a farmer who was planting tomatoes and watermelon on rented land.

Farmers say cumbersome government practices compound their problems. Farmers eligible for back payments for grains sold to the Trade Ministry since 2014 are checked to make sure they have no ties to Islamic State, delaying the release of money. Some farmers say they are still waiting for payments for 2014 crops. The head of the state Grain Board, Naeem al-Maksousi, said only around five percent of farmers were still due money from 2014 because of the security checks.

Authorities have ruled that fertilizer distributed to farmers in Nineveh must be free of urea, a chemical used in explosives. Sometimes the government provides urea-free fertilizer, but often it simply adds dust to the urea fertilizer to make it safe. That also makes the fertilizer less effective, farmers say. And government fertilizer often arrives late. The Agriculture Ministry said it was sometimes late distributing fertilizer because of the security situation. It said it checked the quality of fertilizer it supplied and disputed that it was ineffective.

DESERTED SILOS

The financial burdens on the state are growing. Iraq may have declared victory over Islamic State, but the militants still pose a threat, and the country spends billions of dollars each year on security.

Iraq also spends billions of dollars on a Saddam-era programme, the Public Distribution System, to supply subsidized bread and other essential foods to the population. Iraq's Grain Board is responsible for procuring and distributing wheat. Its head, al-Maksousi, said the board expects to get 350,000 tonnes of wheat from four silo complexes in Nineveh this year. But by mid-July, well into harvest time, only 103,000 tonnes had been collected, according to Nineveh's director of agriculture, Dreid Hekmat.

Tahseen Hussein was until recently the director of one of the four silo complexes, Bazwaya, which can hold up to 250,000 tonnes of wheat. The Grain Board set a target of 92,000 tonnes for the Bazwaya facility this year but Hussein estimated it will get only half that amount, blaming the drought.

On a morning in June two weeks into buying season, roughly 20 trucks were lined up outside Bazwaya, loaded with wheat to be tested and sold. Usually at this time of year there would be several hundred trucks, farmers, traders and a silo worker said. They said much of the wheat was from Kurdish areas, where there were fewer ready buyers. "There is barely any wheat anywhere in this area," said Abosh, the Qaraqosh farmer.

Around an hour and a half drive from Bazwaya are the Waeliya silos. The facility was built in 1989 to hold up to 180,000 tonnes of wheat. Today it is deserted, damaged by air strikes during the battle for Nineveh. Nowadays, only a guard and stray dogs greet visitors. On the paths between the silos, white flags mark the spots where landmines have been removed, while red flags warn of danger. Birds flock through holes in the walls and ceilings.

"Islamic State took positions in these silos and mined the land around them," said Abdel Aziz Saber, an Egyptian guard who has been living in Iraq since 1989.

There is another obstacle to reviving Nineveh's farmland. The water level in the Mosul Dam Lake that feeds the irrigation system has receded from around 330 meters above sea level before the drought to around 306 now, too shallow to operate the North Al-Jazeera pump year-round when it finally restarts. Turkey's Ilisu dam a few kilometres upstream along the Tigris River could make matters worse.

Around 70 percent of Iraq's water flows from neighbouring countries, most of it along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. The Euphrates is already heavily dammed in Syria and Turkey. The Tigris pours into the Mosul Dam Lake.

There are ways to alleviate problems caused by the Ilisu dam, the FAO's Iraq representative Zubi said. Turkey could use the spring flooding season to fill the dam reservoir, for example. Iraq and Turkey have already negotiated a series of delays to filling the reservoir. Turkey's ambassador to Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, said in June Turkey would consult with Iraq on "how we can cooperate and provide support during any problem."

Abdel Rahman remains optimistic. The successful test on the pump has given him hope. The South Korean contractor that built the irrigation project gave the equipment a lifespan of 25 years. He says he's proud of maintaining it well beyond that.

"Once it is working again, you will see what we can have here," he said.

(Additional reporting by Moayed Kenany in Baghdad. Editing By Janet McBride, Michael Georgy and Richard Woods)A police officer parks their car outside the Ecuadorian embassy, where Julian Assange remains inside, in central London A police officer parks their car outside the Ecuadorian embassy, where Julian Assange remains inside, in central London, Britain, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

By Michael Holden and Mark Hosenball

LONDON (Reuters) - The diplomatic impasse over Julian Assange's six-year stay in Ecuador's London embassy is coming to a head, a source close to the WikiLeaks founder said on Monday, after media reports the South American country would rescind his political asylum.

Assange has been living in Ecuador's London embassy since June 2012 when he successfully sought asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning about allegations of sex crimes which he has always denied.

Those allegations have since been dropped but Assange would be arrested by British police should he leave the embassy for breaching bail conditions.

He believes that would pave the way for extradition to the United States for the publication of a huge cache of U.S. diplomatic and military secrets on the WikiLeaks website.

Speculation about the Australian-born Assange's future has grown this month after the Sunday Times newspaper said senior officials from Ecuador and Britain were now in discussions about how to remove him from the embassy after revocation of his asylum.

"The situation is very serious. Things are coming to a head," the source, who spoke on condition on anonymity, told Reuters. He said the latest information from inside the embassy was, "It's not looking good".

However, both the Ecuadorean government and British government sources played down suggestions that there was likely to be any imminent movement to break the stalemate.

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno, who has described Assange's situation as "unsustainable" and "a stone in his shoe", is in to London this week to attend a global disabilities summit when newspapers suggested he could finalise an agreement.

However, the Ecuadorean government has said neither Moreno nor his delegation would address the Assange issue on his visit.

"The Ecuadorian state will only talk and promote understandings about Mr Assange's asylum, within the framework of international law, with the interested party's lawyers and with the British government," Ecuador's foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of the visit.

Story continues

SOLUTION "NOT IN SIGHT"

"At the moment, due to the complexity of the topic, a short- or long-term solution is not in sight."

A British government source also said there was no sign of immediate progress. Last month, Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan told parliament that they were increasingly concerned about Assange's health.

"It is our wish that this is brought to an end, and we would like to make the assurance that if he were to step out of the embassy, he would be treated humanely and properly," Duncan said. "The first priority would be to look after his health, which we think is deteriorating."

In May, Moreno ordered the withdrawal of additional security from Ecuador's small diplomatic headquarters in London. That followed a decision in March to suspend Assange's communication system and direct voice to the outside world.

Assange's supporters regard him as a champion of free speech who has exposed government abuses of power at great personal cost. His critics seem him as a criminal who recklessly endangered lives in many countries by exposing secrets.

His attempt to halt British legal proceedings failed in February when a judge said Assange appeared to consider himself above the normal rules of law.

Britain ended a permanent guard outside the embassy in October 2015 after spending almost 13 million pounds in policing but has vowed he will be arrested should he leave the embassy.

A U.S. Department of Justice investigation into WikiLeaks is continuing but a U.S. law official close to the investigation told Reuters there was no sealed indictment against Assange.

Assange has said the United States would unveil charges against him if he were arrested by British police and this would pave the way for his extradition.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)Lunaticoutpost.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program , anaffiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.Amazon, the Amazon logo, MYHABIT, and the MYHABIT logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.Don't be a pest to the forum.No profanity in thread-titles or usernamesNo excessive profanity in postsNo Racism, Antisemitism + HateNo calls for violence against anyone..This website exists for fun and discussion only. The reader is responsible for discerning the validity, factuality or implications of information posted here, be it fictional or based on real events. The content of posts on this site, including but not limited to links to other web sites, are the expressed opinion of the original poster and are in no way representative of or endorsed by the owners or administration of this website. The posts on this website are the opinion of the specific author and are not statements of advice, opinion, or factual information on behalf of the owner or administration of LunaticOutPost.Com. The owners or administration of this website can't be hold responsible for content hosted on sites that posters link to in; including, but not limited to, posts, signatures, private messages and such. This site may contain content not suitable for minors and if you feel you might be offended by such content, you should log off immediately.This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/In Chinas maximum security Qincheng prison, which holds the countrys highest-level disgraced officials, Sun Shanwus highly regimented days are filled with housekeeping and study sessions on clean politics, which he attends alongside former Communist Party elites with household names.

Sun, 71, the former top political adviser in Henan province in central China who was jailed for corruption in 2010, is referred to by people around him as a workaholic with few hobbies. Now too old to play ping-pong during the daily leisure break, caring for a few plants may be his best moments of daily joy.

He said he doesnt need any books, said Liu Yuping, Suns daughter, who last visited her father in April. There are plenty of people there who read a lot and have books sent in shopping trolleys.

Sun, who strongly maintains his innocence, desires freedom and a retrial. Given a de facto life sentence for taking bribes, he is among the very few, if not the only, inmate to have received help from the prison to petition for a retrial.

His case sheds light on the normally secretive world of corruption prosecutions at the highest reaches of the countrys administration, prosecutions that are part of a massive campaign meant to legitimise the partys rule. It also exposes the deep flaws in the justice system, which have been widely criticised from the outside but rarely so clearly acknowledged from within.

Officials from the countrys top prosecutors office urged Sun to hire a lawyer in 2014, after submitting documents in which he contested all of the charges and applied for retrial, Sun said in letters seen by the South China Morning Post.

Sun and his family said the rare gesture could signal that the top leadership had taken notice of the obvious flaws in his conviction.

The application for a retrial was accepted a month later, after the court had turned down Lius two previous applications.

Story continues

I believe it has raised eyebrows among the leadership, or the offices wouldnt have moved so promptly, Liu said.

Sun was among 12 officials above deputy ministerial level found guilty of corruption eight years ago. That number climbed to 40 convictions last year, when the trials of a vast number of disgraced officials in Chinese President Xi Jinpings far-reaching anti-corruption campaign ended.

The campaign, which has swept up more than 1.5 million officials across the country, was seen as highly effective in boosting the partys legitimacy within China as it cracked down on the pervasive culture of corruption. Yet the drive has had problems of legitimacy, as a number of investigations were widely seen as tools to punish political opponents and the legal system used to authorise a flawed process.

Despite Beijings claim to rule the country by law, scholars inside and outside China have long questioned the fairness of the nations legal system, as courts generally are given little authority and almost everyone who is charged is found guilty.

Corruption cases are further complicated by secrecy, as suspects must first endure covert investigations while they are detained incommunicado, with no access to lawyers, before they are handed to prosecutors.

Courts in corruption trials barely challenge the legality of evidence presented by prosecutors, which defendants commonly claim are confessions extracted through force. After the conviction, verdicts in a vast majority of cases are kept secret from the public, unlike those of other criminal cases, though only a tiny proportion actually involve state secrets.

These corruption cases are plainly politically sensitive and involve often influential defendants as well as accusers, said Jerome Cohen, director of the US-Asia Law Institute at New York University.

Chinese courts were weak and could hardly overcome pressure from anti-corruption offices, he said.

The partys anti-corruption force, or discipline inspection committees, was in charge of originating most corruption cases involving members of the ruling Communist Party before a March overhaul that merged it with the new supervisory commissions as part of the party-state reorganisation.

The new commissions are considered more powerful, as they cover officials as well as hospital, university and media executives who are not party members.

Both the partys anti-corruption force and the supervisory commissions outrank the prosecutors office and courts on the same level.

It is much harder to vindicate rights in corruption cases than ordinary criminal cases, even if the case really involves only corruption rather than the political struggle, local or national, Cohen said.

In a decades-long phenomena that partly underlines the officials distrust in the system, it is not unusual for people caught up in corruption investigations to attempt suicide.

The story of Sun Shanwu, which his lawyers and family described as a sham trial full of flaws, would sound familiar to many other tigers and flies, the term Beijing uses to refer to corrupt officials at all levels.

They searched my house with all sorts of detectors and looked for holes, Liu Yuping, Suns daughter, said of the raids in 2007, after Sun was taken by the partys anti-corruption force.

They dug the floor and knocked open the walls. They found nothing.

While the most popular anti-corruption stories in official media usually end with stacks of untouched currency or artwork, the inspectors had to rely on something else on Suns case.

Suns conviction in 2010 was built mainly on written testimonials, according to the verdict. Most of them were from people in detention, three of whom have recanted in various ways.

One of them, Gao Yuanchi, a colleague of Sun and a former official in Suns home province of Henan, said during his own trial that he admitted having bribed Sun only after being forced to do so, according to the verdict.

Gao, a former assistant to the mayor of Luoyang, where Sun was the citys party chief, was found guilty of taking bribes before the court nullified the charges, citing lack of evidence and suspicion of a forced confession. Yet only four days later he testified in the trial of Sun, who was given a suspended death sentence.

In a written statement, Sun said that he confessed to taking bribes only after he and his family were threatened, and that he expected his relatives to be spared.

Investigations show I do not have the money, not in my house, not transferred to other accounts, not hidden anywhere, he said in his final statement at the trial.

Then I was accused of a malicious and uncooperative attitude for not telling them whereabouts of the money. I dont know whether to cry or laugh about that.

Suns hopes that family members would not be targeted after his confession were not realised.

Five relatives  his wife, daughter, son, son-in-law and niece  were jailed on corruption charges in similar cases, although some witnesses retracted their testimony after the trials.

I was tortured and deprived of sleep, so I had to say whatever they wanted me to say, a businessman found guilty of bribing Suns wife told the Post. He asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation.

Id love to testify again if theres a retrial for her, he said of Suns wife, who was given a 3-year sentence.

The reason for Suns fall remains unclear. But Suns family and lawyers believe he had upset a retired member of the Politburo Standing Committee by turning down a 2004 bid for a state-owned mine that was offered by the former leaders relative.

Suns case is not unusual. The same patterns can be seen in a collection of 27 corruption convictions, all of which the countrys supreme prosecutors office ordered lower-level branches to review in 2016. The offices mouthpiece newspaper said all could be below judicial standard.

Eleven provincial prosecutors offices were told to review the cases and were given deadlines, the report said.

Two years after the directive, there has been one retrial, with a six-month reduction of the sentence, and most of the cases have yet to be touched by prosecutors or courts. Most of the cases were handed to prosecutors after 2013.

Legal scholars and lawyers have long decried that trials in Chinas judicial system, with its long-time conviction rate of over 99.9 per cent, have been overshadowed by appraisals of judges, police chiefs and prosecutors, making vindication of the accused notoriously difficult.

The challenge is greater in corruption cases, which are staged to highlight the governments achievements in clean politics and pushed by the partys anti-corruption watchdog, who outranks local prosecutors offices and courts.

In most of the 27 cases, convicted officials and their lawyers told of cases built on forced confessions, many coerced by threatening the safety of family members, according to verdicts and legal petitions seen by the Post.

Relatives provided evidence that the accused had been briefly moved from detention centres to locations with no video surveillance where, they said, torture took place.

Almost all of the legal petitions described torture to extract confessions, sleep deprivation, and incoherence or contradictions in evidence, with some attaching a diagnosis of physical disabilities sustained during detention.

Ordering a mandate itself underlines that the authorities have looked through the cases and found them very questionable, said Zhang Yansheng, a Beijing-based criminal lawyer who first flagged the cases to the top prosecutors office. Similar convictions are still taking place in China, and the old ones have remained unsolved.

Chen Lianggang, the former provincial land chief of Anhui province in central China and the most senior former official among the 27 convicted, saw his wife diagnosed with a mental illness after he was taken into custody in 2013.

She had provided written testimony against her husband while she was under detention herself, and had helped the authorities in Chens 2014 conviction for taking bribes totalling 6 million yuan (US$897,000).

Two days after being released from detention, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, a spinal dislocation and a kidney disorder, and the PTSD was later confirmed by a mental health institute, according to records seen by the Post.

The diagnosis had raised doubts about the validity of her written testimony.

During the trial, which his family was prohibited from attending, Chen contested all the charges. He said he was not allowed to choose his own lawyers, so he asked those appointed to him to remain silent in the courtroom, which according to a transcript they did.

Chen appealed immediately, but a higher court upheld the ruling a year later.

In a letter to provincial prosecutors in 2015, Chen wrote extensively about the pressure he felt before agreeing to confess to taking bribes.

They locked me in a room next to my wifes, he wrote. In a period of five months, I could always hear desperate screams from my wife, talks about her hunger strike, fainting, calls for a doctor could be heard from guards walkie-talkies. I felt tremendous mental pressure and pain from those voices.

Chens request for access to parts of a video recording of his interrogation, during which he said he was threatened and made up his written confession, was turned down, according to the ruling on his appeal.

The court said the video, taped by the partys discipline inspection committee, was not among the evidence it was obliged to review.

According to Chinese law, the court is not required to review the legality of the process under the partys anti-corruption watchdog, and in corruption cases, the courts only deal with material confirmed by prosecutors  who, in turn, always confirm what is given to them by the anti-corruption force.

Chinese law enforcement is always related to politics; it shouldnt be that way, said Zhang, the Beijing-based lawyer. It could be upsetting to a leader, a local faction, or simply be used to bring down another official. It could be the local governments have quota for anti-corruption cases. Or it could be a pure mistake.

Chens case seems to fit such a description. A rising star known for his legal expertise, Chen was brought down amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in his home province in 2013, triggered by the fall of Ni Fake, then the vice-governor.

The overhaul in March of the anti-corruption forces, which merged the partys anti-corruption unit with new supervisory commissions, has given optimists reason for hope.

Senior officials have said the changes will better protect the rights of suspects, as the new supervisory bodies will finally answer to the law, which sets clearer standards for the investigations.

But critics say that even under the new system, suspects are still detained incommunicado with no access to lawyers, and courts will continue to face immense pressure from a higher office during trials.

The new supervisory system does not offer significant protections against the arbitrary and lengthy incommunicado detention and torture that have marked the criminal process even now, almost 70 years after the founding [of the peoples republic], said Cohen, the law professor at the New York University.

China should face the need for genuine reforms in the administration of justice from the moment of detention through the appeal procedure.

Sun Shanwu has heard nothing about a possible retrial since 2014. In writings from prison, he dwells on the decades of life-and-death factional clashes in communist China that culminated in the Cultural Revolution, 10 years of political and social upheaval set off by Mao Zedong in 1966.

He writes about how the fathers of Chinas present leaders suffered from political persecution, but eventually won their lives back after a decade of darkness.

All Dad can do is to wait, wait patiently for an official conclusion of the review, Sun wrote to his daughter in May.

I of course understand the situation is known to many, and thats why Im confident.

This article Swept up in Chinas anti-corruption campaign, and forsaken by a secretive, suspect legal system first appeared on South China Morning Post

For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2018.

More from South China Morning Post:By Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's Kurds are trying to forge ties with Damascus as they seek to protect gains made in seven years of war, wary of their unpredictable U.S. ally and more ready than ever to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad.

The main Kurdish groups have emerged among the few winners of the conflict in Syria, carving out autonomous rule over large parts of the north under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

They have mostly avoided conflict with Assad, at times even fighting common foes -- including rebels his forces are gradually crushing with help from Russia and Iran.

Talks between the Syrian Kurds and Damascus have now begun on a return of state employees and repairs to one of Syria's most important pieces of infrastructure: the Tabqa dam, the country's largest, which the SDF took from Islamic State last year with U.S. air power.

A top Kurdish official has also signalled the fighters could join any future offensive against rebels holding Idlib province bordering Turkey, and cooperate more widely against Turkey, which has sent forces into an arc of Syria's northwest.

A decision to stop calling their police force by its Kurdish name, "Asayish", is another step that appears aimed at overhauling the region's image with an eye to its future.

Syria's Kurds, which the Baathist state systematically persecuted for years, say they do not seek independence, but they hope a political deal will safeguard their autonomy.

For the first time, Assad said in May he was "opening doors" for talks with the SDF, while also threatening force. A deal between them could settle the conflict in most of Syria.

But there is no sign of Damascus coming to the table yet, and analysts say Assad is in no rush as he has fast recovered ground and his position is growing stronger.

"We have a conviction that channels must be open...the constitution, the political process, these will not be solved without the regime," said Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish official in the SDF's political wing. "The regime is not going anywhere."

Story continues

WHAT AMERICA WANTS

With the Kurdish YPG militia at its forefront, the SDF holds around a quarter of Syria, the biggest chunk outside state control. About 2,000 U.S. forces are deployed in the region across the north and east, rich in oil, water and agricultural land -- important leverage for the Kurds.

The YPG joined forces with the United States more than three years ago, becoming its main Syrian partner in the fight against Islamic State. The alliance flew in the face of U.S. ties with NATO member Turkey, which views the YPG as terrorists linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Washington has avoided making any political promises to the Kurds and opposes their autonomy ambitions. Conflicting U.S. statements over Syria have put them on guard, and they worry Washington may ultimately put its ties with Turkey first.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in April he wanted to withdraw troops from Syria soon, while tempering that by expressing a desire to leave a "strong and lasting footprint".

Other U.S. officials have played down the odds of a withdrawal any time soon. The U.S. military has at times used lethal force to defend SDF territory against pro-government forces.

"It's not clear what they want," Ahmed told Reuters.

The SDF has become wary, especially after an "American silence" during a Turkish offensive on Syria's Kurdish Afrin region this year. "We felt let down," she said.

Despite this, she said the deployment of U.S. forces in nearby Manbij sent a strong message after Turkey threatened to march on the town.

Henri Barkey, an international relations professor at Lehigh University in the United States, said U.S. policy has pushed Kurdish leaders towards Damascus.

"If you're a Syrian Kurd, you have to think about the day Trump decides to withdraw," he said. "You have a president who can change his mind and order policies that are completely contradictory."

POLICE FORCE "FOR EVERYONE"

Syrian Kurdish leaders have moved more cautiously than Kurds across the border in Iraq who voted for independence in a referendum last year. The vote, which Washington opposed, plunged them into crisis and regional isolation. Eventually, they were forced to backtrack.

Last year, the Kurdish-led authorities in north Syria embarked on elections to set up governing bodies based on the political ideas of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. But they have now indefinitely postponed the final stage of the election.

Analysts say friction with pro-Damascus Arab tribes poses a challenge to the Kurdish forces, and Assad may seek to benefit from the discord.

Pictures of Ocalan, revered by the YPG, were taken down last month in Qamishli, a city it controls on the border with Turkey. A local municipal statement said this was to "beautify and organise" the streets.

Last week, the region's police changed its name and flag, a move which leading Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil said was "out of consideration" for Arab cities the SDF seized from Islamic State including Raqqa, which had been the jihadists' Syrian capital.

"This way the (police) force will be for everyone," he said.

Syrian state officials have highlighted Raqqa as a key target for "liberation" from foreign occupiers - a reference to American forces. An SDF-backed council now runs the city, much of which was destroyed by months of U.S. air strikes.

Critics say U.S. recovery aid has fallen short.

Fixing the hydroelectric Tabqa dam near Raqqa is a top priority. Without the government's help, restoring it would need major foreign aid, Ahmed said. Talks over collaborating on health and education could follow.

"It could pave the way, play a positive role in growing trust for us to take it a step further," Ahmed said.

(Additional reporting by Rodi Said in northern Syria and Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Tom Perry and Timothy Heritage)Spain dominates a list of the world's most breathtaking beaches that includes coastlines in Kenya, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Indonesia and even the UK.

Beach-Inspector bills itself as the "first professional beach information platform" covering 1,600 beaches in 52 holiday regions around the world that have been tested on-site against up to 120 criteria.

Over the last three years, "Beach inspectors" were dispatched to destinations around the world where they spent two days digitalizing and evaluating beaches on everything from sand and water quality, facilities (restaurants, bars, showers), child friendliness, "flirt factor" and visual beauty.

Beaches were then categorized under five broad themes -- "Wow" beaches, party, water sports, special ambiance and classic holiday.

Beaches filed under the "Wow" category are destinations that "take your breath away" and create lifelong memories.

Of the 21 destinations that made the list, five are in Spain and three in Thailand.

Amidst predictable tropical, Caribbean and Mediterranean destinations, the selection also includes the shores of Kenya (Manda Bay and Diani Beach), and Porthcurno Beach in Cornwall, England, which features white sand and dramatic rock faces.

The concept is not unlike the list of top 10 beaches in the US released every year from Stephen P. Leatherman, better known as Dr. Beach, who holds a PhD in environmental coastal sciences.

Beach-Inspector, however, covers beaches around the world.

Here are the 'Wow' beaches in the Beach-Inspector selection:

Manda Bay, Kenya

Diani Beach, Kenya

Cala Mariolu, Sardinia, Italy

Playa de Cofete, Fuerteventura, Spain

Pai Plong Beach Ruffian, Thailand

Canto de la Playa, Dominican Republic

Playa de ses Illetes, Formentera, Spain

Trou aux Biches Beach, Mauritius

Dolphin Reef Beach, Israel

Semeti Beach, Lombok, Indonesia

Nui Beach, Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

Playa de los Muertos, Costa de Almeria, Spain

Praia de Joao de Arens, Algarve, Portugal

Cala Conta, Ibiza, Spain

Playa Punta Uva, Costa Rica

Playa de las Conchas, Lanzarote, Spain

Koh Nang Yuan Beach Koh Tao, Thailand

Blue Lagoon, Cyprus

Porthcurno Beach, Cornwall, UK

Whitehaven Beach, Australia

Elafonissi Beach, Crete, Greece

For the full list of winners visit https://www.beach-inspector.com/en/awards .Agencia

WASHINGTON.- President Donald Trump is considering revoking the security clearances of six former Obama-era officials who have been critical of his administration, a move that opponents say would be an unprecedented politicization of the clearance process.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that the president is "exploring the mechanisms" to strip clearance from former CIA Director John Brennan as well as five other former top national security officials: former FBI Director Jim Comey, James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Susan Rice and Andrew McCabe.

The comments came hours after Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky tweeted that he was planning to talk to Trump about revoking Brennan's clearance. Brennan had offered particularly scathing criticism of the president's performance at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, tweeting that Trump was "wholly in the pocket of Putin."

Tambien te puede interesar: UK silent on US death penalti concerns for alleged jihadis

Former CIA directors and other top national security officials are typically allowed to keep their clearances, at least for a period, so they can be in a position to advise their successors. At least one of the former officials, ex-FBI Deputy Director McCabe, does not currently have security clearance, his spokeswoman said.

Sanders accused the officials of having "politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances" by "making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia."

"The fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence," she said.

Paul tweeted later that he had sat down with Trump to talk about Brennan.

"Just got out of WH meeting with @realDonaldTrump," he tweeted later in an update. "I restated to him what I have said in public: John Brennan and others partisans should have their security clearances revoked."

He added: "Public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees."

Brennan had called Trump's press conference with Putin "nothing short of treasonous." While standing next to Putin, Trump had openly questioned his own intelligence agencies' conclusions that Moscow was to blame for meddling in the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump and seemed to accept Putin's insistence that Russia's hands were clean.

Hayden tweeted Monday that a revocation of his security clearance wouldn't "have any effect on what I say or write."

And Melissa Schwartz, a spokeswoman for McCabe, tweeted that his security clearance was deactivated when he was terminated in March 2018, "according to what we were told was FBI policy."

"You would think the White House would check with the FBI before trying to throw shiny objects to the press corps...," she wrote.

Experts appeared split on whether the president has the authority to terminate a security clearance unilaterally.

"It's a disputed question. There is a school of thought which holds that the president has complete and exclusive authority over security clearances," said Steven Aftergood at the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "Others argue that that's not so and that the president is limited by congressional power and legislative requirements."London, England.- A furor has erupted over leaked documents showing that British officials are not requiring their U.S. counterparts to provide assurances that two alleged British jihadis linked to the Islamic State group will not be executed if they are eventually put on trial in the United States.

The Daily Telegraph said Monday it had seen a letter from Home Secretary Sajid Javid to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions concerning two individuals who have been in custody in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria since their capture in eastern Syria in January.

The two men, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were allegedly part of a notorious cell of British jihadis known for their barbaric treatment of hostages.

They got the nickname the Beatles because of their British accents. The most prominent member of the group, known as Jihadi John, was killed in a 2015 drone strike.

In 2014 and 2015, the group held more than 20 Western hostages in Syria and tortured many of them. It beheaded seven American, British and Japanese journalists and aid workers and a group of Syrian soldiers, boasting of the butchery in grisly videos.

The disclosure prompted an emergency debate in Parliament. Labour Party legislator Diane Abbott called on the government to change course.

This decision to abandon our principled opposition to the death penalty is both abhorrent and shameful and I call on ministers even at this late stage to reverse this decision.

Defending the governments position, Security Minister Ben Wallace said it would not be right to withhold evidence in such a heinous case.

We should not forget that the crimes that were talking about involve the beheading and videoing of those beheading dozens of innocent people by one of the most abhorrent organizations walking this Earth, he said.Its sort of sad that this is a man-bites-dog story, but the Trump administration has apparently decided to fix an important and legally troubled piece of the Affordable Care Act, reversing an earlier move that appeared to be yet another thinly veiled attempt at sabotaging the law.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a new version of the regulation governing Obamacares risk-adjustment system, which stabilizes the individual insurance markets by redistributing money from carriers with unusually healthy customers to those with unusually sick customers. Earlier this month, the government had unexpectedly halted payments under the program, claiming that it had to do so because a federal district court judge in New Mexico had struck down the governments risk-adjustment formula in February. (Its worth noting that the judges decision was particularly nit-picky, essentially concluding that the government hadnt sufficiently justified a piece of the formula in writing during the official rule-making process.) Insurance companies warned that the move could eventually push premiums higher by throwing more uncertainty into the market. The new interim final rule is designed to address some of the courts concerns and allow the risk-adjustment money to flow as normal.

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This rule will restore operation of the risk adjustment program, and mitigate some of the uncertainty caused by the New Mexico litigation, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. Issuers that had expressed concerns about having to withdraw from markets or becoming insolvent should be assured by our actions today. Alleviating concerns in the market helps to protect consumer choices.

A number of legal experts questioned the administrations initial decision to pause the risk-adjustment program, suggesting that it may have been an opportunistic move to hobble the ACA, similar to past decisions the president has taken to undercut the law. They pointed out that the federal government rarely if ever stops programs based on a single lower-court ruling (notably, a district court judge in Massachusetts had upheld the formula) and that there were many steps the feds could have taken short of stopping payments outright. One of the most obvious actions, they said, was issuing an interim rule, of the sort CMS produced this week.

The risk-adjustment program isnt quite out of the woods yetthe judge in New Mexico could theoretically decide the new rule still doesnt satisfy his concerns. But this is an important step toward fixing the situation. In other words, it seems like were getting a rare glimpse of what it looks like when the Trump administration tries to repair Obamacare, rather than hammering at its cracks to try to bring the whole thing crashing down.Tronc is the most hapless and incompetent publisher in America, and no one should operate on the assumption that anything it does makes any sense at all. Once the mighty Tribune Publishing Co., dating back to the 1847 founding of the Chicago Tribune and worth some $17 billion after the acquisition of Times Mirror in 2000, its now a punchline with a total market capitalization of $560 million. Trying to learn how to run a company from Tronc is a bit like trying to learn international diplomacy from Donald Trump. But failures can be just as informative as successes, in their own way, and the history of Tronc is an important lesson about capitalist incentives.

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Certainly, theres nothing edifying about the spectacle of a once great New York newspaper being eviscerated, with dozens of great journalists losing their jobs, even as Troncs skeevy former chairman Michael Ferro is receiving $15 million to leave the company.

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But the ham-fisted corporate raiding going on at Tronc is, bizarrely and depressingly, a textbook example of capitalism at work. What needs explaining is not the latest job cuts, but rather the fact that for so many decades, the Tribune Co. was an excellent place to build a career in journalism. Until recently, the best owners of newspapers have been newspaper companies like Tribunecompanies that invested in large newsrooms and quality journalism and that didnt seem to treat their trophies as wasting assets to be plundered until theres nothing left to squeeze out.

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There are two competing explanations for what happened. The first is that the owners changed and the new owners are more evil and rapacious than the old owners, and so capitalism is bad now. The second explanation is that capitalism is the same as its always been, and that while the new owners clearly dont much care about journalism, maybe the old owners didnt either. They looked as though they cared about itand Steven Spielberg now makes hagiographic movies all about how much owners care about the primacy of journalism over profitsbut in fact everything they were doing was entirely consistent with ruthless avarice and a need to maintain their local monopolies at all costs.

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Under capitalism, the rentiers who own or acquire corporate assetspeople like Michael Ferroseek to maximize their return on those assets. (If it makes you feel any better, Ferro lost money on his Tribune bet, even after receiving that $15 million.) If a company is losing money, they try to make it profitable; if a company is profitable, they try to make it more profitable still. In other words, even when a company is making lots of money, capitalists will still be lauded for firing as many people as they can. Just ask Jack Welch or Jorge Paulo Lemann.

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So, back when Tribune and other newspaper companies were riding high, making lots of money, and employing thousands of journalists, why did they not fire large swaths of those journalists? Didnt they have every incentive to do so? After all, their newspapers were invariably either monopolies or duopolies, which meant that their readers and advertisers had very few alternatives. Since all revenues come from either readers or advertisers, a reduction in the breadth and quality of the journalism would have little effect on revenues. And if you can maintain constant revenues at a lower cost basis, that means even more profits for the rentiers.

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Its surely true that, on some level, the publishers enjoyed the social cachet that came with their papers and liked being complimented on their quality. But their decision to keep employing all those journalists made perfect sense on a financial level as well. Thats because their profits werent really a function of their journalism; instead, they were a function of their local monopolies. When you have a monopoly, you have enormous pricing power and can make huge profits. As a result, every monopolists worst nightmare is competition, and all monopolists spend a lot of time strategizing about how to ensure there isnt any.

One extremely effective way of preventing competition is to build an impregnable moat, or barrier to entryto make it clear that the upfront costs of attempting to compete would be so enormous that even successful entrants would never recoup their initial investments. And thats exactly what local newspapers across America did during their heyday. If you wanted to compete with the Chicago Tribune or the Miami Herald or the Washington Post or the Los Angeles Times, then you would need to publish a product of comparable breadth and qualityotherwise, why would anybody switch? But all those newspapers boasted high salaries, multiple foreign bureaus, extensive investigative operations, and generally the kind of cost structure that no startup could compete with. And so no startup did. Alt weeklies had their day but never really constituted a competitive threat to the big monopolies; their product was a supplement to the daily paper rather than a replacement for it. And so each of the big papers had their enormous markets to themselves, or at worst were part of a comfy duopoly.

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Spending more than they needed to on journalism, then, was less an altruistic act than a strategic imperativea way to keep all those juicy revenues for themselves, instead of having to share them with a competitor. And it worked very well, until the internet leveled the playing field, and it was just as easy to get international news from the BBC or the New York Times as it was to get it from your local paper. At that point, the papers moats disappeared, and the strategic imperative to overspend on journalism disappeared with it. A few families, like the Grahams (who own Slate) and the Sulzbergers, kept the journalistic faith, and ownership by one of those families, or by a mega-rich hobbyist like Jeff Bezos, now seems decidedly preferable to ownership by a faceless corporation.

Newspaper companies across America, including Tribune, were always going to adjust to the new reality by doing what capitalists always want to do, which is slash costs. Once their very expensive moats became useless, they set about destroying them. They might have spent decades paying lip service to the importance of quality journalism. But when they no longer needed to pay for it, they stopped.Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been demolished, and not for the first time. NBC Los Angeles reports that a man with a pickax reduced the plaque on Hollywood Boulevard to rubble early Wednesday morning, then turned himself in to Los Angeles police. Police have identified the suspect as 24-year-old Austin Clay, who concealed the pickax in a guitar case.

The scene has since drawn a crowd, and someone has placed an exercise pull-up bar over the mutilated star, which has been destroyed before. In October 2016, another man, James Otis, dressed up as a construction worker and smashed Trumps plaque with an ax and sledgehammer in what he called an act of civil disobedience, freedom of expression. His intention, he claimed, was to steal it, auction it off, and give the profits to the women who Trump has allegedly sexually assaulted.

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Since then, the star has been defaced with stickers, spray paint, and even a miniature border wall installed by an artist.

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Celebrities who want a star on Hollywood Boulevard must first apply and then raise $30,000 to sponsor it, half of which goes to the creation of the star itself and the other half going to the Hollywood Historic Trust. Trumps star, which he received in 2007 for his work on The Apprentice, will be repaired immediately, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which issued a statement:

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees. When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California state landmark. Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property.

Austin Star Destroyer Clay was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. NBC Los Angeles spoke to one witness at the scene, who apparently does not watch the news or go online or even go outside very often: Im like, Why are you hitting that star? What did Donald Trump do to you?  the man said.This piece was originally published on Just Security, an online forum for analysis of U.S. national security law and policy.

Think of all the ways you might be denied a security clearance from the United States government. Maybe youve racked up so much medical debt that the government worries you might be tempted to take up an illegal side hustle. Maybe you got addicted to online gambling. Maybe youre a too-frequent user of marijuana, cocaine, Adderall, ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Some of the reasons for denial are so broadsuch as having family or business contacts in a foreign countrythat the paths to losing a security clearance are probably as numerous as the amount of people who currently have one (about 4 million).

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Of all the possible reasons to lose a clearance, though, one should strike us as particularly suspect: You criticized the president. A security clearance is a prerequisite to a wide variety of federal government, military, and contractor jobs, and the notion that you might be frozen out of such work because you disagree with the administrations policies sounds like the worst form of viewpoint discriminationthe practice of elevating or suppressing speakers based on the content of their speecha practice that the First Amendment has traditionally looked upon with scorn.

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And yet, according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Donald Trump appears to be contemplating precisely such a move. Sanders announced Monday that the president is weighing revoking the clearances of a number of Obama-era national security officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, because theyve politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances. Included within the objectionable politicizing these individuals had engaged in, Sanders said, were their baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the president.

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A plausible reading of her comments is that they threaten retaliation for criticizing the president (as well as, perhaps, sending a message to lower-ranking officials about staying in line). The question thus arises: If Trump made good on his threat, could his critics sue?

Its hard to imagine courts tolerating a world where 4 million Americans with security clearances could lose them simply for speaking their minds.

Its an open question. Thats because the courts, ever since the Supreme Courts 1988 decision in Department of Navy v. Egan, have shown extreme deference to the executive branch when it comes to the issuance of security clearances. Egan involved a challenge from a Navy employee who was discharged after being denied a clearance over concerns about his criminal history and a past drinking problem. The court, en route to resolving the challenge, recognized that the authority to issue clearances comes primarily from the Constitutions Article II investment of power in the president as the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and it exists independently of any explicit grant of power from Congress. Since the Second World War, presidents have delegated the authority to protect sensitive information to the heads of civilian agencies like the CIA and NSA. (Among the documents governing the current procedure for granting and denying security clearances are Executive Order 12968, adopted in 1995 and subsequently amended, and executive branch guidelines adopted by the Obama administration shortly before Trumps inauguration.)

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In Egan, the court addressed what it described as only a narrow question about whether the Merit Systems Protection Board, the agency that protects civil servants from arbitrary dismissal, had statutory authority to review the substance of the executives decision to revoke a security clearance. But in deciding that the board lacked the requisite authority, the court also included expansive dicta about deference to the executive on matters of national security. [N]o one has a right to a security clearance, the court wrote, and the protection of classified information must be committed to the broad discretion of the agency responsible. Moreover, the granting of a security clearance is a sensitive and inherently discretionary judgment call, and it is not reasonably possible for an outside, nonexpert body to review the substance of such a judgment.

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Lower courts after Egan have consistently concluded that the merits of security-clearance decisions, which are the product of a granting officers expert assessment of trustworthiness and risk, are fully insulated from judicial review. That conclusion seems consistent with Egan, which involved the kind of judgment call about potential risk that a court might be reluctant to second-guess: A laborer lost out on an opportunity to work on a nuclear submarine based on old convictions for assault and felony gun possession and an admitted drinking problem. But Egan did not address the possibility that the government might make its decision based on a constitutionally impermissible reason, such as, say, the applicants race or religion. In such a case, would the courts really have nothing to say about whether the applicants rights were violated?

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The Supreme Court faced just such a question in Webster v. Doe, a decision that, surprisingly enough, it handed down only four months after Egan. Webster didnt involve a security-clearance decision, but it involved something remarkably similar: The CIA director terminated a covert electronics technician on the grounds that he posed a threat to security. The directors reason, however, was that the technician was gay. Almost immediately after hed voluntarily told a security officer about his sexual orientation, the agency put him on administrative leave, opened an investigation, and ultimately concluded his homosexuality presented a security threat.

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A federal statute committed firing decisions to the CIA directors discretion, a fact that led the Webster court to dismiss the technicians claims arising under the Administrative Procedure Act. But, the court held, the statute didnt bar his claims that his termination violated his constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and privacy. The court found no basis in the statute to conclude that Congress meant to preclude colorable constitutional claims arising from the agencys actions. To find otherwise, the court wrote, would have raised a serious constitutional question about Congress ability to insulate constitutional violations from judicial review.

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The courts of appeals, following Webster, have generally embraced the distinction that can be read into these cases: that while the executive branch receives substantial deference on its expert assessment of national security risks, the courts remain open to credible claims that it made its decision on a constitutionally impermissible basis. As the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals put it in the 1996 decision in Stehney v. Perry, not all claims arising from security clearance revocations violate separation of powers or involve political questions. Meanwhile, this weeks concurrence from Judge Gregory Katsas in Palmieri v. U.S. suggests the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit continues to be alert to the tension between Egan and Webster, as does Judge David Tatels concurrence in the 2017 decision in Gill v. United States Department of Justice, which provides a particularly thorough run-through of decisions limiting Egans reach in light of Webster (hat tip to Deepak Gupta for Mondays tweet flagging Gill).

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So where does that leave the erstwhile clearance holders who served under previous administrations? Theres a strong argument to be made that at least some constitutional challenges to the revocation of security clearances would be judicially reviewable. And there are features of Trumps revocation threat that make judicial review more plausible, although other features present potential hurdles.

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On the one hand, we have Trumps press secretary explicitly saying that the reason for revoking these individuals clearances (apart from the fact that some of them monetized their status) is that they criticized the president and particularly his dealings with Russia. That might save a potential challenge from failure for lack of evidence of impermissible motive, a frequent stumbling block for claims of unconstitutional discrimination. (In Gill, the D.C. Circuit dismissed one of the plaintiffs equal-protection arguments because the reviewing committees decision, on the surface, showed no evidence of disfavoring his naturalized family members.) Given this evidence, theres a real question about whether a challenge to Trumps threatened revocations would even engage the concerns that motivated Egan, which had to do with avoiding picking apart the agencys decision-making process in the grant or the denial of a clearance.

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On the other hand, its not clear how a court would view a decision to revoke a security clearance based on viewpoint, since at least some viewpoints that would be constitutionally protected in other contexts seem relevant to the standards for security clearance determination. Executive Order 12968, after all, instructs agencies to grant clearances only to employees  whose personal and professional history affirmatively indicates loyalty to the United States, strength of character, trustworthiness, honesty, reliability, discretion, and sound judgment, as well as freedom from conflicting allegiances and potential for coercion. Those termsreliability, sound judgmentundeniably invite substantial agency discretion.

Still, some viewpoints seem obviously impermissible as a basis for denying a clearance. Could an administration revoke a clearance because an official was a Republican or Democrat? Because she didnt vote for the president? Its hard to imagine courts tolerating a world where 4 million Americans with security clearances could lose them simply for speaking their minds.

More From Just Security:

Does a Years Old Congressional Statute Prevent a TrumpPutin Agreement for Military Cooperation?

What Judge Kavanaughs Originalism Means for the CountryJust got an email from one of my senators, New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, that started like so:

Hi Ben, When I go to sleep at night or gather my team to talk about our priorities, I think about you.

Excuse me?

When I go to sleep at night  I think about you.

Whats going on here? The email went on to say that Gillibrand needed my opinion on some pressing issues and asked me to click a link to a survey. After doing so, I gave answers to a series of not-entirely-incisive questions, like this one:

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Are you concerned that President Trump and the Republican Congress will take us backward on the issues you care about? - Yes, Im concerned that President Trump and Republicans will take us backward on important issues. - No, I trust President Trump and Republicans to move us forward on the issues I care about.

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I picked yes. Then, on the sixth page of the survey, Gillibrand asked me to give her $5. Her exact words were will you give me $5:

Im up for reelection this year  and since I dont accept money from corporate PACs, Im depending on grassroots supporters like you to help protect this critical seat. Will you give $5 now to help me keep fighting against President Trumps agenda?

So, what we seem to have here is the Obama-popularized tactic of targeted, relatably written campaign email taken to a desperate extreme.

But honestly, it is relatable. I, too, often become consumed before falling asleep with the question of how I might make more money because Im not getting enough of it from corporations. Its the struggle of our times, really. Where do I send my $5?An undocumented immigrant from Ecuador who has been detained since his arrest at the beginning of June at a military base while delivering a pizza has been released after a federal district court judge ruled in his favor Tuesday.

Pablo Villavicencio Calderon, 35, will be allowed to pursue permanent residency while remaining in New York, where his wife and two young daughters, all U.S. citizens, live, according to the Associated Press.

Judge Paul A. Crotty, a Bush appointee, questioned earlier Tuesday why the government was in a rush to deport Villavicencio, who, other than remaining illegally in the country, had been an upstanding citizen.

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I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to? Crotty asked the government lawyer. Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country.

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He asked the government how it justified his deportation and why Villavicencio couldnt remain in the country while pursuing residency. Is he a threat to the country? Crotty asked. A flight risk? Dont they have to justify it?

He wrote in his ruling later in the day, He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family.

Villavicencio was arrested when he delivered an order from a Queens pizzeria to a Fort Hamilton Army base. Upon arrival, he presented a municipal identification card, which he said he had used when delivering to the base before. This time, though, the military police officer on duty asked for a drivers license and, when Villavicencio did not have one, ran a background check. The background check showed that a judge had ordered him to be deported in 2010.

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He was taken to a facility in New Jersey, where he has been held since. Early in June, a judge temporarily blocked his deportation.

The powerful are doing what they want, Crotty said in the hearing Tuesday. And the poor are suffering what they must.

Villavicencio, who has lived in the U.S. since 2008, began his petition for a green card in February. He has an interview with immigration authorities next month. According to the Wall Street Journal, when he walked out of the detention center Tuesday night, he was greeted by his wife, daughters, and a gathering of supporters.In a hearing on Wednesday, the government accused Mariia Butinas attorney of misleading the press about her case in a way that would necessitate a protective order. The accusation against attorney Robert Driscoll was itself misleading, though. It also points to the murkiness of the case against the Russian Butina, who is being held without bond on an accusation that she failed to register as an agent of the Russian government in an effort to influence conservative groups toward a more favorable posture to Russia.

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The government argued that Driscolls statement to Fox News that his client was being held on Foreign Agents Registration Act charge was false, downplaying the extent of her crime, and that this pointed to the need for a protective order. The defendant is being charged with acting as a foreign agent and conspiring to do the samethis is not a mere FARA violation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Saunders said.

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As Slates Ben Mathis-Lilley has noted, though, the statute under which Butina has been charged, 18 U.S.C. Section 951, involves failure to register as an agent of a foreign government and is so near a FARA charge that a 2016 Department of Justice inspector general report found that DOJ investigators generally thought of them as the same thing. Investigators we spoke to generally believed that investigations conducted pursuant to a separate criminal provision, 18 U.S.C.  951 (Section 951), were FARA cases, whereas [National Security Division] officials believe that Section 951 and FARA are intended to address different criminal activities, the report stated.

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The confusion appears to stem from the question of whether or not the statute is seeking to address political activities or espionage-like activities. NSD described Section 951 as targeting information gathering and other espionage-like activities on behalf of a foreign government, and FARA as requiring registration and disclosures by foreign agents engaged in legal activities, such as lobbying, tourism, and economic development, the report said.

Butina is being prosecuted by the National Security Division, and the charges certainly hint at the premise that she may have taken part in espionage-like activities. The government has said in filings she worked for a Russian official named Aleksandr Torshin who is linked to Vladimir Putin and it has been reported in the press that the pair even met with officials from the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve in 2015 as part of their influence campaign. The government further alleges that Butina has links to the Russian military-intelligence organization, FSB, citing a note discovered among Butinas possession asking How to respond to FSB offer of employment? along with additional evidence.

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But as her attorney has further pointed out on Fox News, Butina hasnt been accused yet of any specific espionage charge. All of which points to the central difficulty of the case: The government is trying to claim that this is an espionage-like case rather than a political one without having to offer full evidence of that publicly, because it is also seeking to protect a potential ongoing investigation, as Saunders stated in court on Wednesday.

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While the government may have more evidence of actual espionage-like activities, until it shares those at trial or with the defense, it seems fair for Butinas attorney to portray the matter as equivalent to a FARA case, particularly given the inspector generals previous report on the matter.

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U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan acknowledged on Wednesday that there was a line between revealing information about a case in violation of court rules and an attorney attempting to maintain a clients public image.

Saunders portrayed Driscoll as a loose cannon who had violated those rules. There is a line, he said. That line has been crossed repeatedly here.

This aggressive posture may have worked, as Chutkan indicated there is going to be a protective order in this case, at least for some of the material.

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She has given the government until Aug. 8 to propose such an order and the defense until Aug. 15 to respond.

Driscoll also suggested he would ask for expedited discovery of evidence that the government says it has that his client offered to exchange sex for a position at a special interest organization. We have no idea what theyre talking about and we dont believe its true, Driscoll said. The judge suggested she would turn down that request.

Im not sure youre entitled to specific pieces of evidence to rebut media reports, the judge responded.

As long as the public is unable to see more of that evidence against Butina, though, the question will remain: Was this a political influence campaign or something more sinister? In the meantime, its totally fair for Butinas attorney to raise that question himself.Last week, moderate Democrats gathered for Opportunity 2020, an invite-only convention in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by the prominent centrist think tank Third Way. Unlike a traditional conference, expect a stimulating mix of thought provoking presentations and interactive small-group sessions focused on the urgent need for the next generation of Democrats to offer a new social contract for the Digital Age, the events webpage read.

NBC News account of the event suggests it wound up being little more than a group therapy session for Democrats fretting about the rise of an insurgent left energized by Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign and recent high-profile victories for candidates like democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who scored an upset win over Queens Democratic Party boss and incumbent congressman Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary last month. Third Way unveiled the results of focus groups and polling that it says shows Americans are more receptive to an economic message built on opportunity rather than the lefts message about inequality, reported NBCs Alex Seitz-Wald. This was heartening stuff for moderates like Delawares former Gov. Jack Markell. The only narrative that has been articulated in the Democratic Party over the past two years is the one from the left, he lamented. I think we need a debate within the party.



That debate over the partys direction is, of course, well underway, and the left has indeed dominated it. Six proposals to expand the governments role in providing access to health care have been advanced by Democratic leaders and analysts in recent months. Bernie Sanders Medicare for all bill, specifically, has been endorsed by 2020 candidates in waiting Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. In April, Chuck Schumer announced that he would be introducing a bill to decriminalize marijuana, a move that followed Bookers introduction last July of the Marijuana Justice Act, which would decriminalize marijuana and provide reparative measures for convicts and communities deeply impacted by the war on drugs. Late last summer, the Democratic Party released its A Better Deal policy platform, which called for, among other proposals, a $15 minimum wage and a reinvigoration of antitrust policy to tackle corporate concentration. In her memoir What Happened, Hillary Clinton wrote that she had considered proposing during her campaign a universal basic income programa welfare measure that would provide cash payments to every American.

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But the most significant development in the Democratic policy conversation over the past year has been the rise of proposals for a federal job guarantee, which would have the government directly create employment for all who seek itan idea with roots in New Deal programs like the Works Progress Administration and Democratic pushes for full employment in the 1960s and 1970s. Bernie Sanders is on board along with a few unlikely advocates. Cory Booker, who came to prominence in the early 2000s as a committed moderate backed by groups like the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, announced in April that he would introduce legislation to pilot job guarantee programs in 15 local areas around the country, and Kirsten Gillibrand, formerly a prominent member of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition who has also broadly endorsed the concept of a guarantee, is a co-sponsor along with Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. The Center for American Progress, a think tank in the Democratic mainstream, released its take on the idea last year.

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The interest in a job guaranteean idea only recently revived by a small group of progressive economists without the fanfare and activism that have slowly pushed single-payer health care into the mainstreamis perhaps the clearest sign yet that the Third Way centrism long at the heart of Democratic policymaking is, as a source of new ideas compelling to both the Democratic Partys rising leaders and the broader public, essentially dead.

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Third Ways wonks and pundits have spent most of their time since the 2016 election hoping against hope that some cash and a lightning strike might revive it. In January 2017, the group announced it would put $20 million of the money it raises largely from corporations and the finance industry into an effort to assess what had gone wrong for Democrats throughout the Obama years. The money will be spent to conduct extensive research, reporting and polling in Rust Belt states that once formed a Blue Wall, but which voted for president-elect Donald Trump last November, Politicos Annie Karni wrote. The goal is to help start a top-to-bottom rethink for the Democratic Partytossing out the old model that assumed Democrats from state legislatures on up to the Oval Office could count on winning majorities, simply because of the countrys changing demographics.

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Third Way is, in general, fairly poor at making predictions.

This past April, Third Way co-founder Jim Kessler and real estate developer Winston Fisher published a column in the Hill urging the Democratic Party to adopt the recommendations the group had come up with, which they called a new social contract for the digital economy. [T]his era demands bold and modern thinking, they wrote. Tinkering with old, antiquated programs simply wont cut it anymore. Third Way detailed the ideas it argues the Democrats should pursue instead in a March report titled A New Generation of Ideas. Right now, America is creating jobs, but they are neither good enough nor spread widely enough to satisfy people, it read. Its far too difficult to get the skills needed to succeed in a rapidly shifting economy. Here, as elsewhere, the New Generation of Ideas very closely resembles the kind of rhetoric Americans have been offered in State of the Union addresses for decades. Bill Clinton, for instance, outlined a new strategy for prosperity that included investments in education and skills, in science and technology and transportation, to prepare our people for the new economy 20 years ago this past January.

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The specific proposals in the report are similarly familiar : subsidizing small businesses with more federal loans, additional federal funding for tech research through the creation of an Innovation Trust Fund, apprenticeships, a tax break for the middle class, and so on. All together, its a set of safe, technocratic initiatives that could have been proposed by any of the past three or four presidents, Democratic or Republican which, of course, is precisely the point.

A few ideas were a shade more pernicious than the rest. The report, for instance, calls for universal private retirement, a guarantee that every worker has both Social Security and a private, employer-fed retirement account. While Third Way insists these accounts wouldnt affect Social Security, the group has long pushed for cuts to Social Security under the guise of fiscally responsible  entitlement reform, a goal expanding the infrastructure of private retirement accounts and the groups related proposal to employ retired seniors in part-time work obviously complement.

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If the name Third Way has reached the ears of nonpoliticos outside of Washington for any reason over the past decade or so, it has likely been for its proposal in 2011 that Democrats and Republicans sit together during State of the Union addresses. More substantively, the group spent the Obama years urging the two parties to join hands and work together on deficit reduction. In 2011, Kessler told the Washington Post that a budget deal would be invaluable for Obama and the Democratic Party. It benefits him politically a great deal if theres a big deal, he said. The deficit favors Republicans. But if it seems like its been solved, then you take away one of the biggest Republican issues and at worst you neutralize it and at best you win it. Concern among voters about the still very large deficit has since plummetedneutralized not by a big deal, but by partisanship and the passage of time.

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Third Way is, in general, fairly poor at making predictions. In a February 2007 report on the New Rules Economythe economy has been new for a very long timeKessler and other analysts at Third Way scoffed at economic pessimism from the left:

From the past to the present, nearly all neopopulist predictions for Americas economic future have been bleakand wrong. America is constantly falling behind. First Germany, then Japan, and now China are going to pass us. Some economic bubble is about to burst.  But after nearly 30 years of gloomy predictions, the economic disasters predicted by neopopulists have never come to pass.

At this point, the collapse of the housing market was already underway. The wider financial crisis was just around the corner.

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Caught flat-footed again, like the rest of us, by the 2016 election, Third Way spent some of its $20 million on a safari into middle America, visiting districts that each saw different partisan outcomes for 2016s presidential and congressional races. When we considered our purpose and strategy for the Trump era, we knew that we couldnt go forward with business as usual, their intro to the series reads. That meant getting out of Washington. It meant listening to more and different people and considering new approaches to our research and our thinking. In October, the Atlantics Molly Ball, who tagged along for the groups trip to Wisconsin, wrote that the group had done nothing of the sort; examples of explicit partisanship and support for government programs had been omitted in its write-up of the district. Despite the great variety of views the researchers and I had heard on our tour, the report had somehow reached the conclusion that Wisconsinites wanted consensus, moderation, and pragmatismjust like Third Way, she wrote. There are no quotations from the people we met who were pro-government, such as the teachers and laborers and activists, who voiced concern that local, state, and federal government ought to be doing more to take care of people.

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The Third Way reports are actually fairly interesting as slice of life anecdotes. The way people define success is warped.  The American Dream is lost, one woman in Wisconsins 3rd District told Third Way. My son is going to graduate with $60K of debt and maybe, maybe hell get a good job. Theres little in comments like this that suggest proposals such as an Innovation Trust Fund are going to put a spring in the step of workers struggling to get by.

What do we actually know, nonanecdotally, about what kind of economic policies American voters want? For many years, Third Way has made a habit of waving around poll data showing very few Americans identify as liberals. At the national level, William Galston and Elaine Kamarck wrote in a report for the group called The Still-Vital Center, self-identified liberals constitute barely one-fifth of the electorate; in most states, they are nowhere near a pluralitylet alone a majority. This has long been true. It has also long been true that when asked about specific proposals and political values, American voters are far more economically liberal than the numbers on ideological self-identification suggest.

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For the Democracy Funds June 2017 report on the 2016 electorate, political scientist Lee Drutman created indices aligning voters in YouGovs survey data along social and economic political axes. Based on answers to questions including whether we need a strong government to handle complex economic problems and whether distribution of money and wealth in this country is fair, Drutman found that more than 73 percent of the 2016 electorate was economically liberal, including, of course, the economically liberal and socially conservative populists who swung for Trump. Drutman also found that Clinton voters and Trump voters were both highly supportive of Social Security and Medicare, a result that wont surprise those who witnessed the hands off my Medicare days of the Obama presidency.

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Additionally Pew found in April 2017 that a 48 percent plurality of Americans would rather have a bigger government providing more services, than a smaller governmentthe highest number saying so in eight years. Pew also found that majorities of Americans favor increasing federal spending on veterans benefits, education, infrastructure, and Medicare, with pluralities also supporting increased spending on health care broadly speaking, environmental protection, Social Security, and assistance to the poor.

Poll results also show broad support for the proposals now gaining traction among 2020 contenders and Democratic groups. In April, a Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 51 percent of Americansand nearly a third of self-described conservativessupport single-payer health care, part of a trend leftward on the question that has been captured in multiple polls over the past few years. The Kaiser Family Foundation has found support jumps to about 60 percent when single payer is characterized as Medicare for all. A statistical analysis of KFFs data by the new progressive think tank Data for Progress estimates that Medicare for all has majority support in 42 states and D.C.

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Until very recently, there was little, by comparison, to go on in estimating support for a job guarantee. But in March, Data for Progress released the results of a poll performed by the data firm Civis Analytics that put support for a job guarantee paid for by taxes on the wealthy at 52 percent nationally and estimated that the program has strong majority support in all 50 states.

It is likely true, as centrist analysts frequently point out, that support would dip with the introduction of actual expensive, and politically contentious, legislation. But the results nevertheless suggest that a wide swath of Americans, whether they know it or not, are economically liberal in principle and that the pool of voters who think like the average Third Way researcher is likely quite small.

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None of this is to say that veering left over the next few months will bring Democrats to victory everywhere in November; transforming those who are notionally open to left-wing policy into a durable and regularly voting constituency for left-wing candidates will be a complicated, grueling project should the Democratic Party fully commit to it. But figures like Gillibrand and Booker pushing the envelope make it more likely that the party will. And even if the 2020 contenders pare back their new progressive commitments, theyll do so having made clear promises to a base whose appetite for big ideasdreamt up far from the centerwill have been whetted.

The question of what direction the Democratic Party should go in as a matter of political strategy is, of course, different from the question of what proposals the party should advance as a matter of policy. Even if one believes that moderation is a safer path to victory for the party than a drive leftward, centrist policy ideas are very obviously inadequate to the task of actually solving many of the largest challenges facing American society and the world this century. There is no moderate, centrist framework for uprooting and transforming the energy economy in the amount of time that science tells us we must to address climate change, no easy and potentially bipartisan way to close the racial wealth gap. Between now and 2020, the Democratic Party is going to have to decide whether it is more quixotic and unserious to back left-wing candidates and policy minds who actually speak as though they understand the scale of these and other problems, or a cadre of old hands who believe, religiously, that there is nothing wrong with America that cant be fixed by the policy approach Democrats have taken for more than a quarter century. Centrists may well hold on and win that battle for the soul of the party, but theyve already lost the plot.CNNs Chris Cuomo was first to the Michael Cohen tapes and aired one of the 12 recordings Tuesday. On the tape, the former Trump consigliere and lawyer can be heard discussing with Trump paying the National Enquirers parent company for a story on his Trumps alleged affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. The recording, taken by Cohen in September 2016, just weeks before Election Day, was handed over to CNN by Cohens lawyer Lanny Davis.

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Full audio: Presidential candidate Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording "https://t.co/YmC0QuDqTx pic.twitter.com/fBbq7r1Lq9  Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) July 25, 2018

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During the first portion of the tape, Trump appears to be on the phone with someone else and Cohen, presumably, can be heard adjusting the microphone. I think this goes away quickly, Trump says before hanging up. Cohen then addresses Trump, telling him: great poll by the way, CNN. The two touched on a number of unrelated topics, including a New York Times suit to unseal divorce records from Trumps first marriage to Ivana, before getting to how to make what amounts to a hush payment to McDougal, who says she had a 10-month affair with Trump.

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More specifically, the discussion relates to whether Trump should buy the rights to the story from American Media, which owns and operates the National Enquirer and paid McDougal $150,000 in August 2016 for the story of the affair. The head of American Media, David Pecker, is known to be a close personal friend and confidante to Trump. From CNN:

I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, Cohen said in the recording, likely a reference to American Media head David Pecker. Trump interrupts Cohen asking, What financing? according to the recording. When Cohen tells Trump, Well have to pay. Trump is heard saying pay with cash but the audio is muddled and its unclear whether he suggests paying with cash or not paying. Cohen says, no, no but it is not clear what is said next.

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Its unclear what this will mean for Cohen, or Trump for that matter, and if this amounts to criminality in any way. Well have to wait for more of the recordings to have a better idea how damagingor not at allthis could be for the Trump presidency. One person with a dog in this and every fight has an idea what Cohen is angling for in releasing the first tape:

AdvertisementThe Trump White House has never been big on transparency and after a week of getting hammered (again) for his handling of interactions with foreign leaders across multiple media, particularly in Helsinki, CNN reports the Trump administration has halted the longstanding White House practice of providing a summary, referred to as a readout, of the presidents calls with world leaders. Its not altogether clear what problem the White House is trying to solve by not providing a readout of Trumps calls, especially since what goes in the brief, usually dry summaries is at the discretion of the White House and theres nothing keeping whoever was on the other end of the line from providing details of the call to local media. That means the White House is basically ceding control of the shaping the narrative around any one call, for no apparent reason.

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Per CNNs reporting, its not clear how long the White House plans to suspend the practice, nor is it totally certain when the internal policy shift took place. The network notes Trump made at least two calls over the past two weeks to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but we only know those took place because they were reported by foreign media. The White House confirmed the calls took place, but did not provide any information other than confirming they took place.

Its strange timing for the Trump White House to double down on sketchy, opaque dealings with foreign leaders following immense criticism for just that during Trumps secretive meeting with Vladimir Putin at the Helsinki summit earlier this month. You would think in a normal, non-crazypants universe, the White House would counter by upping the transparency quotient, even if just for optics sake, but that has obviously not been the case. The readouts will still be distributed internally at the White House, making this appear even more like a needless swipe at the (American) press corps.

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"Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening" Trump says at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. pic.twitter.com/NWFsB8QV2g  Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) July 24, 2018

Not to mention, the fact that Trump appears to have the brain of a retired middle linebacker makes having a written record of the call all the more important.The grandiose promises of Brexit proponents from 2016 are getting more modest two years later. Now, instead of boasting that leaving the EU will make 350 million per week available for the National Health Service and other programs (a central, if misleading, plank of the Brexit campaign), proponents are instead reassuring British consumers that they will not be forced to fight their neighbors for the last tin of beans at the local supermarket. Probably.

The prospect of Britain being forced to leave the EU next year without having negotiated a deal on future economic relations with Europe is becoming very real, and newly appointed Brexit secretary Dominic Raab told Parliament on Tuesday that the government is making preparations to make sure there is adequate food supply if that happens. He denied claims that the government is stockpiling food, saying that it would simply work with private suppliers to ensure there is no disruption.

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Britain produces only about 49 percent of its own food, with 30 percent imported from EU countries, so disruptions could be significant if the U.K. leaves without a trade deal. According to the Guardian, other contingency plans in the works include the possibility that armed forces could be deployed to carry out various civil functions, including using RAF jets to transport food supplies across the country.

Its not all bad news on the self-sufficiency front. As the Guardians Lisa OCarroll notes, while Britain is a net importer of nearly every category of food, it enjoys a trade surplus in beverages thanks largely to Scotch Whisky. That might soon come in handy.While we hear a lot about things like Amazon Prime Day or Amazons ventures into the world of cashier-less convenience stores, the internet juggernauts cash cow isnt its retail endeavorsits the companys cloud services business. Amazon Web Services raked in $1.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of this year, news that sent the companys stock soaring to a market cap record of $450 billion. AWS is a popular cloud storage option for both individuals and businesses. In 2016, AWS had more than 1 million users. When AWS occasionally goes out, wide swaths of the internet feel the repercussions. During an AWS outage in March, broadly used services such as Twilio, Slack, and Atlassian temporarily went offline.

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While many tech companies opt to rely on Amazon for their cloud storage needs, Amazons biggest competitors are taking a different route. Walmart, Amazons biggest retail rival, recently announced a partnership with Microsoft to use its cloud infrastructure to power a variety of machine learningrelated algorithms that will help optimize employee time and make operations more efficient. The five-year deal is Walmarts latest effort to bring the company into the 21st century and promises to help the company with tasks like sharing sales data with vendors, making better purchasing decisions, optimizing freezer performance, and helping employees choose which products get premium shelf placement.

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Walmart has made a variety of moves in recent years to help it compete with Amazon in the U.S. and globally, so this new partnership isnt surprising. What may be less expected, however, is the benefit this gives to Microsoft. As Microsofts Azure is the next biggest cloud-computing service provider besides Amazon, Microsoft is reaping the rewards of retailers whod rather not give their money (and their data) to their biggest rival. (Amazon, of course, has an extensive data privacy policy in place outlining what kinds of data it collects from AWS users and the security and encryption protocols in place to keep customer data from being accessed by outside parties.)

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Microsoft counts a number of retailers amongst its Azure customers: Honeywell (which sells smart home products that compete with Amazons Blink- and Ring-branded connected home security offerings) and Asos (an online fashion hub that Amazon Fashion is trying to take a bite out of) are two notable examples; others, such as Fabletics, HP, and Adobe, also rely on Azure for their cloud-processing needs. Last August, after Amazons acquisition of Whole Foods, reports suggested Target would move its digital business off of AWSthough Target says that it had already started that process earlier in the year.* Grocery chain Kroger made a similar decision in late 2017, dividing its cloud storage needs between Microsoft and Google.

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And then theres Walmart, which has gone so far as to require its vendors to not use AWS or risk Walmart dropping its business. The Wall Street Journal reported that a Walmart client approached data-warehousing service Snowflake Computing Inc. about handling its databut would only strike a deal if Snowflake ran its services on Azure. Snowflake expedited its Azure offering and got the clients business as a result.*

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Amazon has been the leading cloud-computing platform since 2013, with Microsoft typically in second and Google in third. Microsofts cloud platform is quickly becoming a viable cloud-infrastructure alternative for many, an analyst for the market research firm Gartner told the Wall Street Journal. As those threatened by Amazons growth, or weary of a competitor handling their most sensitive data, have been jumping ship, Azure has been growing twice as fast as its competitor. In April, Microsoft actually topped Amazon in terms of cloud revenue for the first timeMicrosoft earned $6 billion to Amazons $5.4 billionmarking a 93 percent increase over its revenue from the previous year. In its earnings announcement last week, Microsoft posted 23 percent gains on top of that. With Amazons next earnings report out July 26, well find out whether Microsofts cloud services growth is actually making an impact on Amazons bottom line. Retailers like Walmart are surely hoping it will.

Correction, July 25, 2018: This post misstated that Snowflake expedited its Azure offering and got Walmarts business as a result. It actually got a Walmarts clients business.China has revoked its approval for Facebook to open a subsidiary in the city of Hangzhou, a day after news of the companys plans to make inroads into the country attracted media attention, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. While this turn of events does not conclusively end the social media giants plans to establish its first office in mainland China, it does make the prospect quite a bit dimmer.

Facebook had quietly filed paperwork to build a startup incubator in Hangzhou and obtained a license from the government last Wednesday. Reuters reported on Facebooks plans on Tuesday after discovering the filing on Chinas National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The subsidiary had a registered capital of $30 million, and Facebook Hong Kong Ltd. was listed as its only shareholder. We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators, and start-ups, a Facebook spokesperson told the Washington Post at the time.

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Shortly after media outlets began disseminating the news, the filing was taken down from the governments publicity system website. According to the New York Times, references to the subsidiary have also been censored on Chinas social media platforms. An anonymous source informed the Times that governments approval had been revoked due to conflict between officials in Zhejiang, the province in which Hangzhou is located, and the Cyberspace Administration of China. The administration, which serves as the national internet regulator, reportedly believes that there was insufficient consultation in the decision-making process.

The Chinese government banned the Facebook platform after the separatist Urumqi riots in 2009. The company has been trying to re-establish its footprint in the country ever since. The news that Facebook was planning to open a subsidiary in Hangzhou had stoked some confusion as CEO Mark Zuckerberg had just last week said, in response to a question from Recodes Kara Swisher about the companys plans in China, Were, I think, a long time away from doing anything.We are currently in the middle of a scorching hot summer with heat records being set around the world. On July 5, it reached 124 degrees Fahrenheit in Algeria: an all-time record both for the country and the entire African continent. The following day, Los Angeles set an all-time record at 111 degrees. This past Sunday, Japan logged its hottest temperature ever amid a heat wave thats killed 77 so far. The implication seems clear. Global warming isnt some far-off hypothetical; Its happening right here, right now, and we can see it in our thermometers.

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But is that completely correct? Hot summer days happen all the time. Can we really say that the scorchers this summer are climate changes fault?

Doling out blame for any single weather event is a tall order because weather is complicated. For one, its influenced by many factors: from planetary orbits to ocean currents to human activity. For another, its fickle. Yes, weve seen a decadeslong trend toward warmer temperatures, but its not constant. The East Coast of the United States, for instance, experienced an unusually cold spell this past springlogging 1,291 record lows (and only 110 record highs) in a single week. How should we square that?

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The questions are as important as they are difficult. The long-term effects of climate changesuch as the rising sea levels that will eventually displace tens of millions of peopleare only a part of the story. Climate change also affects humans through an increased frequency of extreme weather: hurricanes, floods, droughts, and heat waves, some of it occurring right now. At least, its likely. A growing field of science is starting to emerge to help us understand the precise relationship between the slowly changing global climate and the variable weather we experience daily: extreme event attribution.

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Or as Michael Wehner puts it: probabilistic extreme event attribution. Wehner, a senior staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, seemed careful not to frame his field as a magic bullet for assigning undisputable blame to individual weather events. Its not: Climate change flooded my house, explained Wehner. Its: Climate change changed the chances of flooding my house.

To understand what extreme event attribution does, its helpful to think about it through a simplified analogy. Theres a bucket full of balls: Some are blue, and some are red. If we draw a blue ball, the weather will be moderate. If we draw a red ball, the weather will be extreme. Before global warming, the bucket contained almost entirely blue balls with a handful of red ones mixed in. Global warming is slowly swapping a few blue balls for red ones. If today theres a hurricane, we know that a red ball was drawn. But we dont know if it was one of the original red balls or one of the new ones contributed by climate change. What extreme event attribution does allow us to do is estimate how many red balls were added to the bucket.

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The burgeoning science has been more successful for understanding some types of weather events than others. For instance, there has been considerable uncertainty surrounding the application of event attribution to floods. The findings of attribution studies on heat waves, however, are more consistent. Heat waves are easy, said Wehner. For pretty much everywhere in the world  climate change has increased the severity of heat waves.

It will take some time for scientists to be able to confidently assert the degree to which climate change has influenced this record-setting summer, but Wehner was willing to provide some preliminary estimates. For instance, he believes that climate change has increased the chance of the heat wave in Southern California 20 to 50 times over.

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Of course, the strongest evidence for global warming isnt isolated events like particularly hot days: A single hot day doesnt prove global warming just like a single cold day doesnt disprove it. Rather, its an ever-growing compendium of global climate data showing consistent, undeniable trends. Though climate change is slow on a human scale, its happening at a blistering rate from the perspective of the Earth. If allowed to go on unchecked, it will eventually have real, dire, consequences for people and for the environment. To stop it, our resolve cant be as fickle as the weather itself.What are the most common causes of death among Slovaks?

Health information centre scrutinised death causes, causes of hospitalisation and compared the trend in the long term.

Slovak patients most commonly die of heart failure, lung inflammation, respiratory failure and cerebral infarction, the TASR newswire learnt from the National Health Information National Centre (NCZI) on July 24. In total, 29,991 of hospitalised patients (1,204,737) died.

As for the most frequent causes of hospitalisation, in 2017 these included diseases of the circulatory system as well as digestive system diseases and cancer.

Hospitalisations due to diseases of the circulatory system also decreased in 2017 year-on-year, the SITA newswire wrote, adding that the figure stood at -0.8 percent against the previous year, and at -2.7 percent against 2014. Digestive system conditions were reduced by 4.7 and cancer as a cause for hospitalisation increased by 1.3.

Hospitalisation trends

The number of patients admitted to hospitals has been decreasing over the long term. Weve been observing a downward trend of the average treatment time in hospitals for a long time, NCZI spokesman, Boris Chmel, told TASR. Even though the average treatment time went down from 6.6 to 6.5 days year-on-year, it dropped by 1.2 days over the past ten years.

There were a total of 1,204,737 hospitalisations (528,593 men and 676,144 women) last year, down by 8,708 cases compared to 2016. Chmel pointed out that the number of hospitalised women is higher mainly due to their necessary stay in hospitals during pregnancy and childbirth.

The highest number of hospitalisations per 1,000 inhabitants in a particular region was in the Presov (236.8), Zilina (229.1), and Banska Bystrica regions (228.1), while the least was in the Bratislava and Trnava regions (both 202.7), Chmel added, as cited by the newswire.

25. Jul 2018 at 14:15 | Compiled by Spectator staffSlovak towns are shrinking

Only two Slovak cities are expected to have more inhabitants in 2035 than they have now. What are the reasons behind the dropping numbers of inhabitants?

The traffic jams in the morning and afternoon in Bratislava show just how many people prefer living in smaller villages outside the rush of the capital.

Slovakia is not a country of large cities. In fact, only a few of them have more than 100,000 citizens. A recent research has shown that the numbers are not likely to go upwards in the future - quite the contrary.

The research was conducted by the Department of Human Geography and Demography of Comenius University's Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Demographic Research Centre running under Infostat. Researchers focused on 11 Slovak cities and towns  Bratislava, Trnava, Nitra, Trencin, Zilina, Martin, Prievidza, Banska Bystrica, Poprad, Presov and Kosice. Their prognosis was focused on data until 2035.

The research project also involved a mini-questionnaire among their friends and relatives, asking about the number of citizens in various towns of Slovakia. Their answers were surprising.

They overvalued the numbers of citizens, the authors wrote in the introduction to the study. The numbers they stated seem to be correct decades ago. But the reality is different - Slovak towns are growing smaller.

The study shows that there are several reasons such a development. One of them is suburbanization, which means people moving to the outskirts of towns. It was unknown to socialist cities, but spread all over Slovakia very soon after the 1989 revolution. Suburbanisation changes the faces of towns, together with ageing and decreasing fertility, the authors of the study wrote.

Less children

The demographic development of the biggest towns mirrors trends typical for the transformation of a former eastern bloc country that relates to a significant change in family and reproductive behaviour, says the study.

Fertility is currently only higher in the capital than in the whole country, said the demographer Branislav Bleha from Comenius University.

25. Jul 2018 at 16:45 | Nina Hrabovska FrancelovaAnother unfinished piece by Jan Kuciak describes drug cartel

Following its publication, the General Prosecutors Office promises to look at the uncovered information.

The Aktuality.sk website has published another text the murdered journalist Jan Kuciak was working on. It describes the story of a dangerous drug cartel, whose head Silvio Aquino supervised a significant portion of the cocaine business in the European Union and laundered the money in High Tatras, as the Dennik N daily reported.

The international team of journalists continued with Kuciaks work after his murder in late February, mapping the drug gang with links to the Italian mafia based in Belgium, but working in the Netherlands.

Read also:

Read also: Journalists from competing media form a team to finalise Kuciaks stories Read more

The Slovak law enforcement bodies were working on the case in the past, cooperating with the Belgian police, but without charging anybody. The General Prosecutors Office now plans to look at the case again, the SITA newswire reported.

What is the story about?

Before his murder, Kuciak was working on the story with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Investigative Reporting Project Italy (IRPI) and the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism (read the English version here).

When uncovering the case, the international team of journalists found out that the drug cartel was transporting cocaine from Costa Rica and Columbia in exotic fruit containers. Bananas used to conceal cocaine were supposed to be later sold in shops, possibly also in Slovakia.

Aquinos wife was the Slovak Silvia Liskova who, according to the court file, knew about his business.

Read also:

Read also: Cocaine hidden in fruit Read more

The money acquired from the drug smuggling had to be laundered somewhere. Thus they bought a hotel in the High Tatras where Liskova used to work in the past. They were also building a luxurious villa in Stara Lesna, which is now nearly completed. The official owner, according to the cadastral office, is Liskova.

Apart from the hotel and the villa, she has a company named Silvis, which is still active. Even though it does not have any official website, its annual revenues in 2017 amounted to more than 1.6 million, Aktuality.sk wrote, referring to the Finstat data.

Aquino was detained along with several of the members of this organised crime group during the Raak police operation. However, he was killed shortly before the court hearing, Aktuality.sk reported.

The Belgian police was unable to dissolve the entire group, since its members are scattered across the globe. As a result, the drug business continues and those detained during the police operation were replaced by new ones, the website added.

Slovak involvement

Aquino was not a complete stranger to the Slovak law enforcement bodies, as the Noviny.sk website, the portal of the private broadcaster TV JOJ, informed.

Back in 2013 the Slovak prosecutors office provided legal aid to Belgium, where currently the trail with the gangs members is underway. At the time, the Belgian investigators arrived in Slovakia. Altogether four district prosecutors offices, namely in Kezmarok, Spisska Nova Ves, Kosice and Lucenec, collaborated with them.

Read also:

Read also: GP: Mistakes have slowed down the investigation of journalists murder Read more

However, they failed to charge anybody in the case.

The General Prosecutors Office now wants to deal with the information about Aquinos again.

Moreover, the police have confirmed that the case is being handled by the investigators looking into the murder of Kuciak and his fiancee, SITA reported.

25. Jul 2018 at 14:10 | Compiled by Spectator staffMeasles spread to other districts

Towns and hospitals adopt preventive measures.

Measles continue to spread in eastern Slovakia, surpassing the Michalovce district borders. The laboratory tests confirmed that a child from Trebisov is suffering from the disease, Jana Fedakova, spokesperson for the Svet Zdravia network of hospitals, informed on July 24.

The child with the disease was coming from the local Roma settlement, and was previously living in Michalovce, where the first measles cases occurred.

At the same time, she confirmed that a child from Vranov nad Toplou is also suffering from measles. These two are the new localities in the Lower Zemplin region where the disease has occurred, the TASR newswire reported.

Read also:

Read also: The east continues its fight against measles Read more

Both children were transported to the Michalovce hospital last week, with one undergoing outpatient treatment and the other being hospitalised.

The laboratory tests confirmed the disease in both cases, Fedakova said, as quoted by TASR.

In addition, there is one suspicion reported in Roznava. Svet Zdravia is currently waiting for the test results as the clinical signs are unclear, she added.

Currently, 15 patients are hospitalised in Michalovce, five of them admitted during July 24. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the hospital has hospitalised altogether 220 patients, while another 80 underwent outpatient treatment, TASR reported.

New measures introduced

The regional office of the Public Health Authority (UVZ) reported 279 measles cases before July 23, of which 150 were confirmed by the laboratory tests. The most cases were reported in the Michalovce district (270), with the remaining nine being reported in the Sobrance district.

Due to the epidemic, the emergency situation was declared in the Michalovce district and several measures had to be adopted to prevent the spread of the disease. The crisis staff will meet on July 31 to discuss the situation and the measures.

The measures have also been adopted by the town of Trebisov, with the regional UVZ office ordering medical supervision and vaccination against measles for children aged six months to 10 years living on Ivana Kraska Street. Moreover, it adopted quarantine measures and ordered the disinfection of households, TASR reported.

Read also:

Read also: Measles might spread further west Read more

UVZ has already checked the vaccination reports of children aged 15 months to 18 years living on the street.

Children without complete regular mandatory vaccination against measles due to their age were vaccinated during the weekend, said UVZs spokesperson Dasa Rackova, as quoted by TASR.

Hospitals careful, too

Several measures were adopted by Trebisov hospital. For now, only the employees of the most risky wards who have contact with patients have had to be vaccinated, but the hospital is ready to increase the number if the situation worsens, said the hospitals director, Juraj Bazar.

In addition, the University Hospital of Louis Pasteur in Kosice adopted preventive measures against measles. They are preparing the summaries of the vaccination status of its employees working on all of its wards and clinics.

Read also:

Read also: State of emergency declared in Michalovce over measles epidemic Read more

Moreover, the hospital will secure free vaccination for its employees. It recommends it mostly to those who have not suffered from the disease or were not vaccinated with both doses, the hospitals spokesperson Ivana Staskova told TASR.

The Teaching Hospital with the Policlinics of J. A. Reiman in Presov also recommended preventive vaccination of the employees working in the most risky wards. It is ready to help with the situation in Michalovce if necessary, said its spokesperson Renata Cenkova.

Disclaimer: Svet Zdravia belongs to the Penta financial group, the minority owner of Petit Press, the co-owner of The Slovak Spectator.

25. Jul 2018 at 14:14 | Compiled by Spectator staffHow much does moving cost? Prepare for hundreds of euros

Low prices of moving, starting from 100, are just bait, the price grows with surcharges.

Roman Puchovsky was moving from Senec (the town located about 30 kilometres from the capital) to Bratislava during four weekends on his own, with his family and a rented car. He did not order the services of a moving company for several reasons. First, he had a lot of time to vacate the flat. Thats why I didnt need professionals who would clear out my flat in half a day, he explains.

He also disliked the idea of strangers packing his personal belongings. Ultimately, it was the potential price of moving, which would amount to several hundred euros, since moving from one town to another is more expensive.

Time vs. money

An ordinary family in Slovakia moves once in every few years. The advantage of moving on ones own is that the owner has the entire process under control. If the family is well-organised, it can manage to move into a two-bedroom flat in two to three days. They have to calculate, however, the costs of renting a bigger car, buying fuel, boxes and bags. Self-help moving also means a weekend spent toiling instead of doing more agreeable things. Not to mention the physical strain and the fact that if there is no lift, you have to walk thousands of stairs. When a family moves, people usually do not consider someone being injured, or a rented car being damaged. A van from the car rental is insured but the moving person will not avoid coinsurance in case of a casualty.

On the other hand, a moving company can move an ordinary four-member family from a two-bedroom flat in four to six hours, while saving time and worries. But it could be a problem for an ordinary family to pay several hundred euros for moving.

How the price of moving is generated

To calculate approximately how much moving homes will cost, it is enough to click on the websites of companies and provide some data. What counts is the volume of things being moved, the number of boxes, floors, the size of the lift, the distance of the two households as well as whether the client requires boxes or packaging material to be rented.

It is not easy to figure things out from the price-lists of moving companies, however. In some companies, prices start from low amounts of 100, but ultimately, you pay several hundreds of euros anyway.

Moving companies tend to charge extra for delays, too small a lift, or assembling jobs. The transport of heavy items like a piano or a safe costs extra money, too. The prices for a common upright piano start from 70, and carrying it up to a first floor costs around 20 more.

So you should ask for pricing in several companies, and follow their recommendations on social networks, not their websites, says Alexander Krajnak, legal representative of the Re-Max Absolute real estate agency.

On ones own or with a company?

 When you consider your time, the time of your friends, snacks  then in the end our service is cheaper,  Slavomir Ciernik, SVD Group

The common moving to a two-bedroom flat within the capital with items of around 30 cubic metres to a third floor with a lift costs around 500 with the Triv company, and 700 without lift. The ideal possibility is to show our employee around, so that he/she can see and state a precise amount for the client, says Anton Vojcak, co-owner of the company.

25. Jul 2018 at 23:08 | Jozef RynikSlovak National Gallery marks 70th anniversary with a special programme

The gallery is celebrating 70 years with creative workshops for families, an evening birthday party, exhibitions, music, special meals, and more.

Head of the Slovak National Gallery, Alexandra Kusa, can show you around the gallery, currently under construction. (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubco)

The Slovak National Gallery (SNG) in Bratislava is celebrating its 70th birthday on Saturday, July 28, the TASR newswire learnt on July 23.

In order to mark this special anniversary, Slovakias top gallery institution, which falls under the Culture Ministry, has prepared a birthday party with a colourful, five-hour evening programme, including exhibitions, music and good food.

Read also:

Read also: Filla and Fulla - parallels between the two Czech and Slovak artists Read more

Weve prepared professional and experiential events, and well also offer gifts to visitors, so in addition to an experience, theyll receive something tangible, said SNG general manager Alexandra Kusa for TASR.

She went on to say that even though the gallery in downtown Bratislava has been undergoing vast reconstruction for some time already, it has had no influence on the artistic condition of the institution.

Read also:

Read also: SNG under reconstruction, finally Read more

Regarding the programme, SNG has prepared creative workshops for families with children, a guided tour around the gallery, the first curators lecture at the Filla-Fulla Artists Fate exhibition, the Nestex exhibition of ancient art, an audiovisual performance, Jan Sicko & Pjoni, the premiere of the video-documentary 70 Years of SNG, and more.

Demonstrations of the work of curators, restaurant staff, digitisation experts and other professionals working at the gallery will all be included.

The candles on a special birthday cake will be blown out at 21:30 at the Berlinka cafe adjacent to the gallery.

25. Jul 2018 at 21:49 | Compiled by Spectator staffFinance Minister headed for the central bank, insiders claim

Peter Kazimir is expected to quit his job as Finance Minister and take over NBS.

Finance Minister Peter Kazimir (of the ruling Smer party) is likely to quit his position by the end of this year, several sources have confirmed for the Sme daily.

He allegedly wants to wait until the ruling coalition approves next years budget and then he will move to the National Bank of Slovakia (NBS, the Slovak central bank). His ambition to be at the helm of the central bank and his departure from politics due to weariness and dissatisfaction has been known for some time now.

Party affiliation/membership discussed

As the central bank is an independent institution, it is not clear whether Kazimir will have to tackle his party membership as well, the daily wrote on July 24. He could suspend his Smer membership, which is the best solution in Smer MP Marian Kerys eyes. In Smer, Kazimir has the closest ties with Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini and the head of the parliamentary caucus, Martin Glvac.

Due to his good relationship with Pellegrini, Kazimir is willing to wait for the budget on the parliaments agenda at the end of the year. Head of the Financial Administration, Frantisek Imrecze, is mentioned among insiders as the hottest candidate to replace Kazimir.

Smer may miss him

In his party, the ruling Smer, Kazimir is perceived as a person who does not like to deal with party politics or disputes and prefers to focus on figures, despite being cabinet vice-chair.

He may replace the incumbent NBS Governor Jozef Makuch at the end of 2018, although the latters term officially ends in 2021. NBS did not comment on whether Makuch will end his term prematurely.

Kazimir reacted by telling Sme he was working on next years budget.

Deputies, even from Smer, are confirming the rumours on the finance minister changing his career. Kazimir has set the standard for the finance minister post high, but everyone can be replaced, Smer MP Marian Kery said. Vice-chair of the party caucus, Miroslav Ciz, considers the ministers ambition natural, too.

Opposition reacts

A respected economist without links to Smer should be appointed to lead the NBS, MP for the opposition SaS party, Eugen Jurzyca, told the SITA newswire.

Jurzyca added that the governing party is a disaster for a healthy economic environment in Slovakia. After the unsuccessful candidacy of the finance minister for the head post of the Euro-group, his departure to lead NBS could be seen as another attempt to escape the sinking ship, according to the SaS. Therefore, SaS declare that they would not support Kazimirs candidacy for NBS governor in parliament.

25. Jul 2018 at 22:02 | Compiled by Spectator staffThree state planes to pick up Slovaks from Albania

Their travel agency went bust on July 24.

The Interior Ministry will send three aircraft to Albania to pick up 84 Slovak holidaymakers whose travel agency, Albania Travel, went bust on Tuesday (July 24), the TASR newswire learnt on July 25.

The ministry was asked for help by the assistance service of an insurance company, which will pay the entire cost for transporting these holidaymakers, Interior Ministry spokesman Petar Lazarov told the newswire.

Beata Lipsicova, PR specialist of the Uniqua insurer, which insured Albania Travel, stated that the insurer initially approached commercial carriers, but it was complicated to hire planes in the midst of the holiday season.

As it was our priority to get the holidaymakers home as soon as possible, early on Wednesday afternoon we eventually managed to secure their transport from Tirana to Poprad (Presov Region in northeast Slovakia) by several aircraft of the Interior Ministrys fleet, Lipsicova said. The insurer will cover the flight.

What to do if you get stuck

On the same day, 86 people waited to be flown to Albania at the Poprad airport.

Holidaymakers unable to leave for Albania should contact the call centre of Uniqa insurer at (00421)02/32 600 100 or by email at poistovna@uniqa.sk.

Experts warn against travel agencies that only offer single destinations, which was the case with Albania Travel from Poprad.

25. Jul 2018 at 22:06 | Compiled by Spectator staff25

The streets around the Saint Lazare train station churn with a current of hurried office workers, wandering tourists, delivery trucks, and city buses. In the shadow of the austere Eglise de la Sainte-Trinite church, Hanoi Corner is a little haven of calm welcoming passersby for lunch or an afternoon cup of tea.

The cafe, specializing in Vietnamese filter coffee, Vietnamese tea, and street food staples like banh mi sandwiches, is Nguyen Nam and Nguyen Linhs love letter to their Vietnamese-French heritage.

I wanted to create a Vietnamese coffee shop, but I didnt want to just serve a good cup of coffee, Nam says. I wanted to take customers on a voyage to discover Vietnamese culture.

Nam is Vietnamese, but grew up in France; his wife, Linh, came to France from Vietnam to study. For Nam, a former IT project manager, coffee is an opportunity to stop and enjoy the moment. In Vietnam, he says, coffee is never taken to go.

Coffee made with a Vietnamese filter takes time, Nam says. Its coffee that invites you to sit down and share it with someone.

Though Vietnam is a major coffee producer, the quality of the beans, mostly Robusta, is generally considered inferior to those produced in other regions. But as interest in coffee grows, so has the demand for locally grown Arabica and lighter roasted beans. Cafe culture is developing in new and exciting ways in Vietnam, particularly in cities in the south, where a number of cafes are taking a specialty coffee approach that includes different extraction methods and a special attention to provenance. Hanoi Corner tries to capture the diversity of this movement for a French audience, sourcing both darker-roasted beans as well as more modern interpretations from The Workshop, a specialty roaster in Ho Chi Minh City.

Theres this side of Vietnam that many French people arent aware of. We wanted to show traditional coffee, specialty coffee, and whats happening in between, Nam says. In addition to offering straight up Vietnamese filter coffee, the couple also prepares a beverage with iced coconut milk, as well as egg coffee, which is topped with whipped egg yolk and condensed milk. Nam admits that purists might be put off by the idea of coconut and coffee mingling, but also insists that different occasions call for different coffees.

I love eating at gourmet restaurants, but that doesnt stop me from enjoying comfort food now and then, he says.

For Linh, it was important that teas also appear on their menu. A staple beverage in Vietnam, green tea is consumed in the morning, after meals, during ceremonies, and with family. In addition to two native green tea varieties and three native black teas, the cafe serves a lotus-infused green tea produced within the traditional Vietnamese style, with no artificial flavorsfor this drink, green tea leaves are infused six times with lotus flowers harvested from the West Lake area in Vietnam. All teas are procured from small producers who work with local communities in Vietnams mountainous tea-growing regions.

Our work here in Paris has to give something back to Vietnam, it cant just be about making money, Linh says.

Nams decision to exclusively serve coffee brewed with the Vietnamese Phin filter is unique in Paris, and even more so because he has developed a specialty-inspired brewing method specific to the filter.

I wanted to work with the beans and filter from Vietnam, and the methods I learned in France, he explains. When he first began learning about extraction methods, he found the Vietnamese filter often presented as a quaint element of local culture rather than a serious way to make a good cup of coffee. So, initially he concentrated on learning V60 techniques.

But there were things about the V60 that bothered him, namely a nagging sense of irregularity, no matter how precise his measurements were. The Vietnamese filter is even simpler than the V60, which meant I could concentrate on precision of grind, temperature, and ratio, Nam says. He spent a year poring over books and adapting V60 techniques to the filter, eventually refining a brewing process that produces coffee with a flavor and mouthfeel somewhere between an espresso and a filter brew.

Nams hard work paid off earlier this year when he won the Reseau Barista de France Brewing Contest with his method. In the past, hes been reluctant to enter competitions that dont include blind tasting, because hes sensed some condescension within the specialty coffee community toward the Vietnamese filter.

In my experience, people have had preconceived ideas about my coffee before they even taste it. Theyll say, Its not bad, but they dont dare say its good, he says. The blind tasting was an opportunity. To show people that its possible to make a modern, relevant cup of coffee with a Vietnamese filter. Its not just a quaint bit of folklore to play on nostalgia about Vietnam.

The couple takes the same approach to food as they do coffee, using Linhs family recipes to create banh mi sandwiches, bo bun bowls, and manioc desserts that break with a nostalgic or static approach to Vietnamese cuisine.

We want to show theres another face of Vietnam than what you find in the restaurants in the 13th arrondissement. Theres nothing wrong with them, but they were opened by people who came after the war with an older vision of Vietnam, explains Linh.

But we can show something new, with good pastries, tea, cake, a good banh mia blend of French and Vietnamese culture, based on traditional recipes.

The slow evolution of Vietnamese cuisine in Paris may arise in part from the stigma Nam says many Vietnamese families attach to working in the food industry. Growing up, for example, Nam says his parents emphasized the importance of higher education and getting a well-paid job in a company, and his decision to open a cafe left them perplexed.

Theres a level of fear in saying you work in the food industry, it implies that youve failed in your studies, in your life, he explains. But I went to school, I worked and eventually I realized I had nothing to prove to anyone.

After just three months in operation, Hanoi Corner landed a Time Out mention as one of the best places to seek out Vietnamese food in Paris. It may be a sign that the city is ready for what the new generation of Vietnamese creators have to offer.

Its funny because the French brought coffee to Vietnam and now were bringing Vietnamese coffee to France. The circle is complete, Nam says.

Kate Robinson (@KateOnTheLoose) is a freelance journalist based in Paris. Read more Kate Robinson on Sprudge.Who's Keda.Z Feng, you asked? Well, he's actually one of the few well-known photographers in Malaysia who does wedding, portrait and landscape pictures. He is the Founder and principle of KEDA.Z Photography Gallery and was born in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. With this, he also made an appearance in OPPO Malaysia's Find X event just recently, sharing his experience using the flagship's camera performance.

These four pictures are all captured by the OPPO Find X. The human shadows reflected at the phone body were all me. It may seem unbelievable but the moment I saw the cameras that are hidden within the body of Find X, I can see our similarities, said Keda.Z.

Although our eyes can see the world as it is, only our hearts are able to explore the true beauty behind what we see and capture it, and this is what I felt when I held the Find X for the first time. I am also impressed by its simple yet futuristic design, that also contains technology and philosophy within, he added.

Just to recap, the Find X is the world's first smartphone to feature a sliding motorize Stealth 3D Cameras that comprises a 25MP front camera and a 20MP + 16MP AI-powered dual rear camera. VOOC Flash Charge technology is also on board to heighten up the charging speed and not to forget, the notch-less 6.42-inch Panoramic Arc display giving the users a maximized viewing pleasure possible. You can read more of the details from our coverage here.

It's currently priced at RM3699 and you can pre-order it (comes with a free Olike Neo smartwatch worth RM376) at every OPPO concept store, your nearest Celcom Blue Cube outlets, their official website, Lazada, 11Street and Shopee. Stay tuned for more OPPO news at TechNave.com.Mountain Shadows in Wayanad is just the place for a dreamy vacationAs previously noted, Killing Eve is getting a television broadcast on ABC from this Friday night at 8:30pm.

The ripping series, which has screened in full on iview, has won rave reviews and an Emmy nomination for Sandra Oh (see 5 star review here).

Based on the novellas by Luke Jennings and written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, BBCAs Killing Eve centres on two women; Eve is a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade MI5 security officer whose desk-bound job doesnt fulfil her fantasies of being a spy. Villanelle is a mercurial, talented killer who clings to the luxuries her violent job affords her. Killing Eve topples the typical spy-action thriller as these two fiercely intelligent women, equally obsessed with each other, go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse.

It will be followed by UK drama Marcella from 9:15pm.

This is a noir-style series by Swedish screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of The Bridge. It debuted in the UK in 2016 with a second season airing in 2018.

After 11 years absence from the force, Marcella finds herself drawn back to police work following the return of the Grove Park Killer, her last case before she left to start a family.ABC News channel has 4 hours of coverage of the five by-elections being held on Super Saturday 28 July.

Four of five by-elections are the result of the High Court ruling on dual citizens, while Perth is being contested due to a resignation.

The five seats are:

 Braddon Tasmania

 Fremantle WA

 Longman QLD

 Mayo SA

 Perth WA

A Federal Government hasnt won a by-election since 1920 and Super Saturday is being seen as a major test for both the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

Providing all the essential news, commentary and analysis on the night will be ABC Political Editor Andrew Probyn, National Affairs Correspondent Greg Jennett, 730 Chief Political Correspondent Laura Tingle and ABC Election Analyst Antony Green.

The ABC team will also be joined by guest panellists  Labors Ed Husic and Liberal Partys Trent Zimmerman.

The in-depth coverage will feature live reporting from the five electorates, as well as interviews with the candidates.

And Mr Elections Antony Green will be on deck in the Sydney studio as the numbers come in, giving us the latest seat-by-seat results and analysis, with his election touchscreen.

6.00pm AEST on ABC News Channel & iview

The next morning on Insiders Barrie Cassidy will be joined by Tanya Plibersek and Christopher Pyne at 9am.EXCLUSIVE: Nine News boss Darren Wick has hit back at a New Idea cover story which claimed Tracy Grimshaw was reeling after not winning the Gold Logie, and took time unscheduled leave to reconsider her future.

According to the article, What Tracy Grimshaw is Hiding she spent a week in self-imposed exile at her property, with network bosses forced to pull out all the stops to keep her happy.

Its made her question everything  including whether she sticks with the show, an industry insider told the mag.

But Wick told TV Tonight the article was all fabricated and riddled with errors.

Its nonsense. Tracys leave was planned long in advance of the Logies. She would have gone on leave beforehand but we asked her to stay on for the Logies. So theres nothing strange about that. Everyone has to take leave and weve found its really important with a lot of presenters to get them away mid-year to have a break.

So its just completely made up.

Its just an anonymous person who has made it up.

Still reeling after the disappointment. Wrong. Tracy blind-sided. Wrong. It couldnt have come at a worse time for the network. Wrong. Its made her question everything says an insider. Who is that person? Its just an anonymous person who has made it up.

In the lead up to the Logies, Grimshaw was on the campaign trail with press interviews and travel to Melbourne and the Gold Coast, then back to the A Current Affair desk in Sydney the night after.

Although it didnt result in a Logie win, Wick says she had a great time at the industry event.

Shed like to have won but she had a good time, and quite honestly she was thrilled to have been nominated, he continued.

If anyone knows Tracy Grimshaw, she can and does party hard!

He denied suggestions Grimshaw was close to walking out.

It is point blank not true. Tracy is signed, sealed and delivered for a new contract.

She is very happy with where the show is at in 2018. I think its in a great place, and the numbers reflect that.

The morale of the team is fantastic and they obviously had a challenging year last year. But its in a good space and shes loving it.

Shes mentoring so many young reporters and producers, and she has a big smile on her face everytime she turns up to work.

Yesterday Grimshaw was nominated for a NSW Kennedy Award for Outstanding Current Affairs Reporting.

In a further blunder the article bizarrely claimed, Nine bosses were attempting to appease her by giving her more control over her Today segments.

The online version has since corrected to A Current Affair segments, but hard copies on news stands still carry the error.

Its probably a template, Wick joked.

The fact they are writing about Channel Nine stars all the time, Tracy, Karl, Georgie. Channel Nine stars sell magazines.

This story is so error-riddled and devoid of facts its a joke.

The magazine industry is under incredible pressure and probably on the verge of folding. So they are doing whatever they can to sell. This story is so error-riddled and devoid of facts its a joke.

Its worse than lazy, its deceitful.

By the same token, do we want to get tied up suing them for every single article they do? Its a waste of time. I think the public out there dont believe this for a second and thats why the mags are in the trouble they are in.

New Idea, which scored the Karl Stefanovic scoop on his Uber call, is also published by Seven-owned Pacific Magazines. Is there a corporate agenda to target Nine with fake news? Wick is doubtful.

I cant imagine my counterparts at Channel Seven are plotting to bring us down with this sort of stuff. I dont imagine anyone has the time to do that any more, he continued.

They cant keep printing rubbish which is factually wrong and expect to have a long existence

But I think market forces will ultimately take care of them. They cant keep printing rubbish which is factually wrong and expect to have a long existence. Mags have always been tabloid and at times outrageous with a bit of scandal, but by and large a lot of it has been based on fact with good journos.

I just think the magazines are pushing whatever button they can to try and get somebody to buy it off the news stand.

A Seven West Media spokesperson said the error of Today segments over A Current Affair was a typo.A supporter of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) uses a mobile phone to photograph a portrait of CPP president Hun Sen during an election campaign in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 7, 2018. REUTERS/Samrang Pring/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia's armed forces put on a show of power on Wednesday, displaying anti-riot gear and assault rifles at a sports stadium in the capital Phnom Penh ahead of a general election this weekend which some have criticized as a sham.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has ruled the Southeast Asian nation for more than 30 years, is expected to win easily on Sunday after the main opposition party was dissolved last year and following a crackdown on dissent, including civil society and independent media.

A total of 4,625 police officers wearing flak jackets and armed with automatic rifles gathered at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh on Wednesday in a display meant to discourage any street protests during the election.

Phnom Penh's Police Chief Chuon Sovann said that the forces will be deployed across the city to maintain security on Sunday.

"All of these forces have a duty to prevent, stop and crackdown on every case that leads to the obstruction of the election," Chuon Sovann told the gathering forces.

Chuon Sovann said that police will stop any protests or those who urge others not to vote.

Authorities have said calls to boycott the vote are illegal, but rights groups argue the calls are not against the law.

Sunday's election has been criticized by the United Nations and Western countries as fundamentally flawed after the Supreme Court last year dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and its leader, Kem Sokha, was imprisoned for treason.

Kem Sokha's supporters say his jailing was politically motivated. He is currently in pre-trial detention near Cambodia's border with Vietnam.

Kem Monovithya, Kem Sokha's daughter, said that the display of force showed that the vote will be conducted under pressure.

"This is evidence that the election is not only being conducted without a viable opposition, it is also conducted under threat, forcing people to go to vote in a fake election," Kem Monovithya told Reuters.

Story continues

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Michael Perry)

See Also:FILE PHOTO: Colombia's former president Alvaro Uribe Velez speaks to the news media after casting his vote at a polling station, during the presidential election in Bogota, Colombia May 27, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

By Julia Symmes Cobb and Helen Murphy

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe on Wednesday accused President Juan Manuel Santos and Britain's MI6 spy agency of participating in a plot against him, a day after resigning his Senate seat to face a bribery and fraud investigation by the Supreme Court.

Uribe, a mentor of Colombia's incoming President Ivan Duque, is under investigation by the court over allegations he made false accusations and tampered with witnesses in a case he himself started by making similar accusations against a leftist senator.

Known for a hardline military crackdown on Marxist guerrillas during his 2002-2010 government, Uribe cited on Twitter what he said were claims that recordings in the case were made by MI6, Britain's Secret Intelligence Service.

"There are repeated accusations that the recordings were made by the British agency MI6, friends of Juan Manuel Santos. Foreign authorities in a ruse against me," Uribe said.

He did not specify exactly which recordings he was referring to or the source of the accusations. But in a statement on Tuesday, the Supreme Court referenced intercepted phone calls between a lawyer and a former official that it said had plotted to undermine the case against Uribe.

A spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office declined to comment on Uribe's tweet. MI6, which is accountable to British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, did not respond to calls requesting comment.

Uribe had originally tweeted it was MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence service, which was involved, before correcting himself.

A spokeswoman for President Santos declined to comment. Santos was once a close ally of Uribe's until they had a bitter falling out over a peace process with Marxist rebels that resulted in a 2016 deal signed by Santos to end their five-decade uprising.

FIRST PRESIDENT TO TESTIFY

Uribe resigned his Senate seat on Tuesday after the Supreme Court asked him to testify in the criminal case, which could result in jail time. It is the first time that the tribunal, which is charged with investigating criminal allegations against lawmakers, has called a former president to testify.

Story continues

The 66-year-old is seen as the power behind the throne of Duque, 41, who won last month's presidential election as the candidate for Uribe's right-wing Democratic Center party.

Uribe's exit from the Senate just two weeks before Duque'sAug. 7 inauguration could throw the new government into disarray. It will also remove from Congress a vocal critic of the peace deal who had called for tougher treatment of former FARC rebels.

The case that spurred the Supreme Court investigation began in 2012, when Uribe accused leftist lawmaker Ivan Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to falsely link him to right-wing paramilitary groups. Uribe denies any such ties.

But in February the Supreme Court said Cepeda had collected information from former members of paramilitary groups in the course of his Senate work, and that he had not paid or pressured them. Instead, the court said, it was Uribe who was at fault.

The activities continued even after the February ruling, the court said in its Tuesday statement.

Cepeda hailed the Supreme Court's decision to press Uribe to testify.

"This decision marks a historic milestone in the judicial and political life of nation," he told Reuters. "Uribe was considered untouchable and all powerful until yesterday. This marks a very important precedent."

Uribe's lawyer, Jaime Granados, could not be reached for comment. The former president said on Twitter on Tuesday that his lawyers would not make any statements.

Uribe and his family have long been accused of paramilitary involvement by the opposition, but previous investigations have borne little fruit. The family has also denied any such links.

Paramilitary groups in Colombia - originally funded by landowners eager to protect themselves from rebel fighters - became dreaded death squads linked to rural massacres, drug trafficking and sexual violence.

The demobilization of a major paramilitary group during Uribe's term in office was widely criticized as ineffective. The 50-year conflict in Colombia has killed more than 220,000 people.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Helen Murphy in Bogota, additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge in London; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Tom Brown)

See Also:FILE PHOTO: Trucks operate in the open-pit mine of PT Freeport's Grasberg copper and gold mine complex near Timika, in the eastern region of Papua, Indonesia on September 19, 2015 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. REUTERS/Muhammad Adimaja/Antara Foto/File Photo

Thomson Reuters

By Bernadette Christina Munthe

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's parliament has asked the government to recalculate damage to the environment from the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by the local unit of Freeport McMoRan Inc, the environment ministry said.

A 2017 report by Indonesia's Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) calculated that Freeport's decades-long operations at the mine in Indonesia's remote easternmost province of Papua had caused environmental damage worth $13.25 billion.

That damage, it said, was largely a result of tailings from the mine that had extended beyond previously agreed limits and which had polluted coastal areas.

The audit also said Freeport Indonesia (PT FI) had missed royalty payments, cleared thousands of hectares of protected forest and began mining underground without environmental clearance.

The environmental issues have presented problems for Freeport and Indonesia, whose state-owned mining holding company, PT Inalum, hopes to finalize a $3.9 billion deal to acquire a majority stake in Grasberg this year.

In a meeting with Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya on Tuesday, parliament urged the minister to "ensure that PT FI fulfils governmental administrative penalties" in accordance with the law, the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"Commission VII asks the Environment Minister to calculate the value of environmental losses resulting from damage and pollution from PT FI operations, as per the findings of the BPK," Commission VII chairman Gus Irawan Pasaribu said, according to the statement.

Jakarta-based spokesmen for PTFI and Inalum did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.

Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said on a call with analysts on July 12 the company had been "working very closely" with the environment ministry and had "received assurance that we will find a resolution of the environmental issues that will be acceptable for all parties. So we're very encouraged by that."

Story continues

Since then he said Freeport had "entered into very productive discussions with the ministry and are making progress with the ministry in addressing these issues and working toward a resolution that we do not expect and the ministry does not expect to adversely affect our operations."

Parliament also urged the ministry to "conduct environmental risk analysis and environmental audits on a regular basis", and plans to hold meetings with the ministries of mining and the environment on the matter.

A spokesman for the environment ministry declined to comment further on the parliament request or provide and estimate on how long this process could take.

Indonesia's mining minister said earlier this month the environmental matters must be resolved before his office could issue a new mining permit for PT-FI up to 2031.

Inalum CEO Budi Gunadi Sadikin told parliament on Monday that "regarding the environment, we told Freeport 'the past problems are your sins'. In future we will take responsibility together."

Sadikin added the environmental damage from Grasberg was a shared responsibility as the government already held a 9.36 percent stake in the mine.

Sadikin said a forestry permit for the mine still needed to be issued, and "the 185 trillion rupiah ($12.80 billion) from tailings damage still needs to be cleared up" although he was confident that all the environmental problems could be resolved.

There are 13 of 48 sanctions related to the environmental audit that have not been met yet, according to the environment ministry.

In April, Freeport shares fell to a four-month low after the environment ministry announced tough new rules intended to comply with the BPK audit, just before the company announced its first quarter earnings.

($1 = 14,455.0000 rupiah)

(Reporting by Bernadette Christina Munthe; Additional reporting by Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fergus Jensen; editing by David Evans)

See Also:Bulgarian Yane Petkov, 64, is held after he wanted to set a new Guinness World Record by attempting to swim more than three kilometers at Macedonia's Lake Ohrid,E in a bag with his arms and legs tied up, in Ohrid, Macedonia July 24, 2018. EREUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

Thomson Reuters

OHRID, Macedonia (Reuters) - Swimming instructor, lifeguard and adventurer Yane Petkov - Bulgaria's answer to Houdini and Michael Phelps combined - reclaimed on Tuesday the Guinness world record for swimming along with his hands and feet tied while fully wrapped inside a sack.

Petkov, 64, swam 3,380 meters in Macedonias Lake Ohrid, beating the record of Indian fisherman Gopal Kharvi, who in 2013 swam 3,071 meters in the Indian Ocean - though not in a sack.

The Bulgarian swimmer already had one entry in the Guinness Book of Records in 2013 with 2,030 meters, but he only held it for three months until he was overtaken by Kharvi.

Before his latest attempt, Petkov said he had planned to swim 3.5 kilometers, and Guinness observers were present for his swim, organized by the Red Cross and the waters sports clubs of Ohrid and Petric.

Petkov took around three hours to worm his way along through the water, face-up and feet first, before he emerged on the shore in the ancient town of Ohrid, a popular holiday resort.

(Reporting by Ognen Teofilovski; Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

See Also:By David Shepardson and Ben Blanchard

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The three biggest U.S. airlines changed how they refer to self-ruled Taiwan on their websites to avoid Chinese penalties ahead of a Wednesday deadline - revisions Beijing described as "positive developments."

Earlier this year, China demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, not refer to Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory on their websites. The White House in May slammed the demand as "Orwellian nonsense."

Beijing set a final deadline of July 25 for the changes and last month rejected U.S. requests for talks on the matter, adding to tension in relations already frayed by an escalating trade conflict.

Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial issue. Beijing considers the island a wayward province of "one China."

Reuters reported early on Tuesday that American Airlines Group Inc <AAL.O>, Delta Air Lines <DAL.N> and United Airlines <UAL.N> were set to change how they refer to Taiwanese airports on their websites. American Airlines confirmed the change later in the day.

A check of all three airlines' websites on Wednesday morning showed they now list only Taipei's airport code and city, but not the name Taiwan.

"China is willing to share China's development opportunities with foreign companies and welcomes them to invest in and operate in China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

"Of course we hope that when they operate in China they respect China's laws and rules, China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and the feelings of the Chinese people."

The White House in May had issued a blistering statement calling on China "to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens" and added that President Donald Trump "will stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens."

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The U.S. State Department on Wednesday declined to comment, but a State Department official reiterated it "strongly objects to Chinas attempts to compel private firms to use specific language of a political nature in their publicly available content." The official added that the government "has not told U.S. airlines how to respond to China."

Taiwan's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it "most severely" condemned the Chinese government's use of political power to "crudely and unreasonably interfere with private commercial activity and international companies' operations."

It was unclear how China might punish airlines that do not comply, but in December it added a clause to rules governing foreign airlines saying regulators could change a company's permit if it did not meet "the demand of public interest."

American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said on Tuesday the firm had implemented the changes at China's request in line with other carriers. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate," she said.

Hawaiian Airlines <HA.O> had changed its website ahead of the deadline to showing searches for flights to Taiwan's capital as "Taipei, Taipei" in dropdown menus.

United spokesman Frank Benenati confirmed the airline made the website changes on Wednesday and said it "abides by and respects local laws and regulations in all markets and jurisdictions where we operate and conduct business."

Numerous non-U.S. airlines, including Air Canada <AC.TO>, Lufthansa <LHAG.DE> and British Airways <ICAG.L> had already made changes to their websites, according to Reuters checks, after China's Civil Aviation Administration sent a letter to 36 foreign air carriers earlier in the year.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore and Jessica Macy Yu in Taipei; Editing by Michael Perry, Stephen Coates, Himani Sarkar and Dan Grebler)BEIJING (Reuters) - China and Bhutan should work together to ensure peace along their border and keep pushing talks on the issue, a senior Chinese diplomat said during a rare visit to the country, following an ugly spat with India last year over the frontier.

China and India almost came to blows last year at the Doklam plateau near the borders of India, its ally Bhutan, and China, in the most serious and prolonged standoff in decades along the disputed Himalayan border.

While China and India subsequently withdrew their troops and have been working hard to mend ties, including with meetings between Chinese President Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the two remain deeply suspicious of each other.

Visiting landlocked Bhutan on a three-day trip ending Tuesday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said his country highly regarded its traditional friendship with Bhutan and would as before respect Bhutan's independence and sovereignty, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.

"Both sides should continue to promote border talks, abide by the principles and consensus already reached, and jointly protect peace and tranquillity in the border region to create positive conditions for a final resolution," the statement cited Kong as saying.

China and Bhutan do not have formal diplomat relations, and China's ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, accompanied Kong, the ministry added.

It said Kong met Bhutan's king and government officials.

Bhutan also shares a border and close culture with restive Tibet, one of China's most sensitive areas.

China and India have been competing for influence in South Asian countries which have traditionally been close to New Delhi, including Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

Xi and Modi are expected to meet this week in South Africa at a summit of the BRICS group of nations.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)BALTIMORE (AP)  A Mennonite missionary from Virginia who lived in Haiti for more than a decade has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for child sexual abuse in the impoverished Caribbean nation, officials said.

James Arbaugh, 40, of the small Virginia town of Stuarts Draft is the latest American missionary to receive a hefty sentence for taking advantage of Haiti's extensive poverty and anemic rule of law to sexually abuse vulnerable youngsters.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of traveling in foreign commerce from the U.S. to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child. He was sentenced Monday.

Brian Benczkowski, who leads the Justice Department's criminal division, described Arbaugh as a "wolf in sheep's clothing."

"He posed as a selfless missionary when in reality he was exploiting his position to prey on and sexually abuse vulnerable children in one of the most impoverished areas of the world," Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general, said in a news release.

Arbaugh was arrested last year after telling a Virginia counselor that he had sexual contact with minors in Haiti. A federal affidavit filed by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations said he told investigators that he groomed or had sexual contact with at least 21 Haitian boys.

The sentencing of Arbaugh comes months after Daniel Pye of Arkansas, a missionary who operated a well-known orphanage in the scenic coastal town of Jacmel, received a 40-year sentence in the U.S. for sexually abusing vulnerable Haitian youngsters in his care.

Haitian child advocate Gertrude Sejour said foreign church groups who fund the work of missionaries in Haiti need to do a far better job ensuring that they're not working with sexual predators or shipping them overseas.

"There's far too many children being abused," said Sejour, of the Haitian advocacy group Maurice Sixto Foundation.

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Brian Concannon, executive director of the Boston-based advocacy group Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said Arbaugh's sentence sends a strong message but would be more powerful if more people were getting prosecuted.

"I think it's clear that there's a lot more abuse happening that isn't being prosecuted," Concannon said in a phone interview.

Arbaugh worked as a missionary with a group called Walking Together for Christ Haiti and described himself on a personal blog as an evangelist and religious film producer. Attempts to reach his lawyer were unsuccessful.

___

Follow McFadden on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmcfaddSREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  Hundreds of people on Wednesday attended an emotional funeral service for Hatidza Mehmedovic, who headed a group of women fighting for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The somber crowd stood in silence and many cried during a commemoration ceremony and a Muslim religious service held in the eastern Bosnian town that was the site of Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Mehmedovic, who headed the Mothers of Srebrenica group comprising women who lost their loved ones in the massacre, was buried later in a village near the town.

The Mothers of Srebrenica have won praise for their struggle to have those responsible for the killings brought to justice.

"Today we are all sad, everyone who knew Hatidza, everyone who knows what the word mother means," said Munira Subasic, another women heading the quest for justice. "She wanted to send the message of peace, message of respect to others. She was seeking only one thing and that was the truth and justice."

Mehmedovic's husband, two sons and brother were among some 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed when Bosnian Serbs overran Srebrenica in July 1995.

More than two decades later, experts are still excavating more victims' bodies from hidden mass graves throughout Bosnia.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic over the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.

Although an international court has labeled the Srebrenica killings as genocide, Serbs have never admitted their troops committed the ultimate crime and nationalist politicians have viewed Mladic and Karadzic as heroes.

A Serbian far-right lawmaker, Vjerica Radeta, has sparked outrage this week by an offensive tweet mocking Mehmedovic's tragedy after her death. The tweet was widely shared on social networks and reported by the media before it was deleted and Radeta's Twitter account shut down.

Serbia's parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic has said Radeta's position does not reflect that of the assembly.A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.FILE PHOTO: The ILVA steel plant is seen next to the Tamburi district, in Taranto, southern Italy April 27, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo

By Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's government, which has questioned the validity of ArcelorMittal's <MT.AS> planned takeover of Italian steelmaker Ilva, on Wednesday said it was not happy with new bid proposals put forward by the steel giant.

Italy's deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio said that while the Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal had improved its environmental pledges, it could still do more on the jobs front.

While putting pressure on ArcelorMittal to enhance its original offer, the new coalition has also ordered a review of the 2017 tender process, warning it will scrap the deal if it finds serious irregularities.

"We will pursue these two paths in parallel because we must be ready for all eventualities," said Di Maio, who is head of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and also serves as both industry and labour minister.

ArcelorMittal <MT.AS> said on Wednesday it had presented Di Maio with "additional proposals", adding that it hoped it could shortly complete its planned takeover of Ilva.

"We have participated in this tender in good faith and remain hopeful that we will be able to complete the transaction soon," it said in a statement.

The industry ministry said on Tuesday the tender review would take 30 days and came after Italy's anti-corruption body suggested the previous centre-left government might have failed to follow the correct procedures for such a public offer.

ArcelorMittal agreed last year to buy Ilva, Europe's largest steelworks, and had been due to take it over on July 1.

However, the government delayed the handover, heightening speculation about the future of the troubled Ilva, which was placed under state-supervised special administration in 2015 three years after magistrates had intervened in the company, saying it had to be cleaned up or shut down.

ArcelorMittal promised last year to pay 1.8 billion euros (1.6 billion) to acquire Ilva and then invest 1.2 billion to boost productivity and a further 1.1 billion to curb pollution at the firm's main Taranto plant in the southern heel of Italy.

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It has also told unions it plans to reduce the Taranto workforce to around 7,600 from 10,900 now.

Di Maio said ArcellorMittal had improved its environmental commitments, but added that the labour plan was "not satisfying". He gave no further details.

"ArcerolMittal does not want that its updated proposal be made public because it is worried about competitors getting hold of the information," Di Maio said.

Officials in Taranto have said Ilva is losing one million euros a day and warn that unless the ArcelorMittal deal is rapidly sealed, the business might be forced to close.

Ilva is one of Italy's largest industrial concerns and its closure would be a blow to local businesses that rely on it for much of their steel production.

(Additional reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Writing by Crispian Balmer; editing by David Evans)Road is flooded after heavy rain in Coxs Bazar A road is flooded after heavy rain in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Clare Baldwin

DHAKA/KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and flooding in southeastern Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing five children and forcing a thousand people to relocate, including in the Rohingya refugee camps.

The children were killed in landslides near Cox's Bazar and Ramu, said Kazi Abdur Rahman, a senior Bangladesh government official in the area. Three more people were injured and taken to hospital and a thousand were evacuated.

It was not immediately clear how many Rohingya refugees were relocated. Aid agencies have warned that the monsoon, which typically peaks in July, could threaten many thousands of people.

"A number of families were moved due to flooding and minor landslides," said Abul Kalam, the Bangladesh government official in charge of the refugees. "The rain shows no sign of stopping but there has been no major catastrophe inside the camps," he said.

The UNHCR and IOM were also unable to immediately provide figures.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled across the border from Myanmar since Aug. 2017 when the Myanmar military launched a violent crackdown in Northern Rakhine State. The Rohingya say thousands were killed or raped and their homes were burned down. Myanmar denies this and says its security forces were conducting legitimate counter-insurgency operations.

In the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, the market near the Modhuchara bamboo bridge began flooding in the early hours of the morning, said a refugee who lives there.

"We were awake when the flooding started," said Abul Hakim. "We could not sleep well because of the fear of flooding."

"I want to move from here. There is a high risk of flooding and drowning and a high risk of landslides," he said as his one-and-a-half year-old grandson played in the water.

He said there were about 15 Rohingya families living in the area near the market, and it was the second time it had flooded. Floodwaters near Hakim's bamboo and plastic shelter were shin-deep.

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At least three refugees have been killed in the monsoon since early May.

As of July 18, about 21,000 refugees had been relocated because their shelters were threatened by landslides, the UNHCR said.

(Reporting by Serajul Quadir in DHAKA and Clare Baldwin in KUTUPALONG; Editing by Andrew Bolton)A retired GP has been cleared of attempting to hire a hitman to kill his financial adviser, whom he held partially responsible for losing 1m of his pension fund.

Dr David Crichton was acquitted by a jury of trying to solicit the murder of Andrew Bolden, a pension and wealth investment adviser at the private bank Brown Shipley, in February 2017.

Winchester Crown Court heard that the 64-year-old, of Bournemouth, Dorset, accessed the "Chechen mob" website on the dark web and selected an order to "kill the b*****d" - with the equivalent of $5,000 (3,800) to be paid in bitcoin.

However, he did not complete the payment.

Crichton, who suffers from depression, told the court he completed the form on the website to "clear his head" as part of research to get rid of suicidal thoughts, but did not intend for the hit to actually take place.

Although he was cleared of attempting to solicit the murder of Mr Bolden, Crichton was convicted of three malicious communication charges.

These involved two text messages and a telephone call in which the prosecution said Crichton threatened to commit suicide.

Crichton partially blamed Mr Bolden for causing him to lose 1m of his pension fund, but the finance regulator found he was given the correct advice, the court heard.

Simon Jones, prosecuting, said Crichton sent hundreds of emails, causing his address to be blocked, then sent a text message to Mr Bolden on 4 February 2017, saying: "I am contacting you out of desperation, I believe you are the only person who can help save my life."

Mr Jones said Crichton then called Mr Bolden and claimed his life was at risk, before sending another message on 4 March 2017, saying: "I remain desperate to speak to you and since you know my life is at risk I can't believe you are obstructing me in this."

The court was told that the prosecution would be seeking an injunction against Crichton, preventing him from contacting Mr Bolden or any other staff at Brown Shipley.

The judge, Mr Justice Dingemans, adjourned sentencing to a later date to allow for the preparation of a pre-sentence report on Crichton.KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. military is investigating an air strike near the northern city of Kunduz last week following reports that as many as 14 civilians, including women and children, were killed in the attack, a statement said on Wednesday.

Last week, Afghan officials confirmed the deaths, which occurred during an operation on July 19 by Afghan security forces backed by U.S. air strikes, but said the causes were unclear.

A separate U.S. statement last week confirmed that U.S. aircraft had carried out strikes in support of the operation but said there were no indications they had caused any civilian casualties.

On Wednesday, the U.S. military issued a second statement saying that the incident was being investigated.

"While an on-the-ground assessment conducted by Afghan forces immediately following the strikes revealed no indications the strikes caused civilian casualties, we are investigating the incident and subsequent claims further," said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, spokesman for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan.

"U.S. Forces-Afghanistan takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and is working closely with the Afghan government and Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to determine the facts surrounding this incident," the statement said.

STRATEGIC

Kunduz, a key strategic target for the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, has seen repeated instances of civilians killed in air strikes by both U.S. and Afghan air forces, most notably in 2015 when a hospital operated by aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres was hit, killing 42 people.

In April, local people in Dasht-i Archi district in Kunduz province said dozens were killed when an Afghan strike hit a religious ceremony.

As the United States has stepped up its air operations in Afghanistan and the Afghan air force has begun conducting more operations of its own, the number of civilian casualties from air strikes has risen sharply.

In the first six months of the year, the United Nations reported a 52 percent jump in civilian casualties from air strikes, with 149 people killed and 204 injured. Overall civilian casualties remained roughly stable.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, the U.S. military said an air strike in support of an Afghan special forces operation had killed Mullah Nasim Mushfaq the shadow governor of Kapisa province, north of Kabul as well as Qari Ehsanullah, shadow governor of Tagab district in the province.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Andrew Bolton)Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki is welcomed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed upon arriving for a three-day visit, at the Bole international airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 14, 2018. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

By Stanley Carvalho

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates hosted the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea on Tuesday, lauding their "bold and historic" rapprochement as enhancing prospects for peace and prosperity.

The long-time rivals signed an agreement earlier this month to restore ties, ending two decades of hostility since conflict erupted in 1998.

The UAE played a role in bringing the two sides together, the government said last week, without disclosing the extent of its involvement.

The UAE, along with other Gulf Arab states, has taken an increasingly active role in the Horn of Africa and has set up military bases and commercial ports in several countries there.

Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said after meeting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki that their agreement would enhance security in the Horn of Africa and wider region.

"We are confident that this step will contribute to further cooperation & joint coordination between the neighbours & fulfil their people's aspirations for peace, development & prosperity ..." he said in a post on Twitter following the meeting in the UAE capital.

"The bold & historic step taken by the leaders of the two neighbouring countries to end the conflict and open new horizons for cooperation and joint coordination is a model that can be followed in resolving conflicts around the world."

Triggered by a border dispute in 1998, the conflict killed more than 80,000 people. At least 350,000 people living along the border on both sides were uprooted and forced to flee.

(Additional reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng in Nairobi, Writing by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Alison Williams)By Lovasoa Rabary

AMBAVALA, Madagascar (Reuters) - Soaring global prices of vanilla should have been good news for Jao Nasaina, a 58-year-old farmer of the luxury spice on the northeast tip of Madagascar.

Instead, it has brought poverty, stress and sleepless nights patrolling his little patch of jungle with a spear and home-made pistol to ward off the thieves who sneak in to hack off the prized pods under cover of darkness.

Over the last year, police and vigilante groups guarding the northern Malagasy forests of Sava - the world's vanilla capital due to its perfect climate - have caught more than a thousand vanilla rustlers, most of whom are now behind bars, according to local police chief Sirnot Besoa.

Sometimes, however, villagers whose livelihoods depend almost exclusively on the spice used to flavour everything from ice cream to coffee have taken matters into their own hands, beating apprehended suspects to death.

"They cut all the vanilla, the pods. They cut the vines and put all of them in bags. Since then, I am more watchful," Nasaina, who lost his entire crop last year, told Reuters as he sat beside a fire in a clearing in the forest.

"I live here now. I hope that this time my harvest will not be lost."

The crime wave started last year when the price of black non-split Madagascar vanilla [VAN-MG-BNS], the benchmark for the giant Indian Ocean island's leading export, shot up to a record $635 (482.7) per kilo from just $100 two years earlier.

The surge in prices, sparked by growing luxury market demand for natural - as opposed to synthetic - vanilla, has since eased slightly to $530 but remains high enough for illicit vanilla hunters to take the risk.

"Those who've got firearms come with firearms. Those who've got spears come with spears. Others bring sticks, stones and iron bars," said Rafely, a member of one of the vigilante committees patrolling the plantations.

"We're armed because the robbers are armed. There's no choice."

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"TRESOR DE SAVA"

Last year when the thieves first struck, farmers opted to harvest the green finger-like pods early rather than lose them altogether, a logical but ultimately disastrous decision, as the premature cropping led to a steep decline in quality.

Madagascar produces up to 6,000 tonnes of green vanilla each year, according to the commerce ministry, and last year exported 1,600 tonnes of processed beans valued at $680 million, the country's biggest export, bringing in more than its nickel and textiles.

It remains well ahead of Indonesia, the number two natural producer, but last year's involuntary early harvest put a dent in its reputation for premium quality 'Tresor de Sava', built up over more than a century from French colonial times.

The content in the beans of vanillin - the organic compound that gives vanilla its distinctive sweet taste - dropped from the usual 1.8 percent to 1 percent, said senior trade ministry official Josielle Rafidy.

Some overseas buyers even sent their shipments back.

In a coordinated fight-back, police and vigilantes now conduct spot checks around plantations to make sure nobody is sneaking out early-harvested pods that might leach onto the international market and compromise Malagasy vanilla's top-notch brand.

"Pods that are picked prematurely are intercepted and then destroyed," Besoa, the Sava police chief, said.

Unfortunately for farmers, however, the extra security comes at a price, making Malagasy vanilla less competitive against Indonesian varieties or the synthetic vanillin that dominates the global food industry.

"Vanillin extracted from other products such as cloves or other species is starting to gain a foothold and to interest buyers in the international market," Rafidy, the trade official said.

(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Hugh Lawson)Low-cost airline Ryanair announced on Wednesday it plans on cutting its Dublin based fleet by 20% to 24 aircraft for the winter 2018 season and could axe 300 jobs in the process.

The cuts were driven by the rapid and profitable growth of Ryanairs Polish airline, Ryanair Sun, and a downturn in forward bookings and air fares in Ireland.

This could be a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots which had a negative effect on high fare bookings and forward air fares as consumer confidence in reliability of the companys flight schedule was shaken, analysts suggested.

Ryanairs COO Peter Bellew said: Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe. We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence.

Ryanair Sun will offer over 10 aircraft to Polish tour operators, more than double the five aircraft offered in Summer 2018.

The closures in Dublin could affect 300 workers. Ryanair on Wednesday issued letters of protective notice to over 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew employees who might lose their jobs from 28 October onwards.

Ryanair will offer transfers to Poland and maybe some other bases to the affected staff to minimise redundancies.

The airline will now begin consultations with its people on redundancy, that will be determined by Ryanairs assessment of flight performance, productivity, attendances and base transfer requests.GlaxoSmithKline has invested $300m (228m) in 23andMe, a Silicon Valley gene-testing company, as the UK drugs giant looks to genetics to improve growth in its pharmaceuticals division.

Announcing second-quarter results, GSK said the deal would give it exclusive access to 23andMes DNA database as a resource for finding new treatments.

GSK said the deal was an important part of its new approach to research focused on the biology of the immune system and genetic evidence.

The four-year agreement will combine 23andMes genetic database with GSKs medical experience and commercial heft.

23andMe has more than 5m customers, more than 80% of which have agreed to allow their data to be used for research.

The Google-backed US company is known for test kits that let users find out about their genetic roots with a sample of saliva. But it also has a research and development division that has come up with early stage therapies.

The companies will combine existing projects and form a joint drug discovery team to identify target diseases based on the strength of biological evidence.

Hal Barron, who joined GSK as chief scientist in January, said: "Drug targets with genetic validation have a significantly higher chance of ultimately demonstrating benefit for patients and becoming medicines. Partnering with 23andMe...will help to shift our research and development organisation to be 'driven by genetics', and increase the impact GSK can have on patients."

Project costs will be split equally with room for both sides to reduce its share for a particular programme. GSK has taken a $300m equity stake in 23andMe.

As far as the results are concerned, GSK said group sales in the second quarter rose 4% excluding currency swings to 7.3bn. Pharmaceutical sales were the weakest of GSKs three divisions, rising 1% to 4.2bn compared with 16% from vaccines and 3% from healthcare at constant currency. GSK announced a plan to spend 1.7bn over thee years to save 400m a year in supply chain and administration costs

Emma Walmsley, GSK's chief executive, said: "GSK has delivered encouraging results across the company this quarter with CER (constant exchange rate) sales growth in each of our three global businesses. We have announced the start of a new approach to R&D which aims to capitalise on the assets we have in our promising early-stage pipeline and build the next wave of growth for GSK."

The company increased its target for adjusted earnings growth to 7-10% if no generic competitor for its Advair product hits the US market in 2018.Theresa May has taken back control of crucial negotiations with Brussels from her new Brexit secretary just hours after the government published its white paper on withdrawing from the European Union. The prime minister announced she would now lead the crunch talks with the EU while Dominic Raab, who was appointed two weeks ago, would be left in charge of domestic preparations, no-deal planning and legislation.  Guardian

Ministers should introduce new laws to force employers to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace, MPs have said. Employees were being failed by the government, employers and regulators, with current laws insufficient to protect workers and often not available to them in practice anyway, according to a report from parliaments women and equalities committee. It calls on the government to introduce a duty on employers supported by a statutory code of practice. - Guardian

Facebook has quietly set up a subsidiary in China, as it attempts once again to penetrate the country following its 2009 ban. A Facebook spokesman said the US tech giant was setting up an "innovation hub" in Zhejiang, eastern China, to allow it to "support Chinese developers, innovators and start ups".  Telegraph

Metro Bank has performed a U-turn by announcing it intends to raise around 300m in equity overnight, despite saying it wouldn't need to do this earlier in the year. The FTSE 250 challenger bank told investors after markets closed today that it was issuing 8.85 million of new shares representing around 10pc of the company's share capital. The lender has a market cap of close to 3bn.  Telegraph

Up to 12,000 roles in financial services could leave the UK after Brexit, according to one of the most detailed forecasts yet of the impact of leaving the European Union on the City. Between 3,500 and 12,000 jobs are likely to be lost when Britain formally leaves the EU in March, with more potentially following later depending on the nature of the Brexit deal, according to Catherine McGuinness, the City of London corporations policy chairwoman.  The Times

Eon is preparing to announce about 500 job losses as the energy company tries to cut its costs before the government imposes a price cap. The German-owned supplier, which employs 9,400 people in the UK, plans to inform staff of the redundancies next week, The Times has learnt. They are understood to be subject to final sign-off by Eon executives in the next few days and are being made in anticipation of a squeeze on prices and profits when the cap comes in later in the year.  The TimesGreece is in the grip of wildfires and at least 74 persons have lost their lives while many more are injured. There is panic and tourists from the seaside village of Mati are fleeing towards the beaches and water. The fires are believed to be the worst in more than a decade and the situation is more serious as winds are fanning the flames.

CNN reports that the authorities arranged for boats to evacuate the people and hundreds of them have been rescued from the beaches and the sea. A few bodies have been retrieved from the water. The Greek fire service confirmed the death of 25 people close to Mati and it's presumed that they tried to escape from the fire.

The fire is massive

The present wildfires are worse than the one in August 2007 that had burned through the southern Peloponnese in Greece and took dozens of lives. Right now, the fires are burning in the Attica region which is home to the capital Athens, the port of Piraeus and a number of suburban towns. One of these is near the seaside resort village of Mati which attracts tourists and they have been hit hard. More than 150 people were injured in the blazes that are spreading due to strong winds. Greece is an attractive tourist destination and visitors who went to enjoy the country are now in danger.

In Greece, today, people are jumping into the ocean to escape rapidly advancing wildfires.



So far, this is Greece's hottest year on record.



Climate change makes wildfires worse.

Climate change makes wildfires worse.

Climate change makes wildfires worse.https://t.co/1uV3NyAf66  Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) July 24, 2018

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was on a state visit to Bosnia and had to return due to the fire.

He has urged citizens to focus on survival and has declared three days of mourning. In his words - "the country is going through a tragedy," and the events are "unbearable for everyone."

Spain and Cyprus have offered assistance, while the United States and the Netherlands offered sympathy. Greece requested fellow members of the European Union to extend help to battle the blaze.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Incidentally, large portions of Europe have been facing high temperatures of above 90 degrees that have reached northern Scandinavia, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. This has resulted in wildfires in Sweden which had to request assistance from other nations like Italy.

Rescue efforts are on

According to the ABC News, the wildfires in Greece began in the evening near the capital of Athens and spread to destroy nearby properties.

American readers can relate to that, as California has faced wildfires in the past with loss of lives and properties.

There was no apparent threat to world-famous ruins near Athens and the people made a beeline for the beaches to be rescued by boats. The Coast Guard has rescued more than 700 but many drowned in the water, and many more lost their sense of direction.

There is a heat wave sweeping across Greece, with the temperature reaching 99 degrees for the second consecutive day. The Spanish government chipped in with two amphibious planes to help battle the blazes. The countrys Interior Minister, Panos Skourletis, described the wildfires as a "national tragedy" and a "biblical disaster with human losses."A wildfire has caused a popular California tourist attraction, The Yosemite National Park, to close today. According to a report by USA Today, Park officials began asking visitors to leave Yosemite Valley yesterday, because they are closing the areas main road today. Tourists won't be able to go to the park until the fire settles down and it's safe.

July is typically a busy month for Yosemite, drawing nearly 600,000 tourists. The fire will temporality stop people from entering the park, thus making it less crowded than it usually is during July.

Park reservations canceled

As the park will be closed, any reservations made for the park will be canceled. According to a report by Fox News, at least a thousand campground and hotel reservations will be canceled after the park announced it will close today. The park will officially close at noon.

Fire ruins vacations, businesses

According to USA Today, the closure applies to all hotels, campgrounds, and visitor services in Yosemite Valley. This will force many planned vacations to be scrapped and put on hold until the fire is contained.

Ron Skelton, owner of the Yosemite Blue Butterfly Inn said, Im going to lose $20,000, and that's money Ill never see again, according to a report by USA Today.

He further added, were completely shut down.

According to USA Today, while taking pictures, visitor Brad Lyons said, When we saw that the visitors center was closed, we knew it had to be bad." Many visitors besides Lyons, probably noticed this as well and knew that something serious had to have happened to close down the visitor center.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

Fire moving rapidly

According to a report by Fox News, flames have passed through 57 square miles of timber in the Sierra Nevada, west of Yosemite. The fire is expanding and was only 25 percent contained yesterday morning. Depending upon how long it takes to put out, the fire will determine when the Yosemite will re-open to the public.

There have been several evacuations in communities around the area, and some people have been warned to leave if necessary. These evacuations will continue as the fire spreads.

There was a fire in California's wine country late last year, which destroyed a lot of land. Now, California is dealing with another wildfire in Yosemite, which is currently expanding and doesn't look like it will stop any time soon. Firemen are on the scene and they have been working diligently to fully contain the fire.We and our partners use cookies as indicated in our cookie policy . With your consent, we process data such as IP addresses, identifiers, and geolocation data to identify you as a user, track your browsing habits, provide personalized ads and content based on your interests, and measure website performance. To consent to cookies, you can I) click Accept or II) continue browsing this site. For more information, or to revoke your consent (in part or in whole), or modify your previous settings, click PreferencesRyan Edwards could spend years in prison after yet another drug arrest earlier this week. As the former "Teen Mom OG" star remains in custody after being fired by MTV, a lawyer is speaking out about the time he is facing as a result of his charges and revealing why the reality star will likely not have the option of striking a plea deal for probation over time behind bars.

On July 24, Hollywood Life told readers that Edwards had been taken into custody on July 23 for possession of heroin, which won't bode well for him because he's already on probation for the same charge stemming from a case last year.

As the outlet explained, Edwards has proven himself as a repeat offender after spending a short time in rehab last spring.

Ryan Edwards violated his probation

It really depends on the case, as far as whether somebody would be going to jail or to rehab after getting busted for heroin possession," criminal defense lawyer Ben Raybin explained to Hollywood Life. According to Raybin, who works out of Edwards' home state of Tennessee, treatment is typically a reasonable option for drug offenders but after multiple charges are given, especially after probation, it's hard to say whether or not the judge will put their foot down. "Sometimes the judge says enough is enough and says they are going to jail and at that point they can put all the offenders sentences into effect," the attorney, who is not currently working with Ryan Edwards, explained.

Raybin went on to tell Hollywood Life that Edwards, the former boyfriend of "Teen Mom OG" star Maci Bookout, is facing 11 months and 29 days in jail for his recent charge of heroin possession. However, because of his prior charge and probation, the judge on his case could decide to add more time to his potential sentence. Breaking the additional time down, Raybin said that he has a pending six month sentence tacked on to his probation, which he violated, and a suspended term of 11 months and 29 days that stems from his 2017 arrest.

Discuss this news on Eunomia

What's the largest amount of time he'll receive?

Although Ryan Edwards would have been able to evade the 11 months and 29 days if he had completed his probation without incident, he failed to do so and a judge now has the authorization to un-suspend his potential jail term. "Worst case scenario he could actually be looking at [two and a half] years in jail," the attorney explained. "I think its probably unlikely that [Ryan] would get totally maxed out on all of that but he is potentially facing [two and a half] years total in jail at this point."Keith Doubt at berfrois:

It is difficult to understand the genocide because the genocide occurred not in a secret place, but in full view of the observing world. In 1993, Lieutenant General Philippe Morillon, the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) Commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina, came to Srebrenica and, after seeing the death camp circumstances of the civilians living under the siege, declared that Srebrenica was under the protection of the UN. In April 1993, the UN Security Council, adopted Resolution 819 which formally declared Srebrenica a UN safe area, following after Morillons declaration, and sent UNPROFOR soldiers from Canada, and later the Netherlands to the town. As part of the demilitarization agreement, military commanders defending Srebrenica agreed to turn over their heavy arms in exchange for UN protection. As early as April 1993, Ambassador Diego Arria, Permanent Representative of Venezuela to the UN Security Council, described the situation in Srebrenica as a slow-motion genocide under the protection of the UN forces In July 1995, Srebrenicaunder the protection of UN forcesbecame a fast-motion genocide.

more here.Dominion Energy Virginia customers stand to benefit from a smarter, stronger and greener energy grid in the first set of plans filed today under the Grid Transformation & Security Act (GTSA). The legislation, signed by Gov. Ralph Northam, became effective 1st of July and provides a roadmap for Virginia's energy future.



"Thanks to the Grid Transformation & Security Act, Dominion Energy plans to develop a system that meets the increasingly complex demands and expectations of our customers," said Ed Baine, Senior Vice President  Power Delivery. "And we are doing it with more renewable energy."



The law paves the way for expanded investments in renewable energy, smart grid technology, a stronger, more secure grid and energy efficiency programs, while keeping rates affordable. It provides hundreds of millions of dollars in bill credits and rate reductions for customers, and expands the EnergyShare program to help Virginia's most vulnerable citizens.



Dominion Energy is committing to having 3,000MW of new solar and wind energy, enough to power 750,000 homes, under development or in operation by the beginning of 2022. The projects will be a combination of assets developed and procured by the company.



Later this summer, the company will seek SCC approval for its proposed

Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind

(CVOW) project. The 12MW facility would be the first of its kind in the Mid-Atlantic, located in a federal lease area about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The two-turbine test project is being developed through a partnership with rsted.



For more information follow the links provided.VIDEO COURTESY DUNGEON TATTOO AND PIERCING

SANTA FE  The only warning that Yuki Jalalon got that something unusual was about to happen Monday night was her dogs bark.

We were like, what is he barking at? said Jalalon as she stood in the mud in La Cienega Tuesday afternoon.

The next thing we know, theres three or four feet of water everywhere, she said.

The family compound where Jalalon lives was hit hard by the flash flood that resulted from more than 3 inches of rain  some amateurs measured the storm at up to 5 inches  that came down in just an hour or so in Santa Fe Monday night.

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said it was a 1,000-year occurrence. It flooded part of the basement of City Hall downtown, and several other public buildings including the Genoveva Chavez Community Center, the Fort Marcy and Salvador Perez recreation centers and the mid-city La Farge Library.

While the storm was focused in town, a lot of the water made it downstream to La Cienega, a rural area south of the city limits.

The property where Jalalon and others were digging out Tuesday is not far from Cienega Creek, an extension of the Arroyo Chamiso and the Arroyo Hondo, which carry stormwater from a large swath of Santa Fe. Social media posts with video show the Arroyo Chamiso as it was converted into a raging brown river with high waves and tumbling rocks.

The waters energy apparently hadnt dissipated much by the time it reached La Cienega. Every heard a river coming in? asked Jalalon. Thats exactly what it sounded like, a river with a lot of water in it. Shed never seen anything like it in her 10 years on the premises.

The result was flooding in three houses. One was particularly hard hit. The muddy water left behind a waterline about three feet up the wall and a couple of inches of mud on the floor. A refrigerator that had been floating during the storm was left flat on its back. Cars and trucks on the lot also were flooded and logs and other debris were everywhere.

Back in town, several city government buildings were flooded and some businesses and private residents reported taking on water.

Emergency services personnel performed seven swift-water rescues Monday night, including one by firefighters who pulled two women from a flooded car on Cerrillos Road.

No one was seriously hurt in the flood and no one took advantage of an emergency shelter set up at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center by the city and American Red Cross.

City spokesman Matt Ross said four two-person crews worked through the night to address the most serious problems and clear roads of debris. That worked continued during the day with additional crews during the day.

Were prioritizing public safety issues, clearing thoroughfares and bridges, Ross said.

Hardest hit

While rain was reported throughout the state Monday night, Kerry Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said Santa Fe got hit the hardest.

The heaviest rain struck the center of Santa Fe from the Plaza and southwest for about a mile to Ashbaugh Park, he said of the park just west of Santa Fe Indian School.

It was near that location that an employee of Dungeon Tattoo and Piercing posted a video of emergency responders using ropes to rescue two young women occupants of a compact car stuck on Cerrillos Road with water rushing over the front bumper.

A rain monitoring gauge near the busy intersection of Cerrillos and St. Michaels Drive recorded 3.57 inches of rain, the most recorded since that station started collecting data in 1991, Jones said.

The regional dispatch center received 60 calls for service between 7 p.m. and midnight, Ross said.

The thrust of the thunderstorm hit Santa Fe about 7 p.m. Monday and lasted for about an hour, though it continued to rain into the night.

Jones said the 3 inches that fell in the first three hours amounted to a 1,000-year recurrence interval, which is based on the probability that a given event will happen again in any given year.

We have to be a little bit careful about that, Jones warned, adding that just a few miles away the amount of rainfall was unremarkable for a typical evening during the monsoon season.

For instance, just .36 inches was recorded near the Rail Runner Express train stop at Interstate 25 and the N.M. 599 bypass south of the city. But most rain gauges in city limits measured rainfall at more than 2 inches.

Eldorado, about 8 miles east of Santa Fe, received 1.89 inches of rain from the storm. Espanola, 25 miles to the north of the city, got less than an inch. Other northern New Mexico towns receiving a soaking were Raton. where 2.77 inches of rain fell, and Las Vegas, N.M., which received 2.45 inches.

Rain monitoring stations around Albuquerque registered .30 inches or less.

East side damage

On Santa Fes east side  many miles and upstream from where the flood hit La Cienega  Jodi Langs home on Lorenzo Road is built on a hill and avoided the high waters. But the storm washed out the road, exposing sewer and utility lines. It was like a ferocious river rushing by her driveway.

Id never seen the water so deep and moving so swiftly  and loud, said Lang, who has lived there since 2007. It was the hardest rain anyone in the neighborhood had ever seen.

The basement at City Hall downtown was partially flooded. So was the pool deck at the Genoveva Chavez center, forcing the pools closure Tuesday.

The city kept the emergency shelter at the Genoveva Center open Tuesday in case anyone needed it. With Santa Fe under a new flash food watch Tuesday night and more rain predicted for later in the week, crews also were handing out sandbags at the fire station on Siler Road.

The city also is offering to pick up carpeting, flooring or other water-damaged material set curb side on Thursday.

Other than the pool, the rest of the Genoveva Chavez facility is open. La Farge Library is closed until further notice. The other city facilities that saw some damage remain open.Smack them with their own bat.

That was the gist of, Hey Democrats, Fighting Fair is for Suckers, a provocative jeremiad that Politico ran on Independence Day. Writer Rob Goodman argued that, after Republicans have killed all the old political norms  denying a Supreme Court nominee a hearing, for example  its silly for Democrats to keep playing by the rules. Why obey the law in a lawless world?

Norms are only norms when they are mutual, wrote Goodman, fairness is only fair when its shared. Democrats arent justified in breaking norms because theyve been wronged. They are justified because the current system has ceased to function.

Its possible to feel simultaneously uneasy at the brute-force politics Goodman envisions  like packing the Supreme Court, for starters  and yet compelled by his larger point: Democrats must realize that theyre in a back-alley brawl, not a pillow fight. That they dont get this yet can be inferred from the new slogan House Democrats unveiled last week: For The People. While thats an improvement over last years A Better Deal, with its musty scent of leftover Roosevelt, it still doesnt suggest a party ready to rumble.

In that, the party is disconnected from its people, who are viscerally furious. Democratic leaders dont seem to know what to do with that anger. Indeed, they seem to fear it.

To a degree, thats understandable. Next month marks 50 years since the Chicago convention wherein Democratic anger  and police brutality  split the party, alienated voters and helped make Richard Nixon president. But their palpable discomfort with the outrage of their constituents suggests Democrats have over-learned the lessons of that debacle.

Consider last month when Trump officials were being harassed in public and Rep. Maxine Waters went rhetorically rogue. If it was hypocritical for Republican leaders  some of them barely housebroken  to start chirping about civility, it felt weak and mealy-mouthed for Democratic leaders to join them.

They seem to be holding out hope of an eventual return to normal. But normal  i.e., the pre-Trump world  is gone for good. When in history has a social upheaval  and thats surely what this is  ever brought us back to where we started? So instead of pining for what was, Democrats must figure out how to thrive in what is. Besides, its not as if the people are without reason for rage. From the corruption at the EPA to the caging of immigrant children to a nonstop litany of lies and alibis to the betrayal summit in Helsinki, the reasons could not be more clear  or righteous.

Republicans, it must be said, have never feared their voters anger. No, they curate it like a flower. And if that sense of seething resentment has led to a spike in right-wing terrorism, it has also led to control of Congress, most statehouses, the Supreme Court and the presidency.

Meantime, the political party that has won the popular vote in six of the past seven presidential elections struggles to find its voice. Its lovely that Democrats have a new slogan. What they need is a new attitude.

No one wants to see a spike in left-wing terror to match the spike on the right. But neither should we want to see any more of Democrats grabbing their ankles and saying, Thank you, sir, may I have another? as the paddle comes down. Somewhere between those extremes, the party must carve itself a path.

Democrats can begin by recognizing the opportunity at the heart of their problem. The choice here, after all, is simple. They can continue to deny the peoples righteous anger. Or they can use it.Democracy demands that were able to also get inside the reality of people who are different than us, so we can understand their point of view. Maybe we can change their minds, maybe theyll change ours.

That was Barack Obama speaking in South Africa on the 100th anniversary of Nelson Mandelas birth.

The former president went on to say that you cant change peoples minds if you just out of hand disregard what your opponent has to say from the start. And you cant do it if you insist that those who arent like you, because they are white or they are male, somehow there is no way they can understand what Im feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.

Now, I am biased. I recently wrote a book making many of these and other points Obama made. But I also understand why many conservatives are dyspeptic about Obama pushing this message.

As president, and on his path to the presidency, Obama often exploited identity politics for partisan advantage. He called on Hispanic voters to punish our enemies. He appointed to the Supreme Court Sonya Sotomayor, who famously suggested that a wise Latina on the bench would come to better conclusions than a white male would.

Obama also had an annoying tendency to ascribe bad faith to anyone who didnt share his opinions or conclusions.

Nevertheless, Obama is right. Identity politics is a fundamentally undemocratic phenomenon. It assumes that vast numbers of individual human beings can be reduced to the color of their skin, their gender or their sexual orientation. Diversity among different kinds of people is celebrated everywhere, but intellectual, ideological and political diversity among those groups is demonized. The idea that all I need to know about someone is the color of their skin  white or black  strips individuals of their individuality and their agency.

Obama is also right when he says that, Strongman politics are ascendant suddenly, whereby elections and some pretense of democracy are maintained  the form of it  but those in power seek to undermine every institution or norm that gives democracy meaning.

Obama implied that this is only a phenomenon of the right and was almost surely taking a veiled shot at Donald Trump.

But this is a problem of the left, too. The right-wing populism galloping across Europe is in no small part a response to the undemocratic tactics of the European Union, which looks at democratic accountability with a sovereign disdain.

More importantly, many nationalist-populist voters backed Trump in part out of their understandable frustration with the way the establishment ignored the will of voters and even Constitutional prohibitions. Obama, for example, said he couldnt amnesty the children of illegal immigrants because the Constitution prevented him. Then he did it, anyway.

But heres the thing: Im still glad Obama is saying these things because, again, hes mostly right.

Americans have always detested hypocrisy, in part because this country was founded on the idea that monarchs and aristocrats were no better than anyone else. A king can be a hypocrite because kings arent subject to the laws governing their subjects. In America, the dogma of Who are you to judge me and Youre not the boss of me lives loudly in us. And I love that.

But everything good can become toxic if you increase the dosage too much. Our political culture has become poisonously obsessed with hypocrisy.

We act as if basic truths are untrue if the wrong messenger gives them voice. Former adulterers must not speak against adultery. Parents shrink from lecturing their children about, say, smoking pot or underage drinking for fear of feeling like hypocrites because they did those things when they were young. Never mind that good parenting requires giving your kids the benefit of lessons youve learned, not encouraging them to make the same mistakes you did.

I understand why some conservatives want to dismiss Obamas statements. They only see the hypocrisy. But theres a reason we say hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. Hypocrisy is a good gauge of a persons sincerity in defense of an ideal. Its near useless in gauging the merits of the ideal.

Would it be better if Obama endorsed tribalism and identity politics? Obviously not. Would it be better if hed lived up to and defended these ideals better when he was president? Yes.

But outside of Jesus, Im unaware of anyone who lived up to their ideals all of the time. Meanwhile, lets celebrate when our political opponents agree with us.

Jonah Goldberg is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor of National Review. His new book, Suicide of the West, is now available. Email goldbergcolumn@gmail.com, Twitter @JonahNRO. Copyright, Tribune Media Services Inc.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

Two New Mexico companies are a big part of a U.S. Department of Defense effort to power drones in midflight by shooting laser beams at them.

Albuquerque-based Silent Falcon UAS Technologies and SolAero Technologies Corp. are two of four companies working to develop a laser-light-based electric recharging system under a two-year, $2.2 million contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Silent Falcon, which makes solar-powered drones for military and civilian applications, is modifying its aircraft as a test bed for the system. SolAero, which builds solar cells and panels for spacecraft, is developing a new type of photovoltaics to convert laser light into electricity.

Meanwhile, the Ohio-based laser-system fabricator Optonicus LLC is developing a ground-based beam transmitter to shoot laser light at drones overhead. And Colorado-based Ascent Solar Technologies is working on next-generation thin-film PV that could be used in the system.

Both SolAero and Ascent are making new, specialized panels that will be sensitive to the frequency of laser light beams coming from the ground laser system, Silent Falcon CEO John Brown said. Well try out each of their panel systems to see which one works best.

The PV panels will be mounted on the tail of the Silent Falcon, which is designed for long-duration flights. It will be tested at White Sands Missile Range in late fall or early January, Brown said.

Silent Falcon already did initial testing to explore aircraft modifications needed for the system. Were now designing and building the electric upgrades, which are substantial, Brown said.

SolAero is building a new transducer to convert laser light, rather than sunlight, into electricity, said SolAero Business Development Director Ken Steele.

Its a new technology for us, Steele said. These are different wavelengths of light and intensity spectrum. There are challenges in capturing a laser beam of power rather than sunlight and converting it to electricity for routing into the Silent Falcon power system.

Silent Falcon is receiving $1.4 million of the initial $2.2 million contract and is subcontracting SolAero for its PV work. If the tests are successful, the contract could be extended.

Optonicus is also building a tracking and acquisition system to pinpoint the laser beam onto the drone-mounted PV panels. Thats critical, because eventually the system is expected to shoot beams at drones up to 30 miles away, Brown said.

It could pave the way for indefinitely long flight times, DARPA lead Joseph A. Abate said in a prepared statement. He said the system could be delivered to the war fighter in the near future.

If successful, it also could have commercial applications.

It could boost PV systems that rely on solar power when the sun is not shining, Steele said. We could potentially use a transceiver with lasers in the civil and commercial fields.The Trump administration, several U.S. senators, and Taiwanese business leaders had been urging the three biggest U.S. airlines in recent weeks to stand up against Chinas demand about how they describe Taiwan on their websites.

The U.S. airlines, looking at the explosive growth in Chinas air-travel market, decided to ignore them all.

American, Delta and United joined other global carriers and bowed to pressure from China on Wednesday and stopped listing the city of Taipei as being located in Taiwan. The airlines, however, didnt go so far as to say that Taipei is part of China.

Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address Chinas request, said Shannon Gilson, a spokeswoman for American, the worlds biggest airline. Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate.

Representatives for Delta and United made similar statements.

Taiwan split politically from mainland China during the 1949 civil war and is self-ruled. China, however, claims the island as part of its territory and has threatened military force to annex it.

In recent years, China has used its economic and political clout to pressure other countries and their businesses to stop recognizing Taiwan as a separate entity. In that effort, officials in Beijing targeted airlines, threatening unspecified punishment for carriers that did not heed Chinas demands.

The big U.S. airlines declined to say how much revenue they earn from flying between China and the U.S. In regulatory filings, they only describe revenue by region.

United Airlines, which has the most extensive service to China of the three, reported that 13 percent of its revenue last year came from Pacific service, which includes flights to Japan, Korea, Australia and Singapore. Delta Air Lines got 7 percent of revenue from the region, and American got 5 percent.

China, however, is a rapidly growing airline market with a booming middle class that is eager to travel. The International Air Transport Association, a trade group of global airlines, predicts that China could overtake the United States and become the worlds biggest air-travel market by 2022.

The U.S. airlines have other financial ties to both China and Taiwan. American owns nearly 3 percent of China Southern Airlines while Delta owns about 3.5 percent of China Eastern Airlines. Delta is in the same airline alliance as Taiwans biggest carrier, China Airlines, and United shares an alliance with Taiwans EVA Air.

China is so strategically important to the U.S. carriers that they cant ignore what the Chinese government mandates, said Henry Harteveldt, a travel-industry analyst in San Francisco. The U.S. airlines were put in an uncomfortable position. No matter what they decided to do, it was a lose-lose proposition.

Robert Mann, an aviation consultant and former American Airlines executive, said the U.S. carriers lose face to some degree, but they preserve their ability to sell tickets in China and avoid other punishment that might have included extra customs delays for passengers.

Chinas foreign ministry applauded the U.S. airlines, calling the changes on their websites positive progress. Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China welcomes foreign businesses if they abide by Chinese laws and regulations, sovereignty and territorial feelings, and the feelings of the Chinese people.

By Beijings Wednesday deadline, all 44 global airlines that had been asked to scrub references to Taiwan had complied, according to the Peoples Daily, the Communist Partys official newspaper. They included British Airways, Lufthansa, Qantas and Air Canada.

American, which in searches previously displayed the main airport in Taiwans capital city as TPE, Taiwan, switched to TPE-Taoyuan International and it dropped Taiwan from search results. Similarly, Delta similarly changed from mentioning Taiwan to just TPE Taipei and no other location clue. United went to Taipei (TPE-Taoyuan).

The ending was almost anticlimactic after an intense buildup of opposition in Washington and Taipei to Chinas pressure.

President Donald Trumps White House had called the demand to erase Taiwan from airline websites Orwellian nonsense. Eight U.S. senators led by Florida Republican Marco Rubio and New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez told the CEOs of American and United that Congress supported Taiwan, a democracy and important partner to the US.

Taipeis economic and cultural office in Washington urged the U.S. airlines to stand up to Beijings bullying. China, the groups representative said, was trying to take the free out of free enterprise.

The U.S. asked China to sit down and negotiate, but China refused.

American, Delta and United decided by Tuesday that they would acquiesce to China. The decision seemed to catch the Trump administration off-guard.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Tuesday that the U.S. opposed foreign governments demanding that private corporations alter their labels to suit that government.

I was not aware that the companies said that they would fold to the Chinese government, she added, referring to the airlines.

___

David Koenig can be reached at http://twitter.com/airlinewriter

Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.New Mexico physicians bring $8 billion a year to the state in economic impact, according to the president of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Barbara McAneny, the Albuquerque-based oncologist who began her tenure as head of the physicians group earlier this summer, made the comments at the Wednesday meeting of the Albuquerque Economic Forum.

We need to start thinking about physicians when we think about small business, said McAneny. People tend to forget that many of us are small business owners.

The $8 billion sum is from an AMA report released in January based on 2015 data. At that time, the state had 4,184 doctors supporting 47,688 other jobs and bringing in an average of $75,625 per physician in state and local tax revenue, according to the report.

As president of the AMA, McAneny serves a one-year term as the leader of one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington. The AMA is behind about $380 million in lobbying expenditures over the past decade, the third-highest sum of any group, according to OpenSecrets.org.

McAneny is also president and CEO of the New Mexico Cancer Center, a for-profit entity with a separate, nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting the financial needs of its patients.

In an interview with the Journal, McAneny said business pressures have compelled many physicians to leave for-profit practices for large, nonprofit health organizations, which she argued diverts much-needed revenue away from the state.

She told the forum participants that one of her priorities in her new position is to make sure that people who live on the Potomac remember that there are people who live on the Rio Grande who could use a little help.

Specifically, she said, she would like to bring an AMA program focused on addressing diabetes and hypertension to an at-risk community in New Mexico.

Among the other issues she highlighted in her presentation: expanding access to treatment for substance abuse disorders, studying gun violence as a public health issue and addressing the cost and coverage issues associated with chronic disease.WASHINGTON  The Trump administration on Wednesday sought to fend off accusations the president is too soft on Russia, putting off a proposed second summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and declaring the U.S. will never recognize Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea.

As members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee peppered Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with demands for details about last weeks summit in Finland, the White House said President Donald Trump had opted against trying to arrange another meeting with Putin this fall. Putin already had sent signals that he wasnt interested in coming to Washington.

National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay, although many members of Congress had objected to the meeting and said Putin would not be welcome on Capitol Hill.

The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, Bolton said in a statement, using Trumps favored but highly controversial term for the Mueller probe.

While the statement signaled optimism that the Mueller probe would be completed by the end of this year, no timetable has been given for when it will be wrapped up and it could very well stretch into 2019.

The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to visit Washington in the fall, moving quickly for a follow-up meeting amid the backlash over Trumps performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit.

In his testimony, Pompeo faced often-contentious questioning from senators demanding information about what Trump discussed with Putin while they were alone for nearly two hours with only translators present.

Pompeo struggled to answer, insisting the president is entitled to have private meetings but stressing that he had a full understanding of the discussion. Heated questions were also posed about North Korea, NATO and Iran.

Its not for me to disclose the content of those conversations, Pompeo said in response to one such barrage of questions.

The committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who set a contentious tone for the hearing by telling Pompeo that senators are filled with serious doubts about this White House and its conduct of American foreign policy, later said those doubts are due to Trumps frequent contradictory statements on the Russia probe and assaults on allies.

Its the president that causes people to have concerns, Corker said.

Pompeo replied by saying that some of Trumps comments actually achieve important policy outcomes, but the administration should be judged by its actions rather than the presidents words.

He later clarified that the presidents words are indeed policy, prompting an angry exchange with the ranking committee member, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. Menendez said that Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, would have been so angry that he would have had to have been peeled off the ceiling of the Capitol if President Barack Obama had said and done some of the same things as Trump.

Pompeo, whom Democrats accused of playing politics with the investigation into the 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, accused Menendez of pursuing a political soliloquy but then declined the opportunity to respond. Menendez had earlier accused the administration of holding incoherent and contradictory views on foreign policy and the president himself of being misleading and untruthful in describing his positions.

In an unsuccessful bid to blunt some of the hostile questioning, particularly on Russia, Pompeo before the hearing issued a statement titled the Crimea Declaration in which he said the U.S. will continue to insist that Ukraines territorial integrity be restored. He said the U.S. would hold to its long-standing principle of refusing to recognize Kremlin claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in violation of international law. And he called for Russia to respect principles it claims to respect and end its occupation of Crimea.

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry brushed off the Crimea Declaration as just another U.S. policy that could easily change in the future. In a Facebook posting, Maria Zakharova cited the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord  two Obama-era deals that Trump scrapped.

We know the value of these fateful declarations,' she said.

Russia has said Crimean voters approved the annexation in a referendum. The U.S. and its European allies have said the referendum was deeply flawed and illegal, as it was held without the consent of the government in Kiev. Pompeo told senators that U.S. sanctions imposed in response to the annexation would remain in place until and unless Russia returns Crimea to Ukrainian sovereignty.

He also pushed back on allegations the Trump administration has been weak or subservient to Russia over Ukraine or its meddling in the election. He noted that the administration had just days ago provided the Ukraine government with an additional $200 million in military equipment and maintained that the administration was serious about combatting Russian interference in the U.S. and Western democracies. He said he agreed that additional sanctions could be constructive to that end.

Pompeo said he had personally told top Russian officials that there will be severe consequences for any interference in U.S. elections or the American democratic process. He said that Trump, despite his denigration of the Mueller probe, accepts that there was Russian interference in the 2016 election and fully understands the threat posed by Moscow.

He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened, Pompeo said of Trump.

__

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Darlene Superville and Lynn Berry contributed.Earlier this month, the Trump administration suspended billions of dollars in payments under the Affordable Care Act, citing a New Mexico Health Connections lawsuit as the impetus behind its decision.

The administration said Tuesday it would resume those payments, and stated that a newly-released rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services mitigate(s) some of the uncertainty caused by the New Mexico litigation.

Issuers that had expressed concerns about having to withdraw from markets or become insolvent should be assured by our actions today, said CMS Administrator Seema Verma in a press release.

Health Connections CEO Marlene Baca said in a statement that the company is reviewing its options.

The Affordable Care Acts risk adjustment program transfers payments from insurers with healthier patients to those with sicker clientele within the individual and small group markets. Health Connections argued in a 2016 lawsuit that the methodology used to calculate the risk payments was flawed.

Earlier this year in Albuquerque, U.S. District Judge James O. Browning agreed with the insurer on that point and vacated the CMS rule that governs the program.

CMS on July 7 said it was suspending risk adjustment payments in the wake of the Health Connections decision until the litigation is resolved. Several insurance associations claimed the payment suspensions would create instability in the industry and likely increase premiums, while Health Connections said the development was a positive one for both the company and the industry.

CMS now says risk adjustment payments will resume on Oct. 22. A new rule  issued without the typical notice and comment period, according the CMS release  provides a fuller explanation supporting the 2017 risk adjustment methodology, consistent with the judges request, and allows (CMS) to resume the risk adjustment program without delay.

Baca previously told the Journal that Health Connections has sufficient funds to cover its 2017 risk adjustment obligations if the payments were reinstated.

A CMS report shows Health Connections will have to pay a net sum of about $5.6 million.

Health Connections is one of four co-ops still in existence out of the 23 created by the Affordable Care Act. A 2016 congressional report found that risk penalties were one of several factors that led to the demise of many of the co-ops.

American Medical Association President and Albuquerque-based oncologist Barbara McAneny said in an interview Wednesday that the devil is in the details when it comes to risk adjustment programs, but having one in place is crucial to ensuring that health organizations offer insurance plans to sick and low-income people at affordable prices.

Otherwise, youll have more people moving to low-premium, high-deductible insurance plans, and many of them wont get the care they need, she said.Announcements:

ACS is committed to protecting your personal information. Our updated privacy policy reflects our efforts to comply with the new European General Data Protection Regulations which details what information we collect from you, how we use it, and what we do to safeguard it.A Turkish court ruled on July 25 to move a jailed North Carolina pastor from prison to house arrest, a week after rebuffing defense pleas to do just that during his third courtroom hearing on July 18. The court in the western province of Izmir where Andrew Brunson has been held on flimsy espionage and terror charges since October 2016 said the decision had been made due to health issues. Brunson, who has become a lightning rod in US-Turkish relations, is believed to be suffering from depression.

The court said it had revisited its decision to remand him in custody after Brunsons third courtroom hearing on July 18 in response to a plea from his lawyers. The 50-year-old will be transferred to his house in Izmir where he has lived with his wife, Norine, for more than 20 years, tending to a tiny congregation of Protestants until he was swept up in the mass arrests that followed the failed 2016 coup. Brunson's next hearing was set for Oct. 12.

Pragmatism may have informed the courts move more heavily than compassion.

It followed a volley of threats from Congress, among them draft legislation proposing that the United States veto funding from international financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank should Turkey approach them for relief.

Congress is also pushing to delay the transfer of hundreds of F-35 fighter jets under bills sponsored separately by the Senate and the House because of Turkeys decision to purchase Russian-made S-400 missiles.

On July 19, President Donald Trump called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Brunsons release in a tweet. Trump called his continued incarceration a total disgrace and characterized the pastor as a hostage who had done nothing wrong.

The Turkish lira and the Istanbul stock exchange rallied on news of Brunsons move. Most notably the share price of the state-owned lender Halkbank rose sharply. The bank is expected to be slapped with a multi-billion-dollar fine by the US Treasury for its role in helping Iran evade US sanctions. The widely held consensus is that Turkey is holding the pastor and Turkish nationals employed at the US consulates in Istanbul and Adana as political hostages to bargain down the fine.

Some financial analysts speculate that the tactic might have worked. Enver Erkan, an analyst for GCM Foreks, told the Sozcu newspaper that markets interpreted the decision to place Brunson under house arrest as a sign that a deal may have been struck between Turkey and the United States over Halkbank. Belgin Mavis of A1 Capital Menkul Degerler concurred. She said, Markets are pricing in the possibility of an agreement" on Halkbank, Sozcu reported.

Others disagreed, saying US pressure has finally had an effect. Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who closely monitors Turkey, tweeted, I am hearing that Trump threatened Erdogan, telling him that Congressional action on the F-35 would be the least of his worries if Brunson wasnt released.

Howard Eissenstat, an associate professor at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, who also studies Turkey, told Al-Monitor, I dont think there is any question that Erdogan was responding to pressure from the United States. Eissenstat added, It underlines not only that hardball works, but also that hardball is the only game that Erdogan really plays.

That conclusion was first drawn when Russia imposed a slew of economic sanctions on Turkey upon the latters downing of a Russian fighter jet in November 2015 over the Syrian-Turkish border. Erdogan hastily apologized for the affair and cooperated with Russian-sponsored plans to hand back Aleppo to full regime control.

Similarly, Turkey freed Turkish-German reporter Deniz Yucel, who was being held on trumped-up terror charges in February this year, following German moves to halt funding to Turkey from its export credit arm.

Heissenstat cautioned, however, that whereas Brunson is the prisoner Washington clearly cares most about, the question of other detained US citizens and foreign service [Turkish] nationals is still on the table. Congress is demanding they be freed as well.BEIRUT  A batch of 850 displaced Syrians in Lebanon  out of more than 1.5 million, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR  left the town of Arsal in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for Qalamoun in Syria July 23. The return was coordinated by the Lebanese General Security agency and relevant security services in Syria.

This batch is the largest to exit the Lebanese territories. In April, 500 displaced Syrians left Chebaa in southern Lebanon for Beit Jinn in the southwest of Syria. They were followed by two batches of dozens of displaced who left Arsal for the Qalamoun villages in June and July.

Arsal Mayor Basel Hujeiri told Al-Monitor, The Lebanese General Security agency is coordinating the return of the displaced persons with the municipal council. Such a crucial move is, however, insufficient. Coordination between the Lebanese and Syrian governments is needed to accelerate the displaced Syrians return from Lebanon [in general] and Arsal in particular, where nearly 40,000 displaced Syrians are accommodated."

The return of displaced Syrians is a contentious matter among Lebanons political parties. While Prime Minister Saad Hariri is determined to ensure their safe return via the UN, as he disapproves of coordination with the government in Damascus, Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) have stressed the need to communicate with the Syrian authorities directly to pave the way for their return.

Based on that, Hezbollah announced in a July 4 statement the opening of nine offices in the Bekaa Valley, Beiruts southern suburbs and in the south to receive applications of displaced Syrians inclined to go back to Syria.

Speaking to Al-Monitor over the phone, Nawar al-Sahili, a Hezbollah official in charge of the displaced Syrians dossier and a former member of parliament, attributed the groups move to the government lacking serious intentions to assume its duties toward the displaced. This is added to the economic crisis in Lebanon and shrinking job opportunities for the Lebanese, with Syrians taking so many jobs with wages lower than those earned by the Lebanese.

Ola Boutros, an adviser to Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and the coordinator of the FPMs central committee on the displaced Syrians return, told Al-Monitor, Hosting displaced Syrians has caused the Lebanese treasury a cost of $19.496 billion from 2011 until 2018. Economic growth dropped from 8% to 0.08%, the unemployment rate increased to 35% among the Lebanese, and the number of inmates [in Lebanese prisons] on charges of terrorism, felonies and misdemeanors grew to 40%.

Commenting on the return mechanism, Sahili added, Those displaced [Syrians] desiring to go home need to fill an application form that will be submitted to the relevant authorities in Syria to inquire about their legal status and potential return. After that, the Lebanese General Security agency will be contacted to coordinate their safe return in batches.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Mahmoud Abdullah, a 30-year-old displaced Syrian from Deir ez-Zor, said, I filled the application for the return home at Hezbollahs office. The major problem I have is that I am wanted for the compulsory service in the Syrian army. I am married with two children, and it is hard for me to meet the familys needs if I join the army. I really hope that Hezbollah manages to reach an accommodation with the Syrian government in this regard.

Moataz Mahmoud, a 35-year-old Syrian displaced from Mayadin, told Al-Monitor, Honestly speaking, I do trust Hezbollah, and I hope it finds a solution to the housing and military service issues in our country.

Mohammed Salem, a 33-year-old Syrian displaced from eastern Ghouta, said, I filled the application form, but I think that the circumstances are not presently ideal for us to return. He explained, My parents house was destroyed in the war and we have no shelter. To boot, I am married now. I have a child, and I am wanted for the military service. Although I have not been involved in anything, I fear being pursued by the security services because I am from the opposition hotbed of Ghouta.

Moreover, Bassil, who is the head of the FPM, announced July 12 that the FPM has launched its central committee on the displaced Syrians return. He stated, Most importantly is to reach a Lebanese strategic decision on the return and that this agreement be reflected in the ministerial statement.

Boutros said, The FPM established local committees in all parts of Lebanon to eliminate all hurdles and facilitate the return of the displaced to their country. She added, No communications are taking place between the FPM and the Syrian government. We are not a state. The information we have are provided to Lebanons General Security agency, which in turn examines them and submits them to the Syrian side.

On July 7, Bassil lambasted the UNHCR for countering the Lebanese policy that is against naturalization. He blocked all residency applications for foreign UNHCR staff presented to his ministry after he obtained reports that the UNHCR is not encouraging the displaced to return to Syria and is allegedly trying to frighten those willing to return by asking questions about the security situation in their country.

Speaking to Al-Monitor, Abbas Sabbagh, a journalist for Lebanons An-Nahar newspaper, said, The use of the de-escalation zones in Syria as a pretext is no longer valid, as the Syrian state has taken hold of most of the Syrian parts. Hence, it is possible for the displaced to go to areas controlled by the Damascus [regime], which has always welcomed a UN presence in these areas.

In contrast, Hariri refrained from making any comment about Hezbollah or the FPMs move. Nevertheless, in a July 20 statement, his media office welcomed the Russian Defense Ministrys announcement on the establishment of a joint center to coordinate the return of the refugees to Syria. Hariri had dispatched his adviser for Russian affairs George Shaaban to Moscow where he told Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on the same day that Hariri counts on the Russian move, which would lay the foundations for a resolution of the Syrian displacement crisis, Elnashra reported.

Reuters reported July 20 the Russian Defense Ministry as saying that it had sent Washington a proposal for drawing up a joint action plan to bring Syrian refugees back to the places they lived before the war broke out in 2011, following accommodations reached at the Donald Trump-Vladimir Putin summit in Helsinki.

Reuters cited the Director of Russias National Defense Management Center Lt. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev as saying that preliminary assessments indicated 890,000 refugees could return to Syria from Lebanon in the near future, 300,000 from Turkey and 200,000 from European Union countries.

The discord among Lebanons forces over how to resolve this dossier is more likely to last until the formation of the new government. This is true particularly since the FPM is determined to add this dossier as a first item on the ministerial statement to set an implementation plan ensuring the return of the displaced Syrians.RAMALLAH, West Bank  A Fatah delegation is expected in Cairo in the coming days to meet with officials from Egyptian intelligence to discuss Palestinian reconciliation. The delegation, led by Central Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad, who also heads the reconciliation file, is expected to present a formal response from Fatah about the proposals submitted to Hamas and Fatah to finally implement their on-again, off-again reconciliation.

Hamas announced in a July 19 press release that its political bureau head, Ismail Haniyeh, had relayed to Egyptian intelligence that the movement accepted the Egyptian bid to revive conciliation efforts. A Hamas delegation, headed by Khalil al-Hayya, had visited Cairo July 11 at the invitation of Egyptian intelligence to discuss the reconciliation as well as the situation in Gaza. The delegation returned to Gaza July 17 with a draft containing a number of proposals developed by the Egyptians to advance the stagnant process with Fatah.

On July 19, Turkey's Anadolu Agency published an alleged copy of the reconciliation bid, which contains 10 articles, split into four stages, to be implemented over the course of approximately two months. The proposal calls on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to lift all sanctions imposed on Gaza and provide services, such as electricity, to improve the humanitarian situation. The two parties are to activate the work of the national consensus government in Gaza, launch talks to form a national unity government, discuss security in Gaza and work to implement the 2011 Cairo agreement between Fatah and Hamas. The two movements have signed dozens of agreements since their conflict erupted, in 2007, but the 2011 document is considered the most essential document for all subsequent reconciliation efforts.

While Hamas has agreed to the Egyptian bid, Fatah has yet to issue a formal answer, and its responses have thus far been inconsistent. A Fatah source, who requested anonymity, told Al-Monitor that President Mahmoud Abbas has assigned Central Committee members Ahmad and Rawhi Fattouh to assess the new bid.

Fatah has agreed to the Egyptian proposals, the source said, but is yet to issue a final and formal answer. The Fatah delegation soon heading to Cairo will inform the Egyptians of some of their reservations, such as those over Hamas actual commitment to the new proposals, and thus seek guarantees.

Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad told the Voice of Palestine on July 21 that what the Egyptians had presented were merely suggestions, a copy of which he had received on July 15 during a visit to Cairo.

There is no such thing as a final Egyptian paper, Ahmad said. What we have are suggestions for mechanisms to implement the reconciliation.

Ahmad stressed, What has been circulated in the media about those suggestions is untrue. Hamas has been staging all of that to obstruct Egypt in the hopes of hindering its proposals before they come to light and to incite the public against Fatah.

The Egyptian bid has generated optimism among Palestinians, who are hoping that the Fatah-Hamas dispute will finally end. Numerous Cairo-sponsored agreements between Fatah and Hamas have crumbled, the most recent having been agreed to on Oct. 12, 2017, in Cairo. That agreement established an implementation mechanism for the previous reconciliation agreements, including for the PA's operating in Gaza and the management of border crossings, but their effort subsequently failed.

Jamil Mezher, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestines (PFLP) political bureau, told Al-Monitor, The fact that Egypt has proposed an ongoing reconciliation process split into four stages, with each stage having a specific timetable, is a cause for optimism. If the Egyptian bid is implemented, it will be a serious breakthrough with regard to the conflict toward reaching a reconciliation.

Mezher added, Hamas disclosed the full details of the Egyptian bid to the PFLP. They informed us of their decision to agree.

On the other hand, Mustafa al-Wassaf, a political reporter and analyst close to Hamas, told Al-Monitor, The Egyptian bid contains specified timetables for implementation. This is one of the most notable aspects to the bid, and that is beside the fact that the articles of the bid are clear and direct and cant be re-interpreted by either side.

Wassaf stressed that reconciliation is crucial to saving the Palestinian cause in light of the political plans he says are being developed to stifle it, such as the so-called Deal of the Century that US President Donald Trump has promised to deliver.

The current circumstances on the Palestinian landscape and possible future events should be sufficiently compelling for Fatah and Hamas to overcome their differences and reconcile. Among them are the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza, the tensions on Gaza's borders and their ominous potential for war with Israel, the peace process between the PLO and Israel reaching one dead end after another and the US-orchestrated Deal of the Century to resolve the Palestinian issue. Eleven years on, could hope be in sight?One of the large paintings on display in Cairos Zamalek Art Gallery shows a circus, painted in bright colors, where belly dancers dance joyfully as a band of elephants makes music and acrobats and a unicorn entertain a stone-faced audience. The prominent figure in the painting is a richly dressed clown, with a hat that resembles the pharaonic headdress.

The clown symbolizes Egypt, said Carelle Homsy, the artist. Both Egyptians and foreigners think that Egypt is a poor country that does not know which direction it is heading  just like a clown. But, in fact, what the clown shows is the mask.

In my opinion, Egypt conducts its affairs in the same manner of its ancestors, the pharaohs. That is why the clown carries a royal crown and the scepter. Egypt will also punish anyone who thought that it [was in decline], and I expressed them by prisoners in the clowns cloak, she told Al-Monitor.

Egyptian expressionist artist Homsys work is part of the exhibition entitled Masterpieces XVII at the Zamalek Art Gallery in western Cairo. It is the 17th edition of the gallerys summer exhibition. This years edition brings together 70 different paintings and sculptures of 36 artists.

The aim of this summer exhibition is to display the variety in the Egyptian art and the works of different generations, not just for locals but also for a foreign audience who spends the summer in Egypt, Hani Yassin, the manager of the gallery, told Al-Monitor.

The works span over several decades of Egyptian painting and sculpture. Included in the exhibit are a painting and sculpture by Gamal El Sagini (1917-1977), a veteran of the Egyptian art scene since the 1940s. Both of his works are being displayed for the first time. The painting features life around the Nile. A bronze sculpture is a stylized female figure in a sitting position, holding a child. In this sculpture that was made in 1956, the two figures merge into one, symbolizing motherhood.

[These two works] by El Sagini are displayed for the first time in this exhibition. We borrowed them from one of his cousins to put them on display, Yassin said.

"Last Supper" by Syrian artist Souad Mardam Bey is one of the works on display in the Zamalek Art Gallery in Cairo, Egypt. Image by Zamalek Art Gallery

Alongside El Sagini, a bronze sculpture showing two figures in a Spanish dance is on display. It was created by Yasmine El Hazek, an Egyptian artist in her 20s whose work often shows lively scenes, real or imagined.

The guest of honor of Masterpieces XVII is Egyptian sculptor Abdel Hady El-Wechahi (1936-2013). El-Wechahis sculptures are displayed with the corresponding sketches he made while preparing for them. One of the displayed works is called Attempt to Find Balance Between Man and Woman, while the other is Confrontation, reflecting the artists focus on balance and tension in his works.

The exhibition also includes works by non-Egyptian artists such as Souad Mardam Bey, a Syrian painter based in Cairo since 2000. Her work entitled Last Supper, which uses oil and mixed media on canvas, shows Jesus Christ and 12 apostles sitting around a table. All wear the traditional Syrian costume of the galabiya, a loosely stitched garment, and look around with haunted eyes as if they know the end is near. The figure second from the left is Judas Iscariot, who wears a coin-shaped ring on his finger, reflecting the 30 pieces of silver he got for his betrayal of Jesus.

The exhibit will remain open until the end of August.Ironically, when it comes to the issue of Iran in Syria, we have a rare case of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Hassan Rouhani and Bashar al-Assad all sharing a common interest, a very senior military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. All of these leaders want Iranian forces to get out of Syria.

When asked why he included Iranian President Rouhani in this list, the source said, It was no mistake. Iran hasnt had a uniform position for a very long time now. There is a fierce internal debate underway, and it is reflected on the ground. Theres a state within a state there. The Revolutionary Guards and the Quds Force are one entity, while the president and the official institutions are a second. The last thing that Rouhani wants is to continue investing the few billion dollars that Iran has in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He would prefer to bring all those troops home and invest in the Iranian economy instead, but [commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force] Qasem Soleimani continues to enthrall the one person in charge of the big money and all the major decisions  [Supreme Leader] Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

This is how the heads of Israels security apparatus currently assess the Middle Eastern drama unfolding right before us around the clock and on live TV. Syrian President Assad has also had enough of the Iranian presence in his country. He sees them as more of a burden than an asset but is not yet strong enough to show them the door.

This creates an ideal confluence of circumstances, a senior Israeli security source says on condition of anonymity. It is now possible to shrink the Quds Force and put it back in the box. Anyone listening in to the demonstrations in Iran will tell you that the most popular slogan being chanted there is No to Syria! No to Gaza! No to Lebanon! Yes to Iran! We are in the middle of a historic process. If we dont blink, theres a good chance that this confluence of circumstances can be turned into the beginning of strategic change in the Middle East, which will force the Iranians to close up shop [in Syria] and go home instead of spreading.

One day after these comments were made, a high-level Russian delegation landed in Israel July 23. The delegation was headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and included Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who was paying his first visit to Israel. It was a rushed  almost an emergency  visit after Putins last meeting with Netanyahu in Moscow on July 11.

The Russians leaked out that it was a very important meeting. It was later learned that the Russians offered Israel a deal, which they promised to enforce. They would guarantee that Iranian forces, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias would be kept 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Syrian border with Israel, while Israel would commit to accepting Assads return to power in Syria and stop its attacks on Syrian territory. Surprisingly, Israel said no. It was a polite but firm refusal. Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot told the Russians that Israel could not accept an Iranian or Hezbollah presence anywhere in Syria, and that it reserves the right to continue dealing with that presence themselves. The Russians listened carefully and returned home empty-handed.

The day after the Russians were gone, Israeli Patriot missiles shot down a Syrian air force Sukhoi Su-24 fighter jet that penetrated 2 kilometers into Israeli territory. It happened a day after two missiles fired by Assads forces set off Israels multilayered missile defense system, the Magic Wand (or "Davids Sling), for the first time. This was the first operational test of the missile interception system, and it failed. Regardless, the Russians protested the shooting down of the Sukhoi. An investigation by Israel later found that the Syrian pilot and navigator made a navigation error and did not intend to attack Israel. Nevertheless, the most senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials made it clear to their Russian counterparts that Israel had no choice, and that any aircraft that crosses its border will be shot down. When an armed fighter jet crosses the border, we dont have the time, the possibility or the luxury to wait and check its intentions, the Israelis told the Russians  according to an Israeli defense source who spoke on condition of anonymity. They even showed them a shot of the radar screen, proving that the Syrian jet that came down in Syrian territory had, in fact, flown 2 kilometers into Israel.

Tensions between Israel and Russia have been escalating over the past few weeks as a result of the intense attacks against Iranian targets in Syrian territory, which are attributed to Israel. Similarly, the IDFs nighttime operation July 22 to evacuate hundreds of White Helmets from southern Syria to Jordan  from where they will be relocated to the West  did not make Russia very happy. Shortly after the dramatic evacuation effort, the Russian Embassy in Israel tweeted a cynical barb critical of the Israeli operation. This forced Netanyahu himself to announce personally that Israel evacuated the White Helmets  a group that Putin and Assad both regard as a strategic enemy dedicated to toppling the Assad regime  and that it did this in response to an explicit request from Trump and countries such as France. What Netanyahu was actually insinuating to Putin was that he had no choice and it was not an Israeli initiative.

At this stage, Israel has managed to maneuver between the raindrops of this storm while barely getting wet. The strategic connection between Jerusalem the political echelon, Tel Aviv the Israeli defense system and Moscow is more stable and closer than ever. Netanyahu meets with Putin almost monthly, Liberman speaks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu every week and Eizenkot maintains intense communications with his Russian counterpart Gerasimov.

Ultimately, the Russians appreciate strength, a senior military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. They keep track of what we do. They recognize our determination and even our courage, and they respect that  as long as that does not conflict with their own interests. The same source said the Russians dont have friends; they only have interests.

For now, Russias interests are very much in sync with Israels interests. Putin realizes that he no longer needs Iran and Hezbollah to be his boots on the ground in Syria, so that now the Iranians have gone from being an ally to being a competitor in the rehabilitation of Syria and its hegemony, the senior military source told Al-Monitor. That is why it doesnt really bother him when Israel strikes at Iran, and why he would have no problem if Israel would force Iran and Iranian influence out of Syria. On the contrary, it suits him just fine.Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said July 25 that his country will soon witness what he called a "great show of internal unity," with national figures coming together to fight off economic pressures.

The moderate politician made the comments in Tehran in an address to the heads of Iranian missions abroad. He did not elaborate on the details of how that could take place but noted, "The best strategy to tackle the impasse that has gripped the country these days is solidarity and national unity." The same call for unity was reflected in a speech by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last month, when he made it clear to domestic hard-liners that the target of US pressure is not their moderate rivals but rather Iran as a whole.

Jahangiri lamented that negligence when it came to forging unity had emboldened the enemy to the point where "it is now launching diatribes against Iran." But according to an editorial in Ghanoon, a Reformist daily, "Given the pressure exerted and the hard times ahead for Iran's economy, some [in Iran] have now come to the conclusion that the approach needs to be mended and another path should be trodden."

Jahangiri said Iran is at a critical juncture but confidently added that the new conditions are not "crippling" and that to face them, Iran needs "creative solutions." The new limitations, from Jahangiri's viewpoint, have led to fresh opportunities as well.

Iran's first vice president has been repeatedly criticized for trying to paint a positive picture of the status of the Iranian economy and speaking of its future prospects with exaggerated optimism. In the meantime, rumors have recently been rife that he was submitting his resignation over interference in his affairs by other members of President Hassan Rouhani's inner circle, particularly the influential chief of the presidential staff, Mahmoud Vaezi.

Yet the vice president showed no sign of such complaints in his latest speech, doing his best to demonstrate moderation and acting like a nonpartisan figure who encourages unity. He also downplayed the US pressure, saying the American political and media war against the Islamic Republic will not wear out the Iranians, whom he said "will never harm their own country and government, backed by a foreign state."

When it comes to addressing the economic pressure on the middle class, Jahangiri spoke of various solutions ranging from subsidies to coupons.

He said the government has devised  since it realized that the United States would restrict Iran's foreign currency resources  the necessary strategies to counter those measures. Iran's national currency, the rial, has been witnessing an almost unprecedented devaluation ever since the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal in May.

Jahangiri also praised Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "flag bearer" of national unity. The vice president's speech comes at a time when hard-liners appear to be shifting their attitudes toward Rouhani, especially following his recently ratcheted-up rhetoric against the United States and Israel. Iran's conservatives, in other words, seem to be rallying behind a president they spared no attacks on in recent years.An attack on an Erbil government building by three young Kurds in the early hours of July 23 killed one person and wounded four members of the security forces. The attack not only revealed the increasing threat of homegrown terrorism in Iraq's Kurdistan region, but also laid bare a dangerous security fissure: Various forces tasked by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) with stopping these kinds of attacks do not share intelligence with each other.

Just after 7 a.m. on July 23, three young men who had said their early morning prayers that day walked up to the single police officer sitting on a chair in front of the Erbil government building, according to the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage released by the security forces afterward.

One of the young men, Rahel Mohammed, was a 16-year-old teenager, who, according to his friend, was boisterous and fun to be around. He was smiling and joking, but after he became Salafi, he turned very religious and instead of saying hello, he would say, May God forgive us, one of his friends told Kurdistan 24. He was on the way to mosque 24 hours a day.

One boy shot the police officer with a pistol, while another fired a volley of bullets using an AK-47. They are then seen sticking together inside the building, walking around not knowing exactly what to do. The young men knew how to use the guns, but their movements in the CCTV footage do not appear to show that they were professionally trained gunmen. They appear ordinary, like any other young men in the Kurdistan region, except that they were radicalized enough to launch a daring raid with the intention to kill that day. Their only victim was Mam Farhan, an old Christian man who had worked in the building since 1996 and was liked by all the people of Erbil. The young men took up arms on the top floor of the old building and fought the security forces for over six hours before they were killed.

The Asayish [Kurdish security force] officials were worried that there would be a simultaneous attack on the Asayish main building where a number of dangerous Daesh [Islamic State (IS)] prisoners are held, one security source briefed about the attack told Al-Monitor. They were worried that the main target was to free Daesh prisoners. That is why most of the Asayish force was on alert that day protecting other sensitive buildings. Al-Monitor understands that the security forces have been on high alert and are taking serious measures to protect sensitive government buildings, prisons where IS captives are held and oil installations.

Tareq Nuri, the head of Erbil Asayish, the main force responsible for maintaining security in the Kurdistan region, said that as the attack was unfolding the morning of July 23, his forces raided the houses of the three men and arrested some suspects. We did not have intelligence that there would be an attack on the provincial building, but when we arrested Mala Esmail Sosayi [three weeks ago], we realized he was planning something, Nuri said July 24, referring to a radical Kurdish cleric who appeared to be connected to the attack. We seized some guns from Mala Esmail Sosayi.  He confessed that he had given a pledge of allegiance to Daesh.  On top of that, we had arrested a terrorist network that assisted Daesh and was related to the Mala Sosayi circle. One Erbil resident told Al-Monitor that the night before the attack, the Asayish were in full force and on high alert in the city, setting up several impromptu checkpoints across the capital checking everyones identity.

In the same interview, Nuri, who is the most senior security official in Erbil, told the official website of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which is in charge of security in the capital, that his forces had no coordination with the Asayish forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaimaniyah. No, we dont have that kind of connection with Sulaimaniyah, Nuri replied when asked if his forces worked with the Asayish in Sulaimaniyah to detain those wanted by the law. There are a number of people who have an arrest warrant on them, but they are residing in Sulaimaniyah, Nuri said. The PUK and the KDP are part of the KRG, which should be in charge of the Kurdistan region, but in reality on security issues, there is hardly any collaboration between the PUK and the KDP security forces.

This is alarming for a region whose peshmerga forces fought IS for over three years across the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) front line and lost more than 1,800 men. In a recent attack on Qarachokh Mountain in southwest Erbil, the peshmerga, backed by Belgian and US soldiers, lost six men. Over 700 young Kurdish men departed the Kurdistan region in recent years to join IS and other extremist groups. On July 23, IS propaganda arm Nashir News announced on Telegram that the group members carried out several attacks in the Iraqi provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Ninevah, but there was no mention of Erbil. IS has intensified its campaign of attacking Iraqi security forces.

Furthermore, the July 23 attack shows the homegrown terrorism in the Kurdistan region that threatens the peace and coexistence of various religious and ethnic communities that live in this region side by side. The Kurdish region has become a safe haven for thousands of Sunni Arabs who have fled war and violence across Iraq since 2003. But despite the efforts of the authorities in regulating the mosques and vetting the religious preachers through the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, some extremist clerics are inciting hatred and sectarianism and encourage outright attack on foreigners, including the coalition forces.

The Americans are apostates; we have no doubt about that, Sosayi, the extremist cleric connected to the July 23 attack, said as he answered a question back in December 2012. Whenever an apostate soldier comes to a Muslim land  and occupied it and did not leave, the cleric continued, it is a religious duty  to go and kill them until they leave your land  but sadly we, the clerical establishment and the public, have no courage and willpower. In another sermon in September 2010, Sosayi, who had been arrested several times by the Asayish in Erbil, described Shiites in a derogatory way. They [Shiites] see the Sunnis as infidels and worse than the Jew, Sosayi said. We need to be vigilant about them  wherever they [Shiites] go, theyll destroy it.

The Kurdish authorities believe that while IS is no longer a serious threat, the extremist school of thought still poses a danger to the Kurdistan region. It is true that Daesh is not organized in Kurdistan and has no armed men, Nawzad Hadi, the governor of Erbil, told Voice of America. But the three men who attacked the provincial building in Erbil proved that Daesh still exists ideologically [in Kurdistan].ALEPPO, Syria  Dozens of buses transporting detainees opposing the Syrian regime arrived in Idlib July 19 per an agreement between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and Iranian negotiators. Under the deal, struck with Russian-Turkish supervision July 17, HTS evacuated fighters affiliated with the Syrian regime forces along with their families and civilians from al-Foua and Kefraya in the Idlib countryside. They had been besieged since 2015 by Jaish al-Fatah.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated July 19 that 120 buses left al-Foua and Kefraya with at least 6,900 people. The transportation operations took place over three phases, starting July 18. The buses headed to the crossing in al-Eiss in Aleppos southern countryside to enter the regime-held areas in southern Aleppo. Meanwhile, several buses transporting 1,500 detainees from Assads jails, including women, reached the opposition-held territories in Idlib province July 19.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights noted in another statement July 19 that hundreds of detainees who arrived at the opposition-held areas had been arrested in the months preceding the recent agreement. Sources told the Observatory that the regime's arrest campaign came as secret negotiations were taking place. The regime sought to use those arrested in the past two to three months to close the exchange deal between HTS and the Iranians, the source claimed. Meanwhile, dozens of protesters took to the streets of Idlib July 19, as citizens expressed their anger on finding that their arrested relatives who had been in the regimes prisons for more than five years were not included in the exchange deal.

Imad al-Din Mujahid, the director of the HTS media office, told Al-Monitor, The recent agreement between HTS and the Iranian enemy aims at protecting the area and expelling Iranian militias from it. The people, including civilian and military figures in the liberated Syrian north, supported this move. Negotiations regarding al-Foua and Kefraya began in 2015 and the agreement was implemented over stages. The current situation of the revolution necessitates closing this file.

Mujahid continued, The most important provision of the agreement was for Iranian militias and civilians wishing to leave al-Foua and Kefraya in return for releasing 1,500 detainees from the regimes prisons. The detainees to be released were divided like so: 80% those arrested by the regime in 2018, 10% those arrested in 2017 and 10% those arrested earlier, in addition to 37 fighters taken captive by Lebanese Hezbollah during the battles between the rebels and Hezbollah militants in Aleppos southern countryside in 2016.

After the buses transporting civilians and soldiers left al-Foua and Kefraya, the military factions entered and began demining operations. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated July 19 that three members of military factions affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and HTS were killed when mines planted by regime-affiliated forces blew up.

The northern areas of Syria, including Idlib and parts of the Aleppo and Hama countryside, are under the full control of the armed factions under Turkish tutelage, while the southern and central regions are controlled by the regime's forces.

Opposition activist Yoman al-Khatib told Al-Monitor, Personally, I am against the deportations, whether by the Syrian regime forces or by the armed opposition factions. But regarding al-Foua and Kefraya agreement, we can say that it has different dimensions. I think these areas of influence are beginning to surface in north Syria between Turkey, Russia and Iran. I believe there were deals in return: the regime-controlled areas in southern Syria in exchange for the armed factions full control of north Syrian under Turkish tutelage.

He added, We reject the deportations as rebels, but I think the agreement was international, and the rebels did not have much to do with it.

He went on, I would have hoped that it would be a reconciliation agreement between the people of al-Foua and Kefraya, ensuring that civilians remain in their homes and militants leave wherever they want. But in the end, the militants affiliated with the regime forces in the two towns fought the uprising and launched multiple attacks previously there. All the besieged areas, either by the regime forces or by the rebels, faced great injustice. We never wanted this to happen, and we did not want any civilian in Syria to suffer under siege.

Armed factions had repeatedly used the pro-regime towns as a pressure card on the regime. In 2015, the Four Towns Agreement (al-Foua, Kefraya, Madaya and Zabadani) was signed between Jaish al-Fatah and Iran. The agreement stipulated a halt to military operations in Madaya and Zabadani, which were under the joint control of the FSA and Jaish al-Fatah, allowing the entry of aid and evacuation of the wounded.

The agreement later included other sites besieged by the regime like the Yarmouk camp and the western Qalamoun region in Rif Dimashq. The factions members and civilians were allowed to retreat to north Syria in exchange for evacuating civilians and wounded from al-Foua and Kefraya to regime-held areas.

As the last convoy left the two towns, a chapter in the war has closed.The fast-growing halal market in the Islamic world and Western countries with sizable Muslim communities has long whetted Turkeys appetite. Last year, then-Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci grumbled that companies from non-Muslim countries dominated 80% of the $4 trillion global halal market, which ranges from food and cosmetics to health care, tourism and financing. This is not acceptable, he said, stressing that Turkey was stepping up efforts to grab a larger share of the market.

Parliament took the first step in November, passing legislation for the creation of a Halal Accreditation Authority. On July 15, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree on how the Halal Accreditation Authority would be established, completing the legal framework for Turkeys drive to become a leading market player with state-guaranteed halal labels.

The Halal Accreditation Authority will adhere to halal standards set by the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries, a body under the umbrella of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Companies from Turkey and other Muslim countries will be able to apply to the Halal Accreditation Authority for accreditation.

Turkeys aim is to make the Halal Accreditation Authority the most authoritative body on the issue in the Muslim world. According to Zeybekci, the Halal Accreditation Authority is the worlds first regulatory institution on halal matters, which would add credibility to the halal certificates issued by Halal Accreditation Authority-accredited entities.

Many organizations have been issuing halal certificates in Turkey in recent years, but their standards have been the subject of controversy. Now, the Halal Accreditation Authority will step in to accredit or disqualify such organizations. As the countrys sole institution authorized to provide accreditation services, it will function as a sort of supreme body with a final say on certificates. In other words, the Halal Accreditation Authoritys accreditation will amount to a letter of credence for organizations issuing certificates.

The most important question now is who will get the letters of credence.

Not all applicants will receive accreditation. One organization expected to get an easy approval is the Food and Supplies Inspection and Certification Research Association, which has been organizing the International Halal and Tayyib Fair since 2010 and issuing certificates called halal and tayyib certificates. The Arabic word tayyib means healthy, clean and of good quality here, as former Deputy Premier Bulent Arinc pointed out at the 2013 fair for those who might have drawn any association to one of the names of Turkeys leader. As the biggest organization of its kind in Turkey, the inspection and research organization has issued halal certificates to hundreds of companies.

But is a halal certificate enough to boost sales to Muslim countries?

Trade is certainly not aloof from foreign policy. Good political ties are often the prerequisite for boosting commercial exchanges. A shared religion is hardly enough to drive trade, as evidenced by myriad political and economic conflicts between Muslim countries. This was a point that opposition deputies emphasized during parliamentary debates on the Halal Accreditation Authority bill last year, pointing to Turkeys tense relations with Muslim countries such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Libya. To increase its market shares in the Muslim world, they argued, Turkey has to amend its foreign policy first.

Still, Turkey is expected to increase its share in halal markets given its ardent efforts in the field  especially in Islamic banking, a sector that has significantly expanded since Erdogans Justice and Development Party came to power in 2002.

According to Yunus Ete, the Turkish chairman of the World Halal Summit Council, Turkeys share of the global halal market amounts to about $100 billion, including $55 billion in the financial sector, and has the potential to reach $400 billion in a short span of time.

When it comes to Turkeys own halal food market, demand for the halal label could grow  especially among well-off conservatives as religious tendencies in society increase. Yet Turkey is a country where some 15 million people  a sixth of the population  rely on some form of monthly welfare assistance from the government. The needy are likely to care little about halal-labeled food, as evidenced by Turkeys recent importation of cheap meat to rein in skyrocketing prices. In criticizing the governments import strategy, the opposition has argued that the imported meat is not a halal slaughter. Few consumers, however, seem to take notice. The cheap meat on offer at select supermarkets is being sold out within hours.

While products certified as halal are likely to enjoy a certain advantage in the market, government critics have misgivings about how fair and objective the accreditation process will be.

Orhan Saribal, a parliament member for the main opposition Republican Peoples Party and an agricultural engineer by profession, told Al-Monitor he had concerns over political favoritism in the issuance of accreditations.

Compliance with international standards on food safety and hygiene are more important than halal labels, Saribal argued, adding that he saw political motives behind the establishment of the accreditation agency. The Halal Accreditation Authority is the product of the governments policy to mold everything in society according to religious references, he said. I dont think Turkey needs that. There are internationally accepted [mechanisms] on healthy food control and certification. Those are the ones to follow.The NATO summit in Brussels July 11-12 witnessed amicable fist bumping between US President Donald Trump and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. The interaction was particularly noteworthy given the unprecedented row that took place between Trump and European leaders. His jovial gesture stood in stark contrast to his bellicose posturing with others.

When Trump reportedly said of Erdogan, I like this guy, Turkeys pro-government media  and nearly all Turkish media is controlled either by the government or by pro-government figures  welcomed the remarks. The Turkish side interpreted it as America's endorsement of Turkeys increasingly autocratic leader at a time when his image and relations are ebbing with the West in general.

In a previous Al-Monitor piece written on the eve of the NATO summit, I predicted the meeting would be considered Erdogans first foreign policy test following his June 24 electoral victory. I emphasized that he would pass that exam easily, as the other attendees would be preoccupied by the expected tension between Trump and other European leaders and the upcoming Helsinki meeting between Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. I was right about that, but I hadn't predicted Trump would go so far as to say he actually likes Erdogan and the two would share a strongman "bro" moment.

After such a show in Brussels, many people believed the release of jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson was a foregone conclusion. Alas, a Turkish court rebuffed appeals to free Brunson, and the trial was adjourned until Oct. 12.

Trump expressed his disappointment in a July 19 tweet, writing, A total disgrace that Turkey will not release a respected U.S. Pastor, Andrew Brunson, from prison. He has been held hostage far too long." Trump also called on Erdogan to do something to free the pastor: He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him."

The reaction in Congress was harsher. Senators led by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) introduced bipartisan legislation "to restrict loans from international financial institutions to Turkey until the Turkish government ends the unjust detention of US citizens." Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) had visited Turkey and met with Erdogan trying to secure the pastor's release days before his hearing. Ankara responded to the accusations with a well-worn line about Turkish courts being independent. That argument was quite unconvincing, particularly as Turkey has been using it for the past two years.

The heightened friction between Washington and Ankara is expected to affect NATO as well.

The Trump administration isn't known for protecting core democratic values, and it hasn't voiced contempt for Turkey's democratic backsliding. But a row between the two on bilateral issues would inevitably worsen Ankaras already problematic stature in NATO. Turkeys willingness to purchase the S-400 Russian missile defense system has raised serious questions.

However, the American administration is still puzzled by how to deal with Erdogan and doesn't want to take the blame in the long-running game among European leaders of Who lost Turkey? For instance, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis wrote a letter July 7 to both the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committees to ease their objections to the sale of US F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. Mattis said preventing the sale would remove Turkey from the NATO supply chain and in turn disrupt the alliances defense capabilities. Yet, despite Mattis calls, Congress could amend the US defense authorization bill at the last moment to impede the sale of 100 F-35s to Ankara until a report on Turkeys purchase of S-400s is submitted.

Brunson has been suddenly granted a transfer to house arrest in a surprise reversal, but the damage had already been done. According to Aviation Week's Pentagon editor, Lee Hudson, Brunson's treatment has caused the United States to re-evaluate all military sales to Turkey, not just Lockheed Martin's F-35s.

Turkey is an important ally that continues to participate in NATO missions such as Afghanistan and to use parts of NATO missile defense systems. Yet the S-400 missile system is not only incompatible with NATO systems, it's considered a threat to the F-35. For NATO, Turkey still remains relevant to Western defense today, as it was during the long years of the Cold War. Thus, a possible rift over military cooperation between Turkey and the United States would inevitably have a negative impact on NATO as well. This is exactly what Putin has been working toward for some time by pitting Erdogan against the West.

Nate Schenkkan, Freedom House's special research director, coined the sarcastic and an unforgettable motto on Turkey in his recent policy brief: The State of Emergency is Dead; Long Live the State of Emergency.

Keeping Turkey in the West is a reasonable goal, but the question is, at what cost to the West? Given the deep changes in Turkish foreign policy over the last two years, it is not clear whether Ankara still regards NATO as the cornerstone of its security, or if it sees the alliance instead as part of a collapsing regional and international order, Schenkkan wrote in his brief titled Dealing with the New Turkey: Recommendations for US Policy after the Elections.

Is NATO the backbone of Turkeys strategic posture, or is it a risk to be hedged against? Turkeys value as a partner to the United States, and the cost-benefit analysis of investing in that partnership, depends on Ankaras own approach toward the alliance," Schenkkan wrote. He went on, Washington must continue to communicate to Turkey the consequences of pursuing an apparent strategic realignment through its purchase of the S-400, its imprisonment of American citizens and employees, and its authoritarian consolidation. More specifically, this communication should establish a sliding scale of consequences that will fall into place if Turkey continues down its current path."

He listed two elements to consider: As approved in a Senate measure in mid-June 2018, [the US should] block Turkey from obtaining F-35 fighter jets if Ankara goes ahead with the purchase of the S-400 air defense system from Russia. Use the sanctions authority under the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, ... which would place Turkey under harsh secondary sanctions if it chooses to purchase the S-400 from the sanctioned Russian entity that provides the system.

Almost all indicators point to a looming American arms embargo on Turkey reminiscent of the one in the mid-1970s following the Cyprus dispute. This time, an embargo could be coupled with sanctions that would have a much stronger impact on NATOs defense strategy in a highly sensitive geopolitical region at a volatile time.

It's ironic that the realistic propositions to set the Turkey-US and Turkey-NATO relations on more realistic ground come from people working for civil society institutions that uphold a value-based approach, instead of that which realpolitik dictates.ALEPPO, Syria  A woman is taking the reins of the Syrian oppositions local council in western Aleppo for the first time in the organizations six years.

Iman Hashem, a schoolteacher with a strong record of public service, took office July 1.

I am very happy to be elected head of the local council, Hashem told Al-Monitor. I consider myself a representative of the opposition women in Aleppo. I dedicate my victory to all of these women. Although I was running this election in a conservative society, I have not encountered difficulties for being a woman. The people around me are very supportive, especially my family and my husband.

The council manages the six districts in the citys western suburbs still controlled by the opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA). In December 2016, President Bashar al-Assads forces captured the city except for those districts.

Hashem said that after she was displaced by Assads forces from the eastern districts of Aleppo city, she worked in education and opened a school called Sanoud (We will be back) in the citys western countryside.

She was head of the local councils Social and Educational Affairs Office in 2015. Hashem also opened the councils office for women, supervised several centers for empowering women in Aleppo and was a council member for two terms. She was a member of the executive office for the 2015-2016 term.

Following the outbreak of the revolution in 2011, Assad legalized "local administrative bodies" as part of a reform package meant to decentralize power in an effort to quell protests. The opposition Syrian Interim Government later borrowed language from these reform decrees to use as legal justification for its own councils.

Hashem said she has many projects she plans to implement during her one-year term leading the council.

I have in mind projects aimed to provide more health and education services, and other services for the displaced from the eastern districts of Aleppo. The council will keep carrying out its routine works, which will focus on meeting the needs of the six districts.

Cleaning and water services also will be secured, she added, and she plans to follow up on the situation of women whose husbands were killed while fighting the regime.

The council will also cooperate with local and international associations and organizations that are still supporting the work of the local council, she added.

Hashem said she will pay particular attention to awareness campaigns and educational and training courses for empowering women, who are now assuming a lot of responsibilities under the current circumstances.

She said the work of local councils in opposition-controlled regions of Syria shows the opposition can manage its areas in an institutionalized and democratic manner and is capable of producing a conscientious, transparent and healthy leadership far removed from injustice and favoritism.

The oppositions local councils proved they can manage peoples affairs and administer local facilities, Hashem said.

The council is based in Al-Kahraba quarter; the other five districts are Shamiko, Khan al-Assal, Kfardaal, al-Rashidin and Rif al-Muhandiseen.

Ahmed Aziza, media office director for the Aleppo opposition council, told Al-Monitor, These are residential quarters housing tens of thousands of displaced from the eastern districts and other local [areas].

He said the opposition local council of Aleppo city receives financial support from various international organizations and maintains partnerships with a number of charities in northern Syria covering the services sector, health, education, hygiene, humanitarian relief and women's empowerment.

This support continued despite the FSA's loss in the eastern districts.  In addition to managing the western suburbs of Aleppo, the local council provides assistance to thousands of displaced people from Aleppo living in different areas in Idlib [about 40 miles southwest] and the northern Aleppo countryside, and other areas, he said.

The western area of Aleppo city also has a Revolutionary General Assembly, which includes many opposition figures who had worked in eastern district councils when those areas were still controlled by the FSA. The assembly also includes independent figures overseeing and assessing the work of the local council and submitting proposals on elections and others matters.

The choice of a woman to lead the council in western Aleppo is expected to set a precedent for the opposition. Hashem seeks to improve the status of women by focusing on projects that develop their capabilities. This will depend, however, on how much support the council continues to receive from international donors as well as from the Syrian Interim Government.A Barbour County woman fatally assaulted and shot a man before turning the gun on herself Monday afternoon, authorities said.

At 1:30 p.m., the Barbour County Sheriff's Office was dispatched to a reported assault at the location and arrived around 10 minutes later. Deputies found a victim suffering from injuries caused by gunfire and an "edged weapon," officials said.

Alabama State Bureau of Investigation officials responded to the 700 block of Barbour County Road 17, at the request of Sheriff Leroy Upshaw Monday afternoon, Lt. Heath Carpenter said in a statement.

The victim has been identified as 21-year-old Ralph Williams Jr., of Ozark.

Williams was taken to a Montgomery area hospital by medical helicopter, where he died.

SBI investigators found the suspect, 27-year-old Shaleka Russaw, deceased outside the residence. It appeared her fatal gunshot wound to the torso was self-inflicted, Carpenter said. Russaw was from Louisville.

"A motive for the shooting is unclear, and the investigation remains ongoing," Carpenter said.

The case will be turned over to the Barbour County District Attorney after the SBI completes their investigation. Further details about the investigation were not immediately available.Birmingham City Councilor Steven Hoyt (file photo)

Birmingham City Councilor Steven Hoyt spoke out Tuesday against a Shell gas station in Bush Hills remaining open despite rampant loitering and recent homicide.

"These folks perpetuate a menace to our community," the councilor said in an impassioned speech during Tuesday's city council meeting. He said homicides have occurred at the Express Mart at 800 3rd Ave. W. and people regularly sell goods illegally outside the store.

Hoyt's words were largely directed at Councilor Hunter Williams, who chairs the council's public safety committee.

After a public hearing last week, the public safety committee recommended the Shell Express Mart stay open but remain under review of the committee for a year. Hoyt sits on that committee but didn't attend that meeting.

Last week's revocation hearing on the Shell Express Mart was prompted by the June 10 shooting death of Antonio Taylor, 28, outside the gas station. Police charged Keegan Dixie, 27, with Taylor's murder.

"If it was in Mountain Brook, they would be revoking that license," Hoyt said. "I am not going to sit up here and allow you to minimize my community and my district. I don't care who it is."

He said the public safety committee doesn't have the authority to keep a business under review for a year.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in my life," Hoyt said.

During last week's public hearing, members of Taylor's family asked the council to shut down the gas station.

"If you are going to have some rules, then they need to be abided by," said the murder victim's mother, Patricia Taylor. She said her son went to the station to get gas, but he was talking to someone away from the pumps when he was shot.

Attorney Martin Evans, who represents Express Mart, told councilors last week that his client is doing his part to prevent crime at the gas station.

"I can assure you he doesn't want any loitering or criminal activity," he said.

According to public records, the listed owner of Express Mart in Birmingham is Mohamed Nasher.

Safety protocols have been drafted for the gas station and were distributed to the station's employees, Evans said.

He said the gas station will call the police to report loiters and vacant parking space will be blocked. He said extra "no loitering" signs, cameras and lighting have been installed.

Off-duty police officers are also hired to provide security at the gas station on the weekends, Evans said.

Besides the June homicide, city staff didn't disclose any criminal activity that had occurred at the store in the last six months.

Hoyt said he will resubmit a resolution next week to have a public hearing on the Express Mart's business license set before city council.

A motion from Williams passed on Tuesday to bring the matter back to the public safety committee for consideration.A man was taken to the hospital after shots were fired at a club in southwest Birmingham late Tuesday night.

Police on the scene said a black male was shot at Wages Event Center in the 2700 block of Pearson Avenue Southwest around 10:15 p.m. The victim's injuries are life-threatening.

A vehicle parked near the door of the club appeared to have a shattered back window. Evidence techs placed several evidence markers near the door.

At this time, police do not know the circumstances that led to the shooting. No suspect has been identified.

Further details were not immediately available.Survivors of the deadly Parkland shooting are coming to Birmingham next week.

The survivors of February's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. and founders of the March for Our Lives movement are coming to Birmingham to host a town hall and panel discussion. The event will happen on July 31 at 4 p.m., at Highlands United Methodist Church.

The March for Our Lives group advocates for common-sense gun reform including background checks, bans on semi-automatic weapons, and raising the age to buy firearms.

The event is open to the public. According to a press release from March for Our Lives Birmingham, the Parkland survivors will be educating and motivating people in the community to vote. There will also be a chance for people who attend to register to vote.

The group will be meeting with the Birmingham chapter before the town hall to talk about specific issues in Alabama.David Thomas, who uses a wheelchair, had not left the Jefferson County area for more than 20 years until his friend, Izas Fuller, asked him to go to the beach this year.

"The last time I went anywhere I was 15 years old. This...it was like a dream. Like something I didn't want to wake up from," Thomas said.

Fuller was inspired to invite Thomas on a beach trip after a family vacation two years ago.

Thomas had commented on the photos Fuller had posted online from their trip to Panama City.

"His comments made me think, 'I'd really like to take him to the beach,'" Fuller said.

This week, Thomas joined the Fuller family in their Panama City condo.

A trip to the beach might seem ordinary for some 36-year-old men, but for for Thomas, the trip was so much more than just a trip to the beach.

"It just brought tears to my eyes because I never had anyone to take the time to do anything for me because of my being in a wheelchair," he said. "God has blessed with me some real friends. I'm just the most luckiest guy to have him in my life and for him to really want to help me."

Some friends donated money so Thomas could rent a motorized beach wheelchair with large tires so he could take a stroll on the beach.

"Every day since I've been here I've just been enjoying the beach riding there in my chair and taking it all in," he said.

Fuller posted a video of Thomas going on the beach for the first time on Facebook. To date, the video has been viewed more than 48,000 times. He said he never expected the video to spread on social media.

"I just wanted friends to see it because I had talked about it for a few years. It was amazing that we got that kind of response," he said. "I was blessed just to experience his experience. It's a blessing to be a blessing."

Thomas and the Fuller family plan to return to Jefferson County later this week, but Thomas said he hopes to return soon.

"God is good. God is always on time. It might take a minute for it to happen, but he's always right on time," Thomas said.A contract worker who says he was severely injured in the 2016 Colonial Pipeline explosion in Shelby County has filed a lawsuit against Colonial and the Birmingham-based construction firm that was working on the line when it exploded.

The lawsuit alleges Colonial and L.E. Bell Construction Company were negligent in creating and maintaining a safe work area for plaintiff John Christopher Covey and that he suffered severe, permanent injuries as a result of the explosion.

Colonial Pipeline did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.

Two workers were killed in the explosion and several others were reported injured after workers excavating the gasoline pipeline in Shelby County struck the pipeline with a trackhoe, sparking a "geyser" of burning gasoline and a fire that burned for more than three days before being extinguished.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, states that Covey was a subcontractor working at the site who suffered severe injuries in the explosion, including burns and gashes throughout his body, hearing and eyesight issues, knee damage that required multiple repairs and chemical-induced pneumonia.

The lawsuit states that Covey suffered permanent damage from his injuries, inability to work, resulting in lost wages and "great physical and mental anguish." They are seeking an unspecified sum in damages.

Colonial has said the company is "refocused" on safety in the aftermath of the incident.An environmental group said Wednesday it is planning to file a lawsuit against Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA and the city of Huntsville to protect the habitat of a rare small fish in Limestone County.

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a formal notice of intent to bring legal action, according to a press release. That notice comes a day after Mazda Toyota announced it was resuming construction after an almost two-week hiatus.

Within 60 days, the organization said it intends to file the lawsuit "for violations of the Endangered Species Act" due to construction of the $1.6 billion Mazda Toyota plant in west Huntsville if construction is not halted.

If the plant goes forward, the Center for Biological Diversity said it will file the lawsuit charging that Mazda Toyota and the city of Huntsville are violating the Endangered Species Act.

"This massive industrial auto plant will unquestionably hurt the spring pygmy sunfish and what's left of its natural springs," Elise Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a press release. "Allowing construction to go forward without carefully looking at the impacts and putting a strong conservation plan in place is playing fast and loose with Alabama's unique natural heritage. One wrong step could wipe this lovely little fish off the face of the Earth."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service - which is charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act - told AL.com earlier this month that Mazda Toyota was in compliance with federal law.

At issue is the home of the rare spring pygmy sunfish - a 1-inch long fish known to exist only in the Beaverdam Spring and Creek Complex in Limestone County near the plant site. The fish was declared "threatened" in 2013 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mazda Toyota suspended work at the site for almost two weeks because of concerns in protecting the fish habitat, saying in multiple statements that it was working closely with the Center for Biological Diversity - the group now promising to file the lawsuit.

"Mazda Toyota Manufacturing US is committed to preserving and sustaining the habitat of the pygmy sunfish and working with all interested stakeholders, including the Center for Biological Diversity, in order to develop and execute on a conservation strategy that achieves this," the company said in a statement Wednesday to AL.com.

"MTMUS met with the CBD on July 20 and reviewed the site together. In addition to this meeting, independent environmental experts evaluated the city of Huntsville project design and have determined that the best management practices included are robust and protective of the spring pygmy sunfish. We are confident that the pygmy fish and its habitat will be adequately protected, and we are ready to move forward."

The city of Huntsville issued a statement late Wednesday afternoon.

"The City of Huntsville has been working diligently for almost a decade to preserve and sustain the habitat of the Spring Pygmy Sunfish as part of an extensive environmental approval process for the Megasite property," the statement said. "The Spring Pygmy Sunfish environment is better today than when the City of Huntsville purchased the property and better than it has been in the last fifty years when it was a farming operation. The aquifer is protected. We remain confident the designed plan to protect the environment is sound.

"These measures have been reviewed and approved by technical professionals as well as State and Federal agencies, and we are committed to ensuring these safeguards and best practices remain in place. In doing so, we believe the Moss Spring habitat will remain a healthy safeguard for the Spring Pygmy Sunfish very similar to the nearby habitat located in Blackwell Spring/Blackwell Swamp within the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge."

On Tuesday, Mazda Toyota acknowledged its work with the CBD in the statement announcing work had restarted at the site.

"(Mazda Toyota) engaged with multiple stakeholders and environmental experts, including the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD)," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "MTMUS also hosted a tour for CBD to demonstrate measures being taken to help achieve this, including site grading, construction Best Management Practices and related construction activities.

"Following this additional assessment and engagement, MTMUS has determined, and has informed the CBD, that it is confident work can resume on the site in a manner that helps protect the spring pygmy sunfish and its habitat."

The city of Huntsville is preparing the site and construction on the plant itself is expected to begin in October, according to the CBD letter.

The CBD letter dated Wednesday and signed by staff attorney Elise Bennett said that the construction will jeopardize the sunfish habitat.

"The construction of the auto plant involves removal of vegetation, clearing of land, and construction of a massive facility with associated parking lots, all of which are likely to negatively impact water quality, water quantity, and aquatic vegetation in the sunfish's occupied habitat," the letter stated.

The letter also described the sunfish as "an irreplaceable symbol of northern Alabama's natural heritage."

Updated today, July 25, 2018, at 12:32 p.m. with a statement from Mazda Toyota Manufacturing and new information throughout.

Updated today, July 25, at 4:22 p.m. with a state from the city of Huntsville.

Center for Biological Diversity letter by pgattis7719 on ScribdOK, south Huntsville, your long driving nightmare is almost over.

The Alabama Department of Transportation said Wednesday that a ribbon cutting for the two new Memorial Parkway overpasses will take place next week.

That doesn't necessarily signify the $53.9 million project will be complete by the July 31 ceremony. But as ALDOT spokesman Seth Burkett described it, "it certainly signifies that the project is nearing completion."

The work began in 2015 to build overpasses at Byrd Spring Road and Lily Flagg Road as well as reconstruct the Martin Road overpass to improve traffic flow in south Huntsville.

The Martin Road project had a late 2017 target date for completion and the overpasses in the summer of 2019. Both projects were completed early, which will mean about $2.5 million in bonuses for contractors Reed Construction and Miller & Miller.

Gov. Kay Ivey is scheduled to attend the ribbon cutting as well as Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle and other state and local officials, according to ALDOT.

Completion of the project has been evident for several weeks as construction has dialed down on the overpasses, clean-up work has been taking place and paving is currently underway.

The completed overpasses will provide traffic light-free travel on the parkway from south of Mastin Lake Road in north Huntsville to south of Weatherly Drive in south Huntsville.

An overpass at Mastin Lake Road is next on the $250 million project list funded evenly by ALDOT and the city of Huntsville.Roy Moore is set to bring more lawsuits.

Moore, the Republican nominee in Alabama's 2017 U.S. Senate special election, has called a press conference for Wednesday to "announce further actions against new defendants for defamation of character and reputation during the U.S. Senate Election of December 2017."

It's the third time Moore has called a press conference to announce a lawsuit. The last press conference, called in May, was canceled hours before it was to begin.

Moore is already involved in lawsuits in Montgomery and Etowah counties relating to allegations of sexual abuse made against him about a month before the election.

Moore has repeatedly denied all accusations.

As he was in his first press conference in April, Moore will be accompanied by attorney Melissa Isaak, according to the announcement.

Moore has been sued by Leigh Corfman in Montgomery County. Corfman has leveled the most serious charge against Moore, saying that he touched her in a sexual way when she was 14 years old and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney in Gadsden.

Moore has filed a counter lawsuit against Corfman in that case.

At Moore's April press conference, he discussed filing a "political conspiracy" lawsuit in Etowah County against Corfman and four other defendants relating to the accusations.

"If you read the complaint, you're going to see a political conspiracy," Moore said at the April 30 press conference. "And even the press should be able to see a political conspiracy. It's what it is. We've got it documented. I'm prepared to go through depositions. I've taken a lie detector test. Have you heard of anyone else taking a lie detector test? I don't think so. We're saying that this has been warped by the press, by the media and the people have been blinded and cannot see the proof."Officials at the Mobile County Probate Court say 25 voters received incorrect ballots during last Tuesday's primary runoffs, allowing them to mistakenly participate in the Republican runoff in Alabama House District 102.

The race was decided by only 28 votes. Shane Stringer received 2,580 votes to Willie Gray's 2,552.

Despite the close margin and the ballot mix-up, Gray said he had no plans to pursue a recount or any other type of challenge.

Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis and Chief Clerk Mark Erwin issued a press release saying the problems occurred at two precincts where some of the assigned voters live in House District 102 and some do not. It was up to poll workers to give voters the correct ballot based on the voters' addresses.

At Collins Rhodes School, the polling place inspector reported that 13 voters who did not live in District 102 were given ballots allowing them to vote in that race. At Mt. Vernon Community Center, 12 voters who did not live in the district were given ballots allowing them to vote in the race. Gray's campaign discovered and reported the mistakes at Mt. Vernon.

Probate Court officials met with inspectors at the two precincts to sort out what happened.

"Based on current information it appears that the incorrect ballots were negligently issued and there was no intentional act to permit persons to unlawfully vote in the HD 102 contest," the press release said. "The only explanation that can be offered is that human error occurred."

Mobile Probate Court officials consulted with Secretary of State John Merrill's office and will take steps to prevent similar mistakes, the press release said.

Those steps include recruiting new election officials at the two polling places involved, asking the Mobile County Commission to eliminate multiple ballot precincts to the extent possible and creating checklists to ensure that inspectors and chief clerks at multiple ballot polling places are prepared.

"We desire for Mobile County citizens to have confidence in Mobile County's election system," officials said in the release. "We can't change what occurred last week. But hopefully we (and all Mobile County election officials) can learn from it."

Merrill said he encouraged Davis to release the information explaining clearly how the mistakes happened. Merrill said the remedial plan was the right approach.

"One of the things that he needs to do is to make changes when things occur that could have been averted," Merrill said. "That's part of leadership is making those changes. So I commend him for that."Americans have a constitutional right to carry guns openly outside the home, a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled Tuesday on an issue that has divided federal courts and is likely headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 2-1 ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case from Hawaii may not last long -- it was written by one of the court's most conservative judges, Diarmuid O'Scannlain, whose previous decision striking down a California concealed-weapons law was overturned by the court's liberal majority. But it highlights a Second Amendment issue the high court has sidestepped since 2008, when it ruled for the first time that the Constitution guarantees the right to possess a handgun at home for self-defense.

Supreme Court intervention in the open-carry issue appears likelier with the widening split among lower courts -- three federal appeals courts have found no right to carry guns openly in public -- and with the possible addition on the court of President Trump's nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, to succeed the retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy. As a federal appeals court judge, Kavanaugh has interpreted the Second Amendment broadly, saying in one dissenting opinion that it protects the right to own semiautomatic weapons.

Meanwhile, Tuesday's ruling potentially applies to gun laws in nine Western states covered by the Ninth Circuit, including California.

"If this ruling stands, states like Hawaii and California will have to allow far more guns on the streets than they do today," said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor who has written extensively on firearms laws.

The court majority said the text of the Second Amendment, which guarantees a right to both "keep" and "bear" arms, showed that it applied outside the home.

"The right to bear arms must guarantee some right to self-defense in public," O'Scannlain said in an opinion joined by Judge Sandra Ikuta. While the right to "keep" arms protects the "core purpose" of the Second Amendment within the home, he said, "the separate right to 'bear' arms protects that core purpose outside the home."

States do not have to allow everyone to carry guns openly in public and can enact reasonable regulations, O'Scannlain said. But he said a Hawaii law that allows open-carry permits only to those "engaged in the protection of life and property" was unconstitutional because it effectively excluded everyone except police and security guards.

O'Scannlain said his reading of the law was borne out by scholarly commentary from the nation's early years, like a writer who said in 1803 that in many parts of the U.S. "a man no more thinks of going out of his house ... without his rifle or musket in his hand, than a European fine gentleman without his sword." O'Scannlain also said some 19th century gun restrictions stemmed from "efforts of many Southern states to disarm free blacks after the Civil War."

Dissenting Judge Richard Clifton viewed legal history differently, saying states, both Northern and Southern, "have long regulated and limited public carry of firearms." He also said Hawaii's gun fatality rate is 4.5 per 100,000 population, the nation's fourth-lowest rate. California's rate of 7.9 per 100,000 is the seventh-lowest.

Clifton also said the Supreme Court's 2008 ruling, and most of the lower courts that have interpreted it, have defined "the core of the Second Amendment as defense of hearth and home." States, therefore, have more leeway to enact restrictions on gun possession in public, including laws like Hawaii's, he said.

O'Scannlain was also the author of a 2-1 ruling in 2014 that temporarily struck down a California law requiring local law enforcement permits to carry concealed handguns in public, permits that are largely unavailable in San Francisco and other metropolitan areas of the state. But the full appeals court ordered a rehearing in that case, and a larger panel upheld the law in a 7-4 ruling, which the Supreme Court declined to review.

Since then, the Ninth Circuit has upheld California's 10-day waiting period for gun purchases and several local gun laws in the state, including Alameda County's ban on new gun stores within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood or school. The Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals from those rulings.

The National Rifle Association praised Tuesday's ruling.

"This is a critical issue for law-abiding gun owners," said the NRA's Chris Cox.

Alan Beck, a lawyer for the Hawaii man who challenged the state's law, said the ruling, if it stands, would enhance public safety "because private citizens are now going to be able to defend themselves, especially when police are unable to come to the rescue."

But attorney Adam Skaggs of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence said the court "ignored historical evidence and Ninth Circuit precedent concluding that strong laws restricting the public carry of firearms are consistent with the Constitution and have been so since the moment America was founded."

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco ChronicleAn Alabama Department of Corrections inmate was fatally stabbed on Tuesday by another inmate at the Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton, according to prison officials.

Prison officials found Alonzo Muntez Sykes, 29, unresponsive inside a facility dorm suffering from multiple stab wounds at around 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Medical staff administered CPR but Sykes succumbed to his injuries. He was pronounced dead at 5 p.m.

Inmate Steven Allen Moore, 33, was identified as a suspect, according to prison officials. His new charges haven't been released.

The weapon used in the stabbing was recovered, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections. The kind of the weapon used in the stabbing wasn't released by prison officials.

Steven Allen Moore (ADOC)

Prison officials said the motive for the stabbing remains unclear at this time.

Sykes was in prison serving a 20-year sentence on a 2008 first-degree robbery conviction in Jefferson County. Moore was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2005 after being convicted of distributing a controlled substance in Morgan County.More than half of Alabamians sampled in a Republican poll earlier this month want Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The poll results are intended as more pressure on Doug Jones, the Democratic senator from Alabama, to back President Trump's nominee.

Judicial Crisis Network, an organization actively campaigning to have Kavanaugh confirmed, released the results of the poll this week from North Star Opinion Research - a GOP polling firm that worked with Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign in 2016.

AL.com on Tuesday obtained full results of the poll, which show 54 percent support for confirming Kavanaugh from the Alabama sample pool.

The sample pool was made up by 600 registered voters in Alabama and the poll was conducted July 10-16. The margin of error was 4 percent.

The poll's release on Monday was also accompanied by a third TV ad - this one specifically targeting Jones - paid for by Judicial Crisis Network supporting Kavanaugh's candidacy targeting Jones. JCN said it has spent more than $500,000 on ad buys in Alabama and more than $4.5 million nationwide with a focus on Alabama and three other Republican-leaning states with Democratic senators: Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.

"Now we get to see who Doug Jones really is," the latest JCN ad stated. "Will he side with the people of Alabama and support Kavanaugh?"

Then, over images of leading Senate Democrats Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the narrator asked, "Or will he join radical liberal senators and try to block Kavanaugh?"

Jones has not made any public comments indicating his support or opposition of Kavanaugh.

North Star polls conducted in Indiana, North Dakota and West Virginia yielded similar results to Alabama when it came to supporting Kavanaugh. Indiana backed Kavanaugh with 52 percent of the vote, North Dakota at 60 and West Virginia at 55.

In Alabama, 30 percent of those polled opposed Kavanaugh's candidacy and 17 percent had no opinion.

In the poll's sample group in Alabama, 50 percent identified themselves as Republicans or leaning Republican while 39 percent identified as Democrats or leaning Democratic. The pool was 71 percent white and 55 percent female.

Also on Tuesday, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill issued a 305-word statement lobbying for Kavanaugh's confirmation by the Senate. Merrill's statement said Kavanaugh's nomination is "great for America and the state of Alabama."

"Supporting Judge Kavanaugh as our next Associate Supreme Court Justice will not only provide liberty a strong defender of our beloved Constitution, but it will also support all Alabamians in our pursuit to lead, build, and make lives free from government interference, as all of us, together, 'Dare Defend Our Rights!' Merrill's statement said in closing.

Merrill is the second statewide official to issue formal statements in support of Kavanaugh - preceded by Gov. Kay Ivey, who tweeted her backing of the D.C. Court of Civil Appeals jurist within minutes of Trump's announcement.

Through a series of press releases, the Ivey campaign is seeking to make support of Kavanaugh an issue in the gubernatorial race against Democrat Walt Maddox.We are bringing back Ask Alabama.

Ask us why Alabama has the longest constitution in the world. Ask us who is the richest person in the state. Ask us how it is we come in second to last in almost every national ranking, thanks Mississippi. Ask us when Alabama will legalize marijuana. Just kidding don't, Jeff Sessions would never.

You vote, we investigate.

This voting round will run through July 31. And submit your own question using the tool below.Friday's mega-long lunar eclipse and its accompanying Blood Moon have revived doomsday talk among those who point to the celestial event as a sign of the end of times.

The eclipse is set to start Friday, July 27 and stretch into Saturday, July 28, lasting almost 1 hour and 43 minutes. It won't be visible from North America, but people in Africa, the Middle east, southern Asia and the Indian Ocean area will enjoy views of the "Blood Moon" eclipse.

It's the second Blood Moon of the year and will also be the closest Mars has been to the Earth in 15 years.

According to NASA, the Blood Moon name comes from the reddish hue it takes on as the eclipse progresses and the sun's rays are completely blocked. Others, however, believe the color signifies something much more ominous.

The so-called Blood Moon prophecy first gained attention in 2014, spread by minister John Hagee, a Christian minister from Texas. Hagee contended a 2015 Blood Moon was the fourth in a series that signaled the apocalypse or Armageddon. Hagee cited a passage from the Bible when making his prophecy, referencing Joel 2:31 which says "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord comes."

He also quoted Revelations 6:12, which says "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood".

NASA was quick to dismiss the claim, saying there was no "scientific basis - not one shred of evidence" that the Blood Moon was the sign of imminent doom and as we know (since we're still around) the 2015 eclipse passed without incident.

Now, Indiana pastor Paul Begley is echoing the statements, saying the Blood Moon, accompanied by President Trump's tweets about Iran, signify a coming war in Israel and the end of times.

"We are in the era of the apocalypse. And this blood moon, which will be the longest blood moon of this century, is happening in the 70th year of Israel being a nation," he said on a YouTube video recorded at his home. "It's happening in the 70th year that Jerusalem has been declared the eternal city of God, and it's happening when the valances already erupting in Hawaii."

Begley doesn't believe the world will end Friday but rather that the Blood Moon is a sign of the start of a series of Apocalyptic events.

No word on if future eclipses are signs of their own.

Assuming the world doesn't end this weekend, you can look forward to a lunar eclipse that will be visible from North America that will occur on Jan. 21, 2019. After that, there will be total solar eclipses on July 2, 2019 and Dec. 14, 2020.Lawyers representing Chikesia Clemons, the woman at the center of the Waffle House arrest that has stoked civil rights anger nationwide, are to appeal her recent guilty verdict.



"It's certainly a disappointment, but it is a challenge we are willing to meet, at every level, and we will," said Marcus Fox, Clemons' attorney.

Clemons was found guilty of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest during a late night trial in Saraland Monday night.

The arrest came to light after a video of her being allegedly manhandled by Saraland police officers inside a Waffle House surfaced and went viral on social media. Clemons is seen being wrestled to the floor by three police officers in what protesters and black right's activists labeled as police brutality.

Rev. Al Sharpton, a nationwide black right's leader, came to Mobile to raise funds for her legal defense, while a prominent civil rights leader was hired from Florida to take on her case.

In the lead up to the court date, unrelated charges of harassment were dropped against her after the alleged victim in that case failed to appear in court.

As part of the months-long protest against how Clemons was arrested, a petition containing more than 50,000 signatures was delivered to Saraland's district attorney June 19 asking that the charges against her be dropped.

At the conclusion of the trial, a little before 10 p.m., Judge Mark Erwin said that Clemons was found guilty because the facts of the case met the legal definitions required to find a person guilty, and had nothing to do with the high level of emotion that had played out in the weeks and months before.This is an opinion column.

I get it. Weeks of mind-numbing testimony turns your brain to mush.

It's too much to process.

So sit back and settle in - like heavy metals over north Birmingham. You don't have to know it all. Just know the five things from Birmingham's bribery and pollution trial that really ought to tick you off.

National Association for the Advancement of ... Coal Production?

Hezekiah Jackson, head of the Birmingham chapter of the NAACP, sold out his community like a hot ticket, according to evidence. Former Rep. Oliver Robinson, who pleaded guilty to taking bribes from polluters who didn't want to clean up the mess, testified he paid Jackson to spread the gospel of his bribers.

Jackson protested after the testimony. He burst into a press conference, arguing he'd been set up by his "former friend." The only evidence of his involvement came from invoices Robinson created, he said.

"Where is the other documentation?" Jackson demanded.

It's ... here. Emails between Jackson and Robinson's daughter - who ran Get Smart Tarrant, a phony grass roots group funded by polluters fight the EPA - outline a series of plans to carry the message provided by potential polluters.

They held a coat drive, in which the families of poor kids were told they could get a free coat - and hear a Get Smart pitch on the evils of the EPA. It was like a time share for toxins.

Jackson helped Get Smart get into churches, and suggested it hold poster and essay contests with children during Black History Month.

We will not be satisfied until lead rolls down like waters, and arsenic like a might stream.

Helluva dream.

Better to die, and decrease the surplus population.

Joel Gilbert, a lawyer convicted last week of bribing Robinson, led efforts to fight EPA's proposed cleanup in north Birmingham and Tarrant. He developed strategy to convince residents not to allow the EPA to test their soil, even though studies had shown elevated levels of toxins.

Prosecutor George Martin asked Gilbert how he'd feel if he learned people continue to live on dangerous ground but didn't get it tested because they believe him.

Gilbert shrugged it off.

"They were more than welcome to get their soil tested," he testified.

Of the people, by the people, the heck with the people.

Almost every elected official Gilbert contacted conferred to him the power of their office. Then-Gov. Robert Bentley, then-AG Luther Strange, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, Sen. Richard Shelby, the Jefferson County Commission and the mayor of Tarrant all chose profits for big companies over the lives of little people, and simply signed their names to whatever Gilbert wanted them to say.

Prosecutors asked Gilbert in trial if he had convinced the leaders at Tarrant Elementary School not to have the school grounds tested for poison.

Objections from the defense prevented his answer, but planned tests for toxins on school grounds were cancelled.

People are dumb. Companies are smart.

Gilbert wrote form letters for people in north Birmingham to sign, getting people like Robinson's daughter Amanda to convince them the EPA was trying "to kill your property values."

Gilbert acknowledged that he "dumbed" the letters down.

You know, so they'd sound like they came from residents.

They won.

A state rep, a powerful lawyer and a VP at Drummond Coal Co. were convicted in the conspiracy to preserve profits and thwart the cleanup, but their side still won.

The toxic area of north Birmingham never made it to the EPA's priority list, and plans to create a Superfund site in Tarrant failed. No potentially responsible polluters had to pay for cleanup, and neither did the state.

Trey Glenn, a consultant who was paid to develop a strategy to fight the EPA's efforts to clean up Birmingham, was made head of the EPA's Southeast region.

Process that.

John Archibald is a columnist for Reckon by AL.com. His column appears in The Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, the Mobile Register and AL.com. Write him at jarchibald@al.com.

Hezekiah Jackson emails by John Archibald on ScribdMaryon Pittman Allen, who replaced her husband Jim Allen as a U.S. senator from Alabama for five months in 1978, has died at age 92.

Allen, who lived in Birmingham, passed away Monday night according to her nephew, Sen. Trip Pittman of Baldwin County.

"She was always a great, wonderful, loving aunt," Pittman said. "She was an older sister by 12 years to my father Jim. We were always close and she always loved her state and country and always cared a lot about what was going on."

Allen was a journalist who met Jim Allen when she interviewed him for the Birmingham News in 1964, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. Jim Allen was lieutenant governor at the time and was a widower. They married four months later.

Jim Allen was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1968 and reelected in 1974. He died of a heart attack on June 1, 1978, and Gov. George Wallace appointed Maryon Allen to replace him until a special election.

Allen lost the special election in a runoff to Donald Stewart. She served in the Senate until November.

Allen was born in Meridian, Miss., in 1925 and her family moved to Birmingham the next year. She attended public schools in Birmingham and studied journalism at the University of Alabama.

After leaving the Senate, Allen worked as a columnist for the Washington Post before returning to Birmingham. She was public relations and advertising director for C.G. Sloan & Co., an antique and auction firm, and owner Maryon Allen Company, a restoration and design firm in Birmingham, according to her U.S. Congress biographical summary.The European Space Agency says it has found evidence of "a pond of water buried below the south polar cap of Mars." Scientists aren't speculating on what the discovery means for the chances of life on the Red Planet today, but they note that water is a requirement for life anywhere we've found it so far.

"Without water, no form of life as we know it could exist," said Anja Diez of the Norwegian Polar Institute.

The discovery of the underground lake was made by ESA's Mars Express satellite. The satellite bounced radar signals through underground layers of ice to find the subsurface pond scientists say is 12 miles wide. The news was published in the journal Science today.

ESA said it made 29 observations between 2012 and 2015 in the Planum Australe region of Mars' south pole. Reports say the scientists studied the data for two years before going public.

ESA said the finding is somewhat like Lake Vostok, a lake found below the ice of Antarctica. Microbes are known to live below some Earth glaciers, but whether that is true on Mars is yet to be determined.

"I really have no other explanation," study lead author Roberto Orosei of Italy's National Institute of Astrophysics in Bologna said of the data pointing to water. "This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered."

Mars is 4.6 billion years old, and scientists have known that water existed on its surface sometime in the distant past. Dry river valleys are visible from space, and probes have found minerals on the surface that form in liquid water.The case of missing woman Danniella Vian, 23, has been handed over to homicide detectives, according to a Mobile Police Department spokesperson.

However, those working the case say that there is no information suggesting that Vian has been killed.

Wearing a Mellow Mushroom t-shirt and hat, she was last seen July 17 on the 3500 block of Government Blvd, according to MPD. She was believed to be driving a dark blue 2014 Chevrolet Cruz with a Pearl Motors paper tag, which she bought last Tuesday.

Vian, who is originally from New Mexico and was part of a military family, was having drinks with friends the evening she was last seen. She has a four year-old child, who is now in the care of a relative.

If her whereabouts are known, please notify the Mobile Police Department at 251-208-7211.Alabama State Rep. Randy Davis has been indicted on allegations of bribery, according to federal court documents.

Court documents show the superseding indictment filed Wednesday stems from the alleged bribery scheme that led to indictments of State Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills, lobbyist Marty Connors, former chairman of the state Republican Party, and Trina Health owner and CEO G. Ford Gilbert of California.

The case began in April of 2018 when a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Gilbert, whose Trina Health clinics operate diabetes treatment clinics across the world.

Davis, 66, faces three counts in the superseding indictment: one charge of conspiracy, one charge of violation of the travel act, and one charge of making a false statement.

A superseding indictment replaces the original indictment filed in the case.

Davis appeared at the Montgomery federal courthouse this afternoon. Al Agricola, one of his attorneys, said there would be no statement.

According to the indictment, a person only identified by the initials C.B. was a friend of Gilbert's. He didn't have the money to open a Trina Health affiliated clinic, so he recruited investors. C.B. had worked on business deals before with former state Rep. Mickey Hammon, but he knew Hammon didn't have the money, either. C.B. talked to Hammon about the clinic, and hoped Hammon would use his office to put C.B. in contact with someone who had money.

Rep Randy Davis leaves federal courthouse in Montgomery after indictment. Does not make statement. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/hZTsaNroOV  Mike Cason (@MikeCasonAL) July 25, 2018

Hammon shared the details of the Trinia clinic with his friend Davis, the indictment says. Davis didn't have the money needed, but he was interested and agreed to look for investors with Hammon.

The indictment says C.B. promised the men that whoever could recruit investors would be given a five percent ownership interest. In May 2014, the indictment says Davis accepted the deal and emailed C.B. that he hoped to "make millions on this deal."

From that month until April 2015, the indictment alleges Davis actively looked for investors. At one point in 2015, Gilbert visited C.B., Hammon, and Davis and told the men that any north Alabama Trina affiliated clinic would be profitable and also be performing a public service.

U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama Louis Franklin Sr. released a statement after the indictment was issued:

"The original indictment alleged that in 2014 and 2015, Trina Health opened three clinics in Alabama. Soon thereafter, the state's largest health insurer informed Trina Health that it would not cover the treatments provided by Trina Health. Gilbert then schemed to force the insurer to change its position.

"Gilbert came up with a plan to push a bill through the Alabama Legislature's 2016 session that would require the insurer to cover the treatments. Gilbert then made payments and gave things of value to a legislator, former House of Representatives Majority Leader Micky Ray Hammon, in exchange for Hammon working behind the scenes to push the bill. Gilbert also hired co-defendant Martin Connors to act as a lobbyist on behalf of the bill. Connors knew of Gilbert's payments to the legislator.

"The new charges contained in the superseding indictment alleges that Davis also stood to gain from Trina Health's successes. According to the indictment, during 2014 and 2015, Davis tried to recruit investors to Trina Health and, as a result of doing so, he received finder's fees. After Trina Health encountered difficulties with the health insurance companies, Davis attempted to lobby the insurance company to change its position. When that failed, Davis took steps to advance the bill. For example, Davis helped to recruit a sponsor, arranged for the public hearing to be video recorded, and then spoke in favor of the bill at a public hearing."

In 2017, Davis, a four-term state legislator and a Republican from Daphne, announced he would not seek re-election. He planned to run for Baldwin County probate judge but later dropped those plans.

Davis was first elected in 2002 and reelected three times. He was a music teacher and an administrator in Mobile County and Baldwin County public schools and later an assistant professor of music at the University of Mobile until 2014.

"Ford Gilbert strongly and firmly maintains his innocence to these unfounded charges which we will vigorously fight in a court of law where justice will be served," Gilbert's attorney, Richard Jaffe, stated.

"It has never been a crime, and it never will be, to honestly utilize the legislative process to benefit the citizens of the State of Alabama. Alabama has one of the highest rates of Diabetes in the United States. Ford, who has deep Alabama roots and connections, was not about profit but about health, and that will be evident at trial. Trina Health operates clinics around the world and is named after Ford's daughter "Trina" whose life was salvaged by this treatment that is not yet covered In Alabama."

AL.com's Mike Cason contributed to this report.

Court records in Davis case by Jeremy W. Gray on ScribdThis is an opinion cartoon with a side of commentary

To paraphrase/reference two Reckon by AL.com colleagues: The Alabama corruption trial turned out to be a 4-week tour of the "underbelly" of Alabama's "shadow government". In the end, a couple of powerful men were coughed up, found guilty. A few others were coughed up and exposed.

Kyle Whitmire:

John Archibald:

Balch and Bingham partner Joel Gilbert and Drummond VP David Roberson were convicted on all six criminal charges: conspiracy, bribery, three counts of honest services wire fraud, and money laundering.

At the center of the trial was former State Rep. Oliver Robinson, who pleaded guilty to "selling out his own community" by accepting bribes from Gilbert and Roberson in the plea deal that led to their convictions.

Sentencing for all three will take place in about 3 months.

Jonece Starr Dunigan offers a look at some of the people affected by the environmental pollution:

Check out my 18-year twisted history of Alabama corruption cartoons:

Rogues' gallery: Alabama caricatures of corruptionOriginally Posted by lorrie Originally Posted by

$2.00 bail for driving without a license and driving with a suspended license???



Discrimation!



My bail for driving on suspended license $1000.00Originally Posted by Judy Originally Posted by

Oh those are different programs put in place by other people. . . These programs Trump is planning to implement are temporary short-term programs. . .



Everyone should try to remember, this isn't about the price of lettuce, it's about producing more automobiles and other such products in the United States versus importing them from overseas. It's about our manufactured durable goods, not our food, we just don't want to damage our food supply in the negotiation process, and this will help protect that sector while we try to fix the other sector.Mati, Greece  The deadliest wildfires Greece has seen in years fanned around the capital Athens on Monday, killing more than 79 people and injuring at least 185 others.

In Mati, about 30km outside of Athens, rescue workers placed the dead in body bags. The charred remains of 26 people, including small children, were found huddled together on early Tuesday morning near a steep cliff overlooking the jagged coast.

The head of Greeces Red Cross said it appeared the group tried to find an escape route, but unfortunately  didnt make it in time

Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced, Nikos Economopoulos told local Skai TV.

Elsewhere in the village, desperate people rushed to the seashore, wading into the water to escape the encroaching blaze.

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Survivors in Mati told Al Jazeera of seeing dead bodies scattered among the debris. The cause of the fires is still unknown.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared three days of mourning, saying the country is experiencing an unspeakable tragedy.As BRICS countries come together for their 10th summit, they will have to put forward a new vision for the grouping.

With an aggregate growth from eight percent in 2001 to about 22.4 percent of global GDP in 2017, the big emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China have done better than Goldman Sachs economist Jim ONeill expected when he first wrote (PDF) about them as a unit nearly two decades ago.

The BRIC has come a long way since its first summit in 2009 and the induction of South Africa the following year (which added an S to the abbreviation). The five countries have united around the common goal of offering credible alternatives to the Bretton Woods system (dominated by the US, the EU and Japan) and have taken concrete steps in this direction through the creation of the New Development Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement.

On the eve of its 10th summit, there are three important issues concerning the future of the BRICS that have to be addressed if it is to continue influencing and shaping global governance. These are: proposing a development paradigm, creating effective and sustainable financial mechanisms, and resolving political differences.

Crafting a BRICS development paradigm

The 10th BRICS Summit will take place amid economic acrimony between China and the US, with tensions boiling down to tit-for-tat announcements of tariffs on key imports. Amid the trade challenges between US-China and economic slowdown in EU and Japan, there is an opportunity for intra-BRICS trade to expand and power the global growth motor.

In the case of a lukewarm US market, China will have to look for alternative markets for its exports to the US worth approximately $462bn, as well as alternative sources for the $115bn-worth of goods it is importing from the US. The signs of a Chinese trade detour are already becoming visible in Sino-Indian ties as China attempts to improve relations with its biggest importer in South Asia. Brazilian producers are also reapingbenefits from the duties China imposed on a range of US products from soybeans to frozen pork.





Beyond the US-China quid pro quo, the BRICS will also have to develop an engagement strategy for other developing countries and emerging markets. This includes greater involvement with different African regional economic communities and alignment with the African Union Agenda 2063 on trade, investment, and economic growth.

The fact that India-Japans Asia-Africa Growth Corridor and Chinas Belt and Road initiatives are led by BRICS countries could further help strengthen the practical links between the grouping and the rest of the developing world.

Under South Africas leadership, the 10th BRICS summit will also propose avenues for the creation of inclusive societies. For the first time, the grouping will directly address gender disparities through the creation of the BRICS Gender and Womens Forum dedicated to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls. The proposal to establish a physical Vaccine Research Center focused on research, development and innovation is also a very positive step.

All five countries have decades-old experience with fighting socioeconomic inequality within their borders. Therefore, an emphasis on social welfare and people-to-people exchange could become the core of a BRICS paradigm which takes development beyond trade and investment considerations.

Unravelling the new in the New Development Bank

The New Development Bank (NDB) is a concrete example of how the BRICS development paradigm is taking shape. The third tranche of NDB-funded projects approved last May further broadens the scope of the banks activities to areas ranging from urban development to water supply and sanitation while keeping sustainable infrastructure development at the heart of its mandate. The NDB will now have to ensure that these projects are rooted in sound social and environmental practices.

Along with a working definition of sustainable infrastructure and a framework for assessing the sustainability of NDBs projects, the bank could create financial and non-financial incentives to encourage governments to think about sustainable practices not as bureaucratic formalities or risks, but as actions ultimately linked to better development outcomes. This would be a major shift in the way environmental and social standards are currently conceived in the international financial architecture.

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The NDB is also set to support economic cooperation and integration projects, giving it an unprecedented opportunity to engage with Africa as the region puts in place an ambitious Continent Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to facilitate a single market for goods and services. Successful implementation of the FTA will require constructing infrastructure that can link the continent both internally and with other parts of the world.

The BRICS could position itself for a critical role in the funding of these infrastructure projects through the NDB. However, the banks board of governors can only approve a specific project in a non-member emerging economy or developing country on an exceptional basis, thus limiting the catalytic role the organisation can play in development financing.

A more equitable world order starts from within

The BRICS can become the premier platform of South-South cooperation by reaffirming its commitment to a multipolar world, respect for sovereignty, and democratic and transparent decision-making. In order to deepen this process, the five countries will first have to learn how to solve the thorny issues that affect them individually and collectively, such as domestic economic and political instability, the geopolitical tension around the South China Sea, or the India-China border friction in Doklam.

The BRICS emerged not as a group whose strength lay in the individual capacity of each country, but as a pragmatic relationship that pools the influence of its members to achieve common objectives. Each country also has its own reason to sustain the grouping. As such, for more contentious topics, platforms like the IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization may offer an alternative starting point for dialogue until interests align in the realm of the BRICS.

The vision that Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa lay out for the next 10 years should be informed by the principles, purposes, and ambitions that guided them through their first decade. Shaping a strong identity for the grouping is probably the most pragmatic form of cooperation and what ultimately will keep the five countries together in the long run.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.For Syrian artist May Scaff, the struggle against the Assad regime and Israel were the same struggle

When the Syrian revolution started, I became like a newborn making her first steps, rediscovering herself and rediscovering her country, Syrian actress May Scaff told me when we met in Paris on April 28 this year. Like all Syrians who took to the street, I found my voice for the first time.

May never contemplated the idea that she would breathe her last in a country other than Syria or in a city other than her native Damascus. Few things scared her more than the thought of dying outside the country with which she had fallen in love all over again after the uprising.

Though she had been living in the French capital for three years, Paris, for her, was a temporary exile. Dont say if we return to Syria or if the regime falls, she implored her friends. Say when  when we return to Syria and when the regime falls for this moment will come. It has to.

If this moment does come, though, May will not be there to witness it. May, an actress, a revolutionary, and a single mother, was pronounced dead on July 23 at the age of 49. Paris, not Damascus, will be her final resting place. Detention, death threats, separation from her mother and sister, and permanent exile and alienation were the price she paid for speaking truth to power.

At a time when most of her colleagues sided with the Syrian regime to maintain their privileges or remained silent to avoid state reprisal, May chose not to make a compromise with her beliefs.

Over a month into the uprising, she was among the signatories to a petition calling on the Syrian government to lift the siege on Deraa and allow humanitarian aid into the city. Deraa had been sealed off by Syrian security forces and its residents subjected to collective punishment as anti-government protests continued to gather steam.

The artists and intellectuals who signed the statement were smeared on Syrian state television and even received death threats. Prominent Syrian director and current Member of Parliament Najdat Anzour demanded the expulsion of the signatories from the Syrian Actors Guild. Twenty-two production companies announced their boycott of the artists who signed the petition, accusing them of siding with the terrorists, and offending the Syrian people and leadership.

Far from yielding to the threats and smear campaigns, May continued her activism. She attended numerous protests in Damascus and its countryside and spoke up with remarkable courage in support of the detainees and peaceful protesters.

After her arrest during a protest in the Damascene neighbourhood of Midan in July 2011, her name was chanted by demonstrators in Homs and Eastern Ghouta. Her activism, involvement in humanitarian work, and her outspoken opposition to tyranny in a country long governed by the dictates of fear and intimidation, turned her into a target for constant persecution.

Her second arrest in 2012 forced her to think seriously, for the first time, about leaving Syria. I am a coward, she said in a short documentary filmed before she bade Damascus a final goodbye. May was not afraid of death, but she feared another arrest. She was deeply concerned that her position would ultimately put her mother and only son, Joud, in danger.

Defying a travel ban by the Syrian security forces, May fled Damascus to the Jordanian capital Amman in 2013 where she and her son stayed until 2015.

The transformation from a full-time artist into an activist completely dedicated to one cause was not easy for May, but she would often stress that her sacrifices paled in comparisons with other Syrians.

I am often told that it would have been better for me and my family had I kept my mouth shut and stayed neutral, May told me when we met in Jordan in December 2014. I had a good career and decent income. But for me, joining peoples demands for justice, freedom and dignity was not a choice. It was a duty.

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As May recalled the friends she left behind in Syria, she added: I dont think I did anything extraordinary or heroic. You know who the real hero is? A woman like Umm Samih, a Palestinian refugee, who was imprisoned three times by the regime and never surrendered. Her son is forcibly disappeared, her life was turned upside down, and yet she is there in Eastern Ghouta, cooking for internally displaced families, volunteering, helping her community and waiting for her son. There are countless Umm Samihs in Syria.

For those who knew May and followed her career before 2011, her transformation was not surprising.

Born in Damascus on 13 April 1969, May was influenced by the late Syrian playwright and pioneer Saadallah Wannous whom she considered a spiritual father. As a teenager, she adopted the Palestinian cause as her own, forming a strong emotional bond with Palestine. Her commitment to the Palestinian cause was all the more unwavering after the outbreak of the Syrian uprising as she repeatedly insisted that resisting the Syrian regime and resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Golan Heights were inseparable.

As a student of French literature in Damascus University, May displayed a great talent and passion for acting. She starred in various plays on the stage of the French Cultural Institutes theatre, attracting the attention of film and television directors.

Mays breakthrough came in 1992 when she was cast in the popular Syrian TV series Crime in Memory, an adaptation of Agatha Christies crime novel, Sleeping Murder. Despite her limited screen time, Mays arresting charisma and ability to play a complex character at such a young age made her a fan favourite.

While May was never a prolific actress, her legacy as a unique artist was cemented thanks to the difficult roles directors often assigned to her. She played the rebellious woman who marched in protests in defiance of her conservative brother. She played the fearless warrior who refused to confess or defect despite torture in captivity. She played the single mother who independently raised her daughter and stood up to her abusive husband.

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It was always clear that Mays ambition went far beyond the small screen. In 2004, she established Teatro, a space where performance arts were taught in an unorthodox way. She sought to provide young and aspiring artists with the platform to express themselves outside the rigidity and constraints of the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, the main college for actors and directors in Syria.

Teatro, Mays single most important project, was closed by Syrian security forces in 2011 in retaliation for her anti-government stance.

I dream of reviving Teatro in Paris, of creating a small space for hope and creativity for Syrian refugees, she said.

In her last post on Facebook, May wrote: I will never lose hope, I will never lose hope. Because it is Great Syria, not Assads Syria. May was the personification of hope and resilience both on social media and in real life.

But resilient women can also be fragile. May was a fighter, but she was also a woman shouldering many burdens. How can one person survive so many setbacks and stand on her feet while coping with grief, immeasurable loss, anxiety and defeat?

May dreamed of a more just, dignified, and humane future for all Syrians. Bleak as the present may appear, we owe May and her memory the debt to keep fighting for a better tomorrow for all.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.Tegucigalpa, Honduras  Tensions are high in Honduras as the outcome of Sundays presidential elections lurched into uncertainty in the final leg of the long-delayed vote count.

Opposition candidate Salvador Nasralla vowed to not accept the official results if the win is handed to his opponent, President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

With about 94 percent of ballot boxes counted, incumbent President Hernandez, with 42.9 percent of the vote, had a slight lead over the Opposition Alliances Nasralla, who has 41.4 percent, according to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on Friday.

Opposition supporters protested throughout the capital Tegucigalpa on Thursday, setting up roadblocks in different areas of the city.

Both candidates had claimed victory just hours after polls closed in Sundays election, but long silences from the TSE has threatened to provoke political unrest and chaos throughout the country.

In the TSEs first report of preliminary results early on Tuesday, Nasralla led by nearly five percentage points with 57 percent of the ballot boxes counted.

Following the initial report, TSE magistrate Ramiro Lobo called the result an irreversible trend of a win for Nasralla.

But by Tuesday afternoon, the gap between the two main candidates began to close, and by Wednesday, Hernandez had inched ahead of Nasralla, raising suspicions of foul play and spiking tensions in an already anxious waiting game.

We dont want Juan Orlando in power any more, 19-year-old student Raquel, who declined to disclose her last name, told Al Jazeera during a grassroots opposition rally on Wednesday in Tegucigalpa outside the location where ballots were being counted.

Its already clear he is trying to carry out fraud to stay in power, and we are not going to allow that, Raquel said.

We are not going to allow him to exercise his dictatorship.

Supporters of Salvador Nasralla stand in front of riot police while they wait for official presidential election results outside a Supreme Electoral Tribunal building in Tegucigalpa [Edgard Garrido/Reuters]

Gerardo Torres, international director of the Opposition Alliance, accused the TSE, whose president, David Matamoros, was formerly a National Party member of Congress and the partys general secretary, of electoral manipulation and forge an electoral coup.

They know they lost, Torres told Al Jazeera.

And only through disorder, or a state of emergency or an electoral coup can they stay in power, he added.

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They are dividing the Honduran people through a psychological war.

The TSEs Lobo told media that the shift was due to the TSE processing ballots from areas where Hernandez had strong support.

He said the initial trend was unchanged and that when the count included ballots of Nasrallas strongholds in the northern part of the country, official results would swing back in his favour.

Meanwhile, Hernandezs supporters took to the streets Wednesday in a caravan, waving blue flags of the National Party to celebrate the incumbent presidents lead and the partys success in all levels of government.

Supporters of President Juan Orlando Hernandez celebrate as they wait for official presidential election results [Edgard Garrido/Reuters]

Dishonest system

Hernandez and Nasralla signed an accord Wednesday, at the request of the Organization of American States, agreeing to respect the TSEs final results.

But Nasralla retracted his signature hours later, saying that he did not trust the TSE and that the OAS agreement was invalid and a trap. He accused the TSE of trying to steal the election.

We will not recognise the results of the dishonest system of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, he said.

Nasralla shows the tallies of ballot counting during a news conference in Tegucigalpa, Honduras November 29, 2017 [Jorge Cabrera/Reuters]

The television host-turned-politician said his chief concerns surround a technical problem that caused the TSE servers to go down for hours on Wednesday, as well as the inclusion of unsigned tally sheets in the official results, among other alleged irregularities.

According to Torres, the National Party leveraged Nasrallas shrinking margin of victory to pressure the Opposition Alliance to negotiate. Torres denied rumours that such talks were happening behind closed doors.

The negotiation they are proposing is to maintain impunity, maintain their protections, he said.

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In the lead up to the election, allegations of corruption and drug-trafficking links have swirled around Hernandez and his government.

Among other scandals, he and his National Party are accused of accepting both drug money and public funds embezzled from the countrys struggling social security institute to help fund his 2013 presidential campaign.

Hernandez has denied alleged drug trafficking links and personal involvement in the social security scandal.

Critics also say Hernandezs re-election bid, justified using a contested 2015 Supreme Court ruling, is illegal.

They are pushing us to this point where there are two options: They stop counting ballots and impose an electoral coup, or they force us to negotiate in order to enter the ballots normally, Torres continued. Were not going to do it.

Anything can be expected

Based on scanned copies of the tally sheets, which all of the parties have in their possession, Nasralla claimed he has the figures to prove he won the election.

Meanwhile, Hernandez maintained that the rural vote is in his favour and that his partys tallies show he is on track to clinch re-election. His conservative National Party called supporters to the streets earlier this week to defend what it called a total victory.

Hernandez celebrates with supporters after the first official presidential election results were released in Tegucigalpa [Edgard Garrido/Reuters]

Scores of supporters for both of candidates have demonstrated in the capital and cities around the country as results continue to trickle in. Late on Wednesday, security forces fired tear gas at opposition supporters demonstrating outside the place where the votes are being counted.

The TSE has said final official results will be released by Thursday at the latest.

The European Union election observation mission criticised the slow process. The US, one of Honduras closest allies, urged election authorities to complete their work without undue delay and for all candidates to respect the results once [the] results are tabulated.

But after the sharp turn in direction of the results that saw Hernandez leap ahead of Nasralla, it remains unpredictable who the TSE will ultimately announce as president-elect of the Central American country.

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From this spurious tribunal, anything can be expected, Juan Barahona, general secretary of the Libre Party, the main party making up the Opposition Alliance, told Al Jazeera.

Thats why we dont trust it, and were going to be alert for what they decide today, tomorrow, or any day.Authorities have already ordered the pharmaceutical manufacturer to halt production and recall all its vaccines.

The chairwoman of a rabies vaccine producer under fire for fraudulent quality control is among 15 people arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of criminal offences over a vaccine scandal.

The development came late on Tuesday, days after pharmaceutical manufacturer Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology admitted to falsifying test results and producing fake vaccines.

Police in the northeastern city of Changchun announced the arrests but did not give the chairwomans full name. She has previously been identified as Gao Junfang.

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said last week the problematic rabies vaccine had not left Changshengs factory, but the company admitted it had shipped a separate, sub-standard vaccine.

While there have been no apparent reports of people being harmed by the vaccine or having contracted rabies after receiving it, the regulator has already ordered Changsheng to halt production and recall all its vaccines.

High-level unease

Authorities have announced a series of investigations, vowing that heads would roll.

In a sign of the high-level unease, President Xi Jinping  on a trip to Africa  weighed in on Monday, calling the vaccine companys actions vile in nature and shocking, according to state media.

The affair has shattered already fragile trust in regulators and spotlighted the frustrations of Chinas increasingly sophisticated consumers, who took to social media en masse to vent their anger over the case.

By Monday, shares in Chinese vaccine makers and biotech firms had fallen across the board.Health authority says up to 215 killed in attacks as government forces seek to wrest territory from rebels in the south.

A series of suicide bombings and attacks in southwest Syria have killed at least 215 people, with state media blaming the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) for the violence.

Sweidas health department on Wednesday put the number of fatalities from the blast at 215, after initially claiming that scores had been killed in the attacks.

A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a busy vegetable market in the city of Sweida, some 120km south from the capital Damascus, early on Wednesday, as ISIL fighters mounted attacks on several villages to the northeast, state news agency SANA said.

The bomber drove through the market on a motorcycle and blew himself up, the TV station said.

Fighters from ISIL reportedly attacked three villages northeast of Sweida city, killing and wounding a number of people, SANA added.





Sweida province has largely been spared most of the violence that Syrian cities have witnessed in the years since the conflict started in 2011.

But in recent weeks, the Syrian government and its main ally Russia have stepped up their offensive to defeat rebels holding territory in southwest Syria, and captured a string of villages straddling the southern provinces of Deraa and Quneitra as they edge closer to a 1974 demilitarised zone with Israel.

In less than a month, Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air power, have been able to seize control of most of southwestern Deraa province, including the provincial capital of the same name.

The city of Deraa was the cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad more than seven years ago.

Alongside the military offensive, the government has also struck reconciliation deals, essentially a negotiated capitulation of a number of villages that have been in rebel hands for years, to restore government control there.

Hundreds of rebel fighters and their families have departed from the region since Saturday and fled to opposition-held Idlib province.

The Syrian civil war started as a largely peaceful uprising against al-Assad in March 2011, but quickly developed into a full-scale war after the Syrian leader refused to concede power.

The UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, estimated that at least 400,000 people had died over the first five years of conflict.Nikki Haley blames Middle Eastern countries for not doing enough to financially help the Palestinians.

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has blamed Middle Eastern countries for not doing enough to financially help the Palestinians and assist them with moving the peace process forward.





Where are the Arab countries when it comes to supporting compromises that are necessary for peace? Haley said in remarks on Tuesday during a UN Security Council meeting.

It is time for the regional states, in particular, to step up and really help, instead of just making speeches thousands of miles away, Haley said at the UNSCs monthly meeting on the Middle East.

Where are the Arab countries when it comes to encouraging reconciliation between Palestinian factions, which is essential to peace?

Haley highlighted US assistance to the Palestinians, saying that Washington provided $300m in bilateral aid last year, and over six billion dollars in bilateral assistance to Palestinians since 1993.

She also mentioned US aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA)  but without mentioning that total has been significantly reduced.

In January, US President Donald Trumps administration announced that it was withholding $65m of a planned $125m funding instalment for the relief agency.

The move essentially cut the only lifeline available to millions of registered refugees across the Middle East who have been relying on UNRWAs services for more than 70 years.

According to UN officials, the US, previously UNRWAs top donor, provided $364m to the agency last year, but only $60m this year.

How much have the Arab countries  some of whom are wealthy countries  how much have they given to the Palestinians? Haley continued during Tuesdays meeting.

Last year, Irans contribution to UNRWA was zero. Algerias contribution to UNRWA was zero. Tunisias contribution to UNRWA was zero, she said.





Her French counterpart Francois Delattre asked the US to reconsider its decision of suspending aid to the refugee agency, calling on Washington to to shoulder its responsibilities to help fill the agencys estimated $200m gap.

Since the US decision, several attempts have been made to fill the gap in funding in a bid to help more than five million refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and war-torn Syria.

Last month, a conference held by the UN to raise money for basic services including food aid, medical care and sanitation, managed to garner pledges.

And in March, a summit in Rome co-organised by Jordan, Sweden, and Egypt to help fund the agency managed to raise $100m in aid pledges.

Olof Skoog of Sweden, the current president of the Security Council, let his frustration with US policy show, saying: Everyone is waiting for a credible peace plan.

We havent seen that yet. It is now about a year since we were informed about a plan and we have not seen it yet. It is a problem that there is no credible plan on the table, Skoog said.

Peace talks between Palestinian leaders  who view East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state  and Israel have been at a standstill since Trump recognised Israel as the capital of Jerusalem, breaking years of US policy.

Meanwhile, Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have recently been protesting the cuts that have led to the termination of at least 1,000 UNRWA employees.Saudi-UAE coalition says an oil tanker was slightly damaged due to an attack by the Houthi fighters.

Yemens Houthis have attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, causing slight damage, the Saudi-Emirati coalition fighting the rebel group in the war-torn country said.

A statement by the coalition on Wednesday said that the tanker was attacked at 21:15 GMT west of Yemens Hodeidah port, but did not name the vessel or describe how it was attacked.

The Saudi oil tanker was subjected to slight damage due to the attack by the Houthi militia, the statement read. Thankfully the attack failed due to immediate intervention of the Coalitions fleet.





Earlier on Wednesday, the Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV network reported that it had targeted a warship named the Dammam off the western coast of Yemen.

On June 13, Yemeni government forces  backed by the Saudi-led military coalition  waged a wide-ranging operation to retake Hodeidah and its strategic seaport from Houthi rebels.

Government forces continued to advance towards the city, and on June 19 they seized Hodeidah international airport. But they have since been unable to make additional gains.

Saudi Arabia and the UAEs main justifications for the intervention is to protect shipping routes such as the Red Sea, which is used to bring Middle Eastern oil and Asian goods to Europe through the Suez Canal. It has said that it foiled previous attacks in the Red Sea in April and May.

The coalition accuses the Houthis of smuggling in weapons through the port.

Since the start of the Hodeidah offensive, more than 121,000 people have fled Yemens port city due to fighting, according to a United Nations report.

Impoverished Yemen remains wracked by violence since 2014, when the Houthis overran much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies  who accuse the Shia Houthis of serving as Iranian proxies  launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman says Islamic republic will never take part in one-sided talks following US threats.

Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi has said his country will never take part in one-sided negotiations with the United States while under threat.

America should forget forever the idea of one-sided negotiations under the shadow of a threat, Qassemi was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying on Wednesday.

His remarks come in reaction to US President Donald Trumps statement, who on Tuesday said he was ready to make a real deal with Iran.

According to state-run IRNA news agency, Qassemi also said that Iran has filed an official letter of objection to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which oversees US diplomatic relations in Iran, in response to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeos remarks.

The level of corruption and wealth among Iranian leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government, Pompeo said in a speech on Sunday amid rising tensions between the two countries.

Earlier this week, Trump and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani traded angry threats. Rouhani warned Trump not to escalate tensions with Iran, saying a confrontation with the Islamic Republic would be the mother of all wars.

Do not play with the lions tail or else you will regret it, Rouhani said in a televised speech in Irans capital Tehran.

Trump hit back on Monday in a tweet directed specifically at Rouhani.

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

The two nations have been at loggerheads since Trump pulled out from a 2015 nuclear deal signed with world powers.

Under the landmark deal signed in Vienna, six world powers  the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union  offered Iran more than $110bn a year in sanctions relief and a return to the global economy in exchange for halting its drive for nuclear weapons.

Since its withdrawal from the deal in May, Washington has threatened to reimpose sanctions and attempted to prevent countries from purchasing Iranian oil. In response, Tehran hinted it may block regional oil exports if its own sales are halted.

At least 18.5m barrels of oil has moved via the strategic passageway  Strait of Hormuz  every day in 2016, according to a US energy department report.

The strait, located between Iran and Oman, is also used by Gulf countries who rely on safe passage through the narrow chokepoint to export their oil and gas.

Trump has previously suggested that Iranian leaders are going to request a new deal, but Iran has rejected talks on several occasions.

Iran said it was interested in keeping the nuclear deal alive, but only if the remaining powers can guarantee that it will not face economic isolation under Washingtons sanctions.

Europe opposes the US decision to leave the agreement and has vowed to find ways of maintaining its trade ties with Iran.The raids come days after a UN-brokered ceasefire helped halt an earlier wave of attacks that hit the besieged enclave.

At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike east of the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinians health officials.

Wednesdays air raids also injured one person who is in critical condition, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, said.

Ahmed al-Bsous, 28, Ubadah Farawneh, 29 and Mohamed al-Aareer, 27, died of their wounds shortly upon arriving at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

In a Twitter post, the Israeli military said it targeted seven Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip in response to a shooting attack that was fired towards soldiers at the border.

In response to the shooting attack aimed at IDF soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip, IDF artillery targeted seven Hamas military posts in Gaza.  Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 25, 2018

There has been no immediate comment from Hamas, the group that governs the Gaza Strip.

The attack comes days after a United Nations-brokered ceasefire helped halt an earlier wave of attacks that hit the besieged enclave last week.

The deal, also brokered by Egyptian officials, was designed to restore calm and end the Israeli onslaught on Hamas positions and other violence that resulted in the deaths of four Palestinians and one Israeli soldier on Friday.

Great March of Return

Hundreds of protesters had amassed near the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Friday to commemorate more than 100 days since the start of the Great March of Return mass rallies.

Since the protests began on March 30, at least 138 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than 160,000 have been wounded.

Its main message is to call for the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to the homes they were violently expelled from in the territories taken over by Israel during the 1948 war, known as the Nakba.

The weekly rallies are also to protest a 12-year-old land, sea and air blockade imposed by both Israel and neighbouring Egypt.

Open-air prison

The Gaza Strip is but one of the focal points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More than two million Palestinians are packed into the Gaza Strip, which has been described as the worlds largest open-air prison.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but, citing security concerns, maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse.

Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014 and Israeli settlements have expanded in occupied territory Palestinians intended to become part of their eventual state.At least 26 bodies recovered after flood hits villages leaving over 6,600 people homeless.

The bodies of 26 people have been recovered after flash floods caused by a dam breach in southern Laos, according to officials.

At least 131 others are still reported missing, Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, following the collapse of the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam earlier this week.

The dam, which had been under construction, released some five billion cubic metres of water when it was breached at 8pm local time (13:00 GMT) on Monday.

Subsequent roof-level flood waters have submerged several nearby villages, Thai consular official Chana Miencharoen told AFP news agency on Wednesday.

Thousands left homeless

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The disaster left more than 6,600 people homeless, the Lao News Agency reported on Tuesday. It showed pictures of villagers wading through muddy floodwater carrying their belongings. Others boarded rickety wooden boats or stood on the roofs of partially submerged houses.

Landlocked Laos is one of Asias poorest countries but aims to become the regions battery by selling power to neighbours through a series of hydropower dams.

Environmental rights groups have for years raised concerns about the countrys hydropower ambitions, including worries over the impact of dams on the Mekong River, its flora and fauna and the rural communities and local economies that depend on it.

Major safety risks

Maureen Harris, an expert on Laotian dams at the International Rivers NGO, said the flooding raised questions about the standard and safety of dams within the country.

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This break shows the major risks from dams being built, and dam designs that are unable to cope with extreme weather events, such as very heavy rains that weve seen in the last few days, Harris told Al Jazeera.

The $1.2bn project planned to export 90 percent of its electricity to energy-hungry Thailand and the remaining amount was to be offered up on the local grid.

The 410-megawatt capacity dam was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the ventures website.Latin America trade: Regional powers seek closer ties

Latin American leaders pledge to deepen commercial and economic ties at a meeting in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, as they seek to counter the risk of a deepening trade war.A complaint filed in Texas shines a light on the alleged discrimination of Muslims in the workplace.

Two Muslim men were subjected to racist and Islamaphobic harassment while working at the American multinational energy corporation Halliburton in US state of Texas, according to a federal lawsuit.

Filed earlier this month by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the lawsuit claims that Hassan Snoubar and Mir Ali were taunted and harassed by supervisors and fellow employees.

In response to Al Jazeeras request for a comment, William Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for Halliburton, said the corporation does not comment on pending litigation.

Halliburton is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment for our more than 55,000 employees that represent 140 nationalities in approximately 80 countries, Fitzgerald said by email.

Joel Clark, the senior trial lawyer on the three-person EEOC team, described the case as very important.

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We allege that Halliburton subjected Mr Snoubar (Syrian) and Mr Ali (Indian) to discrimination based on their national origin and religion, Muslim, he told Al Jazeera by email.

The EEOC will prosecute these kinds of cases to prevent discrimination from happening in the workplace and to vindicate the rights of those affected by discrimination.

Abruptly terminated

According to the lawsuit, coworkers accused Snoubar, who is of Syrian descent, of being linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and called him a terrorist and camel jockey.

Snoubar began working as an operator assistant at Halliburtons facility in Kilgore, Texas in August 2012.

The lawsuit adds that Ali, who is of Indian ancestry, was also called a terrorist, and that a supervisor regularly mocked him about having a magic carpet.

Snoubars and Alis co-workers regularly broadcast derogatory name calling over radio headsets to other workers, the lawsuit states, adding that supervisors and other employees mocked their cultural attire and claimed that their people engaged in bestiality.

The filing explains that Snoubar lodged a complaint with the human resources department in September 2015 over the alleged harassment and concerns for his personal safety.

Although Halliburton initially suggested that Snoubar could transfer to another facility, according to the filing, he was abruptly terminated before having a reasonable opportunity to consider the offer. Snoubar and Ali are no longer employed by Halliburton.

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The lawsuit seeks punitive financial damages and compensation for humiliation, emotional pain and suffering, stress, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life.

It also requests a permanent injunction barring Halliburton from discrimination based on national origin, religion and retaliation.

Broader discrimination

The lawsuit is the latest in a long string of cases alleging discrimination against US Muslims in the workplace.

According to the 2017 Civil Rights Report, published by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), employment discrimination is persistent for American Muslims.

From 2014 to 2016, according to the report, employment discrimination has consistently remained in the top three types of anti-Muslim bias incidents.

CAIR documented 312 anti-Muslim bias incidents in workplaces in 2014, 230 in 2015 and 281 in 2016.

In 2015, the EEOC v Abercrombie and Fitch case went to the US Supreme Court, which said that employers are forbidden from rejecting applicants if the decision is based on a desire to avoid accommodating to a religious practice.

That case stemmed from Abercrombie and Fitchs refusal to hire Samantha Elauf, who was a teenager at the time, because her hijab did not comply with the clothing companys look policy, which prohibited the wearing of head coverings at work.

According to a July 2017 poll by the Pew Research Center based on interviews with 1,001 Muslim respondents, 75 percent believed there was a lot of discrimination against the religious minority in the US.

The poll also found that 62 percent of respondents felt that Americans did not view Islam as part of US society and that 60 percent considered American media coverage of Muslims unfair.

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Following the November 2016 election of US President Donald Trump, rights groups observed a sharp uptick in hate crimes, including those targeting Muslims.

According to a separate CAIR report, the number of hate crimes against Muslims grew by 15 percent in 2017, reaching a total of 300 incidents.More than 40 others injured in the suicide blast near a polling station in the western city of Quetta.

At least 31 people have been killed, including two policemen, in a bomb blast near a polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta, according to officials.

More than 40 others were wounded in the blast on Wednesday, Waseem Baig, a spokesperson for Quetta Civil Hospital, told Al Jazeera.

The blast, which appeared to target a police convoy, took place just hours after polls opened in Pakistan for the countrys parliamentary elections.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group claimed responsibility for the attack via its Amaq website.

A tense affair

Al Jazeeras Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said officials declared it was carried out by a suicide bomber operating a motorcycle.

The death toll is likely to go up  [but] a number of the victims include would be voters, he said.

The election day atmosphere is tense, Hyder added, but early indications suggested voter turnout would be high with people coming out in large numbers throughout the capital.

At least 203 people have been killed in the weeks leading up to Wednesdays vote, with a series of suicide attacks targeting election rallies throughout the country.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack that killed at least 29 people [Anadolou]





On July 13, 154 people were killed in an attack on a political rally in the southwestern city of Mastung, the second deadliest attack ever on Pakistani soil.

Up to 800,000 police and military forces have been deployed to some 85,000 polling stations throughout the country in a bid to ensure the vote proceeds peacefully.

More than 30 political parties and 12,570 candidates are competing for the support of some 106 million registered voters, who will elect both the national and four provincial assemblies.

Polls closed at 6pm local time (13:00 GMT).US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says  Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation by annexing Crimea.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the United States will never recognise Russias annexation of Crimea and that the US will continue to insist that Ukraines territorial integrity be restored.

Pompeo said in a statement made on Wednesday that the US upholds its commitment to the international principle of sovereign equality.

Russia, through its 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its attempted annexation of Crimea, sought to undermine a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states: that no country can change the borders of another by force, the statement by Pompeo read.

The states of the world, including Russia, agreed to this principle in the United Nations Charter, pledging to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, it continued.

Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community.

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The statement was released shortly before Pompeo was to give evidence before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he is expected to face tough questioning about President Donald Trumps summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on July 16.

Ukraine conflict

The US and Russia have disagreed on the status of Crimea since Russia annexed the peninsula in March 2014.

According to Russia, Crimea became Russian territory after a legitimate referendum in which the population of Crimea chose to become Russian.

The US, however, has always said the annexation of the peninsula was illegal.

Despite Crimea not being mentioned at a joint press conference held by the two leaders during the Helsinki summit, Putin said in an interview with US TV channel Fox News following the summit that he and Trump disagreed about Crimeas status.

The annexation of Crimea followed the overthrow of pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich after weeks of protests.

Following the annexation of Crimea, pro-Russian separatists took over parts of Donbass in southeastern Ukraine.

Since then, fighting in that region has killed more than 13,000 people, including about 3,000 civilians.

The so-called Minsk agreements  brokered by Germany and France and signed by Russia and Ukraine in 2015  have slowed the conflict, but sporadic fighting continues.US senators to grill Mike Pompeo on Trump-Putin Helsinki meeting

US secretary of state will appear before a Senate panel to explain what happened during the two leaders recent closed-door meeting.Elin Erssons refusal to sit down on a plane deporting a 52-year-old to Kabul could see her fined and jailed.

A Swedish activist has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker after she refused to sit down on a plane that was due to deport him from the country.

Facing sympathy and hostility from passengers, Elin Ersson began live-streaming her 15-minute protest as she boarded the plane and demanded the pilot exercise his right to refuse to take off while the 52-year-old deportee was on-board.

I am doing what I can to save a persons life, said Ersson as she struggled to keep her composure.

As long as a person is standing, the pilot cannot take off. Im not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.

In recent years, thousands of Afghan asylum seekers have been told they will be returned to the active warzone despite outcry that the country is not safe.

Shouts of sit down, we want to go could be heard in the recording and a person believed to be a flight attendant made an attempt to snatch Erssons phone.

What is more important, a life, or your time? she told the person.

I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my countrys rules, I dont like them. It is not right to send people to hell.

After a tense standoff, passengers broke into applause when the asylum seeker and Ersson were taken off the plane by ground staff.

The video went viral on social media with many praising Ersson for her courage.

This is what a human rights defender looks like, said Amnesty Internationals Stefan Simanowitz.

This is what a human rights defender looks like. Inspiring footage of young Swedish woman stopping the deportation of a man from Gothenburg to Afghanistan. She refused to sit down until he was taken off the plane. https://t.co/JHIZ0ySnq8  Stefan Simanowitz (@StefSimanowitz) July 24, 2018

If ever you think one person cant make a difference, then watch this! said Caroline Lucas, an MP with the UKs Green Party.

If ever you think one person cant make a difference, then watch this! Huge respect to Elin Ersson, a student at Gothenburg university, for  literally  standing up for what she believes in. A true inspiration https://t.co/81NI3gzdO0  Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) July 25, 2018

Meanwhile, Joey Ayoub wrote that Ersson could be fined and jailed for delaying the Afghan mans deportation, and posted a story published by the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

According to DW, passengers who refuse to obey a pilots orders while on board face fines or up to six months in jail.

#ElinErsson may get fined and jail for delaying a 52 year old Afghan man's deportation from Sweden and the man may get deported anyway. This is the Swedish government's response to basic decency in an era where the vulnerable are being routinely demonised. https://t.co/nBUpPSnQhB  ibn baldwin (@joeyayoub) July 25, 2018

The incident has highlighted Swedens strict policy on asylum seekers after the extraordinary events of 2015 when 163,000 people applied for asylum in the Scandinavian country.

A 2017 study by Gothenburg University found that 52 percent favoured taking in fewer refugees into the country with 24 percent opposed.

Support for the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats has surged in advance of Septembers election to the point where it could be hard for the government or opposition to form a working majority without their support.Water from Laos dam breach streams into neighbouring Cambodia with floodwaters reaching 11.5 metres in some areas.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia  Thousands of people in northeastern Cambodia are being evacuated on Thursday as authorities scramble to cope with floodwater from the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapse in Laos that flowed south over the border.

Five billion cubic metres of water were released downstream when an auxiliary portion of the dam failed on Monday night.

On Tuesday, the Cambodian Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology issued an alert to be careful in Stung Treng province along the Sekong River, a major Mekong tributary fed by the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy river system.

Since Tuesday night, some 1,200 families have been evacuated from four communes in the provinces Siem Pang district, according to Men Kong, a spokesman for the provincial government.

They have been relocated to a safe place. There are 5,000 families in the whole district, he said. This water flow has affected the upper Sekong River, and will continue to [affect] the downstream regions.

Provincial authorities called upon civil society groups to help distribute aid.

Safe places

Authorities are concerned about the unpredictable rise in water levels on the Sekong River that is damaging infrastructure [Kry Solany/Al Jazeera]

Kry Solany of the My Village Organisation, a local rights and natural resource management NGO assisting in the delivery of clean water and food, expressed concern at the unpredictability of the situation as there was no clear evacuation plan in place beforehand.

We dont know where the safe places are for the people [to be evacuated] We dont know much from the authorities yet, he said.

Now in Siem Pang, its a declared flood zone as the water level has passed 11.5 metres in the Sekong River, said Kry Solany, adding that by Thursday floodwaters will have reached the provincial capital, Stung Treng Town, some 100km south of the Laos border.

The people in Stung Treng mostly live along the rivers, so when the water levels increase they will be affected, he said.

Unpredictable rise

Water Resources Ministry spokesman Chan Yutha said water levels continue to rise past 11.5 metres as about 200 soldiers and police have been dispatched to assist in evacuation efforts.

We are concerned about the unpredictable water level rise, he said.

The Mekong River Commission (MRC), an inter-governmental body that works with Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand on the management of the Mekong River basin, in a statement on Wednesday predicted the provincial capitals of Stung Treng and Kratie downstream should be spared from potential flooding in the next few days, but said it would continue to closely monitor the situation.

The environmental trade-offs of hydropower development in the Mekong Basin have been the subject of much controversy, as the largely rural poor communities that depend on the waterways for fish have to cope with predicted declines in fish stocks of up to 40 percent.

Environmental groups have also long criticised the lack of transparency and community input in development plans in the region. The MRC has some oversight on the dozen hydropower projects on the Mekong mainstream, however, it has virtually none on the hundreds of tributary projects across the basin.

Additional reporting by Len LengActivists say community-led initiatives and socioeconomic opportunities, not more police, key to ending gun violence.

Montreal, Canada  Louis March has seen this before.

So, too, have many community activists in Toronto, who have urged officials to take concrete steps to address the root causes of gun violence in Canadas largest city for years.

The gun violence that were seeing right now is a product, a consequence, of what we didnt do right yesterday, March told Al Jazeera as he reflected on the citys response to rising levels of gun violence in Toronto, including Sundays shooting that left an 18-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl dead.

While city councillors debate how to respond to that shooting and other incidents of deadly gun violence across the city, March, who is the founder of Zero Gun Violence, a movement working with dozens of local groups to reduce gun violence in Toronto, said the situation is a result of years of bad policies.

From putting more police on the streets, to deploying new technology and pledging money for social programmes, the city has said it is doing everything it can.

On Tuesday, the city council passed a series of measures meant to curb gun violence, including a request for the federal and provincial governments to ban handgun and ammunition sales in Toronto.

But for March, like many community activists, the solution lies in community-led initiatives and socioeconomic opportunities, as well as in ending policies that have led to discrimination.

You do not ignore, you do not oppress, you do not deny and exclude people, and then expect them to be walking around with a smile on their face, he said.

Spike in gun-related violence

According to Toronto police data, the city has experienced 228 shootings so far this year, and 308 people have been the victims of gun violence in the city, including 29 people who were killed.

That includes a shooting on Danforth Avenue in Torontos east end Sunday that left two dead and 13 others injured.

This years tally is higher than what was recorded at the same time last year, when Toronto had 205 shootings and 299 victims of gun-related violence, the police data shows.

A woman reacts while visiting the scene of Sundays shooting in Toronto [Chris Helgren/Reuters]

Earlier this year, the federal government said gang-related homicides have nearly doubled since 2013 in Canadas largest cities. In March, it hosted a summit on gun and gang violence, bringing in various stakeholders to try to find solutions.

March, meanwhile, said gun violence has changed in Toronto in recent years.

Guns are more widely available than ever before  there are more guns out there than there are jobs, he said  and the calibre of the weapons has increased, from smaller handguns to semi-automatics.

The people using the guns are young kids, teenagers. The brazenness of the shootings, in public spaces, that has changed  in a playground, in a public shopping mall; we didnt used to see that, he said.

The increase in shootings prompted Toronto Mayor John Tory to announce a multi-million-dollar plan to boost community services in areas with high levels of gun crimes, such as employment fairs, mental health support, and programs for youth.

Among the anti-gun-violence motions the city passed on Tuesday, CBC News reported that the city will increase funding to a programme for at-risk youth, ask the provincial coroner to conduct inquests into each gun-related death, put in place a gun amnesty buy-back programme and hire 100 new police officers.

Indeed, much of the citys focus has been on police enforcement.

In a statement at the start of July, Tory said the city planned to hire 200 police officers this year, and modernise the police service to ensure there are more officers patrolling the streets.

He also said he would push for tougher bail conditions, and stricter gun control measures.

The answers are easy if we work together to deploy more police and support the police to actually get these thugs behind bars and keep them there, Tory said.

People write messages on construction boarding after a shooting on Danforth Avenue in Toronto [Chris Helgren/Reuters]

While March said its positive the city is acting, he said its only doing it because gun violence has reached areas that arent often affected, such as Queen Street and Danforth Avenue, two busy, east-west arteries filled with shops and restaurants.

If [gun violence] was in certain neighbourhoods where theres poverty, unemployment, lack of education, lack of supports, it didnt seem to concern them. But now that its in the public spaces  theyre concerned, March said.

And that is scary because theyre deciding which lives are important and which are not.

Don Peat, a spokesperson for the mayor, told Al Jazeera gun violence in any part of our city is horrible and completely unacceptable.

Tory has been working with city staff, as well as police, community housing officials and community groups to do everything possible to prevent gun violence and to address the root causes of violence, Peat said in an email.

Racist policies

However, Black community activists have condemned the mayor for using words like thugs to describe the perpetrators of gun violence in Toronto.

Tory also called the people responsible for a recent shooting at a playground that injured two young girls anti-social sewer rats.

Idil Abdillahi, an assistant professor at Ryerson Universitys School of Social Work, said that dehumanising language has very real effects on all Black residents of Toronto.

How do you reconcile identifying us as non-human, while also then saying that were going to put money into social programmes? she told Al Jazeera.

The mayors comments also came as Ontarios Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Michael Tibollo, and city councillor Giorgio Mammoliti said they had to wear bulletproof vests to visit a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Toronto called Jane and Finch.

Many condemned the move as racist, accusing the politicians of fuelling the misconception that the neighbourhood is rife with danger.

Every time we deem Black people as dangerous, we need to understand there are real life outcomes and consequences, and those  are death: death as in actual death, and death as in social and political death and isolation, Abdillahi said.

She was among a group of Black activists, scholars and community members who signed an open letter, published on Tuesday, that urged the city to treat gun violence as a public health issue.

Research and common sense show that an increased militarisation of police does not curb gun violence and certainly is not focused on prevention, the letter reads.

We demand that the millions approved for militaristic interventions in these neighbourhoods go to community initiatives to provide affordable housing, jobs, and social and health services.

The signatories also criticised the city for backing a new type of surveillance technology, known as ShotSpotter, as part of its response to the violence. On Tuesday, the city approved a funding request to implement the system.

The technology  a network of microphones that can be affixed to buildings, lampposts and other structures  is meant to help rapidly recognise and locate gunshots, and then transmit that information to first responders, including police.

But whether it actually works to reduce gun crimes is unclear.

On Tuesday, Tornoto approved a funding request to implement the ShotSpotter system [File: Mathew Sumner/AP Photo]

According to a 2016 investigation by Reveal, a project from the US-based Center for Investigative Reporting, of the more than 3,000 ShotSpotter alerts sent out over a two-and-a-half-year period in San Francisco, only two arrests were made, and only one of those was related to a gun.

The technology, Reveal found, generally plays a minor role for prosecutors and police trying to reduce gun crime.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association also raised concern about the SharpShooter technology, which it said could run afoul of constitutional privacy rights.

Worse, if placed in racialised neighbourhoods, the new technology may be an unconstitutional sucker punch to already marginalised population, the group said in a statement.

Repeating past mistakes?

But Abdillahi said the surveillance of Black communities in Toronto is not new.

This is a continuation, she said. Theres a particularity in this strategy, but that doesnt mean there wasnt surveillance before  Weve been under the thumb of this modern policing for some time.

This also isnt the first time Toronto has been host to a debate over how to address gun violence.

After a spike in gun-related murders in 2005, a period known as the Summer of the Gun, Toronto put in place a contentious police programme called TAVIS, aiming to counter gun violence by deploying more officers into areas with high levels of it.

Critics said the controversial programme led to racial profiling  a Toronto police practice known as carding allowed officers to stop and check peoples IDs without needing to have a reason  and the criminalisation of Black communities.

In 2012, shootings at the Eaton Centre, a multi-floor, downtown shopping mall, and at a block party in Scarborough, an eastern suburb of Toronto, also led to a flurry of promises to crack down on gang violence.

Survivors of the 2012 shooting at the Toronto Eaton Centre hold a vigil [Mark Blinch/Reuters]

Torontos then-mayor, the late Rob Ford, vowed to boost police funding and launch a war on gangs. He also rejected calls to bolster community programmes, calling them hug a thug initiatives that dont produce results.

While TAVIS was cancelled in 2016 after the provincial government slashed its funding amid widespread criticism, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (Robs brother) has hinted at bringing it back.

After Sundays shooting, Ford, whose Progressive Conservative Party was elected last month, said he plans to redirect some of the $1.4b ($1.9b Canadian) previously pledged for mental health and addiction support programmes, to the police.

Listening to the communities critical

Beverly Bain, a professor of women and gender studies at the University of Torontos Mississauga campus, told Al Jazeera she has seen over-policing in largely Black communities in Toronto over the past 40 years.

She said Black communities are not the sources of violence in the city, but they are recipients of it, often through heavy-handed police tactics and other policies.

What goes on in the Black community is a response to the violence that it experiences, and the responses to the kinds of policing and the kinds of state economic and political strategies that bear down on this community, forcing them to live in untenable conditions, she said.

Bain said city and provincial authorities must work with activists in Black communities to implement solutions local people are putting forward themselves.

It has to be approaches that are less about policing, and more about creating socioeconomic policies, Bain said.

It cannot be putting more police officers into these communities. It cannot be about arming our police officers. It cannot be about more surveillance technologies, and it cannot be about TAVIS.

This is not a surprise. What is a surprise to us is the lack of political leadership and resolve to deal with it, not only when it spills over into other communities, but in the communities where we know that it's normalised. Louis March, founder of Zero Gun Violence

March agreed, saying the city should focus on prevention, rather than enforcement.

He said local programmes that are working to address gun violence in communities most affected by the problem need to be amplified, and they need funding.

The underlying causes that contribute to the violence  poverty, oppression, social exclusion and neglect  also need to be at the forefront of any strategy, he said.

We work on the streets. We work with these kids; they want a way out, but in many cases, theres no way out for them  because the government is not addressing this problem in a meaningful way, said March.

So this is not a surprise. What is a surprise to us is the lack of political leadership and resolve to deal with it, not only when it spills over into other communities, but in the communities where we know that its normalised.Trump to give $12bn bailout for farmers hurt by trade war

Trump administrations plan is aimed at protecting US farmers affected by tit-for-tat tariffs targeting dairy, soy and pork farmers.The new law strengthens the authorities powers in detaining suspects and imposing public order.

Turkeys parliament has ratified a tough anti-terrorism bill proposed by the ruling party, six days after the two-year-long state of emergency ended.

The new anti-terror law, which was passed on Wednesday, strengthens the authorities powers in detaining suspects and imposing public order.

The new legislation allows authorities to control who can enter and exit an area for 15 days for reasons of security, while suspects can be held without charge for 48 hours or up to four days if there are multiple offences.

The measure drafted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogans Justice and Development Party (AKP) retains aspects of emergency rule and will be valid for three years.

It also authorizes the government to dismiss personnel of Turkish Armed Forces, police and gendarmerie departments, public servants and workers if they are found linked to a terror organization.

Governors of the countrys 81 provinces retain some emergency powers including restricting freedom of assembly.

The opposition had criticized the draft legislation as a ploy to make emergency rule permanent.

The government declared a state of emergency for the first time on July 20, 2016, following a coup by a section of the military to topple the government and unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The coup attempt left 251 people dead and nearly 2,200 injured.

The state of emergency ended after the government allowed it to lapse on July 19.Finding liquid water on the red planet is seen as one of the most important aspects for life on Mars.

Scientists from the Italian space agency have discovered a large underground lake on Mars, which could significantly increase the probability of life on the planet.

Using the MARSIS radar on the Mars Express satellite orbiting Mars, the scientists were able to identify the small lake underneath the South Pole of Earths closest neighbour.

This is extraordinarily significant if the data can be replicated. Its taken them many years to really calibrate the instrument used to be sure what is underneath the surface really exists, Leo Enright, space commentator and member of the Board of Governors of the School of Cosmic Physics at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, told Al Jazeera.

The fact that its buried underneath the surface isnt a big surprise, because liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars, its simply not possible because of the atmospheric pressure is too thin, Enright said.

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For water to exist under the surface, it has to be deep and really salty, and that last part is significant because that is exactly the type of place you go look for lifeforms.

Scientists have long said Mars could potentially host life, and finding liquid water on the red planet is seen as one of the most important aspects of that search for extraterrestrial life.

Over the last 1 years, a number of different Mars missions have found increasingly more evidence of water on Mars, including large sheets of ice under the surface and salty mudflows on the surface.

However, pure liquid water has never been found until now.

Many scientists have said, Where there is water, there is the potential for life. So first, you must find water. This is the breakthrough we have been waiting for, but be cautious, because there have been false alarms in the past, Enright said.

You can certainly be sure that planning will begin on some kind of mission to extricate a sample. The problem is that this water is located 1.5km underneath the south pole, so there is an awful lot of ice to be drilled to before you reach this liquid water, he added.

In the coming years, several new Mars missions are planned, including new rovers by both American space agency NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).

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NASA is planning to launch a new rover as early as July 2020 with a mission to comprehensively determine whether life ever arose on Mars, while characterising the climate and geology of the red planet and preparing for human exploration.

The European and Russian rover, ExoMars, is scheduled to land in 2021 and will continue the search for life.

Despite these plans, chances of humans reaching the newfound lake in the near future are slim, since the ExoMars mission will not drill deeper than two metres

All the technology to drill through this ice to the lake doesnt exist yet so it will probably take at least another 25 years before we will be examining this.US: Immigrants prevented from making asylum bids

For the first time in 40 years, immigrants unable to claim political asylum as US President Donald Trumps policies continue to divide families.Nearly 150 children are able to escape from the harsh conditions of refugee camps at the volunteer-run school in Chios.The US has been one of Kyivs strongest supporters since Moscows annexation of Crimea in 2014In the 1985 classic American science fiction film Back to the Future, Marty McFly travels back in time in a DeLorean time machine, and with the help of its inventor, the eccentric scientist "Doc," history gets repaired so that when McFly returns to the present he finds healthy relations restored, providing optimism for the future and a happy ending. As a film genre, science fiction is unique in presenting an alternate reality that sometimes reveals startling insight into solutions for the human dilemma.

Everyday life in 2018 seems to be getting crazier by the week, so maybe we need to go back in time to better understand the past  when some things seemed to work better.

No one can say when exactly the modern age began, but it was clearly tied to the Reformation, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution, which had their roots in 14th- and 15th-century Europe.

The reformation of church corruption and pursuit of spiritual truth promoted by Martin Luther had its analog with the pursuit of truth regarding the physical universe by contemporary Nicholas Copernicus, who is credited as a key founder of the Scientific Revolution. Copernicus's empirical evidence and reasoning upset the prevailing geocentric view that the Earth was the center of universe with the heliocentric model that took its place, placing the Sun at the center, with the Earth and other planets orbiting it.

In the early 16th century, the Reformation and Renaissance set in motion a cultural awakening as well as an unusual concentration of human genius and extraordinary wisdom that culminated in the birth of a new nation, the United States  dedicated to the rule of law; separation of powers and limited government; and accountability to its citizens, whose rights were God-given and thus unalienable and not subject to infringement by the state  a truly revolutionary model that subsequently influenced other nations worldwide well into the 20th century.

Copernicus, followed by Kepler, Galileo, Bacon, Newton and more, was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution that expanded the frontiers of understanding the physical universe. Collectively, they gave birth to the scientific method, which became the most reliable and powerful means of pushing the envelope of discovery and invention through hypothesis-testing that involved compiling and rationally evaluating empirical evidence and results to arrive at facts.

When one considers the appearance of the United States from a grand historical perspective  notably its rise from colonial poverty to the world's economic superpower in 200 years  it's a bit like a production car today going from zero to 60 in three seconds.

And while people's standard of living has been greatly improved and their longevity significantly increased, many Americans now seem oblivious to how we got here. The incredible benefits attributable to the application of both the scientific method and the spiritual truths of the Judeo-Christian heritage are increasingly taken for granted at best. At worst, they are viewed as unnecessary, even obsolete.

We are told that our culture and the way we live are now post-Christian and that the need for redemption by God has been replaced by the imperatives of a secular redemption defined by political correctness. That new framework is largely based on the one-two approach of promoting guilt among largely successful white males for their alleged biases and misdeeds, past and present, and then providing them a solution in the form of relief and good feelings through making amends and accommodation to new groups and minorities.

In short, the path of the new P.C. redemption has nothing to do with character improvement and everything to do with identity politics  races, classes, gender and sexual identity  and also the relationship that man has with the environment. There is simply no end to atonement, role reversals, and reparations to fix things. As a result, we have come to a point where seemingly endless manufactured injustices are crowding out the joy of everyday life, stripping people of their spontaneity and their humor.

The tenets and framework of political correctness have largely negated the relevance of age-old moral truths, common sense, and the scientific method  all of which contribute to protecting relationships, solving problems, and facilitating progress. As a result, we are experiencing increasing regressive forces affecting economics, law, politics, and basic civility.

Consider economics. It seemed that the debate between capitalism and socialism ended nearly three decades ago with the Iron Curtain coming down due to the failure and dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Francis Fukuyama proclaimed in the title of his best-selling book published in 1992 that we had arrived at "the end of history," which was characterized by the "triumph of capitalism" and the "unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism."

Not only has socialism failed to work anywhere  whether in the old Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asian and African nations, North Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela  but it has also almost always been accompanied by horrendous abuse of power and the unnatural death of many millions.

So how could it be, just a generation after Fukuyama and the wall coming down, that here in the United States in the "land of the free," socialist candidate Bernie Sanders could win 43% of Democratic primary voters?

The answer is complicated. It starts with recognizing that because the knowledge industry  that is, the educational establishment, the universities, and the media  embrace political correctness, they largely ignore contradictory views from common sense and factual findings of the scientific method, with its emphasis on accountability and verifiable factual evidence. In short, the Bernie phenomenon was in some part the result of the last thirty years of accumulated subliminal conditioning and brainwashing in America by a politically correct educational and media establishment.

This is also the primary reason why 90-plus percent of the media elite obsess over the flaws of President Trump but give him no coverage or credit for his success  the remarkable turnaround in the economy and foreign policy, the creation of more job openings than there are reported unemployed people, a record low minority unemployment rate, greatly diminished welfare rolls and a decline in reliance on food stamps, a domestic energy boom, record high levels of the stock market and consumer confidence, the financial reform of the U.N. and NATO, the defeat of ISIS, and much more.

When facts and accountability no longer matter, media coverage regresses to propaganda and fake news, and politics devolves to preoccupation with power over ideas. When facts and accountability no longer matter, it seems that many political candidates and office-holders feel they no longer need to fight for solution-oriented ideas and policies. After all, in a democracy that has short election cycles, why do the hard work of debate and compromise when you think you can win or hold on to power through demagoguery, emotional appeals, and even inciting hatred and mobs to silence your opponents?

When law is severed from its origin in Judeo-Christian teachings and the factual basis of the scientific method, the door is opened to legal relativity with all manner of new arrangements and new rights  from labor relations, patent and property rights, marriage, and obligations to both the elderly and the unborn to transgender confusion over health care and bathroom access and subordinating human rights to the rights of snail-darters.

When the departure from reality goes to extremes such that whole new definitions and applications of law gain salience in some quarters of the public mind  such as the charge that President Trump committed treason in a time of peace simply because of a verbal gaffe at press conference  you know we must be near a turning point. Treason suggests that there are legitimate national interests. Meanwhile, many of the same people will argue that there is no need for ICE or law enforcement because there is no legitimacy to the United States, its constitution, its laws, or its borders.

In sum, when the present gets severed from the past, when common sense gets jettisoned and displaced by P.C. nostrums, when laws lose their meaning, and when culture gets increasingly unmoored from its Judeo-Christian heritage of manners, moral standards, and chivalrous inclinations, we let the barbarians, the hate-mongers, and the mobs develop inside the gates.

Fortunately, because the truth cannot be destroyed, we can turn things around if we follow Paul's advice to the Ephesians to stand firm and recognize that "our struggles are not against flesh and blood," but rather "against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil high places." Paul's final counsel to the Ephesians was to pray constantly and declare the truth fearlessly. Probably the best advice for these times, too.

Scott Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute in Seattle and managing partner of RemingtonRand LLC. Email him at scottp@discovery.org.News Story not available

This story has been published on: 2021-10-26. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.

This story is no longer available on our site.Whatever you thought crazy was, put it aside. Because no matter what you think is the craziest story of black violence  and the denial, deceit, and delusion surrounding it  this recent story out of Oakland is way past that.

It began simply and sadly enough on a BART system in the Oakland area. Two younger black people killed two older white guys. The reaction from BART was as predictable as it was lame: BART is safe; murder and violence are isolated; and no, you cannot see the videos from any of the hundreds of cameras in the stations.

Then, over the weekend, John Lee Cowell, a white guy, met two black women, Nia Wilson and her sister, on BART. He cut their throats, killing Nia.

Soon the streets of Oakland were full of black protesters, wondering why white people are able to get away with so much murder against black people. Many took to Twitter as well. "White supremacy slashes throats, it stabs, it lynches, and continues to kill our people in horrific ways," said one Twitter poster. It is evil. "Don't tell us to play patty-cake with it." And on and on this went by the thousands: black people bitterly complaining about white-on-black crime and how cops in places like Oakland never do anything about it.

The only other explanation is one that just happened to be true: crime in Oakland, one of America's most dangerous cities, is a black thing, wildly out of proportion. Anyone who cannot see that is in full denial, deceit, and delusion.

BART commuters are often its keenest witnesses.

In 2015, the crime on BART trains was so bad that BART created an app where riders could document any chaos or violence or lawlessness, then automatically send it to BART.

After a year, the geniuses at the East Bay Express ascertained that black ridership on BART was about 11 percent, but complaints against black people made up about 70 percent of the info from the app. It did not take long to figure out that the app was racist, and it was soon never heard from again.

Flash forward to less than a year ago: 50-70 black people rampaged through a BART station, beating and robbing a few white passengers  just the latest in a series of black mob violence at BART trains and stations. Some fatal. Most ignored. All treated as a symptom of white racism.

All with videotape that BART executives refused to share for the craziest of reasons: BART executives said doing so would be "embarrassing to minorities." And no, I do not expect you to believe that unless you see it for yourself. So here's an excerpt from a recent video I did. Just click here: BART refuses to release videos.

If that is not enough, try this on for size: an article I wrote about it at the time for American Thinker with lots of links. Just click here.

Just a few weeks ago, BART was back in the news when it was revealed that 66% of the people banned from BART for criminal behavior are black. More racism, of course, said the people who were loath to consider, even for a second, that black people on BART create holy Hell six times more than their ridership should.

It is not just Oakland. Even as black people in Oakland were revving up their protests to remember Nia Wilson and protest this tsunami of fictitious white-on-black crime, black-on-white murder proceeded apace around the rest of the country the same way it always does: wildly out of proportion.

In Atlanta, a middle-aged white restaurant manager, Christian Broder, was visiting his home town for a wedding when a black person recently out of jail killed him. The killer was supposed to be staying in a "diversion program" instead of finishing a sentence for violent crime. But even after he was caught brandishing guns and drugs on social media with some of his bros before the murder, he was soon free again. Free to kill Christian.

In Natchitoches, Louisiana, Felicia Marie-Nicole Smith, a black woman, is under arrest for kidnapping, murdering, then burning a six-month-old white child, Levi Cole Ellerbe.

So far, no protests. Not even an angry Twitter stream.

This is a long list from just recently. In North Portland, Oregon, a black man killed a white woman and burned her. I guess that's a black thing, too.

In Bradenton, Massachusetts, a black person is wanted for killing a couple of white kids.

From Baltimore to Oakland, a common reaction to black-on-white crime is that only white privilege gives white people living near black people an expectation of safety. Besides, everyone knows there is no difference between black crime rates and white crime rates.

White people do it, too.

Just because something is easily shown to be the greatest lie of our generation, that does not mean that lots and lots and lots of people refuse to say it over and over and over again.

Colin Flaherty is just about the worst person on this planet, said CNN a few days ago. That's because he wrote a scintillating bestseller titled Don't Make the Black Kids Angry, which documents black violence wildly out of proportion. Worse still, lots of people read it. Sorry, not sorry, CNN.My family lives in the Sixth Congressional District in Virginia, represented by Bob Goodlatte. You know Bob, don't you? His face has been all over television and his voice all over radio, just in the last six months. You probably don't know, but he has been in Congress for 25 years.

What? You have never heard of him until recently?

Many people have never heard of him, even in the Sixth District of Virginia. You see, Bob is a nondescript, go-along-to-get-along, really nice guy. Bob doesn't ruffle feathers. Bob doesn't speak out. Bob plays it safe. Bob makes milk toast seem spicy. And, as a conservative, I have been voting against Bob Goodlatte for the 22 years I have lived in this district.

But lately, everywhere I turn, it's "Heeeeeerrrre's Bob!" Chairing the House Judiciary Committee, he has been the point man for hearings in the scam Russia investigation. He's all over media, getting to the truth, not taking it anymore. Talking about the 2016 election. Blah, blah, blah.

In full disclosure, I was a delegate to the recent district Republican convention, where Goodlatte's handpicked successor won the nomination. I opposed this successor-to-milk-toast, but sour grapes are not my purpose in writing this article. My purpose is to point out another person leaving Congress likely in search of the big payout, the jackpot.

For the last six months, since Bob Goodlatte announced he would retire from Congress, I have been asking myself why I'm seeing him all over television, when for 25 years he was AWOL. The answer is obvious. Bob is most probably setting himself up for the next phase of his career, the phase where he pads his exceptional federal pension with public- or private-sector cash.

What could Bob be angling for? Could be a lobbying job on K Street. Could be a job shilling for a defense industry company. Could be a juicy ambassadorship to an island nation where he can work on his tan.

OpenSecrets.org reveals Bob's top contributors over his career. These include the National Auto Dealers Association, Microsoft, AT&T, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, and the NRA. If they are listening, I think Bob would be a fine addition to the lobbying team for any of these organizations. They can be assured that Bob will not offend anyone in any way, trusting that this late spurt of partisan notoriety will fade quickly after his retirement, leaving only Bob's 25 years of connections to be mined for legislative favor.

This all angers me because under Congressman Bob's so-called conservative so-called leadership, our nation's debt has ballooned by a factor of five. When Bob was elected in 1992, the U.S. national debt was around $4 trillion. Today, it stands at over $21 trillion. Bob voted in such a way to ensure that all those deficit budgets passed. When Bob was elected in 1992, over 28 million babies had already been killed by abortion. Today, the total stands at more than double that, 60 million.

Bob's legacy as a congressman is $17 trillion in added government waste and 32 million deaths, all while he enjoyed subsidized lunches in the congressional dining room.

With conservatives like Bob, who needs enemies? And our Congress is packed with these types.

John Adams observed that a republic is a "government of laws, and not of men." Perhaps we had that in the past, but today, ours is government of bad laws made by corrupt men. It is an abomination that a man can serve in Congress 25 years and accomplish next to nothing, sitting in the background, under-representing his constituents, holding babies for cell phone photos, and writing letters of recommendation. I'd wager there's a 120% chance that he'll further the abomination by seeking to cash in on his congressional career, aiding and abetting powerful groups that desire to mold and distort the legislative process. And it's all 120% legal, thanks to bad laws made by corrupt men.

Bob's intentions are all speculation on my part, I must admit. Might be that Bob is retiring for family reasons, and he's just going to fade into the background and defend serial parking ticket offenders. This time next year, we'll know for sure.

Good luck in your future pursuits, Bob. I can only hope for a lower national debt and abortion death toll after you leave Congress.With all the discussion of the FISA warrants, we must avoid missing the forest for the trees. Since the release last Saturday of the (highly redacted) FISA application that targeted Carter Page, and the subsequent three renewal applications, there has been no lack of analysis of the unredacted details. (Mark Penn's analysis is, for my money, one of the most cogent.) In what follows, I intend to take more of a "big picture" approach, as well as focusing on issues that haven't received a great deal of attention but may in the future.

One aspect of the application that came as no surprise to all who have followed this FISA-gate affair is that the role of the "dossier"  the collaborative effort produced by the British ex-spook Christopher Steele, Fusion GPS (Glenn Simpson, Nellie Ohr, and possibly others), and the Hillary campaign  is everywhere apparent. While the central role of the dossier comes as no surprise  after all, Andrew McCabe, the FBI's disgraced former deputy director and (during the Comey-Wray interregnum) acting director, testified to the House that the dossier was "crucial" to the FISA  the overall audacity exhibited in the application is breathtaking.

The dossier itself is in the nature of a Big Lie  sensational, lacking in documented sourcing, utterly unverified and unverifiable. To present the contents of such a document (really a collection of memos) to any court as fact is audacious enough in itself. However, authors of the application took two remarkable steps to support the Big Lie of the dossier.

First, they used the record of Page's three years of cooperation with the FBI as an FBI informant in New York to support the contention that Page was an agent of a foreign power who was knowingly engaged in clandestine intelligence activity that might have involved the violation of criminal statues of the United States (cf. [b][2][A][B] at the above link). That is audacious.

The second way the authors of the application sought to support the Big Lie of the dossier was to cite tendentious opinion articles in U.S. publications to support the idea that the Trump campaign was working "behind the scenes" to shape its Russia policies in such a way as to conform to the desires of the Putin regime  attributing this, on no stated evidence, to the supposed influence of Carter Page. At least one of these articles was sourced to Christopher Steele, although that fact appears not to have been revealed to the FISA Court (FISC). Again, this is a remarkable degree of audacity.

But what about the four separate judges who signed off on either the original application or the several renewal applications? Do they not have some responsibility for this really shocking abuse of the FISA regime  a regime that was designed to safeguard the Fourth Amendment rights of U.S. citizens? Should they not have subjected the applications to searching scrutiny and questioned what appear to be obvious flaws? To his great credit, Andy McCarthy of NRO raised precisely this issue in his Fox News interview.

The problem lies, I believe, in the nature of the FISA regime. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was intended to provide for oversight of the government's surveillance activity, physical and electronic, to prevent perceived abuses of government powers in the name of national security, while allowing for necessary secrecy. The act itself was largely written in collaboration between Congress and the Justice Department. The result was remarkable, not to say unprecedented. What FISA did, in effect, by creating the FISC to pass on applications for surveillance was to transform Article III judges into government bureaucrats for purposes of FISA. Here's what I mean.

Under Article III of the Constitution, the "judicial power" is to be used to decide cases and controversies  which, in our system, are conducted in adversarial proceedings: all parties to a dispute get to present their points of view in open court. But under the FISA regime, there is no case or controversy, nor is a FISC judge's role that of a devil's advocate. The judge hears only the government's side of things, and not only are the government's representatives advocates, but, by the very nature of their official duties, they are before the FISC as subject matter experts in their own right.

The inevitable result is that the judges who serve on the FISC may exhibit some or all of the ordinary human weaknesses that the adversarial system is designed to guard against. A judge may lack the necessary knowledge to truly understand what's being placed before him, may exhibit undue deference to "experts," may even be biased against the target or have a tendency to go along to get along. But since there is no true case or controversy presented to the FISC and there is only a limited possibility for appeal  only if a decision should go against the government can there be an appeal, since the target of the FISA warrant is not represented before the FISC  as long as the judge sides with the government, no one will be the wiser. As long as the FISC judge issues the warrant, no one will complain, no one will appeal, there will be no real oversight of the court's decisions. Humanly speaking, this is a system that was ripe for politically motivated exploitation. Only the principled actions of Admiral Mike Rogers at the NSA saved the day.

In saying this, I have no intention to impugn the overall integrity of federal judges, but they are human, too, and when the safeguards of the adversarial system and the appellate process are effectively removed, their human weaknesses may be exploited. A simple example will perhaps suffice.

The Carter Page FISA application, drawing on the dossier, states that Carter Page had "secret" meetings with Russians, whom the U.S. government regards as bad guys. To most people, that may appear to be an unremarkable statement, one not requiring challenge. But recall that under FISA, for a U.S. person (USPER) to be classified as an "agent of a foreign power," that USPER must be shown to engage in clandestine intelligence activity for or on behalf of a foreign power, and that activity must at least possibly involve violations of U.S. criminal statutes. So what's a "secret meeting"  as opposed, for example, to a merely "private" meeting? Is any meeting not conducted on a street corner a "secret" meeting? Does a "private" meeting become a "secret" meeting simply because the government disapproves of the person you're meeting? Should we reasonably expect a FISC judge to pounce on these ambiguities, or is it more likely that he will miss them?

For me, with over twenty years of counterintelligence experience, a "secret" meeting would be a meeting that a person attempts to conceal from the knowledge of others. So, for example, we might ask whether the person in question took measures to detect or elude surveillance by intelligence services  yes, the U.S. does maintain intelligence personnel in Moscow. If he did, then we might plausibly argue to the FISC that the meeting was a "secret" meeting. But that's not what we see in this FISA application. Without the support of facts such as I've just laid out, the statement that Carter Page engaged in "secret" meetings is merely tendentious and prejudicial. This is a built in danger for FISC proceedings.

Am I being too hard on the FBI? Consider: the NSA audit of "702" searches that was presented to the chief judge of the FISC revealed that 85% of the searches were unauthorized and almost certainly were undertaken to ultimately benefit the Hillary Clinton campaign and to undermine the Trump campaign. That particular abuse can't be laid at the door of the FISC, but clearly, if this eye-opening level of abuse occurred in one aspect of the FISA regime, we shouldn't be surprised if the FBI were to play fast and loose when presenting "facts" to the FISC.

From the growing outcry over these revelations, it seems likely that the public will not be satisfied with the heavily redacted version of the application that we now have. Demands for more transparency will likely grow, and that can lead only to an overdue and healthy public discussion of the serious issues  for national security as well as private privacy  that are involved in FISA. Interestingly, in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, Devin Nunes back in February stated that "we" (presumably the House Intelligence Committee) had been "grappling" with the idea of seeking to involve chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Roberts in a discussion of some of the issues involved in FISA. In my understanding, Chief Justice Roberts doesn't exactly supervise the FISC, but he does appoint the FISC judges and would be the logical source for advice on the operation  and even the nature  of the FISC.

There are complex constitutional problems involved in all this, not least because of the anomalous nature of the FISC, but I have to believe that such a development would be a healthy one.

Mark Wauck is a retired FBI agent who blogs on religion, philosophy, and FISA at meaning in history.Denmark passed a law that took effect last year making it a crime to incite or welcome the killing of people, and yesterday brought charges under it for the first time, against Imam Mundhir Abdallah. One small wrinkle: He was reading to his congregation from holy scripture.

The Times of Israel reports:

Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in the Copenhagen neighborhood of Norrebro at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque, which media have linked to radical Islam, is accused of citing a hadith or koranic narrative calling for Muslims to rise up against Jews. "Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them," Abdallah said in a Facebook and YouTube video post in March, according to a translation of the original Arabic provided by the US organization the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).



Screen grab from MEMRI (donate here).

"These are serious statements and I think it's right for the court to now have an opportunity to assess the case," public prosecutor Eva Ronne said in a statement. ... Ronne said it's legal to quote religious books like the Koran and the Bible, but that inciting or welcoming the killings of people could be punishable by up to three years in prison.

Obviously, Denmark has no First Amendment protecting religious belief and speech. But one can expect all sorts of objections to criminalizing Muslim scripture, despite the undeniably hateful content of some of it. No trial date has been set, but when and if a trial comes, this may be introduced as evidence:

According to broadcaster DR, Omar El-Hussein, who was behind a series of shootings at a free-speech conference and a Jewish synagogue in Copenhagen in February 2015 which left two people dead, had visited the mosque the day before going on the rampage.

Denmark also banned six foreigners last May, based on what authorities called preaching hatred. One of them is U.S. preacher Terry Jones, who burned a Koran  not violence against persons. Violence against inanimate objects is not comparable to violence against persons, but if there is a need to find non-Muslims to include on the list, I guess that's the best they can come up with.

Hat tip: John McMahonToday, July 25, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission  the governing body of the European Union (E.U.)  will be meeting with President Trump in the White House. One of the items on the agenda will be the huge $5.1-billion fine that Juncker's commission just leveled on Google on July 18.

President Trump was already on the European Commission's case when the commission leveled this fine. In a July 15 interview, Trump was asked to identify who was the United States' "biggest foe globally right now." He said:

Well, I think we have a lot of foes. I think the European Union is a foe, what they do to us in trade. Now, you wouldn't think of the European Union, but they're a foe. Russia is [a] foe in certain respects. China is a foe economically, certainly they are a foe. But that doesn't mean they are bad. It doesn't mean anything. It means that they are competitive[.]

After the E.U. Commission fined Google, he tweeted:

I told you so! The European Union just slapped a Five Billion Dollar fine on one of our great companies, Google. They truly have taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!

The E.U. fined Google for violating an anti-trust statute that is economically unjustifiable and applied discriminatorily against American companies.

Economically Unjustifiable

The law under which the E.U. fined Google (Article 102 of the TFEU) allows the E.U. to fine companies for up to 10% of their worldwide revenue for abusing their dominant position in an industry. It may be internationally illegal for the E.U. to fine a foreign company on sales that took place outside its jurisdiction. Furthermore, since the amount of the fine is denominated to the companies' sales, not the harm it caused, it is really a tax. Since the power to tax is the power to destroy, the E.U. can destroy any U.S. company doing business in the E.U.

An alternative E.U. anti-trust statute (Article 101) is economically valid. It prevents companies from joining together in a cartel to drive up prices. But the E.U. has been fining American companies under Article 102, which is not justifiable. It fines companies for benefiting the consumer and causing economic growth.

Joseph A. Schumpeter, the eminent economist who argued that technological innovation drives growth, once pointed out that leading technological companies devote a huge amount of money to research in order to increase demand for their products and stay ahead technologically, and that this research largely drives growth. His favorite example was the Aluminum Corporation of America. Even though its patent protection expired in 1909, it continued to engage in "cost-reducing research, in the economic development of the productive apparatus, [and] in teaching new uses for the product" (note 20 on page 101-102). It maintained its near monopoly for decades while it simultaneously reduced aluminum prices and expanded aluminum output.

Economic history since Schumpeter wrote this in 1943 has proven him correct. For example, technologically dominant American companies have driven the computer and internet revolution:

 AT&T invented the semiconductor.

 IBM developed the modern computer.

 Xerox invented the computer mouse.

 Microsoft made the internet accessible.

 Intel chips greatly sped up computing.

 Qualcomm chips drove the wireless revolution.

 Google drove the internet revolution.

Applied Discriminatorily

If the E.U. Commission were applying Article 102 just against European companies, it would be stifling just European growth. But the commission almost solely uses it to fine American companies. We have searched the internet for instances of fines leveled by the E.U. under Article 102. We believe the following to be an accurate listing of the five companies that have paid the highest fines:

1. Google. $7.8 billion in 2017 & 2018

2. Microsoft. $2.1 billion in 2004, 2006 & 2008.

3. Intel. $1.5 billion in 2009

4. Qualcomm. $1.2 billion in 2018

5. Telefonica. $0.2 billion in 2007

The only European company on the top five is the Spanish broadband company Telefonica. The smallest fine levied against an American company is more than six times higher than the highest levied on a European company. Make no mistake: this statute is being used to punish American companies for being big and American. It is designed to shackle American companies so European producers can steal their market share.

Trump should tell Juncker that he must return all of the fines against Google, Microsoft, Intel, and Qualcomm that were levied on sales outside the E.U. America should no longer tolerate the E.U.'s claim that it has jurisdiction over non-European sales of American companies.

The Richmans co-authored the 2014 book Balanced Trade, published by Lexington Books, and the 2008 book Trading Away Our Future, published by Ideal Taxes Association.In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled, in the Kelo v. City of New London decision, that eminent domain could be used to seize private property from one owner and give it to another in the name of "economic development." It remains one of the most controversial decisions the court has made this century.

Yesterday, Congress belatedly addressed the troubling issues raised by the decision by passing the Private Property Rights Protection Act. As Ed Morrissey at Hot Air points out, no major media outlets covered this seminal issue regarding the rights of citizens to be secure in their property.

Amazingly, not one major media outlet picked up on this, not even to note that it took thirteen years for Congress to address the issue. It might not have gone far even now had it not been for renewed interest in the case from the recent independent film Little Pink House, starring Catherine Keener as Susette Kelo and Jeanne Tripplehorn and produced by Ted Balaker, formerly of Reason. It's tough to understand the indifference. The House vote didn't have much drama to it, but the issue directly aims at the relationship we have with government and the nature of private property, a core right recognized in the Constitution. Kelo perverted that relationship, putting everyone's property rights hostage to politicians who want to hand off spoils to bigger entities. The case prompted some states to step in and redefine eminent domain to prevent another New London abuse, but Congress has remained relatively passive about it until now.

There are many justifiable instances where the needs of the community might be best served by employing eminent domain. The argument isn't if states and local governments have the right to invoke eminent domain, but rather the overly broad justification used by the court to allow a private developer to seize someone else's property.

Seizing property to build or improve a road or expand an airport that benefits the entire community might meet a reasonable standard where eminent domain can be used. But in Kelo, only a few private developers benefited. That the court deliberately weakened private property rights has been a stain on its reputation to uphold our most precious constitutional rights.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner was the primary mover behind the bill:

To combat this expansion of power, H.R. 1689 would make any state or locality that uses the economic development justification for eminent domain ineligible from receiving federal economic development funds for two years. This creates a major incentive for governments to respect the private property rights of its citizens. Additionally, the legislation bars the federal government from exercising eminent domain powers for the purposes of economic development.

Democrats would dearly love to weaken the idea of private property rights because they get in the way of government redistributing wealth. Many on the far left see private property as wicked and the root of all evil in the capitalist system.

Needless to say, our rights will be in danger if the "democratic socialists" ever achieve real power.New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has a problem. She wants to be the Democratic nominee for president in 2020. But she's white.

Not only is Gillibrand white, but she's extremely white. She's so white that even Hillary Clinton looks almost Hispanic by comparison.



2010 campiagn photo via Wikimedia Commons.

That's not an asset in a competitive Democratic primary. It used to be that being a woman was sufficiently virtuous. No longer. Gillibrand has to compete against candidates from other identity groups. Cory Booker is a minority; Kamala Harris is a minority; and even though Elizabeth Warren isn't a minority, she does play one on TV.

So Gillibrand is tacking hard left to compensate. She was formerly a moderately conservative Democratic congresswoman from upstate New York until she was appointed to a vacant Senate seat by the then-governor David Paterson, a blind black adulterous former cocaine-user whose resume full of multiple identity group memberships dazzled New Yorkers throughout the state.

Gillibrand, who used to brag about keeping a gun under her bed and advocated deporting illegal aliens and making English the official language of America, now sings a very different tune. When she got elected to the Senate, she saw she got a lot of media attention when she repeatedly told her "fat shaming story": her claim that then-senator Daniel Inouye allegedly told her, "Don't lose too much weight now. I like my girls chubby!"

After that, Gillibrand latched on to every offense, real and perceived, against women in the non-Islamic world to attract the attention of the media. It worked, for a while, to raise her profile.

But as the status of women as a virtue group has declined, and the status of minority and other identity groups has risen in the Democratic Party, Gillibrand has had to up her game.

The New York Times, of all places, wrote a remarkable piece cataloging Gillibrand's rapid evolution from moderate to hard left. It's hard to think of a reason why the Times would publish such a damaging piece about her, except perhaps that the Times, like other Democratic core groups, find Gillibrand's uncompromising whiteness to be disqualifying for a presidential nominee.

So here's what Gillibrand stands for now:

1. She wants to impose additional taxes on people who buy stocks. Why? Because, as any bank-robber will tell you, that's where the money is.

2. She wants to guarantee a government job for every citizen. Think of millions of Americans doing nothing of consequence and being paid handsomely for it. And then think of whom they will support for president in the following election.

3. Gillibrand wants the financially debt-ridden Postal Service to open a bank in every branch. A federally financed and run bank. What could go wrong?

4. She wants to legalize marijuana, probably to improve productivity and job satisfaction for those in #2 above.

5. Gillibrand promises to reject all corporate PAC money. The days of Gillibrand accepting five million dollars in corporate donations are officially over.

6. She promises "Medicare for all" and plans to expand the program before it becomes insolvent.

7. Gillibrand wants to abolish ICE. Everyone from all over the world can come into the country, get a government job (see #2 above), get a government loan (see #3 above), get some weed (see #4 above), get free medical care (#6 above), and vote in elections as soon as he can pass the driving test at the local Department of Motor Vehicles (or maybe there will be exemptions for that as well).

Can Gillibrand's hard left turn overcome her naturally white disposition? Democrats can get the hard left platform already, in addition to shades of Obama, if they turn to Cory Booker or Kamala Harris.

Exit question: Could Gillibrand be more competitive if she finds some remote Hispanic or African-American in her distant family tree, or join another identity group like lesbians or "trangendered men"?

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.A new civil rights revolution is underway. Just as the 1950s and '60s saw courts taking seriously the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantees of racial equality, we now see courts forcing government officials to recognize the Second Amendment's guarantee of the right to bear arms  even the ultra-liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of San Francisco. Stephen Dinan of The Washington Examiner reports:

Americans have a constitutional right to openly carry firearms, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, delivering a major victory to gun rights supporters. While courts previously have recognized the right to own firearms to protect the home, the decision by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit extends that into the public sphere, calling it a "core Second Amendment right." In a 2-1 ruling, the panel said Hawaii's law severely restricting guns outside homes or businesses tramples on that right. Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain, who wrote the majority opinion, scoured history from Geoffrey Chaucer's England to the American antebellum period to trace the history of gun rights. He ruled that there is little doubt the authors of the Second Amendment were comfortable with Americans openly carrying weapons for self-defense, and until the Constitution is changed, that remains the standard. "For better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense," the judge wrote.

Stephen Gutkowski of the Free Beacon notes that Hawaii has passed laws that attempted to work around the civil rights of Americans:

Hawaii has long had some of the most restrictive gun-carry laws in the country. It currently employs a "may issue" gun-carry law, in which state officials may deny permits to applicants even if they've passed a background check and training requirements. According to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Hawaii did not issue a single gun-carry permit to any civilians in 2017. The same was true in 2016. They are the only state in the country to not issue a single gun-carry permit in either year. George Young, a native Hawaiian and Vietnam veteran, was denied a gun-carry permit in 2011 and decided to file a lawsuit against the state. Young had to act as his own lawyer because he couldn't find a lawyer in the state who was willing to work on his behalf. After his first two attempts at legal action failed, Alan Beck, a California-based lawyer with ties to Hawaii, offered to help him with his suit on a pro bono basis.



Sunset on Hawaii's civil rights abridgement (photo credit: FLJuJitsu via Wikimedia Commons).

I am so old that I remember when Southern states tried similar maneuvers to vacate the right to vote for African-Americans. This civil rights revolution on the right of self-defense is at a stage comparable to the late 1950s.

It is expected that Hawaii will appeal the Ninth Circuit's ruling, which means that the confirmation hearings of Judge Kavanaugh will likely include extended attention to the Second Amendment's meaning. Red-state Democrat senators up for re-election in 2018 now have to contend with Second Amendment civil rights activists as they consider their votes.

Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt, InstapunditTo protect America from foreign adversaries, assure America's military and civilian access to space, and keep faith with our proud past in space, President Trump last month announced he is directing the Defense Department to "immediately begin the process" of creating a "Space Force," which would become a sixth branch of military service.

The idea is intriguing but susceptible to problems we encountered when our state and non-state adversaries evolved from fighting in formation to asymmetric warfare, fomenting insurgencies, seeding terrorism, and embracing modalities like cyber-attacks on infrastructure.

Imagine that we continued on our current path, forming new organizations  civilian and military  to tackle space-related deployments, contingencies, reconnaissance, operations, and intelligence-gathering. What would that look like?

Along present lines, we would essentially keep developing new technologies, testing them, and deploying them, but using present federal acquisition, procurement, contracting, and oversight practices. What does that mean?

It means we would have shiny new agencies with shiny new capabilities but suffer potentially fatal process lapses and problems, chokepoints, back-ups, delays, dysfunction, and foreign penetration of our back-office functions.

Put differently, we would miss the forest for the trees, miss the national security mission for process back-up, eroding efficiencies, or worse  outright malfunction and theft of technology  all tied to making it all work.

What is the use of having widely deployable and highly capable, big and small, long- and short-duration satellites if they cannot be efficiently produced; cannot be reliably launched from sovereign American launch locations, by a range of trusted American companies; or cannot be made secure from foreign access, copying, reverse-engineering, or sabotage? The answer is zero.

So what should be done to make the president's vision a reality  and protect the country from unintended consequences, the creeping dysfunction within federal acquisition, procurement, contracting, and oversight processes?

What can be done to protect our burgeoning private space-related industries, upon which federal military and civilian launch will depend, from foreign influence, penetration, manipulation, and unnecessary risk?

Three basic things.

First, congressional leaders should consider, in tandem with other space initiatives, a comprehensive General Accounting Office study of federal space-based procurement processes to improve efficiency, widen launch options, reconsider risk tolerances, eliminate bureaucracy, and trim oversight costs. Results should drive space-related procurement reform legislation.

Second, the administration should undertake independently a similar study, staying clear of conflicts of interest created by the influence of big launch companies and foreign-owned or dominated interests, as well as the inexorable vortex of federal bureaucrats. Leaning on outside experts, smaller companies, and proven leaders, this study should guide ramped up regulatory reform tied to space.

Third and finally, a redoubled effort should be undertaken to protect national security and the U.S. economy by anticipating and eliminating possible foreign-dominated companies from a sector that is necessarily vulnerable, increasingly important, and inherently tied to future American advances in space.

Such a review could be conducted by some combination of the Pentagon, the Intelligence Community, NASA, the FAA, and the White House. Sometimes national security and economic advantage are tightly linked, as most in Congress and this White House recognize. This is especially so in the space-related sector, manufacture to launch, since so much depends on this sector's success.

So, net-net, there is new hope in America's rising emphasis on military and civilian space, but beware the obvious bureaucratic and asymmetric threats that sneak up behind a shiny new organizational and even technological advances. Legislative and regulatory reform can be the pivot point  toward major success or accidental failure.

Robert Bunn, former senior law enforcement attorney in Fla. and commentator on national issues, has special interests in rocketry, intelligence, international affairs, and national security. He holds multiple degrees from Harvard University and is author of two books, one of which is The Panama Canal Treaty: Its Illegality and Consequential Impacts.Years ago, I remember hearing the story of President Nixon's final flight from the White House to California. The president took off on Air Force One, but it changed to a military flight as soon as President Ford was sworn in. In other words, the president of the U.S. was no longer on board!

The principle is that when it comes to matters of state, once you're out, you're out.

Put me down as someone who does not understand why former Obama officials have security clearances anyway. Why do we do that? You are either in or out, or so I understood.

President Trump should pull the security clearances. It's even more imperative, given that many of these Obama officials are now partisan commentators, as Jim Hanson points out:

There is a longstanding tradition of granting former officials continued clearance to allow them to be consulted about actions they took and insights they might have. There is no requirement to do this but when all, regardless of party affiliation, are supposed to be working toward our security it provided a continuity of the institutional knowledge. That is no longer the case with these individuals.



Image by Donkey Hotey via Flickr.

The article points out one example:

John Brennan has become increasingly unhinged and has called President Trump treasonous. How can he be allowed anywhere near the inner workings of the Trump administration as it works to conduct our nation's foreign policy? Another person likely to lose his clearance is Former CIA Director Michael Hayden who publicly warned people not to work for President Trump. That is not compatible with offering any kind of help at all to that same administration.

Does anyone seriously think President Trump would consult Mr. Brennan for anything? I don't think so.

Frankly, it's dangerous to have a man like Mr. Brennan looking at information that he could leak to a friendly reporter.

So let future presidents make the call. At the same time, a former official who is now calling the president a "traitor" is not someone who merits a clearance.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.President Trump is up against the most ruthless and spiteful army of tortured souls ever to erupt from the bowels of Hell.

These are the modern leftists who control the Deep State, the government bureaucracy, establishment Washington, most of the judiciary, and portions of the military. They are supported by millions of mindless, emotionally immature useful idiots. They are protected and defended by a leftist media and propagated by leftist-controlled public and private educational institutions. It's quite a formidable array of foes.

The ruling elite have shown that there are no bounds in their mission to overturn an election and overthrow a sitting American president. A falsified FISA warrant? No problem. Intimidating potential witnesses against Trump with armed raids on their homes and offices? So what? Imprisonment of a suspect (Manafort) in solitary confinement indefinitely without a trial? Who cares? Releasing confidential conversations between client and lawyer to the press? Big deal. Using U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on an opposition candidate and then on the president-elect? Priceless.

Privacy rights, legal confidentiality, and the rule of law are minor impediments to the objectives of the left. They are useful only when they can be weaponized against traditional American institutions and conservative causes.

As counterintuitive as it may appear to Trump-supporters, it is important for Mueller's Don Quixote-esque quest to continue as long as possible, in spite of the issues illustrated above.

Ever since the agonized voices at MSNBC announced that Trump was the winner, the left has spent a considerable amount of emotional energy trying to overturn the election. From election recount efforts to intimidating Electoral College electors to change their votes to constant calls for impeachment with no rational justification, the left still refuses to accept the fact that Hillary didn't win.

The Mueller investigation is acting as a buffer for Trump to the left's frustration and resentment over the election results. With every "revelation" from the Mueller-DOJ cabal of new indictments of Russian ghosts and allegations from timeworn porn stars, the left's hopes are raised and the angst temporarily satiated. Unfortunately for the leftists, their hopes keep getting dashed by revelations that look to them like giants but turn out to be nothing but windmills.

They are still holding out the fervent expectation that a definitively damning revelation will finally appear that will lead to impeachment and validate their fantasies of an election stolen by agents of the evil empire. In the meantime, the Trump agenda chugs along.

As long as the investigation continues, Mueller is inadvertently helping Trump (and America at large) by channeling and mollifying the left's irrational anger while Trump's MAGA machine flies under the radar.

As an added benefit, it is energizing and mobilizing Republican voters against this injustice and turning many moderate liberal Democrats away from the radicalism of the left as exemplified by the Mueller mob's lawlessness and double standards (e.g., granting immunity to Hillary associate Podesta to prosecute Trump associate Manafort for the same crime).

Trump has managed an incredible portfolio of positive accomplishments in only eighteen months, much more than many other presidents have accomplished in eight years in office. He has done this in spite of vastly powerful governmental and non-governmental forces working against him, including much of his own party. The Mueller investigation has been a comparatively minor obstruction to the implementation of Trump's agenda.

Once the Mueller investigation is concluded, assuming that no magical mystery revelation appears, it will be a huge depressive letdown for the left and will leave a giant vacuum to be filled with leftist rage and potential violence.

Trump is a smart and cunning individual. I believe he sees this scenario as well, as he appears to have no intention of ending the Mueller investigation prematurely. Even if the investigation were to drag on throughout Trump's (hopefully) two terms as president, it would probably continue to be to his overall advantage.

Unfortunately, Mueller's vindictive windmill-tilting is unfairly ruining the lives and families of Trump associates along the way.The mid-term elections are right around the corner, and many are worried that Russia is going to attempt to meddle in the elections once again. However, Facebook has pledged to monitor its platform more than usual. According to Facebook, it will be using a wide range of techniques to counter Russian operatives and others who attempt to influence the election. Facebook is also going to be using Artificial Intelligence here, to combat the Russians. Seeing as Artificial Intelligence is being used for just about everything these days, this shouldnt come as a surprise at all.

Facebook officials told reporters that they expect to find these efforts on its social media platform ahead of the mid-term elections which take place in November. But did decline to disclose whether they have already caught any of these operations yet. Since the previous election, where the Russians influenced voters, in favor of electing Donald Trump, Facebook has come under fire for not policing its platform enough, and separately, for allowing Cambridge Analytica to have access to so much data, without the users permission. So it makes sense that Facebook is taking this under advisement for the upcoming mid-terms, as it does need to vindicate itself.

This comes after Alex Stamos, the head of security at Facebook, wrote a letter back in March  that surfaced this week  about urging his colleagues to heed feedback about creepy features on Facebook. Also stating that Facebook should be collecting less data. Stamos also mentioned that Facebook should deprioritize short-term growth and revenue so it could restore trust in its users. This is important for a number of reasons, but firstly because users trust Facebook with all of its data and personal information. However that trust was broken after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, and it likely hit Facebooks monthly active user numbers. But well see if that did happen when Facebook reports earnings this week.Ford Motor has set up a self-driving unit valued at $4 billion as part of its broader effort to research and develop autonomous vehicles for commercial use. The ultimate goal is to launch its commercial self-driving platform in 2021. Toward that end, the automotive company is inviting third parties to invest in its newly created self-driving unit called Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC.

Ford Vice President Sherif Marakby will be responsible for the new autonomous vehicle business, which will be based in Fords new Corktown campus in Detroit where the company will conduct research, engineering, and systems integration for self-driving vehicles. Fords own investment also includes the $1 billion that was previously reserved for Argo AI, a self-driving startup based in Pittsburgh. Ford purchased Argo AI for $1 billion last year as part of its plans to develop the computational backed for self-driving cars. Since then, Fords self-driving ambition has steadily progressed with a number of partnerships with several companies and a string of research and development efforts centered around self-driving technologies. Last February, Ford began testing its own self-driving vehicle fleet in Miami, Florida, with the vehicles in question being powered by the technology built by Argo AI. Last month, the company teamed up with RideOS on autonomous car navigation software.

Last September, Ford and Lyft announced a self-driving partnership designed with the goal of jointly deploying new autonomous vehicles. Additionally, Waymo and Uber have also been publicly testing self-driving cars in cities across the United States, giving the company an edge in the emerging local market for self-driving vehicles. With the launch of the new self-driving spin-off, Ford said it hopes to more speedily explore various business opportunities in the segment, albeit details on the matter remain scarce. U.S. legislators have also been slow in their efforts to draft legislation meant to allow for commercial implementations of self-driving tech, with large-scale deployment hence still likely being years away.LG Display has posted its second-quarter earnings for 2018, showing slight decreases across the board in the face of growing competition in the industry. For clarity, the company in question is LG Electronics display technology division and its losses come in spite of the fact that the firm has reportedly been supplying screens for none other than Apple. The news isnt all bad, as the company did post a relatively positive showing for Q1 2018. For the quarter ending June 30, the companys revenues fell to around $4.9 million, which is a difference of around a single percent drop from last quarters $5 million. Worse, operating losses rose quarterly to approximately $249.9 million up from $86.8 million. Finally, net losses were up by more than 500-percent moving quarter-over-quarter from $43.4 million to around $266.8 million. EBITDA figures fell around $116 million as well.

On a year-over-year basis, LG Display isnt doing a whole lot better either. However, the company chalks its past few earnings reports primarily up rapidly falling panel pricing coupled with lower demand from manufacturers. Moreover, LG Display has been shifting strategies in a bid to compete with Samsung and others in the industry, specifically in the market for OLED panels. As a relatively new player in that portion of the industry, that has resulted in a higher-than-normal level of borrowing and spending. In terms of sales, nearly half of LGs display revenue was generated by televisions  approximately 42-percent, while mobile came second at around 22-percent thanks to partnerships and sales of its own mobile devices. Tablets and laptops accounted for 19-percent while more traditional desktop computer monitors earned around 17-percent of LG Displays revenue. The company expects to return to profitability on television panels in the third-quarter of 2018.

Looking forward, LG Display will be redoubling its efforts in OLED, beginning with further investments through the latter half of 2019 and its entry into the global market for larger panels. Of course, portions of that will obviously be in the television sector but it also plans to focus on differentiating itself in the LCD display segment. That includes a renewed focus on trimming back bezels and creating borderless displays for use across the tech industry. That will be augmented by the engineering and introduction of high-value LCD televisions. Sales are expected to be mostly driven by the upcoming shopping seasons with improvements predicted for Q3 2018.The deadline for Qualcomms proposed merger of Dutch NFC innovator NXP Semiconductors will run out in a matter of hours but theres still no word from China on the matter as Beijings antitrust watchdog has yet to approve the deal after spending the better part of the last two years reviewing it, at least officially. Insiders cited by Reuters believe the Far Eastern country remains adamant to continue stalling as its trade war with the United States is still escalating and would possibly be prepared to block the deal from materializing completely, with that move being likely to raise the already high tensions between the worlds two largest economies.

Qualcomms inability to close the $44 billion NXP purchase in a timely manner exposed it to the threat of being acquired by Broadcom earlier this year as a significant number of its investors were prepared to sell the company, though the Trump administration ended up preventing the hostile takeover, citing national security concerns. Any scenario wherein Beijing fails to approve Qualcomms proposed acquisitions would likely be interpreted by the West as the de facto proof that Chinas competition watchdogs arent interested in maintaining fair trade as much as theyre focused on serving the state regime, one insider claims.

Qualcomms move to acquire the Dutch firm in late 2016 in a bid to diversify its operations and make its revenue stream less reliant on smartphone technologies, an area in which its performance is likely to start declining moving forward amid a wave of antitrust concerns regarding its patent licensing practices. With NXP under its corporate umbrella, the San Diego-based chipmaker would instantly gain a much larger foothold in the IoT and connected vehicle segment, some of its largest potential growth avenues in the long term. One insider close to Qualcomm recently claimed the company hasnt made any progress on the investigation led by Chinas State Administration for Market Regulation despite being cooperative, having likened the state agencys probe to a stone wall.Autonomous vehicle startup Renovo and the A.I. experts at Speak With Me are teaming up on a new in-vehicle driver-to-machine experience. More directly, Speak With Me is bringing its emotionally-aware artificial intelligence to the former companys AWare-branded ecosystem. Thats Renovos operating system specifically designed for use with autonomous vehicles and vehicle fleets. The joint venture will result in an interactive user-facing assistant designed for cross-compatibility with any vehicle running Renovos AWare. In short, that will enable partners and fleet vehicles already using AWare to access and present drivers or riders with a voice-controlled experience in-vehicle. Since it will work with any vehicle and be designed to integrate with any third-party software in the AWare ecosystem, consistency should be bolstered and development times shortened.

For Speak With Me, the decision to partner with Renovo comes down to AWares robust infrastructure and Renovos ability to scale deployment at a commercial level. The growing number of vehicles and vehicle platforms utilizing Renovos AWare, according to Speak With Me Founder and CEO Ajan Juneja, will provide the company with a way to reach more passengers more quickly. That will presumably enable the company to strengthen its brand in the space while also providing end users a meaningful A.I. platform for interacting with their vehicle. Simultaneously, the Renovo ecosystem already includes services tied in with the automated driving system managed by the OS itself, including route management systems. The company also offers solutions for passenger management, fleet operations, remote teleoperation, commerce, and advertising. Integrating a voice-interactive platform will give those systems a new way to be interacted with. That will be similar to a smart home hub or smart speaker but with an emotionally aware A.I. that can read and interact with users more comprehensively. It can also learn to recognize users by voice and work when disconnected from data services using past interactions and contextual cues.

With regard to when the system will become available, Renovos announcement claims that it already is. Theres no mention of cost or availability but it is presumably available anywhere the companys AWare platform is. Moreover, it can be added to any vehicle that is already using that platform. Moving forward, the company also suggests that even more innovative solutions are in the works for the automated mobility platform, although the company is not giving away any details with regard to what those might be.The upcoming Sony Xperia XZ3 has made a new unofficial appearance in a series of leaked CAD renders, as well as a short video depicting the handsets exterior design from all angles. Unlike some prior leaks where the alleged device was showcased while wrapped in a protective case, the latest CAD renders at hand reveal a single main camera configuration as opposed to a dual-camera setup, and the overall design language seemingly resembles the companys ongoing flagship and soon-to-be predecessor  the Sony Xperia XZ2.

According to the new images, Sonys next Xperia model will sport a circular, rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, and the device will boast a very glossy finish on the back panel. A metal frame surrounds the device accommodating a USB port at the bottom as well as a SIM/SD card tray at the top. The display appears to have very thin side edges but the same cannot be said for the top and bottom bezels. The lower bezel accommodates the OEMs logo while the upper one seemingly holds a front-facing camera. The display itself has rounded corners and the overlying protective glass appears to wrap around all four edges and corners of the device. All in all, the leaked CAD renders depict what could be described as an incremental design change compared to the ongoing Sony Xperia XZ2, and this seems to fall in line with the OEMs usual strategy except for the rarer cases in which it made the switch from one design language to the next.

As for specifications, several hardware details pertaining to the device have emerged in a couple of instances so far, and there has been some conflicting data at least in regards to the screen size, citing a 5.9-inch, 5.8-inch or 5.7-inch diagonal. In any case, the panel is expected to have a resolution of 2160 by 1080 resulting in an elongated 18:9 aspect ratio, and under the hood the unit should conceal Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 chipset boasting a total of eight CPU cores  four of which operate at a frequency of up to 2.8GHz  and an Adreno 630 graphics processor. The chipset will presumably be coupled with 6GB of RAM and the flagship is expected to hit the market in multiple storage configurations including 64GB and 128GB. Although its unclear when the Sony Xperia XZ3 will be introduced to the public, the OEM will attend IFA in Berlin near the end of next month and the flagships appearance at the event remains a possibility.Uber has announced that it will restart the testing of its self-driving vehicle fleet, with the new public road trials set to take place in Pittsburgh and with the vehicles operating in manual mode. The ride-sharing company halted all of its autonomous driving tests across the country after a self-driving Uber vehicle hit and fatally injured a woman in Tempe, Arizona, last March. According to a preliminary investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the self-driving Volvo XC90 from Ubers autonomous fleet saw a jaywalking woman six seconds before hitting her, raising concerns about the configuration Uber used for testing its self-driving vehicles in the state. It was also found that Uber disabled the SUVs emergency brake so as to minimize the potential for erratic behavior of the vehicle.

While Uber decided to permanently shut down its self-driving operations in Arizona following the fatal incident, terminating the jobs of some 200 employees, the company reiterated that it wont be exiting the self-driving segment following the incident. It was reported in May that the companys autonomous driving operations would be restarted in Pittsburgh in the future as soon as the federal probe into the Tempe incident is concluded. Eric Meyhofer, Head of Uber Advanced Technologies Group, said in a recent Medium post that the ride-sharing company plans to redeploy self-driving vehicles in Pittsburgh with a backup driver sitting behind the wheel and controlling the vehicle hands-on while a passenger in the backseat records all notable circumstances.

Uber is also taking into consideration the things it learned from the recent fatal crash in order to maintain vehicle safety while testing its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh. Specifically, the startup will install a real-time driver-monitoring system in all of its autonomous vehicles to alert backup drivers and help them maintain focus. Ubers self-driving fleet will also feature a native collision avoidance system that will stay on during the entire course of every autonomous trip. The system is designed to automatically brake under specific circumstances and warn the backup driver about an imminent collision. The goal of the testing is to create virtual simulation scenarios in real time to improve system performance and develop accurate HD maps meant to help the companys vehicles navigate any environment.BarcelonaThe Catalan employers association Foment del Treball (Business Promotion) reported yesterday that 2017 was another "lost year" with regards to infrastructure investment in Catalonia, adding to a decades-long deficit in public spending. In recent years, however, the situation has worsened because, in addition to the traditionally insufficient investment in the case of Catalonia, there have been Spain-wide cutbacks in expenditures, which have hit an all-time low. Thus, if in 2009 infrastructure investment as a percentage of total public spending was 12%, it is now at 5%.

Foment laid the blame equally at the feet of the central government and the Generalitat, but the responsibility is not exactly the same. The association itself admitted that in recent years investment by Spain in Catalan infrastructure has been between 10% and 13%, despite this territory contributing 19% of Spanish GDP. It should be remembered that this is so because successive Spanish governments have failed to comply with the third additional clause of the Catalan Statute, which states that for seven years Spain had to invest in Catalonia the equivalent of its contribution to GDP that is, 19%. Spains former finance minister Cristobal Montoro used to justify this non-compliance citing the Constitutional Court, which in its ruling against the Statute said that this clause could not be obligatory for the central government because it could not condition the drafting of the Spanish budget by Congress. The result of the ruling and the unwillingness of the PP aborted the timid recovery of the investment that had been made during 2007-2011, despite never having reached full compliance with the letter of the Catalan Statute.

Therefore, now we are beginning to suffer the consequences of all these years of low spending. From a list of 100 strategic infrastructure projects issued by Foment in 2015, only three have been finished by 2018, and progress made in only a dozen more. The Mediterranean railway corridor, new road and rail access to the Port of Barcelona, the widening of the N-340, the N-II in Girona, the connection of the A-2 with the C-32 and that of the A-2 with the AP-7 in Castellbisbal, and the completion of the B-40 are just some of the pending infrastructure projects in Catalonia.

This list should serve as the basis for a common front against Madrid to put pressure on the new Minister of Business Promotion, Jose Lluis Abalos, who used to support the Mediterranean Corridor when he was in the opposition. It would be interesting if the Parliament were to hold a single-topic debate on the lack of infrastructure investment suffered by Catalonia, and see what positions are taken by PSC, Ciudadanos, and the PP.

The Generalitat, for its part, should move forward according to its capabilities in identifying which are the strategic infrastructure projects that must be developed, and earmark resources for them, or at least lay the groundwork to do so in the near future.

The Catalan economy is competing in a global economy with leading regions where elements that favor competitiveness, such as good communication and transport networks, can tip the balance. And the opportunities missed today will not be seen again.COP26 may be a cop-out in the making COP26 is just about a month away. Delayed for a year by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference has built up even more expectations and momentum during the intervening monthsPro Gamer FaZe Censor Breaks Up With Yanet Garcia To Play More 'Call Of Duty'

Trending News: Gamer Dumps 'World's Sexiest Weathergirl' To Focus On 'Call Of Duty'

Long Story Short

Not so sure this guy has his priorities straight.

Long Story

Pro gamer Douglas FaZe Censor Martin, 23, has been having a rough go lately. He didn't make the cut for the Call of Duty World League and ended up signing up with a different team, New York Post reports. With Black Ops IV on its way, FaZe Censor wants to focus on his career, and apparently that means cutting ties with Mexican weathergirl Yanet Garcia.

Related: The Best Dating Sites For Gamers

FaZe Censor broke the news to his 2.5 million YouTube followers.

I dont have time for a girlfriend, he said.

Garcia, 26, who has been called 'the world's sexiest weathergirl,' told her Twitter followers that she's "heartbroken."

Heartbroken ??  Yanet GarcAa ?? (@IamYanetGarcia) July 20, 2018



But Garcia doesn't seem too gutted. She's gone back to delighting her 6.7 million Instagram followers with her regularly scheduled programming.

Hi A post shared by Yanet Garcia ?? (@iamyanetgarcia) on Jul 24, 2018 at 9:20am PDT

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question

Did he make the right call?

Drop This Fact

A recent study found that, contrary to popular belief, gamers have a lower level of premature ejaculation.Never Have I Ever: Been To A Sex Party

This Couple Went To A Swingers Party... Then Told Us Everything

Did you ever play Never Have I Ever in college? Here are the rules: Everyone puts up ten fingers, and you go around in a circle and one by one share something that youve never done (and as human nature goes, the experiences shared are usually sexual). If youve done it, you have to put one finger down, and of course, drink. The first person to put all 10 fingers down loses or wins, depending on how you look at it.

One day we all have to become grown-ups, but that doesnt mean we have to stop playing Never Have I Ever, or better yet  checking things off your bucket list. AskMen is still playing, and the rules are simple: In each edition of this column, we speak to a couple about something theyve always wanted to try in bed. They tell us about the fantasy, and why it turns them on. Then, they actually do it, and we get the lowdown on how the experience matched the fantasy.

When we think about sex parties, the mind often conjures images of orgies with strangers, or naked models in masks. Are sex parties secret societies akin to Eyes Wide Shut? Are they safe? What if they turn you on, but youre in a committed relationship?

RELATED: This Couple Had A Threesome - And Told Us All About It

As a sex writer who has been to more than her fair share, I can assure you, that when done properly, a sex party is much safer than a frat party, as members are screened, taught about consent, and there are usually guardians on sight making sure everything happening is safe and consensual. Orgies with strangers can take place, but like most social events, a good sex party is what you make it.

Sylvia and Dion are a couple in their 20s living in San Francisco. Theyre passionately in love and enjoy a sex life that reflects that. While they are monogamous, many of their friends are in open relationships, and they enjoy kinky sex, such as role-playing, use of toys and restraints, and frequently check in with one another to make sure theyre both happy and satisfied in their relationship. Neither of them has ever been a sex party before, but it was on both of their sexual bucket lists.

However, they had questions. Could they go and only sleep with one another? Wouldnt a sex party be so hot they may end up fooling around with someone else, and then regretting it later? Would people watching them make love be creepy, or hot? After selecting a party that friends assured them was classy and safe, not sleazy, they dressed up in costume (yeah, most sex parties require some sort of costume) and went. What happened, and how did it affect their relationship?

Read on to learn about Sylvia and Dions first sex party experience.

AskMen: What made you want to go to a sex party in the first place?

Dion: I think it was mostly curiosity for me.

Sylvia: Yeah, I was curious as well. I have so many friends in the scene who love it. But I admit I was nervous, I dont know, sex parties are still taboo, and most of my friends in the scene are [polyamorous], and were not, but we decided to go and just sleep with one another.

How did the conversation go down?

Sylvia: It was an ongoing conversation. I feel like weve been talking about going to a sex party for months, honestly. And then our friend invited us to one that shes involved with; it was small, and under-water themed, haha, so we said yes.

Dion: We might try playing with others at some point, but for our first time we decided that we would just have sex with one another and see if we liked the scene.

So did you? How did the fantasy of a sex party match up with the reality?

Dion: Well, it was more of a normal party than I expected, to start. It took a few hours before people started having sex, but it was held in a house, and the first part was just drinks and mingling and like a Burning Man-type-vibe party with everyone all dressed up. I think I expected to walk into a full-blown orgy, but the sex started happening naturally, people just kind of started pairing off.

Sylvia: Also, watching sex in real life isnt like porn. I mean yes, we both got super turned on watching everyone else have sex, but you know theres condoms around, and lube, and starting and stopping. Thats one thing I keep telling everyone, watching sex in real life is different than watching it in porn.

So basically, it sounds like everything was more realistic and normal than you expected. What were your concerns, if any, going in?

Dion: We agreed to just have sex with each other, but I have to admit, I dont know, part of me wondered if we, or me, or Sylvia, would end up getting super turned on and approached by someone else, and wed have group sex or sex with other people, and in the moment it would be fine, but the next day wed feel weird about it.

Did that happen?

Sylvia: No, it was perfect, honestly. We waited until other people started having sex because we didnt want to be the first ones. The thing about sex parties, I mean duh, but just being in that environment is so hot. We were both so turned on, and after a bit of watching went into one of the rooms upstairs and just fucked.

RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About Swinging, Explained

Dion: There was another couple in there, and some guys hanging around. That was the part I thought would be creepy, but it turns out that I really get off on dudes watching me fuck Sylvia.

I very much understand. And for you, Sylvia? How was it?

Sylvia: Oh god Im addicted. I came so hard. I was watching the other couple fuck while Dion went down on me and Jesus Christ, I haven't come that hard in a long time. And then, to be honest, after we both came, we dipped and went home.

So it sounded like it went above and beyond expectations. Will you go again? Do you think youd ever hook up with other people or do some group stuff?

Dion: Maybe a few more times just us, but after this Im open to it.As of earlier this year, Momoa has been seen around on this custom piece, believed to be an original Harley Davidson Knucklehead but looking like it would fit just perfectly into the Mad Max universe. Its got personality and power, and it matches Momoas public image down to a T.Except when it refuses to start, that is. It happened the other day in the parking lot of a grocery store, near the actors home in Topanga Canyon, California, the Daily Mail notes.It was a hot summer day and eyewitnesses noticed Momoas frustration grow as he struggled to start the engine and couldnt. He also had a brief Pantene moment when he loosened his manbun and flipped his locks, but it can be written off to his desire to play up to the paparazzi. After all, that standalone Aquaman movie isnt going to promote itself, you know.Either way, one eyewitness tells the British tab that Momoas struggles ended after about 40 minutes, when he was finally able to ride off. He still looked unsure, though, and was perhaps fearing another malfunction.It was mid-afternoon and over 100-degrees, you could tell he was really annoyed, the spy explains. He would start it up, get his helmet back on and jump on it only to have it conk out. This went on for about 40 minutes before he ultimately got it going.Last year, Momoa received a surprise gift on the set of Aquaman: a brand new Harley-Davidson . Should this custom bike no longer work at all one day, hes got plenty of other options, is what were saying.Heres a video of Momoa having some fun with his bikes.Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone, declared John Elkann on behalf of Exor N.V., the holding company incorporated in the Netherlands and controlled by the Agnelli family. "My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done. Our thoughts are with Manuela, and his sons Alessio and Tyler, concluded the grandson of Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli, who holds the reins to Fiat Chrysler through Exor.Despite his sometimes dubious comments and passion for wearing sweaters, Marchionne is the man who saved Chrysler from bankruptcy in 2009. Following the mess known as Daimler Chrysler, the American automaker was merged with Fiat, thus entering a new era of increased profitability and synergies.Sergio was supposed to retire from FCA in April 2019 right after the conclusion of the 2014 to 2018 business plan, but he became ill after a shoulder surgery operated at the end of June. Fiat Chryslers corporate directors appointed Mike Manley as the successor, moving to this role after heading Jeep and Ram Trucks.In spite of his blunt tongue in the presence of automotive media, Marchionne turned Chrysler (and Fiat) around with the help of aggressive plans rooted in his experience with accounting. Add tax specialist, business strategist, and attorney to this long list of aptitudes, and youll understand why a man such as Sergio managed to perform so well in these past 14 years of reign.The chief instigator of the Big Three in Detroit will be remembered for moving boldly through highs and lows, betting it all while minimizing risk as much as possible. The legacy of Marchionne will live through the newly released five-year plan presented at the Capital Markets Day 2018 on June 1st, 2018, which will see Fiat Chrysler invest no less than $10.5 billion in electric and hybrid vehicle technology.The concept of home-to-office personal flight is sweeping the nation, and it seems multirotor ideas are cropping up each week. The Silicon Valley startup VTOL BlackFly is showing particular promise, and recently demonstrated flying prototypes under the ultralight category. It arrived at aviations Mecca this week.

Marketed by Opener Inc., the carbon-fiber BlackFly is equipped with eight electric motors. Each motor weighs four pounds and generates 130 pounds of thrust. Opener reps say the company has been testing motor-rotor sets for more than three and half years, covering a distance equivalent to 20 circumnavigations of the globe. There are two batteries per each engine-rotor pod, and theyre constantly being monitored.

The control systems in each wing are triple redundant, leaving room for system failures, said Alan Eustace, director and salesperson for Opener Inc. Eustace served as senior vice president of knowledge at Google, and has held the world record for highest-altitude free-fall jump since Oct. 24, 2014.

The BlackFly is restricted to 62 MPH in the United States. The BlackFlys unique canted wings fore and aft provide lift in level flight, easing the burden on the lift rotors. With a 25 percent reserve, it can fly for about 25 miles before a recharge. With a regular 110-volt outlet, it can chargein seven hours, and in only one hour using a 220-volt outlet.

While version three has not yet flown, version two has made more than 500 takeoffs and landings, often with worst-case-scenario engine failures programmed into the test card.

It was built completely with safety in mind, Eustace said. Like a modern drone, the BlackFly has a go to home feature, and also auto-land and a ballistic parachute.

Version three of the BlackFly will be available for purchase in 2019. While it does not yet have a price, Eustace said it will be competitive with the price of an SUV.

For more information go to www.opener.aero.Dean International, the flight school that lost two airplanes and four pilots in a midair crash last week, has closed, the Miami Herald reported on Monday. We cant live with ourselves; the crash devastated us, Robert Dean, the schools owner, told the Herald. We had already planned to downsize because the embassies have stopped giving visas to students, but this was the final straw. Its the right thing to do. About 200 students have been training at the flight school, most of them from Saudi Arabia, India and Latin America. Students told CBSMiami they had been told to expect a refund from the school within three to six months. The Herald also reported that FAA records show the schools aircraft were involved in five accidents from 2007 to 2017, with two fatalities. The school has been in operation since 1995.

The Herald spoke to dozens of students at the school who asked not to be named because of their immigration status. Everything is up in the air for us. No pun intended, one student said. If we dont get our money backthe average tuition is $37,000we wont be able to transfer to another flight school. The student said they also are concerned their visas wont be renewed. Dean told the Herald he plans to liquidate all assets at the school, and then give students their money back. The crash had nothing to do with maintenance, but rather human error, Dean said. It was a freak accident, thats what it was. Like one in a hundred billion. Each airplane in last weeks crash, a Piper PA-34 and a Cessna 172, had two people on board. Ralph Knight, 72, an FAA examiner, was flying with Dean student Nisha Sejwal, 19; and Jorge Sanchez, 22, a CFI at Dean, was flying with Carlo Zanetti Scarpati, 22. Information about Scarpati, and who was in each airplane, was not immediately available.Daan Klaver Co-founder of Build in Amsterdam, a development agency specializing in strategy, branding and eCommerce shares with us 11 tips for creating great e-commerce brand experiences. Learn how No Pitching, No layers, Asking Why, Stealing and more, are the keys for success.

Steal from anywhere that resonates with your gut feeling, or anywhere that inspires you, ideas are formed by things you've seen consciously and unconsciously in the past and that will lead to new ideas and innovation, developers know it - why do you think they have open source? they steal from each other. It's not where you take things from, it's where you take them to.

Subscribe now - watch the hottest digital design talks and interviews from Awwwards, on our official YouTube Channel.

Next stop - awwwards Conference New York November 15th & 16th 2018, digital designers network and learn key tools from visionaries and leading agencies about current trends and emerging web technologies, tickets on sale now!Pakistans national election campaign has ended, and voters are headed to the polls today. With the incumbent PML-N party hobbled by numerous criminal cases, electoral disqualifications, and arrests, and with its leader in prison, most analysts expect that Imran Khans PTI party will win the vote.

The big picture: Whatever coalition government forms will have to confront a brewing balance-of-payments emergency, not unlike those in 1999, 2008 and 2013. Pakistan lacks sufficient currency reserves to cover its imports for more than 2 months (the IMF recommends having enough for at least 3). If Pakistan cant cover those costs or the service on its debts, its economy could sink into a crisis.

Global economic conditions have exacerbated the problems, as rising oil prices and declining remittance flows into the country have led ratings agencies to downgrade Pakistans outlook to negative.

Another challenge is rising Pakistani imports for ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure projects. Chinese soft loans are supposed to stimulate private investment, industrial production and export growth, but these have not materialized, and investors worry about corruption, taxation, political instability and bureaucratic red tape.

While the military has been the guardian of the Pakistani state, it lacks the tools or training to effectively steer the economy, leaving the job up to civilians, whether technocrats or politicians.

Pakistan is likely to follow its past playbook and turn to Saudi Arabia, the IMF or China for cash  but each would come with strings attached. Saudi Arabia could demand military support in Yemen; the IMF could require significant economic reforms, with the U.S. seeking greater Pakistani pressure on the Taliban; and China might insist on equity swaps in exchange for stabilization loans or debt restructuring.

What to watch: After the electoral dust settles, various states will likely continue jockeying for opportunities in Pakistan's unsteady economy.

Sameer Lalwani is senior fellow for Asia strategy and South Asia Program co-director at the Stimson Center.The three biggest U.S. airlines  American, United and Delta  have removed references to Taiwan from their websites, complying with a demand from the Chinese government.

Why it matters: It's an example of China using one of its most powerful weapons against the United States  wielding its massive market leverage to influence American companies  to enforce one of its key foreign policy tenets.

The backdrop:

China gave foreign airlines that referred Taiwan as a destination separate from China until July 25 to make changes, saying the airlines were violating the One China policy and threatening to shut down the airlines' Chinese websites if they refused.

The U.S. companies were holding out as several foreign airlines bent to China's will, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed China's ask as "Orwellian."

Taiwan said it would consider boycotting airlines that started referring to it as a Chinese territory, but China's population of 1.4 billion easily trumps Taiwan's 24 million.

Go deeper: China's push to erase Taiwan.On Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces used two surface-to-air missiles to shoot down a Syrian fighter jet that strayed two kilometers into Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights.

Why it matters: It is the first time Israel has shot down a manned Syrian aircraft in four years, and comes at a time of heightened tensions in the region, as Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad moves to mop up remaining resistance to his regime, and a host of foreign countries with a stake in the conflict push to shore up their interests.

Why did this happen?

Israeli defenses are on high alert at the moment, because Assads forces are attacking Syrian rebels in areas near the Israeli border. Assad is close to reestablishing control of territory long held by rebel groups. The Israeli action appears to have been an automatic response to a Syrian jet that got too close.

What might happen next?

Tensions are high. Syria reacted angrily on Monday after Israel evacuated Syrian volunteers providing humanitarian assistance in rebel-held areas in the face of a Syrian military advance  the so-called White Helmets. Also on Monday, Israel reportedly used its David's Sling missile defense system for the first time, in this case in response to two Syrian surface-to-surface missiles fired near Israeli territory.

That said, a major escalation in response to this particular incident is unlikely. Israel understands that Assad has survived Syrias civil war and will remain in power, but it wants to signal to his victorious forces that they must respect Israeli airspace and defenses now and in the future. The Syrian government will continue to issue complaints and threats, but Syria is fighting rebels, not Israel.

How does this piece fit in the broader puzzle?

This otherwise isolated incident is interesting because it highlights the complex overlapping relationships playing out in a very tight space. A few key facts:

The primary threat to Israel comes not from Syrian forces but from Iranian fighters that Assad has invited to set up operations near the Israeli border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to court the Russian government in hopes of winning an agreement that would sideline Iranian involvement in Syria.

Russian forces would like to elbow Iranian forces from Syria to expand its own influence there, but Russia also cares about it relationship with Iran.

Tuesdays incident involved the use of US-made Patriot missiles to shoot down a Russian-made Syrian jet, a reminder that outside powers still have intense interest in this arena of conflict.

What to watch: Throw in Turkish forces, various Kurdish groups, surviving Syrian rebels, the remnants of ISIS, ambitious Russians, internal Trump administration tensions over relations with Moscow, an increasingly isolated and frustrated Iranian leadership, and some keenly interested Saudis and there is plenty of suspicion, hostility, and weaponry to keep the region on simmer for the foreseeable future.

Go deeper: Russia wants to push Iran 65 miles from Israel's border in Syria.

Sign up for Signal, a twice-weekly newsletter from GZERO Media, a Eurasia Group company.Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp has won in Georgia's Republican primary runoff election for governor against Casey Cagle after receiving President Trump's endorsement, reports the Associated Press. He will face Stacey Abrams in the fall primary for the governor's seat.

Expand chart Data: Associated Press; Chart: Axios Visuals

The backdrop: Trump endorsed Kemp over Cagle just last week. Though both were pro-Trump candidates, Kemp was the candidate who leaned in hardest to Trump's base, claiming to be a candidate who is "so conservative" that he was willing to deport immigrants with his own pickup truck.

Trump bump: Cagle beat Kemp by more than 10 points in the May primary election, but neither broke more than 50% of the vote which resulted in this runoff election.

Kemp is one of six Gubernatorial candidates Trump has endorsed in 2018.

The president is in good favor with Republicans in the state, the NYT reports, and had an 81% approval rating among them in January.

Many of the precincts Kemp struggled in in May he dominated this time around.

A tweet previously embedded here has been deleted or was tweeted from an account that has been suspended or deleted.

Yes, but: The New York Times reported Republican leaders were surprised by Trump's endorsement of Kemp and have some concerns about him alienating moderate Republicans and independent voters.

The other side: Elisabeth Pearson, the executive director of the Democratic Governor's Association, said Cagle was spot on when he said "this primary was about who could be the craziest on divisive issues, and Brian Kemp fits the bill."

Correction (Nov. 8): This article has been corrected to note that Brian Kemp suggested he would use his pickup truck to round up unauthorized immigrants. An earlier version of the story wrote that he would use an "immigration bus," which was instead used by a competing candidate in the Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary.A body of liquid water stretching at least 20 kilometers, or 12.4 miles, across may exist under the icy surface of Mars' southern pole, according to new research published Wednesday in the journal Science.

Why it matters: The findings could put to rest the long-running question of whether liquid water still exists on the red planet, or if it all disappeared long ago. This question has major ramifications for the planet's habitability. For more than 30 years, the presence of water has been one of Mars' deepest mysteries, since it is a key building block for life.

Past studies concluded that while there are still small amounts of gaseous liquid, water ice and other liquid forms on Mars, water doesn't stick around for a long time on the planet.

Now, Roberto Orosei of the Institute of Radioastronomy of Bologna, along with nearly a dozen other researchers, found evidence there is a stable body of water underneath Mars' southern ice cap.

The details: The team used an instrument known as the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) to study a portion of the planet's Southern Ice Cap, known as Planum Australe, from 2012 to 2015. MARSIS, which is part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft that is orbiting the red planet, sends radar pulses that can penetrate below the surface of the ice cap.

To determine what material lurks beneath the surface, researchers then measured how the signals propagated beneath the surface and reflected back to the spacecraft.

What they found:

The varying brightness of the reflections from the radar profile showed scientists what lurks beneath the surface, which in this case is likely water ice and dust.

The area studied was topographically flat, about 20 kilometers, or 12 miles, wide and seasonally covered by a relatively thin layer of carbon dioxide ice that's no more than 1.5 kilometers, or 0.9 miles, deep.

Previous work in 2009 by the Phoenix Lander's Wet Chemistry Lab detected large amounts of magnesium, calcium and sodium perchlorate in the soil of the northern plains of Mars that also support the evidence of liquid water.

The report rules out a number of alternative explanations for this bright reflector, leaving the existence of liquid water, either as a distinct water layer or as saturated sediments, as the only explanation.

"This subsurface anomaly on Mars has radar properties matching water or water-rich sediments," said Roberto Orosei, lead author of the new study, in a press release.

"This is just one small study area; it is an exciting prospect to think there could be more of these underground pockets of water elsewhere, yet to be discovered."

 Roberto Orosei, lead author of the new study

The study finds that the radar profile of the area resembles those of liquid water located beneath Earth's ice sheets, such as Lake Vostok within Antarctica. Though temperatures at this depth would probably be below freezing, other factors may lower the melting point, including chemicals present in the liquid as well as the pressure of the ice lying on top of it.

The findings could shed light on Mars' history, just as Earth's ice sheets contain data on the composition of our atmosphere.

"Like Earths ice sheets, the martian ice caps are important climate archives," writes Anja Diez, a glaciologist at the Norwegian Polar Institute who was not involved in the study, in an accompanying paper.

It's unclear if any forms of life exist in Mars' subsurface lake. On Earth, lakes located underneath ice sheets are known to contain some types of microbial life forms.

The findings are not a surprise, National Environment Research Council fellow Jon Wade tells Axios. Scientists are doing what they have been for the past 30 years, he said, following the water.

Yes, but the raw data is limited, the researchers note. A large surface area is required for the radar, which limits the possibility of identifying smaller bodies of liquid water or if any connections exist between them. "Because of this, there is no reason to conclude that the presence of subsurface water on Mars is limited to a single location," the study states.

The bottom line: The research can show big picture concepts to several parties involved. As more is discovered about the evolution of the once water planet, scientists may learn how Earth will evolve just as Mars did, and business ventures can understand if Mars can sustain life for humans, Wade tells Axios.

"If you dont have to take water to Mars, then thats one thing you dont have to worry about."

 Jon Wade, National Environment Research Council

What's next: Searching for more water. In the future, higher-resolution data could show smaller liquid water bodies on Mars that influence the ice flow and might be detectable below martian ice caps, Anja Diez wrote in an accompanying paper.

By analyzing Mars' glaciers and taking into account the new findings of liquid water below the south polar ice cap, scientists can "help unravel the climate history of Mars," Diez said.

Go deeper: Where in the world is Mars' water? (Axios)1 big thing: Democracy ... meh

Unforced by coup or war, one developed country after another has chosen an authoritarian style of democracy over the last two years, leaving millions mystified by a political shift very few foresaw.

The trend, supported in elections, has forced conventional leaders to scramble, mostly without effect.

The big picture : Leading scholars tell Axios that economics ultimately underpins the turmoil  a financial slide that erodes the association of democracy with rising living standards and upward mobility, while populists and partisan media stoke resentment.

: Leading scholars tell Axios that economics ultimately underpins the turmoil  a financial slide that erodes the association of democracy with rising living standards and upward mobility, while populists and partisan media stoke resentment. Why it matters: "The big danger," says Yale's Timothy Snyder, author of 'The Road to Unfreedom,' is that people decide that full-bore authoritarianism is inevitable. Neither democracy nor authoritarianism is inevitable, he tells Axios. "Authoritarianism is, however, more likely if we dont attend to the challenges that make democracy harder."

Theatrically outsized personalities give the trend motive power  Russia's Vladimir Putin, the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and of course President Donald Trump. In an era of seemingly uncontrollable forces, these figures lend an air of break-all-the-rules derring-do, at least attempting to set things right.

In the most recent events , Trump assailed NATO allies in Brussels, courted U.S. rival Putin, and threatened, in an all-caps tweet, to annihilate Iran.

, Trump assailed NATO allies in Brussels, courted U.S. rival Putin, and threatened, in an all-caps tweet, to annihilate Iran. Polls show that such unrestrained behavior does not weaken the populists' hand, but instead seems to strengthen it.

"Populist authoritarian politicians are successful because they promote themselves as the voice of the people, and hence 'true' democracy, while undermining these checks and balances."

 Roberto Stefan Foa, a professor at the University of Melbourne

In a much-read April article in Foreign Affairs, Foa and Harvard's Yascha Mounk correlated the new politics with a shift in global wealth away from the democracies that fought the Cold War against Moscow. Within five years, they forecast, non-democratic nations such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia will be richer as a group than the Western liberal democracies.

That very fact sets the West on its heels. Simply put: autocratic regimes are competing in economic performance. And a lot of countries are noticing that the tide, led by China, is going toward the autocratic path.

China presents an especially vivid example  a superlatively vibrant economy built within authoritarianism, and proof that, contrary to what the U.S. has argued for decades, you need not be democratic to get rich.

Like prior great powers, China is creating far-reaching infrastructure  its Belt and Road Initiative  to stretch its reach around the world, in effect placing its vitality side-by-side with a West failing even to keep its middle class intact.

Yuen Yuen Ang, a professor at the University of Michigan, says Beijing's model is widely misunderstood. China is authoritarian, but not purely so. Rather, going back to Deng Xiao Ping, it has blended strong rule with "directed improvisation," she tells Axios.

"China is best understood as an 'autocracy with democratic characteristics.'"

 Ang

Go deeper: Read the whole postUnforced by coup or war, one developed country after another has chosen an authoritarian style of democracy over the last two years, an all-but unforeseen shift that has left more mainstream leaders scrambling to understand it and turn back time.

The big picture: Economics ultimately underpins the turmoil, leading scholars tell Axios  a financial slide that has eroded the association of democracy with rising living standards and upward mobility, all while populists and partisan media have stoked resentment and promised better.

Why it matters: "The big danger," says Yale's Timothy Snyder, author of 'The Road to Unfreedom,' is that people decide that full-bore authoritarianism is inevitable. Neither democracy nor authoritarianism are inevitable, he tells Axios. "Authoritarianism is, however, more likely if we dont attend to the challenges that make democracy harder."

Giving the trend power are theatrically outsized personalities  Russia's Vladimir Putin, the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and of course President Donald Trump.

are theatrically outsized personalities  Russia's Vladimir Putin, the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and of course President Donald Trump. Most recently, Trump assailed NATO allies in Brussels, courted U.S. rival Putin, and threatened, in an all-caps tweet, to annihilate Iran.

Trump assailed NATO allies in Brussels, courted U.S. rival Putin, and threatened, in an all-caps tweet, to annihilate Iran. Polls show that such unrestrained behavior does not weaken the populists' hand, but instead seems to strengthen it.

"Populist authoritarian politicians are successful because they promote themselves as the voice of the people, and hence 'true' democracy, while undermining these checks and balances," says Roberto Stefan Foa, a professor at the University of Melbourne. "And their success in country after country would suggest the degree of public support for democracy in its liberal sense is weaker than previously understood."

In a much-read April article in Foreign Affairs, Foa and Harvard's Yascha Mounk correlated the success of the new politics with a shift in global wealth away from the democracies that fought the Cold War against Moscow. Within five years, they forecast, non-democratic nations such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia will be richer as a group than the Western liberal democracies.

By 2022, Mounk and Foa wrote, more than 1.5 billion people will be living in economically mature autocracies, up from about 34 million in 1995.

and Foa wrote, more than 1.5 billion people will be living in economically mature autocracies, up from about 34 million in 1995. That very fact sets the West on its heels. Simply put: autocratic regimes are competing on economic performance. And a lot of countries are noticing that the tide, led by China, is going toward the autocratic path.

China presents an especially vivid example  a superlatively vibrant economy built within authoritarianism, and proof that, contrary to what the U.S. has argued for decades, you need not be democratic to get rich. Like prior great powers, China is creating far-reaching infrastructure  its Belt and Road Initiative  to stretch its reach around the world, in effect placing its vitality side-by-side with a West failing even to keep its middle class intact.

Just as we've discovered that democracy comes in different flavors, not all authoritarianism is the same, says Yuen Yuen Ang, a professor at the University of Michigan, who says Beijing's model is widely misunderstood.

that democracy comes in different flavors, not all authoritarianism is the same, says Yuen Yuen Ang, a professor at the University of Michigan, who says Beijing's model is widely misunderstood. China is authoritarian, but not purely so. Rather, going back to Deng Xiao Ping, it has blended strong rule with "directed improvisation," she tells Axios. State bureaucrats are left to use bottom-up methods to meet top-down goals.

"China is best understood as an 'autocracy with democratic characteristics.'"

 Ang

China's march and the politics unfolding across the West suggest to many that democracy with checks and balances is lost, but by some measures it remains just as strong, the scholars said. "Substantial majorities of the public in almost all democracies still think democracy is the best form of government," said Larry Diamond, a professor at Stanford.

Yet it will not be easy to claw back public support. Snyder argues that mainstream politicians need to attack economic inequality, which "makes a sense of the future very difficult and conversations among the very rich and the rest almost impossible." In addition, he said, something must be done about:

"Technology, in particular social media , that appeals to basic emotions of anxiety and tribe solidarity that makes it harder to create a public space and a sense of common interest."

, that appeals to basic emotions of anxiety and tribe solidarity that makes it harder to create a public space and a sense of common interest." "The absence of local news creation, which makes people less likely to trust the media that are available."

Go deeper: 2018  Year of the StrongmanAdvisers to President Trump say Joe Biden is the Democrat he most fears running against, and that Pennsylvania is the state he worries most about flipping against him.

Trumps calculation is based partly on how weak he sees other Democratic possibilities, including Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, and partly on whos capable of appealing to his base of working class whites.

Biden , sources tell me, doesn't think Trump is morally or politically fit for the Oval Office.

, sources tell me, doesn't think Trump is morally or politically fit for the Oval Office. The former vice president, who at 75 is three years older than Trump, pines to run and will test the waters this fall.

who at 75 is three years older than Trump, pines to run and will test the waters this fall. But family considerations could prevent him from ultimately pulling the trigger. Biden sees the same opening Trump does with working class voters, especially in Democratic states like Pennsylvania that Trump won.

Trump advisers say Biden, like the president, conveys authenticity, is comfortable in his own skin, can work a crowd, and relishes throwing and returning punches.

Biden could  and would  needle Trump, and get under his skin, with a brio that few other big-name Democrats could muster.

 and would  needle Trump, and get under his skin, with a brio that few other big-name Democrats could muster. He has kept his connection to his birthplace  Scranton, Pa., emblematic of the working-class, Rust Belt territory that joined Trump Country in 2016.

A Democratic source close to Biden said he'd be strong with "Obama-Trump voters" in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin where "the blue wall became the red threat"  Obama won them twice, then they flipped narrowly to Trump.

These are white, working-class voters who aren't college graduates (or have some college) and are anti-Washington. They voted for the anti-establishment candidate (Obama) in 2008 and again in 2016.

who aren't college graduates (or have some college) and are anti-Washington. They voted for the anti-establishment candidate (Obama) in 2008 and again in 2016. Biden allies say he'd be a strong candidate partly because he has nothing to lose  his last run would give him a sense of liberation.

say he'd be a strong candidate partly because he has nothing to lose  his last run would give him a sense of liberation. This fall, Biden will build up chits with Democrats by traveling every week to appear with candidates for House, Senate, governor and state legislature, and will make a slew of endorsements. In between, he'll work on the Biden Cancer Initiative, the Biden Institute and the Biden Foundation.

Republican sources tell me Pennsylvania, where Trump campaigned frequently and fervently in 2016, will be the toughest to hold of all the battleground states that put him in office.

"There's a reason Pennsylvania had eluded Republican presidential candidates as long as it did," said GOP operative Josh Holmes, president of the Cavalry LLC issue management firm. "You need a combination of a really effective campaign, a perfect message and a good environment."

Pennsylvania had eluded Republican presidential candidates as long as it did," said GOP operative Josh Holmes, president of the Cavalry LLC issue management firm. "You need a combination of a really effective campaign, a perfect message and a good environment." To make up for how badly Republican candidates do in urban Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, they need almost unattainable margins in the Philly suburbs or in the state's rural areas  the Trump route.

Be smart: Trump told "CBS Evening News" anchor Jeff Glor just after the Singapore summit: "I dream about Biden. That's a dream. ... I'd love to have it be Biden." What Trump meant was "wouldn't."A series of suicide bombings and raids has left at least 183 people dead, including 89 civilians, in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, AFP reports.

Why it matters: ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which targeted Syrian government outposts in the city of Sweida. Its fighters were eventually driven out of the surrounding villages they seized by pro-regime forces, but not before perpetrating one of the deadliest ISIS assaults ever in Syria.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ended a nationwide state of emergency that had been in place since a 2016 failed coup, weeks after winning re-election, reports BBC News.

Why it matters: Extended seven times since 2016, the state of emergency allowed the Turkish government to dismiss more than 100,000 people from public office and arbitrarily imprison more than 50,000, including American pastor Andrew Brunson. Erdogan assumed sweeping new executive powers after winning last months election, and appears to believe his position is sufficiently secure that further extensions of the state of emergency arent necessary.By Kamila Aliyeva

Growing energy demand and environmental problems associated with production of traditional energy have pushed the mankind to seek other ways of obtaining it -- using renewable sources of energy which tend to have much lower emissions.

Azerbaijan, the country rich with hydrocarbons, also aims to ensure the development of the alternative energy and make the use of renewable sources as widespread as possible. The country has adopted a number of measures to advance this area. Under the leadership of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the state program for the development of this type of energy until 2020 is being successfully implemented.

Recently, Azerbaijan conducted financial and profit-loss analyzes to determine the most appropriate forms and locations of renewable energy installations. The findings and assumptions reflected that the electricity generation from renewable energy sources with existing electricity tariffs is profitable for investors.

The State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources of Azerbaijan has determined areas, capacities, amounts to be invested in producing 4,200 megawatts in 2018-2020 and other required information.

In the coming years, the agency plans to implement 23 projects worth about 13 million manats as part of the Strategic Roadmap for the Development of Public Utilities (Electric and Thermal Energy, Water and Gas).

The projects include construction of wind, hydro and biofuel power plants with a total capacity of 4,200 megawatts. This is while 3,500 megawatts will account for wind power plants, 500 megawatts for solar power plants, and 200 megawatts will account for biofuel power plants. The cost of building wind power plants will be 10.2 million manats, solar - 1.48 million manats, and biofuel - 1.16 million manats.

The power plants will be able to generate 11,937 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. The implementation of these projects will help achieve natural gas savings of 2.986 million cubic meters of gas per year, as well as significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan also intends to be a business player on the alternative energy market by exporting solar panels.

Azerbaijan is preparing to export more modern solar panels to the international market, Deputy Director of the State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources Jamil Melikov told Trend.

Taking into account the appearance of modern solar panels, it makes no sense to supply the old type panels to the international market, since no one will buy them, he noted.

Therefore, in order to move forward we must first apply new technologies, set up the production of modern and high-performance solar panels, and only thereafter enter the markets of neighboring and other countries, Melikov said.

The issue of modernization of the plant for the production of solar panels of Azguntex company is on the agenda, he said.

It is not yet possible to specify the dates when the work in this direction will be completed, as the discussion of contracts and the definition of the amount of funds required for this work continue now. It is necessary to agree with the technology supplier, to determine commercial conditions and on this basis, to supply the necessary equipment, Melikov said.

The modernization of production will allow for increasing the power capacity of the panels from 250 to 330 watts. New solar panels will be able to accumulate more solar energy.

The work is estimated at 150,000-200,000 euros. The annual capacity of the plant after modernization will grow from 25 to 60-65 megawatts. The two production lines with a capacity of 100,000 panels per year will operate after completion of the modernization.

The Azguntex plant, producing solar panels, has been operating since April 2012. The service life of the produced solar panels is 30-40 years. The solar panels manufactured at the Azguntex plant will be used on two new solar power plants set to be commissioned in Azerbaijan in the near future

Presently, solar power plants in Azerbaijan operate in the cities of Gobustan and Samukh, the Baku settlements of Pirallahi and Surakhani. The power plant in Bakus Sahil settlement is fully ready for operation. After the start of its operation, it is also planned to commission a similar solar power plant in Sumgait city, where the work has almost been completed.

Today, the share of alternative energy sources in the electricity supply of Azerbaijan is 9.5 percent. In recent years, the development of renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan, the largest South Caucasus state on the Caspian shore, has been in the focus of attention.

Currently, the country is able to fully meet its own energy needs, and seeks to supply power to the European market.

Azerbaijan was able to build a strong power system in less than 20 years, conducting reconstruction and renovation of old generating capacities and creating new ones.

The energy rich country generates power through hydroelectric, wind and solar power plants, as well as biogas installations. At the moment, the capacity of Azerbaijans electricity system exceeds 12,000 megawatt. The total potential of renewable energy sources exceeds 25,300 megawatt.

A major part of the countrys capacity in this area accounts for solar energy, while its potential is estimated at 5,000 megawatts. Some 4,500 megawatts accounts for wind power, 1,500 megawatts -- for biomass, 800 megawatts -- for geothermal energy, and the remaining 350 megawatts -- for the small hydro power plants (HPP).

In January 2013, Azerbaijan announced the plan to raise investments in alternative energy by over $7 billion by 2020, and increase total renewable capacity to 2,000 MW or 20 percent of the nations overall power needs.

To export surplus electricity, Azerbaijan eyes several major projects, including the Energy Bridge Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, which will allow Azerbaijan to export to Europe about 700 MW of electricity a year.By Trend

Azerbaijan has started exporting fruit and vegetable products to Latvia, the Chairman of the Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association Bashir Guliyev told Trend.

He noted that the volume of exports to that country is small at this stage, but the Trade House of Azerbaijan in Latvia, the opening of which will be held today in Riga, can help in this matter.

However, in addition to entering new markets, it is important to maintain the positions in the traditional markets of Azerbaijan, such as Russia and other CIS countries, Bashirov believes.

Trade turnover with Latvia in 1H2018 amounted to $15.1 million, according to the data provided by the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. Some $1.1 million fell to the share of the export of Azerbaijani products.

The exports of fruit and vegetable products from Azerbaijan amounted to $276.7 million in January-June 2018, which is 27 percent more than in 2017.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Naila Huseynli

In September, the first freight contract for the French Alstom for the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway (BTK), which was presented at the end of June in Astana, will be shipped from Kazakhstan.

Delivery of the locomotive in Baku is planned by the end of 2018, however, Alstom expects the decisions of the Azerbaijan Railways on this issue, reported company representative.

The first passenger locomotive Alstom for BTK is already in Baku.

Earlier, Alstom presented its first Prima T8 AZ8A cargo electric locomotive for Azerbaijan. The presentation of the locomotive was held at the electric locomotive plant (EKZ) located on the territory of the "Astana" Special Economic Zone.

The first AZ8A locomotive became part of the contract signed by the EKZ with the Azerbaijan Railways in 2014 and providing for the delivery of 50 locomotives, including 10 passenger locomotives Prima M4 AZ4A. The Z8A is a heavy cargo locomotive from the Prima T8 series, based on the KZ8A locomotive currently in service in Kazakhstan. AZ8A is designed for operation at temperatures from -25 to 50 degrees C.

The locomotive is designed in accordance with the specific technical requirements presented by the company ARW Company, and also complies with GOST and TU. The Prima T8 is one of the most powerful electric locomotives in the world. This locomotive consists of two sections and is capable of pulling the train up to 9,000 tons, developing a speed of up to 120 km per hour, with an installed engine capacity of 8.8 megawatts.

Earlier, the head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov said that passenger transportation by Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will begin in 2019.

According to the head of the CJSC, they will start after receiving passenger trains ordered from Stadler.

The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held on October 30, 2017 in the Baku International Sea Trade Port.

The BTK railroad was built on the basis of the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish interstate agreement. At the initial stage, the volume of cargo transportation will be at the level of 6.5 million tons of cargo, and up to one million passengers will be transported.By Naila Huseynli

A meeting between the delegations of the State Civil Aviation Agency under the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Turkey was held in Baku.

Representatives of airlines from both countries also took part in the meeting. The parties discussed the issue of liberalization of air communication between the two fraternal countries.

As a result of the negotiations, it was decided to increase the number of passenger flights between cities on the territory of the parties by almost three times (from 45 to 127 flights per week).

The right of flights will apply to all airlines of Azerbaijan and Turkey. In addition, the parties have agreed to start discussing a new project on Air Service Agreements. After signing, this document should replace the current Intergovernmental Agreement on Air Transport, signed on May 2, 1992.

Recently, the number of flights between the two countries is about 150 flights per week, and in the summer time it grows up to 190 flights per week.

More than 300,000 Turkey citizens visited Azerbaijan last year, while the number of Azerbaijani tourists visiting Turkey was twice more. Majority of Azerbaijani travelers visit coastal areas of Turkey, such as Antalya, Bodrum and Kusadasi, mainly in July and August. Besides Baku, Turkish tourists visit large cities of Azerbaijan as Sumgayit, Mingechevir and Ganja.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan exported 8,000 seedlings of pomegranate trees to Colombia this year, Imran Jumshudov, Head of the State Service for Registration of Plant Varieties and Control of Seeds under Azerbaijani Agriculture Ministry, said at a press conference on July 25.

He noted that the seedlings are planted by Azerbaijani technology in Colombia.

Jumshudov added that in general, the material and technical base in the field of plant growing is improving in Azerbaijan, and work in this area continues.

Every farmer can check for free in the regional laboratories of the state service the quality of seeds to be used for planting, he said.

Head of the state service added that enterprises, which will deal, in particular, with cleaning, packaging and certification of seeds, are being built in five regions of Azerbaijan.

We continue the work for obtaining high-quality seeds that will help reduce dependence on imports in this area and can also be exported, Jumshudov said.

During the press conference, he also noted that Azerbaijan is planning to achieve full self-sufficiency with seeds of the main grain crops in the coming years.

This year Azerbaijan plans to produce up to 100,000 high-quality grain seeds, whereas last year this figure was 80,000, the head of the state service said.

Speaking about the possibility of using genetically modified seeds in Azerbaijan, Jumshudov noted that such cases are being stopped.

Such seeds can enter the country only for the use in research purposes, he said.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Sara Israfilbayova

The delegation headed by Economy Minister, co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev is on a visit to Moscow.

During the visit, Mustafayev met with Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, co-chairman of the commission Maxim Oreshkin.

Addressing the event, Mustafayev stressed that relations between the two countries are at a strategic level and are successfully developing in all spheres, including economic and trade.

It was noted that Russia is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan, and the trade turnover between the countries increased by 22 percent in 2017. The dynamics of trade relations continued in the first half of 2018, and the trade turnover between the countries for this period increased by 20 percent.

He went on to say that opening of a representative office of the Russian Export Center in Baku in 2017 is an important step in expanding trade relations between Russia and Azerbaijan.

In order to promote the Made in Azerbaijan brand and to expand export to Russia export missions are organized.

Oreshkin, in turn, underlined the high potential for the development of trade and economic relations and shared his views on the directions of development of economic cooperation.

The sides also discussed issues of expansion of business cooperation, creation of joint ventures in various spheres, creation in Russia trading houses and logistics centers of Azerbaijan, increase of export of wine products from Azerbaijan, strengthening of cooperation in transport sphere, development of the North-South transport corridor.

The parties also touched upon the issues related to the 9th Russian-Azerbaijani interregional forum to be held in Ganja in September. The program of the event and the date of its implementation are currently being discussed.

Azerbaijans trade turnover with Russia amounted to $2.14 billion in 2017, about $1.5 billion of which accounted for the import of Russian products to Azerbaijan, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan.

Russia ranks first in terms of export of non-oil products from Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan invested more than $1 billion in the Russian economy, and Russia invested about $4 billion in the economy of Azerbaijan.

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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

An exhibition of Margarita Karimova-Sokolova "Orient trifft Okzident" (East meets West) opened at Galerie-Art Kafe am Kolner Dom in Cologne, Germany.

Through the artist's chosen works the guests could make a kind of journey - the shortest way from Germany to Azerbaijan, because art always brings peoples and countries together, Trend Life reported.

The theme of the central triptych was the Silk Road, which transfers you from China through Azerbaijan, a cradle of the Zoroastrianism, and ends in Europe with colorful Venetian carnival featuring mysterious masks and symbols that found their culmination in the mysterious "Pilgrims", inspired by the immortal words of poet Iosif Brodsky.

The interdependence of Western and Eastern cultures in the context of the formation of a universal culture is the main philosophical meaning of the exposition.

The artist calls to analyze the boundaries of the Western and Eastern civilizations, the features of philosophical concepts, views on the individual from the standpoint of the harmony of relationships in the modern world. It is about the fundamental foundations of human existence, the preservation of spiritual values based on the centuries-old traditions of mankind. Although these cultures are different, on the other hand, they complement each other, form a common world culture in which various values and mentality are peacefully exist and Eastern and Western Cultures are harmoniously connected.

Margarita Karimova-Sokolova was born in Baku. Her great-grandfather was a famous Russian artist Ivan Ivanovich Sokolov. She studied at the art and graphic faculty of the Kuban University and the Academy of Arts. Repina (St. Petersburg). The artist taught at the Art Studio in Baku.

Margarita is a Member of Azerbaijan Union of Artists and the USSR (since 1969). She is also a member of UNESCO International Federation of Artists, member of the International Art Fund of the Russian Academy of Arts, Vice-President of the International Foundation for Aesthetic Development, member of the International Association of Artists.

Since 1965, Margarita has participated in exhibitions of Soviet and Azerbaijani artists in various cities of the USSR, Algeria, Germany, USA, France, Cuba, Austria, Poland, and Bulgaria.

In 1994-1995, she lived and worked in the USA (Philadelphia, New York, Chicago). Since 1995 she lives in the city of Cologne (Germany). Her exhibitions were held with great success in many countries.

---

Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said he may meet with the Armenian FM in September.

An agreement was reached to hold the next meeting in September, he said at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on July 24.

Mammadyarov noted that it was proposed to hold the meeting within the UN General Assembly or earlier.

I expressed my readiness for this meeting from the Azerbaijani side, and said the main thing is that the talks should be fruitful, the Azerbaijani FM said.

As for a high-level meeting, Mammadyarov noted that the Armenian side asked for time for that.

The last meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers was held in Brussels on July 11 under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the U.S. The meeting was also attended by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. It is noteworthy that this was Mammadyarovs first meeting with the new Armenian FM.

During the meeting, the ministers exchanged views regarding the situation on the ground and discussed next steps and parameters for re-engaging in substantive negotiations. They agreed to meet again in the near future under the auspices of the co-chairs.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 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 regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made his first official visit after the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey to brotherly Azerbaijan on July 24.

First, Cavusoglu met one-on-one with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and discussed relations between the two countries and regional issues. After one-on-one meeting, there was an expanded meeting with the participation of delegations.

At the subsequent press conference, Cavusoglu noted that he always feels at home in Azerbaijan.

We are brothers: one nation, two states. We have a common tradition  the first visits after elections are made to Azerbaijan and Turkey, Cavusoglu said.

The Turkish FM added that the Chairman of Turkish Parliament Binali Yildirim and Defense Minister Hulusi Akar will also make their first visits after elections to Azerbaijan.

He further said that Azerbaijan and Turkey play an important role in the region, implement joint major projects.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project has been implemented, and today many countries want to join it, Cavusoglu said. There are many projects ahead. We will strengthen our activity in international organizations.

The Turkish FM also noted that Azerbaijan, unlike other countries, took timely measures against the Gulen movement.

The Gulen movement is trying to penetrate countries through the schools it finances. Some countries were late in this issue, and the Gulen movement managed to penetrate them. However, Azerbaijan has taken timely measures, Cavusoglu said.

He added that Azerbaijan was the first country that was close to Turkey in the fight against this terrorist organization, and that Turkey will continue to support Azerbaijan in the fight against the Gulen movement.

The Turkish FM further said that Turkey is always close to Azerbaijan in the issue of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

We support any decision Azerbaijan takes, Cavusoglu stressed.

Later in the day, he met with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov, who noted that the relations between the two countries are at the highest level.

There are very strong and close ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Fraternal relations between the two countries are important for the stability, security and development of the region, Mammadov said.

Speaking about the joint projects implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, the prime minister noted that the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline projects demonstrates the unbreakable fraternal relations between the countries.

These projects will contribute to the welfare of not only Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also the region as a whole, as well as to strengthening international cooperation, Mammadov said.

He further stressed that both countries successfully cooperate in all international organizations.

Turkey is always close to Azerbaijan and provides great support for the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the prime minister said.

Turkey became the first state to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan in 1991. The diplomatic relations were established on 14 January 1992 and the Consulate General in Baku was upgraded to Embassy level.

Presently, the Azerbaijan-Turkey relations are multifaceted and at a strategic level. Intense high level contacts are the main driving force of the bilateral relations.

Azerbaijan and Turkey enjoy strong and developing economic ties, especially in terms of huge energy projects on the transportation of Azerbaijan's oil and gas resources to the European and world markets through the Turkish territory.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The guided missile boats Peykan and Jovshan of Iranian Naval Forces have arrived in Baku to participate in the international competition Sea Cup 2018, which will be held in the territorial waters of Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea, the press service of the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Sara Israfilbayova

Oil prices of reference marks continue to rise in the course of trading on July 25 on news about the reduction of fuel stocks in the U.S. last week.

Brent crude was up 0.8 percent, at $74.04 a barrel, after gaining 0.5 percent on July 24, U.S. light crude West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was 5 cents higher at $68.57, having risen nearly 1 percent in the previous session, Reuters reported.

In addition, the Chinese authorities are supporting the market to increase government spending, which will increase the demand for oil, as well as concerns about U.S. sanctions against Iran, which could lead to interruptions in fuel supplies from this country.

According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), oil reserves in the U.S. fell by 3.16 million barrels last week, gasoline by 4.87 million barrels, distillates - by 1.32 million barrels. The Institute receives information from operators of refineries, oil storages and pipelines on a voluntary basis.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 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, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.

OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The amount of money transfers to Tajikistan recovered in July 2018 after a three-month decline, ASIA-Plus reported.

The growth in the amount of remittances to date is 7 percent compared to the same period last year. That is, it went up by about $ 90 million compared to the same period last year, said the chairman of the Tajik National Bank Jamshed Nurmahmadzoda on July 25 at a press conference in Dushanbe.

He noted that in April-June this year there was a decrease in the volume of cash transfers compared to the same period in 2017.

At the moment, the situation has stabilized and growth has begun, Nurmahmadzoda said.

Last year, the volume of remittances to Tajikistan was about $ 2.6 billion.

Approximately 86 percent of remittances were received in Russian rubles, according to the chairman.

Since early 2016, remittances in rubles in Tajikistan have been issued exclusively in the national currency.

The head of the National Bank stressed that this measure helped keep the exchange rate of the national currency at a certain level, and the regulator does not intend to abandon this mechanism.

The decision we made at that time positively influenced the exchange rate of the national currency. At the moment, we do not intend to change anything in this matter, he added.

Tajikistans economy is heavily dependent on remittances from overseas workers. In 2017, a recovery in remittances contributed to growth, as well as narrowed the current account deficit. The economy grew by 7.1 percent as the external environment strengthened and public investment continued.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Irans President Hassan Rouhani has not accepted resignation of Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, the head of Iran's Planning and Budget Organization.

Nobakht said that he has submitted his resignation to the President, but he has not accepted it, Iranian media outlets reported July 25.

Earlier this morning, Iranian media outlets published reports about resignation of the Planning and Budget Organization's head from his post amid fallout over the crisis facing the country's economy.

I have tendered my resignation from my post to the president, Tasnim quoted Nobakht as saying on Wednesday.

He added, I am ready to resign as soon as possible.

It came after the Iranian president appointed a public banker as the head of the countrys central bank.

President Hassan Rouhani picked Abdolnaser Hemmati to run the countrys financial regulator. It said Hemmati will replace outgoing central bank head Valiollah Seif.

Hemmati ran the public Melli bank in Iran. He also served as the head of the countrys Iran Insurance Company. Hemmati takes over the central bank as new US sanctions against Tehran are on the way.

Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington plans to reimpose sanctions on Tehran next month. The first round of US sanctions on Iran goes into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The possible introduction of tariffs on the import of uranium into the U.S. could have a negative impact on the activities of Kazakh companies - uranium suppliers, according to the Kazakh Energy Ministry, RIA Novosti reported.

Kazakhstan has several long-term contracts for the supply of natural uranium to the U.S., and the possible imposition of tariffs on uranium imports could adversely affect the activities of Kazakh companies in the supply of Kazakh natural uranium to the U.S. market, the ministry said.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially announced an investigation into the import of uranium or so called 'yellow cake', during which it plans to determine whether the supply of uranium threatens the interests of national security.

This decision was a response to the request of two U.S. companies - uranium producers (Energy Fuels Inc. and Ur-Energy Inc.), and was adopted after consultations with industrialists, members of the congress and interested ministries.

Uranium is mostly used in the production of nuclear energy. Currently, only five percent of uranium used in the U.S. nuclear energy industry comes from the national enterprises, while the remaining 95 percent is imported from Canada, Australia, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Kazakhstan has been a world's leading uranium producer since 2009. Over the past 10 years, the country has increased its volume by almost six times, while its closest competitors, Canada and Australia, have stagnated or slightly declined.

Kazakhstan does not presently possess nuclear power generation capacity and export all the produced uranium, primarily under long-term contracts. Output cut did not impact any contractual commitments. China accounts for 56 percent of Kazakhstans total uranium export.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Turkey does not intend to stop relations with Iran and join anti-Iranian sanctions for the sake of the US, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

Turkey believes that sanctions against Iran are unacceptable, Erdogan said.

"Iran is one of the important strategic partners for us," the Turkish resident said.

He stressed the high level of relations between Turkey and Iran, noting that this level will be maintained in the future as well.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced that the US is withdrawing from the agreement with Iran on the nuclear program reached by the "six" international mediators (Russia, the US, the UK, China, France, Germany) in 2015. Trump also announced the restoration of all sanctions, which were suspended as a result of the deal.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Arzu Abdullayeva

When summer is right around the corner people search for places to go, activities to do in order to spend the best time of their lives. In Baku, a wide variety of summer activities can be found for enjoyment, and relaxation. The city is of romantic character. Venice spirit can be felt nearby the Caspian seashore by visiting Small Town of Venice, one of the most visited places by tourists. As soon as the sun goes over the horizon, bright golden lights flash before the eyes. At night, the city is especially mesmerizing.

To connect with beautiful and healing nature

Naftalan is a city famous for medical oil extraction. The miraculous properties of this oil are famous throughout the world. On the territory of the city there are sanatorium hotels. In order to undergo treatment with oil in sanatoria, a full medical examination is conducted, and the doctor prescribes appropriate treatment.

Sheki, the concentration of the country's historical heritage is located in the Southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus. Citys climate is very different that of Baku, it is fresher and cooler here. In the city, it is possible and necessary to visit the Sheki fortress, the Palace of the Sheki Khans, the Upper and Lower caravan shed and many other places. Besides historical and architectural wealth, its cuisine is also credible. Here you can try the famous Sheki halva, and also see how it is actually made.

To Laze in the sun

Azerbaijan is the unique case where within a country the majority of the existing climatic zones (9 out of 11) are found and it is not surprising that the favourable climate makes the Caspian coast of Azerbaijan the center of beach tourism in the summer. Formally, the beach season on most of the Absheron coast lasts from June to September. Every year, to swim in the warm waters of the Caspian Sea, admire the stunning local scenery and, of course, take a break from the daily bustle, thousands of tourists come to Azerbaijan. Public beach areas along the Caspian coast include Shikh, Novkhany, Mardakan, Zagulba, Govsany, and Nardaran, which give pure and vivid emotions, and also a sense of relaxation.

Festivals to attend

Attending music festivals also color Bakus summer life. Zhara Music Festival deserves a credit when speaking of festivals hold. Zhara is an international music festival, which takes place every summer in Baku, on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The festival has become the largest music event in the CIS countries, receiving great interest both from tourists and residents of the country.

Gabala Musical Festival is also a solemn event. The festival brings together famous musicians from different countries including USA, France, Israel, Mexico, Cuba, Russia, Italy and so on. Prominent musicians from all over the world, moreover, famous philharmonic and symphonic orchestras perform in the festival.

Food festivals in the regions are also very captivating. Especially, watermelon festival in Sabirabad is welcomed with great interest. These kinds of festivals are worth visiting.

Annually, countrys Goychay region hosts pomegranate holiday, attended by prominent figures and politicians of the country, ambassadors, artists, both local and foreign tourists.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

As many as 1,288,900 overnight stays were registered in Azerbaijani hotels from this January to June, which is 19.3 percent more than in the same period last year, the State Statistics Committee informed on July 24.

Most visitors resided in Baku hotels  62 percent, while 9.7 percent chose hotels of Gabala, 5.1 percent  Gusar. The others resided in hotels of Naftalan, Guba, Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, Khachmaz, Agstafa and other regions and cities of Azerbaijan.

The number of overnight stays of foreigners and persons without citizenship amounted to 935,200, accounting for 72.6 percent of the total number of overnight stays.

As for the countries where the hotel clients came from, 14.3 percent of overnight stays accounted for UAE nationals, 14.1 percent  Russia, 6.6 percent  Iran, 4.5 percent Turkey, and 4.3 percent  Saudi Arabia. The others came from UK, India, USA, Israel, Qatar, Kuwait Iraq, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Germany, Ukraine, and other countries.

Thus, Azerbaijani hotels received an income of 167 million manats ($97.95 million) in the six months. As many as 66.3 percent of the amount was received from providing rooms, 23.8 percent  from food sales including beverages, 3.8 percent  from treatment and rehabilitation services, while 6.1 percent were received from rendering other services.

Today tourism is developing with high speed in Azerbaijan, with a contribution of 4.5 percent to the national GDP. The country witnesses more than 2 million annual foreign tourist arrivals and thousands of domestic tourism visits.

Hotels and other accommodation facilities are a vital and fundamental part of tourism supply, since they contribute to popularizing any tourist destination, as tourists need a place where they can rest and revive during their travel.

Currently, there are hundreds accommodation facilities operating in Azerbaijan. They are of any price range, starting from just $6-7 per night in hostels and $25 in hotels.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Laman Ismayilova

Travel to the culinary and cultural world for tourists from the U.S. has been organized in Azerbaijan.

The initiator of this excursion held for the first time for American travelers is Farida Buyur, the author of the book "Pomegranate and saffron: A Culinary Journey to Azerbaijan", thanks to which she was awarded international awards by this book.

Culinary excursion starting from Baku has been continued in Guba, Ismayilli, Gabala, Sheki, Gakh and Balakan. The travel program included familiarization and study of residential areas such as Khinalig, Krasnaya Sloboda (Red Town), Lahij, Ivanovka, Nij and Ilisu, which have a rich culture and culinary tradition.

The purpose of the tour was to get acquainted with the features of Azerbaijani cuisine and culture. The program includes private culinary classes by chief cooks, food markets and wine establishments, excursions to historic sites and museums, art workshops, meetings with artists and other cultural events.

President of the Culinary Historians of Southern California Institute Charles Perri and other representatives of the organization, professors and amateur researchers from culinary and cultural spheres attended the event. It was their first visit to Azerbaijan.

Members of the group admired the hospitality of Azerbaijani people and the diversity of national culture and expressed their desire to visit the country once again.

Farida Buyuran is also the author of a popular blog "azcookbook.com". Her book Pomegranates and Saffron: A Culinary Journey to Azerbaijan" was published twice in 2014-2015. The first 336-page book about Azerbaijani cuisine, published in English, offers 200 recipes for snacks and soups, soups, dough, meat, vegetables, egg dishes, bread dishes, pilaf, drinks and desserts adapted to prepare in Western countries.

Azerbaijans cuisine is one of the most vibrant and colorful cuisines in the world.

National cuisine employs a range of herbs, meat and vegetables. Fresh herbs, including mint, coriander, dill, basil, parsley, tarragon, leek, chive, thyme, marjoram, green onion, and watercress are very popular and often accompany main dish.

Dolma, bozbash, bozartma, Shish kebab, piti, pilaf, and govurma are unique dishes of national cuisine.

Shakh Pilaf (Crown pilaf) is the signature dish of national cuisine. The name of this dish is derived from its shape which resembles the crown of a Medieval Eastern ruler. It is traditionally presented as the main dish at wedding ceremonies in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan also attracts all those who have a sweet tooth.

There are more than 30 varieties of Azerbaijani pastries that use unique ingredients such as poppy seeds, walnuts, almonds, sesame seeds, ginger, and cardamom, which make the treats spicy and especially tasty.

Pakhlava, shekerbura, and badambura, symbols of the Novruz holiday, are among the most famous Azerbaijani sweets.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzMore students in Southeast Texas are opting out of vaccinations, part of a statewide rise in the number of exemptions seen in state data.

Nearly 57,000 students claimed at least one non-medical exemption from otherwise mandatory shots in the 2017-18 school year, nearly 4,000 more than the previous year.

The new tallies from the Texas Department of Health and Human Services put the number of conscientious objectors at more than 1 percent of Texas' school children for the first time.

How many students in your district are exempt from vaccines? Click through the photos above to see local numbers.

Some counties have nearly 9 percent of their public and private school students attending class without vaccines.

Individual schools can have higher unvaccinated rates, such as an Austin private school where parents of nearly half the students opt out of vaccines.

Orange, Hardin, Newton and Jasper counties all have unvaccinated student rates between 0.68 percent and 1.57 percent, all higher than Jefferson County's.

The rates include conscientious exemptions but not students who are not immunized for medical reasons.

More than 2.6 percent of Kirbyville CISD and Newton ISD students took the exemptions during the past school year, the highest rates in the area, followed by All Saints Episcopal School, Buna ISD and Hamshire Fannett ISD.

Three of the region's districts  Deweyville, Evadale and Sabine Pass  reported no exemptions, as did charter schools Bob Hope and Ehrhart and Catholic schools St. Catherine of Siena and St. Mary.

The increase in the number of children opting out of the traditionally required vaccines is part of a national choice movement giving parents more power to exempt their children from drugs they fear could cause autism or other harm.

Medical experts have debunked allegations that vaccines cause autism and insist the drugs are safe.

They argue the increase in so-called "anti-vaxxers" jeopardizes other children with weakened immune systems from diseases like measles.

Texans for Vaccine Choice, agroup pushing to let parents decide whether to vaccinate their children, has gained a political foothold in Texas' Republican Legislature to fight efforts to take that choice away.

Experts say clusters of unvaccinated people can threaten "herd immunity," the idea that immunity by vaccination or previous illness of a large percentage of a population helps protect those who are not vaccinated for medical reasons.

In the case of an outbreak, schools and local health officials can decide to keep students who are not vaccinated out of school to prevent the disease's spread.

Texas is full of cities with a high number of vaccine exemptions.

Houston, Fort Worth, Plano and Austin have the the highest numbers of vaccine opt-outs in the nation, according to a study published in PLOS Medicine.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com|

Twitter.com/LizTeitzAuthorities have released new sketches of two unidentified young men slain in the 1970s by John Wayne Gacy, one of the most notorious serial killers in American history.

Gacy tortured, raped and murdered young men and boys, and buried many of them in the crawl space of his home in Cook County, Ill. He killed at least 33 people between 1972 and 1978.

RELATED: How Texas' most notorious serial killers were caught

Six of his victims have never been identified.

Police are hoping that friends or family members will recognize the victims from the two new, highly detailed facial reconstructions made public Monday. Artists for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children teamed up with the Cook County Sheriff's Office to create the drawings of "John Doe 10" and "John Doe 13" as they appeared at the time of their murders.

Associated Press

The John Does could have come from any part of the country, as Gacy preferred to prey on youths who were hitchhikers or bus travelers rather than residents of the Chicago area where he lived. He would often lure his victims by posing as a police officer or offering construction work.

John Doe 10 was a young white male believed to be between 17 and 21 years. He was between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-11. Investigators said he had previously suffered an injury to his left collarbone that had healed well over time. He also had a few dental fillings.

John Doe 13, was also a white male, 18 to 22. He was approximately 5'9' to 6'2' and had dark brown wavy hair. His friends would have known that one of his upper teeth was displaced behind another tooth.

MORE: Chicago teen ruled out as Gacy victim, died in SF 'cold case' from 1979

In 2011, one of Gacy's victims, 19-year-old William George Bundy, was identified through DNA testing. Last year, another unidentified victim was found to be James "Jimmie" Haakenson, a 16-year-old from St. Paul, Minn.

Gacy, was known at the "Killer Clown" because he enjoyed dressing up as a "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown" and entertaining children at hospitals, fund-raising events and other charitable events.

Sentenced to death in 1980, Gacy was executed by lethal injection 14 years later. He was 52 at the time of his death.Baltimore-based University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is seeking approval to swap Cambridge, Md.-based UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester for a new medical campus with a freestanding medical facility, the Dorchester Star reports.

Here are six details:

1. University of Maryland Shore Regional Health requested a certificate of need exemption to build the 40,000-square-foot UM Shore Medical Center at Cambridge and 50,000-square-foot UM Shore Medical Pavilion at Cambridge about a mile from the current hospital.

2. Pending state approval and funding, the medical campus could open and acute care inpatient beds could be relocated to University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton (Md.) in mid-2021.

3. The proposed UM Shore Medical Pavilion at Cambridge will include an ASC with one operating room and one procedure room, as well as outpatient rehabilitation services, cardiopulmonary rehabilitation and a community health education hub.



It will also provide outpatient services such as gastroenterology, general surgery, orthopedics, behavioral health, medical oncology, pediatrics and urology.



4. The proposed UM Shore Medical Center at Cambridge is a freestanding medical facility with 18 private emergency treatment rooms, three behavioral health rooms, 10 private short stay observation beds, diagnostic services, lab services and a helipad for air transport.



5. Information on the proposal will be shared during a public hearing July 31.



6. In May, the City of Cambridge and Dorchester County created an entity to purchase the existing hospital site, prepare it for development and negotiate its sale by 2021.Here are the 10 most-read gastroenterology/endoscopy on Becker's ASC Review from Jan. 1 to June 30:

1. 15 statistics on GI starting salary

Click here

2. Top 10 states with the highest volume of gastroenterology procedures per ASC

Click here

3. Former GI physician accused of sexually assaulting patients retains medical license  6 important details

Click here

4. Dr. Christina Ha performs colonoscopy on Jimmy Kimmel for TV: 5 insights

Click here

5. 42 celebrities with IBS or IBD

Click here

6. Ohio pediatric gastroenterologist pleads guilty to sexual offenses  4 insights

Click here

7. Medical Board of California accuses gastroenterologist of gross negligence  10 insights

Click here

8. Data breach at New York ASC possibly exposes 135k patient records  4 insights

Click here

9. FDA permits marketing of Hemospray to treat GI bleeding: 5 things to know

Click here

10. After 9 years, Gastro Health replaces CEO  5 things to know about new leader Joseph Garcia

Click hereThe American College of Gastroenterology, American Gastroenterological Association and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy released a joint address on CMS' 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule.

The rule has several significant policy and payment changes, as well as multiple proposals for year three of the Quality Payment Program. The three organizations are evaluating the rules and plan to submit comments to CMS around Nov. 2.

Here's what you should know:

Medicare Physician Payment

1. CMS plans to increase the 2019 Proposed Conversion Factor 0.03 percent, from $35.99 to $36.05.

2. CMS proposed a new reimbursement methodology for evaluation and management services. Under the proposals, a new patient level 2-5 and established patient level 2-5 would receive a blended payment.

3. CMS is also changing how physicians document office and outpatient evaluation and management visits. The proposed changes will allow physicians to cite time when selecting visit level and documenting the visit focus their documentation on what has changed or the pertinent items that have not changed and allowing for medical records to be reviewed and verified instead of reentered.

4. CMS is also proposing several new G codes as E/M add-on services. The public said two GI codes were potentially misvalued. 45385 - Colonoscopy with lesion removal and 43239 - EGD biopsy single/multiple were said to have a systematic overvaluation of work RVUs. The societies are working to ensure the GI codes will be properly valued.

5. CMS is also proposing a billing service for when providers check in on patients or address concerns through the telephone or other telecommunication devices. Providers could bill whenever remote evaluation is used to determine whether additional services are needed.

Quality Payment Program

6. CMS made several proposals to the Quality Payment Program for 2019 as well:

Performance threshold would increase from 15 points to 30 points

Quality would decrease from 50 percent to 45 percent

Cost would increase from 10 percent to 15 percent

Merit-based Incentive Payment System would be adjusted from +/- 5 percent to +/- 7 percent

Improvement activities and advancing care/promoting interoperability would stay the same at 15 percent and 25 percent, respectively

7. To avoid a negative payment adjustment, providers must have a MIPS score equal to or greater than the performance score. The payments would be based on 2019 and would apply to payments in 2021.

8. CMS is removing 34 quality measures including: QPP185.

9. CMS wants to add a cost measure category for screening/surveillance colonoscopy to the performance category, starting in 2019.

10. CMS is also changing the Advancing Care Information performance category to "Promoting Interoperability."

11. Additionally, CMS is tailoring some policies to small practices. These practices will be able to use a claims-based measure submission option. However, CMS is eliminating the five-point bonus and potentially applying a three-point bonus in its place.

12. Finally, CMS wants to increase the Advanced APM Certified EHR Technology threshold to require at least 75 percent of eligible clinicians to use CEHRT and participate through advanced APMs and other payer advanced APMs.

For the full breakdown, click here.The U.S.Defense Department is planning to increase its health records contract with Cerner by $1.1 billion, officials said July 24, according to Nextgov.

The deal, facilitated by Leidos, is valued at $4.3 billion, with a total contract lifecycle price of $9 billion.

As part of the increased project budget, the Pentagon will include the Coast Guard in the project, Stacy Cummings, program executive officer for Defense Healthcare Management Systems, told Nextgov.

In May, the Veterans Affairs Department awarded Cerner a 10-year, $10 billion deal to overhaul its legacy records system and put it on the same platform as the Defense Department, but its contract included features that weren't in the Defense Department's deal. The revised agreement would resolve those differences, according to Ms. Cummings.

"A standard electronic health record baseline for the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Coast Guard will enable more efficient, highly reliable, safe and quality care," she told the publication.

The announcement comes nearly two months after the Defense Department's Operational Test and Evaluation office found the agency's first three implementations of the EHR failed to "demonstrate enough workable functionality to manage and document patient care" and had "poor system usability, insufficient training and inadequate help desk support."

The report called the EHR, dubbed MHS Genesis, "neither operationally effective nor operationally suitable," and caused the agency to cancel plans to test at a fourth site.

That report came after the Pentagon paused its rollout in January because officials received more than 14,000 help tickets and early tests found the EHR could only perform about 56 percent of the 197 tasks used to measure the system's performance. However, as of July 13, the EHR is running at the four pilot sites.

VA said its transition will follow a wave model  similar to the Defense Department's plan  with the first go-lives slated for July at Washington state facilities in Spokane, Seattle and American Lake. Implementation is set for October, and the agency plans to be fully functional at the three test sites by March 2020.

The next four locations making up the second wave of the Defense's MHS Genesis deployment are Naval Air Station Lemoore, Travis Air Force Base, U.S. Army Health Clinic Presidio of Monterey in California and Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, according to Ms. Cummings.After staff at Newton (Mass.)-Wellesley Hospital received a bomb threat July 24, officials gave the facility the all-clear, but police still are investigating the incident, The Boston Globe reports.

The threat was phoned in to hospital staff about 9 a.m. and reported to 911 shortly after. Hospital staff said the caller threatened the hospital and an unspecified urgent care location, a spokesperson for the Newton Fire Department said.

Newton police and firefighters responded to the hospital and several nearby urgent care centers, including Partners Urgent Care in Newton and the Newton-Wellesley Hospital urgent care center in Waltham, the spokesperson said.

Police and firefighters conducted sweeps of the hospital to look for strange objects and have K-9s sniff around. The sweeps lasted about 90 minutes.

The hospital remained open and functional throughout the sweeps, and officials did not find anything suspicious at the hospital or urgent care centers, the fire department spokesperson said.

Investigators now seek to identify the caller and a motive.Eugene, Ore.-based Lane County Health and Human Services on July 24 notified about 700 patients and clients that their medical records, which were moved to a storage facility during renovation efforts last fall, cannot be found, according to Kezi.com.

The department misplaced 49 boxes containing 566 Community Health Centers of Lane County patient files and 149 Lane County Developmental Disabilities client files, which contained individuals' medical histories, addresses, contact information and social security numbers.

On June 19, staff conducted a routine search and were unable to locate the records, which a moving company temporarily transferred to a storage facility during a renovation of the department's main clinic last fall. Several different teams conducted follow-up searches for the files, but did not find them.

Investigators have not determined how the records were misplaced, but said there is no indication the records were stolen or that the health information was compromised, according to the report.

Department officials believe the records could have been destroyed as part of a routine document management practice for nonmedical records, although they have not verified this claim.

Lane County Health and Human Services is reviewing its record storage practices and taking all necessary steps to prevent future incidents, including getting specialized secure medical record storage services. The department encourages patients to review their financial statements and credit reports and is reimbursing them for a six-month membership to any credit monitoring service.

More articles on facilities management:

Medical University of South Carolina gets OK to build 128-bed Nexton hospital

Pittsburgh hospital's historic $142M expansion powered by 130% outpatient growth

Cincinnati hospital plans $56.6 million expansion: 4 things to knowA Chicago-based real estate investment firm recently bought a Houston medical office building for more than $400 million  the largest price paid in the nation's history for a medical facility and the latest sign these properties are in high demand, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza, purchased by LaSalle Investment Management's property fund for a record $405 million, is a 28-story, 500,000-square-foot building that is 99 percent occupied.

This deal reflects a trend: Real estate investors are gobbling up medical offices and other properties that serve an aging population.

"Competition among real estate investors for high quality medical office buildings is intense," property consultant firm CBRE wrote in a recent research report cited by WSJ.

Not every property in the healthcare industry will benefit as the population ages, especially as the industry faces headwinds because of changes to the ACA, new tax policies and the push to value-based care, analysts say. But one thing is certain  medical office buildings are considered the safest of all healthcare real estate.

Medical office buildings are top of mind for many real estate investors because they are less vulnerable to reimbursement and regulation changes, and they have predictable revenue streams. Tenants usually pay about $1 in rent for every $10 generated in revenue so landlords have flexibility to increase rent, according to Richard Anderson, a managing director at Mizuho Americas Research, where he focuses his research on healthcare real estate.

Medical office buildings have several other perks. For one, these buildings typically have outpatient surgery centers, which are expected to benefit from the industry transition to value-based care. In addition, they are also more easily converted to other types of commercial property if patient demand changes or reimbursement changes make the office financially unsustainable.

"There's a sense of stability about the asset class that is appealing to a wide range of investors," Mr. Anderson told the WSJ.

The purchase of Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza beat out the previous record for a single medical office property, a deal worth $332.5 million.UF Health Jacksonville in Florida has proposed using $120 million in taxpayer money over the next six years to make improvements to its city-owned facilities, reports WJCT-FM.

The proposal, part of Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry's annual budget, would provide UF Health Jacksonville with $15 million in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The proposal allocates $20 million in years two, three, four and five, and $25 million in year six.

UF Health Jacksonville CEO Leon Haley said the funds would help the hospital upgrade its fire system, generators, air conditioning and roofs, according to the report. Money would also go toward renovations of operating rooms and other facilities.

UF Health Jacksonville is a 695-bed academic health center serving many uninsured patients. As a safety-net hospital, it faces various reimbursement challenges and proposes the $120 million to help it complete capital projects sooner.

The Jacksonville City Council must sign off on the budget beginning in October and separately approve amounts for subsequent years.

More articles on healthcare finance:

How financial distress forecasting can help hospitals avoid closure

Medicare office visit payments standardized in new proposal

Pennsylvania long-term care facility to shutter, lay off 122 employeesCMS named new members to its leadership team, Administrator Seema Verma said July 24.

Here are three things to know about the appointments:



1. CMS named Paul Mango its chief of staff and chief principal deputy administrator. Mr. Mango brings more than 30 years of healthcare industry experience to the job. He joins CMS from McKinsey & Company, where he was a senior partner and head of the firm's U.S. Center for Health Reform. Mr. Mango is a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division.



2. Chris Traylor is CMS' new deputy administrator for strategic initiatives. He brings 26 years of public sector experience to the role. In 2016, Mr. Traylor retired as the executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. Since his retirement, Mr. Traylor has been leading a healthcare consulting firm serving hospital operation and finance clients.

3. Ms. Verma also promoted Brady Brookes, who currently serves as CMS' deputy chief of staff, to a concurrent role as deputy administrator. Ms. Brookes joined CMS in 2017 as deputy chief of staff after serving as legislative director to then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Mark Dunnenberger, PharmD, director of pharmacogenomics at NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill.

Dr. Dunnenberger will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "Advanced Primary Care: Making Genetic Medicine a Reality," at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.

Question: In the past 12 months, how have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism?

Dr. Mark Dunnenberger: In March 2015, we started our novel pharmacogenomics clinic to meet the needs of our patients. Today, a growing number of patients are hearing about pharmacogenomics and want to learn more about it, but there are many misconceptions about the power of pharmacogenomics. To this end, one of the goals of NorthShores clinic and the pharmacogenomics program at large is to clearly explain the benefits, limitations, risks and cost of pharmacogenomics testing. This empowers the patient to make a personal value-based decision about whether to test. As the number of patients who have received pharmacogenomics testing grows, we are learning more about how patients want to interact with their results. In recent months, we have moved to a more electronic-based return of results instead of a paper-based return. Moving forward, we will continue to evaluate and implement more technology-based tools into our pharmacogenomics program to meet the needs of our patients.

Q: What is one thing you've learned about your patient population that's really surprised you?

MD: One thing that has surprised me is that our patients are passionate about taking charge of their care and in utilizing their pharmacogenomics results when it comes to engaging with clinicians. Our recent study highlighted that more than 50 percent of patients were more confident in their medications after pharmacogenomics testing. Patients who are more confident in their treatments are more likely to have better outcomes. Pharmacogenomics offers a new data point for both patients and providers to use to better understand a patients experience with medications, and this is incredibly powerful.

Q: What is the most exciting thing happening in health IT right now? And what is the most overrated health IT trend?

MD: In my opinion, the most exciting thing in health IT is the emerging trend of integrating genetic testing results into EHRs. This provides clinicians and patients alike with the benefits of genomic results, which ultimately means better health outcomes for all.In this special Speaker Series, Becker's Healthcare caught up with Justin Brueck, assistant vice president of NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill.

Mr. Brueck will speak on a panel during the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference titled "Advanced Primary Care: Making Genetic Medicine a Reality," at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19. Learn more about the event and register to attend in Chicago.

Question: In the past 12 months, how have you adapted to new patient experience expectations in the age of consumerism?

Justin Brueck: As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, an increasing number of patients are accessing their genomic information. The FDA has also outlined a path for direct-to-consumer companies to provide health-related genetic testing. This trend is likely to continue, and as a health system, we are exploring ways to better engage patients and to access genomic information in a more proactive manner. Part of this effort has been offering patients the "healthy gene panel" and pharmacogenomics testing through the Genetic and Wellness Assessment tool. This approach goes beyond purely reactive testing based on a diagnosis or a family history, and moves toward a more proactive approach which answers the question, "What changes in my DNA might be important to my health?"

In the fields of personalized medicine and digital health, many nontraditional and disruptive entrants are emerging. Some companies are heavily invested in developing consumer-oriented services as this represents a significant departure from healthcare's traditional engagement with patients. As a result, NorthShore has focused on providing patients with more choices and access 'on their terms' with its Immediate Care expansion, a new functionality around wait time estimates, and "Expect Me," a feature that allows patients to put themselves in a virtual line before they arrive at their provider's office. We have also implemented new ways for patients to interact with providers via e-visit functionality and sending messages to providers via NorthShore's app. At NorthShore, we foresee continued development of such technologies. However, it remains to be seen whether payers will accept these technologies and begin reimbursing for the services.

Q: What do you see as the most vulnerable part of a hospital's business?

JB: The most vulnerable part of a hospital's business is effectively managing and rationalizing services across high-cost, fixed assets as care shifts from inpatient to outpatient settings. As we know, healthcare services have historically been centralized in large facilities like hospital campuses. However, due to [emerging] technology, as well as a change in consumer preferences, patients are willing and able to receive the same types of treatments in much lower-cost settings, [including outpatient surgery centers instead of hospital [operating rooms], immediate care settings instead of emergency rooms, drugstores or telemedicine instead of traditional brick-and-mortar primary care offices.

Q: What is the biggest barrier to price transparency in the healthcare industry?

JB: One of the biggest barriers in price transparency is that many health system contracts have payer confidentiality provisions, which makes it difficult to discuss such matters. Additionally, we must remember that 'price' does not necessarily reflect 'out-of-pocket' cost  and out-of-pocket costs are typically what patients are interested in when they are seeking transparency. As a result of wide deductible ranges, coupled with in-network and out-of-network requirements, it is almost impossible for a layperson to compare apples to apples. For example, a 'list price' for surgery may be less at hospital A than hospital B. However, if hospital A is out-of-network or has less-preferred contracts with the patient's insurer, hospital B's more expensive list price may ultimately result in less out-of-pocket cost to the patient. This complexity and information disparity further creates barriers.Registered nurses at hospitals affiliated with Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare picketed July 24, citing high turnover and understaffing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KZTV.

Picketing took place at MountainView Hospital in Las Vegas and Corpus Christi (Texas) Medical Center. RNs also planned pickets July 24 at three other HCA-affiliated hospitals: Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Port Charlotte, Fla.; Central Florida Regional Hospital in Sanford; and Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso, Texas.

The National Nurses Organizing Committee's Nevada chapter, which represents 765 MountainView Hospital RNs, said nurses want hospital management to help reduce high RN turnover rates by complying with staffing guidelines. It cited hospital-provided numbers showing that as of June, 30 percent of RNs have worked at MountainView for less than 18 months, and 47 percent have worked there less than three years.

Hospital spokesperson Jennifer McDonnell told the Review-Journal none of the hospital's accrediting agencies have complained about staffing shortages and the hospital's turnover rate had declined to 13 percent. According to the 2018 National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report, published by NSI Nursing Solutions, the national average turnover rate for bedside RNs was 16.8 percent in 2017.

The nurses union in Texas which represents 645 RNs at Corpus Christi Medical Center, made similar arguments to its Las Vegas counterpart regarding staffing.

Corpus Christi Medical Center told KZTV: "We want to ensure our community understands that neither this nor any other action will ever come between us and our commitment to the high-quality care and services we offer our patients."

MountainView has been negotiating with unionized nurses since April; Corpus Christi Medical Center's contract with unionized nurses expired June 30.

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Hospitals and unions: 9 conflicts, agreementsThe following hospital lawsuits were reported in the past month, beginning with the most recent.

1. Michigan hospital, 3 patient relatives must mediate Facebook post lawsuit

A court ordered Kalkaska (Mich.) Memorial Health Center and three relatives of a patient treated at the hospital to mediate their dispute over a critical Facebook post made by the relatives.

2. Illinois hospital provided $500K in unreimbursed care to inmate, according to lawsuit

Maywood, Ill.-based Loyola University Medical Center filed a lawsuit against Cook County, including the county's hospital system and sheriff's office, accusing the entities of refusing to retrieve an inmate from the medical center's care since April.

3. New York health system pays $15.6M to settle billing fraud case

LaGrangeville, N.Y.-based Health Quest Systems and certain of its subsidiaries agreed to pay more than $14.7 million to the federal government and an additional $895,427 to the state of New York to resolve False Claims Act allegations.

4. CFO: Montana hospital engaged in billing fraud, kickback scheme

Kalispell (Mont.) Regional Healthcare disclosed in June that it is under federal investigation, and a recently unsealed complaint filed by the CFO of the hospital's physician network provides more details about the allegations.

5. NYC Health + Hospitals accused of age discrimination in lawsuit

Jeffrey Wallach, a 67-year-old former employee of New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals, filed a class-action lawsuit alleging the public health system targeted employees 40 and older when it cut approximately 400 management positions on June 2, 2017.

6. California hospital settlement reinstalls staff, bylaws, leadership from early 2016

A settlement between Tulare (Calif.) Regional Medical Center and its staff will turn back the clock, restoring the hospital's medical staff, leadership and bylaws from before Jan. 26, 2016.

7. Premier Health asks court to dismiss lawsuit over $17K, $9K out-of-network bills

Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health and a contracted surgeon called on a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of failing to notify patients getting treatment in the emergency department that their surgeon was not in-network with their health insurance plan.

8. Children's Mercy facing class-action lawsuit after data breach

Kansas City, Mo.-based Children's Mercy Hospital was served with a class-action lawsuit July 10 after staff members were tricked by an email phishing scam that potentially compromised 63,049 patients' and family members' protected health information.

9. 2 Arkansas hospitals accuse EMS provider of balance billing

Fort Smith, Ark.-based Sparks Regional Medical Center and Mercy Fort Smith (Ark.) filed a lawsuit against Fort Smith Emergency Medical Services that accused the EMS operator of balance billing.

10. Lawsuit: Texas hospital violated HIPAA, mischaracterized lab results to police

St. David's Round Rock (Texas) Medical Center faces allegations of violating HIPAA and misinterpreting lab tests used to support drunk driving charges against a patient.

11. Court clears the way for 277 hospitals to challenge Medicare reimbursements

The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held June 29 that a 2013 regulation by HHS imposing a three-year limit on reconsidering Medicare reimbursement decisions does not apply to appeals.

12. Memorial Hermann hit with $1M retaliation suit by former employee

A former physician peer review coordinator for Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System sued the health system for $1 million, claiming she was fired in retaliation after she refused to reveal confidential information.

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2 surgeons indicted in $950M kickback scheme in CaliforniaA nurse at Baltimore-based Sinai Hospital and her 5-year-old granddaughter were struck by a car and killed July 25, according to a WBAL TV news report.

Deborah Limmer, RN, went on an early morning walk near her home with her granddaughter Delaney Gaddis. About 7 a.m., a driver jumped the curb, striking the two pedestrians, according to the report.

Ms. Limmer was taken to the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, where she was pronounced dead. Delaney was taken to Sinai Hospital and pronounced dead.

Ms. Limmer worked at Siani hospital for nearly three decades.

"She was an integral part of LifeBridge Health and Sinai for over 28 years, so she had been with us for a long time. She was a cornerstone of our ICU, so our critical care area, cardiac and ICU," Linda Josnik, CNO at Sinai Hospital, told WBAL.

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25 hospitals ranked among Forbes' best employers for womenQuincy, Ill.-based Blessing Hospital faces a lawsuit accusing its staff of mishandling tests of a veterans' home resident dying of Legionnaires' disease in fall 2017, according to WBEZ.

The lawsuit, filed by the family of Valdemar "Roy" Dehn, alleges Blessing Hospital staff did not carry out a test for Legionnaires' disease when it was ordered on Oct. 8, 2017. Mr. Dehn was tested three days later, after another physician questioned why the test was uncompleted and ordered a second test, the lawsuit states. The lawsuit further alleges Mr. Dehn tested positive for Legionnaires' disease the next day, about eight hours before his death.



The family filed a separate lawsuit last week against the state of Illinois for its handling of a Legionnaires' outbreak at the Illinois veterans' facility where Mr. Dehn was residing. The facility experienced three separate outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease between 2015 and 2017, causing 64 infections and 13 deaths. The state faces a lawsuit from 12 families for neglect related to the death of a loved one at the veterans' home, according to WBEZ.

The Dehn family's lawsuit also names Zorian Trusewych, MD, medical director of the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy. The lawsuit claims Dr. Trusewych failed to test Mr. Dehn in the months leading up to the 2017 outbreak while other residents began testing positive for Legionnaires'.



Blessing Hospital did not immediately respond to WBEZ's request for comment. The office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, which is representing Dr. Trusewych in the case, told the publication it is reviewing the complaint.



Legionnaires' is a virulent form of pneumonia contracted through the inhalation of water carrying Legionella. Those with weakened immune systems like the elderly are at greater risk of infection. In January, the CDC issued a report on the water system at the Quincy VA facility. In the report, researchers said Legionella may never be fully eradicated from the facility's water system and warned that additional Legionnaires' cases could be inevitable.



Brian Zimmerman contributed to this article.



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6 nurses in same unit pregnant at Wake Forest BaptistPhoenix Children's Hospital is one of the latest hospitals to boost care for its NICU patients through a "No Baby Unhugged" grant from Huggies  a $10,000 award that supports hugging programs, where hospital volunteers hold newborns whose parents may live far away or are unable to visit due to work, childcare or other obligations.

Eighteen hospitals have received grants since the Kimberly-Clark diaper maker launched the program in 2016. Phoenix Children's Hospital and Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Children's Hospital are the latest grant recipients bringing huggers to their NICUs.

At Phoenix Children's, the grant will help support 10 more NICU volunteers, bringing the hospital's team to 24. The grant will also fund proper training for volunteers on holding babies for longer periods of time and enable the addition of three rocking chairs to the NICU.

Phoenix Children's already has NICU volunteers in action  and the hospital has seen no shortage of interest in the program, said Kristin Niehoff, clinical manager of the NICU at Phoenix Children's.

"We like to have volunteers who have had experience volunteering in other areas of the hospital, and we're always looking to accommodate anyone who's interested in volunteering," Ms. Niehoff said. "Right now, we're looking to utilize volunteers in the night hours or early in the morning. That's when we need the help, and it's important for babies to be held at those times."

Ms. Niehoff encourages hospital leaders to consider the numerous benefits the volunteer program offers, including improved patient outcomes and increased satisfaction for patients' families. The role or title serving as program leader varies by hospital, but it is usually run by the NICU clinical manager with assistance from the volunteer manager.

In particular, Ms. Niehoff expects the program to reduce the stress parents face when they have a critically ill baby in the NICU  especially if they live far from the hospital and are unable to be with their child every day.

"For parents who have a child in the NICU, the hospital can be an overwhelming environment," she said. "Anything we can do for the families to make it more like home means better outcomes for the babies and for the families' experience with our hospital."

At San Francisco-based UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, which received the $10,000 grant in 2017, the program has inspired similar enthusiasm from volunteers, improved outcomes for its infants and lessened workloads for NICU nurses.

"When information about the cuddling program comes out, we see an overwhelming response from people who want to participate," said Joanne Kuller, MSN, RN, neonatal clinical nurse specialist at Benioff Children's.

To ensure the cuddlers are committed to the NICU, Benioff Children's typically requires volunteers to work about 100 hours. Most premature babies can't handle a lot of stimulation, so volunteers must be willing to remain quiet around the infants, Ms. Kuller said. Since many people initially interested in volunteering want more interactive roles, requiring volunteers to commit to 100 hours allows them to better understand what the infants need.

As volunteers prepare for their roles in the NICU, they receive training from hospital staff to monitor babies' behavioral cues. Benioff is also using the grant money to develop orientation packets on identifying preemie stress signals. The volunteers, who can work up to three- or four-hour shifts, hold a baby for about an hour and walk through the unit to listen for other babies who need to be held.

Benioff is now looking to develop informational materials available through Huggies for other hospitals to use, including an instructional video to train volunteers.

Although the program hasn't been a cost-saving measure for the hospital, it's benefited the infants in several ways. "The babies are exposed to a lot of negative stimuli, including painful, stressful procedures," Ms. Kuller said. "We found the act of holding them really counteracts negative stress and allows us to offer more developmental benefits for our patients."

And the program is a huge benefit for Benioff nurses, who often struggle to find time to hold babies who need attention during busy shifts, Ms. Kuller added. "It's really frustrating for nurses to know a baby needs to be taken care of when they have heavy workloads."

One year after launching the volunteer program, Ms. Kuller is telling hospital executives to do the same.

"We know babies who are cuddled gain weight more quickly, their oxygen levels come up and having volunteers around can help them better relate to adults," Ms. Kuller said. "Once you have the program, you realize how much additional value it adds and how good it is for your babies."

Hospitals interested in consideration for the next round of grants ($10,000 per hospital) can apply on the Huggies Healthcare website by July 27. The following round of applications will be due October 22.

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The House voted to repeal a 2.3 percent medical device tax, a provision that both parties have criticized for harming innovation.

The medical device tax was first imposed in January 2013 to help fund the ACA. After harsh criticism from legislators and the medical device industry, Congress passed a two-year suspension of the levy in 2015. While the suspension was set to expire Jan. 1, a stopgap bill signed into law by President Donald Trump Jan. 22, further delayed the medical levy. It was set to take effect Jan. 1, 2020.

The tax applies to products such as pacemakers and artificial joints, not devices directly sold to customers.

The House voted 283-132 to repeal the tax. Critics of the tax said it hinders job growth and innovation. Supporters of the tax said a repeal will deprive the government of about $20 billion over the next decade, according to The Wall Street Journal.Medtronic agreed to a proposed settlement with an investor that sued the company for allegedly concealing adverse events for the company's rhBMP-2 product Infuse, according to the Star Tribune.

Here are four things to know:

1. Medtronic has faced several lawsuits related to Infuse in recent years, and this could be among the last. The product, which received FDA approval in 2002, has been used in thousands of spinal fusions for on-and off-label applications.



2. The institutional investor sued Medtronic for allegedly hiding adverse events from the clinical studies used to achieve FDA clearance and promote the product, as well as overstating the disadvantages of alternative treatments, according to the report. Medtronic denied "all allegations of liability and wrongdoing related to the case" in a 1,000-word disclaimer as part of the settlement agreement. The company also denied that the shareholders were harmed as a result of the incident.

3. The two sides agreed to a $43 million settlement to resolve the allegations. The most recent settlement comes after the company agreed to pay $12 million to settle legal complaints in December, as well as the federal racketeering lawsuit Humana brought against the company last June.

4. If the judge approves, Medtronic will pay the $43 million settlement to cover shareholders acquiring company shares from Sept. 8, 2010 to June 28, 2011.New York City-based Hospital for Special Surgery is expanding an existing relationship with South Korea-based Bumin Hospital Group to strengthen its quality improvement and infection control programs.

Here are five things to know:

1. The partnership began in 2014, with HSS helping two BHG hospitals achieve operating efficiencies. HSS shared its best practices as well as partnered with the hospitals on education and research.

2. Through the existing partnership, HSS worked with BHG to develop strategies that would advance surgical, nonsurgical and rehabilitation outcomes as well as operational efficiencies.

3. As a result of the expanded partnership, HSS will work with the hospitals over the next two years, through 2020, to achieve the HSS Center of Excellence designation. The partners will focus on quality improvement and infection control to achieve certification, which denotes advanced care delivery.

4. If the two South Korean hospitals achieve center of excellence designation, they will become members of the HSS Global Orthopedic Alliance Network.

5. BHG operates four hospitals in South Korea, covering around 1,200 beds.Orthopedic surgeon Donald Ozumba, MD, was charged with aggravated sexual assault involving an elderly person, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Here are six things to know:

1. Dr. Ozumba's criminal trial began July 24 at Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas. A 73-year-old woman testified Dr. Ozumba assaulted her during a 2016 office visit.

2. If convicted, Dr. Ozumba could face up to life in prison.

3. The Texas Medical Board accused Dr. Ozumba of unprofessional conduct involving 13 patients. He is accused of sexually assaulting nine patients and engaging in sexual contact and inappropriate sexual behavior with two others. According to a January complaint filed by the medical board, Dr. Ozumba also had sexual relationships with two patients.

4. He is currently on trial for the single charge, but six other sexual assault cases involving Dr. Ozumba are pending in Collin County. Allegations from other women have also been referred to the Rockwall County (Texas) District Attorney's Office.

5. Dr. Ozumba denied the medical board's allegations in response to the January complaint. His medical license is suspended while the board's complaint is pending.

6. Two other women testified July 24 that Dr. Ozumba sexually assaulted them.

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AAOS committee reappoints Dr. Erik Severson: 5 notesIn a $50 million lawsuit, former neurosurgery resident Rylan Brantl, MD, alleges the chief of neurosurgery at Columbia-based University of Missouri School of Medicine harassed and fired him without good cause, the Missourian reports.

Here are seven things to know:

1. Dr. Brantl claims N. Scott Litofsky, MD, created a hostile work environment and subjected him to abusive behavior as a MU neurosurgery resident from 2008 through 2013.

2. Dr. Brantl also claims the university failed to adequately address concerns residents had about Dr. Litofsky and the neurosurgery program. The lawsuit claims these allegations represent a breach of contract and a failure to comply with Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education program requirements, such as limiting the number of hours neurosurgery residents could work.

3. Residents were reportedly threatened by Dr. Litofsky and other faculty if they reported the number of hours they actually worked.

4. The lawsuit also alleges Dr. Brantl's surgical skills were unfairly critiqued. The neurosurgeon claims he was forced to repeat his fourth year of residency despite passing the required neurosurgery board exams in 2011. The lawsuit states no surgical resident at the medical school had ever been dismissed from the program after passing the board exams.

5. In 2012, Dr. Brantl went to the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City, training in the pediatric neurosurgery program through a partnership with MU's medical school. Dr. Brantl was deemed "competent and independent" while at the University of Utah. This contradicts the poor performance reviews he received at MU, according to the lawsuit.

6. After returning to MU, Dr. Brantl claims he was unfairly cut from the residency program in the fifth year of a six-year program. Dr. Brantl was not given a reason for his dismissal. Neither Dr. Litofsky or the university responded to the grievance he filed in January 2013, which is required within 30 days. The university allegedly offered Dr. Brantl's position to another resident before his grievance was heard.

7. Dr. Brantl's suit against the Board of Curators seeks $20 million for past and potential future income lost due to his termination and $30 million for harm to his professional reputation as well as future advancement as a neurosurgeon. Dr. Brantl reportedly received a job offer from Grand Forks, N.D.-based Altru Health System for more than $1 million annually after completing his residency. When Dr. Brantl was dismissed from the program, the offer was rescinded.

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Male patients have more ACDF complications, study says: 4 notes'The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) said that 2018 was set to be a vintage year thanks to a wet spring followed by the heatwave'

Vineyards are hopeful that recent high temperatures across the UK will create quality fruit and yields matching those of France's Champagne region.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) said that 2018 was set to be a vintage year thanks to a wet spring followed by the heatwave that led to early flowering vines and generous bunches of grapes which were "shaping up to provide a bountiful harvest".

WSTA chief executive Miles Beale said: "The last bumper year for English wine was back in 2014 when good weather created ideal growing conditions for our grapes, with vineyards across the UK producing the equivalent of 6.3 million bottles of English and Welsh wine that year."

Vineyards were hoping 2018 would be "even better", he said.

Viticultural consultant Stephen Skelton added: "Vines like the heat. It's been the best year I've ever known. It's going to be a very early vintage, which is always good for quality. As for volume, we normally crop about one third of Champagne (region). This year I would guess we would match their level."'Hammerson said it was targeting 1.1bn in disposals by the end of 2019, having already offloaded 300m this year and increased its overall 2018 target to 600m'

Abbey Retail Park owner Hammerson has unveiled a sweeping strategy overhaul that will see it offload 1.1bn in assets and hand millions back to shareholders in a move meant to appease investors after profits plunged 80%.

The Newtownabbey retail park owner which also owns Birmingham's Bullring made the announcement alongside its half-year results, where it outlined plans to exit the retail parks sector and instead focus its attention on flagship retail destinations and premium outlets.

Hammerson said it was targeting 1.1bn in disposals by the end of 2019, having already offloaded 300m this year and increased its overall 2018 target to 600m. It will also hand up to 300m back to investors through a share buyback programme in an effort to share the proceeds.

The company is now targeting at least 7m in annual cost savings, which will be achieved through "operational efficiencies", aided by the disposal programme as well as management changes that include cutting the number of executive directors from four to two.

Chief investment officer Peter Cole and executive director Jean-Philippe Mouton will both step down from the board at the end of the year.

It comes as Hammerson reported a whopping 80% drop in pre-tax profits to 55.8m over the six months to June 30, compared with 289.7m a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, profits rose a mere 0.5% to 120m.

The company said its UK shopping centres and retail parks were affected by the "turbulent retail market" and the recent raft of Voluntary Arrangements (CVAs), which have seen retailers demand lower rents or shut stores completely.

Hammerson said it was cutting the floor space let to department stores by a quarter, and high street fashion by a fifth, letting loose firms that have continued to struggle amid a slowdown in consumer spending.'The existing three-storey complex is a research and development hub, focusing on cyber security, wireless innovation, data sciences and scalable computing' (stock photo)

Queen's University has launched plans to significantly expand its 6.3m digital research facility in Belfast's Titanic Quarter.

A bid has been unveiled to add a four-storey extension to the front of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) building at Catalyst Inc, previously known as the Northern Ireland Science Park.

The existing three-storey complex is a research and development hub, focusing on cyber security, wireless innovation, data sciences and scalable computing.

Fourteen years since the 41,000sq ft project was completed, the university is seeking to add another 31,500sq ft as part of a five-year plan to expand the scope of its research and enable it to house more staff.

Set to cater for around 100 people, the extension being designed by US multinational engineering firm AECOM.

The company employs around 87,000 people in offices scattered worldwide, including one on Beechill Road in Belfast. It is headquartered in California. Its projects include One World Trade Center in New York, currently the tallest building in the Western hemisphere. The new project for Queen's University proposes a central glass tower in the new extension, which would be built on a car park at the site.

The project includes new shared meeting spaces, open plan office space, a 50-person teaching laboratory, a hybrid lab and server room.

The application, first reported by website Future Belfast, was submitted to planners in Belfast City Council earlier this month.

In a report supporting the application, AECOM states: "Whilst providing an important R&D facility, it is clear however that the existing ECIT building needs to expand in order to accommodate the institute's future plans. Over the next five years ECIT have ambitious growth figures for both academic and research staff and their current facility, which is approximately 14 years old, is not capable of accommodating the additional numbers."

AECOM's proposal seeks to limit the disruption in the current ECIT building to minor refurbishment, which includes relocating furniture, demolishing existing storage and partitioning a seminar room.

It said: "The external finish of the extension has been designed to reflect the dynamic and innovative nature of the institute and to provide a working environment that reinforces their international standing whilst also respecting the built heritage in the surrounding area."

Buildings close to the ECIT complex include White Star House and the Concourse development. The original ECIT development was designed by RPP Architects and carried out by Felix O'Hare and Co Ltd over 2003 and 2004. Last month, Queen's University announced a 500,000 investment in a new cyber security research lab at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), which will be based in the ECIT building.High street banking giant Santander has reported half-year profits diving 18% amid a competitive and uncertain market and said it will focus heavily on cutting costs (Laura Lean/PA)

High street banking giant Santander has reported half-year profits diving 18% amid a competitive and uncertain market and said it will focus heavily on cutting costs.

The Spanish-owned group reported UK underlying pre-tax profits of 920 million for the six months to June 30, down from 1.12 billion a year earlier.

On a statutory basis, pre-tax profits fell 15% to 903 million.

The bank said net interest income dropped 6% after being hit by lower mortgage pricing and loss of customers on standard variable rate deals.

It saw net mortgage lending  gross lending less redemptions  growth of 2.3 billion in the first half.

But customer deposits fell to 172.6 billion from 174.4 billion a year earlier.

Cost discipline is a key priority for management. We are progressing with our 2018 efficiency initiatives and expect the benefits of our actions to come through in the second half of the yearSantander UK chief executive Nathan Bostock

Nathan Bostock, chief executive of Santander UK, said: The competitive and uncertain operating environment has resulted in profit before tax of 903 million, down 15% yea on year.

He added: Cost discipline is a key priority for management.

We are progressing with our 2018 efficiency initiatives and expect the benefits of our actions to come through in the second half of the year.

The lender said earlier this year it continues to review its 779-strong branch network, having already announced 21 branch closures in the UK over the first half.

Santander took no further hit from payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling in the half-year, but it was knocked in the first quarter by a 60 million impairment charge, including a further writedown on Carillion as well as another firm, understood to be troubled fellow outsourcer Interserve.

The groups UK arm enjoyed a better performance in the second quarter, with profits up 18% quarter on quarter at 489 million, with the absence of the Carillion impairment charges and lower costs.

It said it was also seeing signs that its net interest margin was stabilising.

The wider Santander group posted a 4% rise in interim profits to 3.75 billion euros (3.3 billion) thanks to strong growth in the US and Brazil.Dacia has updated its popular Duster SUV model, whilst keeping prices down, including the eye-catching 9,995 entry-level price. Paul Connolly checks it out.

What's new?

If you're a vehicle manufacturer and you can hit that sweet spot where value for money and desirability collide, then you've got it made. Dacia has managed this with the Duster, its robust SUV model.

This second generation car, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show last autumn, is a significant advance on earlier models.

Yet, Dacia has managed to keep prices pegged to within 500 of the first generation. And they've even retained the attention-grabbing sub-10k headline price of the basic model (9,995 to be precise).

The truth is, the new car looks, drives, feels, behaves and acts in a more superior way than its predecessors.

Looks and design

The exterior design has had an impressive overhaul. Dacia says not a single body panel is carried over from the previous generation car.

The new bonnet has more sculpted crease lines to exaggerate rugged appearance, an affect set off by larger scratch-resistant front skid plate, and a higher side belt line.

Dacia's designers have brought the windscreen forward by 100mm and made it more steeply raked, which adds to space inside.

New 17-inch wheels with black wing arch trims give the car a more assertive personality and a slicker grille/headlamp array actually manages to make the car look a little wider.

LED daytime running lights divided into three sections and Dacia's rear lighting signature - four red stacked squares - round off the look.

The overall affect is definitely SUV, not crossover, and the car has a real 'active lifestyle' feel about it.

My review car, courtesy of Charles Hurst Dacia on Belfast's Boucher Road, came in vibrant Desert Orange colour; it sets the car off nicely, particularly in Prestige trim, and certainly gets it noticed.

Inside the cabin

The cabin, too, has been completely refreshed for 2018. The dashboard has been improved, with better quality materials replacing some of the harder plastics of the previous model.

The interior isn't as plush, or course, as you'd find in models from sister company Renault, but that's part of the price-quality trade-off that Dacia has learned to do so well in the past five or so years.

The centre console houses a higher-positioned and better quality MediaNav display based on Renault's offering that groups together all your navigation, media and info needs in one clear touch-screen panel (note, however, if you opt for the entry-level models there will be no MediaNav display unless specced as an extra).

The seats have been redesigned with better foam and length/height and new headrests.

Room in the back is decent, although there's no change in boot capacity: 445 litres for the 2WD version and 411 litres for the 4WD version.

Under the bonnet

For now, there's a choice of one petrol (SCe 115 - 2WD and 4WD versions) and one diesel engine (the Blue dCi 115 (2WD).

This 1.6-litre petrol engine provides 115 hp and official fuel consumption of 43.5mpg (2WD model). For 4x4 versions, the combined fuel consumption figure is 40.7mpg.

The 1.5-litre diesel engine provides 115 hp with official combined fuel consumption of 64.2mpg.

These are not units that will feel fast under your right foot, but if speed and power is what you are after, you won't be shopping in this segment/price point anyway.

If what you need under the bonnet is reliability, decent efficiency and value for money, the Dacia is the place to be.

As standard, all models come with a six-speed manual transmission, except for the SCe 115 4x2 petrol model, which has a five-speed gearbox. The 4x4 models use the Renault-developed TL8 six-speed manual transmission.

Handling is good on both motorway and about town, with the new electric-powered steering set-up being light and responsive, and a distinct improvement over the outgoing model.

A welcome development is the work Dacia has put in to reduce cabin noise - up to half, they say - over the outgoing model; thicker glass, better seals, and more sound-absorbing surfaces.

The car, particularly in 4WD trim, will perform well in most terrains, and for the tricker stuff, there is optional Hill Descent Control and Hill Start Assist. 4x4 models have a rear multi-arm suspension arrangement specially developed for the Duster.

Tech and trim

There's little change in the trim levels: Access (from 9,995), Essential (11,595), Comfort (13,195) and Prestige (14,395).

Standard equipment includes the new electric power steering, ECO mode and Stop and StartABS and Emergency Brake Assist, ESC/ ASR (Electronic Stability Control and Traction Control).

Despite this, the entry-level cars are very basic when it comes to technology, and you'd be better off focusing on either Comfort or Prestige.

Essential trim adds air-con, 16-inch 'Fidji' steel wheels, DAB radio with steering-column and Bluetooth connectivity over the standard features.

Comfort adds further goodies including better alloys, leather steering wheel, graphite cloth upholstery, rear parking camera and sensors, the MediaNav 7" touchscreen multimedia system.

Range-topping Prestige piles on further extras including new 17-inch 'Diamond-cut' alloys, s really rather multi-view camera that lets you see all around the car during manoeuvres, blind spot warning, climate control and keyless entry.

Who would buy one?

It's hard to believe the Duster has been with us since 2010, but it has. With sales brisk, particularly for the higher-spec models, it's clear Dacia has hit that value for money/desirability sweet spot with this model.

This is a car that has a wide range of users, from families, to businesses to off-roaders, or singles with active weekend lifestyles.

Unless you want the basic Access vehicle for a specific purpose (say for a business), you should do your shopping at Comfort or Prestige trim - although more expensive, these still represent outstanding value for money.BBC Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac leads the line-up for the final Shine at Mandela Hall this week before the long-running event moves to the Old Belfast Telegraph building.

The huge music event will take place on Saturday, July 28.

Annie credits Shine for inspiring her interest in music after she spent many nights on the dancefloor during her years at Queens university.

Ahead of the farewell gig, she spoke to the Belfast Telegraph about saying goodbye and what's in store...

Would it be fair to say this Mandela Hall gig will be an emotional one?

Yes.

What are your fondest memories of the Shine nights in this venue?

Being a punter early on making so many friends on the dance floor, stamping people's wrists on the door, and then getting promoted to guarding the door to the green room.

I would sit on a stool right underneath the DJ booth and watch them play , watch how they moved the crowd. It was an education.

Shine was also a coming of age for me - the place where I heard the music that would set me on a path for the rest of my life.

Why do you think the venue is so important to student culture in Belfast?

Shine is a globally respected club - its reputation brings the worlds finest DJs to the Mandela Hall.

It's such a privilege for students to be able to witness this level of expertise.

Its also just vital for students to have a safe and regulated space to let loose. Its a massive part of student life and completely enriches the student experience. I have so many fond memories of the QUSU.

What can revellers expect during your set?

Some great new music they havent heard and some absolute classics that I was exposed to on the dance floor of the Mandela Hall.

What is the best thing about what you do?

Spreading joy through music.

What has been your career highlight so far?

Just getting to be on the radio every day. I love radio so much so doing my show five nights across the week on Radio 1 is my dream come true.

Which of your own gigs have been the most memorable and why?

My first time playing at Shine was a really big deal for me. I wanted it to be great.

Also some big Irish festivals, I played once at the dance arena for Oxygen festival and the band on after me sound checked all the way through my set and then lowered their visuals screen down right in front of me half way through my set. I was completely obstructed from the audience. I was raging at the promoter!

What have been the most memorable gigs you have attended?

Candi Staton at the Jazz Cafe made me cry also The Roots at the Jazz Cafe in London were amazing... Lauren Hill in London years ago, where she was an hour late and then sat and read her song lyrics from a piece of paper like poetry.

She made up for the lateness by playing 20 minutes of her biggest hits at the end.

Recently we have had some amazing gigs as part of my events series AMP - a rapper called Octavian played for us at The Jazz Cafe and was incredible.

What song is your biggest guilty pleasure?

I dont really have any guilty pleasure you know I love a lot of what some people might consider cheesy music - I have no qualms about playing stuff I love in my DJ sets.

What words of wisdom would you bestow on the next generation?

Be kind! Get off your phone! Stop eating meat!The best-selling author Lee Child once described Belfast as "the most noir place on earth".

And now a local crime writer is planning to prove that by starting a walking tour which explores the city's influence on some of the darker elements of television and movie drama.

Simon Maltman believes Northern Ireland is right up there with Scandinavia when it comes to compelling detective series.

While Copenhagen and Malmo have provided brooding settings for the likes of The Bridge and The Killing, Belfast has done something similar with The Fall and Line of Duty, among others.

But although the locations for those popular shows have become familiar to millions of viewers, and have added to the attractiveness of Belfast and elsewhere to tourists, there hasn't been a tour dedicated to fans keen on seeing where the often gruesome action takes place.

Simon (36) is keen to change all that.

He wants to introduce the bizarre and 'noir' elements of the city stalked by Jamie Dornan's frightening character, the serial killer Paul Spector, in four series of Alan Cubitt's award-winning The Fall, and patrolled by Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar) and his AC-12 colleagues in Line of Duty.

Key topics on the new tour also include Game of Thrones, the classic 1947 Belfast-based movie Odd Man Out starring James Mason, popular Bangor-born author and screenwriter Colin Bateman and the local 'noir' literature scene which has made the likes of Stuart Neville global best-selling authors.

Simon, who has two daughters - Eve (five) and Lilah (two) - with history teacher wife Anna (36), said it is exciting to finally get the Belfast noir project off the ground.

"As a crime fiction fan I was surprised that there is no tour running about screen and books, particularly around the crime genre area and locally shot programmes such as The Fall, Line of Duty and Odd Man Out," he said.

"Being a fan of local writers, I also thought it a shame that there wasn't more around literature either. There are Game of Thrones tours, but that's about it, so I took my idea to Belfast Hidden Tours."

The bespoke company and the Bangor author have been collaborating over the last six months to fine tune the new tour, which launched recently and is running all summer - every Friday and Saturday at both 12pm and 2pm.

Conor Owens of Belfast Hidden Tours has said he is looking forward to the joint venture.

"I had noticed a niche market for a film, TV and literature tour and when I met Simon, who was keen to do something similar, it was a no-brainer," he said.

"We have been planning this specific tour for ages, so we're now really looking forward to introducing it to the public and tourists.

"Both of us are very flexible and creative, so we look forward to developing the new 'Belfast Noir' brand."

The tour also includes two free 'Ulster Noir' ebooks that have been Amazon bestsellers and are part of the Northern Ireland collection housed in Linen Hall Library.

It costs 10 per person - with group discount available - and lasts approximately 90 minutes.

Stops include City Hall, the Ulster Hall, Crown Bar, Europa, BBC, Queen's, Botanic and No Alibis book shop.

Incidentally, the phenomenal 'Jack Reacher' series author Lee Child's real name is Jim Grant - the Coventry-born son of a native of Belfast's legendary Cyprus Avenue and no stranger to the city and its 'noir' side.Anna Burns's book is down to the last 13

A Belfast-born writer whose work has been compared to James Joyce and Samuel Beckett has been longlisted for the prestigious Man Booker prize for her latest novel.

Anna Burns' nomination for Milkman was applauded by the Irish Embassy in London, which welcomed the inclusion of two authors from the Republic in the longlist of 13 writers in line for the 50,000 award.

The embassy tweeted that it was "a fantastic day for contemporary Irish literature with three Irish writers on the long list".

The 55-year-old Ardoyne woman has lived in England for more than 30 years. She moved from Belfast in 1987 while in her mid-20s, and at one time lived in Notting Hill in London before moving to east Sussex.

Milkman, published by Faber & Faber, is her third novel and it has received enthusiastic reviews in all the main newspapers and literary magazines in Britain.

It tells the story of a teenager's encounters with a sinister milkman who is a married man with a reputation for grooming young girls like her, and who is also a member of a paramilitary organisation.

In Milkman, the narrator, who goes only by the name 'Middle Sister', lives in an unnamed town which critics have assumed is Belfast.

One critic wrote that it was "set against a bomb-shattered landscape rendered toxic by a climate of prejudice, intimidation, suspicion and half-truths".

He added: "If Beckett had written a prose poem about the Troubles, it would read a lot like this."

Another reviewer said: "Although the novel is set in Northern Ireland during the 1970s, it prompts thoughts of other regimes and their impact: Stalinist Russia, the Taliban. Medieval witchhunts, the Skripal poisoning and the #MeToo movement also sprang to mind while reading it. Despite the surreality, everything about this novel rings true."

The judges said of the book: "At turns frightening and inspirational, Milkman is stylistically utterly distinctive. At the intersection of class, race, gender and sexual violence, it deals with oppression and power with a Beckettian sense of humour, offering a wholly original take on Ireland in the time of the Troubles through the mind of a young girl."

Two other Irish writers are on the longlist - Sally Rooney from Co Mayo for her book Normal People, and Donal Ryan for his novel From A Low And Quiet Sea. It's his second longlisting.

RTE said only two Irish writers were on the list, but it was criticised on social media. "Anna Burns - born Belfast and lived there for 25 years," said one tweet.

Her first book, No Bones, published 17 years ago, was about a young girl growing up in Belfast during the Troubles.

It was praised for using the everyday language of Belfast people in the way that James Joyce did with the residents of Dublin.

However, writer, critic and former Sinn Fein publicity director Danny Morrison wasn't overly impressed.

He said No Bones didn't work and came across as desperate plotting, but he added: "With a bit more discipline or a bit more guidance Anna Burns will write a far superior second novel, even though she will dislike me for a long time."

No Bones won the 2001 Winifred Holtby memorial prize for the best regional novel of the year in the British Isles. The book was also shortlisted for the Orange Prize.

She published her second novel, Little Construction, in 2007, and a novella, Mostly Hero, seven years later.

The 13 books which are on the longlist for the 2018 Man Booker Prize were selected by a panel of five judges from 171 submissions, the highest number of titles put forward in the prize's 50-year history.

The panel of judges included Scottish crime novelist Val McDermid and feminist writer and critic Jacqueline Rose.

It's the first year that novels published in Ireland have been eligible for the prize. Organisers said the rule change was designed to recognise the special relationship between the UK and Irish publishing markets.

Five of the writers on the longlist are from North America. For the first time ever a graphic novel is included on the longlist.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Thursday, September 20 and the overall winner will be revealed at a televised black-tie dinner in London's Guildhall on Tuesday, October 16.

Literary sources say the importance of a Man Booker win is immense.

Sales of last year's winner, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders increased by 1,227% after receiving the prize.An eerie and, I have to say, unusual silence fell on our house on Monday morning. Mum was waiting on Vinny Hurrell phoning from BBC Radio Ulster to signal the beginning of her interview on the Stephen Nolan Show, and I was listening in on the TV in our family room - all ears and sworn to silence at the same time.

She was taking part at the beginning of Monday morning's radio show to highlight organ donation, specifically the plight of 20-month-old Daithi Mac Gabhann, who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and is waiting for a new heart.

His story, and the moving organ donation plea from his parents, Mairtin and Seph, was carried in the Belfast Telegraph last week. Theirs is an emotional story of a young Belfast family facing the uncertainty of waiting for a vital heart transplant for their baby son.

They've been told that Daithi's heart is too weak to withstand another operation and have been fighting hard to promote organ donation and to encourage people to think about having that all-important conversation.

Mum was able to parallel their journey with ours, although explaining that while kidney patients can undergo dialysis, as I did for seven months, to keep us alive, this is sadly not an option for heart patients.

Having spent many years of my life in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, I know what it's like to rely on the amazing doctors, nurses and auxiliaries. When you have problems from birth, appointments, scans, tests and operations become almost a way of life, but the one thing we all need to hold on to is hope - hope for a brighter future.

Without being sure in the knowledge that kindness and selfless generosity exists out there, a transplant patient couldn't embrace that hope that the call will come which will change their world.

I know what it's like waiting for that call, and I know the euphoric feeling which comes from receiving it, which I did in 2009, and then again the feelings we had as a family when it was confirmed that mum was a match for me earlier this year.

I truly hope that Daithi, Mairtin and Seph will come to know that feeling and Daithi will receive the transplant which he so urgently needs.

If you get a chance please have a read at their Belfast Telegraph interview online or listen back to the Nolan Show from Monday on the BBC Radio Ulster website.

Mum also got the chance to talk about our own transplant journey, and there was even an invite from Stephen to chat with me in the future, though mum joked that he might meet his match when it comes to non-stop talking.

I'm happy to talk to anyone about organ donation if it means once again getting the chance to highlight how important it is for people to share their wishes with their loved ones and praising the amazing lifesaving heroes of our health service.

As she mentioned on the radio, mum has been working away hard in her role as Kidney Care UK Ambassador, meeting as many people as possible who want to support kidney patients.

I have been able to join her on many of her visits, and I know the sense of joy which comes from people giving back to help support others.

One visit she will be making this week is to the Nichol family, who live in Old Warren in Lisburn. Over the July holidays they held a cake sale at their home to help support patients. Stephen is a dialysis patient and along with his wife and their baby son, TJ, worked hard to bake and sell cakes. Mum is calling to say a special thank you on behalf of the patients who will be supported by the money they raised.

It is so often the act of kindness which makes a real and lasting difference, which helps to support the daily lives of patients and which also helps to highlight and support the work of our health service as it continues to cope with ever-increasing demand for transplants. Her charity provides this wraparound support to patients young and old.

That's it for this week as we get a few drops more rain, which is always a bonus on the farm as we have had such a lengthy dry period this summer.

And just to keep you up to speed on my health, my appointments continue as usual at the renal unit at the Belfast City Hospital as they keep an eye on my tablet regime and levels and make sure I am continuing to do well.NFU Mutual retail specialist Frank Woods said the high cost of employers' liability and public liability insurance is often the result of threatenting behaviour or assaults on employees

More than 40% of people in Northern Ireland say they have seen shop staff being abused.

The statistics, which cover the last three years, emerged after research by insurer NFU Mutual.

It found that 42% had witnessed some form of abuse towards retail staff, ranging from customers belittling or being patronising to employees, and swearing and shouting at them, to physical attacks.

The report also said 87% of people here expect retail staff to have the necessary training to effectively manage when confronted by a verbally or physically abusive customer.

Despite this, 45% of the UK businesses also surveyed said they are not actively taking any measures to protect their staff.

NFU Mutual commissioned the research after The British Retail Consortium's latest Retail Crime Survey identified a spike in violent attacks on store staff.

Frank Woods, retail specialist at NFU Mutual, said: "Employers' liability and public liability claims remain the highest cost to us as a commercial insurer and, unfortunately, while most is accidental damage, the sad fact is that some is down to threatening behaviour or even assault. It's not only the physical abuse that employees receive but also the emotional cost of everyday discourtesy."

Mr Woods said many retail staff in Northern Ireland are young people working in what is their first job, often for the minimum wage.

"These sorts of encounters can crush their enthusiasm to pursue a career in retail which is a particular threat while Brexit approaches and questions about recruiting talent remain unanswered," he added.

"No one deserves to be spoken to rudely or feel threatened at work, no matter their profession."

The report also found that 83% of people in Northern Ireland would either physically or verbally intervene if a member of staff was being attacked by another customer.A historic sword that saw service in the armies of both King William and King James has gone on display in Belfast.

The 17th century bayonet has been unveiled at the Museum of Orange Heritage in Castlereagh, and is thought to have belonged to a Jacobite soldier who switched allegiance prior to the Battle of the Boyne.

The swords markings tell the story of its move across the divide, with the reference to 'Albany' on its hilt and guard indicating it belonged to a soldier who served under James II prior to his becoming king in 1685.

Markings on the lower section of the blade show that part, if not all, of the regiment the soldier had been part of switched sides at the start of the Glorious Revolution and the Williamite and Jacobite War.

Speaking about the weapon, museum curator Dr Johnathan Mattison said: "This change of allegiance makes the piece quite interesting as it reflects the fact that many soldiers and regiments, who had been serving together prior to 1688, ended up fighting on rival sides during the war in Ireland.

The soldier who used this weapon may have been conscious that the regiment had originally been loyal to James Stuart so etched WR and 1689 on the blade to show his support for the Glorious Revolution and the Constitutional change that had just taken place.

Dr Mattison said the weapon showed the "complexities of the armies fighting on either side" and that it demonstrated the soldier had wished to publicly display his loyalty to both kings at various times.

The swords unveiling comes ahead of the Boyne Day next month, which will take place on August 18 with a range of family activities.

On the day there will be a 3 reduced rate of admission to the museum for adults, and free entry for children.The spectacular fireworks display on Derry's River Foyle lights up the sky over the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race during the Voyages Showcase Finale during the Foyle Maritime Festival. Credit: Martin McKeown / ClipperRound The WorldRace

Chancellor Philip Hammond has given the Government's strongest commitment to date for a City Deal for Londonderry.

Calls for the arrangements to be put in place dates back a number of years and has been championed by the SDLP.

Speaking in the House of Commons in 2016, the then MP for Foyle Mark Durkan hit out at the "resistance and negligence" shown by the Executive to advancing the City Deal proposal.

In December 2017, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said he had received a commitment to a City Deal for Derry from former Secretary of State James Brokenshire.

On Wednesday, Mr Hammond said Northern Ireland was "leading the way within the UK in productivity growth" and he was aiming to support this "by inviting a bid for a Derry-Londonderry City Deal, an opportunity for the region to continue to drive forward economic growth and build an economy that works for everyone".

Northern Ireland has seen a 14.2% growth in productivity in the past eight years - the highest of any UK region.

The push for a City Deal for Derry was also backed by Secretary of State Karen Bradley said: "I am delighted with todays [Wednesday] announcement, which is a positive step in progressing a City Deal for Derry-Londonderry. It is a testament to the many local partners who have worked tirelessly for progress to be made.

"As Northern Irelands second largest centre for economic growth, Derry-Londonderry plays a significant role in the regions economic success.

"I look forward to now engaging with local partners and across Government as proposals are developed and we build on the existing strengths of this area to deliver a real impact on the economy in the North West and across Northern Ireland."

Mr Hammond also announced there would be an injection of 12m into local aerospace manufacturer Bombardier, which will go towards developing "cutting edge technology".

"This will help to secure jobs for Northern Irelands economy and cement the UKs role as a leading manufacturer of high tech aircraft components," he said.

The move by the Chancellor to invite a City Deal bid will give local councils, universities and businesses a chance to submit plans to the Government for the growth of the city.

In November 2017, Mr Hammond announced a potential city deal for Belfast as part of the UK's Budget, a move which drew the ire of Londonderry representatives who had been pushing for the deal.

City Deals are agreements between the Government and cities in the United Kingdom, and devolve a range of economic powers.

Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Greater Manchester, and Greater Birmingham have all previously availed from the agreements.The DUP has suspended Ian Paisley, but party sources last night said he was still likely to be its candidate if a by-election is called in North Antrim.

The House of Commons yesterday voted to exclude the DUP MP for 30 sitting days - the joint-longest period for any member in almost 70 years. He breached parliamentary rules by not declaring two luxury foreign holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

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Speaker of the House John Bercow described it as "a regrettable state of affairs" as the DUP suspended the son of its late founder Ian Paisley Snr.

The chief electoral officer will be informed of Parliament's decision and will have 10 working days to set up a petition of recall.

If the petition is signed by 10% of the North Antrim electorate, Mr Paisley must stand down and a by-election will be called.

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A by-election would take place in late autumn at the earliest.

The DUP MP's suspension from the Commons will run from September 4 until mid-November and will deprive the minority Tory Government of a crucial vote on key Brexit matters.

Politicians from across the sectarian divide have demanded that Mr Paisley resign or that the DUP remove him. However, the MP has vowed that he "will not go quietly into the night" and has branded those who want a by-election as "opportunists... some with questionable motives".

In a short statement yesterday, the DUP said its party officers had considered the Commons Committee on Standards' report on the North Antrim MP.

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"The party takes this report and the matters contained within it very seriously," it said.

"The party officers have decided to suspend Mr Ian Paisley MP from membership of the party pending further investigation into his conduct.

"The party does not intend to make any further comment on these matters during the course of the above outlined process."

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill challenged the DUP to clearly state where it stood regarding its MP's behaviour.

She noted that Mr Paisley's colleagues in Westminster had overwhelmingly voted to impose the most serious sanction handed to any MP since 1949.

"When you consider some of the sleaze, corruption and criminal scandals that have engulfed the British Parliament during that time, that is quite extraordinary," she said.

Mrs O'Neill added the DUP needed to be clear "as to whether they are prepared to defend a lack of integrity in public office".

She said: "They need to be clear whether they believe it was acceptable for one of their MPs to be actively lobbying on behalf of a regime that carried out mass murder, war crimes and gross human rights abuses.

"And if indeed this scandal does lead to a by-election in North Antrim, the DUP need to be clear whether they will endorse Ian Paisley as a candidate, given his clear intention to stand."

TUV leader Jim Allister said: "Today in Parliament, Ian Paisley reaped what he sowed. The biggest losers in this scandalous saga are the Brexit voting people of North Antrim, who in upcoming crucial votes will now be left without a voice or a vote, because of the selfish antics of Mr Paisley."

The UUP said the DUP approach to Mr Paisley's breach of rules was not transparent.

A party spokesman said: "Parliament has been very clear in its findings of the seriousness of Ian Paisley's actions, with the Standards Committee concluding that he was guilty of 'serious misconduct'. The Standards Committee has also been very clear in delivering the most severe sanction against an MP in decades.

"What is not so clear is what the DUP expect to find beyond that which has already been uncovered by a lengthy forensic investigation carried out by Parliament's Standards Committee. The ball remains very firmly at the feet of Arlene Foster."

Patrick Corrigan of Amnesty International said that while Mr Paisley's suspension from Parliament had received much attention, the "real victims of this scandal are those who were disappeared, tortured and killed in Sri Lanka".

He added: "This is really a scandal about an MP attempting to stand in the way of international justice for the tens of thousands of civilians who lost their lives at the hands of the Sri Lankan government and the so-called Tamil Tigers.

"Mr Paisley's suspension is the longest issued to an MP in almost 70 years.

In March 2014, the MP lobbied against a proposed United Nations resolution to investigate alleged human rights abuses during the Sri Lankan civil war.

"Britain ignored his call and voted for the resolution."

In an article yesterday for his local newspaper, the Ballymena Guardian, Mr Paisley said while he deeply regretted his actions, he would not be resigning.

"There are also some who would have me booted out of Parliament and a by-election called to fill that vacancy.

"They are opportunists, some with questionable motives, and I can tell them that I have no intention of going quietly into the night," he said.

"If a petition leads to a by-election, make no mistake about it, I will seek re-election as I have never run away from an election in my life and don't intend to do so now."

The DUP MP said he had visited Sri Lanka many times, discussing the Northern Ireland peace process and its relevance internationally.

He has insisted he made a "genuine mistake" in not declaring the luxury holidays and has apologised to Parliament, his party and constituents.

The Standards Committee said he had committed "serious misconduct", and his actions were of a nature to bring the Commons into disrepute.Ian Paisley has said those seeking a by-election after his breach of parliamentary rules are "opportunists".

The North Antrim MP vowed to fight for his seat if he faces the electorate over his failure to declare two luxury family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government.

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In March 2014 the senior DUP man lobbied PM David Cameron against a proposed United Nations resolution to investigate alleged human rights abuses during the civil war on the Indian Ocean island without citing his financial benefits.

MPs at Westminster decided yesterday to suspend him for a major breach of parliamentary rules.

If 10% of his constituents sign a petition, an election will be called.

Mr Paisley told his local paper, the Ballymena Guardian, he deeply regretted his actions.

He added: "There are also some who would have me booted out of Parliament and a by-election called to fill that vacancy.

"They are opportunists, some with questionable motives, and I can tell them that I have no intention of going quietly into the night.

"If a petition leads to a by-election make no mistake about it, I will seek re-election as I have never run away from an election in my life and don't intend to do so now."

He is one of 10 pro-Brexit DUP MPs helping to prop up Theresa May's minority Conservative Government.

Mr Paisley has faced calls to quit after a parliamentary watchdog recommended he be suspended from the Commons for 30 days.

Mr Paisley has already denied he had any ulterior motive for that "genuine mistake" in 2013, adding that he accepted his "total failure" and offered an unreserved apology to the House of Commons.

The Commons Standards Committee said he had committed "serious misconduct" and his actions were of a nature to bring the Commons into disrepute.

The report said the cost of the hospitality may have been "significantly more" than Mr Paisley's 50,000 estimate, with the holidays including business-class air travel, accommodation at first-class hotels and more for him and his wider family.

The trips included meeting with Sri Lankan governmental figures.

Mr Paisley told the Ballymena Guardian he had worked in the island state on many occasions, discussing the Northern Ireland peace process and its relevance internationally.

Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, torture and other serious human rights violations and abuses were committed with impunity before, during and in the aftermath of the armed conflict between Sri Lankan government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that ended in 2009, campaign group Amnesty International has said.Police have appealed for information

Staff at a Belfast hot food shop were threatened by two men wielding a hammer in a robbery.

It happened on the Lisburn Road on Tuesday just before midnight.

The two men made off with a sum of cash.

Police are appealing for information.The most recent high-profile suspension from the DUP was that of Jonathan Bell in December 2016.

The former Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister was suspended following outspoken comments about leader Arlene Foster's handling of the RHI scheme. The Strangford MLA's suspension was unanimously agreed and the so-called "cash for ash" scandal led to the collapse of the Stormont Assembly.

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Another high-profile casualty was Iris Robinson, who was expelled in January 2010.

The wife of former First Minister Peter Robinson left Westminster and her MLA's position in Stormont over her financial and business dealings with a toy boy lover. The DUP said at the time: "We wanted to show people we were acting decisively. There was no question about it, she had to go and go now."

Newry and Armagh DUP MLA Paul Berry was suspended in July 2005.

Mr Berry attended a disciplinary panel examining a newspaper story on his private life.

He later resigned from the party and is now an independent representative on Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Council.

In May 2015 Lisburn councillor Jenny Palmer resigned before a disciplinary hearing after alleging she was ordered to change the way she intended to vote on terminating a contract with disgraced maintenance firm Red Sky.

Belfast councillor Ruth Patterson was expelled from the DUP in November 2015 after criticising the decision to overlook her for the South Belfast Assembly seat vacated by Jimmy Spratt, and instead appoint former special adviser Emma Little Pengelly.

In February 2016 one of the DUP's highest profile councillors in Derry, Maurice Devenney, was suspended after being accused of canvassing votes for the SDLP outside a polling station. Mr Devenney denied the accusation and said it was a misunderstanding. He had been a councillor in the city for 11 years, but resigned from the party later that month.

In April 2018 the DUP suspended councillor Ian Stevenson, a former mayor of Ballymoney, "pending the outcome of a court case".

The DUP then withdrew the whip from veteran politician Jim Wells in May over stinging criticism of the leadership.

In an explosive interview with the Belfast Telegraph, the South Down MLA accused the party of "hanging him out to dry" over his conservative views and allegedy reneging on a promise to reinstate him as Health Minister.

Former mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Thomas Hogg was also suspended in May after admitting drink-driving.Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has denied his government's involvement in the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIC) was "meddling" in Northern Ireland affairs.

He was speaking after criticism from Lord Trimble who said the meeting could breach the Good Friday Agreement's principals on Dublin's involvement in Northern Ireland matters.

"It's not meddling for two governments who are co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement to ensure that agreement works," Mr Coveney told the BBC

"And that is what we are trying to do here.

"Without functioning devolved government in Northern Ireland it is very hard for the structures of the Belfast agreement to function."

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The BIIC meets on Wednesday for the first time since 2007.

Mr Coveney will attend the event in London alongside the Irish Justice Minister and former foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan with the British Government represented by Secretary of State Karen Bradley and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington - the Prime Minister's defacto deputy.

Former first minister Lord Trimble and architect of the Good Friday Agreement said the meeting is "reaching the point of breaking" the principle set out in the 1998 peace accord that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

"There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either," he said.

"I don't regard this as a helpful situation. It's likely to make matters worse."

Power sharing in Northern Ireland collapsed over 18 months.A Northern Ireland peer has hit out after his name was wrongly included in an open letter calling for outside political intervention on abortion law here.

Lord Maginnis was listed as one of 170-plus politicians calling for urgent action to protect the "human rights of women" in a letter published in the Sunday Times at the weekend.

The letter urged the British and Irish governments and the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC) to step in on the matter.

While Lord Maginnis's name was not included in the abbreviated printed version of the letter, it was listed online alongside the full letter in the list of signatories.

The online letter, organised by Labour MP Stella Creasy, called for the BIIGC, which meets in London today, to "urgently agree a pathway forward to adequately provide for human rights - including compliant healthcare access for women and girls living in Northern Ireland".

It also asked that the Government intervene to decriminalise abortion and repeal sections 58 and 59 of Offences Against the Person Act - which make abortion a criminal offence - and urged it to "set out an explicit legislative timetable as to when it will do so".

It added that such action would stop women here from being treated as "second class citizens" and "ensure that the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement is upheld and the human rights of the women living in Northern Ireland are respected".

Lord Maginnis, a former Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP and now an independent unionist peer, describes himself as a "committed Christian" and said he was "horrified" that his name had wrongly been included. He said he had "made it very, very clear" to Ms Creasy that he did not wish to appear as a signatory.

He also slammed the letter as "displaying an ignorance of the nature of the Good Friday Agreement" and said that the call for the two governments and the BIIGC to intervene was "misdirected" as they had "no authority to intervene on devolved Northern Ireland affairs".

"I received an email from Ms Creasy last week asking if my name could be put on the letter, but I made it very, very clear to her there was no doubt, that I didn't want my name on the letter," he said.

"I also asked her to remove my name from her mailing list.

"Then a colleague rang me on Sunday asking if I had seen the Sunday Times, as he knew I wouldn't stand in favour of the letter. I was spitting nails, I was outraged.

"I know there are medical reasons on occasions when a foetus has to be sacrificed, but the last thing I want is wholesale 'convenience' or 'social' abortion, which I felt this letter was calling for."

The letter states that the Good Friday Agreement places responsibility "on both governments as the co-guarantors of the agreement to uphold and protect the human rights of all the residents of Northern Ireland".

It adds that "one of the foundation stones of the new political dispensation in Northern Ireland was that laws would be compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights" but "this commitment is being tested".

Referring to last month's Supreme Court assessment that abortion law here needs "radical reconsideration", and the view of the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women that it "amounts to discrimination against women", the letter calls for the Government to intervene in the absence of an Assembly.

Lord Maginnis said he was "particularly perturbed" by the letter's call for the British and Irish Governments to act to "ensure that the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement is upheld and the human rights of the women living in Northern Ireland are respected".

"This is actively contrary to the Good Friday Agreement," he insisted.

When asked if he had contacted Ms Creasy or been contacted by her following the letter's publication, he said he "neither wants to see or speak to Miss Creasy" as he is "very angry".

Lord Maginnis said he had contacted The Sunday Times, and wanted a letter published outlining his position.

His name had been removed from the online letter yesterday evening. A source at the Sunday Times said the letter and the signatories was sent to it from an MP in good faith, and the mistake was made before it received the letter.

Ms Creasy did not respond to requests for comment.Police and paramedics at the scene of a serious incident in Trinity Drive Ballymoney. Picture Kevin McAuley/McAuley Multimedia

A man was taken to hospital after an incident in Ballymoney.

Emergency services attended the scene of what was described as a "serious incident" at Trinity Drive at around 8pm.

There were concerns someone had been seriously injured.

On Wednesday morning, Inspector Colin Shaw said: Police received a report of concern for the safety of a vulnerable man.

Officers attended the address, along with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service. One man was taken to hospital.A Co Down tot who got a new liver when she was just seven months old is preparing to compete in the British Transplant Games next week.

Lucyellen Johnston (4) was diagnosed with Biliary atresia in January 2014 at just one month old.

Her parents Marianne Johnston (43) and Edward Smith (45) were left distraught when her health deteriorated, leaving her fighting for her life just six-months later.

But thanks to her dad's decision to become a live donor she survived, and will join more than 1,000 transplant athletes in Birmingham to compete in ball throwing, a 25m track race, long jump, obstacle racing and beanbag archery.

"She is so excited, this is such a great opportunity for her to meet other people who have been through the same thing and for her to feel normal," her proud mum said.

"She's doing fantastic even though she still requires regular blood tests, is on lifelong medication and is required to go straight to hospital if exposed to chickenpox."

Little Lucyellen had surgery at just five weeks old to repair bile ducts blocked as a result of her rare liver disease, but the operation was unsuccessful.

In June 2014 her mum had become increasingly concerned when the jaundice she had experienced since birth failed to go away.

"I phoned the doctor one day after her wee nose started to bleed and she was rushed to the Royal before being taken by Air Ambulance to a hospital in Birmingham," Marianne explained.

It was then that doctors decided that she required an urgent liver transplant.

Once Lucyellen's condition stabilised, she was placed on the organ transplant register.

At the same time her dad began tests to establish whether he would be a suitable live donor.

"When he found he was a match he didn't hesitate and gave her two ninths of his liver," Marianne added.

"It was a huge gamble for both of them, but Edward has never looked back, and neither have I."A man allegedly kicked his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and tried to pull her over the railings of a bridge, the High Court heard on Wednesday.

A man allegedly kicked his pregnant girlfriend in the stomach and tried to pull her over the railings of a bridge, the High Court heard on Wednesday.

Prosecutors also claimed Ciaran Bradley subjecting the woman to verbal abuse during an attack in Derry.

The 23-year-old, of Melrose Terrace in the city, denies a charge of common assault over the incident on April 30.

He was granted bail on conditions including a ban on contacting the alleged victim or entering parts of Derry.

Crown lawyer Kate McKay said the woman told a social worker Bradley had kicked her in the tummy area.

According to that account he also attempted to pull her over the railings of the Peace Bridge across the River Foyle.

"She said he was verbally abusive, calling her a slut and tramp, and wished her and the unborn baby would just die," Mrs McKay submitted.

Following his arrest Bradley claimed the couple had a verbal disagreement but denied any violence.

The court heard CCTV footage depicts them on the bridge but does not show the alleged assault.

However, according to the prosecution, Bradley is seen pushing and pulling the woman with excessive force as they cross at traffic lights towards the Guildhall.

"He said he just wanted to get her and the unborn child home," Mrs McKay added.

Bradley had been released from custody, but was detained again amid claims he punched the woman in the stomach earlier this month.

The alleged victim, who has not made a statement of complaint, had already given birth by that stage.

Granting bail, Lord Justice Treacy excluded Bradley from Derry's Cityside and ordered him to keep away from the woman.

The judge warned him: "If you breach your bail you will go back in custody and stay there until your case is dealt with."Former armed forces personnel seeking help for mental health problems in Northern Ireland find it harder to access services than their counterparts across the UK because of security fears, a veterans' charity has said.

Andy Allen, who helps to run AA Veterans' Support (AAVS) in Belfast, said the political situation in Northern Ireland compounded the stigma already facing ex-services personnel seeking treatment for a range of mental health conditions.

"A lot of people are frightened and concerned about divulging their previous service to health care professionals, GPs or mental health services," he said.

"Access to services is somewhat difficult for former service personnel in Northern Ireland, as it is across the UK, but add in the security factor here and it makes it much more complicated for veterans to avail of the support."

The former Royal Irish soldier was speaking yesterday after a government report revealed that the number of armed forces personnel and veterans seeking mental health care has nearly doubled over the past decade to just over 3%.

Mr Allen, a UUP MLA for east Belfast but speaking in the capacity of his role in the charity, described the figure as "alarming", adding it fits anecdotally with what he observes day-to-day at AA Veterans' Support.

"We've seen a 100% increase year on year on the numbers of individuals coming to us for mental health provisions," he added.

"There's a whole range of difficulties that people are facing such as anxiety, depression, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), adjustment disorder.

"We're also seeing that people are having difficulties in getting a diagnosis, part of that is down to the NHS being overstretched right across wider society for mental health provision."

Official Ministry of Defence figures showed that 3.1% of serving personnel are diagnosed with mental health conditions, twice the number that had been recorded in 2008/09.

But the House of Commons Defence Committee warned that the number of veterans with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder or depression could be three times higher, at about 10%, amid concern that some may not seek help because of stigma surrounding mental health.

Deployment to combat roles in Iraq or Afghanistan "clearly increased the likelihood of mental health conditions", with one 2014 study finding PTSD levels of 6.9% among regular troops and 6% among reservists.There were 17 cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Belfast Trust area in just over nine months, new figures have shown.

There were 17 cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the Belfast Trust area in just over nine months, new figures have shown.

Figures obtained by the BBC through freedom of information requests show the incidents were recorded in women aged 24 to 46 between April 2017 and January 2018.

For a period between January 2016 and January 2018 it was found there were less than five cases in the Western and Northern trusts, less than 10 recorded cases in the South Eastern Trust and no recorded cases in the Southern Trust.

FGM is illegal in the United Kingdom, and defined by the NHS as "a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but where there's no medical reason for this to be done".

Despite this across the United Kingdom there are high number of incidents of FGM, with a report from City University in London last year estimated there were 137,000 women and girls living with FGM in England and Wales.

Medical professionals in England are required to report new cases of FGM, a rule which does not exist in Northern Ireland.

Last year a report commissioned by the African and Caribbean Support Northern Ireland, produced by academics from Ulster University, Queen's University, and the University of Liverpool, noted there was a lack of information about the prevalence of FGM in Northern Ireland.

It also pointed to gaps in services and provisions in place for sufferers of FGM in Northern Ireland, and said healthcare professionals were often unclear "what services exist and what is needed by girls and women" who have suffered procedures.

FGM is carried out for a mix of cultural, religious and social reasons, and is practiced in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.Any attempt by the Irish Government to impose tariffs on trade with the UK after Brexit would lead to an upsurge in smuggling at the border with Northern Ireland, former first minister Lord Trimble has warned.

The Conservative peer said an increase in smuggling would have the delightful side-effect of diverting criminal elements away from paramilitary activity by giving them something more useful to do.

But he said the better solution would be the removal or reduction of tariffs across the whole British Isles.

When it comes to smuggling through the border, I'm sure that people who've been long experienced in dealing with the border will come into play thereLord Trimble

Lord Trimble told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The Irish Republics main market is England and it exports over the Irish Sea into England a greater part of its produce.

Will Dublin insist on tariffs applying? If they do then there is an obligation under EU law for the Irish Government to put in place the appropriate infrastructure.

They will have to do that on the Northern Irish border anyway, but thats south of the border and we are not interested in south of the border. North of the border there will be no such infrastructure.

We havent got clarity from the EU on this. I would like not to see tariffs there at all but if they insist on tariffs  which they probably will, they are not very good at changing their own procedures  you are going to have a problem there.

But Lord Trimble added: Its going to have a rather delightful side-effect, because if there is this tariff barrier between southern Ireland and England, then there will be people in southern Ireland who start to move things into Northern Ireland and then into England that way to avoid the tariffs  smuggling.

When it comes to smuggling through the border, Im sure that people whove been long experienced in dealing with the border will come into play there. They will probably organise themselves, they will be very like the paramilitary organisations there before.

But they are there simply for the purpose of making money and smuggling and that will actually help by keeping these chaps  who might otherwise do silly things  (busy), giving them something useful and money-making to do. It will actually have a benign effect.

Lord Trimble called on Dublin to press Brussels for a British Isles exemption from the requirement to collect tariffs on trade with countries outside the EU.

Its in its own interests for them to speak to the EU about tariffs and about the reduction or elimination of tariffs within the British Isles, said the former Ulster Unionist Party leader.

That would be a huge step forward for everyone and it would solve all the other problems, including the problems that have been manufactured by people over the course of the last year or so.

Labour MP Ian Murray, a supporter of the Peoples Vote campaign for a second referendum, said: Not only was David Trimble wrong about basic facts  Britain has not been Irelands biggest export market for some years now  but his description of a smuggling boom as a result of Brexit as delightful is a shocking misjudgment.

The Edinburgh South MP said: In Northern Ireland, smuggling and murder were the terrible twins of the Troubles. One paid to keep the other going. No responsible politician could possibly want either to flourish and Lord Trimbles apparent belief that smuggling is in some way benign or of minimal importance is likely to make people justifiably horrified and angry.A drunk woman who spat in the eye of a staff member when she was asked to leave a well-known north coast restaurant has avoided jail after staying out of trouble for a year.

Coleraine Magistrates Court previously heard how Kathy Shannon (33), from Drumachose Mews, Limavady, kicked off after attending Portrush's famous raft race on May 27 last year.

She was back in court this week after sentencing had been deferred.

Last year a court had heard that after "everything had gone swimmingly well", according to her solicitor, Shannon had become aggressive and needed to be restrained by bouncers on the pavement outside Neptune & Prawn in Portrush.

A prosecutor said when Shannon was asked to leave the licensed premises she lashed out at door staff, shouting abuse.

She spat two to three times at door staff, with saliva landing on the mouth and eye of an employee. She had pleaded guilty to disorderly behaviour and common assault.

A defence solicitor told the court in 2017 that Shannon had been "highly intoxicated" and apologised for her behaviour.

"Normally a pleasant individual", she had behaved in an "outrageous fashion", sparked by alcohol and a change in her antidepressant medication, the lawyer said.

At the court last summer District Judge Liam McNally told Shannon, who had a previous record, that her behaviour warranted a prison sentence of five months, but he deferred sentencing for 12 months.

Back at the same court this week it was heard that there had been no further offences.

Defence solicitor Paddy McGurk said: "Everything has been very smooth and there had been no further contact with the police." Judge McNally imposed a five-month sentence, suspended for two years.Chancellor Phillip Hammond meets apprentices during a visit to the Bombardier factory in Belfast (Brian Lawless/PA)

Plane manufacturer Bombardier will receive almost 12 million of new Government funding to secure jobs at its Belfast factory.

Chancellor Philip Hammond made the announcement on Wednesday during a one-day visit to Northern Ireland, during which he toured Bombardiers production line in Belfast.

He welcomed the new orders of 60 A220s announced last week at the Farnborough Airshow before chairing a financial services roundtable.

The wings for the A220, which was formerly known as the Bombardier CSeries, are made in Belfast.

The new funding for Bombardier will support the company to develop the thrust reverser for the new Airbus A320 NEO nacelle.

Manufacturing is key to Northern Irelands economy  thats why we are backing @Bombardier with 12 million to develop new high tech planes and secure vital manufacturing jobs in Belfast. https://t.co/JLszhY8BOk pic.twitter.com/d8vnrupmCd  Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) July 25, 2018

There was uncertainty for Bombardier workers in Belfast last year after manufacturing rivals Boeing complained about the firm selling its CSeries jets to Delta Airlines below cost price.

The US Department of Commerce recommended a near 300% punitive duty on sales of the jets for five years, putting around 1,000 jobs in Belfast at risk.

But the International Trade Commission (ITC) in the US ruled against Boeing and in favour of Bombardier in January.

Mr Hammond pledged his support for Bombardier.

We are backing Bombardier with 12 million of new money to help develop cutting edge technology  here in Northern Ireland  for modern aircraft, he said.

This will help to secure jobs for Northern Irelands economy and cement the UKs role as a leading manufacturer of hi-tech aircraft components.

Announcing 12 million new funding for Bombardier, the chancellor denies his visit was timed to distract from the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London. pic.twitter.com/UG5wn9JQNU  David Young (@DavidYoungPA) July 25, 2018

Mr Hammond then travelled to Londonderry where he invited a bid for beefed-up development and economic powers.

During a visit to the Ulster University campus, Mr Hammond said the Government would consider an application from Derry for a city deal.

Politicians in Northern Irelands second city were angered last year when Mr Hammonds Budget contained a city deal package for Belfast, but not Derry.

Northern Ireland is leading the way within the UK in productivity growth, Mr Hammond said.

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I want to support this progress by inviting a bid for a Derry-Londonderry City Deal, an opportunity for the region to continue to drive forward economic growth and build an economy that works for everyone.

The Government is investing more than 1.6 billion in city deals in Scotland and Wales and is in negotiations for a Belfast City Region Deal  the first city deal in Northern Ireland.

The bespoke agreements with Government, which are already in operation in major urban centres such as Manchester and Glasgow, hand city councils greater powers to lead infrastructure developments, generate wealth and access finance.

Ive come to Belfast to speak to businesses and universities about how they can seize the opportunities created through our future UK-EU partnership. The first stop was @AllstateNI to discuss how our Fintech Sector Strategy can spark further innovation. https://t.co/oibHPMLCoM https://t.co/gQpqQ80Iws  Philip Hammond (@PhilipHammondUK) July 25, 2018

Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said: I am delighted with todays announcement, which is a positive step in progressing a city deal for Derry-Londonderry.

It is a testament to the many local partners who have worked tirelessly for progress to be made.

As Northern Irelands second largest centre for economic growth, Derry-Londonderry plays a significant role in the regions economic success.

I look forward to now engaging with local partners and across Government as proposals are developed and we build on the existing strengths of this area to deliver a real impact on the economy in the north west and across Northern Ireland.

The Chancellors visit was welcomed by local political representatives.

DUP leader Arlene Foster met with Mr Hammond following his engagements.

She described their meeting as a useful discussion.

The Government have been very clear that Northern Ireland cannot be separated from our main market in Great Britain. We will move in lockstep with the rest of the United Kingdom as we leave the European Union and there will be no border in the Irish Sea, she said.

It was also a useful discussion with the Chancellor on other issues impacting upon Northern Ireland.

We have seen once again the impact that Sinn Feins refusal to restore devolution is having on people right across Northern Ireland. Public sector workers should not be adversely impacted because Sinn Fein put their narrow sectional interests ahead of the wider public.

The number one issue raised by business and other stakeholders with the Chancellor was how a lack of ministerial decisions was impacting on them. The Chancellor now has a clear message that the Government must get on with making decisions for as long as Sinn Fein boycotts the Assembly and Executive.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed progress on a city deal for Derry.

The benefits stemming from a substantial economic intervention in the North West cannot be overstated. Both Derry and Strabane have waited a long time to receive the investment it deserves to reach its full potential, he said.

A city deal for Derry will go a long way to progressing our rail networks, building new road infrastructure, developing the Ulster University Magee Campus and increasing the overall productivity of the North West.The wedding of Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp, wh have been caught up in the wildfires in Greece (Handout/PA)

A newly-married Irish couple have been caught up in wildfires that have been sweeping Greece.

Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp became separated as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

The pair got married at Clonabreany House in Kells, Co Meath, last Thursday before flying out to Greece for their honeymoon on Saturday.

Ms Holohan, who works in advertising for the Sunday World, is in hospital after suffering burns to her head and hands, but her husband has not yet been found.

The couple, who live in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee.

Ms Holohan was able to escape to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night.

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Mr OCallaghan-Westropp works in finance for a Dublin catering company and also volunteers for Blood Bikes East, which provides an emergency medical transport service around hospitals in Dublin.

Committee member Franco De Bonis said Mr OCallaghan-Westropp started off as a volunteer rider a year ago and very quickly became further involved in the service and is now its secretary.

Brian is a very charitable man  hes one of these people who you know when hes in the room. He has a big voice and hes the type who wants to get things done, Mr De Bonis said.

Hes a man of action and is very selfless. His heart is in the right place and will always want to help.

Brian would never walk away from a situation knowing someone needed help.

We are not surprised if someone was getting involved in this that it would be Brian. He would make sure Zoe is safe and then go to someones aid.

While we know they were on their way to the beach and Zoe got to there, somehow he did not.

We dont know beyond that but knowing him we are surmising he perhaps saw someone who needed help and went to them.

Mr De Bonis said Mr OCallaghan-Westropp was incredibly excited about his wedding and looking forward to their honeymoon.

He added: As much as men can get involved in the wedding he did, and he was really excited about it.

It is understood Mr OCallaghan-Westropps family are travelling to Greece.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said it is providing consular assistance to a number of Irish people who have been caught up in the fires, but would not give details about specific incidents.

Around 79 people have died in the forest fires which have raged through Greek villages and holiday resorts.

Blazes started west of Athens near the town of Kineta, while further outbreaks started 18 miles (29km) east of Athens in Rafina.

Hundreds of people ran to beaches as gale-force winds fanned the flames.

Twenty-six of the deaths were groups of families or friends who were found huddled together as they tried to escape.

Our condolences with Greece at this difficult time. Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media + follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Dept +353 1 408 2000.  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 24, 2018

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney issued advice for Irish citizens.

He tweeted: Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media and follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Department +353 1 408 2000.

President Michael D Higgins said he has written to Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to express his sympathies with the families of those who have lost their lives and livelihoods in the fires.

He said: Following my visit to Greece and my meeting with him and the presidents of Italy and Portugal, I am very conscious of the resilience of the Greek people, who should be assisted by all of us in these difficult times.

I offered, on behalf of the people of Ireland, our deepest condolences and our solidarity.UK and Irish ministers have insisted that Wednesdays British and Irish Intergovernmental Conference is about honouring the commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement, and denied that Dublin is meddling in UK politics.

Irish Foreign Affairs minister Simon Coveney, along with Justice minister Charlie Flanagan, said the talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley and Cabinet Office minister David Lidington did not touch on devolved issues in Northern Ireland, and instead discussed initiatives to get the Northern Ireland Assembly up and running.

Unionists in Northern Ireland have nothing to fear from a British Irish Intergovernmental Conference. This is an agreed structure that both governments have signed up to as part of the Good Friday agreement.

Minister for the Cabinet Office @DLidington today chaired a meeting of the British-Irish InterGovernmental Conference in London with Secretary of State for @NIOGov, Tanaiste @simoncoveney and Irish Minister for Justice and Equality @CharlieFlanagan in attendance. pic.twitter.com/AiPsVOlsTP  Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) July 25, 2018

We do not deal with devolved decision making.

What were about is reinforcing the message that the British and Irish governments, as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement, are working together through the structures of that agreement.

We are doing what we can to provide an environment where political parties are able to interact again, hopefully with a view to restore the devolved government so that people in Northern Ireland can have their political decisions made by the people that they elected.

He added that Northern Ireland could not be left to drift.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond, who was visiting Belfast on Wednesday, echoed Mr Coveneys stance saying it was important that the Good Friday Agreement was honoured.

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The conference thats going on in London is part of the standing arrangements under the Belfast Agreement.

Its very important that we honour the commitments that we have made under those agreements and make sure that the working relationship continues.

East-west relations are just as important as north-south relations and just as central a part of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Hammond added.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington said the council respected the terms of the Belfast Agreement.

It is consultative, not executive, in format and it is there to talk about those matters that are not devolved to the assembly and executive of Northern Ireland.

The meeting included discussions on security and prisons, he said.

Min @CharlieFlanagan & the Tanaiste met the UK Govt at the Cabinet Office in London today for the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. Matters discussed included the legacy of Northern Ireland's past, security cooperation, east-west matters and political stability #BIIGC pic.twitter.com/fatKX1fSvx  Department of Justice  (@DeptJusticeIRL) July 25, 2018

Following the meeting, the governments issued a joint statement setting out the areas of discussion, which covered legacy issues, security co-operation, east-west bilateral issues and political stability in Northern Ireland.

Former first minister Lord Trimble had warned that the conference came close to breaching principles enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement that Dublin will have no role in internal UK politics.

Lord Trimble said the meeting is reaching the point of breaking the principle set out in the Good Friday Agreement that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

The former Ulster Unionist Party leader told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either, he said.

The DUP were also critical of the conference, claiming the people of Northern Ireland want direct action, not further talks.

DUP East Antrim MLA Gordon Lyons said: Arlene Foster rightly labelled the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference a talking shop.

It is not a structure where decisions can be made about our roads, hospitals, schools or economy.

For Sinn Fein, it is a smokescreen to distract from the fact that they stand isolated in boycotting the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive and the House of Commons.

But Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle ONeill welcomed the meeting.

Todays conference is an important step to help remove the obstacles to genuine power-sharing and for London and Dublin to fulfil their obligations to the Good Friday Agreement.

In the absence of the Assembly at this time, the choice is between the protection of the Good Friday Agreement which is under constant attack by the hard Brexiteers within the DUP and Tory party, or its abandonment, she said.

The Conference, which gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland, last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial.

When it was last called security was a major part of its remit, but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.

Power-sharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme. The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.Dublin would back any request from the UK for an extension to the Article 50 process to give more time to negotiate withdrawal from the EU, Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney has said.

Mr Coveney rejected Eurosceptic talk of a no-deal Brexit as bravado and said he believed there was still time to reach agreement by October.

But called for an intensification of talks at official level over the summer to resolve outstanding differences.

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Elements of the UK negotiating position laid out in Theresa Mays Brexit white paper would be difficult for Brussels to accommodate, he warned, though he added that the document had made negotiations easier by backing away from earlier red lines.

He dismissed suggestions that amendments to Brexit legislation forced on Mrs May by Eurosceptic backbenchers would prevent agreement on a backstop arrangement for the Northern Irish border.

Mr Coveney was speaking as talks continued in Brussels, with a meeting between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab scheduled for Thursday.

Mrs May confirmed on Tuesday that she had taken personal charge of the negotiations, with Mr Raab deputising for her in Brussels.

Tory Eurosceptics have voiced concerns that Mr Raabs department has been sidelined by Number 10 and Mrs Mays Europe adviser Olly Robbins, amid increasing speculation that divisions within the Conservative camp may result in a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Coveney confirmed that Dublin was making contingency plans to cope with Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.

But he told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: The truth is I dont believe that Britain can afford a no-deal Brexit, I dont believe Ireland or the EU want that either.

The negative implications of a no-deal Brexit are very significant for Ireland and the UK. We all have an obligation to make sure that doesnt happen. I think its very unlikely to happen.

Asked whether Dublin would back an extension of the Article 50 process, Mr Coveney said: Absolutely, if Britain asks for more time and if that is necessary to get to a sensible agreement, we would support that, of course we would.

But I think, even though the timetable is tight, it is possible to achieve an outcome that is good for Britain and good for the EU within the timelines that are currently there. But it also requires an intensification of the negotiations on Brexit.

You can't have a negotiation on the basis of passing laws in your parliament or introducing amendments in your parliament and then saying, `Sorry, we have no flexibility nowSimon Coveney

Mr Coveney said that the UK had been negotiating with itself in the six months before the publication of the white paper.

We now have clarity in terms of what the British Government ask is, he said. I think there are elements of that that would be difficult to negotiate but I think it is easier to achieve now.

Potential stumbling blocks in Mrs Mays plan include the separation of regimes for goods and services and the creation of a complex new customs arrangement under which different tariffs are charged for imports destined for the UK or EU, he said.

But he rejected the idea that the amendment passed by the Commons barring a customs border in the Irish Sea would make it impossible to agree the EUs backstop plan for Northern Ireland.

You cant have a negotiation on the basis of passing laws in your parliament or introducing amendments in your parliament and then saying, Sorry, we have no flexibility now, he said.

The European Union could do the same and we would get nowhere.

Mr Coveneys comments came as more details emerged of planning for a no-deal Brexit.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs he had asked officials to work up options for stockpiling by the pharmaceutical industry, while Mr Raab said the Government would also take steps to ensure an adequate food supply.

We need to see the full list including those products which need refrigeration or with short shelf lives, the costs, who will be responsible & how these costs will be passed on to the NHS https://t.co/5bbin0Momc  Sarah Wollaston (@sarahwollaston) July 24, 2018

Sarah Wollaston, chairwoman of the Commons Health Select Committee, called for more clarity about the Governments plans.

The pro-EU Tory told BBCs Newsnight: Its not just about stockpiling here, there are some products that cant be stockpiled.

Around 700,000 diagnostic tests every year in the NHS require medical radioisotopes but these have very short shelf-lives, they cant be stockpiled and they arent manufactured here.

Two former Northern Ireland secretaries, Owen Paterson and Theresa Villiers, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that technological solutions can be made to work to keep the Irish border soft, if only they are not delayed by political squabbles.

Meanwhile, efforts to repair the European Unions relationship with the White House will see Jean-Claude Juncker meet Donald Trump in Washington for talks on the trade dispute between the US and its allies.

Ahead of the meeting, the US president tweeted to suggest abolishing tariffs between the US and EU only hours after another tweet in which he declared tariffs are the greatest!

He wrote: The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them.

Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!An Irishman has died while on honeymoon after becoming caught up in wildfires that have swept across Greece.

Newly married Brian OCallaghan-Westropp became separated from his wife Zoe Holohan as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

The pair got married at Clonabreany House, Kells in Co Meath last Thursday before flying out to Greece on Saturday.

Ms Holohan, who works in advertising for the Sunday World, is in hospital after suffering burns to her head and hands.

In a statement, the family of Ms Holohan and Mr OCallaghan-Westropp said: We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of our family member, Brian OCallaghan-Westropp.

The families would respectfully appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve and as Zoe makes her recovery.

I am deeply saddened at confirmation of the death of an Irish citizen in Greece. This is such a terrible tragedy, my thoughts are with the families and friends who have requested privacy.

Officials at our Embassy in Athens will continue to provide every possible assistance.  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 25, 2018

Funeral arrangement will be announced at a later stage.

Irelands Ambassador to Greece Orla OHanrahan confirmed Mr OCallaghan-Westropps death.

She said her sympathies and heart went out to his family at this time.

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The couple, who lived in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee.

Ms Holohan was able to escape to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night.

The Irish Embassy in Athens is providing consular assistance to Ms Holohan and her family.

Mr OCallaghan-Westropp worked in finance for a Dublin catering company and also volunteered for Blood Bikes East, which provides an emergency medical transport service around hospitals in Dublin.

Expand Close Up to 80 people have died in the forest fires which have raged through Greek villages and holiday resorts (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Committee member Franco De Bonis said Mr OCallaghan-Westropp started off as a volunteer rider a year ago and very quickly became further involved in the service and was its secretary.

Brian is a very charitable man  hes one of these people who you know when hes in the room. He has a big voice and hes the type who wants to get things done, Mr De Bonis said.

Hes a man of action and is very selfless. His heart is in the right place and will always want to help.

Brian would never walk away from a situation knowing someone needed help, he added.

Up to 80 people have died in the forest fires which have raged through Greek villages and holiday resorts.Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley will be among those attending a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London. Victoria Jones/PA.

A UK and Irish government consultation body will meet later for the first time in more than a decade amid efforts to restore Stormont powersharing.

The British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference will be held in London, a year and a half after devolved government imploded in Belfast.

It gives the Irish a consultative role on non-devolved issues affecting Northern Ireland.

It last met in 2007 and its return has proved controversial. When it was last called security was a major part of its remit but those powers were later devolved to Stormont.

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Sinn Fein and the SDLP have long been calling for the conferences re-establishment to inject fresh impetus into the stalled political process in Belfast.

But unionists have been wary of handing too much influence to Dublin and dismissed the gathering as a talking shop.

Former first minister Lord Trimble said the meeting is reaching the point of breaking the principle set out in the Good Friday Agreement that the Irish Government should have no role whatsoever in the internal politics of the UK.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it is unacceptable for Irish ministers to be involved in discussions on the restoration of Stormont.

There has been pressure from Dublin to try to change the character of the inter-governmental conference in a way that would not be acceptable to unionists and probably not acceptable to the British Government either, he said.

I dont regard this as a helpful situation. Its likely to make matters worse.

Cabinet Office minister David Lidington and Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley are expected to attend.

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The Irish government will be represented by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan.

Powersharing crashed in January 2017 after a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Fein over a botched green energy scheme.

The impasse later widened to include more traditional issues of contention, such as the Irish language, LGBT rights and how to handle to legacy of the Troubles.A Brexit activist fined 20,000 for breaching spending rules during the EU referendum campaign has raised the same sum to fund an appeal against the Electoral Commissions judgment.

Darren Grimes insisted he was completely innocent of making false declarations in relation to a 680,000 donation to his BeLeave youth group from the main Vote Leave campaign.

He accused the Electoral Commission of acting out of bias against supporters of EU withdrawal and behaving as political enforcers.

But the commission insisted its investigation was thorough and fair and rejected the allegation of political bias, pointing out that it had carried out inquiries into campaigners on both sides of the referendum battle.

Mr Grimes, 24, was referred to the Metropolitan Police after the commission found last week that the massive donation should have been declared as part of Vote Leaves spending, because the two organisations were working jointly.

The commission found that the cash was spent with data firm Aggregate IQ, which had been working for Vote Leave on targeting online ads, in a common plan between the official campaign and Mr Grimess group.

If declared, the sum would have taken Vote Leave  fronted by leading politicians including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove  over its 7 million spending limit.

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Vote Leave was fined 61,000 and its official David Halsall was also referred to police.

In a statement, Mr Grimes insisted the commissions judgment was simply wrong and based on inaccurate assertions and a misunderstanding of the law.

He alleged he was just the latest in a long line of Leave campaigners that the commission have issued trumped-up charges against and that their finding resulted from bias against Brexiteers.

I think they are undermining our democracy, and I am asking for help to expose what they are doing and to stop themDarren Grimes

I am not a rich person. I honestly dont know how Im going to pay the maximum fine that theyve unfairly slapped me with  despite saying there are substantial matters in mitigation that theyve decided to ignore, he said.

But this isnt just about me. Most importantly, I dont want to let the commission get away with this.

I believe the commissions conduct has been appalling. We depend on organisations like the commission to safeguard our democracy.

How long before they start going after parties their senior figures dislike? How long until candidates they have a grudge against find themselves unfairly penalised? Politics relies on people to put their head above the parapet  who in their right mind would now?

I believe their judgment against me was the result of bias  not the result of proper due process. I believe that, far from acting as guardians, they are acting as political enforcers.

I think they are undermining our democracy, and I am asking for help to expose what they are doing and to stop them.

Less than two hours after announcing his appeal, Mr Grimes had received pledges totalling more than 20,000 on his crowdjustice.com page.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: The laws we enforce were put in place by Parliament to provide voters with transparency and confidence in the system. We conducted a thorough and fair investigation and found that the law had been broken and have applied our sanctions accordingly.

We open investigations where the evidence justifies it, irrespective of the political views of the party or campaigner concerned. Between June 2016 and April 2018 we have published details of 38 investigations arising from the EU referendum where offences were found. These include campaigners for both Remain and Leave outcomes.A doctor accused of the horrific abuse of 114 children would have been interviewed had he been alive today, police said

Police would have interviewed a doctor accused of the horrific abuse of children had he been alive today, a report has found.

Child patients sent to Aston Hall Hospital in Derbyshire between the 1950s and 1970s have claimed they were taken to a secluded room, drugged and sexually abused by Kenneth Milner. Some were put in straitjackets.

On Wednesday, Derbyshire police said in a report: There would have been sufficient evidence to justify interviewing Dr Milner under caution in relation to a number of potential offences, namely rape, indecent assault, child cruelty and assault.

So far 115 people have come forward to speak to the investigation team and police have recorded 65 crimes including physical and sexual abuse. Officers said 65 people are being treated as victims.

We are committed to seeking the justice and compensation that our clients deserve and hope that today will encourage those who are yet to come forward to speak outLawyer Stephen Edwards

Lawyers for 47 patients sent to the hospital in the 1960s and 1970s said the horrific treatment had undoubtedly caused permanent, damaging effects.

Stephen Edwards, from Bond Turner, said: We believe that every doctor should have to demonstrate their accountability in treating patients, especially those as vulnerable as children.

The UK needs to ensure it has the clinical infrastructure to protect the next generation of young people and our efforts are focused on preventing this kind of gross negligence ever occurring again.

We are committed to seeking the justice and compensation that our clients deserve and hope that today will encourage those who are yet to come forward to speak out.

A slew of claims were made against Milner, who was medical superintendent of Aston Hall, between 1954 and 1979.

115 people have come forward to speak to the investigation team

Police have recorded 65 crimes including physical and sexual abuse

As well as the sexual abuse, there were claims of a patients being hit while trying to resist treatment, one having her head repeatedly forced under water, and one having her hair repeatedly pulled to force her to take medication.

Another said she woke with her hands bound after being drugged and complained to a nurse of soreness between her legs. The nurse slapped her around the head and told her she must have a urine infection.

The vast majority of the allegations were made against Milner, who died in 1976. Other staff members accused of physical abuse have either been eliminated from the inquiry, are also dead or are unable to be identified.

A victim initially came forward to Suffolk Police in June 2011. Her claims that she was forced to receive treatment at Aston Hall were passed to Derbyshire where officers investigated but found no allegations of sexual abuse.

In July 2014, another person made an allegation to Derbyshire police that they were raped at the hospital, but the claim was not pursued because the suspect was dead.

Two months later, police in Nottinghamshire spoke to another individual who alleged they were abused at the hospital, but this was recorded purely for intelligence purposes, again because the suspect was dead.

In July 2015, another woman complained of abusive treatment, referring to being drugged and waking up feeling sore between her legs, mirroring other claims.

The following year, in February 2016, the investigation was formally passed to Derbyshires Public Protection Major Investigation Team.

Detective Chief Superintendent Kem Mehmet, from Derbyshire police, said the same level of importance is placed on crimes when a suspect is dead.

He said: I am satisfied the force gave an appropriate and proportionate response to the first allegation in 2011.

One of the victims sent a card to the police saying they no longer feel like victims, they feel like warriors.

The independent chairman of the Derbyshire Safeguarding Children Board, Chris Atkinson, said one victims reaction to the report was at last I have been heard.

He said: It has taken some time for victims to raise (their views) because there hasnt been the process in place to do that in the past.

Speaking to television journalists earlier in the day, he said he was deeply sorry that anyone had endured this type of abuse.Boris Johnsons successor as Foreign Secretary appears to have washed his hands altogether of a multibillion-pound Channel bridge, according to an MP.

The SNPs Patrick Grady added Mr Johnsons former Cabinet colleagues cant move quickly enough to dump his Foreign Office legacy.

The Glasgow North MP took aim at Mr Johnson after pressing Jeremy Hunt to detail his departments policy on exploring the possibility of a new fixed link between Great Britain and France.

So much important work in #UKFRSummit outcomes, but Im especially pleased we are establishing a panel of experts to look at major projects together. Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections. Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 18, 2018

Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan, issuing a holding answer to the written parliamentary question, replied: This is a matter for the Department for Transport.

Mr Johnson, who quit the Cabinet over Brexit, was a strong supporter of a privately-financed Channel bridge after claiming the Channel Tunnel will be full by 2025.

Speaking in February, he told MPs it was a curiosity that the UK and France  separated by approximately 21 miles of water  were connected by only one railway line.

Mr Johnson also claimed French president Emmanuel Macron was supportive of the committee of wise people established to look at reviving UK-France collaboration in matters including defence and infrastructure projects such as the idea of a new connection between our two countries.

En marche ! Great meetings with French counterparts today pic.twitter.com/D73B1rSkd3  Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 18, 2018

Mr Grady told the Press Association: It seems the Tory Government cant move quickly enough to dump Boriss legacy at the Foreign Office.

It was never clear if a new fixed link to France was government policy or just another of the former foreign secretarys diplomatic blunders, but now his successor has washed his hands of it altogether.

Perhaps that means the Government will now try to focus on how to avoid a no-deal Brexit and 20-mile queues at Dover, rather than on the construction of a 20-mile bridge theyd be waiting to get on to.

Mr Johnsons younger brother Jo is a minister at the Department for Transport, albeit focused on rail matters.Police in the Gresham area of Middlesbrough (Cleveland Police/PA)

The search of a former allotment site in a 20-year-old murder case has concluded, police said.

Detectives started work on the land near Troon Close, Middlesbrough, on June 18 in a bid to find information on the disappearance of Donna Keogh.

She was last seen in Middlesbrough in 1998 when she was 17, and police subsequently started treating the case as a murder investigation.

Search activity at Troon Close #Middlesbrough has concluded, but the investigation into the death of Donna Keogh in 1998 continues #FindDonna https://t.co/zJyDh7V0fz pic.twitter.com/DoLl0qfEYi  Cleveland Police (@ClevelandPolice) July 25, 2018

On Wednesday, Cleveland Police announced that search activity at the site has finished.

The force said a fragment of a human jawbone was recovered during the excavation, but forensic testing confirmed it was not related to the search for Donna as it dates back to the early medieval period.

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Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Green said: Donnas family desperately want to give her a proper funeral and finally lay her body to rest, and finding Donna continues to be a priority for the investigation team.

This has been a complex and thorough search conducted over a number of weeks and I would like to thank all those who have taken part for their efforts.

Our search at Troon Close came about because our investigation identified it as an area of interest.

Other areas of interest have also been identified where we will be conducting targeted searches in the coming months.Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for a swift and amicable resolution to disciplinary measures being taken against a senior Labour MP who accused Jeremy Corbyn of racism and anti-Semitism.

Mr McDonnell blamed Margaret Hodges haranguing of the Labour leader on her complete misunderstanding of the partys new code of conduct on anti-Semitism, which has been widely criticised in the Jewish community.

Dame Margaret  who is herself Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust  has said she stands by her comments, though she denies swearing at Mr Corbyn in an angry confrontation in a Commons corridor last week.

I think it's a complete misunderstanding and we can resolve this amicably and move onJohn McDonnell

Labours general secretary, Jennie Formby, has written to the MP telling her she faces investigation for abusive conduct and that any further behaviour of a similar nature could result in disciplinary action.

Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4s Today programme that Dame Margarets outburst was out of character and she was extremely angry and lost her cool when she confronted Mr Corbyn.

Of course he was upset, I think Margaret was upset as well, said the shadow chancellor.

Jeremy was deeply upset because, when you have someone haranguing you in that way, of course its upsetting. Those sorts of accusations, when he has worked so hard on the issues of anti-Semitism and anti-racism, of course hes upset.

Mr McDonnell said later interviews had shown that Dame Margarets concern was based on a misunderstanding of the code agreed by Labours ruling National Executive Committee.

I realised there was a complete misinterpretation of the code, so I can understand why she was so angry if thats what she believed this code had done, he said.

I think its a complete misunderstanding and we can resolve this amicably and move on.

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Mr McDonnell said Mr Corbyn agreed that the case should be settled swiftly rather than subjected to the full disciplinary process.

At the weekend I spoke to Jeremy and said weve got to resolve this matter quickly, said Mr McDonnell. He said, yes, weve got to do that, and hes asked the chief whip and general secretary to try to sort this out.

We want it resolved amicably and I think that can be done.

He insisted that neither he nor Mr Corbyn could get involved in the disciplinary process overseen by Ms Formby and chief whip Nick Brown.

And he said he did not know who had initially reported Dame Margarets behaviour, saying only that a range of complaints came in.

We are are against anti-Semitism, we are a party that attacks anti-Semitism wherever it is, either in our party or in our communityJohn McDonnell

Labours shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said it was not normal for disciplinary procedures to be activated over disagreements over policy.

In a clear indication that she felt Dame Margaret was within her rights to raise her concerns as she did, Ms Griffith told Radio 4s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast: If she wants to have a very clear word with Jeremy thats entirely up to her.

And she added: Im not aware of any processes by which because somebody speaks to somebody else in a particular way weve had disciplinary procedures.

Normally if were speaking about policy, if were talking about issues, we can have those discussions.

I just cant see a situation where we discipline people for speaking their minds to each other, whether its members of the shadow cabinet or the leader of the opposition himself.

Labour MPs agreed on Monday to stage a vote in September on whether to accept the new code, which has come under fire because its list of anti-Semitic behaviours omits a number of examples included by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

The party insists that the examples, mostly relating to criticism of the state of Israel, are dealt with elsewhere in the document.

Mr McDonnell said it would be mistaken to think that Mr Corbyns long association with pro-Palestinian campaigns should raise questions about his commitment to fighting anti-Semitism.

After initially stumbling over his words and describing Labour as a party that is anti-racist and anti-Semitist, he told Today: We are are against anti-Semitism, we are a party that attacks anti-Semitism wherever it is, either in our party or in our community.

We are going to tackle this and we will lead that campaign to ensure that Jewish people are respected and feel safe within our community.

Jeremy is as committed to that as anyone else within our party and anyone else within our community.

The UKs three main Jewish papers  the Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News and Jewish Telegraph  all carried the same front page article under the headline United we stand.

BREAKING: #UnitedWeStand

Britain's leading Jewish papers, @JewishChron, @JewishTelegraph & @JewishNewsUK, have for the first time run the same leader on their front pages, with each other's logos as a sign of the extent of communal anger and concern over #LabourAntisemitism pic.twitter.com/psGZ7QvZkG  The Jewish Chronicle (@JewishChron) July 25, 2018

They claimed a government led by Mr Corbyn would pose an existential threat to Jewish life in this country.

It said Labour had the choice of accepting the IHRA definition and examples in full or be seen by all decent people as a racist, anti-Semitic party.

A Labour Party spokesman said: Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and its organisations.

The next Labour government poses no threat of any kind whatsoever to Jewish people.

The spokesman acknowledged the strong concerns raised in the Jewish community and said Labour knows there is a huge amount of work to do to build trust and confidence.

The party said it had concerns about one half of one of the IHRAs 11 examples, which could be used to deny Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel and their supporters, their rights and freedoms to describe the discrimination and injustices they face in the language they deem appropriate.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex on their wedding day (Ben Stansall/PA)

Sir Elton John has praised the multicultural nature of the Duke and Duchess of Sussexs wedding, describing the event as historic.

The musician, who was not only a guest at the royal nuptials but performed at the wedding reception, said it felt like progress had been made.

Interviewed by CNN after launching a major HIV project with Harry at an Aids conference in Amsterdam, he said: It was very, very wonderful to be there.

To have a black gospel choir, a multiracial bride, a black cellist, who was wonderful, a preacher  it felt like a party, and it felt like progress had been made.

Thank God, thank God.

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Leading cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason performed at the wedding, while the Kingdom Choir sang Stand By Me and Bishop Michael Curry, the first African-American leader of the US Episcopal Church, gave an impassioned sermon.

The wedding was widely praised for mixing tradition with modernity and diversity, reflecting modern Britain.

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Sir Elton added: I think the Queen had a lot to do with it. I think shes been magnificent. It was a wonderful thing to be at.

What was so inspiring, and it sounds corny, but, true love is what really shone through and thats what everybody felt, the sincerity and the integrity of that true love on the day.

And it shows that institutions like the monarchy can evolve with the times.

Asked whether it was historic, Sir Elton replied: Oh absolutely. Are you kidding me? Yes, of course.Why is it so hot?

In the short term, the current weather phenomenon can be attributed largely to the position and the strength of jet streams  fast moving air typically five to seven miles above the Earths surface. Such jet streams are crucial to bringing in new weather systems.

What does that mean?

Becky Mitchell, meteorologist at the Met Office in Exeter, said: The jet streams are not very strong to the north of the UK. When the jet stream is like that, it means were under a period of high pressure, currently drawing up hot and humid air from France.

What causes a low jet stream?

Sometimes it is just a feature of the weather at the time. However, this prolonged period of dry and very warm weather will inevitably cause scientists to look at the long-term impact global warming is having on the planet.

What would ordinarily be happening across the UK at this time of year?

Again, when the jet stream is further south it means cooler weather systems are able to come in from the Atlantic. That is not happening at the moment, hence the extended period of hot temperatures.

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Will we have to endure much more of this?

In short, yes. It is probably fair to say that things will get worse (that is to say, hotter) before they get better. And its all building towards Friday being the hottest day of the year, with temperatures expected to hit 36C (96.8F) in the south east before dropping back to the high 20s again. Interestingly, despite the driest start to summer since 1961, the previous three years have each had a top temperature exceeding 33.3C (91.9F), the record high for 2018 so far.

Any chance of rain?

Succour is on its way. Thunderstorms are expected in parts of eastern and northern England on Friday, according to the Met Office, with a chance of hail and strong winds alongside the torrential downpours.

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But will it actually make any difference?

The volume and persistence of the rainfall will have a variable impact on the overall temperature. Extended periods of very hot and dry weather mean the ground has itself been heated  a light shower is going to do little to change that. Nor is it likely to fill the reservoirs, which are in desperate need of a top-up. But many gardeners and farmers are crying out for rain. Any cooling of the temperatures will be particularly welcomed by dog walkers, who have been forced to take their pets out very early in the morning or late at night when the temperatures have dropped to something less punishing.Its Shark Week, the annual event celebrating a misunderstood and endangered species, and a certain social media presence is getting involved in an unusual way.

The people behind the Life of Sharks Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts are sharing a series of shark dating profile cartoons to celebrate the special week.

The cartoons are modelled on dating app Tinder, displaying a picture of the eligible shark along with its essential information.

The cartoons are dreamed up by Christian Talbot and illustrated by Sophie Hodge.

The latest series was inspired by one of Talbots Edinburgh Fringe shows.

Christian is just about to take a couple of shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival including one with his comedy partner, Rosie Holt called Mansplaining Feminism, where they do a Tinder dating sketch, Sophie said.

We thought it might be a good idea to create a few Finder (Tinder for Sharks) dating profiles to help lonely sharks find love.

We're doing a special series for shark week by helping some lonely sharks find love.#sharkweek #SharkWeek2018 pic.twitter.com/rLcEWzzWn4  The Afterlife of Sharks (@thelifeofsharks) July 23, 2018

The pair love Shark Week.

Its a celebration of all things sharky, says Sophie.

Its a lot of fun and our comics are a silly look at these animals not everyone loves. But it also shows people that sharks arent these malicious monsters; theyre actually beautiful and unique creatures.

We also support the quest to keep plastic out of the oceans, so highlighting our gorgeous sharks reminds people why its so important to be careful about our waste.

We're doing a special series for shark week by helping some lonely sharks find love. #sharkweek Twitter - @thelifeofsharks. Instagram - @thelifeofsharks Merchandise - https://buff.ly/2JXVVYQ Posted by The Afterlife of Sharks on Tuesday, July 24, 2018

There is still much to look forward to this week from The Life of Sharks social media pages, says Sophie.

Well have a new Finder dating profile every day and you can expect to see a few other sea creatures making an appearance.

Watch out!A US police officer is being praised for his bravery in saving the life of a man seemingly asleep in the path of an oncoming train.

Kyle Savoia of the Perth Amboy Police Department has only been a police officer since January, but clearly has what is takes to protect the public.

In dramatic footage shared by the department, Officer Savoias body camera records him racing down railway tracks, shouting at a man to move from the path of an oncoming train.

The man, wearing a red shirt, scrambles out of the way mere moments before the train comes to a stop, horn blaring.

As the anonymous man realises what has just happened, he asks officer Savoia, Where did you come from? exclaiming: Oh my god, thank you so much.

According to the police service, the man was taken to the nearby Raritan Bay Medical Centre for further treatment.

As police officers, our job is to make quick decisions in difficult situations and to act on them, said Savoia.

At the end of the day, all that matters is everyone gets home safe. Also at such an early stage of my career, to be able to make an impactful difference in a persons life is incredible and makes me love what I do every day.

Officer Savoias father, Sgt Kevin Savoia, passed away in 2016. He served as a Perth Amboy police officer for over 28 years.Ryanair pilots form a picket outside the company headquarters at Swords in Dublin

Dozens of Ryanair's Irish-based pilots have held a third 24-hour strike in an ongoing dispute over working arrangements including annual leave and promotions.

The industrial action led to the cancellation of 16 flights, affecting some 2,500 customers.

The 24-hour stoppage began at 1am yesterday as pilots picketed the airline's headquarters in Swords, Co Dublin.

The budget airline described the strikes as unnecessary and warned that if they continue, there could be job losses.

But trade union Forsa, which represents the pilots, hit out at the company.

A union spokesman said: "This kind of threatening statement is not conducive to building trust and reaching a resolution to the dispute, and Forsa doesn't accept that jobs or expansion in the airline need be put at risk by company management."

The union said pilots seek a "fair and transparent method" to govern base transfers.

"At present, company management has total discretion on transfers, which can see pilots moved to bases thousands of miles from their homes and families. Most other airlines have a fair and transparent criteria, based on seniority, to govern pilot relocations."

Forsa and Ryanair management have met twice in the last two weeks, for some nine hours.

The union said the discussions found common ground on the possibility of establishing a joint working group to thrash out the disputed issues, however the parties couldn't agree on terms of reference for such a group.

In a statement, Ryanair said that it is available to meet Forsa "at any time".

"After three months and two meetings lasting over nine hours, Forsa still haven't responded to our written proposals on seniority, base transfers and annual leave, which addresses their claimed requirements. Sadly Forsa prefer to strike first rather than use strikes as a last resort.

"When Ryanair has already agreed pilot recognition deals in bigger markets like Italy and the UK, clearly it's for Forsa and 25% of the Irish pilots that are causing these problems in Ireland, not Ryanair."

Meanwhile, Ryanair cabin crew in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy are going on strike today and tomorrow leading to the cancellation of 600 flights affecting 100,000 passengers.Pakistani volunteers and security officers visit the site of a bombing in Quetta (AP)

A suicide bomber has struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistans south-western city of Quetta, killing 31 people.

The blast came as Pakistanis cast ballots in a general election meant to lead to the nations third consecutive civilian government.

The attack in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, also wounded 35 people and several were reported to be in critical condition, according to hospital doctor Jaffar Kakar.

A witness who was waiting to cast his ballot, Abdul Haleem, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters seconds before the explosion. He said his uncle was killed in the explosion.

There was a deafening bang followed by thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people, he said.

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Baluchistan saw the worst violence of the election campaign earlier this month when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

Citing security concerns, the election commission announced that internet and mobile phone services in several districts in Baluchistan have been suspended.

Election commission secretary Babar Yaqub told reporters that threats against polling stations, staff and even candidates have been received.

Hours earlier, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staff and voting material in Baluchistans district of Turbat, killing four troops.

At the request of the election commission, Pakistans military is deploying 350,000 troops countrywide outside and inside polling stations.

Also on Wednesday, police said a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the north-western city of Swabi.A Pakistani woman mourns the death of her family member outside a hospital in Quetta (AP)

A suicide bomber on a motorcycle has rammed into people waiting outside a busy polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 31 and casting a dark shadow over election day.

The attack in the capital of Baluchistan province underlined the difficulties the majority Muslim nation faces as it casts ballots to elect its third consecutive civilian government.

The bombing also wounded 35 people, with several reported to be in a critical condition.

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A witness to the attack in Quetta, Abdul Haleem, who was waiting to cast his ballot, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters just seconds before the explosion. Mr Haleems uncle was killed in the blast.

There was a deafening bang followed by thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people, he said.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing but local officials were quick to blame the Islamic State group (IS).

Baluchistan also saw the worst violence during election campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

IS claimed responsibility for that attack, though Baluchistan has seen relentless assaults, both by the provinces secessionists and Sunni militants who have killed hundreds of Shias living there.

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In recent years, the IS affiliate in the region has emerged as a major force behind violence, often using local Sunni radicals from the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to carry out its attacks.

On Tuesday, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staffers and voting material in Baluchistans district of Turbat, killing four troops.

Also on Wednesday, shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the north-western city of Swabi. Later, more clashes between rival political parties killed another person and wounded 15 elsewhere in the country.Top European Union officials have warned they are ready to put tariffs on 20 billion dollars (15 billion) of American goods if Donald Trump puts duties on car imports, ahead of talks with the US president.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Mr Trump in Washington to try to talk him out of imposing the car tariffs, which would hurt the industry on both sides of the Atlantic and increase trade tensions.

Ms Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter: The aim of this visit is to cool down the situation and prevent an escalation of the trade conflict.

However, she noted that if the US proceeds with the duties, the EU is ready to respond. It will impose new tariffs on a range of US products, including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery.

Mr Trump has repeatedly called the EU  which includes many of the Americas oldest and most committed allies  an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a foe.

His administration this year imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, drawing retaliation from the EU on a series of US goods.

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Those tariffs covered about three billion dollars in goods and would pale in comparison with possible 25% tariffs on imports of cars, trucks and car parts.

It is unclear what Mr Trumps approach will be in the talks. After tweeting that Tariffs are the greatest! he suggested hours later in another post that both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!

The EUs budget chief, Guenther Oettinger, said the EU was prepared to discuss lowering and restructuring all tariffs for all products.

He told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk: We want to avoid a further escalation of the trade dispute (into) a trade war.

We have good arguments, clear numbers and we have ideas, too.

Whether these will help, nobody knows. But not to try, not to fly over there for the meeting, would have been the wrong path.

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Car tariffs would be particularly painful for Germany, where the industry is huge and has long been the symbol of post-war wealth.

And it is not just Europeans opposing these tariffs, but American companies as well.

The duties would increase the cost of many components that American manufacturers import and use in making cars. Ultimately, that will make cars more expensive for US consumers.

The EU has a huge stake in the US industry, where European companies produce almost three million cars a year, accounting for over a quarter of production in the United States.

The biggest exporter of American-made cars is a German company  BMW, through its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

German producers and supplies employ more than 118,000 people at about 300 factories and manufacture more than 800,000 vehicles per year in the US  with more than half of the cars being exported, according to figures provided by the German automotive industry.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has accused China of vicious tactics, tweeting that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because they know I love & respect them.

His comments came after his administration announced a plan to provide 12 billion dollars (9 billion) in emergency relief for farmers who have been hit hard by the presidents trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now!Cars are blocked at the closed national road in Kineta

An Irish couple celebrating their honeymoon in Greece have been caught up in the wildfire tragedy that left the country devastated.

Fears are growing for Brian OCallaghan-Westropp who has gone missing, having become separated from his new wife as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

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He married Zoe Holohan in Ireland last week before the couple flew to Greece over the weekend.

Ms Holohan, who works in the advertising department of the Sunday World newspaper, was hospitalised with burns.

Her husband has not been seen since they became separated in Mati.

The small community, a popular resort for Greek holidaymakers around 30km east of Athens, is one of the areas worst hit by the devastating blazes.

At least 74 people have been killed and dozens more injured. The figure is expected to rise.

The Republics Department of Foreign Affairs said that it was providing consular assistance to a number of Irish people who had been caught up in the fires which have spread across various parts of Greece.

However, the department would not comment on specific incidents in which Irish people were affected.

Mr OCallaghan-Westropp, who lives in Dublin, became separated from his wife on Monday afternoon.

It is understood they were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee due to an approaching wildfire.

Ms Holohan suffered burn injuries but managed to escape to a nearby beach. She was last night being treated in an Athens hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

Relatives were yesterday making their way to Greece after being made aware of the incident. They are expected to arrive in Athens today.

Colleagues of Ms Holohan at Independent News and Media (INM), which also publishes this newspaper, were left shocked and upset as news of the incident emerged yesterday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said the country is going through an unspeakable tragedy and has declared a three-day national mourning period.

It is the worst incident of wildfire to hit the popular holiday destination in more than a decade.

President Michael D Higgins said that he had written to the countrys president and expressed his condolences as well as solidarity with Greece on behalf of the Irish people.US President Donald Trumps proposed Washington meeting with Russias Vladimir Putin has been delayed until 2019.

National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.

Mr Bolton said: The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch-hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.

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The White House said last week that Mr Trump had directed Mr Bolton to invite Mr Putin to Washington for a meeting in the autumn.

This came amid the backlash over Mr Trumps performance at a news conference with Mr Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the autumn.An heiress to the Seagrams liquor fortune has been arrested in a probe into a self-improvement organisation accused of branding some of its female followers and forcing them into sex.

Clare Bronfman, 39, a daughter of the late billionaire philanthropist and former Seagram chairman Edgar Bronfman Sr, surrendered to the FBI and pleaded not guilty to racketeering charges.

She was freed from custody following a late-afternoon court appearance in New York where she pledged to post a 100 million dollar (76 million) bond to ensure her return to court.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis set the high amount after prosecutors said Bronfman was a flight risk and hearing she has a net worth of roughly 200 million dollars (152 million), including a stake in an island resort in Fiji.

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Bronfman, who appeared in court wearing flip-flops and a T-shirt, did not comment as she left a federal courthouse in Brooklyn. She will remain under house arrest following her release.

A former competitor in international equestrian showjumping competitions, Bronfman is accused in an indictment of taking a number of steps to help NXIVMs founder and leader, Keith Raniere, control members of the upstate New York group, including identity theft, interception of electronic communications and money laundering.

She was part of an inner circle of loyalists who committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and NXIVM, US attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement.

Raniere was arrested in Mexico this year and taken to the US to face charges that he, along with an adherent, the TV actress Allison Mack, coerced followers into becoming slaves to senior members.

In a statement, a lawyer for Bronfman, Susan Necheles, called the charges the result of government overreaching and charging an individual with crimes just because the government disagrees with some beliefs taught by NXIVM and held by Clare.

We are confident that Clare will be exonerated, she said.

Also arrested on Tuesday were Nancy Salzman, who was the organisations longtime president, her daughter Lauren Salzman, and a former bookkeeper for the group, Kathy Russell. All three were released on bail without entering pleas.

Despite criticism for years by ex-followers who called NXIVM a cult and a pyramid scheme, the organisations intense self-improvement classes had, at one point, earned it thousands of adherents, including some with Hollywood ties.

They included Nicki Clyne, an actress who appeared on Battlestar Galactica, Bronfmans sister Sara, a son of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, and India Oxenberg, a daughter of Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg.

In an indictment, prosecutors said Mack, who played a teenage friend of Superman in the CW networks Smallville, helped Raniere recruit women to a secret sub-society within NXIVM whose members were branded with a surgical tool with a symbol that resembled his initials.

Women were expected to be subservient to masters, prosecutors said, including giving in to demands for sex.Arlene Foster greets Theresa May during the PM's visit here last week. Sinn Fein's policy of abstentionism has handed the DUP an unprecedented level of influence at Westminster

The midsummer madness that has swept through the Palace of Westminster is a symptom of the confused - and confusing - politics in and around Brexit.

Last week, there were two critical votes in the Westminster parliament about Brexit. In one vote, the Government won by six votes and in the other the Government won by three votes. Both votes could easily have been lost.

Thus, by the skin of her teeth, Theresa May won both parliamentary votes and clung on as Prime Minister to carry out her compromise Chequers Brexit plan.

The DUP, in keeping with their "confidence and supply" deal with the Conservatives, came to the rescue of a very battered and humiliated Prime Minister with their 10 crucial votes. Without the DUP's significant numerical support, Theresa May - and, indeed, her Government - would have been defeated and, probably, been mortally wounded.

Given the extreme seriousness of these Brexit votes, the Government could easily have collapsed and a General Election had to be called.

Whatever one feels about the DUP and its disastrous position on Brexit, they at least attended and voted in the Westminster parliament and made a crucial input by supporting Theresa May and her Government and, in doing so, are helping to shape to their liking the future relationship between the UK and the European Union.

Today, there is no bigger political and economic issue than Brexit. What is decided now will determine and map out our politics and economy for generations to come.

It is a hugely complex problem that requires careful fixing and good management, not just for Britain, but also for Ireland, north and south. So, it really does matter who does it and how they do it.

For Sinn Fein's seven MPs not to be at those vitally important votes in parliament was a huge strategic mistake. Sinn Fein's continued refusal to sit in the London parliament is historically understandable, but at this moment in time it is clearly out-of-date gesture politics and is, frankly, an archaic relic of past politics.

Potentially, given the importance of those Brexit votes, abstention by Sinn Fein could be disastrous for the long-term interests of the Irish people. Clearly, simply by being absent from parliament, bolsters this weak Tory Government with its menacing Brexit agenda.

By being absent from Westminster, Sinn Fein is indirectly supporting the continuance of this Tory Government in London. If Sinn Fein were to take up its seven seats at Westminster, the May Government would be under real pressure on Brexit and, indeed, its own survival would be seriously in jeopardy.

By their absence from the floor of the House of Commons, Sinn Fein may as well give Theresa May a present of seven extra seats. This significantly strengthens the hand of a weak and inept Tory Government, that does not give two hoots for Ireland, north or south. Ironically, it also plays into the hands of the DUP, who can, as a result of their enhanced, pivotal parliamentary position, prise further concessions and support from the British Government.

Despite the remarkable and shocking parliamentary censure of Ian Paisley MP, the DUP's political stock has dramatically risen, thus Theresa May's scenic tour of the border, accompanied by Arlene Foster and her hardline, DUP-toned speech in Belfast. The DUP could not be in a more powerful position - and they know it. The tradition of abstention from parliament is strongly ingrained within republican ideology. But Arthur Griffith, the original founder of Sinn Fein, did not regard abstention as a principle in itself, but as a way of demonstrating the principle of Irish self-determination and national independence.

Modern Sinn Fein has wrongly elevated this political tactic into a long-standing, fundamental principle that cannot be breached by its elected MPs.

In the present circumstances, this simply does not make any sense anymore, as Sinn Fein abandoned abstention from Dail Eireann in 1986 and from Stormont after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Having abandoned abstention from these institutions in the relatively recent past, it is very hard to understand why - given the current, pressing realities of Brexit - Sinn Fein can sustain this nonsense of a policy, which is clearly contrary to the interests of the Irish people, both in the short and long term.

Maybe Sinn Fein are playing a cynical political game and are secretly hoping that, out of all this confusion in Britain, a "hard border" emerges, which they can wholeheartedly condemn and exploit to their political advantage in Ireland.

What other reason have they got not to review and change their counter-productive abstention policy, given the grave circumstances that confront us all?

Surely, now is the time for Sinn Fein to act in the national interest - not their party's interest - and end their futile abstention from Westminster?He is bold, brash, and until now many people have believed Ian Paisley was destined to enjoy a political longevity that would rival that of his father.

But is the writing on the wall for the son of the DUP founder, who has just been suspended from the House of Commons for the joint longest period of any MP in 70 years?

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Make no mistake about it, the DUP top brass are absolutely furious with the North Antrim MP for his major breach of parliamentary rules. There never was much love for him in some quarters, and there is a lot less now.

Mr Paisley is currently suspended from the party but he is still likely to be back as a DUP representative, albeit in a more neutered condition.

What's saving him is the Paisley name and his undisputed popularity with his constituents.

But if anything else emerges about the MP in the media, it could be an altogether different matter.

In its very brief statement yesterday, the DUP said Mr Paisley was being suspended "pending further investigation into his conduct". That insinuates the party wants to look at other political or business interests he might have.

The DUP added that it didn't intend to "make any further comment" during that process.

Yet it knows that won't shut down this story. Sammy Wilson was very much on a solo run when he said Mr Paisley had been punished enough and shouldn't face any sanctions from the party.

Some other MPs are also sympathetic to their colleague, but plenty in the party grassroots outside North Antrim are not.

Mr Paisley denies that the two holidays he took were worth 100,000, and puts the value at around 50,000.

Yet that's two years' income or more for many ordinary families in DUP constituencies.

The party knows from past experience in East Belfast that the image of its politicians enjoying a lifestyle far beyond that of those they represent can be very damaging politically.

Mr Paisley's article in the Ballymena Guardian in which he vowed that he wouldn't be "going quietly into the night" will have done him no favours with the party officers who will decide his fate. It was regarded as the wrong tone to take.

The DUP will be hoping that a recall petition does not receive the 7,500 signatures required to force a by-election. Much will depend on how much work Sinn Fein puts into getting out the nationalist electorate. There is also likely to be some support from other non-DUP voters.

An election, which would be held after Arlene Foster's high-profile appearance before the RHI Inquiry in the autumn, would be a nightmare for the party. It would raise all sorts of difficult questions for its leader. Would she canvass for him, for instance?

Ian Paisley, like his father, is a survivor. He should come out of this on his feet, but it's certainly not over yet.The concept of an agreed Ireland, which originated from John Hume's nationalism, but was subsequently taken and used by Sinn Fein, has met no equivalent emphasis on the benefits of an agreed Northern Ireland from unionism. Indeed, the fractured and disjointed nature of unionism has hindered the possibility of common ground when it comes to articulating what the Union, or being British, means.

But is it possible to advocate the benefits of Britishness as a basis for an inclusive and dynamic Northern Ireland? And, if so, what might that look like?

For a start, this would require moving from fixations about the national question which offers little chance for enabling a sense of Britishness that can be broader, more embracing and more dynamic to be heard. Rather, it would require promotion of the merits of Britishness in relation to shared institutions and culture.

Even the most ardent of republicans would probably find it difficult to refute the value of the NHS, the BBC, or the FA Cup - all indicators of Britishness that have wider social resonance and attraction. Yet, by keeping expressions of identity and belonging locked onto fears and insecurities about national identity, wider progress has been stymied on many levels. Poor educational attainment levels on the Shankill Road should not be seen as a loyalist, or unionist, problem, but a social problem. High levels of unemployment, or poverty, in the Strabane area are not a republican, or nationalist, problem, but a social problem.

Poor transport links between Derry and Belfast and a lack of railway infrastructure across Northern Ireland generally are not a republican, or unionist, problem, but a social one. And yet, all too often, the response to such issues is framed in relation to segregated national identity positions and interests.

Routinely, one hears that Protestant schools are not performing as well as Catholic schools and so the reference-point for educational performance remains national division. No such conceptualisation seems to be used in the UK more generally.

Poorly performing schools are seen as socially unacceptable and action is expected on that basis. The problem is considered to be a matter of collective responsibility and understood in terms of fairness, inclusivity and the common interest.

Why has such an approach not found its way into Northern Ireland, some 20 years after the Good Friday Agreement?

Much of the blame for this has to be laid at the door of unionist politics itself. From the outside, unionism looks static, defensive, reactive, inward-looking and obsessed with the past. Regardless of how one spins it, the perception is overwhelmingly negative. It is hard to see how such a politics can help make Northern Ireland a better place in the long-term.

Unionism seems to lack an imagined future beyond the protectionism of now and, because of that, suggests no ambition. To put it another way: it has no aspirational imperative built into its language, or intentions.

The richness of British cultural identity in terms of music, fashion, technology, comedy, art, literature and sport contrasts to the apparent rigidity of Northern Ireland's Britishness, which is overwhelmingly expressed as a political conflict with republicanism without any ability to creatively neutralise impressions of republican progress except by hoping that demographics will come to the rescue.

Strangely, unionism seems unable to reach out to those of Catholic background who remain satisfied with greater opportunities brought about by the peace process and who appear more comfortable with remaining in the UK as a result.

Indeed, when unionism speaks, one gets the impression that nobody thinks there is any advantage in trying to engage such people through a sense of Britishness based on respect, tolerance, fairness, multiculturalism and diversity.

It has always fascinated us as to why unionism is not able to counter Sinn Fein's agenda on equality and rights by presenting a more compelling agenda of diversity and responsibility, both of which are conceived not in terms of "us and them", but "all".

Diversity and responsibility contrast nicely with the republican agenda that stresses equality and rights. A new agenda that puts diversity and responsibility at its heart, if communicated effectively, would carry a captivating and dramatic sense of Britishness likely to resonate widely, but it needs to be adopted as a common position by all of unionism in order to do that. The tendency to talk in terms of "us and them", rather than "all", can be found in the constant recourse to being of a community, rather than a society. Many in Northern Ireland talk about their community and a community is, by its nature, distinctive between those who are of it and those who are not.

The language of community is very different from the language of society and its constant usage has created a staleness and predictability in relation to political and everyday discourse.

The language of society is a language of inclusivity, but the language of community is the language of exclusivity. It is the language of "us and them" rather than "all". It is the language of local interest, rather than the common interest and invariably it does not respond well to those within who find how that community conducts or presents itself as objectionable.

Arlene Foster's recent move to engage with nationalist culture by making visits to a GAA final and an Irish school to discuss a language act has been strongly welcomed by the majority who participate in that culture and her presence at public events has challenged the enduring stereotype of unionist intransigence and disrespect. Apart from demonstrating confidence in relation to difference, her actions are representative of society precisely because she showed receptiveness towards others.

Although Brexit complicates the picture, the general impression that emerges for most who visit Northern Ireland, whether nationalist, republican, unionist, loyalist, Catholic or Protestant, is the generosity, kindness and decency of those who live there and yet these qualities hardly transfer across Northern Ireland itself.

When asked what being British means, many unionists and loyalists look to the monarchy, or the unreliability of government to inform their response. For them, this is a Britishness less representative of stoicism, humour, generosity, decency, fairness, or respect, let alone Dad's Army, the Proms, the Sunday roast, or moaning about the weather, and more the reliability or unreliability of institutions. For them, identity arises through the structures of power that symbolise British endurance and history.

Yet, understandable though this outlook is, it is not tuned towards the future, but the past. Its appeal is necessarily backward-looking and uses the rituals and commemorations of that past to assert feelings of preservation and order.

However, identity is much more than national symbolism and is now being increasingly expressed as individual and minority attempts to challenge existing structures of power and conventions of order.

Indeed, for many in Britain, it would appear that it is minority identities which now create new expectations about what one can be.

Clearly, Brexit indicates the polarisation between an exclusive and inclusive sense of national identity, but a more complex dynamic about being British is playing out underneath the media headlines. It is at the everyday level of identity difference that a new sense of Britishness is taking shape.

The challenges to being British have always informed what Britishness means and, indeed, opened the way for new possibilities. It is about time unionism spoke to this dynamic and advocated the confusion, difference, generosity and ambiguity of Britishness that makes it so fluid and complex.

Unionism should start talking collectively on behalf of society, rather than community.

It should demonstrate more the diversity and possibility of a Britishness that views problems in terms of a common interest.

It should welcome difference and assert the need for a responsibility to communicate not just what Northern Ireland is, but what it can be.

In short, it should develop and use the concept of an inclusive Britishness to argue the benefits of an agreed Northern Ireland.

Dr Graham Spencer is Reader in Social and Political Conflict at the University of Portsmouth. Rev Chris Hudson is minister at All Souls' Church in BelfastUyghur supporters burn a Chinese flag to denounce Chinas treatment of the ethnic Muslim minority group during a protest in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, July 5, 2018.

Eleven Uyghur Muslims who are charged with illegally entering Malaysia and could be deported to China have asked the attorney general to drop the charges as they prepare for trial in September.

During a court hearing in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, magistrate Wong Chai Sia set Aug. 8 to hear the results of the application to have charges dropped and calendared a trial for Sept. 12.

The ethnic Uyghurs attorney, Khairul Anwar Ismail, said he expected the trial to proceed if the attorney general rejected their application.

The Uyghurs, who risk religious persecution if they are sent to China, have been detained at the Sungai Buloh Prison outside Kuala Lumpur since February or earlier.

The men were part of a group of 20 who escaped a Thai immigration detention center in November 2017 by digging holes in a wall and using blankets as ladders before crossing the border to Malaysia.

The Uyghur said theyre Turkish and not Chinese as claimed by the Chinese government, Khairul told BenarNews. Nobody can prove they are from China.

Apart from the Chinese governments request for them to be deported, I heard the Thai authorities are also considering having them back, he said.

Khairul said the Malaysian government should consider their application on humanitarian grounds.

Malaysia is not their final destination, the Uyghur men who have no passports want to go to Turkey. Theyre also not a security threat to Malaysia, he said.

The 11 were among more than 200 Uyghurs detained in March 2014 after being found at a popular tourist spot in Thailands southern Songkhla province. It was not clear how they had arrived there.

Human rights groups speak out

An Amnesty International official said the Chinese government has been asking governments to deport Uyghur, including students, back to China.

It has created a sense of horror among the overseas Uyghur community, Frankie Poon, a researcher on China at Amnesty Internationals East Asia Regional Office in Hong Kong, told BenarNews.

The international community, including Malaysia, needs to work on stopping China from doing this unless they can provide strong reasons for doing so, he said. We havent seen any good reason so far.

Poon said the Uyghurs face the potential risk of arbitrary detention in facilities known as re-education centers, where some reports said hundreds of thousands of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities are detained.

The Malaysian government should seriously observe the non-refoulement principle not to return anybody to a country like China where there are serious human rights concerns and a high risk of people being subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, Poon said.

Latheefa Koya, executive director of Malaysian human rights NGO Lawyers for Liberty, said Malaysia is bound by international law.

Their claim for asylum must be processed and if its clear theyre asylum seekers, they should be released and given protection, not jailed or charged for illegal entry, she told BenarNews.

In February, Malaysia received an official request from the Chinese government to extradite the 11 men to China. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said that the Malaysian government would seek to resolve the issue diplomatically.Murad Ebrahim, chief of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebel group, talks to members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, in Manila, July 24, 2018.

A final peace deal expected to be signed into law soon by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte could help stop foreign militants from infiltrating the troubled south, the leader of the countrys biggest Muslim rebel force said.

Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), expressed confidence that foreign fighters, including Malaysians and Indonesians, could soon be forced out of their sanctuaries as the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) comes into force. It aims to end decades of conflict in the southern Philippines through granting autonomy to the predominantly Muslim region.

We confirm that there are foreign elements joining these small groups, Murad told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) this week.

The moment these small groups will no longer accept these foreign elements, they can no longer come [to fight], he said. Murad was referring to the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives ratified the BOL after the Senate approved the bill a day earlier. Duterte was expected to sign it within days, officials said.

Factions of the two southern groups have pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State (IS) and engaged the military in sporadic clashes in recent weeks.

Last year, Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged head of IS in the Philippines, led a five-month siege in the Mindanao city of Marawi.

Philippine security forces defeated the militants after pounding the city in airstrikes. Mahmud Ahmad, a Malaysian considered to be a top IS recruiter in Southeast Asia, was among foreign fighters killed in the battle of Marawi, Duterte announced last October. Hapilon and other top local militants also died in the fighting.

Murad said past failures by the government to sign a lasting peace deal in the south had helped create several disgruntled factions, including one led by the Maute brothers from Marawi who helped spearhead last years siege.

You will notice that most of these small groups, splinter groups, came into being after the failure of the peace process, Murad said.

He noted that members of the Maute group had belonged to MILF, but they became further radicalized by the governments failure to fast-track the autonomy law.

They were able to capitalize (on this) in order to recruit some of their followers, Murad said.

In 2014, the government of then-President Benigno Aquino III struck a peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, in which it agreed to pass a Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that set boundaries for Muslim autonomous rule in the south.

In exchange, MILF agreed to drop its armed bid for independence.

But during Aquinos final two years in office, the BBL never made it through a Philippine Congress dominated by Christians.

Hit-and-run attacks

BIFF, a breakaway faction of MILF, has pledged allegiance to IS, but did not send fighters to Marawi.

Instead it engaged the military in hit-and-run attacks in central Mindanao. Military intelligence has said that some foreign fighters had sought refuge in BIFF-held areas.

Murad confirmed that Malaysian and Indonesian fighters were lingering in some areas of the south under the protection of militant groups such as BIFF. The group has been fighting the military in communities near a sprawling marsh on Mindanao.

Murad declined to provide an estimate on the number of foreign fighters.

The Abu Sayyaf, on the other hand, is believed to have less than 500 fighters, and is mostly into criminal enterprise, including bombings, kidnappings and beheadings in the south. In the past two years, the group has beheaded a German and two Canadian hostages.

Murad said the splinter groups were the result of frustration with the peace process in the past.

So we are quite confident that if there is a political settlement acceptable by majority of the Bangsamoro people, the splinter groups will gradually be carried into the mainstream, he said.

Its very difficult for them to exist minus the support of some people in the area, Murad said.

It took lawmakers four years to pass the legislation, largely because politicians in the predominantly Catholic nation were fearful of a Muslim autonomous region under the helm of the former rebel group.

But with Duterte controlling majority of the both houses of Congress, the BOL bill made it through Congress and Senate after intense deliberations.

The autonomy deal is expected to settle decades of conflict that have left more than 120,000 people dead in some of the nations poorest regions.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.Growing up in North Alabama, I remember going through specific routines in the event of an emergency. I doubt there was a kid who did not know why or when you need to stop, drop, and roll. We were trained in protocols in the event of a tornado, calmly lining up in the hallway and securing our heads from potential debris. We knew how to exit the buildings in case of a fire in a single-file line to safe zones outside. All of these procedures were responses to various kinds of potential disasters we could encounter while in school.

Now what, do you think, are the possibilities that I as a kid in elementary school would actually need to follow through on those drills? How often would a tornado tear through our building? How often would a fire consume the classrooms? Hardly ever, if at all, right? But we were still trained in how to respond in the very unlikely event that they might occur.

What if I told you that on a daily basis you are going to be faced with potential crises or disasters that required a response from you? What if it was not a distant potentiality but an eminent reality? How would you prepare yourself for such situations? Would you be trained to know how to respond?

Let me break this down and make the case why every follower of Jesus must have a gospel response plan (GRP).

Have you ever been hurt by someone else?

Have you ever been criticized?

Have you ever been offended?

Has someone ever sinned against you?

Have you sinned against someone else?

Has your day ever taken one unexpected turn after another?

Have other people let you down or betrayed your trust?

Have you faced days of disappointment and despair?

Have you experienced frustration and anger at the failure of others or yourself?

These are just a few questions addressing realities you and I face on a daily basis, and with every question/situation, a response will manifest from your life. But what kind of response will it be? We have a choice to respond out of our sinful nature (Gen. 3) or out of our new identity in Christ. Will our response be driven by guilt and shame, hiding and pretending, blaming and fearing like Adam and Eve in Genesis 3? Or will our response arise from repentance and faith out of a heart resting in Gods acceptance of you in Christ?

You are a sinner living among sinners. You are a desperately needy person rubbing shoulders with desperately needy people. What weak, needy sinners need in every moment is to look to a strong, sufficient Savior. Thats what we do when we respond to the gospelwe turn from looking to ourselves (whether out of self-pity or self-righteousness) in repentance and we look to Christ in renewed faith and trust.

The problem we have today, I fear, is that most Christians do not have a developed gospel response plan and, therefore, there is no functional repentance and faith response when things happen (internally or externally) in their lives. The default, then, is to look somewhere other than Jesus in our response. And this, I find, is a massive discipleship breakdown for believers.

Someone is going to sin against you. Will you handle that situation with a response that honors the gospel? Will you pursue reconciliation through forgiveness and view that person through the lens of grace? Or will you come across self-righteous and force that person to make atonement for their sin by working their way back into a right relationship with you based on their efforts?

You are going to sin against someone else. Will you handle that situation with a response that honors the gospel? Will you make excuses for your sin? Rationalize it? Blame others for it? Or will you own it, humbly confessing it to God and those whom you sinned against, seeking forgiveness? Will you hide away playing the victim card in self-pity, sulking in your failure, or will you take your sin to the throne of grace to your merciful High Priest?

Paul said, As you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him (Col. 2:6). You receive Jesus by repentance and faith, and you walk in that same repentance and faith. That is to say, this is how we learn Christ (Eph. 5:20) and put on our new self (i.e., our new identity in Christ). I think the most practically and helpful tool that Christians have today is to be trained to know how to respond to various situations they will encounter in a way that commends the gospel and flows out of a heart fully resting and secure in Jesus. We are not talking about potential dangers here. Were talking about actual, real-life situations happening every day where Christians will either act out the old man of Genesis 3 or the new man being renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Think back in your life where sin has impacted your relationship with God and others. Are there people that are no longer in your life because of the functional absence of a gospel-driven response? Sadly, I can say that is true for me, and I suspect that if we are cognizant enough, nearly everyone would consent to that reality. But we dont have to continue that way!

So what is your Gospel Response Plan?

You are sinner living in a fallen world. You are going to be hurt, betrayed, frustrated, prideful, annoyed, judgmental, pitiful, and so much more. Its going to happen. But are you going to be trained as a follower of Jesus Christ to know, almost instinctively, how to respond with the gospel through premeditated prescriptions of specific ways to walk in repentance and faith?

Perhaps what we need to do each morning is prepare ourselves with some gospel drills. Think about one possible situation a gospel response will be required of you. For example, you are at a restaurant and your server is extremely slow and the food is cold. The server asks you if there is anything else you need, and you are tempted to treat her like her actions deserve. But instead, you respond by saying, Thank you for serving me today, and by the way, as I pray over my food I would like to know if there is anything I can pray for you about? Who knows? The server may already be feeling guilty and embarrassed by their service and surprised by your gracious response. They could be going through a terrible crisis in their lives, and they open up to you and provide an opportunity for you to minister to them (and perhaps introduce them to Jesus).

Why that gospel drill? Because you will get bad service and cold food. You will be tempted to act out of the old Adam and not out of the risen Christ. And this is one of countless other ways we need to learn Christ and put on the new self with a strategy to approach whatever comes our way to walk in repentance and faith and show the transforming power of Christs abundant grace actively working in our lives.

Photo credit:  Getty Images/Marjan Apostolovic

Tim Brister is a pastor and elder at Grace Baptist Church. Find out more on his blog: Provocations and Pantings.Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, it's going to be a blue Christmas for the Biden administration.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesFor Immediate Release, July 24, 2018 Contact: Jason Pfeifle, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7160 x 313, jpfeifle@biologicaldiversity.org

Deborah McQueen, Livermore Eco Watchdogs, (925) 895-7059, info@livermoreecowatchdogs.org Board of Supervisors' Decision Ends Fossil Fuel Extraction in Alameda County Supervisors Shutter Spill-prone Oil Producer's Livermore Oil Wells OAKLAND, Calif. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors today voted 4-0 to reject two permits that would have allowed a Bakersfield-based company with a history of spills and violations to continue extracting oil in Livermore for another decade. Because this was the only active oil or gas production operation in the county, todays decision effectively ends fossil fuel extraction there. The supervisors should be applauded for their tough stand against fossil fuel extraction, said Deborah McQueen, a local resident and member of Livermore Eco Watchdogs. Sending this irresponsible polluter packing will help keep our groundwater safe from contamination  a huge victory for Livermore and our nearby communities. While the state continues to roll out the red carpet for the oil industry, Alameda County is showing what real climate leadership looks like, said Jason Pfeifle, a climate campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. Its a powerful example of how local governments can step up to protect their communities and the climate from dangerous fossil fuel pollution. E&B Natural Resources, which operates in California, Louisiana, Kansas and Wyoming, was seeking approval for a pair of permits to extend and expand its operations for another 10 years. On May 24 the Alameda East County Board of Zoning Adjustments approved the permits, despite hundreds of residents voicing their opposition to the project. On June 1 the Center and Livermore Eco Watchdogs appealed that decision to the board of supervisors, who today sided with the groups. Because E&Bs previous permits expired in January 2018, todays decision will force E&B to cease its Livermore operations.

In 2015 Alameda County officials reported a spill of toxic fluid at E&Bs Livermore site, which contaminated 12 feet of soil that had to be removed. E&B was fined for failing to report the spill immediately and disposing of the soil without testing for hazardous chemicals. The company has reported at least 48 spills of oil or other hazardous materials in four different California counties since 2007, according to records from the California Office of Emergency Services. E&B had also sought state and federal approval to nearly triple the area of the Livermore aquifer into which it can inject toxic wastewater. In addition, E&B had plans to acquire a state permit for an extraction technique called waterflooding, which uses pressure from injecting wastewater to push oil up to the surface.For Immediate Release, July 25, 2018 Contact: Miyoko Sakashita, (510) 844-7108, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org Texas Commission Advances World's Largest Plastics Plant Wastewater Permit Issued Despite Concerns About Exceeding Pollution Standards AUSTIN, Texas The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved a wastewater permit today for the worlds largest plastics plant. The proposed facility near Gregory, Texas, funded by ExxonMobil and the Saudi Arabian government, would discharge more than 13 million gallons a day of polluted wastewater into Corpus Christi Bay. The Center for Biological Diversity, on behalf of thousands of its Texas members, had petitioned the Commission to reject the permit, noting that it violates the Clean Water Act and threatens to exceed water quality standards. The permit allows the daily discharge of more than 8,000 pounds of suspended solids, including plastic bits, and 1,000 pounds of oil and grease. This project is horrible on so many levels. Polluting beautiful Corpus Christi Bay just to create more throwaway plastic would be a travesty, said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director with the Center. Plastic and pollutants would flow through the bay and out into the Gulf of Mexico, feeding the global plastic pollution crisis. We need to reduce the flow of plastics into our oceans, not ramp it up. The plant, which would receive more than $1 billion in state tax breaks, would crack the ethane in natural gas to produce almost 2 million tons of ethylene and polyethylene annually. Polyethylene pellets are the basic building blocks of plastic products. The Texas plant is part of a multibillion-dollar push by the fossil fuel industry to increase global plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade. That increased plastic production is being driven by an oversupply of fracked natural gas in the United States. Ocean plastic pollution has become so pervasive that it is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050. Plastic attracts and absorbs toxic chemicals from the marine environment. Little bits of plastic get mistaken for food and eaten by fish, sea turtles, birds and other wildlife. These animals often choke on the items, or experience feelings of fullness and then starve to death. Large whales are often found with bellies full of plastic after they die.Indian Worships Donald Trump As A 'God' Pulse oi-Syeda Farah

There are so many things that happen in this world that make us believe that the world is filled with crazy people. From crazy fans to people worshipping anything, that at times do not make any sense. Some people in India believe in bizarre things and if you are an Indian, then welcome to the club of blind faith!

Here, we are sharing a video of a man who is seen worshipping Donald Trump every single day, and this is something that he has been doing for the past three years!

Check out the details of this man and know his story.

Strange Temples That Will Question Your Sanity

An Indian man has discovered a 'God' among us, and it is not Zeus but rather President Donald Trump! No, this is no joke, as you can check the video which reveals the details of the same.

Bussa Krishna, 31, an agriculturist from the Indian province of Telangana, has set a photograph of the President in his prayer room and worships it every day alongside other Hindu divine gods.

The overall idea to worship Trump came after Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was a software engineer from India, was executed by a U.S. Naval force veteran last February.

He revealed that he was very much pained at the incident. He thought the only way the U.S. President and his people could understand the greatness of Indians is to display our love and affection towards them. That is the reason why he started worshipping Trump with a hope that the prayers would reach him one day.

He further added: "I believe Indians can win over anyone with their spiritual powers. When you cannot take on a mighty person directly, you can win over him with love and worship, and that is what I am doing," he added.

The Borodevi Temple Where Human Blood Is Offered!

Worshipping politicians is a thing in India, as Indians are known to make temples dedicated to the things that they love the most.Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese Internet giant Baidu announced that it has signed an agreement with German automaker Daimler AG to deepen strategic cooperation in autonomous driving and connectivity domains.

Baidu much look forward to the in-depth cooperation with Daimler AG. We will join forces to make a good example of cross-border cooperation for the overall auto industry worldwide and further promote the global autonomous driving development, said Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu.

With the changes facing the industry today, we have worked consistently to implement our C.A.S.E. strategy for innovation both globally and at a local level in China. Daimler and Baidu already enjoy a strong partnership in these two fields, and the signing of this memorandum marks a new milestone in the cooperation between our two companies, said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

Earlier this July, Daimler became the first global automaker that received a road test license for L4 automated driving vehicles (level 4) in Beijing, marking a major new milestone in the company's local R&D efforts in China. The test vehicles are based on the Mercedes-Benz V-Class boasting advantages in flexibility and loading capacities. The Mercedes-Benz research vehicles are equipped with additional technical applications from Baidu Apollo. Currently, these vehicles have undertaken multiple testing at the National Pilot Zone (Beijing and Hebei) for Intelligent Mobility to qualify for the license.

Under the newly signed agreement, both companies will continue to improve scenarios complexity both on approved public roads and dedicated designated grounds, making safety as priority.

In addition, the two parties also plan to launch a new joint project in vehicle connectivity, integrating further Baidu connectivity services into Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX), the intelligent human-machine interaction system.

Launched in July, 2017, Baidu's Apollo provides an open, reliable and secure software platform for its partners to develop their own autonomous driving systems through on-vehicle and hardware platforms. On July 4, Baidu unveiled the latest iteration of the Apollo platform dubbed Apollo 3.0 at the Baidu Create 2018. Up until now, Baidu Apollo has formed partnerships with 119 companies and institutions worldwide, including such prominent global automakers as BMW Group and Ford Motor.The Philippine Competition Commission said Wednesday it approved three merger and acquisition transactions in real estate, housing, and manufacturing sectors. PCC, in three separate decisions dated July 24, cleared the acquisition by Alveo Land Corp. of properties of Antel Land Holdings Inc. in Makati City; the joint venture between Century Properties Group Inc. and Mitsubishi Corp.; and the acquisition of additional shares in Toyota Autoparts Philippines Inc. by Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. Alveo earlier sought PCCs approval to acquire Antels 1.3-hectare land and assets, including A.Venue Mall, in Makati City. The commission said the transaction was not expected to result in substantial lessening of competition in the market for medium-cost residential condominiums in Makati and Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. The review also found that there were a sufficient number of competitors in the market and that there was no ability nor incentive for Alveo to foreclose the property to be acquired. PCC said that for the Century Property-Mitsubishi joint venture, the two companies agreed to engage in the development, construction and sale of residential properties on parcels of land in Tanza, Cavite.The parties stand to invest through the purchase and subscription of shares in a new company, reported as PHirst Park Homes. PCC said there were no concerns on competition in this transaction because of the numerous companies that are engaged in the residential real estate development within the identified geographic market. It said that in the case of the Aisin Seiki-Toyota Parts transaction, Aisin Seiki planned to acquire additional shares of Toyota Autoparts Philippines from Toyota Motor Corp. in the Philippines. The move will switch Aisin Seiki from being a minority to a majority shareholder of TAP. PCC said it found no substantial lessening of competition in the relevant car parts market as the conditions of production and sale of manual transmission components to TAP would be the same before and after the transaction. PCC, the countrys anti-trust body, is mandated under the Philippine Competition Act to review mergers and acquisitions to ensure that these transactions will not effectively lessen or kill the competition in their relevant markets, or harm the interest of consumers.Hotels, restaurants and caterers are just a few of the business sectors hoping to tap into the economic spinoffs of Enbridges Line 3 Replacement Project.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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Hotels, restaurants and caterers are just a few of the business sectors hoping to tap into the economic spinoffs of Enbridges Line 3 Replacement Project.

Pre-construction activity has already begun on the pipeline project south of Brandon, and soon more than 1,600 crew members will be calling the city their temporary home.

"The business community in particular, we want to make sure that they understand how big the crews are that are coming in to work on this project," said Enbridge community engagement strategist Joanne Bradbury. "Some will be local, but some will come from farther away, so theyll be looking for the amenities that you need when you move into a community."

Enbridge held an open house on Tuesday at Clarion Hotel and Suites, bringing out many business owners from both Brandon and the broader Westman region.

Mums Family Restaurant owner Brent Johnston is anticipating a boost in business. The longtime Brandon restaurateur is considering different ways to accommodate the needs of pipeline crews, such as potentially opening earlier for breakfast, offering bagged lunches and new menu items.

"We are willing to provide different meals  other than whats on our menu to give the guys a more homey feeling," he said. "I used to work out of town myself, too, so you sort of get tired of the same thing. So if theres something that we can provide to them, different sorts of meals, if they can tell us what they want  well try to provide it for them."

Johnstons daughter, Kim Harrison, said the family is looking forward to welcoming new guests.

"Im just quite excited because I love having new people coming to town, and making them feel like theyre at home," she said.

The Days Inn and Motel 6 have already started welcoming members of the base crews, and are planning for a surge in long-term accommodations.

"I think its exciting for the whole city," said John Pearen, general manager of the Days Inn and Motel 6. "We are looking forward to it. Brandon, this year, is a little bit slower  so were looking forward to hosting."

The hotels are planning to offer additional amenities for the crews, such as a Sunday supper and laundry services.

JILLIAN AUSTIN/THE BRANDON SUN A piece of Enbridge's new Line 3 pipeline was on display at the energy company's open house on Tuesday. The 36-inch-diameter steel pipeline has a tough external coating to prevent corrosion.

"Trying to make you feel a little at home in the city and in the property as well," Pearen said.

Krista Kowaluk, marketing and sponsorship manager with the Keystone Centre, said they hope to serve the pipeline companies through catering, as well as offer venues for meetings and conferences. Kowaluk said they will also look at potential sponsorship opportunities and community investment projects.

"I think its exciting for our community, and certainly we see the benefits  and welcome the business through the region," she said.

Keystone Centre sales manager Connie Lawrence-Siewert said it will be a great economic impact for a wide range of local businesses.

"They will see a great increase in sales and welcome everyone here, and lets see what we can do together," she said. "Keystone Centre is for the community, and were about the community, so we want to see everyone do well."

The major infrastructure project will see 1,073 kilometres of pipeline built between Hardisty, Alta., and Gretna, and will "ensure the reliable supply of western Canadian crude oil to the Chicago, U.S. Gulf Coast, eastern U.S. and Canadian refinery markets," according to the energy company. There are nine construction spreads along the projects path, each ranging between 100 and 140 kilometres. Each spread is awarded to a contractor.

Brandon is a hub for Spread 7 (Banister Pipelines) and Spread 8 (SA Energy Group). Crews will work Monday to Saturday, typically 10 to 12 hours per day.

"A lot of these folks are looking for convenience items  Do I have a lunch for tomorrow, what am I going to do for supper, when am I going to get my laundry done?" Bradbury said. "Sunday becomes a very important day for these folks because they have to do everything  relax, have fun, get ready for the week, all of those things."

She expects car washes, hair salons and even recreational businesses will benefit from the influx of workers.

"Families do come in to visit," Bradbury said. "Sometimes, that parent thats in with the kids, they need something to do during the day, so recreational activities become important as well."

The project officially kicks off next week, and there will be a gradual increase of crew members. This will include welders, heavy equipment operators, etc. There is also a robust environment team, land services team and construction leadership.

Crews will head home for a Christmas break and will return in January and February for hydro test activity and initial cleanup. A final cleanup will take place next summer.

 jaustin@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @jillianaustinThere could soon be a cannabis shop in Neepawa, after a Winnipeg-based company expressed an interest in opening a dispensary in the community.

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This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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There could soon be a cannabis shop in Neepawa, after a Winnipeg-based company expressed an interest in opening a dispensary in the community.

"Theyre just exploring the opportunity," Neepawa Mayor Adrian de Groot said, adding that hes looking at it as he would any other business interested in setting up shop in town.

"Its a business opportunity," he said. "Someone has expressed the desire to set up an establishment here, and we want to work with them or anyone to that end, whether youre selling light bulbs or whether youre selling cannabis."

The proponent approached the municipality in either late April or early May, he said.

The name of the business has not been made public yet, "because there are a number of opportunities and businesses that may apply, because theyve been on that provincial selection process as to who can have retail outlets and how many and where  that kind of thing," de Groot said.

The province approved four proposals earlier this year to operate more than 30 retail cannabis stores in Manitoba, following a request for proposals that was issued in the winter.

The four successful candidates included a consortium between Delta 9 Cannabis Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp., National Access Cannabis, Brandon-based B.O.B. Headquarters in partnership with Tokyo Smoke  a subsidiary of Hiku Brands  and a numbered corporation featuring several groups.

Although nothing is set in stone, de Groot said the municipalitys administration is looking at a location for the cannabis dispensary somewhere on Main Street.

"We want to settle this before the end of this term," de Groot said of councils current term, which wraps up in October.

The idea is for the towns administration to take a look at bylaws that are in place to make sure the language is sufficient and that it would encompass any issues, he said.

"If they can review the various things and come up with a comprehensive report by the first Tuesday of September, that would be great," he said.

Its all about making sure the town of Neepawa lives up to its potential.

"Thats what communities are about, trying to grow that business base and the traffic within the community and things like that, and the attractions," he said.

 mverge@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @Melverge5An increase in the use of crystal methamphetamine is the main culprit behind rising crime rates in Brandon and Manitoba in general, said Brandon Police Service deputy chief Randy Lewis.

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This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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An increase in the use of crystal methamphetamine is the main culprit behind rising crime rates in Brandon and Manitoba in general, said Brandon Police Service deputy chief Randy Lewis.

This comes after Winnipeg Police Service Chief Danny Smythe on Monday characterized Manitobas largest city as "a community in crisis" due to its high rate of meth use.

"Within Manitoba, generally speaking, we have seen that crime trends in Brandon are one to three years behind similar trends in Winnipeg," Lewis said in a statement. "This also seems to be the case with crystal methamphetamine."

The latest numbers from Statistics Canada released on Monday show that the national Crime Severity Index, which measures the volume and severity of police-reported crime, rose for the third consecutive year in 2017.

Manitobas CSI increased by three per cent, which has been attributed mainly to robbery and theft of $5,000 or less.

In Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, the rise in crime was attributed mainly due to the above-average crime rates in rural areas.

In 2017, Manitobas rural crime rate was 42 per cent higher than its urban crime rate; Albertas was 38 per cent higher, while Saskatchewans was 36 per cent higher.

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, their high rural crime rates were due to increases in all types of crime, while in Alberta, the difference was largely due to a rise in property crime.

Together, the three provinces accounted for 47 per cent of Canadas rural crime in 2017.

Last month, the BPS reported a significant increase in calls for service related to drugs and intoxication, property crimes and weapons in the citys downtown core, between Jan. 1 and April 30 of this year.

In his statement, Lewis said rising crime rates in 2017 have carried over into 2018, with property crimes  including break and enter, theft over $5,000, theft under $5,000, possession of stolen property and fraud  increasing in general.

Prior to that, Lewis said property crimes were stable, if not decreasing, and that crystal meth users often commit property crimes in order to support their addictions.

The police board and City of Brandon have since created two new positions within the BPS: a drug investigator focused on crystal meth and trafficking and a youth intelligence officer to focus on youth exploitation, which Lewis described as "an unfortunate byproduct" given some people prey on vulnerable youth who are addicted to drugs.

Lewis said more front-line officers are needed to address the issue, which may include moving officers from support positions into front-line roles, but that officers continue to work hard to control the flow of drugs in the city.

He noted that some significant arrests and seizures of crystal meth have already been made.

"This problem cant be solved by police alone and a concerted joint effort by social service providers is essential to seeing success in addressing the increase in drugs and addiction within Brandon and the province of Manitoba," Lewis said.

Brandon deputy mayor Jeff Fawcett said more work needs to be done with organizations, such as Prairie Mountain Health and the Brandon Urban Aboriginal Peoples Council, to address drug use and crime in the city.

"We know that the police department obviously plays a large role in this, as do all of our emergency services, but they unfortunately are often the end result."

He also pointed to Mayor Rick Chrests anti-drug forum for students, "NEO: Not Even Once," which is being done in partnership with the Brandon School Division, as being a positive effort on this front.

"We need to look at it from the whole picture, not just the hammer at the end of drug use," Fawcett said, adding that if people have a sense of belonging with their families, schools and neighbours, then they will be less likely to use drugs.

 mlee@brandonsun.com, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press

 Twitter: @mtaylorleeCFB SHILO  A military judge has ordered a retired master corporal from CFB Shilo be demoted to private after he grabbed the breast of a military spouse during a holiday potluck almost two years ago.

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This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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CFB SHILO  A military judge has ordered a retired master corporal from CFB Shilo be demoted to private after he grabbed the breast of a military spouse during a holiday potluck almost two years ago.

At a general court martial at CFB Shilo on Tuesday, Evan William Paul, 33, pleaded guilty to one charge under the National Defence Act of behaving in a disgraceful manner against the complainant, who cannot be named due to a publication ban.

A conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, but the prosecution and defence submitted a joint recommendation to have Pauls rank reduced to private instead.

A charge of sexual assault and a second count of behaving in a disgraceful manner were withdrawn.

In his decision, Military Judge Cmdr. Martin Pelletier described Pauls behaviour as "an unacceptable assault of a perverted nature" against the wife of a subordinate that was "personal, disrespectful and highly offensive."

"The acts of Master Cpl. Paul invaded his victims privacy in the most intrusive way without any form of consent," Pelletier said.

Paul joined the military in 2001 as an infantryman with the reserves before becoming a material technician in the regular forces.

He was previously posted to CFB Borden and CFB Edmonton and served two deployments to Afghanistan.

Paul was with the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry at CFB Shilo at the time of the incident.

On the evening of Friday, Dec. 9, 2016, Paul attended a holiday potluck at the junior ranks mess facility, the El Prado Club.

Paul had been drinking at a co-workers home on base beforehand, where he had consumed a 750-ml bottle of hard liquor.

Prosecutor Maj. Greg Moorehead told the court Paul was "blackout drunk" and had no memory of what happened after he arrived at the club.

Moorehead said Paul continued to drink several "doubles" and began socializing with other groups.

At approximately 10 p.m., Paul joined a group that included the complainant, her husband and another female spouse of a military member.

Displaying signs of intoxication, Paul squeezed the complainants left breast with his right hand. The complainant reacted angrily and Moorehead said her husband had to restrain himself.

The second spouse told Paul that what he did was inappropriate and to apologize, to which Paul explained to the complainants husband that he did not mean anything by it.

Paul then turned to the second spouse and poked her breast with his hand, but Moorehead said she laughed it off and Paul proceeded to join another group.

The complainant was upset and left the function, while her husband reported the incident to his superior officer, who explained he would deal with it the following Monday.

The complainant reported the incident to military police on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016.

A victim impact statement from the complainant was submitted at the court martial.

Although the full statement wasnt read, Moorehead summarized the complainants words as describing the emotional and physical impacts of Pauls actions, as well as the fear she had for her personal security.

"Whats more is it was done publicly, in a place that was supposed to be relaxed and festive, and it was done by a junior leader in the presence of subordinates and spouses," Moorehead said.

Moorehead noted that earlier in the day, prior to the incident, Pauls platoon had been briefed on Operation Honour, the Canadian Forces efforts to address inappropriate sexual behaviour, which at that point had been in effect for more than a year.

In considering a sentence, Moorehead said five years was a significant punishment, and while Pauls actions were not the worst case of disgraceful conduct, they did affect others and were contrary to the militarys ethos and codes of conduct.

Moorehead said the reduction in rank would send a message to other members of the 2PPCLI and the Canadian Forces as a whole.

Defence counsel Lt.-Col. Denis Berntsen said Paul, who has no criminal or disciplinary record, was "devastated" when he found out about the incident and chose to leave the military voluntarily.

Had the incident not happened, Berntsen said Paul would have likely remained in the Canadian Forces.

Paul officially retired on April 10. The court also heard that Paul has sought counselling and is trying to remain sober.

Berntsen said that when Paul discusses his service with other members, whether they are currently serving or veterans, he will be speaking as an ex-private and not as an ex-master corporal.

"And so, I think there is significant impact on Master Cpl. Paul as a result of the reduction in rank."

Given Pauls limited funds  he plans on moving to B.C. to attend school  Moorehead and Berntsen asked the court martial not to impose a fine, to which Pelletier agreed.

Pelletier said he hoped the complainant could "turn the page on this disturbing episode in her life" and that Paul had realized the gravity of what he did.

"That being said, I do accept that this episode reflects a huge mistake on your part," he said to Paul.

"You will live with the consequences of your actions for some time. I trust, however, that youre well engaged in rehabilitation and have every reason to hope that you wont reoffend as you retrain to continue making a positive contribution to Canadian society in a civilian capacity."

 mlee@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @mtaylorleeParisBrazil has been described as the most dangerous country for land activists in 2017 with 57 killed, while the Philippines accounted for 48, although the latter has been top in Asia, the rights watchdog Global Witness said Tuesday. The international non-government organization, which has offices in London and Washington, D.C. told AFP more than 200 environmental activists were murdered last year as government-sponsored killings linked to lucrative projects by vast agriculture multinationals soared. The rights group was established in 1993 and work to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide. Global Witness said it had documented 207 cases where activists were killed while trying to protect land from development, often for the production of consumer staples such as coffee and palm oil, making 2017 the deadliest year on record for environmentalists. As global demand for these products increases, theres a scramble by business actors to get the massive amount of land they need to grow these products, Ben Leather, senior campaigner at Global Witness, told AFP. When people dare to stand up for their rights and demand that the environment be protected they are silenced in the most brutal way. The watchdog said it had found evidence that government actorssoldiers or policewere responsible for 53 of the deaths. Thats only the triggermen so we can guess that in the cases where criminal gangs or other non-state actors carried out the attacks, the state may well have been involved, Leather said. While in a shocking number of cases state actors pulled the trigger, in other cases where the government allowed businesses to enter without protecting local rights, theyre also complicit in the murders of these activists. Global Witness report on environmentalist killings documents harrowing crimes around the world against communities daring to speak out against big businesses and government-led development. These include murder, but also death threats, intimidation, arrests, cyber-attacks, sexual assault, and lawsuits. It links the violence to what we put on our shelves: mass-scale agriculture, mining, logging, and poaching all produce ingredients for everyday products such as palm oil for cosmetics, soy for beef and timber for furniture.Governments have a legal and ethical duty to protect human rights defenders but theyre usually attacking them verbally and, as our statistics show, through their armed forces who are conducting some of the killings, Leather said.Global Witness singled out the government of Brazilian President Michel Temer for special criticism, accusing his administration of seeking to reduce regulation on big agribusiness during what is an election year. Michel Temer and the Brazilian legislature are actively weakening the laws and institutions designed to protect land rights and indigenous peoples, the report said. At the same time, they have set about making it easier for big businessapparently unperturbed by the devastating human and environmental cost of their activitiesto accelerate their exploitation of fragile ecosystems. In addition to being the deadliest single year for environmentalists since Global Witness began documenting their deaths, 2017 saw the most massacres of land activists on record. The watchdog found seven cases in which more than four activists were killed at the same time, including the massacre of eight villagers protesting a coffee plantation by soldiers in the Philippines.By far the most frequent victims of violence were indigenous peoples, who are often already maligned by governments and society. Of course, my life is at risk, said activist Mario do Socorro Costa da Silva, who campaigns with indigenous communities in Brazil against hydro aluminum factories. I receive death threats 24 hours a day because Im not going to shut my mouth in the face of this atrocity. As well as calling for more accountability and greater protection for at-risk communities, Leather said agribusiness investors and even consumers could help reduce the violence by demanding better transparency. We should be asking questions of those producing the products on our shelves, he said. The palm oil sector absolutely needs to clean itself up and anyone investing needs to do proper due diligence to know that their money is not going to fund land grabs, human rights abuses and ultimately killings of those who denounce it.A total of P909.7 billion out of the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 will be allotted for the construction of the flagship projects under the Build, Build, Build program. According to President Rodrigo Dutertes budget message recently submitted to Congress, the P909.7 billion for infrastructure projects represents 24.2 percent of the cash budget for 2019 or 4.6 percent of the gross domestic product. Investments insufficient and quality infrastructure will increase economic activity through improved mobility, connectivity, and sustainability across the country, Duterte said. Meanwhile, with a total allocation of P1.377 trillion, Social Services remain the administrations top priority in the 2019 National Budget. This is equivalent to 36.7 percent of the Budget and will be used to finance social programs, particularly human capital development such as education, health care, and social protection. Education continued to get the lions share of the 2019 budget with a total funding of P659.3 billion, a 12.3-percent increase from last years P587.1 billion. Duterte said public infrastructure spending in 2019 was estimated to generate 1.1 million jobssomething we desperately need. The Department of Public Works and Highways will get the bulk of the 2019 infrastructure budget amounting to P555.7 billion, while the Department of Transportation will take P76.1 billion. Duterte said the two departments will use the amount to provide connectivity for all Filipinos and to implement major infrastructure projects. PNAOf the Public Works budget, P113.29 billion will be used for network development, including the widening of 778.822 kilometers of roads. Public Works also has P29.66 billion for the widening, replacement, retrofitting, repair/rehabilitation and construction of new bridges next year. Bridges remain an important backbone of our infrastructure investments, Duterte said. A total of P56.65 billion is allocated for asset preservation to keep the roads in good condition, while P101.91 billion will be spent on flood management including the P72.74-billion drainage systems. Since Metro Manila contributes at least 35 percent to the Philippine economy, Public Works has allotted P25.2 billion for the construction of a 35-kilometer Metro Manila subway project while P2 billion will be used to build 17 more stations of the Pasig River Ferry Convergence Program. Duterte also emphasized the need to build more infrastructure projects outside Metro Manila to spur economic activity in the rural areas.Padraig Hoare

Shares of drinks firm Britvic rose more than 4% as it reported a 3.4% increase in third-quarter revenues, boosted by Ballygowan sales in the Republic and Pepsi Max in the UK.

The maker of Fruit Shoot, Robinsons, Tango and MiWadi said sales in the Republic rose 11.3%, with a strong performance by Ballygowan due to the warm weather. Third-quarter revenue for the group was just under 367m (412m), a rise of 3.4% compared to the same period a year ago. Year-to-date revenue increased 4.2% to 1.1bn, the firm said.

In Britain, revenue increased 8%, boosted by Pepsi Max sales. The firm produces and sells Pepsi products, such as Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew Energy, in the Republic and the UK.

Sales of Robinsons and J20 were also strong performers in the UK, it said.

International revenue increased 8.7% in the quarter, with Fruit Shoot sales in the US up because of increased distribution and additional listings secured, it said.

The firm said the revenue boost came despite a disruption to the carbon dioxide supply into the UK and the Republic within the period, which impacted the food and drink industry, including carbonated soft drinks.

To ensure continuity of supply across all trading channels, we temporarily scaled back our promotional activity and reallocated some of our secondary feature space to stills. Supply has now normalised, enabling us to start rebuilding stock levels and gradually reintroduce promotions, it said.

Chief executive Simon Litherland said: Whilst the industry-wide shortage of carbon dioxide held back our ability to fully capitalise on the exceptional weather in Britain and Ireland, we leveraged the breadth and strength of our portfolio to moderate the impact. Consequently, we remain confident of achieving market expectations for the full year.

It is still too early to tell what impact the sugar tax will have in the Republic, the firm said, adding it would have a better view at its full-year end in September.

Some 75% of Britvics portfolio is not subject to the sugar levy, due to its low- or no-sugar content and the last 11 products launched by Britvic Ireland are low- or no-sugar drinks, such as the Club Zero brands.Huw Jones

Brexit will cost Britain up to 12,000 financial services jobs in the short-term, the City of London financial districts leader said, and many more jobs might disappear in the longer term.

At the lower end of the scale, 3,500 jobs could be lost to EU states, Catherine McGuinness told parliaments Exiting the European Union Committee. More than 2 million people work in financial services across Britain, with 396,000 in London.

We are not expecting a big Brexodus in the first instance. But depending on how things pan out... in the longer term, we may see many more go, Ms McGuinness told lawmakers.

Banks, insurers, and asset managers in Britain are opening hubs in the EU before Britains departure from the EU in March to ensure continuity in services to customers there.

So far, there have been 1,600 confirmed job moves, a City of London spokeswoman said separately.

The city was disappointed that Britains government ditched its preferred option of future EU trade based on mutual recognition, whereby Britain and the EU accept each others rules under two-way regulatory co-operation.

We had expected continued support for mutual recognition, Ms McGuinness said.

Instead, Britain has asked for financial-services access based on a more accommodative version of the EUs equivalence system, used by Japan and the US, whereby Brussels alone decides who gets access.

The EU had already dismissed mutual recognition and has said it wont adapt its equivalence system in the way Britain wants.

We can all see its going to be an uphill task to persuade the EU27, Ms McGuinness said.

Huw Evans, director general of the Association of British Insurers, said that opting for some form of equivalence posed a risk that Britain would end up becoming a rule taker  having to continue copying EU rules in return for access after Brexit.

You are asking the EU to partner with you in a way to make equivalence work in future. Equivalence... is something the EU considers proprietary, Mr Evans said. Its quite a big psychological ask.

There was plenty of opportunity for mischief-making by EU states topping up equivalence with national rules, Mr Evans said.

The lawmakers also quizzed the broadcasting and tech sectors about Britains white paper proposals for future EU trade.

ReutersMobile phones giant Vodafone has reported a revenue hit amid woes in Italy and Spain and an ongoing price war in India.

In chief executive Vittorio Colao's final set of figures before handing over the reins in October, the company reported a 4.9% fall in group revenues to 10.9 billion for its first quarter to June 30.

Its service revenue growth slowed to 0.3%, with 11.1bn posted for the quarter, as Vodafone blamed increased competition in Italy and Spain.

This dragged European service revenues down 0.4% and took the shine off a 7.2% hike for its Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific (Amap) division.

India also saw "intense" competition, with service revenues plunging 22.3%, due largely to the country's price war.

Vodafone is waiting for clearance for a deal to merge Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which is set to complete by the end of August and will help it weather the tough conditions in the market.

In the UK, Vodafone said its underlying performance continued to recover, but reported figures showed an ongoing impact from regulation and UK handset financing.

Service revenues in the UK fell 4.9%, steeper than the 3.4% fall in the previous quarter, although Vodafone said that, stripping out regulation and UK handset financing, it saw growth of 1.8%.

The group also cheered a strong UK broadband performance, with 52,000 net customer additions in the quarter, which helped fixed service revenues grow 5.3%.

Despite the quarterly revenue hit, Vodafone confirmed it was on track for full-year underlying earnings growth of between 1% and 5% as it also continues to slash costs.

Mr Colao said: "The majority of our operations performed well, with ongoing momentum in Germany, further underlying recovery in the UK and continued good growth in Amap, all of which helped to offset increased competition in Italy and Spain."

The group's overall performance - including good progress in reducing absolute operating costs for the third year running - provides us with the confidence to reiterate our outlook for the year.

Vodafone announced in May that Mr Colao will step down on October 1 after more than 10 years at the helm.

Mr Colao, who took on the role in July 2008, will be succeeded by group chief financial officer Nick Read, who will become chief executive designate from July 27.

Mr Read will be replaced by deputy chief financial officer Margherita Della Valle on July 27, which is the date of Vodafone's annual shareholder meeting.

Vodafone also recently confirmed an 18.4 billion deal that will see it snap up a raft of Liberty Global assets across Europe.

It has agreed to acquire operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania in a move that it said would help it become "the leading next generation network owner in Europe" with a total reach of 110 million homes and businesses, including wholesale arrangements.

PAAn Post is set to issue two new stamps to mark Pope Francis' historic visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families (WMOF) in August.

Strong demand is expected for a print run of 500,000 (1) stamps, carrying an image of Pope Francis with a dove taking flight and over 100,000 (1.50 international) stamps, which feature a family walking together on a beach.Ankara Tuesday said it told the United States it is opposed to sanctions on Iran as the Trump Administration is due to impose new economic punishments on the Islamic Republic next month while the deadline for allies to stop buying the Iranian oil is set for November 4.

We held meetings with the United States in Ankara and told them openly: Turkey gets oil and gas from Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Iraq. If I dont buy from Iran now, where am I supposed to meet that need from? Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a press conference in Azerbaijan.

We do not have to adhere to the sanctions imposed on a country by another country. We dont find the sanctions right either, he added.

The United States is expected next month to re-impose economic sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump in May withdrew America from the 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and world powers.

Trump lambasted the deal as a bad pact that failed to rein in Iran.

Turkey, a NATO ally, has several issues to iron out with the Trump administration. The two countries have been at loggerheads over some legal cases including the imprisonment of Turkish and American nationals in each others prisons.

Turkeys plans to buy US Lockheed Martin F-35 jets have been squashed over the fate of US pastor Andrew Brunson who has been kept in prison in Turkey, in a more than two-year old legal case.

Washington also went ape over Ankaras Russias S-400 air defense system, which are incompatible with NATO systems.

The Turkish Foreign Minister said Turkey is also opposed to the US sanctions on Russia.

The United States needs to understand that it is not possible to get a result from Turkey through sanctions. It will see results if it approaches Turkey with dialogue and respect, he said.

We will not bow down to such pressures, sanctions or threats. Everyone will get used to the new Turkey.

Turkey is a major buyer of Iranian oil. In the first four months of this year, Turkey bought more than 3 million tons of Iranian crude oil, almost 55 percent of its total crude supplies, Reuters reports citing data from the Turkish energy watchdog (EPDK).Update 12.40pm: The Ryanair union-management dispute escalated further today, as Dublin-based Ryanair pilots announced their intention to hold ANOTHER one-day strike, this time on the Friday of the bank holiday weekend.

Transport Minister Shane Ross said passengers are now "getting into real difficulties" as the dispute escalates.

Around 100 Irish based pilots will walk off the job on Friday, August 3.

It comes as the airline warns that the jobs of up to 300 pilots and cabin crew could be at risk, as it plans to scale back its fleet in Dublin.

In a surprise move this morning Ryanair confirmed it plans to cut the number of its planes in Dublin from 30 to 24.

It has told 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew that their services may not be required from the end of October.

Ryanair is blaming the recent strikes and their impact on bookings.

Bernard Harbour from the trade union FORSA says there is likely to be further disruption.

They're interpreting that as a provocative act and an attempt to intimidate pilots who have been taking industrial action so today we have announced a further one day strike on the 3rd of August and if Ryanair are incapable of changing tack there is likely to be further disruption in the future.

Despite the escalation in this dispute - Transport Minister Shane Ross says he is not getting involved.

He said:

My worry is for everyone involved that they get back to work because the passengers are being affected adversely and people are getting into real difficulties and we want to see that end as soon as possible but I am not going to intervene in a dispute of that sort.

The pilot strike has so far led to the cancellation of 70 flights affecting 11,000  with more disruption yet to come.

Transport Minister Shane Ross.

Earlier: Ryanair to cut fleet by 20%; 300 jobs at risk

Update 8.30am: Ryanair says it plans to reduce its Dublin based fleet by 20% - which could see 300 pilots and cabin crew face redundancy.

It comes amid an ongoing row between the airline and the union representing Irish based pilots - which has so far resulted in three days of strike action.

Ryanair's Michael O'Leary.

In a statement, Ryanair says it plans to cut its Dublin based fleet this winter from 30 to 24 aircraft - which it says is partly because of the recent strike action by Irish based pilots - and the growth of the company's Polish charter airline.

It has told 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew employees that their services may not be required from the end of October - and has issued them with letters of protective notice.

The airline says it will now begin a process of consultation with those involved and says this may include redundancy or transfers to Poland.

Ryanairs COO Peter Bellew said: We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for Winter 2018, but the Board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth (such as Poland), and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots.

Ryanair operates a fleet of over 450 aircraft from 87 bases across Europe. We can only do so if we continue to offer low fares, reliable flight services to our customers, and if our reputation for reliability or forward bookings is affected, then base and potential job cuts such as these at Dublin are a deeply regretted consequence.

Over the last fortnight, 100 Irish based pilots with Ryanair have walked off the job for three days in a row over seniority, base transfers and annual leave.

The union representing them is meeting this morning to consider more strike action.

Earlier: FORSA to meet amid fears of more Ryanair strikes

The union representing Ryanair pilots will meet this morning - amid fears of more strikes.

There have been three days of industrial action by 100 Irish based pilots in a row over seniority, base transfers and annual leave.

FORSA says it is impossible to rule out more unrest - while Ryanair says it is available to talk.

Spokesman Bernard Harbor says both sides need to be on the same page.

He said: "We've made no progress in the talks that have taken place, we haven't even been able to meet with the company before yesterday's strike, the third strike.

"Today a dispute committee will be discussing whether further industrial action is going to take place and if so when that is going to be. Hopefully we will have a statement on that later this morning.

Resolutions to these disputes always happens but we do need the parties to sit down and talk and engage seriously. That is what we have been asking Ryanair to do, Forsa is ready to do that so let's hope we can use the time available now to move that along.

Elsewhere, the airline has been forced to cancel 600 flights across Europe today and tomorrow due to strike action by cabin crew in Spain, Portugal and Belgium.

The stoppage will affect tens of thousands of holidaymaker's.

The airline says it has offered to reimburse affected passengers or provide them with alternative flights.

Unions representing cabin crew are calling on the airline to give contractors the same work conditions as its own employees.

Ahead of this week's industrial action, Ryanair published details of pilot and cabin crew payslip's for June, claiming cabin crew earn up to double the "living wage" and receive paid and unpaid leave as they wish.

- Digital DeskAn 85-year-old Cork man has revealed how he fought off two burglars during a burglary at his home.

Michael Ring, who is originally from Innishannon Co. Cork, spoke today of how he was attacked by two men during a burglary at his home in Luton recently.

Speaking on RTE's Liveline show today, Michael said his house was burgled on two separate occasions, the first occurring some months ago, not too long after the death of his wife.

During that break-in, his late wife's collection of jewelry was taken as was 500 pounds from Michael's wallet. They also attempted but failed to break into a safe.

"The police said they would be back for that (the safe)....that's why I was prepared the next time they came back."

Some weeks later Michael heard glass smashing in his conservatory at 5am in the morning.

He told Joe Duffy how he went downstairs to find two men in the house and was forced to physically confront them.

Michael was badly injured in the ensuing melee, receiving strikes to both his head and chest and also having his wrists slit with a Stanley knife.

Michael's granddaughter, who had been staying with him since the first break in, alerted the police just as both men escaped the scene.

"I'm sure I wouldn't be talking to you today if my granddaughter hadn't been staying with me that night."

The two men were sentenced to 14 and 12 years for burglary and causing grievous bodily harm with intent last Friday in Luton. The judge commended the bravery and conduct of Michael Ring on the night.

Listen to the full interview below.

- Digital DeskAnn O'Loughlin

The way has been cleared for the trial on drink driving charges of a parish priest and native Irish speaker after the High Court refused to declare a failure to provide him with some official documents in Irish breached the State's constitutional obligations.

Fr Donnchadh O Cuinn, parish priest of Falcarragh, Co Donegal, is charged with driving in excess of the legal limit for alcohol on March 29, 2014 at Main Street, Letterkenny. He denies the charge.

In judicial review proceedings, he argued, as a native Irish speaker, he is entitled to conduct official business through Irish, his native language, the national language and the first official language of the State.

He claimed the State defendants breached those rights in failing to make available in Irish some official documents, including the relevant District Court rules and Statutory Instrument.

The documents at issue were not available in Irish, only in English, at the time of the alleged offence in March 2014, but have since been made available in Irish.

Fr O Cuinn secured leave in November 2014 to bring the judicial review.

The High Court's Ms Justice Bronagh O'Hanlon ruled in late 2015 that Fr O Cuinn was entitled to certain declarations but the State appealed.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and sent the matter back to a different High Court judge for reconsideration.

It was heard there by Mr Justice Frank Clarke who was later appointed to the Supreme Court and is now the Chief Justice.

In his reserved judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Clarke refused to grant the declarations sought.

He told Colm O hOisin SC, for the State, and Seamus O Tuathail SC, for Fr O Cuinn, costs issues would be addressed in October.

In his judgment, the judge said he had addressed language rights in the case in a way that showed language rights cannot be used to prohibit a trial but, in certain circumstances, such rights can be raised at the trial itself.

He refused to grant a declaration the State and DPP had breached constitutional obligations in not providing Fr O Cuinn with an official translation in the national language, the first official language, of the District Court rules as soon as possible following their publication in English.

He refused that declaration in circumstances including the rules were available in Irish by the time of trial.

The general principle the State is obliged to provide the rules of court in Irish and English is well established, he also observed.

He refused to grant a second declaration that the breath alcohol form on which the charge depends was not, because it was printed out only in English, a statement in the form required under Section 13 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 and regulations of 2011 made under the Act.

In light of a Supreme Court judgment rejecting claims by a Romanian man, Mihai Avandei, his drink driving prosecution could not proceed because he was not supplied with a breath alcohol statement in Irish as well as in English, there was no basis for such a declaration, he said.

In the case of Mr Avandei, of Swords, Co Dublin, the Supreme Court 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.

The court 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 Mr Avandei's was breached.By Fiona Ferguson

An unsuccessful businessman who was embarrassed to admit he could not fund his family's lifestyle has been given a suspended sentence for fraudulently obtaining over 700,000.

Neil O'Brien (62), of Rathbeggan, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, pleaded guilty to forgery charges in relation to cheques, transfer instructions and withdrawals relating to bank accounts in the name of his former wife and daughter on dates between 2002 and 2008. He has no previous convictions.

He also admitted two counts of false accounting on dates between January 2009 and August 2013.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard his former wife, one of the victims of his offences, did not believe there would be any benefit to a custodial sentence and that there were no victim impact statements before the court.

Judge Karen O'Connor said it was a difficult case in which a family was estranged, a marriage devastated and O'Brien now had no financial means and serious mental health issues.

She said she was satisfied there were exceptional circumstances in the case to allow her to depart from a custodial sentence.

She imposed a three year fully suspended sentence on condition O'Brien continues to engage in psychological services and takes medication prescribed to him.

Garda Kieran Tansey told Bernard Condon SC, prosecuting, that O'Brien's father-in-law had invested in a company in which O'Brien was involved and in 2011 he wanted to transfer his interest in the company to his grandchildren.

He said it was discovered that the company had been struck off the company register in 2008 but in the meantime O'Brien had prepared bank statements in the name of the company suggesting it was still operating.

O'Brien's then wife carried out an analysis of her bank accounts and discovered a significant number of transactions which had been carried out without her consent. Some of the money related to an inheritance left to his wife.

A forensic accountant put the figure that went to O'Brien at 721,000 and this was shown to have been applied largely to family expenses, including a credit card that was not in his name.

The couple's daughter had a cheque drawn from her bank account in the figure of 3,000.

The court heard O'Brien was involved in a number of businesses including a petrol station, property investment and wine importation which were not successful. The couple, who have three children, separated in 2011.

O'Brien spoke to gardai in March 2014 and admitted that his wife had not been consulted about the transactions. He said he was not a good money manager.

O'Brien told gardai he understood it was wrong to do it without her consent and said he had been embarrassed to tell his wife he could not fund their lifestyle.

Gda Tansey agreed with Sean Guerin SC, defending, that in cases such as this gardai would expect to find gambling or a drinking problem but this was not present in this case.

He said they were living beyond their means but in reality they were living beyond his means, said Mr Guerin.

The garda agreed that greed was not the motivation, that O'Brien had not been able to provide for his family and allowed them to continue living a lifestyle he could not fund.

He agreed that O'Brien's wife had been contacted by the bank about one of the transfers and that she had trusted him after he told her it was a once off as his business was in difficulty.

Mr Guerin asked the court to take into account his client's early guilty plea and his full co-operation.

He said it was not a case of greed or avarice but financial inadequacy. He said O'Brien offered his full apologies to the court and to the victims.

He handed in a letter from his daughter who said O'Brien was a supportive father and said the acts were out of character. He also handed in a testimonial from O'Brien's brother and medical reports outlining his client's treatment in relation to depression.

Counsel asked the court to take into account the complete break down in O'Brien's social standing, his health, loss of contact with his family and his descent into despair.By Ann O'Loughlin

A primary school principal dismissed over alleged "inappropriate behaviour" towards two pupils has obtained High Court orders preventing the school board of management from replacing her or advertising her replacement.

The woman had been principal of a small school for the last 20 years and last year a special needs assistant (SNA) made allegations about "rough holding" of one of the pupils and verbal abuse of another.

These allegations were later downgraded to "inappropriate behaviour". The principal, who was suspended, refutes the allegations.

The matter was referred to Tusla the Child and Family Agency which said it had not reached a stage for it to be involved and that was the end of the matter, the principal's counsel Peter Ward, with Mairead McKenna BL, told the court.

The allegations were at the "very minor end of the inappropriate behaviour spectrum", counsel said. He was making a one-side only represented application to the court seeking to quash the dismissal decision.

Counsel said after the Tusla examination, the school board appointed its own investigator who made no findings but provided statements from others in the school, including those which were supportive of the principal.

After this, the board held a six hour disciplinary hearing and voted 5-0 to dismiss her in a secret ballot. While the principal's union rep was present, she was not.

There were no questions asked about her behaviour but the original SNA complainant gave an account of what she saw. It was a this stage the allegations were downgraded to inappropriate behaviour rather than physical and verbal abuse, counsel said.

In its decision, the board said she was dismissed because of gross misconduct and that the children had blossomed since she was suspended although this is disputed, counsel said.

Under Department of Education rules, she was entitled to appeal to a specially appointed appeals panel, which she did. That panel condemned what had occurred saying proper procedures were not adhered to and recommended her immediate reinstatement.

However, the board refused to do so.

Counsel said case law previously found that recommendations from such panels should only be departed from for very good reasons and there were none in this case.

His client was claiming the decision to refuse to accept the panel's decision was not properly exercised , unfair, unreasonable and a breach of her constitutional rights.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan granted leave to bring judicial proceedings and also ordered that no steps be taken to replace or advertise her replacement.

He gave liberty to the board to apply to lift the orders on replacing her before the case returns to court next week.Ann O'Loughlin

A High Court action by four women lecturers at National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) alleging gender discrimination in a competition for promotion has been resolved, a judge was told today.

The actions were brought by Dr Sylvie Lannegrand, Dr Rosin Healy, Dr Margaret Hodgins, and Dr Adrienne Gorman.

They claimed their applications for the positions of senior lecturer at the various departments they worked in were unsuccessful following a promotion process operated by the college between October 2008 and April 2009.

They also said they were treated less favourably by NUIG on ground of their gender and or family status.

There was a significant disparity in the prospect of success of female applicants compared to males in the promotion competition, it was claimed.

Today, Margurite Bolger SC, for the four, told Mr Justice Charles Meenan that the cases had been adjourned to allow for mediation which had taken place and the matters had been fully resolved. Counsel applied for a strike out of the entire proceedings.

Mr Justice Meenan struck the cases out on consent between the parties.

In a statement, NUIG says an amicable agreement has been reached.

The university said: "Doctors Healy, Hodgins and Lannegrand have now been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Dr Gorman was already promoted to Senior Lecturer in November 2017.

Doctors Gorman, Healy, Hodgins and Lannegrand, look forward to continuing to work at NUI Galway, and acknowledge the work of the university in addressing equality, diversity and inclusivity for all staff.

"The university for its part acknowledges the highly valued and dedicated contributions of these lecturers to their respective disciplines and the university community. The details of the agreement are confidential and as such none of the parties wish to make any further comment."

- Additional reporting by Digital DeskUpdate July 27: Luke Cummins has been found safe and well.

The gardai have thanked the public for their help.

Digital Desk

Earlier: Gardai appeal for help in finding missing Waterford teen

Update July 25: An appeal has been launched into the whereabouts of a teenager missing from Waterford.

15-year-old Luke Cummins was last seen in Tramore last Thursday evening.

He is described as being 5' 6'' tall and with short sandy coloured hair. He was wearing a grey hooded top with a black body warmer, blue jeans and black runners.

Anyone who has information on his whereabouts is asked to contact Tramore Gardai or any Garda Station.

- Digital DeskGardai are investigating a stabbing in Tallaght in Dublin.

It happened at Brookview Drive at around 6.50pm yesterday.

A man in his 20s is being treated at Tallaght Hospital for serious injuries.

Detectives say the scene is being preserved and they are appealing for witnesses to contact them.

- Digital DeskBy Alison O'Riordan

Three Dubliners accused of murdering Gareth Hutch put considerable thought and preparation into his truly shocking killing which was not a spur of the moment attack, a prosecution barrister has told the Special Criminal Court.

The barrister submitted that for whatever reason Jonathan Keogh (32) and Regina Keogh (41) believed that Gareth Hutch posed some sort of threat to their safety. The only way to remove that threat, he said, was to kill Gareth Hutch.

The prosecutor said it was not only two gunmen that carried out this brutal shooting in broad daylight but that others had assisted in the execution of this attack. One doesnt need to be the person who pulled the trigger to be guilty of murder, he said.

Mr Hutch (36), nephew of Gerry "the monk" Hutch was shot dead as he was getting into his car outside Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street in Dublin on the morning of May 24, 2016. He died as a result of four gun shot injuries.

The prosecution contend that Jonathan Keogh threatened to kill Mr Hutch the evening before the shooting, that Thomas Fox (31) and Regina Keogh were instrumental in planning the murder, and Mr Keogh and another man, Mr AB, were the shooters.

Mr Fox with an address at Rutland Court, Dublin 1, Ms Keogh from Avondale House, Cumberland Street North, Dublin 1 and Mr Keogh of Gloucester Place, Dublin 1, have pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Hutch.

Mr Fox has also denied unlawfully possessing a Makarov 9mm handgun on May 23, 2016 at the same place.

Closing the prosecution case this morning, Paul Burns SC said he did not intend to rehearse the entire evidence but would refer to what the prosecution regard as the most salient aspects of the case.

Mr Burns said Mr Keogh saw himself as the protector of his sister, Regina, and his extended family as he was fearful of an attack upon them. Mr Keogh would appear to have had the view that Gareth Hutch posed some sort of a threat to his sister, he said.

Evidence has been heard that a heated exchange took place between Mr Keogh and Gareth Hutch in the car park on the day prior to the shooting but it appeared to end with the parties shaking hands.

The barrister said Mary McDonnell, who is the key prosecution witness in the trial, had nothing to gain by giving evidence but rather put herself in a very difficult position in which she was removed from the small world she resided in and felt comfortable in.

It is quite clear there is no substantial financial benefit accruing to Mrs McDonnell as a result of her giving evidence, he added.

During the trial the court heard evidence from the protected witness, Mrs McDonnell, who identified Mr Keogh from CCTV footage as one of the gunmen who carried out the attack on Mr Hutch.

Mrs McDonnell was originally charged with withholding information but that charge was dropped and she has been given immunity from prosecution.

What was needed was a safe hide-out to allow the attack take place, Mr Burns said, and Mrs McDonnells flat was this ideal location. Without that location, the plan was not going to work, he said.

The prosecution contend that witness Mrs McDonnell was encouraged by her best friend and neighbour Regina Keogh to allow Jonathan Keogh use her flat as a base to wait for Mr Hutch prior to the attack. Her kitchen window had a view into Mr Hutchs flat.

Mr Burns said Mrs McDonnell did not try to minimise her role in this event or shift the blame. She admitted that she allowed her flat to be used, he said, and admitted there was talk of her getting paid.

The statement she made to gardai in her flat on the day after the shooting, he said, was before any issue of favours or immunity had arisen.

Mrs McDonnell insisted in her evidence that Johnathan Keogh was in her flat on the morning Gareth Hutch was shot dead, despite telling the court that she had only seen part of his face. She also identified Mr Fox and Mr Keogh as the men who came into her flat the night before with two guns.

Mr Burns said neither men challenged Mrs McDonnells evidence concerning going to her flat that night with guns.

The barrister said it was an unfortunate coincidence that Mr Fox and Mr Keogh turn up at Mrs McDonnells flat that evening to clean their guns and less than 12 hours later Mr Hutch is gunned down in the car park of the flats complex.

While Mrs McDonnell is possibly a vulnerable person and socially dependent on Regina Keogh, Mr Burns said, she was a truthful witness and the court could act on her evidence.

There was no evidence of animosity between the two women for one to suspect Mrs McDonnell was fabricating her evidence or had "some ulterior motive, he said.

A cross tied to railings at the scene of the shooting at Avondale House flats complex on North Cumberland Street. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

It is the State's case that Jonathan Keogh was heard expressing his intention to kill Mr Hutch the evening before the shooting in Mrs McDonnells flat.

Mr Burns submitted that this conversation is clearly admissible against Mr Keogh as it is so close in time to Mr Hutchs murder. What we are dealing with here is a plan to kill Gareth Hutch, he said.

The killing of Mr Hutch, he said, did not start in the car park on May 24, it was planned well in advance and various communications had to be maintained to ensure everything was running smoothly.

Regina Keogh, he said, helped procure Mrs McDonnells flat to effectively stake out Gareth Hutchs house. Evidence in the case, he said, shows Ms Keogh to be a central and fundamental participant in the plan and murder of Gareth Hutch.

Regina Keogh knew what was planned days before the shooting and was working to put the necessary parts of the plan in place, Mr Burns said.

During the trial, the court heard evidence that Mrs McDonnell told Regina she could not let Jonathan Keogh sit in her flat as her husband would not like it. Regina replied: Thats the only way it is going to happen, if not Jonathan is going to be shot.

Referring to this today, Mr Burns said it seemed to Regina that is was either a Johnny or Gareth situation and she was determined it was going to be a Gareth and not Johnny situation.

The forensic evidence, the eye witness accounts and the movement of the vehicles create a combined cumulative effect which when taken together create guilty verdicts, he added.

Mr Burns will resume his closing speech this afternoon in front of Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, sitting with Judge Patricia Ryan and Judge Michael Walsh.By Tom Tuite

A homeless grandmother suffering from decades of heroin and alcohol abuse has been jailed for nine months for an opportunistic burglary at the home of former Tanaiste Joan Burton.

The incident happened when the Labour TD had gone out to give a talk at a community crime prevention meeting on the evening of July 2 last.

The burglar, Emma OCallaghan, 44, who is of no fixed address was arrested and charged before being brought to appear before Judge Brian OShea at Dublin District Court the following day. She had been held in custody since then.

The mother-of-four had given the name Elaine Waters when she was charged with trespassing at the house on Old Cabra Road, Dublin with intent to commit theft.

The offence is contrary to Section 12 of the Theft and Fraud Act. She said she was out of it when she broke into the politicians home.

She pleaded guilty and appeared again today for sentencing and a victim impact statement from the politicians husband Pat Carroll was furnished to the court.

OCallaghan, who had 63 prior criminal convictions, apologised and said she had not known who owned the house.

Sentencing, Judge OShea said she should not have been on bail when the offence occurred as a result of the high number of charges she had at the time.

The court heard neighbours observed her jumping the back wall and alerted gardai.

OCallaghan gained entry by removing a window pane.

Garda James Feeney said he saw her inside the house and she came out voluntarily. Following arrest, she was brought to the Bridewell Garda station where she was searched and foreign currency worth about 26 was found on her which had been taken from the house, he said.

No one was home at the time.

The court heard she had 63 previous criminal convictions, 17 of them for theft, going back to 2007.

Defence solicitor John Devlin said his client was a mother of four. A letter from an adult daughter was handed in to the judge.

He said the woman had a chaotic lifestyle and had begun abusing alcohol at the age of 14 and heroin when she was aged 17.

She had managed to overcome her addictions in 2012 but later relapsed. She had physical and mental health problems which made it difficult for her to change her lifestyle, the solicitor said.

He also asked the court to note that there had been limited loss to the injured parties, the repair of a window and she had no previous convictions for burglary.

He said she wanted to apologise for the intrusion and distress she caused.

OCallaghan gave evidence and told the court she was sorry and trying to get on to an addiction treatment programme.

I landed at the house at 8pm, I was completely out of it, walking around in a daze, I had no idea whose house it was. It was only after it was on social media I realised whose house it was, she told Judge OShea.

She said she had detoxed in custody and wanted to go to the Coolmine treatment centre.

The 44-year-old explained that in 2013 she suffered a brain haemorrhage after she was severely injured. She claimed there was no investigation which destroyed her belief in authority and she then relapsed.

She grew up in the Ballyfermot area in Dublin but had ties to Galway, the court was told earlier.

She said today she did not have a home of her own and understood she had made Ms Burton feel violated and added, I am very, very sorry to this woman.

Judge OShea said burglary was a particularly spiteful offence which violated the safety of the home and that was evident from Mr Carrolls victim impact statement.

Neither Mr Carroll nor Joan Burton was present for the hearing.

In his statement, Mr Carroll said: The sole impact on us was the sense of intrusion and distress, the material loss was the repair to the window and a small number of bank notes the intruder found.

Sentencing, Judge OShea noted OCallaghans guilty plea, her background and efforts at rehabilitation as well as her significant number of previous convictions. He said he could have jailed her for up to a year.

Judge OShea had jailed her for nine months on July 5 for another 21 charges which included: handling stolen goods, stealing charity boxes from shops, public order offences begging, and an assault on a shop worker.

However, she has lodged an appeal of that sentence.Egyptian news agency MENA announced Tuesday the killing in the Sinai city of al-Arish of 13 men, suspected being militants, amid the ongoing army and security forces operation to weed out the Islamic State group (ISIS).

The men were killed in a gun battle with security forces who approached them in a house under construction in al-Arish; the capital of the North Sinai province, MENA said, adding the men were using the site as their hideout.

President AbdelFattah al-Sisi in November gave go-ahead to an army and security operation meant to expel ISIS from the Peninsular following an attack on a mosque in a village in which over 300 people perished in November.

Since it was launched in February, the operation, banned to independent and foreign media, killed 300 alleged militants, according to state figures. Death toll in the ranks of the army and security forces has been put at over 30.

Eleven alleged militants were killed on July 11 in the same city in another shootout during a raid of a militants hideout. Three machine guns and a rifle were seized during the operation.

MENA did not say whether any guns or ammunition were discovered during the Tuesday operation.Latest: Irishman Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp has been confirmed dead after he was reported missing following wildfires in Greece.

Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp and his wife Zoe Holohan were celebrating their honeymoon when wildfires consumed the coastal town of Mati.

The news was confirmed by Irelands Ambassador to Greece Orla O'Hanrahan who said her sympathies went out to Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp's family at this time.

Ambassador confirms death of Irishman in Greek wildfires | https://t.co/9UkUV1pzWZ pic.twitter.com/DJK05h4S4Q  RTE News (@rtenews) July 25, 2018

In a statement from the families this evening, they said: "We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of our family member, Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp.

"The families would respectfully appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve and as Zoe makes her recovery.

"Funeral arrangement will be announced at a later stage."

The Tanaiste Simon Coveney has described the death of Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp as a "terrible tragedy".

In a statement, Mr Coveney says he's "deeply saddened" at confirmation of his death - and says the Irish embassy in Athens will continue to provide whatever help is needed.

I am deeply saddened at confirmation of the death of an Irish citizen in Greece. This is such a terrible tragedy, my thoughts are with the families and friends who have requested privacy.

Officials at our Embassy in Athens will continue to provide every possible assistance.  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 25, 2018

The newleywed couple, who live in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle and became separated as they tried to escape the fires

Ms Holohan was able to flee to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night. She is being treated for burns to her head and hands.

Update: Honeymoon horror: Newlywed Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp still missing after Greek wildfires

Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Correspondent

In Venice, Italy

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he is "devastated" to hear an Irish citizen caught up in the Greece wildfires while on honeymoon is missing in a tragedy that has already led to the deaths of at least 79 people and left almost 200 hospitalised.

Speaking in Venice, Italy, on the third day of a four day continental trip to shore up EU support for Ireland's Brexit position, Mr Varadkar said all consular assistance is being given to the man's family and that officials "will do anything we can" to help those involved.

I'm devastated to hear that one of our citizens is missing in Greece as a result of the wildfires. I've been in touch with the Department of Foreign Affairs today just to make sure the ambassador and our people on the ground are providing whatever assistance we can.

"I don't have any particular information on the case at the moment, but I can assure you our embassy team in Ireland are in touch with the Greek authorities and will do anything we can to help support our citizens over there," Mr Varadkar said.

It emerged this morning that newlyweds Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan were caught up in the Greek wildfires in recent days after travelling to the country on their honeymoon.

Mr O Callaghan Westropp is still missing after becoming separated from his new wife on the coastal town of Mati, while Ms Holohan - who works in the advertising department of the Sunday World - remains in a Greek hospital having suffered serious burn injuries.

The latest travel advice concerning wildfires in southern Greece is available at the following link https://t.co/axjAsX4ZBt or via the TravelWise App. You should also keep up to date with local media reports and follow the advice of the Greek authorities.  DFATravelWise (@dfatravelwise) July 24, 2018

Earlier: Irish newlyweds caught up in Greek wildfires; groom missing

Update 11.30am: A newly-married Irish couple have been caught up in wildfires that have been sweeping Greece.

Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp became separated as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

The pair got married at Clonabreany House in Kells, Co Meath, last Thursday before flying out to Greece for their honeymoon on Saturday.

Ms Holohan, who works in advertising for the Sunday World, is in hospital after suffering burns to her head and hands, but her husband has not yet been found.

The couple, who live in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee.

Ms Holohan was able to escape to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night.

Newlywed Zoe Holohan is being treated in hospital for burns to her head and hands (Handout/PA)

Around 79 people have died in the forest fires which have raged through Greek villages and holiday resorts.

Blazes started west of Athens near the town of Kineta, while further outbreaks started 18 miles (29km) east of Athens in Rafina.

Hundreds of people ran to beaches as gale-force winds fanned the flames.

Twenty-six of the deaths were groups of families or friends who were found huddled together as they tried to escape.

Earlier: Honeymoon horror: Irish newlyweds caught up in Greek wildfires; Groom remains missing

Fears are rising for an Irish couple caught up in Greek wildfires which have killed at least 79 people.

Newlyweds Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan married last week before flying out to Greece on their honeymoon.

Ms Holohan is now in hospital with burns while her husband is missing.

The couple were separated trying to escape the flames in the holiday resort of Mati outside Athens on Monday.

Franco De Bonis works at Blood Bikes Dublin, where Mr O'Callaghan Westropp is a volunteer.

He says Brian is a very selfless character.

He said:

To some degree, in a situation like this, we are not surprised because he is the type of person that would think of others before thinking of himself.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is offering consular assistance to a number of Irish citizens in Greece.

Three days of national mourning are beginning there - prime minister Alexis Tsipras has described the fire as an 'unspeakable tragedy'.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney issued advice for Irish citizens.

Our condolences with Greece at this difficult time. Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media + follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Dept +353 1 408 2000.  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) July 24, 2018

He tweeted: Irish citizens in region should keep up to date with local media and follow advice of Greek authorities in affected areas. Irish citizens affected can contact Irish Embassy in Athens +30 210 723 2771 or my Department +353 1 408 2000.

President Michael D Higgins said he has written to Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to express his sympathies with the families of those who have lost their lives and livelihoods in the fires.

President Higgins has written to the President of #Greece to offer, "on behalf of the people of Ireland, our deepest condolences and our solidarity."https://t.co/05PK7USV77  President of Ireland (@PresidentIRL) July 24, 2018

He said: Following my visit to Greece and my meeting with him and the president of Italy and Portugal, I am very conscious of the resilience of the Greek people, who should be assisted by all of us in these difficult times.

I offered, on behalf of the people of Ireland, our deepest condolences and our solidarity.

Pat Dawson, CEO of the Irish Travel Agents Association, has advised anyone intending to travel to Greece in the coming days to take precautions.

He said: "Check with your travel agent or tour operator for any advice and also with the Department of Foreign Affairs. Every possible angle should be taken care of and safety is a priority."

Two main fires broke out on Monday, one to the west of Athens near the town of Kineta and one to the north-east near the port of Rafina.

Both were fanned by gale-force winds that hampered firefighting efforts and sent hundreds of people fleeing to beaches, where they were evacuated by boat late at night.

The Rafina fire appears to have been the deadliest by far.

- Digital Desk and Press AssociationThe European Commission has issued a warning to the Irish Government to improve the safety of drinking water.

It follows recent data showing that water in certain counties has excessive amounts of a substance called Trihalomethane.By Ann O'Loughlin

A 37-year old mother who has breast and cervical cancer today began her High Court action over alleged misinterpretation of two cervical smears tests as part of the CervicalCheck screening programme.

Ruth Morrissey and her husband Paul Morrissey of Kylemore, Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick the court heard wished the order relating to confidentiality and not naming the family be lifted after Mr Justice Kevin Cross ruled the case should go ahead.

This followed an application by the two laboratories being sued for an adjournment of the case to October or November.

The adjournment application followed news that Ms Morrissey had a CT scan this week and there is an improvement in her symptoms and she may now be a candidate for radical radiotherapy treatment which could improve her prognosis.

Opening the case Jeremy Maher SC for Ms Morrissey said aggravated and exemplary damages are also being claimed in the action by the couple who have a seven-year-old daughter.

Counsel said Ms Morrissey's 2009 smear was tested by the US Laboratory Quest Diagnostics and her 2012 smear was tested by the Medlab Dublin laboratory. Counsel said the evidence from their side will be that the smears were  negligently reported.

Ms Morrissey and her husband have sued the HSE and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Ireland Ltd with offices at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin along with Medlab Pathology Ltd with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18. Liability is seriously in issue in the case, the court previously heard.

On August 18, 2009 Ms Morrissey had a cervical smear test as part of the national screening programme. The laboratories tested the cervical smears of Irish women taken under the national screening programme.

The cervical sample was sent to a cytopathology laboratory operated by Quest Diagnostics and it came back negative with a recommendation for a routine recall.

In a letter from the HSE in September 2009, Ms Morrissey was advised the smear test detected no abnormalities.

On August 8 2012, she had another smear test under the national screening programme. That smear test was sent to a Medlab Pathology laboratory and Ms Morrissey was told by HSE letter in September 2012 no abnormalities had been detected.

On May 2014, Ms Morrissey went to her GP complaining of bleeding and she was referred for an urgent colposcopy.

She was subsequently in June 2014 diagnosed as having invasive squamous carcinoma of the cervix and had different surgical procedures after that.

It is claimed that unknown to Ms Morrissey reviews were carried out of the prior cervical screening.

A July 2014 review of Ms Morrissey's 2009 sample showed the original result was incorrect but this it is claimed was not communicated to her.

A review in October 2014 of her 2012 smear sample showed the original result was incorrect but it is claimed Ms Morrissey was not told.

It is further claimed another review took place in 2015 of Ms Morrissey's 2012 smear sample which showed the original result was incorrect.

Paul and Ruth Morrissey at the High Court today. Photo: CourtPix

On June 16, 2016 it is claimed Ms Morrissey's treating consultant was advised as to the outcome of the 2009 and 2012 smear sample reviews.

The final review opinion of the 2009 sample was "atypical glandular cells" and the final review opinion of the 2012 sample was "atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance."

Ms Morrissey complained of lower back pain and sciatica in October 2017 and an MRI examination followed by a PET CT scan in February 2018 confirmed a recurrence of cervical cancer and also revealed a lesion in her left breast.

In March 2018, Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with cancer in her left breast.

She was advised on May 3, 2018 by her consultant that the reviews carried out of her 2009 and 2012 smears showed the smears were reported incorrectly.

It is claimed that there was an alleged failure to correctly report and diagnose and there was an alleged misinterpretation of Ms Morrissey's smear samples. A situation it is claimed allegedly developed where her cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.

It is further claimed she was deprived of the opportunity of timely and effective investigation and management of her condition and was allegedly deprived of the opportunity of treatment at a time when her disease was amenable to curative treatment.

It is claimed that by virtue of the alleged delay in diagnosis Ms Morrissey has lost the opportunity of cure and her life expectancy has been severely impaired and is limited to months rather than years.

She has also it is claimed required more extensive treatment than would have been required had her 2009 and 2012 slides been correctly reported on.

The claims are denied and court previously heard liability is seriously in issue in the case.By Aoife Nic Ardghail

An epileptic Dublin man who knocked down a teenage pedestrian and left him completely dependent on his family has been jailed for three and a half years.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that doctors had warned John Maguire (38) not to drive for a year after his last epileptic seizure, just two months before he hit Josh Sweeney with his van.

Mr Sweeney, who is now 20 years old, was crossing at a green pedestrian traffic light when Maguire knocked him down. Maguire later told gardai he had no recollection of the collision as he was having an epileptic fit at the time.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Sweeney's mother described how her son struggles to move a single limb, is unable to communicate and cannot feed himself.

I would swap places in a heartbeat with him if I could, she said, adding that she grieves every day for the loss of the kindest, gentlest giant I have ever known who wouldn't get to experience his life.

Maguire, of Kerlogue Road, Ringsend, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing serious harm to Mr Sweeney at Memorial Road, Dublin on March 18, 2017.

He also pleaded guilty to driving while suffering from a disease or mental disability which would render him a danger to the public. He has no previous convictions.

Today, Judge Martin Nolan told Maguire that despite the clear mitigating circumstances in the case, he had a serious moral culpability by ignoring an obvious risk.

Driving a car is potentially dangerous and driving a car when you have a condition of epilepsy is a risky and reckless thing to do, he said.

Here we are with a fine young man dependent for the rest of his life. You had it within your power and within your knowledge to stop driving and you failed to do it for your own reasons, he added.

The judge jailed Maguire for three and a half years out of a maximum ten-year prison term and disqualified him from driving for six years.

Garda Derek Grant told John Fitzgerald BL, prosecuting, that Mr Sweeney and his friend had travelled from Letterkenny, Co Donegal, that morning to attend an event at Convention Centre Dublin.

The two young men decided to head back to Letterkenny by bus that lunchtime and were approaching traffic lights to cross the road.

The green pedestrian light came on and Mr Sweeney stepped out, but was hit by Maguire's van and dragged underneath. Mr Sweeney's friend later recalled checking the road before he stepped out and seeing the vehicle, which didn't appear to slow.

Another witness saw the driver standing up in the van after the collision with his head close to the smashed windscreen.

When the vehicle stopped, this witness then noticed the driver frothing from the mouth and lying down in the passenger seat.

Gda Grant said Maguire and Mr Sweeney were taken to hospital from the scene.

A month later Maguire attended for interview with gardai and revealed he had gotten up the morning of the collision to catch crabs to give to a fish tackle shop.

He said he had no recollection of the crash and only recalled hitting a kerb and hearing air escape his tyres.

He admitted he had about half a dozen epileptic fits since January 2016, but gave incorrect information about the dates and about doctors warning him not to drive.

Maguire claimed he had been told he was fit to drive after a seizure in December 2016. Gda Grant said Maguire's last documented seizure before the collision was in January 2017 and a doctor advised him not to drive for 12 months from that date.

The garda said Mr Sweeney suffered skull fractures, brain injury and broken limbs and that his prognosis was likely to be poor, with ongoing physical and cognitive disability.

Gda Grant agreed with Dominic McGinn SC, defending, that Maguire pleaded guilty at the earliest possible opportunity.

He further accepted that Maguire showed genuine remorse, had insight into what he had done and was determined never to get behind the wheel of a car again.

Mr McGinn submitted to Judge Nolan that his client had been teaching children how to fish, which was a longterm passion.

Counsel said Maguire's previous mental health issues were exacerbated by his offence and he had genuine insight and regret into the damage he had caused the Sweeney family.Armed men associated to the Islamic State group (ISIS) murdered two policemen at a checkpoint in the town of Al-Aqilah, in the eastern region, a security official told media Tuesday.

Some armed men that security official Ahmed al-Gabiely believed linked to ISIS stormed the checkpoint manned by Al-Aqilah police and slit a police officers throat and killed another in a shootout.

The attackers later raided a local police office, set the establishment, police cars and ambulances ablaze. They also hoisted the terror groups flag atop of the building.

At least four people were unaccounted for following the attack, reports say.

Such attacks, according to Ahmed al-Gabiely became wide currency over the past months, in the same town.

Libyan authorities, based in Tripoli, have managed to expel the group out of the oil-rich country after US airpower helped retake control of Sirte in December 2016.

The terror group, after it lost ground, resorted to guerilla attacks. ISIS entered Libya in 2014 taking advantage of lawlessness that became the order of the day in the wake of Muammar Gaddafis death in 2011.The Master of the Rotunda Maternity Hospital in Dublin is blaming over-crowding for the spread of MRSA.

Fergal Malone has been responding to reports that there has been an outbreak of the super-bug in the neonatal intensive care unit.Fiachra O Cionnaith, Political Correspondent in Venice, Italy

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has for the first time publicly called for the general election to be delayed until at least 2020, warning Brexit means politicians cannot continue to put the country at risk by "second guessing" each other over the date of the vote.

Mr Varadkar said there is no legitimate reason to call a general election now other than to take advantage of opinion polls as he separately failed to rule out suggestions he is using Brexit to handcuff Fianna Fail into extending the confidence and supply deal.

Speaking in Venice, Italy, on the third day of a four day trip to continental Europe to shore up EU support for Ireland's Brexit position, Mr Varadkar confirmed he does not favour holding an election either this year or in 2019.

Highlighting the threat of a no deal hard brexit situation, he said politicians must put the country's needs first and that as such he and Mr Martin should agree to extend the existing deal for another two years.

"It just makes sense to me that if you have an arrangement and that arrangement is due to expire within a few months that it makes sense to renew that and remove the uncertainty that exists around the date of an election so that both the Government and the Oireachtas can focus on the issues that are actually important to people," Mr Varadkar said.

"They are getting a good deal on Brexit, making sure that we secure jobs, keep the economy on track and improve living standards, and to keep the focus on some of the very difficult problems we have in housing and healthcare."

"That should be the focus of Government and opposition, not to second guess each other on who's going to call the election," he said, adding "I don't know if that's the case or not" that he has effectively handcuffed Fianna Fail into extending the deal due to Brexit.

Mr Varadkar separately rejected Mr Martin's claims yesterday the Taoiseach is "chancing the arm" by openly suggesting there should be no general election until 2020, insisting despite the fact the plan would automatically extend his own reign this was the last issue on his mind.

Saying "I wasn't chancing my arm, it was a serious proposal and the proposal stands", Mr Varadkar said he and Mr Martin will "meet again in September before the Dail resumes, and I am sure we can take it from there".

Last week, it emerged that Mr Varadkar had suggested a 2020 general election date to Mr Martin at a private meeting of the two party leaders in Munster.

While a number of high-profile Fianna Fail TDs accused Mr Varadkar of leaking the potential date to reporters in a bid to box Fianna Fail into a corner, senior sources in Mr Martin's party subsequently said a one year extension may be more palatable.

Despite constant speculation of a snap general election in recent months, the reality is that such a move would be difficult due to the ongoing Brexit negotiations, which are due to end with Britain's departure from the EU next March.

However, in addition to Brexit, a number of other issues including the pope's visit to Ireland, the budget, two referenda and the presidential election race mean a rumoured general election before next March is highly unlikely.

Mr Martin has separately come under pressure from a number of Fianna Fail TDs to not extend the confidence and supply deal which runs out in the weeks after the budget this year.

They include Fianna Fail TD and Oireachtas finance committee chairman John McGuinness, who on Monday urged Mr Martin to call an emergency Fianna Fail national meeting to discuss the party's future amid slumping opinion poll results.Patient advocate Vicky Phelan has warned the country is becoming "inured" to health scandals and also declared that proposed health safety sanctions for hospitals are a joke.

Ms Phelan, the Limerick mother-of-two who has helped expose the cervical cancer controversy, has also said that a new audit into tests is likely to show up to another 200 women who were misdiagnosed.

Speaking at the MacGill Summer School this morning, Ms Phelan, who is terminally ill, outlined why she was continuing to fight for answers.

My quest for answers is about much more than money, it is about accountability,she told the audience.

I am not after revenge or getting people fired.

She also added that she wanted a health service in Ireland that she could trust for her daughter.

Stephen Teap and Vicky Phelan in May 2018.

Ms Phelan warned that there had been so many health scandals in Ireland that the country was becoming "inure" to them. These included the CervicalCheck controversy, the Hepatitis C scandal and the Portlaoise baby scandal among others, the audience were told.

Minister after minister had expressed outrage and there had been hope these would be catalysts for change, added Ms Phelan.

She also was very critical of proposed new patent safety measures, which include fines for hospitals. These are under the Patient Safety Bill. She said proposals for a 5,000 fine or three months in jail were a joke and these sanctions would go nowhere.

On the way @Stephenteap with my two chauffeurs, my brother Robbie and his fiancee, Fiona. See you later. Safe travels Xxx pic.twitter.com/Zbt5Hjbstb  Vicky Phelan (@PhelanVicky) July 24, 2018

The State Claims Agency was also continuing to fight women like her, she added.

The HSE, she said, was not paying for mistakes and were therefore not made accountable and there was no need for them to fess up.

Stephen Teap, whose wife Irene died a year ago from cancer, also told of his attempts to get justice amid the CervicalCheck controversy.

He asked what if society stopped talking about referring to culture and start calling the health scandals and CervicalCheck what they were - which was to protect, deny and silence those who challenge them.

What if we lived in a country where patient safety was at the core of what we do? asked the father-of-two.By Ann O'Loughlin

A 37-year old mother who has breast and cervical cancer has launched a High Court action over alleged misinterpretation of two cervical smears tests as part of the CervicalCheck screening programme.

Ruth Morrissey who may only have between one to two years to live, the court heard wished an order granting her anonymity and confidentiality to be lifted.

Ms Morrissey and her husband Paul Morrissey of Kylemore, Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, Co Limerick said through their counsel Jeremy Maher SC that they wanted to ensure Ms Morrissey's remaining time was as comfortable as possible and that her daughter's future was protected.

Mr Justice Kevin Cross had ruled the case should go ahead after he turned down an application by the two laboratories being sued for an adjournment of the case to October or November.

The adjournment application followed news that Ms Morrissey had a CT scan this week and there is an improvement in her symptoms and she may now be a candidate for radical radiotherapy treatment which could improve her prognosis.

Opening the case Jeremy Maher SC instructed by solicitor Cian O Carroll said aggravated and exemplary damages are also being claimed in the action by the couple who have a seven year old daughter.

Counsel said Ms Morrisseys 2009 smear was tested by the US Laboratory Quest Diagnostics and her 2012 smear was tested by the Medlab Dublin laboratory. Counsel said the evidence from their side will be that the smears were  incorrectly and negligently reported.

Counsel said the results of the reviews of the 2009 and 2012 smears of Ms Morrissey were carried out and conveyed to her treating gynaecologist in 2016, but Mrs Morrissey was not give the review results until May this year, when she already had a cervical cancer recurrence.

The Morrisseys, he said asked why had she not been told and they wonder who decided not to tell them.

Counsel said experts on their side will say if the cervical smear on 2009 had been correctly reported she would have been referred for a colposcopy which would have disclosed pre cancerous cells and she may not have developed cervical cancer in 2014 which recurred this year.

Counsel said Ms Morrissey should never have developed cancer in 2014 or have had a recurrence and she is being deprived of seeing her daughter grow up and of an opportunity to live the life she had hoped.

Mrs Morrisey he said wants to know why she was not told of the results of the reviews carried out in 2014 and 2015. The HSE Counsel said admitted it owed a duty of care to Ms Morrissey but not to her husband and it admits the results of the reviews should have been made known to Mrs Morrissey. The laboratories deny all claims.

Ms Morrissey and her husband Paul have sued the HSE and the US laboratory Quest Diagnostics Ireland Ltd with offices at Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin along with Medlab Pathology Ltd with offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin 18.

On August 18, 2009 Ms Morrissey had a cervical smear test as part of the national screening programme. The cervical sample was sent to a cytopathology laboratory operated by Quest Diagnostics and it came back negative with a recommendation for a routine recall.

In a letter from the HSE in September 2009,Ms Morrissey was advised the smear test detected no abnormalities.

On August 8 2012, she had another smear test under the national screening programme. That smear test was sent to a Medlab Pathology laboratory and Ms Morrissey was told by HSE letter in September 2012 no abnormalities had been detected.

On May 2014, Ms Morrissey went to her GP complaining of bleeding and she was referred for an urgent colposcopy.

She was subsequently in June 2014 diagnosed as having cervical cancer.

It is claimed that unknown to Ms Morrissey reviews were carried out of the prior cervical screening.

A July 2014 review of the Ms Morrissey's 2009 sample showed the original result was incorrect but this it is claimed was not communicated to Ms Morrissey.

A review in October 2014 of her 2012 smear sample showed the original result was incorrect but it is claimed she was not told.

It is further claimed another review took place in 2015 of her 2012 smear sample which showed the original result was incorrect.

On June 16, 2016 it is claimed Ms Morrissey's treating consultant was advised as to the outcome of the 2009 and 2012 smear sample reviews.

Ruth Morrissey at the High Court today. Photo: CourtPix

Ms Morrissey complained of lower back pain and sciatica in October 2017 and an MRI examination followed by a PET CT scan in February 2018 confirmed a recurrence of cervical cancer and also revealed a lesion in her left breast.

In March 2018, Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with cancer in her left breast.

She was advised on May 3, 2018 by her consultant that the reviews carried out of her 2009 and 2012 smears showed the smears were reported incorrectly.

It is claimed that there was an alleged failure to correctly report and diagnose and there was an alleged misinterpretation of her smear samples. A situation it is claimed allegedly developed where her cancer spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in June 2014.

In evidence Ruth Morrissey told the court her 7 year old daughter, Libby is aware of the situation and asked her would she have to live with somebody else if her mother passed away. Ms Morrissey said it was the most difficult conversation she ever had with her daughter. She broke down as she said she told her daughter she could not promise she was not going

to pass away , but she would promise to fight as hard as she could to live for her.

Ms Morrissey said when she got a call to tell her that she was one of the women whose smear tests had been the subject of a review, her heart sank. She said this was the third blow. The first blow was the cervical cancer and the breast cancer was the second blow.

The case before Mr Justice Kevin Cross continues tomorrow.By Ann O'Loughlin

A Co Tipperary company has withdrawn its High Court action aimed at allowing its horse to compete at next month's Dublin Horse Show at the RDS.

The action was brought by Heritage Bloodstock Ltd, with an address in Cahir, Co Tipperary which claimed that another horse, due to compete in the five-year-old's competition at the well-known Dublin Horse Show, should not be allowed to take part.

The other horse, it was alleged, was ineligible on grounds including it is not Irish bred, nor was it included in a Department of Agriculture-approved breeding list for 2018 that would allow it to compete at the show.

It was claimed that allowing the other horse, called Indigo VDL, to take part would be a breach of the rules of the RDS.

Last week, Heritage Bloodstock secured permission from the High Court to bring proceedings against the Royal Dublin Society, Showjumping Association of Ireland, trading as Showjumping Ireland and Mr Ivor Broderick. from Loughrea Co Galway who is the owner of Indigo VDL.

It had sought injunctions permitting Heritage Vittorio to compete at the five-year-old competition at the HorseShow, and that Mr Broderick's horse be removed from the competition.

It also sought declarations that Indigo VDL does not qualify under the qualifying criteria and is not eligible to compete under the RDS rules for the Dublin Horse Show.

Today, when the matter returned before Ms Justice Caroline Costello at the High Court Cliodhna Breen Bl, for Heritage Bloodstock said that the action has been withdrawn.

Harriet Meagher Bl for the RDS said her client was seeking its costs from the applicant. The matter was adjourned to later this week when the judge will consider the costs application.

Previously the court heard that Heritage Vittorio failed to qualify for the five-year-old competition at the HorseShow after finishing 12th in a qualifier held last May.

Indigo VDL, finished third in the qualifier. The top nine horses at that event qualified to jump at the Dublin Horse Show.

The horses that finished 10th and 11th in the qualifiers subsequently secured places at the event, leaving Heritage Vittorio is next in line to participate in the five-year-old competition if Indigo VDL was not allowed compete.The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday lauded the leaders of Ethiopia and Eritrea for their bold and historic rapprochement.

Abu Dhabis Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said after meeting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki that their diplomatic overtures to ease tensions and resolve the longstanding dispute between the two countries will have a far reaching positive impact on the whole Horn of Africa region.

The historic step taken by the leaders of the two neighboring countries to end the 20-year old conflict and open new horizons for cooperation and joint coordination is a model that can be followed in resolving conflicts around the world, Sheikh Mohammed said.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister and the Eritrean President have been awarded the Order of Zayed, the United Arab Emirates highest medal, in recognition of their efforts to establish peace between their two nations.

The medals were handed to the two African leaders by Sheikh Mohammed, at a ceremony held Tuesday in Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Mohammed re-affirmed his countrys commitment to consolidate its partnership with Eritrea and Ethiopia and to support their peace and development efforts.

The long-time rivals signed an agreement earlier this month to restore ties, ending two decades of hostility since the conflict erupted in 1998.

The conflict killed more than 80,000 people and at least 350,000 people living on both sides along the border were uprooted and forced to flee.

The UAE, along with other Gulf Arab states, has taken an increasingly active role in the Horn of Africa and has set up military bases and commercial ports in several countries there.

Ethiopia and Eritrea signed a peace deal in 2000  but Addis Ababa refused to implement it. Both armies have since been facing off across their border in a frozen stalemate. Abiy Ahmed, who came to office in April, agreed to implement the deal.

Embassies have reopened, phone lines between the two nations are restored and flights have resumed.Huawei has hit back against a potential ban on its involvement in building Australias 5G mobile networks, saying there will be a Chinese influence in the infrastructure regardless of the government's decision.

In recent months, Huawei and other Chinese companies' involvement in building the next generation of mobile telecommunications in Australia has become increasingly controversial. Huawei has been accused of spying by United States lawmakers and criticised over its involvement with the Chinese military and government.

Huawei has been accused of spying by US lawmakers. Credit:Qilai Shen

However, Huawei Australia and New Zealand director of corporate and public affairs Jeremy Mitchell said banning the company from being a supplier of Australias telecommunications infrastructure would be ridiculous and would decimate the industry.

The point I want to make about this idea that ban Huawei and then youll make the Australian security of the 5G network safe is ridiculous in the sense that this is not about one vendor. Its not even about one country, Mr Mitchell said at a CommsDay Unwired Revolution conference on Wednesday.When a worker brings weed cake to work, the consequences can endanger lives and bring a business to its knees.

This week, an Auckland man was jailed for 22 months for poisoning nine colleagues with a marijuana-laced cake, bringing back traumatic memories for businessman John Burnett.

An Auckland man has been jailed after bringing a cake laced with marijuana to work. Credit:Bloomberg

"It was one of the most frightening things I've ever been through ... we were lucky nobody was killed," he said. "When I got back to the factory, the forklift drivers were doing wheelies. It was just crazy."

Mr Burnett, who owned the Four Seasons Packhouse in Gisborne in New Zealand's North Island, said a sweet treat left in the lunch room in 2001 resulted in a bitter taste.Year 12 students at one of the state's top-ranked selective schools will need to resit a major chemistry assessment after they were given an identical paper to that used four years ago, which had already been used for preparation by many students.

Students at Baulkham Hills High School who sat their chemistry half-yearly exam last month will resit the test on Thursday, less than two weeks before the start of trial HSC exams, after about one-third of the cohort got full marks.

Internal tests that give an unfair advantage to some students can significantly skew moderated assessment marks. Credit:Wolter Peeters

It is understood many students and tutoring services had access to the past paper and used it to prepare for the test, prompting complaints from students and parents to the school, the NSW Department of Education and local MP David Elliott.

"As soon as it became aware of the issue, the school began mapping out the most equitable solution to ensure that no student was disadvantaged as a result of a school mistake," a spokeswoman for the NSW Department of Education said.The winners of the 2018 Kibble and Dobbie literary awards for female authors take readers from the most sparkling spots on Sydney Harbour to some of the dirtiest and saddest homes that likely exist in every suburb of Australia.

Prize-winning author Fiona McFarlane says many of her 14 short stories in The High Places, which won the $30,000 Kibble Literary Award on Wednesday, are "love letters to Sydney".

Students Isha Desai, left, and Ashwini Sitha-Nanthan, right, from North Sydney Girls High School, meet authors Fiona McFarlane, centre left, and Sarah Krasnostein at the Kibble and Dobbie Literary Awards. Credit:Nick Moir

Lawyer Sarah Krasnostein won the $5000 Dobbie award for her biography of Sandra Pankhurst, who specialises in cleaning up "dark homes where death, sickness and madness have abbreviated the lives inside".

To research her book The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in Death, Decay and Disaster, Ms Krasnostein trailed Ms Pankhurst as she visited the homes of hoarders, unattended deaths and suicides.The Wombats

Hordern Pavilion, July 24





A decade on from their debut album, Britain's Wombats have had, like many fellow indie-rockers, something of a resurgence, with festival appearances and streaming numbers suggesting they might be more popular than ever.



Dabbling in psych-rock and alt-pop, their current album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life doesn't stray too far from the familiar creative direction of its predecessors. Nor should the Wombats feel the need for it to: they're still pleasing their fervent legion of fans with high-voltage joyrides down memory lane.



New material was kept to a minimum, then, the trio instead wasting no time spreading an intoxicating sense of jubilation via a set dominated by their most anthemic tracks.



From the similar-sounding, dizzying openers  the newer, psychedelic Cheetah Tongue and older Give Me a Try  it became evident that the band is comfortable employing the successful formula to which fans have long been receptive rather than take a risk with any attempt at a groundbreaking new sound.

Electrifying guitars and thumping kick drums helped elevate frontman Matthew Murphy's stellar vocals from the mellower verses to the explosive choruses.



On full display, too, was the band's somewhat rare ability to juxtapose the most absurd lyrics derived from their own personal love and heartbreak, with a crowd-pleasing ebullience.



The show brimmed with highlights including the infectious guitar hooks of the newer and more mature Lemon to a Knife Fight and Black Flamingo, as well as raucous crowd favourites Lethal Combination and Kill the Director (the only time the chanting crowd drowned out Murphy).



Such was the impeccable instrumental virtuosity that all eyes remained on Murphy and band mates Dan Haggis and Tord verland Knudsen during even the most chaotic moments of the quirky spectacle.

The Wombats.

Still, the giant balloons, dancing wombats and blinding lasers bolstered the climax: a feel-good delivery of older tracks including a euphoric Let's Dance to Joy Division, as well as the witty lyricism and frivolity of Turn, Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves) and Greek Tragedy.



Were all that not enough, they're coming back to Australia in November to share yet more joyous moments with their loyal fans.Sandra Oh is Eve, a low-ranking British intelligence officer with an extra-curricular obsession with female killers. She's something of a paper-pusher though, in her day job, and our first introduction to this world of espionage feels almost like an Office-style workplace satire. Until things take a sudden U-turn  as they do often, and sharply in this unpredictable series  when a witness in hospital under Eve's watch is murdered. Eve is fired  and then promptly recruited by the stern Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw, best known for the Harry Potter films), the head of the Russian desk of MI6, for an off-the-book assignment to help find the killer.

The British-American co-production is based on the Codename Villanelle series of novellas by British author Luke Jennings and is created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, best known for her equally unique pitch-black study of female dysfunction, Fleabag.

You might think you've seen every iteration of the cat-and-mouse spy caper, but it's a safe bet Killing Eve is unlike any that have come before.

Jodie Comer is assassin Villanelle in Killing Eve. Credit:Sophie Mutevelian

Her new gig is a steep learning curve for Eve  and even harder for her husband, Niko, for whom her love seems strained  but her awkward enthusiasm wins over her more experienced colleagues. And it even works its charm on the assassin herself, and soon the pair become obsessed with each other.

The assassin is Villanelle (Jodie Comer) a young, impeccably stylish Russian psychopath who takes as much pleasure in preparing gourmet food or selecting designer clothing as she does eliminating targets. In the first episode we're given a taste of her talent for  and obvious enjoyment of  killing and it sets the tone for what's to come: Killing Eve is eloquent and darkly comic but there's also a lot of explicit, gory violence. Good guys will die.

A Russian orphan who murdered the killers of her gangster father, Villanelle (her codename) was rescued from prison and trained as an assassin by a group known as The Twelve. She follows orders from her weary, jaded handler, Konstantin (Kim Bodnia from The Bridge), who is losing confidence in his charge as she increasingly goes rogue with her assignments.

Villanelle and Eve gradually realise they have crossed paths at the hospital where Eve's witness was killed, and as Eve and the MI6 step up their hunt, Villanelle is one step ahead  and increasingly drawn to Eve. Villanelle sleeps with men and women but we learn it's women she specifically loves, and even as Eve has increasingly personal reasons for bringing her down, she's strangely drawn to Villanelle too. It's the kind of plotline we've seen in countless spy films, but in the traditionally macho world of espionage, it feels fresh. In fact, everything about Killing Eve feels new, from the charm of Comer's cold-blooded killer ("You should never tell a psychopath they're a psychopath," Villanelle tells Eve. "It upsets them"), to the erotically charged obsession and the subtle message about men and their underestimation of women. Beautifully shot in locations including Paris, Berlin, Tuscany and Romania, it also looks as stylish and slick as it is funny and smartly written. Best of all, BBC America has already commissioned a second series of the most unique thriller in years.Patrick Melrose is a story that is ''relevant for all time'', says Benedict Cumberbatch. Credit:Ollie Upton For an actor, the books became a "an amazing blueprint to work off, and you can only ever hope to try to do justice to that kind of work; that's the biggest challenge of this project, to bring it to the screen and give something back to readers who have already had the most amazing cinematic experience by just reading the novels." The story has a powerful relevance to the modern age, Cumberbatch says. Benedict Cumberbatch as Edward St Aubyn's literary alter-ego. Credit:HARRY EELMAN "I think that if told, any story that is as mammoth in its scope as this has a universality that takes it beyond the confines of a class critique or a period drama," he says. "Child abuse and drug addiction and recovery, and all the journeys and deviations between those kind of milestones in this man's life, these are things that recur in our culture that are not specific to either the era or the class.

"Did we make this because we thought it was relevant to now? No. We made this because it was relevant for all time, you know," the Sherlock star says. "We need to be reminded of the damage that can be done to innocence and how to try and understand that and repair it and help those who have suffered, and help victims become survivors and progress with their lives." Perhaps the most "delicious" aspect of the story, he notes, is that its lightness of humour and wit sit alongside the darker shades of emotion through which the character is plunged. "It's the delicious nature of the books that both exist side by side," he says. "It's always going to be a version of the truth but not to heighten either, to keep true to character, to play both truthfully. The funniest comedies are out of truth after all. "I always went home at the end of a day working on Patrick Melrose going, did I do enough or too much? My internal paranoia kicking in, yes, you did too much, no, you did too little. Those are the devils on my shoulder. "But it's hard to ever feel that you've done justice to the material," he adds. "It's when that balance is absolutely right between the comedy and the darkness, [which is] a huge credit to Dave Nicholls' extraordinary screenplay, a masterful shift in tone within a compressed form of what are extraordinarily funny but dark novels."

The nature of the work, for Cumberbatch, is notably distinct in its looseness and loudness when compared to other performances, such as Sherlock, in which Cumberbatch plays iconic detective Sherlock Holmes, and where emotions are underplayed and very little is permitted to manifest on the surface. "One is emotionally very introverted, and the other one, it's all on the sleeve and to the point that paranoid schizophrenia rears its head and really would take him over in a second," Cumberbatch says. "Both equally thrilling, though," he adds. "I think that there's a wit and a humour and a danger about both characters, which is appealing and possibly recognisable." Patrick Melrose, he says, is someone who "has a great deal of tenderness, who is a very damaged human being; he's built this armory of humour and wit and irony. He doesn't complete the cycle of abuse by becoming an abuser, [rather] he's a very tender, gentle, loving father and husband, if an unfaithful one, and an inattentive father at times." During the series, Cumberbatch interacts with three incredible actresses: Jennifer Jason Leigh who plays his mother Eleanor Melrose, Anna Madeley who plays his wife Mary Melrose and Blythe Danner who plays the family's snobbish aunt, New York society matron Nancy.

Leigh's performance, he says, is transformative. "It's extraordinary, the work she does in this," he says. Madeley, he calls "an incredible rock." And Danner he describes as a "radiant human being". "Blythe is extraordinary, and she is very funny," he adds. "She's incredibly generous, good at her craft, and a lovely person to be around. [They are all] wonderful, wonderful people to be around and watch work and get support from and nourishment and collaborate with. That is really the central joy of this job, the crew and the cast that I got to go to work with every day." The five episodes are, Cumberbatch says, very distinct. Berger said to him at the beginning that he "saw these as five very different films, and [that] they should be shot differently, with different energies to the camera movement, the framing, and the grading and the overall feel," Cumberbatch recalls. "And they really have achieved that. It will be a great ride to go on as an audience." The result is a tight narrative, something Cumberbatch admits is not always his preference.In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation.Intense diplomatic efforts by the United Nations and Egypt have helped avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza that appeared just minutes away over the past weekend, a senior UN official said on Tuesday.

After intense efforts by the United Nations and Egypt, I can report that the situation is calming down, although tensions remain, Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Security Council via video link from Jerusalem.

Last Saturday we were minutes away from another devastating confrontation between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, he said.

The enclave bordered by Israel and the Mediterranean has been controlled by Hamas, since 2007. Israel has blocked the movements of Palestinians from Gaza.

The UN has said the root causes of the intractable conflict there include a more than 50-year occupation by Israel of the Palestinian territory; its years-long blockade of Gaza; Hamass continuing control of the enclave, and the division between Palestines two political factions, Fatah and Hamas.

Briefing the Council on recent developments around Gaza, Mladenov said that over the last two weeks, the situation quickly spiralled out of control, nearly to a point of no-return.

The past month, he said, has witnessed one of the largest escalations since the most recent 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.

Nineteen Palestinians, including seven children, were killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Gaza, during protests, clashes, and airstrikes, and over 1,000 were injured.

One IDF soldier was killed by gunfire from Gaza last week, while four Israeli civilians and an IDF soldier were moderately injured, respectively, by rocket fire and a hand grenade attack.

Hamas and other militants fired 283 rockets and mortars from Gaza towards Israel, while The Israeli Air Force (IAF) fired some 189 missiles and artillery shells against targets in Gaza.

The UN Special Coordinator said he travelled to Gaza on July 15 and earlier on Tuesday (July 24), in an urgent effort to de-escalate tensions, appealing to Palestinian factions not to provoke incidents at the fence, to immediately stop the firing of rockets and mortars and to stop the incendiary kites and balloons. He appealed to Israel to fully reopen border crossings, stop shelling, particularly in populated areas, and to exercise restraint towards Gaza.

On Sunday, the UN warned that supplies of emergency fuel provided by the world body for critical facilities in Gaza are running out.

Mladenov said that on Tuesday, the first 100,000 litres of much-needed fuel were allowed through the Kerem Shalom crossing, to be distributed by the UN to hospitals and emergency services.

On Monday, the UN human rights chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein, denounced the grave assaults on the Palestinian peoples fundamental rights.

Briefing the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the Commissioner for Human Rights,  who also heads the UN human rights office, OHCHR  expressed concern over the dramatic escalation of violence along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel during the past few months, in which dozens of Palestinian civilians were killed.

I remind all parties that any disproportionate or indiscriminate use of weapons which lead to the death and injury of civilians is prohibited by international humanitarian law, said Zeid, warning that this escalation could potentially threaten peace across a far broader region.

In his briefing to the Security Council, Nickolay Mladenov also dealt with the heightened tensions on the Syrian Golan Heights after the Israeli Defense Forces reported having fired two missiles, which shot down a Syrian fighter jet that they claim had infiltrated nearly two kilometres into Israeli airspace.

We are closely monitoring the situation, he said."That's too much for a lot of people who are in their 70s because it's about a kilometre walk, plus they're doing all the roadworks," Ms Brudenall said. Ms Brudenall said the bus was also used by University of Canberra students. A small group of the residents will be back at the Crace chops on Saturday to collect signatures for a petition they plan to hand to ACT Opposition Leader Liberal MLA Alistair Coe. A transport directorate spokesman told The Canberra Times on Thursday confirmed the government had received a submission from the village. It admitted alternative stops for Crace residents were a further walk but said the government's "flexibus", a free community shuttle for older Canberrans and those with mobility issues, could take them to the stops.

In Braddon, Jennifer Bluhm - a resident of retirement village Girrahween Lodge - said potential changes to the route seven bus expected in 2019 were insulting. Lodge residents are able to catch the route seven bus right outside their door on Girrahween Street, but changes would force them to either walk three blocks south to Cooyong Road for a route 52 bus or six blocks west to Northbourne Avenue for the then-completed tram. Ms Bluhm said one of the lodge residents was an 82-year-old woman with a walker. "She's not going to walk to Northbourne Avenue in any event, she said 'I may as well walk to Civic'," Ms Bluhm said. While the route seven bus takes the lodge residents straight to Belconnen, the 52 bus travels to Dickson shops where they would take a second bus to Belconnen.

"Who ever heard of two buses connecting?" Ms Bluhm asked. Ms Bluhm said her gym and her doctor were based in Belconnen, and she normally travelled to her doctor on weekends, when the 52 bus doesn't operate. The government has suggested inner-north residents use the "flexibus". But this free service only takes them to Civic, Dickson or Ainslie. "How would you feel if someone says you can only go to Civic?" Ms Bluhm said.

Ms Bluhm said while she might be able to accept it, she doubted ACT government ministers would. Transport staff had told Ms Bluhm the changes may be reviewed but it's possible they would stay as flagged. "I put it in the insulting category. I think it's very poorly considered and just a mess," Ms Bluhm said. Ms Bluhm said perhaps she had been naive but this was never raised when the government began constructing the tram. "It was never said that the whole bus network would be upset to accommodate the tram," she said. Ms Bluhm said no one had considered the social cost of these changes either, confining people to suburbs, forcing medical personnel to travel to them and friends who no longer drove to be separated.ActewAGL has confirmed it is reviewing jobs in its brand, communications and corporate affairs branch, with former branch head Paul Walshe saying staff are "devastated'' and he is "shocked'' by the number of job cuts he believes are being proposed.

Staff have suggested as many of six of the 15 jobs in the section have been touted to go, although ActewAGL says it can't confirm numbers yet.

The ActewAGL building in Civic. Credit:Jeffrey Chan

Mr Walshe, who retired on July 13 as ActewAGL's director of brand, communications and corporate affairs after almost 40 years with the company, said he knew a review of the section was underway while he was still in the job. But he was rocked by the talk of how many positions may go.

The review only became public on Tuesday night when Mr Walshe tweeted about the "devastating news'' and urged staff to stay strong.Workers on Canberra's light rail project have been ripped off $700,000, according to a wage theft lawsuit to be filed in the Federal Court this week.

It is understood the construction union will allege several contractors, working on the ACT Government's billion-dollar project, underpaid workers.

It is the second wage theft lawsuit filed by the union this year, with allegations up to $70,000 had been kept from employees on a $300-million ACT government office project.

CFMEU ACT secretary Jason O'Mara accused the government of abandoning workers and walking away from an election commitment to legislate a secure local jobs code intended to stop exploitation.

The government has promised a raft of legislative, regulatory and administrative changes to ensure the government awarded contracts to companies that met the highest ethical standards.The ACT will have a soft landing as the rest of Australia stares down the barrel of a massive residential building sector slump, territory industry experts say.

Earlier this week market analyst BIS Oxford Economics released a gloomy report on the country's construction sector, forecasting the sharpest market contraction since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Predictions of a building downturn in the ACT failed to account for recent projects such as the light rail, Master Builders ACT said. Credit:Dion Georgopoulos.

"The building sector is switching from being a strong growth driver to a drag on the economy," BIS Oxford economist Adrian Hart said.

"Over the next two years, the fall in residential building starts will accelerate sharply, particularly in the investor-driven apartments segment, which is set to fall 50 per cent."Dimi Nikoloulias had two options when she studied teaching at university. She could do what she loved, and become an early childhood teacher. Or she could get more money, longer breaks and better hours by teaching at primary school.

She chose love over money. But many in her position don't, knowing that despite having the same qualifications, early childhood teachers can earn tens of thousands of dollars less than their primary school counterparts.

Dimi Nikoloulias, director of the Rozelle Child Care Centre, believes university-qualified early childhood teachers are a vital but under-valued part of the education system. Credit:Nick Moir

"I am legally able to teach in a primary school," Ms Nikoloulias said. "But I genuinely love what I do. It's a love of being able to see children from a young age grow and develop and be ready for school. It's such an important role we play."

On Thursday, early childhood teachers will begin making their case for a pay rise that would bring them into line with primary school teachers.Police have found human remains in bushland during a search for missing Sydney father and businessman Minh Phouc (Paul) Nguyen.

Mr Nguyen was last seen driving out of the Hilton hotel in Sydney's CBD on May 1, 2014, and Strike Force Awols was established to investigate his alleged murder and to find his body.

Despite the fact two men were charged with murder over Mr Nguyen's disappearance in 2015, previous searches - some as recently as earlier this month - had not located his body.

Police said new information had come to light which led to Tuesday's search of bushland in the Illawarra led by Strike Force Awols detectives.To some, they are the lost causes of the conservation world; a handful of species not only on the brink of extinction but elusive, hard to get to and even harder to track. Difficult.

They have led Dejan Stojanovic into some of the most remote corners of Australia, through rivers of mud and up trees. If the wind picks up, some days he will get motion sick in the branches.

Dr Dejan Stojanovic, pictured in Tasmania with young orange-bellied parrots, spends long hours on stakeouts in the forest to monitor wild populations. Credit:Henry Cook, ANU

But to Dr Stojanovic, saving these birds is not mission impossible, it's just hard work.

He's part of a small team of ANU scientists taking on some of Australia's most challenging conservation cases at the aptly-named Difficult Bird Research Group, based in Canberra.A Sunshine Coast woman's attempts to cover up the alleged murder of her de facto partner led her to purchase an electric saw 10 days after his death, a prosecutor says.

But while Lindy Yvonne Williams did "horrible" things to maintain the belief George Gerbic was alive, including possibly dismembering his body, she didn't kill him and was instead the victim of his abuse, her defence lawyer has argued.

Lindy Williams is accused of murdering her de facto, George Gerbic. Credit:Internet

A jury has been asked to decide if Williams was a cold, calculated killer or a domestic violence sufferer whose panic after Mr Gerbic's accidental death led her to dump his torso, set it alight and concoct an elaborate story about his whereabouts.

Both sides of her Brisbane Supreme Court murder trial have agreed the 60-year-old is dishonest.The term Super Saturday is a lazy Americanised way of describing the five byelections being held this Saturday. They are not Super Tuesday American presidential primaries but byelections for the House of Representatives caused largely by resignations of MPs deemed ineligible under Section 44 of the Australian Constitution.

Liberal Candidate for Mayo Georgina Downer. Credit:AAP Image/Kelly Barnes

But a lot is at stake with the focus on national leadership rather than local politics, in part because there are five byelections, not just one as there was in New England, Bennelong and Batman, which were also S.44 byelections.

Much is made of the fact that it is 98 years since an Opposition lost a federal byelection. As Malcolm Turnbull has commented: The last time a government won a seat in a byelection from an Opposition was about 100 years ago and theres a reason for that.

In fact, there are several reasons. Usually there are large anti-government swings at by-elections with the average swing about 4 per cent. The notorious by-elections in recent history, caused by retirements or death, have either been large swings against governments, like Bass in June 1975 and Canberra in March 1995, which preceded subsequent Whitlam/Keating Labor government defeats at federal elections, or governments holding on, like Aston in July 2001, a forerunner of the return of the Howard government."There are a lot of small businesses and small traders, some have been here for many years ... this certainly has been a terrible disaster. [For these businesses] it's a lot of money, they have to pay staff, pay rent, those things aren't going away." He said several traders were thinking about banding together and getting legal advice. "What we are thinking of doing is talking to traders and coming together as a group and seeing whether we should meet up with a legal representative to see if there is a potential claim as a group. Just see what our options are," he said. He urged locals to visit Bridge Road and enjoy the shops while the street was relatively quiet. Construction workers began dismantling the crane on Wednesday. Credit:James Ross/AAP

Slater and Gordon senior lawyer Lily Boskovski said those Bridge Road businesses forced to close could have a claim. Shop owners who were forced to close their business due to the threat posed by the crane will have an entitlement for those losses, she said. A second crane removes the boom from the damaged crane. Credit:James Ross/AAP Were it not for the hazardous worksite and unsafe practices at the worksite, the shop owners would not have been forced to shut their doors, presumably at a not so insignificant financial burden to them. Peter Frayman, the owner of clothing alteration service Alter It on Bridge Road, said he was talking to his insurance company about the lost business.

"We don't know yet what the outcome will be," he said. "The insurer suggested we wait until we know the damage to know the best course of action and weigh up what we do then. "We have lost business, fortunately our customers contact us and we explained to them and they were very understanding but a number had urgent things, were going interstate and needed things done ... we will need double the staff this week to catch up." He said he still had not been able to get back into the shop, which had been sitting directly under the broken crane's boom. He estimated the business bled thousands of dollars during the two-day saga. Construction had been going on at the Lennox Street site for a while, he said. Parts of Bridge Road remain closed on Wednesday. Credit:James Ross/AAP

"The whole area has been a worksite for a long time, over a year, and has been disruptive to business, customers can't park  it was a headache the day it started," he said. On Wednesday morning, WorkSafe was overseeing the operation to dismantle the crane in conjunction with construction experts.

Their efforts had been hampered on Tuesday by the strong winds. But after two days of damaging conditions, the severe weather warning for Victoria was cancelled on Wednesday. The manager of the CFMEU's occupational health and safety unit Gerry Ayers said the calmer conditions allowed for two cranes to be established at the site as efforts begin to try and dismantle the dangerous crane. "There's been a lot of meticulous planning going into this which is why it's taken so long, you can't take second chances which is why it's taken a bit of time. You want to do it right the first time," he said.

He said it was too early to guess what went wrong with the crane, but an investigation was underway to try to figure out whether it was human error. The owner of the company that provides the crane, Michael Clark from Clark Cranes, told radio station 3AW on Tuesday it seemed the jib of the crane  the boom or arm of the crane  had not been left in the correct upright position which allows it to swing in the wind. The company refused to comment on Wednesday.The Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Jean Adukwei Mensa, has been nominated as the new Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana. This was announced in a statement from the Presidency.

President Akufo-Addo on June 28, 2018, removed the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei and her two deputies  Amadu Sulley and Georgina Opoku Amankwa  from office upon the recommendation of a committee set up by the Chief Justice, to investigate separate complaints brought by some Ghanaian citizens.

Madam Charlotte Osei, who was appointed by ex-President John Mahama, was accused of various procurement breaches, whilst her deputies were also found guilty of same offenses as well as financial malfeasance.

Jean Mensas IEA has played an instrumental role in Ghanas governance issues, politics and elections. As the Executive Director of the Institute, she has been the Coordinator of the Ghana Political Parties Program.

A lawyer by profession Mrs Mensa was heavily involved in the development of policies such as the Presidential Transition Act of 2012, and the revised 1992 Constitution of Ghana which is currently in a draft form.

She also helped in formulating and later in revising the Political Party funding Bill.Mark Ward started driving a small charter vehicle six months before Uber hit Australian shores and has seen the disruption ride-sharing has caused within the industry.

Customers will pay for the scheme over four-years with a 10 per cent levy on every single fare in on-demand transport including taxis, small charter vehicles and ride share companies like Uber and newcomer Ola.

WAtoday understands the government will introduce legislation during parliament's spring sitting session to create a $120 million scheme funding taxi-plate buybacks starting from $100,000.

Small charter vehicle operators have joined the growing chorus of opposition to the state governments proposed taxi-plate buyback levy.

He said the state governments levy would only continue to hurt an already suffering industry.

Charter vehicles are a niche service and because of that there is a higher dollar value to it, he said.

So our passengers will be slugged much more than Uber passengers who pay 10 per cent on smaller fares.

If you look at a $100 journey, GST is upfront, most fuel costs 15 to 20 per cent, theres also car insurance, rego and repayments.

Lets say for instance a small operator lives off 30 per cent of each fare, for the government to come and say we want 10 per cent again, theyre realistically taking it from the operators income.Male prisoners used stolen angle grinders in order to break into a unit of female inmates during Tuesday nights riot, according to a WA Prison union official.

Details of the riot were revealed at a press conference in Geraldton on Wednesday afternoon, after WA Police confirmed they had recaptured all but one of the 10 inmates who escaped from the facility overnight.

Greenough Regional Prison is located 16km south of Geraldton. Credit:Google

I think it's been established now that what occurred in the lead up to the escape was a riot, WAPOU Acting Secretary Paul Ledingham said.

My understanding is... that there was a cell fire in one of the accommodation units. That was essentially a decoy.A WA man has launched legal action after prison authorities allegedly failed to diagnose him with appendicitis while he was in custody, despite several examinations over a number of days by prison doctors and nurses.

Shane Chubby eventually needed emergency surgery on his ruptured appendix at Hedland Health Campus in early 2016.

He and Maurice Blackburn lawyers are now suing the state for damages over the alleged failures by prison authorities to notice and treat his appendicitis earlier.

A statement of claim filed in the WA District Court reveals the 40-year-old began to experience abdominal pain while he was a prisoner at Roebourne Regional Prison in February 2016.

The statement of claim alleges:He said most costs were fixed  the biggest was labour. A hospitality business needed people front of house taking orders and at least two in the back; a chef and dishwasher. Younger staff are cheaper but didn't have the etiquette or ability to handle certain situations and then the service would fall short of customer expectations, so it was a mistake to try to cut costs there. There was no wiggle room on electricity or gas and very little in insurance, marketing and equipment. Ingredient costs were high in Perth and simplifying a menu could only save so much. Raising prices was the only way to make money. And hours were long, with owners shackled to the day-to-day running of the business, ordering and ensuring food safety standards were met.

A lot of young people and first-timers think its easy and its a good living and then they get in and realise how hard it is and they get burnt out, he said. Sweet but sad sign at Oxford Street Books. You go through all this work to manage this enterprise and after paying everyone else there is very little left. He said the only people making real money in the restaurant business were franchise owners. Franchisees invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a franchise somewhere, and wore all the risk in exchange for the goodwill associated with that brand. The businesses make their cash through selling the franchisees the ingredients and a cut of the profits. Youre essentially buying yourself a job, the insider said.

He said rent was a major issue. Landlords had lost track of the relationship between the landlord and the tenant and the need for the business to be healthy. The massive upswing of the boom meant many people might have been caught out and set a 10-year lease on a particular rent. Then as things have fallen off they may have seen a decline and some have failed immediately after things collapsed," he said. "There are limited opportunities to negotiate your rate. And in the past four years customers have tightened their purse strings.

A lot of landlords have kind of ignored the economic situation and kept rates going up sometimes beyond CPI. Everything is stacked against the entrepreneur. Leederville's strip. The industry source said landlords held all the power and protections. A business owner might need $60,000-$90,000 in a fund as a bank guarantee, which they could lose if their business went under. One-sided contracts that lumped all risk to the business operator meant many had lost homes when their businesses went under. Some supermarket landlords even had predatory practices such as demanding access to profit and loss statements.

Landlords think operators are making a lot but they dont understand the hours going into it. They think the resource economy is picking up so why should I reduce my rent?" he said. He said the loss of small business diversity, particularly in places such as Leederville, meant lost vibrancy. Its one of Perths best-known eating spots and theres little barrier for a new entry, he said. Small business operators in that area compete for the same foot traffic and the area is constrained by the amount of parking available. If you own property there you know theres always someone who will walk in, pay too much, set up a business, run for two years then fail. Damian Stone is "Principal and Chief Problem Solver" at Y Research, which looks at trends underpinning WA's property market.

Rents: the bigger picture Mr Stone said market rents for most commercial properties in Perth had fallen dramatically since the peak of the boom, driven by higher vacancies and strong competition for tenants. CBD office rents that were nearly $1000/sqm during the peak could can now be leased for around $400/sqm, equal to 2005 levels. Some CBD retail rents had fallen by nearly 50 per cent over the past 5 years,

Any businesses paying boom-time rents were likely to be fulfilling leases signed five to 10 years ago. "Property owners are aware of the challenging market conditions, with many believing the last few years have been the toughest they have experienced," he said. "As a result, a significant number of owners have worked with tenants to renegotiate rents." He agreed that consumer spending had dropped, and yet many businesses had fixed long-term costs. "With most businesses closing rather than choosing to relocate, it would suggest that the underlying business while profitable in the boom, may be unviable in the increasingly competitive retail market of expanded shopping centres and greater online choice," he said. "As a result it would suggest that we are likely to see more closures of local retailers despite the economy improving and potential lower rents."

Strip retail is changing in Perth The Beaufort Street strip. Mr Stone was unsuprised by stores closing in retail strips. He said while rents might have been a contributing factor, it was also symptomatic of changes in Perths retail strips. Strips typically started by offering independent retailers, primarily food and fashion, not found in major shopping centres. As these strips matured, independent retailers were priced out and replaced by more national chains. This had happened along Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley, Bayview Terrace, Claremont, and Rokeby Road, Subiaco.

It was now underway in Leederville. Rents were governed by supply and demand. There were limited vacancies in Leederville and there had been limited retail development over the past 15-20 years. National operators were able to pay higher rents, which were still significantly cheaper than shopping centre rents. And the type of stores that were closing were indicative of another shift. "Strip retail in Perth is becoming the domain of food and beverage tenants ranging from take away food outlets, cafes to small bars," he said. "In a competitive retail market, food and beverage spending has held up.

"Retail strip property ownership is typically owned by small private investors, not major property companies. It is in the interest of each small owner to maximise the return of their asset. Ku De Ta: the tip of the iceberg We have seen a number of hospitality closures over the last 12-24 months across the CBD and inner city suburbs," Mr Stone said. "We are likely to see more for a number of reasons, aside from market rents. "There is significantly more choice across Perth in 2018 than previous years. More than 40 per cent of retailers in the CBD are food and beverage tenants.The ACT government has rejected claims Chief Minister Andrew Barr has broken his pledge that his stamp duty reforms would be revenue-neutral, but admitted the overall tax burden has risen faster after reforms than it did before.

While the government rejected former ACT Treasury policy director Dr Khalid Ahmed's and economist Adrian Makeham-Kirchner's analysis, it also challenged the analysis and claimed some aspects were incorrect.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr rejects claims he has broken a pledge that tax reform would be revenue neutral. Credit:Fairfax Media

A Treasury spokeswoman also said the growth in territory own-source tax revenue since the 2012 reforms were due to economic factors, rather than policy decisions, as Dr Ahmed contends.

It comes as Opposition leader Alistair Coe said that irrespective of whether the rising tax burden on Canberrans was directly attributed to the reforms, or simply a broader 'tax hike', residents would still be 'gouged' by the increasing overall tax burden.Australia will work more closely with the United States on offensive cyber capabilities in a deal that presages a more aggressive approach by the nations electronic spooks in carrying out operations abroad.

Defence Minister Marise Payne has confirmed an arrangement she has struck with American counterpart James Mattis will include jointly developing capabilities to attack adversaries overseas as well as defending computer systems in Australia.

She has told Fairfax Media the memorandum of understanding signed as part of the Australia-United States Ministerial talks in San Francisco this week means greater research, development, testing and evaluation of cyber capabilities with the US Cyber Command, which has itself flagged taking a more assertive posture in recent months.

The MOU will enable a deeper level of co-operation on the development of both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities than exists today, she said.The Turnbull government is holding out against a new call for concessions on its controversial energy guarantee in a stance that risks another clash with states and territories on the scale of Australias cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

The federal government is heading off attempts to inject more flexibility into the flagship National Energy Guarantee to adjust a 26 per cent cut to carbon emissions by 2030, insisting the target will be cemented in federal law.

The federal stance will set up a crucial hurdle to any changes to the target despite Canberra's offer of an olive branch to the states and territories on Wednesday to allow a review of the target in 2024, five years earlier than expected.

Fairfax Media understands some of the key parties to the discussions on the policy have canvassed a change that would allow a future federal energy minister to lift the target by regulation if the 2024 review recommended greater ambition to tackle climate change.

The approach could overcome the biggest barrier to any change to the target during the next decade  the challenge of persuading a difficult Senate, including a divided crossbench, to vote for deeper cuts to carbon emissions.One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has run out of time to sway thousands of Australians in the Queensland seat of Longman, with up to 34,000 votes already decided while she has been on a luxury cruise in the British Isles.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Credit:AAP

In another wildcard in the super Saturday byelections this weekend, almost one in five voters have already cast a pre-poll vote or applied for a postal vote across the five contests.

The trend has fuelled speculation that the results in Longman and another tight race, Braddon in Tasmania, may not be known until long after Saturday night when the postal votes are tallied.

One Nation supporters have been out in force at early voting locations in Longman this week but their leaders holiday on the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner may blunt their message."I guess the big question though is: why do we store up trouble for ourselves by letting in people who are going to be difficult, difficult to integrate?" he asked.

"And this is why I think all credit to Peter Dutton, who is doing his best to manage our immigration program in our national interest - not in the interests of all sorts of people who might simply want to come here."

The statistics cited by Mr Abbott were sourced from the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency and have been seized on by federal ministers such as Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs Minister Alan Tudge as evidence of a "very significant" crime problem in Melbourne, as well as a "weak" state government and legal system.

Lawyer and advocate Nyadol Nyuon deplored Mr Abbott's comments and said they achieved nothing expect to further "dehumanise" African people.

She said that it was another blow in a series of harmful comments made by politcial leaders, which alienated the African community, adding that some African-Australians were too afraid to leave their homes.Craig Kelly was careful when responding to the latest inducement being offered to the states to secure the National Energy Guarantee. Understandable after his disastrous "let bygones be bygones" apologia for Donald Trump's Russia appeasement.

But the conservative backbencher, as one of the party room's most vocal coal spruikers, could disguise his grievance over the Turnbull cabinet's creeping environmentalism, only so well.

Asked during his regular Sky News spot about the "olive branch" now being extended by Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg to the states - an offer of a five-year review of the emissions reduction target (rather than locking it in for 10), Kelly was initially circumspect. "Well I'd imagine if you had a [target] review, you could also downscale it as well." Clearly this was said more in hope than belief.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been an outspoken critic of emission reductions. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Warming up, Kelly railed against the current Paris target of 26 per cent as already "the most onerous in the world"; complained he (read the party room) had not seen the detail; and then this: "People talk about [investment] certainty, if you want some certainty, you've at least got to have something set, at least, for a decade." Can't say it clearer than that.The former warlord and vice president of DR. Congo Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was acquitted last month of war crimes, will return to the Central African nation next week to submit his candidacy for president, a party official told Reuters.

Earlier this month, the DRC said Bemba could apply for a diplomatic passport to return home after he was acquitted of war crimes in The Hague.

The former warlord will return to DRC on Aug. 1, according to the secretary general of his party, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), Eve Bazaiba.

Bazaiba said that Bemba planned to file his candidacy with the national electoral commission while in Kinshasa.

The mineral-rich nation is in the grip of a crisis over the future of President Joseph Kabila, who has remained in office, despite a two-term constitutional limit that expired in December 2016.

Kabila has governed since 2001. Allies in his ruling coalition have, in recent weeks, advanced a legal argument they say would justify his candidacy.

The day of Bembas release, President Joseph Kabila announced through Prime Minister Bruno Tshibala that he would not seek a third mandate, thereby respecting the countrys constitution.

Bemba finished runner-up to Kabila in the 2006 election and commands a large number of loyal supporters in western Congo.

He is still popular at home and recent surveys taken before Kabilas announcement showed that he could win around ten percent in a first round of elections.Australian research is confounded by politics as both federal government organisations and businesses spent less on research and development.

Research and development (R&D) spending by federal government organisations shrank $118 million or 5 per cent in 2016-17, with more than 400 staff cut last year, ABS data shows.

Professor of Innovation Studies at the University of Queensland School of Business, Mark Dodgson said the loss of researchers is "symptomatic of the way the government has taken its eye off the ball".

"It is important to consider these figures within the whole system in Australia, especially the low investment made by the private sector and the poor connections between business and research institutions," Professor Dodgson said.

Governments can focus on areas where there are deficiencies in the system or where we have comparative advantages, so declining funds for areas like environmental science is "damning, and reflects some retrogressive political choices", Professor Dodgson said.A retired major general has been appointed to strengthen the Queensland government's engagement with the defence sector in the field of cyber security.

State Development Minister Cameron Dick said Stephen Day would work with stakeholders to help develop cyber security projects, after being appointed as a "cyber security strategic advisor".

Retired Major General Stephen Day has been appointed as a cyber security adviser to the Queensland government. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Dick said Major General Day would draw on his experience of leadership of cyber security in the defence sector to promote the Queensland government's programs in the area and the state's defence industries at state, national and international forums.

From 2013 to 2015, Major General Day was the senior executive responsible for the establishment and leadership of Australia's National Cyber Centre and the federal government's cyber warfare capabilities.Victorias anti-corruption watchdog is investigating alleged cover-ups, nepotism and internal information leaks involving high ranking police in a probe that is likely to rock force command, policing sources say.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission has quizzed police personnel over persistent allegations involving a small cabal of influential officers.

Victorian chief commissioner Graham Ashton. Credit:AAP

The group includes at least two officers who have played key roles in Chief Commissioner Graham Ashtons wider leadership team.

Police sources said one aspect of the investigation was into allegedly inappropriate personal relationships between senior and junior officers, including a superintendent and a second more senior officer."To me it sounds like Cohen is explaining something to [Trump] that he doesn't understand," Giuliani said, adding: "He doesn't seem that familiar with anything. There is nothing to indicate he knew anything in advance." The President's legal team released the transcript after one of Cohen's lawyers, Lanny Davis, provided CNN with the audio of the conversation - marking a dramatic escalation of rhetoric and turn against Trump by the Cohen camp. Davis said Cohen, who is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud and election law violations, decided to release the tape "following extensive discussions" with his lawyers. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is now an attorney for Trump. Credit:AP The Cohen team was pushed to act by statements Giuliani had made about Cohen's role in the conversation last week, Davis said.

"It became necessary to rebut false statements," he said. "We were not going to let Michael become a punching bag." When asked whether the Cohen team would release more recordings of Trump in the coming weeks, Davis said he would not comment, but acknowledged, "There are a lot of other tapes." Trump's legal team does not believe that he was captured saying anything of substance on any other recording made by Cohen, according to people familiar with the material. After the audio's existence was revealed last week, Trump denied any wrongdoing and said in a tweet it was "perhaps illegal" for a lawyer to record a client. "Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyers office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of," Trump tweeted, in an apparent reference to an FBI raid on Cohen in April.

The Wall Street Journal first reported four days before the November 2016 election that McDougal had been paid by the National Enquirer. At the time, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks called McDougal's claims "totally untrue". Loading "We have no knowledge of any of this," she said. The revelation of the existence of the recording last week showed for the first time that Trump knew of her claims and efforts to keep her quiet at least two months earlier. The transcript and audio released on Tuesday, US time, indicate that Trump's knowledge of McDougal's claims to AMI predated that early September 2016 conversation with Cohen.

In the audio released by CNN, Trump sounds matter-of-fact as Cohen walks through his plan, saying at one point, "Yeah, I was thinking about that". There is no sign that Cohen followed through with the plan to purchase the rights to McDougal's story from AMI. However, the timing of the conversation between Trump and his long-time "fixer" also provides more evidence that Cohen was trying to quash embarrassing stories before the election - a major focus of the investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. In rival cable news appearances on Tuesday, Cohen and Trump's lawyers clashed over who on the tape suggested the transaction be completed with cash. On the audio released by Cohen, Trump says something muffled and then can be heard saying, "pay with cash", although it isn't clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash. Cohen immediately says, "No, no, no" and Trump can then be heard saying, "check".

In the transcript released by the President's legal team, Trump is quoted as saying, "Don't pay with cash." Davis zeroed in on Trump's use of the word "cash" to suggest the then-candidate was seeking to mask his activities - a claim that Giuliani fiercely disputed. Loading "It's outrageous that someone would tape his client surreptitiously and it's also foolhardy for them to yell and scream and make believe what's on the tape," he said on Fox News. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Organisation, said on Tuesday that the context of the word "cash" in the conversation is a reference to paying one time with liquid currency - rather than financing a transaction with a loan. He said the reference is clear because Trump was raising the idea of financing as another option.Latest News GetCapital rebrands as Shift, pivots from lender to broker platform New proposition has fintech seeks to empower brokers through data

Pepper Money, St Kilda Football Club launch community grant program Non-bank lender renews partnership with St Kilda by creating $30,000 Real Life Fund to help sports groups

Ensurance Limited has announced it has signed an agreement to "dispose" of its retail brokerage business as part of a $4.1million deal.

The board has entered into a share sale agreement with former directors Stefan Hicks and Brett Graves.

Under the agreement, Ensurance will sell all its shares in Savill Hicks Corp Pty Ltd (SHC) to SHC Insurance Holding Pty Ltd for consideration totalling $4.1 million.

According to the company, the agreement significantly advances its restructuring plans previously announced on 8 May 2018.

The sale will result in the full divestment of the companys retail brokerage arm, which includes the entire brokerage business, assets and management team.

This is a "significant milestone" for the company. Representatives believe the sale will free up managements time to focus on activities in support of the companys repositioning. It is expected to drive strong global growth from its business as a Managing General Agent in the UK and Australia.

Cash funds received from the disposal of the retail brokerage business will be used to build out the companys UK and Australian based operations, hire additional underwriting personnel to meet customer demand for its specialised construction-related insurance and to drive sales and marketing activity.

Tony Leibowitz, Chairman of Ensurance comments: This Agreement is a significant milestone for Ensurance, and a pleasing result for the team after months of negotiation. The disposal of our retail brokerage business delivers a wonderful result for the Company and our shareholders, returning capital that we can now invest in pursuing our recently announced strategy.

The $4.1m comprises $2.2m in cash, the buyback of 30,140,905 fully paid ordinary shares in ENA, assumption of SHC employee entitlements by SHC Insurance Holding Pty Ltd and the cancellation of convertible notes held by related parties of Stefan Hicks.

If required, vendor financing of up to $1million will be extended under ordinary commercial terms, for a period of 3 months from the day of settlement, with an option to extend.

The sale is subject to a number of conditions precedent including shareholder approval. The transaction covered by the agreement is expected to complete within 2 months.

Related stories:

Upsurge in brokers offering insurance

Insurer rebrand to boost broker income

Brokers urged to offer insurance to borrowersResearch shows more than a dozen lenders are using honeymoon rates to attract new home loan customers, with deals which could see borrowers up to $33,573 out of pocket within five years, and $140,816 over 30 years.

A honeymoon rate, sometimes called an introductory rate, is a variable home loan that offers a discounted rate at the beginning, usually for a period of six to 12 months. When the introductory period expires, the loan reverts to a higher ongoing rate.

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) was offering a 12 month discounted variable rate home loan, but has recently announced it will discontinue the honeymoon rate from 29 September.

It's a move that brings Australias biggest home loan lender in line with the other three major banks, none of which offer 'honeymoon rates with terms of 12 months or less.

The data from comparison site RateCity.com.au shows one of the lowest honeymoon rates is 3.65% but reverts to 5.17% after just 12 months. This is an increase of 1.52 basis points, the equivalent of more than six RBA rate hikes overnight. Some revert rates are as high as 5.70%

Sally Tindall, spokesperson for RateCity.com.au said introductory rates were typically used by banks to attract peoples attention to a rock-bottom advertised rate.

She said, Dont get hoodwinked by a honeymoon rate. Youre almost always going to be better off with a low ongoing variable rate with no hidden twists.

They might give you a bit of breathing room in the first year, but more often than not they are short-sighted quick fixes.

The day after the honeymoon is over, reality sinks in and for many people their loan becomes a very costly financial headache.

One way to be on the lookout for honeymoon rates is to check the comparison rate. If its significantly higher than the advertised rate, theres likely to be costly catch.

RateCitys personalised ratings system is also a great tool to check whether a loan is suitable for you. It calculates the cost of your home loan over five years, exposing most introductory deals as high-cost products they are.

Related stories:

Majors will move rates sooner or later

Analysis shows variable rate change

Brokers can help educated first home buyersLatest News GetCapital rebrands as Shift, pivots from lender to broker platform New proposition has fintech seeks to empower brokers through data

Pepper Money, St Kilda Football Club launch community grant program Non-bank lender renews partnership with St Kilda by creating $30,000 Real Life Fund to help sports groups

The CEO of an Australian lender has decided pass the baton and tender his resignation, it has been announced.

Newcastle Permanent Building Society chief executive Terry Millett has spent ten years in the role, which he will leave towards the end of the year.

Millett said that although he was still enjoying being the CEO, after overseeing the strong and consistent performance of Newcastle Permanent over the past decade, he felt that it was the right time to pass the baton.

Millett has agreed to stay on in the CEO role until later in the year to help maintain business momentum while a suitably qualified successor is found, and to assist with an orderly and smooth transition to the new CEO.

The chair of Newcastle Permanent, Jeff Eather, said Milletts tenure as CEO has been exemplary and he would be greatly missed by the nearly 1,000 staff, his senior management team and the board for his dedication, enthusiasm and acute business acumen.

Millett said he is very grateful to the Board for the opportunity of serving as the CEO of Newcastle Permanent and expressed confidence that there was a strong and talented management team to carry the organisation forward without any disruption to operations.

Eather said the board will commence an Australia-wide recruitment process for Milletts replacement immediately.

Related stories:

Broking franchise announces new CEO

"Poised" non-bank appoints mortgage headLatest News GetCapital rebrands as Shift, pivots from lender to broker platform New proposition has fintech seeks to empower brokers through data

Pepper Money, St Kilda Football Club launch community grant program Non-bank lender renews partnership with St Kilda by creating $30,000 Real Life Fund to help sports groups

A small business lender has closed an asset-backed revolving credit facility with a global bank worth $75million.

OnDeck Australia, a subsidiary of US-listed OnDeck Capital, Inc, has teamed up with Credit Suisse to refinance its current loan book and fund future originations. The facility is scheduled to mature in June 2020.

Under the facility, loans will be made to a wholly-owned subsidiary of OnDeck Australia, which will purchase small business loans from OnDeck Australia. The revolving pool of small business loans will serve as collateral under the facility. OnDeck Australia will act as the servicer for its loans

Cameron Poolman, chief executive officer OnDeck Australia, acknowledged the role of Credit Suisse in supporting OnDecks mission to power the growth of small business through lending technology and innovation.

He said, Our focus on developing customer-centric and innovative products for the benefit of small businesses in Australia depends on many factors including increasing our access to funding through world-class financing partners like Credit Suisse.

Our new facility is testament to our parent companys reputation and the strength of its international business, and of our ability to leverage its legacy of industry expertise and knowledge.

The online small business lending market in Australia has been growing at a faster rate than the US market did at a similar stage of development. We believe there will be a flight to trusted and quality providers.

We expect to see fewer, stronger players as the Australian market consolidates over time. OnDeck Australia aims to be part of that market. We have the right strategy to prudently build our business well into the future and the important support of key partners like MYOB help us in achieving this objective.

Success for OnDeck Australia will be achieved by lowering our cost of funding, operations and originations and building the leading credit model.

That success is naturally embedded within a culture of good governance learned from our parent and supported locally with the continuing development of strong industry compliance through initiatives like our newly-signed Code of Lending Practice and adoption of pricing disclosure tools like the SMARTBox.

Noah Breslow, CEO of OnDeck Capital, said, OnDecks global mission is based on scaling our international operations towards market leadership while responsibly serving small business owners with efficient, online access to financing.

Todays announcement marks another milestone in our ability to deliver on that mission across Australia and is testament to the strength of OnDeck's business model. Most importantly, it is strong validation of our Australian business and its ability to stand on its own just three years after inception.

OnDeck has also announced a similar funding arrangement of CAD50 million with Credit Agricole for the OnDeck Canada business, with half fully committed and half available at the discretion of the lenders.

Poolman added, While small business accounts for a significant proportion of the Australian economy and employs over 70% of the workforce, small businesses face the universal problem of accessing capital to grow.

The Australian economy cant afford to have a credit gap and to have small business waiting on capital. Building a level playing field in terms of access to capital and data is imperative for the future of Australias small business economy, our future as an innovation nation and reputation of Australian financial services as best in class.Zimbabwes election campaign has been marred by a growing number of reports of voter intimidation and threats of violence, a UN body has said.

Voter intimidation, threats of violence and coercion including people forced to attend political rallies are being increasingly reported ahead of the southern African nations elections on July 30, Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) said Tuesday.

The office did not blame any party, but the ruling Zanu-PF has been accused of violence in previous elections.

A high court ordered Zanu-PF last month to force schoolchildren and teachers to attend its rallies and to wear its regalia.

The UN human rights office said it welcomed the widening of the democratic space in the country since Mugabes removal from office.

The UN body said it remains concerned, however, at the increasing number of reports, particularly in some rural areas.

The election campaign has been largely peaceful, and the UN welcomed the fact that authorities had allowed open political rallies and demonstrations in the capital Harare.

Accused of masterminding attacks on opposition supporters after 2008 election, Mnangagwa, a Zanu-PF ruling party loyalist who took over from the ousted Mugabe in November, has invited international observers. He survived several alleged assassination attempts, blamed on Mugabe supporters.

The OHCHR appeal to Zimbabwes Government, political parties and other institutions follows concern over Zimbabwes alleged human rights violations and level of electoral violence in the past.

The international community imposed sanctions on the country in the early 2000s, following reports of election-rigging and suppression of the opposition.Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

88th Precinct

Fort GreeneClinton Hill

Snake on the train

A villain stole a teens backpack and hit him in the head with a bottle inside a subway station on Lafayette Avenue on July 18, police said.

The 14-year-old told police he swiped into the G train station at Clinton Avenue a little before 1 pm when a snake came up behind him and struck him in the head twice with a glass bottle. The goon grabbed his red North Face backpack  with pens, a notebook, and umbrella inside it  and then fled, cops said. Paramedics transported the teen to Methodist Hospital for cuts on his head, according to authorities.

School thief on the loose

There were two reported thefts on a St. James Place university campus on July 20, police said. Heres the details:

 A thief swiped a guys camera from a studio near Clifton Place at about 3 pm, cops reported.

The guy told cops he placed his pricey Nikon camera with a zoom lens and hard drive on a table inside the studio, left the door open, and when he returned at 10 pm, it was gone, according to authorities.

 A baddie ran off with a womans computer from another studio on the campus sometime overnight, police said.

The 26-year-old left her Dell Precision laptop on top of her desk inside the architectural studio near Clifton Place to go for an interview at about 1 pm, and when she got back the next day at 2:30 pm, it was gone, cops said.

Bad tip

A sneak stole a taxi drivers wallet from his cab after he picked her up at Myrtle Avenue on July 18, police said.

The 37-year-old victim told cops the good-for-nothing got in his cab near Nostrand Avenue at about 9:10 pm and after he dropped her off on Hanson Place about 10 minutes later, noticed that she had swiped his wallet  with credit cards and cash inside  from his center console, according to authorities.

Rotten fruit

A punk stole a womans bag from behind a counter inside a Lafayette Avenue supermarket on July 19, police said.

The victim told cops she was behind the counter of the fruit juice section inside the store near Fort Greene Place at about 3 pm when she stepped away to grab more fruit, and the jerk hopped behind the counter and took her bag, with credit cards and a drivers license inside, from a small shelf, officials said.

 Julianne CubaMiners Raise Demands to PM, Mine Administration

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

Miners in Tkibuli region of western Georgia have demanded the resignation of the mine administration as they are responsible for deaths in mines and appealed to the Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze to offer a written document which will read that miners will receive salaries until the investigation is over after the death of four miners on July 16.Miners say that it is better for the mine administration to leave posts peacefully, as their refusal may anger the miners and trigger protests.The miners are against the closure of two mines in Tkibuli as they starve to deathOut of six injured miners two were discharged from hospital yesterday as they had received less severe injuries. The condition of four others remains critical.Situation may worsen for two miners, who had serious burns and bruises, Georgian Health Minister David Sergeenko told the media.Bakhtadze stated on the day of tragedy that all the two mines would be closed until local and international experts, as well as law enforcers established the reasons behind the fatality.PM said that human lives were of the highest value, and has not yet responded to the offer of the holding owning the mines to take the mines free of charge.The Georgian Industrial Group, the largest holding in Georgia owning the Sakhnakhshiri company which operates the mines, claims that the business is not profitable and is ready to gift mines to the states.The holding says that despite the fact they had invested millions of GEL for safety improvements of the mines, no engineering outcome was found for complete safety.Preliminary reports read that the recent accident was because of the methanol explosion.Georgian Public Defender Nino Lomjaria stated that 15 people died at the Mindeli mine alone in the last three years.Lomjaria says It is important investigation in such cases to be carried out effectively, timely and thoroughly, and appropriate measures to be taken against all the individuals responsible for the incident in order to minimize violation of labor safety, deaths and damage to health in the workplace in the future.Helsinki Commission Holds Hearing on Georgias Occupation Issues

By Vladimer Napetvaridze

On 18 July, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission held a hearing on the Georgias occupation issues and the violations of international laws committed by Russia.The Helsinki Commission is an independent agency of the US government, which promotes human rights, democracy, economic, environmental, and military cooperation in the 57-nation OSCE region.The Ambassador of Georgia to US David Bakradze, Damon Wilson of the Atlantic Council of US and Luke Coffey of the Heritage Foundation participated in the hearing which was titled: "On Violations of the OSCE Principles and Commitments by the Russian Federation, and Severe Human Rights Situation in the Illegally Occupied Regions of Georgia  Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia.The commission defined the main messages of the hearing. The Moscows invasion of Georgia was assessed as the Kremlins willingness to change European borders using the military force, thus deprive the right of its neighbours to choose their own future.The war in Georgia set the stage for Vladimir Putins subsequent war in Ukraine, including the illegal occupation of Crimea and the Donbass and the attempted annexation of Crimea. The human costs of the Russian occupation of Georgia have been tragic. Tens of thousands of Georgians remain internally displaced and face arbitrary detention, mistreatment, and even death if they attempt to visit their property and communities across the Russian-imposed internal administrative boundary. De facto authorities have also worked to eliminate Georgian language and culture from South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Helsinki Commissions said.According to statement of the senator Roger Wickers statement, which is the chairman of the US Helsinki Commission, the Helsinki Commission is holding hearing to make sure the American people and the international community do not lose sight of the continued illegal occupation of Georgia  as well as its costs and implications.One of the main topics of the discussions was Georgias aspiration to join the Western Alliance and its progress on this path: I want to congratulate Georgia on the progress that you are making on the rule of law and independent judiciary and all of the things that we look for, in countries that would like to join the Western alliance, stated the senator Wicker at the end of the hearing.Georgian ambassador to US David Bakradze thanked the US Congress, government and administration for their support to Georgias NATO integration process, and for their interest to solve the problem of the Georgias occupied territories.The Minister of the Foreign affairs of Georgia- David Zalkaliani also assessed the results of the Helsinki Commission meeting and stated that the hearing which was dedicated to the issues of Georgia's occupied territories, is the reflection of the U.S. strong support towards Georgia: The fact that both parties of the US Congress support Georgia indicates that we have a very prominent place in the American political agenda," Zalkaliani said.Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorState-run Canara Bank Ltd reported a surprise 11.9 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on higher interest income while its bad-loan provisions increased slightly. Net profit was Rs 2.81 billion ($40.9 million) for the three months ended June 30, compared with Rs 2.52 billion a year ago, the bank said in a statement Eight analysts on average had expected a loss of Rs 10.96 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Gross bad loans as a percentage of total loans was 11.05 per cent at end-June, lower than 11.84 per cent three months earlier, but still higher than 10.56 ...Dr Batras is betting big on international markets and its range of fast-moving consumer goods as the countrys biggest chain of homeopathy clinics looks to double its revenue growth rate. In FY18, the Mumbai-headquartered company reported Rs 2.25 billion in revenues. Our business is not growing as much as it should.

It hardly grew 9-10 per cent in the past two years as we expanded too fast. We are now looking to consolidate and grow around 20 per cent in the current financial year, said Mukesh Batra, the founder of the healthcare chain, in an interaction ...GMC will not only invest but will also come as a Limited Partner (LP) in the fund, which will focus on the affordable space in private schools. Ragini Chaudhary, its India chief executive, said the money would be used over the next three years to back 35-50 enterprises focused on affordable private schools. We will identify new fund managers and create funds focused on the education and skilling sector, she said adding that the investment ...

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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Digital EditorMahindra and Mahindra (M&M) sees the high operating costs facing transporters as an opportunity to sell more of its high tonnage trucks as the latter boasts of better fuel and operational efficiency as well as lower cost of ownership. This, along with other factors such as buoyancy in infrastructure and construction projects as well as a good economic growth, will help commercial vehicles sustain the strong run till fiscal 2020, said Vinod K Sahay, chief executive at Mahindra Truck and Bus division.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

We, however, have a request.



As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.



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Digital EditorBudget carrier on Wednesday grounded five A320 neo due to issues with engines, according to sources.

Without specifying the number of planes, an spokesperson confirmed that "a few A320 neos have been taken out of service pro-actively and await spare engines from Pratt & Whitney".

Since the induction of A320 neo planes powered by P&W engines in March 2016, has intermittently been facing engine issues and has grounded some of these on earlier occasions also. The problems varied from mid-air engine shut downs to oil chip detection.

"IndiGo has grounded five of its A320neo due to P&W issues. These aircraft are currently grounded at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport," a source said.



Another source said the five aircraft were grounded on Wednesday.

"The release of additional spare engines has been initiated by P&W so that all aircraft are expected to be back in service in the second half of August," the spokesperson said in a statement.

However, the spokesperson did not mention whether flight services have been disrupted due to the grounding of five planes.

Pankisi Gorge Locals Launch Protests against Construction of HPPs

By Tea Mariamidze

Locals of Pankisi Gorge, located in the Akhmeta municipality of the Kakheti region, Georgia, held a protest rally against the construction of Hydro Power Plants (HPPs), including Khadori 3 HPP works in village Birkiani.According to the organizers of the rally, in recent weeks police have summoned people who oppose HPP construction.One of the locals told radio WAY that the police warned them not to hinder the construction process; otherwise, they will face serious problems.We do not want the HPPs here. We elected the government and they should take into account what locals want, the protesters stated.The radio WAY reports that Deputy Interior Minister, Kakha Sabanadze, along with Kakheti governor and Deputy Minister of Economy, met with the protesters. They promised the people that around 100 locals will be employed at the construction and that after the HPP is completed in December 2019, 40 people will be employed there.However, residents of Pankisi are going to continue protest rallies, in case the construction works are resumed.Lasha Iordanishvili, the head of Alazani Energy Company, which carries out construction works, told Radio Way that the company has made an agreement with the state to build a power plant and in case they do not fulfill their duties, the state will face many problems.We have mutual responsibility with the state. The permit has been issued, the finances have been allocated and the electricity generated by the hydroelectric power plant is already included in the balance sheet of the next year. I am trying to explain to the population that HPP will not bring any damage to them, Sabanadze stated, adding, Some evil-minded people want to mislead locals.Khadori 3 construction works were launched several days ago. The water supply to the HPP will be made from the Khadori 2, which means that the river Alazani will be piped in about 4.5 km channel to the village Birkiani.The locals say if the channel is made there will wont be enough water left in the riverbed. They also fear that HPP works will damage environment and worsen their health.The government has moved Delhi High Court to enforce a USD 3.8 billion recovery from Reliance Industries, and following an English court ruling over its share from the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields in western offshore, Oil Minister said on Wednesday.

The liability is to be split between the three companies in proportion to their stake in the fields. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has 40 per cent interest while RIL and hold 30 per cent each.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Pradhan said that based on the Final Partial Award (FPA) dated October 12, 2016, the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had on May 25, 2017, raised demand for $3.8 billion on ONGC, RIL and towards government of India share of profit petroleum and royalty.

RIL and Shell challenged the FPA before the High Court in London. was not party to the arbitration.

"The High Court, London rejected the petition filed by RIL and Shell on April 16, 2018, except on one issue which was remanded to the Arbitral Tribunal," he said. "For enforcement of the FPA, Government has filed a petition before the Delhi High Court."



In December 2010, BG Exploration & Production India Ltd, which was subsequently acquired by Shell, and RIL, initiated an arbitration against the Government of India (GoI) after a dispute over the state's share of profit and royalty from Panna-Mukta and Mid and South Tapti contract areas off the west coast.

The Arbitration Tribunal gave its FPA on October 12, 2016. RIL and Shell initiated proceedings under English Arbitration Act 1996 to challenge the arbitration award before the English Commercial Court in November 2016.

On May 2, 2018, the Court delivered its final judgment, remitting a significant issue for redetermination by the Tribunal within three months while disposing of eight other issues, RIL had said on May 24.

The Arbitration Tribunal has scheduled a hearing to determine the remitted issue and will thereafter deliver an award, it had said.

It had insisted that before taking up the issue of quantification of liability, the Tribunal has to decide the issue which is remitted by the English court to it.

BG-RIL propose to file an application to the Tribunal for the increase of Cost Recovery Limit which they are entitled to do under the Production Sharing Contracts.

"Tribunal can consider the issue of quantification of liability (if any) only after these two issues are decided," RIL had said. "Several issues relating to the claim made by GOI are subject to pending arbitration proceedings."



Pradhan said out of the four arbitration initiated by RIL in respect of its Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6, only two are under adjudication.

The firm has withdrawn the arbitration against a delay in notifying a gas price and the one against taking away of some area in the KG-D6 block after the expiry of stipulated timeframe.

The arbitrations under adjudication include one against the government disallowing certain costs for KG-D6 output not meeting the targets because of non-drilling of stipulated wells, he said.

The second arbitration is against the government seeking compensation from RIL and its partners for producing natural gas belonging to state-owned ONGC, he added.Union Minister has granted sanction to prosecute a former group manager in connection with a graft case involving RJD chief and his family, three months after the sought his nod in the matter, senior officials in the ministry said on Wednesday.

The officials said Goyal gave his nod last night to prosecute B K Agarwal amid concerns that a delay could weaken the case against the Prasad family.

The on April 16 filed a charge sheet against Yadav, a former railway minister, and others in connection with alleged corruption in handing over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), an Indian Railways subsidiary, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotels, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime land plot of three acres in Patna in 2006.

Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, and their son Tejashwi were also among the 14 people named by the in the charge sheet.

The CBI wrote to the railways in April seeking its permission to prosecute Aggarwal, who was then the group general manager.



Sources in the railways said that the minister gave his nod after a report of the which advised the ministry to grant sanction for prosecution under Section 19 of the The Prevention of Corruption Act.

Referring to Aggarwal, the CVC in its report said that he played a "devious part" in evaluating the bid of Sujata Hotels in such a way that they qualified.

"It is clear that in case of B N R Puri, the competitor of Sujata Hotels were deliberately awarded low marks under various heads of evaluation so that it did not qualify for opening of it price bid. The award of marks with the introduction of subheads was arbitrary mala fide," it said.

A Delhi court had in June directed the CBI to get the required nod to prosecute Aggarwal by July 27, when it scheduled its next hearing.Wine as Political Instrument

By Vladimer Napetvaridze

Last week Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare of Russia  Rospotrebnadzor released a statement according to which, Russia will soon begin to control the quality of imported Georgian wine. The statement reads that the quality of Georgian alcoholic beverages exported to Russia in the first half of 2018 does not comply with technical regulations and the law on user rights. Due to these violations, Russia banned 16 thousand liters of Georgian alcohol.National Wine Agency of Georgia responded to the accusations: One of the main objectives of the National Wine Agency's activities is the promotion and control of high quality Georgian wine."The statement also clarifies that beginning January 1, 2017, based on the law, all categories of exported wine is subjected to obligatory degustation.The Special Representative of the prime minister of Georgia for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze stated in his interview with Netgazeti that he doesnt want to relate the Rospotrebnadzors statement to politics: I do not want to see a political motive. I think the National Wine Agency's statement is highly qualified and precisely explained how the quality of exported wine is controlled. These procedures are in accordance with the international standards," - Abashidze said in the interview with Netgazeti.Despite Abashidze's statement, it should be noted that manipulation with the quality of Georgian products is not a new phenomenon for Russia.- 2006- Russia "punished" Georgia for its pro-western aspirations and banned the import of all kinds of Georgian agricultural products. The official reason for this decision was named to be low quality of Georgian products. Only 7 years later, in June 2013, the export of Georgian wine and cognac was restored in Russia. However, it was not "an act of kindness". In 2013, Russia has joined the World Trade Organization - WTO, which puts all members in same conditions. Since Georgia was the member of WTO before Russia joined it, Russia was forced to withdraw embargo for Georgia.- In 2014, after the signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, with the motive to protect Russia from low quality imported products- Russian political elites started discussions about the embargo on Georgia.- In 2015, Russia claimed that in response to anti-Russian sanctions, Russia would impose embargo on the states that joined these sanctions. In parallel with this statement, Rospotrebnadzor stated that part of Georgian products did not meet requirements.- In 2018, two weeks after the NATO Brussels summit, where the Alliance once again confirmed that Georgia will become a NATO member, Rospotrebnadzor started talking about the low quality of Georgian wine again.At a time when India looks to impose higher tariffs on 29 mostly agricultural products from the US, the latter is eyeing market access for soybean meal and easier norms on its cherries, as it battles the fallout of multiple tariff escalation. "We are looking for market access for American cherries, avocados and soybean meal feed for livestock," said Mark Wallace, Acting Minister Counsellor at the US Department of agriculture.

Dear Reader,

Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.

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Digital EditorPakistani-American is neither in nor in hospital, his lawyer said today, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer, told

Media reports had said that Headley was attacked by two inmates at a prison on July 8 and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

"I am in regular communication with Mr Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack on that killed more than 160 people.

Headley who recced various Indian cities including before the 26/11 attacks was arrested in 2009.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the reports.

"We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago said in a brief email response to when asked about the reported prison incident.US President Donald Trump took a pessimistic view of talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker set for Wednesday aimed at averting a trade war. In a tweet on Tuesday night, Trump said both the United States and the European Union should drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies. "That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade!" Trump said. "Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!" he said. ALSO READ: Donald Trump's trade war is already hurting American gadget makers Trump has accused the EU of unfair ...Fiat Chrysler's visionary boss has died, after having driven the Italian auto giant to success for 14 years, holding company Exor announced today.

"It is with the deepest sadness that EXOR has learned of the passing of Sergio Marchionne," the holding company, which is owned by the Agnelli family, said in a statement.

Its chief executive John Elkann said: "Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone." FCA had announced at the weekend that Marchionne, 66, was gravely ill in hospital in Zurich after suffering serious complications following surgery on his right shoulder last month.

The Italian-Canadian executive took the reins at Fiat in 2004. Marchionne is credited with revamping the company, Italy's premier private enterprise, from top to bottom.

In 2009, he merged Fiat with US automaker Chrysler, then hived off its industrial vehicles unit in 2011 to create CNH Industrial and successfully spun off the luxury brand Ferrari in January 2016.

In the statement from Exor, Elkann said: "I believe that the best way to honour his memory is to build on the legacy he left us, continuing to develop the human values of responsibility and openness of which he was the most ardent champion."



In an indication of the profound impact that Marchionne had in Italy, members of parliament held a minute of silence in his honour, followed by applause.

"Thank you for the work, the effort, the results. You spread Italian pride throughout the world", former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted. Meanwhile Italy's deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said "Respect to a man who has done so much and could have done so much more." Marchionne, who brought Fiat back from the brink of bankruptcy, has been lauded by the Italian press since his serious condition was made known over the weekend.

FCA has scrambled to put new management in place to take over his legacy. Marchionne will be replaced as FCA boss by Briton Mike Manley, head of the iconic Jeep brand.

The new executive head of Ferrari will be Louis Carey Camilleri, CEO of tobacco giant Philip Morris. The cigarette-maker has sponsored Ferrari for four decades.

Suzanne Heywood will take over as the new boss of CNH Industrial, which specialises in agricultural and construction equipment, trucks and buses.

Marchionne had been planning to step down from FCA next year.

Some experts have cast doubt on the ability of Marchionne's successors to maintain the momentum he had built up over the years.

German auto expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer described as "a weak company and now with Marchionne's departure, it has become even weaker." His successor at the helm of the sprawling FCA, Manley, "is no Marchionne," Dudenhoeffer said.

But analysts were more optimistic.

"While the succession comes seven months sooner than we and the market anticipated, we nevertheless believe that the investment case for margin expansion and eventual strategic options remains intact," said analysts for Barclays bank.The three biggest US airlines changed how they refer to self-ruled Taiwan on their websites in an effort to avoid Chinese penalties by a Wednesday deadline. Beijing has demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, not refer to Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory on their websites, a move described by the White House in May as "Orwellian nonsense." China set a final deadline of July 25 for the changes, and last month rejected US requests for talks on the matter, adding to tension in relations already frayed by an escalating trade conflict. Taiwan is ...The European Union's budget commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, said on Wednesday the bloc could try to seek a wide reduction of tariffs in negotiations with the United States this year. "In this way, we want to avoid a further escalation of the trade conflict, and to avoid a trade war," Oettinger, a German, told Deutschlandfunk radio. "One could try to untangle the existing tariffs and then ... reduce tariffs for various goods and services." ALSO READ: Ahead of trade talks, Trump asks EU to drop all tariffs, barriers European Commission ...A screen grab from the ad | YouTube

As Florida enters the final month before the primary election, the Republican race for governor will feature a brazen new TV and radio ad from the Adam Putnam campaign.

Starting Wednesday, Floridians statewide will see the ad accusing Putnam's opponent, Congressman Ron DeSantis, of proposing a 23 percent sales tax, according to the Putnam campaign spokeswoman, Meredith Beatrice.

"If Congressman DeSantis had his way, everything would cost 23 percent more: groceries, gas, home purchases," the ad's narrator says. "Hurting families, destroying jobs, devastating tourism.

"Washington is full of bad ideas and phony politicians," the ad continues. "Ron DeSantis and his huge tax increase fit right in."

The ad's premise stems from a 2013 bill in Congress, H.R. 25, or the Fair Tax Act, which DeSantis cosponsored. It's true it pitched a 23 percent nationwide sales tax starting in 2015, with "adjustments" in later years.

But what the ad doesn't mention is that the bill would have also repealed all federal income taxes, employment taxes, as well as the estate and gift taxes. It also pitched a monthly rebate for all spending up to the poverty line, which all lawful U.S. residents would receive.

Critics of the proposal, including some conservatives, say it would unfairly impact the middle class and retirees.

All 75 cosponsors of the bill in the House were Republican. The bill never gained any traction, but has been proposed over and over for years.

While it's common for dark money groups to air negative ads, this one was paid for by Putnam's political committee, Florida Grown. It's a sign that the campaign is on the offensive for the last stretch before the primary, as Putnam fights against new polling that shows DeSantis taking the lead with a Trump event in Tampa still to come.

In an apparent reference to the ad on Twitter, DeSantis's campaign manager, Brad Herold, said Putnam was only criticizing DeSantis for being conservative.US President Donald Trump accused China on Wednesday of targeting American farmers in a "vicious" way and using them as leverage to get concessions on trade. "China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the US They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!" Trump wrote on Twitter. American farmers have been a particular target in the global clash over trade policy as other countries seek to retaliate for US duties on Chinese ...At least four people, including three army personnel, were killed in an attack at a polling station in Balochistan's Kech district, the Pakistan Army's media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Wednesday.

In a statement, the ISPR said that the incident occurred on Tuesday night, when the four people, part of an election staff were doing their electoral and security duties in NA-271 Buleda seat, ARY news reported.

In the attack, ten people were also injured and were rushed to a hospital in Karachi.

It is to be noted that Kech district is situated close to the Pakistan-Iran border, which was closed during the general elections.

Voting began at 8 am (local time), during which most of Pakistan's nearly 106 million people came out to cast their votes. It ended at 6 pm.

Earlier today morning, 31 people were killed in a suicide blast outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Balochistan's Quetta.

Prior to the election, 149 people were killed when an explosion targetted a political rally in Mastung in Balochistan, which also claimed the life of Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate Siraj Raisani.

On a related note, voting began at 8 am (local time), during which most of Pakistan's nearly 106 million people came out to cast their votes. It ended at 6 pm.

Voting was marred by reports of electoral violence and clashes, which led to casualties. In some places, voting had to be temporarily halted.

In the 2013 elections, the PML-N, led by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the largest party with 166 seats out of a total of 342 seats in the National Assembly.

Although the seats were short of a majority, Sharif was able to form a government after several independents joined his party.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In the backdrop of a checkered political history, Pakistan is all set to vote in the 11th general election today.

Amid unprecedented security, Pakistan will vote on Wednesday to elect a new National Assembly and provincial assemblies, already marred with terror attacks and accusations of interference by the military during campaign stages.

Pakistan saw intense campaigning ahead of the polls by candidates from key parties, namely Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan's Peoples Party(PPP).

As many as 800,000 law enforcement and army personnel have been deployed across the length and breadth of the nation to ensure a safe election.

Taking into account the wave of violence witnessed in the run-up to the elections, Peshawar's deputy commissioner has arranged 1,000 kafans (burial shroud) as a preemptive measure.

The troops have been deployed to provide mandated assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct polls, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The logistical arrangements for polling booths are being carried out under the supervision of deployed troops.

Around 220 million ballot papers have been printed for the election. The colour of ballot paper for the National Assembly is green, whereas white coloured paper shall be used for the Provincial Assembly.

More than 17,000 polling stations have been declared sensitive across Pakistan, while CCTV cameras have also been installed at the polling stations, reported Geo TV.

The polling process will start at 8:00 am and end at 6:00 pm on Wednesday.

In the previous elections, PML-N, led by former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the largest party with 166 seats out of a total of 342 in the National Assembly.

Although the seats were short of a majority, Sharif was able to form a government after several independents joined his party.

However, Sharif was disqualified as the Prime Minister and as a Member of the National Assembly in July last year after the Panama Papers case decision.

After Sharif's disqualification, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly in August 2017.

While the country is gearing up for the polls, Nawaz and his daughter, Maryam, are currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, after being convicted in the Avenfield reference case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)American Express has launched its new 360-degree brand marketing campaign in India.

The campaign called "Powerful Backing of American Express: Don't Live Life / Don't Do Without It" reflects new-age highly-integrated lifestyles and how American Express supports its customers, enabling them to thrive in life and in

"This is the first time we're introducing a campaign that speaks to all of the customer segments we serve, with a single, overarching message: American Express has your back, in life and in work. Relationships are core to who we are. Since our inception, we've put our customers at the center of everything we do. The campaign reinforces the enduring relationships we have with our customers and how we support them in ways big and small," said Manoj Adlakha, CEO - American Express Banking Corp., India.

Elaborating on the insights that powered the global brand strategy, Manoj added, "The way people work and live has transformed - there is greater interconnectedness in both personal and work life, as well as real and virtual interactions. This blended, hybrid lifestyle is the new norm across the world - India is no exception. The new brand platform is a response to the fact that our customers are living diverse and layered lives. Our new campaign focuses on the powerful backing that we provide our customers and partners, enabling them to navigate this blended lifestyle."

A recent global study commissioned by American Express showed that more than half of people today are living Hybrid lives, with personal and work life deeply intertwined. The study, conducted in eight markets including India, also revealed that two in three people feel they can achieve more because of this work-life integration.

The new brand campaign was presented at an event showcasing dual passion-points of Indian millennials - technology and travel. These passion-points power the hybrid lifestyle that has emerged in the Live Life study.

The event featured innovative use of technology to transport the attendees into a real-life simulation of diverse experiences such as an adrenaline-charged roller-coaster ride, the thrill of sky-diving, watching the Northern Lights and seeing penguins in the glaciers of Antarctica.

Members of the public can access these experiences through brand activations in DLF Mall of India (Noida) and Cyber Hub (Gurgaon).

Advertising is featured on a cross-section of platforms with a focus on communications channels that are at the intersection of life and work. These include print, mobile and outdoor platforms, as well as digital and social media. The advertising and marketing elements include a heavy focus on digital content, online video, high-impact out-of-home advertising and social influencer engagement.

The campaign is designed to meet people in the places where life and intersect, both online and offline. Whether traveling, going to work, heading out to have fun, engaging with digital content or connecting on social media, Indians will be continuously reminded - American Express has got their back.

Sharing details on how the global campaign was adapted for Indian audiences, Manoj said, "Our local agency partners at Ogilvy and Mindshare have been instrumental in trans-creating the global campaign to make it relevant for the Indian market. They have successfully integrated nuances that our customers and prospects can relate to. We are confident that this approach will resonate with our audience."

"For today's audiences with hybrid lives and complex paths to purchase, we leveraged relevant media and data intelligence to decode the mindset, media consumption behaviours, and connected journeys to deliver the communication to each audience segment, in the right context through the right medium. Basis these findings, we developed an integrated brand and demand focused media strategy that will keep the audiences engaged throughout the brand funnel, finally leading them towards becoming American Express members," added Ruchi Mathur, Sr. Vice President - North & East India at Mindshare.

With the new brand platform, American Express is drawing on its heritage of service, security and trust and modernising many elements of its brand iconography, including a modern articulation of a famous tagline, refreshing its Blue Box logo and visual identity and introducing a hand-drawn version of its famous Card design that features its customers at the center.

The work was created by Mcgarrybowen, Pentagram, Ogilvy, Mindshare, and Digitas. The advertising was directed by renowned director Lance Accord, and the photography was shot by award-winning photographer Matthieu Young.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar today took a dig at Congress President Rahul Gandhi following the Opposition's decision to move a Privilege Motion against PM Narendra Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly misleading the lower house over Rafale aircraft deal during No Confidence Motion debate.

Speaking to the media outside Parliament, Kumar said, "Congress and its President Rahul Gandhi lack knowledge about the rules and procedures of Parliament." He also added that although it is their right to bring such a motion but they should read in which cases a Privilege Motion can be brought.

Congress parliamentary leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, Jyotiraditya Scindia, KV Thomas and Rajeev Satav on Tuesday met Speaker Sumitra Mahajan in the evening and gave separate notices regarding the Privilege Motion.

The minister also asserted that the rival Congress will again face huge embarrassment on the floor of the house in the not so distant future.

Lashing out at the Congress, Kumar stated that the Gandhi scion has realised that no other political outfit will support him as a prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming elections.

"Out of sheer desperation and frustration, Rahul Gandhi has started singing a new tune stating he is open to having a prime ministerial candidate from alliance partners residing in any part of the corner of India, " he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Staying true to its principle of "promise less, deliver more", national bakery brand Anmol Industries Limited, aims at contributing to PM Narendra Modi's initiative of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Their goal is to make India cleaner and healthier, by inculcating among schoolchildren the habit of maintaining cleanliness, through fun activities. The same has been christened as Swachh Bharat - Anmol Bharat School campaign.

Why Swachh Bharat - Anmol Bharat?

Anmol, being a socially responsible brand, aims at creating public awareness with respect to the benefits of cleanliness. This allows children a choice of making an informed decision towards a better tomorrow.

The Swachh Bharat - Anmol Bharat campaign will comprise the distribution of creative handouts, duly depicting the healthy habits. The handout includes a write-up on the cause and vision behind the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It brings to light the initiative taken up by Anmol Industries Limited, to instill the importance of cleanliness, hygiene and waste management. The handout includes a 'fun facts' section highlighting various environment-related trivia.

Interestingly, the Swachh Bharat - Anmol Bharat handouts, which are to be distributed in schools have a DIY (Do It Yourself) section. Here, the children will be taught to create a dustbin, using the ancient art of paper folding called Origami. The handout also has a 'Join the Dots' section. The children will be elated to know that they could win exciting prizes by participating in a Lucky Draw. They will have to fill their details in the form attached, attach a wrapper of Anmol Twinz biscuits to it and drop the same in their school drop box. The handout is written in both English and Bengali to cater to all children irrespective of linguistic background.

Action plan

According to highly placed Anmol Industries sources, the campaign will begin with permissions from school principals for a two-day campaign, along with posters announcers.

The campaign will start with the free distribution of Swachh Bharat - Anmol Bharat Booklet. Post distribution, the students will be apprised of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and sampling will be done. The children will be given an overview of the company and its products. On the final day, a quiz competition will be held. The results of the lucky draw too will be disclosed followed by a prize distribution ceremony.

Strategic Face-lift

Anmol, whose product portfolio includes biscuits, cookies, and cakes, is focusing on Modern Trade aspect of its as well. It plans thronging supermarkets, institutional sales and digital space simultaneously building upon the Rs. 1,100+ crore trades recorded in the last fiscal.

Anmol plans to establish its footprint in exotic flavors, besides simultaneously venturing into premium cookies segment. As many as 10 new variants of biscuits, cakes, cookies and pourable variety category of jar biscuits are to be launched in the near future.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan on Tuesday requested Muslims to stay away from dairy business and cow trading for the safety of their upcoming generations.

Khan's remark came in the light of the increasing number of lynching incidents which have taken place over suspicions of cow smuggling.

"My request to Muslims who are in dairy business and cow trading is to stop it for the safety of their upcoming generations. At a time when some politicians are saying that one must face dire consequences of just touching a cow (Gai ko chhune pe bhi anjaam bhugtna hoga), Muslims should stay away from such trade," he said.

In the intervening night of July 20-21, 28-year-old Rakbar Khan alias Akbar was allegedly beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan's Alwar district.

According to the postmortem report, Khan died of "shock as a result of ante-mortem injuries sustained over the body."

The autopsy further stated that the 28-year-old victim suffered 13 injuries in total, including eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, a fracture in the wrist and another in left femur.

According to media reports, the Alwar police took three hours to get the victim to a hospital, which was only 6 km away.

In a similar incident, 50-year-old Pehlu Khan was beaten to death by cow vigilantes in the same district in April last year.

Condemning the growing mob lynching incidents in the country, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said that the Centre is concerned and looking into the issue.

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs data, 45 people were killed in 40 different cases across nine states between 2014 and 3 March this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rajasthan Police has arrested two people in connection with Dalit man's lynching incident in Barmer.

22-year-old Khetaram was beaten to death by a mob on Tuesday for allegedly having an affair with a Muslim woman in Rajasthan's Barmer.

Meanwhile, Barmer Deputy Superintendent of Police Surinder Kumar said, "The victim succumbed to severe injuries. Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident."

According to police, the post-mortem report revealed that the deceased was severely beaten and that the attackers also tried to strangulate him.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday cast his vote in Larkana city from the NA-200 constituency.

Bilawal posted a picture of himself after casting his vote on his Twitter account, saying, "Voted! Every vote counts. #DemocracyistheBestRevenge."

Also, the PPP uploaded a picture of Bilawal's aunt, Sanam Bhutto after she cast her vote from the NA-200 constituency.

According to Geo News, while addressing the media after he cast his vote, Bilawal condemned the bombing in Quetta, along with the violence in Larkana and Sanghar areas of Sindh.

Earlier today, at least 22 people, including three policemen and two children, were killed in a suspected suicide attack, which took place outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Quetta, with around 30 others being injured.

Another explosion took place outside a polling station of NA-200 constituency in Sindh's Larkana city, which left five people wounded.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A screen capture from the rejected ad. | YouTube

Update: As of Tuesday at about 8:30 p.m., the ad was approved by Facebook. A spokesperson for the website sent an emailed statement: We review millions of ads each week and sometimes we make mistakes. We have overturned the incorrect decision and the ads are now running live on Facebook.

The saga of Facebook's new regulation of political ads continues, as Tuesday a prominent candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture claimed his ad was wrongly rejected by the social media giant.

The short video ad depicts Republican state Rep. Matt Caldwell shooting a shotgun in a field and touting his endorsement from the National Rifle Association. He was the first statewide Florida candidate to be endorsed by the group this election cycle.

In Tuesday's press release, the Caldwell campaign attached a screen shot of Facebook's apparent denial, which read: "Not Approved: Your ad can't promote the sale of weapons or ammunition."

Read more: New Facebook rules for political ads trip up Florida candidates

In the release, Caldwell criticized what he called "Facebook's censorship regime."

"Facebooks liberal agenda is keeping our campaign for Commissioner of Agriculture from sharing our message," he said. "Facebook has mislabeled our ad in an effort to censor our pro-Second Amendment support and endorsement from the NRA."

Ads that are incorrectly rejected can be appealed.

A spokeswoman for the campaign, Danielle Alvarez, said they have appealed the decision are are in the "waiting queue," though she emphasized that every day they spend waiting is a day they are not advertising  five weeks before a crowded primary.

These new rules are all part of Facebook's attempt to better regulate and label political ads on its site in the wake of the 2016 election, when fake news and foreign bots using phony accounts ran rampant.

But Facebook has faced criticism at nearly every step, as the difficulties in distinguishing decidedly "political" ads has caused other, non-political ads to get stuck in the gears.

Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Facebook took heat for allowing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones from InfoWars to broadcast on their site for nearly three hours on Monday, during which he described shooting special counsel Robert Mueller and cast wild allegations that Mueller is a "pedophile."Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs take two steps back whenever he meets them now as they fear that he would hug them.

Last week, Rahul garnered huge attention after he walked up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hugged him following his speech in the Lok Sabha over No-Confidence Motion.

After citing an example from his visit to Vietnam some time ago, Rahul at a book launch event here said: "You can fight someone with all your might, but hate is a choice. It's an active choice that you make. I might disagree with Mr LK Advani (sitting in the audience). I might have a completely different conception of the country that Mr Advani has and I can fight him on every single inch, but I don't need to hate him. I can actually hug him and fight."

He added: "It's interesting because now whenever I come across BJP MPs they start off taking two steps back. They are like, 'We better be careful, he could hug us.' But it's not such a bad thing. If there is one thing that our religion teaches us is that you absolutely cannot get imprisoned by hatred."

Though, Rahul's gesture was hailed by his party leaders as "Jaadu ki Jhappi (magical hug)", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ridiculed him saying he has started "chipko movement" in the Lok Sabha.

In his speech at the event, Rahul also said that "the atmosphere in India today at least from my perspective is coloured with a lot of hatred, a lot of anger, frustration."

Meanwhile, in context with the infamous issue of 2016 Rafale deal, Gandhi in his speech during the debate on No-Confidence Motion in the Lok Sabha claimed that he had met French President during his visit to India and had asked about the secrecy clause in the pact. The Congress president claimed that the French President had denied about any such clause.

When ANI asked about BJP's claim that NDA government saved Rs 59 Crore per aircraft in Rafale deal, Rahul simply replied: "We will discuss it but not right now. Please look at my tweet."

It seemed that Rahul was talking about the post he made earlier in the day which read: "Mr 56 does (heart emoji) someone after all. 1. Must wear a suit 2. Must have 45,000 crore debt 3. Must have a TEN day old company. 4. Must never have made an aircraft in his life. Rewards of up to $4 billion in 'off set' contracts if you fulfil said criteria."

Also present at the book launch were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari and Congress Leader Salman Khurshid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seeking whereabouts of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has written to Antiguan authorities demanding details about him.

Mehul Choksi, who is allegedly involved in over USD 2 billion scam in the state-run Punjab Bank, is wanted by the investigating agencies. The 59-year-old has reportedly taken refuge in Caribbean nation after moving there in July, and even taken a local passport.

The CBI in its communication sent to Antiguan authority on Tuesday evening also cited diffusion notice by interpol against Choksi, seeking details of his movement and his present location.

However, India does not have bilateral extradition or mutual assistance legal treaty with Antigua. Keeping that in mind, India which is a member of the Financial Task Action Force reportedly might seek cooperation from money-laundering watchdog. India may also seek assistance under the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

In other developments, the Enforcement Directorate has also got a special court approval for initiating extradition proceedings against Choksi's cousin Nirav Modi, after he was spotted in the United Kingdom.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Electoral violence in Pakistan was reported in different parts of the country as voters stepped out in large numbers to exercise their franchise on Wednesday.

To begin with, 31 people were killed in a suicide blast outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Quetta in the morning.

Another explosion took place outside a polling station of NA-200 constituency in Sindh's Larkana city, which left five people wounded.

In Dadu, the police have arrested seven people in a firing incident in which three persons were injured, The Dawn reported.

Voting was disrupted in Shahpur polling station of NA-10 after clashes erupted between the supporters of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP).

In Jijal, a scuffle between two different groups of independent candidates left seven people wounded.

In Badin, six people were reportedly injured after clashes erupted between PPP and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), a coalition of regional parties in Pakistan.

In a separate incident, a scuffle between PPP and GDA workers left five people wounded in Chak No. 1 near Golarchi town of Badin district. Polling process was suspended following the clashes. The district administration sent more troops to the affected area to maintain law and order situation, according to The Dawn report.

Clashes between GDA candidate Shehzad Mehar and an independent candidate Ameer Jatoi left seven people wounded in Shikarpur.

Furthermore, 15 people were injured when Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) workers reportedly clashed with each other at Bhatti Mohalla polling station in Jafarabad district of Balochistan.

The police said that the injured were shifted to a local hospital and polling process has been halted temporarily, according to Geo TV.

In Rawalpindi, PTI and PML-N workers clashed outside the Government Postgraduate College in Satellite Town area.

In Ghotki's PS-21 constituency, a scuffle between two political parties left five people wounded, reported the Geo News quoting the police.

Clashes were also reported from NA-123 seat in Lahore and NA-155 seat in Multan, as per the Geo TV report.

In Attock's Hazro Tehsil, PML-N and PTI workers were involved in an altercation. The police were called in to control the law and order situation.

A PTI worker was shot dead and two persons were injured in clashes between ANP and PTI workers in Swabi's PK-47 constituency.

Prior to the election, there were numerous suicide blasts reported at different parts of Pakistan targeting political candidates and election rallies, claiming over 150 lives.

Polling in Pakistan, which began at 8 am (local time) today, came to an end at 6 pm.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress workers launched a free hug campaign in Delhi's Connaught Place on Tuesday.

This came days after Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave a hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the discussion on no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on July 20.

During the campaign, around 50 workers were seen holding placards and banners with slogans 'remove enmity, save country' and pictures of Rahul hugging Prime Minister Modi.

The party workers were also seem hugging people who gathered to see what was happening in the area.

Speaking to ANI, Delhi Congress worker Aniruddh Sharma, who was leading the campaign, said, "Our aim is to spread message - 'remove hatred, save country'. A hug is a way of spreading love. But we also tell people that the idea of India lies in the fact that people from different religions should respect each other's faith and live in harmony."

He added that Rahul hugged Prime Minister Modi to spread the message of love and compassion. "We are taking his (Rahul) message forward," Sharma said.

The Delhi Congress is also planning to take the campaign forward by holding more such gatherings at the city's Metro stations, and to promote it on social media as well.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)'Beauty and Beast' actor Dan Stevens has landed a role alongside Harrison Ford in 20th Century Fox's 'Call of the wild.'

The film is an adaptation of Jack London's classic novel of the same name, that follows the journey of a sledge dog named Buck in the Alaskan wilderness.

According to the Variety, Harrison Ford is playing John Thornton, a prosecutor searching for gold in the unforgiving Yukon. Buck ends up becoming Thornton's closest ally in the wilderness.

It is unclear what role Stevens will play.

The adventure film will be directed by "The Croods" director Chris Sanders and is set to be shot in California.

Meanwhile, Dan Stevens is currently starring in FX's "Legion", a comic book adaptation where he will deal with mutant powers.

On a related note, the role of Thornton in the previous adaptations of the novel was played by Clark Gable and Charlton Heston.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Wednesday rescued 16 girls from an apartment in Delhi's Munirka area who were trafficked from Nepal.

Speaking to ANI, DCW chief, Swati Maliwal said that the girls were being trafficked to Iran and Kuwait in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

"An Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) had informed us that the girls are being trafficked to Iran and Kuwait on the pretext of jobs offer today. Apart from these 16 girls, there were at least seven others who have already been trafficked to the two gulf nations," she said.

"I reached Munirka with my team and informed the Delhi Police. We rescued the girls together. The girls told us how the agents had promised them jobs in the Iran and Kuwait. They were cramped up in a small room," the DCW chief added.

She also appealed to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to intervene into the matter and direct the police to take stringent action.

Meanwhile, the rescued girls have been sent to a shelter home.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government on Thursday ordered a magisterial inquiry into the deaths of three sisters who were found dead in east Delhi's Mandawali area.

The initial post-mortem examination report has indicated that the girls, aged two, four and eight died of starvation.

Reportedly, the police were initially treating it as the case of natural deaths, but the recovery of pills and medicine bottles prompted them to look into the poisoning angle.

The girls were brought to the hospital by a member of the family but were declared dead on arrival.

Pankaj Singh deputy commissioner of police (east) said, "A board of doctors conducted a re-examination at the GTB hospital. According to the initial autopsy report, the girls died due to starvation and its complications."

"The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the matter," Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced in a tweet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday urged the voters 'not to waste time' and cast their votes for a better future of Pakistan.

Shehbaz, while interacting with media before casting his vote in Lahore's Model Town, reiterated the promises made by the party during the election campaigns.

"Do not waste your time. Get out of your homes and cast your vote. We will change the destiny of this country through the power of people. If we come into power, we will end poverty, give education to everyone, make millions of homes, build Bhasha dam," he said, as quoted by the Dawn.

"China and Saudi Arabia are keen to help us," he added.

Nearly 106 million registered voters will cast their vote to choose the new government in Pakistan.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for 272 national and 577 provincial assembly seats.

Pakistan saw intense campaigning ahead of the 11th general election by candidates from key parties, namely Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan's Peoples Party(PPP).

As many as 800,000 law enforcement and army personnel have been deployed across the length and breadth of the nation to ensure a safe election.

Taking into account the wave of violence and terrorist attacks witnessed in the run-up to the elections, Peshawar's deputy commissioner has arranged 1,000 kafans (burial shroud) as a pre-emptive measure.

The troops have been deployed to provide mandated assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct polls, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

More than 17,000 polling stations have been declared sensitive across the country, while CCTV cameras have also been installed at the polling stations, reported Geo TV.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China seems to have fulfilled its promise of giving "large scale" aid to North Korea.

Beijing reopened its aid to Pyongyang in the form of fertilizer, food, and cooking oil, after Kim Jong-un's surprise visit to China last month.

Chinascope is a media research company, which "gathers, translates, and periodically analyzes Chinese-language media reporting and documents that are generally inaccessible to the West."

According to Chinascope, South Korea's largest newspaper Chosun published two reports on how Beijing's shot in Pyongyang's arm is boosting North Korean economy.

"The fertilizer volume could have set a record high already, surpassing the 200,000 tons peak volume in 2013," Chinascope stated.

China's supply of crude oil to North Korea, if continued at the existing pace of 80,000 tons per month, will end up clocking 960,000 tons annually.

This is 400,000 tons more than the United Nations-sanctioned annual ceiling of 560,000 tons.

The UN-imposed restrictions are being disregarded in the supply of iron ore as well.

Despite the global body banning North Korea from exporting iron ore, "large number of iron ore trucks" rolled into China, as seen by many people, said Chinascope.

The China-North Korea bonhomie is visible on their border as well.

North Korea, on July 10, established a free trade market at its China border in Rason City, where Chinese people can enter without obtaining a visa.

This free trade market has enabled Pyongyang to obtain the much-needed foreign currencies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday issued a notice to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan for voting publicly at his NA-53 constituency and in front of the cameras, which is a violation of the electoral body's code of conduct, reported The Dawn.

The PTI party earlier rubbished reports of its chairman Imran Khan's vote at NA-53 seat being null and void.

In a statement, the PTI said that Khan did not violate any election rules. Furthermore, it also hit out at the ECP of not discharging its function to curb the spread of unverified media reports.

The Express News earlier reported that Khan was captured on video while casting his vote.

Failure to maintain the secrecy of vote leads to a punishment of six months in jail and a fine of 1,000 Pakistani rupees, according to Section 185 of the Election Act 2017, The Dawn reported.

Earlier, the ECP stated that the media discussions pertaining to Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif were a violation code of conduct.

Show-cause notices to various news channels have been issued by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), and representatives of the channels now have to submit written replies and appear for a hearing on July 31.

Earlier in the day, the PEMRA had directed private TV channels to stop airing any content related to the country's general election.

According to The Dawn, this step was taken after PEMRA received concerns from the ECP regarding violations committed by private satellite TV channels.

The voting in Pakistan, which is observing a public holiday today, began at 8 a.m (local time) and will continue till 6 p.m.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)AUC Business Forward, by TOQA EZZIDIN (March, 2018)

Excerpt Egypt to build world's largest solar part: what role will the private sector play?

Some 10,000 people will work during the phase of construction, in addition to 4,000 people once the solar installation begins operating (Photo courtesy of Juhayna / KarmSolar)

The construction of the soon-to-be worlds largest solar park is currently in progress near Egypts southern city of Aswan. It is slated to be powered up by mid-2019 to increase the countrys renewable energy generation capacity.

The power generation process consists of three main phases: producing the electricity, then transmitting it across governorates and countries via specialized companies, and then distributing it to consumers through companies that lower the voltages.

The specs of the Benban solar park

The total production of the new solar park is set between 1.6-2 gigawatts (GW), according to news outlet Electrek. The Benban solar power complex was named after a nearby Nile River village. Citing the International Finance Corporation (IFC)  a sister organization of the World Bank  some 10,000 people will work during the phase of construction, in addition to 4,000 people once the solar installation begins operating.

The Benban solar park will include 32 power plants, with a production capacity of about 50 megawatts (MW) each. In October 2017, the IFC, along with a consortium of nine other banks, invested $653 million in 13 of the 32 power plants, according to Forbes Middle East. The consortiums financing will help 13 private companies build and operate solar plants at the site. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) additionally invested in 16 photovoltaic projects, mounting the investments in 29 power plants in the solar park to $1.8 billion.

With over $2.2 billion of financing, the [park] is considered the largest foreign direct investment in Egypt in recent years, law firm Zulficar and Partners, advisor to the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), states in a press release.

Benban solar park will include 32 power plants, with a production of about 50 MW each

Allocated by the Egyptian government to the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), the Benban solar power complex is being built on 37 square kilometers.

The private sectors take on the park

CEO and cofounder of solar technology and integration company KarmSolar Ahmed Zahran tells Business Forward that the new solar park will increase the solar component in Egypts energy mix.

Today, Egypts energy mix consists of more than 60 percent gas and only 6-7 percent renewable energy, Zahran explains, adding that upon the completion of Benban solar park, solar energy in Egypt will undoubtedly strengthen.

Egypts feed-in-tariff program aims to involve the private sector to achieve Egypts plan to produce 20 percent of its energy through renewable sources by 2022. So far, the output of the Benban solar park is set to be sold to the government.

However, Zahran believes that it is more efficient for the private sector companies working on the project to sell their output directly to other private firms for the transmission process because they have more potential.

Benban comes with a 25-year contract to sell its output to the state-owned EETC, according to Energy Egypt.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to build a Gandhi Heritage Centre in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

Addressing the Ugandan Parliament, the Prime Minister said, "And, at the sacred site in Jinja, where a statue of Gandhiji now stands, we will build a Gandhi Heritage Centre. As we approach the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there can be no better homage than a Centre to remind us of Africa's role in shaping his mission."

The Prime Minister further said that the story of India's own freedom struggle is intimately linked to Africa.

"The story of India's own freedom struggle is intimately linked to Africa. It is not just the 21 years that Gandhiji spent in Africa or the First Non- Cooperation Movement he led," the Prime Minister added.

He further said that India pursued Afro-Asian solidarity in Bandung and added, "We stood firm in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. We took leading and bold positions in former Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe, in Guinea Bassau, Angola and Namibia."

The Prime Minister further stated that India and Africa stand on the threshold of a future of great promise.

"India's principled support to Africa's liberation movements often came at a cost to our nation's trade. This mattered nothing in comparison to Africa's freedom. Today, India and Africa stand on the threshold of a future of great promise: As confident, secure, youthful, innovative, and dynamic people," he added.

Prime Minister Modi is currently on a five-day three-nation tour of the African continent-Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa.

Prior to Uganda, the Prime Minister visited Rwanda and discussed bilateral relation there.

After finishing his engagements in Uganda, Prime Minister Modi will travel South Africa, where he will attend BRICS summit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Ali Abbas Zafar, on Wednesday, shared the first sneak peek of Salman Khan from their upcoming film 'Bharat'.

The much-awaited film, which also features actress Disha Patani, is set to recreate the era of the late 60s for a circus sequence, international artists from across the globe will be roped in for the same.

Zafar shared a picture of the 'Dabangg' jumping across fire rings on a motorcycle. He wrote, "Ring of fire ..... & Bharat @BeingSalmanKhan. Eid 2019"

(embed)

The film also includes stellar performers like Priyanka Chopra, Tabu and Sunil Grover, promising power-packed performances.

'Bharat' is set to have a character-driven story spanning many time periods and will be shot across locations in Abu Dhabi and Spain, besides Punjab and Delhi in India.

This will be Salman Khan's third collaboration with director Ali Abbas Zafar after the 2016 film 'Sultan' and the recent 'Tiger Zinda Hai'.

With the release of Bharat, Salman Khan will yet again give the audience a treat on the festival of Eid.

On a related note, Salman and Priyanka were last seen together on the silver screen in 'God Tussi Great Ho'. The duo has also done hit films like 'Salaam-E-Ishq' and 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi'.

Their fourth film, 'Bharat', is already amongst Bollywood's much-awaited projects since it was announced earlier this year.

From the film's location scouting to Disha Patani's training, Ali Abbas Zafar has been sharing various insights from the film with his fans on Twitter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 26-year-old Hyderabadi youth is missing since Friday in the US.

The family is now seeking help from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Indian Embassy in the United States.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig, a native of Hyderabad, was reportedly facing issues in the United States, according to his family.

Speaking to ANI, Baig's younger brother, Mirza Sujjat said, "He went to the US in 2015 to pursue higher education. Last Friday, he called us and complained that he is facing problems in the last six months."

The 26-year-old had landed in Pennsylvania in July 2015 to pursue higher education in the field of aeronautical engineering.

A year later, he switched to another educational institution in New Jersey.

The family said Baig had not visited them since the time he left for the States.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)PTI-chief Imran Khan and PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif on Wednesday condemned the suspected suicide attack in Quetta, which claimed atleast 25 lives.

Imran Khan took to Twitter to say that this attack was to disrupt the "democratic process".

"Condemnable terrorist attack in Quetta by enemies of Pak seeking to disrupt our democratic process. Saddened by the loss of innocent lives. Pakistanis must defeat the terrorists' design by coming out in strength to cast their vote," he wrote.

Shahbaz Sharif, condemning the deadly suicide attack in Quetta, wrote, "Heart broken to learn of martyrdom of innocent people including police officials & injuries sustained by others in a terrorist attack in Quetta at a time when the people are exercising their democratic right of vote. My profound condolences to the bereaved families."

The attack, which took place outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Quetta, also injured 30 people, hospital sources confirmed the Geo TV.

As per reports, the explosion took place near a police vehicle, which was on routine patrolling.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up when police and FC personnel stopped him from entering the station," the police spokesperson said.

The injured were shifted to Sandeman Provincial Hospital for treatment and a state of emergency has been declared at the hospital, said DIG Abdul Razzak Cheema.

Another explosion took place outside a polling station of NA-200 constituency in Sindh's Larkana city, which left five people wounded.

Polling was stopped at the booth following the explosion, which occurred near Shah Muhammad School.

Meanwhile, in Balochistan's Dera Murad Jamali city, two people were injured in a firing incident.

Seven people have been injured in clashes between two rival political groups at a women polling station in Khipro area.

According to the Dawn, the dispute started between voters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) at polling station Yamin Hingorjo after a woman was stopped from casting her vote on technical reasons.

There have been several attacks on candidates and campaign rallies in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrests to former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram till August 1, in connection with the INX Media case.

On Monday, the Madras High Court had squashed the Look Out Circulars against the former minister's son, Karti Chidambaram, issued by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June last year.

However, the court made it clear that the order would not affect any proceedings initiated against Karti Chidambaram in the case.

Earlier on the same day, the Supreme Court allowed Karti to travel to USA, France and UK from July 23 to 31 for business purposes. He had filed a plea in the apex court seeking permission to travel abroad.

The Chidambarams have been under the scanner of investigation agencies, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in connection with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance granted to INX Media, a venture promoted by former media baron Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea.

The alleged irregularities took place in 2007 when Chidambaram was the finance minister under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

In February, Karti Chidambaram was arrested for his alleged role in the case. The Delhi High Court, however, granted him bail in March.

Karti Chidambaram allegedly took service charges for facilitating the clearance granted to INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore.

The former finance minister and his son have also been probed for their alleged involvement in the Aircel-Maxis case, pertaining to an FIPB clearance granted to the firm M/S Global Communication Holding Services Ltd for an investment in Aircel.

On July 19, the CBI filed a charge-sheet in the case in a Delhi Court against 18 accused, including the former Finance Minister , his son and select government officials (serving and retired).

In its new charge-sheet, the CBI said that two sets of money trails were discovered regarding FIPB clearance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ivanka Trump is shutting down her namesake company to focus on her work in the White House, reports said on Tuesday.

"When we first started this brand, no one could have predicted the success that we would achieve. After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners," a statement carried by CNN noted.

Ivanka, through the statement, also thanked her team for the support extended to the firm.

According to reports, Ivanka's company has been operating with restrictions to limit the violations of ethics laws.

The company was started by Trump in 2007 as a fine jewellery brand and was later expanded to include the clothing line, shoes, and eyewear.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Coming down hard on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongoing three-nation to Africa, senior Congress leader and member of Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said that former could have avoided his visit as the Parliament session is currently underway.

"Prime Minister is out on a five-day tour when the Parliament session is on. The meeting could have been avoided," Kharge said.

Stating that Prime Minister's Africa visit was not an "inevitable" one, Kharge further said that the former chose the foreign tour skipping Parliament monsoon session.

"It was not an inevitable meeting. But, since he has the absolute majority, he chooses to go on foreign tours and skips Parliament sessions," he added.

Prime Minister Modi is currently on a five-day three-nation tour of the African continent-Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa.

He left for the tour on July 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that the Justice (retired) Ranjit Singh Commission Report on the sacrilege cases in the state will be tabled in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha and legal action will be taken against all those found guilty by it.

In an informal discussion with a group of senior party leaders, Captain Amarinder said that the government had so far received the first part of the report, which was under legal scrutiny.

He said the remaining parts of the report are expected soon and once received; the complete report would be tabled, along with the action taken report, in the ensuing session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The chief minister said, "legal action will be taken against those found guilty and none will be spared".

Captain Amarinder stated this while interacting with party leaders, including Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit, Kikki Dhillon and Pargat Singh.

Justice (retired) Ranjit Singh Commission had submitted the first part of his report, pertaining to Bargari sacrilege incident and the Behbal Kalan firing incident, along with some other important cases, to the Chief Minister on June 30.

The Chief Minister had forwarded the report to the state Home Secretary and the Advocate General to examine the findings and suggest action so that the guilty can be brought to book at the earliest.

The Commission was set up in April 2017 by the Captain Amarinder led Congress government to investigate the various incidents of sacrilege of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts, after rejecting as 'inconclusive' the findings of the Zora Singh Commission set up by the erstwhile Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Maratha community member Jagannath Sonavne, who attempted suicide yesterday during ongoing Maratha protest here, died on Wednesday.

Sonavne, who consumed poison was undergoing treatment at a hospital. One more protestor, Jayant Sonavne, who also attempted suicide yesterday by jumping into a river, is in a stable condition and undergoing treatment at the hospital.

Earlier on Monday, another Maratha protestor, Kakasaheb Shinde jumped to his death in Godavari river in Aurangabad district.

The Maratha community has been protesting across Maharashtra demanding reservation in government jobs and education.

Earlier today, the Maratha Kranti Morcha workers set several vehicles on fire and also vandalised public buses in Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli and Wagle estate area of Thane causing disruption in bus services. The protestors also blocked a local train in Thane.

Meanwhile, a Maratha Kranti Morcha worker told ANI that they asked their workers to not cause any inconvenience to the police or government.

"We are not blocking any road. We are carrying out a peaceful protest. We have told our workers that there should be no inconvenience to the police or government due to our protest. We are asking people to shut down their shops," the worker told ANI.

Besides reservation for the Maratha community, loan waiver, Kopardi rape, unemployment are some of the other issues against which the community is protesting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the government is ready for a dialogue with Sakal Maratha Samaj.

"Government is always ready for a dialogue with Sakal Marathan Samaj," Fadnavis said.

"Whatever apprehensions Sakal Maratha Samaaj has about the mega recruitment, the same too can be resolved through proper dialogue and an all-acceptable solution can be reached," he added.

The Chief Minister asserted that they have taken many positive decisions for the community and if there is any shortcoming in any scheme's implementation then it could be resolved through proper dialogue.

Fadnavis appealed the protesters to shunt violence and come on board for "constructive dialogue'.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan blamed the state government of deceiving people.

"There's no question of us taking political benefit. Till when you'll deceive people in name of discussions?," Chavan said.

The Maratha community has been protesting across Maharashtra demanding reservation in government jobs and education.

The quota for Marathas has been a highly contentious issue, with the community comprising of around 30% of the state's population.

In 2017, a huge rally was held by the Maratha Kranti Morcha in the same connection in Mumbai.

Besides reservation for the Maratha community, loan waiver, Kopardi rape, unemployment are some of the other issues against which the community is protesting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vous etes confrontes a une infestation par la puce, la punaise de lit ? Voici plusieurs actions qui sont a mettre en uvre pour faire []Shiv Sena MLA from Kannad (Aurangabad) constituency, Harshvardhan Jadhav has offered his resignation to Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha speaker amid Maratha community's protest across the state demanding reservation in government jobs and education.

Jadhav sent his resignation via mail and has left for Mumbai to hand over a physical copy to the speaker of Vidhan Sabha.

The quota for Marathas has been a highly contentious issue, with the community comprising of around 30 percent of the state's population.

In 2017, a huge rally was held by the Maratha Kranti Morcha in the same connection in Mumbai.

Besides reservation for the Maratha community, loan waiver, Kopardi rape, unemployment are some of the other issues against which the community is protesting.

Maratha Kranti Morcha has called off their state-wide bandh after staging intensified protests for almost two days.

Earlier today, the protestors set several vehicles on fire and also vandalized public buses in Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli and Wagle estate area of Thane, causing disruption in bus services. They also blocked a local train in Thane.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said that the government is ready for a dialogue with Sakal Maratha Samaj.

"Government is always ready for a dialogue with Sakal Marathan Samaj," Fadnavis said.

"Whatever apprehensions Sakal Maratha Samaaj has about the mega recruitment, the same too can be resolved through proper dialogue and an all-acceptable solution can be reached," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maratha quota stir turned violent on Wednesday after clashes broke out between two groups in Udgir in Latur district.

The clashes erupted after protesting Maratha Kranti Morcha workers allegedly forced people to shut down their shops and overturned a vegetable cart.

Meanwhile, another group requested the shopkeepers with their folded hands to close their shops in Bandra.

The Maratha community has been protesting across Maharashtra demanding reservation in government jobs and education. They have also called for a bandh in the state today.

Earlier today, the protestors set several vehicles on fire and also vandalised public buses in Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli and Wagle estate area of Thane causing disruption in bus services. They also blocked a local train in Thane.

Besides reservation for the Maratha community, loan waiver, Kopardi rape, unemployment are some of the other issues against which the community is protesting.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In an attempt to revive silk industry and generate employment in the region, the government on Tuesday reopened decades old silk factory, installed by Sir Thomas Wardle, president of the Silk Association of Great Britain in 1897.

This archaic Silk factory is situated at Solina Rambagh area of Srinagar city.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner, Government of India, said, it is a commendable step taken by the ruling government at the Centre, in order to revive the art and culture of Jammu and Kashmir.

"I congratulate the government, for making efforts to create employment in the region and also to revive the culture in the region. Kashmiris can again feel proud of their silk and we should come together to celebrate this step taken by the government," she said.

Dr Gupta further said that the government has also made efforts to revive the machines used for making silk, besides providing space for storing Cocoons and Lakkar.

When asked about the challenges, Dr Gupta said that the all silk-based products, manufactured by the Kashmiris, will now have to competative in terms of price, quality and logistics.

Bashir Ahmad , an employee at the silk factory asserted that after the factory starts functioning, import of silk products from China will be reduced rapidly.

"In terms of quality also, the silk product manufactured in Kashmir is way far better than China," he said.

Another employee, Abdul Rashid, also lauded the government for taking steps to eradicate the unemployment in the region.

"It is a known fact that more than 70 per cent of the youth residing in the valley are unemployed. But now that this factory has opened, many will be skilled and will able to meet their ends, " said Rashid.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Justice (retired) Nasir-ul-Mulk on Wednesday exercised his franchise at a polling booth in Mingora, Swat.

After voting, Mulk returned to Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and his wife cast their votes at a polling booth in Rawalpindi, said Director-General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major General Asif Ghafoor.

He posted a video of General Bajwa and his wife casting their votes and getting their thumbs inked in his Twitter handle.

"COAS & his Mrs cast vote at Rwp. We are target of inimical forces working against Pak. We've come a long way in our comprehensive national effort to fail them. We are united & steadfast to defeat them, and 'TODAY' through our 'VOTES'. Please come out & vote undeterred", COAS."

There are widespread allegations that the military forces are swaying the electoral results in favour of Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. However, the Army has rejected such allegations.

Polling started at 8 am today and, as of now, will conclude at 6 pm.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for 272 national and 577 provincial assembly seats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 22 people, including three policeman and two children, were killed in a suspected suicide attack, which took place outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Quetta on Wednesday.

Apart from this, around 30 people are injured, the hospital sources confirmed the Geo TV.

As per reports, the explosion took place near a police vehicle, which was on routine patrolling.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up when police and FC personnel stopped him from entering the station," the police spokesperson said.

The injured were shifted to Sandeman Provincial Hospital for treatment and a state of emergency has been declared at the hospital, said DIG Abdul Razzak Cheema.

Another explosion took place outside a polling station of NA-200 constituency in Sindh's Larkana city, which left five people wounded.

Polling was stopped at the booth following the explosion, which occurred near Shah Muhammad School.

Meanwhile, in Balochistan's Dera Murad Jamali city, two people were injured in a firing incident.

Seven people have been injured in clashes between two rival political groups at a women polling station in Khipro area.

According to the Dawn, the dispute started between voters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) at polling station Yamin Hingorjo after a woman was stopped from casting her vote on technical reasons.

There have been several attacks on candidates and campaign rallies in the country.

On Sunday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Sardar Ikramullah Gandapur died in a suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan city.

Gandapur, a former agriculture minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was killed after his vehicle was targetted in a suicide attack in Kulachi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief and Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed on Wednesday cast his vote in the ongoing Pakistan general elections.

Saeed's son, son-in-law and 13 women are among 265 Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) candidates contesting on Allaha-u-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) platform on national and provincial assemblies' seats across Pakistan.

Saeed's son Hafiz Talha Saeed is contesting from NA-91 block and son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is a candidate in PP-167 block.

Earlier, the LeT chief openly campaigned for the country's general elections.

The United States (US) had expressed concerns about the participation of LeT-affiliated individuals in the upcoming general elections in Pakistan.

"We have repeatedly expressed our concerns to the Pakistani government about LeT, including the participation of LeT-affiliated individuals in the elections," The Dawn quoted a statement by the US State Department in the past.

The voting for the 11th General Election in Pakistan has started from 8 a.m. (local time) and will continue till 6 p.m.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Low turnout of women voters in Pakistan's 11th general election have been reported in Peshawar.

According to the Dawn, out of 1700 expected votes, only 56 have been cast so far.

Report further said that women in Swabi district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have started casting their votes, despite a ban placed by a local jirga.

Meanwhile, there are reports that voters from the transgender community in Lahore are not being allowed to cast their vote in male polling station.

Earlier in the day, late Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's daughters Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari and Aseefa Bhutto Zardari cast their votes in Sindh's Nawabshah.

Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari took to her Twitter handle to share a picture with her younger sister, where the two showed their inked thumbs.

"Voted with @AseefaBZ this morning in #Nawabshah & inshAllah in Shaheed Benazirabad #TeerChalega #Pakistan #Elections2018 #AgliBariPirZardari @AAliZardari," she tweeted.

Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari is contesting from NA-213 constituency.

Nearly 106 million registered voters will cast their vote to choose the new government in Pakistan.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for 272 national and 577 provincial assembly seats.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated President Ram Nath Kovind for completing one year in office.

Taking to his Twitter handle, the Prime Minister praised Kovind for being passionate about empowering the marginalized section of the society.

"Congratulations to Rashtrapati Ramnath Kovind Ji on completing 1 year in office. He's endeared himself to every Indian with his wisdom and humility. He is extremely well versed in key policy issues. Rashtrapati Ji is also passionate about empowering the youth, farmers & poor," Modi wrote.

Kovind, who took over as India's14th president on July 25 last year, is a lawyer by profession and has worked extensively in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

He was appointed as the Governor of Bihar on August 8, 2015 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh during the two terms of 1994-2000 and 2000-2006.

Kovind also represented India in United Nations (New York) and addressed the UN General Assembly in October 2002.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday landed in South Africa to take part in the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg tomorrow.

The Prime Minister landed at the Air Force base of Waterkloof today.

As part of his five-day official tour, Prime Minister Modi first visited Rwanda on Monday. He did a one-on-one meeting and delegation level talks with President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. He also interacted with the Indian community there.

India and Rwanda signed eight agreements in an effort to bolster bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi held delegation-level talks with President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni. He said India will continue to play a stable partner in the country's journey towards development.

Earlier today he also addressed the Parliament of Uganda.

As part of his visit to South Africa, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

A number of agreements and MoUs in the areas of defence, trade, culture, agriculture and dairy cooperation are scheduled to be signed during the Prime Minister's visit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday appealed to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to extend the deadline for polling by an hour.

In a letter written to the Chief Election Commissioner, Senator Mushahid Hussain cited the "long lines of voters" in almost every constituency, while only three-four individuals were allowed to enter the booth at a time to cast their vote.

"On the basis of reports that have been received from PML-N candidates from almost all constituencies of Pakistan, I would like to kindly request you to extend the polling time by at least one hour, from 6 pm to 7 pm, given that there are long lines of voters waiting in the queue, while only three to four persons are allowed to enter the polling station at a time to cast their vote. The PML-N is making this demand under Section 70 of the Election Act 2017, which authorizes ECP to 'extend polling hours already fixed'," the letter read.

"This is not only causing inconvenience to voters standing in lines in the hot and humid weather, but it also may end up depriving people from their right to vote because of this tedious, slow, cumbersome voting procedure adopted by personnel at almost all the polling stations in Pakistan," Hussain added in the letter.

The PML-N also released a picture of the letter on its official Twitter account, saying, "PML-N has requested the Election Commission of Pakistan for an extension of the polling time by one hour."

According to Geo News, the electoral body said it has not received the letter yet, and it will hold a consultation upon receiving it.

Earlier, the ECP activated its Results Transmission System (RTS), an Android application which enables election officers to send the results to the ECP in real time, The Dawn reported.

Polling started at 8 AM on Wednesday and, as of now, will conclude at 6 PM.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday rejected the election results following rigging allegations.

"Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) wholly rejects the results of General Elections 2018 due to manifest and massive irregularities. Form 45 was not given to our agents, results were stopped and votes were counted in the absence of our poll agents. This is both unbearable and unacceptable," Shehbaz said while addressing the media here.

Shehbaz further claimed that the mandate of the voters was humiliated, and the democratic process pushed back by decades.

"We thought that the people will be allowed an opportunity to express their 'will' freely. Long queues of people could be seen in the morning in this hot, humid weather. We requested the Election Commission of Pakistan to extend the polling time, which it did not accept," he added.

The PML-N President also claimed that results based on rigging would cause "irreparable damage" to the country.

"We will use all political and legal options for redressal of these glaring excesses. This is an outright rigging and the results based on massive rigging will cause irreparable damage to the country," he added.

Sharif said that the next course of action will be decided in the meeting of the party's Central Executive Committee on Thursday morning.

As counting of votes gets underway in Pakistan, a number of political parties and journalists have alleged that the elections have been rigged.

Reports also suggest that a number of polling agents were not provided with an official Form 45, but instead, were provided with a plain paper containing written information.

Pakistan People's Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari took to Twitter express his concerns about the alleged malpractices going on in the elections.

"It's now past midnight & I haven't received official results from any constituency I am contesting my myself. My candidates complaining polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country. Inexcusable & outrageous," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)'s Faisal Sabzwari also claimed that results were being provided on plain paper, rather than an official Form 45.

"This is the mockery of rules by Election Commission itself. Rules dictate that ECP officials are bound to provide results on Form 45, instead almost ALL of them in Khi and Hyderabad are insisting on giving us results on plain paper like this," he noted.

On a related note, the counting of votes is presently underway.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) released jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's election-day message for the country on Wednesday.

The message was posted on PML-N's official Twitter account, wherein Sharif said, "I am Mohammad Nawaz Sharif speaking from jail. Even from in here, I can see your enthusiasm. I can hear the 'vote ko izzat do' chants everywhere."

"It is time to make the final push against forces who have contributed to the downfall of the country. Maryam and I are imprisoned because we fought for the sanctity of your vote," Nawaz added.

Earlier today, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif urged the country's electoral to 'not to waste time' and cast their votes for a better future of Pakistan.

On a related note, the prime ministerial candidate's daughter-in-law, Zainab, was not able to cast her vote in Lahore.

Geo TV, quoting sources, reported that Zainab had to return without exercising her franchise after she found her name missing from the voter list.

Also, Nawaz and Shehbaz's mother had earlier arrived at the Government Islamia College in Lahore to cast her vote in the NA-124 constituency, Geo News reported.

Nearly 106 million registered voters are casting their ballot to elect a new government in Pakistan, where a prime minister has never been able to complete his or her five-year term.

Also, this is the second time in the country's 70-year history that the power is transferring from one civilian government to another.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has turned down the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) appeal to extend voting deadline by an hour.

In a letter written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), PML-N leader and Senator Mushahid Hussain had asked for a delay in the voting deadline, saying that there were "long lines of voters" in almost every constituency and only three-four individuals were allowed to enter the booth at a time to cast their vote.

However, the request has been rejected by the country's electoral body, reports The Dawn.

"On the basis of reports that have been received from PML-N candidates from almost all constituencies of Pakistan, I would like to kindly request you to extend the polling time by at least one hour, from 6 pm to 7 pm, given that there are long lines of voters waiting in the queue, while only three to four persons are allowed to enter the polling station at a time to cast their vote. The PML-N is making this demand under Section 70 of the Election Act 2017, which authorizes ECP to 'extend polling hours already fixed'," the letter read.

The PML-N also held an 'emergency press conference', wherein Hussain appealed to the CEC to accelerate the polling process to ensure no voter is denied the opportunity to vote.

Apart from the PML-N, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Awami Muslim League (AWL) have also requested an extension in the voting deadline.

Stating that the polling staff was working sluggishly, AWL chief Sheikh Rashid demanded that they should be directed to hasten the electoral process.

Grand Democratic Alliance leader Fehmida Mirza, contesting from the NA-230 (Badin II) constituency, also highlighted the "poor arrangements" at the polling booths.

While stating that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had no issues with the request to extend deadline, PTI leader Javed Khan said that the PML-N was simply agitated and that their voters would not come out irrespective of the deadline extension.

Polling in the country's 85,307 polling stations, of which 17,007 have been declared as "highly sensitive", commenced at 8 AM today, and will conclude at 6 PM.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind, who is on a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh arrived in Bastar's Jagdalpur on Wednesday. He was received by state Chief Minister Raman Singh.

The President will visit Naxal-hit Dantewada and Bastar districts during his visit to the state.

On Thursday, he will meet and interact with farmers and women self-help groups at the Integrated Farming System facility in Heeranar of Dantewada district and Jagdalpur of Bastar district.

Later, he will visit the Atal Bihari Vajpayee City in Jawanga and also meet differently-abled children of the Saksham School and Ashta Vidya Mandir.

The President is also scheduled to inaugurate a medical college and hospital, before addressing a public gathering at the Baliram Kashyap Memorial College Campus in Jagdalpur.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump stated that the US was ready to make a "real deal" with Iran.

Addressing the Veterans of Foreign War convention here on Tuesday, Trump said "We'll see what happens. We're ready to make a real deal, not the deal done by the previous administration, which was a real disaster."

He further opined that Iran was not the same country as before, and termed the nuclear deal as a 'horrible one-sided' deal, CNN reported.

The Iran nuclear deal was signed between six countries in 2015 - Iran, US, Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and China- for lifting economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limitations to the country's nuclear programme.

However, Trump announced the US' withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal in May, which limited the country's uranium enrichment in exchange for sanctions relief.

Calling the accord as an "embarrassment" that was "defective at its core", the US President then warned of severe consequences if Iran resumed its nuclear programme.

Earlier this week, the war-of-words on Twitter between Iran and Trump saw no signs of abating, as Trump cautioned Rouhani to not threaten the United States.

"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!" he tweeted.

In retaliation, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday warned Trump to 'be cautious'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Although a prognostic guide to kidney diseases exists for adults, the first tool specific to children has now been uncovered.

Experts in pediatric kidney disease have published a new staging system to help doctors better predict the length of time until a child with chronic kidney disease (CKD) will need to undergo a kidney transplant or start receiving dialysis.

Study leader Susan L. Furth said, "We designed a clinically useful, data-driven tool for doctors and nurses to advise parents and plan treatment, based on when a child's kidney disease is likely to progress to the need for transplant or dialysis."

Healthcare providers currently rely mainly on their own clinical experience to estimate when their patients' condition will progress to end-stage renal disease.

The researchers drew on two large multicenter study consortia of children with chronic kidney disease. The Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKid) study gathered data on 891 patients from North American centers.

The study team concluded that a combination of three factors provide the best predictors for estimating disease progression: glomerular filtration rate (which measures how efficiently the kidney filters waste products from the blood), proteinuria (the presence of protein in the urine), and whether the CKD is caused by a glomerular or nonglomerular etiology.

The team also found that children with the glomerular disease had a faster disease progression than those with a nonglomerular disease--a 43 percent shorter interval.

The full findings are present in the journal- American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China is now Russia's largest drug supplier, Chinascope reported, quoting Hong Kong-based newspaper Oriental Daily.

The information was attributed to Russia's anti-drug authorities.

Nearly 90 per cent of chemical-based drugs used in Russia, are mailed from China as "food" via the postal mail system.

This drug nexus seems dangerous, where some Russian authorities are hand-in-glove with the Chinese drug suppliers.

The report cites an example of a case, which the Russian Rostov Court is currently hearing.

Announced by the court on July 10, the case pertains to "some senior Cossack officials illegally working with Chinese drug dealers in Jilin Province, China."

Attributing to recent Russian reports, Chinascope states that most of the Chinese drugs are either concealed in plant oil bottles or are sneaked into half-baked food, like dumplings.

The Russian police have swung into action and stepped up the process of inspecting food packages that are being 'mailed' from China.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Various Hindu outfits in Kerala on Wednesday called for a state-wide strike on July 30 against the state government's decision supporting women's entry inside the Sabarimala temple.

The organisations like Ram Sena, Hanuman Sena, Ayyappa Dharma Sena and Vishal Vishwakarma Aikya Vedi called for strike after the Kerala government told the court that it supports the entry of women inside the Sabarimala temple.

The hearing of the issue in this regards is underway in the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra questioned senior counsel K Parasaran as to "why are women excluded from entering it (Sabarimala temple)?"

To which Parasaran argued that "the right of State to make laws to throw open Hindu Temples to all classes and sections of Hindus does not include women within its scope".

On July 18, the apex court observed that banning the entry of women in Sabarimala by the temple authorities is unconstitutional.

Top Court Judge DY Chandrachud also said that the right to pray is equal for both men and women.

As per norms prescribed by the temple board, women aged between 10 and 50 are prohibited from visiting the premises.

In January 2016, the court had questioned the ban, saying this could not be done under the Constitution.

In November the same year, the Kerala Government had told the Supreme Court that it was ready to allow women inside the sanctum sanctorum of the temple, a prominent pilgrimage site among Hindu devotees in the state of Kerala.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Malankara Orthodox Church priest Father Job Mathew, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman.

The bail was granted on the condition that he will surrender his passport and appear before the investigating officer twice a week.

Father Mathew moved to the High Court this week after a Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Thiruvalla rejected his bail application.

In June, the Crime Branch registered a case against four priests of the church for allegedly sexually assaulting the woman in Kottayam.

One of the four priests surrendered on July 12.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)'Modern Family' star Sofia Vergara has warned her fans not to engage with her Instagram account as it has been hacked.

Sofia Vergara took to her Twitter handle to confirm the news after fans shared a screenshot of a post from her Instagram handle saying, "Hello guys! I am giving away 1000 free iPhone X's and Apple watches on my Instagram stories right now!!! Claim before it's too late!"

Sofia wrote, "Guys my Instagram got hacked. Don't answer those idiots. Don't send them any info."

Sofia is currently on a vacation with her husband Joe Manganiello.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kenyans on Twitter are currently going H.A.M on the newest trending topic, Brain Cell 2, which basically points out the difference between what people think about saying and what they eventually end up saying.

The craze has been trending in other parts of the world since last week but appeared to gain more prominence among Kenyan Twitteratti on Tuesday when they came out in their numbers to contribute, as they have done countless times before.

And they did not let down as they portrayed some of the popular and hilarious Kenyan mannerisms that are only unique to us.

We have sampled some of the best reactions below.

Brain cell 1: I want to release songs with positive message. Brain cell 2: I want my music to change and inspire the youth. Mouth: Una shuta una hara, Unajipaka mafuta unaparara.  Kapuka Facts (@KapukaFacts) July 24, 2018

In a matatu sat next to a beautiful lady. Brain Cell 1: Tell her she looks cute. Brain Cell 2 : Tell her that her beautiful face just made you smile. Mouth: Hii jam manze.  Sir Rap-A-Lot (@OsamaOtero) July 24, 2018

During cuddles Brain cell 1: Boost his ego and tell him how amazing those strokes were Brain cell 2: Tell him how you appreciate how he cuddles you after strokes ndio askie poa poa Her: Ule dama anaitwa Nancy hushinda akicomment kwa IG posts zako ni nani to you?  Baby Witu (@karigoh) July 24, 2018

Brain Cell 1: Tell her that you want to take her out on a date. Brain Cell 2: Tell her that you want to meet up with her to catch up. Mouth: Leta Vitu Nigware  Brian Mbunde (@Brianmbunde) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Tell her she looks beautiful Brain cell 2: Tell her you like her new dress Mouth: Btw haukai wewe  You (@JayFreaKay) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: she maad fine! Approach her! Brain cell 2: be polite and ask her out on a friendly date Mouth: pic.twitter.com/NcbwKJRtfE  abdi ? (@kininging) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1 : Tell him you enjoy being around him. Brain cell 2 : Tell him you want to spend more time together. Mouth : pic.twitter.com/aL222Xnzxv  Return of the Mack (@comehollaatme) July 24, 2018

Meeting my friends.

Brain cell 1: Tell them you just woke up Brain cell 2: tell them to give you 2 hours to be ready. Mouf: Niko hapa odeon ..5 minutes nitakua nimefika ???????  Zees Aunt. ?? ((Wanjiku.)) (@wakah_mahjid) July 24, 2018

Brain Cell 1: what course do you do? Brain Cell 2: what year are you in? Mouth: unachafua course gani totois?  Solange Mbunde (@ianmbunde) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Say youre sorry Brain cell 2: Say it was a slip of the tongue Me: Sasa hutaniongelesha? ?  WaRoman ?? (@NyokabiWainaina) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Tell her you want her Brain cell 2: Tell her you want her all night Mouth: utapata mat kweli?!  TheeConrad ?? (@conrad_ashh) July 24, 2018

During sex Brain cell 1: Tell her shes sweet Brain cell 2: Tell her shes tight Mouth: Paka mate niteleze, kama nyoka pangoni  Billy (@Crazy_Nairobian) July 24, 2018

Customer: We want better deals. Brain cell 1: Ignore them.

Brain Cell 2: Keep ignoring them. Jumia: 20 Heinekens at 1k, Free delivery for order above 4k, 500bob voucher for every delivered order, 60% discounts and many more #JumiaExplosion  Jumia Kenya (@JumiaKenya) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: I enjoy your company, and itll be an honor to take you out tonight. Brain cell 2: Would you fancy a lunch date with me? Mouth: pic.twitter.com/xJNTKKYzBf  Mr. Always Winning (@CrazyMkenya) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1:Concentrate

Brain cell 2:Usitry kudoz

Brain cell 3: pic.twitter.com/yPZqNeHzPY  Kari (@JOJOMODOS) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Tell her I love you Brain cell 2: No, tell her youre in love with her Mouth: Umeskiza Kwangwaru?  Cerebral assassin (@xysist) July 21, 2018

*In Court

Brain Cell 1: say Your Honour

Brain Cell 2: say my lord Mouth: My Honour  Onderi Nyabuti (@NB_Onderi) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: say shule

Brain cell 2: say chuo My Mouth: chule ?  jaymiee__ (@EDMfreaak) July 19, 2018

Brain Cell 1:I will not vote for corrupt leaders. Brain Cell 2: I will not be lured by handouts. Mouth: Kumira Kumira  ?????? ???? (@millanouma) July 24, 2018

*PLO LUMUMBA*

Brain cell 1: I am shocked by the number of schools Being burnt down

Brain cell 2: This must stop. His mouth: The ongoing burning of schools is a miasma of deprecated apotheosis of a haemorrhagic plutocracy ..  JULIE NJERI (@_nguru_) July 24, 2018

Senator Moses Wetangula Brain Cell 1;Dont just lose your position like a boy Brain Cell 2;It will be messy,noisy and with Casualties#WetangulaOnCitizen #Newsnight

Later; pic.twitter.com/MmNyUFmMzj  021s Greatest (@Muranga_Patriot) July 24, 2018

My Alarm at 5:00am, a week before exams. Brain cell 1: Wake up and Study

Brain cell 2: Go through some Past Papers Mouth: Aaaaargh, Wacha ikuje vile itakuja pic.twitter.com/XUsNRZoCJ2  RkN?? (@Ronn_Kinuthia) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Ask her out on a date Brain cell 2: Tell her that you like her Mouth: pic.twitter.com/fKYY4cecy8  SOCIO (@YayoWachira) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1:Just let it go,its a one time thing.

Brain cell 2:He already said sorry,let it slide. Me:Its okay,I just think its funny that pic.twitter.com/SwwXHdn5pN  Pretty n petty? (@_njaunesss) July 24, 2018

Brain cell 1: Dont overdress Brain cell 2: She loves Jidenna Me showing up pic.twitter.com/Q8lYUV0Zw2  Faustine ? (@FaustineDan) July 24, 2018Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Wednesday said that there are some forces outside and within India that are attempting to break the country.

Earlier, Rathore attended the wreath laying ceremony of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan Shankar Lal Barala who lost his life in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Since ages, our soldiers have protected the country. I salute the CRPF and their courage. They'll always be there to protect the nation. Forces outside and some forces within the nation are attempting to break this country," Rathore told the media here.

Barala was killed on Tuesday while two others sustained bullet injuries after terrorists attacked a CRPF party at Batmaloo in Srinagar.

In recent months, the state has witnessed a huge spurt in terror activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two terrorists, who were gunned down by the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district earlier today, belonged to terror organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The Jammu and Kashmir Police confirmed this on the basis of incriminating materials seized from their possession.

"Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed during an encounter in Anantnag today. The identity of one the terrorists has been ascertained," Kashmir Inspector General SP Pani told ANI.

One of the terrorists was identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar, while the identity of the other is yet to be ascertained.

In recent months, the state has witnessed a huge spurt in terror activities.

On July 24, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel was killed and two others sustained bullet injuries after terrorists attacked a CRPF party at Srinagar's Batmaloo area.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United States President Donald Trump's administration will be offering up to USD 12 billion in aid to farmers.

According to CNN, the administration will offer the relief to the farmers who suffered the brunt of the retaliatory tariff which arose from President Trump's trade disagreements with other countries.

"The emergency aid package will use existing funding to mitigate the estimated USD 11 billion impact of "illegal tariffs" other countries have imposed on US agriculture exports. The exports have been a prime target of China and other countries that have retaliated against the series of tariffs Trump has imposed in recent months," CNN quoted Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, as saying.

He further said, "This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration time to work on long-term trade deals to benefit agriculture and all sectors of the American economy."

The USD 12 billion package will include direct payments to producers of key agricultural exports like soybeans, corn, dairy and pork, a program to purchase surplus from some agricultural producers and efforts to build out markets for US agricultural products.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Twin stamps of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela will be released during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said Counsel General of India to Johannesburg, Dr KJ Srinivasa.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday landed in South Africa to take part in the 10th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg tomorrow.

"This year's theme for BRICS summit in Africa is cooperation for inclusive growth, and sharing the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution. BRICS is another medium for India for making strong relations with South Africa," Dr Srinivasa told ANI.

"When Prime Minister Modi will meet South Africa President, twin stamps of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela will be released. This year is important for India and South Africa as it's the 125th anniversary of the incident when Gandhiji was thrown out of train at Pietermaritzburg station that led to Satyagraha," he added.

As part of his five-day official tour, Prime Minister Modi first visited Rwanda on Monday. He did a one-on-one meeting and delegation level talks with President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. He also interacted with the Indian community there.

Later on Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi held delegation-level talks with President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni.

As part of his visit to South Africa, a number of agreements and MoUs in the areas of defence, trade, culture, agriculture and dairy cooperation are scheduled to be signed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday said that India is ready to walk an extra mile to balance trade with Uganda as win-win situation already exist.

Addressing the media and other delegates at India-Uganda Business Forum in Kampala, Prime Minister Modi said, "President of Uganda is right in saying that there is a trade imbalance between India and Uganda. I have come here and I am ready to take 10 steps more to resolve the imbalance."

He said that the two countries are in a "perfect win-win situation" but not able to take maximum advantage of it. "If a proper strategy is in place then we can move far ahead".

India is a policy-driven governance where there are tax stability and predictable taxation. That is why investment, for anyone, is easy here, said the Prime Minister.

He stressed that India is a fast growing economy and the international community is watching it.

Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Modi said, "After all the growth and progress happens, we have to look at human resource development and value addition to natural resources".

The Prime Minister also thanked President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni for affection towards the Indians in Uganda.

"I have received so much love from Uganda and affection from President Museveni for the Indians in Uganda," he said.

Calling Uganda, a wonderful land, Prime Minister Modi said, "Uganda has such wonderful land. There is a very large market across the globe for organic agro products. Uganda is blessed with such good soils that have not been contaminated with chemicals."

He also boosted the morale of the youth of Uganda to focus on innovations and move forward along with the young generation of India.

"The young generation in India is working on startups, using technology and innovations. India is focusing on innovations and we want to move forward with the youth of Uganda. This will be beneficial to Uganda," Prime Minister Modi said.

Concluding his speech, the Prime Minister assured Uganda that India will always stand by it.

Before Prime Minister Modi's speech at the forum, President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni said, "According to the figures, I have been supporting India more than they have been supporting me."

Prime Minister Modi is currently on a five-day tour to Africa.

In the last leg of his three-nation Africa tour, the Prime Minister will visit South Africa to attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit which is scheduled to take place Johannesburg on July 25-27.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On a consolidated basis, Asian Paints' net profit rose 29.63% to Rs 571.31 crore on 15.07% increase in net sales to Rs 4390.27 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

Hero MotoCorp, L&T and Ambuja Cements will unveil April-June 2018 earnings today, 25 July 2018.

Oil India said it has signed a joint venture agreement at Guwahati on 20 July 2018 in connection with formation of a JV company for construction of North-East Gas Grid Pipeline in the eight North-Eastern States, viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The proposed JV company will have equal equity contribution from all the five PSU JV partners. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

HDFC announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018, that in the proposed meeting on 30 July 2018, the company's board will consider raising up to $1.5 billion via external commercial borrowing (ECB). The company had earlier announced that its board will meet on 30 July 2018, to consider Q1 June 2018 results, and approve issuance of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures aggregating to Rs 35000 crore on a private placement basis, subject to approval of shareholders of the corporation.

Music Broadcast's net profit rose 24.5% to Rs 13.50 crore on 7.6% increase in net sales to Rs 75.68 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

Further, Music Broadcast's board unanimously approved a buyback proposal. The company will purchase its fully paid up equity shares of face value of Rs 10 each, at a maximum price of Rs 385 per share. The buyback shall not exceed Rs 57 crore, representing 9.87% of the aggregate of total paid-up equity share capital and free reserves of the company based on audited financial statements of Company as on 31 March 2018.

Andhra Bank said that it received Rs 2019 crore towards contribution of the central government in the preferential allotment of equity shares of the bank. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Surplus production of sugar during the current sugar season had resulted in depressed sugar prices which is adversely affecting the realization by the sugar mills from sale of sugar in the open market. Low realization from sale of sugar in the country during 2017-18 sugar season resulted in accumulation of cane price arrears.

In order to check the continuous fall in prices of sugar and stabilize the sugar prices with a view to clear cane price arrears of farmers, the Government has taken several measures like fixing minimum selling price for sale of sugar at factory gate @ Rs 29 per kg; imposition of stock holding limits on sugar mills and creation of buffer stock of 30 LMT.

With a view to monitor the implementation of imposition of stock holding limits on sugar mills along with implementation of Minimum Selling Price (Control) Order to ensure that sugar is not sold below the minimum selling price of Rs 29 per kg (Rs.2900/- per quintal) at the factory gate, and to monitor maintenance of Buffer Stock by the sugar mills, the Department of Food & Public Distribution/Directorate of Sugar & Vegetable Oils, has deputed its officials for making periodic visits to the sugar factories to check the stocks, prices at which sugar has been sold by the sugar mills and to check the buffer stock and the quality of sugar kept as buffer by the sugar mills throughout India.

Three teams, each comprising two officials of DFPD/DSVO, were deputed to visit sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra, respectively and inspected a total of 18 sugar mills in these states. As per reports of the visiting inspecting teams, compliance and cooperation, by and large, by all the mills is reported. The Government is hopeful that with the cooperation of sugar mills and the State Governments concerned, various measures taken by the Government will succeed in stabilizing the sugar prices and improving liquidity position of mills enabling them to clear cane price arrears of farmers.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Trading of Nifty 50 index futures on the Singapore stock exchange indicates that the Nifty could rise 13 points at the opening bell.

Overseas, most Asian stocks were trading lower. US equity benchmarks finished Tuesday mostly higher, led by technology and health-care companies.

Back home,the market gained for the third straight session yesterday, 24 July 2018 as cement and auto stocks surged on hopes of improved results. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 106.50 points or 0.29% at 36,825.10. The Nifty 50 index rose 49.55 points or 0.45% at 11,134.30. Positive global stocks also lifted sentiment.

The trading activity on that day showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 104.34 crore yesterday, 24 July 2018, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 513.78 crore yesterday, 24 July 2018, as per provisional data.

Among corporate news,Bharti Infratel, Hero MotoCorp, L&T and Ambuja Cements will unveil April-June 2018 earnings today, 25 July 2018.

On a consolidated basis, Asian Paints' net profit rose 29.63% to Rs 571.31 crore on 15.07% increase in net sales to Rs 4390.27 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

HDFC announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018, that in the proposed meeting on 30 July 2018, the company's board will consider raising up to $1.5 billion via external commercial borrowing (ECB). The company had earlier announced that its board will meet on 30 July 2018, to consider Q1 June 2018 results, and approve issuance of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures aggregating to Rs 35000 crore on a private placement basis, subject to approval of shareholders of the corporation.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Oil India rose 1.31% to Rs 209 at 9:21 IST on BSE after the company said it signed a joint venture pact for construction of grid pipelines in eight North-East states.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 38.86 points, or 0.11% to 36,863.96.

On the BSE, 364 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 209.70 and a low of Rs 208.35 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 259.36 on 12 January 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 181.29 on 22 August 2017.

Oil India said it has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement at Guwahati on 20 July 2018 in connection with formation of a JV company for construction of North-East gas grid pipeline in the eight North-Eastern states, viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The proposed JV company will have equal equity contribution from all the five PSU JV partners.

Oil India reported net profit of Rs 866.50 crore in Q4 March 2018, steeply higher than net profit of Rs 19.31 crore in Q4 March 2017. Net sales rose 19.4% to Rs 2998.44 crore in Q4 March 2018 over Q4 March 2017.

Oil India is engaged in the business of exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas, transportation of crude oil and production of LPG. Oil India also provides various E&P related services and holds 26% equity in Numaligarh Refinery.

The Government of India held 66.133% stake in Oil India as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 June 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stocks hovered in a small range with positive bias in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:24 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 48.33 points or 0.13% at 36,873.43. The Nifty 50 index was up 5.30 points or 0.05% at 11,139.60. Realty stocks saw mixed trend. Gains were boosted by data showing that FPIs and DIIs, both, turning net buyers of equities yesterday, 24 July 2018.

A bout of volatility was seen in early trade as stocks regained positive zone soon after erasing intraday gains. A divergent trend was witnessed in morning trade as the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was trading with small gains while the Nifty 50 index was trading with minor losses. Divergent trend continued in mid-morning trade. Indices pared gains after hitting fresh intraday high in afternoon trade.

As per provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 104.34 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 513.78 crore yesterday, 24 July 2018.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.11%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.38%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1,378 shares rose and 1,141 shares fell. A total of 158 shares were unchanged.

NTPC (down 3.85%), Bharti Airtel (down 2.33%), Axis Bank (down 1.64%), Hindustan Unilever (down 1.26%) and Coal India (down 0.96%) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 0.72%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries including its subsidiaries and/or associate companies) today announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has launched the generic versions of Glumetza (metformin hydrochloride) extended release tablets, 500 mg and 1000 mg in the US. The announcement was made during market hours today, 25 July 2018.

These generic Metformin HCl extended release tablets, 500mg and 1000mg are therapeutic equivalents of Santarus Inc.'s Glumetza HCl extended release tablets, 500 mg and 1000 mg. The addressable market size is approximately US$443 million for the 12 months ended April 2018, as per IQVIA.

Realty stocks saw mixed trend. DLF (down 2.97%), Sobha (down 2.71%), Godrej Properties (down 0.34%) and Oberoi Realty (down 2.03%) fell. Prestige Estates Projects (up 2.65%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 1.29%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (up 1.58%), D B Realty (up 2.2%) and Unitech (up 1.17%) rose.

Overseas, most European declined on Wednesday, as investors awaited a key meeting between the European Commission and President Donald Trump and digested fresh earnings. Asian stocks were mixed. Meanwhile, Beijing on Tuesday reportedly signalled that it would shift to a looser fiscal policy in a bid to protect the world's second largest economy from the impact of an escalating trade row with Washington. US equity benchmarks finished Tuesday mostly higher, led by technology and health-care companies.

Investor sentiment was cautious ahead of a meeting between president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Trump at the White House in Washington. During the gathering, the two leaders are expected to discuss a range of topics including trade relations the latter will be watched closely following a recent trade spat between the two regions.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nairobi County Governor Mike Sonko has responded angrily to a viral resignation letter authored in his name, terming it as malicious.

The letter, dated July 23 and addressed to the speaker of the Nairobi County Assembly, announces the governors resignation citing various reasons, including deteriorating health and doctors advice.

My health status has also greatly deteriorated and my doctors have advised that with the current pressure that I face every day, I must take a break from public life if not so I face imminent death I hope the county Assembly will take care of the city with utmost diligence during the tough transition process, reads the letter in part.

The National Government has continually frustrated all my efforts to transform the city which includes; refusal to pay the county debts of over Sh80billion. Refusal by the Controller of Budget to approve Sh5billion in the 2017/2018 financial year. Refusal by the Inspector General to provide me even with 1 police bodyguard, the letter reads.

Taking to social media to respond, the underfire County boss wrote: Whoever is circulating this malicious nonsense should desist with immediate effect. Im the elected Governor of Nairobi until the end of my term. Buree kabisaa.

Must be the cartels working overtime.Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that Rwanda was the key to Africa. He was addressing the India-Rwanda Business Forum jointly organised by FICCI and Rwanda Development Board in Kigali. Mr. Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda in his address said that his administration is willing to address any bottleneck such as visa issues to further strengthen trade relations between the two countries.

India is amongst the top trade, investment and development partner of Rwanda. Over the past decade, Rwanda has been hailed as a rising star of Africa and is one of the fastest growing economies. Rwanda ranks 2nd in Africa in terms of competitiveness as per the Global competitiveness report of World Economic Forum 2017-18.

Mr.

Rashesh Shah, President, FICCI said that India considers Rwanda as serious strategic partner in Africa. "Rwanda is a rising star in the Africa growth story which resonates well with India. Trade between India and Rwanda have crossed USD 100 million. We expect that to cross USD 1 billion in the next few years," he said. He also added, "There are plenty of opportunities in both the countries. FICCI as the apex chamber and the Indian Industry would support wholeheartedly in harnessing the potential."

Mr. Rashesh Shah, President FICCI and Chairman & CEO, Edelweiss Group led more than 100 member Indian business delegation to Rwanda including senior leaders from the sectors of Infrastructure and Construction, Renewable energy, ICT, Agriculture and irrigation, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, banking etc.

Apart from the Business Forum and B2B meetings, several MOUs were signed on this occasion between RDB and FICCI, RDB and Avaada Power Ltd and others. The delegation had representation from companies including Afcons, Airtel, Ajanta Pharma, Apollo Hospitals, Avaada Power, EXIM Bank, Godrej Consumer products, Hero Motor Corp, Jain irrigation, JMC Projects, KEC International, KPMG, Luxmi Tea, Mahindra & Mahindra, Shapoorji & Pallonji, TATA, Texmaco Rail & Engineering etc.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A divergent trend was seen as the Sensex ended with small gains while the Nifty 50 index ended with minor losses. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 33.13 points or 0.09% to settle at 36,858.23. The Nifty 50 index fell 2.30 points or 0.02% to settle at 11,132.

A bout of volatility was seen in early trade as stocks regained positive zone soon after erasing intraday gains. A divergent trend was witnessed in morning trade as the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was trading with small gains while the Nifty 50 index was trading with minor losses. Divergent trend continued in mid-morning trade. Indices pared gains after hitting fresh intraday high in afternoon trade with the Sensex scaling record high. Stocks hovered in a small range with positive bias in mid-afternoon trade. Indices once again regained positive zone in volatile trade after sinking in negative zone.

The Sensex rose 33.13 points or 0.09% to settle at 36,858.23, its record closing high. The index rose 122.08 points, or 0.33% at the day's high of 36,947.18. The index fell 21.95 points, or 0.06% at the day's low of 36,803.15.

The Nifty 50 index fell 2.30 points or 0.02% to settle at 11,132, its lowest closing level since 23 July 2018. The index rose 22.85 points, or 0.21% at the day's high of 11,157.15. The index fell 21.05 points, or 0.19% at the day's low of 11,113.25.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.12%, underperforming the Sensex. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.23%, outperforming the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1374 shares rose and 1261 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the S&P BSE Power index (down 1.52%), the S&P BSE Realty index (down 1.32%), the S&P BSE Telecom index (down 1.11%), the S&P BSE Utilities index (down 1.08%), the S&P BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.98%), the S&P BSE Teck index (down 0.51%), the S&P BSE Auto index (down 0.44%), the S&P BSE Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services index (down 0.38%), the S&P BSE Healthcare index (down 0.36%), the S&P BSE IT index (down 0.34%), the S&P BSE Capital Goods index (down 0.18%) and the S&P BSE Industrials index (down 0.07%), underperformed the Sensex. The S&P BSE FMCG index (up 0.13%), the S&P BSE Bankex (up 0.14%), the S&P BSE Energy index (up 0.17%), the S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.18%), the S&P BSE Basic Materials index (up 0.24%), the S&P BSE Finance index (up 0.46%) and the S&P BSE Metal index (up 0.82%), outperformed the Sensex.

NTPC (down 4.01%), Axis Bank (down 2.59%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 1.49%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.28%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.19%), were the major Sensex losers.

State Bank of India (up 1.78%), Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (up 1.53%), Tata Steel (up 1.49%), Vedanta (up 1.30%), ONGC (up 1.21%), IndusInd Bank (up 0.95%), ITC (up 0.63%) and HDFC Bank (up 0.61%), were the major Sensex losers.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) shed 0.19%. Consolidated profit after tax (PAT) rose 36% to Rs 1215 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The consolidated order book stood at Rs 271,732 crore as at 30 June 2018. International Order Book constituted 23% of the total order book. The result was announced after market hours today, 25 July 2018.

Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC rose 1.07%. The company announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018, that in the proposed meeting on 30 July 2018, the company's board will consider raising up to $1.5 billion via external commercial borrowing (ECB). The company had earlier announced that its board will meet on 30 July 2018, to consider Q1 June 2018 results, and approve issuance of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures aggregating to Rs 35000 crore on a private placement basis, subject to approval of shareholders of the corporation.

Maruti Suzuki India shed 0.64%. Maruti Suzuki India will proactively and voluntarily undertake a recall for new Swift and new Dzire models to inspect for a possible fault in the Airbag Controller Unit. 1,279 vehicles (566 new Swift and 713 new Dzire) manufactured between 7 May 2018 and 5 July 2018 will be covered in this campaign. Recall campaigns are undertaken globally to rectify faults that may be potential safety defects. The announcement was made during market hours today, 25 July 2018.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 0.72%. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries including its subsidiaries and/or associate companies) today announced that one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has launched the generic versions of Glumetza (metformin hydrochloride) extended release tablets, 500 mg and 1000 mg in the US. The announcement was made during market hours today, 25 July 2018.

These generic Metformin HCl extended release tablets, 500mg and 1000mg are therapeutic equivalents of Santarus Inc.'s Glumetza HCl extended release tablets, 500 mg and 1000 mg. The addressable market size is approximately US$443 million for the 12 months ended April 2018, as per IQVIA.

Ambuja Cements fell 1.50% ahead of its April-June 2018 earnings today, 25 July 2018.

Hero MotoCorp rose 0.34% ahead of its April-June 2018 earnings today, 25 July 2018.

Asian Paints fell 1.45%. On a consolidated basis, Asian Paints' net profit rose 29.63% to Rs 571.31 crore on 15.07% increase in net sales to Rs 4390.27 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

Symphony lost 19.34% after consolidated net profit fell 48.72% to Rs 20 crore on 23.16% decline in net sales to Rs 146 crore in Q1 June 2018 over Q1 June 2017. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 July 2018.

Overseas, most European declined on Wednesday, as investors awaited a key meeting between the European Commission and President Donald Trump and digested fresh earnings. Asian stocks were mixed. Meanwhile, Beijing on Tuesday reportedly signalled that it would shift to a looser fiscal policy in a bid to protect the world's second largest economy from the impact of an escalating trade row with Washington. US equity benchmarks finished Tuesday mostly higher, led by technology and health-care companies.

Investor sentiment was cautious ahead of a meeting between president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Trump at the White House in Washington. During the gathering, the two leaders are expected to discuss a range of topics including trade relations the latter will be watched closely following a recent trade spat between the two regions.

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 Egyptian police have killed at least 13 terrorists during a shootout in Arish city in the restive North Sinai province, officials said.

Informed sources told Xinhua that police on Tuesday raided an under-construction house in a village in Arish where the 13 militants were holed up and eventually, the exchange of fire took place.

"The violent clashes killed 13 terrorists from the so-called Wilayat Sinai (Sinai state or province) group, the Egyptian arm of the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group," a security source said.

The police found four machine guns, two shotguns, three explosive devices and ammunition in their possession.

Bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, North Sinai province has been the centre of terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A bouquet of 32 offerings from 17 countries would be on show at the Unicef 18th International Children's Film Festival that began here on Wednesday.

The inaugural film "Moana", produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, was screened after the festival was declared open by West Bengal Governor K.N. Tripathi at the Nandan flim complex.

In his address on the occasion, Tripathi urged film producers, directors, central and state governments to ensure children's films were made in Hindi and regional languages.

After screening of the opening film during the day, the second phase of the festival organised by Cine Central Calcutta with the support of Unicef, Nandan and Talash Society, would be held from August 9-12 at Nandan, the organisers told the media.

Cinegoers would Abe able to watch interesting films like "White Bridge" (Iran), "The Monkey King- Uproar in Heaven" (China) and "The Shamer's Daughter" (Denmark).

"We are also trying to reach out to the children living in slums and the ones with special needs through this film festival," said Parimal Mukherjee, General Secretary, Cine Central Calcutta, the country's largest film society.

This year, a group of children have taken an initiative to organise the festival in Malda district from August 29 to September 7. It will be inaugurated by the District Magistrate and feature two Bengali films.

"We will try to screen two Bengali films 'Rainbow Jelly' and 'Aranyadeb' in eight different blocks of Malda district. Our group is also making a film for this festival," said Wasim Akram, a young organiser from Malda being supported by Unicef and Talash Foundation.

This year the Festival is based on the theme 'value of girls' to highlight the inequities and gender discrimination.

--IANS

bnd/ssp/vd

A

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 34 people were killed and several injured mostly in a suicide bombing in Balochistan on Wednesday as millions of voters are thronging polling stations across the country to exercise their franchise in the 11th general election.

The Balochistan bombing targeted the convoy of Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema near a polling station. It left 31 persons, including some policemen, dead. The senior police official escaped unhurt, Geo News reported.

Civil Hospital Quetta officials confirmed the casualties.

The area was crowded as people were making their way to vote at Tameer-e-Nau Model School. Polling was halted at the polling station, only to resume later.

While polling stations opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m. Voting will end at 6 p.m. Halfway through polling, the PML-N had sent a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, seeking an extension in time by one hour.

"The PML-N is making this demand under Section 70 of the Election Act 2017, which authorises ECP to 'extend polling hours already fixed'," read the letter, signed by Mushahid Hussain.

The ECP, however, turned down the party's request. The counting of the votes is being done simultaneously.

Results for the 11th general elections are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to Express News.

Another person was killed in firing outside a Mirpurkhas polling station in Dighri area.

In a separate incident, one person was killed while five people were injured in a cracker blast outside a political camp in Larkana.

The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area.

Two people were injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.

In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.

As many as 12,570 candidates are in the field for a total of 849 seats of the national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.

The battle is mainly between three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's PTI.

In an effort to increase voter participation, the Election Commission has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning, inlcuding the July 13 bombing that killed 150 people.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

Sharif's PML-N has condemned the legal cases against its members in order to force them to leave the party and the efforts to prevent the party from emerging victorious in the election as it had done in 2013 by getting absolute majority.

These elections are the second in Pakistan's history in which a government was able to complete its term. Military dictators have ruled the country for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.

--IANS

ahm/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 38 people were killed and 37 wounded in a series of bombings and attacks in Syria's Sweida province on Wednesday, authorities said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said suicide bombers from the Islamic State (IS) detonated bomb vests and explosive devices in Sweida city in tandem with an attack by this terror-designated group on towns in the eastern countryside of Sweida on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

Three suicide bombers set off their bomb vests near the grocery market and the roundabouts of Mashnaqa and Najmeh in Sweida city, the Observatory said, adding that explosive devices were detonated in the same areas.

In the northeastern countryside of Sweida, where the Syrian warplanes are taking part in striking the IS fighters, the IS militants launched attacks on several towns amid confrontation between the Syrian army and the IS militants.

Meanwhile, a medical source inside the city said that over 30 people were killed in the attacks, adding that the wounded are being taken to the national hospital in the city.

Another explosion took place in the Maslakh area in the city.

--IANS

qd/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gujarat government has decided to develop a township for the Japanese expats to further promote flow of investment from Japan that has filled the state's first country-specific industrial estate in less than two years.

"We have declared about 700 hectares (1,700 acre) as Japanese township in Khoraj village, five km from the existing Sanand Industrial Estate," said D. Thara, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC).

The 120-hectare Japanese Industrial Park in Mandal, 90 km from Ahmedabad, has got saturated with 13 companies either under construction or already operating. The state saw a need for a larger industrial area and a place for Japanese to call home.

"Now that we are having a traction from Japanese companies, the Japanese will need a place to stay, to establish their culture. They will need a comfort zone," Thara said and added the township will have all amenities like schools, hospitals and market.

The Japanese government is working with the Gujarat government to develop the Japanese Industrial Township, which will have residential, commercial and industrial areas. While the state is constructing major roads, Japan will design the township.

"Japan is planning to engage industrial park developers like Toyota Tsusho. We will give them land and they will develop and give it to Japanese companies. In a plug-and-play environment, the firms can start production and then purchase land," she said.

Eight Japanese companies have already expressed their interest in setting up their units at the township in Khoraj. Apart from the lure of homes and the homely ambience, Khoraj is centrally located and just 25 km from Ahmedabad.

"A minimum of 15,000 to 20,000 direct jobs will be generated and you can expect five times of that in generation of indirect jobs in areas like services, transport, goods, banking and food. We are talking about one lakh jobs in this township," she said.

The flow of Japanese companies to Gujarat, alone or in a joint venture with Indian companies, has instilled a new work culture, discipline and efficient use of resources, particularly land, apart from the sharing of advanced technologies.

"The number of residences will depend on the number of industries and the number of workers and officers who will come from Japan. There is no question of constraint of land as the residential area will only grow in height (vertically) after this," she said.

Thara will lead a delegation to Japan in October-end. The purpose of the visit will be to invite Japanese delegations for "Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit" to be held on January 18-20, 2019. Like earlier years, this time too Japan will be the country partner.

--IANS

mgu/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday lauded the state's police force for working hard to change its image.

At an event here, he said law and order had become a huge challenge during the previous governments but the hard work of police had changed the image of both the state and the force as well.

Improved law and order has also brought a change in the perception and investors are flocking to the state now, he said, adding that investment will usher in employment and create development like never before.

Adityanath however cautioned the police personnel from being complacent and advised them to keep pace with changing crime tactics and plan their actions in accordance.

"We have strengthened the ATS to be prepared for any and every contingency, efforts are underway to restart 54 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and forensic labs are being established in eight zones of the state," he said.

--IANS

md/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US has asked the North Korean regime to allow observers to witness the dismantling of the Sohae missile testing base, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

When reporters in Palo Alto, California, asked Pompeo on Tuesday what further steps were needed by North Korea, the secretary of state said: "They need to completely, fully denuclearize. That's the steps that Kim Jong-un (North Korean leader) committed to."

Satellite photos published on Tuesday on the specialised website 38 North show that Pyongyang has begun dismantling the Sohae base, where the regime of Kim Jong-un builds engines for intercontinental ballistic missiles that supposedly have the range to hit US territory, Efe news reported.

The process of dismantling the base has been proceeding without the presence of international observers, according to various media reports.

When asked about the images of the military base, Pompeo said that North Korea's actions are "consistent" with the "commitment" Kim made to President Donald Trump during their historic June 12 summit in Singapore.

After that meeting, Trump said that Kim had promised to very quickly dismantle a missile engine testing base, although he did not specify which base that might be.

US government officials later said that Sohae -- in northwestern North Korea -- was the base that would be closed.

At their summit, the two leaders signed a declaration opening the door to North Korea's denuclearization in exchange for US guarantees regarding the Pyongyang regime's survival, but it did not specify the mechanisms or any concrete time periods for attaining that objective.

Skepticism over North Korea's willingness to denuclearize has grown since US media reported in late June -- citing national intelligence sources - that Pyongyang has continued to enrich uranium after the summit and that it was trying to hide a large part of its arsenal and other military assets from the US.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Punjab government will table the report of the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission on the sacrilege cases in the state in the Assembly.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday that the commission's report will be tabled in the next session of the Assembly, and that legal action will be taken against all those found guilty by it.

"The government had so far received the first part of the report, which was under legal scrutiny. The remaining parts are expected soon and the complete report would be tabled, along with the action taken report, in the ensuing session of the Vidhan Sabha," Amarinder told a group of senior party leaders here on Wednesday.

"Legal action will be taken against those found guilty and none will be spared," he said.

The Justice Ranjit Singh (retired) Commission had submitted the first part of the report, pertaining to the Bargari sacrilege incident and the Behbal Kalan firing incident, along with some other important cases, to the Chief Minister on June 30.

The Chief Minister had forwarded the report to the state Home Secretary and the Advocate General to examine the findings and suggest action so that the guilty can be brought to book.

The Commission was set up in April 2017 by the Congress government to investigate the various incidents of sacrilege of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts, after rejecting as 'inconclusive' the findings of the Zora Singh Commission set up by the erstwhile Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government.

--IANS

js/prs/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Detectives from Central Police Station have apprehended three suspects in connection with the rampant sim card swap that has rocked the country.

The suspects, who include Joseph Kuria Kariuki, Grace Wanjira, and Meshack Okoth Okuta were arrested on Tuesday, in connection with defrauding a Kiambu MCA Sh1.9 Million.

The police said one of the suspects whom they described as key, was a customer care executive with Safaricom but has since been dismissed. A second suspect is an employee of the bank where the Ikinu MCA Stanley Kiarie Wanjiku had banked his money.

The suspects are said to have swapped the MCAs SIM card and accessed his bank accounts while he was out of the country on an official tour.

The MCA reported at Central Police Station that Sh1.873 million was withdrawn from his two bank accounts, one of which is a joint account on July 3 and July 4, 2018, when he was in Israel on official duty.

A further Sh40,000 was also withdrawn from M-Pesa account after his line was replaced and his mobile money transfer account PIN regenerated.

While releasing images of the trio, detectives said that they are closing in on two more suspects, who are believed to be part of the network behind the recent spate of SIM swapping.

Also Read: How to Prevent Scam Artists From Remotely Swapping Your SIM Card

Last week Friday, detectives arrested two suspects  Safaricom employee Maurice Musoti and a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) engineering student, Rian Obaga Nyagaka.

They were found in possession of 2,160 unused Safaricom SIM cards, 44 used cards, five till agent numbers, three MPESA Safaricom booklets and an internet booster router.The government on Wednesday agreed to form a select committee to scrutinise the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill but confusion remained whether it would be passed this monsoon session.

As soon as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel rose to speak about sending the Bill to a select committee, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad opposed him, saying "it has to be in the next session".

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu urged Azad to let the minister move the motion but he did not relent and opposed it.

"It will be in a rush, and it will be passed. Which select committee has given its report in seven days," he asked even as the Chairman assured him that it would not be passed.

Goel said it was agreed upon that at least 10 days should be given as sought by the deputy leader of the Congress. "We are ready to extend it by two more days," he said.

Goel also said that the government has tried to ensure representation of almost every party in the committee.

Congress member Anand Sharma said the Bill needs parliamentary scrutiny.

"If the government feels the necessity to bring the amendment, that justification has to be established through scrutiny of Parliament. The select committee will call experts and all the stakeholders," he said.

He also raised the issue of representation of political parties in the committee.

As the matter generated heat, Naidu gave directions to the government saying "Rework, discuss and come tomorrow."

The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on July 25 by Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma, but it could not be taken up as the Opposition members, including the Congress, protested and demanded that it be sent to a select committee.

The demand was supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Left parties, the DMK, the RJD and others.

The Chairman then took sense of the House and asked the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to discuss the issue with all the political parties and come back to the House.

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 18, 2017 by Mahesh Sharma and was passed by the Lower House in January. Since then it is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

The Act defines a 'prohibited area' as an area of 100 meters around a protected monument. The Central government can extend the prohibited area beyond 100 meters.

The Act does not permit construction in such prohibited areas, except under certain conditions. It also does not allow construction in 'prohibited areas' even if it is for public purposes.

The Bill amends this provision to permit construction of public works in 'prohibited areas.'

--IANS

bns/prs/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Hyderabad High Court has impleaded 17 public representatives including a MP and eight state legislators of Andhra Pradesh for alleged violation of the court orders banning cockfighting.

Thotha Narasimham, a member of Lok Sabha, belonging to Andhra Pradesh's ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), six members of Legislative Assembly and two members of Legislative Council were among the public representatives impleaded as respondents by the court in the writ petition filed by an animal rescue organisation.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice T. Radhakrishnan and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, suo moto impleaded the public representatives, whose list was furnished by the Advocate General.

While the state government maintained that the public representatives were only present in the cockfight events held during Sankranti 2018, the petitioners claimed that they had actively participated in cockfighting.

"As action if any, for wilful and deliberate violation of earlier order of the Division Bench, can only be taken after these individuals are given an opportunity of being heard, it is necessary that they be impleaded as respondents in these writ petitions," says the order dated July 10.

The court ordered notices to the public representatives, returnable in four weeks.

According to Humane Society International/India, despite the court reiterating the ban in December 2016 and again in January 2018, cockfighting was organised on a large scale in various districts of Andhra Pradesh in 2017 and 2018. The organisation has been campaigning to end cockfighting in Andhra Pradesh, including assisting in legal intervention against the cruel and illegal practice.

The 17 public representatives include a Member of Parliament, members of the legislative assembly, and members of district and village councils.

"We welcome the order of the Honourable High Court. It is high time that legislators are held responsible for not only disobeying the law themselves but also misguiding the public and getting them to do the same. A practice that glorifies so many illegal activities should have no place in a civilized society," said N. G. Jayasimha, managing director of Humane Society International/India.

--IANS

ms/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Geeta (name changed), a resident of Sangli village in Maharashtra, was 19 when she became a sex worker, not as a victim of trafficking but as an option to feed herself and support her family financially.

Now 32 and a mother of 10-year-old son, Geeta is facing a new hurdle -- that of forced rehabilitation by the government of sex workers. And she expressed her anxiety that if Parliament clears an anti-human trafficking bill pending before it, it cause chaos in her life.

"I don't want to go to any rehab centre, I don't want to learn stitching work or making pickles. Nobody forced me to be a sex worker; it was my choice and I am earning well enough to survive with my son," Geeta told IANS.

This is not just the voice of Geeta -- many other sex workers too believe the anti-trafficking bill will create turmoil in their lives.

Kusum, 40, who only uses her first name, lives in one of the brothels on Delhi's GB Road. She said she is not ashamed of being known to the world as a sex worker and insisted on not changing her name.

"I had chosen to go ahead as a sex worker, nobody pressurised me. This is my profession, just like other jobs. Had I wanted to move out of it, I could have done so a long time ago. Now, the government is pushing for rehab but they don't understand that sex workers are not perceived by the society with dignity," said Kusum, who is also President of the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW).

"Not all sex workers are victims of human trafficking and the government needs to understand the difference between the two. There are many like me who have chosen it as a source of income," she added.

As the monsoon session began on July 18, the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, around 8,100 cases of trafficking were recorded in India in 2016 and around 23,000 victims of trafficking were rescued the same year (61 per cent of these were children).

Trafficking, under the Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), has been defined as "any act" of physical and sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude.

Legal experts and social activists also expressed their worry that the bill might have a direct negative impact on the lives of many sex workers as it does not address the legal and real-time challenges in trafficking in persons.

"The clauses of the bill do not directly point at sex workers; however, some of the clauses are linked to them," Samarjit Jana, Director, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute, Kolkata, told IANS.

According to the activists, the bill must clearly state that it does not include consenting adults and they should be enabled to continue with their chosen occupation.

"Trafficking of persons into forced or coerced labour should not be equated with sex work undertaken by consenting adults. This conflation can lead to misuse and over-broad application of the provisions in this bill," Jana, who has for long been associated with the rights of sex-workers, stated.

Another issue that the experts are concerned about is that the government does not offer a proper rehabilitation programme.

"What the government is offering as rehabilitation cannot be called a substantive package for surviving. In the name of rehabilitation, all they offer is stitching classes. How can a sex-worker, who is also a mother, earn enough through simply sewing work," asked Aarthi Pai, an activist and lawyer associated with the Bengaluru-based NGO Sangram.

"There is also the social-stigma factor which the government has been totally ignoring. Indian society will never accept an individual who has been a sex worker. Government needs to have a deeper insight into such factors," she noted.

Jana pointed out that certain guiding principles were shared with the government, asking the WCD Ministry to consider certain factors before drafting the bill -- but these have been ignored.

Earlier this month, around 4,300 sex workers had also written to Maneka Gandhi appealing to her to ensure that the new law does not lead to their incarceration. There has apparently been no action on this either.

(Somrita Ghosh can be contacted at somrita.g@ians.in)

--IANS

som/vm/tb

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Assistant Sub-Inspector who had gone to arrest a wanted criminal was brutally done to death by a group of criminals and their supporters in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.

Eight persons have been taken into custody in the case.

Umreth police station ASI Dev Chand Nagle had gone to Jamunia Jethu village to arrest Johar Singh, against whom an arrest warrant had been issued, when the group of 8-10 persons armed with axes and batons attacked him on Tuesday night, Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Soni told IANS.

The ASI was accompanied by another police official, apart from a revenue official. However, the police personnel were unarmed.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Police on Wednesday informed the High Court that it will install CCTV cameras in all its police stations in the national capital by mid-October.

A division bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar asked Delhi Police and the Public Works Department (PWD) to file a joint status report explaining the details of vulnerable spots where cameras are required and listed the matter for October 4.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation initiated by it in 2012 after the fateful incident of the December 16, 2012 gang rape case along with a plea of social activist Ajay Gautam seeking installation of CCTV cameras at police stations to ensure transparency.

--IANS

akk/prs/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The three Central government officials who inspected the controversial Border Pillar 81 near Kwatha Khunnou along Manipur-Myanmar border on Wednesday said there was no inconsistency about its location.

"We are going to submit a report to the Centre," Surveyor General of India, Lt Gen Girish Kumar said.

Representatives of several political parties and civil society organisations alleging inconsistencies also joined the inspection.

The border villagers have alleged that the border post has been "shifted" inside Manipur, altering its position. They said the Central team had refused to visit the "original location of BP 81" which is now inside Myanmar.

Manipur Govenment spokesperson Letpao Haokip said: "There is no question of losing our land. We will study the report once it is submitted to the Centre. The official team came to Manipur at our request".

Hareswor Goswami, a Congress spokesperson and a retired bureaucrat who had authored a book on Manipur's shrinking border, says BP 81 is located deep inside Manipur. He produced maps and other documemnts before the officials.

This view is shared by A. Tombikanta, the collector of Tengnoupal district under which BP 81 falls.

The three Central officials, Sripriya Ranganathan, joint secretary of Ministry of External Affairs (Bangladesh and Myanmar), A.V. Dharma Reddy, joint secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs (border management) along with the Surveyor General of India had arrived at Imphal on Tuesday.

The Centre deputed the team to visit the border for verification of the location of the BP 81 in the wake of allegations by villagers, activists and some officials of Manipur that the BP 81 was shifted 3 km deep inside Manipur.

The Central team met representatives of United Committee Manipur (UCM) which was formed in June 2001 for the protection of Manipur's territory. Khuraijam Athouba, general secretary of UCM later said that the central officials came without instruments to verify the rightful location of BP 81.

"The officials said that the location of BP 81 is based on the traditional boundaries which were agreed upon in 1967. They could not explain the basis for the traditional boundaries. We are not satisfied and will continue our agitation," said Khuraijam Athouba.

Union minister of state for home Kiran Rijiju during his recent visit to Imphal had maintained that there was nothing wrong in the location of BP 81. However residents of Kwatha Khunnou and other villages say that BP 81 was shifted.

Activists say Manipur has lost 110 sq. km of territory in an "unexplained manner" ever since Manipur was merged with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949.

--IANS

iboyaima/prs/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump has he is "very concerned" about potential Russian interference in the mid-term legislative elections to be held in November.

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election," Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday, referring to the mid-term election, in which all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives and a third of the Senate seats will be up for grabs, Efe news reported.

The President also claimed that Moscow will be pushing hard to get Democrats elected.

"Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!" he declared in the same Twitter post.

Since his July 16 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Trump has changed his public stance several times regarding Russia's election interference and the US intelligence services.

At a joint press conference with Putin, Trump discredited the findings of US intelligence agencies, who have determined that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

A few days after making the statement that he did not see why Russia would have interfered in the election, Trump backtracked and said that he had "misspoken" in the Finnish capital and that he did accept the "conclusions" of the US spy agencies.

The President thus tried to calm the tidal wave of criticism he had received, even from within the heart of the Republican Party, for apparently not standing up to Putin and asserting that he believed the assessments of the US intelligence agencies.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Counting of votes began on Wednesday at various poll booths in Pakistan where polling was over, media reports said.

Even as the doors of polling stations closed at 6 p.m, voters present inside the booths were allowed to cast their votes.

Polling began at 8 a.m across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6 p.m despite calls by major parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), to extend the voting time by an hour.

The parties had complained of "slow voting process" and therefore had sought more time to facilitate voters, a request that was dismissed by the Election Commission (EC), Geo News reported.

The election campaign was marred by violence, with three candidates killed in targeted attacks and culminated with a suicide blast outside a polling station in Quetta which claimed at least 37 lives.

However, undeterred, a majority of Pakistan's nearly 106 million registered voters came out to cast their ballot, including women in areas where they previously stood disenfranchised due to various issues.

As many as 12,570 candidates contested for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the country's 11th General Election.

--IANS

soni/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was reportely located in the small Carribean island nation of Antigua, the Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government of "hurriedly" bringing the Economic Offender Fugitive Bill in Parliament as a "face-saving exercise."

"Three months after PM Modi meets Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Mehul Choksi gets Antigua's passport," said Congress leader Rajeev Gowda at a press conference.

Modi had met his Antiguan counterpart in London in April this year on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

"Nirav Modi (another fugitive jeweller in the PNB fraud) i.e. Chhota Modi is globetrotting and Prime Minister Modi's 'Mehul Bhai' i.e Choksi gets an Antigua passport after Nirav visited China, Belgium, UK, US, UAE and Hong Kong.

"Investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have failed to get a 'red corner notice (RCN)' issued against him (Choksi) till today," Gowda said.

Gowda also said: "Modi government is hurriedly trying to hide behind the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill as it has failed in its fight against black money."

"After four years, deposits in Swiss banks have gone up by 50 per cent. When cornered on these hard facts, a rattled Finance Minister Piyush Goyal is flashing new statistics, new methodology and newer lies to mislead the people," he said.

He also asked what happened to Modi's promise of bringing back Rs 80 lakh crore of black money stashed aboard.

"There are wide legal loopholes in the hurriedly brought Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill. If the constitutionally problematic sections are struck down, nothing worthwhile shall remain in the bill," said Gowda.

Noting that if black money moves out of India, "it doesn't move in a direct manner from India to Switzerland, but via various tax havens like Cayman Islands, Hong Kong etc", he said that Nirav Modi and Choksi also went to Hong Kong and UAE, but the Modi government was not revealing this.

To a question on increase in FDI inflow and money coming from Cayman Island, Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said: "You will be surprised that majority of money comes from all the tax havens."

"The money in Swiss accounts is reduced to a drastic level and the money goes to some other tax havens and from that tax havens it enters the country and that precisely is called a 'round tripping'."

--IANS

sid/vd

(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.)Two United Nations human rights experts on Wednesday urged the government of Pakistan to repeal provisions in its electoral laws that they claim discriminate against the Ahmadi Muslim minority.

Although the Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, an amendment to Pakistan's Constitution in 1974 declared them "non-Muslims", a provision that is included in the current Constitution.

"With national elections today, the current legal requirement for a separate electoral list for the Ahmadis, who have to declare themselves as non-Muslims in order to vote, is of particular concern," Efe quoted Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, as saying in a joint statement.

The civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Ahmadi minority have been progressively negated on account of differences with the majority community, Shaheed and de Varennes said.

"We are deeply concerned about increased acts of persecution of Ahmadis and about the discriminatory provisions against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan's domestic law. These measures contribute to acts of violence against Ahmadis based only on religious differences," they added.

Both experts expressed concern about the legal requirement that prevents Ahmadis from obtaining national identification and travel documents, which is also a form of discrimination on the basis of their religion or belief, they say.

They called for the death penalty for blasphemy offences to be repealed, saying religious minorities in Pakistan were "disproportionately" charged, simply for practicing their faith.

--IANS

qd/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)NASA coprincipal Moses Wetangula has reiterated that the coalition is dead and declared that he is no longer part and parcel of the opposition outfit.

The Ford-Kenya party leader further claimed that his political journey with ODM leader Raila Odinga is over. He, however, noted that the process of leaving the coalition requires going through party organs with a clear understanding of political dynamics.

I repeat here that my political journey with Odinga is over. I am not in NASA with body and heart. I am only forced and bound by the law. NASA died on January 30 and was buried, thus I dont hold any NASA positions in Parliament.

Speaking during an itnerview with Citizen TV news anchor Hussein Mohamed last night, the Bungoma Senator maintained: I repeat; NASA is now history it is moribundin ICU and inactive. All the coalition partners have been moving across the country chest-thumping on their agenda but only Ford-K and ANC seem to be holding things together with the possibility of a merger.

He added: Technically I am in NASA because I am in Parliament under the coalitions umbrella. It should be noted that all the four parties under the coalition are not parliamentary parties. Thats why the shell of NASA remains relevant for this season.

Wetangula further accused Raila and President Uhuru of wanting everything for themselves and trying to achieve their goals through state machinery manipulations.

Kalonzo, Musalia and I are among those who called for dialogue to cool political temperatures after the disputed election. Raila, being our presidential candidate with Kalonzo as his running mate, could have had the courtesy to at least let us know of the handshake, he said.

He, however, noted that they did not have a problem with the handshake but rather with the process that led to it.Domestic equity indices took a breather on Wednesday to close on a flat note after a largely volatile trade throughout the day. The benchmark BSE Sensex, however, settled at a new closing high of 36,858.23 points, with marginal gains.

Mixed global cues and selling pressure after a largely bullish trend in the past three trading days led the indices to trim gains and end on a flat note, analysts said.

Heavy selling was witnessed in the consumer durables stocks, after they rose in the last two trading sessions boosted by tax-rate cuts on several consumer items on Saturday, they added.

The Sensex also hit a new all-time high of 36,947.18 points during the afternoon session, but could not hold on to the gains.

It closed at 36,858.23 -- higher by 33.13 points or 0.09 per cent -- from its previous close of 36,825.10 points.

It hit an all-time intra-day high of 36,947.18 points, and touched an intra-day low of 36,803.15 points. It had also opened at a fresh high of 36,928.06 points surpassing the previous record of 36,902.06 points touched on Tuesday.

The wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,132 points, lower by just 2.30 points or 0.02 per cent from its previous close of 11,134.30 points.

"It was a volatile session as the index jumped from positive to negative territory

several times during the day," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

BNP Paribas Mutual Fund's Senior Fund Manager for Equities, Abhijeet Dey said: "Stock markets opened the day on a positive note but soon pared gains to trade the rest of the day in a narrow range, albeit with a positive bias."

Globally, trade was cautious ahead of the meeting between the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and US President Donald Trump, at the White House, Washington later in the day, he added.

Major Asian markets closed on a mixed note and European indices like FTSE 100 and DAX traded in the red, Jasani told IANS.

On the currency front, the rupee closed at 68.79, appreciating by by 16 paise from the previous close of 68.95 per dollar.

Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 1,195.75 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 97.64 crore.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE metal index gained the most, by 100.21 points, followed by the banking index, up 42.46 points and the finance index rose by 28.10 points.

On the contrary, the S&P BSE auto index fell by 105.79 points, the auto index was down 105.79 and the healthcare index ended lower by 50.95 points from its previous close.

The major gainers on the Sensex were State Bank of India, up 1.78 per cent at Rs 271.45; Adani Ports, up 1.53 per cent at Rs 397.50; Tata Steel, up 1.49 per cent at Rs 534.55; Vedanta, up 1.30 per cent at Rs 218.95; and ONGC, up 1.21 per cent at Rs 159 per share.

The top losers were NTPC, down 4.01 per cent at Rs 150.95; Axis Bank, down 2.59 per cent at Rs 531.85; Power Grid, down 1.29 per cent at Rs 175.65; Bharti Airtel, down 1.28 per cent at Rs 351.85; and Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.19 per cent at Rs 909.45 per share.

--IANS

rrb/prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The European Union (EU) on Tuesday urged Israel to refrain from excessive use of force against unarmed civilians while calling on all relevant parties to exercise restraint.

Addressing the UN Security Council open debate on "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question", Joanne Adamson, charge d'affaires of the EU delegation to the UN, said that the use of force "must be proportional at all times".

"Israel should reverse its punitive measures and work with the international community to ease conditions in Gaza. The situation there has been like a pressure cooker for some time and is on the verge of explosion," Xinhua quoted Adamson as saying.

In order to prevent further escalation of violence, the EU strongly urges all relevant parties "to respect international law, de-escalate tensions, exercise restraint, and prevent incidents that could jeopardize the lives of Palestinians and Israelis," she added.

"Serious efforts must be made towards a resumption of meaningful negotiations aimed at a two-state solution that meets Israeli and Palestinian security needs and Palestinian aspirations for statehood and sovereignty, ends the occupation and resolves all final status issues in order to end the conflict," she said.

Adamson reiterated EU's "strong opposition" to Israel's settlement policy and actions, including demolitions, confiscation, evictions and forced transfers.

She also criticized the "continued provocation and unacceptable violent action by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," saying it "represents a real and concerning threat, with communities in southern Israel paying the consequences".

While noting that "the status of Jerusalem is a final status issue", Adamson said that "a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states".

--IANS

mag/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned US President Donald Trump to expect a firm response from the European Union (EU) to new protectionist measures.

Speaking during an appearance on the public broadcaster ARD, Maas on Tuesday said that he was still hopeful that the trade conflict could be resolved consensually. Nevertheless, Europe would not "allow itself to be threatened and would not simply surrender" if Trump chose to escalate the dispute further, Xinhua reported.

The German foreign minister argued that Washington would leave Brussels with no other choice than to retaliate against a raft of new US tariffs. Otherwise, the credibility of the bloc and the wider system of rules-based free trade would suffer lasting damage.

Maas emphasized that it was crucial for Europe as a whole, but Germany and France in particular, to speak with one voice on trade in order to be heard on a global level. Member states which became divided on the issue would be at the mercy of greater non-European powers without having any effective say over their own future.

According to the German Social Democrat (SPD), no one could be seriously interested in the imposition of new and higher import tariffs as threatened again recently by the US.

"At the end of the day, all sides will lose, including the American side", he said. He consequently hoped that Washington would ultimately renege and depart from the protectionist path which it had embarked upon.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) recently argued that the key to resolving the US-EU trade dispute lay in creating a "shared understanding of the facts." Amongst others, the bloc needed to highlight that the German automotive industry employed over 118,000 staff in the US and exported 60 per cent of its local production to different countries.

Maas is scheduled to make visits to South Korea and Japan in the coming days where he will also discuss the possibility of a joint response from the EU and other countries affected by new US tariffs.

On Wednesday, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem are also scheduled to hold widely-anticipated direct talks with Trump in Washington.

--IANS

pgh/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brazilian forward Richarlison has joined Everton from another English Premier League club Watford in a reported 50 million pounds deal.

It was reported by English media that the 21-year-old has signed a five-year contract with Everton, who paid an initial 35 million pounds with further clauses taking it to 50m, reports Xinhua news agency.

Richarlison joined Watford last year for 11.5 million pounds from Fluminense, scoring on his full debut for the Hornets in a 2-0 victory at Bournemouth and winning rave reviews for a sequence of assertive and vibrant performances.

The versatile forward struck five times in his first 11 top-flight starts and contributed three assists during the same period, propelling Watford to within three points of the Champions League spot.

Richarlison said: "Everyone in the world knows Everton. It is a very big club, one of the biggest in England as I said. I am really happy and honoured to be here."

"I want to have a lot of success with Everton," said Richarlison.

Everton boss Silva believes Richarlison's range of attributes and fierce work ethic will make him a perfect fit for the Club.

"He is one more player who can help us. "He is a good player who will make our team and our squad more competitive," Silva said.

"The player himself is fast, strong, very good technically and he can play in three positions across the front line. He can also score goals. Evertonians will see a player who will be 100 per cent committed to helping our team always."

Richarlison launched his professional career with America Mineiro as a 17-year-old in December 2014 before signing for four-times Brazilian champions Fluminense 12 months later.

He has been capped 10 times by his country's U-20 team and scored on his international debut against England at St George's Park in September 2016.

--IANS

ajb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Facebook has set up a subsidiary in China to build an "innovation hub" focused on helping local developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow, the media reported.

Facebook's application for the China subsidiary in the Zhejiang province was approved on July 18, CNBC reported on Tuesday citing a filing with the country's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

"We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators and start-ups," a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

According to a report in Mashable, the subsidiary is entirely owned by Facebook, meaning it did not have to partner with popular Chinese social media sites Weibo or WeChat to get approval.

Facebook has similar hubs in other countries including India, France and Brazil.

As China strictly censors foreign social media and search engines, Facebook's website remains banned in the country. Contents from Google and Twitter also remain blocked in the country.

These strict rules have forced US tech giants to explore new ways to enter the big Chinese market.

Google, which has hundreds of people working in China, recently launched its Artificial Intelligence (AI) lab in the country.

--IANS

gb/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five Indian nationals were arrested on Wednesday for being in possession of over 3 kg of smuggled gold, worth Rs 14.7 million, at Tribhuvan International Airport here on Wednesday, police said.

Iswar Das, Awatar Singh, Amrit Pal Singh, Harmindar Singh and Rijwan Ansari were arrested for smuggling gold from Bangkok. They were flying on Thai Airways.

According to the police, the accused had concealed the gold in their suitcases' wheels. "This was an innovative idea to smuggle the gold... It has been seen for the first time," said Superintendent of Nepal Police Dinesh Raj Mainali.

All the five arrested have been handed over to the airport Customs office for necessary action.

On Saturday also, two Indian nationals were arrested with 2.7 kg of smuggled gold here. They were smuggling gold from Thailand.

"The ultimate market is India," said a police officer, adding that all the smuggled gold that lands in Kathmandu via Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore or China reaches the Indian market due to the open border.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following the hospitalisation of another Goa Cabinet Minister Francis D'Souza earlier this week for an undisclosed illness, an ailing Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has decided to handle his portfolios in his absence, according to a government notification issued on Wednesday.

D'Souza -- assigned Urban Development, Law and Judiciary portfolios -- is the fourth the Minister to be hospitalised over the last two months.

The notification also said that Parrikar would also be handling Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar's portfolio in the latter's absence.

A former Deputy Chief MInister, D'Souza, who was being treated for a renal ailment in the recent past, was hospitalised earlier this week in a Mumbai hospital and has failed to attend a single day of the ongoing monsoon session of the Goa Assembly.

Madkaikar was hospitalised, also in a Mumbai hospital, after suffering from a brain stroke last month. Family sources said that the Power Minister continues to be in a state of coma ever since his hospitalisation.

Public Works Department Sudin Dhavalikar, who was hospitalised for a liver-related surgery in Mumbai last week, returned to Goa two days back, but did not participate in the assembly proceedings.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is undergoing treatment for advanced pancreatitis and returned last month from the US, where he was being treated for nearly three months.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Firebrand writer Gauri Lankesh's journalism was "mandatory" and flowed from her activism, her former husband and author of "Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" Chidanand Rajghatta said on Wednesday.

The book (Westland/Rs 299/242 pages) examines the lives of two people -- his own and that of Lankesh -- against the "volatile backdrop of an increasingly fractious and intolerant India".

"The two strands come together in the gutting death of a courageous woman who took on these forces and fought for a more equitable society, a better India," the publisher said in a statement.

"Following in the method of previous murders of rationalists M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, Lankesh's murder chilled the nation, sparking off protests across India," it said, adding that the larger forces that killed these four activists continue to grow.

Saying Lankesh was working close to the ground, the author of this personal-is-political narrative added that she became an activist-journalist from a journalist-activist.

Rajghatta and Lankesh had remained friends after ending their 5-year marriage.

An open critic of the "burgeoning Hindutva faction in Karnataka and elsewhere in India, and a strident supporter of separate-religion status for Lingayats", Lankesh was shot dead on September 5, 2017.

US-based Rajghatta is the foreign editor of The Times of India, and has authored "The Horse That Flew: How India's Silicon Gurus Spread Their Wings" earlier.

"Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" is published by Westland under their new literary imprint, Context.

The book launch was followed by a discussion with Rajghatta and senior journalist Manoj Mitta.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government on Wednesday said it would furnish detailed information seeking Geographical Indication (GI) tag for 'Odishara Rasagola' by the first week of August.

"We had received a letter from the office of the Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai in last week of June this year seeking detailed information on 14 questions on this issue within a month. In reply, we had informed them that we would furnish the details by August 21," said Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister Prafulla Samal.

He, however, said the government has decided to submit the compliance report in the first week of August.

The Geographical Indications Registry has asked several information including submission of documentary proof that substantiates the origin of Odishara Rasagola in the state.

On the other hand, Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said the state government had already replied to some of the questions and details and the remaining will be provided soon.

The Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) in February had filed for GI for the 'Odishara Rasagola' with the Geographical Indications Registry (GI) office based in Chennai.

The government moved seeking GI tag after West Bengal was awarded the GI tag for its own variant 'Banglara Rasagulla' in November last year.

Meanwhile, the government has collected the data about the Rasagola makers and recorded the methods of preparing it to submit the report to GI office.

"The process is underway to provide the details sought from the GI office on Rasagola. We have collected the data about 435 Rasagola traders in the state. Besides, the video of Rasagola traders has been recorded involving the method of preparation and consumers' feedback. The CD of the video and all the data will be submitted at the GI Registry office within a scheduled time," said an official.

Meanwhile, people in Odisha on Wednesday celebrated Rasagola Dibasa which coincides with the Niladri Bije of Lord Jagannath and his siblings in Puri. Rasagola is offered to the deities on the occasion.

Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik created a sand art to mark the celebration of Rasagola Dibasa in the state.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI on Wednesday said it had written to the Antiguan authorities seeking details of Mehul Choksi's whereabouts in connection with the Rs 13,500-crore Punjab National Bank fraud case.

A Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) source told IANS that on Tuesday the agency wrote to the Caribbean nation seeking details of the owner of the Gitanjali Group of companies, who is being sought in India by investigators, along with his nephew Nirav Modi.

The source also said that the query had been sent as a follow-up to the "diffusion notice" (a request to Interpol for the arrest of a specific person) seeking information on Choksi's location.

According to the source, the CBI has sought to know when he reached the Carribbean country.

"The CBI had already issued a diffusion notice and on that basis they (Antiguan authorities) should have responded," he said.

However, the red corner notice (RCN) request from the CBI to the Interpol against Choksi is still pending.

Earlier in July, the Interpol issued the RCN against fugitive diamond jeweller Nirav Modi, his brother, a Belgian national, Nishal Modi and an executive of his firm Subhash Parab.

Asked when Interpol would issue a RCN against Choksi, the CBI official said that Interpol had raised certain queries after it wrote to them to issue an RCN. "The Interpol has asked about the validity of warrants against Choksi and specific role of the individual in the alleged crime," the source said.

Responding to the queries of the Interpol, the CBI source said that the agency attached the non-bailable warrants and charge-sheet copies issued from the Indian courts against Choksi.

"As of now no queries from Interpol in relation to Choksi is pending with us," the source said.

The CBI move comes after it was revealed on Tuesday that Choksi had moved to Antigua from the US several weeks ago using an Antiguan passport. The revelation came from Antiguan authorities in response to a CBI diffusion notice circulated to foreign countries through Interpol.

The CBI came to know of it last week and shared the information with the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Both the CBI and the ED have been probing the multi-crore fraud allegedly committed between 2011-2017.

According to the source, once the RCN is issued against Choksi, he will be technically restricted to the Carribbean islands only.

On July 11, the ED asked a special court in Mumbai to declare both diamond merchants -- Choksi and Nirav Modi -- as "fugitives" under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018 because they had fled India a month before they were named in the fraud case on January 31.

The ED has been probing two cases of money laundering against Choksi, Nirav Modi and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on the basis of an FIR registered by the CBI.

In these cases, the ED had on May 24 and May 26 filed prosecution complaints or charge-sheets against Choksi and Nirav Modi.

The court has taken cognisance of the charge-sheets and issued non-bailable warrant against both of them.

On the request of the ED and the CBI, the Interpol had earlier issued RCN against Nirav Modi.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Emory is among a group of 19 leading American universities urging the United States District Court of the Southern District of Texas, Brownsville Division, to support students who are part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program.

Established in 2012, DACA allows certain individuals who entered the United States as undocumented immigrants before the age of 16 to request deferred action from removal proceedings for renewable two-year periods.

The universities, all of which admit DACA students, take issue with the Department of Homeland Securitys Sept. 5, 2017, memorandum rescinding the DACA program.

Ending DACA would force future scholars, innovators and leaders to choose between withdrawing to the margins of our society and national economy or returning to countries that they have never called home, notes the brief, filed July 20. Whatever they choose, their gifts and education will be lost to this nation.

The case is State of Texas, et al, plaintiffs v. United States of America, et al, defendants, Karla Perez, et al, defendants-intervenors, and the State of New Jersey, movant. The universities have filed their brief as amici curiae (or friends of the court) urging the court to reject the plaintiffs motion for a preliminary injunction in the case.

In addition to Emory, the brief is signed by Brown University, California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St. Louis and Yale University.

Emory has joined with other universities in several amicus briefs in cases related to DACA since the Homeland Security memorandum was issued, including cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.

The DACA program affects more than 800,000 young people who have been working tirelessly to build a future for themselves and to create a better society for all, Emory President Claire E. Sterk noted in a message to the Emory community on Sept. 6, 2017. At Emory, our commitment to all of our students remains steadfast.Godrej Interio, a leading furniture manufacturer, is looking at 25 per cent growth of its revenue to Rs 2,500 crore in the current financial year, a company official said here on Wednesday.

The company plans to invest Rs 300 crore in its plants and machinery for a period of three years and Rs 100 crore would be invested in the current fiscal for opening new 35 stores across India, company's Chief Operating Officer Anil S. Mathur said.

"Our revenue is expected to reach Rs 2,500 crore in the current financial year while the company posted a revenue of Rs 2,000 crore in the last fiscal," he told media persons on the sidelines of the opening of a flagship store here.

Of the company's total revenue last year, the business to business (B2B) segment, including office furniture, turnkey projects, healthcare and lab furniture and others, clocked a revenue of Rs 1,200 crore while the revenue from business to consumer (B2C) segment was Rs 800 crore.

"We are expecting B2C segment to grow to Rs 1,500 crore and revenue from B2C is expected to be reaching Rs 1,000 crore," he said.

"Our total investments in plants and machinery in the next three years would be Rs 300 crore," he said, adding that it has seven manufacturing facilities situated at Mumbai, Haridwar, Shirwal and Bhagwanpur.

In addition, the company would be investing Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal for opening of 35 new stores across India .

In its portfolio of furniture, non-metal products have a share of 75-80 per cent while metal furniture has the share of 20-25 per cent, he said.

The company, which has presence in multi-brand online sites, is coming out with an own e-commerce site in the next 4-5 months, Mathur said.

Mathur said the market for home furniture for organised players has been growing by about 20 per cent while the growth for overall market including organised and unorganised was about 8-10 per cent.

With the reduction of Goods and Services tax rates from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, the organised players became more competitive because pre-GST period, overall taxation including excise duty and sales tax was to the tune of 27 per cent.

He also said the home furniture segment in India was estimated to be around Rs 50,000 crore and the organised players have 20 per cent market share. From a state perspective, West Bengal market was estimated to contribute about Rs 5,000 crore.

"Bengal market contributed nearly Rs 200 crore to our overall revenue last year," he added.

--IANS

bdc/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Godrej Interio, a leading furniture manufacturer, is looking at 25 per cent growth in revenue to Rs 2,500 crore in the current fiscal, a company official said here on Wednesday.

The company plans to invest Rs 300 crore in plants and machinery over three years whereas Rs 100 crore will be invested in the current fiscal to open 35 new stores across India, company's Chief Operating Officer Anil S. Mathur said.

"Our revenue is expected to reach Rs 2,500 crore in the current fiscal while the company posted a revenue of Rs 2,000 crore in the last fiscal," he told media persons on the sidelines of the opening of a flagship store here.

Of the company's total revenue last year, the business to business (B2B) segment, including office furniture, turnkey projects, healthcare and lab furniture and others, clocked a revenue of Rs 1,200 crore while the revenue from business to consumer (B2C) segment was Rs 800 crore.

"We are expecting B2B segment to grow to Rs 1,500 crore and revenue from B2C to Rs 1,000 crore," he said.

"Our total investments in plants and machinery in the next three years will be Rs 300 crore," he said, adding that it has seven manufacturing facilities at Mumbai, Haridwar, Shirwal and Bhagwanpur.

In addition, the company will invest Rs 100 crore to open 35 stores across India.

In its portfolio of furniture, non-metal products have a share of 75-80 per cent while metal furniture has the remaining 20-25 per cent, he said.

The company, which has a presence in multi-brand online sites, is coming out with an own e-commerce site in 4-5 months, Mathur said.

Mathur said that the market for home furniture for organised players has been growing by about 20 per cent while the growth for overall market, including organised and unorganised, was about 8-10 per cent.

With the reduction of Goods and Services tax from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, the organised players became more competitive because overall taxation, including excise and sales tax in the pre-GST period, was 27 per cent.

He also said that the home furniture segment in India was estimated to be around Rs 50,000 crore and the organised players have 20 per cent market share. From a state perspective, the West Bengal market was estimated to contribute about Rs 5,000 crore.

"The Bengal market contributed nearly Rs 200 crore to our overall revenue last year," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government must listen to people speaking truth to power, referring to observations made by economists Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian.

"Government must listen to people speaking truth to power. Three eminent economists have done that today," said Chidambaram on Twitter.

"Firstly, Dr Arvind Panagariya has written eloquently about the folly of the government's trade policy and its rush towards 'import substitution'," he said.

"Secondly, Dr Raghuram Rajan has spoken passionately about the 'need to tolerate dissent' in order to become a knowledge society. Thirdly, Dr Arvind Subramanian has spoken from experience why the CEA must always provide honest and disinterested advice. He must be pained that he was not consulted on demonetisation!" Chidambaram added.

Chidambaram was referring to Arvind Panagariya's article in 'The Times of India' which said import substitution would take the economy down from turnpike to dirt road.

The former Finance Minister was also referring to Rajan's remarks made at an event organised by "The Hindu BusinessLine" where he said: "... In an atmosphere, that tolerates dissent, you can exchange ideas and have new ideas created... This strength will carry us going forward when we build top universities because scholars will be able to debate without fear of voicing their views."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A local court in Visnagar town of North Gujarat sentenced firebrand Patidar leader Hardik Patel and two others to a two-year jail term and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 in a 2015 rioting case. The court later granted bail to the three.

The case refers to mob violence that resulted in then BJP legislator Rushikesh Patel's office being vandalized during a rally in 2015, organised for reservation for the Patel (or Patidar) community in government jobs and educational institutions.

Hours after the sentence, Hardik Patel described the BJP rule in Gujarat as "Hitlershahi." "I am a sinner, if it is a sin to fight for social justice and rights. If those who fight for truth and their rights are rebels, then I am a rebel," he said in a statement on a social media platform on Wednesday.

"There was not a single witness who saw me where the incident took place. I respect the court's decision, but I will exercise my right to challenge it," he told reporters.

"What about action against policemen who unleashed terror on the agitating Patidars and their families after the August 2015 rally? he asked. Patel was referring to the massive police crackdown after a rally on August 25, 2015, which led to the death of 14 Patel community members.

"The BJP might think I would not be able to fight an election (in 2019) if I am in jail for two years, but let them take it that I am not here to fight elections," he said. "If I get an opportunity, I can contest an election," he added.

Patel said he would go ahead with his indefinite fast from August 25, the third anniversary of the Patels' rally, and re-launch his agitation.

Besides Patel, the other two sentenced were Sardar Patel Group leader Laljibhai Patel and A K Patel. There were 14 others in the same case who were booked for rioting, arson, damage to property and unlawful assembly. However, they were let free.

The earlier ban on Hardik Patel from entering Mehsana district where Visnagar is located, however, remains in place.

-- IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Gujarat court sentenced quota agitation leader and two others to two years imprisonment in a case of rioting and arson in Visnagar town in July 2015 on Wednesday.

Later, and his two aides - Lalji Patel and A K Patel - were granted bail by the same court.

Visnagar sessions court Judge V P Agarwal held Hardik Patel, Lalji Patel and A K Patel guilty under IPC sections pertaining to rioting, arson, damage to property and unlawful assembly.

The three were awarded two years imprisonment along with a fine of Rs 50,000 each, which the trio deposited in the court on Wednesday.

The other 14 accused were let off by the court for want of enough evidence against them.

From the penalty collection of Rs 150,000, the court ordered that Rs 10,000 be given to TV channel reporter Suresh Vanol, Rs 100,000 to the owner of a car torched by the mob during violence and Rs 40,000 to local MLA, Rishikesh Patel, towards damage caused to his property.

Hardik Patel, 25, was one of the accused in the FIR which was filed in Mehsana district on July 23, 2015, when a rally of the Patel community seeking reservation turned violent in Visnagar, resulting in damage to property and assault on some media persons.

During the violent agitation, the mob had torched a car and vandalised the office of local MLA Rishikesh Patel.

A rally of more than 25,000 people of the Patel community demanding reservation was then at the initial stage of quota movement in Gujarat.

At that time, was not a known figure and was one of the foot soldiers of Lalji Patel, who is the president of the Sardar Patel Group (SPG), a quota agitation body.

The rally in Visnagar was the first prominent event of the quota movement when Hardik Patel came into limelight.

As per the case details, when the rally reached near the office of MLA Patel, some community members tried to meet him to hand over a memorandum of their demands.

However, when they did not find the MLA in his office, they got angry and ransacked his office.

It was also alleged that protesters had torched a car parked on a road in the area.

Some media persons were also attacked by the mob at that time.

The complainant in the case was TV channel reporter Vanol, who was brutally thrashed by those present in the rally.Even though Maldives has been embroiled in political turmoil for a long time, it's becoming a tourist destination of choice for honeymooners from Kerala.

Located in the Arabian Sea and spread over 298 square kilometres, it is the smallest Asian country by both land area and population, with only a little over 390,000 people.

"Maldives has started gaining huge acceptance as a honeymoon destination due to the quietness and tranquillity of its beaches and, above all, the air connectivity -- with daily flights from Thiruvananthapuram," said Raphael Devaraj, an official of the Maldivian, the national carrier of Maldives.

In 1972, there were two tourism resorts in Maldives. Today, there are over a hundred, suiting budget tourists. It takes between 55 minutes and 80 minutes to reach Male from Thiruvananthapuram, depending on the aircraft and the fare ranges between Rs 11,000 and Rs 14,000.

According to Vinay Balachandran, who works with a leading travel agency, Orizon Holidays, there had been a "dramatic increase" in the last five years in the number of people travelling from Kerala to Maldives. "Compared to Singapore and other places, Maldives is a quintessential honeymoon destination as it offers the perfect place for couples who prefer a quiet and refreshing stay," Balachandran told IANS.

It's no longer an upmarket destination, as it used to be. "Earlier, just the resorts were there. Today it has changed with numerous guest houses which are easily affordable. Tourist arrivals from India are growing briskly at around 10 to 15 per cent annually. A new runway and a new terminal afe fast nearing completion and once they are ready, we are certain tourists arrivals will be even higher," M.V. Jaadhulla, Deputy Counsel of Maldives based here, told IANS.

With the Maldivian government giving importance to tourism, earnings from this sector amount to almost 28 per cent of the country's GDP. It also accounts for more than 60 per cent of its foreign exchange receipts.

"We were a bit apprehensive when we decided to opt for Maldives. But after five days we felt our decision was the best. The beaches are excellent. They are all shallow and one can go wading deep into the sea. Moreover, the destination is not crowded and that's the biggest advantage for new couples," said a newly-married woman who did not want to be named.

(Sanu George can be contacted at sanu.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In two separate incidents, National Commission for Women (NCW) and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) on Wednesday rescued girls and women who had become victims of human trafficking.

While DCW rescued 16 Nepali girls who were about to be trafficked to Gulf countries, NCW rescued a woman from Siliguri who was missing for a month after being trafficked to Goa.

A team led by DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal along with Delhi Police conducted a raid in Delhi's Munirka, rescuing the girls who mostly belong to Sindhupalchok district in Nepal.

According to DCW, the girls were brought to Delhi on the pretext of employment and kept in a small room for several days. The traffickers had taken away their passports.

"The traffickers had been running this racket at this location for the last eight months and several girls had already been sent abroad. The place from where the girls have been rescued is hardly 500 m from the police station," Maliwal said.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also reacted on the incident and questioned Delhi Police's inability to stop human trafficking.

"Where are BJP, LG, Home Minister, Prime Minister? Delhi Police is under them. What are they doing? It was their duty to stop this," he tweeted.

In another case, NCW along with Goa Police rescued the victim after her husband complained to the police in Siliguri. After the complaint was forwarded to NCW, Chairperson Rekha Sharma immediately directed the Goa Police Chief to look into the matter.

On July 23, the NCW was notified by the victim's family that she was accessible over mobile phone and her number was put on surveillance.

"Her location could be traced and the anti-trafficking team reached the location to rescue the woman. She is presently in a shelter home in Goa and will be reunited with her five-month-old child and family in Siliguri," the Commission said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Bangladesh border guards have adopted a zero tolerance policy to curb smuggling of arms, explosives and drugs and human trafficking along the frontiers of the two countries, officials said here on Wednesday after a four-day border coordination conference.

"In the border coordination conference, the BSF (Border Security Force) and BGB (Border Guards Bangladesh) have adopted zero tolerance strategies to deal with smuggling of arms, explosives, drugs and human trafficking along the frontiers," Additional Director General of BGB Mohmmad Zahid Hasan told reporters.

He said: "We have shared our views and taken strategies to check trans-border crimes. Currently we are not facing any major challenges along the frontiers."

Sector Commanders of BGB's Sarail and Chittagong regions and Inspector Generals of BSF's three northeast India frontiers' -- Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram-Cacher --- held the four-day border coordination conference at Tripura frontier headquarters in Shalbagan, 12 km north of Agartala.

Hasan said that so far there were no security related challenges from the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. "We have confined them within the camps. If the Rohingya refugees tried to come out from the camps, we will prevent them."

"Staying of huge number of Rohingyas (in Bangladesh) is a security concern of Bangladesh. They are not allowed to go outside the camps and if they do so, we will deal with it firmly," the BGB official said.

Both BGB and BSF officials said that as of now no major terror threat is visualized from the Rohingya refugees.

"It cannot be ruled out that terror acts involved Rohingya refugees. However, no criminal evidence was so far found in the Rohingya refugees camps and from the individual Rohingya," BSF's Tripura frontier Inspector General Hemant Kumar Lohia said.

The camps in southeast Bangladesh host some 915,000 Rohingyas, including around 700,000 who have sought refuge in the country since August 25, 2017 when the Myanmar military launched an offensive in retaliation to an attack on multiple government outposts by Rohingya rebels in the western state of Rakhine.

Erection of border fencing along the remaining portion of India-Bangladesh territories, reduction of border crime along the borders, improvement of mutual understanding between the BSF and BGB, water sharing and cleanliness of drainage water were discussed in the BSF-BGB border coordination conference.

Lohia said that there was no problem in erection of fencing along the India-Bangladesh borders and also there was no problem in management of fencing gates through which Indian farmers and bordering people are going outside the fencing.

"The BSF has taken all-out efforts to curb drug related crimes including smuggling and farming of ganja," he added.

Four northeastern states, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam share the 1,880 km international border with Bangladesh.

Most parts of the 1,880 km frontiers are unfenced, mountainous and prone to crime.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday that India is in talks with Bangladesh over deportation of Rohingyas living illegally and the process will begin after getting status report from the states where they are living illegally.

Responding to a specific query in Rajya Sabha during Question Hour by Anand Sharma about talks with Bangladesh over the issue, he said that there has been a discussion between the Indian and Bangladeshi External Affairs Ministers on the issue.

He said right now in the country Rohingyas are in many states and the centre has issued advisory for identifying, numbering and taking biometrics of them.

"The states has been asked also to ensure that they left with no documents so that they can claim for citizenship in future. This advisory has also been issued to the states," he said, adding that after getting reports from the states, these will be sent to the Ministry of External Affairs.

"Then our External Affairs Minister will talk to her Myanmar counterpart. And if felt necessary, she will also talk to External Affairs Minister of Bangladesh so that Rohingyas living in India could be deported," he said.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said that everybody knows the background of Rohingya issue.

"We have approached the Government of Myanmar and Bangladesh also. We all know that they have come from the State of Rakhine in Myanmar. So, the Government of India is impressing upon the Government of Myanmar to take back these people. The process will be as per discussion we had with sovereign countries. I cannot give an assurance here," he said.

Earlier, nominated member Swapan Dasgupta sought to know from the government whether Bangladesh has, for a change, admitted that there were illegal Bangladeshi nationals residing in India and has accepted taking them back.

"Earlier, they had not even admitted that fact. Just as we are approaching this problem, I think, a new problem is coming up. I would like to ask a question on that. This is on the systematic trickling of Rohingya refugees who are coming in, using Bangladesh as a staging post to come into various parts of India, but notably using the sea-borne route to come into Sundarbans area of West Bengal.

"There are reports which have been documented in the electronic media, which have said that 40 organisations are working in close coordination to facilitate them," he said, asking for the steps being taken by government to actually detect, identify and remove them.

Rijiju said under the Foreigners' Act, 1946, the Central Government has the power to identify, detect and push back or deport anybody who is illegally staying in India.

"With regard to the issue of Rohingyas, we have stated earlier also that there are Rohingyas who have entered India illegally," he said, adding that, as per the security agencies' reports, they are in the Jammu city and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur."

In response to another query related to deportation of 52 Bangladeshis in Assam in detention camps, Rijiju said that the Bangladesh has agreed, identified and accepted the identity of these people as Bangladeshi nationals.

"So, now they have agreed to that. These 52 people including one minority will be deported on July 30 at 11 a.m. from Mankachar ICP in Assam" he said.

He rejected the claims that thousands of genuine Indian citizens are kept in detention camps in Assam motivated by the tribunals and the border police taking a particular motive.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his country is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

"If I compare India-Uganda trade ties, I can see that we are in a win-win situation," Modi said while addressing the Uganda-India Business Forum here.

"But we are falling short and to correct that we need to strategise," he said.

Stating that Ugandan President is right in saying that there is trade imbalance between India and Uganda, the Prime Minister said: "India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda."

He exhorted the business community to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda.

"India is ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in this country," Modi stated.

He also stressed on innovation saying that without this the world cannot go ahead.

"Uganda can go ahead if the youth of Uganda and India work together," he said, adding that the East African country can play an important role in the overall development of Africa.

On his part, Museveni, while exhorting the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment, said: "You are in the right place in the right time."

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)08:33

The Election Commission of Pakistan has rejected the "blatant" rigging allegations levelled by the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz after trends showed Imran Khan's party was inching towards majority, saying it did "our job right."

In an unusual press conference at 4am local time, Chief Election Commissioner Muhammad Raza Khan congratulated the people of Pakistan for participating in the election process.





He, however, acknowledged that the delay in announcement of election results has "caused some annoyance".

The short pace of counting has given currency to the allegations of manipulation of the election process. The results were expected by this morning, but the CEC only announced what he called was the "first non-official, preliminary result".

The CEC stressed the delay was on account of a new system -- Results Transmission System -- introduced by it.

"We were implementing it for the first time. Therefore, there was some delay," Dawn online quoted him as saying.

Asked about the doubts and the allegations, he said: "We will prove ourselves that we did our job right."

The early-morning press conference came hours after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif in Lahore outrightly rejected the results, alleging "blatant" rigging of the election, even though the vote count was under way.

Sharif warned his party would launch protests against the alleged rigging. He did not say who he believes could have rigged the polls, but allegations of manipulating the elections have been made against the country's powerful military.

"Some five other parties including PPP have raised the rigging issue in polls. After consulting them, I will announce the future course of action. Pakistan has suffered today," he told journalists at the press conference in Lahore. -- PTIA 25-year-old Indian student was killed in Australia after meeting a woman he befriended on an online dating website.

Maulin Rathod, 25, went to a house at Ross Court in Sunbury on Monday night after arranging to meet up with the 19-year-old woman, the Australian media reported.

Later, emergency services were called to the scene and Rathod was found with life-threatening injuries. He was taken to hospital where he died on Tuesday night, according to the Age newspaper.

The woman who lived alone, was arrested and charged with intentionally causing serious injury. Her charges will be reviewed and are expected to be upgraded to manslaughter or murder, the daily said on Wednesday.

She faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was remanded to appear again next week.

Rathod's friend, Lovepreet Singh, said that the former moved to Australia four years ago to study and was in the process of completing his Masters of Accounting.

Rathod was the only child of his parents who have been left devastated by his violent and sudden death, said Singh.

"His parents are in shock... He had a very humble personality and tried really hard with his studies."

Singh said Rathod's friends were trying to raise money to send his body back to India.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian Foreign Ministry has said the US government should forget talks with Iran under sanction threats.

"Iran will never accept one-way negotiations that are based on excessive demands," Spokesman of Foreign Ministry Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by IRNA news agency.

"Iran has never hesitated to defend the people's rights, territorial integrity, or independence of the country," said Qasemi, Xinhua reported.

US President Donald Trump hinted on Monday that Washington was open to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Tehran ahead of looming deadline for Washington to snap back gold and oil sanctions on Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said that any negotiation with the US to solve the existing mutual problems was an "obvious mistake".

However, Khamenei stressed that negotiations with the Europeans should continue to secure Iran's interests from the 2015 international nuclear deal following the US withdrawal from it on May 8.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Islamic State terror organization killed at least 183 people, both combatants and civilians, in fighting and suicide bombings in southern Syria on Wednesday, a war monitor said in a report.

UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that IS militants killed 89 civilians in dawn attacks on villages near the city of Suweida, the capital of the southern province of the same name.

The SOHR said that 94 combatants were killed while fighting IS, claiming "most of them (were) people of villages in Suweida countryside, who took up arms to repel the violent and surprising attack of the terror group, which stretched on a 20-kilometre-long front", Efe news reported.

IS later claimed responsibility for the attacks via the group's outlet on the messaging app Telegram.

The Syrian government's official news agency SANA reported that one suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a market in Suweida, while two other bombers were killed by security forces.

However, the SOHR claimed at least four bombers had carried out attacks in the city and added that some civilians were taken prisoner by IS militants and moved to desert areas controlled by the terror organization north of the provincial capital.

Later, Suweida Governor Amer al-Eshi told state-run Ikhbariyah TV that the authorities had arrested another attacker and said that "the city of Sweida was secure and calm now".

The attack by the IS came as Syrian government forces backed by Russian airpower continued their month-long military offensive to recover territory in southwest Syria bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

On Wednesday, Russia-backed government forces were also reported to be bombarding pockets of IS-held territory in Daraa, west of Suweida, the BBC said.

At least 270,000 people fled their homes in the region as the fighting continued, the UN said.

On Sunday, Israel allowed the evacuation of hundreds of White Helmets civil defence workers who were trapped in a war zone in southern Syria.

The Syrian government condemned the move, describing it as a "criminal operation" by Israel and others.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 50 people were killed on Wednesday in a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks claimed by the Islamic State terror group on government-held parts of south-western Syria.

The attacks took place in and around the government-held city of Suweida, according to the state media and monitors. The IS claimed the attacks via its outlet on the messaging app Telegram.

The seemingly coordinated attacks were the deadliest in government-held territory in many months. At least 78 people were injured, reports said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, reported a string of suicide blasts in Suweida and in villages to the north and east. It said militants stormed homes in the villages and killed the occupants.

At least two attackers blew themselves up in the city itself, one near a marketplace and a second in another district, state television said.

The state news agency SANA said two other IS militants were killed before they could blow themselves up.

Militants attacked three villages northeast of the city, it said.

The state TV also said government forces were "targeting positions of the IS" in the countryside to the east of Suweida.

Suweida Governor Amer al-Eshi told state-run Ikhbariyah TV that the authorities had arrested another attacker. "The city of Sweida is secure and calm now," he said.

The Syrian military, backed by Russian forces, recently launched an operation to drive the rebels from their remaining strongholds in the south-west.

On Wednesday, Russia-backed government forces were also reported to be bombarding pockets of IS-held territory in Daraa, west of Suweida, the BBC said.

At least 270,000 people fled their homes in the region as the fighting continued, the UN said.

On Sunday, Israel allowed the evacuation of hundreds of White Helmets civil defence workers who were trapped in a war zone in southern Syria.

The Syrian government condemned the move, describing it as a "criminal operation" by Israel and others.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, has decided to close down her fashion brand.

The move comes over a year after she split from the company to enter the White House as a senior adviser, BBC reported on Tuesday.

Trump launched the brand in 2014, but after her father's election was faced with boycotts from shoppers.

Trump had reportedly become frustrated by the difficulties posed by avoiding possible conflicts of interest while serving in the White House.

A spokesperson for the company said the decision "has nothing to do with the performance of the brand and is based solely on Ivanka's decision to remain in Washington indefinitely."

After 17 months in her White House role, Ivanka Trump said she did not know "when or if I will ever return to the business".

"But I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners," she said in a statement.

"I am beyond grateful for the work of our incredible team who has inspired so many women; each other and myself included. While we will not continue our mission together, I know that each of them will thrive in their next chapter," she added.

According to NBC News, she met personally her 18-person staff at Trump Tower in New York City after the company's closure was announced to employees.

The brand had already been dropped by several retailers such as the Nordstrom chain and - just last week - Canada's largest department store chain Hudson's Bay.

Both companies blamed poor sales for their decision.

Trump's company is private and does not release sales figures.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited research from Rakuten Intelligence, online sales at Amazon, Macy's and Bloomingdales fell almost 45 per cent in the year to June.

An investigation by the Washington Post last year found that virtually all of Trump's clothing was manufactured in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two of the three blockades, built on water diversion conduits by the Karnataka government along the Mhadei river, have been removed and water is already being diverted from the Mhadei river to the Malaprabha river basin in the Southern State, Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar said on Wednesday.

"The rear end of the conduit was checked and it was observed that water was flowing through two of the three conduits... The issue is being taken very seriously and an application will be presented before the Tribunal immediately," Palienkar told the state assembly while replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rajesh Patnekar.

The contempt petition will be filed on Friday, Palienkar said.

"We are taking up the issue. We know the seriousness and any government will try to defend its own position... We have to protect our state's interest," Parrikar said, adding that it was irrelevant whether the Congress or the BJP was in power in Karnataka.

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently battling a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the Mhadei river at a central Tribunal.

Mhadei or the Mandovi river is known as a lifeline in the northern parts of the State. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through the territory of Maharashtra.

Seventy-eight per cent of the basin of the Mhadei river lies in Goa, while 42.79 per cent of the basin is located in Karnataka, and a small portion is located in Maharashtra.

Karnataka also plans to build seven dams at various points along the river, including at Kalsa village, to divert the flow to the "water-starved" Malaprabha basin in North Karnataka.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Talat Ahmed and Manoj Dhar were on Wednesday appointed the Vice Chancellors of the Kashmir and Jammu Universities respectively by Governor N.N. Vohra, who is also the Chancellor of the state varsities.

Sources in the University of Kashmir told IANS that Professor Talat Ahmad, presently Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi has been appointed as the new Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University, replacing Professor Khurshid Andrabi whose term of office ended in October 2017.

An earth scientist, Ahmad also served as the Vice Chancellor of Kashmir University 2012-2014, before taking over his assignment in Jamia Millia Islamia.

Professor Manoj Dhar replaces Professor R.D.Sharma at the Jammu University, and had taken over charge on Wednesday.

He was presently Professor and Coordinator of the Bioinformatics Centre at the varsity.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan elections on Wednesday evoked keen interest in Jammu and Kashmir as people here remained glued to television and radios to know the latest as the voting progressed.

Many were disappointed after last week the district magistrates in the valley ordered suspension of 30 television channels being aired from Pakistan and other places outside India.

"There is no denying the fact that developments in Pakistan have a direct bearing on Kashmir.

"A stable political government there can engage meaningfully with India to work for peace in Kashmir," said Manzoor Ahmad, 62, a retired bank officer.

As people from different places of the valley showed keen interest in Pakistan polls, the one place that remained abuzz with speculations and prophesies was the old city area of Srinagar.

Traditionally known as the hotbed of separatist sentiment in the Kashmir Valley, people in Srinagar downtown were seen engaged in discussion on the future of democracy in Pakistan.

"Even if all of us believe that the army of Pakistan is the strongest institution there, yet the strongest dictatorship is no alternative to even the weakest of democracies," said Abdul Salaam, 57, a shopkeeper in the old city area.

Even the youth who otherwise show no particular interest in seemed to be concerned about the future of democracy in Pakistan.

"Given the level of violence we have seen ahead of the Pakistan polls, holding the elections is a great effort.

"Those who want us to believe that it is a fixed match are actually trying to undermine democracy in that country.

"I have no doubt once a democratic government takes over, a window would open for talks between India and Pakistan," said Suhail, 25, a varsity student.

While the common man on the street spoke frankly about what he expects from these elections, politicians of both mainstream and separatist groups remained tight-lipped.

Six persons were killed and several injured on Wednesday in sporadic incidents of violence as millions of voters queued up outside polling stations amid tight security across Pakistan to elect a new government in its 11th general election.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., many were found waiting outside their respective booths as early as 7 a.m, Dawn News website said. Voting will end at 6 p.m.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday appointed Ashwin Kotwal the party's new chief whip in the Gujarat assembly.

A three term legislator from Khedbrahma, Kotwal was made the deputy whip under Amit Chavda after the December 2017 assembly elections when the party bagged a significant 77 seats.

With Chavda given the responsibility of heading the state Congress recently, Kotwal has been elevated.

Kotwal, 50, won the Khedbrahma seat, a constituency reserved for tribals, in 2007 and retained it in 2012 and 2017. An economics graduate from St. Xavier's, Ahmedabad, he was selected as a member in the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes in 2014, but with the change in government at the centre, could not assume that position.

The Leader of the Opposition Paresh Dhanani has sent a letter to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, informing him about the new appointment.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Lok Sabha was adjourned briefly on Wednesday

after a furore over remarks made by a BJP MP about a gang rape of a tribal girl and Dalit atrocities alleged to have taken place in West Bengal.

The House resumed work at 12.30 p.m. after being adjourned for some 15 to 20 minutes.

Kirit Somaiya, who represents Mumbai's North-East, said despite having a woman Chief Minister (Mamata Bannerjee), such incidents were still happening in West Bengal.

Pointing towards Trinamool Congress members, Somiaya said: "You should be ashamed of this." This offended the Trinamool Congress members who protested.

Earlier, after the House assembled at 11 a.m., Congress member K.C. Venugopal moved an adjournment notice over the NEET data leak.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the Diretorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) to complete the preliminary investigation quickly against Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam for having assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

Reacting to the development, DMK leader M.K.Stalin said he welcomes the High Court order and also demanded Panneerselvam's resignation so that the probe could be completed freely.

DMK's Rajya Sabha Member R.S.Bharathi had filed a case in the High Court after making a complaint with DVAC alleging Panneerselvam has amassed wealth disproportionate to known sources of income.

The government counsel told the court that inquiry into the complaint has started.

Following that the court disposed off the petitions filed by Bharathi and also NGO Arapoor Iyakkam.

Meanwhile Stalin said Bharathi had made the complaint to DVAC in March itself but no action was taken on that by the government.

He demanded Panneerselvam's resignation as there is a probe against him by DVAC and there is no justification for him to continue as Deputy Chief Minister.

If Panneerselvam does not resign then Chief Minister K.Palaniswami should recommend to the Governor Banwarilal Purohit for dropping the former from the cabinet, he added.

--IANS

vj/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the death of three minor sisters in their house in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

"The Delhi government has ordered the probe," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet.

"I shall go to the house in Mandavali on Thursday morning where this incident took place," he said.

The first autopsy revealed that the girls died due to 'starvation', though the police are still waiting for the second post-mortem report.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The shutdown by Maratha groups seeking reservation evoked a mixed response on Wednesday in Mumbai and the coastal districts of Maharashtra, but ended on a violent note as police tear-gassed and caned protestors.

The state government hastily agreed to hold talks with the agitation leaders even as a protestor Jagannath Sonawane, 55, who had consumed poison in Devgaon-Rangari village in Aurangabad, succumbed in a government hospital, taking the death toll in the three-day agitation to two.

On Monday, 28-year-old Kakasaheb Dattatreya Shinde had committed suicide by jumping into the Godavari river in the same district, triggering massive protests.

Since Wednesday morning, a large groups of Maratha activists carrying saffron flags and banners took out noisy processions amid tight security in Mumbai and other districts like Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

Shouting 'Ek Maratha, Lakh Maratha', 'Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj ki Jai', they condemned the government for not heeding their demands over two years of peaceful agitation.

Roads were blocked in several parts of Mumbai, with an attempt to block the suburban railway at Thane. City transport buses were pelted with stones in Navi Mumbai, and private vehicular traffic stopped by protestors.

At least one protestor was injured in police caning in Navi Mumbai as it attempted to remove a blockade by a large group of Marathas and later tear-gassed to disperse them.

As per official figures, in Mumbai and Thane, at least two buses were set ablaze, while nine others were damaged in heavy stone-pelting. Tyres of another 10 were deflated.

During the shutdown, several vehicles were damaged in other parts of the state, with repercussions of the agitation felt for the second day in districts like Aurangabad, Kolhapur and Satara.

As the violence seemed to escalate, Maratha Kranti Morcha Convenor Virendra Pawar called a press conference to announce withdrawal of the stir at 3 p.m., after nearly eight hours.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis responded by saying that the state government had taken cognizance and was willing to discuss and resolve the issue.

"We have taken several decisions for the Maratha community and are committed to giving them reservation. Presently, the matter is sub judice," Fadnavis added.

Massive traffic jams were witnessed on major roads and highways leading to Mumbai from Goa, Pune, Nashik and Ahmedabad routes.

Most shops and commercial establishments remained shut in important pockets like Dadar, Andheri, Mulund, Kanjurmarg, Borivali, Kandivali. In many other places the Maratha activists went around requesting shopkeepers to down shutters and express solidarity with their cause.

A large group of protestors blocked certain pockets on the Eastern Express Highway and Western Express Highway, disrupting normal traffic movement, as well as arterial roads in the suburbs, stopping all vehicles from plying to and from the highways.

Some protestors blocked the railway tracks at Jogeshwari but were evicted by security forces to help resume normal services after around 10 minutes, said a Western Railway spokesperson.

However, local train services on the Central Railway's trans-harbour line were affected for over an hour due to stone-pelting on trains at Ghansoli and Thane this afternoon.

Though schools and colleges functioned normally, there were reports of drop in attendance. Mumbai's lifeline -- the suburban trains -- and long-distance services largely remained unaffected while other essential services functioned smoothly.

Holding the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government responsible for the agitation, state Congress President Ashok Chavan said that it let down not only the Marathas, but also the Dhangars and the Muslims.

"For how long will you deceive the people? No more talks, now its time for action," Chavan said.

Union Minister of State for Social Justice Ramdas Athawale said that law needs to be amended to raise the reservation cap from 50 to 70 per cent and promised to raise the issue with the National Democratic Alliance.

Wednesday's shutdown was the second phase of agitation by the Maratha Kranti Morcha. The first phase was held spontaneously on Tuesday in most districts of northern, western and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra.

The Marathas are seeking reservation in government jobs and education, with the agitation remaining peaceful in over two years, including holding of silent processions in over a dozen districts.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As the three-day violent agitation by quota-seeking Marathas ended on Wednesday, ruling ally Shiv Sena claimed that the BJP central leadership was contemplating replacing Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, but the BJP dismissed it as "rumour-mongering".

Sena MP Sanjay Raut created a flutter when he said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi would take a final call on leadership change in the state.

"Talk of changing the CM is going on within the BJP. The present situation is quite worrying as the state government has failed to tackle it.. The government has disappeared from the political scene," Raut claimed.

He called upon the government to immediately initiate a dialogue with the Marathas and not shirk the issue saying its 'sub-judice' as successive governments have not resolved it since years.

However, a battery of BJP leaders dismissed Raut's contentions with party spokesperson Madhav Bhandari even accusing the Sena MP of indulging in "rumour-mongering".

"There are no issues in the party.. the government and the CM are stable and doing a good job," said Bhandari, adding that when BJP was in opposition it had joined the Maratha agitations for reservations in education and government jobs.

Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil also rubbished Raut's statement, asking who would remove a Chief Minister who works till 3 a.m., and said the government has already done the best possible to solve the issue.

In the midst of the agitation on Wednesday, Sena received a blow when its legislator from Kannad in Aurangabad Harshwardhan Jadhav suddenly resigned demanding Maratha quotas.

"With effect from today, I hereby resign from my legislative assembly seat," Jadhav said in a terse one-liner emailed to the Speaker of the Assembly Haribhau Bagade.

During the agitatation in Aurangabad on Tuesday, Jadhav had vowed that if the state government failed to announced quotas for Marathas within 24 hours, he would quit his assembly seat.

--IANS

qn/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that she was taking control of negotiations with Brussels on Britain's withdrawal from the European Union (EU).

May told MPs about her decision on Tuesday in a written answer to the House of Commons as it was preparing to close for its long summer recess, Xinhua news agency reported.

The main opposition Labour Party responded to the announcement with shadow Brexit minister Jenny Chapman saying May's newly appointed Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab had been sidelined.

The Independent newspaper's political sketch writer headed a commentary: "Theresa May has taken control of the Brexit negotiations. God help us all".

"Still, now that Theresa May has taken 'personal control' of Brexit away from the Brexiteers, perhaps a positive outcome is possible," said the commentary ... "Fingers crossed then. There is still time for 'Take Control' Theresa to work her unique magic."

In her statement, May said that Raab, who she appointed following the resignation just over two weeks ago of her previous Brexit secretary David Davis, would be her deputy in the negotiations with the EU.

Earlier Raab, who has already held talks with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier, appeared in the House of Commons to announce the publication of a new government White Paper explaining how Britain's EU withdrawal agreement will be put into law.

May said both she and Raab will be supported by the Cabinet Office's Europe Unit, with the unit having overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations, drawing upon support from the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) and other departments as required.

May said DExEU will continue to lead on all of the government's preparations for Brexit: domestic preparations in both a deal and a no-deal scenario, all of the necessary legislation, and preparations for the negotiations to implement the detail of the Future Framework.

Insisting there was no sidelining, Raab said later there was no tension and that he will attend all meetings with May. He said the announcement amounted to some shifting of the Whitehall deckchairs.

Addressing MPs about the new withdrawal bill, and later facing a select committee of MPs, Raab said again that the 39 billion pounds ($52 billion) that Britain has agreed to pay as its so-called divorce settlement with the EU was conditional on a future trade deal between Brussels and London.

Britain is due to leave the EU next March and there will be an implementation period until December 2020 when EU rules and regulations will continue to apply in Britain. This so-called transition period is to allow both sides to acclimatize to the new relationship with the remaining 27 EU member states.

Britain's negotiating team will be in Brussels Wednesday to discuss the future relationship, the border issue between Northern Ireland and Ireland and remaining issues on the withdrawal agreement.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stating that India has deepened its partnership and engagement across the vast expanse of Africa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday charted out 10 principles of his country's engagement with African nations.

"India is proud to be Africa's partner," Modi said while addressing the Ugandan Parliament, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister.

"And, Uganda is central to our commitment to the continent," he said.

He assured India's continued support to Uganda in the fields of agriculture and healthcare, education and training, infrastructure and energy, capacity building in government and training in defence.

"As with Uganda, we have deepened our partnership and engagement across the vast expanse of Africa," Modi stated.

"In the past four years, our President, Vice President and I have collectively visited no less than 25 countries in Africa. Our Ministers have covered virtually all African nations."

The Prime Minister also said that as many as 32 heads of state or government from African countries visited India in the last four years.

"India's engagement with Africa will continue to be guided by 10 principles," Modi stated in the presence of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the House .

"One, Africa will be at the top of our priorities," he said.

"We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular."

Secondly, Modi said, India's development partnership will be guided by Africa's priorities and by relying on African talent and skills.

"Three, we will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India," he said.

"We will support our industry to invest in Africa."

The fourth principle, the Prime Minister said will be to harness India's experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development; improve delivery of public services; extend education and health; spread digital literacy; expand financial inclusion; and mainstream the marginalised.

"Five, Africa has 60 per cent of the world's arable land, but produces just 10 per cent of the global output," he said.

"We will work with you to improve Africa's agriculture."

The sixth principle, Modi said, is the India-Africa partnership addressing the challenges of climate change.

"We will work with Africa to ensure a just international climate order; to preserve our biodiversity; and, adopt clean and efficient energy sources," he said.

Seventh, he said, both sides will strengthen cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism; keeping cyberspace safe and secure; and, supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace.

"Eight, we will work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations," Modi stated.

"The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean," he said reflecting India's vision of a free and inclusive Indo Ocean region.

As the ninth principle, the Prime Minister called for both sides to work together "to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions, but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth".

"Ten, just as India and Africa fought colonial rule together, we will work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India," he stated.

Modi also highlighted India's development partnership with Africa which currently includes implementation of 180 lines of credit worth about $11 billion in over 40 African countries.

"At the last India Africa Forum Summit, we had committed a concessional line of credit of $10 billion and $600 million in grant assistance," he said.

He also mentioned India-Africa trade figure which is now over $62 billion, 21 per cent more than the previous year.

Addressing the gathering ahead of Modi's speech, President Yoseveni said that with economic integration, Africa will become an economic powerhouse in the world.

He also described India as among the reliable partners of Africa.

Earlier in the day, Modi participated in the India-Uganda Business Forum during which he said that India is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.

--IANS

ab/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid a row as various sections of people, including from the film industry, writing to the Kerala government that Mohanlal should not be invited as the Chief Guest to the annual state film awards, an invite was extended to him Wednesday and he has accepted it.

State Culture and Cinemas Minister A.K. Balan, on behalf of the Kerala government, officially extended the invite and that was accepted by the superstar, said sources in the know of the things.

The awards will be given away on August 8 at a function here.

Balan and the state government got into high gear after half a dozen film centric organisations that matter in the Malayalam film industry expressed their ire that the superstar is being drawn into a needless controversy.

Mohanlal, who last month took over as President of film body Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA), first came under fire from the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) for revoking the suspension of accused actor Dileep's membership of the grouping. Dileep is an accused in the 2017 kidnapping of an actress.

--IANS

sg/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The European Court of Justice on Wednesday ruled that while the makers of renowned chocolate bar Kit Kat might rightfully own the product's name, they cannot claim ownership of its well-known shape.

Swiss transnational food and drink company Nestle had for more than 10 years sought to secure trademark protection for its product's four-fingered wafer shape in the face of legal challenges by chocolate-making rival Cadbury.

"In 2002, Nestle applied to EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) to register the three-dimensional sign as an EU trademark, which corresponds to the '4 Finger Kit Kat' product which it markets," the court said in its ruling, cited by Efe news.

It added that EUIPO had proceeded in 2006 to register the mark under the category of sweets, bakery products, pastries, biscuits, cakes and waffles.

Then, in 2007 Cadbury Schweppes (now Mondelez) sought to invalidate the registration, but the property office said the product "had acquired distinctive character through the use that had been made of it in the EU", in effect protecting the chocolate bar's shape.

However, the European court subsequently annulled EUIPO's decision, and now it has upheld that ruling.

The Kit Kat shape was only trademarkable if it was distinctive in all of the EU countries and those that trade using product laws in common, such as Norway.

This was not possible because there is another similar product in Norway.

"Nestle, Mondelez and EUIPO appealed to the Court of Justice against the judgment of the General Court," the ruling said and added, "the Court dismisses the appeals of Nestle and EUIPO".

The decision confirmed the legality of snacks like Norway's Kvikk Lunsj which has an identical shape to Kit Kat and has been in production for some 80 years and also creates an opening for imitations that might look like the tea-time chocolate covered biscuit.

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Nora Fatehi will play a Latino character in Salman Khan-starrer "Bharat".

The Moroccan Canadian dancer, whose music track "Dilbar" -- a rendition of Sushmita Sen's iconic song in Milap Zaveri's "Satyameva Jayate" -- has fetched popularity, is looking forward to work in "Bharat". It will be directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.

"Excited to be a part of project of this magnitude. It's a dream come true! The team is impeccable and the combination of Ali sir and Salman sir is the perfect combination.

"For me these were reasons good enough to willingly come on board. I am looking forward to begin shooting soon," Nora said in a statement.

"Bharat" also stars Priyanka Chopra and Disha Patani.

This will mark Nora's second film after "My Birthday Song".

--IANS

rb/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For the first time in Pakistan's political history, the Election Commission in Pakistan gave the duty of "observers" during polling to members of the transgender community, however, on Wednesday in Lahore they were not allowed to vote.

"There are reports that voters from the transgender community in Lahore are not being allowed to cast their ballot in male polling stations," Dawn reported.

Members of the transgender community are not only voting in the 11th general elections but also contesting. Five transgender candidates will be in the fray.

At the onset of the election campaign, 13 transgender candidates filed their nomination papers for the contestable constituencies in both the national and provincial assemblies. But nine were forced to drop out, due to lack of funds.

Unlike women and religious minorities, transgenders do not have any reserved seats in parliament or the provincial houses.

--IANS

ahm/soni/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)On this episode of Radio Free Acton, host Caroline Roberts speaks with Mihail Neamtu, Romanian conservative author, on the Trump-Putin summit, Russias economy, and what Trump should have prioritized at his meeting with Putin. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks to Peter Meilaender, Professor of political science at Houghton College, on literary criticism and how to best read a book.

Check out these additional resources on this weeks podcast topics:

Read The Trump-Putin summit: A missed opportunity for liberty by Mihail Neamtu

Read 5 Facts about Russian President Vladimir Putin by Joe Carter

Register here to attend the upcoming lecture series event on Abraham Lincolns Moral Constitution

Read Literature, Empathy and American Prosperity by Ann Marie Jakubowski

Read The Morality of Narrative Imagination by Jordan Ballor

Do you have questions for the Radio Free Acton team that you would like answered in future podcast segments? We want to hear from you! Leave a message at 888-705-4180 or email [email protected] Lastly, if you like what you heard on todays episode, dont forget to give us a rating on iTunes.

(Featured image used under Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0). Credit: kremlin.ru/Wikimedia Commons.)People in Pakistan on Wednesday woke up to words used by India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his iconic first independence day speech at the Indian Constituent Assembly, hours before the country went to polls.

Leading newspaper Dawn carried a headline: "Nation's tryst with destiny today", on its front page. The iconic lines were used by Nehru in his independence day speech in New Delhi towards midnight on August 14, 1947.

"Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially," Nehru had said.

Nearing the conclusion of the speech, he said: "There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be."

Millions of voters queued up to vote in the 11th general elections.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission on Wednesday took notice of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif delivering speeches after casting their votes in the 11th general elections, which it termed as "violation of the code of conduct".

The poll panel spokesperson Nadeem Qasim told Express News that actions may be taken against politicians who delivered speeches and those who voted on-camera with their every move being monitored.

Qasim said that the vote might not be endangered, but the voter may face consequences as per the Election Commission's law. The electoral body also directed media channels to not air live media talks of candidates as long as polling was under way.

The poll body also took notice of PML-N leader and former Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif's press talk after casting his vote in Sialkot.

A day earlier, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority issued show-cause notices to several news channels for inviting candidates on their live election transmissions.

The representatives of the channels were directed to file written replies as well as appear for personal hearings on July 31.

--IANS

soni/ahm/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Days after he hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament generating a controversy, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his attempt was to fight his political battles without hatred, pointing out Hinduism teaches that one can not be imprisoned by hostility.

Gandhi, who was the guest of honour at the formal launch of journalist Karan Thapar's book "Devil's Advocate: The Untold Story", said he can hug a BJP leader and fight him politically, but he was not sure if he can expect the same from BJP.

"If there is one thing that our religion teaches us it is that you absolutely can not get imprisoned by hatred. And that's my endeavour in a little way," he said.

Gandhi referred to the episode in the Lok Sabha during the debate on no-confidence motion last week and said BJP MPs now move "two steps back" when he comes near them.

Gandhi began his speech by attacking the Modi government, saying "India today is coloured with "a lot of hate, a lot of anger and frustration."

He said politicians across the political divide, including him, tend to "see the world as them or us."

Pointing to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, who were in the audience, Gandhi said they would agree that this ('them' or 'us') was not his worldview.

"This is the design of our politics: It is confrontational and it is like a winner takes it all. But this is not how I am designed from inside and I am sure this is how many of you are designed from inside. I am sure Mr Advani would agree with the basic idea of what I am saying," Gandhi said.

The Congress President recalled his visit to Vietnam about ten years back to see the impact of the country's war with America and said his boatman during ride on the Mekong river happened to be a person who had fought the Americans.

Gandhi said the man had injuries all over his body and that he had also killed an American. "But he did not hate them," said Gandhi.

Gandhi emphasised that one can fight an opponent without hatred, and noted that hatred was "an active choice" that an individual makes.

"The point I am making is that you can fight someone with all your might but hate is a choice. It is an active choice that you make. And that is something very important to understand," he said.

Gandhi said he can disagree with Advani and have a completely different perception about the country. "I can fight him on every single inch but he does not need to hate me," he said.

"I can actually hug him and fight him," Gandhi said to a loud applause.

"This is very interesting how it works because now whenever I come across BJP MPs, they sort of take two steps back... Let us fight, I will take on Narendra Modiji. All my friends sitting here, we will all take on BJP and they will fight us. But we don't need to hate them. I don't know if I can expect the same from them," Gandhi said.

The event was attended by several senior Congress leaders, including Karan Singh, Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel. CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury was also among those present.

--IANS

ps/prs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that resistance is the most powerful response to the US' anti-Iran policies.

"The Iranian nation has from the start stood up to the American rulers' intransigence, misconduct and breach of promises in all areas, and has chosen to follow the path of resistance," Xinhua quoted Rouhani as saying to Press TV.

He lashed out at the recent comments by the US officials against Iran as "baseless and unfounded", saying that their "hollow threats" do not even warrant a response.

On Sunday, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a gathering of Iranian-American in California that "the level of corruption and wealth among Iranian leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government".

Following US President Donald Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the US vowed to re-impose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments on nations that have business links with the Islamic country.

The White House has announced that it would bring Iran's oil sales down to "zero".

Rouhani said Iran has undertaken legal international efforts to confront the US' misdeeds.

He said the proceedings have yielded their "first success" with the International Court of Justice telling the United States that it was not allowed to take any action that would influence the tribunal's potential rulings before "Iran's complaint is addressed".

"This is a warning to the United States by the world's most senior legal authority," he said.

"Today, an absolute majority of world states condemn or view US actions as wrong," said the President, describing it as proof that the Iranian nation's resistance has been fruitful.

--IANS

qd/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)South Korea will begin negotiating with the Pacific Alliance to achieve member status in the Latin American economic bloc by 2018, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported on Wednesday.

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong agreed to start proceedings with four members of the bloc -- Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru -- during the alliance's summit this week in the Mexican coastal city of Puerto Vallarta, Efe news reported.

Seoul, which has already signed free-trade agreements (FTA) with Chile, Colombia and Peru, seeks better access to the Mexican market through the partnership agreement with the Pacific Alliance.

Despite being one of the 10 largest exporting nations, South Korean companies have been at a disadvantage due to competitors from the US, the European Union and Japan in the absence of an FTA, Kim said in a statement.

He also said that a partnership agreement with the Pacific Alliance is significant because it makes way for access into the Mexican market 10 years after the suspension of bilateral ties.

Talks between South Korea and Mexico over the signing of an FTA were stalled in 2008 owing to the reluctance of some Mexican business sectors and the lack of South Korean investment at the time.

However, the significant increase in the volume of trade between the two countries (in 2017 it was $15.3 trillion, double that of a decade ago) and South Korean investment on Mexican soil now underlines the need to improve the regulatory bilateral framework.

--IANS

mag/qd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A secret audio recording of then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump with his recently estranged lawyer Michael Cohen speaking in 2016 about making a payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal has been obtained by CNN.

In the tape obtained by the channel network on Tuesday both Trump and Cohen discuss a transfer of money to a company for "info regarding our friend David" -- an apparent reference to David Pecker, the CEO of American Media Inc. which owns the National Enquirer.

The audio, made in September of 2016, is the first evidence that Trump knew about the payment.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," Cohen said in the recording. Trump interrupts Cohen asking: "What financing?"

Cohen then tells Trump, "We'll have to pay" and Trump is heard saying "pay with cash". Cohen is heard saying "no no no".

American Media, Inc. allegedly spent $150,000 in August of 2016 for a story from Karen McDougal, the playmate who claimed she had a 10-month affair with Trump.

But the expose never ran.

McDougal's sued the company earlier in 2018 for the rights to tell her story.

Her lawyers claimed that the purchase was part of a "catch-and-kill" strategy to bury her tale and protect then-candidate Trump from negative press.

The lawsuit was eventually settled and freed McDougal from the contract which she claimed she was "misled into signing".

Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani, however, has refuted all payment claims, the New York Post reported.

Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis, who provided the audio tapes to the network, said it showed his client knows the truth about Trump.

"This is about honesty versus false disparagement of Michael Cohen," Davis told CNN.

"Why is Giuliani out falsely disparaging Michael Cohen -- because they fear him They fear that he has the truth about Donald Trump.

"The truth is that when Donald Trump said 'cash' which Rudy Giuliani knows that only drug dealers and mobsters talk about cash, it was, you heard Michael Cohen say what? 'No, no, no, no'."

The tapes were among others seized by federal authorities in a raid of Cohen's home and office.

CNN presenter Chris Cuomo tweeted on Tuesday: "Full audio: Presidential candidate Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording "https://cnn.it/2v5Xe1E".

--IANS

in/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior officials of police and army on Wednesday reviewed the security situation in the Valley with focus on minimizing collateral damage and positive engagement of youth to maintain peace.

A Defence Ministry spokesman said: "Senior officials of army and Jammu and Kashmir Police today (Wednesday) reviewed the prevailing security situation in Kashmir to carve out future strategies.

"The meeting was held at the district police lines in Shopian and attended by Lieutenant General, A.K. Bhatt, Chinar Corps Commander, state police chief S.P. Vaid, General Officer Commanding (GoC) - Victor Force and Inspector General of Police - Kashmir Zone, in addition to district police chiefs of south Kashmir districts.

"Detailed deliberations were held to maintain a robust counter-insurgency grid in the hinterland with the primary aim to strengthen the existing synergy among various organizations of the security forces.

"The focus of the meeting was how to minimize collateral damage during operations and positive engagement of youth to ensure peace and tranquility in Kashmir."

Emphasis was laid on maintaining a high level of vigil to minimize frequent terrorist initiated incidents, the spokesman added.

--IANS

sq/nir

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Between seven and ten people have been killed in heavy rains and floods across Sudan that have also led to the collapse of a large number of buildings, media reported.

"At least seven people were killed and three others were missing when heavy rains and floods hit al-Nuhood town in Sudan's West Kordofan," Xinhua quoted the report as saying.

The authorities are on a high alert and are adopting all necessary precautions.

In North Kordofan State, the floods reportedly cut the main road linking the state with the Sudanese capital.

According to Sudan Tribune, in Eastern Sudan, Osama Saeed of the opposition Beja Congress said three people were killed on Monday and 500 houses collapsed, adding that the affected people are now without shelter.

The Met has warned of medium to heavy rains along with strong winds to hit Kassala, Geddarif, Khartoum, Nahral-Neel, Sinnar, Gezira, White Nile, Kordofan and Darfur states on Wednesday.

--IANS

mag/in/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Six persons, including a political worker, were killed and several injured on Wednesday in sporadic incidents of violence as millions of voters queued up outside polling stations across Pakistan to elect a new government.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m, Dawn News website said. Polling stations will remain open for voting till 6 p.m. and counting is being done simultaneously.

Results are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.

The website reported that five people were killed and 12 injured in a blast that took place in Quetta. Polling was underway at a school nearby, when a police van was targeted in the attack, it said.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Swabi.

The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area, the Dawn reported.

Two people were also injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.

In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family, reported Express Tribune.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.

The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's PTI.

In an effort to increase voter participation the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Prominent people who cast their votes include former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Mustafa Kamal and chief of the Pak Sarzameen Party.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning on July 13.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

According to the reports, women voters were being denied the right to vote in PK-65 constituency of Nowshehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Geo TV said a suspicious person was detained when he tried to enter Karachi's Lyari Bihar Colony polling station in NA-246, claiming to be a police officer.

"The suspicious person has been taken to Chakewara Police Station," a police officer said, adding that the polling process was halted for about 20 minutes.

The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam.

Sharif's PML-N has condemned the legal cases facing its members, and reported pressures to leave the party along with harassment to prevent it from returning to power after its absolute majority in 2013.

These elections are the second in Pakistan's history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.

--IANS

in-qd/sar

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day after the starvation deaths of three minor girls in east Delhi, both the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Wednesday flayed the Aam Aadmi Party government on the issue.

The BJP said that instead of playing over ration distribution, the Arvind Kejriwal government should concentrate on meeting the basic needs of the people.

"Such a sad incident is happening in Delhi where the government claims to be championing the cause of providing ration to the poor," Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said.

Expressing shock and dismay over the deaths of three siblings in Mandawali, he said that such an incident in a constituency represented by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who on Wednesday ordered a magisterial probe, had "saddened" him.

"We hope that the Arvind Kejriwal government will learn a lesson and concentrate on providing the people the basic necessities," the BJP leader said.

An autopsy at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital suggested that starvation "appears" to be the cause of the demise of the three sisters on Tuesday in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

According to police, the three -- aged two, four and eight years -- were found unconscious in their one-room house by their neighbours and later declared brought dead at the LBS Hospital.

The northeast Delhi MP said that a thorough inquiry was necessary and that society too should take notice and come forward to help the destitute.

The Congress claimed that the bodies had been shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital to get the "desired autopsy report".

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said: "Three kids die due to starvation in Delhi's Mandawali. Post-mortem being shifted to GTB Hospital from LBS Hospital in a bid to get the desired reports. This family doesn't have the ration card. The number of ration cards has gone down to 15 lakh from 33.5 lakh during earlier Congress rule in Delhi."

The former Minister said that he will visit the bereaved family on Thursday morning.

"We had alerted the Delhi government earlier that about nine lakh eligible families were denied the ration cards. Three kids have died due to starvation in the constituency of Sisodia, who is buying a new vehicle worth Rs 20 lakh."

--IANS

aks/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ilaria Capua: Collaborating for a healthier future

After years of conducting groundbreaking influenza research and advocating for science in Italian Parliament, Ilaria Capua is using her experience to bring University of Florida scientists together to tackle complex global health concerns.

As director of the One Health Center of Excellence at UFs Emerging Pathogens Institute, Capua is expanding the reach of the center beyond its traditional domain by using an interdisciplinary approach targeting a broad range of emerging health concerns.

The concept of One Health emphasizes that human health is largely connected to the health of animals, plants and the environment and identifies the need for multidisciplinary approaches in solving health issues.

Traditionally, most One Health efforts around the world have focused solely on zoonotic diseases, which are transmitted between animals and humans, leaving many problem areas ignored, Capua says. But at UF, the center is looking to break tradition by using the One Health approach to help address other global issues like crop disease.

We are looking into ways to address the big challenges in front of us by using big data, by using interdisciplinarity, and by pulling together areas of excellence here at UF, Capua said.

Ilaria Capua poses next to a microscopic image of retina cells which is part of an art exhibit sponsored by the One Health Center titled "Pop Microscopy. Bridging Art and Science towards the Future."

Capua, who is a professor in UFs College of Public Health & Health Professions, the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine, has had an unconventional career that has given her a unique perspective on health concerns and science policy.

Although initially trained in veterinary medicine at the University of Perugia in Italy, Capua established herself in virology where she found success researching avian flu.

After many years in the lab, Capua sought to impact science policy and entered the world of politics. In 2013, she was elected as a member of Italian Parliament.

While the lone scientist in her respective house of Parliament, Capua managed to make important progress in areas such as antimicrobial resistance and epidemic threats. But her political tenure was cut short after accusations were made that she was involved in avian flu virus trafficking. Capua, at one point, faced criminal charges punishable by life imprisonment.

In 2016, these charges were dropped after a review of the case found the accusations to be unfounded. Even so, the hostile environment created by the charges led Capua to depart for the US where she joined UF to direct the One Health Center of Excellence.

During her time as a political figure, Capua noticed that One Health was often either poorly understood or completely overlooked.

I realized that nobody knew anything about the One Health approach. So, its not on the radar screen of the decision makers and it should be, Capua said.

The novel health issues the center has set out to address are multifaceted, and are not restricted to the realm of zoonotic disease. To provide solutions, expertise from many disciplines outside of medicine will be critical, Capua says.

The center is studying how social media could be used to gauge consumer acceptance of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). A method to accurately measure public perception of GMOs could be an invaluable tool moving forward, as genetic modification may eventually offer a solution to citrus greening, a plant disease that has devastated the citrus industry. By sparking collaboration between agricultural economists, informatics engineers, and data miners, the center has initiated studies that may provide answers and bring international attention to this problem.

Although the center is expanding its reach, zoonotic disease still remains an important focus. As part of an extensive collaboration with the Florida Department of Health, the center is helping to build an understanding of the characteristics of the Zika epidemic in Florida.

The One Health Center is also striving to predict where the jobs of tomorrow might emerge and prepare students to one day take them on, Capua said.

In the future, it may be increasingly important for experts to apply their skills to work outside traditional job markets, Capua said. Veterinary medicine, for example, could have major impacts in areas such as the food industry and expansion in developing countries.

To train students in the One Health approach and for the future job market, the center has developed a certificate program which will kick off in 2019. Through this program, students from diverse academic backgrounds will be exposed to a variety of topics such as big data, health communications and international regulations.

The ability to anticipate health issues before they arrive is critical for healthcare research. Capua says she has put this ability to use throughout her career, most notably when she recognized the need for public sharing of influenza data between researchers.

Its a little bit a story of my life. I can see things way before they arrive, Capua said.

At the One Health Center, Capua and her team will continue to identify emerging health problems and by establishing collaboration between UF researchers, the center will facilitate studies to meet these issues head-on and help lay the foundation for a healthier future.Akarsh Khurana, director of the forthcoming film "Karwaan" featuring National Award-winning Irrfan Khan, says he wrote the story four years ago and it is very close to his heart.

Akarsh, also an actor, wrote the story of the film when he got one-liner idea from filmmaker Bejoy Nambiar about the delivery of a wrong dead body.

"The story is very close to my heart. I developed the idea into a story with three main characters. It was quite an interesting process. Since we finished the first draft of the story four years ago, we kept updating the characters with time to keep them relevant. Our dialogue writer Hussain Dalal has done a good job," Akarsh told IANS here.

The story of "Karwaan" revolves around Avinash who receives the wrong dead body of his father and goes on a road trip to find out what happened in reality, and how during the journey, he meets people and faces situations that change his life.

Sharing his experience of working with two renowned actors - Irrfan and Dulquer Salmaan, Akarsh said: "It was a privilege to work with an actor like Irrfan Khan because when we were writing the story, we had no idea who is going to play the character.

"Also, it was great to work with Dulquer because being such a great star down south, he was so cooperative during the shooting. We worked really close."

The film has been shot within 35 days in places like Ooty, Bengaluru and Cochin.

"Shooting the film in a chronological order following the story was actually a good idea for us because that made our schedule easier. We did not have to do a lot of juggling with the dates of actors," he said.

Coming from a theatre background, Akarsh believes in maintaining happy vibe on the set of a film.

"In theatre, we do not earn a lot of money but we work out of passion, we work happily. I think positive vibes help to get a good work done," he said.

The film is releasing on August 3.

--IANS

aru/nn/

(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.)Three sisters -- aged two, four and eight -- were found dead in their house here with autopsy reports suggesting that they died because of hunger, officials said on Wednesday. The government has begun a magisterial probe into the incident that has shocked people in the richest state of country.

Police said the three victims aged two, four and eight years, were found unconscious in their one-room house by their neighbours at around 1 p.m. on Tuesday in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

No injury marks were found on the bodies, he said.

"When their neighbours went to the house, they discovered that the girls were numb while their mother, who was also present in the house, did not know anything," said Deputy Commissioner of Police, East, Pankaj Kumar Singh.

The mother, along with the neighbours, took the kids to the Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hospital, where they were declared dead.

"The family had shifted to Mandawali at a relative's place a few days back," said Singh.

The father, a casual labourer, had lost his e-rickshaw and has been missing since Tuesday morning.

The minors' mother, the police said, is mentally challenged, and was unable to look after her children.

While police claimed that the case was still being investigated and that the cause of death was not yet known, Medical Superintendent at LBS Hospital, Amita Saxena said the kids died of hunger, going by the first autopsy conducted at the hospital.

She said a second post-mortem was conducted at a different hospital because "in such a sensitive case, there is a need to be doubly sure" and revealed the same cause of death -- starvation.

According to the neighbours, the eldest girl had gone to school on Tuesday while the other two had been sick for few days.

A Sub-Divisional Magistrate is at the house to conduct the probe, a Delhi government official said.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, in a tweet, said he would visit the house on Thursday morning.

The opposition -- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress -- flayed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on the issue.

The BJP said that instead of playing over ration distribution, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government should concentrate on meeting the basic needs of the people.

"Such a sad incident is happening in Delhi where the government claims to be championing the cause of providing ration to the poor," Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said.

He said that such an incident in a constituency represented by Sisodia had "saddened" him, and a thorough inquiry was necessary and that society too should take notice and come forward to help the destitute.

The Congress claimed that the bodies had been shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital to get the "desired autopsy report".

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said: "Three kids die due to starvation in Delhi's Mandawali. Post-mortem being shifted to GTB Hospital from LBS Hospital in a bid to get the desired reports. This family doesn't have the ration card. The number of ration cards has gone down to 15 lakh from 33.5 lakh during earlier Congress rule in Delhi."

He also said that he will visit the bereaved family on Thursday morning.

"We had alerted the Delhi government earlier that about nine lakh eligible families were denied the ration cards. Three kids have died due to starvation in the constituency of Sisodia, who is buying a new vehicle worth Rs 20 lakh."

--IANS

mg/vd

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump blasted his former attorney Michael Cohen on Wednesday after a secret audio of a recording between the two about making a payment to Playboy playmate Karen McDougal was aired.

In the 2016 conversion aired on CNN's "Cuomo Prime Time" on Tuesday, Trump, then-US presidential candidate, and Cohen could be heard discussing how they would buy the rights to McDougal's story about an alleged affair she had with the leader years earlier.

Trump denies the affair and took to Twitter in the morning slamming Cohen. "What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?

"I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!" Trump tweeted.

Court filings said federal prosecutors have 12 recordings from Cohen and according to CNN, the recording with Trump was among those 12.

The tape's release made a further dent in the relationship between the President and Cohen, who was the former's previous steadfast supporter, personal attorney and long time confidant.

Cohen is under criminal investigation by the US attorney's office in Manhattan for his personal financial dealings, including the payment he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels on Trump's behalf before the election.

However, he has not been charged with any wrongdoing in Daniels case.

In the audio, Trump and Cohen discussed other matters, including an attempt by the New York Times to unseal the records from the President's first divorce and mentioning pastor Mark Burns, a Trump supporter.

Cohen's attorney Lanny Davis provided CNN the September 2016 recording and said Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani had been "falsely disparaging" Cohen.

Giuliani contended that the recording would not harm Trump after news came last week that the recording of Trump and Cohen was among those obtained by prosecutors.

Trump, however, expressed anger over the recording last weekend on Twitter, calling both the seizure of the recording and Cohen's creation of it "inconceivable".

--IANS

soni/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two men, identified as Anwar and Padhai, have been arrested in the case of lynching of a tribal, Khetaram, for his alleged affair with a Muslim woman in Barmer district of Rajasthan, police said on Wednesday.

The FIR was registered against 10 persons, including three women, after the man was lynched on July 21 night.

The accused were sent in judicial custody for seven days by a local court, said SHO Vikram Sandhu of Ramsar police station where the case was registered.

According to Sandhu, Khetaram had taken agricultural land on rent from its Muslim owner to set up brickworks. Khetaram allegedly had an affair with a Muslim woman from the family, which warned him to desist but he did not heed.

The police officer said the man's family claimed that he was beaten to death by a mob.

As Khetram belonged to the 'Bheel' tribe, a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was made out, apart from Sections 147, 148, 149, 365 and 302 of Indian Penal Code.

--IANS

arc/tsb/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A CBI Special Court here on Wednesday sentenced to death two policemen and three others to rigorous imprisonment for three years in a case of custodial torture and death 13 years ago.

Those handed out capital punishment include Constables K. Jithukumar and S.V. Sreekumar, who had detained Udayakumar who later died in custody.

Those found guilty of conspiracy and destroying evidence are then Sub-Inspector Ajith Kumar, Circle Inspector E.K. Sabu and then Assistant Commissioner of Police K. Haridas.

The court on Tuesday had convicted these five for the custodial death of the 26-year-old man at the Fort police station in September 2005.

Police had detained two friends, Udayakumar and Suresh Kumar, on the charge of theft. When Udayakumar was let off later, policemen were irked when he asked for Rs 4,000 taken from his pocket by the police while he was in custody. He was brutally tortured with an iron rod, following which he died.

Udayakumar's mother Prabhavathi Amma had approached the Kerala High Court for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

"This is the best news I am hearing," she told the media as she broke down.

"Justice has been finally delivered to my son and me. It should serve as a lesson to all policemen never to use force against people. Such fate (her son's) should never befall anyone again," she added.

"It was just before the Onam festival that my son was brutally killed by these policemen. And see, Onam is now round the corner... just as my son could not eat his Onam meal then, these policemen will not be able to eat theirs this time," the aged woman said.

The convicts' counsel said that they will appeal against the verdict.

--IANS

sg/tsb/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two militants were killed and three soldiers, including an Army officer, injured on Monday in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said.

"The three injured have been shifted to a hospital and some militants were still engaged in the ensuing gunfight," the police said.

The gunfight took place after personnel of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Special Operations Group (SOG) of state police personnel surrounded the Bidoora village in Achabal area following information about the presence of militants.

The bodies of the slain militants have been recovered. Their identities are being ascertained, the police added.

--IANS

sq/ksk

(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.)This year's finalists Czech Republic and the United States will begin their campaigns for the 2019 Fed Cup on home soil against Romania and Australia respectively.

The top two seeds for Tuesday's draw were guaranteed the right to host their first round ties on Feb. 9-10 by virtue of reaching this year's final, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Czechs will face Romania for a third time, having won both of their previous encounters in 1980 and 2016, while the US will take on Australia for the 15th time, but only the second time since 1985.

The two other World Group ties will see a repeat of last year's first round contests, with Belgium looking to avenge their 3-2 defeat to France, this time on home soil, and Belarus looking to win against Germany in an away competition.

The Czechs will be going for their sixth crown in eight years when they host the U.S. in the final to be held in November.

--IANS

ajb/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actress Shilpa Shetty shares a close bond with Salman khan over the years and says that she is very happy with the actor's success which he has achieved throughout his film career.

Shilpa was interacting with media at an event where she was appointed as brand ambassador of SRL Diagnostics on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Shilpa, who has worked with Salman in "Garv: Pride and Honour", "Auzaar", "Phir Milenge" and "Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar" , recently got together again for a special episode of "Dus Ka Dum".

Asked how their relationship matured in the last 23 years, she said: "Some things don't change in good friendships and audience will be able see that in episode of 'Dus Ka Dum'. It's a mad show."

"I think he hasn't changed and neither me as well. Some things never change so, friendship is just the same. It's wonderful.

"He can get away with saying anything to me and I can actually get away with saying a lot to him. I am very happy for his success. Both of us have seen so many ups and downs in our life therefore, we are both very happy for each other's success and where we are in life," she added.

SRL Diagnostics has rolled out a new preventive customised health check platform under the brand name SRL Care. There will be a new range of comprehensive, customised full body check-up packages under SRL Care.

These packages are a part of the company's initiatives to change the lives of people by showcasing the benefits of a preventive healthcare mindset.

Shilpa shared that she has always believed in preventive healthcare.

"I go for regular health check-ups as often as necessary. SRL Care attempts to change the mindset of people from curative to preventive and reduce the prevalence of lifestyle diseases, thereby helping people live longer and healthier lives," she said.

--IANS

iv/nv/sed

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Voters in large numbers on Wednesday morning started flocking outside polling stations across the country to cast their votes in Pakistan's 11th general election.

The first vote was cast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Charsadda, according to Dawn news website.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m, the website said. Polling stations will remain open for voting till 6 p.m.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election.

The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

In an effort to increase voter participation the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning on July 13.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

According to the reports, women voters were being denied the right to vote in PK-65 constituency of Nowshehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Geo TV said a suspicious person was detained when he tried to enter Karachi's Lyari Bihar Colony polling station in NA-246, claiming to be a police officer.

"The suspicious person has been taken to Chakewara Police Station," a police officer said, adding that the polling process was halted for about 20 minutes.

--IANS

in-qd/sar

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Millions of voters queued up to vote in Pakistan's 11th general elections, with some history-making events also taking place in the conservative areas where women are usually not allowed to take part in an activity outside their homes.

Women in a village located in Khuhab, a city in Punjab, made history by casting their votes for the first time ever since the country came into being.

They reached the polling stations soon after the polling time started and used their right, Daily Pakistan reported.

Females in the tribal district of Mohmand proceeded on foot to the polling stations. Likewise, women in Dir were also allowed to cast their ballot. Dir was once a Taliban stronghold where women had few rights and were not allowed to vote.

In Lower Dir, there was a heavy turnout of women voters and it was the same scene in Mithi and Badin areas of Sindh.

Women were allowed to cast their votes in Hali Banda area of Achini on the outskirts of Peshawar after the Election Commission took notice of locals barring female voters in Peshawar and Bannu from exercising their right to vote.

In another Peshawar constituency, women voter turnout was reportedly very low. Out of 1,700 votes expected to be cast, only 56 votes were cast till the afternoon.

Women have had the right to vote since the founding of the country but being able to use it is a different story.

As the polling progressed, there were complaints of women being barred from voting in several areas, including Noshera, said the Election Commission secretary.

In one constituency of Mandi Bahauddin, a city in Punjab, women were unable to exercise their right to vote.

According to reports, women in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were being dissuaded from voting. No woman voted in Shangla and Kohistan districts of the province.

The reason behind the low female turnout was the absence of a segregated polling station, reports said.

All political parties, especially the religious ones, said in their political campaigns that women should be allowed to vote. However, women in certain areas were forbidden to vote by jirgas -- Council of Elders.

Despite announcements aired by mosques in several areas, women did not turn up to vote.

The election body said that any polling station where women's votes were polled less than 10 per cent of the overall votes cast will have its results cancelled.

The 10 per cent requirement is part of election laws governing the process.

In the ongoing elections, as many as 105.96 million people, including 47 million female voters, will be able to use their right to vote from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m. without any formal break, with over 12,000 candidates vying for 272 national and 570 provincial assembly seats.

--IANS

soni/ahm/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A request for provisional arrest and extradition of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Abdul Karim Naik was sent to Malaysia and a fresh Red Corner Notice (RCN) request sent to Interpol in January this year against him is still unanswered, government told parliament on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said the Malaysian government was requested on January 19 following a fresh RCN issued on January 3 to the Interpol against Naik, who fled India on July 1, 2016 after terrorists in Bangladesh said they were inspired by his speeches.

Interpol is the international organization that facilitates international police cooperation.

"A request for issuance of RCN (against Naik) was sent to the Interpol on May 19, 2017. Clarifications sought by the Interpol on August 10, 2017 and October 6, 2017 were also provided. However, during 102nd session of the Interpol Commission from December 24-27, 2017, the organisation opined that at that stage of the proceedings, the issuance of RCN for Naik's arrest with a view to his extradition was pre-mature, since the charge sheet has not been filed till the sending of the original request for RCN to the Interpol.

"In view of the Interpol opinion, a fresh warrant was issued by the Ld. Court against Naik on November 24, 2017 and a fresh request of RCN was sent on January 3, 2018. No further communication has been received so far from the Interpol," Ahir said.

The minister said the "Government of India on November 17, 2016, declared Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967", stating that "IRF and its members, particularly, its founder and President Naik had been encouraging and aiding its followers to promote or attempt to promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities and groups".

In November 2016, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against the televangelist, who is currently living in Malaysia, under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. His Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation has been declared an unlawful association.

The preacher came under the lens of security agencies after some terrorists, allegedly involved in the attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July 2016, reportedly claimed they were inspired by his speeches.

On July 4, Naik in a statement said "I have no plans to come to India till I don't feel safe from unfair prosecution. When I feel that the government will be just and fair, I will surely return to my homeland."

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on July 10 that he will not give in easily just because there were demands from India to extradite Naik. "We do not easily follow the demands of others. We must look at all factors before we respond," the New Straits Times quoted Malaysian as saying.

Mohamad had also said that the cleric would not be handed over to Indian authorities as he had been granted permanent resident status in Malaysia. He had said that Naik would be allowed to stay in Malaysia as long as he did not create any problem.

--IANS

rak/vsc/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)This refers to Let RBI decide (July 25). I agree with your views that requiring the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to transfer a pre-determined portion of its annual surplus as dividend to the government is unwarranted.

It is a basic principle of functioning for any corporate that surplus is determined by the income which accrues minus the expenditure incurred, some of which is transferred to the reserves and the rest is paid out as dividend to the shareholders. In the RBIs case, the government is the sole shareholder so this same principle should apply to it. The RBI ...During her three-day stay in the capital she is expected to personally meet and invite Opposition leaders to the federal front rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata. In her last few visits to Delhi, she made it a point to meet the leaders of regional and Opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the federal ...

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Digital EditorArunachal Pradesh strives to achieve 100 per cent electrification by the end of this year under the Centre's 'Saubhagya' scheme, a state minister said here today while presenting the progress report of the BJP government's two-year regime.

The Pema Khandu-led BJP government completed two years of governance in the state on July 17.

"The government plans to electrify 44,806 households - 39,376 on-grid connections and 5,430 off-grid connections - in the last phase of 'Saubhagya' programme, thus achieving 100 per cent electrification by December 31," state Information and Public Relations Minister Bamang Felix told reporters.

Talking about other rural development initiatives, Felix said the Khandu-led government has recently launched the Sarkaar Aapke Dwar (government at your doorstep) initiative, under which the government officials would hold administrative camps in villages over the next 4 months to ensure "on-spot delivery" of services.

Stating that 60 flagship schemes of the Centre and nine programmes of the Khandu government are successfully running in the state, Felix said that a CM Dashboard has been created here to ensure that the beneficiaries receive their dues on time.

"From day one, our government has been working hard to ensure that the benefits of government schemes reach each and every eligible person," he said.

On panchayat elections, which were scheduled to be held in June this year, the spokesman said the government has initiated necessary measures.

The term of the panchayat bodies in Arunachal expired on May 31.

The Gauhati High Court recently sent a directive to the state government to conduct the panchayat elections before December 31 in response to a writ petition filed by a former zilla parishad chairman.

"We have shifted from the existing 3-tier system to a 2-tier system for which necessary rules and regulations have to be put in place. As and when the process is complete, we will hold the panchayat elections," he said.

Felix also said that the government was aware of the High court directions.

"The state government will take all steps to humbly comply with the court's order," he added.

Asked about the multi-crore Trans Arunachal Highway compensation scam, Felix said the law will take its course.

An ambitious highway project in Arunachal Pradesh for ensuring faster access to the China border came in the eye of storm after civil societies alleged that the district officials siphoned off funds sanctioned by the Centre as compensation for the land acquired.

Former Lower Subansiri Deputy Commissioner Kemo Lollen was arrested in connection with the scam.

"The state government will not think twice before initiating action against those who compromise with the development activities," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 12-year-old student studying at a private school here allegedly committed suicide by hanging at his house here today, police said.

His family has alleged that he ended his life after he was sent back home by school authorities over non-payment of fee, they said.

The boy, a seventh standard student, did not attend the school for the past two days and this afternoon he was found hanging.

A school official said "We have never sent back any students home over fee issue..there is no such thing. We inform the parents over phone if there is any fee is pending."



A case of suspicious death has been registered.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chinese authorities have arrested 15 people including the chairwoman of a rabies vaccine producer under fire for fraudulent quality control in the country's latest drug-safety scandal.

that pharmaceutical manufacturer Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology had fabricated records and was ordered to cease production of rabies vaccines has revived deep consumer unease over product safety in the country, fuelled by recurring scandals over the years.

Authorities in the northeastern city of Changchun, where the company is based, have arrested 15 people including the company's chairwoman on "suspicion of criminal offences", city police announced late on Tuesday.

The announcement did not give the chairwoman's full name but she has previously been identified as Gao Junfang.

The affair has shattered already fragile trust in regulators and spotlighted the frustrations of China's increasingly sophisticated consumers, who took to social media en masse to vent their anger over the case.

The China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) said last week the problematic rabies vaccine had not left Changsheng's factory, but the company admitted it had shipped a separate sub-standard vaccine.

That vaccine for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus was found by regulators to fail quality standards, but the company revealed that it sold 250,000 doses to Shandong province last year.

The problems have rekindled already deep fears over domestically made medicines and driven worried parents online to swap information on obtaining imported vaccines.

Authorities have announced a series of investigations and vowed that heads would roll.

In a sign of the high-level unease, President Xi Jinping -- on a trip to Africa -- weighed in on Monday, calling the vaccine company's actions "vile in nature and shocking", according to state media.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US border patrol agents have arrested two Indian nationals on charges of illegally staying in the country, the law enforcement agency said today.

The two persons, arrested over the weekend, are now being processed for removal, the agency said in a media release.

The US Border Patrol said they encountered the Indian nationals during a routine immigration check operations of all passengers at a bus terminal in Spokane, Washington.

Agents spoke with one individual who presented an expired B-2 tourist visa issued more than an year ago. They took the man into custody due to his expired visa, the release stated.

The B-2 visa is issued for short visits to the US for vacation or medical treatment.

Agents determined the other individual illegally crossed into the US from Mexico in May 2011. Investigation revealed he was also in possession of a fraudulent social security card.

Both individuals were processed for removal and transported to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma to await their immigration hearing.

"The use of fake documents, while commonly used, is often difficult to detect due to the limited amount of interaction that our agents have with the public while conducting enforcement operations at the transportation facility," patrol agent in-charge Zach Crosson said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists were today killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Lal Chowk area of the district this morning following information about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said.

He said the operation turned into an encounter after terrorists started firing at security forces. Two militants, belonging to the LeT, were killed in the cross- fire, the official said.

He said the individual identities of the slain militants was being ascertained.

Meanwhile, an exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces was also reported from Keran sector along the Line of Control in north Kashmir Kupwara district, the police said adding that details of the incident were awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two students of a residential school in Deoria district have alleged that they were "thrown out" by their hostel warden for not following her order to clean toilets, prompting authorities to order an inquiry into the incident.

Saleeman and Nafreen, students of the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, were allegedly sent home by warden Shruti Mishra as punishment on Monday evening, following which they stopped studying.

An inquiry has been ordered and action will be taken accordingly, Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Santosh Dev Pandey said.

Saleeman, of Class 7, and Nafreen, of Class 6, are residents of the Sani Patti area under Rampur police station and their fathers work as labourers.

"Madamji used to make us clean toilets and also do other work. Whenever we wanted to study she used foul language and humiliated us. We were fed up. When we refused to clean toilets anymore, she threw us out on Monday evening and the next day, we left the school and stopped studying," Saleeman told reporters.

Nafreen said the teacher used to ask other girls in the school to cook and do household work.

Speaking to reporters, Nafreen's mother Noorjahan said, "The school warden ousted both the girls in the evening and they came back alone the next morning. They should have sent someone with them. Our house is more than 5 km away from the school and both the girls came all alone from there. On one hand, the government asks parents to send girls to schools and on the other, they are ill treated in the school."



When contacted, BSA Pandey said, "The matter has come to our notice and a probe is underway. The warden is working on a contractual basis and action will be taken against the guilty.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)About 3,400 prisoners are lodged in the Central jail in Thane, thrice the number permitted, the National Commission of Women said today as it flagged the issue of overcrowding and hygiene at the premises.

In the women's wing of the jail, there were 87 women with eight children against a sanctioned strength of 25, said Alok Rawat, a member of the NCW.

The commission, during an inspection found that against authorised capacity of 1,105, the occupancy was of the order of 3,400, he said.

A two-member team of the NCW led by Rawat was accompanied by representatives of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women and the District Legal Services Authority (Thane) during the inspection.

The inspection was carried out for assessing and looking into various aspects, including overcrowding, availability of legal help, rehabilitation plans, including skill development and training, legal awareness and legal help for women inmates, the NCW said in a statement.

He said that the team noted that while those issues (overcrowding) raised by the National Human Rights Commission report remained, the jail authorities have started to send fresh cases to Byculla jail and now only keep under-trails in both the men and women sections of the jail.

The inspection carried out today is a part of the commission's ongoing project to visit all jails in the country in order to formulate a manual for comprehensive prison reforms for women inmates in India.

The state commissions for women are also conducting the prison inspections and sharing the reports with the national commission.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three sisters were found dead in east Delhi's Mandawali area and the initial post-mortem report indicated that they died of starvation, prompting the city government to order a magisterial probe into the matter.

The girls, aged two, four and eight, were brought to a hospital by their mother and a friend at around 1 pm yesterday, and the hospital authorities informed police about their deaths.

A board of doctors conducted a re-examination at the GTB hospital, Pankaj Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east), said.

According to the initial post-mortem report, the girls died due to "malnourishment/starvation and its complications".

A forensic team inspected the place where the family was staying and found some medicine bottles and pills for treating loose motion, police said.

The girls' father, a casual labourer, is missing since yesterday, though locals said he had gone in search of work and would return in a couple of days.

No injury marks were found on the bodies, they said.

"The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the matter," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet.

Initially, it seemed to be a case of natural death but with the medicine bottles being recovered, police want to ensure that there was no foul play in the death of the girls.

Locals said the family had shifted to the area on Saturday, and they did not have much interaction with them.

The girls' father used to ride a rickshaw on rent. After it was stolen a few days ago, they were brought to the area by a friend, who had given them shelter at his residence.

Two of the sisters, aged two and four, had been unwell for a few days. They suffered bouts of vomiting and loose motion, the locals said.

The eldest sister had gone to school yesterday, the locals said. Police are probing as to how she also fell ill suddenly.

Police said they are investigating the case from all angles, including the girls dying of malnourishment.

The father's friend, who had accompanied their mother to the hospital, told police that the children were unwell and he took them to the hospital.

The girls' mother is not "mentally sound" and told police that she did not know what happened to her daughters and how they died.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three sisters were found dead in east Delhi's Mandawali area, police said today.

They were aged two, four and eight respectively and were declared brought dead by the hospital yesterday, they added.

They were brought there by their family members and the hospital authorities informed the police about their deaths.

The police, however, have ruled out any foul play as no injury marks were found on their bodies, a police officer said.

It seemed to be a case of natural death, he said, adding that the bodies were sent for postmortem and an inquiry ordered in the case.

Their father was unemployed and the family was financially weak.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 34 people were killed, including 31 in a deadly suicide blast outside a polling station in Pakistan's Quetta city and 36 others injured as several incidents of violence were reported as the country went to polls.

In Pakistan's restive Balochistan province, a suicide blast targeting a police van killed at least 31 people, including five policemen and two minors outside the polling station, and nearly 30 other were injured in a blast near Quetta's Eastern Bypass, The Express Tribune reported.

Quetta is the provincial capital of Balochistan province.

A suicide bomber wanted to enter the polling station near Quetta's Eastern Bypass but failed due to heavy presence of the Frontier Corps and the Police in and outside the polling station, Ejaz Goraya, senior police official, said.

"He than went and detonated close to a police van near the station. I can confirm that the suicide attack has left 31 people dead and around 32 have been shifted to the Civil Hospital," Goraya said.

The Pakistan Army has stationed over 3,70,000 personnel across the country to ensure security for the election, bolstered by an additional 450,000 police.

DIG Abdul Razzak Cheema's convoy was attacked. He is reported to be safe, according to sources.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station killing 31 people in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city today and four others were murdered in poll-related violence as the country went to polls to elect a new government.

The suicide bomber blew himself up after he was stopped from entering the Tameer-i-Nau Education Complex school, which is serving as a polling station in 'sensitive' NA-260 constituency in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan, police said.

Earlier reports had said the bomber targeted a police van.

At least 31 people, including five policemen, were killed and 60 others injured in the blast in the Bhosa Mandi area of the provincial capital.

The bomber wanted to enter the polling station near Quetta's Eastern Bypass but failed due to heavy presence of the Frontier Corps and the police in and outside the polling station, senior police officer Ejaz Goraya said.

"The bomber then blew himself up near a police van outside the polling station. I can confirm that the suicide attack has left 31 people dead and around 32 have been shifted to the Civil Hospital," he said.

The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Pakistan Army has stationed over 3,70,000 personnel across the country to ensure security for the election, bolstered by an additional 4,50,000 police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least four alleged cattle smugglers transporting a dead buffalo were assaulted by a mob here in the early hours today, the police said.

Villagers alleged that the men were caught in village Nagla Mandhata while they were transporting the buffalo's carcass in a pick-up van.

They were, however, rescued by the police who intervened in time, Hasayan SHO Jitendra Kumar said.

The owner of the buffalo alleged that the animal had been poisoned by these cattle smugglers.

Superintendent of Police Sushil Ghule said tough action would be initiated if it was found that they were cattle smugglers.

The incident, which took place before dawn in Hathras district, about 200 km from Delhi, assumes significance as it came against the backdrop of a backlash over the death of a man attacked by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan.

This is the latest in a series of mob attacks that have become quite frequent in various parts of the country.

28-year-old Rakbar Khan died after he was thrashed by a mob at Alwar in Rajasthan on suspicion of cattle smuggling last week.

Khan was attacked by villagers who thought he was smuggling cows. What caused his death was alleged delay by cops in taking him to hospital.

The government has constituted a Group of Ministers to examine ways of checking what the Supreme Court termed "mobocracy" and report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Centre put out an advisory yesterday asserting that states need to take measures against such incidents.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four Nepali nationals were arrested at the international airport here while attempting to board a flight to Dubai allegedly on forged no-objection certificates, police said today.

The four, working here, were arrested yesterday when they tried to leave for Dubai on tourist visas using the forged NoCs, they said.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar told PTI that police were looking into the role of unauthorised agents in the forgery of the NoCs.

Cases had been registered against the four Nepalese for offences including cheating and forgery under the Indian Penal Code.

As per immigration rules, Nepalese visiting Gulf countries from India for work purpose should have an NoC issued by the Nepal embassy in Delhi, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Come 2030, around 40 per cent of India's population is likely to reside in cities, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today.

He said the pace at which the country is urbanising, and the demographic shifts taking place in the country, could not be predicted by even the "most visionary planner".

The minister was addressing 'National Traders Conclave' organised by Confederation Of All India Traders (CAIT) here.

"Estimates suggest, come 2030, 40 per cent of India's population, or 600 million Indian citizens will reside in cities," the minister said.

Talking about the country's economy, the Union minister said it is projected that by 2025, India's economy will breach the USD 5 trillion mark.

"And by the time we complete the post-2030 development agenda, India will rank as the third largest economy, with a GDP of over USD 10 trillion," he said.

He said the trading community has reassured policy makers that they are against encroachment of public land, and are willing to cooperate with the central government in cracking down on all illegal activities.

On sealing drive undertaken in Delhi by civic authorities, he informed that even as the government has amended the Delhi Master Plan-2021 to respond to the growing demand for urbanisation activities, which go against the rule of law, are being struck down.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five persons, including four children, were killed and two others injured in two rain-triggered landslide incidents in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar district, about 292 km southeast of Dhaka, a fire brigade official said today.

In the first incident that took place in the Cox's Bazar town, when four children -- three girls and their only brother -- were buried alive while asleep, when a huge chunk of land collapsed on their house, situated on the slope of a hill, early this morning.

The children's mother narrowly survived the mudslides, assistant director of Cox's Bazar Fire Service, Md Shafayet Hossain said.

The rescuers pulled the four children unconscious from a pile of mud and rushed them to Cox's Bazar General Hospital, where they were declared dead, the official was quoted as saying by the bdnews24.

In the another incident, a six-year-old boy died while his father was injured after they got trapped in their house after being hit by mudslide in Ramu Upzila of Cox's Bazar district, Hossain said.

Coastal areas of Bangladesh, including Cox's Bazar, had been witnessing heavy rains for the last three days. The Met office has also warned of possible landslides due to the downpour.

Many dwellings in the district and elsewhere in the country were reportedly damaged in rain-triggered landslides that are frequent in Bangladesh's hilly areas during monsoon seasons.

At least 156 people were reportedly killed and hundreds of others injured in the rain-triggered landslides that devastated Chattogram, Rangamati, Bandarban, Cox's Bazar, Khagrachhari and Moulvibazar districts in Chittagong Hill Tracts in southeastern Bangladesh in June last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five labourers were killed and three injured when the road-construction machine they were working on in Meghalaya's North Garo Hills (NGH) district came in contact with an overhead high-tension wire today, police said.

According to police, the incident occurred at Miapara village when the workers were rolling the machinery along the road and it hit the high-tension wire (11KV) overhead.

"The labourers supposedly did not see the overhanging wire and were killed on the spot when the machine contacted the high-tension wire," said DSP of NGH, Nikcheng Momin.

Four of the workers killed in the incident were from Merarchor village in Assam's Bongaigaon district while the fifth one was from Miapara village, police said.

The injured have been rushed to Goalpara hospital, they said.

An investigation into the incident, the DSP added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is putting in motion a plan to allow more foreign workers into Japan from next April.

Relevant ministers held their first meeting on Tuesday, following the inclusion of an action plan in the government's basic economic and fiscal policy to create a new residency status for foreign workers.

At the meeting, Abe instructed the Justice Ministry to take the lead in drawing up comprehensive measures.

These include revising immigration law to establish a new residency status and other steps to make it easier for foreigners to live in Japan.

Abe said he wants to lay the groundwork for accepting more foreign workers from next April. He asked the ministers to act quickly on preparations, such as by submitting bills and selecting foreigner-friendly industries.

Earlier in the day, Cabinet members decided to give the Justice Ministry authority to coordinate with other government offices and agencies to create a climate for accepting foreign workers.

Abe instructed the ministers to consider establishing a new administrative system for foreigners in Japan.

The measures are expected to include enhancing Japanese-language education and offering counseling services in foreign languages.

Citing labor shortages, the government is planning to add the restaurant and manufacturing industries to the list of fields to open to foreign workers.

5 industries -- construction, shipbuilding, lodging, agriculture and nursing care -- are currently under consideration.A 65-year-old farmer was arrested today for allegedly killed his 42-year-old son who was proving to be a hindrance in continuing illicit relations with his daughter-in-law in Aurangabad district, police said.

The accused chopped the body of his own son into pieces after allegedly killing him with an axe at their farm near Sillod village on July 14, an official said.

"The accused (name withheld) was having illicit relations with his daughter-in-law and viewed his son as an obstacle," said assistant police inspector Vishwas Patil.

Notably, the man had filed a missing person complaint with the local police stating that his son has become untraceable.

"He was arrested through the call detail records which showed that his son was present at the farm on the night of July 14," Patil said.

He said the father-son duo used to sleep at the farm in night while their families stayed back in the village.

During interrogation, the accused showed police the spot where he had buried his son, he said.

Police exhumed the decomposed body today and sent it for postmortem.

The accused has been booked under various sections of the IPC including murder, Patil said, adding further investigation is on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 8,363 Indian nationals have sought asylum in foreign countries, the government told the Lok Sabha today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said according to the information available in the ministry, as of July 16 this year, approximately 8,363 Indian nationals are living illegally in foreign countries and have sought asylum there.

His response came in reply to a question on whether over thousands of asylum seekers from India have been branded as illegal migrants and are in jails in different countries.

In his reply, Singh said approximately 8,000 are in Germany, but not in jail, 359 in the US and in detention, two in Denmark and in jail, two in Brazil and in jail, one in Finland, but not in jail.

"Our missions and posts abroad regularly liaise with the local authorities, and upon verification of their identity and nationality, extend possible consular assistance and issue necessary travel document to facilitate their return to India," he said.

To another question, the minister said according to the information provided by the CBI, there were 23 Indians living abroad, who are involved in financial irregularities with banks as well as those under criminal investigation in the last three years.

The 23 people, include diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, as well as liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Around 80 senior students of Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology were expelled today from their hostels allegedly for beating freshers and damaging the university guest house, said Vice-Chancellor S Solomon.

A decision has been taken to send notices to the parents of all expelled students asking them to come personally to the university and submit affidavits vouching that their wards will not trouble the freshers and take law in their hands in future.

We have also decided to impose heavy fines on the erring students for damaging the newly-built guest house in the university campus, said Dr Solomon.

Detailing the incident leading to the expulsion of students, the vice chancellor said about 70 to 80 senior students staying at two hostels including, Karpuri Thakur Hostel and RSRP Hostel, had an altercation with the junior students.

He said that several junior students sustained bruises and minor injuries in the incident and were discharged after the first aid.

The senior students also assaulted the guards present at the guest house for trying to stop them, resulting in serious injuries to one of the guards, Ramphal, the VC said.

The erring students fled from the campus before the police could arrive, the VC said, adding there has been no written complaint from any party in this case so far.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The city police today told the Delhi High Court that all of its stations and 'chowkis' will have CCTV cameras by mid October as a step towards ensuring more transparency in the agency's functioning.

The Delhi Police and the AAP government also told a bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar that they will submit a joint report after identifying vulnerable spots in the city where cameras are urgently required.

The court was also informed that 3,100 posts of police personnel have been sanctioned for recruitment by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

In a status report filed through criminal standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, the police told the bench that the cameras will be installed by mid October 2018.

The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it in 2012 after the infamous December 16, 2012 gangrape of a young woman in a moving bus. The woman later succumbed to injuries inflicted on her by the rapists.

It was also hearing another PIL by social activist Ajay Gautam alleging that there have been several deaths inside police stations in the city this year and the presence of functional CCTVs could act as a deterrent.

He has also claimed that even the CCTV cameras installed at a few police stations were obsolete, as they did not have the recording feature, and CCTVs were required at police stations to ensure transparency in their functioning.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Billionaire has written to Congress President Rahul Gandhi refuting allegations of his Reliance Group lacking experience to get the Rafale fighter jet deal and said the government had no role in French Group Dassault picking up his company as a local partner.

In a two-page letter written on December 12, 2017, Ambani explained to Gandhi, who has been attacking the government over the Rafale deal, why his Reliance Group bagged the multi-billion dollar project.

Invoking his family's "respectful relationship" with the Gandhi family over generations, Ambani said he was "personally saddened" by the "unfortunate statements" against him and his group by several functionaries of the Congress party.

"Not only do we have the necessary experience but we are also the leaders in several important areas of defense manufacture," he said in the letter written on the last day of campaigning for the Gujarat Assembly polls that were marked by political mud-slinging over the Rafale fighter jet deal.

He said Reliance Defence has the largest shipyard in the private sector at Pipavav in Gujarat and is currently building five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels (NOPVs) for the Indian Navy and 14 Fast Patrol Vessels for the Indian Coast Guard.

"The decision of the Government of India to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France was made through an inter-governmental agreement signed between the two countries."

"Also, all these 36 aircraft are being manufactured in France and will be delivered on a 'fly away' basis from Dassault manufacturing facilities in France to the Indian Air Force and no Indian company has any role to play," he said.

Dassault chose Reliance Group as its joint venture partner to meet the 'offset' or export obligation component of the deal and this was "an independent agreement between two corporate private sector entities, and Governments had no role to play in this matter," he wrote.



Gandhi has been attacking the government on the deal, which he claims was inked at a much higher price than the one the previous UPA regime had negotiated. Last week during the debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha, he accused the government of changing the deal to benefit "one businessman".

Ambani, in the letter, said his group's joint venture with Dassault was to make components and systems primarily for the aerospace and defence sectors.

"This joint venture with Dassault Aviation will lead to creation of thousands of jobs in India, imparting of valuable training and skill-sets to Indian engineers in aerospace/ defence manufacturing sector, and will also provide large scale business opportunities to hundreds of MSMEs, SMEs and start-ups in the country, and will further enhance our experience and skills," he wrote.



Also, Dassault would significantly contribute to high technology transfer and enhance overall defence manufacturing experience.

Ambani said his father Dhirubhai built the world's largest integrated petrochemicals and refinery complex in India without even having a formal education, much less any experience or legacy.

"In his words, 'you have to be given an opportunity to perform. It's not experience but the mindset, dedication, and the purpose, of a strong India that should engage us all'," he wrote, adding that the facts he has brought out would be "helpful" to Gandhi.

Similar letters also went to other senior Congress leaders, including the party's communication department in-charge Randeep Surjewala.



In his letter, Ambani asserted that not only did his firm have the experience but "we are also the leaders in several important areas of defence manufacture".

He said statements by Congress leaders have saddened him.

"I fully appreciate that in the midst of the heat and dust of political campaigning, as in the recent context of elections in Gujarat, a lot has often been said."

"Nonetheless, considering that my entire family and I, starting with my respected father, have had the privilege of enjoying a very respectful relationship with the Gandhi family over generations as well as the Congress party for the past more than four decades, these statements have saddened and hurt our sentiments," he said in the letter.Depression and the use of antidepressants can increase the risk of life-threatening blood clots forming in vital veins, a first-of-its-kind study has found.

Researchers from the University of Bristol in the UK conducted an analysis of published studies evaluating the associations of depression and antidepressant use with venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk.

VTE, a condition in which blood clots form in the veins of the legs or lungs, is a life-threatening condition and its treatment is associated with high healthcare costs.

There have been reports that both depression and use of antidepressant drugs might be associated with an increased risk of VTE.

These reports have, however, been conflicting. Previous studies have reported mixed results, some reporting evidence of associations and others reporting no evidence of associations.

The study, published in the journal Annals of Medicine, have clarified the evidence by bringing all published studies together.

Though the study could not prove if the observed findings are mainly driven by the antidepressant drugs or depression itself or both, it does show that a relationship exists between depression, antidepressant use, and VTE.

Antidepressant medications have multiple indications, which include anxiety, pain, and neuralgia and their use is on the increase on a global scale.

Given that VTE is a public health burden, the study's findings highlight the need for prescribers and healthcare professionals to evaluate patients to determine their excess risk of VTE during their management.

"These findings are very useful to me as both a clinician and a researcher. It gives me the information I need, especially when prescribing antidepressant medications to my patients," said lead researcher Setor Kunutsor, a research fellow from Bristol Medical School.

The findings do not prove cause and effect and further studies are needed to show if the associations the study has demonstrated are causal and whether it is depression or antidepressant use or both which drives an increase in VTE risk.

These would need to involve studies that are able to isolate depression from antidepressant medications.

For example, researchers could assess if individuals who are not depressed but use antidepressants for a condition such as neurologic or gastrointestinal disease, are at an increased risk of VTE.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has assured officials of National Cadet Corps that the state will provide infrastructure, manpower and financial support for expansion of their units in the state.

Khandu also said that he wanted to expand the Indian Military Cadet Corps in all higher secondary schools in the state by raising NCC units in all schools, an official statement said here today.

Khandu, during a meeting with the Additional Director General of NCC, northeastern region, Major General Raju Chauhan here yesterday said upgrading the NCC unit at Pasighat to a full-fledged battalion and raising of another NCC battalion at Tawang will help in filling up cadet vacancies in schools.

Khandu said it is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the NCC, an Indian military cadet corps with its headquarters in New Delhi, should have its reach in all the border areas of the country, the statement added.

He said that a sense of nationalism, discipline and the ideals of selfless service, could be instilled among the youths through NCC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Step out of your comfort zone and ask the guy who is lynched whether India is liberal or illiberal and you will get the answer, says slain journalist Gauri Lankesh's ex-husband and veteran journalist Chidanand Rajghatta.

It is very easy to take comfort in the idea of India as a liberal place if you are a part of the majority, said the US-based journalist who was here yesterday to discuss his new book "Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason".

Discussing the title of the book, "Illiberal India", the centre of burning debate in the country, Rajghatta claimed the issue is contingent on geography, race, religion and gender, and it largely depends on moral relativism.

It basically depends on where you are in terms of religion, wealth, security and even gender. Hindus, particularly male Hindus, feel secure in numbers and it is the same thing with white American male.

The test of liberalism is you ask the minority -- minority in terms of religion, race, Muslim here or black in America or LGBTQI, women and not the majority, he said.

Describing India as incredibly complex and unique, Rajghatta said he wondered why Indians even compare themselves to the likes of Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan or even with the US for that matter which were never a match for India's centuries old antiquity and diversity.

India is a magnificent medley of religions, ethnicities, languages, cuisine, arts and culture and anyone questioning it irks me, he writes in the book.

Having said that, he did admit to finding many parallels in the present rise of rightist forces in India and the US. He gave a pendulum analogy to explain the shift of power between the left and right back in the US.

If you notice an ideological pendulum is swinging wider and wider. (Bill) Clinton begets (George W.) Bush, Bush begets (Barack) Obama, (Barack) Obama begets (Donald) Trump.

So you look at the movement of the pendulum, from the centre it moves little to the left (Bill) Clinton, little to the right (George W.) Bush, further to the left (Barack) Obama, further to the right (Donald) Trump. I don't know how wider the swing will be in future, he added.

The book, according to Rajghatta, is not merely a biography of journalist-activist Lankesh, who was shot dead in front of her house on September 5, 2017, but a story of the India they both grew up in.

It is the story of two young people growing up and becoming politically aware in a turbulent India of hope and optimism. This is also a post-Emergency journey of India as we saw it after having met in 1978-79 when the country emerged from a brief stint of authoritarianism It is the story of our times, the author says in the book's preface.

Walking down memory lane, Rajghatta reminisces about the time Lankesh would call him Non-Resident Indian', who according to her had abandoned India altogether.

From journalist-activist she became an activist-journalist. We both processed things differently. Also, there were lot of issues we would disagree on, but nothing of that involved violent arguments. Everything was always civil, he writes.

Published by Westland, the book is priced at Rs 499.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A security vehicle which was part of the convoy of Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora was hit by a dumper on NH-37 in Sivasagar district today and at least six police men in it were injured.

The security vehicle, which was among the five in the convoy, skidded off the road into a wayside ditch near Jhanji Hahchora Tinali under Amguri police station under the impact of the collision, the police said.

Both the driver and the handyman of the dumper fled after the incident but the police caught them and seized their vehicle.

All the injured security personnel including the driver of the security vehicle were rushed to a nearby community health centre.

The convoy was on way to Dibrugarh to pick up the minister who had landed at Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh, police said.

After the accident the rest of the convoy went to the airport and accompanied Bora, who inquired into the condition of the injured security personnel.

Later, the damaged vehicle was pulled up, the police added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A day-long bandh has been called by some outfits in 13 districts of north Karnataka on August 2 demanding statehood for the region, alleging discrimination by successive governments towards it.

The bandh has been called by the outfits coming under the banner of 'Uttara Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti.

"Our separate state agitation will cover all the 13 districts of north Karnataka.

By gathering the voice of various organisations, literary figures and intellectuals we will intensify this agitation," samiti president Somashekar Kotambari told reporters at Hubballi.

The samiti has also claimed support from various organisations to their bandh call.

The samiti leaders have also alleged discrimination in the allocation towards the region in the budget presented by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on July 5 and also lesser representation in the cabinet.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)'People's Nivas' is how Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi wishes 'Raj Nivas' to be also known.

It lived up to the expectation as a domestic help from here allegedly facing exploitation in Kuwait returned home after Bedi acted on a petition by her son in May last.

The woman and her son, hailing from nearby Karikalambakkam village, called on Bedi during the 'open house' yesterday and thanked her.

She also expressed her gratitude to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, whom Bedi had approached, for the assistance extended, an official release said.

"It was a moment of joy for us at Rajnivs. This is another touching success story of our open house programme," Bedi said in the release.

The woman had got the job as domestic help in a house in Kuwait in December last with the help of some agents.

However, she found that the work was tedious as she had to work for several hours at a stretch without rest and informed her son about her plight.

Her son made a representation during the daily 'open house' meeting at the Raj Nivas, seeking Bedi's help in arranging his mother's return.

Bedi raised the issue with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the latter saw to it that the domestic help returned home last month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)John Abraham believes regional cinema is far ahead of Bollywood in terms of content as the industry concentrates on story instead of worrying about "huge unnecessary budgets".

The actor-producer has entered the regional space with his first Marathi production "Savita Damodar Paranjpe."



"I sometimes feel the best content, unfortunately, I'd like to say this being a Hindi film actor, doesn't come from Hindi films. It comes from regional cinema. Because when you don't have huge unnecessary budgets, you concentrate only on content," John told reporters here.

"The content here is fantastic. I think after this, I'm sure there'll be a trend which has already started, this film will be remade in hindi. You'll be really happy with this film," he added.

The actor was speaking at the trailer launch of the film, directed by Swapna Waghmare Joshi.

John, who has also produced Hindi films, said every script demands to be made in a certain language and "Savita Damodar Paranjpe" was best suited for Marathi.

"When I first heard the script, (I felt) it was meant to be in Marathi. When we got the director and the cast, it was like 'Alice in Wonderland' for me," he said.

When asked if he wishes to also act in Marathi films in the future, John said, "I'd love to do a Marathi film because I'm a Marathi boy. I am proud of it. I was born and brought up in this city, I belong to this city. Marathi is our first language, we must speak it more often but unfortunately we don't..."



Based on a popular play of the same name, the film features Subodh Bhave, Trupti Toradmal and Raqesh Bapat in the lead. It is scheduled to release on August 31.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mobile tower company Bharti Infratel today reported 4 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 638 crore for the first quarter of current fiscal on account of consolidation in the telecom sector.

The company had posted net profit of Rs 664 crore in the April-June quarter of last fiscal, 2017-18.

With the consolidation phase largely over, the Indian Telecom industry is now witnessing an integration phase as operators consolidate their networks and spectrum before the next phase of rollouts," Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said in a statement.

The consolidated revenues of the company, however, increased by 4 per cent to Rs 3,674 crore (including proportionate share from Indus Towers) during the first quarter of 2018-19, as against Rs 3,524 crore in the year-ago period. The company holds 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers.

"We remain confident of the long-term growth potential of the Indian telecom sector driven by rising user demand, availability of cheaper handsets, introduction of new technologies and availability of rich content to the customers. This would necessitate rapid network rollouts," Gupta said.

"With our nationwide coverage, operational excellence and strong financial position, we believe we will continue to be the partner of choice for all operators for their passive infrastructure requirements, he said.

Bharti Infratel's revenue share from Indus Towers increased by 2.38 per cent to Rs 1977.6 crore from Rs 1,931.6 crore.

The company's stock closed 0.33 per cent up at Rs 287.3 on BSE.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The opposition Congress today alleged that the BJP government in Gujarat "misused" the state machinery to influence the outcome of the Visnagar rioting case, in which Patidar quota agitation leader Hardik Patel and two of his aides were sentenced to two years jail by a court.

Hardik, along with Patidar leaders Lalji Patel and A K Patel, were today sentenced by a Gujarat court to two years jail in a case of rioting and arson in Visnagar town in July 2015.

The court later granted bail to them.

Reacting to the court order, state Congress chief Amit Chavda said the BJP government was trying to "suppress" the voice of the youth who are fighting for the rights of their community so they do not dare to stand against the government.

"The dictatorial BJP government committed atrocities against the youths fighting for their community by slapping false cases on them in an attempt to suppress their voice," Chavda told reporters.

"Judiciary is supreme, and I am not here to comment on the order. But to suppress the voice of the agitators, the government produced false evidences and misused the government machinery to influence the outcome of the case. Everybody has faith in judiciary. When the matter goes to the higher court, things will become clear," he said.

Chavda also pointed out that ahead of the last year's state polls, the government had promised to withdraw the cases against the Patidar community members.

"The government had said that cases against Patidar agitators will be withdrawn. Now that the elections are over, the BJP government is trying to suppress the voice so that the agitators do not fight for their rights," he said.

Reacting to the court judgement, the ruling BJP said the identity of Gujarat as a state believing in "non-violence, love and peace" should not be disturbed.

State BJP spokesperson Bharat Pandya said, "Gujarat believes in non-violence, love and peace. This identity of Gujarat should not be disturbed."



Dilip Sabva, a member of Hardik's team said the court verdict has "exposed" the state government's claims regarding withdrawal of cases related to the Patidar agitation.

"The court's order has exposed the state government's claims that it has withdrawn cases related to the quota agitation. But so far no case has been withdrawn," he said.

In the run up to the 2017 polls, the state government had said that it would withdraw cases filed against most of the individuals from the community related to the 2015 quota agitation. It had later claimed that 109 cases have been withdrawn, and assured to withdraw another 136 cases.

Visnagar MLA Rushikesh Patel, whose office was vandalised during the 2015 rioting, said the court's judgement is based on the evidences, including witnesses' accounts, and hence cannot be questioned.

"Any judgement is based on various facts, including the evidences and witnesses' accounts. We cannot question a court's judgement. Whatever decision it took is right," he said.

Congress MLA Lalit Vasoya, former member of Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), said the court order will be challenged in the high court. He also appealed to the youth of the Patidar community to maintain peace.

"We accept the order. We will appeal against the order in the high court. I also appeal to the Patidar youths in the state not to take any steps that could affect the outcome of the case," he said.

Visnagar Sessions Court Judge V P Agarwal today held Hardik Patel and his aides guilty under the Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to rioting, arson, damage to property and unlawful assembly and sentenced them to two years imprisonment. They were later granted bail by the same court.

Hardik has been leading an agitation for reservation to the members of his Patidar community in government jobs and educational institutes. He has been booked in several cases including that of sedition.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy today expressed surprise over the BJP government at the Centre saying the price of Rafale fighter aircraft was a 'secret'.

Reddy said only operational details like weapons carried on aircraft can be a secret but not the price.

Reddy said he was a highly qualified fighter pilot of the IAF for several years, with the experience of flying MIG 21 and MIG 23, who had served on China and Pakistan borders.

"Based on my experience in handling fighter aircraft and long service in Indian Air Force and prevailing circumstances, I can say that the behaviour of BJP government with regard to Rafale fighter aircraft is leading to suspicion that country's defence purchases do not seem to be above board," Reddy was quoted as saying in a party release.

"It is very surprising why Prime Minister of India and Defence Minister are saying that the price is secret.

This is not true. This is not a historically backed fact. The operational details like weapons carried on aircraft, radar range, and weapons' range could be secret. But never the price of the aircraft," he said.

Reddy said there are examples wherein previous governments had revealed the purchase price.

"On March 15, 2010, the then defence minister A K Antony revealed in Lok Sabha that the warship INS Vikramaditya was purchased at a cost of USD 2330 million," he said.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the India-France agreement to buy the fighter jets was signed in 2008 by the then defence minister A K Antony and it had the confidentiality clause.

"It was an agreement of secrecy. Protection of classified information...," she said in the Lok Sabha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP MLA Gyan Dev Ahuja today demanded the release of three persons arrested for allegedly lynching 28-year old Rakbar Khan on suspicion of the victim's involvement in smuggling cows.

Ahuja made the demand after state Home Minister Gulabchand Kataria ordered a judicial inquiry considering Khan's demise a case of 'custodial death'.

The home minister has acknowledged that Akbar alias Rakbar Khan, who was accused of cow smuggling, died in police custody. It was repeatedly said by the MLA that he was not killed by the people and he died in police custody. When the home minister has admitted the fact of the custodial death, why innocent cow vigilantes and villagers are being made accused? a statement issued by Ahuja's office said.

They should be released with immediate effect. It is also demanded that the second accused of cow smuggling Aslam be arrested immediately, the statement said.

Akbar and Aslam were taking two cows from Alwar to their village in Haryana on Friday-Saturday night through a forest area when a group of people spotted them and caught Rakbar. He was badly beaten while Aslam managed to escape.

The victim was taken to the community health center in Ramgarh by the police after a delay of nearly two and a half hours and he was declared brought dead at the CHC.

As per the FIR lodged by the police, the two had purchased the cows from Ladpur village and the police are now verifying whether they had indeed purchased the animals.

It is already part of our investigation whether the two cows were legally purchased by Rakbar and Aslam," Special DGP NRK Reddy said.

The home minister had yesterday visited the area where the incident had occurred in Alwar and had announced his decision to order a judicial inquiry in the case, in which three persons have been arrested.

On charges of dereliction of duty, an assistant sub inspector of Ramgarh police station was suspended and three constables were shunted to lines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A BJP MP today pilloried the JD (S)-Congress combine in Karnataka, saying Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was "consuming poison" to remain in power while the Congress was feeding him venom to extract more control and authority in the state.

Participating in a debate in the Lok Sabha on drought and floods in different parts of the country, Pratap Simha, a first-time MP from Mysore, said "the Karnataka chief minister has said he is consuming poison, but he is doing that to stay in power. The Congress is feeding him more venom to get more authority and control over power (in the state)."



His jibe was aimed at Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who had reportedly said earlier this month that he was like Lord Shiva who drank poison. The Congress and Janta Dal (Secular) had entered into an alliance to keep the BJP at bay.

Simha's statement evoked sharp reactions from the Congress, especially from the MPs belonging to Karnataka.

Defending Simha, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said he was a young lawmaker who seldom speaks in the House.

Simha also said that the people of Tamil Nadu should be thankful to the people of his constituency (Mysore) as the Cauvery River originates there.

The issue of distribution of Cauvery water is an emotive issue for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu which have been locked in a long-drawn battle over water-sharing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The bodies of 17 people have been recovered after flash floods caused by a dam breach in southern Laos, a Thai consular official at the scene said today.

A wall of water was unleashed Monday after parts of the dam were washed away, sending floods surging downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people missing.

"There are 17 bodies recovered so far, but we can not estimate the number of missing yet," Chana Miencharoen, told AFP, adding roof-level flood waters have submerged several villages near the Xe-Namnoy dam.

"All the dead are Laotian... more than 6,000 are affected from eight villages near the dam," he said, from the relief centre in Attepeu province, where the disaster occurred on Monday.

The remote area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged by the flash flooding or completely washed away.

Communist Laos is criss-crossed by a vast network of rivers and scores of dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand.

The South Korean partner in the hydropower project said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time.

"We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream," it said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Boeing reported a jump in second-quarter profits today on higher commercial airplane deliveries but said costs on a closely-watched Air Force tanker contract had risen again.

The US aerospace giant reported net income of USD 2.2 billion, up 25.6 per cent. Revenues rose 5.2 per cent to USD 24.3 billion.

Boeing set aside USD 418 million in additional funds for the KC-46 tanker, an Air Force plane that has repeatedly suffered cost overruns.

The latest cost increases were for incorporating changes into test and early-build aircraft and for additional expenses in late stage testing and certification.

Boeing said it expects to deliver the first tanker to the Air Force in October. Boeing's commercial plane business prospered on an uptick in deliveries, as well as higher profit margins compared with the year-ago period as it has increased production rates on its most popular offerings.

Boeing has benefitted from a multi-year surge in commercial jet demand as US carriers refresh their fleets and airlines in developing and emerging countries boost orders.

During the first quarter, Boeing delivered new planes to Ethiopian Airlines and Xiamen Airlines, among others. Boeing lifted its full-year revenue forecast to USD 97 billion - USD 99 billion, up USD 1 billion from the prior range.

It projected slightly higher operating margins in commercial planes but slightly lower margins in defence. Shares fell 3.1 per cent to USD 346.80 in pre-market trading.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The "security concerns" over the Rohingya influx were among the many issues discussed on the last day of the four-day conference between top officials of border guarding forces of Bangladesh and India.

At the biannual conference that concluded in Agartala yesterday, officials of the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) pledged to maintain peace through effective coordination.

Talking to the press at the BSF frontier near here, Md. Zahid Hasan, the Additional Director General of BGB, said the two sides discussed ways to control border crimes, including infiltration of Rohingya refugees.

He also asserted that the refugees from Myanmar have exerted economic pressure on Bangladesh, but they did not pose any threat.

The claim was, however, contested by BSF Inspector General (Tripura Frontier) H K Lohia, who said the "threat perception" from Rohingya refugees should not be ruled out entirely.

Hasan, while talking at the press meet, said, Bangladesh had taken measures to control Rohingya movement.

"The Rohingya refuges from Myanmar are not allowed to go outside their camps in Bangladesh. We have our security systems in place," he added.

The official also said the country had been hosting over 1 million Rohingya refugees.

"We have our limitations and capabilities. We are managing over 1 million Rohingya refugees. We feel they have exerted socio-economic pressure on the country, but there is no terror threat from them," Hasan said.

Lohia, who attended the media interaction along with IG Laltendu Mohanty from the Meghalaya frontier and IG NS Jamwal from Assam, said, there was no evidence to suggest that the Rohingyas had terror links, but it was necessary to remain alert as a number of refugees have infiltrated into other countries, including India.

"A huge number of Rohingya refugees have migrated to other countries. The possibility of terror threats can't entirely be ruled out at this moment. However, no credible proof was found so far to suggest that Rohingya refugees have terror links," he added.

Both sides also stated that the cordial relationship between the BSF and the BGB would go a long way in containing human trafficking and illegal arms trade.

Earlier in April, 18 Rohingya refugees were arrested from the Teliamura area in Khowai district of the state, 50 km from here. Police said the refugees were on their way to Delhi from Chittagong in Bangladesh.

In October last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) asked the state government to identify and monitor Rohingya refugees.

In the letter, Joint Secretary, MHA, Dilip Kumar, also said infiltration from Rakhaine state of Myanmar into the Indian territory was a burden on the limited resources of the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UAE-based BRS Ventures, founded by Dr B R Shetty of Karnataka, has signed an MoU with the Afghan government for taking over two hospitals and establishing a pharmaceutical unit in Kabul.

It would operate and manage Sheikh Zayed Hospital (SZ Hospital) and Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital (WAK Hospital) under the public-private partnership model, a release from BRS Ventures said here today.

The hospitals will be a part of BRS Ventures' healthcare brand called BR Life.

According to the memorandum of understanding, the operations and management of the 82-bed SZ Hospital will be taken up in the phase-1 and 210-bed WAK Hospital in the phase-2, the company said.

BRS Ventures will be responsible for the complete refurbishment, rebranding of the hospitals.

I am thrilled that we have an opportunity to invest in Afghanistan," BRS Ventures founder and Chairman Shetty, who hails from Mangaluru, said expressing his gratitude to the president of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a historic first, women of a conservative tribal district of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan today cast their ballots as the country went to polls, according to a media report.

Since Pakistan's first general elections in the 70s, the women in Upper Dir, which was once a Taliban stronghold, had been deprived of using their right to franchise on the pretext of cultural taboos.

Queues of women could be seen outside the polling stations in constituencies NA-5 and PK-12 of Upper Dir as polls opened across the country, Geo reported.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had earlier said that any area where women are stopped from voting could face the election in its constituency becoming invalid, it said.

The ECP had also said the results of any constituency would be declared invalid should the female turnout be lower than 10 per cent.

Upper Dir has a total of 447,414 registered voters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - gathered in Johannesburg today for a three-day meeting focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump's hardening stance has compounded fears of an all-out trade war after he slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars and imposed tariffs on other international imports.

China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer will attend the annual summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests.

Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering, saying that "the Johannesburg summit has special significance for BRICS cooperation in the new circumstances".

South African trade minister Rob Davies opened the event today with a call to fight the "undermining the multilateral rules-based trading system which all of us consider to be an important part of the trade architecture." China this week sharply rejected accusations by Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge, saying Washington appeared determined to provoke a trade war.

Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all USD 500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 per cent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice -- as well as achieving sharply different growth rates.

Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed unity. Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders would "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members".

"They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said.

Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said last week the meeting was "about the context - we are at a time when the US and China announce new measures almost every week".

"This is a trade war, so leaders' discussions are particularly important in coordinating our positions," he added.

Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, India's Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.

The meeting opened today with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks tomorrow.

African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme tomorrow include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

"South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from increasing exports to fast growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP.

"BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade." Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Border Roads Organisation (BRO) Director General Lt Gen Harpal Singh today advised his Project Chief Engineers (CEs) to speed up works in the north eastern states to help connectivity in the region.

Singh discussed in detail the progress of works taken up by BRO with additional director general BRO and all seven chief engineers of BRO in the north east, a spokesman said.

The director general complimented the project chief engineers on the work done by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in the NE region, he said.

The DG was speaking at AWP 2019-20 conference at the Headquarters ADG BRO East which was also attended by planning officers of the Eastern Command and the Corps, the spokesman said.

The DG also discussed with senior officials of the Indian Oil here on various issues including uninterrupted supply of fuel and oil to the BRO in border areas, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Meghalaya Cabinet today approved the implementation of the Meghalaya Health Insurance Scheme in convergence with the Centres Ayushman Bharat Yojana.

Health Minister AL Hek said health coverage under this has been increased from Rs 2.8 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per household covering all citizens excluding government employees.

Unlike the earlier phases of the MHIS, the minister said that the health scheme would also cover investigations of sickness as well as treatment.

A total of 8.8 lakh families would be covered under the health scheme in the state, he said.

The cabinet also approved a Rs 200 crore loan proposal of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department for enhancing milk production in the state.

"The National Cooperative Development Corporation has agreed to give loan of Rs 200 crore out of which Rs 150 will be soft loan and Rs 50 crore will be subsidy," Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong said.

He said the cabinet approved the proposal after carefully examining and found its importance.

The state government has agreed to stand as guarantor for the city-based East Khasi Hills District Cooperative Milk Union to avail the loan.

The Union was set up recently under the Meghalaya Milk Mission and at present it is running the milk processing at Mawiong and the production per day is 10,000 litres.

The new project is aimed at enhancing milk production from the current production rate to 50,000 litres per day, he said.

Tynsong also said that the government is already in the process of setting up similar unions in Jowai, West Jaintia Hills District, Tura, West Garo Hills District and Nongpoh, Ri Bhoi District.

The cabinet has also approved a proposal to enhance the grant-in-aid for over 700 pre-primary school teachers with effect from August 1 this year.

Deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong said the proposal for enhancing the grant-in-aid to 710 pre-primary teachers in both government and non-government schools has been approved.

He said under the new approved proposal, the state government will have to shell an additional amount of Rs 5 crore every year to increase the grant from the current Rs 6,000 per month per teacher to Rs 12,000 per month per teacher.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cambodian police were ordered today to crack down on anyone causing "political chaos" during this weekend's general election that is set to extend Premier Hun Sen's 33-year rule.

Cambodians will vote on Sunday without a credible opposition party for the first time, after a court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) late last year.

The dissolution was accompanied by a crackdown on party members, many of whom fled the country or are in jail. The CNRP has called for a boycott of the poll.

An estimated 80,000 security personnel, including police, military police and soldiers, will be deployed to keep the peace on election day.

But Phnom Penh police chief Chuon Sovann told an inspection parade of thousands of police to be prepared to act swiftly in case of any "obstruction" of the polls.

Police must be ready "to prevent terrorism acts and political chaos", he said, adding they must also act to "prevent the activities of the opposition and their allies inside and outside of the country who are trying to find a way to destroy election" or calling on people to protest.

Authorities have already accused some opposition members of calling for a "clean-finger" boycott campaign, referring to a refusal to dip fingers in ink used as a marker after voting.

Analysts say Hun Sen fears a low turnout that could further damage the credibility of the election.

Both the US and the EU have withdrawn funding for it but countries including China and Japan have offered support.

Rights activists said the deployment of large numbers of police and troops would intimidate voters.

"The presence of police forces in and around voting stations, particularly if armed, adds to the existing atmosphere of fear and intimidation which has been paving the way to the elections," Chak Sopheap, executive director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, told AFP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI has approached authorities in Antigua for details on the whereabouts of fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi, allegedly involved in the USD 2 billion scam in Punjab National Bank and who has taken citizenship of the Caribbean country, sources said.

The CBI in its communication sent to the Antiguan authorities last evening cited diffusion notice issued by the Interpol against the fugitive businessman, who is Nirav Modi's uncle and his alleged partner in crime, and sought details of his movement, landing and his present location, they said.

If the CBI gets confirmation from Antigua about the presence of Choksi there, it can request the government of that country to extradite him without waiting for the issuance of Red Corner Notice by the Interpol, the sources said.

The agency had come to know from the External Affairs Ministry which had sent a communication from the Indian mission in the US suggesting that Choksi had travelled out of the US on an Antiguan passport, officials said.

The report had landed in the CBI's hands on July 23 after which a letter was dispatched to Antigua, they said.

Choksi had taken citizenship of Antigua in November 2017, and oath of allegiance on January 15, according to local newspaper Antigua Observer.

"Holders of the Antigua and Barbuda passport enjoy visa free travel to approximately 132 countries, including the UK and the countries of the Schengen area," the website of Citizenship by Investment unit of Antigua and Barbuda says.

Citing reports from Indian outlets on Tuesday that Choksi has fled to Antigua, the newspaper sent a questionnaire to Citizenship by Investment unit about him.

It was informed that Choksi's application was granted after "robust due diligence" and "international investigation" by "reputable agencies", including the International Criminal Police Organization also known as Interpol and the CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), the paper reported today.

The CBI, the nodal agency of India for Interpol, said that no information regarding background check of Choksi was sought from it by the international agency.

"The Interpol has not sought any information related to Choksi from the CBI in the last three four years," CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said.

Under the Citizenship by Investment Program of Antigua and Barbuda, a person can take their passport on a minimum investment of USD one lakh in NDF investment fund.

"Deprivation of citizenship will occur where such registration as a citizen was obtained by false representation or fraud or wilful concealment of material facts or the person has been convicted in Antigua and Barbuda of an act of treason or sedition," the rules given on the website of Citizenship by Investment Program said.

A warrant was reportedly issued by Karnataka High Court against Choksi in 2016 in a separate matter.

Choksi's actions show that he had planned in advance his escape and subsequent life knowing that the scam would blow up after the retirement of PNB employee Gokulnath Shetty who was helping him with renewal of letters of undertaking, the sources said.

He escaped the country on January 4 on an Indian passport and took the oath of allegiance in Antigua on January 15, they said.

Next day, his firm approached Brady House branch of the Punjab National Bank seeking renewal and issuance of letters of undertaking which were denied as the officer concerned sought cash guarantee for issuing these notes, the CBI FIR alleged.

The executives told the officer that they have been taking these letters over last several years without any demand of such guarantee, it said.

The officer could not find instructions for such LoUs in bank's system which led to detailed scrutiny where the scam surfaced prompting the bank to approach the CBI with a complaint against which an FIR was registered on January 31.

An LoU is a guarantee given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant short-term credit to the applicant.

Choksi allegedly swindled Rs 7080.86 crore, making it possibly the biggest banking scam in the country, it had alleged.

He and his companies allegedly availed credit from overseas branches of Indian banks using the fraudulent guarantees of PNB given through LoUs and letters of credit issued Brady House branch which were not repaid bringing the liability on the state run bank, the officials said.

The charge sheet, filed in the Mumbai special court after a three-and-a-month-long probe, alleged that Shetty, a deputy manager in PNB and arrested by the CBI, received Rs 1 crore from the companies of Choksi to issue LoUs to his companies, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre can order a CBI probe into the killing of gangster Munna Bajrangi in Baghpat jail if the Uttar Pradesh government asks for it, though the state government has ordered a judicial probe and taking required action, Union Minister Hansraj Ahir said today.

During the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav sought to know if the government would order a CBI probe into the killing.

Yadav said Bajrangi's wife had even expressed apprehension before his killing that her husband may be harmed.

Earlier, SP member Vishambhar Prasad Nishad had also sought to know whether the Centre would order a CBI probe in the matter.

In response, the Minister of State for Home said the Centre had sought a response from Uttar Pradesh government over the incident. The state government has submitted a report and is acting in the matter, he said.

Ahir gave details, according to which 213 inmates in the country's jails were injured in clashes or firing, while five were killed in such incidents in 2016. Fourteen were murdered by inmates the same year.

According to the minister, in 2015, 212 inmates were injured in clashes or firing while nine were killed and eleven murdered by other prisoners. In 2014, 237 prisoners were injured in clashes or firings and three killed in such incidents. Twelve were murdered by fellow prisoners in 2014, the minister's reply said.

In his written reply, Ahir said as on December 31, 2016, as many as 4,33,003 inmates were lodged in various jails of the country as against a capacity of 3,80,876.

During the Question Hour, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar was asked if there was a plan to introduce reservation for women in jobs.

Gangwar said women formed 27 per cent of the people employed in jobs and efforts were being made to encourage their participation.

(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 filed an appeal in the challenging a single judge order mandating schools affiliated to to adhere to NCERT prescribed syllabus and books alone.

Admitting the appeal by the on Tuesday, a division bench of Justices M Venugopal and M Nirmal Kumar ordered the issuance of notice to the Council of Educational Research And Training (NCERT), Centre and directed the original petitioner advocate M Purushothaman to file a counter by August 6.

The submitted that the appeal is only against the direction to prescribe only NCERT books and not any other books published by private publishers.

"We are not assailing the order against homework till class 2," it said.

The matter relates to a petition filed by Purushothaman seeking direction to the CBSE to ensure that all the schools under its purview follow only the NCERT prescribed syllabus books.

Allowing the plea by Purushothaman, Justice N Kirubakaran had directed the CBSE not to give home work to children up to class 2 as prescribed by the NCERT and strictly follow the syllabus and books provided by the council alone for other classes.

Challenging the order, the CBSE moved the high court.The celibate nature of Sabarimala temple's presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is protected by the Constitution, the Supreme Court was today told by a society which opposed a plea seeking entry of women of all age groups into the shrine.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was told by former Attorney General and senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Nair Service Society, that the only consideration was the "celibate nature of deity" and which has to be preserved.

"Lord Ayyappa's character as a 'Naishtika Brahmachari' (eternal celibate) is protected by the Constitution," he told the bench which also comprised justices R F Nariman, A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra.

"Those coming to the Sabarimala temple should not come in the company of young women. Children, mother, sisters are exceptions. The reason is that those coming to the temple must not follow the 'brahmcharya' (celibacy) but also they must appear to follow it," the senior lawyer said.

Parasaran said Article 25 (2) which "throws open public Hindu religious institutions for all classes and sections of society" can be applied only to social reforms and would not apply to matters of religion covered under Article 26 (b) of the Constitution.

Article 26 (b) provides right to every religious denominations to "manage its own affairs in matter of religion".

"Article 25(2) reiterates the object of Article 17 (abolition of touchability) in the specific context of temples and Hindus to send a loud and clear message," he said.

"You (Parasaran) say that throwing open public temples for all sections has no religious connotations. What will happen, if the state comes out with a law to bring social reforms and allow women in the temple," the bench asked.

The senior lawyer said that the unique nature of the deity has to be kept in mind while dealing with the constitutional validity of the age-old practice.

He then referred to Article 15 (2) of the Constitution, which provided the right to access to all citizens to places like shops, hotels and other places, and said it did not mention public temples.

"The present case does not involve a social issue but a religious issue. By using 25(2), you (court) will reform a religion out of its identity," he said responding to the query that the state may enact law to allow women inside the temple.

At the outset, he said that Kerala is an educated society and 96 per cent of its women are educated and independent.

"It is a matrilineal society. Therefore to assume that the practice of the Sabarimala Temple is based on patriarchy is fundamentally incorrect," he said.

Earlier, the bench had observed that in a patriarchal society women are treated as chattels and trained since birth to conduct themselves in a particular manner.

"The practice of Sabarimala Temple is not comparable to Sati and in fact, Sati itself has not connection to the Hindu faith," he said, adding the wives of Dasaratha did not commit 'Sati' after their husbands' death.

The court should not approach the issue of Sabarimala with the notions of "patriarchy", he said, adding that Hinduism has been a tolerant religion.

The court "must listen to activist voices", but it also it "must equally listen to voices which seek to protect traditions", he said.

The Hindu faith has been following the right to equality since time immemorial and Lord Shiva has 'ardhanarishwara' (half male and half female) form as well.

"Legislature is Brahma, executive is Vishnu and Shiva is judiciary because only Shiva has the 'ardhanarishwara' form" which can be equated to Article 14, right to equality, he said.

We must not proceed with the presumption that the people in ancient times knew nothing and that we know better in all aspects of life, he said.

By abolishing the practice, the "very character of the religious institution" will be irreparably altered which affects the rights of devotees under Article 25(1) (freedom of religion), he said.

The hearing on the pleas filed by Indian Young Lawyers Association and others, challenging the ban, would resume tomorrow.

Earlier, the apex court had made it clear that the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10-50 years into the Sabarimala temple would be tested on "constitutional ethos" and had asked the temple board to establish that the restriction was an "essential and integral" part of religious faith.

It was apparently not in agreement with the argument of the Travancore Devaswom Board running the over 800-year-old temple that the "practice and belief" that have continued uninterrupted cannot be tested on the ground of "modern ethos".

The Kerala government had supported the entry of women of all age groups into the temple.

The apex court had on October 13 last year referred the issue to a Constitution bench after framing five "significant" questions including whether the practice of banning entry of women of that particular age group into the temple amounted to discrimination and violated their fundamental rights under the Constitution.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A central team today inspected a border pillar bordering Myanmar near Kwatha Khunou village in Manipur in the wake of a controversy that it was allegedly shifted inside the state by the neighbouring country, official sources said.

The three-member team, led by Surveyor General of India Lt Gen Girish Kumar, comprises Joint Secretary (Border Management) in the Ministry of Home Affairs, J A V Dharma Reddy and Joint Secretary (Bangladesh and Myanmar) Ministry of External Affairs, Sripriya Rangnathan.

The team, which came yesterday, surveyed the border pillar number 81 which locals and several social organisations alleged was shifted three km inside Manipur, the sources said.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on July 12 had said the India-Myanmar international boundary remained "untouched and unaffected".

"The government, in view of public apprehension, has written to the Centre to conduct a field visit to check if pillar no 81 at Kwatha Khunou in Tengnoupal district stands at the actual spot as per the 1967 agreement," he said.

Tengnoupal Deputy Commissioner Tombikanta, after visiting the border area last month, claimed that the border pillar 81 had been shifted three km inside the Indian territory. His claim found favour with local people, several social bodies as well as political parties.

The Ministry of External Affairs, taking note of the allegations, had issued a statement on July 8, claiming that the allegation was "baseless and unsubstantiated".

During a recent visit to the site, Manipur Revenue Minister Karam Shyam also said some sections of "political rivals" were portraying a wrong picture.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assuring support to states hit by floods, the government today said it will soon send a team of officials to assesss the damage in Kerala and decide on the quantum of relief to be provided to the state.

Intervening in a discussion on flood and drought situation in the country, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju said the Centre would not discriminate against any state while providing funds to deal with these natural calamities.

"No state has been discriminated for funds. Rs 80 crore has already been released to Kerala to meet the immediate requirements.

"We have constituted an inter-ministerial team. They will visit Kerala soon and they will assess the quantum of damage and the high-level committee under the Home Minister will look into their report and decide on the quantum of assistance," he said.

Observing that disaster management was a priority for the government, he assured members that the Centre would provide all support to Kerala to deal with the flood devastation.

Responding to allegations of some members on non-release of funds, he said Rs 224 crore was released to West Bengal, Rs 294 crore to Tamil Nadu and Rs 120 crore to Karnataka.

Several members of the Lok Sabha from Kerala including K Venugopal (Congress), Suresh K (Congress) and N K Premchandran (RSP) demanded special financial package for the state to deal with the situation arising from heavy rains and flooding.

Terming the flood situation in Kerala as "severe", the opposition asked the government to declare the situation a natural calamity and provide funds for relief and rehabilitation beyond the NDRF stipulation.

Initiating the discussion, CPI(M) leader P Karunakaran said this was one of the worst floods in the history of Kerala and about 120 people have already lost their lives.

The intense rainfall has resulted in large scale devastation across various parts of the state and a relief package from the Centre was needed immediately, he said.

Given the serious nature of flood, he said, the Centre should declare this as a natural calamity and provide funds beyond what is due under the NDRF.

He expressed displeasure over not getting the due from the Centre after the devastation caused by the Okhi cyclone earlier.

Expressing the concern over the working of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), he said it needed to be strengthened so that it can help mitigate the damage.

K C Venugopal (Cong) said the people were staying in very pathetic situation at temporary shelters of flood affected areas of Kerala.

The government should intervene in the matter and provide concrete package to the state immediately, he said.

Besides, he said armed forces should be fully equipped to handled such situation.

Government should create a National Disaster Mitigation Fund, he said, adding there is also need to strengthen the IMD to provide early warning for natural disaster.

Raising issue of drought in Bihar, Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) said the issue has to be addressed comprehensively.

He suggested that the House should discuss the issue of flood and drought in the winter session so that a policy can be worked out beforehand for the next year.

Veena Devi (LJP) also expressed concern over the drought- like situation in Bihar.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) accused the Centre of "step- brotherly" attitude towards West Bengal on granting assistance, despite the state being "seriously affected" by flood. He said flood is a "natural calamity" and a national problem and the Centre should release funds immediately.

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo (BJD) said while flood or drought affected Odisha every year, there was "constant apathy" of the Centre and the farmers were not given their due share of funds.

He said the second Green Revolution was an "empty rhetoric" of the Narendra Modi government as it does not factor in eastern India.

Deo said the government has not been able to devise a plan to deal with eratic rainfall or impact of climate change on agriculture. He said insurance companies were also not releasing money under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

A P Jithender Reddy (TRS) said the Centre should ensure that water is distributed judiciously as some states witness flood while others see drought.

K Geetha (YSR Congress) said the Polavaram project should be expedited at the earliest. She said nearly four lakh farmers have already migrated from Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh.

The others who spoke on the issue included Rajesh Ranjan (RJD), Arun Kumar (RLSP), Harish Dwivedi (BJP) and Dushyant Chautala (INLD).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)China's expenditure on the military was three times more than last year, but the share of its defence spending in GDP was less than India's, Union Minister Subhash Bhamre said on Wednesday.

While no official data relating to China's annual defence budget is available, as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database, China's military expenditure was $2,28,230 million in 2017 while that of stood at $63,923 million that year, Bhamre said in the Lok Sabha.

In 2016, spent $2,16,031 million and India's defence spending was $56,637 million in that year, he said during Question Hour.

In 2017, has spent 2.5 per cent of its GDP on the military, while has spent 1.9 per cent of the GDP, the minister of state for defence said.

The government's spending on military in India was 9.1 per cent in 2017, China's spending was 6.1 per cent, he said.China's President Xi Jinping today said that there would be "no winner" in any global trade war, in a direct warning to US President Donald Trump who has threatened to slap levies on all Chinese imports.

"A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner," Xi said at the opening of a BRICS summit of emerging economies in Johannesburg.

"Unilateralism and protectionism are mounting, dealing a severe blow to multilateralism and the multilateral trading regime," he said, without mentioning the United States by name.

"We are facing a choice between cooperation and confrontation, between opening up and closed-door policy and between mutual benefit and a beggar-thy-neighbour approach.

"The international community has again reached a new crossroads."



Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are holding an annual three-day summit with attention focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all USD 500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Kerala High Court today granted conditional bail to Job Mathew, a Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church priest, arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 34-year old married woman.

Granting the bail, Justice V Rajavijaya Raghavan directed the priest to appear before the investigating officer twice a week and not to influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidence.

Mathew, the second accused among the four priests in the case, was arrested after he surrendered before the police in Thiruvalla on June 12.

He has been accused of sexually assaulting the woman since 2009 by misusing her confession.

Mathew, a vicar of a local church, was also directed not to leave the country.

The Crime Branch wing of the state Police had on July 2 registered a case against the four priests.

It was on the basis of statement given by a woman belonging to the same Church accusing them of sexually assaulting her on many occasions.

The high court had earlier granted bail to another priest and third accused Johnson V Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, arrested on July 13.

The two priests had surrendered after the high court dismissed their anticipatory bail plea and that of two other priests, observing that they had acted as "predators" and took "undue advantage" of the woman.

The two other priests, accused in the case, have moved the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail.

The incident came to light after an audio clip of the purported conversation of the husband of the victim with a church official about the alleged sexual abuse of his wife by the priests was circulated on social media.

The woman's husband had last month accused the priests of using his wife's secret confession to "blackmail and sexually abuse" her.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Conrad Sangma today stressed on the need to establish collaborative trade links with South East Asian countries in order to tap the huge potential that Meghalaya and the North Eastern (NE) region has.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the 5th Act East Business Show here, he said "There is a need to establish collaborative trade links with the South East Asian Countries in order to tap the huge potential that Meghalaya and the North Eastern (NE) region has."



The chief minister said that economic activities should be encouraged with balance to the ecology and the overall impact on the environment.

"We need the economy to grow but it should never be at the cost of the environment, we cannot stop all the effects but we can minimise the effect to a large extent by taking simple steps and framing effective policies," he said.

Speaking on the huge potential that Meghalaya and the NE region has for the development of bamboo and bamboo based industries the chief minister stated the need to create opportunities for economic growth in this sector.

He emphasised on the need to have collaborative efforts with countries like Taiwan that are market leaders in bamboo based industries.

"Taiwan has got one of the best technologies and they are far ahead compared to the rest of the nations globally in the bamboo sector. The NE and a country like Taiwan can play a massive role to revolutionaries the entire bamboo sector and create huge opportunities for our people," Sangma said.

The chief minister also stated the need to have mutually beneficial tie ups with neighbouring countries in order to boost the food processing sector.

Speaking of the Jackfruit mission that was launched a few weeks back in the state the chief minister said there is a huge demand for this fruit in countries like Vietnam which is one of the leading country in the processing of jackfruit.

"Our state can play a big role to meet the shortfall of supply in these countries which is a huge economic opportunity for us," he said.

The chief minister urged the Indian Chamber of Commerce to hold Business Meets such as the ongoing Business Show in different States of the NE region in order to give boost to trade and commerce and economic activity in the region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A BJP Mahila Morcha leader in Jharkhand has lodged a police complaint alleging that social activist Swami Agnivesh's supporters had assaulted BJYM activists at Pakur on July 17, a police officer said today.

On the same day, Agnivesh was allegedly slapped, kicked around and verbally abused here by a mob, which he said belonged to BJP-affiliated youth groups who accused him of speaking against Hindus.

According to the police, the complaint against Agnivesh and his supporters had been filed by Shila Alizabeth Hembrom alias Shila Rani Hembrom, general secretary of the BJP Mahila Morcha Jharkhand, at the Pakur town police station on the day of the incident.

In her complaint, Hembrom stated that the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists had gathered in front of the hotel where Agnivesh had put in Pakur town. When the activists were showing black flags peacefully, his supporters laced with bows, arrow, lathis and other lethal weapons attacked them.

Several BJYM activists had suffered injuries in the incident, the complaint said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)[July 25, 2018] Fang Announces First Quarter 2018 Results BEIJING, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fang Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN) ("Fang" or "we"), the leading real estate Internet portal in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2018. First Quarter 2018 Highlights Total revenues were $62.8 million .

were . Operating loss was $3.9 million . Non-GAAP operating income was $0.6 million . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP operating income is detailed in the Reconciliation Statement following this press release.

was . was . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP operating income is detailed in the Reconciliation Statement following this press release. Net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders was $44.9 million , which was primarily due to the change in fair value of equity securities of a loss of $42.2 million in accordance with new accounting pronouncement. Fully diluted loss per ADS was $0.10 .

was , which was primarily due to the change in fair value of equity securities of a loss of in accordance with new accounting pronouncement. Fully diluted loss per ADS was . Non-GAAP net income attributable to Fang's shareholders was $1.8 million . Non-GAAP fully diluted income per ADS were $0.00 . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders and fully diluted loss per ADS is detailed in the Reconciliation Statement following this press release.

was . Non-GAAP fully diluted income per ADS were . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders and fully diluted loss per ADS is detailed in the Reconciliation Statement following this press release. Adjusted EBITDA was $7.1 million . A description of the adjustments from GAAP net loss to Adjusted EBITDA is detailed in the Reconciliation Statement following this press release . "The company is deepening its reform from business lines to full operations including financial management," commented Vincent Mo, Chairman and CEO of Fang. "We are fully committed to transforming and upgrading the company for future growth. The reform has been a bumpy process but I believe our endless efforts in increasing platform traffic, technology innovations and product upgrades will be rewarded in the near future." First Quarter 2018 Results Revenues Fang reported total revenues of $62.8 million in the first quarter of 2018, a 42.8% decrease from $109.8 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the decline in e-commerce services revenue. Revenue from listing services was $26.7 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 21.5% from $34.0 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the decreased number of paying members. Revenue from marketing services was $17.3 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 36.6% from $27.3 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the slowdown in the real estate market and the continued impact of tightening government policies. Revenue from e-commerce services was $7.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 82.0% from $39.9 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to Fang's transformation back to a technology-driven open platform model. Revenue from Internet financial services was $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 124.9% from $2.2 million in the corresponding period of 2017, driven by the increased secured consumer loans. Revenue from other value-added services was $6.5 million in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 4.1% from $6.3 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to a rising demand for our database and research services. Cost of Revenue Cost of revenue was $20.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 66.7% from $60.7 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the downsizing of the secondary brokerage team in the provision of e-commerce services and the optimization in our cost structure under the technology-driven open platform model. Operating Expenses Operating expenses were $46.5 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 15.8% from $55.2 million in the corresponding period of 2017. Selling expenses were $15.6 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 33.3% from $23.4 million for the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the decrease in selling expenses associated with our e-commerce services and advertising and promotional expenses. General and administrative expenses were $30.7 million in the first quarter of 2018, a decrease of 2.0% from $31.4 million for the corresponding period of 2017. Operating Loss Operating loss was $3.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to operating loss of $6.1 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the downsized e-commerce services and effective cost control. Change in fair value of equity securities Change in fair value of equity securities for the first quarter of 2018 was a loss of $42.2 million, among which USD 47.7 million was related to the fair value change of World Union, an investee company. The amount represents changes in fair value of equity securities in accordance with FASB ASU 2016-01, which became effective on January 1, 2018. See "New accounting pronouncements and Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below for more details. Income Tax (benefits) / expenses Income tax benefits were $4.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to income tax expenses of $4.8 million in the corresponding period of 2017, primarily due to the effect of change in fair value of equity securities. Net Loss and EPS Net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders was $44.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to net loss of $12.0 million in the corresponding period of 2017, which is primarily caused by change in fair value of equity securities. Loss per fully-diluted ordinary share and ADS were $0.51 and $0.10 in the first quarter of 2018, compared to loss of $0.14 and $0.03, respectively, in the corresponding period of 2017. Adjusted EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA, defined as GAAP net income / (loss) before share-based compensation, investment income, change in fair value of equity securities, income taxes, interest expenses, interest income and depreciation, was $7.1 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to $1.0 million in the corresponding period of 2017. Cash As of March 31, 2018, Fang had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash (current and non-current) and short-term investments of $492.4 million, compared to $547.1 million as of December 31, 2017. Net cash used in operating activities was $7.0 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared to cash flow used in operating activities $11.0 million in the same period of 2017. Business Outlook Based on current market conditions and current operations, Fang expects its non-GAAP net income to be profitable for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2018. These estimates represent management's current and preliminary view, which is subject to change. About Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement Fang's consolidated financial results presented in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"), Fang uses in this press release the following measures defined as non-GAAP financial measures by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission: (1) non-GAAP operating (loss)/income, (2) non-GAAP net (loss)/income and (3) non-GAAP basic and diluted (loss)/earnings per ordinary share and per ADS (4) adjusted EBITDA. The presentation of the non-GAAP financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP Results" set forth at the end of this press release. The Company believes that these non-GAAP measures help identify underlying trends in the Company's business that could otherwise be distorted by the effect of the change in fair value of equity securities, and the expenses and gains that the Company includes in income from operations and net income. The Company believes that these non-GAAP measures provide useful information about its operating results, enhance the overall understanding of its past performance and future prospects and allow for greater visibility with respect to key metrics used by the Company's management in its financial and operational decision-making. A limitation of using these non-GAAP financial measures is that share-based compensation, investment income, change in fair value of equity securities, interest income and expenses, income tax expenses, and depreciation expenses have been and will continue to be a significant recurring item that will continue to exist in Fang's business for the foreseeable future. Management compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The accompanying tables have more details on the reconciliation between non-GAAP financial measures and their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. New accounting pronouncements The new revenue recognition standard (ASU No. 2014-09 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers') was released in 2014 and becomes effective for Fang with effect from January 1, 2018. Fang has elected to adopt the new standard (ASC 606 - 'Revenue from Contracts with Customers') using cumulative effect method for all contracts that are not completed contracts at the date of initial application. Under this transition method, the new standard is applied from January 1, 2018 without restatement of comparative period amounts. The cumulative effect of initially applying the new standard is reflected as an adjustment to opening retained earnings as of January 1, 2018 in the amount of $0.6 million. In January 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-01, Financial Instruments Overall (Subtopic 825-10): Recognition and Measurement of Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities, which is an amendment which addresses certain aspects of recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure of financial instruments. This guidance includes the requirement that equity investments that do not result in consolidation and are not accounted for under the equity method be measured at fair value with changes in the fair value recognized in net income. An entity may choose to measure equity investments that do not have readily determinable fair values at cost minus impairment, if any, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for the identical or a similar investment. Fang adopted this standard from the quarter beginning January 1, 2018, and Fang recognized a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings of $163.8 million as of January 1, 2018 for the after-tax unrealized gains of available-for-sale equity securities previously recognized in accumulated other comprehensive income. Conference Call Information Fang's management team will host a conference call on the same day at 8:00 AM U.S. EST (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong time). The dial-in details for the live conference call are:



International Toll: +65 67135090 Local Toll:

United States +1 845-675-0437 / +1 866-519-4004 Hong Kong +852 3018-6771 / +852 800-906-601 Mainland China +86 400-620-8038 / +86 800-819-0121 Passcode: SFUN A telephone replay of the call will be available after the conclusion of the conference call from 11:00 ET on July 25, 2018 through 9:59 ET August 2, 2018. The dial-in details for the telephone replay are: International Toll: +61 2-8199-0299 Toll-Free:

United States +1 855-452-5696 / +1 646-254-3697 Hong Kong +852 800-963-117 / +852 3051-2780 Mainland China +86 400-602-2065 / +86 800-870-0205 Conference ID: 4658048 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on Fang's website at http://ir.fang.com . About Fang Fang operates the leading real estate Internet portal in China in terms of the number of page views and visitors to its websites. Through its websites, Fang provides e-commerce, marketing, listing, financial and other value-added services for China's fast-growing real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors. Its user-friendly websites support active online communities and networks of users seeking information on, and other value-added services for, the real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors in China. Fang currently maintains about 100 offices to focus on local market needs and its website and database contains real estate related content covering more than 651 cities in China. For more information about Fang, please visit http://ir.fang.com. Safe Harbor Statements This press 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. Such forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "is expected to," "anticipates," "aim," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "are likely to," "estimates," "may," "should" and similar expressions, and include, without limitation, statements regarding Fang's future financial performance, revenue guidance, growth and growth rates, market position and continued business transformation. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Fang's control, which may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the impact of Fang's transformation back to a technology-driven Internet platform and the impact of current and future government policies affecting China's real estate market. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in Fang's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fang does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Dr. Hua Lei

CFO

Phone: +86-10-5631-8661

Email: leihua@fang.com Ms. Jessie Yang

Director, Investor Relations

Phone: +86-10-5631-8805

Email: jessieyang@fang.com Fang Holdings Limited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)

ASSETS March 31, December 31,



2018 2017

Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents 166,507 228,276



Restricted cash, current 231,730 223,002



Short-term investments 53,463 55,801



Accounts receivable, net 68,266 66,884



Funds receivable 7,206 6,264



Prepayment and other current assets 34,947 32,704



Commitment deposits 2,130 5,876



Loan receivable, current 144,852 129,438



Amount due from related parties 561 167

Total current assets 709,662 748,412

Non-current assets:







Property and equipment, net 687,618 622,145



Prepaid land lease payments 36,893 35,728



Loan receivable, non-current 13,492 14,674



Deferred tax assets, non-current 7,719 7,602



Restricted cash, non-current portion 40,749 39,982



Deposit for non-current assets 65,629 58,722



Long-term investments 445,766 470,964



Other non-current assets 1,125 2,026

Total non-current assets 1,298,991 1,251,843

Total assets 2,008,653 2,000,255











LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:







Short-term loans 279,242 236,985



Deferred revenue 188,662 168,884



Accrued expenses and other liabilities 141,943 158,799



Customers' refundable fees 2,951 7,070



Income tax payable 7,767 4,374



Convertible senior notes 5,700 5,700

Total current liabilities 626,265 581,812

Non-current liabilities:







Long-term loans 72,604 114,109



Convertible senior notes 291,800 291,365



Deferred tax liabilities, non-current 118,180 126,641



Other non-current liabilities 155,223 146,053

Total non-current liabilities 637,807 678,168

Total Liabilities 1,264,072 1,259,980











Equity:







Class A ordinary shares, par value Hong Kong Dollar ("HK$") 1

per share, 600,000,000 shares authorized for Class A and Class

B in aggregate, issued shares as of December 31, 2017 and

March 31, 2018: 71,425,120 and 71,775,686, outstanding

shares as of December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018:

64,360,062 and 64,461,037 9,213 9,204



Class B ordinary shares, par value HK$1 per share,

600,000,000 shares authorized for Class A and Class B in

aggregate, and 24,336,650 shares and 24,336,650 shares

issued and outstanding as at March 31, 2018 and December 31,

2017 respectively 3,124 3,124



Treasure stock (136,615) (136,615)



Additional paid-in capital 505,980 500,666



Accumulated other comprehensive income 17,070 137,630



Retained earnings 345,117 225,574

Total Fang Holdings Limited shareholders' equity 743,889 739,583



Non controlling interest 692 692

Total equity 744,581 740,275

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY 2,008,653 2,000,255

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)









Three months ended



March 31,

March 31,



2018

2017 Revenues:







Listing services 26,738

34,043

Marketing services 17,326

27,335

E-commerce services 7,168

39,890

Financial services 5,053

2,247

Other value-added services and other services 6,546

6,288 Total revenues 62,831

109,803









Cost of Revenues:







Cost of services (20,242)

(60,726) Total Cost of Revenues (20,242)

(60,726)









Gross Profit 42,589

49,077









Operating expenses and income:











Selling expenses (15,622)

(23,411)

General and administrative expenses (30,740)

(31,383)

Other loss (140)

(403) Operating loss (3,913)

(6,120)

Foreign exchange (loss) / gain (3)

213

Other-than-temporary impairment on equity securities -

(951)

Interest income 2,645

2,724

Interest expense (5,485)

(3,841)

Investment income 102

-

Government grants 215

767

Other non-operating loss (370)

-

Change in fair value of equity securities (42,243)

- Loss before income taxes and noncontrolling interests (49,052)

(7,208) Income tax benefit / (expenses)







Income tax benefit / (expenses) 4,176

(4,809) Net loss (44,876)

(12,017)

Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests -

- Net loss attributable to Fang Holdings Limited shareholders (44,876)

(12,017) Other comprehensive income, net of tax





Foreign currency Translation 41,963

3,119

Gain on intra-entity foreign transactions of long-term-investment

nature 1,262

-

Unrealized gain on available-for-sale securities -

513 Total other comprehensive income, net of tax 43,225

3,632 Comprehensive loss (1,651)

(8,385) Earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares

Basic (0.51)

(0.14)

Diluted (0.51)

(0.14) Earnings per ADS







Basic (0.10)

(0.03)

Diluted (0.10)

(0.03) Weighted average number of Class A and Class B ordinary shares outstanding:

Basic 88,730,798

88,364,639

Diluted 88,730,798

88,364,639 Weighted average number of ADSs outstanding:





Basic 443,653,988

441,823,194

Diluted 443,653,988

441,823,194 Fang Holdings Limited Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)





Three months ended



March 31,

March 31,



2018

2017

GAAP loss from operations (3,913)

(6,120)

Share-based compensation expense 4,499

1,539

Non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations 586

(4,581)











GAAP net loss (44,876)

(12,017)

Share-based compensation expense 4,499

1,539

Investment income (102)

-

Change in fair value of equity securities 42,243

-

Non-GAAP net income/(loss) 1,764

(10,478)











Net loss attributable to Fang shareholders (44,876)

(12,017)

Share-based compensation expense 4,499

1,539

Investment income (102)

-

Change in fair value of equity securities 42,243

-

Non-GAAP net Income/(loss) attributable to Fang Holdings

Limited shareholders 1,764

(10,478)











GAAP earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary

shares:







Basic (0.51)

(0.14)

Diluted (0.51)

(0.14)

GAAP earnings per ADS:







Basic (0.10)

(0.03)

Diluted (0.10)

(0.03)

Non-GAAP earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary

shares:







Basic 0.02

(0.12)

Diluted 0.02

(0.12) Non-GAAP earnings per ADS:







Basic 0.00

(0.02)

Diluted 0.00

(0.02)

Weighted average number of Class A and Class B ordinary

shares outstanding:







Basic 88,730,798

88,364,639

Diluted 88,730,798

88,364,639 Weighted average number of ADSs outstanding:





Basic 443,653,988

441,823,194

Diluted 443,653,988

441,823,194











GAAP Net loss (44,876)

(12,017) Add back:







Share-based compensation expense 4,499

1,539

Change in fair value of equity securities 42,243

-

Interest expense 5,485

3,841

Depreciation expenses 6,703

5,557 Subtract:







Investment income (102)

-

Interest income (2,645)

(2,724)

Income tax (benefit) / expenses (4,176)

4,809

Adjusted EBITDA 7,131

1,005 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fang-announces-first-quarter-2018-results-300686287.html SOURCE Fang Holdings Limited

[ Back to the Next Generation Communications Community's Homepage ]BJP MP Om Birla today accused the Congress of dividing the country on the basis of religion and caste.

The Lok Sabha member said the Congress has become "insensitive", which is not in the interest of the nation, as he sought to defend the government on the lynching issue during Zero Hour.

Birla said action is being taken by the Rajasthan government in the case of Kheta Ram and investigation is also being carried out in the Alwar case.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said concerns raised by members of the House with regard to lynching will be brought to the knowledge of the Home Ministry.

The Home Minister had yesterday said that the government will enact a law, if necessary, to curb incidents of lynching.

A 28-year-old man was allegedly lynched on suspicion of being a cow smuggler in Lalawandi village in Rajasthan's Alwar district on Saturday last.

Kheta Ram, a Dalit, was beaten to death for allegedly having an affair with a Muslim woman in Rajasthan.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In a bid to impart skills to aspirants of armed forces and police, the district unit of the Congress is mulling to establish a training centre here.

According to district Congress chief Yogendra Mishra, the proposed training centre will help the youngsters of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

"The training centre will impart skills to aspirants of armed forces, para-military forces and police. The training will be imparted free of cost," Mishra said.

He said the proposed training centre may come up equidistant from Amethi and Rae Bareli, thereby helping the youngsters, especially girls, from both the districts reach there.

"Search for the building of the proposed training centre is underway. Rahul is of the view that if trained individuals go for recruitment, there chances of clearing the examination will be comparatively high," Mishra said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The craving to order a pizza or any other kind of popular takeaway meal is at its peak at 7pm and 2am around the world, according to new research based on a global study of internet traffic in countries like India, UK and the US.

Academics from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland examined patterns of food searches online across India, UK, US, Canada and Australia and discovered double-peaks, occurring every day at 19.00 and 02.00.

The research conducted by Nicolas Scrutton Alvarado and Tyler Stevenson was published today in the Royal Society journal Open Science'.

It looks at how ancient human patterns of hunger and foraging have moved into the internet era, using Google searches for take-away curries, Chinese meals and pizzas.

Overall, we present novel human appetitive behaviour for information seeking of food resources and propose that Internet-based search patterns reflect a biological rhythm of motivation for energy balance, the researchers said.

As part of the study, the biologists downloaded five years' worth of data on general takeaway-related searches, such as pizza delivery or Chinese delivery, as well as more specific fast food delivery companies, such as Swiggy and Zomato in India, Just Eat in the UK, and Panda Express in the US and Canada.

Besides some limited phase peaks around festivals like Diwali or Christmas, there was a general consistent rhythm of people wanting to find food online at about 7pm.

The findings show a new way of studying "foraging behaviour" in humans and understanding human motivations about seeking food.

We propose that the major factor that contributes to the bimodal evening peak is age-dependent (e.g. adolescent, early adulthood versus midlife and mature adulthood) and a minor role for human chronotypes (e.g. late versus early), they note.

The results indicate that the two evening peaks could be the result of biology. The 2am takeaway craving may either reflect a host of hungry students, or more probably people who tend to be night owls and stay up late.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Dan Stevens is teaming up with Harrison Ford on "Call of the Wild".

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the details of the actor's role are being kept under wraps.

The film, to be directed by Chris Sanders, stars Ford as John Thornton, a prospector braving the Yukon on the hunt for gold.

The big-budget film is being adapted by 20th Century Fox from the classic 1903 Jack London novel about the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s.

Thornton was previously played by Clark Gable in a 1935 film version and by Charlton Heston in a 1972 version.

Michael Green has written the script.

Erwin Stoff is producing with Diana Pokorny serving as executive producer and Ryan Stafford working as co-producer.

Production is set to start in early September.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistani-American David Headley is neither in a Chicago jail nor in hospital, his lawyer said today, dismissing reports that the LeT terrorist, convicted to 35 years in prison in the 2008 Mumbai attack case, was battling for life after being beaten by fellow inmates.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in Chicago nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer, told PTI.

Media reports had said that Headley, 58, was attacked by two inmates at a Chicago prison on July 8 and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

"I am in regular communication with Mr. Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans.

Headley who recced various Indian cities including Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks was arrested in 2009.

The US Justice Department also accused him of attending terrorism training camps in Pakistan in 2002 and 2003, and working with the group Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) to carry out terror attacks.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the media reports.

"We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago said in a brief email response to PTI when asked about the reported prison incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid reports of banks' reluctance to waive farm loans in Karnataka, Canara Bank today said a decision on the issue can only be taken after the state government prepares its guidelines.

"Two committees set up for grameen and commercial banks are going to meet on August 1 to deliberate on the government's suggestions on the modalities to waive farm loan," Canara Bank Executive Director Matam Venkata Rao told reporters here during the Q1 results of the bank.

"Once the committees deliberate with the government, then they will come out with final guidelines," he said.

The response came in the wake of reports about bankers being sceptical of writing off farm loans.

"The guidelines will then be placed before a competent authority and thereafter, a decision will be taken with regard to farm loan waiver," Rao added.

Only after drafting of the guidelines, the bankers would be able to prepare the list of defaulters whose loans would be waived, Rao said.

The bankers committees were formed during a State Level Bankers Committee meeting with Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

The delay in waiving loans has upset the farmers, who have given a August 15 deadline to the government. They have threatened to go on statewide bandh if government failed to take steps in this regard.

Kumaraswamy had unveiled a Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver in his July 5 budget. A week thereafter, he announced additional farm loan waiver amounting to Rs 10,700 crore.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP's Delhi unit president Manoj Tiwari today expressed shock over the deaths of three minor girls in east Delhi's Mandwali area allegedly due to "starvation" and demanded an inquiry into the tragic incident.

It's sad that such an incident occurred in Delhi, where the local government claims to be the champions in ration distribution to the poor, Tiwari said.

"It saddens us beyond expression that such an incident happened in the constituency of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia," he said.

Three sisters were found dead in east Delhi's Mandawali area and the initial post-mortem report indicated that they died of starvation, prompting the city government to order a magisterial probe into the matter.

The girls, aged two, four and eight, were brought to a hospital by their mother and a friend at around 1 pm yesterday, and the hospital authorities informed police about their deaths.

Demanding a probe into the deaths, Tiwari charged the Kejriwal government of playing on the issue of ration distribution.

"We hope that the Arvind Kejriwal government will learn a lesson from this incident and concentrate on providing basic necessities to people instead of playing on ration distribution," he said.

The AAP government's ambitious doorstep delivery of ration scheme is stuck, even as the dispensation tried to implement it with renewed vigour after the Supreme Court empowered it to take decisions on non-reserved subjects.

The dispensation has alleged the Food Commissioner objected to its implementation, saying it should be referred to the Centre for approval.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam today inspected Lampur Beggar Home and Aasha Deep Mentally Challenged Home at Narela to take stock of the facilities.

According to a statement, the minister directed officials to refurbish and renovate the beggar home complex, popularly known as Sewa Sadan, within three months so that inmates from Asha Kiran, a rehabilitation home for mentally challenged, can be relocated here.

Asha Kiran home is currently accommodating 1,050 mentally challenged inmates despite having a capacity of 500 people, the statement said.

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) had during an inspection in February last year found several irregularities such as unsanitary conditions, overcrowding and poor upkeep of inmates at Asha Kiran home.

"On the orders of the High Court, about 150 inmates from Asha Kiran were shifted to other homes but more need to be shifted. Lampur Beggar Home is vacant for the last 10-12 years which can be utilised for this purpose," the statement said.

Gautam also inspected a site of the social welfare department with an area of 12.50 acres at Mamurpur village in Narela to check how the land can be best utilized for the welfare of the deprived and the needy.

"The minister said that Lampur can be best suited for inmates as it covers the huge green area and equipped with clean environment. He also gave instructions to provide inmates with the high level medical facilities equipped with machines so that they can be treated at the premise only," the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that differences among judges should be left to the "foresight and statesmanship" of the judiciary and should not be "politicised".

Prasad, who holds the portfolios of Law and Justice and Electronics and Information Technology, said politicising or interference by the political office would affect the independence of judiciary which is an integral part of Indian democracy.

"There will be differences among judges. There have been in the past also. But let us trust the foresight and statesmanship of the judiciary itself to set those differences aside and resolve them. Political process should never intervene.

"As in the past whenever there were differences, the political office never intervened. The same kind of statesmanship and degree of restraint I would expect from my political colleagues across the board.

"Let us not politicise the differences, because an independent judiciary with qualities of foresight, statesmanship and capacity to resolve their differences is also integral to Indian democracy," he said, adding, "Collusive litigation designed to provoke political debate should be avoided."



Prasad was speaking at an event organised to celebrate the inauguration of the Delhi High Court's new state-of-the-art, environment and disabled friendly building, which will from tomorrow primarily deal with commercial matters.

On the issue of judicial independence, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the nation was indebted to the judiciary for "reining in" the executive and the legislative whenever they "strayed from their path" or when "black clouds loomed over democracy".

He, "as a chief minister and a citizen", thanked the Supreme Court for its landmark verdicts in the last few months, saying that it has led to "boosting the nation's confidence in the judiciary" and added that his government was "fully committed to ensuring independence and integrity of judiciary".

The Union minister, in his speech, also commented on his government's efforts to increase the number of judicial appointments, a topic on which Supreme Court judge N V Ramana said that more judges were needed.

Justice Ramana was referring to a recent report quoting Delhi High Court's Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal as saying that more judges are needed here as the high court was working at 50 per cent strength.

Prasad said that his government had cleared 126 judicial appointments in 2016 and aimed to surpass that number this year.

Praising the efforts made by the Delhi High Court judges and other officials who worked towards setting up the new building, he said that the Narendra Modi government in its three years has contributed nearly half of the over Rs 6,000 crore given for developing judicial infrastructure in the country since 1993-94.

On the issue of infrastructure, Prasad disagreed with Justice Ramana's suggestion to set up a National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation to manage and maintain court buildings across the country.

Instead he said that the state and central governments ought to work together to provide the infrastructure.

On the topic of infrastructure, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said that people were clapping when the Law Minister was mentioning thousands and thousands of crores, and said, "Claps you make. Do not clap more."



"He (Prasad) talked of thousands and thousands of crores, but I am not going to ask him the percentage or to go by the percentage calculation of investment in judicial infrastructure," the CJI, who inaugurated the building, said.

Prasad also spoke about a "new form of imperialism" -- Queen's counsel barristers dominating international arbitrations.

He said that as a law minister he does not find this form of "imperialism" acceptable.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Peeved at being called anti-national, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh will be appearing before the police here tomorrow.

Singh's supporters across the state have begun to arrive in Bhopal and they will accompany him, a state Congress leader said here.

Singh had announced last week that as the BJP government dubs him as anti-national, he would go to the TT Nagar police station here on July 26 and the police should arrest him.

In a letter to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Singh had said, "I have taken the oath to follow Constitution. So I have decided to present myself before the law to protect the unity and integrity of India....I would present myself at TT Nagar Police Station.

"Meanwhile, submit the evidence of my being anti- national to your administration, so that they can file a case and arrest me," he said.

Chouhan had earlier slammed Singh for 'visiting the homes of slain terrorists' and talking about Hindu terrorism.

"Many times, such acts of Digvijay-ji seem anti- national," Chouhan had said at Satna on July 19.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"There is this notion that somehow believing in the nation state, believing in controlling your borders and not supporting the power of the commission is a right wing phenomenon and I do not believe that to be the case". Italian populist parties 5 Star Movement (5MS) and League also had few resources in this year's elections, he added.

Bannon said that he sees the base of support in Europe, especially after the vote for Brexit in Britain.

Irrespective of the European Union election results, new deals to form transnational party groups in the parliament after the vote will also be key to the strength of any anti-EU bloc.

Bannon told The Daily Beast that the foundation, called The Movement, will rival George Soros' Open Society Foundation, which has given away billions of euros to largely liberal causes.

The 64-year-old former banker claims European integration is coming to an end.

The former chief strategist to USA president Donald Trump has also met the UK's Nigel Farage, Germany's AfD leader Alice Weidel, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and other far-right European Union politicians in recent months.

Former Donald Trump political strategist Steve Bannon and a top associate have created a Brussels-based political organization meant to undermine, and ultimately paralyse, the European Union, Bannon and the associate told Reuters.

Bannon said he wanted to "win and then I want to effectuate change". "He's evil but he's brilliant", Bannon said.

Bannon intends to create a "far-right" double the Soros Foundation in order to influence the outcome of elections in European States - in 2019.

The architect of Trump's nationalist-populist campaign and his election victory, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was nicknamed the "Prince of Darkness" and the "Shadow President".

In an interview and email conversations, Bannon and Raheem Kassam, a former chief aide to British anti-EU leader Nigel Farage who now serves as a Bannon lieutenant, said the group, known as The Movement, is already operating and hiring.

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism.The dilution of the SC/ST Act may force many BJP allies to quit the NDA and join the opposition camp ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year, AICC in-charge of Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil said today.

Such a development is most likely in Bihar, where all the NDA constituents -- JD(U), LJP and RLSP -- primarily draw their support from people belonging to the SC/ST and OBC categories, Gohil told PTI.

In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on March 20 diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law. The Centre has filed a review petition on the order.

"Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took the decision after a tour of Bihar to enact the law to protect the SC/ST people from various atrocities. Now the law has lost its teeth. This has caused tremendous resentment among the people belonging to these castes, who hold the BJP squarely responsible for their vulnerability," Gohil said.

"While it would not be correct to say that any NDA ally has approached us with a wish to leave the BJP-led alliance, the writing on the wall is there for all to see. Much will happen before the Lok Sabha polls next year," the senior Congress leader said.

Gohil also dismissed speculations about the Grand Alliance facing problems in arriving at an amicable seat sharing arrangement.

"Our tie-up with the RJD and the HAM is ideological. The alliance is poised to succeed in the upcoming polls and issues like seat sharing will be settled amicably in time," he said.

As of now, the party is conducting surveys in all the Lok Sabha segments of the state and taking feedback from a cross-section of the society, he said.

This, he added, will help identify the seats where the Congress can do better with the support of its allies, as well as those where the RJD or the HAM have a better chance with Congress backing.

"This is going to be a mutually beneficial collaboration and there is no possibility of a squabble within the Grand Alliance. We just need to wait for some time as more parties may come on board," he said.

Speaking about the recent comments by some Congress MLAs who praised Nitish Kumar and favoured his return to the Grand Alliance, Gohil said unlike the BJP, the Congress is a democratic party where each member has the permission to express his personal opinion.

As far as alliances are concerned, they are always decided by the party high command, he said.

Gohil said the Congress was working on a long-term plan to strengthen the party in the state. The district units may be in for a major revamp and a full-time state president will be appointed in the not-so-distant future.

The party also plans to appoint office bearers at the panchayat level, besides entrusting 27 MLAs and three MLCs with the charge of a district each so that together they are able to voice problems of the entire state, the Congress leader said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A drug dealer has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the "brutal and sustained assault" of an Indian-origin man in Southampton, on England's south coast, in September last year.

Adam Abdallah was found guilty of stabbing Kirpal Singh Sanghera in the chest, neck and arms and jailed for life at Winchester Crown Court yesterday.

Justice Dingemans told the 43-year-old man that he must serve at least 23 years for the "brutal and sustained assault" before being considered for parole.

The court was told that 39-year-old Sanghera and his attacker were involved in the supply of Class A hard drugs and that the killing was the result of a "turf war".

Sanghera was discovered with knife wounds on the street and declared dead at Southampton General Hospital in the early hours of September 19, 2017. During the hearing, the court was shown CCTV footage of the fatal attack, which showed Abdallah stabbing his victim at least seven times.

The court heard that Abdallah told a witness who tried to intervene: "Just let me kill him... I've got to do this."



After sentencing, Abdallah shouted from the dock: "I'm the victim, he attacked me, I have the right to defend myself," before being dragged away.

The court heard that he committed the murder while out of prison on licence, or parole, for a previous drugs offence.

The victim's father, Gurdev Singh Sanghera, told the court: "My son was everything to me, my life has changed forever."



"I would do anything just to see my son and give him a hug."His mother, Jit Kaur Sanghera, added: "I will never again get a chance to see my son. My son's killer and his family will still get that chance."The court also heard a statement from the victim's former partner and the mother of his two sons aged three and seven, Kirsty Hopkinson, who said that the children were scared to fall asleep and missed their father.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel nabbed an alleged smuggler carrying 2 kg charas valued at Rs 30 lakh close to the Indo-Nepal border here, said an official of the paramilitary force today.

Acting on a tip-off, the SSB personnel conducted a joint operation with the local police yesterday.

The smuggler was identified as Radhey Shyam, who is from Bholapur village under Itwa police station in the district, the official said.

SSB assistant commandant Gaurav Kumar said the accused was moving towards India from the border area when the paramilitary personnel made a bid to nab him.

The Nepal border is prone to cross-border crimes of smuggling of narcotics, arms and banned wildlife products, apart from human trafficking. Further, illegal crossover of criminals and terrorist elements have also been reported in the region.

Earlier this month, the SSB arrested a person for possessing heroin worth Rs 30 lakh in the Sonauli area on the Indo-Nepal border in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh.

The SSB is primarily tasked with guarding the 1,751-km long open border with Nepal and the 699-km frontier with Bhutan, apart from rendering a variety of internal security services.

Uttar Pradesh shares a 599.3 km-long open border with Nepal touching seven districts - Pilibhit, Lakhimpur Kheri, Bahraich, Sravasti, Balrampur, Sidhharthnagar and Maharajganj.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Eight people have been sentenced to death and 88 jailed for life over the sorcery-related killings of seven men and children in Papua New Guinea, a report said today.

The frenzied murders happened in April 2014 in the Pacific nation's Madang province, with the National Court hearing a "berserk" crowd used bows and arrows, knives and axes to kill the victims.

Of the 97 people charged, eight were handed the death penalty and 88 imprisoned, The National newspaper reported. The other person died last month.

AFP was unable to reach the court in Madang to confirm the verdicts.

Local PNG media have previously reported that the crowd marched on Sakiko village, motivated by concerns about several deaths in the area attributed to sorcery.

The National said Wednesday the mob first killed a man travelling to work at a sugar cane farm. He was shot with an arrow and hacked to pieces. Another was also hit with an arrow then bludgeoned with knives and axes.

Three other men were killed before two children, aged five and three, were snatched from their mother's arms, the newspaper said. Previous reports said they were "chopped to pieces".

In sentencing, Justice David Cannings said there was no proven connection or justification between the belief in sorcery and what happened.

"So the genuine belief in sorcery is not a mitigating factor. It cannot be regarded as an extenuating circumstance to lessen the gravity of the crimes," he was cited as saying.

"Black magic" and cannibalism sometimes occur in PNG, a sprawling and poor nation where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune, illness, accidents or death.

Rights groups have waged campaigns for justice for victims of sorcery-related attacks, spurred by the horrific murder of a young woman accused of witchcraft in 2013.

In that case, Kepari Leniata, 20, was stripped naked, tied up, doused in petrol and burned alive in front of a crowd by relatives of a boy who died following an illness in the Mount Hagen area.

Following Leniata's murder, in 2013 PNG repealed the 1971 Sorcery Act which allowed a reduced sentence for anyone who committed assault or murder if they believed their victim had been involved in sorcery.

It also revived the death penalty for violent crimes.

The law allows for execution by lethal injection, hanging and firing squad, but it has not been carried out since 1954.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Emma Thompson is returning as the chief of the "Men in Black" organisation in the series reboot.

While the plot and character details are largely being kept secret, it is confirmed that the 59-year-old actor will reprise her role of Agent O in the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new film is set to begin production this month in London.

The film, to be directed by F Gary Gray, will feature Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson in the lead.

Hemsworth and Thompson, who reunite after starring in "Thor: Ragnarok", are not playing the alien-fighting and world-saving characters portrayed by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the initial film trilogy.

Other cast members include, Liam Neeson, Liam Hemsworth, Rafe Spall, Kumail Nanjiani and street-dancing duo Les Twins aka Laurent Nicolas Bourgeois and Larry Nicolas Bourgeois.

Walter F Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, who produced the original movies, return as producers, while Steven Spielberg is coming back to executive produce.

The Sony studio film is slated to release on June 14 next year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Days after a man was allegedly lynched in Rajasthan by cow vigilantes, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said his government was "equally committed" to protecting human life and to the cow.

We will provide protection to everyone. People are important, the cow is also important, he said.

With laws already in place to protect cows and the government being responsive to this issue, violence in the name of cow protection would not be tolerated," he told channels.

But he has also made clear in his remarks over the last two days that the government was committed to ensuring protection to cattle from smuggling and slaughter.

Referring to the incidents of mob lynching, the chief minister said, "No such case has been reported from UP so far but wherever these are happening, they have to be stopped.

However, cow smuggling and slaughter also should be stopped," he said



"Under no circumstances can we allow cow slaughter and smuggling. Everyone's faith must be respected."



Adityanath rejected the charge that stray cows were causing problems for farmers.

"The problem of stray cattle has existed in the state even before we came to power. In fact, it is our government which has created gaushalas' for cows in each district in the state," he said.

Adityanath's remarks come after the recent death of 28-year-old Rakbar Khan, who was lynched by a group of men in Rajasthan's Alwar district on suspicion of cattle smuggling.

Even while condemning the lynching, some RSS and BJP leaders have spoken against cow slaughter.

RSS leader Indresh Kumar said if the practice of eating beef was stopped, many "crimes of the Satan" could be curtailed, in an apparent reference to the incidents of mob lynching.

Union minister Giriraj Singh appeared to endorse Kumar's views, when he said the RSS leader must have made the comment after proper thought.

Another BJP leader, Vinay Katiyar, said cows must not be killed "as Hindus get aggressive over it".

BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi dubbed those raising the issue of lynching as "hypocrites", saying they have forgotten the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the alleged "lynching of kar sevaks" in 2002 that triggered communal riots in Gujarat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The European Union's top court today ordered the EU's intellectual property office to "reconsider" Kit Kat's bloc-wide trademark, prolonging Nestle's decade-long battle to claim exclusive rights over the chocolate bar's distinctive shape.

Nestle has been locked in a blockbuster legal war with US rival Mondelez, maker of Cadbury chocolate, over the four-fingered wafer biscuit which was first sold in 1935.

In a closely watched case, the European Court of Justice said the EU's intellectual property office must go back to the drawing board and revisit its 2006 to decision to grant Kit Kat an EU trade mark based on its shape.

But in a break for Nestle, the Luxembourg-based ECJ did not cancel the trade mark outright, as suggested by the court's top advisor in April, with the EU intellectual property office now tasked to re-visit the trademark.

"Today no one has won, no one has lost. Nestle has saved time because its brand remains registered for the time being," a court source told AFP.

"But Nestle did lose a battle as it would have preferred a full confirmation of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) decision," the source added.

The EU's intellectual property office allowed Nestle in 2006 to trademark what the court calls the "three-dimensional shape of the 'Kit Kat 4 fingers' product".

This trademark has helped keep copycat candy-bars out of grocery stores, and punished the development of similar treats owned by Mondelez, including the Norwegian favourite Kvikk Lunsj, a Kit Kat doppelganger.

The EU's intellectual property office "must reconsider whether the three-dimensional shape of a '4 Finger KitKat' can be retained as an EU trade mark," a court statement said.

At issue is that the food giant specifically failed to provide evidence that the Kit Kat shape was well enough known in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

A lower EU court "was right to annul the EU's intellectual property office decision, in which it concluded that distinctive character had been acquired" without including those countries in the case, a statement said.

The trade mark criteria "must be shown throughout the EU," it said.

Nestle has already lost a legal bid in Britain -- currently an EU member state but set to leave next year -- to trademark the Kit Kat shape.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The European Union says it's ready to retaliate against the United States with tariffs on products worth USD 20 billion if President Donald Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said in an interview with Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that she hoped a solution is found and "things wouldn't go that far".

If not, she said the EU would slap tariffs on a range of US products including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery. She said specific US states would not be targeted.

Malmstrom is in Washington today together with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to meet Trump, who has repeatedly rebuked the EU for being an unfair trading partner and called the bloc a "foe".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ban on fish import imposed because of the toxic formalin scare and the deficit local supply has led to soaring of prices of the staple food item in Goa.

The markets in Margao, Panaji, Mapusa and Vasco areas have been witnessing a lull as the import of fish has completely stopped following the ban imposed by the state government on it till this month-end.

Currently, there is also a ban till July 31 on fishing using mechanised trawlers off the Goa coast due to the monsoon.

Only fishermen using traditional methods of fishing are allowed to venture in the sea but the rough weather has affected their task too.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) had on July 21 warned fishermen against venturing into the sea in view of the rough weather conditions.

"We have not been able to go into the sea for the last several days due to the windy weather. It is highly risky to go with a small boat in the waters," Camilo Fernandes, a traditional fisherman from Velsao in South Goa district, said.

The 62-year-old fisherman says that this is the time when they can make little money but they are losing on it because of the weather conditions.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who imposed the ban on import, admitted that fish has become costly.

"If the ban on import is continued, fish will become more expensive as the local supply is not enough for the population's requirement," Parrikar said in the state Assembly on Monday.

He read out a list of the various fish sold in the state and their current market prices, which are nearly four times more than normal rates.

"Fish is not available in the market. If at all there is some locally caught fish, you will see long queues of consumers," said NCP legislator Churchill Alemao, whose family owns several trawlers at Cutbona jetty in South Goa district.

Alemao said the current fish prices were unaffordable for people.

Congress MLA Antonio Fernandes, representing the St Cruz constituency in North Goa district, said he had to himself go angling last Sunday as there wasno fish available in the market.

"I like fishing. It is my hobby during monsoon. So, when I found that there was no fish available in the market, I went for angling myself and fetched the catch required for the family on Sunday," Fernandes said.

The local restaurants and hotels are the worst affected.

"The fish, which used to be available for Rs 100, now costs Rs 600. But we can't pass on the same price to customers. So we have decided to do away with fish items," Vinayak Tale, who owns a restaurant near Boca-de-Vaca locality in Panaji, said.

He said customers have also stopped asking for fish items due to the formalin scare.

A toxic chemical, formalin is used to preserve bodies and prevent its decay in mortuaries.

The government had last week banned the import of fish from outside Goa till the end of this month to ensure formalin-laced fish do not land in the state.

The move came after the Goa Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed the presence of the organic compound in fish imported from other states.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Five persons carrying 58 gold bars allegedly smuggled from the Gulf were nabbed today by Crime Branch from suburban Borivli, an official said.

He said the gold bars, weighing 6.76 kg, were allegedly smuggled into India by one of the accused, a woman, from Abu Dhabi by evading Customs duty.

The officials also recovered cash worth Rs 21.13 lakh from the possession of the accused, he said.

The five are identified as Mehboob Ali Shaikh (39), Sajia Shaikh (37), Jaffar Akbar Khan (46), Mahammad Shaikh (30)--all residents of Trombey, and Tabasum Khan( 27), a resident of Malvani near suburban Malad.

The official said Tabassum had allegedly smuggled the gold bars from Abhu Dhabi Airport to Pune airport.

The other four accused allegedly took the gold bars from Tabassum while she was trying to sell them, he said.

All the accused have been handed over to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), zonal unit, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Christian leaders are often guilty of souping up, the common good, says Noah Gould in this weeks Acton Commentary. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, is no exception. In his latest book, Reimagining Britain: Foundations for Hope, Welby sets out to create a new social and political vision for the United Kingdom based on the common good.

The most precise definition Welby offers is that the common good looks not to averages but to the totality of flourishing in a group. He uses the story in Jeremiah 29 of how, when the Israelites were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah urged them to seek the welfare of the city. Based on this idea, he outlines a list of policy and cultural changes, including greater income redistribution, decreasing Britains reliance on the banking industry, and broadening the definition of family to include cohabitation.

The full text of the essay can be found here.The Iranian state news agency IRNA reported his comments.

Trump's defence secretary, Jim Mattis, declined to directly answer a question about whether he was concerned that Trump's rhetoric might ratchet up tensions in the region, increasing the chances of miscalculation.

President Trump had issued a fiery twitter response after the Iranian president made a threat against the United States.

It was the concern that sanctions could be reinstated that led to Mr Rouhani's warning.

He said the war of words between the two presidents was to be expected, since official diplomatic relations between the two countries have been frozen for decades. "The Europeans will have to decide to work with the US economy or the Iranian economy and I believe they will choose your economy".

While US ties with Iran and North Korea are different on several fronts, the words used by Trump to denigrate Tehran are similar in tone to those he directed last August at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Iranian general Gholam Hossein Gheypour laid down a stark threat to the U.S. following Trump's furious Iran rant on Twitter. The tweet was reverberating across the Mideast.

The Trump administration's intense hostility towards Iran and its willingness to engage with a nuclear-armed North Korea sends a clear message to North Korea and the rest of the world.

In May, Mr Trump stepped back from Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal, which restricted Tehran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for lifting worldwide oil and financial sanctions. With the economic pressure, Trump said earlier this month that "at a certain point they're going to call me and say 'let's make a deal, ' and we'll make a deal". "If America wants to take a serious step in this direction it will definitely be met with a reaction and equal countermeasures from Iran", he said. "Empty/ridiculous United States rhetoric in response to same from Iran". Iran has insisted it will not renegotiate the deal.

"President Trump's belligerent tweet is another alarming warning sign that he's blundering toward war with Iran", said Sen. "BE CAUTIOUS!", he wrote. On Tuesday the country's parliamentary speaker called the comments of the United States president "the words of a troublemaker".

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the administration will never stop calling out Iran for its human rights abuses, religious persecution and fomenting of terrorism. In May, he pulled the USA out of a hard-won agreement with Tehran, also signed by Britain, China, France, Germany and Russian Federation, which lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear programme. "You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Iran's security and interests".

The U.S. under Trump has already proven that it can't be trusted to honor its agreements with Iran when the president reneged on the nuclear deal.

"They express themselves through speeches since diplomatic channels are closed", he said.A foetus was recovered from a lavatory of an Air Asia plane after it landed here from Guwahati this afternoon, Delhi Police said.

The crew of flight I5 784 informed about the foetus being found in the lavatory, they said.

The flight had originated from Imphal.

According to the police, a woman who boarded the plane in Guwahati delivered "a pre-mature dead foetus".

In a statement, Air Asia said a suspect has been held back by police for further investigation, adding she was identified on questioning of all female passengers onboard.

"A newborn infant was found lifeless and abandoned in one of the lavatories when the aircraft was being prepared for landing. Delhi Police were alerted and a doctor from the medical team at Delhi International Airport confirmed that the baby had been delivered onboard," it said.

The matter has been reported to the DGCA, the airline said.

"We will be assisting in the investigation and cooperating with all concerned agencies. AirAsia India would like to apologise to all guests experiencing disruptions in their flight schedule," it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)From a series of huge, silent and disciplined marches to violent demonstrations, the protest by the Maratha community now is an antithesis of their efforts to seek reservations in jobs and education.

Representatives of the Maratha community attributed the stepping up of pressure by the community to the "arrogance and lies" told to its members by the BJP-led government, and the "uncontrolled anger" among its youth over the delay in getting reservations.

They said the protest would be carried out in a non-violent manner and asked the government to look for an out of court resolution to the issue till the Bombay High Court delivers its verdict in a related case.

The Marathas, who form around a third of the state's nearly 13 crore population, held over 50 'mook morchas' (silent marches) in 2016 and 2017 across Maharashtra pressing for reservation among other demands.

The state legislature in 2014 passed a bill to grant quota to the community. That law was stayed by the Bombay High Court. The present government had then approached the Supreme Court.

With no relief in sight in the apex court, the state government again approached the High Court, which asked it to form a backward commission and submit a report through it. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently told the state legislature that the Constitutional process was still on.

Asked about the trigger for the latest acts of violence and suicides by protesters, Rajendra Kondhare, general secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh, said members of the community were losing patience.

The Mahasangh was clueless about who were the people engaged in violence under the guise of the protest, he said.

"People are not ready to listen now. The anger now is beyond control. The layman won't understand that the court procedures take time. So, people and courts can't be blamed," he said.

Kondhare underscored a need to convene a meeting of all the political parties in the state immediately to resolve the issue.

"Opinions should be sought on what the government can do to resolve the issue immediately out of court," he said.

Sambhaji Brigade chief and state coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha Pravin Gaikwad charged the government with being arrogant and apathetic towards the demands of the community.

"Some community members staged protest in Parali (in Beed) recently. No government representatives went to them. Then they announce of staging protest in Pandharpur on the day of Ashadhi Ekadashi," Gaikwad said.

"The chief minister chose not to perform the maha puja, saying there were inputs about possible disturbances. Two of his ministers said the protesters had political patronage. All this led to the current protest," he said.

Both Kondhare and Gaikwad, however, maintained that the protest would be conducted in a peaceful manner.

Protesters attacked buses, stopped train services and blocked highways in parts of the state as part of their latest round of agitation, which has seen a youth commit suicide flinging himself in Godavari river in Aurangabad, while a demonstrator who consumed a poisonous substance in the same district died today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi today urged the fraternity at Gauhati University to intensify its efforts in creating "capable human resources" who would contribute to the growth of the state, a release issued by Raj Bhavan said here.

Mukhi, who is also the chancellor of the university, interacted with the faculty members, officers, employees and students this morning, requesting them to work resolutely for the overall development of the Assam.

The role of Gauhati University in nurturing young minds is of immense importance, as students who graduates from there would be able to bring about positive changes in the society, he said after reviewing the infrastructural development work at the institute.

The governor, on this occasion, also welcomed suggestions from the students and faculty members for the growth of the university.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A German court today sentenced a Vietnamese man to nearly four years in jail for taking part in a brazen Cold War-style kidnapping ordered by Hanoi of an oil executive from a Berlin park.

Judges at the Berlin court said the 47-year-old Czech-Vietnamese national, identified as Long N H, was guilty of aiding an abduction and working for a foreign intelligence service.

But they handed him a relatively mild sentence of three years and ten months after he confessed to his involvement.

Long NH admitted during his trial that he rented the vehicle used in last July's abduction of fugitive Vietnamese state company official Trinh Xuan Thanh, who was spirited back to Hanoi.

In a statement, the presiding judge described the kidnapping as "a blatant violation of the sovereignty of Germany, unprecedented in recent history".

But judges also agreed that while the accused knew about the kidnapping plans by the Vietnamese secret service, he did not belong to the top level of command.

The kidnapped man, Thanh -- a senior Communist party functionary who was seeking political asylum in Germany -- has since been sentenced to two life terms in Vietnam on corruption charges.

The 52-year-old and his female companion Thi Minh P D were walking in Berlin's Tiergarten park when they were dragged into a van in broad daylight and smuggled back to Vietnam.

The German government was outraged, calling it a "scandalous violation" of its sovereignty. It expelled two Vietnamese diplomats and summoned the ambassador several times.

Communist-ruled Vietnam has always insisted that Thanh, the former head of PetroVietnam Construction, returned voluntarily to face embezzlement charges.

Thanh's German lawyer, Petra Schlagenhauf, has described the kidnapping as "like a story from the Cold War".

Long N H, was once among thousands of so-called guest workers in communist East Germany. He was later denied asylum and resettled in Prague.

He was arrested there last August and extradited to Germany days later.

He admitted renting the van used in the abduction in Prague and driving it to Berlin, but he was not at the wheel during the kidnapping. He then drove the van back to Prague. He also rented another vehicle involved in the operation.

It remains unclear exactly how Thanh was transported back to his home country, but judges said in their statement they believed he was flown to Hanoi via Bratislava and Moscow.

German media have reported that a Slovakian government plane lent to a visiting Vietnamese delegation at the time was involved in the transfer.

Slovakia has said it noticed nothing suspicious about the delegation or their flights, but warned Hanoi of harsh consequences if the allegations proved true.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The husband of a co-pilot, who died along with four others in a plane crash at Ghatkopar last month, met Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu today, who assured him of a fair investigation into the incident.

Prabhat Kathuria, the husband of co-pilot Marya Zuberi,



was accompanied BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, MP Gopal Shetty and part's MLA Prabhat Lodha from Mumbai during the meeting.

"Met Mr. Prabhat, husband of Late Pilot Mrs. Maria who lost her life in the tragic #GhatkoparPlaneCrash, along with MP Mr. @Kiritsomaiya, MP Mr. Gopal Shetty and MLA Mr. M. Prabhat Lodha. Offered my deepest condolences to Mr. Prabhat and assured a fair investigation and action," Prabhu said in a late night tweet.

In a statement issued last month, Khaturia had questioned the fitness of the aircraft. He had said "the company involved in the ill-fated plane's repairs seems to have been incapable of detecting the technical snags that could have led to its crash."



Kathuria said that his wife had mentioned to him that the weather conditions were not conducive for a test flight to be conducted for a small plane like Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft.

"She left the house assuring me she would return rather soon as the weather conditions were clearly not right for a test flight of a small plane such as the Beachcraft King Air twin turboprop," he said.

He had also said UY Aviation, the owners of the aircraft, "seem to have completely disregarded their responsibility to check whether such a plane should go off the ground".

Five people -- four crew members including two pilots and a pedestrian -- lost their lives on the June 27 mishap when the 12-seater plane crashed into an under-construction building in the Ghatkopar area of Mumbai.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is carrying out a detailed probe into the incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Goa government will install 60,000 bio-toilets at a cost of Rs 280 crore to make the state open defecation free (ODF), Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Legislative Assembly today.

Parrikar gave this information while responding to the issue raised by Congress MLA Wilfred D'Sa during the Question Hour.

"We will be installing 60,000 bio-toilets across the state to make it ODF under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. State-run Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC) will be tendering the purchase of the bio-toilets under this scheme by August 12," Parrikar said.

The Directorate of Panchayat as well as the Rural Development Agency (RDA) would be assisting the corporation to implement the scheme.

"Tenders will be floated by the corporation, but it is difficult for a single contractor to provide 60,000 toilets in two-three months, due to which we have decided to take on board seven to eight contractors," he said.

The total cost of the project is Rs 280 crore with each toilet costing between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000 depending upon its quality, he added.

Responding to a question by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar that many of the beneficiaries under this scheme might face problems in getting NOC from their landowners, Parrikar said 70 per cent of the beneficiaries own the land.

"Wherever we find it difficult to get the land, we will construct community toilets," he said.

The chief minister also said that the existing laws would be amended to tackle the problems related to obtaining NOC from the landowner.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Godrej Interio, the furniture arm of the Godrej Group, is aiming at a 25-per cent topline growth to Rs 2,500 crore in the 2018-19 fiscal, a senior company official said today.

"We are are looking at strong numbers in the current fiscal with our growth plans and a favourable GST rate of 18 per cent. We are aiming at Rs 2,500 crore revenue in FY19' as against Rs 2,000 crore in the last fiscal," Godrej Interio COO Anil Mathur said here.

Kolkata is a key market for Godrej Interio as the eastern region contributes at least Rs 200 crore to the home B2C business or home furniture and solutions, he said on the sidelines of a store launch in the city.

In the pre-GST regime, the tax burden was to the tune of 26-27 per cent but now it is 18 per cent, giving a fillip to consumers to move towards branded home furniture.

Godrej Interio's B2B segment is likely to garner Rs 1,500 crore revenue this fiscal, while home solutions should clock sales of Rs 1,000 crore, Mathur said.

The company would invest Rs 400 crore over the next three years, of which Rs 100 crore would be pumped in for frontline store expansion during FY19'.

"We are investing Rs 300 crore in a new manufacturing facility in Khalapur, Maharashtra in the next three years. An additional Rs 100 crore would be utilised on 35 new stores across the country," he said.

The home furniture market is estimated at Rs 50,000 crore, of which the organised sector accounts for 20 per cent, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Telangana Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav today said a golden 'bonam' (offering) would be made to the goddess at the Ujjain Mahankali temple at Secunderabad on July 29.

Nizamabad MP K Kavitha would make the offering to the goddess, a state government release quoted him as saying.

The 'bonam' is being prepared with 3.8 kg of gold offered to the goddess by devotees,.

The 'bonalu' festival is celebrated usually during the month of 'Ashada' that falls in July/August.

Goddess Mahakali is worshipped on the occasion.

Women prepare rice, cooked along with milk and jaggery, in a new earthern or brass pot which is adorned with neem leaves and others.

Women carry the pots on their heads and make an offering of 'bonam' to the goddess.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan today charged the government of failing to curb attacks on Muslims who rear cows and earn their livelihood from the dairy trade.

Khan's comments comes days after a man in Rajasthan's Alwar district was lynched on suspicion of cow smuggling.

He said a Muslim becomes a victim of lynching for keeping cows. "The government has not been able to stop such violent activities," Khan said.

In a sarcastic vein, the SP leader said minorities should neither keep cows nor participate in the milk trade.

Khan alleged that the BJP's was based on "falsehood" and its top leaders speak the language of hate.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government's plan to infuse Rs 11,336 crore in five state-owned banks, including scam-hit PNB, is credit positive and will help these lenders meet the regulatory requirement, according to Moody's.

The other lenders include - Andhra Bank, Allahabad Bank, Corporation Bank and Indian Overseas Bank.

The government will infuse Rs 2,816 crore in Punjab National Bank (PNB), Rs 1,790 crore in Allahabad Bank, Rs 2,019 crore in Andhra Bank, Rs 2,157 crore in Indian Overseas Bank and Rs 2,555 crore in Corporation Bank.

The Rs 11,336-crore capital infusion is part of the Rs 65,000 crore that the government propose to infuse into the 21 public sector banks this financial year.

"The infusions are credit positive and will strengthen the banks' capitalisation," global rating agency Moody's said in a report today.

These banks' common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratios were the weakest among all public sector banks as of March-end, and were at the risk of breaching the minimum regulatory capital requirement of 5.5 per cent under the Basel III norms.

The rating agency expects these lenders' CET1 ratios to be above 5.5 per cent after the new capital infusion.

The additional capital will also lower the risk of Andhra Bank and PNB breaching the write-down trigger on outstanding Basel III-compliant additional tier 1 (AT1) securities.

As of FY18, Andhra Bank disclosed Rs 2,200 crore of Basel III-compliant AT1 securities and PNB Rs 5,300 crore.

Based on the contractual terms of the Basel III AT1 securities, the value of the security will be automatically written down should the bank's CET1 ratio fall below 5.5 per cent before March 31, 2019.

Post that date, the trigger value steps up to 6.125 per cent.

Moody's expects the five banks to have losses in FY19, albeit somewhat smaller than their losses for FY18.

The losses are due to the elevated credit costs as the banks continue to provide for their large stock of non-performing loans.

As such, depending on their financial performance during the rest of the year, the agency said these banks may require additional capital support from the government to meet the minimum regulatory thresholds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police officers caught on video in a dramatic, deadly shootout with a gunman at a Trader Joe's this weekend showed "calm under pressure", according to one law enforcement expert. Grieving family members, co-workers and customers on Sunday remembered Corado as lively, hardworking and always smiling.

The supermarket in south Los Angeles remains closed.

The victim, Melyda Corado, 27, identified by relatives as a manager at the store, was one of several people who fled the market after the gunman crashed his vehicle just outside while being chased by police on Saturday, Moore told reporters.

Responding to the police department's announcement on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Corado's family and friends, as well as the rest of the city's residents, deserve "complete transparency in understanding the full circumstances of her death".

The bullet that struck and killed a woman at a Trader Joe's grocery store in Los Angeles in the chaotic early moments of a weekend hostage siege was sacked by police during a brief gunfight with the armed suspect, authorities revealed on Tuesday.

Assistant manager Melyda Corado, 27, was leaving the store when officers exchanged fire with the gunman, 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins.

The police chief said the two officers involved in the shootout with Atkins are working with psychologists. As Atkins exited his auto, he fired two rounds from a semi-automatic pistol at officers, Moore said.

It's "every officer's worst nightmare to harm an innocent bystander", he said. But the chief said both officers did "what they needed to do" to defend the public and themselves.

The video begins with a male and female officer pursuing Atkins. One of the rounds went through her arm and into her body and she died at the scene, Moore said. Moore said Corado was struck once in a "through-and-through wound to her left arm that then moved into her body".

Moore pushed back against doubt over the officers' decision to open fire near a crowded grocery store on a Saturday afternoon.

That determination was made after a forensics investigation, he said. "When they did exchange gunfire it appears it was under control and towards the suspect".

"The officers were firing at a serious threat to the community".

He said the officers involved in the incident, who weren't immediately identified Tuesday, were "devastated".

"This is one of those tragic situations that is kind of a lose-lose situation for the police", he said. "Ms. Corado ran back into the store and collapsed behind the manager's desk".

"It is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family". Out of respect for them, we will not be providing further comment on today's developments, but do want to again express our appreciation for the overwhelming outpouring of support from customers and Crew Members across the country.

Some people inside the supermarket climbed out windows and others barricaded themselves in rooms as scores of police and firefighters and 18 ambulances converged on the scene and prepared for the possibility of mass casualties as the standoff played out on live television. Atkins held some people as hostages, let some go and then eventually surrendered several hours later.

After shooting and wounding his 76-year-old grandmother and his 17-year-old girlfriend over a domestic dispute issue earlier on Saturday, Atkins tried to flee in a Toyota auto while abducting the young woman.

Both his grandmother and the wounded teen are in critical condition from their gunshot wounds, Moore said.

Atkins' cousin, Charlene Egland, said Atkins had been arguing with Madison - who had raised him since he was 7 - "on and off for about two or three weeks" over his girlfriend staying at the woman's home. On Tuesday, he was charged with murder and 30 other counts.The Congress today accused the government of trying to weave a web of deception on the issue of black money to save its "crony capitalist friends".

The main opposition party also challenged the government to bring even one of the fugitive economic offenders back to the country during a discussion on the Economic Offenders Bill in Rajya Sabha today.

"Basically this government continues to try to weave a web of deception on the issue of black money because they have absolutely no intention of following through on their statements as they want to save their crony capitalist friends," Congress Rajya Sabha member Rajeev Gowda told reporters.

Pointing out at media reports of fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi given the citizenship of Antigua, Gowda expressed suspicion on whether there was any connection between Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the prime minister of Antigua before Chowksi getting the citizenship of that country.

"Prime Minister and met the Antigua Prime Minister, and a few months later we found that Mehul Choksi was given Antigua citizenship. What is the link between the two only those people know. But we have our suspicions," he said.

Criticising the Economic Offenders Bill, the Congress leader said it was full of flaws that would result in Constitutional violations.

"This suggests that the government is not serious and it only intends to try and project an image of going after black money and fugitive economic offenders, but does not want to follow through," he said.

Gowda also accused Finance Minister Piyush Goyal of "deliberately omitting" a vital statistic from the BIS database which Goyal was quoting yesterday.

"Goyal failed to tell us that in the last quarter, the same data showed that Indian deposits in the Swiss banks had gone up by 23 per cent," he stated.

Alleging that the NDA government's fight against black money is nothing but "headlines management" and "fake stories" planted in the media without any factual backing, Gowda underlined that the Congress-led UPA government had presented a white paper whereby it tracked down black money worth Rs 1,30,800 crore in the last two years of its tenure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 81 people died in huge wildfires around Athens, Greek authorities said today, as rescuers scoured scorched homes and burned-out cars for survivors of one of the world's deadliest fire outbreaks.

Scores of locals and holiday-makers fled to the sea to try to escape the flames as they tore through towns and villages near the capital stoked by 100-kilometre-per-hour wind gusts, devouring woodland and hundreds of buildings.

Greek media have described the disaster as a "national tragedy", while Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia and announced three days of national mourning.

A young Irishman on honeymoon was among those who died, the British embassy in Greece confirmed.

According to British media, Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp had been on honeymoon in the coastal village of Mati when his car was caught in the wildfires.

Although his new wife Zoe managed to escape to a nearby beach, she was taken to hospital with burns, the reports said.

Fire service spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri said 81 people were now known to have died. The toll surpasses the 77 people killed in the previous deadliest fires in Greece, on the southern island of Evia in 2007.

Apart from the Irishman, the victims included three other tourists -- a Polish mother and her son, as well as a Belgian national whose teenage daughter survived the blaze.

Maliri said firefighters continued to search for bodies after receiving numerous calls reporting people missing.

It is possible that some of those unaccounted for "will be among the victims", Maliri said.

She added that relatives of those missing had been asked to provide DNA samples to help authorities identify bodies.

When the fires broke out on Monday evening, terrified residents and tourists were overtaken by the flames in homes, on foot or in their cars. AFP photographers saw the burnt bodies of people and dogs.

"My husband said we had to leave with our seven-year-old grandson," Kiriaki Alexiadou, a resident of the devastated village of Mati, told AFP.

"We ran to the car as the pine cones were burning on the trees." Choking back the tears on Wednesday, she pointed to the charred skeleton of a house next to hers.

"The policewoman who lived there, her husband and their two children left on foot towards the sea but they were trapped by this wall of flame." The burned bodies of 26 people, including small children, were discovered at a villa in Mati, 40 kilometres northeast of Athens, rescuers said.

Rescue teams yesterday were going house to house to search for survivors in the village.

Volunteers were also doing the rounds to provide food to those whose houses survived relatively unscathed but which have experienced sporadic power cuts since the fire struck.

"In 40 years here we've seen several fires each year" in the hills where Monday's blaze broke out said resident Andreas Matsios. "But we never imagined they would ever reach Mati."



Rain is forecast for the coming days, which will help efforts to douse the flames after temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius on Monday.

But another blaze was threatening houses near the seaside town of Kineta, 25 kilometres west of Athens.

Dozens of firefighters were battling the flames around Kineta aided by helicopters and planes dropping thousands of gallons of water.

Some 187 people were hospitalised after Monday's fires, with 71 still being treated on Wednesday, including almost a dozen children, most of whom were in a "serious condition", the fire services said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed today asked the people to give vote for "Pakistan's ideology" as he cast his vote in the general election in which his son and son-in-law are participating as candidates.

He cast his vote in Lahore's Wafaqi Colony amid concerns in the country over the participation of Islamist hardliners in election in large numbers.

The Milli Muslim League (MML), the political wing of Saeed's banned Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD), has fielded 260 candidates for the national and provincial polls under the umbrella of little known outfit Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT).

Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of Saeed, is contesting from NA-91 seat from Sargodha (about 200-km from Lahore), the home town of JuD leader.

Saeed's son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is a candidate in PP-167. These candidates are contesting under the AAT banner because the election commission has denied registration to the MML.

Talking to reporters after casting his vote, Saeed said the people should come out of their homes and vote for "Pakistan's ideology".

"I wish these elections turn out be useful for the country," he said and urged the people to vote for 'chair' - the election symbol of AAT.

The JuD was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014. The group is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack.

Saeed carries a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for his role in terror activities.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government today said it has accepted an expert committee's recommendation of compulsory registration of NRI marriages.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said an Integrated Nodal Agency has also been set up under the chairpersonship of the secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, to discuss all issues related to NRI marital disputes.

"The government has accepted the recommendation for compulsory registration of NRI marriages of the expert committee set up under the chairmanship of Justice Arvind Kumar Goel, ex-chairperson, NRI Commission, Punjab, to look into issues faced by Indian nationals married to overseas nationals of Indian origin and suggest amendments in existing laws, policies and regulation," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Housing sales rose marginally, just 3 per cent, in the first half this year to over 1.24 lakh units in eight major cities despite fall in prices, Knight Frank India said.

The property consultant today released its key 'India Real Estate' report which tracks primary property markets of eight cities-- Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad.

It said that launches of new homes rose 46 per cent during the January-June period of 2018 to 91,739 units in these eight cities, compared with 62,738 units in the year-ago period.

The unsold inventory level dropped by 17 per cent to 4,97,289 units, it said.

Taking a longer view however, it said: "Both sales and launches have grown over the past 18 months and are at their highest level since the demonetisation period at approximately 1,24,000 and 92,000 units respectively."



As for year-on-year comparison for the first half this year, the Knight Frank data showed that housing sales in Delhi-NCR increased by 5 per cent to 18,047 units as against the year-ago period.

Bengaluru saw the maximum rise in housing sales by 22 per cent at 25,802 units, while Mumbai saw a marginal increase of 1 per cent to 32,412 units.

Housing sales in Hyderabad rose by 5 per cent to 8,313 units. Ahmadabad also saw an increase of 3 per cent to 8,087 units.

However, sales in Kolkata dropped by 19 per cent to 6,591 units.

Pune too witnessed a fall of 6 per cent to 16,451 units, while sales in Chennai dipped by 3 per cent to 8,585 units.

"Despite increased launches, reduced price, government reforms and incentive, housing demand is yet to take off," Knight Frank India Executive Director (North) Mudassir Zaidi told reporters here.

The drop in prices intensified in Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata at 9 per cent, 8 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

"Effective price drop of 10-15 per cent continues in cities like Mumbai, NCR, Pune and Kolkata. Hyderabad bucks the trend with an exceptional price growth at 8 per cent year-on-year," Zaidi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 26-year-old man, hailing from Telangana, went missing from New Jersey in the US, his family claimed and sought the help of central and state governments in the matter.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig had left for the US in 2015 to pursue higher studies and had since been a part-time worker in a store in New Jersey, his brother Mirza Sujat claimed.

He alleged that some extortionists who were threatening Baig might be behind his disappearance.

Sujat claimed that Baig had last spoken to his mother on Friday.

"Baig spoke to our mother and told her he was facing trouble from some people and asked me to call back," he said.

"When I called him, the phone rang and then stopped. Since then there has been no information on Baig," Sujat said, adding that Baig's roommate in the US had complained to the police.

The police visited Baig's residence and found documents such as passport and ID cards missing, Sujat claimed.

He further said that Baig had been getting threats from extortionists.

"Around six months ago, Baig had told me this, but did not say who were issuing the threats," Sujat said, adding that he had requested External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to take up the matter with the US authorities.

He alleged that the police in the US were not taking the case seriously.

Sujat said he also met Telangana Minister for IT, Industries and NRI Affairs K T Rama Rao seeking help to trace his brother.

Rao had assured that the matter would be taken up with the Centre, he claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Illegal mining in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh has caused a loss of royalty of Rs 93.04 crore to the state government, the National Green Tribunal has been told by a committee constituted by it.

The NGT was also informed by the panel that an amount of Rs 119.41 crore was required for restoration of the area which has been affected due to the unauthorised mining.

Taking note of the submissions, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the Uttar Pradesh government to take steps within six months for recovering the revenue loss.

The tribunal had appointed advocate Rachit Mittal as amicus curiae to assist the green panel in the matter.

"A report dated September 7, 2017 has been submitted which is a subject matter of consideration in the present application. In the said report, it has been inter-alia found that the illegal mining has resulted in loss of royalty of Rs 93,04,45,776 and money required for restoration is Rs 119,41,14,500.

"We do not see any reason not to accept the said report as no objection has been filed. Accordingly, UP may take steps in accordance with law, for recovering the loss caused, expeditiously and as far as possible within six months. The amount assessed as loss to the environment should be separately earmarked for restoration of the environment," the bench said.

The tribunal directed the state government to submit a report on the action taken and details of the amount spent on restoration of Kalyanpur village in Tarabganj Tehsil of Gonda district on or before the last week of April, 2019.

In a detailed judgement, the NGT had last year banned illegal extraction of minor minerals through mechanised mining in Gonda and Faizabad districts of Uttar Pradesh and ordered a probe into the unauthorised activities there.

The green panel had ordered that there should be no mining activity within 50 metres from the end of the railway track on Mankapur in Faizabad and 150 metres from railway or any other bridges.

The NGT had constituted a team comprising the Gonda deputy commissioner, senior officers from the UP Pollution Control Board, senior scientists from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, the senior most officer from Department of Geology and Mining of the UP government and an expert officer from the Environment Ministry.

The tribunal had passed the judgement on the plea filed by Lok Sabha MP Kirti Vardhan Singh from Gonda who had written to it seeking ban on large-scale illegal sand mining going on in his constituency in Gonda and railway track on Mankapur in Faizabad.

The bench said mechanical extraction of minor minerals in large quantity near the railway track was bound to endanger not only the environment and ecology of that area but also enhance the chances of collapsing of the track.

The green body had also directed the panel to investigate the role of former UP minister Vinod Kumar Singh and his brother Narendra Singh while conducting the probe and state whether they have any role in illegal mining activity or not.

It was also asked to report about the damage caused to the environment in the nearby villages, quantum of money required for restoration and also state the loss of revenue to the state government in terms of minerals and revenue within four weeks, the bench had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Indian Medical Association (IMC) today threatened to launch a stir if the "crassly pro-rich" National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill is passed by Parliament.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which will be tabled in the ongoing Monsoon Session, seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI).

In March, the Union Health Ministry approved amendments to the NMC Bill including removing the contentious provision of "bridge course", which would have allowed practitioners of alternative medicines to pursue allopathy after stiff resistance from the IMA and the opposition.

In a statement issued today, the IMA, however, said the Bill in its current form remains "anti-poor, anti-people and anti-federal law" which, if passed, "will have unforeseen consequences on not only the health sector but also on the federal structure of the country."



IMA rejects the NMC 2017 in toto and resolves to fight this anti-people legislation by directly taking the issue to the people, it said.

If the government tries to enforce this Bill in its current form, it will be met with similar resistance as in the past, it said.

Doctors belonging to the IMA had gone on a 12-hour strike as part of a nationwide stir against the NMC Bill in January.

The statement said the Bill will make medical education inaccessible to the poor and downtrodden and doctors will come only from the rich sections of the population, which is unacceptable.

IMA has the national duty to fight this black law as the voice of voiceless, it added.

The doctors' body claimed that private medical colleges in states like Uttarakhand and Maharashtra had hiked their fee to 25 to 30 Lakhs per year for MBBS courses.

According to the NMC Bill, the government will regulate the fee for 50 percent seats in private medical institutions and deemed universities.

"Reservation of 50 percent of the seats for the rich, who can pay, is denial of equitable opportunities and hence is certainly anti-people," the statement stated.

It said a centrally administered final MBBS exam will be highly detrimental to students from rural and tribal areas.

The statement said the Bill was anti-federal as it marginalised state governments, state medical councils and state health universities, which is a direct assault on the Constitution of India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Bhutan are increasing cooperation in fighting economic and conventional crime to ensure checking cross border crime and apprehending fugitives, the CBI said here.

A six-member delegation of Anti Corruption Commission of Bhutan, which shares 699 km border with India along sensitive North East region, is on a visit to the CBI between July 23 to July 27.

The delegation is headed by Aum Kinley Yangzom, Chairperson, ACC, Bhutan.

The visit is a part of exchange programme to enhance cooperation between the two countries in fighting economic and conventional crime and help in capacity building, the CBI said.

It said the visit is also a part of the CBI to to forge organisation-to-organisation ties with other international agencies to ensure better co-operation in checking cross border crime and apprehending fugitives.

"CBI's experience and competency in fighting corruption, organised crime and economic frauds can be of great value to our sister agencies in neighbouring countries. We are engaged with Bhutan in capacity building and experience sharing. I feel this co-operation will be mutually beneficial since fighting economic crimes today transcends traditional boundaries, CBI Director Alok Verma said.

The Bhutanese delegation will visit the offices of the Central Vigilance Commission, BPR and D and the CFSL for understanding aspects of corruption and crime investigation and the criminal information management system.

The agency conducts conducts tailor-made, country-specific courses for officers of several neighbouring countries.

As many as 30 officers each from neighbouring countries will be trained this year on various courses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India is in talks with Bangladesh for deportation of Rohingyas refugees illegally staying in India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said today in the Rajya Sabha.

Singh's deputy Kiran Rijiju also said that as many as 52 illegal Bangladeshis will be deported on July 30 from Assam.

"There has been discussion with Bangladesh on this issue," Singh said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

He also said that the External Affairs Ministry, if the need arises, will talk to both Bangladesh and Myanmar so that Rohingyas refugees are deported.

The Home Minister further said the Centre has sent an advisory to state governments to identify illegal immigrants and take their biometric and ensure that they don't have any such document to claim Indian citizenship in the future.

"After we get report from states, we will send to the External Affairs ministry," he added.

Minister of State for Home Rijiju said that India has already approached Myanmar and Bangladesh on the issue of Rohingyas refugees.

"GoI is impressing on them to take back these people. The process will be as per the discussion we have with a sovereign country. I cannot give assurance here," he said, responding to a supplementary question.

The Minister said that under the Foreigners Act, the Centre has powers to identify, detect and deport anyone who is staying illegally in India.

Maintaining that Rohingyas have entered India illegally, Rijiju said they are staying in various states.

As per the security agency report, they are staying in Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur, he added.

"The central government has clearly given direction to states to identify, detech and start the process of deportation of Rohingyas who have entered illegally."



With regard to deportation of illegal Bangladeshis, Rijiju said, "The Bangladesh government has agreed, identified and accepted the identity of 52 people as Bangladeshis. So, they have agreed these 52 people including one minority will be deported on July 30 at 11 am at Mankachar IPC in Assam."



To another supplementary on keeping Indians in detention camps with an ulterior motive, the minister said no motive can be attached to anybody kept in detention.

Only those declared as foreigners by tribunal can be kept in detention camps, he said.

"The government on its own cannot declare anybody as foreigner and put them in a detention camp," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)During a Facebook live before taking the stage, Prince Harry explained: "We have to put the power into the hands of the younger generation, because that's where the solutions are going to come from".

In the the evening Harry will attend a British Embassy reception where he will meet leading young people from Holland.

"If we want to end AIDS once and for all, we must make men part of the solution".

However, "what we've learnt, I think over the last decade: this is going to be a very hard scientific challenge".

With his team at KELIN, he has litigated and won landmark cases that halted the forced sterilization of women living with HIV, stopped the unjust use of public health concerns as a reason to incarcerate people living with TB, prevented the Government of Kenya from making the names of children living with HIV available to the public and much more.

Mega-pop star Elton John on Tuesday launched an angry tirade against the governments of Russian Federation and eastern Europe for discriminating against gays, warning they were hampering the fight against Aids.

Maleche was named the pro-bono lawyer of the year by the International AIDS Society, Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) during this year's International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam.

"Bad things will happen if we don't have more money", he said, and warned the world was "probably at the highest risk ever of losing control of this epidemic".

John was a close friend of Harry's late mother, Princess Diana - who died in a auto accident in Paris in September 1997 - who in 1987 opened the UK's first purpose-built HIV/Aids unit.

Harry has been attending the 2018 AIDS Conference as part of his charity Sentebale and its Let Youth Lead program, which supports HIV-positive young people in the African nations of Lesotho and Botswana.

"And today he has come to Amsterdam to announce his latest endeavour - a billion dollar global partnership to break the cycle of male transmission of HIV, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa".

"We stand here at a moment when the progress we have fought so hard for is at risk from a risky complacency".

Sir Elton also addressed the issue of men failing to get tested for HIV - and said the MenStar Coalition was aimed at teaching men to protect themselves.

Yesterday the duke joined a session at the conference where youth delegates from countries including India, Zimbabwe and the United States spoke about how Aids has affected their lives.

Harry is continuing the work of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who was the first member of the royal family to have contact with a person suffering from HIV/Aids.

Elton and Diana had joined forces in the past to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS.An increasing base of tech-savvy consumers and rising data consumption will help India take up a leading position in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, chip maker Qualcomm today said.

Qualcomm Senior VP and General Manager (Connectivity and Networking) Rahul Patel said the IoT market in India is about USD 5.6 billion with more than 200 million connected devices.

As more and more gadgets get connected to the Internet this market is expected to grow to more than 2.7 billion devices by 2020, he said citing industry reports.

"India, in my opinion, is positioned and poised to be a leader in IoT in a big way with over one billion potential customers in India, directly or indirectly. It's a tech-savvy market and huge amount of data is being consumed, data at available at affordable prices," he said.

IoT refers to a network of inter-connected sensors and devices like smartphones, connected vehicles and appliances which harness information from massive amounts of data collected.

With the use of sensors and data analytics, IoT can boost growth in sectors like agriculture, animal husbandry and logitics.

Patel said Qualcomm is working with various stakeholders for solutions across areas like WiFi, 4G/5G and IoT. The company is also developing solutions for smart homes.

He explained that one of the company's WiFi solutions can provide improved coverage and better user experience in densely populated areas.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India has taken note of US reimposing economic sanctions on Iran, the nation's second-biggest supplier of crude oil, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

"Indian refineries import crude oil from diverse sources including Iran, depending on technical and commercial considerations," he said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

Pradhan, however, did not give a direct reply to the question whether the US has asked some countries including India to wind-up their business with Iran by November 4.

"India has taken note of the re-imposition of US Sanctions on Iran in wake of the US pullout from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on May 8, 2018," he said.

Iran was India's second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia till 2010-11 but western sanctions over its suspected nuclear programme relegated it to the 7th spot in the subsequent years. In 2013-14 and 2014-15, India bought 11 million tonnes and 10.95 million tonnes respectively from the country.

Sourcing from Iran increased to 12.7 million tonnes in 2015-16, giving it the sixth spot. In the following year, the Iranian supplies jumped to 27.2 million tonnes to catapult it to the third spot.

In 2017-18, India bought 22.6 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran, Pradhan said.

Iran became India's second-biggest supplier behind Iraq in the first three months of current fiscal, supplying 8.93 million tonnes of oil, he said.

"Oil PSUs import crude oil mainly keeping in view the domestic requirements and they have diverse crude oil sources besides Iran," he said. "India is the second largest importer of Iranian crude oil after China."



The US, which in May pulled out of a landmark nuclear deal and said sanctions will be re-imposed on Iran within 180 days, has threatened to cut off access to the American banking system for foreign financial institutions that trade with Iran.

The Trump administration is piling pressure on India, China, and other buyers to end all imports of Iranian oil by a November 4 deadline as it looks to choke the Persian Gulf state's economic lifeline with sanctions over its nuclear programme.

India pays Iran in euros using European banking channels.

During the first round of sanctions in 2012 when European Union joined the US in imposing financial restrictions, India initially used a Turkish bank to pay Iran for the oil it bought but beginning February 2013 paid nearly half of the oil import bill in rupees while keeping the remainder pending till the opening of payment routes. It began clearing the dues in 2015 when the restrictions were eased.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India will build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at a sacred site in Uganda where a portion of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes was immersed to pay homage to the towering leader's universal and timeless values of life, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced today.

Addressing the Parliament of Uganda, Modi said Gandhi in his life and beyond was one with Africa and Africans and the story of India's own freedom struggle is closely linked to Africa.

"As we approach the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there can be no better homage than a Centre to remind us of Africa's role in shaping his mission that even inspired Africa to freedom and justice; and the universal and timeless values of his life and message," Modi said.

At the sacred site in Jinja, 85-kilometre from Kampala, where a statue of Gandhiji now stands, we will build a Gandhi Heritage Centre," he said.

Modi, the first Indian prime minister to address the Parliament of Uganda, said for India, Gandhi was more than just the 21 years that he spent in Africa, or the First Non-Cooperation Movement he led.

"For India, the moral principles of independence movement, or the peaceful means to pursue it, were not just confined to the boundaries of India or to the future of Indians. It was a universal quest for liberty, dignity, equality and opportunity for every human being. Nowhere did it apply more than in Africa," he said.

Modi said 20 years before India's independence, its leaders had linked India's freedom struggle to the fight against colonial rule around the world, especially Africa.

He said even as India stood on the threshold of independence, the fate of Africa was not far from its minds.

"Mahatma Gandhi firmly believed that India's freedom will remain incomplete so long as Africa remains in bondage. Free India did not forget his words. India pursued Afro-Asian solidarity in Bandung," Modi said.

"We stood firm in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. We took leading and bold positions in former Rhodesia - which is now known as Zimbabwe, in Guinea Bassau, Angola and Namibia," he said.

He said Gandhi's peaceful resistance inspired leaders like Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Albert Luthuli, Julius Nyrere and Kwame Nkrumah.

"History is witness to the success of the ancient wisdom of India and Africa and the enduring strength of peaceful resistance. Some of the most profound changes in Africa came through Gandhian methods," Modi said.

India's principled support to Africa's liberation movements often came at a cost to our nations trade. But, nothing mattered in comparison to Africa's freedom," he said.

Modi arrived in Uganda on his two-day visit last evening and left for South Africa today for the final leg of his three-nation trip.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today that India will strengthen its cooperation and mutual capabilities with Africa in combating terrorism and extremism.

Addressing Parliament of Uganda, Modi said that India's engagement with Africa will continue to be guided by 10 principles.

He said that India is proud to be Africa's partner and Uganda is central in this on the African continent.

Africa would be at the top of India's priorities, Modi said in his address, the first by an Indian prime minister to Parliament of Uganda.

"We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular," he said.

Modi announced that India would build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at the sacred site in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

"Our people are among many threads that connect Uganda and India together.

"Our partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about USD 11 billion in over 40 African countries," the prime minister added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India and Uganda today voiced their strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and reaffirmed the need for the UN Security Council's comprehensive reform to make it more effective to the geo-political realities of the 21st century.

According to a joint statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the two leaders underlined the traditionally warm and close ties between the two countries.

They agreed that the terrorism poses a grave threat to global peace and stability and reiterated their strong commitment to combat it in all its forms and manifestations, it said.

They stressed that there could be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever.

The leaders asserted that strong measures should be taken against terrorists, terror organisations, their networks and all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, or provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, it said.

They also underscored the need to ensure that terror organisations do not get access to any weapons of mass destruction or technologies and committed to cooperate for the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), the statement said.

India had proposed the CCIT more than two decades ago in the United Nations as an instrument for a global alliance of nations against terrorism.

Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, including its expansion, to make it more representative, accountable, effective and responsive to the geo-political realities of the 21st century, the statement said.

India along with Brazil, Germany and Japan has been pushing for the expansion of the UN Security Council for long, saying that the current UN and its powerful Security Council do not reflect the ground realities of the 21st century.

They reiterated their commitment to intensify their cooperation in the UN and other multilateral organisations in order to address current global challenges such as climate change and to foster international and regional peace and security, as well as sustainable development.

The two leaders emphasised the need for regular convening of bilateral mechanisms, including at Foreign/External Affairs Ministers level, to review the overall state of bilateral relations, and for the expeditious implementation of the economic and development cooperation projects.

Modi arrived in Uganda yesterday on a two-day state visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in 21 years.

President Museveni praised the contribution of the 30,000-strong Indian Diaspora towards Uganda's national development and economic growth. India appreciated the significant role played by Uganda for economic integration and maintenance of peace and stability in the region.

During the visit, Modi also announced gifting of 100,000 National Council of Educational Research and Training books for school-going children of Uganda and 100 solar power irrigation pumps for helping Uganda's efforts in the development of agriculture.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India is willing to address the trade deficit with Uganda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said as he urged the business community of the two countries to fully exploit the favourable conditions for enhancing the bilateral trade.

Prime Minister Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Uganda, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997, addressed the business community at the India-Uganda Business Forum organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was also present at the meeting, exhorted the business community from both the countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment.

Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni discussed the issue of trade imbalance between India and Uganda.

The two leaders noted the current level of bilateral trade and expressed the desire to enhance and diversify the trade basket including addressing the trade imbalance and to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Modi said that President Museveni is right in saying that there is a trade imbalance between India and Uganda.

"I have come here to solve that (trade imbalance)," he said.

"India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda. We have to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda," the prime minister said.

India's exports to Uganda in 2016 stood at USD 524.02 million while India's imports from Uganda was just USD 68.22 million, according to the High Commission of India in Kampala.

"When I compare the economic relationship of India and Uganda, I find this a perfect win-win situation. But we are falling short and are unable to take advantage of this situation. If we strategise things precisely, I think we can go beyong that," Modi said.

Investment in India is very easy for anyone because India is a policy-driven governance where there is tax stability and predictable taxation, Modi said.

He said that India was ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in the country.

Modi also highlighted India's growth trajectory and the transformative changes taking place in the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)City Council meetings are usually humdrum affairs but this one turned out to be a quite memorable, at least for an Indian-origin Charlotte council member who was proposed by a special speaker who went down on his knee and asked her to marry him, according to media reports.

Dimple Ajmera accepted Boston dentist, Vaibhav Bajaj's proposal, made in true Hollywood style, The Charolette Observer reported.

Bajaj was asked to address at the end of City Council meeting. While addressing, he asked council member Ajmera to marry him, and then walked behind the dais, stood on one knee and gave her a ring, the report said.

In a council vote marked by 10 abstentions, the Democrat Ajmera singlehandedly passed the motion.

She later wrote on Twitter: "Any objections colleagues with this motion? Because Vaibhav Bajaj believes in bipartisan agreement. On a serious note, I'm grateful for a life partner who is family oriented, loving and compassionate."



Ajmera came to the US from India when she was in high school, knowing little English. She graduated from the University of Southern California and moved to Charlotte eight years ago to take a financial services job with TIAA. She previously worked as a CPA in Los Angeles.

She was appointed to the District 5 seat in January 2017. She was elected to a City Council at-large seat in November.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indonesian Christian has been sentenced to four years in prison for a derogatory Facebook post about the prophet in the latest conviction under a controversial hate-speech law.

The Medan District court yesterday ordered the 21-year-old university student, Martinus Gulo, to pay a fine of one billion rupiah (USD 70,000) or spend an additional six months in jail.

"Finding the defendant guilty of misusing information by offending believers through his Facebook account, I sentence him to four years," said presiding judge Saidin Bagariang.

Gulo was convicted under Indonesia's electronic information and transactions law, which makes it a crime to spread "hatred or animosity" against an individual or group based on their race or religion.

The law has been criticised for being unnecessarily vague and giving powerful individuals the ability to criminalise critics and minorities.

He was arrested in March after the militant Islamic Defenders Front reported his online post to police.

Gulo, who is Christian, told authorities that he made the post because he was upset that his own religion was criticised online.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has significant numbers of Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and other minorities.

Gulo's conviction comes after a 39-year-old Muslim was sentenced to five years in April under the same law.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Interpol has failed to issue a Red Corner Notice against Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, accused of encouraging and aiding his followers to promote enmity and hatred between different religious communities and groups.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in Rajya Sabha that a request for issuance of Red Corner Notice was sent to the Interpol on May 19, 2017.

Clarifications were sought by the international police organisation on August 10 last year and was provided on Oct0ber 6 the same year.

However, during the 102nd session of the Interpol Commission from December 24-27, 2017, the world body opined that the issuance of RCN for Naik's arrest, with a view to his extradition, was pre-mature, since the charge sheet had not been filed till the sending of the original request for RCN to the Interpol, Ahir said.

"A fresh warrant was issued by the Court against Zakir Naik...and a fresh request of Red Corner Notice was sent to the Interpol on January 3, 2018. No further communication has been received so far from the Interpol," he said in a written reply to a question.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, whose hardline campaign approach dovetailed with Trump's, was projected to defeat Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, who had the endorsement of Deal, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

This sets up a classic battle of the bases between Democrat Stacey Abrams, vying to become the nation's first African-American female governor, and the conservative Kemp.

A candidate backed by President Donald Trump won a two-man Republican primary run-off for governor on Tuesday, a local media projection said, in a race that became a proxy battle between the president and the state's popular Republican governor, Nathan Deal.

Cagle's campaign was rocked by a secret recording in which he says he helped pass a "bad public-policy" bill for political gain.

But there's no question the factor that will be most often credited for the outcome, especially in the national GOP arena, is the late (and surprise) endorsement of Kemp by Donald Trump.

Kemp had trailed Cagle early on.

Cagle rhetorically attacked Kemp as an incompetent secretary of state, noting that the 2015 inadvertent release of Social Security numbers and other information of more than six million voters happened on his watch. At the time the Associate Press called the race Tuesday, Kemp led by more than 35 percentage points. He was ahead of Cagle 69.16 percent to 30.84 percent with 62 percent of the precincts in the state reporting. Politico's results map, using red for Kemp and grey for Cagle, turned red quickly.

"The President made a decision to do this because some Washington insiders who have weaseled their way into his ear convinced him to make a power play. Why?"

The general election contest between Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacy Abrams (who won the Democratic nomination easily in May) will obviously be a partisan and ideological barnburner. "So they'll have a Governor who answers to them instead of to Georgians". He was later defeated by Republican Karen Handel by a 3.6 point margin in a head-to-head runoff in June 2017.

This year, Democrats Lucy McBath and Kevin Abel advanced to a runoff for the opportunity to face Handel.Granting an interim protection to former union minister P Chidambaram from arrest, the Delhi High Court today directed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) not to take any coercive step till August 1 against him in the INX Media money laundering case.

Justice A K Pathak, however, directed Chidambaram to cooperate with the ED's investigation as and when required and not to leave the country without the court's prior permission.

The court also sought ED's response on the senior Congress leader's anticipatory bail plea which was opposed by the investigating agency on the point of maintainability.

The senior Congress leader's role had come under the scanner of various investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.

It was during his tenure as finance minister in the UPA-1 government that clearances from the FIPB were given to the two ventures.

In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister.

Thereafter, the ED had last year lodged the money laundering case in this regard.

A trial court here had yesterday granted protection from arrest till August 7 to Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis case in which he and his son Karti Chidambaram were named in the chargesheet filed by the CBI recently.

Appearing for the ED, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta today contended Chidambaram was indulging in "forum shopping" by approaching different courts that should not be allowed.

"Can a litigant choose different forums? Under the CrPC, for seeking anticipatory bail, a person may approach high court or sessions court but this does not mean that a litigant will go for forum shopping," he said.

Mehta, who appeared along with advocate Amit Mahajan, said Chidambaram had approached the trial court seeking anticipatory bail in the Aircel-Maxis case that involved allegation of a similar modus operandi, while he has moved the high court for relief in the INX Media case.

Senior advocate Dayan Krishan and advocates P K Dubey and Arshdeep Singh, who were appearing for Chidambaram, said the Congress leader was apprehending arrest as the CBI has said it required his custodial interrogation in the main case.

The counsel said this matter was from the same transaction on which the CBI had also registered the case. The only difference was that this petition related to the ED's case while the other one was of CBI, in which Chidambaram had already got protection from arrest.

The court said it would hear Chidambaram's anticipatory pleas on August 1 in the INX Media cases lodged by the ED and the CBI.

During the hearing, the ASG argued that in both the cases the allegation was that Chidambaram's son Karti was instrumental in getting FIPB approval with the consent of his father. So, the modus operandi was same in both the cases, he said.

On the argument of forum shopping, the judge said when there was no bar under the law, how could the court object to it.

The ASG, however, said a litigant cannot do forum shopping and this needs to decided.

Responding to this, Chidambaram's counsel said they could not have approached the high court in the Aircel-Maxis case as it arose during the investigation of the 2G spectrum allocation case.

Krishnan said there was an order of the Supreme Court that no other court except the top court or the special 2G court would entertain any interim plea relating to 2G case.

The ASG insisted that certain conditions be imposed on Chidambaram while granting him the interim relief as court would never have a different approach for an ordinary litigant and a litigant who is a former finance minister.

Chidambaram's petition said though no summons had ever been served on him by the ED in this case, he had an apprehension of arrest in view of the summons issued to him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was investigating the scheduled offence.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkiah Naidu today asked whether the system had become "so helpless" in dealing with economic offenders, even as the opposition attacked the government for lack of will to act against the culprits despite having several laws.

As soon as Finance Minister Piyush Goyal moved the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill in the Upper House for consideration and passing, Naidu remarked: "What is agitating the common man in the country is whether the system so helpless."



He said legal luminaries should shed light on this issue and urged the House for "meaningful suggestions", saying the people wanted to know if confiscation of property, criminal prosecution and bringing the accused back to India, will be possible.

The Chairman also observed that "the question people are asking is unless there is a treaty with different countries, how will it (accused fleeing the country) be checked."



The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill aims at preventing culprits from evading the legal process and fleeing the country. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on July 19.

Soon thereafter, Congress member Vivek K Tankha attacked the government saying there was "no shortage of laws in India. But they get away because the government does not have the will to stop the willful defaulters."



"Is the government's intention to get a lot of publicity by bringing the law", he said, intiating the debate and added that the country will become a "land of legislations" but these "will serve no purpose."



Tankha said only 10 per cent of black money was outside India and wanted to know what the government has done to get back the 90 per cent of the black money within the country.

"Why is the government pitching for a threshold of offences worth Rs 100 crore for bringing economic offenders under the purview of the legisalation," he said, adding "even offender of Rs 10 crore is bad."



"People like Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and Nirav Modi" were involved in economic offences worth Rs 2.4 lakh crore, he said. "Law is too little and too late as all big fishes are outside the country."



"Are we a country that make too many laws with little implementation," he said and added the real test would be if any fugitive would come back.

The Finance Minister, while moving the bill, said the instances of people escaping and evading the legal process was increasing which needed to be checked as the current laws do not allow to deal with the severity of problem and the "criminal law does not allow us to impound their property."



"This bill is an effective, expeditious and constitutional way to stop these offenders from running away. Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders from running away.

"Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders till they don't present themselves in front of couts. We will also work out what has to be done with the confiscated assets," he said.

Goyal said the government will ensure that unless a person comes back, he cannot try and stall confiscation of his property in the garb of civil cases.

He said there are provisions of special courts to declare a person a fugitive economic offender in an expeditious way.

Once a person is declared so, his property will be confiscated, managed and disposed of, he said, adding that offences involving funds over Rs 100 crore and above will be dealt with under this law to focus on larg cases.

Bhupender Yadav (BJP) quoted the White Paper released by the UPA government that black money cannot be dealt with without stringent laws.

He said there were 30 economic offenders between 2004 and 2014 who had fled the country, while the stressed assets of banks rose to Rs 52.15 lakh crore from 18.6 lakh crore.

He said money confiscated from such offenders can be used in construction of highways, schools and bridges.

While supporting the bill, Neeraj Shekhar (SP) however raised apprehensions on the implementation of the proposed legislation. He alleged that various economic offenders have left the country's shores with the active support of the government.

Pointing out that India had extradition treaties with only 47 countries, he asked how was the government planning to bring the offenders back to the country.

"Make laws which can be implented. How much black money has come back to the country in the last four years," he said.

A Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK) asked the government to add provisions to increase quantum of punishmnet as well as fine for economic offenders.

Prasanna Acharya (BJD), while supporting the bill, said the proposed legislation needs to be legally sustainable. He also said the provision of Rs 100 crore to bring any offender under the ambit of the proposed bill should be removed.

Harivansh (JD-U) said it would be difficult to bring back offenders from various countries due to lack of extradition treaties with such nations.

Elamaram Kareem (CPI-M) said that so many economic offenders were able to leave the country due to the "neo- liberal" regime of the central government.

MV Rajeev Gowda (Cong) pointed out that the focus of the proposed lesgislation should be on preventing the economic offenders from leaving the country rather then bringing them later back to the country.

He also challenged the Finance minister and the government to bring back even one economic offender to India before 2019.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Accusing Iran of constantly demonstrating a destabilising influence, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said today it was time Tehran shaped up and behaved responsibly, as tensions between the nations remained high after an all-caps Twitter warning from Donald Trump.

"On Iran, I think that what we have to look at is the destabilising influence that Iran has consistently portrayed and demonstrated throughout the region," Mattis told reporters during a US-Australia ministerial.

He alleged that the "only reason" Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime was in power was because Iran has "stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him."



"We see the same kind of malfeasance down in Yemen, where they're fomenting more violence down there. We've seen their disruptive capabilities demonstrated from Bahrain to the kingdom," he said.

"It is time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation. It cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organisation that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the (Middle East) region," Mattis said in response to a question.

Mattis's warning came two days after US President Donald Trump threatened Iran of risking consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have suffered before".

Trump's Twitter warning had come in all caps.

"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," Trump tweeted, adding that "WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!"



Reacting to Trump's tweets, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards had suggested that it was part of US's broader strategy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani too had cautioned that America's hostile threats against his country may trigger "the mother of all wars."The exchange of rhetoric came weeks after the US exited a landmark deal signed in 2015 which curbed Iran's nuclear activities in return for lifting of international sanctions.

Today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley reiterated that Iran has to stop its "destabilising behaviour".

"It has to stop its sponsor of terrorism. It threatens consistently this country, not to mention our only ally in the region, in Israel. And it's one of the reasons the president got out of the Iran deal, because we now know that the Iran deal did not prevent the pathway to a nuclear weapon, but in fact paved it," he said in response to a question.

Gidley said Trump was working with America's partners and allies across the world. Iran will be a topic tomorrow for the discussions with the European Union and get Iran to stop this kind of behaviour, he said.

The president was serious in what he tweeted and said multiple times about holding Iran accountable and demeaning it stop this kind of behaviour, Gidley said.

The US is in talks with countries around the world to re-impose sanctions and hold the Iranian government responsible for the acts its government has been involved in many parts of the world, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her conference.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Jammu and Kashmir government has ordered a probe into the construction of a massive commercial complex on the banks of river Jhelum in the summer capital of the state following a vigourous campaign launched by environmental activists.

"Sanction is hereby accorded to the constitution of a committee to conduct an in-depth enquiry into the grant of building permission for construction of commercial complex by one Sheikh Gulzar Ahmad at Rajbagh," an order issued by the General Administration Department last week reads.

The committee will be headed by deputy commissioner Srinagar with special secretary Housing and urban Development, vice chairman of the Srinagar Development Authority and director Floriculture as members.

It shall also include members from the irrigation and flood control, public health engineering and public works departments, says the order.

The committee has been asked to establish the ownership of the land, as the state land cannot be sold as per the provisions of the state Land Law, and if the land in question could be used for commercial purposes, according to the order.

The committee, which has been given four weeks time to submit its report, will also inquire if the construction was going on as per the building permission obtained and the deviations undertaken, if any.

The government ordered the inquiry into the construction of the multi-storey commercial complex following opposition from environmental activists who alleged that the construction of the building could lead to disaster as it was situated close to the banks of Jhelum.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former president Jimmy Carter has warned that the United States has "abandoned" its standing as the premier champion of human rights, showing "indifference" to abuse at home and abroad.

"The United States has already lost its place as a leader of protecting people and their human rights," the Democratic ex-president told a Human Rights Defenders Forum yesterday at the Carter Center in Atlanta.

"We still have a chance to restore our position as the foremost champion of human rights, but we are not in that position at this moment," said Carter, who won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his work promoting human rights, democracy and development.

"If we retain our present position of indifference to human rights violations, we'll encourage" such violations to grow even more rapidly than they have in recent years, he stressed.

The 93-year-old Carter, who was speaking to dozens of human rights experts from around the world, noted that the United States was at the forefront seven decades ago when it led the United Nations to proclaim the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But the US government's dramatic clampdowns on civil liberties following the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 helped shred American credibility, Carter said.

"So we have abandoned, basically, our position as a government to be the champion of human rights," added the former president, who made rights concerns a central pillar of his foreign policy during his term in office.

The United States emerged as a superpower not because it has a powerful military or the world's strongest economy, Carter argued, but "because we espouse things that are important to everyone on Earth -- and I think human rights are one of them."



Current US President Donald Trump has placed little emphasis on human rights, instead often praising, or turning a blind eye to, the words and actions of authoritarian-minded rulers in countries from the Philippines to Russia -- even to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)John Krasinski says he never actively sought to explore the action-hero territory and so he was not entirely caught off guard when he lost out on the Captain America role to Chris Evans.

The 38-year-old actor-director remembers finding out that Marvel had chosen Evans for "Captain America: The First Avenger" on his wife Emily Blunt's birthday eight years ago.

Krasinski says Evans' quintessential American looks made him the right fit for the role.

"My agent called and said, 'They're going to go with Chris Evans'. And I remember I said, 'Yeah, look at him. He's Captain America'," Krasinski told Variety.

The actor, who will next star in CIA drama "Jack Ryan", says his wife offered to cancel their evening plans but he decided against it.

"I said, 'It's Chris Evans. Of course we're going to dinner'," he says.

Evans' career arguably got a new lease after he starred in 2011's "Captain America" and he went on to play the part in "The Avengers", "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", "Avengers: Age of Ultron", "Captain America: Civil War", "Avengers: Infinity War" and its upcoming 2019 sequel, which is expected to be his last.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said today the United States and EU were "not enemies" as he began talks with US President Donald Trump aimed at defusing trade tensions between the two key economies.

Trump said he expected "something very positive to take place" during the White House talks -- after sending a series of tweets blasting Europe for unfair treatment of US exports.

With the United States threatening to impose punishing new tariffs on EU auto exports, Juncker said: "We are close partners, allies -- not enemies." "We have to work together. We are representing half of world trade," the European leader said.

"I think we have to talk to one another and not at one another," Juncker said as he sat next to Trump in the Oval Office, thanking the US leader for "taking the initiative to invite us to the White House."



Trump repeated his call for "reciprocal" trade.

"Over the years the United States has been losing hundreds of billions of dollars with the European Union and we just wanted it to be a level playing field for farmers, manufacturers, for everybody," Trump said.

Before coming to Washington, Juncker had warned he was "not very optimistic" about the talks -- and vowed immediate retaliatory measures should Trump make good on a threat to slap new tariffs on autos and auto parts.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is accompanying Juncker, said the EU is drawing up a list of USD 20 billion in US products to be targeted for retaliation if the trip fails.

Trump crowed yesterday that his latest threat had brought Europe to the negotiating table and called on both sides to "drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!"



Trump's confrontational trade actions, especially against US allies like Canada, Mexico and the EU, is drawing increasing criticism, and the administration acknowledged yesterday that American farmers are being hurt by the retaliatory measures.

The Agriculture Department announced it would release up to USD 12 billion in aid for farmers to buy crops or food that they cannot sell, and help them find new markets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Goa government today said that Karnataka has been "diverting" water of the Mahadayi river from the Kalsa basin to the Malaprabha basin by constructing conduits.

Goa Water Resources Department Minister Vinod Palyekar told the Legislative Assembly that this act of the Karnataka government amounted to violation of the order of the Water Dispute Tribunal (WDT) and that the issue has been taken up "very seriously".

"Two teams of Water Resources Departmentof Goa had visited the site of the Kalsa (a river feeding water to Mahadayi) diversion after reading newspaper reports in this regard," the minister said.

He was responding to the Calling Attention motion moved by Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco about diversion of the Mahadayi river water by the Karnataka government which has impacted the flow of water downstream.

"It is seen that waters from the part of the catchment of the (Kalsa) nullah is getting divertedthrough conduits. The water was flowing through two of three conduits. This shows that waters from part of the Kalsa basin is diverted to the Malaprabha basin," Palyekar said.

He said an application will be submitted before the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal.

Palyekar said Union Ministry of Water Resources had given an in-principle clearance to divert 7.56 TMC of water from Kalsa-Bandur project to Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka for drinking purposes on April 30, 2002.

"However, this was kept in abeyance by the Government of India when an all-party delegation, led by the then Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar, met the then prime minister in September 2002," he said.

The minister said the state government had approached the Water Resources ministry on July 9, 2002 for setting up a tribunal to adjudicate the disputes between Goa and Karnataka.

"On October 2, 2006, Karnataka unilaterally started the work on Kalsa-Bandur nullah project and Goa was left with no option but to file a suit in the Supreme Court. On the directives of the apex court, the Central government notified Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal in 2010-11," Palyekar said.

He said the tribunal had ordered Karnataka not to divert any water from the Kalsa Bandura to Malaprabha until the award was declared.

"Further, Goa brought to the notice of the tribunal that water from part of the catchment of Kalsa nullah gets automatically diverted through the conduits constructed by Karnataka," the minister said.

Goa and neighbouring Karnataka have been at loggerheads over sharing of the water of Mahadayi river.

The river (called Mandovi in Goa) originates in Karnataka and flows to Goa and Maharashtra. The three states are locked in a protracted dispute over sharing its water.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karnataka government is to organise 'Bengaluru Tech Summit' from November 29 to December 1.

The theme of the summit would be 'Innovation and Impact'.

"We will be holding the summit, which would be a global event," Minister for IT/BT, Science andTechnology and Large and Medium Scale Industries K J George told reporters here today.

The summit was being organisedunder the guidance of the Vision Group on Biotechnology, Vision Group onInformation and theorganising committee, KrishnakumarNatarajan, officials said.

The summit would focus on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, among others, principal secretary to IT/BT Gaurav Gupta said.

He said, "We have changed the focus and brought all kinds of technology like bio-technology, nano technology for which global experts and multi-national companies will be invited and discuss on research collaborations, research and development ecosystemthat exist here.

Startups would also be one of the key focus areas, especially in the areas of impact like health care, education and agriculture among others, he added.

Noting that NITI Ayog would also be participating, Gupta said they were likely to share insights into use of technology for a new India that would have a digital economy.

Various corporates, startups and accelerators also were likelyto attend, the officals said, adding that the focus would be more on research, collaboration and product development.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)European Union judges have ruled that the four-fingered shape of the KitKat chocolate bar is not distinctive enough to be trademarked.

KitKat maker Nestle, the food multinational, has been trying since 2002 to establish a European trademark for the snack. But the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg today ruled against it.

That will come as a relief to lovers of a Norwegian chocolate bar, the Kvikk Lunsj, that has a similar shape.

Its maker, Mondelez, can continue to market and sell the 80 year old Kvikk Lunsj brand throughout the EU. The snack was established in 1937, two years after KitKat hit the shelves in the UK.

Norway is not part of the EU, but as part of the European Economic Area, takes many of the bloc's rules.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A computer generated image of the hydroelectric dam being constructed in Laos.

Hundreds of people are missing after a hydroelectric dam broke in southern Laos, the state news has reported.

The floodings have reportedly killed at least 70 people, while over 200 are still listed as missing and over 6,600 people have lost their houses, according to the Office of Vietnam's National Committee for Incident, Disaster Response and Search and Rescue.

The South Korean company that has a stake in the project said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.

Ninety percent of the energy from the dam was set to be sold to Thailand's electric company under a 27-year power purchase agreement, according to Power Technology news.

- "Battery of Asia" -Dam projects in Laos, mainly providing power to neighbouring countries, have always been controversial with fears over environmental damage and the impact on communities who are often displaced to make way for the construction.

United States non-governmental organization International Rivers said the break was caused by ongoing heavy monsoon conditions and heavy rain in Laos.



SCREEN GRAB ABC LAOS Fast-flowing water coming from the collapsed dam

It was due to cost an estimated $1.02 billion.

It said the dam was at risk of collapse, and rain and strong winds predicted for the next few days could make the situation worse.

It was to form part of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers in neighbouring Champasack province.

"Several human lives" were lost and "several hundreds of people [are] missing", it added.

In a telegramme signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis expressed his "heartfelt solidarity with all those affected by this disaster". SK E&C did not respond to several calls seeking comment.

Environmental groups have long voiced fears about impoverished and landlocked Laos' hydropower ambitions, with several dams either already being built or in the pipeline.The Kerala Government today approved the renewed project report regarding the second phase extension of the Kochi Metro rail project.

The report regarding the extension from Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium to the IT hub Infopark via Kakkanad, was approved by a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, an official release said.

The total budget for the second phase is expected to be Rs 2310 crore, it said.

The first phase of the Kochi Metro between Aluva to Palarivattom, covering 13.26 km, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 17, 2017.

The foundation for this stretch was laid in 2012 by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Vijayan had later launched the second stretch of the first phase from Palarivattom to Maharaja's College ground in the heart of the city.

With this, the Kochi Metro now covers 18 km from Aluva to Maharaja's College station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A clear picture about the labour market will emerge from the National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO) periodic labour force survey which is likely to be released in October-November, the government today said.

The Labour Bureau will now on take employment data from the Ministry of Statistics and not conduct the survey of the labour market on its own, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

"The Labour Bureau used to conduct the survey. There were certain shortcomings as we could not get an accurate data. So, we have changed and we have decided to take data from the NSSO's periodic labour force survey (PLFS)," he said.

"Already work has started. The survey, mostly likely to be released in October-November, will give a clear picture about the labour market," he said.

The PLFS was last conducted in 2011-12 by the NSSO under the Statistics Ministry to ascertain employment and unemployment situation. Whereas the Labour Bureau had last conducted the survey in 2015-16.

PLFS aims to provide quarterly details of various indicators of the labour market for urban areas and the annual estimates of different labour force indicators for both rural and urban areas at state and all-India level.

Responding to another query on providing social security to unorganised workers, the minister said there are more unorganised workers when compared to organised ones in the country.

"Our government is trying to give facilities to them. We are holding regular meetings," he said, adding employment generation coupled with improving employability is the priority concern of the government.

Highlighting measures taken to create jobs and protect labour, the Minister said the government is incentivising employers under the Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Protsahan Yojana (PMRPY) for paying their entire contribution of 12 per cent towards EPS and EPF for all sectors to all eligible new employees with effect from April 1, 2018.

The scheme has dual benefit. On the one hand, the employer is incentivised for increasing the employment base of workers in the establishment and on the other hand a large number of workers will find employment in such establishments, he said.

Also, the employees' provident fund and miscellaneous provisions act is applicable to every establishment employing 20 or more persons, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CPI(M)-led LDF government in Kerala today decided to wind up the functioning of the Munnar Special Tribunal, set up for adjudication on land disputes in high range Munnar area in Idukki district.

A cabinet meeting, chaired by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan took the decision to stop the activities of the panel, constituted by the previous LDF government headed by Marxist veteran V S Achuthanandan in 2011.

The meeting also decided to issue later detailed procedural guidelines on handing over and disposal of existing cases with the tribunal, an official release said here.

Though the panel had started functioning in 2011, only a few cases were settled by it, it said.

According to a report by the Kerala High Court Registrar, only 42 cases have been disposed of by the panel.

A subject committee of the state Assembly has recommended winding up of the tribunal as its mode of functioning was not adequate to achieve its founding goal, the release added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A female leopard was rescued from a house in Gondia district after a nine-hour operation today, Forest officials said.

The sub-adult big cat strayed into the house of Mansaram Kamble in Baradtoli village in the wee hours today in search of a prey, a senior Forest official said.

He said the big cat has been killing domestic animals in Baradtoli, Singletoli and adjoining hamlets since the last three days.

The Kambles had a miraculous escape as they rushed out of the house immediately after seeing the feline approaching, and locked the door from outside.

After receiving information, teams of officials of forest and police departments reached the spot.

They used smoke and burst crackers, but the leopard didn't budge.

A special team finally succeeded in tranquilising the big cat after nine hours since it strayed into the house of the villager.

The big cat was released in the forests in evening.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Letitia Wright, who achieved runaway success with Marvel's blockbuster "Black Panther", has opened up about her battle with depression and anxiety.

The 24-year-old actor said she always felt the pressure to be accepted in the society which led her to alcohol and smoking.

"I was depressed and full of anxiety. I think it was that pressure to be accepted, to be somebody. When you're looking outside of yourself for happiness and validation, a mean comment on social media can wreck you," the actor told W magazine.

"I was OK when I was on set, hiding behind my work, but when I wasn't acting I was full of fear and doubt, trying to fill this void inside of me anyway I could: drinking, smoking. It was bad," she added.

Wright was thinking about quitting acting early in her career.

"When I first became a Christian, I said, 'I'm never acting again. I'm done," she said.

However, six month later, the actor reconsidered her decision.

"God was speaking to me and said, 'This is your talent, it's what you're meant to do'," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Lok Insaf Party (LIP) MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains today claimed to have received a letter from Canada threatening him to stop the campaign against illegal drugs or face consequences.

Bains, a legislator from Atam Nagar in Ludhiana, wrote to the Punjab home secretary seeking a probe to trace the origin of the threat letter.

He claimed that the letter appeared to have been sent from Surrey in Canada.

The MLA said he was asked to halt the campaign he was running against the drug mafia and drug smugglers in Punjab or face consequences.

Bains said he submitted the threat letter to the additional director general of police (security) in Chandigarh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)RSS leader Indresh Kumar said today incidents of lynching in the name of the cow could get addressed soon if the people of the country respect each other's sentiments and politicians refrain from exploiting the situation for vote bank.

He also said that Pakistan should work for making the borders with India violence and military free in the interest of peace and development, while expressing confidence that the people of Jammu and Kashmir would adopt 'nation first and nation last' approach to pull away the state from the path of destruction.

My appeal to the countrymen is come together to make India prosperous and an abode of peace and love by maintaining communal harmony, Kumar, who came here to pay homage to the martyrs of Kargil on the eve of 'Vijay Diwas' told reporters.

He said there were three groups behind the violence in the name of the cow.

"A group which turns to violence, the other which is hurting the sentiments, and third which is playing vote bank and exploiting the situation, he said



He appealed to all the three to exercise restraint.

All the 125 crore population of the country are equal and we need to work for strengthening democracy. The incidents (of lynching) will come to an end soon if we respect the sentiments of each other and politicians and religious groups with vested interests refrain from exploiting such situations, he said.

Kumar said the Constitution, humanity and culture do not allow anyone to hurt the sentiment of others and those who indulge in violence over hurt sentiments were not doing any good either.

If we live in peace and maintain communal harmony, India will emerge as the most powerful country in the world, he said.

On Pakistan, the RSS leader said it should work to make the borders peaceful and military free.

Pakistan has wasted billions over the past 70 years to keep the borders active and it should work for de-escalation. India-Nepal, India-Bhutan, India-Myanmar and India-Sri Lanka also share borders but instead of the Army they are being guarded by the police. Pakistan should also work to make its borders with India military free by ending violence," Kumar said.

It would be for Pakistan's own benefit and that of the world at large, he said.

India is marching on the path of development and if there is peace on the borders, the country would double the pace, he said.

Kumar said the Indian Army and security forces enjoyed a free hand to tackle Pakistan as well as terrorism in the hinterland.

Clear cut directives have been given to the Army to give a befitting reply to Pakistan on the border and tackling the situation inside, he said.

Kumar said Pakistan, from its birth, had remained an unstable country and was faced with unrest in various provinces and the part of Kashmir under its illegal occupation.

Asked about the selective killings in Kashmir, he said security forces were enjoying a free hand to deal with the situation.

Some people are playing in the hands of Pakistan and instead of considering India as their own and behave as good Kashmiris, are taking to violence at the behest of the foreign country. Bombs, bullets and stone-pelting have turned the paradise into a hell and it should end completely, he said.

Kumar said it was heartening to know that Kashmiri people with tricolour singing the national anthem was a reality in Kashmir.

"It is the responsibility of all to work towards a better Jammu and Kashmir and I am sure it is happening," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)French President Emmanuel Macron today held an unannounced meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, his office said.

Lavrov was accompanied by Russia's army chief Valery Gerasimov to the Elysee just a few hours after the two met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign minister Heiko Maas in Berlin.

The meeting had been requested by Russian President Vladimir Putin who had spoken with his French counterpart last week, Macron's office said.

On Syria, Moscow raised the subject of the "return of refugees" who had fled to Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as well as Germany.

Paris and Moscow last weekend carried out a joint humanitarian operation at a Syrian rebel enclave taken by regime forces in April. It was the first humanitarian aid mission between Russia and a Western country.

The talks also included discussion of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Elysee said.

Paris and Berlin are both part of a long-stalled peace process in the smouldering Ukraine war, which has claimed 10,000 lives since 2014.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also attended today's meeting.

Macron's meeting with the Russians came a week after the summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump, where Moscow had proposed cooperation with Washington on the question of Syrian refugees and rebuilding the country.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition challenging the Tamil Nadu government's move to operate point-to-point buses without conductors, saying there was no serious infirmity in the policy decision warranting its interference.

Justice S M Subramaniam dismissed the petition filed by the State Transport Employees Federation affiliated to CITU which had sought a direction to the transport department to run the buses with a conductor in order to ensure safe operation of the services.

The petitioner had cited mandatory provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, read with Rule 227 of the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 in support of its plea.

The judge, who elaborately discussed about sections 124 and 178 of Motor Vehicles Act in his order, said there was no specific bar against the authorities from appointment of a driver-cum-conductor.

He also said Rule 227 of Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicles Rules which stipulates that no stage carriage shall be used in a public place unless it carries in addition to the driver a conductor cannot be construed as a total prohibition.

More over, section 124 of the Motor Vehicles Act clearly says that a passenger shall pay the fare to the conductor or driver who performs the functions of a conductor and obtain a ticket for the journey, he said.

When the benefits of such point-to-point services were for the welfare of the public at large, it should be considered as of paramount importance.

The judge also said the petitioner-union can seek adjudication of disputes in the event of any alteration or modifications in the service conditions of the conductors.

The respondent transport corporations had assured they were not going to retrench any conductor and there was no proposal to modify their existing service conditions.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The move, which could include several types of assistance, might strengthen Trump's political position ahead of his trade negotiations with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday. The U.S. and its European allies are meeting as the dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced it would provide money to farmers impacted by tariffs due to the ongoing trade war.

Agricultural Committee Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas says, "They would much prefer trade, rather than aid".

Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas says, "When the tariff war is over... how do we get those markets back?"

Democratic Sen. Heidi HeitkampMary (Heidi) Kathryn HeitkampManchin to meet with Trump's Supreme Court pick next week Judicial group launches third ad buy to push Kavanaugh confirmation History argues for Democratic Senate gains MORE (N.D.) criticized the Trump administration's new farm aid plan, saying it doesn't address the long-term ramifications of the president's escalating trade war.

The publication said that - according to two people familiar with the plans - the aid would be announced by the United States Department of Agriculture and would come through direct assistance programs.

The almost $12 billion package will include direct payments to producers of key agricultural exports like soybeans, corn, dairy and pork; a program to purchase surplus from some agricultural producers; and efforts to build out markets for U.S. agricultural products.

Exports now account for about 20% of farm income in the United States, but farmers worry the escalating tariffs will reduce demand for their goods. Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs.

The US Agriculture Department said the programme would provide emergency relief to offset an estimated $11bn in losses it expects farmers to incur as the trade disputes disrupt markets.

As just one example of how farmers are impacted, China used to import $1 billion worth of American-grown sorghum annually, which made up 77 percent of all US sorghum exports.

This will help producers of soy, sorghum, corn, wheat, pork, dairy, fruit, rice and nuts, all products hit by tariffs imposed in response to U.S. actions. "I think that's kind of a misplaced policy", he added.

In response to steep tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, China has responded with tariffs of its own on American goods.

"Tariffs are not great", Toomey told CNBC, echoing Ryan. "And, in the end, they're going to be much stronger than they are right now", Trump said of farmers back on April 9th after China threatened tariffs on pork and soybeans in retaliating against U.S. tariffs. "The White House is finally realizing that this isn't going to get better before ballots are cast".

Trump has also threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe's biggest economies. "This administration's tariffs and bailouts aren't going to make America great again, they're just going to make it 1929 again".

"Either a country which has treated the U.S. unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs".Senior Maharashtra Congress leader Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil today said he was diagnosed with Dengue.

"During the Monsoon Session of the State Legislature in Nagpur I was diagnosed with dengue. Doctors have advised that I stay away from public functions from some days. Hence, I will not be able to attend my scheduled programmes for the next few days," Vikhe Patil tweeted.

According to sources close to the Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, heavy rains in Nagpur in the first week of the monsoon session this month had caused flooding of Vikhe-Patil's official residence at Ravi Bhavan.

"The accumulated water caused breeding of mosquitoes. Vikhe Patil contracted dengue because of this," sources said.

They said the diagnosis was made after blood samples of the Congress leader tested positive for the vector infection.

"On the last day of the monsoon session (on July 20), Vikhe Patil had fever. But he still left for Delhi to attend the extended CWC meeting. He had high fever throughout that day. After he returned to his hometown Loni (Ahmednagar), his blood samples were taken and the diagnosis was made. His platelet count is also very low. He has been advised complete rest," sources said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP-led Maharashtra government had purposefully kept away revenue and police personnel belonging to the Maratha community from the bandobast duty during the ongoing quota stir, a senior Congress leader alleged today.

Citing "reliable sources", Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said inquiries had been made about the caste of the police and revenue officials before the Maratha quota stir began.

"Those belonging to the Maratha community were kept away from the bandobast duties, which is a shameful act," Vikhe Patil said in a statement.

"This is a blot on a progressive state like Maharashtra. The government should apologise for this act," the Congress leader demanded.

As the quota stir escalated, the Congress today demanded that a one-day special session of the state legislature be convened to announce reservation for the Maratha community.

He questionned the "delay" on part of the state government in reaching out to the protesters from the Maratha community.

Vikhe-Patil blamed the "insulting statement" made by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for the violent reaction of the Marathas.

"Fadnavis' statement on the eve of 'Ashadhi Ekadashi' (on July 22) was insulting to Marathas. He is responsible for the prevailing situation. He should accept moral responsibility and quit," the Congress leader said.

Announcing cancellation of his annual visit to Pandharpur, the chief minister had on Sunday said, "police had intercepted some messages, like 'will release snakes among devotees', 'could create a situation that would lead to stampede', among others". Such kind of plans are being worked out".

Vikhe Patil also lashed out at the Shiv Sena accusing it of adopting "double standards" on the quota issue.

"On one hand, the Shiv Sena is occupying the position of power along with the BJP while on the other hand Sena minister Subhash Desai holds Fadnavis responsible for the delay in granting reservations," he said.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference, Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan demanded that a special session of the state legislature be convened.

"The government has the report of the Rane committee which had made a detailed study of the economic and social conditions of the Marathas. We fail to understand what is stopping the government from implementing that report by enacting a proper law," he said.

Chavan said the state government had not filed an affidavit in court on the quota issue in the last 17 months.

"This is nothing but a delaying tactic," he alleged.

Chavan criticised the CM over handling of the Maratha protests.

He demanded that the government announce a definite plan of action to grant reservations to the community in education and jobs.

"There is restlessness among the Marathas because the promises made to them remained unfulfilled. Besides, the community is being maligned by through statements that there were plans to release snakes in Pandharpur on Ashadhi Ekadashi," Chavan said.

Chavan said he suspected a plan to pit the Maratha community versus rest of the society.

"If there were indeed any intelligence inputs about the anti-social elements trying to create disturbances on 'Ekadashi' day, we have still not seen any action against anybody," the former chief minister said.

Chavan rejected Fadnavis' charge that certain political leaders were fanning the caste tensions.

"Fadnavis should name these leaders and take action against them. The Congress supports the demands of the Marathas, but we are against violence and damage to public property. We believe in a peaceful agitation," he said.

Responding to a query whether Fadnavis was being targetted because he does not belong to Maratha caste, Chavan said, "Whether the CM is a Maratha or not is not the question. We have had Muslim and dalit chief ministers in the past. The issue is about decisiveness".

Meanwhile, Mumbai unit Congress president Sanjay Nirupam slammed Fadnavis over the "rising discontent" in the Maratha community, which he said was a "key reason" behind the Mumbai bandh taking a violent turn.

"It is a high time that the CM understood seriousness of this issue instead of running away from his responsibilities," he alleged.

Nirupam said it was "shameful" that Fadnavis decided to cancel his visit to the Vitthal-Rukmini temple in Pandharpur on the occasion of 'Ashadhi Ekadashi'.

"Despite being Home Minister of the state, Fadnavis feels unsafe in the state only because of the incompetence and failure of his own government," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra government has agreed to share 50 per cent cost of railway projects in Naxal areas in the state, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain told the Lok Sabha today.

The two projects - Wadsa-Gadchiroli new line project (52.36km) and the Nagpur-Nagbhir gauge conversion project (116.15 km) will run through Naxal affected regions.

While the Wadsa-Gadchiroli line was sanctioned in 2011-12, the Wadsa yard remodeling part of the project was commissioned in July 2017. Further, land acquisition has been taken up by the state government, Gohain said.

The Nagpur-Nagbhir gauge conversion project (116.15 km) was included in Budget 2013-14, subject to obtaining the requisite clearances of the government.

The project has been shortlisted in the Board of Directors' meeting of Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Ltd for taking up the study-cum-viability assessment, he said.

"The funds to the project are allocated yearly on the basis of progress of work," the minister said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah said today that Malaysia's new government will adopt a firmer stand in tackling a decades-old territorial row in the South China Sea amid China's aggressive expansion in the disputed area.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who won a stunning electoral victory in May, has said warships should be removed from the South China Sea. Saifuddin said that Mahathir was "sending a signal that we want to be more firm, more serious" in handling the maritime dispute.

The 2002 declaration of conduct by claimants in the South China Sea that set loose guidelines for behavior in the disputed waters has "no fangs," and China's continued militarization of the area has raised concern and could potentially escalate regional tensions, he told Parliament.

China has sent big coast guard vessels that resemble warships to the potentially energy rich territory and has caused uneasiness among its neighbors, he said.

Malaysia's previous government rarely criticizes China, even though Chinese coast guard ships have sailed near Malaysia's waters. In the Spratly island chain, China has constructed seven man-made islands and equipped them with runways, hangers, radar and missile stations, further cementing its vast territorial claims in the busy waterway.

Saifuddin said Southeast Asian foreign ministers meeting in Singapore next week will seek to accelerate negotiations for a new code of conduct to ensure peace in the South China Sea, which is claimed by China almost in its entirety. Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan all dispute Beijing's holdings.

All parties should exercise self-restraint and any actions must be based on international law, Saifuddin said.

China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations earlier this year began negotiations on the new code of conduct. However, officials have warned it could take a long time, with no agreement on whether the pact will be legally binding, raising doubts over its effectiveness.

Mahathir, who previously led Malaysia for 22 years until 2003, has sought to reduce China's economic influence by reassessing lopsided Chinese investment since taking power for a second stint. The government recently suspended work on a multi-billion-dollar rail link that is central to China's Belt and Road initiative, and two gas pipeline projects to renegotiate for better terms.

Analysts however, say Mahathir's more assertive stance on the South China Sea is unlikely to amount to a challenge to Beijing, which is Malaysia's top trading partner.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UK's Court of Appeal has refused Vijay Mallya the permission to appeal against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds, in another setback to the embattled liquor tycoon.

The 62-year-old businessman, who is separately undergoing an extradition trial in a UK court over fraud and money laundering charges by Indian authorities, had sought permission to appeal against the High Court order dated May 8.

In the ruling, Judge Andrew Henshaw had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and also denied permission to appeal, which left Mallya with the only option of turning to the Court of Appeal.

Judge Henshaw's order marked the first recorded case of a judgment of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in India being registered by the English High Court, setting a legal precedent.

The Court of Appeal judges looked into Mallya's application seeking permission to appeal and decided against it yesterday.

As a result of the High Court order, the Indian banks - State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co Pvt Ltd - have the right to enforce the Indian judgment against Mallya's assets in England and Wales.

"In the event permission has been refused, then the decision of the judge is final and Mallya does not have any further recourse of appeal against his decision," said Kartik Mittal, Senior Solicitor at London-based Zaiwalla & Co LLP.

"The English judicial system does not give parties an unfettered right to appeal. The right to appeal is restricted. A party can only appeal a decision of the first instance Court if the first instance Court or the Appellate Court gives the party permission to appeal," he explained.



"A party is granted permission to appeal only in cases where the appeal appears to have a real prospect of success or there is some other compelling reason why the appeal should be heard. Therefore, in majority of the cases permission is refused," he added.

In a related High Court ruling on June 26, Justice Bryan had issued an enforcement order in favour of the banks, granting permission to the UK High Court Enforcement Officer to enter Mallya's properties in Hertfordshire, near London, where he is based.

While it is not an instruction to enter and that particular order can be appealed against, the banks have the option to use the order as one of the means to recover funds owed to them.

"The High Court Enforcement Officer, including any Enforcement Agent acting under his authority, may use reasonable force to enter the Property if necessary," it states.

Mallya has since said that he has handed over a full statement of his UK assets to the court and there was no question of use of force to enter his home Ladywalk in the village of Tewin in England.

The former Kingfisher Airlines boss had also issued a lengthy media statement last month, condemning the charges against him as politically motivated.



He then took to social media to clarify that he made the statement "after a long period of silence" because he had filed an application before the Karnataka High Court on June 22, setting out available assets of approximately Rs 13,900 crores.

"Media reports quote an ED [Enforcement Directorate] official stating that I am attempting a plea bargain. Would respectfully suggest that the official read the ED charge sheet first," Mallya had said in his last Twitter message on the issue on June 30.

"I would invite the ED to advance the same plea bargain theory in Court in front of whom I have placed my assets," he said.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year.

He will return for his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on July 31, when closing arguments are expected from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), acting on behalf of the Indian government, and Mallya's defence team.

A judgment is expected in the case at a later date, which will be arranged by Judge Emma Arbuthnot.

While the CPS claims it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman, Mallya's lawyers have sought to establish that the criminal charges against him are "without substance".

They have also challenged the case on human rights grounds, questioning the conditions at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where the businessman is to be held post-extradition.

TMC leader Derek O'Brien said today 2018-19 is the year of "think federal", suggesting regional parties will play a crucial role at the Centre and projected Mamata Banerjee as one of the "most senior leaders in this matrix".

He also said that Banerjee emerging as one of the front runners for the prime minister's post "is nothing new".

His comments came a day after reports about the Congress being ready to accept any non-RSS candidate from among the Opposition as the next prime minister.

"This 2018-2019. This is the year of "think federal". But these things would be decided later. The reality is that everyone is focused on electing a people-centric government and removing the BJP. So, one of the most senior leader in this matrix is Mamata Banerjee," O'Brien told reporters here.

The TMC Rajya Sabha member claimed that Banerjee is "accepted" not only by the people of West Bengal but also the entire country for her 40 years of political struggle, including as Member of Parliament and the chief minister of the state.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi has not said anything about projecting Banerjee as the prime ministerial candidate, her name "emerging as one of the front runners is nothing new", O'Brien said.

The TMC leader said the focus of a "united opposition" is on spreading the message that the BJP had failed its people and bringing its tally to between 100 and 150 seats.

Banerjee has been trying to stitch together a federal front of regional parties to take on the BJP in the next general election. But many in the Opposition have remained sceptical about her efforts.

She will visit Delhi for three days next week to personally invite opposition leaders to the federal front rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata, according to party sources.

Banerjee is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on July 31.

During her previous visits to Delhi, she met the leaders of regional and opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the federal front.

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Banerjee are doing the rounds.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping and impregnating his 17-year-old girlfriend, police said today.

The accused, identified as Pravin Narawade, was allegedly in relationship with the girl for the last five years during which he established physical relations with her, a police official said.

The incident came to light a few days ago when the victim's mother took her to Rajwadi Hospital in suburban Ghatkopar for a medical check up, when she found that her daughter was five-month pregnant.

As the victim is minor, the doctors informed the police who booked the man and arrested him on July 22, the official said.

A case has been registered at Mankhurd police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and POCSO Act.

The accused was remanded to judicial custody by a court today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A court in Punjab's Mansa district today awarded death sentence to a man in connection with the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl in 2016, describing the case as "rarest of rare".

The court of Additional Session Judge Jaspal Verma held accused Kala Ram alias Kala Singh guilty of the abduction, rape and murder of the girl in year 2016, said Jaswant Singh Grewal, the victim's counsel.

The judge observed in the order that the faith of the society by such a "barbaric act" of the convict gets totally shaken and its cry for justice becomes loud and clear.

"The offence was not only inhumane and barbaric but it was a totally ruthless crime of rape followed by cold-blooded murder. It is an act of taking advantage of absolute innocence. The sexually assaulted minor girl of six years could not have shown any kind of resistance. The rape of minor girl child is nothing but a monstrous burial of her dignity in the darkness," the judge wrote in the order.

"It is held that it is one of the rarest of rare cases in which the convict must meet the gallows. Hence, he is sentenced to death under section 376 A of the IPC for committing rape and murder of the minor girl," the order stated.

Ram, who was a distant relative of the victim, had come to Amapur Mandira village in Mansa district to attend a marriage function in May 2016.

On May 11, 2016, Ram, a resident of Rupanwali village in Fatehabad district of Haryana, first kidnapped the girl from the marriage function and then took her to a nearby canal, where he raped her and then strangulated her to death, said the counsel.

Ram, a daily wager, was later arrested after some relatives told police that he was last seen with the victim.

Grewal said the accused, who was 40 years old at the time of crime, had admitted in his confessional statement that he had killed the girl after raping her.

He was booked under relevant sections of the IPC, including Section 364 (kidnapping), 376 A (punishment for rape and death), 302 (murder) and under provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Hisar court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl in this district.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Dr Pankaj sentenced Vikram, a resident of Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, to life in prison yesterday after finding him guilty of raping the minor at a locality in Hisar last year.

The court also slapped a fine of Rs two lakh on Vikram. Of this, Rs one lakh is to be given as a compensation to the victim. According to the prosecution, the family of the victim was originally from Madhya Pradesh and living in a rented accommodation in a colony here.

On July 5 last year, the accused barged into the girl's house and raped her when she was alone as her parents were out for some work.

The girl alleged that the accused threatened her of dire consequences if she revealed the matter to anyone.

She narrated her ordeal to the parents after which her mother lodged a police complaint. The was booked under sections 376 (rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Violence marred the Maratha community's bandh today as protesters threw stones at policemen in the neighbouring Navi Mumbai township and Satara district, injuring three personnel.

The police retaliated and cane-charged protesters, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas shells at them, an official said.

Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil sustained a minor injury while two policemen were injured at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai, he said.

Protesters who gathered at Kalamboli blocked the Mumbai-Goa and Mumbai-Pune highways, he said.

The policemen deployed at the spot tried to take them away as the traffic was blocked because of the protest.

Some persons in the crowd then started throwing stones at the policemen, injuring two personnel, the official said.

Protesters also set afire two police vans in the area, he said.

The police then cane-charged the protesters, lobbed tear gas shells at them and also fired plastic bullets in the air, he said.

Additional police force was called at the spot, he said, adding that the situation in the area was tense.

The traffic movement from Mumbai to Pune and Goa was affected due to the protests at Vashi, Kharghar, Kalamboli and Palaspe, he said.

In Satara district, police cane-charged protesters who blocked the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway at Bombay Restaurant Chowk and threw stones at the policemen, SP Sandeep Patil said.

Tear gas shells were also lobbed at the pro-quota agitators, said Patil, who was injured in the stone-pelting.

A few vehicles were also set afire by the angry protesters in Satara, a police official said.

Meanwhile, the local train services on the trans- harbour line (between Thane and Vashi) were affected for over an hour in the afternoon as protesters halted trains at Ghansoli station, he said.

In the morning also, the movement of trains was disrupted at Ghansoli, he said.

The Mumbai-Goa highway was also blocked near Palaspe at Panvel in Raigad district by protesters.

The Sion-Panvel highway was blocked for some time at Kharghar and Vashi, but the police removed protesters from the road, the official said.

Some agitators burnt tyres at Majiwada in the neighbouring Thane city and auto-rickshaw drivers staged protests at the Nitin Junction, another official said.

In Mumbai, the Western Express Highway witnessed traffic jams due to protests near Jogeshwari flyover and Kandivali.

Meanwhile, a man, Jagannath Sonawane (55), who had consumed poison in Aurangabad yesterday when the reservation protest was going on, died in a hospital today.

Sonawane committed suicide due to domestic issues, Aurangabad Superintendent of Police Arti Singh claimed, adding that he was not a part of the protest.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation for reservation in jobs and education, had today called for the shutdown in Mumbai and some neighbouring districts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Morocco and the United States, two friends and allies for centuries, have reaffirmed their strong determination to enhance further their military cooperation to defend their common regional and global geostrategic interests.

At a meeting held Tuesday in Rabat, Abdeltif Loudyi, Minister Delegate for National Defense and Robert S. Karem, US Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, hailed the dynamic and rich cooperation ties existing between the two countries in the field of defense.

The two ministers also expressed their countries willingness to foster and deepen cooperation in weapons modernization, army capacity building and military interoperability.

Loudyi and the US official praised the solid and excellent Morocco-American relations and their strategic partnership based on longstanding friendship, mutual understanding and shared trust.

Talks between the two sides covered the regional security situation, particularly in the Mediterranean region and the Sahel-Saharan strip as well as Moroccos strategy to combat terrorism and tackle the migration crisis in a humane manner.

Robert S. Karem, on a working visit to Morocco, is the principal advisor to the Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy and the Secretary of Defense on international security strategy and policy on issues of DoD in the Middle East and Africa.

He also oversights security cooperation programs and foreign military sales programs.

Morocco and the USA have a long history of working together bilaterally and regionally. They share common concerns and consult closely on security, political, and economic issues and sustainable development.

The United States designated Morocco a Major Non-NATO Ally in 2004, and the US and Moroccan militaries hold joint exercises and training.

Morocco is a strong partner in counterterrorism efforts and works closely with US law enforcement to safeguard both countries national security and interests. They coordinate their efforts to promote regional stability and security, including through the Global Counterterrorism Forum and the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.The day-long bandh in Mumbai, called by pro-quota maratha groups, was called off midway today after violence marred the protests even as one more protester died, a day after consuming poison.

Protesters attacked buses, indulged in arson and pelted stones at local trains in several parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai and the adjoining Thane city, during the bandh called by Maratha outfits to press their demand for reservation in jobs and education.

Three policemen, including a Superintendent of Police, suffered injuries in stone pelting.

The Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Goa highways were blocked for hours by the protesters.

Police used force, including teargas shelling and baton charge, to disperse the violent protesters at several places.

The agitation, organised in the form of a bandh in various places of Maharashtra since Monday, today reached Mumbai where a shutdown was attempted to be imposed.

However, the bandh in the financial capital of India, which began this morning, was called off just before 3 pm after various parts saw violence.

"We only wanted to prove that we are together and proved it. We never wanted protests to get violent and therefore, we are calling off our bandh in Mumbai for today," Virendra Pawar, leader of the Morcha, told reporters here.

"We suspect some people carried out violent activities with political motives. Otherwise, it was supposed to be peaceful like before. But considering the reports of violence coming from outside Mumbai, we decided to call it off," Pawar added.

Another leader of the Morcha said a bandh may be called again on August 9 but a final call in this regard will be taken after consulting all senior members of all maratha morchas.

Marathas, a politically-influential community constituting around 30 per cent of the state's population, have been demanding reservation in jobs and education.

The community members have earlier taken out several rallies in various districts to highlight their demands.

Last year, a huge rally was organised by the Maratha Kranti Morcha in this connection in Mumbai.

On Sunday last, a 27-year-old protester, Kakasaheb Shinde, jumped off a bridge over Godavari River in Aurangabad and died.

This led to intensification of the agitation.

Yesterday, a man, identified as Jagannath Sonawane, consumed a poisonous substance during the protest in Aurangabad. He died today at a local government hospital.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha had given the call for the bandh, demanding an apology from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur town in Solapur district.

Fadnavis, who was scheduled to perform puja at a temple on 'Ashadhi Ekadashi' on Monday, cancelled it after the Maratha outfits threatened to disrupt the event.

"Whatever we had to convey to the government, we have done so. But we have been disappointed by the government's response over the last two years," Pawar said.

The agitation leader said not a single representative from the government had reached out to the protesters.

Attacking the chief minister, the agitation leader said Fadnavis has been "confining himself to his AC room" and never bothered to address their demands.

While imposing the bandh, protesters pelted stones at some local trains as well as buses and set ablaze a bus of the state-owned Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) in suburban Mankhurd.

"Till 1 pm, three buses were damaged by stone pelting and nine buses were damaged by deflating their tyres," BEST spokesperson Hanumant Gofane said.

At around 1.30 pm, protesters set a bus on fire after pouring petrol on it, which was later doused by the fire brigade, he added.

Train movement on a section of the local network was affected due to the protests, police said.

Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil suffered a minor injury in stone pelting in Satara, while two other policemen were injured in Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai, an official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Protesters attacked buses and stopped local trains in Mumbai and the adjoining Thane city today during the bandh called by Maratha outfits over their demand for reservation.

The police in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Satara districts were on their toes to prevent any law and order problem during the bandh.

In Aurangabad, a man, Jagannath Sonawane, who had consumed a poisonous substance yesterday during the protest, died today at a local government hospital.

Nine public buses were attacked by agitators in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, a transport official said.

Agitators threw stones on some buses in Mumbai, including Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas, shattering window panes.

In view of the stone-pelting on buses, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) partially suspended its services in some areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves, an official of the transport body said.

Protesters tried to block a road in Mankhurd suburb, but the police stopped them.They tried to burn a tyre on a road in Chandivali area and block roads in Jogeshwari and Kandivali, but the police dispersed them, an official said.

In some areas such as Bandra, Matunga and Mulund, protesters marched on roads and were seen requesting shopkeepers with folded hands to close their establishments.

They also hurled stones on two public transport buses in Wagle Estate area of Thane city and burnt tyres on its arterial Ghodbunder Road, but the police removed them.

Agitators blocked some areas there, including the key Teen Hath Naka junction, resulting in huge traffic jams on the city's main entry and exit points.

A bus was attacked in Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai following which the city transport authority suspended its services in the area, an official said.

Contrary to their previous peaceful agitations, this time protesters tried to stop local trains on the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) corridors.

"A few protesters stopped trains on Up fast line at Jogeshwari at 9.16 am, however, they were removed from the track and train services resumed at 9.24 am. All lines working normal on WR suburban section," the Western Railway said in a tweet.

Agitators also threw stones at trains passing through Thane and Ghansoli (located on the trans-harbour line in Navi Mumbai) stations and services were halted briefly.

"There were isolated incidents at Thane and Ghansoli after 9.59 am. The situation normalised at 10.24 am," CR's chief PRO Sunil Udasi said.

Around 70 lakh people travel in local trains daily in the Mumbai region.

In view of the bandh, lesser number of auto-rickshaws and taxis were seen on roads.

At some places, protesters raised slogans against Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Public Works Department Minister Chandrakant Patil for allegedly insulting sentiments of the Maratha community, official said.

The Agriculture Produce Market (APMC) at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai was also closed as a union of 'mathadi' workers (who carry loads on their head) supported the bandh.

Security has been deployed at various places to avoid any untoward incident, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said.

Some pro-reservation activists led a 'jal samadhi' protest in the Krishna river in Sangli district to press for their demands.

Commercial establishments remained shut in some areas of Ahmednagar city.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation for reservation in jobs and education, has called for the shutdown in Mumbai and some neighbouring districts.

Another outfit, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for the bandh in Navi Mumbai and Panvel areas.

They have exempted schools, hospitals, medical and other essential services, including vegetables and fuel supply, from the bandh.

No school buses was attacked or stopped in any area.

Ambulance services were also running normal, a senior official of the public health department said.

The pro-reservation groups also kept Solapur district out of the bandh because of the rush of devotees to Lord Vitthal temple in Pandharpur town there.

The Shiv Sena has been supporting the Maratha community's demand for reservation but decided not to participate in the protest.

Yesterday, large-scale violence marred a state-wide protest by Maratha outfits demanding reservation for the community.

A constable died and nine other policemen were injured amid suicide attempt by three agitators during the violence.

Agitators had clashed with the police and torched vehicles at several places, while Internet services were suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district to prevent any untoward incident. In Jalna, the police had fired in the air to quell protests.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

Fadnavis had cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur on Monday after protesters threatened to disrupt the event.

Despite assurances from the chief minister, nothing concrete has been done till now over the demands, community leaders have claimed.

"We will continue our agitation until the CM apologises to the Maratha community (for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur)," Morcha coordinator Ravindra Patil said yesterday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police lobbed teargas shells and used baton-charge in Kopar Khairane area of neighbouring Navi Mumbai this evening after a group of protesters stoned vehicles and clashed with local people.

The incident took place after the Maratha organisations which had called for a Bandh to press the demand of reservations called off their stir, police said.

A group of protesters who were returning home hurled stones at vehicles of local people in Kopar Khairane, police said.

It led to members of local communities gathering at the spot, who clashed with the protesters. Stone-pelting ensued, in which some offices and shops were also damaged.

Stones were also pelted at the police, who used baton charge and lobbed teargas shells, said a police officer.

The situation was tense but under control now, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that a massive recruitment drive would soon be carried out in the state in which 7,000 police constables, 450 sub inspectors and 38,000 Group D employees would be recruited.

Khattar announced this yesterday at a function in Zirakpur in Punjab, an official release said here today.

The Haryana chief minister said the recruitment for 24,000 posts had been carried out and work for the recruitment for 22,000 more posts was in the pipeline.

"Haryana Public Service Commission had for the first time made a record recruitment of 1,900 posts in a year, which was unheard of in any previous regimes. The recruitment was made purely on the basis of merit," he said.

Khattar said a scheme 'Saksham Yojana' had been initiated, under which graduate and post graduate unemployed youth get Rs 9,000 per month in lieu of 100 hours of work so that they could make themselves capable of other competitions or self employment. So far, under Saksham Yojana, 42,000 youth had been given jobs, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Key political parties in Meghalaya today urged the Election Commission to consider holding simultaneous by-elections in two assembly seats in the state following the EC's announcement of by-poll to only one seat.

By-election will be held in South Tura seat on August 23 and Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who is a Lok Sabha MP, will seek election from the seat.

His sister Agatha K Sangma of National Peoples Party (NPP) and Martin M Danggo of Congress had resigned from South Tura and Ranikor seats respectively. Danggo had resigned from the Congress too.

Danggo had resigned on June 21 while Agatha put down her papers on July 2. No date for by-election to Ranikor seat was announced by the EC yet.

United Democratic Party, which is a part of the NPP-led ruling Meghalaya Democratic Alliance and the opposition Congress said that two different dates for the two seats will defeat the spirit of free and fair elections.

In separate letters to the EC they demanded that the by-election to both the seats should be held simultaneously so that it is "fair" and to avoid "undue political influences and manipulations".

"The Election Commission of India should consider holding of election to fill both the casual vacancies simultaneously. Two different schedules will defeat the spirit of fair and free elections," Meghalaya PCC general secretary Waibha K Kyndiah said in the letter.

He said that the decision to hold elections to only seat, in which the Chief Minister is seeking election to the state assembly will provide undue advantage to the ruling party.

UDP general secretary Jemino Mawthoh said the "failure" of the EC to notify by-election to Ranikor "leaves room to cast aspersions" as the seat fell vacant much earlier than the South Tura constituency.

Earlier in the day, Danggo officially joined NPP along with his supporters at the NPP office here.

Danggo said his joining the party was an "obligation" as the chief minister had granted civil sub-division to Ranikor in a span of 45 days of the matter being raised with him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ahead of the publication of the draft NRC, the Home Ministry today asked the Assam government not to take any action against those whose names do not figure in the list of the state's citizens.

In an advisory, the ministry also asked the governments of Assam and neighbouring states to ensure peace and maintenance of law and order.

"There is no question of referring the persons whose names do not figure in the draft NRC to the Foreigners' Tribunal as people are entitled to file claims and objections and due opportunity has to be given to them before final publication," the advisory said.

The home ministry said the Assam government has been advised to set up a state-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of the chief secretary to ensure coordination among state agencies, NRC authorities and central agencies.

"Round-the-clock control rooms at the state capital and district headquarters are to be activated to receive complaints and coordinate prompt response," it said.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) has been asked to use all means of communication including websites, toll-free numbers, SMS etc, to provide information to public about the draft NRC. An intensive public awareness campaign has been launched to disseminate information regarding the NRC process, options available for individuals whose names do not figure in the draft NRC, the procedure and timeline for filing claims and objections, etc so as to address the concerns of people left out of the draft list.

The ministry said the question of referring any person to a detention centre based on the NRC exercise also does not arise.

"The state government has been asked to issue clear instructions in this regard to all administrative and police functionaries," it said.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured that every individual will get justice and will be treated in a humane manner.

"All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for the remedies available under the law. Government wants to make it clear that after draft NRC publication on July 30, adequate opportunity for claims and objections will be available. All claims and objections will be duly examined," he had said.

The part draft of the NRC was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, wherein the names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated.

On July 30, the fate of all 3.29 crore applicants will be decided.

The massive exercise, aimed at identifying the illegal immigrants in the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh, is being carried out following a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings involving the central and state governments and the influential All Assam Students' Union (AASU).

When the NRC was first prepared in Assam in 1951, the state had 80 lakh citizens.

The process of identification of illegal immigrants in Assam has been debated and has become a contentious issue in the state's politics.

A six-year agitation demanding identification and deportation of illegal immigrants was launched by the AASU in 1979.

It had culminated with the signing of the Assam Accord on August 15, 1985, in the presence of the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ahead of the publication of the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Home Ministry asked today the Assam government and neighbouring states to ensure peace and maintenance of law and order.

In an advisory, the ministry also asked the Assam government not to take any action against anyone based on the draft NRC.

"There is no question of referring the persons whose names do not figure in the Draft NRC to the Foreigners' Tribunal as people are entitled to file claims and objections and due opportunity has to be given to them before final publication," the advisory said.

The home ministry said the Assam government has been advised to set up a state-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of chief secretary to ensure coordination among state agencies, NRC authorities and Central agencies.

"Round-the-clock Control Rooms at the state capital and district headquarters are to be activated to receive complaints and coordinate prompt response," it said.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) has been asked to use all means of communication including websites, toll-free numbers, SMS etc, to provide information to public about the Draft NRC.

An intensive public awareness campaign has been launched to disseminate information regarding the NRC process, options available for individuals whose names do not figure in the Draft NRC, the procedure and timeline for filing claims and objections, etc so as to address the concerns of people left out of the draft list.

The ministry said the question of referring any person to a detention centre based on NRC exercise also does not arise.

"The state government has been asked to issue clear instructions in this regard to all administrative and police functionaries," he said.

Earlier, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had assured that every individual will get justice and will be treated in a humane manner.

"All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for the remedies available under the law. The government wants to make it clear that after draft NRC publication on July 30, adequate opportunity for claims and objections will be available. All claims and objections will be duly examined," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Militants today hurled a grenade towards a post office in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir but no causalities or damage were reported, police said.

The ultras lobbed the grenade towards the post office at Washbug in the district, which exploded in its compound, a police official said.

However, no one was hurt in the explosion, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Some members belonging to the minority communities were not allowed to cast their votes in a constituency in Pakistan's capital during the general election in the Muslim-majority nation, a media report said today.

The incident occured in Islamabad's NA-54 constituency, Dawn reported.

Awami Workers Party complained that minority voters at the polling station were not being allowed to vote as the polling staff had no voter lists for minorities.

Hindus, Christians and Ahmadis among other religious groups in Pakistan are routinely discriminated against.

The number of non-Muslim voters or religious minorities in Pakistan has climbed to 3.63 million in 2018 with the Hindus at 1.77 million maintaining their majority among the religious minority electorate.

The incident come as the country's minorities are looking for better representation after the polls.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State group killed more than 150 people in southern Syria today, in one of the jihadists' deadliest ever assaults in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.

They came almost a week into a deadly Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south.

IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying "soldiers of the caliphate" attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated their explosive belts.

The Britain-based Observatory said three suicide attackers set off booby-trapped belts in Sweida city, as other blasts hit villages to the north and east. A fourth suicide explosion hit the city later.

"IS fighters then stormed villages in the province's northeast and killed residents in their homes," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The suicide blasts and raids killed 156 people including 62 civilians, the Observatory said.

The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, most of whom where residents who had picked up weapons to defend their villages, it said.

Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, have been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011.

"It's the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war" in 2011 and one of the deadliest ever in Syria, Abdel Rahman said.

The violence also left 30 IS fighters dead, including the suicide attackers.

The jihadists captured at least three of the seven villages it targeted but clashes were ongoing today, the Observatory said.

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll.

SANA published images of the attack's aftermath in Sweida city, showing the remains of a victim sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall.

Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilled out of cartons.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari condemned the "terrorist bombing in Sweida city today," saying all civilians should be protected.

And the Russian foreign ministry said the IS attacks "confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory".

State television said the army was targeting IS in the province's east.

Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The jihadists still hold some territory in Syria's south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighbouring Daraa province, to the west.

That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to IS.

After ousting non-jihadist rebels from most of the country's south, President Bashar al-Assad's troops and his Russian allies are now closing in on the IS pocket in Daraa province.

SANA said the IS attacks on neighbouring Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside".

Today, Russia-backed regime forces pressed their heavy bombardment of the IS-held pocket in Daraa.

At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, the monitor says.

Fierce clashes between the two sides have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists.

Syria's south is ostensibly protected from fighting by an internationally brokered ceasefire since last year, but violence has dramatically risen in recent weeks.

Last month, Assad launched a lightning assault that battered rebel areas in the south and brought most of Daraa province under his control.

He then moved onto Quneitra, the neighbouring province which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Yesterday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in Quneitra.

Israel's army earlier said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS and other anti-government factions.

IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but has since lost most of that territory.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Morocco expects its GDP to grow by 3.6 percent this year as the crop year augurs well with an exceptional yield of 103 million quintals.

Abundant though late rainfall starting in December ushered a good crop year with the breakdown in cereals varieties of 49.1 million quintals for soft wheat, 24.5 quintals of hard wheat and 29.2 million quintals of durum, the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry said in a statement.

The yield is 7.3% higher than last years, which was also a good crop year.

The sown area was 4.5 million hectares compared to 5.4 million hectares a year earlier, the ministry said.In a twist to the alleged gangrape of a 22-year-old woman at a guest house in Morni in Panchkula district, the Haryana Police today arrested her husband and booked him under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, officials said.

The woman's husband was booked under various provisions of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, Panchkula DCP Rajender Kumar Meena told reporters.

Meena said the accused was also booked under section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which pertains to buying or disposing of any person as a slave.

Police investigations showed the two key accused, already arrested in the case, were running a sex racket, the official said.

"The SIT was investigating the case from all angles. During the in-depth probe, we came to know there were other angles to the case," Meena said.

Earlier, both the victim and her husband had claimed that there was no telephonic conversation between them between July 15 and 18, the period during which the woman had alleged she was raped by 40 men in a guest house at Morni, the DCP said.

"However, it has come to light during the investigation that they were in regular contact with each other on some other number," he said.

Police also found a conversation between Sunil alias Sunny, the prime suspect in the case, and the woman's husband.

"Some facts came to fore that his (accused husband's) history has been such (a reference to immoral trafficking)," Meena said.

He said the woman's husband was produced before a court in Panchkula today, which remanded him to three days in police custody.

"We will try to explore other hidden aspects in the case," Meena said.

Asked whether the rape case will stand in the wake of the new developments, Meena replied, "investigation is on and as facts emerge, we will proceed further."



When asked if more persons could be involved, the DCP replied, "all angles are being investigated."



Earlier, ten people were arrested in the alleged gangrape case.

The woman had alleged she was raped for four consecutive days after being held captive at a guest house in Morni area.

In a complaint lodged with the Chandigarh Police at Manimajra police station on Thursday, the woman alleged she was held captive for four days where the accused took turns to rape her.

The woman's husband had earlier told reporters that she was promised a job at the guest house by a person known to them, adding she was drugged, raped and threatened against revealing the incident to anyone.

The Chandigarh Police had lodged an FIR at the Manimajra police station after the woman approached them with the complaint. She alleged the Haryana Police had failed to take cognizance of her complaint.

The Haryana Police had set up a Special Investigation Team under IPS officer Dr Anshu Singla, ASP, Panchkula, to probe the alleged gangrape incident.

Three police officials including a woman ASI were suspended for alleged negligence and mis-handling of the woman's complaint.

Yesterday, Haryana Police had transferred Panchkula Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP, women) Mamta Sodha and Women Police Station SHO Rajesh Kumari.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The iconic red-and-yellow sky in 'The Scream' - a painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch that sold for a record USD 119.9 million - may have been inspired by the "mother-of-pearl" clouds seen in Norway, scientists say.

Some experts attribute the dramatic backdrop of the painting to a volcanic sunset after the 1883 Krakatau eruption, while others think the wavy sky shows a scream from nature.

Scientists at Rutgers University in the US, University of Oxford and University of London in the UK suggest that nacreous, or "mother of pearl," clouds in southern Norway inspired the sky in the painting. Their study is published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

"What's screaming is the sky and the person in the painting is putting his or her hands over their ears so they can't hear the scream," said Alan Robock, a professor at Rutgers.

"If you read what Munch wrote, the sky was screaming blood and fire," said Robock.

There are four known versions of The Scream: an 1893 tempera on cardboard; an 1893 crayon on cardboard; an 1895 pastel on cardboard that billionaire Leon Black bought for nearly USD 120 million at auction; and a tempera on hard cardboard thought to have been painted in 1910.

Iridescent light from below the horizon illuminates polar stratospheric clouds, also known as nacreous clouds. Robock said the sky colours and patterns in Munch's paintings match sunset colours better when nacreous clouds are present versus other scenarios.

The research builds on a 2017 study that also proposed nacreous clouds.

The new study provides a more detailed and scientific analysis of Munch's paintings, focusing on photographs of volcanic sunsets and nacreous clouds and analysing the colour content and cloud patterns.

If the new analysis is correct, Munch's art is one of the earliest visual documentations of nacreous clouds, the study said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former vice president Hamid Ansari today said that mourning the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was "not enough" and the society must realise the "challenge" it faces when it comes to the freedom of expression.

Addressing a gathering at a memorial service held here for the slain Rising Kashmir editor, Ansari described him as a man, who "stood for sanity" in different conditions.

Bukhari, 53, and his two personal security officers (PSOs) were shot dead by gunmen outside the newspaper's office in the heart of Srinagar on June 14.

He was killed soon after he boarded his car from his office in the Press Enclave at Lal Chowk.

"He was a good man, a good editor, a thinking citizen, snatched away so brutally. And, we all have to think why... Someone said many, many years ago that when freedom is in peril, the first symptoms are to be found in those who carry the voice of the people and the sentiments of the people to a larger audience," the former vice president said.

"Bukhari sahab's death is an example of that. It is not the only example, we have had another instances in our society when those who speak honestly, candidly, are punished, and punished in the most brutal manner possible," he said.

In his speech at the event, hosted by the Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF), a think-tank, of which Bukhari was a part of, Ansari also obliquely referred to the killing of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh, who was shot dead last year right outside her home in Bangalore.

"We had the case in Bangalore, we had other cases. Therefore, as people we need to stop and think, as to where we are going," Ansari said.

"We used to take great pride in being an open and a free society. We still take that pride, but we do stop and question -- is that open society in peril," he asked.

He said Bukhari stood for sanity, sanity in very different conditions knowing fully well that whatever he said was being disliked by somebody or the other.

"And, this is what the greater challenge is. His death is mourned by all, family, friends and a much larger circle. But mourning is not enough. We should realise that we face a challenge.

"The challenge is... the most cherished freedom, the freedom to express opinions. Because, if that challenge develops further then it is not one editor, it is every citizen, who is threatened by it," Ansari said.

The former vice president also quoted a few Urdu couplets to pay tribute to Bukhari, whose killing had sent shockwaves throughout the country.

Many of his kin, friends, admirers, colleagues from Kashmir and several well-known journalists from Delhi also attended the memorial service hosted at the India Islamic Cultural Centre. Some of them pitched for getting justice for him and not let the perpetrators go unpunished.

Incidentally, the National Human Rights Commission on June 25 had sent a notice to the Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary and the state's police chief in connection with the killing of Bukhari, and observed that the incident was causing "serious threat" to free speech and freedom of press in the state.

Bukhari's brother-in-law Hafiz Ayaz broke down on the dais, while recounting the life of the slain journalist, saying, "The intensity of the wounds is so deep that it cannot be healed."



"Besides being a passionate journalist, and writing in English, he also contributed a lot towards his mother-tongue Kashimri, besides promoting other art forms and culture of the region," Ayaz said.

Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari said Bukhari had the courage of conviction to speak and write his mind.

Ansari ended his address by offering his condolences to Bukhari's family and said, "I hope his banner will be carried by those who have succeeded him in the newspaper and the society at large."



A representative of the Pakistan High Commission here also attended the event.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Terming the flood situation in Kerala as "severe", the opposition today asked the government to declare the situation a natural calamity and provide funds for relief and rehabilitation beyond the NDRF stipulation.

Initiating a discussion in the Lok Sabha, CPI(M) leader P Karunakaran said this is one of the worst floods in the history of Kerala and about 120 people have already lost their lives.

The intense rainfall has resulted in large scale devastation across various parts of the state and relief package from the central government was needed immediately, he said.

Given the serious nature of flood, he said, the Centre should declare this as a natural calamity and provide funds beyond what is due under the NDRF.

He expressed displeasure over not getting the due from the Centre after the devastation caused by the Okhi cyclone. "We got very little after the Okhi cylone from the Centre," he said.

Expressing the concern over the working of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), he said it needed to be strengthened so that it can help mitigate the damage.

K C Venugopal (Cong) said the people were staying in very pathetic situation at temporary shelters of flood affected areas of Kerala.

The government should intervene in the matter and provide concrete package to the state immediately, he said.

Besides, he said armed forces should be fully equipped to handled such kind of situation.

Government should create a National Disaster Mitigation Fund, he said, adding there is also need to strengthen the IMD to provide early warning for natural disaster.

Raising issue of drought in Bihar, Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) said the issue has to be addressed comprehensively.

He suggested that the House should discuss the issue of flood and drought in the winter session so that a policy can be worked out beforehand for the next year.

He also said that National Green Tribunal should not impose blanket ban but has to consider issue taking into account topography and need of the region.

Veena Devi (LJP) also expressed concern over the drought- like situation in Bihar.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) accused the Centre of "step- brotherly" attitude towards West Bengal on granting assistance, despite the state being "seriously affected" by flood.

He said flood is a "natural calamity" and a national problem and the Centre should release funds immediately.

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo (BJD) said while flood or drought affected Odisha every year, there was "constant apathy" of the Centre and the farmers were not given their due share of funds.

He said the second Green Revolution was an "empty rhetoric" of the Narendra Modi government as it does not factor in eastern India.

Deo said the government has not been able to devise a plan to deal with eratic rainfall or impact of climate change on agriculture. He said insurance companies were also not releasing money under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

A P Jithender Reddy (TRS) said the Centre should ensure that water is distributed judiciously as some states witness flood while others see drought.

K Geetha (YSR Congress) said the Polavaram project should be expedited at the earliest. She said nearly four lakh farmers have already migrated from Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Trends for the 21 National Assembly seats in Pakistan's financial hub Karachi tonight indicated that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement's stronghold in the port city has been breached for the first time since the late 80s.

The MQM, which claims to represent the Urdu-speaking population of Karachi, was leading on six of the 21 seats by midnight, a far cry from its dominant days in the metropolitan city.

According to the trends, MQM and Pakistan Peoples Party were ahead on six seats each and the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek Insaf on four seats. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was leading on one and Pakistan Sarzameen Party on two seats.

No major incident of violence was reported from Karachi during the polling yesterday. Heavy security was ensured.

After polling ended at 6pm local time, major political parties, including the PPP and the PML-N, said they were not satisfied with the way election process was conducted.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto, who contested from a seat in Karachi, tweeted: "It's now past midnight & I haven't received official results from any constituency I am contesting my myself. My candidates complaining polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country. Inexcusable & outrageous (sic)".

Imran Khan and Shahbaz Sharif too are contesting from different seats in Karachi. Sharif tonight rejected the results of the poll, alleging "blatant" rigging.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)"My son has got justice at last," said 67-year old Prabhavathy reacting to the verdict of the CBI special court today awarding death sentence to two police officers in connection with his custodial death in 2005.

Clad in a white sari, the frail woman, who waged a lonely battle for 13 years to bring the accused to book, was in the court room when the landmark ruling was pronounced by Judge J Nazer.

The Judge sentenced the two serving police officers to death, said to be the first time in the state, while handing out three years imprisonment to three other police personnel in the case related to brutal torture and consequent death of 26-year old Udayakumar, son of Prabhavathy, in police custody.

Udaykumar was taken into custody by Fort police here on Sept 25, 2005 in a case of theft and allegedly tortured at a police station. He died of severe injuries and broken veins.

The case took several twists and turns with prime witnesses turning hostile, alleged tampering of evidence and documents being forged.

On a petition of Prabhavathy, the high court had directed the CBI to probe the sensational case.

"No mother should face what I have undergone. This should be a lesson to all'" she told reporters outside the CBI court.

"I am happy that the court has delivered the sentence when the Onam festival is just round the corner. They caught my son during the Onam festivities. Before this onam, they have been sentenced. This is a lesson to all," she said.

In this fight for justice, she had stopped going to temples telling herself that she would offer prayers only after the accused were punished, Prabhavathy said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have greeted President Ram Nath Kovind on completing one year in office today.

Kovind, a low-key lawyer-turned-politician, was elected on July 20 last year as India's 14th President. The 71-year-old was the first BJP member and the second Dalit to occupy the country's highest office.

"Convey my greetings to Shri Ramnath Kovind ji on the completion of an eventful year as the beloved President of India," Naidu tweeted after meeting the president.

Prime Minister Modi, who is on a three-nation tour, said Kovind has endeared himself with his wisdom and humility.

"Congratulations to Rashtrapati Ramnath Kovind Ji on completing 1 year in office. He's endeared himself to every Indian with his wisdom and humility," he tweeted.

The PM said Kovind is extremely well versed in key policy issues. "Rashtrapati Ji is also passionate about empowering the youth, farmers & poor," Modi said.

Kovind had defeated joint opposition candidate Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, after garnering 65.65 per cent of the votes in the electoral college.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two brothers -- namesakes of former premier Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif -- cast their votes, as Pakistan went to polls today, local media reported.

Brothers Nawaz and Shehbaz exercised their voting right in Rajanpur 2 assembly constituency of Punjab Province, Geo reported.

The brother duo said their father, Muhammad Sharif, named them after the PML-N leaders owing to his "love for the party".

Former prime minister Sharif, the supremo of the PML-N, is in jail since nearly a fortnight after his conviction in a corruption case. His younger brother Shahbaz replaced him as the PML-N president after the elder Sharif was disqualified by a court.

Shahbaz headed the PML-N government in Punjab province from 2013 to 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has stressed on having NCC units in all schools of the state, so that a sense of nationalism spirit, discipline and the ideals of selfless service, could be instilled among youths.

During a meeting with the Additional Director General of National Cadet Corpse (NCC) of Northeast region, Major General Raju Chauhan, and a team of officials here on Tuesday, Khandu said he seeks to expand the Indian Military Cadet Corps in all higher secondary schools in the state by raising NCC units in all schools.

He said upgrading the 22(I) Coy at Pasighat to a full-fledged battalion and raising of another NCC battalion at Tawang will help in filling up cadet vacancies in those schools, an official statement said here today.

Khandu said it is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the NCC, an Indian military cadet corps with its headquarters in New Delhi, should have its reach in all the border areas of the country.

He assured the visiting NCC officials to provide infrastructure, manpower and financial support for expansion of NCC in Arunachal, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Morocco enjoys political stability and has a forward-looking economic strategy that enabled it to emerge as a regional manufacturing and export base for international companies, said the US State Department in new report on the climate of investment across the globe.

Morocco enjoys political stability, robust infrastructure, and a strategic location, which are helping it emerge as a regional manufacturing and export base for international companies, said the bureau of economic and business affairs in the report.

Morocco is actively encouraging and facilitating foreign investment, particularly in export sectors, through macro-economic policies, trade liberalization, investment incentives, and structural reforms, it said.

The report also highlights how Morocco is building on its assets as a multilingual nation with a tri-regional focus (toward Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and Europe) to transform the country into a regional business hub.

The Government of Morocco has implemented a series of strategies aimed at boosting employment, attracting foreign investment, and raising performance and output in key revenue-earning sectors, such as the automotive and aerospace industries, the report said.

By targeting higher levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and strengthening the linkages between the small business sector and Moroccos industrial leaders, the country is on track to create 500,000 jobs in industry by 2020, the US State Department adds.

Lights were also shed on Moroccos Africa policy as the country has created a financial hub in the Casablanca Finance City offering incentives to firms that locate their regional headquarters in the city.

The return of Morocco to the African Union and its endorsement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) open further opportunities for the growth of the Moroccan economy, the report underscored.

The report also pointed out to improvement areas for Morocco to fully unlock its economic potential saying that the country has to do more in terms of skilled labor, intellectual property rights protection, reduction of government bureaucracy, and increase in the pace of regulatory reform.The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) today dismissed cement manufacturers' plea, challenging the order of fair trade regulator to impose a penalty of Rs 67 billion for alleged cartelisation.

A two-member bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya dismissed a batch of petitions by over 11 cement-makers.

The appeals are dismissed, said the NCLAT, which now is an appellate authority over the (CCI).

In August 2016, had slapped approximately Rs 67 billion penalty on 11 cement firms including UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja, Ramco and JK Cement as well as the industry body Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) for indulging in cartelisation.

This was challenged by the cement makers before the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which had on November 22 stayed CCI's direction to pay 10 per cent of the penalty within a month of the order.

In the August 2016 order, apart from penalising the CMA, had directed all the firms to "cease and desist" from indulging in any activity relating to agreement, understanding or arrangement on prices, production and supply of cement in the market.

CCI had imposed the highest penalty of Rs 11.75 billion on firm

(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.)Pitching for alternate fuel technologies such as CNG and hybrids, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman R C Bhargava has said that the country needs to devise a long term mobility policy to mitigate risks of pollution and dependence on few countries for crude oil.

Although the government's push for electric vehicles (EVs) to replace internal combustion engine vehicles is designed to reduce risks associated with import of crude oil from a few countries, Bhargava said the quantum of imports is projected to rise steadily as the economy grows and the need for mobility becomes even larger.

"As we gradually increase the percentage of electrified vehicles, a very large number of internal combustion engine vehicles would also be produced to meet the total demand," he said in a message to the company's shareholders in the company's Annual Report for 2017-18.

It would obviously be better to use alternative technologies and fuels that reduce the consumption of petrol and diesel, rather than produce only electric cars and internal combustion cars, he added.

CNG is a clean fuel already being used and its usage can expand subject to the distribution network expanding, he added.

"It would be a good intermediate step. Ethanol and Methanol hold promise. Hybrid technology is also available," Bhargava said.

Political events have shown how fragile energy security is and how easily the price and supply of oil can be adversely affected for importing countries like India, he added.

The government's decision to push EVs to replace internal combustion engine vehicles was essentially designed to reduce the risks associated with the import of crude from a few countries, he said.

"The quantum of imports is projected to increase steadily as the economy grows and the need for mobility becomes larger and larger. Even though pollution from cars is still a very small part of the total pollution, this position would change as car ownership grows over the next two decades," Bhargava said.

Calling for a holistic approach, Bhargava said, "Clearly, the country needs to think long term and develop a strategy that would mitigate these risks, both in the short term and the long term."



Terming the potential trade war between the USA and China as negative for the industry, Bhargava said it could lead to other countries also being drawn into this unfortunate course of events.

Besides, oil prices and the Iran problem, create a great deal of uncertainty about energy costs this year, he added.

"Both these events could lead to offsetting some of the benefits of the positive factors. Global events have highlighted the importance of devising and implementing a long-term mobility policy," Bhargava said.

He said the rising price of crude has considerably increased the burden on India's balance of trade.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The colourful stripes of coral reef-dwelling clownfish, made famous by the 2003 animated film Finding Nemo, may serve to warn predators about their poisonous anemone hosts, according to a study.

The research, published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, set out to discover whether there was a link between the distinctive orange-and-white stripes of clown-fish and their anemone hosts.

Clownfish were named for their bright, flamboyant colouring but the function of the colour patterns had not been investigated before.

"They have a unique symbiotic relationship with their anemone hosts, which use stinging tentacles to catch prey, while the clownfish remain unharmed and protected by the anemone," said Jennifer Kelley from the University of Western Australia.

The researchers collected data from 27 species of clownfish and the 10 known species of host anemone. They then tested for an association between fish colour pattern traits and the protective properties of their anemone hosts, including toxicity and tentacle length.

They found that fish with fewer stripes occupied fewer anemone species and hosts with shorter tentacles than fish with multiple stripes.

Anemones with shorter tentacles tended to be more toxic than those with longer tentacles, suggesting a complex evolutionary relationship between clownfish stripes, host specialisation and anemone toxicity.

Kelley said this could be a rare example of an animal that uses its bright colouring to warn predators about the toxicity of another species, perhaps due to the unique nature of this symbiotic relationship.

"It's well known that bright colours in animals can be used to warn predators about prey toxicity before they attack," Kelley said.

"What we found suggests that the clownfish were using their anemone hosts to generate a warning signal to predators that says beware of their bright colours because they are associated with the venomous anemones," she said.

There are many aspects of the clownfish-anemone relationship yet to be tested.

"For example, we do not know how conspicuous the patterns are when viewed against the colourful anemones, or how striped patterns affect the behaviour of predators," said Kelley.

"These findings enhance our understanding of the evolution of symbiosis and the types of benefits that may be obtained through these unique relationships," she said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Streaming giant Netflix today announced a new Indian original film "Brij Mohan Amar Rahe", which would be available on the platform from August 3.

This will be Netflix's third Indian original to be released this year after "Love Per Square Foot" and "Lust Stories".

The trailer of "Brij Mohan Amar Rahe", the first Netflix original from Yoodlee Films, was released today.

The film revolves around the life of Brij Mohan (36), a hosiery shop owner in a busy Delhi market who desperately wants to change his life. It stars Arjun Mathur, Nidhi Singh, Sheetal Thakur, Manav Vij, Sunny Hinduja, Vijayant Kohli and Yogendra Tikku in key roles, Netflix said in a statement.

Director Nikhil Bhat said his film is a comic and complex look at the concept of "Karmic justice", and plays out with "ironic humour".

The film be available to over 130 million Netflix members across 190 countries on August 3, Netflix said.

"We are very proud to have films of the calibre of 'Brij Mohan Amar Rahe' on the service, where millions of film-lovers around the world can discover these strong, captivating stories," Swati Shetty, Director, International Originals and Acquisitions Netflix, said.

"We are also thrilled to get our first collaboration with Saregama off the ground, marking another milestone in our commitment towards forging solid relationships with Indian content creators," she said.

Siddharth Anand Kumar, Vice President, TV and Films, at Saregama said the film's release on the platform would encourage them to continue to make "fearless films" that will reach out to audiences both domestic and international.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre and the Ministry of Power for extending till 2022 the deadline for thermal power plants across the country to adhere to emission norms and asked whether the health of people was "irrelevant" to the government.

A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta termed the situation "hopeless" and said authorities have no will to implement the emission norms due to which citizens were facing the severe ill-effects of air pollution.

Referring to a Ministry of Power affidavit, the bench said it was quite clear that the ministry had no intention to reduce the pollution caused by thermal power plants and even the deadline of 2022 would not be met.

"What about the health of people? Is it irrelevant?" the bench asked the counsel appearing for the Ministry of Power and added "there is no will".

The bench asked Additional Solicitor General A N S Nadkarni, appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), to convene a meeting of the officials concerned of the Ministry of Power and file an affidavit in the court.

The court also said that the affidavit should indicate the number and location of thermal power plants in the country which generate above 500 megawatt electricity and are situated in areas having a population density of 400 per square kilometer.

It said the affidavit should also indicate the timeline to reduce pollution with respect to each thermal power plants.

"Since the matter is of serious concern, we expect the Union of India, the Ministry of Power and the MoEF&CC to take the matter seriously since it (pollution) impacts the health of millions of citizens," the bench said and posted the matter for hearing on August 6.

During the hearing, advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, said that there were 650 thermal power plants in India, of which 82 plants have either retired or would be retired by next year.

At the outset, the amicus said that Ministry of Power was not willing to implement the emission standards for thermal power plants.

"They (ministry) should be kind enough to say on affidavit that they are not going to do anything. We will close the matter," the bench said.

The amicus said the Ministry of Power has rescheduled the deadline from December 2017 to 2022 and the way they were proceeding in the matter, they would not be able to do it even by 2030.

However, the counsel appearing for the Ministry of Power said they would file a detailed affidavit listing the steps that would be taken by them.

"You (ministry) were going to do it by December 2017. Now you are saying 2022. Even in 2022, this does not seem possible. You just say we are incapable of doing this or you do not want to do it. Do not waste time," the bench said.

"Why you have not done it by December 2017? It is a clear indication of your intentions. It is very clear," the court said.

Nadkarni told the bench that compliance should have been done by December 2017 and it was a "gross default" on the part of the authorities.

He told the bench to list the matter for hearing next week and said he would have meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Power and would file a comprehensive affidavit giving all the details.

The court-mandated Pollution Control Authority had earlier filed its report before the bench on emission standards for thermal power plants.

The court was hearing a matter related to the issue of air pollution in the Delhi-national capital region.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)New Zealand's parliament today passed legislation granting paid leave to domestic violence victims, with supporters calling it a groundbreaking measure to help those trying to escape abusive relationships.

Green Party lawmaker Jan Logie said granting victims 10 days of extra leave a year would allow them to "stop the violence and get help without worrying about losing their jobs".

"This is a win for victims, a win for employers, and a win for society," Logie said, describing the move as a "world first" after parliament approved the bill by 63 votes to 57.

It is the first western country to introduce nationwide paid domestic violence leave.

The Philippines in 2004 granted 10 days of paid leave to those suffering domestic violence. Australia's Fair Work Commission in March voted to allow five days of unpaid leave for domestic abuse victims, but a labour union push to match the New Zealand proposal was rejected.

Official data shows New Zealand has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the developed world, with family homicide rates more than twice those of Australia, Canada and Britain on a per capita basis.

Logie, part of a progressive coalition government elected last year, said intervention aimed at helping domestic violence victims often came too late.

"We wait until things get really bad or someone gets killed and then we wring our hands," she said.

Logie said the leave entitlement would give those seeking to escape violent relationships time to perform practical tasks such as attending court dates, moving house and settling children in new schools.

The conservative opposition National Party opposed the legislation, saying it was well intentioned but could affect victims' chances of getting a job.

"Employers will start to filter and look at whether or not they want to hire someone that may present a risk around domestic violence because ultimately it could impact on their business," National's justice spokesman Mark Mitchell told Newshub.

New Zealand has a track record of being progressive on women's issues -- in 1893 it became the first country to give women the right to vote.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union minister and chief of



Rashtriya Lok Samata Party Upendra Kushwaha today created a flutter by saying that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should voluntarily "give up the bid" for a fourth term in office in 2020.

In an interview to a channel here, Kushwaha said Kumar had served as chief minister for close to 15 years and the time had come for him to consider "giving somebody else a chance".

"It has been close to 15 years since Nitish Kumar was first blessed with the mandate to govern Bihar. It is a pretty long period for a leader to prove his mettle. I think he should now himself give up the bid for another term", Kushwaha said.

The RLSP chief was replying to a query about the likelihood of Kumar facing a tough time in the next state polls due to anti-incumbency.

Kushwaha, the Union minister of state for the HRD, said "I have known Kumar for long and as far as I have understood his personality, he would himself not run for another term".

"He (Kumar) could aim at a bigger political role for himself", he added cryptically.

Kushwaha's comment comes in the backdrop of a number of leaders from his party expressing the view that he would be a better chief ministerial candidate for the NDA in Bihar than Kumar.

A former close associate of Kumar, Kushwaha had floated his own party after resigning from JD(U) in 2013. He allied with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll when Kumar was out of the NDA and his RLSP won three seats.

Although RLSP has two MLAs, none of its members got a ministerial berth after Kumar formed a government with the BJP last year after walking out of the Grand Alliance which comprised RJD and Congress, besides JD(U).

The ruling NDA in Bihar now comprises the JD(U), the BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and the RLSP.

The RLSP leaders have been pointing out that Kushwaha belongs to the Koeri caste, which is a much larger social group than the Kurmi community represented by Kumar.

Kushwaha had skipped the dinner meet hosted by BJP in Patna last month to celebrate the completion of four years in power by the Narendra Modi government. The other NDA allies were present at the meet.

The meeting happened to be the first such function held after the return of Kumar, who is also the JD(U) national president, to the BJP-led coalition a year earlier.

Meanwhile, RLSP national secretary and spokesman Madhaw Anand issued a press statement urging the chief minister to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.

In his statement, Anand alleged that the Muzaffarpur scandal could turn out to be "larger than Nithari" if it was properly investigated.

He cited the statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who had said in Parliament yesterday that the Centre would consider a CBI inquiry if a request to this effect was made by the state government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Notwithstanding the demand from the airlines, the government today said there was no proposal to bring Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) under GST.

"At present, there is no proposal to include ATF under GST," Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said in the Rajya Sabha today.

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu had earlier told PTI that the move will help cut the cost as airlines would get input tax credit.

ATF constitutes approximately 35-40 per cent of operational cost of an airline in India.

Sinha's statement come against the backdrop of Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey meeting senior officials of the Finance Ministry to impress the need for bringing ATF under GST.

Airlines, which are making a persistent demand for this, maintain that they would get an annual relief of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 crore if ATF is included in GST.

In his written reply, Sinha said no analysis has been made on the impact of higher jet fuel prices on the airlines.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Lok Sabha today witnessed heated exchanges between the opposition and the government over the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, with the former terming its cost exorbitant and the latter alleging that the previous regime had sanctioned projects for "narrow political gains".

As the House took up a question related to the Rs 1.10 lakh crore project during the Question Hour, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the cost of the high speed rail corridor was exorbitant and the amount could have been spent on activities like doubling of thousands of kilometres of railway tracks or opening up of new divisions.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal alleged during the Congress rule, the railway projects were sanctioned keeping in view "narrow political gains" and railway ministers then sanctioned many projects in their own constituencies, without caring about the health of the Railways.

Goyal said the project was funded by a 50-year loan from Japan for an interest of just 0.1 per cent and there was a moratorium on the repayment of the loan for 15 years.

He said there were projects sanctioned by the Congress- led government which did not kick off even after 40 years.

The remarks invited vociferous protests from Congress MPs which were countered by BJP members. As the turmoil continued for quite some time, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan moved on to the next question.

Earlier, Goyal said the land acquisition process for 1,484 hectares has been initiated in 12 districts along the alignment of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high speed rail project, falling in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The master implementation programme for the project has been prepared and in the feasibility report, the project completion date is indicated as December 2023, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Larsen and Toubro today said that it has not so far not received any letter or notice from the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) or any authority.

The statement comes a day after the government informed Parliament that SFIO has received complaints against private sector lender ICICI Bank and engineering firm Larsen and Toubro.

The probe agency comes under the corporate affairs ministry.

"According to media reports...SFIO has received a complaint against the company alleging 'thousands of crores' of financial irregularities, including money laundering and tax evasion. The media report further stated that SFIOs Mumbai Regional Office has written to the Head Office in Delhi stating that 'it is a fit case to be investigated'.

"We wish to inform the exchange that the company has so far not received any letter or notice from SFIO or any Authority on this matter nor any letter or notice from NHAI black listing the company on account of any default of its road subsidiaries/ projects," the company said in a BSE filing.

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs P P Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha yesterday said that



"SFIO receives various complaints against companies. Complaints have been received against Mehul Choksi, ICICI and L&T".

However, the minister did not provide details of the complaints about ICICI and L&T.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)When ICE, as part of a wider crackdown on immigration by the new administration, tried to deport Indra Sihotang, he knew he couldnt board the plane to leave. With a wife and four U.S.-born sons  and all of them depending on him as their financial provider  he refused.

After he defied ICE, Sihotang was kicked and beaten, resulting in injuries, his wife Risma Fadersair says, resulted in hospitalization.

A Christian and a welder with a clean record, never having been arrested or charged with a crime in the United States, Indra Sihotang has been in the U.S. since 2003, when he entered on a visitors visa. In 2005, he filed for asylum (in his home country, Indonesia, Christians are persecuted for their beliefs, in a predominantly Muslim country); in 2016, his application was denied. Since then, Sihotang had remained in the U.S., on an order of supervision, until September 7, 2017, when he was detained during a routine check-in.

Now with no income and four boys  aged 8, 9, 5, and 3  one of whom has Down syndrome that requires intense therapy, the Sihotang family is in crisis. This short is a look at how their life has been upturned since ICE took their dad, and the lengths they go to see him.Public sector undertaking Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has emerged as the highest Corporate Tax Payer in the North Eastern Region for the Assessment Year (AY) 2017-18, a company release said today.

The refinery was honoured for the feat on the occasion of the 158th Income Tax Day celebration here last evening.

A Category-I Miniratna PSU having the largest installed capacity of 3.0 MMTPA in the North-East, the NRL has paid Corporate Income Tax of Rs 934.97 crore for the AY 2017-18, the release said.

The refinery has also paid Dividend Distribution Tax of Rs 202.17 crore, taking the tally of total taxes paid to Rs 1137.14 crore.

During FY 2017-18, the company's revenue from operations has increased by 14.17 per cent to Rs 15,923.19 crore as against Rs 13,946.92 crore during FY 2016-17.

Profit for the FY 2017-18 was impressive at Rs 2,044.65 crore as against Rs 2,100.57 crore in FY 2016-17, the release said.

The NRL has a product range comprising LPG, Naphtha, Motor Spirit (Petrol), Aviation Turbine Fuel, High Speed Diesel, Superior Kerosene Oil, Raw/Calcined Petroleum Coke, Sulphur and Paraffin Wax.

Post commissioning of its Wax Plant in March, 2015, the NRL has emerged as the largest Wax producing unit in the country, the release added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Stock Exchange and the Singapore Exchange today said that they have resumed discussions on a potential collaboration in Gujarat's international financial services centre while the ongoing arbitration proceedings have been deferred pending outcome of the talks.

The two would jointly engage and consult relevant stakeholders on the proposed collaboration in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC).

Market participants believe that the discussions could be related to getting liquidity from offshore markets to the GIFT City.

"The SGX and the NSE have resumed discussions on a potential collaboration in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City International Financial Services Centre (GIFT IFSC)," the Indian bourse said in a statement.

Since February, the NSE and the SGX have been locked in a tussle after the domestic bourse and others decided to stop licensing their indices to foreign bourses from August this year. Later in April, the SGX announced listing of new Indian equity derivative products from June.

Amid concerns over liquidity migrating overseas, the NSE's index company IISL had moved the Bombay High Court, which restrained the SGX from launching the new products and referred the matter for arbitration.

"The injunction against the new products..., first imposed by the Bombay High Court, has been extended and continues until completion of the arbitration proceedings," the NSE had said on June 16.

The injunction from the Bombay High Court was against three products that SGX proposed to launch in June. They were SGX India Futures, SGX Options on SGX India Futures and SGX India bank futures.

The existing licence for the SGX Nifty contracts stands extended for two successive contract months beyond the arbitration award date, the NSE had said.

In today's statements, the bourses said that pending the outcome of the discussions, the arbitrator has granted a deferment of the arbitration proceedings between the SGX and IISL, the NSE's index company.

The directions under the arbitration order remain effective, as per the statements.

Prior to the tussle, both exchanges were in discussions for potential collaboration in the GIFT IFSC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The anti-terror commando force, NSG, has been deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for strengthening the existing security grid, Union Minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said today.

The government has decided to deploy a task force of the National Security Guard (NSG) in the Kashmir Valley to strengthen the existing security grid and undertake capacity building training of the Jammu and Kashmir Police and the Central Armed Police Forces, he said in the Rajya Sabha.

In another written reply, the Minister of State for Home said during the Ramzan ceasefire, from May 17 to June 17, 2018, as many as 117 incidents of stone pelting were reported in Jammu and Kashmir as against 219 during in the period of April 15 to May 16, 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Odisha government today said it will provide detail information to the Geographical Indication officials by the first week of August for the GI tag of 'Odishara Rasagola'.

"We had received a letter from the office of the Controller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks in June seeking detailed information on 14 questions on this issue within a month, " Odisha Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) minister Prafulla Samal told reporters here.

Samal said "we have decided to submit the compliance report in the first week of August."



Odisha Finance minister SB Behera on the other hand said that the state government had already replied to some of the questions and details on the remaining will be provided soon.

The Odisha Small Industries Corporation (OSIC) on February 23, had filed an application at the GI Registry office in Chennai seeking the tag for 'Odishara Rasagola' with all relevant documents justifying its origin and uniqueness, Samal said.

Odisha had entered into a dispute with neighbouring West Bengal over the origin of rasagola. However, the West Bengal government has obtained the GI tag for'Banglar Rosogola' in 2017.

Meanwhile, 'Rasagola Day' was observed in different parts of Odisha with people exchanging the syrupy sweet among themselves.

The day has cultural link with Lord Jagannath as people in large number offer the sweet to the Lord before "Niladri Vije" (return to the temple) marking the end of rath jatra festival.

According to legend Lord Jagannath, before entering into the 12th century shrine after rath jatra, offer rasagola to Goddess Laxmi in order to pacify her. Goddess Laxmi was angry as the Lord did not take her on rath jatra.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 40-year-old policeman was killed and another one injured in an attack by an absconding accused and his relatives in Jamunia Jeth village in the district early today, police said.

The incident prompted the opposition Congress to slam the BJP-led government in the state saying that "anti-social elements, mafia and scamsters have no fear left" and the "rule of law has ceased to exist" in MP.

The attack took place when the policemen went to nab Jouhar Singh (30), against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in connection with an assault case, police said.

The deceased was identified as Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Devchandra Nagle, police said adding that eight accused, including Singh and three women, were arrested for the assault.

"The incident took place around 6 am when Nagle and some other policemen went to catch Jouhar Singh, an absconding accused against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in an assault case. The policemen approached his house following a tip-off," a police official said.

"As soon as the police team spotted the accused inside his house and tried to catch him, the latter along with his relatives and others, including women, attacked them with sticks and an axe," Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Neeraj Soni said.

"Nagle died on the spot, while another policeman was injured in the incident," he said.

The injured policeman was later taken to the district hospital, where he is currently undergoing treatment, Soni said.

Police have so far arrested eight of the 11 attackers and a search has been launched to nab the remaining three accused.

Expressing sorrow over the ASI's death, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Ajay Singh said the incident proved that the rule of law no longer existed in Madhya Pradesh, and blamed the ruling BJP for it.

"The killing of Nagle in the attack by miscreants shows that the rule of law has ended in Madhya Pradesh. Anti- social elements, mafia and scamsters have no fear of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led government," he told reporters in Bhopal.

Singh said shielding of such anti-social elements by the ruling BJP has led to attacks on policemen on several occasions in the past.

State Congress chief Kamal Nath termed the incident as "painful" and said it showed how audacious the criminals in the state have become.

"Policemen went to catch a criminal, who attacked them and killed one of them. The incident clearly reflects the state of affairs in Madhya Pradesh. Even the respect of uniform is not safe in the state," Nath said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 40-year-old policeman was killed and another one was injured in an attack by an absconding accused and his relatives in Jamunia Jeth village in the district early today, police said.

The attack took place when the policemen went to catch Jouhar Singh (30), against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in connection with an assault case, police said.

The deceased was identified as Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Devchandra Nagle, police said adding that eight accused, including Singh and three women, were arrested for today's assault.

"The incident took place around 6 am when Nagle and some other policemen went to catch Jouhar Singh, an absconding accused against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in an assault case. The policemen approached his house following a tip-off," a police official said.

"As soon as the police team spotted the accused in his house and tried to catch him, the latter along with his relatives and others, including women, attacked them with sticks and axe. Nagle suffered critical injuries in the incident, which also left another policeman injured," Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Neeraj Soni said.

Nagle died on the spot, while the injured policeman was later taken to the district hospital, where he is currently undergoing treatment, he said.

Police have so far arrested eight of the 11 attackers and a search was launched to nab the remaining three accused.

Soni said the last rites of the deceased ASI will be performed as per the rules and he will be given a guard of honour for his bravery.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)West Bengal Transport Minister Subhendu Adhikari today said the state government is toying with the idea of re-introducing double-decker buses in the city with a new feature - these buses would be open top like those in London.

There are plans to ply four to five double-decker buses initially and the transport secretary was sent to London to do a survey, Adhikari said in the assembly.

He later told reporters that these buses would have no roof like those in London.

To a query, he said it was not decided yet whether these buses would be for tourists visiting the city.

Adhikari said body quotes would also have to obtained from the bus manufacturers.

Double decker buses used to ply in the city earlier but the services were phased out.

During the question hour session, Adhikari said during the Left Front rule, the state transport corporations had a total of 2500 buses.

At present, the number have gone up to 3200 after withdrawing old and rickety buses from the roads.

He also said helicopter services would start at Purulia and temple town Tarapith from Kolkata soon.

The Charra airport at Purulia would also start functioning for which work was going on.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition members today expressed anguish in the Rajya Sabha over the increasing cases of cases of sexual abuse against women in the country, blaming the law enforcement agencies of not doing their job properly.

"I am so embarassed to stand every second day and talk about (women) security," Jaya Bachchan of the Samajwadi Party said during the Zero Hour after Congress member Kumari Selja raised the issue.

The SP member stressed that she would continue to raise the issue of women's security regularly.

Raising the issue of crime against women, the Congress MP said the law enforcing agencies were not doing their work properly, despite strict laws.

Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu too said that "political will and administrative skill" were required to "go for the kill of the social evil".

He stressed everyone should work together to address the menace.

In his Zero Hour mention, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh narrated his experience after his 'Narmada Parikarma" and spoke about the worsening situation of the river.

He said the water flow and level in the river has declined due to deforestation and unauthorised sand mining in the catchment area, while making several suggestions for the restoration of the river.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar (BJP) stressed the need for a review of environmental regulators and said that lakes were dying in Bengaluru due to the apathy of the state government.

He said the only option recourse left with people was the National Green Tribunal and said the state environment regulators should be "functional".

Raising the issue of the updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, Congress member Sanjay Sinh alleged that there has been discrimination against non- Assamese and people were being illegally detained.

Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju promptly denied the allegations.

TMC member Derek O'Brien said that under the 2013 Companies Act, firms could contribute two per cent of their profits (three-year average annual profit) towards the Prime Minister Relief Fund as part of corporate social responsibility, but cannot contribute to the Chief Minister's relief fund.

"Why not to 29 Chief Ministers' relief funds," he wondered and said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Over 3,700 Naxals have surrendered before the authorities in last four years, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Union minister of state for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde said during the last four years, 3,714 Left Wing Extremists (LWE) have surrendered as per the available records of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

It has been found that almost all the surrendered LWE do not have requisite qualification for admission in ITIs for skill training. Hence, the government has relaxed the entry qualification of surrendered Naxals, he said, replying to a written question.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)As many as 447 persons were detained across the city today as protesters demanding reservation for the Maratha community took to the streets.

Protesters attacked buses, stoned local trains and indulged in arson.

"We have taken 447 people in custody and the process of registration of offences against them is going on," a police spokesperson said.

Maratha organisations had given a call for Bandh in Mumbai and surrounding areas today.

Protests were held at 45 places in the city, and in some places the civic-run BEST buses were stoned, roads were blockaded and public property was damaged, the spokesperson said.

In adjoining Thane city, police detained 20 persons for vandalising public property.

Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh said some "mischievous elements" indulged in violence even though the leaders of the agitation tried to maintain peace.

"We have registered offences and so far detained 20 persons. We have also identified some more persons who were involved in these acts," he said.

Police burst teargas shells to disperse a mob which went on a rampage at Nitin Junction, Singh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UPDATED

Congress passed a bipartisan overhaul of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act on Wednesday and sent it for signature to President Donald Trump, who has made career and technical education, or CTE, a priority for his administration.

The $1.1 billion program, last reauthorized in 2006, provides funding for job training and related programs for high school students, many of whom may be seeking postsecondary options other than a four-year college degree, as well as for students in higher education. The Senate bill to revamp Perkins was co-authored by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and is called the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act. The House, which passed its own version of a Perkins reauthorization last year, approved CTE reauthorization as amended by the Senate version. The legislation passed via voice vote.

Momentum behind the Perkins legislation has grown in recent weeks, after a lobbying effort by the Trump administration on Capitol Hill that included presidential senior adviser Ivanka Trump, who is Trumps daughter. The legislation sailed through the Senate education committee last month and was lavished with praise by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Here are a few highlights of the legislation that we mentioned last month when the bill was introduced:



The secretary of education would be barred from dictating states CTE assessments or standards. States would also set their own goals under the legislation.



States would have to make meaningful progress toward meeting their own goals under the proposed bill.

The legislation creates core indicators for the performance of students concentrating in CTE, including their graduation rate and the percentage who continue on to either postsecondary education or advanced training within a certain time frame.

It also requires schools to align career and technical education programs with the needs of the state or local communities.

Trump on Tuesday urged lawmakers to send him the bill:

On the heels of the VERY successful launch of the @WhiteHouse National Council for the American Worker, Congress should reauthorize #PerkinsCTE and ensure the American workforce remains stronger than EVER! #Jobs #Workforce  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018

And U.S. Secretary of Betsy DeVos also chimed in Monday to support the Perkins push:

Pleased to see the strong support for #PerkinsCTE bill. One step closer to giving students more options to prepare for in-demand careers.  Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) July 24, 2018

Calling the Perkins reauthorization long overdue, Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., who worked on the House version of CTE legislation, said on the House floor Wednesday before the vote that, It will restore rungs on the ladder of opportunity.

The business community lobbied for Congress to reauthorize Perkins. And education groups like the American Federation of Teachers and the Council of Chief State School Officers praised the legislations progress. (AFT President Randi Weingarten also called for lawmakers to increase spending on CTE, something that both House and Senate lawmakers who oversee education spending seem interested in doing based on their proposals for fiscal 2019.)

However, other groups have concerns. The Association for Career and Technical Education and Advance CTE, for example, say they worry the legislation could lead to states setting unambitious performance targets for students focusing on CTE, as well as create a heavy administrative burden for schools.

Although Perkins is a popular program, Congress failed to get a reauthorization over the finish line in the last Congress, after squabbling in the Senate in late 2016 over the proper role of the education secretary killed its chances.

Photo: Keaton Turner, a junior at Warren County High School, welds a during an advanced manufacturing class in McMinnville, Tenn. (Joe Buglewicz for Education Week)

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .Trumps downtown D.C. hotel. Photo: George Rose/Getty Images

A federal judge Wednesday said a lawsuit against President Trump that accuses him of violating the Constitutions foreign emoluments clauses can continue, despite attempts by his lawyers to have it thrown out of court.

The suit focuses on Trumps interest in the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which has seen a flood of activity from foreign governments since his inauguration. The attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia contend that payments from these governments violates a Constitutional clause that forbids federal officials from accepting payments and gifts from foreign governments.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte wrote that public records make it clear that foreign governments have patronized the hotel precisely because of the presidents association with it. Given Trumps refusal to remove himself from the Trump Organization, payments from those companies could plausibly be considered emoluments, Messitte wrote.

The Justice Department and lawyers for the Trump Organization have argued that the reading of the clause put forward by the plaintiffs is inaccurate. The Founding Fathers meant it to prevent officials from taking bribes, they say. The Justice Department has pledged to continue fighting the case and is expected to quickly appeal to a higher court.

Meanwhile, District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine celebrated the ruling in a statement: Todays historic ruling is a substantial step forward to ensure President Trump stops violating our nations original anti-corruption laws. The Constitution is clear: the president cant accept money or other benefits from foreign or domestic governments.The Election Commission of Pakistan tonight rejected the allegations of any wrongdoing in the general election held yesterday after several political parties raised objections over the process and said they feared rigging.

The ECP said the election results were being collected and the first official result will be announced in an hour.

ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob said Result Transmission Service failed after results of 25,000 out of 85,000 polling stations were uploaded.

He rejected any wrongdoing in the election and said "the issue of fraud can be discussed after ECP announces the results."



The Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has claimed victory despite serious questions being raised over the authenticity of the election process.

Sensing victory, PTI supporters erupted in jubilation as trends showed the party was leading on 111 seats.

According to latest trends available, PTI was followed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz of jailed leader Nawaz Sharif. PML-N was leading on 68 National Assembly seats.

Hundreds of PTI supporters came out on streets in several cities, dancing and celebrating.

"We have got our Naya Pakistan," said Shahid Ali, one of the supporters, as he danced euphorically near the busy Faizabad interchange, which links Islamabad with the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The Press Trust of India correspondent was caught for several hours in traffic when returning from the election coverage as highly-charged PTI workers raised victory slogans.

Reports said similar celebrations were being organised in other cities as well.

The victory and joy in the PTI camp appeared premature as the incumbent PML-N and Bilawal Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party rejected the results. "Our polling agents were not given results and we will not accept it," said Khurshid Shah of PPP.

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif alleged that the election process was "blatantly" rigged. He warned of protests.

Analysts predicted tumultuous weeks ahead for Pakistan as a strong opposition to the election results was building up.

PML-N was leading on 67 seats and PPP on 39. "They will make a lethal combination if they joined hands against Imran Khan," analyst Sohail Warriach said.

A party can form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats out of the total 342.

A single party will need at least 137 of the 272 directly-elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistanis voted today in a tense election to choose a new government as at least 35 people were killed in an ISIS suicide attack and poll-related violence, amidst charges of manipulation by the powerful Army and concerns over the participation of Islamic hardliners.

Hours after polling began for the general elections, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in Bhosa Mandi area of Balochistan's provincial capital, Quetta, killing 31 people, including policemen.

In separate incidents, four persons were killed in poll-related violence. Clashes erupted between rival parties outside several polling stations, reports said.

Nearly 10.6 crore people are registered to vote for members of the lower house of parliament and four provincial assemblies. The election marks the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year history.

The voting started at 8 AM local time on more than 85,000 polling stations. The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after the conclusion of the polling process at 6 PM and results will be announced within 24 hours.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 AM, enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 AM.

Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa cast his vote in Rawalpindi.

Shahbaz Sharif, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who is hoping to become the next prime minister, was among the first to cast his vote in Lahore.

"Just cast my vote. High time that all of you came out to vote for Pakistan's progress and prosperity. May this election be a source of peace and stability for the nation!," he tweeted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The gunman who killed two persons and injured 13 others in a deadly mass shooting in Canada's largest city Toronto has been identified as Pakistani-origin Faisal Hussain, according to the police.

Hussain, 29, was suffering from psychosis and was getting professional help, Canada's public broadcaster CBC reported.

A resident of Toronto, Hussain worked in a grocery store.

On Sunday, he opened fire in Toronto's vibrant Greektown neighbourhood, killing a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. Thirteen people were also injured in the shooting, some with potentially life-altering injuries.

Later, Hussain died after a brief exchange of gunfire with the police on Danforth Avenue. It was not immediately clear whether he shot himself dead or was killed by the police.

The motive behind the shooting, rare in Toronto, was also not immediately knwon.

Hussain was not on any federal watchlists associated with the national security, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.

His family, originally from Pakistan, said in a statement that their son was in the grips of untreatable and severe mental illness for "his entire life". Neither professionals, nor medication nor therapy could help him, they said.

They said that Hussain struggled with psychosis and depression and that they were devastated by his violent actions.

Toronto police executed a search warrant at Hussain's apartment in the Thorncliffe Park area.

The federal public safety minister's office said that the police will continue to lead the investigation into Hussain's background.

"There is no national security nexus at this time," communications officer Hilary Peirce said.

Eight years ago, Hussain had disclosed to his friend Aamir Sukhera that he was suffering from psychosis and was getting professional help, the report said.

Meanwhile, there have been renewed calls for tougher restrictions on firearms after the shooting.

Goodale said that the government is prepared to consider tightening handgun laws.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Pakistani-origin man has been identified by the Canadian police as the gunman who killed two persons and injured 13 others in a deadly mass shooting incident in Toronto claimed by the ISIS terror group.

Faisal Hussain, 29, was suffering from psychosis and was getting professional help, Canada's public broadcaster CBC reported.

The Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL), said Hussain was "one of the soldiers of the Islamic State".

"He carried out the attack in response to calls to target nationals of countries of the coalition" fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014, the terror group's propaganda agency Amaq reported today.

The Ontario Special Investigations Unit said it was releasing his name due "to the exceptional circumstances of this tragic incident".

A resident of Toronto, Hussain worked in a grocery store.

On Sunday, he opened fire in Toronto's vibrant Greektown neighbourhood, killing a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman. Thirteen people were also injured in the shooting, some with potentially life-altering injuries.

Later, Hussain died after a brief exchange of gunfire with the police on Danforth Avenue. It was not immediately clear whether he shot himself dead or was killed by the police.

The motive behind the shooting, rare in Toronto, was also not immediately knwon.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to twitter to express his condolences to the affected families.

"My thoughts are with everyone affected by the terrible tragedy on the Danforth last night in Toronto, and may the injured make a full recovery. The people of Toronto are strong, resilient and brave - and we'll be there to support you through this difficult time," Trudeau said.

Hussain was not on any federal watchlists associated with the national security, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.

His family, originally from Pakistan, said in a statement that their son was in the grips of untreatable and severe mental illness for "his entire life". Neither professionals, nor medication nor therapy could help him, they said.

They said that Hussain struggled with psychosis and depression and that they were devastated by his violent actions.

Toronto police executed a search warrant at Hussain's apartment in the Thorncliffe Park area.

The federal public safety minister's office said that the police will continue to lead the investigation into Hussain's background.

"There is no national security nexus at this time," communications officer Hilary Peirce said.

Eight years ago, Hussain had disclosed to his friend Aamir Sukhera that he was suffering from psychosis and was getting professional help, the report said.

Meanwhile, there have been renewed calls for tougher restrictions on firearms after the shooting.

Goodale said that the government is prepared to consider tightening handgun laws.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 81-year-old Pakistani-origin man who fathered three children by his own daughter has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for committing incest at Bradford Crown Court in the UK.

Ashraf Khan, now 81, had pleaded guilty on three charges of incest dating back to the 1980s and was sentenced by a court in northern England yesterday.

His abuse of his daughter was only discovered after she confessed to her husband on her deathbed.

"You are a very dishonourable and wicked gentleman, we all now see," Judge Jonathan Durham Hall told Khan in the court.

"Her deathbed confession, how dreadful that must have been. Unburdening her soul about this awful trauma she had carried with her," he said.

The judge also described the woman's husband as an honourable man because he continued to care for the children even after a DNA test confirmed his wife's revelation.

The victim, born in Pakistan, married her husband there in the early 1980s, before moving to Bradford to join him and her father. She went on to give birth to three children in that decade before passing away in the early 1990s.

After her confession, her husband reported the offences to West Yorkshire Police in 2012 and Khan was questioned about the allegations on his returned to the UK from Pakistan in 2016. He initially denied the charges but pleaded guilty to incest as evidence against him mounted closer to the trial.

A medical report concerning the three children had found various ailments said to be "directly attributed to their incestual parentage", including an inability to feel certain kinds of pain, resulting in injuries such as burns during their childhoods.

In a joint victim impact statement, the children said Khan's offending had caused psychological damage and impacted on their physical health.

They also paid tribute to their mother's husband for his "fortitude and selflessness throughout the years", according to local media reports.

The joint statement read: "No amount of words can explain what we have been through or what we are going through.

"You hear and read about men who commit incest never thinking it would happen in your own family, especially to your own mother.

The guidelines for an offence of incest in the UK covers a maximum sentence of two years, but with 18-month sentences for each of the three counts to run consecutively, Khan will serve a total prison term of 54 months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic is aiming for revenues of Rs 12,300 crore in India this fiscal, driven by its refrigerator and TV businesses.

Panasonic India reported revenues of about Rs 10,500 crore in the previous financial year.

The company also expects its B2B business to contribute almost half of its revenues by FY 2020-21 as it is expanding its presence in the segment.

Panasonic today also introduced new models of OLED and 4K TVs here to strengthen its presence in the segment.

"This financial year, we are looking at Rs 12,300 crore revenue overall. Last year we had closed around Rs 10,500 crore," Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma told PTI.

This includes Panasonic's revenue from its step-down firm Anchor Electricals.

"Our intention is to grow for three years with a CAGR of 20 per cent and this year, we are looking for 30 per cent growth in TV," he added.

"By FY 2020-21, we expect our B2B business to contribute half of our revenue," Sharma said.

Panasonic also expects its consumer business to be double in the next three years.

"Last year, we had Rs 7,800 crore from the consumer business (including Anchor) and we are looking it at Rs 9,100 crore this financial year," said Sharma who is also vice president, Appliances Company, Panasonic Corporation.

"Last year, B2B was Rs 2,300 crore and this year it is expected to be Rs 3,200 crore," he said.

In the mobile phone market, where Panasonic is struggling, the company has decided to focus only on the niche segment.

"We are looking at Rs 800 crore this year and the strategy in mobile is to focus on niche segment of Rs 9,000 and above," he said.

In the TV segment, the company expects its 4K range of televisions to account for around 25 per cent share of sales this fiscal.

"This year we are looking at 1.2 million units of sales which is 11 to 12 per cent of value share. Market share is currently 9 per cent and next year, we are looking at 11 to 12 per cent," he said.

"From less than one million units last year, we are looking up to 1.5 to 1.6 million unit in next three years" Sharma said.

The TV market in India is estimated to be around 12.5 million units. It is growing at around 10 per cent every year and is expected to touch 14 million units in 2018, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A on Wednesday came down hard on the for inadequate allocation of funds for the armed forces in the defence budget, saying the country cannot afford complacency in dealing with security challenges, particularly when there was a possibility of a two-front war.

In its report to Lok Sabha, the committee on estimates also referred to allocation of 1.56 per cent of the GDP to the three services in the defence budget, noting that it was lowest since India and China fought a war in 1962.

"In the current geo-political scenario, a country of the size of India cannot afford complacency when it is a question of defence preparedness," the committee headed by former Union minister and senior BJP MP said.The latest report came nearly four months after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence had slammed the government for insufficient allocation of funds to the Army, and the Air Force.

The report also talked about the need for the country's preparedness for a potential two-front war with Pakistan and China while strengthening India's influence in the Indian Ocean.

The committee criticised the government's "abysmally low" capital expenditure as a percentage of total defence services allocation. The capital expenditure accounts for procurement of weapons, military platforms and equipment.

"... Any decrease in capital expenditure has an adverse impact on modernisation process of our forces and tantamount to compromising safety and security of our country," it said.



It also said that there was an urgent need to replace the "obsolete armaments" with state of the art weapon systems for which substantial increase in capital budget is essential.

In the Union budget, the government had allocated Rs 2.95 trillion to defence forces which is estimated to be around 1.56 per cent of the country's GDP. The armed forces were known to be unhappy with the allocation.

The had told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence that it was was reeling under severe financial crunch and struggling to even make emergency procurement when China and Pakistan were carrying out modernisation of their defence forces in "full swing".

In its report, the Committee on Estimates also underlined the need for having synergy between the services and the defence public sector undertakings, saying it is absolutely important for defence preparedness of the country.

It also asked the defence ministry to take steps to cut delays in procurement process of weapons and military hardware.

The panel recommended that the ministry may take appropriate steps to constitute an integrated institutional mechanism consisting of all key stakeholders in order to reduce delays in procurement process.



ALSO READ: Why India is not yet ready to have joint theatre defence commands

Coming down hard on Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for delays in various projects, it also said the premier institute needs to work with "clearly defined" objectives to develop weapons and platforms.

"The committee are of the view that the functioning of DRDO needs a major overhaul and its contribution in the context of country's requirements need to be re-examined," it said.

The panel said it was surprised to note that India has to depend on foreign suppliers not just for sophisticated weapons but also for basic defence armaments.

The committee also said the country has to prepare for future wars and the Army, and the Air Force should work together for it.

"Future warfare is headed towards cyber warfare, drones, automated warfare systems and stealth technology," it said.

It, however, emphasised that preparation for future warfare should be made without compromising on readiness for conventional warfare.Parliament today passed a bill that seeks to prevent big economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from fleeing the country and evading the legal process.

The Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote today. The Lok Sabha had cleared the measure on July 19.

Finance MInister Piyush Goyal said instances of people running away and evading legal legal process was increasing, which needed to be stopped as the current laws do not allow dealing with the "severity of the problem".

"Criminal law does not allow us to impound their property," he added.

"This bill is an effective, expeditious and constitutional way to stop these offenders from running away. Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders till they don't present themselves in front of the courts. We will also work out what has to be done with the confiscated assets," Goyal said.

While replying to the debate, he said there cannot be a situation where economic offenders run away from the country and also protect their properties.

Justifying the financial limit of Rs 100 crore for invoking the provision of this new law, Goyal said it was being done to catch the big offenders and not to clog the courts.

The Enforcement Directorate will be the investigative agency under the Act, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu today said the people's "hatred" towards the Congress has diminished following speeches by the party's leaders in Rajya Sabha on the state reorganisation act.

"The Congress leaders speeches in Rajya Sabha yesterday during the short discussion on implementation of AP Reorganisation Act, have reduced the (state) people's hatred towards them.

At the same time, BJP leaders have betrayed arrogance," Naidu told his party MPs via a teleconference today.

The remarks seem to indicate that the TDP is ready to join hands with the Congress to take on BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress and other opposition parties recently extended support to the TDP on its no-confidence motion against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha.

Naidu used to be critical of the Congress since the state's bifurcation in 2014 and his apparent bonhomie with the party began when he shared stage with Rahul Gandhi at Bengaluru during H D Kumaraswamys swearing-in ceremony in May.

The TDP had formally quit the BJP-led NDA earlier this year after the latter denied special category to the state.

Naidu has recently said his party will not join the NDA even if BJP approaches it for the 2019 general elections.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Madras High Court was today informed that when the ruling party MLAs present a petition



against the chief minister, the only role the governor has in such situation is to dissolve the government.

"Petitioning him to do his constitutional duty is nothing but asking him to dissolve the government, which attracts anti-defection law," Aryama Sundram, senior counsel for Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal said.

He was making his submission before Justice M Sathyanarayanan during the hearing of the pleas challenging the disqualification of the MLAs loyal to sideline leader T T V Dhinakaran by the speaker on September 18 last year.

The allegation made by the 18 MLAs against the speaker saying he was trying to create an "artificial majority" in case of a floor test implies that if the legislators were not removed there will not be a majority for the government, he added.

Alleging that the government headed by the chief minister was in constitutional crisis, they wanted the AIADMK party to remove the chief minister, who was elected by the majority, and when the party refused to address their grievance, they petitioned the governor against the stand taken by the party.

"If they are in disagreement with the decision of the party, they should have left the party or if they wanted to remain in the party they should do so and try to settle the issue internally.

"But choosing to petition the governor clearly implies that they are acting against the party," Sundaram said.

"One should either subscribe to the ideology or stand of a political party, or he does not belong to the party at all. The question of whether a person has left the party also depends on the fact whether he subscribes to the stand of the party.

The petitioners might want to bring 'Rama Rajyam' (Rule of Ram), but they should do so by floating their own party," the counsel said.

"The entire episode is due to the merger of OPS faction with EPS faction, which had angered T T V Dhinakaran who made the MLAs to petition the governor," Sundaram asserted.

The speaker is a constitutional post, the head of the assembly and enjoys the same status of the judge of the high court, he said.

"He heads a separate wing (legislature), another wing (judiciary) terming his acts perverse is not appropriate," he submitted.

Recording the submissions, the judge adjourned the hearing to August 3.

Justice Sathyanarayanan is hearing the petitions after a bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice M Sundar had last month given a split verdict on the petitions.

The 18 were disqualified as MLAs by the speaker under the anti-defection law after they met the state governor and expressed loss of confidence in chief minister K Palaniswami.

In view of the split verdict with the CJ upholding the disqualification and Justice Sundar setting it aside, earlier Justice S Vimala was appointed to hear the petitions afresh.

However, the Supreme Court named Justice Sathyanarayanan while declining to accept a prayer of the disqualified MLAs who raised apprehension of 'bias' and sought to transfer the matter to the apex court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for President Donald Trump, exits the Loews Regency Hotel, May 11, 2018. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

On November 4, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that the National Enquirer paid $150,000 to Karen McDougal for the rights to her account of her affair with Donald Trump, which it did not publish. (The Enquirers owner, David Pecker, is a close Trump ally who puts his pages at Trumps disposal.) Trump denied both the affair and the payment. (We have no knowledge of any of this, said campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks.)

That was not true. Trump discussed the payment in a September 2016 conversation with his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who recorded it and recently gave the tape to CNN. Um, I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, says Cohen in the recording. So what do you got to pay for this  one-fifty  Trump replies. Yes, says Cohen. Um, and its all the stuff.

Exactly what all the stuff means remains unknown at this time. Maybe they were referring to some generous charitable donations Trump wanted to keep private, or the revelation that Trump and McDougal spent most of their time studying economic policy.

One legal risk here is that Trump was violating campaign law by making a donation intended to help his campaign (by suppressing an embarrassing story) that exceeded spending limits. The most dicey part of the conversation comes when Cohen and Trump are heard discussing financing:

Cohen: And, I spoke to Allen about it, when it comes time for the financing, which will be  Trump: Wait a sec, what financing? Cohen: Well, Ill have to pay him something. Trump: [UNINTELLIGIBLE] pay with cash  Cohen: No, no, no, no, no. I got it. Trump:  check.

Trumps legal team insists the reference to paying cash does not indicate that Trump was attempting to conceal the payment. Anyone who knows anything about the company or how the president does business knows there is no green cash, says Trump lawyer Alan Futerfas. Everything is documented. Every penny is documented. On the other hand, if Trump was conducting this transaction in a totally aboveboard fashion, its hard to understand why Trump and Cohen set up Delaware-based shell companies to facilitate their transactions. Its also hard to explain why Trumps lawyers last night released a transcript of the call in which Trump says dont pay with cash, a line that cannot be heard on the tape. (Trumps administration has also altered the transcripts of his press conference with Vladimir Putin.)

Another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, took to Fox News to explain that nothing in the tapes was very bad when considered in the appropriate context. Ive done tapes even longer than Alan Dershowitz. How about 4,000 hours of Mafia tapes  Ive dealt with much worse tapes than this.

Rudy: Ive listened to lots of mafia tapes. Ive dealt with much worse tapes than this. pic.twitter.com/TmfvpdBd6z  Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 25, 2018

It is certainly true that this tape is less incriminating than many secret conversations between members of organized crime families. Whether that is the proper standard to judge the president of the United States is another question.State-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has forayed into sewage treatment finance segment by extending Rs 192.79 crore assistance to Nagpur Waste Water Management, a Vishvaraj Group firm.

The funds will be used for establishment of sewage treatment plant in Nagpur, which will sell 150MLD treated sewage water to PFC-funded Khaperkheda & Koradi Thermal Power Stations of Maharashtra State Power Generation (MahaGenco), a first of its kind project in India being executed in compliance of the National Tariff Policy 2016, under PPP (Public Private Partnership) mode, a PFC statement said.

According to the statement, the plant is expected to be commissioned by 2020. The aim of this project is to reduce the stress on fresh sources of water for power generation, by supplying the treated sewage water to power plants for specific secondary uses like ash handling and cooling.

Nagpur Municipal Corporation will also get revenue share from the sale of such treated sewage water to Mahagenco, it added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court today sought the Centre and the AAP government's stand on a PIL claiming that transgenders were facing atrocities, despite a Supreme Court direction four years ago to protect their rights.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar issued notice to the Delhi government, the Lieutenant Governor's office and the ministries of social justice and home affairs seeking their reply to the plea which alleged that transgenders had been denied basic right to education, employment opportunities and access to dignified life.

According to the petition by two students of Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, the apex court's 2014 directions on transgender rights in the NALSA case had not yet been implemented four years down the line.

The petition, by Rashi Jain and Mihir Garg, contended that the apex court in its 2014 order had directed the authorities to treat transgenders as a third gender and to grant them legal recognition.

Apart from that, the apex court had also directed that transgenders be treated as socially and educationally backward classes and all kinds of reservation be provided to them in admission in educational institutions and public appointments, the plea claimed.

It also said the apex court had ordered separate public toilets, medical care and other facilities for transgenders.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on November 14.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led panel may consider appointment of eminent persons as members of the Lokpal search committee, the government said on Wednesday.

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, which envisages establishment of anti-graft body Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in states to look into cases of corruption against certain categories of public servants, was passed in 2013.

Three meetings of the selection committee, headed by the prime minister, were held on March 1, April 10 and July 19 this year, Union Minister Jitendra Singh minister said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Upon the recommendations of the selection committee in its meeting held on April 10, President Ram Nath Kovind has nominated Mukul Rohatgi, former Attorney General of India as 'Eminent Jurist' member of the panel against the vacancy due to the passing away of senior advocate P P Rao, he said.



"The selection committee has proposed to consider names of eminent persons who qualify as per the statutory provisions to be appointed as members of the search committee in its next meeting," the Minister of State for Personnel said.

An eight-member search committee is mandated to recommend a panel of names for the appointment of the Lokpal and its members.

While hearing a case on delay in appointing a Lokpal, the had on Tuesday expressed dissatisfaction over the Centre's response on appointment of search committee members.Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here today on a three-day visit to attend the BRICS Summit hosted by South Africa.

Modi arrived here from Uganda's capital Kampala, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

He will participate in the BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

Modi will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

He is also expected to meet several leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Earlier, Modi had visited Rwanda for two days on the first leg of his visit.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

India's relations with South Africa date back several centuries. India was at the forefront of the international community in its support to the anti-apartheid movement.

This year marks 25 years since the resumption of India's diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1993. This year also marks the 125th year of the Pietermaritzburg railway station 'incident' involving Mahatma Gandhi.

The South African Indian-origin community numbers around 1.5 million and constitutes about 3 per cent of South Africa's total population.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi today wrapped up his two-day visit to Uganda where he held wide-ranging talks with President Yoweri Museveni and discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral ties.

Modi, arrived here last evening in Uganda's capital - the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

The Prime Minister addressed the country's Parliament and announced that India will strengthen its cooperation and mutual capabilities with Africa in combating terrorism and extremism.

"In another special gesture reflecting the warmth and bonding between our two countries, Ugandan President Museveni came to the airport to see-off PM Narendra Modi. PM concludes his historic visit and takes off for the final leg of his 3-nation trip to S Africa," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

"My visit to Uganda has been productive. I express gratitude towards President Kaguta Museveni and the people of Uganda for their kindness through the visit. This visit will lead to further cementing of bilateral relations, particularly giving a strong impetus to economic ties," Modi said in a tweet.

India extended two lines of credit worth nearly USD 200 million to Uganda in energy infrastructure, agriculture and dairy sectors yesterday.

Modi also announced that India would build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at the sacred site in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

The Prime Minister will now head to South Africa to participate in the BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

He will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi today outlined 10 guiding principles for deepening India's engagement with Africa to help in its economic growth and tackle challenges like terrorism and climate change.

Modi, who arrived here yesterday on the second leg of his Africa tour, today addressed the Parliament of Uganda and said India is proud to be Africa's partner.

"Uganda is central to our commitment to the continent," he said in his address, the first by an Indian prime minister in the Parliament of Uganda.

He said Uganda, also known as "Pearl of Africa, is a land of immense beauty, great wealth of resources and rich heritage.

He said India and Uganda were connected to each other by ancient maritime links, the dark ages of colonial rule, the shared struggle for freedom and the uncertain paths as independent countries in a divided world.

"Today, India and Africa stand on the threshold of a future of great promise: as confident, secure, youthful, innovative, and dynamic people," he said, adding that Uganda is an example of Africa on the move.

He said India's engagement with Africa would be guided by 10 principles and described them in detail.

"We will strengthen our cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism; keeping our cyberspace safe and secure; and, supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace," he said.

He said India would work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations.

"The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean. That is why India's vision of Indian Ocean Security is cooperative and inclusive, rooted in security and growth for all in the region," he said, apparently referring to China's maneuvers in the Horn of Africa, including opening its first so called support base on the continent last year in Djibouti.

"Africa will be at the top of our priorities. We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular," he said.

"Our development partnership will be guided by your priorities," he said.

He said India will keep its markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India.

"We will support our industry to invest in Africa,"he said,



India we will harness its experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development; improve delivery of public services; extend education and health; spread digital literacy; expand financial inclusion; and mainstream the marginalised, he said.

Modi said Africa has 60 per cent of the world's arable land, but produces just 10 per cent of the global output.

"We will work with you to improve Africa's agriculture," he said.

The prime minister said the partnership between India and Africa would address the challenges of climate change.

"We will work with Africa to ensure a just international climate order; to preserve our biodiversity; and, adopt clean and efficient energy sources," he said.

As global engagement in Africa increases, Modi said, "We must all work together to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions, but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth,"



He said India and Africa would work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India.

"India's own quest for reforms in the global institutions is incomplete without an equal place for Africa. That will be a key purpose of our foreign policy," Modi said.

"Africa must walk in step with the rest of the world. India will work with you and for you. Our partnership will build instruments of empowerment in Africa. We will stand in solidarity with your endeavours, in transparency, with respect and on the principle of equality," he said.

Modi also cited an Ugandan saying "Anayejitahidi hufaidi which means "one who makes the extra effort will benefit.

"India has made that extra effort for Africa. And will always do so for Africa's benefit," Modi said.

He said Indian companies have invested over USD 54 billion in Africa and India's trade with the continent is now over USD 62 billion.

"This is over 21 per cent more than in the previous year. Africa's exports to India are growing. And, our economic ties are now increasingly driven by new partnerships of innovation in the digital economy," he said.

"With several coastal nations, our partnership now increasingly seeks to harness the benefits of Blue Economy in a sustainable manner. And, India's medicines turned the tide on diseases that were once a threat to Africa's future. They also continue to make healthcare affordable and accessible to many," he said.

Modi said with Uganda, India has deepened its partnership and engagement across the vast expanse of Africa.

India's development partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about USD 11 billion in over 40 African countries. At the last India Africa Forum Summit in 2015, India had committed a concessional Line of Credit of USD 10 billion and USD 600 million in grant assistance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shahbaz Sharif tonight outrightly rejected the election results, alleging "blatant" rigging, soon after trends showed that Imran Khan's party was inching towards the majority mark.

Sharif hinted his party would launch protests against the alleged rigging of polls.

He did not say who he believes could have rigged the polls, but allegations of manipulating the elections have been made against the country's influential military.

"Some five other parties including PPP have raised the rigging issue in polls. After consulting them, I will announce the future course of action. Pakistan has suffered today," he told journalists at a press conference.

"We will fight this injustice and use all options," he said, adding that there has been a "blatant violation" of the mandate.

According to Geo TV, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was leading on 110 seats followed by PML-N on 68.

Bilawal Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party was ahead on 37 seats and Independents on 23, trends showed.

"This is a horrible situation which I have never seen in my 30-year political career. These were the dirtiest polls in Pakistan's history. The results of several constituencies have been withheld where PML-N candidates were winning. We will not accept this justice," Sharif said.

PML-N senator Mushahid Hussain Syed too raised similar doubts on the election results.

"This is the first time in Pakistan's history that five political parties have called a foul play in the polls and termed them massively rigged," he said.

A party can form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats out of the total 342.

A single party will need at least 137 of the 272 directly-elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four people, including son of an assistant sub inspector (ASI), were arrested today for allegedly being involved in several cases of loot, police said.

Three motorcycles, two gold earrings and some drugs were recovered from their possession, SSP Satinder Singh said.

The accused were identified as Manpreet Singh, son of an ASI posted at Tarn Taran, Arshdeep, Sukhwinder Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, all residents of Kapurthala district.

The SSP said all the accused were drug addicts.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Policemen bore the brunt of the ongoing Maratha quota stir in Maharashtra, as 12 police personnel, including an IPS officer, were injured in violence



since yesterday during protests in various parts of the state.

IPS officer Sandip Patil, Superintendent of Police of Satara district in western Maharashtra, was injured in stone- pelting by protesters at Satara today, police said.

Three policemen, including an officer, were injured during stone-pelting incidents at Kalamboli in adjoining Navi Mumbai during the Maratha quota protest, police said.

Eight policemen, including two officers, were injured after protesters threw stones at the Ghansangvi police station in Jalna district yesterday.

Yesterday, a constable, deployed near the funeral venue of the protester who jumped to death during the quota protest on Monday, died. Police said the cause of death is yet to be ascertained.

In neighbouring Navi Mumbai and Satara district today, protesters pelted stones at police, who caned them, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas, an official said.

After protesters blocked the highway at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai, police began evicting them as traffic came to a standstill. Some protesters threw stones at police, injuring two policemen, the official said.

Three police vans were set afire by the mob, he said. In adjoining Thane, protesters vandalised a police vehicle.

The Sion-Panvel highway was blocked for some time by the protesters at Kharghar and Vashi. Police later cleared the road.

Tyre burning incidents were reported at Majiwada and autorickshaw drivers joined protests in Thane, police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind today visited a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit on the campus of Atal Bihari Vajpayee City at Jawanga village in Dantewada district.

Interacting with employees of the unit, Kovind said youths working in the BPO in Dantewada were in no way less than those who have passed out from public schools and who live in cities, an official release here said.

Chief Minister Raman Singh accompanied the president.

Earlier, the president met Divyang (differently abled) students of Saksham school and students of Astha Vidya Mandir on the City campus.

He announced that musical instruments will be distributed to visually impaired students, the release said.

He also visited the Braille library on the campus. Some visually impaired students handed over a letter written in braille to him.

The president, who is on a two-day visit to the Naxal-affected Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, will dedicate the newly-built Medical College Hospital in Jagdalpur to the nation tomorrow.

He will also launch Sanchar Kranti Yojna of the state government under which 50 lakh smartphones will be distributed free to students and women.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Are these donkeys working together or fighting? An ancient media narrative sees intra-Democratic conflict everywhere. Photo: James Hager/Getty Images

There is a convention going back into the mists of time whereby the Democratic Party is thought of as a disorganized and divided mess. The early 20th-century humorist Will Rogers, himself a Democrat, once said:

The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is the Democrat is a cannibal. They have to live off each other, while the Republicans, why, they live off the Democrats.

He wasnt trying to be funny on that occasion, and it made a fair amount sense to think of the Donkey Party as an unwieldy paradox back when it was the preferred political vehicle of rural populists, southern segregationists, urban machines, and ethnic minorities doing battle with a Grand Old Party that mostly revolved around defending economic privilege and deploring anything that wasnt WASPy.

But the Democrats in Disarray meme has lived on, and for a brief moment in the late autumn of 2016, it was pretty accurate, as Democrats reeled from a shocking defeat against a presidential candidate who looked more like a cartoon villain than a serious aspirant to high office.

As New Yorks Eric Levitz explained last November, however, any talk of Democrats being fatally divided or in despair during 2017 was visibly rebutted by the steady drumbeat of Democratic victories in special and off-year elections.

Democrats dont have nearly as many special elections to show theyre feeling their oats this year, and theyve lost some of the huge, double-digit lead in the generic congressional ballot that was regularly appearing when Levitz wrote his upbeat assessment of Democratic prospects. And for those (both conservatives and conflict-seeking mainstream-media folk) who deeply cherish the Democrats in Disarray meme, those special elections are helpfully being replaced by party primaries in which Democrats are running against Democrats! Imagine that! Worse yet, in some of these primaries the winners are self-proclaimed progressives! And as we all know, the American people have a deep craving for sensible centrists who want to cross the party aisles and get things done. If Republicans dont have any of those anymore, then by God, its critical that the loyal opposition keep the faith and avoid extremism.

Veteran political writer Walter Shapiro has written a useful skewering of this all-too-common narrative, which has been sent into overdrive by the June primary victory in New York of Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over House Democratic Caucus chairman Joe Crowley:

[A]n emblematic story led Sundays New York Times under the print headline, Democrats Brace as Storm Brews Far to Their Left.

The themes of the Times story and dozens like it are familiar. They all highlight young activists such as 28-year-old giant slayer Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who upended potential Nancy Pelosi successor Joe Crowley in the New York primary. Risky issues are highlighted as main stream Democrats recoil from demands for single-payer health insurance and the abolition of ICE (the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Yet by the historical standards of Democratic internecine warfare, todays disputes are like 6-year-olds battling with foam swords.

Spoken like a man that remembers the fraught intraparty ideological battles over the Iraq War, Clintons New Democrat movement, Cold War defense spending and national security strategy, and civil rights. Democrats are more unified on a host of issues  including hot buttons like abortion policy, criminal justice, and the social safety net  than they have been for years. And Democratic Socialists represent but one influence bubbling up from the grassroots. As Shapiro notes, for a party allegedly in the grips of an existential crisis, theyre in pretty good shape:

Its hard to identify a Senate or House seat that is being lost because of excessive Democratic activism. Even if a Democratic incumbent like North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is troubled by calls to ax ICE, there is scant evidence that this makes her more vulnerable than before in a state that Donald Trump carried by better than a two-to-one margin.

No incumbent  not even Heitkamp or Joe Manchin in West Virginia  is being denounced as a DINO. According to a new Monmouth University Poll, moderate Democrat Rep. Conor Lamb, who won a high-profile special election in western Pennsylvania earlier this year, holds a hefty lead in his bid for a full term. Lamb is a prime example of a Democrat who has prospered by defying litmus-test politics in his opposition to Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.

While Shapiro knows a lot of history that many of todays political journalists either dont know or have forgotten, theres really not much excuse for the hyperventilation so evident about the Democratic Party falling apart or going off the deep end. So why is this narrative so ever-ready?

Some of it is simply the result of a lazy habit of balancing the chaos coming out of the White House every day with the disarray allegedly found within the opposition party. But a deeper motive, particularly in conservative media, is the need to distract attention from the ideological revolution going on in the GOP by suggesting that something equally if not more alarming is going on across the partisan barricades. The idea is very simple: If you cant expand your support beyond the ranks of the party base by moving to the center, then a good fallback position is to deny your opponent the center by alleging its being taken over by extremists. Aside from blurring the natural public and media focus on the strange people running the country and almost daily destroying old GOP positions on issues ranging from trade and deficits to the environment and NATO, the here come the socialists! cry appeals viscerally to the false-equivalence needs of MSM reporters and pundits who are constantly seeking protection against claims of liberal bias.

And so Ocasio-Cortez becomes, somehow, a vastly more significant figure than her most obvious recent conservative counterpart Dave Brat of Virginia, who similarly upset a congressional leader of his party in 2014. Thats true even though Brat almost certainly was emblematic of a strong rightward trend in the GOP, while the jury is definitely still out on whether Ocasio-Cortez is a harbinger of a world to come or simply an adept local pol who upset a complacent incumbent in an incredibly low-turnout primary in an incredibly atypical district.

Its possible we are about to witness an extremist polarization of both parties to an extent unknown since the Spanish Civil War. But thats not at all clear at this point, and as for Democratic divisions, none seem to matter nearly as much as a common revulsion toward Donald Trump and his enablers. As Shapiro observes, parties are ultimately defined by presidents. We see what that has meant for the GOP since 2016. Lets give Democrats a chance to display their own proposed new leadership in 2020 before deciding they are equally feckless or reckless.President Ram Nath Kovind today took a ride in an e-rickshaw driven by a tribal woman during his visit to Chhattisgarh's naxal-hit Dantewada district.

The president took a brief ride in the e-rickshaw of tribal woman Phoolmati Bhaskar in Heeranar village in Dantewada, an official statement issued here said.

Kovind also spoke to Bhaskar, who is a member of the Maa Bhawani Women's Self-Help group based in Teknaar village in the district, it said.

He appreciated the efforts of Chief Minister Raman Singh in empowering women by forming self-help groups in the state's tribal-dominated regions, the statement said.

The e-rickshaw project is one of the many schemes launched by the state government, and apart from financially empowering women, the project aims to conserve the environment, it said.

During her interaction with the president, Bhaskar told him that the Livelihood College in Dantewada imparts training in various skills, and e-rickshaw was one of them, according to the statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind arrived today in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district on a two-day visit to the region during which he will take part in several programmes.

Chief Minister Raman Singh along with some of his cabinet colleagues and other officials received the president at Jagdalpur airport at around 10.30 am, a government official told PTI.

Soon after his arrival, Kovind left for Jawanga in Dantewada district in a helicopter.

From Jawanga, he will reach Heeranar village by road, where he will interact with farmers and self-help groups (SHGs) at the Integrated Farming System centre, the official said.

He will also interact with students at Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram in Heeranar and have lunch with them.

Later, he will interact with students of Saksham School and Astha Vidya Mandir in Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee City premises in Jawanga.

Kovind will inaugurate YUVA BPO centre in the city campus and will interact with its employees, the official said.

After an overnight stay at the rest house in Chitrakote area of Bastar, the president will dedicate the Jagdalpur Medical College Hospital to the nation tomorrow and address a public gathering, he said.

Thereafter, Kovind will leave for Delhi from Jagdalpur airport, he added.

Around 7,000 security personnel are part of the three-layered water-tight security arrangements made for the president's visit to Dantewada and Bastar, a senior police official said.

The security cover comprises personnel of the state's special forces, including Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG), along with Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite unit CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action), he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kranti Morcha, an outfit spearheading agitation for quota for the community in jobs and education, called off its bandh on Wednesday.

The bandh in the financial capital of India, which began this morning, was called off just before 3 pm after various parts saw violence.

"We only wanted to prove that we are together and proved it. We never wanted protests to get violent and therefore we are calling off our bandh in for today," Virendra Pawar, leader of the Morcha told reporters here.

The Kranti Morcha had given the call for the bandh, demanding an apology from Chief Minister for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur town in Solapur district.

Fadnavis, who was scheduled to perform puja at a temple on 'Ashadhi Ekadashi' on Monday, cancelled it after the Maratha outfits threatened to disrupt the event.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

The community leaders had earlier taken out several rallies in various districts to highlight their demands. Last year, a huge rally was organised by the in this connection inA prominent Congress activist today joined the National Conference (NC) in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, a party spokesman said.

Pyare Lal Sharma, who enjoys support of dozens of senior congress workers who last month came open against the sitting party legislator G M Saroori, joined the NC at a function in Kishtwar.

NC provincial president Devender Singh Rana welcomed Sharma in the party fold and said his joining would strengthen the party in the district.

On June 29, nearly two dozen senior Congress workers, including several Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) and District Congress Committee members (DCC) held a press conference here demanding mandate for Sharma instead of retaining Saroori in the next assembly polls.

Rana, addressing the function, emphasised the need of steering Jammu and Kashmir to political stability, saying the "breach of trust and mandate by the just-ended opportunistic BJP-PDP combination" had hugely shattered peoples' faith in democratic polity, which is now needed to be restored and reinforced.

"NC alone can assuage peoples' aspirations given its track record of selfless service and steadfast approach to protect the distinct identity of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Telugu Desam Party member today took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, saying he seems to have "drowned" in the River Ganga the promises he made to Andhra Pradesh.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar asserted that Modi had spoken about what his government has done for the state and that TDP's charges were politically-motivated.

Modi had also said that the Union government stands for the welfare of the people of Andhra Pradesh, Kumar said.

Raising the issue, Thota Narasimham of the TDP said Modi made a political speech during the reply to the no-confidence motion against his government on Friday last but did not respond to their issues.

The prime minister represents Varanasi and he appears to have drowned his promises in the Ganga, he said, claiming that the state's people felt "cheated".

The TDP has been demanding special category status for the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil today apologised to Maratha bodies over his remarks on the ongoing quota stir, which he said were "twisted".

Patil also appealed to the protesters to shun violence.

The minister had yesterday said that the Maratha community would get nothing by resorting to violence, as the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission is conducting the sample survey for data collection to ascertain the economic backwardness within the community to justify its demand for quota.

Patil had also said that some "paid" people were trying to defame the agitation by infiltrating it.

His remarks had drawn flak from Maratha bodies as well as NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

Speaking to reporters today, the minister said, "I am requesting (the protesters) with folded hands to stop the ongoing violence. Maharashtra has a tradition of resolving problems amicably".

Patil said one of the sentences in his remarks was twisted.

"I had stated that 58 rallies had been conducted (by the Marathas for their demands) in a peaceful manner. Everybody had hailed these peaceful rallies and even the state government had also acknowledged the same. This peaceful agitation should not be maligned due to ongoing protests," said the minister.

Patil said he had never blamed or said anything against the Maratha community.

"I do not see reservation as a political agenda but it is my commitment," he added.

The Marathas had held massive "mook" (silent) morchas last year seeking quota under the OBC category in government jobs and education.

The agitation took a violent turn on July 24, a day after a Maratha protester jumped into the Godavari river in Aurangabad district as part of a "jal samadhi" protest.

The Marathas have been holding protests in various parts of the state under the aegis of the Maratha Kranti Morcha (MKM) and other bodies.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress in-charge for Uttarakhand Anugrah Narayan Singh today repeated his party's charge that the Narendra Modi government has done a favour to Anil Ambani's Reliance Group through the Rafale jet fighter deal.

India suffered major loss in the deal, he told reporters here.

Singh claimed that the price of each Rafale aircraft has risen to about Rs 1,600 crore in the new deal, compared to Rs 526 crore in the agreement signed when the Congress-led UPA was in power.

The Modi government has refused to divulge the price of the 36 fighters it is buying from the French firm, citing a secrecy clause in the agreement.

"The Rafale deal was detrimental to the interest of Government of India undertaking HAL, the Congress leader claimed, arguing that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited would have got the responsibility of technology transfer under the original agreement.

Dassault Aviation has picked the Ambani firm to fulfil India's offset regulations, which require foreign manufacturers to bring business to local firms when defence agreements are signed.

In a letter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Ambani has said his group's joint venture with Dassault to build defence and aerospace components was a deal between two private sector entities.

The French and the Indian government had no role to play in it, the letter said.

But taking a dig at Modi, the Congress leader made a reference to the prime minister's recent speech in Parliament in which he described himself as a stakeholder in the development of the poor.

"It seems the PM did not find anyone poorer than Anil Ambani in the country," Singh said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Congress president Rahul Gandhi today latched on to a media report to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale aircraft deal.

In a tweet, Gandhi cited the report which alleged that a leading industrialist had floated a company just days before the prime minister announced the Rafale deal in France in 2015.

Congress has been targeting the government over the fighter jet deal alleging wrongdoings in it. The government has strongly rejected the charge.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Rajasthan High Court has asked the state government to spell out the source of its power to suspend the internet services during the recent recruitment tests for constables.

A jodhpur bench of the high court also asked the government during how many examinations it would suspend the internet services in the state.

A division bench headed by Justice Nirmaljit Kaur sought the government's explanation while issuing notices to the Department of Home and the state government through its secretary and the Jodhpur divisional commissioner.

The bench issued the notices while hearing a public interest lawsuit by a state native Dhirendra Singh, who termed suspension of internet services as an anti-people step.

The internet service was suspended in the state for two days on July 14 and 15 from 6.00 am to 5.00 pm during the tests for the recruitment of police constables.

Terming it to be "unconstitutional and illegal", the petitioner challenged the law, under which the decision to suspend the internet service was taken by the Home Department.

This decision had caused huge trouble to the people, specially the professionals and officials, who were dependent on the internet for various reasons including their job, said the petitioner in his petition.

His counsel Nitin Goklani argued in the court that in the time to come, many examinations are going to be conducted by the state government and suspending internet during these examinations will be depriving the people of their rights and causing disturbance in various services.

Such extreme steps are meant for the cases of public emergency and for ensuring public safety but none was the case in the examination, argued Goklani.

Contending that the practice of suspending internet services during various examinations has become a tradition now, Golanki pointed out that similar steps had been taken in February this year during the REET examination.

While hearing the arguments, the court wondered where did the Home Department derive the power from to issue the notification to suspend the internet services and during how many examination, it would be suspended.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The mortal remains of CRPF jawan Shankar Lal Barala, killed in a terrorist attack in the Batamaloo area of Srinagar in Kashmir, were consigned to flames at his native Tejpura village in Rajasthan today.

Barala, posted in 23rd Batallion of the paramilitary force, was killed when militants fired upon at CRPF personnel guarding a checkpost yesterday. Two jawans were also injured in the attack.

A pall of gloom descended on Tejpura, which falls in Shahpura town of Jaipur Rural area, when about Barala's death reached the village.

A large number of villagers gathered at his funeral site today to pay tributes to him. They were chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' and 'Vande Mataram' slogans in his honour.

Barala's 10-year-old son Ankit lit his funeral pyre.

Earlier, Barala was given the guard of honour by the CRPF. Rajasthan Assembly deputy speaker Rao Rajendra Singh, Virat Nagar MLA Phool Singh Bhinda, Sri Madhopur MLA Jhabar Singh paid floral tributes to him.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, while condoling the death of the soldier, said his contribution towards nation's security has made his family, state and the country proud.

Raje prayed for peace to the departed soul and strength for the family to bear the irreparable loss.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Just when you thought it was safe to access federal facilities, we could be looking at another government shutdown crisis real soon. Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

Aside from the Senates hearings, debate, and votes over Brett Kavanaughs confirmation as Supreme Court justice, this do-little Congress wouldnt normally be likely to do a whole lot before the midterm elections that will determine its future shape. But if you remember the government shutdown crisis that ended in March when Donald Trump signed an omnibus appropriations bill keeping the lights on until the end of the fiscal year (September 30), you may also remember Trump issued a Fire Next Time kind of threat:

I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again, Trump said, also calling on Congress to give him a line-item veto, a tool that the Supreme Court has said is unconstitutional for a president.

There are a lot of things that Im unhappy about in this bill, he said later in his 20-minute remarks, telling reporters that he had very seriously considered a veto.

Like many other presidents, Trump was annoyed at the take-it-or-leave-it proposition an omnibus appropriations measure presented, and longed for a line-item veto (declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1998 after a brief existence). But Trump was also frustrated that he couldnt (or at least didnt) use an appropriations veto to extort border wall funding without some broader immigration deal with Democrats that he was unwilling to strike.

As usual, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Republicans who run Congress about the hideous practice of not passing individual appropriations bills and instead relying on big fat omnibus measures. It does look like a few bills may be passed together (possibly this week) as part of a so-called minibus bill of noncontroversial appropriations. But some sort of larger measure will still be necessary at the end of the fiscal year, and Republicans will still need both Senate Democratic votes (since appropriations bills can be filibustered) and Trumps approval to keep the government functioning beyond September 30.

Politico is reporting that Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer are close to an agreement to move a bill that combines defense spending with the largest single domestic spending bill (the Labor-HHS-Education bill). It could give Republicans a win on the higher defense spending that congressional conservatives and Trump have championed, while sneaking the most conspicuous liberal veto-bait across the line. The strategem is in the finest tradition of bipartisan logrolling.

If Trump can be talked out of vetoing a sorta-kinda-omnibus as a matter of general principles, theres still the border wall issue, and POTUS has most specifically threatened a shutdown if he doesnt get what he wants (presumably the $25 billion he has repeatedly demanded) on that front, saying this in April:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to shut down the federal government in September if Congress did not provide more funding to build a wall on the border with Mexico 

We come up again on September 28th [the Friday before the end of the fiscal year] and if we dont get border security we will have no choice, we will close down the country because we need border security.

Presumably in order to get some hostages safely to shore before the border wall issue blows up again, appropriators are saving the Homeland Security bill which includes that item until the end of the queue. But at this point theres no way the Senates going to buy $25 billion for a border wall. Sure, Trump could back down again, but as budget wizard Stan Collender points out in raising his estimate of the odds of a government shutdown in the fall to 60 percent, the president may decide a big moment of crisis over the border wall is just what the GOP base wants and needs going into the midterms:

Theres been no movement at all over the $25 billion Trump wants to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The president has already threatened multiple times to veto a continuing resolution  the funding bill needed to keep the government from shutting  if it doesnt include these funds and the votes dont currently seem to exist in either the House or Senate to provide them 

Vetoing the CR and shutting the government over funding for the wall will be Trumps best way to enrage his base further on the immigration issue before the election. Ryan and McConnell may also see a wall/immigration-motivated shutdown as the best way to increase Republican voter turnout and protect GOP incumbents.

And if the people who run the federal government think its a political plus to to shut it down, its probably going to happen. By any accounting, its something that needs to be taken into account when looking ahead to the fall.The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation buses stayed off road today as the roadways employees went on a two-day strike from today to press for the implementation of the seventh pay commission and other demands.

Most of 4,780 buses from the 52 depots in the state remained off road on the first day of the strike today, an RSRTC official said.

We are demanding implementation of seventh pay commission and release of three pending DAs, among others. It is a two-day strike which will incur a loss of revenue of nearly ten crores in the two days, he said.

Transport Minister Yoonus Khan requested the employees to call off the strike, saying the government is considering their demands positively.

The government is positive on their demands and we have requested the striking employees to return to work, Khan told reporters in Jhalawar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Recoveries were made in only two of the 55 cases of theft registered at the Barakhamba Road police station in New Delhi district in the first six months this year, Union minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said.

The two recoveries were made in 12 theft cases registered at the station in April.

As many as 85,778 cases of theft were registered by the Delhi Police till June 30 and recoveries were made in 4,026 of them, the minister informed the Rajya Sabha.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said the Justice (Retd) Ranjit Singh Commission report on sacrilege cases in the state will be tabled in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha and legal action will be taken against those found guilty.

In an informal discussion with a group of senior party leaders, Amarinder Singh said that the government had so far received the first part of the report, which was under legal scrutiny.

He said the remaining parts of the report are expected soon and once received, the complete report would be tabled, along with the action taken report, in the ensuing session of the Vidhan Sabha.

The chief minister said, "Legal action will be taken against those found guilty and none will be spared."



The chief minister stated this while interacting with party leaders, including Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit, Kikki Dhillon and Pargat Singh, according to an official release.

Justice (retd) Ranjit Singh Commission had submitted the first part of its report, pertaining to Bargari sacrilege incident and the Behbal Kalan firing incident, along with some other important cases, to the chief minister on June 30.

The chief minister had forwarded the report to the state Home Secretary and the Advocate General to examine the findings and suggest action so that the guilty can be brought to book at the earliest.

The commission was set up in April last year by the Amarinder Singh-led Congress government to investigate various incidents of sacrilege of the holy Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts, after rejecting as "inconclusive" the findings of the Zora Singh Commission set up by the erstwhile SAD-BJP government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Captain (retd) Salam Singh Rathore, sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment in an offshoot of the 2006 Navy War Room leak case, today approached the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction.

Justice Najmi Waziri called for trial court records and said the court would further hear the matter on August 9.

While the 63-year-old Rathore was convicted for spying under the Official Secrets Act, the other accused in the case -- Commander (retd) Jarnail Singh Kalra -- was acquitted by the trial court.

Advocate Maninder Singh, appearing for Rathore, challenged the trial court's verdict, saying the co-accused has already been acquitted and there's not evidence against the retired captain.

The trial court had sentenced Rathore on July 11, observing that he does not deserve any leniency as he had committed an offence against national security and the documents found in his possession belonged to the Defence Ministry and were "directly or indirectly useful to the enemy in one way or the other".

The CBI, in its separate charge sheet filed in the case, had alleged that it had seized 17 official documents relating to various issues from Rathore's possession. Nine of these documents were secret, four restricted and one confidential, it had alleged.

Rathore's counsel had earlier told the trial court that he has rendered 28 years of unblemished service in defence.

He had submitted that Rathore had participated in anti-smuggling activities during his posting, for which he was appreciated by the Indian Navy and the central government.

The 2006 Navy War Room leak case involved leakage of over 7,000 pages of sensitive defence information from the Naval War Room and the Air Headquarters, having a direct bearing on national security.

The accused, who are facing trial in the main case for the offence of criminal conspiracy under the IPC and under the Official Secrets Act, are former naval Lieutenant Kulbhushan Parashar, former Commander Vijender Rana, sacked naval Commander V K Jha, former IAF Wing Commander Sambha Jee L Surve and Delhi-based businessman and arms dealer Abhishek Verma. All the accused are out on bail.

Prime accused Ravi Shankaran is still absconding and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The railways suffered a loss of around Rs 90 lakh in the Mumbai road overbridge (ROB) collapse earlier this month, Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain informed the Lok Sabha today.

On July 3, the ROB had collapsed on rail tracks in suburban Andheri amid heavy rains, hurting five people.

"Estimated loss of property in the collapse of the road overbridge in Mumbai is Rs 88.54 lakh. The Commissioner of Railway Safety, Western Circle, has been nominated to conduct an inquiry. The inquiry is in progress," the MoS said.

On October 3, 2015, a similar incident took place in Gujarat, in which the losses amounted to Rs 8.50 lakh and there was no loss of life, he said.

After the accident, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said a joint safety audit will be conducted by the railways, the BMC and IIT at 445 road overbridges, foot overbridges and bridges over the pipelines in Mumbai over the next six months as part of efforts to improve safety of the commuters.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Irish no-frills airline Ryanair warned today of around 300 potential job cuts for pilots and cabin crew under plans to reduce its Dublin-based aircraft fleet.

Ryanair said in a statement that it has issued "protective notice" to the staff under winter plans to slash its Dublin fleet from 30 to around 24, and partly blamed the impact of Irish pilots' strikes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi was today welcomed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa after he arrived in the country to attend the BRICS Summit beginning tomorrow.

Modi arrived here from Uganda's capital Kampala, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

"PM Narendra Modi welcomed by the host of the evening South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the 10th BRICS Summit beginning tomorrow," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

He will participate in the two-day BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

Modi will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

He is also expected to meet several leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Earlier, Modi had visited Rwanda for two days on the first leg of his visit.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today asked probing questions to the AAP government and the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) over their intention to purchase 2,000 standard-floor cluster buses, which are not friendly to differently-abled persons.

The top court asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to explain by tomorrow, whether it intends to make these cluster buses friendly to differently-abled persons by fitting them with hydraulic lifts.

The Delhi government informed the court that a tender floated on March 16 by the DTC for procurement of 1,000 standard-floor buses is most likely to be scrapped as only one bidder has come forward.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan was told by the government that it would fit hydraulic lifts in each bus for wheel chair bound differently abled persons, which would entail a total cost of around Rs 80-90 crores.

"The first question is why are you purchasing these buses which are not according to the harmonized guidelines. It is understandable that cluster buses would be plying in rural areas or sub-urban areas where the road conditions are not good, then why is the DTC going to purchase the 1,000 buses," the bench asked.

The top court, further questioned as to why all 2,000 buses are standard-floor buses and not low-floor buses.

"If you would have said that 1,000 or 1,500 low-floor buses are being purchased and rest buses you are not able to procure. Then this argument is acceptable. But you want all 2,000 buses as standard-floor is not acceptable," the bench said.

Senior advocate Dhruv Mehta, appearing for the Delhi government and the DTC said he had spoken to the transport minister who informed him that a decision has been taken to purchase additional 500 low-floor buses which will be friendly to differently abled persons.

He said that this decision of procuring additional 500 buses will be placed before the cabinet soon, as government intends to increase the fleet of public transport buses.

Mehta argued that the high court had erred in staying the tender for purchase of 2,000 standard-floor buses as they have met all required criterions.

"According to the Delhi High Court order, only low floor public transport buses can be procured all over the country after the December 15, 2017 verdict of apex court on making transport disable friendly," he said, adding that at present Delhi has a fleet of 5,400 buses, including cluster buses, and there is urgent need to augment the public transport bus fleet.

The senior lawyer pointed out that the "Harmonious Guidelines and Space Standards for Barrier Free Built Environment for Persons with Disabilities and Elder Persons" was issued by the Ministry of Urban Development and not the Ministry of Road and Transport.

He said that the high court has relied on these harmonized guidelines to stay the tenders for procurement of standard-floor buses.

Mehta said that as far as the DTC tender for procurement of 1000 buses was concerned, it is most likely to be scrapped as only one bidder has come forward and a fresh tender will be issued.

"Delhi has a peculiar problem that the buses here has to be low floor and CNG-compliant while in other states it is not so and they can have low-floor buses without CNG," he said.

Mehta pointed out that the Centre in its reply before the high court, which was filed before the apex court verdict of December, 2017, has said that only 10 per cent of total public transport buses has to be low-floor.

He said that cluster buses will be plying through the sub-urban areas and rural areas of the national capital, where the road condition is not as good as it is in the city.

The bench, after perusing the routes of cluster said that all the routes have metallic roads.

Advocate Jai Dehadrai, appearing for Nipun Malhotra, who suffers from locomotor disability and filed a PIL before the high court, said the Delhi government was trying to subvert the law and the apex court's order by going for standard-floor buses.

He said the Mehta's argument about rural road conditions for procurement of standard-floor buses is absurd, as both the standard buses and low-floor buses have same level of ground clearances.

"These standard-floor buses are actually buses on the chasis of truck and they are not at all friendly to differently-abled people," Dehadrai said.

He said the government is talking about fitting hydraulic lifts but these cluster buses hardly stop at a bus stops, leave apart opening the hydraulic lift for wheel chaired person.

The bench, said that it may send the matter back to the high court to finally decide the issue, as the Delhi government has approached the apex court on the basis of interim order.

It asked the counsel for the Delhi government to file affidavit with regard to fitting hydraulic lifts in cluster buses for the convenience of differently abled persons.

The high court had on June 1, pulled up the AAP government for "not taking a single step for ensuring accessible transport" for disabled persons in the national capital and restrained it from procuring standard-floor buses as it impedes their mobility.

It had said that government is bent upon "treating the disabled as non-existent, or, in any case not having any rights".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today pulled up the Centre over non-compliance of its last year's verdict on providing safe access to transportation, buildings and public places to differently-abled persons and said that the government has to follow the law and its order.

The top court had on December 15 last year said that the right to dignity, which is ensured in the constitutional set up for every citizen, applies with much more vigour in cases of persons suffering from disability and it was the duty of the state and public authorities to lay down proper norms in this regard.

It also expressed annoyance over the states not complying with its order and warned that respective chief secretaries will be summoned to explain the delay.

A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan asked the Centre to file a detailed reply in four weeks on the steps taken so far and the timeline to comply with the direction of the court.

"Everything we said in the judgement of December 15, 2017, already existed in the statute. It is not something which is a creation of court. It was your (Centre) law and we just asked you to comply with it. It is your job.

"The government has to tell us the deadline for complying with the directions of the court. We are not running the government. You have to comply with the directions and the law," the bench said.

It said that the deadline set by the Accessible India Campaign (AIC), to make 20-50 important state government buildings in 50 cities fully accessible, has not been met and all that was done is identification and audit of the buildings.

Additional Solicitor General Pinky Anand, appearing for the Centre, said that several of court's direction has been complied with and the government will file an affidavit bringing the exact position before the court.

Advocate Rajan Mani, appearing for petitioner Rajiv Raturi, said that court had passed 11 directions, but only the basic things have been done and most of the directions are yet to be complied with.

He said that states like Assam, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli have not even identified the buildings.

The bench asked the counsel for Assam and other states and Union territories to file a detailed affidavit in four weeks on the steps taken so far, and warned that it may call chief secretaries to explain the delay in complying with the directions.

The bench fixed the matter for further hearing on September 5.

The top court, in a fresh interlocutory application seeking to make judiciary disabled-friendly, especially for visually impaired people, issued notices to the registrar generals of all the high courts and the secretary general of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had on December 15 last year passed 11 directions which include making public institutions, transport and educational institutions disabled-friendly.

The top court passed a slew of directions, including all government buildings providing any services to the public be made fully accessible to differently-abled persons by June next year as per provision of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.

On the issue of making 50 per cent of all the government buildings in the national capital and all state capitals fully-accessible by December this year, the court said though deadline for identifying such buildings was fixed as February 28 this year, only seven states have done this as per a status report of August this year.

It had directed the remaining states to identify the buildings by February 28 this year and said that it is made clear that no further time on this behalf shall be granted.

As deadline for retrofitting is concerned, the work should be completed by December this year, the court had said.

It also directed the states to identify 10 most important cities or towns and complete the accessibility audit of 50 per cent of government buildings at these places by February 28 and complete the retrofitting work by December next year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Supreme Court today said that a scheme proposed by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for compensating victims of sexual assault and acid attack should be modified to "some extent" to make it applicable to child victims of such assaults.

A bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that slight modifications could be done in the 'Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes-2018' to also include child victims.

"The scheme can be implemented with slight modifications in case of children. Please have a look at it and give us a composite note for women as well as children," the bench told senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter.

One of the lawyers told the bench that the NALSA's scheme should also focus on child victims of sexual assaults.

Jaising said the scheme has been approved by the top court and its purpose was to support women victims of sexual assaults and acid attacks throughout the trial in the case.

She also told the bench that states would have to understand the rationale behind this scheme.

Regarding the court's observation to also include children of sexual assaults under the scheme, Jaising said she would file a note in this regard.

The bench, while saying that the Centre, all states and union territories should implement the scheme with letter and spirit, asked Jaising to file her note within two weeks.

Jaising said that she would address the aspect related to section 228-A of the IPC, which deals with disclosure of identity of victims of sexual offences.

The amicus had earlier told the bench that it was necessary for the apex court to clarify section 228-A of the IPC.

As per NALSA's scheme, victim of gangrape in any part of the country would now get a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh.

Similarly, in case of rape and unnatural sexual assault, the victim would get a minimum of Rs 4 lakh and maximum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation.

The scheme also says that victim of acid attacks, in case of disfigurement of face, would get a minimum compensation of Rs 7 lakh, while the upper limit would be Rs 8 lakh.

In acid attack cases, if the injury was more than 50 per cent, a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be given, while the maximum would be Rs 8 lakh.

Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that it was finding it difficult to get the cooperation of states on the issue relating to disbursal of compensation to the victims of sexual assault under the Nirbhaya Fund.

Nirbhaya Fund was announced by the Centre in 2013 after the December 16, 2012 gangrape and murder case in Delhi to support the initiatives on women's safety across the country.

Several petitions were filed in the Supreme Court after the Nirbhaya gangrape and murder incident in Delhi raising concerns over safety and security of women.

All the petitions were tagged by the court and several directions have been issued from time to time in this regard.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Speeding toward tariff town. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump is accelerating toward imposing a 25 percent tariff on close to $200 billion in foreign auto imports later this year, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. And hes doing it despite his advisers honking their horns and waving their arms as Trump gets closer to driving the U.S. economy over a cliff.

Its not just those inside his own administration who oppose the idea either. Lawmakers from both parties do, too, and, perhaps more importantly, the U.S. automakers who would be the ostensible beneficiaries of the tariffs have come out against the idea.

General Motors has told the Commerce Department that, despite Trumps assertion that tariffs would help American companies and American workers, it expects tariffs to result in less investment, fewer jobs, and lower wages. And foreign-car companies that make vehicles in the U.S., including Mercedes, BMW, and Volkswagen, would likely hemorrhage jobs if Trumps tariffs became a reality. Then therere the consumers, who could be paying between $1,400 and $7,000 more on each vehicle, according to one study.

Trumps willingness to buck the advice of his advisers is evidence of an increasingly defiant  trade strategy, the Post reports. As the man himself said on Twitter Wednesday, any lawmaker who questions his tariffs is weak.

Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

Among those whod Trump likely consider weak is Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican who has a bipartisan bill with Democratic senator Doug Jones that would stop the Commerce Department from imposing the car tariffs.

Trump will take his competitive approach on trade into a meeting Wednesday with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who will come armed with proposals meant to appease the mad man behind the wheel.Markets regulator Sebi today banned Pincon Group company LRN Finance and its 12 present and former directors from the securities market for raising money illegally from investors.

Among the present directors are Siddhartha Roy, Swapan Kumar Sircar and Raj Kumar Roy.

The former directors include Manoranjan Roy, Arup Thakur, Singh Jagbahadur Negi, Chandan Kumar Adhikary, Diwakar Singh, Goutam Ghosh, Hari Singh, , Sandeep Thakur and Subhajit Saha.

According to the data available with the BSE, Arup Thakur is the current Chief Financial Officer of Pincon Spirit.

Pincon Spirit figured among the firms against whom Sebi initiated action last year by ordering trading restrictions after receiving the list of 331 'suspected shell companies' from the government.

In an interim order, Sebi said the offer and allotment of secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs), from April 2012 to March 2015, to 4,256 persons amounting to Rs 40.60 crore by LRN "prima facie" qualifies to be construed as an offer made to the public in terms of the Companies Act.

Since, the offer and allotment of NCDs was a public issue in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act, the same had to be dealt on a recognised stock exchange. However, LRN prima facie did not comply with the provision.

Among other requirements, the firm was to register a prospectus with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), which it failed to do.

The regulator said LRN and its 12 directors "shall not mobilize fresh funds from investors through the offer and allotment of any securities, to the public and/ or invite subscription, in any manner whatsoever, either directly or indirectly".

LRN and its directors "shall not access the securities market either directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever", the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said.

According to the order, the Directorate of Economic Offences (DEO), Kolkata, has initiated action against Pincon Group, including LRN, and has requested depositors, secured creditors and other affected persons to furnish the necessary documents with regard to their investment, for refund.

Considering the fact that the proceedings to refund the investors, including the debenture holders, have already been initiated by the DEO, the regulator said "it is felt that no meaningful purpose will be served if Sebi were to initiate separate refund proceedings against the noticees (LRN and its directors) at this juncture".

Accordingly, Sebi directed the entities to ensure refund to all the NCD holders through the process being carried out by DEO.

The regulator has also called upon the entities to show cause as to why they should not be banned from the securities market for a period of four years from the date of completion of refund to all the allottees of NCDs.

The entities have to file their replies within 21 days from the date of receipt of the interim order.

In the event of the respective entities failing to file replies or requesting for an opportunity of personal hearing within 90 days, the preliminary findings and directions will become final and absolute against them without any further orders, Sebi said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sebi today imposed Rs 8 lakh penalty on four individuals for not making relevant disclosures with regard to transactions in Oregon Commercial shares.

In four separate but similarly worded orders, the regulator said it had conducted an investigation in the scrip of Oregon Commercial, now known as Saianand Commercial in two phases, one from January to August, 2010 and another during August 2010-January 2011.

During the investigation, the four individuals acquired and disposed shares of Oregon on several occasions.

Under PIT (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations and SAST (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) norms, they were required to make necessary disclosures to the Oregon and the exchange where the shares of the company are listed.

However they failed to make disclosures under PIT and SAST norms hence "liable for monetary penalty" Sebi said in an order, and imposed a fine of Rs 8 lakh on Krunal Gopaldas Rana, Arif Gulam Mustufa Shaikh, Miteshgiri Chandrangiri Goswami and Nilesh R Pandya.

In a separate order, Sebi imposed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on Oregon Commercial for not making corporate announcement to the exchange regarding the change in the management of the company and thereby violating LODR (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Security forces have killed 581 terrorists since 2015 while 69 personnel died in ceasefire violations along the LoC and the India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told the Lok Sabha today.

In 2015, 108 terrorists were killed by security forces followed by 150 in 2016, 213 in 2017 and 110 in 2018 (up to July 22) along the Line of Control (LoC) and the border in J&K, Bhamre said in a written response to a question in the Lower House.

He said 44 personnel of the Army and 25 of the Border Security Force (BSF) were killed in ceasefire violations since 2015.

The LoC and the India-Pakistan border in J&K have been volatile. In May, the Director Generals of Military Operation (DGMO) of India and Pakistan agreed to restore peace along the LoC.

Bhamre said as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on military expenditure, the military spending of China stood at USD 2,16,031.30 million and USD 2,28,230.70 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively. On the other hand, India spent USD 56,637.60 million and USD 63,923.70 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Replying to another question, he said there was 17,57,055.324 acres of defence land. Nearly 8,38,987.292 acres of land was acquired by the Defence Ministry after Independence, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Security forces have killed 581 terrorists since 2015 while 69 personnel died in ceasefire violations, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre told the Lok Sabha today.

In 2015, 108 terrorists were killed by security forces followed by 150 in 2016, 213 in 2017 and 110 in 2018 (up to July 22), Bhamre said in a written response to a question in the Lower House.

He said 44 personnel of the Army and 25 of the Border Security Force (BSF) were killed in ceasefire violations since 2015.

Bhamre said as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) database on military expenditure, the military spending of China stood at USD 2,16,031.30 million and USD 2,28,230.70 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively. On the other hand, India spent USD 56,637.60 million and USD 63,923.70 million in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Replying to another question, he said there was 17,57,055.324 acres of defence land. Nearly 8,38,987.292 acres of land was acquired by the Defence Ministry after independence, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Serena Williams will play in the Rogers Cup next month at Montreal after she competes in next week's new Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California.

Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion, is returning to the Bay Area for what is the former Stanford WTA stop that moved to San Jose State University for the first time. The event runs from July 30 to August 5.

Rogers Cup tournament officials announced Tuesday that Williams received a wild card into that event, which begins Aug. 3.

Her ranking jumped from No. 181 to No. 28 after her run at Wimbledon. The 36-year-old has played in four tournaments this year after giving birth last year.

The Rogers Cup is a tuneup for the U.S. Open. Williams last played it in 2014, when she reached the semifinals. She won the event three times when it was played in Toronto.

Following her loss in the Wimbledon final to Angelique Kerber, Williams said she had proven to herself that she could still compete to win Grand Slams. Her next Grand Slam title would tie her with Margaret Court for the most with 24. She already has the most major trophies in the professional era.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind today asked students to set big goals in life and strive hard to achieve them.

He was interacting with students of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram school at Heeranar village in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district.

The president encouraged students to "aim high, set big goals in life and work hard to achieve it".

"Each and every person should dream of achieving success in life and make efforts with determination to fulfil it," Kovind told students, with whom he also had lunch.

He enquired about the various facilities, including hostel, being provided to students in the premises and also asked some general knowledge questions to students, to which they replied correctly, a release said.

The president also expressed happiness over students being taught Vedic maths and archery training being imparted in the ashram school, it said.

Kovind and students were served food in 'dona' and 'pattal' (traditional bowls and plates made of dried leaves of sal and banyan trees).

The president also offered sweets to children which he had brought from the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Earlier after arriving in Heeranar, Kovind interacted with farmers associated with the integrated farming system centre in the village.

He also took a short ride on an e-rickshaw driven by a woman, identified as Phoolmati Bhaskar of Dantewada.

After visiting the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram school, the president along with his wife Savita Kovind visited the famous Maa Danteshwari temple in Dantewada and offered prayers, the release said.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and School Minister Kedar Kashyap accompanied them in the temple.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)BJP president Amit Shah would flag off Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's 'Suraj Gaurav Yatra' from Charbhuja Nath temple in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district on August 4.

The 40-day yatra to seek the people's mandate in the upcoming assembly elections will cover all the divisions in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address a rally in Ajmer on the concluding day of the yatra in September, party' state president Madan Lal Saini said.

Starting from the Udaipur division, the yatra will traverse through Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Kota and Jaipur divisions before concluding in Ajmer division.

The party president will flag off the yatra at Charbhuja Nath in Udaipur division and the concluding meeting would be addressed by the prime minster in Ajmer division, Saini said.

The Rajasthan assembly elections are due later this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bihar Assembly witnessed pandemonium for a second day today over the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal, with the RJD accusing the ruling NDA of trying to influence the probe and demanding Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's resignation.

Leader of Opposition and RJD lawmaker Tejashwi Yadav alleged that Brajesh Thakur, the patron of an NGO which ran the shelter home, was associated with the chief minister's campaign team in Muzaffarpur during the last Lok Sabha elections.

He reiterated his demand for a High Court-monitored CBI probe into the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at the state-funded shelter home.

There were fiery exchanges in the assembly over the issue yesterday as well.

Today, Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey raised the issue in the House during the Question Hour and demanded a CBI probe.

Yadav told reporters that Kumar should resign taking moral responsibility for failure to maintain law and order as he also holds the home portfolio.

"In view of the spiralling rise in the incidence of crimes against women, especially young girls, we have decided to give slogan of 'NDA bhagao, beti bachao' during our statewide cycle rally beginning later this week", Tejashwi said.

He was joined by a delegation of the RJD, Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha and CPI-ML.

"During our visit to Muzaffarpur, we met a cross-section of people who told us that some leaders sitting in New Delhi and Patna were calling up officials in the administration with a view to influencing the investigation into the case.

"We have been saying this that the ruling dispensation in the state was trying to shield the accused, many of whom are close to the people in power," he said.

"I have been told that Brajesh Thakur, the patron of the NGO which ran the shelter home, had been a part of the campaign team of the chief minister in Muzaffarpur during the last Lok Sabha elections", he claimed.

Yadav also alleged that according information he had Thakur was a frequent visitor to the office of Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

"A Hindi daily run by him is said to have received lavish advertisements from the states Information and Public Relations Department", the RJD leader alleged.

"The suspicions grew stronger in the wake of the fact that Thakur's name did not figure initially among the accused. After his arrest, he was reportedly not cooperating with investigation and yet his police remand has not been sought", he alleged.

"Apparently, the mobile phones of the accused have not been sent for forensic examination as these could help fetch deleted messages, some of which could be incriminating in nature", Yadav alleged.

The RJD leader also claimed that CCTV cameras, if any, were not examined and though the shelter home housed minor girls, the opposition delegation learnt that abortion tools were kept there. "This aspect has not been examined either".

"In this backdrop, it is clear that the state government has neither the competence nor the intention to carry out a fair and impartial investigation. We wonder why it is not ordering a CBI inquiry despite the statement given by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday", the RJD leader said.

HAM president and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said the government took a month to act on the social audit report on the shelter home and officials took another few days to file an FIR.

He wondered whether the delay was intended to enable the culprits to tamper with evidence and said the High Court should take suo motu cognisance of the case and order a CBI probe.

Opposition MLAs, including those from the RJD and the Congress, trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans against the Nitish Kumar government's refusal to hand over the matter to the CBI.

Some of the agitating MLAs also started banging the tables of the Assembly reporters.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary took strong exception to it and warned the legislators that such unruly behaviour could lead to stern action.

As the sloganeering continued, he adjourned the proceedings till lunch.

Bihar Director General of Police K S Dwivedi had yesterday said he was satisfied with the progress of police investigation into the case and that there was no need for a CBI probe.

He had said medical examination of 29 of the 42 inmates had confirmed that they were sexually exploited.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had yesterday told the House the government was trying to neither shield nor implicate anyone.

"The matter had come to light not because of you (opposition), but because of a social audit conducted by the government itself," he had said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The RJD said today that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should resign taking moral responsibility for the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-run shelter home here as he also holds the home portfolio.

Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav wondered why the state government is not ordering a CBI probe into the case.

Kumar should resign for the "overall rise in crimes against women", the RJD leader told reporters here and reiterated the party's demand for CBI inquiry into the shelter home scandal.

The CBI probe should be monitored by the high court, Yadav, who led a delegation of the opposition RJD, Congress, Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and CPI-ML, here said.

"We wonder why the state government is not ordering a CBI inquiry despite the statement given by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday... We stick to our demand for a CBI inquiry, notwithstanding unconvincing arguments against it by the government put through officials like the DGP. We demand that the probe be monitored by the High Court," Yadav said.

Bihar Director General of Police K S Dwivedi had said yesterday that medical examinations of 29 of the 42 inmates confirmed that they were sexually exploited and that 10 of the accused have already been arrested while efforts were on to nab an absconding one.

Yadav claimed that some leaders of the ruling NDA in Bihar are trying to influence the investigation into the Muzaffarpur shelter home scandal.

"During our visit we have met a cross-section of people who have told us that some leaders sitting in New Delhi and Patna were calling up officials in the administration here with a view to influencing the investigation in the case," the leader of the opposition said.

"We have been saying that the ruling dispensation in the state is trying to shield the accused, many of whom are close to people in power," he said.

Yadav claimed that Brajesh Thakur, who is the patron of the NGO which ran the shelter home, had been a part of Kumar's campaign team in Muzaffarpur during the last Lok Sabha elections.

Upon his arrest, he was alleged not to have cooperated with the investigation and yet his police remand has not been sought, Yadav said.

"Although the shelter home housed little girls, we have learnt that tools used in abortion were kept here. This aspect has not been examined either," he said.

"It is clear that the state government has neither the competence nor the intention to carry out a fair and impartial investigation," he alleged.

The RJD will hold a state-wide cycle rally against the rise in the incidence of crimes against women, specially young girls, in Bihar beginning later this week with the slogan 'NDA Bhagao Beti Bachao', he added.

Echoing Yadav on the demand for a CBI probe into the scandal, HAM chief and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said the government took a month to act on the social audit report on the shelter home and its officials and several more days to file an FIR.

He wondered whether the delay was intended to enable the culprits to tamper with evidence.

Other members of the opposition team were Sadanand Singh of Congress and Mahboob Alam of CPI-ML.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A Shiv Sena MLA from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district today offered to resign in support of the Maratha quota demand.

Harshavardhan Jadhav, who represents Kannad assembly constituency, had recently announced to step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met.

He is the son-in-law of BJP's state unit president Raosaheb Danve.

In his letter addressed to Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav stated that he was tendering his resignation this afternoon.

When contacted, Jadhav said he has also e-mailed his resignation to the Speaker and will personally submit it to him in Mumbai tomorrow.

The Shiv Sena, a constituent of the BJP-led state and Central governments, has 63 MLAs in the 288-member House.

The Maratha community has been demanding quota under OBC category in government jobs and education.

The members of the community have been holding protests in various parts of Maharashtra for their demands since the last two days and have observed bandhs in Mumbai and rest of the state.

The protests have turned violent at many places.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Many people are saying that up is down. Photo: Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

During a stop campaigning for Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley at a VFW hall in Kansas City on Tuesday  which our gleefully norm-shattering commander-in-chief treated more like a campaign rally than a taxpayer-funded event  President Trump broached the topic of tariffs.

The president insisted that despite all the lost agricultural revenue, despite the damage already done to marquee American businesses, and despite the bad headlines, his bellicose trade policy is actually good news for everyone. Or, as he put it on Twitter earlier in the day, Tariffs are the greatest!

And, in a line for the ages, Trump neatly encapsulated both his entire political strategy, and his opinion of the people who vote for him.

Pres. Trump says "this is the time" for tariffs: "This country is doing better than it's ever has before, economically...It's all working out. Just remember: what you're seeing and what you're reading is not what's happening." https://t.co/aRY8xSowuo pic.twitter.com/shX65JiNMs  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 24, 2018

If retaining base support is his goal, the presidents strategy of straightforward reality distortion is working fairly well. A Pew poll last week showed that 73 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters approved of the tariffs, a startling result for a party that once championed free trade as one of its defining policy planks.

But in a concession that all is not well on the ground, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday a $12 billion, Democratic Socialist-style bailout for farmers who have seen their businesses harmed by rising prices and uncertainty that are the direct result of Trumps policies.

Beyond a possible backlash among midwestern voters, the president faces a growing chorus of Republican Senators who are objecting to his economically senseless trade war in increasingly harsh times  though, in the spirit of the times, they are unlikely to do much about it.India today said its engagement with China has expanded in recent years and both countries are engaged in trying to find mutually acceptable solution to issues having differences.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh told Lok Sabha that relations between India and China are a factor of stability and that the two countries must not allow their differences to become disputes.

In the last few months, the Asian giants have been making efforts to expand cooperation in a range of areas and boost overall ties which had come under severe strain in the wake of a 73-day-long standoff between militaries of the two countries in Doklam last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping had held an informal summit in Chinese city of Wuhan in April during which they resolved to solidify the bilateral ties.

"In our multifaceted engagement with China, in areas where we have commonality of views, engagement has expanded and upgraded in recent years," Singh said in a written reply to a question.

"Issues where there are differences are being handled through dialogue to seek a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution based on mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests, concerns and aspirations," he said.

Singh said both sides have been working towards utilising their bilateral dialogue mechanisms to promote mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide range of areas.

The two countries have been focusing on ramping up cooperation in a range of areas including in trade, investment and pharmaceuticals.

"Both sides agree that progress in bilateral relations should be guided by the concensus reached between their leaders that a time of global uncertainty, India-China relations are a factor of stability and that the two countries must not allow their differences to become disputes," he said.

Both the countries are engaged in talks to resolved the vexed border dispute.

India asserts that the border dispute covered about 4,000 km, while China claims that it confined to about 2,000 km to the area of Arunachal Pradesh, which it refers as Southern Tibet.

On ties with Bhutan, Singh said the cooperation includes a wide range of areas including border management and security, trade, education and generation of hydropower.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Spanish rescue services said they had plucked nearly 500 migrants from the Mediterranean in a single day who were trying to reach the country's coast.

The Spanish Maritime Safety Agency said on Twitter that it had picked up a total of 484 people in 30 makeshift vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

According to a count by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of the year and July 18.

They are mainly from sub-Saharan Africa -- notably Guinea, Mali and Mauritania -- as well as Morocco.

At least 294 migrants have died in their attempts to reach Spain this year, out of a total of 1,489 who died in the Mediterranean, according to IOM.

In June Spain agreed to take in 630 migrants who arrived aboard three vessels, including the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius.

The Aquarius rescued the migrants off Libya's coast on June 9 but Italy's new populist government and Malta both refused to let it dock, triggering an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Then on July 4, a ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms docked in Barcelona with 60 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast on board after Italy refused to take them in.

Faced with growing tensions in the EU over the issue, member states struck a deal in late June to stem the arrival of migrants.

The accord includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in EU countries and "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc, as well as sharing out refugees among member states.

But the plan remains fraught with rows over how to divide responsibility for migrants and ease the stress on coastal countries such as Italy and Greece.

Italy, which had earlier vowed to turn away rescue boats, agreed Monday to continue accepting migrants picked up at sea, at least until the bloc finds a solution for sharing responsibility.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Peter Mayhew, best known for portraying Chewbacca in the "Star Wars" franchise, has undergone spinal surgery to improve his mobility.

The 74-year-old star took to Twitter to announce that the procedure had gone well.

"Sorry, I've been quiet as of late. I've been planning and going through some spinal surgery to improve my mobility. It's been a success and I'll be spending the upcoming weeks recovering. A big thank you to the doctors, staff, my family and friends that have helped me through this," Mayhew tweeted along with his picture from the hospital bed.

The actor is 7 ft 3 in tall and has a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome.

Mayhew also announced that due to the surgery, he will not be able to attend the upcoming London Film and Comic Con.

"... But I have rescheduled and will be attending their show in March. Sorry to miss you all but I'll be over as soon as my legs can paddle me across the pond," he added.

Mayhew in recent years has used a cane and a wheelchair at times to help him get around.

He played the iconic character in the original trilogy and in some of the new films.

Finnish actor Joonas Suotamo took over playing Chewie for future installments, including "Solo: A Star Wars Story".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rescuers were searching today for villagers left missing when part of a newly built dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 19 people.

More than 6,000 people lost their homes when the dam gave way on Monday, flooding surrounding villages. The exact number of victims was unclear.

The official Lao agency KPL said yesterday afternoon that hundreds of people were missing, without providing details. More recent reports put the number missing in the dozens.

KPL today said that the death toll had risen to 19. Photos and videos posted on social media showed people sitting on rooftops to escape the surging water, while others were carried to safety or rescued by boat.

State media said helicopters were also being used to rescue people. SK Engineering & Construction, one of two South Korean partners in the project, said the top of one of five auxiliary earth-fill dams at the project "got swept away" on Sunday night after heavy rains.

But Korea Western Power, which was due to operate the hydroelectric power plant after its completion, said problems first emerged Friday when workers discovered the dam's centre had sunk by 11 centimeters (4.3 inches).

Repair work for the earth-fill dam was hampered by heavy rain and damaged roads, and the situation worsened on Monday as water cascaded out of the reservoir, flooding seven out of 12 villages in the area, SK E&C said.

It was helping to evacuate and rescue residents while also trying to contain further damage. The government declared the area a disaster zone and top officials rushed to the site, it said.

Continued heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the area could hinder rescue efforts, and risks from flooding persisted in the mountainous region.

Provincial authorities issued a call for emergency aid clothing, food, drinking water, medicine, cash and other items from the "party, government organizations, business community, officials, police and military forces and people of all strata."



The International Red Cross said food was a concern because village food supplies were drenched in the flooding. It was arranging for water purification units to be sent to the area to ensure supplies of clean drinking water.

The presidential office in South Korea said President Moon Jae-in had ordered an emergency relief team to help with the disaster. SK E&C sent its president to Laos and set up an emergency team in Seoul, South Korea's Yonhap agency reported.

The USD 1.02 billion project encompassing several river basins in a remote corner of southeastern Laos is the first hydroelectric dam to be built by a South Korean company, and it was unclear how severe the damage would be to the overall plan.

The dam was due to begin operating in 2019, with 90 percent of the power generated going to Thailand.

Shares of companies affiliated with SK E&C sank today on concerns over potential costs for compensation and other financial setbacks from the disaster. SK Discovery Co, SK E&C's second-largest shareholder with a 28.25 stake in the builder, tumbled more than 10 per cent to trade at its lowest level in more than three years.

SK Holdings Co, the biggest shareholder in SK E&C with a 44.48 per cent stake, fell 3 per cent.

Laos has dozens of hydroelectric projects under construction and plans for sales of power to neighbouring countries, now accounting for about a third of its exports, to grow substantially.

But dam building along the Mekong River and its tributaries, including those affected by this disaster, has raised concerns over environmental impact and other problems.

International Rivers, a nongovernmental group generally critical of such projects, said the catastrophe showed the need to improve warning systems.

"With over 70 hydropower projects currently built, under construction and planned across Lao PDR most of them owned and operated by private companies authorities must immediately review how dams are being planned, designed and managed," the group said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi University Students' Union today requested the Delhi University authorities to set up a "Wellness Cell" in all colleges of the varsity, following an 18-year-old student's alleged suicide in Bharati College today.

In a letter to the vice-chancellor, Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) secretary Mahamedhaa Nagar expressed concern about how there was lack of resources for students to seek help in the country.

"Students are unable to manage their stress. They do not have a place to vent their thoughts either at home or at school or college. Many battle an identity crisis. Uncertain about their future, they begin to isolate themselves and eventually slip into depression," she said in her letter.

She proposed setting up a "Wellness Cell" in all colleges for students to seek help.

"The DUSU proposes the Delhi University to immediately take reforms and introduce a new cell/society naming Wellness Cell in all DU colleges dedicated to the mental health of the students.

"Also, there should be a proper check or a survey by the DU administration on the availability and appointments of professional counsellors in DU colleges to ensure students have an opportunity to outcast their feelings to someone at the college," the letter said.

The primary focus of the cell would be to conduct lectures and counselling sessions for the students suffering from any kind of behavioural issues/disorders. Wellness cells can play an important role of creative awareness about mental health issues, something which is often neglected in our country, Nagar said in the letter.

An 18-year-old woman student of Bharati College in Janakpuri here allegedly committed suicide today in the institute's washroom after consuming pesticide. The reason for the suicide is yet to be ascertained.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Suspected naxals today damaged railway tracks on the Visakhapatnam-Kirandul route in Dantewada district, disrupting the movement of trains, police said, on a day President Ram Nath Kovind arrived in Chhattisgarh for a two day visit.

The railway administration has undertaken the track restoration work.

There was no disruption in the president's itinerary and he attended several functions during the day in the state.

"The damage was detected in track this evening under Bhansi police station limits following which Visakhapatnam-Kirandul passenger train, that had crossed Dantewada for Kirandul, had to be brought back to Dantewada," state's Deputy Inspector General (anti-naxal operations) Sundarraj P told PTI.

The railway's ground staff spotted that few fish plates of the track were removed, following which they immediately informed their senior officials, who then conveyed it to police.

Prima facie it seems the naxals have committed the offence in view of their 'Martyrs Week' to be observed by them between July 28 and August 3.

After getting information of the incident, teams of police personnel as well as railway officials have reached the spot and the railway administration has launched the track restoration work, he said.

However, since the spot is located inside the forest area, it will take some time to for restoration work.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Talks have started today between Nepal government's representatives and veteran medical professional Dr Govinda KC, who has been fasting for 25 days demanding reforms in the country's medical sector, officials said.

The talks were taking place under the coordination of Deputy Parliamentary Party Leader of the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) Subash Nembang at the Ministry of Education in Kathmandu, they said.

Earlier, Nembang had held talks with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, NCP co-chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal "Prachanda" and former Vice Chancellor of Tribhuvan University, Kedar Bhakta Mathema.

Education Secretary Khagaraj Baral is representing the government team, while Jivan Chhetri, Surendra Bhandari, Om Prakash Aryal, Abhishek Raj Singh and Sumit Pandey are representing Dr KC's team during the talks.

The teams will focus on the agendas, including barring from opening new medical colleges in Kathmandu for 10 years and establishing ones in the remote areas of the country.

Dr KC has been on a fast-unto-death since June 30demanding reforms in medical education sector. This is his 15th hunger strike.

Meanwhile, the meeting of the National Assembly (NA) has been postponed due to the obstruction by the main opposition Nepali Congress (NC).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut today said there are "talks within the BJP" to replace Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, in the backdrop of the ongoing Maratha quota stir which has turned violent.

"(BJP president) Amit Shah and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi will take the final decision on changing the leadership in the state. But there is talk within BJP of changing the chief minister," Raut told reporters here.

Fadnavis, sworn in as the chief minister in October 2014, is under flak from Maratha quota protesters and the opposition parties who have accused the state government of dilly-dallying on the demands of the Maratha community.

The present situation in the state is "worrying" and the BJP-led state government has been "unable to tackle" it, Raut said.

Two senior BJP ministers rubbished Raut's claim, saying there was no talk within BJP of replacing Fadnavis.

Revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said, "There is no reason to replace the chief minister. The Chief Minister is much more in favour of giving Marathas reservation than even I am."



Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said there is no talk within the BJP of replacing Fadnavis. All decisions in the party are taken collectively, he added.

Dismissing Raut's claim, BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari said, "Both the government and chief minister are doing a fine job and are stable. There are no problems within the party. This is just rumour-mongering by the Sena."



Raut also said the Shiv Sena has been supporting the Maratha community's demand of reservation in government jobs and education from the very beginning.

"The BJP, too, had taken part in protests for the Marathas (for quota) when it was in opposition. Now, it's the BJP's responsibility to see how it (implementation of quota for Marathas) can be done," he said.

The government can't run away from the issue, saying the matter is sub-judice, Raut said, referring to the BJP-led dispensation's argument that the issue of legality of a quota for the Marathas is pending before the Bombay High Court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Textile and clothing sector exports have increased marginally to USD 39.2 billion in 2017-18 from USD 39 billion in the previous fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

On the other hand India's imports of textile and apparel have increased by 17 per cent from USD 6.3 billion in 2016-17 to USD 7.3 billion in 2017-18, Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said that government has increased customs duty on different types of fabric, apparel, made-ups and carpets from 10 per cent to 20 per cent to curb textile and apparel imports in the country.

In a separate reply, he said that the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) has estimated the cotton production for the current cotton season 2017-18 (October 2017 to September 2018) at 370 lakh bales.

"From October 2017 to April 2018, the total amount of cotton exported from India was 51.21 lakh bales," he said adding CAB has estimated that during the current cotton season 2017-18, the export of cotton is likely to increase by 20 per cent over last year and is expected to touch 70 lakh bales by September this year.

"Domestic prices of cotton are ruling below the international cotton prices," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid the renewed agitation for Maratha quota, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut today said there was talk in the BJP of replacing Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a claim rubbished by the senior ruling ally as "rumour-mongering".

Raut, a Rajya Sabha member whose party is part of the ruling coalition in Maharashtra, said the present situation in the state is "worrying" and the state government has been "unable to tackle" it.

"(BJP president) Amit Shah and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi will take the final decision on changing the leadership in the state. But, talk of changing the chief minister is underway within the BJP," Raut told reporters here.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari dismissed Raut's claim, saying "Both the government and chief minister are doing a fine job and are stable. There are no problems within the party. This is just rumour-mongering by the Sena," Bhandari said.

Raut also said the Shiv Sena has been supporting the Maratha community's demand of reservation in government jobs and education from the very beginning.

"The BJP, too, had taken part in protests for the Marathas (for quota) when it was in opposition. Now, it's the BJP's responsibility to see how it can be done," he said.

It is unfortunate that the government has "disappeared from the political scene", the Sena leader alleged.

"The government should start a dialogue with the protesters and take some decision, because people have started supporting the protests. If it (the agitation) is not taken seriously, Maharashtra will pay a heavy price," he said.

Successive governments failed to take the issue of Maratha reservation seriously, he said.

The government can not run away from the issue, saying it is sub-judice, Raut stated, referring to the BJP-led dispensation's argument that the issue of legality of a quota for the Marathas is pending before the Bombay High Court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Brian Kemp won handily for several reasons, but Trump will get the credit thanks to his late endorsement of the winner. Photo: John Amis/AP

The battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Georgia has been raging since spring of 2017, and it has been eventful, before and after Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp finished first and second, respectively, in the May 22 primary. You could argue that any number of factors helped Brian Kemp win todays runoff, including Cagles ethics issues and clumsy handling of an embarrassing post-primary conversation that was surreptitiously taped and then leaked; Kemps fiery, attention-getting ads; the support Kemp won from vanquished first-round candidates; and most of all, Kemps ability to seize the high ideological ground as a politically incorrect conservative in a state party thats really gone off the deep end of late.

But theres no question the factor that will be most often credited for the outcome, especially in the national GOP arena, is the late (and surprise) endorsement of Kemp by Donald Trump. The secretary of state already had some momentum after surging into second place in the primary (traditionally, exactly where you want to be going into a Georgia runoff): he had already taken the lead in three polls before Trumps intervention. But even if Trump simply jumped on a winning bandwagon, theres little doubt his endorsement helped Kemp turn this into something of a laugher. Hes routing Cagle, the longtime front-runner whos been in the second spot in state government for three terms after croaking Ralph Reeds electoral career in 2006, by what will likely be a landslide when its all over, carrying all but a few scattered counties.

Im guessing Trump will treat himself to a double scoop of ice cream tonight to celebrate another successful endorsement, which will help him solidify his already formidable grip on the GOP. And perhaps hell be joined by his Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Senator David Perdue, the Georgia cousins who probably talked him into the Kemp endorsement. Kemp was first appointed to statewide office by Sonny when another Perdue protege, Karen Handel, resigned the secretary of state position to run for governor. Handel lost that race to Nathan Deal, but is now in the U.S. House, and is probably among those enjoying the defeat of Deals endorsed favorite Casey Cagle.

The general election contest between Kemp and Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams (who won the Democratic nomination easily in May) will obviously be a partisan and ideological barn-burner. Abrams is probably the states most self-consciously progressive Democratic gubernatorial nominee ever, and as noted, Kemp has staked out a position with at least one foot firmly in the fever swamps of the right. Beyond that, the contest will be something of a personal grudge match. Abrams has spent a good portion of her career trying to expand voter registration among young and minority folk who are under-represented in the Georgia electorate. And Kemp, as Georgias chief election officer since 2010, has fought her efforts tooth and nail and shown himself to be a champion vote suppressor (or as he would put it, a courageous voter fraud opponent).

With polls showing the general election contest close to dead even, it will be quite the battle. Donald Trump will be a factor once again, though this time in an arena whose crowd is broader than the ranks of his adoring partisan supporters.Thousands of apps that enable abusive people to secretly spy on their partner are simple to install and marketed through a murky web of online advertising, blogs and videos explaining how to use them for illegal purposes, scientists including one of Indian origin have found.

The apps not only include traditional spyware but software intended for more benign uses, such as finding phones or keeping track of children - making it all but impossible to use existing anti-spyware tools to protect against them.

Some apps were actively marketed to abusers, including one with a webpage titled "Mobile Spy App for Personal Catch Cheating Spouses" and an image of a man gripping the arm of a woman with scratches on her face.

However, apps not overtly aimed at abusers, whose official websites refer only to uses like employee or child tracking, were found to use advertising search terms such as "track my girlfriend" or "how to catch a cheating spouse with his cell phone."



"Thousands of these apps are available in the open market," said Rahul Chatterjee, a doctoral student at Cornell University in the US.

"You can easily find them, and existing anti-spyware apps don't detect them, so intimate partner violence victims have no way to know they're being spied on," said Chatterjee.

The researchers reported their findings to Google, which in response stopped allowing advertisements for abuse-related searches and tightened policies in its Play Store.

Victims of domestic abuse increasingly report online surveillance, which allows abusers to monitor their locations, conversations and more - sometimes leading to violent or even fatal confrontations.

They are often unaware of the tracking until they notice that their partners have information or are showing up in places they otherwise wouldn't.

Since abusers may have access to their partners' phones or passwords, installation of even the most invasive apps can be easy.

Starting with search terms like "track my wife" or "read SMS from another phone," the researchers found blogs, videos or chat forums offering step-by-step instructions of how to do it.

Neither Google nor Apple allow overt spyware to be sold through their platforms, but some spying apps are sold elsewhere.

Others, the researchers believe, describe themselves as legitimate apps so they can be found through Google and Apple but are also marketing themselves to abusers for illegal purposes.

For example, blogs - some of them hosted on the apps' own domains - discuss how helpful that particular app can be for intimate spying.

To gauge the attitudes of a company toward these abuses, researchers contacted customer support at 11 of the apps they examined to ask, "If I use this app to track my husband will he know that I am tracking him? Thanks, Jessie." Of the nine who replied, all but one responded with some version of "No, he shouldn't notice."



The problem is so large in scope that combating it won't be easy, researchers said.

They are working to create a better spyware-detection tool, but more intervention is needed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip today, the enclave's health ministry announced, as Israel's army said it was hitting Hamas after its soldiers came under fire.

The flare-up comes five days after a United Nations-brokered ceasefire helped halt an earlier surge in violence.

The three were killed in strikes east of Gaza City, a health ministry statement said, without giving their identities.

The Israeli army said it carried out artillery strikes against seven military targets belonging to Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.

"A short while ago, terrorists fired at (Israeli) soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip," an army statement said, without mentioning any injuries to the troops.

"In response... artillery targeted seven military posts in Gaza belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation." There was no immediate comment from Hamas about the identities of the dead.

The shooting was the second such incident reported by the Israelis along the fractious border in days.

On Friday an Israeli soldier was shot dead, sparking a fierce wave of bombing that ratcheted up fears of another war.

That violence was ended late Friday by a UN-brokered ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three Pakistan Army soldiers and a polling officer were killed in a gunfire by unidentified assailants in Baleda area of the restive Baluchistan province, the military said today.

A security team responsible for transporting the polling staff to their designated stations in NA-271 constituency (Baled) had come under attack late last night, the military's media-wing Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.

The miscreants had opened fire on the security convoy, killing three soldiers and a polling officer, while 14 others were injured, the ISPR said.

Among the wounded, 10 were in a critical condition, it said.

The ISPR said that despite the attack the Army team managed to take the polling staff to their designated stations in the NA-271 constituency and polling process started at designated time this morning.

Earlier today, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in Bhosa Mandi area of Baluchistan's provincial capital Quetta, killing 31 people, including policemen.

In separate incidents, four other persons were killed in poll-related violence. Clashes erupted between rival parties outside several polling stations, reports said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Tamil Nadu government today urged the Centre to release funds to the tune of Rs 3558 crore for urban and rural local bodies in the state.

Minister for Municipal Administration, SP Velumani, presented a memorandum to Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in New Delhi today in this regard, a state government release here said.

Velumani demanded the release of Basic Grant of Rs1390.04 crore and Performance Grant of Rs 560.15 Crore to the urban and rural local bodies for the Financial Year 2017-18 and the first instalment of the Basic Grant of Rs 1608.02 crore for 2018-19, it said.

Velumani met Goyal along with senior Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai and state Electricity Minister P Thangamani.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Recent mystery illnesses that have injured 26 US diplomatic personnel and their families in Cuba have prompted a surprise visit by three senior State Department officials to the communist island nation.

The apparent victims of what Washington has called sonic "attacks" have suffered symptoms consistent with mild brain trauma -- including, in some cases, disorientation and hearing loss.

Acting Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco Palmieri, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Management William Todd and Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Michael Evanoff traveled to Havana to "visit embassy personnel in light of new health attacks against US diplomats at



Embassy Havana," a State Department spokesperson said. Although the length of the trip was not revealed, CBS reported that they left Cuba on Tuesday.

"The trip provided an opportunity for our senior officials to gain deeper insight into the unique challenges posed by these attacks and their impact on US operations on the ground," the US official said.

In June, the State Department indicated that two US diplomats experienced the previous month similar health ailments at an American diplomatic residence where they were both present.

The two cases were the first in Havana since August 2017, bringing the total to 26. The ailments first began in late 2016.

Some American officials in both China and Cuba reported hearing an unidentified noise before falling ill, and initial reports suggested they may have been hit by a secret sonic weapon.

But US intelligence and medical experts have been investigating for more than a year and seem no closer to identifying the cause.

After holding Cuba responsible for either carrying out the attacks or failing to protect its officials, the US recalled more than half of its staff from the embassy and expelled 15 Cuban diplomats from Washington.

This marked a major diplomatic crisis following the countries' cautious revival of ties in 2015, but Cuba has firmly denied any role in or knowledge of the incident.

On June 10, the Cuban foreign ministry said: "We can confirm that we have no credible hypothesis or scientific explanation that justifies the retaliatory US measures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Commission for Women (NCW) in collaboration with the Goa Police rescued a 33-year-old woman, who was trafficked from Siliguri to the coastal state last month, the women's body said today.

The victim's husband, complained to Bhaktinagar Police Station in Siliguri that his wife had been missing since June 21.

He further stated that on July 19 his wife called him from a mobile phone, which was later switched off and untraceable.

The NCW directed the Goa Police to look into the matter and treat it as high-priority since she had been missing for almost a month, the women's body said.

The mobile number, from which the trafficking victim had called, was then put on surveillance and her location was traced. An anti-trafficking team of the Goa Police formed to locate the missing woman then reached the spot and rescued her.

"The coordination between us was very swift due to which the woman was rescued," NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma said.

The victim has been shifted to a shelter home and her family, including her five-month-old baby, would be taking her home today, Sharma added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of transgender observers was not allowed by the police to enter polling stations across Peshawar today despite being authorised by the Election Commission of Pakistan, a media report said.

The 25 transgender observers complained to the election body about their ordeal but no action was taken, The Express Tribune reported.

In Lahore, there were reports they some transgender voters were barred from exercising their franchise.

The observes alleged that their group, named as Transgender Election Day Observer (EDO), was stopped by security forces at Afghan Colony despite having accreditation cards issued by the election authorities.

They said that they were denied entry at polling stations across Peshawar.

Pakistanis voted today in a tense election to choose a new government as at least 35 people were killed in an ISIS suicide attack and poll-related violence, amidst charges of manipulation by the powerful Army and concerns over the participation of Islamic hardliners.

Nearly 10.6 crore people are registered to vote for members of the lower house of Parliament and four provincial assemblies. The election marks the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year history.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi and Congress in Telangana today engaged in a war of words over the issue of promises in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.

Responding to the criticism of Congress by TRS leaders, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbir alleged that the ruling party adopted double standards on the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

Congress seeks implementation of all promises given in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, he said.

TRS has not been able to realise the promises made in the Act, the congress leader alleged.

Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, who sought the stance of Congress on giving special status to Andhra Pradesh and its impact on Telangana, should first know what his party leaders had earlier spoken on the matter, Shabbir told reporters.

TRS had earlier supported special status for AP in Parliament, he said.

Rao has said Congress would have to answer to Telangana people as industries in Telangana may shift base to Andhra Pradesh if tax exemptions are given to the neighbouring state under the special category status.

"Not only to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana too should be given the special status," Rao said.

Congress and BJP had done injustice to Telangana by not dividing the High Court in Hyderabad (between the two states) and by merging seven mandals of Telangana with Andhra Pradesh for constructing Polavaram project, he alleged.

Congress has recently reiterated its stance to support special category status for AP.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump today accused China of "vicious" tactics on trade as he prepared for tough negotiations with European leaders in an escalating trade battle among world powers.

Trump tweeted that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because "they know I love & respect" them.

His defense came after his administration announced a plan to provide USD 12 billion in emergency relief for farmers who have been slammed by the president's trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Trump wrote on Twitter, "They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"



The president was meeting at the White House later today with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other European officials as their trade dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to US national security, an argument that the European Union and Canada rejects. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totalled USD 335 billion.

The European Union has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs on products worth USD 20 billion if Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

Yesterday, Trump suggested in a tweet that "both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!"



The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on USD 34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijing's high-tech industrial policies. China has struck back with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to USD 500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globe's biggest economies.

The moves have been unsettling to lawmakers with districts dependent upon manufacturers and farmers affected by the retaliatory tariffs.

The Agriculture Department said it would tap an existing program to provide USD 12 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trump's tariffs and other assistance, such as the purchase of excess crops.

With congressional elections coming soon, the government action underscored administration concern about damage to U.S. farmers from Trump's trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The administration said the program was just temporary.

"This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration the time to work on long-term trade deals," said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue as administration officials argued that the plan was not a "bailout" of the nation's farmers.

But that provided little solace to rank-and-file Republicans, who said the tariffs are simply taxes and warned the action would open a Pandora's box for other sectors of the economy.

"I want to know what we're going to say to the automobile manufacturers and the petrochemical manufacturers and all the other people who are being hurt by tariffs," said Senetor John Kennedy, R-La.

"You've got to treat everybody the same." Senator Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the Agriculture Department was "trying to put a Band-aid on a self-inflicted wound. The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts. This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy."



Trump pushed back against critics of his plan on Wednesday, telling them to "be cool" because "the end result will be worth it!"



On Twitter, Trump said people "snipping at your heels during a negotiation" will only delay the process. He wrote: "Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!"



The program is expected to start taking effect around Labor Day. Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by retaliation to the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs.

The food purchased from farmers would include some types of fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, dairy products, beef and pork, officials said.

Agriculture officials said they would not need congressional approval and the money would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.

The officials said payments couldn't be calculated until after harvests come in. Brad Karmen, the USDA's assistant deputy administrator for farm programs, noted that the wheat harvest is already in, so wheat farmers could get payments sooner than other growers.

Soybeans are likely to be the largest sector affected by the programs. Soybean prices have plunged 18 per cent in the past two months.

The Agriculture Department predicted before the trade fights that US farm income would drop this year to USD 60 billion, or half the USD 120 billion of five years ago.

Mark Martinson, who raises crops and cattle in north-central North Dakota and is president of the US Durum Growers Association, said the USD 12 billion figure "sounds huge" but there are many farmers in need.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Trump administration today announced a whopping USD 12 billion in financial assistance to American farmers hit by retaliatory tariffs imposed by trading partners like China, India and the EU.

Farmers in the US have been adversely impacted after the Trump administration imposed tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, triggering a trade war with several countries including China, which has announced retaliatory measures against American goods.

Being described as a short-term solution, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will authorise up to USD 12 billion in programmes, which is in line with the estimated USD 11 billion impact of the unjustified retaliatory tariffs on US agricultural goods.

These programmes will assist agricultural producers to meet the costs of disrupted markets.

"This is a short-term solution to allow President (Donald) Trump time to work on long-term trade deals to benefit agriculture and the entire US economy," Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said.

Trump promised to have the back of every American farmer and rancher, and he knows the importance of keeping our rural economy strong, he said.

Unfortunately, America's hard-working agricultural producers have been treated unfairly by China's illegal trading practices and have taken a disproportionate hit when it comes to illegal retaliatory tariffs, he said.

China cancelled nearly USD 140 million in soybean contracts at the end of June, according to US lawmakers. Cherry producers also felt the pinch during their short cherry season, as they face an additional 25 per cent tariff in China.

India last month submitted a revised list of 30 items -- including motorcycle, certain iron and steel goods, boric acid and lentils -- to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on which it proposes to raise customs duty by up to 50 per cent. In May, India notified the WTO that it plans to raise its tariff before June 21 on apples from the already very high level of 50 per cent to 80 per cent.

The European Union (EU) has also announced tariffs on American imports.

"The USDA will not stand by while our hard-working agricultural producers bear the brunt of unfriendly tariffs enacted by foreign nations. The programmes we are announcing today help ensure our nation's agriculture continues to feed the world and innovate to meet the demand," Perdue said.

Of the total unjustified retaliatory tariffs imposed on the US, a disproportionate amount was targeted directly at American farmers, the Department of Agriculture said.

Trade damage from such retaliation has impacted a host of US commodities, including field crops like soybeans and sorghum, livestock products like milk and pork, and many fruits, nuts and other specialty crops, it said.

High tariffs disrupt normal marketing patterns, affecting prices and raising costs by forcing commodities to find new markets.

Additionally, American goods shipped overseas are being slowed from reaching market by unusually strict or cumbersome entry procedures, which can affect the quality and marketability of perishable crops, it said.

"He (Trump) understands the farmers in this country feed us, they fuel us, they clothe us and he'll do everything he can to protect them. He is working with the Department of Agriculture to protect them and he'll keep doing that," White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley told reporters during Air Force One Gaggle.

Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin said "the bailouts, tweets, and bragging won't save the lost crop value for our farmers and won't protect their reputations around the world as reliable sellers."



"The president's scorched earth trade war has put a lot at stake for Illinois and our rural economy. Soybean farmers in Illinois tell me that since the start of the president's trade war, they've seen their crop value drop by 20 per cent.

"Declaring a trade war on the world, instead of the truly bad actors, leaves a lot of collateral damage," Durbin added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)National gun-safety advocate Lucy McBath won the Democratic nomination to take on 2017s famous special election winner, Representative Karen Handel. Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

The Republican gubernatorial runoff got the lions share of attention nationally and in Georgia last night (thats what happens when Donald Trump gets involved), but in two potentially competitive suburban congressional districts near Atlanta, a new era of Democratic optimism created multiple candidacies to challenge GOP incumbents, leading to runoff elections (Georgia requires majorities for party nominations). Reflecting a national trend, women who are first-time candidates won both highly competitive contests.

Just over a year ago, the whole political world revolved around the Sixth Congressional District of Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff narrowly lost a lavishly financed and feverishly covered special-election challenge to veteran Republican pol Karen Handel for a seat comfortably occupied for years by Tom Price, who had become Trumps HHS Secretary (a position he vacated soon thereafter thanks to his taste for frequent and expensive travel). There was some talk of Ossoff attempting a return engagement with Handel in 2018, but he took a pass. Three viable candidates did step up, including former local news anchor Bobby Kaple and partial self-funding businessman Kevin Abel. But the ultimate winner (over Abel in a runoff) was national gun-safety spokesperson Lucy McBath. Her personal story (her teenage son was fatally shot in a dispute over loud music) has made her a compelling contributor to the ongoing discussion over guns, and financial backing from the Michael Bloombergfounded Everytown for Gun Safety made her viable in the Sixth District race.

Though disappointment with the OssoffHandel outcome has made Democrats wary of any optimism about Georgias Sixth, this years race is rated as competitive (Lean Republican) by the Cook Political Report, and McBaths media savvy and access to national funding could keep things very interesting.

The next-door Seventh District, represented by Republican Rob Woodall since 2010, was slightly more Republican than the Sixth in the 2016 presidential election (Trump carried the Seventh by six points, the Sixth by just one point), but the same sharp pro-Democratic trend is apparent there, especially in the districts dominant county, Gwinnett (which Hillary Clinton actually carried). Six Democrats decided to run against Woodall, and five wound up with double-digit shares of the vote in the May primary. The field was led by Georgia State University professor (and former state government staffer) Carolyn Bourdeaux, who had crucial financial backing from EMILYs List, and self-funding businessman David Kim, who was successful in attracting a lot of votes from fellow Asian-Americans, who are an increasingly strong presence in Gwinnett. Heres how the Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes Bourdeauxs winning campaign:

Bourdeaux, 48, ran a health-care-focused campaign that called for protecting Obamacare, expanding Medicaid in Georgia and granting Medicare the purchasing power to negotiate lower drug prices.

Saying Trumps election played a big role in her decision to run for office, Bourdeaux also campaigned on equal pay for men and women while promoting womens health care, abortion rights and paid family medical leave. She picked up support from U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young.

She ran even with Kim in his Gwinnett County stronghold and then swept the small Democratic vote in neighboring Forsyth County to win by four points. The discipline and fundraising ability Bordeaux showed in the primary and runoff make her a viable challenger to Woodall; Cook Political Report rates the race as Likely Republican, but if a Democratic wave does appear, this is exactly the sort of district that might get swept up.

The gubernatorial race between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams is already assuming the proportions of a legendary struggle, which could make it easy for both parties to turn out their vote in Georgia this fall. But the blue-trending Peach State could also contribute to the achievement of a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, unlikely as that would have seemed until very recently.US President believes he should not meet his Russian counterpart till the "witch hunt" over Moscow's alleged interference in American elections concludes, and as such the next bilateral meeting between the two would take place next year, his top national security adviser said on Thursday.

The two leaders had held their first bilateral summit in Helsinki, Finland on July 16, vowing a fresh start to troubled relations between their countries.

"The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," National Security Adviser said.

Trump last week had asked Bolton to explore the possibility of meeting Putin this fall.

During their meeting, they had also expressed a desire to cooperate on global challenges, after talks on an array of issues from Syria, and to trade tariffs and the size of their nuclear arsenals.US President Donald Trump hosts European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker today for what is set to be a tense face-to-face, with efforts to resolve a festering trade dispute between the two key economies seemingly deadlocked.

Speaking ahead of the White House talks, Juncker admitted he was "not very optimistic," while Trump kicked off the day with a combative series of tweets vowing "no weakness" in the multiple fights he has launched with America's trade partners.

"I know Mr Trump pretty well," Juncker told German public broadcaster ZDF. "I have met him frequently and know how to deal with him." "We are here to explain ourselves and explore ways to avoid a trade war," he said, stressing that the European Union is "not in the dock -- we don't need to defend ourselves."



Juncker also renewed a promise of immediate retaliatory measures should



Trump make good on a threat to slap new tariffs on EU car imports.

Trump crowed yesterday that his latest threat had brought Europe to the negotiating table and called on both sides to "drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!" - even though he said he doubted that the EU would agree.

Today, he doubled down.

"Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?" Trump tweeted.

"Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost USD 817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!" That figure apparently refers to the US trade deficit in goods alone last year, which hit USD 810 billion last year, while the total deficit including services was USD 566 billion.

But at home, Trump is facing increasing criticism as consumers, farmers and businesses take a hit from the retaliatory measures imposed to counter the raft of US tariffs on steel, aluminum, and other products from China put in place in recent weeks.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who is accompanying Juncker, expressed some optimism that a solution could still be found, but also said the EU is drawing up a list of USD 20 billion in US products to be targeted for retaliation if the trip fails.

"We hope that this won't happen and that we can reach a solution," Malmstrom told the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter (DN).

She said the "long list" of American goods would include machinery, agricultural and high-tech products, among others.

While Juncker is set to make a last effort to talk Trump out of the auto tariffs, which would hurt Germany's dominant carmakers, he warned that if the US moved ahead, "we are in a position to respond appropriately right away."



Brussels has already retaliated against the steel and aluminum tariffs, imposing punitive duties on more than USD 3 billion of US goods, including blue jeans, bourbon and motorcycles, as well as orange juice, rice and corn.

Canada, Mexico and China - the main target of Trump's trade offensive - have also hit back with steep duties on US goods, and have filed complaints against Washington at the World Trade Organization.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump has said the US is ready to make a "real deal" with Iran over its nuclear programme, days after he warned Tehran of historic consequences for threatening America.

Trump in May pulled the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement struck by the Obama administration by calling it the "the worst" deal ever negotiated.

Addressing the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Trump said his administration stands ready for Iran to come back to the negotiating table.

"I withdrew the United States from the horrible one-sided Iran nuclear deal," he said.

Iran, as a result of his decision, is not the same country any more, he asserted.

"That I can say. And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster," he said.

Trump on Sunday sent a tweet to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, saying "Never, ever threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."



The tweet was apparently in response to comments Rouhani made that day cautioning Trump about the devastation of a US-Iran wartime conflict. He also pressured Trump to not interfere with his government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A TV serial producer was today sentenced to seven years of imprisonment by a court here for raping a 31-year-old woman.

Mukesh Mishra (33) was found guilty under IPC sections 376 (rape) and 506(II) (criminal intimidation).

Additional sessions judge K S Hore today convicted him and awarded seven years' prison term, said additional public prosecutor Ashwini Rayakar.

The prosecution examined nine witnesses, she said.

The victim worked in the production unit of the Hindi serial "Veera" which was shot in a studio in suburban Powai.

According to the victim, on December 12, 2012, Mishra asked her to reach Jogeshwari station, where a bus was supposed to pick up artists.

When she reached the spot, Mishra was there. He told her that she should go with him on his motorbike, as the bus was late.

At the studio, there was no one except the sweeper, she said. After she went to her room, Mishra followed her and raped her, the victim said in her complaint.

He also threatened to kill her daughter and defame her if she disclosed the incident to anyone, the woman told police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two personnel of the CRPF's CoBRA unit were injured today when they inadvertently stepped over a spike trap laid by naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, the police said.

A team of the Central Reserve Police Force's elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) was out on an area domination operation this morning, a CRPF official told PTI.

While cordoning off a forest patch near Tarrem village, located around 450 km from the state capital Raipur, two personnel of the CoBRA 204th battalion inadvertently stepped over iron spikes hidden under thick vegetation on the ground by naxals, he said.

The two personnel - a sub-inspector and a constable - sustained minor injuries on their legs. They were rushed to a local hospital for medical assistance, he said, adding that their health condition was stable.

Notably, President Ram Nath Kovind today reached Chhattisgarh on a two-day visit during which he will take part in several programmes in Bastar and Dantewada districts.

Bijapur district is adjoining Dantewada.

Security has been heightened in the Bastar region in view of the president's visit.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Anantnag town this morning following an intelligence tip off about their presence inside a house, police said.

A joint team of the police, CRPF and Army cordoned off a house at Mehman Mohalla, Lal Chowk of the town after a specific input about the presence of the two LeT terrorists was received, they said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) Altaf Khan and his team were monitoring the situation.

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Swayam Prakash Pani said, "This was a difficult operation as it was in a crowded locality. All civilians were evacuated and the room intervention team completed the operation. There was no collateral damage."



Giving details of the encounter, the police said security forces launched the operation in the early hours. This was the first operation within Anantnag town after a gap of 12 years.

As the security forces advanced towards the suspect house, the terrorists hiding inside fired on the security forces, which retaliated, resulting in an encounter, they said, adding that two terrorists were killed.

On the basis of the materials seized, it was established that they belonged to proscribed terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba and one of them was identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar alias Bin Yamin Dar, a resident of Kulgam, the police said.

As per police records, 26 year-old Bilal passed class 12th and joined militancy in June 2017. He was involved in series of terror acts and was a close Shakoor Dar, divisional commander of Lashker-e-Taiba, who was killed earlier this month, they said.

Some arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena and the NCP from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district offered to resign today in support of the Maratha quota demand.

Aurangabad district in Marathwada region has emerged as the epicentre of the Maratha quota agitation.

The MLAs who offered to quit today are Harshavardhan Jadhav (Shiv Sena) and Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar (NCP) who represent Kannad and Vaijapur assembly constituencies, respectively.

Jadhav, the son-in-law of BJP's state unit president Raosaheb Danve, had recently announced to step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met.

In his letter addressed to Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav stated that he was tendering his resignation this afternoon.

When contacted, Jadhav said he had also e-mailed his resignation to the Speaker and will personally submit it to him in Mumbai tomorrow.

In his resignation letter addressed to the Speaker, Chikatgaonkar said Kakasaheb Shinde, who committed suicide on July 23 by jumping into the Godavari river for Maratha quota demand, was a resident of Kanadgaon village in Vaijapur constituency.

"I am grieved at his death. Considering the self-respect of the Marathas, I am tendering my resignation," he stated.

In 288-member House, the Shiv Sena has 63 MLAs and the NCP 41.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police today arrested two more members of an inter-state gang of robbers after an exchange of fire in Odisha's Ganjam district, a police officer said.

Two pistols, three rounds of ammunition, cash around 2.25 lakh, a car and six mobile phone sets were seized from them, said sub divisional police officer (SDPO) Chhatrapur Ramesh Chandra Sethi.

The robbers received bullet injuries on their legs and have been admitted to MKCG Medical College and Hospital here for treatment.

The duo were member of an inter-state gang of robbers, involved in looting of Rs 25.30 lakh from an employee of toll gate at Gurapalli near Khallikote on July 2, he said.

Police yesterday had arrested six member of the gang and seized a pistol, three ammunition, two cars, three two-wheelers and cash around Rs 10.15 lakh from them.

With arrest of the duo, total eight persons have been arrested in the robbery of toll gate employee, so far, police said.

"We have information about their movement on the National Highway. We intercepted their vehicle, when their car was coming from Berhampur. They first fired at the policemen who retaliated," said inspector in-charge, Khallikote Bibekananda Swain.

He said at least three police personnel, including the IIC received minor injuries during the exchange of fire with them.

Besides the loot from the tollgate employee, the gang was involved in several heinous crimes, including the murder, dacoits in highway in different areas of the state and also in out of the state, including Adhra Pradesh and Mumbai, police said.

"We are verifying to ascertain their criminal records," said Swain.

At least five unknown armed motorbike borne miscreants had robbed cash around Rs 25.30 lakh from the manager of the toll gate near Haridamula junction under Khallikote police station limit by assaulting the driver of the car on which he was travelling.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two Romanian nationals were arrested by the Goa Police today for allegedly trying to steal money from a bank ATM by installing a skimming device in it, an official said.

The two men were trying to install the device in the automated teller machine (ATM) of a nationalised bank in Margao town, about 35 km from here, when some policemen spotted them in the wee hours, he said.

On seeing the policemen, the two accused, identified as Paul Daniel Vasil (35) and Costansio Caboo (40), tried to run away but the police nabbed them, an official at Fatorda police station said.

The two men were arrested and booked under relevant sections, he added.

A skimming device is a card reader which can be disguised to look like a part of the ATM machine. It saves the user's card number and pin code, which is then replicated into a counterfeit copy for theft.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two high school students of the state capital drowned while taking bath in river Kuakhai today, police said.

Of the six students who had gone to the river, one of them stood on the river bank while five others slipped in the deep water while taking bath, locals said.

The local fishermen initially could rescue three boys.

Fire brigade personnel rescued two boys in a critical condition and rushed them to a hospital, where they were declared dead, Sukant Sethi, the fire officer, who monitored the rescue operation, said.

The students were identified as Jagamohan Sahu and Safiq Digal of Unit-9 Boys High School here.

They had gone to the river in the outskirts of the city after bunking classes, a teacher said.

In the middle of the search operation, Sethi said, the fire brigade team rescued a woman, who was being swept away by the river.

The woman was identified as Kanchan, a home guard working at Mancheswar police station.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

Turns out theres no such thing as a free lunch, at least if you work for Facebook. The company has been banned by local authorities from providing free food to employees in its new offices in Mountain View, The Guardian reports. The move is an attempt to help local businesses and restaurants who lose income when hundreds of thousands of people who work in the area dont have to spend money at said business and restaurants. (The ruling was passed in 2014, the San Francisco Chronicle notes, but at that point the offices were still years from opening day.) City officials in San Francisco are hoping to impose similar rules.

Two thousand Facebook employees are due to move into an office in a complex called The Village at San Antonio Center. In a 2014 agreement with the social network, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle this week, the city stipulated that tenants of the development cannot subsidise employee meals by more than 50%. Facebook can, however, cover the cost of employees food if they dine in restaurants that are open to the public.

In case youre not familiar, free food is something of a major perk of working in the start-up-y world of Silicon Valley. (A recent event at Instagram, which Facebook owns, showcased the talents of Instagrams in-house food services, including a gelato bar, poke bowls, smoothies, and foie gras something or other.) Plus, leaving the office to grab lunch for an hour at a nearby restaurant would decrease productivity. Who would possibly want that?Two teachers of a school in West Bengal's Nadia district were arrested by police for allegedly misbehaving with two girl students of class 9 , a police officer said today.

The two teachers of the school were arrested after the parents of the two girls lodged police complaint against them yesterday evening, the officer said.

One of the girl alleged that a teacher had hugged her and also proposed marriage to her, police said.

Another student had alleged that a teacher had touched her inappropriately and misbehaved with her.

Both the incidents took place in the school last week, the police added.

Both the teachers were produced before a court here today which remanded them to 14-days judicial custody.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today paid tributes to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1999 Kargil conflict.

On the eve of the Kargil Vijay Diwas, Rawat said, "Showing exemplary courage in Kargil, Indian soldiers pushed back infiltrators across the borders despite severe odds making the entire world acknowledge their valour."



Speaking of the long tradition of the state of making supreme sacrifices for the country, the chief minister said many brave sons of the state also laid down their lives in the Kargil war.

"The country will always gratefully remember the sacrifices of our soldiers to protect the frontiers in the Kargil war," he said, adding his government was committed to work for the welfare of army men and their families.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is observed on July 26 every year, marking successful conclusion of the war with Pakistan in the Kargil-Drass sector of Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.

The Indian soldiers successfully gained back the high altitude outposts occupied by Pakistani intruders culminating in Operation Vijay on the day.

Over 500 Indian armed forces personnel laid down their lives during the 60-day long war.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Britain's Supreme Court has rejected a petition from a woman who wanted to divorce her husband of 40 years in a ruling that may pressure Parliament to overhaul divorce laws.

The court says Tini Owens, 68, must stay married to Hugh Owens, who had objected to the divorce. She now must wait until 2020, when the couple have been separated for five years.

Critics say English divorce laws need to be overhauled because a person cannot divorce without a spouse's consent unless they can prove adultery, unreasonable behaviour or desertion.

The only other way is to first live apart for five years. Tini Owens' attorney, Simon Beccle, says the public would find the judgment "hard to understand".

Attorneys suggest lawmakers will now consider "no fault" divorce.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees announced today it was cutting more than 250 jobs in the Palestinian territories after the United States held back hundreds of millions in aid.

In total, 154 employees in the occupied West Bank and 113 in the Gaza Strip will be let go, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement. More than 500 other full-time staff will be offered part-time contracts, the statement added.

The job cuts were the first since the US announced it would only provide the agency with USD 60 million this year, down from USD 360 the previous year.

Gunness's statement said the cut represented an "existential threat" to UNRWA, which had been trying to raise the money from other donors.

The agency, which provides services to more than three million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, was seeking to "protect core services, including education, health and relief", he said.

Protests against the cuts were being held in Gaza yesterday.

In January, US President Donald Trump linked the cutting of Palestinian aid to the decision by president Mahmud Abbas to refuse to talk with his administration.

The Palestinian leadership froze ties with the White House after it recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and accuses Trump's administration of blatant bias in favour of Israel.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Director Tigmanshu Dhulia today said well-developed characters and a good story are the backbone of "Sahib Biwi aur Gangster" franchise.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the bad writing was hurting the drama genre.

"The drama genre has suffered because the writing is not good these days. But Sahib Biwi aur Gangster series has it," Dhulia told reporters.

"You will get well-developed characters who cannot be described as simple in this film. You will get to listen good language in these films. We have maintained all these things in our films," he added.

The director is back with the third part -- "Sahib Biwi aur Gangster 3" -- of the popular franchise.

In the threequel, Jimmy Shergill and Mahie Gill have once again reprised their respective role from the franchise.

Sanjay Dutt has taken the mantel of playing a gangster in the third part.

Actors Randeep Hooda and Irrfan Khan had played gangsters in the previous films.

Dutt said his role of playing the gangster was different from what he had played in his some others films.

"I have never played such a character. This is different from the one you saw in Vaastav or Kaante. This gangster is an educated person who lives far away from his family, Dutt said.

"I am happy that Tigmanshu thought of me for this role," he added.

Unlike the predecessors, the threequel is more glamorous, which the director said was important for the story.

"The story has become bigger. The characters of Biwi and Saheb have matured. Even the haveli you saw in previous films has improved. The class has improved," Dhulia said.

"This is not a period film. It is the story of 2018. If we look around ourselves, everything has improved. The characters from Delhi and Gorakhpur are all the same. You will find malls in both the cities. The visual arena of India is becoming common. This is what we have shown in the film," he added.

Shergill said despite the glamour, the soul of the film is still intact.

"The scale has become bigger but the soul of the franchise is still intact. You will get the same feeling and flavour from this one as well," the actor said.

The film, which also stars Chitrangada Singh in a pivotal role, releases on July 37.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bihar Assembly was today adjourned till lunch break amid pandemonium for the second consecutive day over the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey raised the issue during the Question Hour and demanded a CBI probe.

Opposition MLAs, including those from the RJD and the Congress, trooped into the Well of the House and raised slogans against the Nitish Kumar government's refusal to hand over the matter to the CBI.

Some of the agitated MLAs also started banging the tables of the Assembly reporters.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary took strong exception to it and warned the legislators that such unruly behaviour could lead to stern action.

As the slogan shouting continued, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till lunch.

A delegation of the opposition parties, comprising RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh and Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, left for Muzaffarpur to take stock of the investigation into the case so far.

Bihar Director General of Police K S Dwivedi had yesterday said he was satisfied with the progress of police investigation into the case and that there was no need for a CBI probe.

He said medical examination of 29 of the 42 inmates had confirmed that they were sexually exploited.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi yesterday told the House the government was trying to neither shield nor implicate anyone.

"The matter had come to light not because of you (opposition), but because of a social audit conducted by the government itself," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US today condemned the terrorist attack outside a polling station in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city that left 31 people dead.

An Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up after he was stopped from entering the Tameer-i-Nau Education Complex school, serving as a polling station in 'sensitive' NA-260 constituency in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.

"We strongly condemn today's attack on a polling station in Quetta that killed 31 Pakistani civilians and wounded 35 more as they courageously attempted to exercise their democratic right to vote," a State Department Spokesperson told PTI.

"We send our deepest condolences to the friends and families of those killed and wounded in this cowardly attack, and stand with the people of Pakistan in their fight against terrorism," the spokesperson said.

The State Department said that it continues to monitor the developments in Pakistan where the elections results are pouring in.

"We continue to monitor developments and have consistently emphasised our support for free, fair, transparent and accountable elections in Pakistan, as we do around the world," the spokesperson said.

Responding to a question, the spokesperson said that the US Mission in Pakistan did not deploy election observers.

"We would refer you to the Election Commission of Pakistan for additional information on election conditions and results," the spokesperson said.

The attack in the troubled province of Balochistan is the second major attack this month after nearly 150 people were killed and some 200 injured when a suicide bomber attacked an election corner meeting of the Baluchistan Awami Party in Mastung district.

Pakistanis voted today to choose a new government in the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year history amid accusations of manipulation by the powerful army and concerns over the participation of Islamic hardliners in large numbers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Vanessa Kirby loved playing an elusive character in "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" as it was quite a departure from her role of Princess Margaret on period drama "The Crown" and given a chance, she says she would love to make a comeback to the action franchise.

Kirby's character in the film is known as White Widow, an influential British socialite with a hidden agenda.

"I saw her as this elusive, ambiguous character. I always want to play people that are unusual in a way, unexpected. I felt that about Margaret and I thought I got really lucky with her.

"I wanted to do something unconventional with her (White Widow). She's not on screen that much but I wanted her to be a sort of enigmatic presence. You are not quite sure whose side she is or what she is going to play any moment," the actor told PTI in an interview.

"Fallout" leaves enough room for Kirby's character to make a comeback in the next film and the 31-year-old actor is more than willing.

"Yeah, there's a lot more to White Widow that hasn't been explored. On 'The Crown', I absolutely loved coming back because when you develop a character, you get to explore it deeply. You want to go further with things that you find exciting, I love that idea."



The British actor revealed that her character was supposed to be introduced with a song, something that she found "really scary", but it was changed later much to her relief.

Kirby also felt encouraged to take on the project because she felt the franchise has always had great female characters.

"What struck me about seeing these movies together was that whether you're a man or a woman, it's your energy that's really unique. Two people are not necessarily the same. Sometimes you find in movies, there might be generic forms of a person.

"But from, Lea Seydoux, Kristin Scott Thomas to Vanessa Redgrave, everybody had such different energies and (they were) so uniquely a character. They are really character-driven pieces. So that felt really good, Rebecca's (Ferguson) done loads of action in the last one and in this one. I think it is needed now more than ever."



A Paramount Pictures movie, "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" will be exclusively distributed in India by Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

Also starring Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan and Alec Baldwin, the film releases this Friday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The anti-graft Vigilance wing of Odisha Police today conducted search in half-a-dozen places as part of their probe to unearth any possible nexus between government officials and a gangster, who is now behind bars, officials said.

The move comes after state Vigilance launched a probe to ascertain the role, involvement and connivance, if any, of government officials in extending undue favour to Titto @ Syed Usaman Ali of Kendrapada district, an accused in many criminal cases, his family members and associates.

In course of enquiry, six teams visited and verified records at Kendrapara municipality office and two Tehesil offices in Kendrapara district and three RTO Offices at Kendrapara, Chandikhol and Cuttack, a vigilance statement said.

The inquiry is aimed to find out any favour shown to Titto, his family and associated in acquiring sand sairats, land and petrol pump, vehicles and their permits by abusing their official positions, causing wrongful loss to government and wrongful gain to Titto, his family members and associates.

Officers of Vigilance Cell have already visited the office of the Special Task Force (STF) of state crime branch in Bhubaneswar which is currently investigating a number of criminal cases against Titto. They discussed with the STF officials and collected the relevant documents and records.

The Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) last week had sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into alleged irregularities in allotment of two retail outlets in Odisha to the family Titto.

Several members of Tittos gang are believed to have gone underground after he was arrested following an encounter in Jajpur district on June 30. The gangster, who was arrested several times earlier, faces many criminal cases involving murder, attempt to murder and extortion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A blind lawyer today moved the Supreme Court seeking to make judiciary disabled-friendly, especially for visually impaired people, saying creation of accessible infrastructure and support system for lawyers with disabilities was imperative to create a level playing field.

A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan while agreeing to hear the matter issued notice to the Registrar General of all the high courts and the Secretary General of the apex court in an interlocutory application filed by lawyer Rahul Bajaj.

The court sought reply from the parties within four weeks.

During a brief hearing, Bajaj said that the website of courts, case files and relevant legal documents should be made disabled friendly.

In his application, Bajaj said that the obligation to create a level playing field was a natural corollary of the right to equality guaranteed to blind lawyers under the Constitution.

"The creation of accessible infrastructure and appropriate support system in the judiciary for lawyers with disabilities is imperative in order to create a level playing field. This obligation is a natural corollary of the right to equality guaranteed to blind lawyers under Article 14 of the Constitution of India and the right to practise a profession of one's choice under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India," he said.

The lawyer, who is blind from birth, argued for himself and sought directions from the court to enable visually-challenged lawyers to access case files and records in a seamless and timely fashion.

He also sought access to court websites and legal material used by lawyers during the course of making written submissions or oral arguments.

"It is stated and submitted that the principal means by which blind people, like the applicant (Bajaj), acquire information is by using talking software, called text-to-speech software or screen readers.

"A text-to-speech software essentially speaks aloud the text that is given on a computer screen in a human-like voice. Such a software converts textual information into auditory form and enables blind people to independently use a computer and navigate the Internet, read books and perform allied functions," he said.

In his plea, Bajaj also sought to appoint a Grievance Redressal Officer in all high courts within a time-bound manner.

"Such an officer should be provided appropriate sensitisation about the manner in which a lawyer with a disability functions and the challenges and obstacles that they commonly face," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jack Dorsey. Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Image

The concept of the shadowban has existed practically since the inception of the web forum. The idea is simple: Instead of banning a user outright and informing them of such punishment, a shadowban makes a users post visible only to themselves. In other words, they think that theyre still part of a community, but nobody is able to see or interact with them. The shadowban is useful in that rather than someone immediately being locked out and possibly retaliating by, for example, making a new account, the user fades away gradually due to the lack of interaction from other users.

As forums have evolved into social-media platforms, the shadowban and its descendants have come along with them. Facebook argued that the best way to dispel misinformation from places like Infowars, which argues that the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was a staged hoax, was to secretly minimize their distribution in the sites News Feed  a similar but not identical tactic. I myself have previously argued  tongue in cheek  that Twitter should shadowban (or hellban) President Donald Trump, who most recently threatened a cataclysmic war against Iran  the idea being that he gets the feeling of communicating with his followers while his actual posts are hidden from the (volatile) world.

More than anywhere else, though, the shadowban has persisted among the conspiracy-minded, as a great weapon of censorship, generally thought to be perpetrated by liberal Silicon Valley operatives at the expense of conservatives. That right-wing voices are being shadow banned by Twitter and Facebook has become all but an article of faith among internet-native conservative activists and publishers  despite little evidence to support the claim.

Its no surprise, then, that a Vice News article claiming that Twitter is shadow banning Republicans has already taken hold in the minds of the most online right-wingers. At issue, though, is not banning but Twitters search mechanism. Usually, Twitter will automatically complete a search query and suggest an account when a user begins typing in Twitters search bar. If you type in Donald, for example, Trumps account is displayed as an easily accessible hyperlink, so that you dont have to click through to the results page; if you type in Hillary, youll get a similar autocomplete suggestion of Hillary Clinton.

And what happens if you type in, as one so often does, Andrew Surabian, Donald Trump Jr.s spokesperson and, in Vices words, a prominent Republican? According to Vice, Surabian and other prominent Republicans  like Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel and a number of GOP lawmakers  are not being automatically suggested when you type in their names. All of these accounts, importantly, are still shown atop the actual search results page. The only problem is that you have to click through to it, instead of being given an easy autocomplete link. (Vices report is essentially a more partisan-focused repackaging of an article published by Gizmodo on Sunday, which covered how alt-right figures like Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler were also not appearing in auto-populated fields on Twitter. In some instances, parody accounts were featured in their stead.)

To start with, and to state the most obvious, this sort of moderation isnt shadow banning. Users following the affected accounts will still see their tweets; those accounts still appear in search (just not in the search-bar auto-population). Shadow banning, as generally imagined and described by the activists who claim theyve been affected, would actively suppress user content even to followers, not just make accounts one click more difficult to find.

Which is why, to the extent that this is even a problem, its pretty easy to come up with an alternate explanation: This is a side effect of a minimal measure designed to make sure that people arent preemptively encouraged to consume bad information from dubious sources. In May, Twitter announced that it would do what it could to ensure people contributing to the healthy conversation will be more visible in conversations and search; it seems eminently likely that an algorithmic strategy to make trolls and extremists less visible on the platform semi-accidentally ensnared some Republicans. (And can you blame it?) As HuffPosts Ashley Feinberg pointed out on Twitter, well-known left-wing podcast hostssurely, in the grand scheme of things, around the same level of prominence as Don Jr.s spokespersonare suffering from the same problem of being marginally more difficult to be searched out.

Vice quotes a Twitter spokesperson saying that the company is shipping a change, but that the technology is based on account *behavior* not the content of Tweets. New York Law School professor Ari Ezra Waldman told Vice that, This isnt evidence of a pattern of anti-conservative bias, since some Republicans still appear and some dont. This just appears to be a cluster of conservatives who have been affected. He added, If anything, it appears that Twitters technology for minimizing accounts instead of banning them just isnt very good.

Thats a more likely scenario than a cabal of secretive Twitter employees trying to suppress the speech of  Donald Trump Jr.s spokesperson. Is it bad? Sure, the way a hangnail is bad. But its not censorship, and its certainly not shadow-banning.

Its well-established that right-wing media and personalities hew further to the right, and are consequently more likely than their left-wing counterparts to interact with fringe accounts (the kind of signal that would indicate to Twitters algorithm that an account is a troll or harasser), if not actually spread falsehoods and sensationalized outrage. But in framing this issue as the Republicans being treated differently than Democrats instead of minimizing falsehoods and bad faith, Vice has given conservatives even more ammo with which to claim oppression.

The notion that social media companies would suppress certain political points of view should concern every American. Twitter owes the public answers to whats really going on. https://t.co/i9UtbxJrt0  Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) July 25, 2018

Vices story feels an awful lot like one reported two years ago by Gizmodo, which claimed that Facebook was suppressing conservatives. In reality, Facebooks editors were making the editorial judgment call that manufactured, misleading, and hyperpartisan stories from conservative outlets  such as ones about Benghazi, in 2016  were less relevant to Facebooks users than breaking stories from mainstream outlets. Similarly, Twitters new system seems less about suppressing conservative viewpoints and more about minimizing controversial figures whose primary tactic is to stoke outrage through heavy slant or outright distortion.Country's second largest telecom firm Vodafone today reported a 22.3 per cent decline in June quarter revenue to 959 million euro on intense competition and cuts in termination rates.

The London-headquartered company had posted revenues of 1.387 billion euro under the IAS18 accounting standards for the corresponding period last year.

Having bagged the Department of Telecom nod for its merger with Idea Cellular, the company exuded confidence of completing the transaction by next month.

The British telecom company said the service revenues, excluding the impact of the mobile termination rate cuts, declined by 9.6 per cent for the reporting quarter.

When compared to the preceding March quarter, the service revenues declined 0.2 per cent, the company said, stating that this was due to prepaid prices being stable during the three months.

The company said it was able to retain the high value customers at lower price levels and the crucial average revenue per user declined by 20 per cent for the postpaid connections and 28 per cent for the prepaid connections.

A move away to 'single SIM' ownership due to unlimited plans saw the number of customers decline by three million during the quarter to 219.7 million and mitigated the pricing pressures, it said.

Over 29 per cent of its prepaid users have availed the unlimited offers, it said, adding 77 million of its customers are using data, of which 20.9 million are on 4G.

It said the steep decline in prices has quadrupled Indian data traffic and customers are now using an average of 4.6 GB of data every month, against 2.8 GB in Europe.

On its merger with Idea Cellular, the company said the Aditya Birla Group company has paid 0.5 billion euro in spectrum liberalisation fees and also provided a bank guarantee to cover certain disputed demands which are the subject of ongoing court cases.

"In India, where competition remains intense, we have now received conditional approval from the Department of Telecoms for the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which we aim to close before the end of August, allowing us to unlock substantial synergies," its group chief executive Vittorio Colao said.

It can be noted that in face of rising competitive pressures after the launch and aggressive play of the deep-pocketed Reliance Jio, all the entrenched companies have faced varied pressure on finances. It has led to withdrawal of a few operators and also bankruptcies.

Idea Cellular and Vodafone announced to merge operations in March last year and were targeting to seal the merger by June.

The company said it is also making good progress on merger of Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel, and has received approvals from the Competition Commission of India and Sebi this month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The West Bengal government proposed today to build crematoria for animals to prevent disposal of dead bodies in Ganga and other water bodies, said a statement by the Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry.

The proposal came up during the review of projects under Namami Gange programme in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal by Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Nitin Gadkari.

The minister instructed contractors to speed up the work and complete projects by December 2018. He also urged the officials of the central and state governments to resolve all issues that are obstructing the work in any way.

Gadkari said that he, along with his deputy in the ministry Satya Pal Singh, will inspect the sites during the coming months and monitor the progress of the projects.

The minister also reviewed the progress of 20 projects under Patna Riverfront Development which is nearing completion. So far, 16 ghats, 4.8 km promenade and 1 building for audio visual programmes have already been constructed under Patna RFD.

"The Union Minister appreciated the proposal of West Bengal officials to build crematoria for animals to prevent the disposal of their dead bodies of animals into the River Ganga and other water bodies," a statement by the ministry said.

Disposal of dead bodies of animals is one of the reasons for pollution in Ganga.

In West Bengal, the ongoing projects to create Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) capacity of 80 MLD and under tendering projects for 204 MLD STP capacity were reviewed by the Minister.

The work on 15 ghats and four crematoria are under progress and officials were instructed to complete it by December 2018.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Ministry of Women and Child Development is working with the National Institute of Nutrition for developing online courses to spread awareness about importance of nutrition, a senior official said.

The modules for the courses were presented during the second meeting of National Council on India's Nutrition Challenges under the 'Poshan Abhiyaan'.

The 'Poshan Abhiyan' is a programme aimed to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers and to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia and low birth weight in children.

These courses are planned to be hosted independently on the portals operated by the ministry and the National Institute of Nutrition, he said.

During the meeting yesterday, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said India cannot afford to have generations of stunted children and underlined the need for states to prioritise regular monitoring with efficient distribution of supplementary nutrition.

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar were also present in the meeting.

Paswan said the success of the mission to fight malnutrition depends on stakeholders taking ownership. "Anganwadi workers at the front line should be adequately compensated and parents should join food inspections," Paswan had said at the meet.

Kumar launched guidelines for making the nutrition movement into a 'Jan Andolan', along with modules for yoga and a caller-tune ringtone for 'Poshan Abhiyaan'.

"We are taking the 'Poshan Abhiyaan' to the masses through block-level public events, social media campaigns, involvement of panchayats and recognising children as drivers of change," said NITI Aayog Member V K Paul, on how nutrition is becoming a public movement.

The 'Poshan Abhiyan' aims to bring down stunting among the children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022.

The project will additionally ensure convergence of all nutrition-related schemes and provide performance-based incentives to states and community nutrition and health workers, facilitating a focus on results.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Rahul Gandhi today asserted that the Congress along with other opposition parties will fight the BJP without hating it, but wondered whether he can expect the same from the rival party.

Speaking at an event here, he said the atmosphere in India from his perspective was "coloured with a lot of hatred, anger and frustration".

"You can fight someone with all your might, but hate is a choice... I may disagree with Mr (L K) Advani, I may have a completely different conception of the country from that of Mr Advani.

"And I can fight Mr Advani on every single inch, but I don't need to hate him," Gandhi said at launch of journalist Karan Thapar's book 'Devil's Advocate -- The Untold Story'.

A host of leaders like former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former vice president Hamid Ansari, senior BJP leader and former deputy prime minister Advani, former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, and former Union minister Karan Singh among others were present at the event.

"Karan Singh ji has taught me a lot about our country, about our religion. There is one thing that our religion teaches us, is that you absolutely cannot get imprisoned by hatred," Gandhi said.

He said it has been his endeavour to keep hate out.

"I will take on Narendra Modi ji, all the Congress people sitting here, my friend on the left there Mr (CPI-M chief Sitaram) Yechury, we will all take on the BJP and they will fight us, but we don't need to hate them. I don't know if I can expect the same from them," Gandhi said.

He said that politicians tend to see the world as either "them or us".

"This is not my natural way, but as Advaniji or Manmohan Singhji will tell you that this is the design of our politics, it's confrontational and it's winner takes it all. But this is not how I am designed inside and I am sure this is not how many of you are designed inside," Gandhi said.

He also took a swipe at the BJP over his hugging Prime Minister Modi in Parliament, saying now the party's MPs take "two steps back" on seeing him fearing he may embrace them too.

Gandhi narrated an incident during his visit to Vietnam about 10 years ago to emphasise that one can fight someone with all might but does not need to hate.

He said he had hired a boatman to take him for a ride on the river Mekong during which the man told him that he had fought against the Americans during the Vietnam War.

The Congress president said the boatman showed him several injury marks on his body.

Gandhi said when he asked the boatman if he hated the Americans, he replied that he fought them but did not hate them.

Thapar, speaking after Gandhi, talked about many interesting interviews he conducted throughout his career, but singled out his 2007 interview with Modi that was ended by the then chief minister within two or three minutes after a few questions.

Asked why he goes to London every year during the time of New Year, Thapar said, "I am a great believer that you have to begin a year in a civilised country."



Later on, when asked what is the one question he would like to ask Advani, Thapar said he would ask whether he would where a suit with his name printed on the stripes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 25-year-old woman was allegedly shot at by her husband in south Rohini, police said today.

The woman, Sonia Sharma, had come to Delhi to see her relatives when her husband shot at her abdomen around 10.30 pm yesterday.

The couple has been living separately since 2016, they said.

The woman has been hospitalised and recuperating, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Natasha Rothwell is the latest actor to join the cast of "Wonder Woman" sequel.

The "Insecure" actor's role has not been disclosed by Warner Bros and she will be joined by newcomers Kristen Wiig and Pedro Pascal in the project, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are returning for the new film, which has been titled "Wonder Woman 1984".

The film, to be once again helmed by Patty Jenkins, will see Gadot's Wonder Woman squaring off against Wiig's Cheetah.

A preview footage from the new film was recently played at the San Diego Comic-Con and it showed Wonder Woman fighting off bad guys at a mall's food court.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa to ensure that the continent does not turn into a "theatre of rival ambitions" again, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today, apparently referring to China's growing military presence in the region.

China, which is Africa's largest trading partner, opened its first so called support base for its navy on the continent last year in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti.

The Chinese base in Djibouti follows decades of Chinese investment in diplomacy in Africa, which has raised concerns in India.

Modi, who arrived here yesterday on the second leg of his Africa tour, today addressed the Parliament of Uganda and said India wants to deepen ita engagement with Africa and outlined 10 guiding principles to do that.

He said one of the guiding principles is to work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations.

"The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean. That is why India's vision of Indian Ocean Security is cooperative and inclusive, rooted in security and growth for all in the region," he said, without mentioning the name of any country.

As global engagement in Africa increases, Modi said, "We must all work together to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions, but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth."



Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent. In the late 19th century, European countries colonised almost all of Africa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Green Tribunal today rapped the Delhi Jal Board over cleaning of the Yamuna river and said there has been no "meaningful progress" on the ground in the last three years.

The green panel noted that work on 14 sewage treatment plants (STPs) has not even begun. These were supposed to be completed by March 2017 as per the court's January 13, 2015, judgment.

The STPs would treat the effluents and ensure no pollutants enter the river.

"In spite of proceedings in the case in the last three years, there is no meaningful progress at the ground level. It does appear that the present in-charge may not be competent enough to handle the issue.

"Today, we are in a failure situation. We don't want useless and incompetent people, who have failed us, the people and the country," a bench, headed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson A K Goel, said.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the situation, the tribunal directed the CEO of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to put in place a suitable officer who can ensure that work on the 14 STPs starts within a month and asked him to file an affidavit in this regard within two weeks.

The bench, also comprising Justice S P Wangdi and Expert Member Nagin Nanda, directed Haryana to file an affidavit on the steps taken to ensure that no untreated effluents flow into the Yamuna river.

The Phase-I of the clean Yamuna project aims to lower the pollution levels in the Najafgarh and Delhi Gate drains, while Phase-II deals with Shahdara, Barapullah and other drains.

The DJB informed the tribunal that with regard to Phase-II, 11 drains have been trapped and effluents were being treated.

It also said with regard to the remaining six, work for trapping of three drains will be completed by December 2020 and work for other two by December this year.

On the submission, the NGT said,"For the sixth drain, let a joint meeting be held in the office of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) along with the DJB on July 30."



"Land will be identified and ensured that work commences on or before December 1. We make it clear that no objection of any technical nature will be raised by DDA. Land has to be given by August 31," it said.

The hearing in the matter remained inconclusive and the bench said it would pass more orders tomorrow.

The tribunal had earlier directed the Delhi government and the DJB to submit a status report on the progress of the work in the first phase of cleaning the Yamuna.

It had then directed Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to file a complete report of the stretch of the Yamuna falling beyond the national capital.

The green panel had said pollution in the Yamuna was of serious concern as it was highly contaminated by industrial effluents and sewage.

It had also asked the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh pollution control boards to jointly conduct a study of the water quality and the flow of Yamuna at the point it enters Haryana, and submit the list of industries located in the catchment area.

The green panel had noted that almost 67 per cent of pollutants that enter the Yamuna would be treated by the two sewage treatment plants at Delhi Gate and Najafgarh under the first phase of the 'Maili se Nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Project'.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)By Michael Martina and Greg RoumeliotisBEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc is yet to win China's nod to buy Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors even as a deadline for the offer to expire is just hours away, raising the prospect the deal could be scuppered amid Sino-U.S. trade tensions.The $44 billion deal was announced in October 2016, just days before the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and has since become embroiled in a whipsawing trade standoff between two countries who are at loggerheads over trade tariffs and have clashed on issues such as ownership of technology and ...By Kane Wu and Prakash ChakravartiHONG KONG (Reuters) - China's top state chip manufacturer Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd has signed a deal to acquire French smart chip components maker Linxens for about 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), five people with direct knowledge of the matter said.The deal, which the sources said was signed over a month ago but has not yet been announced publicly, will be a key test of European regulators' stance on Chinese investment in the region that has been on the rise amid the country's worsening trade relations with the United States. Tsinghua's acquisition of Linxens ...Summer may be downtime for manywith long vacations and a good book on the beach or at the pool.

But for principals, its the ideal time to make sure that the school year ahead is better than the one that just ended.

Thats according to two St. Louis-area principals, Howard E. Fields, from the Webster Grove district, and Kevin Grawer, from the Maplewood-Richmond Heights district. They offered their checklist of how to prepare over summer to principals at the National Principals Conference earlier this month in Chicago.

Here are four areas that principals can focus on, according to Fields and Grawer.

Review school data (June)

After the final day of classes, review school data (including attendance, discipline, the performance of different student groups, state accountability, and student, parent and staff surveys) with the school team. The type of data you focus on may vary depending on your school levelelementary versus secondaryand the goals the school had set for the school year. What goals were not accomplished? Where were your deficiencies? Where do you need to grow? What are you going to do differently the next year? How are different students groups doing?

Meet one-on-one with teachers. Assign tasks to each staff member for the summer, and check in on the progress during the summer.

Rest (late June/early July)

Take some time to relax. Maybe its a cruise or a road trip, but take some time off from work. You cant take care of your staff and students if you dont take care of yourself.

Learn (all summer long)

Read at least one general leadership book, another thats aligned to the schools goals or areas of focus, and one for fun. Visit other schools or sites that are trying new programs. Attend conferences for learning and professional development.

Find and meet with colleagues who you admire and others in your professional network to review best practices and share ideas.

Encourage your staff to spend some time learning and improving during summer. Grawer, for example, asked his school district for an extra $15,000 to compensate teachers to rewrite a part of their curriculum in the summer. And he asks staff members about their summer plans for both learning and for fun, and he publishes the list.

Create a plan for the next school year (July and August)

Plan and schedule meetings, including faculty meetings, staff retreats, and professional-development sessions, for the next academic year during the summer and plan those meetings around the schools goals.

Set student goals for the new school year. Assign readings to the staff related to student goals for the upcoming school year. Assign administrative and staff duties for the new school year.TEL AVIV (Reuters) - El Al on Wednesday said it had withdrawn its petition to Israel's Supreme Court that sought to restrict any new flights to the country via Saudi airspace until it could also use the shortened route.In a brief statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al said its decision followed a hearing on the matter on July 18 but did not provide further details.The flag carrier filed an appeal in March after Saudi Arabia opened its airspace for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel. The historic Air India flight in March ended a 70-year flyover ban for jetliners en route ...By Alissa de CarbonnelBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Carmakers are cheating new EU pollution checks, EU regulators warned in a study seen by Reuters, inflating emissions on benchmark tests to set themselves lower targets on new rules aimed to prevent a repeat of the Dieselgate scandal.The EU's new tests aim to better measure on-road emissions after regulators found Volkswagen's rigging was only part of a much wider effort to manipulate laboratory test to show much lower pollution than vehicles emitted on roads.VW admission to U.S. regulators in 2015 that it had masked tailpipe exhaust using software in ...By Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Alexander WinningJOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - China and South Africa urged fellow BRICS governments on Wednesday to fight protectionism and promote multilateral global trade in the face of tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump that threaten global trade.Trump's warnings have given Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa fresh impetus to enhance trade cooperation, and officials at a three-day summit that kicked off in Johannesburg on Wednesday found a collective voice championing global trade.The meeting of presidents from the trade bloc is the first ...By Pamela Barbaglia and Joseph WhiteLONDON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Former Fiat Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne for more than a year assured investors that he and the automaker's board were working on an orderly succession plan ahead of his expected departure in 2019.But a health crisis that left 66-year-old Marchionne incapacitated in a Swiss hospital set off a transition last week that was sudden and rushed, banking and industry sources said. The company announced on Wednesday that Marchionne had died, succumbing to complications from surgery. It emerged that Marchionne's ...By Jussi RosendahlHELSINKI (Reuters) - Telecom network equipment maker Nokia is expected to post another plunge in quarterly profits on Thursday ahead of an anticipated boost later this year from next-generation 5G networks.The industry has struggled since demand for the current generation of 4G mobile equipment peaked in 2015, but the Finnish company has forecast 5G roll-outs will start later this year in the United States, followed in 2019 by renewed buying cycles in Japan and South Korea."This should be the last weak quarter of this network market cycle," said Mikael Rautanen, an analyst ...By Agnieszka Flak and Pamela BarbagliaMILAN/LONDON (Reuters) - Sergio Marchionne was one of the auto industry's most demanding and tenacious chief executives and he rescued Fiat and Chrysler, two of its most storied brands.The gruff 66-year-old, who has died after succumbing to complications from recent surgery, spent 14 years at the wheel of Fiat Chrysler, the group he built. He was replaced as boss last weekend after his condition worsened.In Italy, where his turnaround of Fiat earned him legendary status, he was treated like a rock star. The former philosophy student and accountant almost ...By Satawasin StaporncharnchaiBANGKOK (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday forecast overall vehicle sales in Thailand to rise 12 percent this year from last, greater than the 3 percent it estimated in January, saying the auto market has benefited from favourable economic conditions.The Japanese automaker, which commands about one-third of the Thai vehicle market, also raised its local sales growth forecast to 31 percent from 25 percent."New models and various marketing activities introduced by carmakers have also played a big role in stimulating the Thai auto market," Toyota Motor ...By Steve Holland and David LawderWASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and the European Union's chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, agreed on Wednesday to work toward eliminating trade barriers on industrial goods, as Trump appeared to give ground on his threat to impose car tariffs.The agreement to pull together a "high-level working group" to negotiate the tariff, subsidy and non-tariff barrier reductions could reduce fears of an escalating transatlantic trade war launched by Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminium and a threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported cars ...By Daphne Psaledakis and Julie IngwersenWASHINGTON/BISMARCK, North Dakota (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump accused China on Wednesday of targeting American farmers in a "vicious" way and using them as leverage to get concessions on trade a day after the administration announced a $12-billion farm aid package.Some farmers and farm-state lawmakers, including Trump's fellow Republicans, ripped the move, saying they would rather trade with no tariffs than receive government help.China and other top U.S. trade partners zeroed in on American farmers with retaliatory tariffs after the ...By Agnieszka Flak and Stephen JewkesMILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia's main shareholder Vivendi is very concerned about the situation at the Italian phone group since activist fund Elliott seized board control and is weighing its options, a spokesman for the French media company said.The activist fund wrestled TIM board control from Vivendi in May after a two-month campaign to shake up the way the French group had been running the former telecoms monopoly.Besides a governance overhaul, Elliott has proposed a spin-off and partial sale of a soon-to-be-created network company, a conversion of ...Bilawal Bhutto Zardari casted his vote in Larkana

LARKANA: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari casted his vote in Larkana. While speaking to the media, after casting his vote, he strongly condemned the terror attacks in Quetta and Larkana.



About the blast at the PPP camp in Larkana in NA-200 where he was also contesting polls from, he said that the security of the workers and the voters was the responsibility of the interim government and he urged for more efficient security measures.



He reaffirmed his faith in the partys workers saying that they are valiantly performing their duties and he urged the PPP leaders in Larkana to ensure the best treatment of the injured workers.



He further said that Pakistan wont be intimidated by the extremists and will go out and vote.I hope that people go out with all their strength to the polling stations and cast their votes, exclaimed Bilawal.(Reuters) - Iran's cabinet appointed new heads at two of the government's top economic institutions, as the country grapples with a faltering economy and a sliding currency that have provoked public protests.President Hassan Rouhani has come under increasing pressure from hardliners to reshuffle his economic team, and senior government officials had suggested a shakeup was imminent.The new appointments suggest Rouhani, who has mostly touted the economic successes of his administration, is acknowledging a need for change to stifle criticism and tamp down ongoing protests."The situation today ...By Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Alexander WinningJOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said there would be no winner in a global trade war, urging fellow developing powers on Wednesday to reject unilateralism in the wake of tariff threats by U.S. President Donald Trump.Trump's warnings have given Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa fresh impetus to enhance trade cooperation, and their leaders found a collective voice championing global trade as they began a three-day BRICS summit in Johannesburg.The meeting of presidents from the trade bloc is the first since Trump's ...giant Facebook has said that it has initiated a series of measures, including blocking fake accounts to combat fake news, proactively monitor abuse and increase advertisement transparency as part of its efforts to prevent outsiders' interference in any general elections across the world.

Facebook has been facing criticism for helping to spur violence and for its policies surrounding misinformation in general.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO, had to face grilling in the US and in the European parliament over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook was accused of unduly influencing the 2016 US electoral process.

The giant has done some work in the first half of this year to combat all around the world like in Italy, Colombia, Turkey, and even the primaries for US midterms. By the end of the year it will have focused on more than 50 national elections all around the world, Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's head of the civic engagement, said.

Using machine learning Facebook has gotten more effective at either blocking, or quickly removing fake accounts.

"That's important since they're often the root of a lot of the bad activity that we see on our platform. We're now at the point that we stop more than a million accounts per day at the point of creation," Chakrabarti said.

Facebook continues to expand its effort on combating with 27 third-party fact-checking partners in 17 countries.

"We continue to bring increased levels of transparency to online political advertising," he said.

And finally, Facebook is proactively monitoring for abuse. "We've been able to apply powerful computational techniques that are traditionally used to fight spam and apply those to the civic space. And that's really made great advancements recently in our ability to precisely detect and disrupt organized information operations," Chakrabarti said.

To make this happen, Facebook is investing both in and in people. Members dedicated to this work having recently passed 15,000 and closer to 20,000 people by the end of the year. The giant reviews reports of bad content in over 50 languages, which it does round the clock.

According to Chakrabarti, Facebook is working with groups like the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, which works closely with its teams to get them real-time insights and intelligence on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from all around the world.

It also includes collaborations with government, he said adding that it is working with a superior electoral court and regional court and electoral law enforcement authorities, particularly around online ads.

Responding to questions, Facebook officials did not confirm if Russia is meddling in the US midterm elections.

"We know that Russians and other bad actors are going to continue to try to abuse our platform... during the US midterms and around other events and elections," said Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy efforts, Facebook.

"We are continually looking for that type of activity, and as and when we find things, which we think is inevitable, we'll notify law enforcement, and where we can, the public," he said.

"We are looking for this sort of activity and these are ongoing investigations. And one of the things we have to be really careful with here is that as we think about how we answer these questions, we need to be careful that we aren't compromising investigations that we might be running or investigations the government might be running," Gleicher said.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg had promised in last April to ensure security and transparency on its forum ahead of elections in different countries.Adding to the ever-growing list of cheating cases in the e-commerce sphere, a man in Karnataka ordered gold coin only to receive an empty box. Amit Garg, an employee in a private firm in Bengaluru, ordered 20 gm gold coin from home-grown giant, Flipkart but allegedly received an empty box from PVC Logistics.

Garg had placed the order in December 2017. When he received an empty box, he filed a complaint with Flipkart but did not receive any satisfactory feedback. It is only then that Garg decided to file a police complaint against Flipkart and PVC Logistics.

According to reports Garg had paid around Rs 61,000 for the 20 gm gold coin. Once the parcel was delivered, Garg opened it in front of the delivery executive. He was taken aback to see an empty box. The entire incident was captured in a CCTV camera and has been furnished by Garg as proof to the police. When asked about it, the delivery executive suggested Garg to contact Flipkart.

As per reports Flipkart told him that they would verify the complaint and due procedure would be followed. However, he never received a satisfactory response.

A case of cheating under IPC 420, against the e-commerce and logistics firm has been filed. "We have registered a cheating case and have issued a notice to Flipkart on the same. The investigation is underway. The complaint was filed with us because the alleged victim did not receive any response through emails from Flipkart," the police said.

The police will now investigate if the coin was never dispatched or if it went missing along the way.Days after Congress President Rahul Gandhi's thundering speech in Parliament where he took on Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Rafale deal, BusinessToday.In has got access to a letter Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group Chairman Anil Ambani had written to the Congress chief back in December 2017. Anil Ambani justified his selection for the JV on the grounds that his company, Reliance Defence Limited, is the leader in several defence areas and has the largest shipyard in the private sector. The company is involved in the construction of five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Indian Navy and total 14 Fast Patrol Vessels for the India Coast Guard, he wrote.

The Congress party had neither disclosed that it received the letter from Anil Ambani nor the fact that whether the meeting Anil Ambani sought from the Congress President ever took place, and what transpired in that meeting if at all.

In the letter, Ambani said he was "personally saddened" over the Congress party's allegations against the Narendra Modi government for choosing his company for the Dassault Reliance aerospace joint venture.

Under the deal between India and France, India would buy 36 Rafale fighter jets from France, and as part of the offset obligation, the French Dassault Aviation would invest 100 million euros in India to make the components for the fighter jets and Falcon civilian aircraft.

Giving reference to Rahul Gandhi's poll campaign rallies before the Assembly elections in Gujarat in December -- in which he criticised the government for favouring Anil Ambani's company Reliance Defence, which he claimed had "nil experience" for the contract -- Anil Ambani said the deal was made through a pact signed between both the countries, and that these aircraft would be built in France, only to be delivered to the Indian Air Force on 'fly away' basis. He said no Indian company had any role to play in the process.

Rahul Gandhi in November 2017 had asked PM Modi to explain his "Reliance on someone with nil experience in aerospace for the Rafale deal?" Through a series of sarcastic tweets, Rahul had accused that "Self 'Reliance' is obviously a critical aspect of Make in India".

Talking about the offset policy -- a mechanism to drive defence manufacturing in India -- Anil Ambani wrote to Gandhi that it had been in force since 2007 when the UPA government first introduced offsets to boost the Indian defence industry. "Over 30 plus programmes have been undertaken, and over 70 offset contracts between foreign OEMs and Indian private sector companies exist," said the letter released on December 12. Ambani said since the inception of the offset clause, several contracts had been undertaken by leading corporations working with original equipment manufacturers just like the agreement with Dassault Aviation.

Over the allegations of the Modi government favouring Reliance Defence for the Rafale deal, Anil Ambani said the decision to choose his company as a joint venture partner was an independent agreement between the two companies, and that the government of India had no role to play in it.

Expressing surprise that several Congress members had raised objection over his company's selection for the project, Ambani said his company not only had the necessary experience but was also the leader in several major defence areas. "Reliance Defence has the largest shipyard in the private sector at Pipavav, Gujarat, and we are currently building five Naval Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Indian Navy and 14 Fast Patrol Vessels for the India Coast Guard," said Ambani.

The company's shipyard is the only one in India selected under a rigorous process by the US Navy for maintaining over 100 ships of the US 7th Fleet. He said Reliance JV with Dassault was only related to offsets i.e. export obligations, under which his company will make components and systems, primarily for the aerospace and defence sectors.

Ambani said the joint venture would not only create thousands of jobs in India but would impart necessary skills to engineers in aerospace and defence manufacturing. Besides, several MSMEs, SMEs, and start-ups would also benefit from business opportunities this deal would produce, he said.

The timing to incorporate Reliance Defence does not correspond with the deal but with Modi's announcement that India wants to acquire aircraft from France. While the inter-government deal between the two countries was initiated on March 28, 2015, the final deal was signed on September 23, 2016. However, the joint venture between both the companies was formed on December 16, 2016, two months after the deal. But what's interesting is that Modi announced the Rafale deal on Apr 10, 2015, during his France visit, 13 days after the Reliance Defence was set up there. At that time, nobody knew Reliance would get this deal.

Meanwhile, invoking his family's relationship with the Gandhi family over generations, Anil Ambani said his entire family, including his late father Dhirubhai Ambani, enjoyed a respectful relationship with the Gandhi family and the Congress party at large, and that such statements had hurt their sentiments.

Here is the full version of the letter issued on December 12, 2017.

Watch Video:



Recent buzz had suggested that the Tata Group was ready to start focussing on new businesses like smart cities but latest developments suggest that the conglomerate's chairman N. Chandrasekaran is still concentrating on getting the house in order first.

According to The Economic Times, Tata Sons, the investment holding company of the $100-billion Tata Group, has approved a Rs 10,161-crore investment plan that focuses on the conglomerate's finance, insurance, defence, realty and retail units - all areas that its chairman is aggressively betting on.

The Tata Group has been in serious consolidation mode - focussing on growth, scale, synergies and making itself leaner - in the past year under Chandrasekaran, who took over the reins after Cyrus Mistry's ouster. Two key challenges that he faces are turning around loss-making units and ensuring the right capital allocation for growing businesses. So he is reportedly looking to trim unscalable businesses to concentrate more on sectors and companies expected to clock a high growth rate.

In line with this game plan, the daily added that Tata Sons has decided to invest up to Rs 1,800 crore in Tata Advance Systems; Rs 1,750 crore in Tata Realty & Infrastructure; Rs 2,500 crore in Tata Capital; Rs 260 crore in Tata AIG General Insurance; Rs 250 crore in Infiniti Retail; and Rs 2,001crore in subsidiary holding company Panatone Finvest. The investment budget also includes Rs 1,600 crore earmarked for a possible acquisition of IDBI Federal Life Insurance. The company reportedly took the decisions in its board meetings on March 26 and May 18.

The Group might leverage its cash cow Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for this. After all, the IT firm announced a Rs 16000 crore share buyback plan just last month. Given that Tata Sons has a 73 per cent stake in TCS and, if it tenders shares, could stand to gain around Rs 10,000 crore from the buyback and the cash may be used to steer core sectors forward. It had raked in a similar amount when it tendered over 3.61 crore shares in TCS' similar-sized buyback programme last year. The funds were reportedly used to unwind the complicated crossholdings among Tata companies.

Chandrasekaran took over reins when the Group was going through turbulent times - the European steel business was bleeding, the Indian telecom arm was accumulating losses, the automobile business was losing market share and the brand image had taken a hit from the public spat with Mistry.

His first-year report card has been pretty impressive so far, and he has addressed many of the legacy issues of the Tata Group companies. His tenure has also seen three major deals - merging Tata's mobile services business with Bharti Airtel in no-debt and no-cash deal, merging Tata Steel's European business with German company ThyssenKrupp's business in the region, and Tata Steel's acquisition of Bhushan Steel, unless NCLAT throws a spanner in the works.

Chandrasekaran has also divided the Group's companies into various clusters, like one for finance and a separate one for aerospace, defence and infrastructure. Large companies Tata Steel, Tata Motors and TCS have their own independent clusters.

Citing experts the daily added that going by Tata Sons' recent moves, Chandrasekaran is focussing on aggressively growing the diversified conglomerate even as he continues to streamline the group. That apart, he is concentrating more on the domestic market rather than the uncertain and slow global markets, which currently yield about 60 per cent of the conglomerate's revenues.Indian deposits in Swiss banks fell by 34.5 per cent in 2017 and by 80 per cent since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said in Parliament on Tuesday, citing reliable data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

The Minister made the statement to refute the reports which suggested that Indian deposits had risen by 50 per cent in 2017. He told the Rajya Sabha during question hour that he had discussed the issue with Swiss authorities, who told him in a written reply that media reports have not taken account of the way the SNB figures have to be interpreted.

Last month, PTI had reported that SNB data shows money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose to CHF 1.01 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) in 2017 after falling for three consecutive years.

The Swiss Authorities say that the figures published by the Swiss National Bank are regularly mentioned by the Indian media as a reliable indicator of the amount of assets held with Swiss financial institutions in respect of Indian citizens.

However, the Swiss government says more often than not, the media reports have not taken into account the way the figures have to be interpreted which has resulted in misleading headlines and analysis, the finance minister claimed.

Goyal said according to Swiss authorities, the more reliable data source for deposits held in Switzerland is the "locational banking statistics" (LBS) of Bank of International Settlements.

LBS measures international banking activity from a residence perspective, focusing on the location of banking office and captures around 95 per cent of all cross-border banking activity.

SNB data, on the other hand, includes non-deposit liabilities, the business of Swiss branches located in India, inter-bank transactions and fiduciary liability, Goyal explained.

BIS data show non-bank loans and deposits -- which constitute the individual and corporate deposits and exclude inter-bank transactions -- have fallen by 34.5 per cent in 2017 to USD 524 million compared to USD 800 million in 2016, Goyal said as he vowed to continue the fight against black money.

Further, there has been a significant reduction in Swiss non-bank loans and deposits of Indians by 80.2 per cent between 2013 and 2017, he said.

The figure in 2013 was USD 2.6 billion which came down to USD 2.3 billion in 2014 and USD 1.4 billion 2015.

Moreover, it is frequently assumed that any assets held by Indians are undeclared, he said.

So if you want to know the deposits of Indian residents in Switzerland, the correct data source is called locational banking statistics. The Minister said the Automatic Exchange of Information based on Common Reporting Standard has commenced from 2017 with many countries enabling India to receive financial account information of Indian residents.

This will also be useful in bringing the unaccounted income and assets to tax, he said.

Stating that there was a misconception about deposits in Swiss banks, he said: "Swiss Authorities themselves gave this in writing that the Swiss National Bank in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements data shows that loans and deposits of Indians other than banks like RBI, State Bank, the deposits of individuals in Switzerland decreased by 34.5 per cent in the last year compared to the previous year and reduced 44 per cent in the last quarter."

He said while the India-Switzerland Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement was amended in 2011 to get information on bank deposits, but no information could be obtained on the HSBC account details till 2014.

Then in October 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sent Revenue Secretary and other officials there and after tough negotiations, a joint declaration was issued that they will cooperate in future on giving us information.

After 2014, we have sought over 4,000 pieces of information from them and appropriate action is being taken on the basis of that data in the country.India's e-commerce market is expected to see revenues catapult from $39 billion last year to $120 billion in 2020, posting the world's highest annual growth rate. With the battle for this red-hot pie intensifying, the biggies in the business are upping the ante on recruitment - aggressively vying for the best and brightest at India's top campuses.

According to The Economic Times, the e-tailers are primarily looking to recruit from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and the recruited students will be put to work on emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence.

Interestingly, early indicators suggest that Flipkart, which is in the process of being acquired by Walmart, just might overtake Amazon at campus recruitment this year - or at the very least promise a close race. Last year, Amazon had taken the lead, both in terms of number of offers made and the salaries offered. Citing campus sources the daily added that it had offered annual packages close to Rs 30 lakh, including stock options, compared with Flipkart's Rs 21 lakh without stock options.

But this year, the Bengaluru-based company appears to enjoy an edge over Amazon. At IIT Kanpur, which starts its summer internship in August, though anticipation is high for both e-tailers, there seems to be a preference for Flipkart. "This year, we are expecting Flipkart to easily hire larger numbers from our campus due to funding from Walmart," a student who's on the IIM Calcutta placement cell told the daily, adding, "Students' interest in these companies is quite high as they offer product development and operations roles."

To stock up on talent it will need in the future, Flipkart reportedly plans to hire more people in 2018 compared to the previous year, and is hitting more campuses to that end. It is making a debut in final placements at NIT Warangal, National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), National Institute of Design, and Faculty of Management Studies Delhi for summer placements.

"This year, both Flipkart and Amazon would be visiting the campus," said Ch. Venkaiah, head of the department of training and placement at Warangal. Last year, Amazon was one of the top recruiters at Warangal.

"Big data, machine learning, decision sciences and artificial intelligence will be the key focus areas for this season's hiring plan - there is increasing need of resources in these emerging technologies," a Flipkart spokesperson told the daily, adding, "We continue to bank heavily on hiring entry level talent through campus."

Among the IITs, Flipkart is visiting Delhi, Madras, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Bombay, Guwahati, Roorkee, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi and Hyderabad for engineering, product and business analytics profiles.

Amazon, too, intends to scale up campus hiring this year. "The numbers for this year are 10% higher than what we have hired last year," Raj Kaza, director, talent acquisition, Amazon India, told the daily. "Amazon operates at the cutting edge of technology and we are keen to hire candidates with passion for technology such as AI, machine learning, IoT [internet of things], speech recognition and computer vision, in addition to an aptitude to grow with the organisation," he said.

Reaffirming Amazon's commitment to campus hiring, Kaza added that "Internships have worked very well for us and we are increasing the share of pre-placement offers extended to interns. We have also increased the roles for which we hire from campuses."

In addition, the company is also casting its net wider. The report claimed that Amazon is going to visit other top institutions in the country, including the 10-odd IITs that it has been going to in the past.

The race for talent has already kicked off and recruiters are thronging NIT Trichy and Warangal. The NITs are the first to begin their final placements in August, followed by the younger IITs such as Mandi and Ropar that start placements in October. The older and better-known IITs begin their final placements in December. October also marks the beginning of summer placement season at the IIMs.

This year both Flipkart and Amazon will reportedly be visiting IIM Calcutta. Last year, Flipkart made three offers, all final, at this campus, while Amazon made close to 18 final and pre-placement offers. Similarly, at IIM Ahmedabad, Amazon was the highest recruiter in the Retail B2B space with 12 offers made to the Class of 2019 last December, followed by Flipkart.A day after reports emerged that PNB fraud accused Mehul Choksi may have taken refuge in Antigua, the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) of Antigua & Barbuda confirmed Choksi's presence in the Caribbean island nation, saying that the fugitive diamantaire obtained his Antiguan citizenship last year.

"After extensive vetting, Mehul Choksi was granted citizenship by registration in November 2017," the CIU said. Antigua is one of the two major Caribbean islands that make up the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

"...Choksi's application was subject to robust due diligence international investigation, which is conducted on each principal applicant and dependent, by reputable agencies, including the International Criminal Police Organization and the CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS)," it said.

The CIU added that 2017 investigation revealed no derogatory information about Choksi. The CIU also confirmed that on January 15, 2018, Choksi swore the Oath of Allegiance in Antigua, a requirement under the provisions of the Citizenship by Investment Act.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has reportedly written to the authorities in island nation seeking details on diamond merchant Mehul Choksi. Antigua is one of the two major Caribbean islands that make up the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda.

On Tuesday, India Today TV reported the probe agencies came to know about the whereabouts of the Choksi, one of the accused in the Rs 13,700-crore PNB fraud, just a day before he landed at the VC Bird International airport in Antigua on July 8 when they officially approached the US authorities.

The report quoted sources saying he boarded JetBlue flight for Antigua, and that he didn't use Indian passport as he had acquired the Antiguan passport.

After the Interpol issued a diffusion notice against Choksi, the authorities in the Caribbean country have also confirmed to the Enforcement Directorate about Choksi's arrival in the country.

Mehul Choksi, as well as his partner Nirav Modi, fled the country in the first week of January, just two weeks before PNB first reported about the biggest banking scam.

The ED had filed chargesheet against Choksi and 13 others in the PNB scam on June 28 under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering) Act. Choksi and Modi are accused of defrauding the public lender by illegally obtaining Letter of Undertaking (LoUs)/Foreign Letters of Credit (FLCs).

According to the ED, three companies of Mehul Choksi namely -- Gitanjali Gems Ltd, Gili India Ltd and Nakshatra Brands Ltd -- were fraudulently issued LoUs to the tune of Rs 3,011.39 crore, and fraudulently got the credit limit of these FLCs enhanced to the tune of Rs 3,086.24 crore. Total proceeds of the crime now stand at Rs 6,097.63 crore.

The special PMLA court in Mumbai issued a non-bailable warrant against diamond merchant Mehul Choksi and five others on July 6.Polling started in Pakistan

85,252 polling stations and 241,132 polling booths have been established throughout the country. Out of the 85,252 polling stations, 17000 have been declared highly prone to security threats.



Millions of registered voters are flocking to polling stations across the country to cast their vote in Pakistans 11th general election. First vote was cast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Charsadda.



The battle is set to come down to three parties: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).



While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8am, enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7am.



However, violence in various areas including Quetta, Larkana, Khuzdar, Swabi, and Kohistan  despite the deployment of 800,000 security forces across the country  marred the polling process.



At 371,388, a record number of troops have been deployed at polling stations at the ECPs request to maintain law and order and take action against harassment.



July 25 was earlier declared a public holiday by the ECP as an effort to increase voter participation. Polling stations will remain open for voting until 6pm, as per the deadline announced by the ECP.After the Lok Sabha's green signal on July 19, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, was passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. The legislation, which empowers authorities to attach and confiscate properties and assets of those who flee the country after committing economic offences, especially defaulting on loans, was hotly debated in the Upper House of Parliament on Wednesday. The Lok Sabha passed the bill on July 19. The Bill now awaits President Ram Nath Kovind assent following that it will become a law. Under the Bill, the Enforcement Directorate would be the investigative authority.

In a rare instance, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu opened the debate with his own remarks: "We are aware of what is happening in the country. I hope the legal luminaries here can shed light on this. People want to know if confiscation of properties, criminal prosecution, and bringing the accused back to India will be possible."

Vivek Tankha of the Congress party initiated the debate and asked why the law was applicable to only those who'd committed economic offences that amounted to more than Rs 100 crore in losses to the nation. Citing the cases of fugitives like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, Tankha asked if the law would apply in retrospective effect. "The real test is if any fugitive will come back. This law is too little and too late. If you are confiscating a property, why would a fugitive come back?"

BJP MP Bhupendra Yadav informed the House that there are 30 economic offenders that have fled the country, and that a white paper during the UPA regime had claimed that black money can't be tackled with in the absence of stringent laws. Most MPs supported the Bill but pointed lacunae that they wondered would stand legal scrutiny. For instance, Prasanna Acharya of the BJD and TMC's Sukhendu Shekhar Roy asked how an individual could be penalised without conviction. Samajwadi Party's Neeraj Shekhar said he worried the law could be misused against political rivals of the ruling establishment.

Congress' Rajeev Gowda asked why an Indian law would apply in a foreign jurisdiction. "Foreign nations may raise issues such as state of Indian prisons or human rights. The government should fix these problems in anticipation," he advised. Gowda added the clause barring accused not to be a part of civil cases is unconstitutional. "I challenge Piyush Goyal to bring back at least one offender by 2019, or else hang your head in shame," he said.

Interestingly, BJP's Mahant Shambu Prasad said during the debate that he had the dubious distinction of occupying the same seat as Vijay Mallya in the Rajya Sabha. He added every member in the House prior to 2014 would have taken photos with Mallya; Congress Rajya Sabha member Anand Sharma objected to this.

Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, replying on issue, said, "We have signed extradition treaties with 48 countries. We will use diplomatic channels to bring back fugitives from countries where we don't have such treaties yet."

On the Rs 100-crore threshold, Goyal said the clause was introduced to focus speedy investigation on large offenders. "This doesn't mean smaller offenders will be let off," he said, adding that large offenses will be handled by special courts so that serious offenders would be handled effectively.

Goyal clarified that an offender's property won't be attached if he/she returns to India to face the law. He said proceedings would be terminated when the person appears in court, as under this Bill they can't be prosecuted. The Finance Minister announced the Enforcement Directorate would be the investigative authority as per this new legislation.In an attempt to reduce the number of passenger vehicles on roads and subsequently reduce air pollution, the government is pushing for a rather unconventional method. The Centre wants to promote ride sharing on private cars. This would enable carpooling of private vehicles and allow them to operate as taxis through services such as Ola and Uber. However, it is not lost on authorities that permitting this would adversely affect the livelihood of cab businesses that are already struggling to keep up with aggregators like Uber, Ola as well as with self-driving car services like Zoomcar. To protect the livelihood of cab drivers, the government is mulling to cap either the number of rides one can offer or the amount of money one can earn through this.

The Centre is taking inspiration from Singapore and the US, where private car owners can offer upto two share rides per day or only earn upto a certain limit respectively.

In effect, what this entails is that private car owners can charge upto a certain amount as long as it is on a no-profit, no-loss basis. This amount earned cannot be a source of income and will only be to recover fuel and additional costs.

A senior bureaucrat told The Economic Times that the government is reviewing various models, including commercial ride sharing by private car owners. He added that this can be carried on through services such as Ola, Uber and taxi permits may be liberalised so as to convert private cars to be used as taxis. That would, however, require the government's nod, he added.

While a high-level government taskforce suggested liberalising taxi permits, various corridors of the government flagged the impact it would have on businesses of taxi operators.

Not only that, government is also considering extending this move to include motorcycles and autorickshaws.

Sharing ride on private vehicles for profit is not permissible by law. Last month, a good samaritan in Mumbai got fined for offering a ride to people stranded due to the rains. The law makes it illegal to offer rides to strangers. Section 66 (1) of the Motor Vehicle Act 1998 states: No owner of a motor vehicle shall use or permit the use of the vehicle as a transport vehicle in any public place whether or not such vehicle is actually carrying any passengers or goods save in accordance with the conditions of a permit granted or countersigned by a Regional or State Transport Authority or any prescribed authority authorising him the use of the vehicle in that place in the manner in which the vehicle is being used.The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has doubled import duty to 20 per cent on over 50 textile items - mainly garments - to protect the domestic industry. At least, that is the stated intent.

India imported textile and apparel products valued at about $7 billion last year, including nearly Rs 5,000 crore worth of ready-to-wear garments.

Textile imports from China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka had a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17 per cent in the last five years. These increased after GST.

India has Free Trade Agreements with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This means while Indian manufacturers pay duty on imported fabrics, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can import duty-free fabric from China, convert it to garments and then sell them duty-free in India. Domestic manufacturers allege that China is dumping textile products into India through Bangladesh to leverage the full exemption of Basic Customs Duty. More needs to be done. Imposing safeguard measures such as Rules of Origin, Yarn Forward, and Fabric Forward Rules can curb dumping.

P.B. JayakumarThe Bajaj Auto stock took just three sessions of trade to erase all the gains it logged in 10 sessions during the last one month. The stock lost 475 points in the last three trading sessions compared with a rise of 445 points between June 28 and July 11.

The stock which stood at 2,176 on June 28 rose to a near month high of 3,161 on July 11.

The rise in stock can be attributed to a record rise in June sales. On July 3, 2018, the firm said it reported a 65 per cent rise in total sales in June.

It sold 4,04,429 units in June this year compared with 2,44,878 units in the same month a year ago. Its motorcycle sales also rose 65 per cent to 3,37,752 units as against 2,04,667 in June last year, Bajaj Auto said.

On the other hand, sales of its industry peer and market leader Hero MotoCorp rose 13% to 7,04,562 over the 624,185 units sold in June 2017.

Another factor which led to a rise in stock was that more brokerages cut their sell positions when June sales data was announced.

On May 22, 2018, of the 51 brokerages covering the stock, 25 had 'buy' or higher ratings, 14 'hold' and 12 'sell' or underperform, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

The sell side or underperform calls were reduced to just seven on July 3 compared with 14 on May 22.

On July 3, 26 of 49 brokerages covering the stock rated it as a "buy" or higher, 16 "hold", three "sell" and four underperform, according to Reuters.

The rally lasted till July 11 when the stock reached a high of 3161. It succumbed to profit booking at and fell to 3115 level on July 19.

On July 20, the earnings of the auto maker were announced which came below street estimates.

The firm posted a 24.5 per cent increase in consolidated Q1 net profit at Rs 1,041.78 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2018 riding on robust sales.

According to Thomson Reuters data, the company was expected to report Rs 1,247 crore in net profit forecasted by average estimate of 18 analysts. The net profit also fell short of Rs 1,250 crore estimated by analysts Bloomberg tracks.

Reacting to the earnings, the stock tanked up to 9.40% in trade on July 20, 2018. It closed 9.21% or 286 points lower at Rs 2,826 on the BSE.

Sentiment around the stock was affected as the firm getting more aggressive in domestic motorcycles market, and is prioritizing market share over margins. This would exert pressure on margins.

A report by Credit Suisse said Bajaj Auto aims to grow its share in the domestic market to 20% by the end of this fiscal year, from 16%

currently, and to 24-25% over the next two-three years.

On July 23, the stock lost another 151 points on bearish sentiment around it. Yesterday, it fell another 38 points to close at 2650 level. The stock closed at 2638 level today 12 points below its previous close.

Business Today spoke to several analysts on the movement and future outlook of the stock.

Mitul Shah, Vice President, Research (Automobile) at Reliance Securities said, "Bajaj Auto has delivered a disappointing performance in the first quarter of FY2019 with subdued margin on account of aggressive pricing and product mix. The management has indicated its preference on market share over the margin over next 2-3 years, which led to cutting down margin and earnings estimates by the analysts. This in turn resulted in sharp correction in stock price. Though we expect the stock to remain under pressure over near-term, we do not expect any major downside from the current level.

On the sharp correction, Shah said, "We believe that current price has factored in most negatives, while the risk reward became favourable at current price. Considering strong exports potential, favourable exchange rate, high-margin three wheeler portfolio, leadership in premium bike segment and valuation comfort, we believe that Bajaj Auto is a good BUY from long-term perspective. We maintain our positive view on the stock."

Manoj Sachdeva, Research Head ofseemed optimistic about the stock.

"Bajaj Auto is planning to bring up electric two-wheeler by 2020, a battery- powered scooter. The revenues of the company have increased from Rs 6650.81 crore to Rs 7267.19 crore i.e 9.27%. QoQ It also jumped by 26.60% on YoY basis. Net profit of the co rose by 24.50% on YoY basis.

The stock is having a monthly support level in the range of 2580-2585 and currently, it is trading nearby. The stock is having a resistance level of Rs. 2800-2820 and if it crosses this range, then we can see a good uptrend up to the level of Rs. 3500. We are not expecting any major fall from present levels. Currently we are recommending "BUY" on the stock."

Rahul Agarwal, Director at Wealth Discovery/EZ Wealth said, "Bajaj Auto has cracked almost 14% since its earning report came out; the stock currently trades at 2680 levels in comparison to a high of 3100 ago. The results missed consensus estimates on both topline and bottom-line and margins. Reported net profit came in at Rs 1, 115.23 crore in the first quarter of 2018, up by 20.71 percent on a YoY basis against the consensus estimate of Rs 1261 crore. Volumes came in at 1.22 million units in the April-June 2018 period up by 38 percent on a YoY basis; topline grew by 33 percent and EBITDA margin stood at 18.4 percent.

On the face of it the numbers do not look terrible although they came below the consensus, so what justifies this violent move on the downside?

In our opinion, the problem lies with the strategy the company has embarked upon, in pursuit of market share the company is willing to sacrifice margins that too for the next couple of years.

Bajaj Auto is already on a declining trend when it comes to margin and further dilution in the margins in the era of heightened competition and rising costs would lead to an earnings reset, hence lower valuations. Over all two-wheeler sector is going through cutthroat competition with aggressive pricing and margin pressure for all players.

The company was able to clock a sales growth of 39% this quarter against the industry average of 19%, this number is impressive but not sustainable, we expect that the street is bracing for intense competition in this space with the other two leading players facing similar price action, therefore at this point we do not expect a sharp recovery in the share price.

Bajaj auto would continue to trade around these levels with some upside given the massive correction that has already taken place."

Meanwhile,has revised its target price on the stock to Rs 3,290 from Rs 3,360. It cut FY19-21E earnings per share by 3% on slightly higher volume but lower margins. The brokerage said Bajaj Auto is better placed than TVS and Hero owing to strong export franchise & low contribution of India two-wheeler profits.

Nomura has downgraded the stock to Neutral and cut its target price to Rs 2911 after Q1 earnings were announced. The brokerage does not expect a full blown price war as Hero MotoCorp reported a 23% y-y volume growth in the entry segment in 1QFY19 despite price cuts by Bajaj.

Kotak Securities in a report reduced target price of the stock to Rs 2,808.

It said Bajaj reported below expected 1QFY19 results. Lower domestic average selling price impacted revenues, EBITDA and PAT for the quarter. Company reported robust volume growth and market share gain in 1QFY19. Company's decision to go for aggressive pricing to gain market share will impact its financial performance going ahead.

Bajaj Auto has stated that gaining market share will be the key focus in the domestic motorcycle segment. Pricing action has translated into significant growth for the company (in past few months) in the entry level segment and the same will likely continue in view of management's decision to stick to this strategy. In view of management's strategy of gaining market share at the expense of margin, we revise our estimates lower. We downgrade the stock to Reduce (from BUY earlier) with revised price target of Rs 2,808 (earlier Rs 3,303).

Way2Wealth Research said on a consolidated basis, the stock at Rs 2651 is trading at a PE multiple of 14.8x FY20E and an EV/EBIDTA of 11.9x FY20E. Though the company has shifted focus from price led growth to volume led growth in the entry level segment, this segment constitutes only 14% of overall revenues of BAL and hence is expected to have minimal impact on BAL's earnings.

We cut our EPS estimates by 4%/4.5% for FY19/20 to account for the price activity in entry led segment. Further, the approval for Qute in India bodes well for BAL in the medium-to-long term though the initial volumes are expected to be miniscule. We assign FY20E PER of 17x to its consolidated earnings to arrive at a target price of Rs 3044. We advise investors HOLD the stock with a target price of Rs 3044 per share.

Written and edited by Aseem ThapliyalThe Prevention of Corruption Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018 was passed by the parliament on Tuesday. The amendments propose a lot of changes to the anti-corruption law which range from redefining criminal misconduct to bringing collusive bribe givers to book. Moreover, bankers and civil servants are considering the latest amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act as means to ease pressure on them amidst mounting bad loans and investigative scrutiny against their commercial decisions.

The amendments extend the provision of prior permission before prosecuting a civil servant to retired officials too. This means that an investigating agency like the police or the Central Bureau of Investigation will have to secure permission from a competent authority before they can arrest a retired banker or civil servant. Earlier this provision was applicable for serving banking staff and public officials as well as public servants above the joint secretary level.

Criminal misconduct redefined

After the amendments, the definition of 'criminal misconduct' under Prevention of Corruption Act now includes misappropriation of assets or possession of disproportionate assets. The amendments say that criminal misconduct will also include intention to acquire disproportionate assets. This redefinition could mean that abuse of position and disregarding public interest cannot be reasons alone for prosecution, said a Bloomberg report.

So while some bankers are seeing this as an opportunity to work without the fear of prosecution, some fear these amendments will be bad for bankers. "Earlier it was just disproportionate assets and now they are talking about intention to acquire disproportionate assets. So how does that impact the process. I would say that instead of raising the threshold it has actually lowered the threshold," SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar was quoted in the report.

The Central Vigilance Commission will set up some guidelines on how offence should be dealt with and what kind of approvals are needed before making an arrest, vigilance commissioner TM Bhasin was quoted as saying in the report. The report also mentioned bankers saying that the amendments will help them to overcome the fear of prosecution while take crucial decisions regarding restructuring, haircuts or even financing stressed firms any further.

Before the Monsoon Session of the Parliament, Indian Banking Association asked the government to expedite the amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act this month. This came after former Bank of Maharashtra managing director Ravindra Marathe was arrested on charges of banking fraud.

Strict penalties for giving bribes

The amendments to Prevention of Corruption Act also call for harsh action against those who offer bribes without any coercion from the bribe taker. The amendments call for penalties against a first time bribe giver if they give the bribe willingly to a government official or bank staff. The term of sentence for giving or taking bribes has also been increased to seven years.

The Prevention of Corruption Act amendments will help bankers and public sector officials to carry out their duties fearlessly and on merit, while doing away with any paralysis in decision making, Bhasin was quoted in the report.China is set to introduce a cooling-off period for divorces to address a spike in the rate of separations.

Under draft recommendations released last week by the Supreme Peoples Court, judges would be able to impose a waiting period of up to three months on couples who fail to settle on a divorce out of court.

The Supreme Court argued that couples could use the period to mediate their differences and obtain counseling services.

Chinas crude divorce rate  the number of divorces per 1,000 people  more than doubled from 2006 to 2016, reaching 3%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. About 4.2 million divorces were reported in 2016, up from 1.91 million divorces a decade before.

More than 70% of divorces are filed by wives, according to the Supreme Court-backed China Justice Big Data Service Platform.

This would be Chinas first nationwide cooling-off period. Such measures have already been in regions such as Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong provinces to counter a trend of divorces triggered by differences over trivial matters or that have been filed impulsively, according to Li Mingshun, a law professor at China Womens University.

In the first such reported case in Sichuan, a couple decided to withdraw a filing for divorce at the end of a mandatory three-month cooling-off period in March 2017.

But some have argued that this makes divorce more difficult, and may infringe upon the countrys Marriage Law.

Freedom to marry and divorce are both guaranteed by the law, but partners must uphold the dignity of marriage, Li said.

A cooling-off period is seen as a countermechanism against recklessness and impulsiveness among some irresponsible couples, she said.

Such a mechanism is unnecessary because couples already have to go through lengthy proceedings  sometimes taking up to six months  before they can get a court order for a divorce in China, according to a judge in Shenzhen who asked not to be named.

As an unwritten rule, Chinese courts do not usually grant a divorce in the first hearing unless a plaintiff presents evidence such as domestic violence, extramarital affairs or bigamy, the judge said.

A cooling-off period might only prolong the bitterness of the couples or be used by courts to cover up their red tape or misuse of power, he said.

Contact reporter Li Rongde (rongdeli@caixin.com)Xuan Changneng, assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, will become deputy administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, sources say.

Chinas foreign exchange regulator will appoint Xuan Changneng, assistant chairman of the countrys securities watchdog, as a deputy administrator, sources with knowledge of the matter told Caixin.

The personnel move comes shortly after Yang Guozhong, former deputy administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), left the post to lead the supervisory board of China Investment Corp., the countrys sovereign wealth fund.

SAFE, which operates under the Peoples Bank of China, manages more than $3 trillion in currency reserves. It studies and proposes policies to reform the foreign exchange administration system, as well as to increase the convertibility of the yuan under the capital account, according to its website.

After Xuans job change, the forex regulatory agency, which has been led by central bank Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng since 2016, will have four deputy administrators.

Xuan, 51, has broad finance experience both inside and outside the government. A regulatory official described him as low-key, pragmatic and diligent. Xuan specializes in research on monetary policy and financial crisis management, the official said.

In 2016, Xuan took a position as assistant chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC). Before that, he served as head of the central banks Financial Stability Bureau.

Before joining the central bank, Xuan was managing director at U.S. investment firm JC Flowers & Co. LLC from 2006 to 2008. From 2004 to 2006, he served as secretary of the board of directors at China Construction Bank Corp., one of the countrys Big Four state-owned commercial lenders.

Xuan returned to China in 2000 and worked for the CSRC until 2004. Before that, He had worked for JPMorgan Chase & Co. after earning a doctorate in finance at the University of Texas in 1997.

Xuans appointment comes at a time when a strong U.S. dollar and ongoing trade tensions have led to a weakening yuan in recent months.

The yuan hit its lowest level in more than a year on Wednesday as the central bank set the midpoint of its daily fixing rate at 6.804 against the dollar, weaker by 149 basis points from the previous fix.

Contact Reporter Lin Jinbing (jinbinglin@caixin.com)(CTech)  Known for graduating scores of qualified data scientists and computer engineers, Israel is producing too few trained professionals from another field  chemistry.

The shortage of chemists in Israel is driving Adama Agricultural Solutions Ltd. to grow out its research and development team in China, the companys CEO, Chen Lichtenstein, said in a recent interview with Calcalist in China.

A major manufacturer of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals founded in Israel in 1945, Adama is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of ChemChina, a Chinese government-owned company. Adama is still run by Israeli executives maintains the majority of its operations in the country.

Lichtenstein said that the company has no plans to retreat from Israel, but warned that labor market for chemists is better in China. Adama employs 29 chemists at a facility in Nanjing and plans to double the size of that team, he said. There is no shortage of qualified people and most applicants come with prior industry experience, Lichtenstein added.

Elad Shabtai, who heads research and development at Adama, said that his alma mater is graduating less than half the number of chemistry majors as it did in the past. The educational system is failing to show young people where this field can take them, Shabtai said.

Adama has more than 6,600 employees and distributes its chemicals to farms in more than 100 countries.BIG TECH COMPANIES

1. Tencent May Back Indias Oyo at $2 Billion Valuation

What: Tencent is in talks with Indian budget hotel brand Oyo Rooms to lead a $300 million to $500 million funding round for Oyo, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, if it succeeds, could value Oyo at over $2 billion, more than double its previous valuation of $850 million.

Why its important: If the investment from Tencent comes through, it will be the first funding round in Oyo led by investors other than SoftBank since 2015. SoftBank is the single-largest stakeholder in Oyo, with a 42% stake.

Big Picture: The investment from Tencent is likely to be used to grow Oyos China business. Oyo has been actively expanding in the China market, which now accounts for nearly 90% of the companys overseas revenue. Oyo has 2,000 employees in China, and operates more than 11,000 hotel rooms in 26 cities. (Source: Times of India)

2. Facebook Sets Up Subsidiary in China

What: Facebook has set up a subsidiary in Hangzhou, home of e-commerce giant Alibaba. The subsidiary was approved on July 18, with registered capital of $30 million and Facebook Hong Kong as its sole shareholder.

Why its important: Facebooks subsidiary in China will be an innovation hub aimed at supporting local tech talent, according to a Facebook spokesperson. Its operations will include network information technology development and related services, investment consultancy and marketing planning.

Big Picture: Facebook has tried numerous times to re-enter China since it was blocked from the country ten years ago. Its last attempt, a photo-sharing app called Colorful Balloons, is no longer available on Chinese app stores. (Source: CNBC)

POLICY

3. Asus, Philips Fined Most in $130 Million EU Antitrust Probes

What: The European Commission has slapped a fine of 63.5 million euros ($74 million) on Taipei-based computer maker Asus, the biggest fine out of 111 million euros of antitrust penalties imposed on Asus and fellow electronic firms Philips, Pioneer, Denon & Marantz. The companies, which were found to have fixed online prices, all got reduced fines after cooperating with regulators.

Big Picture: This is the first in a series of EU investigations into manufacturers who require online retailers to set prices that dont undercut traditional stores. As a result of the actions taken by these four companies, millions of European consumers faced higher prices for kitchen appliances, hair dryers, notebook computers, headphones and many other products. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules, EU Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement. (Source: Bloomberg)

4. After Vaccine Scandal, Industry Stocks Tumble

What: Amid an explosive scandal involving the administration of shoddy vaccines to hundreds of thousands of children in China, more than 50 vaccine and biotech stocks tracked by data provider Wind opened down 1% on average on Tuesday.

Why its important: A subsidiary of the vaccine-maker Changsheng Bio-Technology Co. Ltd., Changchun Changsheng Life Sciences Ltd., sold 250,000 doses of a substandard-quality vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus in Shandong province. The unit has also been accused of tampering with production data for its rabies vaccine.

Big Picture: The industry has in recent years been rife with scandals, but previous cases didnt impact stocks as seriously. In 2013, several infants died after being given hepatitis B immunizations, while in 2016, nine companies were found to have been involved in the illegal sale of improperly stored or expired vaccines. (Source: Caixin)

5. Cloud Migration Set to Ramp Up in China

What: Chinese companies are about to speed up their adoption of cloud computing, which has so far been slower compared to U.S. firms, according to a new McKinsey report. Chinese firms spent an average of 14% of their IT budgets on both public- and private- cloud services last year, up from 9.1% in 2015, and 5.8% in 2013.

Two-thirds of Chinese firms surveyed said difficulty of migration was their top reason for resisting a transition to cloud computing. Other barriers include security concerns and regulatory compliance. Most of the companies chose services provided by Chinas three largest public-cloud vendors, although 30% said they would rather engage with international providers who have operations in China.

Big Picture: Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology aims to more than double the size of the countrys cloud-computing industry by 2019 over 2015 levels. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)

Compiled by Qian Tong and Hou QijiangAbout Me Scott Because prophetic scriptures are found throughout the bible, it is obvious that a comprehensive, systematic approach would be useful, if not necessary, for the understanding of prophecy. Past prophecies have been fulfilled in a literal manner, as confirmed by the dating of these writings and historical records of confirmation. These past prophecies also serve as a model of how to interpret future prophecies. A literal view of prophecy clearly indicates a certain sequence of events will occur within a single generation, concluding with the Tribulation and Second Advent and these events will be obvious. The prophetic signs appear to be present in this generation and we believe these signs are revealed in the news from around the world. View my complete profileBharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Senior Engineer. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 160000. The last date to apply for the government job is Aug 25, 2018.

BEL Recruitment 2018 For Security Guards For The Ministry Of Defence

BEL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Senior Engineer Organisation Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) Educational Qualification BE or BTech from a recognised university Experience 4 years Job Responsibilities Site co-ordination; designing electrical power distribution system Skills Required Engineering skills Job Location Ghaziabad Salary Scale INR 50000 to INR 160000 Industry Engineering Application Start Date July 25, 2018 Application End Date August 25, 2018

Maximum Age Limit 32 years Contract Period 5 years Selection Process Written test and interview

Also Read: BEL Recruitment 2018 For Probationary Engineers: Earn Up To INR 140000!

How To Apply For BEL Recruitment 2018

Step 1: Log on to the BEL official website.

Step 2: Select Recruitment - Advertisements from Careers.

Step 3: Against the relevant post, click on the link for the application form.

Step 4: The application form will be loaded on a new screen. Save it to your computer and take a printout of it.

Step 5: Enter your details in the fields provided. Send the applications to BEL.

How To Pay The Fees Online

1. Log on to www.onlinesbi.com and select SB Collect.

2. Click on the checkbox to accept the terms and conditions and click Proceed.

3. Opt for All India as the state of corporation/institution.

4. Opt for PSU - Public Sector Undertaking as the type of corporation/institution.

5. Select BHARAT ELECTRONICS LTD as the PSU name and click Submit.

6. Select Sr. Engineer - GHAZIABAD UNIT as the payment category.

7. Complete the payment process. Take a print of the payment receipt and attach it with the application form.

BEL Recruitment 2018 Application Format And Mailing Address

Superscribe on the envelope, "Application for the post of Senior Engineer" and send it to:

Dy. General Manager (HR&A), Bharat Electronics

Limited, Sahibabad Industrial Area, Ghaziabad - 201010.

Click here to read the detailed official notification.Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Industrial Promotion Officer. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 142400. The last date to apply for the government job is July 31, 2018.

GPSC Recruitment 2018 For Engineers: Earn Up To INR 142400!

GPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Industrial Promotion Officer Organisation Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC) Educational Qualification Graduate degree in engineering Experience Desirable Job Location Gujarat Salary Scale INR 44900 to INR 142400 Industry Civil services Application Start Date July 16, 2018 Application End Date July 31, 2018

Maximum Age Limit 39 years Selection Process Written test and interview

Also Read: GSRTC Recruitment 2018 For 93 Clerks

How To Apply For GPSC Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for GPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the GPSC official website.

Step 2: Select the department from the drop-down list.

Step 3: The list of advertisements will be displayed on the screen. Click on the Apply button against Industrial Promotion Officer, Class-2, General State Service.

Step 4: The brief details of the job will appear on the screen. Read them and then click on the button that reads, Apply Now.

Step 5: The login form will be displayed on the screen. Click on the link to register as a new user.

Step 6: You will be directed to a page with instructions. Read them carefully and click I Agree.

Step 7: The registration form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 8: Upload your photo and signature.

Step 9: Select Yes after reading the declaration.

Step 10: Click Save and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Step 11: Login again with your credentials and complete the application process.

Click here to read the detailed official notification.Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for the post of Fire and Safety Officer. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government job here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 180000. The last date to apply for the government job is Aug 31, 2018.

OIL India Limited To Host Walk-In Interview: Earn Up To INR 50000!

HPCL Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Fire and Safety Officer Organisation Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) Educational Qualification BE or B Tech in Fire Engineering or Fire & Safety engineering from a recognised university Experience Desirable Job Responsibilities Participating and leading the fire crew in handling emergencies as per Emergency Response & Disaster Management Plan (ERDMP) Skills Required Technical skills Job Location Mumbai Salary Scale INR 60000 to INR 180000 Industry Petroleum Application Start Date July 31, 2018 Application End Date August 31, 2018

Maximum Age Limit 27 years Selection Process Written test, group task and personal interview





Also Read: BEL Recruitment 2018 For Senior Engineers

How To Apply For HPCL Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for HPCL Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the HPCL official website.

Step 2: Click on the CAREERS tab.

Step 3: Click on the button that reads, View Available Positions.

Step 4: The list of current openings will be displayed on the screen. Against the relevant post, click on the application link that will be active from July 31, 2018.

Step 5: The application form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 6: Make the fees payment through SB Collect and submit the completed application.

Click here to read the detailed official notification.Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) has released an employment notification calling out aspirants to apply for various posts. Those interested can check out the eligibility, salary scale, how to apply and the complete details of the government jobs here. Selected candidates can earn up to INR 45000. The last date to apply for the government jobs is Aug 20, 2018.

West Bengal HRB Recruitment 2018 For 4976 Staff Nurses

HPSC Recruitment 2018 Vacancy Details

CRITERIA DETAILS Name Of The Posts Manager, Senior Manager, Management Trainee, Junior System Analyst, Assistant General Manager, Deputy Director and Lecturer Organisation Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) Educational Qualification Master's degree in the relevant field Experience Freshers can apply Skills Required Technical skills Job Location Haryana Salary Scale INR 9300 to INR 45000 Industry Civil services Application Start Date July 20, 2018 Application End Date August 20, 2018

Age Limit: 18 to 42 years

Also Read: Central Bank Of India Recruitment 2018 For Directors At Aurangabad

How To Apply For HPSC Recruitment 2018

In order to apply for HPSC Recruitment 2018, follow these steps:

Step 1: Log on to the HPSC official website.

Step 2: Under Online form submission, click on the link that reads, Apply Online for Advt 1/2018 for Various Post.

Step 3: The procedure for filling the application form will be displayed on the screen. Click on the Read & Continue button.

Step 4: Select the name of the post from the drop-down list box.

Step 5: Click on the option box to notify if you have already applied.

Step 6: Click Continue.

Step 7: The registration form will be displayed on the screen. Enter your details in the fields provided.

Step 8: Upload your photo and signature.

Step 9: Click Proceed and follow the subsequent pages to complete the registration process.

Step 10: Login with your credentials and complete the application process.

Click here to read the detailed official notification.Photo: Google Maps

A Winnipeg man drowned while trying to rescue his family's dog from a city pond that is more hazardous than it may appear, police said Tuesday.

The 58-year-old man was walking with his family Monday night in King's Park, a green space in a residential area near the University of Manitoba, when the dog jumped into the pond and struggled to stay afloat.

"The male went in to rescue the pet, and at that time he got trapped in some ... very thick reeds and soft mud underneath the water, which was extremely deep," Const. Tammy Skrabek said.

The family cried for help and two other men in the area jumped into the pond, she said. One managed to pull the man to shore, but he was already unconscious and was later pronounced dead in hospital.

Police did not release the man's name and said the dog has not been recovered. The water is adjacent to a section of the park where dogs are allowed to roam without being on a leash.

Skrabek said ponds in neighbourhood parks can look safe, but they can be deep, weedy and have bottoms that can trap people.

"When you're talking wet, mucky soil, it very much acts like quicksand."

There is a sign at the pond that warns people not to enter the water, she added.

A new report from the Lifesaving Society of Canada says Manitoba has on average about 25 water-related fatalities a year, which gives the province a higher per-capita rate than the national average.

Thirty-nine per cent of Manitobans who drowned between 2011 and 2015 drowned in a lake, the report said. Almost as many, 38 per cent, drowned in a river. Fewer than one per cent drowned in an area such as a beach or pool supervised by lifeguards.Photo: The Canadian Press People sit along the Stanley Park seawall.

The name of Vancouver's Stanley Park may be up for debate as the city's park board confronts its colonial past and pursues reconciliation.

The park board approved a "colonial audit" this week outlining actions by the city's forefathers dating back to 1888, including removing entire First Nations communities from their traditional territories when the city declared jurisdiction over Stanley Park and other beach areas.

The board voted to apologize to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations for taking away ancestral lands, digging up burial grounds to build roads and playgrounds, and other damaging actions.

Park board chairman Stuart Mackinnon said the board took the first step towards reconciliation by "truth telling," formally identifying its colonial role, and it will be working with the local First Nations to avoid future colonial actions.

"It's sometimes a very powerful and painful experience but it's important that we recognize that this is where we come from," Mackinnon said.

"Stanley Park was the home to many First Nations peoples and over the course of time they were evicted, removed from the park. What we call our western beaches  Kitsilano, Jericho, Locarno and Spanish Banks  were also home to First Nations people, a gathering place and a place for food collection. They were all removed from there as well."

Representatives from the three First Nations were not immediately available for comment.

The board is working with the First Nations to determine next steps and Mackinnon says he put a motion forward for debate this September that would acknowledge the traditional Indigenous names for the city's parks and beaches.

Stanley Park is North America's third largest urban park, attracting an estimated eight million visitors a year, and like the Stanley Cup was named for Lord Frederick Stanley, who was governor general of Canada in 1888.Photo: BC Wildfire Service

UPDATED: 9:51 a.m.

The Beards Creek wildfire burning near Golden is now called the Hog Ranch wildfire according to Carlee Kachman, Fire Information Officer.

As of Wednesday morning the blaze remains at 20-hectares in size but an additional four BC Wildfire Service personnel have been sent in to help tackle the blaze.

Three helicopters are also assisting.

ORIGINAL: 9:42 a.m.

The BC Wildfire Service is responding to a 20-hectare wildfire burning about 34 kilometres southeast of Golden.

The Beards Creek wildfire, which is five kilometres north of Parson and Highway 95, is extremely visible from Highway 95, Highway 1, Parson and the surrounding area and as of yesterday evening it was billowing thick, grey smoke.

Seven BC Wildfire Service personnel are on site along with three helicopters.

The blaze is burning in steep and difficult terrain that is unsafe for crews to tackle directly.

The wildfire, in the Southeast Fire Centre vicinity, is not threatening any communities or structures at this time.

Report a wildfire or open burning violation by calling 1 800 663-5555 toll-free, or *5555 on a cell phone. For the latest information on current wildfire activity, burning restrictions, road closures and air quality advisories go online.Photo: Kari Kallen The Goode's Creek fire was aglow Tuesday evening.

About 260 provincial and contracted firefighters continue to attack wildfires burning within what is known as the Okanagan Complex. A majority of those resources are fighting the two remaining fires listed as out of control.

The Mount Eneas fire burning between Peachland and Summerland remains at 1,793 hectares after being merged with the Munroe fire.

"Today's objectives are to continue to tie the merged fires with control lines," said fire information officer Marla Catherall. "Crews continue to build hose-lines from north to south on both sides of the fire. Night crews on east and west flanks will continue to put out hot spots."

Ninety-seven fireighters are working on the ground.

The Goode's Creek fire burning in Okanagan Mountain Park south of Kelowna is also listed as out of control.

Catherall says crews on that fire have been working on the east flank and are pushing to the south flank.

She says the fire has been working its way through small drainages, hitting unburned fuels, which has created some large columns of smoke.

That fire remains steady at 577 hectares in size.

Three other fires in the region are listed as either held or under control.

The Peachland Creek fire, listed at 23.1 hectares is considered held, which means further growth is not expected due to weather conditions and suppression efforts. Fifteen firefighters and two pieces of heavy machinery are working that blaze.

The Law Creek fire south of West Kelowna is under control. That fire has been mapped at 15.5 hectares.

The Mount Conkle fire near Summerland is also considered held. That fire is estimated at 118 hectares. Thirty-two ground personnel are fighting that fire.

Along with ground crews, Catherall says nine aircraft have been assigned to the region, with more resources available if needed."Exceeding target temperatures will lead to global destabilization and endless suffering. We are nowhere near where science says we should...Press Release For Immediate Release: Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Contact:

Media Relations

(404) 639-3286 PEPFAR MEDIA CONTACT:

David Haroz

+1 202-445-3269

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (July 25, 2018)The Government of the Republic of Namibia, the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and ICAP at Columbia University (ICAP) released new data today at the 2018 International AIDS Conference demonstrating that the HIV epidemic is coming under control in Namibia.

Results from the Namibia Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA) show that 77 percent of all HIV-positive adults have achieved viral load suppression, a widely used measure of effective HIV treatment in a population, surpassing the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) target of 73 percent by 2020. Compared with the UNAIDS 2012 estimates, Namibia has reduced its adult HIV incidence rate by 50 percent in the past five years.

Namibia has made this tremendous progress by either reaching or exceeding the UNAIDS 90-90- 90 targets among women and, nationally, by attaining 86-96-91 among adults. Namibia accomplished this through the strategic expansion of HIV prevention and treatment services, with a focus on viral load suppression at the individual and community level, and the swift implementation of forward-leading HIV policies.

NAMPHIA results also suggest that women ages 15-24 still have a far higher HIV incidence rate (0.99 percent) than same-aged young men (0.03 percent) in the country. This highlights the continued need for expanded primary HIV prevention in young women, including through the PEPFAR-led DREAMS Partnership, and ensuring all men 25-35 are virally suppressed, such as through the new MenStar Coalition.

These exciting new data demonstrate that a community-centered approach results in high community viral suppression, which decreases the rates of new HIV infections. Several African countries are now on track to reach HIV epidemic control by 2020, accelerated progress that was only possible because of partner country political leadership and their rapid adoption of policies focusing primary prevention and treatment resources for maximum impact, said Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D., U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. Together, we are making the impossible possible, moving farther and faster toward ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The results of this survey demonstrate the importance of providing innovative, data-driven prevention, care and treatment to those affected by HIV, said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D. CDC continues to support Namibias efforts to control its HIV epidemic  and we remain committed to global efforts to change the course of the HIV pandemic and help save lives.

The PHIAs evidence important advances being made under the PEPFAR Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020). Among the ten countries (Cameroon, Cote dIvoire, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)that have released PHIA results, Namibia has achieved the highest level of viral load suppression among all HIV-positive adults. Other countries surveyed show varying levels of progress toward reaching the viral suppression target of 73 percent, highlighting key areas for improvement, particularly the need to increase the coverage of HIV testing among adult men, adolescent girls, and young women.

The impressive findings from the NAMPHIA survey demonstrate the Government of Namibias successful commitment to confronting the HIV epidemic, said Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, ICAP global director. The survey findings also provide a blueprint to guide HIV policies and programs in-country moving forward.

New data from PHIAs in Cameroon and Cote dIvoire released earlier this week highlight substantial gaps in western Africa toward reaching epidemic control despite significant investments, pointing to the depth and breadth of key policy barriers to HIV service uptake that need to be addressed.

Overall, the PHIAs reveal key gaps in HIV prevention and treatment programming for women ages 15-24 and men ages 25-34 that require urgent attention and action. In all countries surveyed, lower percentages of these groups reported knowing their HIV status, current use of HIV treatment, and had viral suppression than older adults. PEPFAR is aggressively addressing these challenges, including through its innovative public-private partnerships. The PHIAs are funded by the U.S. government, through PEPFAR, and conducted by the CDC, ICAP, and local governmental and non-governmental partners. With PEPFAR support, four additional countries  Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, and Rwanda  will release PHIA data on a rolling basis through 2019, providing an ability to chart and validate further progress toward reaching epidemic control by 2020.

###

The U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

PEPFAR is the United States governments response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, which represents the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. Through the compassion and generosity of the American people, PEPFAR has saved and improved millions of lives, accelerating progress toward controlling and ultimately ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat. For more information, please visit www.pepfar.govexternal icon, and connect with PEPFAR on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC works 24/7 saving lives and protecting people from health threats to have a more secure nation. HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are the worlds two most deadly infectious diseases, and CDCs Division of Global HIV & TB works with partners to tackle these two epidemics and produce the greatest global health impact. More information can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/globalhivtb.

ICAP at Columbia University

ICAP was founded in 2003 at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. A global leader in HIV, tuberculosis, other health threats, and health systems strengthening, ICAP provides technical assistance and implementation support to governments and non-governmental organizations. More than 2.2 million people have received HIV care through ICAP-supported programs, and over 1.3 million have received antiretroviral therapy through such support.

###

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

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CDC works 24/7 protecting Americas health, safety and security. Whether disease start at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or from human activity or deliberate attack, CDC responds to Americas most pressing health threats. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and has experts located throughout the United States and the world.Cimerwa plant upgrade should see cement prices start to fall

25 July 2018

Cimerwa expects its cement plant upgrade to stabilise the domestic market after shortages sent the price of a bag of cement up nearly 50 per cent in recent months. Rwanda has resorted to importing cement from neighbouring countries such as Uganda and Tanzania to cover the shortages.



Bheki Mthembu, CEO of Cimerwa, told Reuters the company carried out maintenance and upgrade works on its plant in April and May, which had now been completed. The US$3.3m maintenance and upgrade programme at Cimwera's plant will help to boost cement production to 0.5Mta from 0.4Mta.



"The plant operation is back to normal but what may not necessarily be back to normal is all consumers of cement getting their products," he said. Production is currently running at 1300-1500tpd, up from 1000-1200tpd before the upgrade, the CEO said. "With at least 1300tpd it should go to normal prices."



Mthembu said local demand was growing at 7-8 per cent annually as new building projects come up.







Published underJordan increases cement prices

25 July 2018

Jordans five factories increased the price of cement to JOD74/t (US$104) from JOD38 on Sunday, according to The Jordan Times. The price hike is intended to end the accumulative losses of the companies over the past few years resulting from a recession after the closure of the borders, says Yousef Shamali, secretary general, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Supply.



Cement exports had stopped following the closure, except for small amounts to the West Bank, and consequently the price fell from JOD93/t to JOD28/t, before settling at JOD35/t over the last four months.



"The reason behind the hike is a decision that was taken by the outgoing government in its last days to stop importing the material," said Zuhair Omari, president of the Jordan Housing Developers Association, to The Jordan Times, before adding that the former government said that the decision came to protect the national industry.



However, Mr Omari noted that the country only imported three per cent of its demand which helped maintain a balance in prices and increased competitiveness.

Published underAndrew Brunson's Daughter Shares Emotional Testimony at Religious Freedom Ministerial Christian Post Contributor | 25 July, 2018 by Samuel Smith

WASHINGTON  The daughter of imprisoned American pastor Andrew Brunson gave an impassioned speech during the first-ever State Department Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, choking up a bit as she shared how her father feels "blessed" to suffer for his faith in Christ.

Jacqueline (Brunson) Furnari was among the family members of persecuted believers who shared the stories of persecution that their respective loved ones have faced at the State Department headquarters Tuesday, kicking off a much anticipated three-day conference on international religious freedom that the federal government has never hosted before.

"I know my dad's character as only a daughter can, and I know the charges against him are absolutely absurd and false," she told the hundreds gathered at the Harry S. Truman Building, asking them for prayers for her father's release. "He is not an armed terrorist trying to overthrow any government. He is a pastor who went to Wheaton College and on to seminary and got a Ph.D. in New Testament."

For the past two decades, the North Carolina native has served the Turkish people as a church leader in Izmir. But on Oct. 7, 2016, Brunson was arrested and held for over a year before finally being charged with having connections to Kurdish militants and the Islamic Gulen movement that the government accuses of staging the July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's government.

The pastor has maintained his innocence and pressure from the U.S. continues to build as prominent lawmakers have said that the prosecution lacks credible evidence and have long called for his release.

Last week, Brunson appeared in court for his third hearing. Despite hopes that the court would release Brunson, he was again remanded back to prison until his next hearing in September.

"It is important to note that during these three [hearing] dates, there has not been one prosecution witness that has been able to provide one shred of evidence that support their ridiculous testimony  a fact that my father pointed out during the May 7 trial date and a fact that none of the judges on the panel seem to care about," Furnari said. "The head judge personally told my father that all the prosecution's witness testimony is simply being taken as truth therefore there is no need for any evidence."

As the testimonies of the prosecution's secret witnesses appear to be based off of second and third-hand information, United States senators have equated Brunson's imprisonment to an attempt by the fellow NATO member nation at hostage diplomacy.

Erdo?an has even suggested himself that Brunson's fate is tied to United States-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Furnari, who grew up in Turkey and graduated from the University of North Carolina, told the crowd that her father has missed two of the most important days of her life because the Turkish government has decided to use her dad as a political pawn.

Furnari got married in civil court in February 2017, despite the fact that she had picked out a wedding dress and was excited to have the wedding of her dreams. But because of her dad's imprisonment, she and her husband have decided to hold off on having a big church wedding until her father is able to come home and walk her down the aisle.

"I got married and neither of my parents were present. I will never get that moment back," she explained. "For those of you that have daughters, I know that you understand how important and special it is for both you and your daughter to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. My father didn't get to do that. I am still waiting for my wedding and I am still waiting to wear the wedding dress that I got more than two years ago. I am still waiting for my dad to walk me down the aisle and I am still waiting for my father-daughter dance."

Last December, Furnari graduated from college.

"One of the ways that my father has shown his love to my brothers and I is that he has invested so much in helping us plan out our futures and our career paths. He missed seeing me achieve yet another life milestone," she added. "My brother is graduating from college this coming December as well. He would love to be at least at that one."

Furnari explained that although her dad has lost at least 50 pounds in jail and looked to be a shell of his former self, he has explained in letters that the thing that has pained him the most about his imprisonment is missing out on spending time with his family.

Furnari added that Brunson has missed out being there for her older brother to help him make career choices and seeing his accomplishments at Cornell University.

Brunson has also missed out on being there for his younger son, who is in his senior year of high school.

"These are the things that pain my dad the most  not being able to be with us and missing out on life with his family," she said.

Read more about Andrew Brunson's daughter on The Christian Post.As it works to heal from a school shooting, the Broward County, Fla., district plans to partner with an organization founded by parents whose children were killed in a 2012 school attack in Newtown, Conn., to help prevent future violence.

Sandy Hook Promise will bring two programs to Broward County, where 17 people died and 17 more were injured in a Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Superintendent Robert Runcie said on Twitter Tuesday.

The first program, Say Something , teaches students and teachers to recognize and respond to warning signs that a student may harm themself or others. The other program, Start With Hello , aims to banish social isolation by teaching students to reach out to peers and encouraging a culture of inclusion within schools.

The organization worked with experts on violence and school climate to develop the programs in the wake of the 2012 shootings at Sandy Hook. Parents of some of the 26 victims there were surprised to learn that, contrary to popular narratives, school shooters rarely just snap. Rather, an analysis by the U.S. Secret Service has found that mass shooters often leak their intentions beforehand, often telling one or more people of their plans to act.

Education Weeks Lisa Stark reported this piece about the Sandy Hook Promise programs last year, on the fifth anniversary of the Newtown shootings.

Schools Look for Warning Signs of Violence

Broward Countys adoption of the programs comes as schools around the country include efforts to improve students ability to see something, say something in the wake of the shootings in Parkland and Santa Fe, Texas, earlier this year. The federal STOP School Violence Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of a spending bill, includes funding for such training.

Schools are also grappling with how to handle such reports when they are made. In Broward County, for example, people did see something and say something, but some of the victims families have said officials werent quick enough to act.

Law enforcement officials and state investigators have said the Parkland shooter displayed many warning signs, even openly talking about becoming a school shooter. The FBI drew anger from the community after it revealed in the days after the shooting that it failed to investigate tips warning that the gunman intended to act. And a state task force assembled to investigate the attack is reviewing records, including school discipline records and dozens of police calls to the gunmans home in the years before the attack.

Photo: A Broward County sheriffs deputy stands watch at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as students returned to class after a February school shooting. --Terry Renna/AP

Related reading about school shootings, violence prevention:

Follow @evieblad on Twitter or subscribe to Rules for Engagement to get blog posts delivered directly to your inbox.The Revoice Conference, which begins tomorrow, has generated a great deal of conversation among theologically conservative Christians. The gathering, according to its website, is about supporting, encouraging, and empowering gay, lesbian, same-sex-attracted, and other LGBT Christians so they can flourish while observing the historic, Christian doctrine of marriage and sexuality. Much of the controversy has swirled around terms used by proponents to describe who the conference is for and what its goals are.

Christianity Today editor in chief Mark Galli asked Revoice founder Nate Collins about the dispute. Collins is former instructor of New Testament interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and a leader at the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender. He is also author of All But Invisible: Exploring Identity Questions at the Intersection of Faith, Gender, and Sexuality (Zondervan, 2017).

What exactly is Revoice?

Revoice is an organization putting on a conference, and the idea behind the conference is to provide a place for conservative LGBT Christians, people who are non-straight and perhaps experienced gender dysphoria of some kind, to gather and to be supported and loved in their attempt to live a long and costly obedience. We all believe that the Bible teaches a traditional, historic understanding of sexuality in marriage, and so we are not attempting in any way to redefine any of those doctrines. Were trying to live within the bounds of historic Christian teaching about sexuality and gender. But we find difficulty doing that for a lot of reasons.

What are the most common misconceptions of Revoice?

Several people try and make the claim that were on a slippery slope ethically, which is due in part to the choice of language we use on our website. Right now the conversation on LGBT issues and gender, sexuality, and evangelicalism is fragmented. Theres a lot of groups of people that use language in very specific ways that makes sense to them but doesnt make sense to people outside of their tribe.

Revoice is trying to be a place where people who identify as gay or lesbian or bisexual feel like they can be encouraged. Were not pressuring people. Were not advocating that people use one language over the other. Were just trying to make space for people for whom the language they use is meaningful, in terms of how they are trying to reconcile their gender and sexuality with their faith.

You clearly state your views on sexual activity outside of marriage, but some are confused about your views about illicit sexual desire. Is that sinful as well?

Sexual desire for someone of the same sex is sinful and something that I should repent from. But in this regard, some people are being too Freudian. They are basically saying that orientation can be boiled down to a desire for sex. And I dont think thats a biblical anthropology. I think a biblical anthropology should reflect something thats more basic to the human experience, like God created us.

What then do you mean by someone identifying as gay or lesbian, or someone having a particular sexual orientation?

Even the phrase sexual orientation can be unhelpful because it puts sexuality at the center of orientation. We are sexual beings; God created us to have sexuality; we will inevitably at some point experience our orientation as sexual. But that doesnt mean that the orientation itself is a sexual orientation. Now what it is exactly I dont knowthat is something that we Christians have a vested interest in thinking about theologically. But to take our cues from Freud and to consistently boil down orientation to a desire for sexI dont think that is helpful, particularly for LGBTQ people who are trying to make sense of their sexuality in a cultural Christianity where their sexuality is taboo, where there is a history of stereotyping, mistreatment, and gay jokes in the pulpitthat kind of thing.

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When a person considers himself gay, we tend to understand that he means he is sexually attracted to people of the same sex. But youre saying thats not necessarily the case?

Thats exactly right. I think that theres a lot of the ways that we experience intimacy and desires for intimacy. So the desire to not be alone in your life, the desire to have companionship, to have close, intimate, emotional companionshipthese are all things that we experience in relation to orientation that are not intrinsically sexual. To the extent that those desires are neglected or that we fail to integrate those into a theological understanding of orientationwere going to have unhelpful pastoral responses in trying to explain how Christianity can still meet the real relationship needs of gay and lesbian.

Im a typical American baby boomer, an older male whos lonely a lot of the time. So I get the desire for male companionship. But I dont imagine you would say thats a sign that I am gay.

I think that a straight mans desire, the way he experiences desire for intimate friendship with other men, that is obviously real and is a very valid way of experiencing the God-given need for relationships not to be alone.

Its important to distinguish, though, between the way that a straight person would experience that desire and the way that a non-straight person would experience that desire. Because when gay people experience a desire for intimate relationships, they do it in the context of their orientation. Which, again, I want to say is not intrinsically sexual.

So were trying to understand what is at the center of orientation, which I admit requires more thinking. But at this point, what I personally think [is] that at the center of orientation is the perception and admiration of personal beauty. God created us to recognize beauty in other image bearers. When we notice that beauty and when theres a pattern for that beauty then I think that raises the level of orientation.

For example, when I see beauty in another man and want to have a relationship with that person, it all depends on the context whether or not that is something appropriate that I should follow through on. If Im visiting a church and I sit next to somebody and am I interested, then I might want to strike up a conversation and perhaps invest in a friendship if we decide to join that church. Thats a very different response from if Im walking down the street and I notice someone jogging past on a hot summer day not wearing a shirt. Its a very different perception of beauty, and my response to that perception of beauty is going to be different. Now neither of those on the surface are intrinsically sexual, I dont think.

While theres no sexuality involved, at the same time theres a perception of beauty. Theres a recognition that theres an image bearer here that is drawing my attention and drawing me into an interpersonal connection with that person.

It sounds like youre saying that attraction to the same sex is not necessarily erotic attraction.

Yes. One of the main criticisms of Revoice is that were trying to blur the distinction between eros and philia, the brotherly love were talking about. There are lots of ways to address that critique.

One way would be to say that eros is not intrinsically sexual. Its never how that word is used in ancient Greek. The Greeks had a different word, venus, that was used to describe explicitly sexual love. Eros is basically the energy of love, the love that drives you [to pursue relationships]. Philia, on the other hand, is the brotherly love of friendship.

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But its not helpful to drive such a hard distinction between them. We have to recognize that all kinds of loves will motivate us in the way we pursue relationships. And the way to be holy in those moments is to steward those loves well and not to reduce them to things that they dont mean. Eros does not mean sexual love.

Some people say talk about being gay as a gift of God, not as disordered or a sinful desire. What is your take on this use of the language of gift?

Ive heard mostly progressive gay Christians talk about their gayness as a gift, and I dont think thats very helpful. It seems to be more rooted in an inability to conceive that there might be something sinful about their orientation. And that feels too aligned with the spirit of our age that gay is good, as humanity is basically good. Its not compatible with anything the Bible teaches about sin, and the fact that sin is part of everything we do.

One of the ways I talk about the sinful aspect of being gay in my book is calling it a disability. For LGBT people, for non-straight people, gayness can be a disability in at least two regards. It prevents them from exercising their sexuality the way God intended, that is with an opposite-sex spouse youre married to. And it can be a disability in a sense that it can inhibit chaste friendships from developing between a non-straight person and someone of the same sex.

But I think its helpful to keep in mind something C. S. Lewis said. Someone asked him about homosexuality, and he framed it, again, in terms of disability: Every disability conceals a vocation, if only we can find it, which will turn the necessity to glorious gain. The quote comes from Character of a Happy Warrior by William Wordsworth, where theres a vocation in every disabilitythe perspective that Christians should have that vocation is a stewardship. We steward all of our experiences in life, including our disabilities. And the way we steward them is by submitting them to Christ and to follow the Spirits leading in the way we live out our lives in the context of those disabilities.

It brings to mind a quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his Gulag Archipelago, where he talks about how the experience of being in prison, though unimaginably hard and trying, was one for which he was finally grateful: Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul. He doesnt use the language of gift, but it comes close, no?

Most of us, when we realized we werent straight, we prayed every single night, God, make me straight. Help me wake up tomorrow and be different. But at some point, after reconciling our faith and our orientation, many have asked, Would I want things to be different? Thats a hard question to answer, because so much of how have reconciled the faith has come through our existential crisis, and we are now thriving in our spirituality and in our relationships (some of us thriving in opposite-sex marriages). So many of us have found joy, actually, and contentment and a quiet confidence in Gods sovereignty. And to question whether or not that should be different, Would I even be the same person?those are questions were really not going to find answers to until we get to heaven, until we see what things are like in the new creation, where things are all the way they should be.

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Where have you experienced this crisis in your own life?

In my own life, I discovered that I was not straight when I was a teenager. The first person I came out to was my dad. My dad is one of my best friends today, but he wasnt always. When I was 15, a lot of things sort of resulted in my dad pulling me and my brothers into his office and apologizing in tears for the way that he had fathered us. So that was an important thing that happened when I was 15.

Then I went off to Bible college. I always thought perhaps I would get married; I didnt really know if it would be possible, but maybe Id meet the right person. And I did, and so I got married in 2004, and our marriage has been wonderful. It has its ups and downs like any marriage. We made the decision in 2007 to be more open about my orientation and the way that I experience not just my sexuality but my desires for intimacy and relationships with other men.

I shared my testimony at our church, which had a lot of seminary students and a lot of seminary professors as Sunday school teachers and elders. And I began being more vocal about the need for traditional conservative evangelicalism to understand and better engage this conversation.

I had very few positive experiences when the topic came up. In my book, I tell a story in my book about being in a classroom with about four or five other students. We had been sent out to go to another classroom to do Hebrew drills and someone got on the topic of homosexuality, and they basically told gay jokes for 30 minutes.

Another time, I was walking into the library and one of the librarians was talking to somebody. He pointed to me and said, Thats the guy you need to talk to. So the person comes over, and I was about to get on the elevator, and he says, So, I hear youre the guy that I need to talk to about LGBT stuff. I guess its safe to get on the elevator with youwhat in the world I was going to do to him in an elevator? This person is a PhD student and research fellow. So these are ideas, these are postures, is what I would say, that are very common that I encountered quite a bit at Southern Seminary and that are very common in conservative evangelical circles.

The Revoice conference website uses the phrase sexual minority to talk about gays, lesbians, transgender people, and others. Some think this is part of the slippery slope of relativizing this issue.

Some say the word minority is too tied to political discussion, perhaps, civil rights and racial minority issues. I dont want to be seen as trying to co-opt a narrative that has been meaningful to racial minorities, to make sense of the way they experience marginalization. Race and sexuality are very different issues. At the same time, there is, I think, a degree of overlap between the experience of racial minorities and the experience of non-straight minorities that I think is important to note. Groups form based on social categories, and that just happens. And whenever groups form, a lot of times an in-group and an out-group will form. Thats mainly what this term is meant to suggest.

Another word that comes up often on the conference website is queer. This has sometimes been associated with militant or radical sexual politics. What do you mean by the term?

The word basically points to the experience of people who live on the margins, who dont experience their gender or their sexuality in purely binary ways, and they dont want to feel limited to that. What we want to accomplish at Revoice is, again, giving space for people who find value in that language to participate in the conversation, to attend, to even have a workshop, because we sense the need for their voice at the table. Whether or not the conversation that unfolds ends up going in that direction is a different issue, and I think we need to be able to separate the two and live in that tension.

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Personally, I think that while the language of queerness can point to real things that we experience and that were trying to make sense of, I dont think its the most helpful theologically. But, again, thats a conversation that I think needs to happen, and I want it to happen in the context of involving people who do use that language. I want there to be consensus about these matters. So that means trying to be a big tent for a certain group of people to participate and come together.

Whats key for you in creating this big tent, so that you dont go down that proverbial slippery slope?

Our first value is explicitly the historic Christian teaching about marriage and sexuality. And so anybody who adheres to that is welcome at Revoice and, I would say, should find some kind of a home there. As long as it happens within or underneath that value and submission to that value, then the conversation can happen in helpful and truthful ways.

So what were talking about is how to develop the historic Christian teaching about marriage, gender, and sexuality in ways that are faithful to Scripture, faithful to our only final authority. And the way that scriptural teaching about gender and sexuality and marriage is applied to our current context where we have this thing that we call orientation and were trying to understand it, and were trying to understand how it affects the goods in life that God gives usrelational goods, familial goods, in some ways the concrete goods of life that make us feel, help us feel stable and secure.

So in the future maybe the evangelical perspective on marriage, gender, and sexuality will, I hope, be more filled out and rounded out, and some of the things that we experience as tensions right now wont be tensions then because well have a fuller understanding of what is in and outside the lines.The tomatoes caught me off guard. Sitting in a small Anglican church in Kenya, I was prepared for the invitation to put some money in the offering plate. I was not prepared for tomatoes.

But thats what the members of that farming village brought. Tomatoes, avocadoes, maybe even a chicken or two, all brought up and placed on the altar. They brought the literal firstfruits of their small fields, the work of their hands given back to God in gratitude for his blessing on farm and farmer alike.

Perhaps a Christian approach to economic life begins on an altar covered with tomatoes, with worship that orients all of who we are toward the God who so loved the world that he gave. Indeed, worship is an economic issue. We are made in the image of a generous King, wired to reflect his generosity to the rest of creation.

Follow the Money

If worship is an economic issue, so is idolatry. When we read about the Israelites worshiping Baal in 1 Kings 18, for instance, we often imagine that some the Israelites simply fell in love with Baal statues. Perhaps a compelling Baal evangelist showed up and presented the 4 Spiritual Laws of Baal Worship. Maybe a traveling Baal apologist presented some compelling arguments in a public debate.

But the primary attraction to Baal worship certainly wasnt a pretty statue or a theological argument. It was an economic promise. The nations around Israel called Baal the Rider on the Clouds who could bring the rain and make all your economic problems go away. Little wonder, then, that when King Ahab chose to marry a woman from Baal territory, the farmers in Israel built a house for this new god and welcomed him to the neighborhood (1 Kings 16:31).

Of course, most Israelites didnt totally reject Yahweh, the God of Israel. They probably kept going to the temple, paying their tithes, and saying a prayer or two now and againespecially on holidays. They just added Baal worship to their insurance policy. After all, if youre a farmer, its only practical to invest in getting the Rider of the Clouds to like you.

The rest of the story makes clear that Yahweh would have none of it (1 Kings 17:118:46). He proves to Israel that he is the only God who can deliver the economic goods by bringing a drought on Baals home turf and sending fire from heaven to consume Elijahs offering. The Lord wages a war for his peoples hearts on the battlefield of their bank accounts. Worship, after all, is an economic issue.

This is the sort of background we should bring to Jesus words that we cannot serve God and money or Pauls declaration that greed simply is idolatry. The New Testament writers understood that money poses one of the biggest temptations facing Gods people. Too often, we treat money as an idol like Baal, an idol to worship as a god to get what we want. Over and over again, the New Testament makes it abundantly clear: Money wants our worship. But every bit of ourselves we give to our stuff we snatch away from our true king.

Here's the bad news: Evidence suggests that money may be winning the war for the average US Christian's worship as often as not. While Americans have experienced significant income growth over the last 50 years, studies show that during that same period of time, average evangelical Christian giving dropped . . . from 5.98 percent to 3.21 percent of those ever-growing incomes. As American Christians, weve generally earned more and given less.

The Old Testament mandated a 10 percent tithe plus voluntary offerings for agrarian peasants living on small, rain-dependent farms. Jesus commanded his followers, poorer by far than any of us today, to give to everyone who asks you (Luke 6:30). The earliest Christians, living under occupied rulers and oppressed by exorbitant taxes, nevertheless liquidated assets and shared their homes with one another. But today US Christians give away less than 4 percent of our incomes. If the biblical authors thought love of money could drag them to hell, what would they have to say to us (cf. Luke 16:1931)?

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Whats the Solution?

The good news is Jesus doesnt just warn us of our idolatry; he gives us a way out of it. By the power of his Spirit, Jesus renews our hearts, rescuing us from dehumanizing idolatry and restoring us as worshipers of Jesus.

This transformation doesnt just happen in a single moment though. Even with hearts renewed by grace, we often find ourselves slipping back into our old ways. Thank goodness, then, that Jesus gives us a practical step, an act of obedience that, when we enter into it by his grace, liberates us from the idolatry of money. You see, just before Jesus warned us we cant serve God and money, he invited us into this powerful practice: Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matt. 6:2021)

We often read this passage as saying that our giving is like a thermometer that tells us the temperature of our hearts for God. Thats true enough, but thats not what Jesus says here. Jesus point is that giving is like a thermostat that changes the temperature of our hearts. Giving to Gods kingdom shapes our hearts for God because where we put our stuff, there our hearts will go. Generosity is a God-given prescription for the idol-sickness that ails us.

Practicing Cross-Shaped Giving Today

Over 100 years ago, a few Christians in one of the poorest regions in India began practicing giving inspired by the King who gave his very life on the cross. Every time these very poor believers cooked rice for their families, theyd throw a handful of uncooked rice into a special container. The church would gather this rice, sell it, and use it to minister to their neighbors. This practice, known as Buhfai Tham, raised only $1.50 its first year. Today, these handfuls of rice raise $3 million dollars . Their generosity has enabled them to support thousands of missionaries and bring many of their friends and neighbors to faith in the God who so loved the world that he gave.

The example of these poor saints calls us Westerners to repent of our economic idolatry and pursue cross-shaped giving in our own lives. What would it look like for us to practice cross-shaped giving, giving that worships God and embraces his heart-transforming power that we greedy idolaters so desperately need? I suggest a few simple practices to help us get started.

Fast from something to free up money for generosity. We worship a King who became poor so that we might become rich. We cant follow Jesus in generous giving by simply giving whatever happens to be left over. We have to look for ways to free up money for others by laying down our own needs and desires.



We hear often enough in church about the need to take up our crosses and be ready to lay down our lives for Jesus. What I fear weve forgotten in the West is that this doesnt just mean being ready to declare Jesus with our lives if anti-Christian terrorists come charging into our church, AK-47s in hand. It means declaring Jesus with our lives, not least by willingly entering into the suffering of the worlds poor, taking some of their economic burdens onto our own backs.



If we want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection, then costly generosity will be one way we share in the fellowship of his and his churchs sufferings.



So consider:



- Fasting from a meal once a week and giving what you save to a Christian organization addressing hunger



- Rightsizing your life by buying less expensive stuff, making different vacation choices, or even taking a different approach to saving money in order to give more



- Embracing a version of Ron Siders graduated tithe, which basically means giving a higher percentage of your income whenever your income goes up

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Right-size your churchs budget . Challenge your church to practice cross-shaped giving together in order to give more to Gods priorities in the world, including global evangelism and poverty alleviation.

. Challenge your church to practice cross-shaped giving together in order to give more to Gods priorities in the world, including global evangelism and poverty alleviation. Create communal giving through opening the books with others. One of the bizarre ironies of Western Christianity is that weve created complex systems of accountability for dealing with sexual idolatry but have completely ignored the need for similar systems to help us experience liberation from economic idolatry.



This opens the door for greed to gain its idolatrous foothold. In Acts: A Theological Commentary, Willie James Jennings provocatively argues that the story of Ananias and Sapphira captures the perennial temptation for nuclear families to turn inward in greed, keeping their economic idolatry secret from the searing, gracious light of communal obligation and accountability.



So bring your finances into the light! Form generosity accountability partnerships and encourage small groups to open up about their incomes and generosity patterns. Share testimonies of disordered greed turned to generosity, and invite heroic givers from lower-income backgrounds to share their stories.



Offer greed counseling. One way money exerts power over us is by tricking us into believing we shouldnt talk about it with others. But Paul used his own example (Acts 20:35), the example of Jesus (2 Cor. 8:9), and the example of other churches (2 Cor. 89) to inspire people to generosity. Church is a team sport. Giving is a team sport. We cant do this alone.

Just the Beginning

All of this is just the beginning. Practicing cross-shaped giving will lead us ever deeper into a life of loving and serving Jesus. Who knows where our humble next steps toward worshiping God with our stuff will lead?

Also, as Brian Fikkert, Robby Holt, and I detail in great depth in Practicing the Kings Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give, economic discipleship doesnt end with worshiping God with what we earn. Economic discipleship invites us to re-imagine how we work, how we spend, how we compensate, how we invest, and more.

We believe God is calling his church to bend the entirety of our economic lives toward a more just, inclusive economy in which currently marginalized neighbors and neighborhoods become full participants in the community. We tell stories of Christians empowering minority-owned businesses, business owners and churches finding ways to hire refugees and those with criminal records, families investing in social enterprises that provide jobs for the homeless, and so much more. And we provide first-step practices of economic discipleship for Gods people in our families, churches, and workplaces.

But well never get down the road toward the kingdom economy of Jesus if our hearts are hardened by worship of money. Indeed, Christian responses to the most pressing economic challenges facing our world today may start with a strikingly simple practice: storing up our economic treasures in Gods kingdom. For where we put our treasure, there are hearts will follow. And hearts aflame with kingdom fire will find ever-new ways to embody an economy that looks like Gods, for the glory of our King and the good of our neighbors.

Michael J. Rhodes is the director of community development and an instructor at the Memphis Center for Urban Theological Studies, where he heads up efforts to equip urban pastors and community development practitioners with theologically informed tools for community transformation.

This essay is derived from Practicing the Kings Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give, written by Michael Rhodes and Robby Holt, with Brian Fikkert.In 2020, we were the church on our heels. A global pandemic shut down much of our world. But the church has been on the move since it was birthed; it will continue to be on the move until God makes all things new.It was a strange sight. A well-dressed and respectable woman stood outside a brothel. She was beautiful, but her clothing marked her not as a prostitute but as the middle-class Victorian mother she was. She had recently confronted the Paris police over their abusive treatment of prostitutes under their legal control. The chief officer wasnt convinced by her arguments but was charmed by the woman in front of him. This wasnt surprising as all who met her felt her impact. She left with written permission to view the many government-controlled brothels.

So Josephine Butler stood, poised to enter the brothel, a place where no well-bred Victorian woman dared to go. With a glance toward her guide, she took the brave step forward. She would see padded rooms where prostitutes could be abused without the world hearing their screams. Her small form would pass rooms full of children used as prostitutes, and she would shudder to hear her guide proudly announce how wonderful it was that these children were under their care and off the streets. She wasnt persuaded. She knew what she saw. Hell hath opened her mouth, she would write. I stand in the near presence of the powers of evil. What I see and hear are the smoke of the pit.

A well-educated and cultured woman with a husband and children, her decision to not only enter brothels but to advocate for prostitutes was shocking to society. She viewed her war as a consecrated rebellion.

Who was this woman, and how can we understand her courage?

A Faithful Home

Born in England in 1828, just in time for the Victorian era, Josephine Butler appalled the world by speaking about unspeakable topics. Victorians believed in separate spheres for men and women: Women were to care for the home and children, and men were for the public sphere. Yet she not only entered into public politics, but worse, she was speaking about uncomfortable realities such as prostitution, child prostitution, sex slavery, and more.

To grasp why, we need to understand her values. These principles led her to visit brothels and jails. They are the reason she would face down thugs, public ridicule, and slanderpersevering even when dung and mud were thrown at her in the streets. Her strength, fearlessness, and morals came from a deep Christian faith.

Butler grew up in a comfortable and deeply religious family. Her father, John Grey, was a public advocate for the abolition of slavery, who could not endure to see oppression or wrong of any kind inflicted on man, woman, or child. Victorian fathers often felt it was their duty to keep their wives and daughters innocent of the evil of the world, but Grey treated his daughters as equals, speaking to them about the horrors of slavery.

Josephine married George Butler, a scholar and clergyman, who also treated her as an equal, fully supporting her campaigns. Her work forced her to speak against the mindset and actions common to men of her time. She would later say, It seems strange that I should have been engaged in taking up the cudgel against men when my father, brothers, husband and sons have all been so good. Perhaps it was her knowledge that men could treat women with respect that spurred her desire for change.

More importantly, Butler based her actions on Jesus himself. In his tender and respectful attitudes toward women, including prostitutes, she saw a different way to view womanhood and redemption. When confronting the idea that there were women not worth saving, she wrote that such an opinion was heathenism, and that this judgment can only be seen in its true colours by setting it side by side with the example and character of Christ.  Were any beings in human shape not worth saving in his estimation? She was able to stand firm against a roar of opposition because her actions were rooted deeply in her faith in Christ and the redemptive worth he offered every person.

Tempered by Suffering

However, knowledge came with a cost. Author Helen Mathers discusses the personal cost Butler suffered in her book, Patron Saint of Prostitutes: Josephine Butler and a Victorian Scandal. At the age of 17, she struggled almost frantically in trying to reconcile Gods goodness with the pain and suffering of the world. These were questions that she would slowly work through in the years to come.

Eventually, she felt those dark times were God preparing her for a work that brought her face-to-face with unimaginable suffering. Instead of viewing her love for the oppressed as opposed to Gods harsh will, she felt that her love was as a drop of water to the ocean of His love. She would write that sorrow is with me still, the enduring companion of my life. ... But I have found the door of hope.

As a young wife, her husband worked at Oxford. Here she became aware of how deeply the double standards for men and women were ingrained. A respected Oxford don seduced and impregnated a very young girl. Left destitute and in a desperate situation, the girl killed her newborn and was put in jail. Butler was enraged.

With insight far ahead of her time, she recognized that the don, an older man with power, connections, and authority, had taken advantage of the girl in every way. The girls crime was undeniable, but Butler understood that it was a crime of desperation. She was angered that the girl was punished while the man who created the situation retained public respect and faced no consequences. Once the girl had completed her jail time, the Butlers hired her as a servant, rescuing her from a dark future.

Josephines life might have continued with occasional, though significant acts of kindness, but the course of her life was changed when her daughter tragically died after falling off of a banister while playing with her brothers. Butlers immense pain drove her to eventually find some pain keener than my ownto meet with people more unhappy than myself.  My sole wish was to plunge into the heart of some human misery, and to say (as I now knew I could) to afflicted people, I understand. I, too, have suffered.

This path quickly brought her to women considered scum and subhuman: prostitutes. She soon understood how painful their lives were and how desperate many were for help. She responded with compassion and treated them with respect. She invited many to live with hera surprising venture for a woman with teenage sons. She began opening up small hospitals for prostitutes who were seriously ill, and homes to house them while they learned skills to use in a new career. Later she would help rescue women who were tricked into prostitution.

Advocate for Miserable Creatures

In entering their world, she was also forced to face laws that undermined the freedom and rights of women. Police, under the Contagious Diseases Acts (CD Acts), were rounding up prostitutes or suspected prostitutes and making them sign a register forever publicly linking them to that work. This made leaving prostitution almost impossible. Even worse, they were forced to endure regular painful internal examinations and treatments. Those found infected with a sexually transmitted disease were jailed until they were deemed cured.

The women shared horrific stories with Butler of brutal examinations that they felt were far more crushing than their sex work. Treatments were often excruciating and of uncertain value. Butler recognized that the CD Acts violated the constitution of England and treated women unequally, since men who used prostitutes would never be treated in the same way. Her long campaign to repeal the CD Acts began.

When Parliament argued to keep the CD Acts, it became clear how prostitutes were viewed by the majority of politicians. They wrote that prostitutes were miserable creatures who were mere masses of rottenness and vehicles of disease. Meanwhile, the men who used prostitutes were viewed as simply indulging a natural impulse.

Butler was convinced this double standard was evil and would later speak at universities, directly appealing to young men to consider a different course. She suggested that prostitutes were more virtuous than the men who used them because at least they werent leading a double life. She reminded them how Jesus had said that publicans and harlots enter the kingdom of heaven before you, and she pushed back on the idea that having sex with prostitutes wouldnt hurt their future marriages.

As she talked to prostitutes and visited brothels, she uncovered even more heinous abuse. She was shocked at how young many prostitutes were and alarmed when she found out that some had been forced into prostitution. The age of consent at the time was 13, and there were no laws to protect young women from being lured away to other countries under false pretenses, only to find themselves enslaved in a brothel. She called it white slavery and started calling for political change.

Again, some politicians opinions reflected common views at the time. When arguing about raising the age of consent to 16, members of parliament (MPs) asked their fellow lawmakers to consider their past actions and the possible future actions of their sons before criminalizing having sex with young girls. Some openly defended sexual access to working-class girls as a time honoured prerogative of gentlemen, as historian Judith Walkowitz has written.

Butler boldly spoke against such attitudes, calling out conservative MPs to face their hypocrisy. She once pithily called upon MPs opposing change to each contribute a daughter if prostitution was a necessity. Her comment was met with tremendous cheering at the conference she was speaking at. Its no wonder that she faced so much opposition. She was fearless in her criticism.

Relentless Voice of Change

Butler felt called by God to be a voice of change. She knew if Jesus was on her side that was all she needed. One of her famous sayings was God and one woman make a majority. She was a whirl of activity despite ongoing health issues. She would speak to crowds, meet with political leaders, church leaders, and society ladies. She helped found associations to repeal the CD Acts and would later help found an international association. She wrote pamphlets, using emotional appeals through retelling horrible stories of injustice or using cool logic to refute arguments against her. She would spend hours every day writing letters to friends and supporters, as well as those who still needed to be convinced of the worth of the cause.

As England spent years arguing over the CD Acts, Butler broadened her horizons. England was basing its decisions on other countries who were controlling prostitutes through government programs. To challenge England, she needed to better understand what was happening elsewhere. Here she would only find more suffering.

She would visit brothels where women and many young girls were kept locked up in dirty rooms, hardly ever seeing sunlight. In Geneva, she saw prostitutes who were not only living in an earthly hell but were told that they must not be of the elect and so were destined for an eternal hell. Butler saw young children in cages who would eventually be given to brothel owners to use. She was escorted through a brothel in Paris that housed an estimated 400 children between the ages of 5 and 11an experience so traumatizing that she would write that she dared not recall the horrors she had glimpsed.

Despite the hardship of uncovering so much torment, Butler did obtain the salient information she needed. She was able to further fight the CD Acts in England, as well as spark international attention, by exposing the ineffectiveness of government programs in controlling sexually transmitted disease. She would point to the many abuses of women happening under the legal care of the state, how life expectancy for prostitutes was short, with children often living only two years once in a brothel. As she further honed her arguments, she was able to continue to gather support for repealing the CD Acts.

In the end, her influence was vast; the CD Acts were finally repealed, the age of consent was raised to 16, and laws were put into place to protect English girls from being kidnapped into prostitution. She was influential in advocating for womens education and the right to the vote, and she confronted harmful social norms of her time. Her fingerprints are to be found all over the social change that happened during her lifetime.

It is not hard to see why Josephine Butler was called the most distinguished Englishwoman of the nineteenth century. Her work put into motion change that benefits us to this day. Sadly, Butler is largely forgotten today because, in the words of Elizabeth Longford, she did not champion the right women. The discomfort many of her contemporaries felt over her work to help prostitutes continues on in our history books. Butler accepted this fate because she never sought fame for herself.

Instead, the words of her friend James Stuart are true: the world as a whole is better because she lived; and the seed that she has sown can never die. That seed still needs to be nurtured as many of her descriptions of child and adult sex slavery could easily describe the realities of many trapped in prostitution today. While she accomplished much with her life, there is still work to be done, and a new generation of advocates are rising up to take up the cause. To them, I leave one of her favorite catch phrases, borrowed from the abolition movement: I will be as harsh as truth and as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest  and I will be heard.

Kimi Harris writes at kimiharris.com and is the wife of worship leader and music teacher Joel Harris. They live in the beautiful Northwest with their three girls and a cat.Yesterday, Andrew Brunsons daughter described Turkeys two-year persecution of the American pastor to delegates at the US State Departments first-ever religious freedom ministerial.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of my father and what an example of Christs love he continues to be to the world as he is wrongly imprisoned for his faith, said Jacqueline Funari, who is still waiting for my father-daughter dance because Brunsons long imprisonment caused him to miss her wedding.

Today, a Turkish court ruled that Brunson should be moved from Kiriklar prison to house arrest at his home in Turkey. The good news, though partial, drew a standing ovation from the ministerial delegates.

A leader of the Turkish Protestant Church confirmed the news to World Watch Monitor. The same source confirmed that Brunsons wife is on her way to the prison to meet her husband, and to ensure the prosecutors order to release him into house arrest is quickly delivered to the prison.

Aykan Erdemir, a former member of Turkeys parliament and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, confirmed that Brunson will remain in pre-trial detention until the next hearing, scheduled for October 12.

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), which represents Brunsons family, also confirmed Brunsons release to his Turkish home.

This is a critical first step that we believe will result in the freedom of Pastor Brunson so he can return to the United States and be reunited with his family, stated Jay Sekulow, ACLJ chief counsel. [President Donald Trump] has played a critical role in securing the freedom of Pastor Brunson. We have worked closely with the President on this matter and are grateful for his efforts. We look forward to the ultimate release of Pastor Brunson.

Brunson, a Christian pastor from North Carolina who has lived in Turkey for 23 years, has been on trial for terrorism and spying charges. He is accused of having links with the Fethullah Gulen movement, which the Ankara government blames for the failed July 2016 coup attempt, and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Turkish Hurriyet Daily Newsreported that the Second High Penal Court in the western province of Izmir ruled on July 25 to move Brunson from prison to house arrest by imposing a judicial control decision.

Hurriyet said the court had also banned the pastor from leaving Turkey.

The same penal court had rejected an appeal to release Brunson in its latest hearing last week, July 18, and decided to continue listening to the testimonies of witnesses in the next hearing. Western observers in the court told World Watch Monitor there was not one piece of evidence so far produced to indicate the pastor is guilty of any crime, and that his trial is for political expediency. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Gulen to be extradited back to Turkey (the cleric is currently living in the US) to stand trial for the 2016 coup.

Brunson was detained nearly two years ago, in October 2016, and faces up to 35 years in prison if found guilty. The pastor has completely denied all the charges, calling them shameful and disgusting.

According to Reuters, Brunson, the pastor of a small church in Izmir, told the court at last weeks hearing: It is really hard to stay in jail and be separated from my wife and children.

There is no concrete evidence against me, Reuters quoted Brunson as saying. The disciples of Jesus suffered in his name; now it is my turn. I am an innocent man on all these charges. I reject them. I know why I am here. I am here to suffer in Jesus name.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) vice chair Kristina Arriaga attended the hearing in Aliaga, near Izmir. USCIRF condemned the charges against Brunson and called for his immediate release. On July 18, Arriaga wrote:

The government of Turkey continues to make a mockery of justice in its treatment of Pastor Brunson. Today I was hoping to see the judge order his complete release and put an end to the miscarriage of justice that Pastor Brunsons entire case represents. Turkish authorities still have not provided one good reason for depriving Pastor Brunson of his liberties. The Trump Administration and the Congress should continue to apply pressure, including using targeted sanctions against officials connected to this case, until Pastor Brunson is released.

Persecuted for no reason

The court last week heard testimony from four witnesses: three for the prosecution, and one for the defense. For nearly two hours, former church members testified against Brunson, making vague, unsubstantiated accusations. When the judge asked Brunson to reply to the witnesses, he said: My faith teaches me to forgive, so I forgive those who testified against me.

Brunsons lawyers request for his first choice defense witness was refused, since the witness himself was also implicated in the indictment; so another witness, less familiar with Brunson, had to appear instead.

Brunsons supporters were disappointed at the outcome, having been encouraged by recent talks at the diplomatic level.

Reuters cited Philip Kosnett, the US charge daffaires for Turkey, as saying he saw nothing to indicate Brunson had committed any crime.

In April, US President Donald Trump tweeted in support of Brunson, saying he was being persecuted in Turkey for no reason.

In June, the US Senate passed a measure that forbids the sale of American-made F-15 Joint Strike fighter jets to Turkey, partly because of Brunsons detention.

Still, the Al-Monitor news website noted that Trump and Erdogan were all smiles as they were photographed exchanging fist bumps at the recent NATO summit in Brussels. That meeting was followed by a 15-minute phone call on July 16, during which Brunsons case was discussed, according to Sabah, a Turkish pro-government daily newspaper.

Aykan Erdemir had told Al-Monitor after the hearing: Both the pro-government media and the prosecutors office have dug themselves deep in framing Brunson as a terrorist, and it will be a challenge for them to pull a U-turn.

He added that Erdogans nationalist allies have a proven track record of anti-Christian and anti-missionary prejudice and would not welcome Brunsons release.

In late June, two US senators, Republican Lindsey Graham and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, met Erdogan in Ankara after visiting Brunson in prison in Aliaga. The pair called for the US to enact sanctions against Turkey over Brunsons detention. According to Al-Monitor, the senators had not minced their words in their meeting with Erdogan, and believed he may not have been properly briefed about the seriousness of the sanctions, but he now understood.

After Brunsons previous hearing, in Aliaga in May, USCIRF vice chair Sandra Jolley released a scathing appraisal of the way the proceedings were carried out. After attending the 11-hour session, during which the judge dismissed all of Brunsons witnesses, she stated:

We leave the courthouse with serious concerns. Todays 11 hours of proceedings were dominated by wild conspiracies, tortured logic, and secret witnesses, but no real evidence to speak of. Upon these rests a mans life. Worse still, the judges decision at the conclusion of todays hearing to dismiss all of the witnesses called by Pastor Brunsons defense without listening to a single minute of their testimony is simply unconscionable.

The pastor and his Turkish lawyer finally learned the specific allegations on which his charges of alleged espionage and terrorism are based, most of them from secret witnesses, only a month or so before his first court hearing. The prosecution has demanded 35 years in prison if Brunson is convicted of these charges, all of which he denied in a six-hour defense before Izmirs Second Criminal Court at his hearing on April 16.

Bill Campbell, pastor of Hendersonville (N.C.) Presbyterian Church, attended the hearing in Aliaga.

As usual, there was much spurious testimony against Andrew, Campbell said via encrypted text message following adjournment of the proceedings. Andrews testimony was absolutely powerful. He presented the gospel with confidence and defended himself with boldness. The court allowed for the first time a favourable witness, and one who was to speak against him actually spoke in Andrews favour. It felt like they had decided the outcome before the trial.

The Christian agency Middle East Concern reported that observers at the court hearings have commented on the fantastical nature of the claims.

According to Brunsons lawyer, Ismail Cem Halavurt, he should have been granted conditional release as the investigation is now complete. The head judge, however, continued to refuse to acquit Andrew or grant him conditional release. This was allegedly due to the serious nature of terrorism charges and the fact that hes an American citizen.

A timeline of Andrew Brunsons saga:Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Earlier this month, Episcopal Church leaders, at a meeting in Houston, Texas, decided same-sex couples will now be allowed to marry in any diocese, even if the local bishop morally objects to gay nuptials.

Currently, Albany, New York; Central Florida; Dallas, Texas; Florida; North Dakota; Springfield, Illinois; Tennessee; and the Virgin Islands  eight of the United States' 101 Episcopal dioceses  do not authorize same-sex marriages.

Jeff Walton, an Anglican program director for the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said, "I think this is going to perpetuate the Episcopal Church's decline that has already been underway for close to 20 years now, and we'll probably see some people walking away from the Episcopal Church as a result of this."

Surely, the state of true religion is in a bad way. Our nation is also far removed from its moral underpinnings. As goes the church, so goes the country.

Today it's much like the situation described in Hosea chapter 4, where the prophet said that God had "a case against" Israel. He said there was "no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!" Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and sexual immorality were rampant; one act of bloodshed followed another.

The Lord laid much of the blame on the priests and the prophets of that era, charging that they were destroying the nation, their "mother." God rejected them because they were derelict in their duty to him, failing to teach the "knowledge" of God to their posterity. Instead, they encouraged others to sin to satisfy their own appetites. Through sexual indulgence and insobriety, sanctioned by religion, the people had lost their ability to think straight.

Doesn't that sound a lot like America today?

May God forgive me for my many shortfalls. But when I survey the landscape of church leadership, most apparent are the Bishops of spiritual and sexual idolatry, Vicars of socialism in their religious garb, Ministers that resemble snake oil salesman more than prophets of God, and Clergy who pretentiously claim some kind of higher spirituality by refusing to address morally reprehensible social and political practices.

It is the latter, which may bear the greatest guilt.

Recently, I came across a Facebook post by a fellow minister. He put up a video clip of a prominent evangelical preacher claiming the church's "mandate is not political, it's not social, and it's not economic." The church is only to focus on the proclamation of the Gospel, he said.

I agree the Gospel is central. The transformation of the inner man by repentance from sin and faith in Christ alone as redeemer is the hope of the world. Nevertheless, a faith that doesn't translate into good works is dead. The reality of a faith which supposedly makes all things new in the believer, but never makes anything new in the world is suspect.

In the comments section of the Facebook post, author and former president of American Vision, Gary DeMar beautifully responded:

"Very poor reasoning. [The Evangelical Preacher] mentions economics. You shall not steal. Does this mean Christians are to remain silent when theft is taking place? If the government decides to tax us at 80 percent, we shouldn't get involved and say no to theft? We should remain silent when the government neglects the sixth commandment when it legalized murdering unborn babies? Christians should have remained silent when men and women were kidnapped and sold into slavery? What should Christians do when they see unrighteousness? Would you intervene if you saw someone stealing from your neighbor, kidnapping your neighbor? But if a government did these things, you would remain silent and not get involved?"

I get amused at pastors who avoid preaching on social and political issues altogether, arguing, "Well, we don't want to antagonize the people we want to win to Christ." As if telling an individual he's filthy, undone, a dirty rotten sinner who has so miserably failed that even his best behavior can't win him the favor of God  a central tenant of the Gospel  doesn't antagonize. The offense of the Gospel is that each of us is so deeply steeped in sin it took the brutal and bloody crucifixion of the sinless Son of God to save us. No man can be found unless he gets lost first.

And we don't want to antagonize them?

No faithful pastor, preacher or evangelist, who is sensitive, would want to agitate purposely. Still, every faithful clergyman, who truly proclaims God's Word, also understands that if he does his job, offenses will come.

W. Philip Keller once wrote that the role of the minister is not an easy assignment.

"It calls for enormous faith in God as well as great fortitude in personal conduct. At times it may make one exceedingly unpopular with certain elements in society. But this should be so. If the truth is proclaimed with the unction of God's Spirit, it is bound to polarize people," said Keller.

If the pulpit is weak, the church will be weak. If the church is weak, righteousness will fail, and so will the nation.

As goes the church, so goes the country.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

A recent article on Newsmax broke the news that according to a new study, the Shroud of Turin was deemed a fake, most likely originated in medieval times. According to a recent study, scientists used bloodstain pattern analysis (BPA) by placing tubes into the wrists of a volunteer to simulate the dripping of blood as well as in the place where the sword entered the side. The experiment did not match the blood stains as found on the cloth. The author of the article appeals to a 1988 carbon dating test that dated the cloth to medieval times.

I am quite skeptical of this test. I feel there are several reasons to doubt the findings and the conclusions in the article. First, my understanding is that droplets of blood were used in this test. Small droplets of blood do not account for the massive amount of blood that would have been lost after Jesus would have been taken from the cross. Second, the Shroud, if authentic, would not have necessarily remained in one position. It may have been that the body would have been repositioned while the blood was pouring out of the body to until it reached its final resting state. It seems that this study does not take that into account. Third, the stains on the cloth have been deemed as authentic AB hemoglobin. Thus, even if the flow of blood did not match identically to the recent test, that the stains are indeed blood, old blood at that, is nearly indisputable. Fourth, the article seems to hold to the authenticity of the 1988 carbon testing. The problem is that the fiber of the Shroud used for testing came from the patchwork used to repair the Shroud in a fire that took place in medieval times. Particles of pollen found on the cloth originate in areas found in and around Jerusalem. Many of those pollen particles date to the first-century.

I do think that the evidence for the Shroud is far more convincing than evidence against the Shroud. However, I want to emphasize that the resurrection of Jesus is not determined by the Shroud's authenticity. The Shroud would certainly help, but it is not necessary or essential to the case for the resurrection's historicity. So, how can we know that the resurrection of Jesus took place? Some have proposed an acronym RISEN to explain the evidence for the resurrection. Using the acronym, I'm going to change the terms slightly from what others have used to emphasize the historical evidences for Jesus's resurrection. I cannot give a full treatment of each detail, but I will provide a brief summary of each.

R Records of Jesus's Death and Resurrection. Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection are recorded not only in the Gospels, but there are records indicating this occurrence in the numerous writings of the early church fathers, as well as extra-biblical Roman and Jewish writings. The number and date of these testimonies bode well for the resurrection's historicity.

I Irksome Details. Some of the details of Jesus's resurrection are quite irksome and embarrassing for the early church. Why in the world would the early church have claimed Mary Magdalene as the first witness of Jesus's resurrection when a woman's testimony was not held in high-esteem? To make matters worse, Mary Magdalene could have had something of a bad past history. This is just the tip of the iceberg considering the irksome details for the early church in Jesus's resurrection event. Embarrassing details add to an event's historicity.

S Sightings of Jesus's Appearance. Jesus was not seen just once. He was seen numerous times over the course of a forty-day period. 1 Cor. 15 notes that over 500 people saw Jesus at one time. Seeing that the early creed in 1 Corinthians does not contain any female witnesses and the fact that only men were counted in public gatherings, I think the number is probably more likely around 2,000 that saw Jesus alive at one time. The number of eyewitnesses add to the depth of the resurrection's historicity.

E Early Confessions and Creeds. The New Testament is caulked full of early creeds and confessions. Some of the more prominent entries include 1 Cor. 15:3-9; Rom. 10:9; Col. 1:15-20; Phil. 2:5-11; among many others. Some of these creeds and formulations date to within 3-5 months of Jesus's resurrection (esp. 1 Cor. 15:3-9). These early creeds make the inclusion of legendary details concerning Jesus's resurrection highly unlikely as these were the teachings held by the earliest eyewitnesses.

N Newfound Faith. The transformation of Paul of Tarsus and James the brother of Jesus is legendary. These two individuals were against Jesus and his ministry until they witnessed the risen Jesus. In addition, the church changed some details of their worship in a radical fashion after Jesus's resurrection. They switched their day of worship from the Sabbath day to Sunday to commemorate Jesus's resurrection. Such transformations shout that something extraordinary took place. That extraordinary event was Jesus's resurrection.

So, while I am not convinced by the recent test contra the Shroud, I also hold that the resurrection of Jesus stands strong historically with or without the Shroud. No matter what the final verdict turns out to be concerning the Shroud, the resurrection of Jesus is, as far as I am concerned, historically verifiable.

 2018. BellatorChristi.com.

Brian G. Chilton is the founder of BellatorChristi.com and is the host of The Bellator Christi Podcast. He received his Master of Divinity in Theology from Liberty University (with high distinction); his Bachelor of Science in Religious Studies and Philosophy from Gardner-Webb University (with honors); and received certification in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Brian is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Theology and Apologetics at Liberty University. Brian has been in the ministry for over 15 years and serves as a pastor in northwestern North Carolina.home World Archbishop of Canterbury hosts dialogue with Muslims on how to prevent community conflict

The Archbishop of Canterbury recently hosted the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Shaykh Dr Ahmad al-Tayyeb, to discuss how religious leaders can help faith communities address conflict and help their societies to thrive.

The visit celebrated the Emerging Peacemakers Forum, which brought together 50 young Christians and Muslims from around the world to learn about peacebuilding, reconciliation and leadership.

The bishop of Egypt, Mouneer Anis, was present throughout the visit, as were Anglican leaders from places including Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Holy Land.

The Emerging Peacemakers Forum emerged from a meeting between the Archbishop and the Grand Imam in Abu Dhabi in 2016.

The Forum, which was held over nine days at Churchill College, Cambridge, and Lambeth Palace, gave the young leaders a chance to explore what makes their faiths unique and different while working side by side to address conflict across barriers of faith and culture.

It was run in partnership with the Rose Castle Foundation, Al-Azhar University, the University of Cambridge Inter-faith Programme and the Council of Muslim Elders.

Archbishop Justin Welby said: 'The impact of these young peacemakers coming together has been even greater than we hoped. It's been full of creative ideas. They have demonstrated their deep commitment to peacemaking in teams a of going together and building their capacity to be ambassadors for peace.

'The days a we hope and pray a of the great World Wars may have passed, but all over the world there are conflicts of extreme severity. It doesn't matter if you're a conflict where one person is killed or where 1,000 are killed. If you are the relative of that one person, for you that is the ultimate conflict.

'And so we need ambassadors for peace, at community, regional, national and international level. And they are coming up with ideas that I think will be literally world-changing. We are looking forward to seeing how this all develops.'

He told the participants: 'Don't let this investment of creative time and energy be wasted. Plan today for how what you have learned will be embedded, deepened, developed, over the years to come.'

As part of the visit, the two leaders hosted a dialogue meeting between Anglican and Al-Azhar delegations. The Anglican delegation included Bishop Mouneer, Bishop Humphrie Peters (Pakistan), Moderator Paul Sarker (Bangladesh), Dean Hosam Naoum (Jerusalem) and Bishop of London Sarah Mullally.

They also met with the Christian Muslim Forum to hear about their work and relations between Christians and Muslims in the UK.

The Archbishop and the Grand Imam were then shown the Birmingham Qur'an, one of the oldest surviving Islamic manuscripts, by experts from the University of Birmingham.

The formal relationship between the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Grand Imam of al-Azhar was officially established in 2002 after the events of 9/11 in 2001.

Archbishop George Carey and His Eminence Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawy believed it was important to encourage learning and dialogue between the Christian and Muslim faiths.

It was agreed that there would be an annual meeting for the principals, alternating between London and Cairo, followed by a meeting of a delegation from the Anglican Communion and from Al-Azhar to discuss a topic of common interest and concern.

Source: Christian Todayhome US Pro-life group files lawsuit after advert is blocked by bus company

A pro-life group has filed a lawsuit against an Indiana-based bus company for barring an ad featuring three images of a baby due to it being labeled "political."

Tippecanoe County Right to Life filed the suit against the Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation, also called CityBus, on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

TC Right to Life is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal firm that has won multiple cases at the United States Supreme Court level.

The lawsuit argued that by rejecting the ad, CityBus engaged in "government discrimination against protected speech due to the viewpoint expressed."

"By rejecting TCRTL's educational ad while accepting other educational ads and ads that are explicitly political, CityBus violated TCRTL's constitutional rights and discriminated against TCRTL by denying it equal access to CityBus's advertising forum," read the complaint.

"TCRTL asks this Court to require CityBus to allow TCRTL's educational ad on its buses and to declare that certain provisions of CityBus's Advertising Policy violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments."

ADF Legal Counsel Samuel Green said in a statement released Monday that while an "unborn baby's humanity is a scientific fact" nevertheless "even debatable 'political viewpoints' can't be silenced by government officials whenever they dislike them."

"When the government creates an opportunity for advertising on countless topics, it cannot unreasonably single out life-affirming, educational messages for censorship. The First Amendment protects freedom of speech for all people, regardless of their beliefs," stated Green.

The ad in question features the photos of three babies, two of which are in the womb while the other is a newborn. The first photo, a sonogram, included the statement "Me." The second had the caption "Me, again" while the newborn photo had the caption "Still Me."

In April, the Canadian city of Lethbridge decided to remove pro-life ads on their buses, benches, and bus shelters that included the messages "Preborn Babies Feel Pain" and "Say No to Abortion."

According to a Canadian Press story, the Lethbridge bus ads were removed following an outcry from the local community, including over 100 emails.

"After reviewing comments from city residents, the City of Lethbridge has made an administrative decision to remove pro-life advertisement from Lethbridge Transit buses, shelters and benches due to adverse community reaction," stated the City of Lethbridge on Twitter.

Source: The Christian PostHeartbroken family of Christian writer Wynter Evans Pitts asks for prayers after she dies aged 38

The family of Christian writer Wynter Evans Pitts have expressed their sorrow after her sudden death at the age of 38.

Pitts passed away on Tuesday night, just a few days after attending the Reel Girls Conference for Christian teenagers in Texas over the weekend, where she was one of the main speakers.

She is survived by her husband Jonathan Pitts and their four daughters. Her husband broke the news of her passing in a post on her Instagram account in which he asked for prayers for the family and especially their daughters.

'Last night, Wynter was taken from us suddenly but we know that she was only taken into the hands of the God that she loves with her whole heart,' he said.

'Though we grieve, we are doing so with hope. And though we hurt, her life and her legacy will continue on through each one of us, especially my four daughters. Thank you for your prayers, specifically for them.'

Their eldest daughter, Alena, starred in the Christian movie 'War Room' alongside Priscilla Shirer. She paid tribute to her mother in a touching Instagram post in which she said that 'comfort seems far' but added that she was holding onto her belief in a 'big God.'

She said: 'I serve a big God. Obstacles will be thrown at me but my God is still there. He knows what he's doing and he's got a plan. I say this not by sheer will but through faith.

'In the moment, his plan may seem outrageous and I may not understand. I continue to ask myself why me. Why did He choose my family. But I'm reminded He's in control.'

Pitts was the founder of the 'For Girls Like You' magazine and had written several devotional books aimed at Christian girls.

Her uncle is pastor, speaker and writer Dr Tony Evans. He described her in a tribute on Instagram as a 'beautiful mother' and 'devoted wife' who 'loved her family with a deep commitment.'

Her funeral has been planned for 5pm CDT on 28 July at the Oaks Church in Red Oak, Texas.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to support the family financially.Methodists slam Home Secretary Sajid Javid on terrorist death penalty

The Methodist Church has criticised the home secretary's decision to allow two Islamic State fighters to be sent to America where they may face the death penalty.

According to the president and vice-president of the Methodist Conference, Rev Michaela Youngson and Bala Gnanaprasagam, Britain's opposition to the death penalty should 'remain steadfast'.

Alexanda Kotey and Shafee El-Sheikh were members of the notorious 'Beatles' group believed to have been responsible for killing a number of Western captives by beheading.

The British government has had a long-standing policy of seeking assurances from countries with the death penalty that they will not seek to enact it before handing over suspects who might face it.

However, Sajid Javid wrote to US attorney-general Jeff Sessions: 'I am of the view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought.'

He adds: 'As you are aware, it is the long-held position of the UK to seek death penalty assurances, and our decision in this case does not reflect a change in our policy on assistance in US death penalty cases generally, nor the UK government's stance on the global abolition of the death penalty.'

The pair are currently held by Kurdish Syrian forces.

The Methodist statement reiterates the Church's opposition to the death penalty, saying: 'Judicial systems are inherently a human construction with frailties. The death penalty does not allow for miscarriages of justice nor the possibility of repentance.'

It says Kotey's and El-Sheikh's alleged crimes are 'abhorrent'. However, it continues: 'Yet even in the most difficult of cases, our nation's commitment to human rights and dignity  including opposition to the death penalty - should remain steadfast. Terrorists who have shown no respect for the law should nevertheless be treated with equal rights under the law. We cannot assist prosecutions that might end with an order for execution.

'Governments need to act together to counter terrorism. Those responsible for terrorist offences must be brought to justice, but we must not allow their evil actions and warped ideology to undermine the value our nation places on human rights for all.'One Piece Chapter 913: Does Basil Hawkins want to fight Luffy or unite with him?

One Piece chapter 912 finished off on a cliffhanger but we won't find out how the plot proceeds from there just yet as chapter 913 is not coming out this week.

Instead of rolling out on July 30, it will instead be coming out on August 6 so we'll have to wait a little while longer to get some answers to the plot twists of the last episode.

Most importantly, we want to know where things are going with Basil Hawkins and whether he is wanting to fight against Luffy and Zoro or instead fight with them.

Basil Hawkins certainly looked like he wanted a fight with Luffy and Zoro in the last episode but it could go either way. Followers of One Piece seem to be leaning towards him forming an alliance with the two. That would make sense as they are much stronger than him so he would be taking on an awful lot if he were going to try and fight them.

Luffy and Zoro want to bring down Kaido and put an end to all of the pain they caused in Wano so there's a good chance they would be open to another fighter on their side in their efforts.

So it might just be that Hawkins was simply trying to make it look like he wanted a fight with Luffy and Zoro when actually he's as much interesting in ending Kaido's power as they are.

Last time round we also saw more of Tama and how difficult it is for her knowing that Ace will not come back to Wano. But her immediate wellbeing is not good as she has a fever and needs to get some medical treatment quickly. Otakukart speculates that she might have been poisoned. Whichever way, she needs to get treatment fast.

We'll find out what happens with her and Basil Hawkins when One Piece chapter 913 comes out on August 6. It sounds like it's going to be a pretty exciting episode. Until it comes out, we just have to enjoy all the speculation and theories!Pastor John Hagee sees 'the favor of God' in President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Pastor John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, said Monday at the organization's 2018 summit in Washington, D.C., that "the favor of God" is with the organization due to U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials in the United States and Israel.

"Never in our history have we had [God's] favor at the same time with the president of the United States; with the prime minister of Israel; with the secretary of state; with the ambassador to Israel or the ambassador from Israel," Hagee said as part of his speech, which was uploaded on Facebook.

"All of those people are suddenly helping us achieve our objectives because the favor of God is with this organization," he added.

The megachurch pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, hailed Trump for deciding to support Israel, such as in his controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem this year, which angered many in the Islamic world supporting Palestine.

Hagee said that Christians United for Israel, with over 4.3 million members, continues to be successful in the fight against anti-Semitism, because it refuses to compromise on its ideals, something which he also vowed never to do.

In another statement, Hagee said that the organization had issues with President Barack Obama.

"For years CUFI was at odds with the previous administration on a wide range of issues, but since President Trump took office we've seen one victory after another," the pastor stated.

"We are here in Washington advocating for issues that will strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship during a time when the White House is keenly interested in doing just that."

The multi-day conference featured speeches from various U.S. politicians, lawmakers, and allies of Israel, including a video message by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which Hagee himself introduced.

Netanyahu thanked American Christians for their support of Israel, and also outlined the severe persecution believers face around the world.

"Sadly, some countries don't respect Christians. In Iran, Christians are brutally persecuted," Netanyahu said.

"Christian pastors have spent years in prison. This is an issue which I believe should concern everyone. And let me say clearly: Israel stands in complete solidarity with persecuted Christians in Iran," he added.

The Israeli prime minister said that the world can no longer be silent about the severe human rights abuses and religious freedom violations going on in Iran, affecting Christians, Bahai'is, journalists, students, and many other groups.

"Iran's regime is a point of darkness in the Middle East. Israel is a point of light," Netanyahu continued.

He claimed that Israel is "the only country for thousands of miles where Christians not only survive, they thrive."

"Christian holy sites are protected and Christian worship is done without fear. Christians have achieved incredible heights in Israel," he said.

Hagee is a long-time supporter of Trump, and in 2016 said that the billionaire businessman won the presidential election because of his backing of Israel.

"I have been asked 101 times plus, 'Why do you think Donald Trump won?' and I have an immediate answer: 'Because he was the only one that was blessing Israel,'" the pastor said in a video at the time.

"The evangelicals flooded the voting booths this time like in no time in our history," he added.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post and is re-published here with permissionPoliticians' call to change Northern Ireland's abortion law is deeply misguided

There has been some publicity recently for a letter organised by Labour MP Stella Creasy and signed by British and Irish parliamentarians. The letter calls for the issue of abortion in Northern Ireland to be discussed at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC), taking place today (Wednesday, July 25).

In fact, the letter takes an extreme position when it comes to abortion. It argues for the repeal of sections 58 and 59 of the Offences Against the Persons Act 1861. This is a truly extraordinary proposal. It would mean abortion on demand anywhere, at any time effectively right up until birth. It would leave Northern Ireland with a more permissive legal framework on abortion than Great Britain has under the '67 Act.

Put simply, in my view the letter is deeply flawed, misguided and constitutionally inappropriate.

Quite apart from the harm that would result from the decriminalisation of abortion, it is surely fundamentally wrong for politicians who do not even represent Northern Ireland to be seeking to impose their own views on its people. It is striking that only a handful of Northern Irish Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) signed Ms Creasy's letter. The clear majority of those who signed do not even represent the people of Northern Ireland.

The letter also demonstrates a failure to properly understand the real purpose of the BIIGC. The conference was never intended to function as a space for discussing devolved responsibilities. It was set up to discuss non-devolved issues related to Northern Ireland as well as wider areas of mutual concern between the British and Irish governments. Since 2009, abortion has come under the remit of the Assembly in NI. Therefore it is quite clear the BIIGC has no mandate whatsoever for discussing Northern Ireland abortion law.

Arguments in the letter that the recent Supreme Court judgment on abortion in Northern Ireland requires action to be taken are also seriously misguided. There's been a lot of entirely false spin about this. I was actually in the Supreme Court for the judgment. So, let me set the record straight.

First, the case brought by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was dismissed because the body had no standing to challenge Northern Ireland's abortion law. Second, the judgment also made it clear that there is no human right to abortion. Even if you leave this aside, the additional comments on NI's current law in respect to fatal foetal abnormality and sexual crime were non-binding comments. This means that they place absolutely no obligation to alter the current abortion law.

Even more staggering is the way the letter attempts to hijack the spirit of the Belfast Agreement as justification for its extreme calls. The Belfast Agreement created a power-sharing arrangement and ushered in a new era in the governance of Northern Ireland. It was designed to bring an end to direct rule from Westminster. To cite the Belfast Agreement as part of an argument that involves calling for MPs at Westminster to try and remove Sections 58 and 59 is simply astonishing and far from evidencing the spirit of the Belfast Agreement, completely contradicts it.

The bottom line is this: democracy and devolution must be respected. The proper place, indeed the only place for a debate on abortion law in NI is the Northern Ireland Assembly. If Westminster MPs try and impose change, the consequences for devolution would be felt across the whole of the UK. Of course, I recognise that the Assembly is not sitting now. But that does not excuse taking advantage of the political complexities in Northern Ireland to try and impose abortion law change on the people of NI.

I wonder how many of the signatories have considered that out of all the parliaments and assemblies of the UK, the one where abortion law was most recently debated was the Northern Ireland Assembly back in 2016? So, the current NI abortion law has the most recent democratic mandate out of any part of the UK.

Finally, we should consider the fact that the current law on abortion in Northern Ireland saves lives. Research from Both Lives Matter has shown that there are 100,000 people across the province alive today because it never adopted the 1967 Abortion Act. By contrast, across the rest of the UK, since 1967 there have been 9 million abortions. So, who should be learning from whom?

Parliamentarians at Westminster would do well to consider the message from seven incredible women from Northern Ireland who came to Westminster last week, each from a different background and together representing all parts of society. Each spoke clearly about why all these calls for Westminster to force abortion law change on Northern Ireland are so wrong and misplaced. Their message was simple but clear: respect the people, respect devolution and respect the rights of both the mother and the unborn baby.

If only more parliamentarians were willing to listen.

Nola Leach is the chief executive of Christian Action Research and Education (CARE)Rohingya refugees face 'ticking time-bomb' of imminent cyclone

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees, who fled across the border into Bangladesh to avoid violence in neighbouring Myanmar, are preparing for the new threat of a cyclone, according to Christian relief agency, Medair.

Cyclones have killed hundreds along Bangladesh's coast in the Bay of Bengal, where Medair has been working with Rohingya refugees since September 2017.

Since then, 800,000 Rohingya have been living in refugee camps in the Bangladesh coastal city of Cox's Bazar and are completely dependent on emergency aid for food and other life needs.

'There are refugees living in places that cannot withstand a cyclone,' according to Neil Casey, Director of Medair UK. 'Cyclones hit at the beginning or end of July. The refugees are living with a ticking time bomb.

'"It's hard to know what impact the cyclone will have on the lives of the refugees  it all depends on its intensity, and then the potential problems that follow, such as the outbreak of diseases like cholera.'

Cyclones have hit Cox's Bazar four times in the last five years and the area is known to be vulnerable to violent weather. Bangladesh regularly evacuates people from coastal areas; in 2017 up to a million people were evacuated to avoid the worst effects of Cyclone Mora. Low lying areas of Cox's Bazar are particularly vulnerable. Cyclone Sidr reportedly killed 600 people when it smashed into the Bangladesh coast in 2007.

The Rohingya are living in densely populated camps in tents made of bamboo and thin plastic. The shelters 'are very unlikely to survive a cyclone', according to the UN. Many live in inaccessible areas. Medair works with refugees in a part of the camp called Thangkhali, which is not accessible by vehicles. Refugees have to walk for two hours from the road to their tents.

Merel Verbeek, a Dutch national working for Medair, said women are particularly vulnerable. 'They are anxious, and malnourished  all the food goes to their children. They have a hard time. But they are happy that they are alive and have escaped the violence in Myanmar.'

Cyclones arrive in Bangladesh during the rainy season, which brings threats of its own.

'There have been many landslides in the camps, and the temporary shelters made of bamboo and thin plastic, which were handed out when the refugees first arrived, collapsed as a result. Also, any trees left in the camps get uprooted and fall over,' says Neil Casey. 'To make matters worse, any wood that is left is too wet to for the firewood the refugees need for cooking.'

Medair hands out shelter packages, including ropes to tie down the tents and give them some protection from the cyclone's winds. The organisation started its preparations ahead of the rainy season.

'During the monsoons we built two nutrition clinics, with a third opening soon. These are located in the dense, hard-to-reach parts of the camp, and offer additional food rations for about 15,000 pregnant and lactating women, and children under five,' said Casey.

Medair's team focuses on malnutrition and shelter. Since its arrival in Cox's Bazar in September 2017, it has installed drainage, paths, and retaining walls, distributed 4,505 shelter kits, and provided general health services.Russell Crowe sings Christian hymn 'In the Sweet By and By' to his Instagram followers

Actor Russell Crowe surprised his 600,000 followers on Instagram Sunday when he sang a Christian hymn as he combed his beard.

Known for his roles in "Gladiator," "A Beautiful Mind" and the 2012 musical "Les Miserables," the Oscar Award-winning actor received praise from his fans who complemented his singing voice even while they were stunned by his new look.

"In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore," he sang repeatedly on Instagram as he combed through his bushy beard and hair.

The 1868 Christian hymn "Sweet By and By" became immensely popular in the 19th century. Since then, the song has been covered by noteworthy performers such as Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Cash, Glen Campbell, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn and Kenny Rogers, just to name a few. Now, Crowe can be loosely added to that list of popular performers.

The 54-year-old actor groomed his long hair as he casually sang the tune. "The actor prepares," he captioned the video.

Apart from starring in Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" in 2014, which received a lot of criticism from Christians, Crowe isn't known for sharing religious messages.

The actor prepares A post shared by Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) on Jul 22, 2018 at 5:06pm PDT

Crowe, however, has said in the past that he's been interested in religion since he was a child. He told People magazine that he once explored Scientology after spending time with Tom Cruise over 17 years ago but that didn't stick.

In 2007, Crowe, who had never been baptized, told the Men's Journal that he was planning to be baptized in a Byzantine chapel he built on his ranch in Australia.

"It is consecrated and everything," he said.

He added that his son, Charlie, was baptized in that very chapel and that he planned to be next alongside his other son, Tennyson.

"I do believe there are more important things than what is in the mind of a man," he went on to say of his beliefs. "There is something much bigger that drives us all. I'm willing to take that leap of faith."

This article was originally published in The Christian Post and is re-published here with permissionResurrecting Eastern Europes forgotten artists

Young collectors Artur Trawinski and Irmina Nazar are on a mission to bring the forgotten painters and sculptors of Eastern Europe to the attention of the wider world. Timothy OGrady visited them at their home outside Wroclaw in PolandHouston Community College is launching a series of workshops and a boot camp to better serve Latino entrepreneurs. The trainings will be in Spanish, a first for the school.

Theres not a lot of these workshops in Spanish, said Brenda Rios, director of entrepreneurship for HCCs Southeast College. I know the demand is there.

The first workshop from the Office of Entrepreneurship Initiatives will be Thursday,

Rios cited several Latino immigrants in Houston who had owned small businesses in their home countries but face an extra challenge starting over here due to language barriers and the nuances of local regulations. With the rate of new Latino-owned businesses exceeding the U.S. Latino population growth, she said, reaching these entrepreneurs in their preferred language is essential for helping them open and then scale up.

A 2017 Stanford Graduate School of Business study found that net 1 million new Latino-owned businesses launch every five years, but only a few exceed $1 million in annual revenue. Lack of awareness and limited access to loans and other financial resources often are cited as the leading obstacles.

Laura Murillo, president and CEO of the Houston Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said the number of Latino entrepreneurs is only beginning to grow. Most of them are first- and second-generation business owners.

The Stanford study found that a quarter of in four Latinos in the U.S. are millennials, and a third are younger than 18.

Were a very young community, Murillo said.

Its important to continue fostering business owners and potential entrepreneurs within this community through workshops like those soon to start at HCC, Murillo said.

More Information HCC workshop for entrepreneurs What : Crea el plan para tu negocio /Create your business plan workshop, presented in Spanish by Houston Community College's Office of Entrepreneurship Initiatives When : 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday Where : 6815 Rustic, Workforce Building I (Room 316) Cost : $10 donation accepted Registration : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/seminario-en-espanol-crea-el-plan-para-tu-negocio-tickets-47423735670 See More Collapse

The Thursday workshop focuses on creating a business plan. Its geared toward those who have an idea for a business but dont know where to start. Rios said existing business owners also can participate, especially if they are considering applying for loans.

Future workshops, also to be held on the last Thursday of the month, will look at networking opportunities and how to build and manage a blog. The events lead up to a two-day boot camp offering advice on finances, management and everything in between. One day will feature sessions in English, the other in Spanish.

Donations of $10 will be accepted for participation in the workshops, and the proceeds will go toward prizes handed out at the boot camp.

ileana.najarro@chron.com

twitter.com/IleanaNajarroCooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que, a legendary Llano barbecue joint which has been expanding statewide, will open an outpost near Katy Mills mall.

"The property has been acquired, and we are mostly done with the permits," confirmed co-owner and managing partner Barry Cooper. "Construction should start soon." An opening date has not yet been set. It will be located at 24205 Katy Freeway.

Cooper's is famous for its direct-heat "flat" barbecue pits in which coals are placed in the bottom of the pit and the meat is cooked on grates directly above.

FIRST LOOK: Go inside the newest bar opening up in Montrose

This technique is known as "cowboy style" or "West Texas style" barbecue and differs from the "offset" cooking techniques used by most Central Texas barbecue joints. Contemporary rotisserie-style pits are also used.

The ordering process at Cooper's is also different than the typical barbecue joint. Guests approach the open barbecue pits where all the prepared meats are spread out on trays. Guests point to the meats they want which are then placed on a paper-lined cafeteria tray. You then go inside to order sides (they're known for their free cup of beans), drinks, etc.

All traditional barbecue meats such as brisket, ribs, and sausage are available. Cabrito (goat) is also sometimes available. Cooper's is known as the "Home of the Big Chop" referring to a 2-inch thick, bone-in pork chop that is the centerpiece of the menu.

George Cooper opened the original Cooper's Pit Bar-B-Q in Mason, Texas in 1953. His son, Tommy, then opened an outpost in Llano in 1964 and called it Cooper's Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que. Llano businessman Terry Wootan took over that location in 1986 and bought it in 1992. Terry's son, Jason, is also now an owner of that location.

Terry Wootan later partnered with Barry Cooper, Tommy's son, to open additional franchised locations in New Braunfels and Fort Worth, and they are opening the location in Katy. Barry Cooper will be the managing partner of the Katy location.

J.C. Reid is the Chronicle's barbecue columnist. He also is the co-host of BBQ State of Mind, a podcast covering barbecue news from Texas and around the world, and co-founder of the Houston Barbecue Festival. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook, or send barbecue tips and questions to jcreid@jcreidtx.com.A Houston mother will service a three-year probated sentence in a child abuse case where jurors determined she failed to provide medical care to her special-needs son, but acquitted her on another abuse charge.

Harris County prosecutors had accused Arlene Alaniz, 28, of abusing her son, including hitting him and withholding food by not replacing a feeding tube.Today is Thursday, July 26, the 207th day of 2018. There are 158 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On July 26, 2002, the Republican-led House voted, 295-132, to create an enormous Homeland Security Department in the biggest government reorganization in decades.

On this date:

1775: The Continental Congress established a Post Office and appointed Benjamin Franklin its Postmaster-General.

1847: The western African country of Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, declared its independence.

1908: U.S. Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte ordered creation of a force of special agents that was a forerunner of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1945: The Potsdam Declaration warned Imperial Japan to unconditionally surrender, or face prompt and utter destruction. Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's prime minister after his Conservatives were soundly defeated by the Labour Party; Clement Attlee succeeded him.

1947: President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act, which reorganized America's armed forces as the National Military Establishment and created the Central Intelligence Agency.

1952: Argentina's first lady, Eva Peron, died in Buenos Aires at age 33. King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

1953: Fidel Castro began his revolt against Fulgencio Batista with an unsuccessful attack on an army barracks in eastern Cuba. (Castro ousted Batista in 1959.)

1986: Islamic radicals in Lebanon released the Rev. Lawrence Martin Jenco, an American hostage held for nearly 19 months. American statesman W. Averell Harriman died in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., at age 94.

1990: President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act.

2006: In a dramatic turnaround from her first murder trial, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Houston jury in the bathtub drownings of her five children; she was committed to a state mental hospital. (Yates had initially been found guilty of murder, but had her conviction overturned.)

2016: Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major political party at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

2008: At least 22 small bombs exploded in Ahmadabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, killing 58 people.

2013: Ariel Castro, the man who'd imprisoned three women in his Cleveland home, subjecting them to a decade of rapes and beatings, pleaded guilty to 937 counts in a deal to avoid the death penalty. (Castro later committed suicide in prison.) A gunman went on a rampage at a Hialeah, Fla., apartment complex, killing six people before being shot dead by police. Billionaire Texas oilman George P. Mitchell, considered the father of fracking, died at his home in Galveston; he was 94. JJ Cale, 74, whose best songs like After Midnight and Cocaine were towering hits for other artists, died in La Jolla, Calif.

2017: President Donald Trump announced on Twitter that he will not accept or allow transgender people to serve in the U.S. military. (The pronouncement was blocked by legal challenges, and the Pentagon began allowing transgender recruits to seek enlistment on January 1.) A thrill ride broke apart at the Ohio State Fair, killing an 18-year-old high school student and injuring seven others. Child killer Ronald Phillips was put to death in Ohio's first execution in 3 years; they'd been put on hold amid an uproar over the reliability of the lethal injection drugs used by the state. Actress June Foray, the voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel and hundreds of other cartoon characters, died in a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 99.Houston Food Banks f.r.e.s.h. young professionals, in partnership with IKEA Houston, are presenting Hunger Dinner, an event to present the reality of hunger, on Sept. 13.

The event is a fundraiser for Houston Food Bank, the nations largest Feeding American food bank, which serves 18 counties in Southeast Texas through a network of 600 hunger relief charities and partner distribution organizations, we are able to service 18 counties in the Southeast Texas area.Top OPEC member Saudi Arabia is shipping U.S. crude produced in the Gulf of Mexico to Asia at a time when No. 1 buyer China is snubbing American cargoes.

The trading unit of state-run Saudi Aramco sold about 1 million barrels of U.S. Mars crude to Taiwanese refiner Formosa Petrochemical Corp. for delivery in September-October, according to traders with knowledge of the matter. That follows shipments of oil pumped at shale fields to markets such as South Korea, as the kingdom seeks to capitalize on an American boom thats threatened the share of its own supply in Asia.

RELATED: Will hype on Chinese and Indian energy demand prove out?

The latest cargo stands out from previously reported deals because Mars is a crude grade thats of the so-called medium-sour variety, which typically has a higher sulfur content than sweet supply from shale fields.

Additionally, the cargo is headed for Taiwan when Chinas crude purchases from the U.S. are threatened by proposed tariffs as part of an escalating trade war between the Asian nation and America.

The Middle East kingdom, the worlds biggest exporter, is attempting to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the U.S. oil boom that has transformed the flow of cargoes in the global market. However, the shipments tend to fluctuate depending on the price spread between Americas benchmark West Texas Intermediate and global marker Brent.

When WTI fell to more than $10 a barrel below Brent back in May, China bought more than 13 million barrels of American oil, up from just over 4 million barrels a year earlier. As that spread has narrowed over the past month, Sinopec -- the Asian nations biggest refiner -- has shunned U.S. shipments. The gap between the markers was at about $5 on Wednesday.

LITIGATION: OPEC seeking legal strategy as U.S. pushes anti-cartel bill

Saudi Aramco has started delivering a type of oil known as condensate from the U.S. Eagle Ford basin to markets in the east such as South Korea, and has also shipped the supply to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., a company official had said last month.

While shipping U.S. crude, Saudi Arabia is also boosting domestic output in the kingdom, following a deal between OPEC and allies including Russia to ease production curbs that were aimed at shrinking a global glut. The Middle East nation has pledged to fill potential supply gaps in the market, as concerns over a crunch emerged after American President Donald Trump decided to renew sanctions on Iran and curb the OPEC members oil exports.

--With assistance from Sheela Tobben.

2018 Bloomberg L.P.If you listen to the oil executives much of the that industry's future is riding on rising energy demand in the developing world, where electrification rates are low and income is rising.

But some new analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration could throw some cold water on those forecasts.

Even as population and economies grow in India and Africa, per capita energy consumption is expected to stay relatively low - far below rates seen in the United States and Europe and even China - EIA said. At the same time growth in China's energy consumption is slowing, a trend that could intensify if the Chinese economy slows and the government in Beijing shifts away from a manufacturing economy towards a more consumer-orientated economy.

RELATED STORY: As Trump talks down oil prices, industry shrugs

Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington Tuesday, Anvita Arora, director of transport and urban infrastructures at the Saudi think tank King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, said because of the relative scarcity in India, society operated far more efficiently than in the Western world.

People walk or take public transport instead of driving. Air conditioning is rare, despite the high temperatures. Small businesses operate "informally," often without electricity.

"They bypass a lot of the wastage that would occur in a higher consumption economy," Avora said.

If those trends in India and China hold true, that could spell trouble for oil companies looking to expand demand in those markets.

Exxon Mobil, for one, is forecasting China and India will contribute about 45 percent of the growth in energy demand between now and 2040.

Not everyone is convinced that habits won't change in the developing world.

Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, pointed out that while much is made of Africans using personal solar panels to charge their cell phones, the infrastructure needed to maintain cell phone networks still requires a large electricity source.

"Consumption patterns tend to be fairly consistent everywhere," he said. "As income hits a certain level, people buy cars and air conditioners."At this point, Mission: Impossible is Mission: Predictable.

Every few summers or so, Tom Cruise will be sprinting like an Olympic runner from a house fire and driving like Mad Max on the Autobahn  not to mention jumping, running, climbing, leaping and falling in what has to be the worlds worst CrossFit class  in pursuit of some evil low-life trying to destroy the world. But, as the saying goes, it never gets old and thats certainly the case with the sixth installment, Mission: Impossible  Fallout, which isnt the best film in the franchise, but is still breezily entertaining nonetheless.

This time around, IMF (Impossible Missions Force) master agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is going up against a splinter group of his old foes in The Syndicate and his previous adversary, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). They want to blow up a good part of the world with some compact nuclear devices designed by a scientist (Kristoffer Joner) who has turned to the dark side.

RANKED: Tom Cruise's best, worst movies, according to rottentomatoes.com

After mistakenly letting the bad guys get their hands on the goods, Hunt has to get them back. Meanwhile, IMF rival and suspicious CIA chief, Erica Sloan (Angela Bassett), and her brick-wall of an agent, August Walker (Henry Cavill), want to solve the case their way, as does MI:6 agent Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who has her particular reasons for getting in on the action. Then theres the duplicitous White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) and her gang of Euro henchmen.

ALL TOO REAL: 'Unfriended: Dark Web' begs the question, would you watch your friends die?

So, Hunt and his devoted team  Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames)  are taking incoming threats from all directions as they punch and shoot their way through another set of exotic locales (Paris, London and Kashmir). Directed and written by Christopher McQuarrie, who did the last film, Mission: Impossible  Rogue Nation, Fallout is at its best when it has its pedal to the metal, careening through narrow European byways by car, motorcycle and truck, helicoptering through narrow mountain passes, skydiving through a lightning storm and fighting in a preposterously clean and (mostly) empty bathroom at a French techno club.

The particulars of the story dont matter; exposition is not your friend in a Mission: Impossible movie. McQuarrie knows that and, after an initial blur of information and whos who, he gets down to fight-and-flight basics.

More Information "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" Rated PG-13: for violence and strong language Running time: 147 minutes 3.5 out of 5 stars See More Collapse

MORE ON THE BIG SCREEN: 'Blindspotting' is the fruit of a working friendship

In fact, this is the first time that a director from a previous Impossible film has been called back for duty and he proves this was a wise choice with the aforementioned brawl in the stalls. Cruise, Cavill and stunt performer/actor Liang Yang, as one of the guys theyre pursuing, are electric in this spectacular feat of choreography, a wall-breaking, three-way beatdown of epic proportions. Fans of The Raid and similar head-slamming Asian action movies will be impressed.

The only problem is the scene is way too short. In a film just shy of two-and-a-half hours, they could have spent a few more minutes going mano a mano in the mens room and the movie would have been none the worse for it.

But thats a minor complaint. Big picture: Cruise once again shows that being 56-years-old is no barrier to being an action hero while the movie itself proves that being a summer blockbuster cash cow that doesnt veer wildly from the unexpected doesnt have to be uninspired. Mission accomplished.

cary.darling@chron.comShawn Bermudez, a prolific bar owner and restaurateur, wearily (and perhaps falsely) suggests that his latest venture, Present Company, might be the last bar he opens in Houston.

"I'm leaning toward it," Bermudez, who owns Boondocks, Pistolero's, Stone's Throw and The Burger Joint, said on the eve of opening Present Company to the public.

If it's the last bar he has in him, Bermudez is going out with a bang.

Present Company, the bar/restaurant that literally has sprung from the ashes of the former Royal Oak on Westheimer, opens to the public today. It has been nearly two years since Bermudez closed Royal Oak to re-concept the space at 1318 Westheimer in Montrose  a redesign and expansion that was supposed to open in October 2017. But a fire on Sept. 9 damaged the structure which was only weeks away from its debut.

There were no injuries, but it pushed back the project significantly  a major disappointment for Bermudez. At the time, he stated: "The hardest part of this whole fiasco is having to wait that much longer to show everyone what I've been working on for the last 15 months. I always aim to please and I promise this place will not disappoint."

The drinking and dining public can now decide that for itself. Bermudez named his new bar to suggest being "present" with the people you're with, in an age where constant cell phone use and social media engagement are ubiquitous.

Ironically, Bermudez has created his own multi-layered distractions that might keep you from your present company.

Let's start with the design: color heaped on textures piled on motifs swirled in kitsch (with a measure of pixie dust for the emoji age). Look above at the brightly colored birdcages holding twinkling chandeliers. Wall surfaces cannot stand to be without lush floral painting and embellishment; wallpaper themes run from pink flamingos and palm fronds that would make Florida envious to retro iconography such as "Barbarella" and Ziggy Stardust-era Bowie. Bright velvets and floral chintz cover chairs, sofas and sectional furniture. Neon messages do a slow burn on the brain. It's a joyous, somewhat unprincipled whimsy run amok.

Bermudez has built generous patios on two levels and populated them with the same ferocious energy of his frenzied interiors. Only greener. The patios feature verdant walls of live plants (we're told more than 8,000), potted palm trees, and structured bookcase like installments holding potted plants. Everywhere sherbet colors clash with Starburst candy hues. It's safe to say there are no other patios in Houston that look like Present Company's.

Or sound like them. Bermudez has curated his own playlist that is achingly "present" in classic familiarity and party-starting splendor.

The Present Company team  Bermudez, managing partner Michael Leitner and beverage director Rex Nielsen  hopes to ensure that the drinks/food/hospitality are just as inviting as the design.

The cocktail menu has a similar unicorn charm, including drinks such as the Stranger Danger (watermelon vodka, lime juice, honeysuckle liqueur and watermelon-kiwi soda served in a slim LaCroix Sparkling Water can); The Whispering Eye (blanco tequila, ginger liqueur, lavender syrup and a house-made butterfly pea elixir); Plan Bee (bourbon, Italian liqueur, fresh honey and jalapeno); and Once Bitten (gin, grapefruit liqueur, hibiscus syrup and orange bitters) and its answer cocktail Twice Shy (coconut water rum, Falernum and pineapple juice).

Matthew Pak, chef/partner of The Burger Joint, was tapped to create the inaugural menu of crowd-pleasing bar foods such as wings, nachos, queso fries, pork belly bites and green chili macaroni and cheese. There are more substantial salads, burgers and pizzas, too.

Bermudez said every detail of Present Company has been considered to provide customers with the one thing you can't have too much in life: "It's a simple, three-letter word: FUN."

Present Company, 1318 Westheimer, 281-974-4752; presentcompanyhtx.com. Open Monday and Tuesday 3 p.m. to midnight; Wednesday and Thursday 3 p.m. to 2 a.m.; Friday noon to 2 a.m.; Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to midnight.

Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Follow him on the podcast BBQ State of Mind to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture.Fort Bend County Jail

A Rosenberg man who attacked and raped a woman three years ago, and whose tongue was bitten off by the victim during the attack, was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced this month to six years in prison.

Sylvester Blackmon, 39, saw the victim at a Fort Bend County bar on Nov. 29, 2015, and asked her for a ride to his friend's house, the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.Texans Can Academies hope to help their students facing depression, high stress and other issues by providing a 24/7 confidential counseling hotline and access to free off-campus counseling appointments.

The new program began May 1 for the network of 13 charter schools in Houston, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio. Their three area campuses are located in southwest Houston at 9745 Bissonnet, in north Houston at 3401 Hardy, and by Hobby Airport at 9020 Gulf Freeway.

Chief of Schools James Ponce said even prior to the new program, the 13 schools had worked in their own ways to assist students with their personal and mental health problems.

We were offering social services, counseling, paying for health services and more on a campus-by-campus basis. We didnt have a district-wide system to offer mental health services to all of our students at all of our schools, Ponce said. We already were addressing the need for mental health services to our kids, but not on a 24-hour basis and not to the same level at each campus.

Ponce enlisted the help of Paul Fleming, president of Student Assistance Programs & Training Services (SAP / TS), LLC, who then designed the pilot program for the high school students. Fleming said the business is modeled after his experience with employee assistance programs, which allow working adults the ability to make a make a phone call anytime to talk through their issues and also schedule appointments with counselors.

Students will be able to call the Texans Can Academy hotline when they are in need of someone to listen or help them work through their issues, Fleming said.

The hotline, really a crisis intervention service, immediately connects a troubled student with an experienced clinician (psychologist or masters level therapist) to talk through their problem, provide comfort and direction and motivate them to accept counseling through the program, he said.

Fleming said a big part of the new program is the off-campus counseling appointments students in need will receive. The students can have three appointments for each problem in their lives, and Fleming said family members can be included in the counseling if family relationships are part of the issue.

Ponce said Texans Can Academies recognized the need to help their students cope with lifes problems, especially those at their Houston campuses following last years hurricane, so that they focus on their education.

We know that many of our students live very stressful lives, Ponce said. We had a lot of students at our three Houston campuses greatly affected by Hurricane Harvey last year and saw how that trauma affected them. We are about removing barriers to education and have always viewed this as one we needed to act on.

According to Ponce, the program will cost Texans Can Academies $1.13 a month per student. He said the cost will be worth it to see the success of the students, many of whom would not be able to afford the services otherwise.

Mental health has a stigma to it, and it is expensive and hard to find the help you need, Ponce said. If our kids can call someone 24 hours a day, seven days a week and talk privately through their problems, they will feel better about themselves and be more prepared for their school day.

For more information about Texans Can Academies, vist https://www.texanscan.org/.

tracy.maness@hcnonline.comTwo and a half months after police raided a private residential treatment center for girls in Willis, Child Protective Services remove girls from Care Cottage North.

County Attorney J.D. Lambright said the last girl from the north facility was moved July 13. Care Cottage South remains open with about 25 girls still residing at the facility.

This is not the result of any court order, Lambright said adding CPS officials made the decision following the raid. CPS started seeing the (extent) of the problems there.

PAST COVERAGE: CPS director testifies before judge in Care Cottage case

Lambright said he did have concerns about the south facility remaining open but said CPS officials are still present at the facility.

Thats a huge success, Lambright said of the closure.

CPS officials could not be reached before press time.

The Care Cottage facilities, which housed more than 50 girls placed by state child care workers in rural Willis, remains under investigation for alleged sexual and physical abuse. The investigation started after officials with the Willis Independent School District contacted Lambright to report numerous incidents involving girls who lived at the facility and attended classes in the district.

Willis Superintendent Tim Harkrider said he was relieved to hear one of the facilities was closed.

We are happy, Harkrider said Wednesday. Our concern has always been the welfare of the girls and to know they are moved to different facilities our hope is they will be taken care of and provided the counseling they need. We hope the best for them.

Chief of Special Crimes with the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office Tyler Dunman echoed Harkrider.

We are pleased to hear the news of the north location shutting down, he said.

Criminal investigation

Three staff members are facing felony abuse charges including allegedly choking one young girl and breaking the arm of a second

Cottage Care staff members Hiram Thigpen, 41, of Houston, and ex-staffer Jasmin Sabrna Lyons, 23, of Huntsville, were arrested June 12. A third staff member, Jada Thompson, 22 of Huntsville is charged with felony injury to a child, and was arrested June 14.

Thigpen has been charged with a third degree felony of injury to a child, while Lyons is facing a third degree felony charge of injury to a disabled individual. Thigpen is being held on a $25,000 bail and Lyons was released after posting a $50,000 bond late Tuesday.

Lyons left the facility in June but it was unclear if Thigpen and Thompson are still employed with Care Cottage.

The allegations

According to the arrest affidavits, on Oct. 10, 2017, Lyons allegedly injured a 14-year-old autistic girl by grabbing and twisting her arm. It wasnt until several weeks later that the girl received medical care after the girls mother intervened and took her to a doctor where she learned her daughters arm was broken, the affidavit states.

On Feb. 27, Thompson allegedly grabbed a 13-year-old girl by the neck impeding her breathing and blood circulation by applying pressure. The girl, the court documents state, told authorities Thompson choked her because she would not be quiet. The girl also alleged other girls at the facility has been restrained and hit on by staff.

On April 11, Thigpen allegedly grabbed and threw a 13-year-old girl at the facility to the floor. He allegedly put his knee on the girls neck affecting her breathing and blood circulation by applying pressure because he believed the girl was lying about taking a shower before going to school, the affidavit states.

School district concerns

Lambright said he was alerted by Harkrider of conditions at the facilities in April after school officials made dozens of complaints to CPS officials regarding the care and treatment of the girls, he noted.

The sworn statement from an investigator used to obtain the search warrant that was executed May 16 at the facilities outlined allegations reported by residents to Willis ISD officials and others concerning abuse and neglect, including leaving students unattended and staff parties involving alcohol.

The investigator said some girls in the residential facility had been injured while being restrained and that others were hog-tied by staff members and placed face down. Others girls were injured after trying to escape by jumping out of a second-floor window that was not repaired.

At least three staff members are accused of having sexual relations with girls in their care, according to the sworn statement.

The Care Cottage facilities, owned by Howard and Tabitha Taylor, are operated by HTK Care Foundation Inc., which is also registered to the Taylors.

The nonprofit foundation that operates the homes receives up to $435 per day per resident to provide care. The foundations annual report in 2016 listed income of $1.1 million and expenses of $1.1 million, with the Taylors each drawing salaries of $80,000.Harris County Flood Control District officials and volunteers are preparing to return to the northwest Houston area Tuesday for one of their final flood bond program community input meetings.

The meeting is for Little Cypress Creek watershed residents to learn about the proposed flood mitigation projects in their area. It is to be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Richard and Meg Weekley Community Center at 8440 Greenhouse Road in Cypress.

The Little Cypress Creek watershed has a drainage area of about 50 square miles and a Harris County population of almost 30,000.

According to Matt Zeve, flood control district operations director, the watershed still has a large percentage of land thats relatively undeveloped.

What were trying to do is plan ahead for development that will happen, Zeve said.

The proposed projects for this watershed, such as home buyouts and drainage projects, add up to about $186 million in local and federally matched grants.

However, the bulk of that sum is slated to contribute to the Little Cypress Creek Frontier Program project implementation, which includes nine detention basins.

More Information Are you registered to vote? According to the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector website, those who wish to vote in a county election must be registered to vote at least 30 days before the election date. For this election, that would be by tomorrow: July 26. To check if you're registered to vote, visit www.hctax.net/Voter/Registration or https://teamrv-mvp.sos.texas.gov/MVP/mvp.do. For voting locations, visit http://harrisvotes.org/. See More Collapse

Those basins are to be designed, constructed and maintained to provide detention in the case of future development. Theyre partially financed by the flood control district and partially financed by developers.

Developers pay a $4,000-per-acre fee to develop in the watershed service area, therefore participating in the land acquisition and stormwater detention basin construction process.

Land does not get cheaper, and they dont make more of it. If we can use bond funding, we can move ahead right away with acquiring land as soon as possible, Zeve said.

Zeve said there is to be flood detention impact to Cypress Creek as well, as the watersheds are connected.

The group Coalition to Stop the Flooding of Cypress Creek, led by Barbara Cobaugh, recommended that the Frontier Project be completed.

Cobaugh continues to hold information meetings for neighborhood representatives in the Cypress Creek watershed who are curious about bond projects.

We understand that while the bond may not be everything we want it to be, its better than nothing. Maybe it doesnt have as many projects as wed like to see along Cypress Creek for the amount of flooding in this area, but by the same token, if we dont support it at all, itll be very bad, Cobaugh said.

Paul Eschenfelder, who leads a similar group  Cypress Creek Association-Stop the Flooding  said he agreed.

Wed be a lot better with the bond than without it, Eschenfelder said.

Eschenfelders group also plans to hold seminar on flooding at noon Aug. 15 at John Wesley United Methodist Church. It is open to the public.

Zeve said that those who live in the Cypress Creek watershed are encouraged to attend the Little Cypress Creek meeting July 31 if they have questions or want to continue speaking to flood control district representatives.

We will have all the same materials and maps we had at the Cypress Creek meeting, in addition to the ones on Little Cypress Creek, Zeve said.

Flood control district officials plan to release a list of final projects toward the end of next week.

There have been almost 20 projects added to the initial list of 150 for the county, including a $50 million project to restore channel conveyance capacity in Cypress Creek.

Early voting on the $2.5 billion flood bond proposal begins Aug. 8, while the election is to be held Aug. 25.With early voting right around the corner  the polls open Aug. 8 for the countys upcoming $2.5 billion bond  the Harris County Flood Control District highlighted flood control projects in the Luce Bayou watershed on Monday at the May Community Center in Huffman.

Only three local projects and one storm repair project from the Luce Bayou watershed have been put on the list for projects to be considered for funding by the multi-billion dollar bond.

Luce Bayou is located in the far northeast corner of Harris County and drains into the east fork for the San Jacinto River, the flood districts website states. The watershed extends through Liberty County and into San Jacinto County with its headwaters located in the Sam Houston National Forest.

Every single channel in Harris County at one time or another has experienced flooding, HCFCD Environmental Chief Glenn Laird said. Its just a matter of where the storms go and how severe they are.

Local projects for Luce Bayou are:

Right of way acquisition, design and construction of general drainage improvements in the Luce Bayou watershed to investigate flooding problems and evaluate potential solutions to flooding problems to reduce the risk of flooding in the watershed.

Cost: $10 million

Luce Bayou floodplain right of way acquisition to preserve channel conveyance and/or to restore natural floodplains in areas subject to frequent flooding.

Cost: $10 million

Planning, right of way acquisition, design and construction of general drainage improvements in the Luce Bayou watershed to investigate flooding problems and evaluate potential solutions to flooding problems to reduce risk of flooding in the watershed.

Cost: $500,000

We set the money aside because we dont know exactly where the major problems are, Laid said. First part of what that money is going to go for is to do a study to determine where the greatest needs are and begin buying right away and actually doing work on it.

Laird said if the bond election passes then the county has to decide on what flood mitigation projects to begin.

I cant say exactly but probably the studies will not begin until sometime late this year because whats going to happen is if (the bond) passes then a decision has got to be made by the Harris County Budget Office on how much of the $2.5 billion in bonds will be sold at the beginning and when that sale will occur. Then we will have money for the first batch of studies and projects at that point, Laird said.

HCFCD has had these meetings all over the county to get community input on current proposed projects and add more projects to the list.

Rob Lazaro, HCFCD communication officer said their communication department meets with their engineering department on a weekly basis to determine what projects can be done.

We meet with our engineers as well as area municipalities to look at the whole drainage system as a whole and what makes sense, Lazaro said. Depending on what stage of the project life cycle its in, if weve studied it before or if we have a general understanding of what the cost might be  if were just starting the study process from scratch, it will be a very rough estimate.

Residents can submit projects ideas to the HCFCD website.

Projects suggested for Luce Bayou will only be implemented within Harris County.

HCFCD Director of Operations Matt Zeve said the flood district will coordinate with the engineering department in Liberty County to look at Luce Bayou as a whole. He said there wasnt much commentary about Luce Bayou before since its a lightly populated area.

Zeve said after Hurricane Harvey surrounding counties realize drainage is a regional issue and work together to come up with a solution.

We want to look at the whole watershed. We dont want to just look at whats in Harris County because theres so much area from Liberty County that comes into Harris County, Zeve said. We have a relationship a with Liberty County, well set up a coordination meeting and work with them to address drainage issues in Harris County and work with them on drainage issues in Liberty County.

The deadline to submit project ideas to the Harris County Flood Control Disterict is August 3.

kaila.contreras@chron.comBOB OWEN, STAFF / SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

A second Texas prison corrections officer was treated Tuesday for heat-related illness, the latest toll in the triple-digit heat wave that baked inmates and guards alike in the state's 104 lock-ups.

As the temperatures rose, on Saturday an inmate at the Lane Murray prison in Gatesville was sickened even while sitting in one of the cooled respite areas, officials said. The next day, a corrections officer fell ill at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville.A Jordanian immigrant and fervent Muslim on trial for allegedly plotting two honor killings spent Wednesday denying any wrongdoing, admitting to numerous lies but explaining he did not remember the things he said when he was angry.

Ive said things that were untrue, but I havent told any lies to the jury, said Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, who spent almost an entire day on the witness stand in his capital murder trial.

The admission by the 60-year-old Irsan was one of many double-edged answers he used to defend himself against allegations that he stalked his adult daughter for more than a year in an elaborate scheme to kill the people who helped her convert to Christianity.

She caused a lot of pain to my family, Irsan said after he first denied, then acknowledged, that he called his daughter Black Widow and Bitch #2 after she ran away from home. I was angry. When I get angry I say things that sometimes I dont remember.

Testifying in a courtroom packed past capacity with observers, Irsan was the last witness in the five weeks of testimony. He faces the death penalty if he is convicted for the 2012 deaths of his son-in-law, Coty Beavers, and his daughters close friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh.

He flatly denied being involved with either shooting.

Irsans defense team vehemently disagreed with their clients decision to testify in his own defense, and two hearings were conducted to admonish Irsan before the trial judge.

Irsan, in more than 6 hours of testimony, seemed generally agitated and sometimes defiant as he lobbed answers at prosecutors.

Faith or heritage

The case, which spawned world-wide coverage when Irsan was arrested, has not focused on Islam or Irsans faith. Prosecutors have focused instead on his heritage as a Jordanian.

However, when he was questioned about his household rules, Irsan often said they were not his rules, but rather mandates of Islam.

Were Muslims, he said. And its very important that a girl remain a virgin. Thats how it is with all Muslims. Two billion Muslims will tell you: no sex before marriage.

On the stand, Irsan depicted himself as a devoted father who was upset when his 23-year-old daughter Nesreen ran away from home. She and her sister, Nadia, were in college together where Nesreen met her future husband Beavers and fell in love in 2011.

I was proud of them and I wanted them to be doctors, Irsan said of his daughters. I would swear on a stack of Bibles that they were good girls at the time.

Earlier in the trial, Nesreen Irsan testified she was forbidden to date Christians and her sister threatened to tell their father. She said she ran away from home and moved in with Beavers, but went to court to obtain a protective order to stop her family from harassing her.

During emotional testimony, Nesreen said her father had long threatened that if she dated a Christian, he would put a bullet between her eyes and the eyes of the man she loved.

Irsan admitted Wednesday that he continued to call his daughter and drive around the Beavers home, in violation of the protective order. He said he was worried she was on drugs and making bad decisions.

He said loved his 12 children and did everything he could to protect them.

I love them half to death, Irsan told jurors as he stroked his salt-and-pepper beard. I would do anything for them.

During cross-examination, special prosecutor Marie Primm got Irsan to acknowledge that Nesreen, his third daughter, was dubbed Bitch #2. His first daughter, Nesemah, was nicknamed Bitch #1 because she ran away from the home years earlier. Primm said Nesemah ran away to marry a man of whom Irsan did not approve.

Irsan denied that when Nesemah returned home to make amends, he took her to Jordan on false pretenses, drugged her and tried to drown her in a bathtub.

Personal background

Irsan opened his testimony with a meandering personal history of growing up in Jordan, coming to the United States in 1979 and marrying a Christian woman. The couple had four children.

In the 1990s, he returned to Jordan as a 34-year-old and married a 14-year-old, and they had eight children. That wife, Shmou Ali Alrawabdeh, now 40, is charged with murder and testified against Irsan.

Earlier, Alrawabdeh testified that she went with Irsan and their oldest son, Nasim Irsan, to a Galleria-area condominium to ambush the young medical researcher and activist. She identified Nasim as the triggerman in the shooting.

Asked about Bagherzadehs slaying in January 2012 near her parents home, Irsan said he had nothing to do with it.

When I saw what happened to her on the news, thats the first time I found out anything about her, he told the jury.

However, Irsan acknowledged that he spoke to the Iranian activist her on the phone before her death, but said he did not know who she was, other than a friend of his daughters.

He testified that they argued on the phone and he called her an Indian witch.

Other witnesses testified that he called her Iranian bitch, and put her on his hit list with the Beavers family and his daughter Nesreen.

During his testimony, Irsan worked to cast doubt on his son, Nasim, alleging his son was selling drugs and tried to poison him.

And were there several incidents? defense attorney Allen Tanner asked.

Incidents where Nasim tried to poison me with an overdose of my medicine, Irsan replied.

Nasim Irsan, 24, was also arrested in the two slayings and is in the Harris County jail on charges of capital murder.

Closing arguments in the trial, in state District Judge Jan Krockers court, are expected to start Thursday afternoon.

If convicted of capital murder, the trial would move to a punishment phase where Irsan would either be sentenced to life in prison without parole or the death penalty.

Brian.Rogers@chron.com

Twitter.com/brianjrogersA get together of high school friends from the Atascocita area turned tragic early Wednesday when two 16-year-old girls were killed in a car crash and the driver charged in their deaths.

The deaths of Salma Gomez and Chloe Robison, both students at Atascocita High School, sent shock waves throughout the northeast Harris County community. So did the arrest of their friend, 17-year-old Jaggar Clayton Smith, who authorities said was drunk when he crashed a speeding 2008 Nissan Altima in the 18300 block of Timber Forest

Smith has been charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter. He walked out of jail Wednesday afternoon after posting $60,000 bond, according to the Harris County District Clerk.

INITIAL REPORTS: 2 Atascocita H.S. girls killed in crash with 17-year-old, suspected drunk driver

Deputies said that Smith couldn't stay in a single lane and drove into the center median of the road, causing the vehicle to strike a tree and break in two. The front portion of the vehicle came to rest in the median, while the rear portion struck another tree in the median.

Robison, who was sitting the back right seat, died at the scene. Gomez later died from her injuries at Memorial Hermann Northeast.

Smith was taken to Houston Northwest Medical Center, where he was treated for his injuries. He was then arrested, officials said. His toxicology reports are not yet complete, so an official blood alcohol content level isn't officially ready for release, said Sr. Deputy Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

It is not yet known where the teens were coming from or where they were headed, Gilliland said.

Several friends of the three said Robison and Smith, a Kingwood High School student, were at a "get together" at Gomez's house. Other classmates were there as well, apparently a reunion of sorts after Gomez's quinceanera last spring.

Gomez posted to Snapchat an image of that get together. Several of her friends shared that image on Wednesday.

After that gathering, the teens, including Gomez, left for Lakeview Park, friends said.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is conducting an investigation as to whether alcohol was involved and where Smith obtained that alcohol, said spokesman Chris Porter. If a retailer is found to be involved, the commission could levy certain penalties. If the alcohol came from somewhere like a house party, any further action would rest on the sheriff's office or other police departments, Porter said.

All findings will be turned over to the proper law enforcement agencies, Porter said.

Last year, 61 people between the ages of 14 and 19 died in a DUI-related crash, according to data from the Texas Department of Transportation. Additionally, 24 drivers in that age group died in alcohol-related wrecks, the data shows.

All three of the teens were incoming juniors at Humble ISD schools, spokeswoman Jamie Mount said. Robison and Gomez attended Atascocita High School, and Smith attends Kingwood High School.

Their families declined to comment this morning.

In the hours after the deadly wreck, a steady stream of the victims' friends arrived at the crash site. Some were carrying flowers, and many were in tears mourning the deaths. As parents waited on the sidewalk, some of the teens knelt to pray and almost all hugged each other in mourning.

By the afternoon, almost 20 bouquets lined around a tree in the median, where the crash occurred.

One classmate, Camille Turk, said she looked up to Gomez, who was a close friend on the school's tennis team.

"She was amazingly daring and this vibrant life and so so gorgeous," Turk said. "And she cared and tried hard...We became close after she comforted me after we lost a tough [tennis] match."

Some classmates knew Robison and Gomez since entering Atascocita High School, others grew up with them since elementary.

"They were so funny, like not one time, every time I was around them you laugh, you smile, anything they just said was funny," incoming junior Halle Sonnier said.

Sonnier along with juniors Lauren Farrar, Grayson McMillan and Avery Wagnon all agreed the girls were the type of person who was reliable, who could lend a shoulder to cry on.

"They're brutally honest too. If you needed to hear the truth about something then they're going to tell you with your best interest how it is to benefit you. They were just good people," Sonnier added.

The four juniors said they haven't seen Robison or Gomez in a couple of weeks.

Wagnon and Farrar said they heard the news of the death of their friends through their parents shortly after it happened.

They also said they knew the driver and that he was also close friends with the victims.

They spoke of the his potential fate.

"It was just one mistake and he'll have to pay the consequence for it in the worst way unfortunately," Farrar said.

"He has to live with that," McMillan said.

They said they didn't know what the three friends would have been doing out around the time of the crash.

"We're all close. We're all in the same group of friends. These are our friends," Wagnon said.

The district is providing counseling support at Atascocita High School, 13300 Will Clayton Parkway, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and tomorrow.

"As soon as learned about this tragic situation, we put a plan in place to support any parent, student or staff member who is grieving," Mount said. "We are heartbroken by this loss and are providing support to anyone who needs it."

The Woodlands Church, across from the high school, has a regular service at 6 tonight. There will be time to reflect and pray for students and families affected by the crash. Doors will open at 5 p.m.

Atascocita High School has a place for students and faculty to drop off flowers and cards as well.

We encourage all to come to AHS to remember together, the school said in a tweet. No one is alone at a time like this.

In an email, Atascocita High School Principal Bill Daniels notified parents and staff members about the deaths.

"Grief is a deeply personal emotion," he said. "Your support will mean more than you can know to the families as they deal with this terrible loss. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers."

This story will be updated as details are released.

Editor's note: Officials originally identified the suspect as "Jarrad Clayton Smith." The story has since been updated to reflect the suspect's correct name, Jaggar.

Julian Gill is a digital reporter in Houston. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | julian.gill@chron.com

UPDATED: 11:44 a.m., July 28

With less than four months remaining before voters head to the polls, four members of The Woodlands Township have announced they are seeking re-election to the seven member board. One incumbent  township Director Bruce Rieser  has a challenger for the Position #4 seat on the board.

While the last township election saw little controversy and only one contested race, directors Bruce Rieser, Brian Boniface and John Anthony Brown as well as township board Chairman Gordy Bunch have already filed official paperwork seeking new two-year terms.

Rieser will be challenged in the election by Francis Frank Dargavage, who filed candidate papers by the end of the day on July 27. Dargavage did not respond to messages seeking comment on his Facebook profile.

Bunch issued a statement to supporters on Tuesday explaining why he is seeking re-election.

I have filed for re-election and hope to earn your support this Nov. 6, Bunch wrote. We are focused on protecting our hometown's live, work, play and pray culture established by George Mitchell 44 years ago. It is a honor to serve our hometown as its chairman. I am grateful for the board of birectors I serve with as each director contributes and serves on additional boards and committees. It is a shared responsibility among the seven Township wide elected directors and I could not volunteer without each of their contributions.

Brown said he is excited about the election and seeking another term.

I am humbled to serve as a representative for my community, Brown said in an email. It has been an amazing two years and I look forward to serving another two more.

Rieser also said he was looking forward to continuing to serve the community.

It has been my privilege to serve on the township board for the last two years. So much has been done during my first term, but there is still so much more to do, Rieser said in an email. I hope that I have demonstrated that the trust the residents invested in electing me in 2016 was well placed, and with their support I would be honored to serve a second term.

Boniface did not have any other comment on his bid for another term. He filed his official papers for candidacy on July 25.

The townships board is composed of seven elected members who serve two year terms and do not receive any compensation for their time or efforts. In 2017, three members of the board were up for re-election, with two incumbents  John McMullan and Ann Snyder  walking away with uncontested victories.

The third race in 2017 pitted incumbent Laura K. Fillault against challenger Carol Stromatt, with Stromatt emerging victorious. The race between the two women was not as close as some in the community thought it would be, with Stromatt nabbing a comfortable win.

The deadline for candidates to file the proper paperwork for candidacy is 5 p.m., Aug. 20. The criteria for eligibility to hold a township director position includes: being 18 years old as of Nov. 6, 2018; have been an official resident of The Woodlands for six months; be a U.S. citizen; and have been an official resident of Texas for at least 12 months.

Candidates will be disqualified from seeking office if they have mental incompetence or conviction of a felony offense, according to township documents. Write-in candidates must file a declaration of write-in candidacy by the deadline of 5 p.m., Aug. 24, to be considered for possible election.

Applications for candidacy are available in English and Spanish and can be either delivered by hand to the township offices, 2801 Technology Forest Drive, The Woodlands, TX, 77381, or mailed as long as received by 5 p.m. Aug. 20.

The election is set for Nov. 6. The last day to register to vote in the township election is Oct. 9. Early in-person voting begins Oct. 22 and ends Nov. 2. Oct. 26 is the last day to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot.BOSTON - Nearly a year after Aice Jackman was gunned down in the street, his mother and 5-year-old brother walked into a Dunkin' Donuts, where the boy spotted a pit bull puppy and dashed over to pet it.

Kaiesha Skinner's gaze followed her young son and then settled on the man holding the leash. Their eyes met. She froze: It was the same man who she believes killed Jackman.

She grabbed her youngest son's hand, yanking him away from the man and back to their car.

"We all know who shot my son," Skinner said later. "They just haven't arrested him."

In the past decade, police in 52 of the nation's largest cities have failed to make an arrest in nearly 26,000 killings, according to a Washington Post analysis of homicide arrest data. In more than 18,600 of those cases, the victim, like Jackman, was black.

Black victims, who accounted for the majority of homicides, were the least likely of any racial group to have their killings result in an arrest, The Post found. While police arrested someone in 63 percent of the killings of white victims, they did so in just 47 percent of those with black victims.

The failure to solve black homicides fuels a vicious cycle: It deepens distrust of police among black residents, making them less likely to cooperate in investigations, leading to fewer arrests. As a result, criminals are emboldened and residents' fears are compounded.

In almost every city surveyed, arrests were made in killings of black victims at lower rates than homicides involving white victims.

Four cities - Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia - accounted for more than 7,300 of the black murders with no arrests. But even smaller majority-white cities have amassed large rosters of these cases during the past decade: 422 in Columbus, Ohio; 277 in Buffalo, New York, 183 in Nashville, Tennessee; and 144 in Omaha, Nebraska.

In interviews with The Post, more than two dozen police chiefs and homicide commanders said they work just as hard to solve black murders but that those investigations are often hampered by reluctant witnesses.

No major U.S. city had a wider gap in arrest rates for white and black victims than Boston, where Jackman was killed last summer and where the killings of white residents are solved at twice the rate of black victims.

"We don't care what color you are," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. "Sometimes, because a case goes unsolved, people get the perception that we forget about their loved ones . . . We never forget about them."

Police in several cities said that some types of killings are easier to solve than others. Domestic-violence cases and bar fights may present fewer hurdles to making an arrest, while gang-related shootings and drug-related killings, which are believed to account for the majority of unsolved cases, are more complicated, police said.

"Let's face it, when you talk about murder in our urban communities - black and brown, where gang and group violence is prevalent - you got that retaliation piece," said Detroit Police Chief James Craig, whose department had an arrest rate 12 percentage points higher for white victims than for black victims. "And those are the most challenging kind of homicides to investigate."

But residents and community leaders in many cities remain skeptical that police are doing all they can to solve black homicides.

"Black life is seen as not as important," said the Rev. William Barber, a national civil rights leader, who called the failure by police to solve black homicides a civil rights crisis on par with questionable police shootings of minorities and wrongful convictions of black men.

"The black community gets cut by both edges of the sword," said Barber, who until last year led the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. "There's no big rush to solve a case when it's considered 'black on black.' But if it is a black-on-white killing, then everything is done to make an arrest."

Aaron Williams

The survey identified five cities where the killings of black victims led to an arrest just as often or slightly more often than the slayings of white victims: Birmingham, Alabama; Durham, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Tampa,Florida; and Wichita, Kansas.

"We treat every homicide the same, regardless of where it occurs or who the victims are," said Fort Worth police Capt. Devin Pitt, who noted the department's high arrest rates for murder in Latino neighborhoods on the city's north side and black neighborhoods on the city's east side.

"Our neighborhoods still have enough trust in the police department to help us solve these cases," he said.

The Post analysis relied on racial classification for victims as recorded by police and used local news reports and public records, such as death certificates, to complete missing records.

Still, the inconsistency with which departments recorded the race and ethnicity of Hispanic victims - whose killings result in an arrest 49 percent of the time across the 52 cities - made it difficult to compare arrest rates in those cases city to city.

Other racial groups accounted for a comparatively small number of the killings in the survey.

Aaron Williams

In Houston, where police reliably tracked Hispanic victims, officers were least likely to make an arrest in a homicide if the victim was Hispanic. Police Chief Art Acevedo cited distrust of police among Hispanic residents, many of whom are undocumented and fear that cooperation will lead to their deportation.

About this story As part of an ongoing examination, The Washington Post has compiled up to a decade of homicide arrest data from 55 of America's largest cities. The Post mapped and analyzed the data to identify the homicides that most often led to an arrest and those that did not. This story is based on data from the 52 cities that provided the race and ethnicity of homicide victims. Homicide arrest rates were calculated by victim's race, age, gender and location. The Post's data, which provides a level of specificity lacking in the homicide data released annually by the FBI, is being released publicly and will be expanded over 2018. To determine the predominant race and ethnicity of neighborhoods, The Post used census tract data from the American Community Survey. See More Collapse

"The playing field is not equal in terms of people's ability to feel like they can safely participate in trying to solve crime," Acevedo said.

- - -

Since 2007, Boston police have made an arrest in nearly 90 percent of the homicides with white victims but 42 percent of the homicides with black victims, who account for the vast majority of the city's killings.

Of the 435 homicides with black victims, 254 remain unsolved. Of the 57 homicides with white victims, only six are unsolved.

"There is no question that the African-American community is victimized by this out of proportion," said Ed Davis, who was the Boston police commissioner from 2006 to 2013. "It's a tragedy of our time that we're not doing more to stop this."

Boston's racial gap in solving homicides persists even though police there have been praised nationally for innovation in fighting violent crime.

In the mid-1990s, local police, clergy and criminologists collaborated to curb youth violence by identifying gang crime hot spots and focusing on the handful of offenders responsible for the crime. Their success was dubbed the "Boston Miracle."

But by 2005, the city was facing an uptick in violence, and the rate at which police were solving homicides had dipped below the national average. Department leaders vowed to raise arrest rates, which meant they would have to solve more black homicides.

First, thedepartment changed the way it deployed detectives so that no team of investigators was juggling too many homicides.

Next, Davis dispatched two detectives to London, where investigators solve nearly every homicide, and adopted that city's practice of assigning multiple detectives to each killing in the crucial first hours of the investigation. Then he asked criminologists with Boston's Northeastern University to review several years of homicide case files and - at their suggestion - added an extra detective to each homicide squad and hired an additional crime analyst and victim-witness resource officer.

Arrest rates began to improve slightly in 2012, but the gulf between white homicides and black homicides persists.

In the city's most violent neighborhoods, community leaders blame what they perceive as apathy from police, prosecutors and local news media.

The attention a killing gets "largely depends on your status," said Rufus Faulk, an anti-violence activist and community leader in Roxbury, one of Boston's historically black neighborhoods.

"Then, oftentimes, there is this adage thrown out there that the victim was gang-involved or 'known to the police,' " added Faulk, who said he has attended at least one funeral a year for a murder victim from his neighborhood for each of the past 23 years. "That immediately shifts the victimhood away from the person who was slain and implies that they caused their own demise. And you can see why then there is a resulting lack of public outcry."

Boston law enforcement and city officials insist they are doing everything in their power to make arrests in the murders of black men and women and said they have worked to strengthen community relationships.

"I go to most of the homicide scenes, and I see the work these guys [homicide detectives] do," said Evans, who announced his retirement as Boston's police commissioner earlier this week. "A lot of people sometimes see things and they don't help us . . . Getting cooperation is the hardest thing."

Each week, city and police officials team up with local clergy to hold peace walks in several of the city's most violent neighborhoods. Police hope that improved relationships will lead to increased cooperation from witnesses and more arrests.

"The detectives understand that there's a real fear there, and there's a reason that people feel" distrustful of police, said Boston police Superintendent Gregory Long, who oversees the homicide unit. "But at the end of the day, it can become frustrating when you have, in some cases, everything set up and you just need that one person to give you the last piece of information before you can make an arrest. And sometimes it takes years."

Photo for The Washington Post by Yoon S. Byun

One of Boston's most persistent voices demanding more attention to unsolved homicides is Mary Franklin. Her husband, Melvin, who was black, was killed just down the street from their home late one night in October 1996.

He'd been walking home from a bus stop after leaving work at Boston Logan International Airport. Police called it a robbery. Franklin believes her husband stumbled upon a stickup in progress and attempted to intervene.

In the two decades since, Franklin has held countless meetings with politicians and protested in the lobby of Boston police headquarters. She even tried to run for mayor in 2017, vowing that if she was elected she would devote more resources to Boston's homicide unit and stay in better touch with the families of those killed.

Police said they have met many times with Franklin and are still doing all they can to solve her husband's slaying.

"What hurts me so badly is to see these women going through exactly what I went through 20 years ago," said Franklin, who runs the Women Survivors of Homicide Movement, a support and advocacy group, out of a one-bedroom apartment where the purple-painted walls are lined with framed newspaper clippings of articles about local homicides.

Franklin acknowledged that Boston's arrest rate has improved in recent years. But she said that her group has worked with police to help encourage witnesses in homicides to cooperate and that even with willing witnesses, some of those cases led to no arrest.

"When you look at white murders, those crimes get solved even when there's not a witness. Black murders, it seems like we've got to have a witness to the witness before we get an arrest," said Franklin. To quantify how often cases went without an arrest, she obtained from police a list of more than 1,000 unsolved homicides in the city's three predominantly black sections dating back to the 1970s. "This is a national epidemic."

In a year-long effort to examine unsolved homicides, The Post has collected and mapped a decade of homicide data from dozens of major American cities - chronicling about 55,000 killings across 55 cities to date. The analysis for this story included 52 cities where data on the race of the victims was available.

In those cities, police made an arrest in 49 percent of homicides, leaving 45 percent still under investigation.

About 6 percent of the homicides were closed by police for reasons other than arrest, such as the death of a suspect. Those cases were counted as ones with no arrest when calculating arrest rates across and within individual cities. Had those cases been excluded from the analysis, the difference in arrest rates for black victims and white victims would increase slightly in nearly every city.

Black Americans have long contended that the criminal justice system devalues black lives by allowing black killings to go unpunished. In 1892, anti-lynching activist and journalist Ida B. Wells urged black families to purchase guns to "be used for that protection which the law refuses to give."

For many, the belief that police don't value black lives was reinforced in 2012, when police in Sanford, Florida, did not immediately arrest neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old, as he walked home from a store.

Zimmerman was later arrested and charged, but his acquittal in 2013 planted the seeds of the Black Lives Matter movement. The next year, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking years of national demonstrations against the alleged police mistreatment of black men and women.

"There is a straight line between black people being outraged loudly about police officers being able to shoot and kill people and being able to get away from it and black people quietly wondering when that homicide in their neighborhood is going to be solved," said Ibram Kendi, an American University historian and author of "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."

He added: "Black people have experienced police officers more as profilers and brutalizers, as opposed to investigators, and it takes investigators to solve very difficult homicide cases."

Across the 52 cities surveyed, The Post analysis found racial inequities in homicide arrest rates no matter the location of the killing: A black homicide was less likely to lead to an arrest than a white homicide in either majority-black neighborhoods or a majority-white neighborhoods.

Black homicides in majority-black neighborhoods had a 45 percent arrest rate. White homicides in majority-black neighborhoodshad a 59 percent arrest rate.

The rate for black homicides in majority-white neighborhoods was 55 percent, while white homicides in majority-white neighborhoods had a 64 percent arrest rate.

The failure to solve black homicides no matter the location deepens skepticism that police approach each homicide with the same fervor.

In Boston, black community leaders recall the story of Charles Stuart, a prominent white attorney who in 1989 killed his wife and unborn child and then claimed they had been killed by a black man, prompting a citywide manhunt.

"They tore the block apart; they raided people's homes; they were strip-searching young black men on the side of the road," said Milton Jones, the director of operations for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a Boston organization that offers support services to families of homicide victims.

The infamous case came to an end weeks later when Stuart killed himself and his brother told police that Stuart had killed his wife for her life insurance money.

"Those kids who were being strip-searched, they're in their 40s now," Jones said. "So when you talk about community relationships with the police, you have to remember that history."

Photo for The Washington Post by Yoon S. Byun

Kaiesha Skinner had spoken with her son just 10 minutes before he was shot on July 17, 2017.

He hadn't come straight home from work as a personal trainer at a gym that Monday evening, but he assured his mother on the phone that he'd be there soon. First, he said, he was going to drop off a friend's cellphone and buy some marijuana.

The eldest of four, Jackman had had run-ins with the police and gangs but had turned a corner in his life, his mother said. Jackman had received his high school diploma and had enlisted in the Navy.

Minutes after they spoke, Skinner saw chatter on Facebook: There had been a shooting near Blue Hill Avenue, where her son was headed.

She called him again, and after getting no answer rushed to the neighborhood - where she found her son's body draped with a white sheet.

After talking to police and others in the neighborhood, she believes her son had been confronted by an armed man who began firing at him. Her son, she believes, pulled out a gun in turn and fired back. He was shot three times.

Jackman died at the scene. The other man, publicly identified by police only as a 21-year-old, was wounded and hospitalized. No one has been arrested, but Skinner said she learned the other man's identity from people in the neighborhood.

Police declined to discuss Jackman's killing in detail or address Skinner's assertion about who she believes is the killer because the case remains open and under investigation.

"There may have been others present at the scene who may not be identified at this time, and we strongly urge any witnesses or anyone with any information that could assist investigators to contact the Boston Police homicide unit," said Sgt. John Boyle, a department spokesman.

Skinner said she believes there are probably at least a dozen people who witnessed her son's killing and could provide information that could lead to the man's arrest. But in a tightknit neighborhood often home to gang violence, she believes that their fear of the killer outweighs their willingness to cooperate.

In the meantime, Skinner said, she dreads the thought of again running into the man she suspects killed her son, as she did in the Dunkin' Donuts in May.

Advocates for families of the slain said these run-ins between suspected killers and the families of their victims are commonplace in the city's most violent areas.

One mother in Mary Franklin's group said the family of the man who she believes killed her son uses the same violence counselor as she does. Another mother said she lives directly across the street from the man she believes killed her son. She sees him almost every day.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.A Harris County jail inmate with a history of threatening to kill himself died in an apparent suicide early Wednesday, one day after he was put in solitary confinement following a judge's order.

Guards found Eldon Lee Jackson just after 1:15 a.m, unconscious in his cell with a makeshift gauze noose tied around his neck and a nearby table. The 61-year-old was rushed from the 1200 Baker Street jail to Ben Taub Hospital and pronounced dead.

The jail fatality comes amid a decreasing reliance on isolated confinement in the county jail, along with a growing national awareness of the risks of placing mentally ill prisoners in solitary.

Jackson was jailed in April on several felony charges, including one count of arson after he allegedly violated a protective order and lit his own home on fire with three people inside.

GROWING PROBLEM: Suicide attempts have more than doubled in Texas prisons

Once inside, he doused the master bedroom with a flammable liquid then ignited the vapors, according to court documents.

Just after 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, Jackson - who was apparently barred from his own home by the protective order - broke in, and woke up a woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter. The woman texted 911, but when police arrived Jackson allegedly locked himself in the bathroom.

"If I see any part of your body, I'll slit my throat," he shouted, according to charging documents. "If you don't leave I'm gonna burn the house down."

Police heard the sound of liquid pouring on the floor and smelled gasoline, so they fled outside the house - and then spotted the smoke. The building was ablaze by the time fire crews arrived - and Jackson had fled out the back door.

He was later arrested and held on $100,000 bond.

It's not clear if he had any mental health diagnoses, and his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.

Now, the county medical examiner is working to determine official cause of death. The Harris County District Attorney's Office and the Texas Rangers are investigating are investigating the incident, authorities said, and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards has also been notified, as is customary for in-custody deaths.

State standards require that jail staff lay their eyes on each inmate every 30 minutes, and jail records show Jackson had been checked on just 20 minutes before he was found, according to the sheriff's office.

The day before his death, Judge Marc Carter signed an order banning Jackson from access to a telephone. To comply with that order, the jail put him in solitary confinement.

Jackson's death is the first jail suicide of the year, according to sheriff's office spokesman Jason Spencer.

Last year, the death of a 32-year-old county inmate sparked protests after authorities deemed it a suicide, a claim his family and supporters repeatedly questioned.

Vincent Young, a father of nine, was found dead in an infirmary cell in February 2017 when guards making their rounds spotted his body hanging by a bed sheet, the sheriff's office said at the time.

He hadn't been checked on for more than an hour by the time officers found him. The jail fired the deputy who neglected checks, went after funding for more surveillance cameras

That death came even as the jail was working to drive down its suicide numbers, which were already below the national average. At the same time, the jail has worked to lower its solitary confinement population, slashing the number in half over a five-year period.

In the fall of 2014, the jail had 240 inmates isolated in so-called administrative separation. By March of this year, that number had plummeted to 122, or just over 1 percent of the jail's population, according to sheriff's office data.

"There's a nationwide trend where correctional facilities are moving away from the use of administrative separation and in keeping with best practices and current practices, and also trying to do what's best for the inmates themselves," Harris County Sheriff's Office Major John Martin told the Chronicle earlier this year. "There are a lot of studies out there that suggest keeping them confined by themselves might not be best so gradually we started changing a lot of our practices.Texas safety officials said two people on the state's "most wanted fugitives" list, including a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and a member of Tango Blast, were captured on Thursday.

The Texas Department of Public Safety said they arrested Donald Lynn Gay, 57, in Houston and Paulo Sandalio Guillen, 32, in Brownsville.Fourteen years of delays and billions of dollars in cost increase for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope already have cost contractor Northrop Grumman about half of the $60 million it could have received from the agency for its work.

Congressional leaders on Wednesday, however, questioned whether that penalty was enough to hold the Virginia-based company accountable for the success of the country's next great telescope.

These delays are "outrageous and I really think this is just a perfect example of why the American public doesn't trust the federal government in spending their tax dollars," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, a Republican from Arizona, at a hearing in Washington, D.C. "Why should we believe its going to change in the future?"

The U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology met Wednesday to hear NASA's pleas for reauthorization of the Webb telescope after the agency announced last month it would need an extra $800 million and until 2021 to complete telescope development. This request pushes the agency past the $8 billion development cap set by Congress in 2011, which means the project must be reauthorized in the agency's 2019 fiscal year budget.

PRICE TO PAY: Cost increases for Webb telescope could cause cuts to other programs

James Webb -- the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope meant to revolutionize the world's understanding of planet and star formation -- initially was expected to launch in 2007 and cost about $500 million. Now, it is expected to launch in 2021 and cost almost $9 billion, a difference U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, called "truly staggering" even as he and others voiced support for completion of the project.

The Washington Post

The new schedule and cost estimate announced in June followed a review of the project by a 10-member Independent Review Board, which found that human errors and other technical issues committed by Northrop Grumman -- such as missing sun shield screws and leaks in propulsion valves caused by improper cleaning -- have driven up the telescope's development costs.

The board laid out 32 separate recommendations to keep the telescope on track that NASA says it is working to implement. Those recommendations include: proper training of employees, improved risk assessment and the creation of a managerial position to oversee system deployments once in space.

A Northrop Grumman official will testify in front of the committee on Thursday.

Cost and schedules problems with James Webb, and its successor, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), have been so significant that NASA in June announced projects proposed in the upcoming 2020 Decadal Survey for Astrophysics must be capped at $5 billion each. Both Webb and WFIRST were suggested in previous surveys, which are lists of suggested missions compiled every 10 years by experts.

Low cost contracts

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said agency personnel will review every step of the project's development so far to ensure that no other human errors have occurred. He assured the committee that the agency's contract with Northrop Grumman provides other ways to hold the company accountable.

At HoustonChronicle.com: Missing screws, human errors help delay Webb telescope, boost cost by $1B

Northrop Grumman's contract for the project is a "cost plus award fee" contract, meaning the award fee is its profit. Since it was awarded the contract in 2002, the company already has lost $28 million of the $60 million award fee it could have received for reaching milestones. Bridenstine told the committee it could lose more if personnel do not deliver.

"To get the remainder of the $30 million-plus available, [the company] is going to have to perform and accomplish their goals," he said. "The award fee is their only profit."

He added that there are ways for NASA to "claw back" previously awarded fees if the company continues to screw up.

Some Congress members were not sure that was enough, saying NASA needs to be smarter about the contractors it hires.

"This is about the biggest screw job I've ever seen and its the taxpayers getting screwed here," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, from California. "I would hope that we can be more realistic in our cost assessments."

2021 SPACE ODYSSEY: Launch of Webb Telescope delayed again

Tom Young, chairman of the telescope's review board, agreed. Agencies need to understand that contractors are going to bid the lowest credible costs, he said, and they need to be smarter about the actual costs needed to construct things.

"Contractors will continue to bid low if they continue to get picked," Young said. "To change that, we need to punish those who pitch unrealistically low costs and not" award them the bid.

'Cannibalizing other missions'

The extra $800 million NASA needs for the Webb telescope will impact other projects, Bridenstine said Wednesday, but the agency has not broadly discussed where the ax will fall first.

"When we do these projects and there are overruns and there are delays, it absolutely makes us cannibalize other missions in the future," Bridenstine said.

If the new NASA administrator has his way, the agency will start with WFIRST, which was designed to launch after James Webb.

He clarified that he wouldn't end funding for the WFIRST telescope -- a move suggested by President Donald Trump in his proposed budget for the coming fiscal year -- but would scale back work to focus on James Webb.

"I think we need to move forward with WFIRST after James Webb," he said.

WFIRST, which would study dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics, is set to launch in the mid-2020s. The current cost has ballooned to $3.9 billion, well above the initial projection of less than $2 billion.

Other programs could see cuts because of James Webb, but Bridenstine said the agency will not need money for the problematic telescope in the coming year. The first time the agency will have to jigger the budget is in 2020 and 2021, officials said.

Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, said at a presentation on Monday to space agency's Astrophysics Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C., that during these years, the agency expected the telescope would be in operation, not in development, so it has allocated $310 million for operations.

That means it will "need an extra $490 million for Webb in FY 2020 and '21 above what had previously been budgeted," Hertz is quoted in Space News.

"Accommodating this is likely to impact other parts of the astrophysics budget and possibly beyond astrophysics," he said, though he did not specify what programs could be affected.

Committee members voiced worry that the space exploration portion of the agency would be impacted, but Bridenstine assured them that had not been discussed.

Wesley Bush, Northrop Grumman's outgoing CEO, will testify in front of the committee on Thursday at 8 a.m. CST. The livestream can be viewed here.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.AUSTIN  Its a case of one Oldham out, another Oldham in.

Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday named former Houston attorney Jeff Oldham as his general counsel, replacing Andrew Oldham who was just confirmed by the U.S. Senate to take a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The two are no relation, Abbott noted in announcing the new hire.

"As one of the most highly regarded appellate lawyers in the country, there are few with the experience and expertise that Jeff will bring to General Counsel's office," Abbott said in a statement. "His extensive legal background, combined with his profound understanding of the Constitution, make him the ideal person to fill this role."

He noted that Jeff Oldham, a board-certified appellate specialist who works at the law firm Bracewell LLP, has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Supreme Court, federal appellate courts nationwide and state courts of appeals throughout Texas.

His areas of practice included energy, complex commercial litigation and intellectual property.

Before entering private practice, Jeff Oldham served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and to 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He also served as a counsel to the U.S. attorney general.

A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, Jeff Oldham has served as a member of the State Bar of Texas Appellate Section, Houston Bar Association Appellate Section, the Board for the Houston Lawyer Referral Service, Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society and the Houston Bar Foundation.

Mike Ward covers Texas politics, the governor and the Executive Branch for the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News and other Hearst Texas newspapers. He co-hosts the weekly Texas Take podcast. Send him news tips at Mike.Ward@Chron.com, and following on Twitter @ChronicleMike.While there isnt yet a significant trend of CIOs transitioning into CEO roles, its absolutely undeniable that the people and process management skills developed within an IT leadership position are vital for driving growth across entire organizations.

Interestingly, the newly minted CEOs to whom we spoke were not overly anxious to step into their roles. They agreed, however, that speaking the language of the business, and not that of IT, is among the reasons they were sought to steer the future of the companies they now lead.

We're always looking for what's coming up next in technology; for an aspirational and driven few, this may be what's next for your career.

A holistic view into the business

In one of his first posts as a program analyst at Tenneco, Yusuf Abu-Hatoum quickly realized that IT was about way more than bits and bytes, binaries, and servers.

NABCO Yusuf Abu-Hatoum, CEO

Business owners couldnt catch on to what we were trying to do within IT, so that made it difficult to partner with the business, he explained, now nearly eight months into his CEO post at NABCO. CEOs dont always understand the impact and power of technology, thinking IT is a bunch of servers and technology connected to each other.

C-suite executives and boards are not interested in hearing about the hardships of legacy IT. By design, most successful CIOs already understand the pain points of every division within a company, from production to human resources, marketing, sales, and customer service. Its likely theyve already touched many of these business processes because technology, at some capacity, is at the center of operational functions.

Maggie Sayer had never been a CEO, and she admits she was hesitant to step into the role when approached by her predecessor at Keys Federal Credit Union.

Keys Federal Credit Union Maggie Sayer, CEO

Over my career, Ive managed 90 percent of the projects for the financial institutions that Ive worked for, Sayer said. A good technologist has to have the ability to see the big picture. So much of whats done in an IT department impacts the day-to-day business but also has the ability to impact the bottom line.

Lea Deesing led the City of Riverside, Californias 60-person technology team for more than five years as the chief innovation officer. Under her leadership, the city earned national recognition for government transparency, cybersecurity, project and workforce management, and mobile applications. She now serves as the assistant city manager.

City of Riverside, California Lea Deesing, Assistant City Manager

I think CIOs truly understand the speed at which the world is changing due to innovations and technology, and they are well equipped to foster corporate agility to stay competitive, she said of her new post. CIOs also understand and value the importance of making empirical, data-driven decisions. They understand where the future is headed into the realm of robotic process automation and artificial intelligence. Such technology will change the trajectory of the world as we know it, for better or worse.

Never settling for stagnation

After more than a decade serving as CIO for midmarket manufacturing companies, Abu-Hatoum tired of the political jockeying required to drive implementation of transformative technologies. He struck out on his own and launched an IT consulting firm. What was supposed to be a six-month assignment at NABCO to turn around a disappointing ERP implementation alongside some road mapping and strategic IT planning quickly caught the eye of senior management.

In a CIO role, as much as you try to be transparent, you always have to manage internal politics, he explained. As a consultant, they were paying me to be direct and blunt.

He called the revised six-month project plan to improve the ERP system with SAP extremely aggressive for an organization that was underperforming and unaccustomed to fully executing on IT projects. Few operational processes were appropriately documented, he recalled, so mapping critical business processes and reengineering workflows to connect institutional knowledge of seasoned employees was imperative. Abu-Hatoum finally agreed to step into the role, albeit conditionally for six months while he continued on as the CIO and hired an IT director to manage day-to-day IT operations.

Sayer said she made a personal commitment to herself early in her career to study for and obtain a new certification each year to continuously expand and polish her skill set. That deal resulted in an MBA and about 10 information security certifications that shes employed as an information security consultant for the past two years.

Everything in life is really a project of some sort, so knowing how to lead a project, stay in budget, analyze the various impacts, and meet a deadline is never going to be a set of skills that go to waste, she said.

In addition to teaching part time as an adjunct professor, Sayer said mentoring both seeking out career advice and serving as a source for those who seek it have guided her career to date.

Get a mentor and then be a mentor, she advised, adding shes been lucky to have had several along the way. In her first job out of college as a project manager at Wachovia, a seasoned female technologist helped guide her through the politics of IT coordination in a larger corporation. Shes also added Eric Gomez of TrueSec Consulting, initially as a vendor and eventually as an employer, to her list of mentors. And within the first week as CEO at Keys Federal, she connected with a fellow female CEO through an industry association whos made herself available via monthly teleconference. In turn, Sayer said shes offered herself as a resource to an IT staffer within her peers company.

Consensus building and staff management

Following to the successful realignment of NABCOs ERP, Abu-Hatoum said the company is better positioned for renewed focus on growth  10 percent for the next five years through mergers and acquisitions, to be exact.

When he stepped into the role, there was little to no focus on the operational side of the business, and employees were unmotivated due to a lack of succession planning and staff development.

Motivating employees, leading process change with finesse, forging strong partnerships, and managing potentially adversarial relationships are all key tenets for successful IT leaders .

Deesing agreed that rejecting the status quo and finding solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges is key for successful leadership.

Equally important is understanding the mind of the next generation  their acceptance and demand for a sharing economy, the desire for apps for everything, and automating as much of their work as possible so they can do higher-level thinking and creative work, she added. We have to step up our organizations to the next level of automation to stay competitive, vibrant, and economically sustainable.

Abu-Hatoum said his previous focus on key deliverables and performance metrics as the CIO has helped chart a renewed focus on growth for NABCO.

We have turned the company around. It was bleeding, and weve stopped that. Now, well focus on strengthening the foundation of the product and its people that will help lead to growth and profitability.

This story, "CIO to CEO: Next career path?" was originally published by CIO .The Poisoned City: Flints Water and the American Urban Tragedy, by Anna Clark (Henry Holt, 320 pp., $30)

In The Poisoned City, journalist Anna Clark advances a tragic interpretation of how Flint, Michigans water supply became tainted by lead and other contaminants, emphasizing the interplay of structural forces more than the mistakes made by individuals, though she sympathizes with those who called for the heads of Michigan governor Rick Snyder and other state and local officials. Clark believes that lessons regarding Flints water crisis have to do with deindustrialization and environmental racism; readers who find that second theme tendentious shouldnt overlook Clarks many astute remarks on the first. Americans have yet to reckon with what happens to basic services when a city loses more than half its population. The Poisoned City attempts to do so.

In 2013, Flint decided to stop buying water from Detroits water authority, its source since the 1960s, and instead, along with a few neighboring communities, build its own system. Flint was then under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager charged with restructuring the citys finances, but the plan for the Karegnondi Water Authority was years in the making and had enormous local support. Flints water bills were high, and critics blasted Detroit as a price-gouging monopoly. By maintaining its own water supply, Flint could save money and gain some control over its destiny.

Though long considered, Flints water strategy was not well considered. In Clarks reckoning, the chances for saving anyone much money were slim, since the expensive bills had less to do with Detroits exploitative business practices than with the busted economics of maintaining infrastructure in a shrinking city: Flints infrastructure was in a death spiral, Clark writes. The water rates were expensive because the pipes were bad because vacancy rates were high because the city had been shrinking for so long. Costly bills tempted residents to move to the suburbs . . . Then there were even fewer people to pay into the system, which meant there was even less money to maintain it, which meant rates went up further. Repeat ad infinitum.

It would have remained a tale of mere government bungling, waste, and inefficiency had the city not made the fateful decision to use the Flint River as an interim source of water while the new system, which would draw from Lake Huron, was being built. Tapping that water source meant revving up an old plant that hadnt been in full use for over a half century, before Flint signed on with Detroit. The problem with the plan wasnt the quality of the river waterlike many American waterways, the Flint River has gotten much cleaner over the yearsbut that local authorities and state regulators failed to ensure the river water received adequate corrosion-control treatment to ensure that it did not cause the lead pipes to deteriorate and leach contaminants into the system.

Almost immediately after the water started flowing from the new source, in April 2014, warning signs began appearing out of homeowners taps: murkiness, foaminess, brown or orange water thick with particulates. Around the city, complaints were heard about pets getting sick and houseplants dying. Showering seemed to be connected with skin rashes and hair loss. The water smelled foul. A sip of it put the taste of a cold metal coin on your tongue. Five months after the switch, General Motors, still the citys largest employer, stopped using Flint River water out of concern that it was causing car parts to rust. But for well over a year, the mayor, the emergency manager, and bureaucrats at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality continued to vouch for the water quality.

This consensus weakened in the summer of 2015, when Miguel del Toral, an EPA administrator, wrote a troubling internal report about lead levels in Flint water that fell into the hands of activists and journalists. Government authorities were forced to acknowledge that they had a crisis on their hands in September 2015, when Marc Edwards, a renowned environmental engineer who led a testing initiative, confirmed that Flints water contained toxic levels of lead. Less than two weeks later, a pediatrician at a local hospital, Mona Hanna-Attisha, announced that the rate of small children in Flint with high blood-lead levels had almost doubled since the city switched water sources and had nearly tripled in some neighborhoods. (In addition to lead exposure, especially dangerous for children, the inadequate treatment regimen led to E. coli contamination in the water supply. A local outbreak of Legionnaires disease also coincided with the switch to Flint River water.) In the wake of these revelations, Flint was promptly linked back up to the Detroit water system and abandoned its plan to join the Karegnondi Water Authority.

Clarks account of the crisis features heroes but no real villains. It was, she says, a crisis of systems. Better staffing and proper corrosion control would have averted the catastrophe, but to leave it at that, in Clarks estimation, would risk deemphasizing how a city like Flint is uniquely susceptible to catastrophe. Because Flint, like many other old industrial cities, was built for a population twice its current size, swathes of poor neighborhoods are plagued with blight. Its needs for government services are above average; its ability to pay for them is well below average. The Poisoned City makes a valuable contribution to the literature on Rust Belt decline by explaining how much can go wrong in underused water systems. In the huge water mains that ran beneath the closed manufacturing plants and depopulated streets, Clark explains, water sat stagnant for too long. Without enough residents or big industries to keep the water moving at a quick clip, the contaminants became more concentrated.

In addition to being poor and shrunken, Flint is a majority-minority city, which feeds The Poisoned Citys thesis that Flint children were exposed to lead because of implicit racial discrimination. Yet as Clark notes, much of Flints more recent outmigration struggles have been driven by black flight, as minority families have left to seek opportunities elsewhere. The same Snyder administration that failed Flint provided critical leadership during the 2013-14 Detroit bankruptcy, and hundreds of millions in state funds, thus laying the foundation for that citys nascent revival. If racial insensitivity cannot account for the steps that Michigan took to help Detroit, how far can it go in explaining the neglect that harmed Flint?

Flint might be a case study in urban Americas structural challenges, but its also a parable about the importance of leadership. In politics, if you own it, you broke it. Governors and mayors who try to ameliorate a problem decades in the making, such as underfunded pension systems or Rust Belt cities fiscal woes, are often rewarded for their efforts by getting blamed for having caused the problem in the first place, or for not solving it completely. Cities like Flint will continue to teeter on the verge of insolvency, but state revenues are simply not abundant enough to allow for open-ended grants of support. We need to think more about how state officials can help fiscally distressed cities without placing themselves at risk for everything that can go wrong.

Photo by Sarah Rice/Getty ImagesHM Revenue and Customs has told social care providers they can suspend self-assessments of a potential 400m back-pay liability following a landmark court case.

On 13 July, the Court of Appeal reversed an Employment Tribunal judgment against Mencap, which had ruled that sleep-in shift workers should be paid the full minimum wage instead of a flat-rate for each shift, which is common practice in the sector.

Before the appeal hearing, HMRC had demanded social care providers back-pay any sleep-in shift workers that had not been paid the full minimum wage for up to six years, which many providers warned could bankrupt them.

In November last year, HMRC launched a scheme whereby employers self-assess their back-pay liability over the following 12 months then pay all arears to workers within three months after that.

An estimated 1,000 social care organisations signed up to the governments Social Care Compliance Scheme (SCCS), about 400 of which are charities.

But the Mencap ruling calls into question whether these organisations have any back-pay liability to assess and therefore could make the SCCS redundant.

Civil Society News understands HMRC has emailed employers signed up to the SCCS, advising them to take one of two actions:

1. Employers may suspend their self-review pending further advice from HMRC

2. Employers may continue their self-review taking account of the Court of Appeal Judgement and considering all other National Minimum Wage risks. HMRC are not able to provide any guidance on the judgement at this time.

In the email, HMRC adds that it will issue a further communication to employers in the next few weeks.

A HMRC spokesman refused to confirm the information in the email but said: HMRC are presently considering the implications of the Mencap Court of Appeal judgement.

Further information will be provided to Social Care employers who have entered SCCS in due course. Social care employers should continue their self-review until they hear further from HMRC.

If a change to HMRC's scheme is not made before November this year, organisations that signed up to the programme immediately after its launch will in theory be required to repay any wage arrears to workers within three months.

Regulation change

The Court of Appeal ruling has led many organisations including Mencap to call for the government to change legislation to clarify National Minimum Wage rules in relation to sleep-in shifts.

Speaking in an NHS workforce debate in the House of Commons yesterday, Labour MP Barbara Keeley urged the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to change the regulations.

She said: Will the secretary of state demonstrate the leadership that this government have lacked on this issue and ask the chancellor to change the regulations on the national minimum wage for sleep-in shifts, to show care staff that they matter?

In response, Hancock said: I saw the decision by the court and I have already had conversations with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which leads on this regulation, to ensure that we can get the rules right for the future.

Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, said: We are calling on government to now make a decision and to be clear about what changes it is proposing ahead of wider consultation.

Without this clarity then government needs to be aware that local commissioners and provider markets will react in an ad hoc and un-coordinated ways and this situation could lead to irretrievable developments by the time MPs return after recess.

The Department of Health and Social Care needs also to urgently signal to commissioners that knee jerk reactions to pricing the provision of overnight support risks destabilising the market.Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal reversed an Employment Tribunal judgment which could have cost the social care sector 400m in back pay to staff.

The ruling in favour of Mencap relates to employees who work sleep-in shifts, where they sleep in a patient's house or at a care home overnight but are on call to provide support if necessary.

Two previous tribunal rulings, in favour of a sleep-in shift worker, Clare Tomlinson-Blake, found Mencap should have paid her the full minimum wage during sleep-in shifts.

However, the Court of Appeal ruled that it was legal for Mencap to pay Tomlinson-Blake a flat-rate fee for each shift of 29.05, as is common practice in the social care sector.

Unresolved issues

On the surface, this is a massive win for the social care sector, with many organisations reporting they would face bankruptcy if forced to back-pay all workers the full minimum wage.

But the ruling does not solve the two huge issues created by the original employment tribunal rulings against Mencap in 2016 and 2017 and the governments subsequent response.

The first issue was that social care providers could be required to pay higher wages to sleep-in shift staff going forward, which many deem unaffordable without additional government funding via local authorities. This has been estimated to cost the sector an extra 200m each year.

Following the initial employment tribunal ruling against Mencap, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published guidance using a care home as an example to clarify that sleep-in shift workers should be paid the full rate for their entire shift, which the latest ruling now appears to dispute.

The second issue was that providers could be ordered to back-pay any sleep-in shift workers not paid the full minimum wage for the past six years. This back-pay bill has been estimated at 400m for the entire sector with warnings that many providers could go bankrupt if forced to pay such a fee.

This issue was made more urgent by HM Revenue and Customs issuing demands for social care providers to back-pay workers.

In November last year, HMRC launched its Social Care Compliance Scheme (SCCS), which requires organisations to assess their own back-pay liability and repay any wage arrears to workers.

According to a Freedom of Information request by People Management, 835 employers had signed up by the end of April this year. The current figure is likely to be closer to 1,000, with about 400 of these charities.

What happens now?

All eyes in the social care sector will be on whether Unison decides to appeal the decision - it still has a few weeks to decide. It has already indicated that it will and the union had two employee tribunal rulings in its favour. If it were to appeal, this would obviously create further uncertainty for the social care sector and for Mencap in particular.

Either way, the government now has much weaker reasoning to support its demands for back-pay and it seems likely the SCCS will be scrapped.

HMRC has so far been coy in its response, with a spokesman saying it is presently considering the implications of the Mencap Court of Appeal judgement.

He added: Further information will be provided to social care employers who have entered SCCS in due course. Social care employers should continue their self-review until they hear further from HMRC.

However, Civil Society News undestands HMRC has emailed providers saying they may suspend their self-review and pledged to send further guidance in the next month.

It will have to make a firm announcement on the SCCS before November this year. At that point, organisations that signed up to the programme immediately after its launch will be required to repay any wage arrears to workers within three months.

The government clearly did not expect the Court of Appeal to rule in favour of Mencap. It now looks like it has acted hastily to enforce back-pay demands before the appeal was heard.

Damage done

Regardless of whether the latest ruling is appealed, the sleep-in shift crisis has already had a significant impact on the social care sector.

According to a Voluntary Organisations Disability Group survey, social care providers have already decided not to bid or negotiate for 273 new contracts because of their uncertain financial situation.

Sleep-in shift workers will also, as Mencap admitted, be disappointed by the latest ruling as they had been expecting a substantial back-payment. This presents a difficult HR issue for social care providers who already face battle to keep staff morale high for their low-paid workers.

And the issue of ongoing pay remains unresolved. Many social care providers have already started to pay sleep-in shift workers the full minimum wage, following government guidance.

Following the Mencap ruling, do they now return to paying a flat rate? Mencap has said it will continue to pay the full minimum wage going forward but called on the government to legislate to make this compulsory and ensure the higher wages are funded.

So the sleep-in crisis is not over. The sector will continue to lobby for clarity on minimum wage laws and long-term funding until the government provides both.Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government oversees the countrys omnipresent state news servicesTass, RT, and Sputnikclaims to be cracking down on fake news online.

A new bill, which has passed one of three votes in the Russian parliament, would compel social media companies to remove material deemed erroneous, under penalty of an $800,000 fine. According to The New York Times, which first reported the news, the bills co-sponsor, Sergei Boyarsky, cited social media posts that reported a much higher death toll than the governments own tally at a fire in Siberia that engulfed a shopping mall in March and killed at least 64, including dozens of children, even by official estimates. Accusations that the government lowballed the grisly figure to save face have persisted.

Its the latest I know you are, but what am I announcement from the Russian Federation, which peddled falsehoods to the American public via social and traditional media organizations during the 2016 election, according to reliable researchers and the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Last week, after the DOJ announced the indictment of a dozen of the nations GRU security service officers implicated in the hacks, Russia responded by demanding to question hedge fund manager and outspoken Putin critic William Browder, the driving force behind an international sanctions law called the Magnitsky Act, and former US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. Many interpreted the requests as an obviously absurd reply intended to indicate that Russia didnt take seriously the US demand to question currently serving Russian military officers. But the White House said it would consider turning over McFaul and Browder, shocking the diplomatic corps.

More from the world of trolling:

Inconsistent Twitter treatment: Stephanie Saul, a New York Times reporter who uncovered a Virginia GOP candidates ties to white supremacist groups, left a note requesting an interview with her phone number on it at the house of Brian Landrum, an aide to Senate hopeful Corey Stewart. The phone number was soon all over the trollosphere. Landrum claimed without evidence that Saul had broken into his homeSaul said a houseguest answered the door and she didnt go insideand far-right site Big League Politics, founded by former Breitbart staffers, acquired the note and published it. Twitter, which suspended news site Splinter over a story it published containing Trump advisor Stephen Millers phone number, along with every user who posted a link to the piece, did no such favor for Saul.

Stephanie Saul, a reporter who uncovered a Virginia GOP candidates ties to white supremacist groups, left a note requesting an interview with her phone number on it at the house of Brian Landrum, an aide to Senate hopeful Corey Stewart. The phone number was soon all over the trollosphere. Landrum claimed without evidence that Saul had broken into his homeSaul said a houseguest answered the door and she didnt go insideand far-right site Big League Politics, founded by former Breitbart staffers, acquired the note and published it. Twitter, which suspended news site Splinter over a story it published containing Trump advisor Stephen Millers phone number, along with every user who posted a link to the piece, did no such favor for Saul. The wrong Democrat: Fox News accidentally booked the wrong Democrat on Fox & Friends First Monday morning, a flub that was almost certainly seen by the president, who lovesand occasionally makes unscheduled calls tothe show. Through a publicist, Fox producers told The Washington Post they had contacted the spokesman on file for [Ann] Kirkpatrick, an Arizona Democrat running for Congress who drew jeers and boos from the audience at a debate when she said she supported the work of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The producers believed Kirkpatrick was on the line until Massachusetts state senator Barbara LItalien, who is also running for Congress, appeared, identified herself by name as representing a large immigrant community, and said she wanted to speak directly to Donald Trump about the Presidents illegal and inhumane policy of child separation that has left hundreds effectively orphaned. That didnt go as planned, co-host Rob Schmitt remarked after LItalien was cut off. The Post followed up with LItalien to ask whether she had misrepresented herself as Kirkpatrick to get on the air. I showed the exact same commitment to the truth and accuracy that Fox News always has, LItalien replied in an email.

Fox News accidentally booked the wrong Democrat on Fox & Friends First Monday morning, a flub that was almost certainly seen by the president, who lovesand occasionally makes unscheduled calls tothe show. Through a publicist, Fox producers told they had contacted the spokesman on file for [Ann] Kirkpatrick, an Arizona Democrat running for Congress who drew jeers and boos from the audience at a debate when she said she supported the work of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The producers believed Kirkpatrick was on the line until Massachusetts state senator Barbara LItalien, who is also running for Congress, appeared, identified herself by name as representing a large immigrant community, and said she wanted to speak directly to Donald Trump about the Presidents illegal and inhumane policy of child separation that has left hundreds effectively orphaned. That didnt go as planned, co-host Rob Schmitt remarked after LItalien was cut off. The followed up with LItalien to ask whether she had misrepresented herself as Kirkpatrick to get on the air. I showed the exact same commitment to the truth and accuracy that Fox News always has, LItalien replied in an email. But what is fake news, really? Longreads profiles recently retired New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani, and her new book The Death of Truth . Kakutani writes in the book, The postmodern argument that all truths are partial (and a function of ones perspective) led to the related argument that there are many legitimate ways to understand or represent an event Its also been exploited by those who want to make the case for offensive or debunked theories, or who want to equate things that cannot be equated.

Longreads profiles recently retired book critic Michiko Kakutani, and her new book . Kakutani writes in the book, The postmodern argument that all truths are partial (and a function of ones perspective) led to the related argument that there are many legitimate ways to understand or represent an event Its also been exploited by those who want to make the case for offensive or debunked theories, or who want to equate things that cannot be equated. A dangerous world for reporters: BuzzFeed investigative reporter Jason Leopold attracted a swarm of right-wing twitter trolls for a racist and anti-gay tweet posted when his account was hacked in 2010. Tweets sent by someone who had maliciously gained access to his account were resurfaced and tweeted threateningly at Leopold and his employer, in some cases using the same derogatory language directed at Leopold. BuzzFeed Newss director of communications, Matt Mittenthal, said the company hadnt received any complaints from readers about Leopold. Mittenthal told CJR he was glad to see that, despite the best efforts of some trolls, no one actually fell for this obvious hoax.

ICYMI: How neglected archives lead to propaganda

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Correction: An earlier version said that LItalien appeared on Fox & Friends on Tuesday. She appeared on Fox & Friends First on Monday; Brian Landrum, not Corey Stewart, accused Stephanie Saul of breaking into his house.



Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Sam Thielman is the former Tow editor at the Columbia Journalism Review, and a reporter and critic based in New York. He is the creator, with film critic Alissa Wilkinson, of Young Adult Movie Ministry, a podcast about Christianity and movies, and his writing has been featured in The Guardian, Talking Points Memo, and Variety, among others.Shares of California utility owners PG&E Corp., Edison International and Sempra Energy climbed after Governor Jerry Brown indicated that utilities shouldnt be responsible for future wildfire damages without considering whether they acted reasonably.

The proposal wouldnt affect the billions of dollars in potential liabilities PG&E and Edison face for blazes in 2017, Brown said. But its a win for PG&E, which has been lobbying hard to change state policies that currently hold utilities responsible for the costs of wildfires that their equipment ignite, even if they werent negligent.

California investigators have already named PG&E equipment as the ignition source of 16 of last years swarm of windswept fires in Northern California wine country that destroyed thousands of homes and killed 44 people starting in October. The probes alleged violations of state law in 11 of those incidents. PG&E said in June that it will take a $2.5 billion pretax charge tied to some of those blazes. The San Francisco-based utility owner could be on the hook for billions more.

Specific Support

The fact that the governor is coming out reiterating specific support for doing something to fix inverse condemnation is being seen as significant, said Kit Konolige, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in New York. Its good news in the sense that its a data point that says, Hey, somethings going on. The governor seemingly in discussions with legislators is talking about pushing ahead with it. But its not a done deal. It aint over til its over.

PG&E rose 2.3 percent to close at $42.49. It was trading at $41.17 before news of Browns proposal broke. Edison rallied 1.6 percent to $66.06. Sempra gained 0.8 percent Tuesday to $114.50.

PG&E shareholders are trying to find any kind of comfort that they can that the liability for the wildfires will be at least be below the worst-case scenario, said Travis Miller, a Chicago-based utility analyst for Morningstar Inc., said by phone Tuesday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has estimated PG&Es total gross liabilities from 2017 at as much as $17.3 billion. Investors have been awaiting the report from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection on PG&Es role in the Tubbs blaze  also the deadliest of last years fires.

Inverse Condemnation

Under Browns proposal, the inverse condemnation provision would be changed so that a court balances the public benefit of the cause of the fire with harm caused to private property and determines whether the utility acted reasonably. An independent evaluator would review each utilitys compliance with a required wildfire mitigation plan.

The California constitution currently requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. The proposed bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

The plan will be reviewed by committee of legislators, who will have their first hearing Wednesday in Sacramento. Lawmakers are also considering a bill that would allow PG&E to issue bonds backed by customer charges to pay off claims from last years fires. Requests for comments from legislative leaders werent immediately returned.

Lawmakers face a deadline of Aug. 31 to pass legislation.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.AKRON, Ohio - Summit County transportation projects are getting a boost through a $842,500 state grant.

The Ohio Department of Transportation's Office of Jobs and Commerce awarded the money to the Summit County Transportation Improvement District for projects in Akron, Twinsburg and Bath Township.

Road projects include:

$250,000 for reconstruction of Romig Road at the former Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, which is planned to be the future site of a

$250,000 for roadway infrastructure for business expansion in the Firestone Industrial Park at the former Firestone Tire manufacturing site;

$140,000 for roadway repair and re-paving of Chamberlin Road with drainage improvements to extend the life of the road from East Aurora Road to Highland Road in Twinsburg; and

$202,500 for reconfiguration of the Cleveland-Massillon Road at the Ghent Road intersection in Bath Township to reduce traffic congestion in the Embassy Parkway area and offer easier access to Interstate 77.

With this grant, the state has awarded Summit County Transportation Improvement District more than $1.7 million for local projects since the district was created four years ago.

"One of our primary areas of focus in Summit County is economic development and job growth," said County Executive Ilene Shapiro in a news release. "Transportation Improvement District grants are vital to our continuing, proactive effort to expand opportunities to improve infrastructure and to create and retain jobs in Summit County. We are very pleased to receive this funding and to invest more toward job creation in our community."

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.WALTON HILLS, Ohio -- The mayor of the village of Walton Hills spread false rumors across city hall that he was having an affair with one of his subordinates, then threatened to fire her when she complained, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Mayor Kevin Hurst created a hostile work environment for the village's clerk of courts, Nancy Zolgharnain, by spreading the rumors, the lawsuit claims.

The 12-page complaint filed Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court also says that Councilman Denny Linville made inappropriate comments about Zolgharnain's physical appearance to her husband after a council meeting.

The incidents taken together speak to the "appalling" culture created inside village hall, Zolgharnain's lawyer, Sean Sobel, told cleveland.com.

"Our hope is that Walton Hills will provide Ms. Zolgharnain with a safe work environment," Sobel said.

Hurst did not immediately return a voicemail at his office seeking comment.

The lawsuit is the latest bomb dropped in the tiny bedroom community that has been roiled by resignations and raucous council meetings at the village's handling of separate allegations against Linville over comments he made to a teenage girl at a park.

The complaint says that Zolgharnain, who began working in the village in 2014, reported directly to Hurst and that he twice confronted her alone in his office and said that there were rumors that the two were having an affair. Hurst first told her that Carol Stanoszek, the village's Community Life Director, started the rumor, the lawsuit says. He later blamed on Vic Nogalo, who eventually resigned his position.

Zolgharnain said she told Hurst that she uncomfortable with the rumors, which she called "ridiculous and embarrassing," and asked Hurst to put a stop to it them, the complaint says.

She later talked to both employees herself and both denied it, leading her to believe that Hurst was the one who started them, the complaint says.

Once Stanoszek learned that Hurst had blamed the rumor on her, she filed a formal complaint with the village's law director, former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason, in April and complained about the rumors, the suit says. Mason then convened a meeting between the woman, Stanoszek and Hurst, but did not attend the meeting.

The mayor denied starting the rumors and suggested to them that it was Nogalo, the suit says. He promised to write an apology letter for letting the rumors get out of hand, the suit says.

But the letter that the woman received contained no apology, and instead an order that any complaints should be brought directly to him, and not to Mason, the suit says.

Mason conducted no inquiry into the allegations to "determine the breadth of Mayor Hursts's sexual harassment and misconduct," the suit says.

Hurst then began telling other employees that he was going to demote Zolgharnain from full-time to part-time, then eventually started to say he was going to fire her, the complaint says.

The lawsuit says that Hurts made those threats to other employees to dissuade them from complaining publicly about his behavior.

The suit also claims that Linville came up to the clerk's husband after a July 10 council meeting and told him that she is "one hot egg" and told him to protect her.

Linville was the subject of a complaint filed by the mother of a 16-year-old counselor at Parker Camp, which is run by the village, that said Linville approached her and two other girls and started asking her questions. He eventually asked her where she lived. He never stated that he was a councilman.

At the July 17 council meeting, Linville started to explain what he asked her, but veered off course to offer an aside.

"First, she was an attractive young lady, I'll give her that," Linville said.

The audience erupted in jeers and heckles. A woman, who the lawsuit said was a councilwoman, said "that is a 16-year-old girl he's talking about."

The lawsuit says that Hurst said at an earlier meeting that he sympathized with Linville and blamed the comments on his "generation." Hurst also said he understood what it felt like to be falsely accused, and joked that, according to rumors, he was a womanizing alcoholic with 15 illegitimate children.

To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The number of new HIV diagnoses in Cuyahoga County fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2017, even as the statewide infection rate continued to rise.

New statistics from the Ohio Department of Health show an 18.6 percent drop in new cases in Cuyahoga County from 2016. That's a decline of 36 individual cases. Across the state, meanwhile, new infections were up by 3.4 percent, or 33 cases.

After years of declines, Ohio experienced a surge in new infections as the opioid epidemic hit the state, said Melissa Federman, director of the AIDS Funding Collaborative at the Center for Community Solutions, a public-private partnership supporting HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention in Greater Cleveland.

"It's honestly exactly what we feared," she said.

Across Ohio, there are 23,587 people now living with HIV, a number that has been climbing steadily for the past five years. Less than half of those infected with HIV have AIDS.

Locally, targeted prevention efforts have helped Cuyahoga County remain more immune to the upswing in new HIV infections associated with injected drug use, Federman said. She mentioned needle-exchange programs, increased HIV testing through community healthcare organizations and hospital emergency departments and greater access to healthcare services through the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.

"We certainly want to continue the momentum," Federman said.

Cuyahoga County has one of only about a dozen needle-exchange programs in the state. The local program, designed to keep potentially HIV-infected needles off the street, has grown in recent years and now collects about 50,000 needles per month, up from 12,000 monthly in 2012. The program also helps connect people who use injected drugs with recovery resources and provides access to naloxone, which is used to reverse opioid overdoses.

Greater Cleveland also is one of two locations in the state with heightened access to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. In Cleveland and Columbus, residents need to meet only 500 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for gap healthcare services offered by the program. Elsewhere in the state, residents must meet 300 percent of the federal poverty line.

The Ohio Department of Health couldn't immediately be reached for comment.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A disagreement Tuesday over who had the right-of-way in a lane resulted in a man using several racial slurs against another driver, reports say.

Charles Lovett posted a video of the encounter on his Facebook page in which a contractor uses the N-word several times.

"I never would have expected it to happen to me, but the world we live in nowadays," Lovett tells WCMH Channel 4.

The incident occurred Tuesday morning on Morse Road in Columbus, ABC 6 reports. Lovett tells ABC 6 the driver of a van, a contractor in central Ohio, became upset because he believes Lovett cut him off. Lovett says the driver of the van nearly sideswiped him crossing a lane, so Lovett honked at him.

Lovett says the driver of the van then followed him to his home, although the driver says it was on his way to a contracting job.

However, the van driver did stop at the end of the driveway and began using the N-word at Lovett, reports say.

The van driver told WCMH he did not regret using the slur and would not apologize. However, he told ABC 6 he did regret his actions and that he "lost his head." He also said he had begun receiving threats after the video was posted.

Lovett has filed a report with Columbus police but no charges have been issued, reports say.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Lake Erie's harmful algal blooms typically spend the summer in the Western Basin, but as the lake warms and winds from the west blow the blooms eastward, they merge with a separate, less toxic bloom of a different type of algae in the Central Basin.

The combination develops into tons of algae that from August to the end of September sinks to the bottom of the lake where it decomposes and consumes oxygen until the lowest 10 feet is nearly entirely depleted.

This "dead zone" in the deep, frigid water about 15 miles north of Cleveland, ranging as far east as Ashtabula, turns the water yellow, smelly and distasteful. It threatens the drinking water for millions of Northeast Ohioans and forces fish and other aquatic creatures to leave the contaminated area or die from lack of oxygen.

"The danger comes because there's no good easy way to get oxygen into the cold bottom layer," said Jeff Reutter, the retired director of Ohio State's Sea Grant and Stone Lab. "The demand for oxygen by microorganisms is so great that there's none left for the fish and critters."

A color-coded map of Lake Erie shows the deep, cold section of the Central Basin where the oxygen-depleted dead zone is expected to form later next month.

Monitoring and tracking the dead zone as it develops is the responsibility of Scott Moegling, the Cleveland Water Department's Water Quality Manager.

"We have buoys in the lake and satellite imagery to help us understand the hypoxia," the scientific definition for oxygen deprivation in the water, Moegling said.

The centerpiece of the water department's three-buoy monitoring system is a deep-water buoy anchored 15 miles offshore. The high-tech buoy is placed in the lake in the spring and brought out in November.

Moegling receives data readings from the buoys for wind speed and direction, water temperature and oxygen levels from the lake bottom, 51 feet to 66 feet deep. The data is shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is conducting a five-year project to develop a hypoxia forecast system in the Central Basin.

Moegling serves as chairman of the research study group's Management Transitional Advisory Group, which is assisting NOAA with ways to transition from a research project to an operational product for use by public water systems, fisheries and power industries. One of its work products is a color-schemed hypoxia map that is updated daily and posted online.

"To the best of our knowledge, it's the only real-time hypoxia monitoring device being used by any water system on the Great Lakes," Moegling said. "We've learned how to treat" the dead zone water, "we just have to know when it's coming so we don't have to wait until it's on us to react."

Treatments include adding powdered activated carbon or sodium hydroxide to the raw water, which help to alleviate problems with taste, odor and color; adding sodium hydroxide if the pH drops too low; and adding aluminum sulfate, a coagulant that makes suspended particles bond to each other in the plant's flocculation tanks, then settle to the bottom during the next step in the water treatment process, Moegling said.

Dead zones have developed in Lake Erie's Central Basin for a hundred years due to phosphates and raw sewage that were dumped into the lake prior to passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972. The dead zones disappeared for awhile, but became a concern for water treatment plants again after they returned about a decade ago with the emergence of harmful algal blooms in the lake, said Reutter.

Earlier this month, a band of oxygen-depleted water formed along the lake's southern coast west of Cleveland. But it had had no impact on the city's drinking water, and NOAA color-coded maps show that oxygen levels have improved due to wind action and mixing with warmer water.

The Central Basin dead zone eventually dissipates during the fall when the warm, oxygenated upper levels of the lake water mixes with the cold, oxygen-depleted lower levels, returning the lake water to normal until the next year.

The only way to prevent the dead zones would be to reduce phosphorus runoff by at least 40 percent from agricultural fields in the Maumee River watershed, Reutter said. That is the goal of a partnership between Ohio, Michigan and Ontario, and a recent executive order signed by Gov. John Kasich. But those goals have not yet been met, and House Republicans have asked the governor to rescind his order.

"The dead zones definitely receive less attention than the harmful algal blooms because they don't pose the imminent danger that HABs do," Reutter said.

"They don't form the green scum that everybody sees. They're 50 feet under water, sort of out of sight, out of mind. But from a scientific standpoint, we've been focused on them for many years."

The Cleveland water department tests weekly for bloom-induced cyanobacteria genes and cyanotoxins at each of its four intake pipes. Since testing began in 2010, the Ohio EPA has categorized the department's gene counts as "very low." Cleveland's is the only public water system in Ohio producing Lake Erie water with zero cyanotoxin detections in any of its water treatment plants.

Moegling considers the algal bloom-produced dead zones an occupational hazard. They aren't as toxic as harmful algal blooms, but they pose an annual hazard he's entrusted to minimize.

"Algae is a normal part of the eco-system," Moegling said. "It's the bottom of the food chain. You gotta have it or you don't have walleye and perch."CLEVELAND, Ohio - University Circle isn't the place it used to be. Once an area that fell dormant without students, the Circle today is vibrant year-round. Even in summer.

No wonder the Cleveland Orchestra created "Summers@Severance," a fifth edition of which begins this Friday. With more people living, working, and dining in University Circle, it only made sense to let some of them in on occasion to enjoy a little classical music and post-concert drinks.

"It seemed like an oversight to have Severance Hall sitting there dark during the summer," said Ross Binnie, the orchestra's chief brand officer. "We want to still be on people's radar, and not only in Summit County."

Indeed, as Binnie suggests, keeping Severance Hall active and connected to University Circle during summer is only one of the orchestra's objectives with "Summers@Severance," a series of three short concerts on Friday evenings, with pre- and post-concert socials.

Another goal is to offer an alternative to Blossom Music Center, its summer home. Not everyone, after all, can or wishes to travel 45 minutes south of Cleveland to a patch of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

"We're always hearing from people that it's too far to go down to Blossom," Binnie said. "For us, I think it's just a matter of providing different choices."

There are artistic aims behind the series as well. Along with making the most of its properties, the orchestra also aspires with "Summers@Severance" to draw in new listeners and give them a short but concentrated dose of what the group is universally famous for.

That's especially true this season. Artistic administrator Ilya Gidalevich said the 2018 edition of "Summers@Severance" is distinctly orchestra-centric, an effort to showcase the group on the overlapping occasions of its own centennial and the 50th anniversary of Blossom Music Center.

Over the course of the month-long season, patrons will hear Brahms' Symphony No. 4, as conducted by the renowned Herbert Blomstedt; Elgar's "In the South" and Bartok's pivotal Concerto for Orchestra, with conductor Vasily Petrenko; and Haydn, Handel, and Mozart with conductor Jonathan Cohen and pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout.

Instead of offering "light" or "pops" music, the stereotypical fare of summer festivals, "We made an effort this year to veer away from that and focus on classical," Gidalevich said. "Once you get in the hall, no matter how long or short the concert is, you're hearing serious classical music."

The programs aren't the only thing special about "Summers@Severance," either. The vibe, too, is unique.

During the regular season, the orchestra is confined indoors, but during summer, the group is also able to host audience members (and a DJ) outdoors for drinks and conversation on its grand front terrace. Concerts start and end earlier than usual, and the dress code is strictly casual.

"We use the whole building much more holistically than we do in the winter," Binnie said. "It's been refreshing."

PREVIEW

Cleveland Orchestra

What: "Summers@Severance" concert series

When: 7 p.m. Friday, July 27; Friday, Aug. 10; and Friday, Aug. 24. Pre-concert happy hour at 5:30; After party at 8:30 p.m.

Where: Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland.

Tickets: $27-$97. Go to clevelandorchestra.com or call 216-231-1111.

THE 2018 "SUMMERS@SEVERANCE" SEASON

Friday, July 27

Artist: Herbert Blomstedt, conductor

Brahms: Symphony No. 4

Friday, Aug. 10

Artist: Vasily Petrenko, conductor

Elgar: In the South

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra

Friday, Aug. 24

Artists: Jonathan Cohen, conductor, and pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout

Handel: Occasional Oratorio Overture

Haydn: Piano Concerto in D

Mozart: Symphony No. 25CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ten years ago Saturday, more than 100 agents raided county offices and the homes of politicians and government workers in what would become the most widespread corruption scandal in Cuyahoga County history.

The ringleaders of the massive pay-to-play scheme were County Auditor Frank Russo and County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora. Russo was sentenced to 22 years on a plea deal while Dimora received a 28-year sentence after going to trial.

As the investigation and trial unfolded, new evidence - recordings of wiretaps, documents and the like - of just how deep corruption ran in Cuyahoga County came out at breakneck speed.

And still - after 10 years and numerous convictions - more information about the scandal is coming to light.

Former federal prosecutor Ann Rowland, who headed up much of the county corruption case, joined the Ohio Matters podcast this week and divulged several never-before-heard details that shed some new light on the case.

Rowland, who recently retired, was able to speak freely about the case for the first time, no longer bound by protocol to keep quiet.

Here's some of what we learned from the episode.

How the investigation started

"It all started in 2007 for me - in the summer of 2007 - when I was asked to go over to the FBI and hear a pitch about an investigation they wanted to do of Jimmy Dimora and Frank Russo," she said. "They told us that they had received information from a few sources who were trying to do business with Cuyahoga County and they felt like they were being shut out. And even though they didn't have particular inside information, they suspected there was a pay-to-play system in Cuyahoga County."

Rowland said those tips were the impetus for the investigation, which eventually sprawled to include wiretaps and federal agents trailing targets as far away as Las Vegas.

And, she said, there is a lesson to be learned.

"The thing I want to emphasize is that those business people that came forward at that time asked that their identities be protected, and their identities are not known to this day," Rowland said. "If there's anything we've learned from this incredible episode in our history, it's that people who are doing business and living in this county can really make a contribution if they come forward. Their identities can be protected and you never know what will happen with the information. In this case, it was remarkably successful."

The Plain Dealer series on patronage aided the investigation

The Plain Dealer was widely derided after news of the scandal broke. As the watchdog daily newspaper for Cleveland, the paper had simply missed the case and been as stunned as everyone else the day of the raids.

"Unbeknownst to them, they were actually helping us quite a bit in the investigation," Rowland said.

In April 2008, The Plain Dealer started working on a series of stories about patronage in county government, with one story focusing on Russo.

Rowland feared there was a leak.

"When we first started hearing on the wiretap that some of our targets were being contacted by The Plain Dealer for a story on patronage, we thought, 'Oh, my god, this is the end of the wiretap. They're going to suspect there is a law enforcement investigation. They're going to stop talking on the phone. We're going to lose all this great conversation we're getting,'" Rowland said. "But to the contrary, what they did was started worrying out loud about specifics that The Plain Dealer might uncover."

The conversations after The Plain Dealer story yielded invaluable information, Rowland said.

"There's one particular call I'm remembering where Frank Russo is worrying about the employment application of Joe Gallucci, who we hadn't really been focusing on," Rowland said. "And it turned out that was one of the counts in the indictment. Russo had enticed Joe Gallucci to run a sham campaign against him so he could preclude any real opposition."

"But for that conversation, we probably wouldn't have focused on that scheme," she said.

After the raid, the FBI sometimes followed The Plain Dealer's lead

In the aftermath of the raids, federal investigators sometimes used The Plain Dealer's coverage for guidance on where to look next.

"The investigation had two phases," Rowland said. "The first phase was covert, which was summer of 2007 to 2008. Everything we did was very secret. We were so careful that we didn't even serve subpoenas on banks unless they had a national headquarters someplace else. Not that we think a bank would knowingly spill the beans, but a subpoena lying on somebody's desk could be seen. You just never know."

The FBI was able to work pretty easily covertly, but some things it simply couldn't do, lest it jeopardize the investigation.

"There were some things we hadn't been able to do," Rowland said. "And I think on day two or three of Plain Dealer coverage, The Plain Dealer had walked into Independence City Hall and pulled the building permits for the improvements on Jimmy Dimora's house. Those improvements were a large part of the bribery scheme that Commissioner Dimora had engaged in. An FBI agent couldn't have walked into the Independence City Hall where Jimmy Dimora lived and said, 'Please give me the permits to his house.' So we just had to do without. But they ended up being exhibits in the trial."

"I ran to the front lawn every morning to read the PD to get leads and find out what documents we should get in an official way," Rowland said.Rotunda Rumblings



Payday loan bill clears legislature: The Ohio House on Tuesday OK'd the Senate's changes to the payday loan reform bill. House Bill 123 now heads to Gov. John Kasich's desk and, as cleveland.com's Laura Hancock reports, there's no indication yet on whether he will sign or veto it. Click here to see how House members voted.



Another Smith in the House: Germantown pastor J. Todd Smith was sworn in Tuesday to finish the term of Republican Jeff Rezabek, who left his House District 43 seat early to become a Montgomery County Juvenile Court judge. Smith was already the Republican nominee for the Dayton-area district this November, as Rezabek didn't plan to run for re-election anyway. He is the third Smith to serve in the House this session, after House Speaker Ryan Smith and Democratic Rep. Kent Smith.



Weather delay: Although Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown supported Robert Wilkie's nomination to head the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after Wilkie said he opposed privatizing the agency, Brown didn't vote on his confirmation. He missed the Monday vote because his flight from Cleveland to Washington was canceled due to foul weather and he couldn't get back in time, said his spokeswoman, Jenny Donohue. "Brown met with Wilkie in his office, he questioned Wilkie at a hearing before the Veteran's Affairs Committee and he voted for Wilkie's nomination out of the committee," said Donohue.



Two many O'Connors? Matthew Brendan O'Connor, the Libertarian candidate for Ohio's 12th Congressional District race this November, told cleveland.com "it is complete coincidence" that he's running in a race that already features Democrat Danny O'Connor. The 48-year-old Dublin resident, who runs cybersecurity for a Fortune 500 company (he declined to say which one), said he started planning to run for the seat a year and a half ago, before Danny got in the race. Asked about having two O'Connors on the ballot, Danny (who isn't related to Matthew) told WOSU's Ann Fisher, "I have absolute faith in the people of the 12th District that they'll see through anything that's gamesmanship."



Christmas in July: This year's Ohio State Fair butter cow exhibit celebrates the 35th anniversary of "A Christmas Story," an iconic holiday movie that was filmed partially in Cleveland. Jeremy Pelzer of cleveland.com has video of the spread, which includes (of course) a certain leg-shaped light fixture.



Side gig: An Ohio Medicaid employee who also operated a personal counseling business wasn't billing Medicaid, a new Ohio Inspector General report found. However, Kimberly Williams, whose title was Health Systems Administrator 1, used her state-issued computer and printer for her business while on state time. The Inspector General's office forwarded the investigation to the Columbus city attorney and the Ohio Ethics Commission for further consideration.



Cordray's health care plan: If he's elected governor, Democrat Richard Cordray wants to keep the Medicaid expansion, invest in preventive care and improve transparency, cleveland.com's Seth Richardson reports. Cordray unveiled his health care proposals Tuesday in Cleveland, which were short on some specifics. Not surprisingly, Republican Mike DeWine's campaign hit back, saying Cordray failed to deliver any firm policy proposals.



Medicare for all: A majority of Northeast Ohioans view health care as right, and they think the country should offer a Medicare-for-all plan, a new poll shows. Richardson reports that the poll of the Cleveland media market, which includes heavily Democratic Cuyahoga County, was conducted by RABA Research with questions from Advance Local, cleveland.com's parent company.



Out of the race: State Rep. Nick Celebrezze, who recently won his Democratic primary, has dropped his November re-election bid for family reasons, cleveland.com's Andrew Tobias reports. Democratic precinct committee members in Celebrezze's Parma-area district will meet Thursday to name a ballot replacement.



In the race? Rep. Tim Ryan has been getting lots of buzz as a potential 2020 presidential candidate. But cleveland.com's Sabrina Eaton offers up five sound reasons why the Mahoning Valley Democrat probably won't be the next chief executive.



Bad info: "Federal agencies have done an awful job complying with a 2014 law that was supposed to make information on the money they spend publicly accessible on the USAspending.gov website," a new Senate report has found, Eaton writes. Much of the data on the website is wrong, according to the report, from a subcommittee chaired by Ohio's Rob Portman.



Feeling the pain: "Ohio is caught in the middle of a trade war between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau," writes cleveland.com's Robin Goist, who took a look at the Ohio industries that could be hit by tariffs imposed by Canada.



As Ohio goes: Four states are following Ohio in trying to eliminate partisan gerrymandering, Michael Wines of the New York Times reports. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court taking a pass on the issue in the spring, voters in Michigan, Missouri, Colorado and Utah all could face redistricting reform issues in November, just as Ohio did in May, Wines writes.



Take your chances: Democratic attorney general candidate Steve Dettelbach's supporters are offering a chance to meet former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder by contributing as little as $5, Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. That could be a problem because political raffles are illegal in Ohio, Balmert writes. Dettelbach's campaign says it isn't a raffle and isn't illegal, and that questioning it amounts to a political attack.



Feeling a little blue: Sabato's Crystal Ball is now calling two Ohio congressional races "tossups" instead of leaning Republican. The 12th District August special election between Republican Troy Balderson and Democrat Danny O'Connor in Central Ohio, as well as the 1st District November race between Republican incumbent Steve Chabot and Democrat Aftab Pureval in the Cincinnati area both moved in the Democrats' direction, writes Managing Editor Kyle Kondik.



Police salute: The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio has endorsed Cordray over DeWine in the governor's race, reports Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch. The 30,000-member law enforcement organization endorsed all of the Democratic statewide candidates except in the Secretary of State's race, where it picked Republican Frank LaRose over Democrat Kathleen Clyde, Ludlow writes.



Get a job from your phone: The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services today is launching a mobile phone application for job seekers. It will provide job postings from OhioMeansJobs.com. To download, go to the App Store and search "Ohio Means Jobs."



Full Disclosure



Five things we learned from Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judith French's May 13 financial disclosure statement.



1. French received dividends from General Electric, IBM and Mattel stock. The ethics forms do not require her to report how much money she received. She earned $163,547 as a justice, according to the Ohio Treasurer's office.



2. She reported receiving gifts worth over $75 from April Bott, the Ohio Republican Party, the Moritz College of Law, Mike and Stephanie Thompson, Eric and Lisa Locklin, Barbara Marlowe and Kate Arnold.



3. At some point in 2017, she owed over $1,000 each to American Express, a Brooks Brothers Mastercard, Capital One Visa, Ford Credit, Ventola Remodeling, Huntington National Bank, First Financial Bank and Chase Visa.



4. She reported the following investments over $1,000: a pension with the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System and mutual funds with Ohio Deferred Compensation, Fidelity, Vanguard and Dodge and Cox.



5. The Supreme Court gave her $242.42 for travel last year. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts gave French $222 for travel.



Birthdays



Martin L. Davey, Ohio's 53rd governor (1884-1946)



Straight From The Source



"After all, as they said in the 'Godfather:' 'We are not communists.'"



-Cincinnati Republican Rep. Bill Seitz during his floor speech against the payday lending bill. Seitz opposes a provision in the bill that prohibits lenders from charging fees or interest if the borrower rescinds the loan in the first three days. He sees it as the government forcing the businesses to give away money.

Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. If you do not already subscribe, you can sign up here to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Democratic governor hopeful Richard Cordray on Tuesday unveiled his health care plan for the state, which includes keeping the Medicaid expansion, investing in preventive care and increasing transparency in several programs.

Cordray has talked about his support for the Medicaid expansion - part of the Affordable Care Act that covers 700,000 Ohioans - for months now, but Tuesday's announcement at the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation in Cleveland marked the first time he'd given a more comprehensive plan. But he was short on some specifics, instead outlining goals and possible solutions without attaching a firm price tag or policy proposal.

Cordray's proposals included:

Preserving the Medicaid expansion

Refocusing Medicaid resources on preventive care

Investing in prenatal services

Increasing vaccinations and immunizations for children

Blood pressure screenings and regular checkups for all adults

Smoking cessation efforts

Expanding the health care workforce and telehealth options

The goals Cordray outlined included incentives for health care professionals to serve in underserved areas and ensuring primary care coverage for all adults.

Cordray also said he wanted to investigate the causes of increasing drug prices in the state and transform the Department of Insurance to be more of a watchdog for consumers - echoing his prior job goals in the Obama administration when he headed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Pharmacy benefit managers in particular need more oversight, he said.

But how Cordray plans to accomplish those goals and proposals is unclear. The candidate didn't outline many specifics in his two-page release, only identified problem areas that needed solutions.

For the portions that included specific proposals, Cordray did not say how much they would cost the state, but said he thought it would save money in the long run by focusing on preventing people from becoming sick rather than treating them when they fall ill.

"We think on the whole, this will save money in Ohio because it will get better health outcomes and, therefore, will save us better money in the long run," he said.

Cordray's announcement comes just weeks after Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine finally released his plans for the Medicaid expansion after months of avoiding the question, saying he wanted to keep it but implement work requirements. Politifact rated DeWine's reversal on the expansion a "Full Flop."

Cordray has consistently attacked DeWine for both denouncing Obamacare and the Medicaid expansion and supporting the program when it was politically convenient. Cordray has taken to calling the expansion "Gov. Kasich's Medicaid expansion," hoping to peel off supporters of the current Republican governor who may feel disenfranchised by the current iteration of the GOP.

DeWine's camp hit back at Cordray's outline on Tuesday, with spokesman Josh Eck saying the Democrat failed to deliver any firm policy proposals.

"All Richard Cordray did today was read a list of problems facing Ohio without offering any real solutions," Eck said. "Mike DeWine has laid out specific plans for improving Medicaid in Ohio, improving health outcomes and is already taking steps to stop pharmacy middle-men from ripping off taxpayers."

Health care has arguably been the most universally important issue to voters this cycle. Respondents to polls routinely rate it as one of the top issues, and Democrats' opposition to Republicans hit a fever pitch during the GOP's attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Google has been analyzing the most-searched terms in Ohio related to the election, the top-four of which involved health care.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cuyahoga County corruption case had a massive impact on politics in Ohio.

Even though the case was local in nature, the ripple effects can still be felt 10 years later. This week on Ohio Matters, the cleveland.com politics team - with special guest host federal courts reporter Eric Heisig - sat down with former federal prosecutor Ann Rowland and cleveland.com editor-in-chief Chris Quinn to talk about how the case unfolded and the ramifications that are still felt.

Rowland, who recently retired, gave a first-person perspective on the inner workings of the case, from how it began to the torrid details of the criminal dealings of County Auditor Frank Russo and the flamboyant lifestyle of County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora.

Quinn wasn't privy to the insider knowledge Rowland had in the investigation, but, as the metro editor of The Plain Dealer at the time, had an up-close view of the public reaction to the case, the journalistic endeavors that followed and how both Cuyahoga County and the state rebounded in the aftermath.

Ohio Matters is the weekly politics podcast from cleveland.com. Every week, reporters Andrew Tobias, Mary Kilpatrick and Seth Richardson sit down with political figures from the Buckeye State for in-depth conversations.

Past episodes can be found here and include Democratic governor nominee Richard Cordray, Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson and longtime political strategist Jerry Austin.Terry H. Gilbert is a criminal defense lawyer in Cleveland.

CLEVELAND -- Last month, Christopher Miller walked out of the Cuyahoga County Jail after spending more than 17 years in prison as an innocent man. The jury at Miller's 2002 rape trial didn't hear important evidence: The victim's original description of her assailant did not match Miller or the description she gave at trial, but no one told Miller or his attorneys. Also, current DNA technology definitively proved that Miller could not have been either of the two men who assaulted the victim.

Like other wrongfully imprisoned people, Miller suffered years of daily misery, separation from his family and deprivation of his liberty, while eating, sleeping, and working in prison, with only a sliver of hope that someday someone might take his case and undo the injustice caused by the very system that was supposed to protect him. Miller faced rejection after rejection by judges and defiant prosecutors -- until the Ohio Innocence Project took his case and eventually won his release.

Jacqueline Greene is a criminal defense lawyer in Cleveland.

But what happens now? How do you make up for all that time? How can Miller and other wrongfully convicted people regain a sense of normalcy, rebuild family relationships, pursue job training or higher education, provide for themselves and their children, and acquire even the most basic necessities? All of these opportunities have been stolen from them during their years of wrongful incarceration. They deserve a fresh start.

Some help is coming through a bipartisan bill that's already passed in the Ohio House (House Bill 411) and that will advance toward a vote in the Ohio Senate (Senate Bill 248) when it returns from recess later this summer.

These proposed bills are an update to an older law, and, if passed, would provide limited compensation to wrongfully imprisoned people at a rate of approximately $53,000 per year of imprisonment, in addition to income lost during those years. In order to qualify for this compensation -- which barely begins to recognize the horrors and trauma of being wrongfully convicted and imprisoned -- applicants must prove their innocence or show that they were deprived of what is known as "Brady material," a name for evidence of potential innocence that was not disclosed to a defendant during trial or after sentencing.

Sarah Gelsomino is a criminal defense lawyer in Cleveland.

The new bill incorporates Brady issues left out of the older version of the law. This new version, currently before the Senate's Judiciary Committee, would shore up language which was originally intended to address Brady violations -- but because of the way it was worded, courts interpreted the law to exclude most wrongfully imprisoned people who were victimized by police or prosecutors who withheld evidence of potential innocence before and during their trials.

When police and prosecutors hide favorable evidence -- such as reports of other suspects, information about lying witnesses, or physical evidence -- they violate the constitutional rights of people facing prosecution and can cause wrongful convictions. When state actors cause such immense harm, shouldn't the state have the moral and legal responsibility to provide some compensation to address the harm to those who needlessly suffered years in prison?

Shamefully, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and some local prosecutors -- including members of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office -- oppose this modest correction to the current wrongful conviction law. Their position -- which can only be interpreted as an attempt to protect police and prosecutorial misconduct -- is utterly indefensible.

Prosecutors' defensive cries of "taxpayer dollars!" should be ignored. Since the original wrongful imprisonment statute was passed in 1986, few people have achieved eligibility for compensation. The process is difficult and typically involves years of litigation. State funding for those who succeed is a very small part of the budget -- especially in comparison to massive funding for expanding prisons and other law enforcement initiatives.

We should all want wrongfully imprisoned people to be able to move forward with dignity and an opportunity for a better life. The Ohio Senate should pass SB 248 and send it to Gov. John Kasich for his signature. Please contact members of the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate leaders and urge them to move this bill to the floor to be voted upon and passed.

Lawyers Terry H. Gilbert, Jacqueline Greene and Sarah Gelsomino are representing Christopher Miller.

*************

Have something to say about this topic? Use the comments to share your thoughts. Then, stay informed when readers reply to your comments by using the "Follow" option at the top of the comments, and look for updates via the small blue bell in the lower right as you look at more stories on cleveland.com.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A surreptitious recording, made in September 2016 by then-candidate Donald Trump's former longtime personal attorney, mentions a Cleveland-area pastor.

In the recording, released Tuesday night by CNN, Michael Cohen and Trump can be heard discussing the results of a recent poll, as well as a pair of prominent African-American Trump campaign surrogates. Darrell Scott, pastor at the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights, comes up, although tangentially and even perhaps mistakenly so.

Presidential candidate Donald Trump is heard on tape discussing with his then-lawyer Michael Cohen how they would buy rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to a recording of the conversation: https://t.co/YpJsjLHMYv pic.twitter.com/tN7YVpcNyz  CNN (@CNN) July 25, 2018

"Your guy is a good guy," Trump says near the beginning of the recording.

"Who, Pastor Scott?" Cohen responds. Cohen and Scott co-founded the National Diversity Coalition for Trump in 2016.

"Can't believe this. No, Pastor Scott. What's, what's happening," Trump says. "Can we use him anymore?"

"Oh yeah... No, you're talking about Mark Burns," Cohen responds.

At the time of the recording, questions had just been raised in media reporting whether Burns, a pastor in South Carolina, had inflated his educational background.

The free-wheeling conversation then goes on to discuss Cohen's role in setting up a deal to pay $150,000 to the National Enquirer for the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal's story about an alleged past affair she had with Trump.

Some have contended the contents of the recording, provided to CNN by Cohen's legal team, suggests that Trump was familiar with the deal. But Rudy Giuliani, who is representing Trump in the ongoing investigations into scandals involving Trump, told the Washington Post the tape is exculpatory and portrays Cohen describing a deal that Trump doesn't understand. The recording, and reportedly others, were seized by the FBI in April as part of an ongoing federal investigation into Cohen's possible violations of bank and election-law crimes, according to media reports.

Scott and Burns both spoke at the July 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, at which Trump was officially nominated. Scott also hosted Trump, Cohen and others at the New Spirit Revival Center in September 2016, around the time Cohen's tape was recorded, for a campaign event.

Scott considered challenging Rep. Dave Joyce for a Northeast Ohio congressional seat in the Republican primary earlier this year, but ultimately ended up not filing to run. Burns ran for a congressional seat in South Carolina, but lost in the primary.STRONGSVILLE, Ohio - City Council has rejected three charter amendments, all of which would affect council and its power, proposed earlier this month by the city's Charter Review Committee.

Meanwhile, council, led by Ward 3 Councilwoman Kelly Kosek, has introduced four of its own charter amendments that would retain but redefine council's authority and give council more control over future charter review committees.

Two of council's proposed charter amendments may appear on the November ballot, alongside five committee-recommended amendments that council did approve.

Council's other two charter amendments will have to wait for a future election, if council decides to pursue them.

Council seemed especially offended by a committee recommendation that the city's safety director, who may or may not live in Strongsville, take over as interim mayor if the elected mayor is unable to fulfill his or her duties. The law and finance directors would be next in the line of succession, under the committee's proposed charter amendment.

Now, the charter designates the council president as next in line to the mayor, followed by the council president pro tempore.

"Our (charter committee's) feeling was that a city the size of Strongsville really needs a full-time mayor, and our thought process was the department heads are full-time employees, vetted by council," Kim Allen Veris, a committee member, told council July 2.

Charter committee Chairman Gregory Gleine said the directors, although they may not live in Strongsville, have the city's best interests at heart, due to their daily involvement in municipal affairs.

"We felt confident they could carry that forward on an interim basis (as mayor)," Gleine said.

Councilman Matt Schonhut asked if the committee believed that current council members aren't qualified to take over as mayor. Gleine said that subject never came up.

"You sure about that?" Schonhut challenged Gleine.

"I'm pretty sure," Gleine said. "I may be mistaken, but I believe that was the case."

Gleine said the committee, in making its recommendation, looked at other cities, including Avon, Berea, Cleveland, Elyria and North Ridgeville, where department heads, not council members, are next in line to the mayor.

"We would not be creating a situation, if we go this route, where Strongsville would be unique," Gleine said.

Gleine said the committee didn't want to burden council members, who serve part-time and typically have other jobs, with the full-time responsibilities of mayor. He said the committee also didn't want to disrupt council leadership by moving the council president into the mayor's seat.

Schonhut asked who would fill in as safety director if the safety director became interim mayor.

Gleine said the safety director would temporarily serve both roles.

"But none of us (on council) could hold two roles?" Schonhut asked.

Gleine answered yes, adding the point was that the safety director/mayor would work full-time for one employer, the city, in two positions.

Kosek's alternative

Two weeks later, on July 16, council voted 7-0 against placing the committee's mayoral-succession amendment on the November ballot. Instead, Kosek introduced her own charter amendment that would keep the council president and council president pro tempore next in line to the mayor.

The change would come in the length of time the interim mayor would serve. Under the existing charter, if two years or more remain in the mayor's term, the interim mayor serves until a new mayor can be chosen in the next general election, or in a special election. If less than two years remain, the interim mayor simply finishes the term.

Under Kosek's amendment, if one year or more remain in the mayor's term, the interim mayor would serve until a new mayor can be chosen in an already-scheduled election, either in May or November. The change would mean the city would not have to pay for a special election, and it would give voters a chance to elect a new mayor faster.

However, Kosek's mayoral succession amendment was tabled for now because the city's Law Department found problems with the wording.

Here is a rundown of the other two committee-recommended charter amendments that council rejected for the November ballot, and amendments that council has proposed on its own:

Council appointments. Under the existing charter, if a council seat becomes vacant, the rest of council appoints a replacement, who serves until the council term is finished.

The committee recommended that council should make an appointment only if fewer than 12 months remain in the council term. If 12 months or more remain, voters should choose the council replacement in the next general election, or the city should call for a special election.

Council defeated this amendment 5-2. Only Michael Daymut and Gordon Short voted in favor.

Kosek came back with a similar amendment, but under her proposal, council would appoint a replacement if a seat becomes vacant regardless of how much time remains in a term. If a year or more remains, the appointed council person would serve until the next May or November election. If less than a year remains in the term, the appointed person would finish the term.

Kosek said her amendment would give more authority to voters but would ensure, unlike the charter committee's version, that a council seat would not go unfilled for an extended time.

However, this amendment will have to wait for a future election so that the Law Department can prepare the proper language.

No-bid spending. Under the existing charter, council with a unanimous vote can approve spending without public bidding. Such spending might be necessary in an emergency.

The charter committee had recommended requiring just six votes of council to approve no-bid spending. Council voted the measure down 5-2, with only Daymut and Short voting yes.

Kosek introduced a similar charter amendment. She said if only six council members are present at a meeting, and they all vote in favor of no-bid spending, the measure should pass, even though one council member is absent.

However, if all seven council members are present, and only six vote in favor of no-bid spending, then the measure should fail. The idea is that any no-bid spending measure should pass only with no negative votes.

Council may call a special meeting to place this amendment on the November ballot.

Charter committee roster. Now, the charter gives the mayor authority to appoint each of nine members -- all "qualified electors" -- to a charter review committee at least once every five years. The current committee recommended no change to that system.

However, Kosek introduced a charter amendment that would increase the charter committee roster to 11. The mayor would appoint four members, one from each ward, and each council member would appoint one.

Kosek said told cleveland.com she had no problem with the 2018 charter committee. She said her proposal would bring a better representation of the city into the charter-review process.

"The people who served worked hard and they gave good recommendations," Kosek said. "I just think the process can be improved."

Council may call a special meeting to place this amendment on the November ballot.

Unusual approach

At the July 16 council caucus, immediately before the televised meeting, Assistant Law Director Dan Kolick advised council against placing its own charter amendments on the ballot at such a late date. He said it may look as if council is trying to sneak something onto the ballot at the last minute.

"It's the wrong approach to take, just from the appearance standpoint," Kolick told council.

The charter committee met four times in April and May and presented its recommendations to council July 2. The committee considered suggestions from residents and its meetings were public, Kolick said.

According to Law Director Neal Jamison, council has until Aug. 6 to submit all charter amendments to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections for inclusion on the November ballot.

Kolick said the normal process involves the charter committee making recommendations and council voting up or down on those recommendations. He said if council wants to propose its own charter amendments, it should wait until after the November election.

But Schonhut said Kosek's charter amendment on no-bid spending is similar but better than the charter committee's. He supported moving forward with council's' two charter amendments.President Donald Trump's national security advisor said Wednesday that the next bilateral meeting between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin should happen "after the Russia witch hunt is over."

The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, John Bolton told reporters Wednesday.

The White House had earlier said that Trump would meet with Putin at the White House in the fall. The plan drew condemnation from lawmakers. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wi., said he would not invite Putin to speak before Congress during the Washington D.C. visit. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday that Putin "will not be welcome" in the capitol.

The Kremlin was lukewarm on the idea of a second meeting, with a top official telling reporters Tuesday that Russia had not begun any preparations.

There are other options (to meet) which our leaders can look at, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Tuesday, Reuters reported.

Trump and Putin met earlier this month in Finland for a closed-door two-hour meeting, the first formal get-together between the two leaders. At a joint press conference after the meeting, Trump expressed doubt that Russia had meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, raising alarm among lawmakers and former intelligence officials.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has not given any public indication of when he will complete his investigation into allegations of improper ties between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government. Comparable investigations have lasted for years.Getty Images

The idea of a computer program learning by itself, growing in knowledge and becoming increasingly sophisticated may be a scary one. It's even scarier when it's learning to attack things. It's easy to dismiss artificial intelligence as yet another tech buzzword, but it's already being used in everyday applications via algorithmic processes known as machine learning. Far from the killer robots of Blade Runner, machine learning applications are designed to train a computer to fulfill a certain task on its own. Machines are essentially taught to complete that task by doing it over and over, learning the many obstacles that could inhibit them. Such attacks, which seem like science fiction today, might become reality in the next few years, Guy Caspi, CEO of cybersecurity start-up Deep Instinct, told CNBCs new podcast Beyond the Valley.

GET YOUR ESSENTIAL TECH INSIGHT FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE PODCAST SERIES Subscribe E-NEWSLETTER Sign up

Such technology promises to provide many benefits, such as smoother computing and the automation of many tasks we may, in years time, consider manageable without human intervention. But it also has experts worried.

Hacking, then weaponizing, drones and carsBitcoin has recovered somewhat in the past few days, but its value is still almost $200 billion less than when it hit its record high in December 2017.

The flagship cryptocurrency is trading just above $8,400 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk, but that's still some 58 percent off the $19,783.21 record from December. Market capitalization or value is down by almost $200 billion since then.

CNBC examines the inner workings of bitcoin and blockchain technology in its newly-launched podcast, Beyond the Valley. The podcast series examines the biggest topics in technology  from a perspective outside of the Silicon Valley and the United States  and features interview with some of the brightest minds in the industry. You can listen to the podcast on bitcoin here.Starbucks is attempting to slowly expand in a market where it was once shunned.

It's easy to find a Starbucks cafe almost anywhere in the world, but in Australia, there aren't that many. That's because in 2008, the company closed more than 70 percent of its underperforming locations, leaving only 23 Starbucks stores throughout the entire continent.

Despite Australia's deep love for coffee, the Seattle-based chain didn't meet success Down Under as it did in other countries. Starbucks opened in Australia in 2000 and grew to nearly 90 locations by 2008. Starbucks moved too quickly, and grew faster than its popularity.

"When they launched, they launched too rapidly and they didnt give the Australian consumer the opportunity to really develop an appetite for the Starbucks brand," said Thomas O'Connor, a principal research analyst specializing in consumer industries at Gartner.

Australia's already-thriving coffee culture also proved to be a challenge for the American brand. The Australian cafe industry is expected to hit more than $6 billion in revenue in 2018. The country has been immersed in the cafe scene since the mid-1900s when Italian and Greek immigrants moved to the continent. It was then that Australians were introduced to espresso, the key ingredient to an Aussie favorite  the flat white.

Australians also compete in barista competitions and can enroll in coffee-making classes, so they take their coffee seriously.

Starbucks didn't fit Australians' tastes. The company served sweeter coffee options than Australians preferred, all while charging more than the local cafes.

In its first seven years in Australia, Starbucks accumulated $105 million in losses, forcing the company to close 61 locations.

But Starbucks hasn't given up in Australia just yet. Since the 2008 closures, the company has started to slowly open more locations in the country.

Today, there are 39 locations in the Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney areas, catering to tourists who visit those parts of the country. By slowing its growth and trying to cater more to tourists, Starbucks may have found a recipe for success in Australia.



Getty Images

For Christmas last year, Divergent Wealth Advisors, in Midvale, Utah, decided to give clients a gift that would keep on giving  the firm rolled out an online organizational tool called Everplans, said Richard Collins, managing partner. Everplans is a technology start-up that helps people store all of their most important digital assets in one place. As consumers have become increasingly comfortable with having even the most important aspects of their lives, such as bank accounts, online, it is a natural next step that estate planning will move online, as well, said Bruno Graziano, a senior analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. There are some clear benefits to storing important information online, such as portability and ease of access anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection, said Collins. But before you rush to put all of your estate-planning documents online, there are a few things to consider.

Its good to have everything in one place

One of the most important aspects of having estate planning in place is making sure that executors, beneficiaries and other people who will be affected in the event of your passing are aware of the arrangements beforehand, said Nick Holeman, a senior financial planner at Betterment, an online financial advisor. For those who are tech-savvy, an online system can be a great tool for a lifetime maintenance plan for an estate, said Louis Pierro, founder and principal of Pierro, Connor & Strauss, a law firm that focuses on estate planning. His firm uses its own online storage system to store electronic versions of important documents.

Ultimately, when it comes time for their successors, everything is right in front of you, Pierro said. An online tool can also help start conversations with clients about a topic that is not the most fun to address, said Collins at Divergent Wealth Advisors. Using one at Collins' firm not only helped clients get involved in their own planning  there are many components that can be done solo  but it also helped advisors talk with clients' families about plans for the future, he said.

Including all of your digital assets

Using an online tool to organize your estate planning can also help with a new and sometimes overlooked group of assets: your online accounts, which should be carefully included. Your parents and grandparents took photographs, stuffed them in shoeboxes and put them in the closet, said Ric Edelman, founder and executive chairman of Edelman Financial Services in Fairfax, Virginia. Thats not what we do. Each online account has its own rules for access in the user agreement, said Marcy Keckler, vice president of financial advice strategy at Ameriprise Financial. Some include the ability to name someone who has limited access after your death, other are a little less clear, she said. All of these accounts should be included in estate planning so that they can be accessed after death. Otherwise, you run the risk that they will be destroyed. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act allows those appointed as fiduciaries to access some digital assets in the 45 states and the District of Columbia where it has been enacted, according to the Uniform Law Commission, a state-supported organization that works to bring uniform laws to different jurisdictions.

The 2015 revised law, however, does not give full access of your accounts to your attorney or executors if you have not specified access in a legal document. This means that bank accounts could be accessed, but without specific consent, texts, emails and social media accounts could not. In addition, not all states have passed legislation about digital assets, so its important to include in estate planning. If you have an executor who is going to be in charge of everything, you want them to have access to all of your accounts, said Nick Holeman, senior financial planner at Betterment, an online financial advisor. That includes giving an executor or other trusted individual your password, login information and even the answers to security questions. Holeman said that using a password manager will help keep everything up to date and in one place. There are many products available online at various price points that will organize passwords, keep them secure and allow you to name an executor of your accounts in the event that something happens to you.

Online is not for everyone

Not everyone is comfortable with putting so much sensitive information online, said Graziano from Wolters Kluwer. Theres always going to be the question of how secure that stuff is, he said. If youre considering an online tool, make sure you look at its security requirements. Everplans, for example, encrypts all information and adheres to data compliance protocol such as HIPAA for medical documents.

If you have an executor who is going to be in charge of everything, you want them to have access to all of your accounts. Nick Holeman senior financial planner at Betterment

If you arent comfortable putting something online, you dont have to, said Collins from Divergent Wealth Advisors. Some clients only store portions of their plan online, or use an online account to save locations of important accounts and documents, he said. Even providing your family with the breadcrumbs is very helpful, said Abby Schneiderman, cofounder and co-CEO of Everplans.

Estate planning still requires expert guidance

Its also important to note that while online storage is convenient, it should not replace seeking expert advice in estate planning. It also should not replace having physical documents saved in a safe place. The legally binding hard-copy signed versions are the most important, said Keckler from Ameriprise Financial. There are some instances where you will need a signed document. For example, not all hospitals will accept electronic copies of legal documents such as power of attorney or a health directive, said Edelman. In addition, different states have varying rules on paper documents. New York State still requires original copies for most legal documents, said Pierro of Pierro, Connor & Strauss. More from Personal Finance: Experts recommend storing originals and copies with your attorney, and also in a safe or other secure location in your home with other important documents like birth certificates and marriage licenses. One thing experts do not recommend is storing estate planning documents in a safety deposit box. Such boxes are generally frozen in the event of your death, said Holeman from Betterment. There is a complicated process for opening them, said Pierro at Pierro, Connor & Strauss, and if you havent named another person on the box, your family would have to go through probate court to access its contents.

Communication and organization are key

No matter where or how you eventually decide to store your estate-planning documents, organizing those documents and communicating your wishes with your family is extremely important. People are disorganized, their lives are all over the place, said Schneiderman from Everplans. Things are really difficult and they dont need to be.

If you wait, you could add unnecessary stress and questions to a time that is already stressful. Marcy Keckler vice president of financial advice strategy at Ameriprise FinancialEvery once in a while, CNBC's watches a once-beloved stock fall out of favor with investors. But what really interests him is how that stock gets its groove back when Wall Street throws it to the wayside. "Lets consider the case of Danaher, the life sciences, diagnostics and environmental technology play," the "Mad Money" host said on Tuesday. "Over the past few decades  decades  Danaher has been perhaps the single best conglomerate on earth." But earlier this year, shares of Danaher stalled after the company issued some disappointing guidance. That spiraled into tariff-related pain as investors worried about its broad overseas business. Then, in April, Danaher's earnings report revealed another problematic side to the story: the conglomerate's lagging dental business. This quarter, however, Danaher turned things around, deciding to spin off its dental business as a separate company and addressing tariff concerns head-on, Cramer said. "Suddenly, the two biggest overhangs had been either removed or alleviated," he said. "Now it appears that the China impact is both minimal and manageable, and dental will soon be no longer part of the company." Now, Danaher's diagnostics, life sciences and environmental segments can continue to enjoy their double-digit growth and margin expansion without the slow-growing dental business infringing on the numbers, Cramer said. "Think of it as addition by subtraction," he said, adding that Danaher's stock is still a buy thanks to "the consistency and the acceleration of the numbers." "Danahers doing everything it needs to do to generate higher stock prices, which is why I think this baby has more room to run," Cramer continued. "Without dental to worry about, with the tariffs looking manageable, this already terrific story is suddenly looking a heck of a lot better."

One word for the market: Extremist

Getty Images

Cramer is tired of watching the stock market swing from bullish to bearish on a dime. "If I had to sum up this market in a word, Id call it extremist. We rush from one extreme to the other, sometimes in the same day," he said as report on Tuesday. Exhibit A? As the rallied on nothing other than Alphabet's strength, the big industrial stocks fell after President praised , which tend to hurt industrial conglomerates, Cramer said. But Cramer argued that the industrials' decline also happened "in part because many traders made up their minds that things werent so hot before they even knew what the industrials were going to say." That's what frustrated Cramer the most. To find out why, click here.

Off the charts: Volatility check

Trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Lucas Jackson | Reuters

With the stock market it reached in January, Cramer knows investors are starting to wonder if these levels are sustainable. "Will it be smooth sailing? Or is it time to be afraid because we could be in for another February-style swoon?" the "Mad Money" host asked on Tuesday. To answer these questions, Cramer enlisted the help of technician Mark Sebastian, the founder of OptionPit.com, Cramer's colleague at RealMoney.com and "Mad Money's" resident expert on market volatility. Specifically, Sebastian focuses on reading the , more commonly known as the VIX or the "fear gauge." The VIX tracks monthly options to measure implied volatility, or the amount of uncertainty in the size and direction of changes in a market. Volatility is typically measured by the deviation of returns. Get Sebastian and Cramer's full analysis here.

More room to run for FANG?

Brooks Kraft | Getty Images

proved that shares of the Google parent and its fellow tech titans could still head higher, Cramer said on Tuesday. The reason why came to Cramer halfway through conference call, when CEO answered a question about Google's prevalence in society. "We want Google to be the source you think of when you run into a problem," Pichai told analysts and shareholders. That struck Cramer as the driving factor for success in all of FANG, namely the stocks of , , and Alphabet. Here's why.

Centene CEO: Obamacare works and 'we've proven it'

Michael F. Neidorff, CEO of Centene. Adam Jeffery | CNBC

Health insurance giant Centene is profiting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, despite the Trump administration's efforts to scale back the program, Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff told CNBC. "Obamacare is working, were doing very well with it and were anticipating growing it," Neidorff told Cramer in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. While Neidorff said he would be "careful not to be specific" about President Trump in particular, he emphasized the growth Centene has seen with Obamacare, adding that it was in the "top-end" of his company's margin range. "I think just in general, we have moved from policy to politics," the CEO said. "And if you look at whats the right health care policy for this population, the ACA works. And weve proven it. Weve been doing this for five years. Its been very successful." For more on Centene, its Fidelis acquisition and its prospects, watch Neidorff's full interview here.

Lightning round: Scotts Miracle-No?iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Many see them on flights -- animals such as cats and dogs riding alongside passengers, providing emotional support to their owner.



For some, these emotional support animals (ESAs) have become a valuable solution for those with psychological disabilities. But, according to recent reports, this type of companionship has gotten out of hand.



Airlines for America, an airline trade association, estimated that, from 2016 to 2017, the number of emotional support animals aboard U.S. commercial flights grew from 481,000 to 751,000. This breaks down to a 57 percent increase in the number of ESAs carried in jet cabins per day.



There has been a rise in the availability of false emotional support animal credentials online, enabling people who are not truly in need of animal assistance to abuse the rules and evade airline policies on animals in the cabin, Airlines for America said in a statement to ABC News. We forecast that based on the current trend, the compound annual growth rate in ESAs could exceed 150 percent over the next five years.



The steady increase and potential chance to persist has caused many airlines to make a change to their animal travel policies.

This year, United Airlines has taken steps toward reducing the number of ESAs onboard, after facing a 75 percent increase of ESAs in one year. The update now requires customers to provide confirmation that the animal can properly behave in public, and provide a health and vaccination form signed by the animals veterinarian.



Delta Airlines has gone as far as banning pit bulls onboard after a reported attack from a 70-pound dog earlier this summer.



Similarly, JetBlue released an updated policy earlier this year requiring customers to submit advanced notification and documentation when traveling with an emotional support or psychiatric service animal.



Aside from the typical service dog, flyers have attempted taking animals as vast as peacocks on board. What seems to be the biggest hurdle in this fight for animal flying freedom is defining what qualifies as this type of service animal.



We turn to animals when we have difficult times, we turn to animals when we feel stressed, we feel anxious, we feel lonely, psychologist Aubrey Fine told ABC News.



But now, even some of the animals seem to face these difficult times.



Somebody brought an emotional support animal for their emotional support animal, said United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz.



While airlines will continue to update their policies regarding travel with these emotional support animals, an alternative solution may be to get rid of them altogether.



Eliminating the emotional support animal category will greatly reduce the number of untrained animals -- and service animal incidents -- onboard, Airlines for America said.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.In 2014, Tennessee Tech University iCube in partnership with the TN Child Passenger Safety Center developed the Tennessee Child Passenger Safety Resource Tool with funding from the TN Highway Safety Office. This app is free and available for iPhone and Android users.

The app focuses on best practice recommendations for child passenger safety as presented by the American Academy of Pediatrics, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Safe Kids and other expert resources.

The CPS app helps determine the best way to transport children safely and educate users on the Tennessee Law requirements for child passenger safety.

The child passenger safety app is divided into four sections- Car Seat Checker, Types of Child Restraints, Tennessee CPS Fitting Stations Map, and Videos.

The Car Seat Checker section allows the user to type in the birth date, weight, and height of the child. This followed by recommendations for the best type of car seat or booster seat for this child.

The Types of Car Seats section explains the types of car seats available: rear facing, forward facing, booster seats and when to graduate to the vehicles seat belt system.

The TN CPS Fitting Stations Map helps the user to find a local certified child passenger safety technician to assist with the correct selection and installation of car seats and booster seats.

The Video section connects the user to installation videos (approved by car seat manufacturers) to assist with the correct way to install the car seat, either using the vehicle lap and shoulder belt system or using the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren) system.

Also, included in the app, are car seat recalls and frequently asked questions.

Visit http://ollieotter.org/tennessee-child-passenger-safety-app for more information.









Guwahati : A 14-year-old minor girl was raped by a youth in Assams Kamrup (Metro) district.





The incident was happened at Digholipathar village near West Mayang under Pragjyotishpur police station in Kamrup (Metro) district, where the minor girl was raped a 28-year-old youth named Santosh Roy of her same village on Monday.





According to the reports, the youth took the minor to his home and raped her.





She described the incident before her parents when she returned and parents had immediately lodged an FIR with police.





Police had arrested the accused person and on Tuesday he was produced before a local court in Guwahati.





The court had sent the accused person to judicial custody.





Officer-in-Charge of Pragjyotishpur police station Mridul Hazarika said that, police had already arrested the accused person and sent to jail.





We had registered a case (no 148/2018 under section 365 of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Mridul Hazarika said.





According to the Assam state home department data, over 4100 rape cases have been registered in different police stations in the state in last two and half years.



When Microsoft founder Bill Gates took his software company public in 1986 as a 30-year-old  making him a millionaire and one of the richest men in the country  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was just a toddler. Gates continued to run Microsoft, at one point the largest company in the world, until he stepped down as CEO in 2000.

During those years, a young Zuckerberg, who began hacking together chat networks as a pre-teen, was watching. Zuckerberg says seeing Gates succeed as a technology entrepreneur served as a powerful example for him.

"When I was growing up, Bill Gates was my hero," Zuckerberg said in 2013. "I think he is one of the greatest visionaries that our industry has ever had."

The biggest lesson Zuckerberg, now 34, took away from watching Gates, 62, was the power of focus.

"Growing up, I admired how Microsoft was mission-focused," Zuckerberg explained in a recent interview with Recode's Kara Swisher. "It was a company that had a clear social goal ... They thought that computers were gonna be valuable, and having that become ubiquitous."

When Gates founded Microsoft in 1975 with Paul Allen, computers were expensive and complicated. The first personal computer kit, the Altair 8800, had been released only a year earlier, and the Apple 1 computer wouldn't be released by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak until 1976.

But Gates had a vision of what personal computing could become.

"Paul Allen and I set the goal of a computer on every desk and in every home," Gates wrote in an email to Microsoft employees on the company's 40th anniversary. "It was a bold idea and a lot of people thought we were out of our minds to imagine it was possible."

Indeed, that vision came true. Recent estimates suggest there are over a billion computers running Windows software today.

For Zuckerberg, Gate's success at setting and achieving such an ambitious goal is admirable.

"There are companies that define themselves by a way of doing things ... and there are companies that define themselves by making a concrete change in the world. Microsoft did that," Zuckerberg says. "I have a huge amount of respect for [Gates] for doing that. He pushed them, and it was an incredibly inspiring company during the time that he was doing that."

Of course, Microsoft's singular focus also attracted criticism from competitors and lawmakers: Microsoft eventually held such a strong grip on the market for computer software that in 1998, the United States filed an anti-trust lawsuit against it to investigate if it held a monopoly (although the company ultimately wasn't broken up).

With 2 billion people using Facebook each month, the company has fielded questions from lawmakers on whether Zuckerberg's social network holds a monopoly (which he denies), along with other recent scrutiny.

In addition to leadership expertise, Zuckerberg says he has recently been looking to Gates for mentorship in philanthropy.

"I think his second act of going and being one of the worlds best philanthropists has absolutely influenced me," Zuckerberg tells Recode. "Not only to try to follow in his footsteps and do something, hopefully one day, that will be as impactful as what he has done, but his lesson there that you have to start early to practice.

"Like anything that you wanna get good at, you dont just show up and effectively and efficiently give money away. The notion that if I wanna be really good at this 10 or 15 years from now, then Priscilla and I really need to be starting to work on this now," he continues.

In 2015, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged to give away 99 percent of their shares in Facebook to charity. Meanwhile, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given away billions since its founding in 2000.

"Bill Gates has always been a mentor and inspiration for me, even before I knew him," Zuckerberg says.

Don't miss: Read this 1976 letter from a Silicon Valley exec that calls Steve Jobs 'flaky' and a 'joker'

Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook.The first time I tried Novetos focused sound speaker, the whole experience felt both exciting and a little bit bizarre.

The start-up has created a technology that can deliver audio directly to a single person, who's not wearing headphones, allowing everyone else in the vicinity to go about their business uninterrupted. Meanwhile, the listener can also still clearly catch surrounding noise.

For my demo, I sat down in front of a computer monitor next to CEO Brian Wallace to watch a video clip and, after switching from normal audio to Novetos technology, it was like I had my own private screening.

Using a camera to track my head movement, Novetos speakers beamed sound right to my ears. I could hear the audio while still holding a conversation with Wallace, who could only hear me and not what was coming from my speakers.

The juxtaposition was surreal, and made it almost feel as if the sound was coming from inside my own head.

The effects of Novetos technology are similar to what you get with directional audio systems, except that its more private and you can move around rather than staying in a narrow beam of sound. Plus, Wallace said that Novetos system is much cheaper.

The company plans to get its technology out next year through both a proprietary stand-alone speaker (priced between $249 and $299) as well as through partnerships with hardware makers, who could embed it in their systems. Wallace said that Dell has signed a letter of intent to integrate it into a line of monitors, but after publication of this story, he told CNBC that Noveto had not signed a letter with Dell. Wallace also said Noveto is in discussions with other hardware partners, including car suppliers.Supporters of Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) attend a campaign rally in Karachi on July 22, 2018.

Pakistanis head to the polls Wednesday in a general election characterized by a heavy presence of extremist parties  a development that threatens to strengthen religious radicalization in the South Asian nation, which has long struggled with domestic terrorism.

Right-wing religious factions have fielded more than 1,500 candidates at the provincial and national level, according to Reuters. Many of those entities espouse a fundamentalist agenda laden with anti-Western rhetoric and a desire for tougher application of Islamic law.

Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, for example, has 566 candidates and wants greater implementation of a law that carries a potential death sentence for anyone who insults Islam. In May, one of its members was deemed responsible for an assassination attempt on Pakistan's interior minister.

Other parties associated with terror outfits are officially banned in the country but their candidates are either running under different party names or as independents. The Milli Muslim League, whose leader Hafiz Saeed is the co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terror network behind the 2008 Mumbai attack, is officially outlawed but has around 260 candidates, Reuters data show. Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, believed to be a wing of Islamic State ally Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, also lacks legal standing but has more than 150 candidates.

Islamist parties  those that believe Islamic values should be applied to politics  are common in Pakistan, so their participation in this year's election isn't significant in itself. But their amplified presence could see ultra-conservatism grow.

"The particular worry for Pakistans long-term stability is the presence of candidates standing for and fear-mongering with ideas of dividing Pakistans social fabric, including through violence," said Antoine Levesques, research fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.Recent scandals about substandard pharmaceutical drugs will likely jeopardize Beijing's ambitions to become a international pharma leader  even as Chinese President Xi Jinping's government seeks to quell public anger.

The current furor erupted after a rabies vaccine for humans manufactured by Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology  one of China's largest vaccine makers  was found to have violated safety standards.

China's drug regulator accused parent company Changsheng Bio-technology of fabricating production and inspection records related to the vaccine, that is regularly given to infants. Changsheng means "long life" in Chinese.

On Tuesday, the chairwoman of Changsheng was placed in criminal detention, along with 14 others involved in the case, state media reported.

While there have been no known reports of people being harmed by the rabies vaccine, Chinese regulators ordered the company to halt production and recall the product amid ongoing investigations. Not only are drugs for the domestic market under scrutiny, products for export are also being closely examined.

Changchun Changsheng was also found to have earlier sold a substandard vaccine for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

The recent events sent the stock price of Changsheng plunging. It lost over half of its value since mid-July. Health-care stocks across the board were also hit.

"The latest in a litany of food and drug safety scares, the Changsheng case has sparked both intense criticism of the Chinese governments ability to regulate the space at home, and concerns about Chinas recent push to market pharmaceuticals abroad," said Viola Rothschild, a research associate in Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

China was the worlds second-largest health-care market in 2017  worth $122.6 billion, according to IQVIA, a health-care information company. It is also the biggest emerging market for pharmaceuticals with growth tipped to reach $145 billion to $175 billion by 2022.

Earlier this month, Chinas said it was recalling a heart drug sold in the United States after the European Medicines Agency found that it was tainted with a substance linked to cancer.

Such incidents could hamper the sector, which is part of Beijing's "Made in China 2025" industry plan, an ambitious initiative for the country to become a global leader in technology.

"Chinese manufacturers (across all sectors) have worked hard to shake the conception that 'Made in China' is synonymous with 'low quality,' but incidents like these undermine trust and are a reminder that despite recent reforms and advancements, safety and testing requirements in China are not up to international standards," Rothschild wrote in blog post published on Tuesday.

The recent scandals also came a little more than two years after police in Shandong province said they had uncovered the illegal sale of vaccines worth nearly $90 million.Hoover Dam and Lake Mead Spaces Images | Blend Images | Getty Images

Hoover Dam helped transform the American West, harnessing the force of the Colorado River  along with millions of cubic feet of concrete and tens of millions of pounds of steel  to power millions of homes and businesses. It was one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century. Now it is the focus of a distinctly 21st-century challenge: turning the dam into a vast reservoir of excess electricity, fed by the solar farms and wind turbines that represent the power sources of the future. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, an original operator of the dam when it was erected in the 1930s, wants to equip it with a $3 billion pipeline and a pump station powered by solar and wind energy. The pump station, downstream, would help regulate the water flow through the dams generators, sending water back to the top to help manage electricity at times of peak demand. More from The New York Times: Where guns go to be reincarnated The slippery trade aid slope CEO activism has become the new normal The net result would be a kind of energy storage  performing much the same function as the giant lithium-ion batteries being developed to absorb and release power. The Hoover Dam project may help answer a looming question for the energy industry: how to come up with affordable and efficient power storage, which is seen as the key to transforming the industry and helping curb carbon emissions. Because the sun does not always shine, and winds can be inconsistent, power companies look for ways to bank the electricity generated from those sources for use when their output slacks off. Otherwise, they have to fire up fossil-fuel plants to meet periods of high demand. And when solar and wind farms produce more electricity than consumers need, California utilities have had to find ways to get rid of it  including giving it away to other states  or risk overloading the electric grid and causing blackouts. I think we have to look at this as a once-in-a-century moment, said Mayor Eric M. Garcetti of Los Angeles. So far, it looks really possible. It looks sustainable, and it looks clean. The target for completion is 2028, and some say the effort could inspire similar innovations at other dams. Enhancing energy storage could also affect plans for billions of dollars in wind projects being proposed by the billionaires Warren E. Buffett and Philip F. Anschutz. But the proposal will have to contend with political hurdles, including environmental concerns and the interests of those who use the river for drinking, recreation and services. In Bullhead City, Ariz., and Laughlin, Nev.  sister cities on opposite sides of the Colorado, about 90 miles south of the dam  water levels along certain stretches depend on when dams open and close, and some residents see a change in its flow as a disruption, if not a threat. Any idea like this has to pass much more than engineering feasibility, Peter Gleick, a co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a think tank in Oakland, Calif., and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, internationally known for his work on climate issues. It has to be environmentally, politically and economically vetted, and thats likely to prove to be the real problem. Housed inside Hoover Dams 726-foot structure are massive power-generating units. The proposed pump station would help regulate the water flow through the dams generators, sending water back to the top to help manage electricity at times of peak demand.

An idea comes of age

Using Hoover Dam to help manage the electricity grid has been mentioned informally over the last 15 years. But no one pursued the idea seriously until about a year ago, as California began grappling with the need to better manage its soaring alternative-electricity production  part of weaning itself from coal-fired and nuclear power plants. In California, by far the leading state in solar power production, that has sometimes meant paying other states to take excess electricity. Companies like Tesla have gotten into the picture, making lithium-ion batteries that are deployed by some utilities, but that form of storage generally remains pricey. Lazard, the financial advisory and asset management firm, has estimated that utility-scale lithium-ion batteries cost 26 cents a kilowatt-hour, compared with 15 cents for a pumped-storage hydroelectric project. The typical household pays about 12.5 cents a kilowatt-hour for electricity. Some dams already provide a basis for the Hoover Dam proposal. Los Angeles operates a hydroelectric plant at Pyramid Lake, about 50 miles northwest of the city, that stores energy by using the electric grid to spin a turbine backward and pump water back into the lake. [Read more: Its tricky to store energy on an industrial scale, but engineers have devised clever workarounds.] But the Hoover Dam proposal would operate differently. The dam, with its towering 726-foot concrete wall and its 17 power generators that came online in 1936, would not be touched. Instead, engineers propose building a pump station about 20 miles downstream from the main reservoir, Lake Mead, the nations largest artificial lake. A pipeline would run partly or fully underground, depending on the location ultimately approved. Hoover Dam is ideal for this, said Kelly Sanders, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California. Its a gigantic plant. We dont have anything on the horizon as far as batteries of that magnitude. Sri Narayan, a chemistry professor at the university, said his studies of lithium-ion batteries showed that they simply werent ready to store the loads needed to manage all of the wind and solar power coming online. With lithium-ion batteries, you have durability issues, Mr. Narayan said. If they last five to 10 years, that would be a stretch, especially because we expect to use these facilities at full capacity. It has to be 10 times more durable than it is today. Mr. Narayan said he felt the Hoover Dam project should be given serious consideration because pumped-storage projects had been tested and proven for decades. In a comparison with lithium-ion batteries, he said, I think the argument is very good.

Waiting for Washington

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nations largest municipal utility, says its proposal would increase the productivity of the dam, which operates at just 20 percent of its potential, to avoid releasing too much water at once and flooding towns downstream. Engineers have conducted initial feasibility studies, including a review of locations for the pump station that would have as little adverse impact on the environment and nearby communities as possible. But because Hoover Dam sits on federal land and operates under the Bureau of Reclamation, part of the Interior Department, the bureau must back the project before it can proceed. Were aware of the concept, but at this point our regional management has not seen the concept in enough detail to know where we would stand on the overall project, said Doug Hendrix, a bureau spokesman. If the bureau agrees to consider the project, the National Park Service will review the environmental, scientific and aesthetic impact on the downstream recreation area. If the Los Angeles utility receives approval, Park Service officials have told it, the agency wants the pumping operation largely invisible to the public, which could require another engineering feat. Among the considerations is the effect on bighorn sheep that roam Black Canyon, just below the dam, and on drinking water for places like Bullhead City. Some environmentalists worry that adding a pump facility would impair water flow farther downstream, in particular at the Colorado River Delta, a mostly dry riverbed in Mexico that no longer connects to the sea. Another concern is that the pump station would draw water from or close to Lake Mohave, where water enthusiasts boat, fish, ride Jet-Skis, kayak and canoe. Keri Simons, a manager of Watercraft Adventures, a 27-year-old rental business in Laughlin, said water levels already fluctuated in stretches of the Colorado close to the river towns. The smaller Davis Dam, just north of Laughlin, shuts off the flow overnight. One morning this year, the water level just outside town dropped so low that you could walk across the riverbed, Ms. Simons said. We couldnt put any boats out until noon, she said. Half the river was a sandbar. Even if no water is lost because of the pumping project, the thought of any additional stress on the system worries Toby Cotter, the city manager of Bullhead City. The town thrives on the summer tourism that draws some two million visitors to the area for recreation on the greenish-blue waters, Mr. Cotter said. That lake is the lifeblood of this community, he said. Its not uncommon to see 100 boats on that lake. Despite the possible benefits of the project, there are concerns among community members and business owners in the area. Keri Simons, manager of a watercraft-rental business in Laughlin, said water levels were already inconsistent along stretches of the Colorado, sometimes leaving a footpath across the river.

A troubled relationshipNew vehicles are seen at the Horizon Terminal as they await to be exported from Port Everglades on May 22, 2018 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.



President Donald Trump meets European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday to discuss trade, including tariffs on autos, the sector that could have the most economic impact if it becomes a bigger part of the trade wars.

But it's not clear whether Europe will be able to make an offer that will satisfy Trump, who has asked the Commerce Department to study tariffs of 20 to 25 percent on auto imports on national security grounds.

"The meeting with Juncker from the EU is about whether they'll be able to move on a deal for a better agreement on autos," said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. "I just think at this point, it's a bit too early to tell. I don't think there will be a clear resolution [Wednesday]."

"I'm of the mind that Trump continues to use tariffs as a means to gain leverage in trade discussions," said Arone. He said if there is no real outcome, the market will not react, but it could move either way if there is a seeming breakdown or a declaration of success.

Juncker reportedly consulted with the heads of Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria before heading to Washington.

Analysts say the Trump administration would like to show some progress on trade issues, since talks with China have stalled. White House top economic advisor Larry Kudlow said last week that Juncker was coming to Washington with a significant offer on trade.

"Our sense is that Juncker is coming to the U.S. to kick the tires on what is possible. But EU divisions between Germany and France on what should be offered as well as global trade rules make getting a deal difficult," wrote Daniel Clifton, head of policy research at Strategas Research. "We dont believe there is a real national security case for imposing these tariffs and there is very little support. But the President is vowing action if no deal can be reached and this is worth watching, given how large the tariffs are."

Economists have said auto tariffs would have the biggest impact on the world economy because of the interconnected nature of the global supply chain. Tariffs would also make their way to consumers.

"We do have a pretty integrated global supply chain, and I think youre starting to see more and more complaints among manufacturers," said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont. Europe has already been slapped with U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.

"In the PMI for Europe, they're seeing increasing parts and supply costs, and that's ultimately going to go into prices," said Stanley. "For the global economy, it would definitely be a step backward, and we'd end up in this vicious cycle of tariffs and retaliation and lots of rounds of that, but it's hard to know exactly where this is going to end in a couple of years."

An auto deal with Europe would be a positive, since it could also include reducing existing European tariffs of 10 percent on U.S. cars  a win for Trump. That compares with a U.S. tariff of 2.5 percent on autos, but the U.S. has a special tariff on pickup trucks of 25 percent.

Consumers would feel the brunt of auto tariffs, and if the U.S. applies them to all countries equally with no exceptions and to auto parts, the prices for some of the best-selling cars could go up anywhere from $1,400 to $7,000, according to a recent study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Even American-made U.S. car brands would cost more if auto parts are tariffed because they contain such a high percentage of foreign parts.

Cowen Washington strategist Chris Krueger said in a note that if the Trump administration moves forward with all the tariffs it has proposed, there would be a total $1 trillion in goods with a tariff or quotas by September, including $360 billion on autos and auto parts. That also includes existing tariffs on Chinese goods and Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods, plus an additional $200 billion Trump threatened on China and Chinese retaliation.

"We do not know if tariffs are the actual end game  but they certainly could be where this all ends," Krueger wrote, suggesting that the tariffs could actually be a more permanent type of border tax.

According to Clifton, existing tariffs are just a tiny portion compared with GDP, but he developed a chart that shows that if auto tariffs are implemented, they would be a bigger part of the economy than any other group of tariffs going back to 1929.



President Donald Trump's $12 billion emergency aid plan designed to help farmers hit by retaliatory tariffs is seen as "unprecedented" and could have unintended consequences and potentially run afoul of World Trade Organization rules. Some of the aid would come through a U.S. agency with authority that dates back to the Great Depression, but that authority has been used "fairly rarely" and on programs "in the millions of dollars," not billions, according to a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The plan disclosed Tuesday by the Trump administration doesn't require congressional approval. "This is unprecedented in terms of overall amounts," said Joseph Glauber, a former USDA chief economist and now a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington. "We've had ad hoc assistance packages where farmers received $6 billion or so in additional funds and some disaster relief. But this is a big number  and I was surprised by the level of it."

Glauber, who served about 30 years in the federal government in various roles as an economist and as a U.S. chief agricultural negotiator for trade talks, said he had originally expected the emergency aid plan, when there was talk of it floated, to be "a few billion dollars." According to the statement from the USDA, the administration "will take several actions to assist farmers in response to trade damage from unjustified retaliation." The plan authorizes the agency to spend "up to $12 billion in programs, which is in line with the estimated $11 billion impact of the unjustified retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods. These programs will assist agricultural producers to meet the costs of disrupted markets."

'Don't want bailouts'

"Our farmers, our producers, they dont want bailouts," Simon Wilson, executive director of the North Dakota Trade Office, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Tuesday. "They dont want this help in the short term. They want long-term stability.

Scott Morgan | Reuters

Wilson added, "A lot of people have been hurt, so thats a lot of money thats going to have to be shared. Payments under the largest part of the federal government's relief plan would be targeted to producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and hogs. Some experts have warned in the past that government aid or new subsidies could distort or disrupt markets and ultimately have negative consequences for the agriculture industry. That also includes the possibility it could lead to more retaliation on other agricultural exports. In any event, Glauber said the program is likely to be taken as "producer support" and appears to be targeted toward a drop in the market price of certain commodities, meaning it could get counted against the U.S. commitments from the WTO. "We've run pretty low levels of [producer] support in recent years, but it will certainly raise a lot of eyebrows and will make people look at those calculations very, very carefully," said Glauber. "It also will look at the way we formulate those programs very, very carefully." Soybean prices alone have plunged nearly 20 percent since April when China first announced the 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans. That means farmers are getting lower prices for the commodity, and at these levels some are not making enough to cover bills. Beijing started collecting the tariff on U.S. soybeans on July 6. Some of the farm sector tariffs are tit-for-tat measures in response to the White House's duties on imported steel and aluminum, while others were imposed by Beijing following other rounds of tariffs. President Trump also is threatening another $500 billion in tariffs against China, which could produce even more retaliation by the world's second-largest economy.

China also has imposed at least two rounds of tariffs on some U.S. farm products, including pork, nuts and fresh fruit. Beijing hasn't identified soybeans for a second round of tariffs but given the high value of the commodity there's a possibility they could target it too with a second wave of import duties. "We've all got a little anxiety and a little worry about where things are going in the future," said farmer Steve Fourez, who produces corn and soybeans in Fairmount, Illinois. "What's been proposed, from what I can tell, won't by any means make us farmers whole. It's a step in the right direction to try and make things better for us and help us get through this." Regardless, there are complex rules covering domestic support within the global trade regulator WTO and measures that are considered to distort production and trade. Trump previously has been critical of the WTO for its treatment of the U.S. The news website Axios in late June reported that Trump wanted to exit the WTO, but Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin later put cold water on that idea.

Depression-era authorityWelders work on the Strategic Petroleum Reserve pipeline on June 1, 1980, in West Hackberry, Louisianna. Begun under President Ford to reduce the threat of oil embargoes, the SPR crude oil is stored in huge underground salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico, a natural choice due to the proximity of many refineries and distribution points. Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison

President Donald Trump has been talking a lot about controlling global oil prices, tweeting about Saudi Arabias need to ramp up production and, during a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, posing the idea of "regulating oil prices." There is good reason for Trump to be concerned. His administration's plan to sanction Iranian oil exports in November will create a significant global oil-supply decline. Oil prices that spike too quickly have caused past economic recessions, and the U.S. economy already is running hot ahead of midterm elections taking place when the Iran sanctions start in November. For these reasons, there has been speculation Trump may seek to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Trump administration also is reportedly lobbying international allies to release emergency stockpiles through the International Energy Agency, though the president's administration remains divided over the idea. The IEA denied the reports, telling the press there have been no specific discussions about an emergency stock release. If Trump were to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve  the worlds largest supply of emergency crude oil, 660 million barrels stored in massive underground salt caverns off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico  it would be the first time that an SPR release was deliberately planned in advance. Experts say this would set a precedent. Antoine Halff, senior research scholar and the head of the program on global oil markets at Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy, said the SPR was never officially or explicitly intended as a tool of price management in order to reduce oil prices. Instead, it is to be used as a buffer stock of oil in an emergency and as a deterrent against the use of oil as a political weapon. SPR oil has been released 19 times, according to the Department of Energy, as a result of supply chain disruptions. It was created by the Ford administration after the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. There have been three "emergency" situations that has resulted in the SPR being tapped, according to energy market experts: after Operation Desert Storm in 1991, which took out Middle Eastern oil supply; after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and after the 2011 conflict in Libya, which led to supply disruptions.

Concerns about rising oil prices are real and self-inflicted, Halff said, due to the governments Iran policy. But if Trump were to use the SPR in an attempt to alleviate the impact of sanctions and reduce gas prices in the United States, it isn't likely to work. Scott Montgomery of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington said tapping the SPR would be foolish and an extraordinarily bad precedent. He believes that using the SPR to manipulate prices, especially ahead of an election, would turn the SPR into a political weapon and likely lead to new restrictions on its use. And Trump would need to release an unprecedented amount of oil, 1 to 2 million barrels a day; Iran produces roughly 2 million barrels. That is not possible to do in a cost-efficient way, Montgomery said, because U.S. refineries are near 100 percent capacity already. The United States would have to arrange for the released oil to be refined outside the country and then sold back to the United States, which ultimately would increase prices compared to domestically produced gas. Gas prices have been rising, and crude oil is up more than 20 percent in 2018, but historically, oil prices are nowhere near the level that would send a shock through the U.S. economy, such as in 2008 when crude oil was near $150 and gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon. Gas/diesel prices are not especially high at all," Montgomery said. Between 2011 and late 2014, oil prices were again above $100, and prices for refined fuels were nearly 30 percent higher, he noted. Oil prices were slightly higher on Wednesday, with WTI crude nearing $69 and Brent crude near $74.

According to Halff, there is no way to ever use the SPR to permanently keep oil prices low, but the president could hope to create a price rally by releasing SPR oil leading up to the November 2018 midterms. He said its doubtful that OPEC would comply with the presidents calls  in an April tweet Trump lashed out at OPEC for what he alleged was artificial price controls on oil at a time of record production. More recently, Trump tweeted that Saudi Arabia had agreed to increase supply. But Halff said the Saudis have not significantly changed their output, and he is equally doubtful that IEA members would agree on a joint release. Saudi Arabia did increase its production in June by 500,000 barrels but has more recently indicated that it cannot increase exports by much more. Kenneth B. Medlock III, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice Universitys Baker Institute, said there is a stronger correlation in the historical data between commercial oil stocks and oil prices than any SPR release. He believes that the delay between the decision to tap the reserve and actual sales of barrels is undercut by markets that have already adjusted. For example, if a decision was made in late July to tap the reserve, it would not have an effect in the market until Labor Day. There is little evidence to support the SPR having been used to successfully stimulate economic activity, particularly when one considers all of the various factors that factor into the economy, Medlock said. During the oil embargo of 1973, Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut off oil exports to the United States in the wake of American support of Israel. Rising oil prices and long lines at the gas station made the United States realize its reliance on Middle Eastern oil and the drastic impact a shortage could have on the domestic economy. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was created as a deterrent to future embargoes against the United States. Montgomery said because Irans largest customer for oil, China, is not expected to stop buying when U.S. sanctions start in November, an SPR release is not even necessary. But experts remain divided on how much of a global supply loss will result. Medlock believes the market will tighten as a result of lost barrels from Iran, as well as other key oil-producing countries where supply problems exist, such as Venezuela. Most energy experts do not expect Iran's entire supply of roughly 2 million barrels to go offline  China buys one-quarter of Iran's oil  but they do expect a significant decrease in November.

There is little evidence to support the SPR having been used to successfully stimulate economic activity, particularly when one considers all of the various factors that factor into the economy. Kenneth B. Medlock III senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice Universitys Baker Institute

In 1975 Congress created the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which founded the SPR, to increase energy supplies, curtail demand and prepare for energy emergencies. The International Energy Agency's 30 members also established strategic oil reserves, worth 90 days of net imports. Each country can decide how to use their stock and does not need IEA permission to utilize its resources, including the SPR. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush released 33.75 million barrels from the SPR in the wake of Operation Desert Storm, which disrupted oil activities in the Middle East. Montgomery said that after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, prices rose from an average of $18.33 to $23.19, or about 20 percent. After the release from the SPR and increased production from Saudi Arabia, prices settled at $19.25 in 1992.

Signage is displayed on the grounds of the U.S. Department of Energy's Bryan Mound Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, June 9, 2016. Luke Sharett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, all production in the Gulf of Mexico, which was about 25 percent of domestic production, was shut down. Bush released 60 million barrels in a coordinated response with the IEA and a coalition of 28 member countries. It was followed by the Hurricane Katrina Exchange, where the government loaned oil in order to assist companies that had disruptions in production due to the hurricane. Through this exchange in 2005, almost 21 million barrels of oil were either loaned or sold. In 2011 the IEA, including the United States, released 60 million barrels of oil due to the supply disruptions that were taking place in Libya. The United States provided half of that.

Budget deficit concerns also factor in future SPR strategyEarlier this year, Google parent company Alphabet had more contract workers than direct employees for the first time ever, a person who viewed the numbers on an internal database told Bloomberg.

That's no small number: Alphabet reported 85,050 employees in the first quarter. (That headcount number jumped to 89,058 in Q2, but it's not known whether the contractor number is higher than that.)

While contractors save the company money and can speed up hiring, those workers typically make less, shoulder higher benefit costs, and lack the job security of direct employees.

Alphabet mainly hires contractors for areas where it doesn't have expertise, or when it needs temporary support, like for covering parental leave or spikes in work, a spokesperson says. Contract workers perform a wide range of tasks, including custodial duties, sales jobs, and programming positions. While those employees, hired through staffing firms like Adecco and Cognizant, can use many of the same company perks as regular employees, including free food, their benefits typically come from the agencies. That trims significant costs from Alphabet's balance sheet, but can leave workers with burdensome costs.

One former Google contractor who worked through Adecco told Bloomberg that he had to pay roughly $600 per month for diabetes-related coverage.

Earlier this year, SurveyMonkey started providing its contractor workers with staff benefits like health insurance, time off, and transportation, in response to concerns from direct employees.

Besides lacking benefits, contract workers make less than direct employees. A 2016 report from Benner and Neering found that the average yearly pay for tech employees was $113,000, while white-collar contractors made $53,200 and blue-collar contract workers made $19,900.

Read the Bloomberg story here.People watch a wildfire in the town of Rafina, near Athens. ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP/Getty Images

The devastating fires in the suburbs of Athens that have left more than 80 dead and damaged hundreds of residences and vehicles has revealed that Greece, a country that annually hosts millions of tourists, does not have an effective plan in place to deal with extreme natural disasters, even in areas that are just 40 miles away from the Greek capital. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called the wildfires an asymmetrical phenomenon, but the country's residents are angry that the Greek authorities have failed to tackle the situation responsibly, dismayed especially at the failure to quickly evacuate the two tourist areas east and west of Athens as the death toll continued to rise. Children fell from cliffs to the sea to avoid the flames, families were charred inside their vehicles, and many drowned as the fires swept away even those who were in the sea and the beaches adjacent to the forests.

'It's like being on a sinking ship'

Rescue crews continued Wednesday to search the seaside and forest in Mati, the areas worst affected by the wildfires, to locate further victims. The death toll now stands at 81, with 186 people seriously injured and about 100 people missing. It is undoubtedly a national tragedy. There was no evacuation plan. Unfortunately, the Greek Civil Protection Agency is only thinking about the firefighting and not giving enough importance on civil protection and preparation, Costas Synolakis, a professor of natural disasters in the Technical University of Crete and visiting professor from the University of California, Berkeley, told CNBC. According to Synolakis, the area burned was laden with anarchic construction, densely populated and surrounded by a pine forest. With winds reaching 50 miles per hour, the fire risk had increased to a Category 4, but the authorities' reaction was not consistent with the high degree of alarm. To stress the importance of early intervention, Synolakis said that within the first minute, a fire is extinguished with a glass of water, the second minute with a bucket of water, the third with a tank of water, and "after that we do our best." There had not been any drill on how to evacuate this area, and no experience for how much time will be needed to safely rescue, for example, 100 people. As a result, even the locals did not know where to go when the fire threatened them. To say it schematically, it's like being on a sinking ship and you do not know where to go to be saved, Synolakis said.

IMF warned of Greece's decaying infrastructure

But the problems extend much further beyond the Greek authorities' failure to react swiftly to the disaster at hand. The eight years of austerity imposed by the country's international lenders has caused huge problems with public infrastructure and equipment. Although Greece, since 2016, has a budget surplus similar to that of Germany's, reduction of critical expenditures, shrinking public investments and degrading services has led to disrepair. In late 2016 the IMF warned the Greek authorities that a further reduction in government operating costs would be damaging. Maurice Obstfeld, IMF's Economic Counselor, and Poul M. Thomsen, the Fund's European Department Director had published a joint analysis in which they supported that Greece has resorted to deep cuts in investment and so-called discretionary spending. It has done so to such a degree that the decaying infrastructure is hampering growth and the delivery of basic public services such as transport and health care being compromised, IMF officials have warned.

There had not been any drill on how to evacuate this area, and no experience for how much time will be needed to safely rescue, for example, 100 people. As a result, even the locals did not know where to go when the fire threatened them. To say it schematically, it's like being on a sinking ship and you do not know where to go to be saved. Costas Synolakis professor of natural disasters in the Technical University of Crete and visiting professor from the University of California, Berkeley

But the Greek government and the Greek Ministry of Finance did not take into account the relevant recommendations. he Greek Public Investment Program credits reduced from 9.6 billion euros (US$11.22 billion) in 2008 to just 5,950 billion euros last year (US$6.8 billion). Although the initial Greek Public Investment Program credits were 6,750 billion euros (US$7.8 billion) for 2017, that was eventually decreased by 800 million euros (US$935 million) in order for Greece to overcome the fiscal targets set by its lenders. As the IMF has predicted, this multiannual saving has led to serious problems for the functioning of public services. In addition, Greek firefighters are claiming they don't have the proper equipment to fight the flames. The fire trucks, they said, are aged (over 15 years) and are immobilized due to mechanical failures, lack of tires and so on. Almost 25 percent of the vehicles are immobilized. It is characteristic that if a tire burst during an operation, it will not be replaced immediately, as no tires are supplied, the firefighters union said during a briefing. They also presented evidence that three firefighting planes have mechanical problems and there are no parts available to repair them.

A country full of tourists



Guwahati, July 25 : Guwahati city police had arrested a man, who allegedly molesting a 7-year-old minor girl in the city.





According to the reports, the arrested person identified as 30-year-old Sanjeev Kalita and he was residing at Narengi forest gate area in the capital city of Assam as a tenant at a house nearby the victims house along with his wife and a close relation with the victims family.





The victims family had lodged a complaint at Noonmati police station on July 23 night after the minor girl shared the incident with her parents.





The parents of the victim girl said that, the culprit had molested her 20 days back.





Following the complaint, Guwahati city police had registered a case (no 425/2018) under Section 10 of POCSO Act and arrested the accused person on Tuesday.





Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Guwahati city police Purabi Mazumdar said that, police had received the complaint lately, but immediately registered a case and arrested the culprit.





We had produced the accused person before the court and court sent him to judicial custody, Purabi Mazumdar said.



An experimental drug from Biogen and Japanese partner Eisai was shown to slow the declines in memory and thinking clearly associated with Alzheimers disease in a clinical trial, giving support to the thesis that targeting buildups of amyloid plaques in the brain can alter the course of the disease.

The drug, dubbed BAN2401, slowed declines associated with Alzheimers disease by 30 percent at its highest dose in the trial, compared with placebo, after 18 months, Eisai reported today at the Alzheimers Association International Conference in Chicago. The slowing in progression came as the drug dramatically reduced buildups of amyloid plaque in the brain, by 93 percent at the highest dose.

Investors had pegged success at a 20 percent slowing of Alzheimers progression or more at 12 months, rather than 18, making the results difficult to compare directly to expectations.

Biogens stock declined in after-hours trading, a move Piper Jaffray analyst Chris Raymond attributed to one measure of cognition  known as the Clinical Dementia Rating  that didnt show a statistically significant improvement.

Lynn Kramer, chief medical officer of Eisai's neurology business group, declared success, noting Wednesday in a media briefing, We think this result is really the first of its kind, and robust enough to approach regulatory authorities to discuss next steps.

The companies surprised investors earlier this month when they announced the study had met its goal after 18 months, because it hadnt done so at a 12-month look. Both Biogen and Eisais stocks rallied so much the companies collectively gained $20 billion in market value, according to Robert W. Baird analyst Brian Skorney.

The results were even more surprising given the poor track record in Alzheimers drug development, including trials of medicines that target amyloid plaques. At least nine major late-stage clinical trials of Alzheimers medicines (not all targeting amyloid) have failed in the last decade, though the amyloid hypothesis  which suggests targeting plaques will alter the diseases progression  remains a prevailing theory in the field.

This is the second trial that is demonstrating a clearance of amyloid in the brain through PET imaging, and perhaps other biomarkers, Maria Carrillo, chief scientific officer of the Alzheimers Association, told reporters Wednesday. And also has hints of some efficacy in cognitive tests.

The first, she noted, was an earlier-stage trial of another Biogen Alzheimers drug, aducanumab, now in more advanced clinical trials expected to produce data in 2020.

What we see is the amyloid hypothesis remains something that needs to continue to be tested, Carrillo said.

The 30 percent slowing of Alzheimers progression in the results released Wednesday was measured by a scale called the Alzheimers Disease Composite Score, or ADCOMS, a combination of commonly used endpoints that gauge cognition, or the ability to remember things and think clearly.

On a more common measure of cognition, known as ADAS-cog, the highest dose of BAN2401 slowed progression by 47 percent compared with placebo. On another well-known measure, known as the Clinical Dementia Rating, or CDR, the difference between the highest dose and placebo was 26 percent, but that result didnt meet statistical significance. That metric is particularly important because its the primary goal of Biogens ongoing aducanumab trial, Raymond wrote in a note to investors.

We do think this reaction is misplaced and shares will ultimately recover once investors put these data into perspective, Raymond wrote.

The most common side effects were infusion reaction and one known as ARIA, or amyloid-related imaging abnormalities, which can manifest as brain swelling or bleeding. Such swelling occurred in less than 10 percent of patients across all treatment groups, Kramer said.

The study, of 856 patients, was conducted in those with early Alzheimers disease, those with mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimers, or mild Alzheimers dementia. More than 5 million Americans are currently estimated to have Alzheimers, a number thats expected to nearly triple by 2050 without effective interventions.Chick-fil-A is flying across the border for the first time.

Chick-fil-A Inc. announced Wednesday that Toronto will be home to the first franchised international Chick-fil-A restaurant, to open in 2019, and expanding by more than a dozen locations in the area over the next five years. Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported on the potential Toronto expansion in March.

Tim Tassopoulos, president and Chief Operating Officer of the Atlanta-based chicken chain, posted a message to the company's new Canada website saying they wanted to expand to Toronto "for a very long time" because "we believe Toronto is one of the best and most vibrant cities in North America."

"We are looking forward to putting down real roots and becoming a part of this dynamic and diverse city," Tassopoulos said. "Our first location will open in the first half of 2019. From there we have plans to invest in bringing approximately 15 more restaurants to the Greater Toronto Area over the next five years."

Tassopoulos also explained the serve-first, family-focused philosophy behind Chick-fil-A, which recently announced expansion plans into its 48th U.S. state, Hawaii.

Between being a foodie city that loves new experiences and being known worldwide for tremendous hospitality, we believe our Owner/Operators will find Team Members in Toronto that share our passion for making delicious food and serving our new community. Were on the ground now searching for those Operators who share our vision and passion for bringing Chick-fil-A to Canada and serving Toronto.

The decision to invest in Toronto as our first international Chick-fil-A market isnt one we take lightly. Weve spent years researching cities across the world, and the more time we spent here, the more we knew Toronto was the perfect place to roost. It will be our pleasure to serve you in 2019 and the years to come.

The privately owned company, founded in 1967, reported more than $9 billion in revenue in 2017, marking the 50 consecutive years of sales growth. Atlanta Business Chronicle has reported on the movements of Chick-fil-A affiliate Red Wagon Ventures LLC, which has eyes on a concept outside the restaurant industry  Playventure, which would include retail attractions where kids and parents can hang out and play. A Red Wagon spinoff that could be its own company is eyeing a range of services including childcare and co-working.

More from Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Madison Square Garden breaks up with Coke for Pepsi

Chick-fil-A to test meal kits in Atlanta

Chick-fil-A taking another bite of the Big AppleFacebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg meets Founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma (not pictured), at the China Development Forum in Beijing, China, March 19, 2016.

For Facebook, success in China was brief. Very brief.

For several hours, a Chinese government database showed that Facebook had gained approval to open a subsidiary in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Facebook said it would use the company to set up an innovation hub there.

Then the registration disappeared and references to the subsidiary were partially censored in Chinese media.

Read more from The New York Times:

Facebook gains status in China, at least for a moment

Chinese billionaire is named as party host in Australian sexual assault case

Wild about tech, China even loves robot waiters that cant serve

Now the approval has been withdrawn, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

While the about-face does not definitively end Facebooks chances of establishing the company, it makes success very unlikely, the person said. The decision to take down the approval, the person added, came after a disagreement between officials in Zhejiang and the national internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which was angry that it had not been consulted more closely.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to respond to a request for comment. The Cyberspace Administration of China, the Zhejiang provincial government and the municipal government in Hangzhou, Zhejiangs provincial capital, did not respond to requests for comment.

The strange incident underscores how much of a challenge it has become for the globe-spanning social network to get into China  even just to open an innovation center.

Its main platform has been blocked in China for almost a decade. Its other services, such as Instagram, were once popular in China, but have since also fallen behind the governments filters. While Facebook had hoped to dip a toe in the market and work with Chinese developers, its very presence appears to have become a large, and incendiary, political question here.

Google, which has also long had its services blocked in China, has recently made progress there, opening an artificial-intelligence center and releasing a game in the market. Last month Google said it would invest $550 million in the Chinese e-commerce company JD.com. Other American tech companies, like LinkedIn, have maintained a presence by censoring content at Beijings request.

The kerfuffle also illustrates how complicated Chinas bureaucracy can be. Foreign companies seeking to expand here must navigate a vast and decentralized government in which provinces, cities and ministries all vie for influence and power. While one part of the government may be happy to support a foreign company like Facebook, that could ruffle feathers elsewhere. Facebook seems to have fallen victim to such a scenario.

The government turnaround is only the latest incident in the long, strange history of relations between the worlds largest social network and its largest internet market.

Over the years, Facebooks founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has tried myriad ways to court China. He asked Chinese president Xi Jinping to suggest a Chinese name for his child during a state visit, held a Mandarin-language question-and-answer session with students that was widely shared, and even posted photos from a smog-filled jog through Tiananmen Square.

Facebook has experimented with a censorship tool and ran a photo-sharing application in China, called Colorful Balloons, without putting its name to the product. The product was eventually taken down and also did not seem to have any official approval from the Cyberspace Administration.

For Facebook, angering officials at Chinas internet regulator could make progress particularly difficult, especially as new personnel have just taken over managing the relationship with the Chinese government.

At the end of last year, Facebooks former head of government relations, Wang-Li Moser, left the company. Ms. Moser, who had been brought in from Intel to help Facebook court Chinas leadership, had become a sign of the companys ambitions, though she struggled to make headway.

Stepping in to replace her has been Zhang Jingmei, who created the company that ran the anonymous Colorful Balloons app, and William Shuai, who was once a low-level Chinese official. Both were listed on the board of the newly created, and quickly disappeared, subsidiary in Zhejiang.Chinese President Xi Jinping and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (not pictured) deliver a speech at the opening ceremony of South Africa-China Scientists High Level Dialogue between the two countries' scientists on July 24, 2018, in Pretoria, South Africa.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have continued to lend in tandem to African countries ahead of a major emerging markets summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, beginning on Wednesday.

Xi, arriving in South Africa on Tuesday, pledged $14.7 billion of investment to the country.

His South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa is attempting to reboot the countrys economy after years of mismanagement and stagnation under former President Jacob Zuma. Ramaphosas target is to raise $100 billion in foreign investment.

The South African rand rose 1 percent on the news of Chinas commitment, according to Reuters.

$2.8 billion of Chinas cash will be siphoned off into South Africas primary state utility Eskom. The struggling public firm reported a $171 million full-year loss on Monday.

Modis lending on behalf of India has been more modest, as the worlds fastest-growing major economy trails Chinas ubiquity on the African continent.

During a flying visit to Uganda, Modi pledged $205 million to the East African country. The sum is intended to help Uganda develop its dominant agricultural sector and electricity distribution infrastructure.The following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and CNBCs Wilfred Frost on CNBCs Closing Bell (M-F 3PM  5PM) today, Wednesday July 25th. The following is a link to video of the full interview on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/25/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-former-uk-prime-minister-tony-blair.html?play=1.

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

WILFRED FROST: Welcome back to Closing Bell. President Trump meeting European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Washington today in an attempt to overcome differences on tariffs. As U.S. European relations continue to strain over policies, could this meeting make a difference? In a CNBC exclusive, were joined now by former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr. Blair, welcome to Closing Bell. Thank you for joining us.

FORMER PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: Thanks, Wilf.

FROST: So in this -- this meeting today, just some brief comments weve had out of it already, the president said that he hopes to work something out on a fair trade deal with Europe. Do you think that is likely to materialize in the near future? And if it does will it justify the tactics would it justify the tactics hes deployed to get to this point?

BLAIR: Well, I think it -- it all depends whether the purpose of the tactics is to put the issue on the table and then get a resolution, or whether it signals, you know, more profound shift in policy towards economic nationalism. If its the first, I think it can be dealt with. If its the second, obviously it will trigger a series of reactions that would be unfortunate. But Im hoping it is the first. I mean there are real trade issues between the U.S. And the E.U., between the U.S. and China. And these are things that are perfectly reasonable to want to work out. Its just they have to be done in a way that doesnt end up causing a  a problem in the whole global trading system.

FROST: Does the president have a point when he suggests in various comments and Tweets that the E.U. is quite hard to negotiate with?

BLAIR: Well, the E.U. Is going to look after its interest, in the way America will look after its interests. And thats perfectly natural. But I think -- the key thing for me is whether youre adjusting the terms of trade in order that you deal with certain grievances that both sides might have about the practices of the other or whether youre embarking on a -- really a new approach to the global trading system, now that would really worry me. If that was the case then we were about to see a descent into a -- a sort of spiral downwards into a trade war. That would obviously be, you know, itd be a huge problem for the world economy. I dont think that is what the U.S. is trying to do and its certainly not what Europe wants. So, lets, you know, lets -- lets give it a chance to work. By the way, and Juncker  the Juncker obviously I know extremely well  I mean has got 30, 40 years experience of dealing with the issues.

SARA EISEN: I wonder though if he has the backing of all 28 leaders that are in the European Union. And what do you think about the tactic of imposing unilateral tariffs in the name of national security as a negotiating tool to drive better trade deals. Is that going to work?

BLAIR: Well  its -- people are going to -- to ask whether that indicates that theres going be a reasonable dialogue or not. The important thing to understand about Europe is its  you know  its a huge market. It does immense amount of trade with America. Its very important that it protects that market. But he will have the -- the full backing of the European Union in taking, you know, a reasonable but still tough stand. And he will want to make sure he is representing European interests properly.

FROST: Lets move on and talk about Russia. Many people wonder whether President Trump is underestimating Russia and President Putin. When you -- when President Putin first came to power did President Bush and you underestimate President Putin?

BLAIR: I dont think we underestimated him, but I think at that time when I first got to know President Putin, I think we very much hoped that we could create a cooperative atmosphere between the west and the changed Russia, after the fall of the Soviet Union. And for whatever reason that didnt materialize and today I think President Putin regards himself very much in competition with the west. Now there are certain areas where we still have to cooperate and fight against terrorism, for example. And then there are other things that Russia is doing where the west has got to take a -- a clear and principled stand. So I think again there the question is  you know, the west and the alliance of western nations and NATO, that is an alliance of interests but that is also an alliance of values. And its important that were clear that those values are going to be protected. Now whatever people say about the recent summit between President Trump and President Putin, if you look on the ground as the Secretary General of NATO was actually explaining to me last week, actually America has stepped up its defense commitments to Eastern Europe, which is a good thing, by the way. So again, lets leave aside whatever the talking is and focus on what the reality is.

FROST: So in that essence, do you think the media criticism of the presidents meeting in Helsinki and the rest of the dealings with Russia perhaps is overstated a little bit?

BLAIR: Well, I think it was bound to happen as a result of the way the meeting came out. But in the end the thing for me that matters is to reassert the importance of NATO, the importance of collective defense and to send a very clear signal to Russia that we want a cooperative relationship. Where we need to work together, we should work together. But there are certain clear rules that have got to be abided by. And you know, youve got a situation still in the Ukraine which is extremely difficult for the people there.

FROST: On the topic of Iran, clearly the president has taken a very hard line. Hes pulled out of the deal that was signed in July 2015 against the wishes of various  various allies. Do you think that hard line on Iran is fair, though?

BLAIR: Look, Ive said I would have kept the deal in place. But I do think a tough position against Iran and destabilizing tactics in the Middle East is absolutely right. Look, Im in the Middle East once or twice a month. My institute works -- does a lot of work there particularly on the relationships with different countries in the Middle East. And you see the destabilizing impact of Iran. In a way I would prefer to see the nuclear issue as it were dealt with by the agreement and a real pushback against the other activities of Iran. But I think given where we are now, its important that we try and build as much unity between America and Europe on the areas we can definitely agree with in relation to Iran which is their activities around the region.

FROST: Lets switch focus back home to the United Kingdom. Do you envy the Prime Ministers job at the moment?

BLAIR: No. I think shes got a really, really tough job. And I always say even when I am criticizing her policy that I accept it comes from a well-intentioned place. But I think shes going to find that the deal she wants to do now is a deal that one, wont pass Europe and two, wont actually pass the views of the British people. And therefore its going to be very difficult for it to proceed on that basis.

FROST: Youve campaigned, you think itd be good to have a second referendum. You said that loud and clear before. Do you think the chances of that second referendum are higher today than at any point since 2016?

BLAIR: I think -- I think the steps to look at it are these. First of all, I dont think theres any Brexit proposition that can command majority in the House of Commons. So I think there will at a certain point or may well be, stalemate. If there is stalemate, then I think in the end the only way you can resolve this is not to rerun the last referendum but in a sense to go back to the British people and say, do you want to go forward on this basis or would you want to stay? Now I think one other element of that is that Europe itself is looking at reforms and changes that needs to make. Immigration was the big driver of this Brexit referendum in the U.K. I think that Europe itself knows its got to deal with its immigration issue. The Italian election tells you that, the recent elections in Austria, all over Europe, this is a big question. So I still think its possible and I think its more likely now than it was a few months ago that you will get a benign coming together of circumstance where there isnt really a Brexit that works that works that is going to command a majority and Europe itself also recognizes that there are changes that it needs to make, which are changes very much in line with the sentiment that gave rise to Brexit.

EISEN: I am curious how you would characterize President Trump and Prime Minister Mays relationship. President Trump says it was the highest level of special. Do you see it that way? Was it as close as yours with President Bush?

BLAIR: You know, I mean I was prime minister for ten years and I had a close relationship with President Clinton and President Bush. I hope they get on really well. Because it is in the interest of the two countries that they do. And you know, it is not my job to criticize your president or indeed criticize her. I hope the relationships special because it should be because these are two countries  his and my country and your country -- weve got a lot of in common.

EISEN: We have a special relationship.

FROST: The highest level.

BLAIR: I wont go into that right now. But -- i dont know what that says about their relationship, either. But any way--

FROST: Talking friendships. Purely friendships.

BLAIR: Right. Okay  good.

FROST: Going back to the idea of a second referendum very quickly, Tony, so John Major just said on the march on Sunday that a second vote has democratic down sides but that it was morally justified. What would you say to the people who were told first of all it was a once in a lifetime vote that voted for Brexit, won the vote and still want Brexit? Would their democratic rights be bulldozed in the instance of a second referendum?

BLAIR: No. I dont think you can say theyre going to be bulldozed. Because we are not suggesting anything different happens without their consent. But when youve large numbers of people who voted for Brexit saying that this deal that the prime minister is putting forward, which is kind of half in Europe, half out of Europe, when you get the people who supported Brexit saying that is not what we meant by Brexit, it is very hard to argue that there is a mandate for that. Because 48% of the country voted to stay. And of the 52% who voted to leave, its clear there was a deep division within that as to what it really means. And in the end  my view is that in the end its a very simple thing: if you are going to leave Europe, okay, leave but understand short and immediate term there is going to be significant economic pain. If you going to stay, then stay. I think -- I think what the prime minister will find is the problem with the proposal is that it doesnt satisfy the people that want to stay. It doesnt really satisfy the people who want to leave.

FROST: And my final question, Mr. Blair, because were right up against the clock. But in the instance of a no deal, clean Brexit, does the U.K. still flourish long-term either way?

BLAIR: If we do a no deal sort of absolute rupture with Europe, yes we can flourish but were going to have to do a lot of economic and social restructuring. And my anxiety has always been that the people who want that vision for Britain will pull us out of Europe but theyll never actually persuade the British people to then do that economic and social restructuring. So, if you want that new vision for Britain which is very different -- implies a very different system in Britain I think that is another reason why it is voted for by the people to make sure that they are prepared to go for that type of future. Because I suspect a lot of people in the labor voting constituencies in the north of England, they might want Brexit but they certainly dont want that type of deregulated light-tax low public spending future that some of the Brexiteers want.

FROST: Mr. Blair, well have to leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us here on the Closing Bell.

BLAIR: Thanks very much.

FROST: The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Dauble

CNBC

t: 201.735.4721

m: 201.615.2787

e: jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com

Emma Martin

CNBC

t: 201.735.4713

m: 551.275.6221

e: emma.martin@nbcuni.comWHEN: Today, Wednesday, July 25th

WHERE: CNBC's Capital Exchange event in Washington D.C.

Following is the unofficial transcript of CNBCs John Harwoods sit down interview with Mick Mulvaney, Director, Office of Management and Budget and Acting Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, today at CNBCs Capital Exchange event in Washington D.C.

All references must be sourced to CNBCs Capital Exchange.

JOHN HARWOOD: --it's good to see you. Good morning. So, do you like being called-- Mr. Director or Congressman? Which is the higher title?

MICK MULVANEY: That's not even close. It's-- Director is much better than Congressman. So-- looking-- I'm looking at Jeb and Maxine when I say that. So-- I don't have to do fundraisers anymore. So--

JOHN HARWOOD: The-- well, that's interesting you say that because you said something a few months ago that attracted a lot attention. And I wanted to see if you

MICK MULVANEY: Oh, goodness gracious, sure.

JOHN HARWOOD: --have an opportunity to explain it, which is the comment about-- if somebody had given money to your campaign, you would talk to them or not. Or if they hadn't, you wouldn't. Elizabeth Warren, who I-- interviewed over the weekend, said that that was another example--

MICK MULVANEY: Did-- did she mention me? Probably?

JOHN HARWOOD: She-- actually, she didn't on this occasion, but previously she said that was an example of the most corrupt administration in history.

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: Can you address what you were--

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah, and she wrote me a letter about it. But-- what I said, by the way, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, was I was giving a speech to a large group of-- I can't even remember who they were, community bankers, I think. And they were in town-- for their annual march on the hill. A lot of organizations will do this. They were there to go meet their-- their delegates or their-- their representation in Congress. And I was trying to encourage them, so what I said was exaggerating to-- to prove a point, which is like, "Look, if you were-- a lobbyist who gave me money, maybe I would meet with you. If you're a lobbyist who didn't give me any money, I wouldn't meet with you. But if you came from back home, I always took time to meet with you." And I was encouraging them to stay engaged in the process, that-- that money does not really buy access like it does in Washington D.C. It's important for people from back home to come up and get involved. And of course, folks who were not at the speech-- took the text out of context and said a bunch of things that I had said, that I was selling access and so forth, which is completely false. Elizabeth and a bunch of other folks-- sent me-- sent a letter. There was a very brief investigation and I think the-- Office of Special Counsel sent a letter, which I sent back to Senator Warren, and of course we never heard anything back from her after this. It saidnot only did Mulvaney not say what you say that he said, but anybody who read it in context said he was actually encouraging people to stay involved in the-- in the democratic process. So, I think it's pretty much gone-- gone away after that.

JOHN HARWOOD: So, it was-- you meant the opposite of what-- what--

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah, I was encouraging those folks to stay involved, not hire lobbyists. Don't rely on other people to make your case for you, especially if you're grassroots folks from back home. Come up and then-- I said I-- actually I think I said that is a fundamental principle of our representative democracy. And I still think that it is. And I still encourage people. It's-- it's-- you know, you want to write a check to-- to a national organization, that's great. But taking the time to actually come to Washington D.C., to talk about things that are important to you, is what we need. Keep in mind the number of things that-- that Maxine and Jeb and I will deal with, or I used to deal with when I was on the Hill, in any particular day could be lit-- literally infinite. The number of things that a member of Congress has to be-- conversant on is almost-- almost unlimited. And we really-- sometimes do not know what's important to you until you actually take time to tell us. And I still think that's a message that needs to-- needs to be said.

JOHN HARWOOD: Well, I-- I mean, I would say I-- I think a lot of members of Congress-- do-- pay attention to who gives and not gives when they sit down with them. So, it's not as if that behavior doesn't exist--

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: --but it's also the-- the definition of the swamp.

MICK MULVANEY: Still nothing counts more than real people coming up to get involved. It really does. You-- if you get-- let-- we all get these from time to time. You'll get a form email-- and the form emails, you-- you pretty much know that-- I-- I got one the other day over at the Bureau. I got a hundred of-- no, it was actually during the reorganization. We had talked about trying to-- to unite-- food safety with U.S.D.A.-- instead of splitting it now between the U.S.D.A. and the F.D.A. It's the example I gave about how-- a chicken is regulated by the U.S.D.A. It lays an egg, that's regulated by the F.D.A. You break the egg to make an omelet, it's regulated again by the U.S.D.A. That's just-- that's-- it's true, by the way. It's-- and it's just crazy. And I-- I gave that example at a cabinet meeting that got-- got some press.

JOHN HARWOOD: Good eggs this morning, by the way.

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah, they really-- I-- I did notHensarlings eating my eggs. I didn't get a chance to eat them.

HENSARLING: They are good.

MICK MULVANEY: And-- and then I got-- like, 150 emails the next day saying, you know, supplements are not food, which is great. And I think that's fantastic, but it was the exact same email, so I know that someplace, somebody-- somebody had put out a thing saying, "Send this to Mulvaney." They published my email address. I-- I-- I read the first two and then threw the rest of them away. But if you take time, sir, to actually write me a letter that said, "Mick, I saw you speak at this thing. I wanted you to know this, this, this, and this," I actually write that. Real people can still have an impact on the outcome in Washington D.C. They just have to take the time to do it. And it's not easy. We still actually like hearing from ordinary folks, from rank-and-file people. We don't like dealing-- all the time with-- with lobbyists and with national-- organizations. There's value to doing this.

JOHN HARWOOD: Okay. Let's talk about where we are at this moment. You're the Budget Director. You're looking at a $1 trillion deficit--

MICK MULVANEY: Yes, I am. Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: --next year. That's not what-- the president-- campaigned on, returning to the trillion-dollar deficits. He has imposed tariffs on-- goods coming into the United States, which raises prices for consumers. Foreign-- countries have retaliated, which hurts our exporters. And now, you're gonna write a $12 billion check to bail out some of the people hurt. Does that make sense?

MICK MULVANEY: Which-- which one do you want me to start with?

JOHN HARWOOD: All-- all of 'em. Because it-- it seems--

MICK MULVANEY: There's-- there's-- there's--

JOHN HARWOOD: It-- it-- it-- you're a small-government conservative and it seems

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: --that all of this is diametrically opposed to what you believe in.

MICK MULVANEY: Okay, I'll-- I'll-- okay, that's-- that's-- that's the larger question, right, is-- is-- is-- is how does a-- a small-government fiscal conservative sort of reconcile this. And this is-- this is what I tell people. I've told people this from the very first budget that I wrote-- which is that I don't make the final decisions. I don't. I'm not the President of the United States. The-- the boss makes those decisions. I satisfy myself by knowing that on each of the issues that you just raised, from deficits, to trade policy, to this-- to the agricultural program that we announced yesterday-- that at least I'm in there, and I am in there, in the Oval Office, making these cases. And I'm not the only one, by the way. Rest assured that on the Ag policy, the president heard every single side of the argument. On trade policy, he continues to hear every single side of the argument. I'm on one side of the argument, along with probably guys like Larry Kudlow-- and then you've got folks like Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross on the other side of the argument. The president hears all of the arguments and then he makes the final decision. That's how it has to be, okay. And I'm satisfied with that. If I'm not there, I-- I not comfortable that those arguments are being made, but I know that they are. And the president makes those final decisions.

JOHN HARWOOD: Are you frustrated by the direction of policy right now?

MICK MULVANEY: I'm-- I-- you know, I-- would-- again, would it be what I would do if I was the president? No, but I'm not the president. I'm-- I'm not frustrated in that for the first time here, and-- and-- and-- and-- I'll speak to this 'cause Jeb and I went through this together as-- as some of the more conservative members of the House. Sometimes one of our major frustrations, to use your word, and it is the right word-- was that we simply weren't being considered. We weren't being heard. That the-- there was no-- no-- no room for the conservative-- for the fiscal conservative discussion within the House Republican Conference, and that the conservatives were completely shut out. In fact-- a friend of mine from the Freedom Caucus-- I was a founding member of that group, called me after one of the first budgets came out and said, "Mulvaney, it sounds like you're losing a lot." And I said, "Yeah, but at least I'm losing at the very highest levels. I used to lose in the basement of the-- of the-- of the tortilla Mexican restaurant."

JOHN HARWOOD: Now you're losing in the World Series.

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah, that's exactly right. So-- am I-- am I frustrated? Frustrated not the right word. I-- am I disappointed that maybe I'm not advocating better to change an outcome? Yes, but I'm 100% comfortable coming in and defending these policies because I know, in part, that the president has heard all-- all-- all different sides of the argument. He gets to make the final decision.

JOHN HARWOOD: Is there a point at which you say, "I can't be part of this anymore"?

MICK MULVANEY: No. Well, I mean, at some point, yeah, you don't do this forever, right. But no, the-- not

JOHN HARWOOD: No, but I-- I-- I-- I don't mean on time basis. I-- I mean on the basis of this is going away from what I think is best.

MICK MULVANEY: If-- if I thought that the president did not give due consideration to what I-- if-- if I wasn't adding value to the conversation, then yeah, you throw your hands up and say, "Look, some-- maybe somebody else can do this better." But I'm absolutely co-- 'cause I know-- I know it for a fact, 'cause I-- I talk to him almost every day, that he does consider these things. Look at how he handled the-- the-- the omnibus-- you know, when he-- when he signed it, and he almost didn't sign it. Part of-- part of, I think, his-- his calculation in that was, wait a second, maybe we are spending too much money. Maybe we did give away too much in non-defense discretionary in order to get the defense money that we need. And maybe we're not gonna do that again. In fact, I think he said exactly that, "We're not gonna do that again." So, that's one of those examples where, you know, maybe over the course of time-- things are sort of moving in a more fiscally conservative way. Another example-- when the president first came in, in the very first budget-- we talked about entitlement reform, Medicare and Social Security. He looked at me and said, "Now, wait a second. I ran for office telling people I wasn't gonna change those two things. I'm not gonna be one of these politicians who runs on one thing and then does another after I get elected. So, no, you can't touch those things. I'm not gonna let you." And over the course of the next year-- we're able to to talk about Medicare-- and come to an understanding that some pieces of Medicare are not what you folks think it is, and it's certainly not what the president thought that it was. Did you know, for example, that your Medicare taxes go to pay for graduate medical school tuition? Did you know that your Medicare taxes go to pay for bad debts from non-Medicare patients at hospitals? My guess is you didn't. I didn't. The president didn't. But we did get a commitment from him to try and reform those pieces of Medicare, and I think that's moving things in the right direction from a fiscal conservative standpoint.

JOHN HARWOOD: Take us inside the room, reconstruct-- as an example, the exchange when you, Larry Kudlow, others, make that case, No, we are-- we should be a market-oriented administration that does not throw up barriers, does not pass out subsidies to people affected by the barriers. What does he say to you?

MICK MULVANEY: A couple of different things. We-- we are a-- a market-oriented economy. We are a market-oriented administration. This is the one thing I don't think-- and this is-- not gonna speak exactly to your question, I'll come back to that in a second. On trade-- everything the president has done-- I say this to business groups all over the country and it-- it-- it still surprises me that they're-- they-- that they-- we get the reaction to trade that we get. Everything the administration has done up to now, from an economic policy, we call it maganomics at O.M.B. It's the Make America Great Again economics. Everything from regulatory policy, to tax policy, to energy policy, to you name it, has been aimed at one thing, and that is getting the American economy back on track, getting to 3% growth, maybe 4% growth, maybe above 4% growth. Everything we've done has been pointed to-- in that same direction. So, why are we all of a sudden now being accused of doing the exact opposite on trade? And I would suggest to you instead that what we're doing on trade is also pointed in the same direction, it's just a lot harder to do. Regulation, we can do by ourselves, okay, for the most part. Tax policy-- we have to work with the Congress, and we did on that. On trade policy, we-- we-- by the way, and getting Congress to do what you want them to do is really, really hard.

JOHN HARWOOD: You didn't work with Maxine Waters on that tax policy.

MICK MULVANEY: I-- I-- I worked with Maxine Waters on other stuff. So-- and I enjoy working with Maxine. She's-- she's a friend. Trade policy is even harder 'cause you have to get the-- the Chinese and-- and-- and-- and-- and other countries to do what you want them to do. You have to change their-- their behavior, and that's really, really hard. So, is it gonna be messier than regulatory reform was or tax reform was? Yes. Is it aimed in the same direction? Absolutely. So, I-- I-- I-- I disagree with the premise that we're not a market-based economy, that we're taking that away, that we're not a market-based administration. I think you saw this morning-- something the president-- reiterated this morning that he said at the G-7. I hope it gets the attention it deserves. He tweeted out something he said at the G-7 that I-- I don't think-- everybody picked up on, which is-- "The Europeans are coming in town today. Happy to talk to them about-- about our-- our-- our trade policies. Here's what it is. Zero tariffs, zero tariff barriers, zero subsidies. Who wants in on that?" Is-- is that-- is that a-- is that a non-market-based system? That-- is-- is-- is that a protectionist system? That's true free trade, and that's what we're trying to get to. That's what we're-- we're trying to get to someplace where we can-- grow the economy, and I hope he gets credit for that.

JOHN HARWOOD: Let me go back to tax policy-- because we were talking about deficits before. And we have-- through this tax bill, raised the trajectory of budget deficits.

MICK MULVANEY: Uh-huh.

JOHN HARWOOD: But we've also, if you look at all the major forecasters, Goldman Sachs, Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton, Federal Reserve, none of them say that we've raised the growth tr-- trajectory beyond the approximate 2% mark that we were before.

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: Why is that? And is that not a-- an illustration of the fact that the-- the promises that you guys made about the effect of the tax cuts were simply wrong?

MICK MULVANEY: Those are the same folks that-- those-- that-- that-- that list that you just ran down, and you could add to that list, are-- are folks who said we'd never get to 3% anyway. I mean, I remember when I first rolled out our first budget in March of 2017, and we had projected at that time, as part of our-- you know, you do the-- when you do a budget, you sort of look in a ten-year window. And we had projected that we'd go from, I think at that point, about 2.1%, 2.2% growth-- that we'd go from 2.3% to 2.5%, to 2.7%, and maybe three or four years out with our policies, we might get to 3%. Then all of those folks that you just said, said we were nuts. In fact, I--

JOHN HARWOOD: And they still say you're nuts.

MICK MULVANEY: They still say we're nuts. They said we could never do that. We could never get to any of that. We've gotten faster than they ex-- by the way-- who was it? Oh, it was Krugman-- who says-- one of my favorite lines. He said, "You could make me the-- a total dictator of the world and I could never get you more than a couple of tenths of a percentage point." Okay, thankfully we did not make Paul Krugman the-- the-- the dictator. We made Donald Trump president. Everybody said we couldn't get there. They're heavily invested in saying we can't get there. Face it, if you've-- if you've been selling for the last two to three generations the idea that higher taxes, more regulation, and more government-- more government intervention in the markets is the way to growth, and it hadn't worked for eight years under the Obama Administration, and along comes this new administration and says, "We are gonna cut regulation, we're gonna cut taxes, and you'll get growth from that," you have to see us fail, all right. So, when we first started, they said, "It's never going to work." Now, it seems to be working and what they're saying is, "Yeah, well, it's working, but it's only gonna work for a short period. Long-term, it's gonna-- it's not-- it's-- it's not gonna pay off." What else are they gonna say? 'Cause if they say it's gonna work, then they have nothing to sell from their economic perspective.

JOHN HARWOOD: So, you continue to believe that they're all wrong and that-- in the fullness of time, we are going to get to 3% or 4% growth?

MICK MULVANEY: How-- how about this? I believe they're as right now as they were a year ago. How about that? I do believe that 3% growth is sustainable. I absolutely believe it. And I believe that because--

JOHN HARWOOD: 'Cause nobody-- nobody said you couldn't get 3% for a quarter. I mean, Obama got 5% for a quarter. The question is can you sustain it, and none of them say you can.

MICK MULVANEY: Well, we're-- I mean, we're-- I don't know when the numbers come out. I think the numbers come out Friday? Is that what-- Friday? And-- and if the numbers are where all of those same folks say it's going to be, we will be at 3% sustained for a whole year now. That never happened under the Obama Administration. The first administration ever. That's one of the reasons that I-- I-- I-- I-- I don't know why saying 3% growth is so outrageous. We've done it forever. I mean, it-- you go back to-- pick any long period of time, from the-- the-- World War II to now, from the Great Depression until now, from the Civil War till now, and 3% growth is what we do as a nation. And I don't know when it became orthodoxy that says we can never, ever, ever do that again, and anybody who says we can is crazy. Do we face challenges in that? Yes. Do we have an aging population? Yes. Do we have-- productivity challenges? Absolutely. But we've always been able to overcome that. One of the reasons I was so excited about what we did in the tax bill-- and I-- I-- it's one of those things that I don't think gets-- enough attention, is the way that we changed-- the depre-- depreciation on capital investment. That's one of the biggest pieces, I think, of the tax bill, the way that we're going to change the way you invest in your business, because we need that capital investment in order to drive the productivity, in order to drive that economic growth. Economic growth is a function basically of two things, the number of people working and their productivity. The more capital investment, the more productivity they have. So, we-- we do think that by changing that tax code, we get the permanent long-term sustainable growth we're talking about.

JOHN HARWOOD: Two things quickly before I let you go. Financial regulation. Of course, your other hat right now is--

MICK MULVANEY: I've heard of it, yes.

JOHN HARWOOD: --you're the acting-- head of the C.F.P.B.-- at least until Kathy Kraninger gets-- confirmed.

MICK MULVANEY: We call it the B.C.F.B., but yeah, okay, that's fine.

JOHN HARWOOD: We are ten years from-- removed from the financial crisis.

MICK MULVANEY: Yeah.

JOHN HARWOOD: Would you say that right now the U.S. financial system is-- safe, adequately protected, needs no more regulation, in fact needs less regulation than it now has?

MICK MULVANEY: I-- I-- I think we need better regulation than we have now. The Dodd-Frank statute is actually-- I mean, you go and you take a look at it and there's all sorts of parts that I don't like about it. And if y'all wanted to repeal it, that would be great. So, knock yourselves out. If that-- if that doesn't happen, it's a statute you can live with. Because it's-- it-- it-- it's-- it's probably a lot more detailed than people realize. The Dodd-Frank st-- I'm sorry, as it pertains to my bureau, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. It actually requires us to do five things-- among which are protect consumers, which is the part that everybody knows about and the part that got all the attention under the previous-- previous leadership. But in the same section of the statute, it says that we are supposed to look for unduly and burdensome regulations and get rid of them. That we are sort of-- supposed to promote innovation. We are supposed to promote efficiencies of market and access to capital. Those are not bad things. The law is not what's broken, in that particular circumstance. What's broken is the way that we have chosen to prioritize and to administer that law. And I think if we can get smart regulation of what's on the books, we could do better. You're talking to a Republican. Do I think there are regs we could get rid of? Absolutely. Do I think we can have a lighter hand when it comes to regulating our economy? Yes. Do I think that when you do that the economy responds in the way that it has? Yes. In fact, I-- I-- I think I can make the argument that most of the economic develop-- economic growth that you've seen in the first 18 months of this administration have more to-- have-- has more to do with the deregulatory policies than it has the tax policies, 'cause the tax policy has not really fil-- sort of filtered through the economy yet. But this idea that less regulation coming from the government, a lighter hand of regulation, does result in a better, healthier economy, better wages, better opportunities-- I think I can make that case-- because I think it's actually working.

JOHN HARWOOD: Okay. Last question.

MICK MULVANEY: Yes, sir.

JOHN HARWOOD: You--

MICK MULVANEY: And I used to be a southerner, by the way, which means I-- I talked a lot slower. But they yelled at me that I-- I didn't get enough questions answered--

JOHN HARWOOD: You have no accent. I don't believe that.

MICK MULVANEY: I am born and raised in the south. So--

JOHN HARWOOD: We just had a summit in Helsinki last week in which the president met-- privately with Vladimir Putin for a couple of hours. Nobody really knows what happened in that meeting. National security officials don't seem to know. The president came out, expressed confidence in-- in-- the Russian president-- raised doubts about the U.S. Intelligence Agency. Is there any part of you, late at night when you're by yourself, that says, "Maybe there's something going on here that's bad"?

MICK MULVANEY: No. Those meetings are always private, aren't they? I mean, when-- when Reagan went in with Gorbachev, did he come out and say-- he had a private meeting with Gorbachev, walk out and say By the way, Tom--

JOHN HARWOOD: I'm talking about--

MICK MULVANEY: --here's everything that we just talked about? That's not-- that's not how these work.

JOHN HARWOOD: But you know what I'm asking. I-- I-- I'm talking about in the relationship between this president, Russia, the Russian president--

MICK MULVANEY: You asked me a straight question, I'll give you a straight answer. No. I don't worry about that at all.

JOHN HARWOOD: Mick Mulvaney, thanks for being with us.

MICK MULVANEY: Thanks very much. Thanks, y'all.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Dauble

CNBC

t: 201.735.4721

m: 201.615.2787

e: jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com

Marissa Tarabocchia

CNBC

t: 201.735.4722

m: 646.808.9302

e: marissa.tarabocchia@nbcuni.comWHEN: Today, Wednesday, July 25th

WHERE: CNBC's Capital Exchange event in Washington D.C.

Following is the unofficial transcript of CNBCs Kayla Tausches sit down interview with Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman, House Financial Services Committee, today at CNBCs Capital Exchange event in Washington D.C.

All references must be sourced to CNBCs Capital Exchange.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: And thank you Tyler. Before my current life in Washington I covered Wall Street. And there's very little overlap. But one of the constants is Chairman Hensarling who was very vocal, very active in the Wall Street community back when I covered that. And now I've had the great pleasure of-- of getting to know you a little bit better down here. What is the next phase of your career?

JEB HENSARLING: Work less hard and make more money and spend more time with my family, most importantly.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: And what does that mean doing? Is that staying in Washington? Or is that going--

JEB HENSARLING: It means--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --back to Texas?

JEB HENSARLING: --under our ethics rules I really can't plan my future until I leave.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Are you glad to not be campaigning right now? And to be trying to make laws on the home stretch instead?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, you know, you-- y-- your career goes through phases. And early in your career you practice a lot of politics and a little bit of policy. And as time goes by, you practice more policy and less politics. So I enjoy having more time-- to work on the policy. But -- I-- I-- I've enjoyed it. I mean, it's-- it's been a passion of mine. I enjoy getting out in the Fifth District of Texas, rural East Texas, good folks there so I miss some of that. But-- you know, it allows us to get some-- some bills. I-- I-- I'm happy to say we're probably one of the most active if not the most active and productive committee-- on the Hill. And-- I take some pride in that. But that does take away from your work in your district.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: What would you say your legacy is, at this point?

JEB HENSARLING: If by legacy, how will I be remembered once I leave, I have no legacy. I know of nothing that is as soon forgotten as a former member of Congress. So I know that. And I'm at peace with that. But--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Legislatively.

JEB HENSARLING: You know, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about that. We produced a lot of bills. I think at the end of the day they've had a marginal beneficial impact on the plight of the working man and working woman-- to lift themselves up again. As Mick spoke about earlier, I would say that it is an American right to have 3% plus economic growth. And if you look at the history of America, all of our job creation, almost all of our job creation-- almost all of our disposable income increases, all of our poverty reductions, 80% of that takes place in 3% plus growth years. And-- our committee among other things represents the capital of capitalism. And so our ability to facilitate capital formation-- and help working families-- have more disposable income, help entrepreneurs reach their American dream. I think the cumulative impact-- I-- I-- I do believe when I look myself in the mirror I'll say, "You know what? Due to our efforts, not my efforts, our efforts collectively, some of which has been bipartisan as I look at my ranking member-- I think we moved the needle." I think we moved the needle some. And I-- I take some-- some solace in that. But will I be-- no. No-- nobody remembers former members of Congress.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Your current-- effort, JOBS Act 3.0, a bipartisan effort, I know is something that you care deeply about. Protections for angel investors, making it easier for companies to go public. Why do you think we need that now in the economy?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, I think there's a couple of different reasons. Number one, I'm just very concerned-- I'm the father of two teenagers. And when they're in their peak earning years, I'm convinced that the companies that will drive the economy at that time haven't even been born yet. And so I'm concerned as I see-- kind of this diminution of entrepreneurship-- in America. I think the data I saw as recent as 2016-- entrepreneurship was, like, at a generational low. IPOs were at a 20-year slide, at about a 20-year low. Now we've seen a come back after-- 2016. But haven't made up the lost ground. A lot of us think-- in terms of competition with China. China 2025, 36% of all IPOs now-- companies that are IPO-ing in China. We're down to 11% in the U.S. Was at Silicon Valley recently and, you know, we've got people saying, "You know, it's just a whole lot easier to go public in China than it is the U.S." And if we're gonna compete, we somehow have to make sure that we have again-- I-- smarter regulation. I don't always think the dichotomy is between regulation and deregulation. I think the dichotomy is between smart regulation and dumb regulation. I also think there always has to be a balance. You know, it's-- it's-- it's the cost benefit analysis. What does this regulation do? How will it impede-- you know, will it impeded capital formation? Will it impede job growth? Ultimately what is the impact upon job creation, GDP, disposable family income? And I don't think we do a good job when regulations are promulgated-- in-- in doing that cost benefit analysis. And so ultimately again where are the Amazon and-- and Googles of the future, where are they gonna come from? And as I said before, I still think America's garages have too many old cars and not enough new start-ups.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: But do you get the sense that anyone in the Senate shares your view on prioritizing this?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, number one-- never underestimate the Senate's capacity to do nothing. So-- you know, I think there's a couple. But I don't-- I enjoy sleeping at night. And if I worried about what the Senate did, I would never sleep at night-- did or didn't do. So all I know is we put this-- package in the best position-- to pass. Again there's a lot of really good right-wing bills I could have put in this package. She wasn't gonna let me do it. So those were dropped. And Maxine and I-- had a very good forthright negotiation over about three weeks. And it was a strong bipartisan package. Some bills were originated by Democrats-- most by Republicans. She wanted some language modified. We-- we modified some language. But it was-- it was a good honest negotiation because I wanted a strong bipartisan package.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: But without--

JEB HENSARLING: So you're asking me what's the Senate gonna do.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --say, ten Senate Democrats on broad.

JEB HENSARLING: Well-- again--

JEB HENSARLING: --I'm not oblivious to the fact that it takes ten Senate Democrats to do it. The-- they're gonna vote on it one way or the other. So they will get the chance to register their yeas and the nays. So-- no, I can't control what the Senate does. All I can do is put the package in the best position-- to pass in the Senate. And then they're gonna do what they're gonna do. And I'll sleep well at night. And life will go on. But if they care about-- what many of us care about-- then I-- I-- I think they'll pass it. And I take some solace that-- the usual suspects didn't immediately train their fire on the--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Who do you consider--

JEB HENSARLING: --package.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --to be the usual suspects?

JEB HENSARLING: I think I've said enough.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: In the last 24 hours, we've heard a chorus of Republicans, but not you yet-- chastise the $12 billion relief package for the U.S. farm community. It would seem to be antithetical to everything you've been fighting for in your career. And I'm curious--

JEB HENSARLING: It is.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --how you received the news yesterday. What your initial thoughts were.

JEB HENSARLING: Well-- I was busy yesterday. So I received the news quite late. So I'm just somewhat incredulous. Well, w-- number one, let me back up. For most Americans, they have the best economy of their lifetimes. And I believe it is principally due to one man, President Donald Trump. And a global trade war threatens all of that prosperity. And if we lose all that prosperity, it will be principally due to one person, President Donald Trump. So I admit that at the end of the day maybe his trade pro-- policies, negotiations, I hope and pray it proves to be brilliant. But at the end of the day-- and I'm sorry the Mick Mulvaney still isn't here-- there's many things I like what I hear from the administration and what the president said at the G7. Words are one thing, deeds are something else. And what I saw was on the one free trade agreement that's been modified in Korea, we didn't break down trade barriers. And so I question, "What is the end goal here?" If the end goal is what the president's Tweet was early this morning as-- as Mick articulated it, then I say, "Go, Mr. President. Go." But what we saw--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: But he also thinks--

JEB HENSARLING: --in Korea--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --tariffs are the greatest --

JEB HENSARLING: I'm having trouble--reconciling those two. I do not-- tariff-- a tariff is a tax. So we have a policy now that is taxing the American consumer and then bailing out U.S. farmers with welfare. I don't get it. I don't agree with it. And I also think as a matter of preserving, strengthening Article I of the Constitution, I would say for decades, both parties are guilty of this. Congress after Congress has shoveled more power out of Article I of the Constitution into Article II. And then we throw up our hands and say, "Gee, I didn't know he had all this power. How can he just do this with the stroke of a pen?" Well, that's our fault. That's our fault that this happens. So, I thought Barack Obama had too much power. I think that-- Donald Trump has too much power. And I think that Congress needs to reassert their authority. And last I read the Constitution, it's Congress that has authority over tariffs. It's Congress that has authority over trade. And we ought to take some of that back. And so again my concern with what the administration is doing is several fold. Again-- the answer I'd like to see is the ability of Americans to export more, not import less. But again that's not what we saw in Korea. In Korea we saw the imposition of a quota and an extension of a 20-year tariff. That is not helping American consumers. It's not helping American businesses. It's not helping the steel producers in the Fifth District of Texas who take imported steel and fabricate it into either shelving or steel buildings. They're concerned as the price of their feeder stock skyrockets. And they're concerned about potential lay-offs-- and competitiveness. So again, maybe the president's strategy proves to be brilliant. But number one, I don't think the president should have this much power. Number two, this administration needs to clearly articulate, not just with their words, with their deeds, what the end goal is of trade. I would also call on the administration to drop any pretense of using 242 to say that my 11-year-old Honda Accord is a threat to national defense. Occasionally it's a threat to my checkbook, but it is not a threat. It is not a threat to national defense. It will undercut the administration's credibility. And I think you will see, if the administration does that, members of both sides of the aisle rise up and begin to start taking back some of their Article I powers. And then I also would call the administration-- I'm not sure they've done their careful calibrations again to understand how many U.S. businesses are adversely impacted by these tariffs, how U.S. consumers are adversely impacted-- by these tariffs. And so

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Have you had that conversation with the president, with his advisors? And do you feel like that message has landed?

JEB HENSARLING: You know, I don't think I've spoken with the president probably in six weeks, maybe eight weeks. I don't remember. I-- I-- I've had these conversations. I've certainly had these conversations-- with members of his administration including Mr. Mulvaney, including the Secretary of Treasury. So I have a little bit more access to them than the president himself. But I've articulated my views to the-- to the president.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: On this farm relief package though, I mean, ten years ago you were one of the leading voices coalescing Republicans against the financial bail-out in 2008. And at the time you said, "How can we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down?" If Congress bails out some--

JEB HENSARLING: Pretty poetic, wasn't it?

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --firms and sectors, how can it say no to others? Is this the same thing?

JEB HENSARLING: Yes. Yes.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Even though it's $12 billion versus--

JEB HENSARLING: Yes, it's a bail-out.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --$700 billion.

JEB HENSARLING: It is a bail-out. It is a bail-out based upon these policies. And-- listen, I say this as one who grew up on a farm. My dad was a farmer. My granddad was a farmer. Believe it or not, you can make a living out of agriculture and not get taxpayer subsidies. You can do it. My family is proof of it. And when I look at a federal debt-- I-- I gotta tell you. You didn't ask the question. But as I get ready to leave Congress, don't have too many regrets. But my inability to convince my colleagues of the peril of an unsustainable national debt, that-- that will be the top of my regrets. And every single bail-out ultimately is gonna be borne by our children and our grandchildren. Again, the answer is trade not aid. So yes, this is a bail-out. I'm opposed to it.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: But if the price of poultry when your dad was farming-- plummeted because of government policies and the government came to your family's farm and offered you a few hundred thousand dollars to offset that, to make him whole, would you tell him not to accept that?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, I-- it's-- it's a hard question. It's a good question. I would say that frankly-- those government policies-- did impact our poultry farm. Because what it did was it made the price of feed more expensive for our chickens. But no, my family didn't go to the government and ask for a bail-out. What we tried to do-- and again our voices were quite small. But-- to say, "Let the free market work." That would be my answer. But again last I looked-- my iPad is awash of reports saying that we have an unsustainable spending trajectory. We have an unsustainable national debt. And something that is unsustainable has a tendency to stop. So, I don't think America's ever gonna be Greece. I don't think America is ever going to be Detroit or some of the other terrible bankruptcies. But we've seen the face of national bankruptcy, and it's frightening and it's scary. I don't think that will be the nation as a whole. But I do think with-- if we don't change the trajectory we're on we are destined to be a second-rate economic power, a second-rate military power, and I would argue a second-rate moral authority w-- as we become the first generation in America's history to leave the next generation with a lower standard of living.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: I wanna give the audience--

JEB HENSARLING: That's not right.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --the opportunity to ask a couple of questions. But while we get the microphone ready, does anyone have questions for Chairman Hensarling? I have a question for you which is 

JEB HENSARLING: Apparently I put them all to sleep.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: As we're-- as we're talking about bail-outs.

JEB HENSARLING: Either that or maybe I frightened 'em.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Would you consider in hindsight the TARP program to have been a failure?

JEB HENSARLING: I gotta tell you, that's a hard one. I do think again that that was born principally of-- of government policies that help erode traditional prudential underwriting standards. There was a legitimate crisis that needed to be responded to. This is part of the rationale of why we have a central bank. It is part of why we have-- there are 13(3) exigent powers. But there was a need to add liquidity-- liquidity into the system. And they went far beyond that. They went far beyond that. And I-- I'm not sure. History will tell at some point, you know, whether we ultimately were better off or not better off. Clearly we had to have liquidity injections which is again the business of the Fed and has been since 1913. But the bail-outs of the individual businesses, that concerns me. Because with that comes some modicum of government control. And what I think we've seen for the last decade is a lost decade of economic growth. And-- families have been held back-- again, there's a big difference in the lives of the American people, particularly those trying to lift themselves out of poverty, trying to get ahead, a huge difference between 1.5% economic growth and 3% economic growth. And I think ultimately what we have seen is a drag on economic growth and a certain amount of-- of uncertainty. And I think it has allowed the tentacles of the federal government to get into the reaches of credit allocation which I think to be a bad thing. I do not want credit to be politicized. I do not want credit to be allocated by Washington politicians. That frightens me greatly. And I think that unfortunately TARP has helped facilitate that.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: You're clearly still very fired up about deregulation, deficit spending, the national debt. So I will ask you--

JEB HENSARLING: I'm old but I'm not dead.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: I will ask you in closing, is there a role in this administration where you feel you could have a bigger impact on those issues that you would consider?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, I think you know I was considered for one job in the administration. Somebody else got it. And I was flattered to be--

KAYLA TAUSCHE: That would be--

JEB HENSARLING: --considered.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: --Treasury Secretary.

JEB HENSARLING: I was flattered to be considered. And life has-- life has gone on.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: What about-- FHFA?

JEB HENSARLING: Well, that one would be intriguing to me-- I must admit. Fannie and Freddie reform has proven to be somewhat vexing. But I sense that-- I plan to-- hop up-- hop into the pickup truck, put Washington in the rear-view mirror and drive home.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: We appreciate you spending some time with us and wish you the best of luck.

JEB HENSARLING: Thank you.

KAYLA TAUSCHE: Chairman Jeb Hensarling, thank you.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Dauble

CNBC

t: 201.735.4721

m: 201.615.2787

e: jennifer.dauble@nbcuni.com

Marissa Tarabocchia

CNBC

t: 201.735.4722

m: 646.808.9302

e: marissa.tarabocchia@nbcuni.comAn audio recording was made public Tuesday night appearing to feature Donald Trump, while running for president in 2016, talking with his then-attorney Michael Cohen about paying for the rights to a Playboy models story about her alleged affair with Trump.

CNN released the muddled and roughly three-minute-long tape, saying it had acquired the recording from Cohens lawyer Laney Davis. It was not clear whether the recording, which was made in September 2016, had been edited or altered.

CNN Cuomo Prime Time on Twitter: Full audio: Presidential candidate Trump is heard on tape discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier, according to the audio recording

Trump himself weighed in on the tape Wednesday morning.

In a tweet, the president attacked Cohen for taping him, questioned the recording's integrity, and appeared to lament that Cohen recorded conversations with journalists and other clients.

TRUMP TWEET

In the tape, Cohen can be heard telling Trump that he would have to pay for the rights to Karen McDougals story about the alleged affair. McDougal sold the rights to her story to American Media, or AMI, which publishes the National Enquirer. The story was never published and McDougal was released from the contract in April.

Cohen told Trump that he plans to set up a company to finance the purchase of the rights from AMI and has consulted Allen Weisselberg  chief financial officer of The Trump Organization  on the process of doing that, according to the recording.

AMI, The Trump Organization and the White House didnt immediately respond to CNBCs request for comment.

Trump and Cohen also discussed how to pay for the rights in the recording, with Trump heard saying pay with cash. It isnt clear whether he suggested or discouraging paying with cash.

A source told CNBC last week that Trump had, in fact, raised the idea of paying McDougal with cash.

Alan Futerfas, lawyer for The Trump Organization, told NBC that Trump had meant he opposed paying for the rights.

When the word cash is used, its in opposition to financing. Its like when youre buying a house, and a person says  are you going to get financing, or are you paying cash? Its identical context  no one expects or understands youre showing up to the closing with green currency, Futerfas said, adding that the proposed deal with AMI never happened.

Read CNN's report on the Trump-Cohen audio recordingThe United States could face another wave of tariffs from Europe if President Donald Trump signs off new duties on carmakers, the EUs trade chief told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter Wednesday.

The EU is trying to prevent Trump from imposing a 20 percent tariff on cars from the region. Just hours ahead of a meeting with Trump at the White House, Cecilia Malmstrom, who leads the EUs trade policy, told the Swedish newspaper that the bloc is preparing new counter-tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods. She added that the tariffs would not be applied to specific U.S. states, but instead to general items, such as agricultural goods, machinery and high-tech items.

Alexander Winterstein, a spokesperson for the European Commission, the EUs executive arm, said on Wednesday: If (car) tariffs were to be imposed then we need to take counter measures and we are ready for that, we are ready to act immediately and we are ready to react adequately.

Car duties and overall trade flows are going to be discussed Wednesday in Washington between Trump, Malmstrom and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Winterstein from the Commission added that it is always challenging to predict how a meeting with the president of the United States is going to play out. He also said during a press briefing that Juncker has a number of ideas with him and that he will work to avoid a trade war.

The EU has already imposed tariffs worth $3.3 billion on U.S. goods in response to an earlier decision by Trump to impose a 25 and a 10 percent duty on steel and aluminium, respectively, from Europe.The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed down 0.3 percent with the different sectors moving mostly lower. Basic resources and autos were the worst performers given their link to trade. On the other hand, financial services and household goods finished higher supported by strong earnings. Private equity fund 3i rose 2.7 percent after a strong earnings report, while LVMH was up by 1.8 percent after posting robust results for the first half of the year.

Looking across the European benchmark, Swiss drug manufacturer Lonza lifted its outlook for the year, prompting shares to jump over 6 percent. Also Telefonica Deutschland rose about 8 percent after confirming it is on track to deliver its target for the year.

Deutsche Bank shares closed 1.4 percent lower after reporting a net profit of 401 million euros ($468 million) during the course of its second quarter. Furthermore, Indivior shares fell as much as 7.7 percent after reporting a 24 percent drop in second-quarter pretax profit.

Shares of Fiat Chrysler also fell following comments from the company's new CEO that its outlook had been lowered. The announcement came only two hours after news that former chief Sergio Marchionne had passed away. Fiat shares closed down by nearly 15 percent.

In the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon, stocks were lower as investors received the latest batch of corporate earnings. Dow-component Boeing reported better-than-expected earnings, but the stock fell more than 1.5 percent after the company issued full-year guidance that disappointed Wall Street.



Guwahati, July 24 : Ongoing deadlock in Manipur University which halted the academic activities in the higher education institution for last 55 days had rocked both inside and outside of Manipur assembly on Monday.





Amidst demands to oust the Vice Chancellor of Manipur University, leaders-members of Manipur University Students Union (MUSU) had tried to disrupt the monsoon session of Manipur assembly after hundreds of students marched towards to the assembly.





Police personnel had resorted lathi charge and used smoke bombs, tear gas shells to foil the attempts of the students.





At least eight students were injured during the clash between students and security personnel.





The district administration had imposed section 144 in and around the assembly complex and a large number of police personnel, commandos were deployed to maintain law and order situation.





Earlier, the MUSU and other students organisation had threaten to storm the assembly complex by demanding various issues including removal of Manipur University Vice Chancellor Prof Adya Prasad Pandey.





The MUSU has continued their agitations by demanding to oust the Vice Chancellor following allegations of financial irregularities and administrative negligence.





On the other hand, the Manipur University issue was also raised inside of the Manipur assembly.





Opposition Congress MLAs K Govindas and K Ranjit had plead the assembly speaker to discuss the issue, but the speaker denied the plea.





On the other hand, the Joint Tribal Student Bodies, Manipur on Monday announced that the blockade on National Highways - Jiribam-Imphal, Moreh-Imphal and Dimapur-Imphal will continue.





The Joint Tribal Student Bodies, Manipur has demanded to oust the Vice Chancellor of Manipur University.





The tribal student body said in a statement that, the blockade on National Highways - Jiribam-Imphal, Moreh-Imphal and Dimapur-Imphal will continue, but suspended the indefinite hill bandh.





On the other hand, the Joint College Students Forum on Tuesday had stormed Manipur CMs secretariat and demanding to declare examination results.



Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told CNBC on Wednesday that he expects a stalemate on Brexit.

Instead, he thinks there could be a second referendum on whether the U.K. should leave the European Union  and he believes it is more likely now than it was a few months ago.

I dont think there is any Brexit proposition that can command a majority in the House of Commons. So I think there will at a certain point, or may well be, stalemate, Blair said on Closing Bell.

If there is stalemate, then I think in the end the only way that you can resolve this is not to rerun the last referendum but in a sense go back to the British people and say 'do you want to go forward on this basis or would you want to stay,' he added.

Blair said that Europe is also looking at the reforms and changes it needs to make, which may also impact sentiment in the U.K. over Brexit.

Immigration was a big driver of this Brexit referendum in the U.K., he said. Europe itself knows its got to deal with its immigration issue. The Italian election tells you that. The recent elections in Austria, all over Europe, this is a big question.

It has been just over two years since the U.K. voted to leave the EU. With the departure date scheduled for March 29, 2019, negotiators have about six months to conclude talks.

However, there has been recent turmoil over Prime Minister Theresa Mays strategy.

Earlier this month, three of Mays Cabinet ministers resigned over Downing Streets approach to Brexit. May has said she wants to try to keep the closest possible trade links with the EU after the U.K. leaves the bloc.

President Donald Trump also stirred up controversy when he told The Sun newspaper two week ago that May had ignored his advice on Brexit. He also said recently departed Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson would make a great prime minister."

The president later walked back those comments in a meeting with May, saying, Whatever you do is OK with us, just make sure we can trade together.Omarosa Manigault, President Donald Trump's Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.

Omarosa Manigault-Newman, the "Apprentice" reality show villain who became an advisor to President Donald Trump, has been interviewed by federal investigators probing longtime dealings between former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and The National Enquirer, a new report said Wednesday.

The Wall Street Journal's article details the close relationship that Cohen developed with the Trump-friendly supermarket tabloid, which routinely refused to run negative stories about Trump, including ones relating to alleged mistresses of the president.

The report says that at one time Manigault-Newman was given a job by The Enquirer's publisher after she threatened to sue the paper, and after Cohen intervened.

Cohen is under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in New York City for his business dealings, as well as for two hush money payments made for two women who claim to have had sexual trysts with Trump.

One, porn star Stormy Daniels, was paid $130,000 by Cohen on the eve of the 2016 election, while the other, Playboy model Karen McDougal, had her story bought before that election by American Media, the publisher of The National Enquirer, which never ran her account.

The White House has denied Trump had sex with either woman.

On Tuesday, CNN aired a recording revealing Cohen talking with Trump about the possibility of buying McDougal's story from American Media two months before the election. That payment was never made, according to Trump's current lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Prosecutors had subpoenaed records from American Media in April, at the same time FBI agents raided Cohen's residences and office in New York City.

The Journal's article said that Cohen brokered a resolution of a dispute Manigault-Newman had with The Enquirer's publisher in 2011 over the supermarket tabloid's coverage of her brother's murder.

The article said that Manigault-Newman dropped her threat to sue American Media after the company agreed to give her a job as West Coast editor of its now-defunct magazine Reality Weekly.

"I don't think attendance was mandatory for her," Jerry George, The Enquirer's former West Coast bureau chief told The Journal.

George said that Manigault-Newman's mother sometimes visited the offices of American Media, where people referred to her as "Mamarosa."

The Journal, after noting that federal investigators have questioned Manigualt-Newman, said there is no suggestion that the resolution of her spat with The Enquirer was improprer.

Enquirer editor Dylan Howard and Lanny Davis, a lawyer for Cohen, did not immediately return requests for comment by CNBC. James Margolin, a spokesman for the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the office investigating Cohen, declined to comment.Mark Zuckerberg Getty Images

Facebook failed to add North American daily active users and lost European daily active users in the second quarter, amid data leaks, privacy changes and fake news scandals, the company reported Wednesday. In its second-quarter earnings report, Facebook said North American daily active users (DAUs) remained at 185 million, the same as the prior quarter. Analysts were expecting 185.4 million, according to FactSet. European DAUs fell to 279 million in the second quarter from 282 million in the prior period  likely a result of Europe's recently enacted General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a set of rules that give users more control over their online data.

Global DAUs continued to increase, rising to 1.47 billion, up from 1.45 billion. Analysts expected 1.49 billion. CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed on the company's earnings call that 2.5 billion people use at least one of Facebook's apps  including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger  every month. Facebook's North American number has fluctuated over the last year, dipping slightly at the end of 2017 before bouncing back.Raw materials are getting pricier for General Motors, and a new car could soon cost you more, too.

The nation's largest automaker on Wednesday said it's prepared to pass along a higher-than expected jump in commodity costs this year. The pricier raw materials and unfavorable exchange rates in Brazil and Argentina will cost it $1 billion this year.

The increase prompted GM to trim its profit outlook for the year, which sent shares plunging. GM stock was down more than 6 percent Wednesday afternoon, on track for its biggest one-day percentage drop since November 2011.

"To the extent that we have opportunistic ability to pass along some [of the higher costs], we will," Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said on a call with analysts.

In an interview earlier with CNBC, Stevens blamed "market forces" for the rise in commodity prices, not the tariffs the Trump administration placed on steel and aluminum this year, specifically. GM buys most of its steel domestically.

The company is able to offset some of the impact of higher costs by selling higher-priced vehicles this year, Stevens said. Consumers' growing taste for larger vehicles like pickup trucks and SUVs has been a boon to GM because these models are more profitable than smaller ones. Other options going forward to handle higher costs include substituting materials, he added.

The auto industry isn't alone in struggling with more expensive commodities, which have hit the bottom lines of companies from washing-machine maker Whirlpool to airlines like Delta and United.

Even though commodity prices have eased from recent highs, GM will still feel more of the impact in the second half of the year because it takes about three months for those high-priced commodities to work their way into the automaker's supply chain, said Stevens.

The auto industry has warned that tariffs could drive up production costs and vehicle prices, resulting in job cuts. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Trump administration is considering a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of foreign-made cars, but GM CEO Mary Barra told analysts on the call she could not speculate on the impact. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Trade tensions between the U.S. and Europe could be damaging economic momentum in the regions biggest economy, Germany. The latest data sets from the country released Tuesday and Wednesday paint something of a mixed snapshot of the economy, analysts believe. Germanys composite purchasing managers index (PMI)  an indicator of the economic health of the countrys manufacturing and service sectors  hit a five-month high in July, data showed Tuesday, coming in at 55.2, up from Junes 54.8. The increase was driven by a stronger rise in manufacturing, IHS Markit, which collates the data, said. Services, meanwhile, hit a two-month low.

The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Michael Zwahlen | EyeEm | Getty Images

Yet on Wednesday, the countrys influential Ifo Center released its monthly business climate data which showed a fall in business confidence in July, to 101.7 from 101.8 a month before. Business expectations also fell to 98.2 from 98.5 while the assessment of current business conditions rose slightly. Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany, said Wednesday that the latest index still points to solid growth but trade war fears continue to weigh on expectations. After six drops in the last seven months, German business sentiment recorded another small decrease in July. The divergence between an improving current assessment and weakening expectations suggests that at least up to now, trade fears are only fears and not a drag on growth (yet), he said in a research note Wednesday. Trade tensions are at the forefront of U.S.-European relations, particularly Wednesday as the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, visits President Donald Trump at the White House. Trump has threatened to impose a 20 percent tariff on European car imports and wants Europe to reduce its 10 percent tax on U.S. car imports (the U.S. only applies a 2.5 percent tariff currently). The car spat is expected to dominate the Trump-Juncker agenda Wednesday. Europe has threatened to target $20 billion worth of U.S. goods if the car tariffs go ahead and is already fuming at Trumps decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum that began in June.

'Wait, see and hope mode'Gilead Sciences announced Wednesday that John Milligan will step down as president and chief executive officer after 28 years with the company.

Milligan will remain in his current position through the end of the year while the company's board conducts a search for his successor.

It has been an honor to work at Gilead for my entire professional career and, now that the company is on solid footing for the future, the Board and I have agreed it is a good time to turn the reins over to a new leader, Milligan said in a statement. Im looking forward to a well-deserved break and will then move on to new and different opportunities.House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told CNBC on Wednesday he's worried about the long-term impact that President Donald Trump's tariffs could have on economic growth.

"Tariffs are taxes," the Texas Republican said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "They impede economic growth. They pick winners and losers. We do worry about that."

However, Brady emphasized that Texas' economic growth has been strong enough to overcome tariffs, but they are having an effect. Texas is a major soybean producer, which have been hit with retaliatory tariffs.

Some GOP senators on Tuesday condemned the Trump administration's plans to offer billions in aid to farmers hit by tariffs.

Trump is attacking what he sees as unfair trade on a number of fronts, including tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. His moves have been met with retaliatory measures from the European Union, Canada, Mexico and China.

The Trump administration has also slapped tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese products and threatened to raise tariffs to 20 percent on European cars.

Trump rebuked attacks by the senators, saying in a tweet Wednesday: Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?

Tweet

Trump on Wednesday is expected to meet with the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, in an attempt to overcome their differences, specifically on car tariffs.

Brady, who helped put through the tax law passed in December, is working on a "phase two" of the Republican tax plan.

When tariffs on steel and aluminum were announced in March, the House Ways and Means Committee released a letter signed by 107 Republican U.S. representatives urging Trump to trim down his proposals.Its a state known for its sandy beaches, crystal clear waters and warm weather. Now, authorities in Hawaii are looking to harness some of the sunshine that makes it such a popular holiday destination.



In a statement Tuesday, Hawaiis Department of Transportation said it would install 4,260 new solar modules at Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL). The panels will be located on the seventh floor of the airports Terminal 1 parking garage.



Solar energy produced by the panels will be used at the airport and help to cut the overall electricity bill by almost half, the Department of Transportation added.

Its good for the environment, it will save the state money and it provides covered parking at the airport, Hawaiis Governor David Y. Ige said. This is another step forward in my administrations continuing mission to meet Hawaiis sustainability goals.



Hawaii has set itself the goal of generating 100 percent clean energy by the year 2045. Construction of the solar panels at HNL is set to begin on August 20 and end in mid-November.



Across Hawaiis airports the Department of Transport, together with Johnson Controls, is working on over 900 individual conservation measures.

These include the replacement of almost 98,000 light fixtures with high efficiency light emitting diode technology and energy efficient lighting, as well as the installation of over 21,000 solar photovoltaic panels.



The White House plan to provide aid to farmers hit by tariffs  as well as the president's ability to pit the U.S. in an international trade war  is evidence that the president has too much power, Rep. Jeb Hensarling said Wednesday.

The Texas Republican, who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said that he disagrees with a new plan to provide $12 billion in bailout relief to farmers and ranchers.

"A tariff is a tax. We have a policy now that is taxing the American consumer and then bailing out U.S. farmers with welfare. I don't get it, I don't agree with it," Hensarling, who is not seeking re-election, said in an interview at CNBC's Capital Exchange breakfast series in Washington, D.C. "Congress after Congress has shoveled more power out of Article I of the Constitution into Article II. And then we throw up our hands and say, 'Gee, I didn't know he had all this power! How can he just do this?'"

"I thought Barack Obama had too much power. I think that Donald Trump has too much power and I think Congress needs to reassert their authority. Last I read the Constitution, it's Congress that has the authority over tariffs," he added.

Hensarling did say the president deserves the bulk of the credit for the current strong economy but he wished Trump wasn't undermining it with tough trade tactics.

"For most Americans, they have the best economy of their lifetimes, and I believe it is principally due to one man, President Donald Trump, and a global trade war threatens all of that prosperity," he said.

The debate on the balance of power between Capitol Hill and the White House is not new in Washington, dogging both Obama as well as his successor as the new administration attempts to force economic partners like China into more favorable trade agreements. However, the new U.S. taxes on foreign steel and aluminum, as well as other tariffs on goods from China, have sparked retaliatory actions in turn.

China and the European Union have both beefed up levies on American exports like soybeans and whiskey, products produced in key Republican electoral districts. The announcement of the farm relief plan came hours after the president proclaimed on Twitter that "Tariffs are the greatest!" The aid will be facilitated by the Commodity Credit Corp., an agency set up during the Great Depression, and will not require congressional approval.

tweet

The aggressive trade policies have isolated a swath of Republicans committed to a more traditional GOP position of free trade and open markets.

"The answer Id like to see is the ability of Americans to export more, not import less," Hensarling added. "But again, thats not what we saw in Korea. In Korea, we saw the imposition of a quota and an extension of a 20-year tariff. That is not helping American consumers, its not helping American businesses, its not the helping steel producers in the Fifth District of Texas who take imported steel and fabricated it into either shelving or steel buildings."

Hoping to reassert Congress' authority over the tariffs that Trump imposed, top Republican Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., have led the charge in trying to curb the power of the executive branch.

In a symbolic rebuke earlier this month, the Senate voted 88-11 on a nonbinding motion to instruct members negotiating on an appropriations bill with the House to include language that would give lawmakers the ability to curb Trump's tariff powers. The motion, however, required neither Congress nor the president to take a specific action.

Earlier, both Corker and Flake, another harsh critic of Trump's trade policy, called Wednesday's motion a "first step" toward curbing the president's powers. Corker and Flake also aren't seeking re-election this year.Irelands Foreign Minister Simon Coveney suggested the U.K.s negotiations over leaving Europe could be extended beyond 2019 as concerns grow that Britain and the EU might not reach an agreement before a legal deadline.

Brexit negotiators are racing against a cut-off date of March 29, 2019  when the U.K. officially stops being a member of the European Union. They need to establish how the future relationship will work between both sides of the English Channel after that date. However, the politics and the complexity surrounding Brexit have made such a process hard to conclude, with many analysts currently wondering whether there will be any deal at all.

Speaking to the BBCs Today radio show, Coveney said the Irish government would not oppose a U.K. request to extend Brexit negotiations.

"I don't believe Britain crashing out of the EU without any agreed process is likely to happen  There is an obligation on me, and others, to instill some positivity into this negotiation process rather than political standoffs which is what we've seen to date, he said.

Despite being open to an extension in negotiations, Coveney added that this would only make sense if there were good reasons to believe that a sensible agreement would be reached during that extended period.

An extension of the Brexit talks beyond March 2019 is legally possible, but requires the agreement of all 27 remaining EU member states as well as the U.K., Roger Matthews, a senior international trade lawyer at law firm Dechert LLP, told CNBC via email.

The U.K. has so far been against countenancing making any such request, and a change to this position would be politically awkward; but the government may come around to seeing it as the least bad option, he added.



LOS ANGELES (AP)  A secretly recorded tape of Donald Trump by his longtime personal lawyer was played on CNN Tuesday night in which the two can be heard talking about a potential payment for a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair and the soon-to-be president is heard discussing whether to "pay with cash."





The audio recording , surreptitiously made by Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen two months before the 2016 presidential election, was provided to CNN by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis.





The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer's parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. Trump denies the affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.





Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougal's story from the Enquirer's parent company.





Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company "for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," a possible reference to David Pecker, Trump's friend and president of the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc.





When Cohen begins to discuss financing, Trump interrupts him and asks, "What financing?"





"We'll have to pay," Cohen responded.





The audio is muffled, but Trump can be heard saying "pay with cash," though it isn't clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash. Cohen immediately says, "No, no, no" and Trump can then be heard saying, "check."





A transcript of the conversation provided by Trump's current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, says Trump actually said, "Don't pay with cash...check."





Last week, Giuliani said the recording would prove that "the president said it has to be done correctly and it has to be done by check."





"The transcript that we provided CNN accurately reflects the taped conversation," Giuliani told The Associated Press on Tuesday.





"Listen to the tape. Donald Trump is not shocked money is being paid about someone named Karen McDougal," Davis said during an interview with CNN.





Davis said his client  who is under investigation by federal officials in New York  "has been disparaged and insulted and called all kinds of things."





"He's got truth on his side and he'll continue to tell the truth," Davis said.





Davis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP on Tuesday night.





American Media, Inc.'s payment effectively silenced McDougal through the election, though days beforehand news of the deal emerged in The Wall Street Journal. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had "no knowledge of any of this."





The FBI raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room in April, searching in part for information about payments to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006  which Trump denies  and was paid $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement signed days before the 2016 election.





A dozen audio recordings seized during those raids were forwarded to federal prosecutors last week after lawyers dropped challenges on attorney-client privilege grounds.



Villagers take refuge on a rooftop above flood waters from a collapsed dam in the Attapeu district of southeastern Laos.

Rescuers searched in difficult conditions on Wednesday for dozens of people feared dead and hundreds missing after a dam collapsed in a remote part of land-locked Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, a government official said.

State media showed pictures of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses. Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats to safety in Attapeu province, the southernmost part of the country.

A senior Lao government official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said dozens of people were feared dead and hundreds remain unaccounted for after the hydropower dam that was under construction collapsed on Monday.

"We will continue with rescue efforts today but it's very difficult, the conditions are very difficult. Dozens of people are dead. It could be higher," the Vientiane-based official told Reuters by telephone.

The once-isolated Southeast Asian country, one of the world's few remaining communist states, has an ambitious dam-building scheme in order to become the "battery of Asia."

Its government depends almost entirely on outside developers to build its planned portfolio of dams under commercial concessions that agree to export electricity to its more developed neighbors, including power-hungry Thailand.

Environment rights groups have repeatedly warned about the human and environmental cost of the rapid pace of dam construction, including damage to the already-fragile ecosystem of the region's rivers. Attapeu is a largely agricultural province that borders Vietnam to the east and Cambodia to the south.

The dam that collapsed is part of the hydroelectric Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy power project, which involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean firms. The subsidiary dam, known as "Saddle Dam D," was part of a network of two main dams and five subsidiary dams.

South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.

An official at the firm said fractures were first discovered on the dam on Sunday and that the company had ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear the dam could collapse.

Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center's Southeast Asia program, said a breach of a saddle dam could be "worse in terms of devastation" than that of a main dam.

"With a saddle dam breaking, it's flushing water into an area that's not used to having water inside it and it will continue to breach until the water can be diverted again, which is one option, or until the reservoir is drawn down to a level below the breach," Eyler told Reuters. "This is yet another major shock to Laos' plan to become the battery of Southeast Asia," he said.

Tholakhong, a Lao language news site, said on Tuesday water levels at the gauge in one of the affected villages showed a decrease of 79 centimeters (31 inches).Billionaire entrepreneur, star of ABC reality show Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team Mark Cuban is certain that a version of the Terminator is coming. Speaking to an audience of conservative high school students at the High School Leadership Summit Turning Point USA event in Washington D.C. Tuesday, Cuban laid down several serious warnings about the future of artificial intelligence and among them was a reference to the 1984 movie, "The Terminator," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a cyborg assassin. Let me scare the s--- out of you, all right. If you dont think by the time most of you are in your mid-40s that a Terminator will appear, youre crazy, Cuban says, as seen on a Facebook live video, embedded below.

Cuban was in conversation with Charlie Kirk, the 24-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing non-profit organization aimed at promoting conservative political ideas among high school students. Cuban does not identify as Republican or Democrat: I dont belong to any political party and I never will, Cuban told Kirk. Amid a wide-ranging debate about what the scope of government should be, Cuban argued that the government should be involved in funding artificial intelligence research. In November, the billionaire warned that the United States should not allow countries like China and Russia to pull ahead in terms of developing artificial intelligence. Chinas government has said publicly it plans to be the global leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, "the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world." And our defense organizations are starting to, but as a country, the administration is barely even acknowledging that it is an issue, Cuban said to Kirk this week about artificial intelligence research in the U.S. Cuban says the size and importance of the issue of artificial intelligence is such that the government needs to be involved. That is an investment that has to come from government," he says. "We cant do enough independently with independent entrepreneurs because  trust me. I understand AI. And it is bigger than what any individual company can do because Google, Microsoft, etc. arent worried about defense applications. They are worried about making more money and they are using it to make more money." The biggest impediment to a Terminator-like weapon being built currently, according to Cuban, is the lack of sufficient power supplies. Now, this may sound crazy for a lot of people, but the idea of autonomous weaponry in a mobile device run by a remote to power device is going to happen, says Cuban. I want it to be ours. And I want to be able to know that the government is in position to defend against autonomous weaponry. That has to be done by the government. Thats the same approach we have. Because it is such a big issue. Kirk disagreed with Cubans perspective that the government should be involved in developing artificial intelligence. Kirk is of the mind that virtually everything ought to be left to a free and open market  in other words, that private companies and researchers should be at the forefront of artificial intelligence development, not the government.

Cuban doubled down. The government should be involved in funding artificial intelligence because of the seriousness and scope of the threat of autonomous weapons. The future of warfare is on, built around, through, up and down artificial intelligence. If we dont win that war, the next generation that are sitting here having this conversation for the next generation of high school kids? It is going to be, how are we going to catch up? Thats why we need to invest, Cuban says. I think we are truly at threat from autonomous weapons unless as a nation we either come to agreements with other nations on this  and we have the ability to monitor them, you know, trust but verify  but as big a threat as nuclear is, AI is even bigger. Cubans fears are similar in scope to that of another high-profile tech entrepreneur and billionaire: Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX boss has said that artificial intelligence is both far more dangerous than nukes and poses vastly more risk than North Korea. Earlier in July, Musk, along with all three of the co-founders of Googles DeepMind were among the thousands of individuals and almost 200 organizations who publicly committed not to develop, manufacture or use killer robots. They did so by signing a pledge published and organized by the Boston nonprofit Future of Life, an organization that researches the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence along with other existential issues related to advancing technology. Even as companies pledge not to be involved with killer robots, Cuban says he is sure the technology for autonomous robots will become commonplace. We already have the ability to have weapons think," Cuban says. "There is already the ability for autonomous weapons and they are only going to go further, further, further as processors get more advanced. Once we solve the [portable] battery problem, so these Terminators can be out in the field for an extended period of time. If we dont win that battle, this world is upside down. Thats what scares the s--- out of me. The potential of artificial intelligence to become dangerous is why it is one of a few other select issues the government should be involved in regulating, says Cuban. Other issues the billionaire tech entrepreneur mentioned that should be regulated by the government include health care and climate change. Artificial intelligence wont just change the way war is waged. It will change the job market, too, Cuban says. "Literally, who you work for, how you work, the type of work you do is going to be completely different than your parents within the next 10 to 15 years," Cuban says. "Even if you have no interest in computers, no interest in programming, it doesnt matter. Just like you laugh at your parents who might or might not understand Snapchat and Instagram and Twitter and the like, you are going to have to understand AI or people are going to laugh at you." Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank." See also: Elon Musk, Googles DeepMind co-founders promise never to make killer robots

Elon Musk: Mark my words  A.I. is far more dangerous than nukes

Jeff Bezos on AI: Autonomous weapons are genuinely scary, robots wont put us all out of workA customer browses the Mattel Barbie dolls section of a now closed Toys 'R' Us store.

Shares of Mattel plummeted more than 8 percent after the company disclosed that it would be cutting 2,200 jobs on Wednesday.

The company said this reduction represents 22 percent of its global non-manufacturing workforce.

The toy company had announced a cost savings program in October, with the goal of eliminating $650 million in costs over two years  one-third of which it expects to achieve this year. As part of that initiative, Mattel had already planned to sell several manufacturing factories in Mexico.

These job cuts come just months after the company said it was shuttering its New York office, affecting about 100 employees.

On Wednesday, Mattel's quarterly sales missed Wall Street estimates, weighed down by the liquidation of key customer Toys 'R' Us and the absence of a big movie tie-in in the quarter.

We ... had a challenging second quarter driven primarily by the Toys R Us liquidation, Mattels new CEO Ynon Kreiz said.

Net loss in the reported quarter widened to $240.9 million, or 70 cents per share, from $56.1 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Mattel lost 56 cents per share, a much steeper loss than the 30 cents per share analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters.

Mattel's net sales fell 13.7 percent to $840.7 million in the second quarter ended June 30, short of the $851.8 million analysts had expected.

Revenue from the company's partner brands, which includes sales from toys based on movie franchisees, fell 32 percent from the year-ago quarter. The company saw weaker sales of its Cars toys, which was partially offset by sales of toys tied to Jurassic World.

The company, like the rest of the U.S. toy industry, has been hit hard by the liquidation of retailer Toys R Us and said the closure of its biggest customer dented its gross sales by 10 percent in the second quarter.

 CNBC's Lauren Hirsch and Reuters contributed to this report.Congresswoman Maxine Waters speaking at the CNBC Capital Exchange event in Washington, D.C. on July 25th, 2018. David A. Grogan | CNBC

The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee sent a message to the party's progressive wing on Wednesday, distancing herself from the vocal lawmakers to her left as the party continues to debate its message ahead of the November midterm elections. "The Democratic Party is not a socialist party," California Rep. Maxine Waters said in an interview with John Harwood at CNBC's Capital Exchange event Wednesday. Asked about left-wing politicians who identify as democratic socialists, including 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Waters said: "I just don't think our party should be identified because we have a few people who seem to be to the left of the left." Democrats continue to face down lingering anxiety about the identity of their party, as Republicans, including President Donald Trump, seek to leverage the internal rifts over economic and social issues to their own electoral advantage. The president has zeroed in on Waters, painting her in posts on Twitter as the unhinged FACE of the Democrat Party.

Battling with Trump

Waters is one of Trumps most outspoken critics in Congress, and often has called for the presidents impeachment. The president has responded by calling Waters "crazy" and an "extraordinarily low IQ person." On Wednesday, Waters said she ignored the president's attacks. "I dont care what he calls me. I know who I am. I know what I do," Waters said. "I am perfectly comfortable with me. He can call me whatever he wants to, he does not intimidate me, and I am not going to stop talking about him." Waters' high-profile calls to impeach the president and publicly confront members of the administration have made her a polarizing figure. She and her staff have faced a number of threats to their safety. On Tuesday, her office in Los Angeles was evacuated after a staffer found a package addressed to Anne Thrax, the Los Angeles Times reported. Officials later deemed the stunt a hoax. Separately, last week a man was sentenced to three years of probation for threatening in a voicemail to kill Waters. "If you continue to make threats toward the president, you're going to wind up dead, Maxine, 'cause we'll kill you," the man, Anthony Scott Lloyd, said in the recorded message, according to NBC Los Angeles. Waters has remained defiant in the face of the threats. And I know that there are those who are talking about censuring me, talking about kicking me out of Congress, talking about shooting me, talking about hanging me, she said at a June rally. All I have to say is this: If you shoot me, you better shoot straight. There's nothing like a wounded animal.

Waters calls for ICE reform, not abolishment

Waters differs from left-wing Democrats on another issue, too: calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. She said Wednesday that she disagreed with people calling for an end to the agency, which has become a source of controversy while Trump pursues hardline immigration policies. "Those people who decided and took the position that it had to be abolished did not think it through in ways that said it has to be reformed," she said. Trump has slammed Democrats over calls from some members of the party to end ICE. At a rally in Kansas City on Tuesday, Trump called Democrats who favor abolishing ICE Waters' "disciples." He said he looked forward to Democrats raising the issue during the midterms as well as during his next presidential campaign. "I hope they keep it up, because we're going to have a lot of fun in four months and we're going to have a lot of fun in 2020 running against that," the president said at the rally. A number of Democrats have called for the elimination of the agency, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile democratic socialist who defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in his New York primary election last month, ran on a platform of getting rid of ICE.

Capitalism, but with limitsMichael Cohen Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Lanny Davis, the new lawyer for President Donald Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen, said Cohen is done with being Trump's "bullet taker" or a "punching bag for" Trump's defense strategy, as prosecutors scrutinize both men's dealings. "Where are we headed? The truth," Davis said to NBC News shortly after releasing an audio tape made by Cohen revealing Trump talking in matter-of-fact terms about potentially paying hush money to an alleged mistress shortly before the 2016 presidential election. CNN unveiled the recording late Tuesday night. "Michael Cohen has decided: 'No matter what happens to me, I'm going to get my life back by telling the truth," said Davis, a veteran crisis manager and advisor to President Bill Clinton during his scandals in the 1990s. "Cohen is trying to reset his life as not being Donald Trump's bullet taker, or worse, a punching bag for Donald Trump's defense strategy where he takes the bullets," Davis added. "This is a turn for him. It's a new resolve to tell the truth no matter what, even if it endangers him." He also said Cohen "has more truth to tell." Meanwhile on Wednesday, Trump fumed on Twitter about the recording. Tweet Despite Trump's speculation about the recording being cut off, Davis said CNN had aired the entirety of the tape.

Split with Trump

Cohen had been Trump's personal attorney and fixer for years. He once boasted of being willing to "take a bullet" for Trump. But in recent months, their relationship has apparently come undone as Cohen has become the target of an ongoing criminal probe by federal prosecutors in New York City, where FBI agents raided his residences and office in April. Cohen's hiring of Davis, who is a close friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and other moves have increased speculation that he will begin cooperating with prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and possibly with Robert Mueller, the special counsel. Mueller is investigating Russian interference in the presidential election and the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians during the campaign. Asked by NBC what he planned to do with either federal prosecutors in New York, or with Mueller, Davis said, "I cannot answer that question." Davis said the same thing  "I cannot answer that question"  when asked if Cohen has been in contact with prosecutors in New York. Those prosecutors are eyeing, among other things, a $130,000 hush money payment Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the election, as well as a payment by the publisher of The National Enquirer for McDougal's story, which the Trump-friendly supermarket tabloid never published. Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payout to Daniels, and discussed buying out The Enquirer's rights to McDougal's story  but never did so, according to current Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Another shell company revealedWhite House budget director Mick Mulvaney acknowledged Wednesday that when it comes to some of the key policy debates, he and other fiscal conservatives are often coming up on the short end.

In a look behind the scenes of the Trump administration, Mulvaney, who is director of the Office of Management and Budget and acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, gave a candid view of how President Donald Trump has been making decisions.

"Rest assured that on the ag policy, the president heard every single side of the argument. On trade policy he continues to hear every single side of the argument," Mulvaney said at a Capital Exchange breakfast in Washington hosted by CNBC. "I'm on one side of the argument along with probably guys like Larry Kudlow. Then you've got folks like Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross on the other side of the argument.

"The president hears all of the arguments, but he makes the final decision. That's how it has to be, OK, and I'm satisfied with that."

Kudlow is the head of the National Economic Council, Navarro is director of the National Trade Council and an economic advisor to Trump and Ross is the Commerce secretary.

Trump has stirred anger from his own Republican Party recently by launching a trade war against China and other nations and, more recently, by ordering subsidies for farmers hurt by billions in import tariffs.

Mulvaney said he is encouraged because the "fiscal conservative" position at least is being heard in the White House, something that wasn't the case even within the House Republican caucus, of which he used to be a member.

"Am I frustrated? Frustrated is not the right word," he said in response to a question from CNBC's John Harwood. "Am I disappointed that maybe I'm not advocating better to change an outcome? Yes, but I'm 100 percent comfortable coming and defending these policies because I know in part that the president has heard all different sides of the argument. He gets to make the final decision."

While Mulvaney indicated that some of Trump's decisions don't go his way, he said he remains confident of the administration's economic program.

The president has pushed an agenda of lower taxes, less regulation and more spending to pull the economy out of its post-financial crisis doldrums. Of the three-pronged approach, Mulvaney said he thinks deregulation has had the biggest benefit so far.

"I think I could make the argument that most of the economic growth that you've seen in the first 18 months of this administration has more to do with the deregulatory policies than it has the tax policies, because the tax policy has not really filtered into the economy yet," he said. "But the idea that less regulation coming from the government, a lighter hand in regulation, does result in a better, healthier economy, better wages, better opportunities, I think I could make that case because I think it's actually working."

Administration officials are closely watching Friday's report on second-quarter GDP that they think will show growth better than 4 percent. Mulvaney said he thinks sustained growth above 3 percent or even 4 percent is likely.

"Three percent growth is what we do as a nation," he said. "I don't know why it became orthodoxy to say we can never ever do that again, and anybody who says we can is crazy."Qualcomm has formally terminated its proposed acquisition of chip rival NXP, ending a two-year courtship and paving the way for a $30 billion stock buyback, the company said Thursday morning.

Our core strategy of driving Qualcomm technologies into higher growth industries remains unchanged," CEO Steve Mollenkopf said in a statement.

Shares of Qualcomm rose 5 percent in premarket trading Thursday. Shares of NXP were down about 8 percent.

Qualcomm announced its intention to walk away Wednesday night when the company reported third-quarter earnings, but there was still a chance China's State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR, could make a last minute announcement to approve the merger before 11:59 pm ET.

CNBC earlier reported Qualcomm understood the likelihood of that ninth and final regulatory approval to be very slim, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the company's discussions are private.

The expiration of the self-imposed deadline between Qualcomm and NXP leaves Qualcomm on the hook for a $2 billion breakup fee.

Qualcomm first offered to buy NXP, which is based in the Netherlands, for about $38 billion in October 2016, but faced resistance from some NXP shareholders, who were holding out for a better price. Qualcomm upped its bid to $44 billion in February, but the deal has been held up by Chinese regulators amidst a growing trade conflict between the U.S. and China centered around the Trump administration's imposition of tariffs on some Chinese manufactured goods.

The buyout could have helped Qualcomm, which provides chips to Android smartphone makers and Apple, expand into new market areas like automotive chips.

Earlier this year, Broadcom's attempt to buy Qualcomm was blocked by the Trump administration over national security concerns.

CNBC's Sara Salinas contributed to this report.The Irish budget carrier Ryanair has written to more than 300 pilots and cabin crew to warn that they could lose their jobs this winter.

The airline said in a statement Wednesday that it will also reduce its Dublin fleet by 20 percent, shifting six of 30 planes it bases at its Irish depot to Poland. It added the changes were because of increased Polish business happening at the same time as a fall in bookings and lower airfares in Ireland partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots.

Ryanair said it expected that a few routes will be stopped from Dublin while others would have less regular flights. Its Polish airline, Ryanair Sun, will now double the number of aircraft on offer to Polish tour operators to over 10.

More than 100 pilots and over 200 cabin crew employees have been sent letter of protective notice that start a 90-day redundancy consultation. The firm said it will offer staff transfers to Poland to minimize job losses.

In the statement, Ryanair Chief Operating Officer Peter Bellew said the airline could not continue to damage its reputation for reliability and the potential job losses were a deeply regretted consequence.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies during a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee May 23, 2018 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Getty Images

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that President Donald Trump has a "complete and proper understanding" of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. "I want you to know, President Trump has stated that he accepts our intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election," Pompeo said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Pompeo appeared before the committee to discuss Trumps recent meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump's war of words with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his unprecedented summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Singapore. "He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened," Pompeo added. "I know, I briefed him on it for over a year," the nation's top diplomat said, referencing his time as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Trump insisted he and Putin meet at the beginning of the summit without any aides present  stirring concerns that the former KGB officer would outflank his American counterpart. During a joint press conference after that meeting, Trump downplayed assessments from U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in America's presidential election and instead appeared to side with Putin. When asked, Putin said the Russian state "has never interfered and will never interfere" in American affairs, including the election process. "We should be guided by facts, not rumors," he added. Trump responded by saying, "I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today." "I don't see any reason why it would be [Russia]," Trump added.

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive for a joint news conference after their meeting in Helsinki, July 16, 2018. Grigory Dukor | Reuters



Guwahati, July 25 : Two people died and one injured in a road mishap near in Assams Kamrup (Metro) district on Tuesday night.





The incident happened near Deepor Beel area under Azara police station, outskirts of Guwahati city last night while head on collision between a speedy truck and a Wagon-R car.





The driver and one person of the car died on spot while another person received severe injuries.





The injured person was rushed to Guwahati Medical College Hospital.





The deceased persons were identified as Biswajit Rabha and Prativa Sangma.





Officer-in-Charge of Azara police station Ashok Kumar Dutta said that, the incident occurred following head on collision between the two vehicles.



Sens. Doug Jones, D-Ala., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on Wednesday introduced a bill intended to delay the tariffs of 20 to 25 percent on imported cars and trucks that President Donald Trump is reportedly considering.

The bill, titled the "Automotive Jobs Act of 2018," would require the International Trade Commission (ITC) to conduct "a comprehensive study of the well-being, health, and vitality of the United States automotive industry before tariffs could be applied," according to a press release.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on the bill.

These tariffs are a tax on American consumers and theyre going to cost Alabama jobs, Jones said in a statement. I share the Presidents goal to reinvigorate manufacturing and secure trade deals that benefit our country, but not at the expense of one of Alabamas biggest job creators."

Alexander said he wants to delay the tariff proposal "until the President has a second opinion from the International Trade Commission about the effect those tariffs would have on the more than 7 million jobs in the American automotive industry."

Among other requirements, the study would command the ITC to analyze data on annual exports and imports of U.S.-made cars, as well as assess the effect that an increase in auto manufacturing costs would have on American jobs.

Under the Jones-Alexander bill, auto tariffs could not be applied until an ITC report satisfying those requirements is submitted to Congress.

In June, Trump threatened to slap a 20 percent tariff on imports from members of the European Union if that bloc's trade barriers are "not soon broken down and removed."

Trump tweet: Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. & its great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S. Build them here

The five-page bill arrives as tensions over the Trump administration's protectionist trade policies continue to rise at home and abroad.

Numerous Republican lawmakers from the traditionally pro-free trade party excoriated the administration's proposal on Tuesday to provide a $12 billion stopgap aid package for farmers affected by the tariffs.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., described the bailout as a pair of "gold crutches." Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., compared the Trump administration's increasing interference in markets with "a Soviet-type of economy."

Jones and Alexander had previously collaborated in a June 7 letter urging Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross not to pursue auto tariffs, which they warned could put hundreds of thousands of American jobs at risk including many in our home states.

Jones said Wednesday that they had not received a response from Ross.

In the Senate shortly after the text of the bill was released, Jones tore into Trump's trade policies, accusing them of manufacturing a crisis "that threatens to permanently harm our businesses and our farms."

He added: "Mr. President, this is a self-inflicted wound."

Alexander, who followed Jones on the Senate floor, was equally blunt in his condemnation of both the tariffs and the bailout proposal.

I have no doubt theres a trade problem. Some countries are taking advantage of us," Alexander said. "I also have no doubt that shooting yourself in both feet at once is not the right solution to our problem.

Read the full text of the bipartisan bill:Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on Wednesday introduced a bill that would essentially wipe out tens of billions of dollars of Puerto Ricos $73 billion in outstanding debt.

The proposal, entitled the U.S. Territorial Relief Act of 2018, counts Democratic Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California as co-sponsors. The bill provides an avenue to comprehensive debt relief for Puerto Rico and other hurricane-ravaged U.S. territories so that they have a chance to get back on their feet, according to the sponsors.

"Greedy Wall Street vulture funds must not be allowed to reap huge profits off the suffering and misery of the Puerto Rican people for a second longer. It is time to end Wall Street's stranglehold on Puerto Rico's future, return control of the island to the people of Puerto Rico and give the territory the debt relief it so desperately needs to rebuild with dignity," said Sanders, I-Vt.

"Puerto Rico was already being squeezed before Hurricane Maria hit and will now have to rebuild under the weight of crushing debt. Our bill will give territories that have suffered an extraordinary crisis a route to comprehensive debt relief and a chance to get back on their feet," said Warren, D-Mass. "Disaster funding and the other resources in struggling territories' budgets must not go to Wall Street vulture funds who snapped up their debt. Congress should pass this legislation right away  our fellow U.S. citizens are counting on us."

The legislation would give Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories the choice to terminate nonpension debt loads if they meet certain stringent criteria, according to the bill.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., is planning to introduce a companion bill in the House in September.

"After Maria, Puerto Rico needs every tool possible to recover physically and economically. This legislation provides another path for the Island to get back on its feet and begin the journey toward a brighter future, she said in a statement.

A U.S. territory would have to meet two of three criteria in order to qualify for the debt relief: be the recipient of major federal disaster assistance, have a population decline of 5 percent over 10 years or have per-capita debt exceeding $15,000.

Puerto Rico would almost certainly meet these requirements if the bill were to be signed into law.

The bankrupt island's outstanding bond indebtedness is roughly $73 billion, or nearly $17,000 debt per capita, before Hurricane Maria struck the island in September. The Commonwealth has also projected a cumulative decline in population of 19.4 percent by 2022, according to the islands fiscal plan.

If Puerto Rico chooses to terminate its debt within three years of the bill being signed into law, $15 billion in federal funds would become available to some of the islands residents and other creditors whose holdings were terminated.

The Territorial Relief Act of 2018 would use a special master to oversee the $15 billion in the Puerto Rico Debt Restructuring Compensation Fund.

Some $7.5 billion would be allocated for Puerto Rican creditors who held the terminated debt, including the islands residents, banks and credit unions that did business solely in Puerto Rico, the islands unions and public pension plans, businesses with a principal place of business on Puerto Rico, and anyone else the special master identifies.

Another $7.5 billion would be allocated for creditors on the mainland U.S. who held the terminated debt, including individual investors, trade unions, pension plans, open-end mutual funds that pledge to waive the managers fee for any compensation received, and anyone else the special master identifies, according to the bill.

The bill would exclude hedge funds and their investors, bond insurers, many financial firms with consolidated assets greater than $2 billion, and repo or swaps investors from the distribution, according to the summary of the legislation.Elon Musk speaks on stage during the Westworld Featured Session during SXSW at Austin Convention Center on March 10, 2018 in Austin, Texas.

Tesla whistleblower Martin Tripp  who CEO Elon Musk characterized as a saboteur and disgruntled ex-employee  is slated to meet with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, his attorney Stuart Meissner told CNBC. Meissner also shared this development on Twitter.

tweet

The SEC did not reply to a request for further information. Tesla declined to comment on the matter.

In his complaint with the commission, Tripp alleges that Tesla has made several "material omissions and misstatements" to investors and taken steps that potentially compromised the safety of its customers.

An interview with regulators could ignite a new SEC investigation into Tesla, could be used in ongoing investigations or could go nowhere at all. As a general rule, the SEC does not offer details or comments about ongoing investigations.

This is not the first time the SEC has tangled with the electric vehicle maker. According to public records attained by the independent research firm, Probes Reporter, Tesla faced but did not disclose an SEC investigation into the Model 3 in 2016, which closed without enforcement action. The firm is tracking additional, undisclosed SEC investigations into SolarCity and Tesla.

Probes Reporter CEO John P. Gavin said:Workers walk past parked General Motors Co. (GM) Chevrolet automobiles bound for export at the Port of Incheon in Incheon, South Korea.

Detroit automakers had a really bad day Wednesday as investors hammered Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler after all three scaled back their 2018 earnings forecasts due largely to rising prices for raw materials.

General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, suffered its worst intraday drop in years, falling more than 8 percent Wednesday despite beating Wall Street estimates. Rival Fiat Chrysler plunged 16 percent Wednesday after missing earnings estimates, announcing the sudden death of CEO Sergio Marchionne and reducing earnings guidance for the year. Shares of Ford, which announced earnings after the markets closed, were under pressure all day.

All three are again trading down Thursday with Ford falling under $10 a share for the first time since 2012.

GM said a higher-than expected jump in commodity costs and unfavorable exchange rates in Brazil and Argentina will cost it an extra $1 billion this year. Fords second-quarter earnings plunged by almost 50 percent and the company lowered its 2018 earnings projections.

Fords Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said its commodity costs during the quarter were about $300 million higher from last year, attributing about half of that to the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. The tariffs are expected to eat up about $600 million in profit this year, he said.President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017.

President Donald Trump went after China for its trade practices once again, saying Wednesday the Chinese are purposefully going after U.S. farmers.

Trump said in a tweet: China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.

Tweet

Trumps comment comes after the administration announced a $12 billion bailout plan for farmers hit by tariffs on their goods. Earlier this month, China slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans, one of the biggest U.S. exports to China.

Some key Republican senators condemned the bailout plan. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., called it a pair of gold crutches to support farmers hobbled by Trumps own trade policies. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the Trump administration was "offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem they themselves created."

Trump seemed to rebuke these attacks, saying in another tweet Wednesday: Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?

Tweet

The president also said that: When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity.

Tweet

Trump also sent the tweet ahead of a meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Washington. The two leaders are expected to discuss improving trans-Atlantic trade relations among other subjects.

Juncker and Trump are meeting as U.S.-European trade relations have been strained. Last month, Trump threatened to implement tariffs on European car imports. European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said last week the EU has a list of countermeasures prepared in case the U.S. moves forward with these charges.The White House will open its doors for the president of the European Commission Wednesday, with relations looking strained amid tariffs and the possibility of an all-out trade war. Jean-Claude Juncker, who heads the EUs executive arm, will meet President Donald Trump in an attempt to overcome their differences, specifically on car tariffs. Trump wants to increase tariffs on European cars exported to the U.S. to reduce the trade imbalance with the continent. But the EU sees these tariffs as an economic threat and is preparing retaliatory measures. Just hours prior to the meeting, the EU's trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter that the EU will put tariffs worth $20 billion on U.S. goods if Trump goes ahead with car tariffs. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the White House said it is preparing a $12 billion aid package for U.S. farmers hit by trade tensions. The relations are very tense, are at a very low point, Danae Kyriakopoulou, the chief economist at the London-based think tank OMFIF told CNBC Tuesday, citing ongoing tensions over defense spending for the NATO alliance, climate change policy and the recently-applied fine on Google by the European Commission. It doesnt set the scene for a very fruitful meeting, she said, adding that she only expects the meeting to provide some sort of language thats mutually accepted.

Drop all tariffs

Trump will receive Juncker and Malmstrom at 1:30 p.m. ET. The president said Wednesday on Twitter that both sides should drop all tariffs. I have an idea for them (the European Union). Both the U.S. and the EU drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies! That would finally be called free market and fair trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!, Trump said. Trump considers the 10 percent European tax on U.S. cars to be too high, compared to the 2.5 percent duty the U.S. applies on European cars. However, Brussels argues that while this is true for cars, it is not the same for trucks, lorries and other items such as shoes and clothes. Tweet 1 Furthermore, the EUs trade chief Malmstrom explained last month that Europe cannot simply remove the tariffs on U.S. cars overnight, due to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. These laws dictate that the EU would also have to drop tariffs for every country in the world. And I dont think member states are willing to do that, she said at a press conference. Tony Fratto, a founding partner at consultancy Hamilton Place Strategies, told CNBC Tuesday that reducing all car-related tariffs to zero would be a good agreement but it is hard to imagine the Trump administration making that offer. The difficult part is that you hear President Trump continually talking about the differential on autos of 10 percent in Europe and 2.5 percent in the United States, but he conveniently leaves out the 25 percent U.S. tariff on light trucks, he said.

The current trade tensions between Europe and the U.S. started earlier this year when Trump imposed penalties on steel and aluminum imports, arguing that the overcapacity in the sector posed a national security threat. Europe argued at the time that its metal industry is not causing the overcapacity in the sector and retaliated with $3.3 billion worth of duties on U.S. products.

Harmful for both sides

Volker Treier, the deputy general manager at the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, told CNBC s Street Signs Tuesday that an escalation into a trade war would be harmful for both sides. Our understanding is that the Americans are trying to distract us from their own shortcomings in their own country by blaming others for unfair dealings, he said. Trump has also imposed tariffs on other countries since the start of the year  including China, Canada and Mexico  on all sorts of goods. Consequently, the U.S. has also been hit with additional duties as those countries retaliate against Trumps decisions.

Few will cast a vote based on this issue alone and I therefore dont expect Trump to back down. David Bach Yale School of ManagementChairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, talks with President Donald Trump during a meeting on tax policy with Republican lawmakers in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Thursday, Nov. 02, 2017.

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers are expected to meet Wednesday afternoon with President Donald Trump to discuss trade and farm issues, the White House said.

The meeting was announced a day after Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue confirmed a $12 billion stopgap aid proposal for farmers affected by the Trump administration's aggressive tariff policy. The aid package has heightened fears about the potential consequences of a trade war on U.S. industries.

Some pro-free trade Republicans delivered searing criticisms of Trump's trade policy on Tuesday, calling his tariffs "incoherent" and the farmers' bailout "gold crutches." One Republican senator even compared the Trump administration's increasing interference in markets with "a Soviet-type of economy."

But the seven senators and six House members expected to meet with Trump on Wednesday afternoon have offered more muted responses, if any, to the bailout plan.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, said he supported a "temporary relief" program for his state's producers, while noting that "because agriculture has a positive balance of trade, our producers are heavily impacted by retaliatory tariffs."

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, told NBC News that the $12 billion plan "is a good step" for Trump to take in the ongoing fight over international trade.

"Our president stood up to a bully and now he is standing up for rural America so its a good move forward," Conaway added. "Its the right fight to have, but in the meantime, our producers have to co-exist  you know, live  while this fight is going on."

Other senators invited to the meeting: John Boozman of Arkansas, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Montana's Steve Daines, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Kansas' Pat Roberts and junior Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment on a new policy proposal.

GOP members of the House House invited to the meeting  Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas, Tennessee's Diane Black, Washington's Dan Newhouse and Dave Reichert, and South Dakota's Kristi Noem  also did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

The president, who met with leaders from the European Union for trade talks at the White House on Wednesday, appeared to respond to his critics in a morning tweet. U.S. leverage to strike deals with international trade partners, he said, is weakened "when you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation."

Trump snipping tweet

The president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, told Trump in the Oval Office at the start of their talks that the U.S. and the EU are "friends, not enemies."President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the United States and the European Union had launched a "new phase" in their relationship, saying that the two major economies would start negotiations immediately on a number of areas that include working toward "zero tariffs" on industrial goods, and further cooperation on energy issues.

"We agreed today, first of all, to work together towards zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers and zero subsidies for the non-auto industrial goods," Trump said at a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Trump did not address whether the two leaders had reached an agreement on car tariffs, though Juncker said that no new tariffs would be assessed as negotiations proceed. Economists have said that, among the major issues under discussion, tariffs on cars could be the biggest threat to the U.S. economy.

Juncker said the two leaders also agreed that as long as negotiations were ongoing, "we'll hold off further tariffs and reassess existing tariffs on steel and aluminum" put in place by the Trump administration. "This was a good, constructive meeting," he added.

Key details of the agreement were still unclear late Wednesday afternoon, but a deal not to impose further tariffs while negotiations are underway would avert a trade war between the United States and Europe. It would also represent a victory for the European Union, which had been bracing for new automobile tariffs as high as 25%.

All things considered it could have been a hell of a lot worse. They agreed to keep talking. Considering how bellicose Trump was when he said tariffs are great. I think this was the best outcome you could have hoped for, said Greg Valliere, global strategist at Horizon Investments. The reaction from Republicans on Capitol Hill has been so hostile to Trumps tariff proposal, that that maybe was a factor in them agreeing to keep talking.BY THE NUMBERS

IN THE NEWS TODAY

STOCKS TO WATCH

Lululemon (LULU) named Sephora executive Calvin McDonald as its new chief executive officer, effective August 20. Former CEO Laurent Potdevin stepped down in February after engaging in behavior that the athletic apparel maker said did not meet the companys standards. Texas Instruments (TXN) beat estimates by eight cents with quarterly earnings of $1.40 per share, with the chipmakers revenue above estimates as well. The company also issued strong earnings guidance for the current quarter, saying it expects continued growth in its industrial and automotive businesses. iRobot (IRBT) earned 37 cents per share for its latest quarter, well above the consensus estimate of 18 cents, while the maker of the Roomba automated vacuum cleaner also reported better-than-expected revenue. iRobot also raised its full-year guidance, saying it was seeing growth across all major regions. Charter Communications (CHTR) said John Malone would retire from its board of directors, taking on the role of director emeritus. The cable pioneer will still attend board meetings and provide advice, although he will not have a vote. Kraft Heinz (KHC) issued a voluntary recall of about 7,000 cases of its Taco Bell Cheese Dip. The recall comes amid indications that the affected cases could allow for the growth of the bacteria that causes botulism, although no cases of illness have been reported. Viacom (VIAB) is in talks to acquire AwesomenessTV from Comcast (CMCSA), Verizon (VZ), and Hearst Corporation, according to a Bloomberg report. Comcast, the parent of NBCUniversal, owns 51 percent of the channel. Spotify (SPOT) was downgraded to hold from buy at Pivotal Research, which noted a run-up in the streaming music services stock to a price near its target, as well as what Pivotal considers too aggressive consensus on 2018 growth.

WATERCOOLERWaymo, the Alphabet company that spun out of Google's former self-driving car division, is partnering with some of the country's largest companies to expand how many people have access to its self-driving vehicles.

In partnerships with five companies, including Walmart, Autonation and Avis, Waymo autonomous vehicles will pick up customers and drive them to various locations in the Phoenix area. In some cases, customers will be offered savings or deals in order to be shuttled around in Waymo vehicles.

Weve tailored our partnerships to meet the top rider needs; in fact, the partnerships below represent eight of the top ten activities our riders do when they get in a Waymo, the company wrote in a blog post announcing the partnerships.

Here are the company specific rides Waymo will be providing customers:

Walmart : Customers will be offered savings to place orders for groceries on Walmart.com. As the orders are being prepared at a local store in the Phoenix area, Waymo vehicles will transport customers to and from Walmart to pick up their groceries.

: Customers will be offered savings to place orders for groceries on Walmart.com. As the orders are being prepared at a local store in the Phoenix area, Waymo vehicles will transport customers to and from Walmart to pick up their groceries. AutoNation: As customers are having vehicles serviced at AutoNation dealerships, they will be offered rides in a Waymo, rather than a loaner car.

As customers are having vehicles serviced at AutoNation dealerships, they will be offered rides in a Waymo, rather than a loaner car. Avis: Waymo vehicles will drop off and pick up rental car customers at two locations in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.

Waymo vehicles will drop off and pick up rental car customers at two locations in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. DDR Corp .: The real estate investment trust, which owns shopping centers like the Ahwatukee Foothills Towne Center in Chandler, Arizona, will offer shoppers and diners rides in Waymo self-driving vehicles.

.: The real estate investment trust, which owns shopping centers like the Ahwatukee Foothills Towne Center in Chandler, Arizona, will offer shoppers and diners rides in Waymo self-driving vehicles. Element Hotel: Select guests of the hotel in Chandler will have access to Waymo vehicles to use on local trips.

The Waymo rides to certain Walmarts in Arizona will start later this week while the other ride offers will begin over the course of the next several weeks.

Initially, the deals will be offered to about 400 people in the Phoenix area who are part of Waymos early rider test program and will then be expanded to include others not yet in the program. Some or all of the cost of the rides will be picked up by the companies partnering with Waymo.

Walmart plans to use the service specifically to fulfill online grocery orders, as its in the process of bringing grocery delivery to 800 stores by year's end. The retailer will use its personal shoppers will get items to Waymo vehicles to be delivered from there.

Tom Ward, vice president of Walmarts e-commerce operations, said the company is excited to see what this pilot and the future hold before plotting out expansion plans. He said the purpose of the pilot test with Waymo is to learn and also to give shoppers a unique experience with amazing technology.

It remains to be seen how much Waymo will charge riders when it launches its autonomous ride share service in Arizona later this year.

 CNBC's Lauren Thomas contributed to this reporting.Kathmandu, Nepal: The talks held between government team and representatives of Dr Govinda KC ended inconclusively on Wednesday, thanks to the indifferences shown by the governments talk team on the demands of Dr. KC.





The talk team formed on behalf of Dr. KC under the leadership of Dr Abhishek Raj Singh had walked out of the negotiating table alleging the government talk team for remaining indifferent to the demands of agitating doctor KC.





There is no meaning to sit for next round of dialogue unless government pledges to endorse the National Medical Education Bill only after revision as per the demands of Dr KC, talk team coordinator Dr. Sigh said after the meeting.





As Dr KCs 15th hunger strike launched demanding reform in the medical education marked 26th day on Wednesday, his heath condition is deteriorating further. However, none of the side, particularly the government, does not seem serious to end his hunger strike through the negotiation.



As trade tensions heat up, World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo told CNBC, "The WTO is not broken. The WTO is functioning actually quite well."

Azevedo was responding to remarks by President Donald Trump's chief economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, who said Wednesday morning that the president's nontraditional ways of negotiating international affairs are not to blame for ongoing trade disputes.

"Don't blame President Trump; I've said this so often," Kudlow said on "CBS This Morning." "The world trading system is broken. The WTO is broken. There's no reciprocity left. China's the worst offender but not the only one around the world. Mr. Trump's trying to fix trading malpractice that goes back several decades."

But while Azevedo said there is always room for improvement, he also said the WTO was instrumental in helping the global recovery after the 2009 financial crisis.

"We would have seen many more protectionist measures in place," Azevedo said, had it not been for the WTO. "The global economy would have had a much harder time recovering," he said Wednesday on "Squawk on the Street."

Trump is scheduled to meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The meeting is an attempt to ease trade differences, specifically in the auto industry.

Trump has said the 10 percent European tax on U.S. cars is too high compared with the 2.5 percent duty the U.S. applies to European vehicles.

On Tuesday, Trump went on Twitter to say, "The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready - but they wont!"

TWEET

Trump has also said the tariffs are a measure to improve national security, something Azevedo called "not orthodox."

"National security has been used before [to implement tariffs]," he said, but he pointed out the current tariffs "are very much different, because we are talking about specific trade areas that are more loosely defined."The government has asked the RBI to examine the possibility of merger among public sector banks to achieve synergy and scale operation, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said today. The minister in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha said that there is no timeline has been fixed for merger of the public sector banks.

"Since various approaches involving varying processes are possible with regard to synergy or consolidation amongst PSBs, government has requested the Reserve Bank of India for views as well as suggestions regarding specific possible combinations to achieve scale and synergy for appropriate consideration," he said.

With a view to facilitate consolidation among public sector banks to create strong and competitive entities, serving as catalysts for growth, with improved risk profile of the bank, the government has put in place an Alternative Mechanism (AM) comprised of three ministers, he said.

Giving details of the mandate for AM, he said, the proposals received from banks for in-principle approval to formulate schemes of amalgamation shall be placed before the institution although there is no proposal for consideration before it.

AM may also direct banks to examine proposals for amalgamation, he said, adding that it will receive inputs from the RBI before according in-principle approval.

Last year, the government decided to set up an Alternative Mechanism to fast track consolidation among public sector banks (PSBs) to create strong lenders.

The decision to set up the AM follows State Bank of India merging its five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself.

In reply to another question, Shukla said the government has sought comments of respective state governments and sponsor banks on a roadmap for amalgamation of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) within a state with a view to enable RRBs to minimize their overhead expenses, optimize the use of technology, enhance the capital base and area of operation and increase their exposure.

The roadmap has been prepared in consultation with NABARD and proposes to bring down the number of RRBs to 38 from the present 56, he said.

It is expected that the proposed amalgamation of RRBs will bring about better scale-efficiency, higher productivity, robust financial health, improved financial inclusion and greater credit flow to rural areas, he added.Check out the companies that are making headlines before the opening bell##Check out the companies that are making headlines before the opening bell

June corporate earnings: L&T, Ambuja Cements, Hero Moto, JSW Steel, BHEL, Bharti Infratel, Canara Bank, etc., will announce their first quarter results.

ICICI Bank: Sandeep Batra of ICICI Prudential Life joined ICICI Bank as President-Corporate Centre. He will directly report to Sandeep Bakshi, COO of ICICI Bank. In a separate development, the bank will acquire Arthashastra Fintech for Rs 8.3 crore.

Symphony: Q1 profit fell 49 percent to Rs 20 crore versus Rs 39 crore; revenue slipped 23.2 percent to Rs 146 crore versus Rs 190 crore (YoY).

Lakshmi Vilas Bank: Brickwork Ratings India revised the rating from A- to BBB+ for unsecured redeemable non-convertible subordinated lower Tier II bonds - Series VII (Option B) of Rs 50.50 crore, Moneycontrol reported.

Jindal Steel & Power: CNBC-TV18 reported that the company was likely to get 20 percent of the 4.87 lakh tonne bid, being the lone bidder for global rail tender floated by Indian railways.

Oil India: The company has signed a joint venture agreement at Guwahati in connection with formation of a JV company for construction of north-east gas grid pipeline in the eight north-eastern states, viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The proposed JV company will have equal equity contribution from all the five PSU JV partners.

Bharat Electronics: The government will divest 5 percent in the company out of its 66.79 percent shareholding.

Andhra Bank: The bank has received capital infusion of Rs 2,019 crore towards contribution of the central government in the preferential allotment of equity shares.

NTPC: CNBC-TV18 reported that the government is looking to sell its stake in NHPC to the company. The government currently holds around 73% stake in NHPC.

Asian Paints: Q1 consolidated profit rises 30 percent to Rs 571.3 crore versus Rs 440.7 crore; revenue rises 15.1 percent to Rs 4,390 crore versus Rs 3,815.3 crore (YoY).

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance: Q1 profit falls 30.5 percent to Rs 282 crore versus Rs 406 crore; net premium income increases 12.8 percent to Rs 5,438 crore versus Rs 4,820 crore (YoY).

Hexaware: Q2 consolidated profit rises 14 percent to Rs 154 crore versus Rs 134.3 crore; revenue increases 8.4 percent to Rs 1,136.7 crore versus Rs 1,049 crore (QoQ).There are 412.60 million broadband connections in the country of which 106.52 million are in rural areas, union communication minister Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday.

Sinha said in Lok Sabha that broadband services in rural areas have seen good progress on the back of substantial development in the telecommunication sector.

"The number of broadband connections in the country as on March 31, 2018 stood at 412.60 million out of which rural broadband connections are 106.52 million which constitutes 25.82 per cent of total connections," he said during Question Hour.

The minister said the government is implementing the flagship Bharatnet project to link each of the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country through optical fibre network.

This is the largest rural connectivity project of its kind and is the first pillar of the Digital India programme, he said.You must be logged in to participate in the Show Me the Errors contest.Jonathan Werran is the chief executive of Localis.

Council tax has been accused of many things and many sins. An ossified patch and repair job on the doomed Poll Tax from the early months of John Major, it is routinely dismissed as outdated and unfair. Public finance experts deride it as dramatically regressive.

However, despite the brickbats, council tax could be the platform for civic renewal and community empowerment. Heres how.

Currently, adult social care and statutory services are taking the bulk of council budgets  56p of every pound paid in council tax in 2019 / 20 will be spent on adult and childrens social care. Your average council taxpayer would be well-minded to query what services they are actually getting for their money.

This is why the council tax cap is no longer fit for purpose. During the early years of the Coalition, while money from the Treasury could fund a council tax freeze, the imposition of a two per cent referendum trigger as a policy made perfect sense. As solid a slug of retail politics, it showed due sensitivity to the cost of living agenda as you could wish to see.

In an exercise in being seen to do something to plug the unbridgeable social care funding gap, we have seen the cap rise to six per cent.

But now the freeze money has melted away, its time for centrally imposed caps on council tax charges to end and for the abolition of referendum triggers enshrined in the Localism Act.

This is the conclusion of Localiss new report  Monetising Goodwill  which found the majority of people would be willing to pay more in council tax or voluntary one-off levies to better fund local services.

Failing that, James Brokenshire as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, should set council tax referendum thresholds at a rate that enables places to set hypothecated taxes and levies more freely.

Like the social care precept, the Secretary of State should stipulate that greater freedoms are used specifically for hypothecated taxes and levies, and for services and issues that reflect public will.

And to that end local people must be given the right to choose and vote on local spending priorities.

For example, people living in the East Midlands  the region most keen to pay extra tax, show a marked preference to pay for better roads and to repair potholes. Support for homeless people and faster Wi-Fi speeds would get the Yorkshire pound while social housing and clearing up dog mess are top priorities for those living in the North East.

Local authorities should use their existing council tax platforms to give citizens the opportunity to direct new and existing funding in line with their priorities.

This could mean enabling residents to direct up to twenty percent of total revenue raised to specific services and for achieving certain outcomes.

Following the lead from Westminster City Council, authorities could include the voluntary option to pay higher funding directed to specific services, on top of the core bill.

They could also allow residents the opportunity to vote on specific spending packages. There is a willingness to pay extra to fill gaps in local provision. And as the nation reaches a tipping point on austerity in local services, local areas should be provided with the freedoms and platform to monetise that goodwill.

This agenda isnt about raising ever higher taxes and increasing the power of the local state. It is, rather, an opportunity to renew civic bonds. To this end, any extra funds which are raised by voluntary levies should be allocated to community groups for the purpose of delivering local services.

Community-led organisations can be entrepreneurial and creative with a vested interest in a way that a council cannot. They are also more likely to attract a higher level of public support for higher contributions raised through hypothecated local taxation.

This could be an opportunity to convert local patriotism, pride and sense of place into something tangible and real in a way the Big Society and latterly the Shared Society have failed to accomplish. It is a chance to put Edmund Burkes fabled little platoons into the field of civic battle.Mike Moser is CEO of the British Fur Trade Association (BFTA). This is a Sponsored Post.

For the last few months the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has been taking evidence as part of its Fur Trade in the UK inquiry, following reports that real fur is being sold as fake fur by major high-street and online retailers. Its final report, published this weekend, represents a sensible and pragmatic approach to tackling the problem of the mis-selling of fur and fake fur products in the UK. But while the committees diagnosis is right, the biggest challenge will be mustering the political will  both nationally and locally  to turn the committees suggestions into action.

The inquirys first recommendation is to improve enforcement  that is to say holding to account those retailers who fail in their duty to the consumer to properly label products. It calls on the Government to ensure that Local Authorities  whose Trading Standards offices have responsibility in this area  are properly resourced. It also recommends that Local Authorities should provide training to Trading Standards officers to help them distinguish between fake and real fur and to conduct proactive investigations into the mis-sale of real fur as fake fur.

We agree with this assessment. Whilst the scale of the problem of mis-selling has not necessarily been proven, the excellent work by Humane Society International in particular shows that a problem does exist and its reasonable to extrapolate their own spot-checks and assume that mis-selling of fake and natural fur products is almost certainly happening throughout the UK. However, there are a number of challenges here. The first is ensuring that Trading Standards officers take the issue seriously.

Theres scant evidence that the problem is well-understood amongst enforcement officers (BFTA has offered to provide our own expertise to help train staff). Whats more, because of the devolved nature of Trading Standards, government edict will not solve the problem. One suspects that changing the culture of hundreds of Trading Standards operations and training thousands of enforcement officers will take some time.

The other challenge is resources  Trading Standards and Local Authorities are stretched. Its implausible to imagine that there will be a serious focus on assessment of fake and natural fur products without more dedicated resources. Given the parlous state of local government finances, whilst greater resourcing is necessary to ensure better enforcement and prosecution of offenders, I suspect that competing interests from other local services will relegate the issue. To this end I would certainly welcome encouragement and support from BEIS who might  as a start  explore ways to help educate and support enforcement officers in developing their skills.

Next, the committee recommends amendments to the EUs labelling scheme, which it rightly describes as confusing. Even the minister giving evidence to the inquiry was in agreement on this point. However, as the report acknowledges, the Governments ability to amend the labelling regime after Brexit will depend on the nature of the future EU-UK trading relationship. It would be prudent to wait until we know exactly what type of Brexit the UK will have, but theres certainly a need for a clearer scheme and one which  ideally includes details like the species of fur used in any natural fur garment.

Indeed, a new mandatory UK labelling regime, combined with the new FURMARK scheme  a comprehensive and rigorous new global animal welfare labelling scheme that will be launched by the fur industry in 2020  would together offer better and clearer information to UK consumers about the products they are buying. The problem here is that whilst a new statutory labelling scheme would in all likelihood enjoy high compliance from high street and reputable online retailers, the real challenge will be how to ensure that market traders and third-party online sellers  whom I suspect are responsible for the majority of mis-selling that currently occurs  also comply. So whilst an improved labelling regime is needed, it does need to be combined with better enforcement, without which were unlikely to stamp out the very types of mis-selling which motivated this inquiry in the first place.

Finally, Im delighted that the report acknowledges the Governments view that the fur industry is a legitimate business and that it is a matter of consumer choice to wear fur or not. Those consumers who choose not to wear products containing fur need confidence that what they are buying is fur-free just as much as those people who choose to wear fur expect their products to be clearly and accurately labelled. A better labelling regime post-Brexit, the launch of the industrys new animal welfare label in 2020, and better enforcement to sanction sellers who intentionally deceive consumers, together offers the potential for real improvement. The fur industry will hold up our side of the bargain  the challenge is whether the political will exists in DEFRA, BEIS and across the UKs town halls to do the same.Kathmandu, Nepal: The National Assembly (NA) meeting has been postponed for Wednesday, August 1 at 11:00 am following an obstruction from main opposition Nepali Congress on Wednesday.





NC Lawmakers obstructed the meeting by standing from their seats notwithstanding the National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsinas repeated request to carry on with the proceedings.





NC lawmaker Badri Prasad Pandey said they would not allow parliamentary proceeding unless the government holds meaningful talks with Dr Govinda KC to end his hunger strike. Dr KCs hunger strike entered in the 26th day on Wednesday.



Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South-East England, and a journalist, author and broadcaster. His most recent book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.

In June 2017, a coalition of Arab states imposed an air, sea and land siege on Qatar, accusing the little kingdom, without evidence, of sponsoring terrorism. The blockading states  Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt  initially had the White House on their side, and were confident that they would either topple Qatars emir or bring him to heel. Among their demands were that Qatar cease pursuing a sovereign foreign policy and that it close down Al-Jazeera, more or less the only independent television station in the region.

I happened to be in Doha, the Qatari capital, three weeks after the blockade had been imposed, and I couldnt see any signs of disruption. I began to ask around. What had been the practical consequences of the economic shock on peoples everyday lives? Qatar, after all, is a tiny country with just 313,000 citizens (though its population is swollen by foreign workers). It exports pretty much everything it produces and imports pretty much everything it consumes. There must have been some downsides, surely? Eventually, a British Muslim expatriate was able to think of one. You couldnt get coriander anywhere in the first week after the blockade. But thats all fixed now.

Fourteen months on, the blockade remains in place. Flights in and out of Doha have to avoid Saudi airspace  though, unless youre coming from Africa, you wouldnt notice. Qatar has had to make a few adjustments, for example importing dairy herds for fresh milk. In general, though, it has found that a globalised trading nation can almost always find new suppliers and new markets. A jolt of this kind can have positive effects, making businesses think about additional opportunities and allowing new entrants to challenge comfortable behemoths. International opinion has swung back because the Saudis and their allies have conspicuously failed to produce any evidence of Qatari sponsorship of terrorism. As the journal Foreign Policy put it last month, Qatar won the Saudi blockade.

Im sure youve spotted where this argument is going. If tiny Qatar can shrug off, not just a disruption in its old trading patterns, but an actual full-on blockade, why are so many British politicians and officials cowering before the prospect of trading with the EU under WTO terms?

Obviously its not an exact parallel. International comparisons never are. The Gulf Co-operation Council does not have anything like the superstate ambitions of the EU, despite its members having affinities of language, culture and history far beyond those found in Europe. Still, here is an example of a state which wanted friendly relations with its neighbours rather than subordination, was rebuffed, and has since flourished as a global economy.

Some of the chief differences between the UK and Qatari situations are these: WTO rules are not sanctions; Britain has months to prepare; we are the fifth largest economy in the world, with a commensurately vast home market; WTO terms will allow for some immediate economic and trade liberalisation; we are not under military siege; and there are 200 Britons for every Qatari.

How incredible, then, to hear talk of food shortages, as though we were facing U-boat wolf-packs. How preposterous to read headlines about grounded flights and empty shelves. Preposterous and irresponsible. What effect do you imagine such headlines are having on the EUs negotiators?

For the avoidance of doubt, I want there to be a mutually beneficial deal between the UK and the EU 27. I am not one of that tiny number of Eurosceptics who see a complete rupture as desirable. We have an interest in the stability and prosperity of our neighbours, and it would be tragic if Britains decision to exercise the withdrawal right explicitly set out in the EUs treaties were to mean the end of our alliance with our European friends. Yet there is no point in denying that there are some in Brussels who see it that way, who regard the act of leaving the EU as hostile, who would rather see all sides suffer than a post-EU Britain flourish, and who are therefore not interested in any outcome to the talks except one that leaves Britain subservient and humiliated.

Our negotiating tactics until now have encouraged those Brussels hardliners. Again and again, they have seen us propose arrangements that would work for both sides, only to retreat in the face of a Barnier non. The hysterical tone in which British Remainers are now discussing the prospect of no-deal will naturally make them dig in deeper  thus, paradoxically, making a breakdown more likely.

For the truth is that we have reached the limit of what we can concede. Even getting the existing proposals through Parliament will be extraordinarily difficult. If Britain is seen to have bent over backwards and been rejected anyway, the mood in Parliament and the country will change very sharply.

And then? There would be some short-term disruption, no question. It would be felt most severely by the big corporations that have learned how to profit from the current arrangements, which is why they are understandably loud in their protests. But a mild economic jolt, leading to more global trading patterns, is far from the worst thing that can happen in the life of a nation. Ask the Qataris.Policy Exchange is undoubtedly right to argue, in a new report, that the Treason Act of 1531 is out of date  thats to say, that its antiquated and cumbrous language means that any prosecution under its terms is unlikely to succeed. Whether an updated act would be useful is more controversial. None the less, two points about the think tanks idea are surely indisputable.

First, it has assembled a coalition in favour of it which reaches deep into the establishment. Who is and isnt a member of the latter is ferociously disputed. But any useful definition must surely include a former Lord Chief Justice (Lord Judge), a former head of MI5 (Lord Evans), a former head of counter-terror policing (Richard Walton) and a former Home Secretary (Amber Rudd). All have smiled on the report. So has Tom Tugendhat, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committe who, as we pointed out yesterday, alluded to the idea in the Commons.

The context was the row over two ISIS jihadis, Government Ministers, America, potential extradition and capital punishment.

This leads to the second point. Policy Exchanges suggestion that a modernised treason law should be used to prosecute jihadis provides a rare example of public opinion and establishment views being aligned. We admit to having no polling evidence to prove the point, but hazard that many voters wouldnt hesitate for a moment before backing treason trials in Britain for Islamist terrorists. They would wonder what all the fuss is about. (Though in the case of the ISIS fanatics in question we suspect that they would be happy with extradition to the United States.)

Which takes us to the appointment of Max Hill as the new Director of Public Prosecutions (for which moment Policy Exchange appears to have held back its report).

One of David Camerons achievements in office was to brook no nonsense about the connection between Islamist extremism and Islamist terror. His view, re-stated recently abroad and reported by this site, is that Islam is a great religion, but Islamism a dangerous ideology  a distorted version of one of the three great monotheistic faiths, though one with roots that reach back almost to Mohammeds own time. Once in office, he called this spade a spade, and set about depriving Islamist groups of public money, Government patronage and shared platforms with Ministers.

This view now stretches across the political spectrum to form a consensus from the Tory right through the political centre to the old left  thats to say, the bit of it that prioritises, say, womens rights above political correctness.

However, it may not yet have have reached Hill. He is on record as calling for some returning jihadis not to be prosecuted, criticising plans for prosecuting followers of online hate preachers, and suggesting shorter sentences for some terror offenders. In his former post as the reviewer of independent terror legislation, he also met with Cage, whose research director, Asim Qureshi, described Mohammed Emwazi, a.ka. Jihadi John, as a beautiful young man. He has also contested the description of jihadis as Islamist.

Now, not all of this is necessarily wrong. Prosecuting former jihadis who went to Syria, became disgusted with ISIS, and have turned anti-terror is not in the public interest. There must be safeguards in legislation against prosecuting people who stumble by accident into extremist preachers online. Prisoner rehabilitation should fit individual circumstances. And so on.

But if Hill really believes that Islamist is a term that should be swept under the carpet, he will be doing no-one any good  least of all the Muslim campaigners who recognise the problems that the ideology drives, and courageously contest it. The Anti-Extremism Commissioner, Sara Khan, is one of them. As for meeting with Cage, would Hill also have met, in his former post, with groups that have expressed sympathy for neo-nazi terrorists?

We understand that Jeremy Wright, as Attorney General, was on the verge of making the appointment, and that Geoffrey Cox, his replacement in the recent mini-shuffle, let the process continue. It is hard to believe that it would have been made when Nick Timothy, who saw the terror and extremism problem first-hand in the Home Office, was co-Chief of Staff in Downing Street.100%

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-09-30, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.100%

Website salerno.bakeca.it uses latest and advanced technologies like: JQuery. It supports HTTPS and GZIP compression. The main html page has a size of 85032 bytes (83.04 kb uncompressed) and 15729 bytes (15.36 kb compressed).

This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-11-17, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.Close

A University of Arizona study suggests that bouldering, a kind of rock climbing, may also be used to effectively treat symptoms of depression, along with building endurance and reducing stress.

The authors of the study led a team of more than 100 test subjects at a bouldering convention in Germany where some hospitals have begun using rock climbing as a therapeutic treatment.

Bouldering involves climbing rocks of a moderate height without the use of ropes or a harness. Because of the size of the walls, it is a good way to start climbing or for experienced climbers to practice difficult moves.

A research team divided participants into two groups. One began bouldering immediately, and the second had to wait to start bouldering. Each participant bouldered for three hours a week over the course of eight weeks. The research team then measured the depression of each participant using Beck's Depression Inventory (a psychodynamic self-reporting inventory) and Symptom Checklist 90 (a questionnaire published by Pearson).

The group that began bouldering immediately had improved Beck's Depression scores by 6.27 points, while the waitlisted group's improved by only 1.4 points.

"Bouldering, in many ways, is a positive physical activity...there are different routes for your physical activity level, and there's a social aspect along with the feeling of immediate accomplishment when bouldering," said Stelzer.

During the intervention, participants were also taught to cultivate positive social interactions and learned meditation and mindfulness to help manage their symptoms. Stelzer said bouldering in particular is especially beneficial for the treatment of depression because it boosts self-esteem, has a social component, and has strong mental components. Maybe most importantly, "you have to focus on not falling," Stelzer said. It also builds muscle and endurance while reducing stress.

Luttenberger, a psychometrics expert, said, "Patients enjoyed the bouldering sessions and told us that they benefited greatly. Since rumination is one of the biggest problems for depressed individuals, we had the idea that bouldering could be a good intervention for that."

Given the results of the study, the team believes bouldering may be used in conjunction with traditional care and treatment for clinical depression. The team is working to develop a manual about integrating bouldering and psychotherapeutic interventions for groups. But of course, if you don't like bouldering, Luttenberger says, "I'd always encourage patients to do the sport they like."

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About ObamacareClose

An ambulance roars up to a hospital emergency room. The EMTs carry out a 30-year-old woman. A quick diagnosis: heroin overdose. Thankfully she's alive. She is tracked into the system as an inpatient. As she is checked in, a 43-year-old man walks into the ER helped by two friends who know he has misused the prescription drug OxyContin.

Given recent media coverage, you might think this scene is taking place in 2017. But the opioid epidemic was already raging under the radar in 2014 when 1.27 million people were admitted to emergency rooms or required inpatient stays in the US for opioid issues -- a 64% increase in opioid issues since 2005.

A report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the most detailed statistical analysis of opioid-related issues ever published. Data for the years since 2014 is still being compiled, but a glimpse of this rising disaster paints a grim and worsening public health picture.

The opioid epidemic has resulted from the burgeoning use of heroin or synthetically produced opioids like OxyContin, Percocet, Oxycodone, and Vicodin. Illegal use of fentanyl mixed heroin has also become of increasing concern for public health officials.

To give you some idea of how the crisis affects us, a few years ago the governor of Vermont devoted 100% of his State of the State address to its citizens' opioid use. He did not talk about taxes or the quality of the roads -- he talked exclusively about heroin.

Opioid abuse among women has increased markedly since 2005, until in 2014 women were just as likely as men to be opioid inpatients. The idea that males have greater opioid issues is crumbling.

The report shows that heartland states along with most western and southern states were more like to take women as inpatients as were California, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Wyoming, Iowa, Nebraska, and Texas have had the lowest rates of opioid inpatient admissions, while Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington have had the highest rates.

Twice as many people showed up at ER rooms in 2014 as they did in 2005. About 60% more stayed in hospitals in 2014 than did in 2005. Women were more likely to visit ER than men in states like North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. Men were more like to visit ERs than women in the Midwest and south.

Not surprisingly, men and women aged 25-44 were most likely to show up at ERs or be admitted as inpatients for opioid abuse.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About ObamacareClose

Plato once said, "Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet."

Perhaps if we update Plato's words to the vernacular of our scientific age they might read: The role of touch in regulating inter-partner physiological coupling during empathy for pain.

That is the title of a report by Pavel Goldstein, Irit Weissman-Fogel, and Simone G. Shamay-Tsoory, which presents data on the power of a lover's touch to ease pain and bring comfort. Published in Science Reports and emanating from Colorado University's Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab, the study employed a model scenario to reveal how couples synchronize their breathing and heartbeats when one of them is in pain.

Goldstein and his team wanted to find out what happens when romantic couples are together and one of them feels pain. What will happen when they hold hands? What will happen if they are denied touch?

The study monitored 22 couples who were romantically involved. Goldstein had them imagine a delivery-room scenario as the woman underwent mild periods of pain. The woman was subjected to heat applied to her arm, not enough to harm but enough to bring discomfort.

The woman sat in a chair facing one direction, her partner (these were all heterosexual couples) sat next to her facing the opposite direction. Goldstein monitored each person's heartbeat with an ECG, also each person's breathing rate. He was looking for instances of "inter-partner physiological coupling," which would indicate mutual empathy during pain situations.

What they found was the power of touch is wondrously important during times of stress.

At first the couple did not hold hands. When heat was applied to the woman's arm both breathing and heartbeat were not synchronized. But when the researchers allowed the couple to hold hands, within a short time their heartbeats coincided and they breathed in synchronous rhythm.

The couple seemed to empathize, but when researches separated their hands there was a physiological, and measurable, uncoupling. Denied touch, the two bodies lost their common rhythm. Was this just psychological? Perhaps partly, but recent studies have shown that electrodermal stimulation occurs during touching. In other words, by holding hands loving couples are able to communicate emotional states. The team stated that social touch, skin-to-skin contact, may play a key factor in emotional bonding.

Perhaps Goldstein and his team are merely validating the words of Plato. Every mother knows to pat her child's hand when her baby is sick. It helps, and now we have data to confirm it.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About ObamacareClose

Feeling unhappy? Turns out, your friend count on social media could be responsible.

Researchers at Indiana University counted "friends" for 39,1110 Twitter users and found a relationship between the number of social media connections and happiness, according to a report in EPJ Data Science.

The computer scientists focused on subjects with 15 or more "friends," then analyzed the sentiment or mood of the 'twitterers' tweets.

They found that users deemed less happy by the analysis of their tweets had fewer friends than their friends. What's more, happy users were less happy on average than their friends who had more friends.

"In other words, a majority of users may feel that they're less popular than their friends on average," said Johan Bollen, lead author. "They may also have the impression that they're less happy than their friends on average."

This confirms some of the harmful side effects of social media use. "This analysis contributes to a growing body of evidence that social media may be harmful to users who 'overindulge' in these services since it's nearly impossible to escape negative comparisons to their friends' popularity and happiness," said Bollen. "Given the magnitude of social media adoption across the globe, understanding the connection between social media use and happiness may well shed light on issues that affect the well-being of billions of people," he continued.

This phenomenon is called the "Happiness Paradox" -- the effect that occurs when one's happiness levels are inflated depending on the popularity of their friends.

"Overall, this study finds social media users may experience higher levels of social dissatisfaction and unhappiness due to a negative comparison between their and their friends' happiness and popularity," Bollen explained. "Happy social media users may think their friends are more popular and slightly happier than they are -- and unhappy social media users will likely have unhappy friends who still seem happier and more popular than they are on average."

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About ObamacareHPE has turned to sales chief Phil Davis to lead the company's Hybrid IT business group, and it is also saying goodbye to Pointnext leader Ana Pinczuk.



The changes were announced today in a blog post by CEO Antonio Neri.



Chief Sales Officer Davis has been the interim head of the Hybrid IT business group since it was established early this year. He'll officially become permanent head of the group Aug. 1.



[Related: Chief Sales Officer Phil Davis: HPE Is 'Rock Of Gibraltar' With A Winning Portfolio For Partners]



"I am confident in Phil's ability to lead us in our next chapter given his customer-first, customer-last approach, which has proven to be hugely valuable," Neri wrote.



Davis has been with HPE since 2014, and chief sales officer since late last year. Before taking that position, he was vice president and general manager, storage, enterprise group, Asia Pacific and Japan, and later regional managing director and senior vice president, enterprise group, Asia Pacific and Japan, according to his LinkedIn profile.



The Hybrid IT group is made up of three business units: Hybrid IT Infrastructure; Software-Defined & Cloud; and the HPE Pointnext professional services business.



Pinczuk has led the Pointnext business since joining HPE early last year, and has guided partners through the adoption of its GreenLake Flex Capacity offering. Earlier this year, Pinczuk oversaw Pointnext's planned acquisition of British Azure cloud consulting provider RedPixie.



Pinczuk is leaving HPE "for new opportunities," Neri wrote. Neri credited Pinczuk with pivoting the HPE team to become more "customer-focused, outcome-led and people-driven."



"Ana was exactly the leader we needed to drive our HPE Pointnext organization as we pivoted the company to be services-led with a focus on consumption models and 'everything-as-a-service,'" Neri wrote.



Leadership of the other Hybrid IT business units  Hybrid IT Infrastructure leader Alain Andreoli; Software-Defined and Cloud leader Ric Lewis and Gobal Operations head Arun Chandra  remain in place.Lenovo has overhauled its business-oriented 2-in-1 tablet, the ThinkPad X1 Tablet, with its third generation release this year. And fans of the series should be pleased with the outcomefor the most part. We're not completely sure that the tablet is different enough to prompt a switchover from a laptop or a Surface Pro, however. A few key trade-offs stand in the way.

First, though, let's consider the best part with the third-gen X1 Tablet: the display. The tablet goes for 3K (3,000 x 2,000) resolution, up from 2,160 x 1,440 previously, and it's a stunner. The screen is ultra crisp and a joy to look throughout a day of work. It's also super brightprobably even too bright for most indoor use at 400 nits.

[Related: Head-To-Head: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Vs. Microsoft Surface Pro]

The display is also larger this time around, at 13 inches, versus the 12-inch display in the previous model. That puts it on the larger end of the spectrum for tablet displaysthe Surface Pro measures 12.3 inchesbut laptop users might be more enticed by this form factor since it's closer to the typical size of a notebook screen.

Performance is another big upgrade with the new version of the X1 Tablet. While the previous model had used Intel's low-power Y series chips, the third-gen model goes for Intel's speedier U series. Our model used a Core i5 processor and we found the performance to be excellenteverything was flying with our web and PowerPoint usage, and having multiple apps and windows open didn't drag things down in the least.

One distinguishing element is how durable the X1 Tablet is compared to other 2-in-1 tablets on the market. The device integrates Gorilla Glass on the display and meets the military durability standards that are typical of other ThinkPads. The tablet's metal kickstand and the accompanying hard plastic keyboard are definitely more solid than others we've tried, as well.

Speaking of the keyboard, Lenovo has tweaked the design to make the keyboard even stiffer (even though we thought the previous version already rated high in this regard). Overall, we found the typing experience on the X1 Tablet keyboard to be goodnot quite up to the level of most laptops, but pretty close (it's a better keyboard than the MacBook Pro, for one thing). The key travel is fairly deep, at 1.5mm, and the keys themselves are comfortable and not overly clacky.

Battery life is a central consideration for most users of 2-in-1 tablets, since business travel is a main use case for these devices. Unfortunately, the latest ThinkPad X1 Tablet doesn't see much improvement there even though it comes with a larger battery. The tablet managed five hours of battery lifethe same as the second-generation modelin our tryout at 75 brightness and with heavy usage.

The higher-powered processor may be one reason. Another is that, as we mentioned, the screen on the X1 Tablet is extremely bright. Setting the brightness to 50 percent got us another hour of battery life, and we felt this was still bright enough for using in the office.

Maybe a bigger concern is that the new X1 Tablet design adds some heft, which detracts somewhat from the selling point as an on-the-go solution. While the previous model weighed 2.4 pounds, the larger display and battery of the new version bring it up to 2.8 pounds. The makes the device a noticeable amount heavier than the Surface Pro (2.37 pounds) and even Lenovo's own ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop (2.5 pounds). As we said: tradeoffs.

Another major change with the X1 Tablet is there's no longer an option to attach external modules--including one module that added battery life and another that turned the tablet into a projector. The module concept was a main differentiator with the previous two generations of the X1 Tablet. And some Lenovo-oriented solution providers we spoke with did like that aspect of the device, as it made the tablet stand out from the pack, but apparently there wasn't enough interest. (R.I.P.)

Digital pen users may or may not like Lenovo's answer for the perennial question of how to store the stylus. A removable pen holder is now placed on the right side of the tablet, which works well while you're using it, but inevitably the pen falls out if you try to store it in the holder with your bag. The stylus itself, the ThinkPad Pen Pro, worked well in our tryout with little latency.

In terms of ports, the selection is pretty sparse. There are two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports provided, but you'll need a dongle to get USB-A or HDMI. That's in contrast to the Surface Pro, which opts for USB-A over USB-C. The X1 Tablet also houses a MicroSD card reader and Nano Sim slot.

Security features that should appeal to many businesses include a fingerprint reader, Windows Hello facial recognition, FIDO (Fast Identity Online) authentication capabilities and a Trusted Platform Module chip for encryption.

Additionally, the third-gen X1 Tablet adds an option for LTE connectivity, for situations with untrusted (or lacking) WiFi.

All in all, Lenovo's third-gen ThinkPad X1 Tablet has a lot going for it. The device won't come cheap, with a price of $1,296 for eighth-gen Core i5, 8 GB of RAM and Windows 10 Pro. But that's still less than the cost of many laptops, and seems competitive for a device that gets so much of the key stuff right with its terrific display, performance and keyboard.Polish scientists described a new species of shrimp from the largest lake of the Balkans

Polish scientists described a new species of shrimp living in Lake Skadar - the largest lake of the Balkans. Atyaephyra vladoi is an endemic species found only in the lake`s basin.

"The newly described shrimp species is probably a relic of swampy terrain. The species inhabited the area of today`s Lake Skadar before it was flooded, that is before the lake itself formed" - says Dr. Aleksandra Jabonska, who described the shrimp together with a team of scientists from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology of the University of Lodz and the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Limnology of the University of Szczecin.

According to the researcher, more than a dozen species of shrimp live in the inland waters of Europe, classified into two genera: Atyaephyra and Palaemon. Most species of the genus Atyaephyra have only been described in recent years, thanks to the use of integrative taxonomy methods, combining traditional morphological observations and genetic analyses.

Most shrimp species occur in the rivers and stagnant waters of the Balkan Peninsula, which is known for its high biodiversity and high degree of endemism of fauna and flora.

Atyaephyra vladoi is yet another species new to science, described using morphological features and mitochondrial DNA analysis. "This shrimp lives among the submerged vegetation of Lake Skadar and rivers and springs in its basin" - adds Dr. Jabonska.

This species is a close relative of Atyaephyra thyamisensis found in Greece, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia. These species separated more than 5 million years ago.

Lake Skadar is the largest lake of the Balkans, located in Albania and Montenegro. The lake itself is very young. It formed only about 1,200 years ago as a result of flooding of a swampy depression, supplied by a geologically much older system of karst springs, streams and rivers.

"Therefore, the basin of the lake, and especially its source systems, are rich in endemics. One of these endemic species of the Lake Skadar basin is the shrimp we have described" - notes the researcher.

The shrimp owes its name to an outstanding Montenegrin zoologist, a professor at the University of Podgorica and aquatic arachnids taxonomy expert - Dr. Vladimir "Vlado" Pesicov.

According to prof. Micha Grabowski from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology, University of Lodz, research shows that although the degree of endemism of the Balkan Peninsula is described as high, its biodiversity is not yet sufficiently known.

For over a decade, Prof. Grabowski`s team`s research has been focusing on the spatial structure and evolution of biodiversity in the Balkans, the Mediterranean Region and the Middle East. It resulted in the discovery of a number of new species.

"Our research also allowed to determine that the freshwater fauna of this region is much more diverse than previously thought, and its formation is largely associated with sea level fluctuations and uplift of lands in former geological eras" - emphasises Prof. Grabowski.

PAP - Science in Poland

tr. RL

szu/ ekr/ kap/You can find Bangalore Escorts several areas of the city

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Just over the next three years, the number of departures will be more than doubled on an annual basis for the French brand, according to Herve Bellaiche, executive vice president of sales.

"We are confident we have a good model, said Bellaiche. People are satisfied and they want to come back.

Ponant welcomed Artemis Group as its new owner in 2015; Bellaiche said they were a long-term partner. Other luxury brands falling under Artemis ownership include Gucci, Kering and various other high-end brands.

Over a now 30-year history, the company has had multiple owners, but the same man has been at the helm since day one: Jean Emmanuel Sauvee, who co-founded the business and launched operations with Le Ponant sailing yacht.

Growth is coming at the right time, and the new class of ships will provide a consistent feel compared to the slightly larger 260-guest Boreal-class vessels. Two ships will be delivered this year, followed by another two in 2019, and two more in 2020, plus 2021s innovative icebreaker. All are being built at VARD.

In the United States, the company works with key charter partners: Tauck and Abercromkie & Kent.

They have a loyal, high-end customer base, and we have the perfect assets for them, Bellaiche said.

The small ship size, combined with a luxury product and innovative features, such as the Blue Eye Lounge, appeal to the luxury market, according to Bellaiche, adding that the underwater lounge was quietly developed over a two year period. It will be the highlight of all six new ships.

Small ship size is the key for that kind of market and the experience we deliver, he continued.

The new fleet also helps open up the map for both Ponant and its clients as tropical expeditions gain in popularity.

"We invented a new concept, Bellaiche noted. With the Boreal-class ships, we combined expedition with luxury. We were the first to do that. That is why we are the leader in polar cruising. With the six Explorer-class ships, we will extend that model into tropical destinations. Green expeditions. People want an experience and to do things that no one can do.

Bookings for the August 2020 Northwest Passage transit opened in January 2018.

We have done that because the market asked for it. Due to our pricing model, there is great interest to book in advance.

That pricing model offers the best rates far out.

We increase the prices as we get closer to sailings, we do not discount, Bellaiche said.

Excerpt from Cruise Industry News Quarterly Magazine Summer 2018HARTFORD - The state on Wednesday granted $6.9 million for repairs to the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, and another $1.9 million for the citys Discovery Museum.

The State Bond Commission also provided funding for expanding the Port of New Haven and improving Stern Village in Trumbull. Another $2 million went to Stratford for improvements to Veterans Park and $2.1 million to improve the South End Community Center.

Funding for Norwalk includes $250,000 for a feasibility study for a new train station and $1.5 million to help Connecticut Public Broadcasting develop an Innovation and Tech Education Center on Wall Street.

Norwalk also received $6 million to finance 85 new housing units at Washington Village on the south side of Raymond Street.

"The Innovation and Technology Center is an exciting project that will serve as a creative hub where community organizations and businesses can share ideas and resources to grow their fledgling businesses," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk.

Connecticut Public Broadcasting President and CEO Jerry Franklin added "We are striving to create another innovative learning center with the Norwalk Public Schools, which will train high school students and veterans in the field of journalism, digital media, project management and life skills."

In Stamford, KPMG LLP was given a $3 million loan to assist with an expansion that will retain 546 jobs and create up to 110 new jobs within four years.

The Barnum Museum received the $6.9 million grant to help with construction and infrastructure repairs and improvements, building stabilization and site improvements.

The Discovery Museum received its grant to upgrade the planetarium, improve exhibits and classroom and theater spaces, undertake energy conservation improvements, elevator upgrades and replace the roof on the Wonder Workshop building.

"This grant is a testament to our delegations efforts, and the unyielding work theyve done in support of the Barnum Museum," said Kathy Maher, the museums executive director.

Trumbull received a $5.3 million grant for improvements to the Stern Village elderly rental complex.

"I am proud to secure funding for these excellent projects in my district and across the state," said State Sen. Marilyn Moore," D-Bridgeport.

"Thanks to this funding, our local museums, schools, and senior housing facilities can now move forward with making much-needed improvements so that residents of Bridgeport and Trumbull may continue to enjoy their services for many more years," Moore said.

Other funding approved by the commission includes:

$3.4 million to build rental housing in Greenwich.

$1.5 million to improve the Connecticut Childrens Museum in New Haven.

$8 million to finance flood control and shoreline rehabilitation at East Shore Park and Long Wharf in New Haven.

$751,000 to purchase four parcels of Department of Transportation surplus property adjacent to the Port of New Haven for maritime use.

bcummings@ctpost.comPaula Danielse | Getty Images

Here's a scoop: exposure to cat poop can increase a person's chances of becoming an entrepreneur. Research by the University of Colorado has shown that those infected with toxoplasma, a mind-controlling parasite found in cat feces, were more likely to major in business and start businesses than those uninfected.

Though harmful to mental and physical health, toxoplasma may give a person more courage because it decreases fear of failure and consequently increases tolerance for risk. And risks are a key component of entrepreneurship. In the study, rodents exposed to cat poop were less likely to show fear at the scent of cat urine, in comparison to the unexposed rodents.BRIDGEPORT -- A state Department of Motor Vehicle worker, who claimed she stole $80,000 from the agency because she was stressed out at work, is facing two and a half years behind bars.

Kimberly Brown, a 10-year employee of the DMV, pleaded guilty Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Robert Devlin to first-degree larceny and first-degree forgery.

Asked by the judge if she agreed to all the facts of the case presented by Senior Assistant States Attorney David Applegate, Brown responded, mostly.

The judge then told the 49-year-old Brown that he would impose a maximum sentence of two and a half years in prison when he sentences heR Sept. 28 but her lawyer, Alec Gulash, would have the right to argue for a lesser term.

State police said Brown managed to hide her thefts in the computer system for more than a year before the thefts were discovered in an audit.

Brown who worked at both the DMV offices in Bridgeport and Norwalk was arrested in January following a lengthy state police investigation.

When detectives confronted Brown, police said she told them she was very stressed out at work because of the pressure her supervisors had put on her and had been denied short-term disability.

I didnt want to do it, police said she told them. But being in this depression and trying to commit suicide will make you desperate to try and survive when you get backed up.

State police said Brown told them she thought she had only stolen between $15,000 and $20,000, carrying the money out each night in her lunch bag. But police said the total Brown took was $80,000.

Although there are surveillance cameras in the DMV office, police said they were out of position so that the cameras did not capture Brown taking the money.

Neither Gulash nor Brown would comment as they left the Fairfield County Courthouse. DMV officials did not immediately return calls for comment on the case.

State police later said their investigation found the Bridgeport DMV office provided an Environment permitting her (Brown) to pocket cash money.

State police said Brown, of Hazelwood Avenue, exploited a loophole, in the auto registration process created when the agency redid its computer system two years ago.

Police said Brown, a motor vehicle examiner specialist, would alter the auto registration forms that came in to show that the vehicles had been gifted from a family member of the vehicles new owner rather than purchased so that the vehicle was exempt from state sales tax. Police said she then kept the sales tax people paid with their registrations.

No proof has to be provided to DMV to show that a vehicle was gifted to avoid paying sales tax, police said.

State police said Brown would also void registration transactions, keeping the money paid for those registrations.

In May, Aarron Soares, another motor vehicle examiner specialist, at the DMV office here, was charged with nine counts of second-degree forgery, nine counts of third-degree larceny, nine counts of motor vehicle title fraud and nine counts of third-degree computer crime.

Soares is awaiting trial.BOSTON - Nearly a year after Aice Jackman was gunned down in the street, his mother and 5-year-old brother walked into a Dunkin' Donuts, where the boy spotted a pit bull puppy and dashed over to pet it.

Kaiesha Skinner's gaze followed her young son and then settled on the man holding the leash. Their eyes met. She froze: It was the same man who she believes killed Jackman.

She grabbed her youngest son's hand, yanking him away from the man and back to their car.

"We all know who shot my son," Skinner said later. "They just haven't arrested him."

In the past decade, police in 52 of the nation's largest cities have failed to make an arrest in nearly 26,000 killings, according to a Washington Post analysis of homicide arrest data. In more than 18,600 of those cases, the victim, like Jackman, was black.

Black victims, who accounted for the majority of homicides, were the least likely of any racial group to have their killings result in an arrest, The Post found. While police arrested someone in 63 percent of the killings of white victims, they did so in just 47 percent of those with black victims.

The failure to solve black homicides fuels a vicious cycle: It deepens distrust of police among black residents, making them less likely to cooperate in investigations, leading to fewer arrests. As a result, criminals are emboldened and residents' fears are compounded.

In almost every city surveyed, arrests were made in killings of black victims at lower rates than homicides involving white victims.

Four cities - Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and Philadelphia - accounted for more than 7,300 of the black murders with no arrests. But even smaller majority-white cities have amassed large rosters of these cases during the past decade: 422 in Columbus, Ohio; 277 in Buffalo, New York, 183 in Nashville, Tennessee; and 144 in Omaha, Nebraska.

In interviews with The Post, more than two dozen police chiefs and homicide commanders said they work just as hard to solve black murders but that those investigations are often hampered by reluctant witnesses.

No major U.S. city had a wider gap in arrest rates for white and black victims than Boston, where Jackman was killed last summer and where the killings of white residents are solved at twice the rate of black victims.

"We don't care what color you are," Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said. "Sometimes, because a case goes unsolved, people get the perception that we forget about their loved ones . . . We never forget about them."

Police in several cities said that some types of killings are easier to solve than others. Domestic-violence cases and bar fights may present fewer hurdles to making an arrest, while gang-related shootings and drug-related killings, which are believed to account for the majority of unsolved cases, are more complicated, police said.

"Let's face it, when you talk about murder in our urban communities - black and brown, where gang and group violence is prevalent - you got that retaliation piece," said Detroit Police Chief James Craig, whose department had an arrest rate 12 percentage points higher for white victims than for black victims. "And those are the most challenging kind of homicides to investigate."

But residents and community leaders in many cities remain skeptical that police are doing all they can to solve black homicides.

"Black life is seen as not as important," said the Rev. William Barber, a national civil rights leader, who called the failure by police to solve black homicides a civil rights crisis on par with questionable police shootings of minorities and wrongful convictions of black men.

"The black community gets cut by both edges of the sword," said Barber, who until last year led the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. "There's no big rush to solve a case when it's considered 'black on black.' But if it is a black-on-white killing, then everything is done to make an arrest."

The survey identified five cities where the killings of black victims led to an arrest just as often or slightly more often than the slayings of white victims: Birmingham, Alabama; Durham, North Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; Tampa,Florida; and Wichita, Kansas.

"We treat every homicide the same, regardless of where it occurs or who the victims are," said Fort Worth police Capt. Devin Pitt, who noted the department's high arrest rates for murder in Latino neighborhoods on the city's north side and black neighborhoods on the city's east side.

"Our neighborhoods still have enough trust in the police department to help us solve these cases," he said.

The Post analysis relied on racial classification for victims as recorded by police and used local news reports and public records, such as death certificates, to complete missing records.

Still, the inconsistency with which departments recorded the race and ethnicity of Hispanic victims - whose killings result in an arrest 49 percent of the time across the 52 cities - made it difficult to compare arrest rates in those cases city to city.

Other racial groups accounted for a comparatively small number of the killings in the survey.

In Houston, where police reliably tracked Hispanic victims, officers were least likely to make an arrest in a homicide if the victim was Hispanic. Police Chief Art Acevedo cited distrust of police among Hispanic residents, many of whom are undocumented and fear that cooperation will lead to their deportation.

"The playing field is not equal in terms of people's ability to feel like they can safely participate in trying to solve crime," Acevedo said.

- - -

Since 2007, Boston police have made an arrest in nearly 90 percent of the homicides with white victims but 42 percent of the homicides with black victims, who account for the vast majority of the city's killings.

Of the 435 homicides with black victims, 254 remain unsolved. Of the 57 homicides with white victims, only six are unsolved.

"There is no question that the African-American community is victimized by this out of proportion," said Ed Davis, who was the Boston police commissioner from 2006 to 2013. "It's a tragedy of our time that we're not doing more to stop this."

Boston's racial gap in solving homicides persists even though police there have been praised nationally for innovation in fighting violent crime.

In the mid-1990s, local police, clergy and criminologists collaborated to curb youth violence by identifying gang crime hot spots and focusing on the handful of offenders responsible for the crime. Their success was dubbed the "Boston Miracle."

But by 2005, the city was facing an uptick in violence, and the rate at which police were solving homicides had dipped below the national average. Department leaders vowed to raise arrest rates, which meant they would have to solve more black homicides.

First, thedepartment changed the way it deployed detectives so that no team of investigators was juggling too many homicides.

Next, Davis dispatched two detectives to London, where investigators solve nearly every homicide, and adopted that city's practice of assigning multiple detectives to each killing in the crucial first hours of the investigation. Then he asked criminologists with Boston's Northeastern University to review several years of homicide case files and - at their suggestion - added an extra detective to each homicide squad and hired an additional crime analyst and victim-witness resource officer.

Arrest rates began to improve slightly in 2012, but the gulf between white homicides and black homicides persists.

In the city's most violent neighborhoods, community leaders blame what they perceive as apathy from police, prosecutors and local news media.

The attention a killing gets "largely depends on your status," said Rufus Faulk, an anti-violence activist and community leader in Roxbury, one of Boston's historically black neighborhoods.

"Then, oftentimes, there is this adage thrown out there that the victim was gang-involved or 'known to the police,' " added Faulk, who said he has attended at least one funeral a year for a murder victim from his neighborhood for each of the past 23 years. "That immediately shifts the victimhood away from the person who was slain and implies that they caused their own demise. And you can see why then there is a resulting lack of public outcry."

Boston law enforcement and city officials insist they are doing everything in their power to make arrests in the murders of black men and women and said they have worked to strengthen community relationships.

"I go to most of the homicide scenes, and I see the work these guys [homicide detectives] do," said Evans, who announced his retirement as Boston's police commissioner earlier this week. "A lot of people sometimes see things and they don't help us . . . Getting cooperation is the hardest thing."

Each week, city and police officials team up with local clergy to hold peace walks in several of the city's most violent neighborhoods. Police hope that improved relationships will lead to increased cooperation from witnesses and more arrests.

"The detectives understand that there's a real fear there, and there's a reason that people feel" distrustful of police, said Boston police Superintendent Gregory Long, who oversees the homicide unit. "But at the end of the day, it can become frustrating when you have, in some cases, everything set up and you just need that one person to give you the last piece of information before you can make an arrest. And sometimes it takes years."

- - -

One of Boston's most persistent voices demanding more attention to unsolved homicides is Mary Franklin. Her husband, Melvin, who was black, was killed just down the street from their home late one night in October 1996.

He'd been walking home from a bus stop after leaving work at Boston Logan International Airport. Police called it a robbery. Franklin believes her husband stumbled upon a stickup in progress and attempted to intervene.

In the two decades since, Franklin has held countless meetings with politicians and protested in the lobby of Boston police headquarters. She even tried to run for mayor in 2017, vowing that if she was elected she would devote more resources to Boston's homicide unit and stay in better touch with the families of those killed.

Police said they have met many times with Franklin and are still doing all they can to solve her husband's slaying.

"What hurts me so badly is to see these women going through exactly what I went through 20 years ago," said Franklin, who runs the Women Survivors of Homicide Movement, a support and advocacy group, out of a one-bedroom apartment where the purple-painted walls are lined with framed newspaper clippings of articles about local homicides.

Franklin acknowledged that Boston's arrest rate has improved in recent years. But she said that her group has worked with police to help encourage witnesses in homicides to cooperate and that even with willing witnesses, some of those cases led to no arrest.

"When you look at white murders, those crimes get solved even when there's not a witness. Black murders, it seems like we've got to have a witness to the witness before we get an arrest," said Franklin. To quantify how often cases went without an arrest, she obtained from police a list of more than 1,000 unsolved homicides in the city's three predominantly black sections dating back to the 1970s. "This is a national epidemic."

In a year-long effort to examine unsolved homicides, The Post has collected and mapped a decade of homicide data from dozens of major American cities - chronicling about 55,000 killings across 55 cities to date. The analysis for this story included 52 cities where data on the race of the victims was available.

In those cities, police made an arrest in 49 percent of homicides, leaving 45 percent still under investigation.

About 6 percent of the homicides were closed by police for reasons other than arrest, such as the death of a suspect. Those cases were counted as ones with no arrest when calculating arrest rates across and within individual cities. Had those cases been excluded from the analysis, the difference in arrest rates for black victims and white victims would increase slightly in nearly every city.

Black Americans have long contended that the criminal justice system devalues black lives by allowing black killings to go unpunished. In 1892, anti-lynching activist and journalist Ida B. Wells urged black families to purchase guns to "be used for that protection which the law refuses to give."

For many, the belief that police don't value black lives was reinforced in 2012, when police in Sanford, Florida, did not immediately arrest neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman after he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a black 17-year-old, as he walked home from a store.

Zimmerman was later arrested and charged, but his acquittal in 2013 planted the seeds of the Black Lives Matter movement. The next year, a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking years of national demonstrations against the alleged police mistreatment of black men and women.

"There is a straight line between black people being outraged loudly about police officers being able to shoot and kill people and being able to get away from it and black people quietly wondering when that homicide in their neighborhood is going to be solved," said Ibram Kendi, an American University historian and author of "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America."

He added: "Black people have experienced police officers more as profilers and brutalizers, as opposed to investigators, and it takes investigators to solve very difficult homicide cases."

Across the 52 cities surveyed, The Post analysis found racial inequities in homicide arrest rates no matter the location of the killing: A black homicide was less likely to lead to an arrest than a white homicide in either majority-black neighborhoods or a majority-white neighborhoods.

Black homicides in majority-black neighborhoods had a 45 percent arrest rate. White homicides in majority-black neighborhoodshad a 59 percent arrest rate.

The rate for black homicides in majority-white neighborhoods was 55 percent, while white homicides in majority-white neighborhoods had a 64 percent arrest rate.

The failure to solve black homicides no matter the location deepens skepticism that police approach each homicide with the same fervor.

In Boston, black community leaders recall the story of Charles Stuart, a prominent white attorney who in 1989 killed his wife and unborn child and then claimed they had been killed by a black man, prompting a citywide manhunt.

"They tore the block apart; they raided people's homes; they were strip-searching young black men on the side of the road," said Milton Jones, the director of operations for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a Boston organization that offers support services to families of homicide victims.

The infamous case came to an end weeks later when Stuart killed himself and his brother told police that Stuart had killed his wife for her life insurance money.

"Those kids who were being strip-searched, they're in their 40s now," Jones said. "So when you talk about community relationships with the police, you have to remember that history."

- - -

Kaiesha Skinner had spoken with her son just 10 minutes before he was shot on July 17, 2017.

He hadn't come straight home from work as a personal trainer at a gym that Monday evening, but he assured his mother on the phone that he'd be there soon. First, he said, he was going to drop off a friend's cellphone and buy some marijuana.

The eldest of four, Jackman had had run-ins with the police and gangs but had turned a corner in his life, his mother said. Jackman had received his high school diploma and had enlisted in the Navy.

Minutes after they spoke, Skinner saw chatter on Facebook: There had been a shooting near Blue Hill Avenue, where her son was headed.

She called him again, and after getting no answer rushed to the neighborhood - where she found her son's body draped with a white sheet.

After talking to police and others in the neighborhood, she believes her son had been confronted by an armed man who began firing at him. Her son, she believes, pulled out a gun in turn and fired back. He was shot three times.

Jackman died at the scene. The other man, publicly identified by police only as a 21-year-old, was wounded and hospitalized. No one has been arrested, but Skinner said she learned the other man's identity from people in the neighborhood.

Police declined to discuss Jackman's killing in detail or address Skinner's assertion about who she believes is the killer because the case remains open and under investigation.

"There may have been others present at the scene who may not be identified at this time, and we strongly urge any witnesses or anyone with any information that could assist investigators to contact the Boston Police homicide unit," said Sgt. John Boyle, a department spokesman.

Skinner said she believes there are probably at least a dozen people who witnessed her son's killing and could provide information that could lead to the man's arrest. But in a tightknit neighborhood often home to gang violence, she believes that their fear of the killer outweighs their willingness to cooperate.

In the meantime, Skinner said, she dreads the thought of again running into the man she suspects killed her son, as she did in the Dunkin' Donuts in May.

Advocates for families of the slain said these run-ins between suspected killers and the families of their victims are commonplace in the city's most violent areas.

One mother in Mary Franklin's group said the family of the man who she believes killed her son uses the same violence counselor as she does. Another mother said she lives directly across the street from the man she believes killed her son. She sees him almost every day.

- - -

The Washington Post's Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.

- - -

About this story

As part of an ongoing examination, The Washington Post has compiled up to a decade of homicide arrest data from 55 of America's largest cities.

The Post mapped and analyzed the data to identify the homicides that most often led to an arrest and those that did not. This story is based on data from the 52 cities that provided the race and ethnicity of homicide victims.

Homicide arrest rates were calculated by victim's race, age, gender and location. The Post's data, which provides a level of specificity lacking in the homicide data released annually by the FBI, is being released publicly and will be expanded over 2018.

To determine the predominant race and ethnicity of neighborhoods, The Post used census tract data from the American Community Survey.BRIDGEPORT  The family of a Chinese student who remains in a coma after nearly drowning in the Stamford YMCA pool last year has filed a $35 million federal lawsuit against the organization.

Zhaojie Yiang, 22, a student attending the University of Connecticuts Stamford campus from China, went for a swim at the YMCA at 10 Bell Street on Oct. 13. He was pulled from a pool after a friend noticed him unconscious at the bottom.

As a result of prolonged lack of oxygen to his brain, Zhaojie suffered severe, permanent, and irreversible brain damage, said Zhaojies attorney, William Bloss of the Bridgeport-based law firm Koskoff & Bieder. Zhaojie was eventually transferred back to China, where he remains in a coma.

The suit states that two lifeguards were stationed on duty at the time. As his friend began to do laps, Zhaojie slipped under the water. Even though there were only a handful of others in the pool at the time, Zhaojies distress went unnoticed for an extended period of time, according to the suit.

After being pulled from the pool, Zhaojie was taken to Stamford Hospital and then to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital but remained unconscious.

The lawsuit states that the YMCA not only failed to properly train its lifeguards but also failed to make sure that the lifeguards had no other duties or distractions other than monitoring the patrons using the pool.

When they arrived, first responders were able to return a heartbeat to Zhaojie.

Sadly, though the emergency medical personnel were able to start Zhaojies heart pumping, his brain had by all intents and purposes virtually stopped functioning by then. He now has little or no activity outside his brainstem, Bloss said.

This is an especially horrifying case of a young mans life being shattered and is particularly tragic because it could so easily have been prevented, Bloss said.

The plaintiff in the suit is Ximiao Jiang, a Virginia resident appointed by the Probate Court for the District of Stamford as conservator for Zhaojie. The case was filed in U.S. District Court and has been assigned to Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford.In 1787, when the Constitutional Convention and an infant republic "hung by a thread," two imaginative New Englanders solved the problem and saved the day. Roger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth, both representing Connecticut, proposed a bicameral legislature made up of one house representing population and the other giving each state an equal voice. The "Connecticut Compromise" - designed as a safeguard against the domination of smaller states by the more populous neighbors - entered history as perhaps the most crucial of all the bargains that enabled a new nation to be welded together out of the ramshackle Articles of Confederation.

But Connecticut, which today, along with a number of other states, faces a seemingly insurmountable budgetary crisis, may end up regretting the statesmanship of its illustrious forebears. Sherman and Ellsworth's two-members-per-state system stands as a bulwark to prevent reckless states - Connecticut included - from raiding their more responsible brethren. Let's thank them for their innovation.

Over the past few years, several of today's 50 states have descended into unmanageable public indebtedness. In Illinois, vendors wait months to be paid by a state government that is $30 billion in debt and one notch above junk bond status. And in terms of per capita state debt, Connecticut ranks among the worst in the nation, with unfunded liabilities amounting to $22,700 per citizen.

Each profligate state is facing its own budgetary perdition for different reasons, but most share common factors. The explosion of Medicaid spending, even before Obamacare, has devoured state funds just as it and its entitlement cousins, Medicare and Social Security, have done at the federal level. This has crowded out other vital public activities, as striking teachers in most states experiencing such hardships know.

In parallel, public pensions of sometimes grotesque levels guarantee that the fiscal strangulation will soon get much worse. In California, some retired lifeguards are receiving more than $90,000 per year. A retired university president in Oregon received $76,000 per month - and no, that's not a typo. These are the modern-day welfare queens, and they are the reason for some of the nation's worst budget crises. California's pension shortfall, $250 billion under the rosiest of assumptions, is more likely close to $1 trillion.

With things this far gone, even an aroused public or a sudden eruption of statesmanship is unlikely to prevent a crash. In some states, government unions have barricaded their benefit levels behind a Maginot Line of legal and even constitutional protections.

More and more desperate tax increases haven't cured the problem; it's possible that they are making it worse. When a state pursues boneheaded policies long enough, people and businesses get up and leave, taking tax dollars with them. We see this often in the headlines: GE leaves Connecticut, General Mills exits Illinois, Chevron and Waste Management flee California. But also watch the U-Haul rental data: Illinois and California are first and second, respectively, in net rentals leaving vs. coming into the state.

So where is a destitute governor to turn? Sooner or later, we can anticipate pleas for nationalization of these impossible obligations. Get ready for the siren sounds of sophistry, in arguments for subsidy of the poor by the prudent.

In fact, this balloon was already floated once, during the crunch of the recent recession. In 2009, California politicians called for a "dynamic partnership" with the federal government. Money from other states, they said, would be an "investment" and certainly not a bailout. They didn't succeed directly, although they walked away with $8 billion of federally borrowed "stimulus" money. Such a heist will be harder to justify in the absence of a national economic emergency.

In the blizzard of euphemisms, one can expect a clever argument might appear, likening the bailout to another important compromise of the founding period: the assumption of state debts by the new federal government. But that won't wash. Those were debts incurred in a battle for survival and independence common to all 13 colonies, not an attempt to socialize away the consequences of individual states' multi-decade spending sprees.

Sometime in the next few years, we are likely to go through our own version of the recent euro-zone drama with, let's say, Connecticut in the role of Greece and maybe a larger, "too big to fail" partner such as Illinois as Italy. Adding up the number of federal legislators from the 15 or 20 fiscally weakest states, one can count something close to half the votes in the House.

The Senate - thanks to Ellsworth and Sherman - will be our theft insurance. These statesmen could never have imagined governments as sprawling and expensive as those even today's more cautious states operate. But had they somehow foreseen that their own beloved state would be among the worst offenders, one of those most likely to try to fob off its self-inflicted problems on its counterparts, I think they would only have felt better about their handiwork.

---

Daniels, a Post contributing columnist, is president of Purdue University and a former governor of Indiana.Last Tuesday marked the 22nd anniversary of the crash of TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 which exploded and crashed into the ocean only 12 minutes after leaving Kennedy Airport on an overnight flight to Paris on July 17, 1996.

All 230 aboard were killed. Steve Snyder, the senior captain, was from Stratford, and Richard Campbell, the senior flight engineer, lived in Ridgefield. Seven of the passengers were also Connecticut residents.

I reported on the crash and investigation for the Fairfield County Weekly and then for the Village Voice. In the early days it seemed very likely that a terrorist bomb was responsible. My first story was an interview with Isaac Yeffet, a former head of security for El Al Airlines, who criticized the lackadaisical baggage screening at U.S. airports.

Later I interviewed Tom Dougherty, a retired supervisor for Suffolk County, who said he had heard two explosions, then seen a streak of light like a flare or fireworks shoot up to the south as he left a restaurant close to the ocean in East Quogue. [I]t corrected itself on an angle and went higher and I said, My God, what kind of fireworks is this?, he said.

In the Voice I reported on a naval warship seen off Long Island earlier that afternoon that the Navy, FBI and National Transportation Safety Board all declined to comment on.

I also reported on a piece of the leading edge of one wing with a series of holes punched in it, damage that the NTSB never explained.

And the agency also failed to explain how it was that some insulation material outside the huge, almost empty center fuel tank had melted in the first moments of the event, suggesting the presence of intense heat above the tank before the tank exploded.

All of this raised questions about the NTSBs theory that a short circuit outside the tank produced excess voltage on wiring inside the tank which somehow generated a spark that ignited fuel vapors produced by the tiny amount of fuel in the tank.

But the short-circuit theory was not likely. The electrical resistance inside the tank would likely have stopped any stray voltage in its tracks.

A heat source that penetrated the tank from the outside could as easily have deposited soot on tank fragments as an explosion inside.

I believe there was an accident during a military exercise of some kind.

Dougherty was one of scores of eyewitnesses  some of them along the Connecticut shoreline, 50 miles from the crash site  who saw an upward-shooting streak. The NTSBs explanation of what they saw is laughably unbelievable.

Four unidentified surface vessels were picked up on aircraft radar, suggesting the vessels were large.

One, the closest to the 747s flight path, was cruising at 30 knots  very fast for a large vessel. None of those ships came to the rescue when the plane crashed. They all vanished.

The FBI checked out hundreds of boats, yet wasnt able to identify those four?

The airliner was powered by Jet A kerosene fuel. With only 50 gallons inside the nearly 13,000 gallon tank, the NTSB knew there were fewer fuel molecules in the air than would be ideal for ignition. This is called a lean mixture.

A bit too lean. Investigators were unable to ignite the mixture unless they used a current far stronger than anything in the 747s systems, and even then, ignition was very brief, only a fraction of a second, and feeble.

Thats extremely slow  thats not the flame speed of a fuel/air explosion, said Federal Aviation Administration expert Richard Hill, when I cited the NTSBs test results of 30 cm per second. Yet witnesses on Long Island had heard a thunderclap, suggesting a high explosive detonation.

In the NTSBs and FAAs archives of civilian aircraft fuel tank explosions or fires since the 1950s, the agencies blame only one crash on an electrical spark in a fuel tank  TWA Flight 800.

Isnt it time for the truth about this tragedy?

Robert Davey is a journalist who lives in Bridgeport. He can be reached at rj_davey@me.com.President Donald Trump is willing, under duress, to briefly and begrudgingly admit that Russian "meddling" took place in 2016 before reverting to calling it a "big hoax." But he always maintains that the plot against America had no impact; he describes it as a "Democrat excuse for losing the '16 Election." Faithfully echoing the president, other Republicans, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.,say it's "clear" that the Russian interference "didn't have a material effect on our elections." White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders even claims that the U.S. intelligence community reached that conclusion.

Not quite. Here is the intelligence community's assessment, partially declassified in January 2017: "We did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election. The US Intelligence Community is charged with monitoring and assessing the intentions, capabilities, and actions of foreign actors; it does not analyze US political processes or US public opinion." When then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo claimed last fall that "the intelligence community's assessment is that the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election," his own agency rebuked him.

While the intelligence agencies are silent on the impact of Russia's attack, outside experts who have examined the Kremlin campaign - which included stealing and sharing Democratic Party emails, spreading propaganda online and hacking state voter rolls - have concluded that it did affect an extremely close election decided by fewer than 80,000 votes in three states. Clint Watts, a former FBI agent, writes in his recent book, "Messing with the Enemy," that "Russia absolutely influenced the U.S. presidential election," especially in Michigan and Wisconsin, where Trump's winning margin was less than 1 percent in each state.

We still don't know the full extent of the Russian interference, but we know its propaganda reached 126 million people via Facebook alone. A BuzzFeed analysis found that fake news stories on Facebook generated more social engagement in the last three months of the campaign than did legitimate articles: The "20 top-performing false election stories from hoax sites and hyperpartisan blogs generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook." Almost all of this "fake news" was either started or spread by Russian bots, including claims that the pope had endorsed Trump and that Hillary Clinton had sold weapons to the Islamic State.

Elsewhere on social media, tens of thousands of Russian bots spread pro-Trump messages on Twitter, which has already notified about 1.4 million users that they interacted with Russian accounts. The Russian disinformation, propagating hashtags such as #Hillary4Prison and #MAGA, reflected what the Trump campaign was saying. The Russian bots even claimed after every presidential debatethat Trump had won, whereas objective viewers gave each one to Clinton.

Russia also hacked voting systems in at least 39 states, and while there is no evidence that vote tallies were changed, Russians may have used the stolen data to target their social media or shared the results with the Trump campaign. The Senate Intelligence Committee found that "in a small number of states" the Russians may have been able to "alter or delete voter registration data," potentially disenfranchising Clinton voters.

And then there was the crucial impact of the Russian hacks of Democratic documents disseminated primarily by WikiLeaks. The first tranche of stolen documents - more than 19,000 emails and 8,000 attachments - was strategically released on July 22, 2016,three days before the Democratic convention. The resulting news coverage disrupted the Clinton campaign's plans by creating the impression that the Democratic National Committee was biased against Bernie Sanders and forcing DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign.

The second tranche of stolen documents was released on Oct. 7, just 29 minutes after The Post reported on the "Access Hollywood" videotape in which Trump is heard boasting about grabbing women by the genitals. These emails, stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, distracted voter attention by revealing the transcripts of lucrative speeches Clinton had given to Goldman Sachs, a populist boogeyman.

A third release of stolen emails, on Oct. 11, revealed that Democratic operative Donna Brazile, while working at CNN, had provided debate questions to Clinton during the primaries and that senior Democratic operatives, who were themselves Catholics, had exchanged emails disparaging Republicans who cherry-picked their faith for political gain. This fueled Trump's narrative that the election was "rigged" and that the "Clinton team" was, as he said, "viciously attacking Catholics and Evangelicals." The latter charge, unfair as it was, proved especially important in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - swing states with lots of Catholic voters.

Little wonder that Trump said "I love WikiLeaks" and mentioned its revelations 164 times in the last month of the campaign. "This WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable," Trump said on Oct. 12. Eight days later, he marveled, "Boy, that WikiLeaks has done a job on her, hasn't it?"

Now, by contrast, Trump and his apologists pretend that the Russian intervention - including the WikiLeaks revelations - was no big deal. That beggars belief. Even if the Russians had failed, they still attacked our democracy. Yet they didn't fail: Trump won. Russian disinformation wasn't the only factor in the outcome and was probably less important in the end than FBI Director James B. Comey's announcement 11 days before the election that he was reopening the Clinton email investigation. But Watts concludes: "Without the Russian influence effort, I believe Trump would not have even been within striking distance of Clinton on Election Day." That is the inconvenient truth the Putin Republicans won't admit.The Senate health committee Wednesday approved four pieces of legislation, including a bill that will help Americans who are struggling to afford their prescriptions, and a bill that will encourage research to help treat sickle cell disease.

Many Americans struggle to afford their prescriptions, Chairman Lamar Alexander said. Senator Collins bill ends gag rules that prevent a pharmacist from telling a patient that a prescription is cheaper if the patient pays cash instead of using his or her insurance. The Committee has also held four bipartisan hearings on the high cost patients pay for prescription drugs, most recently to hear from Secretary Azar on the Presidents blueprint to reduce the costs Americans pay for prescription drugs.

On the Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment Act, Senator Alexander said: At least 100,000 Americans have sickle cell disease, but the exact number is unknown because we do not have sufficient data. This bill will allow the Department of Health and Human Services to study sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders so we know how many people are affected by these conditions and implement strategies to help treat these diseases.

Below are the bills approved by the committee Wednesday:

Patient Right to Know Drug Prices Act (S. 2554)Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine): This bill would ban gag clauses that prevent a pharmacist from telling a patient a drug may be cheaper if the patients pays with cash instead of their insurance.

Congenital Heart Futures Act (H.R. 1222)Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): If youre the parent of a child who suffers from a congenital heart disease, this reauthorization is important because it will continue to support the research and data collection that is needed to better understand congenital heart disease.

Sickle Cell Disease Research, Surveillance, Prevention and Treatment Act (S. 2465)Senators Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.): This bill will encourage the Department of Health and Human Services to study sickle cell disease and other heritable blood disorders so we know how many people are affected by these conditions and so we can implement strategies to help treat these diseases and prevent and manage their complications.

Action for Dental Health Act (S. 3016)Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.): This legislation supports states, dental associations, and community-based oral health programs to help prevent dental disease, and expands efforts to provide care to underserved patients.Attorneys General from nineteen states have written Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for clarity about how the Americans With Disabilities Act applies to websites. Several of the attorneys general signed onto the letter as a direct result of advocacy by state credit union leagues.

CUNA continues its work to find a solution on the regulatory and legislative arenas, as uncertainty over how the ADA applies to websites has led to lawsuits against credit unions.

CUNA and leagues around the country have written to and met with policymakers at the state and federal level to urge the Department of Justice to clarify if and how the ADA applies to website accessibility.

Credit unions are cited in the letter as an example of an industry that has been targeted by frivolous ADA lawsuits and predatory demand letters.Acting on member data is a growing imperative at Michigan State University FCU ($4.0B, East Lansing, MI), which is using an in-house business intelligence team to provide insight for every step of a members life cycle.

Membership is particularly fluid at the worlds largest university-sponsored credit union, which  with an average age of 40 and median age of 38  skews young by credit union standards. Those numbers dip a bit each year in the third quarter as more than 3,000 student accounts join the roster.

Here, Sara Dolan, chief financial officer at MSUFCU, discusses the work of the BI team she leads.

Describe the history, organization, and role of MSUFCUs BI department.

Sara Dolan: We created the business intelligence department in 2014 to centralize data research, analysis, and reporting. Prior to 2014, these tasks were completed in marketing, administration, and various departments.Singapores Giant Healthcare Hack

In the worst cyber-attack in Singapore's history, hackers broke into the computers of SingHealth, the Republic's largest public healthcare group, and scooped up personal information on 1.5 million patients in June 2018.

Of these, 160,000 people, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a few ministers, had their outpatient prescription information stolen as well.

At a press conference on July 20th, the authorities said that the attackers "specifically and repeatedly" targeted data on PM Lee.

Mr David Koh, chief executive of the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, said: "The attack was a deliberate, targeted and well-planned cyber-attack." He ruled out casual hackers and criminal gangs, but refused to be drawn on who might be behind the attacks.

Cybersecurity experts commented that, given the nature of the attacks, these were likely to be state-organised or sponsored, with just a few key countries such as China, Russia and the United States having the capacity to mount such a sophisticated attack.

A Committee of Inquiry (COI) will be convened to establish the events that led to the breach and recommend measures to better secure public sector IT systems.

Database administrators of the Integrated Health Information Systems first detected unusual activity on July 4, and acted immediately to halt the activity. However, subsequent investigations established that hackers had breached the system a week earlier, on June 27.

In that time, the attackers took records of patients who visited nine SingHealth institutions from May 1, 2015, to July 4 this year. The institutions include Singapore General Hospital, Changi General Hospital and SingHealth's network of polyclinics.

What specific information the hackers were after was unclear, although experts said the damage could well have been worse.

For the bulk of the 1.5 million patients, the data taken includes personal details like names, identity card numbers and addresses, and demographic information like a patient's gender, race and date of birth. Credit card numbers and mobile phone numbers were unaffected.

While the hackers copied information on medicine dispensed to 160,000 outpatients, they did not tamper with these records nor gain access to more detailed medical records like diagnosis, test results or doctors' notes.

"I don't know what the attackers were hoping to find. Perhaps they were hunting for some dark state secret, or at least something to embarrass me," PM Lee said in a Facebook post. "If so, they would have been disappointed. My medication data is not something I would ordinarily tell people about, but there is nothing alarming in it."

Still, the aftermath of the breach will be far-reaching. For a start, all new Smart Nation projects will be paused as the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group reviews the cyber-security measures of government systems and implements any necessary safeguards.

The introduction of a new Singaporean law scheduled later this year, to make all healthcare institutions contribute data to the National Electronic Health Record, will be postponed.

Computers at all health clusters will also be cut off temporarily from the Internet, in much the same way Net access was cut off from computers of public servants last year. SingHealth cut access, and the other two clusters are expected to follow suit.

At the press conference, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong apologised to the patients for the breach. "I am deeply sorry this has happened. The public healthcare family sees our role as not just providing good patient care, but also safeguarding the confidentiality of our patients' data," he said.

All affected patients will be notified over the next five days either through SMS or mail, if their phone numbers are not on record. Patients can also go to SingHealth's website or app to check if their data has been affected.

Despite the attack, the Government stressed that the incident did not mean it was abandoning its technological push. Communications and Information Minister S. Iswaran, who noted there have been numerous similar breaches in countries like the US and Britain, said:

"This is an ongoing battle. But we must not allow this incident, or any others like it, to derail our plans for a smart nation. We must adapt ourselves to operate effectively and securely in the digital age."

Straits Times:

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Hacker Group Targets Healthcare Providers:

Healthcare Security Should Use More Sophisticated Tools:Many physicians say ivermectin is of no use against COVIDPakistan has deployed a huge phalanx of terrorist organisations against India  one of the deadliest among which is LeT.

Created in 1987 with seed money from Osama bin Laden, LeT quickly became a favourite of the ISI. Its creed  Ghazwa-e-Hind (Islams victory in the final battle against India)  was particularly enchanting to the Deep State of Pakistan. LeT entered the Kashmir terror scene in the 1990s when the ISI was busy diversifying jihad on the Afghan model. Its zealous cadres won acclaim. It continued to have links in Afghanistan, received generous donations from the Middle East  especially Saudi Arabia  and the support of Pakistans Army and the ISI. Rich Pakistani businessmen, eager to feather their own nests with the Deep State, donated generously, contributing to LeTs rise as an Islamic terrorist force in Asia, with links to Al-Qaeda and a reach into Central Asia...

Democracy? Hafiz Saeed's political party even contested the Pakistan elections held on July 25. (Photo: Reuters/File)

It  continues to train its cadres in camps in Muridke, its headquarters near Lahore. LeT remains an invaluable asset to the ISI and the Pakistani establishment as it enables them to keep the Kashmir option open even while supporting the US campaign in Afghanistan.

...

A secret US report estimated some years ago that the annual military operations budget of LeT was about $5.2 million. One operating season in a sector of Jammu and Kashmir for a single terror group cost about 250 million. Add to this the number of terror groups that Pakistan has thrown at India  one can deduce that this figure would be upward of 1000 million.

These figures had spawned overnight millionaires in Pakistan and some in Jammu and Kashmir too.

The price of terror: One operating season in a sector of Jammu and Kashmir for a single terror group cost about 250 million. (Photo: PTI/File)



LeT has received funds from state sponsorship, charities, smuggling and its own businesses ... LeT has now had a close association with Dawood Ibrahim, with activities like kidnapping, narcotics smuggling, fake currency and extortion money routed through hawala channels.

Best Friends Forever: LeT has a close association with Pakistan-based mafioso Dawood Ibrahim, wanted for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

Pakistan maintains its farcical denial or studied ambiguity about state sponsorship despite all evidence leading to the doors of the military and the ISI. It provides shelter, support and sustenance to these crown jewels of its foreign policy.



LeT controls several legitimate businesses, including a very lucrative business of the sale of animal hides after Eid al-Azha ... Its illegal activities include false trade invoices, counterfeiting, extortion and narcotics trade. Publications, particularly jihadi ones, are sold with an additional mark-up, while Kashmiri carpets exported to the Gulf have their prices marked down, with the difference sent through hawala for use in the jihad. Narcotics smuggling is particularly lucrative, and with the harvest running as high as $2.5 billion some years ago, some of it has surely added to the ISIs coffers to bolster its terror campaign against India.

This is as good a reason to continue the jihad as any other.

LeT has been investing in land acquisitions and has opened new offices, more than 1,500 in Pakistan



From being dependent on state sponsorship and Saudi money, LeT has become increasingly self-reliant.



The political wing of LeT, the Markaz Dawa Irshad, renamed Jamaat-ud-Dawa, renamed Idara Khidmat-e-Khalq and reborn yet again in 1996 as the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), the charity wing of JuD. This NGO runs 200 mainstream dawa schools, eleven madrassas, two science colleges, a fleet of 283 ambulances in 242 cities, mobile clinics and blood banks. FIF has 245 professors, more than 500 doctors and 1942 paramedical staff. It runs seven hospitals in six cities and thirty-five across-the-board social services in 260 cities  Its recruits are well-educated, qualified urban professionals.

The Government Al-Aziz Hospital, previously known as Al-Aziz Hospital, in Muridke, was run by the JuD. (Photo: Reuters)



Some years ago, the Punjab government in Pakistan granted about $9.3 million to JuD, which was banned following a UN decision to list it as a terrorist organisation. When questioned by Sherry Rehman, a Pakistan Peoples Party member of Parliament, the government response was that since the ban, its functioning had been taken over by the government, making it a social welfare organisation.

Sherry Rehman, a member of Parliament, questioned the government over aid given to the JuD. (Photo: Screengrab)

LeT has a global agenda and involvement. It began with activities in Jammu and Kashmir that spread to the rest of India from the 1990s and continue till today. It was associated with the Haqqani Network terror attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul that killed fifty-eight persons in July 2008. In November that year, an attack that lasted three days in Mumbai killed 166 persons.



After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the organisation quickly became an eager supporter of Al-Qaeda, providing its operatives shelter, escape routes and even training. They allowed their own cadres to freelance with Al-Qaeda; this allowed LeT and, more importantly, the Pakistanis, credible deniability with the Americans. Abu Zubeida, one of Al-Qaedas senior representatives, was hiding in an LeT safe house at the time of his arrest.

The JuDLeT combine is stronger than Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

It was conceived as an organisation that can run a modern state, unlike Al-Qaeda  Al-Qaeda and Islamic State may talk of a global agenda and plan to replace the existing systems with an Islamic system, but neither of them can hold territory, nor do they have the expertise and experienced workers to do so.

LeT Export: Ajmal Kasab, the LeT operative captured after the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. (Photo: AP)

JuD, on the other hand, has professional staff trained in statecraft. It has penetrated virtually all government departments, including the armed forces...



Much of this ability to regroup is attributable to the coddling of these sectarian, militant and terrorist groupsnow prevalent in Pakistan. The army does it for what it sees as strategic options while politicians do it for political survival. The common person sees FIF as a social welfare organisation, and any stern action against it will not only be unpopular among the people  but the jihadis may well turn against the state and accuse it of betraying the cause of jihad and therefore Islam.

The result has been that the state has ceded ground to these groups.

It has become a state within a state  and it is not very far from the Radcliffe Line that separates India and Pakistan.

Also read: Why India-Pakistan relations are unlikely to improve if Imran Khan becomes Pakistan's next prime ministerChina is watching closely as Pakistan comes out to vote on July 25 and counting happens on July 26 because Beijing believes its $62 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) could be at stake.

When China launched the "flagship" of its massive Belt and Road Initiative, it was banking on CPEC transforming Pakistan and providing a boost to the Nawaz Sharif government.

In fact, an internal assessment conducted before Sharif's dismissal by Renmin University of China concluded that a government under the former chief minister would best ensure the project's progress, expressing concern about his weakening domestic position after the Panama Papers revelations.

"If there are no exceptions, the chances for PML-N (Sharif's party) to reassume power are high, and the continuation of the government can guarantee the continuation and support of the government to CPEC," the 2016 report said.

That assumption, however, was proved wrong. During the campaign, Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) criticised the outgoing government over lack of transparency in many CPEC projects and alleged corruption.

Details that have come to light recently have underlined the extraordinarily favourable terms that Pakistan has agreed to. A Wall Street Journal report on July 22 revealed that Chinese power companies had been given a guarantee of an astounding 34 per cent annual return on their investments in CPEC projects, to be paid by the Pakistan government in dollars.

This even as Pakistan's finances have teetered on the brink of a crisis, with suggestions that the new government will be forced to seek an International Monetary Fund bailout and its foreign exchange reserves dwindling.

On the eve of the election on Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry said it believed no matter what the election results, it would work with the new Pakistani government closely.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said: "We believe the construction of CPEC will move forward according to the consensus reached by the two sides and will not be affected by other factors."

China would work with the new government to ensure that was the case, he said. "We would like to work together with the new government to deepen practical cooperation and move forward our all-weather strategic partnership," he said.

Beijing also defended the CPEC against the criticism. "The CPEC is a framework for strategic cooperation with eyes on long-term development of the two countries. It will help Pakistan develop and elevate cooperation between the two sides."

He added: "The corridor has played an important role in advancing the social and economic development of Pakistan. It enjoys the full support of Pakistani people and the government."

That, however, hasn't appeared to be the case during the hard-fought election campaign where China's projects, unusually, came under the spotlight.

Also read: Why Mamata Banerjee's prime ministerial ambitions could rip apart Opposition unity ahead of 2019Pakistan is voting today, July 25, to elect a prime minister. This will be just the second time in the nations' 70-year history when transfer of power will take place from one civilian government to another.

The election assumes significance for a country of 200 million people facing political uncertainty and mired in conflicts.

This year's election could have been an occasion for Pakistanis to celebrate democracy. Instead, the campaign has been marred by suppression of the news media, accusations of manipulation by the military, a rise in Islamist extremist candidates and a series of attacks on candidates and campaign rallies.

Pakistan administration is on guard to face any eventuality even after polling ends on July 25.

However, this is not the first time that Pakistan is seeing violence during the election. The 1970 election witnessed a brutal civil war in its aftermath. The 2013 poll was one of the bloodiest elections in Pakistan's history.

According to Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, a total of 148 terrorist attacks took place across Pakistan between January 1 and May 15, 2013 - most of them being in the months of April and May.

The attackers targeted political leaders and workers, election candidates, offices and rallies, and polling stations. As many as 170 people were killed and more than 700 injured in these attacks. Clearly, violence is a recurring feature of Pakistan politics.

Benazir Bhutto targeted during election

The two-time Prime Minister of Pakistan was shot in Rawalpindi on December 2007 while she was campaigning for an election scheduled for January 2008. And his time, her son Bilwal Bhutto, who is also Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chairman was the target. Bilawal and his convoy were attacked on July 2. The incident took place when Bilawal was campaigning in his party's stronghold Baghdadi area of Lyari.

Angry protesters attacked the convoy of the PPP chairman shouting slogans of "go Bilawal go" and pelted stones at the convoy leaving many people injured and vehicles damaged.

The PPP has traditionally won from Lyari and Bilawal is contesting from the NA-247 constituency. He is, in fact, contesting the general elections for the first time.

Dubious record: Over 180 violent incidents in every election

Data compiled by the International Growth Centre show that between 1988 and 2010, Pakistan witnessed 27,555 incidents of political violence. Election-related violence constituted roughly four per cent of the political violence. Statistically, this means that 1,100 conflict incidents took place across the six elections during the 1988-2010 period, at an average of 183 incidents per election. The total number of people killed as a result of election-related violence in this period is estimated to be 380.

Violent incidents this election month

On July 22, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Ikramullah Gandapur was killed in a suicide attack in Dera Ismail Khan. He was contesting for the PK-99 seat. He had until recently served as the provincial agricultural minister in the PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet. He was elected through a by-election on the Dera Ismail Khan PK-67 seat after it was vacated following the death of his brother, former law minister Israrulah Gandapur, also in a suicide attack.

The most fatal election-related attack took place in Mastung on July 13 when a suicide blast claimed the lives of nearly 150 people leaving more than 200 injured. Mir Siraj Raisani, a Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate, was also killed in the attack.

On the same day of the Mastung tragedy, a blast targeted former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Akram Khan Durrani's convoy in Bannu. While Durrani escaped the attack, four people were killed and 32 others injured.

Before this, on July 10, a suicide blast in Peshwar killed Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Haroon Bilour and 19 others. The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had also claimed responsibility for 2012 attack that killed Haroon's father, Bashir Bilour.

On July 7, at least seven people, including a candidate of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), were injured in a bomb blast in Bannu.

A grenade attack on July 4 on an election office of a PTI candidate left 10 people injured in the Razmak area of North Waziristan district. The attack took place when PTI candidate Malik Aurangzeb Khan was inaugurating his election office in Razmak. A large number of politician's supporters were attending the ceremony when the grenade was lobbed.

Also read: Taking Sides: Faiz Ahmed Faiz's grandson describes the liberal Pakistanis dilemma49 minutes ago

If You Don't Watch Out, These 3 Tax Issues Could Blow Up Your Retirement

No matter how you save your money  whether you go for a retirement fund, mutual fund or another method to build up your nest egg  you know the IRS will eventually want its cut. You may have a hazy idea that you need to protect your money, but without understanding exactly how to do it, it's also possible to let tax issues slide.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.China Hydroelectric Corporation is a developer, owner and operator of small hydroelectric power projects in China. The projects are located in Zhejiang, Fujian, Yunnan and Sichuan. As of December 31, 2012, wholly owns 22 operating hydroelectric power projects and have controlling interests in three operating hydroelectric power projects. In March 2012, the Company sold 100% of the Yuanping hydroelectric power project. In April 2013, the Company sold the Yuheng hydroelectric power project, a 30 megawatt (MW) project located in Fujian province. In July 2014, the Company announced that it has completed the merger with CPT Wyndham Sub Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CPT Wyndham Holdings Ltd.

Read MoreCosan Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in fuel and natural gas distribution, logistics, lubricant, sugar, and ethanol businesses in Brazil, Europe, Latin America, North America, Asia, and internationally. It operates through RaAzen Energia, RaAzen CombustAveis, ComgAs, Cosan LogAstica, and Moove segments. The company's RaAzen Energia segment produces and markets products derived from sugar cane, including raw sugar, anhydrous, and hydrated ethanol, as well as activities related to energy cogeneration from sugarcane bagasse. Its RaAzen CombustAveis segment engages in the distribution and marketing of fuels, primarily through a franchised network of service stations under the Shell brand in Brazil; petroleum refining; operation of fuel resellers, and convenience store businesses; and production and sale of liquefied petroleum gas, and automotive and industrial lubricants. The company's ComgAs segment distributes piped natural gas to customers in the industrial, residential, commercial, automotive, and cogeneration sectors in SAo Paulo. Its Cosan LogAstica segment provides logistics services for transport, storage, and port loading of commodities, primarily for sugar products; and leases locomotives, wagons, and other railway equipment. The company's Moove segment produces and distributes lubricants under the Mobil brand. It operates a network of approximately 7,270 service stations and 1,726 convenience stores, as well as 68 distribution terminals and 68 airports supplying jet fuel. The company was founded in 1936 and is based in SAo Paulo, Brazil.

Read MoreAmerican Midstream Partners, LP provides midstream infrastructure that links the producers of natural gas, crude oil, natural gas liquids (NGLs), condensate, and specialty chemicals to various intermediate and end-use markets in the United States and Mexico. Its Gas Gathering and Processing Services segment offers services to producers of natural gas and crude oil, including transporting raw natural gas and crude oil from various receipt points through gathering systems, treating the raw natural gas, processing raw natural gas to separate the NGLs from the natural gas, fractionating NGLs, and selling or delivering pipeline-quality natural gas and NGLs. The company's Liquid Pipelines and Services segment transports, purchases, and sells crude oil. Its Natural Gas Transportation Services segment transports and delivers natural gas from producing wells, receipt points, or pipeline interconnects for shippers, local distribution companies, and utilities, as well as industrial, commercial, and power generation customers. The company's Offshore Pipelines and Services segment gathers and transports natural gas from receipt points to other pipeline interconnects, onshore facilities, and other delivery points. Its Terminalling Services segment provides petroleum products, distillates, chemicals, and agricultural products storage services at its marine terminals for commodity brokers, refiners, and chemical manufacturers. As of May 10, 2018, the company owned approximately 5,100 miles of interstate and intrastate pipelines; gas processing plants and fractionation facilities; an offshore semisubmersible floating production system with nameplate processing capacity of 90 thousand barrels per day of crude oil and 220 million cubic feet per day of natural gas; and terminal sites with approximately 6.7 million barrels of storage capacity. American Midstream GP, LLC serves as the general partner of the company. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Ecolab: AO Ecolab, Abednego Environmental Services, Abednego Environmental Services LLC, Abednego Mexico Holdings LLC, Abednego de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Alcide Corp., Anios America S.A., Anios Diffusion SAS, Anios Manufacturing SAS, Bioquell, Bioquell Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Bioquell Global Logistics (Ireland) Ltd., Bioquell Holding SAS, Bioquell Inc., Bioquell Limited, Bioquell SAS, Bioquell Technology (Shenzhen) Ltd., Bioquell Technology Canada Ltd., Bioquell UK Limited, Bioxyquell Limited, CALGON EUROPE LIMITED, CALGON LLC, CID LINES HOLDING NV, CID LINES INVEST NV, CID LINES NV, CID Lines, CID Lines Beijing Animal Hygiene Co Ltd., CID Lines France Sarl, CID Lines Iberica SL, CID Lines LLC, CID Lines Mexico S.A. DE C.V., CID Lines R&D NV, CID Lines Sp. z o. o., CORPAK MedSystems, Cascade Water Services, Champion Technologies, Chamtech L.L.C., Chemlawn, Chemstaff Inc., Chemstar Corporation, Cirlam BVBA, Copal Holding NV, Copal Invest NV, DERYPOL SA, DMD, E&M Bio-Chemicals LLC, ECOLAB NL 10 B.V., ECOLAB PEST FRANCE SAS, Ecolab (Antigua) Ltd., Ecolab (Aruba) N.V., Ecolab (Barbados) Limited, Ecolab (China) Investment Co. Ltd, Ecolab (Fiji) Pty Limited, Ecolab (GZ) Chemicals Limited, Ecolab (Guam) LLC, Ecolab (Proprietary) Limited, Ecolab (Schweiz) GmbH, Ecolab (St. Lucia) Limited, Ecolab (Taicang) Technology Co. Ltd., Ecolab (Trinidad and Tobago) Unlimited, Ecolab (U.K.) Holdings Limited, Ecolab A.E.B.E., Ecolab AB, Ecolab AP Holdings LLC, Ecolab AT 2 GmbH, Ecolab AU2 Pty Ltd, Ecolab Acquisition LLC, Ecolab ApS, Ecolab Argentina S.R.L., Ecolab Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Ecolab B.V., Ecolab B.V.B.A./S.P.R.L., Ecolab Bahrain S.P.C., Ecolab CDN 2 Co., Ecolab CDN 4 ULC, Ecolab CH 1 GmbH, Ecolab CH 2 GmbH, Ecolab CH 3 GmbH, Ecolab CH 5 GmbH, Ecolab CH 6 GmbH, Ecolab Chemicals Limited, Ecolab Co., Ecolab Colombia S. A., Ecolab DE 1 GmbH, Ecolab Deutschland GmbH, Ecolab EOOD, Ecolab East Africa (Kenya) Limited, Ecolab East Africa (Tanzania) Limited, Ecolab East Africa (Uganda) Limited, Ecolab Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Ecolab Engineering GmbH, Ecolab Europe GmbH, Ecolab Export GmbH, Ecolab FR 1 SAS, Ecolab FR 4 SAS, Ecolab Finance Company Designated Activity Company, Ecolab Food Safety & Hygiene Solutions Private Limited, Ecolab G.K., Ecolab Global Business Services LLC, Ecolab GmbH, Ecolab Gulf FZE, Ecolab HK 1 Limited, Ecolab HK 2 Limited, Ecolab Hispano-Portuguesa S.L., Ecolab Holding Italy S.r.l., Ecolab Holdings (Europe) LLC, Ecolab Holdings Inc., Ecolab Holdings Mexico S. de R. L. de C. 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LTD., NALCO INDUSTRIAL SERVICES CHILE LIMITADA, NALCO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS B.V., NALCO INTERNATIONAL HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO INVESTMENTS U.K. LIMITED, NALCO ISRAEL INDUSTRIAL SERVICES LTD, NALCO ITALIANA, NALCO ITALIANA HOLDINGS S.R.L., NALCO ITALIANA SrL, NALCO KOREA LIMITED, NALCO LIMITED, NALCO LUXEMBOURG HOLDINGS SARL, NALCO MANUFACTURING BETEILIGUNGS GMBH, NALCO MANUFACTURING LTD., NALCO NETHERLANDS B.V., NALCO NORTH AFRICA LIMITED, NALCO OSTERREICH Ges m.b.H., NALCO OVERSEAS HOLDING B.V., NALCO PAKISTAN (PRIVATE) LIMITED, NALCO PHILIPPINES INC., NALCO PORTUGUESA (QUIMICA, NALCO PWS INC., NALCO SAUDI CO. LTD., NALCO TAIWAN CO. LTD., NALCO TWO INC., NALCO U.S. HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO UNIVERSAL HOLDINGS BV, NALCO WORLDWIDE HOLDINGS LLC, NALCO ZAO, NALFLOC LIMITED, NALTECH INC., NANOSPECIALTIES LLC, NLC PROCESS AND WATER SERVICES SARL, Nalco (BN) SDN BHD, Nalco (China) Environmental Solution Co. Ltd., Nalco Anadolu Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Nalco Canada ULC, Nalco Company LLC, Nalco Contract Operations LLC, Nalco Grundbesitz GmbH & Co. KG, Nalco Gulf Response Corp., Nalco Japan G.K., Nalco Libya, Nalco Middle East FZE, Nalco Polska Sp. z o. o., Nalco Production LLC, Nalco Real Estate GmbH, Nalco Schweiz GmbH, Nalco US 1 LLC, Nalco Wastewater Contract Operations Inc., Nalco Water India Limited, Nalco Water Pretreatment Solutions LLC, Nalco Worldwide Holdings S.a.r.l./B.V., Nigiko, Nuova Farmec S.r.l., Oksa Kimya Sanayi A.S., Oy Ecolab AB, PT Ecolab International Indonesia, PT Ecolab Technologies and Services, Purate business - AkzoNobel, Quantum Technical Services LLC, Quimicas Ecolab S.A. de C.V., Quimiproductos S.A. de C.V, RP Adam Ltd, Research Fumigation Co., Royal Pest Solutions, Shield Holdings Limited, Shield Medicare Limited, Shield Salvage Associates Limited, Soluscope International Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Soluscope SAS, Swisher Hygiene, Technical Textile Services Limited, Techtex Holdings Limited, Terminix, Ultrafab, Wabasha Leasing LLC, and vanBaerle Hygiene AG.First Data Corporation provides commerce enabled technology and solutions for merchants, financial institutions, and card issuers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Global Business Solutions, Global Financial Solutions, and Network & Security Solutions. The Global Business Solutions segment provides solutions to merchants, such as retail point of sale merchant acquiring, e-commerce, and mobile payment services, as well as cloud based point of sale operating system that include a marketplace for proprietary and third party applications. The Global Finance Solutions segment provides technology solutions for bank and non-bank issuers, such as credit, retail private label, commercial card, and loan processing, as well as licensed financial software systems; suite of account services that include card personalization and embossing, customer communications, and professional services; and call center solutions and back office processing. The Network & Security Solutions segment offers EFT network, stored value network, and security and fraud solutions, as well as other value added solutions to its clients in GBS and GFS segments, smaller financial institutions, and other enterprise clients. First Data Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Read More A friendly brief on the intersection of Eighth Amendment juvenile sentencing jurisprudence and the federal sentencing guidelines | Main | "Procedural Justice and Risk-Assessment Algorithms" 

July 24, 2018

Louisiana Attorney General suggests pursuing alternative execution methods in letter to Governor

This local article, headlined "Electrocution, firing squads should be options for death penalty in Louisiana, AG Jeff Landry tells Gov. Edwards," reports on an interesting letter about the death penalty in the midst of a kind of intramural fight between Louisiana office-holders of different parties. Here are the basics:

In their ongoing bickering over the death penalty, Louisianas Republican attorney general Tuesday asked the Democratic governor to support bringing back hanging, firing squads and the electric chair. After the back and forth over capital punishment last week between the two possible rivals in next year's gubernatorial race, Attorney General Jeff Landry issued a letter Tuesday [available here] saying Gov. John Bel Edwards statements on why Louisiana hasnt moved forward on executing convicted murderers are both intentionally misleading and cold comfort to victims families. Landry again demanded Edwards say where he personally stood on the death penalty. Then Landry proposed legislation that would change the state's capital punishment law to allow for different forms of execution other than just lethal injection. He recommended the Legislature pass a law that would allow the state Department of Corrections to choose between hanging, firing squads, and electrocution to put condemned criminals to death if other methods are unavailable. He asked for Edwards' support. "Mr. Landry is accurate in that new legislation must be proposed to solve the death penalty issue. However, in the past three legislative sessions Mr. Landrys office has not presented any legislation to help alleviate this roadblock, until now," Department of Corrections Secretary James M. LeBlanc said. Only a legislator can submit a bill for consideration of becoming law. The next legislative session is scheduled to begin April 8. Edwards has consistently ducked stating his personal view on capital punishment, saying instead that he has sworn to uphold state and federal laws. But I am not going to pretend that we have the ability to do something we dont have. Its not about scoring political points. Its about being realistic in the way we govern, Edwards told reporters Monday, the day before Landrys letter was released publicly. In answering questions during a highway project groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Edwards said he specifically did not favor hangings or firing squads. "I am not inclined to go back to methods that have been discarded (when) popular sentiment turned against methods that were deemed to be barbaric and so forth. We have a law in place we will continue to try to search for solutions around that law," which allows execution by lethal injection, the governor said. After Landrys letter was released to a television station Tuesday, the governors spokesman, Richard Carbo, said in a prepared statement: We are pleased that he has conceded that current law, not the governor, is standing in the way of the state resuming executions, which have been on hold since 2010. Quitting the very lawsuit that was meant to bring justice for these families was never the answer, so his commitment to re-engage is welcome news.... Louisiana last executed an inmate, who volunteered to be put to death, in 2010. Before that the last person executed was in 2002 during Gov. Mike Fosters administration. Seventy-two inmates are on death row at the Angola penitentiary awaiting execution.... Landry would change the law to say that if lethal injection is unavailable then the method would be nitrogen hypoxia. That mode basically fills an air tight mask on the condemned with nitrogen gas, thereby causing death by a lack of oxygen. Oklahoma legislators have looked at that method of execution as a way around the inability to purchase the drugs needed for lethal injections. If nitrogen hypoxia is found unconstitutional or becomes otherwise unavailable, then Corrections Department secretary could choose between hanging, firing squad or electrocution, under Landrys proposal.

July 24, 2018 at 09:41 PM | Permalink

Comments

The proposed methods were cruel only to the onlookers, and only when something went wrong. None was ever cruel to the condemned.

For example, the electric chair sets the head on fire. That is disturbing. However, the condemned was dead within the time it took for electricity to travel through the fatty substance of the brain. That speed is slower than the speed of light in space, but not by much. That speed would not allow any awareness by the brain. Poorly calculated drops in hanging may have decapitated the condemned. Yes, disturbing, but only to the onlookers, not to the condemned. If onlookers do not want the risk of cruel treatment, they should not attend.

The executions should not be public nor recorded. The public attention is highly rewarding, and may inspire others to commit capital crime to get the same attention.

As I have argued in the past, the sole cruelty is the announced date. Even the patient near death is spared knowledge of that precise time, as are the rest of us. Japan solved that problem by not having set dates. The family and the condemned learn of the execution, the day of the execution. I have proposed that serious problem as a novel Eighth Amendment appellate cruelty argument. No member of the death penalty appellate bar has ever shown any interest in it.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 25, 2018 4:15:58 AM

It should be compulsory for the Gov.& AG together with the trial Judge to attend all executions. They wouldn't then be able to make their judgements in glorious abstraction from the realities of taking a man's life.

Posted by: peter | Jul 25, 2018 10:19:50 AM

Peter. When your time comes, there is a 90% chance your death will take months, will involve unimaginable pain, with poor ability to control it. This is especially true since the know nothing Ivy radicalized lawyer is clamping down on opiate use for pain patients. Then illegal aliens will have to provide your hygienic care. You will be deprived of your current functions, one after the other.

You will come to envy the kindness of capital punishment. This is the curse I am putting on you.

Posted by: David Behar | Jul 25, 2018 10:39:10 AM

Is there a requirement that an execution leave behind a relatively intact dead body? If not, it is easy to think of any number of quick and painless ways to accomplish the deed.

Posted by: William Jockusch | Jul 26, 2018 9:00:34 PM

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Jiushan town in Linqu county of Weifang, Shandong province has been selected as one of the province's most beautiful villages. [Photo/WeChat account: LINQU-REN]



Shandong boasts one of the cradles of Chinese civilization and is the birthplace of Confucius and his major disciple Mencius. [Photo/sdchina.com]



A splendid view of Laoshan district in Qingdao, Shandong province. At early morning, as the rising sun breaks through the thick clouds, the morning glow is mirrored in the sea, forming one image. [Photo by Xu Kun/dailyqd.com]





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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 Fuel Management UK Ltd., Wayne Fueling Systems, Wayne Fueling Systems (Rus) Limited Liability Company, Wayne Fueling Systems Australia Pty Ltd, Wayne Fueling Systems Canada ULC, Wayne Fueling Systems Deutschland GmbH, 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, XanTec Steuerungs- und EDV-Technik GmbH, and em-tec GmbH.GlaxoSmithKline Plc is a healthcare company, which engages in the research, development, and manufacture of pharmaceutical medicines, vaccines, and consumer healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceuticals; Pharmaceuticals R&D; Vaccines and Consumer Healthcare. The Pharmaceuticals segment focuses on developing medicines in respiratory and infectious diseases, oncology, and immuno-inflammation. The Pharmaceuticals R&D segment focuses on science related to the immune system, the use of human genetics and advanced technologies, and is driven by the multiplier effect of Science x Technology x Culture. The Vaccines segment produces pediatric and adult vaccines to prevent a range of infectious diseases including, hepatitis A and B, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella, polio, typhoid, influenza, and bacterial meningitis. The Consumer Healthcare segment develops and markets brands in the oral health, pain relief, respiratory, nutrition and gastro intestinal, and skin health categories. The company was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Middlesex, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreForeign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on July 25, 2018

2018/07/25

Q: Chinese Vice Foreign Minister and the Chinese Government's Special Representative for the Korean Peninsula Affairs Kong Xuanyou visited the DPRK today. What topics will be discussed?

A: As close neighbors, China and the DPRK maintain normal exchanges. We will release the information on important exchanges in a timely manner if there is any. You may keep following that.

Q: Will the Chinese government give regulatory approval for the takeover by the US company Qualcomm of the Dutch company NXP? I am aware this is not a question for the foreign ministry, but no other government departments will take questions on this.

A: I would refer you to the competent authority for specific information.

What I can say is that Qualcomm and NXP are well-known international semiconductor enterprises. Qualcomm's deal to acquire NXP will exert far-reaching influence on the global semiconductor industry. The relevant Chinese department is reviewing the takeover in accordance with the Anti-Monopoly Law. During this process, the relevant Chinese department has maintained sound communication with Qualcomm.

Q: American Airlines and Delta Airlines have both removed references to Taiwan as a country on the website. But they have not gone so far to say "Taiwan, China" like other airlines. Is the Chinese government satisfied with this approach?

A: We noted that some positive developments have taken place and acknowledge the corrections made by relevant foreign airlines.

China is willing to share development opportunities with foreign enterprises and they are welcome to invest and operate in China. In the meantime, we also hope that when doing business in China, they will respect China's laws and regulations and sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respect the Chinese people's feelings. Indeed, we will ensure their lawful rights and interests in accordance with the law and create a level playing field for them to do business in China.

Q: We noted that President Xi Jinping just paid a state visit to South Africa. Do you have more details about this visit? How does China look at the prospect of China-South Africa relations in the future? What consensus has been reached by the two leaders on advancing the cooperation between the two countries?

A: This is the third state visit President Xi Jinping paid to South Africa. Such high frequency of visit fully showcases the great importance China attaches to its relations with South Africa and its strong will to deepen cooperation with it. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and South Africa. Over the past 20 years, the two countries have been supporting and learning from each other while exploring a development path that suits our respective national conditions. In just 20 years, the relationship between the two countries has been elevated from partnership to strategic partnership and then comprehensive strategic partnership, which is rare in China's bilateral exchanges with other countries.

When in South Africa, President Xi Jinping held a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa and attended commemorative activities in celebration of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on advancing the China-South Africa comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era, and agreed to strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen mutual political trust, synergize development strategies, promote practical cooperation, conduct more frequent people to people exchange, step up multilateral coordination, and jointly uphold multilateralism and oppose unilateralism and protectionism.

The leaders of the two countries also agreed to enhance cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), deepen exchanges and cooperation in new economic areas and emerging industries, share opportunities presented by the fourth round of industrial revolution and make sure the people of the two countries will enjoy the outcomes of China-South Africa cooperation. During the visit, the two sides signed a series of bilateral cooperation documents.

It it worth mentioning that the 10th BRICS Summit will soon be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In September, the FOCAC summit is set to take place in Beijing. Since early this year, China and South Africa have been supporting and closely cooperating with each other on these two grand diplomatic events. We have made joint efforts to ensure the full success of these two major events, which will surely achieve the outcomes as expected.

So to speak, China-South Africa relations have set an example for China-Africa relations, South-South cooperation and the solidarity and cooperation between emerging markets, and are also exemplary to forging a closer China-Africa community with a shared future and building a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, justice and fairness and win-win cooperation.

Q: The Laos state news agency says that several people were dead and hundreds were missing after a hydroelectric dam collapsed in Attapeu province in southern Laos on July 23. The water also left many homeless. Will China offer any assistance in dealing with the disaster? Is there any Chinese killed or injured?

A: We express deep condolences for the casualties and property losses caused by the dam break in the Laos and deeply mourn for the victims. We hope that those missing will be rescued as soon as possible, the injured will recover speedily and people in the affected area will return to normal life and work at an early date.

China is ready to support and assist in the Laos's disaster relief efforts in a timely manner. We are in close communication with the Laos in this respect.

According to the initial information from the Chinese Embassy in the Laos, no casualty of Chinese citizens has been reported by far.

Q: The US Congress has reached a compromise on the draft bill of National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 that includes several propositions aimed at China, like strengthening defense ties with Taiwan and studying China's "coercive activities" in the South China Sea. What is your response to this?

A: The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction with and firm opposition to the China-related provisions in the above-mentioned bill and has lodged stern representations with the US side on many occasions. If the relevant content passes into law, it will severely undermine the mutual trust between China and the US and jeopardize our exchanges and communication in relevant fields as well as cross-straits peace and stability. We urge the US side to discard the outdated cold-war and zero-sum mentality, immediately delete the relevant negative content and uphold rather than disrupt the steady development of the relations between the two countries.

Q: Wildfires near Greek capital Athens have killed 74 and injured 187, leaving at least 20 missing. What's your comment? Has any casualty of Chinese citizens been reported?

A: The severe wildfires in Greece have caused major casualties and property losses. The Chinese side sends deep condolences to the victims and expresses sincere sympathies to the bereaved families and the injured. The Chinese Embassy in Greece is now in close communication with relevant Greek departments. As verified, no Chinese citizen has been killed or injured so far.

Q: The DPRK has been strongly requiring the US to declare the end of the Korean War. The anniversary for the armistice is coming on Friday. Do you believe China should join the declaration of the end of the war? Do you think the DPRK, the ROK and the US can declare the end of the war without China?

A: Ending the war state on the Korean Peninsula and replacing the armistice with a peace regime are an important part of the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue and the shared aspiration of the international community. China supports all parties' efforts to this end. As an important party to the Korean Peninsula issue and a signatory to the Korean War Armistice Agreement, China will play its role in this regard.

Q: The East Asian Olympic Committee (EAOC) revoked Taichung city's right to host the East Asian Youth Games in 2019. Spokesperson of the US Department of State said that it supports Taiwan's participation in international organizations whose members are not restricted to countries, and that the mainland and Taiwan should have productive talks as soon as possible to avoid escalation of tension. What's your reaction to that?

A: The Spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council already made an elaborate response to this issue of the EAOC revoking Taichung city's right to host the East Asian Youth Games in 2019.

Regarding the remarks by the US Department of State, I shall say that the one-China principle is the universal consensus of the international community and adhering to the principle is the political foundation for the steady development of China-US relations. We urge the US side to comply with the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques and properly handle relevant Taiwan-related issues.

Q: Today is the deadline for the foreign airlines to change the way they label Taiwan on their websites. What consequences will they face if they don't change their websites?

A: Like I just said, we noted that some positive developments have taken place in this regard and we acknowledge the corrections made by relevant foreign airlines.

I also stressed that for foreign companies operating in China, they should respect China's laws and regulations as well as its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respect the Chinese people's feelings.

Q: Does China plan on being involved in any potential four-way talks between the DPRK, the ROK, the US and presumably China about reaching a lasting peace regime for the war status on the Korean Peninsula? Does China believe that a peace regime should come before denuclearization or only come after denuclearization?

A: As I just said, as an important party to the Korean Peninsula issue and a signatory to the Korean War Armistice Agreement, China will play its role in ending the war state and replacing the armistice with a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

Q: The US administration announced yesterday that it would offer US$12 billion in subsidies to US farmers to help them offset the impact of the trade war with China. Do you have any comment on this?

A: You may refer to the Commerce Ministry for the specific response.

What I want to stress is as follows:

First, as we said many times before, there is no winner in a trade war. The US will only hurt both itself and others when it willfully ignites the trade war.

Second, we hope the US side will heed the rational voices from various sectors at home and the call from the international community, get a clear understanding of the situation and think about its gains and loses, and stop drifting further down the wrong path.

Q: Regarding the Civil Aviation Administration of China's demand that foreign airlines should change their reference to Taiwan, the US Embassy in China said it opposed China's attempt to force private businesses into using certain terms with political implications. What' your response?

A: We already stated our position many times these two days. Adhering to the one-China principle is the political foundation for the steady development of China-US relations. We hope the US government will urge the relevant enterprises to comply with the one-China principle rather than put a drag on that.

Q: You just said many foreign airlines have changed the way Taiwan is labeled on their websites. Are there any airlines at the moment which in the Chinese government's view are not in keeping with the way that you would have them referred to Taiwan?

A: It was the Chinese competent authority that issued a notice asking foreign airlines to correct their websites. So I will refer you to the competent authority if you are interested in knowing how changes should be made on their references to Taiwan.American Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Read MoreAndeavor Logistics LP operates as a diversified midstream company in the United States. The company's Terminalling and Transportation segment comprises the Northwest pipeline system, including a regulated common carrier products pipeline running from Salt Lake City, Utah to Spokane, Washington and a jet fuel pipeline to the Salt Lake City International Airport; a regulated common carrier refined products pipeline system connecting its refinery to its terminals in Anchorage, Alaska; tankage and related equipment at the refinery; and crude oil and refined products terminals and storage facilities in the western, and southwest and midwestern U.S. This segment also consists of marine terminals in California and Washington; a rail-car unloading and petroleum coke handling facilities; marine terminals; a manifest rail facility; an asphalt trucking operation; a petroleum coke handling and storage facility; asphalt terminalling and processing services; and other pipelines, which transport products and crude oil from its refineries to nearby facilities in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. Its Gathering and Processing segment includes crude oil and natural gas, NGLs, and produced water gathering systems in the Bakken Shale/Williston Basin area of the Bakken Region, the Green River Basin, the Rockies Region, the Permian Basin System, and the Four Corners System, as well as crude trucking operations, and gas processing and fractionation complexes. The company's Wholesale segment consists of bulk petroleum distribution facilities and a fleet of refined product delivery trucks. Tesoro Logistics GP, LLC operates as the general partner of the company. The company was formerly known as Tesoro Logistics LP and changed its name to Andeavor Logistics LP in August 2017. Andeavor Logistics LP was founded in 2010 and is based in Findlay, Ohio.

Read MoreThe Maritime Technology Cooperation Centre in the Pacific (M.T.C.C.) Office is set to be established in Samoa by the end of 2018.

Yesterday, the M.T.C.C. took steps to strengthen its expertise in environmental governance, through an agreement between the Pacific Community (S.P.C.) and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (S.P.R.E.P.).

The move is a recognition by M.T.C.C.-Pacific of the need to closely integrate its activities with the climate change mitigation and resilience work underway across the region.

The agreement, which was signed yesterday by S.P.C. Deputy Director General Dr. Audrey Aumua and the S.P.R.E.P. Director General Leota Kosi Latu, provides for an M.T.C.C.-Pacific project officer to be recruited and based at the S.P.R.E.P. offices in Samoa.

By establishing this position in the S.P.R.E.P. offices, M.T.C.C.-Pacific will be better positioned to ensure that it has direct access to environmental governance expertise, knowledge that will be essential to the success of its work.

Dr. Audrey Aumua highlighted the agreement as an example of how the Pacific is working together to meet the challenges of climate change, M.T.C.C.-Pacific was created for the benefit of the entire region. By combining the climate change mitigation and environmental governance expertise, knowledge and experience from S.P.C. and S.P.R.E.P, we can ensure that M.T.C.C.-Pacific has the tools its needs to support the Pacific maritime sector.

M.T.C.C.-Pacific is one of the five centres established worldwide and forms part of the Global M.T.C.Cs Network (G.M.N.), implemented by the International Maritime Organization (I.M.O.) and funded by the European Union.

S.P.C. hosts M.T.C.C.-Pacific with S.P.R.E.P. as part of a collaborative approach for climate change mitigation in maritime.

In its first year, M.T.C.C.-Pacific provided training on shore and ship energy efficient operations to 150 people, including 23 women, in six targeted Pacific islands countries and assisted in energy management development activities for 18 ships and 7 ports.

As a result of M.T.C.C.-Pacific work in the Pacific, six ships are now implementing a Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan.

The Solomon Islands Port Authority has reported overall energy savings of 8% or 15 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per month following M.T.C.C.-Pacific energy audits and implementation of short-term pilot-projects.

We are extremely delighted with what the Pacific-M.T.C.C. has been able to deliver with pilot projects such limited resources said Leota said.

The delivery of this project can only be strengthened through our organisations close collaboration through the signing of this agreement.

In recognition of the leading role and specializations of Council of Regional Organisations in the Pacific (C.R.O.P.), M.T.C.C.-Pacific has taken a fully collaborative approach to its efforts. Several other partners including the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (P.I.F.S.), the Pacific Islands Development Forum (P.I.D.F.) and the University of the South Pacific (U.S.P.) are also engaged on low carbon development and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

This collaborative approach will continue to be expanded ensuring that M.T.C.C.-Pacific has knowledge and expertise it needs to full fill its important mandate.The following companies are subsidiares of Carnival Co. &: 1972 Productions Inc., 6348 Equipment LLC, A.C.N. 098 290 834 Pty. Ltd., A.J. Juneau Dock LLC, AIDA Kundencenter GmbH, Adventure Island Ltd., Air-Sea Holiday GmbH, Alaska Hotel Properties LLC, Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU, Bay Island Cruise Port S.A., Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, CC U.S. Ventures Inc., CCL Gifts LLC, CSSC Carnival Italy Cruise Investment S.r.L, Carnival (UK) Limited, Carnival Bahamas FC Limited, Carnival Bahamas Holdings Limited, Carnival Corporation & plc Asia Pte. Ltd., Carnival Corporation Hong Kong Limited, Carnival Corporation Korea Ltd., Carnival Corporation Ports Group Japan KK, Carnival Finance LLC, Carnival Grand Bahama Investment Limited, Carnival Investments Limited, Carnival Japan Inc., Carnival License Holdings Limited, Carnival Maritime GmbH, Carnival North America LLC, Carnival Port Holdings Limited, Carnival Ports Inc., Carnival Support Services India Private Limited, Carnival Technical Services (UK) Limited, Carnival Technical Services Finland Limited, Carnival Technical Services GmbH, Carnival Technical Services Inc., Carnival Vanuatu Limited, Costa Crociere PTE Ltd., Costa Crociere S.p.A., Costa Cruceros S.A., Costa Cruise Lines Inc., Costa Cruise Lines UK Limited, Costa Cruises Shipping Services (Shanghai) Company Limited, Costa Cruises Travel Agency (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Costa Cruzeiros Agencia Maritima e Turismo Ltda., Costa Group Digital & Strategic Services GmbH, Costa International B.V., Costa Kreuzfahrten GmbH, Cozumel Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Creative Travel Lab Ltd., Cruise Ships Catering & Services International N.V., Cruise Terminal Services S.A. de C.V., Cruiseport Curacao C.V., D.R. Cruise Port Ltd., Ecospray Technologies S.r.L., F.P.M. SAS, F.P.P. SAS, Fleet Maritime Services (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services Holdings (Bermuda) Limited, Fleet Maritime Services International Limited, GXI LLC, Gibs Inc., Global Experience Innovators Inc., Global Fine Arts Inc., Global Shipping Service (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Grand Cruise Shipping Unipessoal LdA, Grand Turk Cruise Center Ltd., HAL Antillen N.V., HAL Beheer B.V., HAL Cruises Limited, HAL Maritime Ltd., HAL Nederland N.V., HAL Properties Limited, HAL Services B.V., HSE Hamburg School of Entertainment GmbH, Holding Division Iberocruceros SLU, Holland America Line Inc., Holland America Line N.V., Holland America Line Paymaster of Washington LLC, Holland America Line U.S.A. Inc., Ibero Cruzeiros Ltda., Iberocruceros SLU, Information Assistance Corporation, International Cruise Services S.A. de C.V., International Leisure Travel Inc., International Maritime Recruitment Agency S.A. de C.V., Milestone N.V., Navitrans S.R.L., Ocean Bahamas Innovation Ltd., Ocean Medallion Fulfillment Ltd., Operadora Catalina S.r.L., P&O Princess American Holdings, P&O Princess Cruises International Limited, P&O Princess Cruises Pension Trustee Limited, P&O Properties (California) Inc., P&O Travel Limited, Prestige Cruises Management S.A.M., Prestige Cruises N.V., Princess Bermuda Holdings Ltd., Princess Cays Ltd., Princess Cruise Corporation Inc., Princess Cruise Lines Ltd., Princess Cruises and Tours Inc., Princess U.S. Holdings Inc., RCT Maintenance & Related Services S.A., RCT Pilots & Related Services S.A., RCT Security & Related Services S.A., Roatan Cruise Terminal S.A. de C.V., Royal Hyway Tours Inc., Santa Cruz Terminal S.L., SeaVacations Limited, SeaVacations UK Limited, Seabourn Cruise Line Limited, Shanghai Coast Cruise Consulting Co. Lda, Ship Care (Bahamas) Limited, Sitmar Cruises Inc., Spanish Cruise Services N.V., Sunshine Shipping Corporation Ltd., T&T International Inc., Tour Alaska LLC, Transnational Services Corporation, Trident Insurance Company Ltd., Westmark Hotels Inc., Westmark Hotels of Canada Ltd., Westours Motor Coaches LLC, Wind Surf Limited, and World Leading Cruise Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd..Wall Street analysts have given Centaur Media a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Centaur Media wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft: 87 Leonard Development LLC, ABFS I Incorporated, ABS MB Ltd., Acacia (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Accounting Solutions Holding Company Inc, Alex. Brown Financial Services Incorporated, Alex. Brown Investments Incorporated, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft mbH, Amber Investments S.a r.l., Ambidexter GmbH, Ambidexter GmbH i.L., Argent Incorporated, BHW - Gesellschaft fur Wohnungswirtschaft mbH, BHW Bausparkasse Aktiengesellschaft, BHW Holding GmbH, BHW Kreditservice GmbH, BNA Nominees Pty Limited, BT Globenet Nominees Limited, BTAS Cayman GP, BTD Nominees Pty Limited, Baincor Nominees Pty Limited, Bainpro Nominees Pty Ltd, Baldur Mortgages Limited, Bankers Trust Investments Limited, Barkly Investments Ltd., Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc, Bayan Delinquent Loan Recovery 1 (SPV-AMC) Inc., Berkshire Mortgage Finance, Betriebs-Center fur Banken AG, Biomass Holdings S.a r.l., Birch (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Blue Cork Inc, Blue Cork Inc., Borfield Sociedad Anonima, Breaking Wave DB Limited, Cape Acquisition Corp., CapeSuccess Inc., CapeSuccess LLC, Cardales UK Limited, Cardea Real Estate S.r.l., Career Blazers LLC, Career Blazers Management Company Inc, Career Blazers Management Company Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc, Career Blazers Personnel Services Inc., Career Blazers Personnel Services of Washington D.C. Inc. Washington D.C., Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc, Caribbean Resort Holdings Inc., Carpathian Investments Designated Activity Company, Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Advisory (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Cathay Asset Management Company Limited, Cathay Capital Company (No 2) Limited, Cedar (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Centennial River 2 Inc., Centennial River Corporation, Chapel Funding, Charlton (Delaware) Inc, China Recovery Fund LLC, China Recovery Fund LLC, Cinda - DB NPL Securitization Trust 2003-1, City Leasing (Thameside) Limited, City Leasing Limited, Consumo S.p.A., Consumo Srl in Liquidazione, Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., Cyrus J. Lawrence Capital Holdings Inc., D B Investments (GB) Limited, D&M Turnaround Partners Godo Kaisha, D.B. International Delaware Inc., D.B. International Delaware Inc., DAHOC (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DAHOC Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DB (Barbados) SRL, DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Asing) Sdn. Bhd., DB (Malaysia) Nominee (Tempatan) Sendirian Berhad, DB (Pacific) Limited, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB (Pacific) Limited New York, DB Abalone LLC, DB Alex. Brown Holdings Incorporated, DB Alps Corporation, DB Aotearoa Investments Limited, DB Asia Pacific Holdings Limited (in voluntary liquidation), DB Asset Finance I S.a r.l., DB Asset Finance II S.a r.l., DB Aster II LLC, DB Aster III LLC, DB Aster Inc., DB Aster LLC, DB Beteiligungs-Holding GmbH, DB Boracay LLC, DB Capital Investments Sarl, DB Capital Markets (Deutschland) GmbH, DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Capital Partners Inc., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Cartera de Inmuebles 1 S.A.U., DB Chestnut Holdings Limited, DB Commodity Services LLC, DB Consorzio S. Cons. a r. l., DB Corporate Advisory (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., DB Covered Bond S.r.l., DB Credit Investments S.a r.l., DB Delaware Holdings (Europe) Limited, DB Direkt GmbH, DB Elara LLC, DB Energy Commodities Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Energy Trading LLC, DB Enfield Infrastructure Holdings Limited, DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equipment Leasing Inc., DB Equity Limited, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance (Delaware) LLC, DB Finance International GmbH, DB Ganymede 2006 L.P., DB Global Markets Multi-Strategy Fund I Ltd., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology Inc., DB Global Technology SRL, DB Group Services (UK) Limited, DB HR Solutions GmbH, DB Holding Fundo de Investimento Multimercado Investimento no Exterior Credito Privado, DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (New York) Inc., DB Holdings (South America) Limited, DB IROC Leasing Corp., DB Immobilienfonds 1 Wieland KG, DB Immobilienfonds 2 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 4 KG i.L., DB Immobilienfonds 5 Wieland KG, DB Impact Investment (GP) Limited, DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., DB Impact Investment Fund I L.P., 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 Managers Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Partners Inc., DB Investment Resources (US) Corporation, DB Investment Resources Holdings Corp., DB Investment Services GmbH, DB Io LP, DB Litigation Fee LLC, DB London (Investor Services) Nominees Limited, DB Management Support GmbH, DB Managers LLC, DB Municipal Holdings LLC, DB Nexus American Investments (UK) Limited (in members'voluntary liquidation), DB Nexus Investments (UK) Limited (in members' voluntary liquidation), DB Nominees (Hong Kong) 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 Interactivos Agrupacion de Interes Economico, DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Finance Delaware Inc., DB Overseas Holdings Limited, DB PWM, DB Portfolio Southwest Inc., DB Print GmbH, DB Privat- und Firmenkundenbank AG, DB Private Clients Corp., DB Private Wealth Mortgage Ltd., DB RC Holdings LLC, DB Re S.A., DB Service Centre Limited, DB Service Uruguay S.A., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Services Americas Inc., DB Servizi Amministrativi S.r.l., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Strategic Advisors Inc., DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Derivative Products LLC, DB Structured Finance 1 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Finance 2 Designated Activity Company, DB Structured Holdings Luxembourg S.a r.l., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Structured Products Inc., DB Trustee Services Limited, DB Trustees (Hong Kong) Limited, DB U.S. Financial Markets Holding Corporation, DB UK Bank Limited, DB UK Holdings Limited, DB UK PCAM Holdings Limited, DB USA Core Corporation, DB USA Corporation, DB Valoren S.a r.l., DB Value S.a r.l., DB VersicherungsManager GmbH, DB Vita S.A., DBAB Wall Street LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBAH Capital LLC, DBCIBZ1, DBCIBZ2, DBFIC Inc., DBFIC Inc., DBNZ Overseas Investments (No.1) Limited, DBOI Global Services (UK) Limited, DBOI Global Services Private Limited, DBR Investments Co. Limited, DBRE Global Real Estate Management IA Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management IB Ltd., DBRE Global Real Estate Management US IB L.L.C., DBRMS4, DBRMSGP1, DBUK PCAM Limited, DBUKH No. 2 Limited, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ1 LLC, DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBUSBZ2 S.a r.l., DBX Advisors LLC, DBX ETF Trust, DBX Strategic Advisors LLC, DBO Vermogensverwertung GmbH, DEBEKO Immobilien GmbH & Co Grundbesitz OHG, DEE Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH, DEUFRAN Beteiligungs GmbH, DEUKONA Versicherungs-Vermittlungs-GmbH, DEUTSCHE BANK A.S., DG China Clean Tech Partners, DI Deutsche Immobilien Treuhandgesellschaft mbH, DIB-Consult Deutsche Immobilien- und BeteiligungsBeratungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., DISCA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, DNU Nominees Pty Limited, DSL Portfolio GmbH & Co. KG, DSL Portfolio Verwaltungs GmbH, DTS Nominees Pty Limited, 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 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 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 Trust Company, DWS USA Corporation, De Heng Asset Management Company Limited, De Meng Innovative (Beijing) Consulting Company Limited, DeAM Infrastructure Limited, Deloraine Spain S.L., Delowrezham de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Deposit Solutions, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Capital Holdings New Zealand, Deutsche (Aotearoa) Foreign Investments New Zealand, Deutsche (Mauritius) Limited Port, Deutsche (New Munster) Holdings New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Access Investments Limited, Deutsche Aeolia Power Production Societe Anonyme, Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alt-A Securities Inc., Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (France) SAS, Deutsche Alternative Asset Management (UK) Limited, Deutsche Asia Pacific Holdings Pte Ltd, Deutsche Asset Management (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Japan) Limited, Deutsche Asset Management (Korea) Company Limited, Deutsche Asset Management S.A., Deutsche Asset Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsche Australia Limited, Deutsche Bank (Cayman) Limited, Deutsche Bank (Chile), Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (China) Co. Ltd., Deutsche Bank (Malaysia) Berhad, Deutsche Bank (Suisse) SA, Deutsche Bank (Uruguay) Sociedad Anonima Institucion Financiera Externa, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Americas Holding Corp., Deutsche Bank Bauspar-Aktiengesellschaft, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance LLC I, Deutsche Bank Capital Finance Trust I, Deutsche Bank Europe GmbH, Deutsche Bank Financial Company, Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency Incorporated, Deutsche Bank Insurance Agency of Delaware, Deutsche Bank International Limited, Deutsche Bank Investments (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A., Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Deposits, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg S.A. - Fiduciary Note Programme, Deutsche Bank Mutui S.p.A., Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company Los, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Guernsey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Nominees (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Polska Spolka Akcyjna, Deutsche Bank Representative Office Nigeria Limited, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao, Deutsche Bank S.A. - Banco Alemao Sao, Deutsche Bank SPEARs/LIFERs Series DBE-8011 Trust, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Limited, Deutsche Bank Services (Jersey) Limited, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Sociedad Anonima Espanola, Deutsche Bank Societa per Azioni, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Delaware, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Company National Association, Deutsche Bank Trust Corporation, Deutsche CIB Centre Private Limited, Deutsche Capital Finance (2000) Limited, Deutsche Capital Hong Kong Limited, Deutsche Capital Management Limited, Deutsche Capital Markets Australia Limited, Deutsche Capital Partners China Limited, Deutsche Cayman Ltd., Deutsche Colombia S.A.S., Deutsche Custody N.V., Deutsche Domus New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Equities India Private Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 1 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 2 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 3 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance Co 4 Pty Limited, Deutsche Finance No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Foras New Zealand Limited, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Immobilien-Leasing mit beschrankterHaftung, Deutsche Global Markets Limited, Deutsche Group Holdings (SA) Proprietary Limited, Deutsche Group Services Pty Limited, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Deutsche Grundbesitz Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Deutsche Grundbesitz-Anlagegesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Deutsche Holdings (BTI) Limited, Deutsche Holdings (Grand Duchy), Deutsche Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., Deutsche Holdings (Malta) Ltd., Deutsche Holdings Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 2 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 3 Limited, Deutsche Holdings No. 4 Limited, Deutsche Immobilien Leasing GmbH, Deutsche India Holdings Private Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche International Corporate Services Limited, Deutsche International Custodial Services Limited, Deutsche Inversiones Dos S.A., Deutsche Inversiones Limitada, 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 Mandatos S.A., Deutsche Master Funding Corporation, Deutsche Mexico Holdings S.a r.l., Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Limited, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Public Limited Company, Deutsche Mortgage & Asset Receiving Corporation, Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., Deutsche Mortgage Securities Inc., 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 Postbank Funding LLC I, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC II, Deutsche Postbank Funding LLC III, 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 Menkul Degerler A.S., Deutsche Securities S.A., Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities S.A. de C.V. Casa de Bolsa, Deutsche Securities Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Securities SpA, Deutsche Securities Venezuela S.A., Deutsche Securitisation Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Services Polska Sp. z o.o., Deutsche StiftungsTrust GmbH, Deutsche Strategic Investment Holdings Yugen Kaisha, Deutsche Trust Company Limited Japan, Deutsche Trustee Company Limited, Deutsche Trustee Services (India) Private Limited, Deutsche Trustees Malaysia Berhad, Deutsche Wealth Management S.G.I.I.C. S.A., Deutsches Institut fur Altersvorsorge GmbH, Durian (Luxembourg) S.a r.l., EC EUROPA IMMOBILIEN FONDS NR. 3 GmbH & CO. KG i.I., Elba Finance GmbH, Elizabethan Holdings Limited, Elizabethan Management Limited, Emerald Asset Repackaging Designated Activity Company, Erste Frankfurter Hoist GmbH, European Value Added I (Alternate G.P.) LLP, Exinor SA, FARAMIR Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs GmbH, FRANKFURT CONSULT GmbH, Fiduciaria Sant' Andrea S.r.L., Finanzberatungsgesellschaft mbH der Deutschen Bank, Franz Urbig- und Oscar Schlitter-Stiftung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-037, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-039, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-040, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-041, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-043, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-044, Freddie Mac Class A Taxable Multifamily M Certificates Series M-047, Funfte SAB Treuhand und Verwaltung GmbH & Co. Suhl "Rimbachzentrum" KG, G Finance Holding Corp., G.O. IB-US Management L.L.C., G918 Corp., GAC-HEL Inc., GWC-GAC Corp., Galene S.a r.l., Gemini Technology Services Inc., German American Capital, German American Capital Corporation, Gladyr Spain S.L., Global Markets Fundo de Investimento Multimercado, Global Markets III Fundo de Investimento Multimercado - Credito, Greenwood Properties Corp., Grundstucksgesellschaft Frankfurt Bockenheimer Landstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Kerpen-Sindorf Vogelrutherfeld GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Leipzig Petersstrae GbR, Grundstucksgesellschaft Wiesbaden Luisenstrae/Kirchgasse GbR, HTB Spezial GmbH & Co. KG, Hollandsche Bank-Unie, IOS Finance EFC S.A., ISTRON Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungs-GmbH, IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., IVAF I Manager S.a r.l., Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben I GbR, Immobilienfonds Buro-Center Erfurt am Flughafen Bindersleben II GbR, Immobilienfonds Mietwohnhauser Quadrath-Ichendorf GbR, Immobilienfonds Wohn- und Geschaftshaus Koln-Blumenberg V 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 Inkasso GmbH, Kradavimd UK Lease Holdings Limited, LA Water Holdings Limited, LAWL Pte. Ltd., Latitude Australia Secured Personal Loans Trust, Leasing Verwaltungsgesellschaft Waltersdorf mbH, Leonardo III Initial GP Limited, Lindsell Finance Limited, London Industrial Leasing Limited, MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MEF I Manager S. a r.l., MHL Reinsurance Ltd., MIT Holdings Inc., MIT Holdings Inc., MPP Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Maher Terminals Holdings (Toronto) Limited, Morgan Grenfell & Company, MortgageIT, MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Inc., MortgageIT Securities Corp., Motion Picture Productions One GmbH & Co. KG, NCW Holding Inc., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., Navegator - SGFTC S.A., New 87 Leonard LLC, Nordwestdeutscher Wohnungsbautrager Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, OOO "Deutsche Bank TechCentre", OOO "Deutsche Bank", OPB Verwaltungs- und Beteiligungs-GmbH, OPB Verwaltungs- und Treuhand GmbH, OPB-Holding GmbH, OPB-Nona GmbH, OPB-Oktava GmbH, OPB-Quarta GmbH, OPB-Quinta GmbH, OPB-Septima GmbH, OPPENHEIM Capital Advisory GmbH, OPPENHEIM Flottenfonds V GmbH & Co. KG, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Manager GmbH, OPPENHEIM PRIVATE EQUITY Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, OPS Nominees Pty Limited, OVT Trust 1 GmbH, OVV Beteiligungs GmbH, Opal Funds (Ireland) Public Limited Company, PADUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, PARTS Funding LLC., PB Factoring GmbH, PB Firmenkunden AG, PB International S.A., PB Spezial-Investmentaktiengesellschaft mit Teilgesellschaftsvermogen, PBC Banking Services GmbH, PCC Services GmbH der Deutschen Bank, PT Deutsche Sekuritas Indonesia, PT. Deutsche Verdhana Sekuritas Indonesia, Pan Australian Nominees Pty Ltd, Peruda Leasing Limited, Plantation Bay Inc., Plantation Bay Inc., Postbank Akademie und Service GmbH, Postbank Beteiligungen GmbH, Postbank Direkt GmbH, Postbank Filialvertrieb AG, Postbank Finanzberatung AG, Postbank Immobilien GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH, Postbank Immobilien und Baumanagement GmbH & Co. Objekt Leipzig KG, Postbank Leasing GmbH, Postbank Service GmbH, Postbank Systems AG, QR Tower 2 LLC, Quantiguous, R.B.M. Nominees Pty Ltd, REO Properties Corporation, RREEF, RREEF America L.L.C., RREEF China REIT Management Limited, RREEF European Value Added I (G.P.) Limited, RREEF Fund Holding Co., RREEF India Advisors Private Limited, RREEF Management L.L.C., RTS Nominees Pty Limited, Reference Capital Investments Limited, RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., RoPro U.S. Holding Inc., Route 28 Receivables LLC, Route 28 Receivables LLC, SAB Real Estate Verwaltungs GmbH, SAGITA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SAPIO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SCUDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SEDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SENA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Kamenz KG, SIFA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SOLIDO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, SP Mortgage Trust, SPINO Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., SPV I Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, SPV II Sociedad Anonima Cerrada, STATOR Heizkraftwerk Frankfurt (Oder) Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Sal. Oppenheim, Sal. Oppenheim Alternative Investments GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. AG & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Beteiligungs GmbH, Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Komplementar AG, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Sechste Salomon Beteiligungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., Service Company Four Limited, Sharps SP I LLC, Singer Island Tower Suite LLC, Somkid Immobiliare S.r.l., Stelvio Immobiliare S.r.l., Structured Finance Americas LLC, Structured Finance Americas LLC, Swabia 1. Vermogensbesitz-GmbH, Suddeutsche Vermogensverwaltung Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung, TAKIR Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TELO Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, TEMATIS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TERRUS Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Halle I KG i.L., TESATUR Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH & Co. Objekt Nordhausen I KG i.L., TOSSA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRIPLA Grundstucks-Vermietungsgesellschaft mbH, TRS Aria LLC, TRS Leda LLC, TRS Maple II LTD, TRS Oak II LTD, TRS SVCO LLC, TRS Scorpio LLC, TRS Tupelo II LTD, TRS Venor LLC, TRS Walnut II LTD, Tagus - Sociedade de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Tasfiye Halinde Deutsche Securities Menkul Degerler A.S., Tempurrite Leasing Limited, Thai Asset Enforcement and Recovery Asset Management Company Limited, Tianjin Deutsche AM Fund Management Co. Ltd., Treuinvest Service GmbH, Triplereason Limited, UKE Beteiligungs-GmbH, UKE Grundstucksgesellschaft mbH, UKE s.r.o., Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksgesellschaft Kirchnerstrae GbR, Ullmann - Esch Grundstucksverwaltungsgesellschaft Disternich GbR, Ullmann Ullmann Krockow Krockow Esch GbR, VCJ Lease S.a r.l., Vesta Real Estate S.r.l., VOB-ZVD Processing GmbH, WEPLA Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, WEPLABeteiligungsgesellschaftmbH, Wealthspur Investment Ltd., Whale Holdings S.a r.l., World Trading (Delaware) Inc., World Trading(Delaware)Inc., Zumirez Drive LLC, db PBC, and norisbank GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..Wall Street analysts have given iShares Russell 2000 Value ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares Russell 2000 Value ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.TranSwitch Corp. designs, develops and supplies integrated circuit and intellectual property solutions that provide core functionality for voice, data and video communications equipment for network, enterprise and customer premises applications. The company provides integrated multi-core network processor system-on-a-Chip solutions and software solutions for fixed, third generation and fourth generation mobile, V over IP and multimedia infrastructures. The firm also offer HDMI & DisplayPort and also feature its proprietary HDP and AnyCable technologies. It serves global telecom equipment providers, semiconductor, and consumer product companies. TranSwitch was founded by Michael C. McCoy, Santanu Das, and Steward S. Flaschen on April 26, 1988 and is headquartered in Shelton, CT.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Delphi Energy Corp. (DEE.TO) a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Delphi Energy Corp. (DEE.TO) wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of American International Group: AGC Life Insurance Company, AIG APAC HOLDINGS PTE. LTD., AIG Advisors S.r.l., AIG Aerospace Insurance Services Inc., AIG Asia Pacific Insurance Pte. Ltd., AIG Asset Management (Europe) Limited, AIG Asset Management (U.S.) LLC, AIG Assurance Company, AIG Australia Limited, AIG Brazil Holding I LLC, AIG CIS Investments LLC, AIG Canada Holdings Inc., AIG Capital Corporation, AIG Capital Services Inc., AIG Claims Inc., AIG Egypt Insurance Company S.A.E., AIG Employee Services Inc., AIG Europe (Services) Limited, AIG Europe Holdings S.a.rl., AIG Europe S.A., AIG Federal Savings Bank, AIG Financial Products Corp., AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd., AIG Global Asset Management Holdings Corp., AIG Global Real Estate Investment Corp., AIG Global Reinsurance Operations, AIG Holdings Europe Limited, AIG Insurance (Thailand) Public Company Limited, AIG Insurance Company China Limited, AIG Insurance Company JSC, AIG Insurance Company of Canada, AIG Insurance Company-Puerto Rico, AIG Insurance Hong Kong Limited, AIG Insurance Limited, AIG Insurance Management Services Inc., AIG Insurance New Zealand Limited, AIG International Holdings GmbH, AIG Investments UK Limited, AIG Israel Insurance Company Ltd, AIG Japan Holdings Kabushiki Kaisha, AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited, AIG Korea Inc., AIG Latin America I.I., AIG Latin America Investments S.L., AIG Lebanon SAL, AIG Life Holdings Inc., AIG Life Insurance Company (Switzerland) Ltd, AIG Life Limited, AIG Life South Africa Limited, AIG Life of Bermuda Ltd., AIG MEA Holdings Limited, AIG MEA Limited, AIG Malaysia Insurance Berhad, AIG Markets Inc., AIG Matched Funding Corp., AIG PC Global Services Inc., AIG Philippines Insurance Inc., AIG Property Casualty Company, AIG Property Casualty Inc., AIG Property Casualty International LLC, AIG Property Casualty U.S. Inc., AIG Re-Takaful (L) Berhad, AIG Resseguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Brasil S.A., AIG Seguros Mexico S.A. de C.V., AIG Shared Services Corporation, AIG South Africa Limited, AIG Specialty Insurance Company, AIG Technologies Inc., AIG Travel Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., AIG Travel Assist Inc., AIG Travel Assist Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., AIG Travel EMEA Limited, AIG Travel Inc., AIG Uganda Limited, AIG Vietnam Insurance Company Limited, AIG WarrantyGuard Inc., AIG-FP Pinestead Holdings Corp., AIG-Metropolitana Cia. de Seguros y Reaseguros S.A., AIGGRE EOLA LLC, AIGGRE Europe Real Estate Fund I GP S.a r.l., AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I GP LLC, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund I LP, AIGGRE U.S. Real Estate Fund II GP LLC, AIU Insurance Company, AM Holdings LLC, Ageas Protect, AlphaCat Managers Ltd., American General Corporation, American General Life Insurance Company, American Home Assurance Co. Ltd., American Home Assurance Company, American Home Assurance Company Escritorio de Representacao no Brasil Ltda., American International Group Inc., American International Group UK Limited, American International Overseas Association, American International Overseas Limited, American International Realty Corp., American International Reinsurance Company Ltd., American International Underwriters del Ecuador-Holding S.A., American Security Life Insurance Company Limited, Arthur J. Glatfelter Agency Inc., Avondhu Limited, Blackboard Customer Care Insurance Services LLC, Blackboard Insurance Company, Blackboard Services LLC, Blackboard Specialty Insurance Company, Blackboard U.S. Holdings Inc., Chartis Takaful Enaya B.S.C. (c), Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, Crop Risk Services Inc., Eaglestone Reinsurance Company, Ellipse, Fortitude Group Holdings LLC, Fortitude Life & Annuity Solutions Inc., Fortitude Reinsurance Company Ltd., Franklin Life Insurance Company, Fuji Fire and Marine, Glatfelter Insurance Group, Globe and Rutgers Insurance Group, Grand Isle SAC Limited, Granite State Insurance Company, Group Risk Services Limited, Group Risk Technologies Limited, Illinois National Insurance Co., Jefferson Eola Venture LLC, Johannesburg Insurance Holdings (Proprietary) Limited, Laya Healthcare Limited, Lexington Insurance Company, MG Reinsurance Limited, Mt. Mansfield Company Inc., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh Pa., National Union Fire Insurance Company of Vermont, New Hampshire Insurance Company, PT AIG Insurance Indonesia, Pine Street Real Estate Holdings Corp., Private Joint-Stock Company AIG Ukraine Insurance Company, Risk Specialists Companies Insurance Agency Inc., SA Affordable Housing LLC, SAFG Retirement Services Inc., Service Net Warranty LLC, Stratford Insurance Company, SunAmerica Affordable Housing Partners Inc., SunAmerica Asset Management LLC, Talbot Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Holdings Ltd., Talbot Underwriting Ltd., Thai CIT Holding Company Limited, The Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, The United States Life Insurance Company in the City of New York, The Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company, Travel Guard, Travel Guard Group Canada Inc./Groupe Garde Voyage du Canada Inc., Travel Guard Group Inc., Tudor Insurance Company, VALIC Financial Advisors Inc., Valic Retirement Services Company, Validus Holdings, Validus Holdings (UK) Ltd., Validus Holdings Ltd., Validus Reinsurance (Switzerland) Ltd, Validus Reinsurance Ltd., Validus Ventures Ltd., Volunteer Firemen's Insurance Services Inc., Western World Insurance Company, and Western World Insurance Group Inc..DTE Energy Co. operates as a diversified energy company, which engages in the provision of electricity and natural gas sales, distribution and storage services. It operates through the following segments: Electric, Gas, Non-Utility Operations, and Corporate & Other. The Electric segment engages in the generation, purchase, distribution and sale of electricity to residential, commercial and industrial customers in south-eastern Michigan. The Gas segment engages in the purchase, storage, transportation, distribution and sale of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers throughout Michigan and the sale of storage and transportation capacity. The Non-Utility Operations segment engages in gas storage and pipelines, power and industrial projects, and energy trading. The Corporate & Other includes various holding company activities, holds certain non-utility debt, and holds energy-related investments. The company was founded in January 1995 and is headquartered in Detroit, MI.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Elegant Hotels Group a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Elegant Hotels Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Ingredion, Inc. manufactures and sells sweetener, starches, nutrition ingredients, and biomaterial solutions derived from the wet milling and processing of corn and other starch based materials. Its activities include turning corn, tapioca, potatoes and other vegetables and fruits into value added ingredients and biomaterials for the food, beverage, paper and corrugating, brewing, and other industries. The firm operates through the following geographical segments: North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). The North America segment includes businesses in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The South America segment involves businesses in Brazil, the Southern Cone of South America (which includes Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay), Colombia, and Ecuador. The Asia-Pacific segment pertains businesses in South Korea, Thailand, China, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, India, and Vietnam. The EMEA segment focuses businesses in Pakistan, Germany, the United Kingdom and South Africa. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in Westchester, IL.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Sweden ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Sweden ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. engages in the exploration, development, and recovery of minerals and precious metals located primarily in Africa. It explores for platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, gold, rhodium, zinc, silver, germanium, and lead deposits. The company's projects include the Platreef project located in the Northern Limb of South Africa's Bushveld Complex; the Kipushi project located in Haut-Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo; and the Kamoa-Kakula project located within the Central African Copperbelt. It also holds a 100% interest in the Western Foreland exploration project covering an area of approximately 2,550 square kilometers located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has a strategic partnership agreement with China Nonferrous Metal Mining (Group) Co., Ltd. to examine exploration, development, and acquisition of mineral projects, as well as production, smelting, and logistics opportunities in Africa. The company was formerly known as Ivanplats Limited and changed its name to Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. in August 2013. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. was incorporated in 1993 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Short Term High Yield Bond ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but SPDR Bloomberg Barclays Short Term High Yield Bond ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Mohawk Industries: A&S Energie NV, A&U Energie NV, Aladdin Manufacturing Corporation, Aladdin Manufacturing Of New York LLC, Aladdin Manufacturing of Alabama LLC, Alsace Logistique S.A., Avelgem Green Power CVBA, Avon Pacific Holdings Ltd, B&M NV, BGE Mexico S. de R. L. de C.V., Berghoef GmbH, Berghoef-Hout B.V., Bienes Raices y Materiales del Centro S. de R.L. de C.V., C.F. Marazzi S.A., Canterbury Spinners Ltd, Carpet Foundation Ltd, Cevotrans BV, Ceramus Bahia S/A  Produtos Ceramicos, DT Mex Holdings LLC, DTM/CM Holdings LLC, Dal Italia LLC, Dal-Elit LLC, Dal-Tile Chile Comercial Limitada, Dal-Tile Colombia S.A.S., Dal-Tile Distribution Inc., Dal-Tile Group Inc., Dal-Tile I LLC, Dal-Tile Industrias S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile International Inc., Dal-Tile Mexico Comercial S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Dal-Tile Operaciones Mexico S. De R.L. De C.V., Dal-Tile Peru SRL, Dal-Tile Puerto Rico Inc., Dal-Tile Services Inc., Dal-Tile Shared Services Inc., Dal-Tile Tennessee LLC, Dal-Tile of Canada ULC, Daltile, Daltile, Dekaply NV, Durkan, Dynea NV, Eliane Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Eliane S/A - Revestimentos Ceramicos, Emilceramica India Pvt Ltd., Emilceramica S.r.l, Emilgermany GmbH, Emilgroup Asia Ltd, Explorer S.r.l., F.I.L.S. Investments Unlimited Company, Feltex Carpets Ltd, Feltex Carpets Pty Ltd, Feltex New Zealand Ltd, Fibremakers Australia Pty Ltd, Flooring Foundation Ltd, Flooring Industries Limited S.a r.l., Flooring XL B.V., Floorscape Limited, Godfrey Hirst & Co Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Australia Pty Ltd, Godfrey Hirst Group, Godfrey Hirst NZ Ltd, Hytherm (Ireland) Limited, IVC BVBA, IVC Far-East Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., IVC France S.a r.l., IVC GROUP LIMITED, IVC Green Power NV, IVC Group, IVC Group GmbH, IVC Luxembourg S.a r.l., IVC Rus OOO, IVC US Inc., International Flooring Systems S.a r.l., International Vinyl Company - Vostok OOO, KAI Group, KAI Keramica Ltd, KAI Mining EOOD, KERAMA CENTER OOO, Kerama Baltics OOO, Kerama Export OOO, Kerama Marazzi OOO, Kerampromservis (LLC), Khan Asparuh - Transport EOOD, Khan Asparuh AD, Khan Omurtag AD, Koninklijke Peitsman B.V., Kraj Kerama OOO, MG China Trading Ltd., MI Finance SRL, MUD (Holding) Brazil Ltda., Management Co EAD, Marazzi Acquisition S.r.l., Marazzi Deutschland G.m.b.H., Marazzi France Trading S.A.S., Marazzi Group, Marazzi Group F.Z.E., Marazzi Group S.r.l., Marazzi Group Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Marazzi Iberia S.L.U., Marazzi Japan Co. Ltd., Marazzi Middle East FZ LLC, Marazzi Schweiz S.A.G.L., Marazzi UK Ltd., Mohawk Assurance Services Inc., Mohawk Australia Pty Ltd, Mohawk Canada Corporation, Mohawk Capital Finance S.A., Mohawk Capital Luxembourg SA, Mohawk Carpet Distribution Inc., Mohawk Carpet Foundation Inc., Mohawk Carpet LLC, Mohawk Carpet Transportation Of Georgia LLC, Mohawk Commercial Inc., Mohawk ESV Inc., Mohawk Europe BVBA, Mohawk Factoring II Inc., Mohawk Factoring LLC, Mohawk Finance S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Acquisitions S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Funding S.a.r.l, Mohawk Foreign Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Foreign Investments Inc., Mohawk Global Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Holdings International B.V., Mohawk Industries Inc., Mohawk International (Europe) S.a r.l., Mohawk International (Hong Kong) Limited, Mohawk International Capital N.V., Mohawk International Financing S.a.r.l, Mohawk International Holdings (DE) LLC, Mohawk International Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk International Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk International Netherlands B.V., Mohawk International Services BVBA, Mohawk KAI Luxembourg Holding S.a r.l., Mohawk KAI Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Capital S.A., Mohawk Luxembourg Financing S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Luxembourg Pacific S.a r.l., Mohawk Marazzi International BV, Mohawk Marazzi Russia BV, Mohawk New Zealand Limited, Mohawk Operaciones Mexicali S. de R.L. de C.V., Mohawk Operations Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk Pacific Investments S.a r.l., Mohawk Resources LLC, Mohawk Servicing LLC, Mohawk Singapore Private Limited, Mohawk Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mohawk Unilin Luxembourg S.a r.l., Mohawk United Finance B.V., Mohawk United International B.V., Mohawk Vinyl Financing S.a r.l., Molber Beheer B.V., Monarch Ceramic Tile Inc., P.F. Onroerend Goed B.V., PF Beheer B.V., Pergo, Pergo (Europe) AB, Pergo Holding BV, Pergo India Pvt Ltd, Polcolorit S.A., Premium Floors Australia Pty Limited, RR Apex LLC, Rata International Pty Ltd, Recubrimientos Interceramica S. de R.L. de C.V., Riverside Textiles Pty Ltd, S.C. KAI Ceramics SRL, Sibir Kerama OOO, SimpleSolutions USA LLC, Soft Step (Australia) Pty Ltd, Spano Group, Spano Invest BVBA, Spano NV, Stroyagromekhzapchast ChaO, Stroytrans OAO Orelstroy, Summit Wool Spinners Ltd, The Flooring Federation Ltd, Tiles Co OOD, Unilin (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Unilin ApS, Unilin Arauco Pisos Ltda., Unilin BVBA, Unilin Beheer BV, Unilin Distribution Ltd., Unilin Distribution Ukraine LLC, Unilin Finland OY, Unilin Flooring India Private Limited, Unilin Flooring SAS, Unilin GmbH, Unilin Holding BVBA, Unilin Insulation BV, Unilin Insulation SAS, Unilin Insulation Sury SAS, Unilin Italia S.R.L., Unilin North America LLC, Unilin Norway AS, Unilin OOO, Unilin Panels SAS, Unilin Poland Sp.Z.o.o., Unilin SAS, Unilin Spain SL, Unilin Swiss GmbH, Unilin s.r.o., World International Inc., Xtratherm, Xtratherm Limited, Xtratherm S.A., and Xtratherm UK Limited.Nabors Industries Ltd. engages in the provision of platform work over and drilling rigs. It operates through the following segments: U.S. Drilling, Canada Drilling, International Drilling, Drilling Solutions, and Rig Technologies. The U.S. Drilling segment includes land drilling activities in the lower 48 states and Alaska, as well as offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The Canada segment consists of land-based drilling rigs in Canada. The International segment focuses in maintaining a footprint in the oil and gas market, most notably in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Argentina, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and Venezuela. The Drilling Solutions segment offers drilling technologies, such as patented steering systems and rig instrumentation software systems that enhance drilling performance and wellbore placement. The Rig Technologies segment comprises Canrig, which manufactures and sells top drives, catwalks, wrenches, drawworks, and drilling related equipment, such as robotic systems and downhole tools. The company was founded by Clair Nabors in 1952 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Read MoreNovan, Inc., a clinical development-stage biotechnology company, provides nitric oxide-based therapies to treat dermatological and oncovirus-mediated diseases. Its clinical stage dermatology drug candidates include SB204, a topical monotherapy for the treatment of acne vulgaris; SB206, a topical anti-viral gel for the treatment of viral skin infections; SB208, a topical broad-spectrum anti-fungal gel for the treatment of fungal infections of the skin and nails, including athlete's foot and fungal nail infections; and SB414, a topical cream-based gel product candidate for the treatment of inflammatory skin diseases. The company also develops SB207, an anti-viral product candidate for the treatment of external genital warts; WH602, a nitric oxide-containing intravaginal gel to treat high-risk human papilloma virus (HPV); WH504, a non-gel formulation product candidate to treat high-risk HPV; and SB019 for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Novan, Inc. has a license agreement with Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.; and a strategic alliance with Orion Corporation. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of PPG Industries: AIPCF V Texstars Blocker Inc., AkzoNobel, Alermac Inversiones S.A. de C.V., Alpha Coating Technologies LLC, Alpha Coatings Inc., Broad Range Development Limited, Brown Brothers Distribution Limited, CG Holdings Manufacturing Co., Centro de Investigacion en Polimeros S.A. de C.V., Chemfil Canada Limited, Chorlton Trade Paints Limited, Comercial Mexicana de Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Comex, Comex Industrial Coatings S.A. de C.V., Consorcio Comex S.A. de C.V., Cristacol S.A., Cuming Microwave Corporation, Deutek SA, Dexmet Corporation, Dexmet Holding Corporation, Distribuidora Kroma S.A. de C.V., EPIC Insurance Co. Ltd., Eberle Design Inc., Empresa Aga S.A. de C.V., Ennis Canadian Holding Company, Ennis Flint Soluciones Seguras Para Trafico, Ennis Highway Traffic Technology (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Ennis Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, Ennis Paint Australia Holding Pty Ltd, Ennis Paint Boya Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Ennis Paint Canada ULC, Ennis Paint Germany GmbH, Ennis Paint Netherlands Holdings LLC, Ennis Paint U.K. Holding Company Limited, Ennis Prismo Italio S.r.l., Ennis Traffic Safety Solutions Pty Ltd, Ennis  Flint Mexico, Ennis  Flint New Zealand, Ennis  Flint New Zealand Holding Pty Ltd, Ennis-Flint, Ennis-Flint Africa (Pty) Ltd, Ennis-Flint Inc., Foshan Bairun Chemicals Co. Ltd., Fpu Industrial S.A. de C.V., Grupo Comex S.A. de C.V., Hemmelrath Automotive Coatings (Jilin) Co. Ltd., Hodij Coatings B.V., Homax Products, Industria Chimica Reggiana I.C.R. SPA, Johnstones Paints Limited, Kalon Investment Company Limited, Kalon South Africa Proprietary Limited, Manchester Thermoplastics LLC, Masterwork Paint, MetoKote Canada Limited, MetoKote Corporation, MetoKote Mexico Holding Inc., MetoKote UK Limited, MetoKote de Mexico S. de RL de CV, PPG AC - France SA, PPG ALESCO Automotive Finishes Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., PPG AP Resinas S.A. de C.V., PPG Aerospace Materials (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PPG Architectural Coatings (Puerto Rico) Inc., PPG Architectural Coatings Canada Inc., PPG Architectural Coatings Ireland Limited, PPG Architectural Coatings Italy S.r.l., PPG Architectural Coatings UK Limited, PPG Architectural Finishes Inc., PPG Asian Paints Private Ltd., PPG COATINGS SINGAPORE PTE. LTD., PPG Canada Inc., PPG Cieszyn S.A., PPG Coatings (Hong Kong) Co. Limited, PPG Coatings (Kunshan) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., PPG Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Thailand) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings (Wuhu) Company Ltd., PPG Coatings (Zhangjiagang) Co. Ltd., PPG Coatings B.V., PPG Coatings Belgium BV, PPG Coatings Danmark A/S, PPG Coatings Deutschland GmbH, PPG Coatings Europe B.V., PPG Coatings Manufacturing SARL, PPG Coatings Nederland BV, PPG Coatings S.A., PPG Coatings South Africa (Pty) Ltd., PPG DYRUP S.A., PPG Deco Czech a.s., PPG Deco Polska sp. z.o.o., PPG Deco Slovakia s.r.o., PPG Deutschland Business Support GmbH, PPG Deutschland Sales & Services GmbH, PPG Distribution S.A.S., PPG Europe B.V., PPG Finance B.V., PPG France Business Support S.A.S., PPG France Manufacturing S.A.S., PPG Guadeloupe SAS, PPG Hellas S.A., PPG Hemmelrath Coatings Inc., PPG Hemmelrath Lackfabrik GmbH, PPG Holdco SAS, PPG Holdings (U.K.) Limited, PPG Holdings Argentina USA LLC, PPG Holdings Latin America USA LLC, PPG Iberica S.A., PPG Iberica Sales & Services S.L., PPG Industrial Coatings B.V., PPG Industrial do Brasil - Tintas E. Vernizes - Ltda., PPG Industries (Korea) Ltd., PPG Industries (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., PPG Industries (UK) Ltd, PPG Industries Argentina S.R.L., PPG Industries Australia PTY Limited A.C.N. 055 500 939, PPG Industries Colombia Ltda., PPG Industries Czech Republic s.r.o., PPG Industries Delfzijl B.V., PPG Industries Europe Sarl, PPG Industries France S.A.S., PPG Industries International Inc., PPG Industries Italia S.r.l., PPG Industries Kimya a Sanayi VE Ticaret AS, PPG Industries LLC, PPG Industries Lipetsk LLC, PPG Industries Middle East FZE, PPG Industries Netherlands B.V., PPG Industries New Zealand Limited, PPG Industries Ohio Inc., PPG Industries Poland Sp. Z.o.o., PPG Industries Securities LLC, PPG Industries de Mexico S.A. de C.V., PPG Italia Business Support S.r.l., PPG Italia Sales & Services S.r.l., PPG Japan Ltd., PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes Canada LP, PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes U.K. LLP, PPG Kansai Automotive Finishes U.S. LLC, PPG Luxembourg Finance S.aR.L., PPG Luxembourg Holdings S.aR.L., PPG Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Mexico S.A. de C.V., PPG Packaging Coatings (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., PPG Paints Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., PPG Performance Coatings (Hong Kong) Limited, PPG Powder Coatings (Shanghai) Limited, PPG Romania S.A., PPG SSC Co. Ltd., PPG Switzerland GmbH, PPG Trilak Kft., PPG Vietnam Co. Ltd., PRC-DeSoto Australia Pty Ltd., PRC-DeSoto International Inc., PT. PPG Coatings Indonesia, Painter's Supply, Paintzen, Peintures de Paris SAS, Plasticos Envolventes S.A. de C.V., Polymeric Systems Inc., Prismo Road Markings Limited, ProCoatings B.V., ProCoatings BV, Protec Pty Ltd. A.C.N. 007 857 392, Reno A&E LLC, Revocoat France SAS, Revocoat Holding SAS, Revocoat Iberica SLU, Revocoat S.A.S, Road Infrastructure Investment Holdings Inc., SEM Products Inc., Sealants Europe SAS, Sierracin Corporation, Sierracin/Sylmar Corporation, Sigma Marine & Protective Coatings Holding B.V., SigmaKalon (BC) UK Limited, SigmaKalon Group, SigmaKalon Middle East B.V., Sikar (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Spraylat International Ltd, Texstars LLC, The Crown Group Co., The Crown Group Inc, The Homax Group, Tikkurila Group, Traffic Safety Intermediate LLC, Traffic Safety Parent LLC, United International Business NV, Vanex Inc., Vernisol S.p.A., Versaflex, Viasa S.A. de C.V., Whitford, Whitford B.V., Whitford Corporation, Whitford Jiangmen Ltd., Whitford Ltd. (HK), Whitford Ltd. (UK), Whitford Pte. Ltd., Whitford S.r.l., Whitford Worldwide Company LLC, Worwag Coatings, and Zaganite Industries Pty Ltd.On Sunday, August 5, the Gay Mens Chorus joins forces with the New River Orchestra for a performance benefiting the Sunshine Cathedral. Tickets are $20. The musicians in the orchestra and chorus members donate their effort and time to perform this concert.

Sunshine Cathedral is a progressive, positive, spiritual community that is affiliated with Metropolitan Community Churches. Historically, Sunshine Cathedral's primary constituency has consisted of same-gender loving and gender non-conforming people and their allies. The Reverend Dr. Durrell Watkins is Sunshine Cathedral's senior minister.

Summer is a time when attendance and giving tend to decrease, but the needs of the Sunshine Cathedral remain constant. Also, summer is when strong storms tend to hit, and when giving is down for four or five months, having depleted funds can devastate the finances of the church.

The fundraiser promises to be an amazing performance. The Chorus is one of the regions largest and most successful community-based choruses celebrated for outstanding musicianship, creative programming, and community outreach. Each year GMCSF reaches over 12,000 audience members with its messages of love and inclusion.

The New River Orchestra is the collaboration of a group of musicians for the continued study and performance of classical music. It was founded in 2005 with a vision to be an elite local orchestra. Today, it has grown into a group of over 50 members.

Attendees are invited to bring non-perishable food items to support the Sunshine Cathedral Brown Bag Outreach Ministry. Sunshine Cathedral is located at 1480 SW 9th Ave, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

For tickets, visit www.easytithe.com/f/?k=CILDU9C80RDCY5CR or go to SunshineCathedral.org.Rayonier Advanced Materials, Inc. engages in the production and sale of cellulose products, which is a natural polymer commonly used in the production of cell phone and computer screens, filters, and pharmaceuticals. It operates through the following segments: High Purity Cellulose, Forest Products, Paperboard, Pulp and Newsprint, and Corporate. The High Purity Cellulose segment manufacture and market high purity cellulose, which is sold as either cellulose specialties or commodity products in U.S., Canda, and France. The Forest Products segment manufacture and market construction-grade lumber in North America through seven sawmills located in Canada. The Paperboard segment comprises paperboard products. The Pulp and Newsprint segment involves in the production of pulp and newsprint in Canada. The Corporate segment consists senior management, accounting, information systems, human resources, treasury, tax, and legal administrative functions that provide support services to the operating business units. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL.

Read MoreRELX PLC provides information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Scientific, Technical & Medical; Risk; Legal; and Exhibitions. The Scientific, Technical & Medical segment provides information and analytics that help institutions and professionals to progress in science and advance healthcare. The Risk segment offers information-based analytics and decision tools that combine public and industry specific content with technology and algorithms to assist clients in evaluating and predicting risk. The Legal segment provides legal, regulatory, and business information and analytics that help customers in decision-making, as well as enhance the productivity. The Exhibitions segment is involved in the events business. The company was formerly known as Reed Elsevier PLC and changed its name to RELX PLC in July 2015. The company was incorporated in 1903 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreSenate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander released the following statement after the House of Representatives passed the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act:

At a time when our economy is booming, companies everywhere are in the market for skilled workers. Over 200,000 Tennesseans participate in the career and technical education programs funded by this legislation that will give them the skills they need to find a good job. I congratulate the House of Representatives on passing the Perkins CTE Act that is important to students, workers, and employers, and I look forward to the president signing it into law.

The Senate passed the Perkins CTE Act by voice vote on Monday.

Senator Alexander is a sponsor of the Perkins CTE Act, which provides nearly $1.2 billion of grants to states to train students and workers to compete for high-skilled, in-demand jobs. Senator Alexander has worked with Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wy.) and Ivanka Trump to pass this legislation.According to the news agency Vox, the Womens March on Washington, on January 21-22, 2017, was one of the largest gatherings of people with disabilities in U.S. history -- exceeding demonstrations by disability advocates, after the Senate passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Now, more than a year later, Womens March continues to advocate for women from all backgrounds through their global platform in several cities.

But for San Francisco resident Robin Wilson-Beattie, a queer disability advocate and writer, not all chapters of Womens March are inclusive of people with disabilities.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, she shared, that San Francisco's Women's March did not have this. Nowhere did I see advertised any disability inclusivity or any acknowledgement of the importance of recognizing disability as a women's rights issue.

Wilson-Beattie, who is 40, and manages a spinal cord injury, as well as a diagnosis of ADHD and depression, traveled out of her city and crossed the bay to Oakland to find the chapter of Womens March that fits her needs. I signed up to march and volunteer, because the Oakland Women's March was the Bay Area event that made a concerted effort to involve people with disabilities as an inclusive part of the event, she said.

Also, she continued, The LightHouse [for the Blind and Visually Impaired] was organizing it, so I knew it would be legit.

Lisamaria Martinez, 37, LGBT ally, and director of Community Services for the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind, mentioned her organization was contacted to help make Womens March Oakland more accessible. Immediately, we jumped in and we helped to coordinate a 2018 pan-disability contingency for the March, she shared.

Martinez, who is blind, had participated in the march in 2017, when she was pregnant, as a community member. Now, she was elated to march among her community, and to come full circle.

This time around, I marched with my almost 1-year-old daughter and about 50 other people with disabilities or allies, she said. It was an amazing day and I was so excited to share it with other people who have disabilities

Cathereine Kudlick, history professor and director of the Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University, marched in the 2018 Womens March disability contingent. Kudlik, who is 60, blind, and bisexual, feels disability often gets left out of broader political organizing, and she found the disability contingent empowering.

We were pretty much at the front of everyone, Kudlick shared, which was great for our being visible. At a couple of points, I ended up with the megaphone; I helped come up with a couple of chants to link us to the issues of the day.

These are tough times, continued Kudlick, for anyone who identifies in any way with being marginal -- queer, disabled, person of color, and, surprisingly, in 2018, being a woman.

Alison Mata, director of Operations for Womens March Oakland, stated inclusion has been a priority of the chapter since its inception, and they have partnered with several disability advocates and agencies to ensure they honor their commitment to accessibility.

Our peace ambassador trainings include disability etiquette, and our upcoming activism trainings will dive further into this topic, said Mata.

Mata, 33, and an event planner in the San Francisco Bay Area, was inspired by the Womens March on Washington, but felt she should respond to the movement locally. In addition to planning the march, she has been involved in organizing several clinics and events over the past six months through Womens March Oakland.

We released a toolkit on removing barriers to voting in the East Bay for International Womens Day in March, held a voting workshop in May, and hosted the Oakland stop of the Womens March Power to the Polls tour in June, she said.

In fall 2018, Womens March Oakland will be hosting more voting clinics, launching an activism training series, and holding an event on building bridges across differences.

To get involved or volunteer, visit www.womensmarchoakland.org.

Following Robin Wilson-Beatties feedback about Womens March San Francisco, the Bay Area Reporter reached out to the organization for a comment. The public relations team replied immediately with the following:

First, we hear Wilson-Beattie's feedback and frustration and are glad she was able to find a march that best served her needs. Women's March San Francisco organizes around the Women's March Unity Principles, among which Disability Rights features prominently. From our inception, we've considered the needs of our disabled community, providing trolleys for those with mobility issues, locating actions along accessible transportation routes, carving out an ADA area at the front of the stage, and providing ASL interpreters for all our actions.

Womens March San Francisco is a volunteer organization and welcomes referrals for individuals and organizations that could help them improve their services. The organization said, we consult and also know we can always improve.

Belo Cipriani is an award-winning author and prize-winning journalist. His new book, "Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities," will be published on October 1, 2018. Learn more at www.belocipriani.com.Wall Street analysts have given Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Growth ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of The Sherwin-Williams: Acquire Sourcing LLC, CTS National Corporation, Comex North America Inc., Compania Sherwin-Williams S.A. de C.V., Contract Transportation Systems Co., Dongguan Lilly Paint Industries Ltd, Duron, EPS (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., EPS B.V., Geocel Holdings, Geocel Limited, Guangdong Valspar Paints Manufacturing Co Ltd., Inver East Med S.A., Inver France SAS, Inver GmbH, Inver Industrial Coating SRL, Inver Polska Spoka Z O.O, Inver Spa, Invercolor Bologna Srl, Invercolor Ltd, Invercolor Roma Srl, Invercolor Torino Srl, Invercolor Toscana Srl, Isocoat Tintas e Vernizes Ltda, Isva Vernici Srl, Leighs Paints, M.A. Bruder & Sons, Omega Specialty Products & Services LLC, Oy Sherwin-Williams Finland Ab, PT Sherwin-Williams Indonesia, PT Valspar Indonesia, Paint Sundry Brands, Pinturas Condor S.A., Pinturas Industriales S.A., Piton Paints Limited, Plasti-Kote Co. Inc., Plasti-kote Limited, Productos Quimicos y Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Quest Automotive Products UK Limited, Quetzal Pinturas S.A. de C.V., Ronseal (Ireland) Limited, SWIMC LLC, SWIPCO  Sherwin Williams do Brasil Propriedade Intelectual Ltda, Sherwin Williams Colombia S.A.S., Sherwin-Williams (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Belize) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Caribbean) N.V., Sherwin-Williams (Ireland) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Coatings Technology Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Nantong) Company Limited, Sherwin-Williams (S) Pte. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Shanghai) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Sherwin-Williams (Vietnam) Limited, Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, Sherwin-Williams Argentina I.y C.S.A., Sherwin-Williams Aruba VBA, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Mexico S.de R.L.de C.V., Sherwin-Williams Balkan S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Bel Unitary Enterprise, Sherwin-Williams Benelux NV, Sherwin-Williams Canada Inc., Sherwin-Williams Cayman Islands Limited, Sherwin-Williams Chile S.A., Sherwin-Williams Coatings India Private Limited, Sherwin-Williams Coatings S.a r.l., Sherwin-Williams Czech Republic spol. s r.o, Sherwin-Williams Denmark A/S, Sherwin-Williams Deutschland GmbH, Sherwin-Williams Diversified Brands Limited, Sherwin-Williams France Finishes SAS, Sherwin-Williams Italy S.r.l., Sherwin-Williams Norway AS, Sherwin-Williams Paints Limited Liability Company, Sherwin-Williams Peru S.R.L., Sherwin-Williams Pinturas de Venezuela S.A., Sherwin-Williams Poland Sp. z o.o, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, Sherwin-Williams Realty Holdings Inc., Sherwin-Williams Services (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sherwin-Williams Spain Coatings S.L., Sherwin-Williams Sweden AB, Sherwin-Williams UK Coatings Limited, Sherwin-Williams do Brasil Industria e Comercio Ltda., Spanyc Paints Joint Stock Company, Syntema I Vaggeryd AB, Taiwan Valspar Co. Ltd., The Sherwin-Williams Acceptance Corporation, The Sherwin-Williams Headquarters Company, The Sherwin-Williams Manufacturing Company, The Sherwin-Williams US Licensing Company, The Valspar (Asia) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Australia) Corporation Pty. Ltd., The Valspar (Finland) Corporation Oy, The Valspar (France) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (France) Research Corporation SAS, The Valspar (Malaysia) Corporation Sdn Bhd, The Valspar (Nantes) Corporation S.A.S., The Valspar (Singapore) Corporation Pte. Ltd, The Valspar (South Africa) Corporation (Pty) Ltd, The Valspar (Spain) Corporation S.R.L., The Valspar (Switzerland) Corporation AG, The Valspar (Thailand) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar (UK) Corporation Limited, The Valspar (Vietnam) Corporation Ltd., The Valspar Corporation, The Valspar Corporation Limitada, UAB Sherwin-Williams Baltic, Valspar (India) Coatings Corporation Private Limited, Valspar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Valspar (Uruguay) Corporation S.A., Valspar (WPC) Pty Ltd, Valspar Aries Coatings S. de R.L. de C.V., Valspar Automotive (UK) Corporation Limited, Valspar Automotive Australia Pty Limited, Valspar B.V., Valspar Coatings (Guangdong) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Valspar Coatings (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Valspar D.o.o Beograd, Valspar Industries (Ireland) Ltd., Valspar Industries (Italy) S.r.l., Valspar Industries GmbH, Valspar LLC, Valspar Mexicana S.A. de C.V., Valspar Paint (Australia) Pty Ltd, Valspar Paint (NZ) Limited, Valspar Powder Coatings Limited, Valspar Rock Company Limited (Japan), Valspar Specialty Paints LLC, and ZAO Sherwin-Williams.Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. pays an annual dividend of $4.00 per share and currently has a dividend yield of 5.02%. RGR has a dividend yield higher than 75% of all dividend-paying stocks, making it a leading dividend payer. Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. has been increasing its dividend for 2 consecutive year(s), indicating that it does not yet have a strong track record of dividend growth. The dividend payout ratio of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. is 78.59%. Payout ratios above 75% are not desirable because they may not be sustainable. Based on earnings estimates, Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will have a dividend payout ratio of 73.94% next year. This indicates that Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

View Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.'s dividend history.The following companies are subsidiares of The Travelers Companies: 10762962 Canada Inc., 350 Market Street LLC, 8527512 Canada Inc., Aetna Life and Casualty Co, American Equity Insurance Company, American Equity Specialty Insurance Company, Aprilgrange Limited, Arch Street North LLC, Auto Hartford Investments LLC, Bayhill Restaurant II Associates, Camperdown Corporation, Constitution State Services LLC, Discover Property & Casualty Insurance Company, Discover Specialty Insurance Company, F&G UK Underwriters Limited, Farmington Casualty Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Company, Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc., First Floridian Auto and Home Insurance Company, Gulf Underwriters Insurance Company, IHP Capital Partners Fund VIII L.P., Northbrook Holdings Inc., Northfield Insurance Company, Northland Casualty Company, Northland Insurance Company, Phoenix UK Investments LLC, SPC Insurance Agency Inc., Select Insurance Company, Simply Business Holdings Inc., Simply Business Inc., St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, St. Paul Guardian Insurance Company, St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, St. Paul Protective Insurance Company, St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company, Standard Fire Properties LLC, Standard Fire UK Investments LLC, TCI Global Services Inc., TPC Investments Inc., TPC U.K. Investments LLC, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, The Charter Oak Fire Insurance Company, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, The Family Business Institute LLC, The Phoenix Insurance Company, The St. Paul Companies Inc., The Standard Fire Insurance Company, The Travelers Casualty Company, The Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company, The Travelers Indemnity Company of America, The Travelers Indemnity Company of Connecticut, The Travelers Lloyds Insurance Company, TravCo Insurance Company, Travelers (Bermuda) Limited, Travelers Brazil Acquisition LLC, Travelers Brazil Holding LLC, Travelers Casualty Company of Connecticut, Travelers Casualty Insurance Company of America, Travelers Casualty UK Investments LLC, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America, Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of Europe Limited, Travelers Commercial Casualty Company, Travelers Commercial Insurance Company, Travelers Constitution State Insurance Company, Travelers Distribution Alliance Inc., Travelers Excess and Surplus Lines Company, Travelers Global Inc., Travelers Indemnity U.K. Investments LLC, Travelers Insurance Company Limited, Travelers Insurance Company of Canada, Travelers Insurance Designated Activity Company, Travelers Insurance Group Holdings Inc., Travelers Lloyds of Texas Insurance Company, Travelers London Limited, Travelers MGA Inc., Travelers Management Limited, Travelers Marine LLC, Travelers Participacoes em Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Personal Insurance Company, Travelers Personal Security Insurance Company, Travelers Property Casualty Company of America, Travelers Property Casualty Corp., Travelers Property Casualty Insurance Company, Travelers Seguros Brasil S.A., Travelers Syndicate Management Limited, Travelers Texas MGA Inc., Travelers Underwriting Agency Limited, Ultramar Travel Management, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, Xbridge Limited, Zensurance Brokers Inc., and Zensurance Inc..A pair of $16,000 conditioned events, one on each gait, was featured on the Wednesday afternoon (July 25) card of live racing at Harrahs Philadelphia.

The trotters were up first, and the Explosive Matter gelding Major Impact lowered his mark to 1:55.2 after he won by one and a quarter lengths over the pacesetting favourite, Scirocco Imsosmart. Victor Kirby rated his charge third-inside then moved out late on the turn as the first-over competitor faded. Major Impact came home well under confident handling for trainer Robert Baggitt Jr. and owner Christine Baggitt.

In the pace, the Western Ideal gelding Palomar had driver Tim Tetrick help him snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat while taking a new mark of 1:52. Palomar had tucked fourth from the outside Post 8, then moved out behind cover at the three-quarters pole. At that point he was gaining on the leaders when he put in a few funky steps mid-turn. Tetrick was able to quickly get him back on gait, and Palomar rallied to catch Aleppo Hanover right on the money by a nose for trainer Jim King Jr. and the Paton Racing Stables Inc.

Ubanji, one of the French Foreign Legion of trotters imported from France to try their luck on U.S. shores, was ready at first asking, as he trotted a strong mile on the engine and stopped the timer in 1:55.1 for driver Andrew McCarthy, trainer Ed Gannon Jr., and owner Frank Canzone. The ten-year-old altered son of Jag De Bellouet paid $3.60 after his one and a quarter-length triumph.

(PHHA / Harrahs Philadelphia)Post Time with Mike and Mike, presented by BetAmerica, is excited to announce its line-up for Thursday morning (July 12) at 10:30 a.m.

The duo will be joined by Rick Zeron, trainer of Atlanta; Roger Huston, the track announcer at the Meadows; Anthony MacDonald, trainer of Lawmaker; Joe Thomson, owner and founder of Winbak Farm; and Darin Gagne, from Running Aces Casino and Racetrack.

Zeron will join the program to discuss his champion filly that will take on the boys in the $1 million Hambletonian. He will talk to the duo about what went in to the decision to race her against the boys and how she is training leading up to the big race.

Huston will join the duo to discuss the 2018 Adios which is coming up at the Meadows on Saturday afternoon. American History and Hitman Hill won their eliminations and were able to select their post positions for the final. Huston will talk about who he likes in the big race and what else fans can look forward to on the program.

MacDonald will talk to the duo about his three-year-old colts chances in the Hambletonian. Lawmaker is coming off of a tough trip at Harrahs Philadelphia in his last start where he made a costly break.

Thomson will join the show to discuss the history of the breeding farm and what it is looking forward to in 2018. Thomson will also talk about his career in the sport of harness racing and how he got involved.

The continuing Running Aces segment will air this week with track announcer Darin Gagne. He will discuss the happenings at the Minnesota track, including the results of the $50,000 Dan Patch Free For All Pace.

Post Time can be heard live every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. on posttimewithmikeandmike.com or on the archive at betamerica.com/BARN.

(With files from Post Time)The Pompano Park auction scheduled for August 5 and 6 at Pompano Park in south Florida has evolved into a mega-auction according to sales manager Jim Brown.

The two-day extravaganza will feature over 4,000 items in over 1,500 lots and will include memorabilia dating back to the tracks infancy in 1964, including art, murals, and signage.

The auction will also include restaurant equipment, a boom truck and new storage sheds.

There will be a two-day preview of all lots in the sale on August 3 and 4.

Sale manager Jim Brown is especially excited about the legendary bars, which will also be part of the auction.

One of the most iconic items in the auction is the Jackie Gleason bar, so named in honour of the many visits to the track by famed entertainer Jackie Gleason.

We also will feature the classical horse head that adorned the property since opening day in 1964.

The auction will also feature a 20-seat transportation vehicle, with accommodations for those with disabilities.

Lead auctioneer Mike Baker added, In compiling the inventory for the sale, we have found a treasure trove of items going on the bidding blockliterally a treasure trove of valuable and historical lots.

This is such a rare event that we expect collectors from points far away will participate and weve made it easy for all to get involved, either by being there in person or bidding by proxibid.com.

The Sunday, August 5 session will begin at noon and will include vintage memorabilia, signage, themed props and historical racing items.

The Monday, August 6 session will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will feature commercial and industrial equipment, including bar, lounge and restaurant equipment, vehicles, track and grounds maintenance equipment, restaurant and kitchen equipment, bar stools, tables, lounge chairs and other general restaurant and institutional equipment and supplies.

Photographs of many items in this historic event can be found on midwest-auctioneers.com.

For those participating from afar via the internet, registration will begin on July 31, while registration for those attending the live auction can register beginning August 3 during the two-day preview.

For further information, call lead auctioneer Mike Baker at 1-937-459-9558 or sales manager Jim Brown at 1-954-263-1999.

(Midwest Auctioneers & Realty, Inc.)New Delhi: American Express has launched its new 360-degree brand marketing campaign in India.

The campaign called "Powerful Backing of American Express: Don't Live Life / Don't Do Business Without It" reflects new-age highly-integrated lifestyles and how American Express supports its customers, enabling them to thrive in life and in business.

"This is the first time we're introducing a campaign that speaks to all of the customer segments we serve, with a single, overarching message: American Express has your back, in life and in work. Relationships are core to who we are. Since our inception, we've put our customers at the center of everything we do. The campaign reinforces the enduring relationships we have with our customers and how we support them in ways big and small," said Manoj Adlakha, CEO - American Express Banking Corp, India.

Elaborating on the insights that powered the global brand strategy, Manoj added, "The way people work and live has transformed - there is greater interconnectedness in both personal and work life, as well as real and virtual interactions. This blended, hybrid lifestyle is the new norm across the world - India is no exception. The new brand platform is a response to the fact that our customers are living diverse and layered lives. Our new campaign focuses on the powerful backing that we provide our customers and partners, enabling them to navigate this blended lifestyle."

A recent global study commissioned by American Express showed that more than half of people today are living Hybrid lives, with personal and work life deeply intertwined. The study, conducted in eight markets including India, also revealed that two in three people feel they can achieve more because of this work-life integration.

The new brand campaign was presented at an event showcasing dual passion-points of Indian millennials - technology and travel. These passion-points power the hybrid lifestyle that has emerged in the Live Life study.

The event featured innovative use of technology to transport the attendees into a real-life simulation of diverse experiences such as an adrenaline-charged roller-coaster ride, the thrill of sky-diving, watching the Northern Lights and seeing penguins in the glaciers of Antarctica. Members of the public can access these experiences through brand activations in DLF Mall of India (Noida) and Cyber Hub (Gurgaon).

Advertising is featured on a cross-section of platforms with a focus on communications channels that are at the intersection of life and work. These include print, mobile and outdoor platforms, as well as digital and social media. The advertising and marketing elements include a heavy focus on digital content, online video, high-impact out-of-home advertising and social influencer engagement.

The campaign is designed to meet people in the places where life and business intersect, both online and offline. Whether traveling, going to work, heading out to have fun, engaging with digital content or connecting on social media, Indians will be continuously reminded - American Express has got their back.

Sharing details on how the global campaign was adapted for Indian audiences, Manoj said, "Our local agency partners at Ogilvy and Mindshare have been instrumental in trans-creating the global campaign to make it relevant for the Indian market. They have successfully integrated nuances that our customers and prospects can relate to. We are confident that this approach will resonate with our audience."

"For today's audiences with hybrid lives and complex paths to purchase, we leveraged relevant media and data intelligence to decode the mindset, media consumption behaviours, and connected journeys to deliver the communication to each audience segment, in the right context through the right medium. Basis these findings, we developed an integrated brand and demand focused media strategy that will keep the audiences engaged throughout the brand funnel, finally leading them towards becoming American Express members," added Ruchi Mathur, Sr. Vice President - North & East India at Mindshare.

With the new brand platform, American Express is drawing on its heritage of service, security and trust and modernising many elements of its brand iconography, including a modern articulation of a famous tagline, refreshing its Blue Box logo and visual identity and introducing a hand-drawn version of its famous Card design that features its customers at the center.

The work was created by Mcgarrybowen, Pentagram, Ogilvy, Mindshare, and Digitas. The advertising was directed by renowned director Lance Accord, and the photography was shot by award-winning photographer Matthieu Young.Competition Appellate Tribunal, which had on November 22 stayed CCI's direction to pay 10 per cent of the penalty within a month of the order.

New Delhi: The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday dismissed cement manufacturers' plea, challenging the order of fair trade regulator CCI to impose a penalty of Rs 6,700 crore for alleged cartelisation.

A two-member NCLAT bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya dismissed a batch of petitions by over 11 cement-makers.

The appeals are dismissed, said the NCLAT, which now is an appellate authority over the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

In August 2016, CCI had slapped approximately Rs 6,700 crore penalty on 11 cement firms including UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja, Ramco and JK Cement as well as the industry body Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) for indulging in cartelisation.

This was challenged by the cement makers before the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which had on November 22 stayed CCI's direction to pay 10 per cent of the penalty within a month of the order.

In the August 2016 order, apart from penalising the CMA, CCI had directed all the firms to "cease and desist" from indulging in any activity relating to agreement, understanding or arrangement on prices, production and supply of cement in the market.

CCI had imposed the highest penalty of Rs 1,175.49 crore on Aditya Birla group firm UltraTech.Idea Cellular and Vodafone announced to merge operations in March last year and were targeting to seal the merger by June.

Mumbai: Country's second largest telecom firm Vodafone on Wednesday reported a 22.3 per cent decline in June quarter revenue to 959 million euro on intense competition and cuts in termination rates.

The London-headquartered company had posted revenues of 1.387 billion euro under the IAS18 accounting standards for the corresponding period last year.

Having bagged the Department of Telecom nod for its merger with Idea Cellular, the company exuded confidence of completing the transaction by next month.

The British telecom company said the service revenues, excluding the impact of the mobile termination rate cuts, declined by 9.6 per cent for the reporting quarter. When compared to the preceding March quarter, the service revenues declined 0.2 per cent, the company said, stating that this was due to prepaid prices being stable during the three months.

The company said it was able to retain the high value customers at lower price levels and the crucial average revenue per user declined by 20 per cent for the postpaid connections and 28 per cent for the prepaid connections.

A move away to 'single SIM' ownership due to unlimited plans saw the number of customers decline by three million during the quarter to 219.7 million and mitigated the pricing pressures, it said.

Over 29 per cent of its prepaid users have availed the unlimited offers, it said, adding 77 million of its customers are using data, of which 20.9 million are on 4G.

It said the steep decline in prices has quadrupled Indian data traffic and customers are now using an average of 4.6 GB of data every month, against 2.8 GB in Europe.

On its merger with Idea Cellular, the company said the Aditya Birla Group company has paid 0.5 billion euro in spectrum liberalisation fees and also provided a bank guarantee to cover certain disputed demands which are the subject of ongoing court cases.

"In India, where competition remains intense, we have now received conditional approval from the Department of Telecoms for the merger of Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which we aim to close before the end of August, allowing us to unlock substantial synergies," its group chief executive Vittorio Colao said.

It can be noted that in face of rising competitive pressures after the launch and aggressive play of the deep-pocketed Reliance Jio, all the entrenched companies have faced varied pressure on finances. It has led to withdrawal of a few operators and also bankruptcies.

Idea Cellular and Vodafone announced to merge operations in March last year and were targeting to seal the merger by June. The company said it is also making good progress on merger of Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel, and has received approvals from the Competition Commission of India and Sebi this month.New Delhi: Barely 20 days after finance minister Piyush Goyal said the government was open to giving RBI more powers to regulate PSU banks, minister of state for finance Shiv Pratap Shukla on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank has wide-ranging and comprehensive powers to address various situations in banks.

Reserve Bank governor Urjit Patel has been seeking more powers to deal with the problem of bad loans at public sector banks. Patel had spoken critically of the ownership structure of state-owned banks saying regulatory powers are not ownership neutral as RBIs powers over PSBs are weaker than those over the private sector banks. Following criticism that RBI also has to be blamed for the biggest financial scam in the country  the Rs 13,500 crore PNB scam  Patel had blamed it on the lack of powers with the central bank to control the state-run banks.

As regard the RBI powers, we are examining it and thats an issue that we will sit with the RBI and will sort out. The government has an open mind on this issue, Goyal had said when asked about the concerns raised by the RBI governor.

Listing the RBIs powers to deal with banks, Shukla said the central bank can inspect the lenders, examine on oath any officer, direct special audit and give directions to banks.

Also, wholetime directors of nationalised banks and State Bank of India are appointed in consultation with the RBI, he said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

... the powers of RBI are wide-ranging and comprehensive to deal with various situations that may emerge in all banks, including public sector banks, he said.

Replying to another question on whether less money was being put in ATMs after the demonetisation, Shukla said that is not the case.

The RBI has informed that the total amount of notes in circulation (NIC) as on July 18, 2018 was Rs 19.28 lakh crore as compared to Rs 17.74 lakh crore as on November 4, 2016, he said.

RBI has ensured adequate supply of notes to meet the cash requirement of public and the currency supply is monitored continuously to ensure distribution of adequate currency to various parts of the country, he said.

The government, he added, has requested all banks to efficiently manage the cash to ensure that adequate cash is available for ATMs and people do not face any problems.The anti-profiteering authority has ordered audit of major e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, to find out whether they have refunded the excess GST collected from the consumers.

New Delhi: The anti-profiteering authority has ordered audit of major e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal, to find out whether they have refunded the excess GST collected from the consumers.

As per the order passed by the National Anti Profiteering Authority in the Flipkart case, the Director General of Audit of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) will conduct audit of all major e-platform companies and submit its findings to the authority.

The problem surfaced as the GST rate was higher when the order was placed and was subsequently reduced when the delivery of product was made to the consumer.

In its ruling in the Flipkart case, the authority said it is "conscious of the fact that there may be several such cases in which the e-platforms had collected excess GST from the buyers and have not refunded the same after the tax was reduced on various products on November 15, 2017".

Following this, the anti-profiteering authority has "directed the Director General of Audit, CBIC, to audit the major e-platforms and submit findings to the authority".

The authority, however, dismissed the application alleging profiteering by Flipkart filed by an individual after the e-commerce assured that it has initiated the process of refund of excess duty paid at the time of booking.

The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister, had reduced tax rates on over 200 daily use items like chocolates, waffles, furniture, wrist watch, cutlery items, suitcase and ceramic tiles, with effect from November 15, last year.

The anti-profiteering authority was set up last year to ensure that consumers get the benefit of tax rate reduction post the roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) from July 1, 2017.India is willing to address the trade deficit with Uganda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said as he urged the business community of the two countries to fully exploit the favourable conditions for enhancing the bilateral trade. (Photo: AFP)

Kampala: India is willing to address the trade deficit with Uganda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said as he urged the business community of the two countries to fully exploit the favourable conditions for enhancing the bilateral trade.

Prime Minister Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Uganda, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997, addressed the business community at the India-Uganda Business Forum organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was also present at the meeting, exhorted the business community from both the countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment. Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni discussed the issue of trade imbalance between India and Uganda.

The two leaders noted the current level of bilateral trade and expressed the desire to enhance and diversify the trade basket including addressing the trade imbalance and to facilitate trade between the two countries.

Modi said that President Museveni is right in saying that there is a trade imbalance between India and Uganda. "I have come here to solve that (trade imbalance)," he said.

"India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda. We have to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda," the prime minister said. India's exports to Uganda in 2016 stood at USD 524.02 million while India's imports from Uganda was just USD 68.22 million, according to the High Commission of India in Kampala.

"When I compare the economic relationship of India and Uganda, I find this a perfect win-win situation. But we are falling short and are unable to take advantage of this situation. If we strategise things precisely, I think we can go beyong that," Modi said.

Investment in India is very easy for anyone because India is a policy-driven governance where there is tax stability and predictable taxation, Modi said.

He said that India was ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in the country. Modi also highlighted India's growth trajectory and the transformative changes taking place in the country.Indian tech firms used to underpay their Indian employees in US, until a parity pay was made mandatory by Trump Administration. (Photo: PTI)

Bangaluru: The American dreams of Indian tech workers seem to be fading away with both their employers and the Trump Administration sending out travel advisory kind of messages on a regular basis.

A new policy memo issued by the US government gives blanket permission to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) to use discretion and deny H-1B visa applications outright without offering any explanation, even without asking for a RFE (request for evidence) or without even issuing a NOID (notice of intent to deny).

The new visa guidance is effective September 11, 2018 and applies to all applications, petitions, and requests received after the effective date, said a copy of the memo.

Whats making the situation worse for a large number of techies who have been waiting for onsite opportunities in the US is that their employers are not willing to fork out extra bucks to pay their staff on-site.

Indian tech firms used to underpay their Indian employees in the US, until a parity pay was made mandatory by the Trump Administration. For instance, if an American tech worker gets paid $80,000 per annum for a particular job, an onsite immigrant worker from India for the same job gets paid only 60 per cent of that amount.

Vivek Tandon, CEO of EB-5 BRICS, a visa advisory firm based in California, said, Denials are on the rise. The new regulations will impact the business plans, project execution schedules and hiring strategies of Indian IT firms. They are no more allowed to underpay their employees in the US by undercutting the US labour market.

Indian on-site workers were always paid a discounted salary by their employers, including tier I tech players. Trump sealed the root of this exploitation by making prevailing wage a mandatory for all workers of the same job, said an immigration professional employed at a leading IT firm who doesnt want to be named.

As per Stella Nagesh, Bangalore-based immigration expert, Most IT firms in India do not follow wage mapping. Clients agree to pay them an ex account and they in turn pay their employees, but only a discounted salary. Thats why a document submitted to USCIS on behalf of an on-site employee will have a salary figure, while other documents of the same employee will have another figure which is much lower. Employees have been always aware of this undercutting. But they remained silent because they wanted to work in the US and enjoy life under a much better environment.

So, the US will remain a spot in the Google map for a large number of techies in India as number of on-site requirements coming to India will be very few, said BS Murthy, CEO of Leadship Capital. The best way to beat this scenario, for techies, could be by excelling in digital technologies and data sciences.

FC met a bunch of techies from different companies. Most of them believe the US window is more or less closed for them unless some major changes are brought to regulations.

I used to travel to the US at least twice a year. I would often hear from colleagues about their US on-site US travel schedules, but thats simply not there anymore, said Sunita Agarwal, software engineer employed at a leading software firm.A Pope, the Pill and the Perils of Sexual Chaos

Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276, KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 / Standard Newswire / -- The sexual revolution flaunted the empty promise of sexual freedom, so-called stronger marriages, the control of unwanted pregnancies and more opportunities for women to advance in the workplace. Did all this sexual license provide authentic freedom?A new documentary UNPROTECTED: A HALF-CENTURY OF SEXUAL CHAOS (Ignatius Press, Runaway Planet Pictures and DJEM Media) sheds light on the history of the sexual revolution, the moral decline of the West and a broken generation rife with sexual woundedness, fractured marriages and overall moral bankruptcy. Pope Paul VI in his prophetic 50-year-old encyclical Humanae Vitae warned the Church about these issues. UNPROTECTED explores Humanae Vitae, a central focus of the documentary, which exposes the breakdown of the family, perversion of human sexuality, the rampant use of birth control and abortion on demand.As a concerned father of three girls, the film's writer and director, Don Johnson, traveled around the country to discover why the culture has become so toxic for women. Who (and what) has led to sexting pressure, the hookup culture, teenage depression and the #Metoo movement? Johnson found a surprising answer  and some hope for the future  by digging deeper into Humanae Vitae.UNPROTECTED features interviews with renowned experts and scholars, including Janet Smith, Christopher West, Damon Owens, Jennifer Fulwiler, Sue Ellen Browder, Jason and Crystalina Evert, Patrick Coffin, Jennifer Roback Morse, Carrie Gress, Mark Regnerus, Benjamin Wiker, Leila Miller, Arleen Spenceley and Donald Asci.Johnson will host the premiere of UNPROTECTED at 7:30 p.m. PT Friday, July 27 at the HV50 Conference hosted by the California Association of Family Planning in Ontario, California. He also will moderate a panel discussion featuring Smith, West, Coffin and Roback Morse following the screening.Watch the UNPROTECTED trailer: youtu.be/aIGYR3GrORs . Visit the website: www.UnprotectedMovie.com For more information, to request a media screening link or to schedule an interview with Don Johnson or Janet Smith, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com ) of Carmel Communications.28-year-old Khan was lynched to death by a mob over suspicion of cow smuggling on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday. (Photo: File | ANI)

Mumbai: Bollywood celebrities, including lyricist Javed Akhtar and director Sudhir Mishra on Tuesday voiced their outrage over the increasing instances of lynching and pressed for justice for the victims.

Mob violence had not been justified with "such shameless audacity" even during the bleakest moments in history, said Akhtar.

Also read: Alwar lynching victim died in police custody: Rajasthan Home Minister

"Even in the days of Ku Klux Klan and slavery in USA or at the peak of White supremacist rule in South Africa no one had justified lynching with such shameless audacity," the veteran writer-lyricist said on Twitter.

Even in the days of klu klax klan and slavery in USA or at the peak of White superimist rule In South Africa no one had justified lynching with such shameless audacity. .  Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) July 24, 2018

Director Sudhir Mishra added, "What do those who justify lynching say to their children?"

What do those who justify lynching say to their children ?  Sudhir Mishra (@IAmSudhirMishra) July 24, 2018

In the latest incident, a 28-year-old man, Rakbar Khan, was allegedly lynched to death on the suspicion of cow smuggling in Rajasthan's Alwar district. It is alleged that it took over two-and-a-half hours for the police to take the victim to a nearby hospital.

A high-level panel, set up by the state police, found four policemen guilty of dereliction in duty and suspended an assistant sub-inspector and shunted three constables to police lines.

"Cops who stand by and watch a lynching (and sometimes try to cover it up with false narratives) shouldn't they be severely punished too- instead of being just suspended or sent off to another posting. These guys are supposed to protect the innocent, not aid in their murder," filmmaker and former journalist Pritish Nandy said.

Cops who stand by and watch a lynching (and sometimes try to cover it up with false narratives) shouldnt they be severely punished too instead of being just suspended or sent off to another posting. These guys are supposed to protect the innocent, not aid in their murder.  Pritish Nandy (@PritishNandy) July 24, 2018

Actor-stand up comedian Vir Das tweeted, "Who does a guy have to hug to get some justice for lynching around here?"

Also read: Alwar lynching: Akbar died of shock from injuries, bleeding, finds autopsy

Who does a guy have to hug to get some justice for lynching around here?  Vir Das (@thevirdas) July 22, 2018

Actor Gauahar Khan added that a dying person's statements are of no use and the accused are given a clean chit.

"The leaders of the state make loose statements about killings as if it's just a chain snatching incident, the leaders of the country stay quiet about it, but lynching is the new casual term for MURDER," she tweeted.

The dying persons statements are of no use, accused are given a clean chit! The leaders of the state make loose statements about killings as if its just a chain snatching incident , the leaders of the country stay quiet about it, but lynching is the new casual term for MURDER  Gauahar Khan (@GAUAHAR_KHAN) July 22, 2018

Actor-poet Danish Husain tagged a report about death of cows in a shelter and tweeted, "No, no - we must lynch #Muslims that's the only way to protect cows. A horrific death in a shelter is much better than being a Muslim's cattle."

No, no - we must lynch #Muslims thats the only way to protect cows. A horrific death in a shelter is much better than being a Muslims cattle. https://t.co/FzXmjL9xie  Danish Husain (@DanHusain) July 24, 2018

Director Alankrita Srivastava said schools earlier taught students not to follow the herd and think for themselves.

Also read: MLA with us, nobody can do anything, claimed mob: Alwar lynching victim's friend

" 'Mob mentality' was not a tenet to live by, but to guard ourselves against. The mob does not know reason, and is driven by anger, hatred and/or foolishness. Time to go back to school, perhaps.Richa Chadha, who was last seen as the dynamic Paro in Sudhir Mishras political drama, Daas Dev, is gearing up for her upcoming film, Love Sonia, in which she is playing the role of a brothel owner. The film, and Indo-American venture, also stars Frieda Pinto, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpayee, Mrunal Thakur, Rajkumar Rao and Sai Tamhankar in pivotal roles.

For her character, Richa had to delve deep into the underbelly of prostitution and the sex trade. As her character is a part of the prostitution racket, the Fukrey actress had to understand the inner workings of this taboo profession. Richas research on the subject has been thorough in order to justify her role on screen. The actress read various first hand experience books like God in a Brothel, The White Umbrella and Girls Like Us which talk about sex trafficking survivors journeys and the experiences that have scarred them forever. She spoke to a few sex workers from Mumbais red light district with the help of an NGO and even spoke to some documentary filmmakers who have covered stories on the same.

Richa says, I was very intrigued by the subject Love Sonia deals with. To essay the role in Love Sonia, it took me a couple of weeks to actually understand not the nuances but the gravity of the topic.

Of course we all know how horrible human trafficking is and how grave a crisis it is today. But when you get a chance to know so much about a topic so closely I took that chance and spent a lot of time to research. I met NGO workers and even met with girls who have been rescued and their stories were extremely horrifying and yet inspiring to know that there is hope. Their stories really helped me to understand and to use that information for the role on screen, she added.

Love Sonia is directed by Tabrez Noorani and produced by Academy Award nominee, David Womark of Life of Pi fame.Kamal Haasans Viswaroopam 2 (Vishwaroop II in Hindi) is to hit the marquees soon. The film may redefine his life, film career and budding political career. The movie may be viewed as Kamal the politicians movie. But at heart, the stalwart matinee star, into his sixth decade in films, is an intense film maker who is very conscious of the medium and conscientious in how he makes his films or acts in them. And he says it as he sees it today, even to the extent of criticising Kollywood , the cinema suburb that made him into the star he is now and also, perhaps, the politician he wants to be.

Asked at what stage did he realise that the Viswharoopam 2 story needed to be told, he says, I did not stop writing. There was a limitation. I brought the new thing called page a minute format. You have to think a script in terms of minute and screen time. Around 1990, I went and took training in Hollywood on this. It is a technique that you have to arrive at. We have limitations as screenwriters here. There was no cinema education. Industry used to be run by hands-on cinema. Now it is purely moneybags that drive the market. So, they water down the music, script, want 6 songs, 4 fights and they call it commercial demand. They connect cinema with popcorn. I am not making fun. They force all these on audiences, who may or may not want them. So, these pressures really affect screen writers.

He quickly adds that it took 30 years for him to understand to come somewhere close to what he would have liked to have done when he was 25 years old. Cinema education is necessary. My education did not come from Kodambakkam. I had to go outside, remove myself from here and see how silly we are. That happened even with younger audiences. They are bold and walk away from regular cinema.

Asked if Vishwaroopam would reflect the present political climate, he quips, Fortunately, this is what Mr Cho did when he did 30thyear of Tughlaq. It was still relevant then, they said. Thanks to politicians - they have not changed. I have not changed my play. They are still as corrupt and as stupid so that my play works as a great satire now. The same thing applies for Viswaroopam, it will apply even after 5 years. As long we have great leaders like Trump and they want to build defence corridors to save a country.

This is the first film hitting the marquee after Kamal turned full-fledged politician and having to raise his voice for various causes and issues. Will it be a plus or minus to him?

I dont know it could be plus or minus. I am not looking at it that way. But this is a film I made much before I entered active politics. That does not mean the film is devoid of politics. It talks even broader politics even if it is limited to street-by-street battle. Geo politics is country to country. This is street-by-street battle where they go by community, caste and they will go by anything. This battle in not considered politics. Thats why I call myself as politi-culturist. For 40 years, I have been an armchair politician.

Talking about how Poojas character which had the extramarital tinge angle to it been dealt with in part 2 he said, Her character is in complete denial as who he is and in fact both mine as well as hers had a dark secret to them. And in part 2, they come to understand each other and the transition takes place.

Reacting to a query on if audiences would connect the sequel with the first film, he says, Theres no second film at all as far as we are concerned. It is a continuous story. Unfortunately, for you (audiences), there happened to be a gap. Yes, we have taken care of it through the dynamics of the screenplay. Even if it happens to be the first film you watch you will see it as a standalone movie. All said and done, what we have not done is lean on the glory of one (first movie).

Being the writer-director of Vishwaroopm, he says his comments during the protest against the first movie was misconstrued and created a storm then. I had said that I would leave Tamil Nadu since as a creator my artistic freedom was curtailed. I said such an act was a shame on the ruling government. That was what I meant when I said that in a statement.

The actor asserts he would honour his earlier filmy commitments like Sabaash Naidu and Indian 2 and even think of his pet project Maruthanayagam. After all, I also want to make money for my party and myself, he says and signs off with a smile. Music composer Ghibran, actresses Pooja and Andrea were present on the occasion.Sharwanand and Sai Pallavi are playing the leads in the film Padi Padi Leche Manasu directed by Hanu Raghavapudi.

Sharwanand and Sai Pallavi are playing the leads in the film Padi Padi Leche Manasu directed by Hanu Raghavapudi. However, surprisingly, the makers of the film have locked its release date as December 21.

One wonders why they are taking so long to release the film, especially as most of the shoot is already complete. The film, a romantic entertainer, has been shot mostly in Kolkata.

The team is leaving for Nepal soon and with this, the film will complete its shoot, say the producers.

Murali Sharma, who got a good name with his recent film Vijetha, is playing an important role in the Sharwanand-starrer while Sai Pallavi, who is choosy about her films, is once again doing a performance oriented role.

Meanwhile, a unit source predicts that Sharwanand will go to new heights with this film as director Hanu has designed his character in a unique and fresh way.

HT05After the Chicago racket, the US Home Department has started keeping an eagle eye on the Telugu film fraternity, particularly when they travel to the USA. Whereas earlier, visas were issued to anyone who wanted to visit the country for cultural events organised by the Telugu associations there, it is no longer that easy, especially for the film folks. Actress Mehreen recently found herself in an uncomfortable situation when she was questioned extensively by the US Immigration and Home Department while travelling from Canada to the USA.

According to a source, the US has tightened visas for film shoots and officials are keenly watching every move after the Chicago racket where the USA department of home guard security investigated a few actresses from the Telugu movie industry for being involved in prostitution got exposed. Interestingly, US officials are not objecting to big star films and reputed production houses. Rather, it is new players that have come under the scanner, adds the source.

Shivani and Adivi Sesh during the launch of the movie 2 States

The team of the upcoming Ravi Teja-starrer Amar Akbar Anthony is scheduled for a visa interview later this week. Yes, we are attending an interview this week as we have to shoot there for nearly 25 days, confirms Naveen, one of the producers. Meanwhile, the shooting of the Telugu remake of 2 States, starring Jeevithas elder daughter Shivani and Adivi Sesh, is going on and the unit is supposed to leave for the USA for a schedule. Talking about the progress of her daughters film, Jeevitha says that after shooting in India, her daughter is supposed to leave for the USA next month.

However, after the recent happenings, the US officials have tightened their borders and its difficult to get a work visa, especially for film shootings, says Jeevitha.

Since the team is also doubtful about their visa, they have already come up with an alternative plan. We have already planned an alternative country and are preparing for it, says director Venkat Reddy, adding that at present, the shooting is going on in India and after a few days in Kolkata, they will try to embark on their US schedule.

Meanwhile, many filmmakers have made London their new top destination. The Akhil-starrer directed by Venky Atluri is presently being shot in the UK, while Pooja Hegde and Rakul Preet Singh were recently in the country for their Hindi film shootings. The Sundeep Kishan and Tamannah starrer, directed by Kunal Kohli also held its shoot in London.

Big stars remain unfazed by these new developments. Mahesh Babu, for instance, is supposed to leave for the USA in September for his film with Vamshi Paidipalli, which will not be a problem for him as he is one of the top stars of Telugu cinema.

Sadly, the Chicago racket has made travelling to the USA for film shootings more complicated. Even though they grant visas, the officials keep asking many questions, keep an eye on them and observe them a lot, which puts the film people in an embarrassing situation. So instead, they are looking for new destinations like the UK and Switzerland or some other European country, says a manager who is looking after the work of some of the top actresses of Telugu cinema.While government-run hospitals are very few and have a terrible track record, private hospitals hesitate to be part of these schemes as there is a lack of clarity from the government on reimbursements.

Universal healthcare has remained a mirage for successive state and central governments. While government-run hospitals are very few and have a terrible track record, private hospitals hesitate to be part of these schemes as there is a lack of clarity from the government on reimbursements. Experts suggest that the governments, instead of announcing new schemes, should focus on utilising the existing resources more effectively and launch an affordable health insurance scheme for all. Abhilash Mariswamy reports.

A large amount of money is being spent on various healthcare schemes by central and state governments, but many of these programmes are still lagging in reach at the ground level. This years Union Budget announced the largest government-funded healthcare scheme, but more than giving assurance, it only raised questions about its implementation.

The scheme made many promises, including a shift towards the use of generics from costly, branded drugs. But this shift has not resulted in any positive outcomes. That is because of non-availability of generics as distribution of these low-cost drugs continues to be the biggest problem, said doctors in the city.

The proposed shift to generics has left many doctors confused and the medical industry is divided on the effectiveness of these drugs. Many doctors said that they cannot try generics, especially on patients with life-threatening conditions like pneumonia, worsening asthma, sepsis, etc.

Read | Guest column: Universal health hampered by accessibility, lack of awareness

With the limitations of generic medicines, only a few doctors prescribe them. Dr Manohar K.N., Physician & Consultant Internal Medicines, Manipal Hospitals, said, Generic drugs should not be just a cheaper alternative to the original molecule. Generic drugs should be as effective as and more economical than the original drugs.

Health policy-makers often blame branded drugs for rising healthcare costs. Despite promises by the central government on the quality of generic medicines, the absence of an international-standard drug regulatory mechanism has deterred Indian doctors from trusting these drugs.

Dr Manohar said that most western generics follow the same stringent norms and undergo the same number of trials as compared to the original molecules. In our country, there are a number of pharmaceutical companies who manufacture generic drugs. The onus is on the health regulators and the government to make generics trustable, he said.

Dr Usha Manjunath, Director, Indian Institute of Health Management and Research (IIHMR), said that the few doctors who prescribe generics revealed that the quality is not up to the mark. It is a tough call for medical practitioners and dispensers, she said.

Experts pointed out that though the central government has released generic drugs, the problem is yet to be tackled and the progress is far from satisfactory.

Pathetic record

According to the IndiaSpend report, Out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenses drove 55 million Indians into poverty in 2011-12, and of these 38 million (68%) were impoverished by expenditure on medicines alone. Not only that, about 68% of the Indian population has limited or no access to essential medicines, according to a World Health Organisation report.

A study revealed that India spent just Rs 1,112 on healthcare, per year per person. This is less than the consultation fee at most of the top private hospitals. This works out to Rs 93 per month or Rs 3 per day.

Need a quality-driven treatment, not cost-driven

Many government-initiated healthcare schemes and services are limited to a few hospitals, like Bowring, Victoria, St. Johns and Kidwai, which prevents majority of the population from accessing quality public healthcare. Access to quality healthcare continues to be a major challenge for governments at the Centre and state, though they announce newer schemes frequently. Even at these hospitals, except a few, there is a severe lack of basic hygiene, staff, instruments and beds.

There are many limitations when it comes to accessing healthcare at government hospitals, especially at the district level. A number of times, doctors at these centres refer patients to hospitals like Bowing and Victoria because of lack of facilities. But it only adds to the burden of the poor people, who have to travel from remote areas, said Dr Sachin Sinha, secretary, Narain Sewa Sansthan.

Also, funding for the treatment of the poor under various schemes is very low, which is sufficient only for basic treatment. These underprivileged people have to depend on government hospitals as they cannot afford the high cost of treatment at private hospitals, he said.

A report by IndiaSpend revealed that Out-of-pocket (OOP) healthcare expenses drove 55 million Indians into poverty in 2011-12, and of these, 38 million (68%) were impoverished by spending on medicines alone. Also, around 68% of people in India have limited or no access to essential medicines, a World Health Organisation report revealed.

Dr H. Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman, Manipal Hospitals, said, Indias healthcare problem is unique, where more than three-quarters of tertiary healthcare is in the private sector. With poor penetration of health insurance schemes (private or public), a large number of people spend money from their pockets for treatment, which is expensive in most cases. As healthcare is not available for the masses, it leads to discontent and anger against caregivers.

Healthcare has advanced, but it has also led to increase in the cost of treatment, making it unaffordable to a large section of the population, especially the poor. The inherent limitations of government schemes also make people suspect the intentions of the government.

A study revealed that the government spends Rs 1,112 on healthcare, per year per person. This is less than even the consultation fee at most of the top private hospitals. It works out to Rs 93 per month or Rs 3 per day!

Dr Ballal said that the government should focus on an aggressive public healthcare delivery system and work towards prevention and wellness, instead of treatment of diseases alone. They should work towards upgradation of services at public hospitals and reasonable universal health insurance coverage in partnership with the private sector, he said.

To make healthcare accessible and affordable to the poor, the central government launched Ayushman Bharat, while the state too announced Arogya Karnataka. But the private healthcare sector is confused as details of these schemes are not available. Its also a mystery as to how the two schemes, which are on similar lines, will work.

Experts from the medical industry pointed out that increased spending on healthcare will not put an end to the problems. Instead, governments should channelise available resources towards better implementation of the existing schemes and also rope in the private sector to make quality healthcare available to all, they said.

B04Pets risk becoming reservoirs of resistant microbes that spill over into their owners with disastrous effects. (Photo: Pexels)

We're all well aware of the growing threat of superbugs. There are plenty warnings about how we encourage these antibiotic-resistant bacteria by either overusing antibiotics or not finishing a prescribed course of treatment.

But while this has hopefully made people more cautious about misusing these drugs, few probably give it a second thought when it comes to their pets. As it turns out, this is going to have to quickly change.

It is well known that farm animals are an issue. Many of the antibiotics we give them are also used in humans, so superbugs on farms threaten us all.

There are also problems with antibiotics getting into the water table because of farm run-off. The World Health Organization issued recommendations last year, warning the food industry to stop routinely giving antibiotics to farm animals.

Yet while the same is true with pets, it has been mostly overlooked by both the research community and general public.

You might think we should be more worried about agriculture, since the sector treats many times more animals and uses far more antibiotics by weight than pets.

But because pets are in such close proximity to many more humans, they're actually more likely to transfer resistant bacteria  mainly through saliva or skin contact.

Pets risk becoming reservoirs of resistant microbes that spill over into their owners with disastrous effects.

Owner obstacles

I'm part of a team that has been researching this issue in Scotland through in-depth interviews with groups of pet owners and vets.

We found pet owners generally had good knowledge about superbugs, but their understanding of antimicrobial resistance was limited.

When it came to antibiotics, we found that owners wanted to do whatever was necessary to help their animal in the short term.

This often overruled concerns about antimicrobial resistance, which owners saw as abstract and mainly a problem for the future  similar to how people often view actions that cause climate change.

Interestingly, our interviewees were happy to hold off on antibiotics for themselves to see if their infection sorted itself out. But when it came to their pets, much like children, people wanted antibiotics straight away.

Any large-scale public awareness campaign for pet owners will therefore have to try to be relevant to their present situation.

One possibility might be to let them know that without responsibly using antibiotics now, there may be no working treatment for pets later.

But let's not kid ourselves here  it is well documented that getting people to make preventative behaviour changes is extremely challenging in public health.

Another issue was contact between owners and animals. As we all know, many pet owners let their animals lick their faces, sleep in their beds or eat food from their hands or plates.

Many consider pets to be part of the family, of course, and these affectionate moments are one of the reasons we have pets in the first place.

Most owners in our research didn't know that resistant bacteria could be spread between pet and owner and vice versa.

It should be stressed that unless the pet or owner has been colonised by resistant bacteria, there are no risks. But as there are no simple tests at present, owners cannot know whether they are safe.

In a part of our work still to be published, we asked owners whether they would be prepared to change this kind of behaviour as antimicrobial resistance becomes more critical, and many said they wouldn't. Convincing people not to do these things clearly won't to be easy.

We also asked vets why they thought antibiotics are overused in pets. Unlike doctors operating in publicly funded healthcare, vets feel market pressures: dissatisfied pet owners can always go elsewhere for antibiotics.

Vets told us that pet owners tended to want something tangible in exchange for the fees they were paying, and often saw antibiotics as a 'magic fix-all.'

Yet the pet owners had a very different perspective: they tended to think the pressure to use antibiotics was coming from vets. They said it was the vet who was the expert and that they tended to go along with their decisions.

What next?

The central challenge with antimicrobial resistance in pets lies in trying to make it a priority in a world where there are already so many large issues for us to comprehend.

Antimicrobial resistance is already having an impact on many aspects of our daily lives, and the search for new antibiotics is an expensive and drawn-out process.

The answer is a 'one health' response which acknowledges that healthcare, agriculture, pets and other issues are all contributing to this crisis.

To have any chance of having an impact, they all need to be tackled under the same policy package.

This can seem impossibly complex, even within the UK  let alone globally. We are at least seeing some excellent research initiatives that take this big-picture approach, along with action plans on the policy front such as this one by the EU.

The question is whether we will have done enough before the problem becomes uncontrollable.

For the majority of us, the way forward lies in making small changes around antibiotics to our daily lives  pet owners, for one, need to start acting more responsibly.

So what is happening here? There was little agreement about who should be taking responsibility for the antibiotics. It looked like there was a breakdown in communication between owners and vets.

Our conclusion was that both sides should be 'trained' to be sensitive to these interactions, and provided with the skills and knowledge to make more informed decisions.

With vets, this could be through professional development or externally enforced guidelines and standards. This won't be easy, however, as most veterinary practices are private businesses. Unlike doctors' surgeries, vets lack an overarching body to which they all subscribe.

For vets and pet owners alike, the next logical step will be to survey people in much larger numbers. This would confirm that our findings are reflected by the country at large.

Authored by Matt Smith, Researcher, Glasgow Caledonian University, the article first appeared in The Conversation.One in three deaths in UK dogs younger than 3 years old was from undesirable behaviours, a disproportionately high number. (Photo: Pexels)

Bad dogs tend to die young, according to a British study that says aggression, excessive barking and disobedience are among behaviours that can doom canine pets to an early demise.

One in three deaths in UK dogs younger than 3 years old was from undesirable behaviours, a disproportionately high number, the study found. Euthanasia was the most common cause of those deaths  75 percent overall. Traffic accidents involving disobedient dogs were another common cause.

The study involved data on 264,000 UK dogs, and the results underscore the importance of training dogs and educating owners, the researchers said. They said the large number of misbehaving dogs that are euthanized also highlights a need for improved behavioural education for veterinarians so they can better assist pet owners.

The study was published Tuesday in the British publication Animal Welfare.

Making sure owners are aware of traits in breeds they select is important, as is socialization for young dogs, to ensure that the lives of dogs and their owners are fulfilling for all parties involved, said study supervisor Dan ONeill, a senior lecturer at the Royal Veterinary College .

Socialization is most effective when puppies are 4 to 12 weeks old, according to Partnership for Animal Welfare, a US nonprofit animal rescue and adoption group . It involves introducing them to new experiences, including people, places, objects and other animals to help teach them how to respond appropriately and without fear, the groups website says.

The researchers analyzed 2009 to 2014 records from 127 UK veterinary clinics to determine what portion of early deaths were linked with undesirable behaviour. The study didnt report other causes but previous research by the same group found that less common causes included gastrointestinal and neurological diseases.

Males, mixed-breed dogs, and small dogs weighing less than 22 pounds (10 kilograms) were more prone to early deaths from misbehaviour than females, larger dogs and purebreds.

Compared with Labrador retrievers, a common breed in the UK and the United States that is often well-tempered, certain breeds faced higher risks of behaviour-related deaths including cocker spaniels and Staffordshire bull terriers, similar to American pit bulls.

Greater awareness of the scale of this issue can be the first step toward reducing the problems and making the lives of thousands of our young dogs happier, ONeill said.While sex dolls aren't exclusively a Japanese phenomenon, the sales in the country are booming. (Photo: AFP)

According to experts, popularity of love dolls and sex robots might be to blame for Japan's declining birth rate with one scientist even claiming that Japanese people had become "an endangered species" as the nation falls in love with silicon women.

The worrying trend of sex doll addiction has been revealed in an RT documentary called Substitutes that focuses on how life-size love dolls  fake versions of women with silicon vaginasare fuelling a national mood of loneliness and alienation.

While sex dolls aren't exclusively a Japanese phenomenon, the sales in the country are booming.

Last year, doll firm Dutch Wives revealed it had sold more than 2,000 smutty sex machines (valued at 4,600 a pop) in Japan alone.

However, rise of silicone sex dolls is worrying some experts who say it may be partly to blame for declining birth dates. Experts are said to have linked areas with falling birth rates to places where there's been an uptick in sex doll sales.

In 2017, Japan's birth rates fell below the one million mark, with a population of 127million. Total deaths for 2017 in Japan, meanwhile, are estimated to be around 1.2million.

Leading medics recently sounded the alarm about sex robots, suggesting they could spread STIs and worsen impotence.

And US lawmakers are desperately trying to ban sex robots that look like children, in a bid to scupper paedophiles.

Others have complained that sex robot makers are in the wrong for creating dolls that are described as "family friendly".

More recently, a psychologist in a leading London addiction clinic warned over the risk of humans getting hooked on dirty droids.Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig had landed in Pennsylvania in July 2015 to pursue higher education in the field of aeronautical engineering. (Photo: ANI)

Hyderabad: A 26-year-old man from Hyderabad is missing since Friday in the United States.

The family is now seeking help from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Indian Embassy in the United States.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig, a native of Hyderabad, was reportedly facing issues in the United States, according to his family.

Speaking to news agency ANI, Baig's younger brother, Mirza Sujjat said, "He went to the US in 2015 to pursue higher education. Last Friday, he called us and complained that he is facing problems in the last six months."

The 26-year-old had landed in Pennsylvania in July 2015 to pursue higher education in the field of aeronautical engineering.

A year later, he switched to another educational institution in New Jersey.

The family said Baig had not visited them since the time he left for the States.Dattaprasad Naik had on Monday called Rahul Gandhi a loafer for winking during a debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha last week. (Photo: File | ANI)

Panaji: A day after Goa BJP spokesman Dattaprasad Naik called Congress president Rahul Gandhi a "loafer" for winking in the parliament, opposition party MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco hit back at the BJP leader calling him a "bootlegger".

Naik had on Monday called Rahul Gandhi a loafer for winking during a debate on the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha last week.

"Naik's party (BJP) has lost credentials and lost touch with human nature. Naik is a bootlegger," Lourenco told reporters on the sidelines of ongoing monsoon session of the state Assembly on Tuesday.

Also Read: Rahul Gandhi winked like loafer in Parliament, says Goa BJP

Lourenco, who represents Curtorim Assembly segment in South Goa, said Rahul Gandhi was neither involved in any illegal activities nor any kind of crime.

"BJP has called Rahul Gandhi a lot of names, but he has been decent enough. He is the best human being India has ever produced," he said.

"It is high time the BJP understands the messages. The BJP is a party that is spreading hatred," the MLA said.

In a statement released on Monday, Naik had said, "I would request the Goa Congress to support their central party office in finding a credible leader for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as their president Rahul Gandhi is finding it difficult to grab hedlines and had to stoop down to cheap gimmicks."

"Rahul Gandhi, who does not have substance or understanding of the issues related to the people of India, had to resort to hugging the PM in the temple of democracy and then winking like a loafer," Naik had added.

"We have only heard of loafers winking at girls in colleges in the past and never such a shameful act has happened in the temple of democracy," he had further said.India had cancelled passports of both Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi in February, after investigators uncovered a huge loan fraud at the Punjab National Bank. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Two days after India was informed by the US about fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi's move to Antigua, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wrote to Antigua authorities seeking more details about Choksis whereabouts.

The Ministry of External Affairs was informed that Gitanjali Gems owner Choksi, wanted for a Rs 13,500 crore bank fraud along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is not in the US anymore.

Antigua is among the many tax havens in the Caribbean and has no extradition treaty with India, which makes it harder to chase the 59-year-old runaway diamond businessman.

Indian investigators suspect Choksi may have bought the citizenship of Antigua. According to reports, the businessman would need to pay about Rs 1.3 to 1.7 crore and receive a passport from the country and with that passport, Choksi can travel freely.

Read: Mehul Choksi moves to Antigua from US, gets local passport: officials

India had cancelled passports of both Choksi and Nirav Modi in February, after investigators uncovered a huge loan fraud at the Punjab National Bank.

There is an Interpol Red Corner Notice - close to an international warrant - against Nirav Modi but the CBI's request for one against Choksi is still in process.

The Enforcement Directorate, in June, told a Mumbai court that both should be declared "fugitive economic offenders" and their assets worth Rs 3,500 crore, spread across India, UK and United Arab Emirates, confiscated.

Mehul Choksi has refused to return to India, saying he fears "mob-lynching".

"There have been various cases of mob lynching in India... Even the applicant faces a similar threat as there are several persons who have grievances and anger against him (Mehul Choksi)," he said in his application.

Also Read: Mehul Choksi afraid of being lynched in India, asks court to scrap arrest warrants

Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are accused of swindling the state-run Punjab National Bank worth Rs 13,400 crore.Commuters and students take one of the injured persons out of the railway track in Chennai on Tuesday (Photo: DC)

Chennai: If you are a regular commuter in electrical multiple unit (EMU) trains on Chennai Beach-Tambaram section, keep your arms and head inside the train and don't travel on the steps as a wall is waiting to claim you or maim you at the St. Thomas Mount railway station.

Four commuters, all students including a 16-year-old studying plus-2, died on the spot after they hit a wall on the platform 4 of St. Thomas Mount station. According to sources, the peak hour train from Chennai Beach to Thirumalpur EMU local (40701) was late by nearly 35 minutes due to which college and office goers boarded the train in large numbers forcing the youngsters to travel on the footboard.

The train was traversing the stations platform 4 and not on its usual platform 2. As platform 4 is intended for fast locals and express trains, a wall had been constructed close to it to prevent jaywalking. The wall has proved deadly ever since its construction, having claimed many lives, a regular commuter said.

The victims were identified as P. Sivakumar (23) of R.A Puram who was a second-year B.Com student in a college in Pallavaram, J. Naveen Kumar (20) of Pattinampakkam who was a polytechnic student and Bharat (17) of Tambaram who was in Plus-2 in a Tambaram school.

The identity of another victim is yet to be ascertained. As Bharat's parents are out of the city, he was staying with his grandmother in Tondiarpet and was attending the school from there.

The injured commuters Vignesh (19) of West Saidapet and Naresh (20) of Alandur are admitted to Government Royapettah Hospital. Vijay Kumar (19) of St. Thomas Mount, Srivatsan (18) and Yashar (23) of Chromepet are undergoing treatment in Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

Two unknown persons were treated at the outpatient ward of Saidapet GH.

Only 12 hours before the Tuesday morning mishap in which four died, two commuters - Vignesh (23) of Tambaram Sanatorium and Stephen (24) of Thoothukudi - had died after ramming the same wall on Monday night.

An unidentified man died on July 19 in the same railway station.

Commuters allege that the late running of the train had led to the switching of platforms but an unmoved Southern Railway said, There was no infringement as per Railway rule.

The train has a stoppage at the railway station. But it did not slow down to stop. More than 10 passengers hit the wall and fell down. We ran towards the motorman's cabin screaming to stop the train. But the train stopped only at its destined spot. Everything happened in a sudden, Rekha of Anna Nagar, a witness to the gory accident, said.

Despite RPF presence at the suburban station, none of the RPF personnel came forward to help the ambulance crew to shift the injured persons. In a video taken during the accident, some commuters are seen helping the paramedical personnel while a lone RPF personnel is standing by.

Footboard travel turns fatal

The Southern Railway maintains that they did not do anything wrong. But commuters allege that the disruption of services in the peak hours led to the footboard travel.

The train was crowded more than three times on Tuesday morning, Ganesh, a college student, who was waiting at St Thomas Mount police station to board the train, said.

The regular commuter also said that if the railway operated the train on time and rectified the OHE snag quickly, there was no need to take footboard travel.

Chennai Divisional Railway manager Naveen Gulati agreed to the fact and said there was a heavy rush of passengers as trains were running late due to lack of power supply on the suburban line. Usually the suburban train from Chennai Beach to Tirumalpur runs on a suburban track. Even, it was allotted the same track, but was later shifted to the fast suburban line as there was no supply in an overhead wire on the other track, Gulati told.

Between 7.05 am and 8.15 am, there are 8 EMU local services on the section between Chennai Beach and Tambaram, according to railway timetable. How could one train accommodate passengers of 8 trains? a passenger asked.

Meanwhile, the Southern Railway, in a statement, requested the passengers to avoid travelling on the footboard and avoid hanging outside the train risking their own life and lives of co-passengers.David Headley has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. (Photo: File)

Washington: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is neither in Chicago nor in hospital, his lawyer said on Wednesday, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in Chicago nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer, told PTI.

Media reports had said that Headley was attacked by two inmates at a Chicago prison on July 8 and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

Also Read: Terror convict David Headley critical after attack in jail? US silent

"I am in regular communication with Mr Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said. The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. Headley  who recced various Indian cities including Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks  was arrested in 2009.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the reports. "We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago said in a brief email response to PTI when asked about the reported prison incident.The deceased were later identified as Lilavati (75) and her grandson Amit Garg (30), who was driving the car. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: A car was sandwiched between two buses leading to the death of its two occupants in north-east Delhi's Nand Nagri Tuesday afternoon, the police said.

A hatchback car was crushed between a cluster bus that rammed into it from behind and a DTC bus which was moving ahead of it, they added.

The accident occurred around 11:30 am near the District Magistrate's office, the police said.

The impact of the accident was such that the car was completely mangled and the doors were jammed.

With the help of the locals, the police tried to pull the injured out of the car. It took them approximately 20-25 minutes to take the injured out of the car. The doors and windows of the car were broken using wooden blocks, the police said.

The driver was found lying in the lap of the elderly woman who was injured in the accident as seen in a video that went viral.

The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were declared brought dead, the police said.

The deceased were later identified as Lilavati (75) and her grandson Amit Garg (30), who was driving the car.

The deceased were residents of AGCR enclave in Karkardooma and owned a garment shop in Shahdara's Gandhi Nagar market, the officer said.

According to the police, the driver of the cluster bus fled the spot soon after the accident. However, the driver of the DTC has been detained.

The police said that passengers on board the two buses were safe. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, the officer said.

A case has been registered, they said.The schools should display the tuition fees fixed by the committee or notified by the school on the notice board, website or in any other mode.

Chennai: In a response to Srimathi Sundaravalli Memorial (SSM) School's demand of Rs 2 lakh as caution deposit from parents, the state government has issued a stern warning to all private schools including schools affiliated to CBSE and ICSE that demanding excess fees could attract imprisonment and de-recognition.

Immediately after the parents' protest against the school last week, the school education department officials tried to convince the school management to withdraw the circular. But, the school management has refused to withdraw it citing the school was affiliated to CBSE board.

t must be kept in mind that the schools are established by non-profit entities such as societies/trusts/companies mandated by the Tamil Nadu Recognised Private Schools (Regulations) Act and they owe their duty and social responsibility to the public. In other words, commercialization of education is against the basic tenets of charitable institutes, the director of school education said in a circular to all CEOs.

Schools affiliated to CBSE/ICSE boards to notify tuition fees before August 15 so that fee committee can verify whether the fee collected by the school is commensurate with the facilities provided, V.C. Rameswaramurugan, director of school education said in a circular on Monday.

The committee can also hear complaints with regard to the collection of excess fees by a school affiliated to CBSE and to recommend to CBSE for disaffiliation of the school if it comes to the conclusion that the school has collected excess fees, the circular said.

All private schools (other than CBSE/ICSE schools), which have not so far submitted details for fees fixation shall apply to the Fee Determination Committee and get the fee structure approved, it said.

It further urged all schools to display tuition fees fixed by the fee committee in case of private schools (other thanCBSE/ICSE schools). CBSE and ICSE schools will have to display the notified fees on the notice board, website or in any other mode.

No private school shall collect fees in excess of the tuition fees fixed by the committee or notified by the schools in case of CBSE/ICSE schools, he warned.

If any private school is found collecting fees in excess of the fees fixed by the committee or fees notified by the schools affiliated to CBSE/ICSE, the Chief Educational Officers are requested to initiate action against the school concerned under section 9 (i) of the Tamil Nadu Schools (Regulation of Collection of Fee) Act 2009, the circular added.

The provision envisages punishment of imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to seven years with fine which may extend to Rs 5,000 on conviction. Section 9 (2) of the Act also envisages that the person convicted shall refund to the people from whom the excess fee was collected in contravention of the Act.

It also urged the CEOs to initiate action to de-recognise the school following due procedure.

Educationist Prince Gajendrababu urged the state government to evolve a mechanism to register the excess fee collection complaints. They should register the complaint from parents and should give a receipt for the complaint with a complaint registration number, he demanded.

Many complaints were given to the fee determination committee, but there is no acknowledgement or record is maintained for the complaints. So you cannot exactly know how many complaints were registered and what actions have been taken, he said.

So, there should be a mechanism to register the complaint and office should give a receipt with complaint registration number. They should take action within a specified period of time by verifying facts. If the school does not comply with the order, the government should take over the school, he suggested.Girish Karnad was among the most vocal critics of hardline Hindutva whose security was beefed up following the killing of Gauri Lankesh in September 2017. (Photo: File)

Bengaluru: The SIT probing journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh's murder has stumbled upon a diary with a 'hit-list' which has the name of film and theatre personality Girish Karnad's name on top, the police said on Wednesday.

Girish Karnad was among the most vocal critics of hardline Hindutva whose security was beefed up following the killing of Gauri Lankesh in September 2017.

Gauri Lankesh's name figures second among the intended targets in the diary which was recovered last month from the suspects arrested in connection with her killing.

"There is a list of targets prepared by a radical Hindu group. The names of Karnad and Lankesh have been mentioned at slot number 1 and 2. We are investigating further," a member of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) said.

The entries, he said, have been made in Devnagri script.

The names of politician-litterateur B T Lalitha Naik, pontiff Veerabhadra Channamalla Swamy of Nidumamidi Mutt and rationalist C S Dwarakanath also figure in the list. All of them are bitter critics of the Hindu right.

When reached for comments on the recovery of the diary and his name on the hit-list, Karnad, tersely said, "I have no interest in all this. Thanks."

The SIT has, meanwhile, arrested the 10th suspect in the Lankesh murder case. Rajesh D Bangera, 50, was arrested from Madikeri in Kodagu district on July 23. He was produced before a magistrate on Tuesday and remanded in SIT custody till August 6.

Also Read: With one more arrest in Gauri Lankesh murder case, total climbs to 10

The police did not disclose the role of Bangera in Gauri Lankesh's killing but said he was in touch with arrested suspects Amol Kale and Amit Degwekar. Parashuram Waghmare, who is suspected to have pulled the trigger on Lankesh, is among those arrested.

Gauri Lankesh, who held strong anti-Hindutva views and voiced them freely, was shot dead at the entrance to her house in Bengaluru's Rajarajeshwari Nagar area on September 5, 2017, triggering a nationwide outrage.The court asked ED not to take any coercive steps till August 1 when it would also hear Chidambaram's both the pleas in INX Media cases lodged by the ED and the CBI, seeking anticipatory bail. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted former Union minister P Chidambaram interim protection from arrest till August 1 in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) money laundering case related to INX Media.

Justice K Pathak while granting interim relief directed Chidambaram to cooperate with the ED's investigation as and when required and not to leave the country without court's prior permission.

The court sought the response of the ED on the senior Congress leader's plea in which he said he was apprehending arrest.

The court asked ED not to take any coercive steps till August 1 when it would also hear Chidambaram's both the pleas in INX Media cases lodged by the ED and the CBI, seeking anticipatory bail.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, opposed Chidambaram's plea on the point of maintainability contending that the politician was forum shopping which could not be allowed.

Mehta, who appeared along with advocate Amit Mahajan, said while in the Aircel-Maxis case, which had allegation of a similar modus operandi, Chidambaram had approached the trial court seeking anticipatory bail and he moved the high court for the relief in the INX Media case.

Senior advocate Dyan Krishan and advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Chidambaram said they were apprehending arrest as in the main case, the CBI had said it required custodial interrogation of the Congress leader.

The counsel said this matter was from the same transaction on which the CBI had also registered the case. The only difference was that this petition related to the ED's case while the other one, in which Chidambaram had already got protection from arrest, was of CBI.

The petition, filed through advocate Arshdeep Singh, said though no summons had ever been served to the former Union finance minister by the ED in this case, he had an apprehension of arrest in view of the summons issued to him by the CBI, which was investigating the scheduled offence.

The senior Congress leader's role had come under the scanner of the investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.

It was during his tenure as the finance minister in the UPA-1 government that clearances from the FIPB were given to the two ventures, in which alleged irregularities were found.

In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambaram's tenure as finance minister. Thereafter, the ED had last year lodged the money laundering case in this regard.Two militants, belonging to the LeT, were killed in the crossfire. (Representational Image)

Srinagar: Two Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said on Wednesday.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Lal Chowk area of the district this morning following information about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said. He said the operation turned into an encounter after terrorists started firing at security forces.

Two militants, belonging to the LeT, were killed in the crossfire, the official said.

According to J&K police, on the basis of incriminating materials seized, it's established they belonged to Lashkar-e-Taiba. One of the terrorists was identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar. The identity of the other terrorist is yet to be ascertained.

Meanwhile, an exchange of fire between terrorists and security forces was also reported from Keran sector along the Line of Control in north Kashmir Kupwara district, the police said adding that details of the incident were awaited.A Maratha community member waves a flag with a portrait of Shivaji, the founder of Maratha dynasty, during a protest in Mumbai. Protests are being held in different parts of Maharashtra state by the community to demand reservation in government jobs and education. (Photo: AP)

Mumbai: Maratha Kranti Morcha which spearheaded the protests for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the community today called off their bandh in Mumbai.

Normal life was severely affected in Mumbai and adjoining areas after Maratha outfits called for Mumbai shutdown on Wednesday.

Though the outfit said that they would hold peaceful protest, the agitations soon turned violent. The protesters set ablaze buses and vehicles at several places and blocked Pune-Mumbai highway.

Police resorted to tear gas to disperse the agitators.

#WATCH: Maharashtra police fires tear gas shells on #MarathaKrantiMorcha's protesters who were blocking the Mumbai-Pune highway in Kalamboli over demand for reservation in govt jobs & education, earlier today. The organisation has called off #MumbaiBandh now. #Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/7PdrwMOfH2  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

Local train services were also disrupted at Jogeshwari and near Thane.

Fearing untoward incidents, most shops remained closed in and around Mumbai.

Elaborate security arrangements were put in place in the city ahead of the bandh.

Large-scale violence marred the protests by Maratha outfits demanding a quota for the community in Maharashtra on Tuesday, a day after the death of a protester.

Protester Kakasaheb Shinde (27) had jumped to death from a bridge over the Godavari in Aurangabad on Monday.

Stone-pelting and arson were reported from several parts of the state, which remained on edge on Tuesday.

Agitators clashed with the police and torched vehicles at several places, while Internet services were suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district.

One constable died and nine other policemen were injured in stone-throwing on Tuesday when protesters clashed with the police and torching vehicles.

As the stir for reservation in jobs and education intensified, the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, has taken its battle to Mumbai where it has called for the shutdown.

Another outfit, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for a bandh today in Navi Mumbai and Panvel as well.

Quota for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

Here are the LIVE updates:

04:50 pm: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "The government has taken cognisance of protest by Maratha community and has taken several decisions. Government is ready to talk to them. Government had made a law for reservation to the community but that was stayed by Bombay High Court."

02:40 pm: Maratha Kranti Morcha, protesting for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, calls off bandh in Mumbai.

01:49 pm: Agitators block Mumbai-Pune highway.

01:44 pm: Miscreants pelted stones and set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during the protests. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

01:14 pm: I support Maratha Reservation demand. I appeal to the protesters to protest peacefully. We need to make a law in parliament and raise reservation cap from 50 per cent to 75 per cent. I will also raise this issue in NDA, Union Minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale said.

12:15 pm: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block Eastern Expressway in Chembur during the agitation.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

12:12 pm: Protestors blocked Western Express highway between Borivali and Kandivali , reports said.

11:40 am: Local train routes have been blocked in Jogeshwari and near Thane.

11:14 am: There is no impact on railway services in Pune, all trains are plying normally, says Pune railway PRO.

10:37 am: Clashes broke out between two groups in Udgir in Latur district of Maharashtra when one group was forcibly trying to get people to shut shops and overturned a vegetable cart in an attempt to enforce Maharashtra bandh. Police are on the spot and situation is contained, news agency ANI reported.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

10:23 am: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block a local train in Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

10:03 am: A group of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers request with folded hands, the shopkeepers in Bandra to shut their shops.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:54 am: Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide yesterday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, dies in a hospital.

09:42 am: Tires were set ablaze on Majiwada bridge in Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:33 am: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha forcibly shut shops on Thane 's Gokhale road.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:24 am: We are not blocking any road. We are carrying out a peaceful protest. We have told our workers that there should be no inconvenience to the police or government due to our protest. We are asking people to shut down their shops: Maratha Kranti Morcha.

09:15 am: A Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) bus vandalised in Wagle estate area of Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:03 am: Police have been deployed outside the BJP office in Mumbai in wake of Maratha reservation protests.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

08:52 am: Agitators protest at Thane's Teen Haath Naka.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

08:40 am: Two Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses were attacked by agitators in Kanjurmarg and Bhandup suburbs of Mumbai. In view of the stone-pelting, BEST has partially suspended its services in those areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves.

08:30 am: Protesters pelted stones on BEST buses near Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli this morning, news agency ANI reported. BEST bus services from Airoli to Vashi have been completely stopped today in the light of Maharashtra bandh.

08:00 am: The train services are running as usual and security has been beefed up at several stations. Nearly 40 Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police personnel were deployed at Dadar, CSMT and 20 at Kurla.

07:30 am: Visuals from parts of Mumbai as the strike called by Maratha Kranti Morcha enters the second day. Auto rickshaws were off the road in many areas of Navi Mumbai.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

On Tuesday, protester Jagannath Sonawane, 31, from Aurangabad, sought to emulate Shinde's example by jumping onto a dry river bed, while another, Guddu Sonawane, also from the district, consumed poison. They have been admitted to a hospital, police said.

Also Read: Protesters demand Maratha quota, burn vehicle, plan Mumbai agitation Wednesday

In Thane, activist Mangesh Suryavanshi (38) jumped into a creek near the Ganesh Ghat, but was saved by police and others, Thane Police PRO Sukhada Narkar said. He received minor injuries and was admitted to a hospital.For Colleen Takach, Cindy McGriffin, and Chris Greenwell, volunteering runs in the familytheir family, that is. These three sisters are frequent volunteers at The Lantern at Morning Pointe Alzheimers Center of Excellence, Colledgedale. According to Maria Lee, the Lantern Program Coordinator at the memory care community, Takach volunteers once or twice a week at The Lantern while her sisters, who live in Maryland, volunteer when they are in town visiting her.



On July 17, Ms.

Takach and her sisters joined forces to help The Lantern residents bake cookies. Sprinkles and colorful candies adorned the tables as residents customized sugar cookies to their hearts content. They [the residents] really liked making the cookies, but they loved eating them more! Lee says.If you are interested in volunteering at The Lantern at Morning Pointe Alzheimers Center of Excellence, Collegedale, contact Maria Lee by phone at 423 396-4700 or by email at collegedale-lan-lpc@ morningpointe.comLes chambres a coucher, les premiers appartements, les grottes pour hommes, les bars a domicile et les camping-cars ont une...'It (notices) is under my consideration,' Sumitra Mahajan said during Zero Hour amid noisy protests from some BJP members. (Photo: FileI)

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday said the notices for a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, moved by the Congress over their statements on the Rafale deal, are under her consideration.

The notices were submitted by the Congress charging the two leaders with allegedly misleading the House on the Rafale deal issue during the debate on the no-confidence motion on July 20. Mahajan said five members each have submitted notices against the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister.

Also Read: Cong seeks action against PM, defence minister for 'misleading' parl on Rafale

"It (notices) is under my consideration," Mahajan said during Zero Hour amid noisy protests from some BJP members. Her statement came after Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia raised the issue of their notices against PM Modi and Sitharaman during the Zero Hour.

"The Prime Minister has along with the Defence Minister deliberately misled the House. It is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privilege be accepted and referred to the privilege committee for further proceedings," the notice against PM Modi and Sitharaman said.

Members from the BJP also wanted to speak on their notices for privilege motion against Congress President Rahul Gandhi, which they had submitted earlier. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also said that these members should be given an opportunity to speak.

Anurag Thakur, BJP Chief Whip in the House, alleged that Gandhi had misled the House during the no-confidence motion debate on July 20. Mahajan said there were four notices submitted against one person (Gandhi).Police said the man dragged the girl into nearby bushes after attacking her friend and tried to rape her. When she resisted, he hit her. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: A 32-year old army personnel has been arrested for allegedly trying to rape a teenaged girl after 'assaulting' her boyfriend here, police said on Wednesday.

The accused, a jawan posted in the Signal Regimentary in Secunderabad, was arrested on Tuesday following a complaint by the 19-year old girl.

He was caught after a police constable passing by the area rushed to the spot on hearing cries of the girl.

The incident occurred on the night of July 23 when the girl and her friend took shelter under a tree near a hillock as it was raining.

Police said the man dragged the girl into nearby bushes after attacking her friend and tried to rape her. When she resisted, he hit her.

However, he fled the scene on seeing the police constable, who gave a chase along with another colleague and managed to nab him. The jawan allegedly attacked one of the constables, they said.

A native of Bhagalpur in Bihar, he was produced before a court which remanded him to judicial custody, police said.The Chief Justice of India was delivering the presidential address at a function organised by the International Law Association. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday said the blatant reliance on social media needs to be checked by citizens themselves in order to ensure peace and order in the society.

The Chief Justice said there was a surge in mob lynching incidents recently based on "viral texts on social media" leading to "mobocracy".

The Chief Justice of India was delivering the presidential address at a function organised by the International Law Association (ILA), where eminent jurist NR Madhava Menon delivered a lecture on "Courts, Media and Fair Trial Guarantee".

"There is a recent surge in mob lynching, please don't misunderstand me because I have authored the judgement, there is a recent surge in mob lynching based on the viral text on the social media and this leads to mobocracy and loss of individual life, in certain cases.

"The blatant reliance on social media needs to be checked by the citizens themselves; to ensure peace and order in the society," the Chief Justice said.

He said that citizens need to be more responsible and filter the information before relying and acting.

"Indian media houses must introspect and develop a sense of responsibility and maturity. The citizens need to be more responsible and filter the information as per their judgment before relying and acting thereby paving a path to ensure fair trial with greater sense of responsibility," the Chief Justice said.

He also said that freedom of press is the "mother of all liberties" in a democratic society and the media should have its own guidelines for self-regulation.

Justice Misra said freedom of speech played a pivotal role in generating public opinion in matters of national importance, adding that it created an "informed citizenry".

"Freedom of press in a democratic society is the mother of all liberties. There is no doubt it is one of the most cherished and valuable rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It includes the right to know and the right to inform.

"I am of the firm belief that there should be no guidelines (for the media). Let them frame their own guidelines and be guided by that. Nothing can serve better than an individual or collective guidelines of the press. There should not be any imposition, but there should be some kind of self-restriction," he added.

The CJI said the media has the responsibility of maintaining objectivity while reporting on cases that could stir the emotions of the citizens.

Menon said media coverage at times posed a threat to a fair trial at three stages - prior to the trial, during the trial and after the completion of the trial.

He pointed out that disclosing the identity of the witnesses and accused might affect trial in many ways.

Menon said a parallel trial by the media might influence an investigating agency to make arrests and might even cause witnesses to turn hostile.

He added that post-trial, the independence of the judiciary was threatened if the media questioned the integrity of the judge.

"The current CJI does not want any curbs on the media and has, in fact, said in court that he does not want any curbs on the media," Menon said.

He added that the recent development in the apex court regarding live-telecast of proceedings will open up a new chapter in media-judiciary relations.

Supreme Court judge Justice AM Khanwilkar was also present at the event.A special PMLA court in Mumbai had last month issued summons to Vijay Mallya to appear before it on August 27 on ED's plea. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the main accused in a Rs 9,000 crore alleged bank fraud case, is understood to have sounded out to Indian authorities that he was willing to come back home to face the law, official sources said on Tuesday.

Mallya, who is contesting in a London court the Indian government's action for extradition, is said to have sent feelers to authorities that he would like to join the legal process in India and contest the recent action against him under the Fugitive Economic Offender Ordinance.

Under this recently promulgated ordinance, the government can immediately confiscate all linked properties of Mallya in the country and abroad.

However, top sources in investigative agencies said the final contours of the move are still not clear as they refused to divulge more details.

A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Mumbai had last month issued summons to the beleaguered businessman to appear before it on August 27 on the Enforcement Directorate's plea seeking action against him under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance in the over Rs 9,000 crore bank fraud case.

The central probe agency, as part of this action, has also sought immediate confiscation of assets worth around Rs 12,500 crore of Mallya.

If he does not appear before the court or respond to its summons on the designated date, Mallya risks being declared a fugitive economic offender, besides properties linked to him being confiscated.

Mallya, his now-defunct venture Kingfisher Airlines Limited and others availed loans from various banks during the tenure of the UPA-I government and the outstanding amount, including interest, against him is Rs 9,990.07 crore at present, officials had said.

He had recently said he has become the "poster boy" of bank default and a lightning rod for public anger.

The liquor baron had said that he had written letters to both the prime minister and the finance minister on April 15, 2016, to explain his side of the story.

Both the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have filed separate criminal cases of alleged loan default against him.

A hearing in the extradition case is expected to be heard in London this month end where a team of Indian investigators will remain present.Thanjavur: People who converged at Grand Anicut in Thanjavur district to witness release of Cauvery water for samba paddy cultivation in the delta districts on July 22, would not have missed two things: enormous quantity of water that made the Anicut look like sea and massive sheet of water hyacinth that even clouded the presence of water.

Floating from Bhavani-Cauvery head in Erode district, these hydrophytes sailed in the current of water and crowded near the regulators of Cauvery, Vennar, Grand Anicut and Kollidam choking the flow of water before it was let out. After the release also, they sailed with the current of water into Cauvery, Vennar, Grand Anicut canal and Kollidam.

Why have not they cleaned these weeds before releasing water? What is the desilting all about? If water hyacinth and Ipomea growth are allowed in the river, what is the point in desilting? were the questions asked by farmers and people, who were jubilant over release of water for cultivation, but concerned over pollution in water bodies.

Water hyacinth (Eichhornea crasipes) is a free floating aquatic plant (hydrophyte). With broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves it floats in water and may rise above the surface of water as much as one metre in height. The stem which is floating by means of buoyant bulbs like nodules at its base above water surface carries the leaves which are 10 to 20 cms broad. The hyacinth will also bloom and the flowers mostly lavender to pink are attractive with six petals.

The hydrophyte is one of the fastest growing plants reproducing primarily by way of runners or stolons which eventually form daughter plants. Each plant can additionally produce thousands of seeds each year and these seeds can remain viable for more than 28 years. When not controlled, water hyacinth will cover lakes and ponds entirely and dramatically affects water flow, blocks sunlight to native aquatic plants which decay and die.

Habitat for mosquitoes, hyacinth also helps a kind of snail thriving in it. The fast growing of this weed makes it impossible to control it. Though physical, biological and chemical controls of the weed is available, manually removing is the best, said V. Palaniappan of Centre for Ecology and Research, Thanjavur. Actually we did it in Rani Samudram lake near Thanjavur when water hyacinth covered the entire lake a few years back. The weed was removed manually and used for making fertlisers, said Palaniappan.

But as the manual removal is labour and capital intensive, other methods can also be tried but with caution, said environmentalists. Chemical removing involves the use of 4-D, glyphosate and diquat chemicals. The chemical leads to death of water hyacinth by inhibiting cell growth and new tissues.

Diquat is a liquid bromide salt that that can rapidly penetrate the leaves of water hyacinth and affects cell and tissue growth. Glyphosate is less toxic than the other chemicals and hence takes more time to destroy the weed. But greens are against using chemicals as it would pollute both surface and underground water in the long run.

Biological methods involve using special kind of weevils that thrive on water hyacinth. While water hyacinth remains a major problem, Ipomea (Neyveli Kattamanakku) is another weed that even surpasses water hyacinth and affects water flow by its growth along river and canal banks in Cauvery delta.

Neyveli Kattmanakku (Ipomea carnea) is present from Coorg where Cauvery originates till its entry into Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar in Nagapattinam district, said an agriculture official. Tamil Nadu government allotted `8 crore for removing this weed in Cauvery delta during 1997-98.

Besides manually removing it, spraying of 4D chemical, a herbicide was also tried. But both water weeds hayacinth and Ipomea are

ubiquitous.

S. Ranganathan, secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers Welfare Association, said that manual removal of weeds should be tried due to environmentalists objection to chemicals. Biological removal like using weevils can be tried.

V. Jeevakumar, district vice-president, All India Kisan Sabha affiliated to CPI(M), said that weeds could be manually removed under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). I was shocked to see water hyacinth occupying entire Grand Anicut on July 22 and people could not see water. We have been demanding not now, but for the past ten years to put an end to such weed menace. Tamil Nadu government should have the determination and commitment to remove these weeds, he said.

Water hyacinth is a problem not only in India but in entire world. In America they used hippopotamus to eat and remove the water hyacinth. Ipomea can be used as a fertiliser.

Scientists of Soil and Water Management Research Institute (SWMRI) at Thanjavur said that other good uses of weeds like making them fertiliser, use as fuel, should be explored to put an end to the weed menace.

Both Ipomea and water hyacinth obstruct water flow and also result in water logging. They should be necessarily removed from rivers and canals for better irrigation, the scientists said.

The TN government should have the determination and commitment to remove these weeds, said All India Kisan Sabha leader.Hyderabad: Congress legislator A. Revanth accused the TRS of adopting dual standards on special status to AP.

He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and TRS MP K. Kavitha had supported special status to AP earlier, and asked why minister T. Harish Rao was opposing it now.

The UPA government gave several assurances to AP, which included special status. KCR and TRS Rajya Sabha member K. Keshava Rao were part of the debate. Why did they not object then, he said.

He said the seven Khammam mandals were not merged with AP when the Congress was in power.

He said TRS MP K. Kavitha extended support to Andhra Pradeshs special status in Parliament in earlier session while their MP B. Vinod Kumar and minister T.Harish Rao have been opposing it now.

He said a tussle has been going on between KCR's family members for one upmanshi (head person) in TRS and government.Hubballi: In a direct reaction to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy's jibe at voters of north Karnataka, the North Karnataka Agitation Committee on Wednesday called for a shutdown across 13 districts to press for a separate state.

President of the committee, Somashekar Kotambari, told the media here the bandh would be a mark of protest against Chief Minister Mr Kumaraswamy's statement on whether local residents would be able to generate the revenue for completion of Upper Krishna Project (UKP) in case a separate state was formed.

All agitators would also protest in case elected representatives fail to support their demands. "The governments have been meting out step-motherly treatment to north Karnataka for seven decades. All these governments have failed to focus on overall development and neglected the region in all sectors including education, irrigation. They concentrated only on Bengaluru and southern parts of the state while setting up big industries and information technology firms.

Therefore, injustice can be resolved only after realising our dream to form separate state for the region", he added. Urging Mr Kumaraswamy to recommend to the Union government to carve a separate state for north Karnataka instead of raising questions over mobilization of funds for development of the region, he said various organizations would pressurize Kannada activists including Vatal Nagaraj to support their demand.

He said a committee would be constituted to gather the opinion of people of all thirteen districts in connection with the demand for separate statehood as the region had sufficient infrastructure including a bench of the high court, and Suvarna Soudha to run the administration after formation of separate state.

The other grouse was the state government's inability to resolve Mahadayi river water dispute. Various organisations are contending that the government has failed to take up major projects in north Karnataka and not allotted additional funds to restore balance in terms of development. They claimed that the irrigation projects like Upper Krishna Project, Kalasa Banduri did not get due attention in the Budget despite being the lifeline of farmers in the drought prone region.

Terming the governments' move to hold legislative session at Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi merely as an eyewash, leaders of several organizations said that no measures are taken to shift several departments from Vidhan Soudha make administrative machinery more accessible to the people of the region.

Meanwhile, several BJP leaders from North Karnataka have been protesting against the neglect of their region by the JD(S)-Congress coalition government and have even spoken in favour of a separate north Karnataka state.

B01Hyderabad: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has instructed the secretaries of technical education of all states to take immediate steps to close down institutions offering technical education without its approval.

As per chapter VII of the Approval Process Handbook 2018-19, no institution should offer a technical programme without the councils approval.

According to AICTE, any institute started without approval and offering technical programmes or courses, shall be declared as unapproved. Institutions should seek approval of the council for the next academic session and only then offer technical programmes.

The circular released by the AICTE reads: It has come to the notice of the council that some Institutions in various states/UTs are offering technical education which is not approved by AICTE. You may agree that permitting such unauthorised institutions to impart technical education will be detrimental to the interest of the student community in terms of recognition of the course, pursuing further education and securing employment etc.

In this context, it is the responsibility of the concerned state government/UT to prevent the student community falling prey to such institutions set up for monetary considerations, it said and asked the technical education secretaries to close down such institutions.

Asked about the order, Dr Srini Bhupalam, president, All India Federation of Self-Financing Technical Institutions, said, Though the AICTE is the Central approving authority, they need support in finding and closing these errant institutions. Obviously, state governments have ground-level information. The AICTE in the interest of time is not only supporting but also giving state governments the power to close down these unapproved deemed-to-be-universities offering technical courser without approval in the best interests of the students.

The TS secretary of technical education was not available for comment.New Delhi: As per the custom and long tradition, women in the age group of 10 to 50 are not allowed as manifestation of God in the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala is a celibate and the deity does not want the presence of women in this age group, argued senior advocate K. Parasaran in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Mr Parasaran made this submission before a Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, A.M. Khanwilkar, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 in this temple.

Mr Parasaran, appearing for Nair Society, one of the intervenors, said Sabarimala was a unique temple where other than Hindus, Christians, Muslims and even foreigners are allowed entry. But as per the custom and long tradition, women in the age of 10 to 50 are not allowed, as manifestation of God in this temple is a celibate.

He submitted that if the court were to abolish the practice, the very character of the religious institution will be irreparably altered which affects the rights of devotees under Article 25(1). He submitted that the present case does not involve a social issue but a religious issue. By using 25(2), Your Lord-ship will reform a religion out of its identity, he cautioned the court.

He said not only the perception of the worshipper but also what is being worshipped is also important. If a devotee feels that he is not worshipping the idol of a Brahmachari, he may not go to that temple. In all other Ayyappa temples in Kerala women are allowed entry without any discrimination.

He said the concept is the presence of women in the age of 10 and 50 will disturb the penance of the Lord Ayyappa and hence the Lord himself does not want their presence. Mr. Parasaran that Lord Ayyappa's character as a Naishtika Brahmachari is protected by the Constitution and judiciary cant interfere with it.

Referring to the observation made by Justice Chandrachud on Tuesday and the ban of women is due to the patriarchial system, Mr Parasaran submitted that 96 per cent of the women in Kerala are educated and it is a matrilineal society.

Therefore to assume that the practice of the Sabarimala Temple is based on patriarchy is fundamentally incorrect.

Mr. Parasaran submitted that the basis of the practice is the celibate nature of the Deity, not misogyny. Devotees who visit the Temple too are expected to observe celibacy in letter and spirit. Hence, during the journey, company of women must be avoided. He argued that misogyny is not supported by Hindu Shastras nor is chastity the sole obligation of the woman. In fact, chastity is a greater obligation on the man and he is duty bound under the Shastras to give a pride of place to the woman.

Mr. Parasaran submitted that democracies must protect religion and tradition. He said that Hindu religion respects merit and wisdom wherever it comes from. He was of the view that while the court must listen to activist voices, it must equally listen to voices which seek to protect tradition

Mr. Parasaran submitted that the Legislature is Brahma, Executive is Vishnu and Shiva is judiciary because only Shiva's `ardhanarishwara' form edifies Article 14, equal treatment of both sexes.

He said that Shiva is no Brahmachari, but even when his meditative state was sought to be disturbed by Kama Deva, he was reduced to ash because he failed to respect that state of Shiva. Cautioning the courts, the former Attorney General said we must not proceed with the presumption that the ancients knew nothing and that we know better in all aspects of life.

Justices Nariman and Chandrachud wanted to know whether the State is bound to make laws under Article 25 (2) (b) of the Constitution to throw open Hindu temples to all classes of people including women without any age restriction.

Mr. Parasaran said this right of State applies only to social reform, it still does not apply to matters of religion under by Article 26 (b). When the CJI asked the counsel as to why women are excluded, counsel said it was being done as per the religious practice and custom followed for years.

Mr. Parasaran submitted that Article 25(2) deals only with secular aspects and right of entry of classes or sections. It does not therefore apply to religious aspects or right of entry based on gender

He said that even if Article 25(2) applies to women, it is only with respect to social issues but not religious issues. He further submitted that Article 25(2)(b) is at best an enabling provision for the Legislature, it doesn't enable the judiciary to interfere with custom, which is an integral religious practice.

When Justice Nariman pointed out that the notification restricting the entry of women of a particular age will violate the fundamental rights, Mr. Parasaran points out that the said provision requires the Tavancore Board to observe and maintain the practices of Temples under its administration. Arguments will continue on Thursday.While regular hemp or ganja that is illegally cultivated and sold contains 3 to 30 THC (tetra hydro cannabinol), its value in industrial hemp varies from 0.3 to 1.

Vijayawada: The AP government had received a proposal from a Bengaluru-based start-up to establish a pilot project to cultivate and process industrial hemp, which can be put to use for various products including body care, bricks, and fibre.

While the cultivation of hemp, or cannabis, is banned under the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act, 1985, the state government can issue a licence to cultivate the weed for industrial use.

While regular hemp or ganja that is illegally cultivated and sold contains 3 to 30 THC (tetra hydro cannabinol), its value in industrial hemp varies from 0.3 to 1. Fibre from the industrial hemp has high demand from Europe and the US.

Namrata Hemp Company (NHempCo) which proposed a pilot project of hemp cultivation and processing to prepare bricks and fibre initially, launched a White Paper, Industrial Hemp  The sunrise Industry to the sunrise state of India, AP  on Wednesday. It highlights the three major concerns faced by the state  farmer conditions, employment and malnutrition.

To address the issues NHempCo has one key solution which is industrial hemp cultivation, company co-founder and managing director Harshaavardhan Redi Sirupa said.

The White Paper analyses how one single plant can be a wholesome industry in itself which will boost the economy of the state and how indutrial hemp can elevate farmers capabilities to revamp their farming process.

A lot of industries can be built through hemp products, thus creating job opportunities, ultimately making a contribution to the economy of Andhra Pradesh. Hemp can be capitalised into several industries like FMCG, textile, real estate, wellness, food, automobile, paper, industrial products and building materials, he added.

Mr Sirupa said farmers can earn a minimum Rs 20,000 per crop on an acre. He added that in his decade of research in hemp and its ecosystem, he had analysed the one solution that addresses these problems: Industrial hemp.

Our hemp vision of eco Andhra Pradesh will focus on organic cultivation benefiting farmers, building up 200 industries by the year 2030, which will strengthen the local economy, he said.

He said the company was looking for the approval of pilot project on hemp cultivation and setting up first hemp factory in Allumuru, Atmakuru mandal, if Anantapur district. We are also looking forward to collaborating with agriculture and horticulture department to build a public-private partnership model for the state-owned barren land and transform it into productive land by hemp farming.

He said lakhs of acres of barren lands that are not suitable to cultivate convential crops can be put to use for hemp cultivation that can provide income to farmers.Hyderabad: The fish trade in Andhra Pradesh is in a crisis with the ban on fish imports by North-Eastern states.

Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya have imposed the ban on import of fish from other states, more particularly from Andhra Pradesh, after laboratory tests detected traces of the toxic chemical formalin in some imported fish. With these states being ruled by the BJP alone or in alliance, traders and farmers in AP suspect that it is not on health grounds that their produce is banned, but its due to the strained relations between the Telugu Desam and BJP parties.

V. Narayana Raju, a farmer from West Godavari district says that for the last two decades fish from AP is being exported to the North-Eastern states and we never came across use of formalin to store the fish. It is a surprise for us that suddenly almost all the states in the North-East are claiming that formalin traces are seen in the fish imported from AP.

He feels sabotage cannot be ruled out as the fish trade is one of the biggest sources of revenue for AP through taxes from transport and packing industries and also from the ice factories, and any crisis in the trade would rattle the economy of AP.

The states that have imposed the ban are all BJP ruled states. Interestingly, Mr Raju adds, Goa has also imposed a ban on fish imports though fish from AP is not exported to Goa.

He pointed out that West Bengal and Bihar are the biggest importers of fish from AP, but they have never said that formalin was found in the imported fish.

Krishna Prasad Udda-raju, president of the Fish Traders and Packers Association of AP said that cash transactions between traders and farmers have come to a standstill from the first week of July which has resulted in the crisis in the fish business, one of the big revenue sources for AP.

A. Azad, a big fish exporter to the north-eastern states from West Godavari district, said, Every day about 50 truckloads of fish are transported to North-Eastern states and each truck load costs about Rs 10 lakh. From July 11 the trade has stalled as first Assam banned imports.

Mr Uddaraju says that in West Godavari alone fish is farmed in more than one lakh acres. He says the traders have never used formalin while packing the fish for export and it is the retailers who lace the fish with formalin so that the fish looks fresh and also to protect it from decaying.

AP tests find no formalin on fish

The fish trade in Andhra Pradesh is in a crisis with the ban on fish imports by North-Eastern states.

Mr Prasad said farmers and traders requested the Assam state government to depute their teams to West Godavari so that they can test the fish at the packing points. A team was deputed and though the tests proved negative, the ban was not lifted by Assam.

He said he accompanied a team headed by the AP Fisheries Commissioner to conduct tests in Guwahati. No trace of formalin was found in the fish tested.

Aijaj Mohiuddin is a packing material supplier from Akividu in West Godavari district. His trade too has been affected badly by the ban. The transport industry in three districts and hundreds of packing labourers, drivers, and cleaners and ice factory workers have been rendered jobless since the ban was imposed.Another belief is that no one should eat anything during the eclipse. In many households, food is thrown off to avoid contamination.

Hyderabad: Fridays lunar eclipse brings back memories of the sacrifice of a two-month-old child to ward off bad luck in the previous eclipse that occurred on January 31.

Police appealed to citizens to report to them if they learnt of anyone having similar plans ahead of Fridays eclipse.

The severed head of the baby found atop a house in Uppal on February 1, the day after the previous eclipse.

Sixteen days of investigation revealed that the house owner, K. Rajashekhar, 40, and his wife K. Srilatha, 30, had abducted and killed an infant and offered it as a human sacrifice.

Rajashekhar, a cab driver, believed the presence of evil spirits in their house of Chilukanagar was the reason behind his wifes failing health.

He met a Koya Dora who reportedly suggested to Rajashekhar that human sacrifice was the only solution to secure his wifes health.

The couple succumbed to superstitious and carried out the barbaric act.

Several other superstitions haunt the lunar eclipse.

An old saying is that pregnant women shouldn't see the eclipse and should avoid certain sleeping positions.

Another belief is that no one should eat anything during the eclipse. In many households, food is thrown off to avoid contamination.

Experts call these beliefs unscientific and said the eclipse has no effect on humans.

City police has passed a word of caution against supersitious beliefs and appealed to the citizens to report any crime related to the full moon or the eclipse.

One can Dial 100 or approach the regional police station or contact the city police through various social media platforms.Hyderabad: Yadadri Temple Town Development Authority CEO G. Kishan Rao said that Hyderabad may soon have World Heritage city status. He has received a letter from Unesco stating that such a proposal is under consideration. Hyderabad will get a second Shilparamam at Uppal on Dasara this year.

Minister Mr K.T. Rama Rao has frequently said that Shilparamam is beneficial for the western part of the city only. Something should be done for people living in other parts of the city. As a result, we have a second Shilparam at Uppal to be opened to the public on Dassera, said Mr Kishan Rao.

The GHMC has six zones and 30 circles and this number will be enhanced soon as a Cabinet discussion on this is set to take place, said Mr Rama Rao, while adding that 13 satellite townships under the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) will come up in addition to an integrated township.

Highlighting the rejuvenation of tanks in Telangana state, Mr Rama Rao said that out of 185 tanks in and around Hyderabad, 20 tanks in GHMC and 20 tanks under HMDA will be developed in the first phase. `541crore is being spent on 40 tanks in addition to setting up sewage treatment plants.

We are in the process of resolving the dumping yard problem at Jawaharnagar and will be spending Rs 144 crore on green capping. The first phase is over and second phase will be completed by next summer. We are planning to build four dumping yards all around the city with proper treatment facilities, said Mr Rama Rao.

To provide better education for the urban poor, the state government is committed to setting up 500 basti dawakhanas in 2019; there are 15 in existence now. Mr Kishan Rao further stated that the representatives from Unesco in their meeting with Mr Rama Rao were impressed with the rich heritage of Hyderabad when the minister told them about Golconda Fort, Bonalu festival, Charminar, rich history of the unity of the people from different religions, languages, regions and other Middle East countries are living together in Hyderabad over centuries.

It may be recalled that Unesco in July 2017 declared Ahmedabad as World Heritage City.The cause is alleged to be the school authorities turning him away for not paying his fees, though the school has a different story.

Hyderabad: A 13-year-old student studying in the seventh standard at Little Flower High School, Kavadiguda, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence.

The cause is alleged to be the school authorities turning him away for not paying his fees, though the school has a different story.

According to the police, the boy, M. Mahesh, lives with his parents at Padmashali colony in Musheerabad.

The childs father, M. Srinivas, is alleging that his son committed suicide due to harassment by the school management, saying that he didnt come to the school since two days. We are checking the CCTV footage. The investigation is going on, said Inspector T. Srinath Reddy, of the Musheerabad police.

I went to the school to collect the keys of my house from my son. But I came to know that he had left the school in the morning itself. I went to the house and found

my son sitting in the house. On enquiry, he told me that the headmistress had sent him away because we had not paid the school fees, the father alleged.

He added that another teacher said that the boy did not turn up at the school.

Mr Srinivas went to his office after getting a call from a colleague. Half-an-hour later, he returned home and found the door latched from inside.

I peeped from the window and found that Mahesh had hung himself from the ceiling with a saree. I broke open the door and rushed the child to Gandhi Hospital where doctors declared him dead, the distraught father said.

A tearful M. Nagamani, mother of Mahesh, narrated the tough time the family had to send their two children to school,

The headmistress and class teacher of the school have a different story to tell.

They say Mahesh had not been to school for two days.

The Musheerabad police have registered a case under section 174 CrPC and have started investigation.

Had no money to buy books, says Mother

A 13-year-old student of seventh standard at Little Flower High School, Kavadigu-da, reportedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence.

Maheshs mother said, The school management used to harass my children for not paying school fees. My husband and I together earn `20,000 which was not enough to meet our needs. So we made both our children appear for the Telanagana Gurukul Common entrance exam. My daughter got a seat and we sent her to a hostel. Recently, with lot of difficulty, we bought notebooks for my son and they did this to my son.

The headmistress and class teacher of the school have a different story to tell. They say Mahesh had not been to school for two days. Ms V. Vasanth, the headmistress, said, They are trying to blame me. I never used to ask for fee from school children. We dont know what happened at home. I didnt send anyone home because of fees.The officials found entities with the same address or with common directors, and having no proper business operations over the years.

Hyderabad: For the first time in the history of Hyderabad, a major cache of shell companies has been unearthed. According to sources, top businessmen from Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh are found to be directors on the boards of such shell companies.

The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), which comes under the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), on Wednesday found a large number of shell companies in the city when its officials raided two places in the city.

The officials found entities with the same address or with common directors, and having no proper business operations over the years.

Perusing the RoC, I-T and GST returns, the SFIO found that around 25 companies had a common address or directors. The raids took place at two places in the city and another six may be searched. The SFIO raids were reportedly carried out by 10 officials led by a deputy director for south India.

Its a routine check as and when we come across over 30 companies with common address or directors. This report will be submitted to the Centre, an RoC official told this newspaper.

The operation may be even bigger. Sources in the know revealed that the SFIO has actually found 140 shell companies, mostly belonging to Mr B Ramalinga Raju and his associates. Maytas Hill County was among them.

We found 140 shell companies with common directors and address. Mr B. Ramalinga Raju, Namburi Rama Raju, Shivalinga Ravi Prasad Raju, and Suryanarayana Raju are directors of several such companies, the source said.

The 140 companies have one common auditing firm i.e. SRSR Advisory Service, which belongs to Suryanarayana Raju, brother of Ramalinga Raju.

Speaking to this newspaper on condition of anonymity, an official with the SFIO said that during searches, we found over 110 companies operating from the same address in Jubilee Hills from the same room and studied their records and annual reports whatever available. Over 40 companies were found in a different location in the city.

The team comprising 10 officials raided the companies with the common address Third floor of the Fortune Monarch mall. The records of several of these companies show business loss of up to Rs 25 crore.

The records of several of these companies show business loss of up to Rs 25 crore, even though they are not engaged in proper operational activity.

We noticed that almost all the transactions are among these companies only, thus circulating money among over 20 entities. Generally, such shell companies own agriculture land and file returns for the sake of the record. But in reality, money circulation circulates among different entities to make it a legitimate source of money at the end, said an official.

The law that stipulates that a person can be on the board of a maximum of 20 companies was also flouted with more than 30 companies having common directors, mostly family members or close relatives.

Last year also the enforcement directorate (ED) raided 110 locations in 17 cities, including Hyderabad, and identified 500 shell companies. The ED is a specialised financial investigation agency under the department of revenue in the Union finance ministry. The GST and I-T departments exchange details of returns and compile a report that identifies companies with common addresses, directors and business operations history. Hyderabad ranks second in the country after New Delhi in having the most number of shell companies. According to the latest report by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Delhi topped the list, with 26,000 shell companies, closely followed by Hyderabad with 25,000 shell companies.Hyderabad: Gearing up to meet population influx into Hyderabad and other urban cities in the state, the TRS government has earmarked Rs 55,000 crore to build infrastructure for urban centres for the next three years. Not only will this plan enhance the quality life of citizens, it will also transform the economic potential of urban areas that contribute the most to the GSDP, said K.T. Rama Rao, minister for municipal administration and urban development (MAUD). The ongoing Rs 25,000 crore Strategic Road Development Programme will be further enhanced with Rs 6,000 crore additional allocation.

About 45 per cent of GSDP comes from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and all the urban areas together contribute over 50 per cent to the states economy. Considering the vital role of urban areas, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has agreed Rs 55,000 crore plan for urban development and it will be implemented over the next three years, said Mr Rao after releasing the annual report 2017-18 on MA&UD here on Wednesday.

The Municipal Administration department has the biggest talent pool of 15 IAS officers and this shows how much priority our chief minister gives to improving citizens' quality of life. We have nine urban development authorities in the state and 74 urban local bodies (ULBs) including six corporations. This number will reach 146 soon as urbanisation picks up, added Mr Rao.

He highlighted the reforms undertaken by the municipal administration department: GHMC revenue was Rs 2,616 crore in 2017-18. The state government without raising property tax managed to increase the revenue of GHMC from Rs 747 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1,450 cr in 2017-18. Over 600 bottlenecks on nalas across the city have been removed and 6,000 footpath encroachments have been also removed to provide a better and secure pathway for pedestrians.

With the state governments support, GHMC had completed 1.74 lakh LRS processing in just 18 months, said GHMC Commissioner Janardhan Reddy,

Four lakh lights have been replaced with LEDs in Hyderabad in just one year and its perhaps first time in the world, Mr Reddy declared, adding that it saved the government Rs 60 crore. Of the target of Rs 1,000 cr via bonds, GHMC has already raised Rs 200 crore. My GHMC App downloads were at record three lakhs so far. The GHMC raised Rs 200 cr via bonds mobilisation, the second municipal corporation in the country after Pune to do so and is in the process of mobilising another Rs 800 cr this fiscal.

Regarding SRDP, about Rs 23,000-crore has been spent and Rs 1,000 crore will be spent this year.Warangal: The Ballarpur Industries Limited factory in Kamalapur in Mangapet mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalapalli district is expected to be reopend soon with the help of the state.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari and industries minister K.T. Rama Rao assured the management of the factory that all possible support would be given to them to reopen it.

During a meeting in Hyderabad on Wednesday, the ministers asked the management to take immediate steps to ensure that the factory is reopened as soon as possible.

The management which expressed willingness for reopening the factory put forward several requirements that the minister agreed to, and asked the officials to come up with proposals within one week and get them approved.

Mr Rama Rao said the state government was keen on reviving industries in the state and safeguard the livelihoods of the labour. He assured that the state was ready to give subsidies wherever possible for running the factory again. As soon as we receive the proposals from the management, we will take up the issue with Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and work out the procedure to help the factory. Ours is a labour-friendly government with policies to revive industries being strictly followed. With the revival of this factory, several workers and employees who have lost their jobs will be back on their feet and there is scope for new people to get employment, he said.

Mr Srihari has been in talks with the management since two years persuading them to reopen the factory.Chennai: The AIADMK has commenced the first phase work for the Lok Sabha elections next year and a decision on poll ties would be made when the situation warrants, AIADMK co-convenor and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has said on Tuesday.



I have already launched the election campaign for our party. And about 1,000 party members are going around the state on bicycles disseminating information on the achievements of Amma (late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa), Mr. Palaniswami said. Speaking to reporters at Vandalur near here he said these cycle campaigners would visit two constituencies every day.

Though the Lok Sabha election is still a year away, we have started our campaign well ahead, Mr. Palaniswami said and exuded confidence that the people would repose the same faith they had placed on the party when former CM Jayalalithaa piloted the party to victory during the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

To a question he replied, it is too early for alliance. The party shall make decision on forming electoral alliance at appropriate time.

Asked if the emergence of new parties floated by actors would pose a threat to the AIADMK, the CM shot back, for the last 28 years, the AIADMK has been the ruling party. No force can shake the party.

On the Centres move to replace the UGC with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), the CM said Tamil Nadu had already made it clear that the bill does not augur well for the states. Our MPs will raise the issue in the Parliament and we will oppose scraping the UGC act, he said.

On the purported decision of Karnataka Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy to solicit the support of TN political parties and farmers to build the long-pending Mekedatu balancing reservoir project across the Cauvery, Mr. Palaniswami asked, will Karnataka agree to give Cauvery water if it builds the dam?After the meeting of the Congress Working committee on Sunday, the Congress said Rahul Gandhi will be its prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: The Congress may have pitched for Rahul Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls but on Tuesday the party gave indications that it is not averse to accepting a nominee for the top post from any Opposition alliance who does not have the backing of the RSS.

Top Congress sources while giving this indication also said that to prevent the BJP from coming back to power in 2019, the Congress will look to cobble up alliances with various parties in states.

On whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi will step aside for a woman candidate from a possible Opposition alliance, the sources said he "is comfortable seeing any prime minister other than an RSS-backed one".

"Let's see how the dice rolls," the sources said.

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee are doing the rounds.

After the meeting of the Congress Working committee (CWC) on Sunday, the Congress said Rahul Gandhi will be its prime ministerial face for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It also authorised Rahul Gandhi to forge alliances with "like-minded" political parties to take on the ruling BJP.

Also Read: Cong discusses alliance at CWC meet, authorises Rahul to decide on tie-ups

Stating that it's going to be an "ideological fight", the sources said the Congress has to bring all the opposition parties together to defeat the BJP.

"India in 2004 is different from 2014. This is beyond our regular political battle. It is for the first time all institutions are attacked," the sources said and added, the more the RSS attacks Congress, it will help the party to build."

The sources further said that the Congress does not believe in "right or left" views but for a liberal and pragmatic space.

According to the sources, the Congress leadership is of the view that the BJP will be decimated without any "anger and disrespect". The BJP will not get enough seats to win the next general polls as parties like the TDP and the Shiv Sena are not happy with the saffron party, the sources added.

For Narendra Modi to be the Prime Minister again, he has to get seats in the range of 280 and that is not going to happen, they said.

The sources said if grand anti-BJP alliances in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar work out fine, then it will be difficult for PM Modi to retain power.

While Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats, Bihar has 40 and the two together comprise over 22 per cent of the total strength of Lok Sabha members of 543.

Noting that the Congress is focussing on increasing women's representation in the party, the sources said women leaders will be appointed in general secretary- level posts after they gain experience at different levels of party functioning.

On women's reservation bill, they said it will be a "tactical win" if the legislation gets through Parliament. However, the party has to work a lot to ensure more women in politics and that it would work towards creating a positive atmosphere.

The sources further said India needs to be built with new ideas to address the challenges of farm crisis, unemployment among others but the Prime Minister is "running out of ideas" as he is working on the political architecture of the 1990s and the saffron party is allegedly working for few corporates.New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said India has had "four revolving" defence ministers since 2014 and alleged that it gave Prime Minister Narendra Modi "space to personally re-negotiate" the Rafale deal with France.

Gandhi's comments come amid a war of words between the BJP and the Congress on the Rafale jet deal, with the opposition party accusing PM Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of "lying" in Parliament over the issue, while the saffron party rejecting the charges as "falsehood".

"Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French," Gandhi said on Twitter.

"India has had 4 'RAFALE Mantris'. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he won't speak!" the Congress chief said and tagged an Amul advertisement that had a humorous take on the Rafale issue with a 'Pass or Rafail' tagline.

Four BJP MPs have submitted a privilege notice against Gandhi, accusing him of "misleading" Parliament by making "false" allegations against the Prime Minister and Sitharaman.

The Congress also gave notices for moving privilege motion against PM Modi and Sitharaman for misleading the House over the Rafale issue while making statements during the no-confidence motion last week.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley was twice defence minister, once after the government was formed in 2014 and then after Manohar Parrikar became the chief minister of Goa. Sitharaman became defence minister after Jaitley's second stint.Hyderabad: The TRS leadership is peeved that West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee has hijacked the Federal Front proposed by TRS chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.

Mr Rao, it now seems, is not keen to be part of the Federal Front, especially if the Congress is part of it.

Ms Banerjee will visit New Delhi on July 31 to invite non-BJP leaders to the rally scheduled in Kolkata to launch the Federal Front in January.

She is expected to extend an invitation to Mr Rao through TRS MPs K. Keshava Rao and A P. Jitender Reddy.

Mr Rao skipped the swearing-in ceremony of H.D. Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister in Bengaluru to avoid sharing the dais with the Congress, and wants to follow the same policy in the case of the Federal Front.

Mr Rao had called for a Federal Front in March and envisaged it as excluding both national parties, the BJP and the Congress.

He visited several states to get their support, starting in Kolkata where he had a meeting with Ms Banerjee. She, however, was non-committal about KCRs Front which didn't include the Congress.

Ms Banerjee has now decided to meet all non-BJP leaders in Delhi on July 31, when Parliament will still be in session, to seek support for her front and invite them for the launch.

TRS party sources said it is totally unacceptable for the TRS to give the Congress a role in the Front. TRS cannot share a front with the Congress, which is its main opposition in Telangana. For this reason, KCR cannot support or attend the launch of Mamatas front if Congress is part of it.The outlines of a serious controversy involving the acquisition of Rafale fighters from France by the Narendra Modi government in 2016 has now hit the floor of Parliament, and chances are that the corruption being strongly hinted at by the Opposition Congress will linger until the next Lok Sabha polls. (photo: DC)

The outlines of a serious controversy involving the acquisition of Rafale fighters from France by the Narendra Modi government in 2016 has now hit the floor of Parliament, and chances are that the corruption being strongly hinted at by the Opposition Congress will linger until the next Lok Sabha polls. The Congress has long accused this government of a massive coverup and corruption in the Rafale deal, and party president Rahul Gandhi has raised it yet again. But this time it was on the floor of the Lok Sabha on Friday during his hard-hitting speech in the no-confidence motion debate.

Mr Gandhi raised two issues. He said the government was purchasing the aircraft the UPA had negotiated, but after scrapping the terms reached in the UPA period and agreeing to pay more than three times the price Frances Dassault had accepted for each aircraft earlier.

The second issue the Congress chief pointed to was that an Indian private company with no experience of aircraft manufacture was made the Indian partner by the Modi government, replacing the public sector HAL, which has been in aircraft manufacture earlier. The suggestion or allegation was that the private firm, which was in straitened financial circumstances, was a likely conduit for kickbacks.

Intervening in the discussion impromptu, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she couldnt reveal price details as disclosure wasnt permitted under a confidentiality clause signed with the French side in 2008 by the UPA (renewed by this government on March 10, 2018). Mr Gandhi at this point accused the minister of speaking an untruth. The BJP has threatened it will move a privilege motion in Parliament against the Congress president.

The Congress is unfazed. On Monday, former defence minister A.K. Antony, speaking from the Congress platform, said the confidentiality clauses affected classified or protected information, which meant details on the fighter jets performance and capability parameters, which have security implications. The secrecy aspect doesnt cover price and cost information.

To defend its surprising proposition that it cannot reveal the price of Rafale fighters, India on Friday asked France, as the no-trust motion was under debate, to urgently speak on the confidentiality clause. The French government stuck to the original formulation that the confidentiality clause pertained to security and operational capabilities.

The Congress is now planning to move a privilege motion against both the Prime Minister and defence minister. This seems to be a fraught moment for Indian politics. A joint parliamentary committee to examine the Rafale acquisition may help cut the Gordian knot.

H10The Supreme Court has rightly reemphasised that the right to peaceful protest is crucial to democracy. A country famous for Mahatma Gandhis civil disobedience movement, that was instrumental in the British leaving in 1947, can hardly believe such a key fundamental right can be denied, or even abridged. No nations leaders can afford to distance themselves from the people by restricting their right to dharnas and demonstrations. Also, those protesting for various causes cant be excluded in any way from the national mainstream. The ruling may be specific to protests in New Delhis Jantar Mantar, which were disallowed after the NGT objected, saying the protests were causing discomfort to residents.

In most state capitals, a place is earmarked for people to hold protests. The Jantar Mantar issue had to do with it being a central location in Delhi and thus more likely to disrupt normal life. But that is no reason to stop demonstrations altogether. Its another matter that most protests these days tend to be less than peaceful, and the police has a tough time controlling them. However, its the duty of governments to recognise the right to dissent, which is a way in which a citizen demands accountability from rulers. Such a right can neither be curtailed nor throttled by coercive means as has happened in a state like Tamil Nadu, where life has been punctuated with protests over the past few years.

H10Congress president Rahul Gandhis startling gig in Parliament on Friday is still on everybodys minds. While other speakers came armed with trolleys of hard copy to back each thunderous claim, Rahul Gandhis photogenic dimples alone provided most quotes, statistics and full stops to his charges. Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi chewed something at a furious pace and thumped hard each time her son stopped  as his speech tutors had taught him  for a dramatic pause. Even some Congress MPs wore stony looks.

Forget the Cuddle and the Wink: there are more serious questions. One that for Congress supporters should be particularly important, given the so-called Grand Opposition Coalition that Mr Gandhis Congress is a part of and whose only common denominator and chief goal so far is to topple Prime Minister Narendra Modi next year.

Its a mahagathbandhan of disparate  but fiercely ambitious  partners. They were present in full force, some almost certainly incubating preconditions of getting the highest executive office themselves.

This was a debate on a no-confidence motion, watched live by 1.25 billion in India and several million NRIs and Indian-origin people around the world. If proxy voting is allowed, many of the NRIs will cast them with gusto in May 2019.

Given this overall scenario, and be it the BJP or the Congress, wouldnt any party field its best gladiators?

If it was the Congress cause that it must be the partys PM candidate alone to take centrestage at the debate, then it was badly misplaced. This was a Parliament debate, not an election rally.

While Mr Gandhi squinted, glared, squared his jaw and hurled mismatched Lego bricks of charges at Mr Modi in Hinglish, Indias best orator in shuddh Hindi listened, caught the most colourful pieces, and  waited.

What makes a good speech? A strong voice helps, a wavering falsetto does not. Pithy arguments, ready facts spoken, not read off paper, lend gravitas, vague promises to provide them if needed, do not.

A key weapon is the dramatic pause, but always followed by an astounding conclusion, resounding hilarity or a bon mot, not a damp squib.

There must be a rousing beginning, a coordinated crescendo and an inspiring end, not a series of weak bangs ending in ineffective whimpers.

Finally, and in whichever language one chooses to speak  and I disagree strongly with Hindi-only proponents here  it is best to stick to one.

Mr Gandhis Hinglish ended up sending a teetotaller PM to a bar instead of overseas, and was unintended stand-up at its best.

Rahul Gandhi has worked at politics diligently and for 14 long years. He may mean well and is, from my few social encounters where he was present, an unassuming, archetypal nice guy. But while Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were thoroughbred PM material, even many of his well-wishers admit that for all Rahul Gandhis likeability, he is simply not the stuff that statesmen are made of.

At an important debate like this, its a given that the defending BJP would entrust the crowning arguments to its best speaker, Prime Minister Modi.

Love him or hate him, and no matter how many invisible prompters may be off-camera, Mr Modi mostly speaks extempore. And even his bitterest rivals wont deny their grudging admiration for the modulation, sequence, eloquence, wit and flourish of his speeches.

So why on earth did the Congress pick Rahul Gandhi?

In the Congress Party, it will always be a Gandhi to stake claim to the PMs chair. It will always be a Gandhi  and they do photograph well  as the face of the Congress. But must the voice of the Congress Party always be a Gandhi too?

Shashi Tharoor will never be an apex candidate. But he could have delivered a thunderous speech in an English as eloquent as Mr Modis Hindi, on behalf of the Congress.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi will never climb that high either. But his party could have fielded his cutting-edge delivery, to make its case effectively.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Sachin Pilot and many other Congresspersons will continue to be ignored for the top post. But their prowess at oration could have countered Mr Modi and the BJPs raft of good speakers impressively.

There are many silver-tongued, erudite debaters in the Congress, for whom public speaking is second nature. Where were they?

By ignoring such an A-list, the Congress lost an invaluable opportunity last week. It may have also dug a clumsy dagger into potential coalition prospects, even before the campaigning begins.

After the debate, my driver (and BJP voter) Anil Kumar of Delhi had a pertinent question for me.

Why cant the Congress make Rahul Gandhi only the chehra (face) of the party, just like they did to Manmohan Singh Sahib?

He meant no disrespect to the former Prime Minister, but had a valid point. If the Congress wants to storm into election mode with full fury and thunder, it would be best advised to field its immense and vastly experienced talent pool of speakers outside of the Gandhis and retain the Congress president as its face, but not its voice. (At least as long as it is Narendra Modi who will be taking to the other mike).

H11One of the potential paradoxes of the elections taking place in Pakistan today is that regardless of who is the winner the Armys image and reputation seems to be a clear loser. Its intimidation of politicians and journalists and its enormous power to manipulate the electoral outcome has been recognised and adversely noted across the country. As scholar Ahmed Rashid puts it: For the first time, not just the elite, but the public is aware of the Armys major role. Its now talked about at the village level.

The story of the Pakistani militarys interference in the nations politics is not new. It stretches back to independence. However, the recent episode arguably began with the dismissal of Nawaz Sharif as Prime Minister followed by his debarment from politics and leading to his arrest and imprisonment.

After the election was called, Pakistans Human Rights Commission reported that the militarys security agencies put pressure on Nawaz Sharifs candidates to switch loyalties and return their tickets. Alongside the Pakistan Peoples Party and Awami Party candidates, they have been harassed, their movements monitored and restricted and their electoral banners removed. The BBC says nearly 17,000 of his party members face criminal cases for breaking unspecified election rules.

Working with the judiciary, which played a key role in eliminating Nawaz Sharifs electoral prospects, the Army also ensured that extremist outfits under new aliases and identities could contest. Some 200 Lashkar-e-Tayyaba candidates are in the field. Ironically, they were given permission to stand just after Pakistan was placed on the watchlist of the Financial Action Task Force.

Today, as people cast their votes, some 371,000 troops will be deployed both outside and inside polling stations. Theyve been assigned magistrate powers to hold on-the-spot trials of anyone accused of breaking the laws and, thereafter, to sentence them. As Ahmed Rashid said: The real power appears to rest with Pakistans military and the judiciary, which sees undiluted democracy as a threat.

The Human Rights Commission chairman, Mehdi Hasan, calls this blatant, aggressive and unabashed attempts to manipulate the outcome of the upcoming elections. He says there are now ample grounds to doubt their legitimacy  with alarming implications for Pakistans transition to an effective democracy.

Side by side with this sorry story is the disturbing saga of what has progressively happened to those parts of the Pakistani media that have the courage to speak out and criticise. The Human Rights Commission says theyve been subject to censorship, intimidation, harassment and abduction. Hameed Haroon, the chief executive of Dawn, says: Our hawkers are being stopped, they are being threatened, they have had their newspapers removed. The groups well-known news channel was shifted by Islamabads main cable network from the number 9 to number 28 slot. Consequently, many can no longer find or see it. In addition to losing viewership, its losing advertising revenue.

Munizae Jahangir, an Aaj TV anchor who travelled with Mr Sharif on his return from London, was threatened by security and intelligence operatives when she filmed the former PM being taken off the plane. Do you want to see our hospitality? one official said, according to Londons Sunday Times, as he took his gun out of his pocket.

Self-censorship is the new norm, according to Raza Rumi, editor of the Daily Times. He says its unwritten, unstated ... all very subtle and carefully orchestrated. Leading columnists have had their columns dropped; TV stations have introduced a 90-second delay to beep out anything sensitive. For the first time after 31 years of reporting on Pakistan, Sunday Times chief foreign correspondent Christina Lamb was denied a visa.

Haroon, who is also president of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society, accused the Pakistani military in a BBC Hard Talk interview of an unprecedented assault on press freedom.

Last week, an Islamabad high court judge, Shaukat Siddiqui, publicly said the militarys ISI was putting pressure on the Chief Justice and other judges for favourable verdicts in different cases. Today the judiciary and the media have come in the control of the bandookwala. Judiciary is not independent. Even the media is getting directions from the military. The media is not speaking the truth because its under pressure, he said. Siddiqui claimed the ISI has formed judicial benches of its choice to get the desired results. He says it asked the Chief Justice to ensure Nawaz and Maryam Sharif were denied bail until the elections were over. He also claims the National Accountability Court, which is trying corruption cases, is required to report to the ISI every evening.

In the circumstances its hard to resist the conclusion of outspoken former senator Farhatullah Babar: A creeping coup has taken place against the authority of the civilian government. It is different from the martial law of the past, with two resulting outcomes  the civilian government exists, but has no authority; press freedom exists, but journalists have no freedom. Clearly discernible behind this is the iron hand of the military. Its velvet glove has worn very thin.

H11Average NAND flash memory chip prices have nearly halved from a peak in 2017. (Photo: Samsung)

Asian memory chipmakers production plans and outlook will be closely watched as they start reporting earnings this week, following sharp falls in their stock prices due to concerns that a 2-year industry super-cycle may be skidding to a halt.

The $121 billion global memory chip industry has enjoyed an unprecedented boom since late 2016, with profits surging to record highs and margins rising above 70 per cent thanks to disciplined production after years of consolidation.

But the industrys shift to a newer technology of 3D NAND flash stacks - which are cheaper to assemble than outgoing two-dimensional chips - has seen output grow faster than demand this year and forced smaller players to aggressively cut prices to keep market share.

Average NAND flash memory chip prices have nearly halved from a peak in 2017, and concerns of further declines sent shares of the major producers such as South Koreas SK Hynix down 7 per cent on Monday.

NAND flash memory chips, used for longer-term data storage, are found in mobile devices as well as memory cards, USB flash drives and solid-state drives.

The margins are getting worse mainly because the average selling price decrease turns out to be much faster than cost reductions, said Alan Chen, director at market research firm DRAMeXchange.

He forecast the price decline would continue for the rest of this year.

Nomura estimates the supply of NAND flash chips will grow about 40 per cent to 50 per cent this year, just as demand eases off due to slowing global smartphone sales, causing prices to decline by nearly 20 per cent.

Prices of DRAM memory chips - which help servers, gaming PCs and cryptocurrency mining devices process large amounts of streaming data - are up more than 20 per cent this year.

But they are losing momentum amid a Chinese price-fixing probe against industry heavyweights such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, and Beijings drive to build home-grown chip champions to cut its reliance on foreign supplies.

Beijing has made the semiconductor sector a priority under its Made in China 2025 strategy, and three firms - Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd, Innotron Memory and Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit - are getting ready to mass-produce memory chips, according to analysts.

Until the first half of next year, Chinese firms production scale will be small but as their yield rate gets better and leads to increased output, that will influence the semiconductor market from the second half of next year, said Song Myung-sup, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.

Andrew Norwood, a lead analyst at Gartner, said Chinas entry into the market could be one of the factors behind a move by Samsung to aggressively expand capacity. He said 2020 and 2021 would see significant revenue reductions.

Others are more optimistic, pointing to demand from data centres and new technologies such as 5G mobile network and autonomous driving.

Although profit growth momentum is likely to disappear, we believe an operating profit level of $90 billion can be sustained in 2019, instead of crumbling down badly, BNP Paribas analyst Peter Yu said in a recent report.

The fat and steady profit is the new norm for the memory industry.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Attacks from Iran come at a particularly sensitive time for Germany, which is battling to preserve the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.

Germany is considering laws that would let it respond actively to foreign cyber-attacks, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer as he presented a domestic intelligence agency report showing Iran was the latest power to ramp up hack attacks on German systems.

The agency also reported that the volume of cyber-attacks from China had seemingly dwindled as the number of acquisitions of German high-tech companies by Chinese firms had risen.

The report, released on Tuesday by the domestic intelligence service (BfV), said numbers of cyber attacks with a likely origin in Iran had been rising since 2014, with a sharp increase last year.

In response to the report, which highlighted cyber-attacks by Iran, Russia and China, Seehofer said the agency needed to acquire the power not just to track and clean up cyber-attacks but also to launch counter-measures.

We will maybe need changes to the law on the question of how to react actively, not just investigating, but also actively (responding), Seehofer said.

BfV chief Hans-Georg Maassen said the agency was also looking at the implications of Chinese acquisitions surging even as cyber-attack volumes fell.

Getting a footing on the German market is not something for us to look at, but on the other hand we do look if we have the impression that behind the possible buyers theres a foreign state that has political aims, he told the news conference.

Attacks from Iran come at a particularly sensitive time for Germany, which is battling to preserve the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, from which the US has withdrawn.

Germany is vocal with its concerns about Irans missile development activities, it's backing for militant groups in regional conflicts, and spying activities.

In January, the foreign ministry summoned Irans ambassador to reprimand Tehran for spying on individuals and groups with close ties to Israel, calling such acts an unacceptable breach of German law.

The new intelligence report said cyberattacks believed to be backed by Iran were mainly aimed at the German government, dissidents, human rights organizations, research centres and the aerospace, defence and petrochemical industries.

The observed cyber campaigns are developing such efficacy that the operations initiated and guided by intelligence agencies to gain information could pose a danger to German companies and research institutions, the report said.

Russia, China and Iran constituted the biggest cyber and espionage threats to Germany, but other countries such as India and Vietnam, and even some western states, were also active.

Moscow continued to expend significant organizational and financial resources to target German political, economic, academic and technical targets, as well the military, through espionage and cyber activities, the report said.

Russian intelligence agencies continued their efforts to affect public opinion in Germany through propaganda and other means, and those were likely to continue even after the 2017 German election.

Such disinformation and propaganda campaigns are meant to destabilize the German government and weaken its position as a proponent of extending (European Union) sanctions against Russia, the report concluded.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.It involves Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had a months-long fling with Trump after they met in 2006, shortly after Trump's wife Melania gave birth to their son, Barron. (Photo: AFP)

Washington: Donald Trump can be heard discussing with his personal lawyer how to buy the rights to the story of a Playboy model, who says she had an affair with the now president, on a tape released Tuesday by CNN.

The existence of the tape, secretly recorded by his former longtime attorney Michael Cohen two months before the 2016 election, was reported last week by the New York Times, which said the FBI seized it during a raid on Cohen's office this year.

Now, the recording is available for the world to listen to.

Click here to listen

It involves Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had a months-long fling with Trump after they met in 2006, shortly after Trump's wife Melania gave birth to their son, Barron.

In the tape, Trump and Cohen talk about buying the rights to McDougal's story, which she had sold a month earlier to the National Enquirer for USD 150,000. The tabloid never published the story.

In the at-times muddled recording, Cohen says he wants to set up a company to acquire the rights off American Media, the company that owns the Enquirer.

During the campaign, the Trump team denied any knowledge of the deal between McDougal and American Media.

But in the tape, candidate Trump expresses no surprise when the issue comes up and Cohen talks about essentially reimbursing the company for what it paid McDougal.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all that info regarding our friend David," Cohen says, apparently referring to David Pecker, the head of American Media.

"When it comes time for the financing, which will be --," Cohen says, at which point Trump interrupts and says "what financing?"

"We'll have to pay --," Cohen says, according to a CNN transcript of the conversation, which also addressed other business issues between the two men.

"We won't pay with cash?" Trump asks, according to the CNN transcript of a segment that is particularly hard to hear.

Cohen is then heard saying "no, no" and it is not clear what is said next.

The tape, made in September 2016, two months before the election, was provided to CNN by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis.

Cohen, who has fallen out with Trump, is under federal investigation in New York for his business dealings and reportedly whether hush payments violated campaign finance laws.Banners of election candidates from political parties are displayed on poles on a highway in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Tuesday. (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Voting opened today in Pakistan's general elections to choose a new prime minister in the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year chequered history. The elections have been marred by allegations of military interference and a series of deadly attacks.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 3,459 candidates are contesting for 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while 8,396 candidates are running for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

There are 105.96 million registered voters in the country.

The voting started at 8 am local time on more than 85,000 polling stations.

The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after polling is concluded and results will be announced within 24 hours.

For a smooth polling process, As many as 800,000 law enforcement and army personnel have been deployed across the length and breadth of the nation.

In a special message on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan urged voters to fulfil their national duty of casting the ballot.

Around 220 million ballot papers have been printed for the election. The colour of ballot paper for the National Assembly is green, whereas white coloured paper shall be used for the Provincial Assembly.

Taking into account the wave of violence and terrorist attacks witnessed in the run-up to the elections, Peshawar's deputy commissioner has arranged 1,000 kafans (burial shroud) as a pre-emptive measure.

The troops have been deployed to provide mandated assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct polls, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

More than 17,000 polling stations have been declared sensitive across the country, while CCTV cameras have also been installed at the polling stations, reported Geo TV.

A public holiday has been declared across the country on Wednesday in order to facilitate the voting process.

Pakistan's National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 will be directly elected today whereas the rest  60 seats reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities  are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than five per cent of the vote.

A party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats in total.

Pakistan saw intense campaigning ahead of the 11th general election by candidates from key parties, namely Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan's Peoples Party (PPP).

In the previous elections, PML-N, led by former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the largest party with 166 seats out of a total of 342 in the National Assembly.

Although the seats were short of a majority, Sharif was able to form a government after several independents joined his party.

However, Sharif was disqualified as the prime minister and as a Member of the National Assembly in July last year after the Panama Papers case decision.

After Sharif's disqualification, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly in August 2017.

While the country is going to polls, Sharif and his daughter, Maryam, are currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, after being convicted in the Avenfield reference case.Leaders of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- will gather in Johannesburg on Wednesday for a three-day meeting focused on the threat of a US-led global trade war.

US President Donald Trump's hardening stance has compounded fears of an all-out trade war after he slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars and imposed tariffs on other international imports.

China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazilian President Michel Temer will attend the annual summit, along with several African leaders invited as guests.

Xi held talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the eve of the gathering, saying that "the Johannesburg summit has special significance for BRICS cooperation in the new circumstances".

China this week sharply rejected accusations by Trump that it was manipulating the yuan to give its exporters an edge, saying Washington appeared determined to provoke a trade war.

Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion of Chinese imports, complaining that China's trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

The BRICS group, comprising more than 40 percent of the global population, represents some of the biggest emerging economies, but it has struggled to find a unified voice -- as well as achieving sharply different growth rates.

Analysts say US trade policy could give the group renewed unity.

Sreeram Chaulia, of the Jindal School of International Affairs outside Delhi, told AFP that BRICS leaders would "concur that the US has unleashed punitive trade wars that are hurting all the BRICS members".

"They have a collective interest in promoting intra-BRICS trade. The urgency this time is greater," he said.

Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said last week the Johannesburg meeting was "about the context -- we are at a time when the US and China announce new measures almost every week".

"This is a trade war, so leaders' discussions are particularly important in coordinating our positions," he added.

Xi arrived in South Africa after visiting Senegal and Rwanda as part of a whistlestop tour to cement relations with African allies.

Signalling diplomatic rivalry over influence in Africa, Modi visited Rwanda and Uganda on his own five-day tour of the continent including the BRICS summit.

The meeting opens on Wednesday afternoon with a business forum, before the heads of state hold talks on Thursday.

African leaders attending a "BRICS outreach" programme on Friday include Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Joao Lourenco of Angola, Macky Sall of Senegal and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

"South Africa, and Africa more broadly, can benefit from the increasing exports to fast-growing countries like India and China," Kenneth Creamer, an economist at Johannesburg's Wits University, told AFP.

"BRICS has the strategic potential to re-shape world trade."

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also attend a summit as the current chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and will meet Putin on the summit's sidelines.Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that India will strengthen its cooperation and mutual capabilities with Africa in combating terrorism and extremism.

Addressing Parliament of Uganda, Modi said that India's engagement with Africa will continue to be guided by 10 principles.

He said that India is proud to be Africa's partner and Uganda is central in this on the African continent.

Africa would be at the top of India's priorities, Modi said in his address, the first by an Indian prime minister to Parliament of Uganda.

"We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular," he said.

Modi announced that India would build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at the sacred site in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

"Our people are among many threads that connect Uganda and India together.

"Our partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about USD 11 billion in over 40 African countries," the prime minister added.A political controversy erupted after it emerged that fugitive diamontaire Mehul Choksi has been granted citizenship by Antigua and Barbuda with the Congress bringing Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the line of fire.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Choksi got citizenship in Antigua three months after Modi had a meeting with Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne.

"Bank fraudster Mehul Choksi gets an Antigua passport after visiting China, Belgium, UK, US, UAE, Hong Kong. CBI/ED fail to to get a Red Corner Notice issued against him till today. Intriguing that three months earlier(April 18), you had adoring talks with Antigua PM Gaston Browne," Surjewala tweeted.

Addressing a press conference, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda claimed that the government was weaving a "web of deception" on the issue of black money to save its "crony capitalist friends".

On the reports about Choksi given the citizenship of Antigua, Gowda also pointed to the meeting Modi had with Browne and wondered whether there was any connection to the development.

"Prime Minister and met the Antigua Prime Minister, and a few months later we found that Mehul Choksi was given Antigua citizenship. What is the link between the two only those people know. But we have our suspicions," he said.HERRIMAN  This is a story about a tortoise and a hound. Its not a childrens book, but it very well could be.

Harold is a 4-year-old female Sulcata tortoise. Copper is a 10-year-old bloodhound who worked for the West Valley Police Department for nine years. Copper is retired now, but his stellar career involved tracking down missing people.

Probably one of the most memorable, most high-profile cases we were involved with was we found a 6-year-old that had fallen down a drainage ditch, said Coppers owner, Sgt. Shane Matheson. He had been missing for 5  to 6 hours before Copper and I were called out.

Copper is used to following his nose, and on July 5 he followed it right out of an open gate at his Herriman home.

I always say that when his nose turns on, his ears and everything else turn off, Matheson said. Thats when Copper became the missing one himself.

I came out of my garage and there was a beautiful dog, said Ashley Johnson. And I remember thinking, 'I think thats a bloodhound.'

Johnson found Copper in her yard and then went to social media. She posted his information on four different pages and soon found Coppers owners, who lived right down the street.

Were definitely grateful for her and her family for keeping him safe for us, Matheson said.

But the story doesnt end there. You would think it would be hard to lose a tortoise, but five days later thats exactly what happened.

Its the first time Ive lost Harold, Johnson said. And my son kept saying, Mom, where toto go? Where did the turtle go?

Harold was grazing in the front yard when she wandered away. Johnson looked for the tortoise for three days without any luck.

I looked in everyones yards. I looked under every rock, I looked between boulders, I looked everywhere and could not find her, said Johnson. I was just devastated.

Thats when she remembered Copper and his famous nose.

They were missing their tortoise and they wondered about the possibility of us looking for Harold, Matheson recalled.

So they put Copper on the case.

It had been over two days that she was missing and it had rained four or five times in between, Johnson said.

But Copper led them straight to Harold, who was burrowed in a neighbors flower patch.

She was hiding next to our neighbors retaining wall, said Johnson. If tortoises want to hide and if they dont want to be found, they wont be found.

It was a very happy ending for both the tortoise and the hound.

It was just meant to be, Johnson said. We were meant to meet Copper and he helped us find our pet.SALT LAKE CITY  Three firefighters were injured Tuesday and some residents in the Ensign Peak neighborhood were evacuated as a fast-moving grass fire scorched 100 acres of a hillside behind the Utah State Capitol.

The fire was halted by firefighters at the ridges where homes overlook the city. About 40 homes were evacuated as a precaution before crews were able to knock the fire down.

Salt Lake fire spokeswoman Audra Sorenson said firefighters went door to door warning residents of the danger and asked them to evacuate.

Two firefighters were treated at University Hospital for heat exhaustion and smoke inhalation and another suffered a leg injury, fire officials said. All three were later released. Two residents were also taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

Only one house suffered some fire damage to its exterior.

The fire spread quickly, prompting crews to request more and more assistance within the first 15 minutes.

"The wind is really unpredictable in that area  and it's been touch and go," Sorenson said.

"I don't want to say we've been expecting it, but we have definitely been preparing for something like this," she said. "We've been hopeful that we wouldn't have something going as rapidly on a hot day as this."

Fire crews were able to contain 95 percent of the fire within just three hours.

Officials temporarily closed East Capitol Boulevard and Victory Road as they fought the wildfire.

Investigators do not yet know how the fire began near 690 N. Columbus Street. Fireworks are banned in the area.

Some neighbors worked with firefighters side by side in trying to extinguish the flames.

"Within literally five minutes, that whole hillside exploded into flame," one neighbor said. "Unbelievable!"

"I think the scariest thing was when we heard screams and we saw the smoke getting darker," said Maurice Melligan, who also lives in the area. "And that's when the reality of it came in, 'Hey, we're in danger right now.'"

Melligan said he saw his neighbors pack up their cars and vacate the area.

"We could see ash falling in front of us," he said.

"I just ran with the hose and tried to stay in front of it," said neighbor Justin Peterson. "When the firefighters showed up, the flames were so tall, the firefighters were yelling, 'Get out! Get out!' But that house and that house would be gone if we had gotten out, so "

For the first time, Salt Lake firefighters used their new "pumpkin" water tanks. A helicopter made multiple trips to the area, dipping a large orange bucket and returning to douse more flames.

Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski praised firefighters' efforts and said a recent $500,000 allocation for equipment to fight wildfires such as Tuesday's was justified.

Biskupski and Salt Lake Fire Chief Karl Lieb plan to visit the scene of the fire early Wednesday to assess damage.

About 50-60 firefighters responded to the fire. Crews received support from the Utah Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forest Service and American Red Cross.

Sorenson said the Ensign Peak neighborhood can be a dangerous area for fires.

"In the spring we always do mitigation efforts in this area because it's high risk. It's right at the urban interface. So we always go in there and advise them to clear out some of those noxious weeds," she said.

"We work really hard to talk to them about fire prevention. So it's not something we're surprised by. This is a high risk area."SALT LAKE CITY  New research says states that take the lead on embracing renewable energy investments help drive down costs on the technology, ultimately passing those savings on to energy consumers.

States, the study found, that have strict renewable energy standards foster greater expansion of wind development and solar power by utility companies.

"Strong laws work really well and weak laws don't," said Lincoln Davies, a University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law professor.

Davies was part of a team of researchers led by Indiana University professor Sanya Carley. David B. Spence, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Nikolaos Zirogiannis, an assistant scientist from Indiana University, also participated in the project.

The peer-reviewed journal Nature Energy published the study's findings on Monday.

The group examined the evolution of state renewable portfolio standards and also interviewed more than 40 experts on implementation of those rules, which require utilities to increase their percentage of renewable energy generation by a certain amount and date.

"The more aggressive the law, the more effective they are, which means they will also push down price over time," Davies said.

About 30 states around the country have some sort of renewable energy standard on the books.

Hawaii has the strictest standard at 100 percent, with Vermont at 75 percent. California has a standard of 50 percent.

"The way (the standards) are written tends to be very sophisticated," Davies said, adding that loopholes in laws often allow utility companies to dial back renewable energy investment.

"The details really matter, our study shows," he said.

Utah has a renewable energy goal of 25 percent by 2025, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

A July posting by that organization noted that across the country, roughly half of the growth in renewable energy generation in the United States since 2000 derives from state renewable energy requirements.

Davies said Utah's standard is "pretty close to voluntary" because it lets Rocky Mountain Power opt out of investments in renewable energy if they aren't cost-effective.

Our customers are demanding more renewable energy.  Spencer Hall, Rocky Mountain Power's marketing and communications manager

Spencer Hall, the utility's marketing and communications manager, said the company's billion dollar investment in Wyoming wind power just received a stamp of approval from Idaho and has been approved in five states overall.

Four solar power sites in Utah, he added, plus two in Oregon will power Facebook's data centers in Prineville, Oregon. By 2020, the units are expected to generate 437 megawatts of energy.

"We go where the resources are and follow what our customers want," Hall said. "Our customers are demanding more renewable energy."

The utility company is also working with individual communities like Park City and Moab to help them meet municipal goals of 100 percent renewable energy.

"We're diversifying our portfolio and we're able to do that because of the backbone of traditional generation that we have," he said. "Going forward, we are looking for ways to deliver the same reliability and affordability that we have now."

The company is also tapping into California's excess solar generation at peak times.

"Utah is paid to take that power from California," he said. "On any given day we are running on more renewable energy than people may understand."

That drawdown of California sun power allows Utah's coal plants to operate at lower capacity, which means less carbon-fueled energy is getting to the grid, Hall said.

But Ashley Soltysiak, Utah's Sierra Club director, said Utah's lax standard needs vast improvement.

"The Legislature has looked at this in previous years, but they seem to think it is good enough, even though it is not terribly aggressive," she said.

"We have seen that the state of Utah does not have an appetite to have any changes to the current renewable portfolio standards. It has been a source of frustration."

The Sierra Club seeks an internal study done by PacifiCorp of its costs and the benefits of running each of its 24 coal units or retiring them in 2022.

An appeal is before the Public Utility Commission in Oregon to turn over the document.

The Sierra Club says its own analysis shows a switch to renewable energy over coal would save PacifiCorp customers $3 million.KAMAS  Summit County Sheriff Justin Martinez says he can only speculate as to why Ray Humpherys was so far off the trail leading back to his campsite.

But based on the time of night and the terrain, investigators believe he was "most likely disoriented," the sheriff said.

On Wednesday, Martinez held a press conference to talk about the recovery of the South Jordan teacher's body after a week of searching but had few details to add from a press release sent out Tuesday.

Humpherys, 66, was found dead about 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Middle Fork drainage area, about 1.5 miles from where he was last seen near Hidden Lake. He was found in a steep area with heavy vegetation, according to the sheriff's office. Searchers in a helicopter spotted Humpherys, but they were unable to land because of the terrain and had to guide a ground crew to the body.

Martinez reiterated Wednesday that foul play is not suspected. But an exact cause of death will have to be determined during the autopsy by the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office.

He said Humpherys had injuries "consistent with the environment and the harsh conditions he was in," and some of those injuries may have been caused by a fall. The sheriff did not go into detail about those injuries or whether they were serious enough to cause his death. Martinez said investigators are hoping the autopsy will answer many of those questions, including whether a fall caused fatal injuries or if there were other contributing factors.

Hundreds of volunteers spent thousands of hours searching for Humpherys since he went missing on July 18. He had been camping with his family during an annual trip near Hidden Lake in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest when about 10 p.m. he left to walk to the lake to get water to put out his campfire, Martinez said.

How he ended up on the opposite side of the lake was not known Wednesday.

"It's a harsh terrain out there. It's an unforgiving environment, the sheriff said.

Among the groups that spent time searching for Humpherys was the Garrett Bardsley Foundation. Martinez said that more than 400 volunteers from that organization alone helped search the area on Sunday. The foundation specializes in searches for missing people in wilderness terrain. It was established by Kevin Bardsley, whose 12-year-old son became lost during a camping trip in the High Uintas in 2004 and was never found.

Humpherys' family issued a brief statement on Wednesday, thanking the hundreds of volunteers who searched for their loved one.

"We have been overwhelmed by the love and support of our neighbors, friends and stake members during this difficult time for our family. It's incredible to see how many lives were touched by our beloved dad and husband," the family said.

Although it was not the ending the family had hoped for, Martinez said he is pleased his office could at least give the family closure by locating his body.

Humpherys was a physical education teacher at Eagle Crest Elementary School in Lehi.

On the Pray for Ray Facebook page, numerous people left messages of condolence for the family and shared memories of the beloved teacher.

"As heartbreaking as it is, I'm grateful he was found. Now I pray that you'll be comforted by the many, many wonderful memories you have of him," one woman wrote.

"My daughter had Mr. Humpherys for PE last year. She said he was her 'Zen Teacher.' She loved him," another woman wrote.

"We loved him! He was one of our favorite teachers. Three of my children had him. He was so kind and friendly saying hello every time I was at the school.  Praying for your family," another woman wrote.

"We are so sad to hear the news. My kids loved him as their PE teacher  he made it fun and exciting!" wrote another person.

"The Eaglecrest community is heartbroken. My kids (13 and 14) cried tonight as they learned the sober news. He is and was a kind soul and taught the kids so much more than just PE. He knew each kid by name, even though he had them for just a few hours each week. As a parent, he would pull me aside and tell me something positive that my kids had done or said in class. He made sure everyone felt special. We will always remember him with great fondness and appreciation," another person wrote.Robert De Niro To Join The Cast Of The Joker Movie?

Veteran actor Robert De Niro is in talks with the makers to join Joaquin Phoenix in the upcoming Joker movie. Robert is reportedly in final negotiations to join the upcoming solo flick for Batman's long-term foe which will be written and directed by The Hangover's Todd Phillips. The film is said to be a "darker" approach to the DC comics character than we've seen portrayed by Jared Leto in other recent Warner Bros films.





As per the reports, the 74-year-old, if roped in, will be playing a talk-show host who plays a part in driving Phoenixs character to go mad and become the Clown Prince of Crime. The movie is said to be about the origin of Joker and how he becomes the notorious villain that he is. The film would also be set in the '80s.





As said, the film would follow the origins of the Joker more than the usual superhero film. Moreover, if we believe the reports, Frances Conroy will essay the role of the Joker's mum. Well, we all are quite excited about this flick and just cant wait to watch it.





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Source: entertainment.ieCelebs Are Coming Up To Support Superstar Mohanlal

Celebrities from the South industry have written the Kerala government that Mohanlal should not be invited as the Chief Guest to the annual state film awards here in August. But now some more support started coming up for the Malayalam superstar. Various film bodies, as well as distributors and exhibitors, have also come out in support after 100 people came to oppose.





Award-winning actor Prakash Raj, who was said to be among the 100 signatories, on Tuesday denied that he was among them. "I wish to say that I have not signed any such thing that Mohanlal ji, should not be invited," he said. State Culture Minister A.K. Balan told the media that no decision was taken that Mohanlal will be the chief guest.





Mohanlal has taken over as President of the film association last month. It all came up first when a women college revoked the suspension of accused actor Dileep's membership of the Association. Dileep is an accused in the 2017 kidnapping of an actress.





Moreover, General Secretary of actors body of the film association, Edavela Babu, also said that there seemed to be some conspiracy that was being whipped up against Mohanlal. "When the state government itself has now said that Mohanlal was never invited, then how come there is a demand that he should not be invited. There is something happening against the actor," he said.





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Source: images.indianexpress.comBollywood Stars Who Refused A Film Because They Did Not Like Their Co-Star

With hundreds of films being released every year and more than a thousand being in pipeline, Bollywood as an industry is colossal. Once you break into this behemoth that churns out dreams every day, there is rarely a soul who goes without work, especially if you are in top rung.

Thus, it is not uncommon for superstars to throw tantrums about the nitty-gritty of the film in which the directors and producers want to cast them. From looks to costumes, to dialogues to creative opinions, stars have walked out of films or not signed them in the first place because they did not agree with certain aspects of the films. While being picky is not necessarily a bad thing, these stars took it a notch higher and refused film because they did not want to work with another popular actor of Bollywood. Read up to know the ones we are talking about.

Kareena Kapoor Refused To Work With Emraan Hashmi

From the very beginning of her career, Kareena has had a reputation for being picky about things and especially her co-stars. Early on in her career, Bebo announced that she would only do films if she cast opposite A-listers. We dont know what the definition of A-lister according to her, but Emraan certainly did not fit the bill for this Begum. Kareena walked out of the film as she had no intention of kissing the serial-kisser of Bollywood and the film was shelved.

Ranbir Kapoor Refused To Work With Sonakshi Sinha

One of the most politically incorrect statements to be ever made by any Bollywood star was the one Ranbir made about Sonakshi Sinha. Reportedly, the Kapoor boy was offered a romantic comedy opposite Sonakshi Sinha. Ranbir liked the script but asked the producers to cast some other heroine opposite her as he thought that Sona looked too old in his comparison. When the producers were adamant about casting Sona in the project, Ranbir chose to walk out of the film. Not cool, Ranbir, not cool!

Ranveer Singh Refused To Work With Katrina Kaif

According to reports the director of Baar Baar Dekho, Nitya Mehra wanted to make a film with Ranveer and Katrina Kaif in the lead. However, the project did not work out as Ranveer refused to work with Katrina. Although Ranveer does not have any personal problems with Kat, his decision was due to his lady love Deepikas strained relationship with Katrina Kaif that he took the decision. Things between the two leading ladies have not been fine ever since Ranbir Kapoor who was dating Deepika at the time cheated on her with Katrina.

Katrina Kaif Refused To Work With Aditya Roy Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor

While Bajirao of Bollywood refused to work with the Sheila of Bollywood, turns out Sheila also has her own set of filters. After two back to back flops like Fitoor and Jagga Jasoos, Katrina was being selective about her next projects when she was offered a film with Aditya Roy Kapoor, her co-star in Fitoor. Katrina turned down the offer as she did not want to work with Aditya after delivering a flop with him.

Katrina also turned down Half Girlfriend as she did not want to be cast opposite Arjun Kapoor in the film. It came as quite surprising as the two share a good camaraderie with each other off-screen. But Katrina turned down the offer as she thought that Arjun would look too young opposite her.Earlier this month, it was reported that Xiaomi has registered a new device with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which bears a model number M1805E10A and is also known as the Pocophone. The smartphone is expected to house the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. The existence of the phone was attested when the same device got a certification by the Taiwanese certification agency, NCC. Now, according to a report, the Chinese conglomerate is looking to launch the Pocophone F1 smartphone, reportedly aimed at Eastern European and Indian markets, at a price starting from 420 (approx Rs 33,500) for the 6/64GB model and 460 (approx Rs 37,000) for the 6/128GB version.

Although Pocophone F1 may not be the cheapest smartphone with Snapdragon 845 SoC in India, it would be the cheapest one in Europe. The prices of the variants have been made public by leakster Roland Quandt on Twitter. Xiaomi Pocophone F1 will seemingly be cheap as chips... listing in eastern Euroland for ~420 Euro (6/64GB) and ~460 Euro (6/128GB) (prices converted). If it really has an SDM845 that pricing would be really impressive for a device with a 5.99in 2160x1080px screen, he tweeted.

Till now, Xiaomi has launched the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, Xiaomi Mi 8 and the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition smartphones which have Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset. While, Mi Mix 2S is available in some international markets, the Xiaomi Mi 8 and the Xiaomi Mi 8 Explorer Edition have been launched in China only. With Pocophone, Xiaomi looks to expand its reach in Europe. The news comes after Xiaomi unveiled Mi A2 and Mi A2 Plus in Madrid, Spain in its second launch event in the continent.

Further, the use of Pocophone moniker instead of Mi or Redmi branding suggests that the Chinese tech giant might be launching a new series. Earlier, XDA Developers claimed that Pocophone might make way to India under the codename Beryllium. The smartphone is in development as there reportedly exists an up-to-date MIUI 10 Global Beta (v8.7.6) for it. The smartphone may sport a notched LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It may feature dual-camera setup with optical zoom support at the back and run on Android 8.1 Oreo. It could be powered by a 4000mAh battery.US payment firms expanding fast to overcome local challenge

US payment firms are expanding operations at a scorching pace, even as they successfully push aside local regulations to ward off competition. US card companies Visa, Mastercard, and First Data have each outpaced the industry benchmark in revenues and profits.

For the period endings 31 March 2018, Visa's revenue expanded 13 per cent to $5.1 billion as the company saw its payments volume rose 11 per cent, processed transactions increased 12 per cent, and cross-border volume grew 11 per cent.

Mastercard's revenue jumped 29.5 per cent in its latest quarter, after adjusting for 2.5 percentage points in acquired revenue. The company reported a 17-per cent increase in switched transactions (authorisation, clearing, and settlement processes), a 21-per cent jump in cross-border volume, and a 13-per cent growth in global gross volume.

Amidst the high growth, the US payment firms have also successfully lobbied the government to push aside Reserve Bank of India rules that required credit/debit card companies to store customer data within the country.

Visa, Mastercard, and First Data, which have till now been enjoying favourable regulatory and market conditions, are now insulating themselves from competitive threats.

They are now challenging RBI's directive that payment firms store data locally for "unfettered supervisory access." This would involve additional costs for companies such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express and hamper unregulated global operations.

RBI, in its bi-monthly policy review in April had observed that not all system providers store payments data in India. "In order to ensure better monitoring, it is important to have unfettered supervisory access to data stored with these system providers as also with their service providers / intermediaries/ third party vendors and other entities in the payment ecosystem," RBI said.

It has also directed all system providers to ensure that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India.

This data, RBI said, should include the full end-to-end transaction details / information collected / carried / processed as part of the message / payment instruction. For the foreign leg of the transaction, if any, the data can also be stored in the foreign country, if required.

RBI had also directed system providers to ensure compliance within a period of six months and report compliance of the same to the Reserve Bank latest by 15 October 2018.

System providers were also told to submit the System Audit Report (SAR) on completion of compliance not later than 31 December 2018.

The RBI rules give a competitive advantage to local rivals like Paytm, which already stores all its data in India. The company, which is backed by Japan's Softbank Group and China's Alibaba, has also supported the RBI proposal.

But, at a meeting between officials and industry representatives in June, chaired by economic affairs secretary SC Garg, US card companies held their ground and Garg is reported to have pushed Paytm's argument that the RBI rule that customer data should be stored within the country is in the national interest.

Garg is reported to have told Paytm not to bring the national interest into a debate around data storage.

Separately, the card company lobby group Payments Council of India (PCI) is reported to have lobbied the central bank also that "most" of its members had some concerns with the proposal.

The card companies, however, failed to explain the need for the data of two Indians doing transactions in India to be shared or stored overseas.

At the core of the rivalry is India's $50-billion digital payments market, which, according to Boston Consulting Group and Google, is expected to grow ten-fold to $500 billion by 2020.

Digital payments and use of cards in India has soared since November 2016, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a sudden ban on existing high-value currency notes and started pushing digital payments.

Indians in May clocked transactions worth $52 billion using their 964 million credit and debit cards, nearly double the amount recorded back in November 2016. Monthly mobile-wallet payments have risen nearly fivefold to $2 billion during the period, data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

Paytm, with its mobile wallet app, has cashed in on the boom by partnering with Indian merchants for payments, eating into revenues of card firms such as Mastercard and Visa.

India's digital boom has prompted Facebook's WhatsApp messenger to test an interbank money transfer service in India, while Google also launched a payments app last year to compete with local players.

The RBI is reported to be planning to issue a "clarificatory circular" to address concerns related to its rules.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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Support our mission and join our community now.Donegal man Hugh Tierney spread a bit of joy about Dundalk last week when he rolled into town in his bright red Heinkel bubble car.

The retiree, who is from Donegal, but lives in Raheny, Dublin, made the trip from the capital with his quirky car last Tuesday.

Hugh Tierney with his bubble car beside the one on display in Louth County Library

Hugh, who is passionate about classic cars drives his beloved bubble car to the shops in his local village every day, explained how he had an idea to take the car back to where it was born.

The retiree explained: My car was built in 1959 here in Dundalk and it came into my possession in 1989. It was around two years ago when I restored it fully.

I wanted to take the car back to where it was born. And my second aim was for the people of Dundalk to have a look at the car.

I drove the car around Dundalk and people were smiling and waving. I think it gives people a buzz.

Of course, the bubble car has always been linked to Dundalk - there is a model on permanent display in the Louth County Museum on Roden Place.

The Heinkel was made by the Dundalk Engineering Company between 1956 and 1958, after production was transferred from engineering company Heinkel Flugzeugwerke.

The fact that Hugh didn't have to do too much work to the car when restoring it, is a testament to the workmanship of the Dundalk workmen who built them.

Hugh's bubble car at Louth County Library in Dundalk

Dundalk people should have a bit of pride about them - they were built very well, said the car-mad Donegal man.

Hugh also took the time to bring the car back to its birthplace and he visited staff at Caraher Ward Limited on the Ardee Rd. - the site where the cars were originally made at Dundalk Engineering Company.

After his trip to Dundalk last week, Hugh also completed the final part of his mission and brought the bubble car down to Cork to reunite it with the original owner, an ex-newspaperman who used to work for the Independent.

However, it sounds like Hugh might have fallen victim to the Dundalk charm - he's already planning a return visit. You have a very friendly town, people were very helpful.

I was chatting to people in the tourist office about bringing it down for a car show soon, he said. Contact editor@dundalkdemocrat.ie if you know anyone who helped make the Heinkel cars in Dundalk circa 1960.

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Vendors seeking to crack the largest single global customer for information technology -- the U.S. government -- should keep a sharp eye on the ever-changing contract landscape. Federal spending for IT now amounts to more than US$90 billion annually.

One of the recent changes initiated by the Trump administration for managing federal IT contracting focuses on the use of technology business management to improve the IT acquisition process.

The White House Office of Management and Budget and the General Services Administration have invited IT vendors to provide feedback to the government on productive steps federal agencies can take to adopt TBM. The OMB-GSA partnership is seeking information from industry regarding the following:

software solutions that efficiently aggregate and analyze data across the federal enterprise; and

services that support the preparation and adoption of standard taxonomies in large organizations to facilitate TBM implementation.

IT providers have until July 9 to submit initial TBM capability statements to GSA. Then GSA will sponsor two "Reverse Industry Days" during which vendors will be able to outline their capabilities and present their responses to a specific government Request for Information, or RFI, on the appropriate use of TBM.

GSA will reserve the right to select the mix of participants for the Reverse Industry Days set for July 27 and July 30. Vendors that do not participate in the industry days can still bid on TBM-related contracts.

Gains From Prior Administration

"GSA was one of the first federal agencies to implement TBM and is pleased to co-lead this effort to increase data accountability and transparency government-wide through the President's Management Agenda," said GSA Administrator Emily Murphy.

"Increasing transparency on IT spending will empower federal leaders to make better informed, data-driven decisions, and provide greater accountability when investing taxpayer dollars on needed IT solutions," she added.

The recent GSA-OMB Request for Information builds on federal TBM efforts initiated in the Obama administration. The federal Chief Information Officer Council currently includes a TBM component. The Trump administration emphasized use of the approach in the 2019 federal budget with a proposed allocation of $1.5 million to create a TBM section within OMB.

TBM aims to improve IT cost transparency by adapting successful private sector initiatives for government purposes, according to the CIO Council. TBM provides a standard for categorizing IT costs, technologies, resources, applications and services, with the goal of informing data-driven decision making around smart IT investment.

More than a third of federal spending for IT was lumped together as "other," rather than assigned to a specific IT category, in a recent government analysis of investment data. The need for greater clarity about IT investments has driven interest in TBM, which promises more efficient use of technology, better accountability, and improved IT acquisition processes.

The lack of specificity "makes it difficult to baseline federal investments and show the public whether the government is spending taxpayer dollars effectively in order to drive the large-scale change needed to improve business transformation and citizen services," states the President's Management Agenda. The PMA calls for the adoption of TBM government-wide by 2022.

Potential for IT Vendors

Vendors could gain in several ways from the TBM initiative. If the use of TBM improves the way federal agencies acquire and manage IT, all providers will benefit in marketing their equipment, software or services to the government.

Also, providers with specific TBM capabilities could obtain contracts geared to the implementation of TBM. Federal agencies may provide contracting opportunities for adopting TBM resources, according to the GSA's RFI.

"Currently, we are in the market research phase to refine government requirements and determine how industry may be able to meet the government's need," said Jonathan Kraden, acting deputy associate administrator of GSA's Office of Government-wide Policy.

"Once we conclude our research, we will provide more information," he told the E-Commerce Times.

"While we can't assume that this will turn into a contract opportunity, I'm inclined to believe that it will," said Deniece Peterson, director of federal market analysis at Deltek.

"GSA plays a significant role in supporting key aspects of the President's Management Agenda, particularly when it comes to providing avenues for subject matter expertise regarding IT modernization and rooting out wasteful spending," she told the E-Commerce Times.

"On the former, we saw GSA issue five contracts to set up its IT Modernization Centers of Excellence. This RFI seems to be a precursor to addressing the latter -- better IT budget analytics to standardize reporting and make identifying unnecessary spending easier," Peterson said.

Software and Services Featured

The general scope of vendor capabilities GSA and OMB are exploring includes software solutions that efficiently can aggregate and analyze data across the federal enterprise, and services that support the preparation and adoption of standard taxonomies in large organizations to facilitate TBM implementation.

An example of a specific capability the RFI is seeking for software solutions is an explanation of how an IT provider used its software solution for publicly available government-wide data sources to analyze the various levels of the TBM taxonomy.

Another software capability being sought is a description of the challenges, gaps and benefits of using government-wide data sources for full capture of the federal government's IT spend at the various levels of the TBM methodology.

In terms of IT services, GSA and OMB asked providers to describe how a company's services could assist federal agencies in preparing for and implementing a standard data taxonomy. They also sought recommendations for actions the federal government should consider regarding the best way to acquire services related to TBM objectives.

"The TBM provides two things that I think are key to improving IT spend management -- more granularity in the types of spending, and standardization in reporting," noted Peterson. "They set the stage for a better understanding of current spending as well as allow for apples-to-apples comparisons, within and across agencies."

OMB has embarked on a program to guide federal agencies through the transition to TBM in a phased approach, and the agencies' ability to meet the requirements will rely heavily on collecting, standardizing, and analyzing the various and disparate data sources related to IT management, she said.

"Once they are on this framework, it will be easier to identify gaps in IT needs to help inform acquisition decisions," Peterson pointed out. "It will also make it easier to identify areas of duplicative spending that can be eliminated, so TBM, like previous policies requiring review of IT asset inventories, could be a double-edged sword."

The original RFI notice with complete technical IT requirements was published on the Federal Business Opportunities Internet portal earlier this month. GSA conducted a one-hour virtual orientation to the Request for Information on Tuesday.

John K. Higgins has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2009. His main areas of focus are U.S. government technology issues such as IT contracting, cybersecurity, privacy, cloud technology, big data and e-commerce regulation. As a freelance journalist and career business writer, he has written for numerous publications, including The Corps Report and Business Week. Email John.

(Photo: REUTERS / Jose Cabezas)People look at a picture of slain Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero at the national cathedral in San Salvador February 3, 2015. Pope Francis on Tuesday ruled that Romero, who was murdered by a right-wing death squad in 1980 and is an icon of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America, had died as a martyr and will be beatified, the Vatican said.

The Catholic Church is on the front lines of an escalating conflict between the Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's increasingly authoritarian government and the broad-based opposition that wants him gone.

In the Central American country the church has often been immersed in politics, and priests are currently both witnesses and players in the crisis that has racked the nation for the past three months and claimed almost 300 lives, The New York Times reported on July 22.

Recent developments Nicaragua and the South American State of Venezuela both offer both a sobering indication about the direction of those societies and also a thorough debunking of one of the most persistent myths about anti-Christian persecution in the early 21st century.

Since the subject first arose as a matter of political and media chatter in the 1990s, conversation about anti-Christian persecution has gone through several phases of denial, John L. Allen Jr. wrote in the July 20 edition of Crux News.

'ANTI-CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION'

The first was that there was such a thing at all, fueled by suspicion in some cultural and media circles that "anti-Christian persecution" had been stirred up by conservative Western Christians looking to win sympathy for socially unpopular positions on matters such as homosexuality and women.

After the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria that position became unsustainable, and most people were willing to recognize that Christians are being persecuted today at the hands of Islamic radicalism in various parts of the Middle East.

More recently, news of a possible breakthrough in Vatican-China relations has refocused attention on the fact that there is a persecuted, underground church in China, and that it's not just radical Muslims who sometimes see Christianity as a threat.

"The remaining type of denial, and one that's proven surprisingly enduring, is that Christians are at risk of persecution only where they're a minority.

"In largely Christian societies, or so the myth goes, individual Christians ought to be safe - and if they're not, whatever they're suffering isn't really 'religious' persecution," wrote Allen.

He notes that reflection can show that it's not just places where Christians are a minority that form the front lines of this war, and it never has been.

The Center for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that of the seventy million Christians who have been martyred since the time of Christ, forty-five million died in the 20th century alone.

By far the largest concentration was in the Soviet Union, with as many as twenty-five million killed inside Russia and an additional eight million in Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are profoundly Christian societies and have been for centuries, even during the period in which they were governed by officially atheistic regimes.

CELEBRATED MARTYRS

And many of the most celebrated martyrs of the late 20th century came in Latin America, among Christians who resisted the police States of the region.

When Pope Francis officially canonizes Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was shot to death while saying Mass in 1980 for his advocacy of the poor and victims of human rights abuses, there will be a new reminder.

Allen cites other examples of these "majority martyrs" including American Sister Dorothy Stang, the great "martyr of the Amazon" in overwhelmingly Catholic Brazil, and Maria Elizabeth Macias Castro, a leader in the Scalabrinian lay movement and a popular blogger, beheaded in Mexico in 2011 for exposing the activities of a drug cartel.

"Today, Latin America is once more in the forefront of exposing the 'only a minority' myth, due to literal violence in Nicaragua and mounting political and legal harassment in Venezuela," noted Allen.

Only the day before Crux's Ines San Martin offered a chilling tick-tock of recent attacks on church personnel or sites in Nicaragua, where forces loyal to Sandinista President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, are increasingly inclined to see Catholic clergy and activists as the enemy.

In the early days of the upheaval, Ortega appealed to the bishops to mediate in talks with the opposition, an alliance of disparate groups including students, business associations and farmers' organizations, the NYT reported.

But as the government intensified its opposition crackdown, Ortega no longer treats the bishops as neutral arbiters, unleashing attacks by his followers on priests and on churches.

Ortega was president of Nicaragua between 1979 and 1990 and returned to power in 2007, has also denied the government had ordered hospitals not to treat the wounds of anti-government protestors, the BBC reported.

He also rejected reports of attacks on Roman Catholic priests, who he said should continue to mediate in stalled peace talks between the protesters and the government.(Photo: REUTERS / Stringer)President of the 63rd session of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d'Escoto (L) and Nicaraguan Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo greet each other in Managua July 16, 2009. D'Escoto, Guatemalan Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu and Colombia's Senator Piedad Cordoba are in Managua for an international meeting on peace and reconciliation.

Pope Francis has lifted the suspension of Father Miguel D'Escoto, the Nicaraguan priest who was suspended due to his involvement in Nicaragua's revolutionary government in the Central American country's revolutionary government in the 1970s.

The 81-year-old priest wrote to the Vatican and expressed his desire to celebrate Mass again "before dying," Vatican Radio reported.

The Vatican said on August 4 that Pope Francis had agreed to lift the curb on the priest.

Los Angeles-born D'Escoto was the President of the United Nations General Assembly from September 2008 to September 2009.

He asked the priest's superior at the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, a Catholic missionary organization, to help reintroduce D'Escoto back into the ministry.

The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers quoted the Vatican's letter, saying: "The Holy Father has given his benevolent assent that Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann be absolved from the canonical censure inflicted upon him."

The Maryknoll press statement said the Pope "entrusts him to the superior general of the institute (Maryknoll) for the purpose of accompanying him in the process of reintegration into the ministerial priesthood."

The letter announcing the lifting of the suspension was signed by Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Catholic News Service reported.

D'Escoto was a prominent figure in the church before supporting the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front.

He founded Orbis Books, Maryknoll's theological publishing division, and he became an official with the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.

He joined the Sandinistas in the 1970s and helped overthrow the government of Anastasio Somoza.

D'Escoto was named foreign minister after the Sandinistas came to power in 1979.

His political involvement broke the Code of Canon Law which prohibits priests from holding partisan political offices.

Pope John Paul II suspended him in 1985 after failed attempts of the Vatican to convince him to resign. D'Escoto was suspended together with Jesuit Father Fernando Cardenal, the Sandinista education minister, and Trappist Father Ernesto Cardenal, the culture minister.

The Huffingtonpost recalled an interview of D'Escoto with America Magazine in 1985, expressing the priest's thoughts.

In the interview he said, "If you tell me that there is a revolution somewhere and the Church is against it, I will say, 'What else is new?'

"I mean, what would be newsworthy is to tell me that the Church is for it. So in Nicaragua the new thing is, and the question is: How come so much of the church is in favor of it [the revolution]?"

In the 1970s Pope Francis, then Jorge Bergoglio, also experienced the wrath of the dictatorship in Argentina.

But instead of joining a political movement, he reportedly worked from behind the scenes to provide shelter for the persecuted.(Photo:  Paul Jeffrey / WCC)Floating candle lanterns fill a river on August 6, 2015, in Hiroshima, Japan, in front of the city's atomic bomb dome. The lanterns, thousands of which were launched on the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city, bear handmade messages and drawings, conveying each person's prayers for peace and comfort for the victims of the violence.

A United Nations group with strong support from churches and ecumenical groups is urging States to "negotiate a legally-binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons."

Do it "in 2017" and make sure the negotiations are "open to all States" and include civil society, Jonathan Frerichs reports for the World Council of Churches.

The demands are in a report adopted last week by a United Nations working group of more than 100 countries meeting in Geneva.

The report with this recommendation was adopted by a three-to-one margin with broad inter-regional support despite a boycott by the nuclear powers and strong resistance from their allies.

The working group's final report, adopted on Aug. 19, will go to the U.N. General Assembly this October. A majority-led resolution to start negotiating a nuclear weapon ban treaty is now likely to emerge there.

"This development marks the highest point so far in a growing wave of support for outlawing nuclear weapons on humanitarian grounds," said Peter Prove, international affairs director of the World Council of Churches.

"Faith-based advocacy has contributed to this effort, and will be greatly needed to help bring the will of the majority, the rule of law, and the welfare of all people and of the whole creation to bear on nuclear-armed countries which are modernizing their arsenals instead of eliminating them."

During the working group, networks of the WCC and Pax Christi International contacted 24 governments to advocate for a ban.

They worked as part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons to stress the need to start negotiations in 2017 and for such negotiations to be open to all states, block-able by none and to include civil society.

The final draft produced by the UN working group had been carefully revised in order to achieve consensus and be adopted without a vote.

But at the last minute Australia hardened its position and called for a vote. Ultimately 68 States voted to adopt the report, 21 nations joined Australia in voting against adoption and 13 countries abstained.

Ecumenical advocates are in contact with governments on all sides of the issue, the WCC reported.

Advocates in Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Egypt, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland and New Zealand encouraged their governments, part of the nuclear-free majority, to press for a nuclear weapons ban.

Most of their governments were among the 68 nations in favor of the final report with its ban recommendation.

CHURCHES ENGAGED

Churches and related organizations also engaged with governments that rely on nuclear weapons, which are mostly NATO members.

The bishop of the Evangelical Church in the German state of Baden called government attention to the renewed importance being given to nuclear arms, the long-term modernization of nuclear arsenals, and the "catastrophic consequences" which nuclear weapons cause.

The church asked the government to help strengthen legal norms against nuclear weapons.

A ban on nuclear weapons would be similar to the existing prohibitions against chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, the church noted.

Church and Peace, a Pax Christi member in Europe, contacted the governments of Germany, Switzerland and two nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom.

The Canadian Council of Churches wrote Canada's foreign minister that "when measures employed to defend nation states...threaten humanity and the planet itself, such measures must be categorically rejected."

Members of the WCC Ecumenical Peace Advocacy Network and Pax Christi International have also been in contact with the Australian, Netherlands, Belgian and Norwegian governments. These states, which rely on US nuclear weapons, were urged to engage in the ban debate in good faith. Contacts in national capitals were followed up by ecumenical delegates in Geneva.

Support for establishing a new legal prohibition against nuclear weapons is stronger than the 68 States that voted "yes" at the U.N. working group.

Earlier in the group's final week, 108 states of Africa, Latin America, South East Asia, the Pacific and a few in Europe called for a time-bound commitment to start negotiations on a ban.

One hundred twenty seven nations have signed a "Humanitarian Pledge" to make new treaty law against nuclear weapons, while 159 states have made a joint declaration that nuclear weapons "must never be used again, under any circumstances."

One hundred thirty five States voted at last year's UN General Assembly to set up the current Open-Ended Working Group to identify "concrete, effective legal measures" required for a world without nuclear weapons.

A large majority of the group has now concluded that outlawing nuclear weapons is the place to start.Its summer. Its hot. Its lemonade-stand season once again.

But that nostalgic picture of Americana got a 21st-century overhaul last month, as 11-year-old Jemma Walker rolled out a red carpet in front of a Krogers grocery in southern Indianapolis and set up an elaborate mermaid-themed stand. She had scoped out potential spots for weeks, haggled over ingredient prices with her suppliers, and taste-tested recipes for a new blue raspberry lemonade made to match her undersea decor.

Before we did it, I thought it was easy. You just set up a stand, have lemonade, and sell it, Jemma said. Its much harder than that. You have to think about a lot of different things, like design and start-up costs. ... Theres a lot of math involved.

The rising 7th grader and her 9-year-old brother Miller were just two of more than 1,000 students who planned and built stands this year in Indianapolis for Lemonade Day!, a nationwide program that teaches students entrepreneurship skills through a club-based curriculum and selling events scheduled throughout the year. Business education advocates are seizing on extracurricular programs like this one to create a pipeline for skills that may not get noticed and nurtured in the classroom.

We are seeing kids who are very well taught in how to be the best employees, but theres nothing teaching them to be their own boss, said Nathalie Virem, an entrepreneurship professor at California State University, Los Angeles. Thats why many entrepreneurs dont get educated in school, and dont like school.

A New Pipeline Problem

Business leaders argue that the nations economy could benefit from a K-12 pipeline for young entrepreneurs that mirrors ongoing efforts across the country to interest students in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

I think sometimes theres an assumption that entrepreneurs are born, but in a lot of cases, its really about having the knowledge and influencing their attitude fairly early that affects a kid going on to become an entrepreneur later in life, said Ed Grocholski, a senior vice president for Junior Achievement USA, a nonprofit that promotes youth entrepreneurship.

The most recent Gallup-HOPE survey on youth entrepreneurship finds that from 2011 to 2016, the percentage of U.S. students in grades 5-12 who said they plan to start their own businesses fell steadily from 45 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2016. Students from racial minority groups saw a particularly dramatic drop in interest, from 54 percent to 42 percent during that time.

Those numbers mirror a generational decline in adult entrepreneurship ; the Small Business Administration estimates that at age 30, fewer than 4 percent of millennials were mainly self-employed, compared to 5.4 percent of Generation X and 6.7 percent of baby boomers at the same age. Grocholski said he has seen high school and college students become more risk averse since the Great Recession began in 2008.

When they are interested in entrepreneurship, they want it to be in a group and want a mentor involved, he said.

The Gallup-HOPE study also found that students interest in entrepreneurship declines over their school careers. More than half of children in grades 5-8 said they wanted to start their own businesses, a rate that held steady from 2011 to 2016. But by high school, interest in entrepreneurship dropped to little more than a third of students in 2011, and an even smaller share, 27 percent, in 2016.

The skills needed to develop and run a businessincluding creativity, fast problem-solving, leadership, comfort with risk, and especially resilience after failuremight be more likely to be noticed and nurtured outside of school, according to Jessie Jones, the director of K-8 programs and partnerships for the Young Entrepreneur Institute in Ohio, which supports youth business competitions and other programs in and out of schools.

We frequently have teachers come to us and say they have kids who were poor performers in a testing environment that did really, really well in the entrepreneurship activities, Jones said. Its very difficult for teachers to predict that spark, because those kids have different skill sets that arent rewarded by the traditional classroom environment. And so I think we are sidelining those kids, instead of celebrating and helping grow their strengths.

Pee-Wee Entrepreneurship

Programs like the nonprofit Lemonade Day! seek to fill that gap.

In more than 63 cities and communities across the country, local clubs and classes use the programs curriculum to teach students from kindergarten to 8th grade business concepts like profit and expenses, advertising, and finding a good location. In many cities, local banks and businesses provide small-scale lemonade loans to students who present business plans for the stands. The national organizations curriculum can be taught over several weeks in the run-up to sales days, but individual lemonade clubs can run for a semester or all year long. Some cities, like Indianapolis, hold multiple sales days during the spring and summer.

We walk them through the books, said Erica Gould of the Indianapolis YMCA, which sponsors one lemonade club. Obviously [for] some of them, their reading or math skills are not up to par, but we just tell them, we will use our fingers if necessary. Even if they dont understand how to do the math completely, they generally can count change. If they are having trouble, we send them to sell.

On average, children stay with the lemonade-stand program for three years, with the curriculum building as students get more experience with running a business. Some students partner with their families or fellow students, while others run their businesses alone.

Were the Pee-Wee leagues of entrepreneurship, said Steve Gordon, Lemonade Day! president.

The program was started in 2007 in Houston by local computer entrepreneur Michael Holthouse.

According to the groups lore, Holthouse decided to develop a business training program for children after his own young daughter spent a fruitless afternoon trying to sell lemonade from the familys driveway on a quiet street. The program has evolved in the years since to a full curriculum with 64 participating cities.

An internal impact study of the program found , in contrast to the Gallup-HOPE poll results, that 72 percent of students who ran a lemonade stand through the program in 2016 said they planned to start their own business. In fact, nearly a third of participants said, like Jemma, they already were running their own business after the program, compared to only 4 percent of students overall in the national poll. Participants made on average $168 in profit each year from the stands.

Social Appeal

Jemmas mom, Sherri Ann Walker, said shes seen a separate benefit from her children running lemonade stands for the past three years: Theres a lot she has learned about the value of money that we really appreciate, she said.

That first year, [Jemma and Miller] were talking about all the toys they could get. But then last year and especially this year, her first thoughts were, I want to give half of my profits to my charity. I was really proud of that.

Tying business education to social issues has proven especially popular with students. Lemonade Day! and the similar nonprofit Lemon Club recommend students donate a portion of their profits to a charity, and Grocholski said Junior Achievement has shifted the focus of its business education programs to social entrepreneurship.

It used to be more about, Lets produce a product and see if we can make money from it. Now its more, How can we try to solve a problem in society and potentially turn it into a business? So the types of businesses were seeing now are considerably different than what you may have seen two years ago.

Dotting the Is

Entrepreneurial organizations also increasingly help provide legal cover for children at a time when kids pop-up businesses can risk running afoul of local ordinances and even spur police calls from unsympathetic neighbors.

Data by the libertarian Freedom Center of Missouri identified more than 40 incidents nationwide in which city officials shut down child-run stands or refused to give them permits.

In Indiana, they dont even allow you to put a stand up in your yard without a permit, said Luke Walker, Jemmas dad.

Gordon, the national Lemonade Day! president, said his group has been on higher alert since Memorial Day weekend, when Denver police shut down three elementary-age brothers who had set up a lemonade stand without a permit near a local festival. Later in June, the Internet exploded when a white woman was filmed calling the police to stop a black 8-year-old girl from selling water in front of her building.

Gordon said his group has since started working with the Denver boys mother, Jennifer Knowles, to change local ordinances to waive permit requirements for childrens lemonade stands; it successfully got similar rules changed in Austin, Texas, last year.

For the most part, with persistence and education and the help of many of our participating government officials, we are able to persuade agencies to cooperate by changing rules or providing waivers for single-day student events. But he said the programs business curriculum also gives students a crash course on safety, proper sanitation, and advice on following local guidelines.

Failure is a teacher, and I think overall theres a lot of reluctance in schools to let kids fail, Grocholski said. Extracurricular entrepreneurial programs, he said, create an environment for kids where its safe, where they have that opportunity to fail and learn from it.Teachers are not supposed to be political. But we cannot help being human. What has unfolded along our countrys southern border is not simply a political divide over immigration policy. It is a human rights catastrophe that rests on a fundamental question: Do the bodies, minds, and emotions of the 2,551 young children taken from their parents matter as much as those of the children we teach? Are these taken children as fully real to us as our own sons and daughters?

My 2nd graders are exactly the kinds of children the Trump administration took from their families last month. Most of my students are Latino, many of them undocumented, all of them poor.

The author with one of his former students.

Kevin Briggs, Arkansas Department of Education.

These 7-year-olds are precisely as imaginative, hilarious, sensitive, loving, and occasionally infuriating as my own 7-year-old son. Yet our nation has treated them in a way we would never dare treat children whose parents have more money or paler skin.

Like most Americans who have not let themselves turn away, I have had trouble sleeping these past many weeks. One of those sleepless nights was a direct result of Senator Elizabeth Warrens report of her trip to Brownsville, Texas , to visit a detention center. She told the story of a Guatemalan mother she met there:

One mother had been detained with her child. They were sleeping together on the floor of one of the cages when, at 3:00 am, the guards took her away. She last saw her 7-year-old son sleeping on the floor. She cried over and over, I never got to say goodbye. That was early June, and she hasnt seen him since.

That 7-year-old child could have been any one of my students. He could have been my son. He could have been yours.

When Donald Trump signed the executive order stopping the family separations, in response to the overwhelming and bipartisan pressure coming from every quarterfrom faith leaders to 13 Republican Senators to all four living First Ladies I could suddenly breathe again. But with 2,000 children still separated from their families , and less care taken to reunify them than the typical airline takes to reunite passengers with lost luggage, we are a long way from the end of this crisis.

For teachers, the decision to play a role in hastening that end is particularly fraught. We teach children whose parents support Donald Trump and his immigration policies. We teach alongside colleagues and administrators who feel that way, too. But there are compelling reasons for us to rise to this moment the way teachers always dowhether its by speaking up at a faculty meeting or shielding a childs body with our own during a school shootingwhen children need us to be their champions.

Here are three reasons for us to speak and act now on their behalf:

1. We know firsthand what trauma can do to a child.

When we open our arms to a classroom of young children each fall, we know we risk our hearts being broken. Our students deal with adversity we wish we could shield them fromeverything from homelessness to neglect and abuse.

Childhood trauma is so heartbreaking because it can poison not only a childs past, but her future. Ten years ago, I had a 7-year-old child in my class who had experienced horrific sexual abuse. Her teachers, counselor, school nurse, and principal did everything we could to meet her many needs and show her she was loved. We kept in close contact with her new principal when she went on to middle school, then junior high, to make sure we kept the waters from closing over her head. But this year, we learned she had run away from home and was found in a house where teenaged girls were being trafficked. Scars of that early trauma did not fade with time.

One of the cruelest things you can do to a child is take her from a loving parent. Child psychologists and pediatricians have warned of the long-term consequences of these separations, well beyond the initial sobbing, terror, and withdrawal that have already been documented in the detention centers. These long-term effectsfuture depression, anxiety and PTSD, substance abuse and difficulty forming relationships down the line, as a psychologist told Time magazineare the same afflictions we see in our work with children who have been broken, often at a very young age, by things no child should have to experience.

We have to speak firsthand to what that trauma can mean for young children. Whether youre talking with your neighbors, debating at a tense family dinner, writing a letter to your local paper, or calling your elected officials (202-224-3121 will connect you with your Senator or Representative ), teachers are in a unique position to speak to the long-term damage caused by childhood trauma. We have to keep advocating until every child who was taken is back in the arms of those who love them most.

2. We bring the whole world into our classrooms.

Part of what I love about teaching is that a classroom is its own tiny cosmos. Within those walls, we can create an oasis of compassion, respect, and equality.

At the same time, the great teachers I know dont shrink from talking about the world outside those walls, however politically charged or jarring current events might be. The 2014 National Teacher of the Year, Sean McComb, described on Facebook conversations he has been having with his high school students.

Every year my students read Night, a Holocaust memoir by Elie Wiesel. Many students are captivated by a question that lies outside the direct focus of the text: How did so many normal Germans come to go along with these atrocities?

Those Germans came to devalue the humanity of the group that was made other. They dehumanized them. That happens through fear, through propaganda, through scapegoating, through a slippery slope of small moral compromises.

It is happening to us right now. We cant justify human rights abuseswrestling children from their parents and putting them in detention centersbecause it is legal. The Nazis passed laws that allowed them to criminalize Jewish people. The Holocaust was legal.

The way we bring up these issues has everything to do with the age of the children we teach. But kids know more about what is happening right now than we might hope. During the first week of the family separations, my son called out to me at 3:00 a.m. When I crawled into his bed, he wrapped his arms around me and held on tight for a long time before falling back asleep. He told me, I had a nightmare that you fell off a cliff. You were walking in the fog, and you didnt know it was there until you fell.

The children in our care will have questions, big emotions, and their own opinions about what is happening to families seeking entry or political asylum along our border. We have to do better than tell them, We dont talk about that in school. Now, back to our lesson on Japanese-American internment camps during World War II "

3. We know what a profound act of trust it is for a parent to leave her son or daughter, even for a single day.

In response to the crisis at the border, newly elected Arkansas State Representative Nicole Clowney wrote on Facebook:

You know that feeling when you leave your kid at daycare and they dont want you to go? You know theyll be safe with their teachers who love them. Teachers who will play with them, and read to them, and comfort them when they scrape their knees. And yet, your heart breaksyou can actually feel it in your chestbecause your child is crying and begging for you not to go. That feeling is all I can think about tonight, as I try, and fail, to sleep.

We have to speak for parents who have been separated from their children against their will, for weeks rather than hours, with no idea where their children arelet alone any assurance that their needs are being met.

These mothers, fathers, and children from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras , and other nations are no less human than the children and families we serve in our classrooms every day. When a young child is taken from a mother or father seeking political asylum, it feels exactly the way it would feel if our own son or daughter were taken from us.

Our profession has long championed the rights of children who receive far less than they deserve from adults whose consciences have failed them. Now a time has come when the most fundamental right of a child, to remain with those who have loved her from the time she was born, has been broken.

Teachers are entrusted with a sacred obligation: making certain that all children have the chance to live the lives they dream of. Tonight, 2,000 children will again sob themselves to sleep, longing for their mothers and fathers arms, still terrified and alone. We are the keepers of their dreams.

For simple actions you can take to ensure children are reunited with their parents, read this list: What You Can Do Right Now to Help Immigrant Families Separated at the Border.2018-07-25

Maeci

Minister Moavero Milanesi is following the tragic wildfire emergency in Greece with great concern through the Crisis Unit and the Italian embassy in Athens. The head of Italian diplomacy also offered Italys support to the Greek government and his deep condolences to the victims' families. There will be strong Italian support in response to Athens' request for cooperation within the EU to deal with this emergency.2018-07-25

Maeci

Minister Moavero Milanesi expresses Italy's profound grief at the great tragedy that hit Laos. He sends his condolences for the many victims and sympathy for their families.NEW YORK...July 25, 2018 - Contrary to most common theories that greater liquidity is necessarily better for financial markets overall, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers contend in a new paper that liquidity comes at cost: it increases market risk.

Prof. Haim Kedar-Levy of the BGU Department of Management and Prof. Shmuel Hauser of the Department of Business Administration in the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management presented their theory in "Liquidity might come at cost: The role of heterogeneous preferences" at the 25th Annual Conference of the Multinational Finance Society held in Budapest, Hungary.

Financial literature contends that liquidity of specific assets, such as a stock, is an important and positive attribute that can reduce risk and add value to the stock. Kedar-Levy and Hauser agree, however their findings on the impact of liquidity on the whole market is different.

"The model we developed is richer than the classic theory because, among other reasons, it takes into account a more realistic treatment of financial markets in which various investors have different investment strategies," the researchers say. "Investors differ in the amount of risk they are willing to assume, and therefore choose different proportions of investments in risky assets, such as equities."

In this more realistic scenario, the study shows that the more liquid the market is, the more volatile becomes the average appetite for risk in the whole market. At reasonable risk appetite parameters, trading volume and liquidity of the stock market as a whole peak. When that occurs, there is a massive exchange of shares between investors with different risk appetites. This attribute causes the market price of risk (a.k.a. Sharpe ratio) to be highly volatile, and makes all stocks more risky.

The Sharpe ratio measures how much excess return an investor is receiving for the extra volatility that he endures for holding a riskier asset. Investors need to be compensated for the additional risk vs. holding a risk-free asset, like cash.

However, if the investors in the market are either very similar or very different in their appetite for risk, then trading volume and liquidity drop, and market risk declines, as well.

"This is not to say that we favor less liquid markets over highly liquid ones, but we find that liquidity comes at cost," the researchers say. "It is not a free attribute of stock markets."

###

The study was published in the Journal of Financial Markets as the leading article and awarded Best Paper out of about 300 papers last month. Prof. Hauser served as chairman of the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) from 2011 to 2018.

About American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) plays a vital role in sustaining David Ben-Gurion's vision: creating a world-class institution of education and research in the Israeli desert, nurturing the Negev community and sharing the University's expertise locally and around the globe. As Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) looks ahead to turning 50 in 2020, AABGU imagines a future that goes beyond the walls of academia. It is a future where BGU invents a new world and inspires a vision for a stronger Israel and its next generation of leaders. Together with supporters, AABGU will help the University foster excellence in teaching, research and outreach to the communities of the Negev for the next 50 years and beyond. Visit vision.aabgu.org to learn more.

AABGU, which is headquartered in Manhattan, has nine regional offices throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.aabgu.org.Providing resolution to a decades-long debate over whether liquid water is present on Mars, researchers using radar to probe the planet's polar ice caps have detected a lake of liquid water under the Martian ice. It stretches 20 kilometers across, they say. The detection was made using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) instrument on the Mars Express spacecraft. MARSIS sends radar pulses that penetrate the surface and ice caps of the planet, then measures how the radio waves propagate and reflect back to the spacecraft. Reflections off sub-surface features provide scientists with information about what lies beneath the surface. Between May 2012 and December 2015, Roberto Orosei and colleagues used MARSIS to survey a region called Planum Australe, located in the southern ice cap of Mars. They obtained 29 sets of radar samplings, mapping out an area exhibiting a very sharp change in its associated radar signal, about 1.5 kilometers below the surface of the ice and extending sideways about 20 kilometers. The radar profile of this area is similar to that of lakes of liquid water found beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets on Earth, suggesting that there is a subglacial lake at this location on Mars. Although the temperature is expected to be below the freezing point of pure water, Orosei et al. note that dissolved salts of magnesium, calcium, and sodium - known to be present in Martian rocks - could be dissolved in the water to form a brine. Together with the pressure of the overlying ice, this lowers the melting point, allowing the lake to remain liquid, as happens on Earth. Anja Diez compares the subglacial lake on Mars to such lakes under Earth's ice sheets, in an accompanying Perspective.

###Taking water and ripping it apart into hydrogen and oxygen could form the basis of artificial photosynthetic devices that could ultimately power homes and businesses. However, catalysts, including those used to "split" water, have either worked well but are expensive and unstable, or are affordable and stable, but don't work as well. Now, researchers report in ACS Central Science a new catalyst that is really the best of both worlds.

Identifying ideal materials that can split water is a long-standing problem in renewable energy storage. Catalysts, which help reactions occur, are often used in this process. "Homogeneous" ones dissolve into the reaction solution and are usually active and selective. However, they don't work well in some applications because they are unstable and expensive. In contrast, "heterogeneous" catalysts are solids that are stable, recyclable and convenient to work with, but they are usually not very active or selective. Dunwei Wang and colleagues proposed they could get closer to the ideal catalyst by producing a hybrid material.

The researchers developed a new hybrid catalyst made of iridium dinuclear heterogeneous catalysts (DHCs) attached to a tungsten oxide substrate. They found that attaching the ends of the DHC molecules -- instead of the sides -- allowed the catalyst to perform optimally. The researchers suggest that this first-of-its-kind material could be an important step toward alternative solar energy storage or artificial photosynthesis.

###

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

The paper will be freely available will be available on July 25, 2018 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acscentsci.8b00335

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

For more research news, journalists and public information officers are encouraged to apply for complimentary press registration for the American Chemical Society's 256th National Meeting & Exposition, Aug. 19-23 in Boston.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Follow us: Twitter | FacebookPeople are often notified about poor air quality by weather apps, and this happens frequently in urban areas, where levels of outdoor pollution containing particulates and soot are high. But now scientists are reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology that there is another type of air contaminant that they say isn't receiving enough attention: antibiotic-resistance genes.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 2 million people in the U.S. become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year. Research has shown that antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) can move from bacteria to bacteria, or even from bacteria to the environment. For example, tetracycline-resistance genes have been found near animal feed operations, and -lactam-resistance genes have been found in urban parks in California. These studies indicated that airborne transmission could be a factor in the spreading and exposure of ARGs. But current air pollution investigations typically don't take ARGs into account. So, Maosheng Yao and colleagues wanted to examine airborne ARGs on a global scale.

The team performed a survey of 30 ARGs across 19 cities around the world, including San Francisco, Beijing and Paris. The group studied ARGs resistant to seven common classes of antibiotics: quinolones, -lactams, macrolides, tetracyclines, sulfonamides, aminoglycosides and vancomycins. Beijing had the most diverse group of airborne ARGs, with 18 different subtypes detected, while San Francisco had the highest overall level of airborne ARGs. Genes resistant to -lactams and quinolones were the two most abundant types of ARGs in all the cities studied. Low levels of ARGs resistant to vancomycin, an antibiotic of last resort for MRSA treatment, were found in the air of six cities.

###

The authors acknowledge funding from the NSF of China Distinguished Young Scholars Fund, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The paper will be freely available as an ACS' Editor's Choice article on July 25 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.8b02204

The American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, is a not-for-profit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS is a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

For more research news, journalists and public information officers are encouraged to apply for complimentary press registration for the American Chemical Society's 256th National Meeting & Exposition, Aug. 19-23 in Boston.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Follow us: Twitter | FacebookSpinal cord injury or damage causes permanent changes in strength, sensation and other body functions. Hope of recuperation is slim to none. Now a new Tel Aviv University study finds the intravenous injection of a potent enzyme, just hours after an accident, has the potential to diminish a cascade of pathological events responsible for neuronal death, such as inflammation and scarring.

The study was conducted by Dr. Angela Ruban of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Dr. Yona Goldshmit of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University. It was published in May in the Journal of Neurotrauma.

"Primary mechanical damage to spinal cord tissue kills a certain amount of neuronal cells. But there's secondary damage due to the release of excess glutamates, which are responsible for additional functional disability," Dr. Goldshmit says. "The main idea is to reduce the secondary damage as soon as possible -- to block the body's natural reaction to spinal cord trauma. This is the role of the enzyme injection we devised."

"When this new treatment will be available to paramedics, the consequences of injuries could be dramatically reduced," Dr. Ruban says.

"Don't wait to diagnose"

Dr. Ruban worked with the late Prof. Vivian I. Teichberg of the Weizmann Institute of Science to develop the "blood glutamate scavenging approach," a treatment based on controlling the levels of glutamate, the most abundant free amino acid in the central nervous system. Glutamate accounts for approximately 60 percent of total neurotransmitter activity in the brain. Dr. Ruban's research has shown the positive effect of the blood glutamate treatment in models of glioblastoma, ALS and others.

"Our takeaway is, 'Don't wait to diagnose it, treat it,'" Dr. Ruban says. "It's similar to aspirin, which can rescue a cardiac patient from irreversible damage if taken within the first few hours of a heart attack. We suggest administering the injection even in cases of uncertain diagnosis. There's no side effect to the injection, but it might just mitigate secondary damage and dramatically improve the quality of a person's life."

According to the research, neurotrauma produces the immediate elevation of extracellular glutamate levels, which leads to inflammation, scar formation and, consequentially, neuronal death.

"Our new treatment aims to lower levels of glutamate, which is released in toxic quantities after trauma, by intravenous administration of blood glutamate scavengers (BGS), such as recombinant enzyme glutamate?oxaloacetate transaminase (rGOT1) and its co?substrate," Dr. Ruban says.

"If we manage to reduce the amount of glutamate that is released initially, we can moderate the inflammation and scarring, thereby moderating the damage to the tissue and enabling neuronal cells to survive," Dr. Goldshmit adds.

Initial success in mouse models

The research team studied the neuroprotective effect of the blood glutamate scavengers in mouse models of spinal cord injury. After receiving the treatment for five consecutive days, the mice significantly recovered from the injury.

"The treatment increased the survival of neurons at the lesion site and enabled axonal regeneration into the injury site, which resulted in significant functional recovery compared with the untreated mice," Dr. Ruban concludes. "This indicates that drug intervention with blood glutamate scavengers following spinal cord injury may be neuroprotective and may create a regenerative environment."

###

American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #43 in the world.In January 2003, President George W. Bush asked Congress to back the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with a $15 billion commitment "to turn the tide against AIDS." Congress agreed, and the program--which was continued by the Obama and Trump administrations--has, as noted in The New England Journal of Medicine, "had an unprecedented impact on the pandemic of HIV and AIDS."

But how do we really know that? Yes, HIV rates have--with the exception of a few countries--declined, but can we say the programs PEPFAR funded in countries with the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS were responsible for those declines? After all, childhood mortality rates from AIDS dropped in sub-Saharan countries that did not receive PEPFAR funding.

Unfortunately, PEPFAR didn't create a statistical plan at the outset that could easily answer these questions. A statistical plan is a bit like asking your accountant what data you should record before you start your business--so you'll know whether you're making or losing money. The question facing PEPFAR was whether they had collected enough data over the years to evaluate their program interventions.

These kinds of after-the-fact analyses are fraught with difficulty. "Planned evaluations are preferable, of course, but we can still learn a lot from post-hoc evaluations," says Donna Spiegelman, the newly appointed Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health. "I would never let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Few were as qualified as Spiegelman to take on the challenge of figuring out whether PEPFAR had worked. With a joint doctorate from Harvard in biostatistics and epidemiology and rigorous training in mathematical statistics, Spiegelman had become an expert in developing methods to evaluate public health prevention science. In 2014, she was the first (and as yet only) biostatistician to receive the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, a sort of MacArthur genius grant for biomedical researchers that frees and funds them--$500,000 per year for five years--to pursue bold, risky, innovative research.

At around the same time as Spiegelman received the Pioneer Award, she met the newly appointed U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Ambassador-at-Large Deborah Birx. Birx, a physician and former colonel in the U.S. Army, had been director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Global HIV/AIDS and worked as a physician in Kenya. As Kenya was one of the original recipients of PEPFAR funding, Birx thought it would be a good candidate for Spiegelman to look at; it would be the most data-rich environment among PEPFAR's recipients.

With doctoral student Dale Barnhart, Spiegelman focused on 10,000 clinics running what they call PMTCT--prevention of mother-to-child transmission--of AIDS. PEPFAR had spent $248 million supporting PMTCT in Kenya between 2004 and 2014, and child mortality for those aged under five years had halved during this period. "The basic idea," says Spiegelman, "was to see if child mortality went down as funding went up."

The rationale behind the intervention is that, in order to prevent the transmission of HIV to children, pregnant mothers have to be tested. "If they are tested," says Spiegelman, "they can be treated--and that treatment will drastically lower the transmission rate from 30 or 40 percent to below 1 percent."

That was the basic idea, but teasing out causal inferences was anything but simple. Thankfully, as PEPFAR is a U.S. government program, it has to report to Congress how much it spends each quarter. From this data, Barnhart extracted a decade's worth of spending on PMTCT. They then obtained neonatal and infant mortality data from the Kenyan government and other agencies.

By doing a "difference in difference" analysis, they were able to look at the effects of varying levels of funding for PMTCT among the Kenyan provinces over time, along with trends in local infant mortality, and then compare them to other provinces with similar demographics that did not have PMTCT programs--or had them but with less financial support. The team did a wide range of sensitivity analyses to model missing data, but these had little impact on the outcome.

"The results were quite dramatic," says Spiegelman. Provinces in the top quartile of PEPFAR spending in any given year over the study period experienced more than 30 percent lower infant mortality than those in the bottom quartile. "Cumulative PMTCT spending significantly reduced infant mortality, saving the lives of many Kenyan children," she says. "We've shown, and rigorously, that the U.S. investment in PEPFAR delivered on its promise."

All of this research was carried out while Spiegelman was professor of epidemiologic methods in the departments of epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition and global health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Since July 1, she has been director of the new Center for Methods in Implementation and Prevention Science (CMIPS) at Yale University's School of Public Health. "We're hoping to be the go-to place for implementation and prevention science methods in the world. It is my dream job."

###

JSM Talk: http://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2018/onlineprogram/AbstractDetails.cfm?abstractid=329908

For details, contact: Donna Spiegelman.

Email: (preferred) donna.spiegelman@yale.edu

Tel: (617) 835-5119

About JSM 2018

JSM 2018 is the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists in the world, taking place July 28-August 2, 2018, in Vancouver. Occurring annually since 1974, JSM is a joint effort of the American Statistical Association, International Biometric Society (ENAR and WNAR), Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Statistical Society of Canada, International Chinese Statistical Association, International Indian Statistical Association, Korean International Statistical Society, International Society for Bayesian Analysis, Royal Statistical Society and International Statistical Institute. JSM activities include oral presentations, panel sessions, poster presentations, professional development courses, an exhibit hall, a career service, society and section business meetings, committee meetings, social activities and networking opportunities. http://ww2.amstat.org/meetings/jsm/2018/index.cfm

About the American Statistical Association

The ASA is the world's largest community of statisticians and the oldest continuously operating professional science society in the United States. Its members serve in industry, government and academia in more than 90 countries, advancing research and promoting sound statistical practice to inform public policy and improve human welfare. For additional information, please visit the ASA website at http://www.amstat.org.FLORHAM PARK, NJ and DAVIS, CA, July 25, 2018 - BASF and the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) announced a collaboration to unlock new benefits of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). The long-term objective of this strategic research partnership is to develop and validate second-generation HMO molecules as potent bioactive compounds that can influence the establishment and maintenance of the gut microbiome and provide benefits beyond the gastrointestinal tract, such as brain health, for infants, children and adults.

Human milk contains a multitude of HMOs, a class of indigestible carbohydrates that is gaining recognition for a variety of health-promoting activities. Substantial evidence demonstrates that the high diversity of structures and concentration of HMOs in human milk contribute to improved health outcomes associated with breastfeeding.

BASF recently announced the launch of 2'-fucosyllactose (2'-FL) for infant nutrition and is now taking next steps to expand its scientific and application know-how in the area of HMOs.

"This collaboration is an essential cornerstone of our strategic initiative to become a leading science-based player in the fields of HMO and microbiome," said Stefan Rudenauer, Director of Development and Scientific Marketing Human Nutrition, BASF.

The two-year partnership with UC Davis' research team is part of BASF's California Research Alliance (CARA), which brings together experts from major universities on the West Coast to collaborate on new materials and their applications, biosciences and related technologies. Professors Daniela Barile, David Mills, Helen Raybould, Xi Chen, and Bruce German from the Foods for Health Institute at UC Davis will use their collective expertise to reveal new applications for HMOs. BASF's contributions to the partnership include its proficiency in fermentation products and the development of human nutrition solutions, as well as project funding.

"We are excited to partner with BASF to unlock novel HMO functionalities," said Professor Barile. "This project will employ a range of microbiological and physiological studies employing cutting-edge glycomics and metagenomics tools to explore how HMOs interact with the human host and the microbes within them."

###

For a press photo, please click the following link:

https://www.basf.com/press-photos/us/en/photos/2018/07/07-25-18_BASF_UC_Davis.jpg

Suggested caption: Representatives from BASF and UC Davis recently signed a collaboration agreement expressing their mutual commitment to unlocking new potential for human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). Front, left to right: Prasant Mohapatra (UC Davis), Benjamin Knudsen (BASF), Ahmad Hakim-Elahi (UC Davis), Stefan Rudenauer (BASF), Dushyant Pathak (UC Davis).

Back, left to right: Marianne Heer (BASF), Anita Oberbauer (UC Davis), David Mills (UC Davis), Yan Qin (BASF), Helen Raybould (UC Davis), Daniela Barile (UC Davis), Yoram Barak (BASF), Bruce German (UC Davis), Xi Chen (UC Davis).

About BASF

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 18,200 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.9 billion in 2017. For more information about BASF's North American operations, visit http://www.basf.com.

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future. We combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. The more than 115,000 employees in the BASF Group work on contributing to the success of our customers in nearly all sectors and almost every country in the world. Our portfolio is organized into five segments: Chemicals, Performance Products, Functional Materials & Solutions, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas. BASF generated sales of 64.5 billion in 2017. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (BAS). Further information at http://www.basf.com.

About CARA

The California Research Alliance (CARA) is one of four BASF scientific excellence clusters that collaborate with research groups on a regional level, maintaining a network between BASF, the campuses of the University of California system, Stanford and Caltech. The researchers at CARA work in a variety of scientific disciplines including new materials, biosciences, formulations, and catalysis, as well as computational and engineering disciplines.

The CARA collaboration, started in 2014 with 10 postdoctoral positions, has been extended to approximately 50 postdoctoral positions today. CARA researchers have filed 10 patents, and have had more than 20 peer-reviewed papers accepted or published. In addition, the first research projects have already been transferred to BASF R&D for further development. Peidong Yang, CARA Co-Director and Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley, said, "With this newest collaboration, we now have multiple CARA research projects active between BASF, the UC campuses, Stanford, and Caltech. The broad research expertise represented by this vibrant West Coast scientific community will surely expedite the discovery process for many scientific and technological questions."PEPFAR-supported surveys reveal several countries have made significant gains in HIV prevention, treatment, and viral suppression and provide critical insights into key regional and population disparities

Amsterdam, The Netherlands (July 25, 2018)--The Government of the Republic of Namibia, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and ICAP at Columbia University (ICAP) released new data today at the 2018 International AIDS Conference demonstrating that the HIV epidemic is coming under control in Namibia.

Results from the Namibia Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA) show that 77 percent of all HIV-positive adults in Namibia have achieved viral load suppression, a widely used measure of effective HIV treatment in a population, surpassing the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) target of 73 percent by 2020. Compared with the UNAIDS 2012 estimates, Namibia has reduced its adult HIV incidence rate by 50 percent in the past five years.

Namibia has made this tremendous progress by either reaching or exceeding the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets among women and, nationally, by attaining 86-96-91 among adults. Namibia accomplished this through the strategic expansion of HIV prevention and treatment services, with a focus on viral load suppression at the individual and community level, and the swift implementation of forward-leading HIV policies.

NAMPHIA results also suggest that women ages 15-24 still have a far higher HIV incidence rate (0.99 percent) than same-aged young men (0.03 percent) in the country. This highlights the continued need for expanded primary HIV prevention in young women, including through the PEPFAR-led DREAMS Partnership, and ensuring all men 25-35 are virally suppressed, such as through the new MenStar Coalition.

"These exciting new data demonstrate that a community-centered approach results in high community viral suppression, which decreases the rates of new HIV infections. Several African countries are now on track to reach HIV epidemic control by 2020, accelerated progress that was only possible because of partner country political leadership and their rapid adoption of policies focusing primary prevention and treatment resources for maximum impact," said Ambassador Deborah L. Birx, M.D., U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy. "Together, we are making the impossible possible, moving farther and faster toward ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030."

"The results of this survey demonstrate the importance of providing innovative, data-driven prevention, care and treatment to those affected by HIV," said CDC Director Robert Redfield, M.D. "CDC continues to support Namibia's efforts to control its HIV epidemic - and we remain committed to global efforts to change the course of the HIV pandemic and help save lives."

The PHIAs evidence important advances being made under the PEPFAR Strategy for Accelerating HIV/AIDS Epidemic Control (2017-2020). Among the ten countries (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) that have released PHIA results, Namibia has achieved the highest level of viral load suppression among all HIV-positive adults. Other countries surveyed show varying levels of progress toward reaching the viral suppression target of 73 percent, highlighting key areas for improvement, particularly the need to increase the coverage of HIV testing among adult men, adolescent girls, and young women.

"The impressive findings from the NAMPHIA survey demonstrate the Government of Namibia's successful commitment to confronting the HIV epidemic," said Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, ICAP global director. "The survey findings also provide a blueprint to guide HIV policies and programs in-country moving forward."

New data from PHIAs in Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire released earlier this week highlight substantial gaps in western Africa toward reaching epidemic control despite significant investments, pointing to the depth and breadth of key policy barriers to HIV service uptake that need to be addressed.

Overall, the PHIAs reveal key gaps in HIV prevention and treatment programming for women ages 15-24 and men ages 25-34 that require urgent attention and action. In all countries surveyed, lower percentages of these groups reported knowing their HIV status, current use of HIV treatment, and had viral suppression than older adults. PEPFAR is aggressively addressing these challenges, including through its innovative public-private partnerships.

###

The PHIAs are funded by the U.S. government, through PEPFAR, and conducted by the CDC, ICAP, and local governmental and non-governmental partners. With PEPFAR support, four additional countries - Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, and Rwanda - will release PHIA data on a rolling basis through 2019, providing an ability to chart and validate further progress toward reaching epidemic control by 2020.

The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief

PEPFAR is the United States government's response to the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, which represents the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. Through the compassion and generosity of the American people, PEPFAR has saved and improved millions of lives, accelerating progress toward controlling and ultimately ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat. For more information, please visit http://www.pepfar.gov, and connect with PEPFAR on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC works 24/7 saving lives and protecting people from health threats to have a more secure nation. HIV and tuberculosis (TB) are the world's two most deadly infectious diseases, and CDC's Division of Global HIV & TB works with partners to tackle these two epidemics and produce the greatest global health impact. More information can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/globalhivtb.

ICAP at Columbia University

ICAP was founded in 2003 at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. A global leader in HIV, tuberculosis, other health threats, and health systems strengthening, ICAP provides technical assistance and implementation support to governments and non-governmental organizations. More than 2.2 million people have received HIV care through ICAP-supported programs, and over 1.3 million have received antiretroviral therapy through such support.Our world is drowning in a flood of plastic. Eight million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. Agricultural soils are also threatened by plastic pollution. Farmers around the world apply enormous amounts of polyethylene (PE) mulch films onto soils to combat weeds, increase soil temperature and keep the soil moist, thereby increasing overall crop yields.

After harvest, it often is impossible for farmers to re-collect the entire films, particularly when films are only a few micrometers thin. Film debris then makes its way into the soil and accumulates in the soil over time, because PE does not biodegrade. Film residues in soils decrease soil fertility, interfere with water transport and diminish crop growth.

Soil microbes mineralise films composed of alternative polymer

Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) have now shown in an interdisciplinary study that there is reason to be hopeful. In their recent study, they demonstrate that soil microbes degrade films composed of the alternative polymer poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT). Their work has just been published in the journal Science Advances.

In the research project coordinated by Michael Sander, Kristopher McNeill and Hans-Peter Kohler, former ETH doctoral student Michael Zumstein succeeded in demonstrating that soil microorganisms metabolically utilised the carbon in the PBAT polymer both for energy production and also to build up microbial biomass.

"This research directly demonstrates, for the first time, that soil microorganisms mineralise PBAT films in soils and transfer carbon from the polymer into their biomass," says Michael Sander, Senior Scientist in the Environmental Chemistry Group in the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zurich.

Like PE, PBAT is a petroleum-based polymer that is used to make various products, including mulch films. Because PBAT was already classified as biodegradable in compost, the ETH and Eawag researchers aimed at assessing whether PBAT also biodegrades in agricultural soils. By comparison, PE does not biodegrade in compost or in soil.

Labelling of polymer with carbon-13

In their experiments, the researchers used PBAT material that was custom-synthesised from monomers to contain a defined amount of the stable carbon-13 isotope. This isotope label enabled the scientists to track the polymer-derived carbon along different biodegradation pathways in soil.

Upon biodegrading PBAT, the soil microorganisms liberated carbon-13 from the polymer.

Using isotope-sensitive analytical equipment, the researchers found that the carbon-13 from PBAT was not only converted into carbon dioxide (CO2) as a result of microbial respiration but also incorporated into the biomass of microorganisms colonizing the polymer surface.

True biodegradation

"The beauty of our study is that we used stable isotopes to precisely track PBAT-derived carbon along different biodegradation pathways of the polymer in the soil," says Michael Zumstein.

The researchers are the first to successfully demonstrate - with high scientific rigor - that a plastic material is effectively biodegraded in soils.

Because not all materials that were labelled "biodegradable" in the past really fulfilled the necessary criteria. "By definition biodegradation demands that microbes metabolically use all carbon in the polymer chains for energy production and biomass formation - as we now demonstrated for PBAT," says Hans-Peter Kohler, environmental microbiologist at Eawag.

The definition highlights that biodegradable plastics fundamentally differ from those that merely disintegrate into tiny plastic particles, for instance after exposure of the plastic to sunlight, but that do not mineralise. "Many plastic materials simply crumble into tiny fragments that persist in the environment as microplastics - even if this plastic is invisible to the naked eye," Kohler says.

In their experiment, the researchers placed 60 grams of soil into glass bottles each with a volume of 0.1 litre and subsequently inserted the PBAT films on a solid support into the soil.

After six weeks of incubation, the scientists assessed the extent to which soil microorganisms had colonised the PBAT surfaces. They further quantified the amount of CO2 that was formed in the incubation bottles and how much of the carbon-13 isotope the CO2 contained. Finally, to directly demonstrate the incorporation of carbon from the polymer in the biomass of microorganisms on the polymer surfaces, they collaborated with researchers from the University of Vienna.

At this stage, the researchers cannot yet say with certainty over which timeframe PBAT degrades in soils in the natural environment given that they conducted their experiments in the lab, not in the field. Longer-term studies in different soils and under various conditions in the field are now needed to assess the biodegradation of PBAT films under real environmental conditions.

Too early for an all-clear

"Unfortunately, there is no reason to cheer as of yet: we're still far from resolving the global environmental problem of plastic pollution," says Sander, "but we've taken a very important first step in the direction of plastic biodegradability in soil."

At the same time, he cautions against unrealistic expectations for biodegrading plastics in the environment: "As we have demonstrated, there is hope for our soils in the form of biodegradable polymers. The results from soils should, however, not be directly transferred to other natural environments. For instance, biodegradation of polymers in seawater might be considerably slower, because the conditions there are different and so are the microbial communities."

New tool created

The researchers anticipate that their study will be noticed by industry. "We've developed analysis techniques that open the door for industry to test the environmental impact of their plastic products," says co-author Kristopher McNeill. "Thanks to our method, they can switch to using biodegradable materials in the production of thin mulch films instead of non-degradable PE," he adds.

So far, only a few chemical companies have started to produce and market the more eco-friendly, but also more expensive, PBAT films. Among these is the German company BASF, which supported this study. "In comparison to the total volume of plastic that is brought into circulation, biodegradable mulch films play only a minor role. Yet, these products are an important starting point to decrease stress on agricultural soils and protect them from plastic accumulation in the long term," Sander says.

An additional option to reduce the volume of plastic entering agricultural soils is to employ thicker mulch films, which are also used in Swiss agriculture. These films can be re-collected after use and then either reused or disposed of via waste incineration.

###

Video: https://youtu.be/_ii1uyRHXOE

(Video: ETH Zurich)

Reference

Zumstein MT, Schintlmeister A, Nelson TF, Baumgartner R, Woebken D, Wagner M, Kohler H-P E, McNeill K, Sander M. Biodegradation of synthetic polymers in soils: Tracking carbon into CO2 and microbial biomass. Science Advances, 25 July 2018, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aas9024A naturally occurring hormone could help make chemotherapy much more effective for many Australians with lung cancer, according to new findings from Sydney and Melbourne researchers.

And the hormone - known as follistatin - also appears to prevent kidney damage, a serious side effect of chemotherapy.

The promising new 'two birds, one stone' treatment approach, which was successful in mice, is published in Science Translational Medicine today. It is the result of a collaborative effort between researchers at the Garvan Institute for Medical Research (Sydney) and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research (Melbourne), along with the biotechnology company Paranta Biosciences Limited, which is developing follistatin as a potential therapy for cystic fibrosis, kidney disease and cancer.

Despite advances in immunotherapy for lung cancer, most patients are still treated with chemotherapy based on a drug called cisplatin. However, less than a third of these patients will see benefits, and they often develop serious side effects including kidney damage.

In an effort to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients, Professor Neil Watkins (Petre Chair in Cancer Biology, Garvan) and his team, including Dr Kieren Marini (Hudson Institute), discovered that a protein called activin is a culprit in both chemotherapy resistance and chemotherapy-induced kidney damage.

"In chemotherapy-resistant tumours in mice, activin gets switched on in response to the damage caused by chemotherapy," says Prof Watkins. "Cancer cells can then enlist activin to protect themselves. At the same time, when activin is switched on, it promotes kidney injury."

Luckily for Prof Watkins (who began the research at Hudson Institute), the key to blocking activin happened to be across the hall.

"Good ideas come from the most unexpected places, " says Prof Watkins. "We spoke to one of our neighbours, and that neighbour was none other than Professor David de Kretser, one of the pioneers of reproductive biology in Australia."

In the 1980s, while at Monash University, Professor David de Kretser discovered the naturally occurring hormone follistatin - which blocks activin. He founded Paranta Biosciences in 2011 to develop follistatin for clinical use, specifically in the treatment of inflammatory and fibrotic diseases.

"As we discussed our results in lung cancer, he suggested we try follistatin in mouse models" says Prof Watkins "and the rest is history."

Prof Watkins and his team put follistatin to the test. They found that, in mice, treatment of follistatin in combination with platinum chemotherapy caused lung tumours to shrink and more animals to survive longer. Remarkably, they found that kidney damage was also prevented.

"Discoveries like this one - a combination therapy that actually reduces damage while improving effectiveness of chemotherapy - are exceedingly rare in cancer research," says Dr Marini, who undertook the research as part of his PhD at Hudson Institute.

The pioneering research performed by Prof Watkins and his team in collaboration with Paranta Biosciences has laid the foundation to move this combination strategy to a clinical setting.

"Many of us have heard about the devastating side effects of chemotherapy in cancer patients. Our discovery has the potential to not only increase the effectiveness of platinum chemotherapy, but also give patients a better quality of life by preventing kidney damage," says Dr Marini.

For Prof de Kretser, a Hudson Institute Distinguished Scientist and the Governor of Victoria from 2006-2011, these results provide a great example of the remarkable benefits of reaching across disciplines. "I could never have predicted," says Prof de Kretser, "that as a reproductive endocrinologist, someday I would end up working in inflammation and tissue repair."

Prof Watkins says the use of follistatin is likely to be a safe and effective approach to making chemotherapy more effective in lung cancer.

"Because follistatin is a hormone already found in the human body, there is much less potential for toxicity than with other drugs used to reduce chemoresistance."

Prof Watkins now plans to study other tumours where platinum chemotherapy is commonly used, such as bladder and head and neck cancers.

In thinking about the serendipitous circumstances that led to this discovery, Prof Watkins has a message for all scientists:

"Keep your eyes and ears open, engage with your colleagues, and nurture your imagination. The answers you're looking for might be closer than you think."

###

This research was supported by the Petre Foundation, the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Council NSW, the St Vincent's Clinic Foundation, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Paranta Biosciences, NHMRC Australia, and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program.A new research study, published this week by an international team of climate scientists in the journal Nature, isolates key mechanisms that cause El Nino events to differ amongst each other. The team found that the complexity and irregular occurrence of El Nino and La Nina events can be traced back to the co-existence of two coupled atmosphere-ocean oscillations, with different spatial characteristics and different frequencies.

"Our study reveals that there is a hidden structure in the seemingly chaotic and unpredictable occurrence of El Nino events," said Axel Timmermann, Director of the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University and lead author of the study.

El Nino events are characterized by an unusual warming of the central to eastern equatorial Pacific, which can last up to one year. Many events subsequently transition to a La Nina (cold) state, with a typical duration of 1-2 years. El Nino events, which tend to peak in boreal winter, typically lead to a drying of Southeastern Asia and the Western tropical Pacific whilst enhancing rainfall near the eastern Pacific shores, in countries such as Ecuador and Peru. El Nino's remote "ripple effects" can not only be found in the atmosphere, but also in ocean currents, ecosystems, the occurrence of natural disasters, global markets and national economies.

Climate scientists have long recognized that not every El Nino is alike. Some are weak, others are strong. Some occur in the central Pacific, others in the east. These differences will determine which areas will be hit hardest by climatic extremes and which ones will be spared. Predicting El Nino events accurately requires a deeper understanding of its diversity or as some scientists call it -- its "flavors".

To elucidate the origin of El Nino diversity, a group of 40 climate scientists from 11 countries met in October last year at the IBS Center for Climate Physics and Pusan National University, South Korea. Analyzing large amounts of climate observations and computer model simulations, the team unraveled the mechanism behind El Nino's capricious behavior. When the upper tropical Pacific Ocean stores more heat, El Nino events tend to peak in the Eastern Pacific and during boreal winter, whereas a cooler upper ocean system leads preferably to the development of Central Pacific El Nino events, which exhibit a weaker seasonal coupling.

By running El Nino computer model simulations for different temperature, wind and ocean current configurations the research team found that Eastern Pacific El Nino events are characterized by a return time of 3-7 years, whereas Central Pacific events tend to recur on average every 2-3 years (Figure 1). The different character of these modes is determined by how strongly atmosphere and ocean interact with each other. In the observations however, the co-existing Eastern and Central Pacific warm/cold swings are far from periodic. The tropical Pacific climate systems requires additional excitation, either through random weather events or through atmospheric circulation changes induced by temperature changes in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. These interactions are an important source for El Nino irregularity, and limit how far ahead Tropical Pacific climate anomalies can be predicted.

"Finally we can attribute the observed complexity of the most powerful natural climate engine to the co-existence of two oscillatory states of the underlying mathematical equations" said Fei-Fei Jin, Professor for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Hawai'i, USA and co-author of this study.

"More comprehensive climate modeling studies have to be conducted now to test our new ideas in a more realistic setting and to determine whether we can expect shifts in El Nino characteristics in our warming world," described Jeongseong Kug, one of the coordinating lead authors of the study and Professor at Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.

###AMES, Iowa - Some women may like it when a man opens the door on a first date or offers to pay the bill at dinner, while others may find the gestures insulting.

New research provides an alternative explanation as to why some women respond positively. Pelin Gul, a social psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at Iowa State University, says previous researchers have shown such gestures can undermine women, which is why they labeled the gestures "benevolent sexism." Additional studies have found women prefer men with these behaviors, and claim women are unaware of the potentially negative consequences of men's benevolence.

Gul wanted to know if there could be another explanation. To find out, she and colleague Tom Kupfer at the University of Kent, United Kingdom, designed a series of studies to test theories on mate preferences that they thought would help explain this apparent contradiction. Their work confirmed women prefer men to be benevolent, but contradicting previous assumptions, they found women did recognize the potential harm.

"We found women were aware benevolent sexist men may be patronizing and undermining. However, they still found these men more attractive, because these behaviors signal a willingness to protect, provide and commit," Gul said.

High and low feminists prefer benevolence

The studies asked women to read profiles of men with or without benevolent sexist attitudes and then measure perceived warmth, attractiveness, willingness to protect, provide and commit as well as patronizing and undermining behavior. The research is published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Read the paper here.

The researchers measured how women responded to benevolent behaviors in personal and professional relationships. Gul says in both cases, women were attracted to benevolent men, but it was stronger in the dating context. Interestingly, this was true for women who rated themselves as high as well as low feminists. High feminists rated the benevolent sexist men as more patronizing and undermining than low feminists did, but the positive sides of benevolent sexism outweighed the negatives, even for high feminist women.

"We know from previous research that women, across cultures, prefer a mate who is able to invest by providing resources," Kupfer said. "Women also may be especially attentive to cues of willingness to invest when evaluating a man as a potential mate. Benevolent attitudes and behaviors may signal that willingness."

Finding balance

While the research does provide an alternative explanation, it also raises questions. Gul says future work should look at whether awareness provides a protective factor, in that women might develop tactics to defend against benevolent sexist attitudes and behaviors. She says it is also important to find out why women perceive benevolent men to be undermining and whether men use benevolence intentionally to undermine women. Gul cautions against trying to change these behaviors completely given their findings.

"As researchers, we're not looking to give relationship advice, but understanding the detrimental and beneficial aspects of men's benevolent sexism could help women and men have more satisfying relationships," Gul said. "Given a sufficiently nuanced understanding, it may be possible to reduce the harmful effects of benevolent sexism without rejecting men's benevolence and its beneficial aspects."

###Researchers from King's College London have assessed just how much sun protection people actually receive, based on typical use. It is well known that people don't receive the full ultraviolet radiation blocking benefit of sunscreen, because they are applying it more thinly than manufacturers recommend. The findings are published in journal Acta Dermato-Venereology.

In the first experiment of its kind, the King's team assessed the DNA damage in the skin after lowering sunscreen application thickness below 2mg/cm2 - the amount manufacturers use to achieve their SPF rating.

Results showed that sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50, applied in a typical way, would at best provide 40% of the expected protection. The findings have prompted the King's team to suggest that consumers use a much higher SPF sunscreen than they think necessary, to ensure they're protected from sun damage.

As part of the research scientists divided a cohort of 16 fair-skinned volunteers into two groups of eight - (three women and five men in each). One group received a single UVR exposure, to simulate sunlight, to areas treated with high SPF sunscreen of varying thickness, ranging from 0.75mg, through 1.3mg up to 2mg/cm2.

The other group received exposures on five consecutive days - to mimic continuous holiday exposure. The amount of UVR exposure was varied during the course of the experiment, in order to replicate the conditions in holiday destinations, such as Tenerife, Florida and Brazil.

Biopsies of the UVR exposed areas of skin showed that, for the group that were repeatedly exposed to UVR, considerable DNA damage was found on the areas that received no sun protection, even though the UVR dose was very low.

Damage was reduced when sunscreen was applied at a thickness of 0.75mg/cm2 and considerably reduced when 2mg/cm2 of sunscreen was applied, even with much higher UVR doses.

Five days of exposure to high dose UVR with the sunscreen at 2mg/cm2 showed significantly less damage than just one day's low UVR dose exposure without sunscreen across all samples.

Report author, Professor Antony Young from King's College London said: 'There is no dispute that sunscreen provides important protection against the cancer causing impact of the sun's ultra violet rays. However, what this research shows is that the way sunscreen is applied plays an important role in determining how effective it is.

'Given that most people don't use sunscreens as tested as tested by manufacturers, it's better for people to use a much higher SPF than they think is necessary.

Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists said: 'This research demonstrates why it's so important to choose an SPF of 30 or more. In theory, an SPF of 15 should be sufficient, but we know that in real-world situations, we need the additional protection offered by a higher SPF.

'It also shows why we shouldn't rely on sunscreen alone for sun protection, but we should also use clothing and shade. An extra consideration is that when we apply sunscreen, we are prone to missing patches of skin, as well as applying it too thinly.'

###

Notes to editors:

For further information please contact Garfield Myrie in the King's College London press office at: garfield.myrie@kcl.ac.uk / 0207 848 4334

King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 10 UK universities in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2018/19) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 29,600 students (of whom nearly 11,700 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,000 staff.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), eighty-four per cent of research at King's was deemed 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' (3* and 4*).

Since our foundation, King's students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. King's will continue to focus on world-leading education, research and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world. Visit our website to find out more about Vision 2029, King's strategic vision for the next 12 years to 2029, which will be the 200th anniversary of the founding of the university.

World-changing ideas. Life-changing impact: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/headlines.aspxNew research shows Facebook users are more likely to be older, female, higher-income earners, married and ideologically liberal; study also reveals socioeconomic inequalities in Facebook use and non-use

People are either Facebook users or they are not.

Facebook user data can be used to draw conclusions about general social phenomena.

According to Eric P.S. Baumer, who studies human-computer interaction, the simple statements above are, in fact, not so simple--nor are they true.

Baumer's new research takes a fine-grained look at Facebook use and non-use, using a more nuanced approach than has previously been undertaken. Rather than employing a simple binary of two categories--use and non-use--Baumer's study looks at demographic and socioeconomic factors that impact Facebook use and non-use using four categories:

current user, who currently has and uses a Facebook account;

deactivated, who has temporarily deactivated her/his account but could technically reactivate at any time;

considered deactivating, who has considered deactivating her/his account but never actually done so; and

never used, who has never had a Facebook account.

Baumer analyzed data collected by Cornell's Survey Research Institute in 2015 for the Cornell National Social Survey. The data set includes responses from 1,000 U.S. households gleaned from a phone survey of adults 18 years or older. Through probabilistic modeling, Baumer sought to identify predictors for the four different types of Facebook use and non-use. He presented his findings at the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Montreal Canada on April 25th. The findings were also published in a paper called: "Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Non/use of Facebook."

Of the factors he explored, eight emerged as predictors of use and non-use: age, gender, marital status, whether the respondent had looked for work in the past four weeks, household income, race, weight and social ideology (liberal to conservative). The strongest predictors, he found, were age, gender, whether the respondent had looked for work in the past four weeks and household income.

The research shows that current Facebook use is more common among respondents who are: middle aged (40 to 60), female, not seeking employment, of Asian descent, or currently married. Deactivation, either actual or considered, is more common among respondents who are younger, seeking employment, or not married. Respondents most likely to have never had an account are older, male, from a lower income household, racially of Black or African-American descent, more socially conservative, or weigh less.

Baumer says his findings suggest how socioeconomic factors might work in concert.

"My analysis reveals that individuals from lower-income households are less likely ever to have had a Facebook account," says Baumer. "Yet, social networks have been shown to play an important role in fostering 'social capital,' which can be leveraged for accomplishing certain tasks, including securing employment. Also, respondents who had looked for work within the last four weeks were more likely to have deactivated their Facebook accounts--eliminating a potential resource in their job search."

"Facebook, rather than acting as a democratizer," writes Baumer, "may be perpetuating existing social inequalities."

Other demographic results from the study include:

Age: Older respondents were more likely to have never had a Facebook account. Older respondents who did have an account were less likely to have deactivated or to have considered deactivating. For example, Baumer's analysis reveals that every one-year increase in age increases the odds of having never had a Facebook account by 4.6%.

Younger respondents are more likely to have either deactivated or considered deactivating their Facebook account, while they are simultaneously less likely to be a current user. The probability of deactivation, considered or actual, drops as age increases, while the probability of never having had an account goes up.

"Rather than try Facebook and leave, older respondents never had an account in the first place," writes Baumer in the paper.

Gender: Female respondents were 2.656 times more likely than male respondents to be a current user rather than never having used Facebook. However, gender did not significantly predict deactivation, either considered or actual. This result aligns with prior findings that social media use is more common among female respondents.

Employment: A respondent's current employment status did not emerge as a significant predictor. However, the model does include whether the respondent looked for work in the past four weeks. Respondents who had looked for work were 2.030 times more likely to have deactivated their account and 2.276 times more likely to have considered deactivating.

Household Income: A respondent's household income had no significant effect on deactivation, either considered or actual. However, respondents with lower household incomes were more likely to never have had a Facebook account.

Race: In the final model, only two racial categories have a significant impact, and each of those only significantly impacts a single type of use and/or non-use. First, respondents who identify as Asian are only 0.278 times as likely (i.e., 3.597 times less likely) to have considered deactivating their account. These respondents are also 0.238 times as likely (i.e., 4.202 times less likely) to have never had a Facebook account.

Second, respondents who identified as Black were more likely never to have had a Facebook account. This finding aligns with previous research suggesting Facebook use is relatively less common among African Americans.

Marital Status: Being married (as opposed to single, divorced, widowed, etc.) decreases the chance of considering deactivation and reduces the odds of actually deactivating almost by half.

Social Ideology: Self-identified conservative respondents were more likely never to have had a Facebook account. Each move toward the conservative end of the response scale corresponded to being 1.152 times more likely to have never had an account. Social ideology has only a slight impact on the probability of deactivation, either considered or actual.

Weight: Heavier respondents were less likely to have considered deactivating their account and to have never had an account. Lower-weight respondents are more likely only to consider deactivating, while higher-weight respondents are more likely to have actually deactivated.

His analysis, says Baumer, also provides specific details about the types of populations that researchers are, and are not, studying when analyzing data from social media.

"The analysis helps to explain the ways that Facebook, and likely all social media, are not representative of the broader population," says Baumer. "Facebook users are more likely older, female, higher income earners, married and ideologically liberal."

###AUGUSTA, Ga. (July 25, 2018) - Severe pneumonia causes a buildup of fluid in the lungs that makes the basics of breathing and getting oxygen out to the body difficult to impossible.

Scientists are exploring a new target for treating both barrier leakiness and fluid buildup that, in lab animals and early human trials, seems to restore tight barriers and fluid clearance so we can breathe.

Fluid follows sodium and the investigators are targeting ENaC-alpha, a subunit of natural channels that mediate sodium uptake and play a role in fluid movement, says Dr. Rudolf Lucas, vascular biologist at the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Lucas and his colleagues propose ENaC-alpha also has a role as a signaling molecule that tightens barrier function in the air sacs and tiny capillaries of our lungs when pneumonia-causing bacteria make both leaky.

They have a synthetic version of the tip of a molecule known to target cancer that appears to directly activate ENaC-alpha, and help clear our lungs.

"It closes the barriers in the capillary lining, it improves sodium channel function and liquid clearance in the lung sacs, and we also found it reduces inflammation," Lucas says of activation of ENaC-alpha with their synthetic TIP peptide.

Limited clinical experience with the peptide indicates that the sicker the patient, the better it works. Laboratory studies indicate that when they delete ENaC-alpha from cells, the peptide doesn't work, Lucas says.

A new $2.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is enabling more laboratory studies to learn more about just how targeting ENaC-alpha may improve survival from this top 10 killer of both young and older individuals.

ENaC, or epithelial sodium channel, normally helps remove excess fluid from our 300 million air sacs, a demand that increases with pneumonia. The scientists have evidence that ENaC-alpha is a component of both highly selected cation channel, or HSC, and non-selective cation channel, or NSC, which both have a role in sodium uptake and fluid elimination.

They've shown ENaC-alpha is active in the single cell layer, or endothelium, that lines tiny blood vessels in the lungs and helps keep contents inside, in addition to the epithelium, a membrane-like lining inside the lungs' air sacs that aids gas exchange and also works as a natural barrier to keep excess fluid out.

"It's called the epithelial sodium channel but we've found that it's also expressed in endothelial cells," Lucas says.

They think at least one way the ENaC subunit helps out is by blunting changes to the protein filamin-A. Unchanged, this protein both supports barrier function and fluid clearance, but alterations can essentially make it do the polar opposite.

The new grant is enabling additional studies of just how their peptide and ENaC-alpha partner. So they are doing things like making mice with ENaC-alpha missing in the endothelium but present in the epithelium.

"If it still works, we know that it's mainly because it improves liquid clearance from air sacs and barrier strengthening might not be as important," says Lucas. "But if it eliminates a lot of the protective effect of the TIP peptide, it will shore up the importance of also reducing capillary leakage," says Lucas, who suspects both really matter.

They also are looking at how the TIP peptide activates sodium channels in the face of both bacteria and the toxins they spew when they die. While antibiotics are needed to kill the bacteria causing pneumonia, as the bugs die they can release the toxin pneumolysin. The known phenomenon, which tends to occur particularly in severe pneumonia, results in the toxin making holes in the barriers of both capillaries and air sacs, creating what the scientists call a second wave of fluid accumulation and potentially death.

Critical care physicians know about the potential toxin release, but currently don't have therapies against it, Lucas says. There also is currently no way to identify ahead of time which patients will experience it.

In their new studies, they are looking at what happens when they activate just NSC or HSC as well as both channels, which is what the TIP peptide does. They are also looking at what happens to sodium uptake capacity in the epithelial cells of air sacs when they genetically deplete or overexpress ENaC-alpha then expose the cells to a pneumonia-causing bacterium as well as the toxin the dying bacteria produce. If it continues to work, they want to know if they are correct that it works by inhibiting pathways that can alter filamin-A.

They suspect they will find again that direct activation of ENaC-alpha is sufficient to improve fluid clearance from air sacs and barrier function in capillaries in both pneumonia models as well as isolated, perfused human lungs.

"The lung sacs that transport oxygen to the blood need to be preferentially empty," Lucas says. "If they are filled with liquid, it's a problem."

Despite the proximity of airs sacs and capillaries, the presence of excess fluid in air sacs is like swimming upstream as oxygen tries to travel through fluid to get to the capillaries and the blood.

"The problem is that these channels that aid fluid clearance are closed more often than they are open when you have a bacterial infection or inflammation," Lucas says.

In later stages of the grant, co-investigator Dr. Michael Matthay, critical care specialist and professor of medicine and anesthesia at the University of California, San Francisco, will be perfusing cadaver lungs as a ventilator would in an ICU, treating them with the same bacterium used in their mouse model, then looking at the effect of TIP peptide treatment on things like capillary leaking.

Dr. Douglas C. Eaton, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physiology at Emory University School of Medicine and Lucas' longtime collaborator on this and previous studies, discovered NSC's role in fluid clearance. Lucas and Eaton also discovered that the TIP peptide can activate ENaC-alpha as well as the HSC and NSC channels.

The TIP peptide already has been tested in Europe for acute lung injury - patients with pneumonia, and/or trauma or sepsis- and Lucas and his colleagues are pursuing additional studies in pneumonia and lung transplantation. The Food and Drug Administration recently granted the peptide orphan drug designation status for lung transplantation, so it can already be used as an alternative treatment. The peptide appears to help minimize problems like excess fluid accumulation in a newly transplanted lung from something called ischemic reperfusion injury. In all trials to date, all patients taking the peptide were weaned from the ventilator much faster, Lucas says.

In phase 2a clinical trials, the peptide has been given through a ventilator. Lucas notes the reality that high ventilator pressures needed to help sustain the sickest pneumonia patients actually can worsen the damage.

New therapies that have been studied to address the complex problems that a bacterial infection can yield in the lungs, have addressed only a single issue, like capillary leakiness, and have failed, Lucas says.

"We had to find something that addresses all these points," Lucas says. In both extensive laboratory studies and some early clinical use in other counties, the TIP peptide seems to do just that.

"We actually use a part of a natural cytokine to, let's say, balance the system," Lucas says. He notes that, as with anything, there is danger from overactivating the mechanisms that keep barriers tight and enable fluid clearance from air sacs.

"But we want to activate it again," says Lucas. He notes that one of the ill effects of overactivation would be air sacs that are actually too dry, which is one of the problems in cystic fibrosis, but they have no evidence to date that the TIP peptide goes that far.

"It looks like the peptide just brings the system back to normal functioning level," he says, noting that there could be some natural brake that helps prevent overactivation. He also notes that ENaC channels actually normally function at a low rate but when they don't function, it's highly lethal.

The TIP peptide is attracted to the sugar coating at the mouth of the sodium channel, and works like a doorstop to keep the channels open in animal models.

In pneumonia, the toxin pneumolysin also directly impacts the sodium channels at a time when there is increased fluid volume in the tiny air sacs, Lucas and team reported in last year in Frontiers in Immunology. Their synthetic peptide, TIP, strengthens human endothelial cells exposed to pneumolysin.

A clinical study published last year in the journal Critical Care showed that inhaled treatment with the TIP peptide helped patients with more severe pulmonary edema who required a ventilator better clear their lungs of fluid.

Pneumonia is a top 10 killer of young people age 1 to 24 and of folks age 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children are particularly vulnerable to the second wave of death from toxin spilled by dying bacteria because of their own vigorous immune response to the toxin, Lucas says. Viruses and fungi also are major causes of pneumonia.

###An international team of materials scientists from France, Russia and Kazakhstan found a way to boost the efficiency of organic solar cells several times. The new study, published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, has shown that ordered structures based on organic molecules can be used to produce solar power.

Solar panels, or batteries, are one of the most promising ways to generate electrical power. As of 2017, the combined power of solar panels installed worldwide amounted to 400 gigawatts. The solar power industry is experiencing a rapid growth, which depends on cheaper and more efficient batteries.

One way of improving solar power systems is by introducing new materials. The basic elements of a solar panel converting light into electricity are photovoltaic cells, or solar cells. They are mostly made of polysilicon -- a highly pure polycrystalline form of silicon. But scientists are busy looking for alternative materials. Organic polymers with photovoltaic properties are one of the prime candidates to replace polysilicon.

A team of researchers from France (the University of Strasbourg, University of Lyon, Institut de Sciences des Materiaux de Mulhouse, Synchrotron SOLEIL), Russia (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow State University), and Kazakhstan (Nazarbayev University) has described a way of boosting the efficiency of organic solar cells by incorporating fluorine atoms in the polymer. This process, known as fluorination, was previously shown to enhance polymer photovoltaic properties, but the mechanism was poorly understood. The new study clarifies the effect of fluorination on cell efficiency.

By experimenting with various polymer modifications, the team increased cell efficiency from 3.7 to 10.2 percent. While this still falls short of the commercial silicon photovoltaics, the massive gain in efficiency suggests that polymer-based cells are a technology to be reckoned with. Perhaps with further tweaks organic solar cells could outperform their polysilicon-based counterparts.

The generic polymer used in the experiment has a rather complex molecular structure. It consists of a chain of repeating units shown in the left part of figure 1. Each of them includes sulfur heterocycles -- rings made of one sulfur and four carbon atoms -- and hydrocarbon side chains with a branched structure.

The researchers produced a number of modifications of this polymer to find which one has better photovoltaic properties. They changed the structure by adding fluorine atoms (figure 1, right) and varying the length of the side chains. One polymer configuration proved to result in vastly superior properties. Namely, the cell efficiency and current output were several times higher.

The team then investigated the microscopic structure of the best-performing compound. X-ray analysis revealed polymer stacking to be more ordered. Also, the molecules were characterized by higher charge carrier mobility, which means the material conducts electricity better. For a solar cell, this is clearly an advantage.

Co-author of the study Professor Dimitri Ivanov pointed out the technological advantages of the organic solar cells. He said they can be manufactured in fewer stages, compared with conventional silicon photovoltaics. The light-absorbing polymers can also function as a thin film, which means the solar panels need not be flat.

"For example, you could deposit organic solar batteries on roof tiles," adds Ivanov, who heads the Laboratory of Functional Organic and Hybrid Materials at MIPT and is director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research.

According to Ivanov, what made the study challenging was the "need to optimize solar cell efficiency by picking the right molecular energy levels of the donor and the acceptor, while also creating the appropriate supramolecular structure that would facilitate charge transport to the electrodes."

###Mutations in the gene LRRK2 have been linked to about three percent of Parkinson's disease cases. Researchers have now found evidence that the activity of LRRK2 protein might be affected in many more patients with Parkinson's disease, even when the LRRK2 gene itself is not mutated. The study was published in Science Translational Medicine and was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"This is a striking finding that shows how normal LRRK2 may contribute to the development of Parkinson's disease," said Beth-Anne Sieber, Ph.D., program director at NINDS. "This study also identifies LRRK2 as an integral protein in the neurobiological pathways affected by the disease."

More than 10 years ago, researchers linked mutations in the LRRK2 gene with an increased risk for developing Parkinson's disease. Those mutations produce a version of LRRK2 protein that behaves abnormally and is much more active than it would be normally.

Despite its importance in Parkinson's disease, the very small amount of normal LRRK2 protein in nerve cells has made it difficult to study. In the current study, the authors developed a new method for observing LRRK2 cells that makes them glow fluorescently only when LRRK2 is in its activated state. They have also used detection of fluorescent signals to demonstrate loss of binding of an inhibitor protein to LRRK2 when LRRK2 is activated. The researchers looked first at postmortem brain tissue from Parkinson's disease patients who did not have mutations in LRRK2. Compared to healthy individuals of similar ages, there was a striking increase in LRRK2 activity in the dopamine-containing neurons of the substantia nigra, the area of the brain most affected in Parkinson's disease. This suggested that increased LRRK2 activity could be a common feature of the disease.

"This finding provided strong evidence that something is causing LRRK2 activity to increase in Parkinson's disease patients, specifically in the area of the brain we would expect based on what we know of the disease," said J. Timothy Greenamyre, M.D., Ph.D., Love Family Professor of Neurology in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Medicine, director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (PIND), and senior author of this study.

To get a closer look at how LRRK2 activity is related to Parkinson's disease. the researchers next turned to rodent models of the disorder. The sensitivity of their new technique allowed for the direct study of LRRK2 activity, which until now could not be done.

"Much of what we have known previously about LRRK2 comes from overexpression studies, where cells are forced to make much more of the protein than they would normally," said Dr. Greenamyre "Our fluorescent assay reveals where LRRK2 is active in the brain and the relative level of activity without potential side effects from overexpression."

By injecting rodents with the environmental toxin rotenone and studying the effect on LRRK2, the researchers linked increased LRRK2 activity with the accumulation of alpha-synuclein, a process that leads to the formation of Lewy bodies in the brain, a hallmark of Parkinson's disease. In another model of the disease, where synuclein was present in much higher amounts than normal, LRRK2 activity was increased. In contrast, when the animals were treated with a drug that blocks LRRK2 activity, the accumulation of alpha-synuclein and Lewy body formation were both prevented.

Finally, additional links were found between LRRK2 activity and the potentially damaging consequences of Parkinson's disease. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are compounds that can interact and affect other components within cells, and ROS were increased in the brains of both rodent models. ROS were seen to increase the activity of LRRK2, and when ROS production was blocked, LRRK2 activation was not observed.

"Our findings suggest that both genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson's disease can be tied back to the activity of LRRK2 protein," said Dr. Greenamyre. "This is important, because it suggests that the drugs being developed for patients with the LRRK2 mutation, which represent a very small percentage of the affected population, could benefit a much greater number of people with the disease."

Dr. Greenamyre and his research team plan to further study whether the neurodegeneration that occurs due to LRRK2 overactivity can be prevented and to identify the mechanisms that connect environmental stressors to LRRK2 activation.

###

Article:

Di Maio, R. et al. A central role for LRRK2 in idiopathic Parkinson's disease. Science Translational Medicine July 25, 2018. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aar5429

This study was supported by the NINDS (NS100744, NS095387), the National Institute on Aging (AG005133), the National Institute of Environmental Health Services (ES027470), the Blechman Foundation, the American Parkinson Disease Association, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, Michael J. Fox Foundation grant 6986, Medical Research Council grant MC_UU_12016/2, and friends and family of Sean Logan.

For more information: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Parkinsons-Disease-Information-Page

https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Hope-Through-Research/Parkinsons-Disease-Hope-Through-Research https://www.ninds.nih.gov/

The NINDS is the nation's leading funder of research on the brain and nervous system. The mission of NINDS is to seek fundamental knowledge about the brain and nervous system and to use that knowledge to reduce the burden of neurological disease.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.The 2014 megafires in Canada's Northwest Territories burned 7 million acres of forest, making it one of the most severe fire events in Canadian history.

A new study shows that as those fires scorched a region of boreal forest the size of Maryland, they released half as much carbon back into the atmosphere as all the plants, shrubs and trees in Canada typically store in an entire year.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth, and as it does, environmental scientists expect large fires to increase in frequency and intensity. But they have struggled to understand these fires' effect on ecosystems and ultimately carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, meaning that it helps trap heat in the Earth's lower atmosphere. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere means more trapped heat, causing global temperatures to rise.

The megafires paper is one of two recently released studies based on data from NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, or ABoVE, that will help scientists better understand and predict both short- and long-term changes in the ecosystems of Alaska and Northern Canada.

The authors of the megafires paper constructed models to help them understand what made the 2014 fires so large and what impact they had on the environment. The authors of the second study used images from the NASA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Landsat program to not only observe changes in Alaska's environment, but determine their causes and potential future effects. Together, the studies improve scientists' understanding of boreal forests' recent past and will help them predict the future of these vulnerable ecosystems, one of the primary goals of the ABoVE project.

Modeling megafires

To be termed a "megafire," a wildfire must burn an area measuring more than 25,000 acres, an area slightly smaller than Long Island, New York. The massive wildfires of 2014, in comparison, burned 7 million acres of boreal forest in Northwest Territories. Boreal forests are found in the northernmost regions of the world and mainly contain spruce, pine, birch, aspen and other evergreen trees.

The authors of the megafires paper constructed two models to assess carbon emission from the fires. The first, based on field measurements, such as types of trees and soil drainage in burned and unburned forests, helped them discover what made some areas more vulnerable to burning and large carbon emissions than others. The second model deduced how much carbon the megafires emitted, based on land characteristics that they detected in satellite images from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, instruments on the Aqua and Terra satellites.

According to the second model, the 2014 fires released 94.3 teragrams of carbon into the atmosphere -- about 103 million tons.

"We found that one megafire can release huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere," said Xanthe Walker, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University and the study's lead author. "Our results will allow future research to model carbon emissions over larger temporal and spatial scales."

Historically, boreal forests in Canada have been both carbon "sinks" and "sources" depending on the fire and insect damage occurring at any given time. If warming trends continue and fires become even more frequent, they could become stronger carbon sources, which could amplify climate warming, Walker said.

Using the past to predict the future

Another recent ABoVE-funded study was led by the USGS in conjunction with researchers from the University of Minnesota and Northern Arizona University. While past research had already confirmed that significant portions of Alaska's landscape are experiencing flooding, permafrost melt and other changes -- up to 13 percent of the state, according to this study, or an area larger than Florida -- the team created a model to analyze 30 years of satellite imagery from the Landsat program and attribute causes to those changes.

The team found that Alaska's rising temperatures are driving changes in how and where plants grow, especially toward the end of the growing season, and even causing lakes and ponds to grow larger, among other changes.

"Observed land and surface water changes have substantially impacted natural and man-made systems in Alaska," said Neal Pastick, a physical scientist at the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science. "For instance, erosion and increases in evaporative demand have negatively impacted human and vegetation communities, spurring relocation planning for entire villages and drought-induced stress, respectively."

Using a data set that spanned three decades allowed the researchers to see how Alaska's ecosystems respond to damage and stress as well. After a wildfire, for example, it may take up to 60 years for evergreen trees like spruce to regrow and reach maturity. In the meantime, deciduous trees such as aspen and birch, which regrow more quickly, increase the reflectivity of the land's surface in the winter and increase the amount of energy used to evaporate water from the tree canopy. This has a cooling effect on temperatures. Furthermore, less flammable deciduous forests tend to decrease fire activity.

"Studying, in a spatially explicit way, shrub and tree expansion, coastal dynamics, and the collapse of land areas as ice in the ground thaws (thermokarsting) is something you can only do with the combination of space-based remote sensing and modeling," said Peter Griffith, director of NASA's Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Office, which provides logistic and data management support to ABoVE. "This work is a significant contribution in that it demonstrates a way to analyze this."

The next step for this project, Griffith said, is to use the model and results to create a system model, which can generate data-rich, realistic forecasts of this rapidly changing region's possible futures.

###

To read the paper on tracking Alaska's changes over time, visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.14279.

To read the paper modeling carbon emissions from the 2014 megafire, visit https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.14287.

This study was a cooperative effort between two United States universities, four Canadian universities and the territorial government of the Northwest Territories.

To learn more about ABoVE, visit https://above.nasa.gov/.The James Webb Space Telescope is of one the most ambitious and technically complex missions NASA has ever set its focus upon. Building an infrared observatory of this magnitude, power and complexity has never been attempted before. In order to ensure seamless operation in space, the cutting-edge technology incorporated into Webb must be rigorously tested prior to launch.

The entire design of the Webb telescope took years to develop and was specifically engineered to see more of the cosmos than ever before. It required hundreds of scientists, engineers, optics experts and many others to pool their knowledge in a way that had never been done. Relying on the teamwork of three prominent space agencies: NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, Webb has come to include over 1,200 people worldwide to bring the world's newest and most powerful space telescope to life.

"When we first thought of Webb, it wasn't technically feasible. We had to succeed at inventing some things before we could build it--not unlike the Apollo Program in this regard," said Paul Geithner, Deputy Project Manager - Technical at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Before construction of the telescope could even begin, scientists and engineers set out on the task of creating ten new technological innovations the world had never seen. Known as "enabling technologies," these advancements have been incorporated into Webb and will pave the way for it to become the most capable scientific observatory ever built. At nearly 100 times the power of its scientific predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, Webb is expected to reveal a wealth of information about where we came from, how planets and stars form, and will also be used to perform detailed analysis of planets in both our own solar system, and elsewhere out in the cosmos.

A revolutionary lightweight carbon-composite material, capable of maintaining its rigid shape to 1/10,000th of a human hair, at temperatures near absolute zero forms Webb's backplane and science instrument support structures. This new material offers exceptional load-bearing capability, while also experiencing very little thermal expansion and contraction in the extreme temperatures of space. Webb's mirror segments began as Beryllium ore mined in Utah. They travelled all over the United States to be formed, light-weighted, polished, gold-coated, and finally, perfectly placed on the backplane structure with the help of a robotic arm.

"From an engineering perspective, Webb is extraordinarily difficult. The science means it has to be big, in space, and half of it has to be super cold. This means we had to design it to fold up for the ride into space, then have it unfold flawlessly by remote control. It also requires that we build the cold optics part exactly wrong, in gravity and air at room temperature, so that it will be exactly right--the right size and shape--when it's weightless in the vacuum of space operating at temperatures so cold that air turns solid," said Geithner.

A global team of technicians, engineers and scientists collaborated on building and testing this revolutionary telescope. Beyond the spaceflight hardware, the Webb mission required the construction of assembly structures to piece together the telescope, the use of test facilities to ensure each component is ready for the rigors of spaceflight, transportation enclosures to send it around the country for service, engineering copies called pathfinders, and even a miniature 'test-bed' telescope.

To ensure Webb and all of its new technology will function as expected in space, NASA intentionally exposes their spacecraft to extreme temperatures in a massive cryogenic chamber known simply as 'Chamber A' located in Houston, Texas. Ground testing to simulate launch-induced vibration or to investigate structural strength has also proven to be vital in developing a successful spacecraft. In order to be certain to evaluate all aspects of structural dynamics, including vibration, vibroacoustics, modal characteristics, sound transmission loss, and shock testing, Webb has been bombarded by a long litany of tests, shaking, freezing and retesting.

The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries of our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

###

For more information about the Webb sunshield, visit: https://jwst.nasa.gov/sunshield.html

For information about NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/web?NEW YORK, NY -- This week, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research announced a $1M grant to the New York Genome Center (NYGC) to support a new, multi-institutional endeavor to study the genomics of cancer across the diverse communities of New York City.

This NYGC Project, Polyethnic-1000, aims ultimately to improve outcomes for patients by increasing the participation of ethnic groups currently underrepresented in existing genomic databases. Using state-of-the-art genomic sequencing and analysis, NYGC and its collaborators will create tools to assist physicians in selecting the best treatment for each individual patient. The data collected in this initiative will also enable researchers to tackle critical outstanding questions about tumor biology, cancer risk, and response to treatment across genetically diverse populations of patients.

Polyethnic-1000 was organized at NYGC by cancer experts Drs. Harold Varmus, Weill Cornell Medicine and NYGC, and Charles Sawyers, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with members of the NYGC's Genome Center Cancer Group. The project will be led by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory cancer researchers and NYGC affiliates, Drs. Fieke Froeling and David Tuveson, in partnership with NYGC computational biologist Dr. Nicolas Robine.

"In this study, we are creating a dynamic research platform within the greater New York area that promises to enhance the ways in which cancer is prevented, diagnosed, and treated," said Dr. Varmus. "Polyethnic-1000 will establish a framework to enhance interactions among our region's cancer treatment centers that should improve and widen the use of genomics for all patients."

"The insights gained from these studies will advance our understanding of the genomics of cancer in the broadest possible way," said Michele Cleary, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of The Mark Foundation. "In the long term, we expect that this work will help physicians arrive at treatments tailored to the unique molecular characteristics of each patient's disease within and across diverse communities."

###

About The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research is dedicated to accelerating cures for cancer by integrating discoveries in biology with innovative technology. Launched in 2017, The Mark Foundation pursues its mission by funding a global portfolio of groundbreaking research carried out by individual investigators, multi-investigator teams, and inter-institutional collaborations.

Recognizing the obstacles that can prevent scientific advances from improving patient outcomes, The Mark Foundation maintains a nimble, high-impact approach to funding research that encompasses grants for basic and translational cancer research, as well as venture philanthropy investment in companies that bridge the gap between the bench and the bedside.

To learn more about the work of The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, visit: https://themarkfoundation.org.

Follow us: Twitter @TheMarkFdn; and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheMarkFoundation.

About the New York Genome Center

The New York Genome Center is an independent, nonprofit academic research institution at the forefront of transforming biomedical research and clinical care. Founded as a collaborative venture by the region's premier academic, medical and industry leaders, the New York Genome Center's goal is to translate genomic research into new diagnostics, therapeutics and treatments for human disease. NYGC member organizations and partners are united in this unprecedented collaboration of technology, science and medicine, designed to harness the power of innovation and discoveries to advance genomic services. Their shared objective is the acceleration of medical genomics and precision medicine to benefit patients around the world.

Member institutions include: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, American Museum of Natural History, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Columbia University, Hospital for Special Surgery, The Jackson Laboratory, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, The New York Stem Cell Foundation, New York University, Northwell Health, Princeton University, The Rockefeller University, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Stony Brook University and Weill Cornell Medicine. For more information on the NYGC, please visit: http://www.nygenome.org.

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory employs 1,100 people including 600 scientists, students and technicians. The Meetings & Courses Program annually hosts more than 12,000 scientists. The Laboratory's education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a graduate school and the DNA Learning Center with programs for middle and high school students and teachers.

For more information, visit: https://www.cshl.edu.HOUSTON - (July 25, 2018) - Rice University scientists have released the first results of extensive water sampling in Houston after the epic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. They found widespread contamination by E. coli, likely the result of overflow from flooded wastewater treatment plants.

The microbial survey showed high levels of E. coli, a fecal indicator organism, trapped in homes that still contained stagnant water weeks after the storm, as well as high levels of key genes that indicate antibiotic resistance.

The study led by Rice environmental engineer Lauren Stadler appears in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. A pair of National Science Foundation RAPID grants helped the team collect and analyze samples.

Rice environmental engineers Stadler, Qilin Li and Pedro Alvarez and their students were on the front lines, even before Harvey subsided, to take samples from floodwaters near the overflowing Brays and Buffalo bayous, in public spaces and inside and outside residential homes to compare their microbial content. Samples of stagnant water were taken from homes that had been closed off for more than a week, while others were taken from homes that had floodwater flowing through them.

Early samples from each location carried elevated levels of E. coli. But most striking was the fact that sampled water and, later, sediment showed abundant levels of two indicator genes, sul1 and intI1, that mark the presence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, even weeks after the flood. In particular, samples from floodwaters inside closed homes showed concentrations of sul1 were 250 times greater and intI1 60 times greater in than in bayou samples.

"Sul1 is a gene that confers resistance to sulfonamide antibiotics," said Stadler, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. "IntI1 is not an antibiotic-resistant gene, but an integron-integrase gene that encodes for a system of gene capture and dissemination and can lead to the spread of antibiotic-resistant genes among bacteria. A lot of antibiotic-resistant genes are on or associated with mobile genetic elements like plasmids that can be shared among bacteria.

"We target intI1 because integrons are often found on mobile genetic elements and indicative of the genetic mobility of a gene," she said. "They are also often associated with antibiotic resistance, and the abundance of these genes gives us a sense of the potential for horizontal gene transfer among bacteria.

"That matters because while we see these genes in environmental bacteria all the time, we really worry when pathogenic bacteria acquire resistant genes from environmental bacteria," Stadler said. "That's when there's an issue -- when there's an antibiotic-resistant pathogen. If you're exposed to one of those, that's when you see infections that are really hard to treat."

The immediate takeaway from the study, she said, is that people should take extra care to avoid direct contact with stagnant floodwaters, especially in flooded homes with niches for pathogens to grow.

"Wear protective gear, and don't go in at all if you're immunocompromised or have open wounds," she said.

Stadler's research group is using the experience gained during Harvey to advance development of tools to measure horizontal gene transfer as it takes place in the environment.

###

The study's co-authors from Rice are postdoctoral researcher Pingfeng Yu, alumnus Avery Zaleski and graduate student Ya He; co-authors from Virginia Tech are graduate student Kris Mapili and Amy Pruden, the W. Thomas Rice Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Li is a Rice professor of civil and environmental engineering and of material science and nanoengineering. Alvarez is Rice's George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a professor of materials science and nanoengineering and of chemistry, and director of the Rice-based Center for Nanotechnoogy-Enabled Water Treatment.

Read the abstract at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.8b00329.

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2018/07/25/harvey-samples-saddled-with-antibiotic-resistant-genes/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Stadler Research Group: https://www.stadler.rice.edu/lauren-stadler

Alvarez Lab: http://alvarez.rice.edu/alvarez-lab/

Qilin Li Research Group: http://qilinli.rice.edu

Rice Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: https://ceve.rice.edu/

George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu/

Images for download:

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/07/0730_HARVEY-1-WEB-2hqjeg6.jpg

Rice University students collect water samples from a flooded Houston home after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Rice researchers have issued the first report to quantify levels of contamination in floodwaters and sediments deposited by the storm. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

http://news.rice.edu/files/2018/07/0730_HARVEY-2-WEB-2bi7vsg.jpg

Lauren Stadler. (Credit: 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 3,970 undergraduates and 2,934 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 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.Researchers at Swansea University's College of Science are part of an international team that has discovered a new species of venomous snake in Australia.

The Vermicella parscauda (Weipa bandy-bandy) is a small (50-100cm) black and white banded snake found only in Australia. It belongs to a group of venomous snakes known as burrowing elapids. But despite being part of a highly venomous family including cobras and the infamous Australian taipans, bandy-bandys pose no risk to humans and their venom could actually contain medicinal properties.

Dr Kevin Arbuckle is leading the molecular data analysis part of the research at Swansea. He said: "We are extremely excited to have identified this new species. After conducting the analyses of molecular data, we found that we had indeed found a distinctly different species than the bandy-bandys known previously."

It could be said that the last thing Australia needs is another venomous snake but as Dr Arbuckle points out, this new species could have distinct benefits. "Due to their secretive habitats, small size, and venom that is not highly toxic to humans, the Weipa bandy-bandy is of no threat to us. In fact, once the venom of this new species is investigated, its complex mixture of biologically active chemicals has the potential to lead to future drug developments that could help humans."

The Weipa bandy-bandy was discovered by Dr Bryan Fry (University of Queensland) and Dr Freek Vonk (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre) in 2014, during a field trip to the Cape York Peninsula. Dr Vonk and Dr Fry suspected that the specimen was different to other bandy-bandy species. During a later trip in 2016, another team member from Dr Fry's lab came across another of the snakes - a sign that the first wasn't simply an unusual individual but might represent a new species. New genetic samples and morphological data were collected for these individuals and compared with all other bandy-bandy species. It was then up to Dr Arbuckle to use the genetic data and test whether the new specimens represented a new, evolutionarily distinct species and to compare this to previously known species.

The Weipa bandy-bandy might pose no threat to humans, but as Dr Arbuckle says, the opposite is unfortunately not true: "Despite only just being discovered the new species already faces significant threat through potential habitat disruption due to mining activities and will likely be classified as endangered or even critically endangered once formally evaluated.

Identifying the species is the first step towards making efforts to conserve it and provides a strong argument to avoid greatly extending the current mining enterprises that threaten its habitat."

###

The paper detailing the discovery of the Weipa bandy-bandy has been published in the journal Zootaxa: https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/issue/view/zootaxa.4446.Peer reviewed / Observational study / Humans

A high sensitivity blood test might help doctors rule out traumatic intracranial injuries like brain haemorrhage and contusion before resorting to CT scanning, according to a large, multicentre observational trial published in The Lancet Neurology journal.

The novel blood test was administered within 12 hours of a suspected traumatic brain injury (TBI), and measured levels of two biomarker proteins which are released into the bloodstream following a brain injury. In the study, the test correctly identified 99.6% of patients who did not have a traumatic intracranial injury on head CT scans among over 1,900 adults (mostly with mild TBI) presenting to emergency departments in the USA and Europe.

Current practice for mild TBI involves a series of checklists of symptoms and signs--known as clinical decision rules--that a treating physician will look for to decide whether a CT scan is necessary. One of the most important clinical guides for determining the need for a CT scan is the patient's initial level of alertness--measured using the Glasgow Coma Scale score (GCS)--with some guidelines recommending a head CT for anyone with a less than perfect GCS score of 15.[1]

The blood test investigated in this study was able to predict which patients did not have a brain injury visible on CT scan with very high accuracy, even among those with a GCS less than 15. Further research to determine the extent to which the biomarker test complements decision rules, and as well as its impact on health care costs and patient throughput, will be key to understanding the test's usefulness in clinical practice.

"Based on the results of this multicentre study, routine use of the new biomarker test in emergency departments could reduce head CT scans by a third in acutely head injured patients thought to be in need of CT scanning, avoiding unnecessary CT-associated costs and radiation exposure, with a very low false-negative rate", says Dr Jeffrey Bazarian at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, New York (USA) who co-led the research. [2]

"Our results suggest that patients with mild TBI (initial GCS of 14 or 15) who have no other indication for a CT (such as a focal neurologic deficit), and who have a negative test can safely avoid a CT scan. Those patients with a positive test have a 10% chance of an intracranial lesion and most clinicians would get a CT scan of their head to determine if an intracranial injury exists, and define it further. The extent to which these biomarker results can be applied to patients presenting with more severe injury, that is in those with a GCS less than 14, requires further confirmation." [2]

Based on early, unpublished results of the study, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the commercial use of this blood-based brain biomarker test, making it the first clinically approved test of its kind in North America.

TBI occurs when an external force such as a bump or blow to the head disrupts the normal function of the brain. Leading causes include falls, motor vehicle accidents, and assaults. An estimated 54-60 million people worldwide suffer a TBI every year. In the USA, TBI is responsible for more than 2.5 million visits to the emergency department every year, most of which involve milder TBIs like concussion.

Currently, doctors use CT scans to detect traumatic intracranial injuries, usually bleeding, which sometimes require immediate neurosurgery. Over 20 million head CT scans are performed each year in the US alone. However, CT scans reveal such injures in less than 10% of those with milder head injuries, which make up three-quarters of all TBIs, and there is concern about the high radiation dose associated with CT scans of the head which can increase the risk of cancer.

Previous research has highlighted the potential of blood-based brain injury biomarkers to predict patients at high risk of intracranial injuries and in need of CT scanning. S100B is a well-accepted biomarker for TBI and is already in clinical use in Europe. Two other proteins--ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 (UCH-L1) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)--have also emerged as promising predictors of head CT results in small studies.

To provide more evidence, the researchers conducted a prospective study of 1959 adults (aged 18 or over) attending emergency departments between December 2012 and March 2014 with suspected TBIs at 22 sites in the USA and Europe. The ALERT-TBI study directly compared the results of the new biomarker test combining UCH-L1 and GFAP with head CT scan results.

Participants had a Glasgow Coma Scale score ranging from 9-15, and the majority (98%) had a mild TBI, with a score of 14-15 (GCS scores range from 3 [deep coma] to 15 [full consciousness]). All participants received a head CT as part of standard emergency care and had blood samples taken within 12 hours of injury.

Results showed that 125 (6%) of participants had intracranial injuries detected on CT and eight (?1%) had injuries that were neurosurgically manageable. 1288 (66%) of patients had a positive GFAP and UCH-L1 test result, and 671 (34%) had a negative result.

The new biomarker test was positive in 97.6% of patients with a traumatic injury on head CT scan (sensitivity), whilst the probability that a patient with a negative test result was truly injury free was 99.6% (negative predictive value).

Given that there were ten times as many positive GFAP and UCH-L1 tests as positive CT scans among patients with TBIs, the authors speculate that these two proteins may be detecting more subtle degrees of injury not visible on CT scans.

According to co-lead author Dr Peter Biberthaler from the Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, "The majority of patients presenting with mild traumatic brain injuries like concussion do not have visible traumatic intracranial injuries on CT scans. Given the GFAP and UCH-L1 biomarker test's inherent simplicity, requiring only a blood draw, and its reliability at predicting the absence of intracranial injuries, we are hopeful of its future role in ruling out the need for CT scans in these patients." [2]

The authors note several limitations, including that the study did not evaluate the test's predictive ability for clinical outcomes such as prolonged post-concussive symptoms, cognitive impairment, and decreased functional status. They also note that it did not attempt to assess the test's diagnostic accuracy compared with currently used biomarkers (ie, S100B) and clinical decision rules for triaging CT scanning. Finally, the sensitivity analysis comparing the diagnostic performance of the biomarker test for each of the proteins separately suggested that GFAP alone might perform as well as the two proteins combined, and requires further validation.

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Andrew Maas from Antwerp University Hospital and University of Antwerp, Belgium and Dr Hester Lingsma from Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, note that "several scientific and clinically relevant questions remain unanswered, despite ALERT-TBI being a pivotal study in the quest for objective parameters to aid in the evaluation of TBI in emergency departments. They write, "the only clinically relevant question for any new diagnostic test in mild TBI is does the test add value (eg, better outcomes or reduced costs) to currently used biomarkers and decision rules?...Inexplicably, this evaluation was not done...Our interpretation is that the added value of the test in clinical practice might well be small or even absent, and we strongly encourage the authors to prove us wrong. That would constitute a true addition to science and clinical practice."

###

NOTES TO EDITORS

This study was funded by Banyan Biomarkers and US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

The labels have been added to this press release as part of a project run by the Academy of Medical Sciences seeking to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf if you have any questions or feedback, please contact The Lancet press office pressoffice@lancet.com

[1] Clinical decision rules were primarily designed to identify head injured patients with traumatic intracranial injuries requiring neurosurgery rather than identifying all intracranial injuries.

[2] Quotes direct from authors and cannot be found in the text of the Article.Despite long-term profit expectations, many Germans shy away from investing their money in supposedly riskier forms of investment. Why? Together with colleagues from the USA and Switzerland, scientists at the University of Bonn have now developed a model that makes real-life stock buying behavior comprehensible for the first time. The researchers combined socioeconomic, psychological and neuroscientific data in an innovative way. It was found that the cortical regions of the "anterior insular" are more active among people who do not trade stocks. In experienced stock traders, the activity of this region of the brain was lower. The results will now be presented in the journal Scientific Reports.

The scientists examined a total of 157 male subjects aged 29 to 50 years. "In this age group, we can assume that all participants have gained at least some experience with financial investments and that their decisions are more realistic", explains first author Alexander Niklas Hausler, doctoral student at the Center for Economics and Neuroscience (CENs) at the University of Bonn. By limiting the study to male participants, gender-specific effects were excluded.

The participants first answered questionnaires on their economic situation (do you have debts?), their investment behavior (do you yourself trade stocks?) and their willingness to take risks (how risk taking are you with respect to financial investments?). They then underwent a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scan whilst repeatedly answering the question: Should I buy a safe bond or perhaps make twice as much profit with a stock? After the decision was made by pressing a button, the stock outcome was displayed and the final sum of the experiment was later paid out to the participants. To allow for an adequate statistical evaluation of the results, each choice was repeated by the participants a total of 96 times.

The experiment showed that one brain structure in particular played an important role: The "anterior insular", which is found in both hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. Both the left and right variants of this brain region were particularly active when a more risk-averse test subject pressed the button to buy stocks. "The anterior insular cortex acts like a stop sign and thus cautions against risky decisions," reports Hausler. However, the structure was significantly less active in subjects who had already bought stocks at some point in their lives than in subjects who generally shy away from financial risks.

Reward outcomes have little impact

By contrast, there was only little difference between stock buyers and conventional investors, when their stock trading resulted in substantial profits. "The attitude towards riskier or less risky decisions showed a stronger correlation to the actual behavior than the reward outcomes," reports Hausler. Two factors are of essential importance for this attitude: risk optimism and risk tolerance. Individuals with more risk optimism are firmly convinced that investing in stocks leads to high profits. Anyone who enjoys the thrill of risky decisions has a high risk tolerance. Both factors also play an important role in the relationship between the "anterior insular" and the purchase of stocks in real life. Here, they act as a mediator between brain activity and the real-life stock trading behavior.

The models calculated by the scientists showed that, in addition to already known economic factors such as income and education, risk optimism and risk tolerance in particular have a major influence on stock purchase decisions. "The exciting thing about our study is that it combines laboratory experiments with behavior in real life," says Prof. Dr. Bernd Weber, head of the Center for Economics and Neuroscience at the University of Bonn and senior author of the study. "We are able to demonstrate that the collection of psychological and neuroscientific data helps us to better understand everyday behavior."

###

Prof. Dr. Camelia M. Kuhnen from the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina (USA) also contributed to the publication. Alexander Niklas Hausler spent two months with the scientist in Chapel Hill to analyze the data. Dr. Sarah Rudorf, who now works at the University of Bern (Switzerland), was significantly involved in the development of the study and the data collection at the University of Bonn. The study was funded by the Frankfurt Institute for Risk Management and Regulation (FIRM).

Publication: Alexander N. Hausler, Camelia M. Kuhnen, Sarah Rudorf, Bernd Weber: Preferences and beliefs about financial risk taking mediate the association between anterior insula activation and self-reported real-life stock trading, Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-29670-6

Media contact:

Prof. Dr. Bernd Weber

Center for Economics and Neuroscience

Life & Brain

University of Bonn

Tel. +49-0-228/6885262

E-mail: bernd.weber@ukbonn.de

Alexander Niklas Hausler

Center for Economics and Neuroscience

Life & Brain

University of Bonn

Tel. +49-0-228/738286

E-mail: anh@uni-bonn.deOptimising the frying time of crisps may not be an obvious application of mathematics, but this is one of the problems delegates to the 138th European Study Group with Industry (ESGI) were asked to solve last week.

Mathematicians from around the world met at the University of Bath for the five day workshop to solve a variety of real and important problems faced by industry.

The workshop was organised by the University's Institute for Mathematical Innovation, the University of Bristol and Innovate UK and brought together top mathematicians, other scientists and engineers from the UK, Europe, Africa, Asia and North America to work alongside industrialists from PepsiCo, Airbus, Heathrow, Syngenta, Phytoponics, Crowd Vision and the NHS.

PepsiCo, which owns the crisp brand Walkers, asked delegates to investigate two problems during the week involving the manufacture of stackable fabricated potato chips.

The crisps are manufactured as a dough mix, which is pressed and ovals are cut out. These travel down a conveyor belt into the fryer. As the snacks cook, the moisture is driven off, making them float to the surface of the oil where they are lifted out onto another conveyor belt.

The problem set by PepsiCo asked whether mathematicians could predict how quickly the crisps cook and rise to the top and whether they can speed up the process and optimise it.

A second challenge set by the company looked at how chips collected from the fryer moved down a chute to another conveyor.

Stacie Tibos, Associate Principal Engineer from PepsiCo, said: "The chips are a curved shape which makes their behaviour down a chute very interesting.

"It's important they are in alignment so they can be stacked together in the tube. We would like to optimise the chute design to get the best possible crisp position.

"They may seem like minor problems but we make a lot of fabricated potato chips so solving these challenges could make a big difference to the efficiency of the process.

"Study groups like this one in Bath are a wonderful opportunity to get the best brains working on your problem in a focused collaborative way, getting initial results in just five days.

"Working in this way brings together expertise from a variety of fields with different perspectives on the problem, so the resulting mix is more than just a sum of its parts.

"Over the five days, the delegates take the challenge, redefine the problem and focus on solving it. Study groups like the ESGI can really help build a better product and equipment that will help improve the productivity of processes in the long term.

"I would definitely recommend that other businesses get involved in these workshops."

Deputy Director of the Institute for Mathematical Innovation and co-organiser of the study group, Professor Chris Budd, said: "We're delighted to be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first study group this year, and it's the third time we've hosted the ESGI at Bath.

"These study groups enable businesses to do feasibility studies in a very short timescale. Whilst not all the problems are solved within five days, there is always some progress made by the end of the week.

"The workshop model gives businesses a low cost way of solving their higher risk problems they wouldn't be able to work on in-house - these are usually the more interesting challenges for academics to solve, so they are happy to give their time for free.

"They are a hugely effective way of setting up new collaborations and it's also a really good training ground for students.

"We are delighted to be applying maths to the complex problems of the food industry, which is the largest industry in the world. The same maths that is being used in the study group this week can be applied to solving major global problems, including curing cancer.

"I would argue that is definitely time very well spent."

Dr Joanna Jordan is Manager of the IMI and was also a co-organiser of the study group. She said: "It has been an intensive and very productive week and all our partners are pleased with the large amount of progress achieved in a short time.

"It has definitely laid the ground work for several new industrial collaborations".

###

The 138th European Study Group with Industry held at the Institute for Mathematical Innovation at the University of Bath included challenges set by Syngenta, Phytoponics, PepsiCo, NHS Digital, Crowd Vision, Heathrow Airport and Airbus.

For images of the event, please see https://tinyurl.com/ydcu2lfm (Credit: University of Bath).Two years after a CIRES and CU Boulder team discovered a previously unknown class of waves rippling continuously through the upper Antarctic atmosphere, they've uncovered tantalizing clues to the waves' origins. The interdisciplinary science team's work to understand the formation of "persistent gravity waves" promises to help researchers better understand connections between the layers of Earth's atmosphere--helping form a more complete understanding of air circulation around the world.

"A big picture of Antarctic gravity waves from the surface all the way to the thermosphere is emerging from the studies, which may help advance global atmospheric models," said CIRES Fellow and CU Boulder Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sciences Xinzhao Chu, lead author of the new study published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres.

"The new understanding results from a series of journal publications, based on multiple years of lidar observations, many made by winter-over students, from Arrival Heights near McMurdo Station in Antarctica."

In the 2016 paper, Chu and her colleagues discovered persistent gravity waves: huge ripples that sweep through the upper atmosphere in 3- to 10-hour periods. And now, by combining observations, theory, and models, they propose two possible origins of those waves: they are either from lower-level waves breaking and re-exciting new waves higher in the sky, and/or from polar vortex winds.

Since 2016, the team managed to track the origin of the upper atmospheric waves down to the lower-altitude stratosphere. The team then characterized the dominant gravity waves there, but found they had very different properties than the persistent waves in the upper atmosphere.

"The upper-atmosphere waves are huge, with a horizontal length of around 1,200 miles (2,000 km), and the lower, stratospheric waves are much smaller--only 250 miles (400 km)," said Jian Zhao, a Ph.D. candidate in CU Aerospace, working in Chu's group, who stayed the 2015 winter over at McMurdo for lidar observations.

Zhao and colleagues previously described the stratospheric waves in an earlier study, and he is second author on the new study which describes how the wave energy varies over seasons and years--documenting those kinds of variations is critical for researchers trying to understand how the waves influence things like global air circulation and climate change.

The team suspects that when these lower, smaller-scale stratospheric gravity waves break, they trigger the formation of the huge waves that then travel to the upper atmosphere through a process called "secondary wave generation."

Evidence from lidar data at McMurdo station pointing to this process was described in a paper published this year, led by Sharon Vadas, a researcher from Northwest Research Associates, and colleagues.

"It's similar to ocean waves breaking on a beach," said Vadas. "When the wind flows downslope from the mountains near McMurdo, the excited mountain waves travel upward in the atmosphere, growing larger and larger until they break over huge scales, creating these secondary gravity waves."

Understanding the origins of the waves relied on Vadas' theory of secondary gravity waves and a global, high-resolution model created by Erich Becker at the Leibniz Institute of Physics in Germany. Becker's model perfectly stitches together the theory and lidar observations. It suggests that secondary wave formation is particularly persistent during winter, and that it occurs not only at McMurdo Station, but at mid to high latitudes in both hemispheres.

Another possible source of the persistent waves is the polar vortex--a persistent pattern of wind and weather that rotates around the South Pole during winter, Chu and her colleagues reported in the latest paper.

"The fast vortex winds could either modify the waves as they move upward, or the winds could actually generate waves themselves," said Lynn Harvey, a coauthor on the study, and researcher at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder. "With more observations, we should be able to determine which scenario is true."

Chu and her research colleagues sometimes find themselves sitting at desks running computer models and calculations, and sometimes they are bundled head-to-toe, walking through strong winds and frigid temperatures well-below zero degrees F in Antarctica to run cutting edge lidar systems installed there.

The National Science Foundation-managed U.S. Antarctic Program and the Antarctica New Zealand program have supported the team's work in Antarctica for eight years, starting with the installation of Chu's custom-built lidar systems, which allows her team to probe the most difficult-to-observe regions of the atmosphere. Studying atmospheric waves near the South Pole is critical to improving climate and weather models, and forming a better picture of global atmospheric behavior.

"We still have many unanswered questions," said Chu. "But in about five years, using a combination of observations and high-resolution modelling, we hope to resolve these mysteries."

Two of her students--recent graduate Ian P. Geraghty and Ph.D. student Zimu Li--will travel to Antarctica this October to continue the research.

###A new study reveals that several drugs for treating haematological cancers are less effective than expected in inhibiting a special enzyme. Researchers have also identified new lead compounds that could potentially improve existing treatments and pave the way for new drugs against diabetes and obesity.

Almost all medical treatments are based on drugs that inhibit the activity of proteins in the body leaving them unable to contribute to the development of for example tumours, inflammatory diseases or metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity.

A number of drugs that target a group of proteins - the so-called HDAC enzymes - have attracted significant attention in recent years from researchers and drug developers, because they contribute to the development of resistance towards cancer treatments. New research has demonstrated that they also play a crucial role in a whole range of other diseases that are due to dysregulation of human genes.

An organic chemistry research team at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, has been investigating all the 11 HDAC enzymes expressed in human cells to develop specific molecules that can bind to the enzymes and block their activity in the body.

In a study just published by the esteemed scientific journal Cell Chemical Biology, the researchers carried out a wide range of tests using chemically designed molecules to reveal the activities of HDAC enzymes and provide insights into their function at the molecular level. To their great surprise, they made a number of new, undescribed discoveries related to the HDAC11 enzyme.

"We have found a handle that will enable the identification of new inhibitors and this could potentially play a vital role in the development of drugs to treat several diseases," says Prof. Christian Adam Olsen, Center for Biopharmaceuticals at the University of Copenhagen.

The study shows that HDAC11 can cleave unexpected modifications on the surface of proteins. Proteins consist of long chains of 20 different amino acids in different sequences produced by the ribosome. The surfaces of proteins are also subsequently chemically modified in cells. It turns out now that HDAC11 affects specific variants of these modifications. By constructing chemical molecules that can bind to and regulate HDAC11, researchers can inhibit disease-causing mechanisms and the body's production of damaged cells.

Poor efficacy of approved drugs

As part of the study, the researchers investigated a range of existing drugs for treating haematological cancers, including leukaemia and lymphoma, and other well known HDAC inhibitors. Surprisingly, it turned out that several of the existing inhibitors were unable to block the newly-discovered enzymatic activity of HDAC11.

"This was the second major surprise in the study and suggests that the efficacy of HDAC-targeting drugs against the HDAC11 enzyme should be reassessed. For a long time, many HDAC inhibitors were believed to affect HDAC11 but we now have to question that. On the other hand, we have identified potent inhibitors from our compound library that we can use as the starting point for identifying new candidates with the potential for developing drugs," says Christian Adam Olsen.

Extensive drug target library

The study was based on extensive tests with the 11 human HDAC enzymes. Simultaneously with international research groups, the researchers developed chemically modified substrates for in vitro screening of enzymatic activity.

This has now resulted in an extensive library providing an overview of the enzymatic activities of HDACs against a variety of protein modifications in vitro. The researchers applied their discovery to develop the first efficient assay for determining the efficacy of drugs against HDAC11 in vitro, which may become important for the future development of drugs against a range of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, inflammatory disease, and autoimmune disease.

###

The study is published in Cell Chemical Biology by Professor Christian Adam Olsen, PhD. student Carlos Moreno-Yruela, Postdoctoral Fellow Iacopo Galleano, and Assistant Professor Andreas Stahl Madsen of the Center for Biopharmaceuticals at University of Copenhagen.

https://www.cell.com/cell-chemical-biology/fulltext/S2451-9456(18)30121-1

Contact Information

Professor Christian Adam Olsen

Tel. +45 22 28 20 06Forests in tropical regions could soon become a source of greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming rather than helping to counteract it, according to research.

Loss of trees to agriculture or livestock in tropical regions and the impact of climate change is limiting the forests' ability to absorb carbon dioxide, a study shows.

This could make it impossible to meet the main goal in the Paris Agreement of 2015, which seeks to limit the global temperature rise to 2C compared with pre-industrial levels.

Researchers estimate that tropical forests currently take in as much carbon from the atmosphere through growth as they generate through deforestation - the loss of forest to commercial activities - and degradation - the removal of trees for timber or fuel.

Tropical forests are at risk of becoming a major source of emissions in coming decades as climate change accelerates and deforestation continues, driven by agriculture, animal grazing and mining in South America, Asia and Africa.

Loss of forest to deforestation and degradation, mainly in tropical regions, accounts for about one-fifth of recent man-made greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say. Currently, an equivalent amount of CO2 is absorbed by the remaining forests. This is aided by increased levels of carbon in the atmosphere, which makes it easier for trees to grow.

If deforestation and degradation were to stop and forests allowed to recover, they would once again help to absorb significant greenhouse gas emissions, researchers add.

It is hard to predict the fate of tropical forests under current conditions, scientists say. Climate change will cause higher temperatures and droughts, killing more trees, but at the same time higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will aid tree growth.

Predicting the outcome could be helped by more field experiments and by countries sharing their data, to take advantage of observations from forthcoming satellites.

The study, published in Nature, was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council and the UK Space Agency.

Dr Ed Mitchard of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: "Predicting how tropical forests will affect climate is a complex challenge - we do not know how climate will affect forests, nor if countries will meet their commitments to safeguard them. Worryingly, research indicates that forests could soon stop counteracting warming, and instead become a major source of greenhouse gas."

###Experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning (LGBTQ) young people coming out in the care system are revealed in a new film premiering this weekend.

The six-minute animation promotes the findings of SpeakOut - a national study led by researchers at the University of East Anglia's (UEA) Centre for Research on Children and Families (CRCF).

The research focused not only on vulnerability and risk, but also on the strengths and resilience of these young people and the support offered by foster families and professionals working with them. It is the first and largest research project of its kind in England.

Six young researchers, who identify as part of the LGBTQ community and spent time living in care, made the film with UEA and the Creative Research Collective (CRC). They were keen to use their own experiences to help others in care, and to raise awareness of the needs of LGBTQ people in the care system and improve services.

The film with be screened at a public launch event on Saturday, July 28, as part of Norwich Pride celebrations.

The study itself involved interviews with 46 LGBTQ young people, together with 26 foster carers with experience of caring for LGBTQ young people. There was also a survey of 152 local authorities and focus groups with professionals, including social workers and those working in education and youth offending.

Lead researcher Dr Jeanette Cossar, of CRCF and UEA's School of Social Work, said: "The responses from the young people in particular provide powerful insights into both their personal journeys and their varied experiences of services. Their contribution enhanced every stage of this project.

"We hope the film and the recommendations we've made for those working in the care system will lead to a better understanding of the issues facing LGBTQ young people in care and ultimately improve services and support."

One of the young people involved in the project and featured in the film is Brett Service, from London. He said: "As a gay care leaver I got involved in this amazing project to improve services offered to both the current generation of LGBTQ children in care and care leavers, as well as any future generations.

"It is important that LGBTQ young people get the correct support from professionals involved in their care so they don't feel alone, unwanted or unsupported. In this project we have all been able use our expertise as care leavers as well as our expertise as members of the LGBTQ community to advocate on behalf of other young people who are LGBTQ to make the changes needed."

Findings from the project include:

Support for LGBTQ young people was said to be limited by a lack of both knowledge and confidence and local authorities were keen to improve practice.

Several young people concealed their sexual orientation from carers and professionals resulting in isolation, increased vulnerability and sometimes placement breakdown.

Some young people feared that coming out in care would result in rejection and placement breakdown, but for others living in care offered an opportunity to explore their LGBTQ identity.

When young people came out in care as LGBT it helped when foster carers were accepting and reassured the young person of their commitment to them. However, several young people had experienced reactions which they found unhelpful.

Across the interviews with the young people there was widespread experience of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia.

There was recognition among professionals of inter-generational differences in understandings of sexuality and gender and the need for them to examine, and sometimes re-evaluate, their own attitudes.

It was felt that professionals might avoid discussing sexuality with young people because of a general cultural unease about talking about sexuality

Young people said that social workers were not overtly homophobic but that some were awkward and uncomfortable when discussing sexuality with them.

The process of making the film involved three full-day workshops, during which the young people gathered with researchers and the CRC team to explore both their experiences and the main themes to emerge from the research. Through group exercises, discussions and interviews they decided on the message, the audience and the tone of the film. Artwork created by the young researchers was then animated and edited by CRC's Lizzy Hobbs.

###

The film will be available from July 28 on the SpeakOut project website: https://www.uea.ac.uk/speakout

The research project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and ran between 2014 and 2017. The team has been awarded further funding by the NIHR CLAHRC East of England to develop training materials for professionals based on this work and the film has been made as part of that.

Following Saturday's screening the project participants will take part in a Q&A session. The event takes place from 11.30am-12.30pm at The Forum Auditorium in Norwich, UKCHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Many city drinking water systems add softening agents to keep plumbing free of pipe-clogging mineral buildup. According to new research, these additives may amplify the risk of pathogen release into drinking water by weakening the grip that bacteria - like those responsible for Legionnaires' disease - have on pipe interiors.

Biofilms, which are similar to the films that grow on the glass of fish tanks, are present in almost all plumbing systems and anchor themselves to mineral scale buildups in pipes. They are teeming with harmless microbial life and incidents of waterborne illness are rare.

"The groundwater that supplies many cities may be high in magnesium and calcium," said Helen Nguyen, a professor of civil engineering and co-author of the study. "When combined with other elements, they can form thick deposits of mineral scale that clog up engineered water systems. Because of this, water treatment plants add chemicals called polyphosphates to dissolve the minerals to keep the scale buildup under control."

A recent study by co-author and civil and environmental engineering professor Wen-Tso Liu has shown that even with the addition of antimicrobial agents by water companies, the bacteria that grow on the mineral scale can reproduce to harmful levels in supplies that stagnate within indoor plumbing.

In a new study published in the journal Biofilms and Microbiomes, a team of University of Illinois engineers shows that the addition of anti-scalant chemicals cause the biofilms to grow thicker and become softer.

The team measured the thickness and stiffness of lab-grown biofilms using magnetomotive optical coherence elastography - a tool used to measure the strength of cancer tissues. The analytical method, developed by Stephen Boppart, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and study co-author, allowed the team to quantify the effect that polyphosphate has on the strength of biofilms.

To reproduce what happens in engineered plumbing systems, the team used PVC pipe and groundwater from the Champaign-Urbana area source to grow biofilms. They set up multiple scenarios with and without added polyphosphates. All scenarios produced biofilms, but the system that used polyphosphates grew a much thicker and softer biofilms than the others, the researchers said.

"Increased biofilm thickness means more bacteria, and the softening increases the chance that pieces will detach and foul the water supply under normal flow pressure," Nguyen said. "Tap water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency up to the property line, not the tap. So, in buildings where water has been stagnating for a while, this could become a public health issue."

A problem, according to researchers, is that some sort of anti-scalant chemical is required to maintain adequate water flow through pipes. "Of course, one solution could be to replace pipes once they become clogged with mineral buildup," Nguyen said. "But that would be a very expensive endeavor for public utilities and property owners in a country as large as the United States."

Nguyen believes that the most affordable and realistic solution will come through a better understanding of water chemistry, not by trying to kill all microbes, ripping out pipes or changing regulations.

"Before this work, we did not have a good understanding of the relationship between the water chemistry and microbiome that exists in plumbing. This work has given us initial insight and tools to help determine what chemicals will work best and at what concentration," Nguyen said.

The team is moving ahead with related studies that look at ways to help physically remove biofilms while pipes remain in place and others that look at the effects of anti-corrosive chemicals on biofilms and water quality.

"We will not be able to control how long a drinking water user will allow water to stagnate, but we can work to understand how the chemicals we add to our water interact with biofilms."

###

The U.S. EPA, the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the National Institutes of Health supported this study. Former graduate student Yun Shen conducted the study as a part of her doctoral thesis.

Editor's notes:

To reach Helen Nguyen, call 217-244-5965; thn@illinois.edu.

The paper "Effect of divalent ions and a polyphosphate on composition, structure, and stiffness of simulated drinking water biofilms" is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI: 10.1038/s41522-018-0058-1University of Manchester and Salford Royal NHS Trust scientists have developed a lamp which could treat chronic ulcers with light.

The Arthritis Research UK funded trial led by Dr Michael Hughes tested the therapy - which combines infrared, red and ultraviolet light - on finger ulcers caused by a condition called systemic sclerosis, where the immune system attacks the body's fingers and toes.

Dr Hughes said the results were so emphatic, the device is a potential treatment for other ulcers, including diabetic and venous ulcers, a huge problem for tens of thousands of patients

People with diabetes are at risk of ulcers or open wounds that don't heal because of poor circulation, a complication of the condition.

Venous ulcers occur when blood doesn't flow from the lower legs back to the heart, causing a build-up of pressure in the veins.

The lamp built by the team has 32 different bulbs which emit infrared, red or ultraviolet light. Eight patients with 14 ulcers between them had the treatment.

In the study, published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment today, the patients were treated using the lamp for 15-minute sessions, twice a week for three weeks.

After treatment, there was an average 83 per cent improvement in the ulcers, with no side-effects.

Scientists believe ultra-violet light, which cannot be seen by the naked eye, kill the bacteria and reduce the inflammation that prevents healing.

Red light is believed to boost blood circulation, increasing the supply of oxygen and nutrients needed for wound healing.

It is also thought to stimulate the production of the protein collagen in the skin, which provides the natural scaffolding to help new tissue grow.

And infrared light, used in TV remote controls, is associated with increasing blood flow and oxygen.

Patients having light therapy for ulcers, using lasers, are currently treated in hospital over five days and are forced to take medication which lower their blood pressure.

However, the new therapy can be administered at home and, says Dr Hughes, with SIM card technology can even be used to monitors patients' progress remotely.

He said: "We believe this technology is a game changer; the implications are huge.

"Ulcers cause much distress to patients - and current treatments are costly to the NHS and problematic for patients who can only receive them in hospital.

"But this technology is cheap and practical- it's really a no brainer as it can be administered at home.

"There are future possibilities as well: we think this device could be easily adapted to monitor ulcers remotely using cameras. They could also be programmed to recognise different parts of the body so that the treatment is given accurately.

"In the next 6 to 12 months we shall be refining the machine and within 12 months we hope to trialling it on diabetic ulcers."

###

Dr Hughes has been appointed as a Consultant Rheumatologist in Sheffield at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, a specialist centre for scleroderma.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Images are available of the light device

Dr Hughes is available for comment

'A feasibility study of a novel low-level light therapy for digital ulcers in systemic sclerosis' is published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment and is available

https://doi.org/10.1080/09546634.2018.1484875

For media enquiries contact:

Mike Addelman

Media Relations Officer

Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health

University of Manchester

0161 3066901

07717 881567Even though they have more cardiovascular problems, fewer women and people over 65 are recruited for randomized clinical trials than men and younger people.

MONTREAL, JULY 25, 2018 - Trying to determine how best to treat a patient, doctors often look to randomized clinical trials to guide their choice of what drug to prescribe. One of the most common illnesses is heart disease, and in recent years it's been proven that, contrary to popular belief, more women have heart problems than men do; similarly, it's more common for older people to have a heart condition than younger people. But do clinical trials reflect this reality?

Apparently not. According to a new study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes by Quoc Dinh Nguyen, a professor at Universite de Montreal's Faculty of Medicine, researchers continue to test new heart drugs mostly on men (71 per cent), even though the majority of people affected by heart disease are women. Moreover, the male subjects have an average age of 63, when in fact the average age of people with the two most common heart diseases is between 68 to 69.

In the last 20 years, the sex-and-age gap in drug trials has barely diminished, even though the population is ageing rapidly, said Nguyen, a geriatrician at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Universite de Montreal (University of Montreal Hospital Center).

"This under-representation of women and older people in clinical trials could have adverse consequences on care for both of these patient groups. The body of an older person doesn't respond to many treatments and medications like that of a younger person. The correct dosage or intervention are often different for older patients and so, too, are the side effects, but we can't know the specifics unless clinical trials are performed on a significant number of older people. This is also true for women."

"The current lack of representation means that physicians have to apply findings based on a male dominant and younger population without being sure that these results should be extrapolated to women or older people in general."

Nguyen decided to look into the issue while still a resident in geriatric medicine, prompted by discussions with colleagues and the concern they shared about effective treatment of heart disease. Resident physicians in other fields such as anaesthesiology, psychiatry, emergency medicine and cardiology joined him in the effort.

A closer look

Already, 20 years ago, researchers had begun to raise the alarm that the under-representation of many segments of the population, especially women, in clinical trials was problematic. "Our research team wanted to know whether practices had significantly improved since then," Nguyen said.

To find out, his team of residents took a close look at the 25 most frequently cited (i.e. most influential) clinical trials for each year in the 20-year period from 1996 to 2015. They compared the age and sex of participants to data published in the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015-2016 on the prevalence of cardiovascular disease in America.

The research team examined data on coronary artery disease, atrial fibrillation, heart failure and hypertension, along with cardiovascular risk factors. It also looked at diabetes, since people with that disease are two to four times more likely to suffer from heart disease as well.

Disappointing results

"Our research team was disappointed to see that, although the situation has improved slightly, it will still take decades to eliminate representational bias in clinical trials," said Eric Peters, an anaesthesiologist at CHU Saint-Justine children's hospital who is the new study's second author. "Based on our calculations, it'll be another 90 years before parity is achieved in studies on coronary heart disease. And that's before we factor in population-ageing, which is accelerating."

In the 500 clinical studies they analyzed, the team found that women represented a median of only 29 per cent of participants and that the average age of participants was only 63. "This is nowhere near the reality of what we see in hospital emergency rooms and departments of internal medicine, cardiology and geriatric medicine," said Nguyen.

Women and older people were least represented in clinical trials for coronary artery disease (CAD) and heart failure, the study shows. Although 54.6 per cent of CAD patients in the U.S. are women, only 27.4 per cent of participants in clinical trials for CAD are women.

Heart disease: a man thing?

It's a myth that heart disease primarily affects men; medical research has proven otherwise. As the second leading cause of death in Canada, heart disease kills more women than men. And it affects women later in life - in the case of coronary artery disease and heart failure, about 10 years later.

While death from heart disease has been falling among women, it has been falling at a faster rate among men. One of the most plausible hypothesis, according to the scientific literature: physicians underestimate the risk for women, and so treat them less often than men.

Why the gap?

Historically, women have long been excluded from drug trials due to the fact they could become pregnant while on medication. But this shouldn't apply to trials of heart drugs, since participants are already over 60 years old. Age also plays a factor in how women get selected. If researchers want to make sure women are adequately represented, they would need to recruit older participants, since cardiovascular disease afflicts women later in life than men.

But recruiting older people makes things more complicated for clinical researchers. Older people often have more difficulty getting around, making it harder for them to come in for testing. Furthermore, the older they are, the more likely they have a variety of ailments that require taking other medications; researchers often prefer to exclude them from clinical trials so as not to confuse the results. Also, older people are generally more fragile and less able to tolerate the side effects of the drugs tested.

Baby boomers: the next wave

In the U.S., it's estimated the number of people aged 65 and older will double over the next 30 years. With the first baby boomers now turning 73, the demand for cardiac care is expected to skyrocket, not just in the U.S. but in Canada and elsewhere as well.

"We have to do better," Nguyen said. "We must recruit more women and older people for clinical trials by relaxing eligibility criteria and adopting measures that encourage them to participate, such as arranging transportation and asking their families to help. As well, regulatory agencies should be more stringent in order to improve representation of both groups."

"It's a question of quality of care."

About this study

"Evolution of Age and Female Representation in the Most-Cited Randomized Controlled Trials of Cardiology of the Last 20 Years," by Quoc Dinh Nguyen, Eric Peters, Andreanne Wassef, Philippe Desmarais, Delphine Remillard-Labrosse and Maxime Tremblay-Gravel, was published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes onJune 9, 2018. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCOUTCOMES.118.004713

This study was financed by two research grants from the Fondation du CHUM and a grant from the Montreal Heart Institute Foundation.

###MINNEAPOLIS, MN- July 25, 2018- Many advertisements, articles and reports make bold statements regarding sunless tanning products - sprays, ointments, creams, foams, or lotions that promise tan skin without the increased risk of skin cancer that goes along with outdoor sunbathing or indoor tanning. But, do people who use sunless tanning products actually avoid these "bad" behaviors? Few studies have investigated this topic and this led Matthew Mansh, MD, Resident in the Department of Dermatology, University of Minnesota Medical School and University of Minnesota Health, to question whether he should recommend sunless tanners to his patients.

In the study "Characteristics and Skin Cancer Risk Behaviors of Adult Sunless Tanners in the United States," published in JAMA Dermatology, Mansh and fellow University of Minnesota Medical School researchers sought to assess the demographic characteristics and skin cancer risk behaviors of adult sunless tanners in the United States. They wanted to find out if adults who used sunless tanning products were able to reduce risky behaviors such as indoor and outdoor tanning. They found little evidence they did.

More than 27,000 adults were part of this study - about 6.4% reported sunless tanning. Sunless tanning was most common among young, white, college-educated females and gay and bisexual men. Other factors associated with sunless tanning included living in the Western United States and having a family history of skin cancer.

"For the most part, adults who use sunless tanning products continue to engage in risky tanning behaviors," said Mansh. Adults who used sunless tanning products were were more likely to use indoor tanning beds and report a recent sunburn and were less likely to wear protective clothing or seek shade when outdoors. Among people who used indoor tanning beds - which are known to cause skin cancer - sunless tanning product users actually visited tanning salons more frequently than those who did not.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association, approximately one in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime.

In the general population, it appears that most people use sunless tanning products to supplement rather than replace risky tanning behaviors. Mansh said this observation concerns him from a public health standpoint.

"Most evidence supports that sunless tanning products are safe to use and do not cause skin cancer. However, these products can only be effective at reducing skin cancer rates if they are able to help people disengage in risky behaviors such as indoor tanning or outdoor sunbathing. Our study casts doubt on whether that assumption is true and suggests that sunless tanning products could inadvertently reinforce desires to achieve tanned skin," said Mansh.

###

About the University of Minnesota Medical School

The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. Visit med.umn.edu to learn how the University of Minnesota is innovating all aspects of medicine.MIAMI-- University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Professor Martin Grosell received the Award of Excellence in fish physiology from the American Fisheries Society. The award was presented to Grosell during the 13th International Congress on the Biology of Fish for his outstanding career contributions to the study of fish physiology.

Grosell is the principal investigator and director of RECOVER (Relationships of Effects of Cardiac Outcomes in fish for Validation of Ecological Risk), one of 12 research groups awarded grants totaling $140 million by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI), a research board created to administer funding for independent research programs following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. RECOVER scientists are examining the detrimental effects of oil on two ecologically and economically important species of fish in the Gulf of Mexico: mahi-mahi and red drum.

Grosell has been a faculty member at the Rosenstiel School since 2002 where he specializes in environmental physiology and toxicology in marine fish and invertebrates. In 2014, he was appointed as the Maytag Chair, a fully endowed professorship of ichthyology at UM. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers, books and book chapters on the physiology and mechanistic toxicology of aquatic organisms. He received his MSc and PhD from the University of Copenhagen's August Krogh Institute.

"I am very grateful to my colleagues who voted in favor of awarding me the tremendous honor of this career award. The accomplishments leading to this recognition would not have been possible without the support of my home institution, my past and current students and postdocs, as well as a long list of US and international collaborators," said Grosell.

Grosell is also the editor-in-chief of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology and serves on the editorial boards of American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Experimental Biology and Frontiers in Aquatic Physiology.

###

About the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School

The University of Miami is one of the largest private research institutions in the southeastern United States. The University's mission is to provide quality education, attract and retain outstanding students, support the faculty and their research, and build an endowment for University initiatives. Founded in the 1940's, the Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science has grown into one of the world's premier marine and atmospheric research institutions. Offering dynamic interdisciplinary academics, the Rosenstiel School is dedicated to helping communities to better understand the planet, participating in the establishment of environmental policies, and aiding in the improvement of society and quality of life. For more information, visit: http://www.rsmas.miami.edu.New seismic data provide structural basis for strong earthquakes that strike at both ends of the Pacific Northwest fault zone, say University of Oregon researchers

EUGENE, Ore. - July 25, 2018 - With four years of data from 268 seismometers on the ocean floor and several hundred on land, researchers have found anomalies in the upper mantle below both ends of the Cascadia Subduction Zone. They may influence the location, frequency and strength of earthquake events along the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The anomalies, which reflect regions with lower seismic wave velocities than elsewhere beneath the fault line, point to pieces of the Earth's upper mantle that are rising and buoyant because of melting rock and possibly elevated temperatures, said Miles Bodmer, a University of Oregon doctoral student who led a study now online as an accepted paper by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The 620-mile subduction zone, which hasn't experienced a massive lengthwise earthquake since 1700, is where the Juan de Fuca ocean plate dips under the North American continental plate. The fault zone stretches just offshore from northern Vancouver Island to Cape Mendocino in northern California.

The mantle is rising under the southern Gorda deformation zone at the north edge of the San Andreas Fault and under the Olympic Peninsula and southern Vancouver Island.

"What we see are these two anomalies that are beneath the subducting slab in the northern and southern parts of the subduction zone," Bodmer said. "These regions don't have the same behavior as the entire fault. There are three segments that have their own distinct geological characteristics. The north and south segments have increased locking and increased tremor densities."

Locking refers to how strongly two plates stick. "If they are stuck together tightly, as is the case here, they are building up stress, and you have the potential for the release of that stress, or energy, in large earthquake events," Bodmer said.

Such quakes, while strong, are below that of the 9-plus magnitude event projected should all of Cascadia rupture at once, he said. Locking is much weaker in Cascadia's central section, which includes most of Oregon, where infrequent, smaller quakes tend to occur from creeping along the plates.

Tremor refers to long-duration seismic signals often seen at subduction zones. "These happen deep and take more time than a typical earthquake as they rumble to release energy," Bodmer said.

The findings won't help earthquake forecasting, but they do point to the need for real time onshore-offshore seismic monitoring and geodetic analyses, such as from GPS to help plot spatial coordinates, of the anomalies as a next step in that direction, said co-author Douglas R. Toomey, a seismologist in the UO Department of Earth Sciences.

The study helps to make sense of Cascadia's historical record of earthquake, he said.

The junction of the Cascadia-San Andreas faults, Toomey said, contains a lot of complexity and is the most seismically active part of contiguous North America. Seismic history also shows more earthquake activity in the Puget Sound area than in central Oregon. Both regions accumulate energy that eventually is released in large earthquakes, he said.

"Our study is worse news for Portland northward to Seattle and for southern Cascadia, but central Cascadia is not off the hook," said Toomey, who also is lead investigator for the Oregon component of ShakeAlert, the West Coast early warning network. "More frequent earthquakes to the north and south are seen in historical seismicity patterns. This research helps to understand that."

The study involved deep imaging, similar to CAT scans, using different forms of seismic waves coming from distant earthquakes moving through the Earth.

The ocean-bottom seismic stations, from which data were retrieved every 10 months, were part of the National Science Foundation-funded Cascadia Initiative. Older data from numerous onshore studies in the western United States also were included in the analysis.

In addition to helping to understand Cascadia's historical earthquake record, the anomalies, Bodmer said, suggest that the two buoyant ends help to modulate plate coupling forces.

"We're looking at structures deep within the Earth and finding evidence suggesting that they are influencing the megathrust faults and controlling where we see increases in locking and segmentation," Bodmer said. "Knowing the timing and path of the seismic signals, we can look at velocity variation and equate that to the structures. With large offshore data sources, we might be able to better understand how a large rupture in the south might extend into central Oregon."

###

Co-authors on the study were Emilie Hooft, a professor in the UO Department of Earth Sciences, and Brandon Schmandt, a professor at the University of New Mexico who earned his doctorate from the UO in 2011.

Sources: Douglas Toomey, professor, Department of Earth Sciences, 541-346-5576, drt@uoregon.edu, and Miles Bodner, doctoral student, Department of Earth Sciences, mbodmer@uoregon.edu

Note: The UO is equipped with an on-campus television studio with a point-of-origin Vyvx connection, which provides broadcast-quality video to networks worldwide via fiber optic network. There also is video access to satellite uplink and audio access to an ISDN codec for broadcast-quality radio interviews.

Links:

About Douglas Toomey: https://earthsciences.uoregon.edu/profile/drt/

About Miles Bodner: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/milesbodmer/

Department of Earth Sciences: https://earthsciences.uoregon.edu

Cascadia Initiative: https://cascadia.uoregon.edu/Senate education committee Chairman Lamar Alexander on Wednesday, released the following statement after the U.S. Department of Education released a new regulation on borrower defense to repayment:

Secretary DeVos is right to propose new regulations that set important safeguards and clear standards for when a student can file a claim, so taxpayers arent paying for unreasonable or unsubstantiated claims of fraud. Federal law allows students to petition the U.S. Department of Education to have their federal student loans forgiven if they believe their college engaged in misconduct or otherwise misled them. The Obama Administration went too far in rewriting this provision by setting overly broad and vague standards and as a result, put taxpayers on the hook for too many loans.PITTSBURGH, July 25, 2018 - Two units of plasma given in a medical helicopter on the way to the hospital could increase the odds of survival by 10 percent for traumatically injured patients with severe bleeding, according to the results of a national clinical trial led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, are a significant step toward ensuring the inclusion of prehospital care as a seamless component of health care delivery, rather than merely a transport mechanism.

"These results have the power to significantly alter trauma resuscitation, and their importance to the trauma community cannot be overstated," said co-lead author Jason Sperry, M.D., M.P.H., professor in the departments of Surgery and Critical Care Medicine in Pitt's School of Medicine. "This is the first trial in a quarter century to have the potential to alter prehospital care so considerably."

Plasma is a yellowish liquid that helps blood clot. Blood banks separate it from red blood cells and platelets because the separated components can be used for different life-saving purposes and have different shelf lives. Plasma can last up to a year when frozen, whereas red blood cells and platelets should not be frozen.

The Prehospital Air Medical Plasma (PAMPer) trial was a phase 3 randomized trial that compared outcomes in trauma patients at risk of hemorrhagic shock receiving two units of blood plasma during air medical transport to those who did not. From May 2014 through October 2017, 7,275 patients who were transported via air medical transport to nine participating trauma centers across the country were screened for eligibility for the trial. Ultimately, 501 were enrolled. Most were men who had suffered a blunt trauma, such as from a fall from a height or vehicle crash.

Air medical bases at each participating institution were randomized to either administer plasma or standard care for one-month intervals. When the air transport teams were in their plasma interval, they'd begin administering two units of plasma to the patient as soon as they were deemed eligible for the trial. If the two units were completed during the flight, the team would revert to standard care. If they weren't completed, the plasma would continue to be administered when the patient arrived at the trauma center.

After 30 days, 76.8 percent of the patients who received plasma were still alive, compared with 67 percent of those who received standard care. Plasma patients also had lower 24-hour and in-hospital mortality. Their blood clotted faster, and they had less need for blood transfusions than their counterparts who did not get the prehospital plasma.

"In 2016, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine proposed a national trauma care system that integrates military and civilian trauma systems to achieve zero preventable deaths after injury," said co-lead author Francis X. Guyette, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Pitt's School of Medicine, and medical director of STAT MedEvac. "Reducing mortality by 10 percent with early plasma transfusion is a big step toward that goal."

The PAMPer trial used thawed plasma, which can last for five days after it is unfrozen. Its short shelf life may be a logistical challenge since air transport teams have to keep track of the expiration dates of the plasma they stock in their helicopters and discard or recycle unused plasma. But plasma that's never been frozen has a shelf life of 30 days, and freeze-dried plasma, which is approved for use in Europe, though not yet the U.S., can last much longer.

"Using thawed plasma, like we did in our trial, may not be feasible for all trauma centers," said Sperry. "But there are alternatives available or that are being approved by regulators soon that can extend the exciting results of our trial to more traumatically injured patients, potentially saving hundreds of lives every year."

###

Additional authors on this research are Joshua B. Brown, M.D., M.Sc., Louis H. Alarcon, M.D., Brian S. Zuckerbraun, M.D., Matthew D. Neal, M.D., Matthew R. Rosengart, M.D., M.P.H., Raquel M. Forsythe, M.D., Timothy R. Billiar, M.D., Andrew B. Peitzman, M.D., Mazen S. Zenati, M.D., Ph.D., Clifton W. Callaway, M.D., Ph.D., Donald M. Yealy, M.D., Mark H. Yazer, M.D., Darrell J. Triulzi, M.D., Barbara J. Early-Young, B.S.N., Peter W. Adams, B.S., and A. Tyler Putnam, M.D., all of Pitt or UPMC, or both; Brian J. Daley, M.D., University of Tennessee; Richard S. Miller, M.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Brian G. Harbrecht, M.D., University of Louisville; Jeffrey A. Claridge, M.D., MetroHealth Medical Center/Case Western Reserve University; Herb A. Phelan, M.D., M.S.C.S., University of Texas Southwestern/Parkland Memorial Hospital; William R. Witham, M.D., Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital; and Therese M. Duane, M.D., John Peter Smith Health Network.

This research was funded by U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command grant number W81XWH-12-2-0023.

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.

http://www.upmc.com/media

Contact: Rick Pietzak

Office: 412-864-4151

Mobile: 412-523-6922

E-mail: PietzakR@upmc.edu

Contact: Allison Hydzik

Office: 412-647-9975

Mobile: 412-559-2431

E-mail: HydzikAM@upmc.eduPITTSBURGH, July 25, 2018 - A gene linked to 3 to 4 percent of people with Parkinson's disease could play an important role in most, if not all, people with the disease, according to new study findings from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC. The gene, called LLRK2, was previously thought to only cause disease when mutated, but researchers have found that it may be just as significant in the non-hereditary form of the disease, according to the study published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"This discovery is extremely consequential for Parkinson's disease because it suggests that therapies currently being developed for a small group of patients may benefit everybody with the disease," said senior author J. Timothy Greenamyre, M.D., Ph.D., Love Family Professor of Neurology in Pitt's School of Medicine, chief of the Movement Disorders Division at UPMC and director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (PIND).

Parkinson's affects one million people in the U.S. and as many as 10 million worldwide and has no known cause, but is thought to involve both genetic and environmental factors. In 2004, researchers discovered that mutations in the LRRK2 gene (commonly pronounced as "Lark2"), overactivated the protein and caused Parkinson's in a small group of people, often in a hereditary fashion. However, the LRRK2 protein is difficult to study because it is present in extremely small amounts in nerve cells that are affected in Parkinson's.

To overcome this problem, Greenamyre and his team engineered a molecular 'beacon' that attached to LRRK2 and glowed red under a microscope only if the protein was active. This allowed them to also reveal the nerve cells in which LRRK2 was active in the brain.

The researchers applied the test to postmortem brain tissue donated to science by Parkinson's patients, none of whom had mutations in LRRK2, and healthy individuals of approximately the same age.

Remarkably, the test indicated that in 'dopamine neurons,' which are the brain cells most commonly affected in Parkinson's, LRRK2 was highly active in individuals affected by the disease, but not in the healthy individuals. This suggests that LRRK2 overactivity may be important in all people with Parkinson's, not just those who have a mutation in the gene.

A second major finding of the study was that it connected two proteins that have separately been recognized as important players in causing Parkinson's - LRRK2 and alpha-synuclein. Accumulation of alpha-synuclein leads to the formation of structures called 'Lewy bodies,' a hallmark of Parkinson's.

While enormous efforts have been focused on alpha-synuclein, the cause of its accumulation is still poorly understood. Using a rodent model of Parkinson's induced by an environmental toxin, Greenamyre and his team discovered that activation of LRRK2 blocked the mechanisms that cells use to clear excess alpha-synuclein, leading directly to its accumulation. The researchers then treated the animals with a drug currently being developed to treat familial Parkinson's patients by blocking LRRK2 activity. The drug prevented the accumulation of alpha-synuclein and formation of Lewy bodies.

"LRRK2 ties together both genetic and environmental causes of Parkinson's, as we were able to show that external factors like oxidative stress or toxins can activate LRRK2, which can in turn cause Lewy bodies to form in the brain," noted lead author Roberto Di Maio, Ph.D., an assistant professor in Greenamyre's lab and a researcher at the Ri.MED Foundation.

In the future, Greenamyre expects to build on these findings to discover how neurodegeneration caused by LRRK2 overactivation can be prevented, and identify how oxidative stress and environmental toxins cause LRRK2 activation.

###

Study co-authors include Eric K. Hoffman, Ph.D., Emily M. Rocha, Ph.D., Matthew T. Keeney, Briana R. De Miranda, Ph.D., Teresa G. Hastings, Ph.D., Alevtina Zharikov, Ph.D., and Amber Van Laar, M.D., from PIND; Antonia Stepan, Ph.D., and Thomas A. Lanz, Ph.D., from Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development; Julia K. Kofler, M.D., of Pitt; Edward A. Burton, M.D., of the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and PIND; Dario R. Alessi, from the University of Dundee; and Laurie H. Sanders, Ph.D., of Duke University and PIND.

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health grants NS100744, R21ES027470, NS095387 and AG005133, the Blechman Foundation, the American Parkinson Disease Association, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, Michael J. Fox Foundation grant 6986, Medical Research Council grant MC_UU_12016/2, and friends and family of Sean Logan. The University of Dundee's Division of Signal Transduction Therapy Unit received support from pharmaceutical companies Boehringer?Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck KGaA. Greenamyre briefly held an advisory position at Pfizer. The authors declared no further competing financial interests.

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

A $16 billion world-renowned health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective, accountable care. UPMC provides more than $900 million a year in benefits to its communities, including more care to the region's most vulnerable citizens than any other health care institution. The largest nongovernmental employer in Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 80,000 employees, more than 30 hospitals, 600 doctors' offices and outpatient sites, and a 3.4 million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical insurer in western Pennsylvania. As UPMC works in close collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor Roll of America's Best Hospitals. UPMC Enterprises functions as the innovation and commercialization arm of UPMC, and UPMC International provides hands-on health care and management services with partners around the world. For more information, go to UPMC.com.

http://www.upmc.com/media

Contact: Arvind Suresh

Office: 412-647-9966

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E-mail: BrunnerM@upmc.eduThe long-dormant Yellowstone super-volcano in the American West has a different history than previously thought, according to a new study by a Virginia Tech geoscientist.

Scientists have long thought that Yellowstone Caldera, part of the Rocky Mountains and located mostly in Wyoming, is powered by heat from the Earth's core, similar to most volcanoes such as the recently active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. However, new research published in Nature Geoscience by Ying Zhou, an associate professor with the Virginia Tech College of Science's Department of Geosciences, shows a different past.

"In this research, there was no evidence of heat coming directly up from the Earth's core to power the surface volcano at Yellowstone," Zhou said. "Instead, the underground images we captured suggest that Yellowstone volcanoes were produced by a gigantic ancient oceanic plate that dove under the Western United States about 30 million years ago. This ancient oceanic plate broke into pieces, resulting in perturbations of unusual rocks in the mantle which led to volcanic eruptions in the past 16 million years."

The eruptions were very explosive, Zhou added. A theoretical seismologist, Zhou created X-ray-like images of the Earth's deep interior from USArray - part of the Earthscope project funded by the National Science Foundation - and discovered an anomalous underground structure at a depth of about 250 to 400 miles right beneath the line of volcanoes.

"This evidence was in direct contradiction to the plume model," Zhou said.

In her study, Zhou found the new images of the Earth's deep interior showed that the oceanic Farallon plate, which used to be where the Pacific Ocean is now, wedged itself beneath the present-day Western United States. The ancient oceanic plate was broken into pieces just like the seafloor in the Pacific today. A section of the subducted oceanic plate started tearing off and sinking down to the deep earth.

The sinking section of oceanic plate slowly pushed hot materials upward to form the volcanoes that now make up Yellowstone. Further, the series of volcanoes that make up Yellowstone have been slowly moving, achingly so, ever since. The process started at the Oregon-Idaho border about 16 million years ago and propagated northeastward, forming a line of volcanoes that are progressively younger as they stretched northeast to present-day Wyoming, Zhou added.

The previously-held plume model was used to explain the unique Yellowstone hotspot track - the line of volcanoes in Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming that dots part of the Midwest. "If the North American plate was moving slowly over a position-fixed plume at Yellowstone, it will displace older volcanoes towards the Oregon-Idaho border and form a line of volcanoes, but such a deep plume has not been found." Zhou said. So, what caused the track? Zhou intends to find out.

"It has always been a problem there, and scientists have tried to come up with different ways to explain the cause of Yellowstone volcanoes, but it has been unsuccessful," she said, adding that hotspot tracks are more popular in oceans, such as the Hawaii islands. The frequent Geyser eruptions at Yellowstone are of course not volcanic eruptions with magna, but due to super-heated water. The last Yellowstone super eruption was about 630,000 years ago, according to experts. Zhou has no predictions on when or if Yellowstone could erupt again.

The use of the X-ray-like images for this study is unique in itself. Just as humans can see objects in a room when a light is on, Zhou said seismometers can see structures deep within the earth when an earthquake occurs. The vibrations spread out and create waves when they hit rocks. The waves are detected by seismometers and used in what is known as diffraction tomography.

"This is the first time the new imaging theory has been applied to this type of seismic data, which allowed us to see anomalous structures in the Earth's mantle that would otherwise not be resolvable using traditional methods," Zhou said.

Zhou will continue her study of Yellowstone. "The next step will be to increase the resolution of the X-ray-like images of the underground rock," she added.

"More detailed images of the unusual rocks in the deep earth will allow us to use computer simulation to recreate the fragmentation of the gigantic oceanic plate and test different scenarios of how rock melting and magma feeding system work for the Yellowstone volcanoes."

###

tps://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0126-4">study by a Virginia Tech geoscientist.

Scientists have long thought that Yellowstone Caldera, part of the Rocky Mountains and located mostly in Wyoming, is powered by heat from the Earth's core, similar to most volcanoes such as the recently active Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. However, new research published in Nature Geoscience by Ying Zhou, an associate professor with the Virginia Tech College of Science's Department of Geosciences, shows a different past.

"In this research, there was no evidence of heat coming directly up from the Earth's core to power the surface volcano at Yellowstone," Zhou said. "Instead, the underground images we captured suggest that Yellowstone volcanoes were produced by a gigantic ancient oceanic plate that dove under the Western United States about 30 million years ago. This ancient oceanic plate broke into pieces, resulting in perturbations of unusual rocks in the mantle which led to volcanic eruptions in the past 16 million years."

The eruptions were very explosive, Zhou added. A theoretical seismologist, Zhou created X-ray-like images of the Earth's deep interior from USArray - part of the Earthscope project funded by the National Science Foundation - and discovered an anomalous underground structure at a depth of about 250 to 400 miles right beneath the line of volcanoes.

"This evidence was in direct contradiction to the plume model," Zhou said.

In her study, Zhou found the new images of the Earth's deep interior showed that the oceanic Farallon plate, which used to be where the Pacific Ocean is now, wedged itself beneath the present-day Western United States. The ancient oceanic plate was broken into pieces just like the seafloor in the Pacific today. A section of the subducted oceanic plate started tearing off and sinking down to the deep earth.

The sinking section of oceanic plate slowly pushed hot materials upward to form the volcanoes that now make up Yellowstone. Further, the series of volcanoes that make up Yellowstone have been slowly moving, achingly so, ever since. "The process started at the Oregon-Idaho border about 16 million years ago and propagated northwestward, forming a line of volcanoes that are progressively younger as they stretched northwest to present-day Wyoming," Zhou added.

The previously-held plume model was used to explain the unique Yellowstone hotspot track - the line of volcanoes in Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming that dots part of the Midwest. "If the North American plate was moving slowly over a position-fixed plume at Yellowstone, it will displace older volcanoes towards the Oregon-Idaho border and form a line of volcanoes, but such a deep plume has not been found." Zhou said. So, what caused the track? Zhou intends to find out.

"It has always been a problem there, and scientists have tried to come up with different ways to explain the cause of Yellowstone volcanoes, but it has been unsuccessful," she said, adding that hotspot tracks are more popular in oceans, such as the Hawaii islands. The frequent Geyser eruptions at Yellowstone are of course not volcanic eruptions with magna, but due to super-heated water. The last Yellowstone super eruption was about 630,000 years ago, according to experts. Zhou has no predictions on when or if Yellowstone could erupt again.

The use of the X-ray-like images for this study is unique in itself. Just as humans can see objects in a room when a light is on, Zhou said seismometers can see structures deep within the earth when an earthquake occurs. The vibrations spread out and create waves when they hit rocks. The waves are detected by seismometers and used in what is known as diffraction tomography.

"This is the first time the new imaging theory has been applied to this type of seismic data, which allowed us to see anomalous structures in the Earth's mantle that would otherwise not be resolvable using traditional methods," Zhou said.

Zhou will continue her study of Yellowstone. "The next step will be to increase the resolution of the X-ray-like images of the underground rock," she added.

"More detailed images of the unusual rocks in the deep earth will allow us to use computer simulation to recreate the fragmentation of the gigantic oceanic plate and test different scenarios of how rock melting and magma feeding system work for the Yellowstone volcanoes."

###New-generation lung cancer drugs have been effective in a large number of patients, but within about a year, the patients tend to develop resistance to the therapy. Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with physicians, have conducted a study in mice, in which they used existing drugs in a new combination to help crush potential resistance to the treatment. Their findings were published recently in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death from malignancy, accounting for about one-fifth of cancer deaths worldwide according to World Health Organization estimates. New drugs treat certain subtypes of this cancer by targeting the genetic mutations characteristic of each subtype.

In about 12%, on average, of lung cancer patients - most of them non-smokers - the malignancy is due to a mutation in a gene called EGFR. This gene encodes a receptor that is embedded in the cell membrane, protruding in both directions: Its "head," the outer portion on the cell surface, binds with a growth factor that transmits a growth signal to the cell; the "legs," the inner portion inside the cell, works as an enzyme that further conveys the signal to the cellular nucleus. EGFR's growth message prompts the cell to divide which normally serves a good purpose - for example, helping tissues to heal - but a mutation on the inner part of the receptor can cause the cell to divide uncontrollably, leading to cancer.

Patients with the EGFR mutation can be helped by small molecules known as kinase inhibitors, which block the mutation, preventing EGFR from generating a signal for uncontrolled division. These drugs work much better than chemotherapy: They are more effective and cause fewer side effects, and they can be taken as a pill rather than by injection. The problem is that within 10 to 14 months many of the patients develop a secondary mutation in the EGFR. This causes their tumors to relapse because it enables EGFR to get around the kinase inhibitor

In 2015, a new kinase inhibitor known by the trade name Tagrisso, which blocks this second mutation, was approved for clinical use when the lung tumor starts growing again. Tagrisso helps, but usually not for long. Again, within 10 to 14 months a third mutation or other alterations emerge in the EGFR gene, causing another relapse.

"This of course is a nightmare for the patients, their families and the doctors," says Prof. Yosef Yarden of the Biological Regulation Department. "We've now developed a new approach that works in mice and may help relieve this frustrating situation if our method proves to work in humans."

In collaboration with physicians from the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, Yarden's team tried out a combination therapy. Mice implanted with human lung cancer cells were given Tagrisso and a drug that blocks the EGFR on the cell surface. This drug was Erbitux, an antibody that binds to the protruding outer portion of the EGFR, preventing the cell from receiving the growth message. The Tagrisso they were given works inside the cell, preventing the inner portion of EGFR, the growth-promoting kinase, from relaying the growth signal.

This original attempt at a combination therapy had proved unsuccessful, probably because when EGFR is blocked on the cell surface, it calls upon a close "relative," a receptor called HER2, to pop up on the cell membrane. So in the new study, the researchers gave mice a triple combination therapy, which apart from Tagrisso included two antibodies instead of one: Erbitux and a drug called Herceptin, which blocks HER2.

This time the approach worked. Tumors shrunk substantially and did not regrow as long as the mice received the triple combination treatment. The use of this approach in human patients should be facilitated by the fact that both antibodies are drugs already approved for use against other cancers: Erbitux is used in colorectal and Herceptin, in breast, cancer.

"If confirmed in humans, the new combination therapy may help extend the lives of many thousands of lung cancer patients who currently develop resistance to kinase inhibitors," Yarden says.

###

The research team included Dr. Donatella Romaniello, Luigi Mazzeo, Dr. Maicol Mancini, Dr. Ilaria Marrocco, Ashish Noronha, Matthew Kreitman, Dr. Swati Srivastava, Dr. Soma Ghosh and Dr. Moshit Lindzen from the Biological Regulation Department, and Dr. Tomer Meir Salame of the Life Sciences Core Facilities Department. The Weizmann scientists collaborated with Drs. Amir Onn and Jair Bar, physicians at Sheba Medical Center.

Prof. Yosef Yarden's research is supported by the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation; the Dwek Institute for Cancer Therapy Research, which he heads; the Willner Family Center for Vascular Biology, which he heads; Rising Tide; the Marvin Tanner Laboratory for Research on Cancer; the Comisaroff Family Trust; and the European Research Council. Prof. Yarden is the incumbent of the Harold and Zelda Goldenberg Professorial Chair in Molecular Cell Biology.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.It doesn't often happen that army generals switch sides in the middle of a war, but when cancer's attack is underway, it may even cause a gene that acts as the body's master defender to change allegiance. As reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have discovered that the betrayal of this gene can occur in more ways than previously appreciated.

All cells carry this gene, known as p53. This gene normally plays a central role in protecting the body against malignancy, orchestrating the cell's defenses against cancer and often killing a potentially cancerous cell if these fail. In about half of cancer patients, the p53 gene within the cancerous cells contains alterations - mutations - that can result in the production of a p53 protein that not only fails to suppress cancer, but can even launch cancer-promoting activities.

But besides the cancerous cells, a malignant tumor contains a variety of non-cancerous cells and connective tissue elements, commonly referred to as the tumor microenvironment. In the initial stages of cancer development, the microenvironment is hostile to the tumor. Prof. Moshe Oren of the Molecular Cell Biology Department and other scientists found in earlier studies that the p53 of the microenvironment cells contributes to this hostility, blocking the spread of the cancer. "This protective campaign probably often succeeds, otherwise people would get cancer much more frequently than they actually do," says Oren.

As the cancer progresses and becomes more malignant, the tumor microenvironment gradually changes. Scientists refer to this process as "education": The microenvironment is being co-opted by the progressing tumor into promoting, rather than restricting, the cancer.

Among the co-opted cells are the fibroblasts, which supply the tissue with structural "cement." Initially these help recruit immune cells against the cancer, but they now start releasing substances that encourage tumor growth, invasion and survival. At this stage, these cells are referred to as cancer-associated fibroblasts.

The new study, conducted in Oren's lab in collaboration with Weizmann Institute colleagues, shows that the microenvironment's "education" - a more appropriate term would probably be "brainwashing" - is directed in part at the fibroblasts' p53. As the cancer grows, the p53 in the fibroblasts switches sides. Although the p53 in the cancer-associated fibroblasts doesn't acquire mutations as it does in the cancer cells, it nevertheless becomes altered in a manner that causes it to switch from restricting to supporting the cancer.

In the study, led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Sharath Chandra Arandkar, in collaboration with departmental colleague Prof. Benjamin Geiger, and with Prof. Yosef Yarden and Dr. Igor Ulitsky of the Biological Regulation Department, the researchers showed that eliminating the p53 protein from cancer-associated fibroblasts by silencing their p53 genes caused these cells to lose many of their tumor-supporting features and behave more like normal fibroblasts. In particular, the silencing of fibroblast p53 reduced the migration of adjacent cancer cells in a laboratory dish - a crucial change, considering that invasive migration facilitates the metastatic spread of cancer. Moreover, the silencing of p53 in cancer-associated fibroblasts greatly reduced the ability of these cells to promote tumor growth in mice.

Study authors included Weizmann's Drs. Noa Furth, Yair Elisha and Nishanth Belugali Nataraj, and, from Dr. Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology in Stuttgart, Germany: Prof. Walter Aulitzky and the late Dr. Heiko van der Kuip, to whose memory this publication was dedicated.

Finding ways to "re-educate" the renegade p53 in the tumor microenvironment - to reverse its behavior back to suppressing tumors - may pave the way to the development of novel therapies that will target the microenvironment rather than the cancer cells themselves. Indeed, strategies targeting the cancer microenvironment are being increasingly explored in recent years. The hope is that they might provide a new window of opportunity for launching effective therapy, because the microenvironment tends to evolve more slowly than the mutation-ridden tumor cells. Cancer and it's microenvironment: Time lapse movie of GFP-expressing immortalized NFshLacZ cells from patient 4731 (Yellow) and mCherry-expressing Calu1 cells (magenta). Cells were seeded in 12-well plates containing ibidi culture inserts. The next day, inserts were removed and cells were allowed to migrate. Images were captured every 15 min, for a total of 6 h

###

Prof. Moshe Oren's research is supported by the Moross Integrated Cancer Center, which he heads; Rising Tide; the Comisaroff Family Trust; the Pearl Welinsky Merlo Foundation; the Scientific Progress Research Fund; the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation; and the Joel and Mady Dukler Fund for Cancer Research. Prof. Oren is the incumbent of the Andre Lwoff Professorial Chair in Molecular Biology.

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, students, technicians and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.An immediate before-after comparison -- the first of its kind -- shows that survivors of a hurricane have different traits than the general population

Nobody knows exactly what happens at the eye of the storm.

But biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have published a first-of-its-kind look at the physical characteristics of lizards that seem to make the difference between life and death in a hurricane, as reported in the July 25 issue of the journal Nature.

Hint: long, strong back legs do not help like you think they might.

The hyperactive 2017 hurricane season was one of the worst ever experienced in the Atlantic Ocean region. Damage from totals for the hurricane season topped $282 billion -- the costliest on record. Hurricane Harvey hit in mid-August 2017, followed just a few weeks later by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria in September. Each of these storms had winds in excess of 125 mph, with Irma up to 170 mph.

For humans, the devastation to homes and businesses was extreme. For tropical anole lizards living on the more remote cays of Turks and Caicos, there was only the ones who survived -- and the ones who didn't.

And that's where the researchers came in, using data serendipitously collected just before the storms hit, and again weeks afterward, to demonstrate for the first time the effects of hurricane-induced natural selection.

"Hurricanes are in the news, and it seems that they're becoming more destructive," said Jonathan Losos, the William H. Danforth Distinguished Professor at Washington University and professor of biology in Arts & Sciences. "Something like this has never been documented before because it's so difficult. The timing had to be just right."

Last eyes on the lizards

Colin Donihue is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University who is conducting research with Losos, who was previously at Harvard. Last September, Donihue was just wrapping up his measurements of endemic Turks and Caicos anole, Anolis scriptus, as a baseline for a long-term invasive species eradication project when Hurricane Irma started to brew.

The sky was still bright blue, but the weather forecasters were getting anxious. As Donihue quickly gathered his stuff and headed for the airport, his local cab driver was more skeptical: This storm would blow over, he told Donihue, just like others had done in the past.

Four days later, Hurricane Irma made landfall on Sept. 8, 2017. Donihue read the news of its devastation from his apartment in Boston. He realized his lizard data might have value outside of its original intent.

Donihue had the last eyes on the population before an unthinkable natural disaster. Now, it was time to determine if the storms had been a "selective event" -- an event with the power to change the course of life not just for the lizards that had weathered them, but potentially for the generations that followed.

So Donihue started making calls. The Turks and Caicos government was in recovery mode; clean water, electricity and shelter were priorities, and basic phone and Internet services were still not available across the islands. But Donihue had made good connections during his recent trip, and one government scientist in particular was sympathetic to his pleas. A new set of biological permits was granted, and Donihue and study co-author Anthony Herrel of the Paris Museum were back on a plane.

Before and after the storm

Back on the experimental islands, it was a mess. Trees were down and tree-limbs strewn about, making it difficult to walk in some places. But there were signs of life.

"Heading back to Pine Cay, we weren't sure what we'd find, but when we got to the field and saw a few lizards running around, we were eager to get catching and start measuring," said Donihue, who holds a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded fellowship that will bring him to Washington University in the winter of 2019.

"We walked exactly the same transects we had the last time," Donihue said. "There were definitely fewer lizards. We had to work harder to catch our sample size."

The team spent two days collecting just shy of 100 lizards on two separate islands, then measured their forelimbs, hindlimbs and core body lengths, and took pictures of their toe pads.

The vital statistics of the survivors could be compared with the measurements of the general lizard population that had been collected before the storm.

"The prediction was that if we saw any changes, they would be changes in the features that help lizards hold on -- they would be related to clinging ability," Donihue said. "For example, the sticky toe pads on their fingers and toes, maybe they would be larger."

Comparing lizards collected before and after the storm, the researchers found that the survivor populations on both islands had larger toe pads on both their forelimbs and hindlimbs.

The survivors had proportionately longer fore legs than the initial/pre-hurricane population, while the long bones in between their hips and knees on their back legs (their femurs) were shorter. The survivor population had smaller bodies, too. The observations were statistically significant and consistent at both island sites.

Natural selection favors certain characteristics

Hurricanes bring death and destruction to those in their paths. There are well-documented recent examples of hurricanes killing off large numbers of individuals from many species as diverse as plants, sea sponges, insects, birds and monkeys.

"With regard to evolution, the question is whether hurricanes cause selective mortality: do individuals with certain traits survive better than individuals with different traits? The alternative possibility -- that devastation is so massive that mortality is indiscriminate, not favoring some individuals over others -- is certainly possible," Losos said.

The results of this study -- that the island populations of lizards both changed significantly, and in the same way from before the hurricanes to after -- suggest that natural selection favored individuals with certain characteristics.

Of course, as the authors point out, there are other possibilities.

"Perhaps the hurricane blew in lizards with bigger toepads and shorter hindlegs from another island. Or perhaps the act of clinging to the branches in high winds actually caused their forelegs to get longer," Losos said. "We can't rule these possibilities out because this study was the result of serendipity, rather than specifically being designed to test the effect of hurricanes.

"Still, hurricane-induced natural selection seems like the best explanation for these findings," Losos said.

Behavioral piece is still unknown

The missing piece of the story is still a behavioral one. Researchers don't know what lizards actually do in the middle of a hurricane. Do they abandon their typical tree perches and go to the ground? Or do they try to seek cover in notches or crevices within the trees? Or do they just hang on?

A pilot study exploring wind threshold provides some insight into this aspect of the lizard decision-making process.

When the researchers exposed lizards from the survivor population to hurricane-force winds, the lizards almost uniformly swiveled around their perches to the side opposite from the wind source -- and just held on tight. As wind speeds increased, they lost hold with their hindlimbs first, and were left hanging by their forelimbs.

It appears that lizards are built to cling, but because of their stance on the perch, their big hindlimbs make them vulnerable to getting pushed off by high winds. This could explain the pattern that survivor lizards have longer forelimbs and shorter hindlimbs after a hurricane, the researchers speculate.

A future with bigger, and more frequent storms

Understanding how storms select for species survival is an important area of future study, worthy of a dedicated study design.

"We know that hurricanes are getting more frequent, and we know that they're getting more strong," Donihue said. "So, setting up a network of sites that are actually set up to investigate the question of how hurricanes are changing the evolutionary trajectory of species I think could be really useful."

###On completing 20 years, mens fashion brand Mufti appoints rising star Kartik Aaryan as its first ever brand ambassador. Kartik gained popularity through his recent films Pyaar Ka Panchnama 2 and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.



Mufti was launched in 1998 by Kamal Khushlani. Since inception, Mufti has evolved as a denim casual wear brand and Kartiks fun, easy-going and youthful persona goes perfectly with the brands image, Khushlani says.



With Kartik as Muftis face, the brand is trying to reinforce its connect with its target audience of fashionable youthful consumers.

Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)A combination of market optimism for a softer Brexit and mixed Eurozone data has helped the British Pound to Euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate to recover slightly this week, but lasting uncertainties in Britains outlook keep pressure on Sterling gains while the Euro finds support in surprisingly resilient German confidence stats.

As a result, GBP/EUR remains well below last weeks opening levels. Last week saw GBP/EUR slump from 1.1323 to 1.1198 and briefly touch on a 2018 low of 1.1164. At the time of writing, GBP/EUR had only recovered to around 1.1250 and it seemed to lack the drive for further gains.

Pound (GBP) Demand Limited as Brexit Uncertainties Persist

After being knocked hard by Brexit jitters and UK economic uncertainties last week, the Pound finally saw a little relief this week on the latest Brexit developments.

Before UK Parliament wrapped up for its summer recess this week, UK Prime Minister Theresa May issued a statement indicating that she and her Cabinet Office would be more directly overseeing UK-EU Brexit negotiations from now on.

This indicated to markets that the role of the Department for Exiting the EUs role had been somewhat downgraded.

As a result, investors became more optimistic that the influence of hard Brexit supporting government members had been weakened somewhat and soft Brexit hopes rose.

However, according to Valentin Marinov from Credit Agricole CIB, even if it did boost Mays position on Brexit it was far from the end of Brexit uncertainties:

It remains to be seen whether this will boost the chances of successful implementation of PM Mays Brexit plan, After all, the EU is the other party to the negotiations and they were not all in favor of the plan, at least for now.

As a result of this persisting uncertainty, the Pounds strength was limited and the currency was unable to continue a recovery rally against the Euro. Of course, slightly stronger demand for the Euro played a part in this too.

Euro (EUR) Support Steadies as German Business Confidence Beats Forecasts despite Trade Jitters

The Euro found a little more support in Eurozone data on Wednesday, after most of its recent strength had been largely due to weakness in the US Dollar (USD) rather than its own strength.

Wednesday morning saw the publication of the Eurozones July business confidence survey data from Ifo, which actually beat expectations in every major print.

Julys German business climate figure was expected to slide from 101.8 to 101.5, but only slipped to 101.7. Current conditions actually rose from 105.2 to 105.3 rather than falling to the expected 104.8.

Lastly, German expectations only slipped from 98.5 to 98.2 instead of the forecast 98.1.

Overall, the data indicated that while German companies were indeed becoming more anxious about US trade protectionism and the possibility of a global trade war, business activity was more resilient than expected.

According to Ifo Chief, Clemens Fuest:

Companies were slightly more satisfied with their current business situation, but scaled back their business expectations slightly. The German economy continues to expand, but at a slower pace.

GBP/EUR Forecast: Anticipated European Central Bank (ECB) Decision Ahead

Part of the Pound and Euros more muted movements on Wednesday are due to market anticipation for Thursdays session, when the European Central Bank (ECB) will hold its July policy decision.

The ECB is not expected to make any changes to monetary policy at all and is still on track to withdraw its quantitative easing (QE) scheme by the end of the year.

Instead, investors will be focused on the banks tone regarding the health of the Eurozone economy and how it could be impacted by US protectionism or the possibility of a global trade war.

Euro investors will likely have plenty to react to, as the banks decision will be followed by a press conference.

Germanys August consumer confidence data from GfK will be published on Thursday too, with French GDP growth data due for publication on Friday.

As for the Pound, Brexit news and UK political developments are the most likely to influence Sterling, at least as investors await next weeks key August Bank of England (BoE) decision.Privacy Settings

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NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.Carlos Uresti says hes broke.

The lawmaker turned felon doesnt have the money to survive, a Friday court filing says. He literally has no liquid funds to pay for normal necessary monthly living expenses, such as electricity, food, gasoline and insurance.

The disclosure comes just 10 days after Uresti asked a judge to make taxpayers pick up the legal tab for the appeal of his conviction on 11 felony charges.

The longtime San Antonio Democrat, who faces a 12-year prison sentence over his roles in a now-defunct oil field services company that defrauded investors, now is asking a judge to allow him to start receiving the government pension he earned while serving in the state Legislature for 21 years.

RELATED: Uresti wants taxpayers to pay for his appeal

The U.S. attorneys office opposes Urestis request, however, according to a disclosure at the end of his court document. Prosecutors have yet to file a formal response with the San Antonio federal court.

In an interview last month at the time he announced his resignation from the Texas Senate, Uresti, 54, said he stands to collect a more than $80,000-a-year pension from the state.

The Texas Employee Retirement System (ERS)refuses to issue any checks to Uresti, his filing says. The agency wont do so without court permission because of a March 6 restraining order issued by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra. The order is intended to preserve Urestis assets so they can be used to make restitution to his victims. Uresti and two others sentenced in the case have been ordered to pay about $6.3 million.

ERS wants the U.S. attorneys office to consent to the disbursement of pension checks, but it has not responded, Urestis filing says.

Keith Yawn, ERSs director of strategic initiatives, said in an email it does not comment on individual members of the retirement plans it administers due to state and federal privacy laws.

Yawn, however, said state elected officials are eligible to retire and start collecting a pension with either eight years of service at age 60 or 12 years of service at age 50.

Annuities for eligible elected officials are based on a district judges salary of $140,000, Yawn added. Retirees receive 2.3 percent of that salary for each year of eligible service credit obtained.

Participants may also purchase credit for their military service to boost their pension. It couldnt be determined if Uresti, a former Marine, did so. But he is asking the court for approval to purchase credit for the remaining six months of this year  at a cost of less than $350. It appears that by doing that, Uresti would add about $1,600 a year to his pension.

RELATED: Judge refuses to appoint Uresti's lawyer of choice for appeal

If Uresti gets court approval to start receiving his state pension, what he actually ends up with may be significantly less than what he earned.

For starters, according to federal statutes, the government could garnish 25 percent of his pension (after deductions) as restitution for his victims. Prosecutors have not indicated whether they will seek a portion of the pension, however.

Urestis former wife, Yolanda Uresti, is entitled to a receive an undisclosed portion of his pension under terms of their 2008 divorce settlement, according to his court filing.

Current wife Lleanna Uresti stands to get some part of his pension, as well. She filed for divorce about a week after a 12-person jury convicted Uresti. He subsequently got the court file sealed.

The ex-lawmaker wants court authority to finalize their divorce so that their community property and related issues can be divided equitably, his court filing says. ERS cant the determine the amount each will receive from his pension until a qualified domestic relations order is entered in the divorce case.

A state law that took effect last year bars lawmakers convicted of certain felonies from receiving their government pension, but it doesnt to apply to Uresti because his crimes arent covered by the law.

RELATED: Early voting begins Monday for special election to fill Uresti seat

Uresti was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges, for his involvement in FourWinds Logistics, which went bankrupt in 2015. The law covers such crimes as bribery, embezzlement and abuse of official capacity. Even if his crimes were covered under the law, they occurred before the law took effect.

Attorney Michael McCrum, who filed the Friday court document on Uresits behalf, did not respond to a request for comment. McCrum was part of Urestis legal defense team during the trial.

McCrum wanted to represent Uresti in his appeal, but that request was denied by U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad. The judge appointed San Antonio lawyer John Bud Ritenour Jr., instead.

Uresti has been trying to sell some of his assets, most notably his Helotes home and his former law office building on McCullough Avenue. The house is listed for sale at $1.7 million, according to Realtor.com. A nearly $1 million deal for the office building recently fell through. The court has prohibited him from selling other assets.

Uresti remains free, awaiting an October trial involving bribery charges in an unrelated case. He has denied the charges. Hes scheduled to begin serving his prison sentence when that trial is completed.

Patrick Danner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPDConvicted felon Carlos Uresti has an ally in his fight to collect his state pension: his estranged wife.

Lleanna Uresti, who in March filed for divorce from the disgraced ex-lawmaker about a week after a jury convicted him on 11 felony charges, asked a federal judge Wednesday to allow Carlos Uresti to receive the pension he earned while serving in the state Legislature for 21 years.

Carlos Uresti, 54, has no source of income without the Texas Employee Retirement System sending him monthly retirement checks, Lleanna, 42, said in a court filing. He valued his annual pension at more than $80,000 in an interview last month when he announced his resignation from the state Senate.

Days after the announcement, he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his involvement in a now-defunct oil field services company that defrauded investors. As part of his sentence, he owes about $6.3 million to the victims of his crimes.

Uresti, his wife, and other family representatives are prohibited from diminishing the value of any of his property under a restraining order issued by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra four days after the divorce petition was filed.

There is an exception under the restraining order that allows for the payment of normal monthly living expenses  including for Lleanna.

The restraining order has prevented Uresti from receiving his pension from the Texas Employee Retirement System, Lleanna notes in her court filing.

Without these checks Mr. Uresti cannot provide the necessary and normal monthly living expenses, which pursuant to the Restraining Order, (Lleanna) is entitled to receive, her filing adds.

On Friday, Uresti filed court papers requesting that he be allowed to start receiving his state pension because he doesnt have the money to survive. He added he has no funds to pay basic living expenses.

ERS refuses to issue any checks to him because of the restraining order, his filing adds.

Ezra has set a Tuesday court hearing on Urestis request. The U.S. attorneys office has indicated to both Uresti and Lleanna that it opposes their requests, their court filings state. The government has yet to file a formal response with the court, however.

Both of the Urestis also want Ezra to rule that the restraining order doesnt prevent them from entering into an agreed divorce and property settlement.

My client just wants to get a divorce, said Juanita Pelaez-Prada, Lleannas lawyer. Unfortunately, we were tied up by this restraining order. Just how much of Urestis pension Lleanna will receive will be determined in the divorce proceeding, Pelaez-Prada said.

In requesting the restraining order, prosecutors expressed skepticism about the divorce. They alleged its mainly an attempt to avoid having to pay restitution to Urestis victims.

RELATED: Early voting ends Friday for Senate District 19 special election

Pelaez-Prada denied that was the case.

You guys have several times reported on the allegations against Mr. Uresti, which clearly include adultery, she said. My client has more than enough reasons to want to get a divorce.

Urestis five-week trial included vivid testimony about him carrying on an extramarital relationship. He and Lleanna were married in 2012.

As part of his efforts to make restitution to his victims, Uresti previously obtained court approval to sell the couples Helotes estate, valued at $1.7 million, and the McCullough Avenue office building that formerly housed his law office. He gave up his law license earlier this year.

Uresti was indicted last year over his involvement in FourWinds Logistics, a San Antonio company that bought and sold sand used in fracking for oil production. Uresti was a 1 percent owner, outside legal counsel and recruited investors. The company, which went bankrupt in 2015, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. He intends to appeal his conviction.

The longtime San Antonio Democrat remains free until after an October trial on bribery charges that are unrelated to FourWinds. He has denied the charges.

Patrick Danner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPDStarting in January, Alamo Colleges students will pay an additional $13 per credit hour for tuition, a 15 percent increase for in-district students.

The boost is needed because a perfect storm of declining state funding and enrollment growth is about to crash into the fiscal year that begins in September, Diane Snyder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, told the districts board earlier this month.

This is the year that we need revenue generation or we cannot sustain the benefits we need to do for our students, Snyder said. Our revenues no longer cover our expenses. We lose money when we grow.

In a city with a reputation for low incomes and high hurdles to educational attainment, the Alamo Colleges offer the most affordable springboard to a bachelors degree, along with shorter-term certifications, a direct portal to the workforce.

The districts five community colleges enroll about 48,000 students with high school diplomas and offer college courses to another 12,500 students still in high school.

Related: Recount sought in Alamo Colleges race won by 2 votes

The tuition increase is expected to fill a $6.7 million gap, caused largely by declining revenues from the state and the higher-than-expected popularity of the dual-credit classes, which are free to high-schoolers under partnerships with their school districts.

Tuition-free dual credit programs are among the districts student success strategies  such as increases in the student advising force, improved course transfer to four-year universities and free summer classes for students who take full-time course loads during the academic year  that have added $20 million in annual expenses

In recent years, the Alamo Colleges District has funded dual credit through property tax revenues, buoyed by Bexar Countys rising tax base.

But next year, the district will bank the increase in tax revenue to operate and maintain the first group of buildings completed under a $450 million bond program voters approved last year.

The average in-district Alamo Colleges student takes a part-time course load of nine credit hours per semester. Students will pay $891 in the spring 2019 semester under the new tuition rate, $117 more than the current tuition. Full-time students who take advantage of the free summer course incentive, the most affordable way to get an associates degree, will pay $624 more to earn it than under the current tuition rate.

Out-of-district students, those who dont reside in Bexar County, will pay $215 per credit hour.

Related: Fox Tech families blast plan to build SAISD central office on football field

Trustees had other options to plug the revenue shortfall, Snyder said. They could cap enrollment at where it was two academic years ago, reduce classroom hours by 3 percent compared to the year that just ended, eliminate the free summer classes and other student success initiatives or delay opening buildings now under construction.

All of these options harm our students, and would violate the districts commitment to serve Bexar Countys growing population, Snyder said.

The projected value of the districts taxable property is set to grow this year by 5 percent. Snyder said any tax rate increase for Alamo Colleges larger than one-fifth of a cent per $100 would trigger a rollback election under current state law, which caps revenue increases without voter approval at 8 percent per year.

To plug next fiscal years shortfall, the district would have needed an election to raise the rate by about seven-tenths of a cent per $100, Snyder said. But the district had vowed last year that its new bond program would not require a tax rate increase.

The districts reliance on property taxes might be lessened in the future.

In January, looking ahead to next years legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott proposed lowering the cap on annual property tax revenue increases from 8 percent to 2.5 percent. If lawmakers go that route, the Alamo Colleges could lose as much as $7.2 million in tax revenue unless voters choose to override the cap, Snyder said.

Related: S.A. school districts made all eighth-graders take algebra  and it worked

Texas has pushed funding to the local level, and then when they start dabbling in our local sources too, it pretty well only leaves us the tuition, Snyder said.

The board unanimously approved the tuition increase and a $366.5 million operating budget for next fiscal year, an increase of $12.4 million, or 3.5 percent, from the current year. It left the tax rate unchanged.

The tuition increase will take effect three years after the districts last tuition boost. Before that, tuition had been flat since 2012. Snyder called the increase a catch-up adjustment.

Students voiced concern and resignation about the tuition rise from behind a ring of laptops at their study group as they crammed for a history exam Tuesday in the Loftin Student Center at San Antonio College .

I think its kind of messed up, because tuitions already expensive and it doesnt include your books, said Anhelina Mercado, 26, an. Air Force veteran whos earning a teaching degree through the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Its just going to make things harder for people.

Edgar Rubio, 30, a full-time student working toward a communications degree, worried the extra $156 hed spend per semester would leave him scrambling to afford the $150-per-exam it costs to place out of certain entry-level courses.

But the Alamo Colleges District still is the cheapest local option for higher education, he said.

Alamo Colleges leaders expect the tuition increase will fund dual credit expansion for the time being. It now costs the community college district $21 million in waived tuition and $8.7 million in facilities and staffing under cost-share agreements with school districts, Snyder said.

Palo Alto College President Mike Flores, who will take over as the Alamo Colleges Districts chancellor in October, said the high school programs and increased advising are helping more students take the right courses for their degrees and transfer to universities.

I concur with the agenda thats been set, Flores told trustees. I think weve set up a successful foundation.

Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAENRobert Garza, the president of Mountain View College in the Dallas County Community College District, will be the next president of Palo Alto College.

The Alamo Colleges Districts board voted to hire him Tuesday night. Palo Alto, one of the five Alamo Colleges, enrolls more than 10,000 students on San Antonios South Side.

Before Garza took the reins at Mountain View, he worked for 16 years at Palo Alto in different positions including vice president of student success, dean of student success and dean of community development and partnerships.

In a news release, the college said Garza will assume his duties in September as its current president, Mike Flores, prepares to succeed Bruce Leslie as Alamo Colleges chancellor when Leslie retires. Flores will become the Alamo Colleges first Hispanic chancellor on Oct. 1.

RELATED: Alamo Colleges plugs budget gap with tuition boost

A 16-member search advisory committee, including three faculty, three staff members and two students, sorted through 78 applications for PAC president and interviewed eight candidates, Flores told trustees. The search committee included Cynthia Teniente-Matson, president of Texas A&M University-San Antonio, and Lloyd Verstuyft, superintendent of the Southwest Independent School District, which is partnering with PAC to open an early college high school this fall focused on advanced manufacturing, energy and logistics.

Im thankful for the opportunity to serve the south San Antonio community and look forward to working with Dr. Flores in continuing the momentum of student success at Palo Alto College and the Alamo Colleges District, Garza said in a prepared statement. Palo Alto College is an amazing institution, and I look forward to collaborating with the dedicated faculty and staff to further the vision of the board and the chancellor.

He has served as Mountain Views president for about three years, where he increased student enrollment, implemented early college high schools and industry partnerships and expanded the nursing program, according to PAC.

Dr. Garza has been integral to the monumental changes that have taken place at Mountain View College over the last few years, and we look forward to the future growth his leadership will encourage throughout our district, Leslie said in a statement.

RELATED: Challenger halts Alamo Colleges runoff recount

Garzas doctorate in higher education administration is from the University of Texas at Austin. He has a masters of public administration from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a bachelors degree in agricultural development from Texas A&M University in College Station.

Besides Garza, the search committee selected two other finalists  Beatriz Joseph, PACs vice president of college services, and Rey Rivera, vice president of learning at Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona  for public forums last month.

I think it speaks to the talent we have within Alamo that one of those, Dr. Joseph, was currently on board with Alamo Colleges District and Dr. Garza actually also previously served with Alamo Colleges, Flores told trustees.

Flores said he took feedback after the forums and conferred with Leslie before submitting Garzas name to the board. Trustees voted unanimously for him.

Palo Alto has been named a finalist for the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The winner of the $1 million prize, the most prestigious in the country for a community college, will be announced in April.

Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAENA judge Wednesday night sequestered the Bexar County jury deliberating the capital murder case involving a San Antonio man accused of killing two in a shooting and stabbing attack in 2016, reportedly over a pack of cigarettes.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Luis Antonio Arroyo, who is charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Rodney Spring, 47, and Quickether Jackson, 36. Spring, shot once in the back, was pronounced dead Jan. 21, 2016, at an apartment in the 3800 block of Sherrill Brook on the West Side, and Jackson, shot five times and stabbed three times, died at an area hospital.

Tandylyn Jackson, Quickether Jacksons mother, was the lone survivor of the attack. She was stabbed in the back and shot in the stomach.

Arroyo, now 41, pleaded not guilty and chose not to testify in his own defense.

In his closing argument Wednesday, prosecutor Scott Simpson told the jury that this case isn't the type that leaves people wondering what happened because Tandylyn Jackson, now 59, was there, answered the door, was attacked, and is a living eyewitness.

That is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Simpson told the jury.

Related: Local ex-soccer star who aided postal worker shooter pleads guilty

He said Arroyo became enraged after Tandylyn Jackson accused him of taking a pack of cigarettes because he spent nearly every day with them, helped them when they needed money, and bought her cigarettes. He also was their crack supplier.

Defense attorney Joel Perez contended in his closing argument that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Arroyo was the attacker.

He criticized as shabby the San Antonio police investigation and its lead homicide detective, Robert Bunnell, for stopping at Arroyo and for not attempting to question other possible suspects who might have been at the scene. He also said the state and police took Tandylyn Jackson at her word, even though she was under the influence of crack cocaine.

The motive is not here, Perez told the jury. If a cop thinks youre guilty, they are going to lie to you. It could happen to any of us.

In her closing argument, prosecutor Mari Janssen played Tandylyn Jackson's 911 recording, in which she could be heard saying, Oh, Lord Jesus. Please, Tony, stop it!

Luis Antonio Arroyo went to Tandylyn Jacksons house and kicked in her door and changed her life forever, said Janssen, who asked the jury to find Arroyo guilty.

The jury received the case around 1 p.m. in the 227th state District Court, presided by Judge Kevin OConnell. After nearly seven hours in deliberations, OConnell sequestered the jury. Deliberations resume Thursday morning.

Capital murder is an offense punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863SAN MARCOS  Early Friday, Jackson King awoke to the sound of breaking glass at the Iconic Village Apartments.

He thought someone was burglarizing his home.

But one glance told him it was far worse than a break-in: The ceiling of his ground-floor apartment already was cloaked in smoke.

My roommate ran to open the front door. Nothing but fire. He flung the door shut because of the heat and smoke, he said.

King, 22, felt like he was suffocating. He dropped to the floor, and with his roommate, crawled beneath the smoke to a bedroom window and to safety.

After that, we started helping people. Some were jumping from the second floor. A couple of girls hurt themselves, he said, describing the chaos and fear as the blaze raced through his building  Building 500  about 4:30 a.m.

The inferno killed five people at the complex, all in Building 500. The apartments, which are two blocks from Texas State University, long have been used by students who attend the school.

Investigators have yet to determine what sparked the fire.

San Marcos city officials said the building where the victims bodies were found contained 26 apartments, all of them two-bedroom units. A representative for the owners told the San Antonio Express-News that the building actually contained 28 apartments.

Barbra Lancaster, the mother of two siblings who shared an apartment in that same building, called the fire extremely frightening.

Her son, Garrison Lancaster, 19, and daughter Chandelle Lancaster, 23, were asleep along with two friends in their apartment when the inferno erupted. They escaped through the windows with their dogs, but lost everything they owned.

Its been very hard.  If I lost them, I dont know what I would do, Barbra Lancaster said. Were just thankful that theyre alive.

Chandelle Lancaster, a recent graduate of Texas State, was awakened by the sound of glass breaking and told everyone in the apartment to get up, her mother said.

When Garrison Lancaster opened the apartments front door, he saw a wall of smoke and immediately slammed it shut.

He didnt even realize until the next day that  his fingers were burned from unlocking the door, Barbra Lancaster said.

The Lancaster siblings and their friends helped one of their dogs, weighing 115 pounds, get to safety, she said. Garrison Lancaster, an Austin Community College student, then went back into the apartment to rescue his own dog.

About 200 people were displaced from the Iconic Village Apartments and the Vintage Pads Apartments next door, where the flames ultimately spread. Both properties are owned by the same company, San Marcos Green Investors LLC, the Hays County Appraisal Districts website states.

Every apartment at the Iconic Village complex had at least one smoke detector, and maintenance workers inspect that equipment on a regular basis, according to a statement released late Tuesday by Elevate Multifamily, the Chicago company that manages both complexes.

If maintenance workers find any of the batteries are low or have been removed, new batteries are installed, the statement noted.

The smoke detectors in Building 500  the structure where the five victims bodies were found  were last inspected by the maintenance team May 4, the company said.

Fire extinguishers were placed in the Iconic Village breezeways and at other locations as required by the local fire code, the statement said. A third-party company last inspected extinguishers at the property Jan. 8.

On Tuesday, King was among several dozen residents who came to the San Marcos Activity Center for help that ranged from simple things like food to complicated issues such as replacing driver licenses and getting counseling.

We want to tell everyone affected by this fire to please come, city spokeswoman Kristy Stark said. People will leave with food, toiletries, gift cards, all to help get them back to their daily lives.

In the wake of the fatal fire, questions have been raised about whether smoke detectors and fire alarms in the apartments were working.

King, a senior business major, was among those who said they didnt hear any alarms.

The smoke alarm was not going off. It was completely out. Youll hear that from a lot of people. None of the smoke alarms went off, he said.

Melody Ito, 21, a junior majoring in education, also was in Building 500 of Iconic Village.

I woke up to screaming. It was so chaotic, she said. I went to the front door. It was fire, fire. I went back to get my keys and phone. I ran out the front door. It felt like hell on earth.

Ito said she dimly recalls hearing a faint beep, beep of an alarm, but cant be sure.

Christina Martinez, 22, a senior mathematics major, also lived in Building 500. She, too, awoke to yelling, screaming and loud noises from the second-floor apartment overhead.

It sounded like a dumpster truck picking up the trash, she said.

There was no smoke in her room. But when she looked outside, she saw the courtyard engulfed in flames.

After shaking awake a guest sleeping in the apartments other bedroom, she grabbed her dog Luna and phone and went out the front door.

There were flames to my left. I ran to my right. Not much smoke, just flames, she said.

Martinez says she knew of no operating fire protection devices, at least on her floor.

There were no fire alarms, sprinklers or fire extinguishers. No kind of alert to let us know our lives were in danger, she said. No one I spoke to said they heard any alarms. If there had been, it would have helped people to get out quicker.

She also was highly critical of maintenance at the apartment complex, saying it took months to get appliances like the water heater or air conditioners fixed.

Another person who stopped to talk Monday at the Activity Center told a different story.

Varun Siddaraju, 24, a graduate student in engineering, lived at the Vintage Pads Apartments for two years. He said the complex, which suffered less damage than Iconic Village, was well-maintained.

He also said the smoke detector in his apartment worked fine, particularly when he was cooking a pungent dish.

Staff Writer Peggy OHare contributed to this report.

jmaccormack@express-news.netUVALDE  Dwight Jurena is sitting by U.S. 83, just south of this community, where the Hill Country meets the South Texas plains.

Actually, its all plains here  aside from an old fence along the highway, a coil of rusty barbed wire hanging off it, theres not much to see except scrub and mesquite trees.

This is as featureless as that one scene in Fargo when the guy comes off the highway to bury the briefcase and its snow in either direction, he remarks. Except we dont have snow; we have brush.

But Jurena, an adjunct instructor of geology at San Antonio College, isnt interested in whats above ground. Hes focused on whats below  the remains of a massive crater formed when a meteorite struck the earth tens of millions of years ago.

Maybe.

Hoping to prove the meteorite hypothesis, Jurena was spending a few mid-July days in the company of students researching a geological structure called Bee Bluff.

In a neon orange safety vest and wide-brimmed hat, he talked about earth science as if unaware of how well he knows the topic. He can say so much, so fast, that students have sometimes resorted to recording everything he tells them.

SAC sophomores Emily Reyes, 28, from upstate New York, and Jonathan Garcia, 25, a Chicagoan, wore their own highlighter-yellow vests; Garcia sported a Cubs cap. As a nearby portable speaker played smooth jazz and pickups and heavy trucks whizzed by, the trio knelt around a sleek metal box, fiddling with knobs and dials.

The device, a gravity meter they connected to a handheld digital data logger, can count milligalileos, a unit of acceleration that measures variations in the Earths gravitational pull.

The mechanical configuration is similar to a seismograph, Jurena explained.

Despite the complicated interface, the underlying mechanism is simple: a mass on the end of a spring, moving up and down in response to tiny changes in gravity.

Its sensitive enough, Jurena said, to detect if passing trucks are empty or loaded.

The three were with the Summer Undergraduate Research Project (SURP) program, a SAC initiative thats also funding studies of dove defense mechanisms and hydrogen fuel cells. Jurenas team is after something a little more contentious.

For years, geologists have debated whether this area was  somewhere from 20 million to 45 million years ago  hit by a meteorite. Several research papers (including one co-authored by Jurena) support the theory but vary in their estimates of the craters diameter. Some say its as little as 11/2 miles wide. Jurenas work puts it at more than 4.

Other scientists have alternative explanations for the areas geology. These include regional deformation, sedimentary slumping (or a) gas explosion, according to one paper published in 1979. For a time, Bee Bluff had a spot on the Earth Impact Database, which lists confirmed impact craters. But it was removed in 2003 due to inadequate proof.

The SURP team was looking for that proof. The roadside spot was its designated base, where the team zeroed out its equipment before every outing. By always returning to the same starting point  marked by a metal Texas Department of Transportation plate set into the ground  the team members could keep a consistent baseline against which to evaluate data gathered elsewhere.

After correcting for several factors that can affect gravity  latitude, tides and elevation  remaining variation can be attributed to differing densities of the rock underground. That means fracturing, and when its in a circle  a doughnut ring with a central peak, like the splash of a stone hitting water  its good evidence of an impact site.

Only a hypervelocity impact or a nuclear explosion could explain certain features of the formation, Jurena said, and the Eocene period had no atomic bombs.

We still have debris (and) sediment  thats all fractured, and that would produce a gravity low, Jurena said. The central peak is actually a gravity high.

These micro-fluctuations are the only way youd ever know anything is amiss at Bee Bluff  due to erosion and fill-in, nothing about the landscape suggests a crater.

When I first came out here, I was like, Where is it?, Garcia said. Its down below.

But before the researchers can prove anything, they have to get the gravity meter working.

Its hanging out at perfect zero, Reyes eventually announces. Keep hanging!

Im logging that, Jurena replies.

Jurena started studying Bee Bluff as a graduate student in the mid-1990s. By 2002 hed finished a thesis on it and has been returning ever since. He started taking students along in 2014.

The going hasnt always been easy. During a 2015 expedition, the gravity meter picked up a massive spike where there was no reason to expect one. It wasnt until Jurena noticed an ant inside the device  a literal bug in the system  that he realized it probably was an anomaly. Follow-up testing in 2016 didnt detect the spike, but the team will check again this year to make sure.

When the gravity meters baseline was successfully set to zero, the SURP team drove a few miles south, past farmhouses and fields of spinach, to a dusty intersection: the starting point for the days work.

By taking gravity measurements at preset points along a survey line, marked by wooden stakes that another team stuck in the ground over the spring, a map of subterranean fracturing will emerge. But its slow, repetitive work.

We essentially have a grid along these county roads now, and weve about maxed it out as far as the (impact) structure is concerned, Jurena said. And so were gonna complete this east-west transect, so this is the third leg on there.

The days path followed one of the dirt roads radiating off the intersection, lined with wildflowers and crushed beer cans. Reyes and Garcia had to squat in tall grass to fiddle with the meter and record the data it spat out.

Is it going down? Jurena asked from the roadside at one point. Holding down at the lower limit of 1.12?

Yeah, 1.120 is the lowest, Garcia said. The highest is 1.127.

Oh boy, thats steady, Jurena replied, before re-evaluation led to exasperation. Oh, it just dropped. Just when you thought it was  see that? Who moved?

But even with finicky technology, the team members said things were moving faster than expected. They hoped to measure six to eight of the roughly 20 staked-out spots by days end.

In the gaps between work, conversation ranged from Johnny Cash to San Antonio enchiladas to the hotel they were staying in for the night. At one point, the topic of undocumented immigrants moving through the research site came up.

You see the effects that theyve left behind: old bug spray cans, clothing, shoes  sunscreen, if possible, Jurena says. And even scarier  water they left behind. And (its) in old milk jugs, and its green. Its green.

But mostly, everyone was preoccupied by the research. Amid all the other demands of the job, its the hands-on field work that actually will find a meteorite crater, if theres one to find.

You cant simulate this on a computer, Jurena told Reyes and Garcia. Youve got to get out and do it.

Brian Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. @_B_Contreras_The nonprofit organization called RAICES announced Tuesday a $3 million donation to help pay for the transportation and lodging of recently released and reunified immigrant families, costs that can reach into the thousands of dollars per family.

The fund, called Flights for Families, is operated by the Families Belong Together campaign  a coalition of dozens of advocacy groups across the country  and FWD.us, which has been aiding family reunification in New Mexico and Arizona.

The groups have established a help desk to take calls from lawyers and families on behalf of those recently reunified to begin the booking process.

The government has so far declined to pay for migrant expenses post-reunification. In San Antonio, Catholic Charities has been covering the costs if immigrants or their sponsors cant afford the flights.

Alida Garcia, coalitions and policy director for FWD.us, said this is an example of Americans and nonprofits coming together during a moment when the government is failing us.

The online fundraiser set a goal to raise $25,000 when it first launched two weeks ago. It has since raised the goal to $200,000, and had raised $179,612 as of Tuesday afternoon.

This is a really incredible example of what we can do when we come together. And weve seen that over and over again since this horrific crisis began, said Jess Morales Rocketto, political director of National Domestic Workers Alliance who is co-leading the Families Belong Together campaign.

Flights for families has staff  including DACA recipients  at various locations ensuring the families get through security at the airport, managing delays and flight transfers, and making sure the families have a point of contact on their final destination, Garcia said.

In many instances, detained parents were transferred to a different detention facility, and children were flown to that facility, even though it is not necessarily near their final destination.

The $3 million donation is separate from $20 million that RAICES, the San Antonio-based agency that provides legal aid to immigrants throughout Texas, raised online, which was specifically dedicated to posting bail for separated parents. The nonprofit has already started doling that money out to detained parents.

Some detained parents have been bonded out and need money for flights to visit their children in federal shelters, said Jennifer Falcon, the RAICES communications director.

Were dealing with different groups of parents and children in different circumstances, Falcon said.

This is just step one in servicing these families, Garcia said.

Many of these families are being released with very urgent check-ins around their cases. These families are the ones the government has decided to release, Garcia added, alluding to the 463 parents who were deported, according to government figures.

In those cases, RAICES said it is working to locate the parents. But until then, she said, the children are either placed with adult sponsors or placed in a foster care system.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFFOne week ago, a small group of young activists planned a vigil outside of San Antonios Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on the North Side.

They never left.

Seven days later, the week-old group, called Occupy ICE, is still camping out in tents on the grass outside the facility.

They offer food and water to immigrants waiting in line outside the facility, they said, and every so often they hold noise demos, during which they make a racket to let the immigrants detained inside know theyre there, supporting them.

The goal, the activists said, is to run ICE out of San Antonio, and, eventually, get it abolished.

Bipartisan outrage over the Trump administrations family separation practice, and then its difficulty in reuniting them once the practice was halted by an executive order, has put the nations immigration policy under scrutiny and led some prominent lawmakers to call for ICEs elimination.

Related: RAICES donates $3 million to flights for reunited families

An arm of the Department of Homeland Security, ICE was founded in 2003 after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Among those outspoken in the mission to abolish ICE are New Yorks 28-year-old Democratic primary winner Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and possible 2020 presidential contender Kirsten Gillebrand. U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., introduced a bill to end the agency.

But not all Democratic lawmakers agree on the issue.

We will always have the need for some entity to enforce our immigration laws. The concern that I have about the calls to abolish ICE is that they really play into Donald Trumps hands, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said in a recent interview with the Express-News.

The campaign is a little misdirected and probably benefits our opponents more than it benefits those were trying to help, he said.

The activists, many of them students, wear sunglasses and handkerchiefs to conceal their identities. They go by made-up names, too. Some of them say its because theyre undocumented. Others say they dont want to get harassed by the government or by conservative trolls online.

Were here today to protest ICE, to bring to light the inhumanity and indignity immigrants face on a daily basis, said one San Antonio student who went by the name Tecolote.

Related: The first family reunited in San Antonio recalls journey, separation

That particular facility, located at 3523 Crosspoint  just off Wurzbach Parkway  is not quite 2 years old and has 20,500 square feet. Its part of the Enforcement and Removal Operations Department, which identifies, arrests and deports immigrants.

Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for ICE in Central and South Texas, said the processing facility is not involved in family reunification cases.

Much like the Department of Homeland Security vans that have been transporting the recently reunited immigrants, the building is utterly nondescript, with no signage on its front to signify its purpose. The building exists behind trees and between large, vacant parking lots along a winding road. The only thing that gives it away are the two flags beside it: an American flag and a blue DHS one.

A lot of people think ICE is something faraway, something unseen., Tecolote said. Were here to show ICE is under our very noses.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFFTwo young women and a man accused of defacing the San Antonio missions with graffiti must stay out of trouble, get or maintain jobs and can not have any contact with each other, a federal judge ordered Wednesday.

Gabriella Petra Fritz, 20, Andres Castaneda, 19, and Sydney Elizabeth Faris, 21, made their first appearances in federal court on Wednesday since they were indicted July 11 on one count each of depredation of government property.

The hearing shed little light on a motive, though it hinted that at least two of the suspects might have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs when they allegedly committed the vandalism. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Farrer released the three suspects on $25,000 unsecured bonds, ordering Fritz and Castaneda into the custody of their mothers. The judge also ordered the pair to get tested periodically for substance abuse and to submit to treatment as needed.

I am giving you a chance to address what I think are some issues here, Farrer told the pair. The best thing all of you can do is take advantage of this and get some treatment.

Related: Judge sequesters Bexar jury deciding man's fate in 2016 stabbing-shooting in San Antonio

Farrer also appointed lawyers to the trio and set each suspects arraignment for Aug. 7.

The federal indictment alleges that between June 21 and 22, the three suspects used spray paint to deface the visitors center, which is federal property, at Mission San Jose and signage, resulting in more than $1,000 in damages. It does not mention the vandalism to Mission San Juan.

The I dont care do you message was spray-painted at a visitors center of Mission San Jose  an apparent reference to a controversial jacket bearing a similar phrase worn by first lady Melania Trump on June 21 before and after she visited a Rio Grande Valley detention facility for immigrant children. Another message included a profane reference to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency involved in the Trump administrations controversial family-separation immigration policy, officials have said.

In addition to the federal charge, the trio are facing state vandalism charges over the graffiti incident.

All three hurried past a news reporter and photographer without comment after the hearing, turning away from cameras. As Fritz shielded her face, she also displayed an obscene gesture with her middle finger.

Related: Local ex-soccer star who aided postal worker shooter pleads guilty

The San Antonio Police Department and the National Park Service identified the three as suspects after authorities released video June 22 showing vandals tagging Mission San Jose.

Within hours of the videos release, Castaneda turned himself in, then identified Fritz as an accomplice, who in turn identified Faris as the third suspect.

If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of post-confinement federal supervision.

Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedlandDemocratic lawmakers who met Wednesday with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen say they are skeptical that the government will meet a deadline today to reunite all eligible children who were separated at the border from their immigrant parents.

Nielsen assured the lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that the administration is on track to comply with the deadline.

Two weeks ago, the government was two days late in reuniting children under 5 years old by an earlier court-ordered deadline, and even then reunited only half of them.

Its inconceivable theyll be able to reunite the remaining children by the deadline, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said at a news conference with five other congressmen Wednesday morning.

Up to 3,000 children were separated from their parents since April under a zero-tolerance policy against migrants who crossed the border illegally.

After the policy was harshly criticized, President Donald Trump reversed the family separation practice last month, while still maintaining the immigration crackdown. A federal judge in San Diego, Calif., then imposed two deadlines to reunite the families.

As of Tuesday evening, 1,012 of the 1,634  or 61 percent  eligible parents have been reunited with their children; some 900 had final orders of deportation.

In the meeting Wednesday that at times grew combative, Castro said Nielsen told several members of Congress I am not a racist. Nobody believes families should be separated.

The Thursday deadline targets the remaining 2,551 separated children between the ages of 5 and 17. As of Monday, 1,187 children have been reunited with parents or other guardians.

The Trump administration also reported that up to 463 parents could have already been deported without their children. According to Castro, Nielsen said none of these parents have reached out to the U.S. government in an attempt to locate their children.

Saying they were deeply disturbed by the deportations, Castro and four other members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asking that he ensure U.S. embassies in Central America facilitate family reunifications.

To separate these children from their parents is disgusting and unconscionable. To then deport the parents from our country is a sign of just how far this Administration will go to demonstrate its hatred and vitriol towards immigrants, the letter reads.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego, who is presiding over a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, commended the government for reunifying 133 parents between Mondays court filing, when 879 had been reunified at that point, and a status update on Tuesday.

This is a remarkable achievement, Sabraw said.

Sabraw assured the ACLU that it would be free, post-deadline, to challenge the government on its criteria for families ineligible for reunification.

Last week, Castro and other congressmen sent a letter to the government demanding more transparency and information on the reunification process. Health and Human Services didnt respond.

What will become of these kids? Does the government plan on finding the parents? The answers are unknown because the administration refuses to respond to any congressional inquiries my colleagues and I have sent in, a frustrated Castro said at the press conference Wednesday morning.

Sabraw also reprimanded the government for not being forthcoming about the number of parents who may have been deported  the government said the 463 parents were not traceable in the U.S. but could not confirm they were all deported.

This is a deeply troubling reality, the judge said. He demanded a complete tally on Wednesday. There has to be an accounting.

The government also acknowledged that it cant find the parents of 37 children, though they could have been unaccompanied minors who were misidentified.

Castro also asked Nielsen about whether children in HHS care had become sick or died.

Nielsen responded: Not to my knowledge, according to Castro.

Nielsen also said she would look into appointing guardians for the separated children whose parents were deported and who would eventually get placed into foster care.

Theres still a lot of unanswered questions and some mysteries, Castro said in an interview later.

After all that insult and injury, we are seeing Americans stand up, said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, at the press conference. That gives me great hope, even in this dark hour when our government is letting us down.

sfosterfrau@express-news.net | @SilviaElenaFFJoe Gonzales took a deep breath and stared at the floor in search of an answer.

The Rev. Bart Roush, the moderator at this mid-February Democratic candidate forum, had just told Gonzales minorities are more likely to be selected for death prosecutions and more likely to be sentenced to death than white people.

Knowing the disparate impact of the death penalty, will you commit to ending this racist and expensive practice and never seek the death penalty? Roush asked.

Amid a series of rapid-fire yes-or-no questions, the weight of a heavy topic hung over a silent auditorium. Roush prodded: Yes or no?

Yes, Gonzales said, prompting brief audience applause.

It was a moment buried in Gonzales otherwise hostile primary battle with Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood, partly fueled by more than $1 million in campaign contributions from a political action committee funded by liberal billionaire George Soros.

Now, after knocking off LaHood by 18 points, Gonzales faces Republican nominee Tylden Shaeffer, who said in a recent interview he would seek the death penalty but reserve it for a small percentage of the cases out there.

Since the forum, Gonzales has taken a step back from his anti-death penalty commitment.

In an interview, Gonzales said he would reserve the right to seek capital punishment but only with overwhelming evidence of guilt. He had laid out the same stance in a Texas Public Radio forum shortly after his initial commitment.

Gonzales said he thought Roush had asked about opposing capital punishment based specifically on racial disparity, and noted he never had a chance to elaborate on the one-word answer.

I'm going to be very cautious about seeking the death penalty, because I think that there are a lot of problems with it, Gonzales said.

Shaeffer, who like Gonzales served as a Bexar County prosecutor before opening a private practice, said he would give very strong consideration to pursuing the death penalty for someone that's targeted first responders.

The obvious cases are situations where you have an individual who's just purely evil and has done a horrific, horrific thing, he said.

Both candidates said they would consider capital punishment on a case-by-case basis and take into account the defendants likelihood of committing future violence. But Gonzales indicated a greater overall reluctance to pursue the death penalty than Shaeffer.

Notably, he called it a tool of last resort, declined to name specific criteria aside from the severity of the offense  including the number of victims and method of homicide  and appeared more willing to embrace life without parole as an alternative punishment.

By and large, in most of those cases (capital crimes), the appropriate punishment would be for someone to end up going to prison until they die, because they're away from society, Gonzales said. There is no threat to the community at large.

In 2005, then-Gov. Rick Perry signed a law allowing juries to sentence defendants to life without parole in capital cases. The previous death penalty alternative was life in prison with the chance for parole after 40 years.

Life without parole takes them out of society at large. It does not take them out of every society, said Shaeffer, who was not informed of Gonzales response. There is a prison society. There are doctors, lawyers, counselors, guards. There are all sorts of people in that prison that have to come into contact with these individuals.

Shaeffer further said: I don't want to be reading about the Charles Mansons 50, 60 years later. It's absurd.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Texas has accounted for 37 percent of national executions, almost five times the rate of any other state. Capital punishment has declined nationally and in Texas, with 23 nationwide executions in 2017 compared to the national-record 98 executions in 1999, but Texas continues to be the most prolific state with eight of the 14 nationwide executions in 2018.

Though Bexar County prosecutors have secured more death sentences since 1974 than all but two other Texas counties, only one defendant has been sentenced in the county since 2009, according to data compiled by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Gonzales cited data showing that the Bexar County district attorneys office elected to seek the death penalty in just seven of the 26 capital murder jury trials held here in the last 11 years. Of the seven, a jury decided on a death sentence in just two cases.

What that tells me, in at least the last 10 or 11 years, Bexar County juries are reluctant to impose the death penalty, Gonzales said. So you've got to ask yourself, are we wasting money by doing that?

Some who oppose the death penalty argue it is unfairly applied based on race and poses the risk of killing wrongfully convicted inmates. Carrying out the death penalty also costs more than housing an inmate for life, and some studies have shown capital punishment does not deter violent crime.

Recent studies have also found that forensic science  including the use of fingerprinting and bloodstain-pattern analysis  is not always reliable. Both DA candidates said they would approach such cases with caution.

If it's shaky science, then that doesn't sound like something that one would be seeking the death penalty on, Shaeffer said. Later, he said capital cases are not the type of cases where you're going to go out on a limb.

On July 17, 34-year-old Christopher Young was executed for killing a San Antonio convenience store owner in a 2004 armed robbery. Earlier this year, Young sued the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, claiming racism motivated the boards decision to reject Youngs clemency bid; the victims son had opposed the execution.

Gonzales and Shaeffer each said they would not tolerate racially motivated prosecutions, and would weigh input from the victims family in choosing whether to seek the death penalty.

My job is to protect the public. Whether someone is white, black, brown, if they have done something horrible and they are someone who will be posing a threat to society  it doesnt matter what the color of their skin is, Shaeffer said.

As for the case of convicted child killer Genene Jones, both candidates said it was premature to decide what sentence they would seek if her new murder indictments go unresolved before LaHood leaves office.

Jones was sent to prison in 1984 for overdosing a Kerrville toddler on painkillers, but was due to be paroled in March under a law intended to reduce prison overcrowding. In 2017, she was indicted in the deaths of five other children, keeping her behind bars. She is not eligible for the death penalty because the incidents occurred in 1981 and 1982, when killing a child younger than 10 years old was not a capital offense in Texas.

Gonzales said life in prison would be an appropriate situation but wanted more information before committing to it.

I want to assure the victims family that if these cases linger into my administration, if I am voted into office, theres not going to be any unreasonable delay in bringing justice to those families, he said. Whoever I assign to those cases will come up to speed as soon as possible.

Asked if he planned to replace lead prosecutor Jason Goss, an assistant DA who has contributed money to Shaeffers campaign, Gonzales said he was unsure.

I will say hes not the only prosecutor who can handle a case like that, Gonzales said. There are other prosecutors who are just as competent.

Shaeffer said he would do everything in my power to make sure she stays in prison.

What I will tell you is I think Ms. Jones is the type of individual who this community never wants to see out in the free world ever again, period, Shaeffer said. That was the intention of how she was sentenced.

Jasper Scherer is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | jscherer@express-news.net | Twitter: @jaspschererPete Flores is trying to Lujan the Senate District 19 special election.

You might remember that back in January 2016, John Lujan, a genial Republican retired firefighter, pulled off a big upset in the Texas House District 118 special election runoff.

The only reason Lujan even made it to the runoff in that reliably Democratic district was that South Side rivals Tomas Uresti and Gabe Farias focused their attacks on each other and split the Democratic vote.

Flores, a genial Republican retired game warden, is hoping for the same effect in a Senate race created when convicted felon Carlos Uresti (Tomass baby brother) resigned his seat last month. Flores has been able to float above the fray while the two most prominent Democrats  Roland Gutierrez and Pete Gallego  sling mud at each other.

Like Texas House District 118, the sprawling, 17-county Senate District 19 is solidly Democratic, but the low-turnout, free-for-all dynamics of a special election are a political law unto themselves.

A five-week special election is a tough thing to do in a district this geographically large, said Matt Mackowiak, the chairman of the Travis County Republican Party and a consultant for Floress campaign. Considering that you have effectively four established brands on the ballot, theres a lot of different ways this thing could go.

Related: Gallego faces residency questions in Senate race

On Wednesday, Flores rolls out his first TV ad, a five-figure buy that will hit the entire district  including the San Antonio market  via Fox News. The commercial makes the case that in a crowded field with four Democrats, three Republicans and one libertarian, Flores is the GOPs lone legitimate hope to flip this seat.

The 30-second TV spot shows Flores  clad in a cowboy hat, blue-and-white checked western shirt, blue jeans and boots  walking by a pond in the Castroville area.

A voice-over narrator tells viewers they have a golden opportunity to elect a conservative Republican in the July 31 special election.

Flores then stares into the camera and says, There are three career politicians for Texas Senate and Im not one of them.

The third career politician he references is Tomas Uresti, whose presence in the race only intensifies the split among Democratic voters.

Floress advertising strategy leaves no doubt where hes directing his message, from the use of GOP-friendly Fox News to the mention of his endorsement from Texas Right to Life and the ads insistence that hell fight for our 2nd Amendment rights.

On the campaign trail, Flores has come out for school vouchers and advocated for the elimination of property taxes (albeit with a sales-tax hike), two stances sure to win favor among GOP base voters.

Related: Sexual assault allegations surface about husband of GOP party chair

If he wins, Flores, unlike Lujan, would get to serve for at least one legislative session. And his camp believes that if he carries the special election, his chances in 2020 would be bolstered by the fact that Texas will no longer have straight-ticket voting (generally assumed to be a benefit to Democrats) when that election cycle rolls around.

As Republicans learn that this is a winnable seat, that it allows us to hold it until 2020, to have two-thirds of the state Senate, to potentially affect redistricting, to have a voice on a lot of these issues, theres real value in this Senate seat, Mackowiak said.

Flores, who is based in Pleasanton, established his brand in 2016, when he challenged Carlos Uresti and received 97,682 votes (40.4 percent) in the general election. He also served as caucus chair for his Senate district at last months Texas GOP Convention.

Flores is also hoping to benefit from controversies that have plagued his Democratic opponents. The Express-News recently reported that Gutierrez has faced five state and federal tax liens and two breach-of-contract lawsuits in recent years and that Gallego appears to reside with his family in Austin, outside the district.

In a race with a turnout expected to hover around 20,000, it might take less than 5,000 votes for Flores to make it to the next round.

I cant overstate the level of apathy thats out there, Mackowiak said, more than anything else because it was called with a quick timetable and its the worst part of the summer.

But maybe the best part of the summer for an underdog Republican.

@gilgamesh470

Gilbert Garcia is a columnist covering the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470Contributed / Contributed photo

FAIRFIELD  A Massachusetts man was arrested Sunday night after witnesses said he allegedly slammed his girlfriends head into the side of his truck.

The girlfriend, police said, was intoxicated and scratched her boyfriends neck, threw items out of the truck and deliberately locked the keys inside. She was also arrested.STAMFORD  A city juvenile who pawned $35,000 worth of stolen possessions while allegedly robbing two occupied homes on Willowbrook Avenue two weeks ago had more burglary charges added to his adult cases.

During an appearance at the Stamford courthouse late Tuesday morning, Dereck Ramirez, 16, was charged with two counts of second-degree burglary, first-degree burglary, second-degree larceny and sixth-degree burglary.

Judge Lisa Grasso-Egan ordered that Ramirez be held in lieu of an additional $100,000 court appearance bond on the new charges. He is being held at the Manson Youth Institution in Cheshire.

A week ago, prosecutors moved the Willowbrook Avenue burglary charges from July 11 from the juvenile docket to the adult docket because of the severity of the crimes.

In October, Ramirez allegedly broke into three Stamford homes and led police in a chase to Pound Ridge, New York, in a stolen Silverado pickup truck. There, police say he rammed three Samford police cars before turning the pickup onto its roof in an attempt to get away.

He was extradited to Stamford in February and the burglary charges were put on the adult docket. But the charges were then moved to the juvenile docket, where they would have stayed had he not been allegedly caught on video for the Willowbrook Avenue burglary spree.

No pleas have been made in any of the cases. Right after Ramirez appearance in court Tuesday, his criminal defense attorney Frank Bevilacqua declined comment, saying he has not yet been presented with any of the police evidence against his client.

jnickerson@stamfordadvocate.comWASHINGTON  This just in from Hearst summer intern Sarah Roach:

Lane Murdock didnt think her petition to protest gun violence would spread like wildfire.

But the clarion call from the Ridgefield High School sophomore morphed into more than 2,500 fellow students walking out of class on the anniversary of the 1999 Columbine H.S. massacre. Its no surprise that high schools were so quick to join in  the petition was created on the night of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida that left 14 dead.

Within days, Murdock assumed a leadership position over a nationwide movement among high school students to curb gun violence, an extra spark on the momentum already begun by Parkland students.

Now, Murdock is a Courage Fellowship recipient, diving into Giffords Law Centers first-ever program aiming to fight gun violence through meetings with lawmakers and trips to Washington.

The Ridgefield native isnt the only fellow  shell work with 28 other high school students from states including New York and Florida.

At 15, I started a national protest that gave teenagers a voice against gun violence, Murdock said. Now I dedicate my time to work with other activists. I havent made any money. Weve made a change, thats what matters.

As foundations crumble

Putin and Trump, the Mueller investigation, Michael Cohens secret tapes, hush money for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels? You could be forgiven for believing the world is crumbling at the seams.

But if youre a Connecticut homeowner with a crumbling foundation, youre probably looking to Washington to get its act together and help out people like you.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy introduced the Aid to Homeowners with Crumbling Foundations Act in April, but it went nowhere fast.

But now, the two are jockeying to get at least some of its provisions through the Senate via appropriations bills that could be voted on Thursday.

Their amendments would create a $100 million fund administered by HUD that would go to states like Connecticut, which has a nonprofit fund to help repair foundations cracked by pyrrhotite.

Pyrrhotite is a mineral in some forms of cement that causes cracks and crumbling. At least 8,000 Connecticut homes in central and eastern Connecticut have been impacted, with some estimates stretching the number to 34,000.

I have seen firsthand the destruction and heartache caused by these crumbling foundations  a natural disaster that has been compounded by the utter failure of the federal government to respond, Blumenthal said. Local and state governments have stepped up, and now the federal government must follow suit.

It remains to be seen whether the Blumenthal-Murphy amendments make it through the Senate sausage-making. The Senate-passed appropriations bills would have to be reconciled with comparable House legislation before it goes to President Trumps desk.

So how it works out is, at this point, anybodys guess.

But nothing ventured is nothing gained.

dan@hearstdc.comWall Street analysts have given iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but iShares MSCI Switzerland ETF wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.by Michael Felner | Wed, Jul 25th 7:20am EDT

Jordan Zimmerman surrendered four runs on seven hits and a walk on Tuesday against the Royals. He struck out four and allowed two home runs in the loss.by Nick Wilson | Cavaliers Correspondent | Tue, Jul 24th 12:38pm EDT

Kevin Love signed a four-year deal worth $120 million with the Cleveland Cavilers. (Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter)

Fantasy Impact:

Love will likely play a larger offensive role for the Cavs now that LeBron James is gone. Love has always been a solid pickup in fantasy and should be an early round selection this season. This year Love will have even more upside as long as he can stay on the court.It is "overwhelmingly likely" that the farming industry will have tariff free trade access to EU markets post-Brexit, according to Michael Gove.

The Defra Secretary and the Secretary of State for Wales, Alun Cairns met with NFU Cymru at the Royal Welsh Show to discuss the major issues affecting the industry in the future.

The farming union said it "cautiously welcomes" Mr Gove's comments, in particular his optimism around future trading relationships with the EU.

The comments come as farmers increasingly worry about the prospect of losing the free and unfettered access to European markets they currently enjoy as a Member State of the European Union.

The union did, however, stress that greater clarity is needed around the make-up of trade negotiations before farmers can "truly step forward with confidence" in making decisions that will affect their businesses in the future.

NFU Cymru President, John Davies said Welsh farmers will be "waiting anxiously" for more concrete assurances and clarity on Mr Gove's statement.

Our meeting provided us with the opportunity to stress that farmers in Wales have a real hunger and desire to be the best in the world and they are up for this challenge provided they are given the right conditions to prosper in the future, Mr Davies said.

If Mr Goves positive comments at the Royal Welsh Show come to fruition that gives the industry a good platform to drive on and succeed.

'Highest standards'

The importance of food production and the role of the farmer was also stressed at the meeting with Mr Gove and Mr Cairns.

It follows the release of a survey by NFU Cymru which shows that 83% of the Welsh public acknowledge the farmer's role as food producers and believe the industry should be supported for this service as part of any new agricultural policy in Wales.

Following the meeting, Mr Gove and Mr Cairns signed the NFU Cymru #WeAreWelshFarming pledge board to show their support for Welsh farmers and wrote a statement stating what they associate with the agricultural industry in Wales.

Mr Gove wrote: "The finest food from the most beautiful land", while Mr Cairns penned: "The highest standards and the greatest diversity and the cleanest environment".

The meeting comes as the NFU described a 'no deal' Brexit as the "Armageddon scenario" for the British farming industry.

NFU president Minette Batters used a speech at the Royal Welsh Show to say how crashing out of the EU without a deal must be avoided.Beavers have arrived in the Forest of Dean as part of a reintroduction scheme amid concern from the farming industry over a possible impact on agriculture.

The pair of Eurasian Beavers arrived to the Forest of Dean this week for the first time for around 400 years.

It is expected that the beavers activity in the Forest of Dean will improve biodiversity in their new 6.5 hectare home and may have the potential to reduce local flood risk.

Regular monitoring will continue on site throughout the three-year project to assess these ecosystem benefits.

The release was attended by Defra Secretary Michael Gove, who announced 20,000 of new funding for the trial reintroduction of beavers in Devon to understand further the impact of bringing beavers back.

The Forestry Commission unveiled plans for a trial reintroduction into the Greathough Brook in March 2017. Since then, Natural England granted Forestry Commission officials a licence to release the beavers.

However, farmers have expressed concern about the increasing amount of beaver numbers in the UK.

Farming union NFU Scotland has insisted that 'proper management' of the species is fundamental in order to avoid impact on agriculture.

Some farmers have warned of considerable damage to farmland and the spread of disease.

The Scottish government has also announced that beavers will be reintroduced in Scotland and will receive a special protected status.

'Actively managed'

Scotland's Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said the species will have to be 'actively managed', in line with practices in other European countries.

But NFU Scotland and other land management and environmental organisations wrote a joint letter to Scotland's Ms Cunningham earlier this year to set out broad principles and key components of an appropriate management regime.

Rob Livesey, NFU Scotlands Vice President previously commented about the situation, saying beavers must be "appropriately managed" to minimise the risk of unacceptable impacts on agriculture.

He said it is a view that is shared by many within the conservation community.

He continued: It is essential that Scottish agriculture is not negatively affected by this decision.

NFUS said it is sceptical that beavers can be excluded from areas of highly productive farmland that are heavily reliant on complex drainage systems and flood banks.A new body in England is needed to negotiate wages and better conditions for agriculture workers, a food campaign group has said.

In a new briefing out today (25 July), the Sustain alliance said the current state of UK and English farm employment and the loss of the Agriculture Wages Board (AWB) means a new body should be created.

More than 40 per cent of the UK's agricultural workforce are employees, rather than farmers or family labour.

Yet English agriculture workers, unlike those in Wales and Scotland, have no statutory protection for their pay and conditions since the abolition of the AWB in 2013.

According to Sustain, this leaves English agriculture workers more vulnerable to unfavourable wages and conditions in a system where markets do not value agricultural workers as vital contributors to the food chain.

"This needs to change and should be part of the new UK Agriculture Bill due in summer 2018," the alliance said.

The briefing follows news of Labour pledging to reintroduce the AWB in a move which Jeremy Corbyn says will "bring back millions of pounds to English rural workers".

The board was abolished in England five years ago by David Cameron's Conservative government due to an increased minimum wage and the introduction of the national living wage.

But the Sustain alliance now says that the EU Referendum vote has made it more difficult for farmers to recruit and retain farm workers because of the fall in value of sterling and a "more hostile climate" for migrant workers.

Some farmers are already highlighting how unpicked crops are going to waste; others say they are planning to move their businesses abroad, or have done already.

'Real crisis'

Sustain explains that a new collective bargaining body to protect existing workers in England and enhance the status of farm work to attract recruits into the industry is needed to fight such issues.

The campaign group says markets need to be regulated to ensure farmers can earn sufficient income from trading to meet the costs and working environment that result from decent pay and conditions.

Deals and pricing in the food supply chain needs to be regulated to ensure fair incomes for suppliers, including farmers and growers, and therefore those working for them.

Making this happen should be part of the new UK Agriculture Bill, due after the summer 2018 Parliamentary recess.

Vicki Hird, Sustainable Farming campaign coordinator for Sustain said the industry is "facing a real crisis" in farm workers.

The loss of the agricultural wages board was far from popular amongst farmers as well as workers, as it provided an easy tool for farmers and a level playing field. It needs to be reinstated, otherwise who will want to pick our crops?," she said.The current "carrot crisis" exacerbated by adverse weather conditions is likely to continue for months, according to growers.

British carrot growers advise that recent adverse weather conditions will lead to the lowest yields for decades and the highest levels of imports.

According to Rodger Hobson, Chairman of the British Carrot Growers Association, he said the "carrot crisis" is likely to continue for anything up to 11 months.

This years onion harvest is also likely to be 25 percent down both in terms of the quantity of onions and the size of the onions harvested.

The hot weather the UK has experienced in June and July have put the onion crop under considerable stress affecting both yield and bulb size.

For carrots, the UK is traditionally self-sufficient with around 97 per cent being supplied by British growers.

Mr Hobson said: In fact, the British carrot growing industry is respected worldwide for its ability to produce fresh from the field carrots 52 weeks of the year. However, we have suffered the perfect storm of poor conditions this year.

Firstly, we had the Beast from the East which produced excess rain throughout the spring, delaying planting by a month, and reducing the growing season by around 18 per cent.

Then we have had the hottest summer since 1976. Carrots grow best at temperatures around 15 to 18 degrees C, this summer weve had daily averages of 25 to 32C and the carrots have just stopped growing and are wilting in the fields, he added.

'Turning off the tap'

This weather has hit all the major growing areas of Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Lancashire and Fife.

Mr Hobson points out that while some imports may be available, mainland Europe has also suffered from similar weather conditions and carrots are not plentiful there either.

The situation is compounded by Water Restrictions that are "turning off the tap" on irrigation systems that are vital to the crop.

The UKs leading carrot agronomist, Howard Hinds said that he estimates that the crops he manages will yield 30 to 40 per cent less than last year.

Mr Hobson added: I have spoken to all the major carrot growers this week and they unanimously agree that the poor yields will massively push up UK production costs and that substantial imports will be required this season.

Carrots are undoubtedly the nations favourite vegetable and will still remain great value in terms of the nutrition and health benefits they provide. However, it is almost inevitable that the price in the shops will go up.

The warning from the British Carrot Growers Association comes just days after the NFU highlighting how crops are "being parched to the bone" as the heatwave cranks up a notch for most of this week.Half of farmers face ruin from subsidy cuts, warn experts

Up to half of farmers could see profits 'wiped out'Salman Khan ?? ??? ????? Ranbir Kapoor; Sanju ?? ??? ????? ???? Fees | FilmiBeat

Ranbir Kapoor, who is currently riding high on the massive success of his latest film, Sanju, has apparently doubled his endorsement fee. A report in DNA quoted a source as saying, "Ranbir has almost doubled his pay in the brand space. He is quite popular among the youth. While none of his failures deterred his brand value, his latest hit has only bettered it."

Reportedly, earlier Ranbir used to charge between Rs 3 crore to Rs 3.5 crore for a day's work on commercials and now he might increase his new quote to at least Rs 6 crore per day. According to Rediff, the actor currently endorses brands such as Asian Paints, Pepsi, Panasonic, Renault, Flipkart, Macroman, Saavn, and Hero MotoCorp.

Vijay Subramaniam, co-CEO of KWAN, the company that manages Ranbir, said, "Ranbir has mostly 10 brands (endorsements) at any given time and this makes him quite exclusive."

Considering Ranbir, man of the hour, we aren't surprised to learn that he is inundated with brand endorsement offers. However, the actor is quite careful, when it comes to endorsing any brand, as he doesn't want to receive flak from him fans.

On the work front, Ranbir will be next seen in Brahmastra. The film also marks his first collaboration with Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan and Nagarjuna Akkineni and third collaboration with director Ayan Mukerji.

Apart from Brahmastra, Ranbir has also signed Luv Ranjan's next, which also stars Ajay Devgn in the lead role. Ranbir will also be seen in YRF's Shamshera, opposite Vaani Kapoor. The film also features Sanjay Dutt in a negative role!Salman Khan Gets Ready For A Daredevil Act

Ali Abbas Zafar captioned the picture as, "Ring of fire ..... & Bharat @BeingSalmanKhan . Eid 2019." Looks like we will get to witness some breathtaking stunts in Bharat.

Look Who Is Here!

Salman's designer Ashley Rebello recently shared everyone in tizzy when he shared Salman's new look from Bharat. The celebrity stylist once again left all in surprise when he posted a picture of himself with Game Of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage's look-alike, Tariq Mir, from the sets of Bharat.

Meanwhile, Nora Fatehi Is The Latest Addition To The Cast

Speaking about being a part of Salman Khan starrer Bharat, Nora said, "Excited to be a part of project of this magnitude. It's a dream come true ! The team is impeccable and the combination of Ali sir and Salman sir is the perfect combination. For me these were reasons good enough to willingly come on board. Looking forward to begin shooting soon."

Bharat Is An Official Remake Of A Korean Film

The Salman Khan starrer is an official adaptation of 2014 South Korean film, Ode to My Father which depicted modern Korean history from the 1950s to the present day through the life of an ordinary man and events such as the Hungnam Evacuation during the 1950 Korean War, the government's decision to dispatch nurses and miners to West Germany in the '60s and the Vietnam War. The film will feature Salman Khan sporting five different looks spanning 60 years, wherein a crucial part will showcase the actor in his late 20s, looking much leaner and younger.

Mark The Date In Your Calendar

Jointly produced by Apurva and Alvira Agnihotri with Bhushan Kumar, Bharat is slated for an Eid 2019 release.Bruna Abdullah just got engaged to her Scottish boyfriend Al; and he got down on his knees to propose to the love of his life in Zermatt, Switzerland. Bruna, who shook a leg with Akshay Kumar and John Abraham in the song 'Subah Hone Na De' from Desi Boyz, was dating Al since a long time and the duo are officially now a couple. She shared a video clip of Al going down on his knees during the proposal and captioned it as, "...and this happened...".

Check out the video clip below! You're gonna love it, folks!

Definitely sweet dreams are made of these, ain't it right? Bruna Abdullah looks so happy and she definitely couldn't control her excitement that she just cried in happiness and jumped all around. She also posted another picture with Al and captioned it, "The best day". Well, it surely is the best day of their lives!

Coming back to her Bollywood stint, Bruna Abdullah was first seen in the movie Cash in 2007, starring Ajay Devgn and Dia Mirza; and she was seen in an item number song 'Reham Kare'. She also starred in the Imran Khan-Sonam Kapoor starrer I Hate Luv Stories and was then noticed by the audiences. Bruna struck gold in the song 'Subha Hone Na De' from Desi Boyz, as the track ended up being a hit, and later on went to star in Grand Masti, Jai Ho, Mastizaade and other flicks.

She was last seen in the movie Udanchhoo in 2018 and currently she has no other Bollywood projects in hand. We guess now that she's engaged and creating a buzz, film-makers might be keen on casting her again and we'd be glad to see her sizzle on the silver screen.

Salman Khan Can't Digest Sanju's Success? Refuses To Watch The Biopic Despite Sanjay Dutt's Request

Read In Kannada:       .!Mehjabi's Brother Has Always Been Passionate About Music

"More than me, my brother has been passionate about music from childhood. During my stint in Bigg Boss, I had spoken about him and the song. When I came out, I was surprised that he hasn't released the video yet. He asked me to join him and I was more than happy about it."

Mehjabi Says Bigg Boss 11 Changed Her Life

"People recognise me and that's a great feeling. From a no one, you have so many wanting to meet you and click pictures. It's a surreal feeling. Thanks to the show, our music video is also getting the required promotion. The housemates have been kind enough to post about it. It feels great that they are still maintaining the relationship we formed in the house. Bigg Boss has been a life-changing experience for me."

Mehjabi Wishes Hina Khan Good Luck

When asked about her music video releasing around the same time as Hina Khan's, against whom she had spoken after her stint on Bigg Boss, Mehjabi said, "What can I say? It wasn't predecided. I would definitely wish her luck with the song. Both the music videos are completely different. I think each will have its own audience. We aren't out to compete but only entertain."

Mehjabi On Her Transformation

"A lot of people are terming it as a major transformation (laughs). It's sad that the audience could not see this side of my personality in Bigg Boss. But I am happy that they liked it."

She May Be Seen In Punjabi Videos

When Mehjabi was asked if she was interested in acting, she replied saying, "I haven't thought about acting as of now. But I would love to star in music videos. We are in talks with few Punjabi songs also."Bigg Boss 12 Will Premiere On

According to India Forums latest reports, Bigg Boss 12 will premiere on September 16, 2018. The report also says that the adventure reality show Khatron Ke Khiladi was originally supposed to air around September, 2018, but has been postponed to make way for Bigg Boss 12. Rohit's Shetty's Khatron Ke Khiladi will go on air in January, 2019, reportedly.

Dates Blocked To Shoot The Promotional Video

A source connected to Bigg Boss told Mumbai Mirror, "Salman has already blocked his dates to shoot the promotional videos in the first week of August. They will be shot at Mehboob Studios. As per current discussions, the Bigg Boss 12 finale will happen around the last week of December."

Work On The Sets Has Already Begun

Bigg Boss 12 has different plans this year as the contestants will be seen in pairs. The pair doesn't necessarily have to be a couple. It could be a mother-son duo or siblings. Apparently, the Bigg Boss house will be based in Lonavala and the team has already been working on the sets.

Salman Will Be Seen Juggling

Just a few days ago, the makers of the reality game show Dus Ka Dum had announced that the show will be pulled off the air as it's failing to earn good TRP. After his stint on Dus Ka Dum, Salman will be next seen on Bigg Boss 12 which he will be hosting while working on his film Bharat. Therefore, Salman will be seen juggling between two of his projects.

Tentative Contestants List

As of now, the tentative contestants list includes, Rithvik Dhanjani-Asha, Srishty Rode-Manish Naggdev, Gurmeet Chaudhary-Debina Bonnerjee and Danny D-Mahika Sharma.MetalNRG has agreed to acquire all the interests of Winston Gold in the project known as Gold Ridge Project ("Gold Ridge" or the "Project"), located in the Dos Cabezas Mining District, Cochise County, south-eastern Arizona, United States of America;

Project consists approximately 2,305 acres (9.3km 2 ) of tenement including 343 acres of patented mining claims, 112 company-owned un-patented mining claims; and 12 leased un-patented mining claims;

The interests acquired include three historical producing gold mines; Gold Prince mine; Gold Ridge mine and Dives mine; each was worked over various intervals between discovery in 1877 and 1996;

Lack of modern exploration coverage and existence of at least three high grade gold deposits within the Project's 5.2km of shear zone strike, results in strong potential for the discovery of further gold mineralisation and for establishing compliant Resources.

MetalNRG has agreed to acquire 100% of Gold Ridge for a total consideration, in cash and shares, of US$700,000 (GBP 529,942).Further details of the consideration are set out below.

Arizona is a mining friendly jurisdiction with an established permitting framework. Fraser Institute 2017 Investment Attractiveness Index ranked Arizona 2ndby US State (after Nevada) and 9th/ 91 globally.

Rolf Gerritsen Chief Executive Officer of MetalNRG PLC commented:

"I am delighted to announce this transaction which will be the Company's first major acquisition. The acquisition of Gold Ridge in Arizona comes at a time when there is an increasing interest in gold production opportunities and when Arizona mining in general is drawing particular interest after South32's recent bid to acquire Arizona Mining for US$1.3billion.

With the Gold Ridge transaction we acquire significant acreage, a range of mining claims and three former producing mines in one package and we look forward to developing the Project and looking at the opportunity to bring the mines back into production.

Alongside this acquisition, MetalNRG is examining other opportunities in the same geographic area and further acquisitions may be considered in due course.

I expect further updates will be released to the market in the near term on the advancement of Gold Ridge and any further acquisition opportunities that we may wish to pursue."

Further Information - Gold Ridge Acquisition Terms

Having signed the sales & purchase agreement, MetalNRG will now carry out further due diligence on the Project which will need to be completed before 30 October 2018.LONDON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fund Finance Association (FFA), a non-profit industry association in the fund finance market announced it will be hosting its fourth annual European Fund Finance Symposium on October 24, 2018 at The Landmark Hotel in London.

The event brings together investors, fund managers, bankers and lawyers for a day of education and networking within the fund finance market; it holds particular appeal to CFOs and those responsible for arranging financing within their respective investment firms. More than 400 industry professionals from 135 different firms attended the FFA's 2017 European Symposium. In past years, FFA Symposium topics have included discussion on European Investment and Financing Activity, Women in Fund Finance: Status in Equality, Global Perspectives on Fund Finance and others.

Information about tickets, registration and the conference agenda can be found at www.fundfinanceassociation.com. Attendance is complimentary for fund managers and investors.

In addition to the European Fund Finance Symposium, the FFA has announced a new location for their 9th Annual Global Symposium. The Global Fund Finance Symposium will be held from March 24-26, 2019 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Please email info@fundfinanceassociation.com to find out more. Women in Fund Finance will be hosting events in Paris and London this fall. Please visit www.womeninfundfinance.com for more information.

About Fund Finance Association

The Fund Finance Association is a non-profit industry association in the fund finance market, co-located in New York and Charlotte, N.C.

Its core mission is to:Clear Leisure plc (AIM: CLP) is an AIM listed investment company with a portfolio of companies primarily encompassing the leisure and real estate sectors mainly in Italy. The focus of management is to pursue the monetisation of all of the Company's existing assets, through selected realisations, court-led recoveries of misappropriated assets and substantial debt-recovery processes. The Company has recently launched a joint venture initiative in the cryptocurrency mining sector. For further information, please visit, www.clearleisure.co.uk

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, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

With investments starting at GBP1,000, Blockchain trading is no longer restricted to financial institutions, HNWIs

Blockchain technology can transform the UK real estate market and the wider economy by bringing in a new level of transparency to attract global players and open opportunities to first time buyers, investment and advisory specialists, Cryptech said today.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722700/Omar_Jackson_Director_Cryptech.jpg )



The company believes the simplification of real estate transactions through Blockchain will allow assets to be more efficiently and securely traded, invigorating property markets and improving the overall liquidity of the industry, and in turn solving the main downside of real estate as an asset class.

"Blockchain can be used to transfer ownership of individual properties quickly and securely, making it more transparent and attractive to investors," said Cryptech Director, Omar Jackson.

"We will see huge costs removed as a result of a more streamlined process because Blockchain can also be used to manage tenancy contracts, payments and maintenance across a portfolio of properties, or one individual property.

"One of the biggest opportunities in the property market is to use Blockchain to 'tokenise' real estate assets, meaning an investor can purchase parts of a property rather than the entire property. These parts can be traded online in seconds, making UK real estate far more accessible and attractive to investors from all over the world. We believe this will become a major new trend in the industry this year, especially for first time buyers who are often priced out of the market."

Cryptech, a Blockchain organisation which provides investment opportunities to individuals and institutions seeking to explore the technology, has offices in both London and Dubai with teams operating between the two on behalf of clients.

By offering clients a minimum investment option of USD$1,000/GBP1,000 it has opened up a trading opportunity which previously was largely restricted to financial institutions and HNWIs. After 12 months, clients can redeem their capital back with the maximum returns generated.

The company was recently acquired by private equity firm Berkeley Assets which appointed Jackson as a new Partner to head up the business.

"Cryptech guides investors wishing to trade in cryptocurrencies and invests in innovative start-up companies creating Blockchain technology solutions to revolutionise businesses globally," explained Jackson.

"We have recently expanded our reach globally, attracting interest from investors across the world who are eager to explore the opportunities to achieve substantial short term growth in the technology."

The offshore company invests in ideas and start-ups that are utilising Blockchain and actively trades the top four cryptocurrencies in the world, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin, utilising a two-pronged strategy to deliver consistent gains across cryptocurrencies and Blockchain.RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ACWA Power, a leading developer, owner, and operator of power generation and water desalination plants, is delighted to announce that China's Silk Road Fund will acquire a 24.01% equity interest in the 700MW DEWA Concentrated Solar Power ("CSP") project in the United Arab Emirates.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/559485/ACWA_Power_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722716/ACWA_Power_Silk_Road.jpg )

In the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Excellency Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), and Yanzhi Wang, President of the Silk Road Fund exchanged the executed investment agreements in respect of DEWA Concentrated Solar Power Project (DEWA CSP Project) which will be jointly invested and developed by DEWA, Silk Road Fund, and ACWA Power.

The DEWA CSP project, which was awarded to an ACWA Power led consortium in 2017, is the 4th phase of the Mohamed bin Rashid Solar Park, the largest single-site concentrated solar power plant in the world. The project uses a state-of-the-art combination of a central tower and parabolic trough technologies to collect energy from the sun, store it in molten salt and produce steam as required to generate electricity during the day and throughout the night.

The project is projected to deliver electricity at a levelised tariff of US $7.30 cents per kilowatt-hour 24 hours a day; a cost level that competes with fossil fuel generated electricity without subsidy for reliable and dispatchable solar energy around the clock. The plant will support the Dubai Clean Energy strategy 2050 to increase the share of clean energy in Dubai to 25% by 2030, and is expected to provide anannual saving of 2.4 Million tons of CO2.

Silk Road Fund is a market-oriented, international and professional medium to long-term development and investment institution. It invests in a broad spectrum of sectors under the framework of the "Belt and Road" initiative including infrastructure, energy resources, industrial capacity cooperation and financial cooperation.

Paddy Padmanathan, Chief Executive Officer of ACWA Power, said: "The introduction of a new investor into the DEWA CSP is absolutely in line with ACWA Power's established strategy of sharing investments with value adding partners who will in turn bolster our projects. We could not have found a more capable partner than Silk Road Fund to complement DEWA and us on what is the largest single renewable energy project underway in the world today.

"This co-investment also is in keeping with our investment strategy of efficiently deploying our own capital to retain a meaningful level of equity interest in each project that is sufficient to permit us to be the long-term investor with de facto control over the investment and for us to remain focused on reliably delivering electricity and desalinated water at low cost."

Rajit Nanda, Chief Investment Officer of ACWA Power, said: "I am delighted that we have reached an agreement to introduce an investor of the quality and international reputation of the Silk Road Fund.

"This investment is a testimony to the strong track record ACWA Power has already demonstrated as a reliable and responsible project developer and operator."

For more information, visit http://www.acwapower.com

Media contact details:

Jon Barber

Director - Marketing & Communications

jbarber@acwapower.com

+971(0)45091052

Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Ltd - Notice of AGM

Atlantis Japan Growth Fund Limited

(A closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 30709)

LEI Number: 5493004IW0LDG0OPGL69

(The "Company")

25 JULY 2018

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the 2018 Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at the offices of Jupiter Asset Management Limited, The Zig Zag Building, 70 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6SQ on 14 September 2018 at 3.30pm.

The Notice of AGM has been posted to shareholders. The Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements of the Company for the year ended 30 April 2018 will be available for download from the Company's website http://www.quaerocapital.uk/funds/atlantis-japan-growth-fund-limited/literature.

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.3, the Notice of Annual General Meeting, proxy form and accounts have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/NSM



Enquiries:

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

The Company Secretary

Trafalgar Court

Les Banques

St Peter Port

Guernsey

GY1 3QL



Tel: 01481 745001



END



ALBANY, New York, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled 'EMI Shielding Materials Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018-2026', the global EMI shielding materials market was valued at around US$ 5,400 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of over 6% from 2018 to 2026. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) can be defined as the electromagnetic field in radio frequency spectrum caused by nearby electronic devices, which can negatively affect the working of electronic devices located in surrounding areas. The electromagnetic field is also harmful to humans. Hence, EMI shielding materials such as metals, laminates, and conductive coatings are used to surround electronic devices and guard them against electromagnetic frequencies. These materials are extensively employed in defense, electronics, aerospace, automotive, and other industries where large amounts of electronic communication are used. Majority of electronic devices and equipment that are sold across the globe are manufactured in Asia Pacific and exported to other regions such as North America, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Hence, Asia Pacific is a major consumer of EMI shielding materials.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/664869/Transparency_Market_Research_Logo.jpg )



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Growth of the telecommunications industry drives the market

The telecommunications industry has been growing for the last 30 years. Demand for EMI shielding materials in this industry increases with every new technological development such as smartphones and Internet. Rise in use of these technologies is projected to increase emission of electromagnetic signals; therefore, it is important that signals do not interfere with each other, which can be ensured by the use of EMI shielding materials. In the telecommunications industry, EMI shielding materials are used in communication towers and associated wires and cables and server rooms and related instrumentation. Apart from shielding electronic devices from electromagnetic frequencies, EMI shielding materials also help protect devices during extreme environmental conditions such as strong winds.

View in-depth table of contents for this report @https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/19091

Expansion of EMI Shielding Materials Market Restricted by Regulatory Guidelines

Electromagnetic frequencies are harmful to human health. These also affect the working of other electronic devices. Hence, there are regulations regarding excessive emission of electromagnetic frequencies to protect humans and other nearby electronic devices. These regulations ensure the appropriate use of EMI shielding materials. However, stringent enforcement regulations have slowed down the development of advanced electronic devices. This, in turn, negatively affects the utilization of EMI shielding materials in industries such as telecommunications, aerospace, defense, electronics, and health care.

Use of EMI Shielding Materials to Increase in the Defense Industry

Many devices and equipment in the defense industry such as GPSs, radars, military satellites, and handheld communication devices require EMI shielding materials. The number of devices using electromagnetic signals has increased due to the development of advanced weapons such as fighter aircrafts and drones. This has increased the importance of ensuring that electromagnetic signals do not disrupt military devices, as improper working of devices can risk lives of soldiers. As a result, the importance and use of EMI shielding materials is expected to increase in the defense industry.

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Global EMI Shielding Materials Market is segmented into Material, Application, and Region

In terms of material, the market has been categorized into conductive coatings, metals, conductive plastics, laminates, and others. The conductive coatings segment is likely to increase at a considerable pace during the forecast period, as it can be used individually as well as in combination with other materials such as conductive plastics and laminates. The metals segment is also expected to expand at a substantial pace, as these can be used in a wide range of end-user industries such as automotive, defense, aerospace, and telecommunications. In terms of applications, the market has been segmented into defense, electronics, automotive, telecommunications, aerospace, and medical. The defense segment is expected to expand at a rapid pace due to the increase in activities such as manufacturing and innovation in the industry. This segment is likely to be followed by the automotive segment, which has been a consistent consumer of EMI shielding materials. In terms of region, the market has been divided into North America (the U.S. and Canada), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America), Europe (Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Russia & CIS, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, and Rest of Asia Pacific) and Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, and Rest of Middle East & Africa).

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Companies Headquartered in Developed Economies to Dominate Global Market

Key players in the global EMI shielding materials market include Laird Technologies, 3M Inc., Parker Hannifin Corporation, HEICO Corporation, and Simotec (Thailand) Co. Ltd. Every region and country has several local players. However, their geographic reach and variety of products are highly limited as compared to multinational companies.

Global EMI Shielding Materials Market: by Material

Conductive coatings

Metals

Conductive plastics

Laminates

Others

Global EMI Shielding Materials Market: by Application

Automotive

Defense

Electronics

Telecommunications

Aerospace

Medical

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Research Blog:https://cmfenews.com/ALBANY, New York, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The global oilfield chemicals market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 7.1% during the forecast period, according to a new research report titled 'Oilfield Chemicals Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018-2026' published by Transparency Market Research (TMR). According to the report, in terms of volume, the global oilfield chemicals market is expected to surpass around 41 million tons by 2026. The global oilfield chemicals market is driven by rise in the development of unconventional oil and gas fields, increase in the demand for crude oil, and surge in crude oil prices. North America is estimated to hold a major share of the global oilfield chemicals market during the forecast period, owing to the development of fields for shale gas, tight oil, and CBM in the region. The drilling fluids application segment held a major share of the global market in 2017 and the trend is likely to continue throughout the forecast period.

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Rise in demand for surfactants for upstream, midstream and downstream operations in the oilfield sector

Based on product, the oilfield chemicals market has been segmented into biocides, corrosion and scale inhibitors, demulsifiers, surfactants, polymers, lubricants, hydrogen sulfide scavengers, fluid loss additives, and others. Surfactants are surface-active agents used for lowering the surface tension of liquid molecules, thereby aiding in the separation of a liquid and a solid or that of two liquids. Surfactants provide dispersing, foaming, and reduction in viscosity. They increase inhibitive properties of the fluid and also improve their tolerance. Surfactants have a wide range of applications in the oilfield sector. They are used throughout the lifecycle of an oil field right from exploration, drilling, cementing, production, and well stimulation to work over and completion. The surfactants segment is projected to hold a major share of the global oilfield chemicals market, in terms of both value and volume, during the forecast period and the trend is expected to continue throughout the forecast period.

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Rise in development of unconventional oilfields to propel the demand for oilfield chemicals

Shale gas reserves have low permeability. In order to recover the natural gas contained in these reserves, hydraulic fracking is applied. Specialty chemicals are required to ensure that the hydraulic fracking process is efficient. Shale gas reserves extend horizontally over several kilometers and the vertical formation is very thin. Therefore, horizontal drilling is more preferred to explore shale gas from a shale reservoir. The horizontal drilling process requires technology with higher precision compared to vertical drilling. The cost of horizontal drilling is much more than conventional drilling. This increases the production cost of shale gas and hence, it is expensive than crude oil. However, this scenario is likely to change due to technological developments and drilling of more number of shale gas wells. Shale gas production calls for more amount of oilfield chemicals than crude oil production, due to low permeability of gas. According to the EIA estimates; China, Argentina, Algeria, the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Russia, and Brazil are the top 10 countries with technologically recoverable shale gas resources. The U.S. held more than 90% share of the shale gas production in 2017. Apart from shale gas, tight oil and coal bed methane are other unconventional resources with high demand for oilfield chemicals.

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Drilling fluids application segment to dominate the global oilfield chemicals market

Based on application, the oilfield chemicals market has been classified into production chemicals, drilling fluids, well stimulation fluids, cementing fluids, enhanced oil recovery, and workover and completion. According to the American Petroleum Institute (API), a drilling fluid is defined as a circulating fluid used in rotary drilling to perform any or all of the functions in drilling operations. It is a mixture of natural and synthetic chemical compounds that are employed to lubricate and cool the drill bit; carry cuttings to the surface; clean the hole bottom; control formation pressures; and improve the function of the drill string and tools in the hole. The drilling fluids segment has been classified into two sub-segments: water-based drilling muds and oil-based drilling muds. Type of the fluid base to be used depends on drilling and formation requirements and requirements for disposal of the fluid. Some of the drilling fluids are anti-foams, corrosion control inhibitors, dispersants, scale inhibitors, shale stabilizers, thinners and conditioners, viscosifiers, and surfactants. The drilling fluids application segment constituted a prominent i.e. more than 40% share of the global oilfield chemicals market in 2017. The share is estimated to increase by the end of the forecast period.

North America to dominate the global market during the forecast period

Geographically, the global oilfield chemicals market has been divided into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America is anticipated to hold a leading share of the global market during the forecast period, owing to the growing number of unconventional oil and gas fields in the U.S. and Canada.

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Slightly fragmented market with a few major players and several local players across the world

The barrier for new players entering the oilfield chemicals market is low. Chemical manufacturers can blend suitable oilfield chemical products for oilfield applications with minimal technological requirements. Raw materials are easily available and forward integration of suppliers of raw materials is possible.

The report comprises profiles of major companies operating in the global oilfield chemicals market. Key players operating in the global market are Baker Hughes (A GE Company), Halliburton, Solvay S.A., BASF SE, Schlumberger Limited, Newpark Resources Inc., AkzoNobel N.V., Albemarle Corporation, The Dow Chemical Company, Gumpro Drilling Fluids Pvt. Ltd, Kao Chemicals, Chemiphase, Jiaxing Midas Oilfield Chemical Mfg. Ltd, Thermax global, and Imperial Oilfield Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.

Global Oilfield Chemicals Market, by Product (Revenue [US$ Mn]; Volume [Kilo Tons]; 2017-2026)

Biocides

Corrosion and Scale Inhibitors

Demulsifiers

Surfactants

Polymers

Lubricants

Hydrogen Sulfide Scavengers

Fluid Loss Additives

Others

Global Oilfield Chemicals Market, by Application (Revenue [US$ Mn]; Volume [Kilo Tons]; 2017-2026)

Production Chemicals

Drilling fluids

Well Stimulation Fluids

Cementing Fluids

Enhanced Oil Recovery

Workover & Completion

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Research Blog:https://cmfenews.com/The cloud-based cIAM company plans to accelerate product innovation and expand globally to serve the fast-growing $20B customer identity market

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LoginRadius (https://www.loginradius.com/), a leader in Customer Identity and Access Management (cIAM), announced today a $17M Series A Funding led by ForgePoint Capital and Microsoft's venture fund, M12. All existing major investors also participated, including Real Ventures, BDC Capital, and Yaletown Venture Partners. In connection with the funding, ForgePoint Capital and M12 will join LoginRadius' Board of Directors. The funds will be used to accelerate product innovation, customer acquisition and global expansion.



Since its launch in 2012, LoginRadius has relentlessly focused on customer identity, while experiencing triple digit annual growth over the past two years. The company has grown to support global offices in Vancouver, London, San Francisco, Sydney, and Jaipur, with plans to more than double its workforce in the next 12 months.

"With increasing customer experience expectations and growing cybersecurity threats, enterprises need a modern cloud-based identity platform that can be the foundation for digital transformation and provide peace of mind when it comes to security," said Rakesh Soni, CEO and co-founder of LoginRadius. "This funding is a testament to LoginRadius' ability to deliver on this promise to our customers and sets the foundation for our future growth."

LoginRadius' cloud-hosted service provides the platform to securely manage and transact with billions of customer identities while keeping privacy and compliance regulations, such as GDPR, in mind. Leveraging more than 200 pre-built integrations, as well as turnkey configuration, cIAM-focused data security and access management functionality, LoginRadius enables businesses to deliver a unified customer registration, login and self-service experience in months.

LoginRadius' enterprise-grade identity platform is being used by more than 3,000 businesses, including brands such as Weather Network, Vogue, Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC), Viacom, Avatar and Kind Snacks. The highly scalable platform serves more than 700 million identities, while handling 7.5 billion API calls per month. The platform has been deployed on new and legacy applications across multiple channels including web, mobile, IoT, POS and kiosks.

"Customer identity is at the intersection of security, digital business and compliance. This requires significant expertise to build and maintain in-house, resulting in extended go-to market time," said Deepak Gupta, LoginRadius CTO and co-founder. "LoginRadius provides the answer to this critical challenge with its out-of-the-box solution."

LoginRadius' platform is built with RESTful APIs and open sourced SDK libraries that allow developers to easily implement authentication, login interfaces and web SSO. Developers also no longer need to worry about back-end capabilities, including data management, disaster recovery, performance, system availability and scalability.

"Forward-thinking companies are looking for secure, cloud-based identity solutions that can serve a global customer base and handle complex scenarios," said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president at Microsoft and global head of M12. "We're excited to invest in LoginRadius because they are delivering on their promise to simplify customer identity management, which allows enterprise companies to more easily achieve their digital transformation ambitions."

About LoginRadius

LoginRadius is a leading provider of cloud-based Customer Identity and Access Management solutions. Its platform serves over 3,000 businesses with a monthly reach of 700 million users worldwide. The company has been recognized as a leading provider of cIAM by Gartner, Forrester, Kuppingercole and Computer Weekly.



LoginRadius' platform helps companies to securely manage customer identities, deliver a unified digital experience, and comply with all major privacy regulations such as GDPR. Hosted in a highly secure environment to protect consumer data and prevent exposure to data breaches, the platform also provides end-to-end encryption in transit and at rest, multi-factor authentication, threat detection and fraud prevention technologies.



The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with additional offices in the US, United Kingdom, Australia and India. For more information, please visit www.loginradius.com (http://www.loginradius.com/)



Media Contact:

Gary Good

10Fold for LoginRadius

707-494-5859

gary@10fold.com (mailto:gary@10fold.com)

Source:

Orbis Research: Identity and Access Management-Global Market Outlook (2016-2022) (http://www.orbisresearch.com/reports/index/identity-and-access-management-global-market-outlook-2016-2022)

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: LoginRadius via Globenewswire

PORTLAND, Oregon, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a recent report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "Global Smart Robot Market by Component, Application, and Industry Verticals: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2018-2025," the global smart robot market is expected to value at $4,057 million in 2017, and is projected to reach $17,561 million by 2025, registering a CAGR of 19.6% from 2018 to 2025.

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At present, North America dominates the market, followed by Europe. In 2017, the U.S. is expected to remain dominant in the North America market, while Germany is projected to lead the overall market in Europe.

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Smart robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional manipulator designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through various programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks. Autonomous robot uses coding algorithm to perform a specified operation and changes its working in accordance with the changes made in the programming. By use of advanced technology, a smart robot can help people overcome daily obstacles or to teach children, and are majorly used in the industry vertical applications. Some smart robots can replace jobs where human interaction is difficult such as industrial welding, investigation of volcanoes, underwater exploration, and deep space exploration. For specific movements in the operation such as assembling and spot welding, many robots use the pneumatic or air pressure pistons in particular directions.

The increase in field of automation, the rise in demand for robotic advancement for connected world and capability of robots to identify the breakdowns in the industry fuel the growth of the market. In addition, strong government initiative for the factory automation also contribute to the market growth. However, higher manufacturing cost and insecurities regarding the robots hamper this stated growth.

Based on component, the hardware segment generated the highest revenue in the smart robot market in 2017, and is expected to remain dominant during the forecast period. In addition, based on application, the assembling & disassembling segment generated the highest revenue followed by welding & painting and mobility.

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Based on industry vertical, the automotive industry accounted for the majority market share of the smart robot market followed by the manufacturing industry.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

The hardware segment is estimated to generate the highest revenue in the global smart robot market in 2018.

In 2018, the automotive industry is projected to be the highest revenue contributor in the industry vertical segment.

Asia-Pacific is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

is anticipated to exhibit the highest CAGR during the forecast period. In 2018, North America contributes the highest market share, followed by, Europe , Asia Pacific and LAMEA.

The key players profiled in the report are ABB, iRobot Corporation, Grey orange Pte Ltd., Epson America, Inc., Rethink Robotics, KuKa, F&P Personal Robotics, SoftBank Robotics, Yaskawa Electric, and Fanuc.

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Knowledge tree is a cloud-based intelligence platform that offers more than 2,000 selective, off-the-shelf reports on niche markets to enable our clients gain deep insights on the latest trends, dynamic technologies, and emerging application areas.

Similar Reports:

Painting Robots Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2016-2023

Surgical Robotics Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2024

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Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.

We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.

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Plus: - Genomic Analysis of Alzheimer's Study May Enable a Precision Medicine Approach

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Significant reductions in the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI)*, and the combination of MCI and dementia**, have been shown for the first time through aggressive lowering of systolic blood pressure in new research results from the federally-funded SPRINT MIND Study reported at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2018 in Chicago.

"This is the first randomized clinical trial to demonstrate a reduction in new cases of MCI alone and the combined risk of MCI plus all-cause dementia," said Jeff D. Williamson, MD, MHS, Professor of Internal Medicine and Epidemiology and Chief, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine. Williamson reported these results at AAIC 2018.

The results of this large-scale, long-term clinical trial provide the strongest evidence to date about reducing risk of MCI and dementia through the treatment of high blood pressure, which is one of the leading causes of cardiovascular disease worldwide.

"This study shows more conclusively than ever before that there are things you can do - especially regarding cardiovascular disease risk factors - to reduce your risk of MCI and dementia," said Maria C. Carrillo, PhD, Alzheimer's Association Chief Science Officer. "To reduce new cases of MCI and dementia globally we must do everything we can - as professionals and individuals - to reduce blood pressure to the levels indicated in this study, which we know is beneficial to cardiovascular risk."

Carrillo pointed out that these results fit well with recent population data showing reductions in new cases of dementia in developed Western cultures. These lower rates of dementia may be occurring as these societies have begun to improve control of cardiovascular disease risk factors through medication management, reducing smoking, and greater awareness of healthy lifestyle.

The Alzheimer's Association offers 10 Ways to Love Your Brain, based on the latest research evidence.

"The future of reducing MCI and dementia could be in treating the whole person with a combination of drugs and modifiable risk factor interventions - as we do now in heart disease," Carrillo suggested. "These new blood pressure findings raise our level of anticipation for the U.S. POINTER Study, which includes managing cardiovascular disease risk factors as part of the multi-component lifestyle intervention."

The Alzheimer's Association U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk (U.S. POINTER) is a two-year clinical trial funded by the Alzheimer's Association to evaluate whether lifestyle interventions can protect cognitive function in older adults at increased risk for cognitive decline. The interventions include physical exercise, nutritional counseling and modification, cognitive and social stimulation, and improved self-management of health status.

Intensive Blood Pressure Control Significantly Reduces New Cases of MCI, and Combined Risk of MCI and Dementia: SPRINT MIND Study

At AAIC 2018, Williamson and colleagues reported preliminary results related to risk of dementia and cognitive decline from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT). SPRINT is a randomized clinical trial that compared two strategies for managing high blood pressure (hypertension) in older adults: an intensive strategy with a systolic blood pressure goal of less than 120 mm Hg versus a standard care strategy targeting a systolic blood pressure goal of less than 140 mm Hg. Previously, SPRINT demonstrated that more intensive blood pressure control reduced the risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (NEJM, 11-26-15). SPRINT helped inform the 2017 American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology high blood pressure clinical guidelines.

SPRINT Memory and Cognition IN Decreased Hypertension (SPRINT MIND) examined whether treating to the lower blood pressure target reduces the risk of developing dementia and/or MCI, and reduces the total volume of white matter lesions in the brain as shown by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Study participants were 9,361 hypertensive older adults with increased cardiovascular risk (based on the Framingham risk score) but without diagnosed diabetes, dementia or prior stroke. Participant mean age was 67.9 years (35.6% women) and 8,626 (92.1%) completed at least one follow-up cognitive assessment. In SPRINT MIND, the primary outcome was incident probable dementia. Secondary outcomes included MCI and a composite outcome of MCI and/or probable dementia. Each outcome was adjudicated by an expert panel blinded to who was in each treatment group.

Recruitment for SPRINT began in October 2010. At one year, mean systolic blood pressure was 121.4 mmHg in the intensive-treatment group and 136.2 mmHg in the standard treatment group. Treatment was stopped in August 2015 due to cardiovascular disease (CVD) benefit after a median follow up of 3.26 years, but cognitive assessment continued until June 2018.

Intervention - According to NEJM, 11-26-15, "All major classes of antihypertensive agents were included in the formulary and were provided at no cost to the participants. SPRINT investigators could also prescribe other antihypertensive medications (not provided by the study). The protocol encouraged, but did not mandate, the use of drug classes with the strongest evidence for reduction in cardiovascular outcomes, including thiazide-type diuretics (encouraged as the first-line agent), loop diuretics (for participants with advanced chronic kidney disease), and beta-adrenergic blockers (for those with coronary artery disease)."

"Participants were seen monthly for the first 3 months and every 3 months thereafter. Medications for participants in the intensive-treatment group were adjusted on a monthly basis to target a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg. For participants in the standard-treatment group, medications were adjusted to target a systolic blood pressure of 135 to 139 mm Hg, and the dose was reduced if systolic blood pressure was less than 130 mm Hg on a single visit or less than 135 mm Hg on two consecutive visits.  Lifestyle modification was encouraged as part of the management strategy."

In SPRINT MIND, the researchers found a statistically significant 19 percent lower rate of new cases of MCI (p=0.01) in the intensive blood pressure treatment group. The combined outcome of MCI plus probable all-cause dementia was 15 percent lower (p=0.02) in the intensive versus standard treatment group. There was a non-significant reduction in probable dementia alone (HR=0.83, p=0.10).

Adverse events - According to NEJM, 11-26-15, "Serious adverse events occurred in 1793 participants in the intensive-treatment group (38.3%) and in 1736 participants in the standard-treatment group (37.1%) (hazard ratio with intensive treatment, 1.04; P=0.25). Serious adverse events of hypotension, syncope, electrolyte abnormalities, and acute kidney injury or acute renal failure, but not injurious falls or bradycardia, occurred more frequently in the intensive-treatment group than in the standard-treatment group. Orthostatic hypotension as assessed during a clinic visit was significantly less common in the intensive-treatment group. A total of 220 participants in the intensive-treatment group (4.7%) and 118 participants in the standard-treatment group (2.5%) had serious adverse events that were classified as possibly or definitely related to the intervention (hazard ratio, 1.88; P<0.001) [but overall number of SAEs by group did not differ]. The magnitude and pattern of differences in adverse events according to treatment assignment among participants 75 years of age or older were similar to those in the overall cohort."

"These results support the need to maintain well-controlled blood pressure, especially for persons over the age of 50," said Williamson. "A particular strength of SPRINT-MIND is that 30 percent of the participants were African American and 10 percent were Hispanic."

"This is something doctors and the majority of their community-dwelling patients with elevated blood pressure should be doing now to keep their hearts - and brains - healthier. These new results for maintaining cognitive health provide another strong rationale for starting and maintaining healthy lifestyle changes in mid-life," Williamson added.

SPRINT MIND MRI Results

In a related abstract reported at AAIC 2018, Ilya Nasrallah, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, reported preliminary results from 673 participants in SPRINT MIND who were recruited for brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Primary outcomes included change in total white matter lesion (WML) volume and total brain volume (TBV). Follow-up MRIs were obtained for 454 (67.4%) participants at a median of 3.98 years post-randomization.

In this sub-study, WML volume increased in both treatment groups, however the increase was significantly less in the intensive treatment group. There was no significant difference in total brain volume change.

In the intensive treatment group, WML volume increased by 0.28 cm 3 compared to 0.92 cm 3 in the standard treatment group (mean difference=0.64 cm 3 , p=0.004).

compared to 0.92 cm in the standard treatment group (mean difference=0.64 cm , p=0.004). TBV decreased by 27.3 cm3 in the intensive treatment group versus 24.8 cm3 in the standard treatment group (mean difference=2.54 cm3, p=0.16).

White matter lesions are frequently indicative of small vessel disease and linked to higher risk of stroke, dementia and higher mortality. While white matter lesions are thought to increase the risk of vascular dementia, they also may be a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. People living with dementia may have Alzheimer's disease and white matter lesions at the same time. Research has demonstrated that when people have more than one type of disease-related brain changes, the cognitive consequences are greater.

Genomic Analysis of Phase 2a Alzheimer's Study with ANAVEX2-73 May Enable a Precision Medicine Approach

"Precision medicine involves giving the right therapy to the right patient at the right time, customized to his or her specific biological makeup," says Professor Harald Hampel, MD, PhD, MA, MSc, AXA Research Fund & Sorbonne University Excellence Chair, Department of Neurology, Sorbonne University, Paris.

Precision medicine emphasizes the customization and individualization of healthcare, with treatments and practices tailored to the specific patient's situation and needs, often taking into account genes, environment, and lifestyle. Sometimes called personalized medicine, it is a common approach in cancer and respiratory diseases.

At AAIC 2018, Hampel and colleagues reported results of an innovative attempt to move a step closer to precision medicine in Alzheimer's therapy trials. Anavex Life Sciences (AVXL) conducted a 57-week Phase 2a study with ANAVEX2-73, a selective sigma-1 receptor agonist, in 32 people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease and analyzed the entire genome DNA and RNA of all study participants, resulting in the analysis of 33,311 genes and 860 pathways.

The company identified several genetic variants that impacted response to the drug, including SIGMAR1, which is ANAVEX2-73's target, and COMT, a gene involved in memory function. They found further that excluding people with these variants (~20% of the study group) - leaving about 80% of the population - resulted in improved scores on gold standard tests of cognition (MMSE) and activities of daily living (ADCS-ADL) (p<0.05).

Including participants with milder disease (baseline MMSE=20) and excluding those with a SIGMAR1 variant resulted in improvement of 1.7 MMSE and 3.9 ADCS-ADL at week 57.

The additional exclusion of the COMT variant resulted in a score improvement of 2.0 MMSE and 4.9 ADCS-ADL at week 57.

"This study represents an exciting step forward, away from the 'magic bullet, one-size-fits-all' drug development in Alzheimer's, following the targeted therapy successes in the field of oncology," Hampel said. "Our vision is that a precision medicine approach will allow us to more precisely treat and prevent key features of the cause and progression of Alzheimer's. We are intrigued that several studies with this novel approach are now planned or underway."

According to the company, these patient selection markers will be implemented in an upcoming Phase 2b/3 study of ANAVEX2-73.

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC)

The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest gathering of researchers from around the world focused on Alzheimer's and other dementias. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

AAIC 2018 home page: alz.org/aaic

AAIC 2018 newsroom: alz.org/aaic/press

About the Alzheimer's Association

The Alzheimer's Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected, and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. Visit alz.org or call 800.272.3900.

* Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) - MCI causes a slight but noticeable and measurable decline in cognitive abilities, including memory and thinking skills, but the changes are not severe enough to interfere with daily life or independent function. A person with MCI is at an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's or another dementia. However, MCI does not always lead to dementia. In some people, MCI reverts to normal cognition or remains stable.

** Dementia - A general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia is not a specific disease. It's a term that describes a group of symptoms. Alzheimer's disease accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. Vascular dementia, which occurs after a stroke, is the second most common dementia type. There are many other conditions that can cause dementia symptoms, including some that are reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies.

*** Alzheimer's disease and Alzheimer's disease dementia - Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. Symptoms usually develop slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. Two abnormal structures called plaques and tangles are prime suspects in damaging and killing nerve cells in Alzheimer's disease. Plaques are deposits of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid that build up in the spaces between nerve cells. Tangles are twisted fibers of another protein called tau that build up inside cells. It's the destruction and death of nerve cells that causes memory failure, personality changes, problems carrying out daily activities and other symptoms of Alzheimer's disease dementia.

Jeff Williamson , MD, MHS, et al. A Randomized Trial of Intensive Versus Standard Systolic Blood Pressure Control and the Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: Results from SPRINT MIND. Funder(s): U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute on Aging (NIA), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

, MD, MHS, et al. A Randomized Trial of Intensive Versus Standard Systolic Blood Pressure Control and the Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Dementia: Results from SPRINT MIND. Funder(s): U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute on Aging (NIA), and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS); U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Ilya Nasrallah , MD, PhD, et al. A Randomized Trial of Intensive Versus Standard Systolic Blood Pressure Control on Brain Structure: Results from SPRINT MIND MRI. Funder(s): U.S. National Institutes of Health, including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

, MD, PhD, et al. A Randomized Trial of Intensive Versus Standard Systolic Blood Pressure Control on Brain Structure: Results from SPRINT MIND MRI. Funder(s): U.S. National Institutes of Health, including the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute on Aging, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Harald Hampel , Prof., MD, PhD, et al. Full Genomic Analysis of ANAVEX2-73 Phase 2a Alzheimer's Disease Study Identifies Biomarkers Enabling Targeted Therapy and a Precision Medicine Approach. Funder: Anavex Life Sciences Corp.

, Prof., MD, PhD, et al. Full Genomic Analysis of ANAVEX2-73 Phase 2a Alzheimer's Disease Study Identifies Biomarkers Enabling Targeted Therapy and a Precision Medicine Approach. Funder: Anavex Life Sciences Corp. Harald Hampel , Prof., MD, PhD, et al. Systematic Processing of Full Genomic Analysis of ANAVEX2-73 Phase 2a Alzheimer's Disease Study Identifies Biomarkers Enabling a Precision Medicine Approach. Funder: Anavex Life Sciences Corp.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/721324/AAIC_2018_Logo.jpgMOSCOW, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

PhosAgro[*] acted as the general partner of the Summer School on Green Chemistry, which was organised by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)[**] and held in Venice (Italy).

This initiative aims to provide support to young scientists working in the field of green chemistry. It creates a platform for promotion of innovative and technologically-advanced projects, discussion of topical issues, sharing best practices and experience, networking and establishing scientific cooperation, and creating a solid theoretical and practical base.

This year the school was attended by 80 young specialists and 20 world class teachers from forty different countries. The academic programme of the summer school focused on 17 UN sustainable development goals. Particular attention was paid to young scientists from developing countries and countries with emerging economies, particularly from Africa. 15 of the 30 young professionals who have been awarded with a scholarship to participate in the event are representatives of the African continent.

One of the main organisers of the Summer School and its current Chairman, Pietro Tundo, Professor of Green Chemistry at Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia, said: "I see this school as a platform for discussing the implementation of our scientific ideas in the field of green chemistry. It is important not only to discuss theoretical aspects, but also to develop roadmaps which could later help us achieve our main goal - save our planet for future generations."

During the Summer School opening ceremony PhosAgro Deputy CEO Siroj Loikov talked about the Company's activities oriented at supporting green initiatives, paying special attention to the Green Chemistry for Life grant programme for young specialists that is being supported by PhosAgro, UNESCO and IUPAC. He also invited all those interested to participate in the grant programme.

Andrey Guryev, a member of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO Affairs and the CEO of PhosAgro said: "We are very pleased that for the first time in the long history of UNESCO and the entire United Nations system an initiative of this kind is being implemented on an extrabudgetary basis and funded by the Russian company PhosAgro. This September, I would like to invite you to the fifth Green Chemistry for Life grant award ceremony that will take place in Bangkok. I would also like to turn to young scientists from all over the world who are not yet participating in the grant programme. I hope you will use this opportunity to make your dreams come true."

PhosAgro is one of the world leaders in the production of mineral fertilisers. Its fertilisers are exported to 100 countries worldwide and are distinguished by their high quality and low content of impurities and potentially harmful elements such as cadmium. The Company therefore pays significant attention to the responsible use of natural resources as well as food security and environmental conservation on local and global levels. As a result, the Company is currently implementing its own ecological and social agenda, which is devoted to reducing environmental footprint from its activities and to continuing environmental conservation in those regions, where PhosAgro operates.

Over the last 3 three years PhosAgro Group has spent over RUB 10.5 billion on various environmental projects. At its facilities the Company implemented ecology management systems as well as staff health and safety management systems. Further development of the Company's facilities through construction of new and modernisation of existing facilities using the best existing technologies remains one of the main priorities of PhosAgro's strategy. Modernisation and creation of highly technological facilities helps to decrease the Company's operating expenses and ecological footprint.

For further information please contact:



PJSC PhosAgro

Alexander Seleznev, Head of Investor Relations

ir@phosagro.ru

+7-495-232-96-89 ex 21 87



Timur Belov, Press Officer

Anastacia Basos, Deputy Press Secretary

+7-495-232-9689





[*]PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru ) is one of the world's leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of not less than 39% (according to IFA, Fertecon and CRU).

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe, the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock worldwide, and one of the top-three MAP/DAP producers in the world (by production volumes, according to IFA). PhosAgro is also one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia (according to CRU and RAFP). PhosAgro is Russia's only producer of nepheline concentrate (according to RAFP).

PhosAgro's main products include phosphate rock, over 35 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world's inhabited continents. The Company's priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro's shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts ("GDRs") for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company's GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.



[**]IUPAC (www.iupac.org ) International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is the world authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology. The news about the changes to the nomenclature and terminology of chemical elements introduced by the company are published in the Pure and Applied Chemistry magazine.

IUPAC was formed in 1919. Today, IUPAC is headed by a Russian scientist, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Natalia Tarasova (holds PhD in Chemistry).The sextoy market is growing quite rapidly in India right now.

Although it is not a big trend, it is a hot topic on the internet as it is secretly expanding its market.

In this article, we will focus on sextoy and introduce recommended sextoy for Indian beginners of sextoy by gender.

India, the birthplace of the Kama Sutra, is very strict about sex.

Also, premarital sex is basically not allowed. Therefore, there are many people who are sexually restricted.

But what happens when you continue to be sexually restricted?

Frustration may build up and you may end up taking your sexual stress out on your partner.

If you are able to adopt sextoy in a timely manner, you can get rid of those problems.

I want to have more exciting sex than Im having now.

I want more variation in masturbation

I want to get even stronger pleasure than I do on my own.

If you have any of these problems, please stay with me until the end.

What is sex toys for Indian?

Sextoy, as the name implies, is a toy used during sex and masturbation.

It is a generic term for vibrators, Egg-vibrators, Electric massagers, dildo, handcuffs and condoms.

They are used to make regular sex more exciting or to make masturbation more pleasurable.

Because sextoy is very stimulating, it can help you to get rid of the problems and frustrations of being in a rut of sex with your partner for a long time, or if you are unhappy with the lack of pleasure in sex with your partner.

The ability to satisfy your desires with movement, texture, and size, which cannot be done by a normal human being, can help you to be satisfied with sex and, as a result, improve your relationship with your partner.

It is also said to help improve sexual dysfunction (inability to get an erection or ejaculate) and difficulty in feeling during sex (insensitivity), which is attracting more attention than in the past.

In recent years, the demand for sextoy has increased due to the spread of smartphones and the Internet and the increasing number of people using online shopping.

Even those who are concerned about the appearance of sextoy (and find it difficult to purchase) can now easily obtain it by using mail order.

In the case of online shopping, most of the stores have taken steps to ensure that the contents of the products delivered to you are not revealed, so you can purchase them without your family members knowing.

Until a while ago, you had to go to the store where the adult goods were sold to buy them, so it was quite a hurdle to overcome.

Also, many people may have an image that sextoy is somehow embarrassing to own.

But nowadays, some of them are so stylish and cute that you cant believe they are sextoy at a glance.

More and more people are using them for travel and outdoor use because they are not too bulky and are suitable for carrying around.

Sextoy situation in India

Before introducing the recommended sextoy for Indians, lets talk about one of the sextoy situations in India in recent years.

In India, due to the high concentration of population, the following six cities have particularly high sales of sextoy in India.

Mumbai

Kolkata

Bangalore

Delhi

Chennai

Hyderabad

These cities account for roughly 70 percent of sextoy sales in India.

In the future, the percentage of sextoy use will gradually increase in other cities in India as well.

If you never talk about sextoy publicly, that girl in your neighborhood might be a sextoy user too.

If you are interested in sextoy, you dont have to suppress your desire for it.

What are Sextoys for beginner?

Among all sextoys, sextoy for beginners are vibrators, dildo, masturbators, Sex Lubricants, and condoms.

Sex Lubricants and condoms, which are familiar to people who have had sex, are also a great beginners sextoy.

I will explain the details of each toy later, but there are many sextoy products that are painful to use and can only be used after some anal expansion.

I assume that the Indian readers of this article are people who have not had much experience with sextoy.

If such people use professional sextoy suddenly, they are at risk of injury or trauma.

Therefore, to introduce sextoy, you need to start with a beginners version and gradually become familiar with it.

Advantages of using sextoy for Indians

There are three advantages of using sextoy for Indians

You can masturbate in a wide variety of ways.

Can have stimulating sex

Can develop new sexual zones

If you try to masturbate with your own fingers or hands, it tends to be a pattern.

However, with sextoy, you can easily masturbate in a variety of ways.

You will definitely be fascinated by the attraction of new stimulation.

Also, your daily sex life will be more exciting than ever.

There are many things in sextoy that are visually stimulating and give you a strong and intense feeling of pleasure.

This allows you to see your partners promiscuity in a way that you wouldnt normally see it.

When you are in a relationship, sex with your partner may become a pattern, but it can also eliminate these problems.

It can also lead to the development of new sexual zones (which is the training of sexual stimulation to allow you to feel orgasms).

For more information on the development of new sexual zones, see the following articles

[Women's Erogenous Zone]How to find and develop, 7 hidden sexual zones !![In India] In this issue, we will dissect the female erogenous zone! ..." Many of you may be like that. Men, in particular, shou...

Thus, the use of sextoy can only be a good thing for the men and women of India.

Sextoy for beginner men in India

So, lets continue with the recommended goods for Indian sextoy beginners.

For ease of understanding, we will introduce them by gender. Lets start with the men!

The following five goods are recommended for novice Indian sextoy men

Masturbator

Cock rings

Love Doll

Sex Lubricants

Toys for the prostate

Lets check each one in detail.

Masturbator

The masturbator is a sextoy for men that elaborately reproduces a womans vagina, mouth, and anus, and is one of the most popular sextoy products.

It is used by men to masturbate, and it is popular because it provides stronger stimulation and pleasure more easily than using hands.

Most are made of good quality silicone, and their softness is something that cannot be achieved with ones own hands.

They can provide stronger pleasure than a real womans vagina, so be careful not to overuse them. (You wont be able to have an orgasm in a womans vagina anymore.)

Again Male masturbators are a wonderful toy. I do not need any favourite timing, bothersome bargaining. You do not have to worry too much.

Revolutionize your masturbation time! ! !

Made in Japan is a wonderful kinky toy.#sextoysindia #SexToyIndia #Japanhttps://t.co/4k70QGzoTP pic.twitter.com/tRVdxTKPpa   SEXToys India PR  (@SextoysIndia) November 12, 2018

Some of them are disposable, while others can be washed and used over and over again, so its fun to buy a few to use depending on your mood.

If you want to know more about masturbator, please click here

Really pleasant male masturbation and how to do it Are you in a rut with your daily masturbation routine? I'm going to show you five ways men masturbate that you might ...

[For Beginners] How to choose and use a male masturbator without fail Gentlemen.Have you ever used a masturbator? The person who sees this article is probably the one who has not experien...

Cock Ring

A cock ring is literally a ring-shaped sextoy that is worn on a mans penis.

It maintains an erection by binding the penis with a ring of rubber and blocking blood flow.

It is sometimes used as an accessory to be worn on the penis, and may be made of metal or plastic as well as rubber.

In some cases, cock rings have parts or vibrators attached to them that stimulate the vagina, so they kill two birds with one stone, giving a woman pleasure while maintaining an erection.

Cock rings are also sometimes used to treat erectile dysfunction.

It can help with erectile dysfunction, where the penis doesnt get hard when you get an erection or doesnt last long when you try to insert it.

Men who are prone to breakage or who are unsure of the hardness and size of their erections can use a cock ring to increase the size of their penis and maintain an erection for a longer period of time.

Cock rings vary in price from around RS700 to over RS2000 with a vibrator function.

Some of them do not fit your penis, so you should check the size of the cock ring before you buy.

You should know the size of your partners or your own penis when it is erect.

[Penis enlargement] What is a cock ring? Types and usage Cock rings can make your penis bigger and harder. It also makes sex with women more fulfilling and increases your sat...

Love Doll

Love dolls, also known as Dutchwives, are dolls with the appearance of a woman who can experience simulated sex.

There are dolls that look like a woman, but they have no face and only have their breasts and lower torso cut off, and some dolls are so realistic that they can actually be mistaken for real women.

Some expensive dolls can cost more than 1 million yen, and the quality of the doll is easily influenced by the price.

The higher the price, the higher the quality of the doll will be, the closer it will be to the real woman, and the cheaper the doll will be, the less elaborate it will be, making it look like a real doll! Something is wrong! That is also true.

You cant go wrong if you choose a balance between price and taste.

There are stores that allow you to make custom-made love dolls, so you can create a girl of your choice.

You can make a girl of your choice. You can start with inexpensive love dolls at first, and once you get used to it, you can try custom-made love dolls.

If you want to know more about Love doll, please click here

Thorough explanation of the charm of sex dolls! Have you ever heard of sex dolls that are used primarily for pseudo-sex purposes? It is a doll that is quite close to...

Sex lubricants

Sex lubricants are used as a substitute for lubricating fluid during sex or as a lubricant for men to use masturbator rules.

It is not uncommon for women to have difficulty getting wet, depending on their physical condition, or to have difficulty getting wet due to their constitution.

Forcing the penis into the vagina at such times can cause painful intercourse.

There are various types of Sex Lubricants, some with a warming effect, some with a cooling effect, and some with a scent.

Changing the Sex Lubricant used during play is recommended as a good sex accent.

If you want to learn more about Sex Lubricants, click here.

What is sex lubricant?Explain the difference and usage of each ingredient The word "sex toy" may seem like a hurdle to overcome, but lotion is actually one of the most familiar sex toys. Many...

Toys for the Prostate

Another sextoy for men is prostate toys.

The most famous prostate toys include Enemagra, which was originally a prostate massager developed by an American urologist to treat an enlarged prostate line.

Modern prostate toys are imitations of Enemagra that have spread as sextoy for men.

Many people think of prostate toys as being used by gay men, but in fact they are often used by straight men.

What is the prostate?

The prostate is an organ found only in men. It is a walnut-sized organ located deep in the pelvis, just below the bladder, and its primary role is to protect and nourish sperm.

You cannot touch the prostate gland from outside the body, but you can touch it by inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus.

By inserting a finger or sextoy through the anus and touching the prostate and developing it, you can feel intense orgasms.

Orgasms felt in the prostate are mainly dry orgasms, which are orgasms that do not involve ejaculation. (You can also feel orgasms with ejaculation through prostate stimulation.)

The prostate is called the male G-spot, and dry orgasms can be much more intense than ejaculation.

Therefore, men who are able to develop a prostate can become addicted to the pleasure.

sextoy for beinner women in India

The following are the recommended goods for Indian women who are new to sextoy.

The following three are recommended for use by women who are new to sextoy.

Vibrator.

Dildo

Electric Masserger

Lets check out what each one is in detail.

If you want to check out womens toys, click here.

[BEST25]Sex Toys for Women in IndiaThat Can Help You Have an Orgasm There are many women who pretend to feel orgasm during sex. But don't worry, you don't have to pretend to feel orgasm...

Vibrators

A vibrator is a sextoy that vibrates with an Egg-Vibrator to provide stimulation and is often referred to simply as a vibrator.

Some vibrate as well as rotate, and there are many variations of sextoy.

It is quite a popular sextoy, and is well recognized by people who do not know much about sextoy.

Its usage is similar to that of a massager, but it is more compact and easier to carry than a massager, and many of them look as cute as a lipstick or a macaroon, so they are popular among women.

For a while, a famous influencer on twitter said, This is good! You may have heard of the topic of this article by introducing the recommended vibrators.

Vibrators are great for women to use on their own, but they are also recommended for men who have difficulty satisfying women with sex.

Since it is powered by electricity, it is far less tiring than moving your hands by yourself.

This makes it easier to satisfy a woman with sex because you can caress her for longer than usual.

Vibrators are mainly used on the female side, but they can also be used on men.

When used on men, they are used to attack the nipples and glans, and in both cases it is recommended to wear a condom for hygiene reasons.

Introducing how to use the vibrator, its purpose, and how to choose it! Vibrator uses the vibrations caused by the rotation of the motor to provide stimulation. It is one or two of the most...

Dildo

A dildo is a model sextoy made to mimic a male penis.

It can be made of silicone, elastomer (think of it as a material similar to PVC), metal or glass.

A dildo can be used by a man for his female partner during sex, or by a woman for masturbation to get pleasure from it.

They are mainly inserted into women, but some can be used in the male anus as well.

It is sometimes used synonymously with vibrators, but the vibrator is not the same thing as a vibrating device.

A model of a penis that does not vibrate is a dildo.

Some of them have suction cups that can be attached to the floor or wall so that you can enjoy realistic masturbation without using your hands.

For fun, there is a dildo made in the shape of your partners penis.

This one is also popular as a gift, and if youve been together for a long time and are having trouble finding a gift for your partner, you might want to pick one.

To learn more about dildo, please click here.

What is Dildo: Orgasms with Dildos for Men and Women A dildo is a model of a male organ that is used by women for masturbation and by men to stimulate the prostate gland. Th...

Electric Masserger

A Electric Masserger is a hand-held electric massager, also known as a handheld massager, and can usually be purchased at electronics stores.

It was originally designed to relieve stiff shoulders and back pain, so the hurdle of buying one in a physical store is quite low.

Many people may have seen or used it in some form or another, as it is often installed in leisure hotels.

Such a massager is highly recommended for beginners because it is easy for women to get pleasure from it when they use it during masturbation.

It is larger than Egg-Vibrator and vibrations are stronger than those of Egg-Vibrators and vibrators, so even just hitting the clitoris can give you a great deal of pleasure.

For those women who have never had an orgasm during sex with their man, the massager may be a good way to get a feel for what it feels like to have an orgasm.

It looks and feels like an electric massager, so you wont have to feel awkward if your roommate finds out.

If you are in a rut of having sex with your partner, if you want to feel an orgasm through masturbation, or if you are thinking of using a sextoy, why dont you try it from a simple massager?

To learn more about Electric Masserger, click here.

What is a massager? Introducing types, selection methods, and usage Originally, the Magic-wand vibrator and the massage machine were sold as a home massage machine used for the back and th...

How to choose a sextoy for Indian

Now that weve covered the different types of sextoy, heres how to choose one.

Especially if you are trying sextoy for the first time, pay attention to the following three points:  Does the size fit you (the partner)?

Does the size fit you (your partner)?

Is the environment able to produce sound without problems?

Price range

First of all, the choice of size is quite important.

Most sextoy are used against or inserted into the genitals, but the genitals are very delicate organs for both men and women.

For this reason, using an inappropriate size may cause damage.

Secondly, the environment should be able to produce sound without problems.

Some sextoys not only wear, but also rotate and vibrate. Its easier to get pleasure from something that moves than something that doesnt, but the fact that it moves means that the internal rotors make some noise.

If you live in a house with thin walls or if you have roommates, you may not be able to concentrate because of the noise, so it is best to choose one that is silent or has a low noise level.

Especially in India, where many people live with their families, it is very important that you dont have to worry about sound when you use it.

Finally, there is the price range.

The price range of sextoy ranges widely, from around RS500 at the cheapest to RS10,000 or more at the highest.

Its good to consider how much money you can afford and how much you want to buy.

Do you want your family to not find out about sextoy?

I live with my family and want to use sextoy without them finding out! If you are a man, you should buy a camouflage sextoy that does not look like a sextoy at first glance.

For men, there are many masturbators that do not look like a sextoy, and for women, there are vibrators that only look like cosmetics.

If you choose such a type, youll be safe in case your family members find out.

How to buy sextoys in India

The best way to purchase sextoy is through online shopping.

For more information on how to purchase sextoy, please see the article below.

Sextoy is one of them.

Therefore, you can easily get sextoy in India by using online shopping.

SexToysINDIA is a long established and stable sextoy store and you can have sextoy delivered to any place in India.

They also offer cash on delivery, so those who are worried about shopping with a credit card do not have to worry.

Of course, the latest security is in place, so your information will not be taken out when you use your credit card.

To begin with, many people may be concerned about whether they are legally allowed to purchase sextoy.

ikmAs it turns out, its not illegal.

Right now, it is not open to the public because the Indian adult market is still in the development stage, but it will gradually spread from now on.

Take advantage of sextoy and open the door to new pleasures and culture.

Cautions for Indians using sextoy

When using sextoy, keep the following three things in mind

Keep sex toys clean

Watch out for electrical leakage

Beware of the heat generated by the body while using a sex toy

As I mentioned earlier, many sextoy products are used for the delicate zone.

Therefore, it is most important to keep the sextoy itself clean. It is very important to keep the sextoy itself clean, because if a slight scratch is created by friction, bacteria can enter and breed there.

It is safe to wear a condom when using the masturbator, just in case.

In addition, many sextoy devices are powered by a power source, so if they are not waterproof, there is a possibility of electric shock or malfunction due to wetness.

Some may even develop heat during continuous use. If the fever becomes too much, you may get burned, so be careful.

If you get a fever during use, stop driving the sextoy immediately and refrain from using it.

You will enjoy sex more if you keep it safe and use it correctly.

Summary

What did you think?

In this article, we have introduced the recommended sextoy for the beginners of sextoy in India.

The sextoy market is growing rapidly in India and it will continue to grow steadily in the future.

As India is a rather closed-minded country, it can be difficult to be open about ones sexual habits and values.

However, being faithful to ones desires by properly dissolving ones sexual desire is very effective for ones physical and mental health.

If this is your first time to learn about sextoy, or if you are interested in using sextoy, why not give it a try?

Indian Sextoys for ur best! will introduce you to sextoy and other trivia about sextoy, sexuality, and sexuality for men and women.

I want to read more! If you think its a great idea, please bookmark it.AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bynder (https://www.bynder.com/), a global tech company and supporter of a flexible and open modern workplace, announces Friday, August 3rd as Global Work Remote Day (https://info.bynder.com/en/remote-day), and invites businesses around the world to join the movement to work out of the office for a day.

Global Work Remote Day is an extension of Bynder's Remote Week (https://blog.bynder.com/en/remote-week-is-back-why-not-step-out-of-the-office-with-us), an initiative launched last summer by Bynder CEO Chris Hall. Bynder locked the doors to all six offices around the world and encouraged employees to log on from environments that made them the most comfortable and productive. Despite rapid growth and expansion, including the recent acquisition (https://www.bynder.com/en/press-media/bynder-announces-strategic-acquisition-of-webdam/) of Webdam, Bynder is committed to the benefits of remote and flexible work. Remote Week 2018 will kick off on July 30th and end with Global Work Remote Day on August 3rd, 2018. Bynder encourages other companies and teams across the world to do the same and ditch the desk for the day.

"Remote work is a great exercise for management as it allows managers to focus more on the output of results, versus input," said Ruben Vermaak, Head of Learning and Development at Bynder. "Last year, we issued a survey to employees to evaluate what they liked about working remotely and what they didn't. Some felt more productive and creative, while others missed tools such as dual screens and reliable internet. We made sure to apply those learnings to make this year's Remote Week better and more productive for everyone."

Over a dozen companies including TYPO3 (https://typo3.org/), Instant Magazine (https://www.instantmagazine.com/), Impraise (https://www.impraise.com/), and Hotjar (https://www.hotjar.com/) have already confirmed their participation, embracing the idea of building a more remote-friendly culture and business.

"We're excited to join our friends from Bynder in celebrating this year's Global Work Remote Day," says Daan Reijnders, CEO at Instant Magazine. "Our creative platform creates seamless content experiences for any device, regardless of where readers are. So in the same spirit, on August 3rd, we'll encourage our team to create a seamless virtual workplace from wherever suits them best. I can't wait to see pictures from poolside hammocks and the beach!"

Bynder is also partnering with the community platform WeWork (https://www.wework.com/) in Amsterdam to provide working spaces for teams that may require in-person collaboration. Across its three locations in Amsterdam, WeWork is giving away a one-month hot desk membership and free trial days to its partners from Bynder.

"At WeWork, we are very happy to support innovative work concepts. We believe that an inspiring work environment and a vibrant community can encourage people to work productively, share ideas and encourage innovation. Therefore, we look forward to welcoming our friends from Bynder into our Amsterdam spaces and connect them with our community of +260.000 members," says Wybo Wijnbergen, General Manager for WeWork Northern Europe.

On August 3rd companies will do business from inspiring places all over the world and share how they work best, using remoteday to share their work spots across social media channels. More information on Global Work Remote Day and how to take part can be found here (https://info.bynder.com/en/remote-day).

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.

Thousands of brand managers, marketers and creatives from global 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 has nine global offices located in The Netherlands, USA, Spain, UK and UAE. For more information, visit www.bynder.com (http://www.bynder.com/) or follow Bynder on Twitter @Bynder.

Media Contact

Josh Tammaro

(617) 945-1915

bynder@launchsquad.com (mailto:bynder@launchsquad.com)

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: Bynder via Globenewswire

LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / July 25, 2018 / Wrap Technologies, Inc. (OTCQB: WRTC), an innovator of modern policing solutions, today provided a link to media reporting on yesterday's BolaWrap 100 demonstration sponsored by Springfield, Missouri Police Department. The BolaWrap non-lethal restraint product demonstration was attended by approximately 20 officers from 3 local agencies.

Reporter Linda Russell of KY3 TV (Springfield, Missouri) narrated the coverage on the BolaWrap non-lethal product. The full report entitled 'Company demonstrates new non-lethal weapon for police in Springfield' is on the station's website.

'Looking at ways to give officers another tool before having to resort to that last resort sometimes if someone has a weapon or attacks an officer, where they have to shoot them and potentially kill them and we have had that happen here as well,' said Chief Paul Williams of the Springfield, MO Police Department in the report. BolaWrap is designed as an early engagement tool to de-escalate encounters especially with those in mental crisis.

'We continue to see tremendous cooperation between agencies and local stakeholders including media as they evaluate our solution,' said David Norris, President of Wrap Technologies. 'The benefits of early remote restraint are being appreciated by those answerable for reducing incidents of injurious force.'

For information on the Company please visit www.wraptechnologies.com. Examples of recent media coverage are available as links under the 'Media' tab of the website.

About Wrap Technologies (OTCQB: WRTC)

Wrap Technologies is an innovator of modern policing solutions. Wrap Technology premiered its hand-held BolaWrap 100 remote restraint solution at the International Association of Police Chiefs (IACP) October 2017 international conference. In December 2017 the Company completed a self-underwritten IPO and trades on the OTCQB Venture Market for early stage and developing U.S. and international companies.

BolaWrap is a patented, hand-held remote restraint device that discharges an eight-foot bola style Kevlar tether to entangle an individual at a range of 10-25 feet. Developed by award winning inventor Elwood Norris, the small but powerful BolaWrap assists law enforcement to safely and effectively control encounters.

Trademark Information: BolaWrap is a trademark of Wrap Technologies, Inc. All other trade names used herein are either trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective holders.

Cautionary Note on Forward-Looking Statements - Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including but not limited to statements regarding the Company's overall business, total addressable market and expectations regarding future sales and expenses. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "should," "believe," "target," "project," "goals," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "may," "will," "could," "intend," variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond the company's control. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including but not limited to: the Company's ability to manufacture and produce product for its customers; the Company's ability to develop sales for its new product solution; the acceptance of existing and future products; the availability of funding to continue to finance operations; the complexity, expense and time associated with sales to law enforcement and government entities; the lengthy evaluation and sales cycle for the Company's product solution; product defects; litigation risks from alleged product-related injuries; risks of government regulations; the ability to obtain patents and defend IP against competitors; the impact of competitive products and solutions; and the Company's ability to maintain and enhance its brand, as well as other risk factors included in the Company's most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and other SEC filings. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no duty or obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or changes in its expectations.

WRAP TECHNOLOGIES' CONTACT:

David Norris

800-583-2652, Ext #504

david@wraptechnologies.com

SOURCE: Wrap Technologies, Inc.LINKOPING, Sweden and SHELTON, Connecticut, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) will install its cloud-based, radiation dose monitoring software, Sectra DoseTrack, throughout Memorial Hermann Health System. The software will enable increased patient safety by detecting patients' radiation exposure, ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and standardize all radiation dose data throughout the enterprise.

Sectra DoseTrack gathers and reports dose data from all sources within the imaging department. Robust analysis capabilities for dose optimization assist in the identification of needed actions such as changing modalities for specific procedures, staff training or imaging protocol revisions. Consideration of patient size and demographics allow for effective organ dose calculations and patient risk assessment.

The multi-year agreement will include dose monitoring services for sixteen hospitals and seventeen imaging centers in the health network. As one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in Southwest Texas, Memorial Hermann provides patient care services throughout the greater Houston area.

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Torbjorn Kronander, CEO and President Sectra AB, +46(0)705-23-52-27

Marie Ekstrom Tragardh, Executive Vice President Sectra AB and President Sectra Imaging IT Solutions, +46(0)708-23-56-10

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/sectra/r/sectra-wins-us-enterprise-radiation-dose-monitoring-contract,c2580588SINGAPORE, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Working with six of the top twelve banks in North America and Europe, Personetics expands its global footprint with new Singapore office, adds new funding from UOB Group

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB), one of Asia's leading financial groups, announced it is partnering with Personetics, the leading provider of Cognitive Banking applications, to bring AI-powered capabilities to the region's rapidly-growing digital banking user population. UOB is also making an equity investment in Personetics.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/466622/Personetics_Logo.jpg )



Asia-Pacific takes the lead in digital and mobile banking adoption

Personetics' partnership with UOB coincides with the opening of the company's new office in Singapore, which will provide a focal point for serving the rapidly-expanding digital banking customer base in the region. A new McKinsey survey shows that digital banking penetration in the region is growing rapidly, reaching up to 97 percent of the population in some countries. Across Asia, digital transactions are 60-400% more frequent than branch transactions.

With such rapid growth, banks in Asia are well positioned to take the lead in digital innovation. According to a Nielsen survey, bank customers in Asia-Pacific are already more engaged in mobile banking activities than customers in any other region. Currently working with leading financial institution in North American and Europe, including six of the largest 12 banks in these regions, Personetics is now expanding its global presence to make a similar impact in Asia.

"We are excited to partner with an innovative institution such as UOB to bring the next generation of digital banking to Asia," said David Sosna, Personetics' Co-founder and CEO. "This is a fast-growing market that is dominated by digital-savvy customers with high expectations from their financial services providers. What these customers are looking for now is the next generation of digital banking - hyper-personal, forward-looking, with simplified ways to manage their money and improve their financial wellbeing."

Personetics and UOB partnership accelerates the bank's AI drive

The demand for new digital capabilities is driving the need for collaboration between banks and Fintech companies. Dr. Dennis Khoo, Head of Regional Digital Bank and Strategic Initiatives, UOB, said that Personetics' capabilities will accelerate the bank's use of AI and enable it to anticipate what customers want and prompt them to be better at saving and smarter at spending. As a result, UOB will be able to create even more relevant and engaging digital experiences for its customers.

"Given the advances in AI, machine learning and data analytics, we will use Personetics' tools to deepen our understanding of customer behavior and to design more innovative, responsive and responsible digital banking services. Personetics' powerful AI-driven solutions will complement our existing AI capabilities and enable UOB to take a giant leap forward in having meaningful digital conversations that will help customers make better financial decisions," said Dr. Khoo.

Through Personetics' cognitive analytic capabilities, UOB will draw deeper insights from its huge volumes of transaction data to help identify individual transaction patterns that can make the customer experience more engaging. These insights will enable UOB to provide customers with real-time, personalized and insightful guidance to help them make better financial decisions and improve the way they manage their money. This could include anticipating and prompting the customer when their balance may be insufficient to cover upcoming payments, detecting unusual account activity, and highlighting opportunities to save more or spend wisely.

"Leading banks around the world have deployed Personetics' AI-powered solutions to deepen the engagement they have with their customers. Thanks to these solutions, every day millions of customers are getting personal, forward-looking and useful advice from their banks to help them better manage their financial affairs," said Sosna. "UOB is the first bank in Asia to join this revolution in digital banking, a step that is demonstrating the bank's advanced technology vision and its commitment to the financial wellbeing of its customers."

About United Overseas Bank

United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB) is a leading bank in Asia with a global network of more than 500 offices in 19 countries and territories in Asia Pacific, Europe and North America. Since its incorporation in 1935, UOB has grown organically and through a series of strategic acquisitions. UOB is rated among the world's top banks: Aa1 by Moody's and AA- by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings respectively. In Asia, UOB operates through its head office in Singapore and banking subsidiaries in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as branches and representative offices across the region.

Over more than eight decades, generations of UOB employees have carried through the entrepreneurial spirit, the focus on long-term value creation and an unwavering commitment to do what is right for our customers and our colleagues.

We believe in being a responsible financial services provider and we are committed to making a difference in the lives of our stakeholders and in the communities in which we operate. Just as we are dedicated to helping our customers manage their finances wisely and to grow their businesses, UOB is steadfast in our support of social development, particularly in the areas of art, children and education.

About Personetics

Harnessing the power of AI, Personetics' Cognitive Banking Brain is used by the world's largest financial institutions to transform digital banking into the center of the customer's financial life - providing real-time personalized guidance, automating financial decisions, and simplifying day-to-day money management.

Serving over 50 million bank customers worldwide, Personetics has the largest direct customer impact of any AI solution provider in banking today. Personetics now counts among its customers 4 of the top 5 US banks and six of the top 12 banks in North America and Europe, as well as other leading banks throughout the world.

Led by a team of seasoned FinTech entrepreneurs with a proven track record, Personetics is a rapidly growing company with offices in New York, London, Singapore and Tel Aviv. The company has been named a Gartner Cool Vendor, a Top Ten FinTech Company by KPMG, and a Top Ten Company to Watch by American Banker.

For more information, visit http://personetics.com.PUNE, India, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to the market research report "Smart Retail Market by application (Visual Marketing, Smart Label, Smart Payment System, Intelligent System (Intelligent Vending Machine, Smart Cart, AR/VR, Interactive Kiosk), Robotics, Analytics), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is expected to grow from USD 13.07 billion in 2018 to USD 38.51 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 24.12% from 2018 to 2023.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg )



Browse 71 market data Tables and 53 Figures spread through 197 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Smart Retail Market - Global Forecast to 2023"



https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-retail-market-78791828.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.



Major drivers for the market are the increasing adoption of smartphones, growing need for better customer service and shopping experience, decreasing cost of electronic components, and emerging new technologies create new revenues for retailers. The major restraint for the market is data security and privacy concerns with new advanced technologies.

Robotics to grow at highest CAGR during forecast period

Of all the applications, the robotics expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the smart retail as robots make shopping experience easier for consumers as it simplifies the process of finding the product one is looking for, as well as manages back-end and shelf-keeping inventory up-to-date for a retailer. Also, the robot uses inventory scanning and auditing software with autonomous navigation capabilities and uses voice recognition software.

Hardware market in robotics for smart retail to hold largest market during forecast period

The hardware market is expected to hold the largest share for smart retail. The higher growth rate of the market for hardware can be attributed to the increasing need for hardware platforms with high computing power to run various AI software for robots and, the presence of major robotics companies that mainly invest in hardware components for use in AI-based robots for smart retail.

Ask for PDF Brochure @https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=78791828

Europe to hold largest market share; North America to witness highest growth rate

Europe is expected to hold the largest share and dominate the smart retail market from 2018 to 2023. Europe, being technologically advanced, is a leader in the market. Europe is the early adopter of the latest technology. The smart retail market in Europe is driven by various drivers, such as the need for advanced retail, faster retail process, and sophistication in shopping. Germany, France, the UK, Spain, and Italy are the major countries contributing to the growth of the smart retail market in Europe.

The smart retail market in North America is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The customers' need for sophisticated and efficient retail services, the need to save time, need for accuracy, and high living standards are the factors driving the market in North America. In addition, the presence of prominent technology providers, such as IBM (US), Google (US), Microsoft (US), NVIDIA (US), Intel (US), and Amazon (US), is complementing the growth of the market in this region.

Know more about the Smart Retail Market

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/smart-retail-market-78791828.html



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' 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:

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MarketsandMarkets INC.

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Visit our Research Insight @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/smart-retail-market.asp

Connect us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarketsThe Sawyer collaborative robot provides more manufacturers around the globe with a safe, reliable and cost effective cobot solution through select distributors

BOSTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rethink Robotics today announced that it has signed deals with seven new distribution partners throughout the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific to increase the availability of its smart, collaborative robots and allow manufacturers to automate more. Rethink's current global network - including select partners in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China, Korea, Japan, and Australia - is strengthened by these distribution partnerships as part of the company's ongoing effort to meet growing demand across the globe, bringing adaptable automation to the global manufacturing market.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to Sawyer as a smart automation solution to address challenges like labor shortages and improve efficiencies across industries like plastics, packaging and co-packing, metal fabrication, electronics and automotive supply chain. The new partners will join Rethink's existing suite of highly qualified partners to help meet the growing demand for Sawyer in North America, Europe and Asia. Rethink Robotics offers manufacturers a best-in-class cobot solution, including industry-leading Intera software and the Clicksmart gripper technology, which make it easy to train and deploy.

"The growing international demand for our smart, collaborative robots has encouraged us to expand our network of qualified distribution partners in critical geographies across North America, Europe and Asia," said Jason Barton, chief revenue officer, Rethink Robotics. "This selective group of distributors will help us continue to provide an extraordinary experience to our customers around the globe at every step of the implementation process, ensuring success from purchase to deployment and beyond."

Rethink's new partners include:

Centro, Inc. - No. Carolina, U.S. Power Motion - Missouri, U.S. Electronics Control - Xiamen, China Robtech Industries - New Taipei, Taiwan Europneumaq - Serzedo, Portugal RT Robotics - Warsaw, Poland IEC Supply Inc. - Arizona, U.S. Tongchan Machinery - Hangzhou, China Monarch Automation - Ohio, U.S. Womack Machine Supply Co. - Texas, U.S.

Rethink Robotics' strategic network of qualified distribution partners is critical in delivering Sawyer to manufacturers in major markets around the world. Rethink Robotics will continue to add select distribution partners across the world in the coming months as market demand continues to rise.

For more information, please visit rethinkrobotics.com.

About Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics' collaborative robots transform the way work gets done in manufacturing and distribution operations. Powered by the Intera software platform, its Sawyer and Baxter cobots can be trained and on the job in a matter of hours, are designed to work safely alongside people, and are highly reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use. Deployed globally, Rethink Robotics' cobots provide a cost-effective industrial automation solution to several of the toughest issues manufacturers face today, including a shortage of skilled labor, sustainable levels of quality and efficiency and an opportunity to automate a wide range of tasks on the factory floor.

Based in Boston, the Rethink product suite is available in Asia, Europe and North America. The company is funded by Bezos Expeditions, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Partners, DFJ, GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. For more information about Rethink Robotics, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com and follow us on Twitter @RethinkRobotics.

Media Contact: Charlotte Jolicoeur, (617) 500-2487, cjolicoeur@corporateink.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/77847/rethink_robotics_logo.jpg65 Aireon Payloads Are Now in Orbit As Game-Changing Global Air Traffic Surveillance Service Nears Debut

MCLEAN, Virginia, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aireon announced today the seventh successful launch and deployment of its space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) payloads, hosted by the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation. At 04:39:30 AM PDT (11:39:30 UTC), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and placed 10 new Iridium NEXT satellites into low earth orbit, bringing the total number of Aireon payloads in orbit to 65. This leaves just a single launch of 10 more Iridium NEXT satellites and their Aireon payloads before the launch campaign concludes later this year. The Aireon system is scheduled to go live in 2018 with operational deployment beginning shortly after that domestically in the Edmonton and Gander Flight Information Regions. Operational trials in oceanic airspace over the North Atlantic will begin in early 2019.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722304/Aireon_Logo.jpg

Upon completion of the new network, the Aireon system will enable never-before possible capabilities for air navigation service providers (ANSPs), air traffic controllers, airline operators and industry stakeholders. Oceanic and remote airspace will, for the first time, have real-time air traffic surveillance, allowing further enhanced safety, as well as on-the-fly route adjustments, more direct flightpaths and increased predictability.

"We're getting closer to the finish line," said Don Thoma, CEO of Aireon. "Perhaps most exciting though is that the system has been functioning beyond expectation, resulting in even greater coverage redundancy than initially planned. We're seeing double coverage, and in many cases triple redundancy from our payloads before the constellation is even completed. With this seventh successful launch completed, we're now preparing to begin a new era for the aviation industry."

The Iridium NEXT satellite constellation will consist of 66 low-earth orbit crosslinked satellites that blanket the earth with pole-to-pole coverage. When pairing the Aireon service with the real-time communications capabilities offered by Iridium, such as Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) or Iridium SATCOM Voice, pilots flying oceanic and remote routes will be in real-time contact with air traffic controllers enabling them to obtain route adjustments and maximizing the benefits of Aireon's air traffic surveillance. Iridium is the only satellite communications provider that covers the entire globe, ensuring that wherever an aircraft may fly, it will always remain in coverage with real-time communication. This capability has become increasingly important as airlines fly more routes over the North Pole, dramatically reducing flight time and fuel cost.

"Iridium and Aireon share the same Iridium NEXT network, though they operate through separate payloads and on-board antennas, with Iridium utilizing the main mission antenna and Aireon utilizing its own custom-designed hosted payload," said Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium. "This combination creates a unique multi-purpose satellite network providing aircraft connectivity and surveillance with multiple built-in redundancies. No other pair of companies can come close to offering such revolutionary capabilities. We look forward to seeing the full constellation operational later this year and bringing all of these capabilities to life."

A total of 81 Iridium NEXT satellites are being built, all of which will have the Aireon payload onboard. Currently, 75 satellites are planned to be deployed with nine serving as on-orbit spares and the remaining six as ground spares. The constellation is planned for completion in 2018.

For more information about Aireon LLC, visit www.aireon.com

For more information about Iridium NEXT, visit www.IridiumNEXT.com

About Aireon LLC

Aireon is deploying a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon will harness next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that are currently ground-based and, for the first time ever, extend their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Real-time ADS-B surveillance will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augment existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), ENAV, Naviair and NATS, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon will have an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system in 2018. For more information, please visit www.aireon.com

Press Contact:

Jessie Hillenbrand

Aireon

+1 (703) 287-7452

Jessie.Hillenbrand@Aireon.comBgogo & 21 Crypto Institutions to Forge a Strategic Partnership that will Revolutionize the Crypto Exchange Landscape Worldwide

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 25, 2018 / Bgogo is a revolutionary digital asset exchange platform that has been launched to provide cryptocurrency project owners and investors a perfect alternative for listings and trading. This remarkable new exchange platform is developed by seasoned engineers and experts coming from major tech-giants such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Alibaba, etc. and its aim is to offer a transparent and affordable alternative to the contemporary digital exchanges that are dominating the market with high fees.

The existing cryptocurrency market is dominated by the monopoly exchanges that charge project teams humongous fees to list their coin. Despite heavy listing fees and trading fees, most exchanges still provide poor trading experience, security, and engagement. However, Bgogo has made a commitment to revolutionize the industry by giving away the listing power back to the crypto community, as well as offering a 105%-rebated trading fee to attract investors. The platform will also offer a smooth, efficient and secure trading experience and will set new trends in the market.

Founded by its CEO Ms. Amber Cheung, this alternative exchange platform is backed by her 12 years of experience in asset management, private equity and investment management. Amber has held senior management positions in several well-known financial institutions and public companies in both Hong Kong and mainland China.

Bgogo is the first digital asset exchange platform featuring supernodes as a listing authority. Each supernode is granted the "One Vote, One Listing" privilege, which gives status holders the right to pick a cryptocurrency to list on the Bgogo trading platform during its tenure. In addition, each supernode is entitled to the benefit of "20% Per-Trade Commission Share", where 20% of the commision generated over a lifetime from trading the cryptocurrency the supernode nominates will be paid to it.

Bgogo will also provide a high-frequency trading fee rebate (also known as mining through trading). A number of BGG tokens equivalent to 105% of the trading fee will be rebated to the user in only 30 minutes after the trade. This implies that the user will be effectively paying a negative trading fee using the platform.

Bgogo will also use 100 percent of the trading commision to repurchase BGG daily, which provides a constant price support. The buyback tokens will be sent to a burn address made public to ensure transparency.

Moreover, Bgogo will update and post BGG token holding positions of all supernodes on its website. This is an unprecedented case where an exchange makes public its top token holders as well as their positions. This means that any change in supernode positions will be seen by the entire Internet. Bgogo states that its mission is to offer the most transparent, fair, liquid, and secure cryptocurrency exchange in the industry.

These innovative supernode designs have already received a phenomenal response from ventures, influencers and communities worldwide. Several high-profile venture capitals as well as influencers, including Pantera Capital, ICO Drops, Hashed, Blockwater Capital, DHVC, have already joined as the founding generation of Bgogo supernodes. They will be the first institutions entrusted to list any cryptocurrency on Bgogo exchange and get 20% of the per-trade commission share.

Bgogo envisions to become a leading crypto asset trading platform and a pioneer in promoting transparency in the cryptocurrency exchange industry. This token economics design of BGG token will be able to give the power back to the community and revolutionize the way to build an aligned value among project owners and investors in the crypto ecosystem.

For more information, please visit:

www.Bgogo.com

Company full name: Bgogo

Website: bgogo.com

Contact: max.wangqh@gmail.com

Full name: Maximilian Wang

SOURCE: BgogoDUBAI, UAE, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

New office is the second in Latin America and the ninth in the world

Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced the opening of a representative office in the Republic of Panama. The new office has been established to strengthen the organization's presence in Latin America, which forms part of its strategic plan to expand into promising markets.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722340/Dubai_Chamber_Logo.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722342/H_E_Hamad_Buamim.jpg )



Dubai Chamber operates several international offices. These affiliated operations support Dubai's economic diversification plans and strengthen the competitiveness of Emirati companies in global markets and assist in its expansion in key markets. The new Panama office is Dubai Chamber's second in Latin America and its ninth in the world, with offices already established in Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Iraq and Mozambique.

"We are committed to bolstering our presence in countries that provide opportunities for growth and expansion for our partners from Dubai's business community. Panama is a gateway to the Central American and Latin American regions and offers a host of opportunities, particularly in the logistics, finance and agricultural sectors. The Panama Canal international waterway also offers ready access to numerous other strategic global markets," said H.E Hamad Buamim, President and CEO, Dubai Chamber.

Dubai Chamber's new Panama office aims to contribute to strengthening economic relations between Dubai and Panama's business communities and to facilitate an improvement of trade between the two regions, which has grown significantly over the past five years.

Dubai's non-oil trade between with Panama grew from $11 million in 2012 to $20.6 million in 2017, an increase of 87%. Dubai's key imports from Panama include vegetable products and textiles, whereas Dubai's main re-export products to Panama include transport equipment, Machinery and electrical/electronic equipment and parts, and chemicals and allied products.

Editor ' s note

Established in 1965, Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry is a non-profit public entity, whose mission is to represent, support and protect the interests of the business community in Dubai. It does this by creating a favorable business environment, supporting the development of business and by promoting Dubai as an international business hub.

Follow us on:

http://www.facebook.com/dubaichamber

http://www.twitter.com/dubaichamber

http://www.linkedin.com/company/dubai-chamber-of-commerce-&-industry/

http://www.youtube.com/DubaiChamberTV

http://www.instagram.com/dubaichamber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.By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said he may meet with the Armenian FM in September.

An agreement was reached to hold the next meeting in September, he said at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on July 24.

Mammadyarov noted that it was proposed to hold the meeting within the UN General Assembly or earlier.

I expressed my readiness for this meeting from the Azerbaijani side, and said the main thing is that the talks should be fruitful, the Azerbaijani FM said.

As for a high-level meeting, Mammadyarov noted that the Armenian side asked for time for that.

The last meeting between Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers was held in Brussels on July 11 under the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov of Russia, Stephane Visconti of France and Andrew Schofer of the U.S. The meeting was also attended by the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk. It is noteworthy that this was Mammadyarovs first meeting with the new Armenian FM.

During the meeting, the ministers exchanged views regarding the situation on the ground and discussed next steps and parameters for re-engaging in substantive negotiations. They agreed to meet again in the near future under the auspices of the co-chairs.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict 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 regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.

Until now, Armenia controls fifth part of Azerbaijans territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.















Press release

Vallourec reports second quarter and first half 2018 results

Revenue of 1,844 million in H1 2018 up 7.5% year-on-year (+17.6% at constant exchange rates) driven by the positive momentum on the Oil & Gas market

EBITDA of +18 million in H1 2018, improved by 36 million year-on-year

Confirmation that H2 2018 EBITDA is targeted to be significantly higher than H1, notably supported by higher prices in the US and deliveries on international Oil & Gas markets

Boulogne-Billancourt (France), 25 July 2018 - Vallourec, a world leader in premium tubular solutions, today announces its results for the second quarter and first half of 2018. The consolidated financial statements were presented by Vallourec's Management Board to its Supervisory Board on 24 July 2018.

Key figures

H1 H1 Change In millions of euros Q2 Q2 Change 2018 2017 YoY 2018 2017 YoY 1,087 1,013 7.3% Sales Volume (k tons) 572 538 6.3% 1,844 1,716 7.5% Revenue 982 933 5.3% 18 (18) +36m EBITDA 23 3 +20m 1.0% -1.0% +2.0pts As % of revenues 2.3% 0.3% +2.0pts (307) (254) -53m Net income (loss), Group share (137) (128) -9m (418) (325) -93m Free cash flow (164) (105) -59m 30 June 31 Dec. Change In millions of euros 30 June 31 Mar. Change 2018 2017 over the period 2018 2018 over the period 1,934 1,542 +392m Net debt 1,934 1,783 +151m

Commenting on these results, Philippe Crouzet, Chairman of the Management Board, said:

"The increase in Vallourec's H1 2018 revenue and EBITDA was driven by the positive momentum on the US Oil & Gas market. It allows Vallourec to take advantage of its fully integrated US manufacturing facilities and to pass on as planned significant price increase on OCTG products, coming into force in the third quarter. Oil and Gas International markets also show positive signs of improving activity. Higher bookings in the EA and MEA[1] regions will benefit Vallourec's deliveries from the second part of this year on. In Brazil, we are starting to execute our new long-term contracts with Petrobras and are ideally positioned to capture opportunities which will come from the opening of the Brazilian pre-salt fields to IOCs.

Going forward, we are focused on three pillars which will continue to improve EBITDA. First, the continued improvement in our competitiveness through the implementation of our Transformation Plan, which will again generate significant cost reductions. Secondly, ensuring we benefit from the improvements in volumes and prices in our main markets. Lastly, the opportunities which come from our new competitive routes in China and Brazil have already generated, and will continue to generate commercial successes in all regions. Vallourec remains very focused on its objective of returning to cash flow positive as soon as possible.

Taking into account the gradual recovery in our main markets and the continued progress in our Transformation Plan, we confirm our positive outlook for the year with EBITDA in the second half of 2018 targeted to be significantly higher than in the first half."

I - CONSOLIDATED REVENUE BY MARKET

H1

2018 H1

2017 Change YoY Change YoY at constant exchange rates







In millions of euros Q2

2018 Q2

2017 Change YoY Change YoY at constant exchange rates 1,285 1,178 9.1% 21.1% Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals 701 645 8.7% 18.6% 180 189 -4.8% -3.2% Power Generation 82 105 -21.9% -21.0% 379 349 8.6% 16.9% Industry & Other 199 183 8.7% 16.4% 1,844 1,716 7.5% 17.6% Total 982 933 5.3% 13.8%

Over the first half of 2018, Vallourec recorded revenue of 1,844 million, up 7.5% compared with the first half of 2017 mainly driven by a positive volume impact of +7.3%, a price/mix effect of +10.3% essentially in the US, partly offset by a negative currency impact of -10.1%.

Q2 2018 revenue of 982 million was up 5.3% compared with Q2 2017, with a positive volume impact of +6.3%, price/mix effect of +7.5%, partly offset by a negative currency impact of -8.5%. This is mainly due to the positive impact of US volume and price increases, along with general improved market conditions.

Sequentially, Q2 2018 Group revenue was up 13.9% compared with Q1 2018, mainly driven by Oil & Gas, bearing in mind that seasonality effects are traditionally reflected in Q1 revenue.

Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals (69.7% of consolidated revenue)

Oil & Gas revenue reached 1,106 million in H1 2018, up 3.5% year on year (+15.2% at constant exchange rates).

In North America, Oil & Gas revenue increased year-on-year, despite a negative forex effect: the higher demand for tubes was supported by much higher drilling activity (the average active rig count in the US rose by 23% YoY) and OCTG prices were raised in the second half of 2017. As from H2 2018, Vallourec has passed as planned significant OCTG price increases.



In the EA and MEA regions , Oil & Gas volumes were up year-on-year, along with increased prices notably in the Middle-East and South East Asia, partly offset by (i) a negative forex translation impact and (ii) a different product mix on some deliveries. Overall, tendering activity continues to increase in these regions as anticipated.



In Brazil, Oil & Gas revenue was slightly down compared to H1 2017. Higher volumes were mainly offset by the weakening of the Brazilian Real. In April 2018, Vallourec reinforced its unique long-standing relationship with Petrobras by signing new long-term contracts for the supply of a comprehensive range of premium products and services.

Petrochemicals revenue was 179 million in H1 2018, up 64.2% year-on-year (+79.8% at constant exchange rates) driven by the recovery in the US.

Power Generation (9.8% of consolidated revenue)

Power Generation revenue amounted to 180 million in H1 2018, down 4.8% year-on-year, (-3.2% at constant exchange rates).

This decrease was essentially due to lower sales in nuclear, while conventional power generation revenue was slightly up.

Industry & Other (20.5% of consolidated revenue)

Industry & Other revenue amounted to 379 million in H1 2018, up 8.6% year-on-year (+16.9% at constant exchange rates).

In Europe, it was up essentially driven by higher prices in Mechanical Engineering and Automotive applications.

In Brazil, Industry & Other revenue increased essentially as a result of higher volumes in Mechanical Engineering and Automotive applications driven by a recovery in the Brazilian economy. Revenue from the mine was down as a result of lower iron ore market prices.

II - CONSOLIDATED RESULTS ANALYSIS

Q2 2018 consolidated results analysis

In Q2 2018, EBITDA stood at 23 million.

Q2 2018 EBITDA improved 20 million compared to 3 million EBITDA in Q2 2017 thanks to:

Consolidated revenue up 5.3% year-on-year;

An industrial margin of 130 million up 18 million compared with Q2 2017. As a percentage of revenue it improved from 12.0% to 13.2%, reflecting (i) higher activity (ii) savings resulting from the Transformation plan, (iii) partially offset by the increase in raw material prices and unfavorable currencies evolution;

Sales, general and administrative costs (SG&A) down 8.3% at 99 million, representing 10.1% of revenue compared with 11.6% in Q2 2017.

As a reminder, Q2 2017 EBITDA included net reversals in provisions for 21 million, compared to 6 million in Q2 2018. Net of these effects, EBITDA improved by 35 million.

Operating result was a loss of 75 million, compared to a loss of 78 million in Q2 2017. Q2 2018 operating result includes a negative 24 million of "asset disposal, restructuring and other" mainly related to the restructuring measures undertaken in Europe and the divestiture of the two remaining French Drilling Products entities.

Financial result was negative at -62 million versus -58 million in Q2 2017, resulting mainly from higher interest charges over the period.

Income taxwas nil in Q2 2018 compared to -1 million in Q2 2017.

The share attributable to non-controlling interests amounted to -1 million, compared to 10 million in Q2 2017.

This resulted in a net loss of 137 million, compared to a loss of 128 million in Q2 2017.

H1 2018 consolidated results analysis

For the first half of the year,EBITDA stood at 18 million.

H1 2018 EBITDA improved 36 million compared to -18 million in H1 2017 with:

Consolidated revenue up 7.5% compared with H1 2017;

An industrial margin of 233 million, up 20 million compared with H1 2017, reflecting (i) higher activity, (ii) the savings resulting from the Transformation Plan initiatives, (iii) partially offset by the increase in raw material prices and unfavorable currencies evolution;

Sales, general and administrative costs (SG&A) of 200 million, down 9.5% compared with H1 2017, now representing 10.8% of revenue compared with 12.9% in H1 2017. This significant improvement mainly reflects savings from the Transformation Plan.

Excluding changes in provisions, H1 2018 EBITDA improved 44 million compared to H1 2017, with net reversal of 14 million in H1 2018 and 22 million in H1 2017.

Operating result was a loss of 205 million, compared to a loss of 189 million in H1 2017. H1 2018 operating result includes 57 million of "asset disposal, restructuring and other" mainly related to restructuring measures undertaken in Europe and the divestiture of the two remaining French Drilling Products entities.



Financial result was negative at -105 million versus -101 million in H1 2017. In H1 2018, Vallourec recorded higher interest charges as a result of the recent OCEANE and bond issuances. As a reminder, H1 2017 financial result included a loss of 13 million related to the change in fair value of Vallourec's NSSMC shares.

Income taxwas nil in H1 2018, compared to a gain of 18 million in H1 2017. Tax gains were reduced compared to H1 2017 mainly as a consequence of the results recovery in North America.

The share attributable to non-controlling interests amounted to 2 million in H1 2018, compared to 21 million in H1 2017.

This resulted in a net loss, Group share of -307 million in H1 2018, compared to -254 million in H1 2017.

III - CASH FLOW, FINANCIAL POSITION AND LIQUIDITY

Vallourec generated a negative free cash flow of -418 million in H1 2018 compared to -325 million in H1 2017. This is mainly explained by:

Cash flow from operating activities at -144 million compared with -160 million in H1 2017. The better EBITDA was partly offset by higher financial interests and taxes paid over the period;

Change in working capital requirement of -236 million compared to -104 million in H1 2017. Its increase was driven by a seasonal effect, higher activity to prepare for H2 2018 deliveries, and momentary increased inventories induced by quotas from Section 232. Despite these effects, it was stable in number of days compared to Q2 2017. Working capital is targeted to decrease in the second half of the year;

Continuation of efficient discipline in managing capital expenditure, which stood at -38 million, compared to -61 million in H1 2017.

As a consequence, as at 30 June 2018, Group net debt stood at 1,934 million compared to 1,542 as of 31 December 2017.

Vallourec continues to benefit from a strong liquidity position. Its cash position as at 30 June 2018 amounted to 0.9 billion. Medium and long-term undrawn committed facilities amounted to 2.2 billion. At the same date, short-term debt amounted to 0.7 billion, including 0.3 billion of commercial paper.

Vallourec reinforced its liquidity beginning of April 2018 by raising 400 million senior notes due 2023. The proceeds from the offering will be used, together with cash on hand, to refinance Vallourec's outstanding bonds due August 2019 by redeeming them when they mature.

IV - TRANSFORMATION PLAN

Vallourec continues to deploy its Transformation Plan which generated 52 million gross savings in H1 2018.

In April 2018, Vallourec closed the sale of the main part of its Drilling Products business to NOV, and the divestiture of Vallourec Fittings, a subsidiary producing seamless fittings in France.

The two French Drilling Products entities in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire (Bourgogne-Franche Comte) and in Tarbes (Occitanie) that were undergoing an independent divestment process were subsequently taken over by Altifort.

The blast furnace and steel production facilities in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, were shut down as planned mid-July.

The small tube finishing line in Saint-Saulve dedicated to conventional power plants will be closed by the end of 2018.

Lastly the Group is also continuing the deployment of its most competitive manufacturing routes, in particular VSB and Tianda, whose industrial and commercial integration is progressing well, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of its global offer.

V - MARKET TRENDS & 2018 OUTLOOK

Vallourec confirms its market outlook for Oil & Gas: stabilised oil prices, continued depletion, and sustained hydrocarbon demand are expected to continue to support oil and gas companies' increasing global activity.

In the U.S., demand for tubular products is expected to stay strong due to the continuous robust drilling activity, and Vallourec will benefit from OCTG price increases realized as of the beginning of H2 2018. In addition, Section 232 measures should eventually tighten the US OCTG market, on which Vallourec is primarily serving its customers from its domestic facilities; the Group is actively working on debottlenecking its US finishing capacities to fully utilize its local rolling capacity, and in the meantime adapting its production routes to Section 232 measures, which are impacting imports to the US from Brazil.

In Brazil, drilling activity is expected to remain stable. The new long-term contracts signed with Petrobras have entered into force this summer.

In the rest of the world, Vallourec continues to anticipate higher Oil & Gas deliveries in H2 2018.

Macroeconomics should continue to benefit our Industry & Other operations.

Power Generation revenue is expected to be impacted by a diminishing number of conventional power plant projects, particularly in Asia.

Despite unfavorable currencies and raw material prices faced in H1, which are currently stabilized, Vallourec confirms its positive outlook for the full year based on the progressive recovery of its main markets and the continuous significant savings generated by its Transformation Plan. The Group targets 2018 EBITDA to improve versus 2017, with H2 2018 significantly higher than H1.

Information and Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements include financial forecasts and estimates as well as assumptions on which they are based, statements related to projects, objectives and expectations concerning future operations, products and services or future performance. Although Vallourec's management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable, Vallourec cannot guarantee their accuracy or completeness and these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that are difficult to foresee and generally beyond Vallourec's control, which may mean that the actual results and developments may differ significantly from those expressed, induced or forecasted in the statements. These risks include those developed or identified in the public documents filed by Vallourec with the AMF, including those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of the Registration Document filed with the AMF on 21 March 2018.

Presentation of Q2 and H1 2018 financial results

Analyst conference call / audio webcast at 6:00 pm (Paris time) to be held in English.



To listen to the audio webcast: https://edge.media-server.com/m6/go/Vallourec18Q2 (https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__edge.media-2Dserver.com_m6_go_Vallourec18Q2&d=DwMGaQ&c=pTZ7J--rI9zhrcoHkKRgDg&r=dqx38drMOIU3VyxXVNYpk4U-WytKCqmuJksrPnNcZZc&m=RIFkQ1DN-9fp3zhuSC9w8pI4zElMmIWDQZHY8g97ZhM&s=f1PZ5mYTrwKLAaqfZf4iPB50WfBw5r36E5T8zj8afbs&e=)



To participate in the conference call, please dial :

+44 (0)330 336 9411 (UK),

+33 (0)1 76 77 22 57 (France),

+1 929-477-0448 (USA),

+44 (0)330 336 9411 (Other countries)

Conference code: 2365836



Audio webcast and slides will be available on the website at:

http://www.vallourec.com/EN/GROUP/FINANCE (http://www.vallourec.com/EN/GROUP/FINANCE)

Calendar

15 November 2018 Release of third quarter and first nine months 2018 financial results

About Vallourec

Vallourec is a world leader in premium tubular solutions for the energy markets and for demanding industrial applications such as oil & gas wells in harsh environments, new generation power plants, challenging architectural projects, and high-performance mechanical equipment. Vallourec's pioneering spirit and cutting edge R&D open new technological frontiers. With close to 19,500 dedicated and passionate employees in more than 20 countries, Vallourec works hand-in-hand with its customers to offer more than just tubes: Vallourec delivers innovative, safe, competitive and smart tubular solutions, to make every project possible.

Listed on Euronext in Paris (ISIN code: FR0000120354, Ticker VK) and eligible for the Deferred Settlement System (SRD), Vallourec is included in the following indices: SBF 120 and Next 150.

In the United States, Vallourec has established a sponsored Level 1 American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program (ISIN code: US92023R2094, Ticker: VLOWY). Parity between ADR and a Vallourec ordinary share has been set at 5:1.

www.vallourec.com

Follow us on Twitter @Vallourec

For further information, please contact:

Investor relations

Alexandra Fichelson

Guilherme Camara

Tel: +33 (0)1 49 09 39 76

Investor.relations@vallourec.com Press relations

Heloise Rothenbuhler







Tel: +33 (0)1 41 03 77 50 / +33 (0)6 45 45 19 67

heloise.rothenbuhler@vallourec.com



Individual shareholders

Toll Free Number (from France): 0 800 505 110

actionnaires@vallourec.com









Appendices

Documents accompanying this release:

Sales volume

Forex

Revenue by geographic region

Revenue by market

Summary consolidated income statement

Summary consolidated balance sheet

Cash flow statement

Free cash flow

Definitions of non-GAAP financial data

Sales volume

In thousands of tons 2018 2017 Change YoY Q1 515 475 8.4% Q2 572 538 6.3% Q3 588 Q4 655 Total 1,087 2,256

Forex

Average exchange rate H1

2018 H1

2017 EUR / USD 1.21 1.08 EUR / BRL 4.14 3.44 USD / BRL 3.42 3.18

Revenue by geographic region

In millions of euros H1 As % of H1 As % of Change 2018 revenues 2017 revenues YoY Europe 295 16.0% 280 16.3% 5.4% North America 604 32.8% 414 24.1% 45.9% South America 317 17.2% 315 18.4% 0.6% Asia & Middle East 527 28.6% 558 32.5% -5.6% Rest of World 101 5.4% 149 8.7% -32.2% Total 1,844 100.0% 1,716 100.0% 7.5%

Revenue by market

H1 As % of H1 As % of Change In millions of euros Q2 As % of Q2 As % of Change 2018 revenues 2017 revenues YoY 2018 revenues 2017 revenues YoY 1,106 60.0% 1,069 62.3% 3.5% Oil & Gas 615 62.6% 584 62.6% 5.3% 179 9.7% 109 6.4% 64.2% Petrochemicals 86 8.8% 61 6.5% 41.0% 1,285 69.7% 1,178 68.7% 9.1% Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals 701 71.4% 645 69.1% 8.7% 180 9.8% 189 11.0% -4.8% Power Generation 82 8.3% 105 11.3% -21.9% 203 11.0% 155 9.0% 31.0% Mechanicals 110 11.2% 83 8.9% 32.5% 78 4.2% 70 4.1% 11,4% Automotive 40 4.1% 37 4.0% 8.1% 98 5.3% 124 7.2% -21.0% Construction & Other 49 5.0% 63 6.7% -22.2% 379 20.5% 349 20.3% 8.6% Industry & Other 199 20.3% 183 19.6% 8.7% 1,844 100.0% 1,716 100.0% 7.5% Total 982 100.0% 933 100.0% 5.3%

Summary consolidated income statement

H1 H1 Change In millions of euros Q2 Q2 Change 2018 2017 YoY 2018 2017 YoY 1,844 1,716 7.5% REVENUE 982 933 5.3% (1,611) (1,503) 7.2% Cost of sales(1) (852) (821) 3.8% 233 213 9.4% Industrial margin 130 112 16.1% 12.6% 12.4% 0.2pt (as % of revenue) 13.2% 12.0% 1.2pt (200) (221) -9.5% SG&A costs(1) (99) (108) -8,3% (15) (10) na Other income (expense), net (8) (1) na 18 (18) +36m EBITDA 23 3 +20m 1.0% -1.0% +2.0pts EBITDA as % of revenue 2.3% 0.3% +2.0pts (134) (151) -11.3% Depreciation of industrial assets (64) (72) -11.1% (19) (23) na Amortization and other depreciation (10) (12) na (13) - na Impairment of assets - - na (57) 3 na Asset disposals, restructuring and other (24) 3 na (205) (189) -16m OPERATING INCOME (LOSS) (75) (78) +3m (105) (101) 4.0% Financial income (loss) (62) (58) 6.9% (310) (290) -20m PRE-TAX INCOME (LOSS) (137) (136) -1m - 18 na Income tax - (1) na 1 (3) na Share in net income (loss) of associates 1 (1) na (309) (275) -34m NET INCOME (LOSS) FOR THE CONSOLIDATED ENTITY (136) (138) +2m 2 21 na Non-controlling interests (1) 10 na (307) (254) -53m NET INCOME (LOSS), GROUP SHARE (137) (128) -9m (0.7) (0.6) -0.1 EARNINGS PER SHARE (in ) (0.3) (0.3) na

(1) Before depreciation and amortization

na: not applicable

Summary consolidated balance sheet

In millions of euros Assets 30-June 31-Dec Liabilities 30-June 31-Dec 2018 2017 2018 2017 Equity, Group share 1,983 2,426 Net intangible assets 79 89 Non-controlling interests 447 459 Goodwill 353 348 Total equity 2,430 2,885 Net property, plant and equipment 2,767 2,977 Shareholder loan 66 72 Biological assets 66 71 Bank loans and other borrowings (A) 2,197 1,817 Associates 104 102 Employee benefits 192 209 Other non-current assets 141 137 Deferred tax liabilities 15 18 Deferred tax assets 227 242 Provisions and other long-term liabilities 54 61 Total non-current assets 3,737 3,966 Total non-current liabilities 2,458 2,105 Inventories and work-in-progress 1,137 1,004 Provisions 158 149 Trade and other receivables 660 568 Overdrafts and other short-term borrowings (B) 656 746 Derivatives - assets 4 32 Trade payables 575 582 Other current assets 229 231 Derivatives - liabilities 29 13 Cash and cash equivalents (C) 919 1,021 Tax and other current liabilities 310 321 Total current assets 2,949 2,856 Total current liabilities 1,728 1,811 Assets held for sale 9 64 Liabilities disposal for sale 13 13 TOTAL ASSETS 6,695 6,886 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 6,695 6,886 Net debt (A+B-C) 1,934 1,542 Net income (loss), Group share (307) (537)

Cash flow statement

H1 H1 In millions of euros Q2 Q2



2017 Q1



2018 2018 2017 2018 (144) (160) Cash flow from operating activities (61) (78) (83) (236) (104) Change in operating WCR (84) -



(152)



+ decrease, (increase) (380) (264) Net cash flow from operating activities (145) (78) (235) (38) (61) Gross capital expenditure (19) (27) (19) - - Financial investments - - - - - Increase and decrease in equity - - - - - Impact of acquisition - - - - - Dividends paid - - - 26 (1) Asset disposals & other items 13 25 13 (392) (326) Change in net debt (151) (80) (241) + decrease, (increase) 1,934 1,613 Net debt (end of period) 1,934 1,613 1,783

Free cash flow

H1 H1 Change In millions of euros Q2 Q2 Change 2018 2017 (in  million) 2018 2017 (in  million) (144) (160) +16 Cash flow from operating activities (FFO) (A) (61) (78) +17 (236) (104) -132 Change in operating WCR (B) (84) - -84 [+ decrease, (increase)] (38) (61) +23 Gross capital expenditure (C) (19) (27) +8 (418) (325) -93 Free cash flow

(A)+(B)+(C) (164) (105) -59

Definitions of non-GAAP financial data

Gross capital expenditure: Gross capital expenditure is defined as the sum of cash outflows for acquisitions of property, plant and equipment and intangible assets and cash outflows for acquisitions of biological assets.

Free cash-flow: Free cash-flow (FCF) is defined as cash-flow from operating activities minus gross capital expenditure and plus/minus change in operating working capital requirement.

Industrial margin: The industrial margin is defined as the difference between revenue and cost of sales (i.e. after allocation of industrial variable costs and industrial fixed costs), before depreciation.

Consolidated net debt : Consolidated net debt is defined as Bank loans and other borrowings plus Overdrafts and other short-term borrowings minus Cash and cash equivalents.

Banking Covenant: As defined in the bank loan agreements, the "banking covenant" ratio is the ratio of the Group's consolidated net debt to the Group's equity, restated for gains and losses on derivatives and for remeasurements (foreign currency gains and losses of consolidated subsidiaries).

Data at constant exchange rate: The data presented  at constant exchange rate  is calculated by eliminating the translation effect into euros for the revenue of the Group's entities whose functional currency is not the euro. The translation effect is eliminated by applying Year N-1 exchange rates to Year N revenue of the contemplated entities.



[1] EA-MEA: Europe, Africa, Middle-East and Asia





PDF version (http://hugin.info/143606/R/2207206/858049.pdf)



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: VALLOUREC via Globenewswire

Revenue in m - unaudited consolidated data 2018/19 2017/18 Change Change on a constant forex basis Change at constant scope1 and on a constant forex basis Q1 95.9 85.4 +12% +13% +9%

1 UK firm, Xceed, has been consolidated since 04/01/2018

In Q1 of the 2018/19 fiscal year (April 1 to June 30, 2018), Wavestone generated a consolidated revenue of 95.9m, an increase of 12%, and 13% on a constant forex basis. At constant scope and exchange rates, the firm's organic growth reached 9%.

Very positive operating indicators

This sustained quarterly growth is a reflection of the positive operating indicators seen over the period.

Consultant utilization rate stood at 78% in Q1 2018/19, compared with 77% for the whole of the last fiscal year.

Following the signs of previous months, sales prices confirmed their positive trend. The average daily rate was 869 over the quarter, compared with 848 for 2017/18: an increase of 2.5%.

Lastly, at June 30, 2018, the firm's order book stood at 3.6 months of work, compared with 3.7 months at the end of the 2017/18 fiscal year.

Continued expansion of the workforce, but increasing concerns about staff turnover

Despite an increasingly tight labor market, Wavestone's recruitment plan is progressing according to its annual business plan, with more than 600 hires envisaged in the 2018/19 fiscal year.

In contrast, Q1 was marked by renewed concerns over staff turnover. Levels reached 21%, year-on-year, compared with 16% for the whole of the previous fiscal year, clearly above the 15% level envisaged by the company for the medium-term.

Wavestone will therefore intensify the human-resource activity begun several months ago, which is designed to remedy this.

At June 30, 2018, Wavestone had 2,825 employees, compared with 2,793 on March 31, 2018.

Xceed: on track for integration

Q1 2018/19 was also marked by the acquisition, in early April, of UK consulting firm, Xceed.

Although, during the early part of the fiscal year, Xceed's activity saw something of a slowdown, its integration into Wavestone is firmly on track, with contracts for the first joint projects now signed.

From this summer, Xceed's teams will be based in Wavestone's London office, and, immediately after the summer, they will switch over to the Wavestone brand.

Confirmation of 2018/19 objectives

Wavestone had a dynamic and better than expected start to the 2018/19 fiscal year, which was driven by solid levels of activity and a steady increase in sales prices.

However, Q2 may prove less dynamic, due to the effects of staff turnover-a clear area of focus in the coming months, and the risk of a decline in utilization rate over the summer and immediately after.

For the whole of the 2018/19 fiscal year, Wavestone fully confirms its annual financial objectives: to achieve consolidated revenue growth of at least 8%, including Xceed, with an EBIT margin of over 13%. These objectives are calculated on a constant forex basis and exclude new acquisitions.

Next event: 2018/19 H1 revenue: November 6, 2018, after Euronext market closing.

About Wavestone

In a world where understanding transformation is the key to success, Wavestone's ambition is to provide its clients with advice that is unique in the market, enlightening and guiding them in their most strategic decisions.

Wavestone draws on some 2,800 employees in eight countries. It is a leading independent player in European consulting, and the number one in France.

Wavestone is listed on Euronext, Paris, and is eligible for the PEA-PME (a French investment instrument that encourages individuals to invest in smaller and intermediate-sized firms). Wavestone is recognized as a Great Place to Work.

Wavestone

Pascal Imbert

CEO

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00

Sarah Lamigeon

Communications Director

Tel.: +33 (0)1 49 03 20 00 Actus

Mathieu Omnes

Investor and Analyst Relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 92

Nicolas Bouchez

Press relations

Tel.: +33 (0)1 53 67 36 74

------------------------



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Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-54434-wavestone-pr-ca-q1-201819-20180725-en.pdfMadras HC orders framing of charges against the Maran brothers, in the BSNL telephone exchange case, within 12 weeks.

Madras High Court (HC) on Wednesday set aside a lower court order discharging Dayanidhi Maran, his brother Kalanithi and the other accused in the BSNL 'illegal' telephone exchange case, according to a media report.

The court has reportedly sent the case back to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court, according to The Times of India.

Madras HC has ordered framing of charges against the Maran brothers within 12 weeks.

Madras High Court sets aside lower court order discharging Maran brothers in BSNL illegal telephone exchange case. High Court orders framing of charges against them within 12 weeks.  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

In June, the CBI moved the Madras High Court against the Maran brothers and seven other accused, claiming that it had "more evidence against the Marans".

The brothers were acquitted by the additional judge for CBI cases S Natarajan in March, 2018, as "no prima facie evidence to prove charges against them" was found.

According to the CBI, the then Union minister for communication and information technology, Dayanidhi Maran misused his office and installed a private telephone exchange at his residences in Chennai, during the check period of June 2004 to December 2006. He then used the facility for business, which involved the Sun Network, owned by his brother Kalanithi.

The CBI had alleged that Maran had caused a loss of Rs 1.78 crore to the exchequer. More than 700 telecom lines were installed at their residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram in Chennai, according to the agency's charge. Among the accused were former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager MP Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman, and a few Sun TV officials.

With inputs from agenciesShares of India Cements fell by 3.29 percent, UltraTech Cement dropped 2.39 percent, Ambuja Cements 1.50 percent, Grasim Industries 1.31 percent, JK Lakshmi Cement 1.26 percent and ACC 0.28 percent on BSE.

New Delhi: Cement stocks on Wednesday fell by up to 3 percent after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal dismissed 11 cement-makers' plea, challenging the CCI order to impose a penalty of Rs 6,700 crore for alleged cartelisation.

Shares of India Cements fell by 3.29 percent, UltraTech Cement dropped 2.39 percent, Ambuja Cements 1.50 percent, Grasim Industries 1.31 percent, JK Lakshmi Cement 1.26 percent and ACC 0.28 percent on BSE.

The appeals are dismissed, said the NCLAT, which now is an appellate authority over the Competition Commission of India (CCI).

In August 2016, CCI had slapped approximately Rs 6,700 crore penalty on 11 cement firms including UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja, Ramco and JK Cement as well as the industry body Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) for indulging in cartelisation.

This was challenged by the cement makers before the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which had on 22 November stayed CCIs direction to pay 10 percent of the penalty within a month of the order.HDFC AMC, which has a total asset under management of over Rs 3 lakh crore as of March-end, is the country's second largest fund house after ICICI Prudential AMC that has an asset base of Rs 3.06 lakh crore during the same period.

New Delhi: HDFC Asset Management Company, the country's second largest mutual fund firm, garnered Rs 732 from anchor investors on Tuesday, ahead of its initial share-sale today.

The company's IPO committee has finalised allocation of 66,53,265 equity shares to 35 anchor investors at Rs 1,100 per scrip, the firm said in a regulatory filing. At this price, the total proceeds will be Rs 731.86 crore.

Among the anchor investors are Camas Investments, Reliance Strategic Investments, Goldman Sachs (Singapore), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority - Relval, FIL Investments (Mauritius), HSBC Indian Equity Mother Fund, SBI Large and Mid Cap Fund, Kotak Emerging Equity Scheme and Smallcap World Fund, Inc.

HDFC AMC operates as a joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) and Standard Life Investments.

The price band for the initial public offer (IPO), open from 25 July to 27 July, has been fixed at Rs 1,095-1,100 per equity share.

The IPO offers up to 2.54 crore equity shares of the fund house through an offer for sale of 85.92 lakh shares (4.08 per cent stake) by HDFC and up to 1.68 crore shares (7.95 per cent)by Standard Life.

At the upper end of the price band, the public issue is expected to garner Rs 2,800 crore.

HDFC AMC, which has a total asset under management of over Rs 3 lakh crore as of March-end, is the country's second largest fund house after ICICI Prudential AMC that has an asset base of Rs 3.06 lakh crore during the same period.

It will become the second AMC to hit the markets after Reliance Nippon Life AMC, which had raised Rs 1,542 crore last year.

Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India), Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, BofA Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets India, CLSA India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, IIFL Holdings, JM Financial, JP Morgan India, Morgan Stanley India are the book running lead managers to the issue.if Indian money deposits have dipped in Swiss banks and if we assume this was all black money, where did all this money go,

On Tuesday, in a reply to Parliament, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said between 2014 and 2017, there was an 80 percent decline in the total deposits by Indians in Swiss banks, adding media was misinterpreting this data before. The context for Goyal's statement were earlier reports of a 50 percent rise in Swiss banks' total liabilities towards India in fiscal 2016-2017. Since this included non-deposit liabilities, the business of Swiss branches in India, interbank transactions and fiduciary liability, this wasnt the correct way to analyse the numbers", he said.

In fact, if one analyses the customer deposit numbers alone (excluding fiduciary liability and bank dues) using Swiss National Bank (SNB) data, Indian customer deposits in Swiss banks has been on a declining trend, not just in the last three years, but since it reached a peak in 2006. Of course, the pace of this decline has picked up since 2014 and right now this figure is the lowest in at least a decade. For India, which is one of the worst affected global economies when it comes to the parallel economy, what the Swiss bank data is showing is encouraging. The Narendra Modi government deserves its due share of credit for intensifying the black money fight renegotiating treaties with tax havens.

The government wasnt happy a while ago when reports appeared that Indian money in Swiss banks rose by 50 percent to Rs 7,000 crore in 2017 over 2016 quoting, SNB data. This was seen as a setback for Narendra Modi governments anti-black money battle. Interestingly, Modi governments top brass including Goyal jumped to defend the government's position to say that not all money in Swiss bank accounts is black. "The data that you alluded to will come to us, so how are you assuming that this is black money or this is black money or this is illegal transaction, Goyal asked then. There are a few things worth mentioning here.

The important fact here is that it is wrong to assume all money in Swiss banks is black money as Goyal too agreed in June. Part of it could be legit money. But, most governments and investigative agencies across the world do not believe so; they use the term suspected black money when they refer to Swiss bank deposits. This is mainly because of the kind of secrecy Swiss banks offer their customers and because of their notorious reluctance to share details with authorities of other countries.

Also, it is foolish to imagine that black money is disappearing or turning white merely looking at the Swiss banks' numbers. These are just one of the several tax havens in the world and there is a high probability that due to the increased attention on Swiss banks by agencies around the world, tax cheats have moved their money to safer locations. According to the Panama Papers leak, there is at least 21 active tax havens ranging from Nevada, Mauritius to Singapore to the British Virgin Islands.

Another logical question is, if Indian money deposits have dipped in Swiss banks and if we assume this was all black money, what has happened to this ill-gotten wealth? Has this money been round-tripped back to India or deployed elsewhere? Typically, tax cheats resort to round tripping to bring their unaccounted wealth to the mainstream economy. Tracking this is difficult for most governments since there are layers of transactions to bypass legal scrutiny. In the case of Swiss bank money, what has happened in the Indian context?

No one denies that India has a serious black money problem and it is a widely accepted fact that most of the unaccounted money at stake lies in foreign soil. According to R Vaidyanathans book, Black Money and Tax Havens, the amount of money Indians have stashed in tax havens could be around Rs 65 lakh crore. Whereas, the amount of domestic black money is estimated to be around Rs 15 lakh crore, a good amount of which could be in the form of assets such as real estate and financial investments.

Now, what did the Narendra Modi government do to recover the foreign black money? As part of the foreign black money operations, the government kicked off a series of negotiations with major tax havens through diplomatic channels, using a mix of nudging and bargaining tactics. The idea was to discourage tax cheats from India from seeking the safety of Swiss-bank like institutions to hide their ill-gotten wealth and share details of those whose money is already stashed in their lockers. If one looks at the recovery figures, it hasnt achieved much -- about Rs 17,000 crore the IT sleuths recovered through raids.

The war on black money is still on and tax cheats are far too smart to give in easily. Having said, the government deserves credit for initiating an all-out attack on the parallel economy and going after tax cheats. The decline in Swiss bank customer deposits from India should bolster this governments anti-black money fight.

(Data support from Kishor Kadam)The court directed Chidambaram to cooperate in the ED's probe and asked the senior Congress leader not to leave the country without the court's permission

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted former Union minister P Chidambaram interim protection from arrest, till 1 August, in the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) case related to INX Media.

The court directed Chidambaram to cooperate in the ED's probe and asked the senior Congress leader not to leave the country without the court's permission.

While opposing Chidambaram's anticipatory bail plea, the ED, in the Delhi HC, said that "the son (Karti) was instrumental in getting illegal FIPB approvals with the concurrence and knowledge of the father," ANI reported. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that Chidambaram was indulging in forum shopping by approaching different courts.

Chidambaram on Monday approached the high court seeking anticipatory bail in the ED's money laundering case related to INX Media. The petition was filed through advocates Pramod Kumar Dubey and Arshdeep Singh. Though no summons have ever been served to the former finance minister by the ED in this case, he fears arrest in view of the summons issued to him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is investigating the scheduled offence, the petition said.

The plea claimed that 72-year-old Chidambaram apprehends arrest because of the circumstances under which the ED has arrested chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman and the CBI arrested Karti Chidambaram.

Separately, on Monday, a trial court in New Delhi granted Chidambaram protection from arrest, till 7 August, in the Aircel-Maxis case, in which he and his son Karti have been named in the chargesheet filed by the CBI recently.

The Congress leader's alleged role is under the scanner of the investigating agencies probing the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore and the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal.

With inputs from PTIFinance Minister Piyush Goyal, said the instances of people escaping and evading the legal process was increasing and that this needed to be checked

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill that aims at preventing culprits from evading the law and fleeing the country.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on 19 July.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, while moving the bill in the upper house of the Parliament, said the instances of people escaping and evading the legal process was increasing and that this needed to be checked as the existing laws cannot deal with the severity of problem and the "criminal law does not allow us to impound [offenders'] property."

"This bill is an effective, expeditious and constitutional way to stop these offenders from running away. Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders from running away.

"Legislative changes or a new law must be in place to confiscate assets of such absconders till they don't present themselves in front of courts. We will also work out what has to be done with the confiscated assets," he said. The finance minister said the government will ensure that unless a person comes back, he cannot try and stall the confiscation of his property in the garb of civil cases.

Goyal said there are provisions of special courts to declare a person a fugitive economic offender in an expeditious way. Once a person is declared so, his property will be confiscated, managed and disposed of, he said, adding that offences involving funds over Rs 100 crore will be dealt with under this law.

Last week, speaking in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said the bill gives power to investigative agencies to seize properties that are not only in the name of the offender, but also the ones that are 'benami'.

In June, a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Mumbai summoned beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya to appear before it on 27 August, on the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) plea seeking action against him under the fugitive economic offenders ordinance in an over Rs 9,000 crore bank fraud case. It was the first time the action was initiated under the ordinance promulgated by the Narendra Modi government. If Mallya does not appear before the court, he risks being declared a fugitive economic offender, and properties linked to him will be confiscated.

In the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud case too, the ED, in May, was planning to move a special court in Mumbai to seek permission for the "immediate confiscation" of assets worth Rs 7,000 crore, belonging to jeweller Nirav Modi, under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance.

With inputs from PTIOn the other hand, India's imports of textile and apparel have increased by 17 percent from $6.3 billion in 2016-17 to $7.3 billion in 2017-18

New Delhi: Textile and clothing sector exports have increased marginally to $39.2 billion in 2017-18 from $39 billion in the previous fiscal, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

On the other hand, India's imports of textile and apparel have increased by 17 percent from $6.3 billion in 2016-17 to $7.3 billion in 2017-18, Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said that government has increased customs duty on different types of fabric, apparel, made-ups and carpets from 10 percent to 20 percent to curb textile and apparel imports in the country.

In a separate reply, he said that the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) has estimated the cotton production for the current cotton season 2017-18 (October 2017 to September 2018) at 370 lakh bales.

"From October 2017 to April 2018, the total amount of cotton exported from India was 51.21 lakh bales," he said adding CAB has estimated that during the current cotton season 2017-18, the export of cotton is likely to increase by 20 percent over last year and is expected to touch 70 lakh bales by September this year.

"Domestic prices of cotton are ruling below the international cotton prices," he added.By Trend





Fraternal relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey are of great importance for stability, security and development in the region, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov said at a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Baku July 24.

The relations between the two countries are at the highest level, he added. There are very strong and close ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Speaking about joint projects being implemented by Azerbaijan and Turkey, Mammadov stressed that the implementation of such projects as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline testifies to unbreakable fraternal relations between the countries.

These projects will contribute to the welfare of not only Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also the region as a whole, he said. The projects will also contribute to the strengthening of international cooperation.

Both countries successfully cooperate in all international organizations, Mammadov said. Turkey is always close to Azerbaijan and renders great support for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.







By Eric M. Johnson and Tim Hepher SEATTLE/PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co played for time on its proposed new mid-sized jet at the Farnborough Airshow last week, announcing it would decide next year whether to launch its first all-new plane in a decade and giving itself 9-12 months to hone its business case.

By Eric M. Johnson and Tim Hepher

SEATTLE/PARIS (Reuters) - Boeing Co played for time on its proposed new mid-sized jet at the Farnborough Airshow last week, announcing it would decide next year whether to launch its first all-new plane in a decade and giving itself 9-12 months to hone its business case.

With 225-265 seats, Boeing's proposed new mid-sized airplane, or NMA, could fill an opening in the middle of the airplane market between the bread-and-butter single-aisle planes that dominate most fleets and the bigger long-range, twin-aisle jets.

That niche has already been partially filled by rival Airbus' largest narrowbody, the bestselling A321neo. But Boeing insists the NMA would be able to open new routes due to longer range and superior economics, just as its 787 revamped long-haul travel by connecting secondary cities.

Capacity and range are not the only factors Boeing is considering as it makes one of its most significant decisions in years.

To make business sense, the price must be low enough to lure airlines and high enough to leave a return for Boeing, while squeezing through a narrow economic gap in prices between single-aisle and twin-aisle planes. A key question is whether the gap is wide enough to take the plunge.

"That is the challenge of the NMA," John Plueger, chief executive of Air Lease Corp, told Reuters.

"Building a business case in 2018 for an airplane that won't start in service until 2025 is not such an easy slam dunk."

Planemakers do not publish the real prices at which they sell their jets, which include significant discounts, but most analysts say the net price of the new jet would come in at $60-$70 million  about $15-20 million more than a discounted single-aisle jet.

While Boeing's focus is on cutting costs, company officials have poured cold water on speculation that it could revert to a cheaper metal fuselage rather than weight-saving modern composites.

"They have got to get it right. It is a tough needle to thread," Plueger said.

Boeing does have a potential wild card.

While the business case is being studied on its own merits, the time frame for a decision  2019  coincides with the expected closing of a deal for Boeing to take over Embraer's commercial operations.

Embraer would give Boeing access to extra engineering resources and R&D capacity at a lower cost.

"It gives us additional opportunities to consider," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg told Reuters, when asked whether the Embraer acquisition might inject extra clarity into the NMA decision.

Embraer has some "very effective, streamlined" development processes, Muilenburg added.

"When we're able to complete this deal it would give us another option, another set of resources, additional ideas and that could be helpful to the (NMA) business case," he said. "It's another factor that can be considered in the overall business case."

Boeing officials said the business case was already improving on a standalone basis.

Still, a significant hurdle remains: the capacity and willingness of engine makers to produce the right engine in the correct time frame. This has become the main "pacing factor" in the NMA decision, a person familiar with the plans said.

Boeing, which has conducted wind tunnel trials as it studies the NMA, has done more pre-development work than usual to avoid a repeat of industrial problems both in-house and at suppliers which delayed the 787, people close to the matter said.

Recent industrial problems among engine makers could tip Boeing toward offering airlines a choice of two engines, but this would force each supplier to make do with a smaller slice of the new business.

"There is a strategic rationale for dual sources: it mitigates technology risks. But the business case for the engine guy becomes very thin," said Domhnal Slattery, CEO of leasing company Avolon.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Tracy Rucinski and Tom Brown)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.In horrible lynching incidents like that in Alwar, one thing emerges with abundant clarity: no diktats from SC and no hurried deference from govt can help.

The government has constituted a high-level committee to discuss the possibility of introducing a new provision in the Indian Penal Code to deal with mob lynching in the wake of the Supreme Court's judgment on the issue. But latest facts emerging from the tragic death of a 31-year-old Rakbar Khan in Alwar, Rajasthan, suggest that a new law on lynching is not going to solve the problems of the Indian criminal justice system. Indeed, the irony of the Supreme Court recommending the central government to draft what will be a stillborn law on lynching, when this government is scrambling to remove redundant laws from the statute book, is not lost on most.

Early reports suggest that Khan was allegedly lynched by a mob in Alwar on suspicions of cow smuggling on 20 July. More recent reports, including a statement by a Rajasthan government minister and an admission of sorts by an assistant sub-inspector of the Rajasthan Police, suggest that Khan may have died in police custody.

The fog around the actual events aside, the debate around this is tending in a horribly wrong direction. Everyone is getting it wrong: the courts, and the Supreme Court in particular; the governments; commentators at both ends of the spectrum. You could either attribute naivete to all the players (executive, judiciary, legislature, the fourth estate), and conclude that they have missed the plot; or be conspiratorial about it, and believe that they are deliberately obfuscating the plot.

In all imaginable scenarios around horrible incidents like those in Alwar, one thing emerges with abundant clarity: no diktats from the Supreme Court and no hurried deference from the government can muddle the truth, which is that we are faced with a rule of law crisis here. The Supreme Court, in its judgment on lynching last week, offered some platitudes on the subject, but did not engage with the real issues that India is facing today, many of which are painfully obvious.

Let us presume we had a law on lynching. Khan may still have died in the circumstances he did. But would those responsible for his death have been brought to justice? If his death was caused by lynching, the likelihood of prosecution and successful conviction under this new law on lynching would rest on the further assumption that the law and order machinery would have worked perfectly, and the law would have been enforced unhesitatingly by the police and implemented fairly by the courts.

But as many have previously argued, several provisions in Indian criminal law already exist to prosecute and convict anyone who may be guilty of lynching-related crimes. In this case, then, surely all we need would be a perfectly-working law and order machinery.

If, on the other hand, Akbar's was a custodial death, this imaginary legislated offence of lynching would have been pointless, for it would not address the actual crime. With the state administration's current weaknesses, the powers that be would continue to get away with incidents like these with impunity, barring perhaps some low-lying fruit being plucked in the form of token administrative action taken against junior officers.

The truth is that India's enforcement apparatus is collapsing, although the velocity and intensity of collapse varying from state to state. Similarly, the judiciary, which, in an ideal situation, would have acted as a check and balance on egregious state activities, is also close to implosion under its own weight. Introducing new laws, or demanding additional but superfluous monitoring processes, as the Supreme Court recently suggested in its judgment last week, does nothing to target the underlying reality.

Instead, we need to ask  and answer  some difficult questions. How can police architecture and reporting mechanisms and behavioural incentives be changed so that resources are not misdirected towards perpetuating misguided political power? How can information asymmetries throughout the criminal justice system  including police, prosecution, prisons and courts  be reduced so as to minimise arbitrariness and inefficiency and maximise the quality of law and order, and guarantee fundamental protections? How can we redevelop the idea of criminality, and consequently, notions of punishment, while ensuring that indispensable rights such as those of freedom and expression are not compromised?

Primary education in civics teaches us that the rule of law means that everyone is subject to the law, including the rulers themselves. Indeed, most Indians are also taught to believe that one of the tenets of the Indian state is the rule of law. Instead of believing in this blindly, we need to actively start questioning whether or not this is indeed true. That is the crossroads we must be at, and then proceed onwwards from there.Yogi Adityanath said that his govt will provide protection to everyone but every individual, community and religion should respect each other's sentiments.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said that mob lynching cases are being given unnecessary importance and went on to blame the Congress for making a ''mountain out of a molehill'', reported ANI.

These incidents are given unnecessary importance. If you talk about mob lynching, what was 1984? Law & order is a matter of state. Congress' intention to make mountain out of a molehill won't be successful: UP CM Yogi Adityanath on mob lynching incidents pic.twitter.com/4RdeEy4yns  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 25, 2018

The chief minister further said that his government will provide protection to everyone but every individual, community and religion should be responsible enough to respect each other's sentiments. "Humans are important and cows are also important," said Adityanath, days after the lynching of 28-year-old Rakbar Khan in Alwar, Rajasthan. The victim was taking his cows back to their village in Haryana in Alwar's Ramgarh when a mob lynched him on suspicion of cattle smuggling.

We'll provide protection to everyone, but it's responsibility of every individual, every community & every religion to respect each other sentiments. Humans are important & cows are also important. Both have their own roles in nature. Everyone should be protected: Yogi Adityanath pic.twitter.com/s12OwaZxwc  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) July 25, 2018

The local police were accused of negligence and delay in taking Khan to the hospital. Later, a high-level panel set up by the state police found four policemen guilty of dereliction in duty and suspended assistant sub-inspector Mohan Singh, who was in charge of the Ramgarh police station at that time. Officials also shunted three constables to police lines.

'But what about 1984?'

On the fifth day of the ongoing Monsoon Session, mob lynching issues came up in both Houses of Parliament. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, in response to Oppositions questions, said that the central government will enact a law, if necessary, to curb similar incidents.

Rajnath, in response to TMC leader Shanta Chhetri's criticism of the government's failure to keep such incidents in check, said, "I want to make it clear that the government is not just concerned but has taken lynching incidents very seriously."

He reiterated that the biggest lynching in India had occurred in 1984 when thousands of Sikhs were killed in the aftermath of the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi.

Meanwhile, Adityanath, in his comments on Wednesday, also brought up the comparison and said, ''If you talk about mob lynching, what was 1984? Law and order is a matter of state."

The home ministry on 23 July had announced that it would set up two high-level committees to suggest ways and a legal framework to effectively deal with incidents of mob violence and lynching.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 July urged states to take stringent action in such cases. "The incidents of violence are against the basic principles of humanity. I once again urge the states to take strict action in such cases," he said during the no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha.

The Supreme Court on 17 July had instructed Parliament to deal with offences of mob-lynching. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra condemned such cases and called the incidents "horrendous acts of mobocracy" which cannot be allowed to become a new norm.

The bench passed a slew of directions to provide "preventive, remedial and punitive measures" to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism as it said that it was the duty of state governments to ensue law and order in society. "Citizens cannot take law into their hands and cannot become law unto themselves," the bench had said three days before the lynching of Rakhbar Khan.

With inputs from agenciesThe Bihar Assembly was on Wednesday adjourned till lunch amid pandemonium for the second consecutive day over the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Patna: The Bihar Assembly was on Wednesday adjourned till lunch amid pandemonium for the second consecutive day over the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

Congress MLA Vijay Shankar Dubey raised the issue during the Question Hour and demanded a CBI probe.

Opposition MLAs, including those from the RJD and the Congress, trooped into the Well of the House and raised slogans against the Nitish Kumar government's refusal to hand over the matter to the CBI.

Some of the agitated MLAs also started banging the tables of the Assembly reporters.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary took strong exception to it and warned the legislators that such unruly behaviour could lead to stern action.

As the slogan shouting continued, the Speaker adjourned the proceedings till lunch.

A delegation of the opposition parties, comprising RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Congress Legislature Party leader Sadanand Singh and Hindustani Awam Morcha leader Jitan Ram Manjhi, left for Muzaffarpur to take stock of the investigation into the case so far.

Bihar Director General of Police KS Dwivedi had on Tuesday said he was satisfied with the progress of police investigation into the case and that there was no need for a CBI probe.

He said medical examination of 29 of the 42 inmates had confirmed that they were sexually exploited.

Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday told the House that the government was trying to neither shield nor implicate anyone.

"The matter had come to light not because of you (Opposition), but because of a social audit conducted by the government itself," he said.At least 13 children and a staff member of an anganwadi centre in Dwarka's Uttam Nagar area were hospitalised after they complained of vomiting and lost consciousness after consuming the mid-day meal on Tuesday, police said.

New Delhi: At least 13 children and a staff member of an anganwadi centre in Dwarka's Uttam Nagar area were hospitalised after they complained of vomiting and lost consciousness after consuming the mid-day meal on Tuesday, police said.

They were being treated at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital.

Rice and boiled gram were served to the children and pregnant women at the anganwadi centre which was supplied by a group based in Uttam Nagar's Deepak Vihar, a police official said.

However, the pregnant women who consumed the same meal did not complain of any uneasiness, he said.

The children were in the age group of one and a half to seven. The sick staffer was identified as 45-year-old Rama, he added.

The anganwadi centre was being run for the last 11 years by Anita (47), a resident of Hastal Vihar in Dwarka's Uttam Nagar, he said, adding the centre has 46 children and 13 pregnant women.

An FIR has been registered in the matter, the police said.An encounter has broken out between militants and security forces in South Kashmir's Anantnag early on Wednesday morning.

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Anantnag town on Wednesday morning following a tip-off about their presence inside a house.

Two terrorists were trapped inside a house in a congested residential area, near Lal Chowk, Times Now reported.

The encounter started after a joint team of army, Jammu and Kashmir police, and CRPF conducted a siege operation at Mehmaan Mohalla in Lal Chowk.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Anantnag) Altaf Khan and his team were monitoring the situation.

Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Swayam Prakash Pani said, "This was a difficult operation as it was in a crowded locality. All civilians were evacuated and the room intervention team completed the operation. There was no collateral damage."

Giving details of the encounter, the police said security forces launched the operation in the early hours. This was the first operation within Anantnag town after a gap of 12 years.

As the security forces advanced towards the suspect house, the terrorists hiding inside fired on the security forces, which retaliated, resulting in an encounter, they said.

On the basis of the materials seized, it was established that they belonged to proscribed terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba and one of them was identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar alias Bin Yamin Dar, a resident of Kulgam, the police said.

As per police records, 26 year-old Bilal passed class 12th and joined militancy in June 2017. He was involved in series of terror acts and was a close Shakoor Dar, divisional commander of Lashker-e-Taiba, who was killed earlier this month, they said.

Some arms and ammunition were recovered from the site of encounter.

In wake of the gunfight, authorities snapped internet services in Anantnag district and its adjoining parts, according to an India Today report.

Railway authorities told Kashmir Glory that the train services have also been suspended to and from Srinagar to Banihal as a precautionary measure.

The area was cordoned off as a search operation was launched, even as an exchange of fire continued.

A curfew was imposed around the encounter site.

With inputs from PTI.The number of farmer suicides across India had reduced in 2016 in comparison to 2015, a government report revealed.

The number of farmer suicides across India had reduced in 2016 in comparison to 2015, a government report revealed. However, suicides among agricultural labourers have increased.

According to a report in The Indian Express, a government report released in Parliament on Tuesday  2016 is the latest data available  said that there were 6,351 farmer suicides in 2016 as compared to 8,007 in 2015, which is a drop of 21 percent.

The report, however, showed that agricultural labour suicides have increased by 10 percent. From 4,595 farm labour suicides in 2015, the number of suicides went up to 5,019 in 2016.

With the exception of Telangana, all states which have witnessed a drop in farmer suicides have also witnessed an increase in farm labour suicides.

Experts believe that the reduction in suicides among farmers and the increase of suicides among farm labourers could be due to the fact that 2014 and 2015 were drought years and the crisis was more severe. The 2016 monsoon was good but for labourers, the first six months of 2016 too were a period of no work.

A farmer lives on the hope of a good monsoon. A labourer may not have the same capacity to withstand the crisis, an expert told The Indian Express.

In Maharashtra, fewer farmers committed suicides in April this year, in comparison to the duration between January and March 2018.

While the state claimed it was a possible effect of its decision to waive farm loans, agricultural experts warned that the drop could be temporary and the government should not start patting its back yet, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.

In April, there were 188 cases of farmer suicides, lower than the monthly average of 225 to 250 in the first three months of this year, the relief and rehabilitation departments statistics showed.

The department said the trend was seen across the state but was more significant in parts of Marathwada and Vidarbha.

I dont think farmers distress has reduced, said Vijay Jawandhiya, an agriculture analyst told Hindustan Times. If the government claims a drop in suicides, it may be statistical jugglery. Agricultural finances have worsened in the wake of falling prices to produce such as tur, chana and cotton, among others.At least four alleged cattle smugglers transporting a dead buffalo were assaulted by a mob here in the early hours, the police said.

Hathras: At least four alleged cattle smugglers transporting a dead buffalo were assaulted by a mob in the early hours, the police said.

Villagers alleged that the men were caught in village Nagla Mandhata while they were transporting the buffalo's carcass in a pick-up van.

They were, however, rescued by the police who intervened in time, Hasayan SHO Jitendra Kumar said.

The owner of the buffalo alleged that the animal had been poisoned by these cattle smugglers.

Superintendent of Police Sushil Ghule said tough action would be initiated if it was found that they were cattle smugglers.

The incident, which took place before dawn in Hathras district, about 200 km from Delhi, assumes significance as it came against the backdrop of a backlash over the death of a man attacked by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan.

This is the latest in a series of mob attacks that have become quite frequent in various parts of the country.

28-year-old Rakbar Khan died after he was thrashed by a mob at Alwar in Rajasthan on suspicion of cattle smuggling last week.

Khan was attacked by villagers who thought he was smuggling cows. What caused his death was alleged delay by cops in taking him to hospital.

The government has constituted a Group of Ministers to examine ways of checking what the Supreme Court termed "mobocracy" and report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Centre put out an advisory on Tuesday asserting that states need to take measures against such incidents.Rajnath Singh said that if the need arises, Ministry of External Affairs will talk to both Bangladesh and Myanmar so that Rohingya refugees are deported.

New Delhi: India is in talks with Bangladesh for deportation of Rohingya refugees illegally staying in India, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday in the Rajya Sabha.

Union minister Kiren Rijiju also said that as many as 52 illegal Bangladeshis will be deported on 30 July from Assam. "There has been discussion with Bangladesh on this issue," Singh said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.

He also said that the Ministry of External Affairs , if the need arises, will talk to both Bangladesh and Myanmar so that Rohingya refugees are deported. The Home Minister further said the Centre has sent an advisory to state governments to identify illegal immigrants and take their bio-metric and ensure that they don't have any such document to claim Indian citizenship in the future. "After we get report from states, we will send to the external affairs ministry," he added.

Minister of State for Home Rijiju said that India has already approached Myanmar and Bangladesh on the issue of Rohingya refugees. "Government of India is impressing on them to take back these people. The process will be as per the discussion we have with a sovereign country. I cannot give assurance here," he said, responding to a supplementary question.

The minister said that under the Foreigners Act, the Centre has powers to identify, detect and deport anyone who is staying illegally in India.

Maintaining that Rohingyas have entered India illegally, Rijiju said they are staying in various states. As per the security agency report, they are staying in Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Jaipur, he added. "The central government has clearly given direction to states to identify, detect and start the process of deportation of Rohingyas who have entered illegally."

With regard to deportation of illegal Bangladeshis, Rijiju said, "The Bangladesh government has agreed, identified and accepted the identity of 52 people as Bangladeshis. So, they have agreed these 52 people including one minority will be deported on 30 July at 11 am at Mankachar IPC in Assam."

To another supplementary on keeping Indians in detention camps with an ulterior motive, the minister said no motive can be attached to anybody kept in detention. Only those declared as foreigners by tribunal can be kept in detention camps, he said. "The government on its own cannot declare anybody as foreigner and put them in a detention camp," he added.By Trend





Managing Director of Iran Zinc Mines Development Company Ardeshir Sa'ad Mohammadi said the countrys iron ore reserves are expected to run out in the next two years.



"Currently, 80 million tons of Irans extracted iron ore are being processed at plants inside the country," Sa'ad Mohammadi said, according to the official website of IMIDRO.



Saying that the country is capable of producing 48 million tons of iron ore concentrate and 45 million tons of granulated iron annually, he said, "Iran will need to produce 160 million tons of iron ore by 2025".



He said the private sector is exporting the iron ore pellets and that the country will have no reserves in the next two years to export any.



Sa'ad Mohammadi said Iran is seeking to turn its iron ore concentrate products into high added-value products, such as iron ore pellets.





Iranian miners exported a total of 20.67 million tons of iron ore in the last fiscal year (March 2017-18), according to statistics released by market analyst, Keyvan Jafari Tehrani, and SteelMint.



China was Irans primary iron ore shipment destination, as it accounted for 19.66 million tons of overall exports. It was followed by Malaysia with 313,150 tons, Russia with 44,000 tons, the UAE with 30,000 tons, Pakistan with 25,000 tons and other destinations with an aggregate of 607,265 tons.



Iran was the sixth largest supplier of the commodity to China in 2017, as shipments to the industrial giant make up about 91 percent of Iranian iron ore miners exports. Irans share of Chinese iron ore imports stood at 2.3-2.5 percent in 2013. The country exported a total of 23.5 million tons, over 90 percent of which went to China.While tankers supply drinking water to the urban areas, rural areas face an acute water crisis.

Editor's note: A recent NITI Aayog report on India's water resources presented an alarming state of affairs. The country, according to the think tank, is in the grip of the worst water crisis in its history, with 600 million Indians faced with "high to extreme water stress", resulting in 2 lakh deaths a year. Firstpost will run a series of ground reports from across the country to determine the extent to which depleted reserves have affected daily life.

Read all stories in the series here

***

Kolkata: Sukumoni Shabar, 60, nearly had a sun-stroke as she braved the scorching sun and humidity to fetch water from a rivulet. The only drinking water comes from this 'chhora' (small stream), as she calls it. The parched lands of Purulia  the most drought-prone district of West Bengal  receives scanty rainfall that is unable to resuscitate water bodies. Almost all water sources dry up, and cracks appear in the fields. Sukumoni, her daughter-in-law Chandraboti and grandson Nagendra, 12, walk for hours with buckets to collect drinking water. The district was hit by the worst drought two years ago, and this year, the condition is no better.

While tankers supply drinking water to the urban areas, rural areas face an acute water crisis. "Every monsoon, the rivulet is filled with dirty water and we are forced to collect that. We are poor and cant afford water like people from urban areas," Sukumoni says. Shyamal Sarkar, a government employee in a Purulia suburb, says, We are also forced to buy water, shelling out Rs 50 per bottle in the summer when the water crisis hits our locality.

In 2017, a Union ministry study revealed that around one out of every five persons in rural India who does not have access to clean drinking water is from West Bengal. The report also says around 411 lakh villagers in India, which is around 4.5 percent of the countrys rural population, do not have access to clean drinking water. Out of this 411 lakh population, around 19 percent, or 78 lakh villagers, are from West Bengal. It has the second highest number of villagers who do not have access to safe drinking water in India, second to Rajasthan," the report said, quoting a ministry official. The study also says that only around 56 percent families living in urban areas in West Bengal have access to safe drinking water, which is far less than the national average of 70.6 percent.

The state Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) had made arrangements for the supply of piped water to some villages, but it is yet to reach most households.

We go without pure drinking water for months. The only source of water for 2,000 villagers is the small rivulet, which is almost dry. We are often forced to fetch muddy water, which we process using age-old methods, Sukumoni says.

Women at Onda village in Purulia, mainly inhabited by tribals, collect water and store it in pitchers and buckets for two days. The situation gets worse in the summers when temperatures range from 42 to 47 degrees Celsius. The shortage of drinking water cause several diseases. We suffer bouts of dehydration, constipation, diarrhoea and urinary tract infections, Chandraboti says.

State Agriculture and Irrigation Department sources say Purulia gets less rainfall, unlike the other districts of Bengal, with annual rainfall less than 140 cm. Bankura, Birbhum and West Midnapore districts also receive scanty rainfall. Sources from the state secretariat in Nabanna say the government sanctioned Rs 90 crore to meet the water demand in drought-prone areas in each zilla parishad.

Scientific approach needed to manage water

Hydrologist and consultant at World Bank, Mohit Ray, who has extensively studied water-related subjects, attributes water-level depletion, nature of soil, lack of scientific water-preservation measures and lack of government initiatives to the large-scale crisis. The water-shortage issue takes an ugly turn in Purulia with 80 percent areas facing a drought-like situation each year. Several areas of Bankura, Burdwan and parts of West Midnapore also face the same. Water conservation, preservation techniques and scientific mechanisms to deal with the problem must be implemented, Ray says.

Sarbeswar Haldar, assistant professor at Haldia Government College in East Midnapore, identifies two factors for this drought situation -- physical and economical. He says physical water scarcity denotes inadequate water resources to meet regional demand. Economic water scarcity is caused by a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology to draw water from rivers, aquifers or other water sources or insufficient human capacity to satisfy the demand for water. He echoes Ray on the issue of water management. More than anything else, proper mechanism is needed. All the stakeholders must devise a way to make sustainable use of the available water resources, Haldar says, adding that Bengal faces an unprecedented water crisis.

He says both ground and surface water availability and potentiality in Purulia and other districts depend on hydro-meteorological factors, such as air temperature, evapotranspiration, precipitation, soil nature and moisture. Socio-economic and anthropogenic factors such as poverty, population growth, ignorance about the water resource, unscientific use of water, grazing, deforestation, agriculture and primitive methods of groundwater withdrawals cause water crisis in Purulia, as well as other districts that also lag behind in the country's development index.

Government claims schemes in place

State water resources minister Soumen Mahapatra refutes neglect. Our government's flagship projects, like Jal Dharo Jal Bharo (preserve and reserve water), is a grandiose scheme that began in 2011. Construction of 50,000 ponds for micro irrigation purposes is also underway. The rainwater harvesting project is now also providing livelihood through the fisheries developed in these ponds, says Mahapatra. The minister claims Bengal tops in MGNREGA implementation, and 1,20,000 farm ponds have been dug in the state.

While experts decry lack of government initiative, private initiative has begun. NGO South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) is encouraging villagers to take up rainwater harvesting, which Ray feels is the only way to change the scenario. Almost 50 percent of water is not fit for use in Purulia. Private initiatives are scattered and effective mechanism and funds are needed to harvest water in this geographical condition in these districts, Ray says.

The author is a Kolkata- based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.Initiating a discussion in the Lok Sabha, CPM leader P Karunakaran said this is one of the worst floods in the history of Kerala and about 120 people have already lost their lives

New Delhi: Terming the flood situation in Kerala as "severe", the opposition today asked the government to declare the situation a natural calamity and provide funds for relief and rehabilitation beyond the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) stipulation.

Initiating a discussion in the Lok Sabha, CPM leader P Karunakaran said this is one of the worst floods in the history of Kerala and about 120 people have already lost their lives.

The intense rainfall has resulted in large scale devastation across various parts of the state and relief package from the central government was needed immediately, he said.

Given the serious nature of flood, he said, the Centre should declare this as a natural calamity and provide funds beyond what is due under the NDRF.

He expressed displeasure over not getting the due from the Centre after the devastation caused by the Okhi cyclone.

"We got very little after the Okhi cylone from the Centre," he said.

Expressing the concern over the working of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), he said it needed to be strengthened so that it can help mitigate the damage.

KC Venugopal of Congress said the people were staying in very pathetic situation at temporary shelters of flood affected areas of Kerala.

The government should intervene in the matter and provide concrete package to the state immediately, he said.

Besides, he said armed forces should be fully equipped to handle such kind of situation.

Government should create a National Disaster Mitigation Fund, he said, adding there is also need to strengthen the IMD to provide early warning for natural disaster.

Raising issue of drought in Bihar, Sanjay Jaiswal (BJP) said the issue has to be addressed comprehensively.

He suggested that the House should discuss the issue of flood and drought in the winter session so that a policy can be worked out beforehand for the next year.

He also said that National Green Tribunal should not impose blanket ban but has to consider issue taking into account topography and need of the region.

Veena Devi of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) also expressed concern over the drought-like situation in Bihar.

Kalyan Banerjee (TMC) accused the Centre of "step-brotherly" attitude towards West Bengal on granting assistance, despite the state being "seriously affected" by flood.

He said flood is a "natural calamity" and a national problem and the Centre should release funds immediately.

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said while flood or drought affected Odisha every year, there was "constant apathy" of the Centre and the farmers were not given their due share of funds.

He said the second Green Revolution was an "empty rhetoric" of the Narendra Modi government as it does not factor in eastern India.

Deo said the government has not been able to devise a plan to deal with eratic rainfall or impact of climate change on agriculture. He said insurance companies were also not releasing money under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

AP Jithender Reddy (TRS) said the Centre should ensure that water is distributed judiciously as some states witness flood while others see drought.

K Geetha (YSR Congress) said the Polavaram project should be expedited at the earliest. She said nearly four lakh farmers have already migrated from Rayalseema area of Andhra Pradesh.Granting the bail, Justice V Rajavijaya Raghavan from Kerala High Court directed the priest to appear before the investigating officer twice a week and not to influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidence.

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted conditional bail to Job Mathew, a Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church priest, arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a 34-year old married woman.

Granting the bail, Justice V Rajavijaya Raghavan directed the priest to appear before the investigating officer twice a week and not to influence the witnesses or tamper with the evidence.

Mathew, the second accused among the four priests in the case, was arrested after he surrendered before the police in Thiruvalla on 12 June. He has been accused of sexually assaulting the woman since 2009 by misusing her confession. Mathew, a vicar of a local church, was also directed not to leave the country.

The Crime Branch wing of the State Police had on 2 July registered a case against the four priests.

It was on the basis of the statement given by a woman belonging to the same Church accusing them of sexually assaulting her on many occasions. The high court had earlier granted bail to another priest and third accused Johnson V Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, arrested on 13 July.

The two priests had surrendered after the high court dismissed their anticipatory bail plea and that of two other priests, observing that they had acted as "predators" and took "undue advantage" of the woman. The two other priests, accused in the case, have moved the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail.

The incident came to light after an audio clip of the purported conversation of the husband of the victim with a church official about the alleged sexual abuse of his wife by the priests was circulated on social media. The woman's husband had last month accused the priests of using his wife's secret confession to "blackmail and sexually abuse" her.The shutdown called by Maratha groups across Maharashtra on Wednesday demanding Maratha quota in government jobs and educational institutes, turned violent as protesters burnt buses and hurled stones in various parts of Mumbai.

The shutdown called by Maratha groups across Maharashtra on Wednesday demanding Maratha quota in government jobs and educational institutes, turned violent as protesters burnt buses and hurled stones in various parts of Mumbai.

The Panvel-Sion highway was the worst affected as protesters threw stones at policemen in Navi Mumbai and Satara district, injuring three police personnel. The police retaliated and lathicharged protesters, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas shells at them, officials said.

Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil sustained a minor injury while two policemen were injured at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai. Protesters who gathered at Kalamboli blocked the Mumbai-Goa and Mumbai-Pune highways. The policemen deployed at the spot tried to take them away as the traffic was blocked because of the protest. Some persons in the crowd then started throwing stones at the policemen, injuring two personnel, officials said.

Protesters also set afire two police vans in the area, he said. The police then cane-charged the protesters, lobbed tear gas shells at them and also fired plastic bullets in the air, he said. Additional police force was called at the spot, he said, adding that the situation in the area was tense.

The traffic movement from Mumbai to Pune and Goa was affected due to the protests at Vashi, Kharghar, Kalamboli and Palaspe, he said. In Satara district, police cane-charged protesters who blocked the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway at Bombay Restaurant Chowk and threw stones at the policemen, SP Sandeep Patil said. Tear gas shells were also lobbed at the pro-quota agitators, said Patil, who was injured in the stone-pelting. A few vehicles were also set afire by the angry protesters in Satara, a police official said.

Meanwhile, the local train services on the trans-harbour line (between Thane and Vashi) were affected for over an hour in the afternoon as protesters halted trains at Ghansoli station, he said. On Wednesday morning also, the movement of trains was disrupted at Ghansoli, he said.

The Mumbai-Goa highway was also blocked near Palaspe at Panvel in Raigad district by protesters. The Sion-Panvel highway was blocked for some time at Kharghar and Vashi, but the police removed protesters from the road, the official said. Some agitators burnt tyres at Majiwada in the neighbouring Thane city and auto-rickshaw drivers staged protests at the Nitin Junction, another official said. In Mumbai, the Western Express Highway witnessed traffic jams due to violent protests near Jogeshwari flyover and Kandivali.

Meanwhile, a man, Jagannath Sonawane (55), who had consumed poison in Aurangabad yesterday when the reservation protest was going on, died in the hospital on Wednesday. Sonawane committed suicide due to domestic issues, Aurangabad Superintendent of Police Arti Singh claimed, adding that he was not a part of the protest.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation for reservation in jobs and education, had on Wednesday called for the shutdown in Mumbai and neighbouring districts.

With inputs from PTIProtesters attacked buses and stopped local trains in Mumbai and the adjoining Thane city today during the Maharashtra bandh called by Maratha outfits over their demand for reservation.

Mumbai: Protesters attacked buses and stopped local trains in Mumbai and the adjoining Thane city today during the bandh called by Maratha outfits over their demand for reservation. The police in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Satara districts were on their toes to prevent any law and order problem during the bandh.

In Aurangabad, a man, Jagannath Sonawane, who had consumed a poisonous substance on Tuesday during the protest, died today at a local government hospital. Nine public buses were attacked by agitators in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, a transport official said. Agitators threw stones on some buses in Mumbai, including Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas, shattering window panes.

In view of the stone-pelting on buses, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) partially suspended its services in some areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves, an official of the transport body said. Protesters tried to block a road in Mankhurd suburb, but the police stopped them. They tried to burn a tyre on a road in Chandivali area and block roads in Jogeshwari and Kandivali, but the police dispersed them, an official said.

In some areas such as Bandra, Matunga and Mulund, protesters marched on roads and were seen requesting shopkeepers with folded hands to close their establishments. They also hurled stones on two public transport buses in Wagle Estate area of Thane city and burnt tyres on its arterial Ghodbunder Road, but the police removed them. Agitators blocked some areas there, including the key Teen Hath Naka junction, resulting in huge traffic jams on the city's main entry and exit points. A bus was attacked in Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai following which the city transport authority suspended its services in the area, an official said.

Contrary to their previous peaceful agitations, this time protesters tried to stop local trains on the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) corridors. "A few protesters stopped trains on Up fast line at Jogeshwari at 9.16 am, however, they were removed from the track and train services resumed at 9.24 am. All lines working normal on WR suburban section," the Western Railway said in a tweet.

Agitators also threw stones at trains passing through Thane and Ghansoli (located on the trans-harbour line in Navi Mumbai) stations and services were halted briefly. "There were isolated incidents at Thane and Ghansoli after 9.59 am. The situation normalised at 10.24 am," CR's chief PRO Sunil Udasi said. Around 70 lakh people travel in local trains daily in the Mumbai region. In view of the bandh, lesser number of auto-rickshaws and taxis were seen on roads.

At some places, protesters raised slogans against Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Public Works Department Minister Chandrakant Patil for allegedly insulting sentiments of the Maratha community, official said.

The Agriculture Produce Market (APMC) at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai was also closed as a union of 'mathadi' workers (who carry loads on their head) supported the bandh. Security has been deployed at various places to avoid any untoward incident, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said. Some pro-reservation activists led a 'jal samadhi' protest in the Krishna river in Sangli district to press for their demands.

Commercial establishments remained shut in some areas of Ahmednagar city. The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation for reservation in jobs and education, has called for the shutdown in Mumbai and some neighbouring districts.

Another outfit, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for the bandh in Navi Mumbai and Panvel areas. They have exempted schools, hospitals, medical and other essential services, including vegetables and fuel supply, from the bandh. No school buses was attacked or stopped in any area. Ambulance services were also running normal, a senior official of the public health department said. The pro-reservation groups also kept Solapur district out of the bandh because of the rush of devotees to Lord Vitthal temple in Pandharpur town there.

The Shiv Sena has been supporting the Maratha community's demand for reservation but decided not to participate in the protest. On Tuesday , large-scale violence marred a state-wide protest by Maratha outfits demanding reservation for the community. A constable died and nine other policemen were injured amid suicide attempt by three agitators during the violence. Agitators had clashed with the police and torched vehicles at several places, while Internet services were suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district to prevent any untoward incident. In Jalna, the police had fired in the air to quell protests.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 percent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue. Fadnavis had cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur on Monday after protesters threatened to disrupt the event. Despite assurances from the chief minister, nothing concrete has been done till now over the demands, community leaders have claimed. "We will continue our agitation until the CM apologises to the Maratha community (for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur)," Morcha coordinator Ravindra Patil said on Tuesday.The Sion-Panvel highway which was blocked by protesters at the Kalamboli junction and Vashi has been cleared now.

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The Maratha groups have planned protests in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Raigad and Palghar. A pro-reservation Maratha leader had said that they would continue their agitation until Devendra Fadnavis apologised to the community over his remarks that the community planned to spread violence in Pandharpur.

Protesters pelted stones on two BEST buses near Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli on Wednesday morning. BEST bus services from Airoli to Vashi have been completely stopped in light of the Maharashtra bandh, ANI reported.

BEST bus service suspended from Airoli to Vashi as protestors hurled stones on two buses

Protesters attacked public buses in Mumbai's Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas and the neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai. In view of the stone-pelting, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport partially suspended its services in those areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves, an official of the transport body said. A bus was also attacked in Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai.

Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide by consuming poison on Tuesday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, died in the hospital on Wednesday morning, ANI reported.

Agitated protests have crippled services in Maharashtra's Akola as city's main market, schools and colleges have been completely shut, CNN News18 reported.

Commuters travelling on Mumbai-Goa highway from Panvel are facing inconvenience as protesters have blocked traffic near Raigad district, according to CNN News18.

Nine BEST buses have been damaged in Kurla, Bhandup, Andheri, Sakinaka, Kandivali, Koparkhairane and Chandivali areas of Mumbai while Western Express Highway has also been blocked by protestors, CNN News18 reports.

Nine BEST buses damaged in various areas of Mumbai; Western Express Highway blocked by protestors

The shops in Dadar, which were shut down around 11 am, will continue to remain closed. However, essential services have been resumed, CNN News18 reports.

Protesters have also blocked Mumbai-Pune Expressway near Kalamboli. Certain media reports claim that Central Railway has announced to shut services between Thane and Vashi, News18 reported.

Contrary to their previous peaceful agitations, this time the protesters tried to stop local trains on the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) corridors. "A few protesters stopped trains on fast line at Jogeshwari at 9.16 am, however, they were removed from the track and train services resumed at 9.24 am, railway officials told PTI.

Agitators also threw stones at trains passing through Thane and Ghansoli (located on the trans-harbour line in Navi Mumbai) stations and services were halted briefly. "There were isolated incidents at Thane and Ghansoli after 9.59 am. The situation normalised at 10.24 am," CR's chief PRO Sunil Udasi told PTI.

Solapur district was kept out of the Maharshtra Bandh due to the rush of devotees to Lord Vitthal temple in Pandharpur town

Solapur district kept out of the bandh due to rush of Lord Vitthal temple devotees in Pandharpur

The Mumbai coordinator of the Maratha Kranti Morcha will address a press conference in Mumbai's Dadar at 2 pm on Wednesday, according to News18.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Supriya Sule raised the issue of Maratha reservation in Lok Sabha on Wednesday. She asked the government to support the protestors' demands.

Tension has gripped Navi Mumbai as protests turn violent; police had to fire in the air to disperse the crowd, CNN-News18 reported. A BEST bus, with 15 passengers was also set ablaze by violent mob in Mankhurd. All the travellers have been reported to be safe.

"We only wanted to prove that we are together. We never wanted protests to get violent," the groups told the press as they called off the state-wide bandh on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, protests had turned violent near the Sion-Panvel highway as protestors hurled stones and police had to resort to lathicharge.

 Violence marred the Maratha community's bandh on Wednesday as protesters threw stones at policemen in Navi Mumbai and Satara district, injuring three personnel. The police retaliated and cane-charged protesters, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas shells at them, an official said. Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil sustained a minor injury while two policemen were injured at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai.

The Sion-Panvel highway which was blocked by protesters at the Kalamboli junction and Vashi has been cleared now, CNN News18 reported.

Maratha groups on instances of violence "The areas that we had designated for protests have seen no instances of violence. The cases of violence that are being reported are from areas where we hadn't organised protests," Maratha Kranti Morcha said on Wednesday.

As protests turn violent in Satara, Maharashtra's minister of state for home (Rural) Deepak Kesarkar said he is looking into the matter as reports of untoward incidents are being reported from some parts of the state, CNN-News18 reported.

Due to unavoidable circumstances, train services between Thane-Vashi/Nerul on Transharbour line is not running. Further updates will follow. @RidlrMUM @mumbairailusers @m_indicator @drmmumbaicr

Mumbai Bhand, Road block and stuck in traffic... NO PROBLEM!! We have people to entertain and easy the pressure!!! Spirit of Mumbai rocks!! @mumbairoads @RidlrMUM @navimumbaicv @RoadsOfMumbai @hashMumbai pic.twitter.com/J9kSzJII7X

Earlier on Wednesday, some people took to the road and played music amid the traffic jam caused by the bandh.

Earlier on Wednesday, protests had turned violent near the Sion-Panvel highway as protestors hurled stones and police had to resort to lathicharge.

Mumbai: Miscreants pelted stones & set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during #MarathaQuotaStir . Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders. pic.twitter.com/HA3jP9t05L

Angry protestors set a BEST bus on fire in Mumbai's Mankhurd area. The fire was extinguished by fire tenders.

 Violence marred the Maratha community's bandh on Wednesday as protesters threw stones at policemen in Navi Mumbai and Satara district, injuring three personnel. The police retaliated and cane-charged protesters, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas shells at them, an official said. Satara's Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil sustained a minor injury while two policemen were injured at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai.

The Sion-Panvel highway which was blocked by protesters at the Kalamboli junction and Vashi has been cleared now, CNN News18 reported.

We are Marathas, we don't hurt anyone. Nothing has happened in the city: Virendra Pawar, Maratha Kranti Morcha leader #BanTheBandh #MarathaQuotaStir pic.twitter.com/lgJOd653rf

Maratha Kranti Morcha leader Virendra Pawar said the bandh was successful and denied role in the instances of violence reported in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Maharashtra Bandh latest updates: The Sion-Panvel highway which was blocked by protesters at the Kalamboli junction and Vashi has been cleared now, CNN News18 reported.

"We only wanted to prove that we are together. We never wanted protests to get violent," the Maratha groups told the press as they called off the state-wide bandh on Wednesday.

The Mumbai coordinator of the Maratha Kranti Morcha will address a press conference in Dadar at 2 pm on Wednesday.

Protesters have also blocked Mumbai-Pune Expressway near Kalamboli. Certain media reports claim that Central Railway has announced to shut services between Thane and Vashi, News18 reported.

Thousands of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers have commenced their 'grand march' in Kalyan. The shops in Dadar, which were shut down around 11 am, will continue to remain closed. However, essential services have been resumed, CNN News18 reported.

Nine BEST buses have been damaged in Kurla, Bhandup, Andheri, Sakinaka, Kandivali, Koparkhairane and Chandivali areas of Mumbai while Western Express Highway has also been blocked by protestors.

Shops have been shut in Maharashtra's Nashik district as well. Meanwhile, protesters gathered in Shalimar area and raised slogans near the Ambedkar statue in the presence of police personnel, according to a CNN New18 report.

Agitated protests have crippled services in Maharashtra's Akola as city's main market, schools and colleges have been completely shut, CNN News18 reported. The Pune Railway PRO has informed that all trains are functioning as usual in the region, no delays are expected, ANI reported

Meanwhile, even as the Maratha agitation for reservation has intensified in the state, the Backward Class Commission said that it would take at least four more months to give its report on the issue. "The backward class commission is a statutory body and hence we cannot give a time limit to them. But the member secretary informed us that it will take four months to present the report, Principal Secretary of Social Justice Department, Dinesh Waghmare said.

According to ANI, clashes have broken out between two groups in Udgir in Maharshtra's Latur district when one group was forcibly trying to get people to shut shops and overturned a vegetable cart while attempting to enforce Maharashtra bandh. Police has reached the spot and the situation has been controlled.

Maratha Kranti Morcha members block local trains in Thane. Roads have been blocked in Mumbai's Kandivali East area. According to media reports, protesters are not allowing any vehicles to move.

Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide by consuming poison on Tuesday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, died in the hospital on Wednesday morning, ANI reported.

Protesters attacked public buses in Mumbai's Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas and the neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai. In view of the stone-pelting, the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport partially suspended its services in those areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves, an official of the transport body said. A bus was also attacked in Ghansoli area of Navi Mumbai.

Some members of the Maratha Kranti Morcha have forcefully shut shops on Thane's Gokhale Road. According to CNN News18, the police has arrested some protestors in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area.

Municipal Transportation Committee has halted 67 AC buses as a precautionary measure. However, other buses are plying as usual, CNN News18 reported.

Heavy police deployment is seen in various parts of Mumbai, but trains and BEST buses are plying as usual. However, BEST bus service has been suspended from Airoli to Vashi as protestors threw stones on two buses.

Two Maratha outfits the Maratha Kranti Morcha and the Sakal Maratha Samaj have called for a Maharashra bandh on Wednesday which is going to affect Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Panvel regions. The shutdown is being observed since morning in various parts of the state but schools and colleges have been excluded from it.

Large-scale violence marred a state-wide protest today by Maratha outfits demanding reservation for the community in Maharashtra, where a constable died and nine other policemen were injured amid suicide attempt by three agitators. Agitators clashed with the police and torched vehicles at several places, while Internet services were suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district to prevent any untoward incident. In Jalna, the police fired in the air to scatter protesters.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue. Protesters on Tuesday threw stones on a Hyderabad-Latur bus in Nilanga tehsil in Latur.

In Sangli, Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said the government has done whatever was within its ambit and now it was up to the courts to take a call on the issue. Some "paid" people have infiltrated the stir, he said. Protester Jagannath Sonawane, 31, from Aurangabad, sought to emulate Shinde's example by jumping onto a dry river bed, while another, Guddu Sonawane, also from the district, consumed poison.They have been admitted to a hospital, police said.

In Thane, activist Mangesh Suryavanshi (38) jumped into a creek near the Ganesh Ghat, but was saved by police and others, Thane Police PRO Sukhada Narkar said. He received minor injuries and was admitted to a hospital. In Nanded, police cane-charged protesters to disperse them, an official said.

At Kaygaon, Aurangabad, protesters shouted slogans hailing Shinde as a 'martyr', police said. Pune saw sporadic incidents of stone pelting. Some people threw stones at an administrative building in Baramati and a state transport bus was attacked, ASP Sandip Pakhale said. Maratha Kranti Morcha members took out a rally in Pune.

The bandh received lukewarm response in Yavatmal and Amravati. In Yavatmal, the bandh call was given by the Maratha Mahasangh. In Amravati, activists paid homage to Shinde at Rajkamal Square. They later marched to the Kotwali Police Station and submitted a memorandum addressed to the CM. The bandh received a mixed response in Ahmednagar and Nashik districts.

In Nashik district, activists staged a rasta roko on the Mumbai-Agra National Highway. The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation suspended its services to Aurangabad from Nashik, an official said. Protesters burnt tyres at Sakora in Nandgaon taluka of Nashik, affecting traffic, the Rural Police Control said.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil blamed CM Devendra Fadnavis for the stir taking a violent turn and demanded his resignation. Fadnavis had cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur protesters threatened to disrupt the event. Despite assurances from Fadnavis, nothing concrete has been done till now, community leaders have claimed.

"We will continue our agitation until the CM apologises to the Maratha community (for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur)," Morcha coordinator Ravindra Patil said.Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), a leading insurer in region, has reported a net profit of $106 million for the first half of 2018.



The Mena markets continued to produce stable premiums with underwriting profitability, weathering unabated geopolitical headwinds. At a slowing pace, given the non-renewal of underpriced business, QICs international operations further expanded in select low volatility classes.



Compared with the first half of 2017, the Groups gross written premiums expanded by 5 per cent to $1.8 billion.



Including reserve additions related to some older contracts in discontinued segments of business reported in the previous quarter, QIC reported a combined ratio of 100.5 per cent in the first half of 2018, against 101.5 per cent in the same period of the previous year.



Excluding any prior-year reserve developments, the underlying combined ratio came in at a healthy 98.8 per cent, commensurate with the low-volatility nature of QICs book of business.



Khalifa Abdulla Turki Al Subaey, Group president & CEO of QIC Group said: QIC is making excellent progress in repositioning its international book towards areas of lower volatility. The most recent global treaty renewals in April, June and July and the disappointing rate developments have confirmed our bearish view on the prospects of traditional low-frequency high-severity business. Our earlier decision to de-emphasize volatility has proven right.



The Groups outlook for the remainder of the year is cautiously optimistic. Our exposure to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and the vagaries of global re/insurance pricing is relatively moderate. QICs very strong risk-based capital adequacy, in combination with the scale and diversification of our business portfolio, will underpin the Groups resilience going forward, he added.  TradeArabia News ServiceTMC leader Derek O'Brien said regional parties will play a crucial role at the Centre, he projected Mamata Banerjee as one of the 'most senior leaders in this matrix.'

New Delhi: All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O'Brien said on Wednesday that 2018-2019 is the year of "think federal", suggesting regional parties will play a crucial role at the Centre, he projected Mamata Banerjee as one of the "most senior leaders in this matrix."

He also said that Mamata emerging as one of the front runners for the prime minister's post "is nothing new." His comments came a day after reports about the Congress being ready to accept any non-RSS candidate from among the Opposition as the next prime minister.

"This 2018-2019. This is the year of 'think federal', but these things would be decided later. The reality is that everyone is focused on electing a people-centric government and removing the BJP. So, one of the most senior leader in this matrix is Mamata Banerjee," O'Brien told reporters.

The TMC Rajya Sabha member claimed that Mamata is "accepted" not only by the people of West Bengal but also the entire country for her 40 years of political struggle, including as Member of Parliament and the chief minister of the state.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi has not said anything about projecting Mamata as the prime ministerial candidate, her name "emerging as one of the front runners is nothing new", O'Brien said. The TMC leader said the focus of a "united Opposition" is on spreading the message that the BJP had failed its people and bringing its tally to between 100 and 150 seats.

Mamata has been trying to stitch together a federal front of regional parties to take on the BJP in the next general election. But many in the Opposition have remained sceptical about her efforts. She will visit Delhi for three days next week to personally invite Opposition leaders to the federal front rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata, according to party sources.

Mamata is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on 31 July. During her previous visits to the capital, she met the leaders of regional and Opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the federal front. There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Mamata are doing the rounds.Aurangabad district in Maharashtra's Marathwada region has emerged as the epicentre of the Maratha quota agitation.

Mumbai/Aurangabad: Two MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district offered to resign on Wednesday in support of the Maratha quota demand.

Aurangabad district in Maharashtra's Marathwada region has emerged as the epicentre of the Maratha quota agitation. The MLAs who offered to quit on Wednesday are the Shiv Sena's Harshavardhan Jadhav and the NCP's Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar, who represent the Kannad and Vaijapur Assembly constituencies, respectively.

Jadhav, the son-in-law of the BJP's state unit president Raosaheb Danve, had recently announced that he will step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met. In his letter addressed to Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav said he was tendering his resignation Wednesday afternoon. When contacted, Jadhav said he had also e-mailed his resignation to the Speaker and will personally submit it to him in Mumbai on Thursday.

In his resignation letter addressed to the Speaker, Chikatgaonkar said Kakasaheb Shinde, who committed suicide on 23 July by jumping into the Godavari river for the Maratha quota demand, was a resident of Kanadgaon village in Vaijapur constituency. "I am grieved by his death. Considering the self-respect of the Marathas, I am tendering my resignation," he said.

In the 288-member House, the Shiv Sena has 63 MLAs and the NCP 41.Recent spate of lynchings prompted Narendra Modi to summon police officers from various states & direct them to 'ensure they keep the social fabric intact'.

New Delhi: The recent spate of lynchings in the country  two in Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura and Karnataka  many of which were fuelled by rumours circulated on social media channels, prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to summon police officers from various states and issue them a directive to "ensure they keep the social fabric intact, monitor the elements trying to disrupt peace and prevent violent incidents fuelled by social messaging services".

Modi made his statement in a closed door meeting held in the National Capital before the latest such death occurred, in Rajasthan's Alwar, sources with knowledge of the proceedings told Firstpost. These killings were allegedly carried out in response to unverified claims of cow smuggling, and "child lifting".

A note accessed by the Firstpost reveals that Modi had asked the senior police officers to proactively quell the rumour mongering and act swiftly. "To ensure that the morale, patience and resolve of society remain intact in face of inimical forces spreading misleading messages. Any such efforts should be monitored very closely," the prime minister had told the senior cops while advising that various agencies and state police should be prompt in sharing information and technology and mutual coordination among the agencies should be a matter of commitment rather than a mere formal mechanism. Law and order is a state subject according to Schedule 7 of the Constitution.

Modi said that while police patrolling vans have increased in the last couple of decades, it does not seem to have the same impact as that of foot patrolling in villages, towns and cities. He wanted to increase "visible presence of police in sufficient numbers among the local population."

This was not the prime minister's first advice to top cops  to embrace the reform and serve the people better by qualitative changes in police structures. Firstpost has accessed a 2016 note which shows that Modi had suggested that state police should focus on developing 'soft-skills' to understand mob psychology and develop the means to handle it.

"Issues related to mob psychology and handling of different kind of mobs could be studied by the police personnel with the help of domain knowledge centres that exist outside police structures focus on acquisition of helicopters and drones alone would not address emerging law and order related issues, for which, regular police patrolling and constabulary-based intelligence generation are key ingredients, that would act as important force multipliers, augmenting police visibility on the ground and generating a positive public image," Modi had said.

Since police is a state subject, it was the responsibility of state DGPs to act and have eyes and ears on the ground. But, the mob lynching cases in the last few months show that police and political leadership failed on both the counts. This is also evident from the recent Supreme Court directive, that has been forwarded to the states as exhaustive instructions for state forces. These instructions too suggest that state police needs to work with local intelligence to prevent mob violence.

Moreover, the guidelines have made state police officials accountable for mob lynching and the apex court has even directed punitive action against those responsible.

If a police officer is found snuggling with politicians of different hues and fails to comply with the directive, he or she would be punished. A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity told Firstpost that political interference in certain cases is a reality and obstructionism is just one aspect of manipulations.

"There has to be collective will to deal with the issue. There cannot be a parallel system and nexus," he said.

A senior IPS officer, NC Asthana, in his book went a step further and criticised the police leadership's closeness to politicians and for the inaction and trauma caused to the common man by the cops in various situations. He wrote: "Police is a department to which people go only when they are in acute distress of some kind, and they do expect help from police. Unfortunately, the reality of India is that they seldom get it. Not only that the police do not do anything to help the people, they are often the biggest tormentors of the common man. The inaction of the police, their apathy, or their abuse of power is all the more reprehensible because people in distress are in no position to argue with them. If they argue, they invite more trouble. This is an incontrovertible fact. One who has any doubt about it, has either not had enough experience with the police in India or is an outright liar."

These are the strong words from a senior IPS officer and, in a way, a candid admission that his tribe failed to live up to expectations and in essence, still functions very much the same way it functioned 150 years ago  its resources may have changed but its mind and spirit remains the same.

On the other hand, a senior police officer countering the argument said that mob violence poses multi-pronged challenges for police while highlighting the extensive outreach and role of social media in fanning social tensions and instigating violence. He also said that, in some cases, arresting and prosecuting mobs indulging in violence was difficult as the existing provisions of CrPC were inadequate.

To bring the perpetrator to justice, he suggested an amendment in the Indian Evidence Act, whereby an individual present at the scene of violence can be presumed to be involved unless he is able to prove innocence. "There are also practical challenges in tackling such elements. Besides, there is another challenge of countering and responding to the constant airing of opinions on social media forums," the officer said.

Apex court steps in, asks state govts to act

On 17 July, the Supreme Court issued comprehensive directives to state governments to prevent incidents of mob lynching and made the state police accountable. Subsequently, the home ministry issued an advisory to the states, asking them to appoint nodal officers.

The advisory said: "The state governments (are) to designate a senior police officer not below the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP) as nodal officer in each district and such nodal officer shall be assisted by one of the DSP rank officer for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching."

The states have been told to constitute a special task force to procure intelligence reports about the people who are likely to commit such crimes or who are involved in spreading hate speeches, provocative statements and fake news. The state governments have also been asked to identify districts, sub-divisions and villages where instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the last five years and the process of identification must be completed within a period of three weeks.

"The nodal officer (SP) so designated shall hold regular meetings (at least once a month) with the local intelligence units in the district along with all station house officers of the districts so as to identify the existence of the tendencies of vigilantism, mob violence or lynching in the district and take steps to prohibit instances of dissemination of offensive material through different social media platforms or any other means for inciting such tendencies. The SP shall also make efforts to eradicate hostile environment against any community or caste which is targeted in such incidents. It shall be duty of every police officer to cause a mob to disperse, by exercising his power under section 129 of CrPC, which in his opinion has a tendency to cause violence or wreck the havoc of lynching in the disguise of vigilantism or otherwise,"

"The state governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme in the light of the provisions of Section 375 A of CrPC within one month from the date of the Supreme Court judgment ie 17 July, 2018. In the said scheme for computation of compensation, the state governments shall give due regard to the nature of bodily injury and loss of earnings including loss of opportunities of employment and education and expenses incurred on account of legal and medical expenses. The said compensation scheme must also have a provision for interim relief to be paid to the victim or next of kin of deceased within a period of 30 days of the incident of mob violence/lynching," the advisory said.

The most important part of the three-page note sent to the states is the one that ensures accountability of the police officers and subordinates. If any lapses are found, it said, appropriate action should be taken against them.

"Whenever it is found that a police officer or an officer of the district administration has failed to comply with the aforementioned directions in order to prevent and/or investigate or facilitate expeditious trial of any crime of mob violence and lynching the same shall be considered as an act of deliberate negligence and/or misconduct for which appropriate action must be taken against him/her and not limited to departmental action under the service rules. The departmental action shall be taken to its logical conclusion preferably within six months by the authority of the first instance," the directive to states said.

Commenting on the directive, a senior officer said that it should act as a deterrent to police forces across the states and that it is going to be a real test of the police leadership. He said that the police, if wishes, can establish the rule of the law.

Nevertheless, the central government also constituted a high-level committee chaired by Union home secretary Rajiv Gauba, to deliberate in the matter and make recommendations to a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union home minister Rajnath Singh. The GoM will make final recommendations to Modi.At the BRICS meet, Narendra Modi and other leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

Pretoria: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Wednesday accorded a warm welcome as he arrived in Pretoria on a three-day visit to attend the BRICS Summit hosted by South Africa. Modi arrived here rom Uganda's capital Kampala, the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997. He will participate in the BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

"Good evening South Africa! PM Narendra Modi arrives at the Waterkloof air base to a warm welcome. PM will attend the 10th BRICS Summit and related meetings in Johannesburg and several bilateral meetings on the sidelines," spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

"After successful bilateral visits to Rwanda and Uganda, PM Narendra Modi landed in South Africa to take part in the BRICS Summit," the Prime Minister's Office tweeted.

Modi will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others. He is also expected to meet several leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Earlier, Modi had visited Rwanda for two days on the first leg of his visit.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010.

India's relations with South Africa date back several centuries. India was at the forefront of the international community in its support to the anti-apartheid movement. This year marks 25 years since the resumption of India's diplomatic relations with South Africa in 1993. This year also marks the 125th year of the Pietermaritzburg railway station 'incident' involving Mahatma Gandhi.

The South African Indian-origin community numbers around 1.5 million and constitutes about 3 percent of South Africa's total population.In the Ugandan Parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Gandhi Heritage Centre in Jinja will pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi to 'remind us of Africa's role in shaping his mission'.

In a historic keynote address to the Parliament of Uganda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said India will cooperate with Africa to combat terrorism and support the United Nations in keeping peace in the region.

PM @narendramodi at Ugandan Parliament: I am conscious of the history that brings us to this point, when the Prime Minister of the largest democracy is speaking to elected members of the Parliament of another sovereign nation. pic.twitter.com/HtJMHPDPia  Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) July 25, 2018

Evoking the history of the bilateral relations between India and Africa, Modi said that 32 heads of state or governments from Africa have visited India in the past four years. "My home state Gujarat is proud to be the host of the first ever meeting of the African Development Bank in India last year. We are opening 18 new embassies in Africa," the prime minister said.

He goes onto say that "ancient maritime links, the dark age of colonialism, the shared struggle for freedom, uncertain paths as independent countries in a divided world, the dawn of new opportunities and unity of aspirations of our young population connect the two countries".

"In the past four years, our president, vice-president and I have collectively visited 25 countries. At least one minister has visited every African country," Modi said."

At the beginning of his speech, the Indian prime minister announced the construction of a Gandhi Heritage Centre in Jinja. "As we approach the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there can be no better homage than a centre to remind us of Africa's role in shaping his mission," he said.

Recalling the moral principles of the independence movement in India, Modi said Africa shared a similar "universal quest for liberty, dignity, equality and opportunity for every human being".

Talking about India pursuing Afro-Asian solidarity in Bandung, he said: "We stood firm in Opposition to apartheid in South Africa. We took leading and bold positions in former Rhodesia  now Zimbabwe  in Guinea Bassau, Angola and Namibia. "

The prime minister was clear that 10 principles will continue to guide India's engagement with Africa. Of them, the most important ones were about ensuring easier trade with Africa and cooperating on combatting terrorism and cybersecurity.

Modi said: "We will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India. We will support our industry to invest in Africa. We will harness India's experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development, improve delivery of public services, extend education and health, spread digital literacy, expand financial inclusion and mainstream the marginalised."

Africa has 60 percent of the world's arable land, but produces just 10 percent of the global output, Modi said, adding that India will work with Africa to ensure the improvement of agriculture. "Our partnership will address the challenges of climate change. We will strengthen our cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism, keeping our cyberspace safe and secure, and supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace," the prime minister said. "Just as India and Africa fought colonialism together, we will work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India."

He mentioned the announcement of two Lines of Credit for Uganda on Tuesday  the first being $141 million for electricity lines and the second, $64 million for agriculture and dairy production. "Our partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about $11 billion in over 40 African countries. At the last Africa-India Forum Summit, we had committed a concessional Line of Credit of $10 billion and $600 million in grant assistance," Modi said.Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has signed an agreement of cooperation with the UAE Ministry of Infrastructure Development aimed at supporting the application of sustainability best practices.



Engineer Abdullah bin Mohammed Balheif Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Infrastructure Development, witnessed the signing of the agreement, which took place between Engineer Hassan Mohammed Jumaa Al Mansouri, undersecretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, chief executive officer of Masdar, said a statement from the company.



Under the agreement, Masdar aims to provide technical advice in implementing a sustainable system in projects, as well as ways to develop and implement a strategy aimed at strengthening the current sustainability standards of the ministry, it said.



Al Mansouri welcomed the cooperation with Masdar, highlighting its role in supporting the UAE's approach to sustainability and environmental conservation, and in achieving the UAE Vision 2021 and the UAE Centennial 2071 Plan, it added.



He pointed out that the ministry seeks to look at the future of sustainability by launching initiatives that are closely related to the sustainability system and focusing on innovative ideas in the same field.



Al Ramahi said: This agreement builds on our existing relationship with the ministry and other governmental entities, which has seen us collaborate on a number of highly successful energy efficiency projects in the UAE.



These have included a comprehensive energy audit of more than 70 buildings within Abu Dhabi island on behalf of Abu Dhabi Municipality; corporate level energy audits on behalf of the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation; the installation of solar panels at Ras Al Khaimah Hospital, also for the Ministry of Presidential Affairs; and an ongoing project with the Zayed Housing Programme to build sustainable and affordable private homes based on our Eco-Villa prototype at Masdar City, he added.



Al Ramahi continued: Through this latest agreement, our Energy Services department will be working closely with the ministrys teams to help design a consistent set of sustainability standards that may be applied across its UAE projects, whilst at the same time, implementing sustainability best practices throughout the ministrys operations.



With improved energy efficiency a core component of the UAE 2050 Energy Plan, covering both existing buildings as well as new urban infrastructure, Masdar is taking the lead in offering a suite of energy efficiency enhancement services to both government and private sector clients, from auditing through to the financing and implementation of retrofitting projects, he concluded.



The Ministry of Infrastructure Development is responsible for developing urban infrastructure plans, proposing policies and strategies to support the development of the housing sector and associated facilities.



The ministry also works with federal authorities to oversee the allocation of housing, control and maintenance of public facilities, and the development and management of the federal road network in the UAE, as well as the implementation of government buildings and facilities in various emirates of UAE.



The ministry has taken the initiative to include leading sustainability standards in its projects, including the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges, housing delivery, education and health projects. Masdar's experience will assist in assessing the most appropriate sustainability practices and internationally recognised certification systems.



The agreement between the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Masdar is expected to lead to future projects aimed at enhancing energy conservation and sustainability in the UAE and the region, said a statement.



For its part, Masdar, through its Energy Services Department, provides integrated solutions in energy management, both on the supply and demand side. These include contracting for energy performance projects, improving and modernizing buildings, replacing and improving heating, ventilation and air conditioning and improving utility lighting.



Masdar has previously conducted energy audits in the Ministry of Presidential Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the UAE Embassy in Washington DC, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe body of a newborn was found in an AirAsia flight from Imphal to Delhi on Wednesday. It appeared as though the baby had been delivered in the toilet on board the flight.

The newborn was found with toilet paper stuffed in its mouth, according to News18. Police sources said the mother appears to be an underage girl from Imphal in Manipur.

In a statement, AirAsia said the police had detained a suspect for further investigation. She was identified after all female passengers on board were questioned.

"A newborn was found lifeless and abandoned in one of the lavatories when the aircraft was being prepared for landing. The Delhi Police was alerted and a doctor from the medical team at the Delhi International Airport confirmed that the baby had been delivered on board," the airline said, adding that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had been informed about the incident.

"We will be assisting in the investigation and cooperating with all concerned agencies. AirAsia India would like to apologise to all guests experiencing disruptions in their flight schedule," the airline added.

The police suspect that the infant was stillbornm according to India Today.

With inputs from PTIThe Kerala government has expressed support for the entry of women of all age groups inside the Sabarimala temple's inner sanctum.

New Delhi: The celibate nature of Sabarimala temple's presiding deity Lord Ayyappa is protected by the Constitution, a society that opposes a plea seeking entry of women of all age groups into the shrine told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was told by former Attorney General of India and senior advocate K Parasaran, appearing for the Nair Service Society, that the only consideration was the "celibate nature of the deity" that has to be preserved.

"Lord Ayyappa's character as a 'Naishtika Brahmachari' (eternal celibate) is protected by the Constitution," he told the bench, which also comprises justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra. "Those coming to the Sabarimala temple should not come in the company of young women. Children, mother, sisters are exceptions. The reason is that those coming to the temple must not follow the 'brahmcharya' (celibacy) but also they must appear to follow it."

Parasaran said Article 25 (2), which "throws open public Hindu religious institutions for all classes and sections of society", can be applied only to social reforms and would not apply to matters of religion covered under Article 26 (b) of the Constitution. Article 26 (b) provides the right to every religious denominations to "manage its own affairs in matter of religion". "Article 25(2) reiterates the object of Article 17 (abolition of touchability) in the specific context of temples and Hindus to send a loud and clear message," he said.

In response, the bench asked: "You (Parasaran) say that throwing open public temples for all sections has no religious connotations. What will happen if the state comes out with a law to bring social reforms and allow women in the temple?"

The senior lawyer said the unique nature of the deity has to be kept in mind while dealing with the constitutional validity of the age-old practice. He then referred to Article 15 (2) of the Constitution, which provides the right to access to all citizens to places like shops, hotels and other places, and said it did not mention public temples. "The present case does not involve a social issue but a religious issue. By using 25(2), you (the court) will reform a religion out of its identity," he said, responding to the query that the state may enact the law to allow women inside the temple.

At the outset, he said that Kerala is an educated society and 96 percent of its women are educated and independent. "It is a matrilineal society. Therefore, to assume that the practice of the Sabarimala temple is based on patriarchy is fundamentally incorrect," he said.

Earlier, the bench had observed that in a patriarchal society, women are treated as chattels and trained since birth to conduct themselves in a particular manner. "The practice of the Sabarimala temple is not comparable to sati and in fact, sati itself has not connection to the Hindu faith," he said, adding the wives of Dasaratha did not commit sati after their husbands' death.

The court should not approach the issue of Sabarimala with the notions of "patriarchy", he said, adding that Hinduism has been a tolerant religion. The court "must listen to activist voices", but it also it "must equally listen to voices that seek to protect traditions", he said.

The Hindu faith has been following the right to equality since time immemorial and Lord Shiva has "ardhanarishwara" (half male and half female) form as well. "The legislature is Brahma, executive is Vishnu and Shiva is the judiciary because only Shiva has the 'ardhanarishwara' form" that can be equated to Article 14, right to equality, he said, adding that we must not proceed with the presumption that people in ancient times knew nothing, and we know better in all aspects of life.

By abolishing the practice, the "very character of the religious institution" will be irreparably altered, which will affect the rights of devotees under Article 25(1) (freedom of religion), the former attorney general said.

The hearing on the pleas filed by Indian Young Lawyers Association and others, challenging the ban on women's entry inside the Sabarimala shrine, will resume on Thursday.

Earlier, the apex court had made it clear that the ban on the entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 years into the Sabarimala temple would be tested on "constitutional ethos" and had asked the temple board to establish that the restriction was an "essential and integral" part of religious faith. It was apparently not in agreement with the argument of the Travancore Devaswom Board running the over 800-year-old temple that the "practice and belief" that have continued uninterrupted cannot be tested on the ground of "modern ethos".

The Kerala government had supported the entry of women of all age groups into the temple.

The apex court had on 13 October last year referred the issue to a constitution bench after framing five "significant" questions, including whether the practice of banning entry of women of that particular age group into the temple amounted to discrimination and violated their fundamental rights under the Constitution.Two of the sisters who died of starvation in Delhi's Mandawali area suffered bouts of vomiting and loose motion before their death.

New Delhi: Three sisters were found dead in east Delhi's Mandawali area and the initial postmortem examination report indicated that they died of starvation, prompting the city government to order a magisterial probe into the matter.

The girls, aged two, four and eight, were brought to a hospital by their mother and a friend around 1 pm on Tuesday, and the hospital authorities informed the police about their deaths.

A board of doctors conducted a re-examination at the GTB hospital, said Pankaj Singh, deputy commissioner of police (east). According to the initial autopsy report, the girls died due to "malnourishment/starvation and its complications". A forensic team inspected the place where the family was staying and found some medicine bottles and pills to treat loose motion, the police said.

The girls' father, a casual labourer, has been missing since Tuesday, though local residents said he had gone in search of work and would return in a couple of days. No injury marks were found on the bodies, they said.

"The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the matter," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet.

Initially, it seemed to be a case of natural death, but with the medicine bottles being recovered, the police want to ensure that there was no foul play in the death of the girls.

Local residents said the family had shifted to the area on Saturday, and they did not have much interaction with them. The girls' father used to ride a rickshaw on rent. After it was stolen a few days ago, they were brought to the area by a friend, who had given them shelter at his residence.

Two of the sisters, aged two and four, had been unwell for a few days. They suffered bouts of vomiting and loose motion, residents said, adding that the eldest sister had gone to school on Tuesday. The police are probing as to how she also fell ill suddenly. They are investigating the case from all angles, including the girls dying of malnourishment.

The father's friend, who had accompanied their mother to the hospital, told the police that the children were unwell and he took them to the hospital. The girls' mother is not "mentally sound" and told the police that she did not know what happened to her daughters and how they died.According to the prosecution, Udayakumar, was taken into custody in connection with a case of theft and had died in a police station in Thiruvananthapuram.

Thiruvananthapuram: A Special CBI Court on Wednesday awarded death sentence to two police officers in connection with the custodial death of a 26-year-old man in 2005.

Assistant Sub-Inspector K Jithakumar and Civil Police Officer SV Sreekumar were the first and second accused in the case. CBI Special Court judge J Nazer sentenced the two to death and ordered them to pay a fine of Rs two lakh each.

This is believed to be the first time that capital punishment has been awarded to two serving police officers in Kerala. Three other accused in the case, TK Haridas, EK Sabu and Ajit Kumar have been sentenced to undergo three years imprisonment each for destruction of evidence and conspiracy.

The third accused KV Soman had died during the pendency of the case, while another accused, VP Mohanan, was acquitted by the court earlier. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 on all the given accused.

According to the prosecution, Udayakumar, was taken into custody in connection with a case of theft and had died in a police station in Thiruvananthapuram after being tortured by the police. Jithakumar and Sreekumar, who took Udayakumar into custody, were held responsible for the murder, while three others were found guilty of conspiracy and destroying evidence.

The case had triggered widespread protests across the state. The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case following a high court order on a petition filed by Udayakumar's mother Prabhavathi.CAATSA waiver though general in nature is intended at preventing US sanctions on India, which is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems for around $4.5 billion from Russia.

Washington: A US Congressional committee on Tuesday proposed waivers for countries like India from punitive sanctions against those doing business with Russia's defence industry.

The Senate and House Armed Services Committee in a joint conference report to the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2019 provided a modified waiver to section 231 of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA. A conference report refers to the final version of a bill that is negotiated between the House of Representatives and the Senate via the conference committee.

CAATSA waiver though general in nature is intended at preventing US sanctions on India, which is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defence systems for around $4.5 billion from Russia. Unlike the existing version of the act, the proposed modified waiver requires presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations, and sensitive technology, said a statement issued by the Senate Armed Services Committee after the two committees announced details of the conference report.

The John McCain National Defence Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2019, which authorises funding for the Department of Defense and the national security programmes of the Department of Energy, encourages US allies and partners to reduce the inventory of Russian-produced major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons. At the same time, it excludes the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber attacks.

The move comes days after US defence secretary Jim Mattis asked the Congress to give the secretary of state the waiver authority. "Doing so allows nations to build a closer security relationship with the US as they continue to transition from reliance on Russian military equipment," he said. "The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is do we wish to strengthen our partners in key regions or leave them with no other option than to turn to Russia, thereby undermining a once-in-a-generation opportunity to more closely align nations with the US vision for global security and stability," Mattis said.

The Pentagon, the State Department and the Indian Embassy here did not immediately respond to request for their comments on the latest CAATSA development. Before the NDAA 2019 is signed into law by president Donald Trump, the conference report, which aligns the different House and Senate versions of the defense budget, needs to be passed by the two chambers of the US Congress.

Traditionally, it is considered to be a done deal, as this has the support of the leadership of both the ruling Republican party and the opposition Democratic party. The proposed legislative amendments would provide a valid ground to the Trump administration to provide necessary waiver to India, even if it goes ahead with its decision to buy S-400.

India's dependence on Russia for its military hardware has experienced sustained reduction over the last one decade. At the same time, India's defence trade with the US has increased. India is in the process of placing orders worth of billions of dollars to the US  ranging from fighter jets to unmanned drones. Over the past few months, CAATSA had emerged as a major irritant to India-US relationship. An India-centric top American business advocacy group today welcomed the Congressional move.

"The language (of the report) would represent a special carve-out for India on a delicate political issue," Mukesh Aghi, the president of the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) said. "If enacted, the language advanced by the NDAA conference committee demonstrates the US Congress' bipartisan commitment to the US-India relationship," said Aghi.

"The exemption provides flexibility for strategic partners and allies to move away from the use of Russian military equipment to American equipment, while ensuring that US defence and security interests remain protected," the USISPF said. Early this month, influential US lawmakers had indicated that they were working to get a waiver for India.

The Indian Ambassador to the US, Navtej Singh Sarna, said India was not the target of the federal law and it should not become collateral damage of it. The administration has to find a way in which they can find a waiver for the partner on this particular thorny issue, he had then said.The notices were submitted by the Congress charging the two leaders with allegedly misleading the House on the Rafale deal issue during the debate on the no-confidence motion on 20 July.

New Delhi: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Wednesday said the notices for privilege motion against prime minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, moved by the Congress over their statements on the Rafale deal, are under her consideration.

The privilege notices were submitted by the Congress charging the two leaders with allegedly misleading the House on the Rafale deal issue during the debate on the no-confidence motion on 20 July.

Mahajan said five members each have submitted notices against the prime Minister and the defence Minister. "It (notices) is under my consideration," Mahajan said during Zero Hour amid noisy protests from some BJP members. Her statement came after Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia raised the issue of their notices against Modi and Sitharaman during the Zero Hour.

"The prime minister has along with the defence minister deliberately misled the House. It is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privilege be accepted and referred to the privilege committee for further proceedings," as per the notice against the Modi and Sitharaman.

Members from the BJP also wanted to speak on their notices for privilege motion against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, which they had submitted earlier. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar also said that these members should be given an opportunity to speak. Anurag Thakur, BJP Chief Whip in the House, alleged that Gandhi had misled the House during the no-confidence motion debate on July 20. Mahajan said there were four notices submitted against one person (Gandhi).Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the Ganga Talao, a Hindu pilgrimage site in the Mauritius capital

Port Louis: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday visited the Ganga Talao, a Hindu pilgrimage site in the Mauritius capital, and offered prayers at the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Modi, who arrived here on Wednesday as part of a three-nation trip, poured 'Gangajal' on the Shivalinga at the temple, assisted by Hindu priests.

The Ganga Talao is considered one of the most sacred Hindu places in Mauritius.

Modi also undertook a tour of the site.

Ganga Talao, also known as Grand Bassin, is a sacred lake, situated about 1,800 feet above sea level. The crater lake is one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage sites outside India.

Along the Grand Bassin, there are several temples dedicated to Lord Shiva and other Hindu gods, as well as little shrines and colourful statues. Not far from Grand Bassin, there is also a 33-metre tall statue of the Shiva, which is known as the highest statue in Mauritius, according to the Mauritius Guide website.

Modi will also visit Appravasi Ghat. The temple site and Appravasi Ghat are associated with the arrival of Indian indentured labour to Mauritius over 180 years ago.

Modi will address the National Assembly of Mauritius later in the day.Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge slams Prime Minister Narendra Modi for going on Uganda trip and missing Parliament session.

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Earlier, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu had also suggested both the government and the opposition to elect the deputy chairman unanimously.

The BJP-led NDA does not enjoy a majority in the house and would need support of several regional parties to push for election of its candidate in case of a contest. "Our efforts would be to build consensus for the deputy chairman of the upper house," Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel said.

The post has been lying vacant since June after the retirement of PJ Kurien, who was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on the Congress ticket from Kerala, and later became its deputy chairman in the UPA government.

With numbers not on its side, the government is unlikely to go for election to the post of Rajya Sabha's deputy chairman in Parliament's Monsoon Session beginning tomorrow and will push for a consensus candidate.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to express hope for a peaceful Monsoon Session, while taking a dig at the BJP and its allies. " It would be a disgrace if we saw a repeat of proxy disruption so the government can push its bills through in the din," he said in the tweet.

Meanwhile, RJD MP JP Yadav has also given an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over cases of mob lynching.

According to ANI , West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has given a Zero Hour notice in Rajya Sabha over the issue of mob lynching and called for a debate on the same.

"I have always put my hopes before everyone. Our efforts will be constant. If any party or leader wants to speak or debate on any topic, it can be raised on the floor of the House. The government is ready for discussion on all issues."

After reaching the Parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Many matters of national importance are before us. We hope for good suggestions and discussions from all experienced members. I appeal to all political parties that they use their time in the Parliament effectively.

As Speaker Sumitra Mahajan began taking questions during the Question Hour, few MPs from the Opposition created ruckus by shouting slogans over issues like mob lynching and atrocities against Dalits.

Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said in Lok Sabha,"The government which led farmers to commit suicide, under whose regime women are being raped everyday... we move no confidence motion against you."

"I strongly urge the prime minister to break his silence on the behaviour of his partymen and take action against anti-national elements indulging in lynching and mob frenzy," he said.

In Lok Sabha, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor raised the attack on his constituency office and the growing incidents of intolerance and violence. He also mentioned the attack on Swami Agnivesh. "Those who are carrying out mob lynching and mob killings are attacking the ground rules of our democracy. The ground rule of our democracy is that we can disagree with each other without harming or killing one another.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh is currently said we all hope State Bank will not be privatised. "Total employee strength of SBI is 2 lakh. It will become the fifth largest employer in the country after five banks are merged with mother SBI. How do you manage the transition? I would urge the government to pay attention to the human resource aspect and not the balance sheet aspect," he said.

After the Lok Sabha reconvened at 2.10 pm on Wednesday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the the Lower House will hold discussions on no-confidence motion during the entire course of day on Friday. Voting will be take place on same day. There will be no Question Hour on that day.

In Lok Sabha Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge appealed to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to shift the set date for the discussion on no-confidence from 20 July (Friday) to 23 JulyMonday. He said that the since Friday is the last day of the week, some MPs would be unavailable for the voting event due to other commitments. However, Mahajan refused to discuss the issue and asserted that she had announced her decision.

Mallikarjun Kharge asks for no-confidence motion to be taken up on Monday instead of Friday

According to Times Now, Bharatiya Janata Party has issued a three-line whip to all its MPs to attend the Parliament and defeat the no-confidence motion against the government.

There was a brief disagreement on the date of discussion on no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha. While Opposition members demanded that the motion be taken up for discussion on Monday, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan ruled that the members cannot protest on everything, and finalised Friday as the day the motion will be taken up.

The ammendment changes the existing laws to empower the government to detain a child in class 5, 8, or both, and provides an opportunity for re-examination to the child before being detained.

Some MPs also pointed out that the government should also focus on bringing in quality teachers. In this bill, the government puts the onus on the students, without considering that the fault may also lie in the board of education, school or even teachers.

Some of the MPs raised the point that detaining students straight away may create other problems. They said that the sudden implementation of the rule me promote disenchantment amid students and will create a fear psychosis.

Critics of right to free and compulsory education amendment say quality education not being imparted, failing students won't help

"Congress had shown similar kind of arrogance during Atal Bihari VajpayeeJi's tenure and they had to face the consequences. Indians have elected PM Modi as their leader and he has their confidence. We are ready to face them," D Pradhan said reacting to Sonia's statement.

Reacting to the motion of no-confidence which will be taken up on Friday, Sonia Gandhi said, "Who says we don't have numbers." Her remarks triggered reactions from the ruling dispensation as well.

The All India Trinamool Congress has issued a whip to all its MPs to remain present in New Delhi on Friday. Speaking to ANI,TMC leader Dinesh Trivedi said, "21 July is a very important day for TMC as we observe it as a martyrs day for 14 youth TMC workers who were killed. All 34 MPs of TMC are therefore busy. No confidence motion is a very important aspect of Parliament. We had requested the speaker and government to change the date. We protested but couldn't convince them. So, all MPs have been asked to come to Delhi. Whip also will be issued."

Singh said in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour that the government has already taken steps for ensuring rights of SC/STs by amending the relevant law.

There is no dilution of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and no institution or individual can take away rights of the marginalised given under the Constitution, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesdy.

"Government does not regulate content appearing on social media sites, and law enforcement and security agencies may take action on specific case-to-case basis as per law in force," Ahluwalia said in a reply to query around fake news.

The government does not regulate content on social media and is committed to freedom of speech, expression and privacy of citizens, minister of state for electronics and IT SS Ahluwalia informed the Parliament on Wednesday.

Speaking on The State Banks (Repeal and Amendment) Bill, 2017, MoS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla said that the success of Jan Dhan scheme shows that banking system reforms work. He said that data shows that close to 32 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened for people who entered the banking system for the first time. He said that these are not dormant accounts but collectively carry a sum of Rs 87000 crore.

According to reports, Mitra was upset after being sidelined under the Modi-Shah leadership. He is considered to be a close aide of veteran BJP leader LK Advani. Mitra has also been openly critical of BJP on several issues.

Senior journalist and two-time Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra has quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is set to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC), reports said. Though Mirta and TMC have not spoken on this, Banerjee's party has promised that a large number of new faces will join the party on Saturday.

CNN-News18 quoting sources said that the central government is considering to raise the retirement age for high court judges owing to the severe staff shortage in the judiciary. The news channel reported that the government may bring up the age of retirement from 60 to 64.

Giving instances of the killing of Bengal migrant worker Manik Roy and an Adivasi youth Madhu in Kerala, Lekhi said these cases of lynchings were on account of economic issues. "It is because of economic disparity," she said.

The incidents of mob lynching are a result of economic disparity, BJP member Meenakshi Lekhi said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Speaking during Zero Hour, Lekhi said the Supreme Court has spoken about "mobocracy" on Tuesday.

Stalin, who is the working president of UPA constituent DMK, supported Gandhi's move and also urged the prime minister to ensure early passage of the Bill that seeks to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament and state legislatures.

Ahead of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Rahul Gandhi had made a strong pitch for the early passage of the Women's Reservation Bill during this session and had also written to the prime minister in this regard extending his unconditional support to the bill.

DMK working president MK Stalin has extended his party's "wholehearted support" to Rahul Gandhi on the issue of Women's Reservation Bill after which the Congress president praised him for speaking "like a true leader" and urged all political parties to come together to ensure passage of the bill.

Speaking on the issue, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that he does not wish to hold up the bill but sought categotical assurance from the government that the compensation clause will not be depressed in any way and land owners will get compensation that they are entitled to on the basis of the 2013 law.

The said bill allows the central government to re-issue the notice of acquisition to the property owner to give them an opportunity to be heard. The owner will be entitled to an interest (equal to the current rate of interest on an FD in SBI) on the compensation payable to them.

Speaking on the Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property Bill, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that he does not wish to hold up the bill but sought categotical assurance from the government that the compensation clause will not be depressed in any way and land owners will get compensation that they are entitled to on the basis of the 2013 law.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday spoke in 10 languages in the House. He spoke, though briefly, in Bangla,Gujarati,Kannada,Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil&Telugu to inform members that Simultaneous Interpretation Service has been made available for members, ANI reported.

The proceedings of the House come to an end and the Rajya Sabha is adjourned for the day.

Meanwhile, in Lok Sabha the Union Cabinet has approved the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2018 to set up the Central University of Andhra Pradesh.

The Ministry would, in the meanwhile, focus on near and medium-term efforts to "capture operational efficiencies" to improve the performance of Air India, along with "monetising non-core land and building assets", Sinha said. IANS

Saying that the present environment is "not conducive" for it, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha told Rajya Sabha that the issue would be revisited once global economic indicators, including oil prices and forex conditions, stabilize.

The Government on Wednesday ruled out disinvestment of Air India in the "immediate near future," though it said it remains committed to completing the process.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday spoke in 10 languages in the House. He spoke, though briefly, in Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu to inform members that simultaneous interpretation service has been made available for members.

As per the party's floor managers, the government is likely to receive support from small parties outside the NDA including Anbumani Ramadoss-led PMK and Raju Shetty-led Swabhimani Paksha.

Ahead of the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government on Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed its confidence in having the support of 314 MPs in the Lok Sabha, reported The Times of India .

The BJP has reached out to the TRS, BJD and Shiv Sena for support ahead of the no-trust vote to take place on Friday, reported CNN-News18. The Shiv Sena is reportedly holding a meeting on Thursday to deliberate on the issue.

On Wednesday, the Rajya Sabha was informed that the government does not maintain specific data on lynching incidents in the country. Meanwhile, BJP MP in Lok Sabha, Meenakshi Lekhi blamed the economic disparity for such incidents. She said various incidents showed that the root of the crime stemmed from economical disparity in the society.

The Congress has given an adjournment notice in Lok Sabha over the issue of mob lynching on Thursday, reported ANI.

Despite law and order being a state subject, Centre cannot keep quiet. Twice, the Centre issued an advisory. Through social media, the way fake news is propagated, these kinds of incidents take place. We have asked social media service providers to install checks in their system to prevent such incidents. Such incidents are unfortunate and I request state governments to take appropriate actions against the culprits."

Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha: "Its not like lynching has been happening only in the last few years. But, whoever is killed, it is a worry for all governments. I condemn mob lynchings of and in all forms. These happen on the basis unverified news, suspicions but its the Centre's responsibility to conduct an effective probe.

Minister of State for Ministry of Women and Child Development Virendra Kumar responded by quoting figures from 2015-16 about the rape cases in other countries. Bachchan lashed out asking what the Indian government was doing for the safety of women, which led to a ruckus.

Citing the Thomson Reuters report on India being the most dangerous country for women, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan said in Rajya Sabha, "It's very shameful. From the time Child Labour Act has been amended due to policy on ease of doing business, the trafficking of girls has increased drastically. I want to ask: Can you tell us detail about the report on Kathua incident, will government give white paper in the Parliament on the status of crime against women?"

"The real question is, what is the central government doing to control mob lynching? The prime minister does not respond when a person is killed or lynched. His silence is a license for people to continue with such acts."

Congress staged walkout from Lok Sabha protesting against Home Minister Rajnath Singh's statement on mob lynching incidents. Speaking on this, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said: The home minister's statement in Lok Sabha on mob lynching was not satisfactory at all, that is why we staged a walkout from the House. This is not a game of ping pong that states and Centre keep shifting responsibilities.

Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Anand Sharma said that the society and country are not satisfied with Centre's initiatives against corruption. "Frauds are taking place in banks. There are people like Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi who are stealing money from banks and getting out of the country. Prevention of Corruption Act is enough for investigation. The prime minister promised to bring black money back from Swiss banks. But that amount didn't come back and instead more money got out of the country."

Tamil Nadu chief minister EK Palaniswamy told reporters on Wednesday that AIADMK won't support the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha since it was moved because of the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh. He said, "We in Tamil Nadu struggled for 22 days in Parliament for Cauvery Mgmt Board issue. We stalled proceedings. Who came to us? Which state came forward and helped in our cause?"

"We don't want India to be converted into a surveillance state. The multiple registrations must stop. In four years, you must also educate all of us and inform the House. We have no ill-will against anyone. Please tell us how many of the real corrupt have you booked and give a list to the House." Chairman Venkaiah Naidu praised Sharma's democratic spirit in the House.

"The truth is that your agencies are being misused. Are there two laws in the nation? One implemented from the political point of view for political rivals and the other for your own people on whom there are serious allegations? Can there be parallel registrations by different agencies for the same offence? You send them to CBI, then after their hospitality, ED starts (their probe), then you have to go for another bail," Congress leader Anand Sharma said in Rajya Sabha.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) issued a whip to all its Lok Sabha MP, directing its members to vote in favour of the no-confidence motion.

Addressing Minister in-charge of financial Piyush Goel BJD MP Tathagatha Sathpathy said that all the provisions in the new bill are covered in one shape or another under various sections of CrPC. He said that the provision gives too much authority to investigative agencies and the law is riddled with nook and corners that can be misused for persecution and vendetta.

Participating in a debate on the amendment in the prevention of corruption bill, Digvijaya Singh said that the government clearly lacks the will to act against corruption because they have appointed people accused of corruption in top ranks of CBI. He said that the government is silent on key issues of corruption including the Vyapam scam.

He was wearing an apron with words "yachna nahin, rann hoga" (No more pleas, there will be war now), seeking special category status for Bihar.

Jan Adhikar Party member Rajesh Ranjan on Thursday created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha by hurling papers towards treasury benches and was reprimanded by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan who asked him to apologise. As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Ranjan who is also known as Pappu Yadav, rushed to the Well shouting slogans.

Replying to a query during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said "all security measures" were being followed and once the data centre receives the application, it will be automatically deleted from the sender's mobile. Likewise, the data centre automatically rejects fake applications filed through cyber cafes etc, she said, adding that all security measures which are adhered to in advanced nations were being followed here.

There has been no compromise on security aspects with regard to passport applications through the new mobile app and any attempt to get fake passports made from cyber cafes will be rejected, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said today.

When BJP's Nishikant Dubey made the statement, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge immediately questioned as to how was he aware of the impending CBI action and said it indicated that the agency was acting in a "pre-planned" manner.

Congress and BJP members on Thursday sparred in the Lok Sabha after a ruling party member claimed that the CBI was going to chargesheet a former finance minister in a criminal case involving fugitive economic offender Vijay Mallya.

In the Rajya Sabha, Chairman says that the Motor Vehicles Act Bill will not be taken up on Thursday but instead will be taken up on Monday. However, there is a dissension among a couple of parliamentarians who think it should be taken up today.

Motor Vehicles Act Bill will not be taken up today; will be taken up on Monday

In the Lok Sabha, Piyush Goyal says that it was important to issue an ordinance on the repeated ruckus being created in the Lok Sabha. He also goes onto say that this is the first time in the history of the Parliament that the Speaker has had to face insults and such misbehaviour.

On the issue of lynching and cow vigilantism, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, "The government is encouraging such incidents in the country. This government does not want the situation in the country to improve. We will raise the issue in the Parliament today."

The central investigation agencies have a role to perform under the constitution they are not instrument to use for the govt of the day for political vendetta or persecute senior government officials ,there cannot be any discrimination, Congress leader Anand Sharma says in Rajya Sabha leading to a ruckus.

On TDP's protest, party MP Jayadev Galla said, "We had been moving the no-confidencee motion for entire second half of Budget Session. Finally, the discussion took place but PM didn't bother to answer any of our questions,we heard the same statements, so nothing has changed for us, no option rather than to protest."- ANI

TDP MP Jayadev Galla says PM didn't bother to answer any of our questions so we are protesting

In the Lok Sabha, YSR Congress Party Kothapalli Geetha asks status about seven schools in Andhra Pradesh to ensure funds do not return to the Union govt. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan says that 14 schools are already there in Andhra Pradesh.

Labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar says that since September, people have been getting their pension on time. Gangwar also says that all increments on the pension is usually done keeping in mind the different sections of society.

Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar addressed Lok Sabha on the question of Higher Education Commission of India. He said, We are not converting UGC into a bureaucratic body. It will be autonomous. We will only change the name. The UGC has to concentrate on quality of education and maintenance of standards.

During Question Hour in Lok Sabha, TMC leader Sugata Bose asked, "Does not a single State or Central University have the potential to become an institute of eminence? Will the MHRD give substantive autonomy to all State and Central Universities? Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress) quotes a report and asks on what basis a journal is prescribed. He added," Is it the Government's intention to demoralise the best educational institutes in the country?"

Proposal of Amendment to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006 to be reintroduced in Lok Sabha. The National Sports University Bill, 2017 and The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment)Bill, 2015 have been withdrawn from the Lok Sabha.

In Lok Sabha, Zero Hour proceedings began as TRS member Jithender Reddy thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for acknowledging the efforts of Telangana government during his speech in no-confidence motion. He also requested the Centre to continue its support to Telangana. Meanwhile, Alappuzha member KC Venugopal raised the issue of Kerala floods. Most of the State Lok Sabha members are in Kerala now to aide in relief efforts.Venugopal wanted the Centre to declare the floods in Kerala as a national calamity. In response, Parliamentary Affairs minister asks Kerala MP to not politicise the issue of human suffering.

As Rajya Sabha resumes, Question Hour is in progress. MoS Defence Subhash Bamre answers questions about welfare measures taken for defence personnel and their families.Members keep raising slogans but Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu asks the proceedings to continue in front of camera.

In Rajya Sabha,environment minister Harsh Vardhan answers questions on man-animal conflict. BJP leader from West Bengal Rupa Ganguly asks about tackling poaching and locals killing wildlife. Lower level staffs are being trained to tackle such instances, Dr. Harsh Vardhan says that the lower level staffs are being trained to handle these situations.

The National Sports University Bill, 2017 introduced by Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh and The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Amendment) Bill, 2015 have been withdrawn from the Lok Sabha.

Meanwhile, Congress will move a motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for "misleading the Parliament on Rafale deal." This comes after former defence minister AK Antony said that incumbent Nirmala Sitharaman is misleading the country on Rafale deal. He said the ministers claims on secrecy were wrong as the government cannot keep the prices a secret.

Before the adjournment, Chhattisgarh MP Chhaya Verma had brought up the issue of open defecation saying while many villagers are declared open defecation free, but the practice continues. She wanted to know what steps were taken on corruption charges in implementing schemes to eradicate open defecation in Chhattisgarh. Responding to this, the minister said an inquiry will be taken up.

Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Venkaiah Naidu, said that he wanted to ensure smooth conduct of Question Hour which is why he decided to go on amid the sloganeering. Following which, the session was adjourned till 2 pm.

Bringing up the Rafale deal, Congress leader Anand Sharma alleges PM Narendra Modi had knowledge of the understanding between India and France for 126 aircraft. He said, "Our PM arbitrarily, without any sanction from the Cabinet Committee of Security, changed the Rafale Deal, where the price was much higher per unit of aircraft. The PM must confirm or deny in the Parliament that after returning from France the Deal was changed without informing the Cabinet Committee of Security."

In Lok Sabha, YSRCP leader Renuka Butta raised the issue of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh and alleged that the Centre changed the goal post from SCS to special package to special purpose vehicle. She requested the Centre to support the state. RJD leader Pappu Yadav also brought up the issue of child sexual abuse in a hostel in Bihar and demanded a CBI probe into it.

Amid protests by Congress members, Mahajan said "I will look into it and then let you know".- PTI

A notice for a privilege motion has been moved against Congress President Rahul Gandhi by some BJP members in the Lok Sabha, which Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said she will examine. Four BJP members  Nishikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Dushyant Singh and Prahlad Joshi  have submitted the privilege notice against Gandhi accusing him of "misleading" Parliament by making "false" allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman. As soon as the Question Hour got over, Dubey said a privilege motion has been moved by his party. "Whenever Rahul Gandhi speaks, it only helps in increasing the votes of BJP," he said.

As the discussion on the ancient monuments bill begins, Congress member Jairam Ramesh said the Bill has typographical errors while Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said that certain clauses need clarification, so the Bill must be sent to the Select Committee. However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Goel said the Bill has already been approved and passed by the Lok Sabha so it should be discussed and amendments made.

The Bill aims to insert a provision which allows a court trying an offence related to cheque bouncing, to direct the drawer to pay interim compensation to the complainant.

Lok Sabha proceedings begin, House takes up Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill. It inserts a provision allowing a court trying an offence related to cheque bouncing, to direct the drawer (person who writes the cheque) to pay interim compensation to the complainant.

In Lok Sabha, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that the credibility of cheques is just significant for corporate people but also for others. Bringing up the issue of cheque-wapsi in a cashless economy, Tharoor said that under the Negotiable Instruments Laws (Amendment) Act, raised various concerns regarding payments of cheques in the country. Asking if the bill is the only version that can be provided for MSMEs, Tharoor said, "Demonetisation was a bad idea implemented badly, and GST was a good idea implemented badly. "

The amendments to the IBC is intended to give relief to the home buyers by recognising their status as financial creditors, thus giving them due representation in the Committee of Creditors (CoC) and making them an integral part of the decision-making process. The bill also proposes to reduce the minimum voting threshold for the CoC to 66 per cent, from 75 percent for key decisions: a provision which was opposed by BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab.- PTI

The amendments to the insolvency law which empowers home buyers to be recognised as financial creditors was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday, even as Opposition parties objected to certain changes in the Act alleging that these intended to "help one industry". The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, was introduced by finance minister Piyush Goyal. The bill replaced the Ordinance which was approved by the Union Cabinet in May.

In response to Tharoor on Negotiable Instruments Laws (Amendment) Act, Shivakumar Udasi of BJP said change is a continuous process. This Bill is the first step and many more amendments are likely in future, he said. Opposition Leader Mallikarjun Kharge raised Point of Order and said that no Minister is present in the House when the Bill is being discussed. "Don't your ministers have confidence in your government," he asked.

In Lok Sabha, AIADMK's Vijaykumar said the Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill must protect poor and middle class from money lenders. TMC's Kalyan Banerjee said in cases of wilful offenders it is difficult even to serve summons. The court should be more serious in dealing with the NA Act, he says. Banerjee said that the fast-track courts are not fast at all. It's the middle class who are suffering due to cheque bounces, Banerjee said.

Besides, the proposed university would also function as the national training centre for select sports disciplines by adopting best international practices and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Before the introduction of the bill, the minister withdrew a 2017 bill regarding the Manipur university from the House. The 2018 bill seeks to "establish and incorporate a National Sports University in the State of Manipur, a specialised University first of its kind, to promote sports education in the areas of sports sciences, sports technology, sports management and sports coaching...".

The National Sports University Bill, 2018, introduced by Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, will replace the ordinance promulgated by the President on 31 May.

The government today moved a bill in the Lok Sabha to establish a specialised sports university in Manipur to promote various aspects of sports such as management, technology and coaching.

The Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill provides for the filing of cheque bounce cases at the place where a cheque is presented for clearance and not the place of issue. The Bill overturns a Supreme Court ruling, which said the cases have to be initiated where the cheque-issuing branch was located.

BJD's Pratap Keshari Deb said When you suggest new things to the bill, you need the state government to implement it. If the policies are formulated by the Centre but not implemented by the state, there is bound to be a clash between the central government and the state government, which will pave the way for corporatisation of the transport sector.

JD(U) leader Harivansh said road accidents on the rise since 1970 but the law hasn't been amended accordingly. "People drive while attending phone calls. In Bihar, after prohibition on liquor, the number of road accidents has declined. The government should ensure that there is a strict law on drunk driving,' he said.

"In the name of simplification, the central government is trying to keep all regulations to itself," he said. He questioned the plan to introduce aggregators, asking how it would bring down the number of accidents, while citing cab aggregators like Ola and Uber.

As Rajya Sabha discusses The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, Elamaram Kareem said he opposes the Bill, alleging that there is a hidden agenda of privatisation in the name of road safety.

MoS Mansukh L Mandaviya, who was present in Gadkari's place, said that he has been noting the suggestions by the MPs and that he would convey them to his minister. O'Brien still protested, to which the Chair said that some of the speakers would naturally spill over to Tuesday due to the time constraint.

"This is a big issue. The minister is a serious minister. You're hearing the strong speeches coming in. We want this bill to be debated. Please keep some of these voices, so that the minister can listen tomorrow," he said.

TMC MP Derek O'Brien raised his concern over the absence of Union minister Nitin Gadkari during the discussion on The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 in the Rajya Sabha. He asked the Chair to allow some of the speakers to speak on Tuesday so that Gadkari listens to atleast some of the "voices" first-hand.

Naidu also asked the MPs to contact the concerned officers in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to give notices or find out about the fate of their notices, instead of coming directly to him as he may not have all the information. "Maybe it is lack of information because some members are coming and directly trying to give it (notices) to the Chairman. That is not the practice. There is the Table Office. There are other systems in place. You can give it there," he said.

"However, the existing system of giving physical notices in the Notice Office would also continue," he said. "I am sure the members will find the new system useful and convenient and will use it extensively."

Rajya Sabha members can now submit notices to raise discussions or questions from anywhere with the launch of a new app, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday. The secure e-Notices application can be used to submit online notices for raising issues under rules for Question Hour, Zero Hour, Special Mention, Calling Attention and Short Duration Discussion, he said when the House met for the day.

Citing the poor state of schools in his native village, Chautala said that though the government was providing equipment for better education, there were still issues that needed to be addressed. The status of schools in Haryana is such, that the computers reach the schools but these areas also have deal with lack of electricity. "Somewhere, even you have to provide support accordingly," he told Education Minister Prakash Javadekar.

INLD MP says state-run schools need as much focus as centre-run schools INLD leader Dushyant Chautala raised the issues faced by schools in Haryana as the Lok Sabha discussed National Council for Teacher Education Bill. "We are bringing this bill to develop the teachers' training institution, but a government report says that there is a vacancy for 30,000 teachers in Haryana. The Bill focuses on government schools, but we should also focus on state-run schools, he said.

"License is issued to people up to 60 years of age. Elderly people must be granted with proper fitness certificate," she said.

In Rajya Sabha, Congress leader Chhaya Verma said that motor vehicles should be insured for life, instead of being insured for a year. "One time insurance will be beneficial for the owners too," she said.

The Centre will set up a high level committee headed by the Union home secretary. The government has also decided to constitute a Group of Ministers headed by the home minister to consider recommendation of the high level committee. They will submit their recommendation to the prime minister in 4 weeks.

He, however, said that the debate was not permissible under Rule 168. "You know the system. Sense of the House is that House should function and take up business as slated." Asking the agitating members to return to their seats, Naidu said; "I have only two options  whether I run the House like this or adjourn the House".

The TDP had earlier forced an adjournment of proceedings in the Upper House soon after it had assembled for the day. As TDP MPs YS Chowdhary and CM Ramesh raised the issue, the Chairman said he has already told them their notice "has been admitted, it is coming up tomorrow."

Though the members of the Telugu Desam Party had trooped into the Well during the Question Hour raising slogans in support of their demands, the proceedings continued with Ministers replying to the listed queries.

Naidu ordering stoppage of telecast of proceedings for about 15 minutes saying "only voice will go; noise will not go".

Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma, in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, said the Environment Ministry has written to the offices that come under its own administrative control, offices of the central government and its departments, major PSUs, corporates and institutions to eliminate single-use plastic products, including water bottles and take away coffee cups.

All states and Union Territories have been asked to communicate to temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches about the ill-effect of single-use plastic and encourage their staff and visitors not to use those, the government said on Friday.

Centre has directed states to tell all places of worship to prohibit use of single-use plastic

Gandhi said the French president had clearly conveyed to him that there was no problem in sharing details relating to the Rafale deal worth Rs 58,000 crore. Alleging corruption in the deal, the Congress has been demanding details, including cost of equipment and weapons, but the government has refused to share them citing a secrecy pact with France, he said. -PTI

On the fifth day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on Tuesday, Congress is likely to move a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Rafale deal issue on Tuesday. Earlier on Monday, while speaking in the House on the no-confidence motion against the government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had alleged that Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman lied to the nation on the Rafale deal and that she did so under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also said Sitharaman had herself said earlier that she would disclose the details about the deal, but later cited a secrecy clause.

The Rajya Sabha is expected to take up the long-pending Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017 for further discussion. Many Opposition parties on Monday opposed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill dubbing it as dilution of the state's powers and aimed at helping corporates. The Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha on 10 April, 2017, was on Monday re-introduced in Rajya Sabha by Minister of State for Transport Mansukhlal Mandaviya for debate and passing in the ongoing Monsoon Session.

In Lok Sabha, Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill is likely to be discussed with other two Bills

BJD MP Tathagatha Satpathy said Jan Aushadhi centres do not have enough manpower or medicines. He asked whether the government carry out an awareness campaign to make people aware of the benefits of generic medicines. In response, the chemical minister said the penetration of generic medicines have gone up to seven percent. We are encouraging doctors to write generic names in the prescription, he added.

In Lok Sabha during Question Hour, BJP leader Krit Solanki asked if there will be an increase in number of generic medical stores. Chemical minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the government is working to ensure popularising of generic medicines. Over a lakh people have moved to below poverty line since they are unable to afford healthcare. Solanki asked if the government plans to form a law to curb unaffordable medicines to which the minister said fears on the quality of generic medicines are unwarranted as they are tested by the NABL.

In Rajya Sabha's Zero Hour, TMC leader Shanta Chettri raised the issue of mob violence in the name of cow protection with many supporting her. Meanwhile, AAP's Sanjay Singh highlights the satyagraha of Sadhus seeking to clean Ganga. Swami Sanand also known as GD Agrawal is on hunger strike for the past two weeks.

In Rajya Sabha, DMK member Kanimozhi brought up the issue of Thoothukudi police firing saying she was part a delegation that was supposed to pursue an independent inquiry into the incident. However, police and a former judge had stopped the leaders, she said to which AIADMK members objected.

Commenting on the minimum support price, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MoS Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said in the Lok Sabha, "Our government will ensure that all farmers get maximum benefit of the MSP hike. The onus is also partly on the state governments to make sure procurement is convenient for the farmers." while one member demanded a special package for Bundelkhand farmers, Shekawat said NITI Aayog decides on allocation of funds.

Deependra Singh Hooda claimed Centre is tarnishing the name of MS Swaminathan by giving menial hike in the minimum support price which goes in the name of his panel. Hooda also questioned when will the Swaminathan panel recommendations be wholly implemented. Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh passed the buck to previous UPA governments as Congress members start objecting. Meanwhile, TDP members continued with their protest seeking Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh showing placards, which the Speaker objected.

In Rajya Sabha, after Pappu Yadav had raised the issue of rape cases in Bihar's shelter home, RJD leader Manoj Jha raised the issue on Tuesday.

After Monday's ruckus and sloganeering, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu lauded the Rajya Sabha MPs for the smooth functioning of the House in Zero Hour. Naidu said around 25 submissions were made during the Zero Hour before the beginning of Question Hour.

A religious place of worship makes it to the Central list if it is over hundred years old and must not have been renovated, the minister added. Shiv Sena leader Anil Desai also asked if Pandharpur will be added to pilgrimage circuit.

As Rajya Sabha took up Question Hour, Narayan Rane wanted to know if Ratnagiri temples will be in the Central list of religious places. Culture minister Mahesh Sharma responds saying the Archeological Survey of India maintains the list. The Ratnagiri temple was constructed in the medieval period and has been periodically renovated which means they are not eligible for the list, he added.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge also raised the recent mob lynching incident in Alwar and CPM leader Mohammad Salim said the mob violence in the name of cow protection or child-lifting rumours should be despised. Salim compared lynching with racist attacks in USA in the name of White Supremacy. In response, home minister Rajnath Singh said govt is concerned about these attacks and the biggest lynching happened in 1984 during anti-Sikh riots.

TMC leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay brought up the rising incidents of mob violence. "We are for a united India. We cannot tolerate such form of violence," Bandopadhya said as more members wanted to talk about the issue. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said home minister Rajnath Singh has made a statement in the House on Monday and the same issue cannot be taken up every day.

Premachandran brought up the issue of pension being paid by the EPFO.In response, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar assured him the process would be expedited. MB Rajesh (CPM) said abolishment of UGC will increase political control of higher education, academia and free thought. The academia is unhappy with the government's decision. This is not in sync with federal principles as well as against higher education, he said.

Earlier, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi told Lok Sabha that those talking about the lynching incidents are hypocrites and select such incidents for protest. She said that those who are protesting have forgotten the anti-sikh riots of 1984 and the alleged lynching of karsevaks in 2002. Why was there no uproar on the killing of a Dalit boy in Rajasthan for marrying a Muslim girl, she asked.

As proceedings began in Rajya Sabha, TDP leader YS Chowdry (TDP) initiated the debate. He thanked 5 crore people of Andhra Pradesh and criticised Centre's "blatant violation of reorganisation Act". He said the promise of Manmohan Singh wasn't honoured and said BJP 's political agenda is "all for power." He also accuses the Centre of violating federal structure of Constitution.

As the Rajya Sabha took up short duration discussion on implementation of State Reorganisation Act that led to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, TDP member Ramesh points out the home minister is absent in the House. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asked who is going to respond on behalf of the government and Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said Rajnath Singh will.

Azad said that the government has mentioned a special package for Andhra Pradesh on several occasions in lieu of special status, However, they have not fulfilled any promises and they are deceiving the people of Andhra Pradesh, he added.

"We have to ensure that both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh progress. Telangana has the advantage of having the capital city however, Andhra is like a newborn child and it requires the attention of the government," said Ghulam Nabi Azad.

"No other state has five industrial cities and two investment manufacturing zones. Look at the inaction. The central govt has informed 27 July 2017 that they are committed to develop another port city in place of Dugarajapatnam Port. You don't act, you don't follow up. You only want to do politics."

As the Rajya Sabha held short duration discussion on Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act, BJP's GVL Narasimha Rao said, "Two districts in Andhra Pradesh have got National Investment and Manufacturing Zones. The state government has not moved an inch on this since 2015. I have a letter dated 3 July. Is the state government simply not acting? When you have two investment manufacturing zones, which can transform the area, why are they not being worked upon? Is this not special focus for Andhra Pradesh?

In Rajya Sabha, TMC leader Derek O'Brien blamed BJP's governance for the issues with its allies. "The Shiv Sena and BJP go back 29 years. Today the Shiv Sena is not with them because of the way the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act has been implemented. I think its for the BJP to reflect why somebody who has been with them through thick and thin are questioning them. The Shiv Sena was your largest ally in 2014. You second largest ally is expressing themselves here, and they also brought the no confidence motion," he said.

Derek O'Brien says BJP should reflect on why its allies are turning against it

He asked why the Centre was not coming up with Lokpal when other parties had been speaking in favour of it.

As the Lok Sabha discussed The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018, CPM leader Badaruddoza Khan said, "It is a matter of great regret that those expelled by our party on charges of corruption are accepted by other parties. Then how will the corruption be stopped? Our prime minister has zero tolerance, but how will the public trust the government?"

D Raja says Narendra Modi govt should honour promises made by UPA govt Extending his support for the demand for special status for Andhra Pradesh, CPM leader D Raja said, "I share the agony of the people of Andhra Pradesh. We wanted both states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) to prosper without bitterness. The promises given by then prime minister should be honoured and fulfilled by the present government. I was present when the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act was discussed."

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Modi government is committed to implement the Andhra Pradesh Reoganisation Act in totality. He also quoted Singh's words on central assistance, but added that the 14th Finance Commission had also increased the share given to states to 42 percent. Goyal said that the commission provided additional funds, and Andhra Pradesh received the revenue deficit gap. "Suppose we consider a SCS, we may have to reassess the revenue deficit gap and this gap would come down substantially," he said, adding that the state would not have received extra funds with the SCS.

In the Rajya Sabha, former prime minister Manmohan Singh spoke in the Rajya Sabha said that he made the commitment of special category status (SCS) while keeping in view that the revenue generated by Hyderabad will go to Telangana. "I made the commitment after consultation with the then Leader of Opposition Arun Jaitley. I request the government to honour the commitment made in the August House. Commitments made on the floor of the House have to be honoured and fulfilled. I had expected my distinguished successor to fulfill the commitment I had made after consultation with his colleagues," he said.

"What's in a name? The idea is that the people of Andhra Pradesh get benefitted, and that is what the Modi government is committed to," he said.

"We care for the people of Andhra Pradesh. The Cabinet made special measures to give support to Andhra Pradesh. We received a response from Chandrababu Naidu addressed to Arun Jaitley dated 24 October 2016, where he says 'I once again thank the Government of India for offering support and assitance to the success of the state of Andhra Pradesh."' Goyal said that Naidu, in his letter, mentioned that the state might have received additional funds through the Centre's efforts.

In Rajya Sabha, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said, "Our government will fulfill commitment by the current and the former prime ministers. We want all states to progress because we believe that unless they all progress, the country won't develop. We do politics for the interest of the country, not just to form the government. We are committed to fulfil the promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act. Even those incentives not mentioned the Act are being given to Andhra Pradesh. We have fulfilled 90 percent of the promises."

In the Lok Sabha, Union minister Jitendra Singh addressed the issue of delay in the setting up of Lokpal. "The efforts to set up Lokpal are underway. I always avoid to be political in my replies, but please allow me to say that the cause of delay is not the ruling party but the Congress party. This is because it failed to secure the number of seats to be recognised as the majority Opposition party. We had suggested that let us have the leader of the largest party to be member of the committee," he said.

List of Bills to be taken up for discussion in two Houses

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has asked his MPs to consider moving a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers. Naidu said Centre claiming it has fulfilled 90 percent of the promises made in Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act "is misleading".

In Rajya Sabha, YSRCP member Vijaisai Reddy apologised for what happened on Tuesday and told the Chair that he wasn't given adequate time. "I am sorry for the incident that happened on Tuesday," he said. Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad said whatever happened on Tuesday was unfortunate. Chairman Venkaiah Naidu asked the members to move on and mentioned that members are not adhering to the time limit.

In Lok Sabha, Kerala Congress leader KC Venugopal mentioned the continuous call drops while TMC leader from West Bengal Arpita Ghose said that no connection of BSNL works in South Dinajpur and many such remote areas. The minister said that he will look into it. He added that Airtel and Jio have completely rolled out 4G services. The government-run BSNL is providing 4G in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, we will expand soon, he said.

In response to a question on increasing the number of stops in express train routes, railway minister Piyush Goyal said additional stoppages will increase the delay and feasibility would be a big issue. "We will still consider these proposals though," he told Lok Sabha.

In Rajya Sabha, Congres leader Digvijaya Singh brought the issue of contaminated water in the Narmada river while Kerala CPM leader Binoy Viswam said that normal life has been affected for the past many weeks due to flooding. Meanwhile, BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Bengaluru lakes are dying due to the apathy of the government. He requested Environment Ministry to intervene.

In Rajya Sabha on the topic of women's safety, Chairman Venkaiah Naidu said "What you need is not a new bill but the political will, the administrative skill and you can go for kill of the social evil" during the proceedings after Jaya Bachchan raised the issue in the house.

Proceedings have resumed in the Lok Sabha after a short adjournment, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said it is natural to feel angry over allegations but you should not remain within your limits.

Rajya Sabha proceedings resume. In Rajya Sabha, home minister Rajnath Singh spoke on the Rohingya issue and said, "We've issued orders to all states that no Rohingya should possess Indian documents, so that we can talk to government of Myanmar and EAM Sushma Swaraj can speak with the foreign minister of Myanmar."

Congress leader Vivek Tankha initiates a debateHe where he says only 10 percent of the black money is outside India. He asked what has the government done to get back the money in India and wanted to know why a threshold of Rs100 crores. "Are we not being strict enough for offenders who fall within Rs100 crore offence?"

Congress leader KC Venugopal said despite his ill health, he came to the House to speak about the plight of his people in Alapuzzha.

In the discussion on the Kerala floods in Lok Sabha, CPM leader P Karunakaran said the functioning of Indian Meteorological Department is not satisfactory. The cyclone warning is not functioning well. We suffered during Ockhi (cyclone) too, said Karunakaran. "Wanting the floods to be declared a national calamity, Karunakaran said Centre should increase compensation and the National Mitigation Fund should be used. Defence stations must have motorised boats and Indian Air Force should be allowed permanent posting in the districts. The state requires a flood warning station," he added. Members on both sides of the House argue for a bit.

The govt has a clear stand on Rohingya issue. They are illegal and won't be allowed to thrive in India: Kiren Rijiju, MoS Home pic.twitter.com/4uq3LsHTjz

PM is out on a 5-day tour when the Parliament session is on. The meeting could have been avoided. It was not an inevitable meeting. But, since he has the absolute majority, he chooses to go on foreign tours and skips Parliament sessions: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress pic.twitter.com/6t66tOP7gC

A Parliament Joint Committee should be made, as it was done in Bofors case, to state facts of Rafale Deal. If it is cheaper, then PM should have stated it during #NoConfidenceMotion . Now statements by BJP are just afterthoughts to mask corruption: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress pic.twitter.com/kiCAJpWrgF

Rajya Sabha proceedings resume. In Rajya Sabha, home minister Rajnath Singh spoke on the Rohingya issue and said, "We've issued orders to all states that no Rohingya should possess Indian documents, so that we can talk to government of Myanmar and EAM Sushma Swaraj can speak with the foreign minister of Myanmar."

The effort behind Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018 is to deter people from running away from India and those who have run away India to force them to come back & submit themselves to the process of law: @PiyushGoyal

Congress leader Vivek Tankha initiates a debateHe where he says only 10 percent of the black money is outside India. He asked what has the government done to get back the money in India and wanted to know why a threshold of Rs100 crores. "Are we not being strict enough for offenders who fall within Rs100 crore offence?"

Who is a Fugitive Economic Offender? A person is declared an FEO if: (i) an arrest warrant has been issued against him for an offence where the value involved is over Rs 100 crore, and (ii) he has left the country and refuses to return to face prosecution. https://t.co/uFeriux8M3

Congress leader KC Venugopal said despite his ill health, he came to the House to speak about the plight of his people in Alapuzzha.

In the discussion on the Kerala floods in Lok Sabha, CPM leader P Karunakaran said the functioning of Indian Meteorological Department is not satisfactory. The cyclone warning is not functioning well. We suffered during Ockhi (cyclone) too, said Karunakaran. "Wanting the floods to be declared a national calamity, Karunakaran said Centre should increase compensation and the National Mitigation Fund should be used. Defence stations must have motorised boats and Indian Air Force should be allowed permanent posting in the districts. The state requires a flood warning station," he added. Members on both sides of the House argue for a bit.

Monsoon Session of Parliament Latest Updates: On the sixth day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge moved a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi while Jyotiraditya Scindia moved a privilege motion against defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the motions are in consideration. Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge slams Prime Minister Narendra Modi for going on Uganda trip and missing Parliament session.

On Wednesday, the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill and the Criminal Law Amendment Bill will be taken up for discussion. The Lower House will also witness debates on Homeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018, Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-third Amendment) Bill, 2017. In Rajya Sabha, Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, Negotiable Instruments (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the National Council for Teacher Education (Amendment) Bill, 2017 will be taken up for discussion.

The Parliament on Tuesday passed an anti-corruption bill that provides for punishment to bribe givers and takers, and extends prior approval for the prosecution to former public officials with Lok Sabha, giving its assent to the law.

On the fifth day of the session, issues such as cases of mob lynchings and the alleged rape and murder of a girl at a shelter home in Bihar figured in both Houses of Parliament. Home minister Rajnath Singh assured action from the Centre on both matters.

The Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act was also one of the subjects discussed in the Rajya Sabha, where the Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and other Opposition parties asked the BJP-led government to honour its assurances in letter and spirit by granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh. However, the home minister virtually ruled out granting the special status to the bifurcated state, saying that the Centre was providing more assistance than what it would have got under that tag.

The Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2018, passed by the lower House after a reply by Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh, was passed by Rajya Sabha last week.

The bill makes specific provisions related to giving a bribe to a public servant and giving a bribe by a commercial organisation, and it also modifies the definitions and penalties for offences related to taking a bribe, being a habitual offender and abetting an offence. It also provides for imprisonment from three to seven years, besides fine, to those convicted of taking bribes. Bribe givers have also been included in the legislation for the first time and they can be punished with imprisonment up to seven years or fine or both.

In his reply, the minister said the bill provides safeguards to officers who perform their duties with honesty. "We have brought amendments so that honest performing officer does not get intimidated or his initiatives get killed," he said. Jitendra said the "historic legislation" has provisions to ensure speedy trial in corruption cases.

Noting the ideal situation is when the nation and society become incorruptible, he said, "But maybe we are yet to evolve to that level of evolution. To be fair, 70 years is a very small life span in the history of a democracy or a nation. We are still evolving and when we evolve to that level of incorruptibility, then we will not require a legislation like this or any further amendments."

Referring to a delay in appointment of Lokpal, Jitendra blamed Congress, saying it did not get enough seats for its leader to be recognised as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The Leader of Opposition is a member of Lokpal selection panel. Jitendra said the government had sought to include the leader of the largest Opposition party in the meetings concerning appointment of Lokpal. Many members who took part in the debate stressed on the need for electoral reforms to curb corruption.

With inputs from agenciesThe extended Congress Working Committee had authorised Rahul Gandhi to lead negotiations and forge alliances with like-minded parties for the 2019 general elections.

In mid-July 2016, the Congress had declared Sheila Dikshit its chief ministerial candidate for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which were held in February 2017. For the next few months, she had lived with that hype, and the party was pretty pleased with what they thought was a winning slogan, "27 Saal UP Behal."

Five months later, in mid-January 2017, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his key strategists dumped cold water on her chief ministerial ambition, or the party's ambition for her, and sealed an electoral alliance with the Samjawadi Party, declaring Akhilesh Yadav their chief ministerial candidate. The alliance also came up with a new slogan, "UP ko ye saath pasand hai".

Jump to 24-25 July this year. Rahul appears to have pulled a Sheila Dikshit on himself  from being projected as the Congress' prime ministerial nominee for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he went to being ready to play second fiddle and support any other Opposition leader, like Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati, to be the prime minister if the situation demands.

There is another way to look at it. So pleased was the Congress president with his experiment in Karnataka  making HD Kumaraswamy the chief minister and allowing him to keep key portfolios with the Janata Dal (Secular) to keep the BJP out of power  that he is willing to repeat the modus operandi at the national level in 2019. Unlike his mother and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, he will not look for a Manmohan Singh in the Congress. In any case, neither Mamata nor Mayawati would ever be what Singh was to Sonia.

On Wednesday, national newspapers published source-based stories on Rahul yielding power to another Opposition leader. With the headline "Congress softens Rahul-as-PM stand, says BJP's defeat key", The Indian Express reported quoting a source: "The Congress is open to the candidature of anybody, including Mamata Banerjee or Mayawati, for the top slot She (Mamata), too, is from a Congress mindset."

The Times of India ran a headline that read: "Congress may go along with regional leader as PM nominee". Quoting top Congress sources, it reported that the party may be "willing to accommodate the leader of a non-Congress or a regional party as the prime ministerial nominee if it gets the numbers in the next Lok Sabha elections or in case of lack of consensus on a Congress nominee".

It was during an informal interaction on Tuesday evening with around a hundred women in journalism that Rahul said: "The Congress will support any candidate who will defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh."

Congress Party President Rahul Gandhi said he would support any candidate who will defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/Fug82G0lSD pic.twitter.com/sLqi3TuWL8  ANI Digital (@ani_digital) July 24, 2018

Now, consider the circumstances of Rahul's making and unmaking as the prime ministerial candidate for the Opposition and what it should mean for the Congress. This also comes in a situation where Rahul is convinced that the BJP under Narendra Modi's leadership will be "decimated" in the parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held in the next eight to nine months.

In May this year, Rahul had laid bare his prime ministerial ambition for 2019. However, it was a bit odd for him to talk so categorically about it while campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly elections, more so because he had appeared coy while speaking about the top position.

"I am pretty convinced that Mr Modi is not going to be the prime minister (again)," Rahul had said during a closed party meeting. "I can see that on his face. He knows that." To a query from a party worker on his prime ministerial prospects, Rahul had said, "If the Congress is the biggest party (in the alliance of Opposition parties), then yes, why not."

Earlier, at a rally organised by his party, Rahul had said "ache din" will come when the Congress comes to power in 2019. By saying so, he seemed to have bowed to the wishes of thousands of dedicated party workers for whom the Congress means the Gandhi-Nehru family and therefore, Rahul has to lead it.

But the Congress' loss in the Karnataka polls made the Rahul-for-PM-in-2019 claim subside. Although JD(S) became an ally by default, older partners like the Samajwadi Party were no longer keen to have any electoral seat-sharing understanding with the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, and this created confusion for Rahul's party. Mamata is not conceding any space for Rahul in West Bengal, neither is Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati.

But this still has not deterred the Congress. It moved a no-confidence motion in Parliament on Wednesday in an attempt to be in sync with Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party. Rahul, who had volunteered to be the first speaker from the Congress, had blasted Modi and the BJP, made a myriad of accusations, including of corruption, did not yield to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on his charges on the Rafale deal, and also walked across the treasury benches to hug Modi. He did everything he could to not only set the agenda for the day but to position himself at the pole position against Modi, as the only alternative to Modi as the Congress is to the BJP.

Two days later, the extended Congress Working Committee  in the presence of over 270 specially invited leaders  authorised Rahul to lead negotiations and forge alliances with like-minded parties for the 2019 general elections. All this happened while Rahul, as party president, chaired the meeting.

It would be a bizarre turn of events if the president of a national party overturned the decision of his party's highest policy- and decision-making body and took the backseat while allowing Mamata or Mayawati to wear the crown.

Interestingly, Rahul made the "off-the-record" statement  that he was willing to yield leadership of the Opposition to others  hours after Mayawati talked tough about "watching" how the Congress was treating the JD(S) in Karnataka and expressing a dislike for Congress leaders talking about an alliance with the BSP without offering a respectable number of seats.

The Congress president himself is overseeing the seat-sharing pitch to Mayawati, even though her BSP has no MPs in the current Lok Sabha. While Mamata's Trinamool Congress (TMC) is the third-largest party in the Opposition ranks after the Congress and AIADMK, it has practically no presence outside Delhi. The TMC has national ambitions, but all its attempts have gone bust so far.

In the last parliamentary elections, the Congress, which governed the country for about 60 years, failed to open its account in 14 states and seven Union Territories. Rahul's premature announcement that he was willing to stay in the background and let Mamata or Mayawati lead the Opposition coalition will play on the morale of Congress workers.Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), a leading industrial company in the UAE outside oil and gas, has signed an agreement with Gulf Cement Company to supply a by-product from aluminium smelting over the next three years for use in cement manufacturing.



Although EGA has been supplying spent pot lining to the cement industry since 2010, the agreement is the first directly between EGA and a cement company rather than via specialist third party pre-processors, said a statement from the company.



EGA is building facilities at its Al Taweelah site to process spent pot lining so it is delivered ready to be used by cement companies as an alternative fuel and raw material, it said.



Abdulla Kalban, managing director and chief executive officer of EGA, said: This direct agreement with Gulf Cement Company is a milestone in our drive to turn our by-products into value by using them as feedstock for other industries.



Finding economic uses for waste contributes to the achievement of UAE Vision 2021 environmental and economic goals and will benefit both our companies. We are glad to be working with Gulf Cement Company on this important project for the industrial sector in the UAE, he said.



Sheikh Kayed Bin Omar Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, chairman of Gulf Cement Company, said: Our company is a global player adopting the latest technology and we are indeed pleased to promote the utilisation of waste materials in order to preserve natural resources and protect the environment we all live in.



As a market leader providing sustainable, high quality products meeting international standards, we look forward to successfully implementing this agreement with EGA over the years ahead, he said.



Spent pot lining is the used inner lining of aluminium smelting pots, which is worn out and replaced every four to five years. It contains both carbon, which is an alternative fuel, and refractory materials that survive the firing process and become part of the finished cement, said the statement.



Last year EGA supplied more spent pot lining to the UAEs cement industry than it produced. The company has been supplying Gulf Cement Company with spent pot lining via third parties for testing since 2015, it said.



Globally, the aluminium industry produces more than one million tonnes of spent pot lining each year according to industry experts, and much is stored indefinitely. EGA has stockpiles of spent pot lining from previous years which will be gradually supplied to the cement industry.



Under the new agreement, EGA will deliver 2,000 metric tonnes of spent pot lining to Gulf Cement Company in 2018. In 2019, the volumes will increase to 10,000 metric tonnes, followed by 15,000 metric tonnes in 2020.



Gulf Cement Company manufactures cement products to international standards (ASTM & BS EN Specifications) and has been the biggest exporter in the Gulf region for four decades, in part by adopting best practice in the protection of the environment.



The company operates the worlds biggest waste heat recovery-based power plant at a single site, which reduces its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 200,000 tonnes per year. Its measurement of the carbon footprint of its products is certified by Carbon Trust, UK, enabling Gulf Cement Company to use the Carbon Trust Carbon Footprint Label, it stated.  TradeArabia News Servicetech2 News Staff

The justice BN Srikrishna committee had been appointed to draft a data-protection law for India on August 2017, following the Right to Privacy ruling. The 10-member panel was expected to present its draft last month, after many delays. But so far, there is still no certain date as to when it will be released.

In the meantime, TRAI has released its recommendations on privacy, security and data ownership in the telecom sector.

There have also been reports of how the Srikrishna committee may ask Google, Facebook and others to store their data locally.

Caravan claims to have got access to the draft of the proposed law, which is tentatively titled, "The Protection of Personal Data Bill, 2018".

This draft comprising around 15 chapters covers topics such as data localisation, the creation of a data protection authority, data protection measures, separating personal and sensitive data and also proposes some amendments to the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and the Right to Information Act, 2005.

Measures pertaining to the Aadhaar Act 2016

The report goes on to state that the changes to the Aadhaar Act include offline verification process for Aadhaar, increasing or creating civil and criminal penalties for contravening the Aadhaar Act and a new adjudication process to address disputes arising out of Aadhaar. There is a proposal for the appointment of an adjudicating officer above the rank of a joint secretary in the Union government, with the power to make inquiries in case the Aadhaar Act is found to be violated in any manner.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has been suggested as the appellate body for any appeal against the appointed adjudicating authority and only appeals from this tribunal will be heard by the Supreme Court.

This really does not change the status quo by much, as the common man still cannot approach the courts in case of any Aadhaar-related disputes. As the report notes, in the current setup, only the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) can approach the courts in case of any disputes. A look at the number of Aadhaar-related data breaches in the last couple of years and the attitude of UIDAI, which refuses to acknowledge its own shortcomings, should give you enough of an idea of how flawed the system is.

The suggestion by the draft on data protection law on 'offline' Aadhaar verification also seems incomplete. Offline verification, under the current Aadhaar Act, cannot be deemed as a method to authenticate, as any authorised body seeking Aadhaar verification does a real-time query with the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR) which is maintained by the UIDAI. In the case of offline verification, there is no clarity on how it will be executed, even though on the surface it does intend to address issues with authentication, such as poor network connectivity, change in biometric information and so on. But 'offline' means there would be no real-time querying of the CIDR database. How then would the Aadhaar identity be verified? Does it mean that the agency doing the offline verification will have access to a local CIDR database? Will the data be stored on a new type of Aadhaar card? What about potential data breaches in these cases? There seem to be no clear directions on this.

Measures pertaining to RTI Act, 2005

The changes proposed to the RTI Act could possibly allow officials to withhold details and make them less accountable under the garb of increased privacy.

According to the current Section 8(1)(j) of the RTI Act, "information which relates to personal information, the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless the Central Public Information Officer or the State Public Information Officer or the appellate authority, as the case may be, is satisfied that the larger public interest justifies the disclosure of such information: Provided that the information, which cannot be denied to the Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person.."

This section of the act, according to the report, is misused by a lot of information officers to deny answering RTI queries.

According to the draft data protection bill, this section has been done away with altogether.

In its place, there is another provision in the bill which requires three conditions to be fulfilled before disclosing any personal data under the RTI. These conditions include:

(a) the personal data relates to a function, action or any other activity of the public authority in which transparency is required to be maintained having regard to larger public interest in the accountability of the working of the public authority;

(b) if such disclosure is necessary to achieve the object of transparency referred to in clause (a); and

(c) any harm likely to be caused to data principal by the disclosure is outweighed by the interest of the citizen in obtaining such personal data having regard to the object of transparency referred to in clause (a).

With no clear definitions of 'public interest', these requirements give the information officers more leeway against disclosing personal information, says the report.

We are yet to see the actual draft of the data protection bill, but these two measures suggesting amendments to two major acts definitely raise a lot of concerns at face value. Hopefully, the final draft of the bill, when it is finally, if ever, disclosed, will address the questions raised by the report.Reuters

European finance leaders called for progress on global rules to tax the digital economy at a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Argentina on 22 July, putting them at odds with US counterparts.

The final communique reaffirmed a commitment to address the impacts of the shift to a digital eco nomy on the international tax system by 2020, without giving more details.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, proposed rules earlier this year to make digital companies pay more tax, with US tech giants such as Alphabets Google, Facebook and Amazon set to foot a large chunk of any bill.

Some 200 companies would fall within the scope of the new tax, European officials said at the time, estimating additional annual revenues of about 5 billion euros ($6 billion).

Major digital companies had to pay their fair share of tax, because basically what we are talking about here is fairness, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici told reporters at the G20 meeting.

He said he was calling for a turnover tax to be adopted before the end of the year as an interim solution.

However, some EU members have voiced concerns their companies could be affected by such a tax and international partners may respond with retaliatory measures.

One of the big challenges is that taxation of the digital economy is mostly of course a taxation of American companies, because they are the key players in the world, so the United States feel that this is an attack concerning their digital economy, which it isnt really, European Council representative to the G20 Hubert Fuchs said on the sidelines of the meeting.

The US delegation was not immediately available for comment. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement earlier this year that he firmly opposes proposals by any country to single out digital companies, noting that those companies were key contributors to the U.S economy.

'Pot of Gold'

Australia Treasurer Scott Morrison said the G20 discussions were useful because they established the root of the problem: that no one knows how to measure for tax purposes the value of the data users of social media services like Facebook create outside of the countries where those companies are based.

He said if those technical issues were not resolved, more countries would start taking interim measures.

Were not convinced at this point about the efficacy of those interim measures, which is basically a sales tax on digital advertising, Morrison said. It is more important to focus on those technical issues rather than the pot-of-gold approach, which is how much revenue can be raised.

The European Commission wants a long-term, global solution based on a new method of calculating tax rates but has pushed in the meantime for the revenue tax to recoup revenues lost by EU states to large digital firms, officials said.

Implementing fair taxation of digital giants would also be a way of proving that Europe is united and strong at a time when the regions leaders feel pressured by the administration of US president Donald Trump, a senior European official said on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

We cannot accept that our SMEs (small and medium enterprises) have a level of taxation 40 points higher than the level of taxation of internet giants, said the official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the talks.

The EUs proposed levy on corporate turnover would be a major shift from existing rules, whereby companies are charged on their profits and pay no tax if they report losses.

Taxation should be where the moneymaking is and if the digital economy is making the money all over the world it doesnt really make sense if they only will declare their income in the United States, said Fuchs, who is also Austrias state secretary for finance.tech2 News Staff

Flanders tourist board is angry and rightly so. Paintings of Flemish Master were exhibited in Flanders which is in the north of Belgium. In order to promote the event, the organisers went to the social networking giant, Facebook for posting ad campaigns featuring paintings of baroque painters such as Rubens, Van Eyck, etc. But Facebook soon removed the campaign oweing to its anti-nudity policy.

According to a Brussels Times report, in response to the insensitivity reflected by Facebook, Flemish cultural institutions like the Bozar and Toerisme Vlaanderen sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg stating, "Breasts, buttocks and Peter Paul Rubens Cherubs are all considered indecent. Not by us, but by you." It also posted a video where the 'fbi' or as one can say "social media inspectors" can be seeing telling people not to see the painting much to their surprise.

This anti-nudity policy comes against paintings which are more than 400 years old.

This has created a stir among multiple museums who have called out Facebook for cultural censorship on social media. One of the paintings that especially came under Facebook's "scrutiny" were 'The Descent from the Cross' where a dying Christ is seen bare-chested with a loincloth below. Facebook probably needs to teach itself what is aesthetically sound and that which is dangerous such as the revenge porn.

Interestingly, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said that even though he believes in Holocaust, others may deny it, removing such videos might curb their freedom of speech. This reportedly has the potential to curb freedom of speech and expression. But clearly, Facebook seems to have paintings also belong in the category of freedom of expression.tech2 News Staff

Google has now more than 4 million people using G Suite. There are around 300 new capabilities that have been added to G Suite over the past year. Google has announced a bunch of new tools for productivity and collaboration including tools which have AI-powered features at the Google Cloud Next conference.

Diane Greene, head of Google Cloud, during the Next keynote presentation on 24 July said, "We're incorporating the power of AI into everything you do."

These features focus on making the work process smoother and better. The Security Centre which was introduced earlier this year has a new investigation tool added to it.

According to a blog post by Google, the investigation tool can be accessed from a single place and it also is said to have a simple UI. Thus admins can identify which user has been impacted, remove access to Drive files externally or delete malicious emails.

The investigation tool is available as part of their Early Adopter Program (EAP) for G Suite Enterprise customers.

Google is also adding support for data regions to G Suite. This means that the customers can choose where they want to store their primary data for select G Suite apps, globally in the US or Europe.

The Smart Reply which is available in Gmail is now coming to Hangouts Chat as well thus helping in replying to the messages quicker. There are three different proposed responses which may sound typically the way the user responds.

Sundar Pichai had spoken about the Smart Compose tool at the Google I/O this year and now it is being released for G Suite customers. This tool is said to automatically complete your emails. It helps in filling in greetings, sign-offs and common phrases.

It can also insert personalized information like your office or home address.

In order to catch the tricky spelling and grammatical errors, the new tool Grammar Suggestions is being introduced in the Docs. It even knows complicated grammatical concepts like how to use subordinate clauses correctly. It's available in their Early Adopter Program,

G Suite will also later this year bring voice commands for Hangouts Meet hardware to create the same magic in the conference room that people have been actively enjoying engaging with the Google Assistant.

But Google's cloud division has also been undergoing a lot of controversies. Goole's employees challenged the company's decision to take on the Maven contract. To which Pichai released the ethical guidelines saying that Google wouldn't create technology that would be used for weapons, but he said Google would still pursue work with the military.

Google's cloud platform also faced problems this week as a lot of applications like Snapchat, Pokemon Go, Spotify which use Google's cloud platform faced outages.Reuters

Dutch group Philips and three other consumer electronics companies were fined a total 111.2 million euros ($130 million) by EU antitrust regulators on 24 July for imposing fixed or minimum online prices for their products.

The ruling against Philips, Asus, Pioneer and Denon & Marantz followed a 17-month investigation by the European Commission as part of its crackdown on online sales practices such as price restrictions based on a customers location or nationality.

The investigation, which began in February last year, was one of three that covered a total of 15 companies in the consumer electronics, video game and hotel sectors.

The four companies fined on Tuesday were found to have restricted the ability of online retailers to set their own prices for products such as kitchen appliances, notebook computers and hi-fi products, insisting on fixed or minimum resale prices, the EU said.

Pioneer was also found by the EU to have sought to limit the ability of its retailers to sell across borders. It engaged in illegal practices in 12 EU countries, including France, Germany, the Netherlands and Britain, the Commission said, adding that the other companies did so in one or two countries.

As a result of the actions taken by these four companies, millions of European consumers faced higher prices for kitchen appliances, hair dryers, notebook computers, headphones and many other products, European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

Asus was fined 63.5 million euros, Philips 29.8 million euros, Pioneer 10.2 million euros and Denon & Marantz 7.7 million euros.

Asus declined to comment. Pioneer and Denon could not be reached for comment outside business hours. Philips did not respond immediately to requests for comment. All the companies cooperated and admitted wrongdoing in return for 40-50 percent cuts in their fines.

Vestagers action comes a week after she dished out a record 4.34 billion euro fine against Google.

The latest fines for Asian and European companies could strengthen the hand of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker when he meets US President Donald Trump in Washington on 25 July. Trump has previously complained of unfair treatment of US companies by the EU.

Vestager said that the Google decision was not political and that if Google had a complaint it could take the Commission to court. Required changes in Googles practices would also give opportunities to other companies, including US businesses, she said.

A second EU investigation into video games targeted Valve Corp, owner of the Steam distribution platform and five-game makers  Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and ZeniMax  accused of preventing purchases because of a consumers location or country of residence.

The third investigation focused on tour operators Kuoni, REWE REGRP.UL, Thomas Cook and TUI and hotel group Melia.tech2 News Staff

A 512 GB variant of Samsung's Galaxy Note 9 may launch in the market at a whopping price of  1,250 which is roughly Rs 1,00,000 and would definitely put it in the ultra-premium category.

Dutch website WinFuture reports, that the Galaxy Note 9 which is likely to be launched on 9 August in New York might have three storage variants128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB, it may give the 64 GB variant a miss. However, it would seem that these prices have been revealed only for European markets.

Speaking of other variants, the 128 GB variant may cost 1,050 which is roughly Rs 84,000. The 256 GB variant may not be present for the European markets.

Comparing the rumoured 512 GB variant of the Galaxy Note 9 to Apple's iPhone X' 256 GB variant which was priced at Rs 1,02,000, we see that the Samsung Note 9 will have a higher pricetag, However, will the Note 9 justify its extremely large price tag, is a question we will have an answer to after it releases in India.

Recent render leaks about the Samsung Note 9 show that device may come in four colour variants: Coral Blue, Lilac Purple, Brown, and Black. Rumours also show that the phone has an uncanny resemblance to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. The 6 GB RAM with 64 GB of internal storage variant of the Samsung Note 8 was priced at 67,900 when it was released.

The Note 9 is expected to come with Samsung's S-Pen which may also work as a portable Bluetooth controller.tech2 News Staff

Sony is expected to launch its next flagship, the Xperia XZ3 at IFA 2018 later this year and latest CAD renders seem to reveal yet another drastic change in design this year from the Japanese giant.

Leaked by trusted tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer (@OnLeaks) and shared by CompareRaja in a report, the Sony Xperia XZ3 will likely feature a Samsung Galaxy S series like design approach this year instead of Sony's blocky design. This is because the images reveal a curved glass finish this year, similar to the Samsung Galaxy S7, S8 and the S9 lineup.

The renders also suggest that the XZ3 will feature a single camera setup on the back along with a fingerprint scanner placed beneath it. The LED flash will be placed above the camera along with the Xperia branding below the fingerprint scanner. Physical dimensions of the smartphone also seem to have been revealed with a reading of 158.3 x73.08x9.9/10.1 mm.

Sony also seems to be giving the 3.5 mm headphone jack a miss this year and throwing on a glass back on the XZ3 which could allow wireless charging.

Based on rumours so far, the Xperia XZ3 will sport a 5.7-inch FHD+ display with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels and an 18:9 aspect ratio similar to its predecessor Xperia XZ2. This means that there won't be a notch on top and the images also reveal that we will continue to have considerably large bezels at the top and bottom of the screen.

The device will likely be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset coupled with 6 GB of RAM. There may be two storage options available for the buyers  64 GB and 128 GB, with an option to expand the story via a microSD card. The phone could also feature a 3,240 mAh battery with support for Sonys Quick Charge 3 for fast charging. It will likely run on the upcoming Android P operating system.

There is no word on pricing yet but do expect it to arrive with a heavy price tag of 849 which is roughly Rs 68,500.Indo-Asian News Service

US President Donald Trump is unlikely to get the boot from Twitter even after threatening Iran with dire consequences as the microblogging site sees the world leaders with a different lens.

In a tweet on late 22 July, Trump warned his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani that if Tehran threatened the US again, it would suffer "consequences the likes of which few have ever suffered before".

The tweet in all-caps followed an apparent warning by Rouhani, in which he asked the US President to "not play with the lion's tail, because you will regret it eternally".

The kind of threat that Trump made on Twitter on 22 July could have attracted penalty from the social network for any regular person as Twitter's policy bars users from making threats of violence on its platform.

To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018

In December last year, Twitter began enforcing new rules on violent and hateful content posted on its platform to reduce the amount of online abuse, hate speech, violent threats and harassment associated with its service.

"You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people," as per Twitter's rule about violent threats.

But for world leaders, Twitter has a different standard as it believes that removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate.

In a blog post in January, the company acknowledged that there has been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on the platform.

Blocking world leaders on Twitter won't silence them, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions, the company said.tech2 News Staff

Uber has announced that on 10 June, 173 trips and deliveries started simultaneously at 10:12 pm GMT, putting us over 10 billion completed trips. These trips happened in over 21 countries across five continents.

Around this time last year, Uber had announced completing five billion trips. A year later, that number has been doubled.

Uber shares that among the final milestone rides, the shortest trip was an Uber Eats delivery, clocking in at just over 800m, while the longest trip was a traveler taking a 66-kilometer ride to the airport in Denver. Also, of these, five riders were on their first Uber trips ever!

via GIPHY

This news from Uber comes amid the ongoing struggles of the company when it was sued and investigated for gender and race discrimination, it revealed a massive data breach which it at one point tried to conceal. The company was also sued over the data breach, issued layoffs and replaced its CEO.

In addition to that, Uber is also under continuous scrutiny into how it treats and pays its drivers, a fatal crash involving one of its self-driving cars, many sexual assault and harassment accusations against its driver partners.Global engineering contractor 2H Offshore said it has completed the installation of a retrofit conductor supported platform (CSP) offshore Bahrain for oil giants Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) and Schlumberger.



This enabled a successful appraisal well to be transitioned to production in 26-m water depth, offshore Bahrain, within six months of project award, said the statement from the company.



A unit of UK-based specialist subsea services company Acteon Group, 2H Offshore specialises in the design, structural analysis and integrity management of riser and conductor systems used in the drilling and production of offshore oil and gas reserves.



On behalf of Bapco and Schlumberger, 2H Offshore designed a tripod CSP with boat landing that can support three surface trees with a total work area of just 90 sq m, it stated.



According to 2H Offshore, the platform was a particular challenge as it was clamped retrospectively onto the drilled conductor under an already installed surface tree.



Additional conductors were driven to provide support for the CSP and enabling two potential future wells. The CSP consisted of a subsea template, a top platform, top brace structure, single deck and boat landing, it stated.



Hassan Saleh, the principal engineer at 2H Offshore, said: "Completing this project within the tight timeframe despite the challenge of retrofitting it under an installed tree, shows that with the right design and excellent network, a fast-track, light-weight, retrofit structure is an excellent choice for many shallow water fields."



The structure was installed entirely by Shelf Drillings Key Hawaii drilling rig, aided only by an observation ROV. In addition to the design and engineering, 2H Offshore managed fabrication and supervised offshore installation on-site in Bahrain.



2H subcontracted Arab Shipbuilding & Repair Yard (Asry), Bureau Veritas, as well as sister companies Claxton Engineering and Seatronics who all contributed to the successful completion of the project, said Saleh.



"Seamless collaboration with our clients, and the professionalism from Asry, the local fabrication yard, ensured this project ran efficiently, to specification and on schedule," he added.-TradeArabia News Servicetech2 News Staff

Recently Xiaomi unveiled its two phones the Mi A2 and the Mi A2 Lite in Madrid, Spain on 24 July starting at  249 and  179 respectively. Also, it has been confirmed through a tweet that the Xiaomi Mi A2 will arrive in India on 8 August.

Along with these smartphones, the Chinese manufacturer also unveiled two other products: Mi Electric Toothbrush and the Mi Robot Builder for the global markets.

The company has also introduced a new smartwatch for children called the Mi Rabbit Watch 3.

Mi Robot Builder

The Xiaomi Mi Robot Builder is a modular coding toy that can be assembled into different structures using 978 toy blocks. The company says that these parts are said to be made out of eco-friendly materials.

The main engine of the Robot Builder is powered by 32-bit ARM Cortex Mx processor. It also comes with four USB type-C ports. It has a self-balancing mechanism as it uses an inverted pendulum algorithm. The completed structure is said to keep itself upright and even move forward while supporting up to 3 kg in weight.

The Robot Builder uses brushless motors with a rotating speed up to 170rpm and rotating torque capacity up to 25N.cm. The device also is said to come with a built-in photoelectric encoder that is supposed to accurately determine the speed and direction and also puts the motor into idle mode. The battery life is claimed to be up to 12 hours.

The Robot Builder can be connected to the app via Bluetooth. The app is available on both iOS and Android. It also has three modes to choose from: Rocker mode, Gyroscope mode and Path mode.

The Robot Builder is available at $135.64 (Rs 9,300) on Amazon.

Xiaomi Electric Toothbrush

Giving competition to the traditional style of brushing, Xiaomi has also introduced the Xiaomi Mijia Sonic Electric Toothbrush. The report in Gearbest says that it has a, "high-efficiency magnetic levitation sonic motor". There are six built-in high-precision sensors which detect your brushing gesture.

It is said to be made of high-density, anti-corrosion, metal-free brush head. The electric toothbrush is also said to vibrate over 31,000 times per minute with a torque of over 230gf.cm and comes with an IPX7 water resistance rating.

The user can switch between the Standard mode, Gentle mode and Customised through the On and Off button. It also has a dedicated app which the users can operate.

It is powered by 700 mAh Li-ion battery and the base colour is said to be replaceable.

Mi Rabbit Watch 3

Finally, the Mi Rabbit Watch 3 which is a 4G version. It comes with a built-in voice assistant, Xiao Ai, and is priced at CNY 599 (Rs 6,100). The company says that the new Mi Rabbit watch 3 inherits the previous generation product design.

It is equipped with a front camera and also can identify plants. It comes with an AMOLED display with 2.5D curved glass, supports IPX7 making it waterproof. It's available in the colour Pink and Blue.(Reuters) - A Michigan man seized overseas by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces has been charged with providing material support to Islamic State militants, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday

(Reuters) - A Michigan man seized overseas by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces has been charged with providing material support to Islamic State militants, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, provided support to the group from 2015 until last month, the department said in a statement. Musaibli, a natural-born U.S. citizen, will be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday, it said.

The New York Times said last week that Musaibli was captured by the Syrian Democratic forces in northern Syria earlier in July as he tried to escape the Middle Euphrates River Valley, where the group has been working to drive Islamic State militants from one of the last areas they control.

The man's younger brother said he believed Musaibli is innocent, the Detroit News reported on Tuesday.

"I dont just believe hes innocent. I KNOW hes innocent, Abdullah Musaibli said via Facebook Messenger, according to the Detroit News. Musaibli will have a court-appointed lawyer, the brother said.

Abdullah Musaibli said last week that his brother was not a terrorist and that he had been lured by fellow Muslims into going to Syria to study religion and work, the Detroit News said.

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham in Washington; editing by Eric Beech and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The Brazil government urged Nicaragua to punish those responsible for the killing and also 'to guarantee the free exercise of individual rights and public liberties.

Managua: A Brazilian medical student and three other people have been killed amid unrest that has rocked this Central American nation for over three months, her university and a human rights group reported.

Rayneia Lima, whose age varied between 29 and 31 in different reports, was riding in a vehicle in the capital Monday night when it was riddled by bullets that struck several vital organs, said Ernesto Medina, rector of the American University of Managua. Medina said the shots came from armed pro-government civilians who have taken over the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua since July 13, as Lima was traveling near that campus.

He added that Lima was a sixth-year student and practicing resident at the police-run Carlos Roberto Huembes Hospital in Managua. In a statement, Nicaragua's National Police attributed her death to a "private security guard," saying he opened fire "under circumstances that have not yet been determined." Brazil's Foreign Ministry expressed its "profound indignation" over the killing and said it was seeking clarification from Nicaragua's government.

"The Brazilian government again condemns the deepening repression, the disproportionate and lethal use of force and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security forces," the ministry said in a statement. It urged Nicaragua to punish those responsible for the killing and also "to guarantee the free exercise of individual rights and public liberties." In an interview broadcast Tuesday night, President Daniel Ortega blamed the start of the violence in April on "interventionism" by the United States and Nicaragua's private sector, which broke off its support for his government.

Dialogue with president Donald Trump to alter US policies toward Nicaragua would be "ideal," Ortega said on Telesur, a news outlet in Venezuela, whose socialist government is a close ally of his administration. According to the non-governmental Nicaraguan Pro-Human Rights Association, at least 351 people have been killed in political unrest that erupted in April. What began as protests against proposed social security cuts later broadened into calls for president Daniel Ortega to leave office after security forces and pro-government civilian militias began a deadly crackdown.

Alvaro Leiva, the association's director, said Monday that three people were killed, 25 wounded and 15 detained Monday in the city of Jinotega when police and paramilitaries attacked protest barricades. The violence came hours after Ortega said in an interview with Fox News that the country was returning to normal.

"The disturbances have ceased over the last week in the country and things are on course for normalization," the president said in his first interview with an independent news outlet in nine years.

He also rejected calls for early elections and denied having any responsibility for attacks on Roman Catholic clergy or killings of civilians, blaming the violence on his political opponents and foreign interests. That is counter to what international organizations and Nicaraguan rights groups have documented. Last week the Organization of American States adopted a resolution condemning human rights abuses committed by Nicaraguan security forces and their armed civilian backers.

In a critical tweet on Monday, US vice president Mike Pence said: "State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing. 350+ dead at the hands of the regime. The US calls on the Ortega government to end the violence NOW and hold early elections  the world is watching!" Ortega has also accused those demanding he leave office of being coup plotters.

Leiva denounced what he called a "fierce persecution" against protesters, saying that during a 24-hour period from Sunday to Monday more than 750 people had been abducted "by paramilitaries in a clear violation of human rights."Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is neither in Chicago nor in hospital, his lawyer said on Tuesday, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

Washington: Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is neither in Chicago nor in hospital, his lawyer said on Tuesday, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in Chicago nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer, told PTI.

Media reports had said that Headley was attacked by two inmates at a Chicago prison on 8 July and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

"I am in regular communication with Mr. Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.

Headley  who recced various Indian cities including Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks  was arrested in 2009.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the reports.

"We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Chicago said in a brief email response to PTI when asked about the reported prison incident.By Amy Sawitta Lefevre BANGKOK (Reuters) - Hundreds of people in southern Laos are missing and many are feared dead a day after a hydropower dam under construction broke, killing several as it swept away homes in flash flooding, state media reported on Tuesday.

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Hundreds of people in southern Laos are missing and many are feared dead a day after a hydropower dam under construction broke, killing several as it swept away homes in flash flooding, state media reported on Tuesday.

More than 6,600 people are homeless, the Lao News Agency reported. It showed pictures of villagers wading through muddy floodwater carrying belongings. Others boarded rickety wooden boats or stood on the roofs of partially submerged houses.

Officials have brought boats to evacuate people in San Sai district of Attapeu province, where the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam is located, as water levels rise after the collapse, ABC Laos news reported.

"The disaster has claimed several lives, left hundreds of people missing and more than 1,300 families (6,600 people) homeless," it reported.

The South Korean company that has a stake in the project said part of a small supply dam was washed away and the company was cooperating with the Laos government to help rescue villagers near the site.

"We are running an emergency team and planning to help evacuate and rescue residents in villages near the dam," a SK Engineering & Construction spokesman told Reuters by telephone.

The $1 billion project was to build two dams with five auxiliary dams used to hold water beyond what is held by the main dams.

Another official of SK Engineering & Construction said the company ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as it became clear that the dam could collapse.

Later, the company said in a statement the upper part of the supply dam was lost by torrential rains on July 22 but its repair work did not go smoothly due to the rains and more portions of the dam were fractured and overflowed in the following day.

The South Korean foreign ministry said in a text message to reporters that 50 workers of the company and three from Korea Western Power Co. who were stationed at the construction site had been evacuated.

The dam collapsed at 8:00 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) on Monday, releasing 5 billion cubic metres of water and several hundred people are missing after homes were swept away, the Lao News Agency said. It said several people had died.

A video posted by the ABC Laos news on its Facebook page showed villagers stopping to watch fast-flowing water from the side of a riverbank.

Another showed a distraught women getting into a wooden boat with her baby, saying that she had to wait to be rescued after the floodwater came and her mother was still trapped in a tree.

The prime minister of the Communist-run Southeast Asian nation, Thongloun Sisoulith, has suspended government meetings and led Cabinet members to monitor rescue and relief efforts in one of the affected areas, the state agency reported.

"BATTERY OF ASIA"

One of Asia's poorest and most secretive countries, Laos is landlocked, but aims to become the "battery of Asia" by selling power to neighbours through a series of hydropower dams.

Lao experienced one of its worst natural disasters in 2013 when five major monsoon storms hit in a period of three months, according to the ReliefWeb humanitarian information portal. It said that approximately 347,000 people were affected by severe flooding in that disaster.

Environmental rights groups have for years raised concerns about Laos' hydropower ambitions, including worries over the impact of dams on the Mekong River, its flora and fauna and the rural communities and local economies that depend on it.

The collapsed dam was expected to start commercial operations by 2019 and export 90 percent of its power to Thailand under a Power Purchase Agreement between the Xe-Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company (PNPC) and the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT).

The remaining 10 percent of power would be sold to the local grid under an agreement between the PNPC and the Electricite du Laos.

PNPC was established in 2012 by SK Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd. (SK E&C), Korea Western Power Co. Ltd. (KOWEPO), Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl, Thailand's largest private power producer, and Lao Holding State Enterprise (LHSE).

Ratchburi Electricity Generating Holding Company said in a statement the dam, which it referred to as 'Saddle Dam D', was eight metres (26 feet) wide, 770 metres (2,526 feet) long and 16 metres (52 feet) high.

The dam "was fractured and the water had leaked to the downstream area and down to the Xe-Pian River which is about five kilometres from the dam," said Kijja Sripatthangkura, chief executive officer of Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company.

International Rivers, a U.S.-based group that works to protect rivers and the rights of communities dependent on them, said the accident exposed "major risks" associated with some dam designs that cannot cope with extreme weather conditions.

"Unpredictable and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Laos and the region due to climate change," the group told Reuters in an e-mail.

"This also shows the inadequacy of warning systems for the dam construction and operations. The warning appeared to come very late and was ineffective in ensuring people had advance notice to ensure their safety and that of their families."

(Reporting by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Ju-min Park; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.A young Indian-origin senior economist working with the World Bank drowned after strong currents pulled her away while she was swimming in a restricted area at a beach in Bali, the Indonesian media reported.

Jakarta: A young Indian-origin senior economist working with the World Bank drowned after strong currents pulled her away while she was swimming at a beach in Bali, the Indonesian media reported. Aakansha Pande, 37, who resided in Singapore, was taken to Siloam Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Pande, a US citizen, was Senior Health Economist at the World Bank where she focused on countries in the West Asia and North Africa (MENA). She died after being swept away by strong waves while swimming in the evening at the beach in front of Double Six Hotel in Seminyak, Bali, on Saturday, the report said.

Certain portions of this article have been amended after The Jakarta Post retracted its report on the incident from its website.James Mattis' warning came after Donald Trump threatened Iran of risking consequences 'the likes of which few throughout history have suffered before.'

Washington: Accusing Iran of constantly demonstrating a destabilising influence, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said on Wednesday it was time Tehran shaped up and behaved responsibly, as tensions between the nations remained high after an all-caps Twitter warning from Donald Trump.

"On Iran, I think that what we have to look at is the destabilising influence that Iran has consistently portrayed and demonstrated throughout the region," Mattis told reporters during a US-Australia ministerial.

He alleged that the "only reason" Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime was in power was because Iran has "stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him." "We see the same kind of malfeasance down in Yemen, where they're fomenting more violence down there. We've seen their disruptive capabilities demonstrated from Bahrain to the kingdom," he said. "It is time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation. It cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organisation that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the (Middle East) region," Mattis said in response to a question.

Mattis's warning came two days after US president Donald Trump threatened Iran of risking consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have suffered before."

Trump's Twitter warning had come in all caps, "To Iranian President Rouhani: "Never, ever threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before, Trump tweeted, adding that "We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!"

Reacting to Trump's tweets, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards had suggested that it was part of US's broader strategy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani too had cautioned that America's hostile threats against his country may trigger "the mother of all wars."

The exchange of rhetoric came weeks after the US exited a landmark deal signed in 2015 which curbed Iran's nuclear activities in return for lifting of international sanctions. White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley on Wednesday reiterated that Iran has to stop its "destabilising behaviour." "It has to stop its sponsor of terrorism. It threatens consistently this country, not to mention our only ally in the region, in Israel. And it's one of the reasons the president got out of the Iran deal, because we now know that the Iran deal did not prevent the pathway to a nuclear weapon, but in fact paved it," he said in response to a question.

Gidley said Trump was working with America's partners and allies across the world. ''Iran will be a topic tomorrow (Thursday) for the discussions with the European Union and get Iran to stop this kind of behaviour, he said. The president was serious in what he tweeted and said multiple times about holding Iran accountable and demeaning it stop this kind of behaviour, Gidley said.

The US is in talks with countries around the world to re-impose sanctions and hold the Iranian government responsible for the acts its government has been involved in many parts of the world, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her news conference.More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Beirut: A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group killed more than 150 people in southern Syria on Wednesday, in one of the jihadists' deadliest ever assaults in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region. They came almost a week into a deadly Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the country's south.

IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying "soldiers of the caliphate" attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated their explosive belts.

The Britain-based observatory said three suicide attackers set off booby-trapped belts in Sweida city, as other blasts hit villages to the north and east. A fourth suicide explosion hit the city later. "IS fighters then stormed villages in the province's northeast and killed residents in their homes," observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that the

The suicide blasts and raids killed 156 people, including 62 civilians, the observatory said. The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, most of whom where residents who had picked up weapons to defend their villages, it said.

Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, have been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011. "It's the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war" in 2011 and one of the deadliest ever in Syria, Rahman said.

The violence also left 30 IS fighters dead, including the suicide attackers.The jihadists captured at least three of the seven villages it targeted but clashes were ongoing on Wednesday, the observatory said.

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll. SANA published images of the attack's aftermath in Sweida city, showing the remains of a victim sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall. Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilled out of cartons.

The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari condemned the "terrorist bombing in Sweida city today," saying all civilians should be protected. The Russian foreign ministry said the IS attacks "confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory".

State television said the army was targeting IS in the province's east.

Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The jihadists still hold some territory in Syria's south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighbouring Daraa province, to the west. That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to IS.

After ousting non-jihadist rebels from most of the country's south, President Bashar al-Assad's troops and his Russian allies are now closing in on the IS pocket in Daraa province.

SANA said the IS attacks on neighbouring Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside".

On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces pressed their heavy bombardment of the IS-held pocket in Daraa. At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since 19 July, the monitor says. Fierce clashes between the two sides have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists.

Syria's south is ostensibly protected from fighting by an internationally brokered ceasefire since last year, but violence has dramatically risen in recent weeks.

Last month, Assad launched a lightning assault that battered rebel areas in the south and brought most of Daraa province under his control. He then moved onto Quneitra, the neighbouring province, which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

On Tuesday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in Quneitra. Israel's army earlier said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS and other anti-government factions. IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, but has since lost most of that territory.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syria's war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni unveiled a bust of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community event they addressed in Kampala.

Kampala: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni unveiled a bust of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community event they addressed in Kampala.

Uganda: Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveils bust of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in Kampala. pic.twitter.com/ccKHgShykZ  ANI (@ANI) July 24, 2018

"Saluting the 'Loh Purush' (iron man)! PM Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Museveni unveil the bust of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community reception," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet, which accompanied two photographs of the two leaders.

In one of the photographs, Modi was seen bowing before Patel's bust and folding his hands as Museveni looked on.

In another tweet, Kumar said members of the Indian community turned out in large numbers to listen to Modi's address.

"The Indian community represents strongest & most durable economic and cultural link between India and Uganda," he said.

The Ugandan president remained present throughout the nearly 30-minute address of Modi and also spoke at the event.

"Ugandan President Museveni was effusive in his praise for the Indian community in Uganda. In his address at the community reception, he praised them for their hard work and contribution in the economic development of Uganda," the MEA spokesperson said.

In his address, Modi lauded the contribution of the Indian community in the growth of Uganda. He thanked Museveni for re-embracing the Indian community.

Modi arrived in Ugandan capital Kampala on Tuesday evening on a two-day visit to the country  the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

With inputs from agencies.While the need for keeping up the pretense of a constitutional democracy has deepened, the fledgling political process, weak institutions and fragile civil administrations are nowhere close to challenge the hegemony of the military. For the foreseeable future, democracy in Pakistan will remain a virtual reality.

The immediacy of present can sometimes blind us to its significance. It is a historic day in Pakistan. Only for the second time in its 70-year existence that a country of 200 million people and 105 million eligible voters exercised their franchise to transfer power from one civilian government to another. As outside observers (especially in India where we take the democratic process for granted), we must not be condescending or fail to grasp the magnitude of the occasion.

However, no matter in whose favour the most number of votes were cast on Wednesday, or who will be eventually declared victorious, the party that will win is not even contesting the elections. It doesnt need to.

Regardless of whether it is Im the Dim Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the beleaguered Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz led by Shehbaz Sharif (with brother Nawaz and his daughter Maryam acting as force multipliers from prison) or dynast Bilawal Bhutto Zardaris Pakistan Peoples Party, the Rawalpindi generals will control all avenues of power and continue to pull the strings of the puppet installed in Islamabad.

The candidates know it. If they were ever in doubt or allowed themselves to be swayed by even momentary flashes of delusion, the fate of Nawaz stands as an immutable, dark example. For daring to challenge the armys authority in altering the trajectory of Pakistan, the three-time prime minister now languishes in jail with a failing kidney, damaged heart and little recourse to appropriate medication. His political career is over. His life hangs not by much of a thread. The price of insubordination is high.

Even as hopeful citizens braved the elements (in Pakistan it means terrorist attacks, not the weather) to cast their ballots, there was another blast on Wednesday in the land of endless blasts. This time at a polling station in Quetta where 31 people who came to vote were killed in a suicide attack (the death toll may rise). The Islamic State has reportedly assumed responsibility for the attack.

Despite the tragedy, voters in Pakistan flocked to the polling stations in large numbers. The Election Commission of Pakistan is optimistic that the record turnout of 55 percent in 2013 will be breached. Whats even more encouraging is that a large number of women came out to vote.

It is a little heartbreaking to see the optimism and faith shown by Pakistani citizens in a moth-eaten democratic process that remains perennially subverted by the machinations of an unelected military. The moot question is, when the Pindi khakis have no wish to cede control over the power structure, why go through the rigmarole of a democratic process, conduct polls at a huge cost to the struggling economy and mount a dummy as the prime minister?

The answer is simple: The need for assuming power without responsibility. A glorified mayor in Islamabad could take all the blame for Pakistan States structural, endemic, enduring failings while the generals can go about enjoying the trappings of power. The need for a civilian facade therefore, is paramount. As Hudson Institute director and former Pakistan ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani writes in Foreign Policy, the militarys goal is to keep up the pretence that Pakistan is a constitutional democracy, not a dictatorship. If the puppet strings are too visible, then the puppeteer holds all responsibility for all outcomes. The establishment wants it both ways: Power but no responsibility.

This argument can be challenged with a factoid: If the Pakistan Army wants power without responsibility, why did it engineer four coups detat to rule the country for 30 years through direct dictatorships? Why did, for instance, General Pervez Musharraf feel the need to oust then prime minister Nawaz Sharif via a bloodless coup in 1999? The answer takes us to another changing reality in Pakistan, one that is associated with the rise of technology.

Musharraf engineered (till now) the final coup in Pakistan. His fate taught the military establishment an important lesson. With the advances in mobile phone technology and advent of social media, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the army to control the narrative.

To understand this phenomenon better, we need to first keep in mind that the Pakistan Army, unlike its counterparts in other countries, draws its legitimacy and authority from the people. The armys pivotal role in every area of Pakistans polity is the result of two ideological positions that define the countrys existence.

One, Hindustan (not India) is an existential threat to Pakistan and two, the army is the only institution that can save Pakistan from that threat. As Faisel Pervaiz writes in his analysis on Pakistans Military-Democracy Complex in Stratfor, these two beliefs compelled Pakistan to become a national security State during its early years, subordinating economic and democratic development to military improvement and tilting the balance of power away from civilian rule.

It follows, then, that the armys supremacy over every other institution in Pakistan is incumbent on its perception before the people. If the awaam becomes disillusioned with the Rawalpindi generals, then there will be a pushback and in the age of social media and smartphones, the army will have to strain to exert its control over the narrative. It may be compelled to use more force and covert methods to achieve its outcomes. This is precisely what is happening in Pakistan.

The Pakistan Armys desperate measures to control the media by intimidating, threatening, bullying and abducting journalists is a tacit acceptance of a changed reality that it can no longer march into a prime ministers house and take control of State television premises. If it does so, there is a very high chance that the army might face a popular backlash.

The military is trying to control the narrative, Pakistani journalist Gul Bukhari was quoted as saying by The Times. Bukhari, a vehement critic of Pakistan military, was abducted last month in Lahore while she was on her way to a TV studio. She was later released following outrage on social media. While media houses have surrendered, many journalists have not and are using social media to say what is really happening, Bukhari told the British newspaper.

While the need for keeping up the pretence of a constitutional democracy has deepened, the fledgling political process, weak institutions and fragile civil administrations are nowhere close to challenging the hegemony of the military. For the foreseeable future, democracy in Pakistan will remain a virtual reality.

Follow all the live updates to the Pakistan general elections hereThe Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) has announced that a new hospitality management college is set to open in October.



"Vatel aims to train the national workforce in the hospitality sector as well as provide them with a wide array of exciting career opportunities.



The announcement was made during a meeting held yesterday which discusses key achievements of its representative offices launched back in 2017.



The meeting, headed by the chief executive officer of BTEA, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, was held in the presence of the director of marketing and tourism promotion at BTEA, Yousef Al Khan and advisor at the BTEA, Jesus Florido-Banqueri, at Wyndham Grand Manama Hotel in Bahrain Bay.



During the session, the BTEA also revealed that the Saudi office witnessed a significant increase in the number of tour operators that promote Bahrain as a destination, which went up from 48 to 150 agencies. The office has also doubled the number of travel packages promoting the kingdom, from 200 to 400. Similarly, the Russian office also witnessed an increase in the number of tour operators that promote Bahrain, from 20 to 50 agencies, and the number of tourist packages increased significantly from 45 to 1,400 packages.



The representative office located in the UK witnessed an increase in the number of travel agencies promoting Bahrain, from 7 to 49 agencies while the number of tourist packages significantly increased from 13 to 568 packages in one year.

Additionally, the office in the UK has partnered with Levison Wood, who will be featuring Bahrain as part of his documentary series "Arabian Journey", which has received more than 2.6 million views. This is in addition to the John Torode's Middle East show, hosted by the Australian celebrity chef John Torode, which will highlight Bahrain's culture and history and is expected to attract 4.9 million viewers in the UK.



The tourism sector in the kingdom continues to witness a remarkable progress and growth following BTEAs inauguration of seven representative offices around the world. These offices work to promote the kingdoms tourism sector by coordinating with several tour operators to increase inbound tourism, further positioning Bahrain as an ideal tourist destination. BTEAs strategy focuses on developing the Kingdoms tourism sector and shifting this vibrant sector to be one of the main contributors to the national economy and the kingdoms 2030 Economic Vision, said Shaikh Khaled.



The meeting was attended by a number of dignitaries including representatives of the embassies of Germany, UK, France, India, Saudi Arabia and Russia, in addition to hotel managers and representatives from destination management companies and travel agencies. - TradeArabia News ServicePolling is finally over, and counting of votes has begun in what is likely to be one of the most controversial general elections in Pakistan. What remains to be seen is wholl have the last laugh  the voter or the 'agriculture department'

Polling is finally over, and counting of votes has begun in what is likely to be one of the most controversial general elections in Pakistan. Controversial, because the establishments year long war against Nawaz Sharif and his family has been waged in full public view. It didnt really need the statements of Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Siddiqui to underline the obvious, but his assertion that the Inter-Services Intelligence had intervened to make sure that Sharif stayed behind bars till after elections was still a shocker.

Anti-military protests were reported outside Pakistan Army headquarters in Rawalpindi, with crowds throwing stones at trucks carrying soldiers with the slogan of Death to Khalai Mahklooq (which to the uninitiated translates as the ISI and its military controllers). The fact that this was only reported by The Guardian (UK) and not by national news indicates the level of hobbling of the media in the recent times. Protests against the all-powerful Pakistan Army is unusual for Pakistanis, since unlike India, the army tends to react violently when annoyed. Clearly, frustration against its tactics is high enough to risk throwing caution to the winds.

As predicted by Gallup polls, the turn out at most polling centres appears to have been low, including in Islamabad, while polling was delayed to just before closing time in places like Sialkot, a key battleground between the PTI and the PML(N). In Makeen, South Waziristan, people boycotted the vote due to the killing of a 16-year-old at the hands of surrendered Taliban  a euphemism for the Pakistani Taliban who are working on the side of the security forces. Such killings are what provided huge popular support for the Pashtun Tahffuz Movement (PTM) who plan to protest the killing. More trouble can be expected in South Waziristan, already torn apart by a decade of violence.

Voting was also inevitably affected by violence. The total casualties of a suicide attack at Quetta, which was meant to hit the Security Forces has reached 31, and the imagery of the area shows the extent of the carnage. Another three soldiers were killed in Balochistan, while escorting a polling party. Clashes have been reported when cadres of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik  an extremist Barelvi group  tried to prevent an independent candidate Jibran Nasir from setting up his camp. Nasir is that rarity in Pakistani politics  a secular lawyer who has fought for human rights causes. And yes, the head of one of the worst terrorist groups in the world cast his vote. Hafeez Saeed seems to have been given the same VIP treatment meted out to former ministers and party heads.

So, is it business as usual in Pakistan, at a time of elections? Not really. For the first time, some seriously extremist groups are maneuvering for political entry. The last such experiment in 2002, when the likes of the Jamaat-e-Islami and its cohorts were grouped together under the MMA, pales by comparison. In fact, these (relatively) milder religious groupings are running scared.

The level of media control is also at a level that was not even attempted by the last military government under now-in-exile Parvez Musharraf. This indicates a high level of insecurity within the milt-establishment, and will probably be self defeating. What doesnt make it to the print media or TV is being shared on WhatsApp anyway.

And lastly, in many respects the extreme manipulation of elections is reminiscent of the 2002 elections held under tight military control. Then too, voter enthusiasm was low, and maneuvering to get the "emperors party" the PML (Qaid) was more than obvious to everyone. Despite the efforts of the establishment, the chosen party wound up with the slimmest of margins, requiring the then-president Musharraf to throw anti-defection laws to the wind, and bone up his group with a clutch of Independents.

The result was a mockery, held up for all the world to see. The military has learnt a lot since then, keeping to the barracks and pulling the strings from there. It remains to be seen wholl have the last laugh  the voter or the "agriculture department".Imran Khan shows himself to be emblematic of Pakistans paradoxes; in promising to usher Pakistan into a democracy of fresh incarnation, he is delivering it into devastating continuity.

Even at the chronological threshold of its birth, let alone at its present precarity as a nuclear State with vacillating democracy, Pakistan was a curious, if not paradoxical, idea. It was a nation imagined, by and large, by the upper-caste ashraf gentry of northern India, but it was imagined for all Muslims and given the multiplicity of religious expressions, for all Islams.

The privileging of Islam, however, did not settle matters of faith, and in the Islamist challenge of Pakistan, it is a matter sparsely settled to date. As a political idea, it articulated a sovereign self for the Muslim in India and not, at least until the late 1940s, sovereignty for the Muslim beyond India: But that is exactly what it attained.

When the imagination did fructify, the nation was to be made in Punjab and Bengal, regions where it had not been imagined despite majoritarian Muslim presence, much of it untethered to Muhammad Ali Jinnahs Muslim League and his hegemonic conceptions of Muslim self-rule. Due to its social basis and its eager will to develop a national identity separate from and antagonistic to India, Pakistan privileged Islam and Urdu, but found in unitary nationhood the paradoxical challenge of ethnic sub-nationalisms: A problem that tore eastern Pakistan asunder in 1971 and which plagues Pakistan to the present day.

It was a nation made by decisive borders whose way traversed through valleys of violence, but its borders have since been fuzzy (and amenable to alterations) to the western front by Kashmir and to the eastern front by Pashtun political assertion. Despite its intimate, inward-looking vision of itself and the world, Pakistan has been configured and reconfigured in its engagement with the Western world, particularly the United States of America.

It was birthed by Jinnahs conceptions of Muslimhood and liberal democracy but has since flirted with different political systems and modes of religious being. In Christophe Jaffrelots words, Pakistan remains the paradox it was created to be, yet, in its resilience despite almost seven decades of political instability, it has become a nation that revels in being paradoxical.

The general elections of 2018, concluded today, have been touted to be a defining moment for Pakistan. Executed as a contest between Nawaz Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Imran Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the elections, it has been argued in certain quarters, evidence the triumph of civil politics over military totalitarianism in Pakistan.

The operation of a free and fair election despite the falling of Sharifs government and without a violent interlude is said to attest to the resilience of Pakistani democracy, and in the presence of electoral alternatives, its qualitative character. In this theatre, Imran Khan has captured Pakistani imagination: In his multitude of references to the moral degeneration of Pakistans political class and bureaucratic order, he has delivered to his electorate uncertain, but determined, faith in the flowering of domestic politics in a country marred by the depredations of a tiny civil-military elite.

Such a view casts Imran Khan, then, as an impasse in Pakistans undemocratic history of democracy who will undo the paradox which is both Pakistans resilience and undoing. Yet, Khan is not the panacea but a figure rooted in the same paradoxes of power and politics that produced and sustain Pakistan. Although Khans abiding depiction of himself as an outsider who is one with the Pakistani masses is forbearing, he remains one with the civil-military elite whose machinations in the name of power he claims to be opposing. His intimacy with the military is well-documented, but only vaguely linked to his political position and rhetoric.

On a superficial level, there is an insidiousness assigned to his implicit and explicit support for laws on blasphemy and his opposition to the womens protection bill, but far more worrying is his view of politics and the political. Khans hard-hitting criticism of the corruption of the Pakistani elite, regardless of its dramatic delivery, is not a political critique but a moral one.

This is a point alluded to in this seminal piece, and it needs further rumination: In portraying the corruption of Pakistans political class as a moral failing, Khan both misses the social and economic structure that produces the corruption of this class and leaves political and electoral space for someone of moral rectitude from this very class to rule, should the opportunity present itself.

He is, of course, referring to himself, and the erasure of how unworkable Pakistans political economy has become is attuned to this objective. In seeking to reform civil politics by mitigating corrupt practices while developing connections with a despotic military establishment, Khan shows himself to be emblematic of Pakistans paradoxes; in promising to usher Pakistan into a democracy of fresh incarnation, he is delivering it into devastating continuity.

Follow all the live updates to the Pakistan general elections hereEarly results have put Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in lead with the party leading in 82 seats as against Pakistan Muslim League  Nawaz (PML-N) who is ahead in 57 seats. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was ahead in 29 at the third position.

ISLAMABAD: After 10 hours of polling marred with incidents of deadly clashes and a suicide attack in the provincial capital of Balochistan, the biggest ever counting of votes in Pakistan's history began on Wednesday at 7 pm local time.

Early results have put Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in lead with the party leading in 82 seats as against Pakistan Muslim League  Nawaz (PML-N) who is ahead in 57 seats. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was ahead in 29 at the third position.

Polling had started early in the morning and had continued without any interruption, but several reports claimed it to be slow while it was delayed temporarily in a few booths due to electric shortages and the unavailability of ink.

The Pakistan Muslim League  Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to extend the voting time by an hour saying that many of the voters were standing in queues and would not be able to cast their votes.

However, the ECP in an instant decision rejected the request and announced that whosoever will be in the premises of the polling stations or in the queue till 6 pm would be allowed to cast the vote after the deadline. It said that it had already extended the deadline in polling timing from 5 pm to 6 pm.

Senior PPP leader and former senator Farhatullah Babar said that manipulation witnessed on polling day will prove disastrous for the country's future. Magisterial powers to security personnel, slowing down the voting process by allowing only 3-4 voters inside polling stations at a time, refusal to extend the polling time as voters kept waiting outside and free hand given to the proscribed militant organisations marked the polling day manipulation that will haunt the nation for a long time, he said in a statement after the ECP declined to extend the polling time by an hour.

In Balochistan, at least 31 people were killed and more than 40 injured in the Bhosa Mandi area of Quetta when a suicide bomber targeted a police envoy that also included the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Abdul Razzaq Cheema who escaped unhurt. Though polling booths remained open in the area, some reports claimed a slowdown in turnout.

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. After the attack, the Islamabad Police enhanced security at the palatial residence of PTI chief Imran Khan in the Bani Gala area of the capital.

Deadly clashes were also witnessed in many parts of the country including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swabi, Mardan and Kohistan districts; Punjab's Lahore, Rawalpindi, Rajanpur and Khanewal districts; Sindh's Sanghar and Badin districts and Balochistan's Quetta, Naseerabad and Jafarabad districts. Some clashes among political activists were also witnessed in the metropolitan city of Karachi.

Some violations of election code of conduct and few irregularities at some polling stations were also observed at various places in the country.

Counting results are expected to be known by around 1 am local time, however, many television channels, have already started announcing results of individual polling booths and polling stations only in a bid to confuse the citizens in what is a tight race between Imran Khan-led PTI and the ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N.

The PPP is being predicted as the third major political force in the race followed. The announcement of the result of single polling stations of any constituency makes no sense as anyone could hardly come to a conclusion about the winner with this. The ECP had barred the television channels from broadcasting any election result till 7 pm in an effort to discourage the practice of previous polls.

More than 105 million registered voters had to cast their votes for directly 270 directly elected constituencies of the National Assembly and 570 directly elected constituencies of the provincial assembly.

The Election Commission of Pakistan also sent PTI chairman Imran Khan a notice and called him for a hearing when he openly stamped his ballot paper at a polling station of Islamabad.

Though the recently held opinion polls showed PTI an inch ahead in the National Assembly contest from the PML-N, both the parties are pinning hopes to get maximum number of seats from Punjab, who has the highest number of 141 National Assembly seats. These opinion polls have also shown that PML-N is ahead of the PTI in the Punjab Assembly contest.

A party needs the simple majority 137 out of 272 National Assembly seats to make a strong federal government at the centre. Chairman PTI Imran Khan has already requested his voters to vote for him in maximum as a hung parliament would not be beneficial for the greater interest of the country.

Any winning party will have to face a number of challenges the country is facing and the first challenge is the countrys sluggish economy, the decreasing value of rupee, bad law and order situation, followed by the souring relations with the US, the possible threat of the countrys placement in the black list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)  a global anti-money laundering watch list. The issues of water scarcity and many challenges in education and health, education of the country are in addition to that.Around 25 people have been killed and 40 injured in a blast in Quetta in Balochistan on the day of the voting for the Pakistan general elections.

Around 31 people have been killed and 40 others have been injured in a blast outside a crowded polling station in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, as voting for Pakistan general elections was underway.

The attack in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, also wounded 35 (40 according to some sources) people and several were reported to be in critical condition, raising concerns the death toll could rise further, according to hospital official Jaffar Kakar, a doctor.

#BREAKING -- Pakistan hospital official says 25 killed, 40 wounded in explosion outside crowded polling station in city of Quetta. #PakistanElections2018 #PakistanDecides | Info via Associated Press pic.twitter.com/2UxzloDWoP  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 25, 2018

The police confirmed it was a suicide blast and security forces established a cordon around the site of the attack. The attack was part of a larger pattern of attacks targeting security forces vehicles and not the electoral process.

The area was crowded as people were making their way to vote at Tameer-e-Nau Model School nearby, reported Dawn. Polling has come to a halt at the polling station after the blast.

A witness who was waiting to cast his ballot, Abdul Haleem, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters just seconds before the explosion. Haleem's uncle was killed in the blast.

"There was a deafening bang followed by a thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people," he told The Associated Press.

Baluchistan also saw the worst violence during election campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for that attack, though Baluchistan has seen relentless attacks, both by the province's secessionists and Sunni militants who have killed hundreds of Shiites living there. In recent years, the IS affiliate in the region has emerged as a major force behind violence, often using local Sunni radicals from the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi to carry out its attacks.

Citing security concerns, Pakistan's election commission announced that internet and cellphone services in several Baluchistan districts have been suspended. Election commission secretary Babar Yaqub told reporters that threats against polling stations, staff and even candidates have been received.

Militants on Tuesday lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staffers and voting material in Baluchistan's district of Turbat, killing four troops.

At the request of the election commission, Pakistan's military deployed 350,000 troops countrywide at polling stations.

Also on Wednesday, police said a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the northwestern city of Swabi. Later, more clashes between rival political parties killed another person and wounded 15 across the country.

Early voting was heavy at some polling stations in Islamabad, the capital, and also in the Punjab provincial capital, with several political party leaders standing in line to cast their ballots.

Local television reported scattered incidences of police arresting people with pre-marked ballots.

Rights groups have warned that a rancorous election campaign and widespread allegations of manipulation imperil the wobbly transition to democratic rule and raise the specter of bitter challenges of fraud after the elections.

The unprecedented participation in these elections of radical religious groups, including those banned for terror links but resurrected and renamed, has also raised concerns  especially for minorities and women  ahead of the voting.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) leader Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar condemned the incident on Twitter. "I strongly condemn the terrorist attack on 2018 election "voters" in Quetta today which has taken many precious lives & left numerous injured. Gift must check these continuous terrorist attacks in Balochistan. Terrorists will never succeed!" he tweeted soon after the attack.

Jibran Nasir, an independent candidate from Pakistan's financial hub of Karachi, said he received death threats and even had a fatwa, or religious edict, issued against him after he refused to condemn Ahmadis, reviled by mainstream Muslims as heretics because they believe the messiah promised in Islam arrived over a century ago. Pakistan in 1974 declared Ahmadis non-Muslims.

"I am speaking for the millions of Pakistanis who are too afraid to confront religious bigotry," Nasir said, adding that no arrests have been made of those who threatened him.

The leading contenders in Wednesday's polling are former cricket star Imran Khan and his right-of-center Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, and the right-of-center Pakistan Muslim League, the party of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in jail serving 10 years on corruption charges. His younger brother Shahbaz Sharif took control of the party.

Khan's supporters showered his vehicle with rose petals as he arrived to vote at a polling station near his home suburb in. Islamabad. After voting, he appealed on Pakistanis to come out and vote in huge numbers "to save future generations."

The third-largest party in the running is the left-leaning Pakistan People's Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto, the son of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban, whom she had vowed to eradicate.

Election officials say more than 11,000 candidates are vying for 270 seats in Pakistan's law-making Lower House of Parliament and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

The 85,307 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. and will continue for 10 hours, an hour longer than in the 2013 polls. Voting for two parliamentary seats and six seats in provincial assemblies has been postponed due to attacks on candidates or disqualifications. First results are expected early Thursday.

There are more than 105 million eligible voters in Pakistan, 59 million men and 46 million women.

Pakistan's election commission reminded candidates their elections will be nullified if the female voter turnout does not reach 10 percent. The requirement was imposed after the 2013 elections, when several areas banned voting by women, mostly in Pakistan's religiously conservative northwest. Some candidates were elected without a single woman marking a ballot.

The commission issued its reminder Tuesday after veteran rights activist Tahira Abdullah said local jirgas, or councils, of elders from 60 areas of the country, representing 16 different constituencies, had signed agreements banning women from voting despite the new ruling. While some areas have refused to relent, others were allowing women to cast ballots.

In Pakistan's deeply tribal and religiously conservative North Waziristan, where Taliban insurgents have found safe havens, women voted for the first time on Wednesday, said Mohamad Ayaz Khan, a government administrator.

"We made history today," said Khan. "It is the first time that women have come out of their homes to cast their vote."

Voting is segregated throughout Pakistan with even single polling stations divided between men and women, including separate election officials.

Results will trickle in after polling ends, with the outcome expected early Thursday, according to election officials.

International and domestic election observers will monitor the voting. The European Union Election Observation Mission has 120 monitors at polling stations in major centers across Pakistan, with the exception of Baluchistan.

Under Pakistani law, separate seats are reserved for women and for non-Muslim minorities, which comprise 4 percent of the population.

With inputs from agenciesMany prominent names of Pakistani media industry were unable to vote in the general elections as they have flown to Toronto for the rehearsals of Hum Awards that are planned to be held on the 28 July.

A petition on the boycott of Hum TV and other celebrities for not voting in the Pakistan elections and going for awards in Canada has been started on Change.org and it already has more than 3,000 signatures.

Many prominent names of Pakistani media industry were unable to vote in the general elections as they have flown to Toronto for the rehearsals of Hum Awards that are planned to be held on the 28 July.

Started by Kiran Malik, the petition states that they are extremely disappointed that Hum TV decided to have their awards on the same week as the Pakistan elections.

The petition writes about the 'hypocrisy' of the celebrities "who pretend to be patriotic, only for their ads, while selling coffee, tea or fizzy drinks".

"We are tired of the hypocrisy of these celebrities who can come in ads portraying patriotism to sell their brands and make money, but who do not even bother to vote when each vote counts the most," said the petition.

It also demands a public apology from the channel and celebrities and appeals to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to take notice of their "careless attitude". The comments on the petition share the sentiments and agree to boycott the channel and celebrities, with people calling not voting "a crime" and stating that as citizens it is their duty to vote.

Drawing major flak, fellow celebrities, Farhan Saeed and Imran Abbas also raised their voices on people going abroad skipping the biggest event in Pakistan. Yasir Hussain hit back at trolls by defending their decision to go to Canada. In a long Instagram post, the actor pointed out that he and his colleagues had already entered into a contract with Hum Awards before the date for the election was finalised.

Mahira Khan also took to Instagram for the same. As much as I want to be there tomorrow, it is unfortunate that I can not be. There was absolutely no way to delay my work commitment which was scheduled months in advance, I tried my best. And so with a heavy heart, I will not be voting this year. I urge all of you to get out and vote!! May this year bring the change we all have been waiting to see..., she shared alongside a picture of the Pakistani flag.Amid deadly violence and allegations of pre-poll rigging, Pakistan will go to polls on Wednesday, and the PML-N and Imran Khan-led PTI will both be keen on ensuring they come up triumphant

Islamabad: Amid deadly violence and allegations of pre-poll rigging, Pakistan will go to polls on Wednesday, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) will both be keen on ensuring they come up triumphant.

A tumultuous campaign cycle  that saw the conviction of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and a spate of suicide bombings on three election candidates from different parties  ended on Monday midnight.

In all, 105,955,409 voters will cast their votes in 840 constituencies of the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies of the country. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended polling in eight constituencies  two of the National Assembly and six of provincial assemblies  for various reasons, while a candidate has been declared winner from a provincial assembly seat unopposed.

There will be a total of 59,224,263 male voters and 46,731,146 woman voters, as per data released by the ECP. They will elect their representatives for 270 constituencies of the National Assembly and 570 constituencies of the four provincial assemblies. To this end, 85,058 polling stations and 244,687 polling booths have been established across the country, which will be manned by 819,119 polling staff, including presiding officers and assistant presiding officers. The ECP has declared 17,007 polling stations as "highly sensitive".

There are a total of 11,673 candidates in the fray, including 3,428 eyeing a National Assembly seat, while 8,245 are contesting provincial assembly seats. Of these, 1,623 candidates for the National Assembly and 4,389 candidates for provincial assemblies are contesting as Independents. Of the 120 political parties registered with the ECP, 95 are in the fray. Of them, 88 parties have fulfilled the ECP's prerequisite of fielding at least five percent of women candidates.

Security beefed up

As campaigning was gathering steam in the latter stages, a spate of suicide bombings targeted candidates of the major political parties. Siraj Raisani of the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Haroon Bilour of the Awami National Party (ANP) and Ikramullah Gandapur of the PTI were all targeted. In all, these bombings claimed over 200 lives, while hundreds more were left wounded. Ikram Khan Durrani, a former chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, survived two separate bombings.

Security has been beefed up for polling day, with around 371,000 army troops deployed throughout the country and over 800,000 security personal, including police and paramilitary forces, performing security duties. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has sought giving special magisterial powers to some designated army officers, while two army personnel have also been deployed inside and outside every polling station.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACT), during the campaigning state, said 65 politicians  including PTI chief Imran Khan, PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, ANP leader Asfandyar Wali and Qaumi Watan Party chief Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao  were all likely to be targeted.

Parties in the fray

Parties also utilised internet and social media more effectively this time as compared to previous elections, although there were also several false and fabricated allegations being leveled against political opponents through fake social media accounts.

The PTI, which has been running a campaign on the theme of anti-corruption and the need for change, has its votebank in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and sections of the country's biggest city, Karachi. PTI chief Imran Khan has vociferously criticised PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif for amassing assets abroad and looting the public money.

On the other hand, PML-N has run its campaign on the slogan of "respect the sanctity of vote", while reiterating that the party would continue its development agenda. Sharif, who was arrested immediately upon his arrival in the country on 13 July, had been trying to convince his voters that he was against the country's powerful military establishment, that he stood for civilian governance, and claimed he was being victimised for taking this stance. His brother Shehbaz Sharif, led the campaign in Nawaz's absence.

The PML-N also alleged that it was not being provided a level playing field, its candidates were being threatened by secret telephone calls, and were pressured into withdrawing their candidature or to switch loyalties towards PTI. The party also faced many defections within its ranks in the last three months. The PML-N has focused its campaign mostly in its native Punjab province besides some pockets of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi city. The party still believes it has the potential to put up a tough challenge to the PTI, though political observers maintain the latter is best placed to form the next federal government.

PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, meanwhile, has been touring Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while also focusing on Sindh, the party's power base. He has raised the slogan of eradicating poverty in the country, defeating terrorism and extremism, and to strengthen its democratic foundations to build a tolerant Pakistan.

The MMA, an electoral alliance of religio-political parties, has a major vote bank in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and it has mainly focused its campaign. The ANP is also a major party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, after only the PTI and MMA. On the other hand, the GDA is a Sindh-based alliance, and has pitched its candidates against PPP. In Balochistan, the newly formed BAP is the major contestant.

Follow live coverage of the Pakistan elections hereBy Alexandria Sage STANFORD, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday after meetings with his Australian counterpart he was confident South Pacific nations would choose the United States as an ally over China, despite Beijing's growing clout in the region.

By Alexandria Sage

STANFORD, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday after meetings with his Australian counterpart he was confident South Pacific nations would choose the United States as an ally over China, despite Beijing's growing clout in the region.

"I think the South Pacific, like most places in the world, understands the enormity of having an American ally -- a country that consistently over decades projects the democratic values," Pompeo told a news conference after meetings with Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

"The human dignity that comes with having an American partner is different from having partners that aren't quite that way. I think over time that will ultimately prevail, not only in the South Pacific, but all across the world," he added.

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, who held talks with his Australian counterpart Marise Payne in California, said both the United States and Australia agreed on the need for a free and open Pacific region "where nations large and small are treated with respect for their territorial integrity, for their sovereignty, their sovereign decisions."

In a joint statement, the countries said they were committed to working together to "shape an Indo-Pacific that is open, inclusive, prosperous, and rules based."

Mattis and Payne signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to develop software to address cyber and other security threats.

The agreement comes amid efforts by Australia to ramp up diplomacy in the Pacific to combat China's rising influence. In June, Australia promised to bolster the cyber security capability of Pacific island nation Vanuatu as part of a negotiation on a security treaty with its neighbour.

In April, Australia expressed "great concern" at reports, later denied by both sides, that Vanuatu and China were in talks to establish a Chinese military presence in the archipelago.

After the two days of talks at Stanford University, the United States and Australia reiterated calls for a code of conduct for the South China Sea.

Washington and Beijing have frequently sparred over who is militarising the South China Sea, with Beijing blaming tension on actions such as the "freedom of navigation" operations by the U.S. navy. Washington says such operations are necessary to counter China's efforts to limit nautical movement there.

Addressing the same news conference, Bishop said both countries were committed to their alliance, adding: "We don't always agree with the United States and the United States doesn't always agree with us, but we are able to work through any differences in a very constructive and positive way, and we'll continue to do that."

Ties between the President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have improved since an acrimonious phone call last year between the two allies. Turnbull was one of the first foreign leaders Trump spoke to after taking office on Jan. 20.

(Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The following is the full text of a press release issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan during the counting of votes in the Pakistan general elections.

Editor's note: The following is the full text of a statement issued by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan during the counting of votes in the Pakistan general elections on Wednesday. According to early trends, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has taken an early lead even as the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have alleged irregularities. The statement is being reproduced verbatim and has not been edited by Firstpost for clarity or style.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has observed the electoral process across Pakistan over the past several months, paying special attention to reports of violence, allegations of pre-poll manipulation and the arrangements put in place by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). On polling day, the Commissions monitoring teams carried out detailed observation in 67 National Assembly constituencies, including 12 in Balochistan, 14 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, 21 in Punjab and ICT, and 20 in Sindh. HRCPs preliminary report is based on data from its observers in the field. The Commission will release a detailed report of its observations in the next several days.

Above all, HRCP commends the electorate for its commitment to democracy and representative selection, especially in the face of three devastating suicide attacks. The Commission strongly condemns the attack that occurred today in Quetta, which has left at least 30 people dead, and expresses its deepest condolences with their families.

Overall, HRCP observes that the ECPs performance leaves much to be desired. While the latter has carried out its clerical functions reasonably well, the political content of its work has fallen short of expectations. Polling schemes were poorly rationalized, with many voters in the Lahore Cantonment, for instance, indicating they did not know where to go to vote.

Numerous observers have also reported that many polling stations were clustered together, but too small to cater to the number of voters. As a result, the polling process remained sluggish through the day. This, compounded with ill trained staff in many cases, meant that many people who reached their polling station in time were compelled to queue outside the premises for want of space, but were not let in to cast their vote.

In one instance, HRCP received a complaint from a presiding officer who had spent the night at his designated polling station, but not received any official provision to feed his colleagues. Many polling stations consisted of small, dark, humid rooms, in some cases not even equipped with fans. The Commission feels strongly that ECP staff should have been better looked after, given the enormity of their task.

HRCP takes serious exception to the authorities failure to facilitate physically disabled peoples access to polling stations, despite the many promises made in the past. In several cases, observers reported that disabled voters had been assigned to polling booths on the first floor. The Commission also received complaints through the day that, in many areas, women were not allowed to vote: HRCP hopes that legal action is taken against any such people who denied women their right to vote.

The Commission also notes that, in some places, polling staff appeared to be biased toward a certain party, with voters who had received slips from another partys stall being turned back on flimsy grounds. In at least one instance, women voters reported being asked whom they intended to vote for. Such instances are serious contraventions of the law and HRCP hopes that these will be promptly and transparently addressed.

Follow all the live updates to the Pakistan general elections hereAccording to the International Organisation for Migration, 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of the year and 18 July.

Madrid: Spanish rescue services said they had plucked nearly 500 migrants from the Mediterranean in a single day who were trying to reach the country's coast.

The Spanish Maritime Safety Agency said on Twitter that it had picked up a total of 484 people in 30 makeshift vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

According to a count by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of the year and 18 July.

They are mainly from sub-Saharan Africa  notably Guinea, Mali and Mauritania  as well as Morocco.

At least 294 migrants have died in their attempts to reach Spain this year, out of a total of 1,489 who died in the Mediterranean, according to IOM.

In June, Spain agreed to take in 630 migrants who arrived aboard three vessels, including the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius.

The Aquarius rescued the migrants off Libya's coast on June 9 but Italy's new populist government and Malta both refused to let it dock, triggering an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Then on 4 July, a ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms docked in Barcelona with 60 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast on board after Italy refused to take them in.

Faced with growing tensions in the EU over the issue, member states struck a deal in late June to stem the arrival of migrants.

The accord includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in EU countries and "disembarkation platforms" outside the bloc, as well as sharing out refugees among member states.

But the plan remains fraught with rows over how to divide responsibility for migrants and ease the stress on coastal countries such as Italy and Greece.

Italy, which had earlier vowed to turn away rescue boats, agreed Monday to continue accepting migrants picked up at sea, at least until the bloc finds a solution for sharing responsibility.By David Shepardson and Steve Holland WASHINGTON/KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday said it will use a Great Depression-era program to pay up to $12 billion to help U.S. farmers weather a growing trade war with China, the European Union and others that the president began.

By David Shepardson and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON/KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday said it will use a Great Depression-era program to pay up to $12 billion to help U.S. farmers weather a growing trade war with China, the European Union and others that the president began.

It is a clear signal the U.S. President Donald Trump is determined to stick with tariffs as his weapon of choice in the conflict.

The move meant to cushion the blow for a politically important constituency was met with broad criticism by many farmers and farm-belt lawmakers, including Republicans. Rural and agricultural states supported Trump by wide margins in the 2016 election.

Trump's trade policies have become central in several rural-state U.S. Senate races ahead of congressional elections in November.

The president, speaking at an event in Kansas City on Tuesday, reaffirmed his support for tariffs and pledged that "farmers will be the biggest beneficiary."

"Just be a little patient," Trump said.

The relief package is intended as a temporary boost to farmers as the United States and China negotiate over trade issues, officials said.

"This obviously is a short-term solution that will give President Trump time to work on a long-term trade policy," said Sonny Perdue, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The aid will be financed through the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation and will not require congressional approval, Perdue said.

The administration's action appeared to divide Republicans, with some praising the move and others troubled by what they view as the kind of widespread government-assistance programme their party has traditionally opposed.

"This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White House's 'plan' is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches," said Senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska who frequently criticizes the president, a fellow Republican.

SHORT-TERM BOOST?

Farmers have been a particular target in the current clash over trade policy as other countries seek to retaliate for Trump's duties on Chinese goods as well as on steel and aluminium imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. Those affected economies have in turn targeted U.S. agricultural products, including soybeans, dairy, meat, produce and liquor.

The United States exported $138 billion in agriculture products in 2017, including $21.5 billion of soybeans, the most valuable export. China alone imported $12.3 billion of U.S. soybeans last year, according to the USDA.

The size of the direct payments to farmers as a result of trade shortfalls would be unprecedented, said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois.

"We have never compensated farmers directly on such a large scale for retaliatory tariffs," Irwin said.

The news lifted shares of farm equipment companies on the prospect that farmers will have more money to spend on tractors and other farm gear. Deere & Co jumped 3.1 percent, while Caterpillar Inc gained more than 1 percent and AGCO Corp rose 0.6 percent.

Stock options trading in Deere and Caterpillar also saw a burst of activity in the 30 minutes before the news broke, according to a Reuters analysis of Trade Alert data. Some of those contracts more than doubled in price after word of the pending plan broke in a Politico report.

Options activity has been known to spike before the public announcement of market-moving news and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has pursued enforcement actions when the activity has been determined to be insider trading involving options. There was no immediate indication that Tuesday's volume increases were anything other than coincidental.

Soybean futures <0#S:>, driven to a 10-year low in part by China's retaliatory tariffs, rose 1.2 percent and hit their highest in two weeks as traders bet farm aid would improve demand, reducing a current surplus supply.

Still, Blake Hurst, a corn and soybean farmer and president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, said that unless the White House's policies change, the U.S. agriculture industry will continue to suffer.

The payments will be helpful to farmers facing overdue loans and angry bankers, but are completely insufficient if they mean that tariffs and the trade war will last for the foreseeable future," Hurst said. "They are a very temporary bandage to a self-inflicted wound.

Some members of Trump's own party agreed.

"Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers," Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul wrote on Twitter. "If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers  the answer is remove the tariffs."

Kevin Cramer, a U.S. representative trying to unseat Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, praised the move.

"Great to see @POTUS (Trump) providing aid to farmers impacted by retaliatory #tariffs," Cramer wrote on Twitter.

Later this week, Trump will visit Iowa and Illinois, two other farm-belt states, as he seeks to shore up support for Republican candidates in the U.S. Midwest.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Steve Holland in Kansas City; Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Susan Heavey and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Michael Hirtzer, Thomas Polansek, Caroline Stauffer and Mark Weinraub in Chicago; Writing by Susan Heavey and James Oliphant; Editing by Marguerita Choy, Frances Kerry and Lisa Shumaker)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.The emergency department and the labour and delivery suite of Latifa Hospital for Women and Children, a top maternity and paediatric hospital in Dubai, UAE, are currently undergoing expansion to double the hospitals capacity.



By September 2019, the first phase of the emergency department and the expansion of the labour and delivery suite will be complete. The second phase of the emergency department will be complete by March 2020. Upon completion, the emergency department will be able to cater to 60,000 patients from the current 30,000 patients. The total cost of the project is Dh100 million ($27.2 million).



Humaid Al Qutami, director-general of the DHA inspected the progress of the expansion. He was provided with a detailed overview of the expansion project.



Al Qutami said: The hospital provides high-quality maternity and paediatric services to the population of Dubai and is a referral centre for complicated cases not only for Dubai residents but also for patients from the Northern Emirates. It is a centre of excellence and the aim of the expansion is to enhance capacity as well as create a patient flow system that further improves care, helps medical staff provide high-quality medical services and is patient-centric and patient-friendly.



Dr Muna Tahlak, CEO of Latifa Hospital for Women and Children said: The expansion of the labour suite will increase capacity and further create a patient and family-centric environment in line with international modern practises. The design is such that it will enhance accessibility, safety and delivery of service. The expansion will not only increase capacity but also it will improve patient flow procedures, minimize patient transfers from one location to another and enhance overall care.



The strategic patient flow plan includes a centralised patient placement centre.



Dr Tahlak said, From the time the patient enters the hospital until discharge, we have designed the expansion in such a manner that all processes take place next to each other creating an easy flow and minimizing patient movement. We studied our processes as well as looked at international benchmarks before finalizing the design process.



She said that two more operation theatre (OT) rooms will be added increasing the number of OTs to six. Presently, approximately 5,000 to 6,000 deliveries take place per year at the hospital. The premises is recognized as a baby-friendly hospital and we follow kangaroo-care practices even for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) babies to ensure speedy recovery of premature babies and early bonding between parents and the baby. The new design will enhance capacity of our NICU services as well.



Expansion of emergency department:



The new emergency department will have a green and child-friendly theme to create a positive patient and family-centric environment in line with international modern practices. It will be equipped with the latest technology. The helipad area for air-ambulance is completed.



The expansion will include two sides  one designated for women and the other for children. The look of the department will be changed completely starting from the reception, MRI and obstetrics and gynaecology consultation rooms to enhance accessibility, safety and delivery of service, Dr Tahlak said.  TradeArabia News ServiceBy David Shepardson and Ben Blanchard WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The three biggest U.S. airlines changed how they refer to self-ruled Taiwan on their websites to avoid Chinese penalties ahead of a Wednesday deadline - revisions Beijing described as 'positive developments.' Earlier this year, China demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, not refer to Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory on their websites

By David Shepardson and Ben Blanchard

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The three biggest U.S. airlines changed how they refer to self-ruled Taiwan on their websites to avoid Chinese penalties ahead of a Wednesday deadline - revisions Beijing described as "positive developments."

Earlier this year, China demanded that foreign firms, and airlines in particular, not refer to Taiwan as a non-Chinese territory on their websites. The White House in May slammed the demand as "Orwellian nonsense."

Beijing set a final deadline of July 25 for the changes and last month rejected U.S. requests for talks on the matter, adding to tension in relations already frayed by an escalating trade conflict.

Taiwan is China's most sensitive territorial issue. Beijing considers the island a wayward province of "one China."

Reuters reported early on Tuesday that American Airlines Group Inc , Delta Air Lines and United Airlines were set to change how they refer to Taiwanese airports on their websites. American Airlines confirmed the change later in the day.

A check of all three airlines' websites on Wednesday morning showed they now list only Taipei's airport code and city, but not the name Taiwan.

"China is willing to share China's development opportunities with foreign companies and welcomes them to invest in and operate in China," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular news briefing in Beijing on Wednesday.

"Of course we hope that when they operate in China they respect China's laws and rules, China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and the feelings of the Chinese people."

The White House in May had issued a blistering statement calling on China "to stop threatening and coercing American carriers and citizens" and added that President Donald Trump "will stand up for Americans resisting efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to impose Chinese political correctness on American companies and citizens."

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday declined to comment, but a State Department official reiterated it "strongly objects to Chinas attempts to compel private firms to use specific language of a political nature in their publicly available content." The official added that the government "has not told U.S. airlines how to respond to China."

Taiwan's foreign ministry on Wednesday said it "most severely" condemned the Chinese government's use of political power to "crudely and unreasonably interfere with private commercial activity and international companies' operations."

It was unclear how China might punish airlines that do not comply, but in December it added a clause to rules governing foreign airlines saying regulators could change a company's permit if it did not meet "the demand of public interest."

American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said on Tuesday the firm had implemented the changes at China's request in line with other carriers. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate," she said.

Hawaiian Airlines had changed its website ahead of the deadline to showing searches for flights to Taiwan's capital as "Taipei, Taipei" in dropdown menus.

United spokesman Frank Benenati confirmed the airline made the website changes on Wednesday and said it "abides by and respects local laws and regulations in all markets and jurisdictions where we operate and conduct business."

Numerous non-U.S. airlines, including Air Canada , Lufthansa and British Airways had already made changes to their websites, according to Reuters checks, after China's Civil Aviation Administration sent a letter to 36 foreign air carriers earlier in the year.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; additional reporting by Jamie Freed in Singapore and Jessica Macy Yu in Taipei; Editing by Michael Perry, Stephen Coates, Himani Sarkar and Dan Grebler)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.By Ellen Francis BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's Kurds are trying to forge ties with Damascus as they seek to protect gains made in seven years of war, wary of their unpredictable U.S. ally and more ready than ever to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad. The main Kurdish groups have emerged among the few winners of the conflict in Syria, carving out autonomous rule over large parts of the north under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

By Ellen Francis

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's Kurds are trying to forge ties with Damascus as they seek to protect gains made in seven years of war, wary of their unpredictable U.S. ally and more ready than ever to negotiate with President Bashar al-Assad.

The main Kurdish groups have emerged among the few winners of the conflict in Syria, carving out autonomous rule over large parts of the north under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia.

They have mostly avoided conflict with Assad, at times even fighting common foes -- including rebels his forces are gradually crushing with help from Russia and Iran.

Talks between the Syrian Kurds and Damascus have now begun on a return of state employees and repairs to one of Syria's most important pieces of infrastructure: the Tabqa dam, the country's largest, which the SDF took from Islamic State last year with U.S. air power.

A top Kurdish official has also signalled the fighters could join any future offensive against rebels holding Idlib province bordering Turkey, and cooperate more widely against Turkey, which has sent forces into an arc of Syria's northwest.

A decision to stop calling their police force by its Kurdish name, "Asayish", is another step that appears aimed at overhauling the region's image with an eye to its future.

Syria's Kurds, which the Baathist state systematically persecuted for years, say they do not seek independence, but they hope a political deal will safeguard their autonomy.

For the first time, Assad said in May he was "opening doors" for talks with the SDF, while also threatening force. A deal between them could settle the conflict in most of Syria.

But there is no sign of Damascus coming to the table yet, and analysts say Assad is in no rush as he has fast recovered ground and his position is growing stronger.

"We have a conviction that channels must be open...the constitution, the political process, these will not be solved without the regime," said Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish official in the SDF's political wing. "The regime is not going anywhere."

WHAT AMERICA WANTS

With the Kurdish YPG militia at its forefront, the SDF holds around a quarter of Syria, the biggest chunk outside state control. About 2,000 U.S. forces are deployed in the region across the north and east, rich in oil, water and agricultural land -- important leverage for the Kurds.

The YPG joined forces with the United States more than three years ago, becoming its main Syrian partner in the fight against Islamic State. The alliance flew in the face of U.S. ties with NATO member Turkey, which views the YPG as terrorists linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Washington has avoided making any political promises to the Kurds and opposes their autonomy ambitions. Conflicting U.S. statements over Syria have put them on guard, and they worry Washington may ultimately put its ties with Turkey first.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in April he wanted to withdraw troops from Syria soon, while tempering that by expressing a desire to leave a "strong and lasting footprint".

Other U.S. officials have played down the odds of a withdrawal any time soon. The U.S. military has at times used lethal force to defend SDF territory against pro-government forces.

"It's not clear what they want," Ahmed told Reuters.

The SDF has become wary, especially after an "American silence" during a Turkish offensive on Syria's Kurdish Afrin region this year. "We felt let down," she said.

Despite this, she said the deployment of U.S. forces in nearby Manbij sent a strong message after Turkey threatened to march on the town.

Henri Barkey, an international relations professor at Lehigh University in the United States, said U.S. policy has pushed Kurdish leaders towards Damascus.

"If you're a Syrian Kurd, you have to think about the day Trump decides to withdraw," he said. "You have a president who can change his mind and order policies that are completely contradictory."

POLICE FORCE "FOR EVERYONE"

Syrian Kurdish leaders have moved more cautiously than Kurds across the border in Iraq who voted for independence in a referendum last year. The vote, which Washington opposed, plunged them into crisis and regional isolation. Eventually, they were forced to backtrack.

Last year, the Kurdish-led authorities in north Syria embarked on elections to set up governing bodies based on the political ideas of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. But they have now indefinitely postponed the final stage of the election.

Analysts say friction with pro-Damascus Arab tribes poses a challenge to the Kurdish forces, and Assad may seek to benefit from the discord.

Pictures of Ocalan, revered by the YPG, were taken down last month in Qamishli, a city it controls on the border with Turkey. A local municipal statement said this was to "beautify and organise" the streets.

Last week, the region's police changed its name and flag, a move which leading Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil said was "out of consideration" for Arab cities the SDF seized from Islamic State including Raqqa, which had been the jihadists' Syrian capital.

"This way the (police) force will be for everyone," he said.

Syrian state officials have highlighted Raqqa as a key target for "liberation" from foreign occupiers - a reference to American forces. An SDF-backed council now runs the city, much of which was destroyed by months of U.S. air strikes.

Critics say U.S. recovery aid has fallen short.

Fixing the hydroelectric Tabqa dam near Raqqa is a top priority. Without the government's help, restoring it would need major foreign aid, Ahmed said. Talks over collaborating on health and education could follow.

"It could pave the way, play a positive role in growing trust for us to take it a step further," Ahmed said.

(Additional reporting by Rodi Said in northern Syria and Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Tom Perry and Timothy Heritage)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.Xiaomi introduced the Mi A2 smartphone as the successor of the Mi A1, at an event in Spain yesterday. Xiaomi India head and VP Manu Jain has already confirmed that the smartphone will be launching in the country on August 8th, but the Mi A2 Lite may not come to India. If you are planning to buy Mi A2 and cant wait till the official launch in India, there is a good news for you.

As per an announcement on Mi Community, Xiaomi India is looking for Mi A2 Squad, which is similar to Mi Explorer program in which the company involves its fans to test the device before the launch. This time Xiaomi India is focusing on photography with Mi A2 Squad as it has mentioned that it is looking for the users who have knack for capturing extraordinary using a smartphone.

Benefits: Squad members get a chance to keep Mi A2 smartphone upon completion of program. Also, the best 3 photographers will be awarded 5000 mi.com coupons as per the announcement thread.

Squad members get a chance to keep Mi A2 smartphone upon completion of program. Also, the best 3 photographers will be awarded 5000 mi.com coupons as per the announcement thread. Selection: Xiaomi India will announce the selected squad members between 27-29th July 2018 and Mi A2 will be delivered to the selected squad members. Xiaomi India will select only 15 members for Mi A2 Squad, these squad members will be assigned photography challenges during the campaign.

Xiaomi India will announce the selected squad members between 27-29th July 2018 and Mi A2 will be delivered to the selected squad members. Xiaomi India will select only 15 members for Mi A2 Squad, these squad members will be assigned photography challenges during the campaign. How to Apply: Mi A2 Squad program is open for Indian users only, and users can try their luck here. Users are supposed to submit the best photo they have ever captured to show their photography skills to convince Xiaomi India that they can highlight key features of Mi A2. Users can upload only 1 picture and are supposed to give a suitable caption for the photo they are submitting. Deadline for the registration is 26th July, tomorrow.

SourceGoogle today announced that it is introducing new grammar suggestions in Google Docs along with a revamped interface for spelling and grammar review. Alongside this, Google is introducing a slew of new features to GSuite including Security center investigation tool, Data regions, Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat, Smart Compose, voice commands in Hangouts Meet hardware.

The new investigation tool in the security center adds integrated remediation to the prevention and detection capabilities of the security center. GSuite admins can identify potentially infected users and remove access to Drive files or delete malicious emails. The Investigation tool is available today as part of Early Adopter Program for G Suite Enterprise customers.

Next on the list is the new data regions to G Suite. For organizations with data control requirements, G Suite will now let customers choose where to store primary data for select G Suite apps; globally distributed, the U.S. or Europe. Google says that it is also making it easier for you to manage your data regions.

Data regions for G Suite is available to all G Suite Business and Enterprise customers starting today. Following the lines of Smart Reply in Gmail, Google today is bringing the Smart Reply to Hangouts Chat to help you respond to messages quicker. Googles tech recognizes which messages most likely need responses, and proposes three different replies that sound like how you typically respond. The proposed responses are casual enough for a chat and yet appropriate in a workplace. The Smart Reply in Hangouts Chat will be available to G Suite customers in the coming weeks.

Google first introduced the Smart Compose to consumers in May, and now Smart Compose in Gmail will be available for G Suite users in the coming weeks. The new grammar suggestions in Google Docs detects possible grammar corrections and it will underline it in blue to indicate about the grammar error. Right click on it to see suggested corrections.

Google will use Machine learning to help you improve this capability over time to detect trickier grammar issues. Grammar suggestions in Docs are available today as a part of the Early Adopter Program. Finally, it is voice commands for Hangouts Meet hardware, this will make it easier for teams to connect to a video meeting in seconds. Google is said to be planning on roll this out to select Meet hardware customers later this year.

SourceNational Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV) initially anticipated that it would begin 2018 with a strong showing in the first quarter. Instead, its results took a step back due to a slower-than-expected intake of equipment orders and some internal issues, which snapped a streak of six straight quarters of steadily improving financial results. While that sluggish start caused shares to sell off at first, National Oilwell Varco's stock quickly reversed course and was one of the best-performing energy stocks in the first half of 2018 due to growing optimism that the company's performance would bounce back sharply.

We'll find out if that was the case later this week when the company unveils its second-quarter results. Here's what to watch in that report.

See if rig technologies turned around as expected

One of the culprits behind National Oilwell Varco's poor start to 2018 was its rig technologies segment, where revenue declined 21% sequentially and 17% year over year due to the continued sluggishness in the offshore drilling sector. However, on the company's first-quarter conference call, CFO Jose Bayardo offered a bullish outlook for the second quarter, stating that "we anticipate top-line growth of roughly 20%, with incremental margins in the low to mid-teens for our rig technologies segment."

Several factors drove that view. For starters, Bayardo noted on the call that the company booked sales for two rigs destined for Latin America early in the second quarter, which is further confirmation that pent-up demand is beginning to yield purchase agreements. In addition to that, the company was "encouraged by what we are seeing in demand for spare part bookings," which it believes will continue increasing in the second quarter.

Given that forecast and those comments, investors should see if this segment has finally started making its long-awaited turnaround. However, there are some concerns now that it could miss the mark given what rival Baker Hughes, a GE Company reported last week. For the quarter, revenue from Baker Hughes' oil-field equipment business fell 9.4% to $617 million, which missed analysts' expectations for sales of $648.2 million.

Watch whether wellbore technologies delivered the anticipated improvement

National Oilwell Varco's wellbore technologies segment also underperformed expectations to start the year, with revenue falling slightly due to lower demand for drill pipe. However, the company noted that while drill pipe revenue declined sharply in the quarter, bookings for future sales exceeded expectations. As a result, it was growing confident that business fundamentals were rapidly getting better and would drive "material improvement in revenue during the second quarter."

This view led Bayardo to forecast that revenue in the wellbore technologies segment would grow at a high-single-digit percentage with strong margin improvement. If National Oilwell Varco delivers on these expectations, rig technology turns around as hoped, and it achieves the 4% to 5% anticipated revenue growth from its completion and production solutions segment, then its second-quarter results will be its best in quite some time.

Look for any change to its capital allocation preference

Heading into 2018, National Oilwell Varco thought its improving financial results would enable it to start returning to shareholders some of the excess cash it built up during the downturn, either through a higher dividend or a share repurchase program. However, on the first-quarter call, its CFO stated that it would "likely defer an increase in return of capital to shareholders" because it saw some attractive investment opportunities on the horizon.

National Oilwell Varco recently announced a couple of deals, including forming a joint venture with the national oil company of Saudi Arabia to make land rigs and drilling equipment for that market, as well as buying a Dutch rig design and engineering company. With those deals now signed, investors should see if the company has more in the pipeline or if it now plans to begin returning additional cash to investors.

High expectations heading into the quarter

National Oilwell Varco's guidance suggests that it will report strong second-quarter results later this week. Investors are certainly banking on that to happen given the stock's gains this year. So another disappointment -- which is possible given Baker Hughes' report -- could cause investors to sell the stock off after earnings, especially if the company doesn't announce a plan to begin returning at least some of its excess cash to shareholders.With a dividend yield of 4% and an incredibly long track record of increasing its payout, integrated oil and gas giant ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) has been a great wealth-creating stock for many investors over the long haul. Recently, though, ExxonMobil has hit a rough patch as production volumes slide, and investors are wondering if the recent decision to double down on oil and gas spending is the best path forward for the company.

These factors might have a few investors looking elsewhere for a dividend stock they can rely upon for steady income over the next several years. So we asked three of our investing contributors to each highlight a stock they see as one that could replace ExxonMobil in an income portfolio. Here's why they picked Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD), AT&T (NYSE:T), and Ford Motor (NYSE:F)

Targeting the most stable segment of the oil & gas industry

Tyler Crowe (Enterprise Products Partners): The oil and gas business is an incredibly volatile one, which makes ExxonMobil's streak of dividend increases that much more impressive. It has been able to do what it's done because it owns assets in every aspect of the value chain, and weakness in one segment is likely to be offset by strength in others.

Of all the various parts of the oil and gas value chain, the one that has consistently shown to be one of the most steady is the midstream segment -- transportation, processing, and logistics. Companies in this part of the industry act mostly like tollbooths that charge a fee for their services, which mostly insulates them from the ups and downs of commodity prices.

Enterprise Products Partners has consistently been one of the best operators in this industry and has created incredible value for its investors. Not only does it pay a hefty yield of 5.9%, but it has also been able to increase that payout every year since its IPO in 1998 and is working on a streak of 56 consecutive quarters with an increased payout. It has absolutely crushed the S&P 500 on a total return basis.

With the company going through a period of higher-than-normal capital spending to meet the booming demand for oil and gas infrastructure, management has elected to slow the rate at which it grows its payout. That doesn't sound that appetizing at first, but it should ensure the longer-term viability of its payout, and management has consistently shown itself to be a good steward of shareholder capital, so we should give a little benefit of the doubt here.

If you want a high-yield investment that exceeds ExxonMobil's yield and gives you exposure to North America's booming oil and gas industry, Enterprise Products Partners is a great place to start.

A tamped-down telecom

Keith Noonan (AT&T): AT&T's shares are down roughly 3% over the past decade, but its chunky payouts have at least elevated its total return price over the stretch to roughly 70%. That's well below the S&P 500 Index's roughly 170% total return over the period, but there are reasons to think the telecom giant offers compelling value at current prices.

At 6.4%, AT&T stock's payout comes in handily above Exxon's. AT&T also has a 34-year streak of delivering annual payout growth -- a stretch that falls just one year shy of ExxonMobil's record.

Ma Bell's shares trade at roughly 9 times this year's expected earnings and are priced in the range of five-year lows. The stock has dipped roughly 20% year to date because of uncertainty surrounding the long-term impact of the Time Warner acquisition and the Justice Department's recent announcement that it will appeal the court decision that granted approval for the deal.

The appeal does create added uncertainty for investors looking to plot out the trajectory of the business. It seems likely that the merger will hold up to the Justice Department's second challenge, but if it doesn't, AT&T will be freed up to pursue other acquisitions and return more income to shareholders. If the deal does go through, Ma Bell will have solidified its place as one of the world's leading content producers, added assets that bolster its bundling initiatives, and opened up opportunities to improve advertising rates on Time Warner content by implementing data from its mobile network for targeted advertising.

Expensive oil should be sinking this stock -- but isn't

Rich Smith (Ford): With oil prices over $70 and still near their highs for the year, you'd think things would be going great for ExxonMobil -- and to an extent they are, but to another extent, they also are not. Sales in the last quarter were up 16.7%, but profits at the oil giant were up only 16%, or slightly slower than sales.

In contrast, Ford Motor Company could see sales of profitable SUVs and large trucks slide if oil prices keep rising. (Ford's F-150 line alone accounts for 90% of the company's profits, according to a report on NPR.) Ford's also facing threats in the form of looming trade wars with Europe and China, and the growing popularity of electric cars from companies such as Tesla. Yet Ford grew its profits faster than sales in its most recent quarter.

Ford also pays a bigger dividend yield than Exxon does -- 5.6% versus 4%. And believe it or not, Ford spends less than half the proportion of its profits to fund that dividend (31%) than does ExxonMobil (64%). So not only is Ford doing a better job of navigating an arguably tougher business environment than Exxon is -- it's also better positioned to grow its dividend, if it should so desire, when business improves.

That's why I think Ford not only pays a better dividend than ExxonMobil but will also continue to pay better dividends in the future.Dickeys Fires Up the Pit with New Senior Vice President of Operations

July 25, 2018 // Franchising.com // Dallas, TX - Dickeys Barbecue Pit, the largest barbecue chain in the world, welcomes recently appointed Senior Vice President of Operations, Kenn Miller, to the Dickeys family. Kenn brings over 30 years of restaurant operations experience to the team.

We are thrilled to have Kenn as a part of the Dickeys Barbecue Pit family, says Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc. His extensive background in the restaurant industry coupled with his experience working with franchisees has put him in the perfect position here at Dickeys and we look forward to his success.

Originally from Oklahoma, Kenn embraced the opportunity to move to Dallas and work with the oldest family owned restaurant in the area as well as the largest barbecue chain in the world. With a wealth of restaurant experience, he has worked with brands such as Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Quiznos and most recently, was the Senior Vice President of Operations and Development at Taco Bueno.

Dickeys Barbecue Pit is a well-known, family-owned brand. The Dickey family prides themselves on their heritage as well as offering only the best authentic, Texas-style barbecue, which is why I was originally drawn to becoming a part of the team, says Kenn. I look forward to growing the brand and working with everyone in the Dickeys Barbecue Pit family to achieve success in the future.

About Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants, Inc., the nation's largest barbecue chain, was founded in 1941 by Travis Dickey. Today, all meats are still slow smoked on-site in each restaurant. The Dallas-based family-run barbecue franchise offers several slow-smoked meats and home style sides with 'No B.S. (Bad Stuff)' included. The fast-casual concept has expanded to more than 550 locations in 45 states as well as internationally. In 2016, Dickey's won first place on Fast Casual's "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" list and in 2018 was featured in the top 10 on the list. Dickey's Barbecue Pit has also been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, Franchise Times, and Nation's Restaurant News. For more information, visit www.dickeys.com.

Media Contact:

Callie Head

Public Relations Manager

Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc

O: 972-248-9899 x 156

SOURCE Dickeys Barbecue Restaurants, Inc.

###

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DisqusToshiba Memory Corporation, a world leader in memory solutions, recently held a ground-breaking ceremony for the first semiconductor fabrication facility (fab), called K1, in Kitakami, Iwate prefecture, in northeastern Japan.



On its completion in autumn 2019, the facility will be one of the most advanced manufacturing operations in the world, dedicated to production of 3D flash memory, said a statement from the company.



Toshiba Memory continues to advance technologies in flash memory. The company is now leading the way forward with advances in its BiCS Flash, its proprietary 3D flash memory, it said.



Demand for 3D flash memory is increasing significantly on fast growing demand for enterprise servers, datacentres and smartphones, it added.



Toshiba memory expects continued strong growth in the mid and long term. The new facility will make a major contribution to business competitiveness in corporation with Yokkaichi operations, said a statement.



The new facility will not only be the largest Toshiba Memory fab, but it will be the most advanced as well. It will be constructed with a seismic isolation structure that allows it to absorb earthquake tremors, and it will reduce environmental loads by deployment of the latest energy-saving manufacturing facilities.



It will also introduce an advanced production system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to boost productivity. Decisions on the new fabs equipment investment, production capacity and production plan will reflect market trends, it said.



Toshiba Memory expects to continue its joint venture investments in the new facility based on ongoing discussions with Western Digital Corporation, it added.



Going forward, Toshiba Memory will continue to actively cultivate initiatives aimed at strengthening competitiveness, including timely capital investments and R&D in line with market trends. The company will also contribute to the development of the regional economy of Iwate prefecture, Japan, it stated.  TradeArabia News ServiceThe US government has awarded a contract worth $450 million to Lockheed Martin, the giant American military aircraft manufacturer, for the production of the Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSCs) for the Saudi Arabian defence forces.



The Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA) contract is for detailed design and planning for construction of MMSCs that will be built at Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin, US.



Under this deal, Saudi Arabia will acquire four of these combat ships as part of a larger agreement between the two countries to enhance global security and stimulate economic progress in the two regions.



On the contract win, Joe DePietro, VP, Lockheed Martin Small Combatants and Ship Systems, said: "We are pleased that kingdom has selected the MMSCs to support its Royal Saudi Naval Forces fleet. It provides the Royal Saudi Naval Forces a lethal and highly maneuverable multi-mission surface combatant, which features the flexibility of the Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship steel mono-hull with expanded capabilities."



"These include an integrated Mk41 Vertical Launch System, an increased range of 5,000 nautical miles and speeds in excess of 30 knots, making it capable of littoral and open ocean operation, and able to confront modern maritime and economic security threats," explained DePietro.



In March, Lockheed Martin was awarded $481 million for long lead material for MMSCs. The contract award is a significant milestone in the relationship between Lockheed Martin and Saudi Arabia, he added.



"Lockheed Martin values our 50-year partnership with the Saudi Arabia and is committed to helping fulfill the kingdom's long-term vision," said Richard H. (Rick) Edwards, executive VP of Lockheed Martin International.



"Through investment in IT infrastructure, training, tooling, equipment and enhanced collaboration with Saudi industry, together we will increase the capacity of the Kingdom's economy while creating sustainable jobs for a brighter future," he stated.



Over the past 10 years, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Freedom-variant industry team has invested more than $120 million to modernize the Marinette shipyard, hire more than 1,000 people and train a new workforce.



The Lockheed Martin-led team comprises shipbuilder Fincantieri Marinette Marine, naval architect Gibbs & Cox, and more than 800 suppliers in 42 states. The LCS is the Navy's most affordable surface combatant shipbuilding program.



"This prestigious award proves the farsightedness of our decision to enter the US market," said Giuseppe Bono, CEO of Fincantieri.



"Since then, over the past 10 years we have become a reference builder not only for the US Navy, but also for several foreign navies, while contributing to the development of the industrial base and of the economic fabric in the Midwest," he noted.



Fincantieri Marinette Marine's President and CEO Jan Allman said: "We have been in this community for more than 75 years and has produced over 1,500 vessels. We are proud to have one of the most technologically advanced shipyards, employing nearly 2,000 of the best shipbuilders, technicians and engineers."



"On behalf of Fincantieri Marinette Marine and our suppliers in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest who will support this program, we are pleased to partner with Lockheed Martin to construct the MMSC for Saudi Arabia," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceExperiential innovations, learnings, industry trends and new exhibitors are among the hundreds of reasons to attend Imex America, taking place from October 1618 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center at The Venetian|The Palazzo in Las Vegas.



Memorable masterclass

A new partnership with C2 International, the ground-breaking leader in business conferences, will bring a huge dose of creativity and excitement to the show. Following an enthusiastic response to their Learning Labs at Imex in Frankfurt, C2 will be presenting a suite of different Learning Labs at Imex America, as well as a Thursday morning, open-to-all, Masterclass on the show floor.



More exhibitors and opportunities to do global business

Driving business success remains at the heart of Imex and with over 3,300 destinations, venues and suppliers from 130-plus countries under one roof, this years show is no exception. Imex America has moved into a larger hall to accommodate new and expanded exhibitors, such as Meet New York, Malta Tourism Authority, Nobu Hotels and Visit Dallas Pacifica Hotels  all at the show for the first time. Many exhibitors are increasing the size of their booths including Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau, DMI Hotels, Croatian National Tourist Board, Mexico, Royal Caribbean International and Bermuda Tourism Authority who have all doubled their presence.



Powerful and personalised  education for all

In line with tradition, the show kicks off on October 15, Smart Monday - a full day of complimentary, cutting-edge professional development which is powered by MPI.



Additionally, an Association Leadership Forum, created by ASAE exclusively for association leaders and an executive meeting forum dedicated to senior corporate executives with a focus on SMM program management, procurement leadership or meetings management are also on offer on Smart Monday.



Once again Imex America 2018 will live out its mission to educate, innovate and help all its clients to make powerful connections with the right people by presenting easy-access professional development each day of the show. The Inspiration Hub, situated on the show floor, will be the central point of focus for hundreds of sessions on hot topics including security, sustainability, creativity, innovation, technology, experiential events and legacy  Imexs Talking Point for this year.



Recognising personal impact and legacy

Various aspects of legacy will be covered throughout the program - political, personal, environmental, CSR and social impact/knowledge legacy - all designed to help planners produce more engaging, topical events with longer-lasting positive outcomes.



Following great feedback, a Legacy Wall launched at Imex in Frankfurt will also premiere at Imex America, showcasing heart-warming and inspiring stories case studies from exhibitors, partners and Imex staff.



Carina Bauer, CEO of the Imex Group, explained: With an expanded show floor, new exhibitors and numerous networking events, the opportunities to do business at Imex America are second to none this year.



As always, were committed to putting on a great show  one that ignites fresh thinking, explores new trends and encourages people to connect and do business easily. In a fast-changing world, we believe that coming together in the same place to see, hear and talk commerce - and to understand the wider forces shaping our industry - is fundamental to business success.



Registration for the event is free. - TradeArabia News ServiceSabre Corporation has announced changes to its organisational structure and additions to its technology leadership that reinforce the companys commitment to the next generation of retailing, distribution and fulfilment while accelerating development.



Dave Shirk has been promoted to executive vice president and president of travel solutions, a newly created organisation that includes travel network, airline solutions and data and analytics solutions across the business units. Travel solutions represents the natural evolution of Sabres strategy to unify efforts across all channels of retailing, distribution and fulfilment to better serve customers, drive innovation and accelerate the development of next-generation and NDC-enabled solutions. Sabres reportable segments will continue to be travel network, Airline Solutions and Hospitality Solutions.



Under the new structure, Wade Jones, executive vice president and president of Travel Network, will report directly to Shirk and continue executing Sabres travel network strategy. The company has initiated searches for a leader to fill Shirks previous role as the head of Airline Solutions and to hire a leader for its data and analytics efforts, both of which will report to Shirk.



Our customers are looking for holistic technology solutions to their retailing, distribution and fulfilment needs that unlock new opportunities to engage with travellers, drive revenue and provide an edge in their ultra-competitive industries, said Sean Menke, Sabre president and CEO. We stand at a moment in time when the business of travel is filled with opportunity, brimming with challenge and hungry for innovation, and we are evolving to better serve our customers and reach our potential as an organisation. As a natural next step in our strategy, we are aligning our leadership and organisational structure to reinforce our customer focus and further strengthen our go-to-market and product development approaches.



The company also announced that Sundar Narasimhan will join Sabre as senior vice president and president of Sabre Labs and product strategy  effective July 30 and report to Menke. Narasimhan brings over 25 years of relevant experience, most recently serving as director of engineering at Google, where he led teams working on the companys hospitality efforts. Previously, Narasimhan was the CTO of ITA Software, which was acquired by Google in 2011. At ITA Software, which is well known for its QPX Airline Pricing and Shopping product, Narasimhan led the development of the 1U distribution platform and launched the ITA airline passenger reservation system.



In his role at Sabre, Narasimhan will lead product vision and strategy, next-generation platform development and operations research. He will be based in Boston, where the company plans to open a new office to expand Sabre Labs, which explores emerging technologies and capabilities that will impact travel over the next decade. Narasimhans travel technology experience will be instrumental in the development of microservice-enabled solutions across retailing, distribution and fulfilment.



In addition, Sabre announced the appointment of Louis Selincourt as senior vice president of global development centres, reporting to Menke. Selincourt will lead the companys global development centre operations, overseeing development operations and implementing processes that further evolve Sabres development capabilities, enhance product quality, and attract and retain key talent.



Prior to joining Sabre, Selincourt was co-founder and managing partner at Better Faster Further, where he worked with leading companies to implement techniques and processes to optimise operations, people, behaviours and communications. He brings almost 40 years of relevant experience including global technology operations management at companies including Oracle, NetApp and Novell.



As we build the most advanced travel platform in the world, we are bolstering our technology leadership team with additional expertise to further accelerate innovation, added Menke. Taken together, these changes underscore our commitment to lead the industry in partnership with our customers, while solidifying Sabres position as the technology platform at the centre of the business of travel.



Joe DiFonzo continues in his role as chief information officer with responsibility for Sabres enterprise technology organization, corporate information technology, and risk and security functions, as well as executing the companys shift to a cloud-first technology infrastructure.

Vish Saoji continues to serve as CTO and focus on advancing Sabres technology evolution to deliver a next-generation technology platform with a fully microservice-enabled architecture. - TradeArabia News Service

Samsung leads Xiaomi in Q2 with 29% market share: Counterpoint News oi-Priyanka Lava is the only local brand which registered positive annual growth during the quarter driven by entry-level models including its first Android Go device - Z50.

According to a new report by research firm Counterpoint, Samsung has managed to take the lead over Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi in Q2 2018 with a 29 percent market share.

Counterpoint suggests that the strong performance of models such as Galaxy J6, Galaxy J2 2018 and Galaxy J4 can be attributed to its success.

While Xiaomi recorded its highest ever shipments in India during Q2 2018.

The growth can be attributed to its strong product and supply chain strategy which allowed it to launch products with a longer shelf life.

Karn Chauhan, Research Analyst said: "The success of Samsung during the quarter can be attributed to its refreshed J series as it launched the most number of models as compared to any brand across multiple price points during the quarter."

Additionally, the strong offline distribution and aggressive marketing campaign around its J series helped the brand to gain not only the market but also mindshare during the quarter. 2H 2018 is likely to be a close race between Samsung and Xiaomi especially during the important upcoming festive season," Karn said.

However, Counterpoint data said OnePlus lead the premium Rs.30,000 segment for the first time ever.

The data also pointed out that Apple had a 1 percent market share during the quarter, its lowest in recent history.

Meanwhile, domestic handset maker Lava is the only local brand which registered positive annual growth during the quarter driven by entry-level models including its first Android Go device - Z50.

Transsion group led by itel, Tecno, Infinix, and Spice continues to grow in the smartphone segment in India. Tecno grew 74 percent sequentially as it brought full screen and facial unlock features at an entry-level price during the quarter.

Furthermore, the smartphone market returned to double-digit growth (18 percent) YoY after a flat first-quarter growth. The feature phone market continues to outpace the smartphone market with a YoY growth of 21 percent.

Anshika Jain, Research Analyst stated: "India smartphone market returned to double-digit growth during the quarter and is likely to grow in double digits for the entire year.

Commenting further Jain noted, "As volume share of the top five players grew more than 80 percent, local and smaller players were forced to change their strategy which involved changing channels and product strategy along with cutting down on SKUs.

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Unique feature

According to a report from Android Central, the Indian version of the Xiaomi Mi A2 will support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 and is the first smartphone from Xiaomi to offer this feature (Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 supports Quick Charge 2.0). However, do note that the retail package will include a standard 5 Volts and 2 Amp adapter and a user have to buy a Qualcomm Quick Charge enabled charger separately to get most out of the Xiaomi Mi A2. Also note that the International version of the Xiaomi Mi A2 will support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, which is a bit slower than the Quick Charge 4.0 standard.

Quick Charge 4.0

The Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 is the latest fast charging solution from Qualcomm. Though most of the 600, 700, and 800 series chipsets unveiled on or after 2017 supports Quick Charge 4.0, the OEM has to pay special fees to Qualcomm to unlock Quick charging capability.

A typical smartphone with a 2750 mAh battery (Mi A2 has a 3000 mAh battery) can offer up to 5 hours of usage in just 5 minutes of charging. The device will be 3 degrees cooler than the Quick Charge 3.0 enabled device and the smartphone can charge from 0 to 50% in just 30 minutes.

Specs-sheet

The Xiaomi Mi A2 has a 5.9-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 Octa-core chipset with 4/6 GB RAM and 64/128 GB storage.

The smartphone has a dual camera setup at the back of the smartphone with a 12 MP + 20 MP sensor combination and also has a 20 MP front-facing selfie camera on the front with AI capabilities.

The smartphone is running on the unadulterated version of the Android 8.1 Oreo OS with Android One branding and will be updated to Android P in the near future. The smartphone is backed by a 3000 mAh battery and has a symmetrical USB type C port with no 3.5 mm headphone jack. To make up with the removal of the headphone jack, the smartphone includes a dongle to convert USB type C to 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Conclusion

When we heart about the retail package of the Mi A2 consisting of a 10W charger, we were really disappointed. However, this is a great news for Xiaomi enthusiasts, as the Xiaomi Mi A2 could become the most affordable smartphone with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 capability.Trump threatens to revoke security clearances of Obama-era officials

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 06:05PM

US President Donald Trump has threatened to revoke the security clearances of at least six top national security and intelligence officials of the era of former President Barack Obama who have been critical of the administration.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that the US president was considering denying six Obama-era officials access to classified information for making "baseless accusations" against him.

The officials include former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, former NSA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper, former US National Security advisor Susan Rice and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

"The president is exploring the mechanisms to remove security clearance because they've politicized, and in some cases monetized, their public service and security clearances," Sanders told reporters during a press briefing at the White House.

"Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia against the president is extremely inappropriate, and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence," she added.

Sanders declined to cite specific comments made by any of the officials. The decision comes as the US president has been reeling from a bipartisan backlash after his last week's controversial joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Helsinki, Finland, during which Trump declined to endorse the US intelligence community's assessment of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Brennan slammed Trump's comments at the summit as "nothing short of treasonous" and accused the US president of being "wholly in the pocket of Putin."

Clapper, reacting to the possible revoking of clearances, said on CNN that Trump's decision was "kind of a petty way of retribution, I suppose, for speaking out against the president, which I think, on the part of all of us, are borne out of genuine concerns about President Trump."

Hayden said in a posting on Twitter on Monday that revoking his security clearance would not "have any effect on what I say or write."

NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address





Royal Jordanian (RJ) and Jordan Hotel Association (JHA) have reached a partnership agreement whereby RJ will provide discounted tickets to association members travelling on its Business and Economy classes.



RJ president and CEO Stefan Pichler and JHA chairman Abdul Hakeem Al-Hindi signed the agreement at the airlines headquarters.



Beneficiaries of the one-year, renewable, agreement include employees of the hotels that are members in JHA and the association staff, whether they travel for duty or personal trips, and their guests attending corporate official events.



Pichler said: RJ and JHA are long-standing business partners. We both work in the hospitality industry and our guests are theirs, so we both wish to offer top-notch services.



We are glad to offer the association management, hotel employees and guests discounts on tickets all year round, to facilitate their transportation globally, he added.



Al-Hindi said that JHA is proud of the services offered by the national carrier and "that is why our association is keen on choosing RJ for our travels.



Thousands of hoteliers and employees are working at the hotel members in the JHA, and we hope that they can make use of the RJ offer to reach their desired destinations, he commented.



Found in 1969, JHA is a non-profit association representing more than 500 hotels throughout Jordan. The association seeks to promote cooperation among proprietors in the hospitality industry and plays a key role in coordinating with tourism authorities to develop the tourism business in Jordan. - TradeArabia News ServiceUK and Ecuador deal to evict Assange from embassy "imminent" amid US pressure

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 06:58AM

Ecuador is planning to withdraw asylum protection for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and evict him from its UK embassy in London amid "significant pressure" from the United States, according to reports.

Lenin Moreno, Ecuador's president, met with UK officials in London on Friday to finalize the agreement and hand Assange over to British authorities, according to The Intercept, an online news publication.

Assange may be expelled from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London as early as this week, the report said, citing American journalist Glen Greenwald..

He was granted asylum by Moreno's predecessor, Rafael Corra, after he took refuge in the country's embassy in London in 2012.

Assange first came to the embassy when he faced a warrant for arrest following allegations of sexual assault and rape from the Swedish government. He has denied the allegations, and the investigation was closed last year.

However, the 47-year-old Australian computer programmer has stayed in the embassy out of concern that he would be extradited to the US to be prosecuted for publishing classified documents that were leaked by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

WikiLeaks has also been at the center of the FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

UK Foreign Office Minister Alan Duncan has called Assange "a miserable little worm" and demanded that he "face justice."

Sources close to Assange, however, say he himself was not aware of the secret talks between Ecuador and the UK, but believe America is piling "significant pressure" on Ecuador to hand him over.

They say Washington has threatened Quito with blocking a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) if Assange is not removed from the embassy.

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Russian Scientist Jailed as Moscow Probes Hypersonic Missile Secrets Leak

Sputnik News

23:00 24.07.2018

A scientist at Russia's space organization Roscosmos, 74-year-old Viktor Kudryavtsev, has been imprisoned in a Moscow jail run by the Federal Security Service (FSB), which has been been investigating a "treasonous" leak of hypersonic missile secrets to Western intelligence agencies.

The FSB raided the premises of two Roscosmos facilities Friday morning, Sputnik News reported. It was suspected that an employee of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TSNIIMASH), near Moscow, was responsible for leaking secrets about the technology, which the United States reportedly fears it's still utterly incapable of countering.

Roscosmos confirmed that Kudryavtsev has been detained. They've also created a commission to investigate TSNIIMASH and rebutted reports that another employee has been arrested.

Roscosmos spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko on Monday confirmed that the organization has opened an internal probe which will start investigative work later in the week, according to the Daily Mail.

Kudryavtsev claimed he's not guilty of the charge of treason, according to statements from the scientist's son.

Around 10 people were believed to have cooperated with intelligence agencies from unknown Western countries.

Russia's hypersonic missiles were revealed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a speech in March in which he described them as "invincible." They're also said to be capable of destroying an aircraft carrier and striking anywhere in the world. Some are reportedly in service already, but most are believed to be still in development.

The US Department of Defense is now seeking $20 million from Congress to pay for the development of its own hypersonic weapons.

 Sputnik

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Russian Spies Hide in Plain Sight

By Jamie Dettmer July 24, 2018

In the pre-Internet era, spies faced more challenges than now when trying to infiltrate Western political circles in order to gather information, identify potential recruits, enlist the assistance of sympathizers and mount active operations, like meddling in a foreign country's election.

Now they have the benefit of Facebook and LinkedIn and other social-media networking sites to expand their contacts, say former and current U.S. and British intelligence officials.

Western governments accuse Russian intelligence services of exploiting widely for propaganda purposes social media platforms, where they can plant "fake news," deepen political discord in adversary states and mount influence campaigns in a bid to shape Western public opinion. But Russian spies  as opposed to trolls  are using networking sites also in highly sophisticated ways to work their way into Western political circles.

Maria Butina, the latest Russian female alleged spy who U.S. prosecutors believe they have unmasked, is an object lesson in how social media can assist covert influence operations  and not solely as propaganda platforms aimed at swaying or warping public opinion, says a U.S. counter-intelligence official who asked not to be identified for this article.

In the pre-internet era Russian influence-peddlers had to make do with trawling for "targets" at think tank and embassy events, political conferences and trade fairs. But now they can combine the physical and virtual. "Butina was using old tradecraft, turning up at political events, making contacts and then befriending them on Facebook or LinkedIn and vice versa. Social media platforms are useful in mapping out friendship networks and opening doors," he adds.

Butina, 29, was charged last week with acting as an agent for the Kremlin in the United States. The Justice Department alleges she was in regular contact with Russian intelligence services. She has been indicted for conspiracy to operate on behalf of the Russian government and failing to register as a foreign agent.

She has not been formally charged with espionage  most likely as her role was not to steal state and military secrets but to insinuate her way into U.S. political circles in ways useful for Russia's foreign-policy aims, including deepening partisanship in Western countries and opening up avenues of influence.

Federal prosecutors accuse Butina of conspiring with two American citizens, one of whom she cohabited with, and a top Russian official to influence U.S. policy toward Russia by infiltrating the National Rifle Association gun rights group and other conservative special interest groups potentially influential on the Trump administration.

U.S. prosecutors allege in a memorandum filed in support of a request for Butina to be held in detention while she awaits trial that the Russian gun-rights activist "maintained contact information for individuals identified as employees of the Russian FSB." Additionally, prosecutors claim FBI surveillance observed Butina having a private meal with a Russian diplomat whom the U.S. government expelled in March 2018 for suspicion of being a Russian intelligence officer.

From court papers filed by U.S. prosecutors last week it remains unclear whether her operation was initiated by Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, or whether it was conceived by her patron, Alexander Torshin, a Russian central banker, as a way to boost himself within the Kremlin administration, with the FSB only getting involved subsequently.

A former British counter-intelligence officer says that's a distinction without much meaning in a Kremlin administration seeded with so-called siloviki, Russian intelligence officers who have formally left the security agencies but are considered still active by Western intelligence officials. Many occupy high-ranking positions in the government of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer.

Among the more traditional tradecraft techniques Butina allegedly used was offering sex to cozy up to U.S. politicians and lobbyists; in one case, according to U.S. prosecutors, to try to secure a job with an American special interest organization she had targeted. She lived with a Republican political operative twice her age. He has been identified in U.S. media as lobbyist Paul Erickson. She chafed, though, at the cohabitation, and, according to prosecutors she treated the relationship "as simply a necessary aspect of her activities."

Butina has pled not guilty. Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, says all she was doing was trying to help improve relations between the United States and Vladimir Putin's Russia. And he denies she's a spy, telling CNN Friday that much of the case against her was "taken completely out of context."

Butina, who came to the United States in 2014 on a student visa, founded a pro-gun group in Russia called Right to Bear Arms and used gun activism in what U.S. prosecutors allege was a "calculated, patient" plan directed by Torshin to infiltrate the NRA and conservative special interest groups to make inroads into American political circles. Social media platforms were highly useful in the endeavor as she cut a swathe through U.S. conservative politics, boasting on her Facebook page of meetings with, among others, former Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Scott Walker, the current Wisconsin governor.

In one e-mail to Butina, disclosed in court papers, Torshin praised her efforts, comparing them to Kremlin agent Anna Chapman, another flame-haired Russian who gained international notoriety after her 2010 arrest in the United States. Chapman and a handful of other Russians were deported to Russia in July 2010, as part of a prisoner exchange. "You have upstaged Anna Chapman," Torshin declared.

Journalist Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News had a front seat view of Butina's methods. He co-authored with David Corn the book "Russian Roulette: The Inside Story Of Putin's War On America And The Election Of Donald Trump" and had been tracking Butina's activities.

He said she and Torshin had been making efforts to influence American conservative political organizations. He told the American public broadcaster NPR in an interview:

"As we reported in the book  David Corn and I  there's a Republican lobbyist who remembers being approached by her at a CPAC conference  Conservative Political Action Conference  and just being struck by how solicitous she was, how she wanted to stay in touch with him and become his Facebook friend. And this is a somewhat elderly gentleman, balding, wasn't used to this kind of attention from a young, attractive Russian woman."

Hiding in plain sight on the internet, using overtly social media networking platforms holds risks, too. Being active on Facebook increases the chance of exposure, prompting the attention of counter-intelligence watchers, as well as journalists. In an e-mail exchange with VOA, Isikoff noted, he "friended' her [on Facebook] in order to get in touch so I could interview her."

And a U.S. counter-intelligence official says Butina drew attention to herself as much by her social media activity as her physical activities. So much so that she was called to testify earlier this year by the Senate Intelligence Committee, during which, according to CNN she disclosed her gun activism received funding from Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev, another Kremlin-tied oligarch.

The Butina case is adding to an unfolding picture of a sophisticated and disruptive covert Russian influence campaign in the United States and the West, with the Kremlin targeting both sides of the political spectrum, say Western officials. In Soviet times, Moscow focused on far-left parties and nuclear-disarmament groups, but as a 2014 report by the Budapest-based think tank Political Capital noted, the Kremlin in recent years has become more sophisticated, courting overtly and covertly groups on the populist right of the Western political spectrum as well as the left.

The politically ambidextrous nature now of Russian intelligence and influence campaigns was dramatically captured during the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Kremlin-funded RT broadcaster in December 2015, when Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was an invitee to a gala dinner. She sat at the same table as President Putin  along with Gen. Mike Flynn, who served briefly as President Donald Trump's national security adviser, before pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts he had with Russian officials during Trump's presidential transition.

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Coalition Strikes Kill High-Value ISIS Members

July 24, 2018

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Coalition strikes have killed six Islamic State of Iraq and Syria leaders and planners since April 24, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials announced today.

The removal of these leaders has prevented ISIS external attack planning, facilitation and operations targeting Saudi Arabia, the United States and Sweden, officials said.

Munawwar al-Mutayari, a Syria-based ISIS member planning external attacks to be carried out in Saudi Arabia, was killed by a coalition kinetic strike April 24.

A Belgian, Soufiane Makouh, who came to Syria to plan attacks against the U.S and its interests, was killed by a kinetic strike June 2.

On June 12, coalition forces conducted a kinetic strike against Simak, an ISIS intelligence official linked to a terror cell plotting attacks in Sweden. Two additional individuals directly associated with the Sweden attack plot, Abu Awf and Abu-Quddamah, were killed on June 24. Additionally, Swedish attack cell member Sharif al-Ragab was killed June 26.

"With its conventional forces under heavy pressure in Syria, [ISIS] is desperately seeking to remain relevant through operations that threaten all the nations of the world," said Army Brig. Gen. Brian Eifler, CJTF-OIR director of operations. "The coalition and its partners will continue to deny [ISIS] safe havens in Syria and Iraq in order to disrupt the terrorist group's capabilities to plan, coordinate and carry out attacks on the nations of the world."

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Progress Continues in Defeating ISIS, Coalition Official Says

July 24, 2018

By Lisa Ferdinando

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON -- The coalition and its partnered forces in Iraq and Syria continue to make progress in the effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the coalition's senior French representative said today.

Brig. Gen. Frederic Parisot of the French air force, the director of civil-military operations for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, provided an operational update briefing to Pentagon reporters today via videoconference from Baghdad.

Coalition strikes in April and June killed six high-value terrorist leaders responsible for planning terror operations overseas, Parisot announced. He credited the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Iraqi security forces and the coalition for the progress in defeating the terrorists.

"Thanks to the operations conducted by the SDF, ISF and the coalition, we are stopping [ISIS] from being able to conduct terror across the world and degrading the ability to plan and finance such operations," he said.

In a news release, the coalition said the removal of the six terrorists has prevented ISIS' external attack planning, facilitation and operations targeting Saudi Arabia, Sweden and the United States.

The release says those killed were a Syrian-based ISIS member planning attacks in Saudi Arabia; a Belgian foreign fighter who came to Syria to plan attacks against the United States and its interests; and four people linked to a Swedish attack plot.

Focus on ISIS Defeat

Parisot detailed other progress in the fight, including the Iraqi security forces working with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in joint operations to clear an area in the mountains near Kirkuk, Iraq.

Additionally, along Iraq's western border, the Iraqi forces continue to prevent terrorists from pouring into Iraq while the coalition continues to provide intelligence, overwatch and fire support to partner force on the ground, he said.

Parisot pointed out that Operation Roundup is in its 84th day of activating the offensive to defeat ISIS remnants in the Middle Euphrates River Valley. He noted the recent liberation of Dashishah in Syria, which was among the last terrorist strongholds in the area.

"Thanks to the combined SDF ground offensive, strikes by coalition and Iraqi forces and border security operation by the ISF, Dashishah has been freed after four years of tyrannical [ISIS] rule," he said.

Fight to 'Finally Rid the World' of ISIS

France is steadfast in its support to the coalition, Parisot said, highlighting the strikes French forces have conducted operations as well as providing the training and other support French forces provide toward the defeat-ISIS effort.

"My country knows firsthand the horrific acts that [ISIS] is willing and capable of committing, and that's why we will remain committed to this fight," he said.

He said the 1,100 French forces in Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are working side by side with coalition nations at the forefront of efforts to defeat ISIS.

"France is honored to stand among the 72 nations and five international organizations that comprise the most successful international coalition ever formed," he said. "We remain committed to the fight to finally rid the world of [ISIS] once and for all"

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U.S., Australia Hold Consultations on Indo-Pacific Defense, Economic Development

July 24, 2018

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis hosted Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister Marise Payne July 23-24 for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California.

Holding the meeting near the birthplace of the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty was a fitting affirmation of the vitality of the alliance and the significance of the Indo-Pacific region to the two nations' shared future, state department officials announced today in a joint U.S.-Australian statement following the meeting.

As President Donald J. Trump and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declared when they met at the White House in February, officials said, "the U.S.-Australia alliance is steadfast and enduring, and underpinned by a deep alignment of mutual interests and shared values."

This year marks a century since U.S. and Australian forces first fought side by side at the Battle of Hamel in northern France in 1918, officials noted. "From the battlefields of Europe to this contested century, there are no greater friends than Australia and the United States," the officials said.

Indo-Pacific Region

The secretaries and ministers emphasized both nations' strong and deepening engagement in the Indo-Pacific region and made clear their commitment to work together -- and with partners -- to shape an Indo-Pacific that is open, inclusive, prosperous, and rules based, officials said. "A key outcome of discussions in Palo Alto is a joint work plan that advances our shared strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific, which has diplomatic, security and economic dimensions," the officials said.

U.S. and Australian officials highlighted the priority each places on supporting an international rules-based order, alongside allies and partners. "In the Indo-Pacific, that order has underpinned decades of stability, democracy and prosperity," officials said.

Officials from the two nations reaffirmed their strong support for Association of Southeast Asian Nations centrality and the ASEAN-led regional architecture, officials said, and discussed ways to expand cooperation in connectivity, infrastructure and energy security. "They welcomed the recent U.S.-Australia-India-Japan consultations on the Indo-Pacific in Singapore and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen trilateral dialogue with Japan," officials said. "Both nations continue to place a high priority on constructive and beneficial engagement with China."

Defense Cooperation

The secretaries and ministers highlighted the importance of U.S.-Australia defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly through full implementation of force posture initiatives between U.S. and Australian forces in Australia, officials said. They also emphasized the value of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin and enhanced air cooperation for improving the interoperability of U.S. and Australian defense forces.

The two nations highlighted their commitment to raising the number of U.S. Marines rotating to Darwin to the full complement of 2,500 as soon as practicable, officials said. They committed to strengthening bilateral security partnerships with like-minded nations in the Indo-Pacific region through joint training and exercise opportunities.

The principals also decided to integrate U.S. force elements into Australia's annual Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercise, officials said. The three-month exercise is aimed at deepening Australia's engagement and partnerships with regional security forces, according to the Australian Ministry of Defense. During this year's iteration, Australian Defense Force personnel will carry out a series of engagement activities and military training exercises during port visits in Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Mattis and Payne committed to strengthening defense collaboration in science and technology, and signed a memorandum of understanding to perform critical research and development of advanced cyber capabilities, officials said. Under this memorandum, Australia and the U.S. will be able to jointly leverage each other's strengths and technical expertise to collaboratively develop tools and software to address cyber and other security threats, the officials noted.

Economic Development

The secretaries and ministers committed to increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation on economic development in the Indo-Pacific region, recognizing that security and prosperity are mutually reinforcing, officials said. "Our two governments will work together, and with partners, to support principles based and sustainable infrastructure development in the region, which will promote growth and stability," the officials said.

The U.S. and Australia also decided to collaborate to reduce the threat of emerging infectious diseases in the Indo-Pacific region, officials added, and to advance the Global Health Security Agenda and reinforce objectives of Australia's Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific.

The principals emphasized that militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea is contrary to the region's desire for peaceful development, and reiterated the obligation to respect freedom of navigation and overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea, in accordance with international law, the officials said. Both sides called for the code of conduct for the South China Sea to be consistent with existing international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to support existing regional architecture, to reinforce the parties' commitment to cease actions that complicate disputes and not to prejudice the interests of third parties or the rights of all states under international law, officials said.

North Korea, Regional Security

The allies welcomed the face-to-face talks between the leaders of the United States and North Korea and pledged to maintain pressure and strengthen cooperation to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea.

The secretaries and ministers support closer cooperation to promote the security, stability, resilience, and development of Pacific Island countries, officials said. "They highlighted the importance of strengthening regional information sharing, maritime security and domain awareness," the officials noted.

Australia welcomed U.S. commitment to support the Australian Pacific Security College to deliver security and law enforcement training at the leadership level for Australian and Pacific region partners. The two nations also committed to coordinate sustainable capacity-building activities for Pacific Island countries with partners, officials said.

The two countries reaffirmed their determination to oppose actions that seek to undermine the international rules-based order. Noting the fourth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was July 17, the principals condemned the downing and expressed full confidence in the findings of the Joint Investigation Team concerning Russia's role, the officials said. The principals further called on Russia to cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability, including the process initiated by Australia and the Netherlands to establish the truth and achieve justice for the victims and their next of kin.

The secretaries and ministers underscored their shared commitment to the lasting defeat in Iraq and Syria of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and to support Afghanistan, including through their nations' development assistance and NATO's train, advise, and assist mission to the Afghan security forces, the officials said.

The U.S. and Australia reaffirmed the importance of continued cooperation on counterterrorism and countering violent extremism efforts in Southeast Asia.

Australia will host next year's Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, the officials said.

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Talks Bolster U.S.-Australia Security Relationship, Mattis Says

July 24, 2018

Terri Moon Cronk

DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON -- The 28th talks between the United States and Australia were an excellent opportunity to bolster the security relationship and reaffirm the steadfast alliance and close collaboration between the two nations, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis said today.

Mattis and Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo hosted Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister Marise Payne yesterday and today for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California.

During a news conference following the talks, the defense secretary said the two nations in the last year have strengthened their defense cooperation in many tangible ways -- finalizing their respective national security and defense strategies to address shared threats, and increasing their coordination of joint-capabilities development.

"We've enhanced our interoperability in our cooperation in the [Indo-Pacific] region through [Rim of the Pacific] and other exercises that's continuing our 100-year tradition of teamwork -- or 'mateship' as our friends from Down Under call it," Mattis said.

Cyber Memorandum Signed

The defense secretary and Payne signed a memorandum of understanding to enable both countries to do research and development and combine their cyber capabilities.

A Marine Corps rotational force in Darwin, Australia, "reached the previously agreed-upon number of 2,500 on a timeline determined by our host and partner, Australia," Mattis noted. "These actions, to borrow a phrase from Minister Payne, demonstrate that the United States and Australia will walk the walk in the Indo-Pacific."

The two countries share the same strategic goal: to ensure a free, open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific, where nations large and small are respected and accorded the protection of international law, he said.

"The joint work plan we put forth today helped bring this goal to fruition with concrete steps to help U.S.-Australia cooperation across our governments by further integrating our combined military operations and committing to step up U.S.-Australian cooperation and engagement across the region, including the Pacific islands," Mattis said.

Keeping Pressure on North Korea

The defense secretary said the four officials also agreed to keep the pressure on the North Korean regime's denuclearization through the enforcement of the U.N. Security Council's international sanctions, imposed with the council's unanimous backing to prevent ship-to-ship transfers of energy supplies.

"We have also partnered on defense innovation," Mattis said. "There, we will explore all opportunities for deeper defense industry collaboration, now that Australia is included in the U.S. national technology and industrial base."

Overall, discussions the two nations centered on cooperation on numerous issues that strengthen U.S.-Australian response to various security challenges, he said.

"Australia has been an unwavering friend, standing with us through thick and thin," Mattis said. "And it was demonstrated by being the first ally on the ground beside us in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attack on America -- an attack that cost 11 Australian citizens their lives during the hit on New York City."

And the United States does not forget the families of the Australian soldiers who have fallen alongside U.S. service members, he added.

"I'm confident our enduring and unflappable 'mateship' will continue to grow and flourish for another 100 years," Mattis said.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: French Brig. Gen. Frederic Parisot, director, Civil-Military Operations, Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve July 24, 2018

Department Of Defense Press Briefing by French General Parisot via Teleconference from Baghdad, Iraq

STAFF: Good morning. We've already done our audio check. This brief should last approximately 45 minutes.

Today we have Brigadier General Frederic Parisot, director of Civil-Military Operations for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve from Baghdad, Iraq. He'll be giving an update on operations, stabilization efforts and French contributions.

Sir, the floor is yours.

BRIGADIER GENERAL FREDERIC PARISOT: Good morning, everyone.

Today I'll provide an update on current operations in Iraq and Syria, and will follow by an update on stabilization efforts in our areas of operation, as well as contribution French forces have made to the fight.

In Iraq, the Iraqi Security Forces continue to secure the country in order to prevent the resurgence of Daesh, and set the conditions for stabilization efforts to take place.

In the (inaudible) Mountains near Kirkuk, the ISF and the Peshmerga conducted joint operations to clear the area of Daesh presence and other malign actors. Their ongoing coordination in the area shows that Iraqi forces are most effective when all forces are cooperating and working together.

Along the western border, the ISF continues to prevent terrorists from pouring into Iraq, while the coalition continues to provide intel, overwatch and fire support to our partner force on the ground.

In Sinjar, Fire Base Um Jurius was relocated in July -- on July 4th, after 34 days of combined operations between the coalition and the ISF. Established to provide support to ground operations against Daesh in Syria, the relocation of assets from Fire Base Um Jurius reflects the changing mission in Syria.

In Syria, Operation Roundup is on its 84th day of activating the offensive to defeat Daesh remnants in the Middle Euphrates River Valley, the MERV.

Last week, we announced the completion of the reversion of Dashisha, one of the last remaining Daesh strongholds in the MERV. Thanks to the combined SDF ground offensive, strikes by coalition and Iraqi forces, and border security operation by the ISF, Dashisha has been freed after four years of tyrannical Daesh rule.

While operations shift towards the last Daesh territory east of the Euphrates in Hajin the SDF will continue to clear and secure Dashisha in order to create conditions that would allow stabilization efforts there.

I'd like to announce the deaths of a number of Daesh leaders who were responsible for planning terror operations overseas. The names and suspected activities of the six individuals eliminated from the battlefield in the month of April and June are detailed in a press release that goes out tonight.

Thanks to the operations conducted by the SDF, ISF and the coalition, we are stopping Daesh from being able to conduct terror across the world and degrading their ability to plan and finance such operations.

Nevertheless, the death of these terrorists demonstrate that Daesh remains committed to planning and executing terror operations to places far beyond Syria and Iraq. And my country knows firsthand the horrific acts that Daesh is willing and capable of committing. And that's why we will remain committed to this fight.

I'd like, also, to talk about stabilization efforts in the area of operation.

The military is not the lead for stabilization. However, we acknowledge that stabilization is critical to the success of our mission to defeat Daesh. We fail to defeat Daesh if stabilization is not successful.

The stabilization effort is taking place just after major combat operations to enable the safe and voluntary return of internally displaced persons, or IDPs, to their region of origin, and restore basic services like water, electricity, shelter, education and social services. It comes ahead of reconstruction, which is a longer-term enterprise.

Stabilization is mainly done by international, governmental and non-governmental organizations. It has to ensure short-term needs of the Iraqi and Syrian people to rebuild their lives after the destruction brought by Daesh's tyrannical rule.

As the director of civ-mil affairs to for the coalition, I have seen firsthand the steady progress of our partners in Syria and Iraq.

The numbers of displaced persons, for example, continues to decrease, with less than 2 million Iraqis in camps. They were just under 2.8 million seven months ago.

The positive trends in these numbers indicate that the ISF is creating the safety necessary for people to return home and rebuild their lives. However, we cannot emphasize enough the urgent need for the international community to ensure that stabilization efforts in Iraq and Syria are sustained to be successful.

The United Nations Development Program's Funding Facility for Stabilization, the primary mechanism for immediate stabilization in Iraq, says that $500 million is urgently needed to fund the project as well as stabilization efforts in the liberated areas. Half of it is just for Mosul and northern Iraq. In Syria, the need is equally great.

Let us remember that the evil threat of Daesh did not end in the borders of Iraq and Syria. The Iraqis and the Syrians found themselves in the front line of a global war and that threat is about to be defeated thanks to their sacrifices.

It is now the global community's turn to prevent terror groups such as Daesh from gaining power again. And to achieve this we must make sure that returning IDPs are safe, they can rebuild their lives, and are given livelihood opportunities.

Finally, I would like to highlight the contributions of French forces as part of the coalition.

It's been a privilege to act as the senior national representative for the 1,100 French forces in Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that are working side by side with the 26 troop-contributing nations at the forefront of our efforts to defeat Daesh.

The 10 Rafale aircraft that are currently located in the region have conducted approximately 1,400 sorties and struck 130 targets in the past year, while our artillery CAESAR guns have conducted more than 500 missions resulting in more than 150 enemy targets neutralized.

Additionally, French forces have also been a part of the coalition effort to enhance the ISF capabilities to secure the homeland and to fight terror groups such as Daesh.

Task Force Monsabert and Task Force Narvik, our two main French training forces in Iraq, have trained more than 2,000 forces from the Iraqi counter-terrorism services and the 6th Iraqi Army Division in the last year, while continuing to enable Iraqi trainers to train the fellow service members.

Sadly, while we share the successes of the coalition and of our partner force in defeating Daesh, several coalition troops have made ultimate sacrifice in our goal to rid the world of the threat of Daesh. This includes two French soldiers, and let us always remember the service and sacrifice of Sergeant Major Stephane Grenier, who died in September of 2017, and Corporal Bogusz Pochlyski, who died in March '18.

Whatever the price, we will continue to fight until Daesh is defeated.

France is honored to stand among the 72 nations and five international organizations that comprise the most successful international coalition ever formed. We remain committed to the fight to finally rid the world of Daesh once and for all.

And with that, I'll take your questions.

STAFF: For all questions, please provide your full name and agency prior to asking your questions. All called on will have an opportunity to ask one question and a brief follow up due to our limited time.

And with that, Voice of America?

Q: Thank you so much for doing this, General. Carla Babb from Voice of America.

I was wondering what you have seen of Iranian forces and Iranian-backed forces in Syria. Are they near your forces or have they backed away?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, thank you for the questions.

As we understand, it was about, you know, Iran forces in -- in Syria. We -- we don't, you know, in -- in our area, there's no Iran forces. We -- we do not, you know, obviously work against these people.

You know, Iran is in Syria, that most, you know, the -- they work with the regime and -- and not -- not in the parts that we are in charge of. And so, you know, to answer your question quickly, no we haven't seen any Iraqi forces there.

STAFF: Kasim?

Q: Yes, General, hi. Thank you. Kasim Ileri with Anadolu agency.

What role does the French forces play currently in Manbij? Are they going to join the joint patrol with the Turkish forces there?

Thank you.

GEN. PARISOT: Well, on this, you know, the French forces are where they need to be. And I'll refer to, you know, the declaration of the French president that says, you know, that -- he owns the location.

And I cannot comment on specific locations, but basically, you know, the French have been involved in many of the, you know -- since 2014 in all of the operations, and -- and I cannot comment on specific missions or locations.

Q: And I would like to use my follow-up for a separate question, if possible.

The military and civilian councils in northern Syria have their social media operations and also political affairs activities. Does the coalition provide funds for resourcing those type of media-oriented activities in northern Syria?

GEN. PARISOT: Can you confirm that you were talking about the Manbij military councils, right?

Q: Not only Manbij military councils, Raqqa civilian councils, Raqqa protection -- Raqqa military councils and all other councils under the SDF have their social media and also public affairs activities. So my question is whether the coalition provides funds or supports those kinds of activities.

GEN. PARISOT: Okay, thanks.

What we do in northern Syria is we support the military forces. So it's part of the training that we're doing to support the people that actually liberated northern Syria.

And so, we limit our help to the military side of you know the local forces and not to the civilian councils. So basically, we train them as security forces to make sure that they can handle any resurgence of any kind of threat. And for this actually they're doing a pretty good job.

Q: Thank you very much.

STAFF: Tara?

Q: Hi, sir. Tara Copp, Military Times.

A few minutes ago you said whatever the price, you'll continue to fight until Daesh is defeated. Could you define for us when will you know that ISIS is defeated? What signs are you looking for to be able to then withdraw, stop providing the military support for this operation?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, now we're still engaged in major combat operations. And I won't -- I can't speculate, on when it's going to end.

We provide, you know, the best military advice for the political level, but basically, you know, as long as there is a military mission, I guess we are going to stay.

And you know, we're still in combat against Daesh in the last place they are. Our immediate goal is to defeat Daesh for good.

And obviously doesn't mean that, you know, Daesh will be erased from the area. But at least they don't have any more capacity initially to hold land. And then obviously we're going to have, you know -- make sure that Daesh is not able to come back as a combat force.

And to do this, we train -- on one side we train the Iraqi Security Forces, who are actually doing a very good job there, and on the other side, you know, we train the northeast Syrian Defense Force -- you know security forces that actually are doing, as well, a good job.

So you know, we are involved in the military operations and then, you know, it's going to be up to the coalition as a whole and the French government to decide, you know, what will be next. And that's policy and that's not military business.

Q: (inaudible) sir, but as a follow-up, so if Daesh can't hold land and get to the point where there are no additional major combat operations, but it's just conducting, say, low-level insurgency attacks, does that still count for supporting a military presence and, you know, military operations against that organization?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, this is really a policy issue.

At our level in the CJTF, you know, our mission is to defeat Daesh and now what's next is are things still to be decided? We're still in the fight for at least two or three months. And then obviously you know there will be more decisions.

But what is very important to my country is the capacity of Daesh to be able to project, you know, power outside of Syria and Iraq. And obviously this is something that our government is informed on by, you know, obviously our intelligence partners, (inaudible) the contact with the coalition.

And I think it's the effort of all the coalition to make sure that, you know, after a major combat operation stay enough to defeat Daesh on a permanent basis.

STAFF: Tom?

Q: Good morning -- good afternoon, sir. Tom Squitiere with Talk Media News.

I have a clarification of something you answered earlier and then my question.

My clarification is on the number of French troops you've provided. Of all the countries you listed, you did not say Syria. Was that an oversight by you? Does that number include French troops in Syria?

And then my question is a follow-up to what Tara just asked in a sense. For the last six weeks, the press release coming out of Central Command talks about how the coalition is going after remnants of ISIS, of Daesh -- remnants of ISIS, of Daesh. Each week it's the same press release, the same lead, the same headline, yet you're saying now that there's been -- going to be a major -- there's a major effort, a major logjam to get rid of Daesh. Which is it?

Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

GEN. PARISOT: Merci a vous.

To -- for your first question, you know, I cannot detail where our forces are. They are where they need to be, and I'm sorry I can't go further than that.

But, you know, I'm in charge of all the forces and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Regarding the remnants of Daesh, you know, you know, we have already, you know, in Iraq, in the remnants of Daesh. And obviously, you know, we are more into very small groups, you know. And -- and that's where -- because they are desperate, you know, they can hide, in some very remote places. And basically, if they last, then we're going to strike them.

So right now they're still, you know, down the MERV between Hajin and Abu Kamal. That would be the last place they own so far.

But, you know, in the coming weeks, hopefully, we're going to get rid of that place. And basically, that will be the end of any land owned by Daesh or ruled by Daesh.

And obviously, you know, they won't disappear like that. So with the ISF, the Iraqi Security Forces, with the Syrian Democratic Forces, we're going to make sure that, you know, they cannot gather their forces again.

And obviously, for that there will be a transition, a slow transition to the end of the mission. It won't happen overnight.

So basically, you know, smaller group. We talk about a few individuals, you know, that they are trying to get away from our surveillance, because if we see them, we're going to kill them.

And now, they're really in the disarray. They're in a really disorganized manner. And -- although they are still dangerous. So, I mean, we need to keep an eye on these guys and that's what we do every day.

STAFF: Ryan?

Q: General, Ryan Browne with CNN.

I have a question in your stabilization, civil affairs capacity and then one as you're French senior representative.

Stabilization-wise, we're told that the training of local security forces was kind of a key part of making sure that Daesh does not come back. How is that going? How many forces have you trained in Raqqa, for instance? And how many more would you need to train until you're comfortable?

And then I have one question as the capacity as a senior representative.

GEN. PARISOT: Okay. So regarding that first question, obviously, you know, part of our mission is -- the stabilization part, is to make sure that, on one side, the Iraqi Security Forces, and the other side, you know, the security forces of the SDF, would be able to handle security.

So people that are in camps, when they want to go back home or to go back to the place where they belong, they need to feel safe.

And safety is not only, you know, a military presence that they can accept. Safety is also, you know, a place they can live. It's also having water, having electricity.

So, I mean, it's a whole effort. And as I said in my statement, you know, this is not led by the military. But the military helps in terms of making sure that people, they can return home and have a safer environment, you know, in terms of making sure that they -- they not attack, they're not at risk. And that's something that is very, very important.

Regarding numbers for Raqqa, I don't have the numbers off the top of my head. But, you know, maybe we can come back to you with the numbers.

But you know, the work with the Raqqa Security Forces is actually to make sure that they can handle not a war-fight threat, you know, but more like small cells. Also the crime, you know, because every time there is damage to a city, obviously the first thing that goes up, the number of crimes.

So they need to be able to make sure that the city is safe in terms of having checkpoints outside the city so people come in, they don't have, you know, IDs or (inaudible) IDs. So that's all the work.

And obviously, you know, as we're going to go along, the -- the training of these people, we -- we make sure that they can handle, you know, anything from low crime to, you know, gangs and stuff like that.

But really, they're doing a very good job in terms of providing security to the people of Raqqa, at least, which were liberated back in October.

Q: Just one question in your term as a French -- in your French capacity.

There's widely reported that about a dozen French nationals are -- that had fought for ISIS are being held by the SDF in detention facilities. Do -- do you, do French forces have access to these individuals? And they're working to repatriate them back to France?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, on this question, it's quite clear. First of all, the government of France said that they don't want these people back. So I mean, that's a policy statement.

So I'm -- and obviously, it's not part of my mission. I'm here to be, you know, in the fight against Daesh and not dealing with other things.

So probably, the SDF are talking to, you know, the nations. But this is not something I'm involved to. So I'm sorry, but I cannot answer your question there.

You know, that -- that's all I'll say about that. I don't know more about this. I'm sorry.

STAFF: Sylvie?

Q: Bonjour, General. Sylvie Lanteaume from Agence France-Presse. I'm going to ask my question in English, though.

The -- the -- it's a question about the -- in Qatar, the Qatari are going to announce today -- or are announcing -- the extension of the update -- update. And you said there are some French base there. And I wanted to know if it's an extension that was requested by the coalition and if it's something that the French are going to benefit from.

GEN. PARISOT: Well, thanks for the question.

It's news to me.

So obviously, you know, in Al Udeid Air Base, that's where the command of the air -- air force component is. It's -- it's a base that, you know, is owned by -- by the Qataris. So I guess they're going to have bilateral agreements with the, with the, you know, the country that will benefit from that.

But since the French perspective, there was, I guess, no request from us. And now our forces in the area will stay steady for the foreseeable future.

So if it's open to other nations, that's something I don't know.

STAFF: Elizabeth?

Q: Hi, General. Elizabeth McLaughlin with ABC News.

I have -- my question's answered by (inaudible) so I'll ask a different one.

Do you have a latest estimate for how many ISIS fighters are still inside Syria?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, this is probably hard to say, because, you know -- and I won't speculate on specific numbers, but, you know, one ISIS is one ISIS too many.

You know, just so we expect to have, you know, a few hundred of them at least, you know. But again, we don't know how many but we make sure that we kill, you know, all of them.

That's, you know, the best answer I can have. You know, it's to say. But you know the best intelligence we have is that we've got a limited number, but they're going to fight hard, and that's for sure.

So I mean, we expect to have a tough fight in the last, you know, place where ISIS is, but the good thing is they are trapped. You know, the Iraqis are doing a very good job in making sure that they cannot leave on the east side of the area. And we hope that know the regime and the Russians will do the same on the southern side. So basically they're trapped there and if they are trapped there, we're going to kill them.

Q: Thanks.

Can I get your assessment about how you're working with your Russian partners? I know the U.S. uses the deconfliction line, but what's your assessment about a potential military partnership with Russia inside Syria?

GEN. PARISOT: So I understand your question, it is about working with the Russians -- is that -- is that just for the French or is that for the coalition?

Q: What is your assessment of whether that would be beneficial to the French and the coalition in terms of a military partnership with Russia?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, to be clear, we don't have any, you know, partnership with Russia.

I mean, we deconflict what we do for the safety of our forces on the ground, we make sure that our forces are not at risk if -- if the Russians are at this level.

So basically it's a political level I think that the -- you know the -- probably what you refer to is at the political level, but at the military level, it's a deconfliction.

Although it's very professional, we need to recognize that, you know, the dialogue between the general officers at this level is very, very professional, but it's a safety issue for our forces there, and that's the only reason why we talk to the Russians.

Q: Thank you.

Q: Hey, sir. Corey Dickstein with Stars & Stripes. Appreciate you doing this.

I wanted to see, can you give us an idea of the amount of land at this last area that ISIS controls, that the -- size I guess of the land area?

GEN. PARISOT: I think -- on top of my head, I think it's about 30 kilometers by 10. I mean, it's quite small. We -- we'll get back to you with the exact number, but basically it's roughly in that area you know, place there.

So it's quite small. There are a few cities in there, but the rest of the land is kind of open, so we hope that the last combat will go very quickly.

And obviously the main threat there is the IEDs. We expect Daesh, like they did in Raqqa, like they did in Dashisha, to leave behind certainly a lot of IEDs.

So I mean, we expect to have, you know, a very overwhelming force from the SDF. But actually, it's going to be -- it might be slow because of the other threat.

And for example, in Dashisha, you know the fight is over but they're still back-clearing to make sure that people can go back to the houses and can start, having a new life after, for example, in Dashisha, four years under Daesh rule.

So it's actually quite amazing to see the resilience of these people. Right after the clearance, they come back and they try to open markets. And it's quite amazing to see these people, how they react to that liberation of, you know, from ISIS.

So that's what's we expect from the MERV as well. But more houses, so probably more work on the back-clearance.

STAFF: If we have any other questions from the floor before I -- before I go to follow-ups?

Okay, I did -- I did note a couple of follow-ups. Kasim?

Q: General, thanks.

You -- in a talk to Tara, you mentioned northern Syrian Defense Force. General, could you please explain what is this northern Syrian Defense Force, and what type of trainings are you providing them? Is it -- does -- does it include border security?

GEN. PARISOT: So it's the Syrian Democratic Force, you know. And they're going to have what we call security forces, which is, you know, because after the fight, and it's the same actually on the Iraqi side, they need to be able to, you know, concentrate the gains they had on the military side after the operations.

So it's very different from, you know, gaining -- I'm not an army guy, but you know gaining terrain is different from keeping terrain. So we are training them to keep terrain. And there is no border, you know, forces in that training.

Q: Thank you.

STAFF: Tara?

Q: Thank you, sir.

As a follow-up on the 30 kilometers to 10 kilometers that's still being held by ISIS, do you have any estimates of how many civilians are held in that area?

And then separately, to get back to the -- the question of how many ISIS fighters remain, just wanting to see if you can explain this a little more. If you don't know how many ISIS fighters there are, how will you know when you've defeated them?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, we're getting the civilians -- you know ISIS understand, you know, the -- the war. So what they do is they take, you know, human shields, but actually they dress as well like civilians.

So I mean, we're going to be very, very cautious in terms of strikes and so on. And we make sure that, you know, when we strike, we positively ID, you know, someone that looks like Daesh.

And if it's going to take, if it takes some time, it's going to take some time. And basically, you know, that's, but we have gathered information for many, many months now. So we know where they are, we can see defensive positions, we can see a lot of what they do. So that's one point.

But for the second part, obviously we have numbers, you know. But in this forum, I cannot give you the numbers. And I'm sorry about that. But it's not ten of thousands, you know, and it's not, you know, smaller numbers.

So we have an idea of how many ISIS fighters there are. But, you know, once we clear the terrain, basically we know that we defeated the physical caliphate.

And as I said earlier, you know, there're going to be still groups living, there're going to be still groups, you know, moving. But it's going to be very, very small groups. Like -- like we -- we can -- they're going to hide after that, basically. You know.

And -- and hiding, when you hide you cannot fight. So that's -- that's the first step.

Q: Sure. And just respectfully, the numbers of civilians in the territory that's still held by ISIS -- do you have any estimates on the numbers of civilians that are still living there?

GEN. PARISOT: Sorry, we haven't made any census, you know?

So we know that a lot of civilians have fled, you know. And what we see now is that, you know, much more fighters than civilians.

But, you know, it's possible that civilians are held hostage, you know, as kind of, as a human shield. So I can't give you numbers, exact numbers. It's something that, you know, that it would be absolutely speculation there.

STAFF: We have time for just one more question.

Ryan?

Q: Yeah, General.

Just one last question on -- has -- have the French forces in Syria or in the region conducted any self-defense strikes against pro-regime forces, either aircraft or artillery or forces on the ground? Have they been in a situation where they've had to engage regime forces in self-defense?

GEN. PARISOT: No. We never had that, that case.

If, obviously, you know, if this happens, you know, basically we get (inaudible) engagement and it's very clear what we're supposed to do. And our pilots, our artillery, you know, men, and all the forces we have on the ground, they know exactly what to do in that case.

But we never had this case in the last three and a half years now.

STAFF: Thank you. That's all the time we have for your questions.

Sir, did you have any final words for the group here?

GEN. PARISOT: Well, first of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to talk to the Pentagon press. I was in the Pentagon a few years ago, so I know exactly where you are.

And, second, after a year here and I'm leaving in a few days, just I think the coalition is doing fantastic work in terms of first defeating Daesh and then and then training the forces.

So there is still work to do, you know. There is so we keep on killing the bad guys and making sure that the Iraqis and the northern Syrian people, they're going to have, you know, clear days ahead of them.

And you know, France is very proud to be a part of the coalition. We've been here since the first day. And as I said, we're going to stay until the fight is over.

Thank you very much.

STAFF: Sir, thank you very much for your time. Have a great day.

GEN. PARISOT: Thank you.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1583421/

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Spearhead Deploys, Marking the Start of Southern Partnership Station

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180724-07

Release Date: 7/24/2018 9:14:00 AM

From U.S. 4th Fleet Public Affairs

MAYPORT, Fla. (NNS) (NNS) -- The U.S. Navy deployed USNS Spearhead (T-EPF 1) in support of Southern Partnership Station (SPS) 2018 to the Caribbean, Central and South America to conduct subject matter expert exchanges and water well construction projects from July to October 2018.

SPS is an annual series of U.S. Navy deployments focused on exchanges with regional partner nation militaries and security forces. This year's deployment will visit Panama, Colombia, Honduras, El Salvador, and Trinidad and Tobago to work alongside those nations' military forces, security forces, civilian health professionals and other governmental agencies.

SPS 18 is a U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) directed deployment planned by U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command /U.S. 4th Fleet (USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT) and conducted by deployed adaptive force packages (AFPs) under the direction of the Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 40 staff.

AFPs are specialized teams of U.S. service members from the fields of engineering, diving, explosive ordnance disposal, and medical. They are embarked on Spearhead to work with partner nation forces during naval-focused training exercises, military-to-military engagements, and community relations projects in an effort to enhance partnerships with regional maritime activities and improve the operational readiness of participants while ensuring interoperability.

The AFPs are comprised of military personnel from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC), Navy Public Affairs Support Element (NPASE), Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 133, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 2, Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2, DESRON 40, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED), 55th Signal Company and U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC).

The deployment will focus on enhancing cooperative partnerships with regional maritime services and improving operational readiness for all participants. Additionally, the mission will provide an opportunity for U.S. and partner nations to operate in a multinational environment, refine coordination, improve interoperability and demonstrate flexibility. Assigned units will focus on locally-identified needs to include port and harbor security, health service systems and humanitarian response infrastructure.

USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT supports USSOUTHCOM's joint and combined full-spectrum military operations by providing principally sea-based, forward presence to ensure freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain, to foster and sustain cooperative relationships with international partners and to fully exploit the sea as maneuver space to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central and South American regions.

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Ronald Reagan Strike Group Returns From Patrol

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180724-01

Release Date: 7/24/2018 8:12:00 AM

By By Mass Communication Specialist Codie L. Soule, Commander, Task Force 70 Public Affairs

YOKOSUKA, Japan (NNS) (NNS) -- The Ronald Reagan Strike Group returned to Yokosuka, Japan, July 24, following a patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.

The strike group included the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS Chancellorsville (CG 62), and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Benfold (DDG 65), USS Milius (DDG 69) and USS Mustin (DDG 89).

"USS Ronald Reagan and her crew completed an extremely successful patrol, including operations in multiple areas throughout the Indo-Pacific region, participating in the Malabar 18 exercise with our Japanese and Indian naval counterparts, and a memorable port visit to Manila, Philippines," said Capt. Buzz Donnelly, Ronald Reagan's commanding officer. "I am very proud of the professionalism our Sailors consistently demonstrate on a daily basis: from executing liberty as a mission in Manila, to conducting complex flight and maritime operations underway, including seamless participation with our partners and allies. Our effective, safe execution reflects the immense capability, drive, and motivation onboard USS Ronald Reagan operating with Carrier Air Wing Five. It truly represents the strength and high operational readiness of our country's forward-deployed naval forces."

While underway, embarked Commander, Task Force 70 held a change of command ceremony in Ronald Reagan's hangar bay. Rear Adm. Karl O. Thomas relieved Rear Adm. Marc H. Dalton as Commander, Task Force 70, Battle Force 7th Fleet and commander, Carrier Strike Group Five.

"Relish every day at sea because from my experience these are the best days of your life," Thomas said. "I am very humbled to have the opportunity to serve on an aircraft carrier once again. Observing the teamwork, professionalism and enthusiasm of our Sailors at sea is surely the highlight of my career."

While in port, Sailors will have an opportunity for rest and relaxation with their friends and families. Sailors will have an opportunity to climb Mt. Fuji and participate in multiple events hosted by Morale, Welfare and Recreation and United Services Organizations while the ship is restocked and resupplied.

The Ronald Reagan Strike Group is forward-deployed to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

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Osman Selim has been appointed as hotel manager of Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria, situated in the heritage heart of the city.



In his new role, Selim will administer divisional department activities, develop reviews, updates and implement business strategic planning, including sales, financial performance and services. He will be responsible for fostering and maintaining positive and supportive relationships with team members, smooth and efficient running of hotel operations and extending of the brand experience.



Prior to this appointment, Selim was the executive assistant manager and director of rooms at Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria. He was recognised for improving guest satisfaction scores and assisting with increasing the overall profitability of the hotel.



I am excited to take on this new position at the Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria. It is an interesting time for us, as our hotel is situated in an area rich with history and yet right in the middle of a developing and rejuvenated Deira Waterfront. With our fabulous team, I look forward to creating energising experiences for our guests as well as our colleagues so that we can continue to consolidate our position as an iconic property situated in the heritage heart of the city.



After completing his Bachelor of Commerce from Cairo University in 1999, Selim joined Hyatt hotels in February 2000 as a guest services officer at Hyatt Regency Dubai & Galleria. Subsequently, until his recent promotion, Selim has gained valuable experience in the hotel as well as at Grand Hyatt Dubai in various roles including Sales, Events and Rooms. - TradeArabia News ServiceIwo Jima, 26th MEU Arrive in Malaga

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS180723-26

Release Date: 7/23/2018 7:28:00 PM

From Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group Public Affairs

MALAGA, Spain (NNS) -- The Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) and components of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) arrived in Malaga, Spain, July 21.

Nearly 2,500 embarked Sailors and Marines are visiting the Mediterranean coastal city during a regularly scheduled deployment. The stop is an opportunity for U.S. service members to deepen the strategic relationship with their Spanish allies on a personal level by socializing and experiencing the hospitality, beaches and historic venues.

"This visit to Spain will be one that those aboard will never forget," said Capt. Joseph O'Brien, commanding officer of Iwo Jima. "Spain is a major ally to the U.S. and the Navy, with a base just a few hours away in Rota. Pulling into Malaga will be an outstanding opportunity for the crew to experience the Spanish culture and give us an opportunity to continue growing a relationship that has been building over the past 70 years through our shared values, experiences and vision."

This is Iwo Jima's third visit to a U.S. 6th Fleet port since departing Naval Station Mayport, Florida, Feb. 7. The ship has also made stops in Haifa, Israel, and Limassol, Cyprus.

"Once I heard we were pulling into Spain, I have been extremely excited," said Air Traffic Controller 2nd Class Matthew Sherwood. "I have heard so much about Spain from my shipmates that have been there - the food, the lifestyle, the history - that being able to experience that myself will be something I will never forget and is well-deserved after being at sea for so long."

During their deployment, Iwo Jima and the 26th MEU have played a critical role in bringing a ready, versatile amphibious assault capability and vigilant maritime presence to the Mediterranean in addition to working with partner nations to achieve the mutual goal of a peaceful and prosperous region.

"The Marines and Sailors continue to work hard throughout our deployment and are eager to visit one of the premier coastal cities in the Mediterranean," said U.S. Marine Col. Farrell Sullivan, commanding officer of, the 26th MEU. "Malaga is a picturesque, ancient city with a rich history and vibrant culture. The Marines and Sailors are excited to experience the many historical, cultural, and enriching opportunities that Malaga offers. They are ready to serve as ambassadors of the United States and are appreciative of the generous reception they have received from the people of Malaga."

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Yemeni snipers shoot dead 7 Saudi mercenaries in Hudaydah, Jizan

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 05:14PM

At least seven Saudi-backed militiamen loyal to resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have been killed when Yemeni army soldiers and fighters from allied Popular Committees launched separate attacks in Yemen's strategic western coastal province of Hudaydah and Saudi Arabia's southwestern border region of Jizan.

An unnamed military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Yemeni forces and their allies fatally shot four Saudi mercenaries in an area west of the al-Durayhimi district in Hudaydah province on Tuesday.

Three other Saudi-sponsored militiamen were killed when Yemeni troops and Popular Committees fighters targeted them in the mountainous Jabal al-Doud area of Jizan.

Also on Tuesday, a civilian lost his life and two women sustained injuries when Saudi mercenaries lobbed a mortar round at a bridge south of the Hays district of Hudaydah.

Separately, four Hadi loyalists were killed and six people, including a woman, injured when a powerful explosion ripped through Enma neighborhood in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left some 600,000 civilians dead and injured since March 2015.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official has warned against the "catastrophic" living conditions in Yemen, stating that there was a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

"The conflict has escalated since November, driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes," John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

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No F-35s sales to Turkey, limited support for Saudi war on Yemen: US defense bill

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 02:22AM

US Congress is aiming to block sales of F-35 joint strike fighters to Turkey and limit Washington's support for Saudi war on Yemen in the final version of the fiscal 2019 defense bill.

According to House Armed Services Committee senior aides, the Pentagon must first submit a report to the lawmakers about the "overall strategic relationship with Turkey," all foreign weapons sales to Ankara and its decision to buy the Russian-made S-400 long-range air-defense system, The Hill reported Monday.

The move was made in spite of Defense Secretary James Mattis's request.

Ninety days after the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the report would be due.

The Pentagon chief had asked lawmakers not to block the sale of the Lockheed Martin-made jets, arguing that it could start a "supply chain disruption" push their price higher.

"At this time, I oppose removal of Turkey from the F-35 program," Mattis wrote in a July 7 letter. "If the Turkish supply chain was disrupted today, it would result in an aircraft production break, delaying delivery of 50-75 F-35s, and would take approximately 18-24 months to re-source parts and recover."

The final defense bill also shows that the US is limiting refueling of Saudi Arabian and Emirati planes bombing impoverished Yemen.

According to a senior staffer, "Yemen remains an area of intense interest and concern for our members, and we have aggressive oversight in the conference report."

A provision included in the Senate-passed NDAA requires the secretary of state to certify to Congress that Riyadh is engaged in efforts to end the war.

The administration of US President Donald Trump said last month that it "strongly objects" to the provision.

"The administration shares the concern of the Congress regarding the humanitarian situation in Yemen," the statement of administration policy said. "Section 1266 inaccurately implies, however, that the Saudi-led coalition is the only party to the conflict whose actions have resulted in the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen."

The White House also tried to implicate Iran for the ongoing human crisis in Yemen in the wake of Saudi invasion.

"The provision fails to address material support the Government of Iran has provided to the Houthis in order to foment the conflict in Yemen in opposition to the Yemeni government," it claimed.

The Saudi-led war has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) also announced that four in every 10 children under the age of five were now acutely malnourished.

Iran believes in no other solution than a political one to the conflict in Yemen.

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Humanitarian organizations warn: Yemen on brink of famine

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 01:32AM

Humanitarian organizations have warned that Yemen is close to famine following a 25 percent increase in severe hunger and Saudi Arabia's assault on the key port city Hudaydah.

"We perceive the country to be sitting on a knife edge in terms of famine - it could tip at any time really," said Suze van Meegen, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Refugee Council on Monday.

"The desperation we are seeing is becoming greater - more people are begging in the streets," she added.

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) also announced that four in every 10 children under the age of five were now acutely malnourished.

"Averting famine in Yemen will be contingent on the ability of WFP and other humanity agencies to reach the populations in need to sustain humanitarian assistance," said Yemen country director for the WFP said Stephen Anderson.

PressTV-'Enemies have failed to overrun Yemen's Hudaydah'

The spokesman for Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement says Saudi Arabia and its allies have failed to overrun the strategic port city of Hudaydah.

Backed by Saudi-led airstrikes, Emirati forces and militants loyal to Yemen's former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, launched the Hudaydah offensive on June 13 despite international warnings that it would compound the impoverished nation's humanitarian crisis.

The Saudi-led coalition claims that the Houthis are using Hudaydah for weapons delivery, an allegation rejected by the fighters.

Hudaydah is a major lifeline to more than 20 million Yemenis, most of whom are in need of humanitarian assistance due to a deadly Saudi-led war on the country launched in March 2015.

The Saudi-led war has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, according to the latest figures released by the Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights.

The coalition of aggressors has, however, failed to make any major gains in Hudaydah in the face of stiff resistance from Houthi fighters and their allied forces.

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White House Strikes Back Against Critics Of Trump Stance On Russia

RFE/RL July 24, 2018

The White House is threatening to retaliate against six prominent critics of U.S. President Donald Trump's stance on Russia by revoking their government security clearances, drawing accusations that Trump is abusing his office by trying to stifle dissent.

The White House said on July 23 that it was targeting six former heads of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- two of whom Trump fired amid disagreements over the FBI's investigation of alleged Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in his favor.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the six were targeted because they have "politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances, making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russia."

Among those targeted is former CIA Director John Brennan, who was one of the severest critics of Trump's handling of his summit last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

After Trump at a news conference appeared to dismiss findings by the U.S. intelligence committee that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and gave credence to Putin's denials, Brennan tweeted that Trump was "wholly in the pocket of Putin" and his remarks were "nothing short of treasonous."

Also among those targeted is former FBI Director James Comey, who was in charge of the Russia investigation when Trump fired him in May 2017 and who later called Trump "morally unfit to be president."

Critics charge that the targeting of Comey, Brennan, and former top intelligence and national security aides James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Susan Rice, and Andrew McCabe represents an unprecedented "politicization" of what should be a politically neutral security clearance process.

"An enemies list is ugly, undemocratic, and un-American. Is there no length Trump will not go to stifle opposition?" asked U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Sanders, who said Trump is "exploring the mechanisms" to remove the security clearances, denied that the officials were being targeted because of their criticism of Trump. But she cited Brennan's "treason" comment in explaining the president's threat.

"The fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence," she said.

Trump came under criticism after his summit with Putin from nearly every quarter in Washington, including from some previously loyal Republicans.

One of the few who publicly sided with him at the time, Senator Rand Paul, said he met with Trump on July 23 and asked him to revoke Brennan's security clearance. Brennan currently is a paid analyst for MSNBC.

"John Brennan and others [sic] partisans should have their security clearances revoked," Paul tweeted. "Public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees."

Many former U.S. officials retain security clearances after leaving government service because they continue to advise their former agencies or because it is a condition of employment as government contractors or consultants.

Stripping the officials of their clearances might force them to sever their connections with the intelligence community and would amount to a public rebuke.

"Clearances are taken away for security violations, usually after an investigation," former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin said on Twitter, defending the officials named by the White House.

"These people do not talk classified publicly. It would be political punishment infringing on first amendment [freedom of speech] rights. It's something Putin would do," McLaughlin said.

Former National Intelligence Director Clapper, who is now a paid analyst for CNN and has accused Trump of placing American democratic institutions "under assault," called the White House move "an abuse of the system" and "just a very, very petty thing to do."

Hayden, a former director of the CIA and National Security Agency, said he won't be intimidated by the move.

"Won't have any effect on what I say or write," he wrote on Twitter.

Two of the targets -- Comey and former FBI Deputy Director McCabe, who also was fired by Trump -- say they already have lost their security clearances.

Comey's firing led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation, which Trump has repeatedly called a "witch hunt" and a "hoax."

Trump's reaction to his critics "is what totalitarianism looks like," Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono wrote on Twitter.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/white-house- strikes-back-critics-trump-stance-russia-putin -brennan-clapper-comey/29386094.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Trump 'Concerned' Russia Will Push For Democrats In November Elections

RFE/RL July 24, 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump says he believes Moscow will try to influence November congressional elections in favor of the Democrats and not his fellow Republicans, although the U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Russia tried to help Trump win the 2016 poll.

"I'm very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely don't want Trump!" the U.S. president tweeted on July 24.

Trump did not provide evidence to support his claim. U.S. intelligence officials have said Russia is still trying to interfere in the electoral process and is now targeting the November 6 congressional polls.

Democrats need two more seats to take over the Senate and 23 seats to have a majority in the House of Representatives.

In case Democrats will manage to win control of one of the two chambers, they could derail or stall much of Trump's policy agenda and more aggressively push for a congressional investigation of Trump's administration.

Trump, at a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, appeared to dismiss findings by the U.S. intelligence community that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and gave credence to Putin's denials.

Critics accused Trump of siding with Russia over his own country's intelligence agencies.

Trump later said he misspoke in Helsinki and that he agreed with the conclusioins of U.S. intelligence. He called the summit a success and last week invited Putin to visit Washington in the autumn.

But Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, said on July 24 that Putin will not be invited to address Congress if he accepts Trump's invitation.

"We would certainly not be giving him an invitation to do a joint session," Ryan added. "That's something we reserve for allies."

With reporting by Reuters and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-concerned -russia-will-push-for-democrats in-november-elections/29388332.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Qatar Announces Start of Expansion of Airbase Hosting Over 10,000 US Troops

Sputnik News

21:54 24.07.2018

DOHA (Sputnik)  Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah on Tuesday announced the beginning of the expansion of the Al Udeid Air Base, which is hosting more than 10,000 US and coalition forces.

According to the Qatar News Agency (QNA), the foundation stone-laying ceremony was held in the presence of Al Attiyah and Brig. Gen. Jason Armagost, commander of US Air Force's 379th Air Expeditionary Wing based at the Al Udeid base.

The expansion of the base, which is part of the plan to strengthen strategic military cooperation between Qatar and the United States, includes the construction of new residential complexes and offices for joint activities and to improve the quality of life of the military personnel.

Earlier this year, Qatari Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah said that Doha sought to make the facility and US presence there "permanent."

Al Udeid, which is considered the largest US base in the Middle East, is home to the US Air Force Central Command (AFCENT).

 Sputnik

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Trump 'Very Concerned' Russia Will Try to Meddle in US Midterms to Help Dems

Sputnik News

18:53 24.07.2018(updated 19:45 24.07.2018)

During the press conference following the meeting between the US and Russian presidents in Helsinki, Trump revealed that Vladimir Putin "gave his word" that Russia had never meddled in the US elections and will never do so in the future. The upcoming mid-term elections will take place in the US in November 2018.

US President Trump has alleged that Russia will attempt to influence the upcoming elections in the US, but noted that Moscow is likely to "push for the Democrats" instead of the Republicans, since he has been more "tough" on Russia than anyone else.

Trump's tweet comes hot on the heels of the much criticized press conference after his first one-on-one meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. During the conference the US president hinted that he trusts Putin's word, who had assured him that Russia had never meddled in US election, over his own intelligence agencies' reports.

Numerous lawmakers, both Democrats and Republicans, blasted Trump for his performance and that allegedly trusted the Russian president more than his own intelligence services. Trump later backtracked from some of his statements in Helsinki, claiming that he had misspoken and never meant to appear as though he did not trust the US intelligence agencies. He also said that he considers Putin "personally responsible" for meddling in the US election.

While commenting on the results of the one-on-one talks, both presidents called them highly productive and agreed to continue the dialogue. Days after the Helsinki summit, the White House announced that it is discussing inviting the Russian president to come to Washington this fall.

 Sputnik

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China, Bhutan Resume Border Talks a Year After Doklam Spat Involving India

Sputnik News

17:30 24.07.2018(updated 17:31 24.07.2018)

China and Bhutan share a 470 kilometer long border. Territorial disputes have been a source of potential conflict, the most contested area being the Doklam plateau, where China allegedly tried to build a road last year, resulting in military intervention by India, Bhutan's all-weather friend.

New Delhi (Sputnik): China and Bhutan have discussed the border issue at length during a three day trip of Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou to the Himalayan nation, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which has claimed that China holds its traditional friendship with Bhutan in high regard.

"Both sides should continue to promote border talks, abide by the principles and consensus already reached, and jointly protect peace and tranquillity in the border region to create positive conditions for a final resolution," the Chinese Foreign Ministry statement cited Kong as saying.

This was the first major visit by a Chinese official to Bhutan following last year's prolonged standoff between the armies of India and China on the Doklam plateau  a disputed territory claimed by both China and Bhutan.

China and Bhutan do not have formal diplomatic relations and China's ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, accompanied Kong, the ministry added.

In the past, China and Bhutan had concluded 24 rounds of talks on the boundary issues, but following the Doklam conflict, the talks came to a grinding halt.

Earlier this year, Bhutan's Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay praised his country's relation with China in his sixth and last "state of the union" speech. Parliamentary elections in Bhutan are due later this year.

Beijing proposed a land-swap deal to Bhutan in 1996, under which Thimphu would get approximately 764 square kilometers of land in the middle and western sector of the border in exchange of 100 square kilometers land in the strategically important Doklam plateau, which serves as a tri-junction of China, Bhutan and India.

 Sputnik

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Joint Statement Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations 2018

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

July 24, 2018

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Secretary of Defense James Mattis hosted Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and Minister for Defence Marise Payne on July 23-24 for the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, California. Holding the meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the U.S. Pacific coast and near the birthplace of the ANZUS Treaty, is a fitting affirmation of the vitality of our alliance and the significance of the Indo-Pacific to our shared future.

As President Trump and Prime Minister Turnbull declared when they met at the White House in February, the U.S.-Australia alliance is steadfast and enduring, and underpinned by a deep alignment of mutual interests and shared values. This year marks a century since U.S. and Australian forces first fought side by side at the Battle of Hamel in 1918. From the battlefields of Europe to this contested century, there are no greater friends than Australia and the United States.

The Secretaries and Ministers emphasized both nations' strong and deepening engagement in the Indo-Pacific. They made clear their commitment to work together  and with partners  to shape an Indo-Pacific that is open, inclusive, prosperous, and rules-based. A key outcome of discussions in Palo Alto is a joint work plan that advances our shared strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific, which has diplomatic, security, and economic dimensions.

The United States and Australia highlighted the priority each places on supporting an international rules-based order, alongside allies and partners. In the Indo-Pacific, that order has underpinned decades of stability, democracy, and prosperity. The two nations reaffirmed their strong support for ASEAN centrality and the ASEAN-led regional architecture, and discussed ways to expand cooperation in connectivity, infrastructure, and energy security. They welcomed the recent U.S.-Australia-India-Japan consultations on the Indo-Pacific in Singapore and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen trilateral dialogue with Japan. Both nations continue to place a high priority on constructive and beneficial engagement with China.

The Secretaries and Ministers highlighted the importance of U.S.-Australia defense cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, particularly through full implementation of Force Posture Initiatives between U.S. and Australian forces in Australia. They emphasized the value of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin and Enhanced Air Cooperation for improving the interoperability of U.S. and Australian defense forces. The United States and Australia highlighted their commitment to raising the number of Marines rotating to Darwin to the full complement of 2,500 as soon as practicable. They committed to strengthening bilateral security partnerships with like-minded Indo-Pacific nations through joint training and exercise opportunities. The principals also decided to integrate U.S. force elements into Australia's annual Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercise.

Secretary Mattis and Minister Payne committed to strengthening defense collaboration in science and technology, and signed an MOU to perform critical research and development of advanced cyber capabilities. Under this MOU, Australia and the United States will be able to jointly leverage each other's strengths and technical expertise to collaboratively develop tools and software to address cyber and other security threats.

The Secretaries and Ministers committed to increased bilateral and multilateral cooperation on economic development in the Indo-Pacific, recognizing that security and prosperity are mutually reinforcing. Our two governments will work together, and with partners, to support principles-based and sustainable infrastructure development in the region, which will promote growth and stability. The United States and Australia decided to collaborate to reduce the threat of emerging infectious diseases in the Indo-Pacific region, and to advance the Global Health Security Agenda and reinforce objectives of Australia's Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific.

They emphasized that militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea is contrary to the region's desire for peaceful development, and reiterated the obligation to respect freedom of navigation and overflight, and other lawful uses of the sea, in accordance with international law. Both sides called for the Code of Conduct for the South China Sea to be consistent with existing international law, as reflected in UNCLOS, to support existing regional architecture, to reinforce the parties' commitment to cease actions that complicate disputes and not to prejudice the interests of third parties or the rights of all states under international law.

The allies welcomed the face-to-face talks between the leaders of the United States and North Korea and pledged to maintain pressure and strengthen cooperation to achieve the final, fully verified denuclearization of the DPRK.

The Secretaries and Ministers support closer cooperation to promote the security, stability, resilience, and development of Pacific Island countries. They highlighted the importance of strengthening regional information sharing, maritime security, and domain awareness. Australia welcomed the United States' commitment to support the Australian Pacific Security College. The two nations also committed to coordinate sustainable capacity-building activities for Pacific Island countries with partners.

The two countries reaffirmed their determination to oppose actions that seek to undermine the international rules-based order. Noting the anniversary of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 on July 17, the principals condemned the downing and expressed full confidence in the findings of the Joint Investigation Team concerning Russia's role. The principals further called on Russia to cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability, including the process initiated by Australia and The Netherlands to establish the truth and achieve justice for the victims and their next of kin.

The Secretaries and Ministers underscored their shared commitment to ISIS's lasting defeat in Iraq and Syria, and to support Afghanistan, including through their nations' development assistance and NATO's train, advise, and assist mission to the Afghan security forces. The United States and Australia reaffirmed the importance of continued cooperation on Counter-Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism efforts in Southeast Asia.

Australia will host the next AUSMIN in 2019.



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2018 Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations

Fact Sheet

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

July 24, 2018

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne met at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California July 23-24, 2018. The Secretaries and Ministers noted a number of initiatives through which the people of the United States and Australia, close friends and partners for more than a century, will work together to build a secure, prosperous future. Over the next year, the United States and Australia intend to:

Consult closely on our visions for the Indo-Pacific and an international rules-based order through regular bilateral meetings of U.S. and Australian diplomatic and defense officials.

Maintain pressure on North Korea until it abandons its illegal WMD and ballistic missile programs.

Continue to support actively the ASEAN-centered regional architecture to foster a stable, prosperous and resilient Indo-Pacific.

Coordinate efforts to counter foreign interference in their respective countries.

Step up joint engagement in the Pacific to advance the stability, security, and prosperity of all states in the region, including strengthening regional information sharing and maritime security and domain awareness; supporting capacity building through the Australian Pacific Security College with U.S. technical contributions and connection to the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu; promoting principles-based, sustainable infrastructure investments; and strengthening support for humanitarian and disaster responses.

Strengthen donor and diplomatic efforts across the Lower Mekong sub-region including through the Lower Mekong Initiative and the Friends of the Lower Mekong.

Continue cooperation and coordination for capacity building in maritime security and domain awareness with Indo-Pacific countries.

Advance a shared infrastructure agenda, including by holding a formal dialogue on infrastructure investment in the Indo-Pacific.

Begin a dialogue on access to critical minerals to strengthen U.S.-Australian cooperation on the exploration, extraction, processing and research, and development of rare earths and high performance metals.

Advance implementation of the Global Health Security Agenda and Australia's Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region through policy coordination, sharing technical expertise and best practices, and developing a joint approach for health security projects in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Plan for a Civil Space Dialogue to take place before the end of 2018 to increase cooperation on civilian space applications and promote commercial space activities.

Hold an Energy Security Dialogue within the framework of the U.S-Australia Strategic Partnership on Energy to enhance cooperation and define shared regional and global energy security goals, including open and competitive energy markets and universal access to affordable and reliable energy.

Fully implement the Force Posture Initiatives and expand training engagement with regional military partners through the Force Posture Initiatives between the U.S. and Australian military forces in Australia; coordinate efforts to raise the number of U.S. Marines in Marine Rotation Force Darwin to its full complement of 2,500 as soon as practicable.

Integrate U.S. military force elements into Australia's annual Indo-Pacific Endeavour exercise.

Develop and implement a plan to counter the growth of advanced missile threats to our mutual security interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Strengthen defense collaboration on hypersonics through technology and concept development and the testing and validation of high-speed flight technologies.

Implement a cyber MOU signed by Secretary Mattis and Minister Payne to conduct research, development, testing, and evaluation of cyberspace capabilities.

Continue to work closely on counter-terrorism, including through the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue and other fora.

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Joint UK-Qatari Typhoon squadron stands up as defence relationship deepens

Defence Secretary and Amir of Qatar meet at Horse Guards

24 July 2018

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson hosted the Amir Of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani at the standing up ceremony of the UK-Qatar Joint Typhoon Squadron today (24th July).

The event, held at Horse Guards, marked an important milestone in the two countries' defence relationship and included defence talks to further strengthen the close partnership between the UK and Qatar.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

"Qatar remains a close and important friend to the UK and it is the only nation with which we have a joint squadron. This requires a level of trust, born from our long-shared history and our commitment to a shared future."

"Our formidable Typhoon jets will boost the Qatari military's mission to tackle challenges in the Middle East, supporting stability in the region and delivering security at home."

As part of the multi-billion-pound contract to supply Qatar with 24 Typhoon aircraft 9 Hawk T2 aircraft, No.12 Squadron will integrate Qatari personnel, including pilots and ground-crew, from 2019. The personnel will be initially stationed at RAF Coningsby, and then in Qatar, undertaking a package of training and co-operation with their UK counterparts. It represents a unique initiative, and not since the Second World War and the Battle of Britain has the RAF formed a squadron with another nation.

The Joint Squadron will provide the Qatari Amiri Air Force (QAAF) with valuable experience operating the aircraft and speed up their preparation for when the first QAAF Typhoon are delivered in 2022.

At the ceremony at Horse Guards, the Amir also received his Sandhurst Medal, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of his graduation from the Academy. The ceremony celebrated the historic and enduring links between UK and Qatari defence training academies.

The two countries share mutual interests in countering violent extremism, and ensuring stability in the region, and this formation will further reinforce those ties by helping to prevent terrorism from spreading and protecting the prosperity and security of the UK at home.

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Somali Army: 87 Militants Killed as Attack Repulsed

By Mohammed Yusuf July 24, 2018

Somali soldiers repelled an attack by al-Shabab militants on a military base in the Lower Juba region Monday, though the militants temporarily seized a section of the camp, according to the government.

"Al-Shabab took control of a section of the camp," said Acting Information Minister Adan Isaac Ali, who spoke on government-owned television. "We sent more troops from the surrounding areas to support others in the camp, and they were successful in repulsing the al-Shabab attack.

"We have lost six fighters  our forces were successful in defeating al-Shabab in this operation, and we have killed 87 militants."

Somali military officials said the militants first attacked the camp with two vehicles full of explosives, then followed with gunfire. The officials say the first explosion killed five soldiers.

Al-Shabab spokesman Abdiaziz Abu Mus'ab said the militants overran the camp.

"In a fight that did not last long between our fighters and military forces, the government forces abandoned and fled the base after the attack and our fighters took control of the camp. We took all the weapons in the camp. We killed 27 soldiers," Mus'ab said.

In June, al-Shabab attacked the same camp with mortars, killing an American soldier. The U.S. has a small contingent of military personnel in Somalia assisting the army.

Security expert Richard Tuta says al-Shabab will sacrifice everything to attack a military base.

"They are signaling to the military guys, 'Look we have the capacity, and we can come for you,' ... even if its suicidal for them," Tuta said. "Sometimes even after the attack, they end up having more casualties than even the military installations itself, but the fact that they can attack, to them is a score."

Al-Shabab has battled the internationally recognized government for more than a decade in its effort to enforce a strict version of Islam in Somalia.

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UN Launches $22M Appeal to Tackle Ethiopian Displacement Crisis

By Lisa Schlein July 24, 2018

The U.N. migration agency is launching an appeal for $22.2 million to provide life-saving assistance for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by communal violence in southern Ethiopia.

Fighting among local communities over pasture land and water resources along the border of Ethiopia's Gedeo and West Guji regions has displaced some 970,000 people since April.

The spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, Joel Millman, said this rapid displacement has resulted in the loss of livelihood, a disruption of services and significant damage to infrastructure.

He said the agency does not have enough money to deal with a crisis of this scale. He said the appeal will assist 400,000 displaced in the Gedeo and West Guji regions over the next six months.

Millman told VOA people are living under very precarious conditions, so more than half of the $22 million appeal will be used for emergency shelters and non-food items.

"People are sleeping in the open. They have a single sheet of tarpaulin, often sleeping in dirt or mud underneath them. So, shelter is, of course, of the utmost importance. It is the rainy season and people left usually carrying nothing but what they were wearing. We know they are in need of everything," he said.

Millman said people are clustering in different reception areas seeking help of every kind. He said the IOM will provide assistance to the displaced in collective sites as well as to those living in host communities.

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Haley: 'Talk is Cheap' on Palestinian Situation

By Margaret Besheer July 24, 2018

U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has blasted Arab and Muslim states for offering rhetoric on the Palestinian situation while not taking more concrete action to alleviate humanitarian suffering and support the peace process.

Haley told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that "talk is cheap" and called out many countries, including U.S. allies Kuwait, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, for their lack of or small contributions to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA.

"Last year, Iran's contribution to UNRWA was zero. Algeria's contribution to UNRWA was zero. Tunisia's contribution to UNRWA was zero," Haley said. "Other countries did provide some funding. Pakistan gave $20,000. Egypt gave $20,000. Oman gave $668,000."

She also called out China and Russia, which provided $350,000 and $2 million, respectively.

"Last year, while Algeria was providing nothing to UNRWA, and Turkey was providing $6.7 million, the United States gave $364 million," Haley said. But she did not mention that in January the Trump administration slashed its 2018 funding by $300 million, leaving UNRWA in an unprecedented financial crisis.

Emergency sessions

Since then, the agency has held two emergency pledging conferences and raised $238 million, but it still faces a $217 million shortfall and has warned that it may have to delay the start of the September school year. UNRWA schools educate more than a half-million children in the Palestinian territories and across the region.

"You cannot come to the Security Council in an arrogant way and say you are the only one helping and others aren't doing anything -- that's not the case," Palestinian envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters. "If they care about the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian refugees, especially the 1.2 million in Gaza, you do not stop $300 million away from UNRWA under any pretext."

Several envoys took issue with Haley's comments, including Saudi ambassador Abdullah al-Moallemi, who said in the past year his government has given $100 million to UNRWA  half of that came after the U.S. funding cut to help make up the shortfall. While China's ambassador Ma Zhaoxu said Beijing is making an additional $2 million contribution to UNRWA this year.

"In this regard, China has always been doing what we believe we should do and what we are capable of doing," Ma told council members. "We have no intention of competing with any other countries," he added.

Haley also chided Arab countries for not condemning Hamas and not supporting compromises that are necessary for peace.

"If they really cared about the Palestinian people, they would not do that," Haley said. "Instead, they would condemn extremism and they would put forth serious ideas for compromises that could end this struggle and lead to a better life for the Palestinian people."

In 2002, Arab leaders did put forward a plan known as the Arab Peace Initiative that called for normalizing relations between Arab states and Israel in exchange for Israel's full withdrawal from the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, and settlement of the refugee issue.

It has been met with mixed reaction. The Palestinian Authority welcomed the plan, but Hamas, which controls Gaza, did not. On the Israeli side, support for the proposal has run the gamut from rejection to tentative support over the years.

Haley also said the Palestinian Authority looks "foolish" for dismissing the anticipated U.S. peace plan before they have even seen it.

Palestinian envoy Mansour said his government is not interested in any U.S. proposal because the status of Jerusalem is off the table, UNRWA is being "destroyed" through U.S. funding cuts, Jewish settlements "are more or less acceptable" and the two-state solution is fading.

"So if you have that kind of behavior that is being exhibited by the U.S. administration, what is left on the table?" Mansour asked. "That's why we don't want to engage in something that is useless because all the things that they've announced unilaterally are things that will not pave the way for peace and progress."

Gaza on the brink

Meanwhile, the U.N. warned that tensions between Israel and Hamas were at the highest levels since the 2014 Israel-Gaza war.

"Over the last two weeks, however, the situation quickly spiraled out of control, nearly to a point of no return," said U.N. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov. "I reiterate my call to all in Gaza to step back from the brink; those who seek to provoke Israelis and Palestinians to war must not succeed."

In the past month, Mladenov said 19 Palestinians, including seven children, were killed by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and one in the West Bank. An IDF soldier was killed by gunfire from Gaza, and four Israeli civilians and a soldier were wounded.

Tensions are also rising between Israel and Syria. Earlier Tuesday, Israel shot down a Syrian fighter jet it said had crossed 2 kilometers into its territory.

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Report: Russian Hackers Came Close To Causing U.S. Blackouts Last Year

RFE/RL July 24, 2018

Hackers working for Russia claimed "hundreds of victims" last year in a major, long-running campaign that enabled them to gain control over some U.S. electric utilities, where they could have caused blackouts, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Citing officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Journal reported on July 23 that the Russian hacking campaign has likely continued this year and involves a state-sponsored group known as Dragonfly or Energetic Bear.

The hackers broke into supposedly secure networks owned by utilities with relative ease by first penetrating the networks of vendors who had trusted relationships with the power companies, the Journal reported.

"They got to the point where they could have thrown switches" and disrupted power flows, Jonathan Homer, a department analyst, told the Journal.

'Hundreds' Of Victims

The department has been warning utility executives with security clearances about the Russian threat to critical infrastructure since 2014.

But on July 23, the department gave out detailed information about the intrusions publicly for the first time at an unclassified briefing for the industry. It did not provide the names of alleged victims, but said there were "hundreds."

It also said some companies still may not know they were compromised, because the attacks used credentials of actual employees to get inside utility networks, potentially making the intrusions more difficult to detect.

"They've been intruding into our networks and are positioning themselves for a limited or widespread attack," Michael Carpenter, former deputy assistant secretary of defense, who is now a senior director at the Penn Biden Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Journal. "They are waging a covert war on the West."

Russia has denied targeting critical infrastructure.

Homer told the Journal that the long-running cyberattack, which surfaced in the spring of 2016 and continued throughout 2017, exploited relationships that utilities have with vendors who have special access to update software, run diagnostics on equipment, and perform other services that are needed to keep millions of pieces of gear in working order.

He said the attackers began by using conventional tools -- spear phishing e-mails and watering-hole attacks, which trick victims into entering their passwords on malware-infected websites -- to compromise the corporate networks of suppliers, many of whom were small companies without big budgets for cybersecurity.

Automated Attacks?

Once inside the vendor networks, they pivoted to their real focus: the utilities, officials told the Journal. They said it was a relatively easy process, in many cases, for the intruders to steal credentials from vendors and gain direct access to utility networks.

Then they began stealing confidential information. For example, the hackers vacuumed up information showing how utility networks were configured, what equipment was in use and how it was controlled.

The hackers also familiarized themselves with how the facilities were supposed to work, because attackers "have to learn how to take the normal and make it abnormal" to cause disruptions, Homer told the Journal.

The department said it plans three more industry briefings and hopes to determine whether there are any new network infections, and whether the hackers have figured out ways to defeat security enhancements like multifactor authentication.

In addition, the department is looking for evidence that the Russian hackers are automating their attacks, which investigators worry could presage a large increase in hacking efforts.

It isn't yet clear whether the hackers used their access to prepare for some future, devastating blow to the U.S. electric grid, investigators told the Journal.

With reporting by the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and CNBC

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ russian-hackers-came-close-causing-us- blackouts-last-year-wall-street-journal-reported- department-homeland-security-briefing/29386156.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Iran's Growing Cyber Capabilities Pose Danger to German Firms - Federal Intel

Sputnik News

11:19 24.07.2018(updated 11:49 24.07.2018)

Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency has released an annual report saying that the country is facing a steady increase in cyberattacks that originate from Iran.

German firms and research institutions are under threat of cyberattacks from Iran, the BfV report issued on Tuesday by German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, reads.

According to the document, the number of malware cyber activities against German entities has been on the rise since 2014 with a number of attacks carried out by Iranian hackers in 2017.

Moreover, the intelligence information suggests that the number of attacks will continue to increase.

The report comes amid US media reports claiming Tehran had laid the groundwork for massive cyberattacks on the United States and its allies around the world. The NDC said, citing an anonymous official that Tehran was planning to target public infrastructure and private companies for denial-of-service attacks, adding that the attacks were not imminent.

Iran's spokesman to the UN, Alireza Miryousefi, has taken on the claims, adding that Tehran was not going to wage a cyberwar against Washington, blasting the US for using rumors as a pretext to justify its own cyberattacks against Iran.

The spike in relations between Iran and the West occurred after the US decision to pull out of the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that stipulated the gradual removal of anti-Tehran restrictions in exchange for the maintenance of a peaceful nuclear program. Since then, Washington has partially re-imposed sanctions, and the two countries have taken a more hostile tone in bilateral relations.

 Sputnik

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Ebola outbreak in DR Congo declared over, now let's tackle other health challenges: WHO chief

24 July 2018 - The Ebola virus outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been declared over, thanks to a concerted national and international effort to contain the threat, the UN's top health official said on Tuesday.

The countdown to the announcement began on 12 June, when the last patient was released from care after testing negative a second time for the virus, whose symptoms include major bleeding and high fever.

Speaking from the country's capital, Kinshasa, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), hailed the "tireless efforts" of local teams in combating the deadly disease, which claimed 29 lives, and infected dozens more.

Mr. Tedros also congratulated health partners, donors and the DRC Ministry of Health for working together so effectively, to end the outbreak.

Unlike eight previous Ebola outbreaks in DRC in the past four decades, this latest episode was complicated by the fact that it involved a major urban centre of more than 1 million people, Mbandaka, with a direct connection via the Congo River to the capital and to neighbouring countries, as well as extremely remote rainforest villages.

There were concerns that the disease could spread from Equateur province to other parts of DRC and neighbouring countries, Mr. Tedros said, but the threat was minimized thanks to the release of emergency WHO funding within hours of the outbreak being declared on 8 May.

WHO and partners appealed for $57 million to stop the spread of Ebola; total funds received by all partners amounted to $63 million.

Fighting the DRC outbreak was also made easier by the existence of a vaccine, following a major trial in Guinea in 2016, one of three countries in West Africa where Ebola claimed more than 11,300 lives between 2013 and 2016.

The absence of a cure for the disease was in part responsible for the continued reliance on traditional burial methods, WHO has said, which in some cases involved bathing in the water used to clean those who had died from the virus.

In an appeal to the authorities and health partners to transfer the momentum of fighting Ebola to other diseases in DRC, Mr. Tedros said that they could be "confident" about tackling cholera and polio, too.

"We must continue to work together, investing in strengthened preparedness and access to health care for the most vulnerable," he said.

Looking ahead, WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said that DRC was in a better position to address future public health emergencies, since "more than three quarters of the 360 people deployed to respond (to the Ebola outbreak) came from within the region".

DRC's health professionals had also gained valuable knowledge and insight from those involved in the West Africa Ebola vaccination campaign, involving nearly 12,000 people, Dr. Moeti added.

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This Time, Ebola Outbreak's Quick End Speaks of Progress Made

By Lisa Schlein July 24, 2018

The World Health Organization says the rapid, aggressive and coordinated health response to the Democratic Republic of Congo's latest Ebola outbreak is largely responsible for quickly containing the deadly virus. WHO and Congo's Ministry of Health have officially declared the end of the ninth outbreak of Ebola in the DRC in the capital Kinshasa.

Ebola killed more than 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone by the time this devastating epidemic, which began in 2014, was brought to an end two years later. In contrast, the Ebola outbreak in the DRC infected 38 people, caused 29 deaths, and was stopped in fewer than four months.

Michael Ryan, WHO's assistant director-general of emergency preparedness and response, was part of the large team of health specialists working on the strategic response plan in DRC. He said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa quickly spiraled out of control because of delays in detecting the event and getting a full-scale operation under way to combat the virus.

"In this case in Congo," he told VOA, "what we had was very, very, very effective early containment measures and then an effective scale-up of both national and international partners working together. So, that is the difference for me. I know it sounds extremely simplistic. But, in many of these situations, it is the simple things that make the difference. Speed and coherence."

Ryan said it is too early to suggest the vaccine used in the operation has played a significant role in stopping the epidemic. He believes the rapid identification of cases and contacts, as well as contact tracing and follow-up, were probably the major factors in containing the disease.

He noted, however, the presence of the vaccine has provided the affected communities with an element of hope that they could survive this fatal disease.

"The aim of vaccination is to protect those people who potentially are being exposed," he said, "But, the fact that you are bringing something that can help protect people  it just introduces that element of hope, rather than hopelessness."

Ryan warned the Ebola virus could re-emerge, so extensive follow-up measures are necessary. He said intensive surveillance is continuing and that much hard work lies ahead to strengthen the health system, so it can rapidly detect and respond to future outbreaks.

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Satellite Images Show North Korea Dismantling Ballistic Missile Facility

July 24, 2018

Satellite images indicate North Korea has begun dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, in a first step toward fulfilling a pledge made to U.S. President Donald Trump, a Washington think tank said on July 23.

The recent images show work at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a building used to assemble space-launch vehicles and a nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles, the 38 North think tank said.

"Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North's intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea," it said in a report.

Trump told a news conference after a June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that Kim had promised to destroy a major missile engine testing site "very soon."

Trump did not identify the site, but a U.S. official subsequently told Reuters that it was Sohae.

The 38 North report comes amid growing questions about North Korea's willingness to live up to the commitments Kim made at the summit, particularly in terms of working toward denuclearization.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/satellite- images-show-north-korea-dismantling-ballistic- missile-facility/29386216.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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N Korea Dismantling Facilities at Intercontinental Missile Launch Site  Reports

Sputnik News

12:33 24.07.2018

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  North Korea began to dismantle facilities at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in the province of North Pyongan where the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-15 was tested, the 38 North media outlet reported Tuesday.

The satellite images made on Friday showed that the facilities used for preparing carrier rockets and testing missile engines were being dismantled, the 38 North reported.

According to the news outlet, the current efforts of Pyongyang are viewed by experts as significant confidence-building measures. The experts also said that the dismantling works had started nearly two weeks ago.

On June 12, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump held a historic summit in Singapore. During the summit, the leaders reached an agreement that required Pyongyang to denuclearize in exchange for a freeze on the US-South Korean military drills and eventual sanctions relief.

 Sputnik

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Monitoring Group: N. Korea Dismantling Key Parts of Launch Site

By Ken Bredemeier July 24, 2018

The U.S.-based North Korea monitoring group 38 North said recent satellite images show North Korea has begun dismantling key facilities at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station on the country's northwest coast.

The satellite images show the dismantling of a rail-mounted processing building, where space launch vehicles are assembled before being moved to the launch pad, and the nearby rocket engine test stand, where liquid-fuel engines are developed for ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles, 38 North said.

38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step towards fulfilling a commitment" made by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during his summit with Trump in Singapore.

Earlier Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump declared that he is "very happy" with the pace of ongoing negotiations with North Korea to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program, rebuffing news accounts to the contrary.

"A Rocket has not been launched by North Korea in 9 months. Likewise, no Nuclear Tests. Japan is happy, all of Asia is happy," Trump said on Twitter. "But the Fake News is saying, without ever asking me (always anonymous sources), that I am angry because it is not going fast enough. Wrong, very happy!"

A day after the summit last month Trump said in a tweet, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."

But their agreement contained no details about when or how North Korea would abandon its nuclear weapons program or shut down its existing nuclear facilities.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met in Pyongyang recently with North Korean officials to try advance discussions, but there appeared to be little progress. Some diplomats say the North Koreans have canceled meetings and failed to maintain basic communications with the U.S.

As he did Monday, Trump has publicly professed satisfaction at the pace of negotiations with North Korea, saying last week there was "no rush" in completing talks with Pyongyang because U.S. and United Nations economic sanctions against North Korea remain in place.

On Monday, the U.S. State, Treasury and Homeland Security departments said, "The international community cannot let up on pressure" until North Korea ends its nuclear weapons program.

Trump said last week that U.S. relations with North Korea "are very good and the process is moving along." He said that with eventual denuclearization, there would be "big benefits and exciting future for North Korea at end of process!"

But several news outlets have reported in recent days that behind the scenes at the White House Trump has voiced his displeasure to aides at the pace of talks in pushing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

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US Senate Committee Proposes CAATSA Waiver for India

Sputnik News

15:33 24.07.2018(updated 15:59 24.07.2018)

The proposed modifications to the US annual defense bill are intended to prevent US sanctions on India, which is planning to buy five S-400 Triumf air defense systems for around USD $4.5 billion from Russia.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  A US congressional conference report suggests that India will likely be exempted from the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) in the final version of National Defense Authorization Act, 2019. The development comes a week after Indian Defense Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed to have told a visiting US congressional delegation that CAATSA was a "US law, not UN law."

"Provides a modified waiver to section 231 of the CAATSA that would require presidential certifications designed to protect US alliances, military operations, and sensitive technology; encourage allies and partners to reduce inventory of Russian-produced major defense equipment and advanced conventional weapons; and exclude the possibility of waivers for Russian intelligence agencies and other entities engaged in cyber attacks," a media release issued by the US Senate Armed Services Committee reads.

Now the conference report will go to the two chambers of the US Congress for approval. The report is most likely to be passed without a glitch, as it has the support of both the governing Republican Party and the opposition Democratic Party.

CAATSA covers 39 Russian defense entities, most of which have crucial buyer-supplier relations with India, and any transactions with these entities are liable to punitive measures under the act. This law has posed a major impediment to India's planned procurement of the S-400 air defense system from Russia. The deal is stuck at the final stage after more than two years of negotiations.

"India and Russia have had close ties for defense supplies for many decades. This umbilical cord cannot be snapped. Discussions for S-400 have been going on for long. The USA has been conscious of this Indian sensitivity. In furthering long-term strategic relations between the two, it is a sensible decision to make this important exception," Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retired), a defense analyst, told Sputnik.

Another analyst is of the opinion that India gives utmost priority to its own interests rather than mercurial US policies.

"India made it clear that it is in its own interest that it has decided on the S-400 system. Its interests are primary and overall. Besides it does not accord primacy to mercurial US policies from time to time," Mohan Guruswamy, a strategic analyst, opined.

 Sputnik

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Israeli Air Defenses Reportedly Failed to Intercept Soviet-Era Syrian Missiles

Sputnik News

16:08 24.07.2018

The David's Sling missile-defense system was designed to intercept aerial threats in close to medium ranges, partially overlapping with the Iron Dome functionality.

The first real combat test for the David's Sling air defense system was not entirely successful. On July 23 it attempted to intercept two Soviet-era SS-21 missiles, which were allegedly fired in the direction of a militant stronghold in southern Syria.

According to conflicting reports at least one of the interceptor missiles was ordered to self-destruct, although it is unclear at what point. Israeli Haaretz, citing an anonymous Israeli lieutenant colonel, suggested the missile had been destroyed when David Sling's operator detected that one of the SS-21s wouldn't hit Israeli territory. The media outlet was unaware of the fate of the second interceptor missile.

Israeli state-radio Kan said that one of the interceptor missiles fell on Syrian territory, meaning that for some reason it failed to intercept an SS-21 missile, while another one self-destructed mid-air above the southern Golan Heights.

David's Sling missile air defense system was designed to intercept aerial threats in short to medium ranges. The system partially overlaps with the Iron Dome, which is tasked with defending Israel against short-range missiles, and complements the Arrow system that tracks and intercepts ballistic and long-range missiles.

Over recent months Syria's army has liberated a number of cities in the eastern provinces of Daara and Quneitra in an offensive that began after several cities held by Damascus were shelled by militants. Many militant groups voluntarily abandoned cities in the provinces after negotiations mediated by the Russian Center for Reconciliation. On July 21 the Syrian army began an offensive against the remnants of Daesh* in the southern Golan Heights.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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UN Security Council urges Myanmar to facilitate safe return of Rohingya

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 05:35AM

The United Nations Security Council has called on Myanmar to create the right conditions for the safe return of tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to their home country from neighboring Bangladesh.

Following a closed-door meeting on Monday, the Council released a statement calling on the Myanmarese government to facilitate more social and economic development aid for the return of the Muslim refugees.

Almost one million Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled state-sponsored violence in Myanmar and taken refuge in Bangladesh.

They live in refugee shelters in the southeast Bangladeshi region of Cox's Bazar, facing a triple threat of extreme weather, funding shortages, and uncertainty about their future, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The fifteen members of the Council "stressed the need to step up efforts, including through providing assistance to the social and economic development, in order to create conditions conducive to the safe, voluntary and dignified return of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in [Myanmar's] Rakhine state."

Several members called for the body to impose sanctions on Myanmar's government over the Rohingya crisis.

The minority Muslims, who had been originally based in Rakhine, were subjected to a campaign of killings, rape, and arson attacks by the military and Buddhist mobs in what the UN has described as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing" before they fled to Bangladesh.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de factor leader who is also a Nobel Peace laureate, has come under intense criticism across the globe for having refused to hold the perpetrators to account.

The new UN special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, has said the Rohingya refugees "have to come back voluntarily, safe, in dignity, and in a sustainable manner."

Myanmar has struck an agreement with Bangladesh to have the Rohingya refugees returned.

But it has leveled their former communities in Rakhine, replacing Rohingya houses and villages with hastily-built settlements now housing Buddhists shuttled from elsewhere in the country.

The Rohingya refugees fear for their lives as well, and the agreement to return them has stalled.

The Council called for "the importance of undertaking transparent and independent investigations in allegations of human rights abuses and violations."

But such calls have not been heeded in the past.

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'Terrorist' Turned Candidate: Pakistani Extremists Contest National Elections

Frud Bezhan, Daud Khattak July 24, 2018

Chaudhry Saeed Gujjar is a member of the Milli Muslim League, a radical Islamist party blacklisted by the United States as a terrorist group.

He is also a candidate in the country's July 25 national elections, vying for a seat in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. Gujjar's bid to represent the capital, Islamabad, has been approved by the Pakistan Election Commission.

Gujjar is among an unprecedented number of religious extremists and members of militant groups running for seats in the national and provincial assemblies in Pakistan, which has long been accused of failing to crack down on extremist groups.

Numbering more than 1,500, the unparalleled presence of candidates from radical religious and militant groups among the more than 12,000 candidates overall has raised fears they could bring extremist ideologies into the political mainstream.

When Pakistan's election authorities refused to register the Milli Muslim League (MML) for the elections, Gujjar and other MML members entered the field under the banner of Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), another hard-line Islamist party in Pakistan.

"Groups that were refused registration by the Election Commission are now simply participating under another name," says Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, the head of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, an Islamabad-based think tank.

The United States considers the MML to be a foreign terrorist group, calling it a front for the Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT) militant group co-founded by U.S.-designated terrorist Hafiz Saeed, who has a $10 million bounty on his head.

The United States and India accuse Saeed of masterminding LeT's 2008 attacks in Mumbai that left 166 people dead, an allegation he denies. LeT is an Al-Qaeda-linked armed militant group that is fighting against Indian control in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir and was banned in 2002 after being linked to an attack on India's parliament.

AAT has more than 260 candidates contesting the polls. Its campaign posters feature Saeed's face alongside their candidates and are emblazoned with the name of the MML, which has officially endorsed the AAT.

Gujjar, the candidate, rejects that he is a member of MML, although other candidates openly admit that AAT and the MML "are one party."

"The mainstream political parties have disappointed the people of Pakistan, and our aim is to bring real change," Gujjar told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal.

Gujjar insisted that AAT is not an armed group and seeks a peaceful solution to the "Kashmir dispute." The majority-Muslim Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan. Each country claims the region in its entirety and have fought two wars over it.

Extremist Tickets

Lashkar-e Taiba is not the only extremist group suspected of running in the elections under the guise of another political party. Many of the militant groups deny exploiting the loophole, but a list of candidates published by election authorities suggests otherwise.

Sectarian groups such as the Ahle Sunnat Wahl Jamaat (ASWJ)  banned by the United States and Pakistan  are fielding candidates under the banner of the little-known Rah-e Haq party. The ASWJ was banned for allegedly being the political wing of the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been allied with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) extremist group and is responsible for the killing of hundreds of Shi'a. More than 150 candidates with former ties to the ASWJ are running with the Rah-e Haq party or as independents.

Muhammad Amir Rana, whose Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies has long tracked radical groups in the region, says that while banned groups have resurfaced under different names, their ideologies remain the same.

"These new entrants are still exploiting religion and religious sentiments to further their cause," Rana says.

It's a practice that Mehboob says should not be allowed.

"If a party is banned, it should not be allowed to contest under another name," he says.

Others suggest that while such parties are unlikely to sweep to power by using this method, their influence on the vote is potentially significant.

"By enabling these groups to contest elections, you bring toxic views into the political mainstream and risk legitimizing the types of ideologies that can spawn radicalization," says Michael Kugelman, South Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. "That's a particularly bad thing in Pakistan, where society is already radicalized to a great extent."

'Political Motive'

Many extremist candidates were taken off Pakistan's terrorism watch list by the caretaker government in place to oversee the elections. Election authorities say they have simply followed court orders. But activists say the courts are influenced by the country's all-powerful military, which has an oversize role in domestic and foreign affairs.

Over the weekend, protesters lined the streets outside the army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi in a show of defiance. Demonstrators condemned the army and its spy agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, for alleged manipulation of the vote.

Many in Pakistan have criticized the move.

"The interior minister should reveal how [members of] banned organizations were allowed to contest the elections," Senator Raza Rabbani, a member of the Pakistan People's Party, said on July 16.

"How were the names of [members of] banned outfits removed from the Fourth Schedule?" added Rabbani, referring to the name of Pakistan's terrorism watch list.

"People from the Fourth Schedule are being allowed to contest the poll," Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said the same day. "Be afraid of the day when those people will be present in this [parliament]."

Shamila Chaudhary, a senior South Asia fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, says that the participation of extremists in elections could, in theory, offer them an incentive to abandon extremist views.

"But based on the extremist candidates running for office and their rhetoric, there is no evidence to suggest they will refashion themselves," says Chaudhary.

Kugelman suggests that the Pakistani establishment, dominated by the military, could benefit from extremists vying for office.

"The establishment hopes to use these groups as a tool to siphon off votes from the PML-N, which the military does not want to return to power," he says.

Opposition leader Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) is seen by many as the military's favored party. Ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif fell out with the military brass and the PML-N has accused the army of trying to deny it a second term. The military has rejected allegations that it is interfering in the vote.

Sharif was dismissed from office by the Supreme Court in July 2017 for allegedly concealing assets abroad and other corruption allegations. He denies any wrongdoing. Allies of the three-time prime minister, who was toppled in a military coup in 1999, have called the proceedings a political vendetta and suggested the army might be behind it.

Kugelman says the presence of extremists in the elections could have unintended consequences.

"Supporters of conservative parties like the PTI and PML-N may simply gravitate to these hard-line groups instead," he says. "In this sense, the establishment risks undercutting the electoral prospects of PTI, the very party that the establishment is likely trying to bolster at the polls."

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/from-terrorist -to-candidate-pakistani-extremists- contest-elections/29388270.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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South Korean Air Force F-35A pilot takes first flight

By Senior Airman Alexandria Slade, 944th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published July 24, 2018

LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFNS) -- The first South Korean Air Force F-35A pilot soared into history when he took to the skies July 20, at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona.

After a year of preparation and instruction through the 944th Operations Group Detachment 2, Lockheed Martin and their active duty team members at the 56th Fighter Wing, Maj. Kiyun Jung, F-35A pilot, flew his first solo mission.

"I felt so excited for this flight, and because of my instruction, this aircraft felt familiar and I was able to have a smooth experience," said Jung. "This is my job and it felt great to finally take-off and work on becoming the best F-35 pilot I can be. My goals moving forward as an F-35 pilot is to lead and teach my fellow pilots in Korea to become the best in the world."

Jung prepared for this flight through months of intensive academic, simulator and hands-on training with the 56th FW 944th and the OG Det. 2.

"This flight is a huge milestone for [South Korea], and for us to be a part of that is an amazing honor because we realize the magnitude of this event for both countries," said Lt. Col. Eric Puels, 944th OG Det. 2 commander. "For us to be able to forge these relationships and get to know these pilots during their journey toward fifth generation airpower is incredible."

During the historical event, South Korean, 944th and 56th FWs and Lockheed Martin staff all worked together to ensure a safe and efficient flight for Jung.

"It's very rewarding to work with and witness these pilots grow through the course," said Maj. Michael Hobbson, 944th OG Det. 2 chief of training and South Korean flying course manager. "Over the past year, I've been involved with not only creating and executing their course material, but working with their leaders in Korea and helping them to have the best possible experience in our country as they worked toward this point where we were able to take that first flight."

Jung is the first student in the Korean chapter of flight training for the five year FMS program. Two more classes of ROK students are scheduled to be trained as F-35A pilots.

"Each of us in the wings played an important part in making this momentous event happen; civilian and Airmen alike," said Lt. Col. Jason Bartels, 56th Operations Group Foreign Military Sales director. "Many others in Pacific Air Forces, Korea, and the F-35 Joint Program Office also contributed to arrive at today. Together we are building the future of airpower not only for the United States, but with our great allies around the world. I am proud and humbled to see our two nations work together and build closer ties in the world's most advanced fighter."

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South Korea to reduce deployment along North's border

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 06:27AM

The South Korean Defense Ministry has announced that it plans to provisionally reduce guard posts and equipment along the demilitarized zone separating North and South Koreas, amid a de-escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The ministry said in a report to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that it was planning "a test reduction of some guard post troops and equipment" along the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and that it would then consider expanding the reduction, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The move comes as part of an agreement to "transform the demilitarized zone into a peace zone" made at an inter-Korean summit back in April.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have significantly eased since January this year, when North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed interest in the betterment of relations with South Korea. Vigorous diplomacy soon followed, and Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in then met in a historic summit  in April.

'Destroying missile site & building confidence'

Meanwhile, reports said on Monday that North Korea had begun dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, which is seen as another step toward the lowering of tensions.

The Washington-based 38 North think tank said that satellite images taken on July 20 showed work at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station to dismantle a building used to assemble space-launch vehicles and at a nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles.

"Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North's intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea," the think tank said in a report.

After a summit of his own with Kim, US President Donald Trump said the North Korean leader had promised that a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed very soon. Trump did not name the site, but a US official subsequently said that it would be Sohae.

A South Korean official said on Tuesday that South Korea's presidential Blue House had been briefed about the work at Sohae based on government intelligence, without elaborating.

Commenting on the site's dismantlement, Nam Gwan-pyo, the deputy director of the South's national security office, said, "It's better than doing nothing."

"And it seems like they are going step by step toward denuclearization," Nam said.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said on Friday that North Korea had shown a "clear commitment" to completing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which Trump and Kim agreed to work towards back in June.

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S. Korea Considers Withdrawing Some Forces from Demilitarized Zone

By VOA News July 24, 2018

South Korea is considering withdrawing some forces from the demilitarized zone separating it from North Korea in the first step towards transforming the area into a "peace zone."

The defense ministry issued a report to lawmakers Tuesday saying it will remove some soldiers and equipment from border guard posts on a trial basis, before gradually withdrawing all forces in stages from the DMZ.

The military's plans are part of an agreement reached between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during their summit in April in Panmunjon. The two leaders agreed to cease all hostile acts and turn the demilitarized zone into a peace zone.

The defense ministry also informed lawmakers it would seek a joint program with the North and the United States to unearth the remains of war dead buried in the buffer zone.

The demilitarized zone was created as part of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War that split the communist-held North and democratic South, although the two sides are still technically in a state of war.

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Former Envoys See US-South Korea Alliance Surviving Denuclearization

By Christy Lee July 24, 2018

Two former U.S. ambassadors to South Korea say they are confident that the security alliance between Washington and Seoul will remain in place and even grow stronger if North Korea fulfills its promises to end its nuclear programs and reduce tensions with the South.

The veteran diplomats point out that the relationship is bound by the Mutual Defense Treaty, signed at the conclusion of the Korean War in 1953, to provide a basis for the continued U.S. troop presence on the Korean Peninsula to deter a North Korean attack on South Korea and to provide a nuclear umbrella in the region.

"The fundamental basis for the alliance would continue, in terms of mutual defense commitment under the original treaty," said Alexander Vershbow, who served as ambassador to South Korea during the George W. Bush administration.

Vershbow also said, in the long run, the absence of a North Korean threat could potentially reduce the U.S. troop presence in South Korea.

"In the context of the much-reduced threat from the North, one could see the basis for the reduction of the U.S. presence," Vershbow told VOA.

Before the June 12 Singapore summit, President Donald Trump had asked the Pentagon to consider reducing U.S. troops on the peninsula in May.

After meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, Trump called for the suspension of "war games" with South Korea.

The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian joint military exercises conducted by the U.S. and South Korea that usually takes place in August have been suspended, fueling concerns of possible U.S. force reduction on the peninsula.

During his visit to Seoul in June after Trump's summit with Kim, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the U.S. will maintain the current level of military presence in South Korea and that U.S. commitment to the country will remain "ironclad."

Currently, there are 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea.

'Overarching goal'

Vershbow said if there is going to be a reduction of U.S. troops, it is after achieving a unified and "overarching goal of denuclearization as a precondition for any fundamental change when it relates to the North."

Mark Lippert, who served as the U.S. ambassador to South Korea from 2012 to 2017, said even if the security situation on the peninsula changes, the U.S.-South Korean alliance that has "modernized and adapted in very, very strong capable ways to keep it relevant" will continue to grow robust, "not just on the Korean peninsula but helping the U.S. and Korea work on issues in the region and around the world."

Vershbow echoed Lippert, saying the alliance will continue to serve a purpose beyond deterring North Korean because it will continue by providing a deterrent throughout northeast Asia as envisioned in the defense treaty.

"The U.S. is not going to necessarily change the broader deterrent posture in the region," he said.

Mentioning that North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states found "strong overriding" reasons for the U.S. "to stay in and engage in Europe with its military and security forces" even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Lippert said, "There are all sorts of data points to suggest it's beyond the [Korean] peninsula at this point."

Lippert pointed out that America's largest overseas military base is Camp Humphreys in South Korea, as evidence that the U.S.-South Korean alliance is "one of the world's greatest alliance, if not the greatest."

Ending 70 years of presence in Seoul, the U.S. military headquarters in South Korea relocated to Pyeongtaek in late June, about 45 miles south of the capital.

The newly expanded Camp Humphreys took more than $10 billion to build, of which Lippert said South Korea paid about 92 to 96 percent. It is expected to house approximately 45,000 troops and their families by 2022.

"One of the most important indicators of [the alliance growing strong] is the current move to Camp Humphreys," Lippert said. "This is a great symbol of alliance.  And you noticed nobody is making negative noises about Camp Humphreys and our troop presence there. I think that suggests durability over time."

Another factor suggesting the alliance remains strong and that "positive change is coming is that the Blue House has made comments that the alliance is not just about North Korea. It's about other countries, other issues  in a form of global Korea," Lippert added.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said during his three-day visit to Singapore that started July 11, "South Korea and the U.S. maintain a firm stance about the role and importance of U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) for peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."

Moon also responded to the suspension of military drills possibly leading to the reduction of U.S. troops in South Korea, saying, "USFK is a completely different issue. It is a matter of the South Korea-U.S. alliance, not something that can be discussed in denuclearization talks between North Korea and the U.S."

By providing a foundation of security and stability in northeast Asia, U.S. military presence on the peninsula and the alliance and relationship that Lippert said has grown in "multidirections" will continue to help create a condition for "unbridled economic and cultural success" in the region.

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Israeli military targets Syrian fighter jet over occupied Golan Heights

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 12:31PM

Israeli military forces have targeted a Syrian Air Force fighter jet over the Golan Heights as it was flying in Syria's airspace and conducting a series of airstrikes against the positions of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants in the occupied territories.

"The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida on the edge of the Yarmouk Valley in Syrian airspace," Syria's official news agency SANA quoted an unnamed Syrian military source as saying on Tuesday.

The Israeli military, however, claimed in a statement that it had launched two surface-to-air Patriot missiles at the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet after it had "infiltrated into Israeli airspace."

The statement added that the missiles had shot down the Syrian warplane.

"Since morning hours, there has been an increase in the internal fighting in Syria, including an increase in the activity of the Syrian Air Force," the Israeli army further asserted.

Israel has been on high alert in recent days as Syrian government forces advance against foreign-backed terrorists near the Golan Heights.

Tel Aviv has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.

On July 16, Syrian army took control of a strategic hill overlooking the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Syria's state television said the army had liberated al-Harah hill in the second day of a major offensive to seize the remaining militant-held parts of southwestern provinces.

SANA, citing a military source, said the army had captured a string of villages, including al-Tiha and Zimrin.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also confirmed that Damascus government units had made a "quick advance" against militants in the western part of Dara'a.

"Syrian  forces captured the town of al-Harah, as well as Samlin, al-Tiha and Zimrin," media outlets quoted observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman as saying.

He said the government troops had ousted militants from al-Tiha in a military advance, while armed groups in al-Harah had agreed to a surrender deal.

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Russia's Lavrov meets with Israel's Netanyahu for talks on Syria

Iran Press TV

Tue Jul 24, 2018 08:36AM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the occupied territories to discuss the situation in Syria, including Iran's counter-terrorism mission there.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that during Monday's talks, "the parties tackled various aspects of the Middle Eastern agenda, attaching primary significance to the situation in Syria and its vicinity."

Netanyahu's office said in a statement that the meeting, which was also attended by senior Russian and Israeli military officials, dealt with "Iran and the situation in Syria."

Over the past years, Tehran and Moscow have been assisting the Syrian army in its battles against various terrorist groups  many of which have the backing of Israel and its allies.

Russia has repeatedly underlined the need for the involvement of influential external players, including Iran, in efforts to resolve the deadly conflict gripping Syria.

Tehran also says it would maintain its advisory role in Syria and continue its support for resistance groups as long as Damascus wants it to do so.

Syria, for its part, has been clear on Iran's counter-terrorism mission in the Arab state, with Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad saying the pullout of the Iranian military advisors from the country is not up for discussion.

Lavrov's trip to the Israeli-occupied territories follows a visit two weeks ago by Netanyahu to Moscow, where he asked for the removal of Iranian advisors from Syria. That visit took place amid Israel's concerns over Syria's recent advances against the terrorists in the south near the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights.

Following the meeting on Monday, Reuters cited a senior Israeli official as saying on condition of anonymity that Israel had rejected a Russian proposal, which would see Iranian military advisors in Syria stationed 100 kilometers away from the occupied territories.

The official said Tel Aviv is sticking to its call for an end to Iran's counter-terrorism mission in Syria, the removal of all long-range missiles from Syria and the closure of any factories producing precision-guided missiles there.

Furthermore, the official said, the Tel Aviv regime asked Moscow to guarantee that all air-defense systems that protect the aforementioned arms be taken out of the Arab country.

"This was a very important meeting at a significant time, during which we delved into many details, produced maps and shared intelligence, and explained in great detail our policy," the unnamed official said.

Iran has no troops on the ground in Syria, but has deployed military advisors to the crisis-hit country at the request of the Damascus government.

In turn, Russia has been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign as a cover for ground operations by the Syrian army against the terror groups seeking to oust the Damascus government. Moscow, too, has military advisors in Syria.

The Russian military runs a number of bases in Syria and deployed units of its state-of-the-art S-400 anti-aircraft missile defensive systems to the Arab country.

Israel has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up the terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces.

Syria usually intercepts the projectiles fired by the Israeli military. It has vowed to strengthen its air power and defenses in the face of Tel Aviv's aerial acts of aggression.

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Russia Offers To Keep Pro-Iran Forces 100 Kilometers From Israeli Border

RFE/RL July 24, 2018

Russia has offered to keep pro-Iranian forces in Syria about 100 kilometers from the border with Israel as part of an agreement with the United States and Israel to help guarantee Israel's security, media are reporting.

A Russian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the suggestion while meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 23, Israeli television and western media reported, citing Israeli officials.

As he has in the past, Netanyahu demanded during the meeting that all Iranian fighters and their allies be removed from Syrian soil in the long term, media said. He also insisted that Iran should remove all long-range missiles and its air-defense system from the country, media said.

But Israeli media did not characterize Netanyahu's response as a rejection of the Russian plan to keep Iranian military advisers and pro-Iranian fighters, including Lebanon's Hizballah militia, at a substantial distance from Israel as Syrian troops reassert control in the border region.

However, Reuters cited an Israeli official as saying that, while Russia was "committed" to its offer, Netanyahu rejected it and told Lavrov: "We will not allow the Iranians to establish themselves even 100 kilometers from the border" because Iran has long-range missiles that can reach Israel from Syria.

Reuters said Israel previously rejected a Russian proposal to keep Iranian forces about 80 kilometers from the frontier.

Russian officials did not immediately comment on Netanyahu's meeting with Lavrov and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, General Valery Gerasimov.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump for their agreement at their summit in Helsinki last week to work together to safeguard the security of Israel.

"I appreciated the words that were spoken by President Putin together with President Trump regarding the security of Israel during the recent summit," Netanyahu said.

But with regard to Iran, an avowed enemy of the Jewish state, Netanyahu said: "Israel will continue to act against any attempt by Iran and its proxies to entrench militarily in Syria."

Netanyahu said the Russia delegation came to Israel on short notice at Putin's request to discuss the situation in Syria, where the Syrian Army has been rapidly reasserting control over rebel-held areas of the southwest near Israel's border under surrender agreements brokered by Russia.

As a condition of accepting the return of the Syrian Army to the border region, Netanyahu said Israel was demanding strict adherence to a 1974 disengagement deal that created a buffer zone patrolled by UN forces between Syria and Israel.

Syria and Israel fought two wars over their shared border, in 1967 and 1973, leading to Israel's seizure of the Golan Heights in what was Syria's Quneitra province. The Israeli occupation has never been recognized internationally.

While Israel and the United States have been pressuring Russia to limit Iranian influence in Syria, Moscow contends that it has little influence on the tight relationship between Syria and Iran, and it would be unrealistic to expect Iran to fully withdraw from the country.

Russia and Iran have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government throughout the war, which started with a crackdown on protests in 2011 and is estimated to have killed more than 400,000 people and displaced 11 million others.

Russia stepped up its military support in 2015, starting a campaign of air strikes and boosting its presence on the ground in a move that helped turn the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor.

Iranian leaders have dismissed U.S. and Israeli calls to leave country, saying that will happen only when Assad asks Iran to go.

With reporting by AP, AFP, dpa, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-offers -keep-pro-iranian-forces-100-kilometers-israeli-border- netanyahu-lavrov-putin/29386096.html

Copyright (c) 2018. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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IDF Shoots Down Syrian Sukhoi Warplane That Allegedly Violated Israel's Airspace

Sputnik News

13:46 24.07.2018(updated 20:00 24.07.2018)

Just a day before, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that the David's Sling air defense system had intercepted two rockets after they triggered warning sirens in the disputed Golan Heights.

According to the IDF, two Patriot missiles shot down a Syrian Sukhoi warplane that illegally entered Israeli airspace. IDF spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters that it was either a Sukhoi Su-24 or a Su-22 [modification of the Su-17 model], belonging to the Syrian Air Force, adding that the plane was flying with "relatively high speed".

"It was shot down and it crashed. We do not have any information so far about the pilots. I do not know of any reports of parachutes being spotted, and we do not know if any pilots have been retrieved," he stated.

Later a Syrian military source told Sputnik that the first pilot of the jet, Omran Muri, died, while the condition of the second pilot was unknown.

Israel's military used the communication channel, aimed to prevent air incidents with Russia in Syria, before shooting down a Syrian fighter jet on Tuesday, Alex Gandler, the press attache of the Israeli embassy in Russia, told Sputnik.

"Israel's military was aware of the jet before taking defense measures in response to the violation of the Israeli airspace. Israel used a communication channel with Russia to make sure that the aircraft was not Russian," Gandler said.

According to the Kan broadcaster, Israel will send a letter of protest to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), peacekeepers controlling the disengagement regime in the Golan Heights, in connection with the incident with the downed Syrian aircraft.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations announced later that the IDF tried to communicate with the downed warplane, but recieved no response. He also noted that his country warned Damascus not to breach 1974 separation of forces agreement.

Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu echoed those words, stressing that Syrians "grossly violated" the 1974 agreement between two countries.

"Our forces took appropriate action," he said in a statement. "We insist that Syria stringently honour the separation of forces agreement between us and them," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli radio reported that the country had launched two missiles to intercept the incoming threat approaching from Syria after it triggered the emergency sirens.

Reaction of Damascus

Addressing the incident, Syrian state media has confirmed that Israel targeted the warplane, however, insisted that the jet was conducting operations inside Syrian airspace over the country's south.

"The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida on the edge of the Yarmouk Valley in Syrian airspace," SANA news agency reported, citing a military source as saying.

Another military source told Sputnik that the plane downed by the IDF was inside Syrian airspace, carrying out strikes against Daesh* militants.

"The Syrian army is conducting an operation to clear the remaining terrorists in the pocket, covering an area of 50 km2 along the borders with Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Today, Syrian and Jordanian planes have been bombing terrorist positions in the area since 8 am," the source stated.

According to the IDF, in recent months, air defense systems have frequently been shooting down UAVs coming from the other side of the Syrian border. Just a day before the incident, the IDF intercepted a rocket launched from Syria during a battle between government forces and militant groups.

Tensions between the two countries escalated earlier this summer when the Syrian Arab Army launched an offensive operation against militants in the southern part of the country, pushing closer to the disputed Golan Heights, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

Israel, in turn, has recently intensified its operations in Syria, citing the alleged Iranian military presence as a pretext for strikes. Damascus and Tehran, however, have denied the allegations, stating that only Iranian military advisors are participating in the operations in order to help Syria fight terrorist groups.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, and completely annexed the territory in 1981. While the international community has not recognized the annexation, even condemning Tel Aviv for the move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that the Jewish state will not retreat to the borders of 1967 and that the Golan Heights will "remain in the hands of Israel forever."

*Daesh, also known as ISIL/ISIS/IS/Islamic State, is a terrorist group banned in Russia

 Sputnik

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Intl. Coalition: Islamic State Controls Just 300 Kilometers in Syria

By Carla Babb July 24, 2018

The Islamic State terror group has lost control of all but around 300 square kilometers in Syria, anti-IS coalition officials told reporters Tuesday.

French Brigadier General Frederic Parisot, the director of civil-military operations for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said the group holds an area of about 30 kilometers x10 kilometers in eastern Deir el-Zour province, stretching from the town of Hajin to al-Bukamal.

Parisot said he did not know the number of Islamic State fighters in the area, but cautioned that the fighting could continue for "at least two or three months."

The French general added that coalition should stay in Iraq and Syria once Islamic State is completely defeated to ensure that the group does not regain the ability to hold terrain.

"I think it's an effort of all the coalition to make sure that after the major combat operations we stay enough to defeat Daesh on a permanent basis," Parisot said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

At its height, the terror group controlled nearly a third of Iraq and large areas of northern Syria.

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Israeli Military Downs Syrian Warplane

By VOA News July 24, 2018

The Israeli military said it shot down a Syrian warplane Tuesday after it entered Israeli airspace.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet approached Israel at a "relatively high speed" before the Israeli military fired two Patriot interceptor missiles at the jet after it entered Israeli territory.

Syrian state media reported, however, the warplane was fired on as it participated in operations against rebels in Syrian territory.

"The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida on the edge of the Yarmouk Basin in Syrian airspace," the official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a military source as saying.

Lt. Col. Conricus said the plane "most likely" crashed in the southern part of the Golan Heights. It was not known if the plane intentionally entered Israeli airspace. He also said the pilot's fate was unknown.

Conricus said heightened activity near Israel's frontier with Syria put the military on "elevated alert." The increased activity has prompted Israel to issue a series of warnings to ensure the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two countries, which established a demilitarized buffer zone along the Golan Heights frontier, is enforced.

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. The U.N. deployed a peacekeeping force there two years later.

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Taiwan committed to increasing defense spending: president

ROC Central News Agency

2018/07/24 14:20:10

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen () pledged Tuesday that Taiwan will continue to increase defense spending, develop its indigenous defense industry and work with like-minded partners to contribute to regional peace and security.

"Taiwan is truly aware that regional and global security are inseparable from our safety and prosperity," Tsai said at the Ketagalan Forum: 2018 Asia Pacific Security Dialogue, an annual event hosted by the government-affiliated Prospect Foundation.

"To do our part, we are committed to robust defense and deterrence forces," the president said. "Our defense expenditures will keep pace with our needs and GDP growth and we are developing our indigenous defense industry as well."

Tsai's remarks came after the United States Department of State urged Taiwan to increase its defense budget at a level commensurate with its security challenges.

The U.S. Department of State's spokesperson made the remarks when asked to respond to Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu () who said a day earlier that Taiwan needs the U.S.'s continuous support in the face of China's growing military threat.

Though the Tsai government has repeatedly pledged to boost defense spending since taking office in May 2016, actual spending increases have been small, including a 1.9 percent increase for fiscal 2018.

That has left military spending at around 2 percent of GDP, far short of the 3 percent of GDP the Tsai administration envisioned after taking power in May 2016.

In October 2017, Tsai committed to annual increases in defense spending of 2 percent with a possible additional 1 percent increase for special weapons procurements.

She offered no specifics on spending increases in her speech delivered at the opening of the forum, instead focusing on general regional security trends and warned of China's continuing threat.

The political, economic and military dynamics of the region have been evolving rapidly over the past year, she said, with some developments creating opportunities, such as the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un in June.

"But others are creating challenges," Tsai said. "Those challenges, both traditional and non-traditional, are undermining our shared democratic values and the rules-based international order that has helped this region establish peace, stability, and prosperity since the end of the Second World War."

Tsai went on to single out the challenges posed by China to the region.

"Regrettably, in recent years, China has adopted an aggressive policy to advance its own agenda around the world. It has continued to employ sharp power to influence its neighbors, including conducting military exercises in this region and sending aircraft to encircle Taiwan," Tsai said.

Facing the challenges, Tsai said countries in the region need not respond alone because "our shared values are a common bond for all of us here."

"We can work together to ensure that future global security won't be determined by military or economic might. Instead, it will be guided by the values of freedom and democracy," Tsai said, adding that the approach has been adopted by her administration.

Tsai said that the New Southbound Policy launched since she took office in 2016 is one of Taiwan's major efforts to advance the shared values and interests. "The aim is to coordinate our efforts and create a prosperous future for all," she said.

The hosting of the Ketagalan forum was another example, Tsai said.

The forum was inaugurated last year with an aim to bring local and international experts together with officials to discuss changes in the region's geopolitical landscape and how to enhance cooperation to best address emerging security challenges.

"It is heartening to see that even as the world changes, our commitment to our shared values is unshakable," Tsai said to hundreds of attendees, among them including former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and experts from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, Vietnam and Malaysia.

"The only way we can jointly respond to evolving global challenges is by strengthening our regional and global partnerships," Tsai said.

(By Shih Hsiu-chuan)

Enditem/ls

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U.S. encourages Taiwan to increase defense budget

ROC Central News Agency

2018/07/24 14:06:10

Washington, July 23 (CNA) The United States Department of State on Monday encouraged Taiwan to increase its defense budget to a level that corresponds to the security challenges it is faced with, after Taiwan called for the U.S.'s continuous support in the face of China's growing military threat.

In an interview with CNN aired Monday, Taiwan's Foreign Affairs Minister Joseph Wu () said that without the U.S.'s support, Taiwan will be vulnerable to being taken over by force by Beijing.

He said it was vital that Washington continues its support for Taiwan militarily and diplomatically.

"If the security ties between Taiwan and the U.S. are getting stronger and strengthening our ties, then that would become a barrier for the Chinese to think about future military scenarios against Taiwan," he said.

Asked about Wu's comments, a State Department spokesperson said the U.S. remains committed to its one China policy, the three U.S.-China joint communiques, and its responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA).

"Our one China policy and the Taiwan Relations Act have helped ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the region for decades," the spokesperson said, noting that the policy and TRA "have enabled the United States to maintain robust unofficial relations with Taiwan while pursuing a constructive relationship with China."

The U.S. also backs Taiwan's efforts to develop ways to deter Chinese aggression.

"We support Taiwan's efforts to develop innovative and asymmetric capabilities to deter coercion or intimidation, and we encourage Taiwan to increase its defense budget to a level commensurate with the security challenges it confronts," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson further said that the Donald Trump administration is resolved to fully implement the provisions of the TRA under which the U.S. makes available to Taiwan defense articles and services in such quantity necessary to enable Taiwan to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Elizabeth Hsu)

Enditem/ls

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U.S. defense authorization bill supports Taiwan's self defense

ROC Central News Agency

2018/07/24 12:34:09

Washington, July 23 (CNA) The United States Congress has reached a consensus on an annual defense authorization bill that will include a provision expressing support for the strengthening of Taiwan's self-defense capabilities.

The Senate and House of Representatives agreed Monday on a version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019, but the final version has yet to be released.

Based on summaries of the reconciliation process issued by the Senate and House armed services committees, the two bodies proposed different wording to declare support for Taiwan.

The Senate Armed Services Committee's version said that in terms of Taiwan, the Senate "directs a comprehensive assessment on strengthening Taiwan's self-defense capabilities, and expresses the sense of Congress on the importance of a strong U.S. defense relationship with Taiwan."

For its part, the House Armed Services Committee's version said it supports "improving Taiwan's defense capabilities and force readiness" and the expansion of "joint training, foreign military sales, the use of security cooperation authorities, and senior level military-to- military engagements."

According to sources familiar with the matter, the actual wording in the finalized version of the bill will be closer to the Senate's version.

The bill will not become law until it is passed by both the House and Senate in identical form and then signed by the president.

The House is scheduled to cast a vote by Wednesday, and the Senate is expected to vote before it recesses in August.

(By Chiang Chin-yeh and Elizabeth Hsu)

Enditem/ls

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US to Temporarily Freeze F-35 Transfers to Turkey Amid S-400 Row

Sputnik News

17:41 24.07.2018

The conflict between Washington and Ankara over the latter's acquisition of Russian S-400 air defense systems has been a major stumbling block to Turkey obtaining F-35 jets that it has already paid for.

The process of transferring the F-35 jets to Turkey will be temporarily frozen, according to the most recent addition to the US defense policy bill for 2019, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources in both chambers of the US Congress.

According to the proposal, a decision regarding the supply of F-35 jets to Ankara will be made after the Pentagon delivers an assessment as to how canceling the delivery of the planes will impact relations between the US and Turkey, Turkish plans to acquire Russian S-400 air defense systems and the US industrial base in the event that Ankara withdraws from the international F-35 program. The assessment needs to be submitted within 90 days. The 2019 defense bill containing the measure has still not been approved by Congress.

Earlier, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis cautioned Congress against depriving Ankara of its F-35 jets, admitting concerns regarding its "authoritarian drift" and possible acquisition of Russian S-400 systems. He said that the move could disrupt supply chains for the construction of other F-35 jets, delaying the supply of the warplanes by "18-24 months."

Ankara has been participating in the international development project of the cutting-edge fifth generation jet from the onset, with some parts of the F-35 being produced in Turkey. The US Congress is concerned about Ankara's agreement to purchase Russian S-400 air defense systems, which, US lawmakers fear, Moscow could use to detect weaknesses of the F-35 and access sensitive data regarding NATO.

Ankara has blasted US efforts to disrupt the delivery of F-35s, reminding Washington that Turkey has already paid Lockheed Martin for part of its order for 100 F-35s.Turkish officials told the US that the country has a right to self-defense and explained that it would buy NATO air defense systems if Ankara were to receive an appropriate offer.

 Sputnik

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UK Ministry of Defense Spends $148Mln to Scrap Planned 'Smart' Missile System

Sputnik News

14:37 24.07.2018(updated 15:09 24.07.2018)

The ministry says it constantly reviews its investments, reacting to how a "situation changes." A ministry spokesperson also noted that the development of "cutting-edge military equipment" generates "billions" for the UK economy.

The UK Ministry of Defense has revealed in recently published documents that it has spent some 95 million ($148 million*) to cancel its Fire Shadow "smart" missile project, which up to that point had already cost 200 million ($310 million*). The new missile was designed to hit targets 50 kilometers away, but the project was scrapped back in 2012.

An anonymous source in the British forces, cited by The Daily Star, blasted the spending as undermining public support for the UK's ministry, calling it "insane." A spokesman for the ministry gave a vague comment on the situation by saying that "a whole range of cutting-edge military equipment" is developed by the military that generates "billions for the economy" and supplies the UK's armed forces with new weapons. He added that the ministry is "constantly reviewing" its investments.

"We constantly review what we need to invest in based on need and the operational environment  when that situation changes, it makes sense to turn our and our industrial partners' attention to different projects," the spokesman said.

Fire Shadow was designed as a "smart" missile that hovers above certain area until it locates the target and strikes it. Its first successful test was conducted in 2010 and the missile was expected to be used in Afghanistan beginning in 2012, but it never happened. Instead the UK Ministry of Defense canceled the project.

*In 2012 Prices

 Sputnik

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In a statement to MPs, Mr Ellwood confirmed that the MOD has already disposed of nine sites and has advanced its plans for the release of other sites which have been identified for sale.

The changes under the Better Defence Estates Strategy, announced in 2016, are the most significant since the end of the Second World War and will see the sale of 91 sites owned or managed by the MOD.

The site sales will release land no longer required by the military, which will be able to be used for more economically beneficial purposes, such as house building.

The plans will save the taxpayer around 140 million by the end of the decade, rising to 3 billion by the end of 2040. The changes will also reduce the number of personnel being regularly moved between different bases, providing greater long-term stability and certainty for our Armed Forces and their families.

All money raised will be reinvested back into defence, with 4 billion committed to improving military bases, including accommodation.

Mr Ellwood also announced that the RAF will stop using RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire by 2020 and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire by 2022.

RAF Scampton is the current home of the Red Arrows and work is underway to find them a new home fit for purpose. The MOD will work closely with the local council and potential buyers to ensure the site's future use meets the needs of the local economy, whilst also exploring ways in which the heritage of the site, including a museum, can be preserved.

Despite RAF Scampton's closure, the RAF presence in Lincolnshire continues to grow. There will be significant investment in the Lincolnshire area, with several hundred service personnel arriving at RAF Cranwell, RAF Waddington and RAF Coningsby over the next five years.

RAF Linton-on-Ouse, the main base for the No.1 Flying Training School, will cease being an RAF Station in 2020 and the MOD is currently considering other potential defence uses, ahead of an eventual disposal of the site.

Minister for Defence People and Veterans Tobias Ellwood said:

"Our military bases are where our service personnel live, train and work, so it's important that we have sites which suit the needs of the armed forces."

"That's why we're making our defence estate more modern and efficient, by closing sites we don't need and investing in more modern accommodation. As well as saving money, and allowing reinvestment back into a more modern and better defence estate, the changes will provide greater long-term stability and certainty for our Armed Forces and their families."

Key facts

The Better Defence Estates strategy is part of the Defence Estate Optimisation Programme, which will reduce the size of the built estate by 30 per cent by 2040 and will meet our SDSR commitment. See the strategy here

The programme has already delivered nine disposals at:Charles Leclerc hopes that the strong performances we've seen from Sauber this season will continue at the weekend.

Sauber driver Charles Leclerc is looking to start inside the top ten for a thid consecutive weekend, this weekend.

Leclerc has managed to finish inside the top ten in five out of the eleven races this season and perhaps could have finished in the points last weekend, if it wasn't for a bad tyre call in the tricky conditions in Germany.

The 20-year-old Ferrari Driver Academy driver has fond memories of the Hungaroring from his junior days.

"I look forward to the Grand Prix weekend in Hungary," Leclerc told The Checkered Flag.

"Budapest is a great city and I always enjoy spending time there.

"As for the racing, I look forward to being back at the Hungaroring. It's a very technical track and quite different to the circuits we have been so far this season. I have some good memories from my races in F2 there last year, so I look forward to seeing what is possible this time around.

"We have given a consistently strong performance in the last few weeks, and will build on that to finish the first-half of the season on a positive note."

Leclerc will miss FP1 on Friday and reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi will take Leclerc's place in the practice session.

The Monegasque driver will also be driving for Sauber in the post-race test at the Hungaroring alongside his team mate Marcus Ericsson.Daniel Ricciardo doesn't believe that the Hungaroring is similar to the Monaco track despite some people calling it "Monaco without walls".

Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo has said he enjoys the Hungaroring, as the Aussie arrives in Budapest before the summer break after this race.

The 29-year-old has winning experience on this track, after a brilliant performance in the 2014 Hungarian Grand Prix, but disagrees people comparing the circuit to Monaco.

"I like the Hungarian Grand Prix," Ricciardo told The Checkered Flag.

"Everyone says it's 'Monaco without walls', but it's not, it's Hungary!

"It's fast, it's normally really hot and even though it's a tight track, there's still quite a lot of overtaking and always a bit going on.

"The middle sector is one of the best of the whole year, it's pretty fast with really quick changes in direction."

Since his 2014 victory, the Australian has finished on the podium another two times and admits that he likes spending time outside F1, exploring the city.

"The track used to be pretty bumpy, but it's improved a lot recently," Ricciardo added.

"I've always liked the circuit but the city is also really cool.

"Budapest is amazing; it's very pretty, there's really good food and I always enjoy spending time in the city centre."

With the Hungarian Grand Prix being the last race before the summer break, Ricciardo believes there is a feel-good factor behind the scenes in F1.

"Because it's just before the summer break, there's always a good feeling in the paddock before everyone takes a well-earned holiday," Ricciardo said.Romain Grosjean has confirmed he is looking to continue his momentum as F1 rolls into the summer break. Hes finished inside the top 10 twice in the last three races and says he has a good feeling heading into Hungary.

Haas struggled in Monaco, and with the Hungaroring having similar characteristics, many are expecting the Haas car to struggle. However, team principal Guenther Steiner said yesterday he expects the upgrades will remove any problems.

His French driver is on the same page and wants to add to his fond memories at the track. He told F1i: Ive always had a good feeling in Hungary. Ive always liked the track. It used to be very bumpy, but they resurfaced two years ago.

Ive had some great races at the Hungaroring. I had my first pole position in GP2 there in 2008. I had some good races after that in GP2. I also qualified on the front row of the Hungarian Grand Prix back in 2012.

Grosjean sat pointless in the constructors' championship for the first eight rounds of the season. Hes now up to 13th place and ready to attack Carlos Sainz following a well-rested summer break.

I think its [summer break] going to be important for everyone, Grosjean added. That first triple-header was quite challenging, so I think everyone is quite happy to god holiday.How do you make Russian Math Summer School sound fun?

OK, this is a hard one.

A friend of mine, who pretty much knows everything, told me about the Russian School of Mathematics (RSM) this spring. Her three children had enrolled for the semester and she was convinced it was the only math program in the area worth its salt.

Ive tried everything and trust me: this is the one to go for, she told me, KGB style.

So, I looked into RSM  which, true to Russian form, quickly turned into RSM looking into me. As soon as I registered interest through their website, I was told I needed to attend a parent presentation, meet the head of the school, and have my children evaluated before considering enrollment.

You are being monitored already, my husband chortled.

So off I went to the parent session where a group of 20 parents were led up to a small room while our children were evaluated somewhere below. It was all very covert, especially because I still had no idea how I would sell this summer class to my 7-year-old son George and my 10-year-old son Louie.

Wait  we are going where? Louie asked suspiciously after school.

Its this place where they do fun math games, I told them, quickly followed by offering a vast array of Trader Joes lollipops for the car ride over.

Math games? Mom, math is not fun, Louie shot back, but I was already cranking up The Sorcerers Stone audiobook.

The parent presentation laid out the RSM philosophy in a hot, crowded room. Basically, the school was started by Soviet emigres who figured the old USSR did one thing right  math. During the Cold War, the Soviet government amped up their math education programs to compete with the United States. The goal was to create innovative and creative minds that looked at the why and the process behind math.

Years later, RSM was founded with the same principles and a curriculum that stressed logical and critical thinking instead of memorization. RSM caught on quickly in America; more than 20,000 kids are enrolled in the program. NPR even ran a story about it.

Louis wasnt gonna fall for it. Those were not games, Mom  that was a math test, he hollered on our way out. I again quickly transitioned to Harry Potter and candy for the car ride back.

I think we should try it, my husband told me that night, meaning the kids, not us. Its only six weeks.

So we enrolled the two boys. Classes are twice a week, for two hours each afternoon from early July through mid-August, in Stamford. Oh, and there was homework each week. I had no idea how to break it to the boys.

I tried calling it Fun Math Camp and told them it was only twice a week for only a part of the summer. They both gaped at me in horror. So I tried bribery. I said we would buy them mine coins for Minecraft as a reward for sticking with it. (Think bitcoin, the junior version.) As their expressions shifted from outrage to intrigue, I quickly added that it meant they had to do homework.

Homework?! Louie hollered, aghast.

Mine coins! I shot back.

About 20 minutes into the first class, Louie learned this was Russian math school. I hadnt shared that detail what with the presidents whack-job summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Plus our family dynamic already was totalitarian enough.

Mom, this is all Russian! Louie told me ominously at pickup. When I tried to explain this wasnt true, he elaborated.

In Russia, they do math differently than us, and it ruins the way we do math in America. It is Russian, he said with a dramatic flourish that Chekhov would envy.

I tried to explain how the approach was different, but quickly transitioned to mine coins to avoid perestroika before dinner.

On Day Two, Louie got in the car with more Mom, everyone there is Russian except me.

No one in your class is Russian, Louie  not even the teacher, I responded.

That is not true  its all Russian. And do you know what? They had a very Cold War with us and so Im forgetting everything I learned about math in America! he shot back, with a curious understanding of brainwashing. Clearly, the kids in the class had been caucusing during recess.

Over the weekend, Ian and I went through the RSM homework (as well as the Cold War) with the boys, but the anti-Russian rhetoric continued. On Week Two, Louie got in the car with an ultimatum.

Mom  do you know what the Russians did to our election? he said, eyes the size of gold balls.

Cant say I didnt know it was coming.

In summary, RSM is worth checking out. Its teaching methods definitely are an upgrade, and their approach is fascinating. I cannot guarantee that we will actually survive all six weeks of it given the Cold War escalating within our car. But if you do decide to go for it, think of it this way: at the very least, your children will quickly become highly educated on U.S.-Russian relations.

And so, from a minivan in suburban Connecticut to the cobbled streets in Helsinki, we plod on  and hope for the best.

Claire Tisne Haft is a former publishing and film executive, raising her family in Greenwich while working on a freelance basis on books and films.The video traveled quickly after being shared Monday on Facebook, gathering more than 1.5 million views in under a day.

In it, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, the congressional candidate from New York whose democratic socialist campaign has stuck a lightning bolt into the world of Democratic politics, appeared to give bizarre answers in a two-and-a-half minute video that was staged as an interview with the conservative commentator Allie Stuckey on the site CRTV. Ocasio-Cortez shook her head "no," when Stuckey asked if she had any knowledge about how the political system worked and seemed to imply that Venezuela was in the Middle East and was a model of socialism.

But the video did not depict a real interview, despite its caption: "Allie *grills* congressional hopeful and progressive it girl 'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' on her socialist agenda and knowledge of government. . . or lack thereof." Instead, it used heavily edited footage from an interview Ocasio-Cortez did with PBS earlier this month spliced to appear as answers to questions read by Stuckey.

After outcry, the Facebook page for Stuckey's show, which the social media giant has given an informal imprimatur in the form of a blue verification check, was updated to note that the video was satire and include a reference to the original PBS show. But the fact that the video traveled so widely - and for some, apparently believably - has served as another example of how misleading information continues to thrive in the fast-paced flow of information online despite Facebook's promise to better weed it out.

Misinformation is not completely outlawed according to the company's community guidelines - an issue that has caused plenty of discussion recently - and neither, of course, is satire, but the video appeared to fall into a confusing gap between the two before it was labeled. Facebook's moderators can downrank false information to slow its spread and are also able to add a "satire" categorization in other instances, but the fact that the video traveled so widely before being updated by CTRV shows the speed with which information can move across the service before any action is taken.

And to many skeptical eyes, the video was obviously fishy and staged. But it appeared to be taken seriously after it was shared on some conservative-leaning pages on Facebook, and was viewed around a million times before the company posted the clarification to its caption.

"The new face of the Democrats," wrote one commentator who shared the video. "Oof, the stupidity is strong with this one."

"Everyone please watch this video, it's revealing," another wrote on the page Wake Up America, the Original. "How did this person get elected to Congress."

"Down right scary as hell!!!!!" said another.

(Ocasio-Cortez is a candidate for Congress, having only won the Democratic primary for the district in the Bronx and Queens).

New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher tweeted about the video early on Tuesday morning, noting that it was a "faked interview," and that it wasn't labeled satire. Others joined in to express their frustration, with some seeing it as not just a failure on the part of CRTV, but Facebook.

"Republicans are so scared of me that they're faking videos and presenting them as real on Facebook because they can't deal with reality anymore," Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.

But Stuckey joined a chorus of conservative commentators who responded defiantly to the backlash against the piece, comparing it to satirical videos published by outlets like the Onion and comedians like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel.

"If you have to do research to figure out that a video that blatantly absurd is satirical, you shouldn't be on the Internet," Stuckey wrote.

Some writers rebutted that idea.

"It would be one thing if Stuckey or CRTV in general were known for doing satirical stunts on a regular basis like this. Facebook is rife with people falling for what are clearly meant to be jokes from regular purveyors of such like The Onion," the Observer wrote. "But this is something different."

The Verge's Adi Robertson noted that "while the clips aren't spliced all that realistically, it's not clear that this is intentional. Without the disclaimer, it's indistinguishable from an awkward attempt at smearing a political opponent."

When asked whether Stuckey had done other satirical interviews in the same style, a CRTV spokeswoman provided a link to an interview - in this case one that appeared to have been actually filmed face to face - with the conservative commentator Ben Shapiro that Stuckey had done in a mocking tone. But that video does not appear to involve the use of edited footage. On Facebook, it is currently marked in the caption as satire.

Many of Stuckey's videos appear to be relatively straightforward commentary from a conservative Christian perspective on subjects like gun rights, abortion and the political left. "Schools are being filled with anti-Trump indoctrination," one is headlined. And "Human Dignity Starts in the Womb."

Even some apparent critics of Ocasio-Cortez's political leanings said Stuckey's video had gone too far.

"While I'm anti socialism, this BS is not helpful," one wrote on Facebook. "If she is really that ignorant let her prove it on her own. Respect the truth."

CRTV defended the post.

"Satire has a long tradition and plays a valuable role in political discourse," it said in a statement. "We love Allie's creative work and look forward to liberals feigning outrage at satire in future videos."

Facebook declined to comment on the record about the video, and a company official who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity said she did not know if moderators had ever reviewed it.A Pope, the Pill and the Perils of Sexual Chaos New documentary explores the rotten roots of the sexual revolution and its devastating effects on love, marriage and the family



Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276,



SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 /



A new documentary UNPROTECTED: A HALF-CENTURY OF SEXUAL CHAOS (Ignatius Press, Runaway Planet Pictures and DJEM Media) sheds light on the history of the sexual revolution, the moral decline of the West and a broken generation rife with sexual woundedness, fractured marriages and overall moral bankruptcy. Pope Paul VI in his prophetic 50-year-old encyclical Humanae Vitae warned the Church about these issues. UNPROTECTED explores Humanae Vitae, a central focus of the documentary, which exposes the breakdown of the family, perversion of human sexuality, the rampant use of birth control and abortion on demand.



As a concerned father of three girls, the film's writer and director, Don Johnson, traveled around the country to discover why the culture has become so toxic for women. Who (and what) has led to sexting pressure, the hookup culture, teenage depression and the #Metoo movement? Johnson found a surprising answer  and some hope for the future  by digging deeper into Humanae Vitae.



UNPROTECTED features interviews with renowned experts and scholars, including Janet Smith, Christopher West, Damon Owens, Jennifer Fulwiler, Sue Ellen Browder, Jason and Crystalina Evert, Patrick Coffin, Jennifer Roback Morse, Carrie Gress, Mark Regnerus, Benjamin Wiker, Leila Miller, Arleen Spenceley and Donald Asci.



Johnson will host the premiere of UNPROTECTED at 7:30 p.m. PT Friday, July 27 at the HV50 Conference hosted by the California Association of Family Planning in Ontario, California. He also will moderate a panel discussion featuring Smith, West, Coffin and Roback Morse following the screening.



Watch the UNPROTECTED trailer:



For more information, to request a media screening link or to schedule an interview with Don Johnson or Janet Smith, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or



Share Tweet Contact: Kevin Wandra, 404-788-1276, KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 / Christian Newswire / -- The sexual revolution flaunted the empty promise of sexual freedom, so-called stronger marriages, the control of unwanted pregnancies and more opportunities for women to advance in the workplace. Did all this sexual license provide authentic freedom?A new documentary UNPROTECTED: A HALF-CENTURY OF SEXUAL CHAOS (Ignatius Press, Runaway Planet Pictures and DJEM Media) sheds light on the history of the sexual revolution, the moral decline of the West and a broken generation rife with sexual woundedness, fractured marriages and overall moral bankruptcy. Pope Paul VI in his prophetic 50-year-old encyclical Humanae Vitae warned the Church about these issues. UNPROTECTED explores Humanae Vitae, a central focus of the documentary, which exposes the breakdown of the family, perversion of human sexuality, the rampant use of birth control and abortion on demand.As a concerned father of three girls, the film's writer and director, Don Johnson, traveled around the country to discover why the culture has become so toxic for women. Who (and what) has led to sexting pressure, the hookup culture, teenage depression and the #Metoo movement? Johnson found a surprising answer  and some hope for the future  by digging deeper into Humanae Vitae.UNPROTECTED features interviews with renowned experts and scholars, including Janet Smith, Christopher West, Damon Owens, Jennifer Fulwiler, Sue Ellen Browder, Jason and Crystalina Evert, Patrick Coffin, Jennifer Roback Morse, Carrie Gress, Mark Regnerus, Benjamin Wiker, Leila Miller, Arleen Spenceley and Donald Asci.Johnson will host the premiere of UNPROTECTED at 7:30 p.m. PT Friday, July 27 at the HV50 Conference hosted by the California Association of Family Planning in Ontario, California. He also will moderate a panel discussion featuring Smith, West, Coffin and Roback Morse following the screening.Watch the UNPROTECTED trailer: youtu.be/aIGYR3GrORs . Visit the website: www.UnprotectedMovie.com For more information, to request a media screening link or to schedule an interview with Don Johnson or Janet Smith, please contact Kevin Wandra (404-788-1276 or KWandra@CarmelCommunications.com ) of Carmel Communications.Asus announced the Zenfone 5z at MWC 2018 back in late February. The phones rollout to markets took a lot of time but it's finally in motion - it went to Europe, then launched in India in July and will hit the United States mid-August. In fact, the flagship just appeared on pre-order at Amazon with its 6.2 notched screen and Blue paintjob for $499. The actual launch date is August 13.

The Asus Zenfone 5z is powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset and arrives in the United States unlocked for all carriers. The flagship has a dual camera on the back with 12 MP main sensor and 8 MP 120-degree wide-angle secondary one. It has dual SIM support, but the second port is hybrid, so its either SIM or microSD.

The battery is 3,300 mAh with up to 18 W quick charging and the Zenfone 5z has Android Oreo out of the box. The version listed by Amazon has 6 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. The Zenfone 5z was initially announced in Blue and Gray, but sadly there is no info on availability of the latter color option or any other memory variants.

SourceThe Samsung Galaxy Note8 officially costs $750 in the US, but deals have pushed this price as low as $620. Thats still a bit high, though, an eBay seller with the cheeky name of never-msrp is selling new units at $533.

These are unlocked dual SIM phones with Exynos  note that this means only GSM carriers are supported (so no Verizon and Sprint). Only Gold units are left. You can check out the deal here, the seller is located in Houston, Texas.



Samsung Galaxy Note8 in Gold  The DeX Pad

And while youre shopping, you may want to check out the Samsung DeX Pad Dock for $67.80 from B&H (normally it's $100). Its designed for the S9 duo, but will work just fine with the Galaxy Note8 as well.

ViaThe Honor Play was unveiled last month in China with a great value proposition thanks being the cheapest Kirin 970 device. Now, the company is about to bring the device to India as well. The handset will sell exclusively on Amazon.in while the official announcement will be held on August 6

The phone aims to be a budget gaming alternative to the already existing high-end Snapdragon 845-equipped smartphones from Asus, Razer and Xiaomi.

It boasts a 6.3-inch LCD with 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 1080 x 2340 pixel resolution and a 83% screen-to-body ratio. A narrow notch on the top houses a 16MP selfie camera.

As we already said, the SoC is Kirin 970 paired with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage and the GPU Turbo tech should bring out the best from the SoC during gaming.



Honor Play in Magic Night Black, Aurora Blue and Nebula Violet

The back holds the fingerprint reader and the double camera setup - 16MP with f/2.2 aperture and a 2MP secondary one for depth sensing. A 3,750 mAh battery powers the phone while Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 run the show.

For now, the company doesn't say anything about the pricing in India so we'll have to wait 12 more days to find out. In China the phone costs CNY 2,000 ($295), which makes INR 20,350 in local currency.

SourceThe first rumors about the Xperia XZ3 came around to tell us a story of two cameras on the back, probably the ones that the Xperia XZ2 Premium uses but lately the latest intel refutes that. It seemed dubious at first but now that evidence is piling up that it is indeed the case.

Earlier we saw 360-degree render of the device missing the second camera on the back and now a benchmark listing shows that the phone will have an advanced single sensor on the back instead of two. The phone with model number H8416 has appeared on GFXBench featuring a camera with whopping 47MP resolution.

As most of you know, benchmark listings tend to have a little deviation from the actual specs but we're likely looking at the 48MP IMX586 sensor that Sony just unveiled. It has an even higher resolution than Huawei's 40MP sensor on the P20 Pro and uses the same Quad Bayer technology.

Then again we've seen the dual camera configuration in a live photo leak and even a photo of what seems to be the sensor setup. Ideally, Sony is preparing two devices instead of one, which would explain the contradicting reports.

A little over a month remains until the Sony August 30 event, when the confusion will be cleared.

Source (in Japanese)Xiaomi announced the Mi A2 and its sibling the Mi A2 Lite just yesterday. The Android One phones were unveiled in Madrid and got their launch dates for most of the European markets confirmed, but the devices will appear at non-EU countries as well.

Manu Kumar Jain, VP of Xiaomi and the head of Xiaomi India took it to Twitter to announce the Mi A2 will arrive to India on August 8 with its Snapdragon 660 chipset and 20 MP AI-powered front camera.

The Mi A2 is the second generation Android One phone for Xiaomi. After the Mi A1 arrived with Snapdragon 625 and 12 MP + 12 MP dual camera, this one has 12 MP + 20 MP setup and a newer chipset.

The phone costs between 250 and 350, depending on the version you take, which equals INR18,000 to INR30,000.

SourceWarrior Creed Veteran Motorcycle Club is holding a Crunch for A Cause fundraiser for K9 Care Montana Thursday.

K9 Care Montana provides service dogs for veterans and children with autism. The organization specifically works in Montana and all money will stay within the state.

Thursday, if people making a purchase at Havres Taco Johns between 5 and 7 p.m. mention Warrior Creed Veteran Motorcycle Clubs K9 Care Montana fundraiser, the restaurant will donate 50 percent of the purchase price to the Warrior Creed account.Sen. Jon Tester voiced his concerns Tuesday about Montana agricultural producers' future with the impacts of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

During a telephone press conference from Washington, Tester said the tariffs situation could have negative effects on Montana's producers and agriculture. He added that agriculture is the state's top industry and is the economic drive for every community that is represented through the state.

"Unfortunately," he said, "Montana producers, as we prepare for harvest, there is even lesser certainty than normal."

Tester, who is facing Republican Montana Auditor Matt Rosendale in November's election, said he believes that because of the tariffs, farmers and ranchers are being caught in the middle of a potential trade war that "we certainly didn't ask for" and which could possibly eliminate access to international markets, resulting in lower commodity prices and ultimately putting financial strain on agricultural families.

The retaliatory tariffs put on products by other countries against farmers and ranchers, if continued, will eventually hurt the state's top industry, Tester said. He added that this industry stretches across the economy of Montana from local grocery stores to restaurants and businesses.

He said in the coming months he is sure that the tariffs will have a negative effect on crop sales, adding that Montanans have already felt some of the effects of this tariffs in the industry.

"Montanans were expecting to export more than $200 million worth of beef to China over the next three years, but as of July 6 of this year, they slapped a 25 percent tariff on American beef," Tester said.

Tester said this put a market of more than a billion people out of reach of Montana ranchers, and if prices continue to drop family farms and ranches will have to start making some difficult decisions.

He added that these families have worked for years, even generations, to build these international markets, putting in years of hard work, faith, negotiations and trust, and if these markets are lost they will have to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Tester said other countries markets such as Argentina and Russia are already looking into these markets "like sharks" and leaving the U.S. out.

He added that the nation needs to find a solution and quickly, adding that he has worked with both Republicans and Democrats on a bill which provides Congress with more of a roll in imposing tariffs, but it lacks the teeth to fix the pain that the state will most likely feel this summer.

He added that the Farm Bill is in deliberation, with a committee trying to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, and the nation needs to invest in rural America through the bill.

Tester said one of the important bills that was introduced this week is to reverse the decision of hiding certain political donations from the public which was made by the Treasury Department last month.

The Treasury Department passed a decision that political nonprofits will not need to disclose their donors if the donation is more than $5,000, Tester said, adding that he had tried to question one of the executive branch nominees who helps oversee the department and was unable to get answers.

The bill that was introduced this week, Tester said, will assure more transparency with the public although it is not a perfect bill.

"I'm saying enough is enough and this bill will bring more transparency and accountability to political campaigns," he said. "Will it solve all the disastrous effects of Citizens United? No, but more transparency is a good thing."

Tester also expressed confidence in the new secretary of the Veterans Administration, whom Tester voted to confirm.

"I strongly support the nomination of Robert Wilkie to lead the VA," Tester said.

He added that Wilkie has a big job in front of him. Wilkie will be responsible for implementing the VA Mission Act, a bipartisan bill that Tester wrote with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the chair of the VA Committee on which Tester is the ranking Democrat. The bill was signed into law by Trump.

The act eliminates the Chance Program and replaces it with the Community Care Initiative, Tester said, adding that it will make it easier for veterans to access care at local hospitals and clinics.

Tester added that Wilkie has one year to get this initiative ready.

"I'm confident we have given Mr. Wilkie and the VA the tools they need to reduce wait times for veterans, hire more staff and improve the quality of care at the VA," Tester said.

Tester also discussed the Stop Taxing Our Potential Act, a bill he wrote to reverse the Supreme Court's decision to force local businesses to collect sales tax on behalf of other states when that state's residents purchase Montana goods online.

The STOP Act is in the Senate Finance Committee, Tester said, and after that it's on to the Senate floor.

He said he is confident it will pass through the Senate Finance Committee adding that Ranking Member Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., agrees with Tester on this act.

Tester said the Supreme Court's decision hurts Montana businesses and will inevitably lead to many small businesses having to close.

"It was a very, very bad decision by the Supreme Court and it's a pattern here. We saw it with Citizens United. It's one of the reasons I voted against (Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch)."

Tester added that he will be voting against Trump's nominee to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger.

Matt Rosendale

"It's not that she's a bad person, it's just that she wouldn't answer any of my questions and when you don't answer the questions, you don't get my support," Tester said.

Tester said that during the Senate Banking Committee hearing last week, Kraninger refused to answer his questions. He added that if candidates answer his questions and he doesn't like the answer that is fine with him, he will just watch them. If they answer his questions and he likes the answers he will hold the candidate accountable. If a candidate refuses to answer any questions, the decision of support is clear and easy.

"She didn't take a position on dark money, she didn't take a position on anything, quite frankly," he added.Dever Everingham, 13, left, playing Ponyboy, stands up Tuesday to Gryphon Guyant, 18, who is playing Bob during rehearsal for "The Outsiders" in the Little Theatre.

"The haircut has definitely made a big difference," Kaelyn Kaftan said.

The incoming University of Montana freshman ran a hand through her short, greased-back hair as she described her transformation into Johnny Cake, a lead role in "The Outsiders."

Montana Actors' Theatre is opening the play, adapted from the novel by S.E. Hinton, Thursday in the Little Theatre in Cowan Hall at Montana State University-Northern.

It will run for two weekends, ending Aug. 4.

The play tells the story of Ponyboy, a young "greaser" mixed up in his friends' territory battles with wealthier teenagers.

Kaftan, who started acting as a senior in high school, plays Ponyboy's best friend. She relates easily to Johnny, she said.

"We're both kinda quiet but we'll do what needs to be done," she said.

Kaftan said being a quiet person has not been an obstacle to playing a lead role.

"I know most of the people I'm acting with," she said, adding that, on the stage, "it doesn't matter where you come from, it matters who you're becoming, as the character."

During rehearsals, Kaftan said, she learned to yell and walk like a greaser boy. She also got a crash course in male stage makeup. The hardest part for her was "leaving Johnny in the theater and going back to a normal life. It's been really fun, it's just - I get really into it."

Kaftan said she may relate too well to her part and is learning techniques to separate herself at the end of the day.

"I have different mannerisms for Johnny that I find I've taken out of the theater. ... Running my hand through my hair has been a big thing. I slouch more now." She turned to a castmate, laughing. "We've made me a guy."

The cast has been rehearsing daily for a month. The young actors range in age from 11 years old to incoming college sophomores.

As Dever Everingham demonstrates, however, experience is just as significant as age. Everingham, who is going into eighth grade, plays the lead role of Ponyboy.

Everingham has been acting with MAT since he was 5 years old and struggled less with differentiating himself from his character.

"Ponyboy is ... kind of whiny. He's the youngest out of all of the greasers," Everingham said. "He doesn't really like fights."

Everingham said about their similarities, "I'm around the same age as Ponyboy would be and he is really angsty." He added with a laugh, "I'm kind of angsty."

In spite of his acting experience, Everingham explored new territory rehearsing "The Outsiders." One of the play's directors, Brandon Bergren, taught the actors the repetition exercise, a Meisner acting technique.

Bergren said he hoped the exercise, where actors repeat observations about each other, would help to "loosen 'em up again as if they were doing the scene for the first time."

"It made me feel more emotions," Everingham said - he used the technique during a challenging hospital scene. The actor added that he has experience with Bergren, who is a MAT veteran actor himself.

"I've been in a couple plays with him, and now he's my director," Everingham said. "Brandon has worked me."

"He's learned you as an actor," Kaftan agreed, laughing.

The two actors credited the play's two directors, Katie Burke and Bergren, with improving their focus, diction, projection and breath control. The actors learned to plant their feet on the stage rather than swaying as well.

"The Outsiders" also naturally includes a lot of stage fighting.

"That was really fun," Kaftan said. "It took a while, but we're getting there. Getting punched in the stomach's pretty easy, too."

"There's a lot of that," Everingham added.

The two directors are MAT summer interns and are working the KidsMAT Summer Camp in August. Burke and Bergren said they are learning their own lessons from rehearsing "The Outsiders."

Both directors quickly agreed to casting Kaftan as Johnny, for instance, despite her gender.

"You were too good for us to not cast you as Johnny," Bergren said he told Kaftan, "and that is why I'm upset with you."

But in other ways, the directors said they read the play differently. Learning how to disagree and come to decisions together privately is a skill Burke said she'll take away from rehearsals.

Bergren said directing is teaching him to stay organized and to vocalize his ideas. He also said he enjoyed helping the younger actors begin to see relationships as less black-and-white.

Ryan Welch Dever Everingham, 13, in the middle, playing Ponyboy, is held at knife point by Donovan McLain, 16, on the left, who is playing Randy, and Gryphon Guyant, 18, who is playing Bob during rehearsal for "The Outsiders" in the Little Theatre Tuesday, July 24, 2018.

He added, "We get to help control ... the ups and downs. We've had bad rehearsals, we've had good rehearsals, as any show does." Bergren said he enjoyed "working through those challenges and trying to make the next rehearsal a good one."

"Everything about this is fun," he said. "The yelling ... ."

Burke laughed and agreed that the fun outweighed the struggles.

"It's super fun to have this community and to feel like a part of something." Burke said, adding that a lot of the play "is about isolation and then finding your group. ... With theater you can find your group and your people, and that's really important at this age."

The actors agreed. Kaftan said that the greasers taking Johnny Cake in and becoming like a family to him paralleled the "theater family" welcoming her in this year.

"It's definitely a heavy show," Kaftan said, referring to "The Outsiders" themes of abuse and violence. "It's made us a lot closer as a cast, just because, like, some of the struggles are familiar to some of us."

She added with a smile, "We've become a support system. ... That definitely helps."Randall W. "Skate 8" Martin went home to be with the Lord on July 18, 2018, in Havre at the age of 59.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, July 27, 2018, at St. Paul Lutheran Church with Pastor Mark Williams officiating. Burial will follow in Highland Cemetery with military honors.

Randy's family has suggested that memorial donations be made in Randy's name to St. Paul Lutheran Church, 1100 11th Ave., Havre, the VFW Bear Paw Junior Rifle Club, 1022 10th Ave, Havre, or to the charity of the donor's choice.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with services and arrangements. Please visit Randy's online memorial page and leave a message of condolence for his family at http://www.hollandbonine.com/.

Randy was born on December 29, 1958, in Havre to Marion and Lorine (Clikeman) Martin. He was raised in Havre, graduating from Havre High School in 1977. He began working for BNSF in 1978. In 1980, he joined the U.S. Army, and trained to become a mortician in the world's largest mortuary in Frankfurt, Germany. Upon his honorable discharge, Randy returned to Havre and resumed working for BNSF until he was forced to take medical leave in April 2017.

Randy was asked to join the VFW Honor Guard in the 1990s. A few years later, he began serving as Joint Commander, and later assumed the role of Commander. As a youth, Randy was a member of the Junior Rifle Club. After his return from the Army, he realized that the boys were no longer meeting, and along with his former instructor and friend Cal Burr, worked to combine the Havre Girls and VFW Boys Junior Rifle Clubs. Together, they taught countless children the skills and safety rules necessary to handle firearms and achieve NRA rankings. After Cal retired, Randy's wife, Laura, joined him and together they helped support the trap club in their activities to sustain the Junior Rifle Club. Randy loved working with the kids just as he did when he co-owned Russ Dee's Roller Rink, which he bought into in 1977.

He was an artisan who employed his skills in welding, foundry, jewelry making, glass etching and shooting. He loved to spend his time with his family at Fresno and in the Bear Paws. His cat Smokey was his constant companion for many years. Randy was a wonderful family man, who lived his faith every day. He prayed constantly in all situations for his family and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Marion and Lorine Martin; and his brothers James and Robert Martin.

Randy is survived by his wife, Laura Martin of Havre; children, Nick (Iris) and Nolan Martin, all of Seattle, Clarissa (Derrick Hucke) Martin of Havre and Jackie Martin of Bozeman; siblings Rick (Jeanne) Martin of Havre, and Dr. Paula Martin of Dickinson, ND; and nephews Damien and Sky Martin.

If you are unable to attend the service, please join us for a live streaming of Randy's service at http://stream.vision.net/stpaul-zion/.Consequently, Patricks new WILpower program is a two-year structured cadetship which aims to deliver on-the-job learning in operational roles for talented women who may lack industry experience.

The program includes a full-time, competitive salary, dedicated onboarding to build skills and internal networks, a tailored tertiary qualification designed in partnership with a university, job rotations across a broad spectrum of roles, individualised mentoring and ongoing support.

Patrick CEO, Michael Jovicic said that Patrick believes that the WILpower Management Cadetship is a step in the right direction for encouraging women into the organisation.

We believe that by providing a program such as WILpower, we can encourage greater representation of women in operational management roles across all areas of our business, and the industry as a whole, said Jovicic.

The WILpower program is a fresh approach to our diversity strategy within Patrick and we have been fortunate to have encouraged some exceptionally talented women into Patrick as a result of the first iteration of WILpower.Thinner retinas in the human eye are a clear sign a person is at significant and increased risk of future mental decline, a UCL-led study has concluded

Researchers say this breakthrough study, suggests regular eye tests could help identify those likely to get dementia at a much earlier stage, which means suitable treatments could be prescribed at a more effective time to slow or stop the onset of dementia at early stages of the disease.

In the largest longitudinal study of its kind, researchers at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital, assessed UK Biobank data, from 32,000 anonymised individuals, aged between 40 and 69.

The selected participants had undergone optical coherence tomography (OCT), which precisely measures retinal anatomy, in particular, the retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL), at baseline  between the years 2006-2010. At the same time, participants had also undergone a series of basic cognitive tests which assessed memory, reaction time and reasoning. The OCT and cognitive tests were then repeated in a subset of participants approximately three years after baseline in 2013.

In assessing the data, researchers found a significant association between RNFL thickness and cognitive function at baseline. People in the lowest two quintiles of RNFL thickness were around double the risk of having mild cognitive problems, when examined. Furthermore those people with thinner RNFL were twice as likely to suffer cognitive decline over the next three years. These findings were recently published in the peer reviewed JAMA neurology.

Co-lead author, Professor Paul Foster (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) said this is the first study to identify a thin RNFL indicates a risk of future cognitive decline.

It is well known there are significant degenerative changes in the retina and optic nerves in established dementia, he said.

In carrying out this study our primary motivation was to determine if the RNFL and cognition relationship held true in the very earliest stages of cognitive decline.

Our findings undoubtedly suggest that the retinal abnormalities, identifiable in established dementia, begin to manifest in the early stages of cognitive decline.

Between 2002 and 2012, 99% of clinical trials into treatments for Alzheimers disease failed.

It is likely that treatments will be more effective in slowing or stopping further at onset of dementia at earlier stages of the disease, Prof Foster added.

Also, by targeting people in the earlier stages, it should be possible to design better clinical trials for treatments that make a real difference and improve peoples lives.

We believe optical coherence tomography measures of the retina will help identify those at highest risk of very early cognitive changes. This will, in turn, help to develop better clinical trials, and pull through new treatments more rapidly to patients.

The co-lead author was Mr Praveen Patel, consultant ophthalmic surgeon, Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology will now research the relationship between all layers of the retina, and cognitive function, and whether other eye or vision characteristics may be similarly related to cognitive decline.

The collection of eye and vision data on UK Biobank was funded by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. Supplementary funding was provided by The International Glaucoma Association.

University College LondonThe doctor involved in the original work was employed on a seasonal basis at the hospital and no longer works there. Stock image

A vigilant member of staff who voiced concerns is behind a review of colonoscopies involving 65 patients at a Dublin hospital.

St Columcille's Hospital, in Loughlinstown, has now asked the patients to return for a repeat procedure.

A colonoscopy is an internal examination of the bowel which is used in the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions.

The staff member was worried that a complete photo- graphic record of the end section of the bowel was not obtained.

This led to a look-back at 160 colonoscopies carried out there by a doctor between November and April.

"It was discovered that in 65 cases there was not a complete photographic record of the end section of the bowel," a spokeswoman for the hospital said.

"This photographic record is evidence that the colonoscopy was completed.

"Hence, for best practice, it was decided to rescope those 65 cases."

All 65 patients have been contacted, but it will be some weeks before they all receive a repeat procedure as some are on holiday.

"St Columcille's Hospital, as part of a quality assurance process, undertook a review of colonoscopies performed at the hospital between November 2017 and April 2018," the spokesperson added.

Dr Garret Cullen, clinical lead for endoscopy at Ireland East Hospital Group, said the measure was precautionary and the risk to patients is low.

"We acknowledge that patients may be anxious about being called for an appointment, but I want to reassure them that this is purely a precautionary measure, appointments are currently being scheduled and we expect this process to be complete within four weeks," he said.

Seasonal

The doctor involved in the original work was employed on a seasonal basis at the hospital and no longer works there.

Asked where the doctor is working now, a spokeswoman said she had no further comment to make.

"The doctor was employed on a non-permanent basis, this arrangement is complete and the consultant is no longer at St Columcille's," she said.

"We have no further comment to make regarding the consultant.

Questioned on the protocol used to contact patients, she said: "We would like to apologise to all patients who are involved in this recall and understand that this has put undue stress and worry.

"It is, however, very important that we contact patients involved as soon as possible and ensure that they have their rescope as quickly as possible.

"In this instance a letter was sent out to each of the patients involved with a contact number at the hospital.

"The morning after the letter was sent to patients, staff at St Columcille's Hospital telephoned each patient as a follow up, to explain the process and answer any questions the patient may have."

She said she was aware of the distress caused to people concerned.

"We sincerely apologise to them and appreciate that this has caused worry to them and their families.

"We hope to make this process as easy as is possible on the patient and ensure that they are seen quickly," she said.Ireland's only hermit priest has warned of the dangers of Harry Potter and video games, which he says expose children to the "dark side".

Fr David Jones (64) also urged users of reiki to be careful, saying that by opening up shakras to positive energy, the negative spirits can also get in.

The Welshman, who has lived in Duleek, Co Meath, for more than 10 years, believes video games and even Harry Potter are part of a bigger agenda "to normalise the dark side".

"Evil that can come out of a screen is deliberate and pumped at people who are defenceless, such as children," he said.

Satanic

"Video games and screens are damaging children and hugely exposing them to evil.

"It's murky and affects every layer of society. Old Nick is not short of measures of getting in there.

"Little children watching Harry Potter are learning real spells. It's a topsy-turvy system to get them ready for something worse."

Fr Jones, who lived in monasteries in Italy and France and speaks eight languages, also claims that drug shipments in Latin America are presided over by Satanic rites to ensure maximum destruction.

"Big shipments of drugs are coming out with maximum demonic attachment because drug lords invite someone involved in Satanism to come out and perform a rite of cursing over each shipload to cause maximum harm, and therefore they are most lucrative to them," he said.

"Practices such as reiki also open doors to the dark side because they open the shakras and pores to other energies too," he said.

There is also a surge of Satanic power at Halloween, Fr Jones said.

"Human sacrifices happen each Halloween and people are conceived in Satanic rites - every time this happens, there's an increase in Satanic power," he added.

Although he claims to have been present at exorcisms, he is not trained to perform them, though he says each diocese has a priest that is.A young boy who was left with severe brain damage after falling into a pond while on a creche outing 11 years ago has died.

Sean Ross McGowan, who was just 21 months old at the time of the incident, almost drowned in a pond at Ranelagh Park.

He fell into the water unnoticed while on a day out with Miss Carr's Children's Home in 2007.

A doctor passing the pond some five minutes later spotted the toddler who wasn't breathing and quickly administered CPR, ultimately saving Sean's life.

Worsened

However, he was left permanently brain damaged, suffering from seizures and blindness.

At the time, he was given just four years to live.

In recent years, Sean's condition worsened as he suffered a number of heart attacks, leading to doctors reducing his dosage of medication.

He faced a decrease in his quality of his life and required round-the-clock care as epileptic fits and respiratory difficulties became more frequent.

Last week, Sean's parents Rose Houlihan and John McGowan were told that his breathing was quickly going downhill.

At around 7am yesterday he died with his parents by his side at the Laura Lynn-run Sunshine Care Home where he was being cared for.

"On Friday we got the word that his breathing was deteriorating and by Sunday he was completely incapacitated, drifting in and out of consciousness," a close family member said.

The relative said they were devastated Sean had died but added that he had been in a lot of pain in recent months.

"In the past three years the epileptic fits became a massive issue and there were issues surrounding his heart," the family member said.

"He was left in a vegetative state and severely brain damaged.

"He couldn't eat or chew. He had about six or seven heart attacks in his life.

"There is a degree of relief that he isn't in pain but there is devastation at the loss of their child.

"The challenge is in the next few months in piecing together their lives."

Rose Houlihan took a case on Sean's behalf against Miss Carr's Children's Home and the HSE which funded the centre.

Liability was accepted after Sean's mother claimed negligence and breach of duty against the centre.

The High Court was told that a settlement of 650,000 was accepted.

During the case, Mr Justice Sean Ryan rejected a 550,000 offer as insufficient.

Appalling

The court heard how Sean required 24-hour care.

The judge told the court it was hard to think of a more appalling cluster of injuries than those suffered by Sean.

He said these injuries had the most devastating consequences for him.

The court was also told that the HSE had committed to providing Sean with the care he required.

Also during the hearing his father expressed displeasure with how gardai had investigated the case.

Speaking outside the court, Mr McGowan made a statement critical of the HSE for not apologising for what had happened.

A separate action by Ms Houlihan claiming damages for post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, nervous shock and nightmares against the defendants, arising from what had happened to Sean, was also settled.Former Love/Hate actress Aoibhinn McGinnity is to take on one of Marilyn Monroe's most iconic roles in an adaptation of The Misfits.

McGinnity will play Roslyn Taber in an upcoming production of Arthur Miller's 1961 film adapted by theatre company the Corn Exchange.

The movie tells the story of Roslyn, who arrives in Reno to finalise a painful divorce, before shacking up with ageing cowboy Gay Langland, played by Clark Gable.

Mess

McGinnity said she had never seen the film and had no intention of watching it before rehearsals begin.

"I am not going to play it like Marilyn Monroe," she said.

"I don't want to play it like that so I thought don't watch it or it will always be in my head, and it might mess up your journey."

McGinnity is looking forward to treading the boards after spending the past few months working on Netflix series Nightflyers.

The new horror sci-fi series is based on George RR Martin's novella and has been dubbed 'Psycho in Space'.

It was shot at Limerick's Troy Studios and will air on US network Syfy and Netflix.

"I play a systems engineer and got to be on board the ship. It was the biggest set I have ever been on - so big I got lost on it," McGinnity said.

But now all her attention is focused on rehearsals for The Misfits.

The play is being rewritten by Annie Ryan and will form part of the Dublin Theatre Festival, which will run from 27 September to October 14.

Oscar nominee Ruth Negga will take on the titular role of Hamlet in Shakespeare's tragedy at the Gate Theatre.

Dublin Theatre Festival director Willie White said it was unlikely Negga would demand a salary of Tinseltown proportions.

He said that in general when film actors work in theatre, it is the passion for the project that drives them rather than the salary.

Hamlet will also star Trainspotting's Fiona Bell, Owen Roe and Mark Huberman.

Downton Abbey actor Brendan Coyle, who played John Bates in the hit series, will star in a new production of Conor McPherson's St Nicholas.

Coyle and McPherson previously collaborated on The Weir, which won both the actor and the playwright Olivier Awards in 1999.

Peaky Binders star Cillian Murphy will receive an award for his outstanding contribution to Irish theatre.

"It basically involves a nice meal and everyone telling Cillian how wonderful he is," White said.

White also spoke about a "tumultuous" few years on Ireland's theatre scene.

Upsetting

In 2015, the Waking the Feminists campaign highlighted the lack of gender parity, and last year allegations of inappropriate behaviour were levied at the then artistic director of the Gate, Michael Colgan.

"It has been very upsetting," White said.

"We have had to look into ourselves and see if we practise the values we say we believe in, but we have come out the other end of that in quite a positive frame of mind."

White referred to initiatives such as Speak Up & Call It Out, and said change had been "long overdue".TV3's Cassie Stokes believes Ireland has come on leaps and bounds in terms of its treatment of gay people and believes other countries could follow our example.

The Xpose presenter is in a relationship with her partner Kathleen and previously said she feels gay couples are making a statement by holding hands in public.

"Whenever I speak about my sexuality I always say how brilliant Ireland has been and how forward thinking we have been, especially in such a short amount of time," she told the Herald.

"It's great. Ireland is brilliant in that way and there's so many places that could definitely learn from us, which is a nice thing to say, isn't it, about the place you live?

"It's definitely got better. Whether it comes down to me being uncomfortable, it's got a million times better.

"Initially it was me being uncomfortable, now I've changed.

"Holding hands is a statement for any couple.

"You're saying you're together and maybe 'I love you' if you've got to that stage."

Trolls

The Dundrum woman told how she occasionally has to deal with hate from social media trolls, but understands she won't appeal to everyone.

"It's always difficult. Any negativity always hurts a little bit and I never deal with negativity more by taking it further. I just say OK," she said. "I haven't received too much, so I'm very lucky.

"There's always going to be people who don't like you. You don't have to make people like you."

Cassie will be hosting Xpose's Style Sessions event on Sunday in the Lyrath Hotel in Co Kilkenny.

Tickets are on sale from eventbrite.ie.Ian Paisley has been suspended by the Democratic Unionist Party and will also be excluded from the House of Commons for 30 sitting days from September 4 following a major breach of parliamentary rules.

Electoral authorities in Northern Ireland are to begin drawing up measures which could see the North Antrim MP face a by-election if enough constituents demand it.

He vowed to fight for his seat after failing to declare two luxury family holidays paid for by the Sri Lankan government. In March 2014, he lobbied against a proposed United Nations resolution to investigate alleged human rights abuse during a civil war in Sri Lanka without declaring his financial benefits.

If 10pc of his constituents sign a petition, an election will be called. A DUP statement said: "The party officers have decided to suspend Mr Ian Paisley MP from membership of the party pending further investigation into his conduct."

Serious

Sinn Fein deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said Mr Paisley was given the most serious sanction handed to any MP since 1949.

"When you consider some of the sleaze, corruption and criminal scandals that have engulfed the British Parliament during that time, that is quite extraordinary," she said.

Patrick Corrigan, head of Amnesty International in Northern Ireland, said the victims were those killed in Sri Lanka.

"Mr Paisley saw fit to lobby the prime minister against a UN investigation into gross human rights violations, including the mass killing of civilians at the end of the Sri Lankan war, for which no adequate investigation has ever been carried out."

Mr Paisley said he deeply regretted his actions and said: "There are also some who would have me booted out of Parliament and a by-election called to fill that vacancy.

"They are opportunists, some with questionable motives, and I can tell them that I have no intention of going quietly into the night."Ryanair pilots will announce more strikes early next month, when their German colleagues may also mount pickets.

Sources revealed that August 2 and 10 will be given serious consideration as potential dates at a meeting of a Forsa disputes committee.

Strikes by cabin crew in Spain, Portugal and Belgium will hit up to 100,000 passengers as 600 flights are grounded over the next 48 hours.

Ryanair has not said whether Irish flights will be affected by this industrial action, but sources in the travel industry claimed only two outbound and two inbound Irish flights will be cancelled.

Meanwhile, German and Irish pilot unions are likely to be on strike during the first two weeks of August.

Members of German union Vereinigung Cockpit are currently balloting. Up to 2,500 passengers were hit yesterday during a third strike by Irish-based, directly-employed pilots, which led to 16 cancelled flights.

Ryanair said they make up 25pc of its pilot workforce. Most pilots are contractors.

So far, the airline has minimised the impact of the strikes by rebooking passengers on alternative flights or providing refunds, so there were no angry scenes at Dublin Airport.

Passengers who were asked by the Herald while checking in at the Ryanair desk said they had not been affected.

Picket

Pilots staged their picket outside Ryanair's HQ, in Airside, Swords, from early morning and they were joined by pilots from American Airlines in support while most cars beeped horns as they passed.

"It's industrial action, but not as we know it," quipped one observer about the pilots' upmarket picketing style.

The pilots want a seniority list to be set up that gives those with longest service first call on holidays, promotions and transfers, but the airline claimed it could not explain their demand, and said it "doesn't even affect them".

Ryanair chief operations officer, Peter Bellew, defended the airline against a claim made in a tweet that the airline had a "big alignment with the basics of 21st century slavery".

"I'm not sure how you define a pilot on 150,000 to 200,000 and attending work for 170 days a year as a slave," he replied.

Forsa spokesperson, Bernard Harbor, said further industrial action by pilots could not legally take place for another week, if it is announced today.

He said this could give both sides "breathing space" for talks.A 40-year-old policeman was killed and another injured in an attack by an absconding accused and his relatives in Jamunia Jeth village in Chhindwara district in Madhya Pradesh early on Wednesday, police said.

The attack took place when the policemen went to catch Jouhar Singh (30), against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in connection with an assault case, police said.

The deceased was identified as assistant sub inspector (ASI) Devchandra Nagle, police said, adding that eight accused, including Singh and three women, were arrested for the assault.

The incident took place around 6am when Nagle and some other policemen went to catch Jouhar Singh, an absconding accused against whom a permanent arrest warrant had been issued in an assault case. The policemen approached his house following a tip-off, a police official said.

As soon as the police team spotted the accused in his house and tried to catch him, the latter, along with his relatives and others, including women, attacked them with sticks and axe. Nagle suffered critical injuries in the incident, which also left another policeman injured, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Neeraj Soni said.

Nagle died on the spot, while the injured policeman was later taken to the district hospital, where he is currently undergoing treatment, he said. Police have so far arrested eight of the 11 attackers and a search was launched to nab the remaining three accused.

Soni said the deceased ASI will be given a guard of honour for his bravery.India offered Uganda a $200-million credit line to fund energy and agriculture projects during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the East African nation.

India, which already has defense cooperation with Uganda, is ready to strengthen its collaboration with Uganda, Modi said in a televised speech in Entebbe.

Uganda may use the funds to purchase Indian merchandise for the two industries, President Yoweri Museveni said. The two nations will cooperate on technology for solar power and irrigation, and the equipment may be assembled or manufactured in Uganda, he said.

Indian exports to Uganda narrowed to $736 million at present from $1.2 billion in 2015, while Ugandan shipments to the subcontinent increased to $44 million from $24 million during the same period, Museveni said.

Modi, in Africa for a summit of the BRICS nations, also signed deals worth $200 million in Rwanda for irrigation projects and the development of special economic zones.For four decades since the Janata Party government ordered the Anglo-French Jaguar for IAF in 1977-8, no defence deal has been entirely non-controversial. Most have become major and eternal political scandals. Nobody has as yet been convicted and sent to jail. Not one dollar so stolen has returned.

Two things changed with the Indian politico-military environment 1977 onwards. First, with the first defeat of the Congress party and the rise of the Janata, competitive national politics truly began. Second, given the new strategic challenges, Soviet technology limitations and the Morarji governments efforts to move away from being a client state of the Soviets, India opened out to Western suppliers.

Indira Gandhi returned in 1980 and restored the normal with Kremlin. But Rajiv Gandhi saw the urgency to modernise, and tried breaking free. It is just that almost anything he tried to buy from the West, Swedish Bofors artillery, Type-209 German submarines, and briefly, even the Mirage-2000 from France, became a scandal. The first two still blight our politics.

This government inflicted on the country the absurdity of a fresh Bofors chargesheet when every supposed suspect, from Win Chadha to Rajiv Gandhi to Quattrocchi, has been dead for years. Only an Indian defence purchase feud carries on to heaven or hell.

Defence imports are the albatross around our militaries neck. Since 1978, each major Western acquisition has become a never-ending blood-feud between the Congress and the BJP, the real successor of the Janata Party. When Vajpayee was in power, the Congress hit back at his government through Coffingate and the Tehelka sting.

The two scams endure although nothing wrong was found in the first, and no real deal was taking place in the second: At best it was a notional demonstration that you could bribe/entice key people in case there was a lucrative defence deal.

In the 10 UPA years, the first defence minister, Pranab Mukherjee, resisted party pressures to target his predecessor (George Fernandes) with probes, and paid with his portfolio. His successor, AK Antony, spent the following eight years, as Indias longest-serving defence minister, basically doing nothing. In the two decades beginning 1998, Indian military preparedness has declined. The conventional edge with Pakistan has blunted, the defensive deterrence along the border with China is degraded.

Opinion: Why Modi is more Indira than Nehru

Think, for a moment, about AK Antony, a man so risk averse that at different points of time I have described him as wrapped-in-Latex, Saint Antony.

Think of Antony, the most anti-American member of Manmohan Singhs cabinet. Irony caught up with him as he ended up initiating Indias largest-ever military orders with America, on single-vendor, government-to-government (G-to-G) basis: C-17 and C-130 transporters, Chinook helicopters, P-8is for the Navy.

Politicians act stupidly for their own reasons. People pay for it. In this case, it is the military. Each one of the Western systems bought since 1978 has failed to complete its full cycle of acquisition and development. IAF is a good example: Two squadrons of this, three of that, cannibalising spares from here and there, old planes crashing. The next absurdity will be just two squadrons of Rafale. A great aircraft, but you will build infrastructure, new tech base for just two squadrons. Given how a scandalous halo has now been built around it, it is unlikely the weapon-system will realise its full potential. India is already scouting for more types (F-16/18/Gripen etc) and then theres the Tejas.

The blood feud over defence purchases must end. But the Narendra Modi government is creating a new one by arrogantly refusing to discuss the price, or be transparent with the Rafale purchase. Its making exactly the same mistake Rajiv Gandhi made with Bofors. It lost him his government, his closest friends Arun Singh and VP Singh, and, for the Army, stopped the Bofors programme.

Every government believes it will always be in power, so it can brazen it out. Fact is, governments change, but a nations military needs dont. It is for the Modi government to prevent Rafale from becoming the new Bofors.

It should stop wagging its fingers at those asking questions. It should also begin demystifying defence purchases. Many myths need breaking. We are impressed when told that we are the worlds largest arms importers. But it looks different when you are reminded that we are the fourth largest military and the top three, America, Russia and China do not import much, while we make too little.

Over the past decade, our military imports have averaged about $4 billion (approximately Rs 28,000 crore) a year. For comparisons: Our five-year military imports are about two-thirds of one years gold imports, a tenth of the imports of Reliance Industries, and a seventh of the largest PSU, Indian Oil.

The reason arms purchases become scandals is the multiplicity of vendors, agents, lobbyists, sex appeal and popular ignorance. Being the largest defence importer still doesnt mean we can be pauperised by thieves only in the military business. Unless we bury the hum sub chor hain mindset, our militaries will continue to suffer. But for that, this blood feud on arms imports has to end. The Modi government can begin this by being honest. Or the hole it has dug for itself will get deeper and deeper.The Congress will review the Rafale fighter jets deal between India and France if voted to power in the 2019 general election, its Uttarakhand in-charge Anurgah Narayan Singh said here on Wednesday.

The party is demanding that the central government reveal the price of each fighter aircraft and the total amount that India will pay for Rafale jets.

The Congress also alleged that the central government struck the deal to purchase 36 fighter jets at a higher cost than what the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance government led by it had negotiated with France.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman are not disclosing the price of the Rafale jets under the revised deal between the NDA government and France government. As per our sources, the new deal has been signed at three-fold price per jet than original deal. If voted to power, we would launch an investigation into it, Singh said at a press conference.

Originally, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited was too manufacture the deal jets in India but in the new deal, the NDA government roped in a private company. Something is fishy, the Congress leader said.

On barbs exchanged by the partys state leaders during Tuesdays state Congress committees summit here, he said: Unlike the BJP, there is democracy in the Congress. Hence, everyone was allowed to speak on their issues with full freedom at the meeting.

Earlier in the morning, former chief minister Harish Rawat tweeted: The party needs to unite by setting aside differences to win all the five Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019.

The Congress is a big family and there may be difference of opinion between several members. We wanted to listen to everyone, so that we can work on solutions and resolve issues so as to unite in our fight for the much bigger challenge in 2019, he said.The Congress has to win its fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is ruthless like a hyena and a leopard and out to kill constitutional democracy in the country, former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said on Tuesday.

Congress is fighting a person at the Centre who is like a hyena and a leopard and is bound to kill the constitutional democracy of the country in a ruthless manner. Congress has to win the fight and save constitutional democracy, the newly appointed AICC general secretary said at an event to mark the first visit of Congress state in-charge Anugrah Narayan Singh to Dehradun.

Reacting to the former CMs statements, state BJP president Ajay Bhatt said, Rawat has always been loud-mouthed and he should first do some soul-searching before accusing BJP of destroying constitutional democracy.

Bhatt said Rawat has no right to speak about saving democracy as he had been caught offering bribe worth crores to an MLA to save his government in 2017. Apart from this, everybody knows what Indira Gandhi did in 1975 when she declared emergency. The Congress is not able to digest the achievements of the BJP government at the Centre.

Attacking the PM, Rawat said, Modi has imbibed the qualities of Ravan and is busy abducting all the achievements of the Congress rule; he is distorting the history of this country.

Modi once said that the governments in the past 65 years were against Hindus, Rawat said. In that case, he (Modi) even termed Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led BJP government as anti-Hindu. If there is be a competition for lying, then Modi would defeat others by miles.

The former CM called the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as mother of all elections. Congress will have to win this mother of all elections, or else BJP will kill democracy. The 2019 elections will see the second birth of the countrys son, named democracy, Rawat said. At present the major question is whether this constitutional democracy would survive, which seems to be in grave danger under BJP rule.

Rawat urged Congress leaders and workers to sink differences to win 2019 elections and make Rahul Gandhi the prime minister.

Addressing the event organised by the Uttarakhand Congress Committee, leader of opposition in assembly Indira Hriyadesh called for a united fight against the BJP.

Congress is not afraid of any party; internal differences will only make the Congress weak. I urge leaders not to fight on social media but to settle their differences through talks and unite for the party, she said.

A few days ago, differences between Hriyadesh and Rawat were reported in the media when they made statements against each other.

The event was attended by state Congress president Pritam Singh, vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana, state media co-ordinator Dhirendra Pratap Singh and senior party leaders.A 78-year-old woman and her 31-year-old grandson were killed after their car was sandwiched between two buses  a cluster bus and a low-floor Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus  in northeast Delhis Nand Nagri on Tuesday.

The impact of the accident was such that both sides of the Hyundai i10 were completely mangled. Police officials said the accident took place around 11.30am on the Durgapuri-Tahirpur Road roundabout.

Though the DTC driver, Hari Mohan, was apprehended by locals and handed over to the police, the driver of the cluster bus fled the spot.

Eyewitnesses said the cars occupants were badly stuck inside the mangled vehicle and that it took half a dozen policemen and locals over 30 minutes to take them out. The rescuers had to use iron cutters, hammers and other tools to cut open the car and get the injured victims out.

I had never seen such a horrific scene in my life. The faces of the elderly woman and her grandson were crushed beyond identification. They were in the cars front seats. Their bodies had also been sandwiched along with the car, said an eyewitness Inderjeet, who sells juice outside the district deputy commissioner office, metres away from the accident spot.

Another eyewitness, Ratan Singh, said the driver of the orange cluster bus was speeding and driving rashly when he lost control of the vehicle. Both the buses came from Durgarpuri Road side and were taking a right turn towards Tahirpur road, he said.

A police officer associated with the accident case said the car came from Tahirpur Road side and was caught between the two buses. The drivers side of the car was towards the rear of the DTC bus while the passengers side was towards the cluster bus.

A speeding cluster bus coming from Durgapuri Road side crashed into the passengers side doors of the car and pushed it into the DTC bus, killing its two occupants, said the officer.

The deceased  identified as Leelawati Garg, 78, and her grandson Amit Kumar Garg, 31  lived in AGCR Enclave in east Delhis Karkardooma. Amit was a garments trader in Gandhi Nagar.

We have registered a case of rash and negligent driving causing deaths. Efforts are on to nab the absconding cluster bus driver, said Atul Kumar Thakur, deputy commissioner of police (northeast).

Leelawatis brother, Hukum Chand Gupta, said his sister and grandson were heading towards the DC office. Someone from the Nand Nagri police station informed us about the accident and the deaths over the phone, said Gupta.

Amit is survived by his parents, wife, two daughters, and 84-year-old bed-ridden grandfather, Amits cousin Praveen Bansal said. The family hails from Kurukshetra in Haryana.

The family had celebrated the wedding anniversary of Amits parents earlier this month. The entire family is in shock, Bansal said.The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) and the Delhi Police sparred on Wednesday after DCW chief Swati Maliwal claimed that 16 women from Nepal who were rescued from a house in South Delhis Munirka on Tuesday night were trafficked to Delhi and held hostage.

The Delhi Police refuted Maliwals claims and said the women were not victims of trafficking but were cheated by people who had promised them jobs.

Maliwal said the women were lured to Delhi by traffickers, saying they would be given good jobs. She alleged that the women were to be sold to buyers in Iraq and Kuwait and. Seven women from Nepal were sold to traffickers in the two countries a fortnight ago, she said.

We have been told that out of the seven, two were sent to Iraq while the other five are in Kuwait. One among them became pregnant there, said Maliwal, alleging the house where the foreign women were locked was just 500 meters away from the Vasant Vihar police station.

I wonder why DCW gets to know about it and the Delhi Police never knows about these activities, she said.

The DCW chief said around 7 pm on Tuesday, she received a tip off from an NGO named Key Nepal that 16 women were illegally trafficked into the city and they were being sent to foreign countries.

I along with my team members reached the house in Munirka where the women were held hostage. We took police assistance and rescued the women. All of them are now at a shelter home. Efforts are being made to send them back to Nepal, said Maliwal.

All the rescued women are from impoverished places, including an earthquake affected district in Nepal.

The Delhi Police, however, refuted the DCWs allegation that the rescued women were illegally brought to Delhi and kept in the flat against their will.

We have registered a case of cheating and forgery because the women were promised jobs but were not given even after staying in the house for last 20-25 days. We are looking for the cheats and the person who is in the possession of their passports and other documents, said Devendra Arya, deputy commissioner of police (southwest).

A police officer associated with the case said the women are between the age group of 20 and 30 years and none of them in their statements have alleged that that they were brought to Delhi against their will or were pushed into any illegal work.

The DCW chief on the other hand alleged that the trafficking racket was being run by highly influential people and the women to be sold to the contacts of the traffickers in Iraq and Kuwait.

Human trafficking will continue to happen in our country and Delhi will remain a hub until Delhi Polices accountability is set. I have appealed to Union home minister Rajnath Singh time and again to take out time for Delhi and hold at least two meetings every month with L-G, Delhi police chief, chief minister and DCW, she added.The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) on Wednesday declared the result of its online examination for the Company Secretaries Foundation Programme held across the country in June 2018. Mahima Sancheti has secured the first rank in the exam while Gaurang Mishra is the second rank holder.

Candidates can check the result along with the subject wise break-up of marks on the institutes website at icsi.edu. Candidates can also download the e-result-cum-marks statement immediately after declaration of result. No hard copy of result cum marks statement will be issued.

ICSI CS foundation June 2018 result : Follow these steps to check yours

1) Visit the official website of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India at icsi.edu

2) Click on link for CS Foundation June 2018 exam result

3) Enter the roll number

4) Submit to see result

Click here to see the top three rank holders.

Click here to check the all India provisional Merit list - Foundation programme

Note: Visit Official website of ICSI regularly for latest news and updates.Ironically for a film series starring Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible took its own sweet time finding its foot. Like a fledgling television show, unsure of which direction to take - honour the source material or evolve into its own thing? - it took a couple of films before the MI series found its identity.

And for the series success, we must thank JJ Abrams, whom Cruise handpicked to direct Mission: Impossible III after David Fincher (yes, David Fincher was once in the running!) dropped out due to creative differences. Abrams, a veteran TV man, hadnt directed a feature film before, and it had been five years since the last MI film. So Paramount needed a lot of convincing, and Cruise even took a pay cut to get him on board.

Tom Cruise rides a motorbike in Paris, in a still from Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

So in a weird way, we have Tom Cruise to thank for the powerhouse Abrams has become - not that he couldnt have done it without the leg-up - but Mission: Impossible III really alerted the world to Abrams skills as a blockbuster director.

Everything you love about the current MI films originated in Mission Impossible III - the large-scale stunts, the interplay between the team and the added layers to Ethan Hunts character. Before the third movie, the series had in turn experimented with being an old-school spy thriller and an outright action film - neither of which were a perfect fit. Abrams decided that the best way forward - and this was years before Skyfall - was to explore Hunt as a real person, to surround him with people he could call friends, to develop these characters over several films and not just have a revolving door of supporting players in each new entry.

So in celebration of Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth film in the increasingly entertaining series, lets rank the Mission: Impossible films. Light the fuse.

Mission: Impossible 2

Gun-fu, doves, slow motion action - Mission: Impossible and John Woo dont gel.

Heres the thing about having characters who are adept at using guns - very soon, and with good reason, they escape every difficult situation by waving one about. And difficult situations, as we know, is where Ethan Hunt thrives. How often have we watched him beat down a room full of bad guys, despite being chained to the ceiling? Hes an improviser, the guy who uses ordinary, everyday objects to extraordinary effect. By hiring John Woo to direct MI 2, and by handing Hunt multiple guns to shoot his way out of every tough spot was antithetical to the very essence of Ethan Hunt, it robbed the character of his ingenuity, and the film of every last drop of suspense.

Mission: Impossible

Besides giving us this iconic pose, theres little to take away from the first Mission: Impossible film.

Itll be interesting to observe someone who has grown up with the more recent Mission: Impossible films to go back and watch the first one. Directed by Brian De Palma of all people, the movie established Cruise as the biggest action star on the planet - a position he has yet to relinquish, even almost three decades later. But curiously enough, the first MI movie barely had any action to speak of. It was a more old-fashioned spy thriller, very low-key, and more concerned with the process of getting from A to B than showing the big arrival. Frankly, it doesnt hold up, despite the international cast and A-list names both in front of and behind the camera.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Christopher McQuarrie brought an element of realism to the action in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

No one really remembers the finer details of any Mission: Impossible movies plot - arms dealers are usually involved, and also turncoat handlers. In many ways, the MI movies are defined by individual moments more than larger arcs. Rogue Nation is the perfect example of that. Youd remember the crazy opening sequence, or the excellent Vienna opera scene or the unbroken underwater shot, but despite casting Sean Harris, the villain was largely forgettable, and so was the plot, and the slightly anticlimactic ending. But in director Christopher McQuarrie, the franchise found a fresh new voice to guide it into the future. Rogue Nation was a sleek action film, stylishly shot and scored, with Cruise compensating for whatever little flaws here and there.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

Tom Cruise saves India in a still from Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

Fallout is classic Mission Impossible. It is also perhaps the first film in the series that feels very much like a direct sequel to its immediate predecessor. There is a rhythmic ecstasy to its action scenes, a melodic glory that is not only rare, but almost unheard of on this scale. And in virtually every frame, grounding the often cartoonish narrative in realism and emotional heft, is Tom Cruise.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Tom Cruise scales the Burj Khalifa in a still from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.

You know, most people remember Ghost Protocol for its series-defining action set pieces - and rightfully so - but in my opinion some of the most memorable moments of the film are its quieter ones. For example, remember the hallway hologram sequence? Its a masterclass in visual storytelling. Not once does Benji sit Ethan down and explain the mechanics of the scene, but through pure cinema, were with them, every step of the way. And once weve understood how the tech works, director Brad Bird cuts together a deliriously entertaining scene that encapsulates all that we love about the MI series. Sure, the Burj Khalifa sequence is bonkers, but do you remember that they blew up the Kremlin (the Kremlin!) in this movie too?

Mission: Impossible III

Tom Cruise and Michelle Monaghan in a still from Mission: Impossible III.

MI III did for this franchise what Fast 5 did for that one. It reinvigorated interest in a series that had remained dormant for a number of years, by adding elements that would go on to define it. No one has been able to come close to what the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman achieved with the films villain, Owen Davian. He was truly frightening, and an unquestionably formidable opponent. Davian didnt care about his plans being derailed - to him, Ethan was bigger than just an obstacle he had to overcome, he was the enemy. And Davian, like every good villain, knew that to avoid future trouble from Ethan, he had to kill his very spirit. MI III is by far the series most emotional movie, and is bookended by death, always driven by personal stakes and not the need to stop global cataclysm. No one remembers what the Rabbits Foot really was, but everyone remembers that cracking cold open, in which Tom Cruise displayed every emotion - anger, desperation, rage, defeat - in the span of a couple of minutes.

Follow @htshowbiz for more

The author tweets @RohanNaaharTill a month back, Assam Polices Facebook page had just 3,300 followers and the organisations Twitter handle was followed by around 1,000 people. But a digital campaign blitz has changed all that.

Thanks to The Think Campaign launched on social media, Assam Polices Facebook page has over 30,000 followers now and the Twitter handle is followed by over 4,100 users.

The campaign in English and Assamese, which is a witty take on serious issues such as stalking, fake news and lynching has generated positive feedback, increased interaction with the public and also got endorsements from Bollywood celebrities.

The lynching of two young men from Guwahati by a mob in Karbi Anglong district last month on suspicion of them being child lifters and the subsequent outpouring of hate and misinformation on social media was the trigger for the campaign.

The lynching incident forced us to look at social media in order to reach out to people in a new way. We wanted to counter hate posts and engage with the community more positively, said Director General of Assam Police Kuladhar Saikia.

The lynching of two young men from Guwahati by a mob in Karbi Anglong district last month on suspicion of them being child lifters and the subsequent outpouring of hate and misinformation on social media was the trigger for the campaign.

The Assam Polices sleepy Facebook page and Twitter handle were immediately revamped and new social media unit headed by Additional DGP Harmeet Singh formed.

Within 48 hours of the lynching, 40 people who were spreading rumours and hate messages on social media were arrested. This and other activities of the police soon started getting highlighted on the organisations social media platforms earning praise for the men in khaki.

This was followed by The Think Campaign earlier this month. We try to make our slogans witty without hurting local sentiments. The idea is to counter crime, interact with public and disseminate genuine information, Saikia said.

The first post of this campaign posted on July 13 asks, What does your weekend look like? Because we have to plan ours, if its with us. An image carried along with it adds, Sharing rumours/hate messages online can enable you for a date with us in the nearest police station this weekend.

This was followed by one on mob lynching which said: Mobs may have many heads, but sadly no brains. There is no offence that can justify the actions of a mob. Choose your battles wisely. Fight for society - not against it.

The image carried along with adds, Mobs may not follow the law, but the law will follow them. Think before you hit. If you hit, the law wont miss.

The tweets and posts have been shared by thousands including by actors Ajay Devgun and his wife Kajol. In just a month, the police Facebook page has reached close to a million users and the Twitter handle has seen over 7 lakh re-tweets.

This was followed by one on stalking, which said: Understand the difference between a compliment and harassment. Unwanted attention is stalking. It adds, For every unwanted compliment you give a lady, we have a complimentary legal action ready for you.

These tweets and posts have been shared by thousands including by actors Ajay Devgun and his wife Kajol. In just a month, the police Facebook page has reached close to a million users and the Twitter handle has seen over 7 lakh re-tweets.

On Monday, prompt action by the organisations social media unit was able to save the life of a minor girl who had announced on Facebook about her plan to commit suicide. The police were able to reach the girl in 30 minutes and counsel her against taking the step.

Monitored closely by Singh, along with Superintendent of Police Prateek Thube and three advertising professionals based in Delhi, Mumbai and Guwahati, the campaign will focus on issues like drugs, domestic violence and witch hunting in coming days.

Social media has both positive and negative aspects. What makes us feel good is that not only we have been able to connect with people but we are also receiving suggestions from the public. The campaign has been able to initiate a dialogue on various social issues, said Singh.

The police hope the positive impact created by the social media outreach would come handy during the coming Independence Day celebrations and also help maintain peace after the final draft of the National Register of Citizens is made public later this month.

Not all feedback has been positive. There are responses from social media users who point us our lacunas and areas where we need to improve. We take these suggestions positively and try and better policing for all, said Thube.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday described Uganda as the pearl of Africa and said that India will strengthen its cooperation and mutual capabilities with Africa to combat terrorism and extremism.

Addressing the Parliament of Uganda, Modi said that India is proud to be Africas partner and Uganda is central in this on the African continent and spoke of 10 principles that would guide Indias engagement in Africa.

In his address, the first by an Indian prime minister to parliament of Uganda, Modi also said Africa would be at the top of Indias priorities.

Indias engagement with Afr- ica will continue to be guided by 10 principles. One, Africa will be at the top of our priorities. We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular, Modi said.

Modi announced that India would build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at the sacred site in Ugandas Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

As we approach the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there can be no better homage than a Centre to remind us of Africas role in shaping his mission that even inspired Africa to freedom and justice; and the universal and timeless values of his life and message, Modi said.

Our people are among many threads that connect Uganda and India together, he said. Our partnership currently includes implementation of 180 Lines of Credit worth about $11 billion in over 40 African countries.

Prime Minister Modi also spoke about open markets and easier trade between the two countries. We will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India. We will support our industry to invest in Africa, he said.

Modi also said India will strengthen cooperation with Uganda to fight terrorism.

We will strengthen our cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism, keeping our cyberspace safe and secure and supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace.

Winding up his two-day Uga- nda tour, the PM tweeted: My visit to Uganda has been productive. I express gratitude towards President Kaguta Museveni and the people of Uganda for their kindness through the visit. This visit will lead to further cementing of bilateral relations, particularly giving a strong impetus to economic ties.

Uganda has a substantial Ind- ian community, including a gro- up of industrialists who flourished in the years since they ret- urned to claim assets seized during the rule of dictator Idi Amin.

The Prime Minister later arrived in South Africa to participate in the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. The groupings leaders are exp- ected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu asked the trust board to curtail the number of devotees inside the Tirupati temple in a manner that would not cause any disturbance to the ritual as was done on previous occasions

Naidu asked the TTD, which administers the temple, to curtail the number of devotees during the Ashta Bandhana Balalaya Maha Samprokshanam ceremony. It is not fair on the part of the TTD Trust Board to expect the devotees to wait for days together to enter the shrine, a person in Naidus office quoted him as saying.

Naidus suggestion comes amid opposition to the closure move from pilgrims on the social media and resistance from Hindu spiritual leaders.

After a meeting on Saturday, the TTD said it had been decided that pilgrims would not be allowed darshan of the deity during the six-day ritual. Pilgrims would not be allowed to climb up the Tirumala hills either by foot or by vehicle from August 9 to avoid a rush of pilgrims. It was to be the first proposed closure of the temple.

Hindu seer Swamy Swaroopanandendra Saraswati of Sri Sarada Peetham said he suspected a conspiracy behind the closure.

As per the Agama (prescribed in Hindu scriptures for the procedures to be followed in temples on different occasions) rules, devotees can witness the temple cleansing process and have the darshan of the presiding deity. The TTD authorities should have consulted heads of various Hindu mutts and peethams (religious seats), he said in a statement.

Opposition YSR Congress lawmaker R K Roja alleged the trusts decision had lent credence to the suspicion voiced by retired head priest AV Ramana Deekshitulu that the authorities had spirited away treasure hidden under the temple in December 2017 on the pretext of carrying out repairs to its kitchen.

Ruling Telugu Desam Party leader and TTD board chairman Sudhakar Yadav insisted there was no truth to the allegations Our earlier decision to dispense with darshan to pilgrims...was in the larger interest of pilgrims as we can allow darshan for hardly 30 hours during the six-day period of religious ceremony, he said before the decision was withdrawn .

We cannot allow over 15,000 pilgrims a day in the available time. Our chief aim behind the previous decision was to avoid inconvenience and hardship to pilgrims.DMK working president M K Stalin on Thursday demanded the resignation of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam following a controversy over use of a military helicopter to airlift the latters ailing brother.

A day after Panneerselvam said his New Delhi visit was only to thank Sitharaman for arranging a military air ambulance to shift his brother to Chennai from Madurai, Stalin wondered how a defence helicopter can be provided for use by a private individual.

The DMK leader said Panneerselvam had openly admitted that his visit to the national capital was to thank the defence minister for her help.

It is a mystery as to how a military helicopter was provided to a private individual. So far this news has not come out and it has now emerged through Panneerselvam himself, Stalin told reporters.

He was responding to questions about Sitharamans reported refusal to meet Panneerselvam as she was unhappy over the deputy chief minister going public about her gesture.

Both Nirmala Sitharaman who provided the helicopter and Panneerselvam who used it should resign from their respective posts, Stalin demanded.

Panneerselvam reportedly waited at Sitharamans office for about half-an-hour yesterday but was denied audience. She, however, met AIADMK Rajya Sabha member V Maitreyan, who had accompanied Panneerselvam.

Before heading for Sitharamans office, Panneerselvam told reporters it as a big help that the defence minister had extended to him, and that he had come to convey his heartfelt thanks to her.

When asked about what was seen by many as a snub to him by the defence minister, Panneerselvam told journalists upon his arrival here yesterday, Our leader Anna (late chief minister and icon of Dravidian politics, CN Annadurai) has taught us that one should have a heart to bear everything.

Appointment was given to Shri V Maitreyan, MP Rajya Sabha. Deputy CM of Tamil Nadu, Shri O. Panneerselvam has not met Smt @nsitharaman, the Twitter handle of Sitharamans office had said yesterday.

Incidentally, the controversy over meeting Sitharaman has surfaced days after the AIADMK, of which Panneerselvam is the Convenor, voted with the BJP-led NDA on the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi ministry in the Lok Sabha.

Panneerselvam is known to have good equations with Prime Minister Modi.

He had earlier this year said he merged his erstwhile faction with that of Chief Minister K Palaniswami-led group, acting on a suggestion from Modi.Indian politics is, by design, confrontational and winner-takes-it-all, the atmosphere in India is coloured by hatred, anger and frustration, but it is possible to fight the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) without hating them, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the launch of senior journalist Karan Thapars memoir, Devils Advocate - The Untold Story. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi launched the book.

Former vice-president Hamid Ansari, senior BJP leader LK Ad- vani, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, Congress leaders Karan Singh, Ahmed Patel, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Shashi Tharoor, Digvijay Singh and Manish Tiw- ari, Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral and other political, business and media figures were present.

The atmosphere in India today is coloured with hatred, anger, frustration and politics. Us politicians, members of the government, tend to see the world as us or them. This is not my natural way. This is the design of our politics. It is confrontational and it is winner-takes-all, said Gandhi.

The Congress chief spoke of a visit to Vietnam, an encounter with a boatman who lost his mot- her to an American bomb and fo- ught the US soldiers, but harbou- red no hatred for the Americans.

You can fight someone with all your might but hate is an active choice you make. I might disagree with Advaniji, can have a different conception of the country, but I can hug him and fight, Gandhi said, as Advani looked on.

In a reference to his hug of PM Narendra Modi in Parliament on Friday, he said, Whenever I come across BJP MPs, they take two steps back, thinking I may hug them. It is not such a bad thing.

Gandhi credited veteran Con- gress leader Karan Singh for teac- hing him a lot about the country and his religion. If there is one thing this religion teaches us, you cannot get imprisoned by hatred. Well fight them, but we dont ne- ed to hate them. I dont know if we can expect the same from them.

Tharoor read excerpts from the book; Thapar engaged in a conversation with journalist Rajdeep Sardesai about the book.Maratha politics is on the boil in Maharashtra yet again. First, Devendra Fadnavis had to skip the customary worship performed by states chief minister at the Lord Vitthal temple due to threats by Maratha groups. Now, violence has engulfed Aurangabad town after a Maratha agitator demanding reservations committed suicide. What explains this intermittent flare-up among the Marathas in Maharashtra?

The short answer is growing socio-economic insecurity within the states dominant caste group. Marathas have a large share in the states population, they own large tracts of land and have enjoyed dominance in the realm of politics. But this traditional dominance is being threatened in the new economic order where educations and jobs matter more than farm incomes.

A 2016 Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) paper co-authored by Siwan Anderson from University of British Columbia and others shows that while Marathas were way ahead of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs) in terms of ownership of large tracts of land, the advantage diminishes and even turns into a disadvantage when it comes to attainment of higher education.

Given the fact that there exists considerable heterogeneity among the Marathas, not all Maratha cultivators were better off than their OBC counterparts, the survey found. OBCs with large landownership reported much larger yields than Marathas with smaller tracts. With a deepening of the agrarian crisis, even large Maratha landowners are bound to have experienced a squeeze in their incomes.

These statistics were collected in a 2007 survey which was conducted among 9,000 households in 300 randomly selected villages of Maharashtra. More than 40% of the households covered in the survey were below the state poverty line.

To be sure, statistical evidence from other surveys gives a different picture compared to Andersons findings. In a 2017 EPW paper, Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran used data ( of 15,984 individuals) from the India Human Development Survey conducted in 2011-12 to show that the Marathas were actually better off than all caste groups excluding Brahmins not just in land endowments but also education and access to government jobs in Maharashtra.

The authors argue that rising discontent among dominant communities such as Marathas, Jats and Patidars is increasing due to the perception that real economic power is increasingly shifting from rural areas to big corporations, which are often backed by the state, while they themselves are ill-prepared to shift towards the urban and formal sector.

What explains the contradictory trends in the empirical findings of these two studies? Sampling-based errors in either of them could be one reason. Also, the first studys results might have been influenced by the fact that it has a much greater share of poor households in its sample.

One aspect on which both these studies agree is the political mobilisation abilities of the Maratha community. Andersons survey found that even though Marathas had a share of 38% in the population, they filled 63% of the unreserved gram pradhan positions. Deshpandes paper shows that Marathas have a greater probability of having a panchayat member who is close to or from their own households than all other caste groups. These statistics mean that there would be no dearth of people to undertake grass root mobilisation to run a community-based agitation. While Marathas have historically dominated politics at higher levels in the state, their clout might have weakened under the present Bharatiya Janata Party government, which has a Brahmin chief minister. It will be naive to believe that opposition parties do not stand to gain from Maratha polarisation against the BJP, which is already staring at the possibility of having to fight the elections without an alliance with the Shiv Sena.

Another important, although in no way unique, factor which might be fuelling repeated protests by Marathas around the reservation issue is the larger scheme of how these take place in India. Pradeep Chhibber and others from University of California Berkeley had described it appropriately in June 2018 in these words: The Indian state, no matter which party is in power, presents itself as mai-baap to its citizens. It, however, does not have the resources at its command to meet the demands raised by multiple and often competing groups. When these demands are not satisfied on favourable terms, it often takes organised action in the form of protests (and sometimes violence), for the state to respond. Over time this process has become ritualised into three distinct phases. A groups demands are not heard or met. The group organises to protest, often violently. The state responds favourably.

It needs to be remembered that the Marathas had actually successfully pressurised the state into granting them reservations before it was overturned by the judiciary.A new bill passed by the Manipur assembly on Monday to regulate the entry and exit of outsiders on lines of the British-era regulatory regime has incensed a section of the locals.

We have been living in Jiribam since 1971. Now if this Bill becomes a law we will be forced to eventually leave, said Abdulla Laskar, a 31-year-old techie who works in Guwahati. His family moved to Jiribam in 1971 for business purposes from neighbouring Cachar in Assam. Manipur came about as a state in 1972, he added.

The Manipur Peoples Protection Bill 2018, a long-pending demand, especially of the dominant Meiti community of the valley, was passed in the state assembly by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government on July 23. According to the bill, Manipur people include Meitis, the Pangal Muslims, scheduled tribes as listed under the Constitution in terms of Manipur and all those citizens of India who have been living in Manipur before 1951.

The rest have been put in the category of non-Manipuris and will have to register themselves within one month of the notification of the law. They will be issued a pass extendable up to six months. While those who have trade licences can get a pass extendable up to five years, which will have to be renewed every year. Any outsider visiting Manipur would need a pass.

There are just 19 lakh of us, while there are about 9 lakh outsiders. We want to preserve our identity, said Arjun Telheiba, convener of the Joint Action Committee on Inner Line Permit System, which has been leading the protests for the bill and has been closely involved in the drafting of the legislation. It is this committee that wanted the base year as 1951.

We are Indians but also Manipuris. We are worried for our future. All the local market is controlled by outsiders, he said.

In August 2015, following protests by the Joint Action Committee, the Manipur assembly passed the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, the Manipur Land Revenue and Land Reforms (Seventh Amendment) Bill, and the Manipur Shops and Establishments (Second Amendment) Bill, all of which defined the Manipuri people.

However, the tribal majority areas protested, calling the bills anti-tribal and a ploy by Meitis to dominate the hills that are protected under Article 371(c).

The then President Pranab Mukherjee rejected the Protection of Manipur Peoples Bill, while the other two were sent back. They have since been shelved.

The new bill seems to have a nod from the tribal groups. We accepted the 1951 base year in the current bill with clauses, said HM Mangchinkhup, convenor of the Joint Action Committee against Anti-Tribal Bills that led the protest against the three bills. He, however, says that they, too, suggested 1971 as the base year. There is no National Register of Citizens of 1951. How will they prove it, he asked.

This is also the reason for the anxieties of the Hindi and Bangla speakers and several others who live in Manipur. On Wednesday, Jiribam saw a huge protest against the new Bill.

Manipur is also India. It is not a separate country, said Ashab Uddin, the Jiribam MLA. 1972 as a base year, since it is also the statehood year, would not have been a problem, he said. In Jirbam alone, more than 10,000 Bengalis who came after 1951 and have been living here will be impacted, he said.

Even those who came before do not have proper documents. There is no proper voters list. No land documents. It will be a problem, said Taj Uddin, secretary of All Jiribam United Minority Peoples Organisation.

The purpose of those pushing the bill is to keep these group of people who have come from outside in check, said Mangchinkhup.

But will these lead to taking away of their other rights including the voting rights? Once the bill is passed the non Manipuris will anyway cease to be permanent residents, said Telheiba.

Former chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh says while the bill has been passed by the majority, it will be difficult to implement. It is a sensitive issue, he said. What if tomorrow Assam implements a similar regime? We have so many Manipuris living there . They will face problems, he added.

According to a senior government official who did not want to be named, this bill may face hurdles like the earlier ones in 2015. For the government it is again a tactic to buy time, he said.Maratha leaders called off their Mumbai shutdown on Wednesday afternoon and asked protesters in other parts of the state to follow suit. But agitators in Thane and Navi Mumbai said they wont withdraw stir.

The move to call off the agitation was taken after several violent incidents erupted in Mumbai as well as surrounding areas, including the burning of a BEST bus on the Ghatkopar Mankhurd Road and an agitation against mediapersons in Kalamboli that forced the police to fire in the air and launch a lathi-charge. Four to five people were also reported injured in mob violence.

Maratha leaders in Navi Mumbai and Thane also expressed willingness to withdraw the agitation, but were met with resistance from protesters on the ground. Discussions are on to resolve the situation.

Protestors at Navi Mumbais Kalamboli eway entry point said they will not withdraw agitation till chief minister or any other government representative meets them and accepts their demands.

Meanwhile, the Sion Panvel highway remained blocked as agitators continued to pour in large numbers.

Maratha Kranti Morcha coordination committee member Virendra Pawar said the agitation had turned out to be a grand success. We showed everyone that caste-based outfits can bring the city to a halt just as well as political parties, he asserted.

He, however, denied that any member of his group had gone on the rampage. We suspect some political cospiracy to tarnish our image. We peacefully held 58 silent morchas without causing any violence, Pawar said, adding that they will probe the issue.

The Maratha leader held the state government responsible for the bandh. We sought our due from the government for two whole years, but received nothing. This is what pushed our youngsters to do this, he claimed.

The bandh had started off on a peaceful note that morning, but grew in intensity as the day wore on. A few instances of buses and trains being halted in Thane; rail blockades in Jogeshwari and Kalyan; stoppage of traffic at the Mulund Check Naka; and stone pelting at Ghansoli were reported earlier in the day. Reports also emerged of Maratha activists forcing commercial establishments to down shutters in Lalbaug.

Maratha Kranti Morcha activists stop a school bus during their statewide bandh, called for reservations in jobs and education, at Kopar Khairane, Navi Mumbai. (PTI Photo)

Protestors disrupted railway services on the central and western lines for a while, before police stepped in. Although 30 protesters blocked rail tracks at Jogeshwari station on the western line around 9.15 am, services resumed after the lines were cleared at 9.24 am.

A group of about 60 protesters waylaid trains at the Thane railway station from 10.12 am to 10.30 am. A similar agitation was taken up by 25 Maratha activists at the Ghansoli railway station, which resulted in the halting of trans-harbour local train services. Last heard, all the three railway routes were operational.

Road blockades were also reported from Shivaji Chowk in Kalyan and Mulund Check Naka, resulting in some traffic congestion. Many auto rickshaws kept off the streets in view of the bandh. It couldnt be helped. Drivers feared that their vehicles would be vandalised, said Shashank Rao, leader of the Mumbai Autorickshawmens Union. There were reports of agitators warning auto rickshaw drivers against venturing out in Lokhandwala and Kandivli areas. This led to a surge in the prices of app-based Uber and Ola cab agencies.

Read: Heres why Marathas protest for reservation time and again

Protesters also staged a rasta-roko at Panvel, blocking the Old Mumbai-Pune road and the Mumbai-Goa road in the process. Around four incidents of buses being pelted with stones (in Ghansoli and Kopar Khairane) and six of BEST bus tyres (in Kurla, Chandivali, Andheri and Kandivali) being deflated were reported through the course of the morning. However, BEST spokesperson Hanumant Gophane said the bus services were otherwise unaffected.

The day-long shutdown, called by Maratha outfits under the banner of the Sakal Maratha Samaj and Maratha Kranti Morcha to press for reservations in jobs and education, extended over Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai and Palghar. The agitation was more severe in Navi Mumbai than Mumbai or Thane, considering that the community has dominant pockets in the satellite city. Railway authorities had already beefed up security at various stations across the city, knowing that protesters would try to block the tracks. Over 30,000 police personnel were deployed across the region to ensure that the common man was not affected.

However, organisers of the agitation assured that it would not go out of hand. The bandh will be observed peacefully. We do not intend to cause any inconvenience to the people. The protests and road-blockades will only be representational, meant to attract attention to our demands, said Bipin Vichare, who led the bandh in Bhandup.

The decision to call the bandh was taken at a meeting of Maratha organisations at Shivaji Mandir in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon.The Union home ministry on Wednesday asked the governments of Assam and neighbouring states to ensure maintenance of law and order in the run up to and post-publication of the second and draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30 when the fate of all 3.29 crore applicants will be decided.

The MHA advised the Assam government to set up a state-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of chief secretary to ensure coordination among state agencies, NRC authorities and central agencies. It also asked the state government to activate round-the-clock control rooms at the state capital and district headquarters to receive complaints and coordinate prompt response.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) has been asked to use all means of communication including websites, toll-free numbers, SMS, etc., to provide information to public about the draft NRC. An intensive public awareness campaign has been launched to disseminate information regarding the NRC process, options available for individuals whose names do not figure in the draft NRC, the procedure and timeline for filing claims and objections, etc. so as to address the concerns of people left out of the draft list, the MHA said in a statement.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had in a statement assured that every individual will get justice and will be treated in a humane manner.

All individuals will have sufficient opportunity for the remedies available under the law. Government wants to make it clear that after draft NRC publication on July 30, adequate opportunity for claims and objections will be available. All claims and objections will be duly examined, he had said.

The MHA also advised the Assam government that no action should be initiated by the administration or the police based on the draft NRC.

There is no question of referring the persons whose names do not figure in the draft NRC to the Foreigners Tribunal as people are entitled to file claims and objections and due opportunity has to be given to them before final publication. The question of referring any person to a detention centre based on NRC exercise also does not arise. State government has been asked to issue clear instructions in this regard to all administrative and police functionaries, the statement said.

On Tuesday, Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the state government would provide security to all Indian citizens and no one should worry about the after affects of publication of the NRC.

The part draft of the NRC was published on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1, wherein the names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated.

The massive exercise, aimed at identifying the illegal immigrants in the north-eastern state bordering Bangladesh, is being carried out following a decision in 2005 after a series of meetings involving the central and state governments and the influential All Assam Students Union (AASU).

Minority groups have voiced their fears about the exercise after around 1.5 lakh people whose names were in the first part draft of the exercise of updation of the NRC now risk earning the tag of illegal immigrant.More than 7,000 Indians in foreign jails

As many as 7,737 Indians are languishing in various jails in foreign countries, the Lok Sabha was informed today, reports PTI. In a written reply to a question, minister of state for external affairs VK Singh said wherever required, the Indian missions and posts abroad provide airfare to facilitate the return of Indian prisoners who have completed their sentence.

Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance, 2018, passed

Parliament passes Bill to prevent fugitive economic offenders from evading legal process and fleeing the country.

IMA threatens stir

The Indian Medical Association (IMC) threatened to launch a stir if the crassly pro-rich National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill is passed by Parliament, reports PTI. The NMC Bill, which will be tabled in the ongoing Monsoon Session, seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI).

3,700 Naxals surrendered in four years

Over 3,700 Naxals have surrendered before the authorities in last four years, the Rajya Sabha was informed today, reports PTI. Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Anantkumar Hegde said during the last four years, 3,714 Left Wing Extremists (LWE) have surrendered as per the available records of the ministry of home affairs.

Consumer expenditure survey findings next year

The government is likely to release the findings of NSSO consumer expenditure survey 2017-18 by June next year, which will form the basis for calculation of absolute poverty, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI. The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has completed the data collection related to consumer expenditure survey 2017-18 in June this year, minister of state for planning Rao Inderjit Singh said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Khadi sales increase

Sales of khadi and village industries products have increased to Rs 59,098 crore in 2017-18, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI. The sales stood at Rs 52,138 crore in 2016-17, according to the data shared by MSME Minister Giriraj Singh in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Raw silk production to increase

Indias raw silk production is expected to reach 38,500 tonnes by 2019-20, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI. However, despite several schemes and programmes for increasing silk production in the country, India still imports silk products from China, Japan and Korea, minister of state for textiles Ajay Tamta said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Textile exports have increased

Textile and clothing sector exports have increased marginally to $39.2 billion in 2017-18 from $39 billion in the previous fiscal, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI. On the other hand Indias imports of textile and apparel have increased by 17% from $6.3 billion in 2016-17 to $7.3 billion in 2017-18, minister of state for textiles Ajay Tamta said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Half of SEZ land lying vacant

About half of the land out of 45,711 hectares notified for 373 special economic zones (SEZs) are lying vacant as on August 2017, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI. The vacant land is primarily with private sector or state public sector unit developers, minister of state for commerce and industry CR Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Ananth Kumar takes dig at Cong over privilege motion

Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar took a dig at Congress president Rahul Gandhi following the Oppositions decision to move a privilege motion against PM Narendra Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly misleading the lower house over Rafale aircraft deal during no-confidence motion debate, reports ANI

Kharge targets Modi on Africa tour timing

Coming down hard on Prime Minister Narendra Modis ongoing three-nation to Africa, senior Congress leader and member of Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said the former could have avoided his visit as the Parliament session is currently underway, reports ANI.

59 mega infra projects report cost overrun of Rs 1.36 lakh

As many as 59 mega central sector infrastructure projects, worth at least Rs 1,000 crore each, have reported cost overrun of Rs 1.36 lakh crore, Parliament was informed today, reports PTI.

Union minister Vijay Goel, in a written reply to Lok Sabha, said: As on April 1, 2018, a total of 389 mega projects (costing Rs 1,000 crore and above) including rail and road sectors were on the monitor of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI).

CPI(M) plea for womens reservation

CPI(M) makes strong plea for passage of womens reservation bill in Lok Sabha, saying it should be brought now so that it can be implemented before the International Womens Day next year.

Heated exchanges over bullet train project

Lok Sabha witnesses heated exchanges between the Opposition and the government over the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, with the former terming its cost exorbitant and the latter alleging that the previous regime had sanctioned projects for narrow political gains.

YRS Congress MP apologises

Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today cited former prime minister Manmohan Singhs speech in the House yesterday to stress that members can put forth their views without shouting, after a YSR Congress MP apologised for his behaviour.

During a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, on implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act, YSR MP V Vijayasai Reddy made certain remarks after the Chair did not give him extra time to complete his speech on the issue.

I am sorry for the incident, (for) what happened yesterday, Reddy said.

Lok Sabha adjourned briefly

Lok Sabha adjourns briefly following heated exchanges between TMC and BJP members over alleged lynching of women in West Bengal.

Congress moves adjournment notice over NEET

Congress MP KC Venugopal has given adjournment notice in Lok Sabha over NEET data leak matter.Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs intervention during the discussion on the special category status for Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday in the Upper House won him praise from Rajya Sabha chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu.

Referring to the former PMs speech, Naidu on Wednesday said, Singh, during whose term the AP reorganisation bill was passed, made his point in the Upper House without raising his voice and yet managed to convey his message.

The remarks were made after YSR Congress MP Vijaysai Reddy apologised to the chair for protesting that he had not been given adequate time to speak.

To err is human, Naidu said, adding that he has already asked senior leaders to think of ways to deal with situations in the House when members want more time to speak than has been agreed to.

Mentioning the former PMs speech, he said: Dr Singh spoke for how much time, but he conveyed the message. He conveyed the message in such a manner, which makes everyone think. The purpose was served, he did not shout; though he is the man who was instrumental in bringing that bill and making that announcement also. He has also conveyed that it was done in consultation with the Leader of the Opposition at that time.

Dr Singh was present in the House when Naidu made these remarks. Earlier, Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also expressed regret over the remarks made by Reddy.

Azad said in the past MPs have disagreed with the chairperson and even expressed their opinions and disagreements, but these were done either during the meeting of the business advisory committee or in the chambers of the chairperson.

This should not happen again... Anger can be expressed in the chamber and the BAC; but respect should be maintained, he said. For his part, Reddy offered an apology and said he was moved by the emotive issue during his discussion.

I should spontaneously and voluntary say this, not at the request or direction of CM Ramesh (TDP leader). I regret the incident, it was an emotive issue, particularly when I hail from Andhra Pradesh and am elected from there. I thought adequate opportunity was not given to m, Reddy said in his defence.An HIV positive 28-year-old man from Keonjhar district in Odisha hanged himself to death after he was allegedly denied treatment by government hospitals in the state, police said.

The body of the man was found hanging from a tree near his village pond early on Tuesday morning.

According to the police, the man was working as a migrant labourer in Surat and then as an ironsmith in Puducherry. He had suffered fractures in his leg and hand in a motorcycle accident in January this year. At the hospital in Puducherry, the doctors got to know about his HIV status during a routine blood test.

He was supposed to undergo a surgery for his fractured hand in the Puducherry hospital. However, after he was diagnosed as HIV positive , he was referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, said the mans father in his complaint before local police on Tuesday.

However, the doctors in SCB Hospital just bandaged his fractured hand and did not operate saying he was HIV positive, the man's father alleged. He was then discharged without any further treatment.

The man's father then took him to Keonjhar district hospital for antiretroviral therapy (ART), but they referred him to Bhadrak district hospital as it is one of the 4 district hospitals with facilities for ART. "As we did not have treatment facilities for AIDS patients, we had referred him to Bhadrak," said Keonjhar chief district medical officer (CDMO) Dr Swapneswar Gadnayak.

The youth then registered at Bhadrak DHQ hospital on March 9 for HIV treatment. Though the doctors there kept him on medication, no surgery was done on his fractured hand, alleged the victim's father. Bhadrak CDMO Dr MA Rashid said he was unaware of the man being turned away without being operated on his hand and would investigate the matter.

SCB Hospital's superintendent Dr PK Devta said he was unaware of the youth being referred to Keonjhar. "I joined in May this year and have no idea about this incident. Let me inquire into this case," said the SCB superintendent.

HT could not independently verify the name of the hospital in Puducherry where the youth was first diagnosed as HIV positive.

Villagers not wanting to be named said while the youth was distressed over the delay in operating his fractured hand, he also felt humiliated by the treatment meted out to him by fellow villagers. "The villagers used to taunt him and would ask him to sit at a distance. Even the villagers used to wash the place where he sat and often told him to avoid the village pond," said a local resident.

According to official figures, Odisha currently has over 22,000 people living with HIV who are on ART provided free by the state government in 4 of the 30 district headquarter hospitals as well as the three government medical college and hospitals of the state. The government also gives a monthly pension of Rs 300 to all the people living with HIV under the Madhu babu pension yojana. In the last 10 year, more than 7,000 people have died of AIDS in the state.

Public humiliation of people living with HIV in Odisha is not uncommon. In May this year, an eldery HIV positive couple in Jagatsinghpur district had appealed for euthanasia after they were ostracised by villagers. Villagers and family members stopped using the pond, where the victims wife used to wash clothes.Congress president Rahul Gandhi has, in another tweet attack, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally re-negotiated the Rafale fighter aircraft deal with France and so none of his four revolving defence ministers had details about it.

Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris. Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French. India has had 4 RAFALE Mantris. But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM. But he wont speak! he said in a tweet on Tuesday.

To the tweet, Gandhi attached an Amul butter advertisement with the catchline, Pass or Rafail? Eat at Jet speed to drive his point home.

The main opposition party has been demanding that the government reveal the price of each fighter aircraft and the total amount that India will pay for the Rafale jets, alleging that the Modi government struck the deal to purchase 36 aircraft at a higher cost than what the United Progressive Alliance government had negotiated with France.

Since 2014, India has had 4 revolving Raksha Mantris.



Now we know why. It gave the PM space to personally re-negotiate RAFALE with the French.



India has had 4 "RAFALE Mantris". But, none of them know what really transpired in France. Except the PM.



But he wont speak! pic.twitter.com/exNkm9mn8T  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 24, 2018

The Modi government has maintained that the price cannot be revealed, citing a secrecy clause in the agreement between India and France.

The Congress on Tuesday served notices for breach of privilege against Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman alleging that they misled the Lok Sabha on the Rafale deal during a debate in the House on a no-confidence motion against the government on Friday, July 20.

The Modi government defeated the no-confidence motion by a two-thirds majority of the votes. The no-confidence motion received 126 votes in favour and 325 votes against with 451 members of parliament present and voting.The Union road transport and highways ministrys ambitious vehicle scrapping policy, which proposed a mandatory cap of 20 years on the life of all commercial vehicles starting in 2020, has hit a roadblock. The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has directed the ministry to take a host of measures, including more active consultations with states, before implementing the policy, three officials familiar with the matter said.

The policy, which was aimed at reducing pollution, was welcomed by vehicle makers because it meant more sales for them.

The PMO on July 9 returned the cabinet note sent by the ministry with a slew of directions, one of the officials said on condition of anonymity. The ministry had sent the cabinet note to the PMO on June 11, the official said.

Besides asking the highways ministry to consult the states on the framework of the scheme, the PMO has directed that the scheme be made voluntary and linked with incentives which should originate from manufacturers, a second official said.

The PMO has said that the expenditure details of the scheme should be firmed up on the basis of incentives, the second official added.

The vehicle scrapping policy is partly aimed at reducing pollution. India has 700,000 trucks, buses and taxis manufactured before December 31, 2000 that contribute 15-20% of vehicular pollution, according to an analysis by AT Kearney based on data from the Central Pollution Control Board and Union road ministry emission norms. The ministry had expected 350,000 vehicles to be scrapped in the next two to three years if the scheme received the cabinets green signal.

On Monday, a report released by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said that about 20 million vehicles had accumulated in India by 2015 that are obsolete and require scrapping. Anumita Roy Chowdury, executive director of CSE, said on Tuesday that it was important to get the policy framework right. Because scrapping policy has to be combined with proper end-of-life regulation. First, you have to have the infrastructure for scrapping. Manufacturers also should be made responsible. They have to ensure that the metal and material they are using can be reused to the maximum. Also, they will also have to be made responsible for end of life disposal of vehicles.

Since the scheme will require a huge network of automobile scrapping facilities the PMO also wants the ministry to start such facilities on a pilot basis for gaining experience, the second official added. The third official, who is from the road ministry and also did not want to be named, said the ministry is going through the directions given by the PMO.

The road ministry had proposed in its cabinet note that the scheme will be voluntary only till 2020, after which it will be compulsory for owners to scrap commercial vehicles older than 20 years. As per the proposal, until the 2020 deadline kicks, owners of such vehicles can voluntarily scrap their vehicles and receive a discount on the purchase of new ones, the second official added.

It was following a meeting at the PMO in March that the road ministry had been directed to put up a proposal before the cabinet in three months. In its communication, the PMO also asked the ministry also explore the establishment of scrapping facilities on the so-called Swiss challenge mode, given that such facilities would require vast tracts of land that may not be readily available in many states.

Under this method, the government would receive an unsolicited proposal from a person/ company that is put online. A second person can then submit a counter proposal; if the original proposer fails to match the terms of the counter-proposal, the project will be awarded to the latter. A senior official of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said the policy needs to be fleshed out properly before it is enforced. For instance, the industry has not taken a call on how much incentive they need to give... Many are running at a loss so incentives cant be too high. Also where are the scrapping centres? Such centres have to be sure of the volume (they will handle) before they start.PM unveils bust of Sardar Patel in Kampala, thanks Uganda president for embracing Indians

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni unveiled a bust of Indias first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community event they addressed in Kampala.

Saluting the Loh Purush! PM @narendramodi and Ugandan President Museveni unveil the bust of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community reception, Ministry of external affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet, which accompanied two photographs of the two leaders.

In his address, Modi lauded the contribution of the Indian community in the growth of Uganda. He thanked Museveni for re-embracing the Indian community.

There were troubled times in the past but the Ugandan government and people did not let you leave, Modi said.

Modi arrived in Ugandan capital Kampala Tuesday evening on a two-day visit to the country - the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

Uganda and Indias relations date back to the 19th Century when Britain shipped a large number of Indians into East Africa to build a railway from the Indian Ocean coast into the hinterland and terminating in Ugandas west.

The Indian labourers remained after constructing the railway, growing into a large and economically successful community in the intervening decades of colonialism.

When dictator Idi Amin took power in Uganda in 1971, he accused them of exploiting the country and subsequently expelled them from Uganda, giving their businesses to locals.

At the time of the expulsion, there were approximately 80,000 individuals of South Asian descent, most of whom were Gujaratis.

Speaking at the event, Museveni addressed the Indian community as my Indian tribe and appreciated its contributions to Ugandas development.

Many of my Indian tribe left Uganda in 1972, he said. This time they would have been 200,000.

There are around 30,000 persons of Indian origin in Uganda today.

Museveni lauded the contributions of the Indian community in his country saying they have made their mark in its economic and business landscape.

You have been able to create employment and expand the tax base of the government, he said.

Reminding the 10,000-strong gathering of their Indian roots, the Indian Prime Minister said: You might not have remembered from where you must have come from India, but you have India in your hearts.

India has offered Uganda a total $205 million worth of credit to help the East African country expand its electricity distribution infrastructure and invest in its agriculture sector, which employs majority of its workforce.

A loan of $141 million would be extended to Kampala to build electricity transmission lines and substations while another $64 million would spent on boosting agriculture and diary production, the statement said.BJP lawmaker Shatrughan Sinha, known for his public critique of his party and the government, on Wednesday attacked Narendra Modi on Twitter again over mob lynchings and the controversy on Rafale fighter aircraft deal with France as he questioned the timing of the Prime Ministers three-nation tour of Africa.

Dear Sir! As usual,while Parliament is in session, you are on a 3 Nation African tour. Heavens wouldnt have fallen if youd left after the session. You could have still visited some of the nations left on the globe...(sic) Sinha said in a series of tweets.

Dear Sir! As usual,while Parliament is in session, you are on a 3 Nation African tour. Heavens wouldn't have fallen if you'd left after the session. You could have still visited some of the nations left on the globe.Your visit to Rwanda is a first by an Indian PM Congrats!..1>2  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) July 25, 2018

The member of Parliament from Patna Sahib brought up the Prime Ministers gift of 200 cows to a Rwandan village as great & thoughtful initiative to attack Modi on the rising incidents of lynchings in the country, the latest in Rajasthans Alwar district.

 ... But Sir! Back home, Opposition is in big news over lynching by Cow rakshaks killing of innocent people, alleging tht some of our people are hand & glove in these horrific deeds. Still,not a word from you,Sir! You can do it from a foreign land too ... (sic) he added.

Great & thoughtful initiative that you will gift 200 cows to a village in this event.This will truly further strengthen the warm, close & friendly relationship shared between the two great nations. But Sir! Back home, Opposition is in big news over lynching by Cow rakshaks & 3>4  Shatrughan Sinha (@ShatruganSinha) July 25, 2018

... Also, humble request to direct us as a privilege motion on Rafale deal against Govt has been moved.Jai Hind!

The last time Sinha took on Modi on Twitter was on Tuesday when he wrote about the Prime Ministers response to Congress president Rahul Gandhis splendid hug in Parliament during the no-confidence motion debate last Friday.

Hasnt it been the trademark of our Honble PM to receive all foreign dignitaries with a HUG..so what was so different now?Lets accept it with love & grace (sic), he said.

Also read: Africa will be Indias top priority, says PM Narendra Modi in Uganda

The actor-turned-politician has justified his critical comments on different issues in past, saying it was like showing mirror and that he would continue doing so.

Sidelined in the Bharatiya Janata Party, Sinha has been cosying up with opposition parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress and had praised Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav, calling him a very mature leader.A statewide protest on Wednesday called by the Maratha community in Maharashtra was a partial success in Mumbai, with minimal disruptions and only a couple of incidents of violence that did not result in any death, and was eventually withdrawn by the early afternoon. However, there was sporadic violence in neighbouring Thane and Navi Mumbai, and in Aurangabad where at least four people were injured in incidents of arson, stone-pelting and police action.

Late evening violence in Navi Mumbai resulted in a lathi-charge and the police firing tear gas shells, after protesters set fire to a police outpost in Kopar Khairane, in addition to a few vehicles. The agitators even attacked local residents and the police. Earlier in the day, protesters were seen pelting stones at police personnel in Kalamboli, also in Navi Mumbai.

In Mumbai, suburban trains on all four corridors ran normally with minimal delay, and the Government Railway Police control room said there was no disruption anywhere in the city. Hanumant Gophane, spokesperson of BEST undertaking  which runs the citys public bus service  said all BEST services were normal. One bus was torched in the central suburb of Mankhurd. Taxis, authorickshaws, and taxi app aggregators ran services as usual.

The Maratha community has been demanding reservations in education institutions and government jobs in the state since August 2016, in addition to implementation of the recommendations of the National Commission of Farmers and punishment to those involved in the rape and murder case of a minor girl in Kopardi village in July 2016. Only some groups within the Maratha community  itself a group of various clans across the state of Maharashtra  are classified as backward and receive state benefits. A large majority of the Maratha community is outside the purview of any quota. The community has undertaken 58 silent marches across Maharashtra since September 2016, in which lakhs of protesters participated. This is, however, the first time that their protest has entered Mumbai.

In the current wave of protests, two men committed suicide in Aurangabad, with the second death in the early hours of Wednesday. This led to the stir intensifying in western Maharashtra.

While Mumbai remained more or less peaceful on Wednesday, barring a few incidents of road-blocking or disruption of railway traffic, protesters said the incidents of violence in Thane and Navi Mumbai were a conspiracy against the organisation, according to some of the organisers. We suspect the violent activity is a political conspiracy against us to derail the issue. In the last two years, we have held 58 silent marches and now we notice the violence, said Virendra Pawar, member, coordination committee, Maratha Kranti Morcha, the umbrella bodies of the protesters. For years, only political bandhs have achieved success but this has proved that caste-based outfits can also come on streets for their genuine demands.

Until Wednesday, the state police registered 129 cases pertaining to violence, arson, stone-pelting, causing hurt to policemen, rioting and damaging public property.

On Wednesday, the most affected areas in the state were Navi Mumbai, Solapur, Thane, Pune rural, Palghar, Raigad, Thane rural and Satara. The Satara superintendent of police sustained injuries on his hand during stone-pelting. More than 50 protesters were detained on Wednesday across the state until the evening, and police sources said the figure was likely to rise.

The police controlled and contained the situation effectively, or else anything could have happened, said Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Bipin Bihari, adding that the process of registering FIR against those vandalising public and private property is on and action will be taken against them.

Several vehicles including those of the police, fire brigade and TV channels were torched in Aurangabad, while in some parts of Marathwada, protesters pelted stones at state transport buses. In Aurangabad, the protesters turned violent on Tuesday during the funeral of 28-year-old Kakasaheb Shinde, who jumped into the Godavari River to commit suicide on Monday. The mob set state transport buses on fire and also heckled local Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire and Congress MLA Subhash Jhambad, who had come to attend the funeral.

The state government, earlier this year, had decided to provide 16% reservation to the community. This move was struck down by the Bombay High Court.

Meanwhile, the Indian National Congress, the principal opposition party in the state, demanded that a special session of state legislature should be held to discuss Maratha reservation. State Congress chief Ashok Chavan added: We suspect there is an attempt to create divide between Marathas and other communities.The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday approved National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)s scheme to provide compensation to women, who are victims/survivors of sexual assault and acid attacks.

A bench of justices M B Lokur and Deepak Gupta ordered the Centre and states to implement the scheme that offers minimum Rs 5 lakh as compensation. We expect the Union of India and States to implement the scheme in letter and spirit, the court said.

The judges noted the scheme did not incorporate monetary assistance to minors. They asked that suitable modifications should be made so that aid can be extended to victims of child abuse  both boys and girls.

The scheme will substitute the existing compensation guidelines the states have formulated. The non-uniformity in these guidelines prompted the top court to seek a comprehensive scheme from NALSA.

The judges were surprised when they learnt that compensation varied from state to state. For example, a woman sexually assaulted in Goa was entitled to a higher compensation than the one in Jharkhand.

The fresh scheme would help women and their families, who lack resources, to pursue litigation.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is assisting the court as an amicus curiae, pointed out that victims often give up midway even before a trial ends and said this was one of the main reasons for acquittals in sexual assault cases.

A survivor or her family can now approach the state or district legal services authority with a copy of the First Investigation Report (FIR) and medical report for claiming the aid.

According to the scheme, a survivor of gang rape in any part of the country will now get a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and up to a maximum of Rs 10 lakh.

In case of rape and unnatural sexual assault, the survivor would be entitled to a minimum of Rs 4 lakh and a maximum of Rs 7 lakh compensation. A survivor of acid attack would get a minimum compensation of Rs 7 lakh in case of facial disfigurement. The upper limit would be Rs 8 lakh.

If a survivor suffers over 50% burns, a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh would be given. The maximum would be Rs 8 lakh. If a victim of gang-rape dies, then her family will receive compensation for both sexual assault and murder.

Similarly, the scheme also provides for compensation amount in cases of acid attacks where the injury is less than 20%. It provides for Rs 7 lakh maximum compensation for victims of burn cases.A foreigners tribunal in Assams Barpeta declared Mumtaz Dewan, a housewife in her 40s, a citizen in 2016, 19 years after she was suspected to be an illegal immigrant and declared a doubtful voter (D voter). Despite the clearance, Dewan has been unable to get herself registered as a genuine voter. She consequently faces exclusion from the 1951 National Register of Citizens (NRC), being updated in Assam under the Supreme Courts supervision.

Dewan is not alone. A large number of Indian citizens may be omitted from the NRC draft being released on July 30. The NRC is being updated in deference to indigenous groups demands to detect and deport foreigners and illegal immigrants.

Election Commission officials blame the panels EROnet software introduced in 2017 for problems people like Dewan are facing. Officials involved in updating NRC point to the lack of a centralised database of citizens. The software cannot remove the Assam-specific D voters category.

As such, D voters declared Indian citizens since early 2017 are still shown as D Voters in Assams 2018 electoral rolls. Suspected illegal immigrants labelled as D voters can get the tag removed after getting clearances from one of the states 100 foreigners tribunals.

I am a Khilonjiya (indigenous) Muslim originally from Dhubri. They still branded me a D voter. And now that I have been declared a citizen they refuse to include me in NRC, said Dewan

Dewans businessman husband, IIim Uddin, said this was happening despite the problems they faced for almost two decades as a D voter and getting the tribunals clearance. NRC authorities refuse to treat her as an Indian citizen despite the order. He said they went to the NRC Seva Kendra with the tribunals order. They refused to entertain me, saying her name still remains on the D voters list with them.

Barpetas election officer Pranjal Konwar acknowledged the software problem. Yes, a large number of people declared as citizens last year still show (up) as D voters because of the software and almost all districts have complained to (Assam)s chief electoral officer.

NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela said they are dependent on the chief electoral officers office and Assam polices border branch involved in detection of foreigners for the information on pending cases of D voters.

The state government has asked Hajela to develop a centralized database of people who have been through the citizenship verification process for access to the police, election officials and NRC. I will start on it once we are done with the (NRC) draft, Hajela said.

Detection of foreigners and identification of D voters are parallel exercises which continue despite the NRC.

Chief electoral officer Mukesh Chandra Sahu promised to ensure names of those declared Indian citizens are back on the electoral rolls as genuine voters. We are not responsible for what NRC is doing and I did not develop the software, he said.

A police officer and a deputy commissioner accepted that the lists of citizens marked as D voters were given to the concerned authorities, which means their exclusion from the NRC draft list. They spoke on condition of anonymity.

Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recently said the government was considering a proposal to deny government documents to those left out of the NRC.

A recent Supreme Court order said D voters and their descendants will be kept out of the NRC draft until foreigners tribunals decide their cases irrespective of whether they are citizens by birth under the Citizenship Act, 1955.Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said the judiciary should be trusted with resolving the differences between judges without any intervention from the political process.

There will be differences among the judges. There have been in the past. But let us trust the statesmanship of the judiciary to set those differences and resolve it. Political process should never intervene, he said during the inauguration of a new block of the Delhi high court.

While Prasad credited the NDA government with providing funds to judiciary for development of infrastructure, CJI Dipak Misra, who was the chief guest at the event, said: Courts in the country do not have basic facilities for the litigants. Most of the subordinate courts in the country lack basic infrastructure for judges, court staff and litigants. In a veiled attack on the Centre, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal thanked the judiciary for bringing the executive and legislative on track when theywandered from their paths.A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday awarded the death sentence to two policemen who were convicted of torturing a 26-year-old man to death 13 years ago in a police station in Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala capital.

It is the first time that serving police officers have been awarded capital punishment in the southern state, lawyers said.

Civil police officers K Jithakumar and SV Sreekumar, the main accused in the case, deserved no sympathy, Judge K Nazar observed, as he handed out capital punishment to the two men and also ordered them to pay a fine of 2 lakh each. As the judge delivered the verdict, both men broke down in the courtroom.

Prabhavati Amma, the 68-year-old mother of victim Udayakumar, who fought a lone battle for 13 years to secure justice in the case, heard the verdict with folded hands.

The court also awarded three years imprisonment to three others accused  retired superintendent of police TK Haridas, and deputy superintendents of police Ajith Kumar and EK Sabu  for trying to cover up the crime and destroying evidence. All three were granted bail by the court. On Tuesday, the five were found guilty by the court.

The judge said he found no circumstances to reduce the capital punishment awarded to Jithakumar and Sreekumar.

Calling it a rarest of the rare crime, he said the case raised grave concern as it was committed by law enforcers who were bound to protect the innocent. Their actions had eroded public trust in the law enforcement system, the judge said.

Both Jithakumar and Sreekumar are serving police officers. Their counsel said both will challenge the verdict in the high court.

I lived all these years to hear this verdict. I am satisfied now. No mother should undergo my plight. Hope this will act as a strong deterrent against police brutality, the mother said.

The CBI case was that police constables Jithakumar and Sreekumar apprehended Udayakumar from a park along with a history-sheeter, identified as Suresh. When they recovered 4,000 from Udayakumar, they suspected it was stolen money and tortured him.

Though he was let off initially after proving his innocence, the prosecution said that when he sought the return of his money, the policemen falsely implicated him in another case and began torturing him again, which led to his death the next day.

The post-mortem revealed that he received more than 40 injuries on his thighs and lower abdomen.

The trial hit several snags in its course as several key witnesses turned hostile.

The CBI took over the investigation in 2008, after the mother moved the high court with a plea to hand over the case to the central agency, alleging that the state police were dragging their feet in the probe.

The verdict was hailed by former director general of police Jacob Punnose and Congress leader V M Sudheeran.

Addressing a function in Kollam in south Kerala, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said without mentioning the verdict that it was the duty of the police to protect the people and errant officers will be dealt with sternly.The Theresa May government on Monday reiterated its position that the Shimla Agreement should be the basis for talks between India and Pakistan, but said it encourages both countries to allow the UN high commissioner for human rights to visit Jammu and Kashmir.

Responding to demands in the House of Lords that London condemn alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir in light of the June 14 report of the UN high commissioner for human rights, Foreign Office minister Tariq Ahmed recalled his last visit to India.

He told Qurban Hussain (Liberal Democrats), who initiated the brief debate: I assure the noble Lord that we continue to raise the importance of the issues in Kashmir with the Indian Government. In one of my visits towards the end of last year, I raised the issue of Kashmir and the need for Pakistan and India to find a resolution to this long-standing issue.

Equally, with reference to the report and the importance of some of its findings, we encourage all states, including India and Pakistan, to respond positively to the request by the UNin this case, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rightsto a right to visit.

Swraj Paul, who is a non-affiliated member, questioned the utility of raising the Jammu and Kashmir issue in the house: My Lords, both India and Pakistan are very active members of the United Nations. Will the Government say what purpose it will serve to discuss this point here?

Ahmed recalled his roots in India and Pakistan, while reiterating that the Jammu and Kashmir issue was a matter to be resolved by the two countries: They are countries tied together by history, culture and families. Indeed, my parents herald from India and my wifes parents herald from Pakistan. Communities and families can come together. Perhaps I am living proof of that.

On the specific issue of Kashmir, as we have said beforeit has been a long-standing position of governments on both sidesthe Shimla accords of 1972 act as the basis for bilateral discussions. I know the region of Kashmir.

It was termed a paradise on earth. We hope that both countries can find noble cause to restore that label of paradise on earth, Ahmed added.Senior executives from instant messaging service WhatsApp, owned by Facebook Inc., described their week-long trip to India as productive and said their top challenge continues to be fake news as the company searches for an India head in this time of crisis.

As you know different members from WhatsApp have been here in India for several days. We wanted to meet the government face-to-face to discuss the exchange of letters. The top focus in our meetings was fake news. We also talked about (WhatsApp) payments. This is just the beginning. Our goals for users in India are aligned with the government, including aspects like financial inclusion and digital literacy, a Whatsapp executive who was in India this week, said on condition of anonymity.

The executives reference is to the letters sent to WhatsApp by Indias ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY). WhatsApp in India has come under scrutiny after forwarded messages on the platform allegedly incited mob fury, triggering multiple cases of lynching across the country, where there are more than 230 million monthly active users of the platform.

A decision on WhatsApps payments services is still pending approval by the government. The WhatsApp team also met officials from the Election Commission (EC), the executive said, but added they had not met with any political parties.

The executive said WhatsApp was scrambling to find an India head. To be sure, parent Facebook has not had a country head since October last year.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced plans to limit the use of forwarded messages to five individuals or groups in a bid to curb the spread of misinformation and fake news in India, one of its largest markets. The number is significantly lower than the limit of 20 for users elsewhere.

In addition, WhatsApp launched a new label to identify forwarded messages. It also plans to create a system for preventing the spread of fake news and provocative texts in consultation with academic experts and law-enforcement agents. We have been working on these changes for the last two years. We could have a done a better job of testing these sooner, added the executive.

The limit on forwarding messages will go live by next week.

The companys representatives also met with organisations such as the Digital Empowerment Foundation and the Cyber Peace Foundation to conduct digital literacy workshops with a WhatsApp specific curriculum. This is essentially an elaborate version of the full-page ads WhatsApp published in key newspapers in the country to help users identify fake news in 10 ways.

Osama Manzar, founder-director of Digital Empowerment Foundation, confirmed the meeting with WhatsApp. We had a pre-workshop meeting with WhatsApp. It was a demo/ model workshop in Jaitpur with about 40-50 people. The workshop was attended by school and college students, working women and housewives... he added.

According to Rahul Matthan, partner at law firm Trilegal, and author of Privacy 3.0: Unlocking Our Data-Driven Future, it is difficult to solve the fake news problem on Whatsapp. The core issue is the news that is labelled as forwarded is unlikely to change someones belief that its fake news. Fact checking a platform like WhatsApp is harder compared to social media..., he added.The longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century will be visible across India on Friday, providing hobbyists and professional stargazers with a rare opportunity to watch the moon being blanketed by the Earths shadow for over six hours.

People would be able to watch the eclipse for six hours and 14 minutes, with the total phase lasting for an hour and 43 minutes.

While the eclipse will begin at 10.44 pm in India (17:14 UTC), the total phase will extend from 1 am to 2.43 am (19:30 to 21:13 UTC). So, if you plan to watch this natural phenomenon until the very end, you may want to have a few cups of coffee handy.

The longest possible period of totality for a lunar eclipse is an hour and 47 minutes. The planet witnessed the longest eclipse of the previous century on July 16, 2000, lasting for 1 hour, 46 minutes and 24 seconds.

Fortunately, Indians will be able to watch the total eclipse from start to finish. The other regions that share this cosmic treat are the Middle East, parts of Russia and Kazakhstan, and the eastern half of Africa, but at least part of the eclipse can be seen from almost everywhere in the world except North America.

This eclipse happens to coincide with the moons apogee, a point in the moons orbit where it is farthest from the earth. It will signal the opposite of the well-known supermoon  a relatively tiny-looking moon called a micromoon. Mars will also be very close to the pint-sized red moon, and will be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye as a small, reddish speck.

However, those looking forward to witnessing this cosmic event would do well to keep an eye on the weather forecast charts  given that monsoon clouds and rain could prove to be a dampener. Light pollution and high-rises can also interfere with stargazing for those who live in the cities, especially as the moon will rise only about thirty degrees over the southern horizon.

There are multiple opportunities for group viewing across India. Delhiites, for instance, can watch the eclipse through telescopes from the Nehru Planetarium 10 pm onwards, and events will be held at similar hours at the Birla Planetarium in Kolkata and Chennai as well as the Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai and Bengaluru.Elections are rumoured to be very expensive in India and analysts frequently speculate that, with each passing election, the costs of campaigns are ratcheting further upwards. The perceived increase in campaign costs is often assumed to mean that bribes what political scientists refer to as votebuyingmight be on the rise. Yet what candidates actually spend their money on during these expensive campaigns remains unclear due to the paucity of credible data on real expenses. While official candidate expense reports provide a sense of above-board expenses, my long-term study of party networks in Mumbai provides a rare perspective on the true costs of campaigns.

Over several years, repeated interviews with political workers across three constituencies allowed me to generate estimates of legal and accounted expenses, but also of illegal, illegitimate and unaccounted expenses, and to estimate the relative amounts spent by candidates on each type of expense. This, in turn, makes it possible to estimate whether bribes are driving the cost of elections up and/or whether other types of spending are also on the rise. If it is the latter, one can identify whether the alleged increase in the cost of elections really owes to more frequent bribing or to some other, deeper cause.

The legal expenditure limit for an assembly election in Mumbai in 2014 was Rs 35 lakh. Major contenders I observed spent between Rs 1 crore and Rs 16 crore, with considerable variation across parties. As such, these unique data confirm that the legal and accounted expenses of candidates only represent a minuscule fraction of their real expensesfrequently less than 1/30th or 1/50th of the overall amount. Real expenses include a large number of gifts and handouts to voters and/or local influencers, in line with the suspicion that voters are routinely being bribed in Indian elections.

According to estimates I collected from party workers in Mumbai, major candidates (for various parties across several constituencies) spent between 19% and 64% of their budgets on gifts to voters, which were typically disbursed through a lump-sum payment to influential citizens (such as housing society presidents or regional or caste association leaders). In addition to targeted payments to influential citizens, money also trickled down party networks, which led to gifts and cash handouts being showered on voters in a relatively indiscriminate manner during the waning moments of the campaign.

However, gifts are not always the only, even the primary, reason why electoral campaigns are expensive. Many other expenses, from basic logistical costs to the short-term wages that candidates pay to their workers and the crowds these workers recruit, sometimes place even more meaningful constraints on candidates. Payments to campaign workers are an oft-overlooked major expenditure. While our estimates are less reliable than the ones presented abovesince this is a particularly sensitive question to ask political workers directly we estimated that candidates on average spent over 10% of their budgets on staff wages. This implies that serious candidates may be spending several times more than the overall spending limit on wages alone.

Read: Power to the rich: India needs to talk about money in politics

Often, the recipients of wages are not party workers but ordinary citizens (although the boundary is admittedly porous between the two categories). In Mumbaiand I suspect in most of Indiamuch of what political scientists refer to as political participation (participating in processions, rallies, and meetings) is contingent on these wages. Overall, such paid political participation reportedly accounted for an even larger share of the expenses of candidates I observed in 2014: party workers estimated the overall amounts that the various candidates spent on hired crowds to range between 10 and 40% of their total expenses.

These payments cannot be simply equated with bribes, insofar as party workers trade wages for work rather than for votes. Further, they do not appear to mobilise likely supporters of their candidates, but simply those who are poor and readily available to carry flags or idly seat on plastic chairs.

Finally, a large part of the illegal funds mobilised by candidatesa share estimated to range between 20% and 30% of their real expenseswere also spent on perfectly mundane items such as material for rallies and processions, vehicles, speakers, chairs, tables, posters, etc. These items would be neither illegal nor illegitimate if the total spending of the candidate had remained below the legal limit. Altogether, this suggests that costs are rising not only because voters receive gifts, but also because campaigns are getting bigger and more ambitious, sophisticated, professional, and competitive. The perceived increase in the cost of campaigns does not have one cause but several; the current narrative assigning the rise in the cost of campaigns to the proliferation of bribes may be simplistic or simply erroneous.

Read: Funding elections in India: Whose money has the most influence?

Rising costs generally have more to do with structural changes in the context of democratic elections in India.

Regardless of the ubiquity of gifts and handouts, a number of alternative factors explain why campaigns are getting more expensive.

First, slow but steady increases in the size of constituencies may play a major role. Simply put, larger populations require candidates to spend more.

Second, there may be generational changes that affect the cost of campaigns. In Mumbai, the rising number of young educated voters who are beyond the reach of parties influence and increasingly independent from their families partisan preferences is widely described by workers as heralding the progressive disappearance of vote banks. Third, and most importantly, a steady rise in political competition and in the number of candidates has sparked an arms race in campaign spending. More candidates automatically means more uncertain elections, and hence costlier contests for candidates who are forced to match the expenses of their competitors. In that sense, costlier elections may not result from lower levels of morality in the political class or from a surge in bribe giving. They instead likely flow from rising levels of political competition, which may be doing harm as well as good.

(The author, Simon Chauchard is a lecturer at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University)Is Islam the name we give to people, to a religion, to a culture, or to a tradition? Or is it just a faith embraced by different people with different traditions and cultures?

It is an important question around which many debates have been conducted. In the 1980s, for instance, VS Naipaul, in his influential Among the Believers said that though Islam was meant to be a religion followed by different people all over the world, there was a determined push, fuelled by Arab money, to turn it into a mono-cultural global faith based on the tenets of Arab Islam.

Though Naipauls book was widely condemned at the time as being borderline-prejudiced, some of his predictions have come to pass. The glorious joyous traditions of Islam all over the world have come under the shadow of fundamentalists who would impose a particularly severe form of Arab conservatism on all Muslims.

Shahi Paneers origins can be traced back to the Islamic world.

If you believe, as I do, that Islam is a religion that does not require people to sacrifice their own cultural identities for an Arab make-over, then you must wonder if there is such a thing as Islamic cuisine. Even in the Indian subcontinent, the food of Bengali Muslims differs vastly from, say, the cuisine of Punjabi Muslims (despite Jinnahs dreams, the two parts of Pakistan never united under a single, one-nation biryani), let alone the food of the Muslims of the Kerala coast.

In fact, there is good reason to argue that religion and food do not necessarily go together. Is there a distinctive Christian cuisine? Clearly not. Or a Jewish cuisine? Most Jewish restaurants and delis in the West focus on the food of Eastern European Jews. But the Jews of Israel prefer a cuisine that is not dissimilar to the food of the rest of the Middle East.

And yet there are some dishes that do unite Islamic communities. I had not realised how many there were till I read Anissa Helous masterly Feast: Food of the Islamic World. Helou, who was born to Christian parents and has lived all over the world (Beirut, London, Sicily, etc.) is one of the worlds foremost authorities on Middle Eastern food.

She decided to do this book, she told The New York Times, because she was fed up of seeing Islam portrayed as the religion of those who would spread terror or wreak havoc. She grew tired of the Western media caricatures of Syria and Iraq, both countries she knows well, and wanted to convey some sense of the joy and pride Muslims took in their often very complex and inventive cuisines.

She travelled outside the Middle East, to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, India (which is where I met her and therefore rate a brief mention in the book) and collected the best recipes for dishes that were associated with Islamic communities. Because cuisine is not only about religion, this was not always easy to do. For instance, Feast has a recipe for Paneer Makhni. Is that an Islamic dish? A Hindu invention? Who knows?

But as I read through her book, I realised you could take it at two levels: as a compendium of the 300 best dishes from the Islamic world (which, I think, is what Helou intends it to be) or as a journey through the lives of dishes as they travelled around the globe.

Certainly, there are more similarities between the various dishes featured here than we realise. Take the idea of cooking meat on skewers (brochettes if you want to get fancy) which the Turks called kababs. We suspect that the Middle Eastern version of the dish came from Turkey because Turkish eleventh century texts make reference to skewered meat.

But, there is some kind of skewered kabab in every country where there is a Muslim population: the Middle East, of course but also South Asia. I hadnt realised, till I read Feast, that the Indonesian satay is also, at the end of the day, a classic kababpieces of meat cooked on a skewer. (Indonesia is, of course, the worlds largest Muslim country.)

Kababs over fire. (Shutterstock)

Or take the Islamic bread tradition. We know that there were pit ovens all over Asia even before the birth of Christ (let alone the Prophet). Ancient Sumerian texts talk about a cylindrical oven called tinuru and clay ovens have been found in Indus Valley sites. The origin of the tandoor is probably pre-Islamic though similar ovens survive in todays Middle East under such names as tannur (Syria), tonur (Central Asia) or tandir (Turkey).

Our own tandoors have cousins all over the world and I have heard it suggested that given the contacts between the Indus Valley and Sumerians, who is to say where the original tandoor came from? Did we send it to them? Or did they send it to us?

What is not in dispute, however, is that India had no maida or refined flour tradition till Muslim traders, visitors and invaders introduced us to their breads. The naan is clearly of West Asian origin and you find some version nearly everywhere in the Islamic world. But even when you move away from maida breads, there are still Islamic influences in our food that we do not fully recognise.

Helou gives the recipe for Chila, a Zanzibar Ramadan speciality. It is a roti-type bread made on the tawa from a chick pea flour batter. Once you realise that we call chick pea flour besan; then the penny is certain to drop. This is the besan ka chila that we eat all over India, without being aware that it is a Ramadan delicacy in Zanzibar. Did it get there from here? Or, given that chick peas are a Middle Eastern specialty, did it originate there and then travel around the world?

Then, of course, there is the Middle Eastern rice tradition. We know that the Turks and the Iranians had their pulao but the general consensus is that biryani was created in a court kitchen in Delhi. Helou does not challenge this view. Instead, she respects the sub-continents biryani tradition and recognises that biryani is not a single dish but a whole school of cooking. Feast includes terrific recipes for several biryanis: a classic Avadh biryani; a kacchi biryani from Hyderabad (where the meat and rice are cooked together), a dum pukht biryani, a Calcutta biryani (made with potatoes) and a moplah biryani from Malabar.

But she notes that others also have dishes that they call biryani. There is a recipe for an Emirati biryani which is meatless and an Indonesian kebuli biryani, so called perhaps, because it originated from Kabul but thoroughly Indonesianised with makroot, lemon grass, coconut cream etc.

I read the book with fascination because Helou captures the joy with which most Islamic communities regard food. In every Indian city, every non-vegetarian Hindu will know that the cuisines of the local Muslim communities will be special. Whether it is the by-lanes of old Delhi or Mohammed Ali Road in Mumbai, the Muslim areas will always have extraordinary food.

An assortment of middle eastern dishes such as babaganoush, hummus, falafel, etc. (Shutterstock)

Many of the great Indian food traditions (Hyderabad, Rampur, Lucknow, etc.) are Muslim in origin. And even today, the great cooks (the Qureshis, the wazas of Kashmir, etc) are often upholders of Muslim traditions.

So why should we buy into the fundamentalist caricature of Islam as a severe, joyless religion?

In fact, it is hard to think of a religion that celebrates food as much as Islam does. So Feast breaks two myths. The first is the Western caricature of Muslims as primitive terrorists. And the second is the fundamentalist view of eating as a joyless activity.

There is no single Islamic cuisine. But there is a all-encompassing Muslim food tradition: one that finds joy and celebration in food; it is a tradition that travelled with the religion and took so many dishes around the world. From the paella of Spain to the satays of Malaysia and Indonesia, the influence of Islam is evident.

And Feast offers the perfect guide to the great cuisines of the Islamic world.The Mumbai police deployed 30,000 personnel across the city on Wednesday morning to handle the Maratha agitation.

Senior officers of all regions are on the field to maintain law and order. In a meeting conducted with the agitators, the police have asked them to ensure that people are not affected. We have asked agitators to protest in a peaceful manner and without troubling people, said Mumbai police spokesperson Deepak Devraj.

The police have also increased vigilance in Maratha strongholds. We have ensured tight security in areas such as Dadar, Borivli, Kandivli, Kherwadi, Sewri, Jogeshwari, Bhandup and Mulund, he said.

Besides the local police, battalions of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) have been deployed in sensitive areas, officials said.

The Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Railway Protection Force (RPF) have also tightened security at railway stations in the city and at terminus such as Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Bandra and Mumbai Central.Fifty-eight-year-old Shammit Shah, a cancer patient, had a harrowing time on Wednesday morning getting to Bethany Hospital in Thane, which is five km from the station, for treatment.

After a long wait outside Thane station, Shah and his son managed to get an auto only after some passersby noticed that Shah was travelling with a tube in his nose and forced protesters to let them use an auto.

We are residents of Bangladesh and came to India two months ago for my treatment. I was not aware of the bandh today and had to wait for a long time.

Like Shah, many commuters are struggling because of the bandh imposed by Maratha groups across Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Another commuter Archana Mulick, 38, waited for over an hour for an auto at Gaondevi market in Thane. After finally getting an auto, protesters assaulted the auto driver and forcefully stopped the vehicle so I had to walk all the way home, she said.

The intensity of the bandh is more severe in Navi Mumbai, according to the bandh organisers, as the Maratha community has dominant pockets in the city. Akash Patil, 32, a commuter in Vashi, said: Auto-rickshaws are not plying here. My office is in Vashis sector 19, around four km from the station. I have no option but to walk.

Shekhar Desai, 24, a resident of CBD Belapur, said he walked to the station from home. Then I found that train services are also affected. It is going to be difficult to reach my office in Thane on time as there are disruptions at Thane station too, he said.

Parents of students who have gone to school in Navi Mumbai were worried. Several schools, such as Ryan International in Sanpada and North Point School in Kopar Khairane, have told parents that their school buses will not run and that parents have to pick up their children from school.

Monali Kutani, 28, a resident of Kopar Khairane, said: My child is in school, and I am worried as protestors have blocked the main road. How will the school bus bring him back? I will have to somehow try and go to school and get him home safely.The bandh imposed by Maratha outfits disrupted life in Navi Mumbai and Panvel on Wednesday, with the situation getting out of hand in the afternoon as agitators blocked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway at its entry-exit point in Kalamboli, threw stones and set a police van on fire, resulting in lathicharge and police firing in the air.

A protester, Tushar Bajrang Kadam, 25, was reportedly injured in the firing and has been admitted to MGM hospital in Kamothe. Protesters said the bullet grazed the side of his stomach, and that he is out of danger.

The intensity of the bandh is expected to be more severe in Navi Mumbai as compared to Mumbai and Thane, according to bandh organisers themselves, as the Maratha community has dominant pockets in the satellite city.

While shops in most areas remained shut from the morning, later in the day, there were major traffic snarls as protesters blocked busy roads and highways at several spots and reportedly threw stones at BEST buses. Protesters blocked the arterial Sion-Panvel highway at Vashi junction, and staged rasta rokos at Panvel junction, blocking the old Mumbai-Pune highway and Mumbai-Goa highway.

In the morning, auto-rickshaws were operating in the city but went off the roads soon after protesters started forcefully stopping them and, in some cases, assaulting the drivers. The auto union also put up a bandh notice at several places, including Vashi railway station.

The BEST reported that two of its buses had stones pelted on them in the morning near D-Mart in Kopar Khairane. Residents also claimed that stone were being flung at autos in Ghansoli.

A protest at the D-Mart chowk in Kopar Khairane, led by Mathadi leader MLC Narendra Patil, blocked the main road towards Vashi, Ghansoli and Airoli.

Similar protests were held at Shivaji Chowk in Panvel as well. Panchmukhi Hanuman Mandir Chowk, which connects to the old Mumbai-Pune highway and Mumbai-Goa highway, was blocked by protestors who held a dharna at the spot.

Commuters going to railway stations and using buses struggled. Akash Patil, 32, a commuter in Vashi, said: Auto-rickshaws are not plying here. My office is in Vashis sector 19, around four km from the station. I have no option but to walk.

While schools with morning shifts functioned normally, albeit with low attendance, by afternoon, several schools in Navi Mumbai asked parents to collect their children from school as their buses would not ply.

Monali Kutani, 28, a resident of Kopar Khairane, said: My child is in school, and I am worried as protestors have blocked the main road. How will the school bus bring him back? I will have to somehow try and go to school and get him home safely.A 60-year-old Dharavi resident, who was found unconscious near a defunct canteen of B Y L Nair Hospital, Mumbai Central, on Tuesday morning, is the first dengue casualty this year in Mumbai.

Esha Abdul Gafar Shaikh, who was brought to the hospital on July 22, was reported missing from his ward and was found an hour and a half later. According to the hospital, Shaikh, who had discarded his hospital dress to change into regular clothes, could have been trying to leave the hospital when he was left unattended. Doctors said that he died of bilateral intra pulmonary haemorrhage  bleeding in the lungs  caused by the dengue infection. The condition is rare but has been noticed in patients in past. Experts said that only 1%-3% of dengue patients need admission out of which only 1% need intensive care.

Within this small group only 1%-3% of patients may develop the intra pulmonary bleed, which may cause their death, said Dr Om Srivastava, infectious diseases expert.

The staff at BYL Nair Hospital did not see him leaving because the overcrowded ward was housing over 70 patients in a hall meant for 40. Shaikhs son, who was attending to him, had stepped out to get medicines.

Around 12 noon on July 23, nurses of the ward realised that he wasnt on his bed and raised an alarm. We searched for him across the hospital and when we couldnt find him we reported him absconded, said Dr Ramesh Bharmal, the hospital dean.

Dr Bharmal added that Shaikh was found at 1.30pm by a security guard and was taken to the casualty department.

While doctors pronounced him dead on arrival, they also identified that he was the same patient who had absconded from ward 22. By that time the doctors received his blood reports, which ascertained that he was suffering from dengue.

Agripada police station registered an accidental death report in the matter.For Mumbaiites, the monsoon is synonymous with potholes. Every year, the first few heavy showers convert the citys roads into adventure sport tracks, putting motorists driving skills, health and patience to ultimate test. But according to experts, this can easily be prevented. How? By following the scientific procedure to repair the existing potholes.

Experts claim both the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as well as public works department (PWD) dont follow the prescribed steps while fixing potholes. The result is for all to see  BMC has recorded more than 1,400 complaints of potholes in June and July, with some on roads that were repaired recently.

CLAIM AND THE COUNTER

Civic officials blame potholes on waterlogging, and a bad drainage system. Immediate action is taken against contractors found guilty of shoddy work. The citys drainage system is old and seepage is common. This weakens the roads. Wherever there is waterlogging, there are potholes, said a BMC official.

This may not be entirely true. Sanjay Singh Gaharwal, from the research wing of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), said, Potholes are mainly a result of poor quality road construction and unscientific method of repairing them. This, combined with waterlogging, causes roads to lose their durability.

According to Gaharwal, the standard operating procedure to fix a pothole involves cutting out the area around the pothole in a rectangle, removing loose gravel and cleaning it. The portion has to be dried and then refilled with the mix.

Potholes cant be wet during repairs. Even a small quantity of water is enough to unsettle the mix, Gaharwal said. Also, cutting out the area is important to fix that part of the road.

Under pressure with heavy vehicular traffic, BMC officials hardly follow the entire procedure. Some potholes are repaired as they are, without cutting out the edges, as the method is quicker. As potholes surface during the monsoon, there is hardly a long spell of no rain to let the crater dry.

EXPLANATION AND EXPERT SPEAK

While your ride remains bumpy, BMC believes the cold mix is working well. Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, BMC has recorded fewer potholes this year in comparison to the previous years. Our response time is shorter. The new cold mix is showing good results. We have seen it work on wet patches too.

Explaining why they cant wait for a pothole to dry, CP Joshi, secretary (roads), PWD, said, The prescribed scientific method for filling potholes is essentially for work after the monsoon. During the rains, we cant use anything other than the cold mix. That too is mostly a temporary measure for three-four months. While repairing potholes during the monsoon, we sometimes adopt a quick method to fill the pothole for convenience of motorists.

Proper categorisation and study of potholes could help. Ashok Datar, a transport expert, said, Mumbai is more vulnerable to potholes because of intensive rainfall and heavy traffic. The civic body needs to have a measurement mechanism to map, compare, analyse and measure potholes. This is presently not done. For instance, a 500m stretch having eight-nine potholes is a serious concern. It should be studied and such potholes should be categorised, similar to the study of waterlogging spots in the city.When former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah wryly tweeted, You know the world has turned upside down when the Shiv Sena starts sounding reasonable, he hit the nail on the head.

The tweet was in response to Uddhav Thackerays statement a day earlier cautioning people not to adhere to the idea of Hindutva being perpetrated in the country. Uddhav went on to say that women were unsafe in the country while everybody was trying to protect the cow and that you could not target people on their eating preferences.

When I first saw that statement, I too was struck by how far the Shiv Sena had come since the days when its brand of Hindutva was considered too extreme by even the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That was in the mid-1980s, when Bal Thackeray and his close supporter Dr Ramesh Prabhoo became the first Indians to be disenfranchised by the Election Commission of India for inciting communal passions to win a by-election in Mumbai. Its only a few years after that that the BJP, which took some time to transition from Gandhian socialism to Hindutva, sought an alliance with the Shiv Sena, which has proved its biggest and most enduring ally despite its on-again-off-again kind of relationship.

In his report on the Mumbai riots, Justice Srikrishna squarely blames both LK Advani and Thackeray in equal measure for contributing to communal conflict in the city. Advanis rath yatra incited passions, the demolition of the Babri Masjid added to the unrest. And into this boiling cauldron, like a general leading his troops, stepped in Bal Thackeray... said Justice Srikrishna in one of the most evocative lines of any judicial report.

It did scare Bal Thackeray and soon he began to change his mind about the advantages of Hindutva. After his party won the 1995 assembly elections on substantial Muslim support, he called for a secular monument like a school or a hospital on the site of the demolished Babri Masjid, angering the Sangh Parivar no end. He could also have brought in the anti-cow slaughter bill two decades before it was signed by the President. But he had it put into cold storage after a delegation of butchers met him at Matoshree and explained to him that they never slaughtered the female of the species, in accordance with the existing laws in the country. The BJP accepted much of all that without much protest.

But now when Uddhav cautions Indians not to follow the brand of Hindutva being perpetrated by the BJP and that you cannot attack people on their food preferences, you know much has changed in the relationship between the two allies and, if the BJP wishes to continue the alliance, it will have to work very hard on it.

I do not take BJP president Amit Shahs exhortation to his party workers that they will go it alone during 2019 very seriously. That statement was made out of pique, in a tit for tat, after the Shiv Sena walked out of the Lok Sabha during the no-confidence motion and rubbed salt on BJPs wounds by pouring fulsome praise on Congress president Rahul Gandhi. That, too, after Uddhav was the first person Shah met when he started his Sampark for Samarthan campaign, thus placing him on the highest pedestal possible. But the BJP needs the Sena now more than ever before and I also think it unlikely that the Shiv Sena will resist the alliance for too long in the weeks leading up to the Lok Sabha polls. What price it will extract from the BJP remains to be seen.

For the Sena is continuing to hedge its bets instead of a clean break as is evidenced by its walk-out in the Parliament. The motion was brought in by a former BJP ally, the Telegu Desam Party, whose leader Chandrababu Naidu has been in constant touch with Uddhav Thackeray. Yet, instead of taking as bold a decision as to vote for the motion, the Sena chose to leave a window open for a future reconciliation.

Be that as it may, Uddhav is bang-on about another thing  women are more unsafe now in this country than cows. He may have been referring to rapes et al but cows are definitely more privileged than women now. Why else would the government ban oxytocin, a lifesaving hormonal drug that prevents bleeding in women in labour just because it is misused by some dairy farmers?

The nation is truly going to the cows. And Abdullah is right  India has turned topsy-turvy in the process!A 21-year-old man allegedly abducted a five-year-old girl while she was sleeping with her grandmother and took her to an isolated field and raped her at Vijay Nagar early Tuesday morning. The girl, after initial treatment by the district hospital, was referred to GTB Hospital in Delhi and is under treatment there, police said.

The girl is a kindergarten student at a private school in Vijay Nagar and is the eldest among her two siblings, police said.

Her brother is around two years and her father is a contractor who takes up house painting jobs. The father alleged that his daughter was abducted around 1.30am on Tuesday.

The incident took place around 1.30am. We have arrested the accused and are ensuring that the girl gets good medical treatment. The accused will be produced before the court, said Vaibhav Krishna, senior superintendent of police, Ghaziabad

The girls father said she was sleeping on a bed with her grandmother outside the house since there was a power cut. The accused probably gagged her so that she could not shout. Her mother woke up and found that she had been missing. We launched a search but could not locate her anywhere, her father said.

Finally, the locals decided to look in the bushes where she was lying in an unconscious state and the accused was seen escaping from the spot. The local residents first beat him up and then brought him up to the locality. I called up the police and he was arrested. I have filed a police complaint. We scanned for nearby CCTVs and saw that the man was roaming around and took 2 to 3 rounds of my house, he alleged.

He added that the girl was rushed to MMG district hospital around 4am and was later referred in an ambulance to the hospital in Delhi at around 10.30am, after initial treatment.

An ambulance was provided by the hospital and she is under treatment. The doctors have taken her to the operation theatre and have told me that she will be here for couple of hours. Thereafter, they will shift her to a ward. She had swelling around her eye and nail marks on her neck besides injuries to her private parts, he said.

The accused was taken to Vijay Nagar police station where he was arrested by Ghaziabad police. The police said that the accused has been booked under sections for rape and the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).After a series of rejections by European countries over traces of fungicides in basmati rice procured from Punjab, exporters have turned towards Jammu and Kashmir to get supplies as farmers in the hilly state use negligible amounts of pesticide when compared to their counterparts in the plains.

Of the basmati purchased from Punjab in the previous kharif season, rejections have been reported from Sweden, Finland and Norway. At least 24 shipping containers (each with 12 tonnes) have returned since the exporters began in January, causing panic.

Rejections are still happening; of each consignment of rice worth Rs 10 lakh that comes back, we have to pay Rs 6-7 lakh additional as penalties, and logistical and other charges, said Ashok Sethi, a director for the Punjab Rice Exporters Association. According to him, total basmati export to different countries is worth Rs 10,000 to 12,000 crore annually. Same amount of coarse rice is exported to developing nations where stringent tests are not conducted. Last year the basmati in Punjab was purchased at Rs 3,000 to 3,200 per quintal; 2.5 lakh tonnes were purchased from Punjab and 25,000 from J&K. Though the quantity from J&K is negligible for now, its not a good trend, said an agriculture department officer who did not wish to be named.

Sethi said traces of fungicides tricyclozole and carbondozium were found in the basmati from Punjab, and more rejections are now apprehended from countries in the Middle East that are major buyers but are conscious after reports emerging from Europe.

No doubt that the variety 1121 of Punjab basmati is loved worldwide but, being very health conscious and having strict norms, European and Middle Eastern countries check every consignment, said Sethi. Left with no option, exporters have turned towards Jammu and Kashmir, offering Rs 500 per quintal more to J&K basmati besides spending additional on the logistics.

The exporters association ran awareness campaigns among farmers and pesticide dealers asking them not to use any pesticide or fungicide after the flowering stage on basmati. Awareness meetings were held in basmati districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot, Gurdaspur and Ferozepur. Pesticides make no positive impact after the crop reaches flowering; rather its a negative, said director, agriculture, JS Bains. He added that a ban cant be imposed on pesticides and fungicides at the state level but awareness has helped.

Exporters have now promised to pay more to farmers who are not using chemicals that were found in tests in Europe. We will conduct tests at the time of purchase, and basmati testing negative for the chemicals will fetch Rs 300-500 a quintal more than the prevailing prices; exporters have promised that, said agriculture secretary KS Pannu.

The agriculture department, according to Pannu, is recruiting volunteers who will go to each village and reach out to individual farmers about the negative impact of the pesticides. He said that as basmati sowing has begun again, farmers have also been suggested alternatives that fall in green chemistry, that is, ones that are less harmful.Proposal to break deadlock over migration policy will be considered today. The European Commission has offered to pay countries 6,000 (5,346) per person to host migrants in secure centres in their territory, as part of a plan to break the deadlock in Brussels over migration policy. As Independent writes in the article EU offers to pay countries 6,000 per person to take in migrants rescued from Mediterranean, the EUs executive said on Tuesday it would shoulder the cost of taking in the people crossing the Mediterranean on boats from the blocs common budget, as well as cover the cost of specialist personnel to process them.

The proposal is the latest in a string of policies designed to resolve the issue, which has leapt up the political agenda in recent months after the election of far-right parties in countries such as Italy and Austria  despite a sharp fall in the number of people trying to travel to Europe. Italys far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini has previously closed Italys ports to the boats, but the countrys government softened its line this week, saying it would temporarily lift the embargo over August while the bloc worked out a new policy.

At the last European Council summit in Brussels at the end of June, EU national leaders agreed on the need to set up secure centres to process asylum claims, as well as agreeing a raft of hardline stances on migrants  such as condemning NGO-operated rescue boats operating off the Libyan coast.

But there was little detail agreed regarding what form the processing centres should take, and some countries, including France, Germany and Italy said they had no intention of hosting them.

Leaders also in principle agreed another proposal for disembarkation platforms based in North Africa where EU officials could process asylum claims outside EU territory  but again, little detail was given.

Representatives from EU countries are expected to discuss the proposal for new payments at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. Countries such as Spain, France and Malta may welcome the plan as they have been taking in boats rejected by Italys government. Italys government immediately moved to reject participation in the plan, however. Mr Salvini, the interior minister said: If they want to give money to someone else let them do so. Italy doesnt need charity.

The current multi-year EU budget is being negotiated by member states, and the commission has already proposed to set aside billions for a contingency fund to deal with unforeseen costs related to migration.

Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said: Now more than ever we need common, European solutions on migration. We are ready to support member states and third countries in better cooperating on disembarkation of those rescued at sea. But for this to work immediately on the ground, we need to be united  not just now, but also in the long run. We need to work towards sustainable solutions.US President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of vicious tactics on trade as he prepared for tough negotiations with European leaders in an escalating trade battle among world powers.

Trump tweeted that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because they know I love & respect them. His defence came after his administration announced a plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers who have been slammed by the presidents trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Trump wrote on Twitter, They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!

The president was meeting at the White House later Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and other European officials as their trade dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to US national security, an argument that the European Union and Canada rejects. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The European Union has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs on products worth $20 billion if Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested in a tweet that both the US and the EU drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready - but they wont!

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijings high-tech industrial policies. China has struck back with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globes biggest economies.

The moves have been unsettling to lawmakers with districts dependent upon manufacturers and farmers affected by the retaliatory tariffs.

The Agriculture Department said it would tap an existing program to provide $12 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers hurt by foreign retaliation to Trumps tariffs and other assistance, such as the purchase of excess crops.

With congressional elections coming soon, the government action underscored administration concern about damage to US farmers from Trumps trade tariffs and the potential for losing House and Senate seats in the Midwest and elsewhere.

The administration said the program was just temporary.

This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration the time to work on long-term trade deals, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue as administration officials argued that the plan was not a bailout of the nations farmers.

But that provided little solace to rank-and-file Republicans, who said the tariffs are simply taxes and warned the action would open a Pandoras box for other sectors of the economy.

I want to know what were going to say to the automobile manufacturers and the petrochemical manufacturers and all the other people who are being hurt by tariffs, said Senator John Kennedy, R-La. Youve got to treat everybody the same.

Senator. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the Agriculture Department was trying to put a Band-aid on a self-inflicted wound. The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts. This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy.

Trump pushed back against critics of his plan on Wednesday, telling them to be cool because the end result will be worth it!

On Twitter, Trump said people snipping at your heels during a negotiation will only delay the process. He wrote: Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!

The program is expected to start taking effect around Labor Day. Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by retaliation to the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs.

The food purchased from farmers would include some types of fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, dairy products, beef and pork, officials said.

Agriculture officials said they would not need congressional approval and the money would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.

The officials said payments couldnt be calculated until after harvests come in. Brad Karmen, the USDAs assistant deputy administrator for farm programs, noted that the wheat harvest is already in, so wheat farmers could get payments sooner than other growers.

Soybeans are likely to be the largest sector affected by the programs. Soybean prices have plunged 18 percent in the past two months.

The Agriculture Department predicted before the trade fights that US farm income would drop this year to $60 billion, or half the $120 billion of five years ago.

Mark Martinson, who raises crops and cattle in north-central North Dakota and is president of the US Durum Growers Association, said the $12 billion figure sounds huge but there are many farmers in need. I dont think this will cover us for a very long time - and it might not even buy me a tank of diesel. I think it will only put out the fire a little bit.The last three of the 40 international airlines have finally buckled under Chinese pressure not to refer to Taiwan, which Beijing treats as a breakaway province, as an independent country on their websites.

American Airlines, Delta and United Airlines were the last international carriers to change how they refer to Taiwan on their websites hours before a deadline imposed by China expired on Wednesday.

China did not specify how it would punish those carriers which did not change how they refer to Taiwan but had indicated that it could restrict access to its aviation market, the second largest in the world now and set to become the largest in the coming years.

The demand from China had earlier been described by Washington as Orwellian nonsense.

The last three joined a list of international airlines  including Indias national carrier, Air India  which now refer to Taiwan as either Taiwan, China or Chinese Taipei, exactly the way China wants it.

Beijing also opposes diplomatic ties between the Taipei and other countries.

Taiwan now has diplomatic ties with only 18 countries around the globe  India, which follows the one China policy, is not among the 18.

The ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) on Wednesday welcomed the move without naming any specific airline.

Calling it a positive development, MFA spokesperson, Geng Shuang said: We certainly hope that when they operate in China, they must respect Chinas laws and regulations, respect Chinas sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respect the feelings of the Chinese people.

There is no room for negotiation or consultation when it comes to the One China principle, Geng said.

On April 25, the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) sent a letter to dozens of foreign airlines, requesting changes to the way they refer to Taiwan on their websites and in marketing literature within July 25.

Several carriers including Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Japan Airlines and Lufthansa had fallen in line earlier.

American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson told the BBC that it was following the laws of the country it operates.

Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address Chinas request. Air travel is a global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate.

On the diplomatic front, the United States opposed the Chinese diktat to the airlines.

We have told China that the United States strongly objects to Chinas attempts to compel private firms to use specific words of a political nature in their publicly available content, a US embassy spokesperson in Beijing was quoted by the Washington Post as saying.

Earlier this year, the US clothing company GAP had to apologise for selling t-shirts with a map of China which didnt show Taiwan.

The international hotel chain Marriott had its Chinese website briefly blocked for listing the Tibet Autonomous Region, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau as separate countries in a questionnaire for customers.The Islamic State group on Wednesday claimed responsibility for a weekend shooting that killed two people in Canadas Toronto.

The groups propaganda agency Amaq said the attacker was one of the soldiers of the Islamic State.

He carried out the attack in response to calls to target nationals of countries of the coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq since 2014, it said.A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State group killed more than 220 people in southern Syria on Wednesday, in one of the jihadists deadliest ever assaults in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.

The bloodshed came almost a week into a Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the countrys south.

IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying soldiers of the caliphate attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated explosive belts.

The Britain-based Observatory said four suicide bombers targeted Sweida city while others hit small villages to the north and east and shot residents in their homes.

At least 221 people were killed, including 127 civilians, the Observatory said.

The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, mostly residents who took up arms to defend their homes, it said.

The overwhelming majority of the dead were in (Sweidas) northern countryside, where the bodies of civilians executed inside their homes were found, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Sweida, whose residents are mostly from the Druze minority, has been relatively insulated from the war that has ravaged the rest of the country since 2011.

Its the bloodiest death toll in Sweida province since the start of the war and one of the deadliest ever IS attacks in Syria, the Observatory chief said.

He said regime forces eventually ousted IS from several villages its fighters had seized and put an end to the attacks.

Some residents who fled the attacks on their villages are returning and finding people dead in their homes, Abdel Rahman said.

At least 38 IS fighters were also killed, including the suicide attackers.

Abandoned shoes

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east but did not give a specific toll.

Todays crime shows that countries supporting terrorism are trying to breathe life back into the terrorist organisation to keep it as a card in their hand that they will use to achieve political gains, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he received Russias envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev.

These attempts will only succeed in... shedding more innocent blood, he added, in comments carried on his social media accounts.

Omar, a resident of Sweida city, told AFP explosions began rocking the city around 5:30 am local time (0230 GMT).

The blast was sudden and unexpected. Never in its history has Sweida seen such a tough day, he told AFP.

State news agency SANA published images from the city of the attacks aftermath, showing a victims remains sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall.

Abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilt out of cartons.

An eyewitness said Sweidas national hospital was packed.

He said he saw people bringing in a lot of wounded in their own private cars.. Others were coming to the hospital to ask if loved ones they had lost track of were there.

The UNs humanitarian coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari condemned the terrorist bombing in Sweida city, saying all civilians should be protected.

Government ally Russia said the IS attacks confirm the need for energetic and coordinated efforts by the international community to eradicate this universal evil from Syrian territory.

Pro-government forces ousted IS from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, but IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The jihadists still hold some territory in Syrias south, including in Sweida and another isolated but larger patch in neighbouring Daraa province, to the west.

That pocket is held by Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, a jihadist faction whose 1,000 fighters have pledged allegiance to IS.

After ousting mainstream rebels from most of the south, Assads troops backed by his Russian allies are now closing in on the IS pocket in Daraa.

SANA said the attacks on Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside.

Desert holdouts

On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces pressed their heavy bombardment of IS territory in Daraa.

At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, while clashes have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists, says the Observatory.

Last month, Assads forces launched a lightning assault that battered rebel areas in the south and brought most of Daraa province under his control.

They then moved on to Quneitra, the neighbouring province which borders the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

On Tuesday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in Quneitra.

Israels army on Tuesday said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS, which overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014 but has since lost most of that territory.

More than 350,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since Syrias war started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.Nineteen people died and more than 3,000 need to be rescued after a dam collapsed in a remote part of land-locked Laos, local media reported on Wednesday.

The English-language Vientiane Times, citing district governor Bounhom Phommasane, said more than 3,000 people require rescue and about 2,851 people have been saved.

About 19 people have been found dead, the paper said.

News agency AFP reported bodies of 17 people have been recovered after the flash floods caused by the dam breach in southern Laos, according to a Thai consular officer.

A wall of water was unleashed Monday after parts of the dam were washed away, sending floods surging downstream, sweeping away homes and leaving an unknown number of people missing.

There are 17 bodies recovered so far, but we can not estimate the number of missing yet, Chana Miencharoen, told AFP, adding roof-level flood waters have submerged several villages near the Xe-Namnoy dam.

All the dead are Laotian... more than 6,000 are affected from eight villages near the dam, he said, from the relief centre in Attepeu province, where the disaster occurred on Monday.

The remote area is only accessible by helicopter and flat-bottomed boats, with roads badly damaged by the flash flooding or completely washed away.

Communist Laos is criss-crossed by a vast network of rivers and scores of dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand.

The South Korean partner in the hydropower project said Wednesday it discovered the upper part of the structure had washed away 24 hours before it collapsed.

SK Engineering & Construction said it discovered the damage to an auxiliary dam at around 9:00 pm Sunday local time.

We immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating (nearby) villagers downstream, it said in a statement.Pakistanis will get an idea about who is leading in their general elections early Thursday and the final results will take 24 hours, according to historical precedent.

An exact time for the announcement of the results was not yet known, but a likely indicator is expected emerge after midnight when news of unofficial votes or results begin to pour in. The election commission does not announce these but the returning officer at each constituency does report these results to the election commission which gives this information to the media.

The Election Commission of Pakistan will release the results by constituency, as well as projections and votes polled for the candidates on each seat.

By around 4am usually one gets an idea of which parties have taken the lead in the national as well as provincial assemblies.

In the past by 8 am or so, one can make out who has won. This process continues till noon or so when all the results are out.

The Elec Commission sends out the official results in a day or so. The election results will also come in live on the official Pakistan election website: www.ecp.gov.pk but the site was down Wednesday evening.

Polling began all over Pakistan at 8am and ended at 6pm. In the past polling stations closed at 5 pm. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz PML-N) are thought to be neck and neck in the elections.Donald Trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen has released the tape of a phone conversation in which they are heard discussing payments to a former Playboy model who claimed to have had an affair with the US president years ago.

The audio released on Tuesday was a stunning disclosure that appeared to prove Trump had contemporaneous knowledge of the plan to pay off Karen McDougal, who was eventually paid by a news publication for her story that it never ran. Cohens lawyer Lanny Davis has said there are more tapes coming, though not as revealing as this. He told Axios his client has made a turn and he is no longer the man who once said famously he was so loyal to Trump he would gladly take a bullet for him. But not any longer.

In the audio recording, first aired by CNN, Cohen tells Trump about plans to set up a company to finance the purchase of rights to McDougals story from National Enquirer, the news publication that has been friendly to Trump.

I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, Cohen said in the recording, possibly referring to David Pecker, head of American Media that owns National Enquirer.

The audio is not clear in parts and a dispute has arisen about the portion on finances. What finances, Trump is heard asking. Cohen said, we have to pay. And then it appears Trump said, Pay with cash. But he appears to have also said cheque.

Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani said the president had said, Dont pay with cash, pay with cheque.

President Trump did not clear it up in a tweet he posted Wednesday, and went after Cohen instead: What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire

Eynsham Hall, a Grade II-listed Edwardian pile is on the site of a 1780 manor house which had a string of illustrious owners  including a London auctioneer and newspaper proprietor; a widowed countess; and the present freeholders grandfather, a mining engineer who made his fortune from copper in Portugal  before it was demolished in 1904.

> Read moreT housands of Londoners could take advantage of the heatwave to help the environment and cut their power bills by joining a cut-price scheme to install solar panels.

More than one in three boroughs have joined Mayor Sadiq Khans Solar Together London initiative, launched this year.

With the weather in the capital this week set to outdo the likes of Miami and Jamaica, the project allows homeowners to join together and use their collective buying power to negotiate significant discounts on the regular cost of buying and installing panels.

The project began with a pilot scheme in the boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Merton and Sutton.

Some 4,000 people signed up, and now eight more councils have joined in: Camden, Haringey, Havering, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Waltham Forest and Westminster. More will inevitably follow if it proves popular.

The renewable energy scheme works by holding a reverse auction, offering firms the chance to bid for contracts to install the panels, and encouraging them to undercut each other in order to win the business.

This technique is regularly used in the Netherlands and Belgium, where use of solar panels is far more mainstream than in the UK.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE?

The price of a typical solar panel system, including installation, is around 5,000 to 8,000. Homeowners who have already taken advantage of Solar Together London paid about 3,200 to 3,600, said a spokeswoman for the Greater London Authority.

Solar Together London is an exciting scheme which will provide an alternative energy source to many Newham residents, said Rachel Tripp, Newham councils environment chief. Not only is solar energy sustainable and significantly better for the environment, it also gives residents the opportunity to make financial savings on their household bills.

I know many of our residents are interested in green alternatives and by taking part in Solar Together, they now have trustworthy access to high-quality and low-cost solar energy technology.

The Energy Savings Trust estimates that solar panels are worth around 320 per year in London, based on savings on bills and earnings from selling excess energy back to the Grid.

They may also add a little to the value of a property as the prospect of low bills will appeal to buyers.Appointment

25 July 2018

PAH Management is excited to welcome Robert P. Carl to the team as the new senior director of construction and project management.

Carl brings a wealth of experience to this newly created position overseeing every aspect of construction management from initial concepting to project completion. He brings over 15 years of experience in the hospitality industry demonstrating an elevated level of expertise in budgeting, hospitality management, hotel management and contract negotiation.

Most recently, Carl served as the senior vice president director of designs and construction at FelCor Lodging Trust, where he was responsible for a three-year, $500 million repositioning of 83 core assets. Prior to this role, Carl was vice president of purchasing and project management at Remington Hotel Corporation. While at Remington, he was also vice president of new openings/conversions, where he oversaw the opening of five prototype Embassy Suites over a two-year period.Trumps constant hostility to Iran has made it politically impossible for anyone in the Iranian government to consider negotiating with the U.S. The American Conservative in the article Iran Has No Reason to Deal with Trump writes, that even reformers accept that national pride dictates that Mr Trump tirades against Iran makes it ever more difficult for the government to even consider talks with the US.

It is poisonous to negotiate with Trump under the circumstances, said Hossein Marashi, a senior reformist politician. When we face unfair attacks, we have no choice but to answer those attacks. This US approach is not sustainable and we should wait until there is a change in the next Congress or administration.

Trump and Pompeo may say that they want Iran to agree to a better deal, but everything else that they say and do shows that they have no interest in any agreement that might be acceptable to Iran. The administrations demands have put Iran in the position of choosing between defiance and humiliating surrender with nothing in between, and like any other self-respecting government the Iranians are choosing defiance.

The U.S. under Trump has already proven that it cant be trusted to honor its agreements with Iran when the president reneged on the nuclear deal. The goal of the administrations Iran policy is now unmistakable: the destabilization and overthrow of the regime. It is clear that the administration has no interest in defusing tensions through diplomacy, and it is instead looking to pick a fight with Iran over anything and everything.

The Trump administrations intense hostility towards Iran and its willingness to engage with a nuclear-armed North Korea sends a clear message to North Korea and the rest of the world. The administration is showing that the U.S. will treat nuclear-armed states with some measure of respect while treating states that abide by their nonproliferation obligations like trash. Iran is still complying with the terms of the nuclear deal, but the Trump administration has given them every incentive to scrap it and follow North Koreas example.Appointment

25 July 2018

Orange Lake Resorts, home to the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand, has hired Gary Rall as Vice President, Design and Development. Rall has 25 years experience leading multi-million-dollar hospitality and retail construction/renovation projects. His projects have won several timeshare industry renovation awards including two American Resort Development Association (ARDA) 1st place awards and an ARDA Ace Award for his work on renovations to Give Kids The World Village in Kissimmee, Florida. Previously, Rall worked for Wyndham Vacation Ownership as Vice President, Resort Renovations & Design and Supplier Diversity Champion.

Rall attended Mercyhurst College majoring in Business Administration and passed the State of Florida general contractors license test. He is a board member of the Mustard Seed of Central Florida, an active member of the US Air Force Academy Parents Club of Central Florida and is an editorial advisory board member of Commercial Construction & Renovations Magazine.Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced yesterday that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with Varoshaz Utca Projekt Ingatlanforgalmazo Kft. for the first Hyatt Regency hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The 231-room property is expected to open in early 2020.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) announced yesterday that a Hyatt affiliate has entered into a management agreement with Varoshaz Utca Projekt Ingatlanforgalmazo Kft. for the first Hyatt Regency hotel in Budapest, Hungary. The 231-room property is expected to open in early 2020.

Hyatt Regency Budapest will be located in the landmark building Postapalota, the former postal office on Pet?fi Sandor Street. Situated near the vibrant Vaci Street and a five-minute walk to the Danube river, this upscale hotel will provide the perfect setting for business and leisure travelers to connect with the city.

 The development of Hyatt Regency Budapest demonstrates Hyatts commitment to growing the Hyatt Regency brand footprint throughout Central and Eastern Europe, said Takuya Aoyama, vice president development, Eastern Europe, Russia & CIS at Hyatt.  We look forward to working with Varoshaz Utca Projekt Ingatlanforgalmazo Kft and believe business and leisure travelers will find the Hyatt Regency Budapest to be intuitive and seamless throughout their stay in the city.

Hyatt Regency Budapest will be an ideal destination for every occasion  from business meetings to memorable family vacations. The hotel will offer spacious guest rooms, generous business facilities with a 4,197 square foot ballroom and more than 6,673 square feet of meeting space. Further amenities include a lavish spa, state-of-the-art fitness facilities and an indoor swimming pool. The hotels bar and restaurant will be situated within the inner courtyard of the former post office building, offering guests a space to collaborate and socialize with colleagues, relax with friends or family, and recharge during their busy stay in the city.

 We are delighted to bring this landmark building back to life, said Dr. Michael Hutter, owner of Varoshaz Utca Projekt Ingatlanforgalmazo Kft.  We believe the globally recognized Hyatt Regency brand will help further transform Pet?fi Sandor Street to become a sought-after destination for shopping, dining and culture. Its an honor for us to be part of this process and we believe the hotel will be a successfull development.

Hyatt Regency Budapest adds to Hyatts growing brand footprint in Hungary and Central & Eastern Europe, which will include the recently announced Parisi Udvar, part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, located on Ferenciek Square on the Pest side of the city. Further additions in the region will include Hyatt Regency Zadar Maraska, Croatia and Hyatt Regency Sofia, Bulgaria.

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceHonor awarded by AI Global Media, a European Digital Media Publication

Frank I. Wolfe, CEO for Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP), was recognized as Most Influential Association CEO 2018 in Hospitality by the European-based corporate finance publication Acquisition International (AI). Published by AI Global Media, AI is a monthly magazine that seeks to inform and shape the global corporate conversation through a combination of high quality editorial rigorous research and an experienced and dedicated worldwide network of advisors experts and contributors.

"This is truly an honor, but is really a testament to our talented staff as well as the HFTP Global Board of Directors and our Executive Committee. The past few years have been marked by significant progress for HFTP, as we have established long-planned events that place us as an internationally influential organization. This honor is a notable recognition for all the efforts we have put in," says Mr. Wolfe. "We have also made available our signature services such as quality education and resources to the global hospitality finance and technology community. I am proud that our efforts have been recognized by such an esteemed publication, but I also know that we have much more to accomplish."

Recipients of the brand new honor are internally researched, shortlisted, judged and selected. The publication's in-house research team looks into the global industry thoroughly in order to determine those most deserving of the accolade. Some factors the team takes into consideration include the nominee's significant achievements over the past calendar year, company and career profile, commitment towards innovation and company performance under the individual's leadership.

Wolfe has been with HFTP since March 1991, and assumed the CEO position in 1994. He has overseen the positive evolution and growth of the association. Under Wolfe, HFTP has made a number of bold moves towards global expansion, new club conferences, and many organized clusters of members around the world. In 2017, HFTP also expanded its Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference (HITEC), the largest hospitality technology conference brand in the world with two additional events in Europe and Dubai, in addition to its annual North American event. He also spearheaded the hospitality-specific search site Pineapplesearch.com and HFTP news sites, topic specific sites for hospitality finance, technology, club, food and beverage, GDPR and the HFTP association.

To read more about Frank Wolfe, including articles he has written, visit his bio page on the HFTP web site. For more information about HFTP, visit www.hftp.org.

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceReal estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners today announced that the firm, through its European Hospitality Fund I managed by GCP Hospitality, acquired a 50% stake in Spain's leading boutique hotel brand, Hospes Hotel Group, of which its total asset is valued at EUR125 million, forming a joint venture with a Spanish investment company, Omega Capital.

Real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners today announced that the firm, through its European Hospitality Fund I managed by GCP Hospitality, acquired a 50% stake in Spain's leading boutique hotel brand, Hospes Hotel Group, of which its total asset is valued at EUR125 million, forming a joint venture with a Spanish investment company, Omega Capital.

Hospes Hotel Group is a highly respected brand in Spain with 10 properties. The group is recognized as a highly acclaimed brand and operator within the luxury and heritage boutique hotel segment.

Each hotel has been crafted in an artisan fashion, combining elements of heritage, design, local textures and technology together.

Hospes' luxury boutique hotels are situated in various prime locations across Spain, including Madrid, Alicante, Granada, Valencia, Mallorca, Cordoba, Seville, Caceres and Salamanca. The properties are in close proximity to some of Spain's most prominent historical sites, each designed by respected and renowned architects to create their own unique atmosphere and style. Their facilities, including bars and restaurants, wellness centers and spas, have received 5-star ratings.

Goodwin Gaw, Chairman and Managing Principal of Gaw Capital Partners, said, "We are delighted to form a joint venture with Omega Capital through our European Hospitality Fund I managed by GCP Hospitality to acquire a 50% stake in Hospes Hotel Group. Entering the Spanish market with one of Spain's most distinguished entrepreneurs marks an important milestone for Gaw Capital Partners and its hospitality platform, GCP Hospitality, as we look to expand our presence in Europe and tap the abundant opportunities in one of the world's most popular tourism markets. We will further expand the Hospes brand by opening more properties in tourist areas and strategic cities within Spain and Southern Europe."

Christophe Vielle, CEO & Co-Founder of GCP Hospitality, said, "We are thrilled to expand our hotel portfolio to Europe. The acquisition of Hospes Hotel Group is a testament to GCP Hospitality's strong track record of successfully launching and operating top-of-the-range hotels and hospitality brands. With a very positive outlook for the continent's tourism industry, we are actively exploring ways to expand our portfolio in Europe. We will leverage the reputation of Hospes Hotel Group as well as our international network to increase the brand's footprint."

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceThe Washington, D.C., chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International today invited hospitality professionals from throughout the metropolitan area to attend its annual State of the Industry program Aug. 9 at the MGM National Harbor hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The Washington, D.C., chapter of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International today invited hospitality professionals from throughout the metropolitan area to attend its annual State of the Industry program Aug. 9 at the MGM National Harbor hotel in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

The program, designed to help area hospitality sales, marketing and revenue-management professionals prepare their plans and budgets for 2019, will feature Jennifer Hill, Kalibri Labs vice president of business development; Mark Woodworth, CBRE Hotels America Research senior managing director; Elliott Ferguson II, Destination DC president & CEO; Robert Gilbert, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International president & CEO; and John Hach, TravelClick senior hotel industry analyst & advisor.

The State of the Industry event will be hosted by MGM National Harbor and cosponsored by Kalibri Labs, CBRE Hotels America, Destination DC, TravelClick and RDR PR LLC. Registration and a networking reception will begin at 4 p.m. The cost is $40 for HSMAI members and $60 for nonmembers. Click HERE to register.

Our panelists will present the facts, figures and insights that hospitality professionals need to prepare plans and budgets for 2019, said Ellen Wilson, HSMAI Washington DC Chapter managing director. The State of the Industry is our most popular program of the year. I encourage all area hospitality executives to join us for this valuable event.

About the Panel

Jennifer Hill

Vice President of Business Development, Kalibri Labs



Jennifer Hill specializes in revenue management, using a profit-based model of successful collaboration with sales to achieve optimal business mix. She relies on this experience to educate and inform hotel owners, operators, asset managers and other industry decision makers about Kalibri Labs suite of hotel revenue strategy products, championing the Hummingbird PXM platform. Hummingbird PXM is designed to help key stakeholders better evaluate and predict revenue performance in a more granular and effective way than ever before.

Prior to joining Kalibri Labs, Hill was the regional director of revenue and distribution for Highgate, an industry-leading investor and manager of hospitality assets. In this role, she helped lead the revenue-strategy efforts for several Washington. D.C.-area hotels. She has over 17 years of direct hotel operations and revenue experience at branded and independent properties in Washington and New York as well as airport, suburban and city-center markets.

Hill is the immediate past president of HSMAI Washington DCs Advisory Board. She continues to serve on the board, helping deliver relevant and engaging education content to the greater Washington hospitality community. In 2017, HSMAI recognized Hill as one of the Top 25 Minds in Sales, Marketing and Revenue Optimization and awarded her the Revenue Management Professional of the Year award in 2014.

Hill earned a bachelor of arts degree in American history at Mercer University, Macon, Georgia, and earned HSMAIs Certified Revenue Management Executive designation, known as CRME.

Mark Woodworth

Senior Managing Director, CBRE Hotels Americas Research

Mark Woodworth, national practice leader of CBRE Hotels' Americas Research, has over 35 years of hospitality industry experience, in both a consulting and hands-on operational capacity.

Woodworth has managed and conducted consulting assignments, involving both the public and private sectors, throughout the U.S. He has worked for the industrys leading lenders, developers, chains and management companies in all aspects of operations, development and financing.

Prior to joining CBRE Hotels in July 2014, he was president and national practice leader of PKF Hospitality Research and a member of the executive committee of PKF Consulting USA.

Earlier, Woodworth served Coopers & Lybrand LLP as a partner and industry chairman of its hospitality industry consulting practice and was a senior principal with Laventhol & Horwath, responsible for lodging and real estate consulting services in the Southeast.

He serves on the board of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Finance Committee of the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and served for two terms on the Cornell University Council. He is a member of the Conference of Business Economists and completed a three-year term on Cornells Center for Hospitality Research board of advisors.

Woodworth earned bachelor of science and masters degrees at Cornell Universitys School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He served on the faculty of the Center for Professional Development at Cornell for 12 years, where he continues as a guest lecturer.

Elliott Ferguson II

President & CEO, Destination DC

Elliott Ferguson, a 27-year veteran of the travel and hospitality industry, is president & CEO of Destination DC, the District of Columbias official destination marketing organization.

He leads Destination DCs efforts to generate economic opportunity through meetings and tourism, overseeing the organizations convention and tourism sales, marketing, finance and business development operations.

Ferguson began his tenure with Destination DC in 2001 as senior vice president of convention sales and services and has served in current role since 2009. Prior to Destination DC, he was vice president of sales for the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau and director of sales for the convention and visitors bureaus of Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia.

Ferguson earned a bachelor of arts degree in marketing and business administration at Savannah State University. He is a member of the American Society of Association Executives, Professional Conference Management Association and Destinations International, among other industry organizations.

Ferguson currently serves as the first vice chair of the U.S. Travel Association board and is a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and Hospitality Alliance of Washington, D.C. He serves on the boards of the Smithsonian National Zoo, DC Jazz Festival, Capital Partners for Education, United Way of the National Capital Area and the Ryan Kerrigan Blitz for the Better Foundation. He also is an active mentor with Capital Partners for Education.

Robert Gilbert

President & CEO, Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International



As president & CEO of the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, Robert Gilbert has guided the organization through a dynamic and exciting period of change as the 7,000-plus-member organization has been re-established globally to grow the revenue for hotels through sales, marketing and revenue optimization.

During Gilberts tenure, HSMAI has achieved tremendous success with a number of initiatives ranging from the development of expert communities in the areas of digital marketing, resort marketing, and revenue management; the development of HSMAI Universitys webinars and certification programs; and global expansion through the formation of HSMAI Global and regional development in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Gilbert earned a bachelor of science degree at Cornell Universitys School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He has been a member of HSMAI since joining the student chapter at Cornell.

He is a frequent guest lecturer at Cornell, past chair of the Events Industry Council and has served on the American Hotel & Lodging Association board and Travel and Tourism Coalition of the U.S. Travel Association. He also serves on several hospitality and hotel management school advisory boards.

John Hach

Senior Hotel Industry Analyst & Advisor, TravelClick

John Hach, TravelClicks senior hotel industry analyst and advisor, joined the company in 2004 and has over 38 years of e-commerce marketing experience in the travel industry.

He is a regular industry speaker whose insights and perspective have been featured on CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg and in The New York Times.

Hach is a graduate of Chicago State University and has served as a guest lecturer and advisor at Roosevelt University, Chicago; Boston University; and Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, Ithaca, New York. He was chairman of the Florida Commission on Tourism and as executive director of the California Tourism Industry Association.

About HSMAI Washington DC Chapter

HSMAI Washington DC Chapter is an affiliate of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International, an individual membership organization based in McLean, Virginia, composed of more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region.

HSMAI is committed to growing business for hotels and their partners and is the industry's leading advocate for intelligent, sustainable hotel revenue growth. The association provides hotel professionals and their partners with tools, insights and expertise to fuel sales, inspire marketing and optimize revenue through programs including the Adrian Awards and Revenue Optimization Conference.

Click HERE to join HSMAI. For more information, go to www.hsmaidc.org.



CONTACT:

Rich Roberts

RDR PR LLC

rich@rdrpr.com

717-685-4142

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 2021 Hotel News ResourceKaytranada got his hands on Anderson .Paak's "Bubblin' Remix" featuring Busta Rhymes and took lengths which are frankly quite hard to describe. The Quebec-born producer sent Anderson a revised version to Anderson which he journeyed with overseas, premiering it on a recent trip to the BBC Radio 1 studio in London, England. The Kaytra-remix is kinetic in way dissimilar to Anderson .Paak regular pacing. The difference in their beatmaking methodology centers on their primitive points: Kaytranada on Moog Synthesizer, and Paak on a percussion instrument.

Anderson spoke to host Annie Mac about how thrilled he was with the finished product (on the original remix), before expressing his glee with the revised version as well: "Im really happy with the Kaytranada remix he just sent, too." Paak stopped short of revealing its commercial unveiling, but within minutes the BBC radio rip surfaced on itinerant SoundCloud accounts.

"Bubblin'" is expected to feature prominently in the run-up to his project Oxnard Ventura, an album Dr. Dre will oversee from a healthy distance. The expectation is that Anderson is perfectly suited to follow his own dimensions (and projections) for the album. When that phase is completed Dr. Dre will apply his finishing skills on the final master copy. The album is expected to drop late this year barring a manic overhaul.

You can listen to the radio leak over at Complex.DeMar DeRozan, now officially a member of the San Antonio Spurs, recently sat down with ESPN's Chris Hayne's for a 20+ minute interview in which the former Raptors All-Star spoke about the blockbuster trade and how the Raptors brass, including team president Masai Ujiri, assured him that he was not going to be traded.

During the conversation, DeRozan opened up about he confided in Toronto-native, and Raptors global ambassador, Drake on the day of the trade. In fact, shortly after learning of the unexpected trade, the 28-year old shooting guard said he went to Drake's house just to talk.

"The day it came out, I went to Drake's house," DeRozan told ESPN's Chris Haynes. "Sat and talked for a couple hours, man. Not even on the hoops stuff, just my partner. Just to hear the words that come from him being the person that he is in this world, especially in Toronto. What I meant to the city -- it was what I needed."

You can check out the full interview in the video embedded below. DeRozan speaks about visiting Drake at the 18:00 mark.

Drake had taken to instagram after the deal to show love for DeRozan, who had spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Raptors. His IG post included the caption, "To my brother@demar_derozan I want to say 10 million thank yous on behalf of YOUR city. You are a fixture in Toronto forever and you gave everything you had. Through your leadership we had the most exciting years in franchise history. I am grateful to have witnessed your combination of skill, persistence, and loyalty from the same seats every night. Thank you for being an incredible captain and an even better friend."Jarren Benton's Yuck Fou is right around the corner. The Roc Nation signee is ready to embark on his Nationwide tour with producer Kato On The Track, the beatsmith responsible for his entire upcoming project, as well as his single "Money Bag," a record that's been circulating since last year. The inclusion of an energetic verse from Jay Park is the difference here, and maybe even the difference maker, if you were to pit guest and host against each other.

Benton's album is scheduled to drop this week (the 27th), off the back of this single and his last, Dont Need You" with the hard-to-please Hopsin. Benton's tour with Kato On The Track is set to being tomorrow in Nashville at The End, and will be comprised to 12 additional stops between now and August 19, where he's scheduled to perform at Subterranean in Chicago, Illinois.

How do you feel about "Money Bad?" Comment below.

Quotable Lyrics:

Might rock leather in the summer

Watch for the P's and piranhas

Chopper put a n**** in a coma

Paramedics right around the corner

Momma like the smell of marijuana

But she don't wanna see a n**** high

Prayin' for a nigga every hour

Cause she afraid to see a n**** dieConvicted sex offender Larry Nassar has already undergone 6 months of his 40 to 175 year bid for transgressive acts brought to light a by coalition of noted gymnasts in the U.S. program. Accoring to court documents filed by his attorney, the disgraced physician was assaulted within hours of his release to the general population at at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona.

Nassar's attorney believes Judge Rosemarie Aquilina who presided over his case, is responsible for the attack and potential incidents of harm for demonizing "Dr. Nassar in front of the entire world." His legal representative also attempted to file pleadings in order to invalidate some of his Eaton County charges.

Nassar's attorney wants the Judge disqualified and certain conditions revised concerning his clients general upkeep in State Prison. The decision to sequester Larry Nassar far from his home state comes down to a selective sex offender management program which aims to convince abusers of the emotional cost of their actions. The program also some protective features/work assignments, but releasing him to general pop kind of waived any integrated features that would have saved him from his fellow inmates.

It's no secret that pedophiles are considered the bottom feeders of the prison system in America, and the World over.The past few days have been quite eventful in the world of Vic Mensa. The Chicago spitter hit Bootleg Kev's show recently for an interview and dropped a short freestyle over Lil Uzi Vert's "Neon Guts." Today, Vic comes through with the official version.

Vic Mensa gives everyone a reminder as to why he's not one to mess with lyrically on his new "Neon Guts" freestyle. The rapper comes through flexing his fashion sense as well as his lyrical prowess over the track. It's a dope take on the track for someone like Vic Mensa, especially since we're used to hearing Uzi croon over Pharrell's production. However, Vic Mensa shows that he could've easily turned this into one of his own songs if he had the chance.

Aside from his recent freestyle, Vic Mensa recently sparked a feud between himself and Tekashi 6ix9ine. After 6ix9ine's feud with Chicago rappers, Vic Mensa made it clear during his Bootleg Kev interview that he feels the "FEFE" rapper should give more respect to his hometown. Things escalated earlier today when Vic Mensa reposted a screenshot of 6ix9ine's Instagram comment where he said, "Vic mensa could sukk my dikk with his mother's lips." Vic Mensa then challenged 6ix9ine to scrap one on one and told Akademiks that when he sees him, it's on sight.

Quotable Lyrics

I don't wear Bape after Migo

I feel like Drake in my peacoat

I'm in a Rick Owens sheep coat

Neon guts when she deep throatSOCAR Georgia Gas, a subsidiary of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, which has been successfully operating in Georgia for more than ten years, agreed to invest new funds in the development of the Georgian gas pipeline network. To this end, Mamuka Bakhtadze's government transferred a number of gas pipelines in several eastern and western regions of the country to SOCAR Georgia Gas. The total length of gas pipelines is 594,000 running meters.

The gas pipelines have been transferred to the Azerbaijani company for 21.3 million lari ($9.5 million) in direct sale, which means that there have been no other applicants and those wishing to work in the regions very complex terrain and "social climate".

The regions are as follows: Kaspi, Gardabani (east of the country), Akhmeta (the mountain region of northwestern Georgia), as well as Zugdidi, Ozurgeti, Oni and Zestaponi, which had never been supplied with gas before. In line with the terms of the transaction, the cost of the real estate purchased by the company in the amount of 21.3 million lari should be fully paid within 48 months, including 8.5 million lari - within 36 months.

Energy expert Giorgi Khukhashvili told Vestnik Kavkaza that SOCAR's ten-year activity in Georgia is "a classic example of socially responsible business": "The Azerbaijani company carries out many humanitarian and social projects. To a large extent, it is not profitable for it to gasify some areas and villages without necessary number of solvent population, but SOCAR invests in these regions, based on its long-term mutually beneficial strategy in Georgia," Giorgi Khukhashvili noted.

The Georgian government and SOCAR signed a long-term agreement on December 26, 2008, when Georgia was in a severe energy crisis due to a shortage of energy resources. According to the deal, 23 regional gas distributing companies and a number of gas companies and networks were transferred to SOCAR on the terms of its investment in Georgias gas infrastructure. Over the years of its activity, SOCAR has invested more than $1.5 billion in various projects in the Georgian regions. For comparison, the entire annual budget of Georgia is less than $4 billion.

In October 2012, SOCAR became the owner of Itera-Georgia, a 100% subsidiary of ITERA International Energy LLC, becoming almost the only supplier and distributor of natural gas in the country.

At present, Azerbaijan remains the only supplier of natural gas, oil and oil products to Georgia. Subsidiary companies of SOCAR are engaged in expanding and modernizing gas distribution systems in the country, developing a network of filling stations under the SOCAR brand, and own an oil terminal in the Georgian Black Sea port of Kulevi city, through which Azerbaijani oil and oil products are transshipped to global markets.

Last year SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia Azer Huseyn, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Energy Minister Ilia Eloshvili and head of the Government of the Adjara Autonomous Republic Zurab Pataradze solemnly connected the one millionth client with natural gas. It is noteworthy that it was a resident of Adjara Mamuka Makharadze.

Thus, by the summer of 2018 SOCAR has already covered the whole of Georgia except for Tbilisi. Until recently, Kazakhstan's KazTransGaz was supplying natural gas to the capital. Recently, Tbilgaz was bought by the Georgian Industrial Group of former parliamentarian Davit Bezhuashvili. However, successful work will require constructive cooperation with the Azerbaijani company, which has become not just the largest foreign investor, but also a guarantor of energy security, social stability and economic development of Georgia.Free your mind and your ass will follow a George Clinton

If there's one sound that defined West Coast hip hop in the 90s, it was G-Funk. G-Funk, short for Gangsta Funk, took the hard-hitting beats of East Coast pioneers like Public Enemy, Ice-T, and Run-D.M.C., and smoothed out their edges by sampling the great soul and funk artists of the previous generation. East Coast hip hop reflected life in New York City: fast-paced, loud, chaotic, like running to catch the subway while cars honked at each other in the busy streets. West Coast G-Funk on the other hand was easy-going and laid back, like cruising into the L.A. sunset with palm trees swaying in the breeze. While Public Enemy assaulted you with dissonant siren sound effects, industrial noise and yelled-out rapping at 115 beats per minute, Dr. Dre simmered things down to 90 beats per minute and used melodic soul samples, groovy bass, and chilled out bars. The accessible yet undeniably hard sound of G-Funk helped make hip hop a worldwide phenomenon, and secured the status of innovators Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Nate Dogg as certified music legends.

The name G-Funk was an adaptation of P-Funk, the style of Psychedelic Funk developed by George Clinton and his band Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Starting as a doo-wop group in the 50s, Parliament continued as a Motown soul band through the 60s, before emerging as a Jimi Hendrix-inspired psychedelic funk ensemble in the 70s. Mixing all the eras of funk into one sound, P-Funk combined the iconic bass lines of James Browns bassist Bootsy Collins, the wild electric guitar effects of 60s psych-rock, the uplifting vocal harmonies of gospel and doo-wop, and the electronic disco synthesizers of legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell. The result was a far-out mix of sounds fit for an intergalactic party on Mars.

In fact, P-Funk had a whole space-themed AfroFuturist mythology  one that envisioned outer space and technology as the future for the advancement of black people. We had put black people in situations nobody ever thought they would be in, like the White House, George Clinton told The Cleveland Scene, I figured another place you wouldn't think black people would be was in outer space. Parliaments 1975 song Mothership Connection (Star Child) reimagined the black liberation spiritual Swing Down Sweet Chariot (Stop and Let Me Ride) as a futuristic odyssey, presenting the bands UFO Mothership as the chariot to carry away black people to freedom. The Mothership is an actual physical spaceship prop that descended upon the P-Funk stage during concerts, and can now be viewed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. The lyrics and music of Mothership Connection were later sampled for Dr. Dres G-Funk classic Let Me Ride, as a response to the police brutality faced by Rodney King and the resulting 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

Parliament - "The Mothership Connection"

Parliament-Funkadelic was the music Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Nate Dogg grew up on. Its what their parents listened to, along with artists like Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and The Isley Brothers, who all later showed up as samples on G-Funk songs. It also so happened that George Clinton was extraordinarily lenient when it came to permitting samples of his music in hip hop. While other artists were resistant to the rise of sampling and hip hop, Clinton saw it as a way for his music live on, and allowed his samples to be used at a low cost. People tried to sue [Dr. Dre] and other artists a thousand times on my 'behalf, Clinton said to Huck Magazine, not me. The unmatched quality of P-Funk music and the lack of legal barriers preventing its use made it a sample gold mine when hip hop came on to the scene.

Warren G and Snoop Dogg were childhood friends growing up in Long Beach, California. They met Nate Dogg in high school, when they used to battle-rap in the hallways. Together they formed The 213, a supergroup that brought together the production and leadership talents of Warren, the soulful pipes of Nate, and the one-of-a-kind swagger of Snoop. At the same time, Warrens step-brother Dr. Dre was pioneering gangsta rap with N.W.A., who rivaled Public Enemy with a West Coast take on upbeat and in-your-face hip hop. However, after a dispute between Dre and Eazy-E, N.WA. disbanded in 1991 and Dre was in need of a new rapper. Enter: Snoop Doggy Dogg. Introduced to Dr. Dre via Warren G, Snoop was exactly the kind of cool and charismatic rapper Dr. Dre needed for his emerging style of G-funk. In 1992, Dr. Dre and his bodyguard-turned-label executive Suge Knight founded Death Row records, which brought on Snoop Dogg, The D.O.C., Daz Dillinger, Tha Dogg Pound, RBX and Kurupt for writing and performing raps; Nate Dogg, Jewell, and The Lady of Rage for there for singing; and included (but never signed) Warren G on the production team.

Together, the aforementioned formed the A-List team that went on to craft Dr. Dres 1992 album The Chronic. The Chronic was the album that changed hip hop forever, propelling the genre to the top of the charts and securing hip hop as an inseparable part of pop music. White people didnt understand where N.W.A. was coming from when they said Fuck the Police, Snoop Dogg said in the G-Funk documentary, But when The Chronic came out, and Rodney King got his ass beat, they were like Oh! Thats what you was talkin about! The Chronic told the world the gritty story of growing up on the streets of Long Beach and Compton, but it did so over accessible music production that encouraged people to listen in rather than be scared away. Songs like Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang set the standard for the distinct sound of G-Funk: a smooth, laid back funk sample (courtesy of Leon Haywood's I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You); fat, deep bassline; and signature whirling synthesizers that glided between high-pitched notes. The music's mellow vibe was matched with Snoop Dogg's cool-as-ice, dont-give-a-f*ck attitude. On the track F*ck Wit Dre Day, Snoop interpolates the lyrics of George Clintons Atomic Dog for the iconic lines Bow wow wow yippy yo yippy yay / Doggy Dogg's in the motherf*ckin' house.

In 1993, Snoop Doggs debut solo album Doggystyle was the most anticipated album of the year. Produced by Dr. Dre in a similar G-Funk style, Doggystyle elevated Snoop to superstar status. Nobody had a sound like mine, Snoop says in the G-Funk documentary, It was hard, but in the pocket and mellow. Snoop rapped about the gangster life, yet was also hilarious and lovable, making him an appealing danger that the world couldnt get enough of. In the classic video for Who Am I? (Whats My Name?) Snoop is in bed with a girl when her Dad comes pounding on the door, yelling Is that dog in there?? Snoop reassured his girl, Dont even trip, Ima handle this, before literally morphing into an actual dog before her eyes. The song again samples George Clintons Atomic Dog, interpolating the hook A-tom-ic Dooooog into Snoop Doggy, Do-owww-ohhhh-oggg! Snoop also reinterprets the Funkadelic line Everybody's got a little light under the sun! from the 1975 song Flashlight into the hilarious Everybodys got to hear the sh*t on W-Balls! at the beginning of Doggystyle's Tha Shiznit.

Snoop Dogg - "Tha Shiznit"

After the skyrocketing success of The Chronic and Doggystyle, Death Row was the number one hip hop label in the world, and the East Coast competitor Def Jam was struggling to keep up. At the time, Warren G was trying to make a name for himself on his own, as he was never signed to Death Row. Warren and Nate Doggs single Indo Smoke had made it on to the soundtrack to the 1993 film Poetic Justice starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur, which Kendrick Lamar referenced on his 2012 song Poetic Justice. Indo Smoke opened the doors for Warren G to sign to Def Jam and release his debut album Regulate...G Funk Era in 1994. With the lead single Regulate (ft. Nate Dogg), Warren trademarked a signature sound that was indisputably West Coast G-Funk, but even smoother than what had been done before, sampling the jazz fusion song I Keep Forgettin by Michael McDonald. Far from the ruthless gangster that Snoop portrayed himself as, Warren was emotional and melodic, kind of a 90s version of Drake. While not everyone around the world could understand English-language rapping, the melodies that Warren G and Nate Dogg sang were universal, drawing in a massive following from outside the U.S.

Suge Knight of Death Row was not happy with Def Jam acquiring Warren and Nates G-Funk hit, and with a Puff Daddy diss at the 1995 Source Awards, started a West Coast-East Coast feud that the media blew up wildly out of proportion. Central to that feud was Death Row signing New York rapper Tupac Shakur and releasing his fourth and final album All Eyez on Me in 1996. The album's intro song Ambitionz Az a Ridah stripped the G-Funk formula down to its bare essentials: thumping bass and drums, aggressive piano, and high-pitched synths gliding on top. Ridah sounded like Kendrick Lamars Humble if it were made in 1996. The classic single California Love was produced by Dr. Dre and featured P-Funk-affiliate Roger Troutman of the Zapp Band singing through a talk box, which was basically a tube that went into your mouth on one end and into a keyboard on the other, allowing you to manipulate the pitch of your voice depending on which key is pressed on the keyboard. The talk box is often credited as the precursor to autotune, and was used by George Clinton on Atomic Dog in 1982. Clinton himself contributed vocals to the 2Pac track Cant C Me, bringing G-Funk full-circle back to its P-Funk origins.



After the murder of Tupac and incarceration of Suge Knight, Death Row fell apart in late 1996. But by that time G-Funk had already thoroughly infused itself into the DNA of hip hop. Today, elements of G-Funk have spread throughout popular music, and its hard to find an artist these days that isnt in some way influenced by the G-Funk sound. That said though, West Coast artists like Kendrick Lamar, YG, Schoolboy Q, Nipsey Hussle, Freddie Gibbs, 03 Greedo, Vince Staples, Saweetie and SOBxRBE are particularly credited for carrying on the tradition of Cali-style hip hop. Kendricks 2012 album Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City, executive produced by Dr. Dre, is considered a modern-day classic, chronicling the trials and tribulations of growing up in Compton, California. Much like The Chronic did 20 years earlier, Kendrick was able to connect with people around the world who had never heard of Compton before by telling his life's stories through catchy, accessible music. I wrote most of my first album in my moms kitchen, Kendrick said to Interview Magazine, and now I can go around the world and hear people recite those lyrics, and understand the story, even though theyre not from the same area I grew up in.

G-Funks roots in P-Funk are as strong today as they ever have been. George Clinton guested on the track Wesleys Theory from Kendricks 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, which quoted the classic hook We want the funk! from Parliaments 1975 song Give Up The Funk. WhoSampled.com has pointed out the noticeable similarities between Childish Gambino's 2016 song "Redbone" and Bootsy Collins' 1976 song "I'd Rather Be With You." Bootsy Collins also appeared on Kali Uchis 2018 song After The Storm (ft. Tyler the Creator), contributing a classic funky Bootsy bassline. And the bands still together! Parliament just released a bumping new album this year called Medicaid Fraud Dogg. Just as G-Funk carried on the legacy of P-Funk, its clear that the next generation will continue to push G-Funk far into the future.

If you liked this article, you may also enjoy our brief and incomplete history of Jazz & Hip Hop here.An East Bay congressman reacted angrily Friday to a report that the U.S. Navy is reviewing plans to potentially build large-scale detention centers for undocumented immigrants in various parts of the country, including Concord.

Time magazine detailed what was described as a draft memo that was submitted for approval by Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer, outlining plans to build temporary tent cities to house thousands of immigrants in the south as well as up to 47,000 people at the former Naval Weapons Station in Concord.

Time did not publish the memo, and Navy officials would not comment. It would be inappropriate to discuss internal deliberative planning documents, said Capt. Gregory Hicks, an agency spokesman.

The Trump administration in early May instituted a zero-tolerance policy for those who illegally cross the border to the U.S., leading to an influx of immigrants charged in criminal court and, as a result, more than 2,300 children separated from their parents.

President Trump signed an executive order this week calling for detaining families together, though a judge must decide whether that squares with a legal case that ensures children are not held indefinitely.

Now Playing: Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California has aired audio on the House floor of sobbing children in a detention center crying out for their parents. Lieu said Americans need to hear their cries. (June 21) Video: Associated Press

According to the Time report, the planning document suggests these tent cities be built to last between six months and one year.

Johnny Michael, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, said agency officials are conducting prudent planning and are looking at all available regions should DHS ask for assistance in housing adult illegal immigrants. At this time there has been no request from the Department of Homeland Security.

In response to the report, Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, said the Trump administration needs to take a time out.

This is no way to effectuate intelligent immigration policy, including for those seeking asylum. This is absolute madness and I oppose it wholeheartedly, DeSaulnier said in a statement. If the Administration wants to have a rational dialogue about fixing our immigration system, I am happy to do that, but making up immigration policy on the fly is just wrong. We will fight this in every way we can.

A news release from the city of Concord said the city is concerned to hear the reports, but that it had not heard directly from the Navy about the issue. The release said the city does not have jurisdiction over the site.

The Concord Naval Weapons Station is home to one of the largest redevelopment projects in the Bay Area, a scheme that rivals San Franciscos Hunters Point Shipyard project in size and ambition. The current proposal calls for building up to 12,200 housing units and 6.1 million square feet of commercial space on about 2,300 acres of the former military base.

In addition, the East Bay Regional Park District will receive 2,600 acres for what will become the Concord Hills Regional Park. The Navy is scheduled to begin transferring land to the city in late 2018.

The developer of the project is Lennar. FivePoint, a spin-off of Lennar, is managing the development process. The same team is redeveloping the former shipyard in San Francisco. Negotiations between Concord and the developer are ongoing.

The current plan calls for a 500-acre phase one, which would include 4,392 housing units, 1.7 million square feet of commercial space, two community centers, a new school and 79 acres of parks and open space.

Hamed Aleaziz and J.K. Dineen are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com, jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz @sfjkdineenWestlake Chemical CEO Albert Chao has overseen his companys rapid growth during a renaissance in U.S. petrochemical production.

Following a $3.8 billion acquisition of rival Axiall in 2016, the Houston-based company is one of the worlds largest producers of PVC, chlorine and caustic soda, materials used in a range of building materials and consumer products. The companys annual revenue jumped nearly 60 percent to about $8 billion in 2017, with much of that growth driven by the Axiall acquisition.

Chao, who recently spoke with the Houston Chronicle, anticipates continued growth in global demand vinyls and plastics, which are produced at relatively low costs in the U.S. thanks to a steady supply of inexpensive, shale-derived natural gas from the Permian Basin in West Texas and elsewhere. Chao expects his company to ramp up both production and exports to serve overseas markets.

Q: How has the Axiall integration been progressing?

A: It has been very easy to merge the businesses. The cultures are very similar. They are both very cost conscious, customer driven and technology driven. We are seeing higher operating rates, higher reliability, the reduction of costs and synergies. At the same time, industry dynamics have been improving. Demand for our products is increasing quite rapidly.

Q: Where have you seen the greatest demand growth for your products?

A: Everywhere. I think polymers, whether its polyethylene or PVC, are functionally useful products that are replacing many natural materials like wood or steel. As global population growth continues, and as middle-class markets develop in China and India with people moving from rural to urban areas, the demand for packaging, housing, electronics and furniture will increase.

Q: With the Axiall merger, you acquired a 10 percent stake in a joint venture with Lotte Chemical to build a new ethane cracker in Louisiana. Hows that project coming?

A: We believe the project is going quite well. Its on schedule and on budget. We expect it to come online sometime in 2019. We have an option to purchase an additional 40 percent of the JV within three years after the plant startup. We could potentially exercise that option to strengthen our ethylene position.

With the acquisition of Axiall, we are now the second-largest ethylene buyer in the U.S. The new addition of the Lotte joint venture will help us to reduce our short position.

Q: The U.S. has been producing a lot of ethlyene, which is used to make many types of plastics. How do you expect the market will respond to the supply increases in the coming years?

A: Because of the abundance of shale oil and gas and low-cost ethane, the U.S. started expanding ethane crackers to produce more ethylene. Domestic companies started the first wave several years ago, and now they are coming online and increasing the supply in the U.S.

However, if you look at global demand for ethylene, we believe that in the next few years, the capacity increases in the U.S. will be exported overseas. And because of the high crude prices we have now, the overseas naptha-based ethylene industries have increased production costs, and hence, their products are more expensive. U.S. ethylene will have an easier time competing in overseas markets.

katherine.blunt@chron.com

twitter.com/katherinebluntOne of the toughest challenges for any boss is training workers on new technologies to boost productivity, and sometimes, sadly, watching an older employees star fade because they cant keep up.

We all know someone who was good at their job before computers demanded a new set of skills. Whether it is a laser-guided lathe or customer relations management software, computer applications are becoming more demanding as machines take on more complex tasks.

The changing workplace has driven up the percentage of older workers dropping out of the workforce before retirement age. The only way to spur faster economic growth is to recruit and re-train them, according to the White Houses Council of Economic Advisers.

President Donald Trump promised to put Americans back to work on the campaign trail, and his executive order last week to create the National Council for the American Worker is a step in the right direction. The council brings together cabinet secretaries, corporate executives and education leaders to help Americans return to the continually evolving workplace.

RELATED: Science and engineering will dominate new careers

More than 15 major companies and associations have promised to support Trumps efforts, including Walmart, General Motors, Lockheed Martin, IBM and FedEx. The companies pledged to expand apprenticeships and boost job training for 3.8 million workers over the next five years. But it will not be easy.

American workers may have incentives to pursue retraining, but the information gap between workers, education institutions and industry job creators remains a major hurdle, the White House council concluded in a recent study. The federal government has a unique role to play by re-examining current financial assistance spending, and redesigning programs to better serve anticipated needs.

More than 85 percent of government and private spending on workforce development is focused on people 25-years-old or younger, according to the councils research. By comparison, public and private expenditures on workers over 40 are minimal and even less for people with only a high school diploma. These are the people who have stopped looking for work.

Yet we need them. Last month, the number of job openings reached 6.7 million, while only 6.3 million people were actively seeking work.

Employment gains must  come from working-age Americans returning to employment from the sidelines, the council said.

Educators face a difficult time, though, retraining adults from manual labor positions to jobs requiring abstract thinking, according to researchers at MIT. People who spent years developing motor skills are no less intelligent; they simply did not spend their lives imagining cyberspace.

Adult education programs must carefully match students with skills that make sense and guarantee employment.

Congress has habitually underfunded such federal programs that retrain workers displaced by technology or factory relocations overseas. Trumps new executive order will hopefully address those shortfalls and encourage private companies to offer educational opportunities instead of layoffs.

Training and opportunity, though, are not the only things keeping Americans out of the workforce. Wages have been stagnant for decades. Two-thirds of American jobs pay less than $20 an hour, and average hourly wages for non-management workers fell 0.2 percent from June 2017 to June 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

RELATED: Who is middle class, and where are they going?

The American worker is losing out to the American stockholder. Labors share of national income, adjusted for productivity, has dropped from 64.5 percent in 1973 to only 56.8 percent in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Corporate profits have risen from an average of 10 percent a year before 2007 to above 13 percent since 2009.

Trump and the Republican-led Congress gave corporations an even more significant boost this year by slashing tax rates and leaving most loopholes in place. Supporters promised that businesses would increase investments, hire more workers and boost wages. Businesses have instead increased dividends or bought back stock, driving up share prices to benefit investors.

Trump gave voice to millions of people frustrated with the current global economy. Many have suffered significant economic setbacks brought on by automation, new technology or factories moving overseas. Their pain is real, and they deserve a compassionate government willing to offer a helping hand.

Trumps Pledge to Americas Workers to develop a strategy for training and retraining the workers needed across high-demand industries is a welcome start. But until American workers get the raises they richly deserve, they will not rejoin the workforce in sufficient numbers. Discouraged workers act as a cap on Americas economic growth, and we ignore them at our own expense.

Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business and economics.

chris.tomlinson@chron.com

twitter.com/cltomlinsonFor nearly 65 years Spanish Village on Almeda Road has been a stalwart on the Tex-Mex scene in Houston. At an age when most humans are retiring, Spanish Village is making changes thanks to a new owner.

Armed with new management and a new chef the location just unveiled an ambitious brunch menu, the first in its history.

THINGS TO COME: A Killen's Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston?

Now Playing: Australian supermarkets have just begun to sell a breed of avocados as big as your head. Tony Spitz has the details. Video: Buzz 60

New owner Abhi Sreerama, 26, purchased Spanish Village in February. The Medina family sold the restaurant to him, with the semi-retired John Medina sticking around as a consultant, as needed.

The energetic restaurant scene newbie grew up on Houston's northwest side and as a suburban kid remembers eating Tex-Mex sometimes once a week with his family. Coming from the tech world originally he got his first taste of Spanish Village when he moved to Midtown and ventured out of the neighborhood in search of something off the beaten path.

"Spanish Village's status as one of the original Tex-Mex restaurants is firmly cemented in history," Sreerama told Chron.com this week. "That's what attracted me to it in the first place."

What's been the biggest hurdle in taking over Spanish Village? Reassuring people that the changes will be positive.

"Every day I hear people say not to change anything, but the problem is that something did need to change. It needed a jump start," Sreerama said. "Part of that meant keeping the tried and true items, scrapping the items that weren't moving, making the old reliables even better."

HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM: Why it hurts when a classic Tex-Mex joint closes

At one point there were 90 items on the menu and Sreerama and Chef Ishita Chakravarty have set out to whittle that number down to 55. Assuming control over an established menu and a generational following isn't easy. The old Houston charm of 4720 Almeda Road isn't going anywhere.

"We're not trying to take anything away that is already popular," Sreerama said. "But some things were being prepped and not ordered ever."

Chakravarty, formerly of Sinfull Bakery, got into Sreerama's orbit through her private catering business and he said that the two have hit it off creatively. Chakravarty's dessert background has given birth to the Churro Blondie Banana Split.

So far the response in the neighborhood, right between the Museum District and the Third Ward, has been comforting. He credits positive word of mouth on neighborhood bulletin website NextDoor for the new influx of business.

"There were new people coming by to eat, along with people that stopped coming years ago," Sreerama said. "We see some people two or three times a week."

Some well-worn dining institutions, according to Sreerama, raise prices with no thought of maintaining a standard benchmark of quality. They coast on legacy and history without innovation.

LIKE A WARM BLANKET MADE OF QUESO: Tex-Mex is Texas' comfort food

"Prices have been adjusted since I took over," he said.

Sunday brunch, running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., seemed like a good way to expand Spanish Village for a new, youthful audience."

The word is out on Sabbath busters like elotes kolaches (Shipley, take notes), breakfast enchiladas (a gateway to naptown), marranito pancakes, Eggs Benito (with a seared jalapeno cheddar masa cake), and Tres Leches French Toast. Pitchers of sangria and mimosas are a given.

"The brunch menu, the idea behind it, is that it can evolve and change as we tinker with it," Sreerama said. He thinks that in Tex-Mex cuisine there should be room for creativity and wiggle room, at least to a point.

"To attempt to change the style of cuisine at Spanish Village would be near sacrilege," he said. "But with all of the influences floating around Houston we can be innovative. We want to keep the comfort foods around while also adding new things to the mix and push the genre along."

Craig Hlavaty covers Houston history and pop-culture. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com. | craig.hlavaty@chron.comThe panic attacks started when I was 5. I didn't know what they were, just that I knew I was about to die until something calmed me down. They went unchecked for a long time until I found some comfort in writing down the details of every terrifying day of trying to be a person. Writing made me feel safe when nothing else could.

One of my favorite evening rituals before Harvey was relaxing in bed with my laptop and writing a poem. So many pieces of my life felt settled and right after years of tumult. That's how I developed the daily writing habit that I'd been chasing since getting my creative writing degree.

When Harvey hit, I was in the midst of a year-long creative collaboration with artist Elaine Bradford. The idea was that she would create a sculpture and I would respond with a poem for every week of 2017. We thought it would be a good way to survive what promised to be a tumultuous year politically.

The project, called "Routine Fables," was far from my mind until Elaine pulled out a ceramic windmill from the flooded mess of our house. She held the object from my childhood, probably saw the look of sadness on my face and offered to use it in a sculpture. She also took some of the black piano keys from my ruined piano. When I saw the sculpture she made, I wrote a poem about it all: my childhood worries, my flooded instruments, my writing habit. Writing it felt like an eruption.

In the weeks that followed, I concentrated on finishing the house. When I was settled in our rental apartment, I was able to get back to "Routine Fables," but it wasn't the same as my nightly writing ritual. It felt rushed and awkward, sitting on a borrowed couch after another takeout dinner. The poems I wrote were all about the flood, but at least I wrote them. I stumbled my way back to my creativity.

Later, we would install these sculptures and poems at Lawndale Art Center. The flood sculptures are installed at 33 inches, the level the water rose to in our house, and the poems written on the wall higher and higher as the weeks move on to mirror how underwater I was feeling.

But while my creative life was going well, work wasn't. Every few days, as the house was pieced back together  fridge installed! TV back in the living room!  I'd get a good day where I could make it to work and function like a mostly whole human being. But the rest were spent staring into space or yelling at anyone who appeared in my view. I told my boss that I didn't know who I would be when I woke up every morning. It seemed there was no point to my job if everything I had worked for could be taken away in an instant.

I will always be grateful for the tremendous amount of support I received at work. My coworkers were respectful of my emotional state and limited capacity for tasks. But a business is a business, not a charity. At a certain point, I got the sense that I was taking too long to heal, that people were getting frustrated with me.

More Information What: Elaine Bradford and Sara Cress: "Routine Fables" Where: Lawndale Art Center, 4912 Main Street When: Open until Sunday, July 29, 2018 Click here for more information See More Collapse

Hell, I was frustrated with me.

My annual review in March plainly mandated that it was time to rededicate myself to work. But I had nothing left to give. So, after more than seven years at a good company, I quit. It wasn't like me, but I was wrung-out, exhausted, in pain. I saw no other way out but a stroke. My managers took the news with drawn faces. No one wanted me to leave. I had been really good at my job.

I was afraid. But I also had dreams of pursuing my personal writing career, and what did I have to lose? Nothing has ever shoved me so hard as losing everything right after turning 40. The seas were begging me to reprioritize.

On my last day a couple of weeks later, I handed over my badge to my boss. He said, "Take care of poet Sara."

Editor's note: This is the third installment of an occasional series that will explore one woman's recovery in the year after Hurricane Harvey. Click to read the first and second installments.

Sara Cress (@saracress) is a writer in Houston.

Get the Gray Matters newsletter. It functions like a mostly whole human being.Two Atascocita High School students died early Wednesday in the crash of a car driven by Jaggar Clayton Smith, a 17-year-old suspected drunk driver, Harris County Sheriffs police say.

The crash split the car in two and left parts of it scattered among trees in northeast Harris County. The two 16-year-old victims have been identified as Chloe Robison and Salma Gomez.

The crash was reported around 12:30 a.m. along the 18300 block of Timber Forest, near Atascocita Road.

Now Playing: Two high school girls from Atascocita were killed in a car crash traveling with a suspected drunk driver. Video: Metro Video

A 17-year-old boy, whom police say may have been drinking before the crash, was driving fast and lost control of the car, Sgt. Simon Cheng of the sheriffs office said. The four-door Nissan sedan went into the traffic island, ran into several trees and split into two.

PREVENTION: Metro, local nonprofit stress teen driver safety

The driver was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, Gonzalez said. If he is determined to have been impaired, the sheriffs office would pursue intoxication manslaughter charges, Cheng said.

The back-seat passenger died at the scene; the girl in the front seat died at the hospital.

The three teens involved in the crash were close friends, Gonzalez said. It is not known what they were doing before the crash.

Editor's note: Officials originally identified the suspect as "Jarrad Clayton Smith." The story has since been updated to reflect the suspect's correct name, Jaggar.Russia's Federal Security Service border troops have detained five border trespassers at the Armenian-Turkish border, the press service of Russia's Federal Security Service Border Guard Department in Armenia said.

The criminal group had attempted to illegally enter Armenia. It was also found out that these border trespassers are Afghan citizens.

They were handed over to Armenian law enforcement, News.am reported.The Fort Worth Police Department has put out a call on social media in an effort to catch a trio of robbery suspects that have been targeting bars that serve Hispanic customers.

According to a press release, the first robbery occurred on June 24, followed by three other robberies all across the Fort Worth area with the latest happening on July 14.A Jordanian immigrant on trial for allegedly plotting two honor killings shouted that prosecutors in his case are devils and evil as he was led from the courtroom late Tuesday, after cross-examination of his son who attempted to provide him with an alibi for one of the slayings.

Earlier, several jurors in the death penalty trial of Ali Mahwood-Awad Irsan, 60, expressed fear and concern to the judge for their safety and that of special prosecutors who had earlier cross-examined several of the accused mans adult children. After the jurors shared their fears with state District Judge Jan Krocker, she issued an unusual warning to both prosectors and the defense team about the concerns jurors raised over Irsans emotional state.

Irsans emotional response to courtroom testimony continued after the jury, attorneys and judge had departed the courtroom, and while he was being led in handcuffs through the courtroom to a holding cell.

Those prosecutors are devils, he told a bailiff in a raised voice. They want my life. I need to defend myself. The prosecutors are evil.

The disturbance capped the second day of evidence presented by Irsans defense team in his capital murder trial on charges he orchestrated two separate but related honor killings in 2012. That evidence included testimony that Irsan may have an alibi.

The case has garnered international headlines since Irsan was arrested and accused of killing his son-in-law and his daughters close friend because they disgraced his honor by helping his daughter, Nesreen, convert to Christianity. The fatal shootings of Nesreen Irsans husband, Coty Beavers, and her close friend, Gelareh Bagherzadeh happened 11 months apart in 2012.

If prosecutors can prove that Ali Irsan was connected to both homicides, and that both were part of the same scheme, he can be convicted of capital murder.

After testimony ended Tuesday, a Harris County Sheriffs bailiff told the judge in open court that four jurors told him they intimidated by Irsan staring down prosecutor Marie Primm, and then making a hand gesture as though he was snapping a bundle of pencils.

She had never seen that look of nastiness and was scared, the bailiff, as he told the judge about one of the jurors words.

Krocker alerted the special prosecutors including Primm, Anna Emmons and Jon Stephenson of the concerns. The judge denied a motion for a new trial from defense attorneys Allen Tanner and Rudy Duarte.

The commotion overshadowed dramatic testimony from Irsans 22-year-old son that his father could not have committed a murder on January 15, 2012, because his family was driving him to a pharmacy. The son said he was going through opioid withdrawals.

I just remember the flashlight, Niless Irsan told the jury about a traffic stop on the night in question.

In one of the strangest threads connected to the sprawling case, Irsans wife testified that she and Irsan, along with their oldest son, Nasim, were stopped by a DPS state trooper for speeding on I-45 after they gunned down Bagherzadeh outside her parents Galleria-area townhouse.

On their way home in Montgomery County, they were pulled over going north and Irsan told the police officer he was diabetic and had low-blood sugar. They were released without being ticketed.

On Tuesday, another son, Niles, 22, said it was him who was in the car and said they never went near the Galleria.

We were just going to the pharmacy to get advice on how to help me, he said.

But when Primm cross-examined him about taped jail conversations he had with his father, she was able to stir Ali Irsans ire.

Do you remember saying, Im going to burn the whole country down if I have to, to which your father responded, Please do, Primm asked.

If you say it happened, Niles Irsan said.

Earlier in the day, prosecutors dredged up a variety of family secrets as three of Irsans sons testified.

The prosecution said he disciplined his 12 children by tying them to a board then beating them and hitting them in the head with his cane. They also Irsan used his cane to whip a daughter who had cerebral palsy.

His sons, called as defense witnesses, strongly denied the allegations against their father.

You are aware that your father tied his children to a board and beat them, correct? asked Primm.

Incorrect, said Irsans 20-year-old son, Nader.

The 20-year-old gave contentious testimony for about two hours trying to shift blame for Beavers death to his mother and older brother, Nasim Irsan.

In his testimony, Nader Irsan said that his brother Nasim confessed to shooting Beavers.

He admitted that he killed, and I quote, the Beavers guy, Nader Irsan told the jury. I told him to stop talking.

The strategy emerging from the defense seems aimed at shifting the blame from Irsan to his son Nasim, and his wife, Shmou Alrawabdeh, for killing Beavers and Bagherzadeh.

Last week, Alrawabdeh testified that she was with her husband and son when they committed both shootings in 2012. She has agreed to plead guilty to aggravated kidnapping and her sentence will be capped at time served.

Nasim Irsan, 24, remains in the Harris County Jail on a charge of capital murder and is not expected to testify.

Instead, the defense called Nader Irsan, 20, Nadim Irsan, 18, and Niles Irsan, 22, to the witness stand as part of an effort to show that their sister Nesreen, whose husband and best friend were killed, was a sadistic disciplinarian who abused her younger siblings.

Niles testified that Nesreen beat him several times a times and also tortured him.

I had vinegar injected into my femoral artery, Niles Irsan said. They tried to inject air, an air bubble, into my arteries to form an embolism. I had gas poured on me and was set on fire. My nose was broken. I was tied up and beaten. I was stabbed a few times.

He gave few details about the allegations while being questioned by defense attorney Allen Tanner, but later said it was just his hand that was burned with gasoline.

Niles is eight years younger than his sister Nesreen and said all the events happened before she ran away from the home in 2011 to marry Beavers.

Earlier testimony indicated that she was also marked for death for dishonoring her father. She survived and testified against her father earlier this month.Led by Houston and Galveston, Texas continues to see a rise in typhus cases, a troubling trend for the flea-borne, occasionally fatal disease once thought to have been wiped out in most of the United States.

The Texas health department reports there were 519 cases of typhus in 2017, more than three times the number in 2010. The uptick represents the fourth consecutive year that the number has increased. Harris County recorded 71 of the cases last year, up from 32 cases in 2016. Galveston County has already reported more cases in 2018, 18, than in all of last year.

It is concerning because typhus can be a serious disease that can require hospitalization, said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which released the data this week. Its possible that recent attention to the issue means health care providers are identifying cases that would have been missed previously, but I dont think theres any question that we are seeing a genuine increase in cases.

The state health department issued a health alert last December about the rising threat, calling on health care providers to heighten their clinical suspicion for typhus symptoms, which include fever, headache, muscle pain, anorexia, rash, nausea and vomiting. Such symptoms are often confused with a number of viral ailments.

More Information Things to know People become infected with typhus when they come in contact with the infected flea feces through open wounds, scratching and even breathing in the infected feces. Symptoms usually present about 7 to 14 days after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms: A rash on the torso is often the first indication of infection. Other symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain, anorexia, nausea and vomiting. Treatment: Typhus is easily treated with antibiotics if caught promptly. Left untreated, it can cause damage to organs. Prevention: Don't leave pet food out at night - it attracts other animals; regularly apply flea control products recommended by your veterinarian; treat yard for fleas; wear gloves and insect repellent when handling sick or dead animals. See More Collapse

The alert underestimated the 2017 count by more than 100, warning only that it would exceed 400.

The disease is often mild and treatable with antibiotics. But left untreated, severe illness can cause damage to one or more organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs and brain.

There have been eight deaths in Texas attributed to the bacterial infection since 2003, and more than a quarter of the total cases reported to the state health department involve children ages 6 to 15.

Typhus was common in the U.S. through the 1940s  more than 5,400 people contracted the disease in 1944  when rats that thrived in busy ports, such as Galveston, carried fleas infected with the bacteria, Rickettsia typhi. An aggressive campaign using the since-banned insecticide DDT largely eliminated the problem in most U.S. areas  fewer than 100 cases were reported nationwide by the mid-1950s  though it never went away in the Rio Grande Valley.

Van Deusen said the disease is increasingly being spread by cat fleas, which are more widespread and opportunistic, feeding on a wide variety of animals. Opossums and feral cats are now major parts of the cycle of transmission.

Lucas Blanton, an infectious disease expert at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said its possible that dogs and cats are acting as sort of a vehicle for the fleas to enter homes or to ignite an infestation of the home. Its not clear that dogs and cats play an active role in maintaining the bacteria, but they certainly play a role in moving the fleas around  or acting as a host to amplify flea populations, he said.

Galveston County announced its mid-2018 numbers in a news release Monday out of concern that pet owners could do more to prevent the diseases spread. The news release calls for people to treat their yard for fleas, not leave food outdoors, and use vet-approved flea control produces on their cats and dogs.

Galveston Countys 2018 count actually exceeds that of Harris County, currently at 16 and on pace to match its 2016 total of 32.

Randy Valcin, director of epidemiology and public health preparedness for the Galveston County Health District, said in the news release that he thinks the increase is because physicians now know what symptoms to look for. Typhus has been around for a number of years, but physicians are testing more and were seeing those results.

Kristy Murray, vice chair for research and a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicines National School of Tropical Medicine, doesnt believe heightened physician awareness is the sole factor behind the increase.

I think there really, truly is an uptick in the number of cases, but because weve been working on this here and recognizing it more, were also educating the physician community, so I think theyre thinking more about it too and looking for it more. So I think its a combination of both, Murray said.

Murray authored a 2016 journal report that noted a nearly eight-fold increase, from 30 cases in 2003 to 222 cases in 2013 in Texas. In that time, the study showed, the cases spread from nine counties to 41. In the states 2017 numbers, 43 counties reported cases.

Harris Countys 71 cases ranked behind only Hidalgo County, which reported 99 cases, and Nueces County, which reported 72. Bexar County had the fourth-most, 59, and other urban counties Tarrant, Travis and Dallas reported 26, 25 and 16, respectively. In 2015, Tarrant had four cases and Dallas one.

In the Houston area last year, Montgomery County had seven cases, Brazoria County had five and Fort Bend County had none.

Scientists and researchers have a number of hypotheses, including climate change, as to why the disease has become more prevalent in Texas.

Could it be were now seeing, in terms of the geography of Texas, places where temperatures are higher for longer periods of time, which is giving fleas the opportunity to have a more expanded geographic range? asks Peter Hotez, dean of Baylor's National School of Tropical Medicine. I think thats something were going to have to look very closely at.

Hotez added that part of the problem with diseases like typhus is that most of the detection in Texas is done through passive reporting  where human cases are diagnosed and logged and reported by the state  rather than active surveillance, where doctors can closely monitor a patients condition. Hotez believes this limits the amount of information that can be gleaned from tropical diseases.

People become infected with typhus when they come in contact with the infected flea feces through open wounds, scratching and even breathing in the infected feces. Symptoms usually present about 7 to 14 days after exposure to the bacteria.

In Texas, flea-borne typhus cases are required to be reported to the local health department within one week. Such reporting is not required nationally.

todd.ackerman@chron.com

twitter.com/chronmedPolice arrested an Austin area mom on Saturday after she passed out in a truck with her 10-year-old son on a hot day.

Police said the child used his mother's phone to call 911 while locked in the car as temperatures outside reached 104 degrees, an arrest affidavit obtained by KXAN detailed.

While on the phone with police, the child could be heard asking his mom to roll down the window.

She replied "no" according to court documents.

Authorities arrived at the scene and arrested Adriane Grace Moss, 34, charging her with abandoning or endangering a child.

RELATED: Arrested parents blame death of 21-month-old son on demons, police say

Now Playing: The University of Maine's Climate Change Institute's Climate Reanalyzer shows that the Earth is getting hotter fast. Tony Spitz has the details. Video: Buzz 60

As she was being interviewed by Austin Police Department, authorities said Moss ignored their questions, stumbled when moving and smelled like alcohol, the arrest affidavit detailed.

During the course of the investigation, Moss allegedly told her son "get out of my life."

The boy told police he had been inside the parked car for about an hour.

Moss has since been released from Travis County Jail after posting bond for $15,000.

Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93



A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a leader of the Zetas cartel on all seven drug-trafficking related charges he faced.

Juan Francisco Trevino Chavez, 38, who is the nephew of the two previous bosses of the now-splintered cartel, now faces at least 10 years to life in prison when hes sentenced later this year.

Jurors, who began deliberations when closing arguments ended after lunch Tuesday, returned the verdict after 5 p.m. Tuesday. They found Juan Trevino, also known as Kiko and Comandante Kiko, guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to import marijuana, unlawful distribution of controlled substances, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute large cocaine and conspiracy to import cocaine. Each count is punishable by between 10 years to life in prison.

Kiko Trevino also was convicted of conspiracy to possess a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and money laundering conspiracy, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

In February, he turned down a deal that would have capped his potential sentence at 30 years if he had pleaded guilty to some of the charges in two separate federal drug cases related to cartel drug smuggling operations.

A U.S. citizen, Kiko Trevino is considered the last leader of the Zetas before it fragmented into the Cartel del Noreste, or CDN  which Trevino reportedly led before his arrest in fall 2016  and a faction known as the Zetas Vieja Escuela (Old School Zetas).

The split came after his uncles, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, known as Z-40, and Omar Trevino Morales, Z-42, were arrested by Mexican authorities in July 2013 and March 2015, respectively.

The heavily-guarded trial for Kiko Trevino began July 16. Federal prosecutors brought in a number of witnesses that included one of the Zetas founders, Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar, also known as Mamito. Rejon, who has been cooperating with the feds for at least four years, has testified at prior Zeta figure trials that he was a former corporal in the Mexican army special forces and deserted in 1999 to join the Zetas, a group of hit men for the Gulf Cartel. Rejon was the seventh member of the Zetas, which split from the Gulf Cartel in 2010, according to his testimony previously reported by the Express-News.

Kiko Trevino is the second of the Trevino family to be tried in the United States. Another of his uncles, Jose Trevino, was convicted in a trial in Austin for laundering the Zetas drug money through quarterhorse racing, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

He was arrested in Baytown, outside Houston, in September 2016 after slipping into the United States illegally some time after he was released by a judge in Mexico, where he had been arrested in 2012.

According to current and retired agents who investigated the Zetas, Kiko Trevino is a volatile drug user who helped the cartel control large swaths of the northern Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon and Coahuila, which border Texas, from its home base of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. The cartel used Interstate 35 as a corridor to points north, sometimes dropping drug shipments in San Antonio or other cities along the way, according to federal agents.

In 2010 alone, when the Zetas split from the Gulf Cartel, the gang brought in $300 million to $400 million a year from its drug trafficking, Rejon previously testified. Other witnesses have testified in other Zeta trials that cartel leaders ordered the dismemberment of rivals, debtors or innocent victims  while alive  who were then dissolved in vats of acid or burned in barrels.

Guillermo Contreras covers federal court and immigration news in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | gcontreras@express-news.net | Twitter: @gmaninfedlandSpace enthusiasts who've been daydreaming about a trip to Mars for years could win money by illustrating how they think it might look.

The program, known as Project Mars, is a collaboration between NASA and the SciArt Exchange. And what they're seeking is simple: The best film or poster interpreting NASA's plans for a trip to Mars.

The film can be up to 5 minutes long and must "tell an inspiring story about a 9-month trek to the Red Planet." It will be judged by people in the film and graphic design industry, including Gareth Edwards, director of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," according to the project's website.

RELATED: What's on Mars? NASA's Mars Curiosity rover finds building blocks for life

The poster -- which can recruit astronauts for the mission, promote space tourism or depict the next generation of spacecraft -- will be selected by people in the film and graphic design industry, including Joshua Grossberg, creative director of McCann New York, according to the website.

Entries must be submitted by Friday, Aug. 31 and winners will be notified in October.

A grand prize of $10,000 will be awarded in the film category with three additional judge's prizes of $5,000, and eight prizes of up to $1,500 will be awarded in the poster category.

For more information and to submit an entry, go to Project Mars Competition.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.Houston City Council agreed Wednesday to buy 2.5 acres of land in Westbury, aiming to build a new library to serve the southwestern section of the city, where a 56-year-old local branch was shuttered during Hurricane Harvey and will not reopen.

The Meyer Neighborhood Library at 5005 W. Bellfort  which carried the in most need designation among city libraries before it sprung a few leaks during the storm  is four blocks due north of the proposed new library site at 5505 Belrose.Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he will discuss developments in Syria with Russian leader Vladimir Putin during his trip to South Africa for the BRICS summit.

"Developments in Syria, whether in Tal Rifaat or Manbij, are not going as desired," Erdogan said, speaking at a news conference in Ankara prior to his visit to Johannesburg. "The only places [in Syria] that are going in the desired direction are Afrin, Jarablus and al-Bab," he added.

The president said events in Idlib, held by Syrian rebels, and Daraa, currently under a heavy offensive by the Syrian regime, will also be addressed during his meeting with Putin. "Anything can happen in these places at any time," Hurriyet Daily cited Erdogan as saying.

On the sidelines of the summit, the Turkish president is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of all BRICS member states and other invited leaders.LOS ANGELES (AP)  A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Hawaii officials had violated George Young's rights when he was denied a permit to openly carry a loaded gun in public to protect himself.

The decision reversed a lower court ruling that sided with officials who said the amendment only applied to guns kept in homes.

RELATED: Open Carry Texas rallies in Olmos Park calling for the dismissal of city's police chief

"We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence, which the State of Hawaii 'has understandably sought to fight,'" Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote. "But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense."

If the ruling stands, it could lead to more guns in public in the few western states under 9th Circuit jurisdiction where they are currently restricted.

"States like Hawaii and California will have to allow far more guns on the streets than they do today," said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "States would be able to ban concealed carry but only if they allow people to carry their guns openly displayed."

Winkler, however, expects the decision to be appealed to a full panel of the San Francisco-based court.

Tuesday's ruling comes two years after a full panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that there's no right to carry concealed guns in public. That June 2016 ruling struck down a 2-1 panel opinion that was also written by O'Scannlain.

RELATED: 2 open carry activists accused of interfering with SAPD investigation downtown

Gun rights is one of the most hotly debated issues in U.S. political and legal circles with any loosening or restriction of access to guns often leading to a court battle. The U.S. Supreme Court has shied away from the issue in recent years, turning away challenges to gun restrictions after striking down gun ownership bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago in 2008 and 2010.

Judge Richard Clifton suggested in his dissent that the Supreme Court will inevitably have to weigh in on the issue because several conflicting appeals decisions now show "there is no single voice on this question."

Clifton, who like the other judges on the panel was nominated to the court by a Republican president, criticized the majority for going "astray in several respects" and disregarding that states such as Hawaii have long regulated and limited the public carrying of guns, which he said did not undermine the core of the Second Amendment.

Calls seeking comment from the police chief and a lawyer for the County of Hawaii were not immediately returned.

___

Associated Press Writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this story from Honolulu.This Thursday will be one of the most important days of the year  even if theres no big red circle on your calendar or a timely smart phone alert.

You see, July 26 is the last day to can register for Harris Countys $2.5 billion flood bond election on Aug. 25  the first anniversary of Hurricane Harvey.

The future of Houston, Harris County and the entirety of southeast Texas will hinge on the outcome of that election. Still, we understand if Thursdays deadline skipped your mind. Special elections in August are rare. The wealthy politico class is off in Aspen. Families are squeezing in the last few trips to Galveston before the upcoming school year. Candidates are targeting their get-out-the-vote efforts for the usual November showdown.

Put aside the merits of this specific flood bond vote aside  and boy, does it have merits. Put aside the historic significance of this particular election date, which may serve as a handy reminder. In general, sprinkling these semi-hidden exercises in democracy throughout the calendar year risks undermining the whole point of surveying the general population. School districts, municipal governments and all manner of state-created bodies have a bad habit of scheduling their elections and bond votes at inconvenient times. Turnout is low and attention is limited. Party insiders show up while most voters remain in the dark  not to mention the taxpayer expense of running several small elections each year rather than a few big ones.

Depending on the type of race, special elections can cost anywhere from $300,000 up to $20 million.

Were sympathetic to the call from state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, to standardize the dates for local bond elections. Bettencourt has said that hell push new legislation requiring all tax-related votes to be on the November ballot, Chronicle reporter Jeremy Wallace wrote Tuesday.

But the state senator doesnt have to wait until 2019 to promote better election procedures. Bettencourt can start now by encouraging Gov. Greg Abbott to schedule the upcoming state Senate District 6 special election during Novembers general election. Bettencourts colleague, state Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, announced her resignation this week as she runs to replace U.S. Rep. Gene Green in Congress, and a well-timed election will ensure that more voters have a say about her replacement. Plus, it just makes financial sense.

In fact, theres a litany of good-government policies Bettencourt can push to help gin up turnout, save taxpayers money and ensure that Texans have a real say about their government.

Texas could follow 15 other states and adopt same-day voter registration. Right now, a state-mandated, month-long bureaucratic delay means that, by the time campaign season is in full swing  and Texans begin to learn more about the candidates  its too late to sign up to vote. Thats another reason its so important to ensure youre registered by Thursday.

We could also allow people to register to vote online. Texans can pay their bills and update their driver licenses on the internet, but still need to send a postcard via snail mail if they want to vote.

Texas could change state law to let local governments experiment with instant-runoff voting, which allows voters to rank their preferred candidates and eliminates the need for expensive  and oft-ignored  run-off elections.

Overall, the state Legislature get serious about providing convenient elections sites, registering voters and promoting turnout. Texas consistently has one of the lowest election turnout rates in the nation, at barely more than 50 percent in 2016s presidential election. The national average was 60 percent while states such as Minnesota, Hawaii and Colorado topped 70 percent.

Not everything is bigger in Texas. When it comes to voting, this proud state has no reason to brag.

Lawmakers such as Bettencourt should take the lead in changing that. Make voting simpler, more convenient, and less expensive so the regular folks can take part in our democracy. Elections affect all of us: How tax dollars are spent, who represents us in office, and what the states future will look like. They should be high-profile events, not quiet, insider affairs buried away on some obscure weekend.The guidance, issued from the Department of Justice to U.S. Attorneys offices, seems straightforward enough, couched in legalese and the official terminology of the federal code:

An individual in the country illegally should be referred to as an "illegal alien"  not undocumented, according to an email obtained by CNN.

"The word 'undocumented' is not based in U.S. code and should not be used to describe someone's illegal presence in the country," the email states.

The goal of the guidance, the email explains, is "to clear up some confusion and to be consistent in the way we draft our releases."

Simple enough  in isolation.

Trouble is, this is not an isolated action. The new guidance is part of a war of words that began on the first day of President Donald Trump's campaign on June 16, 2015, the day he rode down an escalator in the New York City tower named after him and proceeded to lob verbal bombs aimed at Mexican immigrants.

They were, he said, rapists, criminals, drug dealers.

Already, in those first moments of his nascent political ascent, he dragged the language used to describe a group of human beings down to the gutter.

In the more than three years since, in the 18 months of his presidency, the descent has continued. In Trumpian syntax, African nations are "shithole countries." He conflates all immigrants with members of the MS-13 gang, which he repeatedly refers to as animals. He tweets of people coming to "pour in and infest our Country," as if newcomers were swarms of insects. He warns that immigration is "changing the culture of Europe," phrasing that evokes white nationalist philosophy.

The subverting of language has seeped into government agencies, with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services changing its mission statement to remove a passage that described this country as "a nation of immigrants."

The language we use to describe communities is not mere window dressing. It impacts public perception and can drive national policy. It can be used to dehumanize and stoke fear. It has power and can feed prejudice. That is why Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin described certain groups of people as "vermin" or "parasites" or "poisonous weeds."

That is why media outlets carefully consider how to refer to people in the country illegally. The Associated Press Stylebook, which is used by most newsrooms including the Houston Chronicle, notes that the term "illegal immigrant" should not be used and a person should not be described as "illegal." According to the Chronicle's style guide, the paper does not refer to people as "undocumented" or "illegal," "unless in a direct quote. Rather, we can follow the AP style, which is someone 'living in' or 'entering' the country illegally, or use the term 'unauthorized'."

In June, the president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists issued a letter calling on newsrooms "to use fair and accurate language in describing people and families at the border. No human being is illegal and seeking asylum is not illegal."

Words matter. They influence how we think, how we act. A 1975 Stanford University experiment found that when participants overheard an experimenter call another student "an animal," they were more likely to give that person what they thought was a painful electric shock. Recently, a viral video showed a white woman echoing Trump's language as she insulted a Latino man and his mother. "Even the president of the United States says you're a rapist," the woman tells the man, who was doing yard work.

That incident illustrates what can happen when xenophobic language becomes part of our daily vocabulary. It is up to us to guard against that  to keep our government agencies and elected officials in check, to monitor not just what they do, but what they say. It is up to us to hold this country -- and ourselves -- to the ideals of a more noble set of words. The sonnet by Emma Lazarus, engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty, is a good place to start:

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ..."Regarding European Gas (Page A31, July 15), the natural gas pipelines from Russia into Europe and specifically into Germany have been operating since the mid-1960s, even at the height of the Cold War. Germany depends on Russian natural gas for power generation, industrial and civilian home warmth and utility. At one time Germany imported more than 50 percent of itsnatural gas from the former USSR via Gasprom and Transneft, Russian owned and operated pipelines which transited through Ukraine and Poland into Germany and to the rest of Europe.

Today, Germany has diversified its sources and about 30 percent is from the Norwegian North Sea, 30 percent from the Netherlands and Denmark and about 30 percent from Russia and former Soviet Union sources via Transneft pipelines. Because of illegal pipeline tapping and reliability issues Russia has built the NordStream I and II pipelines on the Baltic seabed to serve as an alternate route into Germany and Europe.

President Trumps calling out Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel for becoming dependent on Russia for natural gas is naive, simply incorrect and dead-wrong at best, or a malicious, divisive falsehood at worst. I trust its the former, but the rhetoric belies the facts, and facts count.

Rex Alfonso, Missouri City

Trump, Perry back in sync

Regarding Perry in bind as Trump demands that he betray his values (Page B1, Sunday) business columnist Chris Tomlinson goes out of his way to psychoanalyze and berate former Gov. Rick Perry for his role as Trumps energy secretary in propping up the coal and nuclear energy industries. In Tomlinsons world, there is room in America for only two energy sources: natural gas and renewables. And yet, of renewables, only hydroelectric is reliable and cheap, which leaves wind and solar  both of which are notoriously unreliable and not cheap and both of which have benefited from billions in yearly subsidies under the Obama administration.

As for coal and nuclear, both have been subject to decades of punitive and politically motivated regulations, which explains their current cost. America has vast reserves of coal and uranium. We would be crazy not to leverage those assets. Trumps temporary subsidies to both is necessary to level the playing field, ensure Americas energy security and, in the long run, keep costs low.

He and Perry on are the right track.

Pete Smith, Cypress

Party politics

Regarding Texas Republicans are straying from their conservative roots, leaving some without a party (Page A31, Sunday), as someone from a family that has voted Republican since Roosevelt, and I mean Theodore, I found that Scott Milders criticism of the current Texas Republican Party was insightful on many counts, except his assertion that he is without a party. Hes actually a Libertarian, although apparently he hasnt realized it yet.

Chris Elhardt, Houston

Leaning way left

Regarding Dems brace as far left rises up (Page A1, Sunday), many Americans, and especially Texans, still hold dear traditional American values of individual responsibility, individual initiative, self-reliance and respect for the constitutional process, all of which have been rejected by the Democratic party since at least 2000. The radical Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, want to replace these with group responsibility, governmental initiative, reliance on government, and a flexible Constitution whose meaning is changed with each generation.

I truly hope the Democratic Party will nominate far left and socialistic candidates for the mid-term elections. By doing so, they will force all Americans who still revere our traditional values to vote Republican.

Of course, todays Republican Party, led by Donald Trump, is far from perfect. But it remains a far better choice than the socialistic statist ideas now beloved by the Democrats. That is the reason why the further the Democratic party distances itself from the party of John F. Kennedy, the further it will continue to distance itself from the American voter.

Lynn K. Circle, HoustonHouston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. These eight historic words from U.S. astronaut, Neil Armstrong, after landing on the Moon nearly 50 years ago, are proudly cherished by the NASA Johnson Space Center community.

National leadership and support from then-President Kennedy and Congress to pursue the formidable challenge to explore beyond the confines of Earth, gave NASA the support needed to achieve the nearly impossible goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely home by 1970. JSCs leadership and expertise in spaceflight operations were absolutely invaluable to NASAs success. From that first moon landing in 1969 to today, when people think of human spaceflight, they think of Space City  Houston, Texas  the home of NASAs iconic Mission Control.

Today, JSCs operational expertise includes astronaut and flight controller training, extravehicular activity management, life support systems, as well as overall mission planning and execution. The program planning and integration required to manage the construction of the International Space Station over 13 years and 41 space missions was without parallel and is a testament to the capabilities of the NASA team at JSC. Nearly 18 years of continuous ISS operations further highlight JSCs amazing expertise in human spaceflight.

The skills, expertise, and experience of JSCs unmatched workforce extends well beyond human spaceflight operations and program management, to life sciences research that will enable long duration spaceflight, astromaterials research and curation, systems engineering, and program integration.

Unfortunately, our JSC community, and NASA as a whole, has faced enormous challenges over the past decade.

Most notable was the cancellation of the Constellation Program in 2010. The previous administrations high-handed cancellation decision did serious harm to the space industry. The impact was even greater here in Houston because many NASA engineers, technicians and scientists were transitioning from work on the shuttle and ISS to Constellation. In one instant, these dedicated professionals found they had no place to go.

When this disaster hit, every NASA human spaceflight center went into survival mode  grabbing work wherever they could. Unfortunately, this meant that JSC lost key work to other centers.

Thankfully, the future of human spaceflight is bright once again.

The Trump administration has elevated space exploration to a national strategic priority, placing our civil space program and industry back into the global spotlight. JSC is well-positioned to benefit from this renaissance.

Congress, too, is unified in its support for NASA. In 2017, Congress passed the first NASA Authorization Bill since 2010, and it was one of the first bills signed into law by President Trump. For 2018, NASA received the highest budget in its history with JSC capturing a healthy portion. I authored the NASA Authorization Act of 2018, which passed out of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee with bipartisan support in April. Our bill reasserts JSCs leadership role in human spaceflight, establishes a new JSC research office, and makes it clear that the ISS will continue operating per congressional direction.

As we have seen before, amazing things can occur when the White House and Congress are on the same page about our future in space. Like NASA of the 1960s, we are poised to again do great things. As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Space, I am committed to ensuring NASA and JSC have the clarity and resources needed to accomplish bold endeavors.

Technology continually changes the way space systems are developed and operated, but the constant is the dedicated workforce required for mission success. That workforce is right here at JSC, and I am incredibly honored to serve this dedicated NASA team in Congress.

In early August, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will visit JSC and I look forward to introducing him to our exceptional workforce. I am working closely with Bridenstine, JSCs new Center Director, Mark Geyer, and the surrounding industry to ensure JSCs role in leading NASAs human spaceflight programs as we return to deep space exploration.

When we again land Americans on the Moon, then Mars, and beyond, I want to make sure that first word from that surface will always be, Houston 

Babin represents Texas 36th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.Starbucks has taken an innovative approach to incorporating deaf culture that will increase employment opportunities as well as accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, while at the same time educating and enlightening society, explained Howards Rosenblum, CEO of the National Association of the Deaf.

The store will employee around 20 deaf or heard of hearing employees who will be able to communicate with customers using American Sign Language (ASL).

Speaking to NPR, Adam Novsam, a deaf utility analyst for Starbucks HQ, explained the difficulties of communicating drink orders when heard of hearing.

"Before I go into any store, I'm anticipating and figuring out how I'm going to order and communicate. Typically, it is not an easy or smooth experience," he said.

"Sometimes I'll try to lipread, and that often results in misunderstanding my order, especially if they have a question. Sometimes I will gesture for paper and pen and the person will appear annoyed with me or seem exasperated that it is taking extra time."Turkey is working on the development of a new system of military service. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.

He noted that the new system will strengthen the power of the Turkish army.

"The Turks are militant people, and the army is one of the main attributes of our people," Turkish media cited Erdogan as saying.

Commenting on the deviation from military service on a paid basis, the president explained that the full abolition of military service on a paid basis is out of the question.

As previously reported, it is expected that Turkish citizens born before December 31, 1993, will be able to refuse military service by paying 20,000 liras. However, the citizens will have to serve 21 days.

Earlier, Erdogan said that the issue of refusal on a paid basis to pass military service will be put on the agenda after the election.China smashes up illegal fishing vessels for not being registered

by Mark Godfrey

July 16,2018 | Source: SeafoodSource

Chinese authorities have further upped the ante in the fight against illegal fishing by smashing up vessels found guilty of fishing without a license or without a vessel name or proof of being on a port registry.



Often referred to in official reports as the three nos of Chinese fishing, the transgressions have seen a dozen vessels destroyed by earth-moving machines in a public display in several coastal cities, including Taishan in Guangdong Province. The province allowed the smashing of the vessels to be broadcast on the citys TV news channel.



The latest high-profile move by Chinese authorities will be of interest to campaigners against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, many of whom have called for global registries of vessels to track and prevent illegal fishing  including such activities of Chinese vessels.



Destroying vessels found fishing illegally is a strategy being used by several southeast Asian nations clamping down on illegal fishing  in particular Indonesia, which has blown up several Chinese and Vietnamese trawlers.

 2018 Diversified Communications

Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.Unreported fishing in Fijian waters costs millions of dollars in losses

July 23,2018 | Source: Xinhua

Unreported fishing in Fijian waters costs the government millions of dollars according to the Fijian government on Monday.



Fiji's Fisheries Ministry said unreported fishing could lead to pressure on fish stocks, cost the economy millions and affect the livelihood of Fijians living in coastal areas.



More than half of Fiji's over 884,000 population depend on fish as a source of income and livelihood.



Fiji's Fisheries Enforcement Officer, Hilda Lobendahn said on Fiji Broadcasting Corporation state owned (FBC news) on Monday that many fishing vessels that entered Fiji's ports were not reporting their catch honestly and correctly.



Lobendahn added the big problem for now is the language barrier because foreign vessels do not understand the reporting requirements.



Fiji's Fisheries Officer, Meli Raicebe said they inspected up to five fishing vessels a day and if they find a breach, flag states are immediately notified.



"If we do come across issues where there are discrepancies or issues of IUU, there's a procedure to be followed which is investigation on the matter and notification to the flag state."



Meanwhile, the implementation of the Port State Measures will now give fisheries officers the confidence to carry out inspections of fishing vessels that enter the island nation's ports.



In early July, Fiji had agreed on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.



Port state measures are a binding international agreement to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by preventing vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using ports and landing their catches.



The implementation means Fiji will be able to identify vessels of interest and illegal vessels that may visit her ports.

 2000-2018 XINHUANET.com

Theme(s): Fishing Craft, Gear and Fishing Methods.European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he is not very optimistic ahead of today's talks with US President Donald Trump.

"I am not very optimistic. I know Mr Trump pretty well. I have met him frequently and know how to deal with him and know how he deals with others. We will negotiate as equals," Juncker told German public broadcaster ZDF.

The European Commission chief said that the EU is "not in the dock - we don't need to defend ourselves. "We are here to explain ourselves and explore ways to avoid a trade war," AFP cited him as saying.

Juncker renewed his pledge of retaliatory measures should Trump make good on his threat to slap new tariffs on EU car imports. "We are ready to do that. We are in a position to respond appropriately right away," he said.IDTechEx Research has been analysing the technologies and markets for quantum dots since 2013. Since that time, it has stayed extremely close to the latest research and market developments via its interview programme and company and conference visits.

Furthermore, IDTechEx Research has engaged closely with many of its clients, helping them better understand the technology and market landscape and helping them set their innovation and commercialization strategies.

In its analysis of quantum dots, IDTechEx Research brings its wealth of expertise in analysing advanced electronic materials and devices. We have been in this business for the past 20 years and in this time have closely observed the rise and/or fall, and the success and/or disappointment, of many emerging technologies.

This gives us a uniquely experienced eye when it comes to analysing emerging electronic material technologies. This is crucial because it helps us establish a realistic market and technology roadmap that reflects the true potential of the technology based on its intrinsic characteristics and on the true level of technical and commercial challenges that it faces.

The depth and breadth of our expertise in these fields is reflected in our report portfolio which covers numerous advanced materials, many emerging electronic devices such as printed and/or flexible electronics, and novel manufacturing processes.

What this report offers

This report provides a detailed technology analysis. It considers various quantum dot compositions such as Cd-based, In-based QDs as well as the likes of emerging organic and inorganic perovskites, PbS, CuInS2, InGaN, quantum rods, and so on. It also provides a detailed benchmarking of QDs vs existing phosphor technology. Our analysis is data driven, reflecting the latest commercial and academic results. For each material, as appropriate, we assess its performance, its key remaining material challenges, its production processes, and its directions/strategies of improvement.

Our technology roadmap also considers how the technology mix in various applications will be transformed with time. In displays, it considers the rise and fall of various QD integration approaches. It shows that film-type now reigns supreme after edge optic went obsolete. It however also shows the emerging approaches such as color filter (LCD and OLED) or on-chip type (LCD and microLED), enabled by material improvements, will eventually unseat it. Furthermore, it will consider QDs as the ultimate emissive material for displays, tracing the trends in efficiency and lifetime improvements whilst exploring the remaining challenges in terms of performance, lifetime, deposition/patterning, device design, and so on.

In lighting, our roadmap considers how and when QDs will become used in LED lights either as direct or remote downconverters and either in general lighting or specialized niche applications. In sensors, it will explore hybrid QD-Si visible image sensors can simultaneously achieve high resolution and global shutter, whilst it shows how QD-Si NR and SWIR image sensors can overcome current resolution issues imposed unmonolothic integration. In photovoltaics, it reports the latest progress worldwide whilst stating the might commercial and technical challenges that are yet to be overcome and considers novel uses cases such as LCS.

Crucially, our technology analysis considers the requirements that must be met to enable each application and outlines the current progress and future strategies in achieving targets. Here, we will consider parameters such as stability (air, heat, light), self-absorption, blue absorbance, efficiency (QY), narrowband emission (FWHM) and so on.

This report also provides ten-year market forecasts in sqm (or Kg) and value, and at material and solution level, for 15 technologies: edge optic displays, film type displays, color filter QD display, on-chip QD display, emissive QD displays, QD-Si hybrid visible image sensors, NIR/SWIR image sensors, remote QD LED lights and on-chip QD LED lights, QD photovoltaics, researchers and more.

Our forecasts draw heavily from our technology analysis which gives us realistic and expert view of when and how various technologies can become commercially viable compared incumbents, and also from our detailed interviews, deep market insights, and close trend tracking.

This report also provides detailed overviews of 37 players in the value chain. In many cases, our overviews also include a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis of the key players.The lack of regular dialogue between Russian and US lawmakers is creating problems in bilateral relations, Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Konstantin Kosachev said at a meeting with US experts on arms control.

The senator noted that from Russias standpoint, the lack of regular dialogue between lawmakers in many ways provokes problems in bilateral relations.

He stressed that Russia had many times expressed readiness to resume dialogue but received no response.

Kosachev recalled that the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Senate Committee on Finance would soon hold a hearing on Russia, presumably to consider additional measures to exert economic and financial pressure on the country.

"We will once again watch our US colleagues discuss Russia without us," TASS cited him as saying.

According to Kosachev, US lawmakers had a shallow understanding of Russias domestic and foreign policies.IDTechEx Research has been analysing the technologies and markets for quantum dots since 2013. Since that time, it has stayed extremely close to the latest research and market developments via its interview programme and company and conference visits.

Furthermore, IDTechEx Research has engaged closely with many of its clients, helping them better understand the technology and market landscape and helping them set their innovation and commercialization strategies.

In its analysis of quantum dots, IDTechEx Research brings its wealth of expertise in analysing advanced electronic materials and devices. We have been in this business for the past 19 years and in this time have closely observed the rise and/or fall, and the success and/or disappointment, of many emerging technologies.

This gives us a uniquely experienced eye when it comes to analysing emerging electronic material technologies. This is crucial because it helps us establish a realistic market and technology roadmap that reflects the true potential of the technology based on its intrinsic characteristics and on the true level of technical and commercial challenges that it faces.

The depth and breadth of our expertise in these fields is reflected in our report portfolio which covers numerous advanced materials, many emerging electronic devices such as printed and/or flexible electronics, and novel manufacturing processes.

What this report offers

This report provides a detailed technology analysis. It considers various quantum dot compositions such as Cd-based, In-based QDs as well as the likes of emerging organic and inorganic perovskites, PbS, CuInSe, InGaN, quantum rods, and so on. It also provides a detailed benchmarking of QDs vs existing phosphor technology. Our analysis is data driven, reflecting the latest commercial and academic results. For each material, as appropriate, we assess its performance, its key remaining material challenges, its production processes, and its directions/strategies of improvement.

Our technology roadmap also considers how the technology mix in various applications will be transformed with time. In displays, it considers the rise and fall of various QD integration approaches. It shows that film-type now reigns supreme after edge optic went obsolete. It however also shows the emerging approaches such as color filter or on-chip type, enabled by material improvements, will eventually unseat it. Furthermore, it will consider QDs as the ultimate emissive material for displays, tracing the trends in efficiency and lifetime improvements whilst exploring the remaining challenges in terms of performance, lifetime, deposition/patterning, device design, and so on.

In lighting, our roadmap considers how and when QDs will become used in LED lights either as direct or remote downconverters and either in general lighting or specialized niche applications. In sensors, it will explore hybrid QD-Si visible image sensors can simultaneously achieve high resolution and global shutter, whilst it shows how QD-Si infrared image sensors can overcome current resolution issues imposed unmonolothic integration. In photovoltaics, it reports the latest progress worldwide whilst stating the might commercial and technical challenges that are yet to be overcome and considers novel uses cases such as LCS.

Crucially, our technology analysis considers the requirements that must be met to enable each application and outlines the current progress and future strategies in achieving targets. Here, we will consider parameters such as stability (air, heat, light), self-absorption, blue absorbance, efficiency (QY), narrowband emission (FWHM) and so on.

This report also provides ten-year market forecasts in sqm (or Kg) and value, and at material and solution level, for 12 technologies: edge optic displays, film type displays, color filter QD display, on-chip QD display, emissive QD displays, QD-Si hybrid visible image sensors, IR/NIR image sensors, remote QD LED lights and on-chip QD LED lights, QD photovoltaics, researchers and more.

Our forecasts draw heavily from our technology analysis which gives us realistic and expert view of when and how various technologies can become commercially viable compared incumbents, and also from our detailed interviews, deep market insights, and close trend tracking.

This report also provides detailed overviews of 37 players in the value chain. In many cases, our overviews also include a SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis of the key players.

To learn more about our analysis refer to these articles:Imperial Valley News Center

Advisory Released on Sanctions Risks for Businesses With Supply Chain Links to North Korea

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of State, with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is issuing this advisory to highlight the sanctions evasion tactics used by North Korea that could expose businesses  including manufacturers, buyers, and service providers  to sanctions compliance risks under U.S. or United Nations sanctions authorities. This advisory also assists businesses in complying with the requirements under Title III, the Korean Interdiction and Modernization of Sanctions Act of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

This advisory does not impose new sanctions on North Korea. The United States remains committed to the Joint Statement that President Trump and Chairman Kim signed June 12 in Singapore. As the President has said, sanctions will be enforced and remain in effect. The international community cannot let up on pressure until the DPRK denuclearizes.

Multiple U.S. and UN sanctions impose restrictions on trade with North Korea and the use of North Korean labor, potentially impacting a companys supply chain operations. The two primary sanctions compliance risks are: (1) inadvertent sourcing of goods, services, or technology from North Korea, and (2) the presence of North Korean citizens or nationals in those supply chains, whose labor generates revenue for the North Korean government. This advisory also provides due diligence references for businesses.

Businesses should be aware of these deceptive practices in order to implement effective due diligence policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements across their entire supply chain.Imperial Valley News Center

Joint Statement on the Fifth Meeting of the U.S.-Japan Comprehensive Dialogue on Space

Tokyo, Japan - Pursuant to their shared goal of continuing to advance bilateral space cooperation and further strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance as declared by their leaders, the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Japan held their Fifth Meeting of the Comprehensive Dialogue on Space in Tokyo, on July 20, 2018. This Dialogue represents the strong and shared commitment of two of the worlds most advanced spacefaring nations to further enhance bilateral space cooperation and to cooperate closely with the international community toward ensuring the continuous, safe, and stable use of outer space for current and future generations.

This meeting was co-chaired by representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Space Policy Secretariat, Cabinet Office for Japan, and by representatives from the National Space Council and the National Security Council for the United States. Principal participants included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; National Space Policy Secretariat; National Security Secretariat; National Ocean Policy Secretariat; Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Ministry of the Environment; Ministry of Defense; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA); National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT); and National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) from the Japanese side, and the Department of State; Department of Defense; Department of Transportation; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Intelligence Community from the U.S. side.

This Fifth Comprehensive Dialogue on Space continued the work to enhance and strengthen cooperation between the two countries from a broad, inclusive, and strategic perspective. With the participation of experts from a wide range of government agencies, the Dialogue emphasized a whole-of-government approach to civil, commercial, and national security space interest and cooperation.

At the Fifth Dialogue, both sides provided updates on their respective space policies. In regard to space traffic management (STM), as outer space is becoming increasingly congested with orbital debris and the volume and diversity of activities in space grows, both sides affirmed the importance of measures to maintain the safe and responsible use of outer space, and confirmed strengthened cooperation on related issues such as space situational awareness (SSA), orbital debris mitigation and international norms and best practices for activities in space. Both sides also discussed opportunities for cooperation in space resource development.

Both sides renewed their recognition that their leaders affirmed their strong determination to further expand bilateral security cooperation in the fields of space and cyberspace in their Joint Statement in February 2017, and based on this, the U.S.-Japan Space Security Dialogue was held in Tokyo on July 19, 2018, and discussed space security cooperation. Both sides shared the view that it is critically important to enhance space domain mission assurance, including resiliency of their space systems. Both sides welcomed bilateral security cooperation in outer space through participation in the Schriever Wargame and the Global Sentinel Exercise. Both sides reaffirmed mutual interest in sharing information and experience in space situational awareness (SSA). Recognizing that space systems are essential to maritime activities, both sides confirmed that they would continue to explore opportunities for whole-of-government collaboration in order to build a foundation of experience regarding the use of space for Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA). Both sides affirmed to keep exploring the possibility of bilateral cooperation in hosted payloads, satellite communications and human resources development.

Recognizing that their leaders shared the view to promote further cooperation in the exploration of space at the U.S.-Japan summit meeting held in November 2017, both sides reconfirmed the importance of the constructive discussion and positive outcomes resulting from the second International Space Exploration Forum (ISEF2) held on March 3, 2018 in Tokyo. The U.S. side presented the Gateway, to be launched in orbit around the Moon and lunar surface missions, and invited the participation of Japan. The Japanese side expressed its intention to advance coordination on these missions with a view towards participation. Both sides exchanged opinions on future cooperation, and confirmed a desire to accelerate coordination on concrete bilateral space exploration missions. Both sides welcomed the ongoing efforts under the Japan-U.S. Open Platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3) relating to the International Space Station (ISS), discussed the operation and utilization of ISS from 2025 onwards, the importance of encouraging private sector activities in low Earth orbit, and the strategic and diplomatic significance of future space exploration cooperation.

Both sides welcomed efforts to strengthen industry cooperation at the fourth Dialogue. In February 2018, a Japanese public-private mission on space industry visited the United States and deepened exchanges with U.S. companies and government officials to encourage further cooperation in a proactive manner. Both sides discussed further collaboration in space applications, including satellite navigation systems such as the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) and Earth observation, as well as in space science including space weather.

Both sides reaffirmed the importance of the rule of law in outer space and voluntary best practice guidelines. They exchanged updates on ongoing activities in multilateral cooperation fora in which both nations participate, including the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and the G7, and reiterated the importance of continued cooperative pursuit of the guidelines for long-term sustainability of outer space activities, and transparency and confidence-building measures (TCBMs) to strengthen stability in space activities. Both sides recognized the role of space applications in the context of achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and discussed cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region for confidence-building and capacity-building for developing countries in the field of space. Both sides further recognized the importance of working cooperatively at ongoing meetings of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to discuss appropriate usage of radio frequency spectrum while preventing harmful interference.

Both sides reconfirmed the strategic value of the Comprehensive Dialogue on Space as a mechanism to guide overall bilateral space cooperation policies, and reaffirmed that this Dialogue would continue to strengthen cooperative relations between the two countries across ministries, departments, and agencies.

Both sides concurred on holding the Sixth Meeting of the Dialogue in the United States, in 2019.El Centro Homicide in the 300 block of Jackrabbit

El Centro, California - El Centro Police are releasing few details of a shooting that occurred Monday night.

According to a news release , El Centro police responded to the 300 block of Jackrabbit in El Centro at about 10:00 p.m. Monday after dispatch received a call about shots fired in the area. Responding officers located a victim who had been shot. The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene. ECPD along with officers from the Imperial County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Border Patrol searched the area for a possible suspect who was last seen fleeing the area. The investigation is continuing and ECPD investigators are asking that anyone who may have any information about the crime contact them at (760) 352-2111 , extension 1331. The victim's identity has not been released at this time.NIST-developed method could provide new insights into Alzheimers and other diseases

Washington, DC - Tinkering with a method they helped develop over the last few years, scientists have for the first time measured at the nanometer scale the characteristic patterns of folds that give proteins their three-dimensional shape in water. Developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues, this technique will help scientists gain insights about the behavior of biomolecules in watery environments similar to those in cells. These insights, in turn, could increase our understanding of major diseases, including Alzheimers, that are related to mistakes in protein folding.

Life as we know it couldnt survive if proteins didnt fold into precise patterns leading to helices, sheets and other shapes that give proteins their three-dimensional structure. The precise shapes of proteins enable them to carry oxygen, fend off harmful bacteria and perform other essential tasks in the body. Proteins that fold improperly cannot function and sometimes generate toxic fragments, such as those associated with neurodegenerative disorders.

To understand the intricacies of folding, scientists need to study the detailed arrangement of chains of amino acids that are shorter and simpler than proteinscalled peptidesand how they fold, assemble and rotate to create a variety of shapes, or conformations. Biologists prefer to examine proteins and peptides immersed in water because that environment closely approximates the conditions inside living cells.

Previously established techniques for determining the conformation of proteins, such as infrared spectroscopy, lack the fine spatial resolution to study the tiny and diverse assemblies of properly folded and misfolded proteins. In addition, these techniques dont work well in an aqueous environment because water strongly absorbs infrared light, confounding the analysis. Water had also posed severe challenges for a pioneering technique, known as photo-thermal induced resonance (PTIR), that recently enabled researchers to examine peptide structure and conformation in air with nanoscale resolution.

NIST researchers and their colleagues have now demonstrated that PTIR can be adapted to obtain conformational structure at the nanoscale in water using two chemically similar peptides known as diphenylalanine and Boc-diphenylalanine. Diphenylalanine is related to beta-amyloid, a sticky, larger peptide linked to Alzheimers disease.

PTIR is a powerful technique that had already shown promise for the study of biological systems, but the possibility to use this with samples in a liquid environment will greatly improve its use in this area, said Georg Ramer of NIST and the University of Maryland in College Park.

Ramer and NIST researcher Andrea Centrone, along with their colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England, described their work in an article recently posted online at ACS Nano.

PTIR determines the chemical composition of materials with nanoscale resolution by combining an atomic force microscope (AFM) with light from an infrared laser that operates over a range of wavelengths. The characteristic wavelengths of infrared light that are absorbed by the sample are akin to a molecular fingerprint, revealing its chemical composition. At each site on the sample where infrared is absorbed, the material heats up, causing it to rapidly, but ever so slightly, expand. The expansion is detected, with the sharp tip of the AFM protruding from a cantilever, which oscillates like a diving board each time the sample expands. The more light that is absorbed by the sample, the greater its expansion and the larger the strength, or amplitude, of the oscillations.

As good as PTIR is, using the method in a water environment is problematic. Water strongly absorbs infrared light, producing an absorption signal that can interfere with efforts to discern the samples chemical structure. In addition, the drag force exerted by water is much stronger than in air and it typically weakens the PTIR signal, as it strongly damps the oscillations of the AFMs cantilever.

To limit waters absorption of infrared light, the team placed a prism between the laser and the sample. The prism served to confine the infrared light to the samples surface, minimizing the amount that could leak out and interact with the water. To address the damping problem, the team used a laser that could operate at frequencies up to 2,000 kilohertz. That enabled the researchers to match the frequency of the laser pulses to one of the higher frequencies at which the cantilever oscillates. Like pushing a child on a swing at just the right interval, the frequency matching enhanced the amplitude of the cantilevers oscillations, partially offsetting the damping due to water.

To demonstrate the accuracy of their method, the team compared PTIR measurements of diphenylalanine and other peptide samples in two environments: water and air. (The peptides folded similarly in both mediums, making it easier to perform the comparison.) Remarkably, the scientists achieved similar spatial resolution and contrast in water and air, demonstrating for the first time that measurements in a water environment can be performed accurately, revealing the precise conformation of peptides with nanoscale resolution.

This finding is important to biologists who want to understand protein structure and folding in environments as close as possible to those in cells, said Centrone.All You Need to Know About Squalene, Which Controls Cholesterol Levels in Your BodyRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chief of Russia's General Staff Valery Gerasimov discussed the settlement of the Syrian and Ukrainian conflicts with French President Emmanuel Macron at the meeting in Paris on July 24, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"During the talks, the sides discussed in detail the situation in Syria, the acceleration of the political settlement in the country, as well as issues related to the post-conflict reconstruction of the country. They emphasized the importance of the quickest return of refugees and temporarily displaced people to their homes," the ministry said in a statement.

They also discussed the implementation of the Minsk agreements, reached on February 12, 2015. The sides confirmed their intention to continue contacts in the Normandy Four format.For most of us, the term "psychopath" evokes images of serial killers or mass murderers. But the complex disorder known as psychopathy--which is traditionally characterized by a list of traits including antisocial behavior, arrogance, deceitfulness, and a lack of emotional empathy--is actually more common than most people think.

This list of traits may sound like the complete opposite of what you normally think of when you hear the term "emotional intelligence"--the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions. We generally think of emotionally intelligent persons as kind and helpful.

But a number of psychologists have also highlighted the "dark side" of emotional intelligence: how a person could use their knowledge of emotions to strategically achieve self-serving goals, with little or no concern for others.

So, this raises a question: Is there such thing as an emotionally intelligent psychopath?

How psychopaths use EQ to manipulate

A criminal psychologist, Professor Robert Hare spent most of his life studying psychopaths and learning what makes them tick. (Hare is the creator of the PCL-R, the assessment most commonly used to identify psychopathic traits in an individual.) In an interview with the Telegraph, Hare described psychopathy as "dimensional," suggesting that many psychopaths tend to blend in.

"There are people who are part-way up the scale, high enough to warrant an assessment for psychopathy, but not high enough up to cause problems. Often they're our friends, they're fun to be around. They might take advantage of us now and then, but usually it's subtle and they're able to talk their way around it."

Note psychopath's ability to "talk their way around" their tendency to take advantage of others. Intellectually, we may identify what they're doing...we may even call them out for it. But these persons play on our emotions to get us to dismiss their behavior.

Research supports these conclusions--that some individuals are highly skilled at using the ability of emotional influence for selfish gain.

For example, consider one particularly fascinating experiment by Dr. Christian Keysers, Professor of Social Neuroscience at the University of Amsterdam.

In one study, Keysers and his team analyzed the brain activity of 21 convicted violent psychopathic offenders, comparing the results with 26 men of similar age and IQ. The participants were shown movies of people hurting each other while brain activity was measured. Later, a doctoral student would slap the patients on their hands to localize brain regions connected with feeling touch and pain. The goal was to see if patients' brains activated a feeling of pain in their own brain when viewing the pain of others.

The result?

"The vicarious activation of motor, somatosensory and emotional brain regions was much lower in the patients with psychopathy than in the normal subjects," writes Keysers. "The theory seemed right: their empathy was reduced, and this could explain why they committed such terrible crimes without feeling guilt."

But one question still plagued Keysers.

How could these same individuals prove to be so charming at times?

"I remember chatting with one of the patients...a particularly severe psychopath (he had scored the full 40 points on the psychopathy checklist)," writes Keysers. "Surrounded by the guards, he seemed a most pleasant person. He was smiling, engaging, and seemed to feel exactly what we wanted from him."

So Keysers and his partner decided to let the patients watch the movies again, this time asking them to try and empathize with the victims in the movies.

"What we found was that this simple instruction sufficed to boost the empathic activation in their brain to a level that was hard to distinguish from that of the healthy controls," writes Keysers. "Suddenly, the psychopaths seemed as empathic as the next guy. Their empathy was switched on."

Keysers' conclusion:

"Psychopathic individuals do not simply lack empathy. Instead, it seems as though for most of us, empathy is the default mode. If we see a victim, we share her pain. For the psychopathic criminals of our study, empathy seemed to be a voluntary activity. If they want to, they can empathize, and that explains how they can be so charming, and maybe so manipulative. Once they have seduced you into doing what serves their purpose, the effortful empathy would probably disappear again."

Protect yourself

So, we might ask: How can you deal effectively with a psychopath's emotional intelligence?

Simply put, by sharpening your own.

For example, your capacity to accurately perceive others' abilities to manage emotions can serve as a self-defense mechanism--a type of "emotional alarm system" that alerts you to the fact that someone is attempting to manipulate your feelings, to get you to act in a way that is not in your best interests or that conflicts with your values and principles.

My goal isn't to encourage undue suspicion--not everyone who tries to persuade you is a psychopath.

But be cautious--and even skeptical--when necessary. When you discover that someone has the ability to evoke strong emotions in you, strive to remain balanced with respect to your own words and actions. Once your own feelings have calmed down, revisit the "what" and the "why": What words or actions sparked your emotions? Why did they do so? What are the influencer's true motives and desires?

By gaining greater control over your thoughts and actions, you can protect yourself from your own feelings--even if a skilled manipulator works hard to exploit you.Its a world that people dont really know much about, says British filmmaker Daniel Kokotajlo.

Hes telling me about his debut feature, Apostasy, which pulls back the curtain on the lives of Jehovahs Witnesses. The director knows this world better than most.

He was a Witness himself for 10 years, dutifully handing out copies of The Watchtower (their monthly magazine) in the street, attending meetings at the Kingdom Hall, and knocking on strangers doors in an attempt to help them gain everlasting life.

Most people, Kokotajlo says, only see Witnesses when theyre out and about  by the Tube station, at the bus stop, knocking on your door. But you dont really know what some of them have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Theyre very disconnected from the world around them.

Molly Wright plays Alex in Apostasy (Curzon)

Set in Oldham, Manchester  just down the road from where Kokotajlo grew up  Apostasy zooms in on the turbulent life of one such disconnected family. The fictional story  rooted in real-life experiences of ex-Witnesses that Kokotajlo spoke to, and the directors own memory of what it was like to be a Witness  follows a mother and her two daughters, Alex and Luisa.

Their lives as devout Witnesses are upended the moment Luisa, the eldest daughter, becomes pregnant.

Shes swiftly disfellowshiped  booted out, named and shamed during a meeting at the Kingdom Hall. Luisas mum is heartbroken and humiliated. She heeds the words of the elders to keep any necessary contact to a bare minimum.

Witnesses must put Jehovah first, they say, even before our family. In other words, this mother is forbidden from seeing her own daughter.

These teachings of the religion are placed under the microscope in Kokotajlos eye-opening drama. What if you grow up following this religion and then start to disagree with its teachings? How do they  the elders  deal with an impulsive freethinker like Luisa? Apostasy is ultimately a devastating look at how one familys life is torn apart navigating these issues.

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If the premise sounds far-fetched, its not. There are articles on The Watchtowers website that outline How to Treat a Disfellowshipped Person. They say the Bible asks us to Stop keeping company with anyone who is sexually immoral, and that strict avoidance is absolutely necessary; you should not even eat with such a man.

Why? Because the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.

Kokotajlo was raised as a Jehovahs Witness (Rob Greig)

Kokotajlos own story of how he left the faith isnt as dramatic as Luisas. It was a slow, gradual fading away from the religion, he explains. Growing up as a teenager and eventually going to art college  that was when I started to really think differently about things.

There, his tutor would ask him what his opinion was on various conceptual artworks. He realised there was no clear answer. That was the thing about going to the Kingdom Hall, everything is very black and white: theres always an answer.

When he was a young Witness, Kokotajlo found the religions doomsday narrative seductive. They would say to us, Dont worry, youre not even going to grow old, you dont need to worry about things, you dont need to plan, because the end of the world is coming shortly. As I got older, that became more and more unrealistic, he says, referring to the failed prophecies of Armageddon, of which there were five in the 20th century, the last of which was prophesied for the turn of this century.

Though Kokotajlo didnt have direct experience of disfellowshipping and the way that families are forced to shun their own flesh and blood, it had happened to people that he knows. Im a member of a lot of ex-Witness support groups out there and there are millions of people whove gone through this experience.

 Apostasy trailer

Luisas heartbreaking story really had happened to another Witness. The film was inspired by a secret audio recording of a reinstatement meeting that Kokotajlo discovered when he started working on the script.

It was a young woman and shed had a baby and shed not spoken to her mum for over eight months, he says. She had to move out, and her mum came round one day to clean her fridge out and these guys [the elders] were not having it. They were just trying to come up with any reason not to reinstate [the daughter]. She was doing her best to get reinstated, and she just has a breakdown.

When I dig a little deeper into Jehovahs Witnesses online, I discover a slew of YouTube videos made by former Witnesses. The titles range from Secrets from the Cult  An Ex-Jehovahs Witness Speaks Out to How I Got Disfellowshipped From Jehovahs Witnesses/Escaping the Cult. Many feature the words cult, brain conditioning or brainwashing.

What does Kokotajlo think of such labels? I can understand it, he says. Im in a tricky position because I understand how they feel, but at the same time I can appreciate how it helps a lot of people and why people have faith today. And I can see what good it does for my own family.

Hes said previously that hes not sure how his own mother feels about the fact that hes drifted from the religion. Yet he still has a good relationship with her, one that wasnt strictly discouraged by the elders, given that he wasnt disfellowshipped like Luisa.

Kokotajlo calls the film provocative, in the sense that hes dealing with issues within the religion that he doesnt agree with (Curzon)

But he tells me his family probably wont see the film. Its too close to the bone, he says. Theyre not gonna feel comfortable watching it.

More importantly, will it cause any problems for them upon its release? Im not sure, he says. I think it depends on The Watchtowers stance on the film. If they tell people not to watch it, then that might become an issue.

He does agree that theres a certain kind of conditioning that goes on at the Kingdom Hall. It is group thinking, it is a system thats designed to make everyone think the same way and say the same things  so its up to you whether you consider that brainwashing.

Make no mistake: Apostasy is critical, just not in a preachy, ram-it-down-your-throat way. Kokotajlo calls it provocative, in the sense that hes dealing with issues within the religion that he doesnt agree with  the excommunication, the way that they punish people, the blood issue (Witnesses believe that Christians should not accept blood transfusions, or donate or store their own blood for transfusion).

Yet he does have compassion, he says. I do care about the Witnesses and the people in the religion. And part of me was hoping that if they did see it  if it was articulated in a certain way  they could maybe see their own lives on screen and they would start to question it, because they have some sort of objectivity seeing it like that.

But Kokotajlo thinks some Witnesses will steer well clear when they spot the title. Apostasy is a strong, provocative word within the religion, so I suspect staunch members would run a mile.

Ivana (Siobhan Finneran) is forbidden from seeing her own daughter (Curzon)

He adds that, when The Independent ran an exclusive trailer under the headline Jehovahs Witness drama being hailed as best British film in years, Witnesses shared the link without fully realising what it was.

They thought it was a film made by The Watchtower. When they did realise, a lot of them were saying, Look how Satan has tricked us; God will rectify it.

Some ex-Witnesses were among the audience at the films world premiere in Toronto last year. The response was mixed.

For some, Kokotajlo says it was a cathartic experience, while others were still too emotionally invested in it. Theyve recently gone through the experience and theyre quite triggered by the film and struggle with it, he explains.

Then there were some who were still extremely angry with the religion and what its done to them. Maybe they were hoping it would be a much more critical or damning piece about the Witnesses.

And for Kokotajlo, a former Witness coming to terms with his own past and mining his memories for his movie, was the experience cathartic?

Not yet, no, he laughs. Because I had to open up that can of worms again. I felt like I had dealt with it and moved on in life, and then years later Ive had to go back to it all.

But in the end, he says hes grateful for the experience. Ive been able to look at issues that Id maybe ignored earlier in life. Maybe once the film is out  maybe when I move on to the next project  it might start to feel different.

Apostasy is released 27 JulyThe third in the Hotel Transylvania animated franchise sees Dracula and his extended family going on an ocean cruise. Little do they realise it but their arch-enemy Professor Van Helsing is lurking in the bowels of the ship, getting ready to destroy all the monsters as soon as they reach the Lost Kingdom of Atlantis. Van Helsings co-conspirator is his great-grand-daughter Ericka, the ships captain. Dracula himself hasnt been on a date for over 100 years but feels an immediate zing when he first sees Ericka.

As such a summary suggests, the film is sketchily plotted and very silly. It ends even more absurdly than it begins (the final section is given over to a battle of the DJs in which we are treated to everything from the Beach Boys to Hey Macarena). Some of the puns are truly feeble. (One of the worst refers to a character who has never been to Egypt but is still in denial.) When garlic is put on his salad, Dracula starts farting (something which never happened to Christopher Lee or Bela Lugosi when they were wearing the fang). We also see him sunbathing, playing a monster form of volleyball in the pool and dancing the tango. The Frankenstein monster gambles away his arms at the roulette tables and ends up with crab claws instead.

Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did Show all 14 1 /14 Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 1. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Kicking us off is Phil Lord and Christopher Milles bizarre animated film about a scientist who creates a machine that transforms water into food. So far, not too crazy, but then the machine gets stuck in the sky and it starts raining food. Everything goes wrong and Flint Lockwood must save the day by flying up to the machine and kicking fried chicken butt. Yeah, a pretty crazy premise, but a fantastic film. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 2. Frank Michael Fassbender may be one of the most bankable stars of the moment - having starred in the likes of Steve Jobs, X-Men and Macbeth - but in 2014, instead of flaunting his face, producers decided to make him wear a weird papier-mache mask for the films near entirety. The plot sees Fassbenders titular character front a rock band, play SXSW and make likeable music. Its all just a bit strange. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 3. Groundhog Day Almost anything with Bill Murray in it is a win in my book, but when you say the premise of Ground Hog day out loud - a weatherman who must relive the same day over and over again - it sounds quite boring. What transpired was one of Murrays funniest films. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 4. Star Wars With Star Wars being so prevalent in pop-culture, its hard to imagine a time when no-one except George Lucas knew what a Lightsaber was. Producers must have been shocked when this young director came into the office trying to sell a script about Luke Skywalker, R2D2, Darth Vader, Chewbacca and Stormtroopers. Thankfully, they believed in his vision and now we have one of the best sci-fi sagas of all time. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 5. Incepetion A dream, within a dream, within a dream. Even those who watched Inception were left confused, let alone those who only heard what the film was about. Christopher Nolans final flick, however, was a masterclass in storytelling and one of the best films of the last ten years. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 6. Speed The high-concept Speed is quite ridiculous really. Keanu Reeves cant let a bus go below 50 miles per hour or it will blow up. Its quite amazing how Jan de Bont managed to make his debut 116 minutes long in the first place, let alone making it a decent film in the process. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 7. Edward Scissorhands Tim Burton is a director who could fill this entire list up. While he may have chosen to reboot numerous films in the past few years (Alice in Wonderland, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the upcoming Dumbo 2) it was his original concepts that set him apart from everyone else. In Burtons head, the love story of a man with scissors for hands and a young woman made complete sense, while for everyone else - from just the premise - it seemed entirely weird. Luckily, he was given the opportunity to make the film and a cult classic was born, all while Johnny Depps ability to play the outsider was solidified. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 8. Mrs Doubtfire Post-Hook and Aladdin, Robin Williams was on a role. One of his standout performances was as Mrs. Doubtfire, the father-turned-drag-housekeeper. As a premise, dressing your lead male as a woman wasnt exactly new (see Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie), so the filmmakers ran the risk of it all seeming like an overdone joke. Luckily, Chris Columbus managed to pull off the ridiculous plot (how wouldnt the kids know its their father, really?) leading to one of the funniest films of the 90s. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 9. The Lobster Like Burton, most of Yorgos Lanthimoss films could probably feature on this page, but weve gone with The Lobster. The film tells of a hotel where residents must find a suitable partner within 45 days otherwise they will be turned into an animal. Try to run away and the other residents will hunt you down with tranquillisers. The result was one of the best love stories of 2015. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 10. Ant-Man Some comic book superheroes should not be adapted to the big screen (*cough* Howard the Duck *cough*). Ant-Man is not one of them. Against all the odds, Paul Rudd and Peyton Reed managed to make a compelling film about a man who could shrink down in size and control ants. Whats incredible is that - somehow - the film quickly became one of Marvels most beloved films. Of course, everyone knew Marvel could pull off weird, having knocked it out of the park with Guardians of the Galaxy the year before. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 11. Beetlejuice Two ghosts living in their old home want to scare away the alive people who now live there. Unfortunately, the new home-owners cant see them and so the ghosts have to call upon a deranged Michael Keaton to help them out. Add one of the strangest afterlife scenes in film history and youve got a brilliant film. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 12. Forrest Gump While not an obvious contender like Star Wars or Beetlejuice, when you think about it, Forrest Gump is a weird idea. A below-average intelligent man, sitting on a bench, waiting for a bus, telling strangers about all the famous moments in history where he observed/effected. Thanks to Tom Hanks, Gump was a magical film of love and hope, winning over the hearts of thousands and becoming an instant classic. Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 13. The Lego Movie Another film from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Movie shouldnt have worked. Making a beloved toy into a film; it was all just a bit silly. Thankfully, Chris Pratts turn as Emmett (and a catchy song in Everything is Awesome) the film was a huge hit with critics and fans alike, and now we have a cinematic universe of Lego movies to come. Awesome? Film premises that shouldnt have worked but did 14. Im Not There Lets get Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw to all play Bob Dylan in a single film, Todd Haynes said. While you would think that would be overkill, the result was stunning, with Dylan himself eventually praising the film in 2012.

Director Genndy Tartakovskys imagination isnt in question. The film is packed with ingenious visual gags and engagingly outlandish creatures. The voice work is distinctive too. Adam Sandler camps it up in best eastern European fashion as Dracula while Selena Gomez still sounds as full of teen spirit as ever as his young-at-heart 126-year-old daughter, Mavis. We also get to hear Mel Brooks trenchant tones as the ancient Vlad and the world-weary ones of Steve Buscemi as the whining werewolf, looking for childcare on board for his small army of puppies.

In its scattergun way, parts of the film are funny and very inventive. The hitch is that the storytelling feels so utterly random. All sorts of unrelated ideas are thrown together into the big, sloppy, monster mash of a plot as the cruise continues. The end message, namely that monsters and humans arent that different and really ought to learn to get along, is sanctimonious in the extreme. Maybe it is time to put a stake through the heart of this particular franchise.As Tracking Edith tells us, its Vienna-born subject Edith Tudor-Hart may have been a fervent communist but she never went to Russia herself. She ended her life selling antiques in Brighton. In her professional life, she was best known as a photographer who took pictures of street scenes, hunger marchers and striking miners. However, director Peter Stephan Jungk, who is Tudor-Harts great nephew, reveals that she changed the course of history. As an unpaid KGB spy herself, she brokered the introduction between Kim Philby and Soviet spy Arnold Deutsch, thereby helping launch the espionage career of Britains most notorious double agent.

Tracking Edith is a fascinating but sprawling feature documentary whose structure matches its subjects chaotic life. It takes us from Vienna in the early 30s to the UK a few years later and onto Russia; throws in references to the Bauhaus, the Cold War and heavy-handed echoes of The Third Man and even includes a few animated sequences.

Jungk has managed to speak to Soviet espionage experts and former spies as well as to their British equivalents. He has also done his best (with only limited success) to get into the Soviet archives. Even so, we get different perspectives from those aired in all those British-made documentaries about Philby and the Cambridge Five.

Like the equally neurotic Vivian Meier, the reclusive American nanny who turned out to have been a prolific and brilliant photographer, Tudor-Hart used a Rolleiflex camera. This both enabled her both to stare downward at the viewfinder when she wanted to avoid eye contact and, conversely, to engage with her subjects without the camera getting in the way.

This film has taken its time to reach British cinemas. It premiered in Vienna almost two years ago and features interview material with Ediths brother, Wolfgang Suschitzky, (the celebrated Get Carter cinematographer who died in 2016 aged 104.) Nonetheless, it is an intriguing affair which still seems topical. It works as a spy story, as a study of a talented and neglected photographer, and as a dark family tale. Edith endured her share of poverty and misery. One interviewee suggests her decision to spy for the Soviet Union was prompted by her sentimental view of Soviet art in the 1920s. She may have known about Stalins Great Terror but was still enthralled by filmmakers like Vertov and Eisenstein and by all those modernist artists who proselytised on behalf of the workers. Edith emerges as a troubled and very contradictory personality: one who had a strong (if indirect and only belatedly acknowledged) impact on twentieth-century British history but ended up a victim of her own naive romanticism.The northern hemisphere is experiencing a record-breaking summer, with extreme temperatures sparking wildfires, baking landscapes and triggering disruption and devastation across four continents.

The death toll continues to rise and thousands have been admitted to hospital as the intense weather conditions show no sign of subsiding.

Amid the chaos, a stark message is emerging, that this is the new normal and from this point on we can only expect heatwaves to get worse.

Scientists have long warned that these intense heatwaves will become more common as the planet is warmed through greenhouse gas emissions.

As temperature records continue to tumble in countries across the world, the question remains: are we really experiencing normal life under climate change, and is there anything we can do about it?The former chief executive office of Net-a-Porter, Mark Sebba, has died aged 69, a family spokesperson has revealed.

Sebba suffered a heart attack on Monday at his home in Crete, Greece.

The popular CEO retired from his role in 2014, having been chief executive of the Net-a-Porter group since 2003.

The company said in a statement: He will be remembered by all of his colleagues and anyone whose life he touched as the very best of men.

Before becoming CEO of the company, Sebba worked as Net-a-Porters chief operating officer, and prior to joining the company he worked as an investment banker in London and New York, then took on roles as finance director in upcoming media and technology businesses.

In 2014, Sebba - alongside Massenet -won the Fashion Retailing Personality of the Year award at the Drapers awards, and he was a great supporter of aspiring talent.

After retiring and leaving Net-a-Porter, Sebba continued to champion entrepreneurial businesses and became chairman of fresh flower supplier Flowerbx.

Upon retiring, Sebbas 11 years at the helm of Net-a-Porter were celebrated by the companys founder Natalie Massenet and his team in a moving tribute performance and flash mob - captured on video - which declared him the most loved CEO in the world.

The clip now has 1.3 million views on YouTube.

At the time, Massenet called Sebba her greatest ally and a true partner, describing him as a man of incredible integrity, wisdom and strength.

She continued: Not only has he grown our business exponentially and healthily and guided us through our sale to Richemont  he has also brought calm and confidence to the core of our group.

Massenet also wrote a tribute on her Instagram last night, revealing her shock and heartbreak at the news of his death.

Mark was one-of-a-kind; the most terrific man and a true leader in every sense of the word, said Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, CEO and co-founder of Flowerbx.

He guided me and the team at Flowerbx with integrity, discipline and grace. He was always fair. When Mark spoke, we listened and it was a privilege to know him, work with him and count him as a mentor, an ally and a friend. My heart is broken for his family, for me and for the world who has lost a truly magnificent man.

Sebba is survived by his wife, the author and historian Anne Sebba, their three children Adam, Amy and Imogen and five grandchildren.Bitcoin has risen an average of $100 every day since the start of July, gaining over 40 per cent in value in just over three weeks.

Figures from CoinMarketCap reveal the cryptocurrency's remarkable rise from below $6,000, which followed bitcoin's worst ever start to a year. Unusually, the impressive gains were not mirrored by other major cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, ripple and EOS.

The turn-around in fortunes follows predictions from several cryptocurrency analysts who claimed that the price falls would seem trivial in the long-run.

Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Satoshi Nakamoto creates the first bitcoin block in 2009 On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System' Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin is used as a currency for the first time On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins  the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices Lazlo Hanyecz Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Silk Road opens for business Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin Screenshot Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The first bitcoin ATM appears On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures The fall of MtGox The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Would the real Satoshi Nakamoto please stand up In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's big split On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin's price sky rockets Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year Reuters Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures What goes up... Bitcoin price crashes spectacularly, losing half of its value in a matter of days Getty Images Bitcoin's volatile history in pictures Bitcoin plunges The cryptocurrency eventually bottoms out below $4,000 in 2019 before slowly rebuilding momentum to outperform more traditional assets Getty Images

The price of bitcoin reached over $8,400 on Wednesday, despite a decision by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to delay its ruling on a major bitcoin ruling.

The decision relates to an application for a bitcoin ETF (exchange traded fund), which blockchain platform SolidX requested through the Chicago Board of Exchange.

Analysts predict bitcoin's price could sky rocket if approved, citing the introduction of a gold ETF 15 years ago that saw the commodities value shoot up by 300 per cent.

In delaying its ruling, the SEC said: "The Commission finds it appropriate to designate a longer period within which to issue an order approving or disapproving the proposed rule change so that it has sufficient time to consider this proposed rule change."

The SEC has already dismissed a previous bitcoin ETF request made last year, blaming bitcoin's price volatility.

Cryptocurrency analysts are hopeful that the latest gains signal a longer term return to the record highs bitcoin experienced in late 2017, with some even betting it could even go well beyond.

Anthony Pompliano, a venture capitalist and founder of Morgan Creek Digital Assets, has consistently made positive price predictions for bitcoin and took the latest gains as an opportunity to stand by his bold claim that the cryptocurrency could hit $50,000 in less than six months.

If that is to happen, bitcoin would need to rise by considerably more than $100 per day. An average gain of $261 per day would be required in order to hit that mark.

In December, when bitcoin's price was close to its all-time high of $20,000, Mr Pompliano argued against bitcoin experiencing a bubble.

"I think that rather than being in a bubble that's going to have some massive crash, I think there's minor corrections that happen along the way," he told Bloomberg. "I think they happen on both a daily and monthly basis and so I think we'll continue to see those minor corrections over time... I think it's going to continue to rise over time."

 What is Bitcoin and why is its price so high?

But with bitcoin's price notoriously difficult to predict, other experts have been more cautious in their forecasts.

"We'll still see some volatility in the next few months, with the possibility of the price dropping even further than the recent $6,000 low, to around $5,000, before bitcoin can start its next run," Christian Ferri, president and CEO of blockchain firm BlockStar, told The Independent.

"There were not major news or updates that could justify the recent price spike to over $8,000. It's probable that the new high was caused by new money coming into the market."Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the meeting of US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was incredibly important.

Pompeo said that he has spoken to President Trump about the meeting, "as well as with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Secretary of State said "the president has been clear" about some of the agreements that were reached. But he declined to provide any further details.

"There were many things that came from what I view as an incredibly important meeting [between] President Trump and President Putin," Pompeo said, calling it "one I think the world will benefit from when history is written."

Pompeo and Mattis spoke following two days of bilateral meetings with Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and Defense Secretary Marise Payne at the Hoover Institution, Politico reported.On 23 December 2015, a major power cut in the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine caused 230,000 residents to descend into darkness. The outage lasted for less than six hours but its significance was to resonate far longer.

The blackout marked the first ever cyber attack to successfully take down a power grid and followed months of hackers covertly carrying out reconnaissance of the network's control systems. Two and a half years later, the threat of further attacks continues to hum over electrical infrastructure around the world, with computer experts warning that similar attacks on Western infrastructure would put lives at risk.

The latest hacking victim is the US, with a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official disclosing this week that control rooms of electrical utilities had been infiltrated by hackers working for Russia  the same country Ukraine blamed for the 2015 attacks.

An analyst at the agency said the hackers claimed hundreds of victims and had the potential to cause blackouts across the country last year, according to The Wall Street Journal, who first reported the claims from a federal briefing. It is not the first time the US has accused Russia of carrying out a hacking campaign against critical infrastructure, with a joint report by the FBI and DHS in March claiming Russian-backed intrusion.

A member of Russia's special operations unit stands with a national flag. In June the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Russia for suspected cyber attacks. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov)

Russia has denied the Ukraine attacks, as well as the claims by the US, and no proof has been offered by either victim to fully implicate Russia. But regardless of the source of the attacks, computer experts have largely dismissed the possibility of an immediate threat, as suggested in the most recent report.

Robert Lee, a former National Security Agency (NSA) cyber expert who was consulted during the investigation into the 2015 Ukraine attacks, says that language such as blackouts misrepresent what happened during the intrusions of the US power grid.

What we observed between 2016 and 2017, which is the time period the DHS is referring to, was essentially reconnaissance, Lee, who now works as the head of the cyber security firm Dragos, tells The Independent. The adversaries were stealing sensitive information such as screenshots of sensitive screens and components in the industrial networks. It was alarming but would not have resulted in blackouts or the scenarios being described.

The type of information gathered is useful for hackers in the preliminary stages of developing such attacks, and officials fear that attacks on Ukraine systems may have served as a dry run for a much more severe attack on the US.

Cyber warfare has become another attack vector for nation states beyond the traditional air, land and sea routes of conflict. The pervasiveness of the internet and the reliance on web-connected systems means this type of activity is simply the new reality for interconnected societies, according to Ross Rustici, a senior director at Boston-based cyber sercurity firm Cybereason.

The approach has the benefit of being secretive, destructive and incredibly disruptive  all at a fraction of the cost of traditional warfare. Beyond power grids, hackers could inflict huge damage to sewage and water treatment systems, industrial chemical production plants, or even transportation systems.

Access to control systems could allow hackers to not simply shut down critical infrastructure, but cause physical damage  from causing explosions by overloading power plants, to flooding cities with sewage by reversing pumps.

These systems are poorly defended and have the largest capacity for real world effects, Rustici tells The Independent. He warns: The next true interstate war will include these types of actions and right now there isnt a single country that has sufficient defences to prevent a determined adversary from being successful.

Ofer Maor, director of solutions management at Synopsys, adds: It is hard to set a limit on the potential damage hacking industrial control systems can lead to... Imagining an attack that causes a blackout is simple, but imagine a case where a vulnerability in a power plants control system can be used to bypass load limitations, driving the power plant to work overtime, leading to an explosion, or reversing a sewer pump to overflow sewers across an entire city.

A worker takes part in an anti-cyber attack exercise at Wolsong power plant on December 22, 2014 in Gyeongju, South Korea. (Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co)

It is an issue that global cyber security consultancy firm Coalfire has been monitoring, with the companys UK managing director saying that this end goal may well have been the motivation of the hackers.

Its impossible to rule out cyber warfare, given that its hands-down a more cost effective theatre of battle, Barratt tells The Independent. Nation states or other organisations no longer need to deploy a nuclear sub to a countrys coastline when they can either take down sections of its energy grid, or worse, override safety features and cause explosions or other damage within production plants.

The other possibility is that commercial cyber criminals were behind the attacks, who look to profit from information gathered by either extorting the victims or selling it as active intelligence to more dangerous threat actors through black markets on the dark web.

It is within these shady forums that hackers backed by nation-states could obtain them in order to inflict serious harm on rival states through coordinated attacks on critical infrastructure.

Whether its power grids or other vital infrastructure, these systems are a matter of life and death and you dont need a wild imagination for attacks on them to start sounding like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, Barratt says. If these were attacked, the reality could be very severe. Lives would be at risk.

US President Donald Trump with Russian President Vladimir Putin (AFP)

But what are Russias intentions? Disruption and doubt has frequently been a weapon deployed by the Kremlin against the US, though it comes in a myriad of guises: from Twitter bots aimed at amplifying Donald Trumps presidential campaign, to Vladimir Putins dismissal of US diplomats from Moscow.

This strategy is part of a theory of modern warfare first laid out in 2013 by General Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces. In a 2,000-word article published in a military trade magazine, Gerasimov described a change in doctrine from large-scale traditional warfare to a hybrid, asymmetrical approach that effectively hacks an enemys society rather than carry out a direct physical attack.

Long-distance, contactless actions against the enemy are becoming the main means of achieving combat and operational goals, Gerasimov wrote. The very rules of war of changed. The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and, in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness.

Gerasimovs article was published just one year before cyber security researchers first outlined the mysterious Fancy Bears hacking group, which some analysts have since linked to Russias intelligence services. In the years since, some of the most high-profile cyber attacks have been linked to the group, targeting everyone from the White House, to French television, to the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The infiltration of US systems by Russian hackers may not even necessarily be a precursor to further attacks. One interpretation of the Gerasimov doctrine would be that the mere knowledge of hackers within such systems creates enough disruption and doubt for it to be a method of warfare in itself.

It seems safe to assume that even temporary disruption of critical national infrastructure, such as electricity and gas supplies, could have significant and debilitating economic effects, Luke Somerville, head of special investigations at cyber security firm Forcepoint, tells The Independent. This is the case even if its not combined with more traditional forms of warfare.

Valery Gerasimov, Russia's Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Russian President Vladimir Putin looks on during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 11, 2018 (Getty Images)

But beyond Ukraine, and despite the presence of nefarious hackers within critical infrastructure systems, Cybereason director Rustici estimates that squirrels cause more power disruptions than hacking.

Whether a serious attack is imminent is a matter only intelligence services are likely to know for sure, though experts warn that any major attack would either precede or be part of an all-out war between nations.

The likelihood of this type of activity causing a major disruption is very low, Rustici says. This is a capability that a country should only contemplate using in times of war because there is no walking back from this type of action.Sexual harassment is widespread and commonplace in British workplaces but the government and employers are failing to tackle the problem, MPs have said.

The highly critical assessment comes after a major six-month study found that groping, touching and sexual assault were part of the culture of British industry.

The Women and Equalities Committee said employers are ignoring their responsibilities to protect staff from sexual harassment, and urged ministers to put the issue to the top of the policy agenda.

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Legal protection is not always available to workers in practice, the committee said.

It is shameful that unwanted sexual behaviours such as sexual comments, touching, groping and assault are seen as an everyday occurrence and part of the culture in workplaces, said the MPs report.

Currently, there is little incentive for employers and regulators to take robust action to tackle and prevent unwanted sexual behaviours in the workplace.

In contrast, there is considerable focus on protecting peoples personal data and preventing money laundering, with stringent requirements on employers and businesses to meet their responsibilities in these areas. They should now put the same emphasis on tackling sexual harassment.

The report details a number of priorities, including the introduction of a new duty for employers to prevent harassment. It also said regulators should play a more active role, barriers to taking cases to employment tribunals must be reduced and a statutory code of practice to cover workers should be introduced.

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Committee chair Maria Miller said it was utterly shameful that unwanted sexual comments, touching, groping and assault are seen as an everyday occurrence and part of the culture in many workplaces.

Government, regulators and employers have been dodging their responsibilities for far too long, she said.

The effects of sexual harassment can be traumatic and devastating, and this is reinforced by the personal evidence we received.

The lack of appropriate support for victims within the workplace cannot continue.

The burden falls unacceptably on the individual to hold harassers and employers to account when they will already hesitate to do so due to fear of victimisation. The current system is inadequate.

The tribunal system must provide an effective remedy for employees.

The committee said non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) such as the one signed by Zelda Perkins, former assistant to disgraced former film mogul Harvey Weinstein, should not be used to stop victims reporting unwanted sexual behaviour.

The true scale of the problem is hidden by the fact that employers do not collect data on the prevalence of workplace harassment, the MPs said, adding that most incidents are not reported. Employers should begin to collect robust data, the report said.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said: More than half of women in the UK have been sexually harassed at work.

Sexual harassment has a huge impact on womens lives and careers, so its good to see the select committee recommending tough action.

The TUC supports making employers responsible for preventing sexual harassment. And its good to see the committee recommend long-overdue reforms to the tribunal system so that it works for victims of sexual harassment, and a new code of practice for employers too.

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Young Womens Trust chief executive Dr Carole Easton said: Too many young women are facing sexual harassment while trying to carry out their jobs. It is shocking how many employers are aware of this in their own workplace  yet are not taking action.

Matthew Fell, CBI Chief UK Policy Director, said: Businesses are committed to stamping out sexual harassment and take the welfare of their employees very seriously.

Sexual harassment, wherever it takes place, is illegal and totally unacceptable  not least in your place of work. Yet alarmingly it continues to affect too many people and the committee has placed some welcome recommendations on the table to help tackle this.

Firms understand they have a duty of care and are actively building inclusive workplaces where everyone feels safe, supported and able to challenge unacceptable behaviour.

Government and businesses must work together to ensure that everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities and that the existing law is robustly enforced.

A Government Equalities Office spokesman said: Workplace sexual harassment is against the law.

Any behaviour that causes people to feel intimidated or humiliated in the workplace is unacceptable, and failure to comply with the law must not be tolerated.

We will be considering the findings of this report very carefully as we work to stamp out harassment, protect victims and ensure everybody can feel respected and safe at work.The sky is set to be lit up by a stunning blood moon. That is if another sky-based phenomenon doesn't get in the way: violent thunderstorms that will finally break the weeks-long heatwave.

Friday's lunar eclipse is set to run right into the beginning of bad weather. Clouds over the UK could cover up any view of the blood moon, as well as forcing people indoors to avoid getting wet.

The Met Office has issued a thunderstorm warning from Friday afternoon that is expected to last until midnight. The eclipse will start some time between just before 9 and just before 10pm on Friday evening, depending on where in the UK you are  just as the thunderstorm might be hitting

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

The lunar eclipse will be the longest this century. That will give skygazers who can see it an even more special opportunity to see our satellite lit up in a dramatic red.

But torrential downpours are forecast in places, with as much as 30mm expected to fall in just an hour and 60mm in three hours.

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Met Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: "It's quite tricky at the moment to be precise but there is a potential for showers to develop across the eastern half of the UK.

"There may be large areas where the sky is effectively covered by thunderclouds.

"They will move through reasonably quickly but if that coincides with the peak moment of the eclipse, they could obscure the moon."

The warning area extends from Cambridge and Peterborough up to the Scottish Borders, Mr Madge said, adding that Wales, the south and west of England and most of Northern Ireland should have clear skies.

Although the lunar eclipse is expected to last 103 minutes, observers in the UK and Ireland will not be able to catch the start as the moon will still be below the horizon.

However, the partial eclipse will be visible for almost four hours.

Dr Gregory Brown, of the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said: "We miss a section of the eclipse due to the moon being below our horizon when it starts.

"South eastern observers will be able to see the eclipse for somewhat longer than north western ones."

The rising full moon will also change from shining silver to deep blood-red during the eclipse.

Dr Brown said: "At this time, the moon passes into the shadow of the Earth, blocking the light from the sun.

"However instead of turning black as you might expect, the atmosphere of the Earth bends the light of the sun onto the moon causing it to turn a deep red colour."

Mars will add to the spectacle shining brightly below the blood moon as it reaches perihelic opposition - where the Red Planet and the sun are on directly opposite sides of Earth.

And those awake after 11pm will be able to catch a glimpse of the International Space Station (ISS), as it moves quickly across the sky from west to east. It will appear like a bright star, before fading from sight a few minutes later.

Unlike a solar eclipse, the lunar event can be viewed without wearing protective eye gear.

Dr Brown said: "As the entire eclipse will occur when the moon is fairly close to the horizon, the main thing to ensure is that you have a clear sightline to the south east.

"Try to find an open space or high hilltop clear of trees and tall buildings around you."

For those living in thunderstorms warning areas hoping to catch a glimpse of the eclipse, Mr Madge says having a clear night sky could be down to luck.

He said: "The thunderstorms will be quite widespread but not necessarily close together and it's going to be down to fortune whether people in certain locations are able to see this astronomical spectacle.

"It's likely some people will miss the event because of the storms but, still, it's worth looking out for and being hopeful."

The next total lunar eclipse in the UK will take place on January 19, 2019.

Additional reporting by Press AssociationThe government has no plans to back a new treason law after calls to use an updated version of the ancient offence to jail jihadis for life, The Independent understands.

Former home secretary Amber Rudd, ex-MI5 chief Lord Evans and former Lord Chief Justice are among supporters of legislation that could be used against security threats like Isis Beatles Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh,

Ministers claimed that fears the pair could not be successfully prosecuted under British law drove the decision to send them to the US without assurances they would not be executed.

A paper drawn up by the Policy Exchange think-tank suggested defining treason as aiding a hostile state of organisation with a new act of parliament.

But critics said criminalising support for a state or organisation that intends to attack the UK was too broad and argued that existing terror laws were sufficient.

The Independent understands that the Law Commission, an independent body charged with legal reforms, is not carrying out any work on treason and the Home Office has no plans to go further than proposals contained in the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Bill.

I am not convinced by the desire to label activity treason, when we have terrorism offences with extra-territorial jurisdiction and the possibility of a life sentence, which is already frequently imposed, a source close to the government told The Independent. What more do we need?

The proposed law set out a series of actions that would be deemed treason, including helping prepare or commit an attack on the UK, aiding the military or intelligence operations of a state or organisation intending to attack the UK or prejudicing the security and defence of the UK.

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The draft says that anyone found guilty would be sentenced to life imprisonment unless it would be manifestly unjust in their individual circumstances.

As envisaged by backers, the law would apply to anyone in the UK, as well as the actions of British citizens or settled non-citizens anywhere in the world.

Adam Wagner, a human rights barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, said the proposed offence was extremely wide and unworkable in practice.

It would have potentially grave consequences for free speech, free assembly and the right to protest, amongst others, he told The Independent. The concept of an attack on the UK by any state or organisation is much too wide and subjective. What is an attack?

This would be in the eye of the beholder and if you also bring in organisations, why not a subversive human rights organisation, as has become common in other countries such as Hungary and Turkey?

While the initial supporters of the proposal couched it firmly in the context of terrorism and national security threats, other backers quickly widened it out to Brexit and economics.

Tory MEP David Campbell Bannerman was condemned for suggesting that people undermining the country through extreme EU loyalty should be tried for treason.

It is about time we brought the Treason Act up to date and made it apply to those seeking to destroy or undermine the British state, he tweeted. That means extreme jihadis. It also means those in future actively working undemocratically against UK through extreme EU loyalty.

The former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Judge, said the government must reconsider whether the current laws against terrorism and disclosure of official secrets are adequate to cover what might be or, arguably, should be treated as treason.

Timeline: The emergence of Isis Show all 40 1 /40 Timeline: The emergence of Isis Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2000 Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (pictured here) forms an al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq, al-Qaeda in Iraq. Its brutality from the beginning alienates Iraqis and many al-Qaeda leaders. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2006 Al-Zarqawi is killed in a U.S. strike. Al-Zarqawis successor, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, announces the creation of the Islamic State in Iraq (ISI). Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2009 Still al-Qaeda-linked ISI claims responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 155 in Baghdad, as well as attacks in August and October killing 240, as President Obama announces troop withdrawal from Iraq in March. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes head of ISI, at lowest ebb of Islamist militancy in Iraq, which sees last U.S. combat brigade depart. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2012 In Syria, protests (pictured here starting in Daree) have morphed into what president Assad labelled a real war with emergence of a coalition of forces opposed to Assads regime. Syria group Jabhat al-Nusra are among rebel groups who refuse to join, denouncing it as a conspiracy. Bombings targeting Shia areas, killing more than 500 people, spark fears of new sectarian conflict. Sunni Muslims stage protests across country against what they see as increasingly marginalisation by Shia-led government. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2013 Al-Baghdadi renames ISI as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or Isis, as the group absorbs Syrian al-Nusra, gaining a foothold in Syria. In response, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri (Bin Ladens successor) concerned about Isis expansion orders that Isis be dissolved and ISI operations should be confined to Iraq. This order is rejected by al-Baghdadi. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - January Isis fighters capture the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, giving them base to launch slew of attacks further south. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis declares itself the Caliphate, calling itself Islamic State (IS). The group captures Mosul, Iraqs second largest city; Tal Afar, just 93 miles from Syrian border; and the central Iraqi city of Tikrit. These advances sent shockwaves around the world. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Around the same time Isis releases a video calling for western Muslims to join the Caliphate and fight, prompting new evaluations of extremists groups social media understanding. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - June Isis take Baiji oil fields in Iraq - giving them access to huge amounts of possible revenue. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August James Foley is executed by the group as concerns grow for second American prisoner, fellow reporter Steven Sotloff. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - August Obama authorises U.S. airstrikes in Iraq, helping to stall Isis along with action by Kurdish forces following the deaths of hundreds of Yazidi people on Mount Sinjar. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release video showing Steven Sotloffs murder prompting Western speculation his executioner is same man who killed Mr Foley. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Obama tells us that America will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Isis release a video appearing to show David Haines, who was captured by militants in Syria in 2013, wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert while he reads a pre-prepared script. It later shows what appears to be the aid worker's body. Rex Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - September Peshmerga fighters scrabble to hold positions in the Diyala province (a gateway to Baghdad) as Isis fighters continue to advance on Iraqi capital. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Aid worker Alan Henning is killed. Self-imposed media blackout refuses to show images of him in final moments, instead focuses upon humanitarian care. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - October Isis raise their flag in Kobani, which had been strongly defended by Kurdish troops. The victory goes against hopeful western analysis Isis had overextended itself, while alienating much of the Muslim population through the murder of Henning. Victory causes fresh waves of Kurdish refugees arriving in Turkey. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2014 - November American hostage, who embarced values of Islam, Peter Kassig and 14 Syrian soldiers are shown meeting the same fate as other captives. But intelligence agencies will be poring over the apparently significant discrepancies between this and previous films. Seramedig.org.uk Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis has released a video revealing the murder by burning to death of a Jordanian pilot held by the group since the end of December 2014. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have released videos which appear to show the beheading of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February American aid worker, Kayla Mueller was the last American hostage known to be held by Isis. She died, according to her captors, in an airstrike by the Jordanian air force on the city of Raqqa in Syria, though US authorities disputed this. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February Isis militants have posted a gruesome video online in which they force 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages to kneel on a beach in Libya before beheading them. Egypt vowed to avenge the beheading and launched air strikes on Isis positions. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - February The British Isis militant suspected of appearing in videos showing the beheading of Western hostages has been named in reports as Mohammed Emwazi from London. Rex Features Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - March Isis triple suicide attack has killed more than 100 worshippers and hundreds of others were injured after the group members targeted two mosques in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Iraqi forces have claimed victory over Isis in battle for Tikrit and raised the flag in the city. EPA/STR Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis has claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan that killed at least 35 people queuing to collect their wages and injured 100 more. EPA Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - April Isis media arm released a 29-minute video purporting to show militants executing Ethiopian Christians captives. The footage bore the extremist groups al-Furqan media logo and showed the destruction of churches and desecration of religious symbols. A masked fighter made a statement threatening Christians who did not convert to Islam or pay a special tax. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Isis has been "incapacitated" by a spinal injuries sustained in a US air strike in Iraq. He is being treated in a hideout by two doctors from Isis stronghold of Mosul who are said to be "strong ideological supporters of the group". Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis has also claimed responsibility for killing 300 of Yazidi captives, including women, children and elderly people in Iraq AP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis attack on Prophet Mohamed cartoon contest in Texas was its first action on US soil. Two gunmen were shot and killed after launching the attack at the exhibition. Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi have been named as the attackers at the Curtis Culwell Centre arena in Garland. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isiss deputy leader, Abu Alaa Afri, a former physics teacher who was thought to have taken charge of the deadly terrorist group, has been killed in a US-led coalition airstrike. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May US special forces have killed a senior Isis leader named as Abu Sayyaf in an operation aiming to capture him and his wife in Syria. Getty Images Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Iran-backed militias are sent to Ramadi by the Iraqi government to fight Isis militants who completed their capture of the city. Government soldiers and civilians were reportedly massacred by extremists as they took control and the army fled. Charred bodies were left littering the city streets as troops clung on to trucks speeding away from the city. Ramadi is the latest government stronghold to fall to the so-called Islamic State, despite air strikes by a US-led international coalition aiming to stop its advance in Iraq and Syria. AFP Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May Isis rounded up civilians trapped in Palmyra and forced them to watch 20 people being executed in the historic citys ancient amphitheatre. The Unesco World Heritage site was overrun by militants, threatening the future of 2,000 year-old monuments and ruins. Thousands of Palmyras residents fled but many are still living within the city walls, while the UN human rights office in Geneva said it had received reports of Syrian government forces preventing people from leaving until they retreated from the city. Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - May A group of Isis-affiliated fighters have captured a key airport in central Libya. The militants took control of the al-Qardabiya airbase in Sirte after a local militia tasked with defending the facility withdrew from their positions. Affiliates of Isis, already control large parts of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and a former stronghold of his supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June The US Air Force has destroyed an Isis stronghold after an extremist let slip their location on social media. According the Air Force Times, General Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said that Airmen at Hulburt Field, Florida, used images shared by jihadists to track the location of their headquarters before destroying it in an airstrike. Reuters Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Kurdish forces captured a key military base in a significant victory in Raqqa as well as town of Tell Abyad. YPG fighters, backed by US-led airstrikes and other rebels, consolidated their gains, when they seized the key town on the Syria-Turkey border. They are now just 30 miles to the north of Raqqa and have cut off a major supply route deep inside Isis-held territory. Ahmet Silk/Getty Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has released gruesome footage claiming to show the murder of more than a dozen men by drowning, decapitation and using a rocket-propelled grenade as it seeks to boost morale among its fanatical supporters. Timeline: The emergence of Isis 2015 - June Isis has begun carrying out its threat to destroy structures in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, blowing up at least two monuments at the Unesco-protected site as Syrian government troops made advances on the Islamists positions. AFP

Treason is a heinous crime  it should be treated as such, he added. If a citizen of this country chooses to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan against British forces, his crime is more than terrorism. It is treason, and should be prosecuted accordingly.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, who co-authored the paper, said existing terror laws are not a substitute for a workable law of treason, adding: In an age of rising great power competition, when states like Russia are attacking the UK in ways falling short of outright armed conflict, it is vital that our law ensures that citizens assisting hostile states or seeking to undermine the UK, can be prosecuted separate from any violence they may use.

Fellow co-author Khalid Mahmood, a Labour MP said a new treason law would help to highlight, and over time to reinforce, the duty each of us has to refrain from betraying our country.

Treason laws, which date back to 1351, have been updated several times and the last person to be convicted was William Joyce, more commonly known as Lord Haw-Haw, who was hanged in 1946 for assisting Nazi Germany.

In 2008, the Law Commission briefly addressed treason as part of wider work to simplify criminal law in England and Wales, but did not recommend any changes.

It is an example of an area of the law shaped by political and social conditions that have ceased to be of contemporary relevance, it said at the time. Offences which once served a useful purpose no longer do so, in part because new offences have been developed which are far better suited for tackling the problems that currently afflict society.

The Home Office did not call for any update to the Treason Act as part of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Bill, which is currently progressing through parliament.

It has drawn separate controversy over proposals to criminalise viewing terrorist material three times and making reckless statements that could invite support for proscribed groups.

Ben Wallace, the security minister, said: There is clear merit in the need to look across a range of existing legislation to ensure they are up to date and can counter emerging threats. All governments have a duty to ensure that espionage, terrorism and treason are countered with an effective response.Theresa May has urged voters not to worry about Brexit, despite her government setting out plans to stockpile food, blood and medicine in case it goes badly.

She said people should take reassurance and comfort from news of the plans, to be implemented if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement in March next year.

The scenario is looking increasingly likely given deep divisions in the Conservatives over Ms Mays approach, her wafer thin commons majority and the EUs on-going resistance to what the prime minister is proposing.

 Chuka Umunna and John Rentoul debate the possibility of another Brexit referendum

It comes as The Independent launched a campaign to give the British people a Final Say in a referendum on whatever is proposed at the end of Brexit negotiations, with thousands flocking to sign a petition supporting the cause.

Irelands deputy prime minister accused the PM of bravado in talking up the dangers of a no-deal Brexit, while Tory insiders claim the PM is doing so to warn her rebellious MPs of the consequence of failing to back her unpopular Brexit plans.

Ms May confirmed in a TV interview that plans for stocking up on essential goods are underway, in case imports from the EU are cut off by clogged ports or regulatory disputes.

But, asked if it was alarming for people, the prime minister told Channel 5: Far from being worried about preparations that we are making, I would say that people should take reassurance and comfort from the fact that the government is saying we are in a negotiation, we are working for a good deal.

I believe we can get a good deal, but, its right that we say  because we dont know what the outcome is going to be  lets prepare for every eventuality.

She added: This is not just about stockpiling. That concept, what it is, is about making sure that we will be able to continue to do the things that are necessary once we have left the European Union, if we leave without a deal.

 Matt Hancock talks about stockpiling of blood products in the event of a no deal Brexit

It came after health secretary Matt Hancock admitted he had already met with industry leaders to discuss building up NHS reserves of vaccinations, medical devices, clinical consumables and blood products if Britain crashes out of the EU without a deal.

Dominic Raab, the new Brexit secretary, also recently confirmed preparations were being made to stockpile food, as ministers ramp up planning in case the negotiations fail.

Simon Coveney, Dublins deputy prime minister, urged Britain to delay Brexit if the talks remain deadlocked  offering to press for an extension to the Article 50 deadline.

Asked about talk of a no-deal Brexit in the UK, he said: I have heard a lot of comment on this issue in recent weeks and, to be honest with you, I think some of it is bravado.

People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS

The truth is that I dont believe Britain can afford to have no-deal on Brexit. I dont believe that Ireland and the EU want that either.

The government will issue a series of technical notices in the coming months, designed to prepare the public and businesses for the worst-case scenario of leaving without a deal.

The International Monetary Fund has warned the overall UK economy would suffer far more than the EUs  losing 4 per cent of national output, compared with 1.5 per cent across the Channel.

The Independent launched a campaign for the British people to have a Final Say on the Brexit deal agreed with Brussels on Tuesday, with Dominic Grieve, Labour MP Chuka Umunna and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran making the case.

On Wednesday a petition was launched to back the campaign with thousands flocking to sign in within hours.

Former Downing Street press secretary Alastair Campbell and democracy campaigner Gina Miller also joined the fray.The Irish government has dismissed Theresa Mays threat to crash out of the EU without a deal if necessary as bravado, insisting the damage to the UK would be too great.

Simon Coveney, Dublins deputy prime minister, instead urged Britain to delay Brexit if the talks remain deadlocked  offering to press for an extension to the Article 50 deadline.

The UK government has insisted its threat of no deal is genuine  even revealing plans for the stockpiling of food, medicines and blood ahead of exit day next March.

But Mr Coveney said: I have heard a lot of comment on this issue in recent weeks and, to be honest with you, I think some of it is bravado.

The truth is that I dont believe Britain can afford to have no deal on Brexit. I dont believe that Ireland and the EU want that either.

He added: The negative implications of a no deal Brexit are very significant for Ireland and for the United Kingdom. We all have an obligation to make sure that that does not happen.

Speaking ahead of talks in London, Mr Coveney, who is also foreign affairs minister, again insisted Dublin would not back down on ensuring the UK met its commitments to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

But he also urged Ms May to recognise that Ireland is one of Britains big allies in these negotiations.

And, asked if the Irish government would push the rest of the EU to extend Article 50, to avoid a no deal next year, he replied: Absolutely.

If Britain asks for more time, and if thats necessary to get to a sensible agreement, then we would support that - of course we would.

People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS

The government has said it will issue a series of technical notices in the coming months, designed to prepare the public and businesses for a no deal exit in just eight months time.

Dominic Raab, the Brexit secretary, said one would cover ensuring adequate food supply  while the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said hospitals would be stockpiling medicines, medical devices and substances of human origin.

At the weekend, Mr Raab was forced to partially retract a claim that the Bank of England believes the EU will be hit harder by a no-deal Brexit  admitting it referred only to one aspect of financial services.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the overall UK economy would suffer far more than the EU's - losing 4 per cent of national output, compared with 1.5 per cent across the Channel.

With the clock ticking, support is growing to extend the two-year Article 50 process instead, but this would require the unanimous support of all other 27 EU countries.

Brussels officials have suggested this might only be given to create space for a further referendum, giving British voters the option to stay in the EU.

The Independent today launches its campaign for that fresh public vote, arguing that only giving the people the final say can resolve the current chaosTheresa May has urged the public not to be worried by her governments plans to stockpile food and medicine to prepare for a no deal Brexit.

The prime minister sought to play down the growing controversy over planning for the threat from crashing out of the EU without an agreement  insisting people should take reassurance and comfort.

This week, ministers have lifted the lid on plans for ensuring food, medicines and blood will still be available after exit day next March.

Interviewed by Channel 5, Ms May confirmed that plans for stocking up on essential goods are underway  in case imports from the EU are cut off by clogged ports, or regulatory disputes.

But, asked it was alarming for people, the prime minister said: Far from being worried about preparations that we are making, I would say that people should take reassurance and comfort from the fact that the government is saying we are in a negotiation, we are working for a good deal.

I believe we can get a good deal, but, its right that we say  because we don't know what the outcome is going to be  let's prepare for every eventuality.

She added: This is not just about stockpiling. That concept, what it is, is about making sure that we will be able to continue to do the things that are necessary once we have left the European Union, if we leave without a deal.

Ms May's comments came as a new poll suggested trust in her ability to handle Brexit is plunging.

People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Show all 30 1 /30 People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Rex People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young protestor shouts as she takes part in the People's Vote demonstration against Brexit Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A protester's pro-EU t-shirt EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Gina Miller and Caroline Lucas EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Tens of thousands of people march through London EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EPA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Demonstrators at the People's Vote March Getty People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal 'Two months too young to decide on my future' REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A young girl joins in the march PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal An EU flag is draped across the statue of Winston Chruchill in Parliament Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal AFP/Getty Images People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Vince Cable MP, Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller, Tony Robinson and Caroline Lucas MP join with crowds PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Crowds gather on Pall Mall PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal A man resembling Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, joins EU supporters Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Reuters People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal People gather in Trafalgar Square REUTERS People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal Pro-EU campaigner Gina Miller and Tony Robinson PA People's Vote march  demanding vote on final Brexit deal EU supporters, calling on the government to give Britons a vote on the final Brexit deal, participate in the 'People's Vote' march REUTERS

A Guardian/ICM poll gave her an eight-point lead over Jeremy Corbyn over who could be trusted to negotiate a good Brexit deal  down from 16 points in January and 34 points before the 2017 general election.

Earlier, the Irish government dismissed the UKs threats of a no-deal Brexit if necessary as bravado, insisting the damage to the UK would be too great.

Simon Coveney, Dublins deputy prime minister, instead urged Britain to delay Brexit if the talks remain deadlocked  offering to press for an extension to the Article 50 deadline.

I have heard a lot of comment on this issue in recent weeks and, to be honest with you, I think some of it is bravado, Mr Coveney said.

The truth is that I dont believe Britain can afford to have no deal on Brexit. I dont believe that Ireland and the EU want that either.

The government will issue a series of technical notices in the coming months, designed to prepare the public and businesses for the worst-case scenario of leaving without a deal.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned the overall UK economy would suffer far more than the EUs - losing 4 per cent of national output, compared with 1.5 per cent across the Channel.

Asked if the Irish government would push the rest of the EU to extend Article 50, to avoid a no deal next year, Mr Coveney replied: Absolutely.

If Britain asks for more time, and if thats necessary to get to a sensible agreement, then we would support that - of course we would.The Independents petition calling for the British people to have a final say on the governments Brexit deal has been signed by 195,000 people in less than 24 hours.

The Final Say campaign demands the electorate is given a vote before the UK leaves the EU in 2019.

Tens of thousands of people signed the petition within hours of its launch and the petition reached more than 195,000 signatures by Thursday afternoon.

You can support our campaign and have your voice heard on our future relationship with the EU by signing our petition here.

The campaign has the backing of senior members of parliament, including ex-cabinet minister Dominic Grieve, who said it was a sensible way out of the UKs current political crisis.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran have also backed the campaign, arguing that giving the public a vote on the final deal was becoming more urgent.

The Independents campaign, launched on Tuesday, calls for the public to be given the chance to decide whether or not to accept a deal, if there is one, or decide whether or not to leave without a deal.

 Chuka Umunna column: Why I support the Independent's plan to back a second referendum

Recent polling shows that amid the chaos of the Brexit process, the largest number of people in the UK would prefer to simply remain in the EU, if forced to choose between staying or going.

It comes as Theresa May urged voters not to worry about Brexit, despite her government setting out plans to stockpile food, blood and medicine in case it goes badly.

She said people should take reassurance and comfort from news of the plans to be implemented if the UK crashes out of the EU without an agreement in March next year.

The scenario is looking increasingly likely given deep divisions in the Conservative Party over Ms Mays approach, her wafer thin Commons majority and the EUs resistance to what the prime minister is proposing.Ministers have been accused of failing to act on the housing crisis after missing their own deadline to publish blueprints for social housing and rough sleeping before the summer recess.

Billed as the most substantial report of its kind for a generation by the then-housing secretary Sajid Javid, the long-awaited green paper on social housing was originally due to published in the spring.

The document was then promised by the summer but it has now been delayed for the second time. A separate plan to tackle rough sleeping was also due to be published before the summer recess.

The holdup casts doubt on Theresa Mays pledge to make it her personal mission to solve the housing crisis and to stamp out rough sleeping, which she said was a source of national shame.

Whitehall departments rushed out more than 20 announcements on Tuesday  the final day before MPs went off for their summer break  but neither document was published in the flurry of government statements.

Shadow housing secretary John Healey said: This is a government and department in disarray, failing to act on every front to deal with the housing crisis.

Ministers pledged to publish this social housing policy paper before the parliamentary recess, but have missed their own deadline.

After eight years of failure, this government cant even get its act together to publish a policy paper, never mind fix the countrys housing problems.

UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Show all 8 1 /8 UK Housing Crisis: in pictures UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Members of generation rent, as the younger generation is often known, are finding it far more difficult to get on the housing market than previous generations PA UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Then chancellor George Osborne visits a Help to Buy housing development in Lewisham in 2014. Osborne had announced the Help to Buy scheme in the 2013 budget as a means of helping first-time buyers on to the housing market PA Archive/PA Images UK Housing Crisis: in pictures In February 2017, then communities and local government secretary Sajid Javid issued a government white paper on housing. Introducing it in the Commons, he stated our housing market is broken and that the idea of owning or renting a safe, secure place of your own is, for many, a distant dream PA UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Residents of Fitzroy Road in Primrose Hill have demonstrated how urban areas might be built up without using extra land. 12 homeowners along the street all agreed to extend their house upwards by 1 floor. The government recently held a consultation on the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which, if approved, will support building above homes, shops and offices Google Earth UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Social Bite, a charity in Scotland, is creating a small housing community for the homeless. Up to 20 people will be housed for 12-18 months, with the charitys focus being on transitioning the residents into permanent housing and employment AFP/Getty UK Housing Crisis: in pictures A homeless man was found dead yards from Parliament in February. His death was taken by many, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, to be symbolic of the governments poor record on housing. PA UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Emergency homeless shelters in London had to be opened numerous times throughout the past winter to house those unable to find a room in an ordinary shelter or hostel Getty UK Housing Crisis: in pictures Carillion, the UKs second largest construction company, entered liquidation early this year. It held numerous government construction and maintenance contracts, for many of which the future is still uncertain AFP/Getty

It comes after Tory MP Kit Malthouse became the third housing minister in seven months in a fresh reshuffle prompted by the resignations of both David Davis and Boris Johnson over Brexit.

Catherine Ryder, head of policy at the National Housing Federation, which represents housing associations, said: Last year Theresa May made it her personal mission to fix the housing crisis.

We were told the social housing green paper would be a generation-defining piece of work  a fundamental rethink of social housing that would make it the pride of the nation.

But it has been delayed again, as the third housing minister since the announcement gets to grips with the scale of the housing crisis.

The government must use this opportunity to urgently address the shocking shortfall in affordable housing.

More than 145,000 affordable homes need to be built every year to keep up demand, she said, and called on the government to stop selling publicly owned land to the highest bidder.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: Since the Grenfell Tower tragedy we have been listening to residents and those across the social housing sector.

Providing high-quality and well-managed social housing is a top priority for this government.

Shortly we will publish a green paper that sets out a new deal for social housing tenants.

MPs return from the summer recess in September, when parliamentary business wil resume.Labour MP Fiona Onasanya is set to appear in court after being charged with perverting the course of justice, it has emerged.

The Peterborough MP, who also serves in the partys whips office, narrowly won the seat from her Conservative rival Stewart Jackson at the 2017 snap election with a majority of just 607.

The 34-year-old politician was charged with one count of perverting the course of justice and appeared at Westminster magistrates court a fortnight ago.

Court records show she was charged over allegedly lying about who was behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle, the Press Association reported.

Recommended Labour gain Peterborough from Conservatives after recount

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson said: Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya, 34, from Peterborough has been charged with one count of perverting the course of justice.

She appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on 12 July and is due to appear in court again on 13 August.

A Labour party spokesperson said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case."

The Independent has contacted Ms Onasanya for comment.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 23 October 2021 Partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Stella Morris and Editor in Chief of WikiLeaks Kristinn Hrafnsson attend a protest ahead of the appeal hearing over Assange's extradition, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 22 October 2021 Palace Gardener Justine Howlett adds the finishing touches to pumpkins bearing the face of Henry VIII and his wives, at Hampton Court Palace. PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2021 Flooded fields near Lingfield in Surrey, after southern England was hit overnight by heavy rain and strong winds from Storm Aurore moving in from France PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2021 A wing surfer enjoys the strong winds as they surf in the sea off of Hayling Island in Hampshire PA UK news in pictures 19 October 2021 Actor Jude Law holds hands with Little Amal, a 3.5-metre-tall puppet of a nine-year-old Syrian girl, as it arrives in Folkestone, Kent, as part of the Handspring Puppet Company's 'The Walk' PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2021 A view over Southend-on-Sea in Essex, which is set to become a city in tribute to Sir David Amess MP, who spent years campaigning for the change Getty UK news in pictures 17 October 2021 Members of the Essex Bangladeshi Welfare Association pay their respects by floral tributes laid at the scene where Sir David Amess MP was killed at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea Reuters UK news in pictures 16 October 2021 Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer, Priti Patel and Lindsay Hoyle pay respects to Sir David Amess at Belfairs Methodist Church, in Leigh-on-Sea, the site of his death EPA UK news in pictures 15 October 2021 A person lays flowers at the scene near the Belfairs Methodist Church in Eastwood Road North, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, where Conservative MP Sir David Amess has died after he was stabbed several times at a constituency surgery. A man has been arrested and officers are not looking for anyone else PA UK news in pictures 14 October 2021 A red deer stag during rutting season in Bushy Park, Richmond, south west London, which is home to over 300 red and fallow deer PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2021 Police officers detain a man as Insulate Britain activists block a roundabout at a junction on the M25 motorway during a protest in Thurrock Reuters UK news in pictures 12 October 2021 The aerial climate installation by Swiss artivist Dan Acher 'We Are Watching' is unveiled at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2021 A young girl is helped by a Border Force officer as a group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, following a small boat incident in the Channel. PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2021 People walk past a life-size sculpture of British singer John Lennon entitled "Imagine", by sculptor Lawrence Holofcener, displayed to mark what would have been the 81st birthday for the former member of the Beatles in Carnaby Street Reuters UK news in pictures 8 October 2021 WW II veteran, 96-year-old Lorna Cockayne, who served in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), popularly and officially known as the Wrens, as a Bletchley Park codebreaker, poses for a photograph with the Legion d'honneur after receiving it during a ceremony at the Pear at Parley in Ferndown, Bournemouth PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2021 British comedian Jo Brand poses with cut-out silhouettes representing women outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters New Scotland Yard, to highlight violence against women by male police officers or former police officers AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 6 October 2021 A protester, wearing a mask of Johnson, holds a sign reading Question it all on the final day of the Tory conference Getty UK news in pictures 5 October 2021 Members of Insulate Britain outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, before a hearing over the injunction banning the environmental activists from blocking the M25 PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2021 A delegate passes a street cleaner on the second day of the annual Conservative Party Conference being held at the Manchester Central convention centre AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2021 Margaret Thatcher-themed mugs for sale at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester EPA UK news in pictures 2 October 2021 A couple make their way through a flooded underpass in Bristol as a yellow weather warning for rain and wind is issued for parts of the UK Tom Wren/SWNS UK news in pictures 1 October 2021 A driver talks to members of the media after passing his HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle) driving test at National Driving Centre in Croydon, south London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 30 September 2021 The centrepiece One Thousand Springs by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota is seen ahead of the beginning of the Japan Festival, a celebration of the countrys plants, art and culture running from 2-31 October, at Kew Gardens in London PA UK news in pictures 29 September 2021 The family of Betty Campbell unveil the bronze sculpture of her during the unveiling of the statue in Central Square, Cardiff, of Betty Campbell, Wales' first black headteacher PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2021 A sign referring to the lack of fuel is placed at the entrance to a petrol station in London AP UK news in pictures 27 September 2021 Police officers detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a roundabout leading from the M25 motorway to Heathrow Airport in London PA UK news in pictures 26 September 2021 Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer watches the Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur match at The Font pub in Brighton PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2021 Scottish pro-independence supporters hold a march and rally outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland Getty Images UK news in pictures 24 September 2021 Police officers remove two protesters from the top of a tanker, as Insulate Britain block the A20 in Kent, which provides access to the Port of Dover in Kent. The environmental activists have moved location after been banned from campaigning on the M25 motorway in London PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2021 Gabriella, the seven year old daughter of imprisoned British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, joins in a game on a giant snakes and ladders board in Parliament Square, to show the ups and downs of her mothers case to mark the 2,000 days she has been detained in Iran AP UK news in pictures 22 September 2021 A new sign hangs on the Millicent Fawcett statue after it was altered by CrackTheCrises coalition activists to highlight the climate crisis as a feminist struggle in Parliament Square in London EPA UK news in pictures 21 September 2021 Gabriella Diment prepares a monumental bronze patinated fibreglass wall sculpture depicting household cavalry soldiers on horseback which is expected to be sold for 12,000-18,000 when it goes up for auction at Summers Place Auctions in Billinghurst, Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2021 Florist Judith Blacklock puts the finishing touches to a floral carousel installation in Halkin Arcade, which she has designed with Neill Strain for the Belgravia in Bloom festival, running from September 20-26, in London PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2021 Bubbles surround Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo before the match against West Ham at London Stadium Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 18 September 2021 Children take part in the Settrington Cup Pedal Car Race as motoring enthusiasts attend the Goodwood Revival, a three-day historic car racing festival in Goodwood, Chichester, Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA

In a video posted on her Facebook page last month to mark her one year anniversary in the Commons, the Labour MP said her experience had been surreal.

She continued: Its been hard finding your feet as a new MP - no one can really prepare you for it. Theres never a straightforward day.

I would say you work between 80 and 120 hours a week. Your days, if there was a standard, are about 18-hour days, but I really, really, have enjoyed it and I feel honoured.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines)  A UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Philippines will become the country's first ever national park with managed WiFi.

Globe Business, the Information and Communications (ICT) arm of Globe Telecom, in partnership with the local government of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, will soon offer tourists visiting the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park with free WiFi connectivity.

Tourists planning to visit the park, which is also dubbed as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, can soon enjoy internet access in the Sabang Wharf, as well as the registration area at the cave entrance.

Puerto Princesa City Mayor Lucilo Bayron said the development is a welcome addition to further boost the city's tourism.

"Through real-time uploading of photos and videos taken by our visitors, the Puerto Princesa Underground River will be seen by more tourists around the world," Bayron said in a message.

"We see this service as a good promotion and advertisement tool, as the guests can update their social media accounts right away," he added.

The project is also part of the commitment of the Protected Area Management Board in giving convenience to all stakeholders visiting the area.

Globe Business continues to encourage Local Government Units in adopting the integration of ICT and governance as means of improving the delivery of government services and exchange of information.

The initiative supports Globe Telecom's drive to transform the country into a digital nation by instilling the importance of e-Governance in local and national government offices.

"The goal of supporting Puerto Princesa City with this capability is to ensure that we go beyond being a service provider. Nation building and e-Governance have always been among the sustainability thrusts of Globe Business, and we are proud that we were chosen by Puerto Princesa City for this ground-breaking project," said Peter Maquera, Globe Senior Vice President for the Enterprise Group.

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park boasts of 22,702 hectares of limestone karst landscape, which include an 8.2 kilometer-long underground river.The European Commission has approved a new assistance package worth 400 million euro for the education of Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to the press release of the European Commission.

This is the first action adopted following the agreement by EU Member States to finance an additional 3 billion euro for the Facility for Refugees in Turkey.

"400 million euro will be given in the form of a direct grant to the Turkish Ministry of National Education of Turkey. The funding will provide for the continuation of the current education project for Syrian refugees in Turkey which will expire in October 2018," the press release says.

The new assistance package is broader in scope than the current education project: it will focus on outreach, increased quality of formal education for students, Turkish language training for adults in Public Education Centres, the continuation and improvement of the examination system, and social cohesion activities. The duration of the new assistance is also longer than the previous package, covering three academic years rather than two.Labour has instructed a top firm of lawyers to begin legally-proofing its programme for government so that it is water tight against future court challenge.

Party chiefs believe radical policies being proposed by Jeremy Corbyn will make it one of the most targeted administrations in living history.

Certain proposals in particular have been highlighted as likely to attract a particular backlash from vested interests, including Labours nationalisation programme and a planned crackdown on dirty money in the City of London.

One Labour source close to the process said: It was agreed that we would instruct a well-known and respected law firm to begin drafting the legislative programme in order to make it totally water tight and beyond legal challenge.

It fits in with lots of areas that we want to tackle  what powers we extend to local councils and devolved nations, sectors for nationalisation.

We want particular laws to clamp down on dirty money flowing through London.

The move has been made as part of a broader piece of work being led by shadow cabinet office minister Jon Trickett to steal Labour for government.

 PMQs: Jeremy Corbyn says Theresa May's Brexit figures 'are so dodgy they belong on the side of a bus'

On Monday shadow ministers met at an away day to present plans for a leftwing populist legislative programme in readiness for a snap general election.

Mr Corbyn has already spelled out plans to nationalise Royal Mail, railways and some utilities  which would involve the issuance of gilts to buy out shareholders at a price that would be determined by parliament.

But Conservative ministers have claimed the plans would fall foul of the human rights act, while at least one law firm has warned the plans would face strong resistance in the courts.

The National Crime Agency has said as much as 90bn of criminal money is laundered through the UK each year, but Labour is still likely to face tough opposition to plans to tighten rules form the City of London.

At the away day the shadow cabinet set out a draft Queens speech of up to 35 bills and a budget intended to focus on living standards and workers rights.

As well as the process of legally proofing the programme for government, Mr Tricketts work has seen the party taking advice from Gordon Brown on how to prepare for government.

Ex-civil service chief Sir Bob Kerslake has also been in discussions with the party to prepare it for navigating its plans through Whitehall.Margaret Hodge's furious outburst at Jeremy Corbyn over antisemitism was a result of the Jewish MP failing to understand the party's new code of conduct, John McDonnell has said.

The Labour grandee called her party leader a "racist and an antisemite" last week amid a bitter row in the party over its handling of anti-Jewish abuse,

Dame Margaret and others were angry that Labour had refused to fully adopt an internationally-recognised definition of antisemitism when drawing up its new code of conduct.

Recommended Labour MPs back internationally recognised antisemitism definition

However, Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said he had spoken to Dame Margaret and believed the row stemmed from a "complete misunderstanding" of the new rules.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I was trying to understand why, so out of character, Margaret was so angry last week.

"I spoke to her at the weekend, then I heard her interview on Monday [on the Today programme] where she was saying 'Look, if this code goes through, this is what will happen.'

"I realised there was a complete misinterpretation of the code, so I can understand why she was so angry if that's what she believed this code would do. I think it's a complete misunderstanding and we can resolve that amicably and then move on."

Dame Margaret is facing disciplinary action over the incident after being informed by Jennie Formby, Labour's general secretary, that she was under investigation.

Many Labour MPs have defended the former minister and called for the probe to be dropped, but Mr Corbyn's spokesman vowed: "Action will be taken."

Protests against Labour antisemitism Show all 14 1 /14 Protests against Labour antisemitism Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters clashed during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of the Jewish community hold a protest against Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn and antisemitism in the Labour Party AFP/Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Protesters hold placards and flags during a demonstration, organised by the British Board of Jewish Deputies for those who oppose antisemitism, in Parliament Square Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP Luciana Berger speaks during the protest PA Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester blows through a shofar during the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism Members of London's Jewish community protest in support of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn outside parliament EPA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour MP John Mann speaks during a protest against antisemitism PA Protests against Labour antisemitism People protest against antisemitism in the Labour Party as Jewish community leaders have launched a scathing attack on Jeremy Corbyn, claiming he has sided with antisemites again and again PA Protests against Labour antisemitism Labour politicians Stella Creasy and Chuka Umunna leave after attending the demonstration Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A pro-Jeremy Corbyn protester holds a placard during a counter-protest Getty Protests against Labour antisemitism A support of the Labour Party hold up a placard during the demonstration Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism Jeremy Corbyn supporters during the demo Reuters Protests against Labour antisemitism A protester holds up a sign reading For the many, not the Jew AFP

Mr McDonnell said he had told Mr Corbyn that "we've got to resolve this matter quickly" and that the Labour had agreed.

He added: "We want it resolved amicably and I think that can be done."

The shadow chancellor said Mr Corbyn had been left "deeply upset" following the row with Dame Margaret, who he said was "extremely angry and lost her cool".

He said: "Jeremy was deeply upset because when you have someone haranguing you in that way, of course it's upsetting. These sort of accusations, when he's worked so hard on the issues of anti-semitism and anti-racism - of course he's upset."

 Tony Blair says the people around Jeremy Corbyn dont take antisemitism seriously

The latest row over antisemitism in Labour erupted after the party leadership refused to adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition in its code of conduct.

The party has agreed to use the definition but has not directly included four of the IHRA's 11 examples of antisemitic behaviour, amid claims they could stifle criticism of Israel.

These include comparing Israeli policies to those of the Nazis, or suggesting the creation of the Jewish state was a racist endeavour. The other two examples refer to accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country, or holding Israel to higher standards than other countries.

Party officials have insisted the examples are covered elsewhere in the code of conduct, and say the document goes further than the IHRA definition.

Asked about the row, Mr McDonnell said: "We are a party that is anti-racist and anti-semitist. We are against anti-semitism, we are a party that tackles anti-semitism wherever it is, either in our party or our community.

"We're going to tackle this and we'll lead that campaign to make sure Jewish people are respected and feel safe within our community. That's what our role is and Jeremy is as committed to that as anyone else within our party and anyone else within our community."If Gavin Williamson was head of the Russian army, the message might be simple: Shut up and go away.

As it was, it was left to official spokesman Igor Konashenkov to issue a similar rebuke of US General Joseph Votel, Americas top military commander in the Middle East.

The US generals interview with US TV channel ABC, in which he expressed reservations about engaging with Russia in Syria, had discredited US President Donald Trump, according to Mr Konashenko.

It had also undermined the legal basis of the US presence in the country: If the current US Middle East Command does not see possibility of working together with Russia, perhaps the best thing would be to hasten the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.

According to the Russian military spokesman, US forces could remain in Syria only if they were willing to help resolve the issue of refugees. Earlier, US General Votel had indicated he would recommend against such a joint operation.

"I would want to make sure that this isn't something that we stepped into lightly," he told ABC. That would be a pretty big step at this point.

The issue of US and Russia jointly working on the return of refugees to Syria was discussed during the recent presidential summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

According to numerous sources, the Russian side floated proposals of joint operations on humanitarian relief.

Three days after Helsinki, President Trump tweeted that the meeting had been a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. He confirmed the two sides had discussed a wide of topics including terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear ... proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.

But General Votel has said that the Pentagon had received no specific direction following the Trump-Putin summit. This raised questions as to what, if anything, was actually agreed on Syria in Helsinki.Lawyers for Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer whose six-month sentence for sexual assault ignited a national firestorm in 2016, have testified in an appeal of the 22-year-old's conviction, saying Mr Turner only wanted to have outercourse with his unconscious victim.

Mr Turner was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault after Swedish exchange students discovered him aggressively thrusting on top of a half-dressed, intoxicated woman outside a Stanford fraternity party in 2015. He was released from jail after serving just three months.

But Attorney Eric Multhaup told a California appeals court in San Jose on Tuesday that Mr Turners conviction should be overturned due to lack of evidence.

Mr Multhaup told the panel that Mr Turner had only wanted to engage in sexual outercourse with the victim, known as Emily Doe. The attorney defined outercourse as a version of safe sex that does not involve vaginal sex, according to a local NBC affiliate.

The attorney noted that Mr Turner was not naked and his genitals were not exposed when he was found on top of his victim. Mr Turner has previously admitted to partially undressing and digitally penetrating the woman.

 Brock Turner leaves prison

Mr Multhaup also called into question the womans level of intoxication, saying there was no evidence at what point she went from being incapacitated from alcohol to loss of consciousness", according to CNN.

The three judges on the panel appeared unimpressed by Mr Multhaup's argument, according to the Associated Press.

I absolutely dont understand what you are talking about, Justice Franklin Elia said, adding that the law requires the jury verdict to be honoured.

Assistant Attorney General Alisha Carlile, representing the state of California, said Mr Multhaup had presented a far-fetched version of events. She noted that bystanders could tell from 30 feet away that the victim was unconscious, citing trial testimony.

Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Show all 21 1 /21 Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford student Paul Harrison (C) carries a sign in a show of solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy A woman carries a sign during the "Wacky Walk" to show her solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford students carried signs in solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy A man carries a sign during the "Wacky Walk" to show his solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford students Miriam Natvig (L) and Jemima Oslo (R) carried signs in solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Alizabeth McGowan wears a 1/3 sign on her mortarboard to show solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford students wear a 1/3 sign on their caps to show solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. The 1/3 represents a statistic that claims one in three students will experience a sexual assault by the time they graduate college. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Signs against protesting a rapist are seen during the commencement ceremony at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Signs against protesting a rapist are seen during the commencement ceremony at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Signs against protesting a rapist are seen during the commencement ceremony at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Signs against protesting a rapist are seen during the commencement ceremony at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford student Paul Harrison (C) carries a sign in a show of solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford student Paul Harrison (C) carries a sign in a show of solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford student Paul Harrison (C) carries a sign in a show of solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy A woman carries a sign in solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy A woman carries a sign in solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty Stanford University holds commencement amid sexual assault controversy Stanford students John Lancaster Finley(L) and Brandon Hill(C) carry signs during the "Wacky Walk" to show their solidarity for a Stanford rape victim during graduation ceremonies at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, on June 12, 2016. Gabrielle Lurie/AFP/Getty

Attorneys for Mr Turner filed the appeal in December of last year, in an attempt to revoke the requirement that he resister as a sex offender for life. The judges now have 90 days to respond to the appeal.

Mr Turners six-month conviction in 2016 sparked a massive backlash against Judge Aaron Persky, who many said had been too lenient on the then-19-year-old star athlete. The judge was voted off the bench by Santa Clara County residents in June, following a years-long activist campaign.

The trial also ignited a national debate on the treatment of sexual assault victims. Emily Does emotional testimony was read aloud in court and shared widely online. Also widely circulated were comments by Mr Turner's father, who lamented the fact that his sons future would be marred by 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life".

Mr Turner now lives outside of Dayton, Ohio with his parents. He did not appear at the hearing.Pictures of pink skies above New York City have started to appear on social media and users are speculating about why they are happening.

However, this is actually a relatively common phenomenon, particularly over busy cities.

In October 2017, Storm Ophelia turned an afternoon orange in London, prompting a slew of jokes online about the advent of the apocalypse.

Recommended Thunderstorms to sweep country after temperature could reach 39C

Earlier that year, the Chinese city of Shanghai was smog cloaked the city in a magenta cloud.

The reason we see blue light in the sky on a clear day is because blue and violet wavelengths of light are more readily scattered and dispersed when they encounter the molecules and small particles present in our air.

Of the two, we see the sky as blue rather than violet because our eyes are more attuned to that colour.

The extent of the wavelength and the size of the particle it encounters determines the colours we see in the sky.

In the case of the London incident last autumn, Storm Ophelia had picked up dust from the Sahara desert and smoke particles from summer wildfires on the Iberian Peninsula. These were blanketed it over the London skyline, giving the sky a strange colour that day.

This is also why we are more likely to see unusual streaks of colour in the sky at sunrise and sunset.

Because the sun is low on the horizon, sunlight passes through more air at sunset and sunrise than during the day, when the sun is higher in the sky, Professor Steven Ackerman of UW-Madison told the Science Daily website.

More atmosphere means more molecules to scatter the violet and blue light away from your eyes. If the path is long enough, all of the blue and violet light scatters out of your line of sight.

Red sun spotted in sky over UK Show all 6 1 /6 Red sun spotted in sky over UK Red sun spotted in sky over UK An orange sun in the sky at Builth Wells, Wales Alamy Live News. Red sun spotted in sky over UK A plane flies past the Shard in central London PA Red sun spotted in sky over UK Red sun spotted in the sky over Bromsgrove in Worcestershire PA Red sun spotted in sky over UK The sky turns an orange red in London Alamy Live News. Red sun spotted in sky over UK A Red Sun in the sky above Aberdovey on the Welsh Coast Jon Freeman/Alamy Live News Red sun spotted in sky over UK A red sun in the sky over North London Rex Features

The other colours continue on their way to your eyes. This is why sunsets are often yellow, orange and red.

In the case of New York, high atmospheric pressure could be containing dust and small particles in the air, increasing the density and effectively serving as a filter.

Therefore more violet light than blue will be scattered, giving the sky the pinkish hue citizens are reporting.Members of Donald Trumps own party are turning on him over a multibillion-dollar federal relief package for US farmers, which many see as an attempt to conceal the effects of a global trade war they warned the president not to start in the first place.

The Trump administration announced $12bn in handouts to American farmers this week, in an attempt to ease the pain caused by the presidents confrontational trade policies.

Farmers groups estimate they have lost as much as $13bn in recent months, as countries like China, Canada, and Mexico slapped their own tariffs on US goods in response to Mr Trumps duties on foreign imports.

The countries designed their tariffs to hit American farmers and manufacturers in key Republican states the hardest  something GOP lawmakers increasingly fear will hurt them in Novembers midterm elections.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey lambasted the administration on Twitter, claiming it was trying to put a band-aid on a self-inflicted wound.

The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts, Mr Toomey said. This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy.

This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers, and the White Houses plan is to spend $12bn on gold crutches, added Senator Ben Sasse.

 Trump tariffs on new cars would be economically 'disastrous', European Commission warns

The comments cut to the heart of many Republicans concerns: that Mr Trumps tariffs and handouts contradict the partys message of free trade and free markets, and  perhaps more importantly  could spark a revolt from struggling workers.

Many conservatives cautioned earlier this year against the presidents tariffs on steel and aluminium, and on $34bn worth of Chinese goods, warning that foreign retaliation could put American jobs at risk.

Senator John Thune told reporters that the relief package an acknowledgement by Mr Trump that imposing tariffs has a lot of unintended consequences that creates a lot of collateral damage.

Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers, Republican Senator Rand Paul tweeted. If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers  the answer is remove the tariffs.

These products may become more costly in the trade war Show all 9 1 /9 These products may become more costly in the trade war These products may become more costly in the trade war Orange Juice, which Florida is known for, may soon be subject to import tariffs Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war The EU lists 'footwear with outer soles of rubber or of plastics and uppers of plastics' amongst the goods that may soon be subject to import tariffs Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war Cosmetic products, such as US brands Maybelline, MAC and Avon, may soon be subject to import tariffs Getty Images for Rebekka Ruetz These products may become more costly in the trade war Jeans, the all-American trousers, are on the EU's list of goods that may be subject to import tariffs Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war Bourbon whiskey is on the EU's list of over 100 US products that may be subject to import tariffs Getty These products may become more costly in the trade war US peanut butter products are on the EU's list of goods that may soon be subject to tariffs Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war US motorcycles, such as the Harley-Davidson, may soon be subject to import tariffs Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war Cranberry products, a major US crop export, may soon become more expensive Getty Images These products may become more costly in the trade war All tobacco products are on the EU's list of US goods that may be subject to import tarifs AFP/Getty Images

Agriculture Department officials called the handouts a one-time remedy to buy time while Mr Trump negotiates trade deals, according to NBC.

The president pre-empted criticism on Tuesday morning by tweeting: Tariffs are the greatest! Later that day, he promised that farmers would eventually be the biggest beneficiary of his trade policy.

We're opening up markets. You watch what's going to happen, he said in a speech to veterans in Kansas City, Missouri. Just be a little patient.

Under the relief package, the Agriculture Department will make incremental payments to producers of soybeans, sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy, and hogs. The government will also purchase surpluses of commodities like fruits, nuts, rice, legumes, beef, pork and milk for distribution to food banks and other nutrition programmes.

Farmers can begin signing up for the programme in September, Agriculture Department officials said.Campsites and lodges emptied out after disappointed tourists were ordered to leave the heart of Yosemite National Park by noon on Wednesday, as fire-fighters battled to contain a huge wildfire.

The blaze to the west of the park threatened Yosemites forest and sent up smoke that obscured grand vistas of waterfalls and sheer granite faces.

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least the beginning of next week, along with a winding, mountainous, 20 mile (32km) stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads in, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

Recommended California wildfires trigger state of emergency as thousands evacuated

At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings will be cancelled  to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Mr Gediman said. Rangers went to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotel guests got phone calls and notes on their doors.

"This is the prime visitor season, so this wasn't an easy decision to make," Mr Gediman said. "This was purely for safety's sake."

Officials were quick to point out that Yosemite was not under imminent danger from the Ferguson Fire. Authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes four million visitors annually.

The last time the 7.5-mile long (12km long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Yosemite Valley is the centrepiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley has been enveloped by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Visitors are advised to "limit activity during the periods of poor air quality," the park said in a statement. "Some facilities and services are closed or diminished."

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometres) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while others have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 fire-fighters are working on the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One fire-fighter was killed on July 14, and six others have been injured.

Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite/Madera County, said the regional visitors bureau has been relocating tourists state-wide following the closure.

"People are heartbroken," she said. "Some want to ride it out for a few days and see if they can get back in the park." Others want help finding places to stay away from Yosemite.

Mr Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

"There are wonderful places to visit in the region, so we're asking people to consider alternative plans," he said.

In the state's far north, a nearly 4-square-mile (10-square-kilometer) wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.

Associated PressThousands of people remain stranded after a dam collapsed in a remote part of Laos, unleashing a torrent of water which swept through villages and killed at least 19 people.

Around 19 people have been found dead and more than 3,000 require rescue, district governor Bounhom Phommasane told the Vientiane Times, adding that around 2,851 have been saved so far.

More than 6,000 people lost their homes when the dam gave way on Monday, releasing 5 billion cubic metres of water and flooding surrounding villages.

Photos and videos from the scene showed people sitting on rooftops to escape the surging water, while others were carried to safety or rescued by boat.

At least seven villages have been submerged by the floodwater.

State media pictures showed one-storey homes flooded with muddy water and said helicopters were also being used to rescue victims.

SK Engineering and Construction, one of two South Korean partners in the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy power project, said the top of one of five auxiliary dams got swept away after heavy rains.

But Korea Western Power, which was due to operate the hydroelectric power plant after its completion, said problems first emerged when workers discovered the dams centre had sunk by 11cm (4.3in) late last week.

Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Show all 15 1 /15 Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Lao villagers stranded on rooftops of houses after they had to evacuate them due to floodwaters after the Xe Pian Xe Nam Noy dam collapsed, in a village near Attapeu province in Laos EPA/ABC Laos News Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Hundreds of people were reported missing while several others were killed after the hydroelectric dam burst, causing heavy flash floods through several villages AFP/Getty Images Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Lao villagers evacuate on a boat EPA Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Villagers carry their belonging as they evacuate REUTERS Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Thousands of people have been left homeless and hundreds of households are submerged underwater AP Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Villagers inside a temporary shelter REUTERS Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages People sitting on a rooftop of a house surrounded by floodwaters AFP/Getty Images Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Lao military preparing for rescue efforts Getty/ABC Laos News Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Villagers take refuge on a rooftop above flood waters AP Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Villagers inside a temporary shelter REUTERS Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages An aerial view of the flooded plains in Attapeu province AFP/Getty Images Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Dogs take refuge on a rooftop AP Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Structures surrounded by floodwaters AFP/Getty Images Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages Villagers inside a temporary shelter REUTERS Laos dam collapse: broken hydroelectric power plant floods villages A villager takes refuge on a rooftop above flood waters AP

Repair work for the earthfill dam was hampered by heavy rain and damaged roads and the situation worsened as water cascaded out of the reservoir, flooding seven out of 12 villages in the area, SK Engineering and Construction said.

The company was helping to evacuate and rescue residents while also trying to contain further damage. Shares in major stakeholders of SK Engineering and Construction fell on Wednesday after news of the collapse.

Residents displaced by massive flood waters from the collapsed dam seek shelter in Paksong town in Champasak province (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The government declared the area in Attapeu province a disaster zone and senior officials rushed to the site, it said.

Continued heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the area could hinder rescue efforts, and risks from flooding persisted in the mountainous region.

Provincial authorities issued a call for emergency aid  clothing, food, drinking water, medicine, cash and other items  from the party, government organisations, business community, officials, police and military forces and people of all strata.

The International Red Cross said food was a concern because village food supplies were drenched in the flooding. It was arranging for water purification units to be sent to the area to ensure supplies of clean drinking water.

The presidential office in South Korea said President Moon Jae-in had ordered an emergency relief team to help with the disaster.

At least seven villages have been submerged by the floodwater in Attapeu province (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

Laos, one of the worlds few remaining communist states and one of Asias poorest countries, has an ambitious dam-building scheme in order to become the battery of Asia.

Its government depends almost entirely on outside developers to build its planned portfolio of dams under commercial concessions which agree to export electricity to its more developed neighbours, including Thailand.

But dam-building along the Mekong river and its tributaries, including those affected by this disaster, has raised concerns over environmental impact and other problems.

People are evacuated from floodwaters on a boat (AP)

Environment rights groups have repeatedly warned about the human and environmental cost of the rapid pace of dam construction, including damage to the already-fragile ecosystem of the regions rivers.

International Rivers, a nongovernmental group generally critical of such projects, said the catastrophe showed the need to improve warning systems.

With over 70 hydropower projects currently built, under construction and planned across Lao PDR  most of them owned and operated by private companies  authorities must immediately review how dams are being planned, designed and managed, the group said in a statement.

Last year, the 15-megawatt Nam Ao hydropower dam collapsed in Laoss northern Xieng Khuong province, resulting in flash floods that damaged property and risked lives.

Additional reporting by agenciesStepping over the charred rubble that was once the entire contents of a living room, John Kadikis looks around and shakes his head.

Singed bird cages and bed springs are scattered over a carpet of ashy white plaster and melted glass from windows  but there are no bodies here. He and his co-volunteer rescue workers move on to the next house.

Weve been searching door-to-door since yesterday, says Kadikis, who works for the NGO Crisis Management Team, or ODIK in Greek, as he wipes the sweat from his brow.

So far we have found only pets that were trapped in the yards. I hope we will not find bodies.

The last time I saw something like this was in 2007, adds fellow volunteer Vangelis Forinakis, referring to the forest fires in Greeces Peloponnese. He gestures at the apocalyptic scenes around him: There are no words to describe it.

Recommended Greece neighbours send planes in desperate attempt to halt deadly fire

Greece was in mourning Wednesday as the number of casualties from the deadliest forest fires in a decade continued to climb past 80. The fires hit areas east and west of the capital, Athens, with the holiday resort village of Mati hardest hit.

More than 280 firefighters were still in the area to the northeast of Athens in the wider Rafina area, dousing the remaining flames to prevent flare-ups. A further 200 firefighters, backed up by a water-dropping helicopter, were tackling the second forest fire west of the capital, near Agioi Theodoroi, where local authorities preemptively evacuated three communities, a childrens summer camp and three monasteries overnight, according to the fire department.

Although there is no formal count, more than 150 people were still believed to be missing nationally as of Wednesday evening, according to Mr Forinakis.

A website set up at missingpeople.audax.gr for people to post photographs listed some 28 men, women and children of all ages, including two nine-year-old twin girls and their grandparents. Nearly 20 are from Mati.

The popular seaside spot is just a short drive from the tourist-packed port of Rafina, where ferries depart daily to summer hotspots such as Mykonos island.

Cars burnt following a wildfire in the village of Mati, near Athens (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

Although the port was unharmed, Mati and the pine-covered surrounding areas were ravaged by blazes that began Monday and raged overnight into Tuesday, fanned by winds of up to 60 miles per hour that also severely hampered firefighting efforts. Around 1,000 houses and 300 cars have been destroyed, according to the mayor of Rafina.

Most of Matis inhabitants managed to flee to the sea or neighbouring villages, but not everyone. The heavily burnt bodies of 26 people  including children  were found huddled together on a cliff top here shortly after the fires died down. Its believed they were trapped while trying to escape to the water.

More gruesome discoveries like this are expected as hundreds of firefighters, army personnel and volunteers continued to comb the affected areas for victims.

In Mati, where the smell of smoke hangs heavy in the air, an 84-year-old woman whose son had been searching for her since Monday was finally found and identified. Police and reporters gathered around the entrance to a small, burnt-out house whose roof had collapsed as her remains were transferred to a black coffin and loaded into a hearse. Her son and granddaughter sobbed inconsolably as they looked on.

 Athens wildfires: Car passenger films on motorway surrounded by flames

The heavy death toll makes people like Peggy Guinness feel lucky to have escaped with their lives.

I live here with my husband and two children, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl and a 16-year-old-boy, she explains, as helicopters towing buckets of water to remaining blazes buzz over ahead.

We saw the fire and just took our two cars and drove. We only have the clothes you see on us now.

Our house is totally destroyed, theres nothing left, she says, pointing to the scorched doorway to her home now marked by little more than piles of blackened roof tiles.

Our house is totally destroyed, theres nothing left ... We have to be strong now, for the children Peggy Guinness, local resident

Inside, what was once a family home is now just a shell of a building, the metal parts of light fixtures, beds and a childs tricycle the only remains of the Guinnesss lifes possessions.

We have to be strong now. for the children, she says, taking a deep breath. We have nothing else so its the only way. We dont have insurance but the government will help, we hope.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has declared three days of national mourning and announced 20m (18m) in emergency funding for affected areas on top of 10m for those who have lost homes and loved ones.

The pledges come amid criticisms that there was no evacuation plan in place and that the government and emergency services responded too slowly once the fire was underway.

On Monday Greece activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism  which provides support in case of disasters  and has since been offered support from throughout the EU in the form of planes, personnel and monitoring assistance.

Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Show all 30 1 /30 Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A house threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta AFP/Getty Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog Reuters Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A helicopter flies over a wildfire raging in the town of Rafina, near Athens REUTERS Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens An aerial view shows burnt houses following a wildfire in the village of Mati AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Firefighters, soldiers and local residents carry a hose as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina REUTERS Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A man walks on the beach where burned trees hug the coastline in Mati east of Athens AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens People bring supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Flames rise as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Firefighters carry a dead person AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks to the media during his visit to the fire brigade's operational center in Athens EPA Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens An aerial view of a burnt urban area following fire in Kineta Hellenic Ministry of Defence/AFP/Getty Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Reuters Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Residents react as they look at their burned house EPA Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Rescuers and volunteers push an inflatable boat as locals are evacuated REUTERS Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens An aerial view of an urban area burnt following fire in Mati Hellenic Ministry of Defence/AFP/Getty Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Asimina Psalti, 87, reacts as she sits outside her burned house in Mati east of Athens AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A burnt forest following a wildfire in the village of Neos Voutzas AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens People cover their faces from the smoke that fills the sky near Kineta AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Smoke rise over an avenue during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa, a northeast suburb of Athens EPA Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Melted metals from burned cars after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati EPA Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Firefighters look for missing persons REUTERS Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Smoke fills the sky as members of the emergency services block a road near Kineta, west of Athens AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Burnt cars at the village of Mati AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Cars are blocked at the closed National Road AFP/Getty Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens A woman sprays water outside her house that was damaged in the wildfires near the village of Neos Voutzas AP Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Smoke from a wildfire burning outside Athens is seen over the Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis hill REUTERS Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens An aerial view shows burnt houses following a wildfire in the village of Mati AFP/Getty Images Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens Flames are seen next to firefighting vehicle during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa EPA Greece wildfire: deadly blaze rages across holiday resorts near Athens People look inside a burnt car REUTERS

The European Commission will not spare its efforts to help Greece, tweeted President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Informal donation points and shelters have also sprung up at restaurants, shops and hotels around the area, providing water, food and a place to rest for those in need.

Forest fires are not uncommon in Greece but a dry winter and recent temperatures of up to 40C have created the perfect tinderbox conditions. However, officials have hinted at foul play, suggesting that arsonists may have started the fires in order to loot abandoned homes.

Fifteen fires were started simultaneously on three different fronts in Athens, said government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, adding that Greece had requested drones from the US to detect any suspicious activity.

Four people were arrested Tuesday in the fire-stricken Neu Vujza area near Mati for burglary, according to the Greek police.

A Supreme Court prosecutor has ordered a probe into the cause of the disaster and the Greek anti-terrorist service is investigating as well, a security source said. Arson is often thought to be behind some fires in a crude attempt to clear forest land for building.A drug trial that saw pregnant women given sildenafil has been halted after 11 babies died of complications linked to the drug.

As part of the scheme led by Amsterdam University Medical Centre, pregnant women whose placentas were underdeveloped in the womb and had a high likelihood of giving birth prematurely took sildenafil.

Sildenafil is a treatment for erectile dysfunction in men that dilates blood vessels. The drug is also prescribed to treat high blood pressure.

Recommended Viagra now available over the counter without prescription in UK

The hope was that sildenafil would encourage blood flow to the placenta, subsequently promoting increased growth of the child - as backed by experimental research conducted on lab rats.

However, the trial, carried out across 10 hospitals in the Netherlands, was terminated when an independent committee discovered that more babies were dying after birth as a result of lung problems compared to the babies born to women taking the placebo.

According to Marc van den Broek, a spokesperson for Amsterdam UMC who spoke to The Independent, all of the women who participated in the study had a very low birthrate and the children would be in intensive care after they were born.

Of the 93 women given sildenafil as part of the trial, 17 babies developed lung problems, 11 of which have since died. A further eight died from unrelated conditions.

In comparison, of the 90 women in a control group who took the placebo, just three babies developed the same lung issues. No babies died from conditions that were linked to the sildenafil, however, nine did die from unrelated problems.

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A further 10 to 15 women are still waiting for results on their childrens health following the trial.

Although the results of the terminated trial have not been confirmed, it is believed that drug caused high blood pressure in the lungs resulting in too little oxygen in the babies who died.

Van den Broek said the babies developed severe lung problems and that the results of the study were released after the women were informed.

A statement released by the hospital said: An interim analysis by Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, showed that sildenafil may be detrimental to the baby after birth. The chance of a disease of the blood vessels of the lungs appears to be greater and the chance of death after birth seems to have increased.

The researchers found no positive effect for the children on other outcomes. All adverse effects occurred after birth  Based on these findings, the study stopped immediately. All participants were approached personally and almost everyone was informed and know by now whether they have taken the drug or the placebo.

Similar studies on the effects of sildenafil on pregnant women have been conducted in the UK by the University of Liverpool and New Zealand by the University of Auckland but the results of these studies were inconclusive.

A study currently being conducted in Canada has also been halted following the 11 deaths.

Before the drug trial, some doctors prescribed sildenafil to pregnant women who asked for it as a measure to save their unborn children, according to van den Broek.

Speaking to the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, gynaecologist and the lead researcher of the drug trial Wessel Ganzevoort said: It was buzzing at conferences. Foreign colleagues let slip that they sometimes prescribed it, with good results.

Of the request for sildenafil from women carrying underdeveloped foetuses, Mr van den Broek said: They are happy with anything that might help.

The study helps despite the very sad outcome because it helps to prevent more babies from dying while women are pregnant.

Although it is believed the trial, which began in 2015 and was meant to conclude in 2020, was conducted properly, it is expected that an external investigation will be launched.Congressional defense lawmakers barred deliveries of the fifth-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Turkey, inserting the ban into the final version of the Pentagons budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year.

House and Senate conferees adopted the legislation, which prohibits shipments of the advanced, multi-role jet fighter to Ankaras forces until the Pentagon delivers "an assessment of a significant change in Turkish participation in the F-35 program, including the potential elimination of such participation," the Washington Times cited defense lawmakers as saying.

The provision stipulates that the Department of Defense may not deliver any F-35 to Turkey until the report has been submitted to Congress.The brutal toll of major Russian-backed Syrian government assaults on rebel-held parts of the country so far this year has been highlighted in a new report which found that Russian airstrikes have killed at least 2,882 civilians in 2018 so far.

Research by Airwars, a UK-based not-for-profit tracking the cost of airstrikes on civilian populations in Syria, Iraq and Libya, found there had been a 34 per cent increase in incidents of civilian harm caused by Russia during the first six months of this year compared to 2017.

Airwars documented a new total of 3,445 civilian casualties which can be directly linked to Russian aircraft, but noted that the actual number of deaths could be as high as 18,000.

To date, the Russian government has not acknowledged responsibility for any civilian casualties in its operations.

The 2018 spike corresponds with huge offensives from Syrian president Bashar al Assad to retake eastern Ghouta in Damascus and southern Deraa province, two of the last rebel strongholds in the country.

The Ghouta operation in April also saw the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, which killed up to 85 people and led to retaliatory strikes on a Syrian military base by US President Donald Trump.

This huge jump is reflective of the aggressive campaigns Russia has been involved in this year, Airwars director Chris Woods told The Independent. With every international belligerent in Syria we see very poor outcomes for civilians but we do not generally see deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure with the US coalition like we do with Russia.

 Theresa May denies UK bombed Syria 'beacuse Trump asked us to'

Ultimately, Russia is ensuring the survival of the Assad government at any cost.

The six-month report also found that deaths caused by the US-led coalition against Isis in Syria dropped sharply in the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, but despite the conclusion of the Raqqa campaign last year, coalition action had still killed between 272 and 460 civilians.

Airwars estimates the international coalition has killed up to 26,112 civilians since it began bombing Isis positions in Syria and Iraq in 2014.

The alliance itself has so far conceded 939 civilian deaths resulting from 237 airstrikes.

"War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Show all 20 1 /20 "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria A child injured by an IED explosion in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Children riding a bicycle among destroyed buildings in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Entire neighbourhoods in Raqqa are damaged beyond repair Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the house where seven members of the Badran family were killed in a Coalition strike on 18 July 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Members of the Badran family killed in three separate Coalition air strike on 18 July and 20 August 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria The city of Raqqa in northern Syria has become hardly recognizable to those who try to return after months battle between US-backed forces and the Islamic State terrorist group for control of it. The city has no running water or electricity and homes, business and public squares are mere rubble and debris Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Fayad Mohammed and his daughters Wafa, Fadda and Tamam; Ammar al-Faris; Reem al-Maddad, Yusra Abd-al-Aziz, and baby Razqiya Habib; Jasim Hamal and Salem Hamad. They were among the 16 civilians killed in Coalition air strikes on 12 October 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Men wait by the side of the road for casual labour in Raqqa. Many end up clearing partially destroyed or damaged buildings, a very risky endeavour as many building were mined by IS and civilians are frequently killed and injured by mines Amnesty "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite images showing the Aswad familys building before it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the Aswad familys building after it was destroyed in a Coalition air strike which killed eight civilians, five of them children, on 28 June 2017 CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Amal Othman, 13, and her brothers Ammar, 8 and Mahmoud, 17; and Jamal Aswad, 41  four of the eight victims killed in a Coalition air strike on 28 June 2017 in Raqqa Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Low-income district west of the Jezra intersection on the western outskirts of Raqqa city destroyed by the Coalition shelling started in June 2017 Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, before the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Satellite image showing the houses where 16 members of the Fayad family and neighbours were killed in Coalition strikes on 12 October 2017, after the strike CNES/Airbus DS "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Ali Hassan Nafa; Mahdia Hashish and her husband Hussein Ali; Hussein Hashish, Mohammed Hashish and Hussein Ibrahim Hashish, and Mohammed Ali Hashish Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Harat al Badu, a built up area in central Raqqa, next to the stadium. It was the scene of the final battle in the city between SDF/Coalition forces and IS Amnesty International "War of Annihilation"  devastating toll on civilians in Raqqa, Syria Map showing where the Badran, Hashish, Aswad and Fayab families were living before the coalition air strikes Unosat /Amnesty International

Russia began military aid to the Syrian government in 2015, a move which eventually turned the tide of the war decisively in president Assads favour.

While Washington and Moscow have backed opposing sides in Syrias complex seven-year-old conflict US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin suggested they may find common ground for military cooperation in the conflict after a bilateral meeting in Helsinki.

No further details have emerged of any agreements reached by the two leaders.A devastating wave of suicide attacks and subsequent fighting in southern Syria which has killed more than 200 people has been claimed by Isis in what is the groups deadliest assault in months.

Coordinated bombings hit the government-controlled city of Sweida, sparking gun battles in surrounding villages between attacking Isis-allied jihadis and regime forces on Wednesday morning, local officials said.

In Sweida city, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were four blasts, one of which was carried out by a motorcycle bomber who ploughed into a marketplace in the early hours of the morning.

 IDF turns away Syrian refugees at border

Syrias state news agency said two more militants were killed by security forces and one was arrested before they could detonate their explosives.

A local health official told pro-government radio that 215 people had died, while another told Associated Press 204 were killed.

The Druze-majority towns health authority earlier told state news that 150 people had been killed and around 80 injured in the attacks. The Observatory put the initial number of casualties at 52 people, including 28 pro-government fighters. The death toll is expected to rise.

The carnage comes in the wake of a new offensive from President Bashar al-Assad to dislodge Isis from a small area in Sweida province and the nearby Golan Heights.

Wednesdays attack is Isiss most brutal since the groups so-called caliphate across Syria and Iraq was largely dismantled by Syrian government forces and a separate operation by US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters last year.

Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Show all 14 1 /14 Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian woman and children run for cover amid the rubble of buildings. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Smoke rises from buildings following the attack on the village of Mesraba in the rebel-held besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascu. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A Syrian man carries a child injured. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured child receives treatment following bombings on several areas of eastern Ghouta. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A child reacts inside a hospital after relatives were injured in the bombing. EPA Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian children cry at a make-shift hospital in Douma following air strikes on the Syrian village of Mesraba. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense group extinguishing a store during airstrikes and shelling by Syrian government forces. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures A wounded 12-year-old Syrian boy, cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrians carry a wounded man. AFP/Getty Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures An injured man covered with blood at a medical point. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures People sit a medical point in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Syrian Civil Defense running to help survivors. AP Eastern Ghouta bombings: Syrian war in pictures Injured children receive medical treatment. EPA

Since then, Mr Assad has moved to crush the last remnants of the Syrian opposition in eastern Ghouta, Homs, and the southwest countryside.

While the jihadis have lost control of all but a sliver of Syrias eastern desert and pockets of the southern countryside, the group has morphed into an insurgency and maintains sleeper cells inside territory controlled by both President Assad and Syrias rebels.

Attacks on fighting forces as well as civilians are designed to show the group is still powerful and capable of wreaking fear and destruction across the war-torn country.

The provinces governor, Amer al-Eshi, told state-run Ikhbariyah TV that Sweida had been secured by Wednesday afternoon.

Ikhbariyah also reported that Syrias air force unleashed a successful bombing campaign on Isis positions to flush the fighters out of the seized villages of Douma, Tima and al-Matouna.

Sweida has largely escaped the violence that has engulfed most of Syria during the brutal seven-year civil war, but is now being dragged into the intense fighting of a government campaign to recapture neighbouring Deraa province from rebel and jihadi forces.

Mr Assads troops and allied militias have made quick progress in the month-long offensive with the help of Russian air power.

At its peak, the month-long operation displaced 320,000 civilians from their homes, and thousands of people are still camped out in desert conditions near the borders with Jordan and Israel without adequate water and shelter.

The fighting is now focussed on removing the Isis coalition Khalid ibn al-Walid army from Quneitra, on the frontier with Israel.A United Nations bloc of developing countries has elected the observer state of Palestine as its next leader in a symbolic snub to the US and its ally Israel.

The Group of 77, which has grown to encompass 135 countries since its formation in 1964, was formed to promote its members collective economic interests and enhance their joint negotiating capacity. It now represents a total 80 per cent of the worlds population.

The choice of the Palestinians as the groups chair for 2019 is a diplomatic win for Ramallah at the expense of Israel and Washington DC. Both have argued against strengthening the Palestinians international political clout until a peace settlement is reached in the intractable Arab-Israeli conflict which agrees on the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

 Palestinian protesters remove barbed wire from fence at Gaza border

The permanent Palestinian observer to the UN, Riyad Mansour, confirmed news of the Group 77 decision in a phone interview on Tuesday with The New York Times.

The Palestinian mission to the UN was granted observer status in 2012, which made it eligible to join important bodies such as the International Criminal Court and Unesco.

The Palestinians have used their membership of both agencies to further their push for statehood as well as file complaints about alleged Israeli human rights abuses and settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator shouts Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli forces at Palestinian demonstrators Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A wounded Palestinian is evacuated Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a sling to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A female demonstrator uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator with a slingshot looks on Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female Palestinian demonstrators react to tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Israeli forces fire teargas canisters toward Palestinian demonstrators AFP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Female demonstrators run for cover from tear gas fired by Israeli forces Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian medics evacuate a wounded protester AP Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator moves a burning tire Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures A demonstrator uses a racket to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops Reuters Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops: in pictures Palestinian demonstrators during clashes with Israeli forces AFP/Getty

[The US and Israel] are still denying we are a state, Mr Mansour told The New York Times. We walk like a state. We quack like a state. Therefore we are a state.

The move to give the Palestinians the chair of such a large delegation comes at a time of heightened tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, sparked by the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, and a new, significant stumbling block in the peace process in the form of US president Donald Trump's administration.

Mr Trumps decision to fulfil an election campaign promise last December by recognising the contested city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel sparked protests across the Muslim world.

It also led the Palestinian Authority leadership to sever diplomatic relations with the US, declaring the White House could no longer be an honest broker between the two parties.

The stalled negotiations do not sit well with Donald Trump, who has made Arab-Israeli peace  which he describes as the ultimate deal  a foreign policy priority.

In an effort to force the Palestinians to the table, at the beginning of the year the US cut $65m (49m) of an earmarked $125m in funding to the UNs agency for Palestinians, Unrwa.One of the most underrated European capitals, Kiev is an alluring mix of centuries-old architectural masterpieces, amazing food, bustling nightlife and energetic art. Having gone through two modern revolutions, the Ukrainian capital quirkily combines the best of east and west. Its a city of curious contradictions where old and new clash in the most bizarre  and brilliant  ways.

And its never been easier to visit, with Ryanair launching direct flights from London Stansted to complement existing services operated by BA, Wizz Air and Ukraine International.

What to do

Descend into ancient caves

Unesco-protected Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, entrance 30 hryvnias (0.90), is the main highlight of the Ukrainian capital. Be sure to descend into the dimly lit labyrinth of ancient caves where monks previously dwelt. The experience is enhanced by the presence of the mummified bodies of the saints resting in numerous vaults underground.

Pechersk Lavra is the citys foremost attraction (Getty/iStock)

Be amazed by Byzantine architecture

St Sophias Cathedral, entrance 180 hryvnias, is a Kiev must-see. It was built as the main church for the powerful medieval empire of Kievan Rus and has been a splendid symbol of Kiev ever since. Be awe-inspired by the breathtaking Byzantine interior and well preserved medieval frescoes inside. For fantastic vistas of downtown Kiev, climb the elegant Baroque bell tower, which boasts 360-degree views of the city centre.

Walk down the local Montmartre

Long known as a mecca for painters, musicians, writers and artisans, the cobbled street of Andriivskyi Descent is one of the last remaining places to sense the atmosphere of the pre-Soviet or old Kiev, as locals would say. Get a trademark apple cider in Kanapka, visit Karas Gallery and spend an evening at Koleso Theatre, set in a tenement house from the 19th century. Take the stairs to the top of Castle Hill to enjoy magnificent views of this street, dominated by the Baroque St Andrews Church.

Andriivskyi Descent is where to see old Kiev (Getty) (Getty Images)

Get your dose of art

Pay a visit to Khanenko Museum of Arts, entrance 70 hryvnias, for spectacular eastern and western collections of classical art, and the National Art Museum of Ukraine, entrance 40 hryvnias, for the rich selection of chef-doeuvres by local masters.

Kiev is also famous for its contemporary art scene, with two institutions standing out. PinchukArtCentre is a free gallery featuring the likes of Damien Hirst, Banksy, Marina Abramovic and Ai Weiwei; it frequently hosts cutting-edge seasonal exhibitions. Izolyatsia is a former shipyard turned creative space buzzing with energetic displays of local and international artistic talent.

Where to stay

Ideally positioned in the middle of the historic Bohdana Khmelnytskoho street, 11 Mirrors is a stylish boutique hotel with a scrupulously designed, contemporary feel. It offers spacious and comfortable rooms and an excellent mezzanine restaurant. Doubles from 195, B&B.

MaNNa Boutique Hotel makes for a trendy stay (MaNNa Boutique Hotel) (Manna Boutique Hotel)

MaNNa is a modern boutique hotel with just five rooms. Boasting an innovative loft design, great service and convenient location in the hip Vozdvyzhenka district, its welcoming and trendy, an ideal Kiev refuge. Doubles from 163, room only.

The leader of the local hostel scene, Dream House Hostel Kyiv is a perfect pick for an affordable place to stay in the city. Situated as central as you can get, it has a great room selection and vibrant atmosphere  its everything youd expect from a good hostel. Doubles from 26, room only.

Where to eat

Offering a modern and innovative take on traditional Ukrainian dishes, Kanapa is one of the best restaurants in the capital. It benefits from a great setting in a charming, old, wooden house on Andriyivsky Uzviz. Treat yourself to culinary superstars like black varenyky (traditional Ukrainian filled dumplings) with pikeperch, borsch soup with pork ears and of course, chicken kiev.

Try traditional dumplings (Getty/iStock) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Mama Manana is a soulful and cosy restaurant serving superbly tasty, simple Georgian food and wine. Plump for khinkali dumplings with various fillings, extra cheesy khachapuri bread and chkmeruli made of chicken in a garlic cream sauce.

To really understand the Kiev food scene you should head to the streets. Start your tour with legendary Perepichka (B Khmelnytskoho St, 3), serving fried buns with a sausage inside for the last 30 years. Continue with Yaroslava (Yaroslaviv Val, 13), a retro eatery supplying locals with super affordable and incredibly tasty filled pies since 1956. Finish up with a more modern option: Green 13 is the best vegan spot around and its trademark Green Burger is out of this world.

Where to drink

Hidden in a basement on the central Shota Rustaveli street, Alchemist may well be the Kievs most bohemian spot. Its top-notch bar meets bombastic dance floor meets jazz club, with a great selection of drinks, an amazing atmosphere and a trendy, well-curated set of music acts. An ideal high-end nightlife spot.

Alchemist is a vibrant nightspot (Alchemist)

Barman Dictat may be a bit difficult to find (it lurks in one of the courtyards off the main Khreschatyk street), but once you do locate this basement bar, its definitely worth the journey. With an impressive floor-to-ceiling alcohol stand, cool industrial design and one long bar serving as the centre of the action, its a classy locale in which to enjoy after-dinner drinks.

With futuristic, minimalist design, a high quality drink selection and fantastic views, One Love stands out from the many coffee shops of Kiev. Its located on the fifth floor of PinchukArtCentre  combine a coffee break with a gander at some of the best contemporary art around.

Where to shop

For the biggest choice of clothes from Ukrainian designers and brands, head to the large Vsi Svoi store located on Khreschatyk street. Keep an eye out for embroidery  Ukraine is famous for its vyshyvankas (traditional embroidered shirts)  and check out the locally produced bags, shoes and T-shirts.

Kiev is known for its embroidered clothes (Getty/iStock) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Browse Mriyi Mariyi for authentic and well-made Ukrainian memorabilia. It has a great assortment of potential souvenirs such as traditional clothes, ceramics, glass, art and knick-knacks.

Bessarabsky Rynok is a legendary Kiev market offering a rich selection of goods. Although slightly overpriced, it remains one of the most popular markets in the capital.

Architectural highlight

One of the most instantly recognizable elements of Kievs skyline is the magnificent Great Lavra Bell Tower. Built in the 18th century and adorned by more than 50 columns, its one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.

The Great Lavra Bell Tower is a dramatic addition to the skyline (Getty/iStock) (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Nuts and bolts

Cheapest time to fly

What currency do I need?

Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH), currently around 33.90 to 1.

What language do they speak?

Ukrainian is an official language with Russian widely spoken as well.

How much should I tip?

Around 10 per cent of the bill.

Whats the time difference?

Two hours behind the UK.

Whats the average flight time from the UK?

Three hours.

Public transport

Metro is a good option for getting around. Buses can be overcrowded and inconvenient. Avoid marshrutkas (privately owned minibuses); Uber is the best choice for a taxi service.

Best view

Head to Volodymyrska Hirka Park for stunning views over the Dnipro River and the Kiev hills.

Insider tip

Try and time a visit with the monthly Kurazh Bazar, the coolest and biggest flea market in the city.So, Theresa May, am I going to be able to get my insulin if, when, the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal as a substantial chunk of your party, together with a handful of Labour MPs, appear to want?

As the prime minister of the UK and Britains most prominent type 1 diabetic, I dont imagine youll have anything to worry about.

But for those who dont enjoy such an exalted position, it looks like its going to be squeaky bum time, at least if the investigations I recently conducted are anything to go on.

NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Show all 25 1 /25 NHS in Crisis march: in pictures NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protesters call on the government to reverse cuts to the NHS. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators dressed as an undertaker and carrying a fake coffin. Getty Images NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators gather on Gover Street in central London ahead of a march towards Downing Street to protest against underfunding and privatisation of the NHS and demand an end to the winter crisis in the health service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Health workers and NHS campaigners march through London to a rally outside Downing Street. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Thousands of protesters marched during the demonstration organised by 'The People's Assembly Against Austerity' campaign group that called for better funding for the National Health Service (NHS) to end the 'winter crisis' in the national health care system. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A Boris Johnson impersonator lies in a makeshift hospital bed next to an effigy of Theresa May during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator in a mobility scooter carries a placard. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in a emergency NHS 'Fix It Now' protest demanding an end to the funding crisis in the Health Service. Rex NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators take part in pro-NHS march and protest towards Downing Street in Central London. EPA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A protestor carries a placard featuring Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The demonstration is focused on the current crisis in the National Health Service. Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards and set off flares . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A demonstrator carries a cardboard skeleton wearing an ambulance uniform . Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators hold placards during a People's Assembly demonstration against the Conservative government's health policy Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures The Government will be urged to provide more beds, staff and funds to ease the problems facing the service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors gather calling for an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth M joins people taking part in the march. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures A placard reading 'Nurses with fight for the NHS'. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards and shout slogans. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People march through central London. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People hold up a sign in support of the National Health Service to demand an end to the "crisis" in the NHS. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Protestors carry placards featuring Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May and Britain's Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt. AFP/Getty NHS in Crisis march: in pictures People take part in a march in London in support of the National Health Service. PA NHS in Crisis march: in pictures Demonstrators carry placards . Getty

As youll know, the NHS has admitted stockpiling medicines ahead of Kent being turned into a lorry park in the wake of a no-deal outcome. Trouble is, will it have enough, and will its forecasts for what is required prove accurate?

Thats kind of the million euro question, isnt it? Because if it gets the answer wrong then the future for those of us who rely on prescription medication like insulin, as you and I do, could be bleak.

You think Im exaggerating? Scaremongering?

Think again.

This is the question I recently asked NHS England one morning (Ive copied and pasted from the email its press office insisted I send because telephones are such old tech): Can you categorically assure me that insulin, and blood testing supplies, will be secure in the event of a no-deal Brexit?

Now if there were no doubt about that I would have got a simple yes at just after 9.30am when I made the first call. But I didnt. Instead I was instructed to send the email so it could be picked up by the person whose area it is. That I did at 9.38am.

At 2.34pm, a shade under five hours later, and after one further call, this is the non answer I finally received from a press officer: As the Department of Health lead on contingency plans, your question really is best placed for them.

Now, in a sane country, governed by sane people, youd expect to receive something along the lines of this within about 3.8 seconds: Of course, why are you wasting your time asking us this, you silly boy.

Instead, a simple yes or no question was kicked over to the Department of Health after a five hour delay. If youre lucky youll get seen more quickly in a busy A&E on a Friday night.

I havent yet got in touch with health secretary Matt Hancocks people because, well, is there any point? I dont think anyone can rely upon anything your government says, or does, with respect to Brexit anymore.

Frankly, the time it took for the NHS to refuse an answer to my question speaks louder than bombs. And it throws a harsh spotlight on the willingness of your government to needlessly put at risk the lives of its citizens with long term medical conditions to keep a core of careerists and cynics in parliament, and their media cheerleaders, happy.

Heres a secondary question that I also put in my email: Alternatively, do you have any advice on where I should go when I jump on a plane to write about trying to secure medication that keeps me alive for The Independent, which Im planning to do in case the answer to the above question is anything other than Yes absolutely we can categorically assure you wont need to do that.'

My asking the follow up was prompted by my researching a piece defending the NHS and the principle of free at the point of need that is its greatest attribute.

During the course of it, I discovered that diabetics like us are needlessly dying in the US not due to the lack of availability of insulin, blood testing strips, or other diabetic drugs and equipment, but as a result of their lacking the financial resources to purchase them in a country where universal health coverage doesnt exist.

Doctors there were quoted as half seriously suggesting that diabetics fly to France to pick up a years supply of insulin. Its cheaper there because, unlike in the US, the price of drugs is controlled.

Ive now started investigating where I might go to do the same thing if the worst comes to the worst, as looks increasingly likely.

I might not be a current or former PM, but I do have savings, and Im hoping The Indy will front me a plane fare for the purposes of reporting on my quest so others in the same position can follow my example. I might also claim asylum while Im at it. Ive seen the tone some of the Brexiteers in your party have taken.

However, Im well aware that not everyone is in the relatively fortuitous position that Im in. Not everyone has the resources to be able to hop on a plane and shell out the couple of grand that might be required to secure a years supply of meds at the other end.

A game of poker is being played with their lives, and that makes me so helplessly furious I could weep. I only wish you felt the same way.'Greater demand to the hotel's five star product drove an increase in room prices,' according to the Shelbourne hotel directors

A 15.7m refurbishment project in 2017 at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel contributed to pre-tax profits at the hotel firm last year dipping 3pc to 3.8m.

However, increased room rates at the hotel on Dublin's St Stephen's Green resulted in revenues going up by 5pc - from 39.7m to 41.7m for last year.

According to the directors' report for KW Shelbourne Ops Ltd, they are pleased to report increased revenues for the year.

They state that they are confident that the strong trading position of the hotel will continue over the medium- to long-term as the benefits arising from the extensive refurbishment project undertaken by both the company and its landlord continue to be realised.

The company enjoyed post tax profits of 3.32m.

In 2014, US real estate specialists, Kennedy Wilson assumed control of one of the country's best known five-star hotels, when it paid 110m for the debts attached to the property.

The revenues show that the hotel generated revenues of 157,603 for each of its 265 rooms for the year - the hotel has 19 suites and 246 rooms.

The hotel continues to be a favourite of Hollywood A-listers and the directors state: "Greater demand for the hotel's five-star product drove an increase in room prices."

Accumulated profits at the end of last year total 7.39m. The company's cash pile increased from 6.46m to 7.26m.

A separate firm, Torriam Hotel Operating Company Ltd has a contract to run the hotel, and last year the numbers it employed at the hotel increased from 526 to 540.

Midweek rooms at the hotel in August start from 337 per night per room, ranging up to 1,350 per night for a heritage suite.Ireland would "absolutely" support Britain if it asked for an extension to the Article 50 timetable for leaving the European Union, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said today.

Britain is due to leave the European Union on March 29, 2019 after it formally notified the bloc of Britain's intention to leave the EU by triggering Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty in March 2017.

Coveney said that the timetable for departure could be changed if the EU and Britain agreed to do so. Asked if he would support a British request for an extension, he said: "absolutely".

"If Britain asks for more time, and if that's necessary to get to a sensible agreement, well then we would support that," he told BBC radio.

He said he believed there was still time to do a deal within the current timeline, but that would require an "intensification" of negotiations between London and Brussels.

On Tuesday, Britain's new Brexit minister Dominic Raab described the UK's latest proposal as a "real offer", and suggested that Britain may not move much from the so-called "Chequers" plan, agreed by British Prime Minister Theresa May with at her country residence Chequers.

But Coveney and Germany's foreign minister have said that while the plan is the basis for a new round of negotiations, Britain needs to move further still.

The Chequers plan has attracted criticism from Eurosceptics in May's party as well as those who originally wanted to stay in the bloc, and Britain has said it is stepping up preparations for "no-deal", with Raab also saying food would be stockpiled for that eventuality.

Coveney said on Wednesday he didn't believe a no deal Brexit would happen, saying Britain and the EU would both suffer.

"We all have an obligation to make sure that does not happen," he said.

As well as the prospect of a longer timetable for leaving the EU, some have discussed the prospect of the process being reversed altogether.

Campaigners have sought to test the reversibility of Article 50, although a court case brought in Ireland to establish whether Britain could withdraw the notice of its departure unilaterally was dropped last year.Theresa May is taking personal control of EU withdrawal negotiations, with new Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab "deputising" for her in talks.

But senior politicians here remain to be convinced the UK prime minister's bid to take back control will yield any real progress.

Mrs May announced she would be front and centre of talks with Brussels alongside Olly Robbins, the UK's most senior and most trusted civil servant on Brexit, effectively sidelining Mr Raab.

On one of his first outings with the national press, Mr Raab triggered shockwaves last weekend when he suggested the UK could renege on paying its outstanding financial bill for commitments made in the EU over the past 45 years of membership.

He is now in charge of domestic preparations, no-deal planning and legislation.

His predecessor David Davis had already been effectively stood down at the start of the year, and talks have already been conducted by Mr Robbins.

One senior source told the Irish Independent: "I'm not sure it makes much of a difference, because before Raab, Robbins was handling everything anyway, but it looks like her way of reinforcing both Ollie Robbins and her roles as leading the talks.

"Raab is forced to support her and not 'get notions' that he's above Ollie Robbins."

Mr Raab insisted he would not "wallow in pessimism" about the Brexit process as Eurosceptics voiced their concerns about his department being sidelined by No 10. The Brexit secretary played down the "shifting of the Whitehall deckchairs" and insisted the UK would not "cower" in talks with Brussels following concerns that a "no-deal" Brexit was becoming more likely.

He repeated his warning the UK could withhold payment of its 39bn "divorce bill" if the EU fails to reach agreement on its future trade relationship.

"There must be a firm commitment in the withdrawal agreement requiring the framework for the future relationship to be translated into legal text as soon as possible," Mr Raab told MPs.

The one possible upside for Ireland is that there will be less confusion and less damage to already very fragile levels of diplomacy.

"One of the problems recently has been the mixed messages and positions from London so anything that negates that is good," said another source.

Transition

It came as Britain set out how it plans to keep European Union laws during its transition from the EU after next March.

It said elements of the 1972 laws which make Britain a member of the bloc would need to be saved, which would include a role for the European Court of Justice.

The UK government issued a policy document on legislation it says is needed to implement the terms of any final exit deal negotiated between London and Brussels, once it has been approved in principle by parliament.

The document is the most clear presentation yet of how the UK government intends the relationship between Britain and the EU to be little changed during the so-called implementation period until December 2020.

It sets out a continuing role for the ECJ throughout the transition and for EU laws still to apply.

Meanwhile, the Taoiseach is continuing his whistle-stop tour of European capitals in a bid to re-energise support for Ireland's Brexit conundrum.

He joined Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Viorica Dancila in Bucharest yesterday.

Mr Varadkar said his preference would be for the UK to request an extension of the Brexit talks until a proper deal was hammered out.

He said extending the March timeline would be "preferable" if the UK continues to career towards the cliff edge.

But he warned that any such slippage on the deadline could only be entertained if the UK requests it, and the government there manages to speak with a unified position on Brexit.

President Iohannis reiterated his country's acknowledgement of the difficulties that arise for Ireland over the Border.US senators Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez are working on a draft law that would impose sanctions on Russian sovereign debt and demand Senate approval for US quitting NATO, among other things.

The two senators announced they will be introducing the new sanctions law to ensure the maximum impact on the Kremlins campaign against our democracy and the rules-based international order.

"We will be introducing comprehensive legislation in the coming days to ensure the imposition of mandatory sanctions under CAATSA while levying additional sanctions to ensure the maximum impact the Kremlins campaign against our democracy and the rules-based international order," the statement said adding that the bill will include sanctions on the Russian sovereign debt.

The senators added that legislation will include the establishment of a National Center to Respond to Russian Threats.

In May, the US Treasury Department prolonged sanctions already in place against a number of Russian companies until the end of October this year, Sputnik recalls.

US oil and gas companies are lobbying against imposing tougher sanctions on Russia, concerned that the sanctions could jeopardize their investments in the world's greatest oil-producing country.

The decision comes after several controversial marks made by US President Donald Trump during his meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, including that Washington was to blame for the poor state of bilateral relations.

At the summit, the US president also expressed doubt regarding the American intelligence community's conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election, an allegation that Moscow has repeatedly denied.'There are always customers who absolutely appreciate premium quality, go out of their way to find it and will pay a premium price.' Stock Image: Getty Images/Caiaimage

Europeans continue to eat food that is largely free of pesticide residues or which contains levels of residues within legal limits, the latest monitoring figures show.

More than 96pc of samples analysed for the latest annual report on pesticide residues in food were found to be within legal limits; around 51pc were free of any quantifiable residues.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: As in previous years, this report confirms the high level of compliance of food on the shelves in the EU.

"Every year, thousands of food products are controlled by Member States to check that the legal limits are being respected: we owe it to European citizens to make sure that the EU's food chain not only remains the most stringent and controlled in the world but is one that we are very serious about continuously improving.

The findings for Ireland show of the 1,143 samples take here, that 58.9pc were below the Limit of Quantification (LOQ)

To coincide with the publication of this years report, EFSA has developed a simple graphical tool that enables users to see the main findings by country and food product. The new tool is available in four languages and complements the existing data dashboards, which present the results in greater detail and allow comparison with previous years.

Main findings for 2016

The reporting countries analysed 84,657 samples for 791 pesticides.

96.2pc (81,482) of the samples were within limits permitted in EU legislation and 50.7pc of the tested samples were free of quantifiable residues. In the previous reporting year (2015), 97.2pc of samples were within the legal limits and 53.3pc were free of quantifiable residues. The difference is mainly attributed to the finding of chlorate residues, a compound that was included for the first time in the 2016 control programmes to support ongoing work to establish maximum residue levels (MRLs).

The majority of the tested samples (67pc) originated from EU Member States, Iceland and Norway; 26.4pc concerned products imported from third countries. For 6.6pc of the samples, the origin of the products was unknown.

Legal limits were exceeded in 2.4pc of samples for products from EU and EEA countries, legal limits were exceeded in 7.2pc of the samples from non-EU countries.

Of the 1,676 samples of food intended for infants and young children, 98.1pc were within the limits permitted in EU legislation; 89.8pc of the samples were free of quantifiable residues.

5,495 samples of organic food were taken in 2016, of which 98.7pc were within legal limits; 83.1pc of the samples were free of quantifiable residues.

EU coordinated programme

As part of its annual report, EFSA analyses the results of the EU-coordinated control programme (EUCP), under which reporting countries analyse samples from the same basket of food items and for the same pesticides.

For 2016 the products were apples, head cabbage, leek, lettuce, peaches, strawberries, tomatoes, rye, wine, cows milk and swine fat.

The lowest MRL exceedance rates were identified for rye (0.7pc), followed by head cabbage (1.1pc) and strawberries (1.8pc). The highest exceedances were found for apples (2.7pc) and tomatoes (2.6pc).Farmer Claire Spencer with bales of hay on her family farm in Annahala, Co Cork. Photo: Daragh McSweeney

Hay and straw prices have almost doubled as livestock farmers warned it could take Ireland 18 months to recover from the miserable winter followed by the record-breaking summer drought

Livestock farmers and stud operations are now desperately competing for available hay and straw supplies, with the Government carefully monitoring the situation, given the potential demand for a second fodder intervention in just four months.

Even world-renownedequestrian operations arebuying in fodder supplies.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been briefed on the escalating problems facing livestock farmers due to the heatwave, drought and feared fodder shortages.

Straw bales (4x4) are now fetching 30 each  a near doubling of the 17 price many farmers had shelled out for straw in 2017.

It is estimated that straw yields are now back by around 40pc nationwide.

Ireland traditionally produces around 7.5 million bales (4x4) of straw, but there are fears it could drop to 5.25 million bales this season.

The south-east, which traditionally produces hay and straw for other areas, is now expecting yields to plummet.

If some of the horror stories are to be believed, not a bale will leave places like Wexford because of local need, one Cork farmer said.

Waterford IFA chairman Kevin Kiersey said the terrible winter and unprecedented drought is causing serious

problems for many farmers.

The problems are going to become very apparent in the coming months, he said.

Major agri-food players have already taken action, with Dairygold offering interest-free credit to all its members for purchases of feed and fertiliser throughout July and August.

Round bales of hay are selling for 40 in some areas, with farmers warning that prices may rise further.

Cork farmer Jimmy Donoghue said his entire fodder stock was wiped out by Irelands miserable winter and spring.

I reckon I am back around 100 bales on where I was this time last year. I got hay at 30 per bale but I know other farmers who are being charged 40 and more per bale, he said.

Farmers across Ireland are desperately working to get straw and hay saved.

Donal and Elizabeth Cott were working hard on their farm at Knockane outside Donoughmore, Co Cork, while Claire Spencer was carefully inspecting her hay yield at Annahala, also in Cork.

Mr Cott said: It has been a really challenging year with a long winter, a wet spring and now a summer drought. What every farmer needs now is rain.

Mr Varadkar has promised the Government will not be found wanting if the drought continues and the multi-billion Euro agri-food sector faces a potential fodder crisis.

Ireland recorded its hottest and driest June in living memory. Rainfall last week was the first seen by some parts of

Ireland since June 21.

Experts warned, however, that another two to four weeks of good rainfall is required to tackle parched farmland and replenish Irish streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs.Workers make flags for US President Donald Trump's "Keep America Great!" 2020 re-election campaign at Jiahao flag factory in Fuyang, Anhui province, China. REUTERS/Aly Song

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it will use a Great Depression-era program to pay up to $12 billion to help US farmers weather a growing trade war with China, the European Union and others that the president began.

It is a clear signal the US President Donald Trump is determined to stick with tariffs as his weapon of choice in the conflict.

The move meant to cushion the blow for a politically important constituency was met with broad criticism by many farmers and farm-belt lawmakers, including Republicans. Rural and agricultural states supported Trump by wide margins in the 2016 election.

Trumps trade policies have become central in several rural-state U.S. Senate races ahead of congressional elections in November.

The president, speaking at an event in Kansas City on Tuesday, reaffirmed his support for tariffs and pledged that farmers will be the biggest beneficiary.

Just be a little patient, Trump said.

The relief package is intended as a temporary boost to farmers as the United States and China negotiate over trade issues, officials said.

This obviously is a short-term solution that will give President Trump time to work on a long-term trade policy, said Sonny Perdue, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The aid will be financed through the USDAs Commodity Credit Corporation and will not require congressional approval, Perdue said.

The administrations action appeared to divide Republicans, with some praising the move and others troubled by what they view as the kind of widespread government-assistance program their party has traditionally opposed.

This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches, said Senator Ben Sasse, of Nebraska who frequently criticizes the president, a fellow Republican.

SHORT-TERM BOOST?

Farmers have been a particular target in the current clash over trade policy as other countries seek to retaliate for Trumps duties on Chinese goods as well as on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

Those affected economies have in turn targeted US agricultural products, including soybeans, dairy, meat, produce and liquor.

The United States exported $138 billion in agriculture products in 2017, including $21.5 billion of soybeans, the most valuable export. China alone imported $12.3 billion of US soybeans last year, according to the USDA.

The size of the direct payments to farmers as a result of trade shortfalls would be unprecedented, said Scott Irwin, an agricultural economist at the University of Illinois.

We have never compensated farmers directly on such a large scale for retaliatory tariffs, Irwin said.

The news lifted shares of farm equipment companies on the prospect that farmers will have more money to spend on tractors and other farm gear. Deere & Co jumped 3.1pc, while Caterpillar Inc gained more than 1pc and AGCO Corp rose 0.6pc.

Stock options trading in Deere and Caterpillar also saw a burst of activity in the 30 minutes before the news broke, according to a Reuters analysis of Trade Alert data. Some of those contracts more than doubled in price after word of the pending plan broke in a Politico report.

Options activity has been known to spike before the public announcement of market-moving news and the US Securities and Exchange Commission has pursued enforcement actions when the activity has been determined to be insider trading involving options. There was no immediate indication that Tuesdays volume increases were anything other than coincidental.

Still, Blake Hurst, a corn and soybean farmer and president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, said that unless the White Houses policies change, the US agriculture industry will continue to suffer.

The payments will be helpful to farmers facing overdue loans and angry bankers, but are completely insufficient if they mean that tariffs and the trade war will last for the foreseeable future, Hurst said.

They are a very temporary bandage to a self-inflicted wound.

Some members of Trumps own party agreed.

"Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers," Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul wrote on Twitter. "If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers  the answer is remove the tariffs."

Kevin Cramer, a US representative trying to unseat Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, praised the move.

"Great to see @POTUS (Trump) providing aid to farmers impacted by retaliatory #tariffs," Cramer wrote on Twitter.

Later this week, Trump will visit Iowa and Illinois, two other farm-belt states, as he seeks to shore up support for Republican candidates in the US Midwest.Farmers are protesting at what they say in a 'heavy handed' approach to acquiring land. Pic: Don MacMonagle

Some 150 farmers from Cavan to Cork marched around Kerry County Council headquarters on Tuesday chanting Greenways Yes, CPOs No

The national protest by the IFA began at lunchtime- and the solemn chant sounding like a decade of the rosary, took place intermittently for over an hour.

Kerry County Council's decision to compulsory purchase land for a greenway in south Kerry had put fear into farmers across the country, protestors from Wicklow to Galway and Westmeath said.

If one local authority got away with using the CPO mechanism to acquire lands without an owners consent for cycle ways through farms, then other councils would follow suit, and it was feared the CPO would be widely employed to acquire privately owned land.

Laois IFA chairman Francie Gorman said what drew more than 100 farmers to Kerry was the word CPO, which he said was the worst word any farmer could hear.

The word CPO gets peoples backs up. It sets peoples antennae off. If CPOs are used for greenways, what else will they be used for?

It should be reserved for major infrastructure projects like main roads, Mr Gorman said.

A blueway cycleway along the canal was planned for Laois and Kildare on lands owned by Inland Waterways and roads bodies. Large scale tillage farmers feared their access to farms would be blocked by parked cars; emergency services would have difficulty getting to people and the effect of bicycles speeding along was not being fully appreciated.

Kerry is being seen as a test case by farmers across the country, protestors from Cork to Wicklow said.

The 32 kms Kells to Renard greenway, along the old railway line, was the first in the country to be announced in 2014 by then Environment Minister Alan Kelly and was to be a world class facility. However it has failed to get off the ground.

Around 40 of 170 landowners in South Kerry have not reached agreement on sections with the council.

Division of farms, and loss of privacy were issues, but the greenway itself was not being objected to.

Managements early warning it would use the CPO  in February 2015 just months after the greenway was announced, had caused great upset, Morgan Lyne a landowner in Kells on the Ring of Kerry.

In West Cork, greenways were being planned from Bandon to Drimologue, and Cork to Bantry said Cornie Buckely, local chair of the IFA. Farmers supported walkways in west Cork but there had to be proper consultation, he said.

IFA deputy president Richard Kennedy accused Kerry of bypassing the spirit of the Greenways strategy announced last Friday which was centred on a consultative sensitive approach. What took place in Kerry had been a dictat.

The successful Waterford Greenway and the Great Western Greenway had been co-designed with landowners and this was the way to go.

We are here to put down a marker. No council in Kerry or any other part of the country can force their way through. Its not the way to go, Mr Kennedy said.

Agronomists might be used up with an acceptable solution to routes, because there would always be a resolution .

Bicycles do go around corners  its not rocket science, Mr Kennedy said.

A letter of protest addressed to Kerry County Chief executive Moira Murrell who has agreed to meet with representatives.

Meanwhile in a statement the council said the greenway was a key strategic project and a top priority for the council for south Kerry an areas suffering depopulation.

The council said there had been detailed, lengthy and comprehensive engagement  with and when it could not reach agreement with all landowners, decided to acquire the land by CPO .

Meanwhile, An Bord Pleanala said the full CPO application has yet to be lodged by the council.Ryanair has today written to over 300 employees warning them that their services may not be required from October 28.

The protective notice to staff has been issued after the board took the decision to cut its Dublin-based fleet by 20pc for the winter.

Over 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew employees will be affected by Ryanairs decision to cut its Dublin fleet to 24 from 30 for the winter period.

The low-fares airline said that the decision had been driven by the rapid growth of its Polish charter airline, allied to a down turn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland, which it said was "partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots."

The airline said that the strikes had resulted in consumer confidence in the reliability of its Irish flight schedules being disturbed.

Ryanair expects few route closures from Dublin during the winter, although some routes may suffer frequency reductions.

"We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth, and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots," Peter Bellew, COO of Ryanair, said.

Earlier this week the airline reported a fall in profits after tax of 20pc year-on-year to 319m in the three months to 30 June.

Higher fuel and staff costs off-set the airlines increase in revenue, which grew 9pc to 2bn, Ryanair said in a trading update on Monday.

The earlier timing of Easter also led to a 4pc decline in average fares, the airline said.

Ryanair experienced passenger growth of 7pc year-on-year during the period, with the group carrying 37.6 million passengers in the three months.Border counties such as Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo are at risk of economic decline, according to the latest Vacancy Index from recruitment website Irishjobs.ie .

While job vacancies nationally grew 7pc year-on-year in the second quarter of 2018, vacancies in the Border county of Cavan dropped by 27pc year-on-year, and in neighbouring Leitrim, vacancies dropped by 17pc year-on-year. "The Border region has always been economically peripheral relative to the rest of the country," said IrishJobs.ie general manager Orla Moran.

"However, the Index has recorded a continued downward trend in many of the counties, particularly Cavan and Leitrim.

"This is a direct result of a continued lack of investment."

And while the Border region has by far the lowest unemployment rate in the State, at 4.4pc, Ms Moran told the Irish Independent that few new opportunities are being created in the Border area.

With Brexit coming quickly down the tracks, Ms Moran used the index to warn that as long as it remains an unknown quantity, there is the risk that job creation could stagnate in some parts of the economy.

"The same problems apparent in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 vote are still apparent in 2018," she said.

"We still do not know under what conditions businesses in the Republic of Ireland will be able to trade with or sell to businesses and consumers in Britain or even in Northern Ireland."

It is not all bad news in respect of Brexit, with the accountancy and finance industry, having seen a decline in vacancies last year, making up 6pc of all job vacancies in the latest index.

This recovery may suggest that UK-based companies, facing the increasing likelihood of a hard Brexit or a no-deal scenario, are advancing their contingency plans and establishing or bulking up a presence here.

Urban areas such as Dublin, Cork and Limerick are, unsurprisingly, continuing to experience a growth in job vacancies, however other counties have also reported notable gains in job vacancies including Meath, Kerry, and Monaghan.

The index also highlighted a contrast between Dublin and Limerick city.

While the two have among the highest job vacancy rates, they are characterised by different situations.

In Dublin, high vacancies may coincide with low unemployment rates, which could be suggestive of a tighter labour market in the capital.

Meanwhile, in contrast, the study found that the high and rising vacancy rate in Limerick has occurred in a context of a relatively high unemployment rate.

"This is suggestive of a mismatch between the education/skills profile of the labour force and employers' requirements in a region that is undergoing a process of industrial restructuring," the Index found.

Overall, hotel and catering jobs dominate job vacancies, representing 27pc of all vacancies in the three months to June 30.

This sector was followed by vacancies in sales, accounting and finance, construction, architecture and property.

However, construction, architecture and property, as well as engineering, utilities and sales vacancies have fallen in the second quarter of 2018, having posted a strong performance in the first three months of the year.Dublin Information Sec 2018 is an Independent News & Media event. The conference takes place on October 15. For further information go to www.independent.ie/infosec18

Cybersecurity should be top of the agenda for all companies, and Ireland needs to be especially vigilant because so many multinationals have their headquarters here, according to Mikko Hypponen, the keynote speaker at Dublin Information Sec 2018.

Hypponen is an international expert on computer security and privacy issues and is credited with tracking down the authors of the very first PC virus. He is chief research officer at F-Secure.

Dublin Information Sec 2018, Ireland's cybersecurity conference, takes place at the RDS on October 15 for the third year running.

To get more information and to buy tickets click here.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Hypponen highlighted Ireland's growing role as a European headquarters for multinationals and the importance of vigilance as a result.

"Cybersecurity is especially important in Ireland, as so many global technology companies have their European operations based there," he told the Sunday Independent.

"Today, every company is a software company."

He added that organisations need to focus on detecting breaches and responding to them, not just keeping attackers out of networks.

"Today, cybersecurity is more important than ever. It should be a permanent topic on the board meeting agendas of any large companies," he said.

"How many of the Fortune 500 companies are hacked right now? Well, 500," he added.

Themes that will be addressed at the conference range from regulation, including a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) health check, to the impact of Brexit as well as ways to improve your organisation's security health, from cloud to Saas, and the emerging mass security problems as well as the risks and the threats to your business.

According to the latest 'Global CEO Outlook' from international consulting firm KPMG, US chief executives, with whom digital agendas rank high, list cybersecurity as the biggest risk when it comes to business growth.

The international survey also showed that chief executives are concerned by the risks posed by disruptive technology.

Closer to home, a recent report from PwC on economic crime and fraud showed more than 10pc of Irish businesses that have been hit by cyber criminals lost more than 4m each in the past two years as a result of the attacks.

It found half of Irish companies had been victims of economic crime within the past two years - up from 34pc in 2016 and 26pc in 2010.

The findings are part of a global PwC survey that included 7,200 participants in 123 countries. In Ireland, 77 firms took part and PwC said the respondents represented all key industries and sectors.

The survey revealed cyber crime was the top economic crime here, having overtaken asset misappropriation for the first time.

Phishing - where fraudulent emails are used to lure unsuspecting recipients into revealing data, such as bank or credit card details, from which money is then stolen - was the most prominent technique for targeted cyber attacks (66pc of cases), followed by malware in 56pc of cases.

The conference will also address the recently introduced GDPR, the EU legal framework that establishes guidelines for the collection and processing of personal information of individuals in member states.

The deadline for compliance was May 25 and while it is early days in terms of how businesses are adapting to the new rules, research commissioned by cloud aggregator and IT distributor MicroWarehouse showed that the most common action taken by firms post the GDPR is amendments to data breach procedures where one third of respondents to the survey had made this move.

It also showed that larger firms spent more money and resources on ensuring their firms were GDPR compliant.

And, worryingly, despite growing concerns internationally against the backdrop of increasing numbers of state-sponsored attacks, cybersecurity is not high on the agenda of Irish boardrooms or management.

According to the MicroWarehouse survey, 35pc of firms said that the issue is never discussed at management level, while only 13pc said it was one of the main priorities for their organisation.

As cyber, data and security threats become more sophisticated, Dublin Information Sec 2018 is the ideal forum to future-proof your business.

Other speakers at Dublin Information Sec 2018 include Dr Ciaran Mc Mahon, director of the Institute of Cyber Security and academic psychologist; Maria Farrell, writer and tech policy consultant; Rahim Jina, co-founder Edgescan; Brian Honan, chief executive at BH Consulting; Michael Gubbins, Garda head of cybersecurity; James Chappell, co-founder Digital Shadows; Bill Buchanan, professor at Edinburgh Napier University, and Adrian Weckler, technology editor with Independent News & Media.

Dublin Information Sec 2018 is an Independent News & Media event. The conference takes place on October 15. For further information go to www.independent.ie/infosec18The way has been cleared for the trial on drink driving charges of a parish priest and native Irish speaker after the High Court refused to declare a failure to provide him with some official documents in Irish breached the State's constitutional obligations.

Fr Donnchadh O Cuinn, parish priest of Falcarragh, Co Donegal, is charged with driving in excess of the legal limit for alcohol on March 29, 2014 at Main Street, Letterkenny. He denies the charge.

In judicial review proceedings, he argued, as a native Irish speaker, he is entitled to conduct official business through Irish, his native language, the national language and the first official language of the State.

He claimed the State defendants breached those rights in failing to make available in Irish some official documents, including the relevant District Court rules and Statutory Instrument.

The documents at issue were not available in Irish, only in English, at the time of the alleged offence in March 2014, but have since been made available in Irish.

Fr O Cuinn secured leave in November 2014 to bring the judicial review.

The High Court's Ms Justice Bronagh O'Hanlon ruled in late 2015 that Fr O Cuinn was entitled to certain declarations but the State appealed.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and sent the matter back to a different High Court judge for reconsideration.

It was heard there by Mr Justice Frank Clarke who was later appointed to the Supreme Court and is now the Chief Justice.

In his reserved judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Clarke refused to grant the declarations sought.

He told Colm O hOisin SC, for the State, and Seamus O Tuathail SC, for Fr O Cuinn, costs issues would be addressed in October.

In his judgment, the judge said he had addressed language rights in the case in a way that showed language rights cannot be used to prohibit a trial but, in certain circumstances, such rights can be raised at the trial itself.

He refused to grant a declaration the State and DPP had breached constitutional obligations in not providing Fr O Cuinn with an official translation in the national language, the first official language, of the District Court rules as soon as possible following their publication in English.

He refused that declaration in circumstances including the rules were available in Irish by the time of trial.

The general principle that the State is obliged to provide the rules of court in Irish and English is well established, he also observed.

He refused to grant a second declaration that the breath alcohol form on which the charge depends was not, because it was printed out only in English, a statement in the form required under Section 13 of the Road Traffic Act 2010 and regulations of 2011 made under the Act.

In light of a Supreme Court judgment rejecting claims by a Romanian man, Mihai Avandei, his drink driving prosecution could not proceed because he was not supplied with a breath alcohol statement in Irish as well as in English, there was no basis for such a declaration, he said.

In the case of Mr Avandei, of Swords, Co Dublin, the Supreme Court 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.

The court 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 Mr Avandei's was breached.Former charity director Greg Walsh arrives at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday where his sentencing was adjourned. Picture: Collins

A former charity director stole over 1m from that voluntary organisation and friends and family while acting as a bookkeeper, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard.

Greg Walsh (70) came to court on signed pleas of guilty to 119 thefts totalling 998,476 from various parties, including Carline Learning Centre in Dublin, between 2008 and 2016.

He signed further pleas of guilty to four thefts totalling 150,000 from Bank of Ireland on dates in February and March 2015.

The Carline Learning Centre thefts of over 280,000 came to light when a staff member noticed discrepancies on the accounts when signing off on them before retirement.

Detective Garda Padraig Jennings revealed that Walsh had been director and treasurer of Carline Learning Centre, a Clondalkin-based charity for disadvantaged young people. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard he misappropriated funds to pay the charity's tax bills by lodging the cheques into his own account before making direct debit payments on Revenue's online system.

The father of four, of Woodbrook Crescent, Castleknock, Dublin, has no previous convictions.

Det Gda Jennings told Diana Stuart BL, prosecuting, that Carline Learning Centre still had an outstanding bill to Revenue as a result of the misappropriated money. The detective said it had only managed to stay afloat through public support.

He agreed with Patrick McGrath SC, defending, that gardai thought they would be investigating the Carline matter only, when Walsh revealed details of the other injured parties.

Det Gda Jennings said these included friends who gave Walsh money to invest on their behalf while he acted as their bookkeeper. In each case, Walsh repaid the parties what they thought were dividends on their investments.

Det Gda Jennings said in other cases Walsh acted as tax agent to friends and his nephew, who would give him money for Revenue. The detective revealed that in many cases the funds received from individuals were not forwarded to Revenue, but used to pay the tax bills of other injured parties. He said these injured parties had suffered Revenue implications as a result.

The only injured party to make a victim impact statement lost 14,138 through Walsh acting as his tax agent. The man said he couldn't pay his mortgage or feed his family as Revenue had frozen his accounts.

Det Gda Jennings agreed that 785,095 was the net loss to various parties after all repayments to date.

Mr McGrath asked Judge Codd to adjourn the sentencing to allow Walsh attend clinical appointments over the summer for his serious heart condition.

Judge Codd granted the adjournment and put the matter back until October.A man who raided a family home with two accomplices while dressed as gardai has been sentenced to seven years with the final 18 months suspended.

Dubliner Matthew Fahy (40) and the other two men initially told the homeowner that they were there to search the house but when the injured party asked for identification, an imitation handgun was produced.

Garda Mark Quill said the man, his wife and their seven year old son were living in the house at the time, along with his brother, the brother's partner and a lodger. The handgun was pointed at the homeowner and all the other occupants were instructed to gather together in the sitting room before demands were made for cash.

The man managed to escape out the back door and hop a back wall to get assistance but Gda Quill said the victim's young son followed him. The man was not aware his child had gone running out after him and Fahy shepherded the child back into the house.

Fahy, of Owensilla, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to aggravated burglary and possession of an imitation firearm at the house in Castleknock on November 28, 2017.

He has 130 previous convictions for burglary, theft, road traffic offences, criminal damage, possession of drugs, taking vehicles and public order matters.

Gda Quill told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, during an earlier hearing last week, that Fahy followed the child out, caught him and forced him back into the house.

Damien Colgan SC, defending, said his client disputed that he manhandled the boy and asked for the case to be adjourned so that the court could be shown CCTV footage of the burglary.

The court was shown that footage today after which Gda Quill agreed that Fahy seems to put his arm around the boy and guide him back in through the door.

He accepted that gardai put it to Fahy in interview that he had been compassionate towards the child.

Today Judge Melanie Greally said it was a premeditated offence involving the offenders presenting themselves as gardai, with one armed with an imitation firearm. She said the family had been traumatised in their own home.

She said there had been no gratuitous violence and that there had been some display of humanity and concern in relation to the child. Judge Greally said she took into account Fahy's plea of guilty, co-operation and history of drug addiction. She also noted his difficult upbringing and the efforts he had been making to rehabilitate.

She imposed a seven year sentence with final 18 months suspended and ordered that the sentence run consecutive to a District Court term Fahy is already serving.

Gda Quill told Mr Finnegan that the man's brother had a gun pointed at his legs and abdomen a number of times.

He said the child's mother told the raiders to leave the boy alone but she was informed we are not here for your son, we want the money. Gda Quill agreed that the burglary lasted two minutes and nobody was injured.

The house had its own CCTV cameras and Fahy was nominated as a suspect after gardai viewed the footage. No other person has been arrested in connection with the burglary. The people in the house didn't make any victim impact statements but Gda Quill told the court that they are still traumatised to a certain extent.

Gda Quill agreed with Mr Colgan that although Fahy was not at home when gardai arrived to arrest him, he turned up at the garda station later and agreed to stand in an identity parade. He accepted that his plea of guilty was a relief to the family as they didn't have to give evidence during a trial. He had written a letter of apology to the court.

Mr Colgan said his client's mother left home when he was five years old and his father was in trouble with the law bringing chaos to the home he shared with his brother and sister.

He had no stability in his childhood, counsel said before he added that Fahy's partner of 20 years died last year. He said his client found himself homeless and relapsed back into drug addiction.

Mr Colgan said Fahy was trying to rehabilitate himself while in prison by addressing his addiction and attending classes.An Algerian who has been linked to al-Qa'ida has made a fresh bid to avoid deportation.

Lawyers for the 54-year-old have argued there is a risk he will face inhumane and degrading treatment in his home country. The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, appeared in the High Court yesterday in handcuffs for judicial review proceedings.

He is challenging the refusal by Justice Minister Charles Flanagan to revoke a deportation order. The case is the third in a series of legal challenges, who was linked by French authorities to al-Qa'ida.

A Paris court heard he had been fundraising for jihadists. But he insists claims he was a follower of the terror group were "made up".

The judicial review proceedings follow a decision by the Justice Minister last month not to revoke the deportation order.

Michael Lynn SC, for the man, told Mr Justice Richard Humphreys the minister had failed to give adequate reasons for his decision and also claimed there had been a breach of procedures.

He said three independent expert reports had all come to the same conclusion, that there was a risk of torture and inhumane and degrading treatment if his client was sent home.

Mr Lynn said Algeria failed to allow international observers, such as the United Nations and Amnesty International, access to its places of detention.

This was an issue the minister failed to deal with in his decision, he told the court.

However, Remy Farrell SC, for the minister, rejected these arguments and said there had been "significant improvements" in Algeria since 2016.

He said nearly all of the criticism prior to then related to the activities of the DRS, the state's former intelligence service that was dissolved two years ago.

Mr Justice Humphreys reserved judgment to a later date.

The man has been in custody on foot of a deportation order since March of last year. Prior to that he had been serving a six-month sentence for possession of a false Belgian passport while boarding a flight at Dublin Airport.

The man was a supporter of the banned political movement which sought to establish an Islamic state in Algeria. He fled the country around 1994 and was convicted in his absence of murder and formation of a terrorist group.

He ended up in Ireland in 1997 and gained refugee status in 2000. But he later turned up in France where he was jailed in 2005 for his role in a plot to commit terror offences.

After being released he illegally re-entered Ireland in 2009.THE only asset of a man who tried to challenge the abortion referendum result in the courts is a piano.

The State and Referendum Commission are entitled to their legal costs, estimated at more than 200,000, after opposing two separate bids to challenge the result.

President of the High Court Mr Justice Peter Kelly said the State and commission are entitled to their legal costs against Charles Byrne, whose case was against both.

He ruled the State was also entitled to its costs against Joanna Jordan, whose case was only against State parties.

Mr Byrne is not pursuing an appeal over the dismissal of his application for permission to bring a petition challenging the referendum outcome.

After the court was told his only asset is a piano, the judge recommended the State and commission might consider not pursuing him for costs.

They would save further costs due to Mr Byrne having brought an end to the matter, he noted.

As Ms Jordan had said she will appeal, he would not make the same recommendation, the judge added.

After the costs ruling, Alan Davoren, solicitor for Ms Jordan, asked that in the context of her intended appeal a stay be applied until Friday on the referendum result coming into effect.

Mr Davoren is reserving his position concerning whether he will continue to act for Ms Jordan after Friday, the court heard.

The judge agreed to grant the stay until Friday on the result being certified so as to facilitate her constitutional entitlement to go to the Court of Appeal.

The State consented to a stay in those limited terms and any further stay will be a matter for the appeal court, he noted.

He also granted a stay until Friday on the costs order against Ms Jordan.

Both Ms Jordan, a homemaker, of Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin, and Mr Byrne, a musician, of College Rise, Drogheda, Co Louth, had sought to have the State pay their costs but the judge said there were no special circumstances entitling them to such orders.Gardai at the scene of a shooting in Ballymun this evening Photo: Tony Gavin

Gardai at the scene of a shooting in Ballymun this evening Photo: Tony Gavin

Gardai at the scene of a shooting in Ballymun this evening Photo: Tony Gavin

A man has been rushed to hospital after a shooting incident this evening.

The incident happened at Shangan Green in Ballymun, Dublin at around 4.10pm.

A man (34) received an injury to his leg and was taken to the Mater Hospital.

His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Expand Close Gardai at the scene of a shooting in Ballymun this evening Photo: Tony Gavin / Facebook

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Whatsapp Gardai at the scene of a shooting in Ballymun this evening Photo: Tony Gavin

Local TD Noel Rock has condemned the shooting, calling it "an all too regular occurence."

The Fine Gael TD said in a statement: I was alarmed to learn of a shooting in Ballymun today in broad daylight.

This is all too regular an occurrence and I have written again this evening to the local Superintendent and the Garda Commissioner requesting the urgent deployment of resources to this area.

The Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, recently visited Ballymun Garda Station with me and saw first-hand the good work being done, but also saw the challenges that are faced here.

A shooting like this, in broad daylight, in a residential area like Shangan Green which is full of children, is something which would strike fear into the heart of any parent."

He added: My thoughts are with the victim. I hope to see justice done here and those responsible for this put behind bars.

Anyone with information to contact Ballymun Garda Station on 01 6664400.

More to follow...A vigilant member of staff who voiced safety concerns is behind a review of colonoscopies involving 65 patients at a Dublin hospital, it has emerged.

St Columcille's Hospital in Loughlinstown has now asked the patients to return for a repeat procedure.

A colonoscopy is an internal examination of the bowel which is used in the diagnosis of cancer and other conditions.

The staff member was worried a complete photographic record of the end section of the bowel was not obtained.

This led to a review of 160 colonoscopies which were carried out there by a doctor between November and April.

A spokeswoman for the hospital said: "It was discovered that in 65 cases there was not a complete photographic record of the end section of the bowel.

"This photographic record is evidence that the colonoscopy was completed. Hence, for best practice, it was decided to rescope those 65 cases."

All 65 patients have been contacted but it will be some weeks before they all receive a repeat procedures as some are on holiday.

She said: "St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, as part of a quality assurance process, undertook a review of colonoscopies performed at the hospital between November 2017 and April 2018."

Dr Garret Cullen, clinical lead for endoscopy at Ireland East Hospital Group, said the measure was precautionary and the risk to patients is low.

"We acknowledge that patients may be anxious about being called for an appointment but I want to reassure them that this is purely a precautionary measure. Appointments are currently being scheduled and we expect this process to be complete within four weeks," he added.

The doctor involved was employed on a sessional basis at the hospital and no longer works there. Asked where the doctor is working now, a spokeswoman said she had no further comment to make.

Questioned on the protocol used to contact patients she said: "We would like to apologise to all patients who are involved in this recall and understand that this has caused undue stress and worry.

"It is, however, very important that we contact patients involved as soon as possible and ensure that they have their rescope as quickly as possible.

"In this instance a letter was sent out to each of the patients involved with a contact number at the hospital. The morning after the letter was sent to patients, staff at St Columcille's Hospital telephoned each patient as a follow-up, to explain the process and answer any questions the patient may have."

She was aware of the distress and hoped to make it as easy as possible.Hidden for decades: Tom Wall pictured in his home at Glin in Co Limerick with the documents from Glin Industrial School. Tom, an abuse survivor from the school, said boys from Glin were licensed out to farmers as slaves. Photo: Brian Gavin

A notorious industrial school in Limerick was paid to send boys under the age of 16 to work for traders, merchants and big farmers, according to hundreds of documents that have remained hidden for decades.

Experts say the find demonstrates local communities were involved in the industrialisation and exploitation of marginalised children.

There is no record of the boys receiving money for their work among the files rescued from Glin Industrial School. An abuse survivor from the school called the contracts "slave deals, tying boys to a 'master' for up to three years".

Former Glin boy Tom Wall, who saved the documents from being destroyed, said he believes the commission of inquiry into the abuse of children should be reopened as the records show the practice of "licensing out" children was widespread. "I would never have thought slavery existed in Ireland until I went through these. All these documents need to be gone through now. Someone needs to look at it," said Tom.

"The congregations that were set up to help the poor children totally strayed from their foundation. They finished up exploiting the children and that is the saddest part of this. They ended up making money out of poverty."

These records were not included in the 2009 Ryan Report following the inquiry as they only came to light two years ago. They were seen publicly for the first time last week.

The Ryan Report previously found there had been provisions enabling schools to "license out" children to a "trustworthy and respectable person" to help assimilate the child into society. The report states licensing was a rare occurrence. However, it said "a severe, systemic regime of corporal punishment" was evident at Glin with deficiencies in care. Two Christian Brothers were previously transferred there, despite evidence or suspicion of sexually abusing boys in another institution.

Dublin City University deputy president Daire Keogh has studied and written about the Christian Brothers throughout his career. He said the practice of licensing children was a way for locals to avail of cheap labour.

He added the practice was a major bone of contention for many former industrial school residents, who often left the country for England shortly after the school's contract with local businesses was terminated.

"These farmers seldom kept boys on once they became men and wouldn't pay an adult wage. The whole thing reflects the level of societal collusion and institutionalisation and exploitation of marginalised kids."

The indentures, or contracts, between Glin and local businessmen or farmers tied the boys to new masters for three years. The monthly sums paid for the use of the boys increased for every year served, often from 3, to 5 and 8.

Under the terms of the indentures, the boys - referred to as apprentices - were prevented from getting married or working for a competitor. They could not drink, play cards or "absent himself from his said master's service day or night unlawfully".

The indentures seen by the Sunday Independent are dated between 1895 and 1914. However, Tom also has more recent documents and ledgers dated up to the 1950s.

Among them are hundreds of committal orders, discharge summaries and personal letters sent to, and by, the boys staying in the school. It appears the personal letters Tom rescued were never delivered.

Tom was born to a single mother in a mother and baby home in Newcastle West and was admitted to Glin Industrial School when he was three years old. His committal form was discovered among the rescued documents and shows he was deemed "illegitimate".

Letters from to and from his mother were among those that were never delivered.

"I asked about her on numerous occasions and I was told she was dead. I found out she was actually living in Newcastle West. I searched everywhere looking for her but nobody had heard of a Josephine Wall.

"By the time I found her she only had about six weeks to live. She was dying of cancer. I just made it but she was very sick in bed. I met with her a couple of times and asked why she never came to see me. She said: 'I called three or four times but I wasn't allowed in. The brothers told me you wanted no more to do with me.'

"I told her I wrote letters. She said she was writing letters as well but I never got a letter. There was no communication, no hope of getting anything through.

"I asked her about my father but she never let me know and I never found out."

Tom said growing up in Glin was horrific. He was sexually abused and faced regular beatings. He can recall most of them and still bears the scars from one of the beatings on his forehead. He fell while being thrashed and his head was "split open".

He was also accused of absconding from the school after going through some nearby fields in search of food before returning in time for dinner.

"We were down in the fields looking for a few blackberries on briars because we were starving. We never got much food and you were always hungry.

"Didn't one of the brothers come looking for us and it was said that we absconded but we hadn't gone anywhere.

"I got such a beating. That will always stay with me."

However, he was deemed to be a "very good child", according to the records, and a "good worker". He was kept on at the school after his discharge to help with maintenance and the running of the buildings.

In 1973, with the school about to close, he was told by a brother to take record books and ledgers from a pile of documents and place them in the boot of a car. The rest were to be destroyed.

Some were burned but he held on to many of the documents as he wanted to see if they contained information about his past and his mother. Tom kept the liberated files in an attic for more than 40 years.

"All I was interested in was finding something in the documents about myself. I was not into history or anything like that. I wanted to know about myself.

"I put them up in the attic and they remained there undisturbed until the roof tiles started slipping in 2015. Then I went to look for an archivist or someone who could do something with them."

He offered them to the University of Limerick (UL) but they remained untouched there for two years. He removed them from the university's Glucksman Library last week following a row over the ownership of the documents that prevented UL from putting them on display.

The Christian Brothers sent archivists and legal representatives to view the files in UL. They then claimed ownership and demanded the documents be returned for storage in their own archives in Dublin. They threatened legal action to obtain them.

After visiting their archives, Tom was not satisfied that the documents would be made publicly available and he was concerned that they would be difficult to access.

Tom's case was highlighted in the Dail last month by Fianna Fail TD Niall Collins and the European Province of Christian Brothers has since changed its stance, saying it would be happy to receive copies of the documents rather than the originals.

"We advised UL that were we to be provided with appropriate copies of the Glin documents for our archive we would have no objection to the original papers being donated to the university," said a spokesman.

He conceded there were gaps in the Christian Brothers' archives but described the suggestion Tom was told to burn records at the school as a "claim" and not in line with the congregation's policy. He refused to be drawn on the indentures or contracts when questioned by the Sunday Independent.

Tom has now called on the State to intervene and said all the documents must be put on display so people can see what happened.

"The archives are too sealed up and inaccessible. I think these papers can serve a purpose.

"The public and relatives of residents should be able to see them. They must be accessible."THE number of people living in emergency accommodation has hit another record high - but campaigners say the figures don't take account of the "hidden homeless".

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is under renewed pressure after a series of reports showed the housing crisis continues to worsen.

According to the Department of Housing, 9,872 people were in emergency accommodation during the week of June 18-24. This is an increase of 26 compared with the previous month.

Another study revealed that almost half of local authorities did not complete construction of any new social houses in the first three months of this year.

However, Mr Murphy insisted the latest set of figures show a "stabilisation in terms of the number of people in emergency accommodation".

"The reason that is important is because it tells us that some of our methods are working, but we have to do more and create sustainable paths for people out of emergency accommodation," he said.

In relation to the construction figures, the minister pointed to a "roughly 60pc increase in delivery of new builds" compared with 2017.

"Not every local authority area saw completions in the first quarter but every local authority area has sites under construction.

"What's also encouraging about this is that the first quarter is typically the lowest quarter of activity in the year because our building programme is managed towards an uptake in delivery as we move towards the end of the year. We see this when we look back at 2016 and 2017. This is on track to happen in 2018 also," Mr Murphy said.

Political opponents said the Government's 'Rebuilding Ireland' plan was failing to make the necessary impact.

Niamh Randall, spokesperson for the Simon Communities, said it is deeply troubling and frustrating to see the homeless figures increase again.

"Living in emergency accommodation is traumatic, stressful and filled with uncertainty.

"At the heart of this is the lack of secure, affordable housing. Without an accessible private rental sector or social housing, people have nowhere to go if they cannot afford to rent," she said.

"They are trapped and it is so unfair because there is no way out.

"These figures don't include rough sleepers or those in squats, women and children in refuges, those in direct provision or people who are 'hidden homeless' - those staying with family or friends as they have nowhere else to go."

Ms Randall also raised concerns about suggestions the minister may move to publishing updates quarterly rather than every month.

Mr Murphy said yesterday that monthly reports do not tell enough "about the trends, or the people behind the trends".

But Ms Randall said this would be wrong "in the midst of the greatest housing and homelessness crisis that we have known".Among the mourners at the service were President Michael D Higgins. Photos: Gareth Chaney

Among the mourners at the service were Geraldine Kennedy, former Fianna Fail TD Mary Hanafin and President Michael D Higgins. Photos: Gareth Chaney

Left: Professor Martin ODonoghues remains are taken from the Church of St Paul of the Cross, Mount Argus, Harolds Cross, Dublin, yesterday. Photos: Gareth Chaney

Martin O'Donoghue's death meant Ireland had "lost a citizen of some distinction", the chief celebrant at his funeral Mass told mourners.

Fr David Sheehy said Mr O'Donoghue had served as economic planning minister and later education minister before resuming a long academic career as Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin.

President Michael D Higgins was among the large attendance at Mount Argus Church in Dublin where politicians, judges, academics, joined family, neighbours and friends to pay tribute to Mr O'Donoghue, who died last Friday aged 85.

Mr O'Donoghue left school early but later returned as an adult to study at TCD where he was a first class honours graduate. After advising the Fianna Fail government on education in 1960s, he became a close adviser to then Taoiseach Jack Lynch, for whom he helped write the June 1977 General Election give-away manifesto which delivered a landslide victory.

Mr O'Donoghue had been elected a Fianna Fail TD for Dun Laoghaire and was appointed to the new post of Economic Planning Minister on his first day as a TD. After he lost his Dail seat in 1982 he was elected a senator and continued in that post until 1987 when he quit active politics.

Martin O'Donoghue was a fierce opponent of Jack Lynch's successor Charlie Haughey, who sacked him and abolished his economic planning department. Mr O'Donoghue supported the foundation of the breakaway Progressive Democrats in late 1985 and the attendance at his funeral reflected that wing of Fianna Fail.

Present were founding Progressive Democrat leader Des O'Malley, and other leading former members including Geraldine Kennedy, Brian Hillery, and Stephen O'Byrnes. Former leader Mary Harney was unable to attend but her husband Brian Geoghegan was there.

Fianna Fail was represented by general secretary Sean Dorgan, and others included former Taoiseachs' adviser Martin Mansergh, former ministers Dr Michael Woods and Mary Hanafin, and former TD Charlie O'Connor.

The Taoiseach was represented by ADC Comdt Padraic Kennedy. Former High Court judge Hugh O'Flaherty attended as did former Ictu leader David Begg. Political journalists John Cooney, John Bowman and Vincent Browne were also there.People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS

A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens REUTERS/Costas Baltas

People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS

Asimina Psalti, 87, sits outside her burned-out house in Mati east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Buildings burn in the town of Mati, east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Firefighters carry a stretcher filled with body bags, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

Lots of Greece is still safe for travel (Theodora Tongas/AP)

The wedding of Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp, wh have been caught up in the wildfires in Greece (Handout/PA)

O'Callaghan-Westropp, who died while on his honeymoon after becoming caught up in wildfires that have swept across Greece Photo: Blood Bank East

A family friend of an Irishman who died in the Greece wildfires while on his honeymoon has described him as an outgoing person with "an enthusiasm for life."

The body of Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp was found yesterday after he was caught up in wildfires that swept through a resort.

After an extensive search, the family of Brian OCallaghan-Westropp received the devastating news yesterday afternoon that he was among the 80 people killed in the blaze.

He married his partner Zoe Holohan last week before they flew out for their honeymoon. When the deadly blaze tore through the coastal town of Mati, the couple became separated as they tried to escape.

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Ms Holohan, who works in the advertising department of the Sunday World newspaper, was hospitalised in Athens having suffered burns.

It is understood she will remain there for a period while she awaits surgery.

Fr Shay Casey, who knows the family of Brian OCallaghan-Westropp, described his death as devastating. He said Brian was terribly outgoing, full of life and really enthusiastic for life.

If he saw somebody in need he wouldnt be slow to help them. Just a very generous soul, thats how they were reared, he told RTE's Morning Ireland.

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Fr Casey, who is Chaplain at Athlone IT, said Brian's mother Rosemary flew to Athens yesterday.

I cant imagine her waking up out there to this tragedy, he said, while asking for people to keep Rosemary in their prayers.

The Irish Embassy in Athens confirmed the tragic news yesterday afternoon.

Im very sorry to confirm that we do have the death of an Irish citizen and it has been confirmed as Brian OCallaghan-Westropp, said the Irish Ambassador to Greece, Orla OHanrahan.

Our sympathies and thoughts go out to his family at this time. she added.

The Holohan and OCallaghan-Westropp families also released a statement verifying Mr OCallaghan-Westropps death.

They said: We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of our family member, Brian OCallaghan-Westropp.

The families would respectfully appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve and as Zoe makes her recovery.

Funeral arrangement will be announced at a later stage.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has expressed his condolences to the family of and Irish man killed in the wild fires in Greece.

Speaking in Italy today Mr Varadkar said he was "saddened" to learn of the death of Brian O'Callaghan Westropp who was honeymooning in Greece.

Mr Varadkar said he understood the deceased man was a constituent of his and said the pair may have previously met.

"My condolences absolutely go to his family, for a tragedy to visit a family in this way must be truly awful," he said.

Mr Varadkar acknowledged that the family have asked for privacy and said any assistance needed would be available to them.

"Our assistance through our embassy in Athens is being offered to the family and also I've written to Prime Minister Tsipras to express our condolences to the Greek people and offer any assistance that we can," he added.

In a statement, a spokesperson for INM said the company learned of the couples plight with great sadness and that the thoughts and prayers of those within the company are with the Holohan and OCallaghan-Westropp families.

The Dubliner, from Kilmainham, was general manager of catering company Ready Chef.

He was also an active member of Blood Bikes East for more than a year. As the secretary for the voluntary organisation, the motorbike enthusiast helped provide free emergency transport services to Dublin-based hospitals.

Chairman of Blood Bikes East Brendan Conroy told the Irish Independent that he was more than a volunteer.

Brian got along so well with everyone and I would personally consider him to be a very good friend, he said.

I was only at his wedding last week and was in total shock when I found out that he was among those missing.

Mr Conroy described Mr OCallaghan-Westropp as a trojan worker who had always puts others before himself.

As the secretary of Blood Bikes East, Brian was always at the forefront developing the organisation and providing vital services to hospitals.

Hes been with us for just over a year and has applied his business knowledge and management skills to really help us thrive.

The Greek-Irish Society also paid tribute.

"The Greek-Irish Society would like to express its sincere condolences to the wife, family and friends of Brian OCallaghan-Westropp and to all the other families of the victims of this disaster."

The small community of Mati, a popular tourist resort with Greek holiday-makers around 30km east of Athens, has been among the worst areas hit by the devastating wildfires.

Speaking to RTE Radio One this afternoon Irishwoman Chloe Sugrue, who was staying in a hotel in the area, described the devastation caused by the blaze.

"It was absolutely destroyed there was nothing left. Luckily our hotel didn't get affected but there was an apartment block next to ours that was completely levelled, cars gone, houses gone, everything was levelled and just burnt to bits.

"We were blessed to be unharmed, absolutely blessed, because we were going for dinner (the day of the fire) and the next day when we went to have a look to see the damage that place had been levelled and that could have been us."

At least 80 people have been killed, while dozens more have been injured.

However, this figure is expected to rise.The scene of where a pedestrian was struck by a truck this afternoon

A pedestrian has been rushed to hospital after being struck by a truck this afternoon.

The incident happened at around 2.15pm at the R135 Phibsboro Rd outside Phibsboro Shopping Centre in Dublin this afternoon.

The pedestrian has been taken to the Mater Hospital and their condition is unknown.

Emergency services are at the scene of the collision.

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The road is currently closed from the North Circular Road junction to Connaught St and diversions are in place.

Gardai have asked motorists to take an alternative route if possible.Jean McConville's sons Thomas (and James Picket attend a press screening of the film I, Dolours in Belfast Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Two sons of a woman who was murdered and secretly buried by the IRA have staged a protest outside a cinema showing a film which includes alleged details of their mother's death.

James McConville was joined by one of his brothers, Thomas, outside the Moviehouse on the Dublin Road in Belfast on Wednesday evening as media gathered to watch the press screening of I, Dolours.

Other members of their family chose not to take part.

The film tells the story of Dolours Price, including claims she made before her death about the murder of Jean McConville.

The 37-year-old was dragged from her home in Belfast's Divis flats complex in 1972 by an IRA gang of up to 12 men and women, accused of passing information to the British Army - an allegation later discredited by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.

She was shot in the back of the head and secretly buried 50 miles from her home, becoming one of the "Disappeared" victims of the Troubles.

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It was not until 1999 that the IRA admitted the murder when information was passed to police in the Irish Republic.

Her remains were eventually found on Shelling Hill beach in Co Louth by a member of the public in August 2003.

Nobody has been convicted of her murder.

Before her death in 2013, Dolours Price, who was an active member of the IRA in the 1970s, made claims about how the murder had been carried out.

The claims were made during interviews with journalist Ed Moloney as part of a research project which became known as the Boston College tapes.

Ms Price, along with many other former terrorists from both sides of the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland, took part in the interviews on the agreement they would not be released until after her death.

Mr McConville said some of her claims do not tally with what his family had previously been told by the IRA.

"We deserve the truth about what happened to our mother," he said.

"After what happened to us when we were in care, and what happened to our mother. We deserve the truth.

"We want to listen to the tapes of the interviews with Dolours so we can hear all what she said happened to our mother."

Mr Moloney, who produced and co-wrote the film, has defended it.

He told the Irish News: "There's always going to be people unhappy with films and I'm sorry if they are, but that's just the way it is."

I, Dolours, has been described as "one woman's story of life and death in the IRA", from leading the first team to bomb the centre of London in 1973 to being involved with the Disappeared.

Promotional material describes the film as the "anguished story of one of the few women who rose to the top of the IRA only to be haunted by memories of what she had done to get there".

It is set to go on general release on August 31.Fianna Fail will help the Government get changes to the Fair Deal scheme - aimed at helping farmers - through the Dail before the end of the year.

However, the main opposition party has reservations about some of the 'safeguards' being put in place to ensure a new three-year cap on payments taken from farmland to help fund nursing home care are not abused.

Mary Butler, Fianna Fail's spokesperson on older people, is concerned by a stipulation in the proposals which requires the farm to be worked by a close relative once the farmer retires to a nursing home.

The Irish Independent revealed yesterday that ministers had agreed changes to the scheme that will put farmland and family businesses on a similar footing to the family home.

Under the current regime, farm and business owners are required to give the State 7.5pc of the value of their land for every year spent in a nursing home. This will now be capped at three years.

Speaking after yesterday's Cabinet meeting, Minister for Older People Jim Daly confirmed he had received approval to immediately begin work on the necessary legislation to introduce change.

Mr Daly said he had been made aware of cases where some farmers were putting off moving to a nursing home because of the financial implications.

"With immediate effect, we'll join the legislation queue for autumn schedule," he said.

Mr Daly said the legislation should be "straightforward" because it is focused on just one significant change, rather than a wider range of additions that had been sought by some lobby groups.

"It's essentially a measure of fairness and that everybody is treated equally. There's no going back now," he said, while he acknowledged the role organisations such as the Irish Farmers' Association had played in convincing his colleagues to agree the measure.

The Cabinet decision was given a "cautious welcome" by Fianna Fail, with Ms Butler saying her party has been calling for "common-sense changes to the Fair Deal scheme" for some time.

"The three-year cap is only right and proper, and I look forward to it being enacted as quickly as possible," she said.

But the Waterford TD added that there was "one area" which needed further investigation.

"I am uncomfortable with the requirement that in order to receive the three-year cap, an applicant must have their farm farmed by a close relative.

"In most circumstances, this will not be an issue. However, for single farmers and for farmers without close relatives able or willing to farm the land on their behalf, they will not benefit from the cap," she said.

Chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association (ISME) Neil McDonnell said they believed the new cap was a "good idea".

"It's a sensible idea. Everyone pays something if they can afford to do so and nobody gets bled by the process," he said.

Nursing home residents who have been in care for more than three years will not be able to recoup contributions they have made beyond that period.

However, the changes will be backdated so that, once introduced, the cap will benefit anybody who has been in care for less than three years.

There will also be a 'claw-back' mechanism, which means that farm or business assets sold or leased within six years of a person entering a nursing home will be subject to the annual 7.5pc charge.Car-value expert Gillian Keogh teams up with Motoring Editor Eddie Cunningham to help you make the right choice with your next purchase. Gillian is Editor of a monthly guidebook on the values of used cars produced by the Motor Trade Publishers team. The team supplies a car-valuing service to the motor trade, insurance companies and finance houses.

I am a disabled driver and with an automatic diesel 131 Hyundai i40 (I don't require any modifications apart from the automatic). I have three children and put up serious mileage. While we love the Hyundai, it doesn't allow us take any additional passengers. And with my kids getting older, we need a 7-seater. I detest the standard 7-seater stereotype so have been looking at models like the Tucson, Peugeot 3008 and Mitsubishi. I reckon our Hyundai would fetch about 16k because it's business class. All in, by the time I trade in and take account of the VRT I get back, I usually end up having to put around 10k towards a new car but I'm open to secondhand as well. On another point, can anyone explain why car garages only open a half day on a Saturday?

Gillian: I think you are overestimating your i40's value. I will work with a total budget of around 20k to 25k. So here's a few: Hyundai Santa Fe 2.2 dsl Executive Auto: you'll have to stick with the same year but you'll have plenty of space. Nissan X-Trail 1.6 Dsl SV Auto: these came into the market mid-14 so you could find a 142 for around 22k; a 15-reg would be a great buy for another 3k. A 2017, last of the old model, Peugeot 5008 would also suit, but if I have underestimated your budget, I would recommend looking at the new 5008. On the garages question, work-life balance I think is the reason for Saturday afternoon closure. And I hope it stays. People browse during the week and physically shop until Saturday lunchtime or thereabouts.

Eddie: I suggest you buy as fresh a KIA Sorento 7-seater as you can. Totally underrated proper 7-seater SUV. It's well up to serious mileage and value for money.

Help us help you

We love getting your enquiries and try to reply to as many as possible here or via email. The ones dealt with here often represent a cross section of individual questions. You can help us help you with our free, independent, advice by including the following in your queries:

* Budget (including trade-in).

* Annual mileage (in kms).

* Size of car required (number of seats).

* Present car (make, model, year and mileage) if relevant.

ecunningham@independent.ieCar-value expert Gillian Keogh teams up with Motoring Editor Eddie Cunningham to help you make the right choice with your next purchase. Gillian is Editor of a monthly guidebook on the values of used cars produced by the Motor Trade Publishers team. The team supplies a car-valuing service to the motor trade, insurance companies and finance houses.

We have two children (aged 4 and 6) and another on the way in October. We are looking to buy a new 7-seater SUV, but the main requirement is we must be able to fit three car seats (the baby seat is an ISOfix) in the second row. We have looked at the Skoda Kodiaq (you can't fit three car seats because the middle one is simply too small) and the Peugeot 5008, which has three equal sized seats. Are there any other options out there? Ideally we'd like an automatic, leather interior and parking sensors front and rear. Budget (including trade-in) is 40,000. Annual mileage 15,000km; present car a 2011 BMW 520D (132,00km).

Gillian: The new Peugeot 5008 is a good choice. The 1.6 dsl GT Line 120 auto is just in budget and has leather-effect upholstery and parking sensors. Its list of standard spec is impressive. If you fancy keeping onto some of that 40k, I'd suggest you look at a Citroen Grand C4 SpaceTourer 1.6 Dsl, although it's more MPV than SUV. The Feel Exclusive model in Auto is around 35k and the second row is made up of three separate seats that all fold independently and so are perfect for car seats. It comes with half leather and reversing cameras and is worth a look for sure.

Eddie: Does it have to be a 7-seater SUV? Why not an MPV? I'm thinking here of the Volkswagen Touran with five Isofix points - three across the middle row. The same goes for the Citroen Grand C4 SpaceTourer. I know I'm losing the battle - sales figures reflect fewer MPVs are being bought - but do me and you a favour and look at those two before deciding. If they don't change your mind, take Gillian's advice.

Help us help you

We love getting your enquiries and try to reply to as many as possible here or via email. The ones dealt with here often represent a cross section of individual questions. You can help us help you with our free, independent, advice by including the following in your queries:

* Budget (including trade-in).

* Annual mileage (in kms).

* Size of car required (number of seats).

* Present car (make, model, year and mileage) if relevant.

ecunningham@independent.ie'Are we going to go for it?" Fiona Bird shouts with a childlike exuberance over the gusts of wind sweeping across the strand.

We're standing up to our knees in the cold Atlantic, exposed on a vast stretch of beach on the southernmost tip of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides while gauging the speed of the incoming tide.

In the event, Fiona's intrepid black Labrador Coco makes the decision for us, bounding off into the water towards a rocky outcrop on the lower shore that she seems all too familiar with.

The spot is one that Fiona, a former MasterChef finalist, avid forager and author, frequents regularly when tides and weather allow. Today, she's taking me along to scour this part of the vast Hebridean coastline for edible seaweeds to gather and eat.

The 130-mile-long island chain Fiona calls home seemingly sits on the edge of the world, cast adrift from the north-west coast of mainland Scotland. This splendid isolation means the 119 islands - only 15 of which are inhabited - have remained unspoilt idylls of cerulean seas and expansive white sand beaches.

It's not long before our ankles are knotted in fronds of seaweed, grappling like tentacles to the sides of our wellingtons as we walk out further through crystalline water.

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"Taste that one!" Our first find is pepper dulse, a small red fern-like seaweed known as the 'truffle of the sea'. With the swift snip of a scissors, Fiona excitedly proffers me a cutting she harvests from the wet rockface. "You don't have to, obviously!"

Brushing aside my preconceptions about eating slimy seaweed plucked straight from the sea, I steel myself and guide it to my mouth. For something so delicate, it packs a mighty flavour punch. Garlicky. Delicious. I'm hooked.

Sprightly 13-year-old Coco is by now already frolicking like a puppy on the sand and rock pools of our intended target. "In between those two rocks there, we call it spaghetti junction. It's like an avenue of sea spaghetti," she laughs, pointing in the dog's direction. "This is really why I like foraging."

Fluttering in the wind, the harvested sea spaghetti I'm holding seems aptly named, looking very much like freshly boiled spinach linguine. As I soon discover, it tastes like al dente pasta, albeit with a playful, salty tang. And that's just how Fiona often prepares it, she tells me, stirred in with pasta.

"I was really impressed that you got the tides," Fiona says on our return to the upper shore, water audibly sloshing inside her mauve wellingtons as she strides. "You can go and pick blackberries in the rain but with seaweed - the seaweeds that are worth picking, anyway - you need the moon."

Seaweeds start growing earlier than land-grown spring greens, and, of course, to reach the best of it, you need a low tide. A cursory look on Fiona's Twitter feed before meeting her shows just what uses seaweed potentially has in everyday cooking. Hollandaise sauce, marmalade, salads, breads, scones; the list is inexhaustible.

The tradition of gathering seaweed to eat has long been established on this Gaelic-speaking archipelago, though it was oft-times regarded as 'famine food' to be consumed in times of hardship. These days, seaweed is considered a mineral-rich superfood, gracing the passes of Michelin-starred restaurants with foragers like Fiona keeping the practice alive.

It is also back in the spotlight thanks to entrepreneurial ventures like the Isle of Harris Distillery. While it is primarily a whisky distillery - whose single malts must first slumber in casks to mature for a minimum of three years - it has initially produced an Isle of Harris Gin for sale using another of my beach finds with Fiona, sugar kelp.

The sugar kelp used is sustainably harvested from underwater forests around the Outer Hebrides by hand by a local diver before being distilled with nine other botanicals. It's the coastal elements of the gin, though, that have arguably helped raise its profile above its burgeoning number of Scottish counterparts, with devotees including the likes of Nigella Lawson.

Imbibing a seaweed-infused gin every now and then is one thing; gathering and eating algae regularly is another.

"I don't know what 'seaweed' tastes like," she admits as we discuss her menu at home.

"It's like asking someone 'what does chocolate taste like?' You know? What I try to show people is that seaweed is not all green and slimy. Every seaweed tastes different. Visually they're quite different."

She tips her wellingtons upside down to release a torrent of seawater. "And to get the decent stuff, you have to get wet!"

The facts

HOW TO GET THERE

Aer Lingus (aerlingus.ie) operates daily flights to Glasgow from Dublin, with prices starting from 29.99 one way. Caledonian MacBrayne Ferries (calmac.co.uk) offer a range of tickets to island hop to get the full Hebridean experience. David travelled on a Hopscotch 14 ticket around Harris and the Uists, priced at 118 for a car and two passengers.

WHERE TO STAY

The luxury self-catering Blue Reef cottages (stay-hebrides.com) overlook one of Harris' most beautiful beaches at Scarista. As well as a well-appointed modern kitchen and underfloor heating, each cottage has a sauna and jacuzzi.Rooms in Ballyfin are decorated in the original style of the house.

Another top-notch US travel awards; another reason for Ballyfin to celebrate.

The Co. Laois hotel, a former boarding school lavishly transformed into one of Ireland's leading five-stars, is listed as No.2 on Travel + Leisure's 2018 World's Best list.

The 20-room hotel takes second place on the 'Top 100 Hotels in the World' for 2018 behind the Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, Indonesia.

Travel + Leisure has a print audience of 6.7 million, according to its latest media kit, with millions more travel fans tuning in on digital and social media.

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Ballyfin also ranks No.1 on the magazine's list of Europe's Top 10 Resorts, where it is described as "a great place to fulfill all your Downton Abbey fantasies."

And price for a night in Ireland's Downton?

In peak season, doubles start from 960 per night on a B&B basis.

This year, it has also added a 2,000-a-night private cottage to the 614-acre demesne.

No stranger to awards

Dating from the 1820s, when it was built as a Regency-era mansion for the Anglo-Irish Coote family, Ballyfin is no stranger to international awards.

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Owned and restored by US businessman Fred Krehbiel and his Irish wife, Kay, it has been ranked as the world's No.1 hotel by Conde Nast Traveller, this year became the AA's Irish hotel of the year, and is a regular in our annual Reader Travel Awards.

"For the royal treatment, look no further than this Regency mansion near the Slieve Bloom Mountains, an hour and a half west of Dublin," T+L gushes.

Irish award-winners

Sheen Falls Lodge, set in Kenmare, Co. Kerry, was the only other Irish hotel to feature in the Top 100, ranking in 50th place. The five-star also ranks No. 6 on a list of Europe's Top 10 resort hotels, and third among the Top 10 resort hotels in the UK and Ireland.

The latter also includes Aghadoe Heights (10), Dromoland Castle (9), Ballynahinch Castle (8), Ashford Castle (5) and Ballyfin (1) in a vibrant Irish showing.

In other awards, Six Senses was named the world's top hotel brand, with Red Carnation (which owns Ashford Castle, among other properties), in second place.

The full awards are online at travelandleisure.com/worlds-best.

Read more:Ryanair pilots are to take part in a fourth strike in Ireland on Friday, August 3.

The airline has said 20 flights will be cancelled as a result of the strike.

It also threatened more job cuts if there are more strikes after putting over 300 staff on protective notice earlier today.

The airline said it will contact customers who will be affected by the strike tomorrow.

In a statement, it said Forsa rejected an offer to meet today to brief the union on its plan to cut 300 jobs in Dublin from October.

Forsas only response to 300 job losses is to call a fourth pilot strike next Friday, it said.

We will contact affected customers on Thursday July 26 but we expect no more than 20 of our 290 Irish flights next Friday to be cancelled.

It has told the union there will be no more meetings while it holds strikes.

If they wish to meet after next Fridays strike, then we will do so here at our offices, but not if more strikes are called, it said.

We are finalising our plans for up to 100 pilot and 200 cabin crew employee job cuts.

These numbers may increase if Forsa strikes cause more damage to our Irish business.

Trade union Forsa has warned that further strike action may follow unless the airline's management "changed tack".

Earlier today, Ryanair approved plans to cut its Dublin-based fleet from 30 to 24 aircraft for the winter season.

Ryanair has written to over 300 employees warning them that their services may not be required from October 28.

The protective notice to staff has been issued after the board took the decision to cut its Dublin-based fleet by 20pc for the winter.

Over 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew employees will be affected.

The low-fares airline said that the decision had been driven by the rapid growth of its Polish charter airline, allied to a down turn in forward bookings and airfares in Ireland, which it said was "partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots."

The airline said that the strikes had resulted in consumer confidence in the reliability of its Irish flight schedules being disturbed.

Ryanair expects few route closures from Dublin during the winter, although some routes may suffer frequency reductions.

"We regret these base aircraft reductions at Dublin for winter 2018, but the board has decided to allocate more aircraft to those markets where we are enjoying strong growth, and this will result in some aircraft reductions and job cuts in country markets where business has weakened, or forward bookings are being damaged by rolling strikes by Irish pilots," Peter Bellew, COO of Ryanair, said.

Transport Minister Shane Ross has said he will not intervene in the dispute between pilots and Ryanair.

He said that when it comes to disputes such as this the Government role normally is keep out.

Im not going to get involved. My worry, of course for everybody involved, is that they should get back to work because passengers are being affected adversely. We want to see that end as soon as possible, he said.

Earlier this week the airline reported a fall in profits after tax of 20pc year-on-year to 319m in the three months to 30 June.

Higher fuel and staff costs off-set the airlines increase in revenue, which grew 9pc to 2bn, Ryanair said in a trading update on Monday.

The earlier timing of Easter also led to a 4pc decline in average fares, the airline said.

Ryanair experienced passenger growth of 7pc year-on-year during the period, with the group carrying 37.6 million passengers in the three months.Youve just travelled for 24 hours from London to New Zealand. To get there youve splashed a grand on flights, likely a fair wedge on a fortnights worth of accommodation, and then theres the spending money...

However, if the New Zealand government has its way, tourists will soon have to pay an additional compulsory fee of up to NZ$35 (20) to enter the country.

Exit taxes are common in countries such as Cuba and Mexico, and indeed the United Kingdom via Air Passenger Duty (Ireland's Air Travel Tax was reduced from 3 to 0 in 2014). However entry taxes, unless sold as visas, are less common.

In a statement on the New Zealand governments website, it says the purpose of the tourist tax is to ensure tourists contribute to the infrastructure they use and help protect the natural environment they enjoy".

The tax will be paid through an Electronic Travel Authority process, similar to the ESTA system in the United States or eTA in Canada, and is estimated to raise up to NZ$80 million (46.5 million) per year.

There has been a surge in tourism in New Zealand in the last four years and this understandably puts a strain on infrastructure, said Paul Carberry, a specialist travel advisor.

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Reports show that money raised from this project will be directed towards this and the ongoing conservation of native New Zealand animal and plant species.

New Zealand is just one in a string of countries to introduce a tourist tax in recent years. A number of European countries charge fees to incoming visitors, including France, Italy and Spain.

In May this year, the Balearic Islands doubled the tax that they charge tourists, meaning those staying in luxury accommodation now pay $4 (3) per person per night while campers are charged $1 (75p).

In response to the Balearic tourist tax hike, Michael Bayley of Royal Caribbean said: Of course there are fees and taxes related to activity, which everybody is fine with. I think, though, when you start singling out industries and start putting specific taxes on [them], you start polarising opinion and it is never such a great idea, reported TTG Media.

Tim Williamson of Responsible Travel said: A tourist tax might be a possible solution to overtourism and may help to reduce demand but better still if the money raised is ring-fenced and directly benefits the local community affected by overtourism.

On the face of it, introducing a tourist tax is a logical move for a government. Itll raise quick and easy money, and so long as its not too high it is unlikely many tourists will be deterred. For someone who has committed to a trip to New Zealand, for example, an additional 20 is a mere drop in the Tasman Sea.

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What's more, presumably many tourists will be happy to know their money is contributing to the conservation of plant and animal species that have been negatively affected by tourism - an industry they are actively participating in.

One challenge to the tourist tax model is one of fairness. By simply visiting a destination, eating out, paying to visit attractions and so forth, a tourist is already pumping money into the countrys economy. This, you could argue, is the tourist's positive contribution.

So there is a worry that a tourist tax is more opportunism than necessity - if you can take 20 from the pocket of every incoming visitor, why wouldnt you?

Another challenge is that New Zealands tourism boom didnt happen overnight and nor is it unexpected. According to official projections, visitor numbers in New Zealand between 2016 and 2022 are expected to rise by 5.4 per cent each year, rising from 3.1 million in 2015 to 4.5 million in 2022.

Presumably, when these projections were put together there were also assessments of the negative impacts of the increase in visitor numbers.

All of these countries to have introduced a tourist tax have a tourist board, the purpose of which is to attract new visitors. It is their responsibility to make sure that the number of incoming tourists is sustainable, in terms of infrastructure capacity, environmental impact and the quality of life for locals. If it isn't, they should either stop trying to lure in new visitors or develop a strategy based around promoting alternative destinations that would benefit from a boost in footfall.

To put it another way - if Disneyland sought to increase its visitor numbers by 50 per cent, making the whole experience worse as a result for both staff and visitors - and it was clear this was always going to happen - is it fair to charge more for each visitor to mitigate the impact?

Clearly the footfall should not have been increased before the park invested in a shiny new Space Mountain in a corner of Disneyland fewer people usually visit.

The task of tackling overtourism is a complex one, and there's no straightforward solution. No doubt tourist taxes can have positive benefits as a retrospective move.

But there's definitely an argument that its on governments to keep tourism at a sustainable level through better planning and tourist management, rather than allowing the flow to continue and then ask tourists to plaster over the wounds once they're already open.

Tourist Taxes: For accommodation in Europe*

Austria

Vienna and Salzburg: 3.02 per cent of price of room per night

Belgium

Antwerp: 2.39 per night

Bruges: 2.00 per night

Brussels: Depends on hotel capacity - ask at hotel.

Ghent: 2.50 per night

Czech Republic

Prague: 15 Kc (0.51) per night

France

Lyon: from 0.83 to 1.65

Nice: from 0.83 to 1.65

Paris: from 0.20 to 1.50

Germany

Berlin: 5 per cent of price of room per night

Hamburg: from 0.50 to 4

Greece

Athens: from 0.50 to 4

Hungary

Budapest: 4 per cent of price of room per night

Italy

Florence: from 1 to 5 per night

Milan: from 2 to 5 per night (50 per cent less during August)

Rome: from 3 to 7 per night

Netherlands

Amsterdam: 5.5 per cent of price of room per night

Portugal

Lisbon: 1 per entering visitor

Spain

Barcelona: from 0.45 to 2.50 per night

*Data from Globehunters.com

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]Jason Spencer, of Woodbine, apologised over the ugly episode (AP)

A US politician has said he will resign after he exposed himself and shouted racial slurs on Sacha Baron Cohens new TV show.

Georgia representative Jason Spencer has said he will step down at the end of the month, despite an earlier vow to serve out his term despite the fallout over an episode of British star Cohens show, Who Is America?

A one-sentence note from Mr Spencer reads: This email/letter is to serve as an official resignation notice to your office that I will be resigning my post effective July 31, 2018.

In Sunday nights broadcast of the Showtime series, Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Mr Spencer to take part in several outlandish exercises. The representative is told they are making a counter-terrorism video.

Mr Spencer repeatedly shouts a racial slur for black people after Cohen tells him the tactic is useful for drawing bystanders attention to an unfolding attack.

He also drops his trousers, then his underwear, before backing his exposed rear end toward Cohen while shouting USA! and America!

Cohen had told Mr Spencer this would incite fear in homophobic jihadists.

The segment also shows Mr Spencer speaking with a mock Asian accent while using a selfie-stick to surreptitiously insert a camera phone between the legs of a woman dressed in traditional Muslim clothing.

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David Ralston, the Republican speaker for the state house of representatives had led calls for Mr Spencers immediate resignation.

Mr Spencer apologised for the ridiculously ugly episode, but initially refused to step down.

He lost a Republican primary for his seat on May 22, but he could have remained in public office through to the November election.A US legislator who exposed himself and yelled racial slurs on British star Sacha Baron Cohens new TV series will resign, according to officials

Jason Spencer will step down at the end of the month, a spokesman for Georgia House speaker David Ralston told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

In Sunday nights broadcast of Cohens Showtime series Who Is America? Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Mr Spencer to take part in several outlandish exercises. The legislator is told theyre making a counter-terrorism video.

Mr Spencer repeatedly shouts a racial slur for black people after Cohen tells him the tactic is useful for drawing bystanders attention to an unfolding attack.

He also drops his trousers, then his underwear, before backing his exposed rear end towards Cohen while shouting USA! and America! after Cohen told him the move would incite fear in homophobic jihadists.

The segment also shows Mr Spencer speaking with a mock Asian accent while pretending to use a selfie-stick to surreptitiously insert a camera phone under a Muslim womans burqa.

Mr Ralston and others called for his immediate resignation.

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In a statement on Monday, Mr Spencer apologised for the ridiculously ugly episode but initially refused to step down.

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He lost the Republican primary contest in May, but he could have remained in public office until the November election.Shuttleworth Military Pageant  WWI Armistice Centenary Commemoration  July 1st 2018

by George Land

With 2018 marking the Centenary for the end of World War One, the Shuttleworth Collection in Old Warden, England paid homage to the service and sacrifice of the Armed Services in keeping the nation safe over the past century with a special air show on July 1st. Although world renowned for their fleet of rare, historic aeroplanes, the Shuttleworth Collection does not focus exclusively on aviation; it also includes military vehicles and other forms of early transport, as witnessed by the static displays and in the parade before the air show began.

As for the air show itself, it opened up with the Shuttleworth debut for Fighter Aviation Engineerings recently refinished Republic P-47D Thunderbolt 45-49192. Operated by Air Leasing at Sywell, Pete Kynsey flew this beautiful aircraft at the show. This P-47 flew for several decades with various owners, both in England and the USA, as No Guts, No Glory, but is now marked as Nellie, a 492nd Fighter Squadron aircraft initially based at Ibsley during WWII and attached to the 9th Tactical Air Force, USAAF before moving into Northern Europe following the D-Day landings. Interestingly, the 492nd Fighter Squadron is still operational today, flying F-15E Strike Eagles from RAF Lakenheath as part of USAF Europe.

Kynseys emotive Thunderbolt routine clearly demonstrated the power and grace of this great American warbird, which weighs in at close to 7 tonnes! Five iconic British aircraft followed closely after Nellies display. These included Hawker Demon Mk.I K8203 (built by Bolton-Paul in 1937) flying in the colours of RAF 64 Squadron and Gloster Gladiator Mk.I L8032 (dressed as K7985 of A Flight, RAF 73 Squadron. Then came the collections Westland Lysander Mk.llla V9552 painted to represent MA-B/V9367 of 161 Squadron which helped support Special Operations Executive clandestine operations in enemy territory during 1942. The Lizzie had as her escorts Hawker Sea Hurricane IB Z7015 off one wing and Supermarine Spitfire LF.Mk.Vc AR501 off the other. Oddly enough, the Spitfire was license built by Westland at Yeovil. She served in combat with RAF 310 (Czech) Squadron at Exeter during July 1942 and has only recently re-emerged in 312 (Czech) Squadron markings following a long rebuild at Old Warden. Sea Hurricane Z7015 is actually a Canadian Car & Foundary-built example, and served with Naval Air Squadron 880 as well as 759 Squadron (while at the Naval Fighter School). Such was the amazing pace of aeronautical advancement during the 1930s and 1940s, that just four years separate the state-of-the-art as it was in 1937, when Demon K8203 and Gloster Gladiator L8032 first flew, from where it sat in May 1941, when the Thunderbolts prototype initially took to the skies. Spitfire AR501 and Sea Hurricane Z7015 both flew for the first time in 1941 as well.

The Gladiator and Demon represented the ultimate generation of biplane combat aircraft, while the Lysander, Hurricane and Spitfire displayed the style of RAF technology that served Britain in the early days of WWII from the Norwegian Campaign, through the Battles of France and Britain, then into the Mediterranean campaign.

The next series of displays featured a variety of World War One-era designs, including trainers and fighters and even a civilian version of the Sopwith Pup biplane scout. These aircraft included a replica Sopwith Dove G-EAGA, built in 1990, as well as a more recently manufactured Royal Aircraft Factory BE2e replica, wearing the paint of A2943 at the time that aircraft served with RAF 7 Squadrons the personal mount of Capt. Webb Brownealong. There was also an original Avro 504K, E3273 dating from 1918, a faithful replica of a Sopwith Triplane painted to represent N6290 Dixie II of No.8 Naval Air Squadron, and replica Sopwith Camel F.1 G-BZSC flying as D1851 IKANOPIT of 70 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps. And finally the Shuttleworth Collections marvelous, original Bristol Fighter F.2B D8096 was in the air telling the history of the Royal Flying Corp.

Next came a very entertaining demonstration by part of the Great Warbirds Display team that fly scale replicas of World War One aircraft. The German Army Air Service was represented by two colourful JG-1/Jasta 6 Fokker Dr.1 Triplane replicas: 403/17 of Lt. Johann Janzen and 556/17 of Lt. Ludwig Lutz Beckmann.

The opposition in the aerial dogfighting came in the form of a Sopwith Triplane that represents N500, the first Triplane prototype flown by A Flight, No. 1 Squadron of the Royal Naval Air Service alongside Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a B595 of No. 56 Squadron, flown during WWI by Lt. M. E. Mealing, MC. Last, but certainly not least, came a replica Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c, a fragile, early-war biplane which the Royal Flying Corps initially fielded in the artillery observation role, but later relegated to training roles due to its vulnerability to German fighters. This particular aircraft is known locally as the Biggles Biplane, because it was built for the film Biggles Sweeps the Skies about W.E. Johns fictional WWI hero James Bigglesworth, aka Biggles. The team flies with a great deal of skill, clearly showing how chaotic the skies could be above the trenches in World War One, with planes engaged in combat crossing over each other and filling the air space with maneuvers coming from all directions.

Next to display was another Shuttleworth favourite, the Avro C.XlX Anson, flying as TX176 from the RAF Coningsby Station Flight. This linked nicely into the next segment which featured a present-day resident of RAF Coningsby, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flights Avro Lancaster B Mk.1, PA474, which performed three glorious passes. Each flyby presented clear topside views showing off the upper Dark Earth/Dark Green camouflage perfectly above the underside painted in Night Black.

The tempo then changed again as it became time for a pair of trainers to take to the sky: the beautiful and unique Blackburn B.2 biplane G-AEBJ dating from 1936, and Percival Provost T.1 XF603 of 1950s vintage. The Blackburn B.2 is an unusual design for a trainer of that period, with its side-by-side seating arrangement, and needless to say, it wasnt manufactured in large numbers, despite its elegant appearance. The Provost on the other hand, had a successful career, and enjoyed some exports to foreign air arms as well. Most RAF examples of the Provost appeared in training livery, but this particular example is wearing an unusual camouflage scheme representing an aircraft bound for service in Oman. Due to the niceties of the period, the aircraft had to wear an RAF serial and roundels for the delivery flight from the UK to the Middle East. This was an interesting choice of livery for the owner. The Provost put on a spirited aerobatic display that started high and, following a series of loops and turns, finished at low level, showing off the trainers aerial prowess to the full.

The pace now switched back to World War One, with the launch of the Shuttleworth-based Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a, coded F904, of No. 84 Squadron, RAF. This SE5a is an original airframe, built under license by Wolseley Motors in 1918. F904 is also a combat veteran. 84 Squadrons commander, Major C.E.M. Pickthorn MC, was flying F904 when he dispatched a Fokker D.Vll in early November 1918. This fabulous aircraft was joined in the air by Shuttleworths replica 1917 Bristol M1C monoplane fighter, painted to represent C4918.

Three visitors joined the Shuttleworth duo in the skies. These included a replica Bristol Scout Model C (painted to represent 1264 as flown by Flt Sub Lt. F.D.H. Bunnie Bremner of No. 2 Wing Royal Naval Air Service in the Eastern Mediterranean), a replica Fokker Dr.I Triplane Dr1 from Breighton (representing 152/17 flown by the infamous Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, of JG-1/Jast 11, German Army Air Service), and a replica Nieuport 17 Scout from Stowe Maries (representing N1977 flown by the American volunteer, Sgt. Robert Scoubiran in the Escadrille Lafayette of the French Aeronautique Militaire).

The display then switched back to the WWII-era, with the appearance of the Hawker pair consisting of Shuttleworths Sea Hurricane Mk.IB and the Battle of Britain combat-veteran Hurricane Mk.I P3717, coded as SW-P of 253 Squadron. This Brooklands-built aircraft, in the hands of Polish Pilot Officer W.M.C Samolinskiis, is credited with shooting down a Messerschmitt Bf 110, before itself receiving damage from another Bf 110, which grounded the 253 Squadron fighter for the remainder of the Battle of Britain. The Hurricanes flew a short series of close formation passes before switching to excellent individual displays, which demonstrated why the Hurricane was such a good dog fighter and stable gun platform during its day.

Flight training again became the theme following the Hurricane performances. First up was the Slingsby T.13 Petrel Glider, followed by de Havilland DH82A Tiger Moth K2585, with Miles M14a Magister P6382/C bringing up the rear.

Unfortunately, the wind conditions were such that the planned flights for the Edwardians could not take place at the Military Pageant, because these delicate pre-1910 designs were too vulnerable to strong gusts. However, in their stead, the Royal Aircraft Factory BE2e and replica Bristol Scout Model C, along with the Sopwith Triplane, Sopwith Dove and Sopwith Camel, all flew single ship displays to fill in the display time before the shows final act took place. This was an especially moving moment beginning in the form of a minutes silence followed by the sounding of the last post in solemn memory of all those who had fallen in conflict. At the conclusion, the Shuttleworth Collections Bristol F2.B Fighter dropped poppies in remembrance of the fallen. It was enough to tug the strings of even the hardest of hearts.

WarbirdsNews wishes to express our deep thanks to George Land for this report, and for his patience in the delay with getting it published. We hope our readers have enjoyed his contributions as much as we have!Pakistani volunteers and security officers visit the site of a bombing in Quetta (AP)

A suicide bomber has struck outside a crowded polling station in Pakistans south-western city of Quetta, killing 31 people.

The blast came as Pakistanis cast ballots in a general election meant to lead to the nations third consecutive civilian government.

The attack in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, also wounded 35 people and several were reported to be in critical condition, according to hospital doctor Jaffar Kakar.

A witness who was waiting to cast his ballot, Abdul Haleem, said he saw a motorcycle drive into the crowd of voters seconds before the explosion. He said his uncle was killed in the explosion.

There was a deafening bang followed by thick cloud of smoke and dust and so much crying from the wounded people, he said.

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Baluchistan saw the worst violence of the election campaign earlier this month when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a political rally, killing 149 people, including candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. Voting in that constituency has been suspended.

Citing security concerns, the election commission announced that internet and mobile phone services in several districts in Baluchistan have been suspended.

Election commission secretary Babar Yaqub told reporters that threats against polling stations, staff and even candidates have been received.

Hours earlier, militants lobbed grenades and opened fire at a military convoy escorting election staff and voting material in Baluchistans district of Turbat, killing four troops.

At the request of the election commission, Pakistans military is deploying 350,000 troops countrywide outside and inside polling stations.

Also on Wednesday, police said a shooting between supporters of two opposing political parties killed one person and wounded two in a village near the north-western city of Swabi.An American pastor detained for nearly two years on terror and espionage charges in Turkey will be placed under house arrest as his trial continues, reports said.

Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, will continue to be remanded at his house, Andalou news agency said.

The case has strained ties between Nato allies Turkey and the United States. American president Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded his release.

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Brunson was arrested in December 2016.

He faces up to 15 years in prison for committing crimes on behalf of terror groups in reference to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of a US-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt, and an additional 20 years for espionage.

The pastor strongly denies the charges.A satellite image of what research group 38 North says is the dismantled engine test stand at the Sohae launch site. Photo: Airbus Defense & Space/38 North via AP

Satellite images indicate North Korea has begun dismantling key facilities at a site used to develop engines for ballistic missiles, in a first step toward fulfilling a pledge made to US President Donald Trump, a Washington-based think tank has reported.

The July 20 images showed work at the Sohae satellite launching station to dismantle a building used to assemble space-launch vehicles and a nearby rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles, the 38 North organisation said.

"Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North's intercontinental ballistic missile programme, these efforts represent a significant confidence-building measure on the part of North Korea," it reported.

Mr Trump said after his unprecedented June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that Mr Kim had promised that a major missile engine testing site would be destroyed very soon.

He did not identify the site, but a US official subsequently said that it was Sohae.

The 38 North report comes amid growing questions about North Korea's willingness to live up to the commitments Mr Kim made at the summit, particularly to work towards denuclearisation.

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US officials have repeatedly said the regime has committed to giving up a nuclear weapons programme that now threatens the United States, but Pyongyang has offered no details as to how it might go about this.

Jenny Town, managing editor of '38 North', based at Washington's Stimson Centre, said the work at Sohae could be an important move to keep negotiations going.

"This could - and that's a big could - mean that North Korea is also willing to forgo satellite launches for the time being as well as nuclear and missile tests. This distinction has derailed diplomacy in the past," she said.

Experts expressed caution over the significance of the move.

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"Dismantling the engine test stand is a good move, but about the bare minimum that can be done at the site," said Melissa Hanham, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California.

"Unless they dismantle the whole site, it will remain North Korea's premier location for space launches."

She added: "North Korea does not need the Sohae engine test stand anymore if it is confident in the engine design. As Kim Jong-un said himself, North Korea is moving from testing to mass production."

The satellite image analysis leaves it unclear whether North Korea planned to demolish the entire Sohae site, which has been vital to its space programme. Other important facilities such as fuel bunkers, a main assembly building and the gantry tower appear untouched.

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Last Friday, senior US officials called on Mr Kim to act on his promise to give up his nuclear weapons and said the world, including China and Russia, must continued to enforce sanctions on Pyongyang until he does so.

On Monday, the US State Department issued an advisory together with the departments of Treasury and Homeland Security alerting businesses to North Korea's sanctions-evasion tactics.

It said they should "implement effective due diligence policies, procedures, and internal controls to ensure compliance with applicable legal requirements across their entire supply chains."

Ending sanctions is Mr Kim's chief concern as the regime focuses on building its economy. South Korea, leading the push for greater dialogue, is seeking exemption from US sanctions to increase trade with the North.

In a tweet early on Monday, Mr Trump rejected "fake news" that he was angry because progress was not happening fast enough with North Korea.

"Wrong, very happy!" he said in the tweet.

A report in 'The Washington Post' at the weekend said that in spite of positive assessments Mr Trump has given on progress with North Korea, he has vented anger at aides over a lack of immediate progress.

Last week, Mr Trump said there was "no rush" and "no time limit" on denuclearisation negotiations.

US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats has said it was technically possible for North Korea to eliminate its nuclear weapons programme within a year, but added that it was not likely to happen.European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has told President Donald Trump that the EU and the US are partners and allies, not enemies, and must work together, as trade negotiations began at the White House.

Mr Juncker told Mr Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that the trade talks are important. He suggested the two sides discuss reducing tariffs instead of increasing them.

Mr Trump noted the two continents together make up more than 50% of the worlds trade, and said it would be good if they removed all tariffs and trade barriers as part of the discussions.

Mr Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on imported cars, prompting the Europeans to suggest they may place tariffs on 20 billion dollars (15 billion) of American goods in retaliation.

Earlier, Mr Trump accused China of vicious tactics on trade.

He tweeted that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because they know I love & respect them.

His comments came after his administration announced a plan to provide 12 billion dollars (9 billion) in emergency relief for farmers who have been hit by the presidents trade disputes with China and other countries.

During talks with Mr Juncker, Mr Trump said the US wants a fair trade deal with the EU.

He said: We just want it to be a level playing field for our farmers, for our manufacturers, for everybody, suggesting the EU could also be a big beneficiary of a revised trading agreement.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping said at an international summit in South Africa that the world faces a choice between cooperation and confrontation, in remarks that criticised escalating US tariffs on goods from China and other major trading partners.

He warned that those who pursue economic hegemony will only end up hurting themselves.

Mr Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, saying they pose a threat to US national security, an argument that the EU and Canada reject.

He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totalled 335 billion dollars (254 billion).

The president has repeatedly called the EU  which includes many of the USs oldest and most committed allies  an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a foe.Top European Union officials have warned they are ready to put tariffs on 20 billion dollars (15 billion) of American goods if Donald Trump puts duties on car imports, ahead of talks with the US president.

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade chief Cecilia Malmstrom will meet Mr Trump in Washington to try to talk him out of imposing the car tariffs, which would hurt the industry on both sides of the Atlantic and increase trade tensions.

Ms Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter: The aim of this visit is to cool down the situation and prevent an escalation of the trade conflict.

However, she noted that if the US proceeds with the duties, the EU is ready to respond. It will impose new tariffs on a range of US products, including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery.

Mr Trump has repeatedly called the EU  which includes many of the Americas oldest and most committed allies  an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a foe.

His administration this year imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium, drawing retaliation from the EU on a series of US goods.

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Those tariffs covered about three billion dollars in goods and would pale in comparison with possible 25% tariffs on imports of cars, trucks and car parts.

It is unclear what Mr Trumps approach will be in the talks. After tweeting that Tariffs are the greatest! he suggested hours later in another post that both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!

The EUs budget chief, Guenther Oettinger, said the EU was prepared to discuss lowering and restructuring all tariffs for all products.

He told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk: We want to avoid a further escalation of the trade dispute (into) a trade war.

We have good arguments, clear numbers and we have ideas, too.

Whether these will help, nobody knows. But not to try, not to fly over there for the meeting, would have been the wrong path.

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Car tariffs would be particularly painful for Germany, where the industry is huge and has long been the symbol of post-war wealth.

And it is not just Europeans opposing these tariffs, but American companies as well.

The duties would increase the cost of many components that American manufacturers import and use in making cars. Ultimately, that will make cars more expensive for US consumers.

The EU has a huge stake in the US industry, where European companies produce almost three million cars a year, accounting for over a quarter of production in the United States.

The biggest exporter of American-made cars is a German company  BMW, through its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

German producers and supplies employ more than 118,000 people at about 300 factories and manufacture more than 800,000 vehicles per year in the US  with more than half of the cars being exported, according to figures provided by the German automotive industry.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has accused China of vicious tactics, tweeting that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because they know I love & respect them.

His comments came after his administration announced a plan to provide 12 billion dollars (9 billion) in emergency relief for farmers who have been hit hard by the presidents trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now!One of the Amesbury Novichok attack victims has revealed that he accidentally gave his girlfriend who died from the poison a tainted bottle that he believed to contain perfume as a present.

Charlie Rowley's partner Dawn Sturgess died on July 8 after the pair became exposed to the deadly nerve agent after handling a contaminated bottle later found in Mr Rowley's home.

Mr Rowley said he recalls a "cosmetic bottle", which he gave to Ms Sturgess.

"I'm feeling very low about Dawn," he told a local newspaper. "I remember finding a cosmetic bottle which I had picked up and gave it to Dawn as a present.

"I feel very sad about what happened to her, it's awful and shocking.

"I was still on medication when they told me she passed away. I don't think I will ever be able to get over it.

"My heart goes out to Dawn's family.

"It's amazing that I'm alive. In a way I feel lucky I survived, but I've also lost so much."

The couple became ill at a property in Muggleton Road in Amesbury, 13km from Salisbury in Wiltshire and were taken to hospital.

Mr Rowley and Ms Sturgess (44) were victims of the second nerve agent attack in four months following the case of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

They were found unconscious on a park bench in Salisbury in March.

Police are believed to have identified the suspected perpetrators of the Novichok attack on Russian former spy Mr Skripal and his daughter.

Mr Rowley (45) was discharged from Salisbury District Hospital on Friday after being admitted on June 30.

Speaking about those who discarded the bottle, Mr Rowley said: "It's very careless of them, the way they go about their business leaving things lying around.

"It was meant for someone, it was wrong to leave it lying around for anyone to pick up. There could have been children playing with it."

Meanwhile, his brother, Matthew Rowley, revealed: "His (Charlie's) legs are playing up and he can't really walk. He was up on Sunday but he is really weak still.

"I've been trying to push him for information but he has been through a really traumatic thing.

"It's difficult talking to him as he still can't really remember anything.

"He hasn't talked about Dawn and I don't want to ask because I'm trying to lift his spirits, not bring them down."

Matthew Rowley also told the newspaper that his brother is "very lethargic" and "does not seem himself".People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS

The death toll from a fire which ripped through a Greek coastal town near Athens stood at 80 on Wednesday, with dozens of people unaccounted for.

At least 187 people, including 23 children, have been injured.

Greece's prime minister told of the "unspeakable tragedy" the country faced after wildfires swept through a resort, trapping people in cars and on the edge of cliffs as others were forced to jump off to survive

The scale of Monday night's devastation in Mati became apparent at first light on Tuesday.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A plane flies over the smoke and fire east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) Buildings burn in the town of Mati, east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens, Monday, July 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A house burns in the town of Mati, east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) Locals try to extinguish a fire at a nearby house as a wildfire burns at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A house burns as a wildfire rages at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis People stand in the sea near to cars parked on the beach to protect them from the fire in the town of Mati (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis) Rescuers and volunteers push an inflatable boat as locals are evacuated during a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A firefighter holds a hose as a wildfire burns at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A car and motorcycle which burt out during wildfires is seen at the village of Mati near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Smoke fills the sky as a member of the emergency services blocks a road near Kineta (AP) Smoke over the ancient Acropolis hill (AP) Rescuers wait at the area where bodies were found following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A house burns following a wildfire at Neos Voutzas, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Scenes of devastation after the fire (AP) A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens REUTERS/Costas Baltas Asimina Psalti, 87, sits outside her burned-out house in Mati east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A woman stands amid the charred remains of burned-out properties in Mati (AP) A local stands next to burnt cars following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A woman speaks on the phone as she stands next to a burned apartment, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas Burned cars are seen following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A local looks at his burnt house following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A crane removes a burned car from the road in Mati, east of Athens (AP) Burned-out cars destroyed in the wildfires line a road near the village of Neos Voutzas (AP) Locals wearing masks walk among burnt cars following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas People stand amid the charred remains of burned-out cars (AP) People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS A helicopter drops water at a wildfire in Kineta, Greece, July 23, 2018 in this still image taken from a social media video July 24, 2018. GIANNIS LABROPOULOS/via REUTERS Firefighters carry a stretcher filled with body bags, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A plane flies over the smoke and fire east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

Scores of gutted cars lined streets in the coastal town, east of Athens, melted by the intensity of the heat. Bodies lay on roadsides, and in one area, a group of 26 people were found dead - some locked in an embrace as the flames closed in.

The group, which included children, were found near the top of a cliff overlooking a beach. They had ended up there after apparently searching for an escape route.

"Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced," the head of Greece's Red Cross, Nikos Economopoulos, told Skai TV.

The lucky ones were able to leap off the cliffs to survive, or rush into the sea from the beach.

"We went into the sea because the flames were chasing us all the way to the water. It burned our backs and we dived into the water," said Kostas Laganos, a middle-aged survivor.

He compared the ordeal to the destruction of the city of Pompeii, where thousands were incinerated by the volcano of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. "I said 'my God, we must run to save ourselves and nothing else'."

At least 74 people were killed, a fire brigade spokeswoman said, and the death toll was expected to rise. Poland said two of its citizens, a mother and her son, were among the victims.

It was not clear how many people remained unaccounted for as boats combed beaches for any remaining survivors.

Residents, their faces blackened by smoke, wandered the streets, some searching for their burned-out cars, others for their pets. The eerie silence was punctured by fire-fighting helicopters and the murmur of rescue crews. There were yellow body bags in several areas.

Many in the area had been unable to escape the fast pace of the blaze even though they were a few metres from the Aegean Sea or in their homes, the fire service said.

A Reuters photographer saw at least four dead people on a narrow road clogged with cars heading to a beach.

One of the youngest victims was believed to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation. At least 187 people were injured, officials said, among those 23 children.

"Greece is going through an unspeakable tragedy," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said as he appeared on television to declare three days of national mourning.

"Greece is living one of its most difficult moments," he said. "There are absolutely no words to describe how we feel right now."

Flags atop the ancient Acropolis hill and parliament flew at half mast.

The inferno was thought to be Greece's deadliest, with the death toll higher than fires which ravaged the southern Peloponnese peninsula over several days in August 2007, killing dozens.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Mati fire was contained, but the risk remained of it reigniting in scrubland parched by Greece's searing summer heat.

Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a relatively dry winter and hot summer helped create the current tinder-box conditions. The cause of the current blaze was not immediately clear and an Athens prosecutor ordered an investigation into it.

Mati is a popular spot for Greek holidaymakers, particularly pensioners and children at summer camps. One of the missing included a woman with multiple sclerosis, dragged out of her wheelchair by her frantic husband as the flames closed in, but lost in the ensuing chaos.

The fire service urged residents to report missing relatives and friends. Some took to Twitter and Facebook, posting photographs of young children and elderly couples they hoped to track down.

Greece issued an urgent appeal for help to tackle fires that raged out of control in several places across the country, destroying homes and disrupting major transport links.

Newspapers printed banner headlines including "Killer Fire" and "Hell".

Cyprus, Spain, Italy, Croatia and Portugal offered assistance after Greece said it needed air and land assets from European Union partners.

"Our thoughts go to Greece and the victims of the terrible fires," French President Emmanuel Macron said in tweets published in French and Greek.

Pope Francis said in a telegram he was deeply saddened by the tragedy and prayed for the victims and their families.Missing man Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan, who were on their honeymoon in Greece

IRISH newlyweds celebrating their honeymoon in Greece have been caught up in the wildfire tragedy that left the country devastated.

Fears are growing for Brian OCallaghan-Westropp, who has gone missing having become separated from his new wife as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

He married Zoe Holohan in Ireland last week, before the couple flew out to Greece over the weekend.

Ms Holohan, who works in the advertising department of the Sunday World newspaper, was hospitalised having suffered burns.

Expand Close Newlyweds Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan / Facebook

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Whatsapp Newlyweds Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp and Zoe Holohan

However, her husband has not been found since they became separated in Mati.

Speaking to RTE's Today with Miriam O'Callaghan, Franco De Bonis, who volunteers with Brian at charity Blood Bikes East, said he hopes that he will be found today.

Blood Bikes is a group of unpaid bikers, who travel through heavy traffic with important medical supplies.

"He is a very selfless person who is happy to give his time to others and happy to think of others first," Franco said.

Expand Close A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens REUTERS/Costas Baltas / Facebook

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"We are desperately hoping that he surfaces and is found and can be reunited with Zoe."

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he was "devastated" to learn that an Irish honeymooner is among the missing as a result of the wildfires in Greece.

Mr Varadkar pledged the support of the Irish Government and said that the Irish team on the ground will provide every assistance to those affected.

"I'm devastated to hear that one of our citizens is missing in Greece as a result of the wildfires," he said.

Expand Close A crane removes a burned car from the road in Mati, east of Athens (AP) / Facebook

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"I've been in touch with the Department of Foreign Affairs today just to make sure that the ambassador and our people on the ground are providing whatever assistance we can.

"I can assure you that our embassy team in Ireland are in touch with the Greek authorities and will do anything that we can to help support our citizens over there," he added.

The small community of Mati, a popular tourist resort with Greek holiday-makers around 30km east of Athens, has been among the worst areas hit by the devastating blazes.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next In Pictures: Devastation as deadly wildfires rip through Greece Close A plane flies over the smoke and fire east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) Buildings burn in the town of Mati, east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens, Monday, July 23, 2018. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A house burns in the town of Mati, east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP) Locals try to extinguish a fire at a nearby house as a wildfire burns at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A house burns as a wildfire rages at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis People stand in the sea near to cars parked on the beach to protect them from the fire in the town of Mati (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis) Rescuers and volunteers push an inflatable boat as locals are evacuated during a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A firefighter holds a hose as a wildfire burns at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A car and motorcycle which burt out during wildfires is seen at the village of Mati near Athens, Greece, July 23, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Smoke fills the sky as a member of the emergency services blocks a road near Kineta (AP) Smoke over the ancient Acropolis hill (AP) Rescuers wait at the area where bodies were found following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis A house burns following a wildfire at Neos Voutzas, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis Scenes of devastation after the fire (AP) A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens REUTERS/Costas Baltas Asimina Psalti, 87, sits outside her burned-out house in Mati east of Athens (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis) A woman stands amid the charred remains of burned-out properties in Mati (AP) A local stands next to burnt cars following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A woman speaks on the phone as she stands next to a burned apartment, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas Burned cars are seen following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A local looks at his burnt house following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas A crane removes a burned car from the road in Mati, east of Athens (AP) Burned-out cars destroyed in the wildfires line a road near the village of Neos Voutzas (AP) Locals wearing masks walk among burnt cars following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas People stand amid the charred remains of burned-out cars (AP) People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS People are seen as a wildfire burns in Mati, Greece July 23, 2018 in this picture obtained from social media on July 24, 2018. KALOGERIKOS NIKOS/via REUTERS A helicopter drops water at a wildfire in Kineta, Greece, July 23, 2018 in this still image taken from a social media video July 24, 2018. GIANNIS LABROPOULOS/via REUTERS Firefighters carry a stretcher filled with body bags, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece, July 24, 2018. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A plane flies over the smoke and fire east of Athens (Thanassis Stavrakis/AP)

At least 79 people have been killed, while dozens more have been injured. However, this figure is expected to rise.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it was providing consular assistance to a number of Irish people who had been caught up in the wildfires which have spread in various Greek regions.

However, they would not comment on specific incidents in which Irish people were affected.

Mr OCallaghan-Westropp, who lives in Dublin, has not been seen since becoming separated from his wife on Monday afternoon.

It is understood they were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee due to an approaching wildfire.

Ms Holohan suffered burn injuries but managed to escape to a nearby beach. She was last night being treated in an Athens hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Relatives were yesterday making their way to Greece after being made aware of the incident. They are expected to arrive in Athens today.

Colleagues of Ms Holohan at Independent News and Media (INM), which also publishes Independent.ie, were left shocked and upset as news of the incident emerged yesterday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said the country is going through an unspeakable tragedy and has declared a three-day national mourning period.

It is the worst incidence of wildfire to hit the popular holiday destination in more than a decade.

President Michael D Higgins said that he wrote to the countrys president and expressed his condolences as well solidarity with Greece on behalf of the Irish people.

I have today written to the President of the Hellenic Republic, HE Mr Prokopis Pavlopoulos, to express my sympathies with the families of those who lost their lives and livelihoods in the tragic fires in the Attica region.

Following my visit to Greece and my meeting with him and the presidents of Italy and Portugal, I am very conscious of the resilience of the Greek people, who should be assisted by all of us in these difficult times.

In the letter to President Pavlopoulos I offered, on behalf of the people of Ireland, our deepest condolences and our solidarity.

Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has also expressed his condolences with the people of Greece.

Mr Coveney urged Irish people in the areas affected to keep up to date with local media and to follow the advice of the Greek authorities.The women received sildenafil, also known as Viagra, in the trial

A Dutch drug trial in which pregnant women whose babies faced life-threatening growth issues were given Viagra has been halted after 11 babies died.

The parents of around a dozen babies in the trial - who are as yet unborn or in intensive care - now face a nervous wait.

The women who received sildenafil, better known by its brand name Viagra, in a trial to try to stimulate their baby's growth, were told it may have increased the risk of lung disease.

In the trial, which began in January 2015 in 10 Dutch hospitals, it was hoped the anti-impotence tablets would increase the size of the placenta and encourage foetus development.

In total, 93 women were given sildenafil and 90 were given a dummy drug or placebo. Twenty babies developed lung problems after birth - three in the placebo group and the rest in the treatment group.

Eleven in the sildenafil group died from lung complications, but a total of 17 babies in the group were diagnosed with lung disease shortly after birth.

In the control group, three babies had the same lung disease but none of them died, according to reports. In total, 19 babies who were born prematurely in the drug group died, compared with nine in the control group.

"The chance of lung disease appears to be greater, and also the chance of death following the birth seems to be increased," said a letter sent to the parents involved, according to Hart van Nederland, a TV programme.

Suzanne and Martijn de Lange, whose baby died, said the news had thrown them into turmoil. "We had made peace with the fact that our daughter Olivia died eight days after birth," she told the NOS news channel.

"The cause was natural, we thought. And we had come to terms with it. Until on Friday evening we were called by the UMC hospital in Leiden and told it might have had something to do with the study," she said.

Senior researcher Wessel Ganzevoort, who is based at the AMC teaching hospital in Amsterdam, told Hart van Nederland it was focusing on supporting the parents. "I have spoken to a number of these patients and they are, of course, very emotional about this, as I am too," he said.

"They knew that it was uncertain, but now they have to live with the thought that they took part in something that caused potential damage. That is incredibly sad."

He told NOS that 10 to 15 women who took part do not yet know what the outcome will be for their baby: some are still pregnant, and a number of parents have babies in intensive care. He said that earlier, small-scale studies into using the drug had had positive results.

No spokesman from the AMC hospital was available to speak last night. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2021]We just received word that the Toronto City Council has announced their decision regarding the fate of Avro Lancaster B Mk.10 FM104. The City voted to transfer the aircraft to the British Columbia Aviation Museum near Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. This aircraft was on display atop a waterfront pedestal beside Lake Ontario in Toronto for several decades until its rescue by the sadly moribund Canadian Air & Space Museum in 1999. CASM had been making great strides with the Lancasters restoration until they were forcibly evicted in 2012, alongside a number of other business, because someone got the bright idea to bulldoze the historic deHavilland factory hangars they called home to build yet another skating rink complex. Without a home, nor the prospect of finding another within their budget, CASM was essentially shut down, and their exhibits shoved into storage wherever it was available. The City of Toronto still owned the Lancaster, and given that the aircraft was in disassembled storage outdoors, a decision had to come soon regarding its future. In selecting the British Columbia Aviation Museum, the City Council have definitely found a place where the Lancaster will be loved and well cared for. What will be a sad loss for many in Toronto, especially those who poured so much love and care into FM104, will be to the benefit of those out west, where Lancaster served faithfully, and is currently unrepresented. The care of the airframe and her history is whats important now, and hopefully FM104s future is a lot brighter. For a few more details, here is the press release which the British Columbia Aviation Museum released earlier this evening.

The British Columbia Aviation Museum is delighted to announce today that it is the successful bidder to receive an Avro Lancaster bomber from the City of Toronto.Mr Rouhani shrugged off his US conterparts threats (AP)

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has said there is no need to respond to US leader Donald Trumps empty threats.

Mr Rouhanis remarks were his first since Mr Trump warned his Iranian counterpart of dire consequences for threatening the United States.

The Iranian leader told his Cabinet that there had been baseless comments and empty threats by some US leaders.

He added: There is no need for us to respond to any nonsensical comment and answer back to them.

Mr Rouhani also said: We should respond to them with action.

He added Irans strongest response to their cheap comments would be indifference to their plots and choosing to resist and foil their schemes.

Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday that if Iran threatened the US, it would suffer consequences.

He tempered these remarks on Tuesday, saying: Were ready to make a real deal with Iran.Israel said yesterday it shot down a Syrian warplane that entered airspace above the Golan Heights as internal fighting just across the border in Syria intensified during a government offensive to retake rebel areas.

The downing of the jet comes at a time when Israel has been pressing to ensure that its security concerns in Syria are addressed as President Bashar al-Assad's forces mop up remaining territory held by rebels in the south of the country.

The Israeli military said it fired two Patriot missiles at the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet, which crossed about 2km into the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The plane fell inside Syrian territory, and the fate of the pilots was unknown, Israeli officials said.

Syrian state media said that the plane had been "raiding terrorist gatherings" near the area of Wadi al-Yarmouk and was inside Syrian airspace when it was shot down.

This marked only the second time that Israel has downed a Syrian plane in more than three decades. Israel shot down another that crossed into the Golan Heights in 2014.

The Israeli military has been on high alert as fighting inside Syria has pushed closer to Israel's northern border in recent weeks.

As the civil war in Syria has shifted in favour of Assad, who is backed by forces from Iran and Russia, Israel has had to recalibrate its approach. Israel had been supporting small rebel groups fighting on the other side of the border fence.

Despite technically being at war with Syria, Israel says it has no issue with Syrian government forces returning to areas they held prior to the civil war - as long as forces linked to Iran are excluded.

That concern was the subject of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his visit to Israel on Monday.

An Israeli official, who declined to be named, said the Russians had offered to enforce a 100km buffer zone inside Syria free of Iranian forces. However, Israel is demanding that Iranian troops fully withdraw.

"We made clear again that we would not accept an Iranian military build-up in Syria, not near the border and not beyond the 100km strip that the Russians are talking about," said the official.

The Israeli military has carried out more than 100 airstrikes in Syria in an effort to prevent Iranian entrenchment or the transfer of arms to its proxy, Hezbollah.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said yesterday that Israel's policy in Syria still remains one of "non-interference".

"For the past few days we have seen movement of Syrian forces approaching the area close to our border and all of our defensive systems have been on elevated readiness levels," the spokesman said.

Yesterday, warnings were issued through various "channels" as a heightened amount of aerial activity took place just over the boundary.

The plane, either a Sukhoi 22 or 24, took off from the T-4 military base near Palmyra, he said. "From our perspective, this event has finished," he said. "It is not ongoing."

In southwest Syria, only a few small pockets remain under opposition control as Assad's army nears the end of a months-long offensive. In Darayyah, a city known as the birthplace of the country's 2011 uprising, the national flag is flying over state institutions once again.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967. ( Washington Post)Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been destroyed by a vandal reportedly wielding a pickaxe.

Local reports suggested a pickaxe had been used to obliterate the pink stone star, which had been restored following previous damaged in 2016.

US media reported that Los Angeles police were investigating after the perpetrator, who was said to have concealed the pickaxe in a guitar case, escaped.

Chunks of the marker and dusty residue were seen strewn along the pavement as police officers stood guard. Very little of the five-pointed star remained intact.

President Trumps star on the Walk of Fame was destroyed again this morning, after police say a man used a pick axe to deface his dedicated chunk of Hollywood Blvd. sidewalk. The suspect turned himself in to Beverly Hills Police. @nbcla https://t.co/HiVTm4yOtV pic.twitter.com/4X1yNFQ6sV  Jonathan Gonzalez (@JonathanNBCLA) July 25, 2018

The vandalism was carried out during the small hours of Wednesday, reports suggested.

The terrazzo and brass star was first installed at 6801 Hollywood Blvd, near the Dolby Theatre where the Oscars are held, in 2007.

It was laid to mark Mr Trumps lengthy stint hosting The Apprentice.

During its previous destruction, a man claimed to be trying to mine the star to then auction it in support of women who had accused Mr Trump of sexual misconduct.

Prior to that an artist built a small wall around it in protest against Mr Trumps plan to build a border wall between the US and Mexico.

It has been defaced a number of times.

The star is one of more than 2,600 placed along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Susan Walsh/AP)

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said he personally told top Russian officials that there would be severe consequences for any interference in US elections or the American democratic process.

Mr Pompeo told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had made the warning clear to Russia in multiple meetings and conversations.

Mr Pompeo made the comment in response to pointed questions about details of President Donald Trumps one-on-one meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin last week in Finland.

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Whatsapp US President Donald Trump met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Helsinki (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

Both Republican and Democratic members of the committee demanded details from Mr Pompeo about the summit for which the White House has offered only vague outlines.

Republican committee chairman Bob Corker opened the hearing by saying Mr Pompeo was appearing before senators who have serious doubts over Mr Trump and his foreign policy.US President Donald Trumps proposed Washington meeting with Russias Vladimir Putin has been delayed until 2019.

National security adviser John Bolton cited special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.

Mr Bolton said: The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch-hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.

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Whatsapp Donald Trump was criticised over his performance at a press conference in Helsinki (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)

The White House said last week that Mr Trump had directed Mr Bolton to invite Mr Putin to Washington for a meeting in the autumn.

This came amid the backlash over Mr Trumps performance at a news conference with Mr Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the autumn.Mobile phones giant Vodafone has reported falling revenues amid woes in Italy and Spain and an ongoing price war in India. (Zak Hussein/PA)

Mobile phones giant Vodafone has reported a revenue hit amid woes in Italy and Spain and an ongoing price war in India.

In chief executive Vittorio Colaos final set of figures before handing over the reins in October, the company reported a 4.9% fall in group revenues to 10.9 billion euro (9.7 billion) for its first quarter to June 30.

Its service revenue growth slowed to 0.3%, with 9.9 billion posted for the quarter, as Vodafone blamed increased competition in Italy and Spain.

This dragged European service revenues down 0.4% and took the shine off a 7.2% hike for its Africa, Middle East & Asia Pacific (Amap) division.

India also saw intense competition, with service revenues plunging 22.3%, due largely to the countrys price war.

Vodafone is waiting for clearance for a deal to merge Vodafone India and Idea Cellular, which is set to complete by the end of August and will help it weather the tough conditions in the market.

In the UK, Vodafone said its underlying performance continued to recover, but reported figures showed an ongoing impact from regulation and UK handset financing.

Service revenues in the UK fell 4.9%, steeper than the 3.4% fall in the previous quarter, although Vodafone said that, stripping out regulation and UK handset financing, it saw growth of 1.8%.

The group also cheered a strong UK broadband performance, with 52,000 net customer additions in the quarter, which helped fixed service revenues grow 5.3%.

Expand Close Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao will step down in October after 10 years at the helm (Matt Alexander/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao will step down in October after 10 years at the helm (Matt Alexander/PA)

Despite the quarterly revenue hit, Vodafone confirmed it was on track for full-year underlying earnings growth of between 1% and 5% as it also continues to slash costs.

Mr Colao said: The majority of our operations performed well, with ongoing momentum in Germany, further underlying recovery in the UK and continued good growth in Amap, all of which helped to offset increased competition in Italy and Spain.

He added: The groups overall performance  including good progress in reducing absolute operating costs for the third year running  provides us with the confidence to reiterate our outlook for the year.

Vodafone announced in May that Mr Colao will step down on October 1 after more than 10 years at the helm.

Mr Colao, who took on the role in July 2008, will be succeeded by group chief financial officer Nick Read, who will become chief executive designate from July 27.

Mr Read will be replaced by deputy chief financial officer Margherita Della Valle on July 27, which is the date of Vodafones annual shareholder meeting.

Vodafone also recently confirmed an 18.4 billion euro (16.4 billion) deal that will see it snap up a raft of Liberty Global assets across Europe.

It has agreed to acquire operations in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania in a move that it said would help it become the leading next

generation network owner in Europe with a total reach of 110 million homes and businesses, including wholesale arrangements.Sacred Games was Netflix Indias first original web-series that was launched on the platform. It managed to take the entire nation by a storm. From social media to dining table discussion, people were talking about it everywhere. So much so that UP Police even joined the meme game on social media.

Read More: UP Police Surprises Everyone By Making Use Of Sacred Games Meme To Tackle Fake News

Of course, the web-series has set the bar very high, and audiences are looking forward to more of such interesting shows on Netflix. Soon after the release of Sacred Games, the digital platform launched the trailer of their next original series Ghoul, and we sure are quite excited about the same.

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The show stars Radhika Apte and Manav Kaul, the man who stole our hearts with the song Bann Ja Tu Meri Rani from Tumhari Sulu.

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It is a three part mini-series, which will be streamed on Netflix on August 24.

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What is the story about? Ghoul follows the story of Nida Rahim (played by Radhika Apte. She is a military interrogator who is in charge of extracting a confession from a terrorist. She is trying to accomplish her task when suddenly she gets to know that the terrorist Ali Saeed Al Yacoub, played by Mahesh Balraj (known for his roles in Haider, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Gangs Of Wasseypur), has supernatural and demonic forces using which he traps the military staff inside the compound. The story is based on Arabic Folklore.

It is directed by British writer-director Patrick Graham and is jointly produced by Phantom Films, Ivanhoe and Blumhouse.

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Blumhouse has previously produced renowned films such as Get Out (2017), The Purge (2013) Insiduous (2010), and Paranormal Activity (2007.)

It has been a great experience working closely with Netflix and our partners at Phantom and Ivanhoe to produce Ghoul. This is Blumhouses first foray into the horror genre in India and were excited to share this project with horror enthusiasts around the world, Jason Blum, owner of Blumhouse Productions said in a statement.

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After Sacred Games, Vikramaditya Motwane is very excited for Ghoul.

We are extremely proud of Ghoul - and cannot wait for audiences around the world to experience an elevated horror narrative from India, Vikramaditya Motwane, co-founder of Phantom Films said in a statement.

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Ghoul is one of the seven Netflix originals that are lined up for release. Theres a lot in store for all of us, guys!Rakbar Khan alias Akbar, the Muslim man who was lynched by a mob in Alwar, Rajasthan last week for alleged cow smuggling died of shock due to his injuries, his post-mortem report has revealed.

The autopsy report stated that the 28-year-old suffered 13 injuries eight bruises, two abrasions, a laceration, and a fracture in wrist and another in left femur due to the attack.

ANI

We the members of the medical board after careful examination of a dead body are of opinion that the cause of death, in this case, is shock as a result of ante-mortem injuries sustained over body mentioned in PMR. However, visceras (sic) are preserved to rule out any intoxication prior to death or pre-existing disease, the doctors added in the observation.

Meanwhile, the Alwar Police has come under heavy criticism after it emerged that they caused a three hour delay in taking Khan to hospital which was just six kilometers away. Doctors at the hospital who announced him brought dead had said that Khan could have been saved if he was brought there on time.

Assistant sub-inspector, Mohan Singh, has been suspended and three constables were transferred to the Alwar police lines.

Khan and his friend Aslam were walking with two cows they had bought, when they were stopped and questioned by some villagers. While Aslam managed to flee, his friend wasn't so lucky.A Chinese skyscraper has an artificial waterfall that stands at a whopping 350 feet. The water cascades down to a tank at the bottom of the building.

Situated in the Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province in southwest China, it is called the Liebian Building and its unusual architecture has drawn a lot of attention.

According to Kan Kan News, the waterfall has generated controversy because of the mammoth amount of electricity required to power its four pumps.

People in the southwestern city of Guiyang telephoned newspapers to report what they believed was a massive water leak, writes the Times of the U.K.

When reporters arrived at the building they realized that the owner of Liebian Mansion had created a waterfall that gushes down the side.Blaming the victim, or his community is nothing new in India in the cases of lynching, especially if it has to do with alleged cow theft, cattle smuggling or cattle slaughter. Time and again a number of high profile politicians have openly defended the murderers, putting the blame on the victim, implying that cow slaughter will be dealt with murder.

This time too, it was no different. Soon after the lynching of Rakbar Khan in Alwar on Friday night, it was the same old story once again.

BJP MLA, Raja Singh

Telangana BJP MLA Raja Singh was one of the first politicians to justify the lynching. Raja Singh in a video on Monday said that lynchings would continue till cow slaughter is stopped in the country. He also wanted Centre to declare cow rashtra mata or mob lynchings would continue.

Rajasthan Minister, Jaswant Yadav

At a time when the Rajasthan government is under fire for the Alwar lynching, a minister, Jaswant Yadav, stirred a fresh controversy by stating that Muslims smuggle cows. Yadav urged the Muslims of the country to understand the sentiments of Hindus and put an end to cow smuggling. He said that Muslims must stop doing this business of cows as it was irking the Hindus across the country.

BCCL

BJP leader Vinay Katiyar

A serial offender for his controversial comments, BJP Vinay Katiyar added a fresh twist to the controversy. According to Katiyar, people from the Muslim community should abstain from touching cows and provoke aggressive Hindus.

BCCL

RSS Indresh Kumar

RSS Leader Indresh Kumar had one advice to Muslims for not getting lynched - give up eating beef! "If the sin of cow-killing ends, then this problem will be solved," he said.

"Jesus was born in a cowshed and that is why in Christianity they talk of the Holy cow. In Mecca and Medina killing cows is a crime. Can't we vow not to kill cows, to free humanity of this sin? If this happens then our problem of mob lynching will be solved," he said.

BCCL

Union minister Giriraj Singh

Union minister Giriraj Singh, defending RSS leader Indresh Kumar's comment said that Kumar is a "mature" man and said whatever he did "after proper thought". "Indresh Kumar is a mature man and must have said something after proper thought," Singh said.Switch the Market flag

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for targeted data from your country of choice.According to Bloomberg sources, Fosun is working with advisers on the possibility of teaming up with a partner and splitting the Belgian giant or increasing its current stake. Currently Fosun holds around 3% of Ageas, while Ping An Insurance, another China-based firm, holds the largest stake at 5%. It is reported that no final decisions have yet been made  and that Fosun may still decide against its pursuit.

The market has already reacted strongly to the news  shares in Ageas, which has a market value of 8.9 billion euros following a 7.2% rise this year, actually leapt by 6.5% on Tuesday alone. Thats its highest jump in close to six years.

In its report, Bloomberg outlined that the talks may be a sign of a renewed appetite in China for global expansion after last year witnessed a slowdown due to tighter regulations. Ageas is currently the largest life insurer in Belgium and the number two non-life insurer in its home country, while, in addition to its operations across Europe, it also sells products in the likes of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Malaysia and China itself. Any deal is likely to be subject to close scrutiny.

Related stories:

Ageas announces nine-month results

Insurance giants team up as blockchain prototype debutsA Bermuda-based global insurer with a number of subsidiaries that operate in Australia, North America, Europe, and South Africa, is set to relocate its headquarters in Raleigh, in a move that will create more than 300 jobs in exchange for about US$6 million in state and local incentives.

Arch Capital is consolidating its operations into Wake County, pledging to employ 365 people in the Raleigh area, at an average salary of US$109,000, in addition to retaining 72 positions already in the state, and injecting US$12.9 million of capital investments in its new offices.This agreement is a significant milestone for Ensurance, and a pleasing result for the team after months of negotiation, said Ensurance chairman Tony Leibowitz.

This disposal of our retail brokerage business delivers a wonderful result for the company and our shareholders, returning capital that we can now invest in pursuing our recently announced strategy.

The deal will see Ensurance sell all of its shares in the broker business to SHC Insurance, an entity controlled by former directors Stefan Hicks and Brett Graves.

The seven-figure sale is comprised of $2.2 million in cash, the buyback of 30,140,905 Ensurance shares, the assumption of Savill Hicks employee entitlements by SHC Insurance and the cancellation of notes held by related parties of Stefan Hicks.

Vendor financing of approximately $1 million will also be extended under ordinary commercial terms, for a period of three months from the day of settlement, if required.

A statement released by Ensurance said the sale will free up managements time to focus on the firms repositioning within the market and is expected to drive strong global growth.

Cash funds received from the disposal of the retail brokerage business will be used to build out the companys UK and Australian based operations, hire additional underwriting personnel to meet customer demand for its specialised construction-related insurance and to drive sales and marketing activity, read the statement.

Related stories:

Embattled Ensurance to sell Australian brokerage business

Ensurance offers update on its UK operationsRanking within the top 20 of Westpacs list are Avoka, a software platform enabling banks to create, deploy, and manage customer-facing business transactions; Checkbox, a platform enabling the digital transformation of regulation, and small-business insurance provider BizCover, Farm Online reported.

The digital economy is predicted to be worth $139 billion by 2020 to the Australian economy, said David Lindberg, Westpac business bank chief executive and 2018 program judge. As a key driver of change in the future, this years businesses reflect the drive thats disrupting and shaping the industries they operate in.

As part of the top-20 innovative businesses, company principals of Avoka, BizCover, and Checkbox will be awarded a two-week study tour to Silicon Valley, a tailored $50,000 professional-services package, as well as the opportunity to take part in a mentor-matching program with notable Australian business leaders, the report said.

Related stories:

KPMG: Insurance transformation long from a 'one and done' event

Insurtechs got talent: Lloyds begins search for tech talentThe move comes after an RACQ scam directed to major news organisation ABC, in which a journalist recorded one of the many calls from an unidentified number through which someone was offering financial compensation over a car crash.

Deputy Premier Jackie Trad said the state government is very serious and determined to put an end to predatory and insidious claim farming, with legislation to come before Parliament in the next six to 12 months, ABC and Brisbane Times reported.

Its just unethical to cold call and particularly prey on vulnerable Queenslanders, so were announcing that well be working with insurance and legal sectors in order to come up with the best model to prohibit it in Queensland, Trad said.

Trad added that the new laws aim to ensure that genuinely injured claimants are not impacted by the actions of a few bad apples and that Queenslands CTP scheme remains affordable and supportive of injured Queenslanders.

Trad said the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) is already in early talks with the government on the issue, and is hoping to keep raising awareness a priority.

CTP insurers Suncorp and RACQ both welcomed the government move, but said further reform is required to better protect Queensland motorists.

Related stories:

Suncorp and RACQ welcome move to stamp claim farming

Fake-claim scammers call into ABC News amid rising 'claim farming'In order to support and enhance the ongoing growth within our successful international surety operations, we are investing in a number of key markets, explained Martyn Ward, managing director of the insurance groups international credit & surety division.

I am therefore delighted that someone of Lucs profile and ability is joining us to further expand our surety proposition for European clients in order to grow our platform even further and building on our surety business, which has grown consistently over the last 35 years, commented the MD. Lucs expertise, along with Tokio Marine HCCs focus on service delivery which is backed by the companys profile and rating, will prove a compelling offering for both clients and brokers.

Reporting to Ward, Reuter will develop and direct a surety practice across Europe  supporting clients with their domestic and international surety needs through the firms global network.

The key hire is former chair of the surety committee of the International Credit Insurance & Surety Association.

As a recognised international surety expert, his extensive knowledge and deep understanding of international markets will be a great asset in our plans to further develop our international surety division, added Tokio Marine HCC - International Group chief executive Barry Cook.

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Tokio Marine Kiln announces resignation in A&H division shake-up

Tokio Marine HCC moves for Qdos ContractorReports by BBC and Channel 4 News said thousands of pounds were paid to Basotho National Party leader Thesele Maseribane in 2013 and 2014  something both camps have confirmed. The reported figures differ but essentially centre on mining activity in the Southern African country.

According to the BBC, Banks said the funds were not connected to his seeking a prospecting licence at the time but were used to support Maseribanes political campaign. The former Lloyds underwriter received the mining nod around the same time of the money transfers.

Meanwhile, Banks flatly denied the bribe accusation in a separate statement.

Our mining activities in Lesotho were restricted to one licence where we have undertaken exploration work rather than full-scale mining, we have made a small number of high-quality alluvial diamond finds and we continue to assess the viability of mining in Lesotho, the insurance tycoon told Channel 4 News. The purpose of an exploration licence is to establish whether diamonds are present in the area and then for alluvial traps.

We absolutely refute the allegation that payments made to Mr Masirebane were made for granting of any licences. We have made four such applications for licences in Lesotho all of which are outstanding, two years after the original applications, for the very reason we were not prepared to make such payments.

Related stories:

Leaked insurance boss emails raise Russian involvement questions

Whistleblower: insurance data may have been used in political campaignThe City of San Francisco is being urged by the board to screen potential insurers for investments in coal and tar sands and to cut ties with any firms that continue to insure dirty energy projects. The initial focus of the resolution is on coal and tar sands oil as theyre deemed particularly damaging to the climate, economy and public health.

Cities have nothing to gain from collaborating with insurance companies that prioritize dirty energy companies over communities, said Aaron Peskin, San Francisco Supervisor and sponsor of the resolution. Like so many areas around the country, the Bay Area is already feeling the impacts of climate change, from horrific wildfires to rising sea levels. San Francisco cant afford to do business with companies that fuel climate change. We encourage all cities committed to climate action to join us.

The 40 largest insurance companies in the US hold a combined investment of over $450 billion in coal, oil, gas and electric utilities. They also play a key role in insuring coal-fired power plants, tar sands pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure.

Insurance companies are investing in and insuring the very industries which are making climate change worse. If insurance companies want to protect us from catastrophic risk, they must break ties with the fossil fuel industry, said Ross Hammond, senior US campaign advisor to the Unfriend Coal campaign, a campaign group urging insurance companies to ditch dirty energy projects.

The resolution comes a few weeks before San Francisco is due to host climate leaders from around the world at the Global Climate Action Summit in September. Hammond described the Summit as the perfect opportunity for insurance companies to step up and pledge to stop supporting an industry thats bad for business.

Insurance companies, particularly in Europe, have responded to the challenges of climate change. Since 2015, 17 large insurers have divested about $30 billion from coal companies, five have stopped or limited insuring coal, and two have stopped insuring new tar sands projects.

Related stories:

Lloyds Corporation joins coal-heavy investment boycott

Swiss Re reveals group-wide coal policyCunningham specializes in environmental risks, including pollution liability and environmental site liability, as well as combined environmental policies such as pollution liability/general liability/comprehensive personal liability. He has experience providing environmental insurance to the manufacturing, chemical, healthcare and energy sectors, as well as with mergers and acquisitions.

We are excited to have Jeffrey join our team with over 20 years of experience in the specialty insurance industry, said Jeff Diefenbach, CPCU, Burns & Wilcox corporate senior vice president. His deep knowledge and expertise in environmental insurance will further amplify the Burns & Wilcox New York teams capabilities.

It is an honor to join the Burns & Wilcox team given the companys strong reputation, culture and wealth of specialty insurance expertise, Cunningham said. I look forward to approaching this opportunity with an entrepreneurial focus, as it is my goal to continue expanding the environmental practice for the company in the Northeast.

Cunningham is an alumnus of IBAs Hot 100, and was one of IBAs Top Specialist Brokers in 2018.

Related stories:

Burns & Wilcox's Alan and Daniel Kaufman lay out acquisition strategy

Burns & Wilcox logs impressive 2017In the first half of 2018, Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) investigations led to the criminal prosecution of 12 people for committing insurance fraud and the issuance of 25 civil fraud orders. These enforcement efforts resulted in a combined total of $68,092 in fines and penalties, as well as $146,400 in restitution to insurance carriers impacted by the fraudulent activity.

According to an MIA press release, insurance fraud is one of the costliest crimes in the country and costs Maryland consumers money in the form of higher premiums.

The MIAs efforts to root out fraud have resulted in fines, penalties and restitution in excess of $2 million over the past several years, said Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer Jr. in the release. Our investigations have led to criminal convictions and jail time as well.

In October 2012, the MIA was granted authority to issue insurance fraud civil orders. Since 2013, the MIA has sanctioned 198 individuals with committing insurance fraud in Maryland. Penalties totaling more than $821,648 have been issued, and those individuals were also ordered to pay $269,552 in restitution.

Since 2011, the Insurance Administration has investigated 371 fraud cases which were prosecuted through the offices of local States Attorneys and the Attorney General. Twelve cases resulted in criminal convictions, jail time and fines totaling $26,272. The courts also ordered the defendants to pay more than $1,077,373 in restitution to the insurance carriers and individuals impacted by the fraudulent activity.

The Insurance Administration is an independent state agency charged with enforcing insurance laws and regulations. Its Fraud Division, staffed by former law enforcement officers and prosecutors, investigates reports of fraudulent activity related to insurance matters.

Source: The Maryland Insurance Administration

Topics Fraud MarylandFosun International Ltd., the Chinese group backed by billionaire Guo Guangchang, is considering an offer for all or parts of Belgian insurer Ageas in what could be its boldest move to expand its international footprint, people familiar with the matter said.

Shanghai-based Fosun is talking to advisers about alternatives including teaming up with a partner to split the Brussels-based company or increasing its current stake, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. No final decisions have been made and Fosun may decide against pursuing a deal, they said.

Ageas has a market value of 8.9 billion euros ($10.4 billion), after shares rose 7.2 percent this year.

Fosun has continued to expand its international business empire amid a Chinese crackdown on overseas deals in certain industries thats forced other conglomerates like Anbang Insurance Group Co. to shed assets. This year, Fosun announced deals for Brazilian brokerage Guide Investimentos and French fashion house Lanvin.

Its biggest overseas forays abroad have been in insurance. The company bought control of Portugal-based Caixa Geral de Depositos SAs insurance business in a roughly 1.6 billion-euro deal in 2014, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It also acquired U.S.-based Ironshore Inc. in 2015 for $2.1 billion and then sold it less than two years later.

Close Scrutiny

Ageass U.S.-traded shares rose 6.5 percent Tuesday, the most in almost six years. Fosun already holds about 3 percent of Ageas, though Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. is the largest shareholder with a 5 percent stake, according to filings.

Representatives for Ageas and Fosun declined to comment.

A potential deal could draw close scrutiny from regulators because Ageas is the biggest life insurance provider in Belgium and No. 2 non-life insurer, according to its website. In addition to operations across Europe, Ageas sells products in China, Malaysia, India, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam. Its also a minority partner in a joint venture with China Taiping Insurance Holdings Co.

There are other signs that Chinas appetite for global expansion is still strong. In May, China Three Gorges Corp., the countrys largest clean energy company, offered 9.1 billion euros to raise its stake in electricity giant EDP-Energias de Portugal SA.

Fosun, meanwhile, received Hong Kong Stock Exchange approval this month to spin off its tourism and hotels unit, which owns Club Med SAS and luxury hotel development Sanya Atlantis.

With assistance from Vinicy Chan.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Mergers Carriers ChinaFewer than 5,000 financial jobs might move out of Britain by Day One of Brexit and future relocations will depend on new trading terms with the European Union, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

We have had an estimate for some time now of 5,000 to 10,000 jobs, which you can think of as half to one percent of jobs there are in this country in the relevant sector, Woods told Bloomberg in an interview.

So a relatively small move on Day One. I think it will be at the bottom end of that range. If anything, it might be slightly below that.

His estimate chimes with the City of London financial district, whose leader Catherine McGuinness told parliament on Tuesday she expects between 3,500 and 12,000 financial jobs to go in the short term because of Brexit. [Editors note: Catherine McGuinness is policy chair for the City of London Corp.]

Britain leaves the bloc next March and many banks have applied for licenses to open or expand hubs in the EU to avoid ruptures in customer links.

Woods, in charge of supervising Britains banks and insurers, said further job moves will depend on how the EU responds to the British governments proposals for trading relations in financial services, Woods said.

He reiterated a call for the EU authorities to reciprocate action being taken by Britain to ensure legal continuity in trillions of pounds in cross border derivatives and insurance contracts.

Brussels has said it was up to the private sector to sort out uncertainty over contract continuity.

I am obviously hoping the sides are going to come together, Woods said.

Banks in Britain are worried that a standstill transition period from next March to the end of 2020 agreed by the EU and Britain wont get ratified, leaving them facing a cliff edge British departure from the bloc.

We doing a lot of work mitigating cliff-edge risk. That work is going OK, Woods said.

Even if things go badly, they will be robust enough to continue supplying services to UK households and businesses.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; editing by Jon Boyle)

Related:

Topics Europe Talent Uk BrexitChancellor Angela Merkels top counterintelligence official said Chinese acquisitions of high-tech companies in Germany represent a potential national-security threat.

The head of Germanys top domestic intelligence agency, Hans-Georg Maassen, highlighted the issue in an annual report on security risks that included cyber attacks from China and Russia as well as a rise in threats from Islamist, far-right and far-left fringe groups.

The report painted a picture of Chinese government influence through state companies that had the potential to jeopardize German economic and security interests by siphoning of technological know-how. Conventional cyber attacks on companies have ebbed in recent years and given way to targeted takeovers, Maassen said.

We certainly do have to be concerned with this if we have the impression that behind the potential buyer lies a foreign state with interests that go far beyond the acquisitions, Maassen told reporters on Tuesday in Berlin.

Merkels government is at the forefront of moves to bring in European Union-wide screening of outside investments after being the target of Chinese acquisitions in recent years. Among the most notable have been the 2016 purchase of robot maker Kuka AG by Midea Group Co., the halted takeover of semiconductor-equipment maker Aixtron SE and the State Grid Corporation of Chinas bid for a 20 percent stake in 50Hertz Transmission GmbH.

In the auto industry, Chinese billionaire Li Shufu surprised many in Germany this year when he became the biggest single shareholder in Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG after accumulating a 9.7 percent stake through complex derivative transactions.

Germanys report on security risks, which was introduced by Maassen and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, attributed Chinese takeover activity to an effort to close a competitive gap with foreign market actors as domestic demand in China recedes.

It added that Chinese intelligence agencies have shifted toward political espionage, especially to gather information in EU institutions and Group of 20 meetings to gauge views of China.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Mergers InsurTech Tech China GermanyAs the search continues in Laos for hundreds of people still missing in deadly floods caused by a collapsed dam, the South Korean firm helping to build the damaged hydropower project said it warned the government and began evacuating villages as workers tried to avert disaster.

Engineers struggled for almost 24 hours to try and prevent Mondays inundation, SK Engineering & Construction Co. said. Eventually, one of the $1 billion developments smaller auxiliary dams failed amid heavy rains, flooding villages in the southeast, killing at least 19 people and leaving an estimated 6,600 others homeless, according to the Laos news agency.

Water levels are back at safe limits at the hydropower plant and theres no danger of a further overflow, an SK Engineering spokesman said Wednesday, adding the projects two main dams and power plant are undamaged.

The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy project  a joint venture between SK Engineering, Thailands Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl, Korea Western Power Co. and the Laos government  is one of a number seeking to tap the countrys hydropower potential, an engine of economic growth Laos relies on to help reduce poverty.

The United Nations said at least 20 people are believed to have died and many of the missing may have been killed. The UN and countries including Singapore and Thailand said they are ready to help if Laos seeks assistance. South Koreas President Moon Jae-in ordered the dispatch of an emergency relief team.

Employees of SK Engineering found one of the projects supporting dams partially washed out at 9 p.m. Sunday, the company said in a statement, and notified the authorities.

Heavy rains had damaged roads, delaying efforts by SK Engineering to bring in heavy equipment for repairs overnight, and by 3 a.m. an emergency valve at one of the main dams was opened to lower water levels, the company said. By noon Monday, Laos authorities began evacuations, according to SK Engineering. Water started to overflow at around 6 p.m.

SK Engineerings parent company, SK Holdings Co., dropped 5.1 percent in Seoul. Ratchaburi slid as much as 2 percent, but pared the decline and was little changed at 3:17 p.m. in Bangkok.

Ratchaburi has a 25 percent stake in the project and Lao Holding State Enterprise 24 percent. SK Engineerings share is 26 percent, and the remainder is with Korea Western Power, according to the project website. Commercial operations were due to begin by 2019.

The Thai firm on Tuesday said the dam being built to help divert water around a reservoir fractured and collapsed due to a continuous rainstorm. The overall project is about 90 percent complete, according to the company, which has provided an initial relief fund of about $150,000 to Laos.

Crisis Management

SK Engineering has formed a crisis management team, sent senior officials to Laos and deployed equipment including a helicopter and medical supplies. The United Nations said Tuesday the damage to the dam adds to the previous destruction caused by the tropical storm Son Tinh.

The hydroelectric plant is located on the Bolaven plateau, approximately 550 kilometers (342 miles) southeast of Vientiane, the capital city of Laos.

Some 70 percent of the financing structure is debt and the rest is equity, the project website shows. The Thai lenders comprise Krung Thai Bank Pcl, Bank of Ayudhya Pcl, Export-Import Bank of Thailand and Thanachart Bank Pcl.

The projects shareholders have told the Export-Import Bank of Thailand that they are confident of their ability to continue with the hydroelectric plants construction, Pisit Serewiwattana, the lenders president, told reporters in Bangkok on Wednesday.

The 410 megawatt plant is due to operate under a 27-year concession and export 90 percent of its electricity to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, with the rest sold locally.

About 23 percent of the Laos population is classified as living below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day. A World Bank analysis shows natural resources, such as hydropower potential, minerals and forests, are key drivers of the countrys 7.8 percent average economic growth in the last decade.

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.Willis Towers Watson announced it has reinforced its existing facultative reinsurance business in France by strengthening and growing its Paris-based team.

The global advisory, broking, and solutions company has strengthened its proposition by creating an independent and dedicated team of three specialists, which is operating under the Gras Savoye Facultative brand, as part of Willis Towers Watsons Global Fac business.

Leading this fac division is Amelie des Monstiers whose deep relationships with the market will help engagement with insurance carriers on all business emanating out of Gras Savoye Willis Towers Watson France, said Willis Towers Watson in a statement.

The investment plays a key part in Willis Towers Watsons overall strategy for its Global Fac business, headed by Toby Wemyss, the company added.

WTW said the enhanced hub in France will complement the companys other European fac operations in Madrid, Stockholm, and the team recently established in Munich. Like those operations, the French team will be aligned to Ghassan Mansour, WTWs regional head of Facultative Reinsurance for Western Europe.

The French team is a great boost to our regional talent pool as we look to strengthen and sharpen our fac proposition across Western Europe and align with our Global Fac hub based in London, said Mansour. The team will continue to focus on the growing appetite for developing better reinsurance solutions for all our carrier partnerships by capitalizing on their significant experience, and Willis Towers Watsons exceptional analytical capabilities.

Jean Rondard, co-head of Corporate Risk & Broking for France, Gras Savoye Willis Towers Watson France, added: We recognize the importance of our carriers in a challenging and evolving marketplace, so we are responding by creating a highly experienced and specialized independent fac team in France to serve our local carriers and to provide solutions to their specific needs and strategic objectives.

Source: Willis Towers Watson

Topics Europe Reinsurance Willis Towers Watson FranceTwo International House of Pancakes (IHOP) franchises in southern Illinois will pay $975,000 and furnish other relief to settle a systemic sexual harassment lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

The EEOC had charged that numerous employees at the locally owned Glen Carbon and Alton, Ill., restaurants were routinely sexually harassed by coworkers and managers, including offensive sexual comments, groping, physical threats, and, in one instance, attempted forced oral sex with a management employee.

The EEOC filed its lawsuit in September 2017 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al. v. 2098 Restaurant Group, LLC et al., Civil Action No. 3:17-cv-1002-DRH) in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, seeking relief for more than 11 female employees at the Glen Carbon IHOP and one male employee at the Alton IHOP. Some of the female employees were teenagers at the time of the alleged harassment.

The consent decree settling the suit, entered today by Judge David R. Herndon, requires the defendants to pay compensatory damages to 16 harassment victims.

The decree also requires the companies to implement, distribute and enforce tougher policies prohibiting sexual harassment and establish procedures for promptly investigating and addressing sexual harassment complaints. It also requires the owner to be directly involved in preventing and correcting sexual harassment.

The four-year decree further requires the defendants to provide sexual harassment training to employees, create and maintain documents regarding sexual harassment complaints, and post notices at their facilities. It also enables the EEOC to monitor the restaurants to determine whether harassment recurs, and, if so, that it is dealt with effectively.

All the measures are intended to prevent further incidents of harassment, the EEOC said.

Source: EEOC

Topics Lawsuits Illinois Numbers RestaurantBrandise Daneswich; Amy GranthamJackson Browne and Graham Nash are among the well-known musicians taking part in a five-date benefit trek this October dubbed The Lantern Tour: Concerts for Migrants and Refugee Families. The acoustic shows will raise money the Women's Refugee Commission, which advocates for immigrants and refugees seeking asylum and safety at the U.S. border.

The tour's focus is the support of immigrant and refugee families who've been affected by the policies of President Trump's administration, which have resulted in the separation of many children from their parents.

The trek runs from an October 23 date at Nashville's City Winery through an October 28 performance at New York City's Town Hall. Browne will perform at the last four events, while Nash is part of the New York lineup. Country-folk great Emmylou Harris will play all five concerts. Other artists participating in the trek include Shawn Colvin, Steve Earle, Lila Downs and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

"The Women's Refugee Commission has been on the front lines in advocating for the safety of women and children. Their work is as remarkable as it is critical, especially right now," says Harris. "It is my honor to partner with this incredible organization and to bring my friends along for what I know will be a powerful tour."

Tickets for the Nashville and New York City shows go on sale this Thursday, July 26, while tickets for the remaining concerts will be available the following day. Visit TheLanternTour.org for more information.

Browne is in the middle of a U.S. summer tour running through an August 4 concert in Los Angeles. He also will perform at the inaugural Dirt Farmer Festival on August 19 in Accord, New York, and at the Grand Point North festival on September 15 in Burlington, Vermont.

Here are all of the Lantern Tour dates:

10/23 -- Nashville, TN, City Winery (Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin & special guests to be announced)

10/25 -- Washington, DC, Warner Theatre (Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Lila Downs, Steve Earle)

10/26 -- Collingswood, NJ, Scottish Rite Auditorium (Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Lila Downs, Steve Earle)

10/27 -- Boston, MA, Orpheum Theatre (Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Lila Downs, Steve Earle)

10/28 -- New York, NY, The Town Hall (Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne, Shawn Colvin, Lila Downs, Graham Nash)

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 24)  Human rights and media groups have expressed dismay over newly-elected House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's return to power.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan said former President Arroyo must be held accountable for her administration's alleged bloody record of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

The group said more than 1,200 people were victims of extrajudicial killings and 204 of enforced disappearances under Arroyo's nine-year presidency starting 2001.

Sherlyn Cadapan was among the victims of alleged enforced disappearances. Her mother, Erlinda Cadapan, expressed fears that with Arroyo slowly regaining power, the suspects in the alleged abduction of her daughter may be freed.

One of the suspects in the case is retired Major General Jovito Palparan of the Philippine Army.

"Kahapon pa po ako lumuluha nang malaman ko kung ano bang klaseng gobyerno ang meron ang Pilipinas. Dahil yan po, ang makasalanan na tagapamahala niluluklok ulit. At sana po, ang dasal ko, ang pagkabalik kay Gloria sa Speaker of the House, isang mataas na posisyon ng gobyerno. Sana po di nila makalimutan maibalik din po ang aming mga kaanak. Ibalik din po nila si Sherlyn Cadapan," she said.

Arroyo's election as member of the House Representative in 2010, and now as leader of Congress' lower chamber is a stunning return to power for the 71-year-old Arroyo, who spent nearly five years under hospital detention for alleged corruption. The Supreme Court dismissed the case against her for alleged misuse of 366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010. The high court ordered her release in 2016.

Aside from the PCSO case, Arroyo was implicated in the NBN ZTE scandal, the "Hello Garci" electoral fraud, and the Fertilizer Fund Scam.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, meanwhile, called for Arroyo to be held accountable for the Maguindanao massacre and deaths of more than 100 journalists under her term as president.

"The family believed to be behind this gruesome act has been abetted by the corrupt and bloody government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo through political, financial, military and other forms of support, emboldening them to commit unprecedented forms of atrocities," NUJP Deputy Secretary General Raymund Villanueva said, referring to the Ampatuan political clan whose members have been charged in the massacre.

The Maguindanao massacre has been tagged as the world's deadliest single attack on media workers. At least 58 people, including 32 journalists and their staff, were killed on November 23, 2009 in the town of Ampatuan.

"One hundred three journalists were killed during Arroyo's nine years  still the worst average annual death rate of any president," Villanueva added.

The majority of representatives voted for Arroyo as House Speaker on Monday night, ousting Pantaleon Alvarez.Less than 12 percent of U.S. homeowners have a flood insurance policy, despite the fact that flooding is the countrys most common natural disaster, said Katy Sivyer, underwriter for North America and the Caribbean at Hiscox Re & ILS, in an interview with Carrier Management.

This is why Hiscox Re & ILS launched a new U.S. personal lines flood product late last year, called FloodXtra, which aims to help its insurer partners provide their policyholders more affordable flood insurance, thereby helping to fill the flood insurance gap.

In a nutshell, Sivyer explained, Hiscox is using technology to differentiate low-to-moderate-risk locations within a given flood zone to be able to charge a more affordable rate, which we think will increase the take-up of flood insurance.

With the FloodXtra product, Hiscox does a bit of hand-holding for insurers that are new to the market by providing quota share arrangements and all the latest analytic technology and flood modeling. Flood could provide massive new business opportunities, but its a risky business without the right tools and technological knowledge.

At the moment, we do quota shares to help our clients get comfortable with the products. Longer term, wed love to move it toward a catastrophe, excess-of-loss product, she said, noting that Hiscox has spent the last four years getting comfortable with the analytics of flood models and developing a deep understanding of the flood peril.

Weve focused on building our understanding of floods because we consider it to be a growth area for us, she confirmed.

But first, a deep understanding of the models is required. You need to understand their downfalls and use them as a tool to better understand the riskbut not straight out of the box, she said, noting that thats why clients and partners will need to spend some time to understand the peril, which is why we offer a quota share arrangement.

Hiscox has been asking for a 10 percent co-participation from its ceding companies in the first year. Then over the next three years, that would move up to a 25 percent quota share as the insurer gets more comfortable, Sivyer explained.

While the quota share arrangement can provide up to a 100 percent cession to Hiscox Re, Sivyer said, client participation is preferred. The FloodXtra cover is provided as an endorsement to a homeowners policy, which is white-labeled and sold under the primary insurers brand and policies. By adding the cover as an endorsement, lower premiums of $100-$200 can be offered, she added.

We always look for partners who are best in class, and we want as much alignment with those people as we can have, which is standard underwriting procedure for Hiscox, said Bevis Tetlow, head of North American Underwriting, in the interview.

Flood Model Development

Its clear that the advent of flood models in the last four or five years has enabled Hiscox and other carriers to get into the market, but theyre not yet at the point where you can treat them as a black box and take them straight off the shelf, Sivyer emphasized.

Hiscox has licensed three flood models to date and partnered with a number of independent analytical experts such as remote sensing and satellite imagery companies to understand historical flood events, GIS experts to validate available flood models, and independent actuarial consultants to review our proprietary pricing algorithm to add confidence in our rating.

We take the best bits of each model and generate our own internal understanding of flood risk, Sivyer affirmed.

Even if one model is more accurate, her team would examine different bits of the different models to improve our view, she said. Its the same with hurricane modeling where the models have been around for 20, 30 years and theyve gathered a lot of data, which has helped them improve and refine the technology.

Still, its very clear that one model isnt enough because the science and our understanding of the peril, particularly one thats as highly granular as flood, is constantly evolving, Sivyer said, noting that flood risk changes along with changes in the urban environment.

Exacerbating the problem is the fact that flood is much harder to model than hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes because its such a localized peril.

Further, she said, the computational power thats needed to run these models, because of the size of the United States, has only become available in the last four or five years. Computationally, its so intensive that its been quite a challenge.

Private Market Interest Grows

Until about five years ago, policyholders were only able to obtain homeowners flood cover from the U.S. National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). However, with the advent of new flood models and a move by the NFIP to open the program to private markets, interest in the risk is growing.

Last years hurricanesparticularly the Texas floods associated with Hurricane Harveyhave highlighted the inadequacy of flood insurance provisions in the U.S., said Tetlow in prepared comments when FloodXtra was launched. The market is deregulating, and the good news for consumers is this will give them a greater choice of flood cover.

The NFIP offers one standard premium of nearly $400 to homeowners in high-risk areas as well as those in low-to-moderate-risk areas, which have a one-in-a-100-year risk, or a 1 percent chance of a flood. Its those low-to-moderate risks that Hiscox believes can be written at a more affordable price than that offered by the NFIP.

Currently, more than 20 percent of NFIP claims come from homes considered to be in low-to-moderate-risk flood areas, where insurance take-up is below 2 percent, said Hiscox in its October 2017 announcement of the launch of FloodXtra.

There is a high variation of flood risk, and some locations should be paying moresuch as $1,000and some locations should be paying a lot less because their risk and the location of that property doesnt require a higher cover or higher premium, Sivyer said.

FloodXtra provides a granular understanding of the risk, so we can charge people the right amount in the right area, she explained. Thats why our product isnt available to everyone, because there are some locations that need to be paying thousands of dollars to adequately cover themselves for the risk.

Tetlow noted that FloodXtra allows Hiscoxs carrier partners and ILS investors to leverage our in-house flood analytics and proprietary technology, which in turn will help boost U.S. homeowners resilience to flood.

This article first appeared in Insurance Journals sister publication, Carrier Management.

Related:

Topics Catastrophe USA Flood Hurricane New Markets HomeownersBermuda-based specialty insurer Ascot has created a trade credit insurance division with the appointments of Doug Collins as executive vice president of Trade Credit and Anthony Barrett as senior vice president of Trade Credit.

Collins, who will lead all aspects of Ascots U.S. trade credit business, has been in the industry for more than 20 years, having spent the last 14 with Atradius, most recently serving as head of Risk Services for the Americas. Prior to that, he held trade credit roles at American International Group in North America and Asia, after starting his trade credit career with Trade Indemnity Canada.

Barrett is a 33-year veteran of the trade credit insurance industry, most recently spending four years as senior vice president and head of multi-buyer trade credit at Zurich North America. He also previously spent 10 years at Atradius in North America.

Topics USAThe House of Representatives passed a measure to reauthorize the nations flood insurance program for four months beyond its current July 31 expiration date.

The House measure to renew the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) until November 30, 2018, contains no reforms.

The Senate must still act as well to avoid a lapse in the program. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the Washington publication The Hill that the Senate would go along. In June, the Senate included a six month NFIP extension in a broad farm bill that is now in conference committee between the two legislative bodies.

Todays House action was taken over a protest by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R Tex., chair of the House Financial Services Committee, who argued against another short-term extension without reforms. Congress has passed six short-term extensions of the program; it also let the program lapse in 2017 and 2018.

Hensarling argued the House should force the Senate to vote on reforms.

I want to make it very clear, Mr. Speaker, I believe this program needs to be re-authorized, and the House has done its work, he said in remarks on the House floor. The House passed a bill with reforms last November. Never underestimate the Senates capacity to do nothing, and unfortunately the Senate has done nothing. But this is a program, Mr. Speaker, that continues to be in dire need of reform. And now we have re-authorized it without reforms not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, not five times  six times since the Financial Services Committee first reported this bill out. Enough is enough.

Hensarling reminded his fellow lawmakers that 116 lives were lost last year to flooding and there were billions and billions of dollars of property loss, [A]nd yet, we have a program unreformed that incents people to live in harm  incents people to live in harms way. We should not do this, Mr. Speaker, the Republican said.

House leadership went ahead with the vote and the four-month stop-gap funding bill passed overwhelmingly, 366-52.

Insurance, banking, consumer and taxpayer groups welcomed the House move to avoid a shutdown on July 31 but joined Hensarling in calling on Congress to address the need for reform of the program.

It is good news that the House voted to keep the NFIP going, but Americans who face the devastating peril of flooding should be able to hold Congress to a higher standard than simply avoiding a lapse, commented Jimi Grande, senior vice president, Government Affairs, for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies. The time for doing the bare minimum is long past.

Lenders warned of the effects on the real state market if the Senate fails to follow through. If there is a lapse, many loan closings in high-risk areas will be delayed or otherwise complicated, resulting in additional costs and borrower frustrations, said Rob Nichols, president and CEO for the American Bankers Association.

The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (Big I) also urged prompt action by the Senate to extend the NFIP. A lapse in the NFIP during the height of hurricane season could impact the ability of the program to promptly pay claims if there is a major flooding event, delay recovery efforts related to the catastrophic 2017 storm season and disrupt real estate markets across the country, said Jennifer Webb, Big I counsel, federal government affairs.

Nat Wienecke, senior vice president of federal government relations at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), had a similar message, noting the while the four-month extension provides homeowners and businesses with certainty through hurricane season, Congress should enact reforms that will provide more consumer options and greater financial stability to the NFIP.

The environmental and taxpayer coalition SmarterSafer called it disheartening that Congress has once again declined to enact reforms to the NFIP, which it noted has borrowed more than $25 billion from taxpayers. We urge Congress to use the next four months to create a comprehensive legislative package that ensures that the program better protects people in harms way, the environment and taxpayers, the group said.

Topics Flood PoliticsAuthorities say a carbon monoxide leak at a Texas hotel blamed on a water heater has sent 12 guests to a hospital but all should recover.

The San Antonio Fire Department reports the leak was discovered around 2 a.m. Tuesday as firefighters responded to calls about sick guests at a Comfort Suites Hotel.

Department spokesman Joe Arrington says leaking carbon monoxide was traced to an exhaust pipe that accidentally dislodged from a gas-powered water heater.

Firefighters evacuated more than 100 people from the Comfort Suites Hotel, as a precaution. Arrington says 12 guests taken to a hospital have conditions not believed to be life-threatening.

Fans were used to ventilate the hotel. Arrington says guests were allowed to return several hours later.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.In late June, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled against an insurer and its insureds seeking summary judgement dismissing complaints against them in a case involving auto insurance claims.

At issue was whether or not the defendants were parties to an agreement under which a separate insurer and its insured reached a settlement with the plaintiff that released them from further action brought by the plaintiff.

The Court in its written opinion explained that the issue in Kerry Maggio v. James Parker; the Sandwich Kings LLC (D/B/A Jimmy Johns); Republic-Vanguard Insurance Company; and Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, is whether a settlement which purports to release all other persons, firms, or corporations who are or might be liable applies to defendants who were not direct parties to the settlement, according to the Courts written opinion.

The Court said it was undisputed that in January 2015, Kerry Maggio was injured when his vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by James Parker, an employee of Sandwich Kings. Parkers vehicle was owned by Brenda Parker and insured by Louisiana Farm Bureau.

Maintaining that James Parker was working in service of his employer at the time of the accident, Maggio in June 2015 filed for damages against James Parker; Sandwich Kings; Sandwich Kings auto insurer, Republic-Vanguard; and Maggios uninsured motorist insurer, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company. He did not name Brenda Parker or Farm Bureau as defendants in the complaint.

Subsequently, in July 2015, Maggio reached a settlement with Brenda Parker and Farm Bureau for the policy limit of $25,000. In exchange, he released Brenda Parker and Farm Bureau from further action in an agreement that states in part that he releases, acquits and forever discharges the said payor(s), their agents and employees, and all other persons, firms or corporations who are or might be liable, from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, demands, damages, costs, loss of services, loss of consortium, expenses, and compensation on account of or in any way growing out of any and all known and unknown personal injuries and property damage, resulting or to result from an accident that occurred on or about 01/14/2015 

After receiving a copy of that release, Sandwich Kings and Republic-Vanguard filed for summary judgment in March 2016, maintaining the claims against them should be dismissed because of the clause in the release exempting all other persons, firms or corporations who are or might be liable as a result of Maggios accident.

Maggio argued, however, that because Sandwich Kings and Republic-Vanguard were not party to the release settlement, the summary judgment should be denied. Both the district court and the appeals court agreed.

In the Supreme Courts opinion, Justice Scott J. Crichton wrote that the majority at the court of appeals after a supervisory review reasoned that summary judgment was inappropriate because defendants did not meet their burden of proving that the release manifested a clear intention to benefit them as third party beneficiaries.

At least one appeals court judge disagreed with the majority, stating in a dissent that the language of the release was clear and unambiguous and offers no other conclusion than that the relators had been released from liability.'

The states high court was petitioned to resolve the matter. Among other things, the Court looked at the standards for determining whether a contract provides for a benefit of a third party. The Court noted there are three criteria needed to meet the burden of proof for the third party benefit: 1) the stipulation is manifestly clear; 2) there is certainty as to the benefit provided the third party; and 3) the benefit is not a mere incident of the contract between the promisor and the promisee.'

The Court ultimately determined that the lower courts reached the correct result in denying defendants motion for summary judgment insofar as they claim that the Release manifested a clear intention to benefit them as third-party beneficiaries. The case was remanded for further consideration.

Justices Clark, Guidry and Weimer dissented.

Topics Carriers Auto Claims LouisianaAlliant Insurance Services, a nationwide specialty insurance brokerage firm, has made three additions to its Construction Services Group headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga.

Danielle Maxey has joined as account executive. In this role, she will continue to service clients operating in the construction and real estate industries. Prior to joining Alliant, Maxey was an assistant vice president, account executive and client service team leader in the construction and real estate division for a large global insurance broker.

There, she worked as an integrated risk management advisor and an extension of her clients risk management team. Before her broker role, Maxey worked as an underwriter, focusing on casualty lines for trade and artisan subcontractors. Maxey joins Alliant with 13 years of insurance experience with various lines of coverage.

Brent Hartman has been named managing director where he will continue as a client advocate for construction and real estate clients. Prior to joining Alliant, Hartman was an executive vice president in the construction and real estate division for a large global insurance broker. There, he focused on controlled insurance programs and corporate property and casualty lines of coverage for engineering news-record (ENR) contractors, national real estate clients, and Fortune 500 corporations.

Before this position, Hartman was a senior vice president and team leader for their Atlanta construction and real estate practice. Hartman joins Alliant with over 22 years of experience in the insurance industry.

Bill Noonan has also been named managing director. He will focus on building client risk strategies and will also spearhead awareness of Alliants diversity and inclusion efforts throughout the construction and insurance industries. According to Peter Arkley, president, Alliant Specialty Noonan will work to highlight Alliants efforts in creating an emphasis on the benefits of a more diverse work force.

Prior to joining Alliant, Noonan was the U.S. leader of construction for a global insurance brokerage firm. His experience includes serving as risk manager for Structure Tone, an Engineering News-Record (ENR) Top 20 General Contractor. Prior to this, Noonan was a regional director of Risk Management for Turner, an ENR top five contractor.

Headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, Alliant Insurance Services, Inc. provides property and casualty, workers compensation, employee benefits, surety, and financial products and services to clients nationwide, including public entities, tribal nations, healthcare, energy, law firms, real estate, construction, and other industry groups.

Topics Agencies Georgia Construction Risk ManagementA federal appeals court in Atlanta last week reaffirmed its decision that workers arent protected against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, though two of the 11 judges strongly disagreed.

Gerald Lynn Bostock asserted in a lawsuit originally filed in May 2016 that he was fired from his job as a court child welfare services coordinator in Clayton County, just south of Atlanta, because hes gay.

A federal judge last year dismissed his case, and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in May upheld that ruling. The panel said binding court precedent set by a 1979 decision says Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 law doesnt prohibit employers from discriminating against workers based on sexual orientation. The full court on declined to reconsider that decision.

Circuit Judge Robin Rosenbaum, joined by Judge Jill Pryor, dissented from the July 18 decision.

I continue to firmly believe that Title VII prohibits discrimination against gay and lesbian individuals because they fail to conform to their employers views when it comes to whom they should love, Rosenbaum wrote.

The binding precedent cited in the courts May decision includes no analysis of the issue, concluding simply that Discharge for homosexuality is not prohibited by Title VII, she wrote, adding that a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court ruling suggests that courts should reach the opposite conclusion.

Rather than clinging to a decades-old precedent, the full appeals court should consider the arguments and offer a reasoned and principled explanation for our position on this issue, Rosenbaum wrote.

I cannot explain why a majority of our Court is content to rely on the precedential equivalent of an Edsel with a missing engine, when it comes to an issue that affects so many people, she wrote.

Bostocks attorneys had already appealed the May ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and that petition is pending.

The issue of whether Title VII protects gay and lesbian employees is extraordinarily important not only for Mr. Bostock, but for all the gay and lesbian people working to earn a living in this country, attorney Brian Sutherland said in an email Friday.

The Supreme Court punted on the issue in December when it declined to take up another Georgia case. Jameka Evans had sued Georgia Regional Hospital in Savannah, saying she faced discrimination and was effectively forced out of her security guard job because shes a lesbian.

As in Bostocks case, an 11th Circuit panel had ruled in March 2017 that Evans wasnt protected from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, and the full court declined reconsideration.

In April 2017, the full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago reached the opposite conclusion in a case filed by a former part-time instructor who said an Indiana community college didnt hire her full time because she is a lesbian. The court stated decisively that the civil rights laws protections apply to gay and lesbian workers just as they prohibit discrimination based on race, religion or national origin.

In January, the full 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York reached a similar conclusion, ruling in favor of a gay skydiving instructor who said he was fired because he was gay. The opinion said that while that court and others had previously found that Title VII didnt cover sexual orientation, legal doctrine evolves.

The 2nd Circuit decision has also been appealed to the Supreme Court. The conflicting opinions of the 2nd and 11th circuits could prompt the high court to weigh in and settle the question.

Bostock worked in the Juvenile Court of Clayton County. Hed worked for the county since January 2003 and had received good performance evaluations, his lawsuit says.

He joined a gay softball league in January 2013. His participation in that league and his sexual orientation were openly criticized by one or more people with decision-making power at his job, the lawsuit says.

He was told in April 2013 that an audit was being conducted on program funds he managed. Bostock contends the audit was meant to provide a pretext to discriminate against him based on his sexual orientation and failure to conform to a gender stereotype.

He was fired June 3, 2013, for Conduct Unbecoming of a Clayton County Employee.

Lawyers for the county argued in a response to his lawsuit that Title VII was not designed or written to include protections for sexual orientation. Bostock also fails to identify any characteristic that distinguishes him from a typical male, undercutting his gender stereotyping claim, they wrote.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics USA GeorgiaWhat Is the Anti-Reciprocal Rule?

The Anti-Reciprocal Rule refers to a regulation designed to protect individual investors from conflicts of interest that may arise from the collaboration of certain brokerage firms and mutual funds. The rule was created by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Any brokerage companies and mutual fund companies found violating the rule may be fined.

Key Takeaways The Anti-Reciprocal Rule protects investors from conflicts of interest that may exist among mutual funds and the brokerages that sell those funds.

Brokerage firms and fund companies are required to act with their clients' best interests in mind, not for their own financial gain.

Firms and funds found violating the rule may face fines and additional penalties.

How the Anti-Reciprocal Rule Works

All financial professionals are bound by ethics that put their clients' needs ahead of their own financial gains. As such, they're expected to act professionally and dispense advice that is beneficial to their investors. This is where the Anti-Reciprocal Rule comes into play. First adopted by FINRA in 1973, the rule aims to prevent arrangements between brokerage firms and mutual funds that may beor may appear to bemutually beneficial to them rather than to their investors.

For instance, a brokerage firm may direct its clients to a mutual fund company that it has an established relationship with, thereby generating sales. The mutual fund, in turn, may send its trades through the brokerage firm to generate commissions. In this case, both the brokerage firm and mutual fund are taking advantage of the client and only thinking of their own financial benefit. Situations like this are a gross violation of financial ethics.

In its definition, FINRA also offers a list of scenarios that are meant to clarify specific situations that are inconsistent with the regulation. Some of these situations include requests made by dealers, or offers or agreements by primary underwriters:

When it relates to a certain amount of brokerage commissions in relation to the sale of fund shares by the dealer

When business is used to finance any part of a dealer's sales

As noted above, firms and fund companies that are found violating the agency's rule may face finesoften amounting to millions of dollarsthat must be paid to the agency. Violators may also face additional penalties.

Special Considerations

As mentioned above, FINRA created the rule in 1973. According to the agency's website, the rule "prohibited members from seeking orders for the execution of portfolio transactions on the basis of their sales of investment company shares" when it was created.

FINRA amended the rule in 1981 "to specify that subject to certain restrictions it does not prohibit members from seeking or granting brokerage commissions in connections with the sale of investment company shares, and that it does not prohibit members from selling shares of investment companies which follow a disclosed policy of considering sales of their shares as a factor in the selection of broker-dealers to execute portfolio transactions, subject to best execution."

Examples of Anti-Reciprocal Rule Enforcement

In 2008, FINRA announced that a $5 million fine levied two years previously against American Fund Distributors for directed brokerage would stand after the fund company appealed the original decision to the National Adjudicatory Council, FINRA's appeals body.

The NAC upheld a decision that found that AFD violated the rule when by directing more than $98 million in brokerage commissions to almost 50 securities firms that sold its mutual funds between 2001 and 2003:

AFD is the principal underwriter and distributor of American Funds, a family of 29 mutual funds. In ruling on AFD's appeal of the Hearing Panel decision, the NAC concluded that AFD arranged for the direction of a specific amount or percentage of brokerage commissions to other securities firms conditioned upon those firms' sales of American Funds shares, an "outright" violation of FINRA's Anti-Reciprocal Rule.

The NAC also determined that the fund company's "requests and arrangements for the direction of brokerage, conditioned upon sales, was directly at odds with the goal of the Anti-Reciprocal Rule, which is "to curb conflicts of interest that might cause retail firms to recommend investment company shares based upon the receipt of commissions from that investment company."What is Capital Formation?

Capital formation is a term used to describe the net capital accumulation during an accounting period for a particular country. The term refers to additions of capital goods, such as equipment, tools, transportation assets, and electricity. Countries need capital goods to replace the older ones that are used to produce goods and services. If a country cannot replace capital goods as they reach the end of their useful lives, production declines. Generally, the higher the capital formation of an economy, the faster an economy can grow its aggregate income.

How Capital Formation Works

Producing more goods and services can lead to an increase in national income levels. To accumulate additional capital, a country needs to generate savings and investments from household savings or based on government policy. Countries with a high rate of household savings can accumulate funds to produce capital goods faster, and a government that runs a surplus can invest the surplus in capital goods.

Example of Capital Formation

As an example of capital formation, Caterpillar (CAT) is one of the largest producers of construction equipment in the world. CAT produces equipment that other companies use to create goods and services. The firm is a publicly traded company, and raises funds by issuing stock and debt. If household savers choose to purchase a new issue of Caterpillar common stock, the firm can use the proceeds to increase production and to develop new products for the firms customers. When investors purchase stocks and bonds issued by corporations, the firms can put the capital at risk to increase production and create new innovations for consumers. These activities add to the country's overall capital formation.

Reporting on Capital Formation

The World Bank works as a source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries, with an aim to end extreme poverty through its programs. The World Bank tracks gross capital formation, which it defines as outlays on additions to fixed assets, plus the net change in inventories. Fixed assets include plant, machinery, equipment, and buildings, all used to create goods and services. Inventory includes raw materials and goods available for sale.

The World Bank measures capital formation by assessing the change in net savings. If the household savings rate is increasing, savers may invest the additional dollars and purchase stocks and bonds. If more households are saving, the country may report a cash surplus, which is a positive sign for capital formation. The World Bank also reports the amount of government debt that a countrys central government has outstanding, as compared with the countrys gross domestic product (GDP), which is the total of all goods and service produced by a country. If a countrys rate of capital formation increases, so does the countrys GDP.What Is the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington?

The Foster School of Business is the business school at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Founded in 1917, the school boasts more than 57,000 alumni, and is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The school offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Enrollment each year is over 2,500 students in its undergraduate and graduate programs. More than 1,000 working professionals participate in its executive education seminars and lifelong learning programs.

Understanding the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington

Originally the University of Washington Business School, it was renamed the Foster School of Business in 2007. It has been ranked highly by various financial publications. The school sponsors several top-quality programs, such as the Consulting and Business Development Center, the Arthur W. Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Global Business Center.

The Foster School of Business at the University of Washington also offers a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program, a Global Executive MBA program, an Evening MBA, an Executive MBA, a Hybrid MBA (online program), a Technology Management MBA, and a doctoral program.

The school also offers one-year master's programs in entrepreneurship, accounting, information systems, supply chain management, taxation, and business analytics.

The University of Washington Foster School of Business campus is made up of five buildings, four in Seattle, Washington, and one in Kirkland, Washington.What Is the Questrom School of Business?

The Questrom School of Business is a business school located at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1913, the school was previously known as the Boston University School of Management. In March 2015, the school changed its name following a $50 million donation by a prominent businessman and alumnus, Allen Questrom.

Key Takeaways The Questrom School of Business is the business school of Boston University.

Questrom School of Business is highly rated for both its undergraduate and graduate programs, often placing in the top 50 schools worldwide.

The school offers a range of Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs tailored to provide specific skills. These include dual-degree programs that incorporate fields such as law, medicine, and public policy.

Questrom School of Business Overview

The Questrom School of Business offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees in business-related subjects, as well as Masters degrees in a wide variety of fields including healthcare, the natural sciences, manufacturing, and economics. Various dual-degree programs are also offered.

Today, both its undergraduate and graduate programs are highly rated in publications of international school rankingsoften listed as among the top 50 schools in the world. The school is particularly well-known for hosting the Tech Strategy Business Case Competition once per year during the Spring semester. At this event, students are provided a platform to apply their academic knowledge in a range of real-world business contexts.

For students wishing to combine various disciplines together, the Questrom School of Business offers several highly specialized programs. These include various programs combining their MBA degree with the Juris Doctor (JD) program, the Doctor of Medicine (MD) program, and the Master's of Public Health (MPH) program, among others. Online and Executive MBA programs are also available, for students wishing to maintain a more flexible school schedule or study while living abroad.

Legacy of the Questrom School of Business

The Questrom School of Business is home to roughly 250 full-time faculty members and approximately 3,500 students, with an alumni network of roughly 50,000 members. Their alumni have developed careers in a wide variety of areas, including government, technology, and finance, among others.

The school also offers a specific MBA program focused on social entrepreneurship, geared toward students who aspire to work for non-profits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other such philanthropic organizations. This program incorporates key subject areas such as leadership development, organizational strategy, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and public policy.

Examples of notable Questrom School of Business include Keith Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA); Dirk Meyer, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD); and Alfred Sant, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Malta.What Is a White Label Product?

White label products are sold by retailers with their own branding and logo but the products themselves are manufactured by a third party. White labeling occurs when the manufacturer of an item uses the branding requested by the purchaser, or marketer, instead of its own. The end product appears as though it has been produced by the purchaser.

White label products are easily spotted on store shelves, as they have the retailer's own name (commonly known as the "store brand") on the label. For example, Whole Foods Market's "365 Everyday Value" line of products.

Key Takeaways White label products are made by one company and packaged and sold by other companies under various brand names.

Big-box retailers have been successful in selling white label items that feature their own branding.

Private label branding is a worldwide phenomenon that has been growing steadily since the late 1990s.

A major benefit of white label branding is that it saves companies time, energy, and money in terms of production and marketing costs.

Understanding a White Label Product

White label products are manufactured by a third party, not the company that sells it, or necessarily even markets it. The advantage is that a single company does not have to go through the entire process of creating and selling a product. One firm can concentrate on producing the product; another on marketing it; and another can focus on selling it, each according to its expertise and preference. The major benefits of white label branding are that it saves companies time, energy, and money in terms of production and marketing costs.

Another big advantage of private label brands is that if a supermarket has an exclusive deal with a manufacturer, then the average transportation expenses might be lower than usual and the company would benefit from distributional economies of scale. Because of lower transportation costs, the retailer could sell the product for less and still reap a bigger profit margin.

Private label brands have become increasingly popular, which suggests that consumers are becoming more sensitive to price and less loyal to their favorite traditional brands. In many countries, the growth of private label brands is hurting national brands (the manufacturers') market share.

Types of Businesses That Use White Label Products

Retailers

Although technically white label products may appear in any industry or sector, large retailers have done quite well with them. Companies like Whole Foods and Walmart have benefited by selling their own branded products that have been created by other manufacturers.

Multinationals and Mass Merchandisers

In 1998, Tesco (TSCDY), a British multinational grocery and general merchandiser, began segmenting its customers and developing brands that cater to each group. In the United States, retailers were quick to follow Tesco's precedent.

White labeling in the U.S. has worked particularly well for big-box retailers like Target Corporation (TGT), with at least 10 different brands each catering to a specific consumer group and product line, and together bringing in at least $1 billion a year.

Electronics Companies

Private label branding is not limited to the supermarket segment. Major electronics manufacturers of top-tier mobile phones and computers often put their brand names on cheaper-priced white label products to expand their offerings.

White Label in the Form of Services

White label products don't always need to be tangible items. Service offerings also have adopted white labeling. Some banks, for example, use white label services like credit card processing when they do not have these services in house. Furthermore, businesses that have no banking operations often extend branded credit cards to their customers, which is also a form of white labeling. For example, L.L. Bean Inc. offers its consumers a branded credit card, though the card is actually provided by Barclays Bank (BCS). Macys (M) also offers its customers a branded card, and theirs is provided by American Express (AXP).

Advantages and Disadvantages of White Label Products

The concept of white labeling comes with numerous considerations, both positive and negative.

Advantages

Expanded product lines . Firms can use white label brands to expand their offerings and target customers strategically; in turn, this could bolster their competitive advantage.

. Firms can use white label brands to expand their offerings and target customers strategically; in turn, this could bolster their competitive advantage. Large contracts. Third-party producers get huge contracts, which could come with guaranteed sales and revenue.

Third-party producers get huge contracts, which could come with guaranteed sales and revenue. Discounted sales. Stores can boost revenue selling white label products at a discount relative to national brands.

Stores can boost revenue selling white label products at a discount relative to national brands. Quality. White label brands can be just as good as national brands, as they often use the same producers; high quality creates satisfied customers.

Disadvantages

Copycatting . Using very similar packaging among brands is called copycatting, which can be illegal in some cases. Private label brands must differentiate themselves sufficiently so as not to mislead consumers.

. Using very similar packaging among brands is called copycatting, which can be illegal in some cases. Private label brands must differentiate themselves sufficiently so as not to mislead consumers. Monopsony . A powerful retailer could push out smaller competitors, resulting in a market condition where there is only one buyer.

. A powerful retailer could push out smaller competitors, resulting in a market condition where there is only one buyer. Barriers to entry. The growing dominance of white label brands could make it hard for new firms to enter the market, reducing overall competition.

Real World Example

One large retailer that's being creative with branding is Costco (COST), the U.S.-based warehouse club operator, with its Kirkland brand of private label products. Does this mean that Costco makes all of the Kirkland products you see on the shelves? Not at all. They simply contract with various producers that have agreed to put their products into the Kirkland packaging.

A Kirkland-branded product often sits next to the national brand (that actually makes the product) on the shelf: identical products, different names, the national brand selling at a higher price. For example, Costco sells Saran Wrap. Saran is a trade name currently owned by S.C. Johnson & Son. But Costco also sells its own Kirkland Signature stretch-tite plastic food wrap.

Costco has further blurred the line between national brands and private labels by using premium offerings and co-branding strategies with the likes of Starbucks (SBUX), Quaker Oats, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP), and Tyson Foods, Inc. (TSN). Interestingly, both consumer product executives and retail executives tend to believe that co-branding between retailers and traditional national brands is a win-win situation.Eamon Quinn

UK-based property giant Hammerson has put its Irish and French shopping centres at the top of a new strategy as it faces continuing investor pressure despite seeing off an unwelcome bid earlier this year.

Hammerson operates Dundrum Shopping Centre, Irelands largest mall, which it co-owns with Allianz. It is also co-owner at the Ilac in Dublin city centre with Irish Life, and controls the nearby 1916 battlefield site.

It owns half of the Pavillions in Swords, with Irish Life and Iput owning the rest. It also owns outright the Abbey Retail Park in Belfast and has a significant minority stake in the Kildare Village.

Issuing half-year earnings, Hammerson chief executive David Atkins said it saw more stability in European consumer spending in France and Ireland than in the UK, which has been hit by Brexit uncertainty and the collapse of some big retail tenants. The companys new strategy favours European schemes in Ireland and France over the UK.

Its figures showed its Irish properties posted a 4% increase in net rental income, to 20.2m (22.7m) in the first six months of 2018, with Dundrum and the Ilac producing strong income growth.

Its strategy includes developing lands around the main shopping centres. The portfolio also includes 27 acres of development land in Dublin which provides the opportunity to further enhance our existing portfolio, it said.

Net rental income fell 0.1% for its UK shopping centres and dropped 3.4% for its UK retail parks. It projects net rental income will rise by 2% to 6% in Ireland from 2019 to 2021, compared with growth of 1% to 3% for UK shopping centres over the same period.

Hammerson outlined plans to sell off 1.1bn (1.23bn) in assets by the end of next year, including retail parks in the UK.

Its Irish property assets, which are worth around 10% of its overall property value, will likely account for a greater proportion of its operations following the UK sales.

Its pretty turbulent, youre seeing a lot of pressure on retailers, said Mr Atkins, of UK retail conditions.

Weve seen quite a deterioration in the UK market in the last six months and were reacting to that but not shifting away from our desire to own the very best quality destinations in our markets, he said.

In a report published earlier this year, Goodbody analyst Colm Lauder predicted Irish retail rents will climb 9% over the next two years for prime shopping centres.

Hammerson shares which rose 1% in the latest session have lost about 5% in the past year.

Additional reporting by ReutersAlmost 400 patients are on trolleys in hospitals around the country today, according to the INMO.

The nationwide figure today is 396.

That is an increase of 23% on the same day last year when there were 321 patients on trolleys.

The highest numbers of those on trolleys are in Cork University Hospital at 41.

It is closely followed by University Hospital Limerick with 40.

The hospitals with the highest numbers today are as follows: Cork University Hospital -41

University Hospital Limerick - 40

South Tipperary General Hospital  32

Tallaght University Hospital - 32

- Digital DeskThe #MeToo movement is being blamed for making men worried about physical contact with women.

One prominent counsellor thinks the movement is necessary after decades of sexual harassment but claims it is left many people feeling anxious about showing physical affection.Ann O'Loughlin

Health Minister Simon Harris considered only one investigation had been carried out into the death at the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) of a woman during ectopic pregnancy surgery before he decided a statutory inquiry should be held, the High Court heard.

The claim came on the second day of the NMH action seeking to quash the Minister's decision to order the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to carry out an investigation into practices at the Holles Street, Dublin, hospital following the death of Malak Thawley there during surgery in May 2016.

The NMH says a statutory investigation by HIQA would have consequences for maternity services throughout Ireland, be highly disruptive and would have a significant de-motivating effect on staff working in the sector.

It also says the Minister's decision fettered the discretion he enjoys under the legislation permitting him to set up the inquiry by promising the deceased's widower, Alan Thawley, there would be another inquiry.

The Minister denies the NMH claims he is acting irrationally, disproportionately and outside his powers. HIQA is a notice party.

The Minister's chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, said in sworn statements that the NMH investigation was its own inquiry immediately following Mrs Thawley's death.

The HSE carried out a review of that investigation and the coroner also issued a report which the NMH says meant there were three prior investigations before the Minister decided to order a fourth.

However, Dr Holahan said, in reply to affidavits from NMH Master, Dr Rhona Mahony, that the Minister was of the view that only one investigation had actually been carried out and he believed there were reasonable grounds to direct HIQA to carry out an investigation.

It would address patient safety issues including the practice of surgery being carried on outside core hours and the readiness of hospitals to respond to major emergencies in such circumstances.

The Minister believed outstanding concerns could only be assuaged by an appropriate external investigation, Dr Holohan said.

The Minister came to the belief after a number of months of consideration of all the material before him that there were reasonable grounds that a serious risk existed to the health and/or welfare of people receiving services at the hospital which may be as a result of failure or negligence on the part of the NMH, he said.

That belief was based on the lack of information and clarity about the decision-making process to commence surgery outside core hours in the Malak Thawley case when it may not have been necessary.

This was in circumstances where there was no on-site consultant presence and issues over whether there were protocols and procedures for dealing with these types of emergency situations, he said.

Rhona Mahony. Photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Dr Holohan also said he and department officials held an "acrimonious" meeting with NMH Master Rhona Mahony and deputy chairman of its board, former High Court president Nicholas Kearns, over what the terms of reference of a further investigation should be.

He said NMH representatives were "dismissive" in the NMH's attitude to the Minister's decision and the reasons he arrived at it.

It was also at this meeting they suggested that an alternative non-statutory and less disruptive investigation could be carried out by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) in the UK. This was a belated and reluctant, rather than a proactive, proposal, Dr Holohan said.

He also disputed claims a HIQA inquiry would be highly disruptive as similar inquiries had been held into other hospitals around the country and had resulted in positive outcomes for procedures and practices at these hospitals.

The purpose of the further inquiry was to "identify potential learning for the system", not to apportion blame, he said.

In her reply to the Holohan affidavit, NMH Master Mahony said this was the first time (May last) that the Minister said he had the belief there was a serious risk to the health and/or welfare of patients, a requirement of setting up an inquiry under Section 9 of the 2007 Health Act.

This was despite extensive correspondence before the High Court action was commenced.

She said the NMH expressed its disappointment at the Minister's decision to meet personally with Mrs Thawley's widower while refusing a similar meeting with it.

She denied Dr Holohan's claims there was an absence of co-operation and said the proposal to get the UK RCOG to do the investigating was to ensure it was fair, transparent and in line with best international practice.

The case continues.There have been two shootings in Ballymun in Dublin this afternoon.

A man in his 30s was shot in the leg at Shangan Green at around 4:10pm.

He was taken to the Mater hospital where his injuries are described as non life-threatening.

Just after 5pm, a second shooting happened at the Belclare View area.

Shots were fired at a house causing damage to the windows but no one was injured.

It is believed two people fled the scene on a motorbike.

Dublin North West TD Noel Rock has condemned the shootings.

Two shootings today in residential areas in Ballymun in broad daylight. Ive spoken to the Minister for Justice @CharlieFlanagan this evening and he has agreed to convey my concerns on this incident to the Garda Commissioner. I hope those responsible are brought to justice.  Noel Rock (@NoelRock) July 25, 2018

He said: I was alarmed to learn of two shootings in Ballymun today in broad daylight.

This is all too regular an occurrence and I have written again this evening to the local Superintendent and the Garda Commissioner requesting the urgent deployment of resources to this area.

A shooting like this, in broad daylight, in residential areas like Shangan Green and Belclare View which is full of children, is something which would strike fear into the heart of any parent.

Cllr Paul McAuliffe, the local Fianna Fail public representative for Ballymun, has said todays shootings in the area have left the local community in shock.

The local community in Ballymun is in shock following todays shootings. A very small number of people involved in organised crime in the area are causing misery for local residents," he said.

People have been growing increasingly concerned by open drug dealing on the streets in recent months. The Gardai have stepped up their operations in the area to target organised crime gangs. I have met with senior Gardai and they have assured me that they will continue with these operations so long as they are adequately resourced to do so.

The Government need to ensure that gardai are enabled to continue with their operations. There needs to be a consistent long-term operation in place to tackle crime gangs in the area and to prevent incidents like todays shootings.

A small number of individuals must not be allowed to disrupt community life in Ballymun, concluded Cllr McAuliffe.

Gardai in Ballymun are appealing for witnesses or anyone with information is asked to contact Ballymun garda station on 01 6664400, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111 or any garda station.

Digital Desk and PAThere was no winner of tonight's Lotto jackpot, worth more than 6.6m.

The winning numbers were 3, 16, 21, 29, 36, 47, and bonus number 35.By Sonya McLean

A Dublin man who raided a family home with two accomplices while the trio were dressed as gardai has been sentenced to seven years with the final 18 months suspended.

Matthew Fahy (40) and the other two men initially told the homeowner that they were there to search the house but when the injured party asked for identification, an imitation handgun was produced.

Garda Mark Quill said the man, his wife and their seven-year-old son were living in the house at the time, along with his brother, the brother's partner and a lodger.

The handgun was pointed at the homeowner and all the other occupants were instructed to gather together in the sitting room before demands were made for cash.

The man managed to escape out the back door and hop a back wall to get assistance but Gda Quill said the victim's young son followed him. The man was not aware his child had gone running out after him and Fahy shepherded the child back into the house.

Fahy, of Owensilla, Ballymun, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to aggravated burglary and possession of an imitation firearm at the house in Castleknock on November 28, 2017.

He has 130 previous convictions for burglary, theft, road traffic offences, criminal damage, possession of drugs, taking vehicles and public order matters.

Gda Quill told Karl Finnegan BL, prosecuting, during an earlier hearing last week, that Fahy followed the child out, caught him and forced him back into the house.

Damien Colgan SC, defending, said his client disputed that he manhandled the boy and asked for the case to be adjourned so that the court could be shown CCTV footage of the burglary.

The court was shown that footage today after which Gda Quill agreed that Fahy seems to put his arm around the boy and guide him back in through the door.

He accepted that gardai put it to Fahy in interview that he had been compassionate towards the child.

Today, Judge Melanie Greally said it was a premeditated offence involving the offenders presenting themselves as gardai, with one armed with an imitation firearm. She said the family had been traumatised in their own home.

She said there had been no gratuitous violence and that there had been some display of humanity and concern in relation to the child.

Judge Greally said she took into account Fahy's plea of guilty, co-operation and history of drug addiction. She also noted his difficult upbringing and the efforts he had been making to rehabilitate.

She imposed a seven-year sentence with final 18 months suspended and ordered that the sentence run consecutive to a District Court term Fahy is already serving.

Gda Quill told Mr Finnegan that the man's brother had a gun pointed at his legs and abdomen a number of times.

He said the child's mother told the raiders to leave the boy alone but she was informed we are not here for your son, we want the money. Gda Quill agreed that the burglary lasted two minutes and nobody was injured.

The house had its own CCTV cameras and Fahy was nominated as a suspect after gardai viewed the footage. No other person has been arrested in connection with the burglary.

The people in the house didn't make any victim impact statements but Gda Quill told the court that they are still traumatised to a certain extent.

Gda Quill agreed with Mr Colgan that although Fahy was not at home when gardai arrived to arrest him, he turned up at the garda station later and agreed to stand in an identity parade. He accepted that his plea of guilty was a relief to the family as they didn't have to give evidence during a trial. He had written a letter of apology to the court.

Mr Colgan said his client's mother left home when he was five years old and his father was in trouble with the law bringing chaos to the home he shared with his brother and sister.

He had no stability in his childhood, counsel said before he added that Fahy's partner of 20 years died last year. He said his client found himself homeless and relapsed back into drug addiction.

Mr Colgan said Fahy was trying to rehabilitate himself while in prison by addressing his addiction and attending classes.By Mike Dunne

The second-last of Irelands nations cup league engagements takes place this weekend at the UK meeting at Hickstead.

With several Irish riders engaged on the Global Champions Tour in Berlin, manager Rodrigo Pessoa has put his faith in what is a new-look line up as far as this years league campaign is concerned.

Of the five announced for the Hickstead squad, only Shane Breen has been involved in a qualifier so far this season.

The rest of the squad is reflective of the team that Taylor Vard managed in a non-league outing in Lisbon two months ago which Ireland won.

Included are Trevor Breen with Bombay and Anthony Condon with SFS Aristio, both combinations having been on that winning team in Portugal.

Also part of that success was Michael Duffy who is included for this weeks event but switches to EFS Top Contender. The fifth member of the squad is Richie Moloney with Freestyle De Muze.

The Breen/Bombay combination produced the only double-clear of the entire field in that Portuguese contest. For Waterford rider Condon and Aristio it will be their first top-level nations cup outing since the Hickstead fixture two years ago when they went double-clear, having done the same at two other five-star nations cups (Falsterbo and Al Ain) earlier that year.

The horse subsequently went to stud and their first return to Irish team action came at that Portuguese event.

Hickstead could have been a crucial juncture in the nations cup season, but the runner-up finish in Sweden two weeks back earned enough points to take the pressure off.

Although still wanting to do well at Hickstead, it looks at this stage as if the managers two league objectives will be achieved. Relegation is now virtually out of the question - Ireland would have to be eliminated at both Hickstead and Dublin for that to happen - and a qualification spot for the nations cup final looks likely.

Some of the other teams competing at Hickstead are in more urgent need of a good showing than Ireland. The British hosts, who were a touch unlucky that their six-fault total in Sweden only earned them fifth place, are lurking at the wrong end of the table, as are Italy and Sweden. The British and Italians will have another chance in Dublin but for the Swedes, this weekend is their last qualifier.

The European silver-medalists have probably done enough to stay in the 10-team elite division for next year but a ticket to this years final could be out of their grasp unless they get a good result in this weeks contest. The other teams involved are the Netherlands, whose campaign has been sound to date, and the current table-toppers Belgium, while Brazil will compete as a guest nation.

Although it wasnt a league outing, Irelands runner-up finish last Thursday at the Aachen Festival in Germany turned out to be the morale-booster Pessoa hoped it would be. Although only fifth at halfway, Ireland battled back and up until Marcus Ehning clinched it for the home nation with a clear on Pret A Tout, the Irish had a chance of victory.

It was the first team outing of the year for Cian OConnors Good Luck who jumped clear in the second round after having one down in the opener. Shane Sweetnam and Chaqui Z had only a time fault in each round, with Cameron Hanley and Quirex contributed a first round clear. Darragh Kennys second round clear on Babalou was followed by the pairings splendid showing in the Rolex Grand Prix on Sunday in which they finished fourth.

Cork hosts the next round of the TRM/Horse Sport Ireland New Heights Champions series this coming Sunday at Maryville. Last weeks round at Tattersalls in Co. Meath was won by Dermott Lennon and Gelvins Touch, the only paring to go clear in the jump-off.

Lennon had taken the previous days national Grand Prix round with his newer ride MJM Pursuit.

We try this every weekend but it doesnt always work, the Co. Down rider said of his weekend double. The New Heights Champions series is now in its second year and Lennon sees it as a major boost to the domestic scene.

We struggled for many years here to get this 1.50m level of national grand prix to have a stepping stone for the horses to go to Europe, he said.

We needed this level.

Greg Broderick and Duco hold the overall lead in the series with Lennon and Gelvins Touch now moving into second place.More in the Galway locker, says Coen It might be considered overconfidence on one hand  or deemed a warning to Clare on the other  but theres nothing arrogant in Johnny Coens tone or words.

When he says Galway can produce even more than what they delivered in that dashing first half of the Leinster final replay against Kilkenny, he means it.

Sustaining it is the mission but then they had been challenged by what they failed to do in the drawn game at the start of the month.

Looking back on the first game in particular, we were fierce unhappy with the way we performed. A lot of us were substandard.

We all know that individually. We dont need any managers or anyone from the outside telling us that.

We wanted to make sure that we set the record straight. We looked at our own performance. We looked at the team performance and we said that we werent going to leave any stone unturned this time round.

As players, we feel we have a lot to give. Theres an awful lot in our locker in terms of our strength and physicality and all of that, and its about bringing out a performance in 70 minutes.

But Galways history at this stage suggests Saturday will be a tight affair.

If you look back over the last three years when Galway were playing in semi-finals, there has only been a point in it and that point has been scored in injury-time. If you cant sustain the level of aggression and the level of hurling for the full 70 minutes, you are not really going to progress to the All-Ireland.

The first 20 minutes (in the provincial final replay) was electric alright but the concession of the goal before half-time was crucial. There were stages there in the second half when Kilkenny really go the run on us and we were just lucky really that the lads who came on got a few points there and we sealed the victory in the end.

If there was a question hanging over Galways hunger after the Croke Park game, it was deleted following the replay in Thurles. However Coen never felt it was collectively on the wane.

You are growing up as a young fella and you are dreaming about winning an All-Ireland. When the dream was achieved, you are saying why cant you do it again?

Why would you be happy with just the one? You dont know what is around the corner. There could be anhorrific injury, and anything could happen. So you just have to live for the moment and try to get the most out of life in general.

Not that Coen considered Conor Cooney any less a target man but he admits the presence of Johnny Glynn at full-forward is a fillip.

It was well documented that we were leaned out of it as such by the Kilkenny full-back line in particular, and we did take a certain amount of learnings from the drawn game. Johnny Glynn was definitely a good option I suppose  and he justified the decision too.

You see Johnny Glynn there, given his chance, he is really grabbing it and Conor Cooney an All-Star was unfortunate not to start again, but thats the level the team are at, and the level we are performing at.

If I am not doing my job, its going to someone else. If you are not performing, someone else is going to do it.

As accomplished as he is, Micheal Donoghue wouldnt strike most as a ruthless operator and Coen backs up that perception.

Micheal has brought a lot to the table since he has come in. He has a very good calmness about him. He doesnt tend to get too excited on match day or anything like that.

He has his preparation done prior to that and we believe in what he is doing. And he is a good man-manager as well. If you are under pressure or anything like that, be it work or commitments elsewhere, he is quite understanding as well.

Both Galway and Cork have won back-to-back provincial titles but under different structures and the Loughrea man envisages some tinkering with the round-robin system in the future.

The imbalance in terms of the amount of games you play in a row is one thing they will have to look at. The five teams in the group causes logistical problems, in the sense that you could be playing four weeks in a row and then a week off, three weeks and then one off, and so on.

Ideally, you would look at two matches, a week or two off and then another two just to keep the level playing field. Logistically with five teams, you would have to sit down and do the permutations and all that, but that would be an area really.

The aim must be to keep a level playing field for everyone.On the 50th anniversary of the Catholic Churchs publication of Humanae Vitae  which opposed all form of artificial contraception  TP OMahony looks back at an ill-conceived document which not only has caused enormous harm to papal authority itself but has also been the source of worry, stress, and misery for millions of Catholic couples around the globe.

After the press conference in the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin to launch the encyclical in July 1968, I warned in my report for the Irish Press the following day that the Catholic Church might be on the threshold of one of the greatest crises in its history.

The press conference itself, arranged by the redoubtable Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, had been

a PR disaster. The Archbishop had chosen Monsignor Frank Cremin, professor of moral theology at Maynooth, to introduce the encyclical to the media. Cremin misread and mishandled the occasion very badly.

Looking back now from a distance of 50 years at all that has happened since, it turns out that my assessment of the encyclical was more perceptive than I had imagined.

In Cork, Fr James Good, who had been teaching medical ethics in UCC  the only dissenting clerical voice in the country  described the encyclical as a major tragedy.

And he was right. The encyclical in question was Humanae Vitae by Pope Paul VI. And we are still living with the fall-out from it.

If Martin Luther, in launching the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago, struck a grievous blow against papal authority, then the pope himself was directly responsible for the additional damage done to his office 50 years ago.

And the instrument that caused the damage was not 95 theses, as in Luthers case, but a single thesis in

the form of a 36-page encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae (Of Human Life), opposing all form of artificial contraception.

This ill-conceived document has caused enormous harm, not only to papal authority itself, but has also been the source of worry, stress, and misery for millions of Catholic couples around the globe.

Its publication on July 25, 1968, caused widespread disappointment, even dismay, and sparked huge controversy. The crisis it created was the greatest faced by the Catholic Church since the Reformation in the 16th century.

In retrospect, that was no exaggerated claim, and today, half a century later, we are still living with the divisions stemming from that encyclical.

In the aftermath of its appearance, millions of Catholics stopped going to confession and many others abandoned the Church altogether.

The encyclical was published three years after the end of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), when there was a broadly shared expectation that the ban on artificial methods of contraception would be lifted.

That ban can be traced back to Pope Pius XIs encyclical on Christian marriage, entitled Casti Connubii (Of Chaste Wedlock) and published on December 31, 1930. This was a response to a general conference of the Anglican Church at Lambeth, which said contraception could be permitted in special cases.

Pius XI, who was pope from 1922 to 1939, said that the conjugal act is of its nature designed for the procreation of offspring within matrimony, and any interference designed to deprive the act of its natural power to procreate was against the law of God.

That was the way the doctrine remained until 1963 when Pope John XXIII, who had convened Vatican II, appointed a six-man commission to advise him on the birth control issue. But Pope John died in June of that year before the commission had even met.

Nevertheless, a precedent had been set for his successor, Paul VI, and he enlarged the membership so that men and women, married and single, were involved. The enlarged commission included one Irish member, Archbishop Thomas Morris of Cashel.

Altogether, a total of 72 people (five cardinals, nine bishops, and 56 theologians and lay members) served on the commission, which met in sessions between April 1964 and June 1966. The commissions final report was given to Pope Paul VI on June 28, 1966.

This was the majority report; a second report, from a small group of members headed by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, was also presented to the Pope. This opposed any change, and the group included Archbishop Morris of Cashel.

The majority report, which urged the pope to change the Churchs traditional teaching on birth control, was widely expected to be adopted by the Paul VI and used as the basis of an encyclical by him.

Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani places the Tiara Crown on the head of Pope Paul VI during the coronation ceremony on June 30, 1963. Photo: AP Photo/Luigi Felici

That never happened, and it came to be known as the encyclical that never was (the title of a brilliant book on the work of the commission by Robert Blair Kaiser of Time magazine).

The majority report, recommending change, was never officially published by the Vatican. But copies were leaked to the National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City, USA, and to The Tablet, the Catholic weekly in London.

An Irish-born American journalist, Gary MacEoin (who had family connections with Cork), played a key role in helping to get the document to the two journals. The report was published on both sides of the Atlantic in April 1967.

Understandably, it added greatly to the belief among ordinary Catholics that change was on the way.

When the commissions final report landed in the London offices of The Tablet in the spring of 1967, staff members looked at one another with wild surmise, wrote Kaiser.

For several years, The Tablet [and its readers] had been following the worldwide debate over birth control. By all accounts, and against all the odds, change in the Churchs official teaching was beginning to seem more and more possible. Now here was solid proof, and from the Popes own commission.

What followed was a period of official silence in Rome.

But a lot of lobbying went on behind the scenes. Such signals as came from the papal apartments were ominous: Paul VI had been persuaded that he would have to ignore the recommendations of his own commission, and that his encyclical would have to fall into line with the teaching of Casti Connubii enunciated by Pope Pius XI in 1930.

The publication of Humanae Vitae in July 1968 came as a great shock to many.

The key passage, and the cause of all the trouble, was the following: The Church, calling men back to the observance of the natural law, as interpreted by her constant doctrine, teaches that each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life.

In other words, artificial intervention to prevent pregnancy was against the natural law. It was always wrong, always gravely sinful. Imagine the consequences of this for a couple over the span of, say, a 30- or 40-year marriage.

Great numbers of Catholic couples simply ignored the encyclical.

In and through what came to be known as the birth control debate, many Catholics  possibly an 85% majority  found out that, in matters of their own marital morals, the pope wasnt in charge. They were, wrote Kaiser.

But that fact never resonated with the Vatican. During his long pontificate, Pope John Paul II steadfastly upheld the teaching of Humanae Vitae, as did his successor, Pope Benedict XVI.

So far, although he appears to have wavered, this support for the encyclical continues to be upheld by Pope Francis. It is surely time for a formal renunciation of the anti-contraception doctrine.

Here in Ireland, the encyclical was used for years as a bulwark against attempts to introduce family planning legislation that would permit the use of contraceptives.

A breakthrough didnt occur until the McGee case in December 1973, when the Supreme Court found that the ban on the importation of contraceptives was unconstitutional. The court said Mary McGee, a married woman, had the right to import contraceptives for her own use, and the right to limit the number of her children by artificial means.

However, while this ruling removed an important barrier, the Oireachtas would still face an uphill struggle to introduce legislation (the story of that struggle is well told in Chrystel Hugs book The Politics of Sexual Morality in Ireland).

And it was not until February 1985 that the Health (Family Planning) (Amendment) Bill was passed by Dail Eireann  a bill that allowed contraceptives to be sold to the public without a prescription for the first time.

Sadly, elsewhere in the world, and especially in some of its poorest regions where women are already disadvantaged, Humanae Vitae continues to be invoked to thwart efforts to make contraceptives available, even in the battle against diseases such as Aids. Its long past time for an abandonment of this ill-fated encyclical.There are more than 9,500 people homeless in Ireland and that number is rising.

This figure does not take into account the numbers of people with disabilities who are in unsuitable accommodation such as nursing homes, it does not count those housed in domestic violence refuges, and it leaves out almost 600 people who have come through the asylum process and been granted leave to remain in Ireland but who cannot leave direct provision because of the unavailability of affordable housing.

In 2017, there were 31,200 people in receipt of the housing assistant payment (HAP) which represents a significant increase since 2010 with those figures projected to rise significantly.

There are significant problems with HAP for those on the housing list  not least the fact that by accepting a HAP tenancy people must agree to be removed from the housing list, so someone with a long term housing need who accepts a HAP tenancy has relinquished their chance to be permanently housed in a local authority owned property and instead is dependent on a private landlord and their willingness to continue renting the property.

There are considerable difficulties for prospective tenants in finding suitable properties to rent with many landlords reportedly unwilling to enter into a HAP agreement.

HAP also represents a poor investment for the state with taxpayers money being transferred into the hands of private landlords.

Recent reports indicate that in some areas the spiralling costs of rents mean it would cost only 50% of projected HAP payments to construct state owned housing for the tenants, which the state would then have as an asset long into the future.

The plight of those experiencing homelessness is well documented over the last few years in the media. The millions being spent on hotels, bed and breakfast and multiple housing charities and NGOs would also be much better used to provide permanent decent housing and support for those who need it.

The State is spending 900m of its annual housing budget on subsidising private landlords and homeless services. As reported by George Lee for RTE (July 18) this is projected to increase by 1.7bn by 2022 bringing the likely figures to well over 2bn per annum.

This represents a really poor use of taxpayers money and more importantly unless the regulations around renting and tenancy are overhauled it will fail completely to provide secure and safe homes for people who desperately need them.

By failing to adequately address the supply issues the State is committing itself to paying the exorbitant rents demanded by a housing market in crisis.

The State must commit itself to directly building social, affordable and cost rental models of housing. There is enough land in state ownership to build more than 114,000 housing units.

Failure to do so is to commit to failing those experiencing homelessness now and those who will inevitably experience housing insecurity in the years ahead if immediate action is not taken. We have the finances and the land to resolve this, all that is required now is the political will.

Dermot Hayes

EnnisCo ClareA Swedish student activist has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum-seeker by buying a ticket for the flight scheduled to remove him and refusing to sit down, preventing the plane from taking off.

Elin Ersson live-streamed her protest to Facebook from inside the plane that was due to fly from Gothenburg to Istanbul and then on to Kabul.Judge Olann Kelleher imposed a five-month suspended jail term on Christopher Kuhn, aged 26, of Blarney St, Cork. The judge said, having heard background victim impact evidence, it must have been a frightening experience for the woman.

He warned Kuhn to have no contact, direct or indirect, with the victim; doing so would result in him having to serve a five-month jail term. Judge Kelleher said this includes not contacting her on Facebook or by any social media.

Judge Kellehers colleague, Judge Con OLeary, heard the case and convicted Kuhn on the charge of assaulting Danielle Brady at Merchants Quay shopping centre on August 24, 2016.

Ms Brady testified that her ex-boyfriend grabbed her by the back of the neck, elbowed her in the side of the face and hit her on top of the head with a full 7-Up plastic bottle.

She said that as he left Merchants Quay, he said to her in a threatening manner, I will see you very soon.

She said he pointed the bottle at her when he allegedly said this.

Garda Don Coomey interviewed Kuhn about the allegations, outlining a domestic background to the encounter between the two parties.

Kuhn claimed Ms Brady was drinking a bottle of 7-Up at the time but that he did not hit her with it. He accepted that he did say he would see her very soon but was only referring to seeing her in court.

Judge OLeary ruled that what happened was an assault by Kuhn on Ms Brady. He said there was a clear assault and there was a second assault in striking her with the bottle.The High Court has cleared the way for Chase (Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment) to launch a judicial review of An Bord Pleanalas decision to grant planning permission to the controversial Indaver Ireland project on May 29.

Mr Justice David Barni-ville ruled that there were sufficient grounds to bring a judicial review challenge and he adjourned the case to next Monday.

Chase chairwoman Mary OLeary welcomed the High Court decision, saying the incinerator should not have been permitted.

We believe the board was wrong to go against its inspectors recommendation to refuse, she said.

That recommendation was continuing a pattern: Every one of the three senior planning inspectors involved since 2003 has declared the site unsuitable. Each of them has walked the site.

In addition to seeking an order quashing the decision to grant planning permission, Chase is seeking an order quashing the environmental impact assessment (EIA) carried out by the planning authority on May 23.

It is also seeking a declaration that An Bord Pleanala erred in law and had no jurisdiction to grant planning permission.

It is also seeking a declaration that the board erred in law by allegedly failing to carry out any or any legally adequate EIA or appropriate assessment prior to the decision to grant development consent.

The board granted planning permission under the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 to Indaver Ireland for an incinerator at a 13.5 hectare site at the end of the Ringaskiddy Peninsula.

The incinerator will have an operational life of 30 years and the capacity to process 240,000 tonnes of municipal waste and 24,000 tonnes of hazardous waste annually. The decision ran contrary to the boards own planning inspector, who recommended that the project be refused, following an oral hearing in 2016.

Ms OLeary said they were delighted the application for permission to bring the judicial review had succeeded.

Our legal team will continue to prepare for the full hearing, whenever it takes place, she said.

Court papers will now be served on the board and Indaver. The case will be back before the court for procedural directions next week.

Chase, through a GoFundMe page, has raised more than 100,000 towards the cost of the legal challenge.

The court can only grant permission to launch a judicial review if it is satisfied that there are substantial grounds for contending that the decision being challenged is invalid or ought to be overturned, and that the body bringing the case has a legally sufficient interest in the matter.

In a judicial review, the court examines the legality of a decision made by a public body and not the merits of the case.

Chase has campaigned against the incinerator project for almost two decades. Indaver Ireland has applied three times since 2001 to build the facility.Jason Flavin, aged 37, of Killeenreendowney Place, Ballyphehane, Cork, denied the charge against him. After hearing evidence in the contested trial at Cork District Court, Judge John King convicted him of the offence.

Flavin was fined 600 on a charge that, on June 16 last year at Togher Garda Station, he knowingly made a false statement tending to show that an offence had been committed. He falsely claimed that a clampers van had struck him on the knee.

Inspector Gary McPolin said Flavin contrived to make a case against Tomasz Lucas at Douglas Woollen Mills, where Marie Flavins car was clamped.

Judge King said of Jason Flavin: The reality is that he ran out in front of the van. I do not accept Mr Lucas hit his knee. I am satisfied it is a malicious report made for the purpose of retaliation because his wife was clamped.

The sinister thing about this is that a man is doing his job and someone makes a malicious report to get him into trouble. That is a terrible thing to do.

He said he had no doubt that defence solicitor Joseph Cuddigan would have told his client that the offence of making a false report carried a possible jail term of 12 months. He said that, in the circumstances, he would fine Flavin 600.

Flavin told gardai that, as he walked around the front of Mr Lucass van, it moved and struck his knee and that his knee was sore.

Mr Lucas went directly to Togher Garda Station, told Garda Mark ODonovan what happened, and gave him a copy of the CCTV from his dashcam.

Insp McPolin said: Quite clearly Mr Flavin feigned that Mr Lucas hit him [with his van] and went down as if he had been hit. That would indicate to anyone it was a false representation. Fair play to Mr Lucas, he had the dashcam.

Luckily for him he had the dashcam coverage that blew Mr Flavins version of events out of the water.

The footage was shown several times in court.

Flavin testified that he went to Douglas Woollen Mills that night, at about 10pm, after getting a phone call from his wife, who was crying and saying she felt intimidated by the clamper.

By the time he arrived, Ms Flavin had paid the fine to the clamper and her car had the clamp removed by Mr Lucas.

What then followed was the disputed event, which gave rise to Jason Flavin making the false report.Ministers approved the Criminal Law Sexual Offences Amendment Bill which will introduce stricter penalties for repeat sexual offenders and equalise the maximum penalties for incest at 10 years for both male and female offenders.

This is to fix an anomaly that saw men subject to penalties of up to a life imprisonment but women would subject to a maximum sentence of seven years in jail.

Originally, on foot of efforts by Denis Naughten when he was an Independent TD in opposition, the Government sought to equalise the sentences at the maximum level of life in prison, but at report stage Dail TDs voted that proposal down.

As a result, following discussions with the Attorney General Seamus Woulfe, it was decided to set the equal limit at 10 years.

The bill also contains amendments to the Punishment of Incest Act 1908 in order to equalise the penalty for incest at 10 years imprisonment for offences by both males and females.

The Government also approved revised penalties for repeat sexual offenders based on proposals brought forward by Minister of State Kevin Boxer Moran last year.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan got approval to pass emergency immigration legislation which arose out of a recent High Court case.

Approval was given to draft the heads of a bill as early as possible to amend the Immigration Acts 1999 and 2003 to address matters raised in the High Court case of SG (Albania) v the Minister for Justice and Equality which impacted on the deportation process.

This matter is not finally settled in the High Court as a final order has not been made. Notwithstanding the outcome of that process, it is considered necessary to bring forward the enactment of the primary legislation with some urgency to remove any doubt about the legal basis under which the minister makes such orders, the department said.

The legislation is required to deal with two categories of people being consideration for deportation.

Mr Flanagan also told Cabinet colleagues he is developing legislative proposals for a scheme for the expungement of criminal records arising from the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

The cases in question date from 1944 to 1993.

A preliminary search of Garda Pulse records suggest 150 relevant convictions require further examination.

Legal advice and precedent in England and Wales suggest that each case requires individual examination, the Government said.

Mr Flanagan has asked the gardai to review the files and report on the availability and quality of them within three months. He will then update his cabinet collegues in the autumn.

Also at cabinet, Transport Minister Shane Ross requested the Government to note his plans to extend the Western Rail Corridor.

There will now be a fresh financial and economic appraisal of the Western Rail Corridor proposal.Cork county councillors are demanding more be done to combat the scourge of anti-social behaviour in their estates.

The issue was raised by Social Democrats councillor June Murphy, who requested that the local authority form a specialised sub-committee, interlinked with relevant departments and outside bodies to deal with serious or ongoing antisocial behaviour in council estates.

There are some incidents where theyre going to the toilet in playgrounds and on peoples front doorsteps. Others [their friends] are coming into estates who dont live there and are abusing people, lying down on the road and stopping traffic, said Ms Murphy.

Theyre having parties all night. One individual drove at 80mph backwards. That person has caused nothing but trouble, since they arrived there.

She said she knows of many decent tenants who are trying to get on the housing transfer list, just to get away from them.

We need to get these issues resolved. There needs to be a committee, where serious incidents can be dealt with, she said.

Right now, theres no resolution. There are issues going on for four years.

Sinn Fein councillor Melissa Mullane agreed, pointing out that, a couple of years ago, she was informed by council officials that a number of tenants in the North Cork area were transferred to different housing estates to get away from anti-social behaviour, but the culprits were left in situ.

Doing that is not resolving the issue, said Ms Mullane. The problem is that we dont have enough staff. We need to put additional funding and resources into this, to deal with it.

Her party colleague, Des OGrady, said he has come across similar problems, where neighbours from hell disrupted whole estates. He said that in the councils southern division, two experienced estate management officers have retired and only one of the vacancies has been filled, which he described as a very backward step.

There are a lack of resources in regards to estate management, said Fianna Fails Seamus McGrath.

There needs to be a root-and-branch review of it. Im sorry to say, we havent supplied the level of resources we need.

Sinn Fein councillor Rachel McCarthy said there is strong merit in putting together a specialised committee which would include council officials, the gardai, and the child protection agency, Tusla.

Independent councillor Danny Collins suggested councillors should have meetings at divisional level at least twice a year to specifically discuss these issues with senior gardai.

Councillors also said there should be an increase in funding allocated to housing estate management teams.

There is very little progress being made on antisocial problems on some of our estates, said Ms Murphy. I have, in the past, arranged meetings between council officials and the gardai on these issues and they have resulted in nothing.

After lengthy debate, it was agreed that Ms Murphys suggestions would be discussed at the councils housing special purposes committee.The society welcomed the Health Information and Quality Authoritys (Hiqa) draft report on extending the HPV vaccination programme to boys.

Ensuring justice and non-discrimination must be at the centre of any decision to offer the vaccine to boys, it said.

Hiqas preliminary assessment on gender-neutral HPV vaccination was released for public consultation yesterday.

The ethical argument to extend the vaccination programme to include boys centres on issues of justice, equity, non-discrimination and non-stigmatisation, said the society.

Chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, Averil Power, said it is only right that the same protection is offered to both boys and girls.

Only boys whose families can afford to and choose to pay as much as 300 for the vaccine currently receive it through their GP, leaving many more unprotected, she said. This is clearly an injustice.

Health watchdog begins public consultation process looking at whether to extend the HPV vaccine to boys | https://t.co/v1Cy15hQek pic.twitter.com/h3aIyHgQjc  RTE News (@rtenews) July 24, 2018

Hiqas report states that extending the free vaccine to boys would cost an additional 10.4m over five years.

The Irish Cancer Society believes that such a cost would be an extremely good use of public funds and would ultimately benefit Irish men and women for generations to come.

Labour health spokesman Alan Kelly said the public consultation on HPV vaccines for boys is welcome but must conclude quickly so the rollout of vaccines to boys can start as soon as possible.

Health Minister Simon Harris said the extension of the HPV programme to boys would be prioritised if the health technology assessment made a positive recommendation.

I requested Hiqa to undertake this health technology assessment, which will establish the clinical and cost-effectiveness of providing the vaccine to boys, said Mr Harris.

Last week, the body overseeing vaccination policy in Britain strongly recommended that the free schools vaccination programme be extended to boys.

In Ireland, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee has also recommended that boys receive the vaccine.

The vaccine is currently only offered to girls aged 12 to 13 in their first year of secondary school from the HSEs National Immunisation Office.

Hiqa says gender-neutral vaccination would insulate the Irish population from significant movements of individuals in and out of the country.

It would provide protection to vulnerable groups not covered by the girls-only programme, such as men who have sex with men.

Hiqas director of health technology assessment and deputy chief executive, Mairin Ryan, said there are, on average, 539 cancer cases associated with HPV infection diagnosed every year in Ireland.

The cancers include cervical, anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. HPV infection is also responsible for genital warts, with 90% caused by HPV types that are included in the vaccine.

No treatment exists for HPV infection, so the focus must be on preventing those at risk from acquiring the virus, said Dr Ryan.

People have until September 7 to give feedback on the report before it is finalised and presented to the minister for health and the HSE.The next stoppages by directly employed pilots could begin within the next fortnight, though the union must give at least one weeks notice of any action.

The meeting of Forsa trade unions disputes committee to decide on the next phase here comes as hundreds of the airlines flights to and from Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy are grounded today and tomorrow due to strikes by cabin crew.

The airlines chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said the pilots strikes here, the latest of which took place yesterday, are not working.

More strikes should be averted, he said. They are being done at this time of the year to have the maximum impact but they are not working.

Ryanair pilots on the picket line at the airline's headquarters in Dublin. It's the 3rd day of strike action. 16 flights cancelled today, impacting 2,500 passengers. More strikes are not being ruled out #Ryanair pic.twitter.com/xtScQ0SqBb  Fergal O'Brien (@FergalOBrien_) July 24, 2018

The best thing that can happen next is that Forsa takes this more seriously, they stop this charade, they meet us, and they actually respond to the proposals we made that actually give them most of what they are looking for.

Mr Jacobs also told RTEs Morning Ireland programme that a lot of what the union are saying is the dance that they go through and that they want to copy/paste the Aer Lingus pilot agreement into Ryanair and that wont work.

He rejected union demands for a third-party intervention saying the company does not think it is needed as it is only a minority of pilots involved and it would only slow the process down.

Meanwhile, Ryanair, EasyJet, Wizz Air, and International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns Aer Lingus and British Airways, have submitted complaints to the European Commission against France over its air traffic controllers (ATC) strikes.

The airlines argue France is breaking EU law by not enabling flights over the country during strikes and that passengers on overflights are being denied their fundamental freedom to travel between member states not affected by strike action.

The airlines said that French ATC strikes have increased by 300% compared to 2017 and that the French senate has confirmed that France alone is responsible for 33% of flight delays in Europe.

Willie Walsh, IAGs chief executive, said: The right to strike needs to be balanced against freedom of movement.

Its not only customers flying in and out of France who are affected during French ATC strikes. Passengers on routes that overfly France, especially the large airspace that covers Marseille and the Mediterranean, are also subject to delays and massive disruptions.

This affects all airlines but has a significant negative impact on Spains tourism and economy, he said.

Ryanair chief Michael OLeary said Europes ATC providers are reaching the point of meltdown with hundreds of flights being cancelled and delayed daily either because of ATC strikes or because Europes ATC providers dont have enough staff: When Greece and Italy have ATC strikes, overflights continue as normal. Why wont France do the same?The commissions report raises serious concerns over the lack of access to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and fears over unregulated 24-hour community residences in which an estimated 1,300 people live.

These and other long-running issues prompted commission chairman John Saunders to query whether the Government and service providers ever intend to bring about meaningful change, adding that the commission is strongly of the view that there is apparently little heed given to the commentary of the commission by the Department of Health or Health Service Executive.

In his foreword to the report, Mr Saunders states that the commission is dismayed at the pattern of issues that have been consistently highlighted in annual reports dating back to 2012.

These include the inappropriate admission of children into adult mental health in-patient services, inadequate staffing levels, dirty and dilapidated premises, and widespread use of restrictive practices such as seclusion and physical restraint as a normalised behaviour in services.

It found that 82 children were admitted to 21 adult units last year  an increase from 68 in 2016. The most common reason reported was an immediate risk to self or others combined with unavailability of a bed in a child unit. Of 28 involuntary admissions of children to approved centres, four were to adult units.

Speaking ahead of the publication of the report today, Mr Saunders said: The buck stops with the Government and the Department of Health and the minister.

People are hearing what we are saying, but I dont think they are listening to what we are saying.

One key aspect is the budget allocated to mental health. While it was increased in the last budget, it is still below the recommended level and the EU average. Mr Saunders said there had been some progress in certain areas and incremental improvements across the board over a longer period of time, but serious deficiencies remain.

Chief among those are services to vulnerable people with long-term mental illness accommodated in 24-hour community residences not subject to regulatory oversight, which the report refers to as a glaring and inconsistent pattern of standards in service provision.

If we have a service like that definitely there is a greater risk of something happening that is either an accidental event or an abusive event, he said.

As for the issues with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, inspector Susan Finnerty, said between 50% and 75% of children with severe mental difficulties can go into adult life carrying those problems with them, meaning early intervention is vital to avoid facing a lifetime of risk.

HSE unable to provide number for residences

The Inspector of Mental Health Services has said it is "incredible" and "unsatisfactory" that for a number of years the HSE has been unable to even provide a figure regarding the number of 24-hour residences around the country.

The Report of the Inspector of Mental Health Services - incorporated into the annual report of the Mental Health Commission - highlighted issues at the centres, including that just 44% were in good physical condition and 19% required urgent refurbishment. Residents were not free to leave in 14% of residences and only 59% of residences offered all those living there single-room accommodation.

According to the report: "As we had failed for 2015 and 2016 to get an accurate list centrally from the HSE, we sought information from each CHO individually in 2017.

"Again, when we came to inspect 24-hour residences in 2017, this information was inaccurate."

In 2005 there were 127 24-hour supervised residences and last year the Inspector and her team estimate there were 118 such residences remaining.

Speaking ahead of the publication of the report today, Dr Susan Finnerty, Inspector of Mental Health Services, said her team compiled their own list "literally by going out and visiting them all".

The report also highlighted concerns over access to CAMHS and how staffing shortages have periodically closed in-patient CAMHS beds. Young people often had to be admitted to CAMHS units far from their homes and families, with someone in Letterkenny facing a 500km round-trip to the nearest CAMHS in-patient unit in Galway.

It said three of the five CAMHS approved centres used seclusion and that it was often difficult for referral agencies to source a CAMHS bed even when beds were empty, adding it was "frustrating, time-consuming and often resulted in a young person being admitted to an adult mental health unit."

Across the services generally, the Inspectors report noted 47 notifications of seclusion exceeding 72 hours, while 41 approved centres were non-compliant with the Code of Practice on Physical Restraint.

Some 427 deaths were reported to the MHC last year, including 212 sudden and unexplained deaths, including 153 suspected suicides.

Thirteen suspected suicide deaths occurred within a week of their discharge from an in-patient service, while nine deaths reported as suspected suicides occurred while the person was on leave or absent without leave. The MHC took 57 enforcement actions in relation to 28 approved centres and 34 of these related to Serious Reportable Events.Mr Brassil outlines a litany of concerns in a letter to Ger OCallaghan, chief operations officer of the South/Southwest hospital group, including a claim that the clinical director, Claire OBrien, has temporarily stepped down from her post due to clinical pressure.

The hospital is currently without a full-time consultant cardiologist since the recent departure of heart specialist, Louis Keary.

The Irish Examiner asked the HSE who is looking after cardiac referrals in the wake of Dr OBriens departure, and whether there is a backlog, but no response was forthcoming.

According to Mr Brassil, a consultant pathologist is also set to leave. He said that the hospital has only one consultant geriatrician and the dedicated stroke unit is barely functional due to staff shortages.

He said a diabetic clinic, open since 2015 with a view to providing the same level of services as Cork University Hospital is also barely functional and has only one diabetes nurse.

Mr Brassil argues that if there are staff shortages, and especially clinical staff shortages, at a certain hospital, it is the responsibility of the hospital group to step in and alleviate the pressure.

As group chief operations officer, it is Mr OCallaghans responsibility to ensure it operates as a group, he said. You cant leave one hospital out on a limb.

UHK is at crisis point. The safety and wellbeing of patients and staff is now being put at risk by the staffing crisis.

He said the lack of a clinical director will only serve to compound the problems.

It cannot be allowed to continue, and unless the Cork-Kerry Hospital Group, and the wider HSE, get its act together, patient safety will continue to be put at risk, Mr Brassil said.

In October last year, the hospital was forced to undertake a review of more than 46,000 scans after concerns were raised about the work of a consultant radiologist. Eleven patients were identified as having a missed or delayed diagnosis and a total of 374 patients were recalled for re-imaging.

UHK has 300 inpatient beds and employs in the region of 1,000 staff, of whom approximately 100 are consultants and junior doctors.It was responding to criticism this week from the Irish National Teachers Union (INTO) that its requests to meet the steering group established by Education Minister Richard Bruton have been ignored.

The department told the Irish Examiner that the group, chaired by department secretary general Sean O Foghlu, has met three times.

Its first meeting took place in late March and members include three other department officials, and representatives of the Higher Education Authority, Teaching Council, universities, and independent expert Anthony Finn from the University of Glasgow.

On Monday, the INTO demanded an urgent meeting with the minister over its concerns at what general secretary Sheila Nunan described as their outrageous exclusion from the steering group.

A department spokesman said the steering group is developing a detailed communication strategy as part of the overall plan to address teacher supply.

A key element of the strategy will be consultation with stakeholders, including the teacher unions, he said.

The steering group was set up by Mr Bruton in response to growing problems faced by schools, with second-level principals having particular problems recruiting teachers of certain subjects like Irish and other languages, as well as science subjects.

The Department of Education also told the Irish Examiner that colleges have indicated that interest is up on last year after 100 extra places were provided by universities on postgraduate courses leading to qualifications to teach those subjects.

However, Union of Students in Ireland president Siona Cahill said yesterday that access to grants for those on postgraduate courses was a barrier since most financial supports were removed during a series of education cutbacks in 2012.

So many people were effectively locked out of that system after doing a primary degree in arts, Ms Cahill told Today with Miriam OCallaghan on RTE Radio 1.

The Teachers Union of Irelands new president, Seamus Lahart, said that teacher shortages across a growing number of subjects and falls in applications for courses to become teachers are among the results of lower pay rates for those who have joined the profession since the start of 2011.Whether it is vandalism, graffiti, censorship, or just art, the unknown marker carrier applied their hand sometime over the weekend to the banners on the railings outside Corks Crawford Art Gallery, showing reproductions of Kilkenny-based artist Elizabeth Copes 2006 painting, Giraffe Man.

The banners are advertising one of the exhibitions running inside, Naked Truth: The Nude in Irish Art, which has been attracting up to 1,000 visitors a day since opening two weeks ago.

While the response to the show to date has been hugely positive, exhibition co-curator Dawn Williams said staff can only guess what might have been behind the weekend art attack.

The neat manner in which the subjects genitals have been obscured  not once, but twice  suggests offence may have motivated the endeavours, but nothing is being ruled out.

Weve been censored! Our poster boy  Giraffe Man by Elizabeth Cope  has become a little more modest, but you can see the uncensored version in our NAKED TRUTH exhibition.



Thanks to all who attended this weekends free public tours!



Open daily | Free entry. #NakedTruth pic.twitter.com/KxoOVEPQlp  Crawford Art Gallery (@CrawfordArtGall) July 22, 2018

It could be humour, it could be just mischief, or it could be someone who may find male genitalia offensive, said Ms Williams.

The whole idea of the exhibition was to assert the existence of a complex of nudes in Irish art, and its already provoking personal conversations and public discussion around the body, the nude and the naked.

The Crawford Art Gallery team decided not to bring in conservation experts to restore the banners to their original status.

Did you know that an extensive Learn & Explore programme accompanies our new exhibition, NAKED TRUTH: The Nude in Irish Art? From free public talks and tours to life drawing sessions, there's something for everyone!



Download the PDF https://t.co/glRX7gUC65 #NakedTruth #Cork pic.twitter.com/ukYiP5BplM  Crawford Art Gallery (@CrawfordArtGall) July 23, 2018

Victor O Murchu from the House Cafe at nearby Cork Opera House thought it was good to think people are engaging with the art.

Not that any of us would be encouraging defacement, but it is a very polite defacement of manhood, he said.

Ironically, a number of the 80 works in the exhibition have already experienced censorship.

Robert Ballaghs painting Study for a Kite, in which the subject exposes himself, was withdrawn from exhibition on orders of the 1977 Kilkenny Arts Week chairman, a Church of Ireland cleric who deemed it inappropriate.

More recently, Dragana Jurisic had her Instagram account temporarily closed earlier this summer after sharing an image (already self-censored with a leaf) from her 100 Muses project, in which she photographed 100 women nude after they responded to her open call for volunteers.

NAKED TRUTH The Nude In Irish Art @CrawfordArtGall is a big, bold & beautiful show. We were very much seduced by works in this playful & provocative exhibition. Go see it soon as it will be worth revisiting. https://t.co/UauzgrI8C6 pic.twitter.com/oSqw6umhFc  whaZonCork (@whazoncork) July 20, 2018

Both works were bought by the Arts Council, the purchase of the latter being announced just a week ago.

On the day before the exhibition opened at the Crawford Art Gallery, Ms Williams shared an article about it from an art and culture website to her own Facebook page.

The associated image from one of Jurisics 100 Muses photos was promptly deemed to have breached the social networks community standards  just days before a Channel 4 investigation raised serious questions about how racist, violent, and other inappropriate material goes unpoliced on Facebook.

The exhibition, Naked Truth: The Nude in Irish Art runs until October 28 at Crawford Gallery.Asia Dhaka Completes First Official Count of Rohingya Refugees Since 2017 Influx

A Rohingya girl has her photo taken as part of a registration drive at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. / UNHCR

COXS BAZAR, Bangladesh  Bangladeshs Department of Immigration and Passports (DIP) says there are 1,118,578 Rohingya living in Coxs Bazar after completing its first official count of the population, which has mushroomed since a crackdown by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State in August that drove hundreds of thousands across the border.

Bangladesh is now working with the UN to register the refugees by household.

We have so far completed joint verification of over 11,649 Rohingya from 2,538 families and are continuing our work. Its complicated and time consuming because of [the need for] proper documentation, a senior government official in Coxs Bazar told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Muhammad Habibul Kabir Chowdhury, chief of refugee affairs at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told The Irrawaddy last week that the government and UN were aiming to complete the joint registration by November.

He said they were hopeful that repatriation could begin very soon and would give Naypyitaw a list of 15,000 forcedly displaced Myanmar nationals ready and willing to return by the end of the month.

In February, Bangladesh gave Myanmar a list of 8,032 Rohingya refugees prepared to repatriate. Myanmar has since cleared about 2,500 of them for return.

None of them has as yet made the trip back to Myanmar, however. Bangladesh will send a delegation to Naypyitaw next month to follow up.

In a statement on June 26, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was working with Bangladesh to verify the identities and documents of the Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar. The refugee agency had recently signed deals with both countries to help with the repatriation process.

The verification exercise, which is expected to take approximately five to six months to complete, will help to consolidate a unified database for the purposes of identity management, documentation, protection, provision of assistance, population statistics and solutions, the UNHCR said.

All refugees over the age of 12 will be issued plastic identification cards with anti-fraud features including their photographs and biometric data collected from iris scans and fingerprints.

The cards will be issued jointly by Bangladesh and the UNHCR and help the refugees access assistance services in Bangladesh.

This exercise is a major step forward to establish the legal identity of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, said Kevin Allen, the UNHCRs head of operations in Coxs Bazar.

A senior government official in Coxs Bazar, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Irrawaddy that the data already collected by the DIP were of no help with repatriation because the department registered the refugees only as individuals.

The data collected by the DIP will not help us in the repatriation process because we need household-based data of the Rohingyas. It was a hurried decision and the existing data are now worthless, the official said.

The DIPs director general, Major-General Masud Rezwan, declined to comment.

The Bangladesh army and board guard began registering the refugees on Sept. 11, soon after the exodus from Myanmar began in late August.

Maj-Gen Rezwan and Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal both claimed last year that the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration were assisting with the process.

The UNHCR estimates that 721,732 people crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Aug. 25 and that the total number of Rohingya, including those who had come earlier, now stood at 887,661 from 204,354 families.

It says about 67 percent of the Rohingya are from Rakhine States Maungdaw Township and that 80 percent of the Rohingya refugees arrived between August and December.

The last Rohingyas, a group of 28, arrived on May 10.

Nur Khan Liton, an independent rights campaigner, said he was disappointed by the DIPs registration drive and blamed its shortcomings on inexperience.

Now, he said, We expect the government and UN bodies to complete a flawless registration.

The DIP had previously told The Irrawaddy that its registration drive would prevent the refugees from obtaining Bangladesh passports and national identification cards.

On July 6, however, five Rohingya refugees were caught at an immigration checkpoint near the Indian border with newly issued Bangladesh passports and visas for India.

We thought their documents were suspicious because one of them could not give us details of the place he claimed to be coming from. And we started checking the passports of two others, and two more arrived at the queue at the same time, said Sub-Inspector Abdul Alim, who was running the checkpoint at the time.

He said police launched an investigation to find out how they obtained the passports and learned that four were issued in Cumilla District in May and that the other was issued in Feni District on Feb. 20. Both districts are in Chittagong Division, which borders Myanmar.

I became suspicious once I checked his passport and saw he used an address in Darshana but his passport was issued in Cumilla, which lies more than 300 km away, the sub-inspector said.

The five refugees were sent to a local police station.

Emdad Hossain, the station inspector, told The Irrawaddy that they had all arrived from Myanmar earlier this year and lived in a refugee camp in Coxs Bazar.

They are all in our custody and we are discussing what action should be taken against them, he said.

Coxs Bazar police authorities say they have foiled the attempts of more than 54,761 Rohingya refugees to flee the camps since September, and that 3,348 refugees who tried to evade registration have been sent back to Coxs Bazar from across the country.

We rescued them and sent them to camps where they have to live under our supervision, said Afruzul Hoque Tutul, an assistant police superintendent for Coxs Bazar.

He said police were also holding regular meetings with passenger bus owners to prevent Rohingya from leaving the camps.

Since September, Bangladeshi authorities have set up several checkpoints in Coxs Bazar to monitor and control the movement of the Rohingya, but many have still managed to leave.

At a press conference on July 17, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the home affairs minister, said many Rohingya refugees were obtaining and using false identification numbers but added that as soon as we are informed we are cancelling them.News Black Hoods, Kneeling, No Sleep: Reuters Reporter Details Myanmar Custody

Detained Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo smiles with his daughter as he is escorted by the police at Insein court in Yangon, Myanmar, July 24, 2018. / Reuters

YANGON  A Reuters reporter on trial in Myanmar had his head covered with a black hood, was deprived of sleep and forced to kneel for hours at a secret police interrogation site after he was arrested with a colleague last year, he told a court on Tuesday.

Kyaw Soe Oo, one of two Reuters journalists accused of obtaining state secrets, said the interrogators focused on a story the reporters had been working on about the murder by soldiers of 10 Rohingya Muslims, showing no interest in the documents they are accused of obtaining.

During two weeks of questioning by officers from military intelligence and police special branch, the reporters were denied access to their families and lawyers, Kyaw Soe Oo told Judge Ye Lwin, overseeing proceedings at the court in Yangon.

The 28-year-old reporter and his colleague Wa Lone, 32, face charges brought under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, in a case seen as a test of press freedom in Myanmar. Both have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.

The reporters say the documents were planted on them by a police officer during a meeting at a restaurant on the outskirts of Yangon on Dec. 12. Defense lawyers have said the evidence put forward by the prosecution shows the police entrapped the journalists to interfere with their reporting.

In his testimony, Kyaw Soe Oo said they were arrested immediately after leaving the restaurant and taken to a nearby police station, before being driven to a special police interrogation site in northern Yangon called Aung Tha Pyay.

They put black hoods on us outside the Htaunt Kyant police station and we stayed hooded until we arrived at Aung Tha Pyay, said Kyaw Soe Oo.

There were around 10 interrogation officers who took turns interrogating me. They didnt let us rest and asked questions for three days straight while I was in handcuffs.

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung likened such treatment to how Myanmars former military rulers used to interrogate political opponents.

Asking questions repeatedly for three days without letting them sleep made them mentally weak. This kind of mental and physical torture is a human rights violation, said Than Zaw Aung.

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said the government has asked the police force whether they have illegal torture or not  the police said they guaranteed that they dont do any illegal torture.

Zaw Htay also said Myanmars courts were independent and the case would be conducted according to the law.

Prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung declined to comment at the end of the days proceedings. Police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe did not answer calls seeking comment.

Captain Myint Lwin, the officer in charge of the Htaunt Kyant police station, denied that the reporters were deprived of sleep or made to kneel when he testified to the court in June, saying officers were not allowed to do such a thing.

Kyaw Soe Oo testified throughout the day, before Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the proceedings. The trial will resume on Monday.

Ordered to Kneel

At the time of their arrest, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in the village of Inn Din in western Myanmars Rakhine State.

The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations officials have said constituted ethnic cleansing. More than 700,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh since August last year, according to UN agencies. Myanmar rejects almost all accusations of wrongdoing and says its armed forces launched a legitimate counter-insurgency operation after coming under attack by Rohingya militants.

Kyaw Soe Oo, who comes from the violence-torn Rakhine region and is a member of the Rakhine ethnic group, said the non-stop questioning ceased only after the police found photographs of the 10 men from Inn Din on the journalists phones.

Then, one of the interrogators burst into Kyaw Soe Oos cell and asked angrily: Why havent you told us about this? referring to the picture of the 10 kneeling men tied together, taken shortly before they were killed last September.

At one point, a military intelligence officer brought printouts of the Inn Din photographs and asked Kyaw Soe Oo whether he had sent the photos from my phone to human rights organizations from foreign countries.

Kyaw Soe Oo denied sending the photographs to anyone and told the officer: Im a reporter and I follow journalistic ethics.Burma Chinese, Japanese, S. Koreans to Get Visas on Arrival from October

Hot air balloons float above Bagans stunning scenery. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

YANGONAmid declining tourists numbers during the first half of the year, the government on Tuesday announced a plan to ease visa requirements for Japanese, South Korean and Chinese citizens effective Oct. 1.

According to the Hotel and Tourism Ministry, citizens of Japan, South Korea and China will be able to request visas on arrival at certain border crossings and/or airports, depending on which of these countries they are from. Chinese passport holders (including those from Hong Kong and Macau SAR) will be charged a visa fee of USD50, but the visas will be free for Japanese and South Korean passport holders.

However, travelers from all three countries will need to show that they are carrying USD1,000 in cash in order to cover expenses for the duration of their stay in the country.

Chinese passport holders will be able to receive visas on arrival at Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw international airports. Japanese and South Korean passport holders will be able to receive them at international airports, as well as at the Tachileik, Myawaddy, Kawthaung and Htee Khee crossings on the Thai border.

The tourist visas apply to independent travelers and members of package tours. They permit holders to stay in Myanmar for 28 days, the ministry said.

Tourists from most countries need to apply in advance for an e-visa, pay a USD50 visa fee and wait at least three working days to obtain visa approval. The duration of the visa is usually 28 days with no extension allowed.

Tourist numbers have declined compared with last year, especially from Western countries. But Japanese and Korean tourists are always interested in visiting our country among Asian destinations. So, we expect more tourists from those countries, said U Myint Htwe, deputy director of the ministry.

U Myint Htwe said the government plans to focus more on attracting tourists from Japan and South Korea, two countries with which Myanmar has good diplomatic relations.

In 2017, Thailand topped the list in terms of tourist arrivals to Myanmar, followed by China, Japan and South Korea. About 40 percent of travelers arrived with a pre-arranged tourist visa, according to the Hotel and Tourism Ministry.

The tourism industrys income has fallen since the humanitarian crisis erupted in northern Rakhine State in August last year. The situation has tarnished the countrys image in the eyes of many Western travelers.

From January to June, roughly 1.8 million visitors entered Myanmar, a drop of roughly 38,000 compared with last year. Overall visitor numbers from the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Europe have declined significantly in 2018. However, tourism officials still target 7 million annual tourist arrivals by 2020.

We need more tourists from our region when European and [other] Western tourists cant come, U Myint Htwe said.Burma Education Ministry Suspends Construction of 6,000 New Schools

An affiliate basic education middle school in Rakhine States Maungdaw. / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  The Education Ministry has suspended its project to construct about 6,000 educational facilities including basic education schools across the country due to budget constraints.

The government had already granted a budget for the project but since new President U Win Myint increased the pay for civil servants in April, the Education Ministry no longer has the budget to pay the additional amount to its some 400,000 staff and has to use funds that were designated for the construction project, said deputy education minister U Win Maw Tun.

The deputy minister explained the suspension of building schools on Tuesday at the Lower House of Myanmars Parliament as some lawmakers talked about the requirements of schools in their constituencies.

We have a deficit of 100 billion kyats to pay the ministry staff. And we are not allowed to ask for extra funds because it is the six-month interim budget, the deputy minister told The Irrawaddy.

So, we have to postpone the project, he added.

The new government has set a new timeframe for the countrys fiscal year starting on October 1 and ending on September 30, replacing the April 1- March 31 timeframe.

It then set the interim budget for the transitional period of six months from April 1 to September 30, which was approved by the Parliament in March before the President announced the pay increase on April 17 that saw the salary of staff increase by 20 percent and that of officials by 10 percent.

The Education Ministry however has proposed to resume the project in the 2018-19 fiscal year, he said.

Weve had to reduce the budget for some construction works because of constraints. And some of the construction works have not even started yet. But well ask for funds for all of the projected schools in the 2018-19 fiscal year, he said.

Businessmen who won the tender for construction of schools are not happy with the suspension, said lawmaker U Aung Hlaing Win of Mingalardon Township in the Lower House.

Tender winners are waiting to get money. It usually costs a businessmen around one million kyats to win a tender for a school building. Some tender winners have already started building, said U Aung Hlaing Win, who saw the construction of four schools suspended in his constituency.

According to U Aung Min, chairman of the Lower House Bill Committee, there are one million civil servants in Myanmar and the Education Ministry alone has over 450,000 staff.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Burma Karenni Halt Protests Against Gen Aung San Statue

Demonstrators march in Loikaw against the state governments plan to erect a Gen Aung San statue on July 3, 2018. / Khun Ar Than

YANGON  Ethnic Karenni youth activists, who are against the Karenni State governments plan to erect a statue of late independence hero General Aung San in the state capital Loikaw, said on Tuesday that they would halt their protests considering the possible divide between locals over the statue.

Those in opposition to the statue held a press conference on Tuesday at The Orchid Hotel in Yangon, saying they decided to halt their protests because the Karenni State chief minister had disbanded the government committee and asked community-based organizations to take the lead role in proceeding with the plan to erect the statue.

Karenni State Chief Minister L Phaung Sho said at a press conference at the state government office on Monday that a new statue committee would be established by community-based organizations, with the state government playing an assistance role.

We view it as sowing discord between supporters and opponents of the statue. He [L Phaung Sho] is mainly responsible for this. He shifted the responsibility when problems arose, which might provoke confrontation between local residents, said Naw Phaw Wah, one of the opponents of the statue.

Well continue our protest if they proceed with the statue. But, we will avoid confrontation with the people. Meanwhile, we will cease our activities. And those who are sued will just focus on facing trial, she added.

The government has sued 23 ethnic Karenni youth activists in connection with their protests against the statue and for distributing pamphlets that explained the history of Karenni State.

Twelve were sued under Article 505 (b) and (c) of the Penal Code for defaming the government and the rest under Articles 19 and 20 of the Peaceful Assembly Law for organizing the protest.

The state chief minister announced on June 12 the plan to put up a bronze statue of Gen Aung San, which would cost some 80 million kyats and be built with funds from the state government. The state government had planned to unveil the statue on July 19 to mark Martyrs Day, which commemorates the anniversary of the assassination of Gen Aung San and his cabinet members.

About 1,000 local Karenni people marched against the project in Loikaw on July 3. The demonstration turned violent after police blocked the marchers path to the park where the statue is to be erected.

The state government met opponents of the statue on July 7 and said that the timetable for erecting the statue of Gen Aung San would be postponed to allow time to gauge public opinion.

The chief minister met officials of local political parties, the ethnic culture and literature committee, and civil society organizations on July 16 and warned that he would call in troops to quell demonstrations.

But on Monday evening, the military released a statement saying that under the countrys Constitution, chief ministers of states and regions have no authority to order military intervention in case of emergency.

While ethnicities are still being denied equality and self-determination, the governments plan to erect a Gen Aung San statue in Loikaw despite the objection of local Karenni people is a blatant attempt to wield racial influence over ethnicities, said Naw Paw Wah.

Ko Oattra Aung, a central committee member of the Union of Karenni State Youth, also questioned if the community-based organizations to be tasked with commissioning the statue will really represent local ethnic people who have lived in the state for generations.

The problem with the Gen Aung San statue is that it is very dangerous for ethnic politics, he said, adding that it is the state chief minister and the statue that are destabilizing Karenni State.

Karenni youth launched a petition campaign against the statue and collected around 40,000 signatures from July 12 to July 19.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.Burma Military Requests Slightly Higher Budget than Last Year for 2018-19

Military appointees attend the resumption of Parliament in Naypitaw on July 23. / Htet Naing Zaw / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  The Ministry of Defense has requested a budget of 3.26 trillion kyats for fiscal 2018-19, which starts in October.

The request is equivalent to 13.07 percent of the annual budget, estimated at nearly 25 trillion kyats.

On Wednesday, representatives of 22 ministries, and those of 11 Union-level departments, offices and other entities under the National League for Democracy-led government, began presenting to the Union Parliament their initial budget requests for October 2018 through September 2019. This will be the first fiscal year since the switch to an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 calendar; the country is currently operating on a provisional six-month budget (March-August 2018).

Budget requests were presented Wednesday by six of the 11 Union-level bodies (the Union Government Office, Attorney Generals Office, Constitutional Court, Auditor Generals Office, Union Election Commission, and parliamentary offices) and 11 ministries (Defense; Home Affairs; Border Affairs; Foreign Affairs; the State Counselors Office; Information; Religion and Culture; Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation; Transport and Communications; Natural Resources and Environmental Preservation; and the Presidents Office). Government representatives will continue their presentations on Thursday.

Major-General Myint Nwe, the deputy minister of defense, told the Parliament on Wednesday that this years defense budget request represents an increase of 57.114 billion kyats from last years actual budget of 3.19 trillion kyats.

Explaining the increase, Maj-Gen. Myint New said the requested budget is necessary to implement the Myanmar Military (or Tatmadaw)s long-term plan to transform itself into a standard Army, Navy and Air Force.

He said the budget covers the cost of salaries and support for military personnel, weaponry, building construction, military operations and other expenses. He did not reveal precise figures of military personnel or details of the equipment the Tatmadaw plans to purchase.

The military budget has accounted for approximately 13 to above 14 percent of the national budget since fiscal 2012-13. Sai Thiha Kyaw, a Lower House lawmaker from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, told The Irrawaddy, I realize the military budget is around 13-14 percent, although the annual overall budget increases every year. However, [the Tatmadaws] use of weapons and warfare equipment machinery are of high standard.

The defense budget accounted for 13.9 percent of the total budget in 2017-18, 14.3 percent in 2016-17, more than 13.6 percent in 2015-16, 12.7 percent in 2014-15, nearly 13.3 percent in 2013-14, just over 14 percent in 2012-13 and more than 14.6 percent in 2011-12, and is projected to account for 13 percent of spending next year (2018-19).

According to the lawmaker, the largest shares of next years total budget are requested by the ministries of Finance and Planning (22.9 percent); Electricity and Energy (22.2 percent); Defense (13.07 percent); Education (8.7 percent); Transport and Communications (5.3 percent); and Health and Sport (4.6 percent).

The Ministry of Finance and Planning also tops the list of projected proportional income, accounting for 42.6 percent of the estimated government total, followed by the ministries of Electricity and Energy (25.7 percent) and Transport and Communications (8 percent).

The state budget includes estimated expenditure of 24.954 trillion kyats, against estimated income 20.051 trillion kyats, including foreign loans. This leaves a budget deficit of 4.9 trillion kyats. The coming years budget is higher than the April 2017-March 2018 fiscal year budget, which included total expenditure of 20.59 trillion kyats and a budget deficit of 4.38 percent.

The increase is partly due to an increase in foreign debt to over USD10 billion, from around USD9 billion last year, Sai Thiha Kyaw said.

He said the Union budget estimate excludes state and regional budgets estimates. However, the Union will support the total 1.794 trillion-kyat deficits of the state and regional budgets via the Union Fund. State/regional budget expenses amount to an estimated 2.859 trillion kyats, while their incomes amount to 1.065 trillion kyats, he said.

The Union Parliaments 20 joint assessment teams will assess the budget requests and submit them to the Public Accounts Committee over the next two months. That committee will decide whether to approve the budgets before October, said Sai Thiha Kyaw, who is a member of the committee.Burma Plaintiff in Myanmar Now Lawsuit Sentenced

Plaintiff U Kyaw Myo Shwe on Thursday attends a court hearing in Mandalay. He is suing Myanmar Nows chief editor for allegedly insulting ultranationalist monk U Wirathu. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  A court in Mandalays Chanmyathazi Township sentenced the plaintiff in a Myanmar Now lawsuit to a year and a half in prison on Wednesday for taking part in anti-government protests in Mandalay in 2017.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe was detained on Aug. 7, 2017, and charged with incitement for participating in anti-government protests along with nationalist monks and laypersons.

He was sent to Obo prison immediately after being charged.

Six nationalist monks were also arrested when local authorities raided a protest camp on Aug. 6, 2017. Demonstrators were urging the government to step down for failing to protect national interests.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe was arrested the following day when he appeared at court in Maha Aung Myay Township as the plaintiff in a lawsuit against an esteemed Myanmar Now journalist.

All of the arrested nationalists were charged with incitement under Article 505 (b) of the Penal Code. The six nationalist monks were sentenced in December 2017 to 18 months imprisonment with hard labor.

Since U Kyaw Myo Shwe was suffering severe back pain, he reportedly submitted several appeals to the court to allow bail. However, the court refused, as Article 505 (b) is a non-bailable offense. The process of submitting appeals for bail extended the duration of his trial.

Since U Kyaw Myo Shwe has already spent almost a year behind bars, which will count as time served, he will only have about seven months remaining on his sentence.

U Kyaw Myo Shwe filed a lawsuit against Myanmar Now chief editor Ko Swe Win under article 66 (d) of Myanmars Telecommunications Law in March 2017, accusing the editor of insulting ultranationalist monk U Wirathu in a Facebook post.News Analysis: Trading Armed Struggle for Battle in the Market Place

Troops of the KNU/KNLA (PC), a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, march at a parade in Karen State in 2015. / Naw Ta Ya Media Group / Facebook

YANGON  For decades, ethnic armed groups (EAOs) in Myanmar have raised money by extorting protection payments from smugglers, engaging in illicit logging and jade mining projects, and trafficking drugs in order to buy tactical weapons and pay their troops.

Hope are high that this will soon change, especially among those groups that have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), now that the governments Peace Commission has begun implementing its Business for Peace (B4P) platform.

The B4P paradigm was officially adopted late in 2013 in line with the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) framework, the brainchild of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan introduced in 2005. The global compact promotes responsible businesses in high-risk, conflict-affected and post-conflict regions around the world.

To engage with the UNGC, Prof. Aung Tun Thet established a local network, the UNGC Network Myanmar, in 2012. He is also the vice chairman of the National Economic and Social Advisory Council of Myanmar and a member of the Peace Commission (NRPC) established by the government of State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar B4P project aims to earn a peace dividend for NCA signatories by helping them to establishing public companies through official channels. The companies would serve as business arms of the EAOs. In 2017, UNGC Network Myanmar was applauded by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the countrys de facto leader, as Prof. Aung Tun Thets team signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (UMFCCI).

At the recommendation of Prof. Aung Tun Thet, the Myanmar Ethnic Entrepreneurs Association (MEEA) was established in March 2018. It comprises 27 members of eight major ethnic groups and has the ambitious goal of boosting socio-economic development in ethnic regions.

B4P targets infrastructure development in post-conflict regions, while also assisting the Peace Commission in its work and alleviating poverty. The MEEA was officially launched at the UMFCCI building in Yangon last Friday. The event was joined by representatives of NCA signatories and ethnic affairs ministers from across the country.

A meeting participant told The Irrawaddy that Prof. Aung Tun Thet gathered seven signatories  the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLO), Chin National Front (CNF), Arakan Liberation Party (ALP), All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), Karen National Union/ KNLA (PC), and the New Mon State Party (MNSP)  at the NRPCs office and explained its new business model to the representatives.

EAOs give nod to B4P

PNLO spokesman Khun Myint Tun said during his keynote speech that his group attended the conference to learn how ethnic businessmen could jointly operate businesses in post-conflict regions. He said that multiple stakeholders in the country currently share the cause of establishing a democratic federal union. To reach that ultimate goal, three key conditions  peace, political transition and economic reform  are needed, he said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Khun Aung Mann of the PNLO, who joined both the MEEA launch ceremony and a meeting with Prof. Aung Tun Thet on Friday, said the discussions centered around the establishment by EAOs of public companies through the Directorate, Investment and Company Administration (DICA) as a source of steady income. The professor urged newly established MEEA members and the UMFCCI to offer technical support to EAOs. The PNLO officer acknowledged that six signatories agreed in principle with the public company strategy.

It was like a workshop; we did not make a commitment to proceed with [forming] a company, said Lt-Col. Khun Aung Mann.

He said that while the six NCA signatories have not all attended face-to-face meetings on the public company approach, his organization had held internal consultations on its potential risks and advantages. Some EAO representatives sought clarification on whether they need to be members of the MEEA in order to participate. Some said they had only learned of the formation of the MEEA last week.

While the PNLO officer pointed to a lack of information or a clear strategic plan, Union Ethnic Affairs Minister Nai Thet Lwin said his ministry will present relevant ministries with possible projects in post-conflict ethnic regions, referring to the areas the NCA signatories control.

During a B4P workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand on May 19, Prof. Aung Tun Thet said, Foreign investors are worried about safety in the ceasefire areas. I have talked with many companies from Thailand and Singapore. There are opportunities in those regions if we can persuade them to invest.

Will B4P work out?

Since peace negotiations began under then-president U Thein Seins administration in 2011, fighting between the Myanmar military (or Tatmadaw) and EAOs in northern Shan State has displaced more than 150,000 people. The Karen National Union (KNU), Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) and six other groups inked the NCA with the previous government.

The European Union has poured a pile of money into assisting Myanmars peace process since the countrys transition from military rule to a quasi-civilian government under U Thein Sein began. Its total aid is due to reach some 103 million euros by 2020. It remains unclear how much of this the previous government spent. When the National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government took office in 2016, its leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took control of the peace process. The New Mon State Party (MNSP) and Lahu Democratic Union signed the NCA earlier this year.

Although seven NCA signatories appeared at the MEEA opening ceremony last week, and six groups have basically accepted the idea of establishing public companies, some of the strongest ethnic armed signatories like the KNU and RCSS did not show up. However, Prof. Aung Tun Thet is confident that the remaining groups will join the plan later.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, an inside source at the MEEA said the new business model was not much of an incentive for the stronger armed groups, as they have been operating proxy businesses in the remote areas under their control, and elsewhere. He pointed out that some regions like Karen and Shan states had seen recent skirmishes between EAOs and the Tatmadaw.

He said, None of them has engaged in corporate business in the past, and sometimes [signatories] have even clashed with each other. And now, B4P seeks to mobilize signatory groups to establish public companies. There are a bunch of challenges to this; how can they be realistically solved?

A source at MEEA said that many questions remain to be answered regarding such issues as the shareholder structure and profit-sharing arrangements for each group, as well as administrative roles within the public companies, and the sustainability of the entities. Moreover, the risk of asset forfeiture is a big concern for any public company, and they would certainly need legal or other official protection, the source said.

What if one of the signatories stumbles into a clash with the Army? Will the government seize its public companys assets and properties? the source said.

The PNLOs Lt-Col. Khun Aung Mann echoed these concerns, saying, We assume that the implementation process will be very difficult in terms of each groups profit-sharing and investment, and organizational structure.

Do No Harm Policy

Prof. Aung Tun Thet agreed there would be challenges, but as an economic expert he said he wished to focus on the opportunities rather than the challenges.

Well, I do think in a positive way on those issues. Let bygones be bygones, and if we do seek to have new institutions, we need to think how to start them.

Prof. Aung Tun Thet explained that the Businesses for Peace philosophy has four fundamental components; protecting human rights, upholding labor standards, preserving the environment and fighting corruption. Especially, he is keen to promote a do no harm policy among companies in post-conflict regions. He said this could maintain stability and keep the situations on the ground from deteriorating.

He believes that setting up companies and creating opportunities for NCA signatories can address the EAOs financial hardships through official channels, as well as helping to halt logging in conflict zones. To oversee technical matters, UMFCCI-affiliated associations in each state and division could help EAOs set up public companies, he said.

Six [armed] groups are interested in founding public companies I have urged them to register as soon as possible, he said.

After the EAOs public companies are registered by DICA, ethnic affairs ministers will seek business opportunities on the ground including infrastructure projects. Business organizations and the UN Global Compact Network Myanmar will also seek to drum up foreign investment in post-conflict region.

Start Tomorrow

Yangon-based ethnic armed affairs expert U Maung Maung Soe was skeptical of the plan, saying that having EAOs set up public companies would not be an effective long-term solution. He compared it to the previous governments offer of car permits for peace signatories.

He suggested that instead of promoting such a complex business scheme, the government should distribute a peace dividend to EAOs in the form of a share of its annual revenue depending on the size of the region under each groups control. He said this could be done by amending a few sections of 2008 Constitution.

The Constitutions Section 37(a) stipulates that the ultimate owner of all lands and all natural resources both above and below ground and bodies of water is the Union, while Section 37(b) states that the government can enact the necessary laws to supervise the extraction and utilization of state-owned resources.

U Maung Maung Soe recommended that the ruling NLD government amend the law, as it has majorities in the Union and local parliaments, rather than waiting for the Union Accord to be completed as part of the 21st-Century Panglong Union Peace Conference.

To my understanding, forming a public company to generate a steady income for EAOs is just a short-term solution. [It doesnt address] the root cause of armed conflict in Myanmar, U Maung Maung Soe said.

Prof. Aung Tun Thet defended his approach, saying it is based on economic, rather than constitutional, resource-sharing mechanisms. He said his business initiative effort is based on a macro-economic approach. He insisted that the B4P approach would build trust between armed groups and the military.

He expected the EAO-established companies to complete the registration process within the next three months.

Asked by The Irrawaddy when the scheme could be up and running, Prof. Aung Tun Thet said, We have to start it without delay. If you ask me when, then I will say I want it to start tomorrow. We are keen to do so; it will surely happen, whatever the timeline.Commentary No Room in Modern Myanmar for Faith-Based Nationalism

Myanmars first mass interfaith rally is held in Yangon in October 2017. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  On July 19, Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi opened the door of her lakeside villa in Yangon to a group of interfaith leaders, who were invited to pray for her late father, General Aung San.

The annual ritual was initiated by her late mother, Daw Khin Kyi, and has been held at Daw Aung San Suu Kyis residence since her release from house arrest in 2010.

On Thursday, more than a dozen representatives of the Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Bahai and Christian faiths gathered at her home to pray for her father, who was assassinated 71 years ago along with eight colleagues. Known in Myanmar as Martyrs Day, it is a national day of mourning. In the morning on the same day, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as a Buddhist, made offerings to monks on behalf of the martyrs. Even 30 years after her mothers death, it is interesting that she keeps Daw Khin Kyis interfaith ritual alive.

Al Haj U Aye Lwin, Chief Convener for the Islamic Center of Myanmar, who joined the service as a Muslim leader, quoted the State Counselor as saying, As a national leader, my dad never discriminated based on race or religion. Please pray for the betterment of our country, without racial or religious bias.

Its likely that she was referring to Gen Aung Sans message to the Karen Conference in 1945, in which he said: Everyone has freedom of religion, and the state has to be neutral on the issue. No one may be discriminated against based on their gender, race or religion when it comes to seeking work.

Sadly, more than seven decades after his death, his vision still seems a long way from being realized, as the nation experiences a wave of Buddhist nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

As the State Counselor, his daughter is aware of the situation, of course. As a believer in the notion that diversity is a strength, she encourages people of different faiths to develop mutual understanding. Amid the rise in Buddhist nationalism across the country, she understands the fact that harmony and peace among followers of different religions is needed more than ever if the country is to move forward. Thats why Myanmar saw its first ever mass interfaith rallies across the country last year. The events drew thousands of people from the countrys major religionsBuddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianitywith religious leaders appealing to people to stop blaming others for conflict and to help restore peace.

It is heartening to see that the countrys interfaith movement for peace and harmony has received the states blessing. And its a source of relief for followers of minority religions, who have been alarmed by the rise in Buddhist nationalism, to see the interfaith prayer service being held at Daw Aung San Suu Kyis home. The knowledge that the nations de facto leader is, unlike her predecessors, religiously tolerant, offers them some feeling of security at least.

For all her tolerance, the State Counselors administration has been tightening its grip on the nationalists since coming to power. This much-welcomed effort has seen more restrictions than ever placed on Buddhist nationalism, which saw its heyday under former President U Thein Seins Union Solidarity and Development Party-led government.

On the other hand, it seems that the government has been taking calculated measures to punish the nationalists in order to avoid public discontent or division among the Buddhist clergy.

Over the past three years, any time they have faced government restrictions, the nationalists have threatened action, usually without following through. Their small, unpopular and failed sit-ins in Yangon and Mandalay last year showed that rather than attracting public support, such actions earn it public condemnation for inflaming nationalism and anti-Muslim sentiment, and are seen as attempts to derail the governments national reform process. At the same time, the public revulsion against the nationalists has earned praise from the government.

So, in the best interests of the country, the NLD-led government should no longer hesitate to wipe these groups out, as they are giving Buddhism a bad name and inflaming instability in the country. On the other hand, the government should embark on more interfaith engagements to build trust among followers of the various faiths. Only mutual respect and understanding can cure the phobia some people feel toward other religions. Most importantly, to make Myanmar religiously harmonious, there can be no room for faith-based nationalism.Australias peak IoT body, the IoT Alliance Australia, has launched a new Platform Selection Guideline aimed at helping governments and companies choose among a huge array of available platform technology when starting their IoT projects or businesses.

The guideline, created by an IoTAA Workstream chaired by Geof Heydon, is designed to assist new IoT players confronted by more than 400 different IoT platforms now available to buyers.

Launching the Guideline at the Unwired Conference in Sydney on Wednesday, IoTAA executive council chairman John Stanton said it had been formulated to give concise and relevant guidance to all Australian organisations seeking to adopt IoT technologies.

The Guideline aims to provide a running start for buyers to select between platforms so they can rapidly realise the potential of IoT in their product and service offerings to customers and in their internal business operations, Stanton said.

I congratulate Geof and the Platforms & Interoperability Workstream on completing a very valuable contribution to Australias IoT journey.

Heydon said the guideline drew on experience gleaned from early IoT projects, which showed the risk of failing to recognise the long-term implications of adopting IoT, and therefore overlooking key requirements when selecting an IoT platform.

The Guideline walks through the typical four phases of IoT projects, from relatively simple projects designed to improve productivity, through to sophisticated systems that leverage data and analysis to guide future business decisions.

The guideline provides advice on a range of criteria that come into play when selecting an IoT platform, including interoperability between different platforms  achievement of which is vital to ensuring that the promised benefits of a Smart City environment can be realised.

And the Workstream is now developing a specific Smart City focused set of guidelines for release later in the year.

The Guideline, freely available on the IoTAA website, also provides advice on data sharing, privacy protection and system security.

The IoT Platform Selection Guideline is one in a series of IoTAA guidance documents designed to increase awareness and to help accelerate the rate of adoption of IoT for Australian economic and societal benefit, said IoTAA chief executive Frank Zeichner.Chinese visitors to Melbourne can give licensed buskers the digital equivalent of a few coins via QR code, while locals can use "tap-n-go" cards in Australia's first digital payment busker solution.

Remember that viral video from a few years ago of an Indian man seeking cash donations from the side of the road from Indian drivers, and when told they had no cash on them, he brought out a mobile payment credit card terminal?

Well, what if he could accept payments via QR code instead? This kind of payment system is all the rage in China, making us in the West rather behind our Chinese counterparts, but finally, Chinese payment system Alipay is starting to make bigger waves in Australia.

But who is Alipay if you've never heard of them before, and then what about buskers being able to accept Alipay? Please read on...

Alipay tells us it is "the worlds leading online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, a related company of Alibaba Group" and "has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler. Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management products directly from within the app".

Alipay also notes it is "expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside of China", supported by "over 250 overseas financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites", and even "currently supports 27 currencies"!

Now it has launched "a digital payment project to help Melbournes buskers make the transition to an increasingly cashless society".

We're told the technology will be "piloted by between 15 and 20 buskers who will receive a Quest or SuperPay portable payment device that lets passers-by show their appreciation without having to fumble around for loose-change. Only buskers licensed through Melbourne Council are eligible for the program".

To reward buskers, "locals will be able to tap their cards and provide a set payment of two or five dollars, or if they wish, a larger sum. They will also be able to purchase busker merchandise, such as CDs".

"In a world-first, Chinese visitors will have the same option via Alipay, a smartphone payment method used by more than 870 million users, including the majority of the 1.5 million Chinese people visiting Australia each year.

"The pilot will run for four to six weeks, with the data performance and learnings to be used for a state-wide launch in the coming months. If successful in Victoria, Alipay intends to work with buskers across the entire nation".

Article continues below image, please read on!

George Lawson, Alipay country manager for Australia and New Zealand, said the program would be a shot in the arm for buskers who have found it increasingly hard to support themselves with fewer people carrying cash.

Buskers are part of the social and cultural fabric of Melbourne and Alipay saw an opportunity to use our technology to help visitors show their appreciation. The program is a win-win; the 600,000 Chinese visitors arriving in Melbourne every year get greater access to the citys culture, while buskers grow their audience and have a more practical way to accept funds, he said.

During the pilot phase, Alipay will use "notifications and content within the app to promote buskers and educate visitors on their location and playing times, helping draw larger crowds".

Luke Fuller, head of SME & Alternative Payments, Quest, which is enabling the "tap-n-go" card functionality for locals in partnership with Alipay, said the concept is one of many solutions his company has launched to help in the transition away from cash.

While many businesses are thriving with the shift to digital payments, there are pockets of society that have been left behind and the busking community is one of them. This program is about levelling the playing field for buskers and giving them every opportunity to continue doing what they love, entertaining, Fuller said.

Loic Liao, Project Lead at SuperPay, who specialises in QR code payments, said many local businesses are now capitalising on the lucrative Chinese visitor audience, and buskers should be afforded the same opportunity.

The simple act of having a QR code in a shop, or in this instance, on a public stage, shows Chinese visitors that you are welcoming and respectful. By using Alipay to accept payment, it gives Chinese people the confidence to spend and removes anxiety about a foreign currency, Liao said.

Article contiues below image, please read on!

We're reminded that in 2016, "the average Chinese person who holidayed in Australia spent $4300, leading to an overall injection of A$9.8 billion into the economy".

Chair of the City of Melbournes International Engagement portfolio, Philip Le Liu, said Melbourne welcomes innovative ideas to help support the citys visitor economy.

The City of Melbourne works hard to engage with the international community to help promote Melbourne as a destination of choice for tourists, businesses and innovators, he said.

With nearly 2000 buskers on our city streets, its important we continue to support our busking culture and encourage new ways to help them engage with Melbournes international and inter-state visitors.The Policy Review Panel of the Australian domain administrator, auDA, has raised the hackles of some members by deciding, at an 8 June meeting, to delete past consultations of the panel.

The minutes of the meeting, which are publicly available, say: "Panel members requested that the recordings of past consultations be destroyed, subject to confirmation in accordance with relevant legal provisions, as these were no longer required."

It added that the secretariat would seek permission to proceed with this decision.

One member, Sean Fogarty, said in an email to auDA officials that he had requested access to these minutes as he had been involved.

"I refer to the now public minutes attached which state the auDA PRP is seeking to destroy the auDA PRP public meeting audio recordings which I have previously requested access to and said may be required in future matters," he wrote to chief executive Cameron Boardman, chair Chris Leptos and members of the PRP.

"I was recorded speaking and asking questions on your recorded audio at the public meetings."

The relevant portion of the minutes from the PRP meeting on 8 June.

Fogarty asked: "Why have you now stated your intention to destroy this information which has been requested? You know access to it has been requested including from those who spoke whom have of access to it?

"As you are very aware I have requested access to these public meeting recordings directly to auDA, the PRP an via the OAIC. The OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) have stated they have not received any response from auDA or the PRP. Why?

"Please advise if you will be making the audio available to stakeholders, government and to the parties who where recorded who have requested it formally."

iTWire contacted the OAIC for clarification, but was told in an automated reply that it would take more than 10 days for a response.

auDA was also contacted for comment. A spokesperson said by deadline that efforts were being made to contact John Swinson who runs the PRP, presumably in order to obtain a response from him. The other members of the panel are Brett Fenton, Narelle Clark, Ian Halson, Professor Dan Hunter and Nicola Seaton.

There has been unrest in auDA's ranks for some time, with the most visible evidence coming in April when a group, led by Jim Stewart, the chief executive of StewArt Media, called for a motion of no-confidence in Boardman and the sacking of Leptos and directors Suzanne Ewart and Sandra Hook.

The organisation is scheduled to hold a special general meeting on Friday to vote on these resolutions.

Update, 4pm: Swinson responded to iTWire's request for comment, saying: "The PRP has not destroyed any minutes of past meetings. Recordings are made to allow accurate minutes to be made and are no longer required once the minutes are published."A number of companies which have been advertising fake reviews on Google have had their ads removed after they were brought to the notice of the search engine company.

The London newspaper, The Times, reported that many businesses offering to place bogus five-star reviews had been advertising on Google and appearing at the top of search results for phrases like "buy fake Google reviews".

Last year, The Times found that British Government ads were appearing on Google's YouTube videos that contained extremist or racist content.

The report said fake reviews violated Google's terms of service and also breached Britain's Unfair Trading Regulations, but that did not seem to have stopped Google from accepting the ads.

It cited the Competition and Markets Authority as saying the spending on these ads could be as high as 23 billion ($41 billion) a year.

One of the companies that provides fake reviews, the Netherlands-based Socialtogrow, told the newspaper that it was okay with fake reviews because Google put numerous impediments in the way of companies that wanted malicious reviews about their products removed.

A spokesman said: "I honestly believe we are the good guys here and Google is to blame with its broken policy.

"Most of our customers are there because they have a hard time getting to sleep at night because a review is killing their reputation.

"Taxi companies are frequent buyers from us because they get themselves in review wars with rivals.Already available in nine other countries, the Vodafone Pass is now in Australia, giving Red plan users the ability for "endless streaming on the apps they love".

Vodafone has launched a "revamped range of mobile plans including the new Vodafone Pass available as an add on to Vodafone Red plans.

"Vodafone Passes offer worry free streaming in Australia at 1.5Mbps across four categories: chat, social, music and video at a cost of between $5 and $15 per month."

We're told the introduction of Vodafone Pass comes "following its success in other Vodafone markets around the world, with Australia being the tenth country to jump on board".

Social  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest: $10

 Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest: $10 Music - Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Sound Cloud: $10

- Amazon Music, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, Sound Cloud: $10 Video  Netflix, Amazon Prime, Stan: $15

 Netflix, Amazon Prime, Stan: $15 Chat  Facebook Messenger (text), Viber (call and text), WhatsApp (text) - $5

Each of the four passes can be easily added onto any SIM only and Vodafone Red plan through the My Vodafone App. Billed monthly, the passes allow unmetered streaming across the following apps at the speed of 1.5Mbps:

Vodafones chief commercial officer Ben McIntosh said that Vodafone Pass gives people the choice of tailoring their mobile plan to their own personal preference, all at a very affordable flat rate per month.

The beauty of the Vodafone global network is that our customers in Australia enjoy the benefit of products and services that have been tried and tested in other markets around the world, he said.

The new Red Plans follow Vodafones signature no lock-in contract structure, where consumers have the flexibility to select the plan, payment term and handset of choice.

Right now, you can pay just $45 per month for 30GB of data (over 12 months, min cost $540) and that includes access to $5 roaming and the option to add on a Vodafone Pass for endless streaming, McIntosh said.

Theres simply no need to sign your life away on a leasing plan or pay excessive monthly costs for additional data.

There are savings to be made and we encourage people to review their current plan and look for the best deal  its as simple as that.

Vodafone says its "Red Plans are available in three simple price points: $35, $45, $60. Vodafone Passes are available from today and do not include app subscription fees" with more information at Vodafone here.

The announcement comes the morning after I wondered aloud in an article when a telco would offer a straight 1.5Mbps unlimited plan, with unlimited voice and text too.

This plan isn't quite at that level yet, but it's one step closer for at least some of the apps you want to use.

Also I note there's no YouTube option in the video section, which is probably very smart of Vodafone given how popular YouTube is with youngsters these days, although Vodafone does still offer its unlimited plans for those who truly do want unlimited data, starting from $60 per month.You can start a career in supply chain management (SCM) with a bachelors degree, but if youre looking to climb the ladder and push your career forward, you will want to explore a masters degree in the field. SCM is becoming an important role in multiple industries, including retail, manufacturing, technology and the federal government.

If you want to expand your expertise and get ahead of the competition, here are the top ten schools where you can get a masters degree in supply chain management, according to data from Best Colleges.

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California offers a Master of Science in global supply chain management degree as a part-time program, which can be completed in 16 months. Courses take place online, but youll travel to Los Angeles for the first week for orientation and for another week to Singapore, or another specified location. These experiential trips include ground transport, breakfast, lunch and hotel accommodations  you will be responsible for airfare.

Length: 16 months

Location: Primarily online, one week in Singapore and one week in Los Angeles

Tuition: $46,170 for the total program

University of Washington

The University of Washington offers an online masters degree in supply chain transportation and logistics, which specifically targets SCM in the transportation industry. The program includes an engineering-based curriculum and can be attended online and part-time. The online program includes interactive classrooms and even live online classes where instructors and students can connect in real-time.

Length: 2 years

Location: Online

Tuition: $38,700 for the total program

Boston University

Boston Universitys Master of Science in supply chain management online offers a well-rounded SCM education covering lean production, global supply chain coordination, risk mitigation, strategic logistics management and import-export operations. The program offers three SCM concentrations, including global business, logistics management and quantitative approaches, so you can tailor your masters degree for your career. BU promises that graduates will walk away with the ability to analyze and improve business process flows and become confident decision makers.

Length: 18 to 24 months

Location: Online

Tuition: $25,490 per semester

University of Maryland-College Park

The University of Maryland  College Park (UMCP) offers a Master of Science in management, with the option to specialize in acquisition and supply chain management. The program focuses on the legal structure of acquisition processes, using technology to establish supply chains, contract management, evolution of SCM, compliance regulations, cost analysis and more. It can also help you prepare for popular SCM certifications, including the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSMP), NCMA Professional, Defense Acquisition University DAWIA and APICS certifications.

Length: 36 credits required for graduation

Location: Hybrid

Tuition: $659 per credit for out-of-state graduate students, $458 per course for residents of Maryland

University of San Diego

The University of San Diego offers a masters in supply chain management and its the first program to be ISM-approved and accredited by the Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). Courses take place online, but youll be required to attend five on-campus interactive sessions, for a total of 20 days to meet with faculty and other students. To graduate, youll also complete a sponsor-based advanced integrative project that tests your SCM skills in a real-world scenario.

Length: 36 credits, typically 2 years

Location: Online, with 20 days on campus

Tuition: $1,475 per class

Michigan State University

Michigan State University offers a Master of Science in supply chain management that takes place online, with an additional nine days on campus in the form of three-day weekend sessions. The three-day weekend intensives include interactive case studies, breakout sessions, simulation assignments and other hands-on experiences to help solidify your skills. During the in-person sessions, youll work closely with other students and instructors to collaborate, network and grow in the field.

Length: 2 years

Location: Online, 9 days on campus

Tuition: $1,450 per credit

Air Force Institute of Technology  Graduate School of Engineering and Management

The Air Force Institute of Technology offers a Master of Science in Logistics through the Graduate School of Engineering and Management. Its primarily for DoD-sponsored full-time and part-time students, but civilian DoD employees and defense contractor employees can be admitted if there are open seats. The program is uniquely tailored to working for key decision- and policy-making positions with the Pentagon, MAJCOM headquarters, COCOM headquarters, AFMC product centers, operational units and other DoD agencies.

Length: 1 year, 48 credits

Location: Online

Tuition: $351 per credit

Rutgers University

Rutgers University Business School offers a Master of Science in supply chain management that is completely online  so you wont have to travel for any on-campus requirements. Its targeted at working professionals in the field and can be completed within one year. Rutgers Business School has been recognized as a top choice for SCM  it ranked ninth on US News & World Reports list of best business school for supply chain management and logistics in 2017.

Length: 1 year, 30 credits

Location: Online

Tuition: $3,600 per course

Florida Institute of Technology

The Florida Institute of Technology offers a Master of Science in supply chain management degree that is designed for working professionals with experience in the industry. Students include those working in private industries or with the government or military, so youll be exposed to other professionals from diverse backgrounds.

Length: 2 years, 30 credits

Location: Online

Tuition: $2,331 per class with tuition reductions for active military, veterans, first responders and police officers

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University offers a Master of Science in logistics and supply chain management that is tailored to those working with air cargo, parcel delivery, warehousing, distribution, transportation, manufacturing and large-scale retailers. ERAU also promises to prepare students for management positions in government, military and the private sector. Graduates will also qualify to complete their CSCP, APICS, CPL, SOLE and CPSM certifications through the ISM.

Length: 1 year, 30 credits

Location: Online

Tuition: $540 per credit for military; $640 per credit for civilians

This story, "10 best graduate programs for supply chain management" was originally published by CIO .Three teens cited for "egging" vehicles near Lone OakTo continue using Jomashop.com (The online store to shop and buy watches, handbags, and fashion)Reddit Email 411 Shares

Doha (AFP)  The US and Qatar plan to expand Al-Udeid airbase, the biggest military facility used by Washington in the Gulf as it battles jihadists, Qatari state media said Tuesday.

The two countries have also discussed making Al-Udeid a permanent base, the official QNA news agency said, as Doha seeks to bolster ties with Washington at a time of tensions with its Gulf neighbours.

QNA said representatives from both countries on Tuesday laid the foundation stone for expanding Al-Udeid.

But the Pentagon played down the development, pointing out nothing concrete had been decided.

It is premature to discuss aspects of a potential base expansion at Al-Udeid air base in Qatar, Lieutenant Commander Rebecca Rebarich said in a statement.

The US military is working with the Qatari ministry of defence on further details of the proposal to help us to plan appropriately and ensure we will use any new facilities effectively, she said.

According to QNA, the project includes the construction of barracks and service buildings to support joint security efforts, as well as improving the quality of life of the troops stationed at the airbase.

Around 10,000 US troops are deployed in Al-Udeid, the largest US base in the Gulf where Washington stocks munitions and equipment and deploys warplanes used in the battle against the Islamic State group.

Other members of the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria and Iraq are also deployed at Al-Udeid, located 35 kilometres (20 miles) southwest of Doha.

QNA said the expansion project underscores Qatars commitment to deepening its strategic military relations with the United States.

The State of Qatar, along with its strategic US ally, is working on drawing up a roadmap for the future of bilateral relations, including the addition of Al-Udeid Air Base to the list of US permanent military bases, it said.

Ryan Gliha, the US charge daffaires in Doha, echoed this in remarks at a news conference after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone for the expansion of Al-Udeid.

We saw today the opening of a new construction project what we hope to see in the coming years and months is (the) strengthening of bilateral ties, he said.

Billions of dollars have been spent already at Al-Udeid over the last 15 years to support our operations These are essential to the fight against Daesh and our ability to lead the coalition, he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Gliha described Qatar as an indispensable partner for the United States.

In April, US President Donald Trump welcomed to the White House the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, for talks on improving bilateral ties that had been strained by Qatars row with Gulf states.

The year-long crisis has seen regional kingpin Saudi Arabia and a number of its Arab allies impose a diplomatic and trade embargo on Qatar.

Trump had initially supported an economic blockade on Qatar, but aides  mindful of the pivotal role of Al-Udeid in US Middle East operations  convinced him to take a more moderate approach.

Featured Photo: US AIR FORCE/AFP / Joshua HORTON. In this image released by the US Air Force, airmen with the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Group perform preflight checks on a 34th Bomb Squadron B-1B Lancer aircraft at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar on April 13, 2018.Reddit Email 405 Shares

Wealthy Saudis are uneasy about investing their millions in the Kingdom due to the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The purge ordered by the de facto ruler last year and the jailing of political opponents has frightened the very sector which the 32-year-old needs to woe in his ambitious plan to wean Saudi of oil.



Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed detained in corruption inquiry  Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

According to bankers contacted by the Financial Times, private businesses have resorted to sitting on their cash, while some are looking for ways to shift funds offshore, instead of investing in the country. Some wealthy Saudis are said to fear their financial affairs, especially attempts to transfer money, are being monitored to prevent them moving assets overseas, the bankers say.

The lack of appetite for investing in the Kingdom, said the FT, risks undermining Bin Salmans efforts to overhaul the oil-dependent economy and create 1.2 million private sector jobs for Saudis by 2020.

The bankers said that a combination of factors was behind the subdued mood of Saudi investors ranging from the increased costs of employing foreigners, who account for more than 80 per cent of the private sector workforce, to concerns that Bin Salman could launch another sweeping anti-corruption crackdown.

The purge, which saw 300 Saudi royals and businessman detained, hangs like a dark cloud over the head of many families who are still under investigation. The bankers revealed that they have to apply for stipends from frozen bank accounts while some are blocked from exchanging riyals for other currencies; in effect ensuring their wealth remains within Saudi borders.

Bin Salman is also blamed for scaring off foreign investors. According to UN data released last month, foreign direct investment plummeted from $7.45 billion in 2016 to $1.42 billion last year. The strain on the economy looks to have been further compounded following the exit of 700,000 foreign workers from the Kingdom due to taxes introduced by the Crown Prince.

A Saudi banker told the FT that the grim sentiment was affecting the property market, with wealthy families looking to sell palaces. He also said that it would take time for the sentiments to improve and that one of two things needed to happen: either these reforms have to take hold and things go very well or the oil price shoots back up again.

While its too early to say if Bin Salmans reforms are working, increasing the price of oil seems to be a non-starter in light of President Donald Trumps insistence that the Kingdom keep oil price low by increasing oil production to cover for the shortfall left by Iran.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Memo .

Featured Photo: Mohamed Bin Salman via WikiMedia.Reddit Email 324 Shares

The Hague (AFP)  The UNs top court Monday ordered the United Arab Emirates to protect the rights of Qatari citizens, wading into a bitter year-long crisis triggered when Gulf countries snapped ties with Doha.

Judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague narrowly ruled in a provisional but binding decision that the UAE must allow families which include Qatari members, to be reunited, and that Qatari students must be given the chance to complete their education in the Emirates.

Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and other allies severed ties with Qatar on June 7, 2017, accusing Doha of backing terrorism. Qatari nationals living in the UAE were officially given just 14 days to leave the country.

But Doha denies the accusations, and last month appealed to the ICJ to impose emergency measures against the UAE to protect its citizens. It has also accused Abu Dhabi of breaking the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

In a hearing in late June, Qatar alleged that the United Arab Emirates was spreading a climate of fear among Qataris living there, splitting families and causing substantial pain during the year-long blockade.

On Monday, the courts judges found in Dohas favour, ruling the measures imposed by the UAE risked causing irreparable harm to Qatari citizens.

 Repairing the damage 

The judges voted by eight votes in favour of a series of provisional measures  with seven judges against  that the UAE must ensure that families, that include a Qatari, separated by the measures adopted by the United Arab Emirates  are reunited, said presiding judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf.

Qatari students must also be allowed to complete their education in the Emirates or obtain their educational records if they wish to study elsewhere. Qataris affected by the UAE measures must also be allowed access to tribunals and other judicial organs in the country.

Qatar welcomed Mondays ruling, with foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed bin Saeed al-Rumaihi saying in a tweet that his country was not seeking to escalate the dispute with the Emirates, but to repair the prejudice imposed on its citizens.

The move into the international courts came a year after the severing of ties and the imposition of punitive measures by Gulf countries accusing Doha of backing terrorism.

Other measures included banning Qatar Airways from their airspace and closing the countrys only land border, with Saudi Arabia.

The UAE had insisted the ICJ had no authority to hear Qatars case and stressed the situation for Qataris living in the country today is different from a year ago.

In a statement, the UAE highlighted that the courts decision involved only provisional measures and that the court indicated certain measures with which the UAE is already in compliance.

Instead of these unproductive manoeuvers, Qatar should be engaging with the legitimate concerns of the UAE and the other three states that have ended relations with Qatar regarding its continuing support for terrorism and its efforts to destabilise the region, it added in a statement quoted by the Emirates WAM news agency.

 Destabilising the region 

In a separate twist, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates earlier this month also turned to the ICJ, asking that it quash a decision in Qatars favour, handed down by the UNs global civil aviation body.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) ruled in late June that it had the jurisdiction to determine a dispute brought by Qatar, accusing its neighbours of violating an agreement that regulates the free passage of passenger planes through foreign airspace.

But Qatars three neighbours want the ICJ, set up in 1946 to rule in disputes against states, to nullify the ICAOs ruling, saying its decision was manifestly flawed and in violation of fundamental principles of due process and the right to be heard.

Diplomatic efforts have so far proved powerless to resolve the crisis which has rendered the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council practically obsolete.

Featured Photo: AFP / JOHN THYS. The UNs top court Monday ordered the United Arab Emirates to protect the rights of Qatari citizens, wading into a bitter year-long crisis triggered when Gulf countries cut ties with Doha.Reddit Email 160 Shares

Review of The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire by Stephen Kinzer

By the final decade of the 19th century, the American project sanctified as Manifest Destiny was complete. The western boundary of the United States now stretched to the Pacific Ocean, leaving in its wake the genocide of Native Americans, the purchase of Louisiana without the consent of the governed, and a war of aggression against Mexico. What next? Pursue the colonialist mandate beyond continental bordersor not?

Stephen Kinzers The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of the Empire is a compact, bracing history of the answer to What next? It features the drama and decisions of four years1898-1902that, in Kinzers thesis, set the course of American wars, military expansion and overthrow of governments throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, interrupted with brief, impermanent periods of isolationism.

The author collates the eloquent rhetoric and caustic debates between expansionist members of Congress, including alpha male Theodore Roosevelt, aristocrat Henry Cabot Lodge, media giant William Randolph Hearst and prominent anti-empire social critics and populist orators, including Mark Twain, William Jennings Bryan and steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to capture vividly the divided political passions and high stakes of the day.

The empire builders used robust, positively coded terms like the large policy to label their aspirations for Americas preeminence among world powers and for the aggressive market ambitions of Americas capitalists. The anti-imperialists warned of the erosion of democracy at home, the rise of plutocracy and the blowback from military subordination of other peoples against their will, forecasting what, a century later, Chalmers Johnson incisively named the sorrows of empire.

The Spanish-American War of 1898 was the spark that inflamed the U.S. quest for overseas colonies. It began with Cuba and quickly moved to claim Puerto Rico, then the Philippines, Guam (seized en route to the Philippines) and Hawaiiall in nine months. In public, expansionists framed these takeovers as beneficent: rescuing oppressed and backward people to catechize and civilize them.

Independence movements in Cuba, the Philippines and Hawaii were brutally suppressed. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, particularly in the Philippines, which waged guerrilla warfare until defeated in 1902. While American soldiers tortured and assassinated prisoners, burned villages and killed farm animals (a precursor to the later American War in Vietnam), a pliant press followed military orders and carried no unfavorable coverage.

The war in the Philippines was intensely terrorizing for women in particular. The Anti-Imperialist Review reported American soldiers had turned Manila into a world center of prostitution. Amplifying this too-brief reference to the extreme toll of U.S. militarism on women, Janice Raymond writes in Not a Choice, Not a Job, that U.S. prostitution colonialism, especially during the Philippine-American War, created the model for the U.S. militaryprostitution complex in all parts of the world. The system assured U.S. soldiers certified sexual access to Filipinas and  became an intrinsic part of colonial practice in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, the empire seekers rubbed their covetous hands over the prospect of new customers for manufactured goods, and, in the case of the Philippines, a springboard to the Chinese and Japanese markets. Military bases in the Philippines and Guam would follow to protect and project U.S. economic and military power in East Asia.

Kinzers considerable talent joins meticulous research and engaging stories with a canine ability to sniff out the lies beneath the platitudes that sold the public on war. What he foregrounds so credibly are the oversized male egos of large policy politicians with more morally grounded and prescient anti-imperialist crusaders. Among these are Booker T. Washington, who, in speaking against U.S. imperialism abroad, warned that the cancer in our midstracism, the legacy of slaverywill prove to be as dangerous to the countrys well-being as an attack from without. Many African-American anti-imperialist groups emerged and assailed U.S. imperialism for its intrinsic white racist arrogance.

With much detail and nuance, Kinzer tracks the fatal flaws of the immensely talented and populist orator William Jennings Bryan who, for his contrarian vote that sealed the doom of the Philippines, helped determine the fate of our countrys future as an empire. Likewise, the seemingly passive-aggressive William McKinley, elected in 1896 and again in 1900, is unmasked as the imperialist he grew to be over the course of his presidency.

The final chapter, The Deep Hurt, traces the arc of U.S. militarism across the 20th century and into the 21sta long and unfinished arc that is neither moral nor bends toward justice. At each end of this ongoing arc, the words of two military veterans of U.S. foreign wars distill and corroborate Kinzers stateside expose in The True Flag. Brigadier General Smedley Butler, born in 1881, began his career as a teenage Marine combat soldier assigned to Cuba and Puerto Rico during the U.S. invasion of those islands. He fought next in the U.S. war in the Philippines, ostensibly against Spanish imperialism but ultimately against the Philippine revolution for independence. Next he was assigned to fight against China during the Boxer Rebellion and was also stationed in Guam. He gained the highest rank and a host of medals during subsequent U.S. occupations and military interventions in Central America and the Caribbean, popularly known as the Banana Wars.

As Butler confessed in his iconoclastic book, War Is a Racket, he was a bully boy for American corporations, making countries safe for U.S. capitalism. More isolationist than anti-war, he nonetheless nailed the war profiteersracketeers, in his unsparing lexiconor the blood on their hands, as bracingly as any pacifist. War is the oldest, most profitable racket, he wroteone in which billions of dollars are made for millions of lives destroyed.

Making the world safe for democracy was, at its core, making the world safe for war profits. Of diplomacy Butler wrote, The State Department  is always talking about peace but thinking about war. He proposed an Amendment for Peace: In essence, keep military (Army, Navy, Air Force) on the continental U.S. for the purpose of defense against military invasions here.

And in the 21st century, Major Danny Sjursen, who served tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan, proposes that the Department of Defense should be renamed the Department of Offense. His reasons: American troops are deployed in 70 percent of the worlds countries; American pilots are currently bombing seven countries; and the U.S., alone among nations, has divided the six inhabited continents into six military commands. Our military operations exceed U.S. national interests and are unmoored from reasoned strategy and our societys needs, Sjursen concludes.

For all of this books strengths, one glaring lacuna is the minimalist presence of women in Kinzers depiction of the early anti-imperialist movement. The True Flag is premised on history as made by great mengood and bad. A great woman of this era, Jane Addams, elected vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League after a brilliant speech, has only a bit part. Addams was renowned not only for her settlement house work at Hull House in Chicago, but also for speaking out unceasingly against imperialism and war. The FBI kept a file on her, and she was labeled among the most dangerous women in America. The author overlooked her influence in this era.

A second lacuna is omitting the original sins of imperial America: the genocide of Native Americans for their land, and the enslavement of Africans, which ultimately became the combustion engine of U.S. capitalism. Ironically, it was the pro-empire exhorters of 1898 who used the exploitative expansion within the early U.S. to defend extending Manifest Destiny to the Pacific region. If we should not do this in the Philippines, why was it acceptable to do here? challenged Henry Cabot Lodge, the imperialist senator from Massachusetts.

The Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran could have penned these words from 1933 for our national dilemma today:

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful

First published in Truthdig; reprinted with authors permission.

Pat Hynes, a retired Professor of Environmental Health from Boston University School of Public Health, directs the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice http://traprock.org.Vancouver, British Columbia / TheNewswire / July 25, 2018 - A.I.S. Resources Limited (TSX-V: AIS, OTCQB: AISSF) (the "Company" or "AIS") is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into an option agreement to acquire five lithium brine mining tenements in the Salinas Grandes Salar, Salta province Argentina ("Salitinas" or "the Project"). The 4,308 hectare land package resides in the Puna region of northwest Argentina near the border of Chile, an area renowned for its lithium- and potassium-rich brine resources. The surface elevation of the Salinas Grandes salar is approximately 3,400 metres above sea level.

Figure 1. General Location Map of Argentina's Puna



Figure 2. Location Map of Concessions in the Salar De Salinas Grandes





Under the terms of the Option Agreement AIS has agreed to incur total expenditures of at least US$1.2 million prior to June 13, 2020. The Company can acquire an undivided 100% in the Project at any time during the Agreement by making payments totaling US$4 million. To secure the Option Agreement, AIS has agreed to pay US$250,000.

AIS has granted to MGX Minerals Inc. (MGX) an Option to acquire an 80% interest in the Project. To secure the Option, MGX has agreed to pay US$250,000 on or before July 31,2018. MGX can acquire an undivided 80% in the Project at any time during the Agreement by making payments totaling US$3.2 million. MGX has also agreed to incur total expenditures of at least US$1.2 million prior to May 31, 2020.

AIS plans in partnership with MGX to conduct a Transient Electromagnetic Method (TEM) geophysical study along with trenching, which will be followed by a drill program along the edge of the salar, to test for shallow, near surface brines and determine locations with anomalous concentrations of lithium.

Martyn Element Chairman of AIS stated. "We look forward to beginning a productive partnership with MGX in Argentina."

Qualified person

Phillip Thomas, BSc, Geol, MBusM, MAIG, MAIMVA, (CMV), a qualified person as defined under National Instrument 43-101 regulations, has reviewed the technical information that forms the basis of this news release, and has approved the disclosure herein. Mr. Thomas is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and shareholder.

About A.I.S. Resources

A.I.S. Resources Ltd. is a TSX-V listed investment issuer, was established in 1967 and is managed by experienced, highly qualified professionals, who have a long track record of success in lithium exploration, production and capital markets. Through their extensive business and scientific networks, they identify and develop early-stage projects worldwide, that have strong potential for growth with the objective of providing significant returns for shareholders. The Company's current activities are focused exclusively on the exploration and development of lithium brine projects in northern Argentina.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors,

A.I.S. Resources Limited

Marc Enright-Morin

Contact

A.I.S. Resources Limited

Marc Enright-Morin

President and CEO

T: 778-892-5455

E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.aisresources.com

ADVISORY: This press release contains forward-looking statements. More particularly, this press release contains statements concerning the anticipated use of the proceeds of the Private Placement. Although the Corporation believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Corporation can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The intended use of the proceeds of the Private Placement by the Corporation might change if the board of directors of the Corporation determines that it would be in the best interests of the Corporation to deploy the proceeds for some other purpose. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Corporation undertakes no obligations 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.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 24)  Outgoing Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales could not care less if Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is now the new House Speaker.

"I was dedma," she said in her final press conference as Ombudsman Tuesday. "Nothing is permanent. That is the choice of the majority of the Congressmen for a new leader."

The Ombudsman found probable cause to charge Arroyo for plunder in 2012, alongside former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office Chairman Sergio Valencia, former Vice Chairman Rosario Uriarte, and other members of the state lottery's board of directors.

"We believe evidence for the prosecution was very strong. The burden of the evidence shifted to the defense. And so the Sandiganbayan was, I believe, correct in denying the demurrer to evidence, but when it got to the Supreme Court (SC), the Supreme Court said, the evidence was weak," she explained.

Arroyo was arrested in October 2012 on charges that she misused 366 million in intelligence funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) from 2008 to 2010. However, the SC junked the plunder charges in September 2016.

But Morales said the position a government official holds has no effect on whether or not the Ombudsman would find them guilty or not.

The outgoing Ombudsman said, "Kung Speaker siya and meron siyang case, which involves criminal and administrative adjudication I think the case can go on."

Arroyo replaced Pantaleon Alvarez as the House Speaker in a dramatic takeover, just after President Rodrigo Duterte's third State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday.

Morales said she has never been invited to any of Duterte's three SONAs.

"I don't feel anything bad, because that's the prerogative of the inviting entity," she said.

Duterte and Morales have had a strained relationship  especially over defying a presidential order to suspend a deputy ombudsman involved in a probe into the President's wealth. Duterte had earlier threatened her with impeachment over this.

The President also previously accused Morales of selective justice.

But now that she is retiring, Morales said she could hardly wait to leave her post. She also denied any plans to run for office.

"I am not cut out for politics," she said. "Baka sabihin kong oo [If I say yes], then they'll start demolishing my person. But I'm not really going to politics."

The Ombudsman, now 77, said she has no regrets  despite cases of high-ranking government officials remaining unresolved. She attributed these to the inordinate delay doctrine ruling of the Supreme Court.

"I sound like a broken record that I was loyal to the rule of law and I shall always be loyal to the rule of law," she said. "Unfortunately, it takes time to hear a case and make a decision."

A new Ombudsman is slated to take Morales' post on July 26. The Judicial and Bar Council handed over to Duterte the shortlist of nominees: Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Martires, Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval, and lawyer Felito Ramirez.

Asked if there were any cases in particular the next Ombudsman should focus on, Morales says she leaves the discernment to whoever will replace her.

"He should be able to determine which should be given priority," she said.

While she explains that she has no preference among the three candidates, Morales said she has only one thing to ask from the next Ombudsman.

"I will ask my successor to constantly monitor the movement of the cases if it is physically possible, given the volume of cases," she said.According to Wetzel County Prosecuting Attorney Timothy Haught, his office is filing an Amicus Curiae brief in the Doddridge County Commission vs. Antero Resources Corporation case. The brief wfas filed in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Haught said it is expected the case most likely will not be decided until next year.

Haught said this case started out as Antero vs. Doddridge County Board of Assessment Appeals, in which Antero appealed the decision of the Doddridge County Commission, upholding the State Tax Departments computation of the working interest in Anteros oil and gas wells. Antero appealed the decision, and that appeal normally goes to the circuit court of Doddridge County. However, Anteros council, which was Steptoe and Johnson, sought the removal of that case to the Business Court division. Haught said the case was taken away from the elected circuit judge of Doddridge County, and the case was heard by Judge Wilkes, the business court judge from Martinsburg, W.Va. Judge Wilkes ruled in Anteros favor.

Haught explained that based upon that ruling, it would interpret the State Tax Departments regulation for the calculation of the interest in these oil and gas wells. It would effectively cut that tax evaluation by 50 percent.

Haught said this is significant for all of the counties in the shale play region, because all of the counties in the shale play have had a dramatic increase evaluation in revenue as a result of the oil and gas boom. The practical affect on Wetzel County is a potential loss of $4 million on the excess levy for the Wetzel County Schools and $3 million in other revenue.

It was noted this ruling would affect the County Commission  resulting in a loss of over $2.7 million a year. Haught said this is a devestating blow to the school district and the counties and would suffer dire consequences going forward. It was noted the loss would affect the countys ability to do many of the things that the Wetzel County Commission has done to help other community organizations, such as fire departments, parks and recreation departments, pools, and senior citizens. Haught said this loss in funds would come at a particularly time when some of the expenses as a result of the opioid epidemic are really skyrocketing  one of those being the regional jail expense. In May, the regional jail expense was $61,000. It has never been this high.

Mr. Haught said he had a meeting with Judge David W. Hummel to determine ways to reduce the regional jail expense going forward. He explained a normal expense before methamphetamine and heroin became a problem was about $20,000  $25,000 a month. He noted with the explosion of the drug crisis, counties are experiencing these types of increases in expenses. Some of the larger counties havent been able to pay their jail bill.

Haught said another problem with the Antero decision is that many counties have made plans for improvements to courthouses, courts and other things. Harrison County had plans to build a judicial annex. All of these projects are jeopardized going forward because of the potential loss in tax revenue as a result of the Antero decision.

It was noted the West Virginia Association of Counties has filed a brief in support of Doddridge County. Also, Harrison County, Wetzel County, Dr. Paine on the State Superintendent of Schools, and the State Tax Commissioner have all filed a brief in support of Doddridge County as well. It was noted the counties, particularly those in the shale play, are affected. However, all of West Virginia is affected because when Wetzel County or Doddridge County loses money for its schools, there is a state funding formula.

That money that Wetzel and Doddridge cant get will have to be made up under that state school funding formula.

Haught said one of the issues with the decision is that there has been an attack of the Constitutionality of the Business Court, because the code and Constitution requires that the case be heard by an elected circuit judge in the county and not a business court division judge. Haught said the Business Court Division was created in 2012 by Court Rule 29 which some contend is in violation of the West Virginia Constitution. The legislature impermissively delegated its power to the court to create the Business Court Division. Haught also said this case should have been heard by the elected judge at Doddridge County.

He said it is hopeful this case will be won, because even the fact that its being challenged causes problems as it affects the ability to plan long-term and the ability to budget.

Also, even if this case is specific to Doddridge County, if the Supreme Court upholds it, it will become the rule for the appeals in Wetzel County. Some of those appeals are currently pending. Haught said this is probably the most significant Supreme Court decision with respect to counties in the last 50 years, but unfortunately, its not getting as much attention as it should. He said this could have devastating affects.

In another matter, Prosecutor Haught had forwarded the letter from the Marshall County Prosecuting Attorneys Office regarding the possible need for an expert witness in the State of WV vs. John Howell case. Normally, the commission budgets $10,000 for professional services, and money has been taken out of that if they need an expert. Fortunately, there have been very few instances where anything has had to be paid over the years. It was noted that it is unknown if anything will have to be paid immediately in this case because Judge Arthur Recht has upheld a plea offer that was made to Mr. Howell by Marshall County in the case. Timothy Haught was removed/disqualified from the case, after Howell spit on Haught in court.

Haught noted that Mr. Howells sentence is now 10 years to life with eligibility for parol after 10 years. He noted this doesnt mean that Mr. Howell will parole, but he has a possibility of parole after 10 years. The State and Investigating Officer of the victim and others can oppose his parole. Haught noted that, for the time being, money is not needed for Marshall County to pay for the expert witness in that particular case. The plea that the judge imposed in the case may be appealed by the Marshall County Prosecuters Office. However, for now, that issue is off the table. Mr. Haught just wanted to inform the commission that if the case does go to trial, there may be some expenses.

In other commission matters, the commission dealt with a Coal Severance Fund Balance Revision. Bookkeeper Sue Miller was present to explain the request, which has to be made annually. The amount of the Coal Severance Fund Balance is $686,767.59. The commission had previously estimated it at $600,000, so that left an amount of $86,767.59 that needed to be put in another line item. The motion was made and approved to increase the fund balance by $86,767.59 and place the extra money into the ARC Insurance Fund.

Next, a motion was made and approved to appoint Tina Rush to the Northern Panhandle Workforce Investment Board on the Executive Committee.

A motion was made and passed to approve a revision to the budget with an increase of $3,022 that affects the law enforcement line item, and a motion was made and passed to approve the Progressive Communications portable radio price quote for the maintenance office in the amount of $2,420.

Also, a motion was made and approved to designate Steve Yoho as the new Office of Emergency Services and 911 Director, to replace Ed Sapp in his retirement.

In another matter, a motion was made and passed for a revision of the budget in the amount of $1.448 involving a refund to the Sheriff and Law Enforcement Account, and a motion was made and passed for a revision to the approved budget for the insurance program account for an increase of $86,768.

Also, Rick Healy from the Belomar Regional Council was present regarding the Wetzel County Public Service District Ones Small Cities Block Grant Application for a Public Hearing. The Wetzel County Commission is preparing an application to the West Virginia Development Office for $1.5 million in Small Cities Block Grant Funds  now called Community Development Block Grant Funds, to partially fund a waterline extension project. This project is PSD Ones fifth phase and will provide residents within the service area additional public water service. Residents and businesses within the proposed project area have requested this public water service, and the proposed project is as follows: The installation of approximately 35,000 lineal feet of eight-inch, six-inch, four-inch and two-inch waterline to serve 38 potential households with fresh water with adequate pressure. The project will connect to the PSDs existing system of approximately 1.3 miles east of Jacksonburg. It will continue adjacent to Route 20, approximately 23,000 feet to the intersection of Fallen Timber Road. At this point, it will reduce to six-inch, and continue along Rt. 20 approximately 6,000 feet and terminate near the town of Smithfield. Along this route, there will be an approximately 300 feet line extension of four-inch on Fallen Timber Road and an approximate 41,000 feet four-inch extension on Arches Fork Road. The project will also include installation of a new 100 gallon per minute booster pump station, proposed to be located approximately one mile west of the town of Pine Grove along Rt. 20. This pump station will serve an existing tank near Jacksonburg, to fill and recover more rapidly than it currently does. The booster system will also facilitate future expansion. Funding for this project will come from the $1.5 Million Community Development Block Grant and the approximate $454,000 loan from the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council. That $454,000 loan is currently secured and is pending the receipt of the Small Cities Block Grant. At this point, the project is totally reliant upon the awarding of that grant.

It was noted this is the second application for the project. The first application was in 2017, and it wasnt selected. Wetzel County has been extremely successful in many years with Community Devlopment Block Grants. However, the county hasnt had one since Pine Grove in 2014. Pine Grove is being resubmitted this year, which is crucial. It is fully hoped and expected that it will be funded. There seems to be enough support/pressure for it to be funded.

It was also noted Wetzel County could get two projects approved. It just depends on the applications and where they fall. If the PSD One extension is not approved in 2018, it can be resubmitted for 2019. If its not selected in 2019, then a new application will be submitted.

In another matter, Matthew Brake from Swiss Valley Associates was present regarding the Heating/Air Conditioning Annex. The SVA Team members present were: Ron Palitto, President; Bill Brake, Vice-President and Engineer; and Matt Brake, Board Member, Engineer. SVA was established in 2000 and is licensed in multiple states: OH, WV, IL, KY, MI, PA. Some of their professional services include Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Structural Engineering, Construction Management and Design/Build. Some of their past projects in Wetzel County include the WC Courthouse North & South Steps Replacement, Wetzel County Museum and the New Martinsville Public Library Parking Lot Upgrade. For the Wetzel County Courthouse Annex Building, they plan to study, report and provide a schematic design for renovation of the first and second floors. The proposed spaces include the commissions meeting room, offices and storage. Possibilities for secure entrace for the courthouse will be investigated.Calgary, AB / July 25, 2018 / TheNewsWire / Zanzibar Gold Inc. Technical Geologist and Project Manager Lawrence Stephenson joins host Jim Ripley to discuss Zanzibar's new listing on the CSE, management's objectives and where to learn more information.

About Zanzibar Gold Inc.

The business objective of Zanzibar Gold Inc. is to identify, evaluate, acquire and explore mineral properties for the purposes of identifying a mineral resource deposit on its existing property interests or any of the subsequent properties acquired by the Issuer for the development of a mine.

For Further information about the Company, please contact:

Abby Farrage

President and CEO

Zanzibar Gold Inc.

Telephone 778 891-2701

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider have reviewed or accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Forward-Looking Information:

This press release contains 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. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this press release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks discussed in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. While the Company may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MGX Minerals Inc. (MGX or the Company) (CSE:XMG) (FKT:1MG) (OTCQB:MGXMF) is pleased to announce it has entered into an Option Agreement (the Agreement) with A.I.S. Resources (TSX.V:AIS) to acquire an 80% interest in the Salinitas lithium brine mining tenements (Salinitas or the Project) located in the lithium triangle of Argentina, Salar de Salinas Grandes, Province of Salta. The 4,308-hectare contiguous land package resides in the Puna region of northwest Argentina near the border of Chile, an area renowned for its lithium and potassium rich brine resources.

The surface elevation of the Salinas Grandes salar is approximately 3,400 metres above sea level. The salar forms a composite closed basin with internal drainage, where discharge occurs by evaporation. Water inflow into the salar is produced by precipitation, superficial and groundwater incursions. MGX plans to conduct a Transient Electromagnetic Method (TEM) geophysical study along with trenching, which will be followed by a drill program along the edge of the salar, to test for shallow, near surface brines and determine locations with anomalous concentrations of lithium.

Figure 1. General Location Map of Argentinas Puna

Figure 2. Location Map of Concessions in the Salar De Salinas Grandes

To secure the Option Agreement, MGX has agreed to pay US$250,000 on or before July 31,2018. The Company can acquire an undivided 80% in the Project at any time during the Agreement by making payments totaling US$3.2 million. MGX has also agreed to incur total expenditures of at least US$1.2 million prior to May 31, 2020.

Rapid Lithium Brine Extraction Technology

MGX has developed a rapid lithium extraction technology eliminating or greatly reducing the physical footprint and investment in large, multi-phase, lake sized, lined evaporation ponds, as well as enhancing the quality of extraction and recovery across a complex range of brines as compared with traditional solar evaporation. This technology is applicable to petrolithium (oil and gas wastewater), natural brine, and other brine sources such as lithium-rich mine and industrial plant wastewater. The technology was recently chosen as winner of the Base and Specialty Metals Industry Leadership Award at the 2018 S&P Global Platts Global Metals Awards, held in London in May (see press release dated May 18, 2018).

Qualified Person

Andris Kikauka (P. Geo.), Vice President of Exploration for MGX Minerals, has prepared, reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information in this press release. Mr. Kikauka is a non-independent Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards.

About MGX Minerals

MGX Minerals is a diversified Canadian resource company with interests in advanced material and energy assets throughout North America. Learn more at www.mgxminerals.com.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information is typically identified by words such as: "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "potentially" and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by the Company is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking information as a result of various factors. The reader is referred to the Company's public filings for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects which may be accessed through the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.TORONTO, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE:MUX) (TSX:MUX) reports additional encouraging exploration results from its ongoing $15 million exploration program at the Black Fox Complex near Timmins, Ontario, Canada.

McEwens 2018 exploration goals are to grow known deposits and make new discoveries to contribute to near-term gold production. During Q2 a total of 129,000 ft (39,300 meters (m)) of surface exploration drilling was completed at Black Fox Complex, for a year-to-date total of 220,000 ft (66,900 m).

Our drilling continues to deliver very encouraging results, particularly from the three project areas highlighted in this release: Stock East, Froome and Gibson. Continued drilling success reinforces our view about the strong exploration potential of both the Black Fox and Stock properties, stated Sylvain Guerard, Senior Vice-President Exploration.

Three of our exploration targets are covered in this release: Stock East, Froome and Gibson. Underground delineation drilling intercepts from Black Fox are also included, along with a revised Black Fox Mine resource estimate, which eliminates the Inferred resource category and increases the Indicated ounces and grade.

Stock East

The Stock Mine property covers a 4 mile (6.5 km) section of the Destor-Porcupine fault, and produced 137,000 gold ounces at a grade of 5.5 g/t between 1989 and 2005. Our winter drilling program was designed to follow-up on historical intersections and geophysical targets; it returned better than expected results at the Stock East target and prompted an expanded 66,000 ft (20,000 m) drilling program beginning in early June. Three drill rigs are currently active and will infill the Stock East target, test the depth extension of the Stock Mine below 500 m, and attempt to join mineralization at Stock East with the historical Stock Mine over a 2,000 m long trend (see Figure 1).

Stock East has a strike length of approximately 500 m and extends vertically from surface to a depth of at least 450 m. Its proximity to our mill facility makes Stocks potential for an open-pittable deposit a particularly attractive target.

Significant drill intersections include:

Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Au (g/t) S18-08 375.80 388.00 12.20 9.90 3.39 Including 375.80 376.80 1.00 0.81 9.51 S18-14 203.45 207.60 4.15 3.72 2.30 S18-16A 236.60 243.00 6.40 5.39 1.83 And 253.10 265.00 11.90 10.02 1.53 S18-18 226.00 234.00 8.00 5.43 1.60 S18-19 143.00 160.90 17.90 16.46 2.62 Including 150.00 159.00 9.00 8.28 3.89 S18-20 157.00 158.00 1.00 0.92 7.19 And 170.32 177.00 6.68 6.14 2.08

*TW = True Width (mathematically calculated based on current interpretation)

Froome

The Froome deposit is located 2,800 ft (850 m) to the West of the Black Fox open pit. It was discovered in 2014 and has a current Indicated resource of 159,000 gold ounces at a grade of 5.26 g/t.

Drilling at Froome during Q2 has identified a mineralized structure in the footwall, approximately 150 m North of the Main Froome Deposit (see Figure 2). The gold-bearing trend hosts clusters of positive drill intersections at Froome Northwest, North and Southeast that may lead to the definition of additional zones of mineralization proximal to the Froome Deposit. In addition, new drill intersections below the Froome Deposit suggest some incremental resource expansion potential. The potential to develop underground access to the Froome Deposit through mineralization in the footwall could provide a major enhancement to the projects economics and will be evaluated once drilling to better define the zones is complete.

Footwall drilling highlights include the following intersections:

19.42 g/t gold over 2.5 m, including 52.7 g/t gold over 0.83 m at the Footwall NW area;

7.97 g/t gold over 5.99 m at the Footwall North area; and

7.91 g/t gold over 3.12 m, including 13.9 g/t gold over 1.56 m at the Footwall SE area.

Drilling down-dip of the Froome Deposit encountered 4.04 g/t gold over 7 m, suggesting the mineralization continues at depth. Drilling at Froome will continue in Q3 to follow up on these results.

Significant Froome drill intersections include:

Hole Zone From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Au (g/t) 18BF-663 Footwall SE 58.00 62.00 4.00 3.12 7.91 Including 58.00 60.00 2.00 1.56 13.90 18PR-G234 Footwall N 51.20 53.60 2.40 2.11 5.70 18PR-G239 Footwall NW 325.00 328.00 3.00 2.47 8.05 18PR-G243 Footwall NW 88.00 91.00 3.00 2.50 19.42 Including 88.00 89.00 1.00 0.83 52.70 And 97.00 119.00 22.00 18.16 1.86 Including 113.00 118.00 5.00 4.13 3.97 18PR-G245 Footwall NW 198.8 200.00 1.20 0.99 12.92 18PR-G247 Footwall NW 67.00 79.00 12.00 10.02 1.28 18PR-G248 Footwall NW 300.20 302.00 1.80 1.45 9.61 18PR-G256 Footwall N 60.00 65.00 5.00 4.28 3.65 Including 63.60 64.00 0.40 0.34 33.40 And 71.00 78.00 7.00 5.99 7.97 Including 71.00 74.00 3.00 2.57 17.51 18PR-G258A Main 341.00 349.00 8.00 7.00 4.04 18PR-G259 Footwall N 83.00 86.00 3.00 2.60 9.46 Including 84.00 85.00 1.00 0.87 17.55 18PR-G262 Main 129.00 132.00 3.00 2.61 3.83

Gibson

The Gibson exploration target area is adjacent the Grey Fox Deposit, where Indicated resources of 465,000 gold ounces at a grade of 6.64 g/t, and Inferred resources of 100,000 gold ounces at 6.83 g/t are currently defined.

The present dimensions of the Gibson Zone mineralization are approximately 100 m in length along strike and 400 m depth from near surface. Additional drilling is underway to better define the extent and orientation of the mineralization.

Hole 18GF-1079 returned 3.11 g/t gold over 34 m (core length), including 10.81 g/t gold over 6 m, from a new style of breccia mineralization identified at the Gibson area. This new intersection suggests the potential for extension of the mineralization to a 500 m depth below surface. Drilling will continue in Q3 to further assess the potential depth extension.

Significant Gibson drill intersections include:

Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Au (g/t) 18GF-1063 565.00 568.00 3.00 2.49 5.84 18GF-1064 371.45 373.00 1.55 1.28 10.12 18GF-1066 112.00 116.00 4.00 3.64 4.57 18GF-1079 520.00 554.00 34.00 * 3.11 Including 521.00 527.00 6.00 * 10.81 18GF-1080 492.00 501.00 9.00 7.71 5.96 Including 499.00 501.00 2.00 1.71 17.55 18GF-1094 29.00 37.00 8.00 6.37 4.26 Including 34.00 37.00 3.00 2.39 7.58

* True width unknown

Black Fox Underground

During Q2 a significant portion of the underground drilling was dedicated to confirming and expanding known mineralized trends that are located close to current workings and that could be brought into production quickly. Definition drilling to the east of 560 Central Zone (CZ) has extended the east sill nearly 30 m. Drill intercepts have recently been confirmed with high grade chip samples that were taken across development faces, including: 27.65 g/t gold over 3.4 m and 90.22 g/t gold over 3.3 m.

Central Zone drilling highlights include:

Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Au (g/t) 560-F098-05* 77.00 85.10 8.10 6.12 27.76 560-F098-14 63.00 70.00 7.00 4.90 12.72

* Previously disclosed

Infill drilling targeting the 780 to 820-meter levels of the Deep Central Zone (DCZ) was designed to aid in future development and production planning and has returned high grade intercepts, showing the impressive nature and continuity of the DCZ at depth.

Deep Central Zone drilling highlights include:

Hole From (m) To (m) Length (m) TW (m) Au (g/t) 800-F302-13 64.22 73.00 8.78 7.52 44.41 800-F302-15 66.00 68.67 2.67 2.43 141.19 800-F302-16 52.00 61.00 9.00 7.63 43.45 800-F302-18 60.00 63.19 3.19 2.72 47.86

Underground mining and exploration efforts in Q3 will be dedicated to: 1) Conversion of ounces from the resource to the reserve category, and 2) Development of an exploration drift to provide additional drill platforms to test the depth extension of the mine that remains open.

Resource Update

An updated mineral resource estimate for Black Fox Mine with an effective date of March 31, 2018 was completed by SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. The resource update reflects improved modeling of underground voids, and additional definition and delineation drilling. SRKs methodology applied to the current resource remained consistent with that used in 2017. The tables (i-iii) below summarize the current resource estimates for the Black Fox Complex.

The next update of the Black Fox Complex resource estimates is planned at the end of the year, and will be published early in 2019 along with the revised and restated mineral reserve estimate.

Table i: Mineral Resource Statement, Black Fox Mine, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., March 31, 2018

Classification Cut-off Grade Gold

(g/t) Quantity

(000 t) Grade Gold

(g/t) Contained Gold

(000 oz) Indicated Mineral Resource Underground Black Fox 3.00 2,268 7.90 576 Total Indicated 2,268 7.90 576

Table ii: Mineral Resource Statement, Froome and Grey Fox, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., October 31, 2017

Classification Cut-off Grade Gold

(g/t) Quantity

(000 t) Grade Gold

(g/t) Contained Gold

(000 oz) Indicated Mineral Resource Underground Froome 3.20 941 5.26 159 Grey Fox 3.60 2,177 6.64 465 Total Indicated 3,118 6.22 624 Inferred Mineral Resource Underground Froome 3.20 125 4.70 19 Grey Fox 3.60 453 6.83 100 Total Inferred 578 6.37 119

Table iii: Tamarack Mineral Resource Estimate, SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., March 31, 2018

Classification Cut-off

grade

Au Eq

(g/t) Quantity

Tonnes

(000s) Grade Contained Metal Gold

(g/t) Silver

(g/t) Lead

% Zinc

% Au Eq

(g/t) Gold

Ounces

(000s) Silver

Ounces

(000s) Lead

Tonnes

(000s) Zinc

Tonnes

(000s) Au Eq

Ounces

(000s) Total Indicated Resource 3.00 778 1.83 26 1.08 3.29 5.08 46 663 8 26 127

Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. All figures rounded to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimates. Composites were capped where appropriate. Mineral resources reported at variable cut-off grades as indicated, assuming an underground extraction scenario, a gold price of US$1,500/oz (Black Fox, Froome, and Grey Fox) or for Tamarack: US$1,200/oz Au, US$17.00/oz Ag, US$1.00/lb Pb, and US$1.20/lb Zn, C$:US$ exchange rate of 1.25; and metallurgical gold recoveries of 96% for Black Fox, 90% for Froome and 80% for Grey Fox.

Figure 1  Stock Exploration Drilling (Click to download .PDF):

Click Here

Figure 2  Froome Exploration Drilling (Click to download .PDF):

Click Here

Figure 3  Gibson Exploration Drilling (Click to download .PDF):

Click Here

Table 1  All Drilling (Click to download .XLS):

Click Here

ABOUT MCEWEN MINING

McEwens goal is to qualify for inclusion in the S&P 500 Index by creating a profitable gold and silver producer. McEwens principal assets consist of: the San Jose mine in Santa Cruz, Argentina (49% interest); the El Gallo Gold mine in Mexico; the Black Fox mine in Timmins, Canada; the Gold Bar mine in Nevada that is currently under construction; and the large Los Azules copper project in Argentina that is advancing towards permitting.

McEwen has a total of 337 million shares outstanding. Rob McEwen, Chairman and Chief Owner, owns 24% of McEwen.

QUALIFIED PERSON



Technical information pertaining to geology and exploration contained in this news release has been prepared under the supervision of Ken Tylee, P.Geo. Mr. Tylee is a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101.

The mineral resource estimates were prepared by Dr. Aleksandr Mitrofanov, P Geo, who is a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). Dr. Mitrofanov is an employee of SRK Consulting, (Canada) Ltd and is considered to be "independent" of McEwen for the purposes of NI 43-101.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

Black Fox Complex drilling was conducted by Forage Asinii Drilling, Boart-Longyear, Major Drilling, NPLH and Norex Drilling and supervised by McEwens Geology Department. All exploration drill core samples at the Black Fox Complex were submitted as 1/2 core. Analyses reported herein were performed by the independent laboratories: ALS Laboratories, which is ISO 9001/IEC17025 certified, Activation Labs, which is ISO 9001/IEC17025 certified, and SGS Canada Laboratories, which is ISO9001/IEC17025 certified. Samples from definition and select delineation drilling, and development sampling completed within the Black Fox mine are assayed at McEwen's onsite laboratory. McEwens quality control program includes systematic insertion of blanks, standard reference material and duplicates to ensure laboratory accuracy.

To determine the lengths of significant mineralized intervals, the following composite criteria was established: a minimum reportable interval length of 3 m was determined by establishing a cut-off grade of 3g/t Au for underground (1 g/t Au for near surface). A consecutive maximum length of 3 m of internal waste, including sub cut-off grade material, is allowed and incorporated into the reported composites. Where an interval of less than 3 m is considered, if the grade x length calculation is greater than 9 (3 for surface), it may be reported. There is no top cutting or capping of assays.

For further details about the Black Fox Complex project including Tamarack, please see our recent NI 43-101 technical report titled "Technical Report for the Black Fox Complex, Canada" dated April 6th, 2018 with an effective date of October 31st, 2017 available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under our issuer profile.

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and information, including "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements and information expressed, as at the date of this news release, McEwen Mining Inc.'s (the "Company") estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations or beliefs as to future events and results including, but not limited to, the closing of the Offering and the use of proceeds thereof. Forward-looking statements and information are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies, and there can be no assurance that such statements and information will prove to be accurate. Therefore, actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements and information. Risks and uncertainties that could cause results or future events to differ materially from current expectations expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to, factors associated with fluctuations in the market price of precious metals, mining industry risks, political, economic, social and security risks associated with foreign operations, the ability of the corporation to receive or receive in a timely manner permits or other approvals required in connection with operations, risks related to fluctuations in mine production rates, risks associated with the construction of mining operations and commencement of production and the projected costs thereof, risks related to litigation, the state of the capital markets, environmental risks and hazards, uncertainty as to calculation of mineral resources and reserves, and other risks. The Companys dividend policy will be reviewed periodically by the Board of Directors and is subject to change based on certain factors such as the capital needs of the Company and its future operating results. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information included herein, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. See McEwen Mining's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, under the caption "Risk Factors", for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information regarding the Company. All forward-looking statements and information made in this news release are qualified by this cautionary statement.

The NYSE and TSX have not reviewed and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the contents of this news release, which has been prepared by management of McEwen Mining Inc.Although Myanmars National League for Democracy government had planned to hold the 21st Century Panglong Union Peace Conferences twice a year, the third session of the gatherings intended to bring an end to civil conflict was postponed four times. Given the difficulties it faced even getting participants around the table, its not surprising that the third Panglong conference that finally convened in Nay Pyi Taw on July 11 was marked by controversy and disagreement.

Even prior to the event, some ethnic armed groups had written it off as merely symbolic, with little hope for significant progress.

We dont expect a lot because there are only a few issues to discuss, New Mon State Party vice chairman Nai Hong Sar said ahead of the gathering. On political issues, we are yet to discuss important matters  we also cannot discuss security issues yet.

Many then reacted with dismay at the opening speech by Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in which he blamed ethnic armed groups for prolonging Myanmars civil conflicts.

He said the government and the military were actively participating in the peace process and warned that this was not a sign of weakness.

The sound of the guns will become silent if all the groups with the true wish for peace observe the agreement [National Ceasefire Accord]. All [ethnic armed groups] must control their own men, instead of giving groundless reasons, Min Aung Hlaing said, referring to the groups that are yet to sign the NCA.

Colonel Khun Okkar, patron of Pa-O National Liberation Organization, told Frontier that the Tatmadaw chief was highlighting the power of the military in his opening speech. But his tougher rhetoric could also indicate a hardening of attitude towards the peace process.

On previous occasions, he [Min Aung Hlaing] has encouraged the non-signatory groups to sign the NCA and participate in the peace process, but I think he has changed his policy, Khun Okkar said.

The army doesnt represent me

Min Aung Hlaing also generated controversy in his speech, especially among ethnic nationalities, when he said the Tatmadaw represented the state and the people.

Armed ethnic groups in some regions cannot represent the entire national people of 52 million and political parties only represent a particular walk of life that supports them. Our Tatmadaw, being a peoples Tatmadaw born of ethnic people, is an organization representing the state and people, Min Aung Hlaing said.

There was an angry reaction on social media from some users, who showed their opposition by sharing the message, The Tatmadaw does not represent me, in posts on Facebook.

Political analyst U Min Zin said the comment was controversial because members of the Tatmadaw are public servants who should be accountable to the politicians who won elections and formed a government as part of the transition to democracy.

A person who wins the most votes in an election represents the State and the people; the military are public servants, he said.

U Nyan Win, a member of the NLDs central executive committee, said the Tatmadaw chiefs comment that political parties dont represent all people was totally wrong.

However, he declined to give a direct response to the comment that the Tatmadaw represented the state and the people.

Sut Seng Htoi, 25, a leader of the Kachin Youth Movement Committee, told Frontier on July 15 that the Tatmadaw does not represent ethnic minorities, and has no right to say that it represents the state and the people.

The military is to protect the State and people; it doesnt mean that they represent the State and the people, she said.

Meeting the Northern Alliance

Those at the peace conference included members of the Federal Political Negotiation and Consultative Committee, an alliance of seven ethnic armed groups headed by the United Wa State Army, which has in the past demanded significant changes to the NCA. The FPNCC members, who attended the conference as observers, held talks with Tatmadaw leaders on the sidelines of the event.

Min Aung Hlaing met representatives of four non-signatory groups that have previously signed bilateral ceasefire agreements: the UWSA, the Kachin Independence Army, the Mongla-based National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Shan State Army-North.

Tatmadaw deputy Commander-in-Chief, Vice Senior General Soe Win, held talks with representatives of three non-signatory groups that have never signed bilateral ceasefire agreements: the Taang National Liberation Army, the Arakan Army and the Kokang-based Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army.

A news release from the Office of the Commander-in-Chief said both meetings had discussed signing the NCA and achieving progress in the peace process through dialogue. Min Aung Hlaing urged the non-signatory groups to sign the NCA, saying it was against the current democratic ethics for armed groups to say there was no need to sign the NCA because they already have a bilateral agreement, or they are not in active conflict with the Tatmadaw.

[E]very ethnic armed group is to sign the NCA, he said, adding that the essence of the NCA was broader and more comprehensive than earlier bilateral agreements.

The FPNCC submitted its proposal for a national ceasefire agreement to the government and the military at the second Panglong conference more than a year ago and was hoping it would be discussed at the third session.

The KIAs General Gun Maw said the FPNCC had decided it was premature to sign the NCA and any decision would depend on discussion about its ceasefire proposal. Min Aung Hlaing had been told that the FPNCC wanted that discussion to take place soon, said Gun Maw, who also holds a leading position in the Kachin Independence Organization.

Security sector overlooked

The final day of the conference, on July 16, saw the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee approve 14 principles for inclusion in a Union Peace Accord. This brings the total agreed principles to 51, after 37 basic points were agreed at the second Panglong conference in May last year.

Organisers also released a statement saying they had decided to hold another peace conference this year and two in 2019.

Of the 14 principles, seven involve social matters, four concern political arrangements, two are about land and the environment and one focuses on the economy.

Prior to the start of the Panglong conference, the UPDJC had agreed on 12 points to be submitted during the event. Ethnic armed group representatives said they were disappointed that the government and military had rejected many of their proposals for discussion topics.

One of the key disagreements during the conference centred on the name of the country. In one of the political principles, ethnic armed group representatives wanted to use the expression union that is based on federalism and democracy. Military delegates objected, saying the point should contain the words Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

Finally, on July 15 the Union Peace Dialogue Joint Committee, the coordinating body for the peace process, negotiated a solution: the addition of the word Myanmar, but not Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

We negotiated and the ethnic armed groups agreed to include it like that, said Salai Lian H Sakhong, vice chairman of Chin National Front.

Former MP Doi Bu from the Unity and Democracy Party of Kachin State said that the military representatives had also objected to a proposal supported by the government, political parties, ethnic armed groups and parliamentarians requiring that women fill at least 30 percent of positions in the peace process.

The military just wanted to include support for reaching a 30 percent participation rate in all sectors [rather than a quota]. Four groups agreed to the policy but they objected, she said.

One area where there was no formal progress was on security issues.

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in her speech at the closing ceremony that the security sector was important for the success of the peace process and should be discussed at the next conference.

To create a perfect union peace agreement, she said, agreements related to security must be included.

This article was first published by Frontier.Former DR Congo vice president Jean-Pierre Bemba, acquitted last month of war crimes, will return to the country on August 1 ahead of end-year elections, his party announced Monday.

The Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) has the signal honour to announce that it has pleased our lord God, after 10 years away, to allow the return of Senator Jean-Pierre Bemba Gomba to his country of birth, the land of his ancestors, the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday, August 1, the party said in a statement.

The MLC invites the Congolese people, especially the Kinois (Kinshasa inhabitants) to give him a warm, peaceful and enthusiastic welcome, it added.

The MLC on Friday named Bemba its candidate for planned December 23 presidential polls after the government said he could apply for a diplomatic passport to return home after he was acquitted of war crimes in The Hague.

The DRC is in the grip of a crisis over the future of President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the country since 2001 and has remained in office despite a two-term constitutional limit that expired in December 2016.

He claims he can do this under a clause in the constitution that enables a president to stay in office until a successor is elected.

In June, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague overturned a 2016 conviction against Bemba on five counts of war crimes committed by his militia in the Central African Republic in 2002-2003.

The court said he could not be held criminally liable for atrocities the militiamen committed, which included murder, rape and looting, as he was unable to influence their conduct.

He had previously been given an 18-year term, the longest ever to be handed down by the ICC.

Bemba was earlier this week known to be in Belgium having gained an interim release from the court.

The ICC is due to issue a ruling in a separate case in which Bemba was sentenced to jail and fined 300,000 euros ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his main war crimes trial.

However, he has already spent a decade behind bars, and legal experts expect him to be released definitively if this time is taken into account.

It remains unclear whether he faces any threat of prosecution if he sets foot on DRC soil, after authorities issued a warrant in 2007 against him over the violence and for alleged arson at the Supreme Court.

Kabila, who took over from his assassinated father in 2001, presides over the vast central African nation with a history of corruption, poor governance and armed conflict.Joshua Lyons, 36, of 1778 Villars Road, has pleaded guilty  by way of an Alford Kennedy plea, to child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.

Lyons had been indicted by the May term of the Wetzel County Grand Jury with the charge, along with a second count  malicious assault.

Judge Jeffrey Cramer ordered a pre-sentencing investigation report to be completed by the Wetzel County Probation Office. Lyons is scheduled to appear back in court on Aug. 15, at 9 a.m. for a sentencing hearing. He faces a maximum penalty of an indeterminate sentence of not less than two nor more than 10 years in the West Virginia Division of Corrections. He also must register as an abusive parent with the Child Abuse Registry for 10 years upon his release, and he may be subject to up to 50 years of supervision once released from serving his sentence. He was remanded to jail pending his sentencing hearing at which time the state and defense will argue sentencing.

The New Martinsville Police Department investigated this case, and their quick action responding to the scene earned Chief Tim Cecil, Detective Donnie Harris, Patrolmen Timothy Chichick and Jason Utt, and Dispatcher Iris Isaacs Distinguished Service awards.

The NMPD responded to a 911 call at 619 Foundry Street on April 4, which resulted in Lyons arrest.

Chief Cecil previously reported that at the residence, officers found a three-month-old baby boy, blue and barely breathing. Cecil had reported that he found a slight pulse on the baby and ordered Patrolman Chichick to bundle the baby. The officers took the baby, via cruiser, to the Wetzel County Hospital.

During transport, Chief Cecil remained on the phone with the hospital nurse for the safety of the child.

Cecil Cecil said he was met halfway to the hospital by Patrolman Utt, who had been at the scene of a vehicle accident. Utt cleared traffic for Cecil and led the officers to the hospital.

According to Cecil, officers arrived at the Foundry Street location of the baby within three to four minutes from the time of the initial call; officers arrived at the hospital within 10 minutes of the initial call.

Cecil said the doctor on duty at WCH performed CT scans and decided to have the child transported to UPMC. After an investigation by Detective Donnie Harris, police then arrested 36-year-old Lyons on child abuse and neglect charges.279 Shares Share

One of the most contentious areas of health policy over the past two decades has been the safety of vaccination. Vaccines prevent the outbreak of diseases that used to be widespread, like polio, and scientific consensus strongly supports their safety. Yet many Americans refuse or delay the vaccination of their children out of fear that it could lead to autism, even though scientific consensus refutes this claim.

Anti-vaccine attitudes have been fueled in large part by growing rates of autism diagnoses as well as a now debunked study in The Lancet that linked autism and the measles mumps rubella (MMR) vaccine  pushing many parents to see vaccination as a potential explanation for their childs autism diagnosis.

The growing anti-vax movement here and abroad has seen parents refuse to give their children mandatory school vaccinations, growing numbers of celebrities questioning vaccine safety, and even pet owners refusing to vaccinate their dogs  forcing the British Veterinary Association to issue a statement in April that dogs cannot develop autism.

Given the consistent message from the scientific community about the safety of vaccines, and evidence of vaccine success as seen through the eradication of diseases, why has the skepticism about vaccines continued?

One possibility is that attitudes about medical experts help to explain the endorsement of anti-vax attitudes. Specifically, building on past research, our research team contends that some U.S. adults might support anti-vax policy positions in part because they believe they know more than medical experts about autism and its causes. We wanted to test this theory.

Vaccine skepticism and knowledge

Vaccination has been one of public healths greatest success stories. It led to the eradication of smallpox and to widespread elimination of polio. Eradication of a disease means that it has been permanently wiped out and that intervention efforts are no longer necessary; smallpox so far is the only disease that has been eradicated. Elimination means a reduction to zero incidence in a specific geographic area as a result of deliberate efforts. Vaccination has protected millions from the ravages of tetanus, whooping cough and even chicken pox.

And yet, vaccine skepticism persists, extending into the political realm, with many politicians questioning the safety of vaccines. Most notably, President Donald Trump has questioned the credentials of doctors calling for vaccination, pushed for slowed vaccination schedules, and tapped vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. to chair an administrative panel on vaccine safety.

We wondered: Could the inability of anti-vaxxers to accurately appraise their own knowledge and skills compared to those of medical experts play a role in shaping their attitudes about vaccines? This inability to accurately appraise ones own knowledge is called the Dunning-Kruger effect, first identified in social psychology. Dunning-Kruger effects occur when individuals lack of knowledge about a particular subject leads them to inaccurately gauge their expertise on that subject. Ignorance of ones own ignorance can lead people who lack knowledge on a subject think of themselves as more expert than those who are comparatively better informed. We refer to this as overconfidence.

Dunning-Kruger effects and anti-vax attitudes

To test our hypothesis, our research asked more than 1,300 Americans in December 2017 to compare their own perceived levels of knowledge about the causes of autism to those of medical doctors and scientists. After doing that, we asked respondents to answer a series of factual knowledge questions about autism, as well as the extent to which they agree with misinformation about a potential link between childhood vaccines and autism.

We found that 34 percent of U.S. adults in our sample feel that they know as much or more than scientists about the causes of autism. Slightly more, or 36 percent, feel the same way about their knowledge relative to that of medical doctors.

We also found strong evidence of Dunning-Kruger effects in our sample. Sixty-two percent of those who performed worst on our autism knowledge test believe that they know as much or more than both doctors and scientists about the causes of autism, compared to only 15 percent of those scoring best on the knowledge test. Likewise, 71 percent of those who strongly endorse misinformation about the link between vaccines and autism feel that they know as much or more than medical doctors about the causes of autism, compared to only 28 percent of those who most strongly reject that misinformation.

We recently published our findings at the journal Social Science and Medicine.

How does this affect vaccine policy?

Our research also finds that these Dunning-Kruger effects have important implications for vaccine policy.

In addition to gauging autism knowledge, our survey asked respondents to share their opinions on several aspects of vaccine policy. For example, we asked respondents whether or not they support parents decisions to not vaccinate their children before sending them to public schools. Respondents could tell us whether they strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree or strongly disagree with that statement.

We found that nearly a third, or 30 percent, of people who think that they know more than medical experts about the causes of autism strongly support giving parents the latitude to not vaccinate their children. In contrast, 16 percent of those who do not think that they know more than medical professionals felt the same way.

Our study also finds that people who think they know more than medical experts are more likely to trust information about vaccines from non-expert sources, such as celebrities. These individuals are also more likely to support a strong role for non-experts in the process of making policies that pertain to vaccines and vaccination.

An uphill battle?

Ultimately, our results point to the uphill battle that the scientific community faces as it confronts growing anti-vax sentiment from the public and politicians alike. Even as the mountain of evidence on the safety and importance of vaccines from doctors and scientists continues to grow, many Americans think they know more than the experts trying to correct their misperceptions.

Therefore, finding new ways to present scientific consensus on vaccines to an audience skeptical of medical experts should be a priority. Our research suggests that one interesting area for future research could be to examine whether pro-vaccine information from non-expert sources like celebrities could persuade those with anti-vaccine policy attitudes to change their minds.

Matthew Motta is a postdoctoral fellow. Steven Sylvester is an assistant professor, public policy, Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah. Timothy Callaghan is an assistant Professor, Texas A&M University School of Public Health, College Station, Texas. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com12 Shares Share

The face of a 2-year-old Honduran girl, dwarfed by the adults who only appear as legs in the photo, communicates undeniable anguish. Used to represent the horror of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, the photo became a lightning rod for controversy when it turned out that this particular child was not actually separated from her mother. In an interview for CBS News the border patrol officer involved in the incident explained that they asked the mother to put her daughter down so she could be searched. He explained, It took less than two minutes. As soon as the search was finished, she immediately picked the girl up, and the girl immediately stopped crying.

The fact that the girl recovered immediately shows that she has had accumulated a reservoir of experience with her mother coming back. Rather than falling apart, she was immediately comforted. The very presence of her mother appears to have given her the skills to manage her distress. In an instant she is OK.

But when separations are beyond a young childs ability to manage, the capacity to recover in the face of disruption is compromised. Time is of the essence. With too much time, stress is transformed into trauma.

Pediatrician turned psychoanalyst D.W. Winnicott captures the role of time in child development in a way that seems particularly poignant in light of current events. In his book Playing and Reality he describes how a young child comes to have a sense of himself in relation to the world around him:

It is perhaps worthwhile trying to formulate this in a way that gives the time factor due weight. The feeling of the mothers existence lasts x minutes. If the mother is away more than x minutes, then the imago fades, and along with this the babys capacity to use the symbol of the union ceases. The baby is distressed, but this distress is soon mended because the mother returns in x+y minutes. In x+y minutes the baby has not become altered. But in x+y+z minutes the baby has become traumatized. Trauma implies that the baby has experienced a break in lifes continuity  [his behavior] now becomes organized to defend against a repetition of unthinkable anxiety.

When the Honduran girls mother picked her up her rapid recovery reflects an experience Winnicott describes with the lovely phrase going on being. The countless experiences of the mother coming back, in typical day-to-day interactions, literally builds a child sense of self. The unthinkable anxiety he references is the profound unraveling that accompanies a loss of bearings, a loss of sense of self.

While unfortunate that the photograph was misrepresented, in fact it proves a point about the actual separations known to have occurred in large numbers. Young children rely completely on their parents to hold them together. Self-regulation, the ability to manage on ones own, is a developmental process that occurs over countless moment to moment interactions in co-regulation with primary caregivers. Separation beyond a young childs ability to manage represents, from a developmental perspective, a fundamental threat to existence.

Claudia M. Gold is a pediatrician who blogs at Child in Mind and is the author of Keeping Your Child in Mind.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comPictured above at the launch of the Energy in Agriculture event to be held in Gurteen College on 21 August were: Tipperary County Council Cathaoirleach Mattie Ryan; Mike Pearson, Principal, Gurteen College; Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment Denis Naughten; IFA renewables project chair Tom Short; Thomas Hubert, Irish Farmers Journal; Paul Kenny, Tipperary Energy Agency; Barry Caslin, Teagasc; Gerry and Caoilfhionn Coyle and Thomas Ryan, IFA

Kilkenny Farmers will gain important knowledge on renewable energy at a Teagasc hosted event next month.

On Tuesday, 21st August Gurteen Agricultural College in Co Tipperary will play host to thousands of farmers and industry representatives during Energy in Agriculture 2018 which was launched this week by Minister for Communications, Climate Action, and Environment, Denis Naughten TD.

Energy in Agriculture 2018 will explore the latest renewable energy opportunities to use clean technology, drive efficiency and manage business costs in Irish agriculture. The event, which is in its third year, is jointly -organised by Teagasc, Tipperary Co Council, IFA, Tipperary Energy Agency, Gurteen College with the Irish Farmers Journal as media partners.

Energy in Agriculture 2018 will feature a comprehensive seminar programme with some of the leading experts in the industry. This, combined with a showcase of technology suppliers, funding providers and advisory bodies, means the event is a one-stop shop for pioneering agri-businesses.

Speaking at the launch on the farm of Gerard Coyle, Athleague, Co. Roscommon, Minister Naughten said: Renewable energy will have a transformative positive impact in rural areas and will offer new farm diversification opportunities. I will be announcing details shortly of a planned pilot scheme to support micro generation, which will initially target solar PV for self-consumption. This and other new schemes such as the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat (SSRH) and the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) will make clear the governments commitment to long term support of Irelands renewable industries. Communities are the very fabric of the new RESS and the scheme will provide pathways and supports for community-led renewable electricity projects. Energy in Agriculture 2018 provides an ideal platform to highlight the role that renewables and the bio-economy can play in overcoming our energy and sustainability challenges.

Speaking at the launch Barry Caslin from Teagasc said: Farmers could play a significant role in the decarbonisation of Irelands national heat supply, although it would be a huge challenge. With dramatic falls in the cost of solar photovoltaics, on-shore and off-shore wind, biogas AD opportunities as well as battery energy storage technology, the prospect of complete decarbonisation of Irelands electricity supply is now in sight. An increased supply of agricultural feedstocks will be needed to fuel such growth in the bio-based economy, including a large fleet of bio-methane plants and new processes such as synthetic gas from biomass.

IFA Renewables Chair Tom Short said: Energy in Agriculture 2018 provides a real opportunity for farmers to hear from experts and share their own knowledge and experiences. As the voice of Irish farming, IFA wants to see profitable, sustainable, resilient and diversified farm businesses. The management of energy costs and investment in clean technologies is a key part of this. Farm-scale, micro and community based renewable energy projects must underpin the next phase of Irelands response to the energy and climate challenges facing the sector.

Those attending this free of charge, Department of Agriculture Knowledge Transfer approved Energy in Agriculture event can expect:

Practical demonstrations on renewable energy production in all agricultural sectors.

Three venues with on-going talks on practical energy usage, sustainability and challenges in renewables.

Energy expo exhibitor arena and cost saving tips to reduce energy bills.

FREE 1:1 legal and financial advice clinics with industry experts.

An innovation showcase which demonstrates new sustainability innovations.

Full details of Energy in Agriculture 2018 are available at https://energyinagriculture. ie/The Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, which is chaired by local TD John McGuinness, will resume its engagement tomorrow with the National Development Finance Agency on how the NDFA negotiates Public Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects.

The Committee is exploring how PPPs are awarded, structured and insured following the collapse earlier this year of the Carillion Group, one of the UKs largest construction companies with a significant PPP contract to build schools in Ireland.

The National Development Finance Agency, an arm of the NTMA, advises government departments on financing infrastructural projects including through PPP contracts. Current projects under its remit include the construction of dozens of schools, medical facilities, courthouses and social housing developments.

The Committee is keen to identify lessons to be learned from Carillions liquidation and to explore new ideas for ensuring that future PPP-financed projects will be delivered as planned, said Committee Chairman John McGuinness.

The NDFA plays a central role in crafting PPP agreements across the State. The Committee seeks to understand fully why Carillion was selected for the school-building contract. More broadly, our Committee hopes to apply these lessons so that the NDFA and other relevant State actors can ensure that every private enterprise selected for PPP projects involves a verifiably reliable partner. This is essential given the ambitions of the Governments National Development Plan."

Among witnesses scheduled to attend the meeting at 11am in Committee Room 3 are NDFA Head of Finance and Operations Gerard Cahillane and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform officials. Mr Cahillane previously spoke to the Committee at its July 3 meeting.

The meeting can be viewed live here.

It also can be viewed live on Android and Apple devices using the Houses of the Oireachtas app.Leo Varadkar is in Italy today where he is meeting with two Irish female architects who will form part of this year's Kilkenny Arts Festival.

The Taoiseach is visiting one of the most famous and prestigious cultural organisations in the world - the Venice Biennale and will meet with Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara - who are curating the biggest event in the international architectural calendar year.

As directors of Dublin-based firm Grafton Architects, Farrell and McNamara have been responsible for some of the most acclaimed public buildings in the world, including the Universita Luigi Bocconi in Milan, for which they won the World Building of the Year Award in 2008.

With the Biennale drawing huge crowds, Farrell and McNamara come to Kilkenny to give an illustrated talk about FREESPACE  their vision of generous design, which animates the event  and the challenges of curating the worlds leading festival of architecture.

The talk with take place at 6pm at the Parade Tower on August 14 and admission is 14/12.This weeks Kilkenny People has details of a wide range of positions in the recruitment section.

Here are some top picks for job vacancies:

Newpark Hotel are looking for a front office manager, a front office receptionist, and a night porter.

One of Ireland's leading structural steelwork companies is looking for fitter fabricators, coded welders and a paint sprayer. Applicants should have the relevant experience in structural steelwork.

Rico's Takeaway in Gowran needs part time staff. Experience is essential.

Boland Volvo Carlow is seeking a Brand Manager. Minimum three years' sales experience with a franchise main dealer required.

Bluebird Care is hiring Care Assistants in the city and Thomastown area.

Dunmore the Fitout Company requires apprentice cabinet makers.

McCarthy Commercials in the Danville Business Park has a number of positions available: Workshop supervisor, parts person, and trainee parts person.

O' Neill Foleys has two positions available: Graduate position and tax consultant.

Fleming Accountancy Services is seeking an accounts assistant. The position would sit someone with bookkeeping experience.

Lodgepark Landscapes is looking for a landscape operative/groundworker for a full time position.

For more information and contact details about all these positions, be sure to pick up this weeks edition of the Kilkenny People.NewstalkZB reports:

Former Maori Party Leader Dame Tariana Turia has voiced concern a target to make New Zealand smoke-free was set in the first place.

This comes after Acting Prime Minister, Winston Peters described the Smoke-free 2025 target as an unachievable PR exercise.

Dame Tariana Turia told Larry Williams she wants to get rid of cigarettes all together.

I think if were being really honest, I didnt want a target. I wanted cigarettes to be taken off the shelves, and for us to stop selling a substance that kills 5,000 people a year.By Park Hyong-ki



South Korea is likely to fall victim to the escalating trade dispute among the United States, China and the European Union, as the row could develop into a currency war, analysts said Monday.



The concern is brewing as U.S. President Donald Trump accused China and the EU, Sunday, of manipulating their respective currency markets.



The fallout stemming from the U.S.'s trade protectionism policy will spread over to the global currency market, according to experts, dealing a severe blow to the Korean economy, which is heavily dependent on the U.S. and China.



This is where not only the economic powerhouses but also developing countries are expected to duke it out to maintain the value of their currencies in the interest of their economies.



And Korea is likely to remain powerless in the tariff crossfire between the world's two biggest economies, said Kim Doo-un, an economist at KB Securities.



Asia's fourth-largest economy will get its "back crushed in a whale fight" as the proverb says.



It is practically a "sitting duck," lacking any real countermeasures to use against the two giants.



"The country may have to brace for a prolonged trade battle between the U.S. and China as both sides are further pushing the envelope on tariffs. They have not toned down their rhetoric," Kim said.



"We may see a trigger being pulled either first by the U.S. or China in the global currency market. This is going to affect Korea no matter what."



China is expected to keep the value of the yuan weak against the U.S. dollar in the short run, reflecting China's slow economy. It advanced 6.7 percent in the second quarter of this year.



It is also unlikely China will back down against the U.S. as it wants to protect its reputation in the global economy, the economist added.



Shin Dong-soo, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities, concurred, saying the trade war could ignite a currency war as the U.S. recently criticized China's currency policy.



"China's weak yuan could further warrant the U.S. to impose tariffs on Chinese goods. This conflict could then expand into the currency market," Shin said.



Korea has been named along with other small but open economies including Singapore, Taiwan and Hungary that are about to fall "victims" to the U.S.-China trade war, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from the World Trade Organization and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.



Given these countries' high dependence on the Chinese and American economies for growth, their exports to the two economic powerhouses will suffer.



U.S. President Donald Trump has upped the ante against China and the EU, saying they are "ripping off" the U.S. and making "easy money" through currency manipulation.



Germany, the largest economy in the EU, warned the U.S. its trade protectionism would only "downgrade and worsen" the global economy. It added protectionism had not helped the global economy overcome past financial crises.



The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast the global economy's growth would slow to 0.5 percentage points a year on average by 2020 should the U.S. and China impose further tariffs on the massive amounts of goods traded between the two.



The IMF, however, has kept its 2018 growth forecast unchanged at 2.9 percent for the U.S., and 6.6 percent for China.



The government recently revised down Korea's growth forecast to 2.9 percent this year.



However, uncertainties over the global trade war and the local job market would make it difficult for the country to come within reach of that figure, analysts say.



"The time is ripe for this country to use this opportunity to rapidly pursue economic reform because this global conflict is not likely to settle down anytime soon," Kim said.



Yonhap



Nearly nine out of 10 South Koreans have expressed concerns about the country's low birthrate, a new survey showed Wednesday, in the latest wake-up call to address the chronically low birthrate.

The survey -- submitted to opposition lawmaker Yoon Jong-pil by the Ministry of Health and Welfare -- showed 87.4 percent of 2,000 adults said the low birthrate is a serious issue in South Korea.

The poll showed 31.2 percent cited financial burdens after marriage as the key reason behind the low birthrate, followed by youth unemployment and job security with 19.5 percent and the difficulty in striking a work-life balance at 18.1 percent.

A presidential committee warned earlier this month that the country's total fertility rate -- the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime -- is expected to fall below 1.0 in 2018, down from 1.05 a year earlier.

The figure is much lower than the replacement level of 2.1 that would keep South Korea's population stable at 51 million.











This summer, hit K-Pop boy group UP10TION held their 1st US Meet & Live Tour - Candyland, presented by Studio PAV! The ten-member group made stops in San Jose, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Juan, Puerto Rico, New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Seattle, with every show being an unforgettable night for fans.

UP10TION had first stepped onto American soil with their performance last year at KCON NY 2017, sans Wooshin on hiatus. With the full ten members, the anticipation, eagerness, and excitement from American Honey10s was overflowing! Studio PAV met and even exceeded every K-Pop fan's dream to meet their favorite group with their amazing fan engagement opportunities. Here's our review of Studio PAV's unique VVIP experience! (Spoiler alert: it is everything you've ever wanted.)

The purchase of a VVIP ticket came with an album, a laminated pass and lanyard, a group photo session, a high touch, access to the concert's premium section, and, most importantly, a fansign with UP10TION! While fansigns are held frequently in Korea, American K-Pop fans rarely get the chance to speak intimately with their favorite idols. New Jersey fans eagerly snatched up this chance -- VVIP tickets sold out for this location much earlier than the other stops.

Although the New Jersey stop of the tour had a bit of a late start, the wait was easily made up for with how efficiently the Studio PAV staff got VVIP fans checked in and lined up. Upon checking in, we were handed our album (a Red version of UP10TION's Invitation) and got our name written on the VVIP pass in Korean by a staff member. Then, we lined up in neat rows of 10 people each in the main stage's room. These were our groups for the fansign, group photo, and high touch sessions.

Here's the moment the entire VVIP section was anticipating: the fansign! The ten members came out, performed their group greeting, and sat down at a long table arranged at the front of the room in age order.

Studio PAV staff's organization was on par throughout the entire ordeal. Despite the hustle and bustle of nerves from being so close to meeting UP10TION, staff members kept the fans calm and the lines neat and tidy. When it was our row's turn to go, we were guided through the left side of the venue up to the fansign table --- and this is where the fun part begins!

Nothing will ever measure up to the mix of happiness, excitement, and nervousness that comes from meeting one of your favorite idol groups. Will I remember to thank Jinhoo for being a great leader? Will I remember to give Wooshin a warm welcome back? Will I remember to tell Xiao that I love him? There were a million thoughts rushing through my head, but the underlying feeling of it all was joy: joy at talking with the members, seeing them sign your name, and, especially, smiling at them and receiving a dazzling smile back!

In addition to talking with each boy, getting their signature, and exchanging a cute "I love you!", most members sent me off to the next one with a high-five or a quick hand-hold. It was exhilarating to interact with the members so closely. Though it went by quickly, we weren't rushed at all. My favorite moment of my fansign was asking Xiao to decorate the photocard of him I had received in my album; he now wears cute Sharpie'd bear ears!

After the fansign, our row was directed back to our original spot through the right side of the venue, and staff rearranged UP10TION's tables and chairs in order to prepare for the high touch and group photo sessions. VIP ticket-holders were directed into the venue at this point.

Studio PAV's organization and efficiency once again shined through with their high touch and group photo session set-up. We walked through each member for the high touch, rife with happy greetings and my own mental freak-outs over how soft their hands were, and then walking around to the back of the members to take the group photo. After the photo was taken, UP10TION turned around again to greet us goodbye -- almost like a second high touch! Although the interaction was more brief than the fansign, we could still feel the immense love that UP10tion holds toward their Honey10s.

Once the fan engagement sessions were over, the venue was quickly rearranged to prepare for the actual concert. UP10TION started off the night with their bop Runner -- a great throwback to how the song was performed for the first time on the 2017 KCON NY stage! From there, the excitement, hype, and love for UP10TION only grew as they continued with fun hits like Catch Me! and Tonight.

The concert's strong fan engagement presence even continued into the concert portion of the night: they took advantage of the intimate White Eagle Hall and turned on the lights so UP10TION could see fans' faces and reactions during the fun post-it Q&A sessions and ments. They also didn't use a translator for any of their ments, relying on their great English skills for a more intimate experience with these American fans.

Unique to Studio PAV was a city-oriented speed quiz, in which UP10TION had to guess fan-submitted key words about the New York Metro area like Atlantic City, diners, and the Jersey Shore. The concert was the perfect mix of UP10TION's strong performance skills and cute, charming personalities. Honey10s are shaking.

The last portion of the night was UP10TION's 'Pick-A-Pose' Snapshot session, where Honey10s could snap a Polaroid picture posing with a member of their choice. The love for UP10TION after this concert was especially high, with New Jersey Honey10s selling out Pick-A-Pose photo tickets. Studio PAV's staff once again pulled through with efficiency and hard work: when waiting in line to take a Polaroid, one staff member would direct the fan to choose a pose from their pre-determined guides, and another staff member would take the Polaroid, armed with many extra rolls of film on hand. Staff members also worked hard to fix any uneven lines of Polaroid-awaiting Honey10s, making sure each member of UP10TION felt loved. These Pick-A-Pose snapshots are unique to Studio PAV. They serve as a perfect reminder of such a unforgettable night of seeing your faves, and another chance to interact with them!

Overall, UP10TION's 1st US Meet & Live Tour was an amazing night full of intimate fan interactions, stunning performances, and love both from and for the fans. Studio PAV provided the best experience possible for every Honey10 in attendance and received endless, well-deserved praise and thanks after!

Tickets to the next Studio PAV-presented tour, VAV's Meet and Live Tour in US, are available now! Don't miss out on this unforgettable K-Pop fan experience.Kampala, July 25: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced to build a Gandhi Heritage Centre in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands. Addressing the Ugandan Parliament, the Prime Minister said, "And, at the sacred site in Jinja, where a statue of Gandhiji now stands, we will build a Gandhi Heritage Centre. As we approach the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there can be no better homage than a Centre to remind us of Africa's role in shaping his mission."

The Prime Minister further said that the story of India's own freedom struggle is intimately linked to Africa. "The story of India's own freedom struggle is intimately linked to Africa. It is not just the 21 years that Gandhiji spent in Africa or the First Non- Cooperation Movement he led," the Prime Minister added.

In the below video, PM Modi has announced to build a Gandhi Heritage Centre in in Uganda's Jinja.

He further said that India pursued Afro-Asian solidarity in Bandung and added, "We stood firm in opposition to apartheid in South Africa. We took leading and bold positions in former Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe, in Guinea Bassau, Angola and Namibia."

The Prime Minister further stated that India and Africa stand on the threshold of a future of great promise. "India's principled support to Africa's liberation movements often came at a cost to our nation's trade. This mattered nothing in comparison to Africa's freedom. Today, India and Africa stand on the threshold of a future of great promise: As confident, secure, youthful, innovative, and dynamic people," he added.

Prime Minister Modi is currently on a five-day three-nation tour of the African continent-Rwanda, Uganda and South Africa. Prior to Uganda, the Prime Minister visited Rwanda and discussed bilateral relation there. After finishing his engagements in Uganda, Prime Minister Modi will travel South Africa, where he will attend BRICS summit.New Delhi, July 25: In a major rescue, the Delhi Commission for Women rescued the 16 girls brought from Nepal for trafficking to Gulf countries, just in time. According to media reports, the girls were to be trafficked in the wee hours of Wednesday.

As per media report, Swati Maliwal, chief of the Delhi Commission for Women, got a tip-off about the trafficking of 16 girls. She then informed the Commission's team which called police and reached Munirka area in South West Delhi, where the girls were reportedly confined.

When the police and the Commission's team reached the spot, they found 16 girls, as mentioned in the tip-off, in a small room. The report also mentions that the passports of the girls were taken away by the traffickers. The traffickers had brought the girls to Delhi, on the pretext of providing employment to them.

The DCW chief was quoted by media report saying that the 16 girls were brought from Nepal on the pretext of employment. She also added that the girls were confined in a small room and the traffickers were to send the girls to Gulf nations. In a shocking claim, the DCW chief claimed that around 15 days ago, several girls were sent to Gulf by the same traffickers.

DCW's chief Maliwal also expressed concerns over the police being unaware about the presence of such a racket, especially when the nearest police station is located just 500 metres away from the room. She also demanded that accountability of the police be set so as to avoid such incidents by trafficking rackets in the future.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 25, 2018 07:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Jul 25, 2018, 6:03am ET

Former FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne dead at 66

The former CEO passed away Wednesday due to complications from shoulder surgery.

Former Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne passed away early Wednesday due to complications from shoulder surgery, Bloomberg reports. The man at the center of post-bailout operations at FCA was due to retire in 2019. He was 66.

According to Automotive News, a report from Italy late Tuesday indicated that Marchionne suffered an embolism after "high-risk" surgery to remove a sarcoma in his shoulder in late June.

When the severity of his condition became known to the company, FCA's board of directors held an emergency meeting to appoint his successor.

On Saturday, the board announced that former Jeep boss Michael Manley would take the reins.

Marchionne's leadership style was abrupt (bordering on ruthless), but he will be remembered for bringing Fiat SpA back from the brink of insolvency and leaving behind a company with little meaningful debt and some of America's most prolific (and profitable) model lineups.

In media circles, Marchionne was known for blunt responses to inquiries and a casual fashion sense.

The latter was so appreciated by the industry that Fiat gave away branded sweaters to attendees at the U.S. launch of the Fiat 500 in 2011--the introduction which marked the return of Fiat to the U.S. market after nearly 30 years.He allegedly fired three shots at his wife after he was served with divorce papers.

Then he allegedly holed up in his Bethlehem Township home for nine hours while police in riot gear negotiated with him.

Now Christopher Baj wants permission to speak on the phone with his young boys, who slept in the home while these harrowing events unfolded, according to testimony from his wife.

Northampton County Judge Stephen Baratta agreed on Wednesday to have the 4- and 7-year-old boys evaluated by a therapist to see whether a phone call with their father would cause them emotional harm.

Baj, 59, remains in Northampton County Prison on $2 million bail for allegedly firing the shots through a bathroom door at his wife, Mia Darling-Baj, around 2:30 a.m. Jan. 30, 2018.

Baj's wife testified in March that she hid in her bathroom after her husband pointed a gun at her head. Police said he fired three shots through the bathroom door. Baj's attorney, John Waldron, previously said Baj didn't intent to hurt Darling-Baj and had ample opportunity to shoot her if that was his intention.

Darling-Baj testified in March she ran past her husband but paused when she heard their oldest son ask, "Daddy?" He gruffly told the boy to go back to bed, and she said she had no choice but to flee, she testified.

The boys slept while the armed Baj refused for hours to turn himself in, according to Darling-Baj. Police spoke with the boys around 7 a.m. through a phone app connected to cameras in their rooms. They emerged unharmed, according to police.

Baj finally turned himself in around noon after police used an armored vehicle to break down the door of his Toursdale Drive home.

It's unclear what psychological damage the children suffered from the ordeal, Baratta said. A protection-from-abuse order bars Baj from any contact with the boys, but Baratta said a phone call would not violate that order.

If the therapist says the boys won't be harmed by the call, Baj wants to talk to them on the phone from prison while their therapist is on the line, according to attorney Stephen Zamborsky. He's handling the divorce and custody matters for Baj.

Baratta said he'd see what the therapist says before making a decision.

"Unless the children really knew what was going on and believed they were in immediate danger of death, children are pretty resilient," he said.

Baj was an international commercial Realtor with business in Poland and the Lehigh Valley. Darling-Baj testified at the March hearing that the family was supposed to leave for Poland the day after she told Baj she was divorcing him.

Baj's criminal trial was supposed to start Monday but was postponed to Oct. 1. Waldron, Baj's criminal defense attorney, filed a motion Wednesday asking the judge to throw out some of the charges.

Baj remains charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, simple assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and three counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.Three juveniles missing from a south-central Pennsylvania facility, including an Allentown teen who made international headlines in March, have been "found safe," a state police spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Amy Yu, 16, went missing early Monday with Ajah Linares, also 16, and 17-year-old Nicole Richard from the VisionQuest residential program for at-risk youth in Greene Township, Franklin County, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

Yu and Linares were found in Johnstown and Richard was found in Bedford, according to Trooper Megan Frazer, public information officer for state police Troop H.

There was no foul play suspected in their disappearance, Frazer said.

"They were found safe," said Frazer, who had no further details to release immediately on the incident.

The three teens had gotten into a car about 1:20 a.m. Monday and left the facility, police previously said.

Yu had run off to Mexico in March with 45-year-old Kevin Esterly, of Lowhill Township in Lehigh County. Her mother reported her missing March 5 after she failed to return home from the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School in Hanover Township, Northampton County.

The pair were found March 17 by the federal Homeland Security investigators, U.S. Marshals and Mexican authorities. Yu and Esterly were involved in a secretive relationship.

Esterly is charged with interference with child custody, concealment of whereabouts of child and corruption of minors and was being held in Lehigh County Jail.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.President Donald Trump isn't yielding to criticism of his trade policies, including blowback from GOP senators over a $12 billion bailout for farmers. If anything, he's stepping things up.

The White House is signaling that Trump is ready to slap a 25 percent tariff on foreign-made cars entering the U.S., in retaliation for those countries' tariffs on U.S. cars.

Several senators, including Pat Toomey, R-Pa., slammed Trump's decision to give $12 billion in subsidies to farmers, to help them weather a shrinking export market. Toomey said the farm bailout "is trying to put a Band-Aid on a self-inflicted wound."

This week General Motors said it expects earnings to take a $1 billion hit in 2018 because of increased costs of imported steel and aluminum -- which were subjected to tariffs earlier this year -- along with unfavorable foreign exchange rates in South America.

Trump lashed back at those who won't give a trade war time to work, to get other countries to reduce their trade barriers.

"Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking?" Trump said in a tweet. "Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!"

What do you think? Should Trump stay the course and place tariffs on imported cars? Will that get other countries to change their policies, or place an additional burden on the U.S economy? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the debate in the comments section.Upper Mount Bethel Township residents and officials say they are concerned about large trucks and other drivers speeding on Route 611.

Township supervisors this week said they will ask the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to install two traffic lights on the state road, also known as Delaware Drive, to help curb speeders.

Supervisors have fielded complaints about truck traffic that comes off Interstate 80 onto Route 611. Trucks travel south and either continue south on Route 611 or turn onto Route 512 heading west.

Trucks also come the other way north on Route 611 or east on Route 512 and turn onto Route 611.

Sections of Route 611 are 45 mph through the township, but the speed limit slows to 35 mph when entering the Mount Bethel business district. Some people have complained trucks and other drivers do not slow down through this area.

Without its own municipal police force, the township relies on state police to enforce the speed limit.

"It's got to stop," township resident Jeff Manzi told township supervisors Monday. "Somebody is going to get killed."

A township engineer's report indicates the intersection at Routes 611 and 512, near Merchants Bank, meets PennDOT's requirements for a traffic light.

However, Supervisor Robert Teel said one light will not be enough to inspire drivers to hit the brakes.

"Just having one at 611 and 512 does not slow traffic," Teel said Monday.

Teel said there should also be a traffic light where Railroad Avenue and Potomac Street intersect with Route 611.

Manzi said it is difficult to see oncoming traffic from Railroad Avenue when pulling onto Route 611. Roadside parking along Route 611 at TK's Bar and Grill makes it worse, he said.

The view from Railroad Avenue when pulling onto Route 611 in Upper Mount Bethel Township can be impeded by parked cars at TK's Bar and Grill in Upper Mount Bethel Township, officials say. (John Best | lehighvalleylive.com contributor)

Teel said he has spoken to the owner of TK's about the situation. The parking layout at the restaurant is legally allowed, Teel said, but the owner was open to discussing options to provide better visibility for drivers pulling out of Railroad Avenue.

The engineer's report states, based on statistics, the Railroad Avenue intersection does not meet PennDOT's requirements for a traffic light.

"The idea that there aren't enough fatalities there just doesn't sit with me," Teel said.

Resident Paul Taylor said his car was rear-ended by another vehicle at that intersection last winter.

Teel said he will request an exception from PennDOT so it can install a traffic light near TK's.

The township is moving forward with the PennDOT application to have the traffic light installed at the intersection of Routes 611 and 512, according to supervisors' Chairman John Bermingham.

John Best is a freelance writer. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Several 'nomadic businessmen' have brought High Court proceedings arising out of income tax assessments issued on them by the Criminal Assets Bureau.

The actions have been brought by John Sheridan Senior, John Sheridan, Thomas Sheridan, Daniel Sheridan and Patrick Sheridan who are all related to each other all say they carry out their business in various EU countries outside of Ireland.

The men who describe themselves as nomadic businessmen are members of the Irish Travelling Community and say when they are in Ireland they reside in Rathkeale, Co Limerick.

in 2016 CAB issued income tax assessments for the years 2004 to 2014 on John Snr John and Thomas Sheridan, 2006 to 2014 for Daniel Sheridan, who the court heard are all tarmac contractors.

An assessment for the years 2009 to 2014 was issued in respect of Patrick Sheridan, who says he is self-employed.

The Sheridans dispute the assessments on grounds including they were not resident in Ireland for tax purposes for each of the individual tax years.

Due to their nomadic lifestyles and that their tarmacking business is conducted outside of Ireland they say they have spent minimal periods of time in this country.The businessmen's High Court action arises out of a decision made in April by the Tax Appeals Commissioner Mr Mark O'Mahony, following a hearing last year, to allow the Sheridan's bring appeals against the majority, but not all, of the years for which income tax assessments have been issued.

The Commissioner said some of the assessments issued by CAB could not be appealed on grounds including that self-assessed tax liabilities had not been paid, and that income tax returns had not been filed.CAB had objected to the admission of the appeals. The Sheridan's opposed CAB objections, and argued before the Commissioner that they should be allowed appeal all of the assessments.

Represented by Tim Dixon Bl instructed by Patrick Cunningham solicitor the five businessmen said the Commissioner's decision in respect of the assessments which he refused to allow appeals be brought should be set aside.

Counsel said this was because the Commissioner failed to give any adequate reasons for his decision. Counsel added that the Commissioner failed to determine if any of the Sheridan were tax resident in the state during any of the material periods, and had failed to consider submissions made on the Sheridan's behalf.

It was further submitted that the Commissioner had failed to consider the unique and exceptional facts relating to the Sheridan regarding their lack of literacy and their nomadic lifestyle.

In their judicial review proceedings against the Commissioner, the Sheridans seek an order quashing Mr O'Mahony's decision of April 30th last refusing to allow the businessmen bring appeals against the assessments for certain income tax years.

Mr Justice Charles Meenan granted the Sheridans permission, on an ex parte basis, to bring their challenge against the Tax Appeals Commissioner's ruling.

CAB is a notice party to the action.

The Judge also granted the Sheridan's a stay the further pursuit of the sums allegedly due to the revenue commissioners on foot of the assessments pending the outcome of the action.

The matter was made returnable to a date in November.A Portlaoise man charged with robbing a local shop with a knife has been remanded in custody after being refused bail.

At last weeks sitting of Portlaoise District Court, Brendan Tuohy (29), Lake Drive, Kilminchy, Portlaoise, was charged with robbery on June 23 last.

The accused was kept in handcuffs when he appeared before Judge Catherine Staines last week, as Garda William Whelan said Tuohy had run from the court the previous week.

Sgt JJ Kirby confirmed that the accused had been charged with escaping from custody and would be appearing in court the following week.

In relation to the robbery charge, Garda Kennedy said that the State was objecting to bail due to the seriousness of the charge.

Garda Kennedy gave evidence that two men entered the Polish shop on the Borris Road in Portlaoise, with their faces covered and armed with knives.

They threatened the female staff member, telling her to open the till or shed be stabbed.

The men stole 1,000 in cash and fled the scene.

There were two members of the public in the shop at the time with young children who were forced into a corner by one of the men.

Garda Kennedy said the incident was captured on CCTV. He said the accused could allegedly be seen approaching the shop and changing his clothes.

The garda said that the money was not recovered. Garda Kennedy also described the accused as a chronic heroin addict.

He said he believed the accused would not obey any directions given him by the court.

Defence for the accused, Ms Josephine Fitzpatrick said her client had not made any admissions to the robbery and the CCTV footage would have to be viewed.

Garda Kennedy replied that the accused was personally known to him. He said that the CCTV footage was excellent quality.

In ruling, Judge Catherine Staines said that she had given the accused a six-month sentence recently and he appealed that, and while awaiting the appeal he allegedly committed another crime.

Refusing bail, Judge Staines adjourned the case to July 26 next.A Mountrath man who threatened to break his own mothers jaw appeared before last weeks sitting of Portlaoise District Court charged with breaching a protection order.

Before the court was Jimmy Cash (18), Kilkenny.

Sgt JJ Kirby gave evidence that on July 11 this year, at The Bungalow, Mountrath, the accused threatened his own mother, telling her he would break her jaw.

She was in fear of him, said Sgt Kirby, and the accused was arrested for breaching a protection order which was granted on July 3.

Defence, Mr Barry Fitzgerald said the accused came from a family of nine and had come to garda attention as a juvenile.

The accused is residing with his sister and Mr Fitzgerald said that the sister told him the accused suffers with ADHD, which coupled with alcohol drives him bananas.

His mother cant handle him, but his sister will keep a very watchful eye on him, said Mr Fitzgerald.

Judge Catherine Staines put the matter back to October 25 for a probation report.

She noted that the accused had no previous convictions, was in the custody of his sister, and there was a protection order in place for his mother. The judge said hopefully the probation service will be able to help him.Laois man and former GAA President Liam O'Neill spoke about running for the office of President of Ireland, on TV3's The Tonight Show on Monday July 23.

Mr ONeill announced on the show that he will not be a candidate in the Presidential Election.

Last week he told the Leinster Express that he was considering running for the office.

On the television show, Mr ONeill told the presenters Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates of his decision.

I talked to a good few of my political friends and people in public relations and in politics, and I have to say Im blessed that I have good friends and more importantly honest friends.

"And the assessment after talking to them is I dont have the backup team, I dont have the logistical group that it takes to undertake a campaign like that. I am political newbie, I havent stood for politics I havent been involved with politics at any level and I dont have the finance. And I think the most critical point of it was the amount of finance it takes to mount a campaign like this.

Liam O'Neill, 62 retired from his lifelong job as principal of Gaelscoil Thromaire in Laois this summer.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  The host city of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) will back a possible support of residents for the proposed Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), even as its mayor is hoping regional government employees will be absorbed under the new setup.

"Although meron kaming alam, na kung ano yung majority na gusto ng tao dito, nararamdaman naman namin, napupulsuhan namin, and that we respect," Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi said.

[Translation: Although we know what majority of the people here likes, we already have a sense of it (stand), and that we respect.]

"Everybody is welcome to share their opinion," the mayor said.

The ARMM government holds office in Cotabato City even if the city itself rejected its inclusion in the ARMM.

Congress has ratified the BOL, which paves the way for the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) that will replace the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The law is now up for signing by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Like the ARMM, the BARMM will cover the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. Cotabato City in Maguindanao will have to go through the plebiscite to determine if it will be part of the Bangsamoro territory.

Once enacted, the BOL provides for a plebiscite that will be held in parts of Mindanao in November. Bangsamoro Transition Commission Chairman and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) Vice Chairman Ghadzali Jaafar earlier mentioned that his organization will set up a task force to inform residents about the BOL.

Meanwhile, Mayor Guiani-Sayadi said she hopes the interim government will consider absorbing the ARMM central office employees into the BARMM.

"Yung expertise nung mga taong yan, yung mga trainings, skills that they have, dapat kinonsider din yon. More so nasa transition period. Hindi mo pwedeng hanapin yung galing ng mga taong yan," she said.

[Translation: The expertise of these employees, the trainings and skills they have should have been considered. More so in the transition period. You cannot find the talent these people have.]

The BOL will institutionalize the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the peace deal between the government and MILF signed in 2014, which aims to put an end to the decades-old conflict in Mindanao.A Sallins-based canal vessel has become the first houseboat in Ireland to receive Failte Irelands approval as self catering holiday accommodation. The endorsement of the State tourism agency came under the welcome standard which recognises the most innovative, unusual and quirky places to stay in Ireland.

Since the Roisin Dubh houseboat opened its wheelhouse doors in March, visitors from around the world have stayed on-board, including folk from America, the UK, South Africa as well as Ireland. It is being promoted internationally by Failte Ireland and the owners are expecting 200 visitors a year to choose Sallins as a short stay holiday destination.

A view of the interior

The Roisin Dubh is the former family home of the bargetrip.ie owners, Ger Loughlin and Carolina Manthei, who lived aboard and traveled the inland waterways with their children for 10 years.

Ger hails from Naas and is member of a well known local family. He attended Naas CBS. Brother Brendan operates Brendan's Running Club and has been synonymous with the Naas town 10km event since its inauguration four years ago.

The new venture is an extension of the bargetrip.ie business that operates a passenger barge service on the Grand Canal in Sallins that is now taking more than six thousand passengers a year on its Grand Canal cruises.

It offers self catering floatel accommodation for up to six people. The houseboat was designed for living, feels spacious and is ideal for families, groups of friends and couples looking for a romantic getaway.

Sallins is emerging as something of a tourist destination in Co. Kildare. "It was once a busy trading harbour on the Grand Canal where barges began carrying passengers and goods from the small Kildare village in 1780. Today it is home to award winning waterfront restaurants and bars, a large variety of boats, barges and houseboats, a brewery and a passenger barge offering canal cruises in the area," said Ger.A talk on how concerned Dutch citizens bought up Irish boglands and gifted them to the nation will take place this weekend.

Peat Crossing Borderlines will be held at the Bog of Allen Nature Centre in Lullymore on Saturday next, July 28, from 7.30pm to celebrate International Bog Day.

Dutch people started to buy Irish bogs in 1987. The inspiration came from Matthijs Schouten  a student from the Netherlands who was studying Irish bogs as part of his Doctoral thesis. The Netherlands were the first country in Europe to cut away all of their bogs. Like Ireland peat was extracted for fuel.

Matthijs was shocked when he started visiting Irish bogs to find that the machines were already removing the wildlife and cutting peat industrially. He was afraid that Ireland was heading in the same direction the Dutch had years before  the road to peatland extinction.

READ ALSO: Kildare brewer makes 5,000-year-old Egyptian beer for British Museum

To capture the imagination of the Irish people and to justify the Dutch people telling Irish people to conserve bogs he launched a campaign to purchase three bogs in three years in Ireland. These bogs were handed over to the Irish government so that they would be protected for the Irish People and were designated as National Nature Reserves.

On Sunday, July 29, a special bog tour will leave from the Bog of Allen Nature Centre at 9.30am and will visit Scragh Bog, Co. Westmeath and Girley Bog in Co. Meath.

Scragh Bog, Co. Westmeath was the first bog purchased by the Dutch.

Professor Matthijs Schouten from the Dutch Foundation for the Conservation of Irish Bogs said about the importance of Irelands peatlands on a European level: We will never be able to recreate a bog in Holland, because even with 10 million Euros you cannot get a bog back. Bogs have disappeared all over western Europe, the last intact bogs are in Ireland.

To learn more about the Dutch-Irish Save the Bog Story visit www.ipcc.ie.

The Peat Crossing Borderlines is a free event and is open to the public but booking is essential. Places on the Sunday Bog Tour (29th July) will be limited due to travel requirements so seats will be allocated on a first come first served basis. To learn more about the event or to book your place please contact: Katie Geraghy at bogs@ipcc.ie or call 045 860133.There is major concern for the future of GP led primary care in Carrigallen with no permanent doctor positioned to replace retiring Dr Antoinette Gregan.



Dr Gregan has been practicing in Carrigallen since 1985 and expanded the primary care centre offering a full time trusted medical service to the large area.

Dr Gregan will retire from the practice in mid-August, just three weeks away and despite giving plenty of notice to the HSE, there is no permanent solution in place.

The HSE have confirmed they will have a locum in Carrigallen for mid- August, but there is no plan to have a permanent HSE GP in place.



Cllr Paddy O'Rourke said the situation is very serious and the local community are concerned about the service and any possible threat to downgrade a necessary and busy health service.

O'Rourke explained to the Observer that the HSE were notified about the retirement of Dr Gregan in March this year, yet it was the end of May before the position was advertised. The application date was extended and two people expressed anan interest, they were invited to interview but they declined to attend.

O'Rourke said the HSE have no plan in place to attract a permanent doctor to the area.



He said the HSE are under obligation to find a locum but there could be a break in service as the same locum may not be in place week after week.

Cllr ORourke said he is awaiting a response from the HSE on their plans but he did acknowledge there is a shortage of doctors in Ireland.

Dr Antoinette Gregan works from the primary care centre in Carrigallen, the centre covers a large area taking in Newtowngore, Arva, Killeshandra and into Loch Gowna Co Cavan.



ORourke said the full time practice is busy and patients experience long waits to see the doctor.

He said there are two receptionists and a part time nurse employed at the centre.

Cllr O'Rourke explained that the community are concerned they may see a plethora of locums, interrupting a previously smooth service.

Also read: Concern about possible downgrade of Cavan General HospitalSenator Frank Feighan said he puts all of his support and that of the North Roscommon vote behind Gerry Reynolds as he starts his own bid to retain his Seanad seat.



Boyle Senator Frank Feighan said he withdrew his name from the Fine Gael convention last Thursday night because I knew I didnt have the votes to go up against a candidate from South Leitrim.

Feighan who was very popular as a TD in the Ballinamore and Leitrim area said he will ask the National Executive to add him as a third candidate. But he admitted to the Leitrim Observer the chances are very unlikely, we have a very good two person strategy.



Feighan who is good friends with Mr Reynolds said he instructed his North Roscommon members to vote for him and he is very confident the Fine Gael vote in North Roscommon will flow to the Carrick-on-Shannon businessman in the General Election.

North Roscommon was only added to the Sligo/ Leitrim constituency which includes a part of South Donegal over 12 months ago.

Feighan said this move, put him on the back foot as it was pointless trying to recruit new members for a convention vote as you have to be a party member for two years.



Feighan said Reynolds is in a strong position and both candidates are expected to be elected. Mr Feighan said he doesn't see a General Election being called until the Government announce their third budget.

Feighan said he will now set his sights on getting re-elected or selected into Seanad Eireann.

The Boyle man spends a lot of time in London on the British Irish Assembly where Brexit is the main topic.

He said the position from the UK is deeply concerning for Irish interests but Ireland will be holding strong on the border issue.



Leitrim and the border counties are particularly vulnerable in the fallout of Brexit and Feighan said he is keeping this area in his focus.

Feighan paid tribute to Deputy Tony McLoughlin, who is stepping down after 40 years of public service.

30 people protested outside the convention last week over a number of failures blamed on the Government.

Also read: Majority FG vote gives Reynolds confidence for General ElectionDrumshanbo is the place to be this week with thousands expected to attend the Joe Mooney Summer School along with the opening of the first waterpark in the Northwest.



The new Blueway Waterpark opened on Monday, July 23 after being the talk of the county for the past few weeks.

The floating waterpark on Lough Allen is expected to attract a huge amount of visitors to the county as well as help curb any talk of boredom amongst young and old in Leitrim this Summer.

The park is open seven days a week until September 30 and is made up of 1600 square meters of inflatable trampolines, obstacles, slides, logs, bongo blobs, cliff jumps and rope swings.

Children from six years plus are welcome and the park will also offer Stand Up Paddle boards.



Tom Cronin one of the business partners of the project said they are delighted with massive interest they have received in the waterpark. Tom was happy to report that day one ran smooth. A group of children from St Michael's GAA club, Cootehall were among the first to get wet and experience the thrills of the park.

18-20 people have been employed at the waterpark on a seasonal contract.

Tom told the paper, they had expected to open sooner but were held up in the planning system, he believes the waterpark will enhance the Blueway experience, Drumshanbo and Leitrim as a whole.

He added the park is affordable for all the family and can take up to 2 hours to complete between preparation, safety instruction and orientation of the waterpark. Participants do not need to know how to swim as they will be fitted with lifejackets and buoyancy aids. He also said the park is not weather dependant, as you are going to get wet anyway!



The annual Joe Mooney Summer School has over 1,500 students booked in for tutoring, people come from all over the world for the high calibre tutors in traditional Irish music, song and dance.

The festival is so memorable that pupils and fans of Irish traditional music return year after year to Drumshanbo to learn from the best and practice their skills.

On top of the Summer School the Joe Mooney festival attracts thousands for a host of events, activities and good craic sessions.

Local Councillors congratulated both ventures this week.



For more information on events in Drumshanbo this week visit: www.joemooneysummerschool.com or

www.bluewaywaterpark.ie#

Also read: Music and more at Joe Mooney Summer SchoolThis weekend (Friday 27th, July and Saturday, 28th July) the SIPTU Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon (SLR) District Council are set to mark the centenary of womens suffrage at the 2nd Annual Markievicz/Partridge seminar in Lissadell House, Co Sligo.

SIPTU Honorary President, Padraig Peyton, said: This event is being organised by our Sligo, Leitrim and Roscommon District Council members to mark 100 years of the achievements made by women in the Irish trade union movement and politics. Markievicz has a very important association with our union. Our annual summer school is designed to recognise the contribution she made to the trade union movement, Irish freedom and women in politics.

He added: Constance Markievicz has inspired countless disenfranchised women to get involved in politics and activism down the years so it is also fitting that we tell the story of these women at our annual Markievicz/Partridge seminar.

SIPTU SLR District Council Vice Chair, Anja Boger, said: As a district council, we are so proud to host such a special event for the working class women and men of the north west region. There is a longstanding and deep bond between Constance Markievicz and the people of the North West. Lissadell House is her ancestral home and this weekend we intend to honour our common bond on the centenary of her election to parliament.

Among the confirmed speakers over the two days are Head of SIPTU College, Tish Gibbons, Labour Historian, Therese Moriarty, Minister for State at the Department of Education Mary Mitchell O Connor TD and the owner of Lissadell House, Constance Cassidy.THE teenage son of a convicted murderer has been refused bail after he appeared in court charged with serious firearms offences.

The now 16-year-old, who cant be named for legal reasons, is accused of suspicious possession of a sawn-off double-barrelled Beretta shotgun and a quantity of ammunition on February 9, 2017.

The weapon, which had been stolen from a house in Dublin two years earlier, was found hidden behind the fireplace of a vacant house in Ballinacurra Weston. The property was owned by Limerick City and County Council.

It is alleged that when questioned at the time, the defendant told gardai he had the gun for his own protection but would not elaborate any further.

Opposing bail, Detective Garda Barry Moylan said the defendant, who was 14 at the time of the alleged offence, was arrested in recent days after gardai encountered him by chance.

He said gardai believe the teenager left the jurisdiction sometime last summer  before he could be charged  and that a European Arrest Warrant was issued earlier this year.

He has actively sought to evade the charges, he said.

The detective told Judge Marian OLeary that gardai have concerns the youth will return to the UK and will not stand trial if released.

Inspector Paul Reidy said a file was prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions following the seizure and that she has directed that the matter proceed on indictment at the circuit court.

Solicitor Sarah Ryan said while there is a complex family dynamic her clients mother would ensure he attends court.

Hes a good child, he respects me, the woman told the court.

Being questioned by Insp Reidy, the woman said she did not know where in the UK her son had been living and that she did not know how long he was back in Ireland before his arrest.

Refusing bail, Judge OLeary said she was concerned by aspects of the womans evidence.

She said she was satisfied the youth is a flight risk and that it would not be appropriate to release him.

The 16-year-old was remanded to Oberstown Children Detention Campus in Dublin pending the completion of the book of evidence.A NEW report has shown more than a 30% increase in job vacancies in Limerick over the past 12 months.

Limerick job vacancies grew by 32% year on year, according to the Q2 2018 edition of the IrishJobs.ie Jobs Index, published this Tuesday.

National job vacancies in Q2 2018 grew by 7% year-on-year and by 1% quarter-on-quarter.

Overall job availability remains high nationally. Hotel and catering jobs dominated vacancies in Q2 2018  27% of all vacancies, +11% YoY  while the accountancy and finance sector, having declined in 2017, mounted a recovery in Q2, making up 6% of all job vacancies.

A recent industry survey showed that a majority of Limerick hoteliers are seeing an upturn in business.

However, IrishJobs.ie cautioned against the overall risk of Brexit to the future growth of Irelands economy.

The same problems apparent in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 EU referendum are still apparent in 2018, said Orla Moran of IrishJobs.ie.

We do not know under what conditions businesses in the Republic of Ireland will be able to trade with or sell to businesses and consumers in Britain or even in Northern Ireland. So long as Brexit is an unknown quantity, job creation could stagnate in some parts of the economy.

Irelands decade-long journey from deep recession to rapid growth is a testament to the benefits of an open economy and a business-friendly government.

To maintain this upwards trajectory, and guard against major risks like Brexit, industry and policymakers must work to repair the chinks in Irelands armour, namely by ensuring we meet the skills requirements of a modern economy, and by providing the structural prerequisites for enterprise and job creation in regions outside the capital.SIX Limerick schools who are among the first schools in the country to offer Physical Education and Computer Science as Leaving Certificate subjects are set to receive grants to support the rollout of the courses.

The Department of Education has now announced 450,000 in grants to 104 secondary schools around the country which will implement PE and Computer Science as exam subjects this September.

John The Baptist Community School in Hospital, Colaiste Mhuire in Askeaton, Colaiste Ide agus Iosaef in Abbeyfeale, Villiers Secondary School and Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh are among the first schools to offer PE for the Leaving Cert, with Colaiste Chiarain in Croom among the first to offer Computer Science.

We know how important it is to be physically active and engage in sports, not only for our physical health but also as a means to encourage team building, develop confidence and for our mental health, Education Minister Richard Bruton said.

The introduction of Computer Science as a Leaving Certificate subject is part of our ambition to make Ireland a STEM leader among our European colleagues.

The experience of these two new subjects will inform both the national rollout of these subjects but also, the possibility of incorporating digital technology more widely in the assessment of other subjects.

The schools offering PE for the Leaving Cert will receive a grant towards the purchase of digital devices for use by students in completing the course assessment, as well for hardware required for uploading of material.

A grant of 350 per digital device will be payable, with one device for every two students who takes up the subject in September 2018. A payment of 750 per school will also be made for the uploading hardware.

Schools offering Computer Science will receive a grant of 3,000 towards the purchase of digital connector devices.

Physical education as an exam subject focuses on both theory and practice, including a written assessment worth 50% of students overall grade, plus a physical activity project and performance assessment.

Computer Science for Leaving Certificate will focus on the application of programming and computational thinking to the solution of problems, and the impact of computing technology.A TASKFORCE is urging people to bin their gum as part of a litter campaign launched in Limerick.

Mayor of Limerick City and County Cllr James Collins launched the Gum Litter Taskforces gum litter education campaign in Bedford Row along with Helen ODonnell, the Chair of Limerick Tidy Towns.

The campaign encourages correct gum disposal through a targeted education awareness campaign, which Mayor Collins hailed as a fantastic initiative for communities to get involved in.

Each year, we see communities coming together with the common aim of reducing the level of littered gum within their respective localities. The campaign has achieved positive results to date in this regard, and I hope this years campaign will continue to further build on those results, he said.

The Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) includes representatives of the chewing gum industry; Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment; Food Drink Ireland; local authority representatives and civic society.

The theme of the campaign is Bin your gum when youre done and chairman Paul Kelly said it endeavours to educate people on the proper manner in which to dispose of their used gum.

Beginning in 2007, the campaign has seen sustained and marked progress in changing peoples attitudes to littered gum which has in turn positively impacted upon behavioural patterns when it comes to gum disposal, he said.

As ever, we are committed to continuing efforts to eradicate gum from our streets entirely. Todays national launch marks an important part of a wider nationwide campaign which also includes a national advertising campaign and a schools education programme, Bin It!

Katherine Hogan, Corporate Affairs Director, Mars Ireland said: Mars Ireland and Wrigley are delighted once more to be part of such a successful campaign. Although the GLT is funded by industry, it could not have achieved the level of success to date without the active and enthusiastic participation of local authorities up and down the country to whom we are very grateful.THE County Limerick winner of over 111,000 still has not made contact with the National Lottery.

A spokesperson confirmed to the Limerick Leader this Wednesday that there had been absolutely no word following the win of 111,271 in the Saturday, July 14 draw.

The winning ticket was bought at the Gala store on Sheares Street, Kilmallock.

The ticket matched five numbers plus the bonus in the Lotto draw. The winning numbers are: 5, 16, 37, 43, 44, 46 and Bonus number 7.

It is likely that either the ticket hasnt been checked or the winner is keeping their head down.

Rumours have been swirling in the town of Kilmallock about the identity of the winner, with the talk that it is a local.

Darragh Neill, who runs the Gala store on Sheares Street with his business partner Eoghan Higgins, told the Leader last week that there are a couple of different rumours going around. People are coming in every few minutes asking who bought it, wondering what they will buy with it and saying what they would do if they were to win it.

Its the first winning ticket to be sold by the current owners since they took over the store four years ago.

We actually heard about it from the Limerick Leaders Facebook page at about 8.45am on Sunday morning - that was the first I had heard about it. Ye knew about it before we knew about it, Darragh smiled.

By 9.30am more and more people were asking a lot more questions about it - people were in and out constantly asking about it. One customer said he buys a ticket every Saturday and it was the one weekend he didnt buy it because he was away.

It is the third big National Lottery win in Limerick in the last month. A two-person syndicate scooped the mega Lotto jackpot worth 4.3m from the draw on June 2. That golden ticket was sold at Whittys Mace supermarket in Caherdavin.

And Limerick man Shane Philip Maher won 500,000 on the EuroMillions last week  which he has yet to collect in Dublin.GARDAI in Limerick are appealing for information following an unusual crime on the southside of the city.

The keys of a silver Nissan Juke car, which had been left in the ignition, were stolen in an early morning incident - but not the car itself.

According to gardai, the owner left his car running for a short time as he returned to his home. The incident happened last Thursday at Ryans Cottages, Rosbrien at around 8.36am.

"He left the ignition running and went back inside his house for a number of minutes. When he returned, the ignition had been switched off and the key stolen - but not the jeep. Just the key had been stolen," said a garda spokesperson.

Roxboro Road Gardai are investigating and can be contacted on 061 214340.

Meanwhile, a purse was taken from a parked car by an opportunistic thief, gardai said.

The purse was taken from a car which was parked in the city centre at lunchtime last Saturday.

The incident happened at around 1pm at William Street.

The car was an Audi A4 which was grey in colour. Unfortunately a window had been left down and an opportunistic thief took the purse which had been left on a seat. If you were around William St last Saturday at lunch time , you may have noticed this purse being take, said Garda John Finnerty.

Gardai from Henry Street are investigating and can be reached at 061-212400.ARMED gardai pursued a high-powered car for more than 17 kilometres after the occupants were seen dropping off a suspected firearm at a house in a County Limerick village.

Details of the pursuit were revealed during the sentencing hearing of three men who have admitted possession of a sawn-off shotgun at a house at main Street, Bruff on February 26, 2017.

Gangland figure, Gerard Dundon, aged 32, who has addresses in London and at Hyde Road, Limerick has pleaded guilty to possession of a restricted firearm without a licence as well as multiple road traffic charges relating to the pursuit.

Liam Lika Casey, aged 35, of Hyde Road, Limerick has also pleaded guilty to possession of a restricted firearm without a licence while another man  Robert Kelly, aged 31, who has an address in Edenderry, County Offaly  has pleaded guilty to possession of the pump-action shotgun for an unlawful purpose.

Giving evidence this Wednesday, Detective Garda David Bourke said a garda surveillance operation had been put in place in Bruff after confidential information was received.

He told Shane Costello SC, prosecuting, the defendants were observed arriving in Bruff at around 10.30am.

They parked near a house where Casey was living at the time and were observed bringing an object into the house before leaving the area.

The shotgun, which was rusty and not functional, was later recovered wrapped in a plastic at a derelict shed at the rear of an adjacent property.

Judge Tom ODonnell was told members of the armed Regional Support Unit attempted to stop the black Audi A8 as it left Bruff and that a high speed pursuit continued into the Dooradoyle area the city where the driver  Dundon  lost control and struck another car.

CCTV footage of the pursuit was played in court with Detective Garda Bourke describing the driving as reckless in the extreme.

Lawyers for all three men urged the court to consider their clients guilty pleas when imposing sentence while in the case of Mr Kelly it was accepted that he fully co-operated with gardai and made admissions relating to his own involvement in the incident.

Andrew Sexton SC said Gerard Dundon, who has more than 100 previous convictions, intends returning to the UK after his release and hopes to leave the turmoil behind him.

Judge ODonnell, who adjourned sentencing to October, was told the DPP has placed the firearms offence in the mid range.A LIMERICK woman with cervical cancer has initiated High Court action for damages against the Health Service Executive and two laboratories.

Ruth Morrissey, 37, and her husband Paul, of Schoolhouse Road, Monaleen, claim that smear tests that were carried out on her were wrongly reported as being normal.

The smear tests were carried in 2009 and 2012.

According to RTE, Ms Morrissey said she was not told about this incorrect reporting until earlier this year, despite the fact that the HSE knew about it as long ago as 2014.

Ms Morrissey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in May 2014 and it recurred this year.

It is the first High Court hearing since Annacotty woman Vicky Phelan settled her case against US laboratory, Clinical Pathology Laboratories, in Texas, for 2.5m this April.

Her lawyers said the failure to correctly report the previous smear tests had devastating consequences for Mr and Mrs Morrissey and their seven-year-old daughter, RTE reported this Wednesday.

She and her husband are claiming negligence and breach of duty on the part of the HSE, US-based laboratory Quest diagnostics and Irish laboratory Medlab Pathology.

Mr Maher said these results proved to be incorrect. In May 2014, Mrs Morrissey went to her GP and was urgently referred to hospital and cervical cancer was diagnosed, it was reported.Grave robbers had about 1,800 years to steal the precious gold jewelry buried with a noblewoman on the Greek island of Sikinos. So, what allowed the noblewoman  named  (Neko), according to a Greek inscription on her grave  to rest in peace for so long?

She had an exceptionally well-hidden grave, which Greek archaeologists just recently discovered, archaeologists said.

Grave robbers hit other ancient burials on Sikinos, which is part of the Cyclades island group. But they missed Neko's grave because it's concealed in a blind spot between two walls in the basement of a Byzantine church and a monastery, Demetrios Athanasoulis, director of the antiquities department (or ephorate) for the Cyclades, told Reuters. [Photos: Ancient Treasures Discovered in Cyprus Tomb Complex]

But Neko wasn't always buried in a monastery. When she died 1,800 years ago, she was buried next to a Roman burial monument. Her grave was filled with lavish treasures, including golden wristbands, rings, and a long, golden necklace, as well as a carved female figure, glass and metal vases and clothing, Reuters reported.

The archaeological site where the noblewoman Neko is buried. (Image credit: Thanos Kartsoglou/Greek Culture Ministry)

Neko was buried in a rectangular grave within a vault at the Episkopi monument, a rare memorial from the Roman period. Until now, archaeologists didn't know whom this memorial, or mausoleum, was meant to honor.

"We were unexpectedly lucky," Athanasoulis told Reuters. "This is Neko's mausoleum."

"It's very rare," he added. "A monument, one of the Aegean's most impressive, has got an identity. We now have the person for whom the building was built; we have her remains, her name."

This monument was later transformed into the Byzantine church and a monastery.

Even though Neko was buried on Sikinos, southeast of Athens, it's not clear if Neko lived there during her lifetime.

"We are now trying to find out more about her," Athanasoulis said. "We are still at the beginning."

Archaeologists excavate Neko's grave. (Image credit: Thanos Kartsoglou/Greek Culture Ministry)

Original article on Live Science.Telling time precisely is important; it gets you up in the morning and coordinates everything from air travel to the GPS system. And if you do it well enough, you can even use it to navigate outer space.

But telling time is also a major technical challenge. Every clock in the world is inaccurate to some degree. Whatever technology your wristwatch uses to mark the future ticking away into the past, those ticks will be imperfectly measured. Every once in a while, a fraction of a second gets lost. Even atomic clocks  which measure time by observing the ultraprecise oscillations of individual atoms and make up the world's official timekeepers  are imperfect, which is why researchers are always striving to build one that's a bit more accurate than any that have been built before. And now, for the first time, a team of Chinese researchers has figured out how to make one of the most precise atomic-clock technologies currently available work in space.

In a paper published today (July 24) in the journal Nature Communications, a team of researchers from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences officially announced that they had successfully operated a cold atomic clock for more than 15 months in orbit aboard the now-defunct Chinese space station Tiangong-2. (The accomplishment was originally reported in Science magazine in September 2017, when a version of the paper went live in the preprint journal arXiv before it went through peer review and the formal publication process.) [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

Cold atomic clocks, which work by laser-cooling atoms to near absolute zero before measuring their oscillations, can be more precise, because at very low temperatures, these "ticks" are more consistent. But actually getting atoms to those temperatures is very difficult on Earth, let alone in the confines of a spacecraft.

Cold atomic clocks measure the vibrations of atoms while they're in free fall so that they aren't interacting with anything else. On Earth, that requires constantly nudging an atom up so that it can be measured while it's falling through the detector.

Researchers have managed to make atoms ultracold in free fall before, the team wrote in the paper. But that meant more or less tossing the experiment into the air and letting it fall.

"These methods provide a microgravity environment ranging from several seconds (drop tower, parabolic flight) to several minutes (sounding rocket)," they wrote in the study.

It's difficult to make such a device function in orbit, the researchers wrote, because it has to be much smaller than its counterparts on Earth, pass the safety tests necessary to launch into space, work in microgravity, shield itself against cosmic radiation  and do all that without any quantum physicists on hand to make adjustments if anything were to go wrong.

But space-bound cold atomic clocks do have some advantages, the researchers wrote. Most important, they can study the atomic oscillations over much longer periods. In microgravity, the atom can stay in place longer, allowing for a longer period of measurement.

As Science reported in 2017, researchers with the European Space Agency (ESA) said Tiangong-2's cold atomic clock was not as precise as it could have been. But ESA's clock  which, in theory, would be more precise  has faced delays and has never actually gone up into space.

Originally published on Live Science.A new blood test approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to detect brain injuries might reduce the number of potentially unnecessary brain scans, according to a new study.

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)  which can range from relatively mild conditions (such as a concussion) to severe ones (such as bleeding in the brain)  can be difficult to diagnose. One way to diagnose the injuries is a CT scan, but these imaging tests can be very costly and expose patients to radiation.

In the new study, published July 24 in the journal The Lancet Neurology, the researchers argue that the blood test could reduce the number of unnecessary CT scans performed on patients suspected of having a TBI. However, several experts told Live Science that they weren't convinced the new test would be a significant boon to patients. [3D Images: Exploring the Human Brain]

The blood test, which was developed by Banyan Biomarkers Inc., works by looking for two proteins that indicate brain injury has occurred, according to the study. The proteins, called UCH-L1 and GFAP, are thought to be released mostly with brain injuries. (The company also provided funding for the study.)

The new study details the clinical trial that led the FDA to approve the test  the first of its kind to be approved in the U.S., though a similar test is already widely used in Europe. The clinical trial, which ran from 2012 to 2014, included nearly 2,000 patients with suspected brain injuries at 22 sites in Europe and the U.S. The patients in the trial had both the blood test and a CT scan within 12 hours of their injury (when the two proteins are most elevated). The blood test indicated a positive result if either one or both proteins were above a certain threshold and a negative result if both were below the limit.

The CT scan was used in the trial as the "gold standard" for determining how well the blood test found such injuries. The researchers found that the blood test had a nearly 98-percent specificity. In other words, it missed very few injuries. The blood test "missed" only three patients who'd had a CT scan that indicated injury but also had a negative blood-test result.

The findings suggest that the blood test could reduce the number of CT scans by 35 percent, said study co-author Dr. Robert Welch, an emergency-medicine physician and professor of emergency medicine at Wayne State University, in Detroit.

In practice, the idea would be to draw blood from patients who have a suspected TBI and for doctors to use the results to decide whether to proceed with a CT scan, Welch told Live Science. (He noted that, while there are guidelines for when doctors should order a CT scan for a patient, the guidelines arent clear-cut and can be misinterpreted. As a result, many more CT scans are ordered than are necessary, Welch said.)

Still, not everyone is convinced that this blood test is necessary or that it will make a difference in the emergency room.

Is this blood test necessary?

Dr. Adam Sharp, an emergency-medicine physician and research scientist at Kaiser Permanente in California, who was not part of the study, said he agrees with a commentary that was published alongside the study. In the commentary, other researchers argued that the value of having such a blood test in clinical practice would be small, or even absent. [10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain]

"I strongly question how the blood test could improve [emergency room] care, costs or efficiency," Sharp told Live Science in an email. If physicians just used the guidelines put in place for when to do a CT scan, then the patients "would avoid the unnecessary blood tests and might go home safely without any further testing."

The only people who would benefit from the broad use of these blood tests would be the developers who profit from it, Sharp added. "As of now, I would not recommend the added costs and inconvenience of drawing blood, when a decision rule (the guidelines) can perform the same," he said.

Dr. Edward Melnick, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Yale University who was also not involved with the research, said that he thought the study was interesting but that it's not likely to change emergency care  at least in the short term.

"Since we already have high-performing clinical decision rules for [diagnosing TBI], diagnostic biomarkers do not add much to the literature," Melnick told Live Science. However, because the blood test is an "objective" measure that doesn't rely on doctors' guidelines, it could be preferable to patients and doctors, he added.

Welch, however, noted that his team's results demonstrated that the blood test could reduce CT scans by 35 percent compared with "usual care" practices, thus proving the value of the test. What's more, the study included only patients whose doctors thought a CT scan was necessary, he added. And the decision rules in place can miss minor bleeds, whereas the blood test would catch those in addition to bigger injuries, he said.

Still, Welch said that the turnaround time for the test results needs improvement. "For this test to be useful, it can't be a test that takes 2 or 4 hours," he said. "When I see a patient in the emergency department, I have to make a decision relatively quickly of if I have to scan them or not." That decision should be on the order of minutes, not hours, he said.

Welch hopes that this blood test, with such improvements, can be made available to patients by 2019, or by 2020 at the latest.

Originally published on Live Science.(Inside Science)  A parasite that infects some 30 to 50 percent of the world's human population may subtly prompt people to start businesses, according to a new study. The association with entrepreneurship may be a side effect of the parasite's real goal: getting its host, typically a mouse or rat, eaten by a cat.

A mind-bending parasite

Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite that can live in many kinds of animals, although it can only reproduce sexually in the gut of a domestic or wild cat. In the typical scenario, cats excrete an egg-like form of the parasite in their feces, and mice or rats become infected from contact with contaminated soil. The parasites then reproduce asexually in the rodent's body, eventually entering an inactive lifecycle stage in which they are known as bradyzoites  dormant cells encapsulated in cysts in the brain and other tissues.

The cysts manipulate rodents' behavior for their own ends. While normal rodents avoid cats, infected mice and rats lose their fear of the predators, and some actually become attracted to feline odors.

Humans can get infected either through contact with cat feces or by eating under-cooked, cyst-ridden meat. The disease is dangerous to people with AIDS, and if women become infected while pregnant, it can harm their fetuses. But in most cases, the only obvious effect is a brief flu-like illness. People assume they have gotten better, unaware that parasites still lurk in their bodies.

"You might call them quiescent. But they're definitely alive," said Kevin Lafferty, a parasite ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who was not involved in the study. "[The cysts] might be in your brain by the millions, and they are full of little bradyzoites."

More stories from Inside Science about parasites and their hosts:

Since humans are a dead end for the parasites (except possibly in rare cases involving man-eating lions), the parasites probably haven't evolved to manipulate human behavior specifically. However, human brains bear many similarities to mouse brains, so the same mechanisms that evolved to lead mice into a cat's jaws may also have some accidental effect on humans.

Indeed, evidence has been mounting that quiescent or "latent" infections may affect people's minds. Studies have found that infected people are more likely to get into traffic accidents, to develop schizophrenia, to abuse alcohol, to commit suicide, and to make various kinds of risky decisions. Infection has also been linked to certain personality traits, including aggression in women and a disregard for rules in men.

The findings aren't always consistent, so some researchers are keeping an open mind. For example, when Karen Sugden, a biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and her colleagues examined personality and neuropsychiatric traits in 837 subjects, they found virtually no difference between infected and non-infected people. "It could be that we just didn't find it in that study, or it could be that things have been over-hyped," said Sugden. "I'll let the evidence speak for itself as time goes on."

And even if infected people really do differ from non-infected people, existing studies can't prove that those differences are caused by Toxoplasma. It's possible that both the infections themselves and the behaviors measured in the studies are driven by some third factor, such as pre-existing personality traits that make people more likely to encounter cat feces.

But controlled experiments in rats and mice clearly show that Toxoplasma changes rodents' behavior by altering chemical messengers and DNA expression in their brains. The rodent evidence adds weight to the idea that the parasite might change human behavior as well, said Lafferty.

Catching the business bug

In the new study, the researchers reasoned that if Toxoplasma makes people more risk-prone, those tendencies might extend to decisions about whether to start a company. New businesses require huge investments of time and money, and most fail without ever paying off.

"Lots of people have business ideasbut don't follow through with actually starting a business because of that fear of failing," said Stefanie Johnson, a psychologist and business professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and first author of the study. "What I really expect is going on is that [Toxoplasma] is just reducing that natural fear."

To test this idea, the research team  which included Johnson's husband, Pieter Johnson, a disease ecologist also at the University of Colorado Boulder  first sampled saliva from nearly 1,500 college students and tested it for Toxoplasmaantibodies. Since Toxoplasma is thought to remain in people's bodies indefinitely, people who appear healthy and have antibodies to the parasite are assumed to have latent infections.

Compared to uninfected students, infected students were about 1.4 times as likely to major in business. Infected business majors were also 1.7 times as likely as uninfected business majors to have an emphasis in management and entrepreneurship, rather than safer fields such as accounting, according to the authors.

Next, the researchers sampled saliva from 197 people attending entrepreneurship events such as social meetups and university lectures. All of these people had shown interest in entrepreneurship just by showing up at the events, but the infected ones were 1.8 times more likely to have actually taken the plunge and started their own company.

Finally, the researchers used previously collected data to compare Toxoplasmainfection and entrepreneurship in 42 different countries. Infection rates vary widely around the world, from around 9 percent in Norway to around 60 percent in Brazil. The researchers found that in countries with high infection rates, people were more likely to report that they ran their own business or planned to start one, and less likely to report that they held back out of fear of failure.

"The relationship between Toxoplasma prevalence and entrepreneurial presence at the country level is really profound, because we're saying that the existence of a parasite  a microorganism  can affect a country's economic foundation," wrote Johnson in an email to Inside Science. The study was published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The findings came as no surprise to Jaroslav Flegr, an evolutionary biologist and parasitologist at Charles University in Prague who has studied Toxoplasmaextensively but was not involved in the new study. Some of the behaviors shown by infected people may actually be related to the parasite harming people's health, as latent infection has been associated with increased risk of various ailments such as cancer and heart disease, Flegr noted. But, he said, other differences may be the direct result of parasitic cysts in people's brains.

"I think that this parasite is extremely important, and it can influence many aspects of our life," said Flegr. People resist this idea, he said, because "it's difficult to accept that your behavior and your mind are strongly influenced by some stupid parasite."

Inside Science News Service is supported by the American Institute of Physics. Alexander Hellemans is a freelance science writer who has written for Science, Nature, Scientific American, and many others.When Petunia, a 13-year-old pug, began having trouble walking and controlling her bladder and bowels, her owners wanted to get to the bottom of the cause. So they bought a direct-to-consumer $65 genetic test specifically for dogs. The results were shocking: Petunia (not her real name) carried a mutation linked to a neurodegenerative condition similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease).

To save their beloved dog from suffering progressive and irreversible paralysis before dying (as happens with this ALS-like disease), the owners had Petunia "put to sleep."

Now, scientists are saying that Petunia might not have even developed the disease. In fact, as few as 1 in 100 dogs with the mutation develop the rare disease, research shows. Moreover, Petunia's symptoms were consistent with a more-treatable spinal disorder, say scientists who are urging pet owners to steer clear of consumer DNA testing for the purposes of making medical decisions for their furry family members. [20 Weird Dog and Cat Behaviors Explained by Science]

That's because scientists are far from understanding the mysteries of dog genetics, said the authors of the article, published online today (July 25) in the journal Nature.

"Genetics is a really powerful, new tool, but it really is a new tool, and we don't understand what it means yet," study senior author Elinor Karlsson, an assistant professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, told Live Science.

Petunia's case isn't an isolated one, said study co-author Dr. Lisa Moses, a veterinarian at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center and a research fellow of bioethics at Harvard Medical School. More vets and pet owners are now relying on genetic testing results "to make pretty important medical decisions about their pets, including truly life-and-death decisions," Moses told Live Science.

Spotty science

Even though the science behind doggy genetic testing is lagging, the market is booming. Worldwide, there are at least 19 laboratories that market genetic-testing products for dogs, the authors said. These tests often cost less than $200 and claim to reveal the genetic risk for more than 100 diseases. One U.S. veterinary hospital chain even recommends genetic testing for all dogs, claiming the tests can inform "individualized health care" and guide behavioral training for each pooch, the authors wrote in the perspective piece.

But to tease apart which mutation or combination of mutations can lead to health conditions, scientists must run huge genetic-testing studies with tens of thousands of participants, Karlsson said. Despite this, most of the pooch-related research is based on small, underpowered studies, she and her colleagues said. [How Do DNA Ancestry Tests Really Work?]

"Neither their accuracy nor their ability to predict health outcomes has been validated," the authors wrote in the perspective. "Most vets don't know enough about the limitations of the studies, or about genetics in general, to be able to advise worried owners."

For example, a genetic study might find that dogs with a medical condition have a specific genetic mutation. But the next step  which most canid researchers have yet to do  is to get a new pool of dogs to test how many with the mutation go on to develop the condition, Karlsson said.

This step would allow researchers to determine "whether, based on that genetic change, you can predict which dogs get the disease," Karlsson said. "That's the piece that we're missing. It's really important if you're going to use [the results] clinically." [7 Diseases You Can Learn About from a Genetic Test]

Standards needed

To improve genetic testing for dogs, the authors recommended several steps that could be implemented immediately. These include sharing studies on pet genetics (right now, most industry studies are private, meaning other researchers can't read and evaluate the results) and training pet genetic counselors who could explain pet test results to vets and pet owners.

The industry should also create a standard methodology for testing dog genetics  for example, outlining how samples should be collected, shipped and analyzed, the authors said. Pet studies should also have a certain number of participants before claims are made about the results, the authors added.

And, if a gene is suspected of increasing the risk for a medical condition, the company could indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 just how serious this risk is, and what the evidence says about it, Karlsson said.

These changes won't benefit only dogs but also human health, because dogs are now being used as models for studying human diseases, such as Alzheimer's and cancer, Karlsson said.

Should you test your pet?

As for whether pet owners should get tests for their dogs or even cats (there are fewer tests for cats, but the field is growing), the researchers said it depends on what kind of person you are. If you take the results with a grain of salt, meaning you realize that they might be an indication but not an absolute picture of your pet's health, then go for it, Karlsson said.

But, if you might see the results as a life-or-death sentence for your pet, then it's probably best to wait for the research to mature, Karlsson said.

Either way, pet owners should be cautious about using these tests to make medical decisions about their pets, Moses said. For now, "the scientific and industry communities need to set up some basic standards to ensure that we know what the tests really mean," Moses said.

Original article on Live Science.Where does Earth's atmosphere end and space begin? According to a new study, it might be just 50 miles above Earth  right about where the blue turns to black in this photo.

Did you feel that? Does it suddenly feel a little bit stuffier in here to you? Does it feel like, I don't know outer space just got 12 miles (20 kilometers) closer?

Nothing actually moved, of course (unless you count the constant and increasing expansion of the universe). But according to a new study published online this week, it might be high time Earthlings shifted our mental and mathematical ideas about where, exactly, Earth's atmosphere ends and outer space begins. [Earth from Above: 101 Stunning Images from Orbit]

If astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell's calculations are correct, the cosmic boundary where the laws of airspace suddenly give way to the laws of orbital space might be a lot closer than we think  a full 12 miles closer than previous estimates suggest.

"The argument about where the atmosphere ends and space begins predates the launch of the first Sputnik," McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrotein his new paper, which will appear in the October issue of the journal Acta Astronautica. "The most widely accepted boundary is the so-called Karman Line, nowadays usually set to be 100 km (62 miles) altitude."

Here's the problem: According to McDowell, that Karman line that many scientists accept today is based on decades of misinterpreted information that doesn't actually take real orbital data into account. Luckily, data is McDowell's business (and his pleasure  in his free time he keeps meticulous records of every rocket launch on Earth) and he knew just where to look to find an evidence-based answer to the question, "Where does space begin?"

A photo taken aboard the International Space Station captures the divisions of Earth's atmospheric layers. The mesosphere is the upper band of blue; at the top of this band (about 50 miles above Earth) orbit is possible. (Image credit: Ron Garan/ NASA)

Where satellites fall

In his new study, McDowell pored over data describing the orbital paths of some 43,000 satellites, which he collected from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which monitors aerospace in the United States and Canada. Most of these satellites were negligible to McDowell's study  they orbited far higher than the proposed Karman line, and were well within the grasp of orbital space.

About 50 of these satellites, however, stood out. While re-entering the atmosphere at the end of their missions, each of these satellites successfully completed at least two full rotations around the Earth at altitudes below 62 miles (100 km). The Soviet Elektron-4 satellite, for example, circled the planet 10 times at around 52 miles (85 km) before tumbling into the atmosphere and burning up in 1997.

It seemed clear from these cases that the physics of space still held sway well below the Karman line. When McDowell used a mathematical model to find the exact point at which various satellites finally broke loose of their orbits and made a fiery return to the atmosphere, he found that this could occur anywhere between 41 to 55 miles (66 and 88 km). Usually though, when a craft dipped below the 50-mile (80 km) mark, there was no hope of escape.

Space: It's closer than you think. (Image credit: Mike Fossum/ NASA)

Astronaut wings

For this reason, McDowell chose 50 miles as the true lower edge of space. The number fit neatly with several other cultural and atmospheric factors, as well. For example, McDowell wrote, in the 1950s, U.S. Air Force pilots were awarded a special set of "astronaut wings" for flying their planes above 50 miles, this being considered the outermost edge of the atmosphere.

Atmospherically, the choice fits, too: The mesopause  the coldest belt of Earth's atmosphere  stretches roughly between 52 and 62 miles above the planet's surface. Here, the atmosphere's chemical composition begins to change drastically and charged particles become more abundant. (In other words, things look a lot spacier.) It's clear that, below the lower edge of the mesopause, Earth's atmophere becomes a stronger force for airborn objects to reckon with, McDowell wrote. [Infographic: Earth's Atmosphere from Top to Bottom]

"It is noteworthy that meteors (traveling much more quickly) usually disintegrate in the 70 -100 km (43 miles to 62 miles) altitude range, adding to the evidence that this is the region where the atmosphere becomes important," McDowell wrote.

So, what does it mean if the boundary between Earth and space is 20 percent lower than is generally accepted? It won't change the way rockets are launched or any other physical interactions with space, McDowell wrote, but it could raise some important political and territorial issues.

The airspace above a given country is generally considered part of that country; outer space, on the other hand, is for everyone. If space is defined as beginning at 62 miles and the U.S. flies an unauthorized satellite at 52 miles over China, for example, that could be (justifiably) construed as an act of military aggression.

For this reason, the U.S. has frequently opposed setting any universal space boundaries. That means that McDowell's proposed 50-mile line probably won't become a legal, universally accepted border anytime soon. Still, if the daily drudge of life on Earth starts to get you down, look up  and take heart that you may be a little bit closer to the heavens than you were last week.

Originally published on Live Science.Carlos Uresti says hes broke.

The lawmaker turned felon doesnt have the money to survive, a Friday court filing says. He literally has no liquid funds to pay for normal necessary monthly living expenses, such as electricity, food, gasoline and insurance.

The disclosure comes just 10 days after Uresti asked a judge to make taxpayers pick up the legal tab for the appeal of his conviction on 11 felony charges.

RELATED: Uresti wants taxpayers to pay for his appeal

The longtime San Antonio Democrat, who faces a 12-year prison sentence over his roles in a now-defunct oil field services company that defrauded investors, now is asking a judge to allow him to start receiving the government pension he earned while serving in the state Legislature for 21 years.

The U.S. attorneys office opposes Urestis request, however, according to a disclosure at the end of his court document. Prosecutors have yet to file a formal response with the San Antonio federal court.

In an interview last month at the time he announced his resignation from the Texas Senate, Uresti, 54, said he stands to collect a more than $80,000-a-year pension from the state.

RELATED: Judge refuses to appoint Uresti's lawyer of choice for appeal

The Texas Employee Retirement System (ERS) refuses to issue any checks to Uresti, his filing says. The agency wont do so without court permission because of a March 6 restraining order issued by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra. The order is intended to preserve Urestis assets so they can be used to make restitution to his victims. Uresti and two others sentenced in the case have been ordered to pay about $6.3 million.

To read more about Urestis pension, legal troubles and his latest court filing, see Wednesdays Business section or click here to visit our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com.

Patrick Danner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPDConvicted felon Carlos Uresti has an ally in his fight to collect his state pension: his estranged wife.

Lleanna Uresti, who in March filed for divorce from the disgraced ex-lawmaker about a week after a jury convicted him on 11 felony charges, asked a federal judge Wednesday to allow Carlos Uresti to receive the pension he earned while serving in the state Legislature for 21 years.

Carlos Uresti, 54, has no source of income without the Texas Employee Retirement System sending him monthly retirement checks, Lleanna, 42, said in a court filing. He valued his annual pension at more than $80,000 in an interview last month when he announced his resignation from the state Senate.

Days after the announcement, he was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for his involvement in a now-defunct oil field services company that defrauded investors. As part of his sentence, he owes about $6.3 million to the victims of his crimes.

Uresti, his wife, and other family representatives are prohibited from diminishing the value of any of his property under a restraining order issued by Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra four days after the divorce petition was filed.

There is an exception under the restraining order that allows for the payment of normal monthly living expenses  including for Lleanna.

The restraining order has prevented Uresti from receiving his pension from the Texas Employee Retirement System, Lleanna notes in her court filing.

Without these checks Mr. Uresti cannot provide the necessary and normal monthly living expenses, which pursuant to the Restraining Order, (Lleanna) is entitled to receive, her filing adds.

On Friday, Uresti filed court papers requesting that he be allowed to start receiving his state pension because he doesnt have the money to survive. He added he has no funds to pay basic living expenses.

ERS refuses to issue any checks to him because of the restraining order, his filing adds.

Ezra has set a Tuesday court hearing on Urestis request. The U.S. attorneys office has indicated to both Uresti and Lleanna that it opposes their requests, their court filings state. The government has yet to file a formal response with the court, however.

Both of the Urestis also want Ezra to rule that the restraining order doesnt prevent them from entering into an agreed divorce and property settlement.

My client just wants to get a divorce, said Juanita Pelaez-Prada, Lleannas lawyer. Unfortunately, we were tied up by this restraining order. Just how much of Urestis pension Lleanna will receive will be determined in the divorce proceeding, Pelaez-Prada said.

In requesting the restraining order, prosecutors expressed skepticism about the divorce. They alleged its mainly an attempt to avoid having to pay restitution to Urestis victims.

Pelaez-Prada denied that was the case.

You guys have several times reported on the allegations against Mr. Uresti, which clearly include adultery, she said. My client has more than enough reasons to want to get a divorce.

Urestis five-week trial included vivid testimony about him carrying on an extramarital relationship. He and Lleanna were married in 2012.

As part of his efforts to make restitution to his victims, Uresti previously obtained court approval to sell the couples Helotes estate, valued at $1.7 million, and the McCullough Avenue office building that formerly housed his law office. He gave up his law license earlier this year.

Uresti was indicted last year over his involvement in FourWinds Logistics, a San Antonio company that bought and sold sand used in fracking for oil production. Uresti was a 1 percent owner, outside legal counsel and recruited investors. The company, which went bankrupt in 2015, turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. He intends to appeal his conviction.

The longtime San Antonio Democrat remains free until after an October trial on bribery charges that are unrelated to FourWinds. He has denied the charges.

Patrick Danner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | pdanner@express-news.net | Twitter: @AlamoPDSpectacular Yosemite Valley, where the smoke from a raging wildfire is so thick that the giant granite monoliths are all but invisible, will be evacuated and closed to visitors for several days beginning Wednesday, the National Park Service said.

Hotels, campgrounds and visitor services in the valley and at Wawona at the south end of Yosemite National Park will shut at noon Wednesday and will stay closed at least until Sunday, park spokesman Scott Gediman said Tuesday.

The closure means that thousands of visitors will be forced to leave the park on the pair of two-lane highways  routes 120 and 41  that remain open. The Ferguson Fire, burning largely unchecked at the parks western boundary, has forced the indefinite shutdown of Highway 140. Glacier Point Road has been closed to allow for creation of a firefighting base camp.

Yosemite Valley, which can be so crowded in the summer as to resemble a small city, has been emptying out on its own as conditions deteriorated.

Thick smoke has largely obliterated visibility in the valley. On Tuesday, a half-dozen live webcams on the Yosemite visitor website were displaying vistas of near-solid gray.

Other parts of Yosemite, including Tuolumne Meadows and high-country areas accessible via Tioga Road (Highway 120), remained open.

A desk clerk at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, formerly called the Ahwahnee, said by phone Tuesday afternoon that guests had already begun to depart. The hotel, usually full during the summer, has been half-empty in recent days as guests canceled reservations because of the fire.

Our eyes are stinging, our noses hurt and so many employees have left that were operating with skeleton crews, said a store employee at Half Dome Village, formerly known as Camp Curry, who asked to not be identified. Its very surreal to look out the window and see no guests, no hordes of hikers, no cars. Its way worse than a smoggy day in Los Angeles.

The smoke is so thick, the clerk said, that a visitor can stand at the base of El Capitan and look up  and not see El Capitan.

Thats eerie, he said.

Air quality in Yosemite Valley and in the Hodgdon Meadow area to the west was listed as unhealthy, the U.S. Forest Service said. In Mariposa, southwest of the valley and just outside the park, the air was unhealthy for sensitive individuals.

Camp Mather, the San Francisco-owned family camp near the northwestern corner of Yosemite, remained open.

Some campers had reported eye irritation, but there was a marked improvement in air quality on Tuesday, camp spokeswoman Tamara Barak Aparton said.

Yosemite Valley has been evacuated twice in the past two years  this past April and in January 2017  because of flooding caused by heavy rain. More extensive flooding that destroyed roads and campgrounds occurred in 1997.

The Ferguson Fire began July 13 and has been burning in steep, rough, parched terrain near Yosemite. It has been spreading toward the park, although firefighters are gaining ground.

The wildfire, which has devoured 37,795 acres, is 26 percent contained, fire officials said Tuesday night.

We are slowly making progress, said Rich Eagan, a fire spokesman. Maybe not as fast as some people would like, but were working hard and making progress.

Favorable weather conditions allowed crews to establish more lines around the blaze with the aid of planes and helicopters dropping water and fire retardant.

However, high temperatures expected Wednesday and Thursday  forecast as high as 103 degrees  are expected to make firefighting tougher, Eagan said.

The fire started in the Merced River Canyon, west of Yosemite along Highway 140. Flames have reached within about 2 miles of the park and forced the closure of Highway 140 and the Arch Rock entrance. Some employee and visitor housing has been evacuated.

The fire has killed one firefighter and injured six. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

As of Tuesday night, 3,434 firefighters were battling the inferno. Included in the fire fight were 220 engines, 47 water tenders, 16 helicopters, 91 hand crews and 59 bulldozers. Firefighters from around the country continue to flow into Mariposa County.Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings

By Tom Shippey

Reaktion Books. 365 pp. $30

---

If Ernest Hemingway had decided to write novel versions of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns, but to change the setting to the Viking Dark Ages and have his unnervingly quiet anti-hero carry a broadsword instead of a Colt, the result would resemble an Icelandic saga. Most of them begin like ominous fairy tales: "There was a man named Ketil Flatnose." Before long we are caught up in all the most violent aspects of human life: war, murder, greed, jealousy, revenge. In "Njal's Saga," Kari, the lone survivor of a massacre, hunts down each of the 120 men who killed or burned to death his adopted family. This same saga also showcases the deadly Hallgerd, compared to whom any other femme fatale might as well be Pippi Longstocking. In "Grettir's Saga," a demon's curse leaves the strongest warrior in Iceland afraid of the dark; in "Laxdaela Saga," Gudrun marries the best friend of the man she really loves - with deeply tragic consequences.

Tom Shippey's magnificent "Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings" explores the adventures and mind-set of these heroes and heroines, many of whom were actual historical figures who flourished during the Viking heyday of roughly A.D. 750 to 1100. Their exploits were passed down orally and given literary form only as prose narratives in the 13th and 14th centuries. Such a process naturally leads to a certain degree of fictionalizing, not to say mythologizing: Egil Skallagrimsson, the moody poet and warrior of "Egil's Saga," was partly descended from trolls. Real trolls, not the internet kind.

If all this sounds Tolkienesque, that's no surprise. The world of "The Lord of the Rings" draws heavily on northern lore, language and literature. Shippey himself is a distinguished medievalist, as well as the author of "J.R.R. Tolkien: Author of the Century" and "The Road to Middle-earth." He is also a frequent reviewer of contemporary science fiction and fantasy.

Writing for a popular audience has clearly punched up Shippey's prose, which is lively, friendly and occasionally barbed (mostly when alluding to academic stodginess). For instance, in his introduction Shippey writes: "If you come across headlines ... which say something like 'Vikings! Not just raiders and looters any more!' then the headlines are wrong. If people weren't raiding and looting (and land-grabbing and collecting protection money), then they had stopped being Vikings. They were just Scandinavians." Later, he underscores that whether Vikings were attacking monasteries, "organizing slave markets, grabbing land to settle or engaging in something very like a 'game of thrones,' what they did was based on violence. That is what Vikings were good at, especially good at, spectacularly good at."

They were also utterly dauntless, self-control being honored as the supreme virtue. When Ivan Morris produced his classic study of the Japanese conception of the hero, he titled it "The Nobility of Failure." Vikings and samurai are much alike: A hero, stresses Shippey, "is defined not by victory but by defeat. Only in defeat can you show what you're really made of. Only in final defeat can you show that you will never give in." A true Viking goes down fighting while uttering a defiant wisecrack and never showing any emotion except contempt for his enemies. Prestige and "drengskapr" - honorable behavior - matter more than winning.

From this perspective, consider this book's odd-sounding title. When Ragnar Hairy-Breeches - no one knows why he bears this weird nickname - is dumped into a snake pit, he composes a "death-song" that ends with the line "laejandi skalk deyja," or "laughing shall I die." Earlier in this poem he grimly jokes that "the piggies would grunt if they knew of the old boar's death." Ragnar, of course, is the old boar and the "piggies" are his sons. There in the pit this fierce Viking - neither hoping for nor expecting rescue - uses this farmyard metaphor to tell his enemies that their days are numbered. As Shippey then reminds us, the bloody vengeance taken by the "Ragnarssons," especially Sigurd Snake-eye and Ivar the Boneless, will eventually include the conquest of much of England during the 860s and 870s. (The fight against the Rangarssons and their allies forms the subject of Max Adams's highly readable "The Viking Wars: War and Peace in King Alfred's Britain, 789-955.")

Elsewhere in "Laughing Shall I Die" Shippey dissects the tragic tale of the Volsungs and their accursed ring, reflects on the Norse gods who know that the doom of Ragnarok awaits them, tracks the Viking incursion into Normandy and their internecine wars in Scandinavia, and maps the almost unimaginable daring that led them to fight their way down the great rivers of northern Europe to the Black Sea in search of the fabulous riches of Byzantium and the Wild East. Throughout, however, Shippey never shirks from pointing out how repulsive these macho men could sometimes be, as in his horrific account of a slave girl sacrificed on the bier of her dead master.

Though its many Norse names may seem off-putting, Shippey's magnum opus provides not only an exhilarating, mind-expanding appraisal and retelling of Viking history but also an invitation to discover the cold-iron poetry and prose of the medieval North. Take up that invitation. Most adult readers only occasionally feel the wonder and enchantment that books so easily, so regularly evoked in us when we were young. But I found them both again when in my 20s I first opened a Penguin paperback of "Njal's Saga." I have never forgotten Skarphedin skating down the ice with a sword in each hand, Hallgerd's long, blond hair and Gunnar's broken bowstring, and Kari, half-drowned and freezing, as he faces the last of the Burners.Photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has made a career out of documenting the culture of conspicuous consumption and the commodification of all things - including the human body. In her 2006 feature documentary debut, "Thin," about women with eating disorders, and the 2012 "The Queen of Versailles," about a wealthy couple's attempt to build a house in Florida modeled after the French royal palace, Greenfield has turned her camera on an America obsessed with the superficial.

It's an obsession that has fascinated her for 25 years, ever since Greenfield found the first expression of her artistic voice in photographs of teenagers in Los Angeles, a project that would go on to become the acclaimed and disturbing 1997 book "Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood."

Greenfield's latest documentary, "Generation Wealth," is both a continuation of that obsession and a reflection upon it. In a sense, the film is a kind of double portrait, one in which the Los Angeles-bred artist and armchair anthropologist sees herself reflected in the mirror of her work, along with her self-regarding subjects. Of the world of privilege and perverse values that she has come to examine so closely - in books, exhibitions and films that dissect unfettered capitalism and the craving for more - she describes herself as both "critic and participant."

What's missing, however, from this self-examination is perspective.

Although "Generation Wealth" features Greenfield's first-person narration, as well as interviews with her psychologist mother, Patricia Marks Greenfield, and home-movie-style footage of Greenfield with her sons and husband, the insights into Greenfield's own psyche feel more scant and superficial than those she gleans from others. Meaty interviews with journalist Chris Hedges, for instance, lend the film needed context and a sense of intellectual detachment.

In one segment, Hedges opines that modern society's lack of upward mobility - its class inelasticity - has made the outward appearance of wealth matter disproportionately more than ever. We desire $700 shoes, gilded bling and other trappings of the "haves," because we want to disguise the fact that we are the have-nots.

Needless to say, Donald Trump appears in the film, if only in passing, about a half-hour in, when the businessman turned president's role as an avatar of the American Dream - a self-made mogul, or so he would have us believe - is held up as an explanation of his political ascendancy. We voted for him, in other words, because we want to be him, or at least to believe the version of him we saw on "The Apprentice." ("Generation Wealth" is distributed by Amazon Studios. Amazon chief executive Jeffrey Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Interviews with the subjects, now 40-ish, of "Fast Forward," paired with shots from the book of their former, less introspective adolescent selves, also add useful substance and poignant wisdom. Florian Homm, the wealthy German former hedge fund manager who went on the lam in 2007 after being charged with investment fraud by the U.S. government, appears in interviews too. Homm comes across as unchastened, but at least more cautious about the empty promises of the prosperity gospel. "If you think that money will buy you anything and everything," he says, "you've never, ever had money."

Greenfield, for the most part, wisely leaves the preaching to others. If "Generation Wealth" has a message that empty acquisitiveness is bad, it delivers it, like the rest of her work, by showing, not telling.

---

Three stars. Unrated. Contains strong sexual content, nudity, disturbing images and drug material. 106 minutes.

Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.Zeitgeist Films-Cecil Beaton Studio Archive at Sotheby's

Watching "Love, Cecil," an affectionate documentary portrait of the photographer, compulsive diarist and film and theater designer Cecil Beaton, it's impossible not to wonder what this visual obsessive and unabashed narcissist could have done with a smartphone. The English artist and dandy - who broke into photography in the 1920s by documenting the theatrical antics of a group of bohemian London socialites known as the Bright Young Things - seems made for the age of the Instagram selfie.

Just as that observation was occurring to me during Lisa Immordino Vreeland's thorough and pleasurable - if lightweight - film, up pops Hamish Bowles to make the very same point. Bowles, the international editor-at-large for Vogue magazine, is one of several talking heads who weigh in on Beaton, a figure who looms large in the landscape of 20th-century style. (Beaton won three Oscars: two for art design and costumes in 1964's "My Fair Lady," and one for costumes in 1958's "Gigi." He was also a regular photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, and many of his portraits of movie stars and celebrities - including the British royal family - are iconic.)MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON

1001 Bissonnet; mfah.org

Cezanne: Portraits of a Life

Dedicated to the portrait work of Paul Cezanne. 3 p.m. Friday and Saturday

The Heiresses

Chela and Chiquita face financial difficulties, the introverted Chela is forced to face a new reality. 7 p.m. Friday

They

Fourteen-year-old J explores his gender identity while taking hormone blockers to postpone puberty. 5:30 p.m. Saturday

The Doctor From India

An Indian doctor introduces the West to an ancient health care system called Ayurveda. 5 p.m. Sunday

RICE CINEMA

6100 Main; film.rice.edu

QFest

Film festival featuring programs by, about, and of interest to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer community. Friday-Monday, check website for times and locations

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE CINEMA

2707 Commercial Center, Katy; drafthouse.com/houston

Office Space

Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss. 7:30 p.m. Friday

The Room

A successful bankers fiancee tempts and manipulates his best friend. 7:30 p.m. Saturday

A Night at the Roxbury

Two dim-witted brothers dream of owning their own dance club or at least getting into the coolest and most exclusive club in town, The Roxbury. 10 p.m. Saturday

The Piano

A mute woman is sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage, but is soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation. 3 p.m. Sunday

Labyrinth

A teen must solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King. 6 p.m. Sunday

Dead Night

A caring mother loses her sanity, setting off a chain of events resulting in tragedy and murder. 9 p.m. Sunday

Despicable Me

A trio of orphan girls cause the normally deplorable Gru to rethink his plan to steal the moon. Noon Monday-Thursday

Coming to America

An African Prince travels to New York and goes undercover to find a wife. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday

Red Scorpion

A Soviet Special Forces soldier is sent on a mission to infiltrate an African rebel army. 10 p.m. Tuesday

The Fifth Element

In the future, a cab driver unwittingly becomes the central figure in the search for a legendary cosmic weapon. 7:30 p.m. Thursday

ASIA SOCIETY

1370 Southmore; asiasociety.org/texas

Call Me sis

A middle aged woman facing a midlife crisis, leaves a disastrous anniversary evening with her husband and meets a shy young woman to whom she is irresistibly drawn. 7:30 p.m. Friday

MEMORIAL CITY MALL

303 Memorial City Way; memorialcity.com

Monsters, Inc.

When a little girl wanders into a scream-processing factory, top scare monsters realize things may not be what they think. 8 p.m. Friday

HOUSTON MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE

5555 Hermann Park Drive; hmns.org

Pandas 3-D

In Sichuan, China, a researcher forms a bond with a panda that is about to experience nature for the first time. Multiple screenings daily.

Hurricane 3-D

A storm forms off the coast of West Africa and grows as it crosses the Atlantic. Multiple screenings daily.

Oceans: Our Blue Planet 3-D

A journey of discovery, transporting the audience to the mysterious worlds of Earths oceans. Multiple screenings daily.

RIVER OAKS THEATRE

2009 W. Gray; landmarktheatres.com

The Terminator

An indestructible android is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a woman. Midnight Friday and SaturdayGRAFTON  Grafton Harbor and friends started a GoFundMe crowd-funding campaign for a married couple injured in a weekend boat explosion.

Grafton Alderman Dennis Day suffered second-degree burns on 25 percent of his body; Beverly Day suffered second- and third-degree burns on more than 45 percent of her body. The leisure boat exploded around 6 p.m. Saturday near the mouth of Grafton Harbor and a fueling area.

I had engine problems with the port engine, so I shut it off and came in on one engine, Dennis Day said from his hospital room. It takes two engines to maneuver the boat into a parking spot and our slip is at the other end. I assume it was a gas leak, but when we had trouble, I opened the engine room to check and didnt see anything or smell gas. I hit the key and it just blew up.

The couple is hospitalized at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, where each of them was flown Saturday.

Beverly Day underwent the first of multiple surgeries Monday. Dennis Days hospital room is a couple of rooms away from his wifes, where shes been intubated and heavily sedated. But he has been able to walk a little down the hall and visit her.

The doctor was very positive after her surgery, he said. She gives us eye contact. Not very often she can open her eyes or know whats going on. It looks like were going to be OK, but its going to be a long road. The only place she wasnt burned was where her swimsuit was.

Beverly Days condition is similar to a medically induced coma, her oldest daughter Candice Smith said.

Dennis Day, a U.S. Coast Guard captain, works at Grafton Harbor, where he gives commercial cruises on the tour boat Hakuna Matata, an all-weather, 53-foot, 49-passenger Coast Guard-licensed tour boat. He also works for TowBoatUS, which provides towing and services such as removing vessels from sandbars.

The Days were on their way home Saturday from a fundraiser in St. Charles, Missouri. As they entered the mouth of Grafton Harbor, their boats engine stalled.

The subsequent explosion propelled Dennis Day to the vessels roof and back down onto the engine, directly under where he had been sitting. The hull landed on his back, but the boat started flooding, un-pinning him.

I grabbed my wife, he said. People on the dock threw out life preservers, we grabbed on, and at that time a jet ski pulled us to the dock. I was in a lot of pain and it was very helpful.

In the meantime, a pontoon boat had maneuvered sideways, which also helped the couple get to the Grafton Harbor dock.

Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police, TowBoatUS and Portage des Siouxs Sioux Harbor owner Ron Buchanan removed debris from the accident, working Sunday and Monday, Joe DeSherlia said.

Inspectors were there, DeSherlia said. The engine and fuel tank were removed from the water on the day of the accident.

The boat was destroyed in the explosion.

Jill Moon can be reached at 618-208-6448 or on Twitter @jill_moon.WASHINGTON - The House voted on Tuesday to repeal the excise tax on medical devices, with nearly five-dozen Democrats joining all but one Republican in backing the bill.

The measure was approved on a 283-132 vote that comes before lawmakers leave Washington for their summer recess at the end of the week.A federal judge is making it easier for college students to vote in Florida, ruling this week that a provision barring early voting centers from university campuses is unconstitutional and intentionally discriminatory.

The ruling sets an important precedent nationally, two legal scholars said, by invoking the 26th Amendment, which prohibits the government from using age as a reason to deny the right to vote for anyone 18 or older. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that an opinion from the office of Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner "reveals a stark pattern of discrimination" because it so directly bears on young voters, comparing it to past efforts to limit voters based on their race.

"It's a really exciting case," said Jenny Diamond Cheng, a lecturer in law at Vanderbilt University Law School. "It's an important precedent. . . . What's new is that here the court actually found that the Florida policy was in fact intended to make it harder for college students to vote," and struck it down on those lines. "He didn't mince words," she added.

Walker wrote that the justifications given were ham-handed.

The judge saw a severe burden imposed by the secretary of state's opinion - not the mere inconvenience of students having to take a bus or reschedule plans to vote. He argued it created a secondary class of citizens. Early voting may be a convenience, he wrote, but constitutional problems arise when conveniences are available for some groups of people but blocked for others.

The ruling does not impose early voting centers on public campuses, but "removes the handcuffs" from election officials, Walker wrote, allowing them discretion in setting sites at public universities.

"This is the beginning of a much longer conversation around this amendment and around youth democracy," said Yael Bromberg, the supervising attorney and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law's Civil Rights Clinic and Voting Rights Institute. Bromberg, whose scholarly research is focused on the 26th Amendment, predicted there will be more legal challenges leading up to and following this year's elections that draw upon the amendment to challenge voting restrictions.

Tuesday's ruling could have immediate implications for the 2018 election in Florida, with Gov. Rick Scott, R, challenging Sen. Bill Nelson, a three-term Democratic senator.

On social media, Nelson welcomed the ruling.

"A judge just ruled that Florida's attempt to ban early voting on college campuses is unconstitutional. This was a direct assault on student voting & shows just how far Florida's government will go to keep some groups from the polls. We need to make it easier to vote - not harder," Nelson wrote.

"Governor Scott is proud to have signed the largest expansion of early voting in the state's history," Ashley Cook, a spokeswoman for the governor, wrote in an email Wednesday. "We will review this ruling."

A spokeswoman for Florida's secretary of state, who has been ordered to file a notice of compliance by Friday, referred questions to the governor's office.

After long lines marred the 2012 election in Florida, a law was passed the following year expanding the types of sites that could be used as early voting centers.

University of Florida students asked Gainesville officials to add a center at the student union on campus. But when city officials asked if that was allowed under law, a state official responded that university buildings could not be used for early voting.

Six current and former students, along with the Andrew Goodman Foundation, the Priorities USA Foundation and the League of Women Voters of Florida, challenged the secretary of state. One of them, Megan Newsome, had trouble getting to polling places in past elections; she asked for rides from friends at the University of Florida, and one year took a cab both ways. Another year, she organized a shuttle for students wanting to vote early, and heard from many that they wished the shuttle had been able to run more than one day.

"It's incredibly important, I believe," said Newsome, who graduated in December and is a researcher in the physics department at the university. "I'm really excited and hopeful going forward."

Patricia Brigham, president of the League of Women Voters of Florida, welcomed the decision, which comes at a time of surging interest in voting among young people in Florida after the school shooting in Parkland galvanized student activists. "We should be making it easier to vote, not harder," she said.

Almost 1 million people lived, studied and worked on public college campuses in Florida, as of 2016, Walker noted in the ruling, and early voting is especially popular among college students. But younger voters are less likely to vote than older people. Throwing up roadblocks, he wrote, "does not remotely serve the public interest."

" . . . Voting is the beating heart of democracy," Walker wrote.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower talked about the importance of encouraging young people to vote as a means of protecting our democracy in the 1950s, Bromberg said. It was President Richard M. Nixon who ultimately ratified the amendment - which received unanimous Senate support, nearly unanimous support from the House and from 38 ratifying states.

"It's something we've forgotten in our national rhetoric, something we need to reclaim," Bromberg said. In a polarized time, "this amendment, and the spirit behind the amendment, is beyond partisanship."Lanny Davis, an attorney for President Donald Trump's onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, said Wednesday that Cohen is not interested in a presidential pardon.

Davis flatly said "no" when asked during a morning television interview if Cohen is seeking a pardon from Trump.

Davis appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" to discuss the release of a recording of a September 2016 phone call between Trump and Cohen that makes it appear Trump was familiar with a deal that Playboy model Karen McDougal made to sell the rights to her story of an alleged affair with him.

The release of the recording by Cohen's lawyer intensified speculation about Cohen's motives, including whether he is putting pressure on Trump in hopes of securing the promise of a pardon.

Cohen, who once said that he was prepared to "take a bullet" and "do anything" to protect Trump, is under scrutiny from federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

They are investigating his business practices, as is the team led by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating matters connected to Cohen as part of the broader probe of Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice by the president.

Cohen has not been charged with any crimes.

In an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday night, Rudy Giuliani, an attorney for President Trump, said it "would be extremely inappropriate at this point to talk about pardons."

"I'm certain there are no talks about pardons for [Cohen]," Giuliani added. "Any pardon is up to the president."

During the ABC interview, Davis was asked about a Tuesday night tweet by Michael Avenatti, the lawyer for adult film actress Stormy Daniels, whom Cohen paid $130,000 in 2016 for her silence about an alleged decade-old affair with Trump.

In his tweet, Avenatti claimed that Cohen was "aiming for a pardon" and called him "a co-conspirator dishonest thug."

Davis dismissed those assertions.

He said that Cohen has now "turned a corner."

"He's now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and we'll have to see what happens," Davis said.

---

The Washington Post's Robert Costa and Shane Harris contributed to this report.It was the day after Thanksgiving six years ago, and Lucia "Lucy" McBath knew her 17-year-old son, Jordan Davis, had plans to go shopping with his friends.

Then, her phone started ringing. It was Jordan's father.

"Jordan's been shot," he said, McBath recounted tearfully in a 2015 Everytown for Gun Safety video. "I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew somebody had to know about my child."

Jordan Davis, a black teen, had been killed at a Jacksonville, Florida, gas station by a white man who complained that he and his friends were playing music too loudly in their car. The shooter, Michael Dunn, was sentenced to life without parole for first-degree murder in 2014.

After her son's death, McBath, a longtime Delta flight attendant, quit her job and shifted her focus to advocating for gun control, serving as a national spokeswoman for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

She appeared on major news networks, testified before Congress, starred in documentaries and spoke at numerous rallies. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, she took the stage along with eight other mothers whose African American children had been killed by the police or by gun violence. She stood alongside President Barack Obama in 2016 when he announced executive actions on gun restrictions.

But, it was only last year that McBath decided to run for public office.

"I was afraid," she told Elle in June. "I kept saying, I don't know how to be a politician. I don't know how to be a lawmaker. I've never done that before."

On Tuesday night, McBath won a tight runoff election against businessman Kevin Abel to secure the Democratic nomination in Georgia's 6th Congressional District.

"I am at a loss for words," McBath, 58, tweeted after the race was called. "We deserve better representation in DC, and I intend to show the good people of #GA06 what a tough, determined mother can do."

McBath had originally hoped to win a seat in Georgia's state House, but everything changed in February when a gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and killed 17 people, some of whom were the same age as her son. It was then that she knew she needed to do more, McBath told CNN.

"It's just not enough to have the marches and the rallies and the speeches and the remarks," she said. "Championing for them in Washington is still championing for my child, I'm still a mother, I'm still parenting. That's why I believe this was the time to stand up."

Come November, McBath will face incumbent Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., in the general election.

The 6th Congressional District has not elected a Democratic representative for nearly 40 years. But during last year's special election to replace former congressman Tom Price, Democrats came close. Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff was forced into a runoff with Handel, who then won by four percentage points. The tight race led some to believe Democrats might have a chance of winning the seat.

McBath became the latest example of a political newcomer - in her case a woman of color with a compelling personal story - prevailing in a Democratic primary. Much like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's stunning upset against Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., women across the country are running in record numbers - and winning.

McBath is also one of several female, first-time candidates who have run for office on platforms against gun violence, moved by the deaths of their own loved ones.

Five years after the Sandy Hook school shooting, volunteers with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America grew frustrated calling for legislative solutions. So instead, they shifted their strategy to running for office themselves. They trained 13 candidates to run for office last year, and by December, Reuters reported, nine had won seats ranging from state legislatures to local city councils. Fourteen more planned to run for office in 2018.

"We're watching Mothers of the Movement get elected to city councils, school boards, & Congress," one supporter wrote on Twitter late Tuesday night. "That's how I know meaningful gun reform can happen."

Despite McBath's description of herself as the "late bloomer" candidate, her campaign has garnered much support from gun control advocates, as well as Emily's List and prominent politicians such as Sen. Kamala D. Harris, D-Calif., and Hillary Clinton. Most recently, Rep. John Lewis ,D-Ga., announced his endorsement of McBath, describing her as a "strong mother," "proven fighter" and "dedicated Democrat."

Critics, including her challenger, Abel, painted McBath as a single-issue candidate who is too tied to national interests. A spokeswoman for McBath's campaign told The Washington Post that in addition to gun violence, McBath also cites health care and education as crucial platform issues. A two-time survivor of breast cancer, she has vowed to protect the Affordable Care Act. When she grew frustrated by the education system in her neighborhood, she chose to home-school Jordan. She now pledges to work toward fully funding K-12 public education.

But McBath acknowledges that what drives her vision are her life experiences, namely her son.

"Jordan guides me every single day," McBath told CNN. "Every single day."

---

Video Embed Code

Video: Lucia "Lucy" McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot and killed in 2012, won the Democratic nomination in Georgia's 6th Congressional District on July 24.(Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

Embed code:PORTLAND, Oregon -- In the same glass-curtained courthouse where anti-government protesters were acquitted for the 2016 takeover of a federal wildlife refuge, yet another man is now on trial for his actions in that deadly 41-day standoff.

This time, however, the defendant is an FBI agent. He is charged with lying when asked about firing his rifle at Robert LaVoy Finicum in the moments before the rancher was killed by state police on a rural Oregon highway.

In opening statements Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Sussman made clear that the case will not focus on whether Finicum's shooting was justified but on whether Special Agent W. Joseph Astarita fired two shots and then lied about doing so. Sussman told the jury that both shots were covered up by officers on the scene - and that aerial footage captured from two FBI planes will show officers picking up items in the snow near where the victim lay.

"Those shell casings were gone," he said.

But defense attorney Robert Cary - perhaps best known for representing former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on corruption charges a decade ago - told jurors that those two shots could have come from Oregon state troopers as well as Astarita's supervisor. "What does the government have?" Cary asked, noting that there were no other eyewitnesses or ballistic evidence.

Astarita's trial follows withering criticism of the FBI not just from the self-described patriot movement but, more recently, from the country's highest political office. For months President Donald Trump has labeled a former director a liar and accused the agency of carrying out a witch hunt in its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Last week, he publicly questioned the agency's integrity after he held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the same time, Trump has buoyed groups that chafe over the federal government's control of Western lands. The president recently pardoned Dwight Hammond Jr., and his son, Steven, cattle ranchers who were in prison for setting fires on public land they used for grazing. The armed seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon was in part sparked by the criminal conviction of the Hammonds.

"No matter who wins this case, the government loses," said J.J. MacNab, a fellow in George Washington University's Program on Extremism who studies anti-government groups. "If the prosecution fails to convict . . . then this case is another example of a Justice Department overreaching. If Astarita is convicted, then the movement will see this as evidence that LaVoy Finicum was murdered by law enforcement."

The agent, a member of the FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Team, allegedly lied about shooting at Finicum during a fatal traffic stop on Jan. 26, 2016. The 54-year-old Arizonan had been one of the leaders of the Malheur takeover, which quickly became a magnet for anti-government militias and members of the patriot movement from around the country. His death then became a flash point.

Oregon State Police and FBI agents tried to stop two vehicles carrying Finicum and occupation leaders Ammon and Ryan Bundy, the sons of controversial Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy. While others complied with arrest, Finicum fled in his truck. A minute later, he crashed into a snowbank at a roadblock, leaped from his truck and reached for a loaded handgun inside his jacket as he shouted "go ahead and shoot me!" The officers' lethal response was later determined to be justified by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office and local district attorneys.

Astarita, 41, faces two counts of making a false statement, and one count of obstruction of justice over the shots that the prosecution says he failed to disclose having fired at the vehicle. His gunfire was revealed by video taken by a passenger in Finicum's truck as it was hit with bullets.

Cary argued in court Wednesday that the forensic tests conducted to determine where the shots came from were flawed. The techniques used "are completely unreliable," he said, noting that live ammunition was retrieved at the scene, where investigators expected other armed militia membersto turn up.

"You can't leave live ammunition around if you think bad guys are coming," Cary said as Finicum's widow and a crowd of patriot supporters looked on from a gallery.

During the weeks-long occupation at Malheur, Finicum was often seen as a voice of calm. He talked to the news media repeatedly, explaining his theories about the Constitution and suggesting that he was willing to die for the protesters' cause. To the protesters and their supporters, already mistrustful of the government and incensed by what they perceived as federal overreach, Finicum's death reinforced long-held beliefs that the government is willing to kill people with ideas it opposes.

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team's presence at two key events in the early 1990s has long bolstered the anti-government movement. In 1992, after a tense FBI standoff with Aryan Nations sympathizer Randy Weaver at a remote Idaho cabin on Ruby Ridge, a sniper on the hostage team killed Vicki Weaver as she held the couple's infant child. And in 1993, the team was involved in the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex. - which ended in the deaths of 82 civilians.

"The anti-government extremist movement sees them as jackbooted thugs," said Sam Jackson, an assistant professor at the University at Albany's College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity. To the movement, these agents "epitomize the ability of the government to use violence against Americans," Jackson said.

During the 2016 trial of seven protesters from the Malheur takeover, supporters in the courtroom often wore shirts with the distinctive "LV" cattle brand of Finicum. The rancher's presence also loomed over a separate trial in Nevada involving the Bundy brothers and their father, Cliven. The family faced charges related to a 2014 clash with federal agents over two decades of unpaid grazing fees. When the case ended in a mistrial, banners, flags and signs bearing Finicum's brand were carried outside the Las Vegas courthouse.

"I think it's pretty clear he's seen as a martyr," said Jackson, who studies anti-government extremism.

Ryan Bundy, now an independent gubernatorial candidate in Nevada, was in the back seat of Finicum's truck when it crashed and claims that one of Astarita's bullets is still lodged in his shoulder. X-rays have shown a half-inch piece of metal there - something Bundy has insisted on keeping inside his body in case it is needed as evidence.WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors in the case against alleged Russian agent Maria Butina complained to a judge Wednesday about media appearances by Butina's attorney and said they would not provide evidence to the defense until a protective order was in place to prevent its distribution to the media.

No trial date was set Wednesday for Butina, who has been held without bond since her arrest July 15.

Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said Wednesday he would be seeking a new hearing to have Butina released from jail pending trial. Prosecutors argued Butina was a flight risk, saying she was arrested in an apartment filled with packed boxes indicating her intent to leave Washington, and she could enter a Russian embassy or diplomatic vehicle and evade prosecution indefinitely.

Butina, 29, is charged with conspiring with Russian officials to act as an agent of a foreign government and also with failing to register as a foreign agent.

The officials are not named in the indictment, but Butina was often seen accompanying Russian central banker Alexander Torshin to meetings of the National Rifle Association and other political events in the U.S. A long series of emails between Butina and a mentor in Russia cited in filings appears to involve Torshin.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Saunders told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan Wednesday the government wanted to provide Driscoll with pretrial discovery immediately, initially comprising about 1.5 million files. But prosecutors want restrictions on how Driscoll can use or disclose some of that information, and Saunders said Driscoll rejected any constraints.

The judge gave the prosecution until Aug. 8 to file a proposed protective order and Driscoll a week after that for his response.

Driscoll entered a plea of not guilty for Butina at her arraignment last week where she was ordered detained. He said she was in Washington to obtain a master's degree from American University, which she did in May, and to network with American politicians and groups.

In asking to limit public comments, Saunders noted Driscoll had made several appearances on television news shows to defend Butina and claimed he "repeatedly violated the local rule" at court governing attorneys' public comments about a case. Saunders quoted a Driscoll appearance on CNN in which the attorney said, "I think most of the case is taken completely out of context."

Chutkan noted "there is a line between defending your client and violating the local rule." Saunders argued Driscoll "can't mischaracterize the case."

The judge turned to Driscoll and asked, "Do you think it's in your client's interest to have this case tried in the press?"

Driscoll said he was not trying the case, but "Ms. Butina is the subject of national incorrect media reporting that I'm trying to push back on." He said prosecutors havealleged Butina offered sex in exchange for a job and are "refusing to provide evidence for that." A one-sentence reference to this in a government filing did not provide anyattribution for the claim or identify the organization with whom she allegedly sought a job.

Driscoll added, "I think I've got to zealously represent her. The appearances I've done are an eye dropper in a negative tsunami that's already convicted her."

After the hearing, Driscoll appeared momentarily in front of a clutch of cameras and microphones to say only he is "confident that Ms. Butina will be vindicated at the end of this process."

Federal prosecutors appear interested in determining whether Butina helped funnel money into American elections, possibly through the NRA, although the case is being handled by national security prosecutors and not special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's team. Driscoll said Butina had been contacted by the Federal Election Commission in March regarding campaign contributions and provided 8,000 pages of documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee in April. Senate Democrats have pushed the NRA unsuccessfully for information on how they received and used Russian financial contributions.

A man cited in court documents as Butina's "funder" after she moved to the U.S. on a student visa in 2016 was identified by The Washington Post this week as Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev.

In court, Driscoll said he also wanted a transcript of Butina's eight hours of testimony to the intelligence committee behind closed doors in April, because it may contain evidence that could aid his client. He said the committee allowed him to read the transcript but not copy it, but would provide the transcript to prosecutors if asked. Saunders said he did not have a copy, and the issue of access to the transcript was not resolved during the court hearing.

Butina launched a gun rights group in Russia in 2012 and told the Senate Intelligence Committee Nikolaev provided funding for that group, sources familiar with her testimony told The Post. A spokesman for Nikolaev declined to confirm whether he gave her financial support. Prosecutors described the "funder" as "a known Russian businessman with deep ties to the Russian Presidential Administration."Butina also is allegedly connected to Russian intelligence officials. Prosecutors said in one court filing she had contact information for several Russian Federal Security Services, or FSB, employees, the Russian internal security agency, and she was photographed in March dining with a Russian diplomat suspected of being an intelligence officer shortly before he was expelled from the country.

Butina has said she became friendly with the NRA because of a shared interest in gun rights, and she and Torshin hosted a group of American gun enthusiasts in Moscow in 2013. But she said her group, "Right to Bear Arms," was "not very popular" with Russian officials, according to an email she sent The Post last year. "No government official has EVER approached me about 'fostering ties' with any Americans," she wrote.

- - -

The Washington Post's Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.Secretary of State Michael Pompeo will find one of his rare appearances on Capitol Hill rough going Wednesday as he seeks to soothe the ire of senators exasperated by President Donald Trump's strategy on everything from Russia and NATO to North Korea.

As bipartisan fury over Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin last week reverberates in Washington, Pompeo will hear from senators demanding to know what happened during the president's one-on-one meeting with the Russian president, what Trump meant when he called the European Union a "foe" and whether the U.S. is being duped again by North Korea.

"The question is: What the heck do you think you're doing?" said Heather Hurlburt, director of the New Models of Policy Change project at New America, a Washington think tank. "I'm finding it very difficult to find clever, original things to say other than this is unprecedented, astonishing and hard to fathom regardless of one's ideological starting place."

Pompeo's earlier appearances before lawmakers weren't so fraught. The former CIA director and House member was greeted with relief because he replaced Rex Tillerson, who had little support in Congress or his own department by the time Trump fired him via Twitter in March. And Pompeo, who took over at the State Department in April, had some early successes engaging with North Korea's Kim Jong Un and winning freedom for three Americans detained there.

Those days are over. From the moment Trump's news conference alongside Putin ended on July 16, Republican and Democrats have found common ground in efforts to rein in the president's apparent desire to forge better ties with Russia without confronting Moscow over election meddling.

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Democrat Bob Menendez said they'll introduce legislation to increase U.S. sanctions against Russia that would target its sovereign debt as well as the country's energy and financial sectors.

While the president tweeted as recently as Tuesday that "no President has been tougher on Russia than me," Congress produced the most severe sanctions yet against Russia without White House support. Trump's willingness to entertain having Russian investigators visit the U.S. to watch interviews of American officials -- including a former ambassador to Moscow -- was so roundly opposed that the Senate passed a resolution 98-0 expressing its disapproval.

Even as Trump continues to proclaim the Helsinki summit with Putin a "great" success, his top aides haven't explained what was agreed to when the president met alone with Putin, leaving Russian officials to fill the vacuum. And he's been almost alone in defending remarks -- since walked back -- that he viewed Putin's denials of interfering in the 2016 election as more credible than evidence compiled by U.S. intelligence agencies.

"The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally," House Speaker Paul Ryan said after the summit. Republican Sen. John McCain was more blunt: Trump's trip resulted in "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory," he said, and "no prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant."

Senators will have much more to ask about than Russia, however, when Pompeo appears before the Foreign Relations Committee at 3 p.m. EST.

"I'd like to find out what if anything was said in the meeting with Putin," Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said. "There's so many issues, though."

Trump's repeated berating of NATO allies for not spending enough on defense doesn't appear to have resulted in any additional financial commitments at the alliance's annual summit earlier this month despite Trump's boasts to the contrary. Trump's comments in the days since -- he called Montenegro "very aggressive" -- raised doubts about the U.S. commitment to defend alliance partners and maintain penalties on Russia for its annexation of Crimea.

The president ramped up his rhetoric against the Islamic Republic on Sunday, saying on Twitter that the U.S. won't tolerate Iran's "DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH" -- a response to a warning Iran's president made to Trump. Trump's comments followed a speech by Pompeo in which he stopped just short of advocating regime change and reiterated the administration's determination to impose sanctions on countries, including U.S. allies, that don't significantly cut their imports of Iranian oil.

Pompeo has been the point man on U.S.-North Korea talks since he was at the Central Intelligence Agency. But he's had little to say since a vaguely worded declaration was signed by Trump and Kim in Singapore last month. There's still no time line for Pyongyang to disclose details about its nuclear arsenal let alone a schedule for dismantling it under the gaze of international inspectors. As Pyongyang appears to stall for time, the sanctions regime heavily touted by Trump and Pompeo is showing signs of weakening.

The secretary of state can point to some recent success: Newly released satellite photographs suggest that North Korea has begun to dismantle a satellite launch site that was considered a cover for its ballistic missile program. And estimates from South Korea's central bank show the gross domestic product in North Korea contracted 3.5 percent in the 12 months through December, the biggest drop in two decades.

The same day Pompeo is testifying, Trump will be meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to talk trade, another issue where many Republican lawmakers disagree with the White House. Juncker will seek to convince Trump that his threat to raise tariffs on European car imports would jeopardize a $1 trillion trade relationship and 15 million jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the administration may raise tariffs on more than $200 billion in Chinese imports and a long-promised rewrite of the Nafta agreement with Canada and Mexico remains unfulfilled.

Trump has been unrepentant on the issue. "Tariffs are the greatest," he said on Twitter Tuesday morning.

--Bloomberg's Laura Litvan contributed.The Hollywood Walk of Fame star belonging to President Donald Trump has been turned into rubble - the second time in at least the past two years that the symbol has been destroyed.

Officer L.P. Knight, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department, said police arrested a man they believe smashed the star with a pickax early Wednesday. Officers were called for a vandalism report at about 3:30 a.m. on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue, where Trump's star has been for 11 years.

No other information on the suspect is available, Knight said. It also is unclear why that person destroyed the star.

NBC Los Angeles reported that witnesses said the suspect carried the pickax in a guitar case, but Knight said he could not confirm that.

In October 2016, Los Angeles resident James Lambert Otis was caught on video wearing a hard hat and an orange construction vest as he smashed Trump's star. The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said Otis then removed the brass medallion from the middle of the star.

That incident happened amid mounting allegations that the then-presidential candidate had groped and kissed women without their consent. Less than three weeks before the vandalism, The Washington Post's David Fahrenthold reported that Trump bragged about kissing and groping women during a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush, who worked for "Access Hollywood" at that time. Trump's comments were caught on a hot microphone.

Otis told the Los Angeles Times that he was angered by Trump's use of vulgar language about women and that some of his family members had been sexually assaulted.

"I sort of had enough with Mr. Trump's aggressive language toward women and his behavior, his sexual violence with women and against women," Otis, a Hillary Clinton supporter, told the Times.

Otis, who used a pickax and a sledgehammer, was placed on probation for three years after pleading no contest to a felony vandalism charge in February 2017. He also was ordered to pay $3,700 in restitution to the Hollywood Historic Trust, which grants and maintains the stars on the Walk of Fame, and another $700 to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which operates the Walk of Fame. He also was ordered to perform 20 days of community service.

Trump's star is the 2,327th star on Hollywood Boulevard. He got his spot on the Walk of Fame in 2007.

The president's star has been the subject of vandalism and pranks in the past two years. In 2016, somebody spray painted a swastika on the star, and another erected a miniature border wall around it. In 2017, a prankster wrote a curse word on the star using a marker and another placed a gold-painted toilet with instructions to passersby to "TAKE A TRUMP."

But one visitor decided to shared photos of herself scrubbing Trump's star and tweeted that she had "nothing but respect for MY President." The post went viral and inspired a slew of parody tweets from others who posted pictures of themselves cleaning the stars of Hollywood actors as they pledged to support their would-be presidents.

---

The Washington Post's Caitlin Gibson and Emily Heil contributed to this report.WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos moved Wednesday to make it harder for students who say they were defrauded by colleges to erase their debts, rolling back Obama-era regulations that for-profit colleges saw as threatening their survival.

The proposed rules published Wednesday require students to prove schools knowingly deceived them if they want their federal loans canceled. And it scuttled an Obama administration provision that allowed similar claims to be processed as a group. Instead, students will have to prove their claims individually.

The rules are DeVos's rewrite of an Obama-era regulation published in 2016 and part of that administration's crackdown on for-profit colleges that critics say prey on vulnerable students. In ways big and small, the new version makes it harder for students to win debt forgiveness.

"Postsecondary students are adults who can be reasonably expected to make informed decisions and who must take personal accountability for the decisions they make," said the proposed regulation, which was posted online Wednesday.

Still, DeVos said in a statement, "Our commitment and our focus has been and remains on protecting students from fraud."

The Education Department punted for now on one key question: whether students must be in default in order to apply for loan forgiveness. Allowing "affirmative claims" from students who are current on their loan payments could invite a flood of applications, the agency warned, because there is little downside to asking for loan forgiveness. At the same time, the Education Department said, it does not want to create incentives for borrowers to fall into default in hopes of winning debt relief.

The department said it wants feedback on the matter. But it said that if claims are permitted from people not in default, they may be required to meet a higher burden of proof. In general, the agency is suggesting that applicants prove their case with a "preponderance of evidence," the same standard used by the Obama version. But the department said it was considering the tougher standard of "clear and convincing" evidence in the case of claims from people not in default, if those are allowed.

The department aims to publish a final rule by Nov. 1 so that it can take effect for loans originating after July 1, 2019. The agency will allow 30 days for public comments on the proposal.

Students with existing student loans can also ask for loan forgiveness under standards established in 1995. That process was rarely used before two huge for-profit chains, Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institutes, collapsed following complaints of deceptive marketing and predatory recruitment.

The department said that about 139,000 applications for what is known as borrower defense have been received since 2015. As of May 1, more than 99,000 were pending, according to agency data released by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill. A plurality of the claims were from Corinthian students, but there were thousands from other schools, which Durbin said makes clear the problem is pervasive.

The package is a victory for conservatives worried about the hit on federal taxpayers if a large number of student borrowers are allowed to escape responsibility for paying off their student loans. It's also a win for colleges, particularly for-profit ventures, who opposed the Obama rules as threatening their survival and harmful to students seeking loans to attend their programs.

It's a defeat for consumer advocates who favor a more aggressive posture against colleges that they say routinely take advantage of veterans and older students. They said it would be outrageous for the department to bar applications from people who are not in default, and also unacceptable to require that group to meet the higher "clear and convincing" standard of proof.

"Today's proposal is a giveaway to predatory for-profit colleges and a stunning show of indifference toward students working to better their lives," said Aaron Ament, a former Obama Education Department official who is president of the National Student Legal Defense Network. He said the standard for winning debt relief is too high.

Consumer advocates also said it is unrealistic to expect borrowers to prove that their college intended to mislead them.

"How are borrowers supposed to prove intent? They don't have any discovery rights. They don't have the ability to get testimony from the person who lied to them about what they knew or didn't know," said Abby Shafroth, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

A senior Education Department official said that proving a school intentionally deceived students should be straightforward if the students can show false marketing and other materials. She said the agency's goal was to prevent holding schools responsible for a stray or unofficial comment that may be false but does not reflect the school's intent or official position.

The rules were welcomed by the industry group representing for-profit colleges, who said it balanced protection for those involved with due process. Under the rules, the government will seek to recoup from schools money that is forgiven, but schools will have a chance to present evidence to defend themselves.

"This rule will help students who are victims of fraud find relief, and ensure colleges and universities are part of a fair and objective adjudication process," said Steve Gunderson, president of the trade group Career Education Colleges and Universities.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., chairman of the Senate education committee, said the DeVos rewrite offered "important safeguards and clear standards" for claims. The Obama version was overly broad, he said, and "put taxpayers on the hook for too many loans."

DeVos adopted a number of other changes to the Obama regulation that set tougher limits on students seeking redress.

For one, borrowers may have less time to apply for relief. The Education Department also will no longer group together similar claims to speed up the application process, with the rationale that everyone in the group may not have suffered the same harm.

The new rules also kill an Obama provision that barred colleges from requiring students to sign agreements that force them into arbitration in the event of a dispute.

And the agency will no longer offer automatic loan forgiveness for anyone whose school closes. Students whose colleges offer a route to complete their courses - what's known as a "teach-out" plan - will now be ineligible for this type of loan forgiveness. Most states require schools to have teach-out plans. In some cases that could mean no more than an online course, which could be impractical for programs requiring hands-on training.

The department is also expected to soon release its rewrite of another Obama-era regulation aimed at the for-profit college sector. That rule cut off federally backed loans to schools if their graduates' earnings are not sufficient to pay off their student debt.President Donald Trump came to the defense of Sinclair Broadcast Group's proposed merger with Tribune Media, days after the Federal Communications Commission raised "serious concerns" about the deal and began legal proceedings to challenge it on grounds the companies had misled regulators.

In a tweet, Trump said Tuesday it was "so sad and unfair" that the FCC, an independent agency, did not approve the merger, a $3.9 billion transaction that would create a conservative television giant that originally hoped to reach roughly 70 percent of U.S. households.

Last week, however, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai - a Republican whom Trump appointed to lead the telecom agency - found that Sinclair and Tribune had exhibited a "lack of candor," seeking to skirt the U.S. government's restrictions on media ownership by divesting key stations in cities like Chicago to allies of Sinclair. The agency then approved an order that would send the merger to an administrative law judge.

Trump compared the proposed tie-up to Comcast's purchase of NBC Universal in 2011, a much different deal - one that combined a cable giant and a content powerhouse - that the FCC had approved. Trump previously has blasted that merger on the campaign trail.

A spokesman for Pai did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The deal has not officially been blocked. A spokesperson for Sinclair also did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, in a brief tweet of her own, replied Tuesday: "Disagree. "

Trump's tweet comes ahead of a legal battle over Sinclair's merger, while potentially casting a political pall over other efforts by his administration to review major business transactions. Previously, the president took aim at AT&T's since-approved bid to buy Time Warner, criticizing it months before the Justice Department challenged the tie-up on grounds that it would harm consumers and competition.

Sinclair announced its bid to buy Tribune in May 2017, spurred on by the arrival of Trump in the White House and Pai at the FCC, which quickly began relaxing regulations on the telecom industry - and the companies that broadcasters could own.

Yet some of Pai's critics, including Democrats in Congress, soon questioned the nature of the chairman's relationship with the conservative broadcasting giant. Even before the government began reviewing the deal, Sinclair boasted close ties to the Trump administration: Sinclair struck a deal with Trump, then a candidate, for access to him in exchange for better media coverage, Politico reported in 2016, and the conservative network currently employs Boris Epshteyn, who later served Trump in the White House. The FCC's own inspector general later opened an investigation into the matter.

For the deal, Sinclair had offered an ambitious proposal: a new conservative behemoth that could have reached 233 stations across 108 markets, well more than what's currently allowed under federal law. To satisfy the government's limits on media ownership, though, Sinclair offered to divest some stations, including WGN in Chicago and others in Houston and Chicago.

But Pai's FCC - after more than a year of studying the proposed merger - found some of Sinclair's proposals to be suspect given that it proposed to divest stations like WGN to individuals who already had a relationship with the broadcaster. Last week, the agency asked an administrative law judge to review "whether Sinclair engaged in misrepresentation and/or lack of candor in its applications" with the FCC.

- - -

The Washington Post's Brian Fung contributed to this report.WASHINGTON - Two U.S. citizens, charged in separate cases with federal violations, have been transferred from the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces to the United States, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, faces charges of providing and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State. He will be arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Detroit.

Samantha Elhassani, 32, of Elkhart, Indiana, faces lesser charges of making false statements to the FBI. Elhassani, who also goes by Samantha Sally, was charged in the Northern District of Indiana.

The charges against Musaibli, unsealed Tuesday, reflect a willingess to use the criminal justice system to prosecute defendants captured on the battlefield overseas, by an administration that has voiced skepticism about using the federal courts in foreign terrorism cases.

The decision to prosecute the individuals in federal courts also is an indicator of widespread reluctance among government officials to add new cases to the military commissions used to try prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. That system has been plagued by a series of scandals, and delays and even suspects held in connection to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have not yet faced trial.

Musaibli was detained by the Kurdish-dominated SDF, the United States' main ally in Syria in the fight to defeatthe Islamic State, or ISIS. The indictment alleges that from April 2015 through June, Musaibli provided material support "in the form of personnel (namely, himself)" to the Islamic State, "knowing that ISIS was a designated foreign terrorist organization."

"The National Security Division will not tolerate threats to our country from terrorist organizations like ISIS - not least of all those that come from our own citizens," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John DeMers said in a statement.

In March, Elhassani told the news program Frontline and the BBC that her husband, Moussa Elhassani, a Moroccan national, had tricked her into traveling to join the Islamic State. She said he took her and her two children at the time on a vacation in Turkey in 2015 and then forced them over the border into Syria.

The family lived in Raqqa, Syria, for more than two years, during which time they had two more children, according to Frontline. When Elhassani's husband was killed in an airstrike fighting for ISIS, she and her four children were taken into custody by Kurdish forces. They were interviewed in detention by the news organizations.

In an earlier case involving another American - a dual citizen - captured in September by the SDF, the Justice Department decided it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him.

While President Trump has declared that Guantanamo will remain open indefinitely and expressed his willingness to send new terrorism suspects there, the administration has not yet done so even as the United States and partner nations struggle to determine what to do with the hundreds of foreign fighters held by the SDF in Syria.

The Pentagon provided aircraft to transport Musaibli, Elhassani and her four children from Syria to the United States.WASHINGTON - The White House on Wednesday pushed to next year President Trump's planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move that comes amid intensifying criticism of Trump's conflicting statements on Russian interference in U.S. elections.

"The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement, referring to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump has sharply criticized the investigation and has maintained that there was no coordination between Russia and his presidential campaign.

Last week, the White House announced that Trump had asked Bolton to invite Putin to Washington in the fall for a follow-up meeting to their summit in Helsinki this month.

Trump has faced bipartisan pushback in Washington over what critics decry as his overly accommodating approach to Putin, who the U.S. intelligence community determined personally ordered interference in the 2016 campaign aimed at helping the then-GOP nominee.

But Russia also did not immediately jump at the opportunity to schedule a second summit between the two leaders.

In Moscow, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Tuesday that the Kremlin had received a second summit invitation from Bolton several days after the Helsinki meeting but that no preparations were in motion.

Considering the current "atmosphere" in Washington, Ushakov told Russia's Interfax news agency, "it seems to me that for now, it would be right to wait for the dust to settle before having a businesslike discussion of all issues, but not now."

Ushakov said that there were "other options" to consider for a bilateral meeting, including at the Group of 20 meeting, which both leaders are expected to attend, in Buenos Aires at the end of November.

Congressional Republicans, who have roundly rebuked Trump's performance alongside Putin in Helsinki, have warned the president against repeating it with the Russian leader here in Washington.

The top Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both said this week that Putin would not be welcome for meetings on Capitol Hill, which customarily occur when a foreign head of state visits Washington.

"I'm one who thinks that it's a good thing for leaders of countries to talk," Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters this week when asked about a second Trump-Putin summit. "But I would consider putting that one on the back burner for a while."

The meeting's postponement comes amid several signs that the White House is seeking to assuage some of the fears over U.S. Russia policy stoked by Trump's joint appearance with Putin.

As scrutiny increases of Russia's alleged attempts to interfere in November's midterms, Trump will convene a National Security Council meeting on Friday devoted to the issue of election security.

The White House also issued a declaration on Wednesday ruling out the possibility of the U.S. recognizing Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. The statement follows reports that Putin raised the issue of a referendum on Ukraine in his meeting with Trump last week.

"The United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Pompeo also testified Wednesday afternoon before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he sought to reassure lawmakers that Trump accepts the intelligence community's conclusion on Russian interference in 2016.

"He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened. I know. I briefed him on it for over a year," said Pompeo, who served as CIA director before Trump tapped him for the secretary of state job this spring.

Yet the skepticism among many in Congress was on full display, with Pompeo facing tough questions from lawmakers demanding to know what Trump and Putin discussed in their two-hour Helsinki summit and, more broadly, whether the administration has an overarching foreign policy plan at all.

"You come before a group of senators today who are filled with serious doubts about this White House and its conduct of American foreign policy," said Sen. Bob Corker said, R-Tenn., a retiring lawmaker who has become one of Trump's sharpest critics.

He blasted a lack of information from the Trump administration and said that many lawmakers have left their meetings at the White House without a clear sense that there is a coherent strategy in place.

"The administration tells us, 'Don't worry, be patient, there's a strategy here,'" Corker said. "But from where we sit, it appears that in a 'Ready, fire, aim' fashion, the White House is waking up every morning and making it up as they go."Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  The Senate's priority legislation this year will not include charter change and package two of the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said.

Zubiri also said some senators are not inclined to rush deliberations on these proposals.

"Tuloy ang hearing ni Senator Kiko Pangilinan on (charter change). Hindi po namin mamadaliin. I think they have series of meetings that will be done in the next few months pero walang utos na madaliin ito," Zubiri said in an interview Tuesday.

[translation: The hearing of Senator Kiko Pangilinan on charter change will continue. We will not rush it. I think they have series of meetings that will be done in the next few months but there are no orders to rush it.]

He added senators have agreed during the all-member caucus to discuss the amendments proposed by the Consultative Committee (ConCom) in Pangilinan's panel.

Zubiri said many of the senators, including him, expressed reservations on TRAIN 2.

"Ninenerbiyos na kami dito sa mga TRAIN na ito. Pag aralan natin ng mabuti 'yan," he said.

[Translation: We are nervous about this TRAIN. We need to study this.]

Proponents of the TRAIN Law believe the second package of TRAIN is not a burden to consumers because this only covers the lowering of corporate taxes and the rationalization of fiscal incentives. Zubiri said the Department of Finance also told them that micro, small and medium-sized businesses would not be affected.

But Zubiri claimed businesses have been complaining to them, even warning to transfer their operations in other countries.

"Sabi nila kung matatanggal incentives nila lilipat sila ng Vietnam [if their incentives are removed they will transfer to Vietnam]. Eh ano bang number one sentiment ng taong bayan sa [but what is the number 1 public sentiment according to the] Pulse Asia Survey? Its job generation. Not to lose our jobs here to go to another country or losing investments to other countries. We should not allow that," he said.

For now, Zubiri said, no senator wants to sponsor TRAIN 2.

He added the Senate will prioritize the supplemental budget for Dengvaxia vaccine victims, mandatory Philhealth for Persons with Disabilities, coco levy fund, universal health care, endo (end of contract) and rice tariffication.

The Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday pushed for the passage of the P1.16-billion supplemental appropriation that would be used as medical assistance to those who received the Dengvaxia vaccine.

The mandatory Philhealth for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) was approved Tuesday on second reading. The Coco Levy Fund is just a step away to being passed as it only awaits deliberations at the bicameral conference committee level.

Senators will sponsor the Universal Health Care Act by Monday and are committed to approve it.

The National Land Use Act is another priority although Senator Cynthia Villar has some reservations. Villar promised to sponsor the rice tariffication bill as soon as possible.

Senator Joel Villanueva has committed to sponsor endo or End of Contractualization bill.

The Senate also vowed to hasten budget deliberation for 2019.

"Once the budget comes to us here by August, naku wala na siguro tayong mata-tackle na iba [we would not be able to tackle anything else] all the way til the break on October," he said.

The Senate technically only has about six months to deliberate on priority measures before the campaign season. It will go on a break by the second week of October, another break in November and another for the Christmas break by the second week December.

When they resume session on January they only have about three weeks before the campaign period.The key players operating in the chitosan market include Primex ehf (Iceland), Heppe Medical Chitosan GmbH (Germany), Vietnam Food (Vietnam), KitoZyme S.A. (Belgium), Agratech (US), Advanced Biopolymers AS (Norway), BIO21 Co., Ltd. (Thailand), G.T.C. Bio

The increasing use of chitosan in the water treatment, food & beverages, cosmetics, medical & pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals applications is fueling the growth of the chitosan market across the globe. Moreover, the growing trend toward the use of chitosan for water treatment to reduce the use of chemical products is also leading to the growth of the chitosan market.

The report Chitosan Market by Grade (Industrial, Food, and Pharmaceutical), Application (Water Treatment, Food & Beverages, Cosmetics, Medical & Pharmaceuticals, and Agrochemicals), and Region (Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Row)  Global Forecast to 2022, The chitosan market is projected to grow from USD 553.6 Million in 2017 to USD 1,088.0 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.5% during the forecast period. Chitosan is used in the water treatment, food & beverages, cosmetics, medical & pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals applications. The other applications of chitosan include pulp & paper and textiles. The growth of the chitosan market across the globe can be attributed to the unique properties such as high biocompatibility, excellent biodegradability, and ease of chemical modification offered by chitosan, and adequate and easy availability of raw materials used for manufacturing chitosan.

Browse 79 market data Tables and 26 Figures spread through 103 Pages and in-depth TOC on Chitosan Market



Download Free PDF Sample Report: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=202177578

Some of the leading players operating in the chitosan market include Primex ehf (Iceland), Heppe Medical Chitosan GmbH (Germany), Vietnam Food (Vietnam), KitoZyme S.A. (Belgium), Agratech (US), Advanced Biopolymers AS (Norway), BIO21 Co., Ltd. (Thailand), G.T.C. Bio Corporation (China), Taizhou City Fengrun Biochemical Co., Ltd. (China), and Zhejiang Golden-Shell Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (China).

Primex ehf (Iceland) is one of the leading manufacturers of chitosan across the globe. The company provides chitosan for various applications such as water treatment, food & beverages, medical & pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. The company is located in Iceland, that is, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean that gives it a competitive advantage over other players operating in the chitosan market. The company produces high-quality chitosan from the shells of shrimp found in the North Atlantic Coldwater.

Heppe Medical Chitosan GmbH (Germany) is another leading manufacturer of chitosan across the globe. The company offers high purity chitosan. It also offers chitin and derivatives of both, chitin and chitosan. The company serves cosmetics and medical & pharmaceuticals sectors. Apart from manufacturing chitosan, the company also provides assistance to its customers for using chitosan or chitin in various technological processes.

Vietnam Food (Vietnam) is the largest manufacturer of proteins extracted from the aquatic products in Vietnam. The company offers products for the bio-pharmaceutical industries. The company offers chitin and chitosan through its bio-pharmaceutical division.

The Asia Pacific chitosan market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period due to the increasing demand for chitosan from emerging economies such as China and India. Several international and domestic players operating in the chitosan market are investing in the Asia Pacific region, thereby leading to the growth of the chitosan market in the region.

Based on application, the agrochemicals segment of the chitosan market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of volume during the forecast period. Chitosan is used in the agriculture sector for different applications. Chitosan-treated seeds have shown accelerated and enhanced growth. Addition of chitosan to soil results in a significant reduction in root knots, infections, and fungal pathogens among plants. It also protects plants from fungus, viruses, and nematodes, thereby stimulating the plant growth.

Based on grade, the industrial grade segment of the chitosan market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value during the forecast period. Industrial grade chitosan is used as an alternative to chemical products in applications such as water treatment, agrochemicals, pulp & paper, and textiles. It is used as an adsorbent and a flocculent in the water treatment application. Chitosan coagulates toxic heavy metals and organic compounds. It adsorbs dyes and small concentrations of phenol present in the industrial wastewater.

The Asia Pacific chitosan market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR, in terms of value during the forecast period. The growth of the Asia Pacific chitosan market can be attributed to the easy availability of both, raw materials on a large scale and low-cost labor, coupled with significant domestic demand for chitosan from the region. The increasing inflow of wastewater from various industries and growing demand for fresh water is expected to drive the growth of the Asia Pacific chitosan market during the forecast period.

Chitosan is increasingly used in the water treatment and agrochemicals applications across the globe. The increasing demand for fresh water across the globe is leading to the growing use of chitosan for water treatment to enable reuse of the treated water.

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Website: www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/chitosan-market-202177578.htmlRobert Garza, president of Mountain View College in the Dallas County Community College District, will be the next president of Palo Alto College, the Alamo Colleges Districts board decided Tuesday night.

Palo Alto, one of the five community colleges in the district, enrolls more than 10,000 students on San Antonios South Side. Its current president, Mike Flores, will take over as district chancellor in October, after Bruce Leslie retires. In a news release, the college said Garza will assume his duties in September while Flores prepares to take on his new role.A man was shot multiple times during a robbery at an apartment complex in west Houston Wednesday morning, police said.

Officers found the 36-year-old victim, Carlos Lopez, with gunshot wounds at another apartment in the 1300 block of Wilcrest, near Briar Forest, around 3:30 a.m.

Cobalt Nickel Discovery at Coronation Dam

Perth, July 25, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - White Cliff Minerals Limited ( ASX:WCN ) ("White Cliff" or the "Company") is pleased to report initial assays from a 5,000 metre RC drilling campaign completed at its 100% owned Coronation Dam cobalt project 90km Southeast of Glencore's Murrin Murrin Nickel refinery in Western Australia's north-eastern goldfields.Highlights- Initial assays received from Coronation Dam, results include:o 40 metres at 0.11% cobalt and 1.04% nickel from 16 metres-- 15 metres at 0.20% cobalt and 1.1% nickel from 29 metreso 20 metres at 0.27% cobalt and 0.66% nickel from 28 metres including:-- 1 metre at 0.95% cobalt and 0.97% nickel from 31 metres and:-- 1 metre at 0.63% cobalt and 0.70% nickel from 35 metreso 12 metres at 0.06% cobalt at 0.93% nickel from 8 metreso 12 metres at 0.05% cobalt and 0.85% nickel from 36 metres- Mineralisation up to 550 metres wide and 40 metres thick- Further assays expected within two weeksInitial drilling results are from one of the first cross sections drilled in the central part of the deposit to confirm the historical drilling results. Extensive cobalt mineralisation was identified from surface, extends up to a depth of 65 metres and is approximately 550 metres wide. The orebody dips at a shallow angle to the west. Better results include:- 40 metres at 0.11% cobalt and 1.04% nickel from 16 metres including;o 15 metres at 0.20% cobalt and 1.1% nickel from 29 metres- 8 metres at 0.06% cobalt and 0.84% nickel from 8 metres and;- 9 metres at 0.05% cobalt and 0.70% nickel from 24 metres- 20 metres at 0.27% cobalt and 0.66% nickel from 20 metres including;o 1 metre at 0.95% cobalt and 0.97% nickel from 31 metres and;o 1 metre at 0.63% cobalt and 0.70% nickel from 35 metres- 12 metres at 0.07% cobalt and 0.85% nickel from 36 metresThe mineralisation has developed in the regolith profile above an intensely weathered ultramafic unit which was originally a peridotite. The peridotite is approximately 1 kilometre wide and 5.7 kilometres long within the mining tenement which covers 16km2. Drilling was conducted on a 100 metre by 100 metre grid with extensions on a 200 by 100 metre grid. Once all assay results have been received the Company will undertake metallurgical testing to further advance the development of this projectWhite Cliff Managing Director Todd Hibberd said: "Initial assays at Coronation Dam validate the historical drilling and demonstrate the high grade nature of the mineralisation. We were surprised at the 550 metres wide zone of cobalt mineralisation and at the thickness of some of the intervals which are better than anticipated. Further assay results should be available shortly and on receipt of the final drilling results the Company will be in a position to select samples for metallurgical testing".Cobalt and nickel assays are summarised below rather than annotating the cross section due to number a results.CDRC0054: No significant assayCDRC0055: 9 metres at 0.04% cobalt and 0.71% nickel from 7 metresCDRC0056: 12 metres at 0.05% cobalt and 0.93% nickel from 8 metresCDRC0057: 12 metres at 0.03% cobalt and 0.76% nickel from surfaceCDRC0058: 40 metres at 0.11% cobalt and 1.04% nickel from 16 metres including;15 metres at 0.20% cobalt and 1.1% nickel from 29 metresCDRC0059: 6 metres at 0.04% cobalt and 0.41% nickel from 19 metresCDRC0060: 24 metres at 0.04% cobalt and 0.76% nickel from 20 metresCDRC0061: 8 metres at 0.06% cobalt and 0.84% nickel from 8 metres and;9 metres at 0.05% cobalt and 0.70% nickel from 24 metresCDRC0062: 27 metres at 0.04% cobalt and 0.0% nickel from 13 metresCDRC0063: 20 metres at 0.27% cobalt and 0.66% nickel from 20 metres including;1 metre at 0.95% cobalt and 0.97% nickel from 31 metres and;1 metre at 0.63% cobalt and 0.70% nickel from 35 metresCDRC0064: 12 metres at 0.07% cobalt and 0.85% nickel from 36 metresCDRC0065: 3 metres at 0.03% cobalt and 0.63% nickel from 66 metresGeologically the mineralisation is occurring in extremely weathered clays which are derived from the underlying ultramafic rocks. The host rocks are rich in nickel with a background concentration of around 0.2% nickel. The deposit occurs on the side of a low hill and dips shallowly to the West.The current interpretation is that additional ultramafic rock has weathered and shed from the hill and been incorporated in the deposit increasing the thickness of the mineralisation. Cobalt and nickel mineralisation are variable for hole to hole which reflects the variable composition and layering of the underlying ultramafic unit. It is thought that the ultramafic unit is sub vertical and tightly folded. Weathering of the unit and mobilisation of the soluble minerals has resulted in mass concentration of immobile elements such and nickel, cobalt and chrome.The Coronation Dam Cobalt ProjectThe Coronation Dam Cobalt Project is located 90km south of Glencore's Murrin Murrin mining operation and 45km south of GME Resources' proposed Mt Kilkenny nickel-cobalt processing facility in WA's north-eastern goldfields (see Figure 2 in link below). The project is surrounded by world class mining infrastructure and multiple operating mines. Glencore is currently mining cobalt and nickel from the Murrin East open pit which contained an initial resource of 66 million tonnes at 1.1% nickel and 0.09% Cobalt.The Coronation Dam project area covers 16km2 and contains an outcropping ultramafic unit that is approximately 1 kilometre wide and 5.7 kilometres long within the tenement.Cobalt-nickel mineralisation occurs as a shallow layer of cobalt-enriched manganiferous oxides that form between the smectite clays and the overlying ferruginous clays. High grade cobalt mineralisation typically occurs between the surface and 50 metres depth and is associated with nickel mineralisation.Existing drilling has only partly tested the mapped ultramafic unit, indicating there is potential to identify significant additional mineralisation.The proximity of Coronation Dam to the Murrin Murrin nickel refinery is likely to have a strong, positive impact on the possibility of economic development of both the cobalt and nickel mineralisation. While the Company has not yet calculated a mineral resource, it is clear that the potential exists for the project to host one of substantial size.To view tables and figures, please visit:About White Cliff Minerals Ltd

White Cliff Minerals Ltd is a Gold, Copper, Cobalt, Nickel resources and mining company listed in Australia (ASX:WCN). The Company is focused on developing low cost high value mineral deposits that have near term cash flow potential.

Major projects include the Aucu gold deposit that contains 484,000 ounces of gold (3mt at 5.1 g/t) starting at surface and Chanach copper deposit that contains 64,000 tonnes of copper (17.2Mt at 0.37% copper). Both projects have substantial blue sky potential with drilling covering only 5% of the known structures. In Australia the company is developing the Coronation Dam cobaltnickel deposit where a maiden resource will be announced in the late 2018.If asked, most grade school students headed into the classroom next month can probably tell you where they reside without hesitation.

Dont pose that question, however, to Texas politicians. For some its a loaded question and the answer can get rather complicated.

Residency has become a perennial election issue among candidates, but regrettably, no matter how egregious the case, legal challenges never get very far.

The court has held residency in Texas, at least in regard to those seeking public office, is basically a state of mind. It should not be that way.

The Texas Legislature has the power to strengthen the state election regulation laws, and it should.

A 1964 Supreme Court of Texas ruling in Mills v. Bartlett found that residency is determined not only by where a person lives but their intent.

Over the years, that has come to be interpreted to mean that a candidate with multiple addresses can designate a primary residence pretty much wherever that person chooses. It comes as no surprise that many candidates have used this rather loose legal interpretation to their advantage.

Just because something is legal does not make it right. Allowing those with questionable residency to file for elected office in a district is a disservice to the voters.

The question of residency most recently surfaced in the race for the Texas Senate District 19 seat  vacated earlier this year by Carlos Uresti after his conviction in federal court on multiple felony fraud and money-laundering charges.

Eight candidates have filed for the seat. The election is Tuesday. District 19 stretches out to West Texas.

One of the candidates in that crowded race, Democrat Pete Gallego, claims residency in Alpine, but his wife and child live in a house owned by the wife in Austin, the Express-News reported. There are just over 400 miles of interstate highway between Austin  which is not in District 19  and Alpine.

Gallego is registered to vote in Brewster County, as is his wife, but his wife claims a homestead exemption on the Austin house in Travis County.

In an exchange of texts with Express-News columnist Gilbert Garcia, Gallego declined to say where his son went to school but later said in a KMOL-TV interview that his son lives in Austin.

Is a candidates residency really that important? We think so.

There are only 31 members of the Texas Senate, representing single-member districts of approximately 806,000  constituents based on the 2010 U.S. census.

We have become a very mobile society, but we go to great lengths every 10 years to draw political district boundaries to ensure people in distinct communities have local representation at all levels of government.

Allowing loose interpretation of residency requirements for candidates undermines that work. A person who lives in a district he or she represents is going to be more familiar with the issues in it. It is simply counterintuitive that someone who doesnt live in the district will be as responsive to constituents or as accountable outside of the election.

This issue is bigger than the Texas Senate District 19 race. Its about the Texas Legislature doing right by the electorate.

Voters need assurances that when they cast a vote the candidates on that ballot reside in their district. As with gerrymandering, we suspect that loosey-goosey residency requirements are about whats more advantageous to candidates than to voters. Thats our state of mind.

Dont hand voters yet another reason to stay away from the polls.Gardai are trying to establish whether an incident on the N4 between Longford and Newtownforbes on Monday which culminated in a man being airlifted to hospital is linked to a local feud.

A man in his early 20s, from the Longford area, was released from Tallaght Hospital yesterday (Tuesday) following what gardai have described as a "serious road traffic collision" at Lamagh, Newtownforbes.

A woman in her 50s was arrested a short time later.

ALSO READ: Longford woman appears in court following 'serious' N4 road traffic collision

Gardai are now focusing their attention on the circumstances leading up to the incident and have appealed to the general public to come forward.

Gardai believe the individuals involved are known to each other with the possibility of a local feud being one line of inquiry.

In the wake of those events, there have been calls for an increase in Garda numbers in Longford.

Certain sections of the community seem to be a law unto themselves, said Cllr John Browne, stating he was also pushing for a meeting with Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan over the issue.

A second, entirely unrelated, crash also took place on the N4 near Newtownforbes on Monday.

Drugs charges

Separately, five men were scheduled to appear in court yesterday charged in connection to the sale and supply of drugs in Longford town.

ALSO READ: BREAKING: Longford Gardai carry out further arrests in major drugs clampdown

It is the second wave of arrests to be made after eight people were charged and brought before the courts last month.From cattle to horses, from sheep to the very finest in arts and crafts, you name it this year's Granard Agricultural Show had it all and more.

From early morning exhibitors could be seen filing through the front entrances to the north Longford town's Higginstown Complex in anticipation of what was to come.

By late morning, the crowds started to emerge with young families and more seasoned show spectators all keen to take in what has readily become one of the must see agricultural events on the local calendar.

Special guest, award winning author John Connell, conducted the formalities as he opened proceedings shortly after lunchtime.

He spoke of the inimitable appeal occasions like the Show offered young and old alike.

"Granard is a place that looms large for all the right reasons in my life and this Show is testament to just how wonderful Granard can be and is," he said, in between joking over how he was especially keen to take in the cattle classes.

"We have the best of stock here today. I am a bit biased of course as I do like the cattle but we breed horses at home too and there are wonderful, wonderful animals here on show."

The best selling author and brains behind the much talked about 'The Cow Book', said the spectacle was one which also illustrated the continued relevance of country life.

"The importance of rural Ireland has never been more paramount than in this moment. We here people say, 'Oh, we are moving to Dublin because the city is all important in the country we live in now'. But that's not the case as it's days like this which prove that rural Ireland has something to give back to the community, something to celebrate and that it's something of importance.

"This is where our culture comes from, it's where we draw our strength and knowledge from and it's also a place where we find our joy and we can see that in the young and old who have come to celebrate what is our culture, our farming culture."

Among the many interested observers the Leader managed to catch up with were Monaghan's Paddy Leonard and Cavan man Sean McGee.

Both men were there to show off a handful of Texel Sheep.

"It's six or seven years since I was here," said Paddy, as he gazed out onto a bustling show field.

"I was at the Dundalk Show last Sunday and asked would I come up to the Granard Show and show a lock of sheep, so I said I would."

A short distance away, 17-year-old Conor Craig could be seen delicately clipping one of four Aberdeen Angus' which he had brought with him from the family farm in Coolarty.

"It's good to see a local show in a small town," said his proud mum, Martina as she watched her son in action.

"It's great to see a small town put on a display like this and there is twice as much happening as there was last year. There are bigger towns out there with bigger populations that are struggling to have a show and there is huge work that is put in by the committee, so it's great to see."

Forges Strategic Relationship with Dalhousie University

Brisbane, July 25, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - ASX-listed NOVONIX Limited ( ASX:NVX ) ("NOVONIX" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has agreed to sponsor the Professor Mark Obrovac Battery Research Group at Dalhousie University.HIGHLIGHTS- NOVONIX to sponsor the Professor Mark Obrovac Research Group at Dalhousie University via a two-year agreement with an option to extend for five years- NOVONIX will have first rights to IP developed from this arrangement- Professor Obrovac is a leading battery materials innovator having authored fifteen issued patents- Dalhousie University is a world leader in battery innovation and has researchers working with such groups as TESLA and 3M CorporationDalhousie University is an international leader in battery materials research, and NOVONIX itself was spun out of Professor Jeff Dahn's lab at Dalhousie in 2013. At that time, Professor Dahn and his team, including NOVONIX COO Dr Chris Burns and CTO Dr David Stevens, worked together to develop HPC technology to accelerate battery research cycle time to weeks from years. This HPC technology is now NOVONIX's flagship product being embraced worldwide by most major battery makers, auto-makers, electronics companies and cordless equipment manufactures.NOVONIX Limited Chief Operating Officer, Dr Chris Burns said that the new research agreement with Professor Obrovac was an excellent investment opportunity NOVONIX aimed at staying in the forefront of next generation battery technology.He said that the agreement deepened the long-term relationship and synergies between Dalhousie University and NOVONIX."This new arrangement with Professor Obrovac and his team at Dalhousie will help NOVONIX stay at the forefront of battery technology and has the potential to generate significant commercially valuable IP in next generation battery materials," Dr Burns said.The research will be focused on developing advanced next-generation battery materials and will leverage Professor Obrovac's significant experience in silicon materials, anode and cathode materials, liquid and solid electrolytes and binder materials.The Professor Obrovac Research Group comprises approximately 12 postdocs, PhD and MSc graduate students at any one time.Professor Obrovac said that he was looking forward to working closely with NOVONIX."As a commercial partner, having NOVONIX based locally in Halifax creates a great environment for capitalising on our knowledge centre, developing commercially-relevant IP, and for creating opportunities for students to work with industry and develop career opportunities," he said."As announced Monday, NOVONIX is now uniquely positioned with our own battery cell pilot manufacturing line to be able to process materials, build commercial format pouch and cylindrical cells and test them on internally built High Precision Charger (HPC) systems in order to efficiently develop and optimize the performance of new materials for use in Lithium ion batteries. Innovative materials developed by Mark and his team can be trialed in standard commercial battery formats quickly by NOVONIX in Halifax."We are focused on developing commercially scalable materials that can improve the energy density, lifetime and power capabilities of Lithium ion batteries relative to today's industrial standards and benchmarks."Our collective goal is to innovate new and improved materials that show improvements in battery performance and get these materials to our existing battery manufacturer and OEM clients for trials and ultimately into their supply chain," Dr Burns said.ABOUT PROFESSOR MARK OBROVACProfessor Mark Obrovac is a leading battery materials innovator having authored over 75 peer reviewed journal articles, fifteen issued patents with a further seven patents pending in the field of battery science covering anodes, cathode, electrolyte and binder materials.Regularly called on to review funding applications and to provide advice for Canada's NSERC and U.S. DOE battery programs for fuel cells for EV.- DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY (9/10 - Present) CanadaProfessor at Dalhousie University and Industrial Research Chair of NSERC/3M CORPORATION- 3M CORPORATION (7/02 - 8/10) USAProject leader of Anode Materials Group with 3M CorporationResearch group became one of the top research teams in the world that with several fundamental discoveries describing the electrochemistry of silicon.- BLUESTAR BATTERY SYSTEMS (5/95 - 8/95) CanadaSuccessfully developed electrolytes for primary carbon monofluoride batteries.- BALLARD ADVANCED MATERIALS (09/93 - 12/93) CanadaDeveloped methods to synthesize and characterize solid lithium ion electrolytes.- MOLI ENERGY (9/90 - 08/92) CanadaWorked on solid polymer electrolytes and cathode thermal stability for safety.To view figures, please visit:About NOVONIX Ltd

NOVONIX Ltd (ASX:NVX) (FRA:GC3) (OTCMKTS:NVNXF) is an integrated developer and supplier of high-performance materials, equipment and services for the global lithium-ion battery industry with operations in the USA and Canada and sales in more than 14 countries. NOVONIX's mission is to support the global deployment of lithium-ion battery technologies for a cleaner energy future.

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP - THREE STARS - (PG-13) A lighter, brighter superhero movie powered by the effortless charisma of Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. In the aftermath of "Captain America: Civil War," Scott Lang (Rudd) grapples with the consequences of his choices as both a Super Hero and a father. (125 min.)

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR - THREE STARS - (PG-13) An unprecedented cinematic journey 10years in the making and spanning the entire Marvel Universe, "Avengers: Infinity War" brings to the screen a showdown in which the Avengers and their allies must defeat the powerful Thanos. (156 min.)

DEADPOOL 2 - THREE STARS - (R) Though it threatens to buckle under the weight of its meta gags, Deadpool 2 is a gory, gleeful lampoon of the superhero genre buoyed by Ryan Reynolds' undeniable charm. (103 min.)

EQUALIZER 2 - THREE STARS - (R) Denzel Washington returns in this guilty pleasure for anyone who enjoys that old-school, blue-collar American chivalric hero with a dark past. He's the kind of guy who cauterizes his own wounds, never permits collateral damage when he's on a killing spree, wears a knit polo to a showdown with four heavily armed tactical fighters, and reads great books of literature to honor his beloved dead wife. (120 min.)

THE FIRST PURGE - TWO STARS - (R) To push the crime rate below one percent for the rest of the year, the New Founding Fathers of America test a sociological theory that vents aggression for one night in one isolated community. But the violence explodes beyond the trial city and spreads across the nation. (112 min.)

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION - TWO STARS - (PG) Sony's animated "Hotel Transylvania" franchise takes to the high seas in this limp effort. Featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Kevin James. (97 min.)

THE INCREDIBLES 2 - THREE STARS - (PG) The animated feature reunites Pixar's family crimefighting team for a long-awaited follow-up that may not quite live up to the original, but comes close enough to earn its name. (118 min.)

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM - TWO AND a HALF STARS - (PG-13) "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" is more fun than "Jurassic World." It's not exactly a high bar, but still a welcome surprise. In the hands of a new director, J.A. Bayona, with Chris Pratt's high-wattage charisma on full blast and a fair amount of self-aware humor intact, there are certainly worse ways to spend a couple hours in the air-conditioned multiplex this summer. (128 min.)

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN - THREE STARS - (PG-13) The ABBA-fueled musical doubles down on just about everything fans loved about the original, though fans of the first will miss Meryl Streep. (114 min.)

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE- FALLOUT - THREE AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team (Alec Baldwin, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames) along with some familiar allies (Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan) in a race against time after a mission gone wrong. Another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them.(147 min.)

OCEAN'S 8 - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) Not quite as smooth as its predecessors, but this Sandra Bullock led effort still has enough cast chemistry and flair to enjoyably lift the price of a ticket from filmgoers up for an undemanding caper.(110 min.)

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (R) Federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) calls on the mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), whose family was murdered by a cartel kingpin, to escalate a drug war. (123 min.)

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY - THREE STARS - (PG-13) Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga's most unlikely heroes. (143 min.)

TAG - TWO STARS - (PG-13) For one month every year, five highly competitive friends hit the ground running in a no-holds-barred game of tag they've been playing since the first grade--risking their necks, their jobs and their relationships to take each other down. (105 min.)

TEEN TITANS GO! - THREE STARS - (PG) - A fresh, gleefully clever, kid-appropriately crass and tongue-in-cheek play on the superhero genre, complete with musical numbers. (92 min.)



UNCLE DREWS - TWO AND A HALF STARS - (PG-13) After draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic street ball tournament in Harlem, Dax (LilRel Howery) is dealt a series of unfortunate setbacks, including losing his team to his longtime rival (Nick Kroll). Desperate to win the tournament and the cash prize, Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend Uncle Drew (NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving) and convinces him to return to the court one more time. (103 mon.)Oliver Knussen, composer, conductor, teacher, and director of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music from 1986-1993, died at his home in Snape, England, on July 8 at age 66.

Knussen, who first came to Tanglewood from 1970-73 to study with Gunther Schuller, will be remembered next week during this year's Festival of Contemporary Music, when several of his works will be played.

Current Festival director Thomas Ades, the British composer and conductor who made his debut at Tanglewood last summer as "BSO Artistic Partner," spoke about Knussen, "Olly" to his host of friends, with the greatest admiration.

"I first met Olly here at Tanglewood in 1990," Ades told The Republican. "I was here for two days visiting a friend who was in the composing program. I had actually been working as one of several people engaged to proofread the full score of (Knussen's first opera) Where the Wild Things Are."

"Of course I had seen him in numerous concerts, but I actually met him in a room here at Tanglewood, along with (violinist) Louis Krasner (who premiered both Schoenberg and Berg violin concertos and taught at the Tanglewood Music Center until his death in 1995). It was my first day in the United States and the whole thing was rather overwhelming!"

"Olly said to me, 'You're a composer. Don't write a note unless you absolutely have to," Ades said, laughing.

Knussen made a practice of writing only the notes he absolutely had to as well. In the outpouring of adulation and affection since his death, composers and musicians make much of the fact that Knussen worked slowly and painstakingly, and revised constantly, so his body of work is not as large as some, but the pieces in it are of the highest quality.

British composing elder Benjamin Britten was very encouraging to the young Knussen, and he in turn passed on that support to the next generation of composers. Ades remembered Knussen conducting the world premiere of (Ades') extremely imaginative "Living Toys" at the Barbican Hall in London in 1994, when Ades was still a student at Cambridge University.

"He gave me, I suppose, a bit of a leg up in the world," Ades said. "He was very generous with younger composers - very fatherly - a father to many, as it were."

"It's terribly sad to lose him," Ades said, "but I must say it does throw one back to how beautiful his music is - extraordinary, jewel-like work. He had so much to offer and was involved in so many things - in order to finish these wonderful works he had to lock himself away in a room, and I think he found that quite hard."

"He was wonderful company - charismatic and funny - always ten times more so than anyone else in the room. He was an irresistible person to be around. If you're that lovely and that much fun, it makes it that much harder to lock yourself in a room and get down to the boring work of writing music!"

"People have been saying that he didn't write that much," Ades continued. "I don't think that matters AT ALL. If you write music of that quality, it's plenty. He's left us with plenty."

Ades said that there will certainly be talk of an Oliver Knussen retrospective at Tanglewood in the near future. "It would be well worth doing - we should keep his works in front of our eyes, and under our fingers!"

One of the pieces programmed in memory of Knussen is "Songs and a Sea Interlude" from his remarkable opera Where The Wild Things Are, written to the classic book by Maurice Sendak. It will feature the TMC Orchestra and two sopranos from the TMC vocal program and will be conducted by Stefan Asbury, a longtime friend and student of the composer, and will be performed July 30 at 8 p.m. in Ozawa Hall.

A student at Tanglewood during the summer of 1990 (the last summer of Leonard Bernstein's presence there), Asbury entered the professional world directly thereafter. Since 1995 he has served on the faculty of the TMC, and holds the Sana H. Sabbagh master teacher chair on the Conducting Faculty. From 1999-2005 he was Associate Director of New Music Activities. He is currently Chief Conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest and Artist in Association at the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

Speaking by telephone as he walked from a rehearsal to his car, Asbury shared some fond memories of his own of Knussen.

"By pure chance I went to the Royal College of Music Junior Department," Asbury recalled, "and Olly was teaching there. I studied composition with him for a year when I was about 16. He was as much guiding my listening as anything. He would give me a list of pieces, and my parents would buy three or four tapes and scores for me to study every month. I built my library."

When Asbury came to Tanglewood as a conducting fellow in 1990, after studying at Oxford, Knussen remembered him well.

"He watched me work, and at the end of the summer - the last week - he ushered me over to one of the offices and he said 'Call this number - it's Simon Rattle (at that time music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - now Music Director of the London Symphony)," Asbury recalled. In Sept. 1990 I went to work for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - that was the beginning!"

Asked about Knussen's legacy to the music world, Asbury replied "I think it's three-fold. His works - while there are not that many of them, they're all gems. He was also a prolific conductor and recorded a lot of stuff when studio recording (of contemporary music) was kind of dwindling. And he programmed and supported so many diverse composers."

Asbury also noted Knussen's stewardship of the Aldeburgh Festival, which he directed from 1983-1998. In fact, one of Knussen's last appearances was at the Aldeburgh Festival, where he conducted the UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle's song setting The Borrower.

Other Knussen works that will be performed next week at Tanglewood include Reflection (2017) for violin and piano (July 29, 10 a.m.)

Quoted in The Guardian, the day following Knussen's death, British composer (and Knussen student) Mark-Anthony Turnage summed up the new music world's reaction to his passing as so many whose lives he touched have done: "Olly was the greatest musician I've ever known. He was a major British composer and conductor - by far the best of his generation, with ears even better than Boulez's. He was also my closest friend, with such a kind heart, and was like my Dad. The loss to me but also to us all is incalculable."An audit of the city of Revere's finances found two employees may have stolen up to $90,000 in parking meter payments.

The Boston Globe reports that the audit, ordered by Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo turned up more than $2 million in previously undiscovered money and two cases of potential parking meter fraud. The city shared its financial documents with the newspaper.

The consulting firm Clifton Larson Allen found 86 "funds" - or account and other sources of money for the city - that had not been touched since 2014, the newspaper reports. This amounted to $2.2 million. About $800,000 will be put into the city's general fund, the mayor told the newspaper.

"There were no written policies, no procedures, no formal reconciliations that were happening at the department level . . . for how to handle cash," Arrigo told the Boston Globe in an interview.

A further review of parking data showed a possible cause for the city's steadily declining meter revenue. In the last fiscal year, the city's parking revenue was "essentially zero," according to the report.

Only two employees had keys to the meters - one parking meter technician and one parking hearings officer, Arrigo told the Globe. Both have been placed on leave.

Of the city's 274 parking meters, only 145 work. Arrigo told the Globe that Revere has started to install "smart meters" that would allow for credit card payments. Coin collection will be completed by two people at a time now, he said.Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is alleging the owner of the Tannery, a ritzy clothing store in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, discriminated against shoppers on the basis of their immigration status and race.

The complaint, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, alleges Hicham Ali Hassan, also known as Sam Hassan, in two 2017 incidents violated state law by denying service to an African American man and a Middle Eastern woman attempting to shop in his store.

In a release announcing the complaint, Healey's office asked for members of the public to contact them, saying they have "reason to believe that the experiences of the two victims are part of a larger pattern of discrimination."

Reached by phone, a store employee told MassLive that Hassan did not have a comment in response to the allegations.

Healey's office says that in March 2017, a Middle Eastern woman who was inquiring about a pair of boots spoke with Hassan, who told her he didn't trust her "people."

"I love Trump!" Hassan allegedly said. "I am glad he is going to get rid of all the immigrants."

In a separate alleged incident from December 2017, an African American man, entering the store 20 minutes before closing time, was approached by Hassan. "What's up brother man?" Hassan allegedly told him and stopped him from going further.

Hassan allegedly told him he "did not want [his] kind in [the] store," Healey's office charges.

The lawsuit filed by Healey asks for compensatory damages for the alleged victims and civil penalties.

According to a July 2017 report in Boston Business Journal, the parent company of the Tannery filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy that year and closed a store in Cambridge's Harvard Square neighborhood.Another Massachusetts State Police trooper will be brought to federal court to face theft charges in connection with the investigation into the skipping of overtime shifts during specialized traffic enforcement patrols.

Trooper Daren DeJong, a member of the former Troop E who retired March 23, will be in a Boston federal court Wednesday to face one count of theft from an agency receiving federal funds.

Records say he didn't even show up for overtime shifts, but still was paid.

DeJong, a 56-year-old Uxbridge resident, is now the fifth trooper to face charges in federal court in connection with the overtime shifts investigation. The investigation remains ongoing, according to US Attorney Andrew Lelling's office.

"Mr. DeJong, who was sworn to uphold the law, betrayed the public trust by embezzling funds from the Massachusetts State Police," said Lelling, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. "Today's arrest is another step in our ongoing effort to root out fraud and ensure that public funds are appropriately used."

DeJong was assigned to the Weston barracks for Troop E and earned roughly $179,971 in 2016 which included $63,394 in overtime pay.

Some of that overtime money came through working what were known as Accident Injury Reduction Effort patrols and "X-Team" patrols. Both overtime patrols, exclusive to Troop E, were MassDOT programs where troopers conducted enforcement on the Massachusetts Turnpike and Metropolitan Tunnel systems.

MassDOT funded Troop E, records show. The U.S. Attorney's Office said the U.S. Department of Transportation funded programs through federal grants.

In 2016, DeJong signed up for and received overtime payment for 164 AIRE overtime shifts and 13 X-Team shifts, according to an affidavit on file in court. He received $14,062 for shifts he either left early or didn't show up for, prosecutors allege.

For each shift, the trooper received $75 per hour of overtime.

Authorities say DeJong failed to show up for work for at least 140 hours of AIRE patrol shifts and 47 hours of X-Team shifts.

"On a regular basis, DeJong purposefully did not work the entire 4-hour AIRE overtime shift or 8-hour X-Team overtime shift," authorities said. "Rather, he departed his assignment on I-90 from one hour up to seven hours early, depending upon the shift. On several occasions, Dejong signed up for a received AIRE and/or X-Team overtime pay without even showing up to work for the given overtime shift at all."

DeJong created phony citations by altering citations he wrote during his regular shifts, authorities say. He submitted citations never issued to motorists and the citations were not submitted to the state Registry of Motor Vehicles, records say.

FBI investigators listed citations that they say were fake while DeJong was on patrol on the Mass. Pike in Southborough, Grafton and Hopkinton. DeJong claimed to have issued the citations on Jan. 24, 2016 during an AIRE shift, but investigators say they discovered DeJong created the phony citations.

Investigators used RMV records and data from Dejong's cruiser to show he was lying, according to federal records.

Authorities say again on Feb. 14 and on Aug. 29, DeJong lied about writing citations.

DeJong began receiving pension payments in June. His monthly amount is $6,251.99.

Massachusetts State Police Col. Kerry Gilpin released a statement Wednesday afternoon about DeJong's arrest. It reads:

"The actions alleged in today's arrest contradict the values and conduct that we and the public demand of our personnel, and we will continue to hold our members accountable to the law and our own policies and regulations. We have played a lead role in uncovering overtime fraud within the Department, and we continue to audit overtime earnings and share our findings with state and federal prosecutors. I continue to be inspired by the overwhelming majority of Troopers who do their jobs each day with professionalism, integrity, and courage. It is through their actions and the example they set that we will restore the public's trust in the Massachusetts State Police."A public candlelight vigil and walk will be held in Cambridge Tuesday evening for Richelle Robinson, the 15-year-old girl who died following an apparent assault this weekend.

Family members are organizing a candlelit walk that will begin at Lechmere at 6 p.m. and end on Cambridge Street, to the teen's last standing place near Warren Street and Harding Street.

Those in attendance are asked to wear purple, Robinson's favorite color.

"We will be walking her last walk," DerriniQue Coleman, who said she was like a big sister to Robinson, told MassLive. "Friends will be sharing memories and being among each other."

Coleman said any person who comes, including media, should respect Robinson's family members and not ask questions.

Police have provided few details about the case because it is being investigated as a potential homicide, according to the Weymouth Public Information Officer Jeremy Warnick.

Investigators believe Robinson was walking to an acquaintance's house on Sunday, July 22 when she was violently shoved to the ground and struck her head around 6:30 p.m.

No arrests have been made in the case, and now the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan is asking any public witnesses for help. A spokesperson for Ryan said in an e-mail that investigators are especially looking for "information concerning the identity of a person seen in the area on a bicycle."SPRINGFIELD -- Three man have been indicted for involuntary manslaughter and other charges in connection with a Ludlow overdose death.

Frank Jimenez, 34, of Springfield, Christopher Fitzpatrick, 23, of Ludlow, and Daniel Moffat, 28, of Ludlow, were indicted July 19 by a Hampden Superior Court grand jury.

The victim listed in the manslaughter charge is Michael Lecca, 38, of Ludlow. He suffered a heart attack at his Ludlow apartment March 10 after snorting two bags of heroin with "North Face" logos, according to court records.

He died at Baystate Medical Center on March 14.

The three men are each also charged with distribution of heroin and distribution of fentanyl, all in Ludlow on March 10.

Jimenez and Moffat are charged with the drug crimes as subsequent offenders. Both were convicted in September 2016 for possession of heroin with intent to distribute.

In March, Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni held a press conference announcing that a tip from Baystate Medical Center staff about a sudden spike in heroin overdoses led local and state police to identify and stop a local distribution ring that is being blamed for three deaths.

Gulluni, flanked by local law enforcement and Baystate doctors during a press briefing, said the good communication between the hospital, Massachusetts State Police detectives and Agawam and Ludlow police led to three arrests, an arrest warrant issued for a fourth suspect and, most importantly, brought an end to a rash of overdoses.

In particular, he cited the actions of Dr. Gerald Beltran, the chief of pre-hospital and disaster medicine, who on March 15 contacted state police detectives assigned to Gulluni's office about a potential public health crisis caused by a particularly lethal strain of heroin in the area. The heroin is believed to have been laced with fentanyl, officials said.

The hospital treated eight overdoses, one of which was fatal, in a two-day span.

That notification led to a multi-agency police investigation, including Ludlow and Agawam police, state police and the Eastern Hampden County Drug Task Force, that identified two other fatal overdoses and four suspects linked to them and to each other.

That led to the arrests of Jimenez, Fitzpatrick, and Moffat, Gulluni said.

Quarterly Activities Report

Sydney, July 25, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Thomson Resources Ltd ( ASX:TMZ ) provides the Company's Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 30 June 2018.Highlights- Positive results continue for each of Bygoo Tin and Harry Smith Gold Projects- Further Joint Venture and other third party funding received- Follow up drilling to commence shortly at Bygoo and Harry Smith- Neighbouring tin project wins development approvalBygoo TinDuring the quarter drill results were received from the Bald Hill prospect near the old Ardlethan tin mine, NSW. Bald Hill is 12km south of the Ardlethan mine, and 20km south of the Company's Bygoo tin prospects on the same exploration license (EL 8260). Three holes were drilled and all intersected tin at shallow depths; the best intersection being 15m at 0.4% Sn from 19m depth.Drilling is planned in the next quarter to extend and define this, as well as to further document the other three tin greisens discovered to date - two at Bygoo North and one at Bygoo South.Harry Smith GoldFollow up drilling and regional gold exploration is planned after a successful first round of drilling in March 2018 (ASX release of March 26th) and further encouraging results from recent analysis of soil geochemistry at Harry Smith and other nearby historic workings (ASX release of 19th June).Ardlethan Tin Mine Tailings Re-processingCoolamon Shire recently gave final approval to a Development Application for the Ardlethan Tin Mine Rehabilitation and Tailings Reprocessing Project. The project is being developed by private company EOE (No. 75) Pty Ltd and proposes to extract tin from 10 million tonnes of tailings at the old Ardlethan Tin Mine. The project lies on granted Mining Leases that sit within, but are excluded from, Thomson's EL 8260. The construction of a tin processing plant at Ardlethan clearly has potential synergies for Thomson's tin projects in the area, however no substantive negotiations have taken place with the proprietors and there is no guarantee that any arrangement would be entered into.Tenement Holdings and Joint VenturesAfter recent transfers and relinquishments Thomson now holds 13 Exploration Licenses covering 1088.6 square kilometres. Three joint venture arrangements are in place - Bygoo (Els 8260 and 8163) with private Canadian investor, BeiSur OstBarat Agency Ltd; Wilga Downs (EL 8136) with Silver City Minerals ( ASX:SCI ) and Havilah (EL 7391) with Silver Mines Ltd ( ASX:SVL ). The JVs cover an area of 640 sq. km.Significant payments of A$660,000 under the Bygoo JV (see ASX announcement of 5 July 2018) were received during the quarter. This brings the total cash contributions received to date to A$1,500,000 of the $3 million investment needed to earn an initial 51%.CorporateExploration expenditure incurred during the quarter totalled $147,000. Cash at the end of the quarter was $803,000, after JV cash contributions of $660,000 and a private placement for $350,000 ($110,000 received after June 30th).Thomson has 110,928,149 shares on issue currently.To view the report, please visit:About Thomson Resources Ltd

Thomson Resources Ltd (ASX:TMZ) is an NSW active mineral explorer. Thomson has several tin projects (including an advanced project near Ardlethan), as well as gold, copper and zinc targets in a range of settings. Thomson has a good record of discovery, with multiple new Intrusion-Related Gold (gold with copper, lead, zinc, molybdenum, tungsten) systems discovered in the Thomson Fold Belt in the NW of the state.BELCHERTOWN -- Selectmen at Monday's meeting voted to convene a special Town Meeting Aug. 20 to act on a citizens petition that could reverse authorization for a 7.5 megawatt solar farm.

Town Meeting voters on May 14 approved Article 26, authorizing selectmen to negotiate tax agreements for a 25-year period with the company proposing the solar farm. The vote was 106-49.

Municipal records show that the energy project is being proposed by Syncarpha Solar LLC with a business address in Manhattan. The solar farm would be built on a 101-acre parcel at 38 North St.

Town Meeting articles are usually placed on the warrant by a vote of the selectmen, but bylaws allow citizens to petition the board to include articles.

The citizens petition article to be acted on next month asks Town Meeting to "vote to reverse its prior authorization" by which selectmen would negotiate with Syncarpha.

A second petition article asks Town Meeting to amend zoning bylaws "to prohibit the construction of any" commercial solar project "that will require the clear cutting of more than four acres of land."BOSTON -- Cardinal Sean O'Malley is calling for "clearer procedures" in sexual abuse cases brought against bishops.

His comments come in the wake of further allegations of sexual misconduct against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick whom the Vatican suspended from ministry a month ago saying the former Washington, D.C. bishop had been credibly accused of sexually abusing a teenager decades ago.

"While the Church in the United States has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests we must have clearer procedures for cases involving bishops," said O'Malley, who chairs the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, on the Boston archdiocese's website.

"Transparent and consistent protocols are needed to provide justice for the victims and to adequately respond to the legitimate indignation of the community. The Church needs a strong and comprehensive policy to address bishops' violations of the vows of celibacy in cases of the criminal abuse of minors and in cases involving adults."

Referencing additional accusations reported in the media of McCarrick's "sexual improprieties with several adults and his criminal violations of the sexual abuse of minors," O'Malley called, "These alleged actions, when committed by any person, are morally unacceptable and incompatible with the role of a priest, bishop or cardinal."

"Each new report of clerical abuse at any level creates doubt in the minds of many that we are effectively addressing this catastrophe in the Church," said O'Malley who also said he did not "personally receive" a letter in 2015 involving allegations against the former D.C. bishop.

"These cases and others require more than apologies. They raise up the fact that when charges are brought regarding a bishop or a cardinal, a major gap still exists in the Church's policies on sexual conduct and sexual abuse."

He added, "While the Church in the United States has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests we must have clearer procedures for cases involving bishops."

"Transparent and consistent protocols are needed to provide justice for the victims and to adequately respond to the legitimate indignation of the community," said O'Malley whose own diocese's cover-up of its scandal and the investigation of it by the Boston Globe is the subject of the film, "Spotlight."

"The Church needs a strong and comprehensive policy to address bishops' violations of the vows of celibacy in cases of the criminal abuse of minors and in cases involving adults."

He added his "experience in several dioceses and my work with the members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors have brought me to this conclusion."

"The Church needs to swiftly and decisively take action regarding these matters of critical importance. In every instance of claims made by victims of sexual abuse, whether criminal violations or the abuse of power, the primary concern must be for the victim, their family and their loved ones," O'Malley said.

"The victims are to be commended for bringing to light their tragic experience and must be treated with respect and dignity."

O'Malley also addressed reports that he received a letter in 2015 by Passionist priest Boniface Ramsey reporting allegations of misconduct with seminarians against McCarrick.

O'Malley said he did not "personally receive" Ramsey's letter.

"In keeping with the practice for matters concerning the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, at the staff level the letter was reviewed and determined that the matters presented did not fall under the purview of the Commission or the Archdiocese of Boston, which was shared with Fr. Ramsey in reply," he said in his statement.

O'Malley added that he felt "three specific actions" are required "at this time" in regard to the allegations against McCarrick.

"First, a fair and rapid adjudication of these accusations; second, an assessment of the adequacy of our standards and policies in the Church at every level, and especially in the case of bishops; and third, communicating more clearly to the Catholic faithful and to all victims the process for reporting allegations against bishops and cardinals," O'Malley said.

"Failure to take these actions will threaten and endanger the already weakened moral authority of the Church and can destroy the trust required for the Church to minister to Catholics and have a meaningful role in the wider civil society. In this moment there is no greater imperative for the Church than to hold itself accountable to address these matters, which I will bring to my upcoming meetings with the Holy See with great urgency and concern."LONGMEADOW -- The Brewer-Young mansion in the center of town received final approval last week from the Historic District Commission, and its owners said they now plan to move "full steam ahead" with an estimated $2 million restoration, converting the 133-year-old home into commercial space.

The commission was the final town body owners needed approval from, according to Andrew Lam, author and retinal surgeon and one of the owners of the mansion at 734 Longmeadow St.

He said the commission didn't request any changes to the site plan before approving it last week.

"We were thrilled to gain the support of this important town body, which shares our dedication to historic preservation," Lam said.

The site plan already had been presented at multiple public meetings, getting the green light from the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Historical Commission and town engineer, as well as the Police, Fire and Public Works departments.

Lam formerly served on the Historic District Commission for several years. This background helped inform the plans for restoring the mansion's exterior, he said.

"We've also worked very hard to design a site plan with changes that will be as inconspicuous as possible, with parking in the rear, extensive landscape screening, very modest signage, and attractive bollard lights (rather than large street lamps) to illuminate the parking area," Lam said.

Full-scale restoration work began on the mansion's exterior earlier this summer, and there's still an "enormous amount" of scraping, painting and restoration of rotted woodwork to be done on the 11,000-square-foot building, Lam said.

Preliminary construction work on a rear parking lot has also begun. Next steps include beginning work on the interior, like modernizing the electrical, plumbing, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

"We still have a long way to go," Lam said. He anticipates it will be at least a yearlong project, with the building ready to be occupied by commercial tenants next summer.

Owners are also working on finalizing the tenant list. Lam said he's "thrilled with the tenants who have signed on so far," and that they're still accepting inquiries from other interested parties. He said they wouldn't identify tenants until the list has been finalized.

Lam and co-owners Henry Clement, of Innovative Building and Design, and Christopher Orszulak, a financial services professional, bought the Brewer-Young mansion Sept. 7, 2017, for $470,200. The deteriorating mansion had been vacant since Shahkar M. Fatemni lost it to foreclosure and was evicted in 2015.

The Rev. Samuel Wolcott, composer of more than 200 Christian hymns, was the first to live there. Edward Brewer bought it in 1901.

Later the home was famously owned by Mary Ida Young. She and her husband, Wilbur, invented Absorbine and Absorbine Jr. liniments. W.F. Young, located in East Longmeadow, still makes Absorbine and other animal health products. Absorbine Jr., which is for people, is under separate ownership.

The mansion has 11 bedrooms, five full bathrooms and three half baths. It features a living room-ballroom, marble floors in the front foyer, leather embossed wallpaper on the first floor and Egyptian-themed murals. Its glassed-in conservatory was based on the Crystal Palace from the London Great Exhibition of 1851. Its billiards room still has the old-fashioned beads strung on the wall for keeping score.Daren DeJong, the fifth current or retired Massachusetts State Police trooper charged as part of a federal investigation into alleged overtime abuse, pleaded not guilty in South Boston Wednesday.

DeJong, wearing blue jeans and a light polo shirt, walked into the courtroom, his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs shackled. He had been arrested at his home earlier that day.

Judge Donald Cabell released him on personal recognizance.

DeJong's attorney, Brad Bailey, called his client a "dedicated public servant" who has 32 years of law enforcement experience. DeJong retired earlier this year.

DeJong, a 56-year-old resident of Uxbridge, spent 26 years with the State Police and several years with the Northbridge Police Department.

DeJong denies the allegations and is looking forward to the trial, Bailey said in a prepared statement.

"Until then, my client, his family, and I, urge the public not to rush to judgement based on the results of a one-sided grand jury investigation controlled entirely by the government," he said in the prepared statement.

Three other current and former troopers were arrested at the end of June. Another trooper, Gregory Raftery, pleaded guilty in early July to embezzling from an agency receiving federal funds.

Col. Kerry Gilpin, tapped by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2017 to clean up the State Police, said the allegations "contradict the values and conduct that we and the public demand of our personnel."

"We have played a lead role in uncovering overtime fraud within the Department, and we continue to audit overtime earnings and share our findings with state and federal prosecutors," she said in a statement. "I continue to be inspired by the overwhelming majority of Troopers who do their jobs each day with professionalism, integrity, and courage. It is through their actions and the example they set that we will restore the public's trust in the Massachusetts State Police."

This post was updated with additional information.GREENFIELD -- Police Sgt. James B. Rode, charged with negligent vehicular homicide following a fatal on-duty collision with another car, entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment Wednesday in Greenfield District Court.

In a brief appearance before Judge Jacklyn Connly, Rode was ordered to appear in court for a hearing on Oct. 18. His lawyer, Timothy Duggan, requested that he not be held on bail, and prosecutor Stephen Gagne did not argue.

Connly ordered him released on his own recognizance.

After the arraignment, Duggan quickly escorted Rode out of the courtroom and down the stairs without speaking to the media.

Rode is charged in connection with the Oct. 1 crash at High and Sanderson streets that resulted in the death of James Arcellana, 29, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and injuries to a passenger.

Just before the crash, Rode had been dispatched from the station to respond to a report of an erratic operator near the Deerfield town line.

An investigation into the crash found that Rode was travelling 83 mph in a 30 mph zone at the point of impact, Carey said.

The police cruiser was speeding south on High Street when it collided with the rear passenger side of Arcellana's Suburu, which was westbound on Sanderson Street and had just entered the intersection at High Street.

Arcellana and his passenger, as well as Rode, each needed to be hospitalized for injuries in the crash. Arcellana died a few days later at Baystate Medical Center.Officials have identified a man who was killed in Lowell Wednesday morning when his car was rear-ended.

Juan Ramon Rivera, 52, of Lowell, was driving a 2006 Mitsubishi Endeavor at Gorham and Manchester streets just after 7 a.m. when the SUV was struck from behind by a 2012 Honda Accord that was traveling at a high rate of speed, according to the office of Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan.

Rivera was pronounced dead at the scene, the district attorney's office said in a statement.

The driver of the Honda stayed at the scene, the statement said. No charges have been filed at this time.

The investigation is ongoing. No further information was immediately available.Former Massachusetts State Trooper Daren DeJong was allegedly paid for at least 187.5 hours of overtime he failed to work in 2016, according to a criminal complaint unsealed today in Boston federal court.

DeJong, the fifth trooper charged in a ever-widening overtime abuse scandal that has led to investigations of about 40 troopers, retired after news of the inquiry broke in March. He is facing a single count of theft from an agency receiving federal funds.

According to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Karen Lostracco, DeJong claimed nearly $64,000 in overtime pay in 2016 -- $14,062 of which was for unworked hours.

The affidavit lists 24 examples of citations that DeJong falsely claimed were written during Troop E overtime shifts, according to federal investigators.

Troop E developed a reputation as a lucrative posting for troopers because of its frequent access to overtime shifts, as the troop charged with patrolling the Masschusetts Turnpike, state highways and Boston tunnels.

The programs at the center of the fraud scheme were Accident Injury Reduction Effort (AIRE) patrols, which were four-hour overtime shifts designed to reduce crashes on the Mass. Pike, and X-Team patrols targeting aggressive driving.

DeJong would allegedly skip hours during which he made no transmissions from his cruiser's radio -- data that investigators have used as evidence that the accused troopers were not actually on patrol.

He would then allegedly fabricate or alter the timestamps on citations to appear as though he was making traffic stops.

"In order to conceal the fraud, DeJong sumbitted bogus and fraudulent traffic citations by (a) altering citations that DeJon had issued during his regular shift in order to create the appearance that he had performed work during an AIRE shift that was not done; and (b) submitting citations that were never issued to motorists and which were never submitted to the RMV," Lostracco wrote.

Investigators caught the falsely timestamped tickets by combing through DeJon's queries of the CJIS -- the database used by state police to check motorists' vehicle, driving and criminal records.

They found numerous examples of DeJong filing citations for drivers he had allegedly pulled over well before his overtime shift began.

On Jan. 24, 2016, DeJong worked an eight hour regular shift and then claimed to have worked an AIRE shift from 3:30 p.m to 7:30 p.m., according to the affidavit. He filed eight citations he said were written during the AIRE patrol.

But his CJIS query records showed that he had looked up the eight drivers in question well before the AIRE shift began. One citation, filed at 3:50 p.m., was for a motorist he looked up at 2:25 p.m. -- nearly an hour and a half earlier, and still during his regular shift, according to investigators.

"DeJong performed CJIS record checks of the drivers -- typically done after a trooper stops a motor vehicle (to check for outstanding license suspensions, warrants, etc.) -- more than an hour before any of the purported drivers were supposedly stopped," LoStracco wrote.

Those eight Jan. 24 citations were never sent to the RMV for processing, according to the affidavit. And DeJon's cruiser radio data showed that the vehicle was turned off at 2:55 p.m. and not turned back up until the following morning.

Troop E was dissolved in April when Gov. Charlie Baker and Col. Kerry Gilpin announced a suite of reforms in reaction to the fraud allegations.SPRINGFIELD -- The full-time staff of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission will increase to over 40 from the previous 26 thanks to $4.4 million in personnel spending in the new state budget, a spokeswoman said.

In total, the commission's budget for fiscal 2019 is $7,987,870. The fiscal year began July 1.

The commission's budget in the previous fiscal year was $5 million.

Funding for the commission is included in the new $41.88 billion budget that Massachusetts Senate and House negotiators forged for the current fiscal year. The budget is awaiting Gov. Charlie Baker's approval.

Here's a break down of the commission's budget, according to figures the spokeswoman provided:

$4.4 million for personnel costs, as the commission plans to fill out a full-time staff of 40-plus employees. The staff total includes the five, full-time commissioners.

$2 million for offices, operations and programs.

$1.2 million for information technology, which includes the commission's licensing system and funding for the seed-to-sale marijuana plant tracking system.

$300,000 for community outreach programs that are required by law to help the commission meet its goals of including communities disproportionately harmed by marijuana arrests and incarceration and engagement with minorities, women, veterans and farmers.

The figure for personnel costs translates to an average salary of $110,000.

The spokeswoman said commission Chairman Steven J. Hoffman's annual salary is $161,522. The other commissioners -- Kay Doyle, Jennifer Flanagan, Britte McBride and Shaleen Title -- have annual salaries of $121,142 each.

Among commission programs is one on "social equity," a program to help people who have been "disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement." (see below)

For example, blacks and Latinos have been arrested at higher rates than whites for marijuana crimes despite roughly similar rates of pot use, as The New York Times and other outlets have reported.

The commission is already giving priority in review of licensing applications to "economic empowerment" applicants who come from areas and groups that have been overly affected by marijuana arrests.

The commission has hired a director of community outreach, Shekia Scott, who is developing additional training for such groups.

In order to be eligible for the program, someone must either have a past drug conviction or be the spouse or child of a person with a drug conviction, and must have lived in Massachusetts for the last 12 months. Alternatively, the person could have lived in one of the 29 Massachusetts communities classified as an area of disproportionate impact for at least five years and have income below 400 percent of the federal poverty level -- $48,240 for an individual and $98,400 for a family of four.

Among the "29 communities of disproportionate impact" are Holyoke, Springfield, West Springfield, Amherst, Greenfield and Worcester.

Social Equity Program, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission: by Mike Plaisance on ScribdA child has died and another child was injured after being struck by a car in South Boston, police say.

Boston police confirmed that one child was killed and said the other child suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

The crash happened near the intersection of L Street and East Sixth Street at 3:13 p.m., according to Boston police.

NBC 10 Boston reported that the deceased child was a 3-year-old boy and the injured child is a 4-year-old girl.

The television station reported that a baby carriage was visible between two cars at the scene.

No further information was immediately available.The 15-year-old girl who died following an assault while walking to a friend's house in Cambridge has been identified as Richelle Robinson.

DerriniQue Coleman, who said she was like a "big sister" to Robinson confirmed her identity to MassLive.

"She was a very smart young lady, and very responsible. She was loved by many," Coleman said. "She had future plans to become an emergency medical technician."

A candlelight walk and vigil will be held for the teen in Cambridge on Tuesday night.

Robinson -- who loved to dance, use makeup and get her nails done -- would have turned 16 in September, according to Coleman. Though they are not blood-related, Coleman said their families grew up together, and that her younger sister would often play with Robinson.

"We all considered ourselves sisters," Coleman said.

But on Sunday evening, a mysterious assault against Robinson, who investigators believe was simply walking down Cambridge Street to a friend's place, left the teen in critical condition for nearly a day before she was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Grief counselors were on hand at Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School this week, where Robinson would have been entering her sophomore year, according to her Facebook page.

Workers at local businesses on Cambridge Street said they did not see anything Sunday evening. Most said their small shops were closed at the time of the apparent assault, which police say took place around 6:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The case is being investigated as a potential homicide, according to Jeremy Warnick, the Public Information Officer for Cambridge police. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan's office has asked any witnesses to come forward with information.

Investigators are seeking anyone with information about a person on a bicycle at the time of the incident.

MassLive reporter Kristin LaFratta contributed to this report.Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega describes the deadly protests raging in his country as "terrorism" and is rejecting calls to step down to defuse the clashes.

Speaking exclusively with Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday, Ortega blamed the violence on paramilitary groups funded by drug trafficking, opposition groups and even the US. He said they are attacking police, his government and loyal Sandinista families.

Ortega added that there has been a "campaign of lies, terrible lies, to try to hurt the image of Nicaragua and of its government."

Human rights groups say that at least 286 people have died since the unrest began in mid-April, when the government announced controversial changes to the social security system, kicking off the largest street protests Nicaragua has seen since its civil war ended in 1990.

The government's heavy-handed response to demonstrations ignited a national movement demanding the President's resignation.

When pressed by Baier about whether he would step down to "end the violence and to help your country," Ortega refused, saying he was democratically elected.

He also ruled out holding early elections, which Catholic Church mediators had called for to defuse the crisis, saying that it "would create instability and insecurity and make things worse." Ortega's third consecutive term is not scheduled to end until 2021.

"We are not talking about any dynasty. It never occurred to me to set up a dynasty," Ortega said, defending his presidency and his wife's role as vice president.

Ortega also flatly denied recent reports of protesters being killed inside a church.

"No Nicaraguan has died in any church. That's false," Ortega said, also rejecting claims that he has sought to undercut the Catholic Church, seeing it as backing the protests.

The Catholic Church has been serving as a mediator in the stalled talks between the government and protesters.

When asked what his message to the US was, Ortega said: "The history of our relationship with the United States has been painful. I don't want to repeat it."

"We deserve respect as any state of the US deserves respect no matter how small that state of the union is. We are a country in this hemisphere, in this part of the world and we have strong links of all types with the American people," he added.WESTHAMPTON -- A 20-acre, 5-megawatt solar plant is proposed for land off Montague and North roads, and 14 acres of trees would be cut down, according to the special permit application.

The plant is proposed by CVE North America Inc. for a 139-acre parcel owned by Kurt Meehan of Agawam. CVE would sell the electricity to Eversource Energy.

A public hearing with the Planning Board was set for 7 p.m. on July 24. The special permit is needed because the project falls outside the town's solar zoning district.

Officials with the company already met with the Conservation Commission, and that hearing has been continued to Aug. 1.

CVE, a French company, says on its website it "has decided to specifically go after the states of New York and Massachusetts due to their policy goal of promoting renewable energy, high electrical rates, and the ability to sell the power produced to end clients through PPAs," or power purchase agreements.SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield's Chestnut Towers will receive $10.2 million in affordable housing funds for renovations, state Secretary of Housing and Development Jay Ash said Wednesday during a visit to the downtown complex.

The new funding will supplement a $45 million investment by the property's management, Related Companies, to renovate and transform the 489-unit apartment complex, said Jeff Brodsky, the company's vice chairman, during a press conference.

Ash, who joined Brodsky and Mayor Domenic Sarno for the announcement, said the funding would ensure that the buildings' "best days are ahead."

The allocation is part of a larger package of $57 million in direct state subsidies announced Wednesday by the Baker-Polito administration to 19 affordable housing projects throughout Massachusetts.

Ash, who helped make sure that Chestnut Towers received priority for the funding, said Springfield's award is the largest of the bunch.

Assistance with renovations will also be provided by the state Department of Housing and Community Development and by the city.

"Housing, basic, affordable housing, is the basis for everything else that happens in somebody's life," Ash said, noting that he himself had grown up in affordable housing in Boston years ago and that having a secure place to live had allowed him to go on to political success.

The Chestnut Tower apartments, which were considered to be some of the most luxurious in the city when they were first constructed in the 1970s, fell on hard times in subsequent decades. In 2017, the property was brought under the new management of Related Companies, a New York City real estate company that vowed to renovate the apartments.

Brodsky explained Wednesday how Related Companies plans to renovate the property, including the addition of a new resident lounge and kitchen, a large amenities platform, a laundry room, fitness and computer centers, children's play area and even a training center that would ideally assist residents with workforce opportunities.

As an additional part of the renovations, 412 of the building's units will be made affordable to households earning less than 60 percent of area median income, with 42 units held for households earning less than 30 percent.

There will be no displacement as a result of the renovations, Brodsky said.

Sarno said effective collaboration between different parties led to the renovations.

"Governor Baker and Secretary Jay Ash have absolutely been fantastic partners with myself and the city of Springfield," Sarno said. "They've been vital in public-private partnerships for economic development, housing and job creation."

Sarno also said he appreciated Brodsky's desire not only to "stabilize Chestnut Towers, but move it forward."

After Wednesday's press conference, Brodsky took Ash and Sarno for a tour of the complex, explaining the buildings' history and how the management company hoped to transform it in the coming years.A man who used a pickax to destroy Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame early Wednesday morning has turned himself in to police.

Los Angeles police were called around 3:30 a.m. to the star's location on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue, where they found a small pile of rubble in place of the star that Trump received in January 2007 for his role in the NBC show "The Apprentice," according to KTLA-TV in Los Angeles.

Witnesses said he had hid the pickax in a guitar case.

According to The Los Angeles Times, the still-unidentified man had left by the time police. However, about an hour later, he walked up to Beverly Hills police headquarters, identified himself and wanted to turn himself in.

The man will likely be booked on suspicion of felony vandalism, police said.

Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump's star has endured several publicized episodes of vandalism, including a spray-painted swastika and "mute" icon.

People who notice it as they pass by have been stomping on it, spitting on it and writing on it. A photo of a pile of dog excrement on the star went viral two years ago.

In October 2016, a man was caught on video smashing the star with a sledgehammer and pickax. He was charged with felony vandalism.WEST SPRINGFIELD - Options for new construction and renovation designs for Phillip G. Coburn Elementary School were presented to the public Tuesday night.

The town is collaborating with the Massachusetts School Building Authority on a feasibility study for possible construction of a new Coburn School at 115 Southworth St. The School Building Authority is a quasi-independent government authority that funds construction and renovation projects for public schools across the commonwealth.

West Springfield Building & Other Facilities Planning & Construction Committee Chairman David J. Partridge; William Cunniff, project director for NV5, the owner's project manager for the Coburn project; and Ryszard Szczypek, of TSKP Studio architects, outlined eight options, which were narrowed to three by the building committee.

The three options, described as Alternative A, E and F, all meet the educational requirement of serving 705 students.

But the School Building Authority directed the group to include a fourth option, Alternative D, which serves 515 students. That option would not include preschool or alternative program students who now attend the Cowing School. Options A, E and F do include those students.

Both the A and F options cost $71.4 million, Alternative E costs $71 million and Alternative D would cost $52.2 million. However, Szczypek said Alternative D would mean Cowing School would also need renovations at an estimated cost of $17.6 million.

Once a preferred option is selected, it will be sent to the School Building Authority for approval and consideration of including the preschool costs in the scope of work. Typically, the state funds projects for kindergarten and up.

Once approved, the School Building Authority will fund a portion of the project. If the state approves funding the preschool portion of the project, the town would incur costs anywhere from $25 million to nearly $40 million.

School Superintendent Michael Richard said the Coburn building has long been in need of a renovation and it just does not work for today's educational needs. Hallways and rooms originally created for storage are being used for classrooms, and some programs are housed in parts of the auditorium.

The town submitted statements of interest to the School Building Authority for three consecutive years before it was selected to move forward. Despite the project being a long time coming, it still has a long way to go, Richard said.

"It's still early in the process," he said.

NV5 was selected the owner's project manager last month and serves as a liaison between the town, the school and the state. Cunniff said they are still in the feasibility study stage and looked at three options: an addition and renovation to the existing building, building a new school at the current site and building a new school at a different site.

Szczypek said the town building committee prefers a new building at the existing site, which he said could be done with little interruption to students, who would remain in the old building while the new school is built. The main challenge would be recess because the new school would be built on the playground and field.

"They would need an alternative for outdoor play," Szczypek said.

He said a renovation to the existing school, included in alternatives A and D, would take just over three years. A new build would take about two years, followed by the demolition of the existing school. The old school's footprint would be used for parking and a bus loop.

The town building committee is scheduled to send its preferred option to the School Building Authority in September, and a tentative meeting with the state is scheduled Oct. 31.The Ware man accused of lying to police about the killings of his cousin's wife and three children has been ordered held on $10,000 bail.

Mathew Locke, 31, was indicted last month four counts of misleading police as authorities continue to investigate the brutal slayings of Sara Bermudez and her three young children inside their West Brookfield home on March 1.

He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Worcester Superior Court on Wednesday.

Locke was originally charged in district court with one count of lying to police, but in June a grand jury handed down four counts of misleading investigators.

Locke will return to court on Oct. 10.

Authorities said Locke lied about the "nature and extent of his relationship" with Sara Bermudez, lying about the involvement of the gang known as MS-13 in the killings, and misstating the last time he had been in the Bermudez home.

Locke also lied about his drug use, records say.

Police on March 1 found the bodies of Sara Bermudez, 38, and her three children, 8-year-old Madison, 6-year-old James and 2-year-old Michael, inside the family's 10 Old Warren Road home.

No one has charged with murder in their deaths.

Locke is the cousin of Moses Bermudez, the husband of Sara Bermudez, and the father of the three children.

Moses Bermudez, who was at the arraignment, declined to speak to reporters.

Court records say detectives interviewed Locke several times as the investigation into the killings was underway. Locke, according to prosecutors, implied MS-13 was responsible for the death.

"Locke told investigators that Moses stated that they should pay attention to the news in the coming days because anyone associated with MS-13 was going to get hurt and die," court documents read.

Moses Bermudez told police he never made any reference MS-13.

Locke has not been charged with the killings of Sara Bermudez and her children.

Few details about the investigation or the nature of the Bermudez family killings have been released.

Death certificates list the cause of death for the family members as "pending." A source told MassLive the bodies were burned.

Locke was convicted of arson in Maine.With debt-related issues impacting Puerto Rico's efforts to recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey announced legislation Wednesday that seeks to offer relief to the island and other American territories ravaged by the September storms.

The Massachusetts Democrats, who joined U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Kamala Harris, D-California, in offering the bill, said the measure would give eligible disaster-damaged territories the option to terminate their debt obligations.

Noting that Congress's previous attempt to address the Puerto Rican debt crisis occurred before the hurricanes hit the island, the senators cautioned that the effort was not designed to account for such devastation.

The "U.S. Territorial Relief Act," they argued, is needed to allow places like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where debt has complicated disaster response and impeded investments, to "recover and rebuild with dignity."

Warren said the bill would give Puerto Rico and other territories "a route to comprehensive debt relief and a chance to get back on their feet."

"Disaster funding and the other resources in struggling territories' budgets must not go to Wall Street vulture funds who snapped up their debt. Congress should pass this legislation right away -- our fellow U.S. citizens are counting on us," she said in a statement.

Markey, meanwhile, argued that "Puerto Ricans deserve access to every tool to rebuild their home both physically and fiscally" -- particularly after the Trump administration "failed" in its response to the hurricanes.

"The U.S. Territorial Relief Act will provide some much needed economic flexibility for Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories impacted by these disasters," he said in a statement.

If enacted, the legislation would take a three-pronged approach to addressing debt-related issues in the impacted areas: Providing territorial relief, funding a Puerto Rico debt restructuring compensation fund; and establishing an audit commission, sponsors said.

Specifically, territories would be given the option to terminate their public, unsecured debt if they have witnessed a 5 percent population decrease over 10 years, received major federal disaster assistance and/or seen per capita debt exceed $15,000.

The bill also offers protection for secured creditors and creates a judicial process for creditors to contest the extent and perfection of their security interests, sponsors said. Eligible territories would not be able to terminate their debt more than once every seven years.

The legislation would further make $7.5 billion available to eligible Puerto Rican creditors and another $7.5 billion available to certain mainland creditors whose debt was terminated. Hedge funds and their investors, bond insurers and many large financial firms would be ineligible to such recovery.

Finally, the Democrat-backed bill seeks to create a commission, comprised of Puerto Rican experts, to perform a comprehensive audit of the causes and sources of the island's debt.

The sponsors offered that several groups have come out in support of the bill, including: the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, the Hispanic Federation, LatinoJustice, Amor Para Puerto Rico, National Low Income Housing Coalition, Alliance for Puerto Rico-Massachusetts, CREDO and others.

U.S. Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez, D-New York, meanwhile, will offer a companion measure in the House.

The Democrats noted that the "U.S. Territorial Relief Act" builds on legislation they offered in November 2017 to help Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuild from the hurricanes by ensuring federal funding provided to the territories is protected from "Wall Street vulture funds."BOSTON -- Massachusetts lawmakers will not reconsider whether to restore time-and-a-half pay on Sunday.

Gov. Charlie Baker signed a "grand bargain" earlier this year that eliminated premium pay on Sundays while also raising the minimum wage and establishing paid family leave.

Some workers' groups were unhappy with the loss of Sunday and holiday pay.

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, had proposed restoring the time-and-a-half pay through an amendment to an economic development bill that is being considered in the state Senate.

The amendment had little chance of becoming law, given the work that went into negotiating the bargain, which was meant to remove several questions from the 2018 ballot.

Eldridge sent out a press release touting the introduction of the amendment on Tuesday.

"Restoring time-and-a-half would increase wages for workers in every community at a time when income remains stagnant for too many Massachusetts residents while costs for housing, health care, and child care are rising at an alarming rate," Eldridge said.

But by Wednesday, when the economic development bill was being debated on the Senate floor, Eldridge had withdrawn the amendment.

"After speaking to my colleagues and workers' rights advocates, I believe that it is better to address this issue next session," Eldridge said.

Eldridge said he has spoken to many constituents who work at retail stores or supermarkets, who are upset about losing time-and-a-half pay. "In the future, everyone needs to have a seat at the table on matters that directly affect them," he said.

Senators are considering 325 amendments to the bill, and amendments are often withdrawn with no debate on the floor.

This story was updated with Eldridge's comment.In the wake of data breaches at major companies, including the credit monitoring service Equifax, Massachusetts is poised to adopt new regulations to protect consumers.

A bill that passed the Legislature on Wednesday and is headed to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk would give consumers free credit freezes at any time. It would require businesses that are breached to provide a period of free credit monitoring.

"We've worked very hard and put together a strong consumer piece regarding all type of data breaches and security with different companies to ensure that everyone's protected as a consumer, as well as ensuring businesses still function," said Rep. Tackey Chan, D-Quincy, House chairman of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.

Under the final version of the bill, H.4806, consumers would be able to request and lift a credit freeze without any fees. If someone requests a credit freeze from one credit agency, that agency would be required to tell them how to contact the other major credit agencies. A credit freeze prevents someone from opening a line of credit, so it could stop a thief from opening a line of credit in someone else's name.

Any business that experiences a security breach would have to report specific information to the attorney general, and state regulators and would have to notify consumers. If someone's Social Security number is compromised, the business that was breached would have to provide 18 months of free credit monitoring. If the breach happened at a credit monitoring agency, the agency would have to provide three-and-a-half years of free monitoring.

A person could only access someone else's credit report with written consent. Credit reports are pulled when someone is conducting a transaction that requires credit, such as taking out a mortgage or buying a car.

Upon request, a credit agency would be required to disclose what is in someone's credit history and who the agency has provided a credit report to within the past six months, and up to two years for employment purposes.

An agency could not charge more than $8 for a copy of a credit report and could not charge at all if someone were turned down for a job, home rental or insurance due to poor credit during the past 60 days. The bill sets out rules for disputing credit reports.

The bill is a response to a massive data breach at the credit monitoring agency Equifax in 2017, in which 145 million U.S. consumers had personal data stolen.

But there are other data breaches occurring in Massachusetts on a regular basis.

In 2018 alone, Attorney General Maura Healey's office has been notified of dozens of data breaches.

The travel booking service Orbitz reported that 7,500 Massachusetts residents had their credit card data breached, while Delta Air Lines reported more than 20,000 breaches of credit or debit card numbers. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts had a breach affecting 530 Social Security numbers, while Cambridge Health Alliance reported a breach of 2,400 Social Security numbers.

The online site TaskRabbit reported breaches of 120,000 account and Social Security numbers. The union SEIU Local 32BJ provided credit monitoring after 15,000 Social Security numbers were breached. Eastern Bank, American Express and Best Buy each reported breaches of at least 10,000 account and credit card numbers in multiple incidents.

In another case, The Boston Globe reported that the Massachusetts Department of Revenue inadvertently made private business information available to other companies.BOSTON -- Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to get students more engaged in civics.

A bill that passed the Legislature Wednesday and is headed to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk would enhance civics education in Massachusetts public schools.

Although Massachusetts already has a civics education requirement, House Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, said there was "great concern that the quality of instruction across the commonwealth varied significantly."

Under the bill, schools would be required to teach U.S. history and social science, including civics, "to promote civic service and a greater knowledge thereof and to prepare students, morally and intellectually, for the duties of citizenship." Students would also have to complete a hands-on civics project.

It would not be a graduation requirement for students.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, said the civics project will "ensure that in addition to the book learning, students are getting hands-on experiential learning that is driven by their particular interest to really bring their civics learning to life."

The curriculum would have to include U.S. and Massachusetts history; the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence; the function and branches of local, state and federal government; media literacy; the "roles and responsibilities of a citizen in a democracy"; "community diversity" and trends in voter registration and civic participation relating to disenfranchised communities; proper treatment of the U.S. flag; and "opportunities to identify and debate issues relative to power, economic status and the common good in democracy."

Every school with students in grade eight or high school would have to require every student to participate in a student-led civics project, either individually or in a group. Eighth-graders would have a chance to showcase those projects in a "commonwealth civics challenge," beginning in 2022.

The state would be required to provide professional training to teachers.

The state would also create a "high school voter challenge program," which would select student volunteers to run voter registration drives on their high school campuses. Massachusetts residents can only vote at 18 but they can pre-register as young as 16.

A Civics Project Trust Fund would be created, funded by public money and private donations, to help schools develop the curriculum and implement civics projects. The bill does not set aside money for the trust fund.

The requirement would be on the school to implement the curriculum.

Any state test that is created to measure social science and history would have to take these standards into account.

The bill would go into effect in the 2020-21 school year.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, said he has heard from people throughout Massachusetts "who really feel that we should be doing something relative to educating particularly our young people relative to civics and what civic responsibility they may have."A majority of American voters believe abortion should be legal and caution that overturning the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade would be a "bad thing," according to a new poll.

A Quinnipiac University national survey released Wednesday found that most voters support abortion access, with 26 percent saying it should be legal "in all cases" and 38 percent offering it should be allowable for "most" situations.

By contrast, 10 percent of voters said abortion should be "illegal in all cases" and 19 percent said it should be illegal "in most cases."

The poll further found that most voters seem to oppose efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling in which the Supreme Court affirmed a woman's right to have an abortion.

Two-thirds of American voters -- including 90 percent of Democrats, 39 percent of Republicans and 67 percent of independents -- said they believe such a move would be a "bad thing." Just 23 percent, by comparison, said it'd be "good."

Although the issue of abortion access has taken center stage as the U.S. Senate weighs confirming President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, only 27 percent of respondents said they think it's likely the ruling in Roe v. Wade will be overturned in the coming years.

Voters were more split -- 40 to 41 percent -- over wether they believe Kavanaugh should be confirmed to the high court, with 80 percent of Republicans supporting adding him to the Supreme Court and 70 percent of Democrats opposing it.

Forty-five percent of voters, meanwhile, said they believe Kavanaugh would make the Supreme Court too conservative, compared to 38 percent who rejected such a notion, the poll found.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said the division among voters over Trump's Supreme Court nominee puts greater emphasis on the Senate's confirmation process.

"With this kind of division, it is likely Judge Kavanaugh's Senate confirmation hearings will be crucial if not determinative," he said in a statement.

The poll surveyed nearly 1,200 voters nationwide from July 18 to 23 via telephone. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.The world has become so numb to the words of the President of the United States that it even dismisses threats of war as either a political distraction or a Trumpian negotiation tactic.

Indeed, Donald Trump's threat to inflict on Iran "CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE" may very well have been an effort to divert attention from the Russia investigation. Others have dismissed the danger of the tweet since Trump did an about-face on North Korea, going from calling the North Korean dictator "rocket man" to a "very honorable" man. And, on Tuesday, Trump stated once again that he's "ready to make a deal" with Iran.

But there are five reasons why a pivot from threats to diplomacy with Iran will be much harder -- and why Trump's reckless threats may trap the United States in yet another war.

1. Saudi Arabia and Israel oppose diplomacy. Japan and South Korea advocated it.

The geopolitical circumstances around North Korea differ vastly from that of the Middle East. In the North Korean case, America's allies -- and even its Chinese competitor -- strongly opposed any military confrontation with Pyongyang and pushed for diplomacy. In fact, the pivot to diplomacy with North Korea had far more to do with the South Korean President's maneuvering in the background than Kim Jong Un fearing Trump's "fire and fury" or his sanctions.

In the Middle East, the situation is the opposite: American allies, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have long opposed US-Iran diplomacy (with an impressive track record of sabotaging attempts at US-Iran dialogue). Mindful of their influence in Washington and the Trump administration's deference to them, any attempt by Trump to pivot to diplomacy with Iran will likely face a formidable challenge by these Middle Eastern powers.

Moreover, there is no obvious "South Korea" in the Middle East today that can quietly do behind-the-scenes shuttle diplomacy to bring the United States and Iran together -- at least not one Trump would engage.

Former President Barack Obama needed a go-between to make diplomacy with Iran bear fruit. In that case, it was the country of Oman, which helped establish a secret diplomatic channel with Iran, paving the way for the historic nuclear deal of 2015. But Trump is unlikely to turn to Oman precisely because Obama did so.

2. Trump thinks pressure will force Iran to negotiate. He's wrong.

Trump has stated that verbal escalation and sanctions will force Iran to come to the table. The logic is based on a misread of what brought about the nuclear deal of 2015. The conventional Washington narrative reads that Obama crippled Iran's economy till the rulers of Tehran grudgingly agreed to negotiate. But the secret negotiations between the US and Iran in Oman reveals a very different picture.

While Obama's sanctions were truly crushing -- Iran's GDP contracted more than 35% between 2012 and 2015 -- Tehran did not lack leverage of its own. Its response to the sanctions was to double down on its nuclear program and move ever closer to a nuclear weapon. Just as sanctions put pressure on Tehran, more centrifuges put the squeeze on Washington.

It wasn't until the Obama administration secretly made a major concession to Iran -- agreeing that Iran could continue to enrich uranium on its own soil -- that diplomacy started to bear fruit.

In other words, a policy solely centered on sanctions and pressure did not bring about the desired breakthrough in the talks. Ultimately, it was American flexibility that ended the standstill and elicited Iranian flexibility.

Two conclusions can be drawn from America's past diplomatic experience with Iran. First, pressure alone will not work. Second, Iran will meet pressure with pressure. And herein lies the danger of Trump's approach: Even if he does not intend to draw this to a conflict, he may quickly lose control over the situation once the Iranians decide to counter-escalate by, for instance, reactivating their nuclear program.

3. North Korea has a one-man dictator. Iran has politics.

North Korea is run by a one-man dictator with the political maneuverability to dramatically shift policy from testing nuclear weapons to sitting down with the man who hurled insults at him -- without facing any domestic political consequences. Iran, on the other hand, has a complex political system where power is dispersed and not controlled by any single person or institute. Even Iran's Supreme Leader -- the most powerful man in Iran -- cannot act alone without taking into consideration both public and elite opinion.

Iran's fractured politics and factional infighting renders any dramatic policy shift -- particularly involving diplomacy with the United States -- all the more difficult. President Hassan Rouhani is already paying a political price for having been so "naive" as to negotiate with the "untrustworthy" Americans. The political space needed to restart negotiations, particularly after Iran adhered to the previous deal and Trump pulled out of it, simply does not exist right now and Trump's rhetoric is not moving matters in the right direction.

4. Don't forget: Trump hates Obama.

As Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group has pointed out, Trump's antipathy toward Obama and his obsession with undoing Obama's policy legacies should not be underestimated. As a Trump official told the Atlantic, "There's the Obama Doctrine, and the 'F--- Obama' Doctrine," he explained. "We're the 'F--- Obama' Doctrine."

On Iran, that may not just translate into Trump killing the nuclear deal against the advice of his Secretary of Defense. It may also mean that Trump will pursue a nuclear deal with North Korea at almost any cost (a problem Obama left largely untouched) while rejecting a deal with Iran (the country Obama decided to negotiate with). More than striking a "better deal" with Iran, Trump may think that truly sticking it to Obama necessitates burying diplomacy with Iran altogether.

5. Trump advisers don't want a deal; they want regime collapse.

The members of Trump's inner circle have changed dramatically over the past few months. The so-called "adults in the room," who had a moderating effect on Trump, have largely been replaced with ideological hawks, such as National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. And uber-hawk Tom Cotton has emerged as one of the senators whose advice and viewpoints Trump pays close attention to.

All three of these have a long track record of advocating confrontation with Iran. Bolton famously penned an op-ed in the New York Times at the height of the nuclear negotiations titled "To Stop an Iranian Bomb, Bomb Iran." As a congressman from the state of Kansas, Mike Pompeo quipped that bombing Iran would only take 2,000 fighter jet attacks, which he said "is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces." Cotton, in turn, is the author of the unprecedented letter in the midst of the nuclear talks, telling the leaders of Iran not to trust the President of the United States.

Going forward, the moderate voices inside the Trump White House will essentially be absent, while new advisers will likely egg on Trump to escalate tensions further -- even though the Trump administration continues to claim that its goal is not regime change.

All of this amounts to a sobering reality: Trump is embarking on a path of escalation without having the exit ramps he had with North Korea. The danger now is not to overestimate the risk of war, but to underestimate it.BOSTON -- When Senate President Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, was young, she was told repeatedly to stay at home with her children rather than go to graduate school or further her career.

As Chandler prepares to turn the president's gavel over to Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, she said she is proud of the fact that "we women in power are not anomalies any more."

"We're not to be gawked at, laughed at, or trifled with. We're not tokens or oddities or sideshows," Chandler said Wednesday in her farewell remarks on the Senate floor. "We are entering an age when the power of women is no longer a question, but an answer to the problems plaguing our world."

On Thursday, Chandler will turn the reigns of the Senate over to Spilka, the current chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee. Spilka will become the 95th Senate president and the third woman to hold that role.

Chandler, 80, took office in December after Sen. Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, was forced to resign the presidency amid an ethics scandal related to his husband's alleged sexual misconduct. Rosenberg later left the Senate altogether.

Chandler said from the beginning that she would only hold the role temporarily. Spilka announced in March that she had the votes to win the presidency. Spilka and Chandler agreed to transfer power this week, in the final days of the 2018 legislative session.

Chandler delivered her final address as Senate president Wednesday afternoon, during a break as senators were debating an economic development bill.

"Throughout this session, in the midst of one of our most trying times, this body showed what it truly is made of," Chandler said. "Over the past eight months, we have triumphed over those who believe their profit lies in our chaos, and those who attempted to capitalize on a tragic moment for our body."

Chandler said, "To those seekers and sowers of discontent, I say to you: Before me stands a body that rose above the noise, elevated the conversation, and ignored distractions in the name of the greater good."

Chandler touted the Senate's accomplishments this session, including passing criminal justice reform, raising the minimum wage, instituting paid family leave, banning bump stocks and others.

"In the midst of a national morass of darkness, we once again have served as a beacon of light for those seeking a progressive future," Chandler said.

Spilka will be formally voted into office Thursday afternoon.National Security Adviser John Bolton announced Wednesday that the White House will not host Russian President Vladimir Putin until 2019, offering that President Donald Trump wants to hold such a meeting when "the Russia witch hunt is over."

"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," he said in an afternoon statement sent to the White House press pool.

Bolton's announcement came one day after a top Kremlin aide reportedly said Russia was not ready to accept Trump's invitation to a second, Washington D.C.-based summit with his Russian counterpart this fall.

Yuri Ushakov said while Russia agreed another meeting should take place between the two leaders, it had not yet begun any formal preparations for such a summit, according to Reuters.

He added that "it would be wise to let the dust settle (from Helsinki) and then we can discuss all these questions in a business-like way," the news outlet reported.

Trump and other White House officials confirmed last week that they were preparing for a possible fall meeting with Putin in Washington D.C. -- news which appeared to catch Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats by surprise.

The president, who faced widespread criticism following his first summit with the Russian president, tweeted on July 19 that he looked forward to the prospect of a second meeting with Putin.

"I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more," he said. "There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems ... but they can all be solved!"

The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media. I look forward to our second meeting so that we can start implementing some of the many things discussed, including stopping terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear........  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

....proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more. There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems...but they can ALL be solved!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders noted that Trump "agreed to ongoing working-level dialog between the two security council staffs" while in Helsinki and had asked Bolton to invite Putin to Washington in the fall.

"Those discussions are already underway," she tweeted.

In Helsinki, @POTUS agreed to ongoing working level dialogue between the two security council staffs. President Trump asked @Ambjohnbolton to invite President Putin to Washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway.  Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 19, 2018

Trump has repeatedly rejected claims that his campaign worked with Russian officials to sway the outcome of the 2016 election, casting Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt."

This is a breaking news story and will be updated when more information becomes available.The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for part of Massachusetts ahead of potentially severe storms Wednesday.

The warning was issued for the following counties: Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire. It will remain in effect until 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. A flash flood watch was issued earlier, which will remain in effect until Thursday morning.

"Bands of showers and a few embedded thunderstorms with localized torrential rainfall are expected at times through tonight," the National Weather Service said in a statement. "While rainfall amounts may vary considerably over short distances...rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour are possible in some locations."Market Scenario:

The tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a) inhibitors represent one of the major treatment methods for inflammatory diseases. Globally, this drug class is known to be the most successful drugs in the overall pharmaceutical industry. Several conditions such as inflammations, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and seronegative spondyloarthropathies, can be treated with the help of these drugs. The total sales of the top three blockbuster TNF-alpha inhibitors namely Remicade, Enbrel, and Humira had surpassed USD 32 billion in 2016.

Xaluds lead product XT-150 harnesses the power of the bodys potent anti-inflammatory protein IL-10 to treat inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and joints. XT-150 is in the stage of the preclinical trials for multiple sclerosis, neuropathic pain, and osteoarthritis. In leading rodent model study for neuropathic pain XT-150 has been highly efficacious. Single injection delivers it into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord ensuring that the therapy reaches its target.

In the present scenario, developing countries have stringent regulatory requirements for approval of a new drug. It is a difficult task for marketing authorization application to get single regulatory for a new drug product which belongs to various categories of drugs such as NCE, biologicals, controlled drugs, etc. Therefore, the knowledge of precise and detailed regulatory requirements for market authorization application of different categories of drugs should be known to establish a suitable regulatory strategy. There is a need for pronounce and a fine balance between the persistence of gaining market access to pharmaceuticals, to protect the public health and facilitate healthy growth of pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 7.1% during the forecast period 2017-2023.

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Market Segmentation of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Market:

The global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented on the basis of the drug, disorder type, route of administration, stage of clinical trials, and application.

On the basis of the drug, the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented into Humira, Enbrel, Remicade, and others

On the basis of the disease type, the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented into Alzheimers diseases, Parkinsons diseases, ischemic stroke, multiple sclerosis, and others.

By the route of administration, the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented into oral, subcutaneous, intravenous, and others.

On the basis of the stage of clinical trials, the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented into the preclinical trial, phase 1 clinical trial, phase 2 clinical trial, phase 3 clinical trial, and phase 4 clinical trial.

On the basis of the application, the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented into medicine, scientific research, and others.

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Top Players in Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Market:

In May 2016, Pfizer acquires Anacor for its inflammatory & immunology portfolio. Anacor is a biopharmaceutical company focused on small molecule therapeutics from its boron chemistry platform, and its asset Crisaborole is in FDA review if approved will be a first-line treatment option for patients with atopic dermatitis. They have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Pfizer will acquire Anacor for approximately $5.2 billion which assumes the conversion of Anacors outstanding convertible notes. Anacor will be a strong fit with Pfizers innovative business due to the strategic focus on inflammation and immunology and is expected to enhance near-term revenue growth for the innovative business.

AbbVie Inc. (U.S.), Ablynx (Belgium), Apogenix GmBH (Germany), AryoGen Biopharma (U.S.), Bionovis (Brazil), CASI Pharmaceuticals (U.S.), Celltrion Healthcare (South Korea.), Celgene Corporation (U.S.), Delenex Therapeutics (Switzerland), Dexa Medica (Indonesia), EPIRUS Biopharmaceuticals (U.S.), Janssen Biotech (U.S.), GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (U.S.), HanAll Biopharma (South Korea.), Intas Pharmaceuticals (India), LEO Pharma (Denmark), LG Life Sciences (U.S.), MedImmune (U.S.), Momenta Pharmaceuticals (U.S.), Novartis AG (Switzerland), Sanofi-Aventis (France), Zydus Cadila (India), and others.

Intended Audience

Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Drug Suppliers

Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Drug Manufacturers

Research and Development (R&D) Companies

Medical Research Laboratories

Academic Medical Institutes and Universities

Research Methodology

Regional Analysis of Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Market:

The global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market is segmented as the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa.

The Americas is projected to hold the largest share of the global tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors market. P2D Biosciences, a US-based company, received $ 2.3 million funding from NIH (National Institutes of Health) with four grants. The grants include the development of new drugs for the treatment of acute leukemia and Alzheimers disease and a new drug to improve stem cell transplant therapy for treating leukemia and lymphomas, which will help P2D to develop medical advances that improve the lives and health of people who are affected with these diseases.

Europe is expected to capture the second lead in this market in the coming five years owing to substantial technological advancements. In 2016, LEO Pharma, a Denmark based company entered biologics through a strategic partnership with AstraZeneca. The partnership will help LEO Pharma enhance their product portfolio. A strategic alliance with a healthcare giant will help LEO pharma expand their geographic presence and become a world leader in dermatology segment.

Moreover, Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest growth rate over the forecast period. The Middle East and Africa are also expected to show healthy growth in the coming five years.

Major Table of Content for Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha Inhibitors Market:

Chapter 1. Report Prologue

Chapter 2. Market Introduction

2.1 Definition

2.2 Scope of The Study

2.2.1 Research Objective

2.2.2 Assumptions

2.2.3 Limitations

Chapter 3. Research Methodology

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Primary Research

3.3 Secondary Research

3.4 Market Size Estimation

Chapter 4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Drivers

4.2 Restrains

4.3 Opportunities

4.4 Challenges

4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators

4.6 Technology Trends & Assessment

4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators

TOC Continued.!

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Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comResearchers at Kyoto University have developed a technique to produce platelets from induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS cells). Platelets are formed when small fragments break off from large cells called megakaryocytes within blood flow. The technique involves creating IPS megakaryocytes and then culturing them in a specialized bioreactor. The bioreactor mimics the turbulence of normal blood flow using a French press design to encourage the megakaryocytes to form platelets on a clinically useful scale. The technique can produce enough platelets for transfusions and could help to avoid platelet shortages.

Platelet transfusions are necessary for patients with platelet-related diseases, and sometimes patients undergoing certain surgical procedures or cancer therapies also need platelets. However, donated platelets are only good in storage for a couple of days. In the future, many nations anticipate severe donor shortages. For instance, Japan has estimated that donated platelets will be available for only 80% of patients who need them in the next decade.

To address this issue, researchers are attempting to produce platelets in the lab, using IPS cell technology. The basic technique involves creating IPS megakaryocytes, which are platelet parent cells, and then culturing them in a bioreactor that mimics natural blood flow to encourage the megakaryocytes to form platelets.

So far, researchers have used smooth and linear fluid flow (known as laminar flow) in such bioreactors, but the results have been modest, and the bioreactors have not produced nearly enough platelets for viable transfusions. Researchers at Kyoto University developed a new type of bioreactor that incorporates turbulent fluid flow to help the megakaryocytes to form platelets.

Our goal is to produce platelets in the lab to replace human donors, said Koji Eto, a researcher involved in the study. There has been lots of work on bioreactors, but they only used laminar flow. Nobody thought about turbulence.

The new design is based on a French press coffee maker, where a plunger moves up and down to create turbulence. The bioreactor can produce more than 100 billion platelets from IPS cells, which is enough to treat patients. The lab-produced platelets behaved normally in mice and rabbits, and the researchers hope that their technique will be useful in treating human patients.

Study in Cell: Turbulence Activates Platelet Biogenesis to Enable Clinical Scale Ex Vivo Production

Via: University of Kyotoby Tanya Gazdik , July 25, 2018



General Motors is losing one of its rising stars in marketing.

Melody Lee, global director of Book by Cadillac, will leave the company Aug. 17 after six years. Lee declined to comment about her pending departure.

She is one of handful of marketing managers to leave or announce plans to leave the division in recent weeks, according to sources.

Change is in the air at the luxury automaker, likely due at least in part to the arrival of new Global CMO Deborah Wahl, who joined the company in late March from McDonalds, and new President Steve Carlisle, who took over that position in April. Their focus is mostly on improving U.S. sales, according to sources. Wahl defines herself as a data-driven innovator on her own LinkedIn page.

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Carlisle has been with GM since 1982 and is said to take a traditional view of running the division. Wahl is said to be performance driven, which stands in contrast to her predecessor, Uwe Ellinghaus, who was more of a brand strategist, visionary and storyteller CMO.

In what could be a signal of things to come, the automaker has moved the operations of its 18-month-old Book By Cadillac vehicle subscription service to Detroit from New York, according to sources. Cadillac moved its entire operations to New York three years ago and used it as an opportunity to bring in forward-thinking executives.

The service initially launched in the New York City metro area and was rolled out to Los Angeles, Dallas and, most recently, Munich. It initially was $1,500 a month but subsequently climbed to $1,800. The app-enabled, on-demand service allows Book by Cadillac members to browse a Cadillac portfolio and, based on their needs, exchange a vehicle up to 18 times per year.

Lee joined General Motors as director, brand marketing, Cadillac in 2012. She worked in that position until 2017 when she became global director of Book by Cadillac.

Since joining the automaker, her purview has been to develop Cadillac brand strategy and consistency, to explore and nurture partnerships and experiential marketing, and to head up the global marketing planning team that ensures the Cadillac brand is consistent around the world.

We used to consider product in one category and communications in another and experience at the dealer level a third bucket  and hoped that the three of them combined to form some sort of brand image for Cadillac, Lee said in her biography on the GM website. My job has been to reverse that paradigm, help form a brand image and translate it across all of Cadillacs touchpoints.

Lee, 37, was brought to Cadillac as one of General Motors youngest-ever executives, tasked with a plan to re-invent the then-110-year-old brand.

She immediately led the complete overhaul of Cadillacs brand positioning and identity. In the second year, she was part of the decision to move Cadillac from Detroit to New York. In year three, she developed and oversaw the launch of Cadillacs groundbreaking Dare Greatly marketing platform. In year four, she led the strategy, design, construction and curation of Cadillac House, a brand experience center and content generator. In year five, she created and launched Book by Cadillac, the first luxury vehicle subscription service.

During her tenure, which also included the role of deputy CMO and the coordination of a $300+ million marketing budget, 100 global marketing employees and 150+ agency partners, Cadillac global sales grew every year (three of five years with double-digit growth), with 2017 seeing the highest global sales for the brand since 1984.

From 2014 to 2017, Gen X&Y opinion of the brand rose 5%, and Gen X&Y share of attendance at Cadillac events rose to 84% (from 30%). Over five years, lifestyle media impressions tripled, and social media conversation on the brand rose by double digits each year. Book by Cadillac created a category and immediately garnered 8,000 prospects  without a single cent spent on paid media.

After creating the category of luxury vehicle subscription, Lee took over Book as a discrete business unit, with responsibility for Books P&L and a dedicated organization, immediately expanding into three additional markets. Book is a proven disruptor, with an average member age of 41 (20+ years younger than the average Cadillac owner) and 85% of nearly 12,000 prospects having never purchased or leased a Cadillac previously.Chico, Calif. -- With the scorching hot temperatures the North State region is experiencing this summer season, the February freeze that had regional agricultural producers worried about possible crop damage, seems like a distant memory.

However, the U.S. Small Business Administration is announcing the availability of low-interest federal disaster loans as a result.

The funds are to help offset farmers' and ranchers' revenue losses as a result of the 2018 season freeze.

There are specific dates which qualify for the low-interest loans. The qualifying time period is from February 13, 2018 through the February 28th, 2018.

S.B.A. assistance is being offered for businesses in Butte, Glenn, Mendocino, Plumas, Shasta, Trinity and Tehama counties.

Those who qualify for the low-interest loans could be eligible for up to 2-million dollars in aid. The deadline to apply for this loan assistance is March 18, 2019.

Click here for all the information and guidelines on the program.by Thom Forbes @tforbes, July 25, 2018

A Trump administration proposal to dole out $12 billion in aid to farmers getting whacked by its escalating trade wars with the European Union, China, Canada and Mexico was met skeptically yesterday  even by congressional members of the Republican Party.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the U.S. government would provide incremental payments to support prices of some of the hardest-hit commodities, including soybeans, sorghum, cotton, corn, wheat and pork, report Vivian Salama and Jacob Bunge for the Wall Street Journal.

This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration time to work on long-term trade deals, Perdue told reporters [on a telephone call]. Agriculture Department officials said the aid wouldnt need congressional approval.

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Perdue characterized the moved as a response to what he called U.S. trading partners illegal retaliation to the policies of Mr. Trump, who has ordered tariffs on imports ranging from metals to materials to clothing to electronic parts, Salama and Bunge continue.

Trump defended his approach Tuesday during a speech in Missouri, pleading with the public to be a little patient and arguing that farmers would eventually be the biggest beneficiary of his policies, report Damian Paletta and Caitlin Dewey for the Washington Post.

But many Republicans criticized the administrations aid package, saying the president should back off his trade war and help farmers regain more access to foreign markets, rather than offering them government payments, they add.

Tariffs are taxes that punish American consumers and producers. If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers  the answer is remove the tariffs, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) tweeted in response.

It's a short-term solution and it doesnt solve any of the problems agriculture's got right now, said Sen. John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota whos a member of the GOP leadership, reports CNNs Lauren Fox. What [U.S. agriculture] needs is more markets, expanded markets. These policies are restricting markets, and to offset that they are going to make, basically, payments to farmers to recognize the loss they have experienced. But its just not the right way to do it.

Several farm groups were not enamored of the proposed solution, either.

One farm-group study estimates that corn, wheat and soybean farmers in the United States have already lost more  $13 billion  than the administration is proposing to provide as a result of the trade war. The prospect of retaliation has upended global markets for soybeans, meat and other American farm exports, and farmers are warning that tariffs are costing them valuable foreign contracts that took years to win, point out Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ana Swanson for the New York Times.

You have a terrible policy that sends farmers to the poorhouse, and then you put them on welfare, and we borrow the money from other countries, Sen. Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. Its hard to believe there isnt an outright revolt right now in Congress.

Democratic senators, as you no doubt suspect, were no more welcoming.

At the end of the day, farmers dont want a check, they want a market, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) told Hill.TV correspondent Molly Hooper, suggesting that once a market is lost, its hard to get back. Heitkamp also announced a bipartisan bill aimed at helping farmers and ranchers recover their losses as a result of the administrations trade policies.

The right-leaning Washington Examiners hed states that farm groups praise the aid package but Sean Higgins story makes it clear that they would prefer open markets.

Our emphasis continues to be on trade and restoring markets, and we will continue to push for a swift and sure end to the trade war and the tariffs impacting American agriculture, Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, says, for example.

This morning, Trump tweeted: Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!

Then again, theres the possibility were imagining all of this. In one of his best Big Brother evocations yet, the President told a gathering of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City yesterday: Just remember, what youre seeing and what youre reading is not whats happening.

As George Orwell wrote in 1984 (and I see many other commentators are recalling this morning): The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, July 25, 2018

In his first full day on the job, President Donald Trump declared war on the media.

In recent weeks, he and his White House have declared war on the truth, altering official White House transcripts, as well as a video on the White Houses official YouTube channel, to distort the meaning of a statement made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during their joint press conference in Helsinki.

The White House, which has persistently described objective news reporting by Americas most venerated news organizations as fake news, has actually been disseminating a distorted official record of what took place during the historic summit. Specifically, when Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked Putin if he wanted Trump to win the 2016 presidential election and whether he instructed Russian officials to help.

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"Yes, I wanted him to win, because he talked about the normalization of RussianAmerican relations, Putin replied during the live press briefing.

However, in the White Houses transcript and YouTube video, Masons question asking Putin whether he wanted Trump to win was edited out, and only the second part of his question -- And did you direct any of your officials to help him do that? -- was used, with altered version of Putins reply edited to read and sound: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal.

Just to be clear, there is no justification under any circumstances for the White House to be putting out a video of an event that happened and altering it in any way whatsoever, to their interest or not to their interest," MSNBC national affairs analyst John Heilemann commented this morning on Morning Joe.

He noted there is only one version of this reality. The question was asked and the answer was proffered.

"Thats the only version our White House should be putting out on its YouTube channel or in any of its official government mechanism or media that exists, he added, during a segment discussing the White Houses attempt to alter the official historical record. Presumably, it's because Putins verbatim response to Masons question would be deemed compromising in some way.

The timing of the expose is also interesting, given a statement made by President Trump during an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Kansas City on Tuesday, at which he said: Just remember what you are seeing and what you are reading is not whats happening.

Trump was referring to press coverage of his tariffs policies and the impact of a potential trade war on the economy. But his statement struck an Orwellian nerve for many observers and commentators, especially given the White Houses apparent efforts to distort the official historical record.

When Trump got elected, I wrote a column about a growing phenomenon in society called the Mandela Effect, which are cases where a significant percentage of the population misremember actual historical facts, and made a case for how newly inaugurated President Trump would, in effect, create his own Trumpela Effect, via his direct-to-consumer media distortions.

The altering of official White House media records, is an excellent example.by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 25, 2018

News of Google's $5.1 billion antitrust fine in Europe has spurred Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to expand his investigation into whether the company violated state antitrust and consumer protection laws.

If the European Commissions allegations are true, Googles conduct may have violated both federal and state antitrust laws, Hawley said Wednesday in a statement. Googles alleged conduct does not merely undermine free and efficient markets; it undermines fundamental consumer privacy interests by excluding companies that would compete with Google by providing greater protections for users personal information.

Hawley, who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, said he has served Google with a subpoena relating to allegations that the company "took improper steps to enhance its market power."

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Last week, EU regulators said Google violated European antitrust law by requiring Android manufacturers to configure smartphones and tablets in ways that favor the Google services. The company required manufacturers to install the Chrome browser and set Google as the default search engine on Android devices, according to the EU authorities.

Consumers who use Android devices can install other browsers, and can select other search engines. But the EU found that Google's bundling requirements helped solidify its dominance.

Google has said it plans to appeal the decision.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joseph Simons said at a House hearing last week that he was interested in the EU's action, but also noted that Europe's approach to antitrust differed from the approach in the U.S. He added that In Europe, authorities can take action after they find a company is "dominant," but in the U.S., there also must be a harm to consumer welfare.

The FTC previously investigated whether Google violated antitrust law by promoting its own services in the search results, but closed the probe in 2013 without bringing charges. Former Chairman Jon Leibowitz said at the time the agency found that Google's primary reason for touting its own offerings in the search results was "to improve the user experience."

In Missouri, Hawley said last November that he was investigating whether Google's privacy policy adequately discloses its data-mining practices, as well as whether the company discriminates against competitors in the search results.by Sara Guaglione , July 25, 2018

Tech company FiscalNote is looking to acquire magazine publisher CQ Roll Call from its parent, The Economist Group.

CQ Roll Call publishes Roll Call, which covers Congress and tracks legislation.

In the proposed deal, FiscalNote would acquire CQ Roll Call, and The Economist Group would get an 18% equity stake in FiscalNote. It would make The Economist Group the largest shareholder of FiscalNote.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized later this year.

The idea is FiscalNote, which uses technology to track and analyze legislation around the world, would combine its tech and analytics with CQ Roll Calls ability to add insight, context and editorial around the data.

Chris Stibbs, CEO of The Economist Group, would join the FiscalNote board of directors.

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FiscalNote founder-CEO Tim Hwang would remain the largest individual shareholder and CEO of the company.

While Roll Call has a strong, robust business, Stibbs and CQ Roll Call president Paul McHale were looking for ways to get significant growth into the business, Stibbs told Publishers Daily.

The injection of technology and innovation into CQ Roll Call is the best way for CQ Roll Call to grow," McHale said in a Roll Call article.

This is a wonderful opportunity to combine data, tech and insight with editorial expertise to create something no one else has, Stibbs said.

This acquisition will not necessarily change how Roll Call covers legislation, but the publisher will further leverage data and analysis for its coverage of the workings of Congress, Stibbs added.

Hwang stated the acquisition will also "provide our clients with greater access to enhanced products that will inform their decision-making and maximize their influence on government as they tackle the challenging issues impacting their business."

FiscalNote has raised more than $50 million since its inception five years ago.

Organizations that use FiscalNotes suite of products and services include Toyota, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, Microsoft, PhRMA, Salesforce, the Consumer Technology Association, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, Schlumberger and the National Education Association.by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, July 25, 2018

The campaign for Fire & Cane  the fourth new single-malt offering in Glenfiddichs Experimental Series  aims to reflect the series mission of introducing unexpected and inspiring whiskies, while also visually conveying the new spirits unusual flavor profile.

The 20-second anthem video for the campaign (below), from London-based Space, plays out in reverse order  starting with the finished-product beauty spot and closing with an image suggesting the inspiration for the scotch.

Animated CGI sugar crystals and liquid photography are used to convey the single malts campfire smokiness and toffee sweetness.

The predominantly social campaign also includes a five-second teaser video, other short-form audio-visual creative, out-of-home, print, and interactive formats including Facebook canvases and Instagram polls.

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Following this weeks launch in the United States, the campaign  part of Glenfiddichs strategy of recruiting new whisky drinkers in key markets around the world  will be rolled out in France in September, in the U.K. in October, and in Taiwan next year.Immune cells that disrupt the ability of eyelid glands to keep the eyes moisturized could be indirectly to blame for dry eye, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Share on Pinterest Immune cells in the eyelid glands could be responsible for dry eye. This was the conclusion that researchers came to after studying eyelid gland dysfunction in mice and analyzing human tear samples. They found that neutrophils, which are a type of immune cell that normally protects the eye during inflammation, can also disrupt the eyelids meibomian glands. These glands release oil when the eyelid opens. The oil moisturizes the eyes and prevents evaporation of tears. Blockage of the glands causes meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD), a condition that results in increased eyelid bacteria, inflammation, and dry eye. Senior study author Daniel R. Saban, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC, explains that the neutrophils do not directly block the gland cells. Theyre being recruited around the gland and changing the actual glandular cells, which is causing them to malfunction, he adds. Prof. Saban and his colleagues report their findings in a paper now published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Dry eye, MGD, and neutrophils MGD is the most common cause of dry eye, a chronic disease that is considered a major health problem internationally. Dry eye is the most common reason that people seek medical care for their eyes. Estimates suggest that up to a third of the population can be affected. In the United States, the annual cost of treating dry eye is around $3.84 billion. The disease is uncomfortable and painful and diminishes quality of life. Having dry eye makes it more difficult to read, work effectively, use a computer, watch television, and drive. The disease can also restrict use of contact lenses and cosmetics. MGD is sometimes visible because it forms small off-white beads on the eyelid. But this does not always occur, leaving many cases undiagnosed. The study authors note that although conditions such as allergic eye disease that cause the eyelids to be chronically inflamed are linked to MGD, it is not clear whether inflammatory processes contribute to the obstruction of the glands. Neutrophils are immune cells that are present in many types of tissue. They are summoned to help deal with bacteria and other pathogens. Scientists are not sure why neutrophils enter tears as we sleep. Perhaps they are taking advantage of the fact that the eyes are shut to collect waste. Normally, the cells depart when the eyes open. But in people with MGD, they stay.Subject to market feedback, the specification for the MBIOI-CPS will be amended to include only data for products in the mid-grade bracket - those with an Fe content of 60-63.5% - provided it also meets the other specification requirements for the index.This is in line with the changes proposed to the Metal Bulletin 62% Fe Iron Ore Index for seaborne materials.Data will still be normalized to the index base level, which would remain unchanged from its current specification.The full proposed new specifications for the MBIOI-CPS would be as follows:RMB per wet metric tonne, free on truckAllBase 62%, range 60-63.50%Base 3.50%, maximum 8.0%Base 2.0%, maximum 4.0%Base 0.10%, maximum 0.15%Base 0.02%, maximum 0.06%Base 8%, maximum 10%Base size >90% <6.3mm, at least 90% <10mm, at most 40% <0.15mmMinimum 500 tonnesPayment at sight, other terms normalized to baseBase Qingdao, normalized for any other Chinese mainland sea portWithin two weeksDaily at 6.30pm Singapore timeThe consultation period for this proposed amendment will end two months from the date of this pricing notice, on September 24, 2018, with changes taking place, subject to market feedback, from October 1, 2018.To provide feedback on this price or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this price, please contact Peter Hannah by email at: pricing@metalbulletin.com. Please add the subject heading FAO: Peter Hannah, re: MBIOI-CPS.To see all Metal Bulletins pricing methodology and specification documents go to: https://www.metalbulletin.com/prices/pricing-methodologyWe once again express our warmest thanks to Greeces friends and partners for their immediate response and their offer of firefighting aircraft and vehicles, as well as personnel, to assist in extinguishing the wildfires in Attica. We also thank the members the Greek community abroad and the foreign friends of Greece who, from the very outset, expressed their support and solidarity, stating their willingness to provide essential supplies and financial assistance to bring relief to the victims and to repair damages caused by the wildfires.

Greeces diplomatic missions abroad will provide information on the optimum way to send and coordinate the relevant assistance. The foreign Embassies in Greece have also been advised in this regard. At the same time, our Permanent Representation to the European Union is closely monitoring the progress of support being provided to Greece by the competent European institutions.

Greece will continue to promote and support the necessary proposals to strengthen the European Civil Protection structures, as well as the adoption of policies by the European Solidarity Fund and other European institutions for dealing with the consequences of climate change, so that similar disasters can be avoided in the future.Our country is determined to send a message to the East and West, to all of our friends and to those who are not our friends, that anyone who violates the principles of sovereignty and respect with regard to us will meet with corresponding measures. The era of diplomacy that backed down is over. This kind of diplomacy belongs in the chicken coop and not in foreign policy, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Kotzias stressed in a televised interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).

Asked about the recent tensions in Greek-Russian relations and the visit the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was to carry out to Athens, Mr. Kotzias underscored to AMNA that he is not concerned and hopes that any problems can be resolved in a friendly manner.

Sergey Lavrov, whom I regard as one of the best diplomats on the international stage and with whom I have friendly relations, asked me to invite him to come to Greece to prepare Prime minister Tsipras visit to Moscow. And they invited him to Moscow. I extended this invitation, if he wants to come. If he doesnt want to come, he wont. He is welcome in any case. If he feels he has to identify with the people we expelled or with those we banned from entering Greece, thats his right. As you know, and our announcement says this, I tried not to identify these negative cases with official Russia. Its up to Russia whether it wants to identify with them.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasised in his interview with AMNA that I am not concerned about Greek-Russian relations. What concerns me is a situation that has taken shape in our country, where when I say that the Turkish troops should leave Cyprus, they tell me its not patriotic; that I should leave a few. When I go to resolve the name issue, the Skopje problem, they tell me not to rush. When I take measures against people who are violating international law and rules for guests in our country, they tell me I shouldnt. I dont understand why. Because on the one hand some people are using hate speech inside the country and against small countries  the future 'North Macedonia', Albania, etc.  and on the other hand, when large countries break our rules, they say we should tolerate it and back down. As I said at the Foreign Ministrys Scientific Conference, these people are not patriots; they are serving third-party interests.

Mr. Kotzias characterized as very good the fact that the Greek main opposition partys statements on Greek-Russian relations were cautious and low key.

Conditions were ripe for the agreement with Skopje

Referring to the Prespa Agreement, Mr. Kotzias noted that the conditions were ripe for resolving the dispute with Skopje. They say we were hasty. The conditions were ripe. When conditions are ripe, it means you have to do whatever you can. There is the second school of thought, which says, leave the problems unresolved so we can exploit them. I ask: Do we want a fYROM that is under Turkish influence or a fYROM that is our friend? This is the question we have to answer  not whether we were hasty. Do we want a fYROM where Slavic fundamentalism will develop, creating terrorist flows from the north in Greek Macedonia, or do we want to eliminate the causes of and potential for growing Slavic fundamentalism and terrorism to our north? Do we want a country that is stabilised and will have economic, geographical and social ties with us, or do we want a country that will see us as an enemy and look to collaborate with other countries, which wouldnt please us so much? he underscored.

Responding to a question as to whether this was the best agreement Greece could have made with Skopje, Mr. Kotzias stressed: If you and I sat at home and drew up the agreement, and there were no other side, yes, we could have made a better agreement. As I have said, in that case we wouldnt call it 'North Macedonia'. Wed call it 'North Alaska'. And if there hadnt been concessions and backing down in the negotiations over the past 25 years, everything would be easier. But we have two issues: one, that the other side has to agree, because we didnt defeat them in war, so we cant impose whatever terms we want. We want the other side, too, to convince its society, to get the requisite majority in their Parliament, to win the referendum, amend their constitution. We want them to do difficult things.

We were faced with accomplished facts and remedied them as best we could

Second, we were faced with accomplished facts, and you cant continue negotiations without bearing these accomplished facts in mind. We corrected the situation where we could. There is continuity of the state, which is a longstanding principle of international law. First, the name was changed: 'North Macedonia'. Some people are pointing to what Zaev is saying today. But the agreement hasnt been ratified yet and hasnt gone into effect. Second, the agreement provides for their changing article 49 of the Constitution, which talks about the "Macedonian nation" in neighbouring countries; in other words, minorities. And previous governments signed the Interim Accord in spite of this. Zaev has agreed that this will change and that it will copy word for word Article 118 of the Greek Constitution, which of course does not talk about minorities within the country, but refers to defending and helping Hellenes across the world. And I was in complete agreement with him that they should copy the very good phrasing in the Greek Constitution. With regard to the frontier, the inviolability of borders is mentioned in a special paragraph in the agreement, also saying that we will not allow actions of a non-friendly character directed against the other country, the Minister of Foreign Affairs told AMNA.

Asked how he interprets the fact that six in ten Greeks are alleged, in polls, to say no to the agreement, Mr. Kotzias noted: I think the majority of Greeks, like me, say emotionally that it would be good if we didnt need to make any agreement. I also think the opposition parties thrive a little on the non-solution of problems. And here we have to distinguish between those who specialise in creating problems, like the current opposition  New Democracy and Pasok, who governed the country for decades after the junta fell  and those who solve problems. The country needs the latter, not the former. But solving problems is more difficult. And as I said in my speech at the conference, if you dont do anything in foreign policy, you usually dont face opposition. But as soon as you start solving problems, everyone starts saying how the solution could be better or worse. But I believe deeply in actions, like the conference held by the Foreign Ministrys Scientific Council, and that is why the media I referred to didnt cover the conference, because they dont want the Greek people to gain a better understanding of the Greek peoples real interests. And incredible things are being said. For example, a woman on the street said to me, you should be ashamed of yourself for handing over Thessaloniki so the Skopjans can make it their capital. Nonsense. But as the Greek people say, do you know what is unbeatable in our country? Malice and misinformation. Its not the womans fault. The ones at fault are those who, in order to promote their opposition agenda, are undermining an agreement that, as you will have seen, is being called a masterpiece of a diplomatic agreement by respected newspapers abroad.

It will be referred to as 'North Macedonia' in all official documents

Asked whether the agreement could have provided for fYROM citizens being called Slavomacedonians or North Macedonians, and not as they want to be called, Mr. Kotzias noted: We have to distinguish between two things: Officially, the term 'North Macedonia' will be in the title of their institutions, as well. But if you think I can make it so every citizen is called 'North Macedonian', I will ask you the following simple question: There is a resident of Skopje and he tells his girlfriend that he is "Macedonian". What do we do in this case? Will we set up a thought-police state that will put him in prison? What we said is that the citizens of this country have the right to self-determination. This is a global right that we cannot change. But at the same time, we can call them whatever we want. We can call them by their Slavic name. We can talk about a Slavomacedonian language, Slavomacedonian nation. On the level of the private citizen, only an authoritarian, despotic state can choose what the citizen will be called unofficially. But on the state ID, the institutional ID, everything will have the name 'North Macedonia'. In other words, their Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of "Macedonia" or the "Macedonians". It will be the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of 'North Macedonia'. Such and such a school will be the school of 'North Macedonia'. But outside the institutional system or state contexts, you cannot impose how people self-determine. Some people say, were in the Balkans, or we are westerners, or we belong to the east. Should we start punishing these people and throwing them in jail? And what will we decide? Are we westerners or easterners, or a mix? People self-determine as they want to ...

We ensured the elimination of irredentism

In negotiations, you make compromises. They say, Macedonian citizens of North Macedonia. For years, these people have been entering Greece, with travel documents, as Macedonians. And everyone who is criticizing the agreement is pretending they have forgotten this or didnt know about it. And the question is not what we want to call them. Based on the accomplished facts and their needs, the question is: Whats better: Macedonians or citizens of 'North Macedonia'? That is the alternative. And of course the name citizens of North Macedonia is much better. And we have to remember that we didnt fight a war against these people; we didnt defeat them. We didnt impose an occupation constitution on them. We carried out friendly negotiations. And we got the main thing for us, which was eliminating irredentism, recognition of the borders, recognition that there are no minority demands or rights in Greece, recognition that they have to change their name to 'North Macedonia', recognition that this name, 'North Macedonia', must be for all uses, recognition that they have to amend their constitution ... This is an agreement between two states. It is not binding for individual persons.

Ill give you an example. In the Interim Accord, it says that both sides are prohibited from manifesting irredentism. At the demonstration that took place here at Syntagma Square and at the demonstration in Thessaloniki, some far-right elements  not everyday people who rightly went to the demonstrations out of concern  shouted, bring us guns so we can enter Skopje. What is that? Is that not irredentism? And I was left with a question regarding the political parties and Church officials who supported these demonstrations: Why didnt they condemn these slogans? Do they think it is to be expected that, today, in Greece, people are shouting, bring the guns so we can enter Skopje? In other words, if we heard slogans like that at demonstrations in Turkey, in Istanbul, in Ankara, wouldnt we see it as a provocation? Wouldn't we condemn such irredentist phenomena? How can we grant ourselves such rights and not grant them to others? To be honest, I havent heard slogans like that in Skopje.

Irredentism  as professor Marilena Koppa put it correctly at the conference  expresses an intention to retake territory that you have lost. Irredentism means, first, that you are making territorial claims and, second, that you will pursue these claims by all means. I no longer see any territorial claims. Mr. Zaev has been saying this from morning to night. Now, if there are foolish opposition protesters or people doing this out of business interests, saying there is irredentism, our societies have to take measures  not suppression measures, naturally. Measures include, for example, the provisions for changing school books. The process started on 17 July. A month after the agreement, meetings and the creation of the scientific groups started regarding this issue. Irredentism is also their laying claim to our ancient Greek heritage. These claims have ended. Skopjes airport has already been renamed Skopje International Airport. The name of the motorway running from our border to Skopje has been renamed, the statues have been taken down or are being taken down. I think these are all very serious issues, because we are fighting, together with the Zaev government, to stop people from being poisoned with fanaticism; fanaticism that has no place in todays world. We want friendship. We want a common course so that we can contribute to the development of this region, and so that this region can contribute to the development of the Balkans as a whole. If you read the books by Michalis Papakonstantinou, of New Democracy, and of Mr. Skyllakakis, the Secretary General of Mrs. Bakoyannis party and former Secretary General here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you will see what they all say. That 25 years ago we unfortunately did not realise that the world was changing and, instead of dealing with the essential problems, we argued over problems of formality. And that, unfortunately, we did not realise that we needed to make our northern neighbour our best friend, instead of keeping it at arms length without understanding how the world was changing. This still holds true for some people today, the Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed to AMNA.

But arent there differences between the current policy on Skopje and the national line drawn by former prime minister Kostas Karamanlis in 2008, in Bucharest? we asked Mr. Kotzias:

In 2008, Kostas Karamanlis said that the country we still call fYROM had to change its name. If the name didnt change, they couldnt join NATO. Now the name is changing. The content of the Bucharest process and negotiations did not include negotiations on the name or even a proposed agreement. Not allowing this country to join an organization is one thing, and the agreement the two countries are making is another. Bucharest was not a proposed agreement. Bucharest was a condition for fYROMs joining NATO: first we had to reach an agreement.

The solution on product names

We asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs about the disagreement and objections being expressed by businesspeople in Northern Greece regarding product names.

Lets be honest: More objections are coming from businesspeople in Athens. Because businesspeople in Thessaloniki, as you saw at the conference the Prime minister attended there, welcomed the agreement. And why did they welcome it? Because some people are acting as if, until now, our neighbouring countrys products had the name 'North Alaskan', and suddenly they are being called 'North Macedonian' products. Thats wrong and its a lie. Until now, this countrys products have been called "products of Macedonia". And from now on, as soon as the agreement is ratified and goes into effect, they will be called products of 'North Macedonia'.

Is there a time frame for this?

It will happen automatically for products of 'North Macedonia'. What will take more time to solve is the products themselves, their brand names, and not their country of origin or production. Because there are Greek products that are correctly called Macedonian products and fYROM products that are also called "Macedonian". There are 3,500 businesses in the two countries  that is how many the University of Thessaloniki found, and we have the study here  that have the word Macedonian in their name. This is why we said we will create a committee under the supervision of the European Union and the UN. We are a member state of the European Union. Were not concerned. However, didnt these products have these names up until now? Now we are going to regulate the issue. We are going to resolve it. The people who saw the problem and did nothing about it are cursing now because we want to solve it.

Mr. Minister, what makes you believe that the 140 countries throughout the world that have currently recognised fYROM as "Macedonia" will accept the new name?

Watch the BBC video that shows what the BBC called fYROM before the agreement and after the agreement. Before the agreement, the BBC, CNN, all of the major channels called fYROM plain "Macedonia", and there was no Macedonia on the map of Greece. With the agreement, fYROM is called 'North Macedonia', and Greek Macedonia is shown on the map as Macedonia. And I ask you, what it patriotically closer to what we want: the map that eliminates Greek Macedonia and refers to Skopje as "Macedonia", or a map that has Skopje as 'North Macedonia' and Northern Greece as Macedonia? Listen, Zaevs recent letter to NATO is very interesting. It says that his country is applying to join NATO under the name 'North Macedonia'. What NATO member state or member state of the European Union can refer, from now on, to a state other than by the name under which that state itself is asking to join them? And the second thing is, the commitments fYROM has undertaken include its writing to all the states that have recognised it as plain "Macedonia" to say that it will now be called 'North Macedonia' and wants to be called that from now on. If Turkey, for example, wants to continue to call it plain "Macedonia", it will be violating the NATO treaty, the agreement at the UN and the agreements the state of 'North Macedonia' itself has made with each third party.

The agreement will come before the Hellenic Parliament as soon as the whole process is completed in Skopje

How realistic is it, however, to believe that the agreement will be accepted in fYROM in the end, given that the latest poll shows that 54% of the countrys residents oppose the agreement?

I saw that, but three days ago there was another poll that said 70% were in favour of the agreement. Tell me what company carried out the poll and what interests that company represents, and I will comment. In my opinion, the majority of the friendly neighbouring people want to join NATO, not to say an absolute majority of the Albanian element and a majority of the Slavomacedonian element want to join NATO and the European Union. If they decide not to join  I dont want that, I dont believe thats what theyll decide, I dont think thats what will happen  but if that happened, I think its clear that we are not at fault in any way.

Ratification will take place with the referendum and then the constitutional changes have to be made. You have to understand how difficult it is for a country to change its name and to change its Constitution. And what a major move it is on the other sides part  some people cursed me for acknowledging the other sides difficulties. It is a difficult thing, and they are doing it to have good relations with us and a Euroatlantic perspective. And if you will, from their standpoint, they will be doing all of this without knowing what will happen in the end in Greece; whether we will ratify the agreement.

Everyone wants us to resolve the problem so they can have the right to level accusations at us



What is your real assessment of the Greek sides stance?

I think that as soon as the constitutional changes are ratified in fYROM, it should come before the Hellenic Parliament the very next day; in the Foreign Affairs Committee and then the Plenary, Mr. Kotzias replied to AMNA.

And if Parliament doesnt ratify the Agreement? Snap elections?

There is no chance of that happening, Mr. Kotzias reckons. It is in the interest of both states  and the majority in both countries will realise this  for this story to end. And let me say something else: Ive been hearing a lot of criticism from the opposition. I used a phrase in Parliament and I will repeat it: It is my feeling that everyone wants us to resolve this problem so they can have the right to level accusations at us. That suits them, he added.

But what is happening with your partner in the government, Mr. Kammenos, who is reacting?

I think he has the right to his own opinion, just as I have the right to mine, Mr. Kotzias told AMNA, adding that "we should wait and see how things develop. I think that when the agreement is voted on in Parliament, a majority of the people will have understood the positive aspects of the agreement and that no one took Thessaloniki for the Skopjans. They will have seen that frightened and cowardly people are fabricating disaster scenarios and that the bold patriots are the ones who are right.

But if the Independent Greeks vote against the agreement and withdraw from the government? Do you foresee a change in government in Greece and, consequently, the possibility of the agreements being voided?

I dont see a likelihood of a change in government, and no government can void international agreements that easily: agreements that have been confirmed by the 28 other member states, Mr. Kotzias responded, noting that these threats to void the agreement are playing to public opinion. And I reiterate, they are condemning an agreement that is many times better than any other agreement. The opposition politicians know it is a very good agreement, but it suits them, as an opposition tactic, to criticize it. Deep down, they are pleased. We are doing the hard and bold work, and they are pretending innocence. As I always say, history is a school for us to grow up, develop and learn in. It is not a prison. We have to throw off the shackles we ourselves put on.















Strong evidence of financial links has been discovered between Trump Tower developer and top ranking Russian government officials. This was revealed after an investigation was carried out on the controversial development, formerly known as the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Toronto.

According to documents revealed by the Financial Times in a 10-month probe, Alex Shnaider, the Russian-Canadian billionaire who developed the building, paid the sum of $100 million to a Moscow-based fixer representing Kremlin-backed investors was the Toronto tower was under construction.

Trump Organization licenced the Trump name over to Shnaider, as the building was never developed nor owned by Donald Trump. Rather, there was a contract for the organization to manage the property. The $100-million payment was meant to aid the sale of a stake in a Ukrainian steel mill that Shnaider owned, to buyers acting "on behalf of the Russian government, according to the Financial Times. The deal was successful, and Shnaider was reportedly paid $850 million for his share in the steel mill.

In a 2017 report in the Wall Street Journal, the sale of the steel mill was financially backed by Vnesheconombank (VEB), a Russian government-owned bank that had Vladimir Putin as the chairman. "Given that the ultimate backer of the deal was the Kremlin, that raises the possibility that money passed from Trump's business partner to Russian officials," stated the Financial Times.

However, SymonZucker, Shnaiders lawyer, denied the link to VEB, saying in a 2017 report that the Wall Street Journal had got their facts all wrong. He stated that Midland Resources, the company which Shnaider owned a stake in the Ukrainian steel mill, never had any business with VEB.

Shnaider reportedly made an extra $40-million investment into the construction of the Toronto Trump Tower after the deal was successful, reported Financial Times. While Zucker has vehemently denied that the money from the sale was put into the Toronto Trump Tower, the Journal cited that he said some $15 million from the asset sale went into the project.

According to the Times, Donald Trump made an estimated $4 million from licensing out his name and offering managing services to the Toronto Trump Towerthought the figure could be possible higher considering Trump only made his finances public from 2014 onwards.

From construction delays to reports of falling glass, the Toronto Trump Tower was riddled by problems from the time it was initiated in 2007. The building battled with poor occupancy rates right after launch, prompting some individual investors to file legal action against Talon, Shnaiders company. The law suit was filed in 20616, where the group of investors called the project an investment scheme and conspiracy. In 2017, afterShnaider Talon defaulted on an approximately $300-million loan to Austrian bank Raiffeisen, the tower was traded in a court-ordered sale. JCF Capital received loan for the bank, and last year they took ownership of Toronto tower. After the management contract with the Trump Organization expired, the new owners promptly removed the Trump name from the building.

The sort of payment Shnaider made to a fixer is a common practice in Russia, but can be quickly interpreted as a bribe, says experts.

In an interview with Times, one anonymous expert aid that if it were seen a bribe, it could be argued that the Trump Organization received "proceeds of crime." There is no difference whatsoever that Trump was aware ofthe transaction Shnaider made.

According to the Canadian Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Acts, it is illegal for Canadian business to bribe government officials in other countries.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.







Ive just returned from a year-long visit through Italy. Prior to my trip, I had studied Italian in high school and believed that I had a firm grasp of the language. It wasnt until I arrived in Italy that I had a rude awakening. I discovered that despite two semesters of high school Italian, I couldnt communicate with locals in Italy to save my life!

Which is ironic, because I had arrived as an English teacher. My job was to teach Italianshow to speak English, and embarrassingly after work I couldnt tap into the local culture that I had longed to do because of my language inability. And going deeper into the culture was the very purpose of my trip.

My passion for Italy started when I was a little kid after my first bite of pizza. My interest in Italian snowballed from there Roman gladiators, Renaissance masters, stunning architecture. I made a promise to myself that when I graduated college, Id take a year off to travel Italy. I didnt have a tremendous amount of money saved up (student loans!), so I committed to teaching English to local kids and adults in Naples for six months. Of course, after being in the country for just a week, I realized I needed to shift gears and learn Italian. One of my coworkers at the private English school I taught at recommended OptiLingo. He said that it worked for him because it uses a language learning method called Guided Immersion. I gave it a try and I kid you not  after the very first lesson, I was breezing through several Italian phrases. I soon recognized that the musical nature of Italian is thanks to the fact that most words end in a vowel. How I didnt pick that up in high school, Ill never know!

Imagine, even after my high school Italian classes I never felt as accomplished. The OptiLingo lessons worked. Let me tell you a little bit about Guided Immersion, and the general structure of the lessons. Each week is composed of five lessons  you can choose any five days you want, however I worked through my lessons Monday through Friday. Each lesson is about 30 minutes long. If I had a particularly long day at class or had picked up a private tutoring session and felt languaged-out, I simply set the days lesson aside to pick it up on the following day.

What I liked most about the course was that it was a great mix of audio, visual, and tactile language learning approaches. Lessons provided opportunities to listen to native Italian speakers chat, conversationally. These werent those forced where is the bathroom? questions they drill into you in other programs geared towards tourists. This was everyday dialogue that gave me deeper insight into the Italian culture and people.

Each lesson also provides written material, so you can compare how an Italian sentence is constructed in an intuitive way, because its juxtaposed to the direct English translation. I found this approach helped me understand Italian grammar better than anything in my high school Italian classes. And finally, the lessons encourage that you integrate a tactile approach. Im a tactile learner  I need to physically do something with my hands to understand the material. In these lessons, I wrote out Italian words and sentences with a pen and paper. I cant remember the last time I used a pen and paper for anything  but in this case it worked. Review and self-testing are built into the lessons so its easy to revisit what you learned and understood and parse that material out with what needs further attention.

For those of you considering taking the plunge into learning Italian, may I be the first one to push you! Italian is an incredible language to learn. Sure, its not the most spoken language in the world  or even Europe, for that matter  but it is the fourth moststudied language (behind English, Spanish, and Chinese). Italy is the fifth most visited country in the world, Italian is the language used in classical music notation, and it is the spoken language of the Catholic Church, which still has global influence. (Fun fact: the official language of the Catholic Church is Latin, but Italian is used in everyday business.)

And for us English speakers interested in learning Italian  its the direct evolutionary link to Latin. That means that Italian has many similarities to Spanish and some similarities to English.

Because my workweek was only 20 hours long, I had plenty of free time to explore Naples and the surrounding countryside. When my English teaching contract ended, I traveled throughout the rest of Italy  from Naples to Milan to Rome and everything in between.

My Italian adventure has ended and Im back in the United States. I plan to continue my quest to perfect my Italian and have many future trips to Italy in my bucket list. Id like to provide some insights gleaned from my yearlong experience in Italy learning Italian. Hopefully its helpful if youre considering learning the language.

Gestures Matter

In India, they bobble their heads which often confound tourists (does it mean yes or no?). Similarly, Italians gesticulate to add emphasis or nuance to what theyre expressing verbally. Gestures are one of the things that attracted me to Italian, however at first, I felt a little silly gesturing when I spoke. Dont be. Use gestures and embrace this fascinating aspect of the culture. Even if youre struggling, trying to find the right word  throw in a gesture to add meaning to what youre trying to say. The important thing is that you are understood.

Easy for Native English Speakers

Why so easy? Italian and English use the same alphabet. That means no extra letters to learn. Actually, there are even fewer letters in the Italian alphabet  just 21! The letters: J, K, W, X, and Y dont appear in any Italian words. What you will find instead are accent marks as these are occasionally used in Italian to indicate where to put the emphasis when pronouncing a word.

Nouns Change Based on Gender and Quantity

Unlike English, Italian uses gendered nouns and adjectives but one way to get around this is reminding yourself of this shortcut: singular nouns ending in -o are often masculine, -a are often feminine. Another theme when learning Italian is that youll notice whether a word is singular or plural, the words spelling will be modified. Kind of like in English we add s or es  in Italian, the word ending changes. Be advised!

Ready for the Million Euro Question?

I know what you really want to know. How fast can you learn Italian?

This depends. I thought I knew Italian because I had taken Italian in high school. Wrong! One source, the US Governments Foreign Service Institute, estimates that it takes 600 hours in a classroom setting to achieve a general professional proficiency. (You can learn more about how long it takes to learn new languages here.) For most people, that would take years to achieve! But using the method my colleague shared with me  and that Im now sharing with you - you can learn Italian in hours, not years!

Ready to start learning Italian fast with OptiLingo? Click here to get started. Your first two weeks cost just $9.99!FedEx is the latest freighter operator to add a new service to Vietnam as it looks to capitalise on an up and coming trade deal between the Southeast Asian country and the European Union (EU).

The new four-times-per-week service will fly between the Vietnamese capital Hanoi and the FedEx Express hub in Guangzhou, utilising Boeing 757 freighter capacity.

FedEx said the new route would significantly cut the delivery times between Europe and Vietnam and substantially improve transit times for all inbound flights to Hanoi.

It also pointed that the EU and Vietnam are currently finalising a trade and investment agreement and that Vietnam has become the EUs second biggest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), after Singapore and ahead of Malaysia, with trade worth 47.6bn in 2017.

"Vietnam exporters shipping from Hanoi will benefit from the best transit time for shipments to major business centers in Asia, including China, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines, in just one business day," the express operator claimed.

"Shipments to Europe and North America will arrive in two business days. For all shipments to Hanoi, transit times will be reduced by one business day. Shipments from Europe will reach Hanoi in two business days, and shipments from North America arriving in three business days."

FedEx Express Europe president Bert Nappier said: "This new flight demonstrates our continued commitment to enhance our global capabilities to connect customers and create opportunities for individuals, entrepreneurs and businesses large and small to grow.

"With ongoing expansion in the manufacturing and technology industries, rapid growth in e-commerce and an increasing demand for healthcare services, the enhancements from this new flight strengthens our capabilities and supports the further development of trade possibilities between Europe and Vietnam."

FedEx is not the only freighter operator to launch services to Vietnam this year. AirBridgeCargo and Air Incheon have also added services over recent months.

Read more express industry news

Sign up to receive Air Cargo News direct to your inbox for freeAbdul El-Sayed, 33, of Shelby Township is a former health commissioner of the City of Detroit.

1. As Governor, what would your top priorities be?

First, we have to make our government accountable and transparent. Michiganders deserve a government they can trust  one where the will of the people takes priority over the interests of corporations and lobbyists.

Second, as a physician and a former Detroit health director, I have proposed MichCare a single-payer, Medicare-for-All style healthcare plan  to cover all Michiganders, streamline our healthcare system, save people money, and reduce the healthcare burden on businesses.

Third, we have to rebuild public education by de-DeVosing our schools, getting the for-profit motive out of education, and investing in our children from cradle to post-secondary education.

Fourth, we must invest in our crumbling infrastructure without raising the tax burden on working families. Infrastructure is about more than just roads; we must reinvest in our crumbling schools, aging water infrastructure, and clean energy infrastructure as well.

2. How would you address those priorities?

1. I will subject the Governor's office to FOIA on my first day. I also support the Voters Not Politicians ballot initiative. If it fails, I will commit to pushing independent redistricting starting in 2020. Finally, we need campaign finance reform, and to undo the "Citizens United on Steroids" package of laws signed by Governor Snyder.

2. I will implement a state-level single-payer healthcare system in Michigan to ensure coverage and save Michiganders money. The plan and its financing is at abdulformichigan.com/MichCare

3. I will de-DeVos public education by removing the for-profit motive in charter schools and reinvesting in K-12 schools, teachers, and school infrastructure. See abdulformichigan.com/education

4. Our Pure Michigan Infrastructure Bank would allow us to re-invest in Michigan's infrastructure

over the long-term instead of just spending more money for something that will need to be fixed again in the future. See abdulforgovernor.com/infrastructure.

3. In what areas should the state increase spending?

Michigan made countless investments in me and others in my generation  quality education, clean air and water, and an economy that kept my parents employed. But today, government is failing to make these same investments.

We must invest in public schools, children who attend them, and teachers who run them. We must ensure that students who make it to college don't struggle with rising debt, choosing to leave Michigan for jobs they can't find at home. Automation and outsourcing are chipping away at Michigan jobs, with no long-term plan on how to bring Michigan's economy into the 21st Century  we must invest in sustainable job growth for Michigan.

No one should worry about healthcare access, getting a job that pays a living wage and supports workers rights, reliable housing, quality education, and affordable. It's time for Michigan to invest more in the services that help our communities thrive.

4. In what areas should the state cut spending?

For too long, we have played by the same old script, offering massive corporate tax cuts in exchange for jobs that end up being offshored or automated. I'm less interested in offering huge tax cuts for corporations like Amazon  only to be excluded from the HQ2 final 20 list  and more interested in making Michigan the kind of place where companies like Amazon are founded in the first place.

Currently, Michigan subsidizes corporations at a higher rate than any other state but Louisiana through a labyrinthine system of corporate giveaways. That must end.

Further, our current tax structure is regressive, relying disproportionately on sales taxes and other fees. I will work to update Michigan's tax code so that we no longer bend over backward for corporations that want to outsource and automate our jobs, but instead institute progressive taxation that ensures sustainable funding for years to come.Bill Schuette, 64, of Midland, is Michigan's Attorney General.

1. As governor, what would be your top priorities?

My top priority can be summed up in one word: Growth. There isn't a problem facing Michigan today that couldn't be made better if we had more people living and working here. Yet, 55 of our counties lost population this decade, and we still have 300,000 fewer workers than before the Great Recession.

We need a growing population and growing paychecks to become a leading economic state. More growth means our kids don't have to leave Michigan to find jobs and we can invest in better roads and infrastructure. Airplane loads of people arrive daily in places like Austin and Nashville, and it isn't because of the weather. It is because those states have better economic environments and more opportunity.

2. How would you address those priorities?

We must make Michigan a more attractive place to live, work, start a business and raise a family. As governor, I will implement growth-friendly policies that help us compete nationally and rebuild our population.

I will:

1.) Cut taxes. Michigan incomes are still below pre-recession levels, and more than $5,000 below the national average, leaving families with less in their wallets than most Americans. I want to cut taxes at the state level, as President Donald Trump has done at the federal level, to help workers keep more of their hard-earned money. As governor, I will eliminate the Granholm income tax hike that has cost Michigan taxpayers $8 billion.

2.) Lower auto insurance rates, which are the highest in the country.

3.) Improve our third grade reading scores and restore vocational education and apprenticeships in our schools, so that Michigan children have the bright future they deserve.

3. In what areas should the state increase spending?

In a $57 billion state budget like Michigan has, we should be able to find enough money for better roads, and roads will be one of my top spending priorities as governor. Few people travel our two peninsulas and 83 counties more than I. We've got too many potholes, and it hits drivers right in the wallet for car repairs. Yet nothing has been done for 15 years.

More than anything, we need to grow our economy to increase state revenue, but additionally my plan to rebuild Michigan's infrastructure includes:

 Top-to-bottom audit of the transportation department (MDOT) to make sure we get more "miles paved per gallon."

 Stronger, enforced guarantees and warranties on roads and bridges.

 Making sure Michigan gets its fair share of funds from Washington D.C.

 Using savings from the repealed prevailing wage law to fund roads.

4. In what areas should the state cut spending?

As governor, I will conduct a review of all areas of state government to find potential reforms and efficiencies.

Bureaucratic programs that are not working will be ended, and the money redirected to essential services like roads and public safety.

State government must constantly strive to wisely ensure the best possible return on investment for Michigan taxpayers.Gretchen Whitmer, 46, is a former Democratic member of the Michigan Senate and county prosecutor.

1. As governor, what would your top priorities be?

Our roads cost the average Michigan driver $540 a year in vehicle repairs. I've got a plan to fix Michigan's crumbling infrastructure  with high quality material and mix, so we get the job done right.

We're also going to expedite the replacement of lead pipes across the state so every community has clean, safe drinking water. Right now, there are dozens of communities in Michigan that have higher lead levels than Flint. There's no reason the state that's home to 21 percent of the earth's fresh water should have communities full of people who can't bathe their kids or give them a glass of water at the dinner table.

We're going to invest in skills and job training. I will make the first two years of college debt-free and fund more trade schools and skills training programs so all Michiganders can get a good-paying job and take care of their families.

2. How would you address those priorities?

I have a real plan to fix our roads with a $3 billion annual investment in a rebuild Michigan infrastructure bank so we can fix our roads. When we dig up a road, we will lay conduit so we get every Michigander connected to broadband and we expedite the replacement of lead pipes across the state.

I have a plan to create the MI Opportunity Scholarship, a two-year debt-free plan that may be used at skilled training programs, community colleges and four-year universities.

Participants would be required to complete eight hours of community service per marking period and enroll full-time while maintaining a strong attendance record and a good grade point average (GPA).

Students must have graduated from and maintained a good GPA and a high attendance record for the past three years at a Michigan high school, and need to participate in a MI Opportunity career-mentoring program.

3. In what areas should the state increase spending?

We've got to focus on getting things done that will actually make a difference in people's lives right now. As soon as I enter office, I'll write a budget that prioritizes fixing our crumbling infrastructure, making health care more affordable, and improving education and skills training.

4. In what areas should the state cut spending?

We've got to stop allowing tax breaks for companies that send Michigan jobs overseas. If we're going to grow our economy so household incomes grow with it, we've got to support Michigan businesses that employ Michiganders.

I also have a plan to cut unconstitutional spending of taxpayer dollars by charter and cyber schools so we can focus on making sure that every child, no matter their zip code, can get a great public education that gets them on a path to a high-wage job. This ensures Michigan taxpayers are getting the best value for our money, and helps our students get the skills and experience they need to build a life for themselves here in Michigan.Shri Thanedar, 62, of Ann Arbor is a retired scientist, author and entrepreneur.

1. As governor, what would your top priorities be?

1.Economic growth and job creation

2.Education

3.Affordable quality healthcare

2. How would you address those priorities?

1. I will direct the Michigan Department of Economic Growth to work with Michigan's state universities and the United States Small Business Administration to support the creation of startups with a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) related initiatives.

I would prioritize funding and coordinating an initiative that facilitates K-12 and Michigan's four-year institutions to cooperate to identify, recruit and retain Michigan students with STEM talent to study and remain here after graduation.

We must invest in the skilled trades by working with community colleges and the unions to recruit, train and place Michiganders in skilled trades positions.

2. I will increase funding in K-12 education. In at-risk districts, I will implement wrap-around services to include prevention, mental health and crisis intervention services. I will work to institute free four-year college scholarships for finanically needy families.

3. I will work to create a universal, single-payer healthcare system and increase access to prevention and mental health services.

3. In what areas should the state increase spending?

Education is critical to creating a stronger, smarter Michigan. It will be one of my top priorities as governor. Improving our education system requires properly funding K-12 schools, higher education and community colleges.

As governor, properly funding infrastructure will be among my top priorities. Fixing our crumbling roads, bridges and infrastructure is critical to creating a stronger Michigan.

Improving the quality of life for Michiganders through increased wages is among my top priorities.

I will increase funding for job training through community colleges to ensure Michiganders acquire the skills they need to get the jobs of tomorrow.

4. In what areas should the state cut spending?

To create a stronger, smarter Michigan, we must balance the burden of costs from the taxpayer to the corporate special interests. Corporations must pay their fair share.

I will reduce the billions of dollars spent on corporate giveaways and direct those funds to education, infrastructure and job training for Michiganders.

Michigan spends far too much time and money incarcerating non-violent criminals. Alternative programs for non-violent offenders will generate excess revenues that will be directed elsewhere.

By focusing on rehabilitation, we can prevent violent crimes, reduce overcrowding and excess spending on prisons.Michael A. Gailor has been appointed states attorney for the Judicial District of Middlesex, according to a press release.

Gailor was appointed for an eight-year term succeeding Peter A. McShane, who served as states attorney from November 2011 until his appointment earlier this year as a Superior Court judge, the release said.NEW HAVEN  If you are a cat lover, there soon will be a cafe in Westville where you can go to have coffee and a pastry while visiting with a dozen kittens and cats up for adoption.

Mew Haven Cat Cafe at 904 Whalley Ave. now is open for coffee, while the felines will take up residence in late August after renovations to the space in Westville Village are complete.

Angela Pullo and her husband, Michael Pullo, have done their due diligence, visiting other cafes in the U.S. Started in 2014, such cafes are now in New York, Philadelphia, Oakland, Calif., and as far away as Hong Kong and Toronto.

Click through the slideshow above to see photos from cat cafe's around the world.

Their first encounter was in Meow Parlor in Manhattan in December 2014.

The cats will come from Animal Haven in North Haven, a longtime shelter for cats.

Angela Pullo said they are wonderful to work with and in addition to making sure the cats have their shots, they will vet potential adopters. She said Animal Haven will send cats that have the right temperment to be in this kind of temporary shelter.

The couple were granted the special exception that they needed to open the cat cafe at the Board of Zoning Apeals meeting Tuesday night.

Michael Pullo said his cat died at the age of 15 and he wasnt ready to get another one, but running a cafe-shelter was a good way to help other cats get adopted.

Michael Pullo has a day job, while Angela runs the cafe full time.

The neighbors were very supportive, with 1,000 of them signing a petition in favor of the cafe opening in Westville.

Steve Fontana, the citys deputy economic development administrator, said when the couple looked around for a place to locate they decided that New Haven was the one place in Connecticut where this would work.

We pride ourselves on doing things first and doing them the best, Fontana said. It is a unique idea. I applaud them, for embracing it. I think you will be successful.

Thea Buxbaum said the cafe is one of those creative uses that you want a city to have bragging rights for because it is just unique enough and quirky enough to get peoples attention.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577WILTON, Conn.  A 37-year-old White Plains, N.Y. man posed as the owner of the Boston Bruins and is now facing criminal charges, according to police.

Police said Jeffrey Jacobs, 37, lied about his identity to curry favor with a tree service company after a tree fell on his home on Drum Hill Road during a storm last year.

The tree companys owner, who told police he was an avid Bruins fan, was enticed to come out to the home in the middle of the storm and later billed the $5,100 job to Jeremy Jacobs, the actual owner of the Bruins.

In May 2017, Wilton police learned of the incident when they received a call from the security department of Delaware North, a hospitality and food service management company chaired by the Bruins owner.

Police were familiar with Jacobs. They said he was pulled over in November and used a similar lie to try and get out of a traffic ticket.

A warrant for Jacobs arrest was obtained by police. Jacob was arrested Friday, July 20, by police in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., after he was pulled over for using his phone while driving. He was transferred to the Wilton Police Department later that night.

Jacobs was charged with criminal impersonation. He was released on a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 30.The Coast Guard's newest fast-response cutter is the first to carry the name of one of this generation of warfighters, sending a strong signal to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans across the fleet that their sacrifices will not be forgotten.

The fast-response cutter Nathan Bruckenthal was commissioned in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday. The 154-foot vessel is named for Petty Officer 3rd Class Nathan Bruckenthal, the first Coast Guardsman to be killed in action since the Vietnam War.

The cutter brings a host of capabilities to the fleet, said Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz, enabling the crew to operate further from shore in extreme weather conditions. Having it named for Bruckenthal only adds to its strength, he added.

"When your namesake is tied to a hero of this millennium, that's a first," Schultz said. "I think that really raises the bar ... and I have every confidence this crew is going to get out there and crush it."

Ric Bruckenthal said he is moved to see the crew so inspired by his son's story. Even the saddest part of Bruckenthal's story, his death, served a purpose, his father said, because he could have saved countless lives by alerting others to the threat.

Bruckenthal and two sailors died April 24, 2004, while attempting to board a boat they wanted to inspect in the North Arabian Gulf. When the six-person crew from the coastal-patrol boat Firebolt pulled up alongside, a suicide bomber on board the suspect boat detonated an explosive device.

The boarding team's actions helped alert nearby security forces to a coordinated attack, which helped prevent further loss of life. Bruckenthal was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star with a combat valor device for his actions that day.

"I never thought it would happen in my lifetime, but I'm glad the Coast Guard was able to speed the process up and [make this] happen," said Marine Enforcement Chief Joe Ruggiero, who served with Bruckenthal for about two years, including on the day he was killed.

Bruckenthal was always cracking jokes and making his shipmates laugh with his impressions, Ruggiero said. He could lift his team up on even the worst days, and Ruggiero said he hopes the crew on this cutter makes time to have fun while carrying out their missions.

Lt. Bryan Kilcoin, the cutter's commanding officer, said that's a trait he definitely sees in his crew. They talk about Bruckenthal daily, he said, and have a healthy respect for both his ethos and sense of humor.

"There's not a night on the mess deck when there's not an uproar of some sort," he said. "But they trust one another and have each other's backs, and that's why a lot of us continue going to sea -- to see that crew camaraderie come together."

The cutter will complete its inspections before heading out to conduct search-and-rescue, law enforcement and other missions off the coast of Virginia and the Carolinas, Kilcoin said.

Because of its capabilities, it could also be called down to the Caribbean for drug-interdiction missions.

Bruckenthal 's sister, Noabeth, serves as the ship's sponsor, which means she and her family will keep close ties to the ship and its crew. She addressed the crew during the commissioning ceremony.

"He's with us here today in spirit -- with all of us," Noabeth Bruckenthal said. "And now, we are all friends; we are now all family -- because of this one person, this one man, this one kid from Long Island.

"On behalf of the Bruckenthal family, welcome," she added.

Noabeth Bruckenthal said her brother would be "over the moon" to see so many people turn out for the commissioning. She pledged to be there for the cutter's crew whether they're facing a challenge, celebrating a success or hosting a change of command.

"I will travel whenever they need me," she said. "... I'll come out and take the crew to dinner, buy them a beer, play some video games, and kick back and relax. It's really a wonderful bunch of men and women serving aboard this cutter, and I'm so proud of them."

-- Gina Harkins can be reached at gina.harkins@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ginaaharkins.Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date.North Korea continues to produce fissile material for nuclear weapons despite leader Kim Jong-un's commitment to President Donald Trump to "denuclearization," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.

"Yes, they continue to produce fissile material," Pompeo said in response to questions from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Pompeo declined in open session to comment on whether North Korea also was continuing to produce submarine-launched ballistic missiles. "I can't answer that" in public, Pompeo said, but he agreed with Markey that North Korea's human rights abuses also continued unchecked.

In the exchange with Pompeo, Markey charged that the administration had little to show for June 12 Singapore summit between Trump and Kim.

"We have yet to see any tangible progress toward denuclearization. I am afraid that, at this point, the U.S. is being taken for a ride" by North Korea, Markey said.

Pompeo bristled at the characterization. "Fear not, senator," he said. Under Trump, the U.S. was committed to the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction, he said.

Pompeo said there were "lots of discussions" underway that he was not at liberty to discuss and "We have not been taken for a ride, senator."

Later in the hearing, in an exchange with Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, Pompeo said again that the North Koreans were continuing to produce fissile material.

Throughout the hearing, Pompeo countered scathing criticism from both sides of the aisle on the Singapore summit with Kim and the Helsinki summit earlier this month with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Senators from both parties were "filled with serious doubt about this White House and its conduct of America foreign policy," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, chairman of the Committee. "I can't say it more forcefully, we need a clear understanding of what's going on, what our president is agreeing to."

Corker ran through a litany of aggressive actions by Putin, from the annexation of Crimea to meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, but he charged that Trump appeared to be "submissive and deferential" to Putin at Helsinki.

Corker called Kim one of the world's most "ruthless dictators, and yet Trump has called him "very talented" and added that "he loves his people." Corker paused and added "Really?"

Pompeo insisted that Trump was following a "coherent strategy" on Russia and North Korea, and "Americans are safer because of his actions."

On North Korea, Pompeo insisted that "progress is happening" toward denuclearization but "we will not let this drag out to no end."

On Russia, Pompeo said that the White House on Wednesday issued a declaration calling on Russia to "end its occupation of Crimea." He also said that the administration was boosting aid to Ukraine.

"There will be no relief of Crimea-related sanctions until Russia returns control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine," Pompeo said.

Pompeo also defended the meeting with Putin in Helsinki. "Two great nuclear powers should not have a contentious relationship," he said.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-New Jersey, told Pompeo that if President Barack Obama had acted as Trump did in Helsinki, "we'd be peeling you off the Capitol ceiling."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.A Green Beret who fired on a civilian truck in Afghanistan showed "horribly poor judgment" during a deployment in which officers let soldiers drink alcohol and have sex in violation of military rules, the team's enlisted leader stated in an Army investigation report.

A video montage that showed an American soldier firing a shotgun into the driver's window of an Afghan cargo truck was posted online late last year, stirring controversy and prompting military officials to promise a thorough investigation.

Though Army investigators found no wrongdoing, an investigative report obtained by Stars and Stripes reveals new details, including allegations of "toxic" team members and failures in discipline and professionalism that carried over into operations, leading to the shooting, which the team's senior noncommissioned officer called "stupid."

The incident came as some officials have questioned whether the military is relying too much on special operations units and raised concerns about the strain of frequent deployments on the elite forces.

Officials found no probable cause to believe there was a killing or violation of the rules of engagement, the Army's Criminal Investigation Command said in May.

A soldier had fired a nonlethal beanbag round into the truck after its driver ignored several warnings not to encroach on a U.S. convoy, officials said.

The investigation report includes sworn statements from most of the 12-member team, though the names of the members and two other Green Berets interviewed in late January at Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, Calif., were redacted.

Part of the California National Guard's Alpha Company, 5th Battalion, 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne), the 12-man team deployed to Afghanistan in late 2016. The shooting occurred sometime in January or February 2017 near Bagram Air Field, officials said.

The shot through the window may have been the only way to get the driver's attention, the team's commander, a captain, told an investigator. The driver ignored small flares and other warnings, he said.

The captain assessed the driver as "fine" after the incident and said if the shooting had resulted in a death, locals would have complained on social media about coalition forces "conducting vile acts (with) no repercussions."

Claims of alcohol use, adultery

A master sergeant who was the team's operations sergeant and senior NCO on the deployment, however, raised concerns about violations of standard operating procedures and questioned the shot placement, calling it "horribly poor judgment" to fire into the window.

"Even if the civilian vehicle was trying to disrupt or enter into part of our convoy, ignored pen flares as warnings, a shot to the metal door could achieve the same message without putting the civilian driver at risk of injury," he said.

A 10-year veteran of Special Forces teams, known as Operational Detachment Alphas, or ODAs, and several deployments, the master sergeant described having his authority subverted by fellow NCOs because he had taken a stand against allowing soldiers to violate General Order No. 1, which prohibits alcohol use and sex in Afghanistan.

The team's commander and assistant commander permitted the violations, he alleged, and let at least two soldiers carry on extramarital affairs at Bagram.

Adultery is also a military law violation carrying a maximum punishment of one year of confinement, a dishonorable discharge and financial penalties.

"Throughout the deployment, I had to deal with toxic individuals who undermined my authority because they were being protected by the ODA officers," he said. "This behavior spilled over into our operations, with poor decision-making by these individuals and those on the ODA negatively influenced by them."

One team member risked exposing Special Forces techniques and "practices used worldwide" by allowing an Afghan to take a vehicle wired with electronic surveillance systems to a local repair shop near Bagram, the team sergeant said. The team member left the vehicle at the shop for 30 days and then lied to cover it up, he said.

'Toxic, negative influence'

The incident with the shotgun was another symptom of that dysfunction, the team sergeant said.

Investigators found that during the deployment the team had been issued one Benelli M1 Super 90 shotgun matching the description of the weapon in the video, hundreds of slugs and door breaching shells, and dozens of nonlethal M1013 crowd dispersal rounds filled with rubber balls. Beanbag rounds were not mentioned on the weapons list.

A sergeant first class unilaterally added use of the shotgun and nonlethal rounds to the team's procedures, the master sergeant said. That sergeant first class often did whatever he wanted, regardless of regulations, and "has a long history of discipline issues and has been a toxic, negative influence" on the team, the master sergeant added.

"The ODA will perpetually have discipline issues and violate security clearance regulations because people are no longer held accountable when others only care about numbers over quality of individuals," the master sergeant said in his sworn statement.

Other team members defended the use of the shotgun, offering context that had been lacking from the online video, which was titled "Happy Few Ordnance Symphony" and featured just one 2-second clip of the shooting among dozens of other clips of combat footage.

Believed to have been shot by a team member who frequently wore a GoPro camera, the brief clip shows what looks like helmet-mounted camera footage of a gunner in an RG33 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle turret firing the shotgun, shattering the driver's side window just before the montage cuts away.

The driver had been swerving in and out of a convoy of U.S. and Afghan vehicles on the main north-south road through Parwan province for more than a mile, and had ignored verbal and hand signals, blaring horns, pen flares, flash-bang grenades, and attempts to run him off the road, soldiers said in sworn statements.

The team's intelligence sergeant, who said he saw the truck's brake lights come on and the vehicle come to a stop along the roadside after the shooting, said he would have followed the same escalation of force procedures.

"If placed in the same situation, I would have taken the same actions: pen flare, flash-bangs, less lethal, lethal," he said. "These steps are used to mitigate collateral damage to the locals and to protect the lives of American soldiers and their partner forces."

Car bombs were being moved from Tagab district in nearby Kapisa province into and through Bagram for use in attacking U.S. convoys at the time, the intelligence sergeant said. A similar truck had been used in an attack on a joint coalition and Afghan base.

Promoting a clothing company

Some of the video's other combat footage appears to have come from part of the deployment when five Green Berets, including two connected to the video, were sent to augment a second team fighting the Islamic State in Nangarhar province.

A junior weapons sergeant who would have been the gunner in the turret likely took much of the footage. Some also recalled viewing the truck shooting clip on his laptop. He and another team member had started a clothing company the video had been used to promote online.

The junior weapons sergeant invoked his rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present, but investigators obtained Google and Facebook data that linked logins to the clothing company's online accounts to areas near the soldier's home.

The master sergeant said he felt he had failed the junior weapons sergeant by not ensuring better leadership and mentorship on the deployment.

"I saw the risks in keeping certain members of the ODA despite my instinct to replace them," he said. "I deployed with what I had to work with."

The master sergeant has since been replaced as operations sergeant, which he said was a result of his stance against sex and alcohol use. His successor told investigators that he instructed his soldiers not to post their military activities on social media.

An official with the California National Guard declined to answer questions about the allegations and referred inquiries to the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. A spokeswoman for the 19th Special Forces Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan said in a statement it would be inappropriate to comment on alleged events that occurred before the outfit's current leadership took command, but said all military, Defense Department civilians and contractors fall under General Order No. 1.

"No one is exempt from GO #1 while in theater with SOJTF-A," the statement said.The push to upgrade the JSTARS fleet may be over as both the House and Senate have chosen to ax the recapitalization plan in favor of the U.S. Air Force's alternative solution.

Both versions of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act grant additional funding for the next-generation Advanced Battle Management System in lieu of a new E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System fleet, according to the conference bill.

The Air Force may retire its JSTARS legacy aircraft once the ABMS system reaches "increment 2" in initial operating capability, the document says.

While it is unclear how that will be determined or when it will occur, lawmakers have also required the defense secretary to "certify that the Secretary of the Air Force is: taking all reasonable steps to ensure the legacy E-8C continues to meet all safety of flight requirements and that the Air Force is taking steps to increase the legacy JSTARS fleet's aircraft availability and capacity provided to combatant commanders," the conference bill states.

Related content:

The bill adds $120 million for MQ-9 Reaper drones to "accelerate the development of the Advanced Battle Management System."

The ABMS is intended to replace the current JSTARS fleet, which will keep flying until the mid-to-late 2020s.

The latest language puts to bed months of debate surrounding JSTARS future.

Last month, officials announced that Robins Air Force Base, Georgia -- which currently houses all 16 E-8Cs -- was selected to host the elite system, which will fuse intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensor data from around the world to provide situational awareness for combatant commanders. Officials have said remotely piloted aircraft such as the MQ-9 will be plugged into such a network for additional situational awareness.

The budget bill requires regular reports on the status, maturity and progression of ABMS among other programmatic updates. It also asks Defense Department officials to look into what to do with millions of dollars worth of spare parts the Air Force procured in 2007 for the E-8C.

"The conferees understand the Secretary of the Air Force procured three ship-sets of engines, after investing $450.0 million, and the engines remain unused," it said. "The conferees note that the legacy E-8C engines are the number one issue driving excessive non-mission-capable maintenance metrics for the E-8C fleet."

The Air Force in February said it would not move forward with the JSTARS recapitalization program even after the service in 2016 launched a $6.9 billion request for proposal for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the upgraded aircraft.

It had planned to buy 17 new aircraft.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214.On the same day he touted the "Space Force" to veterans, President Donald Trump's plan to create a sixth military branch hit a roadblock in Congress.

A House-Senate conference committee working on the $716 billion defense budget for fiscal 2019, which begins Oct. 1, left out money to start building the Space Force.

Earlier Tuesday, in address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in Kansas City, Trump cited the Space Force as part of an unrivaled military buildup under his administration.

"My thinking is always on military and military strength. That is why I'm proud to report that we are now undertaking the greatest rebuilding of our United States military in its history. We have secured $700 billion for defense this year, and $716 billion next year -- approved," he said to applause.

Related content:

"And I've directed the Pentagon to begin the process of creating the sixth branch of our military. It's called the Space Force," Trump said to more applause. "We are living in a different world, and we have to be able to adapt, and that's what it is. A lot of very important things are going to be taking place in space.

"And I just don't mean going up to the moon and going up to Mars, where we'll be going very soon," he added. "We'll be going to Mars very soon. But from a military standpoint, space is becoming every day more and more important."

However, the conference report of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees left out funding for the Space Force in the National Defense Authorization Act. The conference report must still be approved by the full House and Senate.

Instead, the report directs Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to come up with a plan for how the Defense Department would organize for warfighting in space.

The House version of the conference report was also leery of Trump's vision for the creation of a new military branch for space, instead calling for the establishment of "a subunified command for Space under United States Strategic Command for carrying out joint Space warfighting."

Last month, Trump appeared to give the job of creating a Space Force as a separate military branch to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford.

At a White House meeting of the National Space Council, the president said, "I'm hereby directing the Department of Defense and Pentagon to immediately begin the process necessary to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the armed forces."

"We are going to have the Air Force and we are going to have the Space Force -- separate but equal. It's going to be something," he said.

Trump then looked around the room to find Dunford and said, "General Dunford, if you would carry that assignment out, I would be very greatly honored."

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.Those in the Veteran Hiring space are likely aware that the Veteran Jobs Mission (VJM) is the elite coalition spearheaded by JPMorgan Chase that highlights best practices for hiring military veterans across the United States. For organizations to become a part of the coalition they must have a proven veteran recruiting strategy, a determination to increase their veteran hiring numbers and the ability to showcase their retention techniques. The coalition bands together to share strategies, success stories and lessons learned. With the worlds largest military membership audience and an unparalleled resource for transition assistance and veteran employment, Military.com is honored to serve as a veteran employment advisor for this coalition.

When Jason Wright was hired into the VJM to help spearhead veteran employment initiatives for the coalition, we jumped at the opportunity to interview him and highlight the wealth of information he brings to the table as a prior Army Infantry Officer.

Military.com: What is your military background?

Jason Wright: On active duty I was an Infantry officer, serving as a platoon leader, executive officer and in operations. I am now in the Army Reserve as a military intelligence officer and I completed company command earlier this year and moved to staff.

Why did you join the military? My family has a history of military service. Multiple family members served in WWII and Vietnam. My cousins son recently joined the Air Force, so I was glad to see that we have kept the tradition going.

What is your current role?

I support veteran employment initiatives on the Military and Veteran Affairs team at JPMorgan Chase.

How did you end up in this position? I have two friends from the Army at JPMorgan Chase who referred me for the position. Fortunately the team found I was a good fit and I was able to join.

Why were you interested in this position? I, along with most of my former Army peers, have all separated within the last two years, so veteran transition is still very relevant to me. This position with JPMorgan Chase focused on helping veterans. [This] affords me a great opportunity to contribute to the often challenging process of transitioning from the service to the civilian workforce, where Im lucky to assist both employers and veterans.

What is the goal of the Veteran Jobs Mission?

The Veteran Jobs Mission was founded in 2011 by 11 companies with a goal to hire 100,000 veterans by 2020. The [original] 100,000 Jobs Mission far exceeded expectations and met this goal in less than one year. Weve since increased the goal to hire one million veterans by 2020, and the coalition has currently has more than 235 members with more than 400,000 veteran hires.

As our efforts continue, the Veteran Jobs Mission is committed to a comprehensive strategy focused not only on hiring but on supporting service member transition, recruiting, integration and retention, as well as business and employee resource groups.

Where do you hope to take the Mission in the future?

Our goal is to continue to grow the coalition and our collaborative efforts of corporate mentorship with other employers who share the commitment to integrating veterans into the fabric of their organizations.

One million service members are forecasted to separate from the military over the next five years. It remains critical that we continue to learn from our best practices to support further career development and successful transition into the workforce.

Military.com aids in vetting companies in the coalition, meaning we can advise on best practices, etc. since we have a pulse on programs across the nation. How do you envision Military.com helping you with growth?

Military.com offers a wide range of support to service members and their families. I remember doing research on Military.com when I joined the Army and then researching resources when I was transitioning.

Military.com continues to be a strong resource for our coalition employers to utilize in support of their organizational veteran hiring initiatives. We hope Military.com will continue to attend our national meetings to help educate coalition partners on some of the latest trends within the veteran talent acquisition space!Congress is in the position of doing something it hardly ever does -- passing a defense budget bill on time.

The usual dragged-out debate behind closed doors over who gets what for their district or state was cut short this year, possibly because there is so much more money to go around.

The conference committee of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees began closed sessions July 10 to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.

Both Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, acting chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said at the time they expected the closed sessions to be less contentious and time-consuming than in previous years.

Related content:

The proposed NDAA calls for a major increase in defense spending for fiscal 2019 to $716 billion, and there already is agreement on a 2.6 percent pay raise for the military. Thornberry said he expects agreement to be reached quickly "so the troops can see the benefits."

On Tuesday, the conference committee wrapped up work and came up with a report on the NDAA for approval by the full House and Senate.

Of course, there is still lots of stuff to argue about. For instance, the White House didn't get what it wanted for the creation of a Space Force as a sixth branch of the military, and there will likely be more back and forth on what to do about allies who buy military equipment from the Russians.

However, Congress is on the verge of passing a military budget by the required Oct. 1 deadline -- the start of the fiscal year -- for the first time in decades, which would avoid the continuing resolutions, sequesters, and threats of government shutdowns of past years.

Todd Harrison, the defense budget specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tweeted Tuesday that the last time Congress passed the NDAA on time was 1996.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.How to use the mindat.org media viewer

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Summary of all keyboard shortcutsANN ARBOR, MI - Mark Nowak and Alex Cacciari set up their certified-organic vegetable farm on a 30-acre plot of land off Warren Road just outside Ann Arbor six years ago.

That was after getting started at the Tilian Farm Development Center, a farm incubator just around the corner off Pontiac Trail.

At Seeley Farm in Ann Arbor Township, the husband and wife, both in their mid-30s, now grow a wide variety of crops such as salad greens, carrots, beets, artichokes, peppers, kale, melons and tomatoes, as well as flowers and herbs, and they're raising chickens.

Their products end up at restaurants in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Detroit, as well as regional grocery stores and local farmers markets.

"We grow a really wide diversity. It's probably easier to list the veggies we don't grow than the ones we do," Cacciari said during a recent tour of the farm, one of the latest additions to Ann Arbor's greenbelt program, which preserves farmland just outside the city.

Nearly 15 years since Ann Arbor voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of a 30-year tax to launch and fund the greenbelt program, roughly 5,200 acres of land has been permanently protected through conservation easements, including more than four dozen working farms.

Nine nature preserves also have been established, including wooded areas and green spaces with trails open to the public.

Records show more than $40 million has been spent on the greenbelt so far, counting city and other funds, and the program will continue at least through 2034, which is when the current millage expires.

'We just believe in it'

Three passive-solar hoop houses at Seeley Farm allow crops to be harvested 10 months out of the year.

Some of the certified-organic veggies end up at local restaurants such as Grange, Miss Kim and Silvio's Organic Pizza.

Cacciari, an English major, met her husband at a liberal arts college in Oregon and they lived in upstate New York before moving to Michigan.

"We learned by doing," she said of getting into farming. "We worked on farms for several years and then we're learning now still."

They had been leasing the farm, where they also live and are raising a family, and eventually bought it for $465,000 a couple years ago.

They recently sold the development rights to 27.5 acres for $184,000, an amount split between the city and the county. The county often partners with the city on land preservation projects.

Conservation easements keep the land in private hands and on the tax rolls, allowing properties such as Seeley Farm to continue to be farmed, while ensuring they can never be developed. Owners of protected greenbelt properties are free to sell their land whenever they want, but the conservation easements will stay in place.

"We just believe in it in general," Cacciari said of the decision to place Seeley Farm into the greenbelt program. "This area especially, I think, is really under threat of development."

Cacciari said she and her husband have seen a lot of change in the area just in the last six years.

New housing developments are in the process of being built on old farm properties not far from Seeley Farm. The greenbelt program aims to ensure some farmland and open space remains in existence for future generations as the pressures of urban sprawl continue.

Cacciari said she and her husband took on the biggest debt of their lives to buy their farm, and greenbelt funds will help defray that.

"And then we'll just also feel confident knowing that our investment in the land and the soil and everything will still be there," she said. "You know, like no one's just going to come in and destroy the history of this farm. It'll remain hopefully in production well after us."

'A lifesaver'

Steve Drake, a 54-year-old dairy farmer in Lodi Township, said the greenbelt program has been "a lifesaver," giving him hope that his family can continue to farm their land off Waters Road for many years to come, even as it passes down to the next generation.

He said his children are interested in farming and help out now, but whether the family business could keep going was in question before the greenbelt program. He said development pressures increased the value of the land, and the higher taxes were "eating us up."

"When they built the first subdivision over here in back of us, them houses were $650,000," Drake said, adding that had a domino effect, increasing the per-acre worth of his farmland, and it went up even more when the next subdivision was built.

"So, we wanted to get rid of that pressure," Drake said of selling off the farm's development rights.

The family already put 124 acres of their farm south of Waters Road into the greenbelt in 2013, getting $549,478.

They're now in the process of selling the development rights to 72 additional acres north of Waters Road for $353,000.

Funding is coming from the city's greenbelt funds, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washtenaw County and Lodi Township.

Drake said he's the third generation in his family to farm the land, starting with his grandfather.

"My dad and grandfather milked in stanchions in here in milk pails," he said. "Not by hand, but with a machine. And then in '08, my dad said he had milked 55 years in the stanchions and he was done."

The farm is a partnership between him, his brother and his dad, who is in his 80s and semi-retired but still drives a tractor on the farm.

In addition to milking cows, the farm grows crops such as corn, oats, hay and soybeans. There also are some show pigs.

The Drake farm has 50 cows who are milked twice a day, seven days a week. The milk is kept in a 1,000-gallon cooled tank and picked up every other day, then processed at a bottling plant in Livonia to be marketed and sold through Kroger grocery stores.

During a recent tour of the farm as part of the city's annual greenbelt bus tour, Drake noted his cows aren't injected with any hormones to make them produce extra milk. He said dairy farmers who have done that flooded the dairy market with way more milk than could be consumed, causing prices to drop, and it's not good for the cows. He said he wants his cows to last, and one is 19 years old now.

"Very few of these big, new, modern farms keep anything that old," he said. "She gets babied a little bit, but she's still here."

Drake also noted his cows are free to go inside and outside as they please, and they pretty much always have water and feed available, as well as bedding to lay down.

"They're our income, so we spoil 'em," he said.

Drake said his biggest challenge as a modern-day farmer in an area that's seeing urban sprawl is keeping the new neighbors happy.

"You can't have neighbors that are mad at you all the time. I mean, there's a give and take," he said, explaining that the smell of cow manure can make neighbors mad.

"When we scrape the barnyard, we have a holding facility for it, and we only haul that about every 10 days, so in this kind of weather, it does get a little ripe," he said. "So most of that right now, we're trying to get on a field and turned under in a day or two so that it's not laying there."

Drake said neighbors sometimes will give a heads up if they're planning to have, for example, a backyard barbecue on a Sunday, in hopes of avoiding a manure smell then. He said he appreciates that, because he'd rather have a heads up than a complaint on Monday.

"It works," he said.

Drake said his daughter, a college graduate, and his son, who is still in high school, work on the farm, as does his nephew. Without the greenbelt, he said, there was no future for them on the farm.

By the numbers

The greenbelt program is funded through the city's Open Space and Parkland Preservation Millage, a 0.5-mill property tax approved by voters in 2003. It brings in more than $2.4 million per year.

It costs the owner of a home with a $200,000 market value and $100,000 taxable value about $50 per year.

One-third of the money is intended for city parkland acquisitions, while two-thirds is for preservation of farmland and open space outside the city. The 30-year tax replaced a previous 0.5-mill tax that was used for parkland acquisitions and was set to expire in 2004.

The city issued $20 million in bonds to kickstart the greenbelt program after passage of the millage in November 2003. More than $1 million per year is still going toward bond debt payments.

Ruth Thornton, the city's greenbelt program manager through the nonprofit Conservation Fund, said nearly half the money for greenbelt purchases to date has come from city taxpayers, and more than half has come from funds leveraged from outside sources.

She said that includes not quite $22 million from the city, $10 million from federal grants, and about $14 million from the county, townships, land trusts and landowner donations.

Farmers selling their development rights sometimes make voluntary contributions that effectively lower the easement purchase price.

As of earlier this year, total expenses during the life of the millage so far amounted to about $57 million, counting both parkland acquisitions and greenbelt purchases. That includes nearly $15 million for debt service and nearly $2.2 million for administrative costs. Greenbelt-related expenses totaled about $42 million.

There's a fund balance of $11.4 million, including $5.6 million for more greenbelt purchases and $5.8 million for more parkland acquisitions, plus more money still coming in each year.

The city assumes there will be more than $84.4 million in total millage revenue collected over the 30-year life of the millage, with a limit of about $4.1 million on administrative expenses.

Though records show nearly three-quarters of the money spent to date has gone toward greenbelt purchases versus city parkland acquisitions, Thornton said the longterm goal is still to meet the two-thirds target that was spelled out in a City Council resolution in 2003.

Thornton said nearly 100 acres of new parkland has been added to the city's parks system since the start of the millage. Parkland acquisitions depend on the availability of land, willingness of owners to sell at a fair price, and whether the land meets the city's criteria.

Weighing costs and benefits

City officials believe the greenbelt program is doing its job to curb the urban sprawl that threatens farmland and green space surrounding the city. They say Ann Arbor's dedication to parks and preserving surrounding green spaces is one reason why it consistently ranks among the most livable cities in the United States.

According to a new research report from a group of graduate students at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability, Ann Arbor residents highly value the greenbelt program and are willing to pay even more to support it.

According to the findings, 441 households surveyed are paying about $55 per year on average under the millage and, conservatively estimated, they'd be willing to pay double or more, with a "willingness to pay" range of between $127 and $196 per year.

An increase in the millage rate is not actually being proposed, but the findings suggest residents believe the benefits outweigh the costs.

Thornton said there have been no conversations about renewing the greenbelt millage yet since it runs through 2034.

The students' research looked at various aspects of the program, even modeling pollution runoff if greenbelt properties had been developed.

Students took inventory of greenbelt properties, determining 66 percent of the land is agricultural, 24 percent is forested, 5 percent is grassland, and 5 percent is grassland with scattered trees and wetlands.

According to the city, the research findings are encouraging, providing new insight into the ecological, social and economic contributions of the greenbelt program, demonstrating it provides substantial benefits to both residents in Ann Arbor and neighboring communities, including helping with water quality and supporting local agriculture. The greenbelt district includes eight townships surrounding the city.

"The nice thing about this is it does decrease the property value, putting these conservation easements on, so that enables farmers to actually afford the land, where they would be completely valued out of the market otherwise," Thornton said.

Thornton said there are similar conservation programs run by municipalities around the country, but the unique thing about Ann Arbor is city taxpayers are funding protection of land outside the city.

"Which is pretty unique, and if you think about it it's really a great amount of foresight," she said. "They really wanted to preserve that feeling of Ann Arbor and the quality of life that as soon as you leave the city limits you're out there in agricultural lands. They're protecting the local food supply and enabling local farmers to be able to afford the land, and it's protecting the viewshed, and just the ability to use the public parks that the greenbelt has helped protect with partners, and also to have that country feeling just outside of the city limits."

City officials say results from the new study can be used to guide future research and public outreach, strengthen regional funding partnerships and shape program development.YPSILANTI, MI - MaggiAnn Monroe is the kind of "non-traditional" student that colleges and universities are trying to attract to their online degree programs.

Monroe, 36, graduated as a licensed practical nurse eight years ago before earning an associate degree in nursing from Kellogg Community College in 2015.

Today, she works as a registered nurse at Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson. After completing her first shift work and driving home, she makes dinner for her children before putting them to bed.

When the day is "done," she gets back to work earning her bachelor of science in nursing degree from Eastern Michigan University. She does her work online.

"I set aside time when I get home from work, but primarily, I'll work on it during the weekends, because I have all day to work on it," said Monroe, whose job at Henry Ford requires she earn a BSN degree within five years of being on the job.

Students like Monroe have become a major focus in the marketing efforts of colleges, universities and community colleges, as the number of in-state high school graduates pursuing a college education continues to drop.

An estimated 61 percent of public-school students in Michigan's Class of 2017 enrolled in a post-secondary school within six months of graduating high school, according to data collected by the state - the lowest percentage since the state began to closely track the data in 2010.

At EMU, the number of students pursuing degrees online has increased during a time when the university has seen a substantial drop in overall credit hours. Since 2013, EMU has seen its student credit hours fall 16.3 percent.

The increase in online credit hours, however, is a bright spot in the university's budget. Online credit hours have risen 20 percent from 59,000 in 2014, when EMU began to pivot toward offering entire degree programs entirely online, to 74,000 in 2018.

"What we've tried to do over the last three or four years is make that pivot and put up full degree programs that can be completed totally online in order to attract some students that never would have considered Eastern Michigan in the first place," EMU Vice President for Enrollment Management Kevin Kucera said.

A new clientele

Kucera said the rise of online-only degree programs is a response to making higher education - like almost every other industry - more convenient for its potential customers, or students.

The targeted demographic might be adults who started a degree years ago, but never completed it. Like Monroe, they might be required to continue their education by their employer.

With demands like a full-time job and children, traveling to campus and taking a three-hour class in the evening simply isn't an attractive option anymore for students like Monroe, when they can complete their degree at their leisure in the comfort of their own home, Kucera said.

Eastern Michigan University has seen its online credit hours grow while its enrollment and overall credit hours have dropped over the past five years.

"The days of the 1990s and early 2000s when you were working your 9 to 5 job and then you would go to a college campus or a regional satellite office and do a class on a Wednesday night or a Saturday morning on campus, those are not popular, as they once were," Kucera said. "They've been replaced by that working adult whose schedule is so busy that they want to have that flexibility of doing a full degree program online."

EMU touts its Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, one of 15 online degree programs it offers, as the shining example of what non-traditional students are seeking in an online program - convenient, affordable and user-friendly.

Before the program launched online, the program attracted around 50 students per year, EMU Spokesman Geoff Larcom said. After it went online, the university enrolled 228 students during the 2016-17 academic year.

The following year, after EMU signed on with Academic Partnerships, which specialized in marketing online-only degree programs, that number increased to 586 students for 2017-18. Academic Partnerships, which receives 50 percent of tuition and fees from the online degree programs it markets, has been met with resistance by some EMU faculty.

Members of the EMU-AAUP argue the online-only programs could result in lower quality instruction overall. Union members have filed grievances against the university, accusing EMU administrators of violating their labor contract by entering into a contract with Academic Partnerships without prior consultation with the faculty, but an independent arbitrator ruled in favor of the university.

Students in the RN to BSN program take part in a 10-course curriculum on a path to earning 30 credits, with each class taking seven-and-a-half weeks to complete. The entire program costs $9,840, or $328 per credit hour - considerably less than the ground-based version of that program would be approximately $516 per credit hour.

Monroe said she was drawn to EMU's program over other online-only degrees because it was more cost-effective, and its closer proximity would allow her to eventually participate in commencement after she earns her degree next month.

The courses consist of watching videos, looking over power points and engaging in discussion via email and in online forums. One of the advantages of the online format, she said, is students can take as many courses as they want at one time, so they can learn at their own pace.

"I actually went into it kind of skeptical," Monroe said. "But it forces you to be a little more proactive and you have more autonomy in your learning. It's rewarding to investigate into things to the best of your knowledge. I've definitely learned a lot, and I think it's just as effective as in-classroom training."

An evolving approach

Peter Baccile recalls how dramatically different Washtenaw Community College's approach to online courses was when it began offering what was referred to as a "course in the box" back in 2004.

Lectures were taped, put onto a DVD and mailed to students along with textbooks for the courses. About 10 years later, WCC began to ramp up its efforts in making entire degree programs available online, as well as building courses that fit within the Michigan Transfer Agreement, which facilitates the transfer of general education requirements from one institution to another.

WCC's online credit hours have increased 68.6 percent between the 2013-14 academic years and 2016-17, from 30,832 to 52,012. Online credit hours are up once again in 2017-18 to 58,514, without yet accounting for the spring and summer terms.

Washtenaw Community College has seen online credit hours spike 68 percent since 2013-14.

That has helped WCC counteract gradual decreases in overall credit hours, despite seeing modest increases in enrollment.

"The college worked holistically with the faculty and administration, the deans the IT department, marketing - across the board - just taking a different approach between offering courses to offering programs," said Baccile, WCC's executive director of online learning. "We strategically started looking at what programs we could start offering online. We would look market-wise at where we would have the best fit. Since then, we've been focused on certificate and degree completion, as far as which courses we're building as well as which ones would meet the need for our Michigan transfer agreements, which is where we get a lot of our liberal arts enrollment, too."

WCC offers 18 online degree programs ranging from business to information technology and hundreds of online courses. Tuition rates start at $108 per credit hour for students in-district up to $119 for out-of-state students. For on-campus courses, credit hours are just $95 for students in-district, but are $161 out-of-district and $220 for out-of-state students.

Baccile said WCC has worked to make sure its students' online learning experience goes as smoothly as possible with a 24/7 "help desk" if they are experiencing technological issues. It also offers a "blended" course option that combines video lectures and online assignment submissions with a once-a-week meeting with an instructor and classmates.

Overall, WCC has seen its online credit hours increase by 78 percent since 2013-14, with blended classes taken into account, prior to the spring and summer semesters of 2018.

Baccile said the blended option is another form of innovation allowing students to experience the "best of both worlds" in classes ranging from business management and communication to dental assisting and psychology.

"By going with the blended model, (students) can still have autonomy to do the majority of the work if (you're) working full-time and can only afford to take a few hours off a week," he said. "Then you can get on campus for that set of hands-on activities you need to be able to see an instructor and talk to them about."DETROIT - A former manager of the Colony Arms apartments in Detroit pleaded guilty Wednesday, July 25 to bribery, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Lucresha Frank, 41, of Pontiac, admitted that she solicited and accepted cash bribes from prospective tenants of the affordable housing complex in exchange for improperly moving them up a lengthy waiting list for an apartment, officials said.

Federal prosecutors said one of the cash bribes Frank took was from a woman who was homeless at the time and living in a shelter with her two small children.

"Lucresha Frank's illegal actions, motivated by her own greed, devastated families experiencing financial distress and prevented those in desperate need from

being able to access low cost housing," said Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Timothy R. Slater in a statement. "The FBI and our law enforcement partners remain fully committed to investigating and prosecuting anyone who seeks to take advantage of those in our communities through such devious criminal schemes."

Frank worked in 2013 as a manager at the Colony Arms apartments, a Section 8 housing facility.

The building on Detroit's east side has since been renovated and reopened under the name River Crest Apartments.

"Bribery by those entrusted to provide federally-funded housing to the economically disadvantaged is an atrocity that cannot stand," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said in a statement. "It is not only a breach of the public trust, it takes advantage of those who are at their financial low point and who are desperate for shelter for themselves and their families."

Frank is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 6 before U.S. District Judge Terrence G. Berg.

She faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.FRANKENLUST TWP, MI -- To help part the gray cloud of social stigma hanging over those addicted to drugs and to combat the nation's ongoing opiate crisis, area police agencies have teamed up to offer hope to those afflicted.

Hope Not Handcuffs, a program started by Families Against Narcotics (FAN), is now operating in Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties. The program allows area addicts to visit police agencies and seek help for their addictions. Staff at such agencies will contact a volunteer, dubbed an Angel, who will respond and assist the addict in finding an appropriate treatment program, then transport that person to the program.

Representatives from FAN and participating law enforcement agencies outlined the initiative Tuesday, July 24, at Delta College, 1961 Delta Road in Frankenlust Township. Agencies include Saginaw, Saginaw Township, Midlan, and Hampton Township police departments, Bay and Midland county sheriff's offices, and the Bay City, Essexville and Delta College public safety departments.

The Saginaw County Sheriff's Office and Pinconning Police Department are on board to join soon, organizers said.

"We've wasted literally billions of dollars locking up people who have an illness," said Judge Linda Davis of the 41-B District Court in Macomb County, who serves as FAN's president and is on the state's Prescription Drug and Opioid Abuse Commission. "All of these police officers today represent a real change in how we're viewing addiction across the country right now. We cannot arrest our way out of this dilemma."

A key element in Hope Not Handcuffs is using novel approaches in dealing with substance abuse and working toward alleviating addicts of their addictions, rather than simply locking them up and hoping they get over their dependencies that way.

"When we keep arresting people over and over again and they come out and commit the same crimes because of drugs, that should tell us we're not doing the right thing and we should change what we're doing," Davis said. "Until we treat them and deal with sickness they can't possibly get well."

She added with a hopeful note that the revolving-door system of locking up addicts for a period of time then releasing them to commit more crimes to feed their addictions is starting to change nationwide.

Since FAN launched Hope Not Handcuffs about 18 months ago, 55 police agencies in eight Michigan counties have come on board.

"This is a real paradigm change for police officers," Davis said. "We are really changing the stigma of addiction, and that's why this program is so important. It's up to us as a community to work together."

Davis, herself the mother of a recovering addict who has been opiate-free for several years, pointed out how addiction is indeed a disease. People shouldn't be ashamed of their addictions any more than should people be ashamed of having diabetes or cancer, she said.

"We don't need to shame addicts any more than they shame themselves," the judge said. "We know this is a medical disease that without medical attention and medical help, you cannot get well."

If an addict is uninsured or has Medicaid, FAN will work with the local Office of Substance Abuse Services for placement. If a person seeking help has private insurance, FAN will provide them with treatment options covered by their plan.

Lori Ziolkowski, the vice president of FAN's Great Lakes Bay Region chapter and the mother of a recovering addict, said there are 115 to 120 trained Angel volunteers throughout Bay, Saginaw and Midland counties. To become an Angel, interested parties can visit FAN's website here: https://www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org/hopenothandcuffs.

She expanded on Davis' comments by stating police agencies will have a poster on their front doors, so those addicts who stop by after hours will see a number to call to get assistance from an Angel. If an addict seeks help and has an outstanding warrant, police won't immediately arrest them if the warrant is for a non-violence offense. However, that doesn't mean even non-violent cases will be absolved.

"This is not a 'gotcha program,' but it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card, either," she said.

Also, the program is not drug-specific, meaning people with addictions to any substance are welcome.

Like Davis, Ziolkowski also addressed the battle of changing the perception of those resistant to thinking of addiction as a disease, as classified by epidemiologists and other professionals. She said she's heard the argument that addicts choose their affliction, and therefore should not be given second chances.

She countered this by comparing an addict's ailment to that of an overweight smoker, who suffers several heart attacks, and yet receives medical care no matter how many such attacks he or she suffered.

"You give them as many chances as needed for them to get well," she said.

The central element, Midland County Sheriff Scott Stephenson said, is the program is going to help people.

"And that's really what we're in law enforcement for," he said. "It's not to write tickets and arrest people. It's to help people."

Barry Schmidt, coordinator of the Bay County Prevention Network, attended the announcement event as a spectator and voiced his support of the program.

"This is a critical piece that has been missing," he said. "I think we're going in the right direction."

In Bay County in 2017, 28 people died of opiate or opioid overdoses. Of those deaths, 17 featured the presence of substances in the fentanyl family, according to the Bay County Health Department.

The agency first issued an advisory regarding the heroin epidemic in June 2015. That year, 27 people in Bay County died of opiate-related overdoses, with 23 following in 2016. Of those 23, 12 featured the presence of fentanyl or carfentanil. Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl, according to the DEA. Carfentanil is a Schedule II drug and was created in 1974 as a general anesthetic for large animals such as elephants.

Nationally, opiate-related deaths are now considered the No. 1 killer among Americans younger than 50. Michigan experienced a 19.6 percent increase in the number of opiate-related fatal overdoses from 2015 to 2016, with 2,347 in the latter year, according to the CDC.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that since 1999, the number of opiate-related overdose deaths has quadrupled. In 2015, 33,091 people died from opiate-related overdoses nationally, more than any other year on record. That record was broken in 2016, with 42,249 people dying from opiate-related overdoses, about two-thirds of the total number of fatal drug overdoses of 63,632.

"From 2000 to 2016, more than 600,000 people died from drug overdoses," the CDC states, adding that 115 Americans die each day from an opiate overdose.DETROIT -- A 28-year-old Dearborn man is behind bars based on allegations he attempted to assist the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly known as the terrorist group ISIS.

A grand jury charged Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli with a count of providing material support or resources to a designated terrorist organization, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, in an indictment unsealed Tuesday, July 24.

Authorities arrested Musaibli, who was born in the U.S., while he was visiting Syria. He's since been transferred to U.S. custody and is expected to be arraigned at the federal courthouse in Detroit at 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 25.

"The National Security Division will not tolerate threats to our country from terrorist organizations like ISIS -- not least of all those that come from our own citizens," Assistant Attorney General Joh C. Demers said of the arrest. "Musaibli's alleged provision of material support to ISIS put the United States at risk and may have endangered the lives of countless innocent people.

"I am confident that he will face justice for his crimes, and I hope that his case sends a clear message that we will hold our citizens accountable who are apprehended overseas and tried to join a terrorist organization such as ISIS."

Musaibli's brother sent a message to The Detroit News last week disputing the government's claims.

"My brother is the best person in the world, however he is very trusting in other Muslims like him," Abdullah Musaibli, 26, of New York City, wrote to the Detroit News. "That is why he is in this situation, because other 'Muslims' tricked him into coming to Syria to study religion and work. He had NO idea this group was ISIS.

" ... Islam is a religion of peace and what they are doing in the Middle East is despicable."

The indictment claims Musaibli knowingly "provided and attempted to provide material support to ISIS" from about April 2015 through June 2018.

The New York Times reports that Musaibli was detained along with an Indiana woman whose husband is a suspected Islamic State member.Macomb County is facing its third lawsuit in three years stemming from allegations of insufficient medical treatment provided to inmates lodged in the county jail.

Jessica L. Preston, an Oakland County woman who was initially jailed March 15, 2016 for driving on a suspended license, filed the most recent lawsuit in Detroit federal court June 10.

At the time eight months pregnant and addicted to heroin, Preston claims guards, doctors and contracted medical professionals repeatedly ignored her pleas for medical attention and hospitalization, resulting in her giving birth to her son on the floor of her dirty jail cell.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham has said in the past that staff acted appropriately, pointing to the unpredictable nature of childbirth.

Preston told staff during her intake that she'd been using heroin daily up until her arrest and saw medical personnel on the day of her admittance to the jail when she reported having labor contractions, according to the lawsuit.

She was returned to her cell, told to drink plenty of fluids and to notify staff if her contractions changed, the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, medical staff employed by Correct Care Solutions, a defendant in the lawsuit and a for-profit company under contract with the jail, examined Preston, who reported ongoing contractions, on March 17 and in reports called Preston's symptoms "false contractions" possibly caused by "adequate fetal kicking."

Full lawsuit:

Nurse practitioner Temitipe Olagbaiye, who is named in the lawsuit, noted that Preston's was a "high-risk pregnancy" due to complications she had giving birth to a prior child that resulted in a C-section delivery.

The lawsuit says Preston, who was suffering from intense pain and frequent contractions, pressed an emergency medical buzzer in her jail cell at 7 a.m. on March 20 and visited medical staff who were "not impressed" with the labor symptoms and returned her to her jail cell.

At noon, she again pressed the medical buzzer, the lawsuit says, and visited licensed practical nurse Jaclyn Lubanski, who spoke with Preston but never examined her, telling Preston that "if she kept coming down to medical with false reports, she could be charged with making false complaints."

After returning to her cell at 1 p.m., Preston began bleeding and informed a corrections officer, who told her she'd be transferred to the medical wing of the jail.

After being transferred, Preston told staff "she and her baby needed to be at a hospital for the birth" and was assured she would be transferred prior to the delivery, according to the lawsuit.

Her water broke about 2 p.m. and when an ambulance arrived at 2:35 p.m., it was determined she was too far into labor to be transported to the hospital, and so the baby was delivered on the jail cell floor, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says, among other claims, that Preston's constitutional right to humane treatment was violated resulting in physical pain, injury, severe mental anguish and indignities.

Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham, who is named as a party to the lawsuit, previously told MLive, "I am very confident that in this situation, our staff handled the situation appropriately ... In these situations, we really don't know when that baby is going to come."

The sheriff said the jail doctor, although not on site, was notified of Preston's condition, but hadn't made a hospitalization decision by the time the baby crowned.

There have been other claims of jail staff negligence leading to deaths in Macomb County.

A woman went untreated and died of sepsis in 2013; and a man died while suffering painful withdrawal from opiates in custody in 2014.

Relatives in both cases filed civil lawsuits that are unresolved.

MLive sought but did not receive comment from the Macomb County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday.DETROIT, MI - The man who saved Chrysler from shutting down during a global recession died Wednesday, July 25.

Sergio Marchionne, 66, died Wednesday after suffering complications from shoulder surgery in Zurich, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Marchionnie is credited with reviving the struggling automaker in a merger with Fiat after being picked by the U.S. government in 2009 to run operations while Chrysler was under bankruptcy protection.

The Auburn Hills-based automaker named Mike Manley, who has served as the head of the Jeep brand since 2009 and the Ram brand since 2015, to take over for Marchionne.

"I was saddened to hear about the death of Sergio Marchionne," Gov. Rick Snyder said in a written statement. "We often joked about how we were just two accountants who started our careers across the Detroit River from each other - Sergio in Windsor and me in Detroit. The many times we met, both in Michigan and overseas, will always provide me with fond memories of this outstanding businessman, leader, and friend to all of us in Michigan. I send my sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. We will all miss him deeply."FLINT, MI -- It will be almost four more weeks before Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon finds out whether he will face a trial on charges he caused the deaths of two Genesee County men during the Flint water crisis.

Genesee District Judge David Goggins heard sometimes contentious final arguments from special prosecutor Todd Flood and defense attorney John Bursch on Wednesday, July 25.

But Goggins did not make his decision on whether to bind the case over to Genesee Circuit Court -- something that he had been expected to do.

Goggins set the decision for Aug. 20 after hearing from both Flood and Bursch and deciding not to grant a motion to strike the testimony of a cardiologist who tied the deaths of two Genesee County men during the water crisis to Legionnaires' disease outbreaks here.

Goggins must decide whether prosecutors have shown there is probable cause to believe involuntary manslaughter was committed against the men and that Lyon, 49, committed the crimes.

The Lyon case was expected to be the first time for a judge to weigh in on the evidence against a city or state worker charged with criminal wrongdoing related to the federally recognized water crisis.

One other case was bound over to Genesee Circuit Court after former emergency manager Gerald Ambrose waived his preliminary examination. Four of 15 defendants have reached plea agreements with prosecutors while nine other cases are still pending in District Court.

Prosecutors charged Lyon with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for the deaths of Robert Skidmore and John Snyder during the water crisis, one count of misconduct in office, and one count of willful neglect of duty.

They allege the two victims died of Legionnaires' disease, caused by Flint's water supply, and that DHHS and Lyon, in particular, failed to protect the public when he could have mandated a change in the city's water source.

Prosecutors also claimed Lyon, a member of Gov. Rick Snyder's cabinet, tried to cover up the source of a Legionnaires' outbreak by repeatedly attempting to prevent researchers from looking into its cause.

But in written arguments filed with the court, attorneys for the DHHS director told Goggins there was "zero proof that there was anything Director Lyon did or did not do" that actually caused the deaths of Skidmore and Snyder.

"It is not enough for the prosecutor to wave his hands in the air and cry that bad things happened to the people of Flint, so someone must be held responsible," Lyon's attorneys wrote in a post-hearing memorandum.

"The outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in Flint is undeniably tragic. But that does not mean ... Lyon is responsible for the outbreak or any deaths. To the contrary, despite more than nine months of testimony, the prosecutor has insufficient evidence for a bind over regarding multiple elements of every charge."

Flood argued that state law required Lyon to "continually and diligently endeavor to prevent disease" -- something he fell short of by failing to warn the public or Snyder of Legionella bacteria in Flint water after the city changed its water source to the Flint River in April 2014.

Designed to save the city money, the switch was overseen and approved by emergency managers appointed by the governor, and Lyon's failure to act constituted gross negligence, making him guilty of manslaughter, Flood told Goggins.

Bursch argued that Lyon was not the official responsible for mandating a change in Flint's water source and acted as a reasonable person would have by assigning his staff to work on the issue and provide him with updates.

After nine months of testimony and in a packed courtroom Wednesday, tempers boiled over for attorneys on both sides Wednesday.

Bursch called Flood a "desperate prosecutor who cannot satisfy a single element of any of these charges," while the special prosecutor objected to Bursch's closing argument when he placed a picture of Lyon and his family on a display board in front of Goggins while he made his case to the judge.

Goggins denied a motion from Lyon's attorneys to strike the testimony of Dr. Joel Kahn, a prosecution witness and cardiologist who they claimed was "not qualified to opine regarding Legionnaires'."

The judge said the issue could be decided in Genesee Circuit Court.

Lyon has said he learned of an initial surge in Legionnaires' cases in Genesee County a full year before sharing information about outbreaks of the disease directly with the governor in January 2016.

Public records have shown other DHHS officials were aware of a rapid rise in Legionnaires' cases, at least 12 of which proved fatal, even earlier than the director as well as suspicions that the spread was tied to Flint's change in its water source.

In addition to doctors, witnesses in the preliminary exam have included current and former DHHS employees and Legionnaires' researchers from Wayne State University.

One WSU professor -- Paul Kilgore -- testified in November that Lyon told him during a 2016 meeting about Flint water, "We can't save everyone, everyone has to die of something' ... or something similar to that."Artis Green Sr.

FLINT, MI -- The search is on for a missing 1-year-old child in the Flint area.

An endangered missing advisory was issued Tuesday, July 24 by Michigan State Police for Artis Green Jr. after the child was to be removed from 34-year-old Tanisha Lane, the boy's mother.

Lane, who also goes by Tanisha Harris, took the child and has been evading authorities, according to the advisory, which notes "All other investigative measures have been exhausted."

Artis Green Jr. is described as standing 2-feet-5 inches tall, weighing 30 pounds with black hair. The 14-month old boy is malnourished, emaciated, and unable to walk, police said.

No photo of the child was provided by police. He may also be with his father Artis Green Sr., 55.

Anyone with information on their whereabouts has been asked to contact the Michigan State Police Flint Post at 810-732-1111 or 911.GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Seven candidates are running for five open seats on the Grand Rapids school board in the Nov. 6, general election.

The five candidates with the highest vote totals in the election will serve four-year terms. The deadline to apply was Tuesday, July 24.

The nine-member board will get at least two new members with school board president Wendy Falb and Maureen Slade opting not to seek third terms. The three incumbents seeking reelection are:

Tony Baker, 55, is seeking a third term. He is a sociology professor at Ferris State University and director of Ferris' Center for Latin Studies.

Jose Flores, 65, is pursuing a second term. He is a former GRPS teacher and assistant principal at Union High School. He also is the founder of "The Community Voice -La Voz" magazine and owner of La Familia Stop 'n' Shop.

John Matias, 60, is running for a second term. An ordained minister, Matias works as a Kent Schools Services Network coordinator at Burton Elementary/Middle School. He was appointed in 2013 to replace now-City Commissioner Senita Lenear and won a full term.

The incumbents are squaring off against individuals from various fields and backgrounds. The four candidates seeking to claim one of the open seats include:

Kimberley Williams, 46, a civil rights investigator for the State of Michigan.

Kymberlie Davis, 36, an elementary music teacher at Cedar Springs' Cedar Trails Elementary.

Chad Patton, 30, director of Customized Workplace English at the Literacy Center of West Michigan.

Michael Bukala, 56, a former Grand Rapids Public Schools teacher.

School leaders have budgeted for 16,618 students for the 2018-19 school year.

The crowded field will be on a jam-packed general election ballot of federal, state, and local offices, as well as proposals.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Kent County prosecutors have dismissed charges against a man accused of sexually assaulting a female after pointing a gun at her.

Xavier Jujuan Davis was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct and being a habitual offender. He was set for trial Monday, July 23.

Kent County Prosecutor Christopher Becker said "witness issues" as well as the lack of a DNA match on a condom wrapper, apparently found at the assault scene, caused prosecutors to drop the case.

Prosecutors also dropped charges in an unrelated sex assault case against Davis, court records show. The case involved an October 2017 incident.

Davis was arrested in January after police received tips surrounding the Dec. 28 sex assault of woman in the 4200 block of Oak Park Drive SE.

The victim told police a man pointed a handgun at her about 1:30 a.m., sexually assaulted her, then fled on foot. Police in early January released a composite sketch of a possible suspect and Davis was arrested several days later.PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI -- Police have identified five victims of a man police say befriended children on a community playground and then committed sexual-related acts with them.

Juan "John" Camargo, 63, is charged with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of child sexually abusive activity and one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The victims range in age from 2 to 12, according to Kent County sheriff's Sgt. Joel Roon.

He described the situation as a "classic stranger danger scenario."

"It's just a nightmare for the parents," Roon said. "He literally gained their trust on the playground."

Camargo was staying at Autumn Ridge apartments near Four Mile Road NE and Plainfield Avenue for part of 2017 and the playground is located there, police said.

A spokesperson for Autumn Ridge said Camargo was not a tenant and but was instead an "unauthorized occupant" who was not legally staying there.

Autumn Ridge staff released the following statement:

"Our deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families of this tragic occurrence. The accused suspect was illegally visiting our community without our knowledge and was not an authorized resident of Autumn Ridge Apartments.

"We are working diligently with the Kent County Sheriff Department to ensure justice and closure for those involved. During this time, we appreciate privacy and respect for our residents and community. "

Police want to publicly release information about the case to see if there are other victims. Roon said the time frame of most concern is from March 2017 to December 2017.

He said there is no evidence at this time of other victims.

"The reason we are reaching out is just out concern for the boldness of (Camargo's) behavior," Roon said.

Court records show Camargo was charged in late November 2017 with an offense against one child, then again in December and a third time in February.

The court cases were delayed by a competency evaluation for Camargo, but now are set for an Aug. 3 probable cause hearing.

Anyone with additional information about Camargo can call Det. Matt Hooker at 616-970-2263.HOLLAND, MI - Beginning the 2018-19 school year, Holland Public Schools will partner with Davenport University for students to earn a high school diploma and an associate degree through early college.

"At Davenport, we want to get students to where the world is going,'' said Greg Foster, Davenport's Holland campus director.

"We want them in degree programs that will lead to career success. Through Davenport's dedicated courses of study, these students will have the ability to explore pathways leading to careers in business, health and technology.''

An extra year of high school for an opportunity to transition into the workforce or get a head start on a bachelor's degree is becoming increasingly popular in Michigan. Districts use the state per-pupil funding to pay for the programs.

Since 2014, Holland has been offering this opportunity to its students through Muskegon Community College and the South Ottawa County Early College program.

But earlier this year, the district applied to the Michigan Department of Education (MDE) to become its own early college program. The idea is to build on the success Holland Early College has achieved to date with the new Davenport partnership.

"Over the past several years, our new learning and growth to meet the needs of our early college student population has resulted in expansion of career pathways and providing more services and support here in the city of Holland,'' school leaders shared in March.

Holland's program was approved by MDE May 22. For the 2018-19 school year, Michigan will have 21 Early/Middle College high schools and 129 programs across the state, for a total of 150, according to the state.

"Early College provides access and opportunities to students who historically have been excluded from higher education, including first generation college goers and students of color," said Holland Early College Director Andrea Mehall, Holland Early College director.

"Davenport University is helping us remove barriers for these students in the Holland community."

Holland Early College students can earn up to 60 college credits at no cost to their families.

Beginning in the ninth grade, students will take a mixture of high school and college classes -- with the number of college courses taken increasing each year.

As juniors and seniors, students take courses on Davenport's Holland campus. As freshmen, students can take a three-credit course at the high school in their second semester. They also can take a three-credit course their sophomore year.

"By starting their college journey early -- while they still have the comprehensive support provided by their high school and the Davenport University support team -- these students gain motivation and stretch themselves intellectually," Mehall said.

"We're scaffolding their college experiences to increase success and help them build confidence, leading to degree completion.''

As part of the transition, Superintendent Brian Davis said seniors and students completing their 13th year of school will be able to complete the Muskegon Community College program.

He said taking on a new partner had nothing to do with the quality of the Muskegon program, rather removing program barriers, increasing access, and the opportunity for students to develop specific pathways.

"We looked at how do we provide even more access to post-secondary education,'' said Davis, noting they've had good parent feedback on the changeover.

"This program is incredibly impactful, not only for students and their families but the community as a whole.''

Under the district's restructure, the Early College Program will be housed at the high school this school year, which begins Aug. 23.

Davis said the district is working to try to develop more pathways for students, matching employability skills and career needs.

In 2012-13, the Davenport launched its first Early/Middle College program at Kenowa Hills High School in Kent County. That program starts with juniors.

Grand Rapids Community College is the only other Kent County institution offering the degree and certificate programs to high schoolers.

GRCC has programs in the Kent and Ottawa ISDs and the Grand Rapids, Cedar Springs, Wyoming, and Kentwood districts. The program at East Kentwood High School launches this school year.

Foster said Davenport offers program paths based on students career interests and post-high school aspirations.

Davenports academic programs and courses are described as being based on the needs of the marketplace with a focus on equipping students with the skills employers seek in high-demand careers.

"This partnership with Davenport University will prepare Holland students for a diverse and ever-changing world,'' Davis said.

According to Davenport, the first 43 credits for students enrolled in the program represent a foundational core needed for an associate degree.

As they progress, they can choose a pathway to help prepare for majors including, finance, accounting, pre-nursing or pre-engineering, medical assisting, and legal studies.JENISON, MI -- Jenison Public Schools has enlisted a second sheriff's deputy to protect and serve the students of their district.

The additional Ottawa County sheriff's deputy will be present the first day of school, Aug. 28.

"We want a security presence in our schools," said district superintendent Tom TenBrink. "Having them there says to our community we take the safety and security of our students very, very seriously and it's our No. 1 priority."

Previously, the district had a security guard at Jenison Junior High School and Deputy Brad Bennett at the high school.

The new deputy will replace the security guard, who retired earlier this year. TenBrink said the two deputies will share duties and coordinate.

When the district of about 5,100 students is not in session, Bennett and the new deputy will patrol Georgetown Township.

The roughly $85,000 position is funded three ways, with Georgetown Township, Jenison Public Schools and Ottawa County each covering one-third of the cost.

The Ottawa County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved their portion of the cost at their Tuesday, July 24, meeting.

All public school districts in Ottawa County have at least one deputy serving as a school resource officer. The program was enacted in the mid-to-early 90s, according to Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Kemper.

West Ottawa Public Schools and Jenison Public Schools are the only districts with two deputies.

TenBrink wanted to make clear the district's two deputies aren't involved in the day-to-day student discipline, such as dress code violations. He said they're there to listen, protect, educate and form relationships.

Each school resource deputy receives specialized training, including enrollment in Michigan State Police's Teaching, Educating, and Mentoring (T.E.A.M.) School Liaison Program, according to Ottawa County sheriff's Capt. Derek Christensen.

"The newest T.E.A.M. curriculum lesson plan introduces students to the importance of "Homeland Security" and their role in "Family Preparedness," according to a program description. "In addition to learning the curriculum, officers receive training from content experts in student and juvenile psychology, classroom management, bullying and harassment, and school security issues."

Like all deputies, they're trained to respond to mass shootings, Kemper said.

In the past two years, Kemper has hired two deputies who said their relationship with a school resource officer when they were students prompted their decision to go into law enforcement.

The sheriff said it speaks volumes to the role of school resource officers as mentors.

School safety was brought back to the forefront earlier this year after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Seventeen people were killed in the mass shooting. It spurred student walkouts and demands for gun control and safety in schools.

TenBrink said he has nothing but praise for the school resource officer program.

"I would be an advocate to speak to anybody about how this has made an incredible difference," TenBrink said.PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, MI -- Earlier this year a group of residents threatened to recall township leaders, saying they weren't being taken seriously about their polluted drinking water concerns.

Now they're taking their efforts to the polls.

On Aug. 7, the co-founder of a local citizens' watchdog group will square off against the township's current clerk. Both are running as Republicans, and there are no Democratic contenders, so the primary winner will claim the seat.

Outsider candidate Cody Angell, 28, and incumbent clerk Cathleen Postmus, 55, came onto the scene around the same time in November 2017. That's when Angell co-founded Demand Action from Plainfield Township (now Michigan Demands Action Against Contamination) and Postmus began as clerk.

Postmus, a retired Grand Rapids police detective, was voted into her position by the township board following the resignation of her predecessor. This is her first time at the polls. Angell is a network administrator.

The Aug. 7 primary is the first and only electoral challenge to local leadership since Angell and other residents raised questions about toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in the township's municipal water supply last fall amid the investigation into drinking-water contamination from Wolverine World Wide PFAS-laden tannery waste.

How the township handled those resident concerns is the dividing issue between the two Republicans, with Angell questioning township leaders and Postmus standing by them.

In September 2017 the township's water showed a combined level of types of PFAS -- PFOS and PFOA -- at 10 parts per trillion (ppt). The levels were well below the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's cleanup standard of 70-ppt for combined PFOA and PFOS. The DEQ set that standard in January 2018.

Township officials contended the water was safe to drink. Supervisor Bob Homan, who along with Trustee Susan Morrow was threatened with a recall, previously sipped from a water glass as residents raised concerns about their drinking water at a public meeting, drawing ire from some in attendance.

PFAS was first discovered in the township's water supply in 2013, after which a contaminated well field was shut down in 2015.

Months of tense and combative township meetings followed that fall, with Angell and others pushing officials to install filters on the municipal supply and test for other possible contaminants. The filtration system, made possible with a $750,000 state grant, was implemented in June.

Why are you running for office?

Angell:

"This position was filled through a hiring process, selected by small group of individuals and held for a few months. I am looking forward to allowing the residents to be able to exercise their right to vote for who they would like to have represented them. I have been closely involved with the community over the past 9 months and have gotten to meet and hear personal stories of hundreds and hundreds of our folks in our area through a grass roots advocacy group I co-founded (MDAAC). I heard all of their concerns regarding water contamination, but I also hear more ... I heard a familiar undertone of citizens with lingering issues that have fallen onto deaf ears for far too long. I want to help find a way to close that gap between the concerned citizen and the township board. We cannot fix every problem, but we can listen and with creative problem solving - maybe we can find a solution? I want to see a transition in our township to where our residents feel they have a voice."

Postmus:

"I am very excited to share that I am running to retain my position as the Plainfield Charter Township Clerk. I was unanimously appointed by the Plainfield Charter Township Board to replace the former clerk who had resigned. I applied for the position of Clerk because I am driven by my desire to serve my community. I am a Retired Grand Rapids Police Detective with 28 years of serving and protecting and serving. Why was I unanimously appointed to fill the Clerk's position? Because of my passion for my community, conviction to serve and willingness to do whatever takes to get the job done. I believe that leadership requires experience and the ability to work well as a team, to listen to the voice of each and every resident and act accordingly to the people's needs and wishes. I possess that experience and background. That is what effective government does and I have demonstrated that by my knowledge of the issues and the actions I have taken as a member of the Plainfield Township Board."

What is the greatest challenge facing the office you seek? How will you address it?

Postmus:

"Negativity and misinformation. There are a lot of false accusations being made about Plainfield Township and a perceived lack of action by former boards to protect the municipal water supply. I am not a former board member although I am a lifelong resident of Plainfield Township. I am Pro-Active and Pro-Solutions. I believe in actively seeking solutions and being proactive in making sure those solutions are not just a temporary fix but ones that will carry us forward. It's one thing to demand and point fingers but a real leader seeks and offers solutions through study and questioning credible sources and qualified experts. Effective leaders actively execute solutions to solve issues and make the necessary changes to ensure the health and well being of their community. I am one of those leaders and I have demonstrated that in the decisions I have made since becoming a member of the Plainfield Charter Township Board. #CathleenCares"

Angell:

"The greatest challenge with the Township Board as a whole, not just this position is trust. The board, past and present, is notorious for placing blame on others or denying situations ever occurred. I have been addressing this issue on a volunteer basis - trying to educate the public and bring them together to work as a whole. We really have brought a lot of people together in a relatively short amount of time - I can't imagine how many more I could reach as an active member of the board. Being a local activist, I've done extensive research, meeting with experts in those respective fields and have brought my conclusions to the board only to have them dismissed as false accusations. A specific example is the contamination in the municipal drinking water supply. The board members treated me with a very negative attitude and claimed there was not an issue with the water, even after I presented them with evidence. After months and months, the state awarded a $750,000 grant to supply a filter for the water due to that exact contamination I spoke of. The board is now boasting about how wonderful it is they are installing this system - which they were adamant, was not needed. With heavy push back from the township, I continue to research and learn more. If we don't learn from the past, how can we fix our future?"

This year, MLive Media Group partnered with the League of Women Voters of Michigan to provide candidate information and other voting resources to our readers. Each candidate was asked to answer a series of questions about their policy stances.

Information on all state and federal races and many of Michigan's county and local races will be available at Vote411.org - the election-information website run by the League of Women Voters.GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- All of the remaining separated migrant children who were cared for in Grand Rapids will finally be reunited with their families -- but the question is when.

It's unclear if the family reunifications will happen by the end of the day Thursday, the deadline date set by a federal judge last month.

As of Wednesday, 85 percent of the children in the care of Bethany Christian Services, one of the only Michigan organizations providing care for these children, have been reunified with their families.

More than 2,000 children were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border as a result of President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy to prosecute all illegal-entry violations.

While "not that many" children in Bethany Christian Services' care are still separated from their families, the deadline for these reunifications is Thursday.

Dana Anderson, associate director of Bethany Christian Services' Grand Rapids branch, said she would not provide an exact number of children still in Bethany's care in order to protect the children.

On June 26, a California U.S. District Court Judge set a July 10 deadline to reunite children under 5 years old with their parents and a July 26 deadline to reunite the remaining children.

It's unclear if the remaining children in Bethany Christian Services' care will be reunified with their families by that deadline, Anderson said. Each day has been touch-and-go.

"For the remaining children that we have left in care, we are waiting on guidance from (the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)," Anderson said. "We have very solid reunification plans for the children left in our care. It's just a matter of waiting on guidance for how that will look."

The guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) essentially means Bethany Christian Services is waiting for the federal government's directions on how to reunify the remaining children, she said.

One change that came from HHS guidance was the switch away from reuniting the families at adult detention centers.

"It was quite traumatic because the children had to go through security, and so then of course they're getting triggered from their original experience when they were entering the country," Anderson said.

Now, staff members with Bethany Christian Services fly south with the children -- mainly to Texas and Arizona -- to reunite the families at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices. It's been smoother this way, Anderson said.

But the issue doesn't end when the children are reunited with their families.

Anderson said in many cases, if a family returns home, the threats they tried to escape are still present, and the threats may increase because the family fled.

"The families came here for a reason," Anderson said. "It's a larger issue that, eventually, we all have to face. We have a refugee crisis at our southern border. We have to face that. And until we do, nothing will change."

She said the separations have been "unbelievably awful" to witness. While staff at Bethany Christian Services has always worked with children who crossed the border unaccompanied by adults, the issue of working with children who were separated from their families is new.

It's not just the kids experiencing trauma. Anderson said the staff members at Bethany Christian Services have also been affected by the past few months.

Since the zero-tolerance policy was first implemented in April, many staff members have developed secondary trauma, Anderson said.

"It's been incredibly difficult for the staff to hear 'little ones' asking why they can't be with their parents, when they are going to be home," Anderson said.

To cope with this, Bethany Christian Services provides supportive services to employees, like the ability to go to counseling, training on secondary trauma and a focus on self-care and safety plans.

"We're just trying to provide support to the staff as best we can. You know, we have supportive services that we've been able to put in place, but it's been difficult," Anderson said. "Those types of conversations are happening more frequently."

Earlier this month, three children under 5 years old who had been separated from their families were reunited with their fathers in Grand Rapids.

The reunification, which took place at the Grand Rapids U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, was on the July 10 reunification deadline for kids 5 years old and younger.Private communication between key players in Michigan's 2011 redistricting process imply Republicans engaged in political gerrymandering when drawing the state's political districts, filings in an ongoing federal lawsuit claim.

Evidence introduced earlier this month in a federal lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters against Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in U.S. District Court Eastern District in Detroit included reference to emails between Republican staffers and consultants suggesting political districts were being drawn to benefit the party.

In one email included in the filings sent in May 2011, former Michigan Chamber of Commerce executive Robert LaBrant appears to reference drawing the 4th Congressional District to suit then-Congressman Dave Camp's wishes.

"We will accommodate whatever Dave wants in his district even if I am no longer a constituent," the email read. "We've spent a lot of time providing options to ensure we have a solid 9-5 delegation in 2012 and beyond."

In another May 2011 email referenced in the lawsuit filings, LaBrant wrote to Republican consultant Jeff Timmer that a congressional map with 10 Republican seats and four Democratic seats was initially drawn by the Republican National Committee, but said "we needed for legal and PR purposes a good looking map that did not look like an obvious gerrymander."

Other emails included in court documents reference comments from Jack Daly, a former staffer for then-U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, who, in an email to Timmer, said: "In a glorious way that makes it easier to cram ALL of the Dem garbage in Wayne, Washtenaw, Oakland and Macomb counties into only four districts. Is there anyone on our side who doesn't recognize that dynamic?"

Another email from Daly to LaBrant and Timmer suggest people in adjacent districts should be swapped because of "the obvious objective - putting dems in a dem district and reps in a gop district."

An unnamed staffer referenced in court documents as "another participant in the process" emailed Timmer about a section of a southeast Michigan congressional district that looked like a finger, writing: "perfect. it's giving the finger to (U.S. Rep.) sandy levin. I love it."

Timmer and LaBrant declined comment when reached by MLive, citing the ongoing litigation.

The federal court filings come as the Michigan Supreme Court deliberates a separate challenge to Michigan's existing redistricting process.

The court heard arguments July 18 in a case challenging a proposal from the group Voters Not Politicians to implement an independent commission for drawing political districts.

Opponents of the proposal, including the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Attorney General's office, have argued the Voters Not Politicians plan is a "sweeping, radical change" of the constitution, while proponents of the plan have argued there's no legal precedent to keep it from the ballot.Don't talk about guns.

That's the message Michigan leaders are sending as the nation grapples with how to address mass school shootings.

While lawmakers juggle proposals to increase school safety following the shooting in Parkland, Florida, many Republican leaders are not eager to discuss guns.

"...You start with guns, you're going to get a polarized discussion and most likely nothing ... other than people being polarized, upset and yelling at each other," Gov. Rick Snyder said at the Mackinac Policy Conference at the end of May. "Let's start talking about helping troubled kids, let's start talking about hardening schools."

The concept of "hardening schools" means beefing up the physical structures themselves. Thicker doors. Tougher locks. Bulletproof glass. Identification software.

Democratic lawmakers like State Rep. Robert Wittenberg, D-Oak Pak, feel the safety measures don't fully address the problem.

"What they're trying to do is only half of the equation," said Wittenberg, a sponsor of gun control bills in the House. "I think we have to do everything we can to prevent (school shootings) from happening."

Wittenberg's red-flag gun legislation, which would allow judges to intervene and keep guns away from the mentally ill, hasn't gotten a hearing in the House yet.

Focusing just on school safety also doesn't sit well with students like Ann Arbor Pioneer High School's Clara Nunez-Regueiro, who has been an outspoken advocate in favor of more gun control in the weeks and months following the deaths of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

"I do not believe that simply making schools 'safer' will solve school shootings in America," she said. "To solve school shootings, we have to attack the root of the problem: gun culture in America. It's like if someone got shot and a doctor just put a Band-Aid over the bullet hole -- the problem is still there, you just covered it up."

Safer schools

Rockford Public Schools Superintendent Mike Shibler watched in horror as two middle school boys in Jonesboro, Arkansas opened fire on their classmates in 1998, a year before the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.

Shibler saw that the world was changing and that his district's approach to safety had to change, too. The superintendent, who's been with the district 29 years now, started a public safety department to serve the district's 8,000 students and 14 buildings.

The 10-member districtwide security department is comprised of former police officers like Director Scott Beckman who joined after a long career with the Wyoming Police Department.

"Schools have always been that sanctuary, that safe place that you could send your kids and didn't worry about it," Beckman said. "And that's changed dramatically over the course of years."

The officers aren't armed as a matter of routine, but it is an option, Shibler said.

In addition to the public safety department, Rockford school buildings have become technological fortresses with shatter-proof film covering first-floor windows and vestibules where people need to be buzzed in. They even have thumb-print recognition software.

Now Michigan lawmakers are proposing making schools more like the Rockford district.

On June 12, the Michigan Legislature approved a budget that includes $58 million to fund school safety initiatives like reinforcing buildings, mental illness resources and the threat-reporting system OK2SAY.

Various plans hatched in Snyder's office, the House and Senate since Parkland call for:

Police officers to train for "active violence" scenarios

Schools to report any threats of violence

Future schools to be built with better safety standards

The OK2SAY program to remain funded

Schools to provide police with emergency contact information twice a year

Districts to create an emergency plan for all buildings that would be reviewed by police every two years.

Republicans have not discussed taking up any kind of gun-related legislation.

Non-controversial approaches

A coalition of law enforcement and education agencies asking for $120 million to fund school safety initiatives intentionally left guns out of their plan.

"Our coalition very purposefully stayed away from the gun control argument," said Jennifer Smith of the Michigan Association of School Boards. "We feel that the plan we put forward should be non-controversial. It is something we could do today. We were trying to stay out of the gun debate. We don't want some of these things that could be done for schools tied to gun reform, because now you're in a whole new realm of political will."

The coalition worked with lawmakers to get two bills introduced in the House this May. One bill would fund grant programs for schools who need police officers and mental health resources. The other bill would add options for prosecutors charging individuals who make threats against students or school property.

Right now, prosecutors use an anti-terrorism felony, punishable by 20 years in prison, to charge individuals who threaten schools. There was a spike in such threats following Parkland, such as one in Whitmore Lake where two teens were overheard talking about shooting up the high school. While the teens didn't take any steps beyond talking about it, officials had no choice but to charge them with a 20-year felony.

Under the new law, individuals who make verbal threats against a school could be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, or a fine not more than $1,000 or both. If there was "specific intent" to carry out the threat, or an "overt act" toward carrying it out, a defendant could be charged with a 10-year felony, or a fine of not more than $10,000 or both.

That bill was approved by the House on June 12 and is now with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Stalled gun measures

Following Parkland, Michigan's Senate Democrats introduced a range of gun control bills that would expand universal criminal background checks to cover all firearm sales, prevent concealed weapon permit holders from carrying on school property and establish sentencing guidelines for background checks.

"I think the average Michigander believes that when someone purchases a gun in Michigan a background check is conducted," said state Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing, whose Senate bills call for background checks and keeping guns off school property. "Unfortunately, that is not always the case. My bills assure that guns stay out of the hands of those who should not legally own them. This is a small but reasonable step that will keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have them."

The bills are unlikely to get anywhere in the Republican-led Legislature, however. House Speaker Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt, has no plans on taking up any new gun legislation, according to his spokesman, Gideon D'Assandro.

"The House and Senate want to focus more on policy that can keep schools safe," said D'Assandro.

This includes red flag laws, which allow judges to intervene and issue orders to separate mentally ill individuals from their firearms if petitioned by police or loved ones.

As it stands, federal law permits authorities to take a mentally ill person's gun away if he or she had been charged with a crime and found not guilty by reason of insanity or incompetent to stand trial.

Since Parkland, states like Florida, Maryland and Vermont have passed such laws. Wittenberg's red-flag legislation, which would create Extreme Risk Protection Orders, was introduced in June 2017.

"Unfortunately, it hasn't gotten anywhere," said Wittenberg, who founded a Gun Violence Caucus in 2016.

Wittenberg hopes the legislation can be revisited down the road, but it's unlikely.

"(Leonard's) not supportive of the legislation," D'Assandro said. "He's got concerns with how it handles due process. He's focused instead on what we can do to fix mental health."

Snyder hasn't dismissed red-flag laws, however, and is waiting to hear what his School Safety Task Force comes up with.

"He will look to them for recommendations on protecting students from not only active shooters, but other threats as well," said Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton. "Red flag laws may be part of their work that informs the legislative discussions, but that is still to be determined."

The task force, created by executive order shortly after Parkland, will meet twice a month and submit a final report to the governor and Legislature no later than November 2018.

Guns were not mentioned at its first meeting on June 21, according to the meeting minutes, but they could eventually be part of the discussion, according to Heaton.

"It's possible," she said. "The Task Force is examining any and all threats to students."

Guns in schools

While gun control advocates push for changes, Republicans are considering a different tactic: putting more guns in schools.

Rep. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, and Rep. Gary Glenn, R-Williams Township, have talked about introducing legislation that would allow properly trained and certified teachers to be armed in schools, though nothing concrete has been introduced.

The Michigan Supreme Court is also still mulling the issue of whether a person with a concealed weapon license can open carry at schools - stemming from cases at school districts in Ann Arbor and Clio. Court spokesman John Nevin said justices will likely have a decision before the end of their term this month.

Superintendent Shibler sees no place in his school for guns, though, either on the hips of people with concealed carry permits or in the hands of teachers.

"Dealing with the gun issue is obviously a real concern," he said. "I want to make it clear that I'm a strong supporter of the Second Amendment for people owning guns for hunting, for protection, for safety issues ... but for somebody to bring a gun into our schools, either a sidearm through open carry or concealed carry, is just flat wrong. There's no reason for it.

There's no purpose for that whatsoever."

Christie Ramsey, who graduated from Rockford High in 1999, has three kids between fourth and eleventh grade in the district. She said she feels her kids are safe thanks to all the security measures in the Rockford district. She doesn't think arming teachers is the answer.

"It just muddies all the water," she said. "If there was actually an issue with an active shooter in the building, how are police ... going to know who you are... Are you a safe shooter with a gun, or are you not? To be honest, I wouldn't want anyone second guessing that if my kids are in that school and there is an active shooter there."

Ramsey, whose family owns guns for hunting, advocates for more gun control.

"There's just not a whole lot of waiting periods in our state and it's kind of scary," she said. "I'm not against guns in general, I'm just against guns in schools."

Republican lawmakers continue to hammer out the details of their school safety plans. They will continue to work on the issue when they reconvene in September, according to D'Assandro.(ANSA) - Rome, July 25 - Italy on Wednesday mourned Sergio Marchionne with the late FCA chief remembered as a tough, charismatic and visionary leader who saved Fiat and went on to forge a daring merger with Chrysler.

John Elkann, the president of the Agnelli-Elkann family holding company Exor, announced that the former FCA CEO had died at the age of 66.

"Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," said Elkann. "I believe that the best way to honor his memory is to build on the legacy he left us, continuing to develop the human values of responsibility and openness of which he was the most ardent champion. "My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done. "Our thoughts are with Manuela, and his sons Alessio and Tyler.

President Sergio Mattarella said: "His vision always tried to look beyond the horizon and imagine how innovation and quality might give greater force in the future course. "Marchionne paid witness with his leadership to all this, showing the world the abilities and creativity of the manufacturing realities of our country".

The head of State said "Marchionne wrote an important page in the history of Italian industry.

"In his responsibility as leader of Fiat he traversed years of very deep and radical transformations of markets, systems of production, financial strategies, and union relations.

"He ensured continuity and relaunch as far as building a new aggregation, to give life to a new and bigger reality to sustain competition.

"Marchionne never gave up fighting for his strategies, facing difficulties and conflicts, in order to overcome misunderstandings". Premier Giuseppe Conte praised his abilities and said "I express my condolences and those of all the government for the passing of Sergio Marchionne.

"My most heartfelt condolences to the family and all his loved ones". Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini said "honour to a man who did a lot and could have still done a lot more. "A thought for the family of Sergio Marchionne and best wishes to those who will have the honour and the duty of taking his place", Salvini said, referring to new CEO Mike Manley, the former Jeep chief. Former centre-left premier Romano Prodi said "the news of the passing of Sergio Marchionne grieves me.

"His death deprives us of an interlocutor of great technical ability and refined political intelligence. I recall the immediate empathy that his lectures aroused in the students of Brown University and the attention he captured with his direct and involving approach.

"This was combined in him with rigour, a great spirit of will and an extraordinary capacity for work with which he faced the challenge, not an easy one, of car manufacturing". Former centre-left premier Paolo Gentiloni said "thanks for the work, the hard work, the results. And for Italian pride carried to the world".

Gentiloni's centre-left predecessor Matteo Renzi said "I feel disgust at those (leftists and radicals) who still today have insulted on social networks a man who was dying. "An affectionate hug for the family of Sergio Marchionne. May the earth be light upon him".

Former centre-right premier Silvio Berlusconi said he would have liked to see Marchionne lead Italy for his centre-right bloc.

"With Sergio Marchionne Italy loses not only the most brilliant of its managers but one of the symbolic figures of our country," said the Forza Italia leader.

"He represented the best Italy: the hard-working and concrete, serious and prepared, gifted with a vision and able to look to the future. "...I said once, without telling him beforehand, that I would have liked to see him lead our country. I still think that," Berlusconi said. The Wall Street Journal said Marchionne was a "star of the auto industry and his death ends an era for Detroit where he was one of the untouchable CEOs".

Opening its side with news of the FCA ex-chief's death, the WSJ said "he challenged the orthodoxy of the car industry, and he was ahead of his rivals in some of the most important trends of the car industry".

The business daily quoted Evercore ISI as calling him "one of the most successful and formidable CEOs of the auto industry".

Flags flew at half mast at FCA's Lingotto HQ in Turin while all FCA plants including Melfi and Pomigliano d'Arco observed a 10-minute silence for Marchionne's passing.

A Michigan college is offering free tuition for four years to an aspiring student.

Baker College, the state's largest independent not-for-profit college, is accepting entries for its "Be More in Four" contest, which awards four years of tuition to a student pursuing a bachelor's degree in the field of his/her choice.

"At Baker, we know that getting a college education can be lifechanging," said Bart Daig, Baker College system president, in a statement. "We've been preparing individuals for success in the workforce for more than a century and have continually evolved over that time to ensure we offer programs in career fields that are in demand and showing high rates of growth.

"Whether a student's passion is engineering, nursing, elementary education, IT, culinary arts or a myriad of career choices in between, a bachelor's degree from Baker College is the first step in achieving one's professional goals and dreams."

Founded in 1911, Baker College now has 12 campus and extension sites across the state, as well as 100 percent online program options, across 100 undergraduate and graduate degrees.

Campuses are located in cities such as Muskegon, Cadillac, Flint, Jackson and Metro Detroit.

In the last year, Baker College conferred more than 2,500 degrees across the more than 100 program options it offers both on-ground and online. It has more than 3,300 faculty and staff, 17,000 students and hundreds of thousands of alumni.

To enter the contest, interested students over the age of 16 must submit a short essay (200-500 words) on why they are striving to "be more" and how a bachelor's degree from Baker College can assist them in pursuing a brighter future.

Submissions are due by August 5, 2018 at www.baker.edu/bemoreinfour.

The winner will be selected on August 17, 2018 by a panel of judges that include representatives from Baker College and contest sponsor iHeart Media.

The winner will be eligible to enroll for Baker College at the campus of their choice and receive free undergraduate tuition, which translates to 120 credit hours.MARQUETTE, MI - Marquette County sheriff's deputies had to turn its rescue boat into a shuttle service Tuesday night after a large group of hikers got stranded by high waves at the south end of Little Presque Isle.

The group of 37 people included adults, children and a dog.

Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt told WLUC that while Lake Superior was fairly calm when the group went over to the island, 5-foot waves were rolling between the island and the mainland's shoreline when the group called for help around 7:15 p.m. The island sits about 300 yards offshore, northwest of Marquette.

The sheriff's department tapped its special operations unit to handle the island rescue, in cooperation with firefighters from Marquette Township, Chocolay Township and U.S. Coast Guard personnel stationed in Marquette.

The sheriff's boat made several trips between the island and the mainland, with firefighters helping to offload the grateful passengers, authorities told MLive.

Marquette Township Fire Capt. Robert Cochran said despite the short trek it takes to reach the island, a northwest wind like the one that kicked up Tuesday night can create a swift, dangerous current between the island and the mainland. If it's strong enough, it can carry people out and away from shore.

He said the stranded hikers did the right thing by calling for help. Rescue crews would rather head out and pick them up than get an emergency call about people in the water having trouble reaching the shore.

Cochran did caution that anyone planning to go out to Little Presque Isle should check the weather forecast first.

The area departments' unified response effort is the result of careful planning after other rescues and tragedies in that area.

In June of 2016, Justin Schroepfer, 24, from Wisconsin, swam through large waves to help two women who were caught in the current between the island and the mainland.

He died, along with Kaylilyn Tansey, 22, of Grand Ledge. The other woman struggling in the water was able to float to shore.

In 2017, Schroepfer was honored posthumously with a medal for outstanding civilian heroism from the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission.Medical marijuana caregivers and cultivators in Michigan can't process their plants without breaking the law as a result of a Michigan Court of Appeals decision this month, according to cannabis lawyers.

"Wet marijuana" -- a loose term for the time between when a marijuana plant is cut and fully dried for consumption -- is not covered by state law, according to a Court of Appeals ruling July 19.

"Now, they've made it so you can't even comply with the law," said Matthew Abel, senior partner of Cannabis Counsel LLC. "Obviously, it doesn't go immediately from being a plant to being dried cannabis. There has to be a drying, or curing process. I think this court lacks some understanding."

The appeals court case -- People v. Vanessa Mansour -- stems from an incident in which police raided Mansour's Troy home, where there were marijuana plants, buds in various stages of drying, and dried marijuana buds. Mansour was a medical marijuana patient.

Mansour's defense argued that the marijuana that was drying was not usable -- and therefore qualified her for immunity under state law and should not be considered as authorities drew up their charges. A Michigan Court of Appeals decision had set precedent for that argument, said one of Mansour's lawyers, Neil Rockind.

A trial court disagreed, and the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld that decision in its July 19 ruling. In its decision, the Court of Appeals relied heavily on a previous ruling it had made -- People v. Carruthers -- before state law was changed.

"To say that the legislature makes it legal to possess growing plants and to possess a limited amount of finished product -- but that in between, everybody is just illegal -- that's the interpretation that the Court of Appeals has hoisted on everybody," Rockind said.

The Carruthers ruling is outdated and not relevant, Rockind said. Rockind said it conflicts with state law and with People vs. Manuel, which the Court of Appeals previously decided.

The Michigan Supreme Court has already had to refer a medical marijuana case back to the Court of Appeals due to the Manuel ruling, Rockind said.

"I don't think the legal system has for the most part embraced the medical marijuana initiative," Rockind said. "I think the legal system has been very slow, and in some ways defensive, of a view of marijuana as illegal."

Abel said the ruling was not logical and didn't make sense -- and makes it difficult for lawyers like him to give sound legal advice to clients.

"Someone needs to give the judges a forensic exam to see if they're all there," Abel said. "What they've done is continue to make a mess of the law."

Rockind said he plans to take the case to the Michigan Supreme Court.

"We fully intend to appeal, we're not going to back down from a fight and we're not going to back down from this fight," Rockind said. "On behalf of my client and our clients, for patients, caregivers and all of us this fight has to be fought."

Medical marijuana in Michigan has faced a bumpy road since voters approved a ballot measure in 2008. The Michigan legislature attempted to clarify the system in 2017, but the subsequent licensing and regulatory system has been slow to get off the ground.

The first medical marijuana licenses were issued July 12. A key component in the new framework -- a marijuana testing facility -- has yet to be licensed, delaying the full launch of the industry under the new system.

Voters in Michigan will soon be asked to consider a ballot proposal Nov. 8 that would make recreational marijuana legal in the state.JACKSON, MI - An arrest warrant has been issued for a 19-year-old man accused of shooting an 18-year-old man Monday evening in Jackson.

The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office has issued an arrest warrant for Markeithis Jawaun Smith, who police said is the suspect in a July 23 shooting in the 1000 block of Pigeon Street.

The three-count felony warrant is for assault with intent to murder, carrying a concealed weapon and felony firearm.

Anyone with information on the location of Smith is asked to contact Jackson police Det. Robert Noppe at 517-768-8762 or Crime Stoppers of Mid Michigan at 855-840-7867.

Elmer Hitt, Jackson director of police and fire services, previously said the 18-year-old was hit in the upper shoulder and had a grazing wound to his side.

Hitt said Wednesday afternoon, July 25, that he believes the victim is still in the hospital and is expected to recover. He had no other updates on the investigation.

Hitt previously said the investigation indicates the shooting, which occurred around 7 p.m., started as an argument involving a woman. He said it seems someone pulled out a weapon and began shooting on the street or sidewalk.JACKSON, MI - Kathy Newman knows her son Matthew McMillen was out there "doing wrong," but this was unwarranted.

Tracy Lawrence should have called the police.

After two years, she sees the jury's verdict as justice. "I'm glad he's finally guilty."

Jurors on Tuesday afternoon convicted Lawrence, 55, of two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of McMillen and his friend Hunter Lentz, both 18.

In doing so, the jury rejected the arguments of Lawrence's lawyers, who contended Lawrence acted in self-defense or lawfully prevented the escape of two fleeing felons on his property with ill intent.

He used a .22-caliber rifle to shoot and kill them June 8, 2016 on Town Road in Springport Township.

Jurors also found Lawrence guilty of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, which will add two years to his sentence.

Tuesday, Lawrence had no visible or audible reaction to the verdict. Observers, warned in advance about any outbursts, were quiet.

Lawrence faces up to life in prison when Jackson County Circuit Judge John McBain is to sentence him on Aug. 29.

Acknowledging the potential long penalty, McBain revoked Lawrence's bond. He went in chains to the county jail despite his lawyer George Lyons' argument that prior to Tuesday, Lawrence, who lacks any criminal record, lived a "spotless life."

"I think it's unfair, honestly," Lawrence's wife Ethel said as she left the courtroom. She has been married to Lawrence for 38 years.

Her sister Tammy Caudill walked with her. Taking Lawrence from his family is not going to bring back McMillen and Lentz, she said. "I am sorry for the loss, but it doesn't make any sense."

Lawrence has lived with it every day, Ethel Lawrence said. "He can't sleep."

He did not know they were "boys," Caudill said. "He didn't even know what they were."

Once a bullet goes, "you can't take it back," she said, and she embraced Ethel Lawrence on the sidewalk. A son-in-law and nephew stood nearby.

Efforts on Tuesday afternoon to speak to Lyons and Jared Hopkins, Lawrence's lawyers, were not successful.

County Prosecutor Jerry Jarzynka praised jurors for their diligence and attentiveness. "Ultimately, I think their decision was very conscientious."

It was consistent with the facts of the case, that Lawrence shot and killed two unarmed teenagers who were running off his property. McMillen was hit in the back.

Lentz had a wound to the back side of his head, said Jarzynka, who commended his trial team, Assistant Prosecutors Steven Idema and Katie Hawkins and Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. David Stamler.

The law limits the legal justifications for lethal force, and the evidence showed the teens were not breaking into Lawrence's house. They were yards from the back door, Jarzynka said, when he spotted them, near his truck, which was across a driveway from Lawrence's back porch, his stated firing position.

Jarzynka visited the scene of the crime, as jurors did last week, before he decided to charge Lawrence with second-degree murder, he said, and he was struck by the distances involved.

"It is quite a big expanse. It is quite a distance," Jarzynka said.

"That really flies in the face of self-defense when you see the distance and the space involved."

A person cannot use deadly force to shoot trespassers, Jarzynka said.

The defense contended the teens were doing far more than trespassing. They were wearing heavy clothes, including gloves. They brought with them what have been characterized as burglary tools. They were not there to sell Girl Scout cookies; they were criminals, Lyons said.

There were signs of breaking and entering on Lawrence's mobile home, sitting on his adjacent property, and a camper, evidence showed, but Lawrence did not know about this at the time he fired, the prosecution told jurors.

What jurors were not told is of the alleged crime spree, a series of break-ins, that preceded the teen's trip to Town Road, barred from the presentation by the Court of Appeals.

Lawrence said the teenagers, uninvited strangers, were coming at him on an early morning. He had spotted them as he went about his normal routine, making coffee and watching TV. He said they scared the hell out of him.

"It wasn't a good situation for any of us," said Lentz's aunt, Wendy Ridley.

Lentz and McMillen should not have been there, and Lawrence should not have acted as he did with the firearm, she said.

She loves Lentz, she said. "I still love him." And she wishes she could smack him in the head for the choices he made.

He was too young to understand the consequences, she said.

"Neither of them deserved to die like that," she said.

Trouble had found Lentz again after a better period, she said.

He liked doing work, outdoor labor like irrigation, roofing, landscaping, and was proud of his labors, his relatives and girlfriend Alyssa Snyder said.

Foolish decisions or not, Lentz had a good heart, another relative said as a group stood outside the courthouse. He enjoyed fishing and being outside.

He had given his girlfriend a ring, and taken hard the death of his grandfather, his anchor, about a year before he died.

Why was he on Town Road that morning in 2016? "We don't know," Ridley said.

"I'd love to be able to ask him."

To view a listing of stories on this case, click here.BLACKMAN TWP., MI - Andrew Paielli and state trooper Ronnie Tucker shared an emotional embrace for the second time Wednesday, July 25 at the Michigan State Police Jackson Post.

Their first hug came after Tucker and other officers helped Paielli save the life of his newborn baby, Hanna Paielli, after her dramatic birth outside the police station Monday, July 23.

"I'm extremely grateful for everyone that helped," Andrew Paielli said.

Tucker became emotional when he saw and held Hanna on Wednesday in a reunion at the MSP Jackson Post.

"It's amazing," Tucker said. "I don't think there's words that can describe what it feels like to see the baby actually alive and well right now. Seeing how the parents were grateful for everything. There's no way to explain it."

Around 1 a.m. Monday, the Paiellis drove down M-106 from Stockbridge toward Henry Ford Allegiance Health, where Jessica Paielli was expected to give birth to the couple's fourth child.

Jessica's water broke about two minutes before they reached the edge of Cooper Street Correctional Facility, Andrew Paielli said.

Two minutes after that, Hanna Paielli began to make her way out, feet first.

Andrew Paielli knew the state police post at 3401 Cooper St. was up ahead.

He stopped, tried to find help and learned nobody was answering at the station, which closes at 4 p.m. on weekdays.

Hanna was born inside the couple's SUV.

Andrew said her skin was blue and purple and not responsive. Andrew handed the baby to his wife and went back to see if anyone was at the post -- to no avail.

He called 911.

Suddenly, with sirens blaring, help came racing around the corner, Andrew Paielli said.

Tucker, who was working on a report for a domestic violence arrest he made earlier in his overnight shift, sprinted to the scene from his patrol car.

Andrew and Jessica Paielli, who works in health care, had been trying to bring their child to a responsive state when police arrived and joined the effort to revive Hanna.

Tucker, 23, a former Olympic weightlifter at Northern Michigan University, has been with MSP Jackson for eight months.

He was without his partner, who had to leave for another emergency, but he had CPR equipment in his vehicle, and he had the training he underwent in police academy.

Hanna had a pulse, but wasn't breathing at all.

Tucker said he performed lifesaving techniques to keep the newborn's airway open, and tried rubbing her chest for stimulation, eventually finding success.

"When she let out her first cry, I think I almost fainted," Tucker said, who credited police from Blackman-Leoni Township and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office for helping with the revival.

The child soon began to gain some color, and eventually started breathing on her own, Andrew said.

"I was extremely happy, but at the same time I think I was in somewhat of a shocked state," Andrew Paielli said. "I was afraid -- more afraid than I'd ever been in my life -- that I was going to lose my daughter."

Covered in blood, Tucker looked at Andrew Paielli and noticed he was crying, Tucker said. They hugged.

"I'm sure we'll remain friends for the rest of our lives," Tucker said.

Andrew Paielli drove to the hospital and he said he began to shed tears when when he realized his daughter would be OK.

The family was discharged from the hospital Wednesday. Hanna Paielli is a healthy baby at 9 pounds, 15 ounces. She slept during her family's interaction with Tucker on Wednesday, but Andrew said she'll remind her daughter for the rest of her life of what happened that night.

"We're extremely grateful for everyone that was involved in ensuring that she is with us today," Andrew Paielli said. "We're just ready to get back home and get back to every day."JACKSON, MI - A new federal lawsuit filed last week by a black, former deputy alleges Jackson County Sheriff Steven Rand's office was an "incubator for egregious racism and bigotry."

Lino Johnson, hired in February 2015 and believed to be the county's first black road patrol officer, alleges he received unequal treatment and under threat of imminent termination, resigned in May 2017.

Johnson, who has a master's degree, contends he was passed over for specialized trainings, promotions and special position assignments in favor of white officers, and was subjected to "disparate scrutiny, investigation and disciplinary practices," states the lawsuit, filed July 18 in U.S. District Court.

"Sheriff Rand is a bigot, with a known animus against, amongst others, African-Americans," the document says.

Rand has on multiple occasions referred to blacks by "vile racial slurs," including "f------ monkeys," "f------" and "n-----," the lawsuit alleges.

In it, Johnson and his lawyers argue he was the victim of racial discrimination and for his opposition and complaints, the county and the sheriff retaliated against him.

When approached Wednesday morning, Rand declined to comment. He has in the past said he does not harbor any bigotry. His actions demonstrate this, he then told a reporter.

"I can't speak about an active lawsuit," Jackson County Administrator/Controller Michael Overton wrote in an email.

Rand already is the subject of a well-publicized lawsuit filed in February by sheriff's Lt. Tommy Schuette, and this moved Johnson to action, his lawyer said

Schuette contends Rand created a hostile work environment, harassing Schuette for his hearing disability, and the county retaliated against Schuette for reporting and opposing Rand's conduct.

The fallout, including the release of secretly captured audio recordings, prompted county commissioners and other leaders to call for Rand's resignation. Rand, however, remains in his position and a request to remove him from office, sent to Gov. Rick Snyder, has been under review for five months at the Michigan Attorney General's Office.

In the still-pending lawsuit, Schuette alleges Rand referred to a former black deputy as a "dumb n-----" and remarked of blacks and a black deputy under internal investigation: "We should step on their necks like we used to."

Johnson's suit, separate from Schuette's, repeats these allegations. He is believed to be the referenced deputy, it states. While he was there, he was the only African American road patrol deputy, according to his lawsuit.

These are comments are not contained in the recordings released in February to MLive and the Jackson Citizen Patriot, and in his answer to Schuette's lawsuit, Rand neither admitted nor denied making them.

Once made public, the recorded and alleged remarks, spoken in what Rand thought were private conversations with other "white members" of the sheriff's office, validated some of Johnson's concerns, said one of his attorneys, Kathryn Bruner James, based in Detroit.

They drove home what he suspected and felt was racial retaliation, she said.

"The priority that he has described to me is basically, he doesn't want this to happen to someone else," she said.

"He felt like he was targeted while he was there. He felt like no one believed him when he expressed those concerns."

Johnson had complained to superiors that he was not being treated fairly and in the spring of 2017, the office internally investigated him for off-duty misconduct at a local bar, the lawsuit states.

A waitress alleged an inappropriate interaction and reported this to the sheriff's office, James said. The waitress said Johnson made a comment about her breasts and touched her, possibly near her under-arm. "And that simply did not happen," James said.

The sheriff's office refused to accept any of the materials Johnson provided to demonstrate his blamelessness, and it was clear there was no interest in anything that would exonerate him, only that which would force him out of his job, she said.

A low-quality video with audio did not corroborate the contention, an alleged falsehood made when some did not take kindly to Johnson, a law enforcement officer, and his cousins being the lone African Americans in the bar, she said.

According to the lawsuit, the internal inquiry expanded to include allegations of minor wrongdoing occurring months earlier. Johnson had received a speeding citation and was investigated about a year before his departure for radioing for city police to handle what James said was a traffic matter within the city limits.

She said deputies were instructed, because the city has its own force, to limit their actions within Jackson. His superiors, she said, inflated the danger or urgency of the matter.

The internal inquiry further addressed practices that, when they involved white officers, were not problematic, such the use of personal cell phones to photograph accident or assault injuries, the lawsuit states and James said. The department cameras were often without charged batteries, James said.

"(Johnson) knew from the context and information that he received that he was about to be terminated," the lawsuit states, and he resigned.

He was disciplined and faced termination for allegedly engaging in behavior that for white employees brought about only verbal or written warnings, contends the lawsuit, which asks for more than $75,000, excluding costs, interest and attorney fees.

In one of the recordings, Schuette relays to Rand and others a conversation he had with Johnson after his departure. Schuette indicates he had fielded a question about "race issues" from Johnson's possible future employer.

"If I were you, Tommy, I would not converse with him at all," Rand says.

"You need to just say 'Lino, look, this is between you and all your perspective employers, leave me out of it'... because you are going to get sucked into a f----- litigation, if you aren't already."

Rand adds: "I thought you gingers stuck together with the blacks."

Johnson, who has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's degree in public administration, has been an officer in a different sheriff's office since late 2017, his lawyer said. He lives in Kent County in West Michigan, according to the lawsuit.

Because of Rand and the county's conduct, there was an interruption in his law enforcement career and he suffered financial loss, embarrassment, stress and frustration, the lawsuit states.

For a listing of stories on Schuette's lawsuit and Rand, click here.KALAMAZOO, MI -- Developers are planning to breathe new life into a long-vacant site near the west bank of the Kalamazoo River.

East Lansing-based River Caddis Development Corp. responded to a city request for a mixed-use project at 508 Harrison St., just east of downtown Kalamazoo. It's working with Kalamazoo's Brownfield Redevelopment Authority on a plan to start building 120 residential units and 12,500 square feet of commercial space in 2019.

Sara Jo Shipley, the city's redevelopment project manager, said the 7-acre site is a "prime piece of property."

It sits across the street from People's Food Co-Op and MacKenzie's Bakery, near a roundabout at Gull Road finished last year and within walking distance to multiple parks, bars and cafes. A downtown section of the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail heads northeast behind the property and recent road improvements made the area more pedestrian-friendly.

Formerly characterized by active and shuttered industrial and warehouse facilities and vacant land tracts, the east end of downtown is becoming a hub for redevelopment.

Shipley said the burgeoning River's Edge District benefits from anchor developments like the food co-op, bakery and Arcadia Brewing Co. These businesses proved investment on the city's east end pays off, she said.

"Investors want to see their developments prosper and having long-standing businesses gives them assurances that the area is stable," Shipley said.

Shipley said River Caddis is a well-established developer that was chosen for its intent to create a walkable urban development with affordable rental units. It would be the developer's first project in Kalamazoo.

In June, the Zoning Board of Appeals approved two use variances to allow ground-floor residential units and a reduced number of parking spaces at the 7-acre site. Kalamazoo-based architectural firm Byce & Associates Inc. appeared before the board to request the variances on behalf of River Caddis.

According to its variance request, the developers are planning two phases of development in an area zoned for commercial mixed-uses.

Mike Flynn, vice president and architect with Byce, said the developers intend to offer housing rates for people of varying incomes. Specifics on rental rates haven't been worked out yet, Shipley said.

A sale agreement hasn't been finalized. Shipley said a January appraisal of the property valued it at $800,000.

Flynn said construction could begin in spring 2019. The first phase would bring five mixed-use buildings and 185 parking spaces.

Plans call for a 7,500-square-foot commercial building with retail sales and services to accommodate residential property developments, including leasing office space, fitness amenities and other commercial uses.

Three residential buildings would be three stories tall. Two would have 42 units and the third would have 30 units.

A fifth building would have ground-level office space and six town house apartments on the second floor.

A second phase of construction would add 5,000 square feet of leasable space in a sixth building.

Kalamazoo's zoning ordinance states the commercial mixed-use district is used in predominantly nonresidential areas intended for a broader mix of residential and nonresidential uses in the future.

Byce & Associates expects the off-street parking needs at the development will be less than what is required under the ordinance. A total of 230 parking spaces are required, according to city documents, but the zoning board approved a variance for 45 fewer spaces.

More parking could be added in the future, if needed, Flynn said.

The Harrison Street site was owned by Kalamazoo Tank and Silo Co., the city's oldest manufacturing firm, before being bought by the city for $837,500 in 2004.

Demolition work removed the majority of the former industrial plant, which was determined to be functionally obsolete and underutilized. The only remaining structure is a small silo on the edge of the site.

Kalamazoo used a Clean Michigan Initiative grant to acquire property in the area and remediated some land there that had been used as a dumping ground for fly ash.

More investigation is needed to determine potential contamination, Shipley said.

A portion of the property lies in the Kalamazoo River's 100-year-floodplain. Stormwater runoff measures will be included in a future site plan, Shipley said.

A permit from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is needed to discharge stormwater into the Kalamazoo River.JACKSON, MI -- When Dr. Lukasz Niec was 17, he got a call from a friend who told him it would be worth it to come with him that night. Niec said he got into a car with his schoolmate and soon learned his friend was using a misplaced bank card or credit card to obtain money.

Niec, now 43, said he remembers riding along on Dec. 11, 1991, as his friend drove to multiple 7-Eleven stores to withdraw thousands of dollars, $300 at a time, from ATMs.

Niec wore a suit and tie while seated before Michigan Department of Corrections Parole Board Chairperson Michael Eagen on Tuesday, July 24, and testified that he was remorseful about that crime and a second offense and conviction that happened in the same month.

Niec, who came to the United States from Poland as a legal immigrant at a young age, has said he thought the two incidents were in his past.

But, decades later, he testified about them again during Tuesday's pardon hearing, which his supporters hope could lead to a pardon from Gov. Rick Snyder and stop Niec from being deported.

After the December car ride 26 years ago, Niec went home to his mother's house with $12,000 in his pocket, he testified.

The next day at school, a school detective searched his friend's locker, and Niec along with another friend he said also participated in the act were called into the office and later arrested. Niec was convicted for his role in the crime and under Michigan's Holmes Youthful Trainee Act (HYTA), the offense was treated as a misdemeanor and later dismissed.

"I had never seen that amount of cash," Niec said when asked about his motivation to go along with his friend.

"I didn't think I would have gotten caught because I didn't get out of the car," he said. "I should've known being there was just as bad."

Michigan Assistant Attorney General Scott Rothermal asked why Niec was seeking a pardon for a conviction already scrubbed from his record under Holmes Youthful Trainee Act.

"ICE doesn't care about dismissals," Niec said.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said the two convictions that Niec is seeking a pardon for make Niec, a physician at Bronson HealthCare, eligible for deportation.

Chris Vreeland, one of Niec's immigration attorneys, explained that his client is seeking a pardon partly because the federal government applies immigration law retroactively and does not recognize laws such as Michigan's Holmes Youthful Trainee Act.

"The fact that Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, under Michigan state law, essentially wipes your record clean, it doesn't make a darn bit of difference in immigration court," Vreeland said following the hearing.

On the second criminal conviction for which Niec is seeking a pardon, the doctor testified he was out riding in a car with a group of people when someone in the car with him got into a verbal argument with the driver of another vehicle. Niec testified that someone got out of the vehicle he was in and threw a tissue toward the other vehicle. He wasn't sure if the vehicle was damaged, he testified.

Reading from a report on the incident, Rothermal said several people got out of the car and caused damage to the other vehicle, totaling hundreds of dollars. The report identified Niec as one of the suspects causing damage to the vehicle. Niec testified he never got out of the car and kept his head down during the incident.

If Niec is granted a pardon for the two offenses, Vreeland said he would file a motion to terminate deportation proceedings. If that was granted, his attorney said he would file an application for Niec to become a U.S. citizen.

Vreeland said he is "reasonably confident" a pardon from the governor would conclude the immigration proceedings against Niec.

Rothermal questioned Niec about other offenses in his past, including some involving alcohol. Niec answered questions about past offenses and said his alcohol consumption is currently "very minimal to none."

He also asked Niec about a 2013 domestic violence charge that was dismissed after a trial.

Niec explained that he was in an argument with his fiancee at the time, and when he grabbed her phone to see who she had been texting, she grabbed his finger. Niec testified he reached around her with his other hand to try to stop her from breaking his finger. In the process, he lifted her off the ground and his watch scratched her, Niec testified. She called the police afterward, he said.

He was waiting for her to return an expensive engagement ring when the fight happened, Niec testified.

Rothermal questioned Niec about allegations of child abuse against him, and Niec said the allegations from July 2017 were reported to Michigan State Police by his former fiancee. The allegations were later dismissed, court records show.

He believes his former fiancee is "absolutely" the reason why ICE agents appeared at his front door and arrested him in January.

"Now she's using everything she has, like calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement on me," Niec said.

Niec testified that he speaks very little Polish and has spent most of his life in Michigan. He said he's not sure what he would do if he was deported to Poland. He said he is a member of a lake association in Texas Township, where he lives, and he has donated to Big Brothers, Big Sisters and the United Way.

Niec's wife, Rachelle Burkart-Niec, was one of six people there Tuesday to testify in support of the Kalamazoo County doctor during the hearing.

"He is a good dad, a good husband and a good physician," she said, "and we would rather have him in Michigan than in Poland."

A total of 13 people attended, not including corrections officers and officials. The pardon hearing was held in a nondescript tan building labeled as the T-100 Training Center at the G. Robert Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson.

Susan Shahwan, a practice manager at Bronson HealthCare, said Niec is the keystone among Bronson's hospitalists and that he makes the daily schedule for the group. He also sets an example for newer employees, she said, and is loved by patients and peers.

Penny Rathburn, a colleague at Bronson and a personal friend of Niec, said he is selfless and very well respected.

Niec's sister, Iwona Niec Villaire, said she doesn't know what she would do without him.

"He made some bad decisions but since then he's become an amazing man," she said, holding back emotions while giving her testimony.

After the hearing, Rothermal said the attorney general's office "takes no position" on the pardon request and wished Niec luck.

Eagen explained that the full parole board would meet and discuss the case during its next executive session after the parole hearing transcript is available, and will ultimately make a recommendation to Gov. Rick Snyder. It would take a majority, or six of the 10 parole board members, to make a recommendation to the governor.WEST MICHIGAN -- Three West Michigan cities are among the first recipients of a fund to remove imagery offensive to Native Americans.

At its July meeting, the board of the Native American Heritage Fund granted almost $415,000 to defray the costs of projects in Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Belding. A fountain, mascot and stained glass window deemed to be insensitive, historically inaccurate and offensive to the relationship between settlers and indigenous people will be removed.

The fund, created in 2016, allocates a portion of Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi state gaming revenue to projects that promote positive relationships and accurate information about the history and role of Michigan's Indian tribes and Native Americans in the state. Michigan's K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and local units of government are eligible to receive the fund.

Kalamazoo will receive $76,765 for to cover half the cost of removing the 78-year-old Fountain of the Pioneers complex in Bronson Park, which was completed this summer.

Kalamazoo's City Commission voted 5-1 to relocate the Fountain of the Pioneers in March, recognizing residents who said the controversial statue is inappropriate, hurtful and unwelcoming to indigenous people.

Though public debate has persisted since the monument was established, City Commissioners said the figures of a Native American in headdress head-to-head with a westward-gazing pioneer do more harm than good.

The vote was a victory for activists who brought renewed vigor to the effort, but critics said it steps on the fountain's great historic and artistic value.

In March, Tribal Council Chairperson Jamie Stuck said the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi supports Kalamazoo's decision to remove the fountain. Stuck suggested the city apply for the fund, which was unknown to city officials at the time.

Deputy City Manager Jeff Chamberlain said it cost $153,500 to remove the Fountain of the Pioneers from Bronson Park.

For 78 years, the unnamed settler and indigenous person faced one another in Bronson Park; locked in opposing directions and never seeing eye-to-eye.

Chamberlain said the removal process went "very smoothly," and the artistic sections of the fountain were disassembled without damage. They remain together now, but share a storage space in the city's Stockbridge Avenue facility instead of across from City Hall.

The statue figures await relocation to a museum or art gallery. Chamberlain said discussions are ongoing with the Kalamazoo County Public Art Commission to find a permanent home.

Nearly $335,000 will support the replacement of equipment, apparel and signage in Belding Area Schools as the district changes its mascot from the Redskins to the Black Knights.

In December 2016, the Belding school board unanimously voted to abandon its Redskins mascot after months of discussions in the community. Over the years, the logo was replaced Old English B, but parents asked the board to take a stance on the mascot.

The city of Battle Creek will receive $3,377 to remove and replace a stained glass window medallion in City Hall, which depicts a white surveyor preparing to club a Native American. Battle Creek derives its name from a historic skirmish between settlers and Potawatomi Indians.

In early June, the board began accepting applications from Michigan's K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and local governments.

Six other applications are still under consideration for funding in 2018.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and ousted Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez finally met Wednesday at the Speaker's office in Batasang Pambansa.

Pampanga Representative Dong Gonzales, who said he set up the meeting between the lawmakers, said it was Arroyo who went to visit Alvarez. She called the congressman Tuesday night, asking him to tell Alvarez he could have her old office.

Pictures released by Gonzales to media showed the two leaders talking and smiling at each other.

Gonzales said Alvarez was grateful for the offer and wanted to go see Arroyo.

"Sabi ni Ma'am, ako na lang pupunta," he recalled. "Pagdating sa office ni Bebot (Alvarez), sabi niya kay GMA, 'Bakit kayo pa pumunta?' Sabi ni Ma'am, 'Okay lang. Nandito na ako.'"

And unlike the dramatic coup on Monday, Arroyo said the meeting was good and cordial. She said based on their meeting, it looked like Alvarez was willing to cooperate in her leadership.

"We continue our good relations with each other," she told CNN Philippines in an interview during a luncheon she hosted for her partymates in the Lower House on Wednesday.

The Speaker declined to provide more details of their "private conversation," but when asked if Alvarez agreed to work with her, she replied, "I would think so."

Aside from Alvarez, Arroyo also met with her PDP-Laban party mates.

During their fellowship, Arroyo said she told her colleagues it was their job to carry out the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a separate meeting, Arroyo also assured committee heads that as of now, there would be no changes in the committee chairmanships.

'Let's go back to work'

Meanwhile, Alvarez has accepted his defeat.

"We cannot undo the past, but we can certainly shape our future. The House of Representatives has chosen a new Speaker in the person of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Alang-alang sa bayan [For the country's sake], let us get back to work and move on," Alvarez said in a statement on Wednesday.

Staff members said Alvarez had already said goodbye to the people in the Office of the Speaker and his personal employees had left. Gonzales said the ousted speaker was packing his things and Arroyo could move into the office by Monday.(ANSA) - Rome, July 25 - An 18th-century Canaletto painting with Venice's Grand Canal and its swarming of gondolas and street vendors is on the poster showcasing a long summer of Italian art in the Russian capital. The exhibit focuses on works by such 18th-century Venetian masters as Giambattista Tiepolo, Canaletto and Francesco Lazzaro Guardi and will run through October 14.

The prestigious Pushkin museum takes visitors on a journey through a school of painting that in the Renaissance era had already birthed such painters as Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese and which in the 18th century flourished once more and brought Venice to the forefront of European artistic life. The curators - Giovanni Carlo Federico Villa, honorary director of the Musei Civici di Vicenza and Vittoria Markova, head curator of the museum's collection of Italian paintings - have brought together pomp, decorative taste, myths and landscapes in the selections showcased at the Pushkin Museum.

For the first time there will be 57 works together in one place that are well known at the international level: 23 from the Museo Civico in Vicenza, 25 from the Pushkin Museum and 9 from Gallerie d'Italia - Palazzo Leoni Montanari.

The exhibit marks a new step in cultural relations between Russia and Italy that, according to the Russian Museum of Figurative Arts, "will lead to a new level of collaboration with Italian museums". A July 20 preview was held at the Italian embassy in Moscow of 'Aeneas In Flight', still wearing his helmet and with the elderly Anchises wrapped around his neck by Giandomenico Tiepolo (Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius), son of the famous Giambattista.

Organized by MondoMostre and eagerly awaited in Venice, where the show will be held at Palazzo Chiericati starting from October 30, after Moscow, the exhibition starts from Giambattista Tiepolo, the most well-known Italian painter of the 18th century.

He was also the last painter to represent the Baroque period and was in some way the most authentic representative of the spirit of Venice and the era.

The works range from the 'Immaculate Conception' to 'Time Unveiling Truth' and 'The Death of Didon'. The feast of movement and colors is also seen in the works by Giambattista Pittoni. Landscape paintings and "views" of Venice - with its markets, monuments, canals and squares - had meanwhile become in vogue, with Canaletto the star of the genre who took inspiration from Luca Carlevarijs.

Francesco Guardi instead mixed fantasy and reality in his paintings, while daily life in the city was depicted by Pietro Longhi. photo: Canaletto, The Return of the Bucintoro to Dock In Front of Doge's PalaceMUSKEGON, MI - The former Muskegon farmers market on Yuba Street could be redeveloped into a food research and manufacturing facility.

The Food Forward FARM (food, agriculture, research and manufacturing) incubator and manufacturing facility is already available for lease ahead of development.

The plan is to erect a $5-$7 million, 100,000- to 120,000-square-foot facility on the site of the former farmers' market at 731 Yuba St., according to a news release.

The old farmers market was demolished in 2015 following the 2014 opening of the market on West Western Avenue.

Rendering of Food Forward FARM, planned for 731 Yuba St. in Muskegon. (Courtesy photo)

CorePark Development, the company behind the plan, is in negotiations with the city of Muskegon to purchase the 2.45-acre parcel. It was listed for $150,000, but a final price hasn't been agreed upon, said City Manager Frank Peterson. The site has been rezoned to light industrial in anticipation of the project.

Core Realty is seeking tenant commitments, with a goal of at least 50 percent occupancy prior to construction, said Bryan Bench of Core Realty. The goal is to have commitments lined up this fall, to start construction in the fall and then to open by late summer.

But "nothing is set in stone," he said.

There are no leases yet, but lots of interest, Bench said.

Tenants are expected to be start ups and established food processors from Ottawa, Muskegon, Kent, Oceana and Newaygo counties, he said.

It is expected to be developed in three phases:

Phase I: 40,000-50,000 square feet for main facility, collaboration center and a pilot space available for short duration and product launch use

Phase II: Addition of 20,000-30,000 square feet

Phase III: Addition of 40,000 square feet of freezer storage

Phase I is available for lease at $5.50-$7 per square foot for processing space and $12-$15 per square foot for office space.

The planned facility is a collaboration of CorePark and West Michigan Shoreline Food Processing Initiative, which was established in 2017 to promote the expansion of the food processing industry in West Michigan including incubation and product development.

"Many food processors don't have the ability to test new products because they can't shut down their processing lines," said Dennis Marvin, a consultant for West Michigan Shoreline Food Processing Initiative. "This facility will be set up to accommodate companies interested in leasing space to do those kinds of things."

The facility would offer food-grade industrial space with individual suites ranging from 5,000-20,000 square feet, according to the release. The space is designed to offer lease options for food industry businesses, from start-ups to well-established companies.

Food- and agricultural-based businesses that would be a good fit include:

Dairy

Food research

Fruit and agriculture

Beverage and distillery

Food manufacturing and packaging

Start-ups

Short-term pilot space

Professionals providing support to the food industry

"It's a matter of putting it together and getting it going," Bench said. "We're ready to get some commitments so we can sink our teeth into it. Everyone is behind it. We're ready to solve those problems for people."

CORE Realty is serving as the leasing agent. Find leasing information at corerealty.com/food-forward-farm/.MIDLAND, MI -- Michigan's largest bank is moving from one city to another, but the jobs are staying.

Chemical Bank, headquartered in Midland for more than 100 years, announced on Wednesday, July 25, that the business would be moving to Detroit. However, 500 jobs will be retained in Midland.

"Chemical Bank plans to retain its current Midland, Michigan workforce of over 500 and its presence in that community as it expands into Detroit," Chemical Bank said in a statement sent to MLive via email.

"Midland will continue to be the home of its operations center. Chemical Bank also plans to add over 500 employees to the City of Detroit's workforce once construction on its new building is complete."

Chemical Bank plans to build a brand new 20-story building on the site of a current parking lot at Woodward Avenue and Elizabeth Street in downtown Detroit, where 500 employees will work out of the building.

"While we are extremely disappointed to hear this news, it is now our primary focus to work closely with Chemical Bank as we mutually ensure the comfort and security of the many Chemical Bank employees who live and work in our community," reads a press release from the City of Midland.

Chemical Bank is one of Midland's top employers, following Midland Public Schools, MidMichigan Health and Dow Chemical, according to 2016 Midland Tomorrow data.

The bank will also expand its current Detroit offices at 333 Fort Street, officials said Wednesday.

"It is our hope that, despite this corporate shift, the Midland-based workforce will not only be retained, but will also grow over time as Chemical Bank continues its corporate expansion efforts," reads the statement from the City of Midland.

"Chemical Bank has been a strong community partner with the City of Midland since its inception more than a century ago and we look forward to continuing that relationship"

Chemical Bank merged with Talmer Bancorp in 2016 and as a result became the largest headquartered bank in Michigan with $20 billion in assets.SAGINAW, MI -- The president of the Saginaw school board is not seeking reelection.

Rudy Patterson did not file paperwork with the city clerk's office by the 4 p.m. July 24 deadline.

Patterson, who was elected in 2011, declined to comment.

Four people have filed to run for the three open six-year seats. Vera Harrison, Charles Coleman, Joe Loperena Jr. and Ruth Ann Knapp will face off in the November election. Knapp is an incumbent.

Two people have filed to run for the partial-term, two-year seat that was vacated by Tamara McRae. Fire Marshal Ralph Martin and board Vice President Jason Thompson will face off for McRae's seat.

McRae resigned on July 2 after getting married and moving out of the district.

Harrison and Loperena have applied to be appointed to fill McRae's seat through December. The school board will interview four people who have applied and appoint someone this week.Using information from NASA and the European Space Agency, a study published by scientists highlights the possibility there is a huge lake of salty water buried beneath the surface of Mars.

The study was published in the journal Science on Wednesday, July 25 adds more fuel to the fire that finding life on the Red Planet could still be possible. To put it simply, water is essential to life as we know it and finding water on Mars is something scientists and researchers have long sought-out to do.

"Water droplets were seen condensing onto the Phoenix lander, and there may be recurring water activity on slopes during the Martian summer," the study reads.

"However, stable bodies of liquid water have not been found on Mars. Published in Science's First Release this week, report an analysis of radar data from the Mars Express mission that shows the existence of stable liquid water below 1.5 km of ice, close to the martian south pole."

This image provided by the ESA/INAF shows an artist's rendering of the Mars Express spacecraft probing the southern hemisphere of Mars. At upper right is the planet's southern ice cap. The inset image at lower right shows the area where radar readings were made. The blue triangle indicates an area of very high reflectivity, interpreted as being caused by the presence of a reservoir of water, about a mile below the surface. (Davide Coero Borga/INAF/ESA via AP)

--

The Associated Press reports this would serve as the first finding of a large body of water on Mars. Scott Hubbard, a professor of astronautics at Stanford and former program director of the Mars program for NASA, told A.P. that the findings are "tremendously exciting."

Using observations from an ESA spacecraft, the scientists report that ice caps similar to those on Earth exist at the north and south poles of Mars.

Hubbard told the news organization that its mantra back in 2000 was to "follow the water," and that if this discovery holds up then it would be "thrilling because it's the culmination of that philosophy."

The water was discovered using the ESA's Express spacecraft and its "Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere sounding" device. Those involved studied the water for three years, and spent the last two years taking a closer look at its findings to ensure it had detected water and not ice.

In the study, researchers report that they ruled out a "number of possible explanations" and conclude that "the existence of liquid water, either as a distinct water layer or as saturated sediments, as the only explanation."

"Depending on the climate, the ice caps grow and shrink as a result of depositional and erosional events. This creates a unique stratigraphy within the ice caps, consisting of layers of equal age that scientists can analyze to derive information about past climate," the study reads.

"Changes in ice flow owing to water at the base can change the appearance of these englacial layers; this needs to be considered when reconstructing their age. Analyzing these englacial reflectors, taking the new findings of liquid water below the SPLD into account, can therefore help unravel the climate history of Mars."

NASA has continued to amp up its missions aimed at unlocking the Red Planet's secrets as it successfully launched its InSight lander toward the planet back in March. This lander will aim to literally dig deeper into Mars than ever before.

Once it lands on Mars, InSight will become the first since the Apollo missions to place a seismometer on the surface of another planet or moon. The U.S. space agency has said InSight's main goal will focus on improving its understanding of the formation, evolution and history of rocky planets including Earth.ATHENS - The Greek government has announced a series of extraordinary measures, including 20 million euros in funding, a bank account for donations and more controls to deal with the emergency sparked by wildfires. Measures include funding worth 20 million euros to respond to the immediate needs of towns and citizens in fire-stricken areas.

A bank account for private and public donations will also be activated to support the population, after the great support provided from Greece and abroad. Government sources said the funding will be used to repair material damages. State contributions will be announced in the coming days after damages are verified.

The government will also boost security against potential looters in affected areas by deploying 19 joint units including members of the police, fire department and the military.

Additional measures to support the population have been announced by the finance ministry. Compensation for the victims' families will be announced in the coming days.

Moreover, 180 engineers of the ministry of infrastructure and transport are already on the ground to evaluate damages and will be joined tomorrow by an additional 120 colleagues.

The labor ministry has housed those who have lost their homes while psychologists and social workers are assisting victims' families and those who have been affected by the wildfires.

The Attica region has created a coordination center for rescue operations and volunteers.

Citizens can offer their help by contacting the number 0030-2104819.001.Recap bonds for bank recapitalisation | Acting on its plan announced in October 2017, the central government issued recap bonds worth Rs 88,000 crore in Januarythe first instalment of committed Rs 2.11 lakh crore. This was prompted by banks that were reeling under NPAs and were short when it came to meeting their capital adequacy and provisioning targets.

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The fund infusion in five weak public sector banks will be credit positive and strengthen their capitalisation, according to global rating agency Moodys Investor Service.

On July 19, the government announced the first round of budgetary capital infusions into five public-sector banks (PSBs)  namely Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab National Bank.

The infusions are credit positive and will strengthen the banks' capitalisationThese banks' Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratios were the weakest among all public-sector banks as of fiscal 2018, which ended March 31, 2018, and were at the risk of breaching the minimum regulatory capital requirement of 5.5 percent under the Basel III norms, Moodys said in a report.

Moodys further expects the five banks to have losses in fiscal 2019, albeit somewhat smaller than their losses for fiscal 2018.

"The losses are due to the elevated credit costs as the banks continue to provide for their large stock of nonperforming loans. As such, depending on their financial performance during the rest of the year, these banks may require additional capital support from the Indian government to meet the minimum regulatory thresholds," it said.

Of the Rs 11,337 crore capital infusion plan, Allahabad Bank will get Rs 1,790 crore, Andhra Bank to get Rs 2,019 crore, Corporation Bank to receive Rs 2,555 crore, Indian Overseas Bank will get Rs 2,157 crore and Punjab National Bank will be given Rs 2,816 crore.

It is a part of the governments budgetary capital allocation plan of Rs 65,000 crore into 21 PSBs in the fiscal year 2018-19.

The infused capital is 0.6 - 2.0 percent of the banks risk-weighted assets (RWAs) as of fiscal 2018. After the new capital infusion, we expect that these banks' CET1 ratios will be above 5.5 percent, which is the minimum capital requirement under the Basel III norms in India, the rating agency said.

It further added, The additional capital will also lower the risk of Andhra and PNB breaching the write-down trigger on outstanding Basel III-compliant Additional Tier 1 (AT1) securities. As of fiscal 2018, Andhra disclosed Rs 2,200 crore of Basel III-compliant AT1 securities and PNB disclosed Rs 5,300 crore.The goods and services tax (GST) rates for a majority of consumer durables, including televisions of upto 27 inches, have been reduced from 28 percent to 18 percent, leading to hopes of a price cut.

But customers wishing for a bigger TV may have to shell out more.

Prices of television sets (32 inches and above) may increase by 20 percent during the festive season due to the triple effect of high GST, shortage in LED panels and rupee depreciation.

The rupee touched a new low of 69.12 against the US dollar on Friday and analysts expect it to depreciate further. Since most of the raw materials for the televisions are imported from abroad, there is direct impact on the pricing. Added to this is the global shortage of panels, which are the main component of television sets.

Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of Super Plastronics, the licensee of Thomson and Kodak television brands in India, said,"Panel manufacturers have together created this global shortage to hike prices considering Indian manufacturers tend to buy in volumes ahead of festive season, to ready the stocks."

Industry sources said about 65-70 percent of the market is now dominated by the 32-inch and 40-inch televisions. Though the consumer durable firms were in active discussions with the GST Council to reduce the tax rate for this industry, the bigger inch TVs have still been clubbed with luxury goods.

GST was also reduced on washing machines, refrigerators and mixer-grinders.

Festive season

A large all-India dealer of electronic goods told Moneycontrol that LED televisions of 32 inches and above have already started seeing a price increase of 20-25 percent.

"From the first week of July, large consumer durable firms have started to raise prices of the big screen television sets. This is just in time for the festive season that will commence with Onam and Raksha Bandhan," he added.

While double-door refrigerators as well as fully automatic washing machines have now been put into the 18 percent bracket, large LED TVs have been retained in the 28 percent slab.

Manish Sharma, President & CEO, Panasonic India & South Asia, said they had hoped for television up to 43 inches to be bracketed in the 18 percent slab to improve penetration of the products.

Artificial shortage

In addition to the rising taxes is the double whammy of rising input costs for materials like panels. This is not the first time that an artificial shortage of panels have been created. The chief of a mid-size consumer durables major explained that in the past five years, there have been multiple occasions where panel makers have tried to hold up stock to create a short supply in the market.

The industry has decided to engage with the GST Council to get a partial relief in the tax rate so that the price rise impact can be minimised for consumers.

Marwah explained that panel prices have already increased by 30-35 percent and this will be passed on to customers. "The 32-inch and 40-inch televisions constitute almost 70 percent of the television market. The GST Council should reconsider the tax rates for this segment that has 33 percent market penetration whereas products like fully-automatic washers and double-door refrigerators have about 12 percent penetration," he added.

The GST Council may meet again in the first week of September. However, sources said it is unlikely that tax rates for high-end television sets would be brought down to 18 percent in the near future.Consumer durables major Panasonic India announced its foray into the OLED segment.

The company has launched an OLED television range in the 55-inch and 65-inch series as the company looks to increase television segment by 30 percent in FY19.

The OLED series will be available at a price range of Rs 2.99 lakh and above.

In addition, Panasonic has launched 11 models of 4K LED television priced at Rs 65,000 onwards.

Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India and South Asia said they are looking at 25 percent of their television segment revenues to come in from the 4K range.

The OLED TVs have Hexa Chrome Drive Pro, a technology that helps the television reproduce real-life colour.

Neeraj Bahl, Business Group Head, Consumer Electronic, Panasonic India said the company is also working with Hollywood's visual effects firm Deluxe to ensure the consumers get an amplified cinematic experience at home and is able to accurately portray the filmmaker's creative intent.

The OLED televisions are also enabled with Bluetooth so that they can be connected to a wireless audio speaker.Singapore Airlines, in partnership with KPMG and Microsoft, has developed a blockchain-based wallet KrisPay which can be used by frequent passengers. The eligible customers can download an app in their mobile and can sign up with the program and can convert their travelling miles into units of payment.

The platform will allow members to choose from using as little as 15 KrisPay miles (equivalent to about SGD 0.10) to pay for their purchases at partner merchants, either partially or in full.

We are excited to be introducing KrisPay, a novel way for our KrisFlyer members to digitally access their miles at their fingertips, at any time. By creating a miles-based digital wallet which integrates the use of miles into their daily lives, KrisFlyer members have yet another way to use miles instantly on everyday transactions, said Singapore Airlines CEO,Goh Choon Phong.

The units that are gathered in the wallet can be utilised to pay for day-to-day expenses, scanning a QR code. Before releasing this block chain service, the airlines conducted a successful proof-of-concept trial with KPMG and Microsoft.

The announcement arrives a week after the airline was awarded as the best airline in the world, winning World Airline Awards by Skytrax in London.

Singapore Airlines has confirmed having 18 partners in this scheme, currently. These include merchants in different businesses like beauty parlour, retailers, gas stations, eateries and also nation's LEGO store outlets.

The airline has also announced a discount for early users. More merchants are expected to be signed up soon, as the concept gains more momentum with time. The airline plans to launch the first block chain service in February.Canara Bank | Bank reported higher profit at Rs 444.1 crore in Q2FY21 against Rs 364.9 crore, net interest income jumped to Rs 6,296 crore from Rs 3,129 crore YoY.

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Canara Bank Wednesday reported a 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit at Rs 281.49 crore for the first quarter of the new fiscal year ending June 2018. The bank had posted a profit of Rs 252 crore in the year-ago period

The Q1 FY19 profit of the Bengaluru-based public sector bank was helped by a healthy growth in net interest income (NII) and a decline in bad loans from the previous quarter.

In the previous quarter ending March 2018, Canara Bank had made a huge loss of Rs 4,860 crore on account of substantially higher provisions to cover bad loans.

During the quarter, NII -- the difference between interest earned on loans and that paid on deposits jumped 43 percent YoY to Rs 3,882.9 crore from Rs 2,713 crore in the June quarter last year.

However, other income or non-interest income fell 13 percent to Rs 1,832.9 crore from Rs 2,108.5 crore in Q1FY18, weighed down by a dip in treasury income.

Asset quality

Provisions during the quarter inched up 17 percent to Rs 2,582.3 crore (Rs 2,466 crore towards bad loans) from Rs 2,203.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

In January to March period, provisions for the public sector bank had shot up to Rs 9,075 crore.

Gross non-performing assets (NPAs) as a ratio of gross advances improved to 11.05 percent from 11.84 percent in the March quarter ending 2018. A year ago, the gross NPA ratio was lower at 10.56 percent in the June quarter of 2017.

Net NPA ratio also declined to 6.91 percent from 7.48 percent at the end of March 2018 and 7.09 percent as on June 2017.

Loans and Deposits

Total advances edged up by 1.2 percent to Rs 3.86 lakh crore aided by 36 percent growth in retail lending book and agriculture growth of 12 percent.

Total deposits also grew in the range of 1.6 percent year-on-year to Rs 5.33 lakh crore.

The bank made a cash recovery from bad loans that aggregated to Rs 3537 crore during the quarter.

Domestic net interest margin (NIM) also witnessed improvement to 2.75 percent in Q1FY19 from 2.56 percent in Q1FY18.

Canara Bank shares ended at Rs 257.60 per share, higher by 1.78 percent as against 0.09 percent increase in BSE Sensex.Vodafone Idea (Representative Image)

The merged Vodafone and Idea entity will likely launch aggressive tariffs to regain lost customer base in the prepaid segment.

According to an Economic Times report, Idea has lost subscribers in 21 of the 22 circles with the most losses sustained in Maharashtra, its biggest market. Vodafone has lost subscribers in 14 of the 22 circles.

The report quoted IIFLs Executive Vice President, Markets and Corporate affairs, Sanjiv Bhasin as saying the latest tariff tussle would probably happen in the Rs 150 segment, geared towards the rural subscriber base.

In order to comply with the regulations limiting the subscriber base of a company to 50 percent, the merged Vodafone-Idea entity will need to lose customers in six circles  Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, and UP (West)  within the year.

The report said the combined entity aims to regain the customers that it lost to the competitive prices put forth by rival telcos Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio.

On July 25, Idea Cellular and Vodafone made joint a payment of Rs 7,248.78 crore under protest to the Department of Telecom for merging their mobile business.

This means the group would look to legally dispute the payment in court at a later time. The report said the main motivation for the payment was that any further delay in approvals would hurt the retention of 430 million subscribers and would hurt the servicing of the large financial gross debt, amounting to over Rs 125,000 crore.

The final nod from DoT is expected in a few days.

(Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)Gaza: street vendor sets himself on fire Desperate act after order to move stand

(ANSAmed) - GAZA, JULY 25 - A street vendor tried to commit suicide after police officers ordered him to move his stand because it ''blocked traffic''.



The man - Ahmed Abu Tahun, a 32-year-old father of five who lives in Jabalya - doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire. Horrified passersby tried to extinguish the flames and the man is being treated for severe burns at a local hospital.



His father told ANSA that, due to financial difficulties, Ahmed was trying to earn money by selling toys and sweets at a doctor's office visited daily by children. But he made little money, he said, ''sometimes just 15 shekels a day'', or four euros. Two days ago, officers ordered him to move the stand to the nearby market where he was afraid he would not earn anything, sparking his reaction.



His family said he can't pay for water or electricity and that his wife is pregnant. The father is an employee of the Palestinian National Authority whose salary was recently cut as part of political clashes between President Abu Mazen and the leadership of Hamas.



According to local sources, thousands of families in Gaza are in similar financial difficulties, which is why the incident has sparked great attention. (ANSAmed).



No 5 | Company name: HDFC Asset Management Company | Market Cap: Rs 61,469 crore | Price return: 101% (Image: PTI)

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HDFC Asset Management Company, the joint venture between Housing Development Finance Corporation and Standard Life Investments, is set to open its initial public offering for subscription on July 25.

This is the sixth public offer of the current financial year 2018-19, after TCNS Clothing, Varroc Engineering, RITES, Fine Organics Industries and Indostar Capital Finance.

Equity shares offered through this public issue are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.

The book running lead managers to the offer are Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Axis Capital, DSP Merrill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets India, CLSA India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Securities, IIFL Holdings, JM Financial, JP Morgan India, Morgan Stanley India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India).

Here are 10 key things you should know before subscribing the issue:

Company Profile

HDFC Asset Management Company offers a large suite of savings and investment products across asset classes. As of March 2018, it offered 133 schemes that were classified into 27 equity-oriented schemes, 98 debt schemes (including 72 fixed maturity plans (FMPs), three liquid schemes, and five other schemes (including exchange-traded schemes and funds of fund schemes).

It has been the most profitable asset management company in India in terms of net profits since fiscal 2013, according to CRISIL.

It has been the largest asset management company in India in terms of equity-oriented AUM since the last quarter of Fiscal 2011 and has consistently been among the top two asset management companies in India in terms of total average AUM since the month of August 2008, according to CRISIL.

The company had a total asset under management (AUM) of Rs 2,91,985 crore as of March 2018.

As of March 2018, it served customers in over 200 cities through a pan-India network of 209 branches (and a representative office in Dubai) and service centres of the registrar and transfer agent, which is supported by a strong and diversified network of over 65,000 empaneled distribution partners across India, consisting of independent financial advisors, national distributors and banks.

About Public Issue

The initial public offering, which comprises of up to 2,54,57,555 equity shares of face value of Rs 5 each, will close on July 27.

The public issue comprises an offer for sale of up to 85,92,970 equity shares by Housing Development Finance Corporation and up to 1,68,64,585 equity shares by Standard Life Investments.

The offer comprises a net offer to the public of up to 2,21,77,555 equity shares, a reservation of up to 3,20,000 shares for purchase by the eligible HDFC AMC Employees, a reservation of up to 5,60,000 shares for purchase by the HDFC employees and a reservation of up to 24,00,000 shares for purchase by HDFC shareholders.

The offer and the net offer will constitute 12.01 percent and 10.46 percent of the post-offer paid-up equity share capital of the company, respectively.

The price band for the offer is fixed at Rs 1,095-1,100 per share. Bids can be made for a minimum lot of 13 equity shares and in multiples of 13 equity shares thereafter.

Fund Raising

HDFC AMC aims to raise Rs 2,787.6 crore at lower end of price band and Rs 2,800.33 crore at higher price band.

Objects of the Issue

The company will not receive any proceeds from the offer and all the proceeds from the offer will be received by the promoter selling shareholders.

Hence the main object of the offer is to achieve the benefits of listing the equity shares on the stock exchanges and to carry out the sale of equity shares offered for sale by the promoter selling shareholders.

Competitive Strengths and Strategies

> HDFC AMC has consistent market leadership position in the Indian mutual fund industry.

> The company believes that it has strong brand recall among Indian customers, which it attributes, in part, to the strength of brand and strong parentage. It benefits from the brand reputation of promoters, HDFC and SLI.

> It has strong investment performance supported by comprehensive investment philosophy and risk management.

> It has superior and diversified product mix distributed through a multi-channel distribution network.

> With an individual investor focused strategy, it has a customer base with a greater proportion of individual AUM in comparison to the overall Indian mutual fund industry. Its ability to attract and retain customers is broadly a result of customer centric approach and service.

> It has been the most profitable asset management company in India in terms of net profits since fiscal 2013, according to CRISIL.

> The company is led by a management team with extensive experience in the asset management, banking and finance sectors with a proven track record of performance. It has a strong and stable investment team.

Strategies

> Its endeavour is to continue to deliver superior investment performance against benchmarks and peer groups over medium to long-term periods.

> It currently has 150 branches in B-15 cities and will continue to expand presence to deepen geographical reach further. Along with opening new branches, it also aims to increase the number of employees in sales and distribution and customer services teams. It is also focused on expanding distribution reach to attract global clientele.

> It aims to offer need-based and customer-centric products that address the core needs of diversified customer base. It typically exercises discipline in launching new funds and prefers to focus on growing our existing funds.

> It aims to progress towards a digital model to meet customers' requirements by personalising offerings, facilitating easy on boarding, ease in transacting and access to other relevant data through digital platform.

Financials

The company had a total asset under management (AUM) of Rs 2,91,985 crore as of March 2018. Equity-oriented AUM and non-equity-oriented AUM constituted Rs 1,49,713 crore and Rs 1,42,273 crore, respectively, of total AUM.

Actively managed equity-oriented AUM (which excludes index linked and arbitrage schemes) constituted Rs 1,44,925 crore of total AUM. AUM has grown at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5 percent between March 2013 and March 2018. Its proportion of equity-oriented AUM to total AUM was at 51.3 percent, which was higher than the industry average of 43.2 percent, according to CRISIL.

Market share of total AUM was 13.7 percent and of actively managed equity-oriented AUM (which excludes index linked and arbitrage schemes) was 16.8 percent among all asset management companies in India, according to CRISIL.

Its AUM has grown at a CAGR of 33.9 percent since Fiscal 2001 and profits have grown at a CAGR of 32.1 percent since first full year of operations in fiscal 2002.

Shareholding

Promoters of the company are HDFC and Standard Life Investments. As of July 13, HDFC holds 12,07,72,800 equity shares and Standard Life Investments 8,05,15,200 shares, which constitutes 56.97 percent and 37.98 percent, respectively, of companys pre-offer issued, subscribed and paid-up equity share capital.

Management

Deepak Parekh is a Non-Executive Director and Chairman on Board. He has been on Board since July 4, 2000. He is also the non-executive director and chairman of HDFC.

Keki Mistry is a Non-Executive Director on Board. He has been a Director on Board since December 24, 2007. He is also the vice chairman and chief executive officer of HDFC. He joined HDFC in 1981.

Milind Barve is the Managing Director and an Executive Director of the company since July 4, 2000. He has been associated with HDFC in the capacity of general manager  treasury where he headed the treasury operations at HDFC for 14 years and was responsible for the management of HDFCs treasury portfolio and for raising funds from financial institutions and capital markets.

Prashant Jain is the Chief Investment Officer of the company. He has been associated with company for over 14 years since June 20, 2003 and was appointed as the Chief Investment Officer with effect from July 1, 2004.

Management Organisation Structure

Dividend Policy

Risks and Concerns

Here are some risks and concerns highlighted by several brokerage houses:

> Low financial literacy and lack of awareness, unless addressed properly, will inhibit the industry's growth.

> Competition from other financial instruments.

> Expansion into B-15 cities would require mutual funds to invest in marketing and distribution channels. The additional marketing expenses can put pressure on the profit margins of mutual fund houses.

> As of March 2018, top six equity-oriented schemes constituted 79.1 percent of total equity-oriented AUM and top six debt schemes constituted 65.5 percent of total debt AUM. The performance of these schemes has a significant impact on AUM and consequently revenue. Underperformance by any of these schemes may have a disproportionate adverse impact on the AUM and revenue.

> The company relies on third-party providers in several areas of the operations and may have not full control over the services provided by them to either the company or the customers.

> The companys revenue, results of operation etc. are, to a certain extent, dependent on the strength of brand and reputation as well as reputation of other HDFC group entities and Standard Life Investment group companies.

> The companys investment strategies can perform poorly for a number of reasons, including general market conditions, investment decisions that it makes, its inability to identify appropriate investment opportunities and the performance of the companies in which it invests on behalf of its schemes.

> The company depends on the skills and expertise of its investment professionals. its success depends on its ability to retain key members of its investment teams, who possess substantial experience in investing and have been primarily responsible for the historically strong investment performance the company has achieved.

> Any regulatory changes or competitive pressure leading to reduction in fund management charges can affect revenues and profits adversely.

> Fee reductions on existing or future business would have an adverse impact on the companys income and profitability.

> Any decline in the Indian equity and/or debt markets would impair scheme performance, reduce net inflows and cause AUM to decline.

> As many of the companys distribution relationships are non-exclusive, distributors may provide similar services to the companys competitors or prioritise competitors investment product over the companys. This could have a materially adverse impact on the companys revenue and results of operations.

> From FY19, the company is required to prepare financial statements in accordance with IND AS. Given that IND AS is different in many respects from Indian GAAP under which financial statements were historically prepared, financial statements for the period commencing April 1, 2018 may not be comparable to historical financial statements that were prepared under Indian GAAP. Further, transition to IND AS reporting may lead to difficulties in the ongoing process of implementing and enhancing management information systems.Sanctum Wealth Management

After decades in the business, fund houses are moving forward with monetising their asset management businesses. Why now?

Reliance Nippon Asset Management hit the market last October with a Rs 1,500-crore IPO. HDFC Mutual Fund's IPO is coming out this week and indications are that a UTI AMC IPO will be next.

Clearly, the asset management business (AMC) is booming, and managements are moving to unlock value for existing investors. The growth trajectory of the domestic mutual fund industry has accelerated in the recent quarters at the back of structural reforms, reduction of black money, lackluster performance in real estate, and investors are being nudged into equities.

Domestic investors have pumped money into financial assets, leading to rapid AUM growth for fund houses. Despite this recent acceleration, the penetration of mutual funds among households is still dramatically lower than developed markets, at less than 5 percent of financial savings.

Indian mutual fund's share of financial savings is extremely low as well, at 3.5 percent of financial savings. The industry could grow at high growth rates of 20 percent over the next four years, in which case blue-chip names like HDFC should grow even faster.

Profitability growth is another matter, however, and we address that separately below.

The HDFC AMC IPO is all set to get a valuation of close to 8 percent of its AUM of Rs 3 lakh crore. This is at the extreme high end of the traditional band as AMCs have traditionally received valuations as low as 2-3 percent of their respective AUMs.

Reliance's valuation today is Rs 13,341 crore, or roughly around 5 percent of its AUM. IDFC's AMC is being negotiated at a valuation of around 5 percent of its AUM, at a premium to norms but a discount to HDFC, due to the latter's superior market positioning, branding, and execution.

Promoters are monetizing their AMC businesses at high valuations amidst strong sentiment; on the other hand, the growth opportunity is huge, as financialization is likely to continue and AMC remain well positioned to garner a large share of the profits.

For an investor what is ideal? Is it better to own shares of HDFC Asset Management or units of one of HDFC Mutual Fund's schemes?

HDFC AMC's revenues have grown at a compounded annual rate of 19.3 percent and profits at 14.6 percent between fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2017.

One must keep in mind, though, that AUM growth is cyclical in nature. During bull markets, growth is accelerated by returns on existing asset base and new capital infusions.

However, AUMs tend to reverse sharply during bear markets and corrections. A reversal in investor appetite for investing in mutual funds is a key risk of ownership.

As a result, the stock price of an asset management company will be somewhat volatile and will have a tendency like a cyclical during cyclical downturns. From this perspective, owning a diversified growth portfolio clearly makes better sense.

We would also note that there are headwinds in the industry. With the increasing adoption of the direct code, profitability is in a declining trend. Industry disruption via fintech also creates uncertainty.

Continued underperformance of funds relative to the benchmark could also lead to a slowdown in asset growth.

Clearly, valuations are the key concern. HDFC Asset Management Company is seeking a valuation more than twice that of its close rival Reliance Mutual Fund in its offering last year at close to 8 percent of its AUM. High entry valuations will remain a headwind for investors.

Taking the various factors into account, for an investor with a long-term horizon, HDFC will likely grow into its valuations.

Cyclicality and valuation concerns are balanced by the prowess of HDFC in garnering assets, as well as its better financial performance relative to peers.

However, an investment in the mutual fund is a wiser investment for an investor. If the mutual fund owns a leader like HDFC AMC, even better.

The author is Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management. The views and investment tips expressed by investment expert on Moneycontrol are his own and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.ITC | Supratim Dutta is appointed as the Chief Financial Officer of the company. (Image: Reuters)

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Cigarette-to-soap maker ITC is likely to report a year-on-year rise of 8.96 percent in its net profit for the June quarter to Rs 2,790 crore, according to an average of 13 brokerages' estimates compiled by Reuters.

The rise in the company's bottom line is expected to be driven by growth in the its non-cigarette businesses on the back of a favourable base, and improved realisation from cigarettes.

ITC is scheduled to detail its earnings for the June quarter on July 26.

Underpinned by growth in the non-cigarette segment and hikes in the prices of cigarettes, the Kolkata-based company's net sales for the quarter are seen coming in at Rs 9,876 crore, 6 percent higher on year.

Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to fall 4.11 percent YoY to Rs 4,049 crore.

Most brokerages have stated that the company is likely to report a year-on-year fall in sales of cigarettes. Cigarette sale volumes in the April-June quarter are likely to decline 1-2 percent.

Brokerage ICICIDirect has taken a contrarian view and estimated a rise of 2 percent in cigarette sale volumes, mainly due to last year's favorable base.

However, no hike in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on cigarettes after the initial one in 2017 is seen as positive for the company.

ITC's cigarette business is considered crucial for its performance as it accounted for nearly 52 percent of its top line and 79 percent of its profit before tax (PBT) in FY18.

"The management has shifted its focus from cigarettes business to grow its fast moving consumer goods business and its target is to become the largest player in the segment," KR Choksey Research said in a report.

ITC is a diversified conglomerate that also has business interests in fast moving consumer goods, paper, hotels, and agriculture. According to analysts, most of these businesses are expected to report healthy growth.

The key trends to watch out for in the results will be a trend in sale volumes of cigarettes, operating margins for the FMCG segment, and the outlook on the agriculture and hospitality businesses, along with the profitability of each segment.The S&P BSE Sensex touched a record high of 36,443.98 on 29 January and then it witnessed some bit of selling pressure but bulls managed to take control and pushed the index to a record high of 36,928.06 as on July 25.

The index might have gained nearly 500 points, or a little over 1 percent from January 29 to July 24, but 20 stocks in the S&P BSE 500 index and the Smallcap index rose 30-100% during the same period, data compiled from AceEquity showed.

Nelco from the smallcap index rose 106 percent and from the S&P BSE 500 index Indiabulls Ventures gained 96 percent, followed by Firstsource Solutions rallied 68 percent, and Bajaj Finance was up 60 percent in the same period.

Other stocks which rose 30-40 percent include names like Nestle India, HEG, KPIT Technologies, Zydus Wellness, Abbott India, Ipca Laboratories, Hexaware Technologies, L&T Infotech, Zensar Technologies, Page Industries, and Avenue Supermarts.

If we look at the data from January when the index hit the first record high, the share of stocks gaining positive momentum is still lower than the losers which highlight negative breadth for the index.

As many as 101 stocks in the S&P BSE 500 index gave positive return while the rest slipped up to 90 percent in the same period which includes names like Vakrangee, Kwality, PC Jeweller, HCC, Reliance Naval, 8K Miles, Jet Airways, PTC India, Punjab National Bank, and Suzlon Energy.

Mid & smallcaps have come under pressure due to regulatory headwinds as well as high valuations in 2018. Analysts are advising investors to move away from small & midcap space and buy into largecaps. However, some mid & smallcaps might look attractive after a recent slide.

Over 80 percent of the stocks in the S&P BSE Smallcap index gave negative returns from January 29 to July 24 which include names like Gitanjali Gems, KSK Energy, Kwality, JBF Industries, Omkar Speciality, Diamond Power, SRS Real, Sunil Hitech etc. among others.

We have been suggesting our retail investors to shift their equity exposure from mid & small caps to large caps which we are still continuing. But some of the prices in midcaps have become attractive which can be considered for the long-term, Vinod Nair, Head of research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

However, we are still within the long-term bull rally which is under a phase of consolidation. This phase of consolidation can continue till the domestic earnings growth return & politics fear settle, global bond yield normalise & risk-off trend reverse, he said.live bse live

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Bharti Infratel share price gained 1.6 percent intraday Wednesday after stock exchanges cleared the proposed merger between the company and Indus Towers.

The tower infrastructure services provider informed that 'no adverse observation' letter has been received from the Stock Exchange for the proposed merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers.

The company said it would file the first motion petition before the National Company Law Tribunal in due course.

Earlier this month Bharti Infratel had received approval of Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the proposed merger.

In April, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Group Plc had agreed to merge Vodafone's, Idea Group's and Providence Equity Partners respective shareholdings in Indus Towers into Bharti Infratel, creating a combined company that will own 100 percent of Indus Towers.

Indus Towers is currently jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (with 42 percent stake), Vodafone (42 percent), Idea Group (11.15 percent) and Providence (4.85 percent).

Indus Towers currently operates in 15 telecom service areas (circles) and Bharti Infratels operations are focused on the remaining 7 Circles.

Taken together, Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers had over 163,000 towers and 367,000 tenancies as of March 2018.

The combined company, which will fully own the respective businesses of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers, will change its name to Indus Towers and will continue to be listed on the Indian Stock Exchanges.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone will jointly control the combined company, in accordance with the terms of a new shareholders' agreement. The transaction is expected to complete before the end of the financial year ending March 31, 2019.

At 12:12 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 288.55, up Rs 2.20, or 0.77 percent on the BSE.live bse live

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Shares of Maruti Suzuki fell over a percent on Wednesday morning after the company announced a recall over 1,200 new Swift and Dzire models to inspect a possible fault in Airbag Controller Unit.

1,279 vehicles (566 new Swift and 713 new Dzire) manufactured between May 7, 2018 and July 5, 2018 will be covered in this campaign, the company said in a filing to the exchange.

Starting July 25, 2018 owners of the vehicles included in this recall campaign will be contacted by Maruti Suzuki dealers for inspection and replacement of the faulty part free of cost, the notification further added.

The stock was in the news recently for rolling out its 20 millionth car. It took the company 34 years to get to this milestone. Only five million were produced in the first 21 years. But with time, production got faster and the last five million cars were the fastest to be produced, at 18 months.

The first Maruti Suzuki car was produced way back in December 1983 and the owner, Harpal Singh was selected via a lucky draw. India's then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, herself handed over the car keys to Singh.

The stock has gained around 11 percent in the past one month, while in the past three days, it gained around 4 percent. At 10:15 hrs Maruti Suzuki India was quoting at Rs 9,743.35, down Rs 77.00, or 0.78 percent, on the BSE. It touched an intraday high of Rs 9,875.00 and an intraday low of Rs 9,713.85.SEBI CMD Ajay Tyagi (Reuters)

Market participants have been complaining that stringent margin norms, in particular, the recent additional surveillance mechanism (ASM) margin, which have exacerbated the weakness in small and midcap shares.

But SEBI chairman Ajay Tyagi feels that a robust margin system is important for protecting the interests of retail investors.

In a free-wheeling chat with select media, Tyagi said there was no immediate plan to review ASM or the Graded Surveillance Mechanism measure (GSM). On mutual funds, Tyagi said that instrument was the best way for retail investors to participate in the stock market action.

Edited excerpts:

Q: What was the agenda of the meeting with independent trustees of asset management companies?

A: The mutual fund industry has a very good story. Assets under management (AUM) have more than doubled in the last four years. It is a big industry; almost 20 percent the size of the banking industry. Therefore, there is a need to have a good governing system in place and trustee is the first level regulator, with a vantage view. It is very important for everyone, all stakeholders including independent trustees, to see that the good story of mutual fund continues. The meeting was to discuss this.

Q: Was there any discussion about mutual fund commissions at the meeting?

A: There was no discussion on the distribution commission. We are having a separate meeting with Association of Mutual Fund of India next month itself to discuss these issues. Lots of reform measures have been taken in TER (total expense ratio), distribution and some proposals are under consideration.

Q: In the last couple of years, a lot of retail money has flown into mutual funds. Have MFs become a strong counterbalance to foreign institutional investors?

A: Retail participation in the stock market has risen sharply over the last year, but a lot of them do not understand the market dynamics very well. For such investors, the best way to enter the market is through mutual funds. There are around 7.5 crore mutual fund folios. The AUM has doubled in the last four years; in fact, beyond the 15 cities-limit mutual fund AUM has tripled. On the investment side, the retail investor is coming in and providing market stability just like an institutional investor. Indian mutual funds have emerged as a tremendous stabilising factor. SEBI has done what is required and will continue to do so. SEBI is keeping a close watch and is fully committed towards investor protection.

Q: Do you think asset management companies getting listed on stock exchanges will increase transparency in the mutual fund space?

A: On corporate governance issue, we ourselves introduced the rule of having independent directors on the board only for five years plus another five years in line with the Companies Act. But, if they (asset management companies) get listed, that will further improve corporate governance.

Q: Is there any plan to re-look the Additional Surveillance Mechanism?

A: There is constant review with exchanges where surveillance decision happens. However, there is no immediate plan to do anything on this. ASM and GSM (Graded Surveillance Measure) have both been introduced for investor protection.Markets watchdog Sebi and Singapore's integrated financial regulator MAS have discussed amicable resolution of the NSE and SGX issue, among various issues of cooperation.

The regulators agreed that the collaboration between the authorities would be further strengthened so as to derive benefits for capital markets of both the countries, Sebi said in a statement issued today.

Also, they agreed that National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) would carry out necessary discussions to come up with a solution that is acceptable to both the parties.

Sebi and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) yesterday held discussions on "various issues of cooperation, including the amicable resolution of the NSE and SGX issue".

Separately, SGX and NSE announced that they have resumed discussion on a potential collaboration in Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City.

The two exchanges will jointly engage and consult relevant stakeholders on the proposed collaboration.

Since February, the NSE and the SGX have been locked in a tussle after the domestic bourse and others decided to stop licensing their indices to foreign bourses from August this year. Later in April, the SGX announced listing of new Indian equity derivative products from June.

Amid concerns over liquidity migrating overseas, the NSE's index company IISL had moved the Bombay High Court, which restrained the SGX from launching the new products and referred the matter for arbitration.live bse live

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Sticking to the mantra 'Invest like a bull, sit like a bear and watch like an eagle', value investor Vijay Kedia raised his stake in two companies during June quarter.

The stocks of these companies have fallen by up to 30 percent so far this year.

Of the 14 companies in Kedia's portfolio in which he held more than 1 percent at the end of the March quarter, 11 have released their shareholding pattern for the June quarter.

The investor owns more than 1 percent in each of these 11 companies. Of these 11 companies' stocks, 8 have fallen by up to 60 percent while 3 have risen by up to 17 percent, year to date.

A close look at the changes in Kedia's portfolio reveals that he used the correction in these companies' stocks to increase his holding in them during the quarter gone by.

He raised his stake in Everest Industries to 5.03 percent, as at the end of the June quarter, from the 3.9 percent reported at the end of the previous quarter.

Kedia also raised stake in Vaibhav Global, which has fallen a little over 7 percent so far this year, to 1.3 percent in the June quarter, compared to 1.07 percent reported at the end of the March quarter.

Kedia, who is a D-Street veteran of 28 years, added Kokuyo Camlin to his portfolio during the quarter under review. Kokuyo Camlin, formerly known as Camlin, is an Indian stationery company based in Mumbai.

Japan's Kokuyo holds around 51 percent stake in Kokuyo Camlin, which manufactures art material, marker pens, fountain pens, inks, pencils, and other stationery products.

Kedia reduced his stake in Sudarshan Chemicals marginally to 3.28 percent during the quarter gone by from the 3.32 percent reported at the end of the previous quarter. The stock has risen nearly 18 percent since January.

He sold his stake in Aries Agro which plunged up to 60 percent in 2018.

The investor did not increase or decrease his stake in 6 companies, including ABC Bearings, Apcotex Industries, Cera Sanitaryware, Cheviot Company, Panasonic Energy India Company, and Repro India.

The road ahead for small-caps and mid-caps

The equity market soon lost some momentum during the June quarter, because of which most mid-cap and small-cap stocks witnessed double-digit falls.

However, Kedia told Moneycontrol that the euphoria surrounding mid-caps and small-caps seems to be settling down, which is a positive sign.

"When we are talking about record highs, it has no meaning as only 5 largecaps helped Sensex to reach new highs last week. Thousands of midcaps are still down by 20-40 percent from their peak. Not to forget, Bhangaar cap is down by about 50-90 percent which is a good sign. That means euphoria in the market is settling down," Kedia, who is MD at Kedia Securities, had told Moneycontrol in an interview earlier this month.

"Euphoria in the mid cap space has mostly settled down. There are many midcaps which are available at 2013 valuations. However, the horizon should be for 10-15 years. An investment made for the next 2-3 years would come under short-term investment," he said.Tyre companies have posted a healthy set of earnings for the first quarter of FY19, if the numbers from CEAT are any indication. Low base of last year due to Goods & Services Tax rollout, falling raw material (RM) prices and strong demand accruing from automobile manufacturers have all been supportive.

The company posted strong growth in net revenue and profitability. Margin too improved on the back of falling RM prices. The company is poised to gain from increase in market share in the passenger vehicle (PV) segment and capacity expansion in selected pockets.

In terms of quarterly result, CEAT posted a 17 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in Q1 revenue, led by volume growth of 18.5 percent. The latter came in from both original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and export demand, the volumes of which grew over 20 percent. Realisation, however, witnessed a YoY decline of 1.5 percent on the back of an unfavourable mix.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) witnessed an increase of 209.7 percent on the back of a fall in RM prices and other expenses. This also led to an expansion of 659 bps in EBITDA margin.

Factors to watch out for





Tyre companies have, historically, been unable to pass on the full rise in the raw material (RM) prices to customers, leading to huge margin pressures. Though prices have come off from their highs, the management has guided to a 2-3 percent sequential increase in RM prices, which would put pressure on EBITDA margin. It has undertaken a 1.5-2 percent price hikes in Q1 FY19 across all segments to pass on the rise in RM prices.In light of the change in axle norms, the management said this would temper short term tyre demand from commercial vehicle (CV) segment, with demand shifting to bigger tyres. Manufacturing of those tyres would take around 3-6 months due to changes required in existing moulds.CEAT has identified growth areas. It includes two-wheeler, PV and over-the-road (truck/off-road) tyres to be its focus area as these have the ability to boost margin and reduce its dependence on the truck segment. In light of this, the management has been scaling up operations in these areas.It has earmarked Rs 4,000 crore as capex over FY17-21 to increase capacity by 50 percent. This would be done across segments to attain strategic product mix and improve revenue contribution from focus areas. The management said this huge capex is expected to be funded through internal accruals and debt. For the current fiscal, it has guided to a capital expenditure of Rs 1,500-1,700 crore.The recent correction in the midcap space has led to the stock correcting 35 percent from its 52-week high, which has led to a significant drop in valuations. CEAT is currently trading at 15.7 times and 12.3 times FY19 and FY20 projected earnings, respectively, considering the likely increase in interest expense and depreciation owing to its big capex plans.

We take comfort from the managements strategy. Valuation are also reasonable. We advise investors to buy this business for the long-term.

Follow @NitinAgrawal65Gaza: UNWRA fires 1,000 employees, sparking protests Two days ago director besieged for 14 hours by demonstrators

(ANSAmed) - GAZA, JULY 25 - The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNWRA's layoff of 1,000 temporary employees has sparked protests. With the distribution this morning of letters announcing their layoff, local sources said, workers immediately staged a protest in front UNRWA's central office in Gaza City.



Two days ago, the director was forced to stay in his office for 14 hours while in the streets nearby police tried to calm down protesters.



UNWRA's decision was a direct consequence of US cuts to financial aid and the fact that aid pledged by third countries was not delivered.



About 1,000 demonstrators quickly gathered in front of UNRWA's offices in Gaza City and urged workers with open-ended contracts to strike, joining them in the protest, given they are also likely to be laid off, according to demonstrators.



The exasperation of the population in Gaza was further exacerbated by electrical power cuts yesterday, with the suspension of the local power plant's activity. Amid a heat wave, residents are only getting electricity for about four-six hours a day. (ANSAmed).



Representative image

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In a bold move, UPL announced plans for a heavy weight acquisition of agro chemical manufacturer Arysta LifeScience for a whopping USD 4.2 billion which is close to UPLs own market capitalization. Post the announcement, the shares of UPL have zoomed up 14 percent in the last two trading sessions. The all-cash deal is expected to bring in a substantial amount of debt on UPLs books though the management indicates that the synergies stand to be EPS accretive for UPL from FY20 onwards.

The Deal

UPL has signed a definitive agreement with Platform Specialty Products Corporation to acquire Arysta LifeScience for USD 4.2 billion (c. Rs 28500 crore). Investor William Ackmans hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management owns 14 percent in the Platform Specialty Products Corp, the parent of Arysta LifeScience.

About Arysta

Arysta LifeScience is an agrochemical player with a product portfolio comprising of chemicals to protect crops from weeds, insects and diseases. It was built through the $3.5 billion acquisition of Arysta in 2015, the $1 billion takeover of CAS in 2014 and the $370 million purchase of Agriphar in 2014.

How will the deal be financed?

The deal will be financed through a mix of debt and equity with 1.2 billion in equity and 3 billion in debt. UPL Corporation, the international arm of UPL has collaborated with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and TPG (a global alternative asset firm) who will infuse USD 600 million (c. Rs 4140 crore) each for a 22 percent stake in UPL Corp. The remaining USD 3 billion (c. Rs 20,700 crore) is planned to be financed via debt from Rabo Bank and MUFG Bank.

Combined financials

What is in for UPL

Economies of scale

The combined entity would be the fifth largest agrochemical company in the world, which would help in bringing economies of scale in both manufacturing and marketing and according to the management this would facilitate substantial cost savings in the future. The management expects the acquisition to bring in EPS accretion of around Rs 10  12 by FY20.

Marketing expertise and complementing geographies

The acquisition brings in benefits of forward integration. Arysta will bring in marketing specialization which would help UPL market its own products globally. Both UPL and Arysta have complementing geographies and with UPLs specialization in manufacturing and Arytas marketing expertise the combined entity would be able to gain market share rapidly across regions and help strengthen its footprint. Moreover, the deal would give UPL greater exposure to Africa, China, Russia and Eastern Europe.

Complementing product Mix

Both companies have a complementary product portfolio. Arysta brings in expertise in specialty molecules where UPL is relatively weak. This would facilitate the combined entity to possess an aggressive product portfolio of more than 13000 product registrations and extensively covering the agrochemical space.

Concern over debt

The acquisition brings in heavy debt and substantially alters the capital structure of UPL. This has been one major concern surrounding the acquisition and also led to the significant correction in the stock in the last few weeks. $3 billion (c. Rs 20700 crore) of debt would enter the books of UPL. This would bring the debt equity ratio to 2.1x from the current 0.4x.

The acquisition introduces $3 billion in debt in the books of UPL. Assuming 4-4.5 percent rate of interest, this debt would spike up the interest cost by almost Rs 800-950 crore. Net Debt to EBITDA would spike up to 3.5x from the current 0.6x. The return on capital employed (ROCE) will be reduced to around 18 percent from the current 22 percent.

Outlook

Though the acquisition alters the capital structure substantially, it also pushes UPL in the global big leagues, the benefits of which would help in improving overall margins for the company in the longer run. We expect some near-term uncertainty and returns might get impacted. However, given the synergies, the deal seems a favourable one in the longer run.

Despite the increase in the interest cost in the future, the deal is EPS accretive in the long run. Our analysis shows that the deal has a long payback and it will take around 7.2 years for UPL to pay back the new debt from the additional EBITDA coming from the deal.

Even with the volatility in the currency market, UPL remains an attractive pick given the steep correction in the stock in the past weeks. Post the uptick in the last two days, the stock is now trading at a 2019e PE of 12.5x and should be kept on the radar of investors.

Follow @Ruchiagrawal

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Global rating agency Moody's today placed IDBI Bank's long-term ratings on review for upgrade, driven primarily by the proposed acquisition of 51 per cent in the lender by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

Moody's has also put on review for upgrade the long term rating of the bank's Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch.

The outlook for both the entities has been changed to 'ratings under review'.

"The primary driver for the review is the announcement by IDBI Bank on July 17 that LIC has expressed interest in acquiring a 51 per cent controlling stake in it through the preferential allotment of shares/an open offer," the rating agency said today.

The bank's board has sent the LIC's proposal for buying 51 per cent to the government for approval.

LIC holds 7.98 per cent in the bank currently, while the government owns 86 per cent. The balance 6 per cent is with the public.

Moody's said the review for upgrade will focus on the exact amount of fresh equity that LIC will inject into the bank and its impact on IDBI's capitalisation.

The presence of any regulatory limitations on LIC's ability to provide further support, and particularly on it ability to raise its stake above 51 per cent, will also be considered before the possible review.

"In order to build a 51 per cent stake, LIC will subscribe to new shares, which will be positive for the bank's capitalisation," it said.

The rating agency will consider LIC's relatively strong credit profile, its controlling ownership as well as the reputational risks involved if IDBI Bank were to fail.

The proposed investment by the LIC into the bank will be funded by policyholder funds rather than the life insurers own funds.

"The use of policyholder funds for this investment means that the company's authority to make investment decisions is constrained by investment guidelines for insurance companies in the country," it said.

For this transaction, LIC had to obtain special exemption from the insurance regulator as insurance companies are prohibited from taking more than a 15 per cent stake in any company when investing policyholder funds.

Currently, Moody's assumes a 'very high' level of support from the government for the bank, in line with all Indian public sector banks.

It, however, said upon completion of the transaction, in contrast to other public sector banks, the government will no longer be the controlling shareholder in the bank.

Hence, it will also review its assumptions for government support.Jitendra PS Solanki

Mutual funds re-categorisation by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is considered to be a step in the right direction. One of the good aspect of this re-categorisation is that the market regulator has clearly defined mutual funds categories. This makes investors easier to understand the risk return characteristics of a specific scheme they wish to invest.

However within this re-categorisation there is one aspect which may confuse investors. SEBI has introduced some new categories which were not there. In equity mutual funds now you have large and mid-cap category while in debt you have low duration fund or overnight money market funds. Investors may find it difficult to decide how these categories fit in their objective. Which of these categories are an option they should explore further and which one of them is good to give a miss?

Lets understand few of these categories and see whether they need to be included in ones portfolio:

In equity mutual funds you have now largecap, large and midcap, multi-cap, midcap and smallcap categories along with sector and equity linked savings schemes (ELSS) funds. SEBI has clearly defined where these categories of mutual funds scheme can invest. A largecap category will invest in top 100 stock stocks as per market capitalisation. Similarly, a midcap category will invest in 101-250th stocks while smallcap category will be invested in 251st company onwards as per market capitalisation.

Before re-categorisation we had largecap, multi-cap and midcap categories for investors. A largecap category predominantly invested in largecap stocks but the largecap universe was not well defined. A mutual fund company could include stocks beyond top 100 stocks. In a midcap mutual fund scheme a smallcap stock could find a place or vice versa. Thus the decision of involving a stock in a particular category was with asset management companies (AMCs) and thats where it made all the difference. To enhance a scheme returns companies use to consider exposure in such stocks beyond the mandate of the scheme.

Now SEBI has defined each and every category along with the universe of stocks they can invest. So post re-categorisation a largecap mutual funds scheme has to hold minimum 80 percent in largecap stocks and the stock can be included only from top 100 companies as per market capitalisation. Thus it leaves no decision making to AMC going beyond this definition of largecap fund.

Within this re-categorisation one more category has been introduced i.e. large- and midcap fund. As per its definition, this category has to invest minimum 35 percent in largecap and midcap stocks each, while the rest can be invested either way. Beyond 75 percent a fund manager is free to vary the allocation. If you consider the allocation then its similar to a multi-cap fund. The difference within these two categories is that multi-cap fund is not restricted to a strict allocation between large- and midcap stocks. The only condition is that it has to adhere is to invest minimum 65 percent in equity-related instruments.

Similar to equities we too have some new categories in debt mutual funds scheme. We have now an overnight fund which will invest primarily in securities with 1 day maturity. Then we have a low duration fund which falls between an ultra-short term fund and short term funds. This fund mandated to invest in securities with Macleay duration of 6 months to 1 year. Before re-categorisation an ultra-short term funds was investing in securities up to one year maturity but now an ultra-short term fund is restricted to invest in securities up to six months maturity.Now comes the difficult question - should you invest in these new categories. Though its still early days to comment on the change in performance but surely the change will come in. We might see difference in returns of large cap mutual funds scheme from different companies reducing since the underlined investment universe Is strictly restricted now. On the other side multi cap funds may shine in the future since they will have all the flexibility to diversify among stocks from different categories. Similarly small cap funds will be the category to watch out for since they can invest in a wide list of stocks. But one category which may be good to miss is large- and midcap. One can create the same diversification with largecap and midcap schemes separately or invest in multi-cap if looking for better results.

Similarly, in debt mutual funds, investors should not rush to include new categories like low duration funds as an ultra-short term fund may still meet the objective.

In nutshell, every category is not made for inclusion in your portfolio. Its wiser to stick to funds with performance track record and keep an eye on the performance of new categories before you make a decision.The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has upheld the Rs 6,300-crore penalty that Competition Commission of India (CCI) had imposed on 11 cement companies earlier.

The tribunal said that it took the cement companies pleas into account but found no merit in them.



NCLAT upholds CCI order imposing fine of Rs 6,300 cr on 11 cement companies, finds no merit in companies plea pic.twitter.com/CLIYvTMWBk

 CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) July 25, 2018

The companies, including a cement manufacturers association, have stated that they would challenge the decisions, taken by both NCLAT and the CCI, in the Supreme Court.

The fine was imposed by the CCI in June 2012 for reportedly violating provisions of the Competition Act 2002, and was stayed by the Competition Appellate Tribunal (compat) in 2013. Compat additionally asked the companies to deposit 10 percent of the penalty until a decision on their appeal is taken.

Some companies with the biggest fine amounts are  Jaiprakash Cement with Rs 1,323 crore, UltraTech and Grasim Cements together with Rs 1,175 crore, Ambuja Cements with Rs 1,163 crore and ACC Rs with 1,148 crore. Other companies are Lafarge India, Century, Binani, Ramco, India Cements and JK Cements.

Following the announcement, shares of the cement majors fell by 14 percent as investors reacted. Analysts expect that these penalties will further impact the real estate sector as damages could run into thousands, or even crores.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in April issued a directive to digital payment firms to store data locally for unfettered supervisory access. The move would have hit the US-based firms such as Visa, American Express, and Mastercard. They argued it would cost them millions of dollars to reconfigure technology hubs and relocate servers, and actually be counterproductive to fraud detection.

However, American payment firms have received a temporary reprieve. Indias central bank is considering diluting data storage norms for payment firms. Domestic technology firm Paytm has not taken well to rivals lobbying, according to a report by Reuters.

The rule in its original form handed an advantage to Paytm. One97 Communications, the parent firm of Paytm, stores all its data on servers located in India. The firm, which has now diversified into the e-commerce space is backed by Chinas Alibaba and Japans SoftBank.

Paytm reportedly sparred with executives from foreign firms at a meeting between industry representatives and the economic affairs secretary SC Garg. It argued storing personal data locally would be to the advantage of the country. Livemint reported Garg was not convinced about Paytm endorsing the RBI directive.

A report by the Boston Consulting Group and Google says Indias digital payments market is likely to grow tenfold to $500 billion by 2020. The present standoff is an indicator of the intense competition prevailing in a saturated market.

Paytm has capitalised on its local advantage by partnering with vendors and merchants across the country to accept money for purchases using its mobile wallet app. Previously, the digital payments market was restricted to card payments, consolidating the dominance of firms like Visa and Mastercard.

Compelling foreign firms to relocate their servers would offer Paytm an opportunity to steal a march on rivals as they will be more focused on compliance, rather than growth, in the short term.

The digital payments ecosystem in the country got a boost in the past year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetised high-value currency notes, leading to a cash crunch in the economy. Indians cumulatively possess 964 million credit and debit cards today. The total value of transactions touched $52 billion in May 2018, almost double the amount clocked in November 2016.

Other technology companies have been testing the waters. Google launched Tez last year, while Facebook is testing an interbank money transfer feature on its WhatsApp messenger app.

Following the RBIs directive in April, foreign payments firms have curried favour with the government. In June, the Finance Ministry recommended relaxing certain provisions of the central banks April directive.

The Payments Council of India (PCI) is a divided house. Many members, including foreign firms operating in India, have raised objections to the rule. Paytm is holding on to an unpopular opinion. It holds that the RBIs mandate to uphold data privacy is paramount and that other payments firms should stick to the central banks timeframe of six months to become compliant with the new rules.

PCI later submitted a written response to the RBI saying its members were divided on the issue of data storage. This represents a shift from its earlier reaction that most members had concerns regarding a change in the rules.Knight Frank India today launched the ninth edition of its half-yearly report - India Real Estate. It presents a comprehensive analysis of the residential and office market performance of NCR for the period January  June (H1 2018).

Office takeaways:

- The first half of 2018 fared well for the NCR office market with closing of some large deals. The region clocked 0.31 mn sq m (3.4 mn sq ft) in H1 2018 registering a single-digit growth of 4% from the same period in 2017

- Supply outshone the transaction activity and approximately 0.33 mn sq m (3.6 mn sq ft) of new office supply entered the market in H1 2018 as opposed to 0.17 mn sq m (1.8 mn sq ft) in the same period in 2017

- Gurugram yet again outperforms other markets and takes up 66% share of the total transaction pie; YoY growth of 28%

- Overall rents remain stable; lack of quality supply puts pressure on rentals in select office areas in Gurugram

- Steady leasing brings down vacancy levels to16.5%

- Other Services sector takes up 54% from the overall transaction pie. BFSI and IT/ITeS improve their performance in H1 2018

Residential Takeaways:

- Resurgence of new launches in H1 2018 registering a YoY growth of 90% though way below peak levels; Gurugram with 47% share is a significant contributor

- Revival of new launches in the mid segment of INR 5  10 mn bracket; share of launches in less than INR 5 mn bracket reduces to 35% from 81% YoY

- Stagnant prices signal price resistance; with stagnancy in price growth, effective price discount reaches to 10-15%

- Demand for newly launched projects in NCR moves in the same range as in H1 2017. First half of 2018 sees 18,000 units being sold compared to 17,188 units in H1 2017, registering a minor YoY increase of 5%

- Sluggish implementation of RERA and delay in execution of major infrastructure projects have marred buyer confidence

- Gurugram and Greater Noida account for 67% of the sales in H1 2018

- QTS remains unchanged at 12% reduction in unsold inventory levels. Gurugram sees a significant improvement in its quarters to sell from 19 to 13 in H1 2018. 63% of the unsold inventory is in Greater Noida and Gurugram

Speaking about the findings, Mudassir Zaidi, Executive Director  North said, At a broad level, the first half of 2018 has started on a positive level for the NCR real estate market. The supply side is seen to be upbeat largely because of structural reforms like RERA and GST taking shape. This is evident from the fact that many notable developers have launched new projects in the first half of 2018 marking the resurgence of the mid segment ticket bracket. However, a lot of effort needs to be put to re-instill confidence in the buyers who are still wary of the market. Given the market dynamics, we see ready-to-move-in projects to garner interest from buyers, since it gives them the confidence for the delivery of the project. On the office front, we see that the steady demand has brought down the overall vacancy levels with an upward pressure on rentals. Going forward, we believe that the office market will continue to hold onto its current reins.Here are the stocks that are in news today:

Results today: L&T, Ambuja Cements, Hero MotoCorp, JSW Steel, BHEL, Bharti Infratel, Canara Bank, Crompton Greaves, Gruh Finance, KPIT, OBC, PVR, Reliance Nippon AMC, TTK Prestige, Intellect Design, Jubilant Foodworks, Jyothi Labs, Karur Vysys bank, Shriram City Union, Syngene International, IRB Infrastructure, Tata Elxi, United Bank of India, Bharat Bijlee, Everest Industries, HCL Infosystems, NOCIL, Sanofi India, Security & Intelligence Services, SKF India, Welspun Enter, IFB Agro Industries, Acrysil, ADF Foods, Dishman Carbogen, GE T&D India, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries, Udaipur Cement

Asian Paints: Q1 consolidated profit rises 30 percent to Rs 571.3 crore versus Rs 440.7 crore; revenue rises 15.1 percent to Rs 4,390 crore versus Rs 3,815.3 crore (YoY).

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance: Q1 profit falls 30.5 percent to Rs 282 crore versus Rs 406 crore; net premium income increases 12.8 percent to Rs 5,438 crore versus Rs 4,820 crore (YoY).

ICICI Bank: Sandeep Batra of ICICI Prudential Life joined ICICI Bank as President-Corporate Centre. He will directly report to Sandeep Bakshi, COO, ICICI Bank.

Network18 Media: Q1 consolidated operating revenue rises 10 percent to Rs 1,124 crore versus Rs 1,025 crore; operating EBITDA at Rs 18 crore versus EBITDA loss of Rs 2 crore (YoY).

TeamLease: Q1 profit increases 2.8 percent to Rs 22 crore versus Rs 21.2 crore; revenue rises 4.5 percent to Rs 1,021.3 crore versus Rs 977.5 crore (QoQ).

Symphony: Q1 profit falls 49 percent to Rs 20 crore versus Rs 39 crore; revenue slips 23.2 percent to Rs 146 crore versus Rs 190 crore (YoY).

Hexaware: Q2 consolidated profit rises 14 percent to Rs 154 crore versus Rs 134.3 crore; revenue increases 8.4 percent to Rs 1,136.7 crore versus Rs 1,049 crore (QoQ).

Borosil Glass Work: Q1 profit jumps to Rs 11.05 crore versus Rs 5.30 crore; revenue surges to Rs 72.24 crore versus Rs 50.09 crore (YoY).

Rane Brake Lining: Q1 profit falls to Rs 6.57 crore versus Rs 7.32 crore; revenue rises to Rs 122.3 crore versus Rs 100.5 crore (YoY).

Satin Creditcare Network: Board meeting on July 25 for the issuance of non-convertible debentures upto the amount of Rs 97 crore through private placement.

Lakshmi Vilas Bank: Brickwork Ratings India revised the rating from A- to BBB+ for unsecured redeemable non-convertible subordinated lower Tier II bonds - Series VII (Option B), of Rs 50.50 crore.

Teamlease Services approved acquisition of additional 21% stake in Cassius Technologies

Jindal Steel & Power: Company is likely to get 20 percent of the 4.87 lakh tonne bid. It was lone bidder for global tender for rail tender floated by Indian Railways: Sources of CNBC-TV18.

Oil India: The company has signed a joint venture agreement at Guwahati in connection with formation of a JV company for construction of North-East Gas Grid Pipeline in the eight North-Eastern States, viz. Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim. The proposed JV Company will have equal equity contribution from all the five PSU JV partners.

Indo Amines signs the collaboration agreement with Tokyo based multinational Japan Tech Corporation

Bharat Electronics: Govt will divest 5 percent in the company out of its 66.79 percent shareholding.

Andhra Bank: Bank has received capital infusion of Rs 2,019 crore towards contribution of the Central Government in the preferential allotment of equity shares.

Indo Amines: Company signed the collaboration agreement with TOKYO based multinational Japan Tech Corporation.

TeamLease Services: Board approved acquisition of additional 21 percent stake in Cassius Technologies Private Limited (Fresher's World). Company's stake in Fresher's World increases from 30 percent to 51 percent and Fresher's World will become subsidiary of TeamLease Services post completion of the transaction.

Andhra Bank recieved capital infusion of Rs 2019 crore from governemnt of India

Ramkrishna Forgings: Company's long term rating has been revised by ICRA from A-(Positive outlook) to A (Stable Outlook) and the short term rating has been revised from A2+ to A1.

Gujarat Sidhee Cement: Kiln operations restarted on Tuesday. Due to heavy rainfall in Gir Somnath district, the operation of kiln and all upstream equipment was temporarily supsended till situation is back to normal.

ICICI Bank: Bank to acquire Arthashastra Fintech for Rs 8.3 crore

ICRA revises Ramkrishna Forging's long term rating from A- (Positive outlook) to A (Stable Outlook)Dilip Shanghvi | Founder and MD of Sun Pharmaceuticals: USD 12.8 billion | (Image: Reuters)

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Sun Pharmaceutical Industries today said one of its wholly owned subsidiaries has launched generic metformin hydrochloride extended release tablets, used for glycemic control, in the US market.

The tablets have been launched in the strengths of 500 mg and 1000 mg, it said in a filing to BSE.

The tablets are generic versions of Santarus Inc's Glumetza HCl extended release tablets in the same strengths, it added.

"The addressable market size is approximately USD 443 million for the 12 months ending April 2018, as per IQVIA," Sun Pharma said.

The tablets are used to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.

The Sun Pharma stock was trading 0.24 per cent down at Rs 561.15 in the afternoon on BSE.live bse live

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Thirumalai Chemicals, the secondlargest manufacturer of domestic Phthalic anhydride (PA), reported weak topline numbers in the June quarter amid plant shutdowns in both Ranipet and Malaysia. The project expansion updates though drew investor interest. On account of this, we pencil in improved volume growth from FY20 onward, though at a gradual pace.

At the same time, we remain wary about the product price realisation trend given the potential removal of trade protection measure and the limited pricing power of the chemical commodity business.

Q1 FY19: Sales volume impacted by the maintenance shutdown

The standalone business, which mainly consists of Phthalic anhydride reported a weak performance in Q1FY19 on account of a month-long closure of plant facility for maintenance. Net sales were down 31 percent year-on-year (YoY) but earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin improved 277 basis points (bps) YoY due to the better operating efficiency. The bottomline was less impacted due to lower finance costs.

Malaysian unit posted 22 lower sales quarter on quarter (QoQ) due to a plant shutdown.

Table: Consolidated financials

Source: company

Projects update

The companys major plants are near optimum utilisation and hence, capacity expansion is the key driver for volume growth. In the case of PA, the company is going through a revamp at its Ranipet plant which will be complete by Q4FY19 and result in improved productivity and safety.

Further phase-1 (60,000 tonne) of PA project at Dahej, is expected to commence operation by May 2019. The company has an expansion plan for Dahej after phase-1 and together the PA capacity will increase from 140,000 tonne to 240,000 tonne.

In case of Maleic Anhydride (MA), Malaysian subsidiary has decided to enhance capacity by another 20,000 tonne to 65,000 tonne which will take another two years.

The expansion of food ingredients and derivatives plants are complete and operational now. This relatively high-margin business now contributes about 20 percent of India business sales. The company is also studying a plan to establish food ingredients and maleic anhydride plant in the USA with a key benefit of accessing cheap feedstock.

We expect near-term capacity expansion plans to lead to volume growth of 7-8 percent (CAGR) for next four years with the further upside possible from the acceleration in the phase-2 expansion of Dahej. We opine this is reasonable given the domestic industry growth rate of 4 percent annually and there is a scope for substituting imports in the domestic market.

However, this can change if there are any pricing and demand-supply disruptions caused by the removal of anti-dumping duty.

Anti-dumping duty on PA under review

As we have mentioned in our earlier note that Directorate General of Trade remedies has started the sunset review investigation concerning imports of PA originating in or exported from Korea, Taiwan, and Israel. Imports from these countries constituted about 56 percent of the imports of PA in FY17.

In our interaction, management representatives of both IG Petrochem and Thirumalai Chemicals have downplayed the risks citing that bulk of the PA imports are under advance license and do not attract anti-dumping duty. Under advance license, importers are obligated to export value added products within stipulated time period.

However, having said that removal of anti-dumping duty would make the product pricing more competitive. Particularly, it was mentioned that imports from Russia (Under anti-dumping till CY2020) need a closer watch which on account of higher state subsidy can potentially dump.

Outlook

The companys turnaround in its business over the years has been remarkable which has partly been guided by improved end markets, operational efficiency and trade protection.

In the recent interaction with the management, a few business updates have been laudable. The balance sheet is leaner and the management plans to fund the upcoming projects from internal accruals.

Its near-term capacity expansion plan for PA would be on stream by FY20 onwards and in the first year of operations we assume 20 percent utilisation on account of plant stabilisation period and the time lag it might take to displace imports in the domestic market. Similarly, new MA capacity in Malaysia would be available in FY21. This means in the current year volume growth would be flat, at best, if the company is able to recoup volume growth lost in plant shutdowns.

As far as operating margins are concerned, we believe the company is at the upper end of margin range in this largely commodity business wherein more than 80 percent of revenue is from the chemical intermediate business. In fact, given the expansion plans, chemical commodity sales contribution is expected to increase from here. Further, cost of materials as a percentage of sales have nudged up recently though it has been offset by the operational efficiency.

In our projection for current fiscal, we have kept the operating margin at this upper end of 20.5 percent with the caveat that downside risk to it is there given the prospects for removal of anti-dumping duty.

Nevertheless, even if we assume cost management for the operations is maintained at current levels, the stock is currently trading close to the levels warranted for the commodity companies. Hence, we continue to remain on the sidelines until clarity emerges on higher supply headwinds.

Financial projection

Source: Moneycontrol Research

Follow @anubhavsaysE-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon, consistently trying to one-up each other, have now moved the battlefield to college campuses.

Both companies are trying to get the best of talent on board, particularly from Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and National Institutes of Technology (NIT).

According to a report by The Economic Times, the two companies will look to hire people to work on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, internet of things and machine learning.

Flipkart may do the bulk of the hiring this year, taking the mantle from market leader Amazon, as it is in the middle of a takeover by global retail giant Walmart.

The Bengaluru-based e-commerce company aims to reach out to more campuses this year and hire more people than it did last year.

It will make its debut in final placements at a host of colleges this summer, including NIT Warangal, National Institute of Fashion Technology, and National Institute of Design and Faculty of Management Studies.

Many students are attracted to companies like Flipkart and Amazon because these companies tend to offer positions in product development and operations.

Many from the premier institutes anticipate both companies to come to their campuses, but believe Flipkart would be a better fit for their students this time around.

Flipkart is a smaller organization than Amazon and is, therefore, expected to have more roles for students than the American e-commerce behemoth.

Amazon led campus recruitment last year, both in the number of offers extended and average pay offered.

Campus sources said it offered annual compensations of close to Rs 30 lakh with stock options, while Flipkart offered around Rs 21 lakh without stock options.

"Amazon operates at the cutting edge of technology and we are keen to hire candidates with passion for technology such as AI, ML IoT, speech recognition and computer vision, in addition to an aptitude to grow with the organisation," Raj Kaza, Director of Talent Acquisition at Amazon India, was quoted as saying.

Kaza also said that university recruitment is a major source of talent at Amazon and the numbers for this year are 10 percent higher than last year. Amazon will also extend more pre-placement offers to its interns this year.

The NITs will begin their final placements in August and placements at the IITs are set to start in December.MATI (GREECE) - Rescue workers from the Greek army and fireman are conducting a house-by-house search in Mati, a seaside resort town near Athens that has been heavily damaged by wildfires, an ANSA correspondent reports.



''We are afraid we will find more corpses,'' a fireman who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The official death toll was on Wednesday morning at 79 but it may rise. Several police vehicles are patrolling the town and clouds are obscuring the sky. Technical experts are assessing whether many of the homes are fit to be returned to.

Greek cabinet announces measures for fire-stricken areas

The Greek government has announced a series of extraordinary measures, including 20 million euros in funding, a bank account for donations and more controls to deal with the emergency sparked by wildfires. Measures include funding worth 20 million euros to respond to the immediate needs of towns and citizens in fire-stricken areas. A bank account for private and public donations will also be activated to support the population, after the great support provided from Greece and abroad. Government sources said the funding will be used to repair material damages. State contributions will be announced in the coming days after damages are verified. The government will also boost security against potential looters in affected areas by deploying 19 joint units including members of the police, fire department and the military. Additional measures to support the population have been announced by the finance ministry. Compensation for the victims' families will be announced in the coming days. Moreover, 180 engineers of the ministry of infrastructure and transport are already on the ground to evaluate damages and will be joined tomorrow by an additional 120 colleagues. The labor ministry has housed those who have lost their homes while psychologists and social workers are assisting victims' families and those who have been affected by the wildfires. The Attica region has created a coordination center for rescue operations and volunteers. Citizens can offer their help by contacting the number 0030-2104819.001.Chhattisgarh will go to polls in less than two weeks from now, with the first phase of the elections scheduled for November 12 and the second phase on November 20. Here are some of the key players in the fray for the upcoming elections.

The Election Commission may fail to meet the deadline it committed to the Supreme Court for procuring over 16 lakh VVPAT machines before Lok Sabha 2019 elections, The Indian Express has reported.

This, however, has a direct bearing on the debate and speculation over the general elections being preponed. Given the current shortfall in the number of VVPATs, any move to advance the Lok Sabha polls will be faced with logistical challenges.

The Election Commission (EC) had submitted an affidavit to the Supreme Court, committing that they will introduce VVPAT (Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines in all polling stations for the Lok Sabha elections, currently scheduled for May 2019 (according to the EC website).

The EC delegated the work to two manufacturing Public Sector Units (PSUs)  Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in Bengaluru and Electronics Corporation of Indian Limited (ECIL) in Hyderabad. It also committed that the two companies will deliver the requisite number of VVPAT machines by September 2018.

However, the poll panel had received only 3.48 lakh units as of June 19 this year of the total order of 16.15 lakh VVPAT machines, meeting only 22 percent of the target, three months before the deadline. This could have direct implications on the speculation of early general assembly elections, considering the shortfall in VVPAT machines could lead to logistical challenges for the Election Commission.

What are VVPAT machines and why does the EC want to switch to them?

VVPAT (Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were introduced by the poll panel in order to retain the faith of the people in EVMs, whose accuracy has been questioned time and again by the Opposition parties, particularly after the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections that were conducted in March 2017.

To alleviate any doubts associated with EVMs, the EC brought in VVPAT machines which produce a printout of the vote cast using an EVM. The printout can be cross-checked by the voter to allay any doubts, and then it is deposited in a box. In the case of a dispute, the numbers from the EVM can be checked against the printouts to remove any discrepancies.

Have VVPAT machines been used earlier?

The Election Commission had incorporated the use of VVPAT machines in all polling booths for Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat assembly elections last year, and Karnataka Assembly elections in May this year.

How many VVPAT units will be required for Lok Sabha Elections 2019?

The EC estimated that it will require :

# 16.35 lakh Control Units (CUs)

# 22.37 lakh Ballot Units (BUs)

# 16.35 lakh VVPATs

It is to be noted that one CU and one BU together make an EVM.

After taking its current stock into account, the EC had ordered:

# 9.3 lakh CUs

# 13.95 lakh BUs

# 16.15 lakh VVPATs

The quantity was equally distributed between BEL and ECIL, which had promised delivery by September 2018.

Why should the delivery be made in September 2018 when Lok Sabha elections are due in May 2019?

The Election Commissions rationale of the September 2018 deadline is the fact that the new EVMs and VVPAT units are of a new make called M3 and supports features that the EC staff arent aware of. The EC said it needs time to adequately train their staff to use the new machines. In addition, in order to ensure proper functioning, it is pertinent to carry out first-level checks on the machine which will take at least six months.

What has been delivered so far?

As of June 19, 2018, the EC has procured:

# 5.8 lakh BUs (which is 42 percent of the order)

# 4 lakh CUs (which is 43 percent of the order)

# 3.48 lakh VVPATs (which is 22 percent of the order)

What is causing the delay?

According to the report, the EC has expressed concern over the delay in supply. In December 2017, the polling panel had sent SOS to the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Atomic Energy  the parent ministries of BEL and ECIL respectively.

In a review meeting with the manufacturers in September 2017, the EC had realized that ECIL was in no position to meet the deadline. As a result, it had re-appropriated 50 per cent of ECILs order to BEL on grounds of inefficiency. BELs performance has been relatively better.

Taking cognizance of ECs SOS, the Law Ministry wrote to the poll panel in December 2017, saying it was too late to flag the issue of a delayed supply. G Narayana Raju, the then Legislative Secretary, in his letter had stated that the government had approved the procurement of EVMs and VVPATs on time and that flagging the issue at at this juncture when the situation has reached a critical stage, does not appear to be a desirable position. He had also said issues regarding technical glitches should have been discussed across the table with the manufacturers earlier.

Despite ECs SOS, ECIL continued to miss monthly production targets, even until May this year, according to documents accessed by The Indian Express.July 25, 2018 / 04:22 PM IST

Maratha Quota Stir Mumbai Update  4 pm

Central Railway services on Thane-Vashi route remain suspended until further notice.

 Agitators set a BEST bus ablaze in Mankhurd, Navi Mumbai. No injuries were reported.

 Police used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai. Police also resorted to lathicharge, according to reports.

 The police in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Satara districts were on their toes to prevent any law and order problem.

 In Aurangabad, a man, Jagannath Sonawane, who had consumed a poisonous substance yesterday during the protest, died today at a local government hospital.

 9 public buses were attacked by agitators in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.

 Agitators pelted stones on some buses in Mumbai, including Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas.

BEST partially suspended its services in some areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves.

 Protesters tried to block a road in Mankhurd, Chandivali, Jogeshwari and Kandivali, but the police dispersed them.

 In Bandra, Matunga and Mulund, protesters marched on roads and were seen requesting shopkeepers with folded hands to close their establishments.

 Agitators blocked some areas there, including the key Teen Hath Naka junction, resulting in huge traffic jams on the city's main entry and exit points.

 Contrary to their previous peaceful agitations, this time protesters tried to stop local trains on the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) corridors.

 Agitators also threw stones at trains passing through Thane and Ghansoli stations on the Harbour Linestations and services were halted briefly.Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Uganda after concluding his two-day visit to Rwanda during which the two countries signed a defence cooperation agreement and India extended a $200 million lines of credit to the East African country for its economic development. "I thank the wonderful people of Rwanda for their warmth and affection.

This visit adds tremendous strength to closer economic and cultural relations between India and Rwanda," Modi tweeted just before his departure.

Prime Minister Modi arrived here yesterday on the first leg of his three-nation Africa tour, becoming the first Indian premier to visit the East African country.

During his stay here, Modi held wide-ranging talks with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and discussed measures to boost the bilateral strategic ties by strengthening cooperation in defence, trade and agriculture sectors.

He also addressed a gathering of the Indian community here.

India will soon open a High Commission in Rwanda as part of New Delhi's efforts to bolster the strategic partnership with the fast-developing East African country.

Modi also visited the Genocide Memorial Centre which honours over 250,000 victims of Rwanda's mass killings in 1994.The latest news from Maharashtra is that the Maratha Kranti Morcha has called off the Mumbai Bandh. Why were the protests happening in the first place? Which were the organisations behind the protests? What toll did Maharashtra have to pay in the protests that turned violent today and yesterday? We will aim to answer all these questions on our Pick of the Day. My name is Seetal, and you are listening to Moneycontrol.

First, the latest:

After day-long violence in pockets of Maharashtra, Maratha Kranti Morcha, a Maratha group enforcing a bandh to press its demands for reservation in jobs and education, called off the strike in Mumbai city. At the time of my telling you this, protests and strikes are in progress in areas surrounding Indias financial capital. Through the day, protesters blocked arterial roads, including the Mumbai-Pune highway and the Eastern Expressway, and forced shops to shut. Local train routes were blocked in Jogeshwari and near Thane. Violence was witnessed in parts of the state on Tuesday after a protester committed suicide by jumping into a river in Aurangabad, but more on that later.

What has happened up until this point during these protests? Here is a quick lowdown:

First a quick update for our listener commuters: Transharbour services between Thane and Vashi on Transharbour lines have started as per the latest tweet from Central Railway at 4:46 pm.

 Agitators set a BEST bus ablaze in Mankhurd, Navi Mumbai. No injuries were reported. Police used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai. Police also resorted to lathicharge, according to reports. The police in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad and Satara districts were on their toes to prevent any law and order problem. In Aurangabad, a man, Jagannath Sonawane, who had consumed a poisonous substance yesterday during the protest, died today at a local government hospital. 9 public buses were attacked by agitators in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai. Agitators pelted stones on some buses in Mumbai, including Kanjurmarg and Bhandup areas.BEST partially suspended its services in some areas and expects to resume it when the situation improves. Protesters tried to block a road in Mankhurd, Chandivali, Jogeshwari and Kandivali, but the police dispersed them. Not all protests have been violent. In Bandra, Matunga and Mulund, protesters marched on roads and were seen requesting shopkeepers with folded hands to close their establishments. Agitators blocked some areas in Thane, including the key Teen Hath Naka junction, resulting in huge traffic jams on the city's main entry and exit points. Contrary to their previous peaceful agitations, this time protesters tried to stop local trains on the Central Railway (CR) and the Western Railway (WR) corridors. Agitators also threw stones at trains passing through Thane and Ghansoli stations on the Harbour Lines and services were halted briefly.

Stonepelting was also seen at the Sion-Panvel Highway in the afternoon as the protests took a violent turn there.

Maratha Kranti Morcha coordination committee member Virendra Pawar said the agitation had turned out to be a grand success. We showed everyone that caste-based outfits can bring the city to a halt just as well as political parties. Denying that any member of his outfit had gone on the rampage, he went on to add, We suspect some political conspiracy to tarnish our image. We peacefully held 58 silent morchas without causing any violence. Holding the state government responsible for the bandh, Pawar went on to say, We sought our due from the government for two whole years, but received nothing. This is what pushed our youngsters to do this.

Now, what's the story?

The Maratha communitys agitation for reservation in the state of Maharashtra in government jobs and educational institutions, got violent yesterday and today, as protesters torched police vehicles and ambulances in Aurangabad and caused all that we spoke about just earlier in various parts of Maharashtra today. Two members of the Maratha community even attempted suicide yesterday, with one of them Jagannath Sonavne, passing away today.

When did it all start?

The protest first started in 2016, after a teenager from the community in a village called Kopardi, was allegedly raped and killed by men from the Dalit community. As a result, Marathas started a "silent protest march" demanding reservation as well as amendments to the Prevention of Atrocities on Dalits Act, which they alleged was "misused". Over the past two years, Maratha outfits have held "silent" protests across the state with lakhs coming in support of the community. In August 2017, a silent rally in Mumbai, reportedly the 58th such rally, was attended by lakhs of people from across the state and brought the city to a standstill. Marathas constitute nearly 30-40 percent of the state's population. Researchers suggested that the large scale of these protests  involving all classes of the Maratha community  and the intensity of feeling may be suggestive of much more than a reaction to that single ugly incident of the rape, and that the mass movement may indicate a deeper pool of resentment. (Anderson, EPW, 2016) The protests, until the developments of this week, have largely been peaceful. While the rape incident may have been the immediate reason for the galvanisation of the protesters, the movement eventually addressed the larger demands of the community, which are primarily three:

1. Stop the abuse of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act2. Legislative reservation for Marathas

3. Raise Minimum Support Prices.

Who has spearheaded the protests?

Several Maratha outfits, such as the Maratha Kranti Morcha, Maratha Kranti Samaj and Sakal Maratha Samaj are leading the agitation. Smaller Maratha groups have joined these larger groups, turning them into umbrella bodies.

Why did the issue corp up again?

According to reports, the agitation started after Maharashtra's Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis cancelled his visit to a temple in Pandharpur  an annual ritual for the CM  after Maratha outfits threatened to disrupt his visit. The visit was scheduled for July 23.

How did the agitation turn violent?

The agitation intensified after a 27-year-old protester reportedly committed suicide by jumping into the Godavari River in Aurangabad district on July 23. The deceased was identified as Kakasaheb Dattatreya Shinde. Following the incident, Maratha outfits reportedly attacked police vehicles and ambulances in Aurangabad, forcing authorities to suspend internet services. According to ANI, a police head constable died due to a heart attack in Gangapur, after protesters threw stones at the police. Shiv Sena lawmaker Chandrakant Khaire was manhandled by protesters in Aurangabad when he went to attend the last rites of the farmer. Posters of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis were torn in parts of Thane, near Mumbai. Besides the reservation issue, the Maratha Kranti Morcha is upset with the Chief Minister over his allegation that some members of the community were planning violence during his visit to a temple at Pandharpur town in Solapur district, NDTV went on to report.

The Marathas in Maharashtra  A closer look

Marathas  a politically influential community that constitutes about 38% percent of Maharashtras population. Reservations for the community have been a contentious issue for years, and this very issue is on the boil yet again. This is not the first case of such a protest we have seen in Maharashtra. The question we ask therefore is why they happen so often.

Changing societies  is one explanation. Like the Jats in the North West regions of the country and the Patels in Gujarat and Vokkaligas in Karnataka, Marathas have a large share in the states population and have historically held sway in local politics. Like the other communities I mentioned earlier, the Marathas too have historically been a land-owning community. Roshan Kishore, writing for Hindustan Times, says, [this] traditional dominance is being threatened in the new economic order where educations and jobs matter more than farm incomes, and that this may be at the heart of the protests from the community.

To make his case, Kishore cited two research papers published in the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), each with a contrasting result.

The first paper by Siwan Anderson et al, titled Distress in Marathaland, published in December 2016, argued that, The Marathas, Maharashtras dominant community, have been protesting against the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and demanding reservations for themselves and a hike in minimum support prices. This study reveals that these demands do not address the source of Maratha distressstagnation of farm incomes and the failure of the government to improve agricultural productivity. Poor farmers, whether Maratha or Dalit, have the same grievances, and therefore, a caste-based mobilisation may actually be counterproductive.

The Maratha protesters have labelled this movement as a movement by the deprived against the privileged. Which begs the question  are the Marathas a privileged community? Interesting also is the fact that what began as a movement by the have-nots has turned into a caste movement. But first lets compare the Maratha community to OBCs and SCs, that is, groups that do have reservations.

The data for the Anderson study came from a 2007 survey of 9000 households in 300 randomly selected villages of Maharashtra, with 40% of the households covered in the survey below the state poverty line. Anderson and others, in their work, found that not all Maratha cultivators were better off than their OBC counterparts, even though only 24% of the OBCs had land holdings greater than 5 acres in comparison to 34% of Marathas holding land greater than 5 acres. OBCs with large landownership reported much larger yields than Marathas with smaller tracts. OBCs  both male and female - also had a higher percentage share in terms of education above secondary level than the Marathas.

The second paper  with contrasting results  came from Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran and was published in the Economic and Political Weekly in 2017. They used data of 15984 individuals from the India Human Development Survey conducted in 2011-12. The study went on to show that Marathas were actually better off than all caste groups excluding Brahmins not just in land endowments but also education and access to government jobs in Maharashtra.

As one can see  there is already a contrast between two academic studies on the performance of the Marathas as a community along certain socioeconomic parameters. Which is why, lets take a closer look at the numbers and see how the Marathas, as a community, stack up in terms of dominance and political clout.

Meena Menon, writing for the Hindu in 2012, gave us some numbers: From 1962 to 2004, of the total of 2,430 MLAs, 1,336 or 55% were Maratha. Nearly 54% of the educational institutions in the state are controlled by them. Of the 105 sugar factories, 86 are headed by Marathas, while 23 district cooperative banks have Marathas as chairpersons. Marathas dominate the universities in the state, with 60% to 75% presence in the management. About 71% of the cooperative institutions are under the control of this community. In Maharashtra, 75% to 90% of the land is owned by the community. In addition, all the milk cooperatives and cotton mills are either owned or controlled by them. In 54 of the 288 assembly constituencies, only Marathas have ever been electedeven without any reservations. Andersons survey found that even though Marathas had a share of 38% in the population, they filled 63% of the unreserved gram pradhan positions. Deshpandes paper shows that Marathas have a greater probability of having a panchayat member who is close to or from their own households than all other caste groups. Lets not also forget that Sharad Pawar, union agriculture minister for ten years 2004 to 2014, is a Maratha. Since becoming a state in 1960 till 2012, Maharashtra has had 18 Chief Ministers, 10 of whom have been Marathas.

Why then the discontent?

I said earlier that the anxieties in many agrarian communities may be rooted in the economic transformations that India has seen since the 1960s. Researchers have demonstrated that among the greatest beneficiaries of the green and milk revolutions of early independent India were Jats, Marathas, and Patels  predominantly agricultural communities. Deshpande et al write, The transformations happening in the economy, in particular, the declining importance of agriculture, the growth of corporatised agriculture, and the increase in water shortages have added to the possibility that these groups might feel increasingly vulnerable, especially given their former positions of strength. They further elaborate  Overall, there is discontent among powerful farming communities due to the perception that real economic power lies in the hands of big corporations, and that the state, overtly or covertly, acts in the interest of these corporations. These farming communities feel their power slipping away or eroding, in addition to feeling ill-prepared to shift towards livelihood opportunities in the urban and formal sector.

Sonalde Desai, professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, talks about the perception of prosperity. She discusses how a sense of fairness in economic outcomes is strongly related to perceptions of prosperity. The implication being that individuals or communities are more likely to feel deprived if they feel strongly that the odds of economic success are stacked against them  a similar argument has also been made about the white working class communities in rural America.

Research on the ground seems to indicate otherwise  that often, these communities are not the most marginalised, and indeed have consolidated their advantage over other marginalised groups, and have narrowed gaps with the dominant groups in their respective states between 2004-2005 and 2011-12. And yet, Desai goes on to report, forward castes were about 30% more likely to feel that they were worse off in 201112 than in 200405.

The last question we ask therefore is  do the protests have any real merit? The answer to that is Yes, in so far as the fact that protests address a wider problem faced by all communities. The movement has certainly galvanised the Maratha community across subcastes to give voice to the overwhelming opinion that the agrarian communities need more help. But we must also emphasise, as multiple researchers have consistently, that these anxieties are not one communitys alone and that the movement should champion the cause of all farmers, across caste and community lines. One must also be aware of deepening the Maratha-Dalit divide and take all steps to prevent that from happening in an already divided society.

On the topic of reservations, I will let the researchers have the last word. Deshpande and Ramachandran write, Economic changes that give rise to widespread anxieties need to be understood, and genuine grievances, including those that might come from forward castes dealing with agrarian transformations, must be addressed. With regard to demands for inclusion into the OBC category, we argue the following: given increased levels of privatisation, the total number of jobs that are eligible for reservations, is already shrinking. In another paper (Deshpande and Ramachandran 2016), we demonstrate how existing OBCs and SCs/STs are further lagging behind upper castes when a range of material indicators are considered. In this context, extending quotas to relatively richer and more powerful groups would result in diluting the already small and shrinking entitlement for communities that are truly disadvantaged and discriminated against.The Indian passport ranked at the 84th spot among the worlds most powerful passports list, which is a drop by 2 places as it ranked 82nd in 2019. The country is tagged along with Mauritania and Tajikistan providing visa-free access to 58 destinations. (Image: Reuters)

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today asked his UP counterpart Yogi Adityanath to resign if his government was not able to take care of the Taj Mahal. Kejriwal's criticism came after the UP government in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court suggested that the monument could be brought under the "Adopt a Heritage Scheme" of the Centre.

The scheme allows employing private and public companies for providing cleanliness and civic amenities at heritage monuments.

"Then let a company adopt CM chair also? If BJP can't maintain one monument, BJP shud resign," Kejriwal tweeted.

The UP government affidavit said the entire precinct of Taj Mahal should be declared a no-plastic zone and use of bottled water be also prohibited.Ram Chandra Purbey, the former education minister of Bihar, believes that the state government has no dedicated plan to ensure the happiness of poor people and has demanded the creation of a Happiness Department in the state.

Madhya Pradesh formed a happiness department in July 2016 and was followed by Andhra Pradesh opening a similar department in April 2017.

The former education minister of Bihar and RJD MLC (Rashtriya Janata Dal  Member of Legislative Council) Ram Chandra Purbey has raised a demand for a Happiness Department in Bihar on Monday.

As per a report in The Times of India, the former education minister raised this demand through a non-governmental resolution in Bihars Legislative Council. He believes that while the state government advertises its developmental works, common people are still unhappy. Purbey also feels that the state government should consider his demand and create a separate department which can ensure happiness of these common people. Purbey referred to the happiness index and cited examples of the Happiness departments in Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh and argued for the creation of a similar department in Bihar.

Bihars water resources minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh responded on behalf of the Cabinet and rejecting the demand. The report quoted him as saying, no such proposal is under consideration of the state government. He also urged the former education minister to withdraw the resolution and was quoted as saying, You always remain in mood of happiness. And even today, you are looking very happy. So, why are you asking for a happiness department?

Purbey, on the other hand, refused to withdraw his resolution and claimed that he was not demanding this department for himself but for the common people of Bihar. Later in the Upper House, his resolution was rejected by a voice-vote though.The Congress gave notices for bringing a privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha for "misleading" the House on the Rafale deal.

In the notices, the party said Modi and Sitharaman's contention in Lok Sabha on Friday that a 2008 agreement between India and France prevented the government from revealing the price details of the deal was not correct.

The notices were given to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan by leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Veerappa Moily, K V Thomas, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Rajeev Satav over the statements made by Modi and Sitharaman during the debate on the no-confidence motion.

According to procedure, it is for the speaker to decide whether to refer the matter to privilege committee or not.

Justifying its move, the Congress said the 2008 agreement does not state that commercial costs of procurement of defence deals cannot be revealed and that both the prime minister and defence minister mislead the parliament and the nation on the issue.

"The prime minister has along with the defence minister deliberately mislead the House. It is, therefore, requested that this notice of breach of privileges be accepted and referred to the privilege committee of the House for further proceedings," the notice for the privilege motion against the prime minister said.

The Congress has been demanding price details of the Rs 58,000 crore deal the Modi government had signed with France in 2016 for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets. The party claimed that the per aircraft price under the deal came to Rs 1,600 crore as against the Rs 520 crore negotiated during the UPA.

The government has refused to divulge the detailed price of each aircraft citing a secrecy clause in the Indo-French pact.

In its notice for bringing the privilege motion against Modi, the Congress said the French government, in its statement, nowhere mentioned that the prices of the Rafale jets cannot be disclosed, adding that it had merely referred to the 2008 Confidentiality Agreement between the two countries.

The French government had issued a statement on Friday after Congress chief Rahul Gandhi raised the Rafale deal issue in Lok Sabha during the debate on no confidence motion.

The prime minister was fully aware that the 2008 Confidentiality Agreement is regarding defence cooperation, including acquisition, purchase and transfer of technology, between the two countries, the notice submitted to the Speaker said.

The 2008 agreement does not state that 'commercial costs' of procurement of defence deals cannot be revealed, it said.

"Article 1 of the 2008 agreement clearly defines 'classified information and material' as 'material which requires protection...in the interest of national security'," the notice said.

It is not specific to the Rafale jet fighters and nowhere prohibits the disclosure of purchase price to Parliament, the party argued in the letter.

The prime minister's claim of transparency in the agreement is factually incorrect, untrue, and deliberately made with the intention to mislead the House, according to the notice.

The prime minister and his cabinet, as per the Constitution, are collectively accountable to Parliament and through it to the people of the country, it said.

The notice also said that the government, through the Minister of State for Defence, had on November 18, 2016, in reply to a question in Lok Sabha, revealed the price of Rafale aircraft as approximately Rs 670 crore.

Again on March 19, 2018, the price was disclosed by the Minister of State for Defence in Rajya Sabha, it claimed.

The prime minister, in his speech, endorsed the defence minister's claims, which contradicted the reply of his Minister of State for Defence, the opposition party claimed.

The defence minister had knowingly and intentionally misled Parliament by withholding the information that the government is obliged to reveal to Parliament, the notice against Sitharaman said.

It alleged that Sitharaman's assertions on the floor of the House were "absolutely false".

"The honourable member has wilfully misled not only members of the House, but also the entire nation," the notice alleged.West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee addresses during Youth Trinamool Congress rally at Damurjala Stadium in Howrah district of West Bengal on Friday. PTI

TMC leader Derek O'Brien said today 2018-19 is the year of "think federal", suggesting regional parties will play a crucial role at the Centre and projected Mamata Banerjee as one of the "most senior leaders in this matrix". He also said that Banerjee emerging as one of the front runners for the prime minister's post "is nothing new".

His comments came a day after reports about the Congress being ready to accept any non-RSS candidate from among the Opposition as the next prime minister.

"This 2018-2019. This is the year of "think federal". But these things would be decided later. The reality is that everyone is focused on electing a people-centric government and removing the BJP. So, one of the most senior leader in this matrix is Mamata Banerjee," O'Brien told reporters here.

The TMC Rajya Sabha member claimed that Banerjee is "accepted" not only by the people of West Bengal but also the entire country for her 40 years of political struggle, including as Member of Parliament and the chief minister of the state.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi has not said anything about projecting Banerjee as the prime ministerial candidate, her name "emerging as one of the front runners is nothing new", O'Brien said.

The TMC leader said the focus of a "united opposition" is on spreading the message that the BJP had failed its people and bringing its tally to between 100 and 150 seats.

Banerjee has been trying to stitch together a federal front of regional parties to take on the BJP in the next general election. But many in the Opposition have remained sceptical about her efforts.

She will visit Delhi for three days next week to personally invite opposition leaders to the federal front rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata, according to party sources.

Banerjee is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on July 31.

During her previous visits to Delhi, she met the leaders of regional and opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the federal front.

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Banerjee are doing the rounds.N Chandrababu Naidu

After last week's no-confidence motion, the Telugu Desam Party is now planning to move a privilege motion against the Prime and Finance Minister for misleading the House on the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu has asked his MPs to move the privilige motion directly accusing PM Modi for lying in the House.

In March, the TDP quit the NDA following the Centres refusal to grant special category status to Andhra Pradesh.

PM Modi, in reply to no-confidence motion debate against his government, had quoted 14th Finance Commission to express his inability to grant special category status to Andhra.Two MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from Maharashtra's Aurangabad district offered to resign today in support of the Maratha quota demand.

Aurangabad district in Marathwada region has emerged as the epicentre of the Maratha quota agitation.

The MLAs who offered to quit today are Harshavardhan Jadhav (Shiv Sena) and Bhausaheb Patil Chikatgaonkar (NCP) who represent Kannad and Vaijapur assembly constituencies, respectively.

Jadhav, the son-in-law of BJP's state unit president Raosaheb Danve, had recently announced to step down if the demands of the agitating Maratha community are not met.

In his letter addressed to Legislative Assembly Speaker Haribhau Bagde, Jadhav stated that he was tendering his resignation this afternoon.

When contacted, Jadhav said he had also e-mailed his resignation to the Speaker and will personally submit it to him in Mumbai tomorrow.

In his resignation letter addressed to the Speaker, Chikatgaonkar said Kakasaheb Shinde, who committed suicide on July 23 by jumping into the Godavari river for Maratha quota demand, was a resident of Kanadgaon village in Vaijapur constituency.

"I am grieved at his death. Considering the self-respect of the Marathas, I am tendering my resignation," he stated.

In 288-member House, the Shiv Sena has 63 MLAs and the NCP 41.ROME - The death toll from attacks claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) in Sweida and nearby villages in southwestern Syria has risen to at least 150. ISIS has reportedly taken some civilians hostage, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said. The NGO noted that at least 78 people have been injured while the provincial governor said that ''calm has been restored'' in Sweida.

SOHR and Syrian official media said that suicide attacks were conducted in a Sweida market and other villages in the province of the same name at the same time. The attackers were confronted with government forces and self-defense units. The ISIS attackers were counted among the dead, but at least 35 of them were civilians. Syrian government new agency SANA said that at least two of the would-be suicide attackers had been killed by soldiers prior to detonating their explosive vests. It is unclear what happened to hostages that ISIS reportedly took in some of the villages.live bse live

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After being mired in controversy for more than six years, Bajaj Auto's Qute will finally be made available for sale next month, with the company already having started deliveries of the quadricycle to dealers.

Bajaj Auto dealers in Kerala and in the North East have already placed orders for the four-wheeler as it is 'technically' possible to offer the Qute for sale in these markets, the company said.

"Permission of the Qute have come through and we will start in the next few days. Technically Kerala is allowed to retail it so the initial plan is to send out 35-40 vehicles to all the dealerships so that registration process can be completed. But I would say that retails in the North-East and Kerala should commence next month," said Kevin Dsa, President (Finance), Bajaj Auto.

Qute, which is a four-wheeler, comes under a new category of vehicle. It is not classified as a personal vehicle and can be used only for commercial purposes.

This means that the vehicle will need clearance from individual state governments. As of now, only Kerala and the North Eastern states have given their go-ahead.

Early last month, the central government cleared the policy to permit quadricycles for commercial use, after the Supreme Court asked the Centre to look into the matter.

Several public interest litigations (PILs) were filed by various entities to stall the commercial launch of the quadricycle.

"The Qute is launched with the idea that as and when a transition (from three-wheelers) takes place we are well prepared for it. Qute also offers itself to make it into an electric vehicle," D'sa said.

"Right now we are looking at as an addition to the existing three-wheeler. For instance the South Mumbai area can become a huge opportunity if Qute is allowed on sale. We are looking at it as a complementary vehicle rather than a substitute vehicle," he said.

Unable to sell the vehicle in India, Bajaj started exporting the Qute to Latin America, Europe and Africa in 2015. The vehicle is powered by a five-speed, 216cc engine that develops a peak power of 13.2 PS and has a maximum speed of 70 kmph. It can seat three passengers and a driver.

Bajaj has created a capacity of 60,000 units per year for the Qute at its manufacturing facility in Aurangabad. According to Dsa, the production capacities for three-wheelers can be used to produce the Qute as well.

The quadricycle is part of a new category of vehicles recognized by the government a few years ago.

Several companies including TVS Motor Company and Tata Motors had opposed the government's proposal to allow quadricycles to be sold in the market on the grounds that the vehicle does not meet crash safety norms.

Company capex

Bajaj Auto has lined up about Rs 300 crore of capital expenditure for the current financial year, which is largely in line with its usual capex plans from earlier years. But the company sees an increase in spending from the next financial year for a period of three years.

"In a normal year we see a capital expenditure of Rs 250-300 crore. The plan for 2018-19 would be of Rs 300 crore but with the production run rate of 5 million units there will be a requirement for additional capex for building up of capacity. Most of the capacity build up is done by the vendors and very little is done internally. From 2019-20 onwards, for 2-3 years, the capex could be the range of Rs 500 crore," Dsa said.Pawan Munjal at the launch of Hero XPulse at Auto Expo 2018

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Indias largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp Wednesday posted a marginal 0.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) fall in standalone net profit to Rs 909.7 crore for the quarter ended June. In the same quarter last year the profit was Rs 914.04 crore.

The Delhi-based maker of motorcycles and scooters recorded a stand-alone total income of Rs 8,809.8 crore for the June quarter, an increase of 10.3 percent compared to Rs 7,980.5 crore (net of excise) posted in the corresponding quarter last year.

The impact on the profit was on account of the tax benefits coming to an end in Q4FY18 at the manufacturing facility at Haridwar.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin at 15.6 percent for the quarter was impacted by commodity costs, although offset to a large extent by pricing and continuing cost management. EBITDA margin in the same quarter last year was 16.3 percent.

A Reuters poll had pegged the bottom line at Rs 1,001 crore and revenue of Rs 9,067 crore.

Hero MotoCorp, which makes bikes and scooters under the brands' Splendor, Passion, Maestro, and Duet clocked a volume growth of 14 percent to 2.1 million as against 1.8 million units in the same quarter last year.

"The Indian economy continues to grow in the face of global headwinds from several fronts. However, the industry has been adversely impacted by the volatility in commodity prices driven by global trends," Pawan Munjal, Chairman and Managing Director of Hero said in the release.

"Despite these challenges, the industry will maintain the growth momentum during the rest of the fiscal, with consumption expected to remain high on the back of a normal monsoon and the upcoming festive season. At Hero MotoCorp, we are geared up to ride the positive momentum with new premium motorcycles and scooters, lined up for launch in the coming months." he said.

The company's domestic sales grew 14 percent YoY to 2.06 million units, while exports grew slightly slower at 9 percent to 46,287 units.

Hero MotoCorp is the biggest beneficiary of the rebound in demand for motorcycles seen over the last few quarters, which in turn is because of rising rural income. Half of the company's volumes come from budget-category bikes such as Splendor, HF Dawn, and Passion.

The two-wheeler maker ended the June quarter with a share of 51 percent in the domestic motorcycle segment, having sold 1.87 million units, 17 percent more than in the corresponding quarter in 2017.

The company's growth was slower than that of the industry, where volumes grew by 19 percent to 3.6 million units during the quarter.

Hero MotoCorp's loss in market share in the motorcycle segment is a result of lower volumes from the entry-level bike segment, in which it sells the HF Dawn model.A motorcade consisting 10 hypercars worth over Rs 314 crore enthralled Londoners as it drove down en masse from Pagani UKs North London headquarters, via the Capital, to Goodwood for the 25th-anniversary of the Festival of Speed. The procession included the most expensive car in world Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta priced at Rs 120 crore.

The Pagani Zonda HP Barchetta, only one of the three such open-topped models planned to be made, was driven by Horacio Pagani, the founder of Italian car maker. Among the three, one has been kept by Pagani himself and the other two are pre-sold.

The hypercar which debuted in the festival dethrones Rolls Royce Sweptail which was the most expensive car till now, priced at Rs 88 core or $12.8 million.

The company also debuted its Huayra Roadster at the festival and the two lakh plus crowd got a rare opportunity to witness both hypercars at once.

The 764 bhp, 210 mph production Huayra Roadster is a natural evolution of the sold-out Coupe, with raw power packaged into a 1,218 kg high-performance hypercar capable of the highest lateral acceleration ever seen on a car with road tyres at 1.8 G.

The Pagani Huayra Roadster and unique Zonda Barchetta were joined at Goodwood by the one-off Zonda Oliver Evolution, the very last 760 edition of the Zonda, made in 2016.

We were really delighted to be involved with the Goodwood Festival of Speed once again in such a high-profile way last weekend, and to be one of the many amazing attractions at this world-leading, must-attend event, Christine Clarkin, Pagani UKs Dealer Principal said.

It was very rewarding to meet with so many keen, appreciative and knowledgeable enthusiasts at Goodwood, especially given their appreciation of art and design meeting engineering excellence. The many excited and positive comments about our Pagani models was very gratifying to hear, and the having Horacio Pagani on hand to sign autographs and meet his many admirers was the icing on the cake of the truly excellent weekend, she added.Maruti Suzuki, the countrys largest car maker, will recall new Swift and new Dzire models to inspect a possible fault in the Airbag Controller Unit.

The Delhi-based company will recall 1,279 vehicles (566 new Swift and 713 new Dzire) manufactured between May 7, 2018 and July 5, 2018 for the exercise.

Starting July 25, 2018 owners of the vehicles included in this recall campaign will be contacted by Maruti Suzuki dealers for inspection and replacement of the faulty part free of cost, said a statement from the company.

This is the second recall announced by the company in the last two months. And this is also the second time that both Dzire and Swift have been recalled since their launch in May and February last year, respectively. The premium hatchback Baleno was also part of the recall announced in May.

Customers can check for their respective vehicles on the company website by filling in the chassis number (for new Swift  MBH  and for new Dzire  MA3  followed by 14 digit alpha-numeric number).

The chassis number is embossed on the vehicle ID plate and is also in the vehicle invoice/registration documents. Customers may also contact the nearest Maruti Suzuki dealer workshop to ascertain if their vehicle is among the lot to be recalled.

In May, around 52,686 new Swift and Baleno vehicles manufactured between December 1, 2017 and March 16, 2018, were recalled by the company to inspect a possible fault in the brake vacuum hose. The company did not term the exercise a recall but 'a service campaign to address a potential inconvenience to the customer'.

Earlier this week, Honda Cars India, the countrys fifth largest car maker, announced a recall of the all-new Amaze compact sedan to fix a potential issue with the electronic power steering. The recall is said to affect 7,290 units of the sedan, made between April 17 and May 24, 2018.9 | Chennai | Average annual growth: 8.17% (Image: Reuters)

The Madras High Court today quashed a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court order discharging former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran and others in the case of alleged setting up of "illegal" telephone exchanges to benefit the Sun TV Network of his brother Kalanithi Maran, holding there was 'heaps' of materials against them.

Allowing the CBI's criminal revision petition against their discharge, Justice G Jayachandran directed the special court to frame charges and conclude the trial within a year from the date of receipt of the copy of the high court order.

"This court is fully satisfied that heaps and heaps of materials are available to frame charges against all the accused. None of the reasons given by the trial court to discharge them is sustained in law," he said in his order.

The discharge order was "perverse and illegal" and bound to be set right for multiple reasons, the judge said adding that parameters laid down by the Supreme Court were grossly violated by the CBI court judge.

Referring to the arguments by counsel for Dayanidhi that he was instrumental in popularising broadband during his tenure, the Judge said it did not mean that he can claim privilege of unlimited usage of that facility for his brother and his business establishment free of cost.

"In a democratic country, an elected representative can never think like that nor the judicial system tolerates and entertains such thought," he said.

The special CBI court here had on March 14 discharged the two Maran brothers and five other accused, holding there was no prima facie case against them.

The case relates to the time when Dayanidhi, a grandnephew of DMK chief M Karunanidhi, was the minister for communications and information technology in the UPA-I government.

The CBI has alleged he misused his official position and got private telephone exchanges installed at his residences here which were used for business transactions of the Sun Network.

Kalanithi Maran, a billionaire businessman, is the chairman and founder of the Sun Group, which owns several media houses.

The CBI has moved the high court contending that the trial court was wrong in discharging the accused though a prima facie case was made out against them.

According to the CBI, over 700 high-end telecommunication lines were installed at their residences in Boat Club and Gopalapuram areas of the city for which bills were not raised, causing the exchequer a loss of Rs 1.78 crore during 2004-06

The other accused are former BSNL general manager K Brahmanathan, former deputy general manager M P Velusamy, Dayanidhi Maran's private secretary Gauthaman and some Sun TV officials.

Justice Jayachandran found fault with the trial court's order on several counts.

He said the lower court judge had totally forgotten the fact that he should only weigh the probability of the case for framing charges.

Making it clear that errors, illegality and perversity could be pointed out in the trial court order, the judge said first of all, the crux of the prosecution case, as recorded by the trial court, was factually wrong.

It was not one phone used by SUN TV with malafide. The case of the prosecution was violation of rules, regulations and guidelines related to MPs and grant of several phone connections to Dayanidhi and Kalanthi's business establishment illegally, Justice Jayachandran said.

If the materials placed before the court were proved, all the accused would be held guilty and punished for the offences mentioned in the final report, he said.

The trial court had extracted a few portions of the statements and documents selectively and had arbitrarily arrived at the conclusion that the violations pointed out were only a matter of a departmental enquiry.

He noted that the service category for a minister does not include ISDN, broadband, lease line connections and video conference facilities.A lawyer for Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, released an audio recording of a conversation between Trump and Cohen in which they discussed paying for the rights to a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair with Trump.

The recording was played on CNN Tuesday night. Cohen's lawyer Lanny Davis told the network he released the recording to dispute an assertion by Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani that tape would show that Trump made clear that if there were going to be a payment, it should be done by check, which would be easily traced. Giuliani has said the payment was never made.

According to Giuliani, in his transcript of the recording displayed by CNN on Tuesday, Trump says on the tape: "Don't pay with cash. Check."

In the recording, Trump can be heard saying "pay with cash." Cohen counters by repeatedly saying, "No."

Reuters was unable to verify the entire exchange between the two men because of the poor sound quality of the recording. Davis and Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The discussion of any payment could support claims by Trump's critics, including groups like Common Cause, that a payment benefited his presidential campaign and the failure to document it was a potential violation of US election laws.

Karen McDougal, the model, alleges she began a 10-month affair with Trump in 2006. Giuliani denies that Trump had an affair with McDougal.

Davis said the tape is among audio recordings that were seized by the FBI in a raid of Cohen's home and office in April.

It was turned over to federal prosecutors on Friday, according to a filing in federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

In the conversation, recorded in September 2016 at Trump Tower in New York, Cohen discusses setting up a company to make a payment apparently involving David Pecker, chief executive of American Media Inc (AMI) and a close friend of Trump's.

Cohen was proposing to pay AMI, which owns the National Enquirer, for the rights to McDougal's story. AMI had bought them from McDougal for $150,000 but AMI did not publish her story.

"I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, so that I'm going to do that right away," Cohen says in the recording.

AMI acknowledged holding those rights when it relinquished them in April after McDougal had filed a lawsuit against AMI. The company could not be immediately contacted for comment on whether it held any discussion about the transfer of the rights to Trump.

Federal prosecutors in New York are investigating Cohen for possible bank and tax fraud, and for possible campaign law violations linked to a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels and other matters related to Trump's campaign, a person familiar with the investigation has told Reuters.

Cohen has not been charged with any crime.Representative image

The European Union's budget commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, said on Wednesday the bloc could try to seek a wide reduction of tariffs in negotiations with the United States this year.

"In this way, we want to avoid a further escalation of the trade conflict, and to avoid a trade war," Oettinger, a German, told Deutschlandfunk radio.

"One could try to untangle the existing tariffs and then ... reduce tariffs for various goods and services."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker travels to Washington on Wednesday for talks focused on trade tensions after the U.S. imposition of tariffs on EU steel and aluminium and U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to extend those measures to European cars.

On Monday, the Commission said Juncker would not arrive in the United States for the talks with Trump with a specific trade offer.Tony Hayward | The former CEO of British Petroleum got into trouble for his comments on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April 2010, which is the largest marine oil spill ever. Hayward said, What the hell did we do to deserve this? He added that the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to have been very, very modest. (Image: Reuters)

Michael Oleary | Irish airline Ryanair's CEO has often attracted flak for some insensitive remarks. One of his many quotes that made headlines was, "If drink sales are falling off, we get the pilots to engineer a bit of turbulence. That usually spikes sales." (Image: Reuters)

Mike Jeffries | The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is one of the most controversial US retail CEOs. He once said, We hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that. (Image: Representational - Reuters)

Eric Schmidt | The former Google CEO was prone to gaffes during his career at the tech giant. On the topic of privacy, Schmidt had once said, We know where you are. We know where youve been. We can more or less know what youre thinking about. (Image: Reuters)

Satya Nadella | The CEO of Microsoft, Nadella once said that women must trust "karma" instead of asking for a pay hike, since hard work will always be rewarded. After making this controversial statement about gender pay gap, Nadella apologised and said he was completely wrong. (Image: Reuters)

Travis Kalanick | In 2017, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick got into trouble when a driver he was riding with, complained that pay was falling and so was peoples trust in the company. Kalanick was caught on camera saying, Some people dont like to take responsibility for their own s**t. They blame everything in their life on somebody else. Good luck! (Image: Reuters)

Akbar Al Baker | The Qatar Airways CEO made a sexist remark recently, where he said his position can only be handled by a man because it is a challenging job. He later withdrew the statement, after being criticised by a section of the media. (Image: Reuters)

Evan Spiegel | At the helm of the social media giant Snapchat, Spiegel earned disapproval from users in India when he said, This app is only for rich people. I dont want to expand into poor countries like India and Spain. (Image: Reuters)

John Schnatter | The former CEO of restaurant chain Papa Johns, Schnatter had to resign on account of using a racial slur. He reportedly said that KFC founder Colonel Sanders called "blacks n*****s" and never saw a backlash for it. Schnatter later admitted to using the word and apologised. He stepped down from the post recently. (Image: Reuters)U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis pauses as he testifies before the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on funding for the Department of Defense, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas - RC12DDE332C0

Accusing Iran of constantly demonstrating a destabilising influence, US Defence Secretary James Mattis said today it was time Tehran shaped up and behaved responsibly, as tensions between the nations remained high after an all-caps Twitter warning from Donald Trump.

"On Iran, I think that what we have to look at is the destabilising influence that Iran has consistently portrayed and demonstrated throughout the region," Mattis told reporters during a US-Australia ministerial.

He alleged that the "only reason" Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime was in power was because Iran has "stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him."

"We see the same kind of malfeasance down in Yemen, where they're fomenting more violence down there. We've seen their disruptive capabilities demonstrated from Bahrain to the kingdom," he said.

"It is time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation. It cannot continue to show irresponsibility as some revolutionary organisation that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption across the (Middle East) region," Mattis said in response to a question.

Mattis's warning came two days after US President Donald Trump threatened Iran of risking consequences "the likes of which few throughout history have suffered before".

Trump's Twitter warning had come in all caps.

"To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," Trump tweeted, adding that "WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!"

Reacting to Trump's tweets, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards had suggested that it was part of US's broader strategy. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani too had cautioned that America's hostile threats against his country may trigger "the mother of all wars."

The exchange of rhetoric came weeks after the US exited a landmark deal signed in 2015 which curbed Iran's nuclear activities in return for lifting of international sanctions.

Today, White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley reiterated that Iran has to stop its "destabilising behavior".

"It has to stop its sponsor of terrorism. It threatens consistently this country, not to mention our only ally in the region, in Israel. And it's one of the reasons the president got out of the Iran deal, because we now know that the Iran deal did not prevent the pathway to a nuclear weapon, but in fact paved it," he said in response to a question.

Gidley said Trump was working with America's partners and allies across the world. Iran will be a topic tomorrow for the discussions with the European Union and get Iran to stop this kind of behaviour, he said.

The president was serious in what he tweeted and said multiple times about holding Iran accountable and demeaning it stop this kind of behaviour, Gidley said.

The US is in talks with countries around the world to re-impose sanctions and hold the Iranian government responsible for the acts its government has been involved in many parts of the world, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her news conference.Ivanka Trump

US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump on Tuesday said she was shutting her fashion line to focus on her role as an informal White House adviser, where she is working on advancing working women.

Since Trump's surprise November 2016 election, his family has faced criticism that its portfolio of real estate and consumer goods businesses, which lean heavily on the Trump name as a marker of luxury, conflict with their roles as Washington officials.

Critics of the president called the shutting of the brand a victory for a boycott of Trump-tied businesses that began late in the 2016 campaign.

"After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington," Ivanka Trump, 36, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Amid criticism of potential conflicts of interest, Ivanka Trump in 2017 gave up day-to-day management of her clothing company and put its assets in a trust managed by family members.

Her company said licensing contracts would not be renewed and those in place will be allowed to run their course. Mid-priced women's clothing, shoes and accessories were sold under the label. The 18 people who work for the 11-year-old company will be laid off as it shuts down.

Since Trump's election, retailers including Nordstrom Inc , Hudson's Bay Co and Sears Holdings Corp have dropped or sharply scaled back their assortment of Trump-branded products, though they typically attributed those decisions to poor sales rather than political messages.

Ivanka Trump's brand said in a statement that retailers including Bloomingdale's, owned by Macy's Inc , Dillard's Inc and Amazon.com Inc , continued to carry her wares.

According to the Wall Street Journal, online sales of Ivanka Trump's brand fell nearly 55 percent in the 12 months to June, compared with the year-earlier period, citing Rakuten Intelligence, which gathers email receipts from 5.5 million US consumers.

Trump's combative style on the campaign trail and as president have drawn the family's brands into political fights, with some supporters hosting events at the luxury Trump International Hotel blocks from the White House even as opponents stage boycotts.

The president has been a loud advocate for domestic manufacturing, prompting criticism that much of the Ivanka Trump line was made overseas, as is the vast majority of clothing and footwear sold in the United States. According to media reports, much of her product line has been sourced from China, which is the target of tariffs imposed by the president in a trade conflict.

The most organised boycott of Trump-related businesses, "Grab Your Wallet," called the news about Ivanka's business a victory.

"This is the biggest possible win for Grab Your Wallet," the group's co-founder, Shannon Coulter, a San Francisco marketing executive, said in a phone interview.Syria: 56 reported dead in attacks in south - SOHR In the province of Sweida, 30 injured

(ANSAmed) - DAMASCUS, JULY 25 - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday that at least 56 people have died in attacks in the southern Syrian province of Sweida, which targeted the city by the same name. According to state-run television Al-Ikhbariya, 38 people died and 30 were injured. The broadcaster said that two attackers blew themselves up at a market and a square in the city of Sweida.



The UK-based monitoring group added that the victims included 28 members of pro-government forces.(ANSAmed).



A legal battle that had lasted for over a decade, between Norwegian chocolate bar maker Kvikk Lunsj and Nestle, finally has ended with Lunsj having the last laugh. Nestle has been fighting for the ownership of trademark for their four-finger Kit-Kat bars shape and logo since 2002 in Europe.

Initially, the European court had granted Kit-Kat the trademark after seesawing for four years.

Kvikk Lunsj owns Cadbury, Milka, Oreo, and Toblerone brands as well. In 2007, Cadbury Schweppes challenged the verdict, leading to an 11-year-legal tussle between them. Following which, the European court had asked Nestle to prove its uniqueness in every country in Europe. Four countries provided no evidence whatsoever in favour to nestle.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on July 25 provided the final verdict over the trademark case. In its verdict, the judges established that the four finger shape of Kit-Kat is distinctive enough to deserve a pan-European trademark as per a report in The Hindu.

Kit-Kat was established in 1937, two years after Kvikk Lunsj. Mondelez will now be able to market and sell their Norwegian quick lunch bar throughout EU.A taxi driver holds up smoke bombs during a strike against what they say is unfair competition from ride-hailing and car-sharing services such as Uber and Cabify in Barcelona, Spain. (Image: REUTERS)

A man walks on a garbage-strewn beach in Mumbai. (Image: REUTERS)

A man swims past Christo's floating sculpture "The London Mastaba" on the Serpentine in London. (REUTERS)

Women help a child to cross over to the other house on a wooden plank after flash floods in Tailbal, on the outskirts of Srinagar. (Image: REUTERS)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a nursery in Kangwon Province in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

A man looks at the flames as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece. (Image: REUTERS)

People dressed as Santa Claus wave from a canal boat as they take part in the World Santa Claus Congress, an annual event held every summer in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Image: REUTERS)

A supporter of Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), political party, wears a mask and dance on party songs during a campaign rally ahead of general elections in Karachi, Pakistan. (Image: REUTERS)

An artist called "Le Bourreau/The Headsman" takes part in the festival "Statues en Marche" in Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium. (Image: REUTERS)Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping at BRICS

Harsh V Pant

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are both in Africa wooing the continent before they settle down for the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg. Where Beijing is dazzling Africa with the scale of its resources and the ambition of its projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), New Delhi is hoping to energise its outreach based on its traditional historical ties with the continent, as well as a more participatory approach in decision-making.

It is clear though that both Asian powers are trying to attract the resource-rich African continent and are in the process often looking like competitors. The BRICS summit in Johannesburg, which started on Wednesay, will therefore, allow them to take a step back and look at their bilateral engagement more holistically.

It comes after the famous informal summit in Wuhan between Modi and Xi in the last week of April where the two leaders tried to galvanise India-China ties in a positive direction. It was clear from the summit that key bilateral differences continue to plague the relationship.

Structural factors that have determined the trajectory of this relationship for the past two decades continue to be influential and are not going to disappear overnight. What is equally clear is that top leaderships in both countries are cognisant of the challenges that bedevil their relationship and would like to stabilise their relations.

Contrary to what many seem to be suggesting, India did not go into this Summit from a position of weakness. After standing up to the Chinese border adventurism at Doklam in 2017, and by taking a principled but consistent position on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), India made it clear to China that it will not succumb to brute Chinese power. It is because of this reason that the Chinese President accorded the Indian Prime Minister the honour of an informal Summit, which is rare and usually reserved for American presidents.

It must be remembered that it is China that is facing negative headwinds today with the Trump administrations clampdown on tariffs and voices growing around the world against the predatory practices of the BRI. At a time when China is yet to complete its restructuring of the domestic economy, it is important for Beijing to work together with New Delhi given the shared global economic climate.

The idea that India and China share convergent interests on the global stage and so need to work together is not new. Throughout the early 1990s, it was this idea on which the broader India-China partnership was predicated upon. In fact, the Russia-India-China trilateral arrangement and the BRICS platform evolved out of this synergy.

India and China spoke in one voice against western interventionist policies in the 1990s and stood up against the West in global trade and climate change negotiations. It is recent that this engagement has been weakening partly because Beijing seemed keener on reaching bilateral understanding with major western powers without taking New Delhi into account.

If today China is once again talking about working together with India on global economic issues, there seems to be a realisation in Beijing that western opinion is turning against it rather rapidly. China would need partners which can help it alleviate some of these challenges. Its traditional partner of choice, Russia, wont be of much help as it is not fully integrated into the global economic order and has also burned its bridges with the West. India, meanwhile, remains an emerging economic power  both with the heft and credibility  to shape the global economic architecture, in partnership with the West.

At Johannesburg, China will rally India and others to support economic globalisation and multilateralism and make a stand against Donald Trumps protectionist tendencies. Bilaterally, it would seek greater cooperation from India.

Given Indias high stakes in the globalised economic order, New Delhi would not be hesitant to offer this support. But New Delhi should also be aware that a US-China trade spat opens up new possibilities for India, both vis-a-vis Beijing and Washington, and it should not be hesitant to exploit them. A transactional approach in global diplomacy is needed at this time of widespread global disruption.Aaghaz-e-Dostis Pakistan chapter convener Raza Khan, who had gone missing seven and half months back from Lahore, Pakistan, has safely returned home. The Lahore Police confirmed the news.

As per a report by The Times of India, his safe return has rejoiced peace activists in both the countries - India and Pakistan. Raza Khan went missing on December 2, 2017, and his return was announced on Friday. Khan has not yet shared any information on his captivity and return citing security reasons.

Aaghaz-e-Dosti is a friendship initiative between the citizens of India and Pakistan. The organisation devoted to promoting peace, conducts various activities, like calendar release and painting competitions on both the sides of the border.

Reacting to the news, Devika Mitral, Aaghaz-e-Dosti India chapter convener tweeted, We wish all the missing persons should return safely so that their families could heave a sigh of relief. Devika was constantly in touch with her Pakistan counterparts and did not miss peace initiatives.

Other prominent peace activists also expressed their happiness including Diep Saeeda, Pakistani peace activist who said, It is a matter of utmost satisfaction that finally Raza has returned.

Connecting Khans return to upcoming Pakistan elections, a Pakistan-based writer-activist said that Khans return in such a situation should be seen as nothing less than a miracle, led by peace activists.

The last seven months saw various protests organised seeking Khans return.US President Donald Trump took a pessimistic view of talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker set for Wednesday aimed at averting a trade war.

In a tweet on Tuesday night, Trump said both the United States and the European Union should drop all tariffs, barriers and subsidies.

"That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade!" Trump said. "Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!" he said.

Trump has accused the EU of unfair trade practices and has threatened to raise tariffs on cars imported from the bloc.

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who will accompany Juncker, said last week that the EU was preparing a list of US products to hit if the United States imposed the tariffs.

Juncker will not arrive in Washington with a specific trade offer, the commission said on Monday.

"I do not wish to enter into a discussion about mandates, offers because there are no offers," Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a news conference in Brussels.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has said he expected Juncker to come with a "significant" trade offer.Washington: FILE- In this combination of file photos, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 16, 2018, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a meeting with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in in Panmunjom, South Korea, on April 27, 2018. Ahead of a planned summit Tuesday, June 12, in Singapore between President Donald Trump and North Korean autocrat Kim Jong Un, there has been talk of complete denuclearization, North Korea has shut down (for now) its nuclear test site, and senior U.S. and North Korean officials have shuttled between Pyongyang and Washington for meetings with Kim and Trump. The top U.S. diplomat declared that AuChairman Kim shares the objectives with the American peopleAu amid talk of a grand bargain that could see North Korean disarmament met with a massive influx of outside aid. AP/PTI(AP6_8_2018_000010B)

Praising his "good relationship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, US President Donald Trump today welcomed reports that Pyongyang has started dismantling a facility seen as a testing ground for intercontinental ballistic missiles. New satellite imagery shows "that North Korea has begun the process of dismantling a key missile site, and we appreciate that," Trump said at an event for military veterans in Kansas City, Missouri.

Hitting back at criticism that his June 12 summit with Kim in Singapore has so far yielded few concrete results, Trump suggested his newfound rapport with Kim was bearing fruit.

"We had a fantastic meeting with Chairman Kim and it seems to be going very well," Trump said.

After the summit, Trump had declared the North Korean nuclear threat was effectively over, but some US media reports suggest he has been privately furious at the pace of subsequent progress on the denuclearization issue.

US-based website 38 North published imagery Monday indicating Pyongyang has begun taking down a processing building and a rocket-engine test stand that had been used to test liquid-fuel engines at its Sohae Satellite Launching Station.

Sohae, on the northwest coast of North Korea, is ostensibly a facility designed for putting satellites into orbit, but rocket engines are easily repurposed for use in missiles and the international community has labelled Pyongyang's space programme a fig leaf for weapons tests.

38 North analyst Joseph Bermudez called the move an "important first step" for Kim in fulfilling a promise Trump said the North Korean leader had made.

But some experts urged caution and one US defence official played down the news, saying the Sohae site was not a priority in terms of monitoring the North's denuclearization efforts.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the imagery was "entirely consistent" with commitments Kim made to Trump during their summit in Singapore.

"We've been pressing for there to be inspectors on the ground when that engine test facility is dismantled, consistent with Chairman Kim's commitment," Pompeo said today at a news conference in California.

"They need to completely, fully denuclearize. That's the steps that Chairman Kim committed to and that the world has demanded," Pompeo added.

Yesterday, Trump told the Veterans of Foreign Wars group that he was hopeful the question of repatriating the remains of US troops killed during the Korean War would be addressed shortly.

The long-simmering topic was highlighted in a joint statement signed by Trump and Kim, with the US and North Korea committing to recovering remains, "including the immediate repatriation of those already identified." "At the very end of our meeting, I said to Chairman Kim - good relationship, good feeling - I said, 'I would really appreciate if you could do that'," Trump said.

"He said, 'It will be done.'"

On June 20, Trump erroneously said 200 human remains had already "been sent back" from North Korea, but the issue is far from resolved and Pyongyang has already canceled at least one meeting to discuss the return of the remains.

We are "working to bring back the remains of your brothers-in-arms who gave their lives in Korea," Trump said today.

"I hope that very soon these fallen warriors will begin coming home to lay at rest in American soil." In a sign of Washington's impatience with what it sees as North Korean foot-dragging on the denuclearization issue, Pompeo was in New York last week urging UN member states to keep tough economic sanctions in place to pressure Kim into moving forward.

China and Russia have argued that North Korea should be rewarded with the prospect of eased sanctions for opening up dialogue with the United States and halting missile tests.

South Korea has also pushed ahead with its reconciliation with the North since a landmark inter-Korean summit in April.

Seoul's defense ministry said today it was considering withdrawing some troops from the border Demilitarized Zone on a trial basis - a move which could expand into a gradual pullout.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically at war. The DMZ was designated as a buffer zone, but the areas to the north and south of it are heavily fortified.

More than 35,000 Americans were killed on the Korean peninsula during the war, with 7,700 of these US troops still listed as missing in action - most of them in North Korea.Britain's Serious Fraud Office is seeking to reinstate fraud charges against Barclays over its emergency fundraising from Qatar in the financial crisis, the bank said today. The SFO has lodged an application in London's High Court to seek the reinstatement of all charges against Barclays Bank and its parent company Barclays plc linked to the Qatar fundraising.

Barclays added in a brief statement that it planned to defend itself against the move.

Tuesday's news comes more than two months after London's Southwark Crown Court had dismissed criminal charges against Barclays over the Qatar fundraising.

In late afternoon deals, Barclays shares rose 1.47 percent to 189.32 pence on London's FTSE 100 index, which was 0.87 percent higher at 7,722.26 points.American envoy to the UN Nikki Haley

US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley today criticised Middle Eastern countries for not doing enough to help Palestinians and move the peace process forward, saying that they need to "step up." "It is time for the regional states in particular to step up and really help the Palestinian people, instead of just making speeches thousands of miles away," Haley said at a monthly meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle East.

"Where are the Arab countries when it comes to encouraging reconciliation between Palestinian factions, which is essential to peace? Where are the Arab countries when it comes to denouncing Hamas terrorism? Where are the Arab countries when it comes to supporting compromises that are necessary for peace?"

Haley highlighted American assistance to the Palestinians, saying that Washington provided $300 million in bilateral aid last year, and "over six billion - with a B - dollars in bilateral assistance to Palestinians" since 1993.

She also mentioned US aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) - but without saying that total has been significantly cut.

Since January, US financing for humanitarian programs serving Palestinians has been suspended.

"How much have the Arab countries - some of whom are wealthy countries - how much have they given to the Palestinians?" she asked.

"Last year, Iran's contribution to UNRWA was zero. Algeria's contribution to UNRWA was zero. Tunisia's contribution to UNRWA was zero," Haley said.

Her French counterpart Francois Delattre asked the US to reconsider its decision to cut aid to UNRWA, calling on Washington "to shoulder its responsibilities" to help fill the agency's estimated $200 million gap.

Saudi Arabia has over the past two decades provided "$6 billion to the Palestinians in humanitarian assistance, development aid and relief," its ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, responded.Vijay Mallya

The UK's Court of Appeal has refused Vijay Mallya the permission to appeal against a High Court order in favour of 13 Indian banks to recover funds amounting to nearly 1.145 billion pounds, in another setback to the embattled liquor tycoon.

The 62-year-old businessman, who is separately undergoing an extradition trial in a UK court over fraud and money laundering charges by Indian authorities, had sought permission to appeal against the High Court order dated May 8.

In the ruling, Judge Andrew Henshaw had refused to overturn a worldwide order freezing Mallya's assets and also denied permission to appeal, which left Mallya with the only option of turning to the Court of Appeal.

Judge Henshaw's order marked the first recorded case of a judgment of the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) in India being registered by the English High Court, setting a legal precedent.

The Court of Appeal judges looked into Mallya's application seeking permission to appeal and decided against it yesterday.

As a result of the High Court order, the Indian banks - State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Corporation bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank, United Bank of India and JM Financial Asset Reconstruction Co Pvt Ltd - have the right to enforce the Indian judgment against Mallya's assets in England and Wales.

"In the event permission has been refused, then the decision of the judge is final and Mallya does not have any further recourse of appeal against his decision," said Kartik Mittal, Senior Solicitor at London-based Zaiwalla & Co LLP.

"The English judicial system does not give parties an unfettered right to appeal. The right to appeal is restricted. A party can only appeal a decision of the first instance Court if the first instance Court or the Appellate Court gives the party permission to appeal," he explained.

"A party is granted permission to appeal only in cases where the appeal appears to have a real prospect of success or there is some other compelling reason why the appeal should be heard. Therefore, in majority of the cases permission is refused," he added.

In a related High Court ruling on June 26, Justice Bryan had issued an enforcement order in favour of the banks, granting permission to the UK High Court Enforcement Officer to enter Mallya's properties in Hertfordshire, near London, where he is based.

While it is not an instruction to enter and that particular order can be appealed against, the banks have the option to use the order as one of the means to recover funds owed to them.

"The High Court Enforcement Officer, including any Enforcement Agent acting under his authority, may use reasonable force to enter the Property if necessary," it states.

Mallya has since said that he has handed over a full statement of his UK assets to the court and there was no question of use of force to enter his home Ladywalk in the village of Tewin in England.

The former Kingfisher Airlines boss had also issued a lengthy media statement last month, condemning the charges against him as politically motivated.

He then took to social media to clarify that he made the statement "after a long period of silence" because he had filed an application before the Karnataka High Court on June 22, setting out available assets of approximately Rs 13,900 crores.

"Media reports quote an ED [Enforcement Directorate] official stating that I am attempting a plea bargain. Would respectfully suggest that the official read the ED charge sheet first," Mallya had said in his last Twitter message on the issue on June 30.

"I would invite the ED to advance the same plea bargain theory in Court in front of whom I have placed my assets," he said.

Meanwhile, Mallya remains on bail since his arrest on an extradition warrant in April last year.

He will return for his extradition hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on July 31, when closing arguments are expected from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), acting on behalf of the Indian government, and Mallya's defence team.

A judgment is expected in the case at a later date, which will be arranged by Judge Emma Arbuthnot.

While the CPS claims it has successfully established a prima facie case of fraud against the businessman, Mallya's lawyers have sought to establish that the criminal charges against him are "without substance".

They have also challenged the case on human rights grounds, questioning the conditions at Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai, where the businessman is to be held post-extradition.ROME - Unicef has warned against attacks on water systems in Yemen in a statement.

''A large water facility in Sa'ada, northwest of the country, came under attack this week. This is the third such attack on the same facility. More than half of the project is now damaged, cutting off 10,500 people from safe drinking water''.

The organization said it ''deplores in the strongest terms yet another attack on vital and lifesaving water systems in Yemen''.

''Continuous attacks on water systems in Yemen are cutting off children and their families from water; increasing the likelihood of water-borne diseases spreading in the war-torn country'', the organization also said. It said that the conflict has severly affected the water and sanitation system of Yemen, leaving 8.6 million children without access to drinking water, putting them at risk of illnesses including cholera and acute diarrhea.HSBC Bank Canada has announced its intentions of establishing even deeper roots into the Canadian retail banking segment, after seeing much success on the mortgage market.

Over the past 18 months, the countrys seventh-largest lender  which has traditionally leaned upon its commercial business for profit  has undercut other major banks in its bid for supremacy in the retail market. HSBC Canada currently offers 5-year variable mortgages at a 2.39% rate.

Weve let the market know that were open for business, senior vice-president Barry Gollom told the Financial Post earlier this month. We have seen a growth in market share on the mortgage side, on the deposit side.93% of Canadian home owners aged 65 and over expressed a belief that it is important for them to live in their current homes in their retirement years, according to a recent poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of HomeEquity Bank.

The survey  which was conducted between June 15 and June 18, 2018  also found that in stark contrast to Canadian seniors preferences, only 55% of respondents aged 25-34 said that its important for them to stay in their homes when retired.

69% of senior home owners in Canada wish not to move away during retirement to maintain a sense of independence. Meanwhile, 51% said that they want to stay close to family, friends, or their communities, and 40% pointed at emotional attachments and memories as their motivation for staying put.Catalonia: Puidgemont announces return to Brussels After end of extradition trial in Spain

(ANSAmed) - BERLIN, JULY 25 - After the end of his extradition trial, the Catalan separatist leader, Carles Puigdemont, will leave Germany next weekend to return to Belgium. Puigdemont made the announcement during a press conference in Berlin.



In Brussels, Puigdemont said he means to ''continue to work on what was started on October 1'', during his first press conference in Berlin since the closure of the procedure. The Catalan leader continued saying: ''I have a mandate from the people that I intend to respect and exercise''.



It is a ''strange image'' for the Spanish government to talk with Eta and not with the Catalans, he also said. Talking about alleged connections between Catalan separatists and Russia, Puidgemont said that ''there were lots of fake news on relations between Russia and Catalonia. There is so far no concrete sign to prove this''. (ANSAmed)BEARDSTOWN  A Beardstown businessman is contesting an ordinance violation citation and threatening to sell one of his renovation projects over grievances against the citys mayor.

Mike Mullen of Beardstown aired his grievances at Tuesdays city council meeting, with little response from city council members and none from the mayor. After renovating the former Texaco gas station on East Fourth Street, Mullen bought the former Studebaker dealership on North State Street with plans to renovate it as storage for his vintage car collection.

Now Mullen said he intends to sell the property and abandon the project because of recent citations he has received from the city.

Whats going on here? Were trying to get business into town, Mullen said. I cut the head off. I said Im going to sell it. Im out. Im out, if this is what youre going to do.

Mullen bought the property around three months ago. While Mullen was working on the property, the citys code enforcement officer cited him for improperly parking a work trailer at the site.

Mullen appeared in court July 12 to contest the citation and take it to a hearing.

Mayor Leslie Harris confirmed that the citation is in litigation, which prevents her from discussing the matter, but she did note that city representatives had talked to Mullen about the trailer on several occasions.

The dispute grew Saturday, when workers Mullen had contracted for the site needed a water source for about 15 minutes, he said. With water to the building not yet connected, Mullen called Harris several times.

Harris, who was not working that day, did not answer Mullens calls  nor was she obligated to.

Mullen, recalling a previous instance in which he was allowed to use a park water hookup, then attached a hose to the parks water supply without permission. Shortly after, Mullen was issued a ticket for theft of city water.

I called to see if they would send an officer down there to see if they would ask Mr. Mullen what problem he had, Harris said. There was an agreement two months ago with our department head, Gary Hamilton. At that time (Hamilton) said yes. (Mullen) knows he was in the wrong Saturday.

Hamilton confirmed that such an agreement had been made for a single use. Mullen was fined $100 for Saturdays water usage.

Mullen also claims that Harris interfered in a potential business deal Mullen was working on for the renovated Texaco building.

He came here to talk to the mayor about getting a license to open this place up, Mullen said. A couple other people showed up to see about renting or leasing it. She told them that she would advise them not to have anything to do with it because I have (Tax Increment Financing) funds on it and she hasnt got to it yet, but theres going to be legal matters against Mr. Mullen, she said.

Theres no litigation involving the property and theres no planned litigation, Harris said.

I know what hes saying is not true, Harris said. Ive always been pro-business and you can look at our current activities and our future planned activities as evidence to that.

Regardless of the dispute between Mullen and Harris, the sale of the Studebaker building would be unfortunate, Beardstown Chamber of Commerce Director Kim Hance said.

Its very disappointing, Hance said. You dont get these opportunities very often. Not everybody is beating down your door to fix up empty old buildings and make them something that could cause money to be brought into town.  I just hope in the future were better about reaching out to people who want to make our community more than it is and supporting them. Maybe we need to develop a plan to do so.

Former Mayor Steve Patterson, who felt the citations were detrimental to projects that would benefit the city, also spoke in support of Mullen.

A lot of people may not like Mike, but to have someone thats putting money into these old buildings, you want to help him, Patterson said. Help him; dont put him down.

Harris said she has no personal vendetta against Mullen and noted that the city has helped him in the past, including one instance when they created two public parking spots in front of his business. She said she encourages him to continue doing business in Beardstown and stressed that nobody is out to stop him.

I dont know where hes coming from. You cant control what people say, Harris said. I do know my city and my employees are 100 percent honest.

Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.

The decimation of The Daily News brings back memories of the two-and-a-half miserable years I worked there. I had been hired away from the Chicago Sun-Times, where Id spent happy times during the early 1980s  actually thrilling years  before Rupert Murdoch bought it. To my ridiculously innocent surprise I discovered that a NYC tabloid by contrast could be a back-stabbing horror of a place to work, especially if youve been enlisted as some kind of out-of-town star to write fancy Sunday features about Hollywood movies and Broadway theater. The general thunking went like this: Our fair city runneth over with talented feature writers, so why have the people in charge bothered us by looking elsewhere? But never mind.

I sat next to Jay Maeder , an inimitable writer (brought in from the Miami Herald, I should add) who would go on to a stellar Daily News career. Behind me sat Rosemary Breslin (Jimmys daughter), a first-class human being with a smile as bright as a headlamp, generosity to spare, and a great sense of humor. She would later write Not Exactly What I Had in Mind: An Incurable Love Story , a delicious memoir as touching as any Ive read. They were my oasis of friendliness  along with Harry Haun (a film and theater specialist, and a celebrity connoisseur), and a few others among those I regarded as mostly a cold bunch of trench mates.

Even then there were so few resources that the feature reporters had to share computers to write their stories. Whoever got to a computer first claimed it, and you didnt get up out of your chair or you lost your place and risked not making your deadline. At one point I was assigned to write Liz Smiths column when she went on vacation. That gave me the envied perk of computer privileges because her column not only ran daily, anchored on page 10 of the paper, but was syndicated to 80 or so other dailies around the country. I didnt want the column. Harry had written it in her absence, but for some unknown reason (probably because a higher-up bore him a grudge) Harry was pulled, and I was assigned to the job.

While I wrote the column, the paper renamed it St*r Talk and gave it a logo with my name in bold letters. I was suddenly a big shot. All that was missing was my name on the side of the Daily News delivery trucks. A deluge of press releases from every publicist for every celebrity and every restaurant in town landed on my desk every morning. I ignored them, although to keep Smiths regular supplicants happy I couldnt avoid using a few. Since I had some contacts in the world of broadcast television and preferred to do my own reporting, I highlighted insider info with a column lede like this:

Just when Maria Shriver must have thought it was safe to go to work at The CBS Morning News, where shes co-anchor with Forrest Sawyer, comes a report that CBS News boss Van Gordon Sauter is secretly talking about hiring Connie Chung away from NBC for  guess what  the Morning News.

I suppose Maria Shrivers name still has cache, but Connie Chung? Forrest Sawyer (was that his real name?)? Van Gordon who? Sometimes I got unsolicited tips and mounted a soap box with a lede like this:

Its astonishing what a little notoriety will do. Rock Hudsons ex-lover Marc Christian, whose only purchase on fame is his claim that Rock never told him he had AIDS, is being paged by the United States Information Agency for its anti-AIDS campaign south of the border. Cant the government think of a better expert for our tax dollars?

When the agency complained about the item, I followed up like this (not forgetting the value of re-using milkable names):

INFORMATION, PLEASE: The United State Information Agency phoned to say its not paying half the production cost of a Chilean TV broadcast on AIDS featuring Rock Hudsons ex-lover Marc Christian, as we told you. Its merely financing the cost of the camera crews travel to and within the country, a spokesman says. And Christian is only one of many experts theyll be interviewing. So how much will it cost? $3,000. Maybe theyre traveling by donkey.

Because I liked books, I highlighted publishing news with lead items like this (to my editors displeasure):

The rise of the Mutant Elite is Marcelle Clements brilliant term for the growing population of hard-boiled men and tough women who never feel helpess because theyre too busy acquiring money and power. You can tell when youre among the Mutant Elite, Clements points out in her must-read book of essays, The Dog Is Us (Viking, $17.95), because of their fondness for expressions like, Hes such a barracuda  said, of course, with grudging admiration.

My assignment lasted for two sweaty weeks in the middle of winter, and I filled the space with bold-face names like Sally Field, Gene Hackman, Tina Turner, John McEnroe, Jane Fonda, Steven Spielberg, Mary Tyler Moore, Omar Sharif, and Barbra Streisand, never forgetting to attach a zinger of some kind if possible. For instance:

Nobody ever accused Chevy Chase of good taste. The Spies Like Us star, who knocks back movies like a shot and a beer at the neighborhood tavern, says John Belushi turned down the script in a radical way  he died. Nor has Chase ever been accused of having a small ego. When John was alive and working, he never really did anything memorable besides Animal House,' Chase says. He came to me when he was cast in Continental Divide, which I had turned down, to ask me how to play a romantic lead.

The papers editor-in-chief Gil Spencer, whom I didnt know, ran into me in the hallway one time and asked in a joking tone whether I was embarrassed by having to write all that stuff. I was glad to be rid of the assignment when Liz Smith returned. But Spencers remark told me that a former Pulitzer Prize winner (for editorial writing before he came to the News) was reading me. Such was the high point of those miserable years.We often think of community as a place, which of course is true. In towns and cities, people share space  usually inhabiting a piece of land together. The Latin root of the word also means sharing in common, which can mean holding a shared belief or pursuing a common interest or perspective.

I have been fortunate to see the world in both dimensions. Having traveled to more than 100 countries for work, study and adventure, I have often enjoyed wandering thorough exotic and interesting towns and villages, as well as the neighborhoods of cities big and small.

Some have been quite pleasant and welcoming, like mountain villages in Bavaria or irrigated farm fields in Afghanistans Logar Province. (I lived in Germany as a child, in the self-contained communities of post-war American military bases. Much later, I traveled outside Kabul in 2002, after the repressive Taliban had been driven from power and a kind of normalcy was returning.)

One can often measure the vitality of a place and its people by the nighttime buzz. They might be teeming with life around the clock, as in Lisbon and London as well as Dhaka in Bangladesh. Or they might be quiet as a cemetery, as Prague was back in the last years of communism when I visited before 1989, or as Dushanbe in Tajikistan remains today.

As readers, we can travel even farther afield through time and space, visiting grim and gruesome places we would likely not know otherwise. For instance, in her marvelous new book, Amity and Prosperity, Eliza Griswold tells the tale of two tiny towns in southwest Pennsylvania bearing those names, and of the fierce attachment to broken-down homes and failed farms by the struggling Americans who live there, and who become divided over the promise of windfall wealth, and the threats to their health, that comes to town with the fracking industry.

In a somewhat different vein, The New York Times reported recently about the rough justice meted in Mosul, Iraq, when the brutal Islamic State held power for several years until its recent liberation. No matter how difficult life can be, sometimes people just want to stay close to home, usually meaning family, or cannot escape.

Of course, many people have no choice but to live in desperate situations. One of the most widely shared residential experiences in the world today is to live in an impoverished shanty town on the outskirts of a major metropolis.

The favelas of Brazil or the barrios of Mexico can look and feel a lot like the slums of India, where millions of families struggle to survive on pennies a day. They lack indoor plumbing or reliable electricity, usually go without official streets or addresses, and often live within walking distance of gleaming high-rise office or apartment buildings. Sadly, the same conditions exist in some colonias in South Texas.

In the Philippines, these neighborhoods are called barangays, the native Filipino Tagalog word for a village. When I visited some of these barangays last year, in the city of Navotas  a highly urbanized city in its own right that is also a part of Metro Manila  I was struck by vivid juxtapositions. The barangays were simultaneously cozy and perilous.

There was the immaculately tidy church of the parish priest who took us on a walking tour and the dirty hovels in which people crammed their families under wobbly roofs in the rain. There were dirty, barefoot children zigzagging happily through unpaved shantytown alleyways and the anxious faces of their parents with whom we spoke.

These fragile villages-within-a-city were, and remain, imperiled by President Rodrigo Dutertes murderous drug war. By the end of last year, Human Rights Watch calculated, more than 12,000 drug suspects had been killed. Often the dead were not drug dealers at all, but drug users with meager prospects of finding help with their addictions.

There are other kinds of communities, some stretching across borders and uniting like-minded men and women who share something in common beyond location. A powerful example is the bond that law enforcement officers share around the country, knowing they encounter similar challenges no matter where they live and work. Or, more playfully, there are the scattered devotees of a band, like the Grateful Dead or U2.

I was reminded of this definition of community in June at a gathering of men and women concerned about the current global demise of democratic performance and the disappearance of U.S. leadership from the world order long championed by Washington.

An ocean away, far from my current home in Maryland, I felt also at home, part of a community with whom I share a worldview  one that aspires to a world based on free peoples, living under just laws, open borders and free trade. It was noteworthy that virtually all of the participants were not governmental officials; the center-of-gravity of the trans-Atlantic democratic community appear to have decisively shifted recently from officialdom to civil society  to writers and journalists, educators and scholars, business people and religious leaders.

On the trip back, I realized that communities are constructed  and not just by engineers, architects and builders.

Tom Melia is Washington director of PEN America and former fellow of Human Freedom at the George W. Bush Institute. This essay originally appeared in The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute.Donald Trump hasnt shown a lot of love lately toward Americas European allies.

On his recent trip to Europe, he dismissed Germany as Moscows minion and called the European Union a foe. Hes also treated NATO as an alliance to be bullied into submission rather than as the premier method of coordinating security policy with friendly nations. He even threatened to pull the United States out of the alliance.

Its tempting to stick up for any victim of Trumps bullying. But NATOs strong enough to fight its own battles. It will easily shrug off Trumps insane insistence that NATO members spend 4 percent of their GDP on their militaries, a figure that even the United States doesnt reach.

Trumps temper tantrum has made one thing clear, however. NATO is obsolescent.

Nearly 30 years, the United States had a golden opportunity to demilitarize trans-Atlantic relations. The Warsaw Pact disappeared in March 1991, followed by the Soviet Union at the end of the same year. NATO, a bulked-up heavyweight, was suddenly alone in the ring, swinging at nothing but air.

Instead of retiring the alliance at the top of its game, however, the United States insisted on finding new opponents to fight. NATO was drawn into out-of-area operations in the first Gulf War. It intervened in the wars in former Yugoslavia throughout the 1990s. And it participated in its first full-scale war in Afghanistan in 2003.

However you feel about those wars, NATO was not an indispensable force in the fighting. If NATO had dissolved in 1991, along with the Warsaw Pact, European countries could have decided individually, on a case-by-case basis, whether to partner with the United States in those conflicts.

On the contrary, instead of dissolving, NATO grew. It spread eastward, absorbing the former Warsaw Pact nations of East-Central Europe and encroaching on the borders of Russia itself with the incorporation of the Baltic states in 2004. At least part of the tension in U.S.-Russian relations stems from Moscows perceptions of NATO (and Western) meddling in the affairs of its neighbors.

Instead of sticking with NATO, the United States should have helped build an organization devoted to collective security that included Russia as an equal member. However, the George H.W. Bush administration made the deliberate decision to undercut just such an organization  the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe  and ensure that it would always be the poorer cousin of NATO.

Today, Europe finds itself caught between a more aggressive Russia and a more unpredictable United States. It has justifiable concerns about Russian actions in Ukraine and its shows of force around the Baltic states. But Europe is also shocked by Trumps imposition of tariffs on European goods and the presidents open hostility toward European values.

True, Trump may not last more than an additional two years, and even Putin wont be Russian president forever. Europes instinct, at the moment, is to hunker down and preserve NATO. But thats a mistake.

Instead, Europe should bring an end to its Cold War relationship with the United States. It should stop feeling compelled to fight the wasteful wars the United States starts. It should make its own decisions about how much money to spend on its militaries. And it should stop subsidizing Americas global footprint through a network of military bases from Ireland to Turkey.

By staying in NATO, Europe has done little to temper the worst excesses of U.S. militarism. The United States has gone ahead with wars whether NATO was on board or not, as was the case with the Iraq War in 2003.

Europe has already taken steps to create its own independent military force. In December, 25 of 28 EU member states agreed to finance European military capabilities and begin integrating their militaries. A Franco-German brigade, established in 1989, could serve as the foundation of a European army.

Together, Europe has enough firepower to deal with any external threat. France and Germany together spend nearly twice what Russia does on the military. And without the persistent pressure of NATOs eastern ambitions, Europe might well be able to negotiate a more cooperative set of relationships with Russia.

In other words, Europe should take advantage of Trumps overtly hostile attitude to get out of a relationship that has brought more drawbacks than benefits. Its time for Europe to call Donald Trumps bluff and strike off on its own.

John Feffer directs the Foreign Policy in Focus program at the Institute for Policy Studies. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.Religion and the Law: Police and ...Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's rise as House Speaker has sown confusion about the new structure of the lower chamber of Congress.

According to House Rules, the majority is composed of "members who vote for the winning candidate for Speaker." After the power struggle among administration allies on Monday, who is the new and true minority?

The Pampanga representative unseated her predecessor Pantaleon Alvarez after more than 200 lawmakers voted for a change in leadership. Davao Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio was reported to have had a hand in the ouster.

A total of 184 congressmen voted for Arroyo, including Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, who was Minority Leader under Alvarez. A few from the majority stood by the former speaker. A handful of congressmen did not support either.

RELATED: Lawmakers: No elections, zero budget threats, row with Sara Duterte-Carpio prompted Alvarez ouster

After the ouster, how will the composition of the two blocs -- and their leadership -- change?

The majority bloc is set to select a new leader on Wednesday, while the minority will choose its own. While some predict Camarines Sur Rep. Nonoy Andaya will lead the majority, the fate of the minority bloc is still up in the air.

Here are the names being floated for minority leadership.

Pantaleon Alvarez

Justice Committee Chair Rey Umali, who stands by Alvarez, previously said the former House Speaker was looking forward to being the leader of the minority.

However, Caloocan Representative Egay Erice pointed out that his shared party with Arroyo would lead to a "highly anomalous situation."

He urged Arroyo to prevent this from happening, and to protect the "real minority."

"Where in the world can you find a parliament where the majority leader and the minority leader belong to the same political party?" said Erice. "It's a mockery of the legislative process which is supposed to guarantee check and balance."

Rudy Farinas

Umali later told CNN Philippines' The Source that he thought Alvarez would "give way," and Majority Leader Rudy Farinas was likely to step up.

"Within the group, if there is anyone it could be Majority Leader Farinas," he said.

Suarez also said that Farinas would seek the minority leadership from Arroyo, although he doubted her allies would agree.

Farinas on Wednesday questioned the validity of Arroyo's election.

Miro Quimbo

Critics of the administration maintain that they are the true minority at the House of Representatives.

The militant Makabayan bloc, announced earlier on Wednesday that it was in talks to team up with its enemy-turned-ally, the Liberal Party, which has 24 members in the House. Makabayan has seven members.

On Wednesday, 12 opposition lawmakers from the Liberal Party selected former Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo as their leader.

READ: 'Duly-constituted minority' elects Quimbo as its House leader

Quimbo said they have yet to organize the minority bloc so they can start screening and accepting new members, such as those who were not present during the opening of the House Session.

Danilo Suarez

As Minority Leader under Alvarez, Suarez supported Arroyo for the speakership. However, he is still thinking of sticking around in his position.

Quimbo dismissed the idea as "ridiculous."

"The rules are very clear: Kapag bumoto ka sa nanalong speaker, majority ka. Hindi sila pwedeng minority kung bumoto ka para sa nanalo," said Quimbo. "Hindi lang sila bumoto, kung hindi nangampanya."

[Translation: The rules are very clear: When you vote for a winning speaker, you're in the majority. They can't be in the minority if you choose for someone who wins... They didn't even just vote, they campaigned (for Arroyo).]

AKO BICOL Partylist Rep. Alfredo Garbin, a member of the minority who voted for Arroyo, said he has yet to receive a directive on whether on not they would move to the majority.

"Danny Suarez should be given the benefit of the doubt," said Garbin.

"People will have doubts, but I think we should be judged by our legislative output -- by our active participation in deliberations in Congress," he added of Suarez's plan to remain Minority Leader. "Yun sana ang pagbasehan, hindi yung previous relationships and friendships."

In 2009, when Arroyo was criticized for a lavish dinner at Washington D.C. during her term as President, Suarez claimed he footed the $15,000 bill.

CNN Philippines correspondents Joyce Ilas, Xianne Arcangel, and senior digital producer Lara Tan contributed to this report.Mountain Mercy Project is a local non profit that was set up to provide emergency relief and long term rebuilding support to devastated areas.

Andrea Stone and Ocean Arellano were both Wedensdays KVML Newsmaker of the Day.

Both ladies traveled to Haiti earlier this year. Arellano is a dental hygienist who traveled with Stone and a full dental team.

They saw over two hundred fifty patients in just one week at a rural hospital. They described their week as life changing and proclaimed that the need for basic dental care in Haiti can not be emphasized enough.

In February 2019, a dental and medical team will be returning to Bocozelle in Haiti, to do much more medical and dental work on patients that are desperately in need.

On Saturday August 4th, a dinner fundraiser event called Barn & Boots, will be held from 5 to 9 PM at The Barn, located on 23693 Middlecamp Road in Twain Harte. This promises to be an evening filled with dinner, dancing, silent auctions, raffles, prizes and more.

All of the money raised will benefit Mountain Mercy Project in purchasing and shipping two maternity delivery beds, two comfortable and adjustable dental chairs, an x-ray machine, and many other needed supplies to set up a functional dental clinic at the hospital.

Tickets will not be available at the event. You can pre-purchase tickets at Dr. Jeffrey Smiths dental office in Sonora or call (209)532-4376. Ticket prices are $35 each or $60 per couple.

Mountain Mercy Project does not have any paid employees; it is a 100% volunteer effort. Therefore no amount of any donation goes to pay employees.

For more information about Mountain Mercy Project, log on to http://mountainmercyproject.org

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.A 16-year-old girl died in Conroe Tuesday after being shot in the head while taking selfies with a loaded gun, police said.

Conroe Police Department officials initially responded to a disturbance call at an apartment at 1100 S. Loop 336. A 911 caller told police he left the apartment and returned home to find a female teen dead in the apartment with a gunshot wound to the head at the Anatole at the Pines Apartments.

"During our investigation we learned that a 16-year-old female and male were in the apartment, taking selfies with a loaded gun when it allegedly went off, striking the female in the head," said Conroe Police Sgt. Scott McCann.

"The male fled the apartment and we believe it was approximately an hour before they called the police," McCann said.

Three males were eventually taken into custody for questioning.

The shooting is at least the second in the Houston area this year that stemmed from playing with guns while taking photo or video.

On April 1, Devyn Holmes was shot in the face and critically injured while he and two acquaintances were in the car filming a Facebook Live video. In the viral post, Cassandra Damper, 25, can be seen holding a gun before a gunshot sounds.

Damper said the shooting was an accident and that she didn't know the gun was loaded. She was charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and tampering with evidence.

The investigation into the latest incident in Conroe is continuing, and it is unknown at this time what charges may be filed.

Deputies and officers were seen collecting evidence at the scene. Deputy Chief for Montgomery County Hospital District EMS Richard Wood confirmed at 4:40 p.m. that MCHD's Administration Building went on lockdown due to a shooting.

"We were temporarily placed on lockdown because of the location of the incident," he said.

At one point, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office and Montgomery County Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Trey Spikes arrived at the scene to investigate the shooting.

Samantha Ketterer contributed to this report.Deputies discovered more than 100 animals living in tight quarters inside a southwest Houston apartment Tuesday.

Harris County Precinct 7 Constable's Office deputies were serving an eviction notice at a complex in the 10200 block of Sugar Branch Drive early Tuesday when they discovered the animals inside the apartment belonging to the residents who were to be evicted.

After seeing the animals' living conditions, the Precinct 7 deputies called the Harris County Animal Cruelty Taskforce  which is comprised of several animal advocacy groups, including the Houston Humane Society and the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office.

OTHER ANIMAL SEIZURES: SPCA seizes 73 livestock and pets from Cypress-area home

In all, deputies discovered 13 ferrets, 16 sugar gliders, 22 chinchilla, two prairie dogs, 11 guinea pigs, six African Grey parrots, 32 cockatiels, and three dogs.

Deputies with the Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office secured a warrant to seize the animals from the owner.

The animals will be housed and cared for at Houston Humane Society until a judge determines permanent custody.

Harris County Precinct 5 Constable's Office officials said a criminal investigation is ongoing.

Jay R. Jordan covers breaking news in the Houston area. Read him on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and our subscriber site, HoustonChronicle.com | Follow him on Twitter at @JayRJordan | Email him at jay.jordan@chron.comA wade fishing trip in Nueces County turned deadly after a man contracted vibrio, according to health officials.

The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District confirmed the death on Tuesday. The elderly man contracted the flesh-eating bacteria through skin tears, officials said.

RELATED: Report: Flesh-eating bacteria in Gulf of Mexico attack man's fresh tattoo; he died 2 months later

He went to the hospital complaining of severe leg pain and showing symptoms of a bacterial infection, according to the release.

Doctors acted quickly in an attempt to save him, even amputating his leg, but the man died of vibrio-related complications within 36 hours of his admission into the hospital.

Vibrio is a type of bacteria that naturally inhabits coastal waters, but the population tends to increase between May and October, when the water warms up. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 80 percent of infections occur during those months. It is most likely to affect people with a compromised immune system.

The flesh-eating bacteria enters the body through an open wound or by a person eating raw or undercooked shellfish, according to the release.

Symptoms include water diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting, fever, chills, severe pain and blistering skin lesions.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSAMothers across the country are trying to call attention to the Trump Administration's efforts to roll back Obama-era methane regulations.

The Moms Clean Air Force issued a new report called "Face to face with oil and gas: voices from the front lines of oil and gas pollution," that chronicles the health impacts families living near oil and gas plays across the country say are caused by oil and gas exploration.

The report slammed the administration of President Donald Trump for working to loosen pollution regulations related to oil and gas development. It calls out Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's proposal to revise parts of the 2016 Waste Prevention Rule to revert back to the rules in place prior to the current rule. The rule seeks to reduce the waste of natural gas and replaced regulations that were passed in 1979.

RELATED: Study says oil and gas industry leaking more methane than previously reported

It also takes issue with the Environmental Protection Agency's proposal to revisit some parts of the New Source Performance Standards, which would regulate natural gas operations to try to reduce their methane emissions.

Misti O'Quinn, who lives in Dallas County near the Barnett Shale, a major natural gas field on North Texas, says two of her three children have suffered with asthma all their lives. She blames the natural gas operations located west of Dallas -- where thousands of natural gas wells were active in 2016 -- for her children's ailments.

"It is my hope that this report spurs something that will have our lawmakers looking at keeping safeguards that can get us in attainment and protect our children," O'Quinn said.

RELATED: San Antonio's ozone levels determined to be in non-attainment by EPA

Dallas and every other major city in Texas currently has higher ozone levels than is permitted, making them out of attainment according to the EPA. Bexar County, which contains much of San Antonio, was recently determined to be in non-attainment by the EPA. Ozone can cause respiratory illnesses.

"We are very concerned about what's happening at the federal level as far as health protections for our children and for our families," said Patrice Tomcik, national oil and gas program coordinator for the group. "We want to highlight what is happening across the country and that's why we are bringing forth all of these real life experiences from moms across the nation showing that we do need these health protections."

The American Lung Association said 15 of Texas' 254 counties, including all Texas counties with large cities, scored an "F" for ozone pollution. Included in that list of counties is Houston's Harris County, which had 60 ozone warnings days including the only purple alert, the most severe warning that suggests almost everyone should avoid prolonged time outside.

Fort Worth's Tarrant County had the second-most ozone warning days with 48 days followed closely by Denton County. San Antonio's Bexar County had the sixth most days of ozone warnings at 24, according to the ALA data from its 2018 State of the Air report.

From ExpressNews.com: A natural gas pipeline rupture ruined a South Texas couple's dreams

Air quality monitors are located in less than 1,000 of the 3,068 counties in the United States, according to the ALA. Only 34 of Texas' counties have ozone monitoring.

Adelita Cantu, an associate professor at University of Texas Health San Antonio's School of Nursing, said she recently visited Karnes County -- an area at the heart of South Texas' Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas field -- and noted that it has far fewer air monitors compared to the Barnett Shale, which is located near Dallas and Fort Worth.

"With only having that limited number of monitors it constrains and puts some barriers on how we can monitor the air," Cantu said.

A study on methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations released in the prestigious journal Science in June said annual methane emission rates from oil and gas operations are 60 percent higher than previously reported by the EPA.Michael Ciaglo, Staff / Houston Chronicle

TechnipFMC reported falling earnings and revenues for the second quarter, although the global energy services firm still turned a $106 million net profit.

The profit fell from a $165 million gain during the second quarter of last year, while TechnipFMC's revenues dipped 23 percent down to $2.96 billion. Several of the company's projects are winding down while others are gearing up, so the timing saw second-quarter revenues take a hit, said TechnipFMC Chief Executive Doug Pferdehirt, who's based out of Houston.San Antonio-based NatureSweet tomatoes, known for petite greenhouse-grown snacking varieties, is joining forces with Florida-based open field tomato giant Lipman Family Farms.

The two companies on Tuesday described their partnership as a 100 percent joint venture between both companies with equal investments with tomatoes co-branded and distributed under the Lipman name.

The joint venture is set to launch in October.

Lipman has mastered supplying and serving very large, demanding food service customers, and weve mastered growing at scale to produce responsibly grown greenhouse tomatoes, NatureSweet CEO Bryant Ambelang said in a news release. We couldnt ask for a better partner as well both be able to provide new value for our combined customers.

Related: Bad to the Bone BBQ food truck finds permanent space in San Antonio's Lone Star District

Lipman, based in Immokalee, Florida, owns farms across the nation to be able to provide salad and slicing tomatoes 52 weeks a year to burger, quick service and fast casual restaurants across the United States. It is North Americas largest grower of open field tomatoes and specializes in the high flavor, high color, high density Crimson variety.

Were pleased to be able to assure a 52-week supply of exceptional slicing and salad tomatoes to our valued clients, said Lipman Family Farms CEO Kent Shoemaker. Our food service customers need access to premium product on a year-round basis. The also need greenhouse and field grown options.

NatureSweet, North Americas largest greenhouse grower, is known for its clear clamshell packs of bite-size tomatoes with trademark names including Cherubs, Glorys, and SunBursts as well as its sandwich-sized Jubilees and deeper colored Eclipses. It employs more than 9,000 people and has a network of production areas in Mexico and Arizona.

NatureSweet is considered a local business success story, with Ambelang appearing before business and student groups to tell how the company grew by offering good working conditions and comparatively high pay to incentivize greenhouse workers in Mexico.

lbrezosky@express-news.netWELLINGTON, New Zealand  Matt Lauer, the former Today show co-host, is seeking to have New Zealands government pay him hundreds of thousands of dollars if he is forced to let more hikers and hunters use his ranch to get to a picturesque conservation park.

Lauer bought a lease to the 16,000-acre, $9 million Hunter Valley Station ranch in February 2017 through a New Zealand-based company, months before he was fired by NBC in November over accusations of sexual misconduct.

A co-host at Today for two decades, Lauer was fired after a colleague complained about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. A subsequent internal review found that other women had lodged complaints about his behavior.

Hunter Valley Station, in New Zealands South Island, is the only thoroughfare to Hawea Conservation Park. A public official who is advocating greater public access to the park called it one of the jewels of the New Zealand landscape.

The official, Eric Pyle, chief executive of the governments Walking Access Commission, said passage through Hunter Valley Station to the park had been fraught for decades. Lauer had allowed the minimum amount of public access required by his lease when he bought it, officials said.

Pyle said the commission felt it was important to grant greater public access, as the conservation park was essentially landlocked without access through Lauers ranch. He said hunters, fishers and hikers wanted permission to use a 25-mile gravel road that passed through the property.

Otherwise its a long way to carry a deer, said Pyle, whose commission has asked New Zealands Commissioner of Crown Lands to make a ruling on allowing increased public access to Lauers ranch.

Graeme Todd, Lauers lawyer in New Zealand, said in an email that Lauers company would appeal any public access ruling through the New Zealand courts. If that failed, the law allowed for the leaseholder to receive compensation.

Todd added that if compensation were paid, his client would request hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.

He said Lauer had allowed 100 people access to his property and had only denied three, though others had used the land without asking.

Lauer told Radio New Zealand that the groups trying to get access were taking advantage of the difficult times he went through in losing his job, and were targeting him because he was an easy mark.

Pyle of the Walking Access Commission said that public access to Lauers ranch would not be unfettered. He noted that similar access had been allowed through other nearby properties, including two leased by the record producer Mutt Lange, who was previously married to Shania Twain.

One of the things wed be very happy with would be if Mutt Lange and Matt Lauer could meet, and Matt could learn from that; learn the value that could be obtained from being a great member of the community, Pyle said, adding that Lauer would be held in very high regard in New Zealand if he allowed more access.

Lauers lease on the property was put in jeopardy after his firing from the Today show, when New Zealands government conducted a six-month investigation into whether he met the good character test that foreigners must pass to lease land in New Zealand.

The inquiry concluded that since Lauer had not been charged with a crime, primarily lived in the United States and was not involved in the New Zealand ranchs day-to-day operations, he would be allowed to keep the property. But officials who conducted the investigation said they did not condone the inappropriate way Lauer had behaved while at NBC, and that it would continue to monitor the matter.

New Zealands acting prime minister, Winston Peters, told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday that he was adamant Lauer not receive any public money if he were forced to provide greater public access to the land.

Peters said the Overseas Investment Office, which approved granting the lease to Lauer, dropped the ball when it had failed to fully negotiate public access before agreeing to the deal.

Official documents released to Stuff.co.nz under a freedom of information request revealed that officials had discussed crowdfunding compensation for Lauer if any were awarded. One official suggested that the possibility of compensating Lauer was complicated by the fact he was a a very wealthy American with a tarnished reputation, referring to his firing.

But Pyle from the Walking Access Commission said he had not yet spoken to Lauer personally, and hoped a solution could still be found.

Wed be very pleased to have the conversation with Matt, he said. Id strongly encourage Matt to pick up the phone and say, How can we work through this?Sergio Marchionne, the former chief executive officer of Fiat Chrysler and architect of the automakers dramatic turnaround, has died. He was 66.

Marchionne died on Wednesday at a Zurich hospital, just days after he had been replaced as CEO, according to Exor NV, the holding company of Fiats founding Agnelli family. His health had declined suddenly following complications from shoulder surgery, according to people familiar with the situation.

Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone, Fiat Chairman John Elkann said in a statement. My family and I will be forever grateful for what he has done, said Elkann, who is also chairman and CEO of Exor.

Selected as CEO of Fiat SpA in June 2004, Marchionne took the Italian manufacturer from the brink of bankruptcy to the New York Stock Exchange, where he rang the bell on Oct. 13, 2014, to mark the debut of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the London company created when Fiat bought the Detroit carmaker.

Marchionne, who described himself as a corporate fixer, was Fiats fifth CEO in less than two years when he took over. He replaced Giuseppe Morchio, who quit after the billionaire Agnelli family refused to give him the joint title of chairman and CEO when then-Chairman Umberto Agnelli died of cancer.

Marchionne was handed an automaker that lost more than 6 billion euros ($7 billion) in 2003. By 2005, he had returned the company to a profit by wringing some $2 billion from an alliance with General Motors Co., laying off thousands of workers, introducing new models, and slashing the time it took to get a new car to market to just 18 months, from four years.

In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obamas administration announced that Fiat would take control of Chrysler LLC, rescuing the American company from bankruptcy.

I dont care what a tough guy he was to work for, he saved our company, said Cass Burch, a Chrysler and Jeep dealer in Georgia. He deserves a bronze statue.

The deal gave Marchionne a huge sense of responsibility, he said in a 2011 interview. His office on the fourth floor of Fiats Turin headquarters was adorned with a black-and-white poster of the word competition and a Picasso print bearing the motto, Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.

During his tenure at Fiat, Marchionne boosted the companys value more than 10-fold by restructuring the auto business and separating assets. Among the biggest spinoffs was the 2015 listing of supercar-maker Ferrari NV, where Marchionne also served as CEO and chairman.

Marchionnes direct manner and frumpy demeanor -- he was rarely seen wearing anything but jeans and a black pullover sweater -- made him stand out in buttoned-down Italy. He knew how to move fast and enjoyed driving his half-dozen Ferraris. When youre pissed off, theres nothing better than this, he said, stomping on the accelerator of his black Enzo at the companys test track in 2014 and pushing the car from a comfortable 120 miles per hour to something over 200.

Fueled by a dozen espressos a day and packs of Muratti cigarettes, he stormed into Fiat and fired most of the top management, then did the same at Chrysler in 2009, installing a dozen newcomers on his second day.

He also knew speed can be dangerous. In 2007, he wrecked a $350,000 Ferrari on a highway in Switzerland. In the car business, sometimes you crash, he said. Yet even as he garnered criticism from politicians and unions for slashing jobs and cutting costs, Marchionne argued that moving slowly could be even more risky. When he took over both Fiat and Chrysler, he always maintained, the companies needed radical change in order to survive.

Marchionne helped build a growing company that provides job stability and certainty, said United Auto Workers Vice President Cindy Estrada. The success of his vision changed peoples lives. That is a rich legacy.

Consolidation push

The Chrysler deal was part of a long-standing campaign Marchionne had waged to spur consolidation in the auto industry, which he claimed had far too much capacity for all players to survive. To that end, he publicly campaigned for a merger with General Motors Co. in 2015 but was rebuffed by the U.S. carmaker.

Sergio created a remarkable legacy in the automotive industry, Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of General Motors said in a statement.

Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford praised Marchionne as one of the most respected leaders in the industry whose creativity and bold determination helped to restore Chrysler to financial health.

Marchionne had planned to leave Fiat in 2019, but with his health deteriorating, on July 21 he was replaced as CEO of Fiat Chrysler by Mike Manley, head of the Jeep and Ram brands. Louis C. Camilleri took over at Ferrari, and Suzanne Heywood succeeded Marchionne as chairman of truck and farm-equipment maker CNH Industrial NV.

Some Italian media reports said Marchionne had cancer. People close to Marchionne told Bloomberg News that he died of cardiac arrest and didnt have cancer.

Marchionne was born on June 17, 1952, in Chieti, a hilltop town near the Adriatic sea in central Italy. His father was a local policeman, and when Marchionne was 14 the family moved to Toronto.

A chartered accountant and attorney with dual Canadian and Italian citizenship, Marchionne began his career in Canada at Deloitte & Touche, then moved on to packaging producer Lawson Group. In 1994, Marchionne joined Alusuisse Lonza Group Ltd. after the Swiss chemical and pharmaceutical company acquired Lawson.

Three years later, as Alusuisse CEO, he spun off the drug business to create Lonza Group AG, where he tripled profit in three years. He later consolidated his reputation as a turnaround specialist at SGS SA, a Geneva-based product-testing company at the time controlled by the Agnelli family.

Marchionne and his estranged wife, Orlandina, had two children, Alessio and Tyler. His partner, Manuela Battezzato, works in Fiat Chryslers press office.The missing 16-year-old girl and the man suspected of kidnapping her in Hayward have both been found hours after officials announced a statewide Amber Alert, according to officials.

Pittsburg Police Department officers arrested Antonio Aguilarelizarrag, 34, Tuesday afternoon and BART police officers found Isabelle Epps at the Pleasant Hill BART Station, official announced Tuesday night.Sandra Cisneros was unhappy. It was the autumn of 1988, and the MacArthur Fellow and award-winning author of The House on Mango Street was teaching at the University of California, Berkeley.

Supposedly, I had the most brilliant students, Cisneros said in a recent phone interview. But I found them very dispassionate.

So dispiriting was her experience that she told herself that one day she was going to lead a writing workshop of her own, where she could handpick the students.

That was how Macondo was born in my head, she said.

The Macondo Writers Workshop, a San Antonio-based masters literary workshop, was founded in 1995 when Cisneros invited a group of writers to her purple home in the King William district. Gathered in her dining room, the writers held an informal workshop where they swapped stories and critiqued ideas. They had total control over the direction of their makeshift seminar. It was Cisneros dream come true.

Macondo  the program is named for the the fictional town in Gabriel Garcia Marquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude  continued to host nationally recognized writers at its San Antonio workshops for more than two decades.

After several leadership changes and a two-year pause, Macondo has returned with a workshop at the Texas A&M San Antonio campus that runs through Sunday.

More Information Sandra Cisneros reading What: A benefit for the Macondo Workshop When: 7 p.m. Friday Where: Texas A&M University-San Antonio auditorium, One University Way. Cost:$20. (No one will be turned away for lack of funds.) Online: macondowriters.com More events Reading: Workshop instructors Reyna Grande, Allison Hedge Cooke and Stephanie Elizondo Griest will take part in a reading at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Central Library, 600 Soledad. Open mic: All workshop participants are eligible to read or recite at this event at 8 p.m. Thursday at Viva Taco Land, 103 W. Grayson St. See More Collapse

In addition to the classes exclusive to Macondo members, this years workshop will include free and public seminars on publishing and writing techniques on Friday and Saturday. But the main public event is a fundraiser featuring Cisneros, who will read from new and selected works and sign books.

The workshop marks a new chapter in Macondos 23-years history.

This years event is the first organized by Macondos new six-person advisory board. Cisneros retreated from her leadership position in 2013 when she moved to Mexico. The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center took over for a time before Macondo members decided it was best for the organization to be independently run. Cisneros reading will be her first time returning to a Macondo workshop since her departure.

It is an undertaking, said advisory board member Natalia Trevino, a teacher, author and poet who lives in San Antonio.

All of the board members and their assistants have voluntarily given up their time to continue Macondos legacy. Trevino said she believes this upcoming workshop will be a revival of the original, autonomous Macondo.

As a member for more than 10 years, she said she has seen firsthand how the workshop has made San Antonio a literary center. Notable Macondo alumni include Texas Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero, inaugural poet Richard Blanco and National Book Award-winner John Phillip Santos, who will introduce Cisneros on Friday.

There are 200 Macondo members nationwide, who refer to themselves affectionately as Macondistas. Although the workshops are not exclusive to any group of people, its mission is to serve marginalized authors who view writing as a tool for social activism.

Prospective members are expected to be accomplished writers who either have been published or have completed a full manuscript. New members usually are chosen through a blind application process. Once they are admitted to a workshop, they are members for life.

Often in academic workshops, there is a lot of ego, Trevino said. It was Cisneros vision that Macondo be a place where writers offer advice and critique with kindness, she added. We are really trying to help each other. And I think people want to keep that alive.

Reggie Scott Young, author of Yardbirds Squawking at the Moon, has been a Macondista for eight years. He said the workshops have provided him an inclusive and encouraging space to explore different styles of work.

Throughout my career as a university professor, Ive been a token, he said. Not only racially and culturally, but in terms of my writing interests. At Macondo, we are who we are. We are ourselves. Whatever we write is true to us, and true to our experiences.

Young, who will be participating in this years nonfiction workshop for members, said Macondo changed during its time with the Guadalupe. He felt it was more localized and less multicultural than in the beginning. This years workshop, led by Macondistas for Macondistas, is a return to the organizations roots, he said. I think our gathering this year will be a new beginning.

lizzie.stokes@express-news.netThirty-seven years after the mysterious drowning death of Natalie Wood, her sister Lana Wood says she thinks Robert Wagner killed the actress.

I know exactly what happened from what Dennis [the boats skipper] has told me, Lana Wood told on Megyn Kelly on Wednesday morning.

They had a fight, they had a bad fight, Dennis said it sounded like furniture was being thrown around and he knocked on the door, RJ [Wagner] opened it a little bit, said mind your own business, so Dennis then left, Lana continued while a guest on Megyn Kelly Today.

Also Read: Robert Wagner Called 'Person of Interest' in Natalie Wood's 1981 Death by Investigator

He went outside, turned up the music because they were being so loud, and started walking towards the back of the boat. When he turned that corner, RJ was standing there. Dennis asked, where is Natalie? and RJ said, shes gone.'

When Kelly asked whether she thinks Wagner murdered her sister, Lana Wood said, yes. When contacted by TheWrap, a spokesperson for Wagner said he had no comment.

Also Read: Tupac Murder Case: Las Vegas Police Reject 'Inaccurate' Reports of Imminent Arrest

Lana Wood went on to tell Kelly that Wagners story  that the Rebel Without a Cause actress heard a dinghy banging up against the side of the boat and probably went to go fix it when she fell into the water and died, seemed unlikely.

I dont know that I ever believed it, she said. I wanted to believe it, because if I didnt believe it, it would be something very ugly.

She added, the dinghy is rubber and you cant really hear much when it bangs on the side and thats why they had a skipper on board, to do all of those things. If that had been the case, she wouldve called for Dennis.

Lana Wood also said that her sister was terrified of water and that it was a downright phobia of hers that had haunted her since she was a teenager. It all stemmed back to her mother who told the kids she had her fortune told by a gypsy, who had said that one of her kids would be known around the world but would later die from drowning.

Wood was married to Wagner from 1972 until her death on Nov. 29, 1981, off Catalina Island in California. The then 43-year-old actress was sailing with Wagner, as well as Christopher Walken and Captain Dennis Davern, but was found floating in the water wearing a red down jacket and a flannel nightgown.

Also Read: Natalie Wood Death: Robert Wagner Avoiding Interview, Sheriff's Department Says

After a two-week investigation, the death was ruled as an accident, but the case was reopened in 2011. In 2012, the Los Angeles Coroners Office amended the death certificate, changing the cause of death to drowning and other undetermined factors. The autopsy report indicates that there were several fresh bruises on Woods body when she was found.

In February, Wagner was named a person of interest in the case. In 2011, he was named not a suspect by the sheriffs department. Investigators said Wagner has refused to speak with them since the case was reopened. There has long been speculation about the death of the West Side Story star  at first, Wagner, Walken and Davern told detectives that she took a dinghy and went to shore. Over time, investigators say, Wagner and Daverns accounts shifted.

I want him to tell the truth, and to own what has happened and to be strong enough to do that, concluded Lana Wood.

Lana Wood also discusses the mysterious death of her sister on her new podcast, Fatal Voyage.

Watch the whole interview with Kelly here.

Read original story Natalie Woods Sister Says She Thinks Robert Wagner Killed Her At TheWrapGREENWICH  In trying to explain the history and pillars of faith for Islam, not to mention its place in American culture, all within an hour, Martin Tran Nguyen, admitted he had quite a tall order ahead of him.

Nguyen sought to dispel misconceptions many Americans have about the religion in his talk before an audience of more than 100 at the Retired Mens Association of Greenwich on Wednesday morning.

There is an immense diversity when it comes to who Muslims are, said Nguyen, an associate professor of Islamic religious traditions at Fairfield University. His credentials include a masters degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School plus a masters in history and a doctorate in Middle Eastern studies and history from Harvard University.

Of the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, the vast majority live in Pacific Asian countries, not in Arab countries as many incorrectly believe. Nguyen said 24 percent of the worlds population identifies as Muslim, and only 20 percent of that number live in Arab countries.

Think about how the popular imagination in America thinks, Nguyen said. We think Arabs and Islam are synonymous, but only one in five of Muslims would identify as Arab. They are in fact elsewhere, mostly in the Asian Pacific region.

In the U.S., the Muslim population has grown in recent years from less than 3.3 million to 3.45 million, according to the Pew Survey for 2017. That seems quite large, he said, but it only represents 1.1 percent of the population in the United States and is smaller than the Jewish population.

It is the fastest-growing religion in the country, Nguyen said, but only 63 percent of the Muslims in the U.S. are immigrants. By 2050, the number of Muslims is expected to increase to 8.1 million in the United States, he said.

Thats not substantial when you take in the full population of the United States, but they are a growing demographic that is, in a sense, here to stay, Nguyen said. This is not purely a Middle Eastern or purely Arab population. It is from all over, and most are coming from South Asia and elsewhere.

During his presentation, he talked about the commonalities of Islam and other religions, including how the teachings of the gospels, the psalms and the Torah are in the Quran; the pillars of the Muslim faith; the differences between the majority Sunni Muslims and the minority Shia; and the history of how the faith has developed and grown in America. Its roots are in the international slave trade, with many Muslims from Africa captured and brought to the Colonies.

Most of Nguyens discussion focused on questions from the audience about several issues, including the violence put forth by terrorist groups such as ISIS.

We havent heard much from ISIS lately because they are in retreat and they are collapsing as a group, Nguyen said. ISIS, when it was successful, was one of the most ultra-modern movements I have seen. They knew how to capitalize on social media. They knew how to terrify their target audience. They wanted to make themselves look more substantial and numerically frightening than they actually were. They put out horrific videos because they were trying to provoke who they perceived to be the enemy  the West.

ISIS reinforced the terrorist image for all Muslims because of the actions of a few, he said. And he noted that Muslims condemned the acts of ISIS and that more Muslims were victims of ISIS.

Nguyen also discussed the meaning of the word jihad and how it is used in the Quran.

The word jihad is an interesting one because it appears in the Quran on several occasions, but the way it is used in the Quran is not its later meaning, he said. We all think of jihad as holy war. Thats the popular understanding of it. But the way its used in the Quran it means a struggle. You can say, My jihad is trying to make ends meet. My jihad is getting a great education. Muslims know jihad as ways through personal struggle reflected by face. The Quran never uses the specific word jihad to mean aggression or armed combat.

Though the Quran does talk about defending ones self, jihad is not meant to be used that way, Nguyen said. It has been used as propaganda by those who were in power to justify combat and in the current climate as a way to reclaim glory and strike against oppressors, he said, which creates a muddied image of what jihad is.

A full video of Nguyens remarks will be available online at www.greenwichrma.org.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comLisa Weir / For Hearst Connecticut Media

New Milford is one of three Connecticut towns selected to receive money from AARP through the organizations second annual community challenge.

A total $1.3 million will be distributed to the 129 selected projects.Math and reading scores for Connecticut public high school juniors took a tumble in 2018, according to school-administered SAT results released Wednesday.

Language arts scores dropped 8 points to 516 and math scores fell 4 points to 503. Both are out of a possible score of 800.

Most  but not all  local high schools contributed to the slide, but there were a few exceptions.

Staples High School in Westport had one of the highest average math scores in the state at 610 points, 1 point higher than last year.

Fairfield Ludlowe High School pulled a 583 in math  9 points higher than last year  and did better in language arts as well with an average score of 590  7 points higher than in 2017.

Fairfield Schools Superintendent Toni Jones said the district just received the scores and needs time to analyze the data.

Increasing the number of students who meet or exceed the targets will increase the overall scores, Jones said.

More Information Scores % passing Four highest in math Staples High School 610 79.6 Fairfield Ludlowe High School 583 70.5 Joel Barlow High School 576 72.1 Trumbull High School 566 66.7 Four lowest in math Warren Harding High School 382 * Bassick High School 388 * Bridgeport Military Academy 390 * Emmett O'Brien Technical High School 431 10.20% Four highest in ELA Staples High School 609 91.3 Fairfield Ludlowe High School 590 89.1 Joel Barlow High School 581 85.5 Masuk High School 573 83.9 Four lowest in ELA Bassick High School 390 10.3 Warren Harding High School 400 14.6 Bridgeport Military Academy 419 20.5 Bullard-Havens Technical High School 442 24.3 See More Collapse

Across both high schools in Fairfield, 82 percent of juniors reached the target in language arts and 60 percent in math.

Ansonia High School rose 14 points to score an average 464 in math and 11 points in language arts to 493. And Stratford High School saw a 9-point jump in math to 473 and a 1-point increase in language arts to 490.

In Bridgeport, with some notable exceptions such as the BioTech school at Fairchild Wheeler and Bridgeport Military Academy  which both saw gains in both subjects  the news was not so good.

Bassick High School, nearly rock bottom in the state, slipped in both subjects, averaging 390 in language arts and 388 in math. Just 10 percent of Bassick juniors scored a three or four on the test which is considered grade level.

Harding actually saw a 2-point gain in math, to 382, but that was still the lowest average score in the region.

Calls for action

Some Bridgeport Board of Education members were not surprised.

Knowing that Bridgeport had to make more than $45 million in cuts over the past five years, how can it not show up in student performance? said Maria Pereira, who laid the blame on both Mayor Joseph Ganim and the state for not adequately funding one of its largest urban school districts.

Board Chairman John Weldon took a more tempered view, saying the results seem to be a minor fluctuation from one year to the next.

We certainly could do better but, while ... scores are down 2 percent and 1 percent respectively from last year to this year; they are still a gain of 1 percent and 1 percent respectively, over the 2015-16 year. I think we need to look at the overall upward trend and focus on how we increase on that trajectory over the long term.

State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, who recently helped make a pitch to the state for a new Bassick High School along with an advanced manufacturing program, said it is clear that an infusion of attention and opportunity is called for. Joe Larcheveque, a former school board chair also fighting for new Bassick agreed.

The advanced manufacturing program will provide an opportunity for Bassick students to see the opportunities that exist and their studies will take on a more relevant meaning, Larcheveque said.

As a district, 31.7 percent of Bridgeport juniors scored at grade level in language arts and 13.1 percent in the grade level range in math.

In Shelton, Assistant Superintendent of Schools Lorraine Rosner said the district did slip a bit, but called SATs a one-shot moment of time in a students assessment history. In Shelton math scores fell 8 points to 572 and language arts dropped 6 points to 536.

Unlike with SBAC scores (another test) you cant compare student ... growth over time, Rossner said.

Statewide view

Statewide, average language arts scores remain higher than the grade level score of 480 set by the state when it adopted the SAT as the states standardized test for 11th graders three years ago. For the third year in a row, more than 60 percent of juniors taking the test scored at or above the expected target.

Average math scores have yet to reach the grade-level score of 530. In math, 40.3 percent of students met or exceed the target.

The score decline cut across every category in reading. In math, the one increase was for students who qualify for free meals, who rose from an average score of 435 to 440.

In that, Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell took some solace.

While results have remained relatively stable over the last three years, we are encouraged by the bright spots in the results of this years SAT School Day including a majority of students mastering college and career readiness in English language arts and an increase in achievement in mathematics for students from low-income backgrounds, Wentzell said in a prepared statement.

She said the Connecticut SAT School Day serves as an accountability assessment measure but also provides all high school juniors the opportunity to take a college readiness exam at no cost. The SAT is one of two tests many colleges still look to when admitting students.

The results, in addition to measuring student performance, can also be used by students applying to college.

Our goal is to make sure all of our students are prepared to succeed in college and their careers, Wentzell said. To that end, we are dedicated to supporting districts efforts to close achievement gaps and raise student performance across the board.

As for why overall scores went down, state officials say one reason is that different kids are taking the test each year.

It is hard to say why the achievement of this group of 11th-graders was slightly lower than that of the group from 2016-17, said Peter Yazbak, a state Department of Education spokesman. He also characterized the change as narrow.

Statewide, 95.2 percent of high school juniors  about 37,900 students  took the test last spring. For many, testing occurred on a make up day in April, since on March 21, the designated SAT Day, many schools canceled classes because of an expected noreaster.

In addition to traditional public schools, state charter schools also took the test. In Bridgeport, Achievement first and Capitol Preparatory Harbor School both saw gains in both math and language arts. The Bridge Academy in Bridgeport saw an increase in language arts and a decline in average math scores.

For district and high school results: click here"Find your passion" is a mantra dictated to everyone from college students to retirees to pretty much anyone seeking happiness.

But according to a forthcoming study from Stanford and Yale-NUS College in Singapore, it's actually bad advice - and may actually make it harder for people to figure out what they love to do.

Why? The idea of "finding" one's passion implies that people have built-in interests just waiting to be discovered, and if you can simply figure out what they are you will magically be able to embrace them, says the study, which will be published in the journal Psychological Science.

But people with that mind-set are more likely to give up on their newfound interest when they hit the inevitable roadblock, the study found. Instead, researchers say true passion develops - through being open-minded about delving into a new topic, and being willing to put some work into it.

Earlier studies had focused on people who had "fixed" versus "growth" mind-sets about intelligence - that is, whether one believes intelligence is fixed (you either have it or you don't) or it can be cultivated. In this study, researchers looked at the differences between people who believe interests are static and those who believe they can be developed with time and effort.

They conducted five experiments involving 470 participants. In one, they recruited undergraduate students who identified either as "fuzzy" (interested in the arts and humanities) or "techie" (interested in STEM topics). They had the students read two articles, one about technology and the other about literary criticism - and found that those who held a fixed mind-set about interests were less open to the article that was outside their interest area.

In another experiment, students were shown a video about black holes and the origin of the universe, which most found fascinating. But when asked to read a denser scientific article on the same topic, the students with a fixed mind-set lost interest more quickly than the ones who believed interests can be cultivated.

The study used undergraduates because "they're young and they're at a time in their life when they're being bombarded with the idea that you have to go out and find your passion," said Paul O'Keefe, assistant professor of psychology at Yale-NUS College and the paper's lead author. "They might be waiting for that trigger to happen - 'Oh yeah, that's my interest after all' - versus, 'Maybe I'll take this astronomy class, even though it looks hard.'"

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, a co-author of the study (and a pioneer in earlier research on fixed versus growth theories of intelligence), said her undergraduates "at first, get all starry-eyed about the idea of finding their passion, but over time they get far more excited about developing their passion and seeing it through."

If finding a calling through developing yourself sounds too vague, here's a more concrete incentive: Developing a range of interests can also boost your grades and predict future success.

That's because focusing too narrowly on one kind of interest can cause people to miss developing knowledge in other areas that could help them succeed in their field, O'Keefe said.

Students with a growth mind-set "engage in their coursework more deeply and more enthusiastically, resulting in better learning," he said. "And if [they] are more open to things outside of their previous interests, then they might be seeing more connections between what they're learning and what the other things are."

In a world that is becoming more interdisciplinary, the future will belong to those who cultivate passions in a variety of areas, such as science and the humanities, O'Keefe said.

"That's what Steve Jobs was all about - he didn't just make a computer; he made a computer that was a piece of art."President Donald Trump's nominee for chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service briefly advised the future president's real estate company on a tax question several years ago.

Michael Desmond counseled the Trump Organization on "a discrete reporting matter for a subsidiary company that was resolved with no tax impact," James Wilkinson, a spokesman for Desmond, said in a written statement to Bloomberg News. Wilkinson said Desmond didn't interact with anyone at the Trump Organization, which was a longtime client of two other partners at his law firm.

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee have given no sign they plan to scrutinize Desmond's Trump work at his confirmation hearing Thursday. Still, potential conflicts of interest have drawn attention under Trump, who broke with presidential tradition by refusing to release his tax returns and has mused publicly about using government agencies to punish enemies.

Wilkinson said Desmond disclosed the work during a meeting with Senate staff members of both parties.

The IRS automatically audits every president's taxes, but its review of the billionaire developer's finances is likely more than a formality. In March 2016, his lawyers disclosed that the agency had audited his company every year since 2002, and that audits from 2009 onward were still unresolved. Trump has cited those ongoing audits as the reason he won't make his returns public.

The chief counsel is considered the IRS's most important job after commissioner, overseeing an army of lawyers who interpret the country's tax code. It would be unusual for a chief counsel to be involved in an individual tax matter, Wilkinson said. If something involving Trump came up, Desmond would seek advice from ethics officials, said Wilkinson.

After serving as a Justice Department trial attorney early in his career, Desmond in 2000 joined a new boutique tax firm in Washington known as McKee Nelson Ernst & Young. There, his colleagues included William Nelson, a former IRS chief counsel, and Sheri Dillon.

Nelson and Dillon would become Trump's tax counsel in 2005, just after Desmond returned to government service to take a top Treasury post. When Desmond went back to private practice in 2008, his old firm announced that he would rejoin as head of the tax practice -- potentially giving him oversight of the firm's work for Trump.

But Desmond never actually assumed that role, Wilkinson said, partly because of a severe downturn in the firm's business. McKee Nelson sold to another firm, Bingham McCutchen, the following year. Desmond, Dillon and Nelson remained together at Bingham until 2012, when Desmond started his own law practice in Santa Barbara, California.

Wilkinson didn't say when Desmond did the work for Trump, but it apparently took place sometime between 2008 and 2011. Desmond has served as co-counsel with Dillon or Nelson for at least two other tax clients, court records show.

Nelson and Dillon now work for Morgan Lewis & Bockius, where they continue to represent Trump. They didn't respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. Morgan Lewis also has a connection to Charles Rettig, Trump's pick for IRS commissioner: Nathan Hochman, Rettig's partner in private practice for more than a decade, now works there. The Senate Finance Committee approved Rettig last week, and the nomination is now subject to approval from the full Senate, where Republicans are likely to confirm him.

Dillon became widely known after a January 2017 news conference in which she described the incoming president's plans to minimize conflicts of interest with his real estate business. Her presentation, while standing next to a large stack of folders said to contain legal documents transferring control of the company to Trump's sons, was later parodied by actress Cecily Strong on NBC's "Saturday Night Live."A federal judge ordered the immediate release of a New York City pizza deliveryman from immigration custody Tuesday, calling the undocumented Ecuadoran immigrant a "model citizen" and pointedly questioning the U.S. government's desire to immediately deport him.

Pablo Villavicencio, father of two U.S. citizens, was arrested June 1 while delivering pasta to a Brooklyn military base, where Army security officers questioned his identification and alerted immigration authorities. At the time of his arrest, he was in the middle of seeking legal status. But the U.S. government sought to deport him as soon as possible, causing uproar among activists and public officials alike.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty's decision Tuesday, however, stays Villavicencio's removal so that he can continue pursuing permanent residency. To deny him that opportunity, Crotty wrote in the order, would violate his rights.

"Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen," Crotty, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the order. "Petitioner married . . . a United States citizen. He now has two children, both of whom are United States citizens. He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family."

Crotty's decision came hours after oral arguments in the case Tuesday afternoon, a hearing that drew scores of protesters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan. The government argued that Villavicencio could continue his bid for a green card in Ecuador - but Crotty, unconvinced by the government's justification for deporting him, questioned what purpose this would serve in the interest of justice.

"Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must," he said, according to multiple media reports of the hearing. "I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to? Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country."

Questioning the purpose of Villavicencio's continued detention, he asked, "What is the danger to the community for a man who has committed no crime?"

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York did not comment on the ruling Tuesday and the lawyer handling Villavicencio's case could not be immediately reached by The Washington Post early Wednesday.

Villavicencio entered the United States illegally in 2008 and agreed to voluntarily leave the country at an immigration hearing in 2010, according to Crotty's order. Instead, he remained in the country, married Sandra Chica, a U.S. citizen, and started a family. In February, Chica helped him submit a "petition for alien relative" asking the government to recognize Villavicencio as her spouse, which is the first step in seeking a green card, according to the order. But before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services could process the form, Villavicencio was arrested.

It was a routine delivery, Villavicencio would soon tell the New York Post from behind bars. In fact, he had delivered pizza to the Fort Hamilton Army garrison in the past and had no problems. But that day, June 1, a different security guard working the gate questioned his New York ID card, finding it insufficient.

"He called the NYPD and the NYPD told him I didn't have any record, that I was clean," Villavicencio told the New York Post. "But the man said, 'I don't care.' He said I need to keep waiting and he called ICE."

Since then, Villavicencio missed Father's Day and his oldest daughter's birthday, Chica said at a news conference Tuesday. Activists with the immigration rights group Make the Road New York galvanized the community to his defense, attracting the support of the city council and New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called Villavicencio's 53-day detention "unconscionable" and "a disgraceful affront to our New York values."

On Tuesday, Chica and Villavicencio's immigration lawyers, from The Legal Aid Society and the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, held a news conference pleading a last time for Villavicencio's release ahead of the hearing. Chica and Villavicencio's younger daughter had a birthday coming up, Chica said. She and the girls couldn't bear his absence at another one.

"Pablo's absence has brought us significant hardship," Chica said. "It's not easy to become a single mom in one day. It's hard, being with two little girls, to be by myself with all the responsibilities I have now. We hope this nightmare is finished tomorrow, and my daughters can be again with their father. We hope the right thing is done tomorrow. Is it really too much for me to ask to keep my family together?"

Crotty explained in his order that because USCIS was in the middle of processing Villavicencio's "petition for alien relative," deporting him would violate his rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. USCIS had in fact already scheduled an interview with Villavicencio, according to Crotty's order. His continued detention served no purpose because "removal is no longer reasonably foreseeable," Crotty wrote.

Should the Villavicencio's petition be approved, his next step would need to obtain "permission to reapply for admission" into the United States since he entered illegally. Then he would need to obtain a "provisional unlawful presence waiver," which allows undocumented people to remain in the United States while they apply for a green card rather than having to stay in their home countries for the duration.

Crotty noted that he intends to publish a formal opinion beyond the four-page writ of habeas corpus order granting Villavicencio's release Tuesday.

Surrounded by supporters, Villavicencio walked out of the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey about 9 p.m. He embraced his wife, and then he knelt down as his two daughters ran toward him. In Spanish and in a cracking voice, he yelled, "I love you," and hugged them both.Ivanka Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that she would be shutting down her eponymous fashion and accessories line, effective immediately. "After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington," she said in a statement.

In other words, Ivanka Trump, who had no political experience before her father's run for president, is now officially throwing her entire lot in with her father.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. For a long time, the idea existed that Ivanka Trump was somehow independent of President Donald Trump. She was a successful entrepreneur and businesswoman, one whose advice and council her father supposedly respected. When she and her husband, Jared Kushner, announced they would accompany the senior Trump to Washington, many thought she would be a moderating influence, speaking up for the rights and women and children and minorities.

Those who held out such hopes should have known better. The daughter has always been intricately tied to the father's less than ethical and honest business practices. The state of New York has sued her - along with her father and brothers Eric and Donald Jr. - for "persistently illegal conduct" at the president's charitable foundation. Her involvement in Trump real estate projects in New York City and Vancouver raised further questions about her ethics and financial dealings.

As for her corporate brand, Ivanka attempted to have her cake and eat it too. She went through the motions of minimizing conflicts by putting the company in a trust, but in fact she frequently wore her own brand in publicly released photos. Kellyanne Conway shilled for her line on Fox & Friends. And the trust still called for Ivanka Trump to approve, as the New York Times wrote, "major decisions made by the company, including striking new licensing partnerships and overseas deals." This arrangement aroused no small amount of comment, especially when Ivanka Trump's company more than once received Chinese trademarks in what can only be described as suspicious timing. (In 2017, several trademarks were granted the same day she grabbed a bite with Chinese government officials including President Xi Jinping. This year they came amid the Trump administrations battle with China over tariffs, and right about the time the president began to speak up on behalf of a Chinese telecommunications firm banned from doing business with American companies for seven years due to security concerns.)

But it turns out that Donald Trump maybe wasn't so great for Ivanka Trump's business after all. As the younger Trump became more tied to an administration that separated migrant children from their parents at the Mexico border and showered tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans while giving the vast majority scraps, the fashion line's sales fell. The company isn't public and doesn't release financial results, but we know Nordstrom's ceased carrying the brand last year, citing a sales drop-off, and market researcher Rakuten Intelligence reports sales of the brand dropped by almost half over the past year at a number of retailers.

Ivanka Trump's line was pitched at Millennial women. As a group, they don't much care for the Trump administration or its policies. Ivanka Trump might try to play a to-the-manor-born Sheryl Sandberg on TV, but she's, in fact, no such thing. Her company's success was always dependent on what the Trump name could deliver. She acknowledged as much in a 2013 interview: "We're a family company. We're a family brand," she told the New York Times. "I made a specific choice not to call my collection Ivanka. There's so much value in the Trump name."

So now she's looking to find value in that name elsewhere. Ivanka Trump is completely wrapped up with her father and his policies - not that anyone should have expected a different outcome. The idea that she would somehow counter the racist inclinations and Gilded Age economic policies promoted by the Trump administration is a myth that could only flourish in a country where we so firmly believe in the idea of individual success, we ignore the implications of the nepotism staring us in the face.A Port Arthur charter school is expanding to Beaumont this fall, with plans for 360 students in the city's north end.

Construction is ongoing at the new Beaumont campus of the Bob Hope School, which runs an elementary school for kindergarten through fourth grade and a middle and high school campus in Port Arthur.

The school will open Aug. 27 with preschool through second grade with plans to add one grade each year until the school has a 12th-grade class, communications cirector Adriana Coleman said.

The Beaumont City Council approved a special-use permit for a portion of the lot on Park North Drive Tuesday, after previously granting permits for other parts of the site.

Bob Hope School, which opened in Port Arthur in 2010, uses a bilingual curriculum, with lessons taught in both English and Spanish.

"By fifth grade, they can read and write in English and Spanish," Coleman said.

Like traditional public schools, students take STAAR tests and the curriculum teaches the state standards or Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

Second-graders will all learn to play the violin, and the school uses the Montessori method, which focuses on hands-on learning, Coleman said. School days are longer  elementary students attend school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and older grades stay until 4:30 p.m.

As a charter school, Bob Hope receives state funding and does not charge tuition.

The campus has three modular buildings with classrooms and a gym and cafeteria building. Coleman said fencing will be installed around the campus, which is across the street from a residential area.

Plans call for adding a nature trail and installation of more buildings to ultimately accommodate more than 1,000 students, about the number in Port Arthur.

Coleman and campus director Virginia Roberts said the school expects its student body to come from parents looking for an alternative to Beaumont ISD.

Harmony Science Academy, Ehrhart School, Evolution Academy and Vista Academy, all charter schools, also operate in Beaumont.

"We're not here to overtake public schools," Roberts said.

She said the bilingual offerings fill a need in Southeast Texas, especially for English language learners.

Beaumont ISD announced last year that it plans to seek partnerships with charter operators, with the possibility of opening an in-district charter.

The board of managers approved a resolution to start conversations with ResponsiveEd, which runs Vista Academy. Superintendent John Frossard said previously that the goal is to increase parents' choices within the district, following a model currently used in Spring Branch and Grand Prairie ISDs.

Critics of charter schools say they pull money away from traditional public schools and tend to attract only students with highly involved parents, leaving behind higher-need students. They're still overseen by the Texas Education Agency but are subject to fewer state regulations, which allows for greater flexibility.

New private school to open in fall

A private school with just 30 students will also open this fall in a former law office on Calder Avenue.

Acton Academy, which describes itself as a "one-room schoolhouse for the 21st century," was granted a permit to open at 7705 Calder.

The company lists more than 100 locations on its website, including locations in Houston, Waco and Fort Worth.

According to City Council documents, enrollment will be limited to 30 students, with kindergarten through fifth grade in one room and sixth through eighth in another, each with one teacher. For the first year, the school will have only students ages 5 to 11.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzSergio Marchionne, a master negotiator who engineered one of the most brazen automotive deals in history when he persuaded the U.S. government to sell bankrupt automaker Chrysler to Itay's Fiat, and turned the combined Fiat Chrysler into one of the most profitable firms in the industry in less than a decade, died Wednesday at a hospital in Zurich. He was 66.

The news agency ANSA reported that the cause of death was cardiac arrest, following shoulder surgery.

Marchionne had already planned to retire next year and turn the reins over to successor Mike Manley, who headed the company's Jeep and Ram brands.

There appeared to be a sense of frenzied panic about what comes next for the company Marchionne had expanded with astonishing success, much of it credited to his charismatic and frank personality, his negotiating prowess and his indefatigable work ethic.

He also represented a fundamental shift for both Fiat and the wider landscape of Italian industry. He was first person outside the Agnelli clan to be at the helm of Turin-based Fiat, and - as the son of an Italian emigrant to Canada - was not groomed within the rarefied cliques that have dominated Italy's industrial and banking sectors for generations.

The Italian-born, Canadian-raised Marchionne vaulted to instant fame in auto circles at the peak of the U.S. financial crisis in 2009, when he wedged himself into the center of negotiations in Washington about what to do with failing auto giants General Motors and Chrysler, both on the brink of bankruptcy.

Marchionne became involved with then-president Barack Obama's Auto Task Force, which had the mandate to analyze companies and manage any possible bankruptcies. Marchionne convinced task force officials that Fiat, which he had run for only five years, was the right partner for Chrysler.

On April 30, 2009, Chrysler filed for bankruptcy. On June 10, Fiat and Chrysler announced the merger of the two companies, with Marchionne emerging as chief executive and, in the eyes of many, the savior of one of Motor City's legacy companies.

"So the industry looks like its going to sink into oblivion and this fellow who wears this black sweater, chain smokes and drinks gallons of espresso manages to insert himself and convince these people that the best alternative for Chrysler is to merge with Fiat," said Maryann Keller, a leading automotive industry analyst. "On its own it doesn't make any sense."

Marchionne engineered a brilliant deal for Fiat, Keller said.

The initial terms gave Fiat a 20 percent stake in Chrysler, and the U.S. and Canadian governments, along with the United Auto Workers Union, held the rest. But the Italian carmaker could claim more equity if it met two requirements.

First, the company would have to assemble in North America a small car that would be fuel-efficient at a time of rising gasoline prices. Second, it would have to build a small, fuel-efficient engine on U.S. soil. In exchange, Fiat would get control of Chrysler, free from liability, without paying a dime.

"They gave away the store," Keller said, adding that the two manufacturing demands put on Fiat were paltry compared to what Fiat got in return: billions of dollars in Chrysler assets and intellectual property.

But speaking to the CBS's "60 Minutes" in 2012, Marchionne said taking on a failing company was a tall order.

"All these things are long shots. All," he said. "If it was that easy, then everybody would do it."

Marchionne found the key ingredients to the relaunch of an automotive giant, starting with a restructuring of the business.

He separated the pickup trucks from the Dodge brand and formed an entirely new pickup line called Ram, whose trucks were marketed for size, engine strength and fast acceleration.

That brand, along with the Dodge line, which he successfully reimagined as the maker of a new American muscle car, has taken off in the U.S. market.

The Jeep brand also thrived under his helm, selling globally and giving Fiat Chrysler a footprint in China, the world's biggest auto market.

Marchionne changed the management structure at Chrysler - a signature tactic he had used throughout his career - and refused to sit in the chairman's office on the top floor.

"I'm on the floor with all the engineers," he said in the "60 Minutes" interview. "I can build a car with all the guys on this floor. That's all I care about."

In his 2015 analysis of the auto industry, "Confessions of a Capital Junkie," Marchionne said consolidation was inevitable. He tried for another merger with General Motors, but the talks never advanced.

"It's highly unlikely that Chrysler would exist today had he not taken that gamble," Autotrader.com analyst Michelle Krebs, told the Associated Press. "The company was in such bad shape, being stripped of any kind of resources by the previous owners."

Perhaps Marchionne's biggest victory was recasting Chrysler in a positive light after its bankruptcy, positioning the company as a gritty, born-from-the-ashes American survivor. A 2011 Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler featured Detroit native and rapper Eminem and the slogan "Imported from Detroit."

"He captured the attention of the auto market in ways others would be timid about," Keller said of Marchionne. "He made it cool."

In June, at what would be his last public appearance as company chairman, Marchionne was in Rome for the presentation of a Jeep to Italy's paramilitary Carabinieri police.

Marchionne, whose father was a member of the Carabinieri, extolled the values of "seriousness, honesty, sense of duty, discipline and spirit of service."

Sergio Marchionne was born in Chieti, Italy, on June 17, 1952.

When he was in his early teens, his father moved the family to Toronto to be near relatives and offer his two children more opportunities. Marchionne's sister, Luciana, died of cancer in 1980, according to the Globe and Mail.

The assimilation in Canada was not easy at first.

"Trying to get friendly with girls with whom you cannot communicate was a problem," he told the Globe and Mail.

He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1978 from the University of Toronto, where he also obtained a bachelor's degree in commerce the next year. He completed a law degree from Toronto's York University in 1983 and a master's degree in business from the University of Windsor in 1985.

Marchionne had two children with his first wife, Orlandina, from whom he was separated. Other survivors include his companion, Manuela Battezzato.

After working as an accountant and tax officer at Deloitte & Touche in Toronto, Marchionne served in executive roles for the Toronto packaging company Lawson Mardon Group and other firms from 1985 to 2000. In 2002, he was named chief executive of a Swiss testing and certification company, and a year later he joined the board of Fiat's holding company. He later became the holding company's chief executive and, in 2006, was made chief executive of Fiat's auto division.

He immediately began a turnaround of the troubled carmaker, cutting costs and whipping it into shape financially. By 2009, he was in Washington, negotiating one of the biggest auto deals of his era. Within two years, Chrysler made its first profit ($183 million) since 2005, and paid back its $6 billion federal bailout six years before it was due.

"I remember when I came here in 2009," he told "60 Minutes" in 2012. "There's nothing worse for a leader than to see fear in people's faces. It's been a long, rocky road, but the fear is gone."

---

The Washington Post's Brian Murphy contributed to this report.WASHINGTON - Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., says the Trump administration needs to get serious about cyberdefense. And he's taking some cues from history with the hope of kicking the administration into action.

Tucked in a massive defense policy bill Congress appears poised to pass in the coming weeks is a measure from Sasse that would create a commission of top national security officials, lawmakers and experts to draw up a comprehensive cyberdefense strategy for the country. The proposal is based on the Project Solarium Commission, a Cold War effort President Dwight Eisenhower launched in the 1950s to counter the Soviet threat.

It's another way Congress is trying to force President Donald Trump's hand in developing a clear doctrine for how the United States responds to cyberthreats from nation states like Russia, which Trump refuses to unequivocally state interfered in the 2016 election. As Trump waffles on Russia's interference in the election, and his White House sheds top cybersecurity talent, the measure would give Congress and its hand-picked experts a more direct role in steering the national discussion.

"We need to have real debate if we're going to produce a consensus-based framework to defend the country in cyberspace," Sasse told me in an email. "The Commission will be successful if it helps finally define for our government how, when, and where we will seek to deter America's adversaries; how we will organize government to ensure dominance in the new battlefield; and how government appropriately recruits and partners with the expertise and talent of the private sector."

The 14-member "Cyberspace Solarium Commission" would consist of the director of the FBI and top deputies from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon. The remaining commissioners would be members of Congress and "nationally recognized" cybersecurity experts picked by House and Senate leaders from both parties.

The goal is to produce a "clean and coherent plan for deterring and defending our country from cyber attacks" by September 2019, Sasse said.

If approved, it would be a shot across the bow from lawmakers, said Bobby Chesney, a national security law professor at University of Texas at Austin and co-founder of the blog Lawfare. "There's no question that Congress by doing this is showing concern about the executive branch not paying sufficient attention to the need for clear strategic thinking."

"If the White House can't or won't administer a sound top-level policy, then the next best thing is for Congress to oblige it to do so," he continued."

Sasse's amendment made it through the conference committee process into the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. The House is likely to vote on the bill in the coming days, before it goes back to the Senate for final approval.

This isn't the first time lawmakers have sought to squeeze such a strategy out of the Trump administration. The White House in April sent Congress a report on its cyber policy in classified form, as required by a provision in last year's defense spending bill that required it to do so. But Sasse's legislation signals lawmakers weren't satisfied with what they got.

"There's a huge difference between pushing paper and producing real strategy," Sasse said. "There's a ton of bureaucrats writing memos in D.C. but all that paper doesn't add up to a serious cyber strategy.We know that our enemies are already working off of their own playbooks, but we have yet to draft our own."

Sasse's proposal is one of several provisions senators pushed through this year's NDAA seeking to prod the administration into overhauling the country's cyberdefense policies. One, for example, calls on the administration to establish a cyberwar doctrine. Another authorizes the president to direct U.S. Cyber Command to "disrupt, defeat and deter" cyberattacks.

To be sure, the administration says it's working hard to fight digital attacks from foreign adversaries. Top national security officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen have spokenpublicly in recent weeks about how the administration is ratcheting up its cyberdeterrence efforts. And the administration hit Russia with sanctions this year as punishment for its attacks on the 2016 election and other cyberoffensives -- but only after Congress forced Trump's hand by passing legislation requiring them.

But the recent departure of some of the White House's cybersecurity leaders has added to concerns that the administration is giving cyberdefense short shrift. Tom Bossert, Trump's homeland security adviser and cybersecurity czar, was forced out in April amid turnover on the National Security Council, as my Washington Post colleagues reported. White House cybersecurity coordinator Rob Joyce left soon after, and his position has since been eliminated.

Sasse's commission proposal could help fill the void they left, Chesney said.

"This might bring things to a head and yield some good ideas along the way, at a time when key parts of the executive branch, the White House in particular, did not appear interested in leading such an effort," Chesney told me. "A prestigious commission can force the issue, and with luck earn credibility that will transfer into support for its recommendations."

Then again, it's just a commission. Nothing it produces would be binding on the Trump administration. And the White House would be free to disregard whatever findings or conclusions it turns up.

But that doesn't mean it should be dismissed it outright, Chesney said.

"It's easy to mock proposals for a commission, and with good reason. But that doesn't mean that every one is a bad idea," he said. "The best-case scenario is that commission earns persuasive authority through the quality of its process, members, and recommendations."The medical device tax in the Affordable Care Act has been a perennial target since the law's inception. Congress twice temporarily suspended it and Tuesday night the House once more voted to permanently repeal it.

Officially killing off the 2.3 percent excise tax paid by medical device manufacturers is one of several health care-related measures aimed at further undermining Obamacare the House will take up before it goes on August recess next week. None of them are likely to be considered soon in the Senate, but House Republicans are intent on taking the votes to underscore their message before the midterms.

Unlike most attempts to chip away at the law, repealing the medical device tax is a rare bipartisan goal.

When the ACA was written in 2009, lawmakers decided the various industries in the health-care sector that stood to benefit from the law's requirement that all Americans be insured should help offset the cost of the legislation. The multibillion-dollar medical device industry launched a full-throttled attack on the tax, and it became low-hanging fruit in the dozens of Republican attempts to repeal Obamacare.

Pressure mounted on Democrats in states where device manufacturing is big business, and it wasn't long before they, too, sided with Republicans on repealing the tax. It garnered support from lawmakers spanning the ideological spectrum -- from liberals such as then-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to centrists such as Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. Of the 18 co-sponsors on the Senate bill to repeal the tax, nine are Democrats. In the House, 45 Democrats added their names to the legislation.

The industry paid the tax, on its revenues, for three years before Congress stepped in to give manufacturers a two-year reprieve in December 2015. Then, as part of its deal to keep the government running this past January, it punted the tax again for another two years. But medical-device companies still cried foul, arguing these short-term moratoriums created too much uncertainty for businesses that need to be able to plan for the long haul. So, on Tuesday night, 57 Democrats joined 226 Republicans on a standalone bill to end the tax.

While the repeal would likely sail through the Senate too, its future there is uncertain given the upper chamber's competing priorities.

What's notable about the years-long push to end this tax is doing so wouldn't actually undermine the ACA as much as it would simply add to the deficit. The taxes included in the law were there to offset the costs of the new health care law. Without them in place, the government simply loses money. One source told me to think of it less as an Obamacare measure and more as another tax cut bill.

The House is also planning to take up another delay of an insurance tax paid for by insurers. It too has been delayed twice and the House will vote this week on legislation that includes putting off collection for another two years. Insurers warn premiums will go up if they have to pay the tax.

Each year the taxes are delayed, several billion dollars is added to the federal deficit because the government doesn't stop paying out ACA-created subsidies to help individuals afford purchasing insurance.

Democrats who opposed ending the medical device tax took Republicans to task over its fiscal irresponsibility -- an interesting flip of the script for anyone who paid attention to GOP concerns during the Obama years.

"We devised the Affordable Care Act so that it could be paid for and we would not have to add to the deficit," said Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., during floor debate. "We knew we had to pay for this. That's what health care is all about. And that's why you guys on the other side, you people, have not come up with an alternative because you don't know how to pay for anything."

Republicans, Democrats with companies in their backyards and the medical device industry argue it's a jobs issue, and the threat of the tax limits innovation and suppresses growth.

"This is more than a dollars-and-cents line on a manufacturer's ledger sheet," said Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of AdvaMed, which represents hundreds of device makers. "What's being taxed are the technologies, treatments, diagnostics, and therapies that ensure better care and quality of life for patients. The downstream effects are real. The human impact is real. Congress has a chance to permanently repeal the tax, once and for all."

A former Hill staffer told me AdvaMed deserved a place in the lobbying hall of fame for its success convincing lawmakers that the tax was enemy number one. It has spent millions on lobbying, campaign donations and ads. So far this year its PAC has given away $155,000 to lawmakers for their reelections, according to OpenSecrets. That money is well spent because every day the tax isn't collected is money its members get to keep.

The slew of health-care bills on the floor this week is an attempt by the GOP to notch health-care related victories in order to stave off a concentrated effort by Democrats to make health care a cornerstone of the midterm elections. Democrats have been campaigning on the issue following Republicans' failed effort to repeal and replace the ACA last summer.

To that end, also this week, the House will vote to make low premium, high-deductible catastrophic health plans available to anyone who wants them. Currently only those under 30 years old who don't have access to an affordable plan in their area can buy the so-called cooper plans from the ACA insurance exchanges.WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump will convene a meeting Friday of the National Security Council on election security, a session that could include a discussion of possible Russian interference in November's midterm elections, according to a White House official.

In addition, national security adviser John Bolton plans to hold two NSC Principals Committee meetings this week, one Thursday on Iran and one Friday on North Korea, according to the White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans.

Friday's NSC meeting comes a week and a half after Trump's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. Trump was roundly criticized for his comments at a news conference there siding with Putin - who has denied that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election - over U.S. intelligence agencies, which have concluded based on evidence that Russia did interfere.

In the days that followed, Trump waffled between saying he has full faith in the U.S. intelligence agencies and casting doubt on Russia's election interference. He tweeted last weekend that "it is all a big hoax."

But when he sits down Friday with his national security team - which includes Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and intelligence and military chiefs - Trump is expected to be confronted with the government's latest intelligence regarding election threats, including from Russia.

It was unclear what Friday's agenda entailed, but it would be striking to convene a meeting on election security without delving into the Russian threat - especially as the president is under scrutiny for his warm overtures to Putin.

For months now, Trump's own intelligence officials have publicly warned that Russia could try to interfere in future elections, including this fall's midterms.

In his short tenure, Bolton has come under some internal criticism for running an insular operation and not always including agency heads in national security discussions. The Principals Committee meetings this week give key stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in on two of the most fraught foreign policy topics of the day.

Trump thrust Iran back into the headlines over the weekend with an all-caps tweet warning Iranian President Hassan Rouhani of a military strike with dire consequences. He was responding to Rouhani's comment that war with Iran would be "the mother of all wars."

On North Korea, Trump has publicly expressed high hopes that the rogue state will denuclearize following his summit last month with leader Kim Jong Un. Privately, however, Trump and other administration officials have expressed frustration with the slow pace of progress in subsequent talks with the North Koreans.BEIJING -Under pressure from the Chinese government, U.S. airlines are acceding to Beijing's demand that they change the way they refer to Taiwan - an edit the Trump administration has urged U.S. carriers to resist.

American Airlines wiped Taiwan from its website, and United Airlines said it was working to meet China's requirements.

The moves come about three months after Beijing ordered dozens of foreign airlines to refer to the island as a Chinese territory or face consequences in the world's second-largest aviation market.

Less than 24 hours after American Airlines announced it had bent to Beijing's will, United Airlines indicated it would follow suit.

"United Airlines has begun to roll out changes to its systems to address China's requirements," United spokesman Frank Benenati said. "United abides by and respects local laws and regulations in all markets and jurisdictions where we operate and conduct business. United flights to mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will continue to operate normally."

By Wednesday morning, Chinese users could no longer see the name "Taiwan" on a map of Asia on the American Airlines website, while China, Japan and the Koreas remained. The change is expected to reach all the airline's online content, although updates may have lagged in some markets, a spokeswoman said.

"Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request," American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said in a statement. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate."

American Airlines tweaked its language just hours before Beijing's July 25 deadline. President Xi Jinping's government demanded that the airlines stop listing the island online as its own country and instead call it "China Taiwan" or a similar title.

The wording on commercial websites bears no significance over the official status of Taiwan, which Beijing has claimed as part of its territory under its "one-China policy." But driving U.S. carriers to self-censorship is a symbolic victory for Chinese leaders and an example of the nation's business leverage.

Taiwan broke from China after Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Party fled to the island in 1949 after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communists. Taiwan and China's relationship remains fraught, despite a number of talks between the parties in recent years.

Taiwanese leaders condemned China's airline campaign Wednesday.

"Taiwan is Taiwan," Lishan Chang, spokesperson for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States, said in a statement. "It does not fall under the jurisdiction of China's government. Taiwan is a democratic nation whose achievements in freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law have won international recognition and are the envy of the people of China, who have no political freedom."

Chinese officials applauded the "positive developments" by foreign airlines Wednesday without mentioning any specific American carriers.

"We certainly hope that when they operate in China, they must respect China's laws and regulations, respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and respect the feelings of the Chinese people," Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters.

The State Department, however, said airlines should stand their ground.

"We have told China that the United States strongly objects to China's attempts to compel private firms to use specific words of a political nature in their publicly available content," a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said Tuesday. "We continue to seek to address this issue."

Disobeying China, however, carries a steep economic risk for airlines in the rapidly expanding market. Roughly 549 million passengers in China took flights last year, compared with 184 million in 2007.

Analysts say Beijing can cripple access to these fliers by ramping up regulations, crashing websites, ordering ticket brokers to shun American carriers and reducing the number of tourists who are allowed to travel to the United States.

The risk of noncompliance is a doozy, said Bob Mann, an airline industry in New York.

"They can't sell within China," Mann said.

The Trump administration has called Beijing's demand "Orwellian nonsense," but industry groups suggested Wednesday that more U.S. carriers may comply.

Chinese officials have called the matter nonnegotiable and have rejected at least one request from the White House to discuss the issue.

"As with other sectors of the economy, the U.S. airline industry is a global business that must contend with a host of regulations and requirements," Airlines for America, a lobbying group for the industry, said in a statement. "A4A and the affected U.S airlines appreciate the engagement and counsel we have received from the Administration as carriers begin to implement a solution."

The aviation deadline arrived less than three weeks after the United States kicked off a trade war with China, imposing tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing retaliated with levies on an equal amount of American goods.

President Donald Trump has vowed to slap duties on an additional $200 billion in Chinese products as early as September.

- - -

The Washington Post's Yang Liu in Beijing contributed to this report.Starting in January, Alamo Colleges District students will pay an additional $13 per credit hour for tuition, a 15 percent hike for in-district students.

The hike is needed because a perfect storm of declining state funding and enrollment growth is about to crash into the fiscal year that begins in September, Diane Snyder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, told the districts board earlier this month.

This is the year that we need revenue generation or we cannot sustain the benefits we need to do for our students, Snyder said. Our revenues no longer cover our expenses. We lose money when we grow.

RELATED: College affordability for student and taxpayers

The tuition increase is expected to fill a $6.7 million gap, caused largely by declining revenues from the state and the higher-than-expected popularity of the dual-credit classes, which are free to high-schoolers under partnerships with their school districts.

The average in-district Alamo Colleges student takes a part-time course load of nine credit hours per semester. They will pay $891 in the spring 2019 semester under the new tuition rate, $117 more than the current tuition. Full-time students who take advantage of the free summer course incentive, the most affordable way to get an associates degree, will pay $624 more to earn it than under the current tuition rate.

Out-of-district students, those who dont reside in Bexar County, will pay $215 per credit hour.

RELATED: Colleges ask for a share of future salary in lieu of loans, via AP

The tuition increase will take effect three years after the districts last tuition hike. Before that, tuition had been flat since 2012. Snyder called the increase a catch-up adjustment.

Students voiced concern and resignation about the tuition hike from behind a ring of laptops at their study group as they crammed for a history exam Tuesday in the Loftin Student Center at San Antonio College .

I think its kind of messed up, because tuitions already expensive and it doesnt include your books, said Anhelina Mercado, 26, a U.S. Air Force veteran who is earning a teaching degree through the Post 9/11 GI Bill. Its just going to make things harder for people who dont have access to certain benefits.

Read the full story at ExpressNews.com or in Wednesdays Express-News.

Alia Malik covers several school districts and the Alamo Colleges District in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | amalik@express-news.net | Twitter: @AliaAtSAENShe killed someone she believed to be a romantic rival. He threatened someone who helped put him in prison. And although they've never met, these two Texas inmates say they are in love and want to marry.

The would-be bride is Diane Zamora, a former Naval Academy honor student who in 1998 made national headlines, being depicted as a jealous, controlling woman who wanted to get rid of the person she thought was stealing her boyfriend. She's serving a life sentence for capital murder.

The would-be groom is Steven Mora, who is finishing up a four-year prison stay on a retaliation charge for threatening someone involved in one of his previous cases for theft, burglary, auto theft and the like.

Their relationship blossomed the way most inmates' pairings do, through the mail. Now Zamora, 25, and Mora, 27, have petitioned Bexar County for a marriage license, hoping to wed through what is called a double proxy. In such an arrangement, substitutes are appointed to act as the individual prisoners during the ceremonies.

Saundra Gonzales is baffled by her son's desire to wed Zamora. The inmates have never met, she said.

"I don't really know how I feel about it," Gonzales said from her home in San Antonio. "I can't really say I'm for or against it.

"He communicates more with (Zamora) and her mother than he does with me," Gonzales said. "I kind of try to stay out of it."

In a March 2002 letter to Bexar County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff, Mora wrote that he and Zamora had been trying to get a marriage license. Zamora's mother, Gloria Zamora, evidently took their applications and identification to the courthouse for them, Mora wrote.

Gloria Zamora has moved from her Fort Worth home to Arlington, and could not be reached for comment.

Her daughter is serving a life sentence for killing 16-year-old Adrianne Jones, a student at Mansfield High School. Diane Zamora believed Jones was romantically involved with her then-boyfriend, David Graham, who attended the same school as Jones.

Zamora and Graham devised a plot to kidnap and kill Jones, witnesses at their trials said. Her death in 1995 went unsolved for nine months before Zamora and Graham, then a cadet at the Air Force Academy, were charged with capital murder. He, too, was convicted and is serving a life sentence.

Under Texas law, each must serve 40 years before being eligible for parole. That's in 2036.

Zamora is at the Mountain View Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, a maximum security prison near Gatesville that houses general population inmates, protective custody and maximum security inmates along with the eight women on death row, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd.

Zamora declined to be interviewed.

Mora is serving his March 2000 sentence at the Goree Unit in Huntsville. The details of his offense were unavailable. He has served previous prison terms for theft, auto theft and arson.

The couple's request for a double-proxy wedding is a new one, even for prison officials.

Larry Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the TDJC, could not remember a double-proxy wedding but said, "We have proxy marriages all the time."

Pickax murderer Karla Faye Tucker, a resident of Texas' death row from 1984 to 1998, married Dallas-based prison ministry worker Dana Brown by proxy in 1995. In 1998, she became the first woman executed in Texas since 1863.

Two ceremonies are conducted when proxy marriages take place, Fitzgerald said: A civil ceremony in the free world with a proxy standing in for the inmate, and another ceremony conducted in prison by the prison chaplain, with a proxy standing in for the free spouse.

To conduct a double-proxy wedding, four stand-ins and three ceremonies would probably have to take place, Fitzgerald said: A free-world ceremony with two proxies, and two prison ceremonies with one proxy each.

The Bexar County clerk's office initially denied Zamora and Mora their license and requested an opinion from the Texas attorney general's office on whether marriage licenses may be issued to two absent applicants. Attorney General Greg Abbott responded last month, saying the Bexar County clerk could do so.

The bar-crossed lovers' victory, however, could be short-lived.

"Attorney general's opinions are just that," Rickhoff said. "Opinions. And Bexar County is a long way from Austin." Rickhoff said the licenses have not yet been issued, and he has made no decision on the matter.

Although the ceremonies sound strange, the sentiment behind them is not, said Dr. Marilyn McShane, a professor in the University of Houston-Downtown's criminal justice department.

"I don't think they're any different from others that age, when they decide to marry," McShane said of prisoners. "They're trying to do what other people do. They're trying to have a life.

"They're kind of naive about realities," McShane acknowledged. "That's really not surprising. If they were realistic, they probably wouldn't be where they are."

Gonzales said it probably would be just as well if the two have to wait until her son gets out of prison to get their licenses. She doubts the relationship will last once he's free.

"Once he gets out, it will probably fizzle," she said.

McShane isn't so sure. The fact that Mora will be free next year, and Zamora incarcerated for at least another 33 years, probably had nothing to do with the couple's decision, she said.

Being in prison, in fact, may have provided Zamora and Mora "the thing in common from which a relationship can grow," McShane said.

As far as the two knowing each other only through letters, Mc-Shane said it shouldn't surprise anyone.

"People do it on the Internet every day," she said.Two suspects are on the run after leading police on a chase through southwest Houston, according to Metro Video.

The chase began around 3 a.m. Wednesday, after a Houston police officer found an SUV that was believed to be stolen in a parking lot at Bissonnet and Boone, Metro Video reported. The officer drove toward the vehicle, and the driver took off.Police arrested an Austin area mom on Saturday after she passed out in a truck with her 10-year-old son on a hot day.

Police said the child used his mother's phone to call 911 while locked in the car as temperatures outside reached 104 degrees, an arrest affidavit obtained by KXAN detailed.

While on the phone with police, the child could be heard asking his mom to roll down the window.

She replied "no" according to court documents.

Authorities arrived at the scene and arrested Adriane Grace Moss, 34, charging her with abandoning or endangering a child.

RELATED: Arrested parents blame death of 21-month-old son on demons, police say

As she was being interviewed by Austin Police Department, authorities said Moss ignored their questions, stumbled when moving and smelled like alcohol, the arrest affidavit detailed.

During the course of the investigation, Moss allegedly told her son "get out of my life."

The boy told police he had been inside the parked car for about an hour.

Moss has since been released from Travis County Jail after posting bond for $15,000.

Fernando Ramirez covers Texas news and politics. Read him on our breaking news site and on our subscriber site. | Fernando.ramirez@chron.com | @fernramirez93



Houston TranStar

Drivers should expect delays on the South Loop this morning, police said.

Two lanes of traffic are blocked on the eastbound loop after a three-vehicle crash near South Highway 288, according to Houston TranStar.A judge Wednesday night sequestered the Bexar County jury deliberating the capital murder case involving a San Antonio man accused of killing two in a shooting and stabbing attack in 2016, reportedly over a pack of cigarettes.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Luis Antonio Arroyo, who is charged with capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Rodney Spring, 47, and Quickether Jackson, 36. Spring, shot once in the back, was pronounced dead Jan. 21, 2016, at an apartment in the 3800 block of Sherrill Brook on the West Side, and Jackson, shot five times and stabbed three times, died at an area hospital.

Tandylyn Jackson, Quickether Jacksons mother, was the lone survivor of the attack. She was stabbed in the back and shot in the stomach.

RELATED: Police: Detective fired shots during Southwest Side arrest

Arroyo, now 41, pleaded not guilty and chose not to testify in his own defense.

In his closing argument Wednesday, prosecutor Scott Simpson told the jury that this case isn't the type that leaves people wondering what happened because Tandylyn Jackson, now 59, was there, answered the door, was attacked, and is a living eyewitness.

That is proof beyond a reasonable doubt, Simpson told the jury.

He said Arroyo became enraged after Tandylyn Jackson accused him of taking a pack of cigarettes because he spent nearly every day with them, helped them when they needed money, and bought her cigarettes. He also was their crack supplier.

Defense attorney Joel Perez contended in his closing argument that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Arroyo was the attacker.

He criticized as shabby the San Antonio police investigation and its lead homicide detective, Robert Bunnell, for stopping at Arroyo and for not attempting to question other possible suspects who might have been at the scene. He also said the state and police took Tandylyn Jackson at her word, even though she was under the influence of crack cocaine.

The motive is not here, Perez told the jury. If a cop thinks youre guilty, they are going to lie to you. It could happen to any of us.

In her closing argument, prosecutor Mari Janssen played Tandylyn Jackson's 911 recording, in which she could be heard saying, Oh, Lord Jesus. Please, Tony, stop it!

RELATED: Mission vandals ordered to have no contact with each other

Luis Antonio Arroyo went to Tandylyn Jacksons house and kicked in her door and changed her life forever, said Janssen, who asked the jury to find Arroyo guilty.

The jury received the case around 1 p.m. in the 227th state District Court, presided by Judge Kevin OConnell. After nearly seven hours in deliberations, OConnell sequestered the jury. Deliberations resume Thursday morning.

Capital murder is an offense punishable by death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863Though Essex Modern City, a planned multi-million dollar development on the East Side, still awaits a groundbreaking date, the site is already being used to combine community and art.

The #EssexArt Project has turned an old industrial site at the crossing of Essex and Cherry streets into an outdoor art gallery, where San Antonians can hang out, interact and support local talent.

Jake Harris, a managing partner of Harris Bay, the firm behind the proposed Essex Modern City, said the project is a way to include the development's neighbors prior to breaking ground.

"How can we also build community while we're waiting on the application process?" Harris said in describing the vision behind the art project.

RELATED: Photos: San Antonio artists let loose while opening cool new work space inside converted church

Harris Bay acquired the land the developers hope to turn into an 8-acre, $150 million mixed-use development in Denver Heights about two years ago but is still waiting on approvals from the city, including a request to designate the area as a quiet zone for passing trains.

In the meantime, #EssexArt is working to form a network through art and monthly events.

"This is an unbelievable city, these are awesome people," Harris said. "What people try to manufacture in other cities is culture. That's what San Antonio already has."

About 30 pieces of art from local and international talents have been curated since the movement started last October. The murals are painted on panels that were once part of the loading docks used by the former industrial site.

The site also hosts Second Saturday events.

"This is an opportunity for us to continue to build that community  we don't need buildings to start building a community," he said. "That's what's exciting about living downtown, you're not in that suburban environment where you pull into your garage and not know your neighbors."

Visitors can check out the space Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Harris said people can have lunch surrounded by the art, shoot music videos or snap a couple of trendy Instagram shots. If guests can't drop in during the week, Second Saturdays at Essex Modern City are family- and dog-friendly events, usually with food vendors, live music and Freetail Brewing on site.

RELATED: East Side to receive $150 million Pearl-like development

Harris said the site can also be reserved for afterhours events like fashion shows or pop-up events, but organizers should coordinate with the company.

Once Essex Modern City is built, which Harris says will "absolutely" happen, the art will be incorporated to the design of the structure. The current pieces will be used in lobbies and gathering areas and Harris plans on inviting artists back to create rotating murals.

"We plan on doing this forever," he said.

Artists who are interested in participating should connect via Instagram with @jondotleo of Tanz Production, Harris said.

Meanwhile, Harris is relishing in the "exciting" canvas that is San Antonio, where he says "opportunity is everywhere."

"We have the opportunity to author a small piece of the future of San Antonio. It's a market that's prime for that that people are moving to San Antonio saying, 'This is what Austin used to be,'" Harris added. ""You walk around and it's like, 'Woah, there's so much opportunity.' You can't do that in New York, Miami or Chicago unless you're spending billions of dollars. You can impact the future and help change the direction of the city."





Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkyeA defense attorney for a 41-year-old San Antonio man facing the death penalty in the killings of two neighbors in 2016 attempted to discredit a detective and his investigation Monday as the trial entered its second week.

Luis Antonio Arroyo was 39 when San Antonio police arrested him and accused him of capital murder-multiple persons in the deaths of Rodney Spring, 47, and Quickether Jackson, 36. Spring, who was shot, died at the scene, and Jackson, who was shot and stabbed, died later at a hospital.

Tandylyn Jackson, 59, Quickethers mother, was the lone survivor of the attack. When the trial opened last week, she testified that Arroyo, whom she called Tony, kicked in the front door of her apartment in the 3800 block of Sherrill Brook Drive after she accused him of taking her cigarettes.

The woman told jurors after she was stabbed at her front door, she called 911 and identified Tony as her assailant. She stayed on the line so that first responders could find her at her home.

Before recessing Thursday for a long weekend, the jury heard testimony from crime scene investigators, medical examiners, and SAPD Detective Robert Bunnell. He explained what jurors were viewing in the two-hour video interview of Arroyo after his arrest, in which he denied knowledge of the fatal stabbing-shooting.

On cross-examination Monday, defense attorney Joel Perez attempted to discredit Bunnell for what he viewed as mistakes in the investigation. He slammed the detective for not keeping up with a crime scene list that showed who was at the scene, and leaving a shell casing inside a pillowcase that contained what investigators believe was the gun used in the shooting.

Perez also questioned why detectives did a protective sweep of the defendant's apartment without getting a search warrant.

We didn't have a warrant, but the law provides the opportunity to do that, when looking for suspects, Bunnell told the court.

Perez also was critical of Bunnell for not looking at other Tony Arroyos in the area, even though the detective said the eyewitness was able to identify her attacker.

Spring was Arroyo's next-door neighbor, and Quickether Jacksons childhood friend, Tandylyn Jackson told the jury last week, adding that the three routinely would visit and smoke crack that they purchased from Arroyo, who used heroin.

Arroyo was involved in a separate incident this year while he awaited trial. In March, he and two other inmates escaped from the Bexar County Jail. Arroyo, Jacob Anthony Brownson and Eric Trevino  all charged with capital murder  allegedly climbed 20 feet inside a recreation area in the jail and cut a hole in mesh to escape. All three were captured hours later.

If convicted, Arroyo faces death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. This is the first death penalty case in Bexar County since Mark Anthony Gonzalez was condemned in 2015 for killing Bexar County Sheriffs Sgt. Kenneth Vann in 2011.

The case is being heard in the 227th state District Court, presided by Judge Kevin O'Connell. The case is expected to wrap up in early August.

Elizabeth Zavala is a courts and crime reporter in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863An employee of a Northwest Side gun range was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday after he was shot by a coworker, police said.

The two people involved are employees of the Mission Ridge Range & Academy in the 4500 block of North Loop 1604 West.A San Antonio man was arrested after he shot his girlfriend's uncle, according to police.

Raymond Mireles, 30, was taken into custody Tuesday on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Officers responded to a shooting call in the 200 block of Agnes Drive on July 2, according to an arrest affidavit.

RELATED: SAPD: Gun range employee shot by coworker while discussing firearm tactics

Witnesses told police the uncle was visiting his niece when Mireles arrived, according to the affidavit.

Mireles confronted the uncle about a previous argument a pulled a pistol from his waistband, the affidavit said.

When the uncle tried to get away, Mireles allegedly shot him, striking him in the abdomen. He fled before police arrived to the home, authorities said.

The victim survived the shooting but information about his condition was not provided in the affidavit.

Mireles' bail was set at $75,000, according to jail records.Following reports last week of plutonium stolen from a vehicle in San Antonio, Congressman Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, has announced plans to meet with officials from the Idaho National Laboratory, which owned the missing plutonium, and the National Nuclear Security Administration.

"Two important meetings coming up," the representative tweeted Tuesday. The first was with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen regarding children separated from their parents at the border. The other pertained to the radioactive material stolen in San Antonio.

It wasn't immediately clear who else would be in the meetings.

It was the second time this month Castro called out officials regarding the missing plutonium. Last week, he wrote a letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, demanding answers and calling out the administration for failing to disclose the theft.

RELATED: Plutonium went missing in San Antonio, but the government says nothing

I...hope you take seriously a culture of nuclear security and prudence, Castro said in the letter.

The theft, which occurred more than a year ago, was first made public July 16 in a story from the Houston Chronicle and the Center for Public Integrity.

According to the report, two security experts from the Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory had driven to San Antonio in March 2017 to retrieve nuclear materials from a research lab there.

They brought samples of the materials  a plastic-covered disk of plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons, and cesium, a radioactive element that can also be used in dirty bombs  in order to ensure they brought back the correct materials.

RELATED: Hilarious locals answer the question: 'What if a nuclear weapon detonated in San Antonio?'

The security experts stopped just off Highway 410 at a Marriott hotel and left the materials in the backseat of their rental car. When they woke up and returned to their car the next morning, the vehicle windows were smashed and the materials gone.

Nearly 16 months later, the disks were still missing and the government hadn't said a word about it, the report said.

While the undisclosed amount of missing plutonium was not enough for a bomb, the report said, it was part of a larger supply that had quietly vanished from government control.

S. M. Chavey is a staff writer for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here. | sarah.chavey@express-news.net | 210-250-3122 | Twitter: @smchaveyThe latest unexpected cost increase to nearly $9 billion for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope could force the agency to make cuts to other programs in the coming years, experts said this week.

Paul Hertz, director of NASA's astrophysics division, said at a presentation to space agency's Astrophysics Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C. on Monday that those cuts likely will happen in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, according to Space News.

In June, the agency announced that human error and other technical problems have driven up development costs for James Webb -- which already is 13 years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget -- to nearly $9 billion and forced yet another delay of its launch to March 2021.

Missing screws: Human error delays launch of NASA's James Webb telescope and boosts cost by about $1B

That announcement followed a review of the project by a 10-member Independent Review Board, which laid out 32 separate recommendations to keep the telescope on track. Those include: proper training of employees, improved risk assessment and creation of a managerial position to oversee system deployments once in space.

Hertz said the most recent delay caused the project costs to increase about $1 billion, $200 million of which will be covered by existing reserves, Space News reported. So the space agency will have to come up with an additional $800 million.

Agency officials previously said this new increase would not impact projects in the coming budget year. But on Monday, Hertz told the committee it would in 2020 and 2021.

During these years, NASA expected the telescope would be in operation, not in development, so they have allocated $310 million for operations. That means they'll "need an extra $490 million for Webb in FY 2020 and '21 above what had previously been budgeted," Hertz is quoted as saying in Space News.

"Accommodating this is likely to impact other parts of the astrophysics budget and possibly beyond astrophysics," he said, though he did not specify what programs might be subject to the ax.

James Webb, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, is meant to revolutionize the world's understanding of planet and star formation. Initially expected to launch in 2007, it has faced repeated delays and burgeoning costs. Wednesday's announced delay pushes development costs past the $8 billion cap set by Congress in 2011, which means Congressional leaders must reauthorize the project in the agency's 2019 fiscal year budget.

The House Science Space and Technology Committee, led by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, is holding meetings Wednesday and Thursday to discuss this re-authorization. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and officials with Northrop Grumman, the prime contractor on the project, are expected to testify. The meetings will be livestreamed here.

James Webb is one of three major space projects currently in limbo because of delays or cancellations, including the the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which has faced similar cost and schedule problems.

These telescope-related problems have been so significant that NASA in June announced projects proposed in the upcoming 2020 Decadal Survey for Astrophysics must be capped at $5 billion each. Both Webb and WFIRST were suggested in previous surveys, which are a list of suggested missions compiled every 10 years by experts.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.AirAsia said the infant was found 'lifeless and abandoned' in plane toilet when aircraft was being prepared for landing.

The Delhi Police was informed about the discovery of the still born baby by an AirAsia manager and its officers boarded the aircraft once it landed in Delhi. (Representational Image | PTI)

New Delhi: The body of a stillborn baby was found abandoned onboard an Imphal-Guwahati-New Delhi AirAsia flight toilet today.

According to statement released by AirAsia, the infant was found "lifeless and abandoned" in one of the plane's lavatories when the aircraft was being prepared for landing.

Delhi Police were alerted by the flight staff and a doctor from the medical team at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport confirmed that the baby was delivered onboard.

The Delhi Police was informed about the discovery of the still born baby by an AirAsia manager and its officers boarded the aircraft once it landed in Delhi.

The baby's mother is believed to have boarded the flight from Guwahati, a police officer said.

Foetus has been sent for postmortem and the lady (suspected to be baby's mother) has been sent for medical examination.

AirAsia, in its statement, said that a "suspect" has been held by the police for questioning. "A suspect has been held back by police for further investigation. The suspect was identified on questioning of all female passengers onboard," the statement said.

Sanjay Bhatia, DCP (airport) of Delhi Police, said that police was informed about by an AirAsia flight manager that "during journey a foetus was found in the lavatory".

Police officials were then dispatched to the aircraft, which docked at Terminal 3 of the Delhi IGI Airport, DCP Bhatia said, adding that initial probe suggests that the baby was delivered stillborn.

"A lady boarded from Guwahati. During journey in the flight she delivered a pre-mature dead foetus. The matter is being inquired into," the police officer said.Thank you, Mayor Ron Nirenberg, County Judge Nelson Wolff and Councilman Roberto Trevino, for your joint letter demonstrating your steadfast leadership of Alamo Plaza and all it represents to San Antonio, Texas and the country.

On behalf of our fellow citizens, compatriots, respective organizations and the more than 1 million annual parade watchers and participants, we commend and thank you for preserving the continuum of our living history. Nowhere is our living history more vivaciously prevalent and apparent than in our open Alamo Plaza.

Alamo Plaza is indeed our most treasured civilian and military community space.

We look forward with hope and optimism to the uninterrupted continuity of rich traditions, such as the historical parade route, while embracing new opportunities made possible by a renewed Alamo Master Plan.

Phillip P. Bakke, commander, Texas Cavaliers; Charlie Garza, regent, Rey Feo Educational Foundation; retired Lt. Gen. Perry L. Wiggins, U.S. Army; retired Lt. Gen. Darryl L. Roberson, U.S. Air Force; Bonnie Carrisal, president, Fiesta Flambeau Parade Association; Anna Laura Block, president, Battle of Flowers Association; Mary Wieser, president, Alamo Chapter of Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Defining real heroes

John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in 1958. He became a pilot. He was shot down in 1967 during the Vietnam War and was captured by the North Vietnamese. He was tortured and in 1973 released as a prisoner of war. He served his country well, retiring in 1981.

He currently serves in the U.S. Senate, for several decades representing Arizona. However, Donald Trump believes Sen. McCain is not a hero because he was captured and became a prisoner.

There is currently a discussion of removing the Cenotaph from the Alamo Plaza. Based on Trumps new definition of the word hero, maybe we should re-evaluate our so-called heroes of the Alamo.

All the Alamo defenders were killed and/or captured during the Battle of the Alamo. Davy Crockett was captured and by orders of Santa Anna was bayoneted to death. As per Donald Trump, all the Alamo defenders should not be given the status of a hero.

Dont blame me or others concerning the Alamo Cenotaph. Blame POTUS.

Larry Garcia

New starts

It is very difficult to understand how a U.S. president can be so tough as to separate families that enter the United States looking for a better life. Families are coming just as the Pilgrims and so many settlers who were determined to come to live dreams of freedom. A very high percentage came willingly and were happy to come to have a new start. Others were brought here as slaves, not only blacks but also whites, and some were just dumped here because the prisons were too crowded in Great Britain  prisoners who were dumped in what is now the Deep South.

On one hand, President Donald Trump was nothing more than a pussycat next to Vladimir Putin at their joint news conference. He sold out our country because he wants to be friends with a president from another country whose whole purpose is to undermine democracy  a president who will stab the U.S. in the back every chance it gets.

Our President Trump slammed our own intelligence employees for having the courage to investigate and prosecute any foreign adversaries. Our own President Trump showed that he does not have the guts to stand up to the president from Russia.

It is so easy to push women and children around and separate them because they are treated as criminals. Their only crime is their desire for a better life. Go after those who really want to hurt us and destroy democracy.

Santos Hernandez, Brownsville

Unequal defense

Re: Uneven access to defense, Opinion, Sunday:

If youre entering the USA illegally, some of the best attorneys make a pilgrimage to offer their skills to assist you. But if youre an indigent U.S. citizen in need of counsel, then you are in trouble.

Brad OBrien, Schertz

Pretty good theory

Re: Creationism is, in fact, science; evolution is only a theory, Other View by Matthew Cserhati, Monday:

Matthew Cserhati has written an interesting defense of creation science. But a theory is more than a mere hypothesis. A theory emerges when many lines of evidence from diverse and independent branches of science coalesce into a coherent view of the world we live in. In the case of evolution there is the fossil record, DNA evidence, evidence from animal breeding experiments, the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms, etc., all of which contribute to the theory.

The atomic theory is also only a theory. Like all scientific theories, it is not perfect and may require modification in the future, but no one doubts that it is useful way of understanding how the universe works. Among other things it has given us nuclear power for better or worse.

One gets the impression from Mr. Cserhatis op-ed piece that he does not rule out the possibility that some day the theory of evolution and creation science might somehow blend into a more comprehensive world view. But if such a synthesis comes about, it is a near certainty that the current version of the theory of evolution will still be a recognizable component of this future, more complete theory.

Michael SternNEW MILFORD - Police are investigating the death of a 37-year-old woman identified as Mirabel Rios who was found unresponsive by medical units at the Canterbury Arms housing complex on Sunday around 11 a.m.

Police said Rios wasnt breathing when authorities responded and CPR was unsuccessful. Rios was pronounced dead at the scene.Republican New Britain mayor Erin Stewart qualified for a state elections grant to fund her lieutenant governor campaign, the state elections commission announced.

Stewart submitted her application last Friday, the deadline to do so, having raised more than $30,000 in qualifying contributions since July 1.

We hit a home run, literally, figuratively, you name it, Stewart told her supporters in a Facebook Live announcement from the New Britain Bees stadium Wednesday.

Stewart dropped out of the governors race to run for lieutenant governor on the eve of the Republican convention in May, and had to restart her fundraising efforts from zero. Stewart will face state Sen. Joe Markley, the endorsed candidate, and Darien First Selectman Jayme Stevenson in the August 14 primary.

Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, who is challenging the endorsed candidate Susan Bysiewicz in the Democratic primary, also received her grant Wednesday.

Im grateful for the groundswell of support weve received from everyday voters across Connecticut," Bermudez Zimmerman said. "I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the Citizens Election Program, which makes it possible for less-established candidates like myself to run for public office and represent the needs of our communities."

With the final round of awards, all five candidates for lieutenant governor have qualified for the $406,000 grant.

kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasseltWhen Dallas company JMJ Development revealed plans this week for a 14-story Hard Rock Hotel near the Alamo, it entered a battleground, literally and figuratively.

If history is any guide, JMJs proposal to build the hotel on top of the Joskes building at Shops at Rivercenter mall is likely to become another skirmish in the long struggle over how to preserve the historic battleground while San Antonios downtown grows around it.

JMJ unveiled its proposal just as the city and state are preparing to show a new draft of their controversial plan to transform Alamo Plaza from the tourist free-for-all it is now, with hollering street preachers and a Ripleys Believe-It-Or-Not!, into a more strict and somber place. Alamo enthusiasts are fighting many of the changes, including plans to move the Cenotaph monument and close parts of Alamo, Houston and Crockett streets. They show every sign of resisting to the end.

RELATED: Officials try to avoid battle over Alamo plan

Many San Antonians said they were surprised that JMJ would reveal its plans at such a sensitive time for the Alamo. The new draft of the Alamo plan, showing why officials believe the Cenotaph must be moved, is expected to be released next month.

Im not comfortable with anything being built around the plaza until we figure out what we want the Alamo to be, first and foremost, District 6 City Councilman Greg Brockhouse said. We always want that type of development  dont get me wrong  but this is subservient to the Alamo Master Plan.

RELATED: City still firm on moving Cenotaph

JMJs proposal must also contend with the ghosts of a similar proposal that floundered on the same site in 2013. Another Dallas developer, BC Realty Partners, wanted to build a 23-story hotel on top of the Joskes, but it ran into opposition from local residents who saw it as an intruder in the historic plaza.

Public opinion toward new development in San Antonio is more nuanced than the heated back-and-forth seen at official meetings, and the proposed 300-room Hard Rock Hotel is no exception. Local officials like to see more hotel rooms created downtown to support the tourism industry and make San Antonio more competitive in attracting conventions and events like the NCAA Final Four.

To read the full story  including feedback from local officials and why the previous hotel proposal flopped  see Thursdays front page or click here to visit our subscriber website, ExpressNews.com.

Richard Webner is a staff writer in the San Antonio and Bexar County area. Read him on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | rwebner@express-news.net | Twitter: @RWebnerJuly 22

WILTON  An intoxicated Stamford resident landed herself in police custody after she was found walking barefoot in a strangers driveway early Sunday morning, police said.

Wilton police received reports of an erratic driver in the area of Seeley Road around 1 a.m. on Sunday. The caller told police that the driver had pulled into the driveway of 511 Danbury Road.

At the scene, cops found Juliet Portillo, 26, of Crystal Street in Stamford, walking around the driveway barefoot. Portillo told police that she didnt know where she was, and the property owner told police that they had never seen her before either.

Portillo later failed the field sobriety test and was placed under arrest.

Portillo was charged with driving while under the influence, failure to drive in the proper lane and following too closely. She was held on a $260 bond, and she was given a court date of August 2.

July 16

WILTON  A New Jersey man is facing a marijuana charges after running a red light, police said.

Police said Sean McSweeney, 27, of Norwood, New Jersey, ran the red light while driving through the intersection of Danbury and Ridgefield roads around 6 p.m. on Monday, July 16.

An odor of marijuana caught cops attentions as they were speaking with McSweeney. A subsequent search of his car revealed nearly 2.5 grams of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the car.

McSweeney was cited for possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and failure to obey traffic signals. He was issued a citation for the infractions.

July 15

WILTON  Police are searching for a driver who struck a motorcyclist and fled the scene.

The incident happened on July 15 around 4 p.m. when a dark-colored SUV struck a man on a motorcycle in the parking lot of Wheels Gas Station, 386 Danbury Road.

Police said the offending driver left the scene and was last seen traveling north on Danbury Road.

The motorcycle operator suffered minor injuries as a result of the collision. He was treated at the scene, and ultimately did not go to the hospital.

Police ask anyone with information regarding the incident to contact the Wilton Police Department at 203-834-6260.

July 14

WESTPORT  A Wilton woman was charged with operating under the influence of drugs/alcohol, police said.

On July 14 around 10:15 p.m., officers were dispatched to a town gas station when observers saw a car lose control after entering the lot and strike a trash can and the gas pump, police said.

One of the pumps sustained minor damage, which town firefighters found to be non-hazardous. In speaking with the driver, Heather Bower, 40, officers detected a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on her breath and asked Bower to perform standardized field sobriety tests, which she failed, police said.

Bower was transported to headquarters, where a breath test found her blood alcohol content to be above the legal limit. She was released after posting a $500 cash bond and is scheduled to appear in the State Superior Court of Norwalk on July 24.- The Olisa Agbakoba-led Nigeria Intervention Movement has announced its readiness to merge with 15 political parties

- Agbakoba said its planned merger is expected to help the movement dislodge APC in 2019

- According to him, Nigerias political history is clearly replete with failures of the electoral alliance

The Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM) has said it is set to merge with 15 political parties ahead of the 2019 general election.

A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, who is leading the group said that NIM has finalised plans to merge with these parties, Punch reports.

A statement signed by NIM's secretary, Olubori Obafemi, said the aim of the proposed merger is to dislodge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)'s number one candidate from power.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

The movement also debunked claims that neither NIM nor former president Olusegun Obasanjos Coalition for Nigeria Movement spearheaded the coalition of parties which birthed the United Political Parties two weeks ago.

Nigerias political history is clearly replete with failures of the electoral alliance, especially as it concerns adopting common platforms or candidates of past alliances at the critical point of elections," the statement said.

READ ALSO: APC will work to ensure the return of defected senators - Lawan

It is to that extent that the National Secretariat of NIM was mandated in June to embark on a national consultation with leaders of political parties for the purpose of exploring the prospects of initiating a formidable alliance or merger of frontline political parties as well as groups that have yet to apply for registration with INEC or those with pending registration towards an understanding for a fusion into a common political platform for the 2019 elections in order to enable the required cohesion for ousting the ruling political platform in Nigeria," Olufemi said.

He also added that the final stage of NIMs merger was being driven by its leaders - Olisa Agbakoba, Donald Duke, Buba Galadima, Ghali NaAbba, Umar Dangiwa, Abdujalil Tafawa-Balewa, Senator Datti Baba Ahmed, John Darah, Olu Agunloye, Isa Ozi Salami, among many others.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that 36 members of the House of Representatives and 15 senators on Tuesday, dumped the APC.

Most of the lawmakers decamped to the major opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while others joined the ADC.

Also the ruling party reacting to defection of the lawmakers said, the movement would not affect APC's chances of leading the elections in 2019.

Street Gist: Should the Nigerian Senate be scrapped? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- A suspected herdsman has been paraded by the Nigeria Police

- The herdsman was said to have killed a police inspector in Kebbi state

- Confessing to the crime, Bubuga Kuaara said he killed the officer for arresting him

The Nigeria Police has on Tuesday, July 24, paraded a suspected herdsman for allegedly killing a police inspector, Umaru Danladi.

The Kebbi police command during the parade said Bubuga Kuaara killed Danladi who was before his death attached to Koaje police division in Baguo local government of Kebbi state.

Speaking on the alleged crime committed, Kuaara said he killed the police inspector with a cutlass.

READ ALSO: Agbakoba's NIM announces readiness to merge with 15 political parties

Kuaara said: I killed the policeman for arresting me, because a farmer had reported me to the police."

Paraded alongside the suspected herdsmen were eleven other suspects including kidnappers, ex-convict turned car snatcher, Peter James, who was caught while stealing a vehicle in Birnin-Kebbi, and 291 others arrested during various raids in July.

The Kebbi state commissioner of police, Ibrahim Kabiru, said Kuaara would be charged to court.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Buhari speaks on lawmakers' defections from APC

The command has embarked on raiding of criminal hideouts in order to make Kebbi State safe and secure for more economic growth and development," Kabiru said.

He added that out of the 291 suspects arrested by his command, 44 had been released, while six were under investigation.

Kabiru said 24 other suspects have also been charged to court, while 201 had been convicted while 17 were awaiting trial.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a civil society organisation has threatened to drag the perpetrators of the herdsmen/farmers crisis to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The organisation, Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC), condemned the alleged ongoing politically masterminded killings in Nigeria.

The group, while threatening to drag those behind the bloodletting in the country to the ICC said the endless clashes between herders and farmers, which has led to lost of lives and valuables worth millions of naira had political undertone.

Southern Kaduna killings: part 1 on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Malam Ibrahim Shekarau says he hopes Kwankwaso is now reformed and would abide by the rules of the PDP

- Shekarau says he hopes Kwankwaso would not come and hijack the PDP from those who have worked to keep it till now

- The former governor says if Kwankwaso abides by the rules, the PDP would be a safe home

Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, a former governor of Kano state, says the defection of Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso from All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a welcome idea.

He however urged Kwankwaso, a former governor too, to abide by the rules.

A report by Daily Trust says Shekarau, though a founding member of the APC, had to leave the party to PDP when Kwankwaso was asked to lead the ruling party after his defection close to the 2015 election.

The report said while speaking through his media aide, Sule Yau Sule, Shekarau, now the leader of the PDP in Kano, said he hoped Kwankwaso had changed.

I hope the PDP has received a reformed Kwankwaso. I hope it is not the old Kwankwaso I knew.

I hope he will this time around abide by the rules and regulations of the PDP.

I hope he will not repeat what he did after he joined APC in 2015. At that time, he took over everything leaving us with empty hand, he said.

I hope Kwankwaso is not coming to PDP to repeat the injustice he did in 2015.

If everybody will be allowed to play his card according to rules of the party, that will be better for him (Kwankwaso) and every member of the party, he added.

Legit.ng earlier reported that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state once again hit out against President Muhammadu Buharis administration.

The governor made his displeasure known when he visited the Senate president, Bukola Saraki, and the deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu, on Tuesday, July 24.

Fayose said who said he came on a solidarity visit condemned the siege on the residences of the national assembly leaders.

President Buhari's Return Will Teach Nigerians Sense | Legit.ng TV

Source: LegitIndian investigators suspect Choksi may have bought the citizenship of Antigua.

India had cancelled passports of both Mehul Choksi and his nephew Nirav Modi in February, after investigators uncovered a huge loan fraud at the Punjab National Bank. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Two days after India was informed by the US about fugitive diamond trader Mehul Choksi's move to Antigua, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wrote to Antigua authorities seeking more details about Choksis whereabouts.

The Ministry of External Affairs was informed that Gitanjali Gems owner Choksi, wanted for a Rs 13,500 crore bank fraud along with his nephew Nirav Modi, is not in the US anymore.

Antigua is among the many tax havens in the Caribbean and has no extradition treaty with India, which makes it harder to chase the 59-year-old runaway diamond businessman.

Indian investigators suspect Choksi may have bought the citizenship of Antigua. According to reports, the businessman would need to pay about Rs 1.3 to 1.7 crore and receive a passport from the country and with that passport, Choksi can travel freely.

Read: Mehul Choksi moves to Antigua, gets local passport: Officials

India had cancelled passports of both Choksi and Nirav Modi in February, after investigators uncovered a huge loan fraud at the Punjab National Bank.

There is an Interpol Red Corner Notice - close to an international warrant - against Nirav Modi but the CBI's request for one against Choksi is still in process.

The Enforcement Directorate, in June, told a Mumbai court that both should be declared "fugitive economic offenders" and their assets worth Rs 3,500 crore, spread across India, UK and United Arab Emirates, confiscated.

Mehul Choksi has refused to return to India, saying he fears "mob-lynching".

"There have been various cases of mob lynching in India... Even the applicant faces a similar threat as there are several persons who have grievances and anger against him (Mehul Choksi)," he said in his application.

Read: Mehul Choksi seeks cancellation of NBWs, cites fear of mob lynching

Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are accused of swindling the state-run Punjab National Bank worth Rs 13,400 crore.A 43-year-old man who lost his wife and first son has urged the Italian government to grant him a visa to enter the country and pick up his remaining two children who were on their way to Europe by sea.

The Nigerian man identified has Ikechukwu Ndigwe from Anambra state shared the story of how he lost his son and wife.

In an interview with The Sun, the grieving father revealed that he was a businessman living with his family in Morrocco but he was arrested and sent to jail. He stated that he had urged his wife to go back to Nigeria with his children but she refused.

He explained that his wife decided to go to Italy. According to him, he tried to convince her but he had limited efforts to do so due to the fact that he was in jail.

Anambra businessman recounts how he lost his wife, first son in Mediterranean sea Photo source: The Sun

READ ALSO: Pretty young lady dies in terrible accident in Warri weeks to her wedding

Ndigwe said: It was in 2014 when I had a problem with a Moroccan where I was doing business. I was arrested and imprisoned but my wife and children were coming to visit me in the prison. So, in 2015 I told my wife that she should take two of my grown up boys and return to Nigeria.

So, initially she accepted the idea of bringing the children home to Nigeria but in December 2015 she changed her mind and said that she would not return to Nigeria. Instead, she said that she would travel to Italy. I sought from her, who she would stay with in Italy, because I knew that I had nobody there. Besides, she would have to abandon her business in Morocco. On that day, we were talking on the phone, so I did not hear her reply before she dropped the phone. I contacted her family in Benin and my family, to inform them about my wifes decision, in the hope that they would advise her properly.

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Discussions on the issue continued until September 2016, when I could no longer get her on the phone, because normally I used to call her at night to avoid being caught by the police officers because it was an offence to make calls. I called my friend and requested him to go to my house and check my family. When he went, he saw that the house was locked. I told him to go to my wifes shop; he went and told me that it was also locked also. I started making contacts and asking people, to know the whereabouts of my family. That was how I learnt that she had traveled."

He revealed that his wife successfully entered Libya and decided to go to Italy by sea. He explained that in her excitement to see where she was going to she stood up in the boat and her son fell into the Mediterranean sea.

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"So, after two days my phone rang in prison and it was a foreign number. I picked the call and it was my wife. I asked her where she was, she told me that she was in Libya, I pleaded with her on phone to come back to Morocco or go to Nigeria but she refused. I asked her to give my children the phone and I spoke with them. After that call, she switched off her phone. Then I called the phone number of the person she was with in Libya and she picked after several trials and told me that I should thank God that my wife and children had entered reached. I was shocked and immediately I started having some unusual feelings.

As they were approaching their target city, my wife out of joy stood up in the boat, probably to get a glimpse of the city. The boat tilted to one side and my son fell into the sea and was shouting, mummy, mummy. When my wife reached out to grab him and also fell into the sea. Though she was rescued, my son was not found. She was unconscious and vomiting a whitish substance. On the way to the hospital, she died. I have the video of the whole story because it was sent to me. My other two sons with her, who became stranded by the accident and her death, were rescued alive. When I heard this, I started calling my in-laws in Italy to help me locate my two surviving children, Tobechukwu Matthew Ndigwe and Ebubechukwu David Ndigwe  and eventually he found them where they were with the help of a lawyer. They also got the Nigerian embassy in Italy involved. When they saw the children, they were given my pictures to identify me. The older one excitedly shouted, Daddy, daddy, and looking around thinking that I was close by. But they told them that I would come for them and then they went back to their office."

The man explained that his other two children who were saved were put under the custody of a guardian in Italy.

Ndigwe recalled his relations had attempted to take custody of the two children while he was still in detention in Morocco. He explained that they were, however, stopped by authorities in Libya.

They had claimed that the boys would only be released to their blood relation who must present himself or herself physically in front of a tribunal with full identification and evidence of financial capability.

The businessman applied for a visa and he was denied. Ndigwe has gotten a lawyer to help him fight his case in court to be granted his visa and the chairman of human rights defenders of Nigeria, Dede Uzor A. Uzor, also joined in his campaign to persuade the Italian authorities.

Which country would you leave Nigeria for? - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- Speaker of the Kano House of Representatives, Yusuf Abdullahi Ata, said Rabiu Kwankwaso's defection isn't a surprise

- Ata said Kwankwaso was only a symbol in the APC and his exit wasn't unexpected

Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso's defection from the All Progressives Congress (APC) is not a surprise to members of the party, according to the speaker of the Kano House of Assembly, Yusuf Abdullahi Ata.

Ata claimed Kwankswaso's exit was expected by the party and long overdue. He added that the senator's exit won't affect the party's victory in 2019, Daily Trust reports.

READ ALSO: CBN warns against effects of herdsmen and farmers crisis

He said: The defection of Senator Kwankwaso from APC to PDP is long overdue. For a very long time, we have not been together. His stay in APC was just symbolic. So if today he announces his defection to PDP, it will not surprise many of us because we knew he has not been with APC for a very long time."

A member of the Kano Assembly representing Municipal local government area, Alhaji Baffa Babba Danagundi, dispelled the rumour of defection of some APC members to PDP.

He said: Even the six members of Kwankwasiyya group in the house have not announced their defection to PDP not to talk of APC members that are loyal to Ganduje. We are loyal to Ganduje and we will remain loyal to him."

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Legit.ng previously reported that Kano state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, on Sunday, July 1, described his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, representing Kano central, as irrelevant in his senatorial ward and unproductive in the Senate.

Ganduje who made this statement while responding to claim made earlier by Kwankwaso that he was capable of defeating Buhari in the next election if they handed him the PDP ticket, said the former governor can't even win an election in his ward.

APC Official Tells Why His Party Could Be Voted Out in 2019 - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- The female wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ebonyi have advised women not to damage the future of the state by selling their votes come 2019 polls

- One of the top members of the wing, who is also the wife of the former governor, Josephine Elechi, urged the women to continue in the support of the APC to ensure more development in the state

- Another key member of the group, Beatrice Nkwuda, remarked that women formed the major bulk of the voting population

The All Progressives Congress (APC), women leaders in Ebonyi have urged women members of the party to resist all forms of intimidation, harassment and monetary inducements in the 2019 general elections.

They gave the advice on Wednesday, July 25, in Abakaliki at a meeting held to sensitise APC women in Ebonyi, ahead of the 2019 polls. The speakers said that the meeting was a platform to reach out to the women with a view to sensitising them on the need to participate actively in the forthcoming general elections, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

READ ALSO: 2019: Shagari declares intention to run for Sokoto governorship

They also said that the meeting provided a forum to engage the women as well as encourage them to resist vote buying, intimidation and harassment from desperate politicians. One of the lead speakers and wife of the former governor of Ebonyi, Josephine Elechi, urged the women to shun vices that could make them compromise their conscience during the election.

She called on the women to participate actively in the 2019 electoral processes including going out to register, collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) as well as vote in the elections. She warned them to be mindful of politicians allegedly going about collecting voter cards from the unsuspecting members of the public in exchange for jobs, money and other material gifts.

She reminded the women that they have more voting population than any other voting group and urged them to use their votes wisely to elect leaders that would effect positive change in the society.

Elechi further advised them to ensure that their children and wards were not used for political thuggery, before, during and after the elections. We urge you the women of Ebonyi to resist all forms of intimidation, harassment and financial inducement during the 2019 general elections and ensure that you guard your voter cards.

They will come to you with their usual bags of salt, maggi and money to buy your votes during the campaigns and elections and ask you to sell your PVCs; please resist and reject such inducement and advances.

Do not engage in actions that will hinder the development of the state and mortgage the future of your children and those yet unborn. Those of us who are yet to register in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) should go and get registered in order to qualify to participate in choosing their representatives, Elechi said.

She urged the women to continue supporting the APC-led government. Earlier, Beatrice Nkwuda, convener of the meeting, noted that the meeting was aimed at sensitising the women and equipping them with right political attitude as 2019 elections draw closer.

Nkwuda, zonal APC women leader, Ebonyi central senatorial district, said that women constituted the bulk of the voting population. She emphasised that there could hardly be any successful elections without women being actively involved in the process.

Nkwuda, a special assistant to former Governor Martin Elechi on Primary Education, said that the meeting provided a forum to brief the women on happenings in the party and Nigerians in general. She said that knowledge gained at the meeting would enable the women to make informed decisions at the poll.

She appealed to the women not to sell their votes for any reason and urged them to continue with their support, loyalty and solidarity with President Buharis administration.

Nkudu said: Tell them when they come with their cups of rice, salt and other material and financial inducement that your votes are worth more than those petty offers they are making in exchange for your votes.

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Women should come all out, shun intimidation, shun harassment and you are assured of adequate protection by security operatives as you come out to exercise your civic responsibility, Nkwuda said. Some participants at the meeting included Chinwe Onwe, Rachel Udenta and Veronica Elom.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that two chieftains of the APC in Ebonyi state had applauded the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari to run for second term saying that the decision would benefit all Nigerians.

The chieftains noted that the outstanding performance of the president qualified him to run for re-election to consolidate on the achievements recorded in his first term.

President Buhari on 2019 Presidential Election: Will You Vote For Him? | Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- Rep Oni Olamide says the recent defections of lawmakers out of the APC shows a lack of party ideology in Nigeria

- He is however optimistic that the current problem would soon be a thing of the past

- The lawmaker also condemned the Police invasion on the homes of the principal leaders of the Senate

A member of the House of Representatives, Oni Olamide, says the Tuesday, July 24, mass defection in both chambers of the National Assembly signified a lack of party ideology in the country.

He said this on Wednesday, July 25, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Legit.ng gathers that Olamide, who represents Ijero/Ekiti West/Efon constituency, said it was disheartening that the country was yet to define its style of politics.

READ ALSO: I never said Oshiomole is bad luck - Amaechi

One thing I see in Nigeria is that we have not been able to define the kind of politics we play. There is no party agenda. There are things that the public needs; there are things that the masses need. Tell us how you want to carry this out. There is no ideology.

In those good days, the NPN had programmes of green revolution, the UPN had programmes of free education, rural integration among others and they pursued those programmes. Unfortunately, these days, once you are sworn in, it is anything goes," he said.

He was optimistic that the current problem would soon be a thing of the past.

This problem will be resolved because there is going to be alignment and realignment.

But we are praying that there should be no casualty. They should be able to mend their fences very well. If they allow casualties, it is not good for this our democracy, he said.

READ ALSO: The story is not true - Kano Assembly debunks defection of APC members to PDP

On whether the crisis may affect the APCs chances in the 2019 poll, the lawmaker said politics was about grassroots and that the party was well rooted.

It doesnt matter; all politics are local. If it affects APC at the national level, it does not touch APCs chances in Ekiti. A governor has been elected, and when the governor takes the oath of office, he begins to function, he said.

The lawmaker, who condemned the Police invasion on the Senate president, Dr Bukola Saraki and his deputy, Chief Ike Ekweremadus homes, described it as killing a fly with a sledge hammer.

It is not good. I will not say more than that. Whoever that is behind this, it is not good, he said.

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Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that there was a rowdy session at the National Assembly on Tuesday, July 24, as 15 senators dumped the ruling APC.

The senators, including Dino Melaye and Abdul-Azeez Nyako, announced their defection at the Senate plenary.

Senators, lawmakers defect from APC - on Legit.ng TV:

Source: Legit.ng NewsOn the one hand, a great deal appears to have happened with respect to Brexit in the last two weeks, with David Davis and Boris Johnson resigning from Government and Theresa May stating that she will lead the Brexit negotiations. Despite the threat of an ouster, shes still the last woman standing.

However, in reality little has happened, save some of the fog is lifting, so the profile of the terrain is becoming more visible. The odds of a crash out Brexit now appear to be 80%. Im going to be more terse than I normally would be, so forgive me if my simplifications are arguably oversimplifications.

Some reasons why:

Mays rejection of the Irish backstop. Resolving Ireland was a precondition to sorting out other issues. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier cant change that order of battle nor can he change substantive parameters without going back to the EU Council. Barniers response to Mays renunciation, and her White Paper the trade deal the UK wants, has a thicker veneer of faux politeness than his earlier responses. Some commentators opined that the EU is taking more care so as not to give the UK fodder for blame-shifting (although theyll do that aplenty regardless). Lets be clear: no deal on the Irish border means no deal. As I read Barniers response, he hit the ball back over the net and told the UK that theyd committed to having a backstop, so if they didnt like the one theyd signed on to, they needed to come up with another one. The EU has already rejected the UK Rube Goldberg machine of a techno-border as well as agreeing to have regulatory alignment, which is tantamount to creating special joint rules and joint oversight. As far as the EU is concerned, a divorce is a divorce, and they have made clear they are not going to set up new co-habitation arrangements, particularly since the UKs barmycakes proposals would give it a better deal than it had in the EU. Incoherent White Paper on trade. The UK keeps asking for a special, novel arrangement with the EU when the EU ruled out anything like that the morning after Brexit. Barnier resorted to his old form with the the White Paper, and for good reason. From the Scottish Centre on European Relations: The white paper is a ramshackle affair: it attempts to keep the UK almost as close to the EU as it is as a member state, with the crucial exception of services, while denying that closeness and re-emphasising its red lines to Brexiters in the Conservative party and to leave voters more widely. After all the drama, resignations, non-existent rebellions, threats, demands and dodgy dealing the Tory white paper falls at the first hurdle. Theresa May might just as well have said, "Oh do what you like, the country's screwed anyway." #Brexit #ToriesOuthttps://t.co/iRUlSuL6fG  Maxine Fisher #NHSLove (@Sargent_Sellers) July 20, 2018 Another EU nien on the UKs request for a special financial services regime. From the Financial Times on Monday: Brussels has rejected the UKs proposals on how to govern the City of Londons access to the European market after Brexit, saying Theresa Mays latest financial services plan would rob the EU of its decision-making autonomy Mr Barnier told ministers that the plan would ride roughshod over the EUs stance that equivalence decisions must be made unilaterally by Brussels. He said it would amount to a system of generalised equivalence that would in reality be jointly run by the EU and UK. The UK white paper called for equivalence to be expanded, saying it was not sufficient to deal with a third country whose financial markets are as deeply interconnected with the EUs as those of the UK are. It also envisaged a unique system of joint governance and a safeguard for acquired rights, to prevent the UKs access to the EU financial services market from being easily withdrawn. Lets translate, as we did in January 2017, when the EU was even as of then re-rejecting a UK pitch for equivalence: This is tantamount to asking the EU to overturn its legal system to accommodate British bankers. Na ga happen. Lack of agreement among the Tories for any particular flavor of Brexit. This has long been apparent with the soft Brexit wing, led by Philip Hammond, at odds with the Ultras marching behind the likes of Johnson and Rees Mogg. But the press is now starting to admit that the deep divisions in the Tories mean no consensus, and that puts the UK on the default path of a crash out. Parliament also thinks it has a say over matters that are outside its power. For instance, May lost a vote on an amendment that obligated the UK to seek an agreement that would allow it to stay in the European medicines regulatory framework. But this is silly, since only members of the EEA can belong. This is part of a pattern, like some MPs pressing for the UK to remain in the EU customs union as if that would produce frictionless borders, when it wont, of embarrassing lack of comprehension of basic issues. So the depth and pervasiveness of stupidity on the UK side is another major impediment to securing an agreement. Mays no to second referendum. Weve already said it is too late to complete another referendum in time for the UK to back out of Brexit if the vote went the other way. But the Prime Ministers pronouncement somewhat reduces the delusion factor among those holding it out as an option. Lousy negotiating dynamics. Recall that May to the Irish backstop in December, so shes just shown the UK to be dealing with the EU in bad faith. Chris Grey explains why, even if the UK and EU actually do manage to start working on a deal, it will be even more difficult to agree on detailed terms: It would be a silly season story, but Brexit is now a year round silly story so when Dominic Raab pronounced that the UK might withhold paying its outstanding debts to the EU if there was no trade deal agreement it has to be taken seriously.This is a payment that Britain has already undertaken, in the phase 1 agreement, to make Thus Raabs threat is, in a sense, meaningless. But that does not mean it will have no effect. Its effect is to further undermine trust, just when it is most needed. Just as his predecessor David Daviss airy dismissal of the phase 1 agreement on the Irish border backstop made it vital to the EU to nail that down in a legal text in the Withdrawal Agreement, so will Raabs statement strengthen the case to make the agreement on the payment watertight. After all, this payment will not be made in one lump sum but over many years into the future. It is absurd to think that the EU would leave any wriggle room on it, especially with all the noises off from the Ultras that, once over the March 2019 line, anything agreed is up for grabs againIt is a posture which damages not just negotiations with the EU but to Britains more general credibility as a reliable negotiating partner. And trust matters in international negotiations.

If this isnt distressing enough, consider:

May is putting herself at a further disadvantage by negotiating herself. The only time Ive seen CEOs do well negotiating themselves is when they grew up in industries where pretty much everyone negotiates all the time. And the only industry where Ive seen that to be the case is media. The top guys in that business are killers and run rings around people in financial services.

But it isnt just that May flatters herself by thinking shes up to going mano a mano with Barnier, or go over his head to Tusk or Merkel or Macron. Its that principals should never negotiate with agents. Never.

May is a principal. She can commit her Government.

Barnier, by contrast, has negotiating parameters set by the EU27. He has to go back to his principals to go outside them.

The agent can use the need to go back to the principal to great advantage, for instance, by getting a concession from the other side in return for something it says it will try to get from its side, then coming back and saying it can only get 2/3 of what it hopes. The other side has already moves psychologically and has become more committed to the deal process by having made a concession. It will probably accept the only partial move from the other side, or will be satisfied by only a cosmetic addition.

But of course it will be the EUs fault that the UK cant get its fantasies met.

UK denial and worse inaction in the face of crash out downsides. I hope to address this at more length in later posts. One example is continued UK whinging about derivatives risk (see here for a recap). These remarks look designed to pressure the EU into giving UK banks the equivalence deal it keeps pushing.

The reality is all these UK firms have or will get EU licenses. The derivatives agreements are currently under UK law. That means Parliament and/or the regulators could solve this problem in any of a number of ways: forced reassignment of the agreements to EU entities (just as US courts interpret agreements written under the laws of other states, so too I imagine the European courts could enforce contracts under UK law although it might annoy the hell out of judges). Or the contracts could be force novated into EU-equivalent agreements as of, say, March 28, if the parties to the agreement has not substituted them or cancelled them of their own accord. And yes, there would no doubt be screw ups and hiccups and some chump customers who get exploited, but if the UK and ISDA wanted to solve this problem, as opposed to try to use it as a negotiating wedge for UK banks, I am sure they could come up with solutions for a very high proportion of the cases, and that assumes that contract parties would fail to get out of the way as much as they could themselves.

By contrast, the UK seems to be engaging in handwaves as far as dealing with requirements for ports and air traffic are concerned. Richard North has the patience to watch political TV, and in a series of recent posts, he chronicles how UK officials are acting as if the air transport issue will solve itself. By contrast, Heathrow has raised enough funds to enable it to ride out two months of no revenue. That means its leadership considers that to be a potential worst case scenario.

I suggest you read these posts, Brexit: dog days, Brexit: playing with fire, Brexit: arguing black is white, and Brexit: not an easy option, in full. One sobering tidbit:

One of the most interesting moments of the Dominic Raab (aka midair bacon) interview with Andrew Marr yesterday was the line of questioning on the EU-US open skies agreement. Marr specifically put to the Brexit secretary that: with no deal we fall out of that, to which Raab said quite simply, Yes. As a follow-up, Marr asked: That does mean that the planes cant carry on flying in at the moment doesnt it?, to which Raab responded: I think we would resolve that issue. There we have it in blunt terms. Yes, a no deal Brexit would mean that UK airlines would lose their access to US skies. And while Raab blandly assures us that we would resolve that issue, can we really be certain that President Trump would give us the access we want, immediately, and without asking for significant concessions elsewhere?

And another:

The thing is, though, if Rees-Mogg truly believes that the WTO option is nothing to be frightened of, we are dealing with a man who is either nurturing a staggering level of ignorance or is setting out to deceive. Either way, this has his co-conspirator, John Redwood, asserting that, under his fabulous WTO regime: Planes will fly & lorries will move thru ports the day after we leave just as they did the day before. Bearing in mind just the one example of exports of foods of animal origin, where (when such exports are permitted) goods must be submitted for inspection at the ports to a Border Inspection Post, one wonders whether these ERG zealots have asked themselves why the Port of Calais has brought 17 hectares (42 acres) of land, which could house inspection posts for sanitary checks and logistics warehouses.. The same must also apply to his recent comments on aviation in the wake of Leo Varadkars observation that the UK is part of the single European sky. If we leave the EU a no-deal, hard Brexit next March, he said, the planes would not fly, adding: You cannot have your cake and eat it. You cant take back your waters and then expect to use other peoples sky. This elicited a front-page headline from The Sun, proclaiming: AIR HEAD Irelands PM has been branded mad for threatening to stop British planes flying over Ireland as revenge for Brexit. There are several issues which arise from this, not least the idea common in the media that somehow things such as restrictions on airline flying are something which are imposed on Britain, either by the EU or Member States such as Ireland, effectively amounting to a ban. The point, of course, is that freedom to fly for UK airlines, variously a right or a privilege, is specifically granted by virtue of EU legislation, in this case Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008. When we leave the EU, that regulation  as it applies to the UK  lapses. There is no ban as such. It is Brexit and the UKs decision to leave the EU which will have the effect of removing the permissions for its airlines to operate outside domestic airspace. Some pundits who should know better point to the 1944 Chicago International Air Transport Agreement, arguing that such rights are conferred by this agreement, upon which the UK can rely. But here one has to understand that the Chicago Agreement does not in itself confer any rights. Rather, it requires contracting states to grant to the other contracting states what are known as the freedoms of the air. Thus, such rights do not take effect until contracting states formally agree between themselves bilateral or multi-lateral treaties, generically known as Air Service Agreements. In the EU context, as between Member States, these have been absorbed into the regulation, the benefits of which will no longer apply to the UK after Brexit. Unless there is then a specific air service agreement between the UK and the EU, there will be no reciprocal rights. The result, as Varadkar quite rightly says, is planes would not fly.

In other words, the UK would need to have a massive team trying to get Air Service Agreements in place now. There is no evidence anything of the kind is happening. And these agreements cover critical issues like safety standards. No airline is going to assume the liability of flying into a country and having its equipment serviced by airports who are not party to agreements setting forth the needed safety standards (among many other issues). In addition, aircraft leases would also prohibit it. The air transport issue is a massive Brexit risk that the Government is simply punting on, as if London is obviously so important that the rest of the world will surely bend to the UKs needs.

The UK is about to get a very rude awakening, and its on track to begin on March 30, 2019.Yves here. Yesterday, in passing, I listed some financial and economic risks that individually might seem manageable on a macro level but if they materialized in close succession, could produce nasty results. A reader in comments added a rise in energy prices to the tally of dangers. This post describes why that could be more imminent than it seems.

The reason for taking this dire warning seriously is that Phil Verleger is a very highly regarded oil analyst. It is also worth noting that Iran and Venezuela produce heavy, sour crude. Their pariah status means any push to roll back the proposed regulations could encounter opposition for geopolitical reasons.

By Nick Cunningham, a freelance writer on oil and gas, renewable energy, climate change, energy policy and geopolitics based in Pittsburgh, PA. Follow him on Twitter: @nickcunningham1. Originally published at OilPrice

Oil prices could spike as high as $200 per barrel over the next 18 months, which would cause an economic crash of horrible proportions, according to a new report.

A research paper from economist and oil market watcher Philip K. Verleger predicts there could be a shortage of low-sulfur diesel fuel in 2020 as a result of regulations from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) aimed at cutting sulfur emissions. The regulations, due to take effect at the start of 2020, lowers the allowed concentration of sulfur in maritime fuels from 3.5 percent to just 0.5 percent.

Those rules have already sparked a scramble for low-sulfur options. But the current global refining capacity may not be able to churn out enough low-sulfur fuels to allow a smooth transition from high-sulfur fuels by the worlds shipping fleet.

The shipping industry accounts for about 5 percent of total global oil demand, and most ships burn heavy fuel oil that is high in sulfur. Switching over 5 percent of total demand to low-sulfur diesel and gasoil  a distillate similar to diesel  is a massive shift.

Ship-owners will have a few options: install expensive scrubbers to remove sulfur, switch to low-sulfur fuels such as diesel or gasoil, or switch over to LNG. Scrubbers and LNG are generally thought to be the most expensive options, requiring capital outlays to overhaul entire fleets.

That will put the onus on low-sulfur fuels. But the problem is that not all crude oil is the same  heavier and sour varieties hold more sulfur and are unable to produce lower sulfur diesel without extra processing. And not all refineries are equipped to handle that processing.

Up until now, the maritime industry has been burning the residual fuel oil left over after the refining process. Fuel oil is the bottom of the barrel  its the cheapest, most viscous and dirtiest part of the barrel.

By 2020, diesel production will need to rise by at least seven percent, according to Philip K. Verleger, on top of the three percent increase needed for road transport and other uses. All of it will need to be low-sulfur. It is not clear that the greater volumes can be produced, Verleger wrote in his paper. Insteadvery large price hikes may be required to suppress non-maritime use.

On top of that, the banishment of fuel oil from the maritime sector will lead to a crash in high-sulfur fuel oil prices. Power plants onshore that burn oil might switch over to high-sulfur fuels because of the steep crash in prices. Ironically, the maritime fuel switch may do nothing to improve the global commons given that the pollution sources can just be moved from the high seas to land, Verleger concludes.

But the big problem will be the shortage of diesel and gasoil because as many as half of world refineries cannot produce fuel that meets the new regulation.

He predicts a rerun of the historic price spike in 2007-2008, which was in part the result of a shortage of low-sulfur oils. Refiners found themselves in a bidding war for low-sulfur oil, pushing oil prices to well over $100 per barrel. This situation will reoccur in 2020, Verleger wrote, except that the price spike could be even more dramatic because the fuel shift is greater and the refining industry is less prepared.

Verleger does not mince words. As the rules take effect in 2020, oil prices will spike to $160 per barrel or higher. Economic activity will slow and, in some places, grind to a halt. Food costs will climb as farmers, unable to pay for fuel, reduce plantings. Deliveries of goods and materials to factories and stores will slow or stop, he argues. Vehicle sales will plummet, especially those of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles (SUVs). One or more major U.S. automakers will face bankruptcy, even closure. Housing foreclosures will surge in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world. Millions will join the ranks of the unemployed as they did in 2008.

However, a report from Columbia Universitys Center on Global Energy Policy from earlier this year disputes this conclusion. Shippers switching over to low-sulfur fuels puts the burden of innovation onto the refining industry, the report says, but it will likely prove a lesser challenge for refiners than is commonly understood. That is because the fuels will be fuel hybrids, the production of which will entail as much blending as actual refining. Ultimately, the report concludes, speculation about a product supply crunch underestimates the industrys flexibility, and ignores the potential for a reconfiguration of demand and the emergence of new types of blended fuel hybrids.

There is quite a lot of space between those two conclusions. We have 18 months before we find out which is more accurate.Clonmel traditional music group South Wind who gave up their time on Saturday, 16th June, busking at two different locations around the Clonmel, last week handed over a cheque for 1,260 to the Friends of Bridgewater House charity.

Our presentation picture above shows:

Edel Meaney, on behalf of the South Wind Trad and Folk Group, presenting a cheque for 1,260 to George Hogg, Brian Pollard and Christopher Hogg of the Friends of Bridgewater House and Knocklofty Rural Day Care Services, following the South Wind's recent Charity Busking Day in Moynihan's Bar; SuperValu, Poppyfields and Tesco Supermarket in aid of The Friends. Also included are South Wind members - Liam O'Shea, Mary Morris, Tony Brosnan, Tommy Hartigan, Anne Dwyer, Oliver Harte and Treasa Nic Dhiarmada.

On the Saturday morning South Wind played at Super Valu at the Poppyfields, and then the same afternoon they headed over to Tesco Supermarket on the By-Pass, to continue to entertain the shoppers. And the public responded very generously in appreciation of their traditional music and fundraising efforts.

The self-described mature music group, South Wind, undertook the gigs to help with fundraising for the Friends of Bridgewater House and Knocklofty Rural Day Service.

The Friends were formed mainly by the parents of children and young disabled persons who attend both premises.

Funds raised are used primarily top provide a well-deserved summer holiday for those who attend the centres and also, when funds allow, to attend the occasional concert in Dublin, Cork and elsewhere. The benefits of these little extras are priceless to the children and young adults, and the appreciation, in return, immeasurable.

Traditional and Folk music group South Wind getting ready for a seisiun: Back, from left: Oliver Harte, Tommy Hartigan, Tony Brosnan and Liam O'Shea. Seated, from left: Ann Dwyer, Edel Meaney, Treasa Nic Dhiarmada and Mary Morris.

The group wish to thank all those who supported them on the day and attended the cheque presentation in Moynihans.Tipperary towns state-of-the-art high tech library - the 'most modern in Europe' - should remain open on Saturdays, heard the July meeting of Cashel Tipperary Municipal District.

Director of Services Karl Cashen told Councillors that there has been a doubling of visitors using Tipperarys library since it opened at the end of May.

Its a tremendous asset, said Cllr Michael Fitzgerald, and inquired if the library could be kept open for a couple of hours on a Saturday morning. Its something people feel very strongly about.

Cllr Mary Hanna Hourigan said its a huge addition to Tipperary town. Its certainly improved the whole of Tipperary Excel. It is necessary to open on Saturdays. It would be preferable to open on Saturday than one of the weekdays if necessary, added Cllr Hourigan.

Cllr Denis Leahy said there could be some system to self check out the books to make it more user friendly. Its the most modern library in Europe. Do we need personnel in the library at all times?

Could the library commit to setting up a self scanning system, asked Cllr Leahy. People want to use it, but the hours clash with the hours people have to work.

Mr Cashen said the Tipperary library is the most modern we have.

Libary staff have agreed to vote on a new self scanning system called the 'open library initiative', and the government has committed to investing in public libraries so they can remain open from 8am to 10pm, along with a new swipe card system.

There is funding for Nenagh Library and it will affect 200 libraries nationwide by the year 2020.

We will be applying for Tipperary to be part of that roll-out, said Mr Cashen. We will certainly put your views to the library staff at a meeting this month.

Meanwhile, Tipperary Co. Council issued a statement saying the new Tipperary Town Library has recorded an unprecedented 97% increase in books issued.

The people of Tipperary Town are responding very positively to their new Library located in the Excel Centre, which began operating at the start of April 2018.

In the period, April/ May 2018, the new Library issued 7,100 books which is an increase of 97% on the same period the previous year.

Investment in a high quality bookstock, for all ages and interests, particularly Childrens stock, made possible by the decision of the Members of Tipperary County Council to increase Local Property Tax (LPT) and allocate 200,000 towards Library services, has been vital to the success of the new library.

Customers can now see what an asset a library with the best of stock and the best of design and technology can provide a town and its community. The new Library will be the first in County Tipperary to provide a suite of new technology solutions to the public.

These include the introduction of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which will replace barcode technology on book stock and allow Library users to check out their own books. In addition, new services such as Wi-Fi printing from a phone or tablet, remote printing from home and access to a new suite of public PCs have been introduced.

Many of these new services will be accessed by a new Self-Service kiosk which utilises cutting-edge touch-screen technology as a point of access for the user. This kiosk represents the very latest in Library technology and it is the very first one of this new generation of self-service kiosks to be installed in Europe.

There are plans to run Healthy Ireland at Your Library events and Childrens Book Festival events in Tipperary Town Library during the autumn and winter to come, further enhancing the quality and range of services the New Library in Tipperary Town is providing to the community.A Clonmel man has resigned from the Irish Red Cross' Board of Directors after failing to be supplied with information he requested in relation to the charity's finances.

But former county and borough councillor Darren Ryan stresses he is still very much involved in the Irish Red Cross locally and nationally despite stepping down from the Board.

His resignation from the Irish Red Cross' Board was revealed in a Sunday newspaper report about the financial crisis the charity is facing causing it to cut full time posts and leave positions unfilled.

Mr Ryan said he resigned from the Board of Directors in May because of concerns he had in relation to the management of finances within the organisation.

He explained he sent an email requesting information about the Irish Red Cross' restricted funds (funds designated for a specific purpose) on April 25 but received nothing. He raised the matter at a Board meeting on May 19 and repeated his request. When he didn't receive the information, he became concerned.

"I found my position was untenable and on May 21 I informed the Chairman Pat Carey of my decision."

Mr Ryan said he was on the Board of Directors for four years and enjoyed the experience.

. "To be elected onto the Board was quite an achievement for a local volunteer. It's not a decision I took lightly. As a member of the Board you would imagine that when you seek information in relation to the finances of the charity, it would be provided.

He said his request for information wasn't prompted by any particular issue that was brought to his attention. He said he was a stickler for good governance and oversight from many years being a member of committees locally and it wasn't unusual for him to make such requests.

In relation to this week's media report about a fall in donations, redundancies and a financial crisis at the Irish Red Cross, Mr Ryan said he was not aware of the decisions and actions taken by the Board of Directors since his resignation. "All that( the redundancies) came after my decision. When I stepped down, I handed back my Board email so I wouldn't have been now on the email to see all that information."

Mr Ryan, who is involved in the Red Cross for 26 years, pointed out that he was still a member of the Irish Red Cross' General Assembly and continues to chair the charity's national Safe Guarding Committee, which is over child protection and Garda vetting.

He also continues to serve as Secretary of Clonmel's Irish Red Cross Branch and works as a Red Cross volunteer covering events in the Clonmel area.

The Irish Red Cross issued a statement saying the charity regretted Darren Ryan felt the need to resign from the Board, which he served on with distinction. Mr Ryan did request information about specific funds and bank balances which were not supplied to him as he requested before the Board meeting.

But the issues relating to the information were addressed at the meeting. He is a great loss to the Board given his experience and expertise, the statement concluded.Lord Ayyappa deity in Sabarimala is celibate and does not want presence of women between 10-50 years, lawyer said.

Advocate Parasaran, appearing for Nair Society, one of the intervenors, said Sabarimala was a unique temple where other than Hindus, Christians, Muslims and even foreigners are allowed entry. (Photo: sabarimala.kerala.gov.in)

New Delhi: As per the custom and long tradition, women in the age group of 10 to 50 are not allowed as manifestation of God in the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala is a celibate and the deity does not want the presence of women in this age group, argued senior advocate K Parasaran in the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Parasaran made this submission before a Constitution Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Rohinton Nariman, AM Kanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ban on entry of women in the age group of 10 to 50 in this temple.

Parasaran, appearing for Nair Society, one of the intervenors, said Sabarimala was a unique temple where other than Hindus, Christians, Muslims and even foreigners are allowed entry. But as per the custom and long tradition, women in the age of 10 to 50 are not allowed, as manifestation of God in this temple is a celibate.

He submitted that if the court were to abolish the practice, the very character of the religious institution will be irreparably altered which affects the rights of devotees under Article 25(1).

He submitted that the present case does not involve a social issue but a religious issue. By using 25(2), your Lordship will reform a religion out of its identity he cautioned the court.

Parasaran said not only the perception of the worshipper but also what is being worshipped is also important. If a devotee feels that he is not worshipping the idol of a Brahmachari, he may not go to that temple.

In all other Ayyappa temples in Kerala women are allowed entry without any discrimination.

He said the concept is the presence of women in the age of 10 and 50 will disturb the penance of the Lord Ayyappa and hence the Lord himself does not want their presence.

Parasaran said that Lord Ayyappa's character as a Naishtika Brahmachari is protected by the Constitution and judiciary cant interfere with it.

Referring to the observation made by Justice Chandrachud on Tuesday and the ban of women is due to the patriarchal system, Parasaran submitted that 96 per cent of the women in Kerala are educated and it is a matrilineal society. Therefore to assume that the practice of the Sabarimala Temple is based on patriarchy is fundamentally incorrect.

Parasaran submitted that the basis of the practice is the celibate nature of the Deity, not misogyny. Devotees who visit the temple too are expected to observe celibacy in letter and spirit. Hence, during the journey, company of women must be avoided.

He argued that misogyny is not supported by Hindu Shastras nor is chastity the sole obligation of the woman. In fact, chastity is a greater obligation on the man and he is duty bound under the Shastras to give a pride of place to the woman.

Parasaran submitted that democracies must protect religion and tradition. He said that Hindu religion respects merit and wisdom wherever it comes from. He was of the view that while the court must listen to activist voices, it must equally listen to voices which seek to protect tradition

Parasaran submitted that the Legislature is Brahma, Executive is Vishnu and Shiva is judiciary because only Shiva's ardhanarishwara form edifies Article 14, equal treatment of both sexes.

He said that Shiva is no Brahmachari, but even when his meditative state was sought to be disturbed by Kama Deva, he was reduced to ash because he failed to respect that state of Shiva.

Cautioning the courts, the former Attorney General said we must not proceed with the presumption that the ancients knew nothing and that we know better in all aspects of life.

Justices Nariman and Chandrachud wanted to know whether the State is bound to make laws under Article 25 (2) (b) of the Constitution to throw open Hindu temples to all classes of people including women without any age restriction.

Parasaran said this right of State applies only to social reform, it still does not apply to matters of religion under by Article 26 (b). When the CJI asked the counsel as to why women are excluded, counsel said it was being done as per the religious practice and custom followed for years.

Parasaran submitted that Article 25(2) deals only with secular aspects and right of entry of classes or sections. It does not therefore apply to religious aspects or right of entry based on gender

He said that even if Article 25(2) applies to women, it is only with respect to social issues but not religious issues. He further submitted that Article 25(2)(b) is at best an enabling provision for the Legislature, it doesn't enable the judiciary to interfere with custom, which is an integral religious practice.

When Justice Nariman pointed out that the notification restricting the entry of women of a particular age will violate the fundamental rights, Parasaran points out that the said provision requires the Tavancore Board to observe and maintain the practices of Temples under its administration. Arguments will continue on Thursday.On 25 July 2018 the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) received a request for assistance to fight large forest and turf fires in Latvia.

Since 17 July the Talsi district (Valdgale county, Latvia) has been hit by large forest and turf fires. For the last week, the State Fire and Rescue Service, the State Forest Service, the National Armed Forces, volunteers and private entities have been fighting the fire. Currently, national capacities are overstretched. The weather conditions may worsen. Most of the affected areas are not accessible by ground capabilities and aerial firefighting is the only option. The surface of the affected area doubled since 19 July and is currently estimated at around 1200 ha.(Natural News) Therapy dogs are popular when used to provide assistance and comfort to children, patients, and seniors. But there are also universities that have implemented programs wherein therapy dogs and their handlers visit campuses  although the efficacy of such programs has not been well-documented. One study, published in the journal Stress and Health, evaluated the effectiveness of therapy dog sessions in managing the stress levels of university students and improving their overall well-being.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) analyzed data from a total of 246 students who answered a brief questionnaire immediately before and after they went to a drop-in therapy dog session. The students were allowed to interact with several canine companions during the sessions. The students filled out questionnaires again approximately 10 hours later.

The participants in the experimental group reported strong immediate benefits, such as a decrease in stress levels, and an increase in happiness and energy levels, compared to the control group who did not participate in a therapy dog session. The feelings of happiness and satisfaction appeared to be short-lived, but some of the effects were found to linger on several hours after the experiment.

We found that, even 10 hours later, students still reported slightly less negative emotion, feeling more supported, and feeling less stressed, compared to students who did not take part in the therapy dog session, said Stanley Coren, study co-author and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UBC.

With these positive effects in mind, the researchers encourage universities to offer their students a set schedule to attend a therapy dog session during a particularly stressful time, such as exam periods. Frances Chen, senior author and Assistant Professor of Psychology at UBC, even suggested having therapy dogs around the students while they are working on their out-of-class assignments.

Our findings suggest that therapy dog sessions have a measurable, positive effect on the well-being of university students, particularly on stress reduction and feelings of negativity, said lead author and research assistant in the UBC Department of Psychology, Emma Ward-Griffin.

Best therapy dog breeds

Every dog is a great companion, but some canine breeds are specially trained to assist people in specific ways, such as providing comfort and affection to individuals in schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and other areas. Some therapy dogs also work with children with autism and learning disabilities. PetGuide.com shares a list of some of the best therapy dog breeds.

The Labrador Retriever is one of the most popular breeds in the U.S. They make for great therapy dogs due to their intelligence and gentle demeanor. Labs take well to new people and they are very obedient when properly trained.

is one of the most popular breeds in the U.S. They make for great therapy dogs due to their intelligence and gentle demeanor. Labs take well to new people and they are very obedient when properly trained. The German Shepherd is mostly trained as police and military dogs, but their keen intelligence makes them easily trainable for a variety of purposes, including being a therapy dog.

is mostly trained as police and military dogs, but their keen intelligence makes them easily trainable for a variety of purposes, including being a therapy dog. The Saint Bernard is particularly popular as a therapy dog for children due to their thick, fluffy coats, as well as their exceptional patience with kids that tend to pull at their tail or fur.

is particularly popular as a therapy dog for children due to their thick, fluffy coats, as well as their exceptional patience with kids that tend to pull at their tail or fur. The Pomeranian is a very small breed often favored by seniors as house companions, as they require relatively little exercise and enjoy cuddling indoors.

is a very small breed often favored by seniors as house companions, as they require relatively little exercise and enjoy cuddling indoors. The Pug is a small breed with lots of energy and loves to please people. Pugs work particularly well with children suffering neurodevelopment disorders like autism.

Do you have your own therapy dog? Visit PetHealthDaily.com to find out ways to properly take care of your best friend, naturally.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

AKC.org

PetGuide.com(Natural News) Suicide rates among older Americans have reached a disturbing peak. According to Drs. Namkee G. Choi and Diana M. DiNitto, both social work professors at The University of Texas at Austin, more people aged 50 and above have died by suicide than young people. Speaking in a press release, Choi remarked: Many people may not know that suicide rates are higher among older than younger adults. This is especially true for older men, who are approximately 85 percent of all suicide victims aged 65 years or older.

The primary driving forces behind these actions, the researchers discovered, are debilitating physical conditions (such as the pains from cancer and arthritis) and untreated depression. They noted that for many older adults, especially men, suicide was viewed as a reasonable and acceptable option when physical illness had become too much to bear.

To arrive at this sordid conclusion, Choi and DiNitto combed through 10 years worth of data on older adults from 16 states, all of whom had died by suicide. They looked at death certificates, toxicology reports, coroner assessments, and, when available, summaries of suicide notes. Going over all of these materials allowed the researchers to make a note of important trends that ran rampant among the older generation of Americans. (Related: Increased suicide rate in military blamed on conditions other than combat and prescription drug abuse.)

On their findings, DiNitto said: Rather than a reason for making suicide acceptable, this is a call to take measures to relieve the pain and suffering that precede suicide.

To that end, DiNitto and Choi have put out four helpful and important tips to help prevent suicide among older adults.

Recognize the signs of suicidal behavior and learn how to offer support: Social isolation, family discord, feelings of hopelessness, difficulty adapting to change, and giving away prized possessions are all warning signs of suicidal behavior. If you observe these symptoms, as well as others listed on MentalHealthAmerica.net, in an older adult, encourage them to seek the help they need and assist them in finding it. A mental health clinician can be contacted for assistance should you be uncomfortable talking about suicide. Heed disclosures: A disclosure is a cry for help and one that should be taken seriously. If this happens, you can try talking with the person and discuss their feelings, find reasons for living, and come up with safety plans. A safety plan would typically include listing contacts should a crisis arise, limiting access to possible means of suicide, and identifying any potential suicidal triggers. Other recommendations include coping cards, which contain steps to take in case suicidal thoughts occur, and hope boxes, which should be filled photos, videos, letters, and other materials that have personal meaning to the older adult. Dont mix alcohol and guns: The lethality of firearms makes the chance of rescue slim and contributes to higher rates of completed suicides among older adults, explained Choi. Researchers have pointed out that a good number of adult suicides have involved the use of a gun. Adding alcohol can be a deadly mix  its often been used to lower inhibitions on suicidal thoughts. Look for reliable palliative care providers: This kind of specialized medical care aims to relieve the pains associated with serious illness and improve a patients quality of life. Palliative care can be offered during the early stages of a disease, making it easier for the patient to deal with the side effects of medical treatments.

If youre looking for more advice regarding the sensitive topic of suicide, feel free to go to Psychiatry.news today.

Sources include:

News.UTexas.edu

MentalHealthAmerica.net(Natural News) An Indonesian study investigated the ability of the purple mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) to suppress malaria. In addition to reporting that the extract and fractions found in the fruits rind showed promise as antimalarials, the study added that the natural bio-active compounds improved the effects of the antimalarial compound artemisinin.

The study was conducted by the Maranatha Christian University. Its findings were published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

The dry rind of ripe purple mangosteens provided the base materials. Extraction and fractionation produced ethylacetate, buthanol, ethanol extract, hexane, and water fractions.

The mangosteen-derived extract and fractions were diluted in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Each was administered in vitro against the protozoan parasites (Plasmodium falciparum) that caused malaria. Their effectiveness at reducing the parasite growth was measured.

Furthermore, each extract and fraction was also tested alongside artemisinin, the standard antimalarial. The synergy between the tested extract/fraction and artemisinin was used to calculate the fractional inhibitory concentration 50 (FIC50).

The extract and all of the fractions exhibited antimalarial activities. The hexane fraction showed the greatest effectiveness, with parasite growth limited to 0.12 micrograms per milliliter (g/mL).

In addition, the mangosteen extract and fractions demonstrated very good synergy with artemisinin. Their FIC50 scores were all less than one, indicating that they could improve the antimalarial effect against artemisinin-resistant parasites.

The researcher believed that future studies should track down the specific means by which the bioactive compounds of purple mangosteen suppress malaria. Identifying the most important compounds could lead to the development of a complementary treatment that boosts the effectiveness of artemisinin-based combination therapy.

You can browse the full study at this link. If you want to find out more about the medicinal uses of fruits, visit Fruits.news.

Journal Reference:

Tjahjani S. ANTIMALARIAL ACTIVITY OF GARCINIA MANGOSTANA L RIND AND ITS SYNERGISTIC EFFECT WITH ARTEMISININ IN VITRO. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 28 February 2017;17(131). DOI: 10.1186/s12906-017-1649-8.(Natural News) A Chinese vaccine maker has been fabricating records and pumping out defective vaccines. All production has been halted at Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology, Chinas second largest rabies vaccine maker. After an inspection, regulators found fabricated safety records for a series of rabies vaccines. The vaccine maker has also halted production of vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) because the batches are not up to standards. Chinas Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) has launched an investigation into Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology. At least 250,000 doses of the questionable vaccine had made their way to the eastern province of Shandong, impacting children. The news about defective vaccines is getting around in China, especially online at WeChat.

Propaganda and censorship tactics in full force

Trying to keep their people allegiant to vaccine dogma, Chinas state broadcaster, CCTV, has been working overtime reassuring the public that vaccines are 100 percent safe and effective. CCTV has been constantly airing professionals, trying to reassure parents that the questionable vaccines have not made their way to Beijing, Guangdong, or Sichuan. Anxiety has risen since, because local regulators overseeing the factory have not answered journalists calls.

With communist power on their side, vaccine industry propagandists are using the state-controlled media and a variety of censorship tactics to suppress online articles that dare speak the truth about vaccine dangers. Improper storage, transport and sale of expired vaccines can cause health problems, but these concerns are being censored. In 2016, millions of dollars worth of expired vaccines was sold in Shandong, but articles about this subject are disappearing.

On WeChat, Chinese censors have been deleting posts that are critical of the vaccine industry. A very important essay that detailed the corruption of the vaccine industry was quickly removed by state censors working for the vaccine industry. Any content related to the essay has been pulled offline by the Communist state. The Communist Party stated that local regulators must rapidly take action, do a complete investigation and announce authoritative information in a timely manner to pacify public anxiety.



The vaccine brainwashing is more severe in the U.S.

This concerted effort to educate people on the necessity of vaccines is also prevalent in the United States. Wholly devoted to the vaccine industry, social media sites such as Facebook are quick to censor content that questions the composition, validity, or safety of vaccines. In their crusade against fake news, Facebook is prioritizing articles that support vaccines while making it harder to access and share articles that call vaccines into question. Even though the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) admits there are no records of vaccine safety on file (which is a lawful requirement of the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act), the Western media asserts that all vaccines are safe and effective. The HHS was initially required to send a report to Congress every two years detailing the safety of vaccines, but that never happened over a span of thirty-two years.

With no regulatory oversight for three decades and with immunity from liability, the vaccine industry has been given a license to kill. The pharmaceutically-funded media of the West covers up the tens of thousands of vaccine adverse events that are reported to the government every year, which represent about one percent of the total cases of vaccine damage. Some of the damages inflicted by vaccines include autism, autoimmune issues, and death, but the media continues to delete this conversation from the news, deriding it as debunked conspiracy theory or fake news.

The censorship in China is no different than the censorship in the U.S.A. In many ways, the lack of oversight for vaccine makers is worse in the U.S., and the purge of truthful information on Facebook using the Associated Press, algorithms, and AI is more appalling.

For more on the real science behind vaccines, visit Vaccines.News or Censorship.News.

Sources include:

Yahoo.com

HealthImpactNews.com

Vaccines.News

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) Want to live in a country that has no police, no laws, no freedom of speech, no freedom of press, no freedom of religion, and no right to bear arms? Then move to some third world country, find a cave to dwell in, carve out a club and some spears, and pray that nobody finds you. Over the past few centuries, millions of people moved to America to escape religious persecution, own their own land, grow their own food, and experience the pursuit of happiness, including, for some, the running their own business.

However, over the past two years, a surprising large portion of the Democratic Party has lost their minds, begging for anarchy, upheaval, and the revoking of all those rights and privileges, in a vain effort to vent their anger, frustration, and twisted view of the U.S.A. Could all this insanity be caused by the witches brew thats boiling in their blood and brains, including the cumulative effect of consuming toxic foods, chemical medicines and propaganda in the media?

There is a formula and a pattern here. Lets take an inside look right now at why certain Americans are dumb enough and crazy enough to beg for Communism and Socialism. Like the saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

Toxic food, noxious medicine, and brainwashing media messages  all driving the insanity of the Left

Dont think it cant happen. You too could be sucked into the vortex of insanity, ungratefulness, greed, hatred and utter contempt for everything good in this country. Back in the 1800s, people working in the hat-making business breathed in fumes of the heavy metal toxin mercury while creating the felt for fancy hats. They experienced anxiety, depression, memory loss, nervousness, insomnia, irritability, headaches, and even slurred speech. Their central nervous systems were shot and their brain activity severely disturbed.

The mercury poisoning created mental and social disorders that seemed irreversible. Mad Hatter Syndrome was real, and today its highly possible that certain members of Congress have lost their collective minds and are suffering from modern day Mad Hatter Syndrome. In fact, it sounds a lot like some of the top political leaders on the Left, such as Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi, who are calling for violence while spewing and spitting out insane advice that doesnt even make sense, spurring illegal activities and unnatural thoughts for all who think their rights and privileges are under siege.

For example, todays flu shots contain 25,000 times the amount of mercury that the EPA says is too much in drinking water and fish. Mercury is also found in amalgam dental fillings, pesticides, fertilizers, auto exhaust, laxatives, and cosmetics. Did you know that just half a gram of mercury in a 10-acre lake would warrant issuance of a fish advisory for the entire lake?

The surge for the PURGE is in full effect  the FAR LEFT wants anarchy and they want it now!

Have you seen the movie The First Purge thats out in theatres now? Watch the trailer and youll understand exactly what the insane far Left wants.

As the Democratic Party splits into two, one side is clearly expressing through demented speeches and purge-like actions that violence and destruction is the only way they can be heard, as they call for the outright murder of fellow citizens, politicians, and even the President, especially when intelligent people express their logical opinions about the state of our country. Plenty of Republicans disagreed with Obamas policies, and millions of Americans disagreed with George W. Bushs wars waged on false pretenses, but nobody walked the streets assaulting people wearing hats or t-shirts garnering their political affiliation. People werent setting fire to police cars and busting in bank building windows after some State of the Union speech.

Whats really driving all the madness, violence and dismay for the Left? Could it be that food stamps are all being spent on junk food thats poisonous to the brain and body? After all, there are still over 40 million Americans stuck on the SNAP program. Are you dying for your chicken McNuggets? Will you kill for them? Some people turn into zombie freaks when they cant get their MSG-loaded fast food fix. Watch this woman freak out at a McDonalds drive through window.

Take your drugs as prescribed, eat your junk food and scream for socialism for the people

Could it be that the violent Leftists are addicted to prescription drugs? After all, most pain meds are now just diluted heroin imported by Big Pharma from Afghanistan. What happens to addicts when they cant get their fix? Did you know that nearly every mass shooting in America over the past twenty years has been carried out by someone on SSRI psyche drugs?

Did you know that 75 percent of Americas municipal tap water contains a drug that causes cancer, brittle bones, a lowered IQ, and dementia?

Did you know that nearly all white foods in America are bleached, and bleach poisons your cleansing organs and leaches nutrition from the body? Masses of people in the U.S.A. are being dumbed-down on purpose so theyll believe the mass media messages that are mostly lies and propaganda.

Did you know the toxic, genetically modified artificial sweetener aspartame is making people feel nervous, uneasy, and anxious?

Have you noticed most of the drug commercials on television run between CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS news shows and talk shows? That is not a coincidence.

Last but not least, dirty electricity from Wifi, cell phones, smart devices, computers, smart meters, microwave ovens  theyre all depriving humans of oxygen, proper blood flow and nutrient delivery throughout the body. Maybe thats why the Far Left is craving those toxic messages coming from Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Hollywood, Disney, and Socialist Politicians  thats all fueled by George Soros money.

Tune into Trump.news for more information about the insane Leftists for the people call for murder, rape, violence, and destruction of the Republic and its patriotic, law-abiding citizens.

Sources for this article include:

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com

HSPH.harvard.edu

SeattleOrganicRestaurants.com

Trump.newsThe attorney for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assaulting a female student in 2016 argued Tuesday morning in an appeal of the jury's verdict that it should be overturned because of a lack of evidence.

Brock Turner was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object in March 2016. He was sentenced to six months in jail and was released after three months for good behavior.

"If he wins the appeal he no longer will have a conviction so he will no longer have a criminal record and he won't be required to register as a sex offender," said legal analyst Dean Johnson.

Attorney Eric Multhaup said of his appeal that Turner had only engaged in "sexual outercourse" that did not involve the intent to commit rape. Turner was not present in the courtroom during the appeal.

He defined "sexual outercourse" as an activity that does not involve vaginal sex and described it as "a version of safe sex."

He said Turner was not naked and his genitals were not exposed when two students witnessed "aggressive thrusting" in January 2015 at a fraternity party near Stanford, and said the lack of evidence did not meet the standard of reasonable doubt pointing to an intent to rape.

Multhaup said the jury "filled in the blanks" to reach their decision, including "imagination" and "speculation" as to what had actually occurred. He also questioned the extent of the victim's intoxication at the time of the assault.

Justices Frank Elia, Adrienne Grover and Wendy Clark Duffy repeatedly asked Multhaup whether he was asking them to reweigh the jury's decision, saying he should instead be trying to prove that the evidence was insubstantial.

They also dismissed his claims that the DNA evidence on the victim's body was never connected to Turner.

"I think what you're arguing is that there must be direct evidence before someone can be convicted of any crime, but the law isn't like that," Elia said.

Responding to his claims, Deputy Attorney General Alisha Carlile said Multhaup's argument was based in proving that his "version" of events was more credible than the prosecution's.

She argued that multiple factors pointed to Turner's intent to rape, including that he took the victim to a secluded location, he first digitally penetrated her, and he failed to deny that he was planning to rape the victim when the act was interrupted.

Elia asked Multhaup to consider the case as a whole, rather than "surgically remove" portions of the case and inspect them separately to construct an appeal.

"He was duly convicted by a jury," said Michele Dauber, who spearheaded the recall of Judge Persky. "His appeal appears to be yet another opportunity for him to blame the victim."



The judges now have up to 90 days to respond to Multhaup's appeal, according to the state attorney general's office.

Marianne Favro contributed to this article.The parents of a mass shooting victim in Newtown, Connecticut, are calling on Facebook to help protect them from harassment they have to endure from people who believe the elementary school shooting that killed 26 people, mostly children, did not happen.

In an open letter published by The Guardian, Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, parents of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, described being harassed and receiving death threats right after the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school on Dec. 12, 2012.

Conspiracy groups have been claiming that the deaths of 20 elementary school aged students were fake and their parents are actors.

"These claims and calls to action spread across Facebook like wildfire and, despite our pleas, were protected by Facebook," the letter read.

Pozner and De La Rosa's letter comes after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's interview with Recode, where he said the company's goal is not to prevent someone from saying something untrue but to stop fake news from spreading across the social network.

Zuckerberg gave the example of the Holocaust, saying he doesn't think Holocaust deniers are "intentionally" getting it wrong.

He later tried to explain his words, saying in an email to Recode's Kara Swisher that he personally finds "Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn't intend to defend the intent of people who deny that."

Still, Facebook's policy remains unchanged.

Pozner and De La Rosa asked in their letter for Facebook to "treat victims of mass shootings and other tragedies as a protected group" and to provide affected people with access to Facebook staff who can remove hateful and harassing posts against victims.

They argued that Facebook's idea of combating fake news by pushing incendiary content lower in search results doesn't work because the shooting happened in 2012 and there aren't the same amount of posts about the victims of the massacre.

"Our son Noah no longer has a voice, nor will he ever get to live out his life. His absence is felt every day. But we are unable to properly grieve for our baby or move on with our lives because you, arguably the most powerful man on the planet, have deemed that the attacks on us are immaterial, that providing assistance in removing threats is too cumbersome, and that our lives are less important than providing a safe haven for hate," Pozner and De La Rosa wrote.



Facebook stood by its policy and said that the company doesn't allow attacks against victims of mass shooting and other tragedies.

"For example, we dont allow people to mock, harass or bully the victims of tragedies. This includes the types of claims in the letter that victims are crisis actors. We also dont allow people to celebrate, justify or defend the tragedy in any way," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement to NBC Bay Area.

"We want to make ourselves available to victims and families and be responsive to their needs in a way thats best and easiest for them," and there are channels through which victims of attacks can reach out to people at Facebook, the spokesperson said.

Lies about the Sandy Hook victims have been recently recirculated by radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. The families of the victims have sued Jones for defamation after he claimed the shooting was a hoax and the relatives are paid actors.

Pozner and De La Rosa said they've relocated several times to protect themselves and their other children from abusers, one of which was sentence to jail for death threats because she believed in the fake content created by one of the "fringe groups."One of the many perks of working for most tech firms is the free food for employees. Now, San Francisco is considering banning the so-called corporate cafeterias, arguing they are hurting smaller, local shops and restaurants.

Two members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors introduced a ban Tuesday for any new business coming to the city. An ordinance that puts the city at odds with an industry its worked hard to attract, high tech companies.

"A lot of people who rely on the benefit aren't necessarily highly compensated engineers and it's something that a lot of tech workers depend on," said Sam Schneidman who works in San Francisco.

Supervisor Ahsha Safia says that within the past six years, 51 corporate cafes have opened in the city, offering many high tech workers breakfast, lunch and even dinner on the company dime, inside the company office.

Something thats hit smaller, local business and restaurants.

"The backbone of any vibrant strong city is our small business, our restaurants, our cafes, our locally owned businesses," Safia said.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin along with Safia are cosponsoring a ban on corporate cafes for new businesses coming into the city, encouraging workers to go outside and frequent local businesses.

"This legislation is about a reset," said Gwyneth Borden from the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. "We're asking companies that have internal cafeterias to say we want your employees to get out of the office, we want you to support our local businesses, we want you to interact and add to the cultural vibrancy of our city.'"

However, many high tech employees disagree.

"I think it's probably got its heart in the right place but I don't think it is going to achieve the desired result," said Schneidman.

The ordinance now heads to a committee for discussion.

The proposal would apply only to new companies, established corporate cafes will be grandfathered in.What to Know Officials say the Ferguson Fire has scorched nearly 53 square miles of timber and brush

More than 3,000 firefighters are battling the fire

Thirteen areas are under mandatory evacuation orders.

As smoke from a nearby wildfire pours into Yosemite Valley, Tom Lambert has had to tell tourists who booked his vacation home months in advance that they would have to defer their dream stays so firefighters could take protective measures against the growing blaze.

The decision to shut the scenic heart of Yosemite National Park at the height of tourist season is heartbreaking for travelers, many of whom mapped out their trips months in advance to hike and climb amid the spectacular views of cascading waterfalls and sheer rock faces.

"We had one guest who planned a weeklong trip," Lambert said. "It was a father-daughter trip, for her high school graduation ... Now it's done. It's sad." Another guest had to delay plans to climb Half Dome.

The closure has also been a financial blow to Lambert and other businesses that rely on the summer tourist traffic.

Most people left the valley Tuesday, when officials reluctantly announced the closure, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. The remaining campers packed up their gear Wednesday, joining the exodus that has been mostly orderly.

"People have been very understanding," Gediman said.

Officials emphasized that Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the fire. Authorities decided on the shutdown to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

On Wednesday, an extended family from Los Angeles on their annual trip to the national park prepared to leave the Upper Pines campground.

"Very disappointed," Lisa Salgado said. "We look forward to this all year. This is the trip of our summer."

The group arrived Monday and had planned to stay through Saturday. Instead, they packed tents and other gear into vehicles, hoping they could find another campground elsewhere.

"So, this is a new memory," said Miguel Martinez. "I've never been evacuated before."

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads into the area, Gediman said.

At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings were canceled  to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. Rangers went to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotels guests got phone calls and notes on their doors.

"This is the prime visitor season, so this wasn't an easy decision to make," Gediman said. "This was purely for safety's sake."

The last time the 7.5-mile-long valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Lambert and his wife, Theresa Ho, were briefly evacuated last week when smoke cast an unhealthy pall over the home where they live upstairs and rent the downstairs to tourists.

"Basically June, July and August are the big revenue months," he said, estimating that about 100 nearby vacation properties would be forced to offer refunds. "We're gonna lose half of July and half of August probably."

Yosemite Valley is the centerpiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley has been enveloped by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through 60 square miles of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while other people have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Rhonda Salisbury, CEO of Visit Yosemite/Madera County, said the regional visitors bureau has been relocating tourists statewide following the closure.

"People are heartbroken," she said. "Some want to ride it out for a few days and see if they can get back in the park." Others want help finding places to stay away from Yosemite.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemite's northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

"There are wonderful places to visit in the region, so we're asking people to consider alternative plans," he said.

In Southern California's San Jacinto Mountains, a highway was closed and evacuations were ordered near the town of Idyllwild as crews tried to stop the spread of an out-of-control wildfire.

In the state's far north, a 7-square-mile wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide yesterday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, dies in a hospital.

Agitators set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during the protests. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Mumbai: Maratha Kranti Morcha which spearheaded the protests for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the community today called off their bandh in Mumbai.

Normal life was severely affected in Mumbai and adjoining areas after Maratha outfits called for Mumbai shutdown on Wednesday.

Though the outfit said that they would hold a peaceful protest, the agitations soon turned violent. The protesters set ablaze buses and vehicles at several places and blocked Pune-Mumbai highway.

Police resorted to tear gas to disperse the agitators.

Local train services were also disrupted at Jogeshwari and near Thane.

Fearing untoward incidents, most shops remained closed in and around Mumbai.

Elaborate security arrangements were put in place in the city ahead of the bandh.

Large-scale violence marred the protests by Maratha outfits demanding a quota for the community in Maharashtra on Tuesday, a day after the death of a protester.

Protester Kakasaheb Shinde (27) had jumped to death from a bridge over the Godavari in Aurangabad on Monday.

Stone-pelting and arson were reported from several parts of the state, which remained on edge on Tuesday.

Agitators clashed with the police and torched vehicles at several places, while Internet services were suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district.

One constable died and nine other policemen were injured in stone-throwing on Tuesday when protesters clashed with the police and torching vehicles.

As the stir for reservation in jobs and education intensified, the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, has taken its battle to Mumbai where it has called for the shutdown.

Another outfit, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for a bandh today in Navi Mumbai and Panvel as well.

Quota for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

Here are the LIVE updates from Maharashtra Bandh today:

02:40 pm: Maratha Kranti Morcha, protesting for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions, calls off bandh in Mumbai.

01:49 pm: Agitators have blocked the Mumbai-Pune highway.

01:44 pm: Miscreants pelted stones and set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during the protests. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

01:14 pm: I support Maratha Reservation demand. I appeal to the protesters to protest peacefully. We need to make a law in parliament and raise reservation cap from 50 per cent to 75 per cent. I will also raise this issue in NDA, Union Minister and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale said.

12:15 pm: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block Eastern Expressway in Chembur during the agitation.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

12:12 pm: Protestors blocked Western Express highway between Borivali and Kandivali, reports said.

11:40 am: Local train routes have been blocked in Jogeshwari and near Thane.

11:14 am: There is no impact on railway services in Pune, all trains are plying normally, says Pune railway PRO.

10:37 am: Clashes broke out between two groups in Udgir in Latur district of Maharashtra when one group was forcibly trying to get people to shut shops and overturned a vegetable cart in an attempt to enforce Maharashtra bandh. Police are on the spot and situation is contained, news agency ANI reported.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

10:23 am: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha block a local train in Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

10:03 am: A group of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers request with folded hands, the shopkeepers in Bandra to shut their shops.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:54 am: Jagannath Sonavne, a protester who attempted suicide yesterday in Aurangabad's Deogaon Rangari, dies in a hospital.

09:42 am: Tires were set ablaze on Majiwada bridge in Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:33 am: Workers of Maratha Kranti Morcha forcibly shut shops on Thane 's Gokhale road.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:24 am: We are not blocking any road. We are carrying out a peaceful protest. We have told our workers that there should be no inconvenience to the police or government due to our protest. We are asking people to shut down their shops: Maratha Kranti Morcha.

09:15 am: A Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) bus vandalised in Wagle estate area of Thane.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

09:03 am: Police have been deployed outside the BJP office in Mumbai in wake of Maratha reservation protests.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

08:52 am: Agitators protest at Thane's Teen Haath Naka.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

08:30 am: Protesters pelted stones on two Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses near Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli this morning, news agency ANI reported. BEST bus services from Airoli to Vashi have been completely stopped today in the light of Maharashtra bandh.

08:00 am: The train services are running as usual and security has been beefed up at several stations. Nearly 40 Railway Protection Force and Government Railway Police personnel were deployed at Dadar, CSMT and 20 at Kurla.

07:30 am: Visuals from parts of Mumbai as the strike called by Maratha Kranti Morcha enters the second day. Auto rickshaws were off the road in many areas of Navi Mumbai.

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

(Photo: Twitter | ANI)

On Tuesday, protester Jagannath Sonawane, 31, from Aurangabad, sought to emulate Shinde's example by jumping onto a dry river bed, while another, Guddu Sonawane, also from the district, consumed poison. They have been admitted to a hospital, police said.

Also Read: Marathas bring bandh to Mumbai today

In Thane, activist Mangesh Suryavanshi (38) jumped into a creek near the Ganesh Ghat, but was saved by police and others, Thane Police PRO Sukhada Narkar said. He received minor injuries and was admitted to a hospital.A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to lying to police looking into the disappearance of a 5-year-old boy who was later found dead.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that 25-year-old Christian Sierra was handed a 2-year suspended jail sentence on Tuesday after pleading guilty to perjury and misleading investigators probing the September 2013 disappearance of Jeremiah Oliver, of Fitchburg. Jeremiah's body was found in a suitcase off Interstate 190 in Sterling in April 2014.

Sierra is the brother of Alberto Sierra, who was the boyfriend of Jeremiah's mother, Elsa Oliver.

Prosecutors say Christian Sierra lied about his communications with his brother.

Alberto Sierra and Elsa Oliver have both been sent to jail on abuse charges.

The investigation into the boy's homicide remains open.Two employees of a Lawrence nonprofit organization were suspended after a non-verbal Autistic man in their care was found running along a busy highway.

"There is no apology that they can say right now," David Maille said.

According to Maille, his son - who is also named David - was picked up by a Class, Inc. driver and a monitor for his day program in Lawrence around 8 a.m. on Monday.

For a reason still under investigation by multiple agencies, the 28-year-old man escaped.

Hamid Ben Laitmana was driving along Interstate 93 just before 10 a.m. Monday when he saw the younger Maille running along the highway.

"As soon as he looked at me, he started running," Latimana said. "Automatically my feelings changed.

He added he was able to get ahead of Maille and park his car on the shoulder of the highway, get out, and slowly assure the scared man.

"I bend on my knees, I opened my arms and I said, 'Buddy come on, where are you going? You have a nice day? What happened? Laitmana said, as he demonstrated how he approached the man. "He came to me, when he put his chest on me, I cannot tell you...his heart was beeping."

Laitmana says he called 911. State police confirmed they received a call at 10:06 a.m. of a man on I-93 North near exit 45.

"They had to have made a stop, because David never showed up at the program," Maille said. "He was left out there to be alone, on the streets."

In a statement, Class, Inc. said it has launched an investigation.

"Yesterday morning a participant in one of our day programs failed to arrive at his program in Lawrence," the company said. "According to reports, he was located by the State Police and we are relieved that he is now safely at home."

The company added, "this critical situation is deeply concerning and we are working closely with investigating authorities."

"In addition, we at Class are conducting our own internal investigation to learn exactly what occurred," the company added. "Staff involved in the incident have been suspended pending the results of the investigations."

Maille said what makes him so mad is that Class, Inc. didn't report his son missing until hours later, around 4:30 p.m.

Billerica Police confirmed Tuesday night they didn't receive a missing persons report until about that time.

"We are still investigating but can confirm that a resident of a residential home for developmentally delayed adults located in Billerica was reported missing yesterday at approximately 4:30 p.m. and was located approximately two hours later at a Methuen hospital," the police department said in a statement. "We are currently working with DDS, the Massachusetts State Police and the Middlesex DAs office."

No charges were filed in connection to the incident,

Billerica Police are not the only department investigating the ordeal.

"The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) took immediate action to ensure the safety of all clients as soon as we were made aware of this situation," the agency said in a statement "Two CLASS, Inc. employees responsible for transporting the individual have been suspended, and the case has been referred to the Disabled Persons Protection Commission for further investigation."

Back in Lawrence, Maille says he is beyond angry.

"It is horrible to do to any handicap person, a normal person, never mind a handicap person, to leave him out there for the day, in the rain, he said."I don't know what happened, I just don't know what happened."

"How he got out of the van?" he added. "He didn't jump out the window."The teenage accuser took the stand Tuesday in the trial of a former Maine High School teacher accused of sexual abuse.

Jill Lamontagne, who taught at Kennebunk High School, is facing 14 charges, including gross sexual assault and sexual abuse of a minor.

The alleged victim, who was 17 at the time of the alleged affair, told jurors he was getting extra help from the health teacher because he was at risk of not graduating. He said their relationship started innocently,

"Things became more personal between us, I guess, and then escalated to sexual," he told the jury.

He said Lamontagne, who was 29 at the time, requested the student's SnapChat name, texted and called him. He claims the two would kiss, hug, and eventually had oral sex in the classroom closet three times. He said he also went to Lamontagne's home on two occasions.

When the sexual encounters escalated, the alleged victim said Lamontagne told him they could not have intercourse until after he graduated.

"We would often discuss how much we loved each other," the 19-year-old alleged victim told jurors, adding that they planned to have a "real relationship" after he was done with school.

Toward the end of the school year, he said he was feeling distraught about his future and their relationship, and he attempted suicide.

Detectives who analyzed the alleged victim's cell phone testified that there were 86 phone calls and 94 text messages to and from Lamontagne's phone number during that same five-month period.

One text said "I can't stop thinking about you," according to Saco Police Detective Fred Williams. On the day the alleged victim attempted suicide, a text from Lamontagne's phone read "Will you call me and talk?" and another stated "Can't stop thinking about you."

Kennebunk Police Detective Steve Borst, who also examined the cell phone data, said Lamontagne's number sent a text to the alleged victim that contained a screenshot of a music player, playing the song "Who I Am With You" by Chris Young.

"Listen to the lyrics," the text read. Jurors listened to the song Tuesday, which contain lyrics such as "Who I am with you is who I really wanna be / You're so good to me ... You're the best part of who I am."

Caleb Shields, the alleged victim's best friend, also testified Tuesday. He was a student at Kennebunk High School, and said Lamontagne once called his cell phone number looking for the alleged victim.

"She wanted to know if he was with me, if he was alright, and if I would tell him that she loved him," Shields testified.

Lamontagne's lawyer has called the allegations against her "pure fantasy." He questioned the alleged victim's timeline of events and pointed out that he initially denied having a relationship with Lamontagne when school officials first investigated the rumor.

Lamontagne's lawyer said she was dedicated teacher, working her "dream job" and would not risk her career and reputation "to have [oral sex] with a 17-year-old at 7:30 in the morning in her classroom."

The alleged victim testified that he has retained an attorney to have the option of suing the school district and Lamontagne.

Testimony is expected to continue for at least one more day. Defense attorney Scott Gardner declined to say if Lamontange will take the stand in her own defense.A veteran writer for "The Simpsons" says the show isn't based in Massachusetts despite several references to the state.

The Boston Globe reports Mike Reiss recently sat down for a segment on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to discuss the iconic show along with his new book, "Springfield Confidential: Jokes, Secrets, and Outright Lies from a Lifetime Writing for The Simpsons."

Reiss said that Springfield is "nowhere" between laughs. He explained that the writers chose Springfield as a location because there are over 40 different cities and towns that share the name across the U.S.

Fans have highlighted references to the Bay State in the show that include Mayor Quimby's New England accent and jokes about Harvard.

Reiss is proud of the show's success. The 30th season will premiere this fall.The Illinois worker behind the lawsuit that led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that eliminated fees paid by nonmembers of public employee unions is joining the group that oversaw his case.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services employee Mark Janus is joining the Illinois Policy Institute and its Liberty Justice Center on Aug. 1 as a "senior fellow."

"Every day, their staff is working to turn around the state of Illinois, and I am grateful for the opportunity to spend the remainder of my career doing something I believe in," said Janus. "I look forward to helping make a difference for workers in the state and across the U.S."

Janus argued against a 41-year-old ruling that had allowed states to require public employees to pay some fees to unions that represent them, even if the workers chose not to join. He said unions are political and employees shouldn't be forced to pay.

The Supreme Court overturned the decision in June.

Government employees in Illinois and nearly two dozen other states can now choose not to pay for union efforts to bargain over wages, pensions, health care benefits and other services. The decision was a setback for organized labor nationwide, as well as a victory for Republican Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.

Janus will ensure workers understand their rights and what the win means as he tours the U.S., said Policy Institute CEO John Tillman.The Chicago Cubs are running out of time to make a trade before next weeks MLB Trade Deadline, and a slew of options are coming off the board as teams make their moves.

Here are the latest news on the trade front for the Cubs:

Britton the Latest Bullpen Option to Slip Away From Cubs

Relief options are beginning to dwindle for the Cubs, as Zach Britton was traded to the New York Yankees on Tuesday night.

Britton, who has a 3.45 ERA in 16 relief appearances this season for the Orioles, bolsters an already strong Yankees bullpen that also includes Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, and David Robertson.

The removal of Britton from the market leaves the Cubs with one less option as they potentially seek a temporary replacement for Brandon Morrow, who is on the disabled list with a biceps issue. Brad Hand was already traded from the Padres to the Indians earlier in the month, and Jeurys Familia was shipped to the Oakland As in a trade with the New York Mets.

Starting Pitching Market Also Takes Hits

The Cubs could also be looking for a starter or a long relief flex option, and another one of those is off the board as Nathan Eovaldi is heading to the Boston Red Sox.

Eovaldi, who has a 3-4 record and a 4.26 ERA for the Tampa Bay Rays this season, is a control specialist who has struck out 53 batters and walked just eight this season, and he will give the Red Sox a versatile tool to use in their rotation as they battle the Yankees in the American League East.

Could a Veteran Starter Be a Target for Cubs?

According to multiple reports, the Cubs sent scouts to watch Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Hamels pitch on Tuesday night.

The Cubs are one of several teams reportedly interested in Hamels, who is still owed roughly $7 million for the remainder of this season. Hamels also has a team option for next year, but a trade partner could buy him out for $6 million at the end of the year.

The Cubs could also target Chicago White Sox pitcher James Shields, who is pitching in what is likely the final year of a contract he originally signed with the San Diego Padres.

According to the terms of that trade, the Padres would pay the $2 million buyout for Shields for next season, meaning that the Cubs could pay him the remaining money left on this years deal, which would only amount to a few million dollars.

Both options come with plenty of risks, but could be good for the team if theyre not convinced theyll be able to get a healthy Yu Darvish back for a big chunk of the 2018 campaign.Drake has unexpectedly canceled one of his performances with Migos at the United Center in Chicago next month, just weeks before his tour was set to begin, the venue announced.

The United Center tweeted that the Aug. 20 show was canceled due to tour adjustments, and said refunds would be offered for those who had already purchased tickets.

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In order to deliver the high standard tour experience our fans expect and deserve, we have made the necessary decision to slightly adjust the beginning of the Aubrey & The Three Migos tour schedule, Drake said in a statement posted by the venue.

The artist said the tour will now kick off in Kansas City on Aug. 10. Several other shows were rescheduled, but the Chicago performance was the only one canceled.

The artists will still perform at the United Center Aug. 17 and 18.

[[489115181, C]]What to Know KitKat maker Nestle lost a bid to establish a European trademark for the four-fingered snack

Now Mondelez can continue to market and sell its 80-year-old Kvikk Lunsj brand throughout the EU

Gimme a break? Nah.

The maker of the chocolate bar has for 16 years tried to trademark its four-finger shape, arguing it is a distinctive feature that deserves protection. Like Toblerone's pyramid blocks, which are trademarked.

But a European court ruled Wednesday against KitKat and its maker, Nestle, saying that its shape is not recognized throughout the 28 countries of the European Union.

The court instead sided with the makers of Kvikk Lunsj, a Norwegian snack that is a long-time favorite of hikers and skiers  and is shaped almost exactly like a KitKat.

The decision will allow Mondolez, the maker of Kvikk Lunsj, to market and sell the chocolate bar more widely throughout the bloc.

The court is the latest battleground in the feud between the chocolate bars, which began when the company Freia first introduced the Kvikk Lunsj  which literally translates to "Quick Lunch"  to Norwegians in 1937, two years after KitKat hit U.K shelves.

Their battle intensified in 2006 when Nestle secured a trademark for KitKat's shape, only to be challenged by Kvikk Lunsj maker Cadbury, now owned by Mondolez.

In 2016, Nestle was stripped of the trademark since the shape of the treat was not considered recognizable throughout the EU.

The manufacturer appealed the decision in the bloc's highest court, which today ruled that though the shape was viewed as distinctively KitKat in Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden, and the U.K., consumers in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal did not recognize it. Norway is not part of the EU, but adopts many of the bloc's rules.

It is not the first time a chocolate maker doesn't get a trademark. Switzerland's Lindt & Spruengli wanted to protect the shape of its chocolate Easter rabbits covered in gold foil, with a red ribbon. But its case was also thrown out, in 2012, for similar reasons.There is a gaping hole where the window of a basement apartment on Edgewood Avenue in New Britain was after a car slammed into the building Wednesday morning.

Fire officials said the crash happened at 17 Edgewood Ave. at 8:08 a.m. and no one was injured. The driver was out of the car when first responders arrived and the tenant of the unit was at work.

New Britain Fire

The car is gone now, but photos from the scene showed the vehicle suspended in the middle of a room after the crash.

New Britain Fire

Atijah Mitchell said she was asleep and woke up to a loud boom.

"We looked out the window, it was a car halfway in the building," she said.

Police said the damage to the building is minimal.

The manager of the building estimates the damage to be around $10,000. According to the manager, the driver said a bug was in the car, but officials said only that the driver reported being distracted.

The driver was issued an infraction for failure to obey a stop sign.A town official in Haddam, Connecticut, is facing criticism after kneeling in protest during the Pledge of Allegiance during a public meeting.



In video obtained by NBC Connecticut, Haddam Selectman Melissa Schlag is seen taking a knee during the pledge of allegiance during a town Board of Selectmen meeting on July 6, hours after President Trumps controversial comments in Helsinki on the Mueller investigation and Russian election interference.

I thought, no better time to protest whats going on in our country than that evening at a Board of Selectmen meeting, Schlag told NBC Connecticut.

Her decision to kneel, she explained, was not in disrespect to veterans or the flag, but was instead her response to the presidents leadership.

We have fundamental problems in our country. Inequality is only one of them, she said.

Schlag, a registered Democrat who is chair of the partys town committee, was elected to her position this past November two years after losing a re-election bid to lead the town as first selectman.

Her experience as an outspoken local politician prepared her for backlash, she said, and she posted a two-page letter to Facebook explaining her views. In it, she asks those offended by her protest, who are you to decide what I should or should not do, and under what authority do you decided [sic] what is and is not sacred?

Haddams current first selectman, Republican Lizz Milardo, who won the position from Schlag, believes her former opponent's views should be kept out of town business.

Her personal opinion and her personal protest I dont feel belongs at one of our town meetings, Milardo said.

Residents and non-residents of Haddam are complaining to the town hall, according to Milardo.

I cant believe the emails weve gotten, the phone calls weve gotten, she said.

Milardo said the towns next Board of Selectmen meeting will be moved from the town hall to a nearby firehouse to accommodate a larger crowd expected to turn out over the issue.

To Schlag, the negative feedback to her protest is evidence of a deep political divide.

The vitriol that has been displayed on Facebook over the past two days, and on my Selectman page across Facebook, is proof that this country is so divided, but screaming at people from behind a keyboard does not get us anywhere, she said.

She said she intends to continue kneeling for the Pledge of Allegiance in future meetings.Derek O' Brien's comments came a day after reports about the Congress being ready to accept any non-RSS candidate from among the Opposition.

Banerjee has been trying to stitch together a federal front of regional parties to take on the BJP in the next general election. (Photo: File)

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said on Wednesday that 2018-19 is the "think federal" year, suggesting regional parties will play a crucial role at the Centre and projected Mamata Banerjee as one of the "most senior leaders in this matrix".

He also said that Banerjee's emergence as one of the front runners for the prime minister's post "is nothing new".

His comments came a day after reports about the Congress being ready to accept any non-RSS candidate from among the Opposition as the next prime minister.

"This 2018-2019. This is the year of "think federal". But these things would be decided later. The reality is that everyone is focused on electing a people-centric government and removing the BJP. So, one of the most senior leader in this matrix is Mamata Banerjee," O'Brien told reporters in Delhi.

The TMC Rajya Sabha member claimed that Banerjee is "accepted" not only by the people of West Bengal but also the entire country for her 40 years of political struggle, including as Member of Parliament and the chief minister of the state.

Though Congress president Rahul Gandhi has not said anything about projecting Banerjee as the prime ministerial candidate, her name "emerging as one of the front runners is nothing new", O'Brien said.

The TMC leader said the focus of a "united opposition" is on spreading the message that the BJP had failed its people and bringing its tally to between 100 and 150 seats.

Banerjee has been trying to stitch together a federal front of regional parties to take on the BJP in the next general election. But many in the Opposition have remained sceptical about her efforts.

She will visit Delhi for three days next week to personally invite opposition leaders to the "federal front" rally she plans to hold in January in Kolkata, according to party sources.

Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to arrive in Delhi on July 31.

During her previous visits to Delhi, she met the leaders of regional and opposition parties as part of her efforts to cobble up support for the "federal front".

There is speculation in the Opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Banerjee are doing the rounds.The New London Police Department and local teens grabbed their paintbrushes Tuesday in an effort to make New London graffiti-free.

Graffiti, which at times can be an eyesore and profane, could give the impression that nobody cares about a neighborhood and lead to more crime, according to police.

So officers, The New London Community and Campus Coalition and the New London Youth Affairs Teens in Action Program worked together on the first Graffiti Paint Out event at Fulton Park in New London to beautify the city and encourage economic growth.

NBC Connecticut

Theres kids here. You should want a better place for your children to grow up in, said 16-year-old Anastasia Williams, a rising junior at New London High School.

The teens spent part of the afternoon covering up profane images, words and destruction.

Not a lot of people take the time. They say things but they dont take the time to do it and take action. But its good that were changing something in our community, said Jaiden Mills, a 14-year-old from New London.

It represents who New London is  not what it is. Like, not the physical structures around but the people that live in it, 15-year-old Francisco Colon said. The New London resident is a 10th grader at Grasso Technical High School.

These teens are hoping their work encourages other residents to pay it forward and elicits a sense of pride in the community.

NBC Connecticut

Theyll see that were trying to make our town look better, look cleaner and theyll probably want to help out, too, said Bryanna Poulard, 16, a student at Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut.

While these teens said they know there are more steps they can take to help the community, they call this a very solid first one.

Its always special to help others and help where you came from so when you get older and you come back home, you see its looking like a better place, Williams said.

Through a grant, Home Depot supplied all of the paint, rollers and other supplies.

Police said its against the law to allow graffiti to stay on property. Thus, all property and business owners could be fined $100 or more if its not painted over or removed in a timely manner. For more information, contact Officer Ryan Soccio, New Londons Crime Prevention/Community Policing Officer at 860-440-6673.Canton Police are investigating a report of a rape on the Farmington River Trail Tuesday morning and they are adding patrols while searching for the attacker.

A person the victim confided in contacted police and reported that the woman was walking alone when she was attacked on the walking trail around 11 a.m. Tuesday between the Canton Fire Department and lily pond.

From what we understand shes doing OK, obviously emotionally shes in rough shape as would be expected, said Sgt. Derek Messier.



A police source said a dog distracted the victim, who went off the trail and into the woods where she was assaulted. On Saturday, police issued a news release saying the man who attacked the woman might have had a small white dog with him.

Police said they are looking to speak with any witnesses who saw a man around 30 years old, between 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-9, with a slender to medium build, who was wearing a gray shirt and black shorts. He has short brown hair and his face was unshaved at the time of the attack. He might have had a small dog with him.

Canton Police are investigating a report of a rape on the Farmington River Trail Tuesday morning and they are adding patrols while searching for the attacker.

On Tuesday night, police sent a detective down to the trail on Canton Spring Road near the Ladder Engine Canton Street Station. The detective tried to find evidence but did not find anything.

Police said they are working to find out who attacked the woman and they recommend that people using the trail carry mace, pepper spray or a whistle and walk, jog or ride bikes in pairs.

Investigators are also trying to locate any video they can find to help catch the attacker. They are also asking anyone who was on the trails yesterday or who has information that will help them solve the case to come forward.

You can reach Canton Police at 860-693-0221.A man who New Britain police believe assaulted a woman on Sunday has turned himself in, according to police.

Officers said they were called to a reported assault where a woman told them that 45-year-old Aaron Alexander Hill, of Bloomfield, attempted to strangle and suffocate her. The woman told police that Hill arrived at her house in the early morning hours. She said he was upset about an incident from earlier in the day and placed his arms around her neck in an effort to strangle her.

The woman said she attempted to fight off Hill and the commotion was heard by other family members who came to help her. Relatives of the woman contacted police and Hill fled before officers arrived. Hill has not been located.

The woman suffered injuries in the attack, officers said. Police did not release details about her injuries.

Police were looking for Hill and said they obtained an arrest warrant for Hill charging him with strangulation, unlawful restraint, assault, interfering with an emergency call and disorderly conduct.

He turned himself in to police on Wednesday night.Prison inmates are getting access to computer tablets in an effort to help their education, keep them connected to family, and reduce noise and violence in prison.

Connecticut this summer plans to join a growing number of prison systems in providing inmates with tablets. The devices are not hooked to the internet but will be preloaded with e-books, educational videos and games.

Officials say the devices will be provided free by the manufacturer, which makes money by charging for email, phone calls, and game or music downloads.

Questions have been raised about whether the tablets could lead prisons to decrease in-person visitation and whether there is enough regulation of private providers to prevent price gouging.The State Bond Commission has approved the allocation of $10 million to study tolls in Connecticut on Wednesday.

Six people on the State Bond Commission voted yes, three people voted no and one person abstained.

Gov. Dannel Malloy was pushing for the toll study, despite not having enough support from Republicans or Democrats in the legislature.

State Treasurer, Denise Nappier already said she plans to abstain from Wednesday's vote. She said she feels like there should be a broader study that looks at all of the resources that could be used to fund roads, not just a study focused on tolls.

The State Comptroller, Kevin Lembo, also already spoke out and said he will not support this. He said he feels legislators need to approve this level of spending.

The $10 million study orders the Department of Transportation to assess tolls and their environmental impact on several highways including Interstate 95, Interstate 91 and Interstate 84.

It also requires the state D.O.T. to look at reducing or eliminating the gas tax and possibly giving state residents a discount or tax credit.

Before the vote was approved, some Republicans said if it was approved, they planned on pushing for a special session to fight it.A Dallas County Judge denied a motion Tuesday to increase bond for the man accused of killing a Dallas police officer over the weekend.

Adrian Breedlove, 25, faces charges of intoxication manslaughter and unlawful carrying of a weapon in connection to the case.

Investigators said he was speeding and driving while intoxicated early Saturday morning when he slammed into Sr. Cpl. Earl "Jamie" Givens, who was stopped and blocking traffic on his police motorcycle for a funeral procession when he was struck.



According to prosecutors, Breedlove's blood-alcohol level was .19 at the time -- more than twice the legal limit.

Breedlove's bond was initially set at $76,000 for both counts against him ($75,000 for intoxication manslaughter and $1,000 for unlawful carrying).

He was released from jail early Sunday, but ordered back into custody Monday after a judge ruled that the terms of his bond were insufficient.

The Dallas County District Attorney's Office noted he'd been able to walk out of jail without any kind of electronic monitoring device and without meeting several other conditions set by the judge.

The judge also ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

Prosecutors asked the court to increase Breedlove's bond to $100,000.

During a hearing Tuesday, Breedlove's defense attorneys argued that bond amounts are set by state law -- and it would be inappropriate for the court to "punish" their client by further increasing his bond.

They noted that most intoxication manslaughter charges come with a $50,000 bond.

The judge said after reviewing the facts of the case, as well as case law and Breedlove's psych evaluation, she felt the initial $75,000 bond was "sufficient" and reinstated it.

She told Breedlove, however, that he "will be on a tight leash," adding a laundry list of strict conditions he must meet to stay out of jail.

They include:

Wearing an electronic monitoring device at all times.

Installing an interlock device in his vehicle, which will prevent it from starting if there is any alcohol in his system.

No alcohol or drugs.

Attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings twice a week and providing the court proof that he attended.

Obeying a strict curfew (7 p.m. to 7 a.m.)



Subjecting himself to random urine tests

Breedlove's attorneys declined to comment following the hearing, saying only that they expected their client to be released from jail sometime Tuesday evening.

Prosecutors said they "respected the court's decision" as they walked out of the courtroom.Aimee Hoelscher planned a fabulous family trip to Costa Rica earlier this year.

She rented a house through VRBO, an online vacation rental company.

"It had beautiful views. It was very spacious, had iguanas outside by the pool and so yeah the house was nice," she said.

For three nights, the rent came out to $613.

"And then there was a $500 damage deposit. A refundable damage deposit," Hoelscher said.

She wasnt particularly fond of paying it, but the VRBO website put her at ease.

"100 percent of your security deposit is covered if its wrongfully withheld," she read.

Overall she said the trip was a hit. They left the place nice and tidy and were looking forward to that $500.

But when they got back to Arlington, she said the money was not in her account.

"They (VRBO) at first told me that it had been deposited into my account on Feb. 1," Hoelscher said.

But she said it wasn't there. She contacted the owner of the home again to see if there was anything he could do.

He said he didnt have the money and told VRBO there was no damage, so they could release the deposit.

She said that didnt work either.

"Theyre supposed to be this third-party that steps in and mediates for you and I was very angry because they werent doing their job," Hoelscher said. " I didnt know what else to do and my husband said you should contact NBC 5."

We asked VRBO why Hoelscher couldnt get her deposit back, and the parent company, HomeAway responded:

Travelers who book directly through the HomeAway website are protected against things like double-bookings or wrongfully withheld deposits thanks to our book with confidence guarantee. In this case, a technical error delayed reimbursement but the error has since been resolved. We regret any inconvenience this delay caused.

And after waiting five long months, Hoelscher finally got her $500 deposit back.

"I am very happy that I called NBC 5," she said.

If youre going to rent a vacation home, or any home for that matter, here are Samantha Chatman's Solutions:A gunman is at large after shooting two people while targeting others along Northwest Highway Tuesday morning, police say.

"We have a total of three cars that were shot and two people that were shot," said Dallas Police Department Sgt. Warren Mitchell.

During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell said a person driving a white Chevrolet Malibu pulled up behind two people inside a black Nissan Cube and opened fire.

"This car was driving down eastbound Northwest Highway and this other car pulled alongside and started shooting into the other car," Mitchell explained.

A gunman is at large after shooting two people while targeting others along Northwest Highway Tuesday morning, police say.

The driver of the Cube drove to a nearby gas station, an Exxon at the corner of Northwest Highway and Walton Walker/Loop 12, where he and a female passenger ran inside.

"She told me, I need your help please. Somebody wants to shoot me," said the clerk, Mateen Khokhar. "I became so scared at that time too."

Khokhar said he locked the door and told them to get in the back of the room.

A gunman is at large after shooting two people while targeting others along Northwest Highway Tuesday morning, police say.

Police said the driver of the Malibu circled the parking lot four or five times before opening fire on the Cube vehicle again. While shooting at the vehicle, police said the gunman inadvertantly shot into a white Mercedes driven by an Uber driver. Two passengers were hit in the back seat.



The men injured in the shooting were hospitalized with injuries that were not life threatening. The two people in the Nissan Cube were not injured.

A third vehicle was hit with gunfire, but the driver was not injured, police said.

Dallas police are still sorting out the details of what took place, but said preliminary information is that two people and multiple vehicles were shot along Walton Walker/Loop 12 at Northwest Highway.

"It's a bad thing," Khokhar said. "Whoever did that, totally unjustified."

Dallas police have released no information about the shooter other than the vehicle driven.

What to Know The airline plans to temporarily ground flights on the route, according to one report

One Twitter user posted a picture of multiple large bits on her arm

One-way adult ticket prices on the route exceed $1,000, according to Air India's website

Passengers flying from Newark Liberty International Airport to Mumbai on an Air India flight last week said in a series of tweets that the plane was infested with bed bugs, leaving the travelers with bites across their bodies.

Air India responded to customer complaints in a statement, and the airline plans to temporarily ground flights between Newark and Mumbai, according to The Independent.

Experienced experts have carried out extensive service on the aircraft from fumigation to overhaul of the upholstery/ seat covers/carpets etc to ensure that passengers keep enjoying their in-flight experience with us as always without any complaint of inconvenience, the airline said in a statement to NBC News.

New Zealand news outlet Stuff reported that a passenger surveyed the area around the seats after her daughter complained of a rash. The woman reportedly noticed a bed bug on her husbands seat before takeoff but dismissed it.

The passengers who tweeted about the incident said they were sitting in business class. One-way adult ticket prices on the route exceed $1,000, according to Air Indias website.

Pravin Tonsekar posted pictures of the bugs on Air India flight 144 on Twitter.

[[489118741, C]]

Saumya Shetty posted an image of multiple large bites on her arm and wrote in a tweet AI still has to get in touch with me [sic] inspite if my repeated attempts to get in touch with them.

[[489118831, C]]

Another Twitter user said his wife and three kids were sitting in business class and had bed bug bites all over their body after paying more than $10,000 for the flight tickets.

[[489118661, C]]

"Air India is deeply concerned with a few reports of "bugs" causing inconvenience to its esteemed passengers, the airline said. The issue has been viewed seriously and every possible step is being taken to closely inspect and further strengthen our system at every level to ensure that such isolated incidents of passenger discomfiture do not affect our consistent performance.

Bed bugs arent known to spread diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but their bites can create swelling, itching and skin irritation.

What to Know David Hans Arnston, a pilot from Alaska Airlines, flew from Portland, Oregon to Santa Ana while drunk in June 2014.

He failed a random drug and alcohol test at John Wayne Airport when two breathalyzer tests showed he had a blood alcohol content above .130.

Arnston later retired from Alaska Airlines and his pilot's license was revoked. Prosecutors said he had hidden an alcohol problem for years.

A former Alaska Airlines pilot was sentenced Wedhesday to a year in prison for flying a plane while under the influence of alcohol.

David Hans Arntson, 63, pleaded guilty in February. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney sentenced Arntson to a year and one day behind bars.

Carney noted the defendant committed "a very dangerous offense," according to Thom Mrozek of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Arntson flew twice on June 20, 2014, from San Diego International Airport to Portland and then from Portland to John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

When he touched down in Orange County, he was pulled aside for random drug and alcohol testing. His blood-alcohol level was 0.134 percent and 0.142 percent, according to two breathalyzer tests, Mrozek said.

The federal limit is 0.04 percent. Arntson later retired from the airline and his pilot's license was revoked.

In a motion prior to sentencing, prosecutors said that during his 20- year career the defendant struggled with alcoholism and concealed his problem, Mrozek said.

"Fortunately, he was finally caught, and the risk to passengers was stopped," U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna said. "This case sends a message to everyone in the aviation industry that passenger safety is paramount, and we will aggressively investigate and prosecute any threat to that safety."

Arnston's attorney, Dyke Huish, previously said his client "has a long and distinguished career as a pilot and has flown thousands of flights without incident. And he has a perfect safety record, and as any good pilot who is responsible for the lives of people, he is willing to take responsibility and accept the consequences for his mistake."

The first draft of the NRC contained only the names, but the complete draft would contain names, photos and places of birth of the applicants.

The first draft of the NRC contained only the names, but the complete draft would contain names, photos and places of birth of the applicants.

New Delhi/Guwahati: With the deadline for finalisation of the draft for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) approaching on July 30, the Union home ministry on Wednesday directed the Assam government to ensure that no action should be taken against those whose names do not figure in the NRC.

There is no question of referring the persons whose names do not figure in the draft NRC to the Foreigners Tribunal as people are entitled to file claims and objections and due opportunity has to be given to them before the final publication, the MHA said. The state administration was also asked to maintain law and order and set up a coordination committee headed by the chief secretary to deal with all agencies. Round-the-clock control rooms will also be set up at the state capital and all district HQs to receive complaints and ensure a prompt response.

The Registrar-General of India was also asked to use all means of communication, including websites, toll-free numbers, SMSes, etc, to provide information to the public about the draft NRC. The MHA has said an intensive public awareness campaign had been started to disseminate information on the NRC process, the options available for individuals whose names do not figure in the draft NRC, the procedure and timelines for filing claims and objections, in order to address the concerns of those left out of the draft list.

The Centre has already deployed 22,000 paramilitary personnel to deal with any possible fallout, including violent incidents, on publication of the draft NRC.

The home ministry also clarified that there was no question of people being sent to detention centres if their names were not in the draft NRC, and the state government has been asked to give instructions to the district administrations as well as the local police.

In Guwahati, state NRC coordinator Parteek Hajela said after an extensive exercise of three years in which over 50,000 people were involved, the draft NRC was ready for rollout on July 30. He said the final NRC draft would be available online, while pre-registered and on-demand SMS services would also be available for people. He said hard copies of the draft NRC would be available in all 2,500 NRC Seva Kendras across the state on July 30 morning.

Mr Hajela said the verification process had been completed and the data entry work was also done. The final touches were now being given to the complete draft, and taking printouts would take some time. But he asserted that all the work was on schedule.

The first draft of the NRC contained only the names, but the complete draft would contain names, photos and places of birth of the applicants. We will be publishing the names of only those who are found to be eligible for inclusion in the NRC. There will be no negative list and the names of those whose applications were rejected will not be made public, he added.What to Know President Donald Trump's star is once again in pieces after it was smashed overnight near Hollywood and Highland by a man with a pickax

The destroyed star, presented for his 'Apprentice' role in 2007, became a target for vandals during then-candidate Trump's campaign in 2016

Walk of Fame star recipients are selected by a committee that considers hundreds of applications each year, then purchased

President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed Wednesday morning by a man with a pickax that witnesses say he concealed in a guitar case, police said.

Officers were called around 3:30 a.m. to the star's location on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue, where they found a small pile of rubble in place of the star that Trump received in January 2007 for his role in the NBC show "The Apprentice."

The star-smashing suspect, who reported the crime to police, later turned himself in to Beverly Hills police after leaving the pickax at the scene, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He called police and said, "See you soon," Lt. Karen Leong of the LAPD's Hollywood Division told the Los Angeles Times.

The suspect was identified as Austin Clay, 24, who was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. His hometown was not immediately available.

Bond was set at $20,000, according to jail records. An initial court date was not indicated in jail records and it was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.

Witness David Palmer said he is accustomed to seeing the unusual on Hollywood Boulevard, where tourists mingle with street performers dressed as superheroes and other characters, but he was surprised to see the Walk of Fame vandalism.

"I'm like, 'Why are you hitting that star? What did Donald Trump do to you?'" Palmer told NBC4. "Then he went around the corner and I think he left."

Workers were sweeping up the shattered remains of the star early Wednesday. As daylight arrived, Walk of Fame visitors stopped to take pictures of the smashed star and have a closer look. One man placed an exercise pullup-bar on top of the crumbled remains, pieces of which some visitors kept as souvenirs.

"We came here a few days ago and there was some grafitti on it," said tourist Josh Kallen. "We didn't think anything like this would happen."



The Walk of Fame is administered by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which issued a statement later Wednesday morning.

"The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an institution celebrating the positive contributions of the inductees," said Leron Gubler, President-CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. "When people are unhappy with one of our honorees, we would hope that they would project their anger in more positive ways than to vandalize a California State landmark. Our democracy is based on respect for the law. People can make a difference by voting and not destroying public property."

Many visitors echoed that sentiment.

"I just think it's wrong," said visitor Greg Donovan, dressed in a red blazer and top hat, and carrying a "Trump 2020" sign. "If they don't like the president, they can show it in a different way."

Gubler said there appears to be security camera video of the vandalism. Repairs are expected to begin immediately, but usually requires several days. During past Walk of Fame vandalism cases, stars have been covered to protect them during the work.

This is at least the second time Trump's star has been vandalized in the last two years.

In October 2016, a man dressed as a construction worker smashed the star with a pickax and sledgehammer. James Otis pleaded no contest to felony vandalism in February 2017 and was sentenced to three years probation, 20 days of community service and agreed to pay $4,400 for the damage.

Also in 2016, the star was defaced by spray paint and even surrounded by an artist's 6-inch high wall, a miniature representation of then-candidate Trump's border wall proposal.

Walk of Fame star recipients are selected by a committee that considers hundreds of applications each year. The stars are purchased for $30,000, rather than gifted.What to Know The Falcon 9 rocket is carrying a payload of 10 satellites from Vandenberg Air Force Base

The launch was Wednesday at 4:39 a.m., well before sunrise at Vandenberg AFB on the Santa Barbara County coast

This launch is the West Coast debut of the newest generation of Falcon 9 boosters, known as the "Block 5" series

Southern California-based SpaceX launched a rocket into the early morning sky in a mission to carry 10 communications satellites into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The satellites launched aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, which could be seen glowing in the sky over a widespread part of Southern California, are part of Iridium's in-development $3 billion array that will eventually include 75 satellites supporting a worldwide voice and data communications network. It was the seventh launch SpaceX has made in support of the Iridium project.

At least one more launch is planned to complete the Iridium array. Of the 75 satellites being launched into orbit, 66 will be in operation and nine will be orbiting backups, according to Hawthorne-based SpaceX.

Following the launch, SpaceX recovered the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket by landing it on a barge -- named "Just Read the Instructions" -- floating in the Pacific Ocean, as the company continues its process of reusing rockets to save money on future missions. The latest version of the Falcon 9 rocket, known as the Block 5, are designed to be reused as many as 10 times.

The launch is the second this week for SpaceX, which launched a rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida early Sunday morning, carrying a Canadian communications satellite into orbit.

This launch also was the West Coast debut of the newest generation of Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters. The Block 5 produces more thrust, and has upgraded landing legs. Additional improvements have been made in order to speed up the turnaround time for reusing the booster.

The schedule for Vandenberg AFB after Wednesday has another six launches by the end of the year, including four Falcon 9 launches and an Aug. 2 launch. The other launches are on the Delta rocket family, with one on a Delta II -- the final Delta II launch, one of the brightest rockets launched from Vandenberg -- and a Delta IV Heavy.A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Hawaii officials had violated George Young's rights when he was denied a permit to openly carry a loaded gun in public to protect himself.

The decision reversed a lower court ruling that sided with officials who said the amendment only applied to guns kept in homes.

"We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence, which the State of Hawaii 'has understandably sought to fight,'" Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote. "But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense."

If the ruling stands, it could lead to more guns in public in the few western states under 9th Circuit jurisdiction where they are currently restricted.

"States like Hawaii and California will have to allow far more guns on the streets than they do today," said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "States would be able to ban concealed carry but only if they allow people to carry their guns openly displayed."

Winkler, however, expects the decision to be appealed to a full panel of the San Francisco-based court.

Tuesday's ruling comes two years after a full panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that there's no right to carry concealed guns in public. That June 2016 ruling struck down a 2-1 panel opinion that was also written by O'Scannlain.

Gun rights is one of the most hotly debated issues in U.S. political and legal circles with any loosening or restriction of access to guns often leading to a court battle. The U.S. Supreme Court has shied away from the issue in recent years, turning away challenges to gun restrictions after striking down gun ownership bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago in 2008 and 2010.

Judge Richard Clifton suggested in his dissent that the Supreme Court will inevitably have to weigh in on the issue because several conflicting appeals decisions now show "there is no single voice on this question."

Clifton, who like the other judges on the panel was nominated to the court by a Republican president, criticized the majority for going "astray in several respects" and disregarding that states such as Hawaii have long regulated and limited the public carrying of guns, which he said did not undermine the core of the Second Amendment.

Calls seeking comment from the police chief and a lawyer for the County of Hawaii were not immediately returned.

Associated Press Writer Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this story.What to Know Markeis McGlockton was shot and killed Thursday during a dispute in a convenience store parking lot in Clearwater, Florida.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said he won't arrest the shooter because the incident falls under the state's "stand your ground" law.

A dispute last week over a handicapped parking space quickly escalated into a fatal shooting and now the dead man's family is outraged that the gunman has avoided arrest, seemingly protected by Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law.

The family of Markeis McGlockton issued an appeal Tuesday for the public to put pressure on State Attorney Bernie McCabe to file charges against Michael Drejka, a white man who fatally shot the black father of three last Thursday upon being pushed to the ground outside a Clearwater, Florida, convenience store.

"Mr. Drejka is walking around the streets of Clearwater free as a bird," Michele Rayner, an attorney for McGlockton's family, said at a news conference. "This is essentially murder, plain and simple."

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri last week announced he wasn't going to arrest Drejka and said the State Attorney's Office will make a decision on charges.

Drejka confronted McGlockton's girlfriend about parking in a handicapped space without a permit while she waited in a car outside a convenience store, telling her to move her "f------ car," the girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, said Tuesday at the news conference.

After exiting the store and seeing the argument, McGlockton shoved Drejka to the ground, and Drejka pulled out his gun. Seconds later, Drejka shot McGlockton in the torso, according to surveillance video from the store.

The case fell under Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, which allows people to use force without retreating if they feel threatened, the sheriff said.

"I'm not saying I agree with it, but I don't make that call," Gualtieri said at a news conference last Friday.

The few seconds between when Drejka hit the ground and fired the shot "gives me pause," the sheriff said.

But Rayner said McGlockton was merely protecting his girlfriend and two children who were in the car when he shoved Drejka and that McGlockton posed no imminent threat to the shooter. McGlockton was backing away when he was shot in the side, she said.

"There is going to be a lot of conversation ... about the 'stand your ground' law and the problems with the 'stand your ground' law, how it disproportionately does not benefit people of color, how there are too many nuances in the law and it's too loosely applied," Rayner said. "Ultimately, this case isn't 'stand your ground.'"

Some legal experts, though, said Tuesday that the case is a classic example of the "stand your ground" law. The often racially-charged statute gained national prominence in 2012 after neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman fatally shot unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, claiming self-defense. Zimmerman, a white Hispanic, ended up waiving his right to a self-defense immunity hearing and was acquitted of criminal charges at trial.

Nova Southeastern University law professor Shahabudeen Khan said Drejka could have felt threatened while on the ground.

"The key issue that would help the gunman, it's the physical position on the ground he is in because of that initial push," Khan said. "He fell on the ground. He is in a weak physical position and posture even if there is a few-second pause."

Added Khan, "The law allows him to do exactly what he did. That is stand your ground."

For the past 13 years, Florida's "stand your ground" law has eliminated a citizen's duty to retreat before using deadly force in responding to an apparent threat. A change to the law last year switched the burden of proof from defense attorneys making a case for it to prosecutors having to disprove the self-defense claim.

Jacobs, who has three children with McGlockton, and his parents described him as a family man who liked to rap and draw.

"He didn't have to go like this! He didn't have to go like this!" she said.What to Know Miami Beach Police have launched a criminal investigation into the collapse of the 13-story Marlborough House

The collapse left 46-year-old worker Samuel Landis hospitalized

A worker critically injured in Monday's building demolition gone wrong on Miami Beach remained hospitalized Tuesday as the investigation into why the structure collapsed incorrectly continued.

Miami Beach Police have launched a criminal investigation into the collapse of the 13-story Marlborough House at 5775 Collins Avenue that left 46-year-old Samuel Landis hospitalized.

Landis was working at the site when he was struck by debris from the collapse, fire rescue officials and witnesses said. According to a police incident report released Tuesday, an officer found Landis with a severed leg. Landis was rushed to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center where he remains hospitalized.

The report said the building "collapsed in an unsafe manner causing debris and thick smoke to cover Collins Avenue." The officer who wrote the report was among a group who suffered from smoke inhalation and were admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital as a precaution.

The Marlborough House, an apartment building built in 1961, was being demolished to make way for a new luxury high-rise being built by Winmar Construction. Winmar officials said Landis worked for Allied Bean Demolition, which was performing the project's demolition work.

Police and city officials said the company's demolition permit did not allow for an implosion. Officials said demolition companies dont need to specify how theyll bring a building down but they do need to say whether or not debris will be contained to the property.

"They had tried to ask for a permit to implode and they'd been denied so it was standard demolition that was supposed to be taking place," Miami Beach Building Director Ana Salgueiro said at a news conference Monday. "We'll need to investigate further to know exactly what happened."

Allied Bean has yet to comment on the incident. OSHA is also investigating the collapse.The owner of the company behind chalky, colorful confections such as Necco Wafers and Sweethearts has unexpectedly shut down operations at its Massachusetts plant and hasn't said if candy production will resume.

The Boston Globe reports Round Hill Investments LLC announced Tuesday it is selling Necco brands to another manufacturer and closing down its Revere plant.

"I mean, those Valentine's Day hearts are definitely a part of my childhood," said Alexis Werner of Salem who was surprised to hear of the closing. "That's pretty much the only candy I liked."



The company had recently purchased Necco for $17.3 million at a bankruptcy auction in May. The plant had been expected to stay open until November.

Round Hill did not identify Necco's new owner. The closure came as a shock to the close to 230 workers at the plant who say they were told to pick up their final paychecks Friday.

"I'm kind of worried about them. They all have families and everything to take care of so I hope they get a job quickly," said Theresa Lemay of Revere.



Necco, or New England Confectionery Co., is the country's oldest continuously operating candy company.

The also make Mary Jane and Squirrel Nut Zippers candy.

Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo issued a statement about the news, saying and part, "We received no word about the situation from any representative of the involved parties. Obviously, we would have preferred, at the very least, some fundamental notification."

NBC10 Boston reached out to the company for comment but so far have not heard back.There are disparities in gun-crime prosecution rates and sentencings from borough to borough across New York City, according to data provided to the I-Team from the Division of Criminal Justice Services and all five New York City district attorney offices.

Someone prosecuted for carrying an illegal gun in Manhattan is likely to be convicted of the top gun count 61 percent of the time, the data shows. In Brooklyn, which has by far the most gun cases in the city, 25 percent of defendants who are prosecuted received a top count conviction. The Bronx had a 34 percent rate of top count prosecutions. In Queens, 36 percent get the top count and penalty. And on Staten Island, 40 percent of those prosecuted are convicted on the top charge.

If you are carrying a loaded weapon in Manhattan, the likelihood is youre going to face severe consequences. And you should, said Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance.

Vance said his office does give breaks to youthful offenders and out-of-towners not familiar with New Yorks strict gun laws. But those are the exceptions -- he says his office, along with the NYPD, target gang members and repeat offenders.

We identify who the most dangerous folks are and once weve identified them, we build strategies to dismantle gangs to take those individuals out of circulation, Vance said.

Each district attorney's office said the issues surrounding gun arrests and prosecutions are complicated. There are rules for bail, scared witnesses, diversion programs, and questions about how some police searches are conducted. In addition, experts said juries outlook on gun crimes and trust in police searches can vary borough by borough.

The I-Team looked at data from all city gun arrests in 2016 under laws 265.03, 265.04 and 265.19  laws which require a minimum sentence of 3.5 years in prison. The information only reflects cases that made it before a judge after the NYPD made the felony gun arrest. Travelers unfamiliar with New Yorks gun laws arrested at LaGuardia airport for illegal possession of a firearm is not reflected in the data.

The data reveals that, with the exception of Manhattan, a majority of defendants arrested in the other four boroughs got lesser sentences or plea deals.

In Brooklyn, for example, 72 percent of defendants facing three and a half years on the top count got a plea deal, a lesser sentence or diversion program. Acquittals are a relatively low figure but are included in the data.

Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said his office is tough on gun felons and focuses on violent street gangs. But he said a deep look at each gun case is done by his line prosecutors.

Every case has to be weighed, and the evidence is not the same in every case, Gonzalez said in explaining why in many cases defendants end up with deals or lesser counts. These are not people that have used a weapon for a robbery or shooting or a crime. Many of these people have been found with guns in their home or have been found with a gun.

In a statement, Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark spoke to the 64 percent rate of reduced gun charges and sentencings: We treat each case individually because the facts and evidence are different in every case. We would not be doing justice if we handled all cases and all defendants in the exact same manner.

Prosecutors point to examples that can impact gun stats, like a case where four people are arrested in a car with one gun. All four people get charged. But later, DNA evidence links just one defendant to the weapon. Charges later get reduced or dropped for the other three. Another example: military members sometimes get caught with firearms before leaving for deployment and charges later get reduced.

But there are cases of repeat offenders being turned loose or given second and third chances.

In Manhattan, Tyrone Howard had 16 past arrests for drugs and one past weapons count. NYPD officials said they also had information that Howard was involved in several past gang-related shootings. But there were no witnesses willing to cooperate. A judge put Howard in a drug diversion program.

Howard would later shoot and kill NYPD officer Randolph Holder Jr.

It is a matter of life and death because the perp that killed my son  he was out, said Holders dad, Randolph Holder Sr.

He should have been locked up in prison. If he was there, perhaps (my son) would have been alive today. Fair and straight. Simple.

Shootings and gun crime are near or at historic lows in New York City. And one sentencing expert stressed that judges and prosecutors are not clairvoyants.

Were not 100 percent perfect at predicting the future dangerousness and that can be a problem, said Jessica Henry, a professor specializing in conviction and sentencings and a former public defender in New York City.

Henry said diversion programs have proven successful in helping many first-time or young offenders reform instead of locking them away in a jail cell. Sometimes that is in the best interest for the public to give people an opportunity to not become a hardened criminal  but to rehabilitate.

But for Randolph Holder  the father of the slain officer  there are too many repeat offenders getting breaks they dont deserve.

The message to the justice system is to please, do your job. Let any perp do their time. What to Know Guy Molinari, a former congressman, borough president and influential figure over Staten Island and its Republican politics has passed away

In a Facebook post Wednesday monring, the Staten Island Republican Party announced Molinaris passing at the age of 89

The cause of death was not immediately known

Guy Molinari, a former congressman, borough president and influential figure over Staten Island and its Republican politics has died, according to the boroughs Republican party.

In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, the Staten Island Republican Party announced Molinaris passing at the age of 89.

Guy was, simply stated, a larger than life figure here on the Island and throughout New York. He was a mentor to dozens of young, eager Republicans who have risen up the ranks over the years. His numerous accomplishments for the people of Staten Island will live on for generations, Staten Island Republican Party Chairman Brendan T. Lantry said in the Facebook post.

Molinari was born in New York City on Nov. 23, 1928. He graduated from Wagner College and obtained his law degree from New York Law School in 1951, being admitted to the New York bar in 1953.

Molinari served in the United States Marine Corps from 1951 to 1953, obtaining the rank of sergeant.

Subsequently, he served in the New York State Assembly from 1974 to 1980 and was elected to Congress numerous times  serving from 1981 until his resignation Dec. 31, 1989 to become borough president of Staten Island.

The passing of Molinaris passing prompted political figures to share their condolences.

I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Staten Island political giant Guy Molinari, someone who I have known and admired since I was a teenager. Guy was a lion who never shied away from tough issues and wasnt afraid of ruffling feathers to achieve results for our borough, said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, in a statement.

Malliotakis further added that she will always regard Guy as a source of inspiration as he was someone who stood up against whoever he had to in fighting for what he believed in.

Frank Morano, chairman of the Richmond County Reform Party, shared similar sentiments in a separate statement.

While we certainly didnt always agree and I thought he often went a bit too far in terms of demonizing his political opponents, there will simply never be another like him, Morano said, referring to Molinari as Staten Island as they come tough, independent, smart and a man with a nose for this boroughs fiery brand of populism.

The cause of death was not immediately known.Age has no limit when it comes to the classic game of hide-and-seek.

According to police in Spokane, Washington, one suspect demonstrated just how far some are willing to go to avoid the cops.

Early on Sunday, police got a tip from the departments Domestic Violence Unit to be aware of an suspect that may be en-route to their victims home, which would violate a protection order.

Officers spotted the suspect as he ran inside the house.

When police searched they home with a K9 unit, Murphy the dog found the suspect hiding in an apartment-sized washer dryer unit.

This suspect brings new meaning to a problem coming out in the wash.Charlie Rowley, the British man poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent in an incident that killed his girlfriend, says the deadly substance was contained in a sealed box of perfume that he had found and kept at their home, NBC News reported.

Rowley, in an exclusive interview with ITV News, said his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, fell ill within 15 minutes of spraying the perfume on her wrists. She died July 8.

"I believe Dawn said she felt she had a headache and asked me if I had any headache tablets," Rowley said. "I had a look around the flat, and within that time, she said she felt peculiar and needed to lie down in the bath, which at the time I thought was a bit strange."

Police said the perfume was found during a search of Rowley's home and confirmed after testing it was Novichok. The deadly Soviet-designed nerve agent was also used in a recent attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia.It may be recalled that Nirmala Sitharaman refused to meet O Panneerselvam on Tuesday.

Chennai: DMK working president M. K. Stalin on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman accusing her of violating the norm that military aircraft should not be put to civilian use when she made available a defence helicopter to air-lift the ailing brother of deputy chief minister O. Panneerselvam from Madurai to Chennai.

Answering a question at a media interaction here, Stalin recalled that O Panneerselvam had told reporters in Delhi that his visit there was for personally thanking Nirmala Sitharaman for making available a military helicopter to move his ailing brother from Madurai to Chennai. It is a mystery how a military helicopter was put to the personal use of a civilian. O Panneerselvam should resign for the improper conduct in using the military aircraft and Nirmala Sitharaman too must quit for facilitating it, Stalin said.

It may be recalled that Nirmala Sitharaman refused to meet O Panneerselvam on Tuesday amid reports that she was unhappy at his media announcement of her aircraft help. The Bhartiya Janata Party, however, insisted that she could not give time to OPS as he had not fixed an appointment with her whereas the AIADMK MP Dr V. Meitreyan had got the appointment to see her at 2.30 pm and O Panneerselvamchose to tag along.

There has not been any comment from the Defence Ministers office regarding the O Panneerselvam claim of military aircraft help for his ailing brother.Gov. Tom Wolf, who is seeking a second term in office in the November election, stopped Wednesday in Philadelphia to lend support to women's access to reproductive health rights and reiterated his long-standing pro-choice stance.

The issue of abortion became front-and-center in the Pennsylvania governor's race this month when President Donald Trump announced Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the wake of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy's pending retirement.

Kavanaugh is a longtime federal judge whose appointment, some legal observers believe, could lead to a reversal of Roe v. Wade, the 1974 Supreme Court decision that bars states from banning abortions.

"Regardless of what happens in Washington, we here in Pennsylvania still have the ability to control womens rights and I will continue to stand tall for women's rights," Wolf said during an appearance at Jefferson University Hospital in Center City.

Wolf, a Democrat, is regarded by pro-choice advocates as the guardian of abortion rights in a state where Republicans control the Legislature. His opponent, Republican and former state Sen. Scott Wagner, is pro-life.

"While Tom Wolf is being funded by a group that prioritizes abortions, and has vetoed pro-life bills on their behalf, Scott has a strong record standing up for the unborn in the Senate and will sign pro-life legislation as governor," a spokesman for Wagner said Wednesday.

Last week the candidate himself declined to commit to a stance.



"You know, thats a federal issue," Wagner told WHYY on July 20. "I'm not running for president right now. Im more focused on the problems in Pennsylvania."

When pressed on the fact that a Supreme Court ruling that overturns Roe v. Wade might put the issue over abortions back in the hands of states, Wagner again demurred.

"It may, and whatever happens, happens," he said. "Right now, in this interview, Im not committing to anything."

Wolf last year vetoed a bill that would have banned abortions beyond 20 weeks of a pregnancy. Another bill has been introduced this year that would ban abortions beyond six weeks.While millions of residents along the East Coast faced another round of heavy rain Tuesday, Texas, Southern California and much of the Southwest are still battling a sweltering heat wave that forecasters say could bring some of this year's hottest weather.

Flash-flood watches and warnings have been issued for major cities from North Carolina to Pennsylvania through Wednesday. Travelers flying into and out of the major East Coast airports should be prepared to face an uptick in weather-related delays.

In the Washington, D.C. area, where record-setting rain soaked the region over the last few days, more showers Tuesday and Wednesday were threatening to cause more flooding or worsen it in areas still recovering from the weekend's deluge, according to NBC Washington.

Overnight in Virginia, flooded roadways led to several water rescues, NBC Washington reported. One woman was killed Monday night when a tree fell on her home in Burke, a suburb southeast of Washington. Authorities said the 60-foot tree was possibly uprooted due to the soaked ground.

In Virginia's largest city, Virginia Beach, officials opened a shelter Tuesday for residents in the wake of flooding from excessive rain and wind-driven tides.

The Virginian-Pilot reported Tuesday that southern portions of Virginia Beach have been impacted by flooding. The city had already closed some roads. And residents say water had begun to enter some structures.

City Manager Dave Hansen said in a statement that residents can decide whether to shelter in place or move to the shelter at a local high school. The city is also sending help to anyone who can't travel due to high water.

Resident Bill Dixon said he saw a carp swimming in his front yard. The water was about an inch from entering his garage. But he said it's already entering some houses in his neighborhood.

Baltimore's Department of Public Works tweeted that high waters forced the evacuation of businesses in the Mount Washington area.

In Baltimore County, crews rescued two adults and one child from a school bus stuck in flood water Tuesday morning on Glencoe Road in Sparks, the Associated Press reported.

Parts of Pennsylvania were among the hardest hit by the days of torrential rainfall. Some evacuations were reported near Harrisburg Tuesday and the town of Tremont saw rivers of water rushing through its streets Monday, the NWS said. In Southern Chester County, flooded roads stranded dozens of people inside a tavern. A dive team used boats to rescue them, NBC Philadelphia reported.

Hersheypark was forced to close Monday after three days of rain in the central and eastern part of the state caused Spring Creek, which runs through the amusement park, to swell. The park reopened Tuesday.

Meanwhile, scorching weather swept across the Southwest for a second day on Tuesday, setting record highs in California's Death Valley, Thermal and Palm Springs in a week that forecasters say could prove to be the region's hottest this year.

The National Weather Service said a new high of 127 degrees (52.7 Celsius) was set at California's Death Valley. Weather service forecaster Chris Outler in Las Vegas said the record broke the previous one of 126 (52 Celsius) registered for the day in 1916.



Phoenix was forecast to be among the hottest urban areas in the Southwest, with highs passing 100 by midmorning and hitting 113 (46 Celsius) by early afternoon  just slightly cooler than Monday's record-breaking 115-degree high.

Maricopa County public health officials say 155 people died in the Phoenix area last year from heat-caused illnesses such as heat stroke and cautioned people to stay hydrated and take advantage of cooler indoor buildings.

Spokeswoman Jeanene Fowler said Tuesday there have been five confirmed heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County this year, with the cause of another 34 deaths still under investigation.

Forecasters issued excessive heat warnings to much of Arizona, including parts of Grand Canyon National Park, and extended into areas of Nevada and Southern California, where temperatures were expected to reach the triple digits again Wednesday, NBC Los Angeles reported.

With triple-digit temperatures expected throughout the region, the operator of California's electrical grid urged people to ease off blasting air conditioners or using washing machines or other appliances during the peak power usage times of 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also urged people to stay out of the sun.

"When temperatures are high, even a few hours of exertion may cause severe dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke," said Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, the county's interim health officer.

Officials closed two popular hiking trails in California's southernmost national forest Monday and said they will remain closed through Thursday due to the excessive heat. Much of the Three Sisters' Falls trail in Cleveland National Forest is in direct sunlight and can be extremely dangerous for hikers and animals during this time, NBC San Diego reported. The national forest extends across parts of San Diego, Riverside and Orange Counties.

More than 130 drought-stricken Texas counties have been issued burn bans as the lack of rainfall and triple-digit heat have increased the threat of wildfires.



Parts of Utah were also issued an excessive heat warning with temperatures this week expected to approach 109 degrees (43 Celsius). The weather service said the warning for Utah's Dixie and Lake Powell regions will be in effect Tuesday through Thursday.

The National Weather Service uses a complicated formula that varies from region to region to declare an excessive heat warning, including close to record-breaking temperatures.What to Know The cluster of cases in Liberia was identified after the woman's 15-year-old son was diagnosed with Ebola

The couple's 5-year-old son wasn't infected

Several weeks after giving birth to a baby in September 2015, the woman developed problems including fatigue and breathing difficulties

A Liberian woman who probably caught Ebola in 2014 may have infected three relatives a year after she first fell sick, doctors reported in a study published Monday.

There have been previous instances of men spreading Ebola to women via sexual transmission  the virus can survive in semen for more than a year  but the new case is the first time scientists have suggested that Ebola was spread from a woman after such a prolonged period.

The rare possibility of Ebola spreading long after infection highlights the importance of monitoring survivors, especially with the imminent end of the most recent flare-up of the disease in Congo.

That country's latest outbreak, announced in May, has so far recorded 38 confirmed cases, including 14 deaths. It is due to be declared contained on Wednesday, which will mark 42 days, or two incubation periods, since the last case was recorded.

"The Ebola virus hides in places where it can escape the antibodies from a body's immune system, so there is a need for vigilance," said Dr. David Heymann, a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was not linked to the new research.

The unusual cluster of cases in Liberia was identified after the woman's 15-year-old son was diagnosed with Ebola in November 2015.

Scientists then tested the rest of his family: the woman, her husband and their three younger sons.

The 15-year-old died a few days later. The father and an 8-year-old boy were positive for Ebola, but both recovered.

The couple's 5-year-old son wasn't infected.

Doctors found Ebola antibodies in the mother, her breast milk and her 2-month-old baby, suggesting a previous infection and the possibility she passed on protection to her infant son through breastfeeding.

Researchers reported genetic similarities between the viruses taken from the father, the two boys and the strain circulating during the 2014-15 outbreak across Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, which ultimately killed more than 11,000 people in the biggest Ebola epidemic in history.

Scientists discovered the woman had cared for her brother in July 2014, who died after suffering Ebola-like symptoms but before being tested for the disease. The woman later experienced a similar illness, but never sought care.

Several weeks after giving birth to a baby in September 2015, the woman developed problems including fatigue and breathing difficulties. Doctors say that because pregnancy lowers the body's immune defenses, that may have allowed for the Ebola virus to re-emerge.

"The suspicious illness she had following delivery may have been a re-activation of Ebola, but we have no confirmatory tests," said Dr. Emily Kainne Dokubo, who led the Ebola response in Liberia for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the study's lead author.

Dokubo said it was possible the woman infected her husband and two older sons with Ebola when they took care of her  the disease is normally spread through contact with an infected patient's blood or other bodily fluids.

The case report was published online Monday in the journal Lancet.

"There isn't complete evidence to reconstruct what happened, but this is the most likely scenario," said Lorenzo Subissi, an epidemiologist at Sciensano, a Belgian research institute, who was not part of the study.

Dokubo said such cases of Ebola re-emergence are exceptional, with only two reported instances: a Scottish nurse who developed meningitis caused by Ebola hidden in her brain and an American physician who had lingering virus in his eye. In those two cases, the virus did not spread any further.

"We don't want there to be a sense of complacency with people thinking that just because the outbreak is over, there's nothing more to be done," Dokubo said. "There is a risk of viral persistence and people should seek care immediately so that we can pick up any suspicious cases right away and stop a larger outbreak."

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.All hands were on deck Tuesday night in the search for an 83-year-old man who went missing from his Vista home Sunday morning.

Francisco Larios, 83, wandered off from his home on the 100 block of Lado De Loma Drive.

Family, friends, community members, and the Armadillo Search and Rescue Team spent most of the day Monday searching for Larios near the Vista Village Shopping Center.

Search and rescue K-9's tracked Larios' scent to a Lowe's hardware store in the center. The store has surveillance cameras that may have picked up Larios.

The search team also combed through a mile of creekbed that runs behind the shopping center.



Cesar Ortigoza with the Armadillo team said investigators have been trying to find out what Larios' interests are and what places he's familiar with so they can track him down. Making the search effort more difficult is the fact that Larios recently suffered a stroke. His family says the left side of his brain isn't responding and he can't speak.

Larios is 5 feet 2 inches tall with gray hair and brown eyes. He also has a thick gray mustache and sideburns. He was last seen wearing a gray long-sleeve T-shirt.

San Diego County Sheriffs Department deputies said Larios has been taking high cholesterol and heart medications.

He did not have a cell phone, money or wallet in his possession at the time of his disappearance. His family says has never wandered off before.

The Armadillo team and other search volunteers plan to return to the area Wednesday to continue the hunt.

Larios' granddaughter Carla Vargas told NBC 7 Monday that he was last seen Sunday at around 6:30 a.m. before family members left the house for church. When they came back home at around 8 a.m. he was gone.

Vargas said they immediately called the San Diego County Sheriff's Department (SDSO) and notified other family members.

The SDSO ASTREA helicopter launched and was searching for Larios. The family has since posted his photos on Facebook and other social media and placed flyers around town.

Anyone with information on Larios whereabouts is asked to call the SDSO at (858) 565-5200.What to Know More than 400 firefighters and volunteer firefighters were battling the two fires near Athens, supported by seven water-dropping helicopters

Hundreds of people were evacuated from beaches and the coastline by navy vessels, yachts and fishing boats

"Gas canisters were exploding. Burning pine cones were flying everywhere," said one witness

Wildfires raged through seaside resorts near the Greek capital, torching homes, cars and forests and killing at least 74 people, authorities said Tuesday. Twenty-six of the dead were believed to be groups of families or friends who were found huddled together, some of them hugging.

Rescue crews were searching the charred remains of homes and cars in the deadliest of the fires, the one in the Rafina area northeast of Athens.

The number of victims appeared set to go even higher, with crews checking charred homes and vehicles and the coast guard scouring beaches and deeper waters. There was no definitive count of the missing.

Fueled by 80 kph (50 mph) winds that frequently changed direction, the fires  one to the west of Athens near the town of Kineta and another to the northeast near the port of Rafina  spread at speeds that surprised many, trapping hundreds on beaches and cutting off escape routes.

All the casualties appeared to be from the fire near Rafina, a popular seaside area that is a mix of permanent residences and vacation homes. The blaze broke out Monday afternoon during a hot, dry spell but the cause was not immediately clear. Aerial photos showed charred swathes of forest and homes.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared three days of national mourning. Apart from the dead, which included children, hospitals treated 187 people, most for burns, with 10 listed in serious condition.

Although it had abated by Tuesday afternoon, the blaze was far from extinguished and more than 230 firefighters were still trying to put it out, helped by volunteers and water-dropping aircraft. Another five fires continued to burn, with flare-ups reported in the blaze near Kineta. Authorities ordered the evacuation of some communities as a preventive measure.

Authorities urged the public to contact them about the missing. Many took to social media, posting photos and what was believed to be their last location before the fires hit.

Hundreds of homes and cars were believed to have been burned. Many vehicles were found with the keys still in the ignition and doors open, a sign of the urgency with which their occupants sought to flee the flames. Narrow roads quickly became jammed, forcing many to try to escape on foot. The ferocity of the fire melted cars' metal hubcaps.

Many ran to beaches, but even there the fire got so close and the smoke was so thick that dozens swam out to sea despite the rough weather.

Coast guard and private boats picked up more than 700 survivors from beaches and the sea  but also recovered six bodies.

"It happened very fast. The fire was in the distance, then sparks from the fire reached us. Then the fire was all around us," said Nikos Stavrinidis, who had gone with his wife to fix up his summer home for a visit by his daughter.

Stavrinidis, his wife, and four friends swam out to sea to escape the smoke, but they quickly became disoriented, losing sight of shore and being swept out farther by the wind and currents. Two of his group didn't survive.

"It is terrible to see the person next to you drowning and not being able to help him," Stavrinidis said, his voice breaking. The rest of the survivors were picked up by a fishing boat with an Egyptian crew who jumped into the water to rescue them.

Rafina's dock became a makeshift hospital overnight as paramedics examined survivors, some wearing only their bathing suits, after being dropped off by rescue boats.

Rafina Mayor Evangelos Bournous said his home had burned down and his family escaped by going into the sea.

The speed of the fires caught many by surprise.

"Everything happened in seconds," said Andreaas Passios, who lives next to the compound in Mati where the 26 bodies were found. "I grabbed a beach towel. It saved my life. I soaked it, grabbed my wife and we ran to the sea."

Passios said he and his wife stayed by the sea for two hours.

"It was unbelievable. Gas canisters were exploding. Burning pine cones were flying everywhere," he said.

Among the survivors was former Greek Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga.

"The police tried to direct us away from the fire, but we couldn't escape it," she said. "We got stuck in traffic and the flames were on top of us. We managed to find a small gap and we made it out."

Local officials provided housing, food and clothes for those affected.

Greece sought help in fighting the fires from the European Union. Spain sent two firefighting aircraft, while Cyprus sent in 60 firefighters. Israel, Turkey, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy and Germany also offered assistance.

Over the two days, 47 brush and forest fires broke out across Greece, with most of them quickly extinguished, the fire department said.

Heavy rain was forecast Wednesday across southern Greece, and there was hope that could help firefighters.

Forest fires are common during Greece's hot, dry summers and temperatures recently reached up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

In 2007, more than 60 people were killed when huge fires swept across the southern Peloponnese region.

Associated Press writer Costas Kantouris contributed.Beautiful, loving, mother, teacher.

Those are words Kathleen Hope Patton used to describe her daughter, Lacey Finneyfrock, after she died Friday in a car crash near her Pennsylvania home.

"God was showing off when he made her," Patton said.

Finneyfrock drove nearly 30 miles from Caroll Valley, Pennsylvania, daily to teach kindergartners at Walkersville Elementary School in Frederick County, Maryland.

She died after another driver drifted across yellow lines into her lane and crashed into her near the Liberty Mountain resort just outside of Caroll Valley.

Finneyfrock had always wanted to be a teacher, and worked at Walkersville Elementary for 10 years. There, she was close to the other teachers.

"Were friends, were not just co-workers," said Kristine Wisner, a teacher at the school. "We do a lot of things together outside of work, and weve shared a lot of laughs and a lot of tears together."

Finneyfrock's colleagues said every family hoped their child would be assigned to her class.



Faculty and staff gathered at the elementary school to remember her.

"Right now we just want to take the time and mourn her loss and give our staff time to do that as well before we even think about next steps," said Assistant Principal Edward Hargreaves.

Finneyfrocks family said that she was passionate about helping kids with special needs. They are considering starting a scholarship fund at the school to help children who struggle with learning.

Finneyfrock is survived by a husband and five daughters.More than 200 wild ponies are set to swim across the Assateague Channel on Wednesday during the annual Chincoteague Pony Swim on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

The ponies were expected to start their swim Wednesday morning, although the schedule has been pushed back to about midday, DelawareOnline reported. The annual swim and pony auction draw thousands of spectators.

Each year, volunteers on horseback called the "Saltwater Cowboys" round up about 150 adult wild ponies and the 60-70 foals that were born in the spring, according to Chincoteague.com. The cowboys then guide the ponies across the channel from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island, where most of the foals then are auctioned off.

The auction helps control the size of the wild herd, organizers say.

The adult ponies will make their return swim to Assateague Island on Friday.

Some years, a few foals are designated as "buyback" ponies that will return to Assateague Island to live in the wild. Those ponies are auctioned with the rest of the foals, but are donated back to the fire company that owns the herd and are returned to the wild.

The auction also serves as a fundraiser for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The fire company uses some of the proceeds to provide vet care for the ponies throughout the year. Proceeds from the sale of one foal each year go to a regional charity.

Denise Bowden, a spokeswoman for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, said Wednesday's swim was still scheduled despite storms in the forecast.

The first foal to come ashore will be named King or Queen Neptune. He or she will be given away in a raffle drawing later in the day.

Following the swim, the ponies will rest for about 45 minutes, and then will "parade" down Main Street to the carnival grounds, where the auction is scheduled for Thursday morning.

The Pony Swim is going into its 93rd year.

The average cost of a pony sold at the auction in 2016 was $2,659, according to Chincoteague.com, with the highest bid at $11,000 and the lowest at $550.

Although anyone may bid on a pony, the fire company says all winning bids are subject to review and final approval. Winners will need to have an S.P.C.A. certified horse or stock trailer, the fire company says on its website.A popular D.C. restaurant is apologizing for a tweet that showed James Foley, an American journalist who was killed by members of ISIS.

Z-Burger owner Peter Tabibian says he has fired Valor Media, a company that was hired to run Z-Burger's social media accounts.

The tweet, which was published on the restaurant's Twitter page Saturday, included a picture of a burger superimposed over a photo of Foley moments before he was killed by members of ISIS in 2014. The caption said, "When you say you want a burger and someone says okay lets hit McDonald's."

The tweet was up for about an hour and then deleted.

"They hurt my business, and we have a lot of angry customers," Tabibian said. "Once I found out what the picture was, I was devastated and I almost fell out of my chair."

Michael Valor, who runs Valor Media, apologized for the tweet in a video.

"I wanted to say that Z-Burger has nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing to do with this at all," Valor said.

Tabibian said he will personally review Z-Burger tweets from now on, and he will donate to the James Foley Foundation.

"We are very sorry, and we want to apologize to his family, friends and anyone who knew Mr. Foley," Tabibian said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  The 12 lawmakers who abstained from voting for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as House Speaker have chosen their new minority leader.

The 12 solons  who all happen to be members of the Liberal Party  announced on Wednesday they have chosen former Deputy Speaker Miro Quimbo as the new Minority Floor Leader.

They claimed they are the duly-constituted minority in the lower house based on rules and jurisprudence.

"We just finished our organizational meeting as the duly-constituted minority under the rules," Quimbo said in a media briefing on Wednesday.

Under House Rules, the Minority Leader shall be elected by members of the minority. The political party also cited that only those who abstain from voting shall be considered a part of the minority bloc.

Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez was ousted from the Speaker post on Monday after 184 voted for Arroyo, while the 12 Liberal Party lawmakers abstained.

"We know who the new Minority members are  those who participated in the voting and explicitly abstained from voting for the new Speaker, namely Rep. Francis Gerald Abaya, Rep. Kaka Bag-ao, Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Rep. Bolet Banal, Rep. Kit Belmonte, Rep. Gabby Bordado, Rep. Raul Daza, Rep. Toff de Venecia, Rep. Edgar Erice, Rep. Edcel Lagman, Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong, and Rep. Miro Quimbo," the Liberal Party said.

Quimbo said they have yet to organize the minority bloc so they can start screening and accepting new members, such as those who were not present during the opening of the House Session.

Once Quimbo is formally recognized as the Minority Floor Leader, he will be replacing Danilo Suarez.

Suarez voted for Arroyo during the House leadership row, therefore, he cannot keep his post, the 12 lawmakers said.

"The rules are very clear: Kapag bumoto ka sa nanalong speaker, majority ka. Hindi sila pwedeng minority kung bumoto ka para sa nanalo. Ang ridiculous. Hindi lang sila bumoto, kung hindi nangampanya," Quimbo said.

Suarez previously said he is still thinking of sticking around in his position.

CNN Philippines correspondent Xianne Arcangel contributed to this report.200 high-breed dairy cows gifted to villagers by PM.

New Delhi: People in India too would be pleasantly surprised to see the cow being given such importance as a means of economic empowerment in villages in faraway Rwanda, PM Narendra Modi said on Tuesday during his visit to Rwanda even as he gifted 200 high-breed dairy cows to villagers there who do not yet own a cow, under the Rwandan Governments Girinka Programme. The gesture is being seen as cow diplomacy of sorts by India which is expected to win the goodwill of some of the poorest Rwandans. The function to mark the handing over of cows was held at Rweru Model village, in the presence of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. The cows were bought in Rwanda itself and gifted.

Meanwhile, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) announced that eight bilateral MoUs on various fields were signed during the Prime Ministers visit to Rwanda and that agreements in the area of trade, defence, dairy-cooperation, agriculture, culture, leather and allied sector and Line of Credit for $ 200 million for expansion of Special Economic Zone and Irrigation Scheme was signed. According to the MEA, PM Modi appreciated the effective utilisation of US $400 million Lines of Credit extended to Rwanda in the last few years. The government said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today gifted 200 cows to villagers who do not yet own a cow, under the Rwandan Governments Girinka Programme. ... He said people in India too would be pleasantly surprised to see the cow being given such importance as a means of economic empowerment in villages, in faraway Rwanda.

The word Girinka can be translated as may you have a cow. and describes a centuries-old cultural practice in Rwanda whereby a cow was given by one person to another, as a sign of respect and gratitude, Government officials said. The Girinka scheme was initiated by President Paul Kagame in response to the alarmingly high rate of childhood malnutrition and as a way to accelerate poverty reduction and integrate livestock and crop farming.What to Know Secretary of State Brian Kemp beat Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, who outraised Kemp more than 2-to-1, in the primary runoff.

Kemp will be running against Democrat Stacey Abrams in November's general election.

If Abrams wins the general election, she would be the first black woman elected governor in any U.S. state.

Georgia Republicans have chosen Brian Kemp to face Democrat Stacey Abrams for governor in a November matchup that will test history and highlight the widening gulf between the two major parties in style and substance in the era of President Donald Trump.

Kemp, a two-term secretary of state, trounced longtime Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in a runoff Tuesday after campaigning as a "politically incorrect conservative" in a bruising race marked by hard-line rhetoric on guns, immigration, and government spending. He credited Trump's endorsement for sealing his victory, and the president tweeted his congratulations Wednesday.

Abrams, who has become a national Democratic celebrity in her bid to become the United States' first black female governor, dominated her primary in May after pledging to expand Medicaid insurance and spend more on education, infrastructure, and job training.

The results reflect animated bases on the left and the right, leaving voters who consider themselves somewhere in the middle to decide one of the country's most closely watched midterm contests.

Both national parties opened their coffers ahead of Tuesday's GOP runoff; and the outcome will reverberate into 2020 as Democrats try to prove that GOP-controlled Georgia, after decades of population growth has made the electorate more urban and less white, has evolved into a presidential battleground.

To test that theory, Georgians set up a compelling juxtaposition between candidates each cast by the opposition as extreme:

Will a Deep South state  led by white, male governors since 1776 and not long removed from having Confederate insignia on its flag  elect a self-declared progressive black woman from Atlanta as its chief executive?

Or will an increasingly urban, diversifying state  now the eighth most populous and home to The Coca-Cola Company, Delta, Home Depot, UPS and the 1996 Summer Olympics  embrace a brash, gun-wielding, chain saw-cranking Republican who says he'll "round up criminal illegals" in his own pickup truck?

Kemp, 54, immediately set the race against the national backdrop, thanking Trump for his endorsement while linking Abrams' to a "radical left" he says threatens Georgia's "red-state" values. "Do you want a governor who is going to answer to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton?" Kemp boomed in his victory speech, referring to the House Democratic leader from California and the 2016 presidential nominee who lost Georgia by 4.5 percentage points.

That echoed a Republican Governors Association ad unveiled before GOP runoff votes were tallied. The 30-second spot joins Abrams' picture alongside Clinton and Pelosi, with a voiceover warning that Abrams is "the most radical liberal to ever run for governor."

Trump, in his tweet, urged Kemp to "go win against the open border, crime loving opponent that the Democrats have given you."

Abrams, 44, was more circumspect with a Twitter fundraising appeal that mentioned Kemp only by his last name. "Service, faith & family guide our vision for GA: Affordable health care. Excellent public schools for every child. An economy that works for all," she wrote.

Other Democrats more eagerly fingered Kemp as the dangerous option.

"The craziest Republican emerged," said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, in an interview. DGA recently steered $250,000 to the Georgia Democratic Party for its fall efforts.

Inlsee said Kemp's message, including his attacks on national Democrats, make him little more than "a sycophant for Donald Trump," while Abrams answers with a "real economic agenda for working families."

If Kemp "wants to run against Nancy Pelosi," Inslee added, "he should move to San Francisco."

Beyond the pitched rhetoric, both candidates have weaknesses to exploit. Kemp is roundly criticized because the personal data of millions of registered Georgia voters was twice compromised during his tenure as secretary of state. Kemp blamed an employee and the contractor running the state's elections system. Republicans hit Abrams for reporting $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt along with owing $50,000 to the IRS  liabilities she attributes to her Yale law education and her financial support for several relatives.

Republicans, like party strategist and pollster Mark Rountree argue that Abrams' policy agenda means higher taxes  anathema to the suburban voters she'll need. Rountree said her support for removing Confederate monuments from state ground will ensure conservative turnout.

Still, some Republicans lamented that a long primary battle will leave their nominee broke. "Casey's spent all of his bullets on Brian and vice-versa, while Stacey Abrams is just collecting money," said Jack Kingston, a former congressman who endorsed Cagle.

At least the matchup deviates from Georgia's recent penchant for establishment, predictable governors, regardless of party. Outgoing Republican Gov. Nathan Deal  who once served north Georgia as a Democratic congressman  backed Cagle over Kemp, a tacit acknowledgment that Kemp is to the right of the typical GOP governor here.

Four years ago, Democrats nominated Jason Carter, a grandson of former president and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, but the younger Carter lost to Deal by 8 percentage points. This year, many of Carter's old-guard backers initially sided with Abrams' primary opponent, also a former state lawmaker. Stacey Evans hammered Abrams for making too many deals with Republicans  including Deal  but party elders still viewed Evans, who is white, as the more moderate choice.

Abrams' 3-to-1 victory obliterated that supposedly safe course.

"The most important thing about any candidate is matching the moment, and Stacey Abrams has clearly done" this, Jason Carter told the AP.

The question, Carter said, is whether she can "connect with enough voters" beyond the Democratic base, capitalizing on the historic nature of her candidacy "without being consumed by it."

Associated Press writers Brinley Hineman, Jeff Martin and Jonathan Landrum contributed to this report.Two months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump and his former lawyer discussed plans to pay for a former Playboy model's story of an alleged affair, according to a secretly recorded tape of the conversation released Tuesday amid an escalating feud between the president and his longtime personal attorney.

The audio recording, surreptitiously made by Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, appears to contradict the Trump campaign's later claim that Trump knew nothing about payments to a media company to keep model Karen McDougal's story from becoming public. The tape captures the soon-to-be president and his lawyer discussing logistics of financing and whether to "pay with cash," although the sound is muffled and Trump's instructions on that are unclear. Lawyers for the two men disputed what was said.

The tape was provided to CNN on Tuesday by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis, and signals a new level of open hostility between the president and the man who once described himself as Trump's fixer. Cohen, who is under federal investigation for potential bank fraud and campaign finance violations, has shown a growing willingness to reveal damaging information and Davis said Tuesday that Cohen "will someday speak the truth about Donald Trump."

The taped conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer's parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill.

The men appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougal's story from the Enquirer's parent company. Trump's lawyers say the payments were never made.

Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company "for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David," a possible reference to David Pecker, Trump's friend and president of the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc.

When Cohen begins to discuss financing, Trump interrupts him and asks, "What financing?"

"We'll have to pay," Cohen responded.

The audio is muffled, but Trump can be heard saying "pay with cash," though it isn't clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash. Cohen immediately says, "No, no, no" and Trump can then be heard saying, "check."

Trump attacked Cohen in a tweet Wednesday morning, calling it "so sad" that a lawyer would tape a client and questioning what was cut from the recording released on Tuesday.



"Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things? I hear there are other clients and many reporters that are taped - can this be so? Too bad!" Trump said.



Trump's current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told The Associated Press that he's had an expert enhance the recording and the president says "don't pay with cash."

"It clearly indicates that the president did not want to pay with cash. Suggesting otherwise is ridiculous and is inconsistent with the rest of the conversation, during which it was discussed doing it through a corporation," Giuliani said.

Giuliani said Cohen, as Trump's lawyer, thought it would be best if he could buy the rights to McDougal's story and the recording captures the two of them discussing how to do that.

"Cohen says I have to pay him. The president brings up cash and says don't pay with cash and says 'check,' He wants it memorialized," Giuliani said. "Cohen then says 'No, no, no, no' and he cuts off the tape. He obviously cuts it off in mid-sentence and that in itself is suspicious."

"The president wanted to do it the right way. If you wanted to hide something, you would not do it by corporation or check," he said.

The payment was never made and Giuliani said he didn't know why that was the case and hadn't discussed it with Trump.

But Davis told NBC News and CNN that the tape also shows that Trump knew about McDougal's allegation before he publicly acknowledged it when McDougal's allegation was revealed in a Wall Street Journal story days before the election. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had "no knowledge of any of this."

"Listen to the tape. Donald Trump is not shocked money is being paid about someone named Karen McDougal," Davis said during an interview with CNN.

Davis said his client  who is under investigation by federal officials in New York  "has been disparaged and insulted and called all kinds of things."

"He's got truth on his side and he'll continue to tell the truth," Davis said.

But Davis told NBC News and CNN that the tape also shows that Trump knew about McDougal's allegation before he publicly acknowledged it when McDougal's allegation was revealed in a Wall Street Journal story days before the election. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had "no knowledge of any of this."

American Media, Inc.'s payment effectively silenced McDougal through the election, though days beforehand news of the deal emerged in The Wall Street Journal. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had "no knowledge of any of this."

The FBI raided Cohen's office, home and hotel room in April, searching in part for information about payments to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006  which Trump denies  and was paid $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement signed days before the 2016 election.

A dozen audio recordings seized during those raids were forwarded to federal prosecutors last week after lawyers dropped challenges on attorney-client privilege grounds.

Giuliani said those recordings captured Cohen discussing the president with third parties, who he would not identify. They are also being enhanced by experts, he said.

Trump and Cohen can also be heard on the recording released Tuesday discussing other legal issues, including fighting a request by The New York Times to unseal court records concerning Trump's divorce from his first wife, Ivana.

Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.Before 14-year-old Guatemalan Samuel Cazun left a Kansas nonprofit to be reunited with his father, he gave staff members the sketches of their faces he had drawn to help them remember him.

Of the dozens of migrant children housed at The Villages in Topeka under a contract with the federal government, Samuel was among as many as nine there who were separated from family members at the southern border under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal immigration.

It has been more than a month since immigration agents took Samuel away from his father after the two waded across the Rio Grande into Texas following about 15 days traveling by bus from Guatemala. On Monday afternoon, Samuel and his father, Edvin Cazun, tearfully embraced at the Cincinnati airport, reunited once again.

Samuel was all smiles when he caught sight of his father as he rode up on the elevator at the airport, waving to family members. A young cousin ran up to hug him. Edvin Cazun then briefly buried his head on his son's shoulders and embraced him before wiping away his own tears. While still at the airport, Samuel had a video chat with his mother in Guatemala on a relative's cellphone.

Samuel told The Associated Press in Spanish that the separation was "very hard" and that it made him sad. He worried when he was in Kansas that his father would be deported and that he would never see him again.

Edvin Cazun said he initially tried to come into this country legally by paying for a worker visa, but he was instead ripped off by the people selling them. When he tried to get his money back, they threatened to kill him. So he fled with Samuel to the United States, leaving behind his wife and his four other children, ages 9 to 18, and is now seeking asylum in the hopes of giving Samuel a chance at a better life.

"What I want now that we are together is for him to get ahead in life. I want to be responsible for him. I want him to study in this country. That is the best future for him, no? That is my desire as his father," Edvin Cazun said in Spanish.

Samuel said in a Tuesday phone interview that he wants to study in the United States and become a professional artist.

The Trump administration said in a court filing Monday that there have been 1,187 children reunified with their parents or "other appropriate discharges," which include guardians and sponsors. It added that some 463 parents may not be in the United States, saying those findings are based on case notes and are under review.

Immigration attorney Clare Murphy Shaw is Samuel's attorney and said Tuesday that of the seven immigrant children in Kansas she represents in immigration court, five of them have already left The Villages. The two remaining separated children are scheduled to leave either Tuesday or Wednesday.

In what is the first public glimpse at life for migrant children at The Villages in Topeka, Samuel recounted how he was among 13 male teenagers housed in one of the group homes at the facility. He had his own bed and shared a room with another teenager. The food was good and the children could talk with their parents several times a week. They would also go to classes from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day, studying English, mathematics, science, technology and other subjects.

There were a lot of rules to follow, such as not hugging other children, although a handshake was ok. No opening the windows. Don't go into someone else's room.

It was a lot nicer than facility the Samuel was kept in while in Texas. His first day he was kept in a cage that he compared to one used to contain animals. He slept on a mat on the floor. He thinks he probably spent five days at a second Texas facility but wasn't sure because there were no windows, the lights were on all the time and he couldn't tell whether it was even day or night.

But the hardest part was being separated from his father. Samuel said he prayed to God while at the Kansas shelter that they would soon be together.

"Now I am no longer sad," Samuel said.Authorities in Maine say an 8-year-old boy found dead inside his Oakland home Tuesday night died from a gunshot wound to the head.

State police said Parker Stevens was handling his father's 12 gauge shotgun inside a second floor closet of the family's Church Street home when the gun somehow fired.

Stevens was found dead by his mother, Sara, at about 6 p.m.

Police said Sara Stevens and the family's three other children were on the first floor of the home and did not hear the gunshot.

Steven's father, Wade, was not home at the time.

Detectives said the shotgun had eight shells in the gun's magazine tube and Stevens "apparently racked one of those shells into the chamber before he fired the gun."

Authorities said the boy was going into the fourth grade this fall at the Williams Elementary School in Oakland.What to Know Prosecutors say 21-year-old Julia Enright killed her ex-boyfriend, 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis.

Chicklis was last seen on June 26 as he left his Westminster home to visit his father in Windham, NH. His body was found in Rindge.

Chicklis' blood was found in and around Enright's treehouse in Ashburnham, Mass.

Old friends of Julia Enright describe her as "eccentric"  her Facebook page is filled with photos of the 21-year-old who had an interest in skulls.

She worked for a time at Dunkin Donuts in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, where a co-worker says she was very dependable.

She eventually became a phlebotomist for Quest Diagnostics. A company spokesperson declined to comment beyond confirming she was an employee.

"It literally blows my mind," said a high school classmate, who did not want her name reported. "I would never have thought that Julia would even be considered a suspect in this."

In court Tuesday, Enright was charged with murder. She's accused of killing Brandon Chicklis.

The two had dated as young teens, but remained friends. They were also classmates at Montachusett Regional Vocational High School.

"She was always kind of like an outsider," said the classmate who did not want to be identified.

On the weekend when Chicklis vanished in late June, Enright tells investigators the two were together on her family's vast property in Ashburnham, but he left to buy drugs and never came back.

But investigators say that Enright killed Chicklis there, and that blood was found in and around her treehouse.

Chicklis' body was found a few weeks later on the side of a road in Rindge, New Hampshire, about 15 minutes away.

Prosecutors have not revealed how he was killed or how he ended up in Rindge.

"She always climbed trees a lot, so I'm not shocked she had a treehouse," said the classmate. "She's really smart, didn't play any sports, stayed to herself a little bit, only had a couple of friends."

Prosecutors have not given any motive for the murder.

They have also not said if anyone else may be connected to the crime.

Authorities searched Enright's property in Ashburnham last week in connection with the ongoing investigation.

Family members have set up a GoFundMe page to help cover Chicklis' funeral expenses.What to Know Retired Mass. State Police trooper Daren DeJong, 57, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly receiving overtime pay for shifts he didn't work.

DeJong earned $179,000 in 2016, which included an estimate of $63,000 in overtime pay.

Four other troopers were arrested and charged with embezzlement in similar cases.

A fifth Massachusetts State Trooper was arrested and charged Wednesday in connection to an overtime abuse scandal that federal authorities have been investigating.

Daren DeJong, a state police trooper assigned to Troop E who has since retired, was charged with embezzlement, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling announced. He is accused of receiving overtime pay for hours he did not work, officials said in a statement.

DeJong, 56, earned $179,000 in 2016, which included an estimated $63,000 in overtime pay. He is accused of receiving $14,062 for shifts he did not work or left early for.

"Mr. DeJong, who was sworn to uphold the law, betrayed the public trust by embezzling funds from the Massachusetts State Police," said Andrew E. Lelling, United State Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, in a statement. "Todays arrest is another step in our ongoing effort to root out fraud and ensure that public funds are appropriately used."

According to the State Treasurer's Office, DeJong is receiving a monthly pension of $6,251. If convicted of overtime fraud, he risks losing that pension.

DeJong is a retired trooper who was assigned to Troop E, which was responsible for enforcing regulations along the Mass. Turnpike before it was disbanded after an internal audit revealed major overtime discrepancies.

Four other troopers were arrested for fraud in similar cases.

Gregory Raftery, 47, pleaded guilty to embezzling funds from a state agency receiving federal funds earlier this month. The three other state troopers who were arrested on the same charges were David Wilson, Paul Cesan and Gary Herman. All three pleaded not guilty.

The Uxbridge resident pleaded not guilty during his arraignment at U.S. District Court in Boston Wednesday afternoon.

His attorney Brad Bailey said DeJong will fight to clear his name.

"He is a law enforcement professional, he had a lengthy career, he understands what this process is all about, he understands how it works, and he has every intention of working within this process to ultimately clear his name," Bailey said.

In a statement, Massachusetts State Police Col. Kerry Gilpin said DeJong's alleged actions "contradict the values and conduct that we and the public demand of our personnel, and we will continue to hold our members accountable to the law and our own policies and regulations."The parents of a New Hampshire man whose son was arrested for exercising naked Sunday at a Planet Fitness in Plaistow are speaking out.

Police Capt. Brett Morgan said Eric Stagno, 34, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, was charged with indecent exposure/lewdness and disorderly conduct after he allegedly walked into the gym on Route 125 in Plaistow, took off his clothes, walked back and forth a couple of times and then started doing poses on his knees on a yoga mat.

When Planet Fitness members hear the story, it's hard for them to keep a straight face.

"Its disgusting," said Erin Helin of Newton, New Hampshire.

"You look at the TV and the first thing you do, you laugh," said Jean Hanley of Sandown, New Hampshire.

But when they learn the reasons behind Stagno's naked workout, their opinions are quickly changing.

"I think that it's sad and it's unfortunate," Hanley said.

NBC10 Boston first spoke to Stagno's dad over the intercom at his apartment.

"I think hes disgraced the family enough," said his dad. "Dont you have something better to report on?"

Stagno's mother, Denise Kerrigan, told NBC10 Boston that her son has suffered mental illness since he was a kid, and recently became addicted to prescription drugs. She said what happened over the weekend is the worst situation yet.

"I was watching the 6 o'clock news and I seen Eric Stagno and I look up and went, 'oh my God, what is he doing'" said an emotional Kerrigan.

She said before her son turned up naked at Planet Fitness he was in a bad place.

"He said, 'I dont want to live anymore, everybody hates me,'" Kerrigan recalled.

It turns out the viral tale is yet another consequence of addiction and it's proof that those who are addicted, aren't the only ones falling victim.

"Totally heartbreaking," Kerrigan said. "It's like, what did I do wrong, what did I do wrong?"

Police say Stagno was found with some marijuana paraphernalia but since he refused medical treatment, officers can't say if he was under the influence.

Stagno is free on bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 21 in Plaistow District Court.What to Know A 3-year-old boy was killed and his 4-year-old sister injured when a minivan plowed into a stroller in South Boston on Wednesday

The crash happened around 3:13 p.m. at the intersection of L and East 6th streets

The cause of the crash remains under investigation

A 3-year-old boy was killed and his 4-year-old sister injured when a minivan plowed into a stroller in South Boston on Wednesday afternoon.

The crash happened around 3:13 p.m. at the intersection of L and East 6th streets. Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the accident involved a green minivan and a white Prius. He said the minivan then went up onto the sidewalk, hitting the two children.

The 3-year-old boy was taken to an area hospital where he later died. His sister is at an area hospital and is expected to survive.

"A tragic accident here in South Boston," Evans said. "Our heart goes out to the parents, obviously. A terrible tragedy. It's everybody's worst nightmare."



Police originally said that a 4-year-old had been killed and a 3-year-old injured, but later corrected that report.

A baby stroller could be seen between two vehicles at the scene. Evans said the woman who was pushing the stroller was not injured but was understandably shaken up.

Witness Susan Devlin said it appeared a nanny was walking with the kids on the sidewalk.

"It was pretty obvious that the van smashed into the fence. Then we saw the baby carriage and a woman screaming and we knew there was children involved," Devlin said. "Just seeing the child laying on the sidewalk was devastating."

Evans said the drivers of both vehicles remained at the scene and are being interviewed by police.

Several other cars were also damaged.

Evans said there had been street cleaning earlier in the day and unfortunately, there were no vehicles around to act as a barrier.

"Normally, because of street cleaning, something like this might not have happened, but the van was able to come up across the way. Looks like it might have gone up to the curb or at least on the sidewalk and struck both babies," said Evans. "A real tragedy."

The investigation into what caused the crash is ongoing and Evans said the intersection is expected to be shut down for some time.After that there was no looking back for Neeraj. That perhaps was the Golden Period of Romantic stories in Hindi films.

The Peoples Poet. Padma Shri 1991, Padma Bhushan 1997. That sums up Gopal Das Saxena, most remembered for his romantic film songs. And this image was acquired in just 7-8 years of his film career. Sample this: Phoolon ke rang se, dil ki kalam se..., Rangeela re, tere rang mein yoon ranga hai mera rang..., Jeevan ki bagiya mehkegi..., mera man tera pyasa.... Most dont know what else he wrote in the other 65-odd years! Having lost his father at the age of 6, he had to suffer the pangs of separation from his mother too, owing to penury. And that gave birth to poetry, and Neeraj 

Aatme ke Saundarya ka shabd roop hai kavya Manav hona bhagya hai, kavi hona saubhagya hai Gopal Das Neeraj first started writing poetry in English, but it was Harivansh Rai Bachchan who prodded him to write in Hindi since Kavita maatrubhasha mein hi hoti hai. He was also lap topped by Big Bs dad during the 1940s when during a trip from Kanpur to Baanda in a bus where Bachchan got a seat and Neeraj didnt. And there was no stopping once he started writing in Hindi. His Urdu was impeccable too. I also have a feeling that Neeraj wouldve been much more popular for his range, had he written in Urdu and not Hindi.

Apart from Bachchan, Neeraj has the rare privilege of sharing the dais with the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, Mahadevi Varma, Jigar Moradabadi, Maithili Sharan Gupt, Ramdhari Sinh Dinkar, Sumitranandan Pant, kaifi azmi and the list goes on... Shakeel Badayuni, of course became his soul mate in the Civil Supplies Department, where he got appointed as a Clerk immediately after his schooling. The former too, was a clerk there.

Born to Babu Brij Kishore Saxena on 4 January 1925 (some say 1924) in Puravali village of Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, Gopal Das Saxena after completing his school mostly worked as a clerk cum typist in various offices in Delhi, Kanpur, Etawah. While slogging out in various jobs he finished his intermediate, graduation and post graduation and started teaching Hindi in Meerut College, Meerut. A job he subsequently quit and joined Dharam Samaj College, Aligarh as a professor in Hindi department.

His first brush with film industry was through the iconic Prithviraj Kapoor who during his performance trip to Kanpur heard Neeraj during a kavi sammelan for three hours and couldnt resist the temptation of inviting the latter to Mumbai. Neeraj, as was his wont, scoffed it off.

Much as he defied Mumbai, the illusive and the ever elusive film world deified him. One of Neerajs poem karvaan guzar gaya gubar dekhte rahe... first composed in 1954 had become extremely popular and in 1965 the yesteryear hero turned character artiste Chandrashekhar who happens to be a Hyderabadi was making a film Nayee umar ki nayee fasal, featuring Tanuja. He invited Neeraj to write the songs for the film. Nayee umar ki nayee fasal was his first film and his poem sung my Mohammed Rafi is still considered a milestone of sorts as far as poetry in films is concerned. The film itself is supposed to be inspired by the title of the popular verse.

After that there was no looking back for Neeraj. That perhaps was the Golden Period of Romantic stories in Hindi films. The composers of that period par excellent, particularly Sachin Dev Burman and Shankar-Jaikishan ruled the roost. Neerajs poetry was the icing on the cake. Come to think of it, S.D. Burman was almost dismissive of a poets ability to fit into a composition, after Neeraj was introduced to him by Dev Anand as a replacement to Shailendra whose untimely death created a poetic void in Hindi Cinema.

Rangeela re... was a result of that challenge. The film Prem Pujari. Dev Anand and Neeraj became friends for life. Other films that he wrote for were Gambler, Chhupa Rustom, Resham Ki Dor, Duniya, Lal Patthar, Chanda Aur Bijli, Patanga, Kanyadan, Cha Cha Cha, Sharmilee, etc.

The love-hate relationship with the composers however continued in the literary spirit, and another gem ae bhai zara dekh ke chalo... from Mera Naam Joker was born, defining lifes philosophy like never before, or after; much like the film itself. It was during this period that Raj Kapoor challenged Neerajs luminescence and insisted on changing words in a song. When he refused to yield, the great showman tried to corner him Neeraj ji ek baar bambai mein aagaye to jeena yahan marna yahan iske sivaa jaana kahaan....

Neeraj retorted that hes living in a fools paradise and that those who are incapable of doing anything else only cling on to this film world, Iam a hero in my own way and dont depend on the film industry for my survival....

The onslaught from the new breed too was relentless, and coupled with the death of S.D. Burman, Jaikishan and others made him even more disillusioned and depressed; and in 1973 bid adieu to the film world.

Aligarh is where he still lives, at 91, all by himself with an attendant in tow. Twice widowed, he spends his time reading and replying to the sackful of fan mail he receives everyday much to the chagrin of the postman. He today rues the fact that he wasted a lot of time in replying to each and every letter, which were mostly written by women. Stories abound about how students from girls hostels used to smuggle him inside their hostels for a night long recitation of his prem geet. Back then, his Mrutyu Geet virtually had the audience swooning. Unable to bear the pain, the audience more often than not urged him not to recite that piece.

Neeraj came back to write at the insistence of his best buddy and the best man in the film world, Dev Anand for his film Charge Sheet which eventually turned out to be the laterrs swan song as well. The song mera ishq bhi tu, mera pyar bhi tu... had Sufi overtones. Neeraj himself believed in piety and not religion. These lines best describe his leanings 

Ab to mazhab koi aisa bhi chalaya jaayeJismein insaan ko insaan banaya jaaye Despite having no visible political leanings he feels that Jana gana mana adhinayak jaya hey... is a colonial vestige and doesnt deserve to be the National Anthem. Instead Jhanda ooncha rahe hamara... wouldve been more appropriate.

Few in the world have the credit of being at the pinnacle of poetry for more than 70 years. So fond of smoking, alcohol and poetry even today that he recites the following with great fervour, while taking a pot shot at the declining standards of poetry today 

Itne badnaam hue hum to iss zamane mein, lagengi aapko sadiyaan hamein bhulane mein Na peena ka saleeqa na pilaane ka shaoor, aise bhi log chale aaye hain maykhaane mein.

D15What to Know Groups of women dressed as characters from 'The Handmaid's Tale,' greeted Vice President Mike Pence Monday during his visit to Philadelphia.

They protested Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy and its perceived anti-choice U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh.

They shut down streets near city hall and snarled the evening commute.

Groups of women dressed as characters from "The Handmaid's Tale" greeted Vice President Mike Pence Monday during his visit to Philadelphia.

Protesters wearing red dresses and white caps carried signs reading "Free press, fake president" and "Freedom of religion is freedom from religion."

No, this was not a dystopian nightmare in which fertile women are enslaved by a military dictatorship. Rather, drawing on inspiration from the hit Hulu show, which is based on a Margaret Atwood novel of the same name, protesters marched against President Donald Trump's zero tolerance immigration policy and its perceived anti-choice U.S. Supreme Court nomination, Brett Kavanaugh.

The protests mirrored recent demonstrations throughout the country that use themes from "The Handmaid's Tale" aimed at "[waking] people up to the real life dangers of the Trump/Pence regime," organizers said in a statement.

"Nothing short of removing this whole illegitimate regime from power will stop this nightmare," organizer Samantha Goldman of Refuse Fascism Philly said. "If we allow this regime to get away with caging and torturing children, they know there is nothing they can't get away with."



Pence is in Philadelphia to tout Trump tax cuts and campaign for Pennsylvania senate candidate U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, a staunch conservative and supporter of Trump. Barletta is running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in this year's Pennsylvania midterms.

The event, hosted by America First Policies, a non-profit started by a group of former Trump advisers, took place at the Sheraton Philadelphia in Center City. After the event, Pence attended a fundraiser hosted by Barletta at the Union League.

Great to be in Pennsylvania today supporting my friend @LouForSenate. Lou Barletta will put the interests of the hardworking men & women of PA first and will be an advocate for @RealDonaldTrump's pro-growth economic agenda! pic.twitter.com/dOXEDiVLjS  Mike Pence (@mike_pence) July 23, 2018

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to accurately reflect that "The Handmaid's Tale" is on Hulu.The acting head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that the United States needs a single standard for fuel efficiency for cars and trucks, signaling a possible showdown with California and other states that could throw the car market into turmoil.

Andrew Wheeler spoke to a small group of reporters at EPA headquarters, ahead of a Trump administration proposal that's expected to freeze some future Obama-era mileage goals. The Trump administration also has said it's looking at challenging California's authority to set its own, tougher mileage standards.

"What we don't want to see is two different standards for the country," Wheeler said, calling for a "50-state solution" to disputes over mileage standards.

A program for steadily increasing fuel efficiency rules was a key part of the Obama administration's effort to combat climate-changing emissions from fossil fuel.

California has had the authority under the half-century-old Clean Air Act to set its own standards, with a special rule allowing the state to curb its chronic smog problem. More than a dozen states follow California's standards, making for a significant part of the country's car market.

Wheeler said he was committed to sitting down with California officials after the Trump administration releases its proposals, expected as soon as this week.

"We certainly want to work with the state of California to make sure they're comfortable with the direction the government wants to go," he said.

A draft of the EPA proposal obtained last spring by Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware said the Trump administration was considering freezing the fuel standard at 2020 levels for the next five years. Under the proposal, the fleet of new vehicles would have to average roughly 30 mpg in real-world driving, and that wouldn't change through at least 2025.

The Obama administration had proposed tougher standards  36 mpg by 2025. California and automakers agreed to the rules in 2012, setting a single national fuel economy standard.

California has joined 16 other states and the District of Columbia to sue the EPA to try to block any weakening of the standards.

Trump named Wheeler, then the environmental agency's deputy administrator, as acting head after Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned this month amid unrelenting ethics scandals.

Wheeler spoke favorably about two policy issues inherited from Pruitt. One was an initiative to bolster consideration of costs in making some regulatory decisions. The other was a sweeping proposal to change what science the EPA considers in making regulations by giving the agency's chief the option to disregard scientific studies if the underlying data supporting it is not made public. Supporters say that would increase transparency in EPA rulemaking.

Public hearings on the proposals have drawn mainly opponents, including scientists and health officials who say the change would throw out bedrock public-health studies that draw on confidential data on individual patients.

"I very much believe in both of those" as far as transparency and consideration of costs and benefits go, Wheeler said.

On the broader rule, "I think we can balance two competing public policy goals" for patient confidentiality and transparency, he said. "There's got to be a way of threading that needle," he said.

Crafting the final form of the rule on studies would happen after the period for public comment ends, Wheeler said. "I'm not positive what the final regulation" will look like, he added.

Wheeler pledged to work with all sides in a policy issue that bedeviled Pruitt  a dispute between corn growers and oil and gas refiners over how much corn-based ethanol that refineries have to blend with petroleum.Award-winning Darren Booker-Wilson joins Donnington Valley

ONE of Newburys top hotels has welcomed a new head chef to its kitchen.

Darren Booker-Wilson has been appointed to the role at Donnington Valley Hotel.

Until recently he headed up the kitchen of the popular Bartholomew Street gastro pub The Newbury, where he earned a string of awards for his culinary prowess.

He has also appeared on BBCs Great British Menu, serving as sous chef during the Olympic Banquet special in 2012.

Mr Booker-Wilson, whose accolades include winning Chef of the Year in the Berkshire and Buckinghamshire Life Food and Drink Awards 2017, credits his grandmother for inspiring him to become a chef.

He said:  The smell coming from her kitchen was incredible and her cakes were always amazing.

I love my job because no two days are the same and the atmosphere is really exciting.

It isnt the first time Mr Booker-Wilson has worked in the kitchen of the four-star hotel, as he was previously a chef there for seven years, from 1995 to 2002.

He admits that his fondness for the hotel runs deeper than professional nostalgia though.

He said: My wife and I actually met at Donnington Valley and later got married there, so it definitely has a special place in both of our hearts.

The new head chef has been hard at work redesigning the menus for the hotel, focussing more on creating dishes that can be enjoyed socially, such as sharing platters and carve-your-own Sunday roasts.

He said: Good, honest food brings people together and we definitely want to create an atmosphere and a menu that complements the social experience of eating out.

Ben Danielsen, who also recently became general manager at the hotel, said: Were really thrilled to have Darren on board with us.

Hes got lots of experience, ideas and a real passion for the hotel, so were excited to see what he comes up with.The Special Task Force of the Kolkata police arrested the two operatives from Uttar Pradesh with the help of the local police.

Musharoff Hussain alias Tejerul Islam alias Musa and Rubel Ahmed alias Monirul Islam, the two accused, are residents of Thakurgao village in Rangpur of Bangladesh. (Representational image)

Kolkata: In a major operation, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata police on Tuesday arrested two suspected Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives from Uttar Pradesh with the help of the local police. Musharoff Hussain alias Tejerul Islam alias Musa and Rubel Ahmed alias Monirul Islam, the two accused, are residents of Thakurgao village in Rangpur of Bangladesh.

Both have cases of terrorist activties and murder against them in their homeland.

They had plans of carrying out subversive activities on the eve of the Independence Day on August 15.

The investigators suspect they illegally entered India crossing the border in North 24 Parganas early this year to avoid the crackdown on the extremist outfits in the neighbouring country.

After entering India, the duo took shelter in Kolkata. According to STF sources, two other Bangladeshi nationals who entered India around that time and were arrested by the Amherst Street police revealed the arrival of Musharoff and Rubel to the police. Meanwhile Musharoff and Rubel fled from Kolkata, sources revealed. They took shelter at Surajpur in Greater Noida area.

The STF then contacted the anti terrorism squad (ATS) of the UP Police for assistance, sources disclosed. A four member team was despatched to the UP to chalk out a raid. In the morning a joint team caught Musharoff and Rubel from their hide-out. The UP ATS officials are now interrogating the arrested duo who will be brought later to Kolkata on a transit remand and will be produced at the court.

K09After last years successful return following a one-year hiatus, the 40-something SoNo Arts Festival is back again and organizers are promising an expanded celebration this time out.

Last year was a starting year and this year is a building year, event director Sue Brown Gordon said in a phone chat. There are going to be a lot of surprises, as well as things people have come to expect, like the Puppet Parade.

The two-day free festival, taking place Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 4-5, in South Norwalks historic district along Main and Washington streets, will feature an expanded number of artists, musicians and family activities with a local focus.

Were really bringing art back, said Brown Gordon, who has been involved at various points in the event over the years. Were making it much more about the art and the creativity we have in the area.

Besides local musicians on multiple stages and interactive childrens activities, there will be just over 120 fine arts and craft artists featured, along with performance artists, a live mural painting, scavenger hunt and other surprises, she said.

There will be a lot of visual stimulation that is new this year; a lot of things that will just pop up in the middle of the event that people wont be expecting that will draw a crowd, she said, not wanting to give away too many specifics. I just want people to look out for surprises.

Organizers also have been focused on improving the food and beverage court experience in the plaza at 50 Washington St. Weve really worked on that to make it a more desirable area to sit and relax, Brown Gordon said.

Acoustic and electric performances also will be ongoing throughout the event in the streets and on the main stage in the 50 Washington St. plaza. We are doing more to reach out to local bands and people who would benefit from having a showcase in their local fine arts festival, Brown Gordon said.

More Information South Norwalk historic area, Washington and Main streets. Saturday, Aug. 4, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, Aug. 5, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. www.sonoartsfest.com See More Collapse

Families also will have plenty of ways to express their artistic sides at this years event.

Were doing a lot of hands-on activities and more immersive activities for people to get excited about the arts, Brown Gordon said. Were partnering with the Maritime Aquarium this year to do more hands-on things for children and theyre helping to sponsor the Puppet Parade as well.

The popular Puppet Parade will step off Sunday at 2 p.m., with volunteers handling a number of creations of various shapes and sizes, decorated with ribbons, feathers and cloth pieces. Directed by Mary Hall and created by volunteers, the Puppet Parade culminates in an event open to the public to join as participant or spectator.

Were looking for people to come and march, Brown Gordon said, asking volunteers to arrive at 1 p.m. If theyre creative and they want to, theyre even invited to create their own puppet and bring it to march. Otherwise, we have plenty of puppets for people to come and grab and march in the parade.

pquinn@ctpost.comThe fruity, unique flavors and bright packaging of many seltzer and sparkling water brands have taken supermarkets by storm-;and many people say these bubbly beverages get them to drink more water every day.

But is this the same as drinking plain water?

We asked Mark Zeidel, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, to weigh in with some facts.

There are so many different brands of seltzer and sparkling water. What's the difference?

Dr. Zeidel: The main difference between seltzer and sparkling water comes down to where the carbonation comes from. If the carbonation is artificial, it's a seltzer or club soda that is regulated by the FDA like a soda. If the bubbles are naturally occurring, straight from the source, it's considered sparkling water, and regulated like bottled water.

Whether it's a seltzer or a sparkling water, it's important to read the nutrition label because many brands are not just carbonation and water. Avoid beverages with added flavorings, sugars and citric acid.

What about sparkling mineral water?

Dr. Zeidel: Just like plain mineral water, sparkling mineral water comes from an underground source and naturally contains minerals like calcium, sodium, magnesium or manganese. The amount of minerals can differ from drink to drink but these are natural and not added.

Because sodium is an electrolyte you lose through sweating, mineral water can help quicken hydration if you've lost a lot of fluids through exercise. Usually the amounts of minerals in the water are very low, and they will not really alter your salt or mineral balance. However, if you're watching your sodium intake, still water may be a better option because it doesn't contain any sodium.

Do these drinks hydrate you as much as regular water?

Dr. Zeidel: Yes, carbonated water will hydrate just as well as still water. Fruit-flavored sparkling water offers a no-calorie, no-sugar alternative to soda. Again, just watch for added sugar.

We've heard that sparkling water can be harmful to your teeth. Is this true?

Dr. Zeidel: The carbonation in sparkling water comes from carbon dioxide that is forced to dissolve using low temperatures and high pressure. This process creates carbonic acid, giving sparkling water an acidity level lower on the pH scale than normal tap water. This isn't nearly as acidic or corrosive as soda, but some flavors may be more corrosive than others. It depends on the acidity.

What do you recommend for people with sensitive stomachs?

Dr. Zeidel: Some people report bloating, burping, gas or stomach discomfort with sparkling water, so if you have sensitive digestion issues, you may do better with still water.

If you're at a restaurant, and the waiter asks if you want regular, mineral or sparkling, what do you choose?

Dr. Zeidel: It's personal preference. The water might be spring water, purified water or bubbly with carbonation. All are good choices for your overall health.An international team of researchers has identified more than 1,200 genetic variants that are associated with how much schooling a person completes and used the findings to create a polygenic score that is predictive of more than 11% of the variation in education level between individuals.

 hxdbzxy/Shutterstock.com

The meta-analysis, which is published in the journal Nature Genetics, included data for more than 1.1 million people of European descent from 15 countries and is one of the largest studies of human genetics to be carried out to date.

The authors say that although the polygenic score is by no means deterministic, it does shed new light on how genes can influence complex behaviors.

"It moves us in a clearer direction in understanding the genetic architecture of complex behavior traits like educational attainment," says co-first author Robbee Wedow from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

For the study, which was led by the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, Wedow and colleagues analysed information from 71 genetic datasets, as well as surveys assessing how many school years people (aged 30 or older) had completed.

The researchers identified 1,271 gene variants associated with educational attainment, including variants that are involved in inter-neuron communication and the secretion of neurotransmitters.

Wedow and team stress that single gene variants have little predictive value and that it would be misleading to characterize the results as identifying genes for education.

Taken together, the variants account for approximately 4% of the variation in the level of education individuals attain. However, when the researchers included the influence of the variants across the genome to create a polygenic score, that score could predict 11 to 13% of variation in the number of school years people completed.

That is a large effect for a polygenic score, especially for a behavioral outcome," Robbee Wedow, University of Colorado at Boulder

Wedow adds that, although the score is useful for research, it is by no means deterministic and that having a low score would not mean a person will not achieve a high level of education, since other factors such as socioeconomic status and ambition have a larger effect than genes.

However, it is useful for social and medical research looking at how the effects of genetic variants change across different environmental conditions. It could also help researchers gain insight into how educational attainment and associated outcomes are influenced by the interplay between genetics and environment.On Thursday, the 20th of July, the high-school life science laboratory in Ohlsbach, Germany received a FLUOstar Omega microplate reader donated by BMG LABTECH. The device enables the young scientists to expand their research capabilities. Application Specialists Andrea Krumm and Jendrik Marbach, representing BMG LABTECH, handed over the microplate reader to Tobias Stadelmann, high-school graduate of Marta-Schanzenbach-Gymnasium, from the student lab. The aim of the lab is to give young scholars of mathematics, computer science, life science and technology the possibility to work on their own research projects.

The initial contact between the company and the high-school lab was established at the Analytica exhibition 2018 in Munich. As things developed Andrea Krumm and Mario Schneider from BMG LABTECH visited the laboratory in nearby Ohlsbach. In return the students visited the microplate reader specialist in Ortenberg. Agreement was quickly reached in supporting the project with a plate reader.

Tobias Stadelmann is very delighted about the support of BMG LABTECH:

The BMG LABTECH plate reader allows us an efficient and professional evaluation of various biological experiments. It is a huge gain for our lab. Wed like to thank BMG LABTECH. With this donation, the company shows regional responsibility and commitment to training the next generation of scientist and to supporting the region Ortenau as a scientific location".

The young researchers already achieved remarkable results in different natural science competitions such as Jugend forscht and the BioValley Award which allows the participation of students from the regions North-West Switzerland, Alsace (France) and Southern Baden (Germany).

With this donation BMG LABTECH is investing in young scientists and shows regional social commitment.Merck , known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-048 trial investigating KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, for first-line treatment of recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), met a primary endpoint of overall survival (OS) as monotherapy in patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1 (Combined Proportion Score (CPS) 20). Based on an interim analysis conducted by the independent Data Monitoring Committee (DMC), treatment with KEYTRUDA monotherapy in these patients resulted in significantly longer OS compared to cetuximab in combination with platinum chemotherapy (cisplatin or carboplatin) plus 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU), the current standard of care for HNSCC in the first-line treatment setting. At the time of the interim analysis, the dual-primary endpoint of progression-free-survival (PFS) for patients whose tumors expressed PD-L1 (CPS20) had not been reached. The safety profile of KEYTRUDA in this trial was consistent with that observed in previously reported studies involving patients with HNSCC. These results will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting and submitted to regulatory authorities worldwide.

Based on the recommendation of the DMC, the trial will continue with no changes to evaluate KEYTRUDA monotherapy and KEYTRUDA in combination with platinum chemotherapy (cisplatin or carboplatin) plus 5-FU.

"This interim analysis of KEYNOTE-048 trial has shown that KEYTRUDA monotherapy has the potential to help patients with head and neck cancer whose tumors express high-levels of PD-L1," said Dr. Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development, chief medical officer, Merck Research Laboratories. "We look forward to presenting these initial results from the KEYNOTE-048 trial at an upcoming medical meeting, and are grateful to the investigators and patients for their continued involvement in this important study."Telehealth, the use of TV and computer monitors to deliver healthcare remotely, is proving to be a valuable addition to many practices. Recently, a commentary on the role of telehealth in disaster response, by Brendan Carr, MD, Associate Dean of Healthcare Delivery Innovation at Jefferson (Philadelphia University +Thomas Jefferson University), and Nicole Lurie, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine (JAMA Internal Medicine). The authors discuss the advantages of using telehealth during disasters and some of the barriers to widespread implementation.

Here, Dr. Carr provides a vision for what disaster relief could look like if telehealth were implemented and also discusses some of the barriers to implementation.

Q: How is telehealth used today?

While telehealth programs originally developed in rural areas, which often lack health facilities or specialists, it has grown to improve delivery of care in any medical setting, regardless of geography. Examples of telehealth now include emailing your doctor, video-chatting for follow-up visits or even urgent care, remote consultation with a specialist, and mental health screening and care. Though hands-on care cannot be replaced, telehealth provides options when a clinician cannot be physically present with a patient, or even when a visit is not required to get the right care.

The treatment of acute stroke patients is a well-known example of particularly valuable telehealth  emergency departments without stroke neurologists can arrange rapid virtual consultation in order to make decisions about clot busting drugs so that optimal treatment can be delivered as quickly as possible. Similar remote access to specialists has improved outcomes for patients in intensive care units, has been used to improve care of Zika patients in Puerto Rico, and provided mental health care to patients suffering from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have substantial telehealth portfolios and have both announced expansions to their current telehealth systems that will take place this year.

Q: How can telehealth improve disaster response?

During and after a disaster, local hospitals and clinics can become overwhelmed with a massive influx of patients. In these situations, telehealth can aid clinicians on the ground to facilitate more rapid evaluation, diagnosis, and communication with patients. With remote access to subspecialists, clinicians have ready access to information that will help them stabilize, triage, and effectively treat patients with highly acute conditions. Using their own personal devices (smartphone or computer), patients in need of less intensive and immediate care can directly access providers without traveling to an already crowded hospital. Easy access to care is especially important for averting long-term mental health issues, which are rarely addressed during disaster response. Telehealth can also aid in near real time provider-to-provider education of post-disaster medical problems, such as skin conditions and infectious disease. All of these efforts can save lives and improve health outcomes for patients and the community. Apart from direct benefits to patients and clinicians, telehealth can significantly lower disaster response costs because remote clinicians do not need to be transported, fed, or housed.

Q: What are the barriers to using telehealth during a disaster?

The biggest barriers to using telehealth during a disaster are administrative and reimbursement issues. While access to electricity and internet or cell service is a barrier to telehealth in many settings, during a disaster, specialized equipment with satellite connection and batteries can be used effectively to keep on-site clinicians connected to telehealth resources. (Though limited access to electricity and internet is a barrier to patient-initiated telehealth.) Administrative barriers such as patient confidentiality, data security, licensing of telehealth providers, and reimbursement from insurance companies and disaster funds cannot be addressed with technology alone and require a coordinated effort across key stakeholders. Ideally, information about disaster-related healthcare visits could be transmitted to the patient's regular healthcare team after the crisis in a smooth and secure manner.

Q: How can communities prepare for using telehealth in a disaster situation?

Few disaster response mechanisms work when if they are implemented for the first time during the crisis. It's important for communities to assess their local services that may be overwhelmed during a disaster and determine exactly how telehealth could aid those services. Bolstering or expanding technology resources with an eye to using telehealth will put valuable tools in place, but communities can also identify existing technology that can be used or repurposed for telehealth during a disaster. Most importantly, communities must work with health insurers, NGOs, and federal disaster relief agencies to figure out how telehealth services will be used during a disaster.Hindu Mahasabha to bid for Amina bldg in Aug auction.

Mumbai: Heavy police presence for the security of officers of the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (SAFEMA) officers and the working president of the Hindu Mahasabha, which will be bidding for one of the properties of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, marked the inspection of the fugitive gangsters south Mumbai property on Tuesday.

The team visited Masulla building, better known as Amina building (named after the gangsters mother) in Bhendi Bazar, ahead of the auction scheduled to take place in August. The Hindu Mahasabha working president Indira Tiwari inspected the dilapidated Amina building. We want to end this fear psychosis from the mind of the people by bidding for the building, she said. When asked if the inspection was interactive and if any locals were approached to understand how they are taking the auction, she said, The locals are cowards who chose not to have speak so far. Why should we speak to them?

The Hindu Mahasabha will be bidding for the structure, along with its umbrella bodies. The building will be pulled down to build a multi-storey, which will operate an old age home and shelter for homeless women, said Ms. Tiwari.

A similar auction of some other properties of the Dawood took place in November last year when the government re-auctioned those properties that could not be successfully auctioned in 2015, like his Pakmodia Street residence. Other properties that were put up for auction included a two-storey building, Shabnam Guest House at Yakub Street in Bhendi Bazar, Hotel Raunak Afroz and Dawoods childhood residence at Damarwala building, both of which are located on Pakmodia Street.

The three other properties, which figure in the advertisement, include a flat in Pearl Harbour CHS at Mazgaon, a 600 square metre plot at Paithan, Aurangabad and tenancy rights of a room at Dadriwala chawl on Maulana Shaukat Ali road. All six properties have a reserve price of Rs 26.36 lakh.Mumbai: From a series of huge, silent and disciplined marches to violent demonstrations, the protest by the Maratha community now is an antithesis of their efforts to seek reservations in jobs and education.

Representatives of the Maratha community attributed the stepping up of pressure by the community to the "arrogance and lies" told to its members by the BJP-led government, and the "uncontrolled anger" among its youth over the delay in getting reservations.

They said the protest would be carried out in a non-violent manner and asked the government to look for an out of court resolution to the issue till the Bombay High Court delivers its verdict in a related case.

The Marathas, who form around a third of the state's nearly 13 crore population, held over 50 'mook morchas' (silent marches) in 2016 and 2017 across Maharashtra pressing for reservation among other demands.

The state legislature in 2014 passed a bill to grant quota to the community. That law was stayed by the Bombay High Court. The present government had then approached the Supreme Court.

With no relief in sight in the apex court, the state government again approached the High Court, which asked it to form a backward commission and submit a report through it.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis recently told the state legislature that the Constitutional process was still on. Asked about the trigger for the latest acts of violence and suicides by protesters, Rajendra Kondhare, general secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Maratha Mahasangh, said members of the community were losing patience.

The Mahasangh was clueless about who were the people engaged in violence under the guise of the protest, he said.

"People are not ready to listen now. The anger now is beyond control. The layman won't understand that the court procedures take time. So, people and courts can't be blamed," he said.

Kondhare underscored a need to convene a meeting of all the political parties in the state immediately to resolve the issue.

"Opinions should be sought on what the government can do to resolve the issue immediately out of court," he said.

Sambhaji Brigade chief and state coordinator of Maratha Kranti Morcha Pravin Gaikwad charged the government with being arrogant and apathetic towards the demands of the community.

"Some community members staged protest in Parali (in Beed) recently. No government representatives went to them.

Then they announce of staging protest in Pandharpur on the day of Ashadhi Ekadashi," Gaikwad said.

"The chief minister chose not to perform the maha puja, saying there were inputs about possible disturbances.

Two of his ministers said the protesters had political patronage. All this led to the current protest," he said.

Both Kondhare and Gaikwad, however, maintained that the protest would be conducted in a peaceful manner.

Protesters attacked buses, stopped train services and blocked highways in parts of the state as part of their latest round of agitation, which has seen a youth commit suicide flinging himself in Godavari river in Aurangabad, while a demonstrator who consumed a poisonous substance in the same district died on Wednesday.Pakistani cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khans Tehreek-i-Insaf is all set to emerge as the single largest party, trends showed on Wednesday, as the party of his jailed chief rival, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rejected the count as blatantly rigged.

With just 42 percent of the total vote counted till around 5am, the Election Commission of Pakistan had Khan's PTI leading in 113 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was ahead in 66 constituencies, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by the son of assassinated two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, led in 39 constituencies.

An official at the Election Commission said early on Thursday that final results had been delayed by technical failures. As most of the political parties dismissed the results over alleged rigging, the delay gave further fuel to their charges.

Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan Sardar Raza Khan called a press conference at four in the morning to dispel the allegations. He said that the delay was purely technical in nature.

"There's no conspiracy, nor any pressure in delay of the results. The delay is being caused because the result transmission system has collapsed," secretary Babar Yaqoob told reporters.

Imran Khan's camp was increasingly confident of winning the election, although it still appeared likely to fall short of the 137 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly, raising the prospect it would need to find coalition partners among smaller parties and independents.

Khan's party spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, tweeted "Congratulations to the nation on a new Pakistan! Prime Minister Imran Khan", although his party has officially held off on declaring victory.

Wednesday's voting was marred by a suicide bombing that killed 31 people near a polling station in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

OPPONENTS CRY FOUL

PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif has outrightly rejected the election results and hinted his party would launch protests against the alleged rigging of polls. "Some five other parties including PPP have raised the rigging issue in polls. After consulting them, I will announce the future course of action. Pakistan has suffered today," he told journalists at a press conference at midnight.

"We will fight this injustice and use all options." Sharif termed it the dirtiest election in Pakistan's history. "This is a horrible situation which I have never seen in my 30-year political career. These were the dirtiest polls in Pakistan's history," he said.

PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb raised objections over the counting process and alleged that her party's agents were forced out from several polling stations. "The counting process is being carried out behind closed doors and changes are being made to Form-45," she told reporters.

According to Election Commision of Pakistan website, the first Form 45 is the Result of the Count' showing the number of valid votes for each contesting candidate and ballot papers excluded from the count.

Supporters of Imran Khan celebrate near his residence in Bani Gala in Islamabad on Wednesday.

PPP's Maula Bux Chandio also claimed that his party's agents were not allowed inside polling stations in Badin while Pak Sarzameen Party leader Raza Haroon made the same claim about the treatment meted out to their agents at different polling stations across Karachi.

Thursday's election results will mark only the second civilian transfer of power in Pakistan's 71-year history.

Campaigning too was plagued for months by allegations that the powerful armed forces have been trying to tilt the race in Khan's favour after falling out with the outgoing ruling party of Sharif, who was jailed on corruption charges this month.

The PML-N had sought to cast the election as a referendum on democracy, and has said it was campaigning to protect the "sanctity of the vote", a reference to a history of political interference by the military.

About 371,000 soldiers have been stationed at polling stations across the country, nearly five times the number deployed at the last election in 2013.

The PML-N and the PPP both said their monitors in many voting centres had not received the official notifications of the precinct's results, but instead got hand-written tallies that they could not verify.

'WE WILL TAKE ACTION'

Election official Yaqoob promised that all formal complaints would be investigated. "If there are certain polling stations where they have any complaints, we should be approached. We will take action," Yaqoob said.

But he said he had no knowledge of widespread problems. "We're getting complaints that on some polling stations where certain parties are losing, their polling agents are leaving without taking the verified results," he said.

Khan has staunchly denied allegations by PML-N that he is getting help from the military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history and still sets key security and foreign policy in the nuclear-armed nation. The army has also dismissed allegations of meddling in the election.

Pakistan's new government will face a mounting and urgent in-tray, from a brewing economic crisis to worsening relations with on-off ally the United States to deepening cross-country water shortages.

An anti-corruption crusader, Khan has promised an "Islamic welfare state" and cast his populist campaign as a battle to topple a predatory political elite hindering development in the impoverished mostly-Muslim nation of 208 million people, where the illiteracy rate hovers above 40 percent.

If Khan's lead holds, his party will likely be able to form a government with smaller parties and independents, avoiding the prospect of weeks of haggling.

Such a delay could further imperil Pakistan's economy, with a looming currency crisis expected to force the new government to turn to the IMF for Pakistan's second bailout since 2013. PTI has not ruled out seeking succour from China, Islamabad's closest ally.Pro-reservation outfits of Maratha community burn a vehicle after a clash with the police personnel during the funeral of Kakasaheb Shinde, who died yesterday during a protest march in favour of reservations, in Kaygaon village at Aurangabad on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (Image: PTI)Villagers are seen inside a temporary shelter with their belonging as they evacuate after the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed in Laos. (Image: Reuters)After an acrimonious campaign, polls opened in Pakistan on Wednesday to elect the country's third straight civilian government  a first for this majority Muslim nation that has been directly or indirectly ruled by its military for most of its 71-year history. (Image: AP)A man mourns the death of his family member at the site of a bombing in Quetta, Pakistan. (Image: AP)GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn moreIn minority colleges, a share of 20 per cent is reserved for the former students of institutions.

Approximately, 12,000 seats under the in-house quota are lying vacant in the city and suburban minority colleges.

MUMBAI: Students who are waiting for the third general merit list of the first year junior college (FYJC), which was supposed to be out on Thursday, now have to wait a little longer.

The state education department on Wednesday evening postponed the list after the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court allowed the minority colleges to surrender their in-house vacant seats to the general category.

Talking to this newspaper, deputy director of education, Mumbai region Rajendra Ahire said, As of now, no decision has been taken regarding the vacant minority seats.

However, the vacant seats under the in-house quota in the colleges will be asked to transfer to us (department), and in this way the number of seats in the general category for the open category students in the Centralised Admission Process (CAP) will increase and it will be better for the students who are looking for admissions.

Approximately, 12,000 seats under the in-house quota are lying vacant in the city and suburban minority colleges. In minority colleges, a share of 20 per cent is reserved for the former students of institutions.

Over 60,000 seats are lying vacant under minority quota while 7,000 seats in management quota. As of now, a decision has been made only for the in-house quota.



A fresh set of dates for the third general merit list and fourth merit list will be declared on Thursday on the official website of FYJC admissions. By the end of second general list, only a handful seats are remaining in top colleges in the city. For example, St. Xaviers College at Fort has no seats remaining in the Arts stream.CM Punk says more comics are in his future, and he already has a creator-owned offer on the table

The recently-returned wrestler talks about returning to comicsAthens : Forest fires raging across Greece have killed at least 20 people, the government said on Tuesday, as the authorities sought international assistance.

Government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos confirmed the death toll and said most of the victims were trapped in the seaside resort of Mati, 40km from here, and died either in their homes or their cars on Monday.

More than 104 were injured, 11 seriously, Tzanakopoulos said, with 16 children among the casualties, the BBC reported.

Hundreds of firefighters were battling the blazes as people left their homes behind near the capital. Authorities urged people in the path of the flames to get out while they can.

A spokesman for the EKAV emergency service told radio station 24/7 that the dead included a 15-year-old girl and at least 11 of the injured were listed in critical condition at hospitals in the Attica region.

Greece declared a state of emergency and appealed to its European Union partners for assistance in dealing with the fires, Efe news reported.

In eastern Attica, some people on a beach threatened by the flames dived into the water. The coast guards told EFE that while 15 people were rescued, eight Danish tourists were reported to be adrift on a boat.

A search and rescue operation is underway for them.

"We will do whatever is humanly possible to control it," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told reporters.

He cut short an official trip to Bosnia in order to help coordinate the response to the situation, which firefighters have described as "extremely difficult".

Dramatic video posted on social media showed damaged buildings, orange smoke-filled skies, and people fleeing the fires by car.

Citing police, ERT television said that some 300 residents of several villages in east Attica were trapped in their homes by the fires.

Tsipras assured that "all emergency forces have been mobilised" and declared a state of emergency in the Attica region around Athens.

The government also asked other European countries for helicopters and additional firefighters to help tackle the fires, the BBC said.

Earlier on Monday, residents of a coastal region near Athens were told to abandon their homes as the uncontrolled fires spread. Hundreds of children were also evacuated from holiday camps.

Countries including Italy, Germany, Poland and France have all sent help in the form of additional planes, vehicles and firefighters.

But with temperatures set to soar again, they are in a race against time to get the fires under control.Kathmandu : India on Wednesday announced that it is closing its camp office in Nepal's Biratnagar from August 1.

"All services, including issuing of motor vehicle permits, registration certificates for Indian nationals, attestation of documents and miscellaneous services (birth/death registrations) being rendered by the camp office, Biratnagar, will cease with effect from August 1, 2018," the Indian Embassy here said in a statement.

The camp office was established in 2008 to assist Nepali vehicles enter India after deadly floods in Kosi River damaged huge portion of the East-West Highway of Nepal.

After Nepal repaired the damaged portion of the highway, it urged the Indian side to draw down the field office, said Nepali officials.

During the visit of Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to India in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured him that New Delhi will wind up the field office in Biratnagar with immediate effect.

The Indian Embassy urged the service seekers to contact its office in Kathmandu for any services that were provided by the Biratnagar office.Venice : Indian fantasy film "Tumbbad" will open the Venice Film Festival's Critics' Week. It will be screened out of competition.

The section's artistic director, Giona Nazzaro, described the 19th-century-set "Tumbbad", co-directed by Rai Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad, as a fast-paced parable about greed and "a visionary fantasy film, rich in visual inventions, special effects and blood", reported variety.com.

The Hindi-language epic, produced by Mumbai-based Little Town Films, is sold internationally by Eros International.

The gala unveiled on Monday a line-up of nine first works by international filmmakers, all of them world premieres.

The films in the competition line-up include Sudanese director's Hajooj Kuka's "A Kasha" ("The Roundup"), a comedy of errors set during Sudan's civil war; German director Andreas Goldstein's "Adam and Evelyn" a coming-of-age story set in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Besides, Franco-Swiss directorial duo Alexia Walther and Maxime Matray's "Blonde Animals", a comedy involving the former star of a short-lived TV sitcom; and "Still Recording," a documentary on the conflict in Syria.

Also competing are Finnish pop star-turned-director Anna Eriksoon's "M", an experimental horror film; Italian director Letizia Lamartire's comedy "We'll Be Young and Beautiful" about a mother-and-son pop band; and Montenegrin Ivan Salatic's "You Have the Night", an economic crisis drama that the section calls "a hymn of human dignity and endurance".

Tunisian director Abdelhamid Bouchnaka's horror film, "Dachra" which tackles the conflict between tradition and modernity through the hope for a revolution that is not yet accomplished, will close the out-of-competition section.

The full official-selection lineup of the 75th Venice Film Festival will be announced on Wednesday. The festival runs from August 29 to September 8.Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionThe Mumbai bandh organisers, who had planned a peaceful protest, had to call it off around 2 pm after many violent incidents.

Maratha protesters burn a vehicle as they went on a vandalisation spree in Navi Mumbai in a face-off with the police, on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

Mumbai: Violent protests by Marathas broke out in Mumbai and its adjoining areas during a bandh on Wednesday over demands for reservation. Agitators broke vehicles, blocked highways and even stopped trains, disrupting normal life. The Mumbai bandh organisers, who had planned a peaceful protest, had to call it off around 2 pm after many violent incidents.

There were clashes between protesters and police at Kalamboli where the Mumbai-Pune highway was blocked. The mumbai-Goa highway was also blocked. A number of places witnessed pitched battles between the police and stone-pelters for hours. Protesters pelted stones at police, who resorted to firing in the air. Three policemen, including a superintendent of police, were injured in stone pelting.

Thane also witnessed violent protests and rail rokos. Incidents of stone pelting took place in Navi Mumbai, Kalyan, Dombivali. Thane and Palghar districts saw a complete shutdown of markets. In Thane, police had to lob tear gas shells to dispurse agitators. Around evening, the situation returned to normal.

There were several incidents of road blockades, stone pelting, tyre burning and vandalisation of public transport. People were forced to shut shops in Nalasopara, Ghatkopar, Chembur and other areas. Agitators at Tulinj Road, Nalasopara, beat up shopkeepers. Shops were forced to shut at Nalasopara, Lalbaug, Dadar, Matunga and Parel area.

Posters of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis were torn in parts of Thane. Southbound traffic on the Western Express Highway was blocked.

Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh claimed detention of 20 protesters, who were up to mischief. "We have registered offences and so far detained 20 persons. We have also identified some more persons who were involved in mischievous acts," Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh said. The police burst teargas shells to disperse a mob, which went on a rampage at Nitin Junction, he said.

The protesters also tried to bring Mumbai suburban trains to a halt in Thane, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Mankhurd stations. The Thane protest went on for almost 40 minutes. But, at other places, administration stepped in quickly and with the Railway Police's help cleared the routes. Protesters also stormed into Jagruti Nagar metro station but failed to arrest the metro.

Angry protesters tried to forcefully shut down shops in Dadar, Lalgaug, Parel, Wadala, Ghatkopar, Andheri and some other places. At the same time, some protesters were seen in Bandra and Dindoshi requesting shopkeepers to support the bandh by shutting their shops. In Kalyan Dombivali, where protests were relaxed, protesters later tried to effect a complete ban. The same happened in part of Kurla west also.

In Mumbai, at least 45 locations were affected. The protest also turned violent in Mankhurd. The police detained as many as 447 agitators on Wednesday. The Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai police were in the process of recording multiple cases of rioting and arson based on complaints received.Brics has been the most successful as an economic grouping.

Early into my tenure as Indias ambassador in Seoul in 2012, at a round table discussion on India-Korea ties, a participant representing a leading think tank asked: Ambassador, dont you think there is something amiss in Brics? He went on to remark that K (Korea) was missing, and that a more apt acronym would be Bricks!

The inaugural Bric summit (South Africa joined later in 2010, making it Brics) was held in Russia in June 2009, on the heels of the maiden G-20 summit in November 2008 in Washington, when the world was in the throes of a financial crisis, the likes of which were rarely seen since the 1929 Great Depression. I was fortunate to have a ringside view of both events as a member of Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs delegation.

As major economies saw their growth rates turn negative and iconic Western financial institutions went under, China and India among the Bric economies stood out like a beacon. In 2009, China and India registered GDP growth rates of 9.2 and 8.2 percentage points respectively. A short and succinct Bric joint statement noted: We stress the central role played by the G-20 summit in dealing with the financial crisis (para 1) and We are committed to advance the reform of international financial institutions, so as to reflect changes in the global economy (para 3). Bric had arrived, and a number of countries were contemplating joining it.

As the 10th Brics summit is being held in Johannesburg from July 25 to 27, it is appropriate to evaluate the groups balance sheet and its utility for India. According to Londons Financial Times (September 1, 2017), Brics has progressively realised its development agenda and made a significant contribution to the steady and consistent growth of the world economy. Expanding at a rapid clip, Brics now accounts for 23 per cent of global GDP and almost 50 per cent of the worlds population. In 2017, the nominal GDP of China, India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa (in trillions of dollars) was 11.94, 2.44, 2.1, 1.47 and 0.34 respectively. And therein lies Indias opportunity and challenge.

Brics has been the most successful as an economic grouping. Its biggest achievement is the establishment of the New Development Bank (NDB) in 2015, with a capital of $100 billion, of which $40 billion has been contributed or committed by China and $18 billion each by India, Brazil and Russia. It aims to finance infrastructure projects in member nations as well as fellow developing countries. The NDB is headquartered in Shanghai and has regional centres in South Africa and Brazil.

India has floated the idea of setting up a Brics Credit Rating Agency (BCRA) as it feels (as do many other nations) that Western agencies like Standard & Poors, Moodys and Fitch, that control 90 per cent of the segment, are biased against the developing countries. The proposal is expected to be discussed during the ongoing 10th summit. However, China in particular does not appear to be very keen about it, wondering aloud about the credibility of a credit rating agency led by governments. Since the financial world is still dominated by the Western players, there are legitimate concerns about the BCRAs ability to access critical financial data and commercial intelligence in real time.

Over the decade Brics has grown in ambition. Its leaders are also likely to discuss global hotspot issues, international peace and security matters, global governance, trade issues, etc, besides cooperation in areas like the Fourth Industrial Revolution, multilateralism, global governance, climate change, health and vaccines, peacekeeping, the network of science parks, and technology, infrastructure and collaboration in multilateral forums. Here the groupings role is evolving. Limitations are also imposed by the asymmetric capability, capacity, outlook and ambition of its member states.

The growing Chinese assertiveness, ambition and muscle is a reality that cant be overlooked, especially by New Delhi, which has fraught bilateral relations with Beijing, despite the May 2018 Wuhan summit. The Chinese economy is now five times that of Indias and the gap is increasing. Even to maintain the status quo, India needs to grow at 10 per cent and China at two per cent annually, which is inconceivable any time in the foreseeable future. Chinas money power and influence peddling is evident in South Asia and Africa, a continent with which India has traditionally enjoyed warm ties. Beijing is busy developing a blue-water navy for the first time in its history and setting up military bases around India in Pakistan (Gwadar) and Djibouti.

On issues of importance and concern to India like permanent membership of the UN Security Council and terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Brics (China and even Russia) has at best been paying lip service. Over 10 years the formulation of joint statements has more or less remained the same: China and Russia reiterate the importance they attach to the status and role of Brazil, India and South Africa in international affairs and support their aspiration to play a greater role in the UN (Xiamen summit 2017). For the first time, the Xiamen declaration express(ed) concern on the  violence caused by the Taliban, ISIL/Daesh, the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, TTP and Hizbut-Tahrir. Pakistan was not named. The impact, if any, is yet to be seen.

That said, while trilateral forums like RIC (Russia, India and China) and IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) have perhaps outlived their utility, Brics is steadily gaining in salience. India is rightly giving it due importance and has stayed fully engaged. However, New Delhi does need to guard against the inevitable Chinese attempts to hijack the Brics agenda. In time, there may be a good case for admitting tiger economies like South Korea and Indonesia to further expand the role, reach and standing of Brics.U.S. media decries Chinas censorship of a massive vaccine scandal, even while the U.S. media censors all the vaccine scandals covered up by the CDC

A vaccine scandal has broken out in China: Regulators say that multiple problems, including falsified records, were found at a large pharma company which produces a rabies vaccine. In the aftermath, Chinese censors were tasked with deleting articles and removing any and all postings about the scandal, erasing virtually any trace of public outcry about the issue. Fear over the safety of food and medicine in China has been on the rise, after a series of health scares struck communities across the nation. Chinese censors and regulators are struggling to maintain control of the narrative  and American news outlets have been quick to decry the information blackout taking place overseas.

But while the liberal media wags their fingers at the overt censorship taking place in China, they themselves are actively suppressing truth here in the U.S. Censorship in America may be more discrete, but if you think its not happening, youre sorely mistaken. In that vein, you might even say censorship in the U.S. is far more insidious: Government agencies have dropped the ball, especially when it comes to vaccines and vaccine research  but daring to blow the whistle on their misdeeds will earn you nothing but scorn.

In truth, the overall response to those who defy the narrative in the U.S. is the same as it is in China: Facebook will delete your post and maybe ban you from the site, as will Twitter and other left-wing social media sites. Google will bury your article beneath pages of propaganda and YouTube will erase your video or put a disclaimer next to it.

Ultimately, the media circus here in the U.S. is no better. Whistleblowers and truth-tellers who defy the chosen narrative are largely ignored by the mainstream media, and if youre controversial enough, you can count on being publicly eviscerated on social media too.

Vaccine scandal censorship strikes China

Chinas Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) announced that all production of the rabies vaccine would come to a grinding halt after investigations found multiple glaring issues at the nations second largest rabies vaccine company, Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology. A report describing the alleged corruption and unsavory practices of the vaccine industry spread across Chinese media site WeChat and Netizens even reposted the original essay.

Last year, Chansheng Biotech was in hot water, after the company sold at least 252,600 doses of substandard DPT vaccine to the eastern province of Shandong. The company is now guilty of fabricating inspection records and production records, among other ills. Quality control issues abound in China, which are driving up fears and trust issues among citizens.

Chinese censors have been working hard to delete posts about the vaccine scandal, no doubt. It turns out that the companys chairwoman has now been detained. As the latest company scandal unfolds, it will undoubtedly grow harder for the Chinese government to maintain control of the narrative. The government has already been struggling to keep things under wraps  and the American media has been quick to decry the governments acts of censorship. But are we really doing any better?



Censorship in the USA

The mass silencing of divergent thought is a growing problem here at home  and tech behemoths like Facebook are leading the charge. Beyond the censoring of conservative view points, matters of human health are also being suppressed. Health freedom is one of the biggest things under attack right now with vaccine mandates and other bureaucratic garbage policies being employed around the nation. Speaking out about the unjust and tyrannical nature of these policies is all that you need to do to get blacklisted by social networks and the mainstream media  never mind what will happen if you actually talk about the hidden dangers of vaccines, the number of children harmed by shots every year or provide real evidence which shows vaccines can and do have adverse effects.

Really, any inkling of defiance on the vaccine front will get you shamed by legacy media and their talking heads, labeled as an anti-science whack-a-doo and maybe ruin your reputation. The cost of truth is far too high these days  and fewer and fewer people are willing to pay that price.

The ever-expanding war against fake news has all but given tyrants like Facebook carte blanche to censor whatever information they like under the guise of protecting the public from fraudulent information. But what actually ends up happening is that these dictators simply suppress information they dont like or disagree with. As an example, Facebook has recently been accused of putting the kibosh on pro-life content, while allowing pro-abortion content to proliferate without issue.

The social media giant has also gone out of their way to target content on health and wellness with their fake news witch hunt.

Pinterest, another popular social media site, was recently called upon by vaccine propagandists to take action against anti-vaccine content on the network, after a study found that most vaccine-related content on the site was negative.

Recall when the entire Health Ranger channel was unceremoniously deleted by YouTube earlier this year? The message is clear: Censorship is already here  and its not just social media dictators leading the charge. Even the CDC has actively suppressed information that contradicted the pro-vaccine narrative. Whistleblower William Thompson, a former CDC scientist, came forward and admitted that the agency held a meeting to dispose of evidence that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. It doesnt get much worse than that. Censorship is happening across the board here in the U.S., theres no arguing that. So, it is the height of hypocrisy to point the proverbial finger at China for doing the exact same thing.

Learn more about whats really going on at Vaccines.news.

Sources for this article include:

Yahoo.com

LifeSiteNews.com

DailyMail.co.ukMost importantly, the polls must be seen as credible and the results accepted by all parties and state institutions.

Notwithstanding the controversies surrounding the run-up to the elections, the country is set to achieve a second consecutive democratic transition. They may be dirty but the votes still count.

If opinion polls are to be believed, the PTI seems to be ahead in the contest, but that could change at the last moment with the PML(N) running a close race. Whatever the result, one thing is almost certain: no party will be able to get an absolute majority to form the next government. The battle for Islamabad will not be decided at the polls alone, raising the stakes for the smaller parties. So most likely there will be another period of coalition rule for good or bad.

A major question, however, is whether the elections will bring much-needed political stability. Given the intense political polarisation in the country and the growing imbalance of power among various state institutions, the challenges for the newly-elected government will be daunting. The worsening economic situation and multiple external problems have made things more complex.

Most importantly, the polls must be seen as credible and the results accepted by all parties and state institutions. Widespread allegations of pre-poll political engineering have already led to misgivings. But any attempt to tinker with the poll results could bring into question the entire democratic process and cause further political instability. It will be extremely difficult for a government with doubtful legitimacy to deal with the internal and external challenges.

It will require a broad consensus among the major political forces to restore the credibility of the democratic process and strengthen the elected institutions. A credible democratic transition could open a window of opportunity for a national reconciliation. There is certainly a need for a new social contract to end the confrontation between various institutions of state that has been the major cause of political instability in the country.

Surely, the democratic process cannot be sustained with the existing imbalance of power. But the supremacy of elected institutions is also linked with the rule of law. One hopes the newly-elected lawmakers and government will learn from past mistakes that have allowed non-elected institutions to gain greater space. The politics of vendetta should come to an end after the elections and a broad agreement must be reached on key national issues. Surely, it is imperative to resolve the civil-military conflict, but it is also wrong to see all the issues in that binary.

It is evident that the economy will be the thorniest issue for the new government. Unfortunately, there has not been much focus on this most critical issue in the election campaign beyond rhetoric. It is alarming that foreign exchange reserves are falling and the current account deficit growing, and it seems that the new administration will have no other option but to seek an IMF bailout. That means tightening ones belt.

Terrorism and religious extremism are another serious problem that would require parliamentary consensus. True, the level of militant violence has come down significantly because of successful military operations in the tribal areas, but the recent attacks show that the terrorist threat is far from over. The growing activities of the militant Islamic State group must be a cause of serious concern.

Political opportunism and expediency have further emboldened radical elements as seen in the emergence of new, even more extremist groups that have been allowed to participate in the elections. Similarly, banned organisations now functioning under new banners seem to have been legitimised in violation of the law and the National Action Plan.

The arbitrary mainstreaming of some militant groups has provoked international criticism. At least three candidates belonging to a banned group are on the UN terror list. The issue has become serious with Pakistan having been placed on the FATF grey list. The concern is that unless it takes action, the country could be at risk of being blacklisted.

Such a situation could increase Pakistans international isolation compounding our economic woes. Can Pakistan afford this? More worrisome is that some political parties have a soft corner for these extremist groups and ignore the concerns of the international community including some of our closest allies. It is time our lawmakers realised the gravity of the situation.

External challenges also demand a clear policy direction with all the stakeholders on board. The fast-changing regional geopolitics has exacerbated Pakistans foreign policy predicament as well as opened a new window of opportunity.

Growing estrangement with the US, the ongoing war in Afghanistan, tensions with India and relations with China will be the major foreign policy issues the new government will have to deal with. Our alliance that emerged after 9/11 has come full circle. We need to have a clear stance on how to protect our interests, but a complete break from Washington is not an option.

Perhaps the biggest foreign policy challenge for the new government will be to figure out how to normalise relations with New Delhi and manage business with Beijing.

Pakistan finds itself in complex foreign policy circumstances and once the new government is sworn in, managing foreign relations will be one of its biggest challenges. For that, there is a need for a national consensus.

By arrangement with DawnOur House

By Louise Candlish

Berkley. 404 pp. $26

---

At the start of Louise Candlish's superb thriller "Our House," Fi Lawson, a 40-ish wife and mother, is returning to her comfortable home in South London when she is greeted by an alarming sight: Someone is moving into her house.

Movers are carrying furniture into the house where Fi (short for Fiona) has lived for a decade with her now-estranged husband and their two young sons. She hurries inside and confronts the woman she finds there. This is my house, Fi declares. No, the woman insists, my husband and I have bought it.

Real estate agents, lawyers and police are summoned. Finally the awful truth emerges: The couple has indeed bought the house from Fi's husband Bram (for Abraham) for 2 million pounds. They produce a sales document that features Fi's forged signature, along with that of Bram, whose whereabouts are unknown. Fi's beloved house is no longer hers. Where is she to go? What can she tell her sons? The rest of the novel explains how this disaster came to pass.

Fi is kind and loving. Bram is genial and a devoted father, but overly fond of booze, driving too fast and the temptations of the flesh. Some months earlier, Fi arrived home early and found him entwined with another woman in the playhouse he'd built for their sons in the backyard. She'd forgiven him once before; this time, she threw him out.

Bram blunders on. Driving too fast, he forces another car off the road, leaving its driver and her 10-year-old daughter seriously injured. Bram, whose license had been revoked for earlier speeding offenses, fled the scene. He faces at least 10 years in prison if he's found out.

Enter the villain, who calls himself Mike. He saw the accident and learned who Bram is and what punishment he faces. He demands money from Bram, who protests that he has none. Mike reminds him that he owns (co-owns, actually) a house worth 2 million pounds. He gives Bram a choice: sell the house and hand over the money or go to prison.

Questions abound. Can Bram, having concluded that murdering the blackmailer isn't an option, find a legal way to save the house? Might he and Fi reconcile? Will good-hearted Fi figure out that the charming fellow she's begun dating is a rotter? She's aided in her struggles by her friends in the neighborhood, including one who confesses an affair with Bram. Another tells her: "He's a type, Fi. A bad boy. However hard he tries he can never be fully rehabilitated."

Fi looks back at their courtship: "When we got married I thought I'd done the impossible, settled down with a man who was never going to settle down - until he met me, of course."

For his part, Bram says: "Why did I cheat on the woman I love? The best way that I can explain it was not an addiction or even an itch, but more like the memory of hunger after years of good eating."

Candlish skillfully portrays Fi's friendships with other wives in her South London neighborhood, where the author herself lives with her husband and daughter. The friends discuss the challenges of motherhood, as well as of marriage. Over gin and tonics one evening, one friend admits, "If I had my way, children would stay in primary school forever, and it would never occur to them that we're not always right about absolutely everything."

When Fi starts dating, a friend advises her: "'Hard to get' doesn't exist as a concept anymore. Everyone is easy to get." Fi is neither hard to get nor quick to realize she's being taken for a ride. Few male writers could have captured these women as shrewdly and affectionately as Candlish has.

Candlish has said that "Our House," which deserves to be called a literary thriller, was inspired by a case of property fraud she read about in a London newspaper. We read on, wondering if Fi's house can be saved, if Bram is destined for prison or if a happy ending might somehow emerge. In fact, the ending Candlish has devised is devastating.

Candlish has published 11 previous novels in England, including "The Swimming Pool," "The Second Husband" and "Other People's Secrets," but this is her first to appear in this country. Perhaps its excellence will move an American editor to bring out others. I'd like to read them all.

---

Anderson reviews thrillers and mysteries regularly for The Washington Post.BROOKFIELD  Loud barks filled Town Hall Wednesday morning as dogs tugged at their leashes, eager to scamper up to each other.

A handful of dog owners and Brookfield officials gathered Wednesday morning to crown the winner of the Top Dog contest, an annual competition where residents pick their favorite pup in town.

Its been fun and exciting, Town Clerk Andrea DiStephan said. Lots of people have been stopping in the office to say, I cant pick one.

Longtime Town Clerk Joan Locke started the contest years ago as a way to encourage owners to renew dog licenses. But Locke retired last summer, so this was DiStephans first year running the competition.

DiStephan never got to work with Locke, but said they share a passion for dogs.

Im sure she would have loved it this year, DiStephan said.

DiStephan took voting online for the first time, which helped attract more community members and dogs to the competition, with residents sharing the poll on social media. A record-breaking 150 dogs participated, with more than 2,000 votes cast online and in-person at Town Hall.

An 8-year-old terrier mix named Riley won this year.

Owner Lori Peck said she entered Riley every year, but the dog had never come close to winning. But friends and family, especially her mother, helped garner support online, earning the dog 164 votes.

The online voting definitely made a difference, said Peck, who also came to Town Hall with her two daughters and their 1-year-old golden retriever, Mason.

Many residents included messages about their dogs when they signed up. One resident with diabetes told the story of how his dog saved his life, DiStephan said.

We got to know their dogs, she said.

First Selectman Steve Dunn joked that I didnt enter my dog because I thought there would be nepotism charges.

Several Brookfield businesses, including Paw Print, Magic Touch, Waggin Train and Brookfield Animal Hospital, donated gift certificates and other prizes for the winning dogs.

But the competition also serves the purpose of pushing residents to renew the licenses for their dogs. The state requires dogs to be licensed to ensure they are up-to-date on their rabies vaccine, DiStephan said.

Still, DiStephan said the competition was a nice break from the frenzy of recovery efforts after Mays storm.

Especially after the storm, its nice to have something fun and lighthearted, she said.DANBURY  Local foresters are examining dozens of potentially dangerous trees across Danbury after a massive tree fell and killed a 45-year-old man Tuesday along Padanaram Road.

The citys forestry division has identified 46 trees along city roads this summer that could pose a risk and need to be removed, Public Works Director Antonio Iadarola said Wednesday morning.

Crews are in the process of removing those trees this week, in addition to 40 others that were taken down shortly after severe thunderstorms rolled through the area in May causing a macroburst and a tornado that toppled hundreds of trees, damaged dozens of homes and killed two, he added.

But officials are still trying to determine who has responsibility for the large tree  which was at least 3 feet in diameter  that fell on a pickup truck on Padanaram Road around 9 a.m. Tuesday killing the passenger, Walter Cardenas Salinas.

Padanaram is owned by the state of Connecticut and doesnt fall under the citys responsibility, Iadarola stressed.

Kevin Nursick, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said state officials are aware of the accident and investigating whether the tree was on the states right of way or if it was located on private property.

We have to have the area surveyed to know for sure, Nursick said.

He added that area supervisors for the department are responsible for assessing roadways in their section for any safety concerns that might arise. But when the area surrounding Panadaram Road was last assessed by state officials wasnt immediately available Tuesday.

The crash shut down the road for most of Tuesday after bringing down power lines and a brief fire.

Edgar Nugra, who was identified by police as the driver of the 2014 Dodge Ram, said he saw the tree falling but didnt have time to react before it slammed into the truck. Nugra received minor injuries while Salinas was declared dead at the scene.

Matt Bartelme, the owner of Danbury-based Barts Tree Service, said two people told him after the accident they saw the tree prior to the crash and that it had already been compromised and leaning against another tree in the area.

If the tree had been partially uprooted, he said, saturation from the more than 3 inches of rain the city received in the past week or so alone could have impacted the strength of the tree and contributed to it falling.

But Scott Clifford, who lives in the neighborhood, said it was only a matter of time before the tree fell. Several trees on the western edge of the road, which sit near the bank of the Padanaram Brook, have been undermined and are leaning over the roadway, he said.

That area has very unstable soil thats been eroding and eventually all those trees are going to fall, he said.

Erosion near the brook was a concern raised by residents when Cotswald of Danbury, a local developer, had proposed building 37 single family units on property it owns near the brook that runs along Padanaram Road.

While the project was approved three years ago, the homes have yet to be built. An official with the citys assessors office said Tuesday that it appears the property near where the tree was located is owned by Costwald.

The developer had originally proposed giving the city the 6-acre parcel as open space, the official said, but land records indicate that a transfer has yet to take place.

Barteleme said it will likely be another six months or more before all the trees and branches impacted by the May storm have been addressed.

dperrefort@newstimes.comCongressional investigators want to know whether Rep. Thomas Garrett, R-Va., asked staff members to do personal errands for him or his family and whether his use of alcohol interfered with his official duties, according to letters to former staff members.

The questions are at the heart of confidential investigations by the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics of Garrett, a first-term congressman representing Charlottesville, Virginia, inquiries sent in the past week show.

Garrett has not had a drink in the nearly two months since he announced his struggle with alcoholism and that he would not seek reelection, Bill Janis, his newly hired chief of staff, said Tuesday. He said Garrett has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

"Precisely because he was in the public eye and running for public office, he couldn't admit he was an alcoholic and seek help," Janis said. "He's firing on a lot more cylinders now that he's clean and sober."

Garrett hired Janis after a hectic period in his office earlier this year, when he dismissed his former chief of staff and tried to fend off allegations in a Politico article from unnamed staff members who accused the congressman of mistreating them.

Investigators from the House Ethics Committee have reached out to former staff members to determine whether Garrett violated House rules or laws by asking taxpayer-funded employees to perform personal tasks and whether his drinking or use of other substances interfered with his official duties, according to a letter the committee sent to a former staff member.

"I know of no scenario where he was drinking on the job," said one former staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential investigation.

The work of the committee, which will meet behind closed doors Wednesday, is complicated by the fact that members are about to leave for their August break. When they return, many will be preoccupied with reelection campaigns, leaving little time to complete an investigation before Garrett leaves office in December. The committee can investigate only sitting members of Congress.

The Office of Congressional Ethics asked for documents related to financial disbursements or reimbursements involving Garrett's family and written communications related to the firing of Garrett's former chief of staff, according to a letter the nonpartisan office sent to a former staff member that was obtained by The Washington Post.

Spokespeople for the House Ethics Committee and the Office of Congressional Ethics declined to comment.

Garrett denied any wrongdoing, including allegations that employees were asked to fetch groceries and clothes and provide rides for his daughters, as first reported by Politico.

"Congressman Garrett has broken no law and has consistently comported himself in an ethical manner," according to a statement from his office.

"Now, confidential inquiries have been made public by those not satisfied with the outcome of previous smear attempts. When Garrett is cleared of any legal wrongdoing, we wonder whether the D.C. character assassins will be in such a hurry to run a story. We are doubtful," the statement says.

Garrett has maintained a busy schedule in the past two months.

Days after announcing that he would not seek reelection, via a video on his Facebook page, he attended a GOP meeting in Nelson County , Virginia, convened to choose the candidateto replace him on the ballot, Denver Riggleman. Riggleman is considered the front-runner against Democrat Leslie Cockburn, a former journalist.

Garrett, an Army veteran and former commonwealth's attorney with a libertarian streak, has continued to vote in the House and attend meetings of his committees: foreign affairs, homeland security, and education and the workforce.

This month, he introduced a resolution condemning the hostile actions taken by the Lao People's Democratic Republic against the Hmong ChaoFa indigenous people, who served as U.S. allies during the Vietnam War.

He also introduced a bill that would require federal agencies to give surplus computers and technology equipment to a nonprofit organization for repair and distribution to veterans, students and others in need.

He spoke in Las Vegas at Freedom Fest, which calls itself the world's largest gathering of free minds, and received the Freedom Fighter Award from FreedomWorks, a conservative group that helped start the tea party movement.

"I never drank at work," he said in a video series posted on Facebook called, "The Swamp. "I've never been drunk on the floor, I've never been drunk in a courtroom, I've never been drunk in the Virginia state Senate chamber. Maybe I could drink 20 times and have no problems, but the 21st, who knows. It was a math game."

He added: "As far as politics, man, we're getting divorced, and I hope she never calls."

A friend, state Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, called the investigations an unnecessary attack on a lawmaker who didn't walk in lockstep with leadership.

"What does this say about someone who goes in there and follows the rules but tries to be his own man?" he said. "I think he's too good for this."Indias 2018 bill against fugitive economic offenders is, however, a good step that might deter businessmen in future from loot and scoot.

Economic fugitives involved in bank frauds in the name of trading in diamonds are running rings around the country, virtually mocking Indias diplomatic heft in bringing them to justice. The revelation that Mehul Choksi has bought an Antiguan passport that gives him access to several countries is yet another blow to Indias efforts to nab criminal businessmen on the run. In well-planned manoeuvres, the diamantaires have placed themselves beyond the reach of Indian law. It might be a laborious process to try and apprise a small Caribbean nation like Antigua of the wrongs done by businessmen who have taken money from nationalised banks by questionable methods, like corrupting bankers into adventurous or even outright fraudulent lending. The surprising lack of controls that enabled a $2 billion fraud in using banks funds to trade was the most shocking part of this particular episode.

Indias 2018 bill against fugitive economic offenders is, however, a good step that might deter businessmen in future from loot and scoot. The attaching of all the properties of declared fugitives may be bearing results if its true Vijay Mallya is tempted to return to protect his assets that may be greater than the loans taken. The defrauders always seem to be a step ahead of the law, but by attaching properties and shares it may be possible to make some recoveries. India must be seen to be proactive in bringing the likes of Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to book. Only by diplomatic pressure at the highest levels can we hope to resolve the cases of prominent economic fugitives with the clout to loot, scoot and stay put abroad.There is an analysis on Youtube of how the need for oil for Germans Panzer tanks, Luftwaffe planes and industrial war production shaped WW2. There was also a 2011 US Air Force Command paper by Major Shawn P. Keller called Turning Point (A History of German Petroleium in WW2 and its Lessons for the Role of Oil in Modern Air Warfare.)

It has been well known that the German and Japanese economies need for more oil which were significant factors in the initiation of their war efforts.

Germany needed oil to sustain their war effort and the Soviets had the most oil in the Eurasian area at the time. Germany would have run out of oil in months if they did not attack the Soviets in 1941. There has been other research which indicated that Stalin was planning to attack Germany in 1942. This is likely the reason that the Soviet troops were poorly positioned for defense by being too near the border where they were overrun and destroyed.

In 1938, Germanys was using 44 million barrels of oil per year. Great Britain was using 76 million barrels, Russia was using 183 million barrels, and one billion barrels used by the United States.

Germany had 15 million barrels at the start of the war. They added 5 million barrels when they defeated Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France. They imported from 4 million barrels in 1940 and 1.6 million barrels in 1941 from the Soviets. In May 1941, Germanys monthly military requirements were 7.25 million barrels and imports and home production of 5.35 million barrels per month. German would run out of oil in August 1941. The 26 percent shortfall would be captured from Russia. Germany attacked for the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus mountains, Ukrainian grain and Donets coal in June 1941.

The Russian Maikop and Grozny oil fields were each producing approximately 18.3 million barrels of oil annually. The Baku oilfield was capable of churning out a staggering 176 million barrels per year. This oil would have provided a permanent solution to the German oil crisis. It would also be a deathblow to Soviet war production and allow Germany to continue the fight against its growing list of adversaries, which now included the United States.

Stalingrad was a key to getting and holding the Russian oil. Germany captured 90% of the city. Most of the German casualties were from fighting outside Stalingrad. Germany misallocated reinforcements. Giving only 100,000 reinforcements to armies in the Stalingrad and Caucasus area out of 500,000 that were available.

Germany had to take and keep Stalingrad and the oil and the farms to have a chance. The USA would still likely have won in the end but a Germany that beat the Soviets would have been a far tougher opponent. US would have had to build up an army several times the size that they did.

Fords cars and Standard Oil monopoly and technical innovation

How did the US end up having 70% of the worlds oil production during WW2? why was it such an industrial powerhouse?

A large part of the reason was Henry Ford and John Rockefeller.

There were other competitors to both Henry Ford and Rockefeller, but I think it is reasonable to think that the innovation and aggressive business leadership of those two increased US manufacturing and oil production by 2 or 3 times.

Henry Fords creation of mass production factories and production of cars created increased demand for oil. In 1908 Henry Fords mass-produced automobile started a demand for gasoline and initiated an oil boom.

John D Rockefeller and Standard Oil were a significant part of accelerating the US to become the dominant oil producer by the start of WW2. The US was producing 70% of the Worlds oil.

Hermann Frasch was born in Germany in late 1851, emigrated to the United States in 1868. He worked for Standard Oil. He developed key techniques to remove sulfur from oil and early methods of what would become fractional distillation.

Frasch bought Ontario oil at a cheap price. The rights were inexpensive because the high sulfur content led to product failures and expensive lawsuits. Frasch solved the problem in 1885-1888. He proposed an array of metal oxides to absorb the sulfur and precipitate it from the refined oil. Standard Oil purchased Fraschs Empire Oil and his patents. Frasch help solved Standard Oils high-sulfur Lima problem.

Around 1912, using traditional methods, petroleum refiners had trouble extracting enough gasoline to meet the rising demand from cars. A new process for obtaining a much higher fraction of gasoline from a barrel of crude oil  thermal cracking  was invented around 1909 by William Burton, Fraschs former assistant and in 1909 head of production at Standard Oil Company of Indiana.

Faster Planes and fuel for the Luftwaffe

A breakthrough in gasoline technology occurred in the United States in 1935. It was technically possible to produce aviation gas of up to 100 octane instead of 75-80. By 1939, both the U.S. Army Air Corps and the RAF were using this higher-octane gasoline, allowing them to develop more powerful engines such as the Rolls Royce Merlin. The net result was that U.S. and British aircraft were now able to fly 15 percent faster, increased their long-range bomber distance by 1,500 miles, and lifted altitude ceilings by 10,000 feet.

In the first half of 1941 prior to the German invasion of the Soviets, the Luftwaffe used an estimated 148 million gallons of aviation fuel. From June through December that amount more than doubled to 307 million, just slightly less than the 309 million gallons of fuel used by the Luftwaffe for the entire year in 1940.40 Total German production of aviation fuel in 1941 was only 326 million gallonsa significant deficit in light of the 456 million gallons used for the year. Luftwaffe fuel reserves fell dramatically from 219 million gallons in January 1941 down to 91 million by December.

I will follow this up with an analysis of how energy and technology matter and shape current and future planning and world power.NEW ORLEANS - For Nina Compton, who grew up in St. Lucia as the daughter of its prime minister, the idea was to graduate from her boarding school in England and then attend university there. She would study agriculture, because farming is big business back home. But, she said, after scouting some programs, she ultimately decided: "I didn't want to be mucking around with cows." She preferred the kitchen. Specifically, she preferred breakfast.

"In the Caribbean, we have a big breakfast," she recalled. "Our house was fun and festive in the morning. Dad was making fresh juices, and we would sit at the table and talk about our day, what we would do." Skipping college, she got a three-month tryout cooking at the Sandals Resort in St. Lucia before requesting a transfer to its flagship in Jamaica. The flavors she discovered there ignited her culinary path. "St. Lucia has French and British influences," Compton said. "Jamaica has Portuguese, African, Indian, Chinese." They also ate ackees and saltfish for breakfast. She tasted the combination of fruit and fish and fell in love.

"I went back to St. Lucia, where we have a huge ackee tree in our backyard, to find them all on the ground, and said, 'What are we doing?' Wasting these creamy, luscious bites. I never appreciated them because they're not in our culture. But now, when I go home, my mom cooks them with saltfish, and everyone comes. It's my feast. My homecoming."

There has been much to celebrate. After shooting "Top Chef" in New Orleans in 2013 - she lost to Nicholas Elmi but was voted Fan Favorite - she decided she liked New Orleans enough to stay. In 2015, with her husband, Larry Miller, she opened Compere Lapin, serving a personalized mash-up of Caribbean-accented New Orleans cooking that encompasses the French and Italian influences of her earlier career. In 2017, Food & Wine Magazine named her a Best New Chef, and this year she won the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the South. Last March, with Levi Raines, she opened her second restaurant here, Bywater American Bistro.

I met Compton there recently to talk about her success. At 39, she is naturally warm and free with hugs, yet her poise and focus on the task at hand announce a presence to be reckoned with. When she glides, silently, through the kitchen, the staff parts, like the Red Sea. Miller, a native of Atlanta, runs the dining room with expert charm, but no matter where he is, he seems always to keep a third eye trained on Compton, whom he clearly adores.

How she got here is quite a story. Her childhood in St. Lucia was a privileged one: riding horses, sailing, traveling to Europe. That she chose a life in the kitchen seems due to her maternal grandmother, Phyllis Clark, a white Englishwoman who was a nurse in Scotland during World War II when she met her future husband, a native St. Lucian. "She is a tough cookie," Compton said, and then shook her head. "Well, she was." Clark died in 2017, at 95. "There were no roads then, limited power. Having a stove was unheard of; they cooked over coal. But she kept her British ways, had afternoon tea every day. We lived in Soufriere, the most beautiful part of the island, which was framed by two mountains. She hated it. She would say, 'I felt I was trapped between them and couldn't leave.' I was the fourth of five children, and my parents traveled a lot, so my grandmother was the one keeping us in line."

Clark's insistence on the kitchen as the center of their home made its impression. "But I was young, I also wanted to travel," Compton said. "I wanted to experience more." That is when she spent two years in Jamaica. "Cooking there opened my eyes," she said. "I thought to give a dish taste I had to add butter or pork." A breakfast in Negril was a turning point. "It was at a roadside shack, and this Rastafarian with dreadlocks to his ankles offered me a coconut porridge. I said, 'That looks terrible.' But it was creamy and sweet with ginger, nutmeg, caramelized plantains. All vegan, and those flavors were so enticing."

She enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, graduating in 2001. She then apprenticed for chef Daniel Boulud at Restaurant Daniel in New York. "I looked for the best when I left St. Lucia," she said. "I wanted that in my repertoire."

One day, she recalled, Thomas Keller came in for lunch. "Everyone started freaking out. There were cameras in the kitchen; we could see him. Daniel came in and asked, 'What did he order?' Lobster salad. I'm on garde manger, the cold food. He comes to my station and first throws my coffee cup into the trash. I am petrified. He's maybe 5-6, but his voice went right through you. He saw my mise en place and said, 'What is this?' The lobsters were thrown around and he took paper towels and wrapped each one nicely. 'You have respect for ingredients, they'll respect you back,' he said. Then he asked me, 'Can you select the nicest mussel?' I'm thinking for Thomas Keller, big is better, so I picked the biggest. 'No,' Daniel said, 'the medium one is sweeter and more tender.' He made that dish in a frenzy, the kitchen was on pins and needles. When he was done, he pointed to my station and said, 'This is how it should look. Every single time.' " She sighed. "But he could be angelic in the kitchen, too. When he cooked in his long white apron and pressed shirts, it was very thoughtful, the way he did it."

The experience left its mark. "I would wake up at 4 every morning anxious about making a mistake," she said.

She moved to Miami, where she stayed for 14 years, cooking first for the chef Norman Van Aken, whose sophisticated take on island ingredients such as conch and yucca inspired her. She then cooked at a private club in the Versace mansion, where she met Miller, and eventually landed at Scott Conant's Scarpetta. "He once asked me, 'Do you know the biggest mistake with Italian food? Too many ingredients. There should be very few, but they have to be the best, so there is no hiding.' I learned a lot of restraint cooking Italian. I started to appreciate ingredients, letting them shine."

When she and Miller opened Compere Lapin here, they encountered a labor shortage. "I had no team behind me," she recalled. "I thought, 'There are tons of restaurants, we'll be fine.' " Desperate, she called a chef friend in Miami who recommended Raines, who was 24. "He drove out that weekend," she said. "We never met; it was all on blind faith. I watched him cook, the way he thought about things. It was way beyond anything I'd seen." Eventually, Raines grew restless, and Compton and Miller opened Bywater to make him chef and a partner. Raines shares Compton's gift of turning disparate ingredients into something unexpectedly delicious. While she and I talked, he brought over tuna sushi dressed with Bloody Mary salsa. As, it turns out, it always should be.

"When I moved here, I was petrified," Compton said. "The city is so rooted in culinary history, but my food is a mix: Jamaica, New York, Miami, then New Orleans, where I can now leave my little footprint. When we opened Compere Lapin, I wanted to put goat on the menu. I could have just done it with curry and white rice, but I wanted to show more technique." She brined, braised and shredded the goat, cooked it in a cashew and coconut curry and served it with sweet potato gnocchi. "I wasn't sure it would sell," she said. "We bought one goat a week. We serve 300 pounds a week now."

We headed into the kitchen, and I realized that Compton, like Boulud, wore a pressed white shirt and long white apron (in her case, over skinny jeans and striped canvas flats). As she started on the ackee and saltfish, she filled the pan with onions, peppers and garlic, and the steam was fragrant. Has she thought about putting it on the menu? "I don't know if people would get it," she said, hesitantly. "I try to bring people into my world, but I also try not to push it too much. Maybe one day."

She filled a plate. The saltfish was firm, only slightly salty, like smoked whitefish. The ackee, which is in the same family as litchi, didn't taste as sweet as litchi. The canned version might be blander than the fresh, although it's also safer; if ackees are improperly harvested, Compton noted, they can make you sick. She had also made bakes, a traditional accompaniment that are essentially fried biscuits. Compton said you can make regular biscuits instead, or toast. I craved rice. I didn't want to waste a drop.

Miller appeared stoveside and inhaled. Doesn't he think this should be on the menu? He nodded. "It's everything," he said. "It's delicious, it's family, and it's her."

- - -

Witchel is a former staff writer for the New York Times Magazine and the author of "All Gone: A Memoir of My Mother's Dementia."

- - -

Ackee and Saltfish With Warm Bakes

6 to 8 servings

This dish represents a fairly simple and satisfying taste of home for folks from the Caribbean - including New Orleans chef Nina Compton, who loves the combination of fruit and fish for breakfast.

"Bakes" is a term used for the rolls of fried dough that often accompany this dish. They are surprisingly easy to do.

You'll need a thermometer for monitoring the temperature of the frying oil.

Canned ackee, a tropical fruit, is available online via Amazon.com.

MAKE AHEAD: The saltfish needs to be cooked and drained a total of 3 times, which will take a little more than an hour to complete; this can be done in advance. The dough for the bakes needs to rest twice, for a total of 45 minutes.

From Compton, of Compere Lapin in New Orleans.

Ingredients

For the ackee and saltfish

1 pound dried salt cod

2 tablespoons canola oil

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 each red and green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into very thin strips (julienne)

1 Scotch bonnet or habanero pepper, seeded and minced (if you like it less spicy, use half)

2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves

Kosher salt

2 large tomatoes, cored and chopped (about 4 cups)

2 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced

Freshly ground black pepper

One 19-ounce can ackee, rinsed and drained (see headnote)

For the bakes

3 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

Pinch kosher salt

1/4 cup sugar

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup water, or as needed

6 to 8 cups canola oil, for frying

Steps

For the ackee and saltfish: Place the dried cod in a large saucepan and cover by 2 inches with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20 minutes. Drain the fish, return it to saucepan and repeat the process two more times. Transfer the drained cod to a bowl, then use a fork to break it up into large chunks.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the garlic, onion, all the peppers, thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt; cook for about 5 minutes, stirring, until soft. Add the tomatoes; cook for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the drained cod and scallions; cook for a minute or two to warm through.

Add the ackee, stirring gently so it and the fish remain in large pieces. Cook for 5 minutes to warm it through. Taste, and season with salt and pepper as needed. Turn off the heat; cover to keep warm.

For the bakes: Use a fork to whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Use the fork or your clean fingers hands to rub the butter into flour mixture to form a coarse meal.

Add enough of the water to make a firm dough but not stiff; the dough should be easy to roll. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle, to a thickness of about 1/2-inch. Use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to create portions (using all the dough) or divide the dough into 3-ounce balls, then press them into little patties. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.

Just before serving, line a baking sheet with paper towels. Heat the oil in a pot or small roasting pan (that can handle stovetop cooking) to 325 degrees. Add the bakes without crowding the pan and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Transfer to the baking sheet to drain.

Cut a little pocket in each bake, and fill with the ackee-saltfish mixture. Serve warm.

Ingredients are too variable for a meaningful analysis.NEW HAVEN  Ahead of the Democratic primary, Susan Bysiewicz, the endorsed Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, talked tolls, job growth, infrastructure and more with people living at the Tower One/Tower East senior living facility.

During the visit Tuesday, Bysiewicz discussed her campaign and vision for Connecticut. Her priorities include creating a fair, balanced state budget; investing in infrastructure, which includes supporting the transportation lock box that secures money for the state Special Transportation Fund; helping small businesses; and keeping young people in the state with well-paying jobs.

Bysiewicz has been on the campaign trail with Democratic endorsed candidate for governor, Ned Lamont, who she teamed up with before the Democratic Convention in May. She is running against Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, a union organizer who, if she won, would the first Latina to be lieutenant governor.

For Bysiewicz, infrastructure and transportation was a major talking point. She told the crows that investing in the many projects across the state would create jobs and help the state, in addition to helping businesses already here and those interested in coming.

Fielding a question from a resident on tolls, Bysiewicz said she would only support them if the lock box were passed, because otherwise they are just another tax that can go to any purpose, other than infrastructure. She said she and Lamont are interested in mirroring Rhode Islands system of tolls for commercial trucks, which would bring in millions in revenue.

A third of traffic that comes through our state is not from our state, she said. Were running a multi-state charity through our transportation system because people from New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, theyre blowing right through Connecticut and theyre not contributing a dime to our roads and bridges.

Resident Sylvia Rifkin said shes not sure about bringing back tolls, but liked Bysiewiczs idea.

We need money for the infrastructure, because its in terrible condition, she said. I thought it was a good idea if it could work. Wherever you go, wherever you travel, there are tolls. It seems almost every state has a toll and why not Connecticut?

The lock box is whats going to move Connecticut from being among the worst in the country in terms of infrastructure to among the best, Bysiewicz said.

If we do that well create thousands of good-paying construction jobs and get our economy going in a good direction, she said.

One woman was concerned about the large companies leaving the state, such as GE and Alexion, and questioned how Lamont and Bysiewicz would keep companies here. Rifkin said she was also concerned about this, because it means people cant find jobs.

There are young people leaving the state because they cant find work, Rifkin said, and that included some of her children and grandchildren. Teachers cant find work teaching. Its a real economic problem.

Bysiewicz said the way to address that is to communicate with the states largest business stakeholders.

We cant just assume theyre happy, that theyll stay, she said. We have to make extra effort. It should never be the case that a month before GE leaving that the governor finds out theyve got a foot out the door.

Having talked with CEOs of the states largest companies, Bysiewicz said the challenges they say theyre facing are not taxes, but a gridlock of transportation and a lack of skilled workers, so the state needs to create a pipeline from schools to companies and also be better ambassadors for the state to businesses interested in setting up here.

What Ive seen by helping companies grow jobs, if you help the owners whose companies are committed to Connecticut, theyll stay here and do whatever it takes to work within the challenges of Connecticut, she said.

Were to the point in our state where we cant cut more or tax more. We have to grow good paying jobs. If we dont grow, we arent going to be able to fund our obligations.

The crowd was generally supportive of Bysiewicz, with one resident saying, a reference to gubernatorial candidate Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim. I hope Ganim and company, when they get defeated, they will back this ticket.

I like a lot of the suggestions she made and what theyre hoping to accomplish, Rifkin said. Everything she said was wonderful, whether it can be accomplished.

Eric Gerlander, who is living at Tower One/Tower East, said Bysiewicz was spot on.

She was perfectly clear, he said. Every time she spoke, whatever she said I bought it, and that doesnt always happen. I was undecided before today, but I liked everything she said and I believed it.

I came here knowing that I wanted to vote for her, and Im going to, resident Marsha Landsberg said.

mdignan@hearstmediact.comStarting from 8 am, 105.95 million voters are expected to cast their votes in respective constituencies across the country until 6 pm.

Pakistan saw intense campaigning ahead of the 11th general election by candidates from key parties, namely Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan's Peoples Party(PPP). (Photo: AP)

Islamabad: Amid tight security, voting begins in Pakistan to elect a new National Assembly and provincial assemblies.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 3,459 candidates are contesting for 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while 8,396 candidates are running for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

105.95 million voters are expected to cast their votes in their respective constituencies across the country, the Dawn reported.

The polling process will start at 8:00 am and end at 6:00 pm on Wednesday.

The counting of votes will be done on the spot soon after polling is concluded and results will be announced within 24 hours.

Around 220 million ballot papers have been printed for the election. The colour of ballot paper for the National Assembly is green, whereas white coloured paper shall be used for the Provincial Assembly.

Pakistan saw intense campaigning ahead of the 11th general election by candidates from key parties, namely Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan's Peoples Party(PPP).

About 449,465 policemen and over 370,000 military personnel, which total up to approximately 800,000 troops, have been deployed across the length and breadth of the nation to ensure a safe election.

Taking into account the wave of violence and terrorist attacks witnessed in the run-up to the elections, Peshawar's deputy commissioner has arranged 1,000 kafans (burial shroud) as a pre-emptive measure.

The troops have been deployed to provide mandated assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct polls, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The logistical arrangements for polling booths are being carried out under the supervision of deployed troops.

More than 17,000 polling stations have been declared sensitive across the country, while CCTV cameras have also been installed at the polling stations, reported Geo TV.

In a special message on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan urged voters to fulfil their national duty of casting the ballot.

A public holiday has been declared across the country on Wednesday in order to facilitate the voting process.

Pakistan's National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 will be directly elected today whereas the rest  60 seats reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities  are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than five per cent of the vote.

A party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats in total.

In the previous elections, PML-N, led by former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, emerged as the largest party with 166 seats out of a total of 342 in the National Assembly.

Although the seats were short of a majority, Sharif was able to form a government after several independents joined his party.

However, Sharif was disqualified as the Prime Minister and as a Member of the National Assembly in July last year after the Panama Papers case decision.

After Sharif's disqualification, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected as 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly in August 2017.

While the country is gearing up for the polls, Sharif and his daughter, Maryam, are currently lodged in Rawalpindi's Adiala jail, after being convicted in the Avenfield reference case.NORTH HAVEN  Local residents are offering their support for Ed Wilczynski and his family in their time of grief after Kristin Wilczynski, his wife of more than 25 years and the mother of their three children, died after being struck by a vehicle Friday evening in Hamden.

Wilczynski said Tuesday he met his wife at a store in Branford decades ago  she was a cashier and he was a bagger. They were together for 31 years and were coming up on their 26th anniversary. They have three daughters: Alyssa, Sydney and Hailey.

She was just a fantastic wife, mother  (a) gentle, kind soul, Wilczynski said. She was just a great person.

Someone had aptly described her after her passing, Wilczynski said, as a living angel.

As of Wednesday night, a GoFundMe campaign to benefit the family had raised more than $12,000.

The fundraiser was started by John Vivenzio, who said Tuesday he has been friends with Ed Wilczynski for almost 30 years, after the two worked together as teenagers.

After Kristin Wilczynski died , he and other family and friends wanted to do something, Vivenzio said.

She was a special girl, woman  always kindhearted, said Vivenzio.

He said he wanted to launch the campaign because he was close to Ed Wilczynski, and the family is facing financial strain after Kristin Wilczynskis untimely death.

Her passing was completely unexpected and a heartbroken family is left behind, organizers said as part of the GoFundMe page. With the loss of her income and extensive funeral and general living costs, we do not want her family to face any more burdens than they have to at this time. ... In the face of such an unexpected tragedy, Kristins children deserve the brightest future and all funds raised through this page will go toward the family and any financial burden they may face after this horrible loss.

Ed Wilczynski said he and his family were getting by after his wifes death with the help of loved ones and friends.

They have a tremendous base of support, and he said he was overwhelmed and humbled by the love shown for them.

In my 47 years of existence, Ive never seen anything like this, said Wilczynski.

The GoFundMe campaign can be found at www.gofundme.com/5uwu0sg.

The Hamden Police Department Traffic Division is investigating the accident, according to the department.

Those with information pertaining to the incident are asked to contact Officer Kevin Hall at 203-230-4036.

william.lambert@hearstmediact.comNEW HAVEN  Superior Court Judge Walter Spader Jr. Tuesday said he will consider holding the city of New Haven in contempt if it misses another deadline to abate an apartment with chipping lead paint and lead dust after it has known since December that a 2-year-old who lives there is suffering from lead poisoning.

Spader ordered on June 26 that a contractor be chosen by June 29, with the work be completed by July 29. He said he based that order on what the city said it could accomplish.

He had also ordered that attorney Amy Marx of the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, who is representing the child, Elijah Hall, be provided with the latest updated Department of Health documents by July 22. Marx did not receive an electronic copy of the file until 1 p.m. Tuesday, one hour before the court session.

The court already had ordered the city to move the child and his mother, Jennifer Williams, to a hotel room with kitchen facilities until the apartment at 75 Sherman Ave. is deemed to be safe from lead.

Maajid Muhammad and Raihana Akhdar and their children, who live on the first floor. have

been in a hotel for months until the whole house is abated. An outside expert reviewing abatement work done on the exterior and interior found it to be inadequate.

Spader in the June 26 hearing told the city it should have moved more quickly in Elijahs case given that it knew in April that a toddler on the first floor had lead poisoning.

Spader on Tuesday said he is concerned with a pattern by the city of non-compliance with subpoenas, non-compliance with Freedom of Information requests and Corporation Counsel John Roses sharing documents with his witness without giving them to the plaintiff.

The documents brought to the court Tuesday for Marx contained material that should have been provided at the June 26 hearing, she said.

Marx has won all four suits against the city over unreasonable delays in ordering abatement of properties where young children are living. She contends that the city showed willful disregard for the court orders, but this would require an evidentiary hearing.

In another recent suit, Spader told Paul Kowalski, director of environmental health, that its policy of ordering the arrests of non-compliant landlords was not an effective means of cleaning up dangerous properties.

He told him that saying the department could not afford to undertake an abatement when a landlord fails to do so, is not a proper public health response, as the properties not in compliance can be liened and the costs recovered that way.

While he was upset with the citys delays, Spader said it has made some progress so he would not consider a potential contempt motion now.

The city has until Aug.10 to make sure that the abatement is done. It was also ordered to turn over all Health Department documents on this property to Marx by Aug. 7 before a status conference Aug. 10 and to make sure subpoened employees attend the session.

Spader said there cannot be any excuses to miss the Aug. 10 deadline. Get it done, he said.

Spader also told the city that it was not a fair solution to move slowly while tenants are in hotels. They dont want to be in a hotel. They want to be safe.

Attorney Roderick Williams, who is representing the city, said the delays were partially attributed to the needed approvals for a Housing and Urban Development lead grant the landlord has applied for to help with the abatement.

He also said that this process usually takes three to six months and the city pushed to get it done in a month.

A lot of things had to be pushed, Williams said. The city has been acting vigorously to get this done.

Spader said his order to the city was to get the work done expeditiously by any means necessary and use of the HUD funds was not relevant to his orders.

Bids to do the abatement were submitted on June 22, while the HUD application was first made on May 26. Oliver Painting has been chosen to the work because the company was the least expensive.

Marx said there was nothing in the paperwork that justified the delay as reasonable. She said the Health Department is being negligent

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com;203-641-2577The American Red Cross is imploring the public to donate blood across the state to address a severe blood shortage, according to a press release.

While thousands of people responded to the emergency call for blood and platelet donations in early July, the release said there still continues to be an emergency need for donors of all blood types, especially type O.

Red Cross blood donations are being distributed to hospitals faster than they are coming in, and, right now, there is less than a five-day blood supply on hand. The Red Cross tries to keep a five-day supply of blood to meet the patients needs and be prepared for emergencies that require significant volumes of donated blood products, the release stated.

Patients dont get a summer break from the need for lifesaving treatments, so it is critical that hospitals have access to blood products each and every day, said Kelly Isenor of the Connecticut Blood Services Region in a statement. We sincerely appreciate those who have responded to the call to help save lives, but the emergency need remains. Those who havent rolled up a sleeve to give are urged to do so today.

There is a particular need for type O blood, which plays an important role in ongoing patient care and emergencies. Type O positive is the most transfused blood type and can be given to patients with any Rh-positive blood type. Type O negative is the universal blood type and can be given to any patient, being used by emergency room personnel when there isnt time to determine the blood type of patients in the most serious situations, the release said.

Those who donate blood or platelets July 30 through Aug. 30 will receive a $5 Amazon gift card via email.

Donors of all blood types are urged to make an appointment using the American Red Cross Blood Donor app, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-733-2767. Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor app.

All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card, a drivers license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years old  16 with parental consent in some states  weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years old or younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements, the release said.

Blood can be donated at the following locations:

Middlesex County

Chester

Chester Village West, 317 West Main St., on Aug. 10 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Clinton

The Henry Carter Hill Library, 10 Killingworth Turnpike, on Aug. 14 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Cromwell

Knights of Columbus, 573 Main St., on July 26 from 12 to 5 p.m.

Deep River

Deep River Ambulance Association, 284 West Elm St., on Aug. 14 from 12:45 to 6 p.m.

Deep River Ambulance Association, 284 West Elm St., on Aug. 14 from 8 a.m. -to 1:15 p.m.

East Haddam

East Haddam Senior Center, 15 Great Hillwood Road, on July 26 from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.

East Hampton

Veteran Foreign Wars Post 5059, 20 North Maple St., on Aug. 2 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Essex

Town Hall, 29 West Ave., on Aug. 6 from 11:45 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Haddam

St. Peters Church, 30 Saint Peter Lane, on July 25 from 12 to 5 p.m.

Middlefield

Victory Church, 191 Meriden Road, on Aug. 14 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Middletown

City Hall, 245 Dekoven Drive, on July 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

St. Francis of Assisi, 10 Elm St., on Aug. 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Adath Israel, 48 Church St., on Aug. 14 from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Middletown Toyota, 634 Newfield St., on Aug. 15 from 1 to 6 p.m.

8/3/2018: 12:15 to 6 p.m., Middlesex Hospital, 28 Crescent St.

8/3/2018: 7 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., Middlesex Hospital, 28 Crescent St.

Portland

Snap Fitness, 336 Marlborough St., on July 31 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Portland High School, 95 High St., on Aug. 7 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Westbrook

Valley-Shore YMCA, 201 Spencer Plains Road, on Aug. 1 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Litchfield County

Colebrook

Colebrook Community Center, 2 School House Road, on Aug. 4 from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Litchfield

Litchfield Community Center, 421 Bantam Road, on Aug. 7 from 1 to 6:30 p.m.

New Milford

New Milford Community Ambulance, 1 Scovill St., on Aug. 15 from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.

North Canaan

Geer Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 99 South Canaan Road, on Aug. 6 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Thomaston

St. Peters Trinity Church, 160 Main St., on July 28 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Winchester

Northwestern Connecticut Community College, Park Place, on Aug. 13 from 12 to 5 p.m.

Woodbury

Woodbury Senior Center, 265 Main St., on Aug. 4 from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

New Haven County

Beacon Falls

Beacon Hose Co. #1, 35 North Main St., on Aug. 4 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Branford

Brothers Harley Davidson, 557 West Main St., on July 28 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Planet Fitness, 469 East Main St., on July 31 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Branford Hall Career Institute, 1 Summit Place, on Aug. 1 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

St. Mary Church, 731 Main St., on Aug. 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Cheshire

Highland School, 490 Highland Ave., on Aug. 15 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Derby

Griffin Hospital, 130 Division St., on July 30 from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., as well as Aug. 10 from 12:15 to 5 p.m. and 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Guilford

Knights of Columbus, 390 South Union St., on July 28 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Aug. 8 from 12:45 to 6 p.m.

Hamden

Whitneyville Cultural Commons, 1253 Whitney Ave., on July 27, Aug. 3 and Aug. 10 from 12:15 to 6 p.m.

Ranfone Training Systems, 109 Sanford St., on July 30 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Madison

Lutheran Church of Madison, 9 Britton Lane, on July 27 from 12:45 to 6 p.m.

First Congregational Church, 26 Meetinghouse Lane, on Aug. 14 from 12:45 to 6 p.m. and Aug. 15 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Meriden

BL Companies, 355 Research Parkway, on July 25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Harte Family Motors, 341 South Broad St., on Aug. 1 from 11:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Milford

Connecticut Post Mall, 1201 Boston Post Road, on July 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Milford Hospital, 300 Seaside Ave., on July 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Elks Club, 124 New Haven Ave., on Aug. 6 from 1 to 6:45 p.m.

Naugatuck

Elks Club #967, 758 Rubber Ave., on Aug. 14 from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m.

New Haven

New Haven Field House Foyer, 480 Sherman Parkway, on July 30 from 1 to 6 p.m.

New Haven Hospital, 20 York St., on July 31 from 12 to 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Joseph Slifka Center, 80 Wall St., on Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Connecticut Job Corps Center, 455 Wintergreen Ave., on Aug. 14 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

North Branford

St. Augustine Church, 30 Caputo Road., on July 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

North Haven

The Vitamin Shoppe, 417 Universal Drive, on July 27 from 12:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. as well as Aug. 11 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Orange

Congregation Or Shalom, 205 Old Grassy Hill Road, on July 25 from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, 480 Race Brook Road, on Aug. 1 from 1 to 6 p.m.,

Oxford

Town Hall, 486 Oxford Road, on Aug. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Prospect

Prospect Firehouse, 26 New Haven Road, on Aug. 3 from 1:30 to 7:15 p.m. and 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Seymour

Seymour Evangelical Baptist Church, 104 Mountain Road, on July 28 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Seymour Community Center, 20 Pine St., on Aug. 2 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Southbury

River Glen Healthcare Center, 162 South Britain Road, on July 27 from 1 to 6:30 p.m.

Southbury Fire Department, 461 Main St. South, on July 31 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Wallingford

Zandris Stillwood Inn, 1074 South Colony Road, on July 25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Aug. 2 from 12:45 to 6 p.m.

Bananas Ice Cream, 1122 North Colony Road, om July 26 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Connecticut Hospital Association, 110 Barnes Road, on July 27 from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Brooker Building at Gaylord Hospital, 50 Gaylord Farm Road on July 31 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Arris, 15 Sterling Drive, on Aug. 13 from 12:45 to 6 p.m.

Waterbury

Kaynor Technical School, 43 Tompkins St., on July 26 from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Chase Collegiate, 565 Chase Parkway, on Aug. 8 from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.

All Saints Parish, 515 South Main St., on Aug. 13 from 1 to 6 p.m.

City Hall, 235 Grand St., on Aug. 13 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

West Haven

West Haven Police Department, 200 Saw Mill Road, on July 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Wolcott

St. Pius X Church, 525 Woodtick Road, on Aug. 1 from 1 to 6 p.m.

Wolcott Senior Center, 211 Nichols Road, on Aug. 11 from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  Ousted House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has accepted his defeat.

"We cannot undo the past, but we can certainly shape our future. The House of Representatives has chosen a new Speaker in the person of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Alang-alang sa bayan, let us get back to work and move on," Alvarez said in a statement on Wednesday.

Alvarez conceded after a meeting with newly-installed House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo this morning.

Arroyo said they discussed how to move forward, stressing that she and Alvarez were in good terms despite her controversial takeover of the House leadership.

"We continue our good relations with each other," she told CNN Philippines in an interview during a luncheon she hosted for her partymates in the Lower House on Wednesday.

Both Arroyo and Alvarez are members of the ruling party, PDP-Laban, which is headed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The Speaker declined to provide more details of their "private conversation," but when asked if Alvarez agreed to work with her, she replied, "I would think so."

Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Dong Gonzales, who was with Arroyo and Alvarez during their talk, said the meeting was cordial.

"Kwentuhan lang," he said.

In an interview, Gonzales said it was Arroyo who initiated the face-to-face encounter. She called the congressman Tuesday night, asking him to tell Alvarez he could have her old office.

Gonzales said Alvarez was grateful for the offer and wanted to go see Arroyo.

"Sabi ni Ma'am, ako na lang pupunta," he recalled. "Pagdating sa office ni Bebot (Alvarez), sabi niya kay GMA, 'Bakit kayo pa pumunta?' Sabi ni Ma'm, 'Okay lang. Nandito na ako.'"

Staff members said Alvarez had already said goodbye to the people in the Office of the Speaker and his personal employees had left. Gonzales said the ousted speaker was packing his things and Arroyo could move into the office by Monday.Gallup Pakistan estimated turnout at between 50 to 55 per cent in an electorate of nearly 106 million, similar to previous contest in 2013.

Islamabad: Counting has started at the end of Wednesdays elections in Pakistan. The PTI and ruling PML-N are thought to be neck and neck in the elections.

The exact time for announcement of the results is not yet known.

The Pakistan Election Commission doesnt announce these results but the returning officers at each constituency report the numbers to Election Commission which gives the information to media.

Election Commission of Pakistan will release results by constituency, as well as projection and votes polled for candidates on each seat.

Analysts said the vote was too close to call as polls closed at 6 pm, despite widespread allegations of pre-poll meddling by the armed forces in favour of Khan, which saw the process dubbed Pakistans dirtiest election.

Gallup Pakistan estimated turnout at between 50 to 55 per cent in an electorate of nearly 106 million, similar to the previous contest in 2013.

TV reports showed election workers sorting through massive piles of paper ballots at polling stations across the country.

There were more than 19 million new potential voters, including millions of women and young people.

A suicide bombing in the southwestern city of Quetta, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, killed at least 31 people and cast a shadow over voting day.

Read: At least 31 killed in suicide blast outside polling booth in Quetta

Hashim Ghilza, a local administration official, said the bomber tried to enter a polling station.

When police tried to stop him he blew himself up, he told AFP.

Debris, bloodstains and charred vehicles littered the road outside the polling station as the dead and injured were rushed to hospital accompanied by distraught loved ones.

It was the second major attack by IS this month in Balochistan province after an earlier blast at a campaign rally killed 153.

Two-way race

The vote was a rare democratic transition in the populous but poor nuclear-armed Muslim country, which has been ruled by the powerful military for roughly half its history.

The contest largely became a two-way race between Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is leading its campaign.

Election researcher Azeema Cheema said the contest remained too competitive to call, with the most populous province of Punjab likely to be the key following fierce campaigning in battleground areas there.

Khan, 65, cast his vote in Bani Gala, a suburb of the capital Islamabad, telling the media it was time to defeat parties which kept this country hostage for years.

In Lahore, rival Shahbaz Sharif called on Pakistanis to get out of their homes and... change the fate of Pakistan before casting his own vote and flashing a victory sign.

But other voters in Lahore, capital of Punjab and traditionally a PML-N stronghold, said they were abandoning the party in favour of PTI.

I have voted for PML-N my whole life but this time I voted for PTI because Imran Khan has promised free education and health, said 75-year-old Uzma Akram.

Up to 800,000 police and troops were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country, after a string of attacks targeting political events in the final weeks of the campaign killed more than 180 people, including three candidates.

An earlier attack in Balochistan Wednesday left one policeman dead when a hand grenade was thrown at a polling station in the village of Koshk.

In the northwestern town of Swabi one PTI worker was killed in an exchange of fire with a rival party, police said.

New Pakistan

Khan campaigned on populist promises to build a New Pakistan and vowed to eradicate corruption, clean up the environment and construct an Islamic welfare state.

But the erstwhile playboys bid for power was dogged by widespread accusations he is benefiting from the support of the countrys powerful security establishment. The media, activists and think tanks have decried a silent coup by the generals.

The military rejected the accusations and said it has no direct role in the electoral process.

Election authorities granted military officers broad powers inside polling centres which further stirred fears of manipulation. Journalists were barred from entering polling stations in Lahore and Rawalpindi at several points throughout the day.

Khan also raised eyebrows in recent weeks by increasingly catering to hardline religious groups, particularly over the inflammatory issue of blasphemy -- sparking fears a win for PTI could embolden Islamist extremists.

The PML-N says it is the target of the alleged military machinations. Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power last year and jailed over a corruption conviction days before the vote, removing Khans most dangerous rival.

A third party, the Pakistan Peoples Party headed by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari -- son of slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- could be called upon to form a coalition with any winner.

Radical groups such as the Milli Muslim League linked to Hafiz Saeed, the man accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai attacks, also contested the polls, though many are running under the banner of smaller, lesser-known parties.NEW HAVEN  Despite concerns about an ongoing research project collecting DNA data from young, struggling readers in a population that is largely minority students, the Board of Education approved grant money for an intense reading intervention program tied to a Yale study.

Board member and pediatrician Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur may have summed up the sentiments of the room best in explaining her affirmative vote: She said she wishes the school board had guidance or a firm policy in place to discuss genetic research in the schools when the controversial program began almost four years ago, but because students have benefited from reading interventions offered by the program for years it was too late to discontinue it.

I understand exactly what its like to live with a dyslexic; I have a child with dyslexia, she said. If the study was brought to me four years ago I would have refused any protocol that required me to give her cells or DNA.

School board members agreed unanimously that Jeffrey Gruen, principal investigator of the Lexinome Project, a Yale University study that examines genetic sequences of children who have low reading scores, had been forthright with them about the projects intentions to use DNA to develop better reading interventions for students with dyslexia, a genetic learning disability.

Hes not going to give peoples DNA away, but who is to say who could take it? Jackson-McArthur said. Who is going to say it wont fall into the wrong lab or the wrong hands.

Gruen said after the meeting there is a possibility with any research project that data could be stolen, so he could not promise outright that the data would not end up in the wrong hands.

Board of Education President Darnell Goldson was the first about two weeks ago to raise the alarm about uncomfortable connections and connotations raised by the Lexinome Project. Goldson recalled Henrietta Lacks, a black woman whose cancerous cells were collected without her consent, and which later led to scientific breakthroughs with no benefit to her family.

Were all benefiting off these students, Goldson said at the time about the Lexinome Project.

Then, about one week later, Mayor Toni Harp and Joe Rodriguez, who lead the Teaching and Learning Committee, heard Gruen explain the project, as they considered whether to revive a tabled motion to approve $600,000 in salaries for six reading interventionists who carry out an intensive reading intervention program for low-performing readers in four elementary schools.

Gruen said students were identified for the program when they scored in the bottom 20th percentile of the Benchmark Assessment System, which tests reading but does not necessarily mean the students have dyslexia. Researchers approached first-grade students and their parents in 2015 and 2016, and had a conversation about a nine-page consent form, explaining each section. The 477 students and parents in the study all consented to provide a saliva sample.

The saliva we get, and the process weve chosen to analyze the DNA, totally destroys all the cells and theres really no way for there to be any DNA manipulation in any human being, he said.

Gruen told the Register the researchers are trying to learn more about the connection between genetic sequences and dyslexia. It is known that dyslexia is genetic, but the researches have hypothesized that they can draw a link between particular genomes and specific reading deficit areas. What this means, he said, is a genetic sample might be able to determine the most effective reading interventions for dyslexic children so they can receive the help they need to be on grade level in reading.

We dont use DNA for diagnosis or classification, Gruen said to the board members last week . We hope that if a child has a particular variant or a group of variants, we can find a correlation and hopefully in future studies we can use that information to design the perfect intervention for a specific child.

Gruen said specific students are associated with identification numbers, and if a parent withdraws their child, the number and data are destroyed.

Currently, about one-quarter of children with dyslexia who do receive high-quality interventions in their elementary school years do not respond to the interventions, he said. The researchers hope that, using genetic data from local students, they can analyze to find connections that may be helpful in the future, so that more dyslexic students do not slip through the cracks in the early years.

Ed Joyner, the only board member of the six present to vote against accepting the grant funds for reading interventionist salaries, said there is already a strong research base with proven interventions.

Im just at a loss to understand why our district is not doing more to institutionalize those practices without the possibility of stigmatizing kids with DNA analysis and the possibility that people might say they have a limitation so we can only go so far with them anyway, he said. This is really a serious decision: are we trying to ascertain the distinction between nature and nurture?

Gruen rejected that the study was attempting to prove students limitations through the collection of genomes and reiterated his research that about one-quarter of students in early grades dont respond to those existing interventions.

Joyners concern touched upon those raised by Jackson-McArthur, who said she worries that if the data should ever be stolen, it could be used by colleges to deny students admission or by insurance companies to raise rates.

Gruen said at last weeks committee meeting that, following an initial study, school officials persuaded the Lexinome Project to run reading intervention programs to benefit the students. The reading intervention program began in four schools  Strong School, Christopher Columbus Family Academy, Bishop Woods School and Roberto Clemente School  three years ago, and now six reading interventionists, who are employed by the district, have their salaries paid by private grants issued through the Lexinome Project by the Manton Foundation. In the first three years of the seven-year program, the grants have covered about $1.5 million in teacher pay and benefits. In 2009, the foundation granted the project $5.2 million , according to Yale.

The interventions used are called Reading Recovery  all six interventionists hold certifications in that program, Gruen said  and Empower. Gruen said Empower is a highly respected, intense reading intervention program developed in Canada. Teachers who are trained in the program are observed and trained by a University of Toronto researcher in person and over video call software throughout the year, he said. Students in the program work with specialists every school day for 45 minutes to an hour.

Strong School teacher Gina Algilani said it is a phonetics-based program that has students learn sounds of the alphabet and sound them out and identify them in larger words. She said there is a rhyming piece in which students are taught to look for word parts and word families and to identify key words.

By the end of the year, the kids can read all of these words, she said, as they learn to identify spelling patterns in larger words by learning smaller words.

Although there are four years left in the program, Gruen said the gap between students is closing and its pretty dramatic.

In the first group of students, preliminary data suggests that at the beginning of first grade in 2015, they were reading an average of 1.25 to 1.5 standard deviations below grade level expectations, and by the end of second grade there was a 32 percent improvement in their reading skills compared to other at-risk students who do not receive the Empower interventions.

Parent Kirsten Hopes-McFadden, a teacher at Engineering and Science University Magnet School, expressed skepticism about the program during the committee meeting with Gruen but became more comfortable as he explained it.

At what point do you connect the DNA to show whether there was dyslexia or not? she asked.

Gruen said there are a lot of moving parts and the data is being collected for future students. We wont look into correlations until the children are almost finished with the program.

In previous discussions, project Director Joan Bosson-Heenan said the New Haven schools are appealing because of the large population of students of color, who are largely missing from the literature about reading intervention. Gruen said receiving genomes from a wide variety of students can create a larger, more inclusive base of research.

Representatives for the state Department of Education and the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system both said their respective entities have no affiliation with or jurisdiction over researchers doing genetic testing on public school students.

According to the memorandum of understanding between Yale University and the New Haven Public Schools in November 2017 obtained by the Register, the research staff reserve the right to to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals and to present their findings at seminars. The researchers agreed to share the data and its analysis with the district in advance of sharing any data with other parties.

The MOU says Yale is responsible for all costs associated with the study

Devin Kearns, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Connecticut, told the Register he believes genetic research has a lot of really amazing potential to help kids of all kinds.

Reached for comment last week, Kearns, who has an appointment at the Haskins Laboratory at Yale but claims no affiliation with the Lexinome Project or its staff, said his research has to do with neuroimaging, or tracing development of young peoples brains as they are exposed to different reading interventions.

However, he said he believes testing genomes is ethical and relevant to the field of research.

That has a tremendous amount of promise as a tool for helping kids with dyslexia, he said. I think theres definitely an effort in a broad way to look at a wide variety of kids and the genetic factors involved in reading.

Kearns, who said he did not know much about the Lexinome Project beyond a rough sketch of the details, said his biggest ethical concern would be whether the studies are offering some value in return for subjects participation  which Gruen and Bosson-Heenan have argued is present in the reading interventions offered to students.

Its unlikely theyre interested in the genetics of these kids, but in genetics in general, he said, because the field is miles away from using genomes for treatment. Reading is such a complex human behavior that is not hard-wired, but its remarkable how good we are. Its a source of interest for researchers because its the use of multiple processes at one time.

During meeting this week, Jackson-McArthur requested that she be able to meet with Superintendent of Schools Carol Birks to establish policies about genetic testing. She said she would like to see an independent entity or committee established to develop a policy for the school board, as well as an independent entity in the room to explain the contract to parents, should researchers want to work with students in the future.

Birks said that the district should be concerned with sustainability, as it will otherwise be consistently dependent upon grant funds and researchers for programs such as Empower.

I think theres a great opportunity to scale the practices that are used within these particular schools across the district, she said. Our staff has been trained on these practices, and we should use our internal team to replicate what they learned.

brian.zahn@

hearstmediact.comA trio of thieves pilfered toads known for their psychedelic properties from an Arizona park last week, and officials are asking for the public's help in identifying them.

A series of videos released Monday show at least three people scooping up Sonoran Desert toads, placing them in what appears to be plastic grocery bags and carrying them from Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area in Cave Creek, Arizona, between 9 p.m. Thursday and 12:30 a.m. Friday.

Note: The video above contains some lewd language.

The thieves violated multiple park laws, including being present in conservation areas after hours and removing park property without permission, according to a Facebook post.

The park turned the video clips over to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which asks anyone who recognizes the people in the video to call (602) 876-1000. Arizona Game and Fish Department has also been notified.

Sonoran Desert toads are one of the largest toads native to North America and the toxins they excrete are strong enough to kill full-grown dogs, according to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. The toad is found from central Arizona to southwestern New Mexico and Sinaloa, Mexico. It once was present in southeastern California, but has not been seen in the region since the 1970s.

The toad is perhaps best known for the hallucinogenic properties of the toxins it excretes, a discovery that spurred the dangerous phenomenon of "toad licking." The federal government classifies Sonoran Desert toad venom as a Schedule I hallucinogen, along with the likes of LSD and mescaline.

The "psychedelic" toads rose to prominence in 1994, after a California teacher named Bob Shepard was arrested for possession of bufotenine, the hallucinogenic chemical found in Sonoran Desert toad venom. The New York Times reported that Shepard had dried and smoked the toxin.

A local narcotics agent told the Times: "We'd heard of people licking toads to try to get high. But we had never heard of this."

Shepard is the first person to have been arrested for bufotenine possession, the agent said.

Toad licking is extremely dangerous, Dr. Steve Curry of Banner Health told AzFamily.com. He said ingesting the toxic can lead to "life-threatening toxicity," convulsions and cardiac arrest.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.BEIJING - An abandoned warehouse once stood where Sylar's new mansion sprawls.

Over the past year, builders have transformed the two-acre lot into his "paradise," a sign informs guests at the wooden gates. Beyond them lie a spa, a trampoline, an indoor pool, two murals of Sylar's face and a party room with chalkboard walls, where someone has scrawled: "I love you."

Sylar paused at the tender message on a recent afternoon. Then he lifted his leg and urinated.

This is what half a million dollars can buy a border collie in Beijing. It's also a symbol of love, economic progress and the Internet's unique power to make you famous - sometimes overnight.

"Before I had Sylar, I had nothing to live for," said owner Zhou Tianxiao, 31, scratching his dog's ears. "He gave me a purpose."

Five decades after Chairman Mao's Red Guards were known to kill pet dogs - a "bourgeois" accessory the communist leader sought to quash during his purge of Western values - China's youths are increasingly lavishing money on animals.

The Chinese are projected to spend the equivalent of $7 billion on furry friends by 2022, a surge from $2.6 billion last year, according to the German market research firm Euromonitor.

Theories abound as to why affluent Chinese seem so devoted to their pets; poorer folks in urban centers tend to be priced out because licensing dogs can cost hundreds of dollars. But analysts tie some of the fervor to the country's rigid "one-child" policy, in effect from 1979 until early 2016.

Marriage rates and birthrates have fallen in recent years as a generation without siblings, saddled with extra family pressure to shine, has pursued more education and often refused to settle down, said Cheng Li, a China scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"They have a sense of independence," Li said, "but they still want a companion."

Zhou, an only child himself, used to feel lonely.

Four years ago, the lanky Beijing native was unemployed and living downtown with his grandmother. He had dropped out of school at 15 and spent most of his time playing video games at Internet cafes.

He feared he would drift that way forever, staring at screens, then hitting the pillow. Log on. Sleep. Repeat.

Then, one day, a friend urged him to check out some puppies for sale. What happened next Zhou described as magical. He locked eyes with a black-and-white bundle of fluff. The puppy's tail wagged with a joy Zhou yearned to feel.

"It was love at first sight," he recalled.

He named the puppy Sylar after a character in one of his favorite American television shows, "Heroes."

Hollywood's Sylar was a watch repairer who "desired to be special instead of 'ordinary,' " as one fan site puts it, so he learned to kill superheroes and steal their abilities.

Zhou imagined that the canine version would use his powers for good.

He watched YouTube videos of dog trainers in the United States, studying their techniques late into the night. He taught Sylar to high-five, play dead, walk like a human and leap on tables. One command sent the dog between Zhou's legs, a paw on each foot, so they could stroll together.

Zhou used his phone to shoot footage of Sylar's tricks, set to Lady Gaga songs, and posted it to Meipai, a Chinese video site.

Somehow, people found the clips. One share spawned 10 more, which multiplied to 1,000, which swelled into millions of views.

Sylar soon had nearly 800,000 followers on social media. Fans throughout China wrote to him, drew pictures of him and asked to meet.

Zhou had unwittingly stepped into a cultural obsession.

Chinese social media is crawling with celebrity animals: An American Eskimo dog named Niuniu and a Scottish fold cat called Duanwu each has more followers than Kanye West.

Amy Huilin Tsang, a sociologist who studies Chinese class identity, says the pet fixation may have something to do with self-expression.

"The dog can be a fashion statement," she said. "Or the newest status symbol."

For members of China's one-child generation, analysts say, nothing is too good for their animals.

"They've been incredibly mollycoddled their whole lives," said Andrew Atkinson, a dog and cat market researcher in Shanghai, "and they're transferring it onto their pets."

The spotlight on Sylar encouraged Zhou to open a dog food and toy store on Taobao, the Chinese e-commerce giant that allows users to peddle goods online.

By 2017, he had enough cash to start a new life.

He thanked his pet with a tattoo of Sylar's name in red bubble letters on his left forearm. The body art alone didn't feel adequate, so Zhou wondered: What does a dog really want?

Space. Much more space.

Zhou found the old warehouse in Shunyi, an upscale Beijing suburb, and designed the renovation himself. His girlfriend, Liu Wei, 37, helps him run the place and manage a staff of 10, who live next door.

Before Sylar, Zhou "was lazy and spent most of his waking hours playing video games," Liu said. "He's now enterprising and conscientious."

They opened Sylar's mansion to the public in May. Dogs can take a "medicinal bath" in the spa for 175 yuan (about $26) or a "soothing oil" massage for 400 yuan.

Canine visitors are welcome to stay the night in air-conditioned rooms with giant pillows and personal backyards. And humans can join their pets in the pool, as long as they don't mind the floating clumps of black collie fur.Following the implosion of the dam, 5 billion cubic meters of water poured downstream, sweeping away houses and causing an unknown number of missing. More than 6 thousand residents of the eight surrounding villages are now homeless. The upper part of the structure was damaged 24 hours before it collapsed. The infrastructure project involves Laotian, Thai and South Korean companies. Seoul sends rescue teams.

Vientiane (AsiaNews / Agencies) - At least 20 people have died and more than 3,000 are waiting to be rescued after the collapse of a hydroelectric dam under construction in the southeastern province of Attapeu, according local media reports today. Quoting the governor of the San Sai district, Bounhom Phommasane, they state that "2,851 residents have already been rescued".

The tragedy took place two nights ago. Following the collapse of the Xe-Namnoy dam, a wall of water quantified in 5 billion cubic meters crashed downstream, sweeping away houses and causing an unknown number of missing. More than 6 thousand residents of the eight surrounding villages are now homeless. The remote territory is only accessible by helicopters and flat-bottomed boats. The roads are badly damaged or have been destroyed because of the sudden flooding.

The collapsed dam is part of a project by Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company (Pnpc), a company based in Vientiane and formed by a joint venture in 2012. It involves Lao, Thai and South Korean companies. The subsidiary dam, known as "Saddle Dam D", was part of a network of two main and five secondary dams.

The South Korean company SK Engineering & Construction, one of the construction companies, said that part of a small refueling dam was overwhelmed by water. In a statement, the company claims to have discovered that the upper part of the structure was damaged 24 hours before it collapsed. The company had ordered the evacuation of 12 villages as soon as the collapse had seemed inevitable.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered the dispatch of an emergency rescue team to Laos. Moon said today that investigations into possible responsibilities can wait. "At the moment, we are working to identify the cause of the accident. However, the government must immediately take part in the relief efforts as our companies are also involved in the construction of the dam ".

Environmental groups have raised concerns about Laos hydroelectric ambitions for years, including fears about the impact of dams on the Mekong River; in particular, on its flora and fauna, on the rural communities and on the local economies that depend on it. Nevertheless, several dams are under construction or planned in the poor and landlocked communist country. It exports most of its hydroelectric energy to neighboring countries like Thailand.The Egyptian Jesuit is a great expert in the Arab Christian heritage. The Germany-based Stephanus Foundation recognised him it because he paved the way to a new self-confidence of the oppressed and persecuted. For Fr Samir, A global peace without peace between religions is not possible.

Frankfurt (AsiaNews)  Fr Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit and internationally renowned scholar, is this years recipient of the special award of the Stephanus Foundation for Persecuted Christians.

The Foundation, through its chairperson Michaela Koller, decided to honour Fr Samir because of his service to the spiritual heritage of Arab Christians.

"Father Samir has paved the way to a new self-confidence of the oppressed and persecuted not only through his research, but also through his appearance in the media and [his interaction with] personalities from politics, church and society," emphasised Koller.

The award ceremony took place last Saturday (21 July) in the rococo Hall of Mirrors, in the Residenz Eichstatt, the former residence of the local Prince-Bishops, in Eichstatt, Bavaria.

Born in 1938, Fr Samir is a world expert on Islamic-Christian dialogue. A symposium was recently held in the Vatican, centred on his work and research, to honour him.

In 1986, he founded the CEDRAC, the Centre de documentation et de recherches arabes chretiennes (Research and Documentation Centre on Arab Christianity).

In 2015 he headed the Pontifical Oriental Institute (Pontificio Istituto Orientale, PIO) in Rome. In his long career, he has published more than 60 books and over 1,500 articles.

Speaking to a local paper in Bavaria, the Jesuit called for more courage for dialogue.

"The concepts of Christianity and Islam are fundamentally different," he explained. Despite all violence, we should never forget to regard Muslims as brothers and sisters and to work for peace.

Fr Samir also warned against secular concepts in Europe that deny the formative role of Christianity.

According to Archimandrite Andreas-Abraham Thiermeyer, Fr Samir has shown fearlessness and clarity, especially when he called on imams to express a clear opinion against the atrocities perpetrated by the terrorist Islamic State group.

Father Samir's message to the West, which he has spread in numerous media commentaries and interviews, is also clear: "Pay attention to human rights, to religious freedom, it is an irrevocable fundamental right. It is the litmus test for all other freedoms.

At the same time, A global peace without peace between religions is not possible. Do not forget the Christians and their merits in the Near and Middle East. You must speak out for their rights."

In recent years, the award was given to other prominent Church figures, including Card Louis Raphael I. Sako, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans (Iraq), and Card Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, who dedicated the award to Chinas persecuted Christians.The July 8 New Haven Register article about the Millstone nuclear power plant threatening to shut down once again shows the short-sighted energy policies of the state of Connecticut and particularly of Gov. Dannel Malloy.

Isnt it bad enough that millions of rate-payer dollars are being used to subsidize expansion of natural gas lines with no guarantees those companies will sell that gas in Connecticut or that their prices wont be drastically hiked. You cant whine about the budget while you blow millions.

This is happening while the state budget is a catastrophe and legislators in their wisdom ripped off further millions from the clean energy and efficiency funds specifically set aside to help rate payers save energy and lower costs, a questionable move that is being challenged in court.

It looks like Millstone and its owner Dominion are trying to blackmail the state with threats of closure, crying economic hardship and demanding subsidies. They have engineered a farce with the help of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, state Rep. Lonnie Reed and other legislators and the governor that would allow them to pretend they produce clean energy and therefore apply for zero carbon electric contracts (though DEEP is trying to delay the contracts until after 2023).

DEEP has a mandate to protect the environment and consumer costs. To ignore the tons of highly dangerous spent fuel rods that must be stored for hundreds of years as a potential environmental disaster and enormous cost to rate payers is delusional. Who else will end up paying for this cost? Rate payers have been paying costs for years for the same kind of past boondoggles here in Connecticut.

Malloy has talked the talk about clean energy and lower rates but still to date there has not been one really large-scale investment in true renewable energy whether it be wind or solar. In fact, a critical community solar bill was sideswiped by the last legislative session, replaced by a mediocre bill promoted by the governor which will actually heavily damage the growing solar industry in Connecticut by killing net metering and thousands of jobs. All we can say is shame on the governor , shame on DEEP and shame on Lonnie Reed for being an enabler in the Energy and Technology Committee of this policy farce.

Once again, it is up to rate payers to demand an end to the Dominion shakedown: No subsidies for a company that wont even open its books to the state. We must demand return of our energy and efficiency funds.

Lastly, we must demand that our state stop spending millions on polluting nuclear power plants and from buying natural gas from companies in other states that use dangerous fracking technologies that threaten the Algonquin Aquifer, the most important water supply of the Northeast.

Instead, Connecticut should take the lead and spend those millions on large-scale solar and wind projects. How about having the guts to create 1000 megawatts of true clean energy projects, passing a real community solar bill so clean energy can actually reach the thousands of urban and rural residents longing for a brighter and less polluted future. These are the issues to set before all the aspiring candidates for our next governor.

Who will take up this challenge?

Frank Panzarella is a New Haven resident and member of Fight the Hike, an advocacy group for lower electricity rates and clean renewable energy.We have arrived at that moment in the political season, about two weeks before the state party primaries, in which candidates with a lot in common must pretend they dont in order to stand out and win their partys nomination.

Candidates do this by snipping and sniping, grousing and griping, and otherwise accusing each other of being something that might be true, might be half true, is probably false. It doesnt matter. What matters is getting attention, or, at the very least, knee-capping rivals.

To be sure, some candidates stand apart by appealing to principles and values. But the problem for same-party candidates is that their principles and values are more or less the same. Worse, they are already understood. GOP voters know what GOP candidates believe in. Ditto for the Democrats. Usually, the only recourse is to go small, to make things personal, to get downright dirty  to score one point at a time with gesture, symbol, whatever works.

Its during this time of the political season, when same-party candidates are scratching and clawing each other to stand out from a field of similar talent, that a certain trope emerges in the media, one I find insufferable.

Its a mode of thinking that wishes politics were something it isnt, that projects onto candidates things that cant be realized, and that punishes candidates in spite of that.

Im talking about the civil police, the pearl clutchers, the political commentators who tsk, tsk candidates for dirty politics, for doing what must be done, and who pass themselves off as authorities who truly get politics. They dont get politics, but getting politics doesnt matter.

What matters is selling a phony sense of nostalgia and loss, a lamentation for noble days when statesman rose above the fray by appealing to voters better angels.

Lets make something clear: those noble days never existed. Politicians are people, and people are the same as they ever were when it comes to fighting for power. Sometimes, its noble. Sometimes, its dirty. Both are optional. Neither is wrong. If there is a difference between then and now, its this fetish among political observers for a history that never was. That part we can do without.

The year of women

The race for Connecticut governor wont get really interesting until after the primaries, but the race for U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Estys seat in the 5th District is already riveting. Not for the reasons you might expect, though.

The frontrunners are Democrats, both women. One is Mary Glassman, a seasoned candidate and former first selectwoman of Simsbury. The other is Jahana Hayes, a National Teacher of the Year from Waterbury who would be the first black member of the states D.C. delegation.

They are leaving Republican contenders in the dust. According to the Register, both are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars more than GOP hopefuls. Glassman raised about $380,000 as of June 30. Hayes raised nearly $300,000. (A major backer is Robert Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchins dad.) Manny Santos, the GOP leader, came closest. He raised about $23,000.

Glassman is favored to win. She has the backing of U.S. Reps. John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, both who hosted Tuesday a major fundraiser for Glassman. Hayes, however, has a bright future no matter what happens. She is a dynamic public speaker with a compelling Obama-like story that got the attention of popular U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy. He originally encouraged her to seek office.

That women are leading the field is only one riveting aspect of the race for the 5th. That they are women running in the national year of women is another. According to the latest Q Poll, voters prefer Democrats to Republicans in the House by double digits, 51 percent to 39 percent. Women voters are another level, though. They prefer Democrats by a stunning 25 points, 57 to 32 percent.

If this year has noble politics, this is it.

John Stoehr is a fellow at the Yale Journalism Initiative and a New Haven resident.The government tries to stem the wave of protest by clamping down. The word vaccine is the most censored on social media. In two days in Hong Kong, 30,000 mainland parents called clinics to book a vaccination.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agency)  Protests continue over the vaccine scandal that hit the pharmaceutical company Changsheng Biotech. Even Chinas President Xi Jinping waded into the affair, calling it appalling. Yet, mainstream and social media have been censored.

According to a project run by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at the University of Hong Kong, which monitors censorship on Weibo, Chinas Twitter-like service, the Chinese word for vaccine was one of the most restricted on Sunday and Monday.

One post that was removed by the censors said: People from the drug and vaccine regulator should resign immediately, this is shameful!

Another that disappeared said: When everyone in the country is rushing to get milk powder and vaccines elsewhere  more people will understand why Hong Kong and Macau are rejecting the [mainland] system.

Fu King-wa, an assistant professor who heads Weiboscope, which monitors microblogs with more than a thousand followers, said also that censorship was higher now than in 2016.

Restrictions also appear to have been imposed on print media. A reporter from Shenzhen Media Group told the South China Morning Post that the relevant authorities had issued an order banning the coverage of the vaccine scandal.

Meanwhile, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Chinese tabloid Global Times, accused some social media users of exploiting the scandal to criticise the party and the country.

Many people feel unrest about the vaccine incident  but there is also a small number who are trying to break down the positive impacts of how the government is trying to deal with it, he wrote on Weibo.

Meanwhile, parents of vaccinated children continue to worry. And like five years ago, when many went to Hong Kong to buy infant milk formula because what they had a home was tainted, this year they go to the autonomous region to buy vaccines because there they are imported.

For instance, when a Shenzhen mother heard about the latest vaccine scandal over the weekend, the first thing she did was make an appointment for Monday at her clinic over the border.

I feel a bit ashamed about crossing the border to snap up a vaccine, and I totally understand if Hong Kong people resent us for doing it, but its just what Ive got to do as a mother, she said.

The phone at reception was constantly ringing. My doctor said it just wouldnt stop and they had to switch to a Mandarin-speaking nurse on reception, she added.

Hong Kong-based WaiKong Health Management Services said that it took more than 30,000 calls from parents over the border between Sunday and Monday evening.

However, a cap on public health clinics is in place in the city since 2016, limiting them to providing vaccinations for a maximum of 120 non-local children per month.

Despite the gravity of the scandal, some observers fear that it will not be enough to change Chinas healthcare system.

In this particular case, Changsheng Biotechs anti-rabies vaccine are deemed substandard. Legally, they are considered inferior drugs, not counterfeit drugs. Producing the latter can lead to jail sentences of up to three years. Producing the former is not enough for imprisonment under Chinese law.

Yet, if a manufacturer makes more than 50,000 yuan (US$ 7,380) off the sale of substandard drugs, they could face sentences ranging from two years to life imprisonment, depending on the sales value of the drugs sold.

What is more, it remains to be seen if prosecutors will consider substandard rabies vaccines to be dangerous to human health since inadequate protection against rabies could be deadly, even if the vaccine itself is harmless.Stopping the flow of contraband smuggled into jails is a constant battle, explained Richard Smith, warden at Cumberland County Jail.

"It's a cat and mouse game," he said. "The more we try to do to shut things down, the more people try to devise other ways to get things in."

The county is about to fire up a game-changing piece of technology to combat smuggling of drugs, weapons and other contraband.

Soon, all prisoners in this jail will pass through a full-body scanner to ensure nothing is hidden on -- or in -- their person.

That's right, this technology can even see something hidden in a body cavity.

Manufactured by Smiths Detection, the B-SCAN system uses low-doses of X-ray radiation to screen people, detecting objects concealed anywhere.

A head-to-toe scan takes seven seconds and generates a high-resolution image of the entire body, allowing the operator to study the image for any red flags.

It will be used to screen newly arrived prisoners and will re-screen them whenever they have to leave the facility for court or a work-release assignment.

The system cost the county $142,257, and officials believe the expense is worth it.

The scanner is the latest in a series of efforts to make the prison safer for staff and prisoners, Smith explained.

Several prisoners have suffered drug overdoses in recent years, bringing attention to the issue of opioids smuggled into the facility.

Since taking on the post of warden in February 2017, Smith instituted five-officer search teams to conducts daily inspections for contraband throughout the facility, both indoors and around the perimeter. The department also added two K-9 officers who conduct routine sweeps for narcotics.

Corrections officers have also been trained to administer opioid overdose antidote naloxone and have saved 26 prisoners since March 2017.

These overdoses usually occur in the holding cells, where prisoners are kept for their first 72 hours in the facility before moving into the jail population, officials said.

"Some of these folks may have taken something prior to coming in the door," Smith added.

The holding area is one of those targeted by the search teams and K-9s.

Training is key to the changes he's trying to make in this jail, Smith said.

"I think we have done more training over this past year than we've probably done here in a long time," he said. "We want to be able to find anything they are going to bring in that could cause them to harm someone or lose their life."

Probably the most shocking smuggling incident at the Cumberland jail occurred in 2015 when officers discovered a loaded handgun concealed in a prisoner's "anal cavity."

Smith recalled his time working at South Woods State Prison, when inmates would hide cellphones in their rectums.

"You'd be surprised what people will put inside themselves to get it in to the jail," he observed.

That's why the full-body scanner is necessary, he said.

"Sometimes a pat search is not enough. Sometimes a strip search is not enough, especially if something is being hidden in their cavities."

While jail visitors and staff won't have to use this scanner, they do pass through a metal detector, and armed officers pat them down before they are admitted.

After training is complete for officers operating the new full-body scanner, the system should be up and running in a few weeks, Smith said.

On a recent morning, officers took turns demonstrating how the device works.

An officer stands on a platform with his hands by his side. The system whirs to life and the officer is moved on a short conveyer belt through the heart of the scanner.

In a room next door, a high-resolution image pops up on a computer screen. It's easy to see the officer's handcuffs, keys and anything his pockets. You can even see his bones.

These systems are popular in high-security settings, including prisons, border crossings and aviation security checkpoints. They are still rare in New Jersey detention facilities.

Only a few other county jails have bought them and state prisons don't have these yet.

Even before the new scanner is in full operation at Cumberland's jail, efforts to crack down on smuggling are already paying off, officials said.

Since starting the search teams last year, officers have found suboxone, heroin, marijuana, cigarettes, razor blades, needles, pills, cash and many other items, explained county Department of Corrections investigator Kevin Milbourne.

The teams conduct searches unannounced, removing inmates from an area and searching "anywhere that the inmates have access to" in the jail. Once the section is swept by K-9s and officers, strip searches of the prisoners in that area are conducted. He estimated that the search team conducts an average of 53 searches a month.

Milbourne can tell by the smell of the jail that they are making progress.

In the past, staff could occasionally smell marijuana being smoked in the facility, he explained. "It's been a white since we've noticed the odor of marijuana in here."

In addition to training staff to save overdosing prisoners and search for contraband, officials are targeting another problem -- suicide.

Smith instituted a suicide prevention program, including training officers and posting information in the jail alerting prisoners about how to get help.

Seven cells are now equipped with cameras to monitor prisoners on suicide watch. The cameras supplement regular in-person checks by the officers

The jail saw four prisoner suicides between 2014 and 2016 and two more in 2017.

The suicides prompted lawsuits and charges against a few corrections officers who were accused of falsifying records related to some of the deaths.

Smith is cautiously optimistic about the efforts taken to correct past problems. He looks forward to the fall groundbreaking for new Cumberland County Correctional Facility, which will replace his old jail on Broad Street.

The new one will be located adjacent to South Woods State Prison on Burlington Road in Bridgeton.

His mission there will be the same -- keep prisoners and staff healthy and safe.

"Let's try to change lives, not lose them," Smith said. "We need to try and implement everything to make sure that we prevent anything from coming into this jail that could be harmful."

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find the South Jersey Times on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us: nj.com/tips.One of the most powerful and highly paid administrators at Rutgers University has resigned after just one year on the job, a surprising and abrupt departure he attributed to conflicting views with the university.

Debasish "Deba" Dutta, the chancellor of Rutgers' New Brunswick campus, submitted his resignation Tuesday, according to the university.

He made a base salary of $480,000 last school year and will receive a chancellor's salary during a one-year sabbatical before returning as a distinguished professor in the School of Engineering, according to Rutgers.

Dutta's short tenure and the timing of his announcement, just before a new school year, are extremely rare at a university where top administrators often give notice a year before stepping down to give Rutgers time to do a nationwide search for a replacement.

Dutta previously worked at other Big Ten universities where the chancellor was effectively the university president and carried more power, said Peter McDonough, Rutgers senior vice president for external affairs.

Asked if Dutta was asked to resign by President Robert Barchi, McDonough said, "They had a mutual agreement."

"There was a mutual belief that this was not a good fit and that it was in everyone's best interest to just do what's best for the university and move on," McDonough said.

In a letter to students, Dutta attributed his departure to conflicting visions for the position.

"It has become clear that my vision for the chancellorship is not in alignment with that of the University," Dutta wrote. "It is only fair that I step aside and let the University select a new leader for the New Brunswick campus."

Introducing Dutta last spring, Barchi praised him for his "impeccable academic credentials, solid administrative leadership and deep experience at three Big Ten institutions."

Dutta admitted he had a lot to learn about Rutgers but said he saw it as a university on the rise. He outlined a plan to raise Rutgers' status in college rankings and was highly visible on campus, becoming somewhat of a mini-celebrity who students playfully poked fun at on social media.

"It's a good thing if the students get a chance to say whatever is on their mind about me, good or bad," Dutta said last fall.

Before coming to Rutgers, Dutta was the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity at Purdue University.

He was also the associate provost and dean of the graduate school at the University of Illinois following 20 years as an engineering professor at the University of Michigan.

Those universities all have a more traditional power structure than Rutgers, where chancellors in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden report to the university president, McDonough said.

"I think there's just sort of a structural, cultural difference in the role of the chancellor," he said. "It just didn't make for a good fit for anybody."

In a letter to students and faculty, Barchi said Dutta "served admirably" and he wishes him the best.

Christopher Molloy, currently the university's senior vice president for research and economic development, will become the interim chancellor in New Brunswick.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Wayne Shorter, the jazz saxophonist and composer from Newark, has been named a 2018 Kennedy Center honoree.

Shorter, 84, who has won 10 Grammys in his career, will be recognized at the 41st Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 2 at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C.

The other honorees this year are Cher, the composer and pianist Philip Glass and country music star Reba McEntire.

In a first for the honors, "Hamilton" co-creators Lin-Manuel Miranda, choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler and music director Alex Lacamoire will also be recognized "as trailblazing creators of a transformative work that defies category." The gala will be broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. on Dec. 26.

In 2013, Shorter performed at the Kennedy Center Honors to celebrate Herbie Hancock.

"I had no idea that they would reach that far away from the popular, well-known-artist box," Shorter told The New York Times, reacting to news of his honor.

Shorter, who was in Newark for NJPAC's Wayne Shorter Weekend in April of 2017, also announced his latest project, "Emanon," on Wednesday, a multiverse-inspired triple album that will be released by Blue Note Records on August 24.

The album will be accompanied by a a graphic novel written by Shorter, a longtime fan of comic books and sci-fi, and co-writer Monica Sly. NPR reports that the hero Emanon ("no-name" backwards), named after a Dizzy Gillespie work from the bebop era of the '40s, is the protagonist of the graphic novel.

"I want to do music that expresses eternity," Shorter told The Star-Ledger in 2008. "I want to do music that celebrates everybody who has had anything to do with expressing themselves -- as musicians, novelists, in dance, maybe even in politics."

When The New York Times asked Shorter if he would attend if President Donald Trump decided to come, he said he would be there either way. Last year, Trump and the first lady did not attend the event "to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction."

Wayne Shorter in the Arts High School yearbook in 1951.

The decision came in the wake of Trump's controversial comments about the white supremacist marches in Charlottesville, Virginia and after some honorees spoke out against the Trump administration and said they would not attend a related gala at the White House. The gala was ultimately canceled.

Shorter, a tenor and soprano saxophonist, graduated from Arts High School and grew up in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood, engrossed by the sounds of bebop.

"Only a few of the guys from Newark were into modern jazz -- most were listening to Stravinsky (and) Beethoven," he told The Star-Ledger in 2011.

Shorter's first band, the Group, was inspired by Gillespie's famous Big Band. He would go on to perform with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and the Wayne Shorter Quartet.

Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.by Vladimir Rozanskij

Commemorating one hundred years since the massacre of the tsar and his family, many pilgrims focused especially on the relics of the Aunt of Tsar Nicholas II. She was a descendant of Elisabeth of Thuringia. Married to Prince Sergei Aleksandrovich, from Lutheran she became Orthodox. A saint not only of charity, but also of ecumenism and the multicultural world.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The events marking the centenary of Romanov's slaughter in Yekaterinburg ended on 21 July. They commemorated the murder of Nicholas II, his family and the people in his service, on the night between July 16 and 17 in the Ipatev cellar, and the execution of the other members of the Russian imperial family on July 18 in Alapaev, near Ekaterinburg itself. The solemn celebrations were presided over by the Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill (Gundjaev), who, in honor of the Tsar Martyr, gathered the entire Synod of Russian Orthodox bishops.

The people fervently participated in the liturgies and the nocturnal pilgrimage of more than 10 km from the place of the shooting to that of the burial, but above all they crowded in intense prayers and devotions before the remains of an aunt of the tsar, Princess Elizaveta Fedorovna, the "True saint" of the imperial family.

It is estimated that at least 60 thousand people went to kiss the reliquary that houses the body of Saint Elizaveta in the church of Alapaev. At the end of the demonstrations, the sacred relic, which was carried by the patriarch Kirill himself, was returned to the monastery of Martha and Mary in Moscow, the seat of the religious congregation founded by the saint of the Romanovs.

Princess Elizaveta, known throughout Russia for her charitable works, was executed the day after the death of her emperor nephew, along with four other members of the family and the faithful nun Varvara, her assistant in the works of mercy. The victims were thrown still alive in the quarry of an iron mine in Alapaev, on the slopes of the Urals.

Born in Germany in Darmstadt in 1861 Elisabeth Alexandra Luise von Hessen-Darmstadt (her family called her Ella), she had married the great prince Sergei Aleksandrovich, the fifth son of Tsar Alexander II and uncle of Nicholas II.

A member and then president of the Imperial Orthodox Society of Palestine, that oversaw Russian pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Elizabeth was also an honorary member of the Kazan Theological Academy, dedicated to missionary studies. She founded the Marta and Maria hospice in Moscow, where she later installed a new religious congregation, to care for the homeless and the needy of the historic Russian capital.

She was called at birth after St. Elizabeth of Hungary and Thuringia, the progenitor of the House of Hesse, who acted as a model for the whole life of the young princess. On her marriage in 1884 she maintained the Lutheran faith, only to later adhere to orthodoxy in 1891, following a deeper study of the principles of Eastern Christianity. Among the many German members of the imperial family, she was praised for her perfect knowledge of the Russian language, which she spoke without accent. She can therefore be considered a saint not only of charity, but also of ecumenism in a multicultural world.

In 1981 Elizabeth was proclaimed a saint by the Russian Church abroad, linked to the memory of the Tsarist period, and in 1992 she was canonized in the first post-communist Synod, presided over by Patriarch Aleksij II (Ridiger). In the tsarist euphoria of the last weeks, the saint princess stands out as a figure of a truly universal Russia and Christianity.JERSEY CITY  Mayor Steve Fulop started his Tuesday cheering the city's new policy on marijuana prosecutions and ended it embroiled in another public spat with state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

It is the second time since Friday that Grewal and Fulop have engaged in a war of words over the city's plan to downgrade and then dismiss low-level marijuana charges, a policy Grewal on Friday called improper and void. Fulop on Twitter attributed the newest beef to "lots of egos back/forth here." Both men are Democrats.

The dispute occurred the same day Grewal asked all New Jersey municipal prosecutors to adjourn marijuana-related offenses until Sept. 4, with Grewal saying his office wants to develop "appropriate guidance" for prosecutors about the scope of their authority, particularly related to pot prosecutions. The request for adjournments is seen as a major step toward pot legalization, which Gov. Phil Murphy supports, and as a win for Fulop, who last week announced Jersey City would not prosecute such offenses.

The rub between Grewal and Fulop focuses on a press release Fulop issued early Tuesday morning that described a closed-door meeting his new chief prosecutor, Jake Hudnut, had on Monday with Grewal, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez and others. During the meeting, Fulop's press release says, Grewal agreed to convene a "working group" to study decriminalization and said Grewal would issue a directive that would "mitigate or eliminate the likelihood of disorderly person misdemeanor convictions for simple possession of marijuana."

That's hogwash, according to a statement Grewal issued early Tuesday afternoon. In that statement, the attorney general said Fulop's press release "did not accurately describe yesterday's meeting," which Grewal noted Fulop did not attend. Grewal on Tuesday described the proposed directive as "concerning the scope and appropriate use of prosecutorial discretion in marijuana-related offenses in municipal court."

"The attorney general did not commit to the final outcome of the working group or the content of the forthcoming directive," Grewal's statement reads.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  To a chorus of boos from residents, the Planning Board on Tuesday approved a host of retroactive approvals for real-estate developer Peter Mocco's new building on Grand Street, which was constructed using materials banned by the area's zoning laws and with an additional story not approved by city planners.

Mocco was before the board seeking what are called "deviations" from the requirements of the redevelopment plan for the Liberty Harbor North area, where the 221-unit apartment building is located. Board members who voted in favor chastised the developer for building first and asking for approvals later, but sided with him anyway by a 5-2 vote.

The board's action came the same day the city told Mocco partner Jeff Zak the city would fine them $582,000 because they deviated from the board approved plans for the building, located at 333 Grand St., and ordered them to remove the extra story they added to the roof of the building without permission. Mayor Steve Fulop called the fine one of the largest the city has ever issued to a developer.

Ceci deLeon, who sits on the development committee of the Van Vorst Park Association, said the group is "clearly disappointed" by the board's decision. She was one of the 16 people who asked the board on Tuesday to reject Mocco's request, saying the board's approval would signal to other developers that they can break the rules as well.

"Each voiced serious concerns regarding this developer circumventing proper approval processes and then asking for forgiveness after construction," deLeon told The Jersey Journal. "It undermines the city's authority and the Planning Board's original conditions of approval."

James McCann, the attorney representing Mocco in front of the board, told members they are right to be frustrated at Mocco's decision to make unapproved changes. But, McCann said, the city's fine and demand that Mocco remove the top story is enough of a punishment.

The board's "job is not to send a message to a developer," McCann said. "Its job is to approve changes to projects if they comply with the redevelopment plan or if the deviations meet the standards for deviations."

The changes Mocco sought approval for include adding bay windows in the rear of the building, adding balconies facing Manhattan that are three feet larger than zoning permits, adding a swimming pool and using exterior insulation and finish system (EIFS), a synthetic stucco, instead of brick and stone on the facade. The use of EIFS is specifically prohibited in the redevelopment plan's zoning rules.

Marlene Sandkamp, speaking to the Jersey City Planning Board on July 24, 2018, holding up a bag of synthetic stucco she said rained over her neighborhood during the construction of 333 Grand St.

Board members Arnold Bettinger, Vijaya Desai, Michael Sims, Allison Solowsky and Edward Torres voted to approve Mocco's request for changes. Joyce Watterman, a councilwoman at large who sits on the board, and the board's chair, Chris Langston, voted against.

Bettinger blamed city officials for not noticing sooner than Mocco had started making unapproved changes during construction.

"Can't complain after it's done," he said.

Watterman and Langston said developers should stick to the plans they agreed to build.

"We should make them do what they're supposed to do," she said.

Residents on Tuesday said they are not impressed by the city's fine, saying the larger balconies and swimming pool add value to the building. Someone with knowledge of the project said Mocco saved $1 million using EIFS instead of brick and stone as the facade.

The board's vote came five days after the city Zoning Board voted narrowly against a different Mocco project, at 245 Newark Ave., that a community group says was built with two extra stories masquerading as mezzanines. Mocco's request for deviations for that project  including the use of EIFS  was scheduled to be heard by the Planning Board on Tuesday but the hearing was postponed.

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.NEWARK -- Domenico Lillo is likely getting a lot more free time than he expected.

For the ninth time since pleading guilty to allegations of police brutality, sentencing for Lillo, the disgraced ex-cop who struck a Bayonne resident in the face with a flashlight, has been postponed.

His sentencing was scheduled for July 26 but has now been pushed back to Nov. 5 at 10 a.m. in Newark Federal Court. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey declined to comment on why it was postponed again.

Lillo pleaded guilty in September 2015 to using excessive force during the Dec. 27, 2013 arrest of Brandon Walsh -- specifically pleading guilty to one count of deprivation of civil rights, and in an unrelated case, he confessed to falsifying government records in order to obtain a $20,000 loan intended for low- to moderate-income residents.

As part of his plea deal, he testified in federal court for more than two days late last year against his fellow officer, Francis Styles, who the government alleged knowingly covered up Lillo's use of excessive force.

Lillo told U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty that he fully expected Styles and other cooperating officers to cover for his use of force on the night of the incident. However, the case ended in a mistrial after jurors told the McNulty they were deadlocked.

Officials indicated they would retry Styles, but announced later that they were dropping the charges.

Lillo's sentencing dates have now been postponed four times in 2016, twice in 2017, and three times this year, according to court records.

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY  Legislation allowing Jersey City to impose a 1 percent payroll tax on local businesses cleared a hurdle on Tuesday when Gov. Phil Murphy signed the bill into law.

The tax proposal now moves to the City Council, which must approve the tax on its own and decide whether to exempt Jersey City residents' wages. The council could also decide to make the tax lower than 1 percent.

The tax was conceived as a way to offset cuts to Jersey City's public-school district, which is expected to lose $175 million in state aid over the next seven years. State lawmakers who support the payroll tax have said it could produce up to $80 million in additional revenue annually. Newark's payroll tax brings in $48 million.

Business groups who want to kill the tax plan kicked off a campaign two weeks ago with a website and mailer that calls for the council to "stop the jobs tax." The mailer includes names, phone numbers and email addresses for all nine City Council members, plus Mayor Steve Fulop's phone number. The campaign has also been calling voters.

Fulop, who has touted that his administration has not raised municipal taxes in five years, is silent on whether he supports the tax. Council President Rolando Lavarro said he supports it but does not appreciate that lawmakers have made it a necessity.

"I'm mad as hell that Trenton has balanced the budget on the backs of Jersey City's teachers and students," he said. "I am appreciative of those in the business community who recognize the unfortunate need and impossible situation Trenton has created. This fight is far from over. I have every intention of reversing these devastating school funding cuts  and the subsequent payroll tax  as soon as possible."

The group behind the anti-tax campaign calls itself Partnership for Jersey City. A source with knowledge of the campaign say it has ties to LeFrak, the developer behind the city's Newport area. A request for comment from LeFrak was not returned.

Partnership for Jersey City's website lists multiple "partners," including the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the tax. The chamber president, Maria Nieves, told The Jersey Journal it is partnering with Partnership for Jersey City to educate residents about the tax, but did not assist with the group's creation or funding.

Brigid D'Souza is a Jersey City woman who blogs about city issues, including education matters. D'Souza told The Jersey Journal there needs to be a "robust dialogue" around the tax plan, one she said she sees happening only on the anti-tax side.

D'Souza, who has children enrolled in the 29,000-student school district, noted that the state believes that the district's $660 million budget is about $100 million less than what the state calls an "adequacy budget," the amount it would cost to provide a thorough and efficient education to every pupil.

"We're severely underfunded," she said. "We need new local revenues."

Gualberto "Gil" Medina, the state's commerce secretary under Gov. Christie Todd Whitman, opposes the tax. Medina said even a 1 percent tax could limit a business' ability to grow and it could discourage businesses from opening or remaining in Jersey City.

"This is coming on top of an already high-tax environment," he said. "It could work to diminish the economic progress and growth of Jersey City."

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.A West New York man riding a bicycle groped a woman as he passed her on a Hoboken street and fled, but he was tracked down and arrested four days later, authorities said.

Carlos Ramos-Huapaya, 28, was arrested at his home on Monday and charged with criminal sexual contact, Hoboken Lt. Edgardo Cruz said.

Cruz said the groping incident occurred on Thursday, when the victim was walking home in the area of 13th and Clinton streets. The woman told police she was approached from behind by a man riding a mountain bike, and the man grabbed her buttocks, Cruz said.

The victim told police she was not injured.

A brief description was provided, but police could not locate the man, Cruz said.

Detective Arturo Gonzalez picked up the investigation and, with the assistance from uniformed personnel, and along with the evidence collected, identified Ramos-Huapaya as the assailant, Cruz said.

After his arrest Ramos-Huapaya was taken to Hudson County jail.A 28-year-old woman took the witness stand yesterday morning and provided what prosecutors hope will be the testimony that convicts a man on trial for a 2017 murder.

The woman, whose identity and photo are not being published at the request of the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office, painted a terrifying picture of the May 9, 2017 gunfire on Woodlawn Avenue in Jersey City that claimed 19-year-old Rasheed Raysor's life.

Dominique Green, 23, the man on trial for Raysor's murder, faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted. Green is also charged with weapons offenses and two counts of conspiracy to commit witness tampering.

"(Raysor) was on the ground," the woman told the court, crying, as she reached for a tissue. "(Green) was standing over him... shooting him."

Then Green walked away nonchalantly, "like it was a sunny day," she said.

The woman said she was initially unsure about testifying because she "started getting all types of threats" and worried about the safety of her children and family. After reaching an agreement with detectives, she was relocated to another state and hasn't returned to New Jersey except for the trial.

The HCPO requested that The Jersey Journal not publish her name and photo in the paper's coverage of Green's trial because of the threats she received.

The woman told the court that sometime after 2:45 p.m. on the day of the shooting she was taking her children to their grandparents' home when she spotted Raysor -- whom she had known for many years -- with two men near a dollar store at Woodland and Ocean avenues.

The woman testified that she went into the store and engaged in "small conversation" with Raysor before walking up Woodlawn Avenue. As they approached the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Corcoran Street, Jerome Jeter -- who is also a witness in the trial -- called her over and talked with her for about 10 minutes, she said.

While she spoke with Jeter, she said, Raysor waited across the street -- leaning on a pole while listening to music.

Moments later, the woman said she saw someone walking "not fast pace, not slow" from Corcoran Street -- onto Woodlawn Avenue -- but couldn't make out the person's face. It wasn't until the person "brushed" past her back that she made eye contact with the shooter.

The 28-year-old described the shooter as someone dressed in a navy sweatsuit with a hood over his head and hands in his pocket.

"It was Dominique," she said. "We locked eyes and (he) proceeded to cross the street."

She told the courtroom that she had known Green as "Deno" through mutual friends and said that they had privately messaged through Facebook before.

After the first shot, she stated, she ran into Jeter's building and continued to watch the shooting from the front door's glass window.

As the woman described the shooting, the courtroom grew tense -- and a woman ran out of the courtroom crying -- the witness explained she approached Raysor's body, screaming for help, but no one initially came.

The 19-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene at 3:50 p.m.

"What did the guy do so bad to get shot like that?" Jeter said during his testimony.

"Nothing," a person in the courtroom mumbled.

On the day of the homicide, the woman was asked by police if she had known what happened, but initially told investigators that she "knew nothing" and stuck to that statement during an on-the-record interview the next day.

However, on her way out of the interview, an officer asked if she was OK, to which she responded "no," and proceeded to say "I know who killed Rasheed," she said.

But when defense attorney Scott Finckenauer got to question the witness, he focused on the discrepancy between her initial statement to investigators and her court testimony she provide.

"'I'm gonna lie so I can get what I want,'" said Finckenaur, regarding the woman's revised statement to police.



The woman asserted she initially denied knowing anything about the shooting to save her own life.



The jury trial will continue today at 9 a.m. in front of Hudson County Superior Judge Mark Nelson at the Hudson County Superior Court.Harding Township police and firefighters from the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Department work to free a horse after a tree fell on its leg (courtesy of Harding Township police)

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By Alexis Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Police officers in Harding Township teamed up with New Vernon volunteer firefighters to save a horse that was trapped under a fallen tree Tuesday evening.

The owner of the horse, who lives on Post House Road, alerted police just before 6 p.m. that a tree had fallen on top of the horse's leg and it became trapped between two stumps, according to Chief Erik Heller of the Harding Township police department.

When officers arrived on scene they immediately contacted the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Department to help cutting the logs around the horse to set it free, Heller said.

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Harding Township police and firefighters from the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Department work to free a horse after a tree fell on its leg (courtesy of Harding Township police)

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The rescue effort took about 30 minutes and the owner alerted an equestrian doctor who arrived on scene to assess the horse, Heller said.

Once freed, the horse was able to stand up on its own.

Harding Township police shared the rescue photos on their Facebook page Wednesday morning, which was later shared by New Vernon firefighters.

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The horse was able to stand on its own after Harding Township police and firefighters from the New Vernon Volunteer Fire Department freed it from the tree. (courtesy of Harding Township police)

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"The residents of Harding should rest assured that you have a dedicated team of qualified individuals that will respond day or night to assist in any way needed," the New Vernon firefighters said in their post.

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N.J. weather forecast: Flash flood watch issued for heavy rain, thunderstorms

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Alexis Johnson may be reached at ajohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @alexisjreports. Find nj.com on Facebook.Air India says the airline is "deeply concerned" about complaints of bed bugs infestation on flights between Newark Liberty International Airport and Mumbai and the company has taken steps to clean its planes.

The airline told NBCNews.com that "experienced experts have carried out extensive service on the aircraft from fumigation to overhaul of the upholstery/ seat covers/carpets but described passengers' grievances as "isolated incidents."

A passenger describes her experience after she was bitten by bedbugs while flying business class with Air India. pic.twitter.com/TpxnJRXvFH  BBC Asian Network (@bbcasiannetwork) July 25, 2018

Passengers on at least two different planes that offer service as flight 144 reported they found bed bugs. Children, including an 8-month old, were among those bitten, passengers reported.

"Air India is deeply concerned with a few reports of 'bugs' causing inconvenience to its esteemed passengers," the statement went on to say. "The issue has been viewed seriously and every possible step is being taken to closely inspect and further strengthen our system at every level to ensure that such isolated incidents of passenger discomfiture do not affect our consistent performance."

In one instance, a New York City man said that his wife and three children flew from Newark to Mumbai earlier this month and ended up with bed bites all over their bodies.

In a phone interview with NJ Advance Media on Wednesday afternoon, Rohan Shetty said that his wife received an email from Air India earlier Thursday offering to refund 75 percent of the family's airfare.

Shetty said he'll consider whether to accept the airline's offer, but said when his family returns to the U.S. in August they'll be taking a different carrier.

"There's absolutely no way we're going anywhere near this airline again," the Manhattan resident said, adding that his wife and children have recovered from the bites. "It's just not safe."

Shetty said he and his wife had to send about 10 emails and speak with five different Air India employees over the past week before Air India offered to return some of their money.

Several days before offering the partial refund, Shetty said an airline representative apologized and told him that the planes had been fumigated.

Air India didn't reply to multiple requests for comment from NJ Advance Media.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Jersey City's mayor is planting himself at the forefront of a national movement to stop destroying people's lives for having a little marijuana.



Steven Fulop is firmly on the right side of this issue, and Gov. Phil Murphy's attorney general, Gurbir Grewal, is not fighting him on it -- once again demonstrating that he is not just concerned with law and order, but justice.



Grewal has been receptive to reform efforts in general, creating a statewide team to investigate wrongful convictions, for instance, after a bungled murder case in Passaic County.

N.J. won't prosecute many weed cases until September. It's a big step toward legalization.



In this case, he says his office wasn't consulted before Jersey City announced it would seek to decriminalize marijuana, and treat simple possession like a traffic ticket, rather than grounds for arrest.



But while Fulop may have gone a bit rogue, his instinct was right, and he has effectively triggered a statewide policy shift by the attorney general.



Grewal took a step in Jersey City's direction on Tuesday, easing up on marijuana enforcement in what could be the first move toward decriminalization for New Jersey. He directed every municipal prosecutor to adjourn all marijuana cases until September, when he'll issue new guidance.



By then, we hope the Legislature will have legalized marijuana, or that Grewal directs prosecutors to drop these cases for good. His spokeswoman said he wants to build consensus before taking action. "We want to do the right thing, the right way," Sharon Lauchaire said.



In the meantime, Grewal is ensuring that more people won't be sent to jail while officials sort this out. The mayor and attorney general wrangled over whether Jersey City had the authority to stop these prosecutions on its own, or if this conflicted with state law.



The Hudson County prosecutor, Esther Suarez, reportedly threatened to take over marijuana cases from Jersey City's new municipal prosecutor, Jake Hudnut, if he refused to pursue them, for reasons that are hard to fathom.



Her spokesman said she could not be reached for an explanation on Tuesday. That would have been a big waste of resources and grave injustice, given that our state is on the brink of legalizing marijuana.



What we should be doing is leaning on any local officials or judges who are still hell-bent on wrecking people's lives for a joint. Why, when lawmakers say they are just months away from legalizing weed, should you lose your ability to legally drive, your student financial aid, your job or immigration status, or be banned from public housing, because of it?



Of the 36,000 people arrested in New Jersey for marijuana in 2016, more than 32,000 were charged for having just a small amount, NJ Cannabis Insider reported. Given that this affects tens of thousands of lives, a statewide policy change is best. If Jersey City did this alone, you could be five feet on the wrong side of its municipal line and end up with a criminal record.



Full legalization is the ultimate answer, because it takes the profits away from criminals and uses them for the public good. But in the meantime, we're thankful that Grewal is stopping these prosecutions, as he convenes an advisory group to study this issue.

Let's hope it recommends these cases be dropped permanently, and Jersey City continues to lead the way.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.By Holly Schepisi

Just like the onslaught of court-mandated overdevelopment under the disguise of affordable housing, the momentum to stop it from burdening our towns is building fast.

Unfortunately, last year the New Jersey Supreme Court sided with the non-profit Fair Share Housing Center to force towns to build approximately 280,000 affordable housing units.

Now mayors and town councils across the state, Democrat and Republican, are warning that forcing massive high-density projects will overwhelm infrastructure, burden the school system, and greatly increase property taxes. That's why over 50 towns have passed resolutions calling for a state solution that ends the tyranny of the courts.

We don't have the money or the land to build those developments without turning New Jersey into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. And, court mandates do not make the state more affordable.

A sampling of court approved settlements in 39 communities show an immediate building of almost 25,000 housing units, of which only approximately 5,000 are affordable. These units will be built on the last remaining open space in our state without regard to the environment.

No one has even studied whether people will move into these new units. Our average population grew less than one-third of a percent each year over the past five years - a trend that's expected to continue until at least 2025. But, high-density developments planned across the state would require an almost 30 percent population increase. This demand is a fantasy.

The real problem isn't a lack of housing; it's that housing is far too expensive.

New Jersey is far and away the leader in foreclosed homes. A third of renters spend more than half their income on rent and utilities, and property taxes are the highest in the nation. Our communities need the legislature to do its job and implement statewide goals to address affordability.

Everyone must join us to provide a reasonable solution to affordable housing. Today the Assembly Housing Committee is meeting to discuss this problem. It might be the most urgent issue in our state.

Our goal is the same as those fighting to build these massive projects: make housing more affordable for low-income people and families. But, our means are different.

I have proposed a plan to relieve municipalities of this responsibility, creating a formula for the state to determine where affordable housing would be best suited and how much of it we can afford. Our communities need the legislature to do its job and implement statewide goals to properly address affordability.

Neighborhoods defined by boarded-up homes should be the target of our redevelopment. In fact, the state is flush with vacant homes - nearly three times more than the national average. Yet, much of those foreclosed homes are in urban areas that are exempt from affordable housing requirements.

These boarded-up neighborhoods directly affect the livelihood of those who are left. Poor housing quality and residential instability are the top two indicators of emotional and behavioral problems for low-income children. When houses remain in foreclosure, the entire neighborhood suffers from the blight.

We should revitalize these communities for low-income families and millennials who need easy access to public transportation and jobs. Building on every last parcel of open space is not the way.

High-density developments will force towns and the state to further hike your income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and any other taxes that can be found to pay for new development. All the while thousands of homes remain boarded-up and thousands more become vacant as New Jersey becomes increasingly unaffordable.

The court's continued presence has created a mess that puts the burden of more housing on municipalities, forcing them to increase the cost of living on current residents for future ones. It is a vicious cycle that makes the state more unaffordable, which is exactly the problem in the first place.

New Jerseyans opposed to court-mandated developments have every right to be. Mayors, who have spent millions of their residents' tax dollars to fight for the best possible outcome in court, are rightly concerned with the undue burden being placed on their hometowns.

New Jersey has a very clear need for affordable housing, but the problem is not a lack of housing supply. The problem is that property taxes are too high and the cost-of-living continues to rise - forcing people out of their homes and out of the state.

Working families need to be able to save for retirement instead of spending well over a third of their income on housing costs.

We need to continue our momentum fighting court-mandated affordable housing. Join us in the fight to do this job right.

Holly Schepisi, R-Bergen, represents parts of Bergen and Passaic counties in the 39th Legislative District. She has worked as a municipal attorney and represented private and corporate clients relating to municipal planning, zoning changes and land use.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.A Canadian gunned down in Batangas City was preparing to flee the Philippines following an ugly property dispute.

Philippinelifestyles.com reported that Barry Gammon and his wife Luzviminda were outside their garage when two gunmen approached and shot them at about 7.45pm on Sunday, June 24.

They were both taken to the United Doctors of St Camillus Hospital in the city but the 66-year-old died while being treated for multiple bullet wounds.

His wife was hit by a piece of a deformed bullet and sustained bruises on her right thigh. Their nine-year-old son hid inside the home and was uninjured.

Now CBC News has reported that the Canadian had been involved in a dispute over a right of way.

Speaking to the broadcaster, Superintendent Sancho Celedio, Batangas City chief of police, said: The suspect might have been commissioned as someone to kill for a contract that had been made on Barry Gammon.

Apparently Barry Gammon had altercations with certain personalities in his block regarding a possible dispute about right of ways.

He added that a suspect with a criminal record had been identified. Weve already filed charges against the suspect. And were now waiting for the warrant of the arrest to be issued, he said.

Until then, we would rather that we are silent about his identity, so that precludes any attempt for him to go out of the area, or it will be a challenge for us.

Mr Gammon, originally from Montreal, had lived in the Philippines since 2008 after spending much of his life living in the USA.

Due to rising tensions in the neighbourhood, the family had planned to leave the Philippines without delay and move to Canada. Their house had already been put on the market.

Supt. Celedio said the murder had left him very concerned.

We want all the foreign tourists and even those who are residents in the city and elsewhere to be secured and protected by the local police, he said.

We would like to see it as an isolated incident.New Jersey's attorney general announced on Tuesday an immediate hold of all marijuana cases in municipal courts statewide until at least September.

In a letter state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sent Tuesday to municipal prosecutors in the state, he asked them to seek an adjournment until Sept. 4 -- or later -- of any matter "involving a marijuana-related offense pending in municipal court," a move that will allow the attorney general's office time to develop "appropriate guidance" for prosecutors.

Gov. Phil Murphy has said he backs legalization as a "social justice" issue and rejects critics' claims that he's eager only for new revenue for the cash-strapped budget.

A source in the state Senate told NJ Advance Media that a bill legalizing adult-use marijuana sponsored by state Sen. Nick Scutari, D-Union -- himself a municipal prosecutor in the city of Linden -- was expected to reach the Senate for consideration by September as well.

Grewal's directive came just days after Jake Hudnut, the newly installed municipal prosecutor in Jersey City, announced that his office would seek to downgrade some marijuana charges to noncriminal offenses, seek the outright dismissal of low-level marijuana charges and divert those defendants with prior drug arrests and signs of addiction to the city's community court.

The attorney general's office quickly notified Hudnut that he lacked the legal authority to decriminalize marijuana or otherwise refuse to criminally prosecute marijuana-related offenses, noting that only the state Legislature could take such action.

In May, NJ Cannabis Insider reported that of the nearly 36,000 people who were arrested on marijuana charges in New Jersey in 2016, more than 32,000 were charged for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Such marijuana possession convictions can cause offenders to lose their homes, cost them financial aid, or see the revocation of their driver's licenses.

With this new move, should New Jersey finally legalize recreational marijuana?

Vote in our informal and unscientific poll and tell us why in the comments.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency says it's making progress in tackling three high-priority Superfund sites in New Jersey.

The EPA cited a $74 million cleanup proposal at the American Cyanamid site in Bridgewater, an interim plan at the Ventron/Velsicol Superfund site in Bergen County, and an ongoing review at the Diamond Alkali site in Newark.

No other state had more locations than New Jersey among the 21 Superfund sites identified in December by then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt as the agency's highest priorities for cleanup.

"By actively engaging our partners and stakeholders, we have reinforced our mission of protecting public health and the environment," EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez said. "In the months and years ahead, we will continue to reach major remediation milestones for these sites, enabling EPA to return them to our communities for productive use."

The EPA highlighted the progress on the first anniversary of its Superfund Task Force Report, which included the recommendation that the agency identify its highest-priority sites.

A critic of the agency, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th Dist., said more needed to be done, and the government needed to raise more money to do it.

"There clearly is a situation where they don't get cleaned up because there is not enough money," said Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Pallone said original superfund was a tax on oil and chemical companies, and that should be reinstated to raise enough money to clean up all the sites.

"There really is no superfund any more," Pallone said. "We need to bring back the trust fund. Many sites in New Jersey have been cleaned up but there are a lot more than are waiting and could be cleaned up if we had a superfund."

There are more than 100 other Superfund sites in the state.

Here are more details about the three sites cited in the EPA report:

American Cyanamid. The 435-acre site was used to make chemicals and pharmaceuticals for more than nine decades. Wyeth Holdings, which currently owns the site, has taken steps to prevent benzene from seeping into the Raritan River. Wyeth, a subsidiary of Pfizer, has agreed to spend $194 million on remediation.

EPA says the cleanup includes removing and treating 55,000 cubic yards of contaminated materials from the Raritan River floodplain

Berry's Creek Study Area (Ventron/Velsicol site). Mercury, methyl mercury and PCBs are on the site, which includes about six miles of waterway that connects to the Hackensack River. The cleanup plan includes removing sediment from Berry's Creek

Diamond Alkali. The site includes the former manufacturing facility in Newark, 17 miles of the lower Passaic River from Dundee Dam to Newark Bay, and the Newark Bay Study Area, which includes the bay and parts of the Hackensack River, Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- A majority of U.S. voters said they believed the Russian government has compromising information on President Donald Trump, according to a poll taken after his much-derided press conference with Vladimir Putin.

In the Quinnipiac University survey released Tuesday, 51 percent said Moscow had compromising information about Trump, while just 35 percent disagreed. They called the Trump-Putin meeting a failure by 52 percent to 27 percent, and said the president was not acting in the best interests of the U.S. by 54 percent to 41 percent.

"Whether it is with love or not, President Donald Trump's relationship with Russia has delivered a small blow to his already poor standing with the American people," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

The furor over Trump and Russia helped drive down his job approval ratings to 38 percent, with 58 percent disapproving. That was his lowest approval rating since March.

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey released Sunday gave Trump a 45 percent approval rating, with 52 percent disapproving. That was his highest positive score in that poll since becoming president.

At his joint press conference with Putin following their closed-door meeting, Trump appeared to take the Russians' side against the findings of U.S. intelligence agencies and the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee when it came to whether Moscow intervened in the 2016 election on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee.

"I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial," Trump said at the press conference following their meeting.

Senate Republican leaders blocked a vote on bipartisan legislation to support the intelligence agencies and the Justice Department, which is investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. The same measure was introduced in the House by Reps. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill.

A majority of voters, 55 percent, said the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia was fair, compared with 31 percent who said it was not; and 54 percent said it was legitimate probe, while 40 percent parroted the president's claim that it was a "witch hunt."

More than 6 in 10 voters, 63 percent, said they were concerned that Russia would attempt to intervene in the 2018 midtern elections, while 36 percent expressed little or no worry.

Trump appeared to agree about Russian intervention Tuesday, though he insisted on Twitter that Moscow would support Democratic candidates.

Im very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election. Based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely dont want Trump!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018

The poll of 1,177 votes was conducted July 18-23 and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House wants to crack down on unauthorized radio broadcasts from "pirate" stations.

The Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, or PIRATE, Act would increase fines to $100,000 from $10,000 and require the Federal Communications Commission to target markets where such illegal radio stations proliferate, including the New York-New Jersey area.

It cleared the House on Monday.

Rep. Leonard Lance, R-7th Dist., the bill's chief sponsor, said such broadcasts interfere with emergency alert system announcements and Federal Aviation Administration operations.

"Knocking down 'pirate radio' broadcasts prevents these bad actors from interfering with the licensed broadcasters public safety officials rely on to transmit communications during times of emergency," Lance said.

"These unlawful broadcasts are interfering with the news and information programming people count on and needlessly clogging the information highway at important times."

Under federal law, most broadcasters need an FCC license before using the public airwaves for a radio or television station.

One such private radio station was Radio Free America, which transmitted in 1973 from a former Navy minesweeper off the coast of Cape May. The station was the brain child of conservative fundamentalist preacher Carl McIntire of Collingswood. The U.S. Coast Guard showed up 10 hours later and shut it down.L

In 2015, Linden officials shut down an illegal station broadcasting at an FM frequency of 101.3 from a private home and interfering with WKXW-FM, which is heard on 101.5.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Two police officers are retiring and a third is facing disciplinary charges in the wake of an explosive harassment lawsuit against Mountainside police that alleges years of misconduct involving a large dildo, pranks involving nudity and homophobic games, borough officials said Tuesday.

Police Chief Allan Attanasio had been placed on paid administrative leave in May, one week after the lawsuit was filed in Superior Court. The five officers who sued alleged their colleagues engaged in repeated displays of a dildo named "Big Blue," racial slurs and other misdeeds.

From left: Lt. Thomas Murphy, Chief Allan Attanasio, Detective Sgt. Andrew Huber (Mountainside police Facebook page)

The plaintiffs -- officers Jeffrey Stinner, Christopher Feighner, Richard Latargia, Thomas Norton and James Urban, and part-time dispatcher Amy Colineri -- say they were subjected to a hostile work environment and retaliation and are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, among other remedies.

While only the Borough of Mountainside is named as a defendant, Attanasio is accused in the lawsuit of taking no actions to intervene.

Many of the allegations in the lawsuit focus on two longtime officers, Lt. Thomas Murphy and Detective Sgt. Andrew Huber.

Attanasio and Huber, who also had been placed on paid leave, have filed for retirement and were removed from the payroll July 20, according to a joint statement from the Mayor Paul Mirabelli and the Borough Council.

"Any decision regarding their pension rests with the State pension board and is outside the Borough's jurisdiction," the mayor said.

According to state pension data, Attanasio has 34 years of service and his salary was $150,104. Huber has 21 years of service and his salary was $133,531.

Murphy was suspended without pay July 13, as a result of a review by former assistant U.S. attorney William Maderer, and the borough has filed disciplinary charges against him, Mirabelli and the council said.

"Has any of this impacted the safety in the Borough? Absolutely not. We are fortunate to live in a safe town, where the police know the residents and our neighborhoods," read their statement.

The 48-page lawsuit extensively details the allegations, including a "large dildo" that Huber allegedly kept in his desk drawer and later in his filing cabinet at headquarters. It first appeared around 2007 or 2008, according to the lawsuit.

"While Plaintiff Stinner was assigned to the detective bureau, Stinner would be subjected to Big Blue on an almost daily basis. Huber would wave around Big Blue, throw it within the detective bureau, and throw it at people walking past the detective bureau," the lawsuit states.

At one point, another officer saw Big Blue in a coffee mug and threw it in the trash -- yet it "reappeared" some time afterward at headquarters, according to the lawsuit.

No one complained to higher-ups until 2012 when Norton and another officer, unnamed in the lawsuit, notified a "member of the police administration," also unnamed, on the same day an attorney was making a presentation on sexual harassment, the lawsuit states.

No charges have been filed in connection with any of the allegations.

Mountainside Police Lt. Joseph Giannuzzi, officer-in-charge of the department, did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The statement from Mirabelli and the council noted an ongoing review by Joseph Santiago, a former New Jersey State Police superintendent who more recently was the police director in Irvington.

The Mountainside Police Department has 22 officers and patrols a municipality that is just over 4 square miles and home to 6,600.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.One of two New Orleans police officers NOPD arrested Tuesday (July 25) after a bar fight they were involved in sent a civilian to the hospital told investigators he didn't remember beating the man, according to booking records.

John Galman, 26, and Spencer Sutton, 24, were each charged with simple battery after NOPD's public integrity bureau launched an internal investigation. The officers were off duty at the time of the altercation early Tuesday outside the Mid-City Yacht Club. The injured man, who police said had "severe" injuries, has since been released from the hospital, NOPD said Tuesday evening.

Jorge Gomez, 38, who came forward to local media outlets as the injured man, said he was at the bar and wearing camouflage-print clothing when Galman and Sutton called him over and began harassing him about military service. Gomez told WVUE Fox 8 they called him a "fake American" when he said he had served in the military, and then beat him.

NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said investigators gathered "multiple video accounts and eyewitness statements" to determine that "our officers were the aggressors in this incident." The department began "termination proceedings" on Tuesday to fire the officers, who graduated from NOPD's training academy in December and were still on probationary employment status.

When Sutton was questioned, an NOPD record states, he "had no specific memory of the circumstances wherein he was identified as the perpetrator of a battery." That record was filed in municipal court, where the officers stood before a judge on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

That document and a similar record in Galman's case state the officers were involved in a "verbal altercation" that "led to a physical confrontation," during which the officers committed a simple battery. A "gist sheet" in Galman's case states that the verbal altercation was "over the victim's military service."

Galman's booking records do not indicate if he was interviewed before his arrest.

Outside court Wednesday, Sutton's attorney Jake Lemmon said his client and Galmon, "maintain their innocence."

Both officers were released from jail Tuesday, hours after their arrests, on their own recognizance. After a prosecutor from Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office on Wednesday argued authorizing their release without setting a bond was "illegal," Municipal Court Judge Steven Jupiter set their bonds at $1,500 each, over the objection of the defense attorneys.

Cannizzaro's office later said in a statement that Orleans Parish Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman should not have released the officers on their own recognizance the previous day because simple battery is a "crime of violence," which precludes that type of bond. Recognizance releases do not require defendants to put down any money or property to get out of jail while they await their next hearing.

"In addition, when the defendants are law enforcement officers who have a sworn duty to protect and serve the public, and they violate the trust of the community even while off-duty, the court should be obligated to take a harder look and set an appropriate bond," Cannizzaro said in connection to his criticism of the recognizance bond.

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An attorney for one of the officers on Wednesday told Jupiter the recognizance bond was "completely legal." Simple battery is omitted from a list of crimes deemed "crimes of violence," in a state statute, though that statute is more often referred to in sentencing matters.

Sutton and Galmon did not say anything in open court. Both stood a few inches over 6 feet and wore button-down shirts and slacks. Galmon was represented by Townsend Myers.

Harrison on Tuesday noted the "swift pace" of the public integrity bureau's investigation, which he said demonstrates "how seriously our department views their actions."

One of Gomez's neighbors said he saw several NOPD members, including Harrison, arrive at Gomez's house midday Wednesday. The neighbor said at least four NOPD vehicles, including the one the chief rode in, parked on the street while visiting at Gomez's home. NOPD spokesman Andy Cunningham confirmed NOPD leaders met with Gomez and his family on Wednesday.

Bar ownership 'sickened' by beating

The Mid-City Yacht Club released a statement on Facebook about Gomez and the fight that occurred outside the business.

"Mr. Gomez is our long time customer and friend and we are very sickened that this has happened to him," they wrote. "The MCYC family is extremely concerned. We will plan a fundraiser, as long as it is with Mr Gomez blessing, to help raise money to support Mr. Gomez during this difficult time."

A different neighbor described Gomez as a "super-cool" and "gentle guy," who kept to himself.

According to Gomez' relative who was at his home Wednesday, Gomez was treated at the hospital a second time, on Tuesday night, because he was in extreme pain.Louisiana State University has been awarded a $200,000 federal grant to support a new scholarship program for students minoring in nuclear power engineering.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will give LSU funding for two years from the NRC's Scholarship and Fellowship Education Grant Program to expand the school's Nuclear Power Engineering Scholarship program, according to an NRC news release July 18. An executive summary submitted to the NRC by LSU mechanical engineering professor Manas Gartia stated the scholarship program began in 2017.

LSU's scholarship program will support a total of 16 undergraduate students in the nuclear power engineering minor for two years, Gartia stated. Eight students will each receive $10,000 a year in an effort to prepare them for a career path in the nuclear industry or academia to meet the national nuclear workforce demand.

Gartia stated 53 students have opted for the nuclear engineering classes over the last two years, and two of those students joined the U.S. Navy Nuclear Program. Another student was offered a position at the Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility in Illinois. Several LSU students also found co-ops and internship positions at nuclear-related industries such as CB&I, Entergy, ILD Inc. and Zachary Nuclear Engineering, Inc.

LSU's new grant is among the 51 grants awarded to 40 academic institutions in 25 states this year, according to the NRC. Gartia stated LSU's scholarship program will include field trips to nuclear power plants such as River Bend in St. Francisville, Waterford in Killona, and nuclear laboratories such as Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. The program will also help LSU bring guest speakers and advocates of nuclear work forces from the National Laboratories, government agencies, and nuclear industries in an effort to inspire students to make a career in nuclear safety and security sectors.

. . . . . . .

Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionCostco colossus set to open new warehouse





INTERNATIONAL wholesaling colossus Costco will next month in Melbourne open its tenth warehouse in Australia, its fourth in Victoria, its 745th worldwide.

Costco, with a revenue last year of $US129 billion, says it is a membership warehouse club, dedicated to bringing its members the best possible prices on quality brand-name merchandise.

The company says it provides a wide selection of merchandise, plus the convenience of specialty departments and exclusive member services, all designed to make your shopping experience a pleasurable one.

The grand opening of the Epping warehouse will be on Wednesday, August 29.

The warehouse will feature Victorias second Costco Fuel station. Members need a Costco card to shop and to purchase fuel at the self-serve stations.

An Annual Costco membership will cost $55 for businesses and $60 for individuals.

The company plans to next open new warehouses in Ipswich (Qld) and Perth.

Costco Wholesale Corporation, trading as Costco, is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only warehouse clubs.

As of 2015, Costco was the second largest retailer in the world after Walmart, and as of 2016, Costco was the worlds largest retailer of choice and prime beef, organic foods, rotisserie chicken, and wine.

In this edition of Australian Food NewsA tip from citizen led to the arrests of three people in connection with the drive-by shooting of a house in Lacombe, authorities said.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said Wednesday (July 25) that the arrests of Jaydon Carter, 17, Avery Fabre, 18, and Johnterrius McDowell, 18, came after a tip that helped identify the vehicle from which the shots were allegedly fired.

The Sheriff's Office had put out a news release last week asking for the public's help in identifying the vehicle, a grey Hyundai Sonata with dark-tinted windows, seen speeding away from the Lacombe residence after the gunfire on July 16. The Sheriff's Office said several bullets struck the house on North Pontchartrain Drive, which was inhabited at the time of the shooting.

With the tip, investigators were able to find the vehicle Monday night (July 23) in Covington. During a search of the vehicle detectives found evidence related to the shooting, the Sheriff's Office said.

Use of the vehicle was traced to Carter. On Tuesday, detectives found Carter, Fabre and McDowell involved in a dice game in a driveway on West 32nd Avenue in Covington and arrested them.

The Sheriff's Office said Carter was driving the vehicle the night of the shooting, with McDowell and Fabre as passengers. Authorities said Fabre is accused of firing the shots.

Carter, McDowell and Fabre were each booked with five counts of assault by drive-by shooting and aggravated criminal damage. McDowell was also booked with illegal possession of a stolen gun. Fabre was also booked with possession of marijuana and bringing contraband into a jail.The New Orleans City Council doesn't have control over education policy in the city. But the council can use its clout to push school leaders to consider approaches that are important to children's well-being.

That is what Councilmember Helena Moreno is asking her colleagues to do.

She is proposing a resolution Thursday that urges the Orleans Parish School Board, all charter schools and private and parochial schools in the city to implement trauma-informed learning methods to help students who have experienced violence.

She lays out compelling reasons for expanding the number of schools using trauma-informed approaches to learning and discipline. "The impacts of traumatic experiences have the potential to be enduring and devastating ... Children who have experienced trauma may be at a heightened risk for mental and physical health issues, substance abuse, and criminal justice involvement" as teenagers and adults, her resolution says.

Trauma can overwhelm a child's ability to concentrate and to behave.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune journalists documented the damaging effect of violence on children in New Orleans our report, "The Children of Central City." Councilmember Moreno helped organize a community viewing and discussion last week of the documentary film that was part of that project.

According to research by the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, 42 children who attend Lawrence D. Crocker College Prep screened positive for lifetime PTSD. Since 2016, the institute's surveys of more than 300 students from public schools in and around Central City found that one in five children had witnessed a murder. More than half of them had someone close to them who had been murdered, the research showed.

Trauma-informed schools can help ease the effects of violence on children. But so far only 11 of the city's 80 public schools have fully embraced those methods.

Five city schools are in a trauma-informed learning collaborative begun in 2015 by the city health department, Tulane University's psychology department and social services agencies.

Six other schools are participating in "Safe Schools NOLA," a four-year study of trauma-informed approaches by Tulane researchers.

Staffs at those schools are trained to recognize signs of trauma, understand ways to make children feel safe and provide them with coping skills. The schools also eliminate harsh discipline policies.

Other New Orleans schools are screening children for trauma and bringing in mental health counselors for them, but they aren't taking a holistic approach. That is what Councilmember Moreno's resolution would urge them to do.

The city's conversion from a traditional school system to a loose network of public charter schools post-Katrina makes it a challenge to expand a program like this. Decisions on approaches to discipline and teacher training typically are made at each school.

Superintendent Henderson Lewis and the Orleans Parish School Board could encourage schools to embrace trauma-informed techniques and could help find resources to expand the effort to more campuses. Some schools might be eager to try this approach but have no idea how to begin.

Councilmember Moreno is right to press for private and parochial schools to consider trauma-based methods as well. Violence isn't confined to Central City. Children in neighborhoods across the city have been exposed to it.

Mental health services have been cut dramatically by the state in recent years, so many youngsters have little help coping with the violence they have witnessed. Some of them have difficulty paying attention in class. They may be tearful or have aggressive outbursts that get them into trouble or even sent home.

What they need are teachers and principals who understand why they are acting out. They need ways to more constructively express their feelings.

And they need help to get over their fears and anxiety, so they can succeed in school -- and life.By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland

NASA/JPL/MSSS

We now know that there is permanent liquid water on Mars, according to a paper published today in the journal Science.

This new finding comes from research using the Mars Express spacecraft that has been orbiting the red planet since December 25, 2003.

One of the suite of instruments carried by Mars Express is MARSIS (the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding), which allows researchers to use radar to study features beneath the planets surface.





Read more:

There is water on Mars, but what does this mean for life?





Using observations spanning a period of four years, a team of researchers from Italy found evidence of a large lake of salty water, buried 1.5 kilometres beneath Mars southern polar cap. That lake is at least 20 kilometres across, and seems to be a permanent feature.

More than droplets

The reason people are excited about this discovery is because on Earth, everywhere you find liquid water, you find life. NASA has long espoused a philosophy of follow the water in its program of astrobiological research  trying to answer the question are we alone?

Over the past two decades, we have seen mission after mission travel to Mars. Some, like Mars Express, are orbiters, whereas others (such as the incredible Spirit and Opportunity) are rovers. A unifying theme across those missions has been their attempts to see whether Mars once had the right conditions for life to exist and thrive.

Through them we have found abundant evidence that Mars was once warm and wet. We also have evidence that liquid water can still be found on the surface of Mars, from time to time.

But until today, the evidence of modern water all pointed towards fleeting moments - droplets condensing on the Mars Phoenix lander; or evidence of brief outflows of salty water in Martian valleys.

Compared with todays discovery, those earlier findings are a drop in the ocean.

Mars has a lake

The latest observations reveal something remarkable: a salty lake buried deep beneath the ice, which seems to be a permanent feature rather than a transient phenomenon.

The comparison that springs to mind are the myriad lakes buried under the ice of Antarctica. So far more than 400 such lakes have been found beneath the surface of the frozen continent.

Perhaps the most famous is Lake Vostok  one of the worlds largest lakes, buried and hidden away. But the one to which I want to draw your attention is named Lake Whillans.

Lake Whillans is buried some 800 metres below the ice in West Antarctica. In 2013, a team of researchers succeeded in drilling down into the lake and recovering samples. What did they find? That it was teeming with microbial life.

In other words, the best Earth-based analogues for the newly discovered Martian lake are not just habitable, they are inhabited. Where theres water, theres life.

Is there life on Mars?

Finding this new lake, buried beneath Mars south pole, is another exciting step on our journey of discovery of the red planet. Could there be life there, beneath the ice?

The short answer is that we still dont know. But it seems like the ideal place to look. What we do know is:

Mars was once warm and wet, potentially with oceans, lakes, and rivers

On Earth, where you find water, you find life

The transition from warm, wet Mars to the cold and barren Mars we see today occurred over millions of years

Life adapts to changing environments, so long as that change is not too fast or dramatic.

So what do you get if you put all that together? Well, this is where things get speculative.

But lets imagine that in the far distant past, Mars had life. Perhaps the life originated there, or maybe it was delivered from Earth, hitching a ride on a meteorite.

Once life is established, it is amazingly hard to get rid of. Over millions of years, Mars cooled and its water became locked in permafrost. Its atmosphere thinned and it became the red planet we see today.

But maybe, just maybe, that life would have been able to follow the water - to move underground, where it might have found a niche, in a dark salty lake, buried beneath the ice of Mars southern polar cap.

Thats all well and good, but what next?

Thats all speculation, but it shows the kind of thought processes that have driven our ongoing exploration of Mars for the past couple of decades.

Now that we know for sure that there is a reservoir of liquid water just beneath the planets surface, astronomers around the globe will be thinking of ways to get down to that water to see whats there.

That is easier said than done. Landing on Mars is challenging at the best of times, and the great majority of missions to date have landed within about 30 latitude of Mars equator. The two exceptions are the Viking 2 and Phoenix landers, both of which landed in Mars northern lowlands.









NASA/JPL-Caltech





In addition, landing on Mars southern hemisphere is harder still. The north is the lowlands and the atmosphere there is markedly thicker, and the surface smoother (as befits, potentially, the floor of an ancient ocean).





Read more:

Before we colonise Mars, let's look to our problems on Earth





To the south, you have less atmosphere to slow your descent and a rougher surface to make your landing harder.

But, while tricky, it is not impossible. And now we have a huge motivation to try.

It would not surprise me if, within a decade, we see missions being designed to visit Mars south pole and drill down to this great lake, to see what lurks within.

Jonti Horner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Originally published in The Conversation.The group calls itself the Main Street Investors Coalition.

It is a Washington organization that purports to represent the little guy  the retail investor that it says has no voice in corporate America. The group has been not-so-quietly circulating a white paper and various studies in hopes of influencing an examination by the Securities and Exchange Commission of regulations that affect investors. The group has been quoted in the news media and had op-eds published in The Hill, The Washington Examiner and elsewhere.

And yet the Main Street Investors Coalition has nothing to do with mom-and-pop investors.

The group is actually funded by big business interests that want to diminish the ability of pension funds and large 401(k) plans  where most little guys keep their money  to influence certain corporate governance issues.

The coalition popped up in the past two months and is positioning itself against firms like BlackRock and Vanguard, which manage trillions of dollars of Americans retirement savings and have been using the shareholder votes that come with those investments to take activist positions against corporate boards. The group is incensed that such firms are increasingly promoting environmental, social and governance causes on issues like climate change, gun control and employee diversity. Investors such as BlackRock contend that corporations need to consider such issues for the long-term health of the businesses.

As the size and influence of these massive institutional holders has grown, so, too, has their power, influence and share of voice  drowning out the voices and interests of Main Street investors who, despite controlling the single largest pool of equity capital in the world, have almost no ability today to influence the decisions these funds make on their behalf, with their money, the Main Street Investors Coalition says on its website.The enforcement division, led by Risa Sugarman, its chief enforcement counsel, determined that the committee, the Senate Independence Campaign Committee, raised and spent funds far in excess of statutory contribution limits for nearly two years, ending in late April. As such, the Board of Elections asked that beneficiaries of such funds refund all excess contributions and transfers from the disputed campaign committee.

To date, no apparent effort has been made to refund contributions received by this illegally created committee, a lawyer for the enforcement division wrote in the letter, as reported by The Times Union of Albany, or to properly allocate its expenditures.

The committees chairman was Senator Jeffrey D. Klein, the former leader of the I.D.C., who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County. Mr. Klein has been a major beneficiary of such funds, receiving $200,000 this year. Other former I.D.C. members have also received large transfers, including Senator Marisol Alcantara of Manhattan, who got more than $160,000; Senator Jose Peralta of Queens, who received $113,500; and Senator Jesse Hamilton of Brooklyn, who received $109,700.

All four are facing challengers in the Democratic primary on Sept. 13. On Tuesday, those opponents seized the opportunity to press the senators to return the funds.

Jose Peralta has tried to scam our community for the last time, said Jessica Ramos, who is challenging Mr. Peralta. Enough is enough.Clare Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagrams liquor fortune, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in federal court in Brooklyn after her arrest on conspiracy and racketeering charges in connection with her role at Nxivm, a self-help group that prosecutors call a pyramid scheme and former members say is a cult.

Ms. Bronfman was released on a $100 million bond  roughly half of her net worth, according to her lawyer, Susan Necheles  and, after a sometimes contentious hourlong bail hearing, was ordered placed under house arrest by United States District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis. Ms. Bronfman will have to wear an ankle monitor at her New York apartment under the terms of her release and must return to court on Friday with assets totaling $50 million to put up as security for her bail.

Ms. Bronfman was one of four people arrested in New York State on Tuesday after the unsealing of an updated seven-count indictment against Keith Raniere, leader of the now defunct-group, and five others in his inner circle, federal prosecutors said in the indictment.

Mr. Raniere, 57, was arrested earlier this year in Mexico and brought to New York to face federal sex-trafficking charges. Prosecutors said he and one of his followers, Allison Mack, 35, an actress known for her work in Smallville, coerced female members to have unwanted sex with him and branded them with a symbol containing his initials. Mr. Raniere is being held without bail in Brooklyn to await trial.Scrambling to soften the blow of his destructive trade wars, President Trump is offering a $12 billion bailout for farmers facing retaliation from Americas trading partners hurt by his tariffs. Its a desperation move, and it wont do much to reverse the damage the administration has inflicted by senselessly raising duties on steel, aluminum and other imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union, China and elsewhere.

Mr. Trumps tariff increases were never needed in the first place. Indeed, the plan to pay off farmers  theoretically, voters in many of the presidents political strongholds  is the latest in a series of incoherent and haphazard economic decisions that the Trump administration has made in recent months, often in an attempt to clean up after it failed to think through the consequences of its earlier actions. In retaliation for Mr. Trumps tariffs, China, the European Union, Mexico and other countries quite predictably imposed tariffs on soybeans, corn, pork and other products, and so  equally predictably  demand, and therefore prices, dropped for these commodities. The agriculture sector is understandably upset. But a one-time payment is no way to fix this problem the president created.

Thats why even lawmakers from farm states dont like the presidents approach of using a Depression-era program known as the Commodity Credit Corporation to help farmers. Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, likened the plan to spending $12 billion on gold crutches. He added, This administrations tariffs and bailouts arent going to make America great again; theyre just going to make it 1929 again. In April, after the administration floated the idea of helping farmers hurt by foreign tariffs, Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the agriculture committee, told reporters, We dont need another subsidy program; we need to sell our product.

Mr. Trumps decision to pay farmers could run afoul of commitments the United States has made at the World Trade Organization not to unfairly subsidize its agricultural sector. That could give other countries, which will now be worried that their farmers will be at a competitive disadvantage, a reason to further retaliate against the United States. Countries have often fought about agriculture subsidies. For example, the Obama administration accused India of unfairly subsidizing its farmers, and Brazil has long complained about American farm programs.Where she goes, they follow. All 76 of them.

A female duck in Minnesota has about six dozen ducklings in her care, a remarkable image that an amateur wildlife photographer captured on a recent trip to Lake Bemidji, about 150 miles northwest of Duluth, Minn.

It was mind blowing, the photographer, Brent Cizek, said in an interview. I didnt know that a duck could care for that many chicks.

Its not unusual to see many ducklings gathered together. Some 20 or 30 have been reported with a single hen. But 70-plus?

Its an extraordinary sighting, said Richard O. Prum, an ornithologist at Yale University.

Experts say the photo, which has been shared among bird conservationists and featured on the National Audubon Societys website, offers an extreme example of a somewhat common phenomenon in nature. Heres a look at the story  and the science  behind the striking image.This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and the White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches.

SENATOR BEN SASSE, Republican of Nebraska, criticizing the White Houses proposed relief measure as a taxpayer-funded bailout for farmers imperiled by the presidents own policies.A Commerce Department spokesman, Kevin Manning, said in a statement that nothing in the court-ordered supplemental production changes the sound rationale for the question that Mr. Ross had outlined. Executive branch officials discussing important issues prior to formulating policy is evidence of good government, and the secretarys previous testimony before Congress is consistent with that fact.

The new disclosures come as the Trump administration is beginning to assert greater control over the operations of the Census Bureau, which has been run on an acting basis by career staff members for more than a year.

This week, Mr. Trump nominated a little-known manager at the Peace Corps, Steven Dillingham, to be the agencys permanent director. Mr. Dillingham, who has overseen smaller statistical agencies at the Justice and Transportation departments, served in the 1980s as an adviser to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group.

On Monday, the Census Bureau declined to reappoint the chairwoman of the agencys scientific advisory council, a panel of academics and business experts who monitor the progress of each census and suggest improvements and changes. Barbara A. Anderson, a University of Michigan demographer, headed the committee in March when it issued a public rebuke to the bureau warning that the citizenship question was a mistake.

The 600-plus documents released on Sunday lay out a yearlong chronology of the gestation of the citizenship question, chronicling Mr. Rosss frustration with delays, his aides efforts to overcome them and the seeming consternation of career Census Bureau officials tasked with carrying out his orders.

In May 2017, a month after being asked by Mr. Bannon to discuss the census, Mr. Ross appeared to fulminate in an email at the failure of career Census Bureau officials to act on his preferences. They emphasize that they have settled with Congress on the questions to be asked, he wrote. I am mystified why nothing have [sic] been done in response to my months-old request that we include the citizenship question. Why not?

We will get that in place, Earl Comstock, the Commerce Department director of policy and strategic planning, responded. We need to work with Justice to get them to request that citizenship be added back as a census question.In situations where the divide between the two parties is close, internal divisions could make achieving that goal difficult, forcing consideration of a more consensus candidate. No matter which party wins control of the House in November, the split between the two is expected to be narrow for the new Congress convening in January.

Given that expected divide, members of the Problem Solvers Caucus believe they can use their leverage to win adoption of some of the proposals in the rules package written for the next Congress. They say they intend to try to enlist lawmakers outside their group to support the plan and note that many members of both parties believe they are being shut out of House decision-making.

Many of the proposals are aimed at ensuring that legislation with broad bipartisan backing gets an airing in committees and on the floor. Under the proposal, any bill that gains at least 290 co-sponsors or a majority of support from each party would have to receive committee review and be sent for floor consideration in 30 days.

Members of both parties have complained that Republican leaders, fearing political fallout and attacks from the right, refused to take up legislation that would easily pass with the combined support of Republicans and Democrats. (Changes in immigration law are a notable example.) But House Republicans have, for the most part, operated under an informal standard that says that only bills that can attract a majority of Republican support should be considered, severely constraining the agenda.

Weve seen time and again how our common sense solutions get jammed up in a system built to empower the voices of a few extremists, said Representative Josh Gottheimer, Democrat of New Jersey and a chairman of the group.

The proposal is certain to meet resistance from leaders of both parties who do not want to see their power diluted. Considerable authority has been concentrated in the House leadership suites in recent decades, and senior lawmakers want to remain in control of both the floor and the committees.

But members of the Problem Solvers Caucus say the low public standing of Congress is evidence that significant changes need to be made. They say the current moment is the time to push the proposal because it is uncertain which party will control the House next year.Democrats have not won a governors race since 1998, and Ms. Abrams would not only be the first black governor here  she would also be the first black female governor in the country. She ran in her own primary as a down-the-line liberal, criticizing other Democrats who have sought to win by tailoring their message to appeal to the states rural conservatives.

But even if Republicans do maintain an advantage in Georgia, the nomination of Mr. Kemp in a year when suburban woman are flocking to Democrats could, at a minimum, force G.O.P. groups to spend money in a state they have safely counted in their column in recent years.

What is clear is that Mr. Kemps ads, in which he boasted about being a politically incorrect conservative, appealed far more to grass-roots conservatives in this Trumpian moment than Mr. Cagles decades-long experience in state government.

The commercials, as with most everything Trump-related, prompted eye rolling from establishment-aligned Republicans in private. And one of those Republicans snickering was Mr. Cagle himself.

Mr. Cagle, the lieutenant governor since 2007, spent much of this years race as the Republican front-runner. Yet well before Mr. Trump intervened in the campaign on Mr. Kemps behalf last week, Mr. Cagle encountered difficulty when he was recorded talking in blunt terms to a former opponent  recordings that were leaked out in extended and excruciating fashion.

Mr. Cagle was heard on tape saying the Republican primary had become a test of who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest. And he conceded that he had supported what he believed to be bad public policy in an effort to thwart an opponents fund-raising efforts and boost his own.Mr. Cohen then says, No, no.

The word check is uttered, but it is not clear by whom, and the audio is then cut off.

Lanny J. Davis, a lawyer for Mr. Cohen and a longtime supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton, told The New York Times on Tuesday night that Mr. Cohen released the tape because he is on a new path  its a reset button to tell the truth and to let the chips fall where they may.

[Michael Cohen has said he would take a bullet for President Trump. Maybe not anymore. Read more.]

Ms. McDougal was paid $150,000 by The National Enquirer for her story in summer 2016. The tabloid, which has often given Mr. Trump favorable coverage, then did not publish the story. According to people close to Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump, the two men were discussing on the tape a second payment to The Enquirer that would continue to keep Ms. McDougal from speaking publicly about Mr. Trump.

On the recording, Mr. Trump shows some familiarity with a deal between Ms. McDougal and American Media Inc., the publisher of The Enquirer, and does not act as if he is only learning about it then. When The Times reported on the existence of the payment on Friday, Mr. Trumps personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, said the tape would prove exculpatory, indicating that the conversation was the first time that Mr. Trump had heard about the deal Ms. McDougal struck with A.M.I.WASHINGTON  The Trump administration, in an abrupt reversal, said Tuesday that it would restart a program that pays billions of dollars to insurers to stabilize health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act.

The administration suspended the program less than three weeks ago, saying it was compelled to do so by a federal court decision in New Mexico.

But the administration said Tuesday that it would restore the program because otherwise health plans could become insolvent or withdraw from the market, causing chaos for consumers.

In adopting a new rule, the administration essentially accepted the arguments of critics, including consumer groups, health insurance companies and Democrats in Congress, who said that suspending the payments would cause turmoil in insurance markets.His comments were the latest example of how the president is casting the best possible light on North Koreas steps so far, ignoring that the country is still producing nuclear fuel and, some American intelligence officials suspect, adding to its arsenal of 20 to 60 weapons.

The dismantlement of the missile site is significant because it will slow the Norths ability to test weapons engines. Given its history  it was from that location that the North at least twice launched primitive space satellites that experts in the West saw as experiments for firing a warhead  it is reminiscent of other steps that the country took a decade ago, when it blew up the cooling tower of a nuclear reactor.

But its weapons-building continued.

In recent weeks, and in public and private statements by Mr. Trump, Mr. Pompeo and other aides, hints of the presidents double-barreled strategy have emerged.

The current and former diplomats and intelligence officials said Mr. Trump has convinced himself that the only hope of coaxing Mr. Kim to give up his weapons is to effusively praise him. That means ignoring the tens of thousands  if not hundreds of thousands  of North Koreans whom Mr. Kim has put in gulags, his execution of perceived opponents and his refusal in Singapore to sign on to any document that created a timeline for denuclearization.

The American military commander in South Korea, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, said on Saturday that while the Norths abilities were undiminished, Mr. Kim appeared to be softening his threats. He noted that it had been more than 235 days since North Korea had conducted a nuclear weapons test.

In many ways, the lack of trust is the enemy we now have to defeat, General Brooks said in a presentation via satellite to a national security conference in Aspen, Colo. Building trust, he said, would take time.

He was immediately answered by Sue Mi Terry, formerly one of the C.I.A.s lead analysts on North Korea, who argued that the Trump administration had become so invested in the success of the summit meeting with Mr. Kim that it had ignored reality.WASHINGTON  Updated July 25, 2018: This story has been updated with a response from the East Wing. Read more coverage about the first lady.

On the first couples recent trip overseas, Melania Trumps television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. President Trump was not pleased.

He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox  his preferred network over what he considers the fake news CNN  and caused a bit of a stir aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times. The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.

At the end of the email chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would be standard operating procedure going forward. On Wednesday, Mrs. Trumps spokeswoman issued a statement to CNN saying that the first lady watches any channel she wants.Id like to begin by reading a statement from the president. Ive decided to revoke the security clearance of John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. At this point in my administration, any benefits that senior officials might glean from consultations with Mr. Brennan are now outweighed by the risks posed by his erratic conduct and behavior. President Trump has taken away John Brennans security clearance and says hes considering doing the same to other former national security officials. Thats even though two of the officials, including the former F.B.I. director James Comey, no longer have clearances. So why did he single out the group? One clue may be what theyve said about him. I think he has demonstrated time and time again that he lies to the American people, and that he is not fulfilling the responsibilities of the office of the presidency. The United States used to be the defender of our European allies and to push back against the Russians. The fact now that Mr. Trump is aligning himself with Mr. Putin is a concern. He is giving aid and comfort to the enemy, and it needs to stop. Oh, I have no confidence in a guy like Brennan. And I think hes a total lowlife. When the president tries to use the Department of Justice as kind of a private investigatory body, thats, uh, not good for the country. Our institutions are under assault internally. Internally from the president? Exactly. Are you questioning his fitness? Yes, I do. I have no confidence in Clapper. You know, Clapper wrote me a beautiful letter when I first went to office, and it was really nice. And then all of a sudden, hes gone haywire. He has a habit of telling lies. Sometimes big. Sometimes casual. And then insisting that the people around him repeat them and believe them. And that is  that stains any human. Is Donald Trump unfit to be president? Yes. I think hes morally unfit to be president. I think that James Comey was unfair to the people of this country. I think what he did was a disgrace. I think he goes down as the worst F.B.I. director in history, by far. Theres nobody close. And I think I did the country a tremendous favor by firing him.While Mr. Uribe has been accused of many crimes related to Colombias long civil conflict, which left more than 220,000 people dead, none until now were known to lead to his resignation from any office.

But recent cases have put more pressure on the former president and his circle. In addition to investigations of Mr. Uribe and his associates, Mr. Uribes brother Santiago is also expected to face trial related to allegations that he ran a death squad on his ranch called the Twelve Apostles.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court said that it would investigate Alvaro Uribe and Alvaro Prada, another senator from his party, for the crimes of bribery and procedural fraud that, according to the accusation, took place this year and were related to witness tampering.

The case stems from an earlier attempt by Ivan Cepeda, a left-wing senator who has often sparred with Mr. Uribe, to investigate allegations that Mr. Uribe founded a death squad in his home province, Antioquia, before he became president.

Mr. Cepeda published a book on the subject. Mr. Uribe claimed that witnesses received money for their interviews, and he accused Mr. Cepeda of witness tampering.

In February, the Supreme Court dismissed the case against Mr. Cepeda and said it was opening an investigation into Mr. Uribe for witness tampering. The tables were now turned against the former president.

Some witnesses in the cases against Mr. Uribe and his associates have been killed in recent years in crimes that remain unsolved.MATI, Greece  They nearly reached the water.

As wind-fueled wildfires that killed at least 80 people in vacation areas outside Athens bore down on their seaside resort, 26 men, women and children gathered in the hope that they could find the narrow path leading to a small staircase down to the water.

The gated entrance stood only a dozen paces away, but with smoke blotting their vision and choking their lungs, they appear to have lost their way. Officials found their bodies the next day, Tuesday; several were still clinging to one another.

Image The steps leading to the sea in Mati, Greece, that the victims of the fire were trying to reach. Credit... Jason Horowitz/The New York Times

At sundown, an eyeglass case, a belt buckle, the carcasses of dogs and the shells of cellphones dotted the still-smoldering field where they fell. Amid the burned pine cones and the naked trees, leaning as if slammed by a nuclear wind, lay a large leather sandal and a small blue one with a Velcro strap.

All around were the discarded blue rubber gloves of the emergency workers who carried the bodies away.

Greece, a country that understands tragedy all too well, woke Tuesday morning to its worst one in a decade. In addition to those killed by smoke or fire, or who drowned in the sea while trying to flee, 187 people were hospitalized, more than 20 of them children. Ten people remained in serious condition, the government said Tuesday night.Charlie Rowley does not remember exactly where he picked up the box containing the small glass bottle, but he does recall what was inside. It was definitely not perfume as he had originally supposed, but an oily substance that had very little smell at all.

It was only when he regained consciousness weeks later in a British hospital that the police told him what the substance was: a military-grade nerve agent known as a Novichok that British authorities believe was most likely left behind by Russian assassins.

I was in complete shock when they told me it was Novichok, Mr. Rowley said in an interview with the British television channel ITV on Tuesday, his first public remarks since he and his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, fell ill on July 1 in the town of Amesbury in southern England. Ms. Sturgess died a week later.

British authorities say the nerve agent is the same substance that was used to poison a former Russian spy, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Investigators believe Mr. Rowley and Ms. Sturgess were most likely exposed accidentally when Mr. Rowley picked up the container it was carried in and took it home.The biggest bloc of developing countries at the United Nations has chosen the observer state of Palestine as its next leader, the Palestinian ambassador said Tuesday, a decision that could cause new tensions with Israel and the United States.

The ambassador, Riyad H. Mansour, said in a telephone interview that Palestine would take over leadership of the bloc, known as the Group of 77, from Egypt, starting in January.

Originally 77 countries when formed in 1964, the blocs membership has nearly doubled in size. The bloc often speaks as one voice in the General Assembly and represents more than 80 percent of the worlds population.

We will be negotiating on behalf of 135 countries, Mr. Mansour said, a total that would include his own delegation.The history of art is littered with significant painters and sculptors who never reached the same level of renown as some their peers. Sometimes these omissions are justified by a disparity in skill, but in certain cases bad luck, prejudice or misunderstanding prevented artists from getting recognition.

From Feb. 21, 2019, to June 2, 2019, the Frick Collections exhibition Moroni: The Riches of Renaissance Portraiture will allow New Yorkers to decide whether Giovanni Battista Moroni deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as the more famous figures of his era.

This will be the first major exhibition of Moronis work in the United States. (The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, put on a small exhibition of Moronis portraits in 2000.)

Its not every day you can introduce to the public an Italian Renaissance artist that they dont know whose work is spectacular, Aimee Ng, the curator of the exhibition, said in an interview.More than a century before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, Elizabeth Jennings, 24, shook up New York City when she refused to dismount a streetcar in 1854 because she was running late for church. She clung to a window frame and then the conductors coat before a police officer threw her off  but not before she put the driver in his place.

I told him, Jennings wrote soon after, that I was a respectable person, born and raised in New York, did not know where he was born and that he was a good for nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church.

With the help of the eventual 21st president, Chester A. Arthur, who was a lawyer at the time, Jennings later sued the streetcar manufacturer, the Third Avenue Railway Company, and won. She pocketed nearly $250 in damages, and the citys transit system was mostly integrated within the next six years.

Dr. Susan Smith McKinney-Steward became the first licensed black female physician in the state  and only the third black woman nationwide to receive a medical degree  after she graduated valedictorian of her class at New York Medical College in 1870. She was also a political pioneer, helping to found the Equal Suffrage League in Brooklyn and the Womens Loyal Union, New Yorks leading black womens club, with her sister, Sarah J. S. Garnet, who became the first black female principal in a city public school in 1863.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. If youre interested in hearing from The Times regularly about great TV, sign up for our Watching newsletter and get recommendations straight to your inbox.

No American Jobs Will Be Lost

Ivanka Trump announced on Tuesday that she was shutting down her fashion brand. Commentators from across the political spectrum had accused her of having a conflict of interest, since she also serves as an adviser to her father, the president.

Jimmy Kimmel and Seth Meyers both celebrated the news, attacking Trump for using cheap foreign labor to create her garments. Rescue operations are underway in Laos, above, where hundreds of people are unaccounted for after a billion-dollar hydropower dam that was under construction collapsed. [The New York Times]

 The Tour de France hit a cloud of tear gas the police had intended for protesters and came to a stop as eyedrops and water were used to treat several riders. [The New York Times]

 A new Ebola vaccine and a rapid response are being credited for halting an outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in April. Just 33 people died, compared with 11,000 during an outbreak in West Africa in 2014. [The New York Times]

 A Dutch study of Viagra on women was shut down after 11 babies died from an experimental drug trial. It was designed to test whether the medication could help increase babies growth in the womb. [The Guardian]

 A graphic novel has made the longlist of the Man Booker Prize, Britains most prestigious literary award, a first for the format. [The New York Times]

Smarter Living

Tips for a more fulfilling life.1. The trade war with the European Union appears to be off, at least for now.

At a surprise news conference, President Trump and the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, said they would work toward lowering tariffs and other trade barriers.

Details of the agreement were scant but hinted at collaboration against Chinese trade practices.

At the same time, a very different story was unfurling. The release of a secret recording Tuesday night by Michael Cohen, Mr. Trumps former lawyer and fixer, has unraveled some of the false statements the president has used as a shield against tough questions and embarrassing stories.The economy may be humming, but for American car companies, the year is looking less bright.

All of Detroits Big 3 automakers issued downward revisions on Wednesday in their financial forecasts for the year, with each highlighting rising commodities costs that stem in part from the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. The adjustments, made as the companies announced their second-quarter earnings, sent their shares down sharply.

Ford Motor recorded the worst showing of the three, as net income fell by nearly half to $1.1 billion from the same period ago. Aside from higher materials costs, Ford is struggling in Europe, South America and especially China, where it has spent heavily in recent years to expand but made just $3 million in the quarter and has watched its sales fall.

The deterioration in this important global market has been swift, Jim Farley, Ford executive vice president and president of global markets, said in a conference call. He said Fords joint ventures in China suffered from uncompetitive costs, weak dealer networks and a shortage of sport-utility vehicles in its model line. Ford is now taking urgent action, although its troubles will linger, he said.

Casting a further cloud over the company was news it was postponing a daylong meeting with analysts scheduled for September, when Ford was supposed to detail the turnaround plan of its chief executive, Jim Hackett. Mr. Hackett was hired in May 2017 to reinvigorate Ford, but the lack of details on Fords plans have frustrated some analysts.Live NationThe Offspring and 311 will hit the road together on their Never-Ending Summer co-headlining tour starting tonight in Mountain View, California. While The Offspring's punk and 311's reggae might not seem like the most obvious combination, the two bands feel they have a lot in common.

"We have a similar attitude," 311 frontman Nick Hexum tells ABC Radio. "A good, fun-loving attitude."

Another thing they share? A penchant for melodies.

"The...bang-for-your-buck that you can get for melodies between these two bands is as good as it gets," Hexum says.

Both The Offspring and 311 have been spitting out melodies over the last three decades, resulting in quite a few hits. The Offspring guitarist Noodles has noticed one song in particular that still gets a strong reaction from the fans.

"I've noticed lately 'The Kids Aren't Alright' really...people [are] just like, 'Yes!'" Noodles explains. "It's kind of a serious song, so the look on their face is really earnest, and they're just stoked that we're playing it."

Even with all the material they've accumulated over the years, The Offspring keeps one constant in the band's setlist.

"We usually end with 'Self Esteem,'" says Noodles. "Usually, not always, but we usually end with 'Self Esteem.' That's more of a fun one where everyone just jumps up and down."

The Never-Ending Summer tour will indeed end September 9 in Wichita, Kansas.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) celebrated the impending signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, ensuring ARMM employees affected by the transition to a new autonomous government would be compensated.

MILF Chairman Al-haj Murad Ebrahim was all smiles when he received the news that the House of Representatives ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law, saying the first stage of the process was finally completed.

"We really thank the new leadership of the House. We want to extend our appreciation. We are hoping that this is key to moving forward na wala nang sagabal dito [there are no more hindrances] after this."

The House on Tuesday ratified the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which creates the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

With both chambers of Congress endorsing the draft, the President can already sign it into law.

The Senate ratified the final draft of the proposed Bangsamoro Organic Law during the opening of the third session of the 17th Congress on Monday.

Speaking before members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) on Tuesday, Ebrahim said they were surprised to witness the controversial coup at the House, and that they needed to comfort their people following the incident.

"We really need to comfort them because there are very bad experience before. That we are in the finishing line and something will happen," Ebrahim said. "We are trying to get hold of our people on the ground not to do any activity that would be negative to the situation we are facing now."

The Moro leader had high hopes the law would be signed within the 48-hour timeframe President Duterte promised during his SONA on Monday.

Compensation for affected employees and combatants

Ebrahim also allayed the fear of ARMM employees of losing their jobs. "They will not be automatically out...We have the authority to screen employees, we will see who should be replaced."

The Moro leader assured the entire ARMM bureaucracy, which employs about 40,000 people, will not be abolished.

Ebrahim said that while the new Bangsamoro government will offer compensation based on the Civil Service Law, only those dismissed out of necessity, and have no records of wrongdoing would be offered separation pay.

The new Bangsamoro government will also offer compensation for combatants who would surrender their arms.

According to Ebrahim, the government will offer two types of assistance: individual and collective assistance.

He said a "Normalization Trust Fund" will be used to give assistance to those involved in the process and to some civilians. Cooperatives that offer livelihood program would also be put up.

"They will be expecting something...we have ensure also that their needs will be addressed," Ebrahim said.

Second stage: plebiscite

The MILF said they are now readying for the second stage: the conduct of the plebiscite.

It will cover the cities and provinces under the old Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The autonomous region groups include the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. Residents will have to vote if they approve of the new Bangsamoro government.

The provinces of Lanao del Norte and North Cotabato shall also vote on whether they would want some areas to be included in the Bangsamoro region.

Ebrahim says he is confident the law will gather strong support. "The possibility of having a wider area is very high."Good Wednesday morning. Want this in your inbox every morning? Sign up here.

$12 billion for farmers may only be the first trade bailout

The Trump administration has promised Americas farmers $12 billion to offset economic damage from its trade wars. President Trumps tariffs have provoked retaliatory levies on American pork, beef, soybeans and sorghum.

Its only a short-term solution, according to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. It still faces criticism. Farmers would rather sell goods than receive handouts. And if the World Trade Organization decides its an unfair subsidy, it could open the way to yet more retaliation. Then, as the editorial board of the NYT argues, there are the other candidates for trade aid:

Why shouldnt manufacturing companies and other businesses ask to be made whole for having to pay higher prices for steel and aluminum after Mr. Trump raised tariffs on those metals? What about the workers at Harley-Davidson who will lose their jobs when the company moves some production overseas to avoid the European Unions retaliatory tariffs on American motorcycles?

Elsewhere in trade: Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, will offer Mr. Trump ideas for easing tensions today (it could be a sticky meeting). Many U.S. manufacturers are taking tariffs in their stride (Apple may become an exception). The trade war could dampen Chinese enthusiasm for U.S. oil. And heres how to spot if tariffs damage the economy.

Who has the little investors back? Big Money

The Main Street Investors Coalition says it represents retail investors with no voice in corporate America. But its trying to reduce the influence of pension funds and large 401(k) plans, where most little guys keep their money.SHANGHAI  For Facebook, success in China was brief. Very brief.

For several hours, a Chinese government database showed that Facebook had gained approval to open a subsidiary in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Facebook said it would use the company to set up an innovation hub there.

Then the registration disappeared, and references to the subsidiary were partly censored in Chinese media.

Now the approval has been withdrawn, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be named because the person was not authorized to speak on the record.

While the about-face does not definitively end Facebooks chances of establishing the company, it makes success very unlikely, the person said. The decision to take down the approval, the person added, came after a disagreement between officials in Zhejiang and the national internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, which was angry that it had not been consulted more closely.His business acumen was also repeatedly on display. Soon after becoming chief executive, he took advantage of an existing deal between General Motors and Fiat to attempt to force G.M. to buy the Italian carmaker, a move G.M. had no desire to make. In a high-stakes game of corporate poker, Mr. Marchionne compelled G.M. to pay Fiat $2 billion to end their alliance, and used the money to develop new models, including the Fiat 500, a small car that became a hit in Europe.

His crowning achievement may have been his decision to drive a hard bargain for Chrysler in 2009.



As the Treasury Department in Washington hastened to prevent the collapse of much of the United States auto industry in the wake of the financial crisis, Mr. Marchionne stepped forward with an audacious offer: Fiat would take control of Chrysler, the sickest of Detroits Big Three automakers, and provide cars and technology to revive it.

There was a catch, however: The government would have to hand Chrysler over to Fiat free of charge.

It was a hardball offer typical of Mr. Marchionne. But he knew that the Treasury, as well as Chryslers creditors and its labor union, had little room to negotiate. The American economy was slipping deeper into recession, the collapse of Chrysler would have meant the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, and no other company was willing to rescue it.

It was the beginning of one of the most remarkable rescues in the auto industry. Today, Fiat Chrysler, while still facing challenges, is solidly profitable, and Mr. Marchionne is revered in the halls of two headquarters, in Turin, Italy, and in Auburn Hills, Mich., north of Detroit.BEIJING  You can book a ticket to Taipei from New York on a major American airline. Just dont ask it which country you are going to.

Bowing to pressure from China, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines began to remove references to Taiwan, of which Taipei is the capital city, as a separate country from their websites Wednesday.

American, which was the first to make the switch, listed Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, the citys main airport, as a destination for travelers looking to book a flight on its website, with no reference to Taiwan. Delta listed only Taipei and the code for the citys airports.

The American carriers were among the last holdouts against a Chinese effort to force all airlines to drop any references to Taiwan as a separate country. Beijing regards the self-ruled democratic island as a breakaway province.Air travel is already one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for about 3 percent of emissions worldwide. The International Civil Aviation Organization predicts emissions from international air travel will triple by 2050, given current trends . In 2016, more than 190 countries adopted a measure designed to reduce the climate impact of international jet travel.

At least three companies in the United States are developing supersonic aircraft, years after the economically troubled Concorde was retired in 2003. Spike Aerospace and Aerion Supersonic are developing business jets, and Boom wants to bring supersonic speeds to commercial air travel.

In December, Japan Airlines announced it had invested $10 million in Boom and preordered 20 planes. Boom also has a partnership with Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic aerospace venture.

Mr. Scholl takes issue with the new study, which he says overestimates the fuel efficiency of current business-class travel and underestimates the efficiency of Booms technology. Booms planes will see overall fuel burn at parity with current business-class travel, he said, though the company declined to provide more specific data.

Boom has a financial imperative to make its planes use less fuel so that costs will be competitive , Mr. Scholl said. I think its worth emphasizing that if they were right, wed have no business , he said.

Andreas W. Schafer, director of the Air Transportation Systems Laboratory at University College London, said he expected emissions from any supersonic revival to be insignificant at first , given that seats would be beyond most travelers reach. (Boom says tickets would cost about the same as todays business class.)

However, rising income and improving technology will likely make supersonic transport more affordable for a larger share of the population, Dr. Schafer said. Ultimately, there may be a real problem.Over the years, NY Cake has become a cake-decorating mecca. On the day I was there, decorators from Argentina, Jamaica, Virginia and Texas came into the shop. Every year, Lisa Mansour organizes a NY Cake Show in which thousands of people from all over the world come and decorate cakes.

In early June, NY Cake moved out of its space at 56 West 22nd. It will reopen in a 7,000-square-foot space in early September a block away at 118 West 22nd. The new space will have a cafe with custom-decorated cakes and cupcakes, a wider range of products, a kitchen with ovens, refrigerators, freezers to make real cakes and a formal Cake Academy that will teach a range of baking skills, including how to make croissants. Lisas younger sister, Jenny Kashanian, who runs the wholesale, mail order and website services, will move to the new site from the Yonkers warehouse.

Well be altogether again, Lisa said. Just like when we were kids.

Gabriela and I put the cake we had decorated into a secure box; a cousin drove it to Washington. It was on display throughout the wedding, and people who werent in the know had no idea it was not real. When it came time for the cake cutting, Alessandra and her husband, Mathew Brailsford, held a knife over the top of the faux cake and then cut into designer cupcakes frosted in white.

And we did have a real cake. My close friend Carol Giacomo contributed two carrot sheet cakes made from scratch. They weighed more than 20 pounds, but she hand-carried them safely from New York to Washington on the Acela. She iced and layered them with thick butter cream frosting on site. Everyone said her cake was delicious.

As for the fake cake, it now sits in the living room of the newlyweds one-bedroom apartment.A federal judge in Manhattan has taken the unusual step of granting a new trial to a Pakistani man convicted more than a decade ago of providing support to Al Qaeda, citing years-old statements by terrorism detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wartime prison who called his guilt into question.

The decision was based on new evidence gleaned from the declassified statements of three detainees that were made more than a year after the mans trial and might have prevented him from being convicted, the judge said. The detainees included Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the professed architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Pakistani man, Uzair Paracha, who was 23 and living in Brooklyn when he was charged in 2003. Prosecutors said he had agreed to help an operative for Al Qaeda fraudulently obtain immigration documents to re-enter the United States and carry out a terrorist attack.

Mr. Paracha was one of dozens of suspects charged, in the years after Sept. 11, with providing money, expertise or other material support to Al Qaeda. Despite his claim that he did not realize he was helping a Qaeda terrorist, Mr. Paracha was tried, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.The couple that was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after trying to visit their son-in-law, an Army sergeant, at Fort Drum in upstate New York on the Fourth of July have been released on bond.

Concepcion Barrios and Margarito Silva, unauthorized immigrants who have lived in New York for more than 20 years, presented their New York City-issued ID cards at the entrance of the base, but they were told they needed another form of identification. Soon after, Border Patrol agents arrested them and sent them to Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, N.Y. They had been detained for 19 days before their release on Monday.

Image Concepcion Barrios, left, and Margarito Silva had been detained for 19 days before their release on Monday. The Silva family paid a $20,000 bond to secure the couples release. Credit... Make the Road New York, via Associated Press

The Silva family paid a $20,000 bond to secure the couples release.

We just came out and we are on our way home, anxious to see my family, my grandchildren, and my children, Ms. Barrios said in a video posted by Make the Road New York, an immigrant rights group that is working with the family.On a quiet Friday afternoon recently, Dhanya Iadarola walked into Alfonsos Pastry Shoppe looking for some bread. Ms. Iadarola, 33, was with her parents, Roxy and Anne Fernando, and her 14-month-old daughter, Carmela Iadarola. They came in to pick up a loaf after an errand brought them to the old neighborhood, where Ms. Iadarola grew up.

Bread secured, they walked around the small shop, which is tucked into a stretch of strip malls on the North Shore of Staten Island, marveling at how little had changed. Mr. Fernando raised his hand up to just above his hip to show how little his daughter was when they use to come to Alfonsos. The family was delighted to find the chocolate mousse cake they use to get for Dhanyas birthdays.

Its the same cake, Ms. Iadarola said.

The store almost never existed. When Alfonso Campitiello was growing up near Salerno in southern Italy, his parents put him in seminary, hoping he would become a priest. But he had other plans. Mr. Campitiello escaped three times until his parents finally gave in and allowed him to pursue his dream to be a baker.

Alfonso eventually immigrated to the U.S. and honed his skills at the Plaza Hotel, for instance, before opening Alfonsos on Staten Island in 1970. In 1978, the store moved a few blocks to Victory Boulevard in the Westerleigh neighborhood and has been there ever since.Like many models, Cindy Joseph began her career with a chance encounter. Unlike many models, she did not get her lucky break until she was nearly 50.

Shortly after she stopped dyeing her long silver hair, a casting agent spotted Ms. Joseph on a New York City street and asked her to pose for a Dolce & Gabbana advertisement.

I certainly didnt fit the status quo of the modeling world, Ms. Joseph told Yahoo Beauty in an interview last year. I was 49 years old  I was under 5-foot-8, my hair was gray. Hello! I had crows feet!

Soon after that, Ms. Joseph signed a contract with the Ford modeling agency. In her 50s and 60s she modeled for companies like Olay, Elizabeth Arden, Anthropologie and Ann Taylor. In 2010 she founded Boom! by Cindy Joseph, an all-natural cosmetics company designed to complement, not disguise, a womans age.Together with the Pussy Riot punk group in Russia, Femen became part of a post-Soviet protest phenomenon that sometimes drew a violent reaction. In 2011, Femen said that Ms. Shachko and other activists had been abducted in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, after campaigning in front of the K.G.B. headquarters there. Several members were beaten up in Kiev, Ukraines capital, in 2013 ahead of a visit by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Ms. Shachko and several other activists from the university town of Khmelnytsky, Ukraine, founded Femen in 2008. After a few conventional protests, they decided to demonstrate topless, often with political slogans written on their bodies.

At times braving icy temperatures, Femen members protested in Ukraine against sexual exploitation; in Davos, Switzerland  the scene of an annual conference of world political and business leaders  against income inequality; and, in St. Peters Square at the Vatican, against policies of the Roman Catholic Church, among other targets. In their nakedness they wore flower crowns to symbolize chastity.

In 2013, members of Femen ran topless in front of Mr. Putin as he visited Germany, drawing a grin and two thumbs up from him before guards wrestled the activists to the ground.

Ms. Shachko, along with several other Femen members, moved to Paris that same year and was granted political asylum by the French authorities. She maintained that the groups members had been pursued by Russian special services and that the agents had planted a grenade in Femens office in Kiev, along with a photograph of Mr. Putin.Since 1851, obituaries in The New York Times have been dominated by white men. With Overlooked, were adding the stories of remarkable people whose deaths went unreported in The Times.

It was the middle of the 19th century, and Edmonia Lewis, part West Indian, part Chippewa, had the audacity to be an artist. It was risky enough for a free woman of color to pursue such a career, but to claim marble as her medium was to tilt at the Victorian conventions of the time, which decreed gentler aesthetic forms for the second sex, like poetry or painting.

Among the first black sculptors known to achieve widespread international fame , Lewis was raised Catholic, educated at Oberlin College in Ohio and mentored by abolitionists in Boston. She lived much of her life in Rome, sailing to Europe in 1865 and joining a community of American sculptors there who included female artists derided by the author Henry James as a white marmorean flock.

James singled Lewis out for special scorn. One of the sisterhood was a Negress, he wrote, whose colour, picturesquely contrasting with that of her plastic material, was the pleading agent of her fame.

And Lewis was famous, a bona fide celebrity. She was gifted and ambitious  her themes were biblical, literary, political and mythological. But it was her race that made her an exotic curiosity.Raymond G. Hunthausen, a progressive former Roman Catholic archbishop of Seattle who was censured by the Vatican and briefly stripped of crucial powers in a humiliating ideological showdown with the American church, died on Sunday in Helena, Mont. He was 96.

His death was announced by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle.

Archbishop Sartain praised his predecessor for writing in 1980 what is believed to be the first pastoral letter by an American bishop identifying steps the church should take to value the gifts of women equally with those of men.

Moreover, he said, under Archbishop Hunthausen, Seattle in 1988 became one of the first dioceses in the nation to implement a policy to address child sexual abuse by priests and church employees.

Archbishop Hunthausen was the last surviving American bishop to have participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John XXIII in the early 1960s to reconcile church teachings and practices with the modern world.In 2013, when Pope Benedict XVI resigned, McCarrick was too old to vote in the conclave but was active in the politicking. When Pope Francis was elected, he became an eminence grise, whose lobbying helped elevate several of the new popes choices for high office in the American church  including the new cardinal archbishop of Newark, Joseph Tobin, and the head of the Vatican dicastery for family life, Kevin Farrell, both of whom considered McCarrick a mentor.

In other words, two decades after McCarrick should have been removed from his offices, defrocked and handed over to the civil authorities, he was instead wielding remarkable influence in the church  right up until the moment when a lifetimes worth of crimes were finally dragged into the light.

I think this long and sickening narrative should clarify why the McCarrick case, though only about one abuser, merits an expansive and public accounting of the facts. Over the course of multiple decades, across a period in which not just crimes but cover-ups devastated the moral credibility of the churchs hierarchy, many important figures in Rome and the United States must have known that a man who embodied the official response to the scandal was as guilty as any of the priests whose conduct he pretended to deplore.

Someone, or indeed many someones, needs to be held accountable for this disaster. And that accountability requires more than self-exculpating statements from the cardinals involved. It requires judgment  which requires more certain knowledge  which requires investigation  which probably requires an investigator with a mandate from the pope himself.

True, both secular and Catholic journalists can continue digging up incriminating material on who exactly knew what and when, who turned a blind eye and who (perhaps) was blackmailed by their own sins or guilty associations. But many journalists knew the truth about McCarrick years ago, and now as then they can do only so much if the necessary witnesses still feel that the institutional church will not protect them, if they fear their superiors will punish them for telling all the truth.

Moreover, notwithstanding the cardinals distinctive prominence and sins, the sex abuse scandal is probably of less interest to investigative reporters than it was in the early 2000s. There are several reasons for this  fatigue from the churchs scandals and so many non-Catholic sex abuse stories since, the fact that Pope Francis is more popular with the press than his predecessors and thus a less inviting target, a discomfort with stories that might involve the outing of prominent clerics, the oxygen-devouring impact of the Trump presidency.

But a crucial reason, and one whose ironies the leaders of the church should meditate upon, is that because of secularization and polarization and the bonfire they have made of their own moral authority, the Catholic bishops are now somewhat protected from media scrutiny by virtue of their increasing unimportance.To the Editor:

Re Israel Enshrines Rights for Jews (front page, July 20):

In my 30 years as a leader in the American Jewish community, I have never seen the degree of alienation felt by American Jews toward the Jewish state.

Because the new law, as you report, omits any mention of democracy or the principle of equality  (between Israels Jewish and minority Arab populations), it diminishes the importance of these attributes in todays Israel. Yet the overwhelming majority of American Jews have cherished Israel so deeply as the embodiment of these qualities.

This law is unnecessary: Who seriously questions Israels status as the nation-state of the Jewish people?

Genuine support for Israel from the United States  whether the American people, Congress or a president  is not guaranteed. I worry as I see it eroding.To the Editor:

Re U.S.-Funded Broadcaster Directed Ads at Americans (Business Day, July 20 ):

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty rejects any suggestion that our journalists are engaged in propaganda. Despite our congressional funding, we are editorially independent; federal law bars any American official from dictating or interfering with our content.

We use Facebooks technology to promote our news stories and graphics to readers feeds. The material in question is our original news content, not ads. Some of our audience abroad use circumvention software to get around government web blocks, and therefore are identified on Facebook as American users.

But our intent is not to target a United States domestic audience. To ensure compliance with our governing legislation, we are reviewing our promotion policy in cooperation with the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

We are proud of the independent coverage we provide to 31 million people, in 25 languages, of news developments in 20 countries in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union, plus Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Our correspondents are frequently arrested and harassed by authoritarian regimes for their courageous journalism. Russian authorities, who recently fined us, have frequently attacked the alternative we provide to Kremlin-controlled media.To the Editor:

Re Trump Promises $12 Billion in Aid to Prop Up Farms (front page, July 25):

America s hard-working agricultural producers deserve guaranteed access to markets, not government handouts. If President Trump believes that his tariffs are the right move, he should be strong enough to persuade farmers of their wisdom or weather the political consequences, as opposed to buying them off with taxpayer money.

Nic Arp

Iowa City

To the Editor:

Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, calls President Trumps promise of $12 billion to Americas farmers  gold crutches, a political payoff to limit the pain from Mr. Trumps trade war. A better analogy comes from your article on the taped conversation between the president and Michael Cohen about hush money for the Playboy model Karen McDougal (Cohen Releases Tape of Trump, Adding to Feud, front page, July 25).

The presidents M.O. is consistent. In both cases, he turns to financial payments to try to get out of trouble and minimize personal damage.

In Ms. McDougals case, we dont know who fronted the hush money. In the case of the farmers, we do: It will come from you and me in order to buy a key Trump constituencys silence, loyalty and votes.My fellow Americans: It is my honor today to announce the formation of a new political party, which I am calling the Republican Party.

You can be forgiven for thinking, Wait, dont we already have one of those? But please. Under Donald Trump, the Republican Party, at least as we once understood it, has become a fantastical entity, a creature not wholly unlike the Abominable Snowman, or the Chupacabra, or the mythical Squonk of central Pennsylvania, the imaginary creature that spends its days deep in the forest, weeping in despair at its own hideousness.

There is no Republican Party, said John Boehner, a former Republican speaker of the House, back in April. Theres a Trump Party. The Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.

While the Republican Party naps, the thing that has arisen in its place bears an eerie resemblance to another party in American history, one that we thought was gone for good. But more about that in a moment.The Georgian and Ukrainian delegations were asked to leave, looking, said a NATO official who also wished to remain anonymous, as embarrassed as neighbors invited to a family reunion that turns sour. Behind closed doors, Germany took another beating. Mr. Trump now demanded not 2 but 4 percent of each countrys G.D.P. as a defense spending goal, a totally unrealistic figure that nobody took seriously.

The Europeans started to react. The first to speak out was Lithuanias president, Dalia Grybauskaite, another strong woman, who happens to be a black belt in karate. She defended Ms. Merkel, whose leadership, she pointed out, was crucial to achieving European unity on sanctions against Russia. The Slovak prime minister also came to the rescue. But by then, Mr. Trump was satisfied with his tantrum. He could go out and tell the media that thanks to him, the free-riders had agreed to pay up  even though those commitments predated his presidency.

Mrs. Merkel and President Emmanuel Macron of France chose to stay calm and focus on the positive: The alliance had survived, it had issued a strong statement on Russia and it had laid the groundwork for important future military developments.

This turned out to be cold comfort. Two more episodes of Mr. Trumps diplomatic killing game  his very public humiliation of Mrs. May in England and his embarrassing servility before President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Helsinki  would only add insult to injury. At each stage of this ordeal, European officials were struck by how little influence the presidents men seemed to have on him  men like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the national security adviser, John Bolton.

How, then, can Europe work with Donald Trump? The senior European diplomat lists two problems: One is the impact he has on the real world  he breaks everything. The other problem is that were facing a sinking administration. He likened it to a a ship without deckhands, whose captain has lost his mind.

Mr. Macrons strategy is to stay the multilateral course, with or without the United States, while strengthening European strategic thinking. Mr. Pompeo had all but invited that when he told The Wall Street Journal last month that a reset was needed because global alliances were no longer paying dividends for the United States.

This shift comes amid a growing awareness in European business and political circles that Europe is not included in the big power struggle  among America, China and Russia  that defines the Trumpian world. The economic theorist Jacques Attali warns that for the U.S., Europe is no longer a partner; it has become prey. Frances ambassador to the United Nations, Francois Delattre, says that Europe must assert itself as one of the true poles of action and influence of a new multipolar world.East Dennis, Mass. | $1.275 Million

A house dating to 1783 with three bedrooms and three bathrooms

This shingled house is in the Quivet Neck neighborhood on Cape Cod, a block north of the quaint commercial stretch of Route 6A and a little more than a half-mile from the Cold Storage and Sea Street beaches .

Size: 2,660 square feet

Price per square foot: $479

Indoors: The front door opens to a small foyer. On the left is a paneled living room with original beams, hardwood floors and a fireplace flanked by built-in cupboards and bookshelves. Beyond that are a full bathroom and a laundry room. To the right of the entrance is a kitchen with a small sunroom.

Past the kitchen is a beamed dining room with the original cooking hearth and the master suite with an adjacent office and a full bathroom. A staircase between the master bedroom and study leads to two upstairs bedrooms with individual closets and a shared full bathroom. There is a second staircase leading upstairs in the kitchen.

Above the detached two-car garage is a 598-square-foot finished bonus room with a bathroom that has a shower. Next to the garage, on the ground level, are a workshop and a seasonal bunk room with space for three twin beds.Outdated stereotypes of masculinity have long plagued the mens bar soap market. The truth is, many guys dont particularly want to smell of turpentine or craft beer. Thankfully, more grooming companies are starting to adopt a simple yet sophisticated approach to this sink-side staple, offering versions without any gendered notions in the ingredient list. As an added bonus, bar soaps are often the greener option (so long, plastic bottles).

Some scents feel right for these summer days, as is certainly the case with Rudys Moisturizing Body Bar ($8), which has hints of citrus and evergreen. The design-centric New York skin care mainstay Malin & Goetz makes a Rum Bar Soap ($16) that is subtly sweet. A light scent of honey and vanilla bean infuses the Moisture Rich Soap ($12) by the all-natural brand Bucklers, while invigorating notes of peppermint infiltrate the Morning Mojo Bar ($14) from Ursa Major, providing a natural boost. Also noteworthy is the Belgian Egg White and Chamomile Flower bar ($5) available through Kalastyle, a New England company that started in a chicken coop and has been importing fine soaps like this one for over 20 years . For something more luxurious, Tom Ford offers a spiced floral Jasmin Rouge Bath Soap ($38) with a satisfyingly rich lather  and not a hint of toxic masculinity.In the southern city of Foshan, Li Tianqiang and his wife sell rice noodles and other breakfast food out of a three-wheeled truck to hungry factory workers. Over the past two years, Mr. Li, 45, has bought nearly $1,000 worth of merchandise on Pinduoduo  the equivalent of around two months income for him. Among his purchases: an inflatable paddle boat, a fishing bag and a cherry-red motorized car for his young daughter to drive around.

Mr. Li knows he is a little addicted. And regretted purchases? He has a few.

Some were made out of curiosity. In other cases, the items were of such lousy quality that he threw them out after they arrived. The toys he has bought for his daughter  including dolls, a violin and a keyboard  have been particularly bad, he said.

It is all so inexpensive, though, that he said he didnt mind the occasional misfire.

Its nothing, really, he said of his spending on the app.

For many years, China was a byword for shoddy goods produced at mass scale. But that is changing. Wages are rising, forcing manufacturers to compete on quality. Communist Party leaders want to nurture brands known globally for their innovations. Gadget makers such as Xiaomi and Huawei are investing heavily in design, chasing cool and cachet.

To shop on Pinduoduo, however, is to be reminded that many Chinese consumers still check prices first, and that low-end suppliers remain a big part of the countrys economy. The Pinduoduo apps main page is a bottomless cascade of groceries, fast fashion, household sundries and electronic bric-a-brac  all carrying wildly improbable price tags.From its earliest days, Silicon Valley has been animated by near-absolutist understanding of free speech. Other than exceptions for fraud, pornography or specific threats, the prevailing view among many tech platforms has been to allow pretty much anyone to post pretty much anything. These sensibilities are even enshrined in American law, which gives companies broad immunity from prosecution for what their users post.

But now, for good reason, the absolutist ethos is over.

Over the past two years, pressed by lawmakers and the media about the harm caused by misinformation, state-sponsored propaganda and harassment, tech platforms have begun to radically overhaul their attitudes about what people can say online and how they can say it.

Last week, Facebook announced a new plan to remove misinformation that it determines might lead to imminent harm. And WhatsApp, Facebooks messaging subsidiary, said it would limit how widely messages on the service can be forwarded as a way to slow down viral rumors, some of which have led to mob violence in places like India.

The new policies are part of a larger change. Online services  not just Facebook but also Google, Twitter, Reddit and even those far removed from news and politics, like Spotify  are rethinking their relationship with the offline world. They are asking themselves a basic question: Where does our responsibility begin and end?Waymo, Googles autonomous-vehicle spinoff, wants to help you run your errands.

The company said on Wednesday that it had teamed up with five companies, including Walmart, Avis and AutoNation, to offer rides in its self-driving cars in the Phoenix area.

The partnerships hint at Waymos plans for fusing its technology into peoples everyday lives by transporting them between their homes and stores, restaurants or other nearby destinations.

The companys arrangement with Walmart will allow shoppers who buy groceries online to summon a Waymo vehicle to shuttle them to a store to pick up their orders.

The new service, which is set to begin this week, is Walmarts latest move in an intensifying competition with Amazon to dominate the grocery sector, after its creation of a personal shopper program and the expansion of its online grocery delivery service.The city is also home to many religious traditions that have long rubbed up against each other, resulting not just in the parade of stupas that wed see, but also in an almost overwhelming profusion of gods, spirits, demons, carvings, masks, mendicants, monks, music, prayer, ritual and meditative practices.

Id need a lifetime of study to understand the various manifestations of Hinduism, Buddhism, animism, tantric tradition and their offshoots, but I can say, albeit in extreme oversimplification, that most Hindu practice revolves around individual deity worship. Buddhism, which came out of the same ancient Indian religious culture as Hinduism, centers on its four Noble Truths, which articulate, among other things, that all suffering comes from craving.

Is one path more peaceful than the other? I wouldnt know. I do know that in Nepal, theyre often all mixed up with one another, or coextensive with one another, or share the neighborhood, as they do in Patan Durbar Square  a different Durbar Square from the one wed already visited, this one in the Kathmandu Valley city of Lalitpur, the ancient seat of the Malla dynasty. Though now subsumed by the greater Kathmandu sprawl, Patans Durbar Square is cleaner and more hippie-free than its counterpart to the north.

Up a hill and over and around stood many temples devoted to numerous expressions of numerous deities. By now it was late afternoon on Day 1 of the tour, and my brain was exploding  or, rather, imploding. It was a lot to take in, particularly since it was well past bedtime in New Jersey. Not to mention that, because I enjoy low blood pressure, I tend to keel over when Im tired or hungry. At an elevation of 4,593 feet, Kathmandu would have been challenging for me even without the overstimulation. As if he could see into my soul, Sanjay sent us back to the bus via rickshaw.

As the tour continued and I wandered through temple complexes, past statues of deities and among robed monks, I began to have a new appreciation of how being rooted in spiritual tradition might be a key to something akin to serenity, to life fully lived.Los Angeles is one of the worlds most misunderstood cities. Its easy to fall in love with the idea of this place, but once youre here  as many friends who are transplants have told me  a different reality often sets in. The pace can occasionally underwhelm you, you lose a sense of time and space because of the lack of dramatic changes that come with each season, and amid the seemingly vast horizon, a sense of geographic vertigo can occur.

Maybe thats why visitors and transplants hold on to the stereotypes of this city. When I was growing up in Southeast Los Angeles, I never knew about these misconceptions, that everyone works in Hollywood, theres no culture, and its a city that lacks a rich history. To me, Hollywood seemed like it was a thousand miles away, I didnt know where Hollywood Walk of Fame began or ended, or even where Runyon Canyon, one of the most popular tourist attractions, was located. The Los Angeles that travelers visit is not the one that I know, and many people who know the city feel the same way.Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.)

California has staked out a leadership role in harnessing alternative energy. But solar arrays and wind turbines are intermittent electricity sources: They dont always produce power when its needed, and at times they generate so much that California must give some away to its neighbors. So the state has been looking at ways to better manage all the carbon-free energy that officials have required power companies to create.

One undertaking is particularly ambitious: a $3 billion plan by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to turn Hoover Dam into a giant battery, soaking up some of that solar and wind energy for later use.

Our challenge is: How do we get to 100 percent green? Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said. Storage helps. Theres no bigger battery in our system than Hoover Dam.

[Read more about the plan, including video, photos and an interactive look at how the project would expand the dams mission.]Well back a truck up and get it on in here, Mr. Pompeo said with a glare.

Just before the hearing began, the White House announced it was delaying an invitation to Mr. Putin to meet with Mr. Trump this fall in Washington. A statement by John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, said the follow-up meeting between the two presidents should take place at the conclusion of the special counsels investigation into Russian election interference  after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.

Russian officials had not yet committed to the invitation.

In his testimony, Mr. Pompeo sought but fell short of assuring senators that the United States would never acknowledge Russias annexation of Crimea. He did not directly answer whether sanctions to punish Russia for seizing the Ukrainian peninsula would remain in place in perpetuity.

Instead, Mr. Pompeo repeatedly restated United States policy, saying that after the Helsinki summit meeting, the stance on sanctions remains completely unchanged, and that no commitment has been made to change those policies. But he did not speak to whether Mr. Trump had signaled any willingness to reconsider or modify them.



Mr. Menendez told Mr. Pompeo that American citizens and their elected officials have heard more about what happened in the closed-door Helsinki meeting from Moscow than from their own president.



We dont know what the truth is because nobody else was in the room where it happened, Mr. Menendez said.

On the election interference in particular, Mr. Pompeo told the committee that the president accepts the findings that the Russian cyberattacks took place and that he has a complete and proper understanding of what happened.Finally, the tape has become public. And it revealed the statements by Ms. Hicks and Mr. Giuliani to be false. The recording, which was broadcast by CNN late Tuesday night, shows Mr. Trump was directly involved in talks about whether to pay The Enquirer for the rights to the womans story.

The recording, and the repeated statements it contradicts, is a stark example of how Mr. Trump and his aides have used falsehoods as a shield against tough questions and unflattering coverage. Building upon his repeated cry of fake news, he told supporters this week not to believe the news. What youre seeing and what youre reading is not whats happening, the president added.

In a capital where politicians have made an art form of the nondenial denial, press secretaries typically reserve their on-the-record denials for reports that are outright false. Candidates can weather most embarrassing stories, and spokespeople know that getting caught in a lie only makes things worse.

It was a lie about an affair, after all, that led to President Bill Clintons impeachment  though his most fateful move was testifying falsely under oath  just as it was a lie about infidelity that ended the political career of John Edwards, once a rising Democratic star (a story that broke in The Enquirer, coincidentally).

But Mr. Trump, both as a candidate and as president, has turned that thinking on its head. When faced with the evidence of its misstatements, the administration sidesteps and moves on. Im not going to get into a back-and-forth, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said last month when confronted with her unequivocal, and false, denials that Mr. Trump had dictated his sons misleading statement about meeting with Russians.WASHINGTON  The White House said on Wednesday that President Trump wants to delay a planned follow-up meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia until after the investigation of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is concluded  which the White House predicted would be next year.

The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, Mr. Trumps national security adviser, John R. Bolton, said in a statement.

Last week, Mr. Trump unexpectedly said he would invite Mr. Putin to Washington in the fall  a move that some interpreted as a show of defiance by Mr. Trump after a storm of criticism over his meeting with Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland.

Mr. Trump directed Mr. Bolton to deliver the invitation. But the Kremlin had not yet accepted the invitation, raising questions about whether Mr. Putin was interested.He said, I need to figure out how to take myself off as the P.I., the principal investigator, if thats going to compromise our projects chances of being accepted, Ms. Atkins said, declining to name the academic for fear of jeopardizing his proposal. The professor, she added, was even considering withdrawing from the project completely to avoid holding back his co-researchers.

It is a sentiment that some, such as Representative Judy Chu, Democrat of California, believe underscores a tone of racism behind the policy change. The restrictions, she said, equate to targeting an entire ethnic group of people for suspicion that theyre spies for China.

I think we should take specific security threats seriously, but each of those threats should be identified by the threat, not by racial groups, said Ms. Chu, the chairwoman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

Since June 11, the State Department has been restricting visas for Chinese graduate students studying in sensitive research fields to one year, with the chance to reapply every year. The move rolls back an Obama-era policy that allowed Chinese citizens to secure five-year student visas.

Le Fang, a Ph.D. student from China studying computer science at the University at Buffalo, locked up a five-year F-1 visa in 2015. But the new policy could hurt his friends whose visas recently expired, he said. They may have to fly back to China to get new visas, and they risk denials partway through their academic career.The scandal surrounding the three-decade tenure of Dr. George Tyndall, a former gynecologist at the University of Southern California, continued to grow this week as more than 50 additional women sued the university, saying it had failed to protect them from sexual abuse and harassment by Dr. Tyndall.

The lawsuits, filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against both Dr. Tyndall and U.S.C., claim that the university concealed years of complaints against Dr. Tyndalls sexually charged and deviant comments and behavior and allowed him many years of unfettered sexual access to young female students.

Buoyed by the #MeToo movement and previous news reports about the allegations against Dr. Tyndall, several of the 51 women who sued this week said that they hoped their stories would inspire even more women to speak out.

I hope that if you are a person that has struggled with this, that you feel more motivated to do something about it, Brennan Heil, 21, a senior at U.S.C., said in an interview Wednesday. I want to make sure this never happens again, ever.YOSEMITE VALLEY, Calif.  Gone were the massive granite monoliths of Half Dome and El Capitan, lost in the shroud of a ghostly and acrid layer of smoke. Gone, too, were the cascading waterfalls that plunge to the floor of Yosemite Valley, their famed beauty uselessly out of sight.

Most eerily, gone were the people. The iconic valley, usually smothered in tourists this time of year, was instead blanketed in plumes from a raging nearby 38,000-acre wildfire that forced evacuations and turned one of the countrys most popular national parks into a virtual ghost town on Wednesday afternoon. The closing is the largest in nearly three decades at the park.

Visitors were given until noon to leave. An hour later, the usually teeming cafeteria was dark, its chairs on the tables. Parking lots were empty. Campgrounds were cleared. The front door of the famous Majestic Yosemite Hotel, best known as the Ahwahnee, was padlocked with a chain.

The Ferguson Fire, which is encroaching on Yosemite Valley, is just one of some 75 large fires stretching from Oklahoma to Alaska, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, already costing millions of dollars. Thousands of firefighters are battling blazes in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, and Oregon in what is on track to be one of the hottest summers on record for much of the region.What went through your mind when you were called young and naive?

We were kind of excited after. We were like, Wow, that was just terrible. Our generation has the power of social media to spread information. We could take this really demeaning response and show he didnt have it in him to answer the question. Politicians cant get away with that kind of response anymore and not be in the spotlight. Thats not democracy.

What specific actions can young people take, then, to make their voices heard?

Stay informed  thats the first step to more concrete action. Pay attention to local politics, as local politics and politicians often have the most direct impact on the way your community functions.

Definitely start out with your local school board. I went to lots of school board meetings because they were trying to install a turf field at my high school, but turf is majorly carcinogenic because when it heats up, gas comes off the turf. Its made from tires, which is literally hazardous waste. Instead, the school chose a cork field.

Choose your candidate! Know who is running and support/volunteer for them.

What do you hope to achieve by canvassing neighborhoods this summer?

Going door-to-door, talking to our neighbors about the issues, and registering people to vote counteracts the power of fossil fuel. We knock on a lot of doors of people who disagree with us, but opening that dialogue is so important. I went to the door of a man who disagreed with me and told me he would not vote for the candidate I supported. Despite this, we had an hourlong conversation about issues we cared about. We shook hands, and I walked away with the knowledge of someone elses perspective.Ah, summer. A season when the pleasures of the great outdoors are outmatched only by the comforts of the great indoors  a hospitable clime where you can escape the heat in favor of spending quality time with your television and air conditioner.

Luckily, Netflix is positively bursting with new comedy specials to keep our brains cool and energized. In recent months, comedians spanning the spectrum of human experience have popped up on the service with sets addressing, or pointedly providing respite from, the horrors and wonders of our current historical moment. The sheer volume of Netflix specials may be overwhelming, but fear not  we have rounded up the very best recent additions for you below, in the recommended order of viewing.At a news conference on Wednesday, the prime minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, said that 131 people were still missing and more than 3,000 were homeless. Many had been rescued from rooftops and trees after villages and farmland were flooded.

At least 26 people have been reported killed.

A second step for us will be to recover and identify the deceased, but for now, we hurry to find those who are still alive in the area, Bounhom Phommasane, the governor of the district of Sanamxay, told The Vientiane Times.

Ms. Chantamart said that hundreds of people from her village had escaped, but that 15 people were still missing, nine of them children. She had been unable to reach their homes on Monday because the floodwaters had climbed too high.

Im very worried about them, from the bottom of my heart, she said.

After she and hundreds of others scrambled to higher ground on Monday, soldiers and local officials moved them to the town of Paksong, west of the dam site, to take refuge in an empty warehouse normally used to store coffee.SYDNEY, Australia  The acting prime minister of New Zealand accused Australia this week of copying his countrys 116-year-old flag, and demanded that Australians come up with a new design.

We had a flag that weve had for a long time, copied by Australia, Winston Peters, who is filling in for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern while she takes maternity leave, told TVNZ, a state-owned network. And they should actually change their flag and honor the fact that we got there first.

Relations between the two neighbors have been strained recently over an Australian policy to deport New Zealanders convicted of crimes back to their home country. Could this latest spat over the flag result in a major international incident? Almost certainly not. But, heres what its all about.

[Can you tell these doppelganger flags apart? Take our short quiz and see.]

Did New Zealand really have the design first?

Yes! Sort of!

New Zealand adopted its flag  featuring a blue background, Union Jack and stars representing the Southern Cross constellation  in 1902. Australia did not formally adopt its flag until 1954, although a version was flown as early as 1901.OSTERSUND, Sweden  A Swedish student activist stopped the deportation of an Afghan man this week by refusing to take her seat on a packed Turkish Airlines flight, and her dramatic video of the tense standoff has gone viral.

The student, Elin Ersson, initially bought a ticket because she believed that a 26-year-old man from Afghanistan was being deported to Kabul from Landvetter Airport in Gothenburg via Istanbul. When she got on the plane, the 26-year-old was not there, but an Afghan deportee in his 50s was with the Swedish authorities.

Ms. Ersson, 21, live-streamed the standoff on the flight late Monday on Facebook, and footage of the 14-minute video shows her in tears, at times being confronted by crew members and angry passengers. But she also garnered some support.

Im not going to sit down until this person is off the plane, she says in the video, because he is most likely to get killed if he is on this plane when it goes up.NEOS VOUTZAS, Greece  The first fire alarm sounded in Kineta, a town an hour west of Athens, the capital, at 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Then, at 4:57 p.m., the authorities received calls on their 199 hotline reporting flames near Rafina, east of the capital.

Just about an hour later, the wildfire had reached Neos Voutzas, to the northeast, and then, powered by gale-force winds, it moved like a lava flow down the hill to the seaside town of Mati, fire officials said.

Greeks on Wednesday were still piecing together one of the nations worst disasters in recent memory. But many were asking how so many scattered fires had broken out in so short a span and spread with such fatal velocity. Suspicion of arson combined with grief and recrimination as shattered Greeks sifted through the ruins of fires that killed at least 81 people.BRUSSELS  It was a good day for Kit Kat copycats.

Nestle, which makes the candy bar outside the United States, could lose exclusive rights in the European Union to its four-fingered shape, the regions highest court ruled on Wednesday.

The company has long argued that the Kit Kats four trapezoidal bars, linked by a rectangular base, had enough of a distinctive character that they deserved a trademark across Europe.

The European Court of Justice, however, told Nestle that it had not presented evidence that shoppers in Belgium, Greece, Ireland or Portugal would recognize a Kit Kat by shape alone.

The main takeaway of the Kit Kat decision, said Rachel Wilkinson-Duffy, a senior trademark attorney at the global law firm Baker McKenzie, was that companies would find it more difficult to get protection across the bloc for unconventional trade marks such as shapes.LONDON  It seems simple enough: If you want a divorce, you can get a divorce, right?

In Britain, it turns out, the answer is not necessarily.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled  grudgingly, even apologetically, but unanimously  that Tini Owens, who has been trying for years to get a divorce, must remain in her unhappy marriage to Hugh Owens, who opposes the divorce.

Ms. Owens predicament is not permanent. The law says that if a couple have lived apart for five years, one spouse can get a divorce even if the other objects. Ms. Owens will reach the five-year mark in 2020.

A 1973 law allows divorce on the grounds of adultery, abandonment or that the respondent has behaved in such a way that the petitioner cannot reasonably be expected to live with the respondent.An American pastor held on espionage charges in Turkey, the focus of an intensive campaign by top United States officials seeking his freedom, was moved from jail to house arrest on Wednesday because of health concerns.

Andrew Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from North Carolina, has been held for more than a year and a half in a case that has aggravated already tense relations between Turkey and the United States, longtime allies. He is one of 20 Americans who were charged after a failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

President Trump spoke to Mr. Erdogan by phone about the case, and posted a message on Twitter last week urging the Turkish leader to do something to free the pastor.

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also took to Twitter to say that while the United States welcomed the long overdue news that Pastor Brunson has been moved from prison to house arrest, the measure was not enough.On Irans Weakened Economy

WHAT WAS SAID:

Economically, we see how the regimes decision to prioritize an ideological agenda over the welfare of the Iranian people has put Iran into a long-term economic tailspin. During the time of the nuclear deal, Irans increased oil revenues could have gone to improving the lives of the Iranian people. Instead they went to terrorists, dictators, and proxy militias. Today, thanks to regime subsidies, the average Hezbollah combatant makes two to three times what an Iranian firefighter makes on the streets of Iran. Regime mismanagement has led to the rial plummeting in value. A third of Iranian youth are unemployed, and a third of Iranians now live below the poverty line.

THE FACTS

Fact and conjecture.

Iran used at least some earnings from oil, including money impounded by sanctions but released when the nuclear deal took effect in 2016, to fill deficiencies in its budget. Iran also spent enormous sums to attract investment, buy and refurbish airplanes and ships, and provide financing to stimulate the economy. The decline in the rial, the national currency, has been attributed by economists not only to mismanagement but to the negative impact of President Trumps decision to renounce the nuclear agreement in May and restore the sanctions.

Mr. Pompeos basis for the wage comparison of Hezbollah fighters and Iranian firefighters is unclear.

While youth unemployment in Iran is widely believed to be at least 30 percent, that figure is comparable to or below that of other countries in the Middle East as well as Spain and Italy. On Irans poverty rate, Mr. Pompeos assertion is disputed. A 2016 World Bank working paper suggested it was less than 10 percent, according to Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a Brookings Institution scholar who participated in the research.

WHAT WAS SAID:

The bitter irony of the economic situation in Iran is that the regime uses this same time to line its own pockets while its people cry out for jobs and reform and for opportunity. The Iranian economy is going great  but only if youre a politically-connected member of the elite. Two years ago, Iranians rightfully erupted in anger when leaked paystubs showed massive amounts of money inexplicably flowing into the bank accounts of senior government officials.

THE FACTS

Fact and omission.

Mr. Pompeo was correct that corruption in Irans government is pervasive, a fact that President Hassan Rouhani of Iran has acknowledged. Mr. Pompeo was also correct in describing the popular anger that erupted over the leaked paystubs  but did not mention that some officials had leaked the information and that Mr. Rouhani ordered an investigation into the pay, which entangled associates that included his own brother.BEIRUT, Lebanon  The jihadists of the Islamic State launched a series of coordinated attacks in southern Syria on Wednesday, shattering the quiet that had reigned in the area and killing more than 200 people, according to local officials and a war monitor.

The attacks, which included suicide bombings at a vegetable market and a public square in a provincial capital, along with raids on nearby villages, showed that the Islamic State could still inflict tremendous damage in Syria, despite having lost most of the territory it once controlled.

The high death toll undermines the Syrian governments narrative that the seven-year war is heading toward its conclusion, with President Bashar al-Assad working to restore stability. The dead included many pro-government fighters, a conflict monitor said.

The attacks hit Sweida Province, along Syrias border with Jordan. Most of the areas residents are members of the Druse sect, and the area has largely been spared the violence that has torn apart other areas of Syria during the war.The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees will cut more than 260 jobs and curtail mental health services and mobile health clinics, it announced on Wednesday, the first reduction since the United States suspended tens of millions of dollars in funding this year.

These cuts are unprecedented in their scope and depth and their consequences are likely to be dramatic, widespread and unpredictable, Christopher Gunness, the agencys spokesman, said in an email.

The cuts are the first outcome of a significant American reduction in contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa. The Trump administration has provided about $60 million this year. That reflects a drop of more than 80 percent from the $360 million the United States contributed in 2017.

Historically, the United States has been one of the biggest donors to Unrwa, which provides food, education, health services and employment to many Palestinians classified as refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.UNCLE MO, real name Moses Kiboneka, is a youthful engineer, actor and comedian whose satirical take on trending issues has turned him into an online sensation.

It is quite easy to settle into bad sexual habits, especially as newlyweds, setting the pace for the rest of your marriage. Those are hard to break once the...Film based on PM Modi to be screened for BJP Morcha workers

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

New Delhi, July 25: A film based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be screamed in G M Balayogi auditorium of Parliament in which a big number of Bharatiya Janata Party morch office bearer from across the country will participate. They will watch the film and interact with the PM.

Sources in the BJP told OneIndia that workers from every morcha of the party from every states of the country including Union Territory will come to Delhi to participate in this programme which will be joined by the PM once he is back from his foreign tour. The PM is on the visit of three African countries. Sources in the BJP said that the number of Morcha workers are expected to be around 1500.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 21:05 [IST]All you need to know about Maratha community's demand for reservation

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Mumbai, July 25: Maratha, largely engaged in agriculture, is the politically influential community in Maharashtra. The community which roughly constitutes around 30% of the state's population, has been demanding reservation in educational institutions and government jobs under the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category.

Organisations affiliated to the community have been taking out 'silent marches' in the states for the last two years. The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission undertook a survey to ascertain the economic backwardness in the Maratha community. The panel is headed by Justice (retd) MG Gaikwad.

The report is based on findings of the sample survey conducted at five villages in every district and the figures on the community available with the government, Gaikwad told PTI.

The panel's team received about 1,850 representations from the district in this connection. The survey has been completed in the Marathwada region, and in Nagpur, Amravati, Ahmednagar and Solapur districts, Gaikwad said, adding that the exercise is on in other parts of the state.

It may be recalled that, in 2003-04, the National Commission for Backward Classes had rejected the demand for including the Maratha community in the category of OBC category. The Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission had held in 2008 that "Marathas are both economically and politically a forward caste. They never faced social stigma to invite the backward class status."

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday had called for an emergency high-level meeting to review the "progress" made by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on the issue.

However, the Maratha community claimed that the government need not wait for the commission to finalise its report as the Backward Class Commission was already considering the proposal to accord OBC status to Marathas, and its work was going on.

"We do not know when the commission will complete its work. This means the government will not be able to take the decision as in a few months' time the general elections will be upon us. The government will get a chance to play vote bank politics by promising quota for the community during election campaigning," the community leaders say.

They claimed that the immediate trigger for their protest is the announcement by Fadnavis in the state Assembly on July 20 that his government would provide 16 per cent reservation in government jobs to the Maratha community.

Pro-reservation outfits burn a vehicle Pro-reservation outfits of Maratha community burn a vehicle after a clash with the police personnel during the funeral of Kakasaheb Shinde, who died yesterday during a protest march in favour of reservations, in Kaygaon village at Aurangabad on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Protestors take out a rally Protestors from Maratha community take part in a rally demanding reservation for Marathis, in Nanded on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Maratha outfits have called for a bandh in Maharashtra a day after of a protestor demanding reservation for the community jumped off a bridge over Godavari river and died, in Aurangabad. (PTI Photo) Injured protester A protester is carried away after being injured during a protest rally demanding reservation for Marathis, in Nanded on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Maratha outfits have called for a bandh in Maharashtra a day after of a protestor demanding reservation for the community jumped off a bridge over Godavari river and died, in Aurangabad. (PTI Photo) Protests in Karad Protestors from the Maratha community take part in a rally demanding reservation, in Karad, Maharashtra on Tuesday. Maratha outfits have called for a bandh in Maharashtra today, a day after a man demanding reservation for the community jumped to his death in a river in Aurangabad district. (PTI Photo) Shops closed in Nanded A view of closed shops during a protest rally by Maratha community members demanding reservation for Marathis, in Nanded on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. Maratha outfits have called for a bandh in Maharashtra a day after of a protestor demanding reservation for the community jumped off a bridge over Godavari river and died, in Aurangabad. (PTI Photo)Alliance with Congress for LS polls will depend on how it treats us: Kumaraswamy

India

oi-PTI

Bengaluru, July 24: Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said whether JD(S) and Congress would contest the Lok Sabha polls together would depend on how they were treated by the ally.

Kumaraswamy, also the JD(S) state unit chief, however, said the pre-poll alliance with Congress was still on the agenda.

"That is our agenda, it is there. Let us see ... Congress, how they are going to treat JD(S)," Kumaraswamy told reporters in response to a question about pre-poll alliance with the Congress with which it is running a coalition government in the state.

Asked about the "mahagathbandhan (grand alliance)," he said, "it will continue."

The Congress and JD(S), which formed a coalition government after the May 12 assembly polls threw up a hung verdict, had announced during the power-sharing pact that they would fight the Lok Sabha polls together.

Kumaraswamy's swearing-in as chief minister on May 23 was attended by a galaxy of top leaders and regional satraps in a rare public show of unity perceived as a possible harbinger of a broad-based anti-BJP alliance ahead of the LokSabha polls.

Seat sharing between Congress and JD(S) for the Lok Sabha polls, especially in the old Mysuru region, is seen as a test for the coalition as both parties are considered arch rivals in the region, where they had bitterly fought against each other during the assembly polls.

The chief minister's comments gain significance at a time when reports suggest that there is growing opposition within the Congress to the pre-poll alliance with JD(S) for Lok Sabha polls.

According to sources, several Congress leaders have also warned against conceding constituencies considered stronghold of the party to JD(S), during seat sharing.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 10:02 [IST]He must repent over his mistakes: Man convicted for 2013 ATM attack in Bengaluru gets 10 years imprisonment

Are you a victim of ATM skimming? Here is how you can be safe

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 25: The Goa police today arrested two Romanian nationals for allegedly trying to steal money by installing a skimming device in an ATM. This is a great cause of concern as such incidents are on the rise.

ATM skimming has been rampant since 2008 and in that year more than 1 billion US dollars had been stolen in ATM related incident. While many use the conventional way of stealing from an ATM by breaking it open, others used a more quieter method.

ATM skimming is a type of fraud which occurs when an ATM is compromised by a skimming device, a card reader which can be disguised to look like a part of the machine. The card reader saves the users' card number and pin code, which is then replicated into a counterfeit copy for theft.

Skimming is similar to identity theft for debit card. Hidden electronics are used to steal personal information stored on your card and record your PIN number to access cash from your bank.

Skimming takes two components to work. First part is a card reader placed over the ATM;s real card slot. When you slide your card into the ATM, you are unknowingly sliding it in through the counterfeit reader. This scans and stores all the information on the magnetic strip.

The next step would be to steal your PIN number. Here is where the cameras come into the picture. Tiny spy cameras are positioned to get a clear view of the keypad and record the ATM PIN.

Before using the ATM, pay very close attention to objects mounted on the ATM or located closely. A pinhole or off colour piece of plastic could give away where the camera is hidden. Also check the brochure racks for cameras.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 16:40 [IST]Congress trying to copy us: TMC on decision to field 40 per cent women candidates for UP polls

Have never seen such chaos, anarchy as what is playing out in Punjab Cong: Manish Tewari

Captain Singh set to resign from Congress: New party may be named The Punjab Lok Congress

Joint opposition may field a woman as PM candidate for 2019

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 25: The Congress is ready to accept any candidate from the opposition as the next prime minister who does not have the backing of the RSS, party sources said.

To prevent the BJP from coming back to power in 2019, the Congress will look to cobble up alliances with various parties in states, they said.

On whether Congress president Rahul Gandhi will step aside for a woman candidate from a possible opposition alliance, the sources said he "is comfortable seeing any prime minister other than an RSS-backed one".

Let's see how the dice rolls, the sources said.

There is speculation in the opposition camp that a woman prime ministerial candidate may be projected in the next elections and names of BSP leader Mayawati and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee are doing the rounds.

According to the sources, the Congress leadership is of the view that the BJP will be decimated without any "anger and disrespect".

The BJP will not get enough seats to win the next general elections as parties like the TDP, the Shiv Sena are not happy with the saffron party, the sources added.

For Narendra Modi to be the prime minister again, he has to get seats in the range of 280 and that is not going to happen, they said.

The sources said if grand alliances in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar work out fine, then it will be difficult for Modi to come back to power.

They claimed that Modi is desperate to win the 2019 polls as he fears that the RSS as also agencies like the CBI will be after him if he is out of power.

While Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha seats, Bihar has 40 and the two together comprise over 22 per cent of the total strength of Lok Sabha members of 543.

Noting that the Congress is focussing on increasing women's representation in the party, the sources said women leaders will be appointed in general secretary-level posts after they gain experience at different levels of party functioning.David Headley: The man, the mystery and why the US protects him so much

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 25: David Coleman Headley has always been a mystery. When he came several times to India to conduct a reconnaissance in Mumbai ahead of the 26/11 attack, he fully managed to dodge the intelligence and never came under the radar.

He is now again in the news after reports suggested that he was brutally assaulted at a Chicago jail by two brothers. While it was claimed that he was critically injured, there are also rumours that he may be dead. There is however absolutely no confirmation on this and his lawyer John Theis too denied having any knowledge of such an incident.

First and foremost, there is no confirmation as to which jail in the US he is lodged in. While reports suggest he was in Chicago at the time of the attack, all attempts to track the location were futile.

David Headley, battles for life after being assaulted for being Islamic terrorist

A search on the inmate locator on the website of the Federal Bureau of Prisons yielded no results. We tried searching with the names David Coleman Headley as well as with his original name Daood Sayed Gilani and both yielded no results.

The big cover up of a double agent:

The US has always been secretive about David Headley. He made several trips to India on the pretext of opening an immigration office. He changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Headily so as to project himself as an American who was neither Muslim nor Hindu.

He had made five trips to Mumbai in September 2006, February and September 2007 and April and July 2008.

The maps drawn out by him were used by the ten Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists who attacked Mumbai on 26/11. After the attacks, the probe was conducted by the Mumbai police in detail. They were however unable to find the man who had provided all this information. The police ended up arresting Sabahuddin Ahmed and Fahim Ansari on the allegation that they had conducted the reconnaissance. However the case against both were thrown out of the court stating it was frivolous in nature.

It was almost two years later that the US informed India about Headley and said he was the man who had carried out the surveys. India suspected back then that the US may have had information about his visits, but never intimated the intelligence. An Intelligence Bureau official told OneIndia that their was information from the US, but it was extremely vague in nature and not actionable.

By the time India was informed about Headley, a plea bargain deal had entered into. This meant he could not be sentenced to death and more importantly for Headley and US, he could not be extradited.

On Headley being attacked, lawyer says, ' news to me'

The question is what was the US guarding so desperately. It was later learnt that Headily was a double agent. He was sent on an assignment to Pakistan and Afghanistan by the CIA to track down the drug cartel. He is said to have turned rogue and then came in contact with the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Al-Qaeda. The association that the US had with him after that is not clear, but the manner in which he was guarded by the United States was fishy and till date continues to be the same.

The NIA's ordeal:

The NIA has managed to question him just once. A second request continues to remain pending. Headley was however allowed to appear through video conferencing before a Mumbai court a few years back.

The team of the NIA which was allowed to question Headley, did not have it easy in the US. Despite landing on the stipulated date, the appointment with Headley was granted almost ten days later. The questioning of Headley did not yield much result either. The questioning was conducted under the watch of the FBI and Headley. Prior to this he had made a confessional statement to the FBI as part of his plea bargain deal. He did not say a word more than what he had already said. The NIA officer says that it appeared as though the FBI was present there to ensure that he did not say more than what was already on record.

The NIA also had no luck in getting in touch with Tawwahur Rana, an accomplice of Headley. Rana, according to investigations had played a vital role and was the one who facilitated the fake documents for Headley through his travel firm. Several attempts to question Rana went in vain, NIA officials also point out.

The mystery called David Headley:

After his arrest there was news that his Moroccon wife, Faiza Outalha had complained about him to the FBI, but it was never taken seriously. When this correspondent had interviewed Faiza in 2011, she had said, "Well, I lied about most of the things that I told them, and they understood that I was lying. But then yet with his previous DEA job, that I only found out about later, and with his prison record he had at the time that I went to them, he should have been targeted directly and immediately but he was moving freely and by then it was upsetting me because I had a case against him."

Whether it came to information about his location or asking more questions than what he had already confessed, the US has been a nightmare to deal with for India. Even after reports of his assault came up, US Ambassador to India, Kenneth Juster remained to stay mum. On being asked what is the update on Headley, he chose not to answer and just walked away.

#WATCH US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster walks away on being asked, "what is the update on David Coleman Headley (26/11 Mumbai attacks mastermind), is he alive or struggling for life?" pic.twitter.com/MjYdyjEOxu  ANI (@ANI) July 24, 2018

The US authorities too did not give any update on his whereabouts or condition. The Metropolitan Correctional Centre said, " we are not able to locate information about this individual."

India is not trying to gather more information about Headley. India will have to seek information through the official channels. Indian officials say that they would try and seek information, but it is highly unlikely that they would get any.

Meanwhile Headley's lawyer, John Theis has denied reports that his client had been assaulted. John, who has represented Headley, a convict in the Mumbai 26/11 attacks said the news of his being assaulted was news to him. I have no information about the attack. I cannot disclose where he is, but I can tell you that I have no information that he was attacked, the lawyer was quoted by the media as saying.

"I am in regular communication with Mr.Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 11:51 [IST]Did the new Fugitive Economic law get Mallya to talk to Indian agencies about his return

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 25: Vijay Mallya is said to have indicated that he is willing to return to India. He is reportedly in talks with the Indian government and has indicated that he would want to come back to India.

Mallya is also speaking to the officials in the Enforcement Directorate. While there has been no official comment from Mallya on this. Top sources tell OneIndia that one of the reasons why Mallya is signalling a return to India is because of the newly introduced Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance 2018.

Mallya has hinted that he would like to contest the recent action against him under the new ordinance. The ordinance gives the agencies to seize assets of a fugitive economic offender. It also states that the person in question cannot contest the action against him under the new ordinance, unless he or she returns to India.

Mallya is also said to have suggested that he would join the legal process in India. Feelers have been sent, there is nothing concrete as yet. Everything would depend on what he has to say, but for these talks to be fruitful, he would need to come back to India from London first, the officer also informed.

Vijay Mallya willing to come back to India: Reports

Further the talks would also depend on what offer he would make to the banks. He will have to clear the loans he has availed and there has to be a guarantee to that effect. The consortium of banks would also have to be involved in this process, officials also said.

The agencies had moved a Mumbai court seeking to declare Mallya as a fugitive economic offender. The court had last month issued summons to Mallya returnable by August 27. If he fails to appear before the court on August 27, then action would be initiated under the new ordinance. The agencies have sought immediate confiscation of assets worth around Rs 12,000 crore belonging to Mallya.

The negotiations would depend on what Mallya has to offer. He would also be aware of the fact that the agencies are not only probing the cases relating to the loans he has availed. He has also been accused of money laundering, which is a serious charge.

Mallya is also contesting before a London court, the Indian government's action for extradition.

Last month, Mallya through his counsel had said before the Karnataka High Court that he was willing to settle all his outstanding dues. He later told a news agency that the assets placed before the High Court were worth 2 billion US dollars, which was more than sufficient to repay his creditors. He however denied that his offer was linked to the new ordinance and the ED's action before the Mumbai court in this regard.Fadnavis ready to hold talks with Maratha organisations

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Mumbai, July 25: After Maratha Kranti Morcha demanding reservation for Maratha community called off the bandh, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday expressed willingness to hold talks with the organisation.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said, "The government has taken cognisance of protest by Maratha community and has taken several decisions. Govt is ready to talk to them."

"Government had made a law for reservation to the community but that was stayed by Bombay High Court, said, Fadnavis.

Devendra Fadnavis had called for an emergency high-level meeting on Tuesday to review the "progress" made by the Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission on the issue.

However, the Maratha community claimed that the government need not wait for the commission to finalise its report as the Backward Class Commission was already considering the proposal to accord OBC status to Marathas, and its work was going on.

Through the day, protesters blocked arterial roads, including the Mumbai-Pune highway and the Eastern Expressway, and forced shops to shut in pockets of Raigad. Local train routes were blocked in Jogeshwari and near Thane. Violent protests had erupted in parts of the state on Tuesday after a protester committed suicide by jumping into a river in Aurangabad.From angry young man to Love Guru : RaGas Image make-over continues.

India

oi-Smita Mishra

For the last several years, every election has been about the image make-over of Rahul Gandhi. And the effort continues even in Parliament now. Congress strategists seem to be shooting in the dark in their search for that perfect image which could make him the true challenger to Narendra Modi.

It was the first quarter of 2012. Rahul Gandhi was on a whirlwhind election campaign tour of Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh Yadav as the main challenger to incumbent Mayawati was drawing big crowds and also giving the right kind of statements forcing people to believe that he could be more than just Mulayam Singh's son. However, the national (nowadays referred to as Lutyens) media was more occupied with discussing Rahul Gandhi and his body language. His rolling up of the sleeves after every other sentence was a great favourite. Also carrying chits of paper in his kurta pocket which had prompted many digs from Akhilesh before they became friends.

The common refrain in the national media about Rahul's campaign at that time was building his image as the 'Angry Young Man' of politics to reflect the true sentiments of the youth who wanted to change the shape of things in the country. It didn't strike the strategists that the country at that time was ruled by a coalition headed by his mother and a Prime Minister handpicked by the family. Well, Mayawati lost the election and Akhilesh Yadav became the chief minister of India's biggest state with a handsome majority.

Meanwhile, the Angry Young Man famously tore up the ordinance brought by his own govt meant to shield corrupt politicians. Since then nothing worked quite right for the Congress. The party scored its worst tally in 2014 general elections and lost several assembly elections back to back.

However, the image make-over exercise continued. Exactly five years after the angry young man experiment failed to yield dividends there was effort for another image over in the 2017 UP polls. This time, the image sought to be projected was that of a friendly boy next door ready to align with like minded friends for politics. Hence the UP ke Ladke campaign. Of course, that too bombed.

But all these completely paled when compared to the Janeudhari Hindu avatar in the Gujarat elections. Here was a temple hopping, Shiva devotee who performed rituals (sometimes questionably) in Mandirs, met saints and visited ashrams all over Gujarat. Gujarati media wrote that leave alone talking about Muslims, Rahul Gandhi even avoided being photographed with Muslim workers during the campaign.

A slightly softer version of this Hindu Rahul was visible in Karnataka too. Here too one saw much temple hopping, visits to Mutts every morning and photographs with seers and pontiffs.

In a few months, there is another round of assembly elections in three large BJP-ruled states where the Congress will be the direct challenger. And then, of course, is the penultimate round or the 2019 general elections. No wonder we are seeing another make-over happening. This time, the Love Guru avatar. Rahul Gandhi, who is all poised to spread love around in the cruel, bad world of politics.

Last Friday's No-Confidence Motion debate may have been about Andhra Pradesh for the TDP members. But for the Congress it was just another platform for yet another image make-over of Rahul Gandhi. The walk to the PM's seat in Lok Sabha and the awkward hug was meant to grab headlines. And grab it did. Except that it got hyphenated with the wink. It's another matter that till recently RaGa was mocking at Narendra Modi's hugs with world leaders even calling it 'Hugplomacy' in his tweets.

The Congress strategists seem to be shooting in the dark in their search for that perfect image which could make him the true challenger to Narendra Modi.

Whether the impact of this new image sustains longer than the earlier ones would be known after some time. Meanwhile, it would be interesting to watch whether this latest Love Guru one is 'THE IMAGE' till 2019 or are there more make-overs in the offing.

(Smita Mishra, Adviser, Prasar Bharati)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 10:04 [IST]JMB terrorists arrested in Delhi were trying to activate Rohingya module

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 25: The two Jamaat -ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh operatives who were arrested near Delhi had planned on carrying out a major strike in the National Capital. Sources tell OneIndia that they were also trying to activate a module comprising Rohingya Muslims at Delhi.

The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad along with the West Bengal police arrested two JMB operatives, Musharraf alias Must and Rubel Ahmed. Both are Bangladeshi nationals.

They had infiltrated into India through West Bengal, before making their journey into Delhi. Both were picked from Greater Noida.

Initial investigations suggest that the duo had planned to carry out a big strike in Delhi. They were in the process of activating a module and even getting in touch with the Rohingya settled in Delhi.

The Intelligence Bureau has warned several times that the Rohingyas are a cause for concern and handlers have been getting in touch with some of them to undertake terror activities.

Further it was also found that the duo were also raising funds for the attack. The JMB had tasked the duo to carry out a major operation. The police say that they are also checking to find if the duo were trying to recruit anyone in the Delhi area.

The JMB, founded in 1998 by Shaikh Abdur Rahman, was banned in 2005 for setting off about 500 bombs simultaneously all around Bangladesh.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 15:10 [IST]AP bandh tomorrow: Normal life to be hit as support pours in

Maharashtra Bandh 2021: What is Open, What is Closed

Maharashtra shutdown: Maratha Kranti Morcha calls off Mumbai bandh

India

oi-Madhuri

Mumbai, July 25: The Maratha Kranti Morcha that was enforcing its state-wide bandh in support of the community's demand for reservation in jobs and education, called off Mumbai bandh on Wednesday. Large scale violence was witnessed on across the state by Maratha outfits demanding reservation for the community across Maharashtra.

Here are the HIGHLIGHTS:



Newest First Oldest First Thane Police uses tear gas on mob even though Mumbai bandh was called off earlier. The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, has called for the shutdown in Mumbai, the financial heart of the country. Another group, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for a bandh today in Navi Mumbai and Panvel. It looks like the protests have become violent. Police have used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli area of Navi Mumbai. Reports of lathicharge also are coming in. Protesters had blocked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in Kalamboli. Police have used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli area of Navi Mumbai. Reports of lathicharge also are coming in. Protesters had blocked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in Kalamboli. Mumbai: Miscreants pelted stones & set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during #MarathaQuotaStir. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders. pic.twitter.com/HA3jP9t05L  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018 Miscreants pelted stones & set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during Maratha Quota Stir. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders. I support #MarathaReservation demand. I appeal protesters to protest peacefully. We need to make a law in parliament and raise reservation cap from 50% to 75%, will also raise this issue in NDA, says Union Minister & Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale There is no impact of the protests on railway services in Pune. All trains are plying normally, Pune Railway PRO said. In Chembur, some schools and colleges have declared a holiday. Mumbai: Workers of #MarathaKrantiMorcha block Eastern Expressway in Chembur during their agitation for #MarathaReservation pic.twitter.com/5faqGPoYfs  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018 Maratha Kranti Morcha members have blocked the Eastern Expressway in Chembur Nine BEST buses have been damaged in Kurla, Bhandup, Andheri, Sakinaka, Kandivali, Koparkhairane and Chandivali areas of Mumbai while Western Express Highway has also been blocked by protestors, according to reports. Nine BEST buses have been damaged in Kurla, Bhandup, Andheri, Sakinaka, Kandivali, Koparkhairane and Chandivali areas of Mumbai while Western Express Highway has also been blocked by protestors, according to reports. Mumbai: Workers of #MarathaKrantiMorcha block Eastern Expressway in Chembur during their agitation for #MarathaReservation pic.twitter.com/5faqGPoYfs  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018 Maratha Kranti Morcha members have blocked the Eastern Expressway in Chembur In Chembur, some schools and colleges have declared a holiday. There is no impact of the protests on railway services in Pune. All trains are plying normally, Pune Railway PRO said. I support #MarathaReservation demand. I appeal protesters to protest peacefully. We need to make a law in parliament and raise reservation cap from 50% to 75%, will also raise this issue in NDA, says Union Minister & Republican Party of India leader Ramdas Athawale Mumbai: Miscreants pelted stones & set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during #MarathaQuotaStir. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders. pic.twitter.com/HA3jP9t05L  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018 Miscreants pelted stones & set a bus ablaze in Mankhurd during Maratha Quota Stir. Fire has now been extinguished by fire tenders. Police have used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli area of Navi Mumbai. Reports of lathicharge also are coming in. Protesters had blocked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in Kalamboli. It looks like the protests have become violent. Police have used teargas to defuse protests in Kalamboli area of Navi Mumbai. Reports of lathicharge also are coming in. Protesters had blocked the Mumbai-Pune Expressway in Kalamboli. The Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, has called for the shutdown in Mumbai, the financial heart of the country. Another group, the Sakal Maratha Samaj, called for a bandh today in Navi Mumbai and Panvel. Thane Police uses tear gas on mob even though Mumbai bandh was called off earlier.

Through the day, protesters blocked arterial roads, including the Mumbai-Pune highway and the Eastern Expressway, and forced shops to shut in pockets of Raigad. Local train routes were blocked in Jogeshwari and near Thane. Violent protests had erupted in parts of the state on Tuesday after a protester committed suicide by jumping into a river in Aurangabad.

Mumbai: A group of Maratha Kranti Morcha workers request with folded hands, the shopkeepers in Bandra to shut their shops. #MaharashtraBandh pic.twitter.com/zVcHM6b3WV  ANI (@ANI) July 25, 2018

Sakal Maratha Samaj has called for a bandh in Navi Mumbai and Panvel as well.

Another vandalism report comes in from Thane - Protestors have vandalised a Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) bus in Wagle Estate area of the city.

Leaders of Maratha Kranti Morcha told ANI that their protest is a peaceful one. "We are not blocking any road. We are carrying out a peaceful protest. We have told our workers that there should be no inconvenience to the police or the government due to our protest. We are asking people to shut down their shops," he said.

Meanwhile, Protesters pelted stones on two Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) buses near Navi Mumbai's Ghansoli this morning. BEST bus services from Airoli to Vashi have been completely stopped today in the light of Maharashtra bandh.

Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde said that law and order conditions will be assessed by local police authorities to decide whether schools and colleges should be kept open.

On Tuesday, one constable died and nine other policemen were injured in stone pelting when the agitators clashed with the police and torched vehicles amid suicide attempt by two protesters. T

The impact of Maharashtra bandh was more visible in Aurangabad and adjoining districts, a day after the death of a protester during a protest march in favour of reservations.Why everyone so obsessed with Mars? Why spend so much time and money?

Mars to come closest to Earth in 15 years

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

This Friday, July 27, 2018, Mars will be brighter in the night sky than it has been in 15 years due to an astronomical event called opposition, which occurs when Earth passes directly between the sun and the red planet, or when Mars is directly opposite the sun in our sky.

Mars will be a "mere" 36 million miles from Earth, according to NASA, before both planets travel farther away from each other as they orbit the sun.

On Friday, Mars will be at "opposition," which occurs when the Earth lies directly between Mars and the sun, making the sun and Mars appear in opposite directions as viewed from the Earth.

NASA plans to release on Friday what scientists say will be stunning new images of Mars taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The release of the photos coincides with the planet's close approach to Earth.

Hubble, one of the largest space telescopes, captured images of dust storms on the Red Planet this summer.

The Mars opposition falls just before the longest total lunar eclipse of the century, which will last 1 hour and 43 minutes. North America is the only continent on Earth from which the eclipse will not be visible.

In 2003, Mars and Earth were the closest in nearly 60,000 years - 55.7 million kilometres. NASA said that won't happen again until 2287.

If you miss this weekend's event, the next close approach of Mars will happen on October 6, 2020, when the red planet will be 38.6 million miles away from Earth.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 4:30 [IST]Whatever happened is wrong, Law will take its course: Rakesh Tikait on Singhu lynching

Mob lynchings being given 'unnecessary importance': Yogi Adityanath

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

New Delhi, July 25: Amid growing clamour over mob lynchings across the nation, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday said such incident are being given "unnecessary importance". Citing communal riots of 1984 under the Congress regime, Yogi said the grand old party was trying to blow the issue out of proportion.

"These incidents are given unnecessary importance. If you talk about mob lynching, what was 1984? Law and order is a matter of state. Congress' intention to make mountain out of a molehill won't be successful," the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister told news agency ANI.

"We will provide protection to everyone, but it's responsibility of every individual, every community and every religion to respect each other sentiments. Humans are important and cows are also important. Both have their own roles in nature. Everyone should be protected," he added.

Several cases of lynching and mob violence have been reported from across the country over the last few months, the latest being from Rajasthan where a man was beaten to death on Friday on suspicion of cow smuggling. Condemning the rising incidents of lynchings, the Supreme Court had on Tuesday asked the government to enact a law to deal with such cases.

[Cow and Beef have become excuse to attack people: Tharoor on lynching incidents]

The Centre is considering the possibility of amending the Indian Penal Code to define 'mob lynching' as a penal offence.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 16:49 [IST]Know more about Vikram Maan, a young PR and Social Media conglomerate from Rajasthan

Influencing their way to the top - meet Reeva and Gaurika

CJI links viral texts on social media to mob lynching

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 25: Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra has urged citizens not to rely blindly on the social media messages amidst latest incidents of mob lynching. He said the people should not blindly believe social media messages to ensure peace and order in society.

"The blatant reliance on social media needs to be checked by the citizens themselves; to ensure peace and order in the society," Misra was quoted as saying by ANI.

The CJI further added that viral texts on the social media are responsible for the recent surge in mob lynching cases in the country.

"There is a recent surge in mob lynching, please don't misunderstand me because I have authored the judgment, there is a recent surge in mob lynching based on the viral text on the social media and this leads to mobocracy and loss of life, in certain cases," he added.

The SC had last week condemned such incidents while recommending to Parliament to enact a separate law to punish the offenders. It had observed that horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be tolerated.Monkey debate in Rajya Sabha as Venkaiah Naidu seeks solution

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, July 25: Monkey menace has now struck the official residence of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. Ram Kumar Kashyap of the Indian National Lok Dal raised the issue of monkey menace in the national capital through a zero hour mention in the Rajya Sabha.

He said monkeys uproot plants as well as carry away clothes left out for drying. A Member of Parliament was delayed for a committee meeting as he was attacked by monkeys, he said asking the government to find a solution to the problem.

Naidu, who is the Chairman of the Upper House, said even the official residence of the Vice President of India is facing monkey menace.

"Hope Maneka Gandhi is not there," he remarked in a lighter vein referring to animal rights activists and Union Minister. "Some solution has to be found about monkey menace in Delhi," he told Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 5:42 [IST]Despite highest disruptions since 2014, here's the list of bills passed in Parliament

New parliament building will be a monumental work of skill, speed, scale: Govt official

Monsoon Session ends, most productive for Lok Sabha since 2000

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, Aug 10: The Monsoon session of Parliament, which ended, was the "most productive" for Lok Sabha since 2000, a think tank has said. According to the data compiled by PRS Legislative Research, 20 bills were introduced during the session and 12 were passed.

The Lok Sabha, it said, worked for 110 per cent of the scheduled hours and the Rajya Sabha for 66 per cent. The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha spent 50 per cent and 48 per cent of their time on legislative business respectively, the data said. This, the PRS Legislative Research data said, is the highest by both Houses in the 16th Lok Sabha and second highest since 2004.

Fewer bills (26 per cent) were referred to parliamentary committees, as compared to the 15th Lok Sabha (71 per cent) and the 14th Lok Sabha (60 per cent). This Monsoon session also had one of the most productive Question Hours of the 16th Lok Sabha.

The Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha functioned for 84 per cent and 68 per cent of their scheduled Question Hour time respectively, the data said. The highest number of 999 Private Member Bills were introduced in the Lok Sabha since 2000, the think tank said.

In the 16th Lok Sabha, the highest number of government Bills were introduced by the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. In the 15th Lok Sabha, the highest number of Bills were introduced by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Law and Justice.

Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the session has been the "more productive and safisfactory" compared to the previous Budget Session and last year's monsoon session.

The session, which began on July 18, also witnessed a discussion on a no confidence motion against the Government brought by Opposition. The motion was defeated later.

The House also greeted the people in advance on the occasion of the Independence Day.

Here are the Highlights from the Monsoon Session:

Newest First Oldest First Monsoon Session of the Lok Sabha adjourned Sine Die. "Triple Talaq Bill will not be taken up today because no consensus could be built around it," says Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu. Some reports say that the Triple Talaq Bill could be tabled in the Winter Session. The government and opposition failed to reached a consensus on the issue of triple talaq. Senior ministers in the government including Union law minister and senior Congress leaders are discussing the matter to reach a meeting point. However consensus seems unlikely. Congress demands JPC into Rafale issue. After ruckus over the matter, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned. Uproar by Opposition in Rajya Sabha over Rafale Deal issue. Congress raises Rafale deal issue in Rajya Sabha. Sonia Gandhi takes part in the protest by Opposition in Parliament premises over Rafale Deal issue. "Our party's position is absolutely clear on this, I will not say anything on this further," former Congress president Sonia Gandhi tells media when asked about Triple Talaq Bill. Congress, CPI, RJD and AAP hold protest outside Parliament over Rafale deal issue, reports ANI. The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved amendments in the Triple Talaq Bill. Under the amendments cleared, a magistrate will have powers to grant bail. The woman can approach the magistrate to seek subsistence allowance for herself and her minor children, and can also seek custody of her minor children from the magistrate who will take a final call on the matter. Union Cabinet yesterday also approved inclusion of provisions that the complaint in such a case can only be filed by the victim (wife) or blood relations With the Union Goverment set to table the Triple Talaq Bill in the Rajya Sabha today, a BJP strategy meeting is curently underway in the Parliament. BJP President Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh , Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and other senior leaders are present at the meeting, reported ANI. Triple Talaq Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha today Lok Sabha adjourned till 11am tomorrow. Triple Talaq Bill to be tabled in Rajya Sabha tomorrow TDP MP demands Centre intervention in view of several kidney ailment cases in Uddanam Zero Hour begins Lok Sabha has passed the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill. Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) will rally across the country & expose Congress who ruled for 55 years but did nothing. It's a slap in the face of those who call NDA & Modi govt as anti-dalit, says Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister, on passage of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Amendment Bill New talent would do better in upcoming games&championships. Manipur is known as sports powerhouse.I want to make it super sports powerhouse. Whatever Govt needs to do in this, I would be very happy to help:Mary Kom,Rajya Sabha MP,on passage of National Sports University Bill 2018 Lok Sabha extends functioning till 7 pm LS debates the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017. The Bill seeks to amend the Representation of People Act, 1950 and the Representation of People Act, 1951 to allow for proxy voting for NRI voters and to make certain provisions of the Acts gender-neutral. Lok Sabha has passed The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Union Territory Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018, The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill, 2018 and The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018. National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017 has been passed by Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, The DNA Technology (Use And Application) Regulation Bill, 2018 has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till 11.00 am tomorrow. Parliament has passed the National Sports University Bill 2018 as the Rajya Sabha has given its approval. The Rajya Sabha is currently discussing The Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Bill, 2018. The Lok Sabha is discussing The Central Goods and Services Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2018. "We've proposed 3 changes. If any husband gives triple talaq instantaneously & breaks marriage then FIR shall only become cognizable when it is filed by victim or blood relation or relation by marriage," he said. Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party, or TDP, has given notice for a no trust motion against the NDA government in the Lok Sabha. The no-trust motion does not endanger the BJP-led government which has 273 members in the Lok Sabha, much more than the half-way mark. Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav said at the all-party meeting: We will not allow the House to function till an assurance is given by the government on the floor of the House on reservations to SCs and STs in higher education. With the Supreme Court coming down heavily on inaction by states in cases of cow vigilantism, a debate on an anti-lynching law is likely to take place. With parliament session starting from today, several key bills are likely to be passed, tabled or debated. Before the bills are tabled and discussed, the opposition is likely to rake up issues that might delay the session. Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu has urged both ruling and opposition parties to stop blame game over house disruptions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday sought cooperation of all political parties and asked them to ensure that it turns out to be a productive session. While the BJP has accused the Congress of Muslim appeasement and practising divisive politics, the Congress on its part has accused Modi of pursuing divisive agenda to win elections after his governance "failure". In Rajya Sabha, members will pay their Obituary References to the passing away of- Vishwasrao Ramrao Patil, Mohammed Amin, Ashok Mitra, Balkavi Bairagi, Kameshwar Paswan, Shantaram Naik, Surinder Kumar Singla and M.M. Jacob Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at the government through a pop quiz. In a veiled attack at the BJP-led central government, Gandhi said, "Pop Quiz  I bow to the most powerful in the line. A person's strength & power are all that are important to me. I use hatred & fear to maintain the hierarchy of power. I seek out the weakest & crush them. I rank all living beings based on their usefulness to me. Who am I? (sic)." Over eight opposition leaders have sent an unusual rejoinder to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's request to cooperation during parliament's monsoon session with a letter of their own. The opposition leaders wonder whether she had written to the government too, pointing that it was the ruling BJP-led coalition which disrupted parliament for 13 days during the budget session. The Shiv Sena was undecided on supporting the no-confidence motion that the TDP sought to move in Parliament against the BJP-led NDA government. Trinamool Congress gives Zero hour notice in Rajya Sabha over Mob Lynching issue. List of Issues Opposition Will Raise During Monsoon Session Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said opposition parties will demand grant of special status to Andhra Pradesh, apart from raising issues such as lynchings, atrocities against women and Dalits and dilution of a law meant for SCs. He said that attempts to abolish reservation policy and the falling value of the Rupee will be also be raised in the monsoon session. After TMC in Rajya Sabha, now RJD MP JP Yadav has also given an adjournment motion notice in Lok Sabha over cases of mob lynching. CPI MP D Raja has given adjournment motion notice in Rajya Sabha over cases of mob lynching and attack on Swami Agnivesh. With opposition all geared up to corner the Centre over host of issues including contentious mob lynching incident, what the Members of the Parliament should remember is that a total of 68 pending bills need to to be taken up the next 18 sessions. The Budget Session of Parliement was a toatl chaos during which the Lok Sabha worked for only 21 per cent of its scheduled time while the Rajya Sabha worked just 27 per cent. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to express hope for a peaceful Monsoon Session, while taking a dig at the BJP and its allies. "It would be a disgrace if we saw a repeat of proxy disruption so the government can push its bills through in the din," he said in the tweet. Looking forward to a productive #MonsoonSession2018 with support from all political parties. #Parliament pic.twitter.com/fqu5AecGyD  Ananthkumar (@AnanthKumar_BJP) July 18, 2018 Ananth Kumar hopes for a productive session. TDP MP Kesineni Srinivas has already wrote to Lok Sabha Secretary-General to include a no-confidence motion in the list of business for the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, which begins today. The government is unlikely to go for election to the post of Rajya Sabha's deputy chairman in Parliament's Monsoon Session beginning tomorrow and will push for a consensus candidate. The post has been lying vacant since June after the retirement of PJ Kurien, who was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on the Congress ticket from Kerala, and later became its deputy chairman in the UPA government. Meeting of Telugu Desam Party(TDP) MPs underway at YS Choudhary's residence in Delhi. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh arrive in Parliament. YSR Congress MPs protest at Gandhi statue in Parliament, demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh. Special category status for Andhra has been a long pending demand. It over this issues that the TDP severed ties with the BJP and walked out of the NDA. "We hope that MonsoonSession of Parliament functions smoothly, whatever issues any party has, it can raise on the floor of the house. Government is ready for discussion on all issues," says PM Modi before entering Parliament. PM Modi seeks cooperation of all political parties and asked them to ensure that the Monsoon Session turns out to be productive. The Budget Session of Parliament was a total chaos during which the Lok Sabha worked for only 21 per cent of its scheduled time while the Rajya Sabha worked just 27 per cent. "May the productivity of the forthcoming session and the rich levels of debate also become a source of inspiration for the various state assemblies," the PM says.

Important bills and ordinances listed for the Monsoon Session:

123rd Constitutional Amendment bill

Constitution (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) Orders (Amendment) Bill

Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill

Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill or the triple talaq bill

Rights of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, 2017

Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill

National Medical Commission Bill, 2017.

Code of Wages Bill, the Factories (Amendment) Bill

Contract Labour Amendment Bill

Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill

Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill

Ordinances that would be replaced:

Fugitive Economic Offenders Ordinance

Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance

Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of HCs (Amendment) Ordinance

Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Ordinance

National Sports University Ordinance

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Amendment) OrdinanceBihar By-polls: Lalu Yadav to campaign for RJD candidates on Wednesday to ensure 'visarjan' of Nitish Kumar

Nitish should give up bid for another term as CM: Upendra Kushwaha

India

pti-PTI

Patna, July 25: Rashtriya Lok Samata Party Upendra Kushwaha today created a flutter by saying that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should voluntarily "give up the bid" for a fourth term in office in 2020.

In an interview to a news channel here, Kushwaha said Kumar had served as chief minister for close to 15 years and the time had come for him to consider "giving somebody else a chance".

"It has been close to 15 years since Nitish Kumar was first blessed with the mandate to govern Bihar. It is a pretty long period for a leader to prove his mettle. I think he should now himself give up the bid for another term", Kushwaha said.

The RLSP chief was replying to a query about the likelihood of Kumar facing a tough time in the next state polls due to anti-incumbency.

Kushwaha, the Union minister of state for the HRD, said "I have known Kumar for long and as far as I have understood his personality, he would himself not run for another term".

"He (Kumar) could aim at a bigger political role for himself", he added cryptically.

Kushwaha's comment comes in the backdrop of a number of leaders from his party expressing the view that he would be a better chief ministerial candidate for the NDA in Bihar than Kumar.

A former close associate of Kumar, Kushwaha had floated his own party after resigning from JD(U) in 2013. He allied with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha poll when Kumar was out of the NDA and his RLSP won three seats.

Although RLSP has two MLAs, none of its members got a ministerial berth after Kumar formed a government with the BJP last year after walking out of the Grand Alliance which comprised RJD and Congress, besides JD(U).

The ruling NDA in Bihar now comprises the JD(U), the BJP, Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP and the RLSP.

The RLSP leaders have been pointing out that Kushwaha belongs to the Koeri caste, which is a much larger social group than the Kurmi community represented by Kumar.

Kushwaha had skipped the dinner meet hosted by BJP in Patna last month to celebrate the completion of four years in power by the Narendra Modi government. The other NDA allies were present at the meet.

The meeting happened to be the first such function held after the return of Kumar, who is also the JD(U) national president, to the BJP-led coalition a year earlier.

Meanwhile, RLSP national secretary and spokesman Madhaw Anand issued a press statement urging the chief minister to recommend a CBI inquiry into the alleged sexual exploitation of girls at a state-funded shelter home in Muzaffarpur district.

In his statement, Anand alleged that the Muzaffarpur scandal could turn out to be "larger than Nithari" if it was properly investigated.

He cited the statement of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who had said in Parliament yesterday that the Centre would consider a CBI inquiry if a request to this effect was made by the state government.

PTIOutstanding character, Rs 1.3 crore is what Mehul Choksi needs to get an Antigua citizenship

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 24: On Tuesday, there were reports suggesting that PNB scam accused Mehul Choksi had fled to Antigua. Some of the pre-conditions to get a citizenship in Antigua include the requirement for an outstanding character and Rs 1.3 crore.

Details available on the Antigua and Barbuda Citizenship by Investment lay down the process of how one can obtain a citizenship and the details available show that it is not all that difficult.

The Antigua & Barbuda's Citizenship by Investment Program was established in 2012. A persons seeking citizenship could either make a real estate investment or donation. There are three options available in this regard. A real estate split would cost 2 lakh US dollars along with an application fee of 58,500 US dollars. In order to make a real estate investment, one would need 4 lakh US dollars and an application fee of 58,500 US dollars.

Alternatively a donation of 1 lakh US dollars could be made, with an application fee of 33,500 US dollars.

While for Choksi, these numbers would hardly matter, he would however be eligible subject to the following pre-conditions:

Be of outstanding character

Hold no criminal record

Have excellent health

Have a high personal net worth

Reside with the family members who are included in the application in the country for a minimum of 35 days within a period of five years.

For one to get a citizenship the government has also offered various investment options:

National Development Fund Contribution or Charitable donation: High net worth individuals may choose to make a monetary contribution of US$100,000 to the National Development Fund or an approved charity.

High net worth individuals may choose to make a monetary contribution of US$100,000 to the National Development Fund or an approved charity. Real Estate Investment: Applicants may purchase property valued at a minimum of US$400,000 in a preapproved real estate development area. The investment must be maintained for a minimum of five years. Property registration, processing fees and taxes must be paid in addition to the property purchase.

Callaloo Cay: Callaloo Cay is a unique luxury multi-resort project developed in partnership with the government by an international team of world class developers and investors such as Arton. This exclusive resort sits on 36 acres of prime beach-front and offers first-class facilities that cater to discerning clients. Under the Redeemable Preferred Share Offer by the resort, investors renounce the capital appreciation in exchange for a guaranteed return on investment after the mandatory five-year holding period.

Business Establishment

Applicants may invest US$1.5 million to establish a business. Two or more applicants may make a joint business investment with an individual threshold of at least US$400,000 and a total investment of at least US$5 million, according to the website- https://www.artoncapital.com/global-citizen-programs/antigua-and-barbuda/Shatrughan Sinha likely to join TMC, may be sent to Rajya Sabha

Shatrughan Sinha questions Modis Africa tour timing, attacks him over lynchings

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

New Delhi, July 25: BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over mob lynchings and the controversy on Rafale fighter aircraft deal with France as he questioned the timing of the Prime Minister's three-nation tour of Africa.

Taking to twitter, the sidelined BJP leader wrote: "Dear Sir! As usual,while Parliament is in session, you are on a 3 Nation African tour. Heavens wouldn't have fallen if you'd left after the session. You could have still visited some of the nations left on the globe...(sic)" Sinha said in a series of tweets.

"... Also, humble request to direct us as a privilege motion on Rafale deal against Govt has been moved.Jai Hind!", he added.

The last time Sinha took on Modi on Twitter was on Tuesday when he wrote about the Prime Minister's response to Congress president Rahul Gandhi's "splendid" hug in Parliament during the no-confidence motion debate last Friday.

The BJP leader called Rahul Gandhi "dynamic young leader of the youth & generation next" and questioned the "hue & cry over a Pyar ki Jhappi" by the Congress president to Prime Minister Modi.

"What's the big fuss, hue & cry over a "Pyar ki Jhappi", an affectionate hug? The dynamic young leader of the youth & generation next, @RahulGandhi spontaneously gave a warm hug to our Hon'ble PM after his speech in Parliament. What a splendid gesture?" tweeted Sinha.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 18:31 [IST]Shia Waqf Board chief lists nine disputed shrine to be handed over to Hindus; writes to PM

India

oi-Vinod

By Vinod

New Delhi, July 25: President of Uttar Pradesh Central Shia Waqf Board Syed Wasim Rizvi has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to repeal the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. He also demanded that nine important Hindu temples demolished by foreign looters and Mughals must be given back to Hindu to rebuilt temples there. However, the Shia leader missed to include Bhojshala-Kamal Maula mosque which too is very much in dispute between Hindu and Muslims for long.

The Shia Waqf Board listed that Ram Temple in Ayodhya (matter in the SC), Keshav Dev Temple, Mathura, Atala Devi Temple, Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, Kashi Vishwanath Temple, Varansi, Uttar Pradesh, Rudra Mahalaya Temple, Batna, Gujarat, Bhadrakali Temple, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Adina Mosque, Panduwa, West Bengal, Vijaya Temple, Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh and Quwwat ul Islam Temple, Qutub Complex, New Delhi.

Shia Waqf Board president Syed Wasim Rizvi told One India that the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 has been passed by the Congress government in Parliament to protect such monuments that were demolish by looters who came to India centuries ago. The only solution to these problems is that this Act must be repealed as stay from the court on such places is not solution to these issues.

Rizvi said that this act was opposed by many leaders in the country including Union minister Uma Bharati. "I will seek time from the PM to request him to repeal this law to allow ancient temple to be rebuilt to their glory as that is the only way to prevail harmony in the country," Rizvi said. He further said that any place that was forcefully occupied cannot be used for religious purposes as per Islam and offering Namaj there is illegitimate.

But there is not unanimity within the community on the issue. A Sunni scholar on condition of anonymity said that Rizvi sahib was trying to save himself from the hands of law by such gimmicks and to keep the present dispensation happy. The matter of Ayodhya is in court and let the court decide while racking up other issue will cause disharmony in the country.

Rizvi said that as per the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, all religious monuments will remain as they were prior to 1947 except Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri mosque. This has protected all disputed mosques but this will keep enmity between Hindu and Muslim alive. The move was dubbed as to fetch Muslim votes for the Congress. Moreover, Muslims are allowed to offer prayers in these disputed sites.

By this process mosques were given legal protection but this protection is not for offering namaj. Moreover as per sharia offering namaj in these places is not appropriate but due to vested interest such things are happening and namaj is offered at disputed places. This is also done to vitiate environment of the country. On Bhojshala issue Rizvi was not sure but said that he included all such temple in it. If there is any such monument it must be given to Hindus.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 12:04 [IST]Speaker likely to reject privilege motion against PM, Sitharaman and Rahul Gandhi

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

New Delhi, July 25: Privilege motion moved against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman on the issue of Raffle Aircraft deal and privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi are in all likelihood not going to be accepted by the Lok Sabha Speaker.

Indications are coming in that privilege motions might not be accepted by the Lok Sabha Speaker as they might not be substantiated. Actually both the political parties are trying to get mileage out of it as elections are coming closure.

The BJP alleged Rahul Gandhi for telling the House lie while the Congress is alleging the PM and the defence minister to misguide house.

Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge moved the breach of privilege motion against PM Modi while Congress leader Jyotiradtiya Scindia submitted the notice against Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

BJP Members of Parliament Nishikant Dubey, Anurag Thakur, Dushyant Singh and Prahalad Joshi have given the notice to the Speaker against Rahul Gandhi.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said on Wednesday that privilege notices against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were under her consideration. She said that she had received five privilege notices against the Prime Minister and five against the Defence Minister from members of Opposition parties for allegedly misleading the House on the Rafale deal during the debate on the motion of no-confidence against the government.

She also said that four privilege notices had been received against 'one person' - Congress president Rahul Gandhi - and these were also under her consideration.

Sources say that actually the Congress seems to have some documents related to the matter of Raffel deal but it does not want to hand it over to Parliament rather it wants to keep this issue alive till Lok Sabha elections and showing up these documents to media occasionally will help the Congress to gain dividend out of it.

Sources said that both the political parties are fighting to get political mileage out of the move. There is also a dilemma for the Speaker as she cannot accept the motion moved only by the BJP for being alleged to be partitioned. So both the motions are expected to be rejected by the Speaker which is prerogative of Speaker.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 20:22 [IST]Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

Haryana constructed the portion of SYL canal in its territory. However, Punjab, after the initial phase, stopped the work, leading to a spate of litigations. In 2004, the Congress government in the state came out with the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act with the intention to terminate the 1981 agreement and all other pacts relating to sharing waters of the Ravi and Beas rivers.

The apex court had first decreed Haryana's suit in 2002 asking Punjab to honour its commitments with regard to water sharing in the case. Punjab had challenged the verdict by filing an original suit that was rejected in 2004 by the Supreme Court which asked the Centre to take over the remaining infrastructure work of the SYL canal project.

Current Status (Representational image used)

The canal is 85% complete with Haryana government completing its part of the canal. It has completed 92 km of canal in its land. Haryana would benefit enormously by gaining water from Ravi-Beas from Punjab. On 30 November 2016, the Supreme Court appointed the Union Home Secretary, Punjab's Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police as receivers for submitting a report on the present status of land and other properties on the canal site by 15 December. The receivers submitted their reports as per schedule, stating in the reports that there was no fresh or deliberate damage to the canal.

How the dispute began?

The dispute regarding sharing of river water emerged after Punjab was reorganised in 1966, and the state of Haryana was created. Haryana demanded 4.8 MAF out of Punjab's total 7.2 MAF share of water from the rivers, while Punjab claimed the entire quantity belonged to it. Haryana asked the Union government to intervene as no agreement could be reached. In 1976, when the country was under an internal emergency, an executive order was issued by the Union government which allocated 3.5 MAF of water to both states while Delhi received the remaining 0.2 MAF. In order to make full use of the allocated water, a Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal was proposed.TDP to move privilege motion against PM, Finance Minister

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) moved to file privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister for 'misleading the House' about special category status to Andhra Pradesh. Chandrababu Naidu told MPs to move privilege motion, directly accusing PM for lying.

During the Monsoon session debate in Lok Sabha, TDP MP YS Chowdary accused the Modi government of "willfully burying" the Union Cabinet's decision in respect of special category status to the state and said there was a "huge dichotomy in the words and deeds" of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

However, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said the Centre "has an open mind. We are willing to consider in a rationale manner how these issues can be resolved so that the the letter and spirit is adhered to."

"The purpose is that the people of AP should get benefit and that the Modi government is fully commited to. ... Don't go by the letter, go by the spirit of the arrangement," he said, adding that the state would not have got any extra fund through the special category status.

(With PTI inputs)

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 10:41 [IST]Was Jayalalithaa pregnant? Never says TN government

India

oi-Staff

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Chennai, July 25: The Tamil Nadu government has told the Madras High Court that Jayalalithaa was never pregnant in her lifetime. The submission was made by the Advocate General of Tamil Nadu Vijay Narayan on a petition filed by one Amrutha of Bengaluru who claimed to be the biological daughter of the late leader.

He further submitted that the intent of the petitioner was to take over the properties left behind by Jayalalithaa. He further questioned why the petitioner had never taken a picture with the late leader.

The AG also said that as per records submitted by Amrutha, she was born in August 1980. The video clip submitted by her was taken in 1980 at an award ceremony. This was filmed just a month before she was born and the court can see there are no signs of pregnancy, the AG further submitted.

Narayan further added that there are other relatives of Jayalalithaa and their DNA samples can be compared with that of Amrutha, if required. The court has posted the matter for further hearing to next week.

Amrutha in her petition had sought for a direction to exhume Jayalalithaa's body and enable her and her family to cremate it on the grounds that Jayalalithaa was a Brahmin.

She also asked the court to order a DNA test to ascertain her parentage.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 5:51 [IST]'Fake rumours' on social media has turned deadly

A spate of mob lynchings has claimed over 20 lives in Maharashtra, Tripura, Assam, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka since March. In most of the cases, the mobs seem to have been incited byWhatsApp videos and messages asking people to beware of child kidnappers.

45 people killed across nine states

As per the Ministry of Home Affairs data, 45 people were killed in 40 different cases across nine states between 2014 and 3 March, 2018.

WhatsApp limits message forwarding after mob killings

WhatsApp has now announced restrictions the ability of users in India to forward content, as the latest attempt to curb mob violence sparked by rumours spread through the hugely popular app. In India, the limit on forwarding is five chats at once. For WhatsApp users outside India, the limit on forwarding will be 20.Why the chase for Mehul Choksi would be a tough one for India

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

New Delhi, July 25: The hunt for Mehul Choksi, an accused in the PNB fraud case may be harder than what India would have expected. Reports suggest that he may have or is in the process of shifting to Antigua.

India suspects that he may have already bought an Antigua citizenship. Antigua incidentally allows dual citizenship. Antigua is one of the safest tax havens and the absence of an extradition treaty with India would only make the chase harder.

India has written to Antigua asking for more details regarding Choksi. A reply is yet to be received in this regard.

Outstanding character, Rs 1.3 crore is what Mehul Choksi needs to get an Antigua citizenship

If Choksi has already bought the citizenship and obtained a passport, he could fly around freely. While there is an Interpol Red Corner Notice against Nirav Modi, the request by the CBI to issue one against Choksi is still pending.

CBI sources tell OneIndia that they are still awaiting a reply from Antigua. It is a tough case, but in the absence of the extradition, there are other ways of going about the issue. We could go through diplomatic channels in the absence of the extradition treaty, the officer also said.

Meanwhile the Enforcement Directorate had told a court that both Nirav Modi and Choski should be declared as fugitive economic offenders. Once declared under the new ordinance their assets could be seized and sold off. While absconding the duo do not have any legal right to challenge such action.

Choksi, it may be recalled had said that he would not return to India as he fears mob-lynching.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 17:09 [IST]India not capable of helping states like Bhutan nor does it allow China to do it: Chinese expert

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Beijing, July 25: Although it seemed to be just another visit by a diplomatic envoy, but Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuangyou's three-day tour of Bhutan which concluded on Tuesday, July 24, had more undercurrents attached to it than visible with naked eyes.

The implication of the visit was seen seriously with both China and India with one Chinese expert even saying that Beijing's efforts to help countries like Bhutan were hindered by India which itself has no capacity to help in their development, China's Global Times reported.

Kong on Tuesday, July 24, said Beijing respects Bhutan's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity after the conclusion of visit to the landlocked Himalayan nation.

Kong met Bhutan's King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk, its prime minister Tshering Tobgay and foreign minister Damcho Dorji during the visit, China's foreign ministry said.

Kong said China treated its traditional ties with Beijing with great importance and also respected its choice of political system and development road suiting its own conditions and respected Bhutan's independent and peaceful diplomatic stances, the Times report said.

In 2017, China and India locked horns over Doklam, which is only 40 kilometres away from Bhutan, over Beijing's decision to build infrastructure. China was of the opinion that India had nothing to do with it as it was a matter to be taken up with Bhutan while India perceived a Chinese threat near its border and came forward to defend its trusted ally in South Asia, Bhutan.

The stand-off went on for 73 days. China said it discussed the Doklam issue with Bhutan during Kong's visit to that country.

The visit by Kong was seen with caution by the Indian side as its media thought it was timed ahead of Bhutan's national election late this year to boost China's influence there, the Global Times report added.

The Times, however, cited Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying that China respected another country's sovereignty irrespective of the size and accused India of treating Bhutan as its "orbit" and said Thimpu could not completely get rid of India's influence on matters of politics, economy, diplomacy and security.

Hu also said that China hoped to see Bhutan turning more independent "in these respects" like Nepal, another Himayalan kingdom which has in recent times shown intent to go out of India's shadow and cement its relationship with China.

It was also Hu who said that China's eagerness to help countries like Bhutan is "strenuously opposed" by India even though it is not capable itself to do the same.

China, on the occasion of Kong's visit, also invited Bhutan to join its Belt and Road Initiative, something it hasn't done as one of those rare South Asian countries along with India.

China and Bhutan don't have formal diplomatic relations but have engaged over several rounds of talks to resolve their border dispute.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 11:03 [IST]PM says notion that Army, police meant for men no longer exists, lauds rise in number of women cops

PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission: What we know about the scheme, so far?

'I am here to solve trade imbalance between India and Uganda': Modi

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Kampala, July 25: Asserting that India has become investor friendly due to policy driven governance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that he is Uganda to resolve trade imbalance between the two countries.

PM Modi is in Uganda on the second leg of his three-nation tour to Africa. PM Modi arrived in Ugandan capital Kampala last evening on a two-day visit to the country - the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

"India is a policy driven governance, where there is tax stability and predictable taxation. That is why investment, for anyone, is easy here..President of Uganda is right in saying there is a trade imbalance between India and Uganda. I have come here to solve that," PM Modi said in his address at the India-Uganda Business Forum in Kampala.

"We have to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda," the Prime Minister added.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, speaking at the India Uganda Business Forum, exhorted the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment.

Modi and President Museveni earlier unveiled a bust of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community event. Earlier, both leaders held delegation-level talks and signed four MoUs in defence co-operation and other areas.

Prime Minister Modi also hailed India's ties with Uganda and other African nations, saying the resource-rich continent is now in the centre of his government's foreign policy. He announced that India will open 18 new embassies, taking the total number of the country's missions in Africa to 47.

Later in the day, Modi will head to Johannesburg in South Africa to attend the 10th BRICS Summit. The theme of the summit is, 'BRICS in Africa: collaboration for inclusive growth and shared prosperity in the 4th Industrial revolution'.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 13:34 [IST]PM says notion that Army, police meant for men no longer exists, lauds rise in number of women cops

PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission: What we know about the scheme, so far?

Modi's 10 principles to deepen ties with Africa

International

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Kampala, July 25: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a five-day Africa visit, addressed the Ugandan Parliament on Wednesday during which he spelled out 10 principles that India would focus on to better ties with the African nations.

PM Modi is in Uganda on the second leg of his three-nation tour to Africa. PM Modi arrived in Ugandan capital Kampala last evening on a two-day visit to the country - the first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

The following are the 10 principles that PM Modi mentioned in his address:

"Africa will be at the top of our priorities. We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular."

"Our development partnership will be guided by your priorities. It will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate your potential and not constrain your future. We will build as much local capacity and create as much local opportunities as possible."

"We will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India. We will support our industry to invest in Africa."

"We will harness India's experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development, improve delivery of public services, extend education and health, spread digital literacy, expand financial inclusion and mainstream the marginalised."

"Africa has 60% of the world's arable land, but produces just 10% of the global output. We will work with you to improve Africa's agriculture."

"Our partnership will address the challenges of climate change."

"We will strengthen our cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism, keeping our cyberspace safe and secure and supporting the United Nations in advancing and keeping peace."

"We will work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations. The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean."

"As global engagement in Africa increases, we must all work together to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth."

"Just as India and Africa fought colonialism together, we will work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India."

Earlier today, Modi addressed India-Uganda Business Forum in Kampala and said that he was there to resolve trade imbalance between the two countries.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, speaking at the India Uganda Business Forum, exhorted the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment.

['I am here to solve trade imbalance between India and Uganda': Modi]

Modi and President Museveni earlier unveiled a bust of India's first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at the Indian community event. Earlier, both leaders held delegation-level talks and signed four MoUs in defence co-operation and other areas.

Prime Minister Modi also hailed India's ties with Uganda and other African nations, saying the resource-rich continent is now in the centre of his government's foreign policy. He announced that India will open 18 new embassies, taking the total number of the country's missions in Africa to 47.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 14:59 [IST]DNA of those who burst firecrackers in India on Pakistans win cannot be Indian: Anil Vij

China pledges to continue work with new Pakistan government

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Beijing, July 25: As Pakistan went to crucial national elections on Wednesday, July 25, its all-weather ally China pledged to continue to work with the new government that takes charge after the polls.

According to AFP, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, July 24, that China would continue to work with the new government to enhance cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

"We are willing to work with the new Pakistani government to continue to consolidate political mutual trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and promote new progress in the all-weather strategic partnership between the two countries," Shuang was quoted as saying.

Shuang was asked a question over the criticism that Imran Khan, the prime ministerial candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), made of some projects of the much-talked about China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which he accused of indulging in corruption. Since Khan is a frontrunner to become the next premier of the South Asian country, it was apprehended whether China could face any hurdle in its relationship with its ally under a new government.

Shuang defined the CPEC as a strategic cooperation framework set by the leaders of the two countries with an aim of long-term development of both.

Though aimed at improving Pakistan's economy, the CPEC has often run into trouble over issues like security and finance on its soil. Recently, some road projects under the CPEC hit a wall because of financial crisis in the national highway body of Pakistan. Issues like inadequate employment and overwhelming presence of the military in connection with the project have also created discontent among the common Pakistanis.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 10:13 [IST]Should India opt out of India-Pakistan T20 World Cup? Who said what

DNA of those who burst firecrackers in India on Pakistans win cannot be Indian: Anil Vij

Pak polls: Transgenders not being allowed to vote in male polling stations in Lahore seat

International

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Lahore, July 25: Pakistan, which went to its general elections on Wednesday, July 25, made headlines ahead of the polling over the evolution of its transgender community.

While 13 transgender candidates were contesting this year's eventful elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan also assigned members of the community the responsibility of observers during the polls, leaving the members elated.

But that the transgender community was yet to cover a distance in Pakistan's political landscape became evident after reports suggested voters from the community were not being allowed to cast ballots in male polling stations in NA-135 constituency in Lahore, Punjab.

Pakistan's leading daily Dawn reported this.

Transgender community filed writ petition in February

In February, the transgender community of Sindh filed a writ petition against the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan and Provincial Election Commissioner under Article 199 of the country's constitution asking the court to direct the poll panel to ensure that the July 25 elections were friendly and inclusive to the transgender community - both as voters and contestants.

In 2013, 500 polling stations saw no women voter

In the 2013 general elections in Pakistan, although the women voters' turnout was around 44 per cent, some 500 polling stations across the country saw not a single woman voter casting ballots.28 killed in suicide blast near Quetta polling station; ISIS claims responsibility

International

oi-Madhuri

Balochistan, July 25: Twenty-eight people have been killed after a bomb attack near eastern bypass in Balochistan's Quetta on Wednesday. Rescue sources said the explosion occurred near a police mobile. Police in Quetta have said they fear the death toll could be more than 30.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for an explosion near a polling station in Quetta, Pakistan, on Wednesday, according to the group's Amaq news agency.

Mwanwhile, Pakistan's 11th general election to elect a new prime minister in the second democratic transition of power in the nation's 70-year chequered history has began amid tight security on Wednesday.

Polling began at 8 am and will conclude, without any break, at 6PM across the country's 85,307 polling stations, of which 17,007 have been declared "highly sensitive".

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election.Members of farmers' body detained in Lucknow for trying to burn effigies of PM Modi, Shah

4 alleged cattle smugglers assaulted by mob in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow

oi-PTI

Hathras (UP), July 25: At least four alleged cattle smugglers transporting a dead buffalo were assaulted by a mob here in the early hours on Wednesday, the police said.

Villagers alleged that the men were caught in village Nagla Mandhata while they were transporting the buffalo's carcass in a pick-up van. They were, however, rescued by the police who intervened in time, Hasayan SHO Jitendra Kumar said.

The owner of the buffalo alleged that the animal had been poisoned by these cattle smugglers. Superintendent of Police Sushil Ghule said tough action would be initiated if it was found that they were cattle smugglers.

The incident, which took place before dawn in Hathras district, about 200 km from Delhi, assumes significance as it came against the backdrop of a backlash over the death of a man attacked by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan.

This is the latest in a series of mob attacks that have become quite frequent in various parts of the country. 28-year-old Rakbar Khan died after he was thrashed by a mob at Alwar in Rajasthan on suspicion of cattle smuggling last week.

Khan was attacked by villagers who thought he was smuggling cows. What caused his death was alleged delay by cops in taking him to hospital.

The government has constituted a Group of Ministers to examine ways of checking what the Supreme Court termed "mobocracy" and report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Centre put out an advisory yesterday asserting that states need to take measures against such incidents.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 16:59 [IST]Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  The Philippines has the highest number of land and environmental defenders killed in Asia, a report from an international group showed.

According to non-government organization Global Witness, 48 defenders were killed in the country in 2017  a 71 percent increase from last year, and the highest ever recorded in the continent.

The Philippines was just behind Brazil, taking the top spot in the entire world, where 57 defenders were killed. The year 2017 also recorded the highest number of killings, with over 207 killed in 22 countries.

Brazil has the highest number of environmental defenders killed in the world last 2017, followed by the Philippines, Colombia and Mexico.

Global Witness defined a land or environmental defender as "anybody who takes peaceful action, either voluntarily or professionally, to protect environmental or land rights."

Global Witness data says military involvement was suspected in 56 percent of the murders. It added 67 percent of killings occurred in Mindanao, and 41 percent were related to agribusiness.

The report claimed President Rodrigo Duterte's stance on human rights and military presence in Mindanao are factors in the violence against these defenders.

"The widespread criminalisation and demonisation of human rights defenders saw one UN expert labelled a terrorist and the president threaten to throw others to the crocodiles," it read.

Encroaching upon indigenous people's land

Global Witness cited the massacre of eight members of the T'boli-Manobo community in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato in December 2017. The indigenous people were killed in what the military claims to be an encounter with the New People's Army.

However, fact-finding missions from other groups found that the community was fighting against a coffee plantation trying to take over their land as part of the firm's expansion.

Global Witness cited the fact-finding mission reports that alleged that the military was involved in 20 of the 48 deaths.

"Duterte's military campaign against the NPA and its sympathisers has allegedly claimed the lives of many innocent civilians, disproportionately affecting indigenous communities in Mindanao," it said.

It then suggested that the Philippine government implement a law protecting land and environmental defenders.

Malacanang in February said Duterte will first consult with indigenous peoples in Mindanao to relocate from their ancestral lands.

"He is not forcibly removing them from ancestral domains, let's not claim a monopoly of knowledge of what the Lumad communities' problems are," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque had said.

Duterte previously said that ancestral lands could be put to use if they would allow investors to utilize them, even volunteering to look for possible investors.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines' spokesman has not yet responded to CNN Philippines' request for comment on alleged military involvement in some of the deaths of environmental defenders.Rape in the name of Nikah Halala

Lucknow

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

Lucknow, July 25: In a horrific incident that yet brings to fore how the draconian practice of triple talaq is misused to harass women, a woman from the Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly raped by four people, including her husband, after she was married off to someone else. All this happened in the name of Nikah halala.

'Nikah halala' is a practice in which a woman, after triple talaq, marries another man, consummates the marriage, and gets divorced in order to be able to remarry her former husband. Right now, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court is going through petitions challenging the age-old practice that many women feel violates their right to equality and justice.

"After my husband gave me triple talaq, I was married off to someone else for 3 months but he later married another woman," the victime told news agancy ANI.

Police have reportedly registered case against 9 people.

Last week, an incident came to fore in which a Muslim woman from Bareilly was given triple talaq twice and was forced to sleep with her father-in-law to facilitate her remarriage to her first husband. The ordeal did not end at that as she was given triple talaq again by her husband after remarriage and was asked to sleep with her brother-in-law in order to consummate her marriage.

Islam dictates that a Muslim man has the liberty to divorce and remarry the same woman twice. However, if he decides to dissolve the marriage for the third time, he can only remarry the same woman if she first marries another man, consummates the marriage, and only if the man dies or willingly asks for divorce, can the woman go back to her first husband and remarry him.

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 11:12 [IST]Congress: Dilution of SC/ST Act may cost NDA many allies

Patna

oi-PTI

Patna, July 25: The dilution of the SC/ST Act may force many BJP allies to quit the NDA and join the opposition camp ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year, AICC in-charge of Bihar Shaktisinh Gohil said Wednesday.

Such a development is most likely in Bihar, where all the NDA constituents -- JD(U), LJP and RLSP -- primarily draw their support from people belonging to the SC/ST and OBC categories, Gohil told PTI.

In a bid to protect honest public servants discharging bonafide duties from being blackmailed with false cases under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, the Supreme Court on March 20 diluted its stringent provisions mandating immediate arrest under the law.

The Centre has filed a review petition on the order. "Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took the decision after a tour of Bihar to enact the law to protect the SC/ST people from various atrocities. Now the law has lost its teeth.

This has caused tremendous resentment among the people belonging to these castes, who hold the BJP squarely responsible for their vulnerability," Gohil said.

"While it would not be correct to say that any NDA ally has approached us with a wish to leave the BJP-led alliance, the writing on the wall is there for all to see. Much will happen before the Lok Sabha polls next year," the senior Congress leader said.

Gohil also dismissed speculations about the Grand Alliance facing problems in arriving at an amicable seat-sharing arrangement.

"Our tie-up with the RJD and the HAM is ideological. The alliance is poised to succeed in the upcoming polls and issues like seat sharing will be settled amicably in time," he said.

As of now, the party is conducting surveys in all the Lok Sabha segments of the state and taking feedback from a cross-section of the society, he said. This, he added, will help identify the seats where the Congress can do better with the support of its allies, as well as those where the RJD or the HAM have a better chance with Congress backing.

"This is going to be a mutually beneficial collaboration and there is no possibility of a squabble within the Grand Alliance. We just need to wait for some time as more parties may come on board," he said.

Speaking about the recent comments by some Congress MLAs who praised Nitish Kumar and favoured his return to the Grand Alliance, Gohil said unlike the BJP, the Congress is a democratic party where each member has the permission to express his personal opinion. As far as alliances are concerned, they are always decided by the party high command, he said.

Gohil said the Congress was working on a long-term plan to strengthen the party in the state. The district units may be in for a major revamp and a full-time state president will be appointed in the not-so-distant future.

The party also plans to appoint office bearers at the panchayat level, besides entrusting 27 MLAs and three MLCs with the charge of a district each so that together they are able to voice problems of the entire state, the Congress leader said.

PTI

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 14:45 [IST]Kerala TET result 2020 declared: Here is how you check

Kerala's Malankara Orthodox Church case: Accused priest gets conditional bail

Thiruvananthapuram

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Thiruvananthapuram, July 25: Kerala High Court granted conditional bail to Fr Job Mathew in Kerala's Malankara Orthodox Church case on Wednesday. He will have to surrender his passport and appear before the investigating officer twice a week.

Police had earlier arrested Job Mathew, the vicar of a local church, who had surrendered after the high court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea and those of two other priests, all of whom belong to the Malankara Orthodox Church.

The court had observed that they had acted as "predators" and taken "undue advantage" of the woman.

For more Thiruvananthapuram news, Click here

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Story first published: Wednesday, July 25, 2018, 12:09 [IST]Matthias Knab, Opalesque:

According to IDC's new Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide, Europe will be the second-largest investor in blockchain technologies. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80.2% for 2017-2022, Europe will increase its spending from around $400 million in 2018 to $3.5 billion in 2022, helping it to close the gap with the U.S., the biggest blockchain investor.

2017 was a significant year for blockchain in Europe, with companies asking themselves how blockchain solutions can help simplify, improve, and secure their businesses. A recent IDC survey across Europe, however, revealed there is still some way to go in terms of understanding blockchain applicability and usefulness, especially among smaller European companies.

"The European market is less flexible than other regions, and is also more fragmented in terms of business size," said Carla La Croce, senior research analyst, Customer Insights and Analysis, IDC. "Nevertheless, as IDC has already highlighted, 2018 is still the year of blockchain, and European companies are showing increasing interest, supported by growing investments. Companies recognize the importance of the technology and are starting to explore how it can be deployed in their business, going beyond pilots and identifying the best use cases."

According to Mohamed Hefny, systems and infrastructure solutions program manager at IDC CEMA, "Blockchain offers a huge opportunity for st......................

To view our full article Click hereCurrently: Long Looking to: Sell @ 2,670



As of 3/21/21 @ 7:58pm EST: 2,278.80



LAST WEEK: We suggested buying between 2,275 and 2,300 with an upside target of 2,670.



UPDATE: Small caps had a tough day Thursday along with the rest of the equity space.



However, we believe they may have set a short-term bottom that day and that they could be on their way to new highs near 2,670.



Buy between 2,250 and 2,300 and hold for a move up to 2,670.Currently: Long Looking to: Sell @ 31,865



As of 3/21/21 @ 8:22pm EST: 29,310



LAST WEEK: We suggested buying any dips down to 28,308 with stops below 28,308 and with a target of 31,865.



UPDATE: The Nikkei 225 Index has held raised support at 28,308 thus far and has started to move higher. We believe this rally will continue up to 31,865.

Buy any dips from current levels down to 29,037 with stops below 28,308 and with a target of 31,865.Currently: Cash Looking to: Buy @ 0.74792



As of 3/21/21 @ 9:08pm EST: 0.77161



LAST WEEK: We suggested buying at 0.74792 with stops on a close below 0.74500 with a selling target at 0.80516. Shorts were suggested at 0.81113 with stops on a close above 0.81250 and with the idea of holding for a while.



UPDATE: AUDUSD faded into the weekend on Friday and looks to us like it still needs to work its way down to 0.74792 before any real stabilization occurs in the short-term.



No changes to our trade recommendations from last week.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

See original here

A federal judge has delayed the start date for the trial of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who faces charges of tax fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, witness tampering and failing to register as a foreign agent. His trial will now start on July 31; it had been slated to start on July 25. The judge also agreed to grant immunity to five witnesses who are expected to testify in Manafort's trial.

For more we speak with Greg Gordon, Washington correspondent for McClatchy.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Greg, how could the whole legal battles of Michael Cohen, Trump's former -- or lawyer, personal lawyer -- affect this particular case as well, or tie into this case as well?

GREG GORDON: I'm not sure whether Michael Cohen ties into the NRA, but I would say that what investigators are looking for with respect to Michael Cohen ties back into the famous dossier that was assembled by the ex-British spy, Christopher Steele. And in that dossier, the biggest thing, the most explosive thing aside from activities that went on in a hotel room, was whether Cohen went over to Prague in late August or late summer of 2016 and met with a senior member of Russia's parliament and hackers. And if that dossier is correct, well, that would be what some investigators call the holy grail, because it would carry strong suggestions of collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.

Now, let me just say that Bob Mueller has such a -- and this is true in mob investigations also -- you have to find a way, because many of the people that you're looking at of course are not cooperating. In this case, Robert Mueller has indicted 25 Russians. They're all in Russia. There's no extradition treaty. They're not coming here. So how's he going to build this case other than through former Trump campaign aides? And that's what he's trying to do.

He has brought enormous pressure to bear on Paul Manafort, and now he's bringing pressure to bear on Michael Cohen. And we hear about leaks where Michael Cohen is comparing himself to John Dean, the famous Watergate figure who was counsel to President Nixon. And now you have another lawyer, and word that he was taping calls with the president. What does Michael Cohen have, and will he cooperate? And if so, to what extent will he cooperate in order to avoid prosecution?

The whole game here, from where I sit, is for Mueller to try to get these guys to help him to save their own skins, to turn them on each other. And we don't know what Michael Flynn told Bob Mueller yet. We don't know what Rick Gates, who was Manafort's deputy -- both of whom pleaded -- and they had to give something up for those plea agreements. No prosecutor is going to let people off the way they were let off given the charges that were brought to bear against them without a big piece of evidence to assist in the investigation. So now, the question is, is that going to occur with Michael Cohen, and to what extent?

AMY GOODMAN: And of course a lot of what you said, Greg, is at this point speculation.

GREG GORDON: It is speculation.

AMY GOODMAN: But Greg Gordon, we want to thank you for being with us, Washington correspondent for McClatchy. His report in January with Peter Stone was headlined FBI investigating whether Russian money went to NRA to help Trump. That was January.

This is Democracy Now!. When we come back, the homeland security secretary has just stirred up some controversy once again, commenting on the Charlottesville attack of last year. Stay with us.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

This piece was reprinted by OpEdNews with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Most Canadians believe the dominant narrative from our controlled, monopoly media. But the dominant narrative is a lie. Russia is not the enemy. We are. We are the one's supporting al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, not Russia.

Recently, for example, the Canadian government announced that it will welcome 50 White Helmets and their families into Canada. Here they will have a safe haven.1

The Canadian government and its agencies extol the imagined virtues of these "first responders".

Chrystia Freeland, Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, tweeted:

But we know, and it is well-documented, that the White Helmets are al-Qaeda auxiliaries.2 They stage false flags. They fight alongside their al-Qaeda/al-Nusra Front and affiliated terrorist brigades.

The White Helmets are part of a "smart power" complex3 that disguises terrorism and wars of conquest as "humanitarian". These terrorists are not independent. The West, including Canada4, supports them financially.



(Image by Mark Taliano) Details DMCA



Welcome Home! Canada's Trudeau Government Welcomes Confessed ISIS Terrorist back to Toronto

None of this international criminality will ever benefit Canadians, and all of it is to the detriment of humanity.

If Canadians knew the truth, they would not support policymakers who are making decisions in favour of terrorism and never-ending wars of aggression.

Canadians need to know the truth.

*

Mark Taliano is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) and the author of Voices from Syria, Global Research Publishers, 2017.

Notes

1. Le Canada va accueillir des he'ros d' Al-Qaida avec un lifting. Le Tribunal de l'infaux

Crimes et de'lits des me'dias dominants. 22 July, 2018.( https://tribunaldelinfaux.com/2018/07/22/le-canada-va-accueillir-des-heros-d-al-qaida-avec-un-lifting/) Accessed 23 July, 2018.

2. Mark Taliano, "The White Helmets are "Black Helmets", They are Al Qaeda| And Canada Supports Them." Global Research. 2 April, 2018. (https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-white-helmets-are-black-helmets-they-are-al-qaeda/5634301) Accessed 7 July, 2018.

3. Mark Taliano, "The War on Syria: Driving Home the Truth and the Need to Act Now." Global Research. 12 July, 2018. (https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-on-syria-driving-home-the-truth-and-the-need-to-act-now/5647214) Accessed 23 July, 2018.

4. Ken Stone, "TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT ADMITS TERRORIST AUXILIARIES TO CANADA." 23 July, 2018. (https://www.facebook.com/notes/hamilton-coalition-to-stop-the-war/for-immediate-release-hamilton-monday-july-23-2018/2586684938024128/) Accessed 23 July, 2018.

(Article changed on July 26, 2018 at 13:56)Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Smirking Chimp

On June 12th, 2018, Reverend William J. Barber II hosted a discussion on poverty for members of Congress. People living in poverty across the United States -- from California to Kentucky to Michigan to West Virginia -- told us their stories. We heard from a victim of a predatory loan who lives in a trailer home infested with mold. We heard from an undocumented immigrant who struggles to afford rent in Los Angeles. We heard from a retired coal miner who is still fighting for fair benefits from greedy corporations.

As Americans struggle to pay their bills, the Trump Administration continues to spit in the face of poor people. Donald Trump has nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court -- a judge who poses a real threat to historically disadvantaged communities, including people of color, LGBTQ Americans, workers and the poor. The president has also crammed his administration with officials who care more about making money for themselves than protecting our environment, keeping our workers safe, and advocating for the rights of unions and consumers. Poor people are under attack from those in power, and the Poor People's Campaign is on the forefront of this fight.

"This is not a liberal or a conservative movement. It is a deeply moral movement. The people who are hurting the most have linked up to say, 'We won't be silent anymore.'" Reverend Barber launched the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to pick up where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. left off 50 years ago.

"I think it's really easy for us as human beings to punish people or dismiss people because we don't love them. And we can't love them, we say, if we don't know them." Amy Jo Hutchinson told us about people living in poverty in West Virginia -- and the governor's immoral proposal to add work requirements to SNAP benefits.

Pamela Rush is a mother of two from Alabama. Her family lives in a mobile home that's falling apart. But as a victim of a predatory loan, she has no money for repairs. Her 10-year-old daughter has breathing problems because of the mold in the trailer. She joined the Poor People's campaign because she wants to fight back.

"There seems to be a lack of compassion and humility -- or at the very least a turning of a blind eye -- to problem areas in our society." Christopher Olive is a U.S. Air Force veteran. He suffered from opioid addiction and homelessness after his discharge. He's now fighting for affordable housing, rental assistance, and treatment facilities in his community, Grays Harbor County in Washington state.

Vanessa Nosie represents the San Carlos Apache tribe, from the Apache stronghold. She told us about the Elem Indian Colony in Clearlake, California. Cancer rates are increasingly high in the area after miners stripped mercury from the land, leaking heavy metal into the water. She's fighting to preserve the sacred land of indigenous people from corporate greed and environmental devastation.

"As long as we're divided, they can conquer." Nick Smith is the son of a coal miner's daughter. He's seen poverty grow worse and worse in Appalachia as coal mining jobs disappear and unions are weakened. Nick is fighting against corporate greed, anti-union legislation, and voter suppression.

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As with any dangerous tool, impeachment should be used with proper safety precautions. Among these should be taking care not to increase the chance of a nuclear war while trying to start an impeachment.

Since Inauguration Day 2017, RootsAction.org has promoted impeachment of Donald Trump for violation of both the domestic and foreign emoluments clauses of the U.S. Constitution. The domestic clause, barring corruption from within the United States, is the stronger case because -- unlike in the foreign clause -- the Constitution allows no exceptions, and because the examples of blatant violations by Trump are more numerous. But from day one it has been the foreign clause that has generated the vast majority of interest and attention. Blaming problems on something foreign is clearly enjoyable to many people.

Over the past year and a half, we've drafted numerous additional articles of impeachment, charging Trump with all kinds of abuses that are both very well documented and easily rise to the level of impeachable offenses. These include his interference in voting rights, his illegal waging and threatening of wars, his abuse of the pardon power, obstruction of justice, politicization of prosecutions, failure to reasonably prepare for or respond to hurricanes, and most recently Trump's separating of children and infants from their families.

Also on the list is collusion with a foreign government, namely the Israeli government, on whose behalf Trump lobbied other national governments against U.S. policy while he was president-elect, not yet president. The reason nobody screams "treason!" over this crime, is that Israel is not designated an "enemy" by the U.S. media or U.S. politicians. But shouldn't we be trying to rein in all abuses of power, not trying to stir up trouble with potential enemies?

Also among the articles of impeachment we've drafted and promoted are charges of discrimination based on religion, and incitement of racist and xenophobic violence. These are important articles to bring forward because Trump's behavior has been so extreme, but also precisely because millions of people suffer from much smaller xenophobic tendencies. Witness the endless shouts of "treason!" whenever Trump fails to accept as proven the extremely vague "assessments" found in a January 2017 report from what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called a handpicked group of people from three U.S. agencies, one of which said it could only "moderately" support the "assessments."

The dangers here include sanctifying as gospel truth undocumented accusations from secret agencies or indictments from prosecutors, rather than waiting for evidence. They also include the bellicosity that one hears in the cries of treason and the heroification of the writers of "intelligence" reports. But above all is the danger of war that is driven forward by the treatment of Russia as a designated enemy, and the treatment of alleged computer hacking as already being an act of war, or in a now common phrase "a new Pearl Harbor."

If Russia is eventually proven to have done everything it's been accused of, moving toward nuclear war would still remain unwise. One way to ease back from war-talk might be to recognize that the Russian government is not reciprocating. It does not call itself a U.S. enemy. Another might be to recognize that the United States has interfered in major and often successful ways in many dozens of foreign elections, including openly bragging about having put Boris Yeltsin in power in Russia. (Imagine suffering that and forgiving it and then being endlessly denounced for what at the most extreme interpretation was a completely ineffective and amateurish effort to sway a U.S. election.) The U.S. government, like the Russian government, engages in all kinds of computer hacking and spying and sabotage. Agreeing to globally ban cyber attacks would be at least as appropriate a response as hostility toward Russia.

While it's possible that the Russian government attempted to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, there has been no plausible case made or charge even alleged that it did so successfully, that it actually impacted the outcome. Nor has there been any case even offered that WikiLeaks informing us about the DNC's slanting of its primaries against Bernie Sanders impacted the outcome. But many other factors that we could fix at any time likely did impact the outcome. These include: an electoral college that allows a popular-vote loser to win, a system of legalized bribery that shuts out candidates who aren't well-funded, a corporate media system driven by ratings and advertisers and access to power, racist interference in voter rolls, voter ID laws, debates closed to more than two parties, and unverifiable vote counting. Are these problems less exciting because they can't be blamed on someone foreign?

Using impeachment safely and wisely does not mean not using it, which could be the most dangerous and reckless behavior of them all. It also does not mean using it weakly or half-heartedly. It means using the most well-proven charges, those about which the evidence cannot be questioned. If one were to suppose that the entirety of Russiagate were true, even then the strategic move would be to go ahead and impeach and remove Donald Trump for one or more of his well-proven impeachable offenses, rather than continuing to wait and wait and wait for an investigation to produce salvation. If Trump is such a "traitor," why wait? Why not impeach him for a proven abuse of power and remove him from office right away?

The weapons dealers would be saddened at that course of action, but most of us could get over that. The Democratic Party leadership would be devastated at the loss of Trump as someone to campaign against. But they'd move on to focusing on Mike Pence very quickly. We the people, meanwhile, would have established that we had some control, which would be bad news for Pence or any other president who sought to abuse power. Wouldn't creating such a democratic success be at least as valuable as condemning and threatening the governments of other countries in the name of "democracy"?Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Smirking Chimp

On July 19, 2018, the Israeli Knesset enacted a law that illegally enshrines a system of apartheid. The legislation, which has the force of a constitutional amendment, strips away any pretense that Israel is a democracy. Moreover, it violates customary and treaty-based international law.

The "Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People" says, "The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which it fulfills its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination." It continues, "The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people."

Absent is any guarantee of self-determination for the 1.8 million Arabs who comprise 20 percent of Israel's population. But, "we refuse to be second-class citizens," said Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Joint List, the Palestinian parties in the Knesset. Odeh added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's regime is "digging a deep pit of fear, racism and authoritarianism to divide us from each other. But they can never erase us from the homeland we share."

Members of the Knesset -- Israel's parliament -- had tried for seven years to enact such a law. Although Barack Obama, like US presidents before him, supported Israel's apartheid policies, Donald Trump took that support to a new level by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.

In spite of the well-established status of East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, the Basic Law states, "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel."

Adding insult to injury, the new law proclaims Hebrew the official language of Israel, with Arabic granted "a special status."

Only Jews are welcome to emigrate to Israel under this law. And it purports to legalize the illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land, stating, "The state views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment and consolidation."

Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, declared that the new law "entrenches the privileges enjoyed by Jewish citizens, while simultaneously anchoring discrimination against Palestinian citizens and legitimizing exclusion, racism, and systemic inequality."

In a statement analyzing the law, Adalah refuted Israel's claim of being a democracy: "No country in the world today is defined as a democratic state where the constitutional identity is determined by ethnic affiliation that overrides the principle of equal citizenship."

Although Israel has long practiced discrimination against Palestinians, the Basic Law will pose obstacles to litigation in support of human rights. "It will make it much harder for us to challenge any cases of discrimination against Palestinians, because this racist notion of Judaization will become a constitutional norm," Adalah attorney Suhad Bishara said. "Before this law, there have been opportunities to challenge these practices based on constitutional norms. This space to challenge will disappear, because Jewish superiority is now constitutional."

The Basic Law Violates Customary and Treaty-Based International Law

Israel's Basic Law violates several treaties as well as customary international law.

Moreover, the prohibition against apartheid is so serious that -- like slavery, torture, genocide and wars of aggression -- it is considered a jus cogens prohibition. Jus cogens is a peremptory norm, the highest form of customary international law. Countries cannot pass legislation that violates a jus cogens prohibition. The Basic Law enshrines a system of apartheid in Israel and is thus prohibited by jus cogens.

The new law violates the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid; the United Nations Charter; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Fourth Geneva Convention; and the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court.

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  A technical issue over a resolution on the election of Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as House Speaker marred the third session day of the House of Representatives, ending in a verbal exchange.

Speaking at the resumption of session Wednesday, Ilocos Norte Representative Rudy Farnas said, "The Deputy Speaker introduced a resolution. As of the last session the other day, I am the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and the chairman of the Committee on Rules. May I know if this resolution passed the Committee on Rules?"

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya, Jr., deputy speaker, and Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles authored House Resolution 2025. It seeks to enter into the congressional records Arroyo's election on July 23 as the new Speaker of the 17th Congress. It was received on July 25.

Under House rules, the rules committee must first approve any bill or resolution before it can be included in the plenary session's order of business.

Farinas said he was unaware of House Resolution 2025's existence.

A commotion then erupted as Farinas voiced his objection to the resolution.

Farinas told CNN Philippines that he would not give any statements about the events at the House of Representatives until things were resolved.

Interim Majority Leader Fred Castro of Capiz, however, said he is now the majority leader  and in effect, chairman of the Committee on Rules  and he approved of the inclusion of the resolution in Wednesday's session.

Farinas and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio continued to object, but Andaya, who presided over the session, called for a vote and the resolution was passed by a vote of acclamation. The voting procedure drowned raised voices of objection, including a complaint from Tinio that his microphone was turned off only to be told that he was still on. But the session was by then suspended.

Tinio said the railroading of the resolution was an admission that Arroyo's election as House Speaker was not part of the official proceedings as required by the Constitution.

"Not once, but twice, a cloud of doubt hangs over the legitimacy of Gloria Arroyo's assumption to high office: as President in 2004, and now as Speaker of the House.," Tinio said, referring to Arroyo's controversial victory over closest rival, the late actor Fernando Poe, Jr., during the 2004 presidential elections.

He said this meant the so-called session that elected Arroyo was a mere caucus or a meeting - not an official session.

Tinio added, "House Resolution 2025, brazenly railroaded and adopted by the majority in today's session, seeks to admit into the official record of the House the result of the voting that purportedly elected her to the post of Speaker. It is a blatant admission on the part of the Arroyo camp that the said elections were not part of the official proceedings of the House as required by the Constitution. It is tantamount to an admission that the so-called session that elected her was a mere caucus. The railroading of this resolution is a crude attempt to cure this fatal infirmity."

Nueva Ecija Rep. Magnolia Antonino, however, said the resolution was only meant to put the election on record.

She said Arroyo's election was valid because the ultimate power comes from the majority - or in this case 184 congressmen who voted in favor of Arroyo.

CNN Philippines' senior digital producer Pia Garcia contributed to this report.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.



Trump Donald ? Free image on Pixabay782 -- 720 - 106k - jpg

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Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) July 24, 2018: As everybody knows, Trump's campaign motto was "Make America Great Again." I guess that America was "great" after President Harry Truman dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No doubt the American men and women who contributed to America's role in the victory in World War II made great contributions -- some sacrificed their lives. Tom Brokaw has dubbed them "the greatest generation." I would argue that the Marshall Plan and the benefits granted to veterans were great.

So during WWII, America emerged as great because so many Americans were unified in making their respective contributions to the war effort. No doubt Axis powers in Germany, Italy, and Japan were a menace. No doubt they needed to be stopped. No doubt communism in the Soviet Union and China was brutal and aspired to world dominance. Trump's campaign motto "Make America Great Again" evokes the anti-communism hysteria of America in the 1950s.

Yes, in the Cold War era after WWII, America embraced anti-communism hysteria. In principle, both Republicans and Democrats, with few exceptions, claimed to be anti-communism. But Republicans liked to criticize Democrats for allegedly being soft on communism. Let us not forget that Senator Barry Goldwater's anti-communism was strident. He was the Republican Party's presidential candidate in 1964. He was a precursor of Trump, and Goldwater's most ardent supporters in 1964 were the precursors of Trump's most ardent supporters in 2016. No doubt Goldwater and his most ardent supporters represented what Richard Hofstadter refers to as the paranoid style in American politics.

For an example of the paranoid style, see Patrick J. Buchanan's book State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/ St. Martin's Press, 2006).

Now, because Trump's campaign and his presidency tend to amplify tribalism in our contemporary American culture, I want to discuss the American Jesuit theologian John Courtney Murray's 1962 essay "The Return of Tribalism." He was worried that anti-communism hysteria moved the American people toward tribalism.

John Courtney Murray (1904-1967; doctorate in Catholic theology, Gregorian University in Rome, 1937) taught Catholic theology at the Jesuit theologate in Woodstock, Maryland, from the fall of 1937 until his death in 1967 at the age of 63. (In Jesuit parlance, a theologate is a graduate school for Jesuits in training to study theology for four years before they are ordained priests.) Murray served as the editor-in-chief of the Jesuit-sponsored journal Theological Studies from 1941 to his death (from a heart attack). He also served as an associate editor of the Jesuit-sponsored magazine America. In the fall of 1960, He published the book We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1960), a collection of thirteen previously published pieces with an introduction/overview (pages 5-24). This book garnered for Murray a cover appearance and cover story in Time (dated December 12, 1960). This is his most widely known book.

We should not forget that anti-Catholic animus had long been a staple feature of American WASPs. For example, Paul Blanshard's book American Freedom and Catholic Power was first published in May 1949 (the second ed., in 1958). In the 1960 presidential campaign, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts had to defend his religion.

From colonial times up to, say, 1960, WASPs, and former Protestants, dominated the prestige culture in American culture. Out-groups such as American Catholics tended to produce their own parallel prestige culture.

In the foreword to his 1960 book (pages vii-xii), Murray says, "It is classic American doctrine, immortally asserted by Abraham Lincoln, that the new nation which our Fathers brought forth on this continent was dedicated to a 'proposition'" (page vii) -- "'All men are created equal'" (page viii).

Murray says, "Neither as a doctrine nor as a project is the American Proposition a finished thing. Its demonstration is never done once for all; the Proposition itself requires development on penalty of decadence" (page vii).

Murray says, "What not ought be questioned, however, is that the American Proposition rests on the forthright assertion of a realist epistemology" (page viii) -- not on mere subjectivism and relativism.

For further discussion of realist epistemology, see Martha C. Nussbaum's article "Human Functioning and Social Justice: In Defense of Aristotelian Essentialism" in the journal Political Theory, volume 20, number 2 (May 1992): pages 202-246.

For further discussion of what Murray refers to as "nihilism" and "subjective feeling" (page 12), see Michiko Kakutani's short new book The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump (New York: Tim Duggan Book/ Penguin Random House, 2018).

In the introduction to his 1960 book (pages 5-24), Murray works with the contrast of the civil multitude locked together in argument characterized by civility v. a mass or a herd or a huddle -- a contrast he claims St. Thomas Aquinas works with "himself giving refined expression to the tradition of classic antiquity" (page 6). The tradition of classic antiquity refers to the Greek contrast of Greek v. barbarian (pages 12-14). I will return to the Greek v. barbarian contrast momentarily.

In accord with the civil multitude v. a mass or a herd or a huddle, Murray says, "Society is rescued from chaos only by a few men [and women], not by the many. . . . It is only the few who understand the disciplines of civility and are able to sustain them in being and thus hold in check the forces of barbarism that are always threatening to force the gates of the City" (page 13).

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From Consortium News



John Brennan

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Libertarian senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said on Monday that in a personal meeting with President Donald Trump, he urged the president to revoke the security clearances of a half dozen former Obama-era intelligence officials, including former CIA director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former National Security Adviser Susan Rice. I couldn't agree more with Paul's position, not specifically regarding these three people, but for any former intelligence official. No former intelligence official should keep a security clearance, especially if he or she transitions to the media or to a corporate board.

The controversy specifically over Brennan's clearance has been bubbling along for more than a year. He has been one of Trump's most vocal and harshest critics. Last week he went so far as to accuse Trump of having committed " treason " during his meeting in Helsinki, Finland, with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Brennan said in a tweet, "Donald Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump's comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican patriots: Where are you???" The outburst was in response to Trump's unwillingness to accept the Intelligence Community position that Putin and the Russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Other intelligence professionals weighed in negatively on Trump's Helsinki performance, including Republicans like former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and former CIA director Mike Hayden.

Why are these people saying anything at all? And why do they have active Top Secret security clearances if they have no governmental positions? The first question is easier to answer than the second. Before answering, though, I want to say that I don't think this issue is specific to Donald Trump. Former officials of every administration criticize those who have replaced them. That's the way Washington works. It's a way for those former officials to remain relevant. Donald Trump happens to be an easy target. His actions are so wildly unpredictable -- and frequently so disingenuous on the surface of things -- that he proves wrong the oft-quoted observation by the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser: "The genius of you Americans is that you never make clear-cut stupid moves. You only make complicated stupid moves, which make the rest of us wonder at the possibility that we might be missing something."

Cashing In

I've known John Brennan for 30 years. He was my boss in the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence decades ago. John was hard to get along with. His superiors generally didn't like him. He was once fired from a job at the CIA. He's not particularly bright. And then he found a patron in former CIA director George Tenet, who saved his career. Brennan has had his run. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. He's been CIA Director, deputy National Security Adviser, director of the Transnational Terrorism Information Center, and deputy Executive Director of the CIA. That's pretty heady stuff for a kid from Bergen, New Jersey.

He also has very low self-esteem from those early days at the CIA. Almost everybody else had more degrees, spoke more languages, and went to better schools. Until Tenet, Brennan never had a political rabbi and was stuck at the GS-15 (journeyman) level for years. Now, all these years later, he again doesn't have anyone to help his career. Barack Obama isn't president anymore. And Brennan desperately wants to be Secretary of Defense. He says it to anybody willing to listen. That is what's supposed to be his legacy, at least in his mind.

Besides legacy, Brennan and the others have cashed in on their government service. They've all become rich by sitting on corporate boards. Brennan is on the board of directors of a company called SecureAuth + CORE Security. He also serves on the board of The Analysis Corporation, which he helped found before joining the Obama Administration. Finally, and most importantly, Brennan is now the official talking head and "Intelligence Consultant" for NBC News and MSNBC.

To me, this is the point that is the most obviously wrong. How is it that former officials who now have no role in government are able to keep their active security clearances? This has abuse written all over it. First, these officials run the risk of exposing classified information in a television interview, either inadvertently or not. Second, and more cynically, what is to keep them from propagandizing the American people by simply spouting the CIA line or allowing the CIA to use them to put out disinformation? What's to keep them from propagandizing the American people by selectively leaking information known only to the intelligence agencies and Congress? Or to release information passed to them by the FBI?

No former intelligence officials should have a security clearance. There's no purpose for it other than propaganda and personal enrichment. And if Brennan or Hayden or Clapper or any other former intelligence official becomes an employee of a media company, he or she should not have a security clearance. Period. Donald Trump ought to act right now.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

Introductory Note : This column offers a paper on the emigration/immigration of European Jews fleeing Nazi terror in the decade before the onset of World War II. It was written by my father, Harold J. Jonas, and published in the Contemporary Jewish Record in the Sept.-Oct. 1939 issue. Comparisons with the contemporary World situation, from the Western border of Myanmar to the Southern border of the United States, are purely intentional.

Introduction

My father, Prof. Harold J. Jonas, the author of the academic paper on the plight of the Jews of Europe in mid-1939, published in the Contemporary Jewish Record of Sept.-Oct. 1939, republished below, was a fighter against organized anti-Semitism in the United States from the mid-1930s until he was drafted into the US Air Force (at age 34[!]) in 1944. His principal achievement was that he did the bulk of the research for the first book that proved that the so-called "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" are a forgery. For political reasons at the time --- anti-Semitism was still certainly rife in the United States --- it was published under the name of a gentile --- by Columbia University Press: John S. Curtiss: An Appraisal of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , New York: Morningside Heights: Columbia University Press, 1942.

As far as his paper below is concerned, the situation he described was the direct result of the outcome of the so-called "Evian Conference" of 1938 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian_Conference ) and the international policy of "no Jews here" that was formalized by it. Called by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and attended by 32 nations and a number of voluntary agencies to discuss the "Jewish situation" in Europe and consider what might be done about it, it concluded that for the most part, the attendee nations would/could do nothing. The result was, when Adolf Hitler had determined that Germany would become "Judenrein" (clean of the Jews) and surely had that in mind for any European country that he might conquer in the future, that no major nations agreed to take any of the Jews. This led to the situation that my father described in this paper.

It should be pointed out if any significant number of European Jews had been offered refugee status by any significant number of the attending nations, including the United States, A) it is likely that any then-future Holocaust in Europe would have claimed many fewer victims, and B) it is unlikely that the State of Israel as it is known today, most unfortunately, especially for Jews like myself, practicing its own form of racist discrimination and subjugation, would exist. And now to Dad's paper.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

People in Flight

THE GERMAN REFUGEES AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR

By HAROLD J. JONAS

THE problem of political refugees is not new in the post-War period. As a result of territorial adjustments and internal upheavals hundreds of thousands of homeless people were thrown upon a war-worn world. The groups most affected were the Russian "Whites," the Armenians, and the Assyrians. The Russian "Whites" and the Armenians scattered into various countries in both hemispheres. The Assyrians, driven out from their homeland, following the assumption of independence by Iraq, were settled mainly in Syria and Lebanon. Other post-War refugees were Greeks, Bulgars, and Turks, whose problems were solved, though not fully, by mass repatriation or exchange of populations.

International cooperation was in every case a large factor in the eventual solution of the problem created by these refugee migrants. By 1930, the most crying needs had disappeared and the world was already beginning to take an academic view of the problem. The rise of Hitler to power in 1933, however, set in motion a new stream of refugees from Germany. Because of the racial laws, Jews were the first among those who were faced with the choice of exile or death. Others were political opponents, such as the Catholic Centrists, Social Democrats, and Communists. Still others feared the concentration camps and fled immediately. Christians of "non-Aryan' descent, too, furnished a large proportion of those forced to leave,

As Nazi imperialism swept across other countries, many emigre's again had to flee the terror of the Gestapo. Not uncommon are cases of men who sought refuge, first in Vienna, and later in Praha, only to be trapped there. While Germans, Austrians, and Czechs are not forced to leave their homelands, a Jew or a Christian "non-Aryan," is faced with the choice of leaving, or facing slow death by starvation or quick death in the concentration camps. It is their lot to bear their sufferings grimly and await the day of liberation.

JEWISH mass migrations had begun even before the destruction of the Second Temple and remained an important factor throughout Jewish history. The emancipation period served to cement Jewish communities in Western Europe, but in Eastern Europe economic pressure caused great waves of Jewish migration. From the period of the 1880's onward, Jews fled in large numbers from the intolerable conditions in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Rumania, and other East European lands to new homes in Western Europe, in South Africa, and the Americas. Restriction of immigration after the World War, particularly in the United States, served to choke off the flow of a harassed people and to aggravate their condition. It must be noted, however, that German Jews were not at first affected by this policy. It was their brethren in East Europe who suffered.

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From Smirking Chimp



THEY LIED!! Bernie Sanders destroys Trump & his lackeys on Trump's illegal war in Yemen and calls on Congress to assert its authority.

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"If they would just confirm to us that my brother is alive, if they would just let us see him, that's all we want. But we can't get anyone to give us any confirmation. My mother dies a hundred times every day. They don't know what that is like."

In July 2018, an Amnesty International report entitled "God Knows If He's Alive," documented the plight of dozens of families in southern Yemen whose loved ones have been tortured, killed, or forcibly disappeared by Yemeni security forces reporting to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that, with vital US support, has been bombarding and blockading famine and disease-ravaged Yemen for three brutal years. The disappearances, and torture, can sadly be laid at the doorstep of the United States.

One testimonial after another echoes the sentiments of a woman whose husband has been held incommunicado for more than two years. "Shouldn't they be given a trial?" she asked. "Why else are there courts? They shouldn't be disappeared this way -- not only are we unable to visit them, we don't even know if they are dead or alive."

The report describes bureaucratic farces in which families beg for information about their loved ones' whereabouts from Yemeni prosecutors and prison officials, but the families' pleas for information are routinely met with silence or intimidation.

The families are appealing to an unelected Yemeni exile government whose president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, (when "elected" president in 2012, he was the only candidate) generally resides in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The UAE has, so far, supported Hadi's claim to govern Yemen. However, the Prosecutor General of Hadi's government, as well as other officials, told Amnesty International the government of Yemen has no control over operations "spearheaded by the UAE and implemented by the Yemeni forces it backs."

When months and years pass and families of people who are missing still have no news about their loved ones, some try to communicate unofficially with prison guards or with former detainees who have been released from various detention sites. They repeatedly hear stories about torture of detainees and rumors about prisoners who died in custody.

The Amnesty report implicates UAE-backed local forces in Yemen, as well as the UAE military, in the crimes of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. Of seven former or current detainees interviewed by Amnesty, five said they were subjected to these abuses. "All seven witnessed other detainees being tortured," the report adds, "including one who said he saw a detainee held in a cell next to him being carried away in a body bag after he had been repeatedly tortured."

In June 2017, Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press exposed a network of clandestine prisons operated by the UAE in Yemen. Their reports described ghastly torture inflicted on prisoners and noted that senior US military leaders knew about torture allegations. Yet, a year later, there has been no investigation of these allegations by the Yemeni government, by the UAE, or by the UAE's most powerful ally in the Yemen war, the United States.

"It is shocking, to say the least," the Amnesty report states, "that one year after a network of secret prisons operated by the UAE and the Yemeni forces it backs was exposed, these facilities continue to operate and that there has not been a serious investigation undertaken into credibly documented violations, including systemic torture in custody." The Amnesty report calls on the US to "facilitate independent oversight, including by the US Congress, over US military or intelligence cooperation with Yemeni and UAE forces involved in detention activities in Yemen." It further calls for investigating any involvement of US military or intelligence personnel in detention-related abuses in Yemen.

To date, the US continues selling weapons to the UAE and to its coalition partner, Saudi Arabia, despite several Congressional debates and a few increasingly close votes demanding a full or partial end to US weapons sales considering the terrible practices being carried out as part of the Yemen war.

Since March of 2015, a coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and relying on crucial U.S. logistical aid, has bombarded Yemen while blockading its major port, despite Yemen's status as one of the poorest countries in the world. Targeting transportation, electrical plants, sewage and sanitation facilities, schools, mosques, weddings and funerals, the vicious bombing has led to starvation, displacement, and the spread of disease including cholera.

On the same day that the Amnesty report was released, Saudi Arabia's King Salman pardoned "all military men, who have taken part in the Operation Restoring Hope of their respective military and disciplinary penalties, in regard of some rules and disciplines." It seems likely that the Amnesty report precipitated this royal decree.

Along with three countries in North Africa's "Sahel" desert region, Yemen has been cited as part of the worst famine crisis in the 70-year history of the UN. In the past three years of aerial and naval attacks, Yemen's key port of Hodeidah has remained partially or fully closed despite the country's vital need for relief supplies. And, while Yemenis suffer the chaos and despair characteristic of war, the Saudis and UAE refer to the war as "Operation Restoring Hope."

Many thousands of Yemenis, subjected to consistent bombing and threats of starvation and famine, have fled their homes. Many seek refuge out of Yemen. For instance, close to 500 Yemenis have traveled nearly 500 miles to reach a visa-free port on South Korea's Jeju Island. On July 21, during an international phone call hosted by young friends in Afghanistan, listeners heard Kaia, a resident of Jeju Island, describe the "Hope School." She explained how she and several other young people are trying to help welcome Yemenis now living in their village of Gangjeong. The young people are already committed to peacefully resisting U.S. and South Korean military destruction of their shoreline and ecosystem. Now, they have started an informal school so Yemeni and South Korean residents can learn from one another.

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(This is a reprint from NewsBred).



Horrid twist to Modi's gesture

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First there is a picture. Then there is a narrative.

The picture this morning captions that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted 200 cows to Rwanda under the latter's Girinka programme -- one cow for one poor family, with the first female calf gifted to the family's neighbour.

The narrative is revolting. The Quint publishes a report with the tweet which insinuates "lynching" for a cow smuggler--in this case Modi! (sic). The horrid website which was left red-faced on its reporting on Kulbushan Jadav finds it "just-for-laughs." It finds it ironical that Modi is gifting cows to a country which is beef-eating. I tell you what the irony is: it turns out that those who referee against "trolls" and "fake news" are its marquee players.

Meanwhile another news, within hours of "gift of cows", gets no narrative. Waseem Rizvi, head of UP Shia Waqf Board, asks Muslims to give up eating beef. Rizvi says "cow-meat" is forbidden (haram) in Islam. You won't find this news in your Indian Express or The Hindu; Times of India or Hindustan Times. Nor in putrid news websites. For it would mean challenging the "Shias" of this country. Lest you don't know, India has the largest Shia population in the world after Iran . Shia vs Sunni is a subject best shoved under the carpet. Why puncture the "Persecuted-Muslims-in-India" narrative? Why publicize it and make Muslims wiser?

May I request you to google "Are Cows Sacred to Hindus" and "beef-eating in Islam"? You would find dozens of articles which would debunk the former and uphold the latter. As a Hindu, I know that on "pitra-paksh" (praying ancestors) feeding cow is mandatory. As a student, I know cow-fat on cartridges sparked the 1857 Indian War of Independence that shook British Empire to its bone. As a citizen, I am aware that banning the "cow-slaughter" is directive principle in Indian Constitution (Article 48) with exemptions to a few states.

Yet, Hindus are tarred hypocrites. Don't we see uncared cows on our streets? Don't we make billions out of beef exports? Aren't we snatching away the livelihood of thousands? Isn't it an intrusion on "eating-habits" of minority?

Who are we to tell them that uncared cows are strictly an urban phenomenon; or that beef export is mostly of buffalo-meat; or that illegal slaughterhouse can cause an epidemic and shouldn't be seen as a job for criminals; or that eating-habits can be mended.

It might be true that Muslims are fed on beef from an early age. It might also be true that this practice is an anathema to Hindus. But what's undisputed is that "eating-habits" can be mended for the larger good. Even if you don't do it, a public proclamation on the lines of Shia Board chief could promote amity, reduce polarization.

There are vivid, live examples of exemplary Hindu conduct in this regard. I am yet to come across any Hindu organization which encourages "sketching" of Prophet in the name of "freedom of expression." In spite of intense attacks on Hindus' faith, belief and festivals by motivated NGOs, media and occasionally even by judiciary, Hindus have never stepped out of line. Not one instance, and we are talking of 1000 million Hindus in India . (Yet "Hindu Pakistan" and "Hindu Taliban" are promoted, never pulled up by media).

Unlike Pakistan and Bangladesh , where minority Hindus have been driven out of existence, Muslims in India continue to grow its' share in population. There is no uniform civil code to hassle faith. Many countries, who are shining beacon of democracy, don't allow such laxity to Muslims in the name of "Sharia" or "Quranic" tenets. For instance, polygamy is banned in United States . Just being Muslim doesn't give you the freedom to keep more than one spouse.

So Muslims can live without polygamy but they can't without beef. What logic is this? Especially when beef-eating is not mandatory in Quran (I am not even quoting Rizvi who says cow-meat is "haraam" in Islam). Just imagine the outpouring of goodwill if Muslims went public with the intention of forsaking beef. It would bridge the divide like nothing else in this country.

But that would keep rotten media and their website choirs out of business. They report "beef-fest" with glee; semen-filled balloons in Holi, however fake, is never apologized for; and as in the present Modi gesture in Rwanda, a call for his lynching is made in the name of "just-laughs." Shias, meanwhile, are no muslims in their eyes.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From Paul Craig Roberts Website



Dwight D. Eisenhower exit speech on Jan.17,1961. Warning us of the military industrial complex.

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The article below by Professor Joan Roelofs is reproduced with permission from CounterPunch. The article appeared in the print edition of CounterPunch Vol. 25, No. 3, and is available online here.

The article is long but very important and is worth a careful read. It shows that the military/security complex has woven itself so tightly into the American social, economic, and political fabric as to be untouchable. President Trump is an extremely brave or foolhardy person to take on this most powerful and pervasive of all US institutions by trying to normalize US relations with Russia, chosen by the military/security complex as the "enemy" that justifies its enormous budget and power.

In 1961, President Eisenhower in his last public address to the American people warned us about the danger to democracy and accountable government presented by the military/industrial complex. You can imagine how much stronger the complex is 57 years later after decades of Cold War with the Soviet Union.

The Russian government, Russian media, and Russian people desperately need to comprehend how powerful the US military/security complex is and how it is woven into the fabric of America. No amount of diplomacy by Lavrov and masterful chess playing by Putin can possibly shake the control over the United States exercised by the military/security complex.

Professor Roelofs has done a good deed for the American people and for the world in assembling such extensive information documenting the penetration into every aspect of American life of the military/security complex. It is a delusion that a mere President of the United States can bring such a powerfull, all-pervasive institution to heel and deprive it of its necessary enemy.

The Political Economy of the Weapons Industry

Guess Who's Sleeping With Our Insecurity Blanket?

By Joan Roelofs

For many people the "military-industrial-complex (MIC)" brings to mind the top twenty weapons manufacturers. President Dwight Eisenhower, who warned about it in 1961, wanted to call it the military- industrial-congressional-complex, but decided it was not prudent to do so. Today it might well be called the military-industrial-congressional-almost-everything-complex. Most departments and levels of government, businesses, and also many charities, social service, environmental, and cultural organizations, are deeply embedded with the military.

The weapons industry may be spearheading the military budget and military operations; it is aided immensely by the cheering or silence of citizens and their representatives. Here we will provide some likely reasons for that assent. We will use the common typology of three national sectors: government, business, and nonprofit, with varying amounts of interaction among them. This does not preclude, though it masks somewhat, the proposition that government is the executive of the ruling class.

Every kind of business figures in the Department of Defense (DoD) budget. Lockheed is currently the largest contractor in the weapons business. It connects with the worldwide MIC by sourcing parts, for example, for the F-35 fighter plane, from many countries. This helps a lot to market the weapon, despite its low opinion among military experts as well as anti-military critics. Lockheed also does civilian work, which enhances its aura while it spreads its values.

Other types of businesses have enormous multi-year contracts--in the billions. This despite the constitutional proviso that Congress not appropriate military funds for more than a two year term. Notable are the construction companies, such as Fluor, KBR, Bechtel, and Hensel Phelps. These build huge bases, often with high tech surveillance or operational capacity, in the US and abroad, where they hire locals or commonly, third country nationals to carry out the work. There are also billion-funded contractors in communications technology, intelligence analysis, transportation, logistics, food, and clothing. "Contracting out" is our modern military way; this also spreads its influence far and wide.

Medium, small, and tiny businesses dangle from the "Christmas tree" of the Pentagon, promoting popular cheering or silence on the military budget. These include special set-asides for minority-owned and small businesses. A Black-owned small business, KEPA-TCI (construction), received contracts for $356 million. [Data comes from several sources, available free on the internet: websites, tax forms, and annual reports of organizations; usaspending.gov (USA) and governmentcontractswon.com (GCW).] Major corporations of all types serving our services have been excellently described in Nick Turse's The Complex. Really small and tiny businesses are drawn into the system: landscapers, dry cleaners, child care centers, and Come- Bye Goose Control of Maryland.

Among the businesses with large DoD contracts are book publishers: McGraw-Hill, Greenwood, Scholastic, Pearson, Houghton Mifflin, Harcourt, Elsevier, and others. Rarely have the biases in this industry, in fiction, nonfiction, and textbook offerings, been examined. Yet the influences on this small but significant population, the reading public, and the larger schooled contingent, may help explain the silence of the literate crowd and college graduates.

Much of what is left of organized industrial labor is in weapons manufacture. Its PACs fund the few "progressive" candidates in our political system, who tend to be silent about war and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Unlike other factories, the armaments makers do not suddenly move overseas, although they do use subcontractors worldwide.

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Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheel is made by the aluminum alloy. The aluminum alloy wheel usually has better heat conduction and the weight is also lighter than the steel wheel. The aluminum alloy has relative smaller strength than the steel wheel, so it is applied in the passenger vehicle more than commercial vehicle.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross market Of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels.Get a FREE Sample Copy of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels IndustryThe report provides key statistics on the market status of the Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Global Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.Key Companies Analysis: Zhongnan Aluminum Wheels YHI Yueling Wheels Guangdong Dcenti Auto-Parts Zhejiang Jinfei Wanfeng Auto Lizhong Group CITIC Dicastal Borbet Ronal Wheels Alcoa Superior Industries Iochpe-Maxion Uniwheel Group Enkei Wheels Accuride Topy GroupDirect Purchase Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry Report@The Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Market development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With the tables and figures the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Casting Forging OtherOn 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, including Passenger Vehicle Commercial VehicleDiscount on Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry Report at :Major Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis4 Production Analyses of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry by Regions, Technology, and Applications5 Sales and Revenue Analysis of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry by Regions6 Analyses of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2018-20257 Analysis of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry Key Manufacturers8 Price and Gross Mar Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Analysis9 Marketing Traders or Distributor Analysis of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry10 Development Trend of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry industries 2018-202511 Industry Chain Suppliers of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry with Contact Information12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels Industry13 Conclusion of the Automotive Aluminum Alloy Wheels industry 2018 Market Research ReportAbout Us:Reports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Contact:Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)Ph: +1-214-377-1121 (US)Ph: +91-703-049-0292 (IND)A platform launched by IT Hubs Global to access UK Markets without hassles

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25 July 2018, LONDON: IT Hubs Global, an IT solutions provider aggregator platform, forms the foundation for marketing a range of value-added solutions from Indian companies for UK businesses.The platform is an inventiveness of ID Design Ltd, which has been a major player in the digital industry for almost 20 years. Located in Bristol, UK, it has successfully delivered the thousands of projects to their clients. ID Design Ltd comes with a repertoire of distinguished and discerning clients from across various industries and business backgrounds thus contributing to its prompt success.IT Hubs Global cements this growth further by establishing a platform that successfully bridges the gap and creates a hassle-free portal to connect Indian IT companies with UK businesses.According to Steve Jarman, Managing Director of ID Design Ltd, UK, IT Hubs Global aims to be a solid IT solutions provider platform that allows Indian companies to easily place themselves on the international stage and trade more readily and directly with UK businesses that are constantly seeking cost-effective IT solutions.IT Hubs Global focuses mainly on the Indian market at present as it believes that the country offers significant opportunities for UK businesses to find value-added IT solutions that are on par with international standards.According to Sachin Diwakar, Senior IT Director of ID Design Ltd, UK, Indian IT skills are in demand worldwide. They provide high-quality services at reasonable prices. However, finding the right company partner is not easy. This is where we come in. IT Hubs Global offers a verified medium for both sellers and buyers to conduct business on their own terms.IT Hubs Global does not take commissions from either side thus making sure that the selection process is barren of any favouritism. The platform ensures that it maintains the quality of listed IT partners by including thorough and comprehensive processes of evaluation before listing a company on the platform. This means that only verified companies are allowed to gain direct access to the UK market, erasing the risk of working with freelancers.If you are an IT company that is looking to spread its wings in the UK market then this is your verified one-stop source to access the market directly and showcase your skills without any hiccups. To learn more about this path-breaking platform go to. You can also contact them on +44 117 377 1500 or drop them an e-mail: dir@ithubsglobal.comID Design Ltd UK has created this platform to enable IT Companies to showcase their company portfolios and achievements with full contact details so that the UK businesses can easily find partners and solutions for their IT requirements.Media Contact:Phone : +44 117 377 1500Email: steve@iddesign.co.ukName: Steve JarmanDesignation: Managing DirectorAddress: 10 Abbots Ave, Hanham, Bristol BS15 3PNConcentrating Solar Power Market Stiff competition by 2025 | NextEra Energy Resources, LLC., GDF SUEZ

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Global Concentrating Solar Power Market: OverviewConcentrating solar power (CSP) refers to the solar power generation technology that produces electricity by focusing sunlight on receivers with the help of reflecting mediums. The sunlight is used to heat the receivers to a high temperature. The heat thus collected is first transformed into mechanical energy with the help of Stirling engines or turbines and then to electricity. The concentrating solar power technology is more beneficial than the solar photovoltaic technology, which directly converts suns rays into electricity using semiconductor materials.The CSP technology fares well than the PV technology in terms of higher efficiency, lower cost of investment, and thermal storage capacity than enables the generation of power even after sunset and cloud cover. The technology also features a better capability to operate in a hybrid setup with other fuels to be able to effectively supply power during nights.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Concentrating Solar Power Market: Drivers and RestraintsIn the past few years, increased focus on the inclusion of renewable sources in the energy mix of most developing and developed economies has been the key factor to have boosted the overall rate of development in the field of concentrating solar power. Supportive government policies, technology development and the availability of more efficient product designs, fiscal support from governments in developed economies, and purely market-led demand for newer and more sustainable energy resources in developing economies have also collectively driven the market.In the next few years, the market is expected to exhibit growth at a remarkable pace as a number of factors contribute to the increased need for finding sustainable, environment-neutral, and reliable power production resources. The market is expected to benefit from the constant rise in electricity consumption across the globe, the focus of developing economies on providing universal and continuous access to electricity to remote areas, and stringent emission regulations. However, for commercial-scale production, the requisition of large areas is sometimes a drawback that hinders the adoption of the CSP technology in some regions.Request TOC of the Report @Global Concentrating Solar Power Market: Regional OverviewFrom a geographical perspective, Europe is presently the leading contributor to the global concentrating solar power market owing to the availability of vast subsidies from private and public bodies to encourage the shift from conventional power resources to renewables. North America has also ramped up its solar energy capacity in the past few years and features a conducive growth environment for the concentrating solar power technology, thanks to vast grants from the energy departments of countries such as the U.S.Global Concentrating Solar Power Market: Market PotentialIn the next few years as well, Europe and North America will continue to account for a significant share in the global market for concentrating solar power. Nevertheless, undersupplied and developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America will be the ones to look out for opportunities with strong returns. In contrast to the heavily subsidized markets in North America and Europe, the market in Asia Pacific and Latin America will be driven purely on the basis of the constantly rising market-led energy demand.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Industry analysts estimate that the established and worlds leading renewables market, Europe, will add nearly 109 GW of renewables to its electricity grid by 2020. India, on the other hand, featuring an increasingly developing and rapidly expanding market for renewables, aims to add 140 GW to its energy mix by 2022. This denotes a compelling opportunity for companies in the concentrating solar power market.Global Concentrating Solar Power Market: Competitive DynamicsOwing to stiff competition from solar PV systems, which still continue to take a significant chunk of the global solar power industry owing to the vast reduction in their costs over the years, the market for concentrating solar power witnessed few players. The market dynamic is however, changing at a rapid pace and a decent number of companies are entering the global space. Some of the leading players presently operating in the global concentrating solar power market are NextEra Energy Resources, LLC., GDF SUEZ, TSK Flagsol, Ibereolica Group, SCHOTT Solar AG, Solar Millennium AG, Acciona S.A., BrightSource Energy, Inc., SkyFuel, Inc., eSolar, Inc, Areva Solar, and Abengoa Solar, S.A.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 Probiotics in Animal Feed Sales Market to Witness Robust Expansion by 2025

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Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Probiotics in Animal Feed for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Probiotics in Animal Feed market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Probiotics in Animal Feed sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingCHR. HANSEN HOLDING A/SKONINKLIJKE DSM N.V.LALLEMAND, INC.LESAFFRE GROUPE.I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS AND COMPANYCARGILL, INCORPORATEDNOVOZYMESNEBRASKA CULTURESCALPIS CO., LTD.ADVANCED BIO NUTRITION CORPOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoLactic Acid BacteriaDouble ColiThermophilesOtherOn 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 for each application, includingCowPoultryPigAquacultureOtherIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Copy of Report@About Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact USQY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748 ?USA: +1 626 295 2442Email ? enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb ?Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts Market 2018 Global Industry Analysis By Wide body Aircraft, Narrow body Aircraft and Regional Jet With Key Companies Review

Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts

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Global Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts Market by Parts (MRO parts and Rotable Scarp Replacement Parts), by Aircraft Type (Wide body Aircraft, Narrow body Aircraft, and Regional Jet), by Geography - Forecast To 2021Market Synopsis of Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts marketThe global Commercial Aircraft Aftermarkets Parts market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during 2016-2021. The key driving factors is the availability of the aircraft aftermarket parts on e-platforms, growing fleet size, and availability of cost effective PMA parts from MRO providers.As per the MRFR analysis, factors restraining the market growth are strong opposition from OEMs, delay in customs clearance for aircraft spare parts and high import duties on value-added taxes for aircraft spare parts.Get Sample Report @Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:February, 2018  Pratt & Whitney signed 15 year EngineWise fleet management agreement with Turkish airlines. The agreement will cover Turkish Airlines' future fleet of 92 A321neo aircraft powered by the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan (GTF) engines.October, 2016  Rockwell Collins announced new service contract to repair Rockwell Collins systems on board a critical transport aircraft, an enhanced aircraft connectivity advancement, in addition to a new aftermarket upgrade for its MultiScan weather radar.Key PlayersSome of the key players in the commercial aircraft aftermarket parts are : AAR Eaton General electric Honeywell International Rockwell Collins AJW aviation avail BE aerospace BF Goodrich Meggitt Parker-Hannifin Pratt& WhitneyScope Of ReportThe market report for Global Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts 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.Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts Market  SegmentationThe global commercial aircraft aftermarket parts market is segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Parts : Comprises MRO parts and Rotable Scrap Replacement PartsSegmentation by Aircraft Type : Comprises Wide body Aircraft, Narrow body Aircraft and Regional JetSegmentation by Regions : Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Rest of the World.Commercial Aircraft Aftermarket Parts Market: Regional AnalysisEuropean market is dominating the market of commercial aircraft aftermarket parts market due to higher share of wide body aircrafts in their fleet. Thus, as the aircraft fleet grow globally, so does the requirement for aftermarket parts for those aircrafts.Asia-Pacific is referred to as the second-largest commercial aircraft aftermarket parts market due to factors such as growth in aircraft fleet have fuelled the demand for aircraft aftermarket parts market.Get Complete TOC @Ask for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Pu-erh Tea Sales Market Huge Growth Opportunities, Trends and Forecast to 2025 - QY Research, Inc.

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Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Pu-erh Tea for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Pu-erh Tea market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Pu-erh Tea sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingZhongchaLangheDayiXiaguanLongrunYunnan PuerLiudachashanColourful YunnanYunnan Puer ChangFuhaiLongyuanhaoLandsunLimingHaiwanOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRawCookedOn 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 for each application, includingHouseholdCommercialOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Copy of Report@About Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact USQY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748 ?USA: +1 626 295 2442Email ? enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb ?GNSS Chip Market - Evaluates Emerging Prospects 2025 | Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics N.V.

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Global GNSS Chip Market: OverviewA global navigation satellite system (GNSS) allows the function of pinpointing the geographical position of a users receiver located anywhere on the earth. GNSSs make use of a group of orbiting satellites operating in synchronicity with a ground stations network. Currently, there has three systems in operation, viz. the global orbiting navigation satellite system (GLONASS) of the Russian Federation, global position system (GPS) of the U.S., and Galileo of Europe. The precision of GNSS could vary as per the particular technologies employed. For instance, the U.S. prevented enemy militants from using its positioning information via the intentional degradation of GPS signals.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global GNSS Chip Market: Key TrendsExpected to grow at a decent CAGR, the world GNSS chip market is envisaged to bolster its growth on the back of factors such as the surging popularity of IoT and soaring demand for 4G and 5G network coverages and high-speed Internet. Besides this, the elevating need for real-time and accurate data, connecting and wearable devices, and high penetration of electronics are anticipated to set a propelling demand in the market.Vendors are also predicted to capitalize on a handsome demand for GNSS chips as in-vehicle systems have started taking precedence in the construction sector. With the ability to direct drivers appropriately and offer real-time data related to the current status of vehicles, in-vehicle systems find extensive usage in navigation applications. The use of GNSS chips pertains to the task of providing precise positioning.Request TOC of the Report @However, high initial investment could discourage demand in the international GNSS chips market. For instance, navigation and mapping applications generally require the employment of expensive GNSS technology-enabled devices. Nonetheless, manufacturers can gain a strong impetus in their growth as the demand for GNSS receiver increases in the construction industry for the purpose of providing accurate positioning of loading materials and information on construction sites to enable optimized operations. The rising demand for connected cars that implement GNSS chips to enable communication with each other through the Internet access could also offer profitable opportunities in the market.Global GNSS Chip Market: Market PotentialLate in March 2017, Telit is proud to announce the introduction of its newborn GNSS modules featuring an integrated antenna in the SE868xx-Ax series. The antenna is capable of permitting simpler integration without the use of external components and flaunts features such as radio frequency (RF) sensitivity increase. As the SE868xx-Ax family offers various options, clients can design once and interchangeably mount the most fitting solution to the right environment. This allows for the selection of proper technologies during transition without the need to redesign the complete application.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global GNSS Chip Market: Regional OutlookAsia Pacific is prognosticated to be the pick of the regional markets for GNSS chips due to the towering popularity of wearable devices and technological developments in industries such as consumer electronics. With China becoming a major hub for consumer electronics demanding GNSS chips at a high rate, Asia Pacific is prophesied to gain a lasting traction. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that Asia Pacific is a home to some of the leading names in the wearable devices and consumer electronics sectors such as LG Electronics Inc., Sony Corp., Panasonic Corp., and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Howbeit, there could be opportunities arising from other regions as well, such as North America and Europe.Global GNSS Chip Market: Competitive LandscapePlayers operating in the international GNSS chip market could be taking to business expansion and product enhancement through collaborations, acquisitions, and new product developments and launches. Top companies such as Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics N.V., and Qualcomm Incorporated are expected to outshine other enterprises in the 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Global PVC Intermittent Catheters Sales Market Huge Growth Opportunities, Trends and Forecast to 2025 - QY Research, Inc.

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Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of PVC Intermittent Catheters for these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal PVC Intermittent Catheters market competition by top manufacturers/players, with PVC Intermittent Catheters sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingColoplastBard MedicalHollisterMedtronicTeleflexWellspectConvaTecBoston ScientificMedline IndustriesB.BraunCook MedicalCure MedicalWellleadOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoUniversal TypeHigh Strength TypeOn 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 for each application, includingHospitalsClnicsOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Request Sample Copy of Report@About Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact USQY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748 ?USA: +1 626 295 2442Email ? enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb ?Military Communications Market 2018 Global Industry Analysis By Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, BAE, Thales, Alcatel, Raytheon, Rockwell Collins, General Dynamics, Harris and Airbus

Military Communications

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Global Military Communications Market by Product Types (Military Satcom, Radio System, and Smartphones), Application (Command & Control, and Situational Awareness), Platform (Airborne, Ground based, and Naval), and Region  Global Forecast till 2023.Global military communications market is estimated to witness a 12% CAGR during the period of 2017-2023.Get Sample Report @Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:April, 2018  Thales signed a contract with Spanish Armed Forces to modernise the PR4G radios to provides the users with enhanced capability for high priority information dissemination.December, 2017  Harris Corporation signed contract with U.S. Army to provide reliable and combat-proven communications systems to support security force assistance brigades.February, 2015  BAE systems signed a contract with U.S. Navy to support radio and communications systems design and integration for I3 surface combatant ships.Market ScenarioMilitary communications involves all aspects related to communication of information and data by armed forces for efficient functioning, military command, and control. Military communications generally depends on a vast and complex communication network of equipment and protocols to convey information across people and geography. The increasing need of secure, confidential and accurate real-time data transmission in military communications is expected to drive the market during the forecast period. The major technological challenge plaguing this market is the presence of multiple standards and devices, which makes it extremely difficult to achieve interoperability among so many different systems and technologies.Military communications facilitates the secure and robust provision of timely connectivity, exercise of authority, and also in the direction of forces across geographies. The mission critical nature of this market necessitates the integration of emerging technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, meta-materials, to improve the delivery of the right information to the right location and at the right time in an actionable format. Companies are estimated to invest in the military communications market at a rapid rate during the forecast period, despite the economic slowdown, technological challenges, and budget cuts.Emerging technologies such as Ka-band is typically used for long-range transmission of data. Its greater bandwidth supports faster transmission speeds. The beams generated in Ka-band are much more directive than the lower frequency bands, energy is more precisely focused in this band, and the spectrum can be reused more intensively in various geographic areas. With its stealth and performance, Ka-band is offering militaries long-range communication capability for the most demanding contexts and requirements.The factors driving the growth of military communications market, are replacement of aging technology with more advanced equipment, introduction of digital communications, usage of software-defined radio, and enhanced security features. Another factor estimated to contribute to the growth of the military communications market, is growth in investments by governments across the globe in the defense sector.Check For Discount @The military communications market is segmented based on device type, application, platform, and regions. On the basis of device type, military SATCOM is the most widely used and has the largest market share; while, on the basis of the platform, airborne is estimated to grow with the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Military users are focused on increasing their coverage area, which would bring outstanding capabilities and high performance. For instance, Thales signed a contract with Spanish Armed Forces to modernize their PR4G radios, in order to provide the users with enhanced capability of high priority information dissemination. Similarly, BAE systems signed a contract with U.S. Navy to support radio and communications systems design and integration for I3 surface combatant ships.For instance, Inmarsat's Global Xpress is the first commercial high-throughput network that covers the entire world. Apart from provision of in-flight connectivity, it also focuses on providing seamless data communication in military airborne platform. Additionally, it is fully interoperable with military SATCOM (MILSATCOM). MILSATCOM is divided into three categories, which are narrowband, wideband, and protected to match suitable frequency bands. MILSATCOM continues to play a crucial role in military communications architecture, as it can provide voice, video, and data communications to users globally. MILSATCOM must integrate and adopt new technologies to support these applications in warfighting applications.The Mobile User Objective System is currently under development to meet future MILSATCOM requirements. It is required to increase the capacity of platforms that are highly mobile and are operating in the most challenging propagation environments.The market is segmented based on region into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America. North America region is expected to dominate the market in future, due to rapid adoption of advanced communications network and rising investment in the defense sector. Asia Pacific is second to the North America market in military communications market, due to increasing investments by the governments of developing countries. Thus, the global military communications market is estimated to witness a 12% CAGR during the period of 2017-2023.Key PlayersThe key players in the global military communications market are Northrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.), Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), BAE Systems (U.K), Thales (France), Alcatel (France), Raytheon (U.S.), Rockwell Collins (U.S.), General Dynamics (U.S.), Harris Corporation (U.S.), and Airbus Group (France).Scope Of RepotThe report for Global Military Communications 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 and key opinion leaders; it helps the reader gain a deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives a clear picture of current market scenario, including historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macroeconomic and governing factors in the market. The report provides detailed information and strategies of the key players in the industry. The report also contains a broad study of the different market segments and regions.Browse Complete Report@Table of Contents1 Executive Summary2 Scope of the Report2.1 Market Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Definition2.2.2 Research Objective2.2.3 Assumptions2.2.4 Limitations2.3 Research Process2.3.1 Primary Research2.3.2 Secondary Research2.4 Market Size Estimation2.5 Forecast Model3 Market Landscape3.1 Porters Five Forces Analysis3.1.1 Threat of New Entrants3.1.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers3.1.3 Threat of Substitutes3.1.4 Segment Rivalry3.1.5 Bargaining Power of Buyers3.2 Value Chain/supply Chain Analysis4 Market Dynamics4.1 Introduction4.2 Market Drivers4.3 Market Restraints4.4 Market Opportunities4.5 Market TrendsContinues...Ask for your specific company profile and country level customization on reports.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Market Research FutureMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSulfuric Acid Market 2018; Reaches to USD 11.96 Billion Registering a CAGR of ~3.22 by 2023 | PVS Chemical Solution, BASF, Chemtrade, DuPont, Akzo Nobel India Ltd and Agrium

Sulfuric Acid Market

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The Sulfuric Acid Market was worth USD 8.99 billion in the year 2014 and is expected to reach approximately USD 11.96 billion by 2023, while registering itself at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.22% during the forecast period. The ascent can be ascribed to the existence of stringent natural directions to control emanations, which is foreseen to prompt the expanded usage of smelters to catch sulfur dioxide products. Expanding requirement for the product from paper & pulp, fertilizers, metal processing, chemical manufacturing, petroleum refinery, and automotive ventures for use as a reactant, catalyst, and a dehydrating agent is anticipated to help the business over the predictable period. Rising worries about high harvest yield and incredible quality of food from agricultural area are anticipated to boost the fertilizer market development, which will thusly to trigger sulfuric acid market. Factors, for example, unpredictability in the raw material costs because of the rising usage from phosphate fertilizer makers amid tight supply period and the usage of different directions for the creation of environmentally-friendly products, are anticipated to adversely affect the business development. An expansion in the usage of models, for example, New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) to manage the outflows of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid mist, and nitrogen oxides from H2SO4 generation facilities is anticipated to boost the market in the upcoming years.Sulfuric Acid Market - Competitive Insights:The market id extensively competitive with a number leading players such as PVS Chemical Solution, BASF, Chemtrade, DuPont, Akzo Nobel India Ltd and Agrium. A substantial number of organizations are essentially engaged with joint ventures, acquisitions, and mergers to improve their product portfolio and achieve a huge place in the market. For example, in June 2016, Veolia captured control over the sulfur product division of Chemour to fortify the organization's administrations in oil and gas industry for the reusing and treatment of mechanical waste in the United States. A few organizations are following investment and development procedures to reinforce their creation capacities and infiltrate into the developing markets. An expansion in the quantity of H2SO4 producers and providers is anticipated to help market development over the estimate time frame.Sample copy of this report:Sulfuric Acid Market - Raw Material Outlook and Trend Analysis:In 2016 Elemental sulfur raw material portion got huge share of the overall industry and is anticipated to advance at the quickest rate over the conjecture time frame. The raw material makes less contamination when compared with pyrite metal or base metal smelters and is accessible in plenitude in the business. Keeping in mind the end goal to confine or check environmental contamination, an expansive number of organizations have received stringent measures to treat the discharged sulfur gas before discharging it into the air. Rising developmental exercises, for example, upgrading the generation capacities of organizations to spur the manufacturing of sulfuric acid items from basic sulfur are anticipated to trigger the market development. China is the main producer of pyrites and most of the share of this raw material is used for creating sulfuric acid. Strict measures are probably going to be attempted by the makers for digging pyrites for the generation of acid products as they are less natural inviting in contrast with elemental sulfur. These components are probably going to make a block the development of pyrite mineral raw material fragment. Canada and Mexico are the merchants of sulfuric acid, which is composed from the result of smelters. The product is imported from the United States. Expanding requirement for ecologically commanded smelter limit with regards to the generation of sulfuric acid is probably going to drive market over the estimate time frame.The Sulfuric Acid Market is segmented as follows-Sulfuric Acid Market - By Raw Material:Base metal smeltersElemental sulfurPyrite oreOthersSulfuric Acid Market - By Application:FertilizersMetal processingTextile industryPaper & pulpChemical manufacturingPetroleum refiningAutomotiveOthersSulfuric Acid Market - By Region:North America - U.S, Canada, MexicoEurope - Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Rest of EuropeAsia-Pacific - Japan, China, Australia, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia PacificRest of the World - Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, OthersGet more information of this report:Sulfuric Acid Market - Regional outlook and Trend Analysis:In 2016 Asia Pacific was the biggest regional fragment and represented around 46 percent of the aggregate income. Expanding generation of sulfur from Japan and China is foreseen to boost the product offerings of sulfuric acid in this area. Rising requirement for H2SO4 from the Indonesia and Philippines is anticipated to help Asia Pacific regional market over the conjecture time frame. The costs of sulfuric acid are fortifying because of the rising interest for the product in Asia Pacific. Expanding need to extend the generation of phosphate manure because of rising compost segment and stringent environmental controls concerning the assembling of ecologically friendly product is probably going to support the market over the coming years. Rising demand from phosphoric and industrial acid divisions attributable to an expansion in the development of harvests and higher product yields is expected to trigger development in China market. The developing supply of H2SO4 products from Morocco and Saudi Arabia is anticipated to goad the market over the predictable period. An expansion in the quantity of acid plants to fulfill developing buyer demand alongside the rising supply of sulfur-consumed acids in the Middle East is anticipated to fuel the market in the upcoming years.Sulfuric Acid Market - Table of Contents:1.Introduction2.Executive Summary3.Market Overview4.Sulfuric Acid Market, By Raw Material5.Sulfuric Acid Market, By Application6.Sulfuric Acid Market, By Region7.Company Profiles..Sulfuric Acid Market - List of Tables:Table 1.Global Sulfuric Acid Market, By Raw Material, 2014-2023 ($Million)Table 2.Elemental sulfur Market, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)Table 3.Base metal smelters Market, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)Table 4.Pyrite ore Market, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)Table 5.Other Raw Material Market, By Region, 2014-2023 ($Million)Sulfuric Acid Market - List of Figures:Figure 1.Global Sulfuric Acid Market Share, By Raw Material, 2014 & 2023Figure 2.Global Sulfuric Acid Market, By Application, 2014 & 2023 ($Million)Figure 3.Global Sulfuric Acid Market, By Region, 2014 & 2023 ($Million)Figure 4.The Mosaic Company: Net Revenues, 2014-2016 ($Million)Figure 5.The Mosaic Company: Net Revenue Share, By Segment, 2016Check best offer of this report:Reason to Buy -Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Sulfuric Acid market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.ContinuedAbout Crystal Market Research:Crystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customised research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact Us:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comGlobal Top level Smart Packaging Market Size,Share & Industry Forecast By 2022

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Smart Packaging Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2014-2022, the global smart packaging market size is estimated to reach $37,797 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 7.8% from 2016 to 2022. Europe constitutes around 33.6% share in the global smart packaging market and is expected to remain dominant throughout the analysis period, registering a notable CAGR of 6.9%.Get the PDF Brochure @Changes in lifestyle patterns due to rapid urbanization, particularly in emerging economies and growth in consumption of beauty products with advancement in technology drive the growth of the smart packaging market. In addition, the untapped geographical regions offer potential opportunities for the smart packaging market with the growth in hygiene concerns among consumers in these regions. However, high cost of active and intelligent packaging system is expected to hamper the global smart packaging market growth.Healthcare or pharmaceutical industry and the medical packaging have witnessed quite a notable growth along with advances in technology. The integration of barcodes, RFID tags, or sensors is highly useful within the industry as it monitors authenticity of medicines and provides the patients, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals with details about the expiry date, consumption, and dosages. In addition, smart packaging industry helps the healthcare sector to deal with challenges such as counterfeit and patient compliance, thereby providing complete security. Thus, this sector is projected to exhibit the fastest growth rate during the forecast period and hence increase the smart packaging market size.The types of the smart packaging industry are active packaging, intelligent packaging, and modified atmosphere packaging. The personal care segment was the second-highest industry owing to growth in counterfeit concerns in cosmetics or personal care industry. Many of the multinational companies have initiated to integrate smart coding within the product. The smart coding technology will prevent counterfeit and provide authenticity to the product.The smart packaging system is also expected to deliver value to technologically savvy consumers, such as tracking environmental conditions, monitoring freshness, and usage indicators.Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 9.1% owing to the increase in urbanization and change in lifestyle of consumers in the developing countries, such as China, India, and Thailand. This is also responsible for increase in demand for smart packaging market in the region. However, Middle East is the second fastest growing region due to rise in per capita income of consumers, thereby resulting in high expenditures automotive, healthcare, personal care, and retail industry.Make a Purchase Inquiry @Key Findings of the Smart Packaging Market:*LAMEA is projected to be the second fastest growing region in the global smart packaging market, in terms of revenue, registering a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period.*Intelligent packaging systems witnessed significant growth in global smart packaging market in 2015, and is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR of 9.6%.*Thermochromic ink in intelligent system, was the highest revenue contributor to the smart packaging market with 46.4% share in 2015, and is expected to maintain its dominance throughout the forecast period.*Gas scavenger in active packaging, is the fastest growing system witnessing a considerable CAGR of 10.5%.*Healthcare industry is the fastest growing smart packaging industry segment, registering a CAGR of 10.0% during the forecast period.The key smart packaging industry players profiled in the global smart packaging market report include 3M, TempTime Corporation, PakSense, American Thermal Instruments, Avery Dennison Corp., R.R. Donnelly Sons & Company, BASF SE, International Paper, Stora Enso, and Thin Film Electronics ASA.About UsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Taiwan Will Attract More Than 12 Million International Travelers And Generated USD 16 Billion Revenues By 2024

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The report Taiwan International Travelers Visitation, Spending Analysis 2012  2017 and Future Forecast 2018 - 2024 offers the most up-to-date industry data on the actual market situation and future outlook for Taiwan inbound tourism market. The report uses data and analysis to discuss future trends related to international travelers arrivals, spending, purpose of visits and main destination markets. The report provides clear insight into current and future tourism developments in the region. Furthermore, this report uses regional and country focused analysis to explore inbound tourist markets in Taiwan.A detailed country-wise analysis of the market is provided, covering a total of 15 nations and 5 regions. The research study limelight growth drivers and investigates market inhibitors of Taiwan travel & tourism.Get Free Sample Report@The countries included in this report are Hong Kong & Macao, Mainland China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Canada, United States, France, Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South AfricaThe regions included in this report areAsia,North America,Oceania,EuropeAfricaKey Findings: Mainland China is the largest source market for Taiwan tourism, but its share will decline in the forecast period Hong Kong and Macau will be leading source market with nearly 20% share by 2024 International tourists most commonly travel to the Taiwan for pleasure purposesEnquiry about Report@The Latest Industry Data Included in this Report: Total International Travelers in Taiwan & Forecast (2012 - 2024) Total International Travelers Spending in Taiwan & Forecast (2012  2024) Total International Travelers Spending Share & Forecast (2012  2024) By Region Travelers Spending Share & Forecast (2012  2024) 5 Region Travelers Visitation, Spending & Forecast (2012  2024) 5 Region Travelers Purpose of Visit & Forecast (2012  2024) 15 Countries Travelers Visitation & Forecast (2012 - 2024) 15 Countries Travelers Purpose of Visit & Forecast (2012 - 2024) 15 Countries Travelers Spending & Forecast (2012 - 2024) Identification of Key Drivers and Inhibitors of the Taiwan Travel & TourismAbout Us:Qurate Business Intelligence delivers unique market research solutions to its customers and help them to get equipped with refined information and market insights derived from reports. We are committed to providing best business services and easy processes to get the same. Qurate Business Intelligence considers themselves as strategic partners of their customers and always shows the keen level of interest to deliver quality.Contact Us:Nehal ChinoyRunwal Platinum,Ramnagar Colony, Bavdhan,Pune, Maharashtra, India-411021IN +919881074592info@qurateresearch.comShortening 2018 Global Market Key Players  Olenex, ADM, Walter Rau, VFI GmbH  Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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WiseGuyRerports.com Presents Global Shortening Market Research Report 2018 New Document to its Studies DatabaseThis report studies the global Shortening market status and forecast, categorizes the global Shortening market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and Middle East & Africa.This report studies the Shortening market, Shortening refers to edible fats or vegetable or animal origin used in baked goods primarily to improve the eating qualities of the finished product thorugh making it tender and 'short'.The global Shortening market is valued at xx million US$ in 2017 and will reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportOlenexADMWalter RauY?ld?z HoldingVFI GmbHAAKZeelandiaPuratosPrinces GroupHAS GroupRequest For Sample Report @Geographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoAll Purpose ShorteningEmulsified ShorteningHigh Stability ShorteningOn 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, includingBakingFryingConfectionery and PastryOtherThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Shortening sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025).Focuses on the key Shortening manufacturers, to study the sales, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Complete Report Details @Table Of Contents:1 Shortening Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Shortening1.2 Shortening Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Shortening Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Shortening Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 All Purpose Shortening1.2.4 Emulsified Shortening1.2.5 High Stability Shortening1.3 Global Shortening Segment by Application1.3.1 Shortening Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Baking1.3.3 Frying1.3.4 Confectionery and Pastry1.3.5 Other1.4 Global Shortening Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Shortening Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Shortening (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Shortening Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Shortening Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)2 Global Shortening Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Shortening Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Shortening Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Shortening Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Shortening Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Shortening Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Shortening Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Shortening Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Shortening Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Shortening Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion.7 Global Shortening Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Olenex7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Shortening Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Olenex Shortening Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 ADM7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Shortening Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 ADM Shortening Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Walter Rau7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Shortening Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Walter Rau Shortening Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Y?ld?z Holding7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Shortening Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Y?ld?z Holding Shortening Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 VFI GmbH7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Shortening Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 VFI GmbH Shortening Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business OverviewContinued.CONTACT US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Address:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaGlobal Feminine Douching Products Market Professional Survey Report 2018

Global Feminine Douching Products Market Professional Survey Report 2018

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This report studies the global Feminine Douching Products market status and forecast, categorizes the global Feminine Douching Products market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).Douching is a method to wash or clean out the vagina, usually with a mixture of vinegar and water in a douche spray, which injects the liquid into the desired parts. In recent years, the innovations related to douching have resulted in the introduction of new products with several new features, scents, shapes, and sizes. Douches sold in supermarkets and drugstores contain antiseptics and fragrances. These douches are pre-packaged mixes of baking soda, water, and vinegar or iodine.The online retail segment dominated this market and is envisaged to witness a strong increase in its market shares. Benefits such as the increased ease of purchasing products online is a key factor responsible for the strong growth of this market segment during the estimated period.In terms of geography, this market research study identifies the Americas to be the largest market for feminine douching products. In this region, the high awareness of hygiene products among consumers will aid in the growth of this market. Furthermore, with the introduction of new products with new features and reduced side effects the market for feminine douching products will witness a strong growth until the end of the forecast period.The global Feminine Douching Products market is valued at xx million US$ in 2017 and will reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportCalifornia ExoticC.B. FleetPrestige BrandsAdam & EveGST CorporationLake Consumer ProductsNatureplexCurve NoveltiesPipedream ProductsNasstoysCaraWise Woman HerbalsGeographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDouching LiquidsDouching DevicesBy Application, the market can be split intoOnline StoresRetail OutletsSpecialty StoresOtherThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Feminine Douching Products capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Feminine Douching Products manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Request Sample Report and TOC@About Us:QY Research established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc.QY Research Achievements:Year of Experience: 11 YearsConsulting Projects: 500+ successfully conducted so farGlobal Reports: 5000 Reports Every YearsResellers Partners for Our Reports: 150 + Across GlobeGlobal Clients: 34000+Contact USQY Research, INC.Tina17890 Castleton, Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748USA: +1 626 295 2442Email: sales@qyrsearchglobal.com or tinaning@qyresearch.comWeb:For other region, contact number given below+86 108 294 5717 Beijing+852 3062 8839 HKQY Research established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc.GuangdongFood Allergy Market is on the Rise and becoming more common in Adults| Study Finds Brief Industry Highlight from 2018-2023

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Market Overview:Food allergy is characterized as an immune reaction which may be developed by the intake of a food allergen. It is reported that food-allergens may trigger signs and symptoms of digestive problems, hives, or swollen airways, besides others. In some people, food allergy may even result in a life-threatening reaction including anaphylaxis. The increasing prevalence of food allergy and growing adoption of labeling-compliance are expected to be the major drivers for the market growth during the forecast period. According to the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy in 2016, food allergy was reported in approximately 1 in 20 children and about 2 in 100 adults. Moreover, the growing pediatric population, the increasing prevalence of asthma, the rising healthcare expenditure, implementation of stringent food safety regulations, and others boost the market growth. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the pediatric population is estimated to increase from 73.6 million in 2015 to 75.0 million by 2025. Moreover, according to the Food Standards Agency from 2015 to 2016, the total number of enforcement actions for food hygiene and food standards was estimated to increase from 181,877 in 2015 to 191,719 in 2016.However, factors such as low awareness and lack of food control infrastructure and resources in the middle- and low-income countries are estimated to restrain the market growth during the projected period.The global food allergy market is expected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period.Get Premium Sample Copy of Food Allergy Market @Global Food Allergy Market  Regional AnalysisThe Americas holds the largest share of the global food allergy market owing to the increasing prevalence of food allergy, the presence of a well-developed healthcare sector, and huge health care expenditures within the region.Europe stands second in the market due to the availability of funds for research followed by a huge patient population and strict food regulation standards. On a regional basis, Europe is segmented into Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe leads the regional food allergy market while Eastern Europe is estimated to be the fastest growing region.Asia Pacific stands third in the global food allergy market and is projected to be the fastest growing region. The presence of developing economies, rising patient population, and increasing government efforts for a labeling-compliance drive the market within the region.The Middle East and Africa holds the least share in the global food allergy market owing to the presence of weak economies, lack of awareness, and poor availability of healthcare services, especially within the African region.Leading Players in the Food Allergy IndustrySGS S.A. (Switzerland), Intertek Group plc (U.K.), TUV SUD Psb Pte. Ltd. (Germany), ALS Limited (Australia), Eurofins Scientific (Luxembourg), Merieux Nutrisciences Corporation (U.S), AsureQuality Ltd (New Zealand), Microbac Laboratories Inc (U.S.), Symbio Laboratories (Australia), Romer Labs (Austria), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), NEOGEN CORPORATION (U.S.), and others.Market Segmentation:The global food allergy market is segmented on the basis of allergen source, food tested, tests, products/technology, and end-user.On the basis of the allergen source, the market is segmented into vegetable allergens, animal allergens, pseudo allergens, and others. The vegetable allergens segment is sub-segmented into cereals containing gluten, peanuts and related products, mustard and related products, and others. The animal allergens segment is sub-segmented into milk and related products, eggs and related products, fish and related products, and others.On the basis of food tested, the market is categorized into infant food, processed food, dairy products and alternatives, seafood and meat products, and others. On the basis of tests, the market is segmented into skin prick test, blood test, oral food challenge, and others.On the basis of the products/technology, the market is segmented into test kits, ELISA systems, allergen assays, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), allergen assays, and others. The test kits segment is sub-segmented into aflatoxin, Deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisin, and others. On the basis of end-users, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers, and others.Avail Premium Discount @TOC of Food Allergy Market Research Report  Global Forecast to 20231. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Threats4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsTOC CONTINUEDAsk any Queries to Experts about Niche Segments, Requires Regional Data and Top Players @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 Us:Market Research FutureOffice 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAluminum Foil Containers Market Pegged for Robust Expansion During 2017-2027

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Global Aluminum Foil Containers - Market Overview:Packaging in todays world has emerged as an integral part of the brand promotion. Owing to modern-day lifestyle coupled with todays fast-paced life, customers inclination towards convenience packaging has increased. Aluminum is a kind of metallic element available in abundance across the globe and is preferably used a barrier resistant material for packaging to safeguard food & beverages, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, etc. Aluminum foil sheets are readily used in the manufacturing of various kinds of containers as per packaging requirements. Aluminum foil containers are exceptionally corrosion-resistant and are also chemically neutral. Moreover, the aluminum material is non-toxic in nature. Aluminum foil containers in terms of food packaging industry have many advantages as aluminum foil can withstand temperature changes compared to the packaging material. For instance, aluminum foil containers can go from deep freezers to microwave/oven to the dinner table irrespective of any change in the container.Request to Sample of Report @Global Aluminum Foil Containers - Market Drivers & Restraints:Growing inclination of customers towards convenient packaging is the key factor that drives the growth of aluminum foil containers market. Aluminum foil containers are readily used in microwave ovens as they have the capability to retain original texture, flavor, etc. which drives the larger part of demand of aluminum foil containers. Also, with an increase in work class population, the demand for packaged food has grown over the years, subsequently leading to the growth of aluminum foil containers market. However, the inclination of the manufacturers, as well as customers towards alternative packaging solutions such as plastic pouches, boxes, etc., has grown over the years owing to its cost effective nature and thus hindering the growth in the aluminum foil containers market.Aluminum foil containers are in high demand for the food packaging industry. Based on the products type, Aluminum foil containers are classified in flexible as well as rigid containers wherein the rigid containers such as trays, boxes, bowls, etc. account for the largest market share in the global aluminum foil containers market. In terms of applications, Aluminum foil containers are also in demand from the pharmaceutical industry as aluminum foil act as the most preferred barrier resistant material.Global Aluminum Foil Containers Market - Regional Overview:Geographically, the global aluminum foil containers market is segmented into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan (APEJ), Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA).Compared to other regions, Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the global aluminum foil containers market over the forecast period. Growing inclination towards convenience packaging solutions in food and beverages packaging is expected to drive the aluminum foil containers market over the forecast period in this region. Furthermore, growing demand for processed food & beverages and consumer durables industries in the North America and European region are expected to enhance the sales of aluminum foil containers over the forecast period. Likewise, in the forthcoming years, Latin America and Middle-East and African markets are likely to witness an inclusive growth owing to rising urbanization coupled with growing disposable income which is anticipated to contribute towards the growing demand for aluminum foil containers market.Overall, the global aluminum foil containers market is expected to register a healthy growth rate over the forecast period.Request Report for Table of Contents @Global Aluminum Foil Containers Market - Key Players:Some key players that currently operate in the global aluminum foil containers market are Alcoa Corporation., Carcano Antonio S.p.A., Aluflexpack group, Alufoil Products Pvt. Ltd., Bachmann Aluminium GmbH., Comital Group, TetraPak and Velcro Group., and many others.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Report Highlights : Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Request to Report Methodology @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.Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb:Global NOR Flash Market Size, Share, Growth, Trend and Top Key Players (Samsung, Cypress, Winbond, Micron, Macronix, ISSI, Eon, Microchip, GigaDevice) | Forecasts 20182025

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The Global NOR Flash Market based on geographic classification is studied for industry analysis, size, share, growth, trends, segment, top manufacturing company analysis, statistics and analytical data and forecast to 2025. The reports on the global aspect, these reports cater regional aspects as well as global for the organizations.Get Sample Copy of this Report @NOR flash memory is a non-volatile storage technology. Its main differentiating factor over NOR Flash memory is that it can perform without the need for any external power source. Machine instructions can be run directly from the chip and also retrieved using NOR flash memory. It contains several address pins that provide access to every byte of information available in the chip. NOR flash memory is not only faster but also more expensive compared to NOR Flash. NOR flash memory is most often deployed in cellphonesAdditionally, NOR Flash Market gives a tenor of market utilization value, investment return analysis, investment feasibleness, product volume, market strategies, industry chain structure, supply and demand ratio and market chain value. Conclusively, the NOR Flash Market Research report inspects distinct traders, distributors and suppliers of NOR Flash Market industry along with sales channel, data resources, research findings and appendix.Top Key Players analyzed in Global NOR Flash Market are - Samsung Cypress Winbond Micron Macronix ISSI Complete report NOR Flash Market spreads across 76 pages profiling 09 companies and supported with tables and figures, Purchases this Report @Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross margins. This leading industry players of NOR Flash market providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.Market Segment By Type - Serial NOR Flash Parallel NOR FlashMarket Segment By Application  Telecommunication Networking Industrial Automotive Smart Grid SpaceGet direct copy this report @The main contents of the report including: NOR Flash MarketSection 1: Product definition, type and application, Global market overview;Section 2: Global Market competition by company;Section 3: Global sales revenue, volume and price by type;Section 4: Global sales revenue, volume and price by application;Section 5: United States export and import;Section 6: Company information, business overview, sales data and product specifications;Section 7: Industry chain and raw materials;Section 8: SWOT and Porter's Five Forces;Section 9: Conclusion.Continue.List of Tables and Figures..About UsOrian Research is one of the most comprehensive collections of market intelligence reports on the World Wide Web. Our reports repository boasts of over 500000+ industry and country research reports from over 100 top publishers. We continuously update our repository so as to provide our clients easy access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, and products. We also specialize in custom research in situations where our syndicate research offerings do not meet the specific requirements of our esteemed clients.Contact UsRuwin MendezVice President  Global Sales & Partner RelationsOrian Research ConsultantsUS: +1 (832) 380-8827 | UK: +44 0161-818-8027Email: info@orianresearch.comWebsite:Follow Us on LinkedIn:Hydropower Market Top Key Players: Voith, ANDRITZ HYDRO, General Electric, Alfa Laval, Metso, China Yangtze Power, Hydro-Quebec, RusHydro, Agder Energi, Duke Energy

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Market Overview:-Global Hydropower Market is expected to grow at over 2% and exceed 1,300 GW by 2024. Growing demand for electricity along with upsurge in investment towards sustainable energy will drive the global hydropower market. Europe and North America have introduced plans to renovate, upgrade, and modernize the ageing stations with an aim to ensure more efficient operations. In March 2015, Latvenergo announced its plan to invest USD 222.26 million towards reconstruction of Plavinas, Kegums, and Riga hydroelectric power stations in Northern Europe by 2022.Low generation cost coupled with ability to generate high electric output will propel the hydropower market. In 2016, Department of Energy projected levelized energy costs from hydroelectric at USD 56.2/MWh when compared with solar thermal at USD 191/MWh.Request for a sample of this research report @Top Key Players:-Key participants in hydropower market include ANDRITZ HYDRO, General Electric, Voith, Alfa Laval, China Yangtze Power, China Three Gorges Corporation, Metso, RusHydro, Hydro-Quebec, Duke Energy, Georgia Power, StatKraft, Agder Energi, Ontario Power Generation, ABB, Engie, EDF and Tata Power.Regional Segmentations: -U.S. hydropower Market is set to expand over 2% on account of its huge untapped hydropower reserves. As per the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, in the U.S., hydropower provides around 6% to 8% of the country's electricity. Measures towards greenhouse gas emissions may further complement the industry outlook. Non-Powered Dams (NPDs) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) estimated existing untapped reserves capacity of 12,000 MW in 2015.Major Company Include in Hydropower Market in terms of Business Overview, Financial Data, Product Landscape, Strategic Outlook, SWOT Analysis1. Voith2. ANDRITZ HYDRO3. General Electric4. China Three Gorges Corporation5. Alfa Laval6. Metso7. China Yangtze Power8. Hydro-Quebec9. RusHydro10. Agder Energi11. Duke Energy12. Georgia Power13. Ontario Power Generation14. Stat Kraft15. ABB Ltd16. Engie17. Tata Power Corporation18. EDFBrowse Full Report @Large hydropower capacity segment accounted for over 80% of global hydropower market share in 2016. Growing demand for reliable and continuous electricity coupled with upgradation of ageing generating stations will fuel the industry outlook. In 2016, Andritz announced the installation of three hydroelectric stations worth over USD 75 million in Brazil and Nicaragua with an objective to supply reliable and constant electricity.Low refurbishment cost coupled with measures to reduce greenhouse gas emission will embellish the micro and pico hydropower market. In 2016, Philippines announced its plan to construct more than 150 micro plants with increasing electricity generating capacity of approximately 50 MW.About Global Market InsightsGlobal 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 Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Automotive Composites Market | Industry Crucial Players - Cytec Industries , Toray Industries , SAERTEX GmbH , Koninklijke Ten Cate , Johns Manville , Johnson Controls , Scott Bader Company , Teijin Limited

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Composites, if smartly used, can instigate the concept of lighter vehicles which are highly safe & fuel-efficient. In the wake of high performance, composites are tipped to transform automotive industry in the near future, and the market for the same is poised to flourish. These market insights are gathered from a new report, titled Automotive Composites Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017-2022, recently added to the all-inclusive repository of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE).For more information on Automotive Composites Market, get free sample report @On the backdrop of fossil fuel depletion and surging awareness of the subsequent pollution, energy efficiency has emerged to be a revolutionizing trend picking up steam in the automotive industry. Composites are composition of two of more constituent materials and have been adopted as an imperative part of an automobile system.Automotive Composites Market- Thermoplastic-based Composites to Forge Ahead with Numerous BenefitsA new stride observed in the market of automotive composites market is development of thermoplastic-based composites. The thermoplastic based composites offer automotive industry with various benefits such as reduced material scrap, zero-solvent emissions, minimal number of painting steps, safer conditions for work, and tremendous recyclability. Besides these amazing benefits, the global automotive composites market is further gaining impetus in the light of several governmental regulations for promoting lightweight materials & relentless R&D activities for devising improved composites. Contrarily, high production cost and lack of technological enhancements in highly remunerative region of APAC are two of the major aspects refraining automotive composites market from attaining colossal growth rates.Automotive Composites Market- Asia Pacific to Get Ahead with High Market AttractivenessAsia Pacific is, by far, the most lucrative region in the automotive composites market by a long margin. Primarily driven by the developing realms of China, India, and Japan, APAC automotive composites market has lured key stakeholders into its region and is providing momentous competitive advantages, both in terms of production and demand.Outlook Complete Research Reports on Automotive Composites Market with Industry Key Players and Complete List of Tables & Figures @When Asia Pacific is foreseen to account for more than half of the overall demand for automotive composites in the coming years, Europe is poised to trail the former. Europe represents immense potential for profits, gaining traction from the uncompromising industry regulations against emissions of carbon dioxide. A heap of eminent manufacturers of automotive hail from this region, wherefore it is open to embrace new & latest technologies. The report also gauges the demand quotient which can be expected out of realms of North America and the Rest of the World.Global Automotive Composites Market: Research MethodologyThe report is an outcome of the summation of primary and secondary research, conducted in a bid to understand & arrive at trends governing the current and forecasted scenario of the global automotive composites market. A major chunk of the research repository is based on the information collected from interviews and discussions with a panel of industry experts as well as opinion leaders. On the other hand, the secondary research incorporates a comprehensive study of resourceful websites, press releases, investor presentations, annual reports, and international and national databases.Else Place an Enquiry to Our Industry Expert at @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence 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 Street Suite 700Albany, NY  12207 (United States)Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Global C4ISR Market drivers, restraints, growth opportunities, and challenges 2018

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Latest industry research report on: Global C4ISR Market : Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, ForecastsThis report studies the global C4ISR market status and forecast, categorizes the global C4ISR market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).C4ISR is a military terminology, it is by the C2 (Command, Control) evolved, usually translated as command automation system. It is abbreviated of Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence Surveillance, Reconnaissance.Request Sample Copy of the Report @C4ISR system to provide military information command and management system, improve command efficiency. Now C4ISR has become the nerve center of modern army.Kosovo war is the first large-scale military use of C4ISR system by US.The technical barriers of C4ISR are high, and the C4ISR manufacturing bases concentration degree is relatively higher; about 51.36% of global C4ISR are consumption in North America 2016; some of the key players in this market are Lockheed Martin Corporation, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop, Grumman Corporation, L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc., Elbit Systems Ltd and others.The global C4ISR market is valued at 111600 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 136100 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 2.5% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportLockheed Martin CorporationBoeingRaytheonNorthrop Grumman CorporationL-3 Communications HoldingsElbit SystemsBAE SystemsThales GroupHarris CorporationDRS TechnologiesGeographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)We can also provide the customized separate regional or country-level reports, for the following regions:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCommand & ControlCommunicationsComputersIntelligenceSurveillanceBy Application, the market can be split intoLand Based SystemNaval SystemsAir Force SystemSpace SystemComplete Report Details @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global C4ISR capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key C4ISR manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of C4ISR are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersC4ISR ManufacturersC4ISR Distributors/Traders/WholesalersC4ISR Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, QYResearch offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the C4ISR market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Request For TOC Report @Table of ContentsGlobal C4ISR Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of C4ISR1.1 Definition and Specifications of C4ISR1.1.1 Definition of C4ISR1.1.2 Specifications of C4ISR1.2 Classification of C4ISR1.2.1 Command & Control1.2.2 Communications1.2.3 Computers1.2.4 Intelligence1.2.5 Surveillance1.3 Applications of C4ISR1.3.1 Land Based System1.3.2 Naval Systems1.3.3 Air Force System1.3.4 Space System1.4 Market Segment by Regions1.4.1 North America1.4.2 Europe1.4.3 China1.4.4 Japan1.4.5 Southeast Asia1.4.6 India2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of C4ISR2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of C4ISR2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of C4ISR2.4 Industry Chain Structure of C4ISR3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of C4ISR3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global C4ISR Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global C4ISR Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global C4ISR Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global C4ISR Major Manufacturers in 2017About 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.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Commercial Griddle Sales Market drivers, restraints, growth opportunities, and challenges 2018

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Latest industry research report on: Global Commercial Griddle Sales Market : Industry Size, Share, Research, Reviews, Analysis, Strategies, Demand, Growth, Segmentation, Parameters, ForecastsThis report studies the global Commercial Griddle market status and forecast, categorizes the global Commercial Griddle market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).A griddle is a cooking device consisting of a broad flat surface heated by gas, electricity, wood, or coal.The commercial gas griddles are gaining popularity among foodservice establishments due to the presence of improved additional features.The global Commercial Griddle market is valued at xx million US$ in 2017 and will reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The major players covered in this reportElectroluxIllinois Tool WorksMiddleby CorporationStandex International CorporationThe Vollrath CompanyWelbiltAccuTemp productsAliAmerican RangeAnvilAvantco EquipmentBlaze GrillsCooking performance GroupELAG ProductsEquipexGeographically, this report studies the key regions, focuses on product sales, value, market share and growth opportunity in these regions, coveringUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaWe can also provide the customized separate regional or country-level reports, for the following regions:North AmericaUnited StatesCanadaMexicoAsia-PacificChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaAustraliaIndonesiaSingaporeRest of Asia-PacificEuropeGermanyFranceUKItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeCentral & South AmericaBrazilArgentinaRest of South AmericaMiddle East & AfricaSaudi ArabiaTurkeyRest of Middle East & AfricaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoCommercial Gas GriddlesCommercial Electric GriddlesOn 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 for each application, includingRestaurantsHotelsBars and ClubsOthersComplete Report Details @The study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Commercial Griddle sales, value, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);To analyze the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and India, to study the sales, value and market share of top players in these regions.Focuses on the key Commercial Griddle players, to study the sales, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Commercial Griddle are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersCommercial Griddle ManufacturersCommercial Griddle Distributors/Traders/WholesalersCommercial Griddle Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAvailable CustomizationsWith the given market data, QYResearch offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:Regional and country-level analysis of the Commercial Griddle market, by end-use.Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.Request For TOC Report @Table of ContentsGlobal Commercial Griddle Sales Market Report 20181 Commercial Griddle Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Commercial Griddle1.2 Classification of Commercial Griddle by Product Category1.2.1 Global Commercial Griddle Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Commercial Griddle Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Commercial Gas Griddles1.2.4 Commercial Electric Griddles1.3 Global Commercial Griddle Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Commercial Griddle Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.1 Restaurants1.3.2 Hotels1.3.3 Bars and Clubs1.3.4 Others1.4 Global Commercial Griddle Market by Region1.4.1 Global Commercial Griddle Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 United States Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Commercial Griddle Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Commercial Griddle (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Commercial Griddle Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Commercial Griddle Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2025)2 Global Commercial Griddle Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Commercial Griddle Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Commercial Griddle Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Commercial Griddle Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Commercial Griddle (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Commercial Griddle Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.2.2 Global Commercial Griddle Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)2.3 Global Commercial Griddle (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Commercial Griddle Sales and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.3.2 Global Commercial Griddle Revenue and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)2.4 Global Commercial Griddle (Volume) by Application3 United States Commercial Griddle (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Commercial Griddle Sales and Value (2013-2018)3.1.1 United States Commercial Griddle Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.2 United States Commercial Griddle Revenue and Growth Rate (2013-2018)3.1.3 United States Commercial Griddle Sales Price Trend (2013-2018)3.2 United States Commercial Griddle Sales Volume and Market Share by Players (2013-2018)3.3 United States Commercial Griddle Sales Volume and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.4 United States Commercial Griddle Sales Volume and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)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.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.bizIntraocular Lens Market Analysis By Manufacturers, Technological Progress, Regional Outlook And Forecast to 10-Year Market Forecast and Trends Analysis

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The research report, Intraocular Lens Market provides important information and statistics about the global market. The growth drivers, limitations, and future prospects of this market have been discussed in the report, along with the prevalent trends this market is offering. The top segmentations such as technology, applications, types, models are explained and important business aspects have been highlighted in this report. These segments are presented on their current market scenario and predicted state by the end of the forecast horizon. The Intraocular Lens Market industry market report is based on the definitions, specifications, applications, and classifications of Intraocular Lens Market . In this report, the industry chain structure of various Intraocular Lens Market is highlighted in the report. It also focuses on the industry policies and major regions. This report highlights the manufacturing cost structure includes the cost of the materials, labor cost, depreciation cost, and the cost of manufacturing procedures. Price analysis and analysis of equipment suppliers are also done by the analysts in the report. Get Sample Copy Of Report:According to Statistics MRC, the Global Intraocular Lens market is accounted for $3.74 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $5.49 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 6.6% during the forecast period 2016 to 2022. Prevailing incidences of cataract surgeries across the globe had created predominant market for Intraocular lens. Growing geriatric population subjected to ocular cataract conditions and rising Government initiatives to eradicate the blindness across the population had driven the market scenario. In contradiction to that unfavorable reimbursement conditions are hindering the market.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Intraocular Lens Market are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025Some of the key players of the Intraocular Lens market include Abbott Medical Optics, Inc., Alcon, Inc., Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, Calhoun Vision, Inc., Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, Eyekon Medical, Inc., Hoya Corporation, HumanOptics AG, Johnson & Johnson, Lenstec, Inc., PhysIOL, Rayner Intraocular Lenses Limited, STAAR Surgical Company and Valeant.This research report gives a clear picture of the Global Intraocular Lens Market to give the readers better understanding of the market. Market drivers, challenges, opportunities, and trends are the market dynamics which have been presented by the analyst. The impact analysis helps in gathering information on the future development of the market.The report analyzes the technical data and key manufacturing plants of the market across the globe. Factors such as commercial production, capacity production, research and development status, technology sourcesTable of Content:Global Intraocular Lens Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: market OverviewChapter 2: market Economic ImpactChapter 3: Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4: Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5: Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6: Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Intraocular Lens Market by Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13: AppendixFor more Information:Our research will change the way you think about problems. We provide global consulting that can transform businesses and give you an experience of innovative solutions and outcomes.Research N Reports helps clients harness the power of innovation to thrive on change. We have successfully guided businesses throughout the world with our market research reports. We are uniquely positioned to lead digital transformations, thus creating greater value for clients by presenting growth opportunities in the global market.Our profound experience provides a clear and confident vision to help clients navigate the future. Research N Reports techniques encompasses both qualitative and quantitative modes to provide customized and highly flexible tailored research studies so that you get information that is just the best-fit to make informed strategic organizational decisions. Research N Reports helps clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative.(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,Growing number of falling cases and accidental cases worldwide are expected to drive revenue growth of TBI treatment in the near future

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Each year traumatic brain injuries (TBI) contribute a substantial number of cases worldwide. TBI can be defined as an injury to the brain resulting from externally inflicted trauma resulting in damage to the brain cells and blood vessels. The signs and symptoms of TBI may appear soon after the head trauma or may sometimes take several days to weeks to appear. TBI can be categorized as mild, moderate and severe brain injury. In case of a mild injury a patient experiences a brief concussion and in rare situations may lead to lasting functional brain changes. However, the risk of developing severe and permanent brain damage increases with the extent and severity of the traumatic brain injury and the level of unconsciousness. Depending up on the location of the injury, TBI can lead to dementia along with memory, lack of concentration, problems related with speech and eating, lack of coordination and walking problems are often associated with moderate to severe brain injuries. As estimated by Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) every day 138 people in the U.S. die from TBI. According to the CDC 2010 estimates in the U.S. approximately 2.5 million emergency department visits and hospitalization were associated with TBI cases (either alone or in combination with other injuries). Falls are leading cause of hospitalization in patients with TBI followed by accidents including motor, vehicle traffic injuries.A sample of this report is available upon request @Mild traumatic brain injuries do not require treatment other than over the counter pain relievers and the patient with mild traumatic injury need not to be monitored in hospital. However for treatment of severe TBI several medications indicated includes several diuretics, anti- seizure drugs, comma inducing drugs etc. However, in case of severe TBI surgery and rehabilitation is required. The traumatic brain injuries treatment market is expected to witness higher growth over the forecast period owing to introduction of several new therapies. Increasing number of manufacturers are developing new medications for the treatment of TBI and large number of clinical trials are conducted in order to better understand the etiology of the condition.Traumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market: Drivers & RestraintsExtensive R&D by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists in order to study various biomarkers of brain imaging, bio fluid and physical indicators such as eye tracking and electroencephalography holds immense potential as diagnostic techniques for detection of TBI. This is expected to change the treatment pattern of TBI in patients with severe brain injuries. Apart from this a large number of clinical trials are conducted worldwide in order to develop effective therapies for TBI have proven to be opportunistic for the market growth of TBI treatment in the near future. Furthermore rising incidence of falls cases along with accidental cases are expected to be the leading accelerating factors for market growth of TBI treatment market globally. The expected entry of some molecular targeted therapies such as BHR-100, a progesterone drug being developed by BHR Pharma, LLC, rhuEpo, a recombinant human erythropoietin are expected to brace the TBI treatment market growth over the forecast period. However, factors such as low societal awareness, delayed diagnosis and low government funding in TBI treatment research are expected to hamper the TBI treatment market growth in the future.Traumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market: SegmentationTraumatic Brain Injuries Treatment marketis segmented by treatment type, route of administration, end user and geography:By Treatment TypeDrugsAnalgesicsAnti-Anxiety AgentsAnti-CoagulantsAnti-ConvulsantsAnti-DepressantsAnti-PsychoticsOthersSurgeryBy Route Of AdministrationOralInjectableBy Distribution ChannelHospital PharmaciesDrug StoresIndependent PharmaciesTraumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market: OverviewThe traumatic brain injury treatment market is expected to increase at an alarming rate among childrens and adults over the forecast period. In childrens, few outcomes of TBI may not be encountered at an initial stage of but can emerge in later developmental stages of his/her life which may lead to chronic behavior problems and social isolation. Better understanding of the injury mechanisms and its effect on sub-populations is required in order to manage the TBI. Growing number of falling cases and accidental cases worldwide are expected to drive revenue growth of TBI treatment in the near future.Traumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market: Region-wise OutlookOn the basis of region presence, traumatic brain injuries treatment market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia pacific excluding japan, Japan, Middle East and Africa. The incidence of TBI is higher in regions such as Asia Pacific, North America and Western Europe. TBI is the major cause of mortality accounting for 30% of all death related injuries in the U.S. Presence of several pipeline therapies in treatment of TBI is expected to be the biggest driver in global TBI treatment market. Cognosci, a privately held U.S. start-up is developing a novel therapeutic compound, COG1410, for the treatment of TBI which is expected to launch in the coming years.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Traumatic Brain Injuries Treatment Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in the traumatic brain injuries treatment market are, Zimmer Biomet, Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Oxygen Biotherapeutics Inc, TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Ischemic, Grace Laboratories LLC. Several key players developing therapeutics for TBI treatment include, Cognosci, Medicortex, Amarantus BioScience Holdings, Aldagen, NeuroScience Pharmaceuticals and Targacept.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.Contact UsU.S. Office616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWeb:Trimethylolpropane Tricaprylate Tricaprate Market to Reflect Steady Growth Rate by 2025

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Trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate is a polyester classified as a skin conditioning emollient. The chemical contains properties such as emollient, moisturizing agent, shining agent, sunscreen agent or self-tanning agent, conditioning agent, surfactant agent, solubilizing agents, lubricating agent, solvent carrier agent, etc. The global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is expected to grow at a significant growth rate, attributed to rapid growth of cosmetic and personal care industry across the globe over the forecast period.Global Trimethylolpropane Tricaprylate/Tricaprate Market: DynamicsHigh preference for skin care products among the consumer across the globe is one of the crucial demand side factor driving the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market over the forecast period. Emollient, conditioning, lubricating, and surfactant effect of trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate is also another factor expected to drive the growth of the market. Growing cosmetic and personal care industry is also another factor fuelling the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market over the forecast period. This, in turn, leads to increasing the market share of trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate across the globe. However, the high cost of trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate is expected to restrain the growth of the trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market in developing economies such as the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific. Merger & acquisition among the supply chain entities and trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate suppliers are the trending factors in global a trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market over the forecast period. Global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate marketers are focusing on strengthening its supply chain and focusing on high priority market. The trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate processor can leverage potential opportunities in regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, attributed to increasing demand for personal care products across the regions.Request Sample Report @Global Trimethylolpropane Tricaprylate/Tricaprate Market: SegmentationThe global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is segmented on the basis of end-use, application, and region. On the basis of end-use segments, the skin care segment is expected to dominate the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market, attributed to high demand for the skin care products across the globe with a relatively high growth rate over the forecast period. The hair care products market is followed by skin care products segment is expected to expand at a significant growth rate over the forecast period in the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market. The emollient segment is expected to account for a relatively high share in the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market in terms of value. Whereas, lubricating agent segment is followed by emollient segment over the forecast period.Based on the end-use, the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is segmented into:Skin Care ProductsHair Care ProductsCosmeticsOthersBased on the application, the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is segmented into:EmollientConditioning AgentLubricating AgentSurface Active AgentSolvent CarrierGlobal Trimethylolpropane Tricaprylate/Tricaprate Market: Regional OverviewOn the basis of geography, the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is fragmented into seven regions namely, North America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Middle East & Africa and Japan. The North America trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is expected to dominate the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market in terms of revenue share over the forecast period followed by Western Europe trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market, owing to high demand for skin care and moisturizing products in the regions. Whereas, Asia-Pacific is expected to expand at a relatively significant growth rate in the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market over the forecast period, attributed to the rapid growth rate of cosmetic and personal care industry in the region. The Middle East & Africa, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are expected to represent a moderate opportunity in the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market, owing to the moderate economic and industrial development in the region. Overall, the outlook for the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market is positive over the forecast period.Global Trimethylolpropane Tricaprylate/Tricaprate Market: Key PlayersSome of the players identified in the global trimethylolpropane tricaprylate/tricaprate market include ExxonMobil Chemical Company, Inc., Inolex Chemical Company, Lonza Group AG (Lonza), SysKem Chemie GmbH, and Stepan Co.Request to View TOC @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. 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.Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: himanshu.t@persistencemarketresearch.comGlobal Telehealth Market Size,Status and Forecast 2025 : Medtronic, Tunstall Healthcare, Care Innovations, Cisco Systems, Medvivo Group,

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Telehealth Market Size,Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Telehealth market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Telehealth market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.In 2017, the global Telehealth market size was million US$ and it is expected to reach million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of during 2018-2025.This report focuses on the global top players, coveredPhilips HealthcareMedtronicHoneywell Life Care SolutionsTunstall HealthcareCare InnovationsCerner CorporationCisco SystemsMedvivo GroupGlobalMedia GroupAerotel Medical SystemsAMD Global TelemedicineAmerican WellInTouch HealthVidyoTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoWeb-basedCloud-basedOn-premiseMarket segment by Application, split intoHospitalsClinicsOtherThe study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Telehealth in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Telehealth are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersTelehealth ManufacturersTelehealth Distributors/Traders/WholesalersTelehealth Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsTable of ContentsGlobal Telehealth Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Telehealth1.1 Telehealth Market Overview1.1.1 Telehealth Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Telehealth Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 Europe1.2.3 China1.2.4 Japan1.2.5 Southeast Asia1.2.6 India1.3 Telehealth Market by Type1.3.1 Web-based1.3.2 Cloud-based1.3.3 On-premise1.4 Telehealth Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Hospitals1.4.2 Clinics1.4.3 OtherGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @2 Global Telehealth Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Telehealth Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)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 Philips Healthcare3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Telehealth Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2 Medtronic3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and SolutionsContinue...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.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @Seatbelt Pretensioners Market Anticipated to Grow at a Significant Pace by 2025

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The main purpose of a seatbelt pretensioner is to tighten any slack present in the belt webbing. At the time of the crash, pretensioners help in reducing the load on the occupant by restraining the person with the help of the seatbelt. Within fractions of seconds, the pretensioners tighten the seatbelt. Under certain scenarios, the person may slide under a loose seatbelt. This is known as submarining. Pretensioners decrease the risk of submarining. Pretensioners are not the mechanisms to replace the conventional locking mechanisms of the seatbelt, but they work with these locking mechanisms. A seatbelt pretensioner assembly is quite similar to a gun. There is a roughly 6-inch tube by the center console, under the seat. There is a slug with a pyrotechnic charge residing just behind, inside the tube. There is a cable attached to the slug. The cable is retracted inside the slug is propelled down the tube. The seatbelt buckle drops down a few inches when the pretensioner is fired. Seatbelt pretensioners come under the category of passive safety systems. During the accident, rapid deceleration is detected by an installed sensor and the seatbelt pretensioner assembly is activated. Seatbelt pretensioners make sure that the front seat passengers and the driver are held firmly to their seats at the time of a crash.The parent market of the Global Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is the Global Automotive Seatbelt Market. The Global Automotive Seatbelt Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.1% in the forecast period 2017 to 2021 and reach $9.1 billion at the end of the year 2021. Global Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 7.46% during the forecast period 2017 to 2021.Seatbelt Pretensioners Market: Drivers and RestraintsGovernments of various regions such as Australia, the Americas, and the Europe are emphasizing on the need for the use of advanced vehicle safety systems. Governments are trying to enhance the safety standards with the help of various organizations such as ANCAP, ASEAN NCAP, the NHTSA and the European NCAP. With the enforcement of these standards, the demand for the seatbelt pretensioners is likely to go up. With increasing awareness about the automobile safety measures and the increasing demand for safety systems in the automobiles that are better than the traditional ones, the demand for seatbelt pretensioners is expected to go up. The rise in automotive production activities and the advancement in the technology related to the seatbelt assembly have led to the growth of Seatbelt Pretensioner Market. In recent years, compact cars have become the fastest selling segment of the automobile industry. This rise in production of the compact cars is likely to provide a boost to the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market. Increasing number of casualties in the road accidents worldwide is a reason for concern that will lead to growth in the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market in the forecast period 2017 to 2021. Also, seeing this growth, huge investments are being made in the Automotive Seatbelt Market that will eventually lead to the growth in the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market.Request Sample Report @Seatbelt Pretensioners Market: Market SegmentationThe Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is segmented into types based on the product type, design type, vehicle type, and region type.Based on the product type, the Seatbelt Pretensioners Market is segmented into:-Lap pretensioners (normally used in combination with buckle or retractor pretensioners)Buckle pretensionersRetractor pretensionersBased on the design type, the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is segmented into:-Belt-in-seatSix-point beltFive-point beltFour-point beltThree-point beltTwo-point beltBased on the vehicle type, the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is segmented into:-Medium Commercial Vehicle (MCV)Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV)High Commercial Vehicle (HCV)Large carMid-size carCompact carMulti-Purpose Vehicle (MPV)Based on the region type, the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market is segmented into:-EuropeAsia Pacific (APAC)North AmericaRest of the World (ROW)Seatbelt Pretensioners Market: Regional OutlookThe Asia Pacific and the North America regions are expected to hold their position as the highest revenue shareholders in the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market in the forecast period 2017 to 2021. The Asia Pacific region owes the growth in the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market to the increasing cases of road accidents and implementation of the measures related to road safety. Countries like India, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan are the major markets for the seatbelt pretensioners in the Asia Pacific region. Asia Pacific region is gradually being called the hub of automobile production. Assembly plants for the seatbelts are being set up at a very fast pace in the Latin America and the Middle East regions. Owing to this factor, Latin America, and the Middle East region is also expected to see a high growth rate in the Seatbelt Pretensioner Market in these regions. In the Europe region, Germany is a major market of seatbelt pretensioners. This is because of the presence of major automobile manufacturers in this region.Seatbelt Pretensioners Market: Key PlayersSome of the major players identified in the Seatbelt Pretensioners Market are:-TRW Automotive HoldingsAutoliv Inc.Takata CorporationDelphi AutomotiveSome of the other prominent players identified in the Seatbelt Pretensioners Market are:-Tokai RikaDaimlerSpecial Devices, Inc.Far Europe Holding LimitedKey Safety SystemsHyundai MotorITW SafetyIron Force IndustrialRequest to View TOC @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. 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.Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: himanshu.t@persistencemarketresearch.comGlobal Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Size,Status and Forecast 2025 : Lonza Group, Samsung, Patheon, Biomeva, Abzena,

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Size,Status and Forecast 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.A contract manufacturer ("CM") is a manufacturer that contracts with a firm for components or products. It is a form of outsourcing. A contract manufacturer performing packaging operations is called copacker or a contract packager.In terms of application, the global biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing market is divided into several sections. Among them, oncology is the biggest downstream user who has a market share of 21.3% in 2017.In 2017, the global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing market size was xx million US$ and it is expected to reach xx million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during 2018-2025.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This report focuses on the global top players, coveredLonza GroupBaxter Biopharma SolutionsSamsungFujifilm Diosynth BiotechnologiesBoehringer IngelheimPatheonRentschler BiotechnologieBiomevaProbiogenCytovance BiologicsKBI BiopharmaWuXi BiologicsAbzenaMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoGrowth FactorsInterferonsMonoclonal AntibodiesRecombinant HormonesVaccinesInsulinOthersMarket segment by Application, split intoAutoimmune DiseasesOncologyMetabolic DiseasesOphthalmologyCardiovascular DiseasesInfectious DiseasesNeurologyRespiratory DisordersOthersThe study objectives of this report are:To study and forecast the market size of Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing in global market.To analyze the global key players, SWOT analysis, value and global market share for top players.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, end use and region.To analyze and compare the market status and forecast between China and major regions, namely, United States, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Rest of World.To analyze the global key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersBiopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing ManufacturersBiopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Distributors/Traders/WholesalersBiopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsTable of ContentsGlobal Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing1.1 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Overview1.1.1 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 Europe1.2.3 China1.2.4 Japan1.2.5 Southeast Asia1.2.6 India1.3 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market by Type1.3.1 Growth Factors1.3.2 Interferons1.3.3 Monoclonal Antibodies1.3.4 Recombinant Hormones1.3.5 Vaccines1.3.6 Insulin1.3.7 Others1.4 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Autoimmune Diseases1.4.2 Oncology1.4.3 Metabolic Diseases1.4.4 Ophthalmology1.4.5 Cardiovascular Diseases1.4.6 Infectious Diseases1.4.7 Neurology1.4.8 Respiratory Disorders1.4.9 OthersGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @2 Global Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)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 Lonza Group3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Biopharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)Continue...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.For More Information Kindly Contact:ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on @New Revenue Pockets for the Early Toxicity Testing Market

Early Toxicity Testing Market

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The drug failures in later stages of drug testing due to the toxicity issues have led to heavy financial losses to the companies. This is leading to the increased awareness and adoption of early toxicity testing to avoid such possible financial losses in future.Global Early Toxicity Testing Market was $614 million and is estimated to reach $1,012 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 7.3% from 2016 to 2022. Toxins are substances that can adversely affect living organisms. They are present in a variety of products such as food additives, chemicals, pesticides, and cosmetics. During drug development, it was observed that approximately 26% of the products face rejection in the later stages of development due to safety issues.This leads to massive financial losses for many industries, which include pharmaceuticals and food industries. To avoid the financial losses, early toxicity tests are used to remove the toxic component in the product and reduce the risk of late-stage failure. Different types of toxic tests such as acute toxicity tests, neurotoxicity, systemic toxicity, and carcinogenicity are conducted using in vivo and in vitro techniques. These toxicity tests help the companies provide proofs to the regulatory bodies that they are safe for humans and will not adversely affect human health.Access Full Summary at:The global early toxicity testing market is segmented based on technique, end users, and geography. Based on technique, the market is categorized into in vivo, in vitro, and in silico. Based on the type of assay used, in vitro technique is further divided into enzyme toxicity assays, bacterial toxicity assays, cell-based ELISA and western blots, tissues culture assays, receptor binding assays, and other assays. Based on the toxicity end-points, in vitro technique is further segmented into dermal toxicity, systemic toxicity, carcinogenicity, ocular toxicity, skin sensitization and irritation, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity, organ toxicity, and other toxicity endpoints. Based on end-users, the market is segmented into pharmaceuticals industry, diagnostics industry, food industry, chemicals industry, cosmetics industry, and other industries. The market is analyzed based on four regions, namely North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA.The market is expected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period, owing to the increase in awareness of the regulatory authorities concerning environment and public health welfare. In addition, replacement of in vivo models with in vitro models and technological advancement in the in vitro and in vivo technique supplement the market growth. As early toxicity tests can help reduce the risk of drug failure in later stages, there is a rise in the demand for early toxicity tests. This has increased investment in the R&D for these products, which help boost the market growth. However, limited awareness about the benefits of early toxicity testing and limitations of preclinical testing are expected to hamper the market growth.The early toxicity testing market is growing at a steady pace due to the increase in stringency of regulatory authorities regarding environment and public welfare. Furthermore, the use of early toxicity tests reduce the risks of drug failure in later stages of drug development, thus preventing heavy financial losses of the companies. This has led to the growth in the investment for R&D of toxicity testing techniques and emergence of new models & tests to evaluate the toxicity of the substance. For instance, on July 2016, Cyprotex PLC launched an in vitro 3D cellular model that could be used to evaluate cardiotoxicity.Get Sample PDF Brochure :The key players profiled in this report include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Agilent Technologies Inc., Quest Diagnostics Incorporation, Merck & Co., Inc., Charles River Laboratories International Incorporation, Becton, Dickinson And Company, Danaher Corporation, Evotec Ag, and The Jackson Laboratory.There are other players in the early toxicity testing market which include Covance, CellSystems, BioQuanta, Epithelix, Celther Polska, and HemoGenixAsia-Pacific possesses high market potential for growth of early toxicity testing due to increase in demand for toxicity tests and upsurge in governmental initiatives to protect public health and environment. Progress in the research of in vitro and in silico technique has led to rapid developments in the toxicity testing products.Early toxicity testing market in India is projected to grow at a high CAGR of 13.2% during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific is experiencing fast-paced growth in terms of production and development of early toxicity testing products.About UsAllied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Global Hair Loss & growth Treatments and Products Market is Expected to reach 4540 million US$ by 2025

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.This report studies the global Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products market status and forecast, categorizes the global Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).Hair loss&growth treatments and products are the products which are the way to treat hair loss and promote hair growth (including hair loss and growth devices, shampoos and conditioners, medicine product like vitamins and supplements).The hair loss & growth treatments and products industry concentration is low; there are more than 1000 brand in the world, and high-end products mainly from America, European and Japan. Each company has its own market channel: pharmacy, cosmetics stores (like Watson); supermarket; direct to consumers etc. All manufactures in the world are committed to the improvement of product. But the quality of the product is always a problem.Get A Free access TO Report Sample :This industry is affected by the economy and policy, so its important to put an eye to economic indexes and leaders prefer. With the global economic recovery, especially in underdevelopment regions that have a large population and fast economic growth, the need of hair loss & growth products will increase.The global Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products market is valued at 4350 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 4540 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 0.5% during 2018-2025.The major manufacturers covered in this reportProcter & GambleLOrealUnileverTaishoHenkelMerckShiseidoJohnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.RohtoLifes2GoodGerolymatos InternationalToppikNanogenOxford BioLabs Ltd.Ultrax LabsAvalon Natural ProductsBayerPharma MedicoKirkland SignaturePhyto Ales GroupAmplixinKerafiberPhytoKeraniqueDS Healthcare GroupKaminomotoSofttoBawangZhang Guang 101Get Report Details @Geographically, this report studies the top producers and consumers, focuses on product capacity, production, value, consumption, market share and growth opportunity in these key regions, coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOther regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoHair Loss and Growth DevicesShampoos and ConditionersMedicine ProductOthersBy Application, the market can be split intoHomecareHair Loss Treatment ClinicOthersThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the market.To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the market.To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Hair Loss&growth Treatments and Products are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025For the data information by region, company, type and application, 2017 is considered as the base year. Whenever data information was unavailable for the base year, the prior year has been considered.Key StakeholdersHair Loss&growth Treatments and Products ManufacturersHair Loss&growth Treatments and Products Distributors/Traders/WholesalersHair Loss&growth Treatments and Products Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsAbout 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.comBlog:Future of Human Augmentation Market Size 2025 B-Temia Inc. (U.S.), BrainGate Company (U.S.), Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (U.S.), Google Inc. (U.S.) PolyOne and more

Human Augmentation, Global Human Augmentation, Human Augmentation Market

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Worldwide Human Augmentation Market report of 2018 provides a detailed market overview as well as industry analysis for / of companies, manufacturers and distributors covering data on gross margin, cost structure, consumption value, sale price and more.This report studies the Human Augmentation market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Human Augmentation market by product type and application/end industries.The global Human Augmentation market is valued at XX million USD in 2017 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially the United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Human Augmentation.United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2017 and will be xx million USD in 2025, with a CAGR of XX.Request a sample of this premium report at:Global Human Augmentation market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingB-Temia Inc. (U.S.)BrainGate Company (U.S.)Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc. (U.S.)Google Inc. (U.S.)Raytheon Company (U.S.)Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (South Korea)Vuzix Corporation (U.S.)Global Human Augmentation Market is a detailed report, which presents a combination of industry knowledge and research expertise based on regions too. This report delivers the market trends along with the market size for every individual sector. The report commences with the Human Augmentation markets overview and provides detailed information on the historical data pertaining to the market coupled with information about the present scenario. Additionally, the report incorporates the various drivers as well the factors impeding the growth of this market during the forecast period. The report, provides the opportunities in the market and their substantial impact on the major players dominating the market.The following part of the report elaborates the detailed segmentation of the Human Augmentation market. Valuable data and information related to the key segments along with their sub-segmentation have been established via this market research report. Size along with the revenue share coupled with insightful forecasts for the major segments and the other significant sub-segments have been detailed via this report. The trends affecting the Human Augmentation market in developing regional sectors have additionally been elaborated in this study. The current findings and recommendations the analysts suggest for the future growth of the Human Augmentation market have also been evaluated in this report. The key industry players that have contributed to the Human Augmentation market have also been detailed in this report.Growth Drivers of this report focuses on the Total Human Augmentation in Global market, especially inGlobal Human Augmentation Market Size (Value) by Regions (2018-2025)United States Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)EU Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)Japan Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)China Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)India Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)Southeast Asia Human Augmentation Revenue and Growth Rate (2018-2025)Global Human Augmentation Market Size (Value) by Type (2018-2025)Global Human Augmentation Market Size by Application (2018-2025).The Product landscape of the Human Augmentation Market:In-Built AugmentationWearable AugmentationThis report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request a discount on standard prices of this premium report at:In terms of End-user or Applications, the report is segmented into :MedicalDefenseIndustrialA detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.Regional segmentation of the report includesNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaDetailing the consumption and production rate of Human Augmentation in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2018-2025.More Report At:Table of Contents1 Human Augmentation Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Human Augmentation1.2 Classification of Human Augmentation1.2.1 LLDPE1.2.2 LDPE1.2.3 EVA/EBA1.2.4 HDPE1.3 Applications of Human Augmentation1.3.1 Grasses Silage1.3.2 Corn Silage1.3.3 Vegetables Silage1.4 Global Human Augmentation Market by Regions (2013-2025)1.4.1 North America Human Augmentation Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.2 Europe Human Augmentation Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 China Human Augmentation Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 RoA Human Augmentation Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 RoW Region Human Augmentation Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Human Augmentation Market Size (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Human Augmentation Revenue (M USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Human Augmentation Production (K MT) Status and Outlook (2013-2025)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 Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 191285USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:Connect with us:Google+ | LinkedIn | TwitterMedical Aesthetic Devices Market is projected to be around $ 16 billion by 2025 | Syneron Medical Ltd., Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical, Inc. Lumenis Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. KGaA, Alma Lasers Ltd

Medical Aesthetic Devices Market

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Top Major Market Players:Major players operating in the medical aesthetic devices market are Syneron Medical Ltd., Cynosure Inc., Solta Medical, Inc. Lumenis Ltd., Johnson & Johnson, Merz Pharma GmbH & Co. KGaA, Alma Lasers Ltd. (acquired by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd.), GC Aesthetics plc. Sientra Inc., Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., and Dentsply Sirona Inc.Book Your Sample Copy of the Report here @Medical Aesthetic Devices Market Segmentation:By Product:DevicesAesthetic LasersAblative LasersNon-ablative LasersSkin Tightening & Body Contouring DevicesLiposuction DevicesSkin Tightening DevicesCellulite Reduction DevicesAesthetic ImplantsDental ImplantsRoot from Dental ImplantsPlate from Dental ImplantsBreast ImplantsSaline FilledSilicone Gel FilledFacial ImplantsOther ImplantsBy Application:SurgicalFace and HeadBrow LiftEar SurgeryEyelid SurgeryFaceliftFacial Bone ContouringFacial Fat GraftingNeck LiftHair TransplantationRhinoplastyBreastBreast AugmentationBreast LiftBody and ExtremitiesAbdominoplastyButtock AugmentationButtock LiftLiposuctionLower Body LiftPenile EnlargementThigh LiftUpper Arm LiftUpper Body LiftLabiaplastyVaginal RejuvenationNon-SurgicalBy End User:Hospitals & ClinicsMedical Spas & Beauty CentersAccess more information, Click on the below link @Industry Trend Analysis:A research study titled, Medical Aesthetic Devices Market by Product, Application, and End User - Global Industry Analysis and Forecast to 2025 published by ASA Market Research, states that the medical aesthetic devices market is projected to be around $16 billion by 2025.Medical Aesthetics is a comprehensive term used for enhancing cosmetic appearance through use of various surgical and non-surgical procedures. Medical aesthetic devices are used to treat impairments associated with individual aesthetic appearance such as scars, skin discoloration, wrinkles, hair loss and excessive fat. According to study conducted by International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISPAS), in 2015, around 38,097,209 aesthetic/cosmetic procedures were performed worldwide.Although aesthetic devices accounts for relatively smaller share in global medical device market, it is expected to witness high growth during forecast period. This can be attributed to number of factors such as high prevalence of face and dental deformities, increasing elderly population opting for various aesthetic procedures and increasing number of cosmetology centers serving large pool of people. Furthermore, increase in prevalence of breast cancer worldwide will further contribute to the market growth. According to Breast Cancer Research Foundation, in 2015, an estimated 231,840 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the U.S. Thus, increasing incidence of breast cancer is expected to drive the market growth.Ask Questions to Expertise at @Table of Contents:1. Introduction2. Executive Summary3. Market Overview4. Medical Aesthetic Devices Market, By Product4.1. Introduction4.2. Medical Aesthetic Devices Market Assessment and Forecast, By Product, 2016-20254.3. Devices4.4. Aesthetic ImplantsTo be continued...Key Findings of the Research Study:Aesthetic laser devices segment accounted for over one-fourth share of the global market, primarily due to increase utilization of these devices in wide range of aesthetic procedures such as skin rejuvenation, tattoo removal, and removal of pigmented lesions.Medical spas and beauty centers market will witness lucrative growth over the forecast period due to availability of large number of skilled professionals to perform cosmetic procedures and rising consumer interest in aesthetic appeal.North America accounted for two-fifth share of the global market in 2016, owing to continuous technological advancements and high adoption rate of aesthetic devices among consumers.Asia-Pacific is expected to witness fastest growth during forecast period due to growing awareness about aesthetic procedures, rise in disposable income of people and increase in aging population.To avail discount, please click on the link @About Crystal Market Research:Crystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact Us:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comPetroleum Needle Coke Market 2018: Global Industry Top Key Players: ConocoPhillips, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings America, Union Carbide, and Shaanxi Coal And Chemical Industry Group Co., Ltd.

Petroleum Needle Coke Market

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ResearchForMarkets added a new study on Global Petroleum Needle Coke Market-Industry Trends and Forecast 2018 to 2023 comprehensive research report presents petroleum needle coke market status of global and regions outlook from angles of competitors, products and end users, application and product types in industries.The petroleum needle coke report analyzes the Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and market size, share, growth, trends, and splits the petroleum needle coke market. Petroleum needle coke industry size and forecast 2023 for these regional and country level markets are presented in this research period 2018-2023. The global market growth rates for the forecast period and estimated CAGR During 2018-2023 are also included in this report, considering 2017 as the base year.Company Coverage (Sales Revenue, Price, Gross Margin, Main Products etc.):ConocoPhillips, Seadrift Coke, JX Group, Sumitomo Corporation, Mitsubishi Chemical, Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical, Fangda Carbon, Seadrift Coke and Union CarbideGet Free Sample Report @This report studies the global Petroleum Needle Coke market status and forecast, categorizes the global petroleum needle coke market size (value & volume) by key players, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top players in North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia India and Other regions (Middle East & Africa, Central & South America).Market by Type High Sulfur Coke Low Sulfur CokeMarket by Application Graphite Electrode Special Carbon Material OthersTo Know More Details about Top Key Players, Table of Content & List of Figures you can Visit @Table of ContentsPart 1 Industry Overview1.1 Petroleum Needle Coke IndustryPart 2 Upstream & ProductionPart 3 Product SegmentPart 4 Application / End-User Segment4.1 Introduction by Application4.1.1 Graphite Electrode4.1.2 Special Carbon Material4.1.3 OthersPart 5 Regional MarketPart 6 Market SubdivisionPart 7 Market ForecastPart 8 Key Companies List8.1 ConocoPhillips8.2 Seadrift Coke8.3 JX Group8.4 Sumitomo Corporation8.5 Mitsubishi Chemical8.6 Shanxi Hongte Coal Chemical8.7 Fangda Carbon8.8 Seadrift Coke8.9 Union CarbidePart 9 Company CompetitionPart 10 Research ConclusionPlace a Purchase Order for Petroleum Needle Coke Market @Available CustomizationsWith the given market data, Researchformarkets offers customizations according to the company's specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report: Regional and country-level analysis of the Petroleum Needle Coke market, by end-use. Detailed analysis and profiles of additional market players.About Research for Markets:Research for Markets indulges in detailed and diligent research on different markets, trends and emerging opportunities in the successive direction to cater to your business needs. We have established the pillars of our flourishing institute on the grounds of Credibility and Reliability. RFM delve into the markets across Asia Pacific, North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa.Contact:Mr. A NaiduResearch for MarketsTel: +44 8000-4182-37 (UK)Email: alan.naidu@researchformarkets.comMedical Implants Market growth at a Rate of 7.07% | Leading Players as Medtronic, Institut Straumann, Zimmer Biomet Holdings, etc. by 2023

Medical Implants Market

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Medical Implants Market Research Report, is added on MarketResearchFuture.com with Latest Advancement. Detail analysis on possible segments and sub segments of the market. Along with this regional analysis of the market which includes Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa. Forecast till 2023Medical implants are always in the news a society where Hollywood stars and supermodels are deities. Sometimes, the news is about a Hollywood star getting some kind of implants and denying it in an exclusive interview. Sometimes, the news is about a celebrity promising to refuse implants or any kind of surgery to look young and grow old naturally. The culture propagated by media makes people curious about getting implants. Some do it out of medical necessities. But some do it out of curiosity or to look like their favorite star. However, the technique that made medical implants possible aimed to replace missing or damaged biological structure of the body. Some people may see implants as a way of interfering with nature, but necessity is the mother of invention and technique of medical implants was invented as a remedy to various chronic ailments.Avail Premium Sample copy @A research report about the global medical implants market, published by Market Research Future (MRFR) has predicted 7.07% CAGR during the forecast period between 2017 and 2023. The key reasons that are boosting the global medical implants market are acceptance of advanced medical implants devices by patients, improvement of surgical outcomes, increasing aging population around the world, and rising prevalence of chronic disease. Rising consumer awareness about various preventive cares and repairs associated with the body and rapidly increasing population worldwide are contributing to the growth of the medical implants market globally. Increasing spending in healthcare domain also fuels the growth of medical implants market. The global medical implants market has been segmented on the basis of the end user, types, and type of material. End-users are segmented into hospitals & clinics, research laboratories, and others. By types, the market is segmented into cardiac implants, cosmetic implants, dental implants, ophthalmic implants, orthopedic implants, spinal implants, and others. Segmentation on the basis of the type of material covers, ceramic material, metallic material, polymers material, and others.The regional segmentation of the global medical implants market consists of the Americas (North America & South America), Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa (MEA). The Americas dominate the global medical implants market due to the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. However, due to technological advancement, high health care spending, increasing geriatric population and various research & development (R&D) activities being funded by governments, are expected to be the key factors strengthening the market during the forecast period. The high cost of the devices and ambiguous regulatory framework are likely to have a negative impact on the market. Most of the key players in the global medical implants market in North America are based in the United States of America (USA). Among the Americas, North America might be a bigger market, but South America is growing rapidly and catching up with the former. Europe market which is the second largest regional market comprises of Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Due to advanced medical facilities, better living standards, more prosperity, Western Europe generates more revenue for medical implants market and the biggest markets in Western Europe are countries namely France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom (UK). The factors boosting the Europe market for medical implants are increasing support from the government, the presence of huge geriatric population, and high health care spending. Many European countries encourage the manufacturers for research & development (R&D) for the introduction of advanced devices. In addition to this, increasing awareness and developed healthcare infrastructure has provided a push to the growth of the market.Avail Stunning Discount @However, strict regulatory rules can hinder the progress. Among all regional markets, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to more number of developing nations present in this region. The countries in this region are encouraging the growth of the medical implants devices, and the biggest markets here are Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. Remaining countries of Asia Pacific region also have a huge demand for medical implants, and they provide substantial revenue for the market. Contrary to the Asia Pacific region, the MEA region is a smaller market. However, it is likely to grow rapidly during the forecast period. This region has a smaller market not because of lack of demand but because of poor and slow developing countries, especially, in the African region.Key Players:The key players in global medical implants market include 3M (USA), Boston Scientific Corporation (USA), Dentsply Sirona (USA), Institut Straumann AG (Switzerland), Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (USA), Medtronic (Ireland), Stryker Corporation (USA), Smith & Nephew (UK) and Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (USA).Latest Industry News:Dentsply Sirona, a key player in global medical implants market, has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire OraMetrix, a provider of innovative 3-D technology solutions. This acquisition aims to improve the efficiency and quality of orthodontic care. The acquisition will enable Dentsply Sirona to provide a comprehensive range of devices to enable dental professionals to match their patients growing demands for aesthetics and speed of treatment. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2018.Nearly 48 Puerto Rican employees of Zimmer Biomet Holdings Inc. are relocating to Whitley County more than four months after Hurricane Maria destroyed the US territory. Workers are being transferred to the company's main campus in Warsaw and will live with their families in nearby Columbia City.Ask to Expert @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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comHadoop Hardware: Market 2018 Segmented by Manufacturers (Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR Technologies, Cisco, Datameer, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Pivotal, Teradata) and Forecasts to 2025

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Hadoop Hardware Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Hadoop Hardware industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Hadoop Hardware market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Hadoop Hardware market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Hadoop Hardware players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Hadoop Hardware Market Players: Cloudera Hortonworks MapR Technologies Cisco Datameer IBM Microsoft Oracle Pivotal TeradataGet Sample Copy of This Report Now @On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Servers Equipments Storage Equipments Network EquipmentsBy Application, the market can be split into Healthcare Banking & Finance Telecommunication OtherMajor regions are as follows: North America Europe China Japan India Southeast Asia Other regions (Central & South America, Middle East & Africa)The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Hadoop Hardware market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Hadoop Hardware market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Inquire before Buying @Also, key Hadoop Hardware market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Hadoop Hardware market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Inquire for Discount @Contact Us:Call: +1-888-236-2744Email: sales@qyresearchgroups.comAbout Us:QY Research Groups is a company that simplifies how analysts and decision makers get industry data for their business. Our unique colossal technology has been developed to offer refined search capabilities designed to exploit the long tail of free market research whilst eliminating irrelevant results. QY Research Groups is the collection of market intelligence products and services on the Web. We offer reports and update our collection daily to provide you with instant online access to the world's most complete and current database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends.Room B1510, Shiji Kemao Building,No.66 Zhongguancun East Road,Haidian District, Beijing,100190, China.Increasing demand of Global OpenStack Service Market with +29% CAGR, popular business models, and innovations in offerings by major players during forecast period 2018-2023

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OpenStack is a suite of software tools for building and managing cloud computing platforms for public and private clouds. With thousands of individual community members as well as the largest companies in software development and hosting, many people think OpenStack is the future of cloud computing. Global OpenStack Service Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of +29% during the forecast period 2018-2023Global OpenStack Service Market Research Report analyses current market trends, development prospects, market profit and market scheme over the forecast period 2018-2023. The report examines important patterns and changing progression of purchaser request and how it is affecting the offers of the market. The experts of the study have gathered extensive research methodologies. The report offers an insight of the industry with definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure.Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report covers United States, EU, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia. Market by Vertical Government & Defense, IT, Telecommunication, Academic & Research, BFSI, Others.Ask for PDF Sample Copy:Top Key Players included in this report: Canonical (UK), Huawei (China), Cisco Systems (US), SUSE (Germany), VMware (US), HPE (US), Oracle (US), Dell EMC (US), IBM (US), Red Hat (US), Rackspace (US), Mirantis (US), Platform9 Systems (US), EasyStack (China), and Bright ComputingThe Global OpenStack Service Market research report evaluates the growth of this worldwide market over renowned geographic segments. The data collected in this report is gathered by the allowable industry specialists to predict the growth of each department. The research report tries to understand the revolutionary tactics taken by key players in the global market to provides product differentiation through Porters five forces analysis. For application segment, the report offers significant details pertaining to their market shares in revenue and volume, development rate, and current and predictable upcoming trends.This research estimates the new technologies and solutions involved in. The conclusions of this report include the global OpenStack Service Market for commentary items that present the potential for investment in other areas of the market and the relevance of new activities that can be prioritized in the market. A rise in the variations of management solutions from both well-established and new entrants is depended upon to make new beneficial opportunities for the Global OpenStack Service Market in the future.Avail 20% Discount and Customization On This Premium Report@The vital facts of segments of Global OpenStack Service Market helps monitor upcoming productivity and make vibrant decisions for development. The business and financial summary of all company profile is included in the report.Table of Contents:Global OpenStack Service Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1: Global OpenStack Service Market OverviewChapter 2: Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3: Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4: Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5: Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6: Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7: Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8: Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9: Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10: Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11: Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12: Global OpenStack Service Market ForecastFor more enquiry @About Company:We at IT Intelligence Markets conduct intensive market research and generate detailed reports about the products and services offered in the IT domain. Our team is devoted to providing custom reports that are taylor-made to suit the customers requirements. We make sure to keep our customers updated with the latest market dynamics as IT industry is undergoing sea change intrinsically & extrinsically by forces such as regulatory fluctuations, rapidly evolving consumer preferences, and newer technologies. Not only do our market research analysts scrutinize market requirements but also track competitors relentlessly for obtaining the most updated scenario of the market.Name: Vijay TannaCompany: IT Intelligence MarketsAddress: Survey No-9/4, Flat# 6, Panchshil Park, Ganpati Marg, Nigidi, Pune 411044Mail Id: sales@itintelligencemarkets.comContact No: +91 705-760-0700Hand Tools Market Estimated to Exhibit 3.9% CAGR During 2017-2027

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Competitive advantage of adopting power tools has lowered the adoption of hand tools. Multiple industrial operations are being equipped with power tools to benefit from their cost-effectiveness, lesser labour-induced work and higher efficiency. Furthermore, advancements in existing power tools are swiftly outpacing the upgrades done on conventional hand tools. In the long run, there is a possibility that hand tools might lose their applicability to power tools. Future Market Insights projects that during the forecast period 2017-2027, the global market for hand tools will showcase a moderate growth, registering a CAGR of 3.9%.Request For Report Sample@Future Market Insights recently published report, titled Hand Tools Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2017-2027, estimates the global hand tools market to reach US$ 15.6 Bn value by end of 2017. In the ten-year forecast period, the global demand for hand tools is likely to witness a downtrend, bringing in just over US$ 22.3 Bn in revenues towards the end of 2027. Factors impacting the growth of global hand tools market are compiled in the report, which include:There has been a rise in the number of major manufacturing plants and industries in the world, wherein hand tools are widely used for maintenance purposesAutomotive repair & maintenance sector is presently a lucrative industrial vertical for application of hand toolsAlthough, the global demand for hand tools is predicted to decline due to rising prices of raw materials such as iron ore and aluminiumIncreasing prevalence of DIY activities and rising employment opportunities for technical jobs are observed as key trends of the global hand tools market. The report further reveals that a majority of hand tools sold in the world will be used for industrial purposes. In 2017, industrial application of hand tools is expected to net global revenues worth over US$ 9.3 Bn. Key findings in the report also indicate that metal cutting tools will be observed as top-selling products, registering a steady revenue growth at 4.9% CAGR. Also, throughout the forecast period, over 40% of global hand tool sales will be accounted by retail distribution channels. Online distribution of hand tools is also expected to gain traction towards the latter half of forecast period.Request For Report Table of Content (TOC):North America is estimated to remain as the most-lucrative region for growth of hand tools market. Consistently procuring one-third share on global revenues, North America will remain the dominant region in the global hand tools market through 2027. On the other hand, the hand tools market in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region will register fastest revenue growth, exhibiting 6% CAGR over the forecast period. Companies such as Channellock, Inc., Akar Tools, Ltd., Apex Tools Group, Wera Tools, Snap-On, Stanley Back Decker, Kennametal Inc., Klein Tools, and JK Files (India) Limited are profiled in the report as key manufacturers of hand tools in the world.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:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:Automotive Smart Key Market Global Analysis 2018 To 2023: By Size, Share, Key Companies - Denso, Valeo, TRW Automotive, Continental, HELLA, Hyundai, Visteon Corporation, Silca, Toyota Motor and ALPHA Corporation

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Automotive Smart Key Market Research Report - Global Industry Analysis To 2023, is latest report on Automotive Smart Key industry, which provides comprehensive information on Global Automotive Smart Key Market Technology (Infra-Red Sensor, Transmission and Other), By End Market (OEM and Aftermarket) and by Region. Automotive Smart Key Market to Scale at a CAGR over 5.9% between 2018 and 2023.Get Sample Copy of Automotive Smart Key Market Research Report- Forecast 2023 At:Automotive Smart Key market key Company reviewed in report:Denso Corporation (Japan), Valeo (France) ,TRW Automotive (U.S.), Continental AG (Germany), HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co.( Germany), Hyundai Mobis(India), Visteon Corporation (U.S.), Silca S.p.A. (Italy), Toyota Motor Corporation (Japan) and ALPHA CorporationAutomotive Smart Key Market Synopsis:Automotive smart key is a computerized key, which locks and unlocks a vehicle without using the conventional key and pressing the buttons on the remote or smart key. It is segmented into two segments: Technology and End Market. On the basis of Technology, it is segmented into Infra-Red Sensor, Transmission and Other. On the basis of end market it is segmented into OEM and Aftermarket. Aftermarket accounted for the largest market share. Aftermarket is generally the secondary market for automotive concerned with manufacturing, distribution, retailing and installation of vehicle parts.The increase in government regulation for safety features will enable the automotive manufacturers to install various safety system. This will increase the demand for smart key for the vehicles. The modern vehicles are equipped with several security systems such as door locks, ignition lock, steering lock, anti-theft alarm, electronic engine immobiliser, and among others. Various types of key blades are used in the vehicle nowadays with some being cut from the outside and others groove embedded. The current vehicle is equipped with immobiliser system which secure the vehicle against hotwiring. The immobiliser system will increase the demand for smart key market in future.Technological advancements along with the demand for convenience are the key factors are driving the growth of automotive smart key market. Asia-Pacific is estimated to account for the largest share of the automotive smart key system market. This can mainly be attributed to the rising vehicle production and the increasing installation of safety features in passenger cars, commercial vehicles. Additionally, high demand from customers and high purchasing power has upped the demand for vehicles and boosted the market for automotive smart key. The Europe and North American market are expected to experience a steady level of growth.Automotive Smart Key Market Segmentation:The global Automotive Smart Key market is segmented in to 3 key dynamics for the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding;Segmentation by Technology: Comprises Infra-Red Sensor, Transmission and OtherSegmentation by End Market: Comprises OEM and AftermarketSegmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, APAC and Rest of the World.Automotive Smart Key Market Regional Analysis:Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at a fastest rate due to the increase in the demand for security system in the vehicles. The increase in the sales of passenger cars in Asia Pacific region will result in increased installation of safety system in the vehicle. This increased installation of safety system will result in growth of smart key market in future. North America is expected to be the second largest market due to increase in the government regulation for safety of the vehicle. In North America, U.S. is expected to be the largest country that will grow in future. Government have taken various initiative in order to increase the safety system in the vehicle. The OEM in North America are adopting higher installation of system in the vehicle. This will boost the smart key market in North America. Europe is expected to be the third largest market due to growing demand for smart key technology. In Europe, Germany is expected to be the largest country that will grow in future.Automotive Smart Key Industry Developments:The key strategies followed by most companies within the global Automotive Smart Key market are that of new product development.In 2017, Valeo and Cisco signed an agreement in order to develop strategic innovation in smart mobility services.In 2017, Continental has enhanced its product portfolio and acquires full ownership of OTA keys. This will enable them to increase the product portfolio.Major Table of Content:1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology2.1 Scope Of The Study2.1.1 Definition2.1.2 Research Objective2.1.3 Assumptions2.1.4 Limitations2.2 Research Process2.2.1 Primary Research2.2.2 Secondary Research2.3 Market Size Estimation2.4 Forecast Model3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis4 Global Automotive Smart Key Market, By Technology4.1 Introduction4.2 Infra-Red Sensor4.3 Transmission4.4 Others5 Global Automotive Smart Key Market, By End Market5.1 Introduction5.2 OEM5.3 Aftermarket6 Regional Market AnalysisContinuedBrowse more details on this report at: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 Us:Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comTactical Communications Market Analysis and Forecast By Key Players: David Clark, Sepura, Silynx Communications, CEOTRONICS, Savox Communications, 3M

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Market Overview: -Tactical Communications Market accounted for a revenue of over USD 30 billion by 2024. Large scale construction and industrial activities across the world, primarily in the South-East Asia region, are anticipated be a major factor contributing to the growth of the tactical communications market. The World Health Organization states that sounds above 85 dB are harmful. In construction, mining, and aviation sites, the noise generated can range above 90 db. In such a case, prolonged exposure can result in permanent noise-induced hearing loss. Governments of various economies have initiated regulations to protect the workforce.For instance, the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 in the U.K ensures the protection of workers hearing from excessive noise levels and states that employers are prohibited from exposing their workers to above 87 DB. The presence of ambient sounds can disrupt the flow of information and compromise the efficiency of a mission.Request for a sample of this research report @Top Key Players: -Vendors in the global tactical communications market include David Clark Inc., Sepura, Silynx Communications, CeoTronics, Savox Communications, INVISIO Communications, 3M, Bose Coporation, and others.Regional Segmentation: -The construction segment of the tactical communications market is anticipated to exhibit substantial growth. Construction workers are mandated to wear protective headsets along with hard helmets on-site. Information exchange can be severely hindered in a noisy environment and miscommunication can result in heavy losses. Massive construction projects undertaken by the U.S government and commercial sector such as the development of Vista Tower in Chicago, Orlando International Airport expansion, One Vanderbilt in New York, and The Independent in Austin will require the employment of a large workforce leading to the growth of the tactical communications market.China and India tactical communications market is anticipated to have the largest CAGR during the forecast timespan owing to the rapid growth of industrial and manufacturing sector. The presence of low cost labour and raw materials has made Asian countries a prime centre for outsourced manufacturing and 3PL activities. The noise generated from normal operations in oil refineries, power plants, automotive manufacturing, and can manufacturing can result in permanent hearing loss without the application of protective headsets.Major companies include in tactical communications market in terms of Business Overview, Financial Data, Product Landscape, Strategic Outlook, Strategic Outlook, SWOT Analysis:1. 3M2. Bose Corporation3. CeoTronics4. David Clark Inc5. FreeLinc Technologies Inc6. INVISIO Communications7. Marlborough Communications Limited8. Motorola Solutions9. Tactical Command Industries10. Savox Communications11. Sepura12. Silynx Communications13. TEA Headsets14. Threat4Browse Full Report @The headsets segment of the tactical communications market is anticipated to have the highest CAGR during the forecast timeframe. These devices provide efficient transfer of information and noise cancelling abilities. The growing emphasis on compact, lighter audio systems that allow military and police personnel more flexibility and low additional weights is projected to contribute to the high adoption of the tactical communications market. Increasing instances of conflict and rising crime rates is causing governments to increase their military and public safety expenditure.For instance, in light of intense conflict in Nigeria, the Boko Haram is spending vast amounts of money on modern military gear to continue operations in this region. There is high emphasis on the replacement of legacy technologies with advanced and wireless communication systems. Wireless audio systems eliminate the inconvenience of wires and allow greater movement, aiding in tactical communications market growth.About Global Market InsightsGlobal 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: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Specialty Paper : 2018 Market Strategy and Major Participants  International Paper, Domtar, SMW, Kohler, UPM

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Specialty Paper Market Research Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.These papers are often used in a very special function, process or decorative way. A release liner used in a medical bandage that can be removed and reapplied to the skin several times without causing discomfort is a great example.Specialty papers, as their name implies, feature special products for special applications. In 2017, the total specialty paper and paperboard market consumption was 3025 K MT for Packaging & Labeling sectors. The Packaging and Labeling sector accounts for the largest volume, principally because of release papers, aseptic packaging, liquid packaging boards, and lightweight C1S packaging papers. This sector represents 41.13% of total specialty paper consumption in 2017.In the future, United States market is expected to witness significant growth on account of rising applications, so in the next few years, Specialty Paper production will show a trend of steady growth. In 2025 the value of Specialty Paper is estimated to be 8578 Million USD.Interpret a Competitive Analysis with Sample Report :The major manufacturers covered in this reportKapStoneGlatfelterInternational PaperDomtarSMWGeorgia-PacificAhlstrom-MunksjKohlerUPMOji GroupMondiStora EnsoSappiFedrigoniNippon PaperOnyx Specialty PapersWausau Coated Products, Inc.On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoDecor PaperRelease Liner PaperPackaging PaperPrinting PaperOthersOn 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, includingPackaging & LabelingBuilding & ConstructionFood ServiceBusiness and CommunicationIndustrialPrinting and PublishingOthersThe study objectives of this report are:To analyze and study the global Specialty Paper capacity, production, value, consumption, status (2013-2017) and forecast (2018-2025);Focuses on the key Specialty Paper manufacturers, to study the capacity, production, value, market share and development plans in future.Focuses on the global key manufacturers, to define, describe and analyze the market competition landscape, SWOT analysis.To define, describe and forecast the market by type, application and region.To analyze the global and key regions market potential and advantage, opportunity and challenge, restraints and risks.To identify significant trends and factors driving or inhibiting the market growth.To analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high growth segments.To strategically analyze each submarket with respect to individual growth trend and their contribution to the marketTo analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches, and acquisitions in the marketTo strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Key StakeholdersSpecialty Paper ManufacturersSpecialty Paper Distributors/Traders/WholesalersSpecialty Paper Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsQYResearchReports.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Insulin Delivery Devices Market Increasing Awareness 2025 | Medtronic plc, Novo Nordisk

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Global Insulin Delivery Device Market: SnapshotThe increasing awareness among the global population and the rising incidence of diabetes have increased the demand for insulin delivery devices in the global healthcare sector. The development in the advanced medical devices with additional investment in the healthcare sector have uplifted the global insulin delivery device market. The main reason for the push given to the insulin delivery devices market is due to rising incidence of diabetes. Diabetes plays a critical role as it increase various other health concerns in a span of life, which includes blood pressure complications and cardiovascular problems.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Government agencies, reimbursement policies, and regulations have also supported the growth of insulin delivery device market globally. Additionally, rising adoption for home-based medical care has also boosted the market. This trend is expected to continue at a steady pace in the forthcoming years as well. The market has wide range of insulin delivery devices for long-term management that can be used for self-administration. Technological advancements have undoubtedly benefitted various medical conditions through home devices, which is especially true in the case of insulin devices. It has also minimized the complications faced after surgery.Geographically, North America is the leading regional segment in the global insulin delivery device market due to high prevalence of diabetes in the region. Moreover, several companies have outperformed and are pushing this regional market to remain the lead Government initiatives and promising reimbursement conditions have surged the market in the U.S. and Canada as well.Global Insulin Delivery Devices Market: OverviewInsulin delivery devices have become important in the global healthcare sector due to the steady rise in the prevalence of diabetes. The global insulin delivery devices market has been one of the prime beneficiaries of the steady rise in investment in the healthcare sector directed at the development of advanced medical devices. The ready availability of investment in recent years has led to a competitive market scenario in the insulin delivery devices sector at present and is likely to ensure sustained growth of the market in the coming years.Request TOC of the Report @Global Insulin Delivery Devices Market: Key TrendsThe rising prevalence of diabetes is the prime driver for the global insulin delivery devices market. The adherence to a sedentary lifestyle observed in developed as well as an increasing number of developing countries has led to diabetes emerging as one of the crucial healthcare concerns of our time. Diabetes is not only a concern on its own, but also plays a role in other lifestyle conditions such as cardiovascular and blood pressure problems. Due to this, management and eradication of diabetes is likely to remain a key driver for the global insulin delivery devices market in the coming years.The growing regulatory support to the usage of insulin delivery devices is also likely to remain a key supporting factor in the development of the global insulin delivery devices market in the coming years. The reimbursement scenario regarding the use of insulin delivery devices has also strengthened in the past few years and the global insulin delivery devices market is thus likely to receive support from government agencies in the coming years.The growing adoption of home-based medical care is another factor likely to boost the demand from the insulin delivery devices market in the coming years. Due to the long-term management needs of diabetes, self-administration of insulin via a range of insulin delivery devices has become the norm in diabetes treatment. Due to the ease of using most modern insulin delivery devices and the convenience of using them at ones own home, homecare accounted for a dominant share in the global insulin delivery devices market in 2016. This is likely to remain the norm in the global insulin delivery devices market in the coming years.Global Insulin Delivery Devices Market: Market PotentialThe key development trend in the global insulin delivery devices market is technological progression. Steady advancement in insulin delivery devices has been necessary due to the need to avoid complicated operating procedures. Since the global insulin delivery devices market receives significant demand in home-based management of diabetes, devices that can be operated by laypeople hold an important role in the growth of the insulin delivery devices market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @The global insulin delivery devices market is set for revolutionary changes in the coming years thanks to the release of Medtronics MiniMed 670G, an automated insulin delivery device approved by the FDA in September 2016. The device, fixed on to the patients body, measures the patients blood glucose levels and releases small amounts of insulin at regular intervals to maintain a stable condition. While the device is useful only against type 1 diabetes, it represents a significant step forward for the global insulin delivery devices market.Global Insulin Delivery Devices Market: Geographical DynamicsThe global insulin delivery devices market is likely to be dominated by North America in the coming years due to the high prevalence of diabetes and the strong presence of several leaders in the medical devices industry in the region. The promising reimbursement scenario in the U.S. and Canada is another key driver for the insulin delivery devices market in the region.Global Insulin Delivery Devices Market: Competitive DynamicsThe global insulin delivery devices market is led by companies such as Medtronic plc, Novo Nordisk, Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Biocon Ltd., and Becton, Dickinson, and Company.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Integrated Passive Devices Market Prominent Trends Analysis 2025 | Stats ChipPAC, Amkor Technology Inc

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Global Integrated Passive Devices Market: OverviewIntegrated passive devices are gaining popularity due to soaring needs for further reduction in size and cost and increment in functionality in handheld devices. These devices enable miniaturization of devices by combining different functional blocks, including couplers, impedance matching devices, harmonic filters, and baluns, and integrating them into one semiconductor chip. There are primarily three types of integrated passive devices, which are electrostatic discharge (ESD), electromagnetic interference (EMI), and radio frequency (RF). They find application in LED lighting, data converters, and EMI/RFI filtering. The report provides a 360-degree view of the global integrated passive devices market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Integrated Passive Devices Market: Key TrendsThe rising adoption of integrated passive devices in consumer electronics is one of the primary forces behind the remarkable growth of the global integrated passive devices market. Integrated passive devices are being increasingly acknowledged due to their ability to reduce costs and interconnection complexities in electronic devices and enhancing yield, reliability, and tolerance. The increasing integration of these devices with RF modules is also working in favor of the market.On the flip side, the higher cost of these devices as compared to discrete component is restricting the global integrated passive devices market from realizing its utmost potential. Moreover, the longer product design cycle due to the RF tuning of these devices is negatively impacting the growth of the market.Global Integrated Passive Devices Market: Market PotentialA raft of players are bonking on mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their product portfolio and enhance their visibility in the global integrated passive devices market. A case in point is Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., (Murata), which in October 2016 announced the acquisition of IPDiA. The acquisition will help the former in stepping up its game in the market and also strengthen its business within the sectors such as automotive, communication, and medical. Moreover, it will facilitate them in manufacturing leading edge integrated passive devices. The introduction of such devices is likely to revolutionize the global integrated passive devices market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Integrated Passive Devices Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key regions reviewed in the report are North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Europe will represent a substantial share in the global arena. A large number of integrated passive devices manufacturers are headquartered in the region. Moreover, the early adoption of novel technologies and strong demand for wearable devices and consumer electronics are creating fertile ground for the growth of the integrated passive devices market in the region.Asia Pacific is a highly promising market. The rapid development in the telecommunication infrastructure and rising demand for consumer electronics and communication devices are supplementing the growth of the region. Emerging countries such as South Korea, India, and China will be the sights of high growth rate in the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Integrated Passive Devices Market: Competitive LandscapeThe majority of large players in the global integrated passive devices market are investing sizeable funds in research and development activities to introduce advanced and innovative products, which will help them in staying ahead in the market. Companies are also focusing towards mergers and acquisitions to expand and diversify their product portfolio. Some of the prominent global participants in the market are On Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies AG, Stats ChipPAC, Amkor Technology Inc., Murata-IPDiA, STMicroelectronics, Onchip Devices, and AFSC.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Dehydrated Fruits & Vegetables Market: Growth Rate Projection for Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America Middle East & Africa for the Period 2018-2023

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Market Definition:The market is expected to earn revenues worth USD 38.06 through the forecast period from 2018 to 2023 while achieving a CAGR of 7.95 percent approximately. The development of the market for dehydrated fruits & vegetables is accredited to several factors. Globally, the intake of functional beverages such as nutraceuticals has been growing at an escalated rate over the past few years. Mounting health concerns and changing lifestyle of consumers are the major factors accredited with the development of functional beverages, both in the advanced and emergent economies. Additionally, the growing demand for Superfruit powder is projected to positively influence the overall development of the dehydrated fruits & vegetable market. Superfruit juices are experiencing increased popularity among consumers currently. The demand and consumption of superfruit products has elevated due to diseases such as obesity, allergies, diabetes, and other chronic diseases which have intensified significantly in the last few years and have thus played a major role in enforcing the consumers sense of health consciousness. Apart from that, the rising use of Superfruit powders as an ingredient in foods, beverages, and pharmaceutical products is also boosting the markets growth.For Detailed Study |Get a Sample Report @Market Scenario:Correspondingly, the demand of non-carbonated beverages is also intensifying gradually among consumers who favor buying naturally flavored beverages derived from fresh fruits and vegetables as they are rich in anti-oxidants which is estimated to additionally drive the development of dehydrated fruits & vegetables market in the coming future. Moreover, escalating disposable incomes of the consumers together with the rising urban middle class population is estimated to power the sales of ready to eat food products which is thought to be one of the key factors for the intensifying growth of dehydrated fruits & vegetables in the emergent economies.The market is expected to earn revenues worth USD 38.06 through the forecast period from 2018 to 2023 while achieving a CAGR of 7.95 percent approximately.Food dehydration is among the earliest form of food preservation which involved carrying out the process with excessive use of salt while the fruits or vegetable dried out on a hot surface. As food dehydration removes the water content of the food items almost completely, it greatly enhances the shelf life of the products. The food also becomes significantly impervious to damage caused by bacteria, mold, etc. Food dehydrators are more commonly used in recent times to carry out the process of dehydration of fruits and vegetables. As the fruits & vegetables after dehydration become lighter and smaller due to the elimination of moisture they can be packaged and transported easily.Leading Key Players:DMH Ingredients (U.S.), FutureCeuticals, Inc. (U.S.), Kanegrade Limited (U.K), Saipro Biotech Private Limited (India), NutraDry (Australia), Paradise Fruits Solutions Gmbh & Co. (Germany), Activz LLC (U.S.), Baobab Foods, LLC (U.S.), Milne MicroDried (U.S), Herbafood Ingredients GmbH (Germany).Segmental Analysis:The Dehydrated Fruits & Vegetable Market Is Segmented On The Basis Of Type And Form Globally. The type basis of segmentation is consists of fruits & vegetables. Among the types, the fruits segment is likely to lead during the forecast period from 2018 to 2023. Fruits are further segmented into apricots, apples, bananas, pineapple, cherries, and others. Among the fruits, apricots are anticipated to develop at an increased growth rate of 8.06 percent in the course of the forecast period. Moreover, the vegetable segment is additionally segmented into onions, tomato, mushrooms, garlic, and others. The form basis of segmentation of the market comprises of granules, powder, and others. The powder segment is predicted to control a substantial market share in the dehydrated fruits & vegetable market globally through the forecast period.Regional Analysis:The market for dehydrated fruits and vegetables is segmented into regions such as Europe, Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America and Middle East & Africa. Among these regions, the North American region is anticipated to maintain its control through the forecast period. The North American region is likely to achieve USD 12.32 billion in revenue by the end of 2023 while expanding with a CAGR of 7.69 percent during the forecast period from 2018 to 2023.Click here for Get More Insightful Information @Development of the North American region is estimated to be motivated by several factors, one of which is the escalating growth of technological advancements in the dehydrated fruits and vegetables market in the North American region. Furthermore, the existence of key manufacturers in the North American region is expected to be one of the chief drivers for market growth. However, the Asia Pacific region is also estimated to increase at an accelerated pace during the forecast period.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.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAir Filter For Automotive Market 2018 Global Major Key Players: Donaldson Company, NGK Insulators, Sogefi SpA, Mahle International GmbH, Melkev Machinery Impex, Global Filters LLC, Simplex Analysis and Forecast to 2022

Air filter for automotive Market

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Air filter for automotive Market Share, Size, Trends, And Business Opportunity Analysis Report 2018 include historic data, with forecast data to 2022. Air filter for automotive Market report is helpful for future strategy development, and to know about Market Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, And Global market size, share, Growth, Trends, key players forecast to 2022Global Air filter for automotive Information Report by type (Cabin air filter, Intake air filter), by filter media (Synthetic, Activated carbon, Cellulose and Others), by vehicle type (Passenger car, LCV, HCV and Others) and By Region - Global Forecast To 2022For More Business Insights on Air filter for automotive Market@Market ScenarioThe global air filter for automotive market is expected to expand at a noteworthy CAGR during the forecast period (2017-2022), asserts Market Research Future (MRFR). Air filters are used in automotive engines to maintain the quality of air. The global air filter sales are highly dependent on growing automotive sector. Positive outlook witnessed in vehicle sales can boost the automotive air filters market size. Apart from this, growing awareness about health hazards is foreseen to fuel the market growth globally.Large number of vehicle owners are now aware of the health consequences resulting from car engines due to absence of filtration and ventilation system installations. This facilitates product demand along with security of health. Moreover, strict environmental regulations pertaining to emissions is expected to boost automotive air filter demand. Furthermore, innovative technologies and preference for fiber materials can further elevate sales of the product worldwide.A popular trend in the market is increasing demand for high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters, as using this type of air filter traps pollutants and alleviates symptoms of consumers with allergies. Another trend making its way in the market is demand for multi-filtration system, a revolutionary filter which captures bacteria that can adversely impact the health of drivers.Market SegmentationThe air filter for automotive market is segmented on the basis of type, vehicle type, and filter media.The types of air filters are cabin air filter and intake air filter, and others. The cabin air filter market has been on the rise due to increased production of vehicles which is being considered as the standard equipment by automobile manufacturers. Cabin air filter manufacturers are also striving to reduce the cost of cabin air filters, as end-users are calling for affordable prices of items.On the basis of vehicle type, the market is segmented on the basis of passenger car, light commercial vehicle (LCV), heavy commercial vehicles (HCV), and others. The HCV air filters segment is growing due to advances in air filtration technology, need to prevent unscheduled maintenance of engines, and legacy vehicles are demanding high-quality air filters in HCV vehicles. Whereas, the growth of LCV air filters market can be attributed to manufacturers taking initiatives to promote technologies to reduce harmful effects of air pollution.By filter media, the market is segmented on the basis of synthetic, activated carbon, cellulose, and others. Rapid industrialization and stringent environmental regulations coupled with standards issued by government across the globe drive the market for activated carbon air filters.Regional AnalysisGeographically, the air filter for automotive market is segmented by North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest-of-the-World (RoW).Among all regions, Europe holds the maximum market share for air filters for automotive, due to the steadily expanding automobile sector in the region. Moreover, growing number of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and manufacturers consistently focusing on improving existing products help drive the market growth in this region.The Asia Pacific market is also anticipated to expand significantly due to existence of large automobile companies in the region such as Hero, Maruti, and others. Japan is technologically advanced in the automotive market and projected to make a significant contribution to the growth of the air filter for the automotive market. In addition, growing need to reduce energy consumption across several industrial applications elevates the demand for automotive air filters in this region. Air filter companies in India have been continuously investing in infrastructure development and product launches to up their game in the market. For instance, India-based Steelbird Auto Components expanded its manufacturing capacity. The new facility will increase the overall production capacity to cater to the increasing demand by automotive manufacturers.North America is a hub for automotive production and sales, resulting in automotive air filters market growth in this region. Massive focus on regular maintenance adhering to strict guidelines and awareness is further presumed to propel the market growth in North America. Furthermore, increasing awareness of health disorders among consumers owing to improper ventilation can lead to a positive growth rate in the region.In Africa, increasing need for energy effective and efficient products that deliver high-performance are expected to boost the air filters for automotive market. Moreover, resource scarcity and changing demographics are also likely to further the market growth. Lastly, rising environmental awareness along with rapid urbanization can drive the market in the region.The Key Vendors of Air Filter For Automotive Are:Donaldson Company Inc. (U.S.), C & R Fab Media Private Limited (India), Melkev Machinery Impex (India), NGK Insulators Ltd (Japan), and Sogefi SpA (Italy), and others.LG's PuriCare has developed an automotive air filter technology to tackle asthma that is endorsed by the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association (SAAA). This technology uses comprehensive filtration methods to ensure that even the most diminutive particulate matter, harmful gases, and allergens are eliminated from the indoor environment of the vehicle. LG PuriCare offers 360-degree filtration and its Clean Boost technology further enhances the range of coverage.Browse Full Report on Air filter for automotive Market@Continued.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR) and Market Research & Consulting Services.Address:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Ethoxylates Market Share, Growth Analysis & Trends Forecasted during 2018 to 2028

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Ethoxylates are organic compounds manufactured by the treatment of alcohols and phenols with ethylene oxide in the presence of potassium hydroxide as a catalyst. Ethoxylates are used as intermediates during the manufacturing of surface cleaners, detergents, cosmetics and paints. Textile processing, agriculture, paints & coatings, personal care and pulp & paper industries are some of the major end-users of ethoxylates. Ethoxylates are primarily used in industrial applications owing to their high water solubility, low aquatic toxicity, good formulation and excellent wetting ability. Additionally, ethoxylates are also used as emulsion stabilizers during the processing of emulsion polymers, floor polishes and wax, as they rapidly dissolve and provide ionic stability to the emulsion.The demand for ethoxylates is being primarily driven by the growing textile processing, paints & coatings and personal care industries. Ethoxylates are used as surfactants in various process operations, such as dyeing, scouring and lubrication, in the textile processing industry. They also help in the removal of impurities during cleaning of fibers, thereby helping in creating good quality fabrics. Moreover, the cosmetic & personal care industry is another driving factor anticipated to influence the demand for ethoxylates in the near future. Ethoxylates are used as solvents during the preparation of cosmetic products as they possess high emulsifying and water solubility characteristics. Furthermore, ethoxylates are non-ionic in nature and they offer high chemical stability and hence, are preferred over other surfactants that do not dissolve in water.Request ToC of Report @Global Ethoxylates Market: DynamicsExpansion of agricultural industries and households, especially in developing economies, will create new opportunities for the growth of the ethoxylates market during the forecast period. On the other hand, growing environmental concerns related to the toxic effects of ethoxylates and expansion of raw material feedstock by other end users may hamper the growth of the market.Global Ethoxylates Market: Regional OutlookIn terms of global demand, Europe is estimated to be one of the largest producers of ethoxylates across the globe. However, the market growth in Europe is anticipated to become stable due to various governmental regulations in near future. North America is expected to portray a similar scenario as this region has developed markets. Asia Pacific is proposed to experience faster growth during the forecast period due to the rising demand for ethoxylates for household applications and from the personal care industries. Moreover, changing consumer lifestyle and rising disposable income are the other key factors supposed to fuel the demand for ethoxylates in China and India. Latin America is anticipated to create favorable opportunities over the next few years, this is mainly due to increasing foreign investments and growth in the regional population.Global Ethoxylates Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the market participants involved in the manufacturing of ethoxylates are: The DOW Chemical Company Basf S.E. Royal Dutch Shell PLC Huntsman International LLC Stepan Company Clariant AG Sasol Limited India Glycols Limited (IGL) Ineos Group Limited SolvayThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application and industry.To Know More About Report Click @The report covers exhaust analysis on: Market Segments Market Dynamics Market Size Supply & Demand Current Trends/Issues/Challenges Competition & Companies involved Technology Value ChainThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macro-economic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.Report Highlights: Detailed overview of parent market Changing market dynamics in the industry In-depth market segmentation Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value Recent industry trends and developments Competitive landscape Strategies of key players and products offered Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth A neutral perspective on market performance Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintAbout Fact.MRFact.MR is a fast-growing market research firm that offers the most comprehensive suite of syndicated and customized Chemical & Materials 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.MR11140 Rockville PikeSuite 400Rockville, MD 20852United StatesEmail: sales@factmr.comBattery Market 2018 Global Leaders Analysis: Exide Technologies (U.S.), Douglas Battery (U.S.), Penn Manufacturing Company, Inc.(U.S.), Johnson Controls Inc(U.S.), The Furukawa Battery Co. ltd (Japan),

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Market Synopsis:-According to a new report by Market Research Future (MRFR), the global market for battery is expected to show a 4 % CAGR over the forecast period. Battery provides electric energy to automobiles for ignition, starting and lighting. Batteries are majorly used in uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), portable electronic equipment, and automotive. The global market for battery has witnessed remarkable growth over the past few years and is anticipated to maintain the growth status over the forecast period.Get Sample Report @Competition Analysis:-The prominent players driving the global market for battery are Douglas Battery (U.S.), Johnson Controls Inc (U.S.), The Furukawa Battery Co. Ltd (Japan), Penn Manufacturing Company Inc.(U.S.), Exide Technologies (U.S.), and many more.Douglas Battery held their latest Douglas U class in Dallas, TX, which was organized by the local representative group, Southland Battery. The class consisted of one sales coordinator and 12 technicians from all over the country. After two days of hands-on training, the class left with a better understanding of charger serving and battery.Industry Developments:-In January 2018, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) has announced for USD 2 billion IPO in Shenzhen, to construct two battery plants which will include a giant 24 GWh facility which will help to massively boost the output.On 31st August 2016, Douglas Battery introduced a new line of LegaC2 high-frequency modular chargers. These new line chargers featured industrys most efficient, most compact, and most versatile designs, available as wall-mounted or a free-standing design.MAjor Points Table Of Contents:-1 Executive Summary2 Research Methodology3 Market Dynamics3.1 Market Drivers3.2 Market Inhibitors3.3 Supply/Value Chain Analysis3.4 Porters Five Forces AnalysisBrowse Full Report @4 Global Battery Market, By Battery Type4.1 Introduction4.2 Lead Acid4.3 Lithium Ion4.4 Nickel Metal Hydride4.5 Nickel CadmiumContinued....Regional Analysis:-Asia Pacific to Continue its Dominance:-Owing to the rising demand for industrialization and automobiles, Asia Pacific is witnessed to dominate the global battery market, followed by North America and Europe. Developing countries in Asia Pacific like India and China are anticipated to hold the largest market share due to rising production of automotive. Increasing number of electric vehicles and demand from consumer electronics segment in Japan and China are driving the market growth.North America will show a steady growth rate during the forecasted period due to the increased production of technologically advanced vehicles and eco-friendly initiatives.Check Discount @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end-users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGigabit Ethernet Camera Market Basic Information, Trends Analysis and Forecast 2018-2025

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This report studies the Gigabit Ethernet Camera Market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2013-2017 and forecast data 2018-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.GigE cameras have numerous industrial applications, such as factory automation, food and packaging inspection, electronics manufacturing, and other machine vision applications. For such varied applications, these cameras should have a flexible mechanical design, support industry standard protocol, and be compatible with third-party peripherals. The application for GigE cameras is increasing in the industrial sector and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 11% during the forecast period. The industries where GigE cameras are used include pharmaceuticals, mining, robotics, automotive, and design and integration. In these application areas, cameras are required to face extreme temperatures, shocks and vibrations, and long-time operational durability. GigE cameras resistance to high industrial environments makes them ideal for varied industrial applications. GigE cameras are considered ideal for high-performance synchronized multi-angle systems and can be used for inspection as well as design.The technological advantages offered by GigE cameras over traditional cameras will drive the growth prospects for the global GigE camera market until the end of 2020. The use of GigE cameras eliminates the need for frame grabbers, which is a necessary component when used with analog technology or regular cameras. Also, the installation cost of GigE camera setup is relatively low, which increases its adoption among the end users. Moreover, the hubs used in conventional camera devices have a limited cable length because of which multiple hubs are deployed between the camera and the receiver. The installation of multiple hubs results in high power consumption and an increased overhead cost. In addition, the excessive use of separate cables also increases the risk of high electromagnetic interference. However, the use of GigE camera overcomes the shortcomings of conventional cameras and as a result, the adoption rate of these devices is rising in the market.The global Gigabit Ethernet Camera market was xx million US$ in 2017 and is expected to xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2018 and 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Gigabit Ethernet Camera in these regions, from 2013 to 2025, coveringNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam)South America (Brazil etc.)Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries)The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market includeTeledyne DALSAAllied VisionJAIPoint Grey ResearchBy the product type, the market is primarily split intoMonochromeColorBy the end users/application, this report covers the following segmentsMilitary and DefenseIndustrialCommercialAbout Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact US:QY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748USA: +1 626 295 2442Email: enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb:Gifts Novelty and Souvenirs Market Key Targets, Geographic Focus and Data Publications, 2025

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This report studies the Gifts Novelty and Souvenirs Market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2013-2017 and forecast data 2018-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.Brick-and-mortar retail and online retail form two key channels for the retail industry. A wide range of products is sold as gifts, novelty, and souvenirs in the global retail market. Based on the product offerings of the major global gift retail players, the products can be divided into five major segments: souvenirs and novelty items, seasonal decoration, greeting cards, giftware, and other products. The other products segment includes accessories, candles, ceramics/pottery, collectibles, gift books, gift packaging, jewelry, personal care, photo frames, plush products, stationery, and wall art.The global gifts novelty and souvenirs market witnessed the highest demand from Europe, which emerged as the highest revenue contributor in the market. Factors such as the growing tourism industry in the region and the increasing demand for premium-priced and customized gifts in the UK, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany contributed to the growth of the market. The other key geographies analyzed were the Americas, APAC, and MEA.The global Gifts Novelty and Souvenirs market was xx million US$ in 2017 and is expected to xx million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of xx% between 2018 and 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Gifts Novelty and Souvenirs in these regions, from 2013 to 2025, coveringNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam)South America (Brazil etc.)Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries)The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market includeAmerican GreetingsCard FactoryHallmarkSpencer GiftsAlibaba GroupBy the product type, the market is primarily split intoSouvenirs and NoveltySeasonal DecorationsGreeting CardsGiftwareOthersBy the end users/application, this report covers the following segmentsOnline RetailOffline RetailAbout Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact US:QY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748USA: +1 626 295 2442Email: enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb:Healthcare Analytics Market 2018 Global Leaders Analysis: Key Players are IBM, GE Healthcare, Allscripts, McKesson, Optum, Cerner Corporation, athenahealth

Healthcare Analytics

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Healthcare analytics market is witnessing a phenomenon of sorts, with the increasing number of remote consultations and monitoring practices across the globe. The surging adoption of smart phones and tablets will favorably attribute the product demand across myriad medical application arenas such as financial, clinical, and operations management. Growing emergence of electronic devices in the medical sector to maintain electronic records of patients will stimulate healthcare analytics industry. Additionally, the penetration of IoT and the emerging software based technological developments will contribute significantly toward the industry growth.Request for a sample of this research report U.S. dominated the North America healthcare analytics market in 2016 by contributing to more than 90% of the total regional revenue share. The growth can be attributed to the growing acceptance of electronic based health record systems across healthcare sector. Moreover, adoption of advanced technology and the existence of a high-grade healthcare infrastructure will also stimulate the product demand. The U.S. houses most of key industry players contributing to global business growth, which is a crucial factor impacting regional healthcare analytics market share.Hospitals dominated the end use segment of healthcare analytics market by accounting about 70% total revenue share in 2016 and will generate considerable revenue by 2024, growing at an annual growth rate of more than 12% over the period of 2017 to 2024. The implementation of analytics software in hospitals will help to reduce fraud and errors in payments, provide efficient patient-physician coordination and minimize the total administrative cost.Browse Full Report @Healthcare analytics market share from clinics will surpass a revenue collection of USD 2 billion by 2024 with a CAGR of more than 13% over the coming seven years. Growing adoption of primary care analytics will help to reduce the total expenditure on the healthcare data and enhance the healthcare services, which will suitably augment the industry growth.Company profiled in this report based on Business overview, Financial data, Product landscape, Strategic outlook & SWOT analysis:1. IBM2. OptumHealth Inc.3. McKesson Corporation4. Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc5. Cerner Corporation6. Athenahealth Inc7. Inovalon Holdings Inc.8. Computer Programs and Systems Inc.9. Change Healthcare10. Tenet Healthcare Corporation11. GE Healthcare Ltd.12. Evolent Health13. Influence Health Inc14. Health CatalystAbout Fractovia:Fractovia.org is one of leading in-house and free news portal. It is fully automated, and operates on a constant premise, interfacing with news sites and offering redesigned breaking features to readers across the globe. Our mission is to offer individuals opportunities for connections with news writers and distributors which they can pursue. We operate by mapping articles pertaining to breaking news, constantly and progressively, against a pre-determined word-based theme, offering important connections to readers and clients, as well as distributors.Contact Us:1968 S. Coast Hwy #586,Laguna Beach CA 92651,USAFunction-as-a-Service Market Key Players Strategies Analysis | Dynatrace LLC, SAP SE, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corporation

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Serverless computing is all the rage these days as it shifts the task of running and managing the infrastructure from the company to its cloud provider. While software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) are already well known and popular in the domain of serverless computing, there is another upcoming technology  function as a service (FaaS)  which is primed to become mainstream soon enough.Function as a service (FaaS) is essentially a software framework offered by a service provider. It can be tailored easily to serve the business needs of the user by helping them to quickly develop an application or system. By doing away with the need for heavy investments in infrastructure and hardware, FaaS results in tremendous cost savings. Some of prominent participants in the market are also big guns of the likes of Microsoft Corporation, SAP SE, Amazon Web Services, Google, Inc., and IBM.Request a sample copy of the Report @From a geographical perspective, North America outshines all others due to the presence of a large number of FaaS providers and savvy companies increasingly looking to up business agility and flexibility, particularly in the advanced U.S. and Canada market. Asia Pacific, on the other hand, is slated to expand at a good clip in the foreseeable future due to businesses booming in the developing economies in the region. China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, and other nations in the region, which are home to a growing number of software firms, are frontrunners in driving expansion in the Asia Pacific market.Global Function-as-a-Service Market: OverviewFunction-as-a-service (FaaS), a.k.a. serverless computing, is creating an evolution in the field of cloud computing as it plays a pivotal role in boosting IT agility by releasing developers from the taxing job of managing and provisioning servers. The next step in cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS), FaaS cancels the need to administer servers and pay for them when not in use while making it a whole lot easier to leverage and scale complex automation areas. It is an event-driven computing service which executes functions and codes only when required.Global Function-as-a-Service Market: Key TrendsThe international FaaS market is prophesied to grow in the black at a knockout CAGR as organizations shift from DevOps to serverless computing. During the forecast period, there could also be other factors supporting the market growth, which include maturity of hosted services, scalability, and agility. The global market could be driven by the constant need articulated by most companies regarding the optimization of microservices and management of multiple platforms. As a result, services such as microservice management and monitoring and automation and integration are anticipated to gain a relentless impetus.Request TOC of the report @Issues pertaining to portability to the cloud could act as an obstacle in the global FaaS market. Nonetheless, the availability of robust pre-existing cloud infrastructure and easy management and deployment need are forecasted to make up for the market disincentive. Companies around the world are now implementing FaaS as a means to run, manage, and deploy applications. Keeping this ability of the product in view, the market is expected to see the domination of operator-centric FaaS and developer-center FaaS in the coming years. Besides for the deployment of different applications such as those relating to research and academic and mobile and web, FaaS can be employed to optimize their performance.Global Function-as-a-Service Market: Market PotentialDelineated as the first serverless database, FaunaDB Serverless Cloud, introduced by a San Francisco startup, is making rounds on technology news columns with its real-time data replicating ability to ensure multi-cloud availability. The serverless revolution by Fauna Inc. is proud to seamlessly span Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. Later in 2017, the company is planning to offer support to the Microsoft Azure cloud. This latest offering is based on the adaptive operational database of FaunaDB that is capable of leveraging pay-as-you-go pricing, reduced operational overhead, elastic scaling, enhanced marketing time, and other cloud capabilities.Global Function-as-a-Service Market: Regional OutlookThe North America FaaS market is prognosticated to lean on a colossal count of FaaS providers, surging want for business agility and flexibility, and towering rate of penetration into a gamut of industry verticals in the U.S. The researchers envisage the regional market to rake in a larger share of revenue in the coming years. Asia Pacific, on similar lines, is envisioned to secure a higher rate of growth during the forecast period. This could be due to the need to streamline business operations and enhance customer experiences with the help of significant investments in cloud service providers. As a result, Asia Pacific is predicted to register a telling CAGR.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Function-as-a-Service Market: Competitive LandscapePlayers in the global FaaS market could be looking to boost customer satisfaction and focus on perpetual innovation in technology with a view to fortify their status in the industry. Additionally, partnerships, acquisitions, and new product developments are prime strategies projected to take precedence in the market. Some of the leading companies in the market are Dynatrace LLC, SAP SE, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corporation, Google, Inc., and IBM.About Us:TMR 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.Contact Us:Rohit BhiseyHead Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comJigsaw Toys Market Will Be Expected To Reach 470 Million USD by The End of 2025

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This report studies the Jigsaw Toys Market size (value and volume) by players, regions, product types and end industries, history data 2013-2017 and forecast data 2018-2025; This report also studies the global market competition landscape, market drivers and trends, opportunities and challenges, risks and entry barriers, sales channels, distributors and Porter's Five Forces Analysis.Jigsaw Toys is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often oddly shaped interlocking and tessellating pieces. Each piece usually has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, produces a complete picture. In some cases, more advanced types have appeared on the market, such as spherical jigsaws and puzzles showing optical illusions.The top three brand owners are Ravensburger, Disney and White Mountain Puzzles, with global revenue market share as 11.23%, 7.29% and 2.72% in 2017.At present, in developed countries, the whole Jigsaw Toys industry is generally at a more advanced level. The highest value-added of Jigsaw Toys industry is R & D design. This part is captured by US, EU and Japan brand owner. However, foreign companies manufacturing cost is relatively higher, compared with Chinese companies. The world's largest production area is concentrated in China. China is a major Jigsaw Toys producer.Competition in the global Jigsaw Toys market is intensifying. The high-end of the market is dominated by foreign enterprises while local brands are the mainstay in the medium- to low-end segments of the market. Practically all international toy giants have established their own factories on the mainland or collaborated with local manufacturers to engage in production. Most of the major international toy enterprises have also made their inroads into the China mainland market by way of appointing sales agents or setting up their own marketing operations there.With the development of global Jigsaw Toys production technology, the manufacturers have realized that the copyrights, patents, and intellectual property are most important part of toy industry. Their share in the international market is increasing, and competitiveness in the international market gradually increases. Meanwhile, more and more parents pay more attention to the education of children, it can be forecast that Jigsaw Toys would be grow faster than other toy, especially in the BRIC countries. Although Jigsaw Toys brings a lot of opportunities, the study group recommends the new entrants just having money but without technical advantage and upstream and downstream support do not to enter into this field.The global Jigsaw Toys market was 440 million US$ in 2017 and is expected to 470 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 0.9% between 2018 and 2025.Request Sample Copy of Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Jigsaw Toys in these regions, from 2013 to 2025, coveringNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam)South America (Brazil etc.)Middle East and Africa (Egypt and GCC Countries)The various contributors involved in the value chain of the product include manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, intermediaries, and customers. The key manufacturers in this market includeSpringbok PuzzlesRobotimeDisneySchmidt SpieleCubicFunEduca BorrasRavensburgerArtifact PuzzlesTenyoToy TownBy the product type, the market is primarily split intoWood MaterialsPlastic MaterialsPaper MaterialsBy the end users/application, this report covers the following segmentsChildrenAdultsAbout Us:QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.Contact US:QY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA  91748USA: +1 626 295 2442Email: enquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb:Immunohistochemistry Market : Recommendations to market players | Merck Millipore (U.S.), Bio SB Inc. (U.S.), PerkinElmer, Inc. (U.S.), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.)

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The global immunohistochemistry market is projected to expand at a healthy pace. Factors responsible for the growth of this market include growing geriatric population, high prevalence of chronic diseases, and rise in the number of diagnostic centers. The growing awareness among physicians and an escalated demand for histopathology are some of the other growth drivers for the global immunohistochemistry market. In addition to this, a rise in the healthcare spending and improvements in the healthcare, diagnostic centers, and hospital infrastructure across many nations are boosting the growth of the immunohistochemistry market. Some of the trends observed in the market include, implementation of nanotechnology in immunohistochemistry, high use of automation, and the use of multiplex arrays.Request a sample copy of the Report @As per expert analysts, developing nations in Asia Pacific and Latin America are slated to witness high growth. A rise in the demand for personalized medicines is anticipated to create potential of growth for the global immunohistochemistry market in the years to come. Consolidation is another emerging trait of this market. Small vendors in the market are operating at local and regional levels and are challenging the shares of top players in the immunohistochemistry industry. Thus, top players are continuously re-inventing and upgrading themselves to up their markets and expand their product portfolios. This increasing competition is driving innovation, which in turn is boosting the growth of the immunohistochemistry market. Also, innovation is helping players to overcome the existing challenges and address compliance issues.Global Immunohistochemistry Market: Brief AccountThe global immunohistochemistry market is poised to make a bold statement with an impressive growth rate on the back of its irreplaceable application in the detection of the expression of different cancer biomarkers, such as PD-L1, NGS, RBM4, and SASH1. Immunohistochemistry also finds a vital position in Philips and Illuminas collaborated pipeline solutions based on integrated genomics for oncology cases. It is also used to validate the proteins that hold a profound association with prostate cancer, in order to develop biomarker protein panels with a substantial prognostic and diagnostic potential. Besides this, it is essentially employed in the recently discovered experimental treatment for Parkinsons disease which gives an early promise.Request TOC of the report @With such handsome demand in the biotechnology sector, the global market for immunohistochemistry is foretold to showcase a stallion growth. Considering the segmentation portion of the report, the international immunohistochemistry market can be categorized by product type, application, and end user. The geographical segmentation presented in the report will help the global players in the market to gauge their growth potential internationally and make the necessary amendments in their business strategies.The customized report on the global immunohistochemistry market explores the breakthrough strategies and growth factors of the top industry players. The overall scenario of the existing and latent competitive landscape of the international market is extensively elucidated by the analysts. The market intelligence solution offered here presents a valuable blend of trends analysis and quantitative forecasting.Global Immunohistochemistry Market: Trend and OpportunitiesWith a close to healthy CAGR, the global immunohistochemistry market is envisioned to project a tall rise while riding on the fattening rifeness of chronic diseases and forging advancement of geriatric population. The international market is also anticipated to take advantage of the rising physical awareness, aggressive building of diagnostic facilities, and demand for histopathology. Glaring opportunities for growth in the market are expected to be built upon the inflating want for personalized medicine and whistle-stop development in the emerging economies of Latin America and Asia Pacific.Global Immunohistochemistry Market: Key GeographiesIt is significant to study the important regions such as North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific alongside Latin America and the Middle East and Africa in the Rest of the World classification. The further classification of these regions at a country level will also help to gain a keen insight into the competitive landscape of the global immunohistochemistry market. India, China, and Brazil are predicted to be under high focus in terms of growth for their regional markets. The rising per capita income, elevating number of cancer patients, and swiftly developing healthcare infrastructure are reckoned to boost the growth in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa regions.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Immunohistochemistry Market: Market GiantsMerck Millipore (U.S.), Bio SB Inc. (U.S.), PerkinElmer, Inc. (U.S.), Agilent Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Abcam plc (U.K.), Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (U.S.), Cell Signaling Technology, Inc. (U.S.), Danaher Corporation (U.S.), F. Hoffman-La Roche AG (Switzerland), and Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (U.S.) are some of the dominant players in the global immunohistochemistry market. The report customizes the company profiling section as per the business wants of the buyers.About Us:TMR 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.Contact Us:Rohit BhiseyHead Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comPayments Landscape in Switzerland: Opportunities and Risks to 2022

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GlobalDatas "Payments Landscape in Switzerland: Opportunities and Risks to 2022", report provides detailed analysis of market trends in Switzerland's cards and payments industry. It provides values and volumes for a number of key performance indicators in the industry, including cards, credit transfers, direct debits, and cheques during the review-period (2014-18e).The report also analyzes various payment card markets operating in the industry, and provides detailed information on the number of cards in circulation, transaction values and volumes during the review-period and over the forecast-period (2018-22f). It also offers information on the country's competitive landscape, including the market shares of issuers and schemes.The report brings together GlobalDatas research, modeling, and analysis expertise to allow banks and card issuers to identify segment dynamics and competitive advantages. The report also covers details of regulatory policy and recent changes in the regulatory structure.Request for sample copy of report:This report provides top-level market analysis, information and insights into Switzerland's cards and payments industry, including -- Current and forecast values for each market in Switzerland's cards and payments industry, including debit, credit and charge cards.- Detailed insights into payment instruments including cards, credit transfers, direct debits, and cheques. It also, includes an overview of the country's key alternative payment instruments.- E-commerce market analysis.- Analysis of various market drivers and regulations governing Switzerland's cards and payments industry.- Detailed analysis of strategies adopted by banks and other institutions to market debit, credit and charge cards.Scope- To enhance the efficiency of the Swiss payment process and invoicing, all current Swiss payment slips will be replaced with a new QR-bill. The QR-bill shows the QR code with a Swiss cross as the identifying feature. This Swiss QR Code contains in digital form all the information necessary for payment. Using QR-bills, customers can make cashless payments using their TWINT wallet or via e-banking. The announcement was initially made in May 2017 by PaymentStandards.CH, accordingly to which Swiss financial institutions were required to complete their conversion by the end of 2017, and corporate customers by mid-2018. From January 2019 billers will be able to send out their first QR-bills, which are fully compliant with the regulatory requirements. The QR-bill will be introduced once billers have converted their systems to the ISO 20022 standard across Switzerland.- Uptake of alternative payments among Swiss consumers is growing due to the availability of a number of solutions such as Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, TWINT, and SwissWallet. Samsung Pay was launched in Switzerland in April 2017. The service allows owners of Samsung mobile phones to make in-store and online purchases. In Switzerland, Samsung Pay supports Visa, American Express, and Mastercard credit and prepaid cards issued by Bonuscard, Cornrcard, Swiss Bankers, and Swisscard. Earlier in July 2016, Apple launched its mobile payment solution Apple Pay in Switzerland, allowing users to make online, in-app, and in-store purchases. To benefit from the trend, boon, a mobile payment solution offered by Germany-based payment solution provider Wirecard, was launched in Switzerland in partnership with Apple Pay in February 2017. The service allows users to make mobile payments at any contactless terminals that accept Mastercard-branded cards. Personal details and funds are protected by a PIN and password.- The advent of mobile-only banks is likely to accelerate the shift towards electronic payments. In February 2018 Bank Cler launched a mobile-only banking app called Zak, allowing individuals to perform several transactions from account opening to online shopping. Upon opening a Zak account, a Maestro card and a credit card are offered free of charge. Hypothekarbank Lenzburg partnered with fintech start-up neon Switzerland in May 2018, and the bank is planning to launch a mobile-only banking app called neon this year. It is currently under trial phase, and individuals who sign up to use the app will receive a digital account at Hypothekarbank Lenzburg.Get full report TOC:Reasons to buy- Make strategic business decisions, using top-level historic and forecast market data, related to Switzerland's cards and payments industry and each market within it.- Understand the key market trends and growth opportunities in Switzerland's cards and payments industry.- Assess the competitive dynamics in Switzerland's cards and payments industry.- Gain insights into marketing strategies used for various card types in Switzerland.- Gain insights into key regulations governing Switzerland's cards and payments industry.MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports, supporting clients market intelligence needs with over 100,000 market research reports, company profiles, data books, and regional market profiles in its repository. We also offer consulting support for custom market research needs.Our document database is updated by the hour, which means that our customers always have access to fresh data spanning over 300 industries. From Fortune 500 companies to SMEs, Marketresearchreports.biz has built a veritable reputation for fulfilling the most exacting market research needs.State Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948(USA-Canada)Tel: +1-518-621-2074E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Market Industry Analysis & Forecast 2018-2023

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Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state which focuses on the major drivers and restraints for the key players. Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Industry research report provides granular analysis of the market share, segmentation, revenue forecasts and geographic regions of the market.Get FREE Exclusive PDF Sample Copy Of This Report @The report begins with the overview of the Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems market and updates the users about the latest developments and future expectations. It presents a comparative detailed analysis of all the regional and major player segments, offering readers a better knowledge of areas in which they can place their existing resources and gauging the priority of a particular region in order to boost their standing in the global market.Gain Full Access of Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Market Report along with complete TOC @In this report, there is a healthy amount of coverage of the market economies such as the demand and supply, cost and profit of the Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Market. This holds key importance for users and hence this information is well supported with due statistics that are represented in easy to consume graphs, charts, and tables.The report compiles exhaustive information obtained via proven research methodologies and from trusted sources within the industries.The report segments the Global Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems market as:Regional Segment Analysis (Regional Consumption Volume, Consumption Volume, Revenue and Growth Rate 2013-2023): North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaProduct Type Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume, Average Price, Revenue, Market Share and Trend 2013-2023): Airborne EO/IR systems Land-based EO/IR systems Naval based EO/IR systemsApplication Segment Analysis (Consumption Volume and Market Share 2013-2023; Downstream Customers and Market Analysis) Military Intelligence Surveillance ReconnaissanceKey Players/Competitor Segment Analysis (Company and Product introduction, Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems Market Sales Volume, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin): Lockheed Martin Raytheon Thales Group ELBIT Systems BAE Systems L-3 Communications Northrop Grumman Rockwell Collins UTC AerospaceKey Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have a comprehensive understanding of the Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems and its commercial landscape. Assess the Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk. To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems market and its impact on the global market. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by your competitors and leading organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Military Electro-Optical Infrared Systems MarketCustomization of the Report:UpMarketResearch provides free customization of reports as per your need. This report can be personalized to meet your requirements. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you to get a report that suits your necessities.About UpMarketResearch:Up Market Research () is a leading distributor of market research report with more than 800+ global clients. As a market research company, we take pride in equipping our clients with insights and data that holds the power to truly make a difference to their business. Our mission is singular and well-defined  we want to help our clients envisage their business environment so that they are able to make informed, strategic and therefore successful decisions for themselves.Contact Info:Name: Alex MathewsEmail: Alex@upmarketresearch.comOrganization: UpMarketResearchAddress: 500 East E Street, Ontario, CA 91764, United StatesPhone: +1 347-377-7033Bio-Fertilizers Market Size, Industry Growth, Business Opportunity and Future Analysis by 2023

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The global demand for bio-fertilizers market is expected to rise because of growing consumer preference for organic food. Factors such as increased health consciousness, environmental awareness and rising disposable income are causing an extraordinary demand for organic foods globally.Request Sample of this report :Bio-fertilizers are made from human, organic and animal wastes and are sustainable in nature. Bio-fertilizers consist of microorganisms such as algae, bacteria and fungi, alone, or in combination, and they enhance nutrient availability in plants by fixing atmospheric nitrogen and dissolving the phosphorus present in the soil.Increased demand of bio-fertilizers from emerging markets is a key trend in global bio-fertilizers market. An increase in the demand for bio-fertilizers from emerging countries such as India, China and Brazil is likely to positively influence the market growth.The global bio-fertilizers market can be categorized on the basis of different type of bio-fertilizers, type of crop and type of micro-organism. Based on type of bio-fertilizers, the global bio-fertilizers market can be divided into nitrogen-fixing, potash-mobilizing and phosphate-solubilizing bio-fertilizers.Read summary of report here :Major competitors in the global bio-fertilizers market are Novozymes, Symborg, Labiofam, Agri Life, Ajay Bio-Tech Ltd., Antibiotice Iasi, Biomax Life Sciences Limited and others. Ajay Bio-Tech Ltd. is concentrating its resources on western markets along with the Asian markets.About Prescient & Strategic IntelligenceP&S Intelligence, a brand of P&S Market Research, is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world.Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.Contact:Prescient & Strategic Intelligence347, 5th Ave. #1402New York City, NY - 10016Toll-Free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)Email: enquiry@psmarketresearch.comWeb:Underwater Concrete Market 2018-2023 | Global Key Player; Sika AG, Cemex S.A.B. De C.V. , Rockbond SCP Ltd, Conmix Ltd., HeidelbergCement Group, M-Con Products Inc., Underground Supply, Inc., Wieser Concrete Products Inc.

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Market Overview:Market research future published a half cooked research report on Global Underwater concrete market. The Underwater concrete market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 9 % during the period 2017 to 2023.Underwater concrete are used in hydro projects, marine construction, metro projects and underwater repair.The major growth driver of the underwater concrete market is the increasing need for placing the concrete in structures such as basements, ducts, harbours, and bridges. Underwater concrete is also used extensively for construction of such underwater structures, owing to its properties such as low heat of hydration, controlled set time, comprehensive strength and adequate bond. The major factor that is expected to restrain the growth of the market is the problem faced in the segregation of fine aggregates from coarse aggregates.Get Sample Copy @Market Research Analysis:Based on regions, the global underwater concrete market has been segmented as North America, Asia-pacific, Europe and rest of the world. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow with the increasing demand for a number of marine constructions such as harbor installations and bridge piers in rivers. The increasing number of underwater development projects in the developing nations of the region is further contributing to its growth. In North America, the rapid increase in the demand for luxury amenities such as swimming pools, is contributing to the growth of the underwater concrete market.Scope of the Report:This study provides an overview of the global underwater concrete market, tracking two market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global underwater concrete market by its application, end-use and region.Access Report Details @ By Laying technique Tremie method Bucket Placing Pump Method Others By application Marine Underwater repairs Tunnels Hydropower Others By Region North America Asia Pacific Europe Rest of the WorldKey Players:The key players in underwater concrete market are Sika AG (Switzerland), Cemex S.A.B. De C.V. (Mexico), Rockbond SCP Ltd (UK), Conmix Ltd. (United Arab Emirates), HeidelbergCement Group (Germany), M-Con Products Inc. (U.S.), Underground Supply, Inc. (U.S.), Wieser Concrete Products Inc. (U.S.) and others.Intended Audience Distributer & Supplier companies End Users consultants and Investment bankers Government as well as Independent Regulatory AuthoritiesProduct Analysis Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information Regulatory Landscape Pricing Analysis Macroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information Profiling of 10 key market players In-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report title Competitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Underwater Concrete 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, 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.Check Discount @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 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Multirotor UAV Market Key Player, Market Analysis, Trends, Size Type and Forecast to 2022

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Multirotor UAV Market Report by Material, Application, and Geography  Global Forecast to 2022 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).Global Multirotor UAV Market, provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Multirotor UAV Market analysis is provided for the international Industry including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.For Free Sample report @The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Multirotor UAV Market manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross market Multirotor UAV.Complete report on Global Multirotor UAV Market spreads across 152 pages and supported with 197 tables and figures@The provincial analysis of the worldwide Multirotor UAV Industry splits the global market area into key areas that include both continents as well as specific countries which are currently shining in phrases of demand, volume or normal Trends.Global Multirotor UAV Market focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.Direct Purchase this Report@The Multirotor UAV industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With the tables and figures the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Major Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Multirotor UAV Market3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis4 Production Analyses of Multirotor UAV Market by Regions, Technology, and Applications5 Sales and Revenue Analysis of Multirotor UAV Market by Regions6 Analyses of Multirotor UAV Market Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2018-20227 Analysis of Multirotor UAV Market industry Key Manufacturers8 Price and Gross Mar Multirotor UAV Analysis9 Marketing Traders or Distributor Analysis of Multirotor UAV Market10 Development Trend of Multirotor UAV Market industries 2018-202211 Industry Chain Suppliers of Multirotor UAV Market with Contact Information12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Multirotor UAV Market13 Conclusion of the Multirotor UAV industry 2018 Market Research ReportList of Tables and FiguresAbout Us:ReportsandMarkets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. On ReportsandMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Contact Us:Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)Ph: +1-214-377-1121 (US)Ph: +91-703-049-0292 (IND)Lactates Market global Industry Analysis 2017-2025 : Caldic B.V., Jost Chemical Co., Henan Jindan Lactic, Acid Technology Co

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Global Lactates Market: SnapshotThe global market for lactates is expanding at a robust pace due to the multiplicity of application of lactates. The pharmaceutical industry is amongst the largest consumers of lactates as the latter is used to process, produce, and develop several forms of medicines. As the pharmaceutical industry expands, the demand within the global lactates market is also expected to reach new heights. Furthermore, the usage of lactates has also found its way into the manufacturing of certain types of foods and beverages. The food and beverages sector is an ever-expanding industry that has witnessed continual additions to its product portfolio. Hence, the relevance of lactates in this industry is bound to bring in commendable revenues for the global market. Lactates are also used in personal care products, and hence, a propensity towards general grooming and self-care is also expected to drive demand within the global market for lactates. Despite these evident drivers of demand, the high cost of lactates could act as a roadblock for the growth of the global lactates market.The splendid development of the healthcare, medical, and pharmaceutical industries across North America and Europe has given a lead to the markets in these regions. Furthermore, the food and beverages industry has also been growing at an astral rate across North America and Europe, which further enhances the growth prospects of the regional markets.Some of the key players in the global market for lactates are Caldic B.V., Henan Jindan Lactic, and Jost Chemical Co., Seidler Chemical Co, Inc., Magnesia GmBh, nd Prathista Industries Limited.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Lactates Market: OverviewThe report details an exhaustive account of this market along with numerous associated factors. Some of these that are included in the report are drivers, restraints, competitive analysis, latest trends and opportunities, geographical outlook, and many other aspects. The study covered in the report spans a forecast period from 2018 to 2025. From an overall perspective, the report is expected to exist as a valuable insight to businesses which are already operating in the market, as well for those who intend to newly establish themselves in this environment.The global lactates market is divided into several segments on the basis of product type, application, and region. Under product type, sodium lactates, magnesium lactates, zinc lactates, potassium lactates, calcium lactates, and could be the major segments. From the perspective of applications, the global lactates market might comprise segments such as pharmaceutical industry, animal feed industry, food and beverage industry, animal feed industry, agriculture industry, personal care industry, and others.Global Lactates Market: Trends and RestraintsRapidly growing pharmaceutical industry all over the world is primarily responsible for driving the global lactates market. Apart from healthcare and medicines, some lactates are also greatly utilized in manufacturing of foods and beverages, thereby posing as a key growth propelling factor for the market. An overall maintenance of general wellbeing and health has led towards a rising demand for personal care products, wherein lactates are utilized extensively. Thus, the use of these products in a way has led towards the global lactates market to expand in a widespread manner. However, high costs of these products could hinder the market substantially. Nevertheless, efforts are being taken by businesses to develop less expensive products to reduce the restraints.Request TOC of the Report @Global Lactates Market: Geographical OutlookRegion-wise, the global lactates market is divided spread across North America, China, South East Asia, Europe, Japan, and India. Of these, a maximum demand for lactate products occurs in Europe and North America, owing to the presence of a strong healthcare and medical infrastructure. A burgeoning food and beverages industry wherein lactate products can be used extensively has also led to these regions gaining handsome revenue in the global lactates market.However, rapid establishment of key players in leading countries such as Japan, India, and China from Asia Pacific is expected to make this market depict a rampant growth in this region. Rising disposable income, briskly increasing population, and a surge in geriatric population has also been responsible for contributing towards an extensive growth in the global lactates market in Asia Pacific.Global Lactates Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global lactates market mainly depicts the existence of a highly fragmented and competitive vendor landscape, majorly due to the presence of innumerable players. Bringing about widespread product innovations for overall development is a prime strategy implemented by most businesses working in this market. Most businesses have been present in this market for numerous years, and have relied on strategic mergers & applications as a key tool for attracting success. However, most local players experience a substantial cutthroat competition due to the larger and bigger players operating in the market.Corbion N.V., FBC Industries, Inc., Caldic B.V., Jost Chemical Co., Henan Jindan Lactic, Acid Technology Co., Ltd., Global Calcium Private Limited, BSA Inc., Jungbunzlauer Suisse AG, Pfanstiehl, Inc., Dr. Paul Lohmann GmbH KG, Galactic s.a., Seidler Chemical Co, Inc., Prathista Industries Limited, Magnesia GmBh, Zhengzhou Tianrun Lactic Acid Co., Ltd. are some of the key players operating in the global lactates market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @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Grid Computing Market 2018 Global Key Country Analysis by Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard HP, Platform, Apple, IBM, Sybase by Forecasts

Grid Computing Market

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Global Grid Computing Market Information, Graphic Type (Discrete Graphics, Integrated Graphics), by Components (Video Graphics Array, USB), by Application (Utility Computing, Datacenter), by End Users (IT, Consumer Electronics, BFSI, Healthcare) by Forecast 2018-2022Global Grid Computing Market  Overview:As grid computing employs computers on the network working on a task together, thereby functioning as a supercomputer which has increased the demand for the market increasingly. Market focused reports connected to the semiconductors and electronics sector among others of late have been made accessible by Market Research Future which publishes reports on this industry. The market is projected to earn high levels of revenue while expanding with a motivating CAGR percent in the forecast period.Get Sample Report @The ability to enable organizations to share their databases, computing power, and other techniques firmly through corporates has increased the demand significantly in the past few years. The combination of scheduling systems with grid computing systems has been instrumental for the progress of the market. Moreover, applications used for computational computer issues that are linked in a parallel networking environment have prompted the further growth of the market by the end of the forecast period.Grid Computing Market Major Key Players:The notable competitors in the market for grid computing are Oracle (U.S.), Sun Microsystems (U.S.), Hewlett-Packard HP (U.S.), Platform Computing Inc. (U.S.), Apple Computer (U.S.), IBM (U.S.), Dell (U.S.), Sybase (SAP) (U.S.), DataSynapse Inc. (U.S.), Sun Microsystems (U.S.) among others.Industry Segments:The grid computing market globally is segmented into application, graphic type, components, end users and regions. The segmentation by graphic type of the market comprises of discrete graphics & integrated graphics. The components based segmentation of the market comprises of USB, peripheral component interconnect bus, video graphics array among others. By application, the segmentation of the market includes utility computing, datacenter, and Software as a Service (SaaS) among others. The regions of the market consist of the Americas, APAC, Europe and Rest of the World.IT &Telecommunications, Healthcare, BFSI, Consumer Electronics, Education, and Government among others are the end-users of the market.Comprehensive Regional Analysis:As per the regional study of the market, the North American region is leading the market for grid computing with a large market share. The low ownership cost and high efficiency of data, computing, and storage resources are driving the market of grid computing. The European market stands as the second biggest market for Grid Computing with a big market share and has been valued significantly high since the year 2015. The Asia Pacific region has appeared as the most rapidly growing market for grid computing with an incremental CAGR and a high revenue rate. It is estimated that Asia-Pacific market will achieve high growth rates by the end of forecast period.Global Competitive Analysis:The businesses in this market are attempting to improve and uphold financial fluidity that can be vital to invest in progress as and when applicable. Localization is among of the more favored trends for growing the market portion of the competitors in the market. The ripple effects of the markets growth have altered the competitive backdrop of the market. The room for development in the market seems to be promising through the forecast period. The mounting interest in change within the business has ultimately permitted the businesses to apply many situations accessible in the market. The ability to withstand their competitive edge is one of the key factors fuelling their efforts in this period. The market has been led into a new period of growth as the market is normally in a state of mutability. The odds for growing revenue inflow in the business are likely to multiply through the forecast period. Challengers who are a part of the market have planned their corporate strategy blueprint in a way that that can bring the top outcomes for progress in the current scenario, while also at the same time providing customer value dependably.Access Full Report @Industry Update:May 2018 Vodafone has recently stated that it is partnering up with Imperial College London to offer the idle mobile processing capacities to a grid computing network which is presently examining cancer treatments. The first time customers to Vodafone are being questioned if they want to install Dreamlab, a specialist app made by the Vodafone Foundation to examine data. With the help of an algorithm called Drug Repositioning Using Grids of Smartphones (DRUGS) that has been made by a team from the University, controlled by Dr. Kirill Veselkov then breaks down the big data into lesser chunks which Dreamlab then farms out to smartphones while users sleep.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 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 Us:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune  411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +91 841 198 5042Mail: sales@marketresearchfuture.comPasta Sauce Market Report 2018: Segmentation by Type (Red Sauce, Green Sauce, White Sauce, Black Sauce, Others) by Application (Dried Pasta, Fresh Pasta, Others)

Pasta Sauce Market

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http://marketreportscompany.com/report.php?report=food-and-beverages/global-pasta-sauce-market-report-for-period-2017-till-2022/34875

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Global Pasta Sauce market research report provides company profile for Heinz, Newmans Own, B&G Foods, Premier Foods, Knorr, Mizkan, Campbell, Barilla, Dolmio, Hunts and Others.This market study includes data about consumer perspective, comprehensive analysis, statistics, market share, company performances (Stocks), historical analysis 2012 to 2017, market forecast 2018 to 2025 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2018 to 2025, etc. The report also provides detailed segmentation on the basis of product type, application, end user and regional segmentation. The regional segment is further bifurcated on country level.Pasta sauce with tomatoes and onions refers to as the main raw material, processed by a seasoned fried, boiled and other technology sauce.Request for Free sample copy of ready Report @Report Coverage:Top Manufactures/vendors of Pasta Sauce market:MizkanCampbellBarillaDolmioHuntsHeinzNewmans OwnB&G FoodsPremier FoodsKnorrOthers (Note: We can profile additional players without any additional charges)Pasta Sauce Type:Red SauceGreen SauceWhite SauceBlack SauceOthersApplication of Pasta Sauce:Dried PastaFresh PastaOthersRegions covered in Pasta Sauce Market Research Report:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)(Note: We can provide country or region specific report on request; please contact us for your specific requirement)The Global Pasta Sauce Market analysis report covers detailed value chain analysis of Global Pasta Sauce Market. The value chain analysis helps to analyze major upstream raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. The report also provides Porter analysis, PESTEL analysis and market attractiveness which helps to better understand the market scenario on macro and micro level. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities occurred in the market during current and past few years. The Global Pasta Sauce Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors. The report also covers import/export data across all major regions covered in this report. Moreover, we can exclusively provide information about import/export data across any particular country as per requirement.How helpful this report will be? Pasta Sauce Market share (regional, product, application, end-user) both in terms of volume and revenue along with CAGR from 2018 to 2025 Key parameters which are driving this market and restraining its growth What all challenges manufacturers will face as well as new opportunities and threats faced by themEnquire before Buying @...Table of Content:1 Market Overview1.1 Pasta Sauce Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Red Sauce1.2.2 Green Sauce1.2.3 White Sauce1.2.4 Black Sauce1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Dried Pasta1.3.2 Fresh Pasta1.3.3 Others........................Continue (What does Report Include?Historic Data: What was the Pasta Sauce Market data (Size, competition, company share, YoY growth rate, etc.) from 2013 to 2018.Current Market Status: A comprehensive analysis of current market Size, trends, growth drivers, industry pitfalls, challenges and opportunities for players.Market Forecast: Report will comment and provide details about market growth and forecast till year 2025.Customization: We can provide following things 1) On request more company profiles (competitors) 2) Data about particular country or region 3) We will incorporate the same with no additional cost (Post conducting feasibility).Contact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website: marketreportscompany.comEmail: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United States3D Printing Ceramics Market Key Information By Top Key Player 3D Systems Corporation, Viridis 3D LLC, EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems, Renishaw Plc, Tethon 3D

3D Printing Ceramics Industry, Global 3D Printing Ceramics Market, 3D Printing Ceramics Market Size, 3D Printing Ceramics Industry

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MarketStudyReport.com adds New Global 3D Printing Ceramics Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 new report to its research database. The report spread across 136 pages with table and figures in it. The report provides information on Industry Trends, Demand, Top Manufacturers, Countries, Material and Application.Ceramic material is a non-metallic, crystalline and inorganic material. 3D printing has revolutionized the manufacturing process in several industries. The technology has created immense opportunities for product designing and helped in consolidating product assembly. Glass, fused silica and quartz are the major types of ceramic materials being used for 3D printing, whereas powder, filaments and liquid are the major forms of 3D printing ceramics.The worldwide 3D Printing Ceramics Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly xx% over the next five years, will reach xx million US$ in 2023, from xx million US$ in 2017, according to a new research report.Request a sample of this premium report atScope of the Report:This report focuses on the 3D Printing Ceramics Market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.3D Printing Ceramics Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:3D Systems Corporation (U.S.), Viridis 3D LLC (U.S.), EOS GmbH Electro Optical Systems (Germany), Renishaw Plc (U.K.), Tethon 3D (U.S.), Stratasys Ltd. (U.S.), Lithoz GmbH (Austria) & Cerum 3D (U.S.).3D Printing Ceramics Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)3D Printing Ceramics Market Segment by Type covers Glass Fused Silica Quartz OthersMarket Segment by Applications can be divided into: Aerospace & Defense Healthcare Automotive Consumer Goods & Electronics Manufacturing & Construction OthersRequest a discount on standard prices of this premium report atThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global 3D Printing Ceramics market.Chapter 1, to describe 3D Printing Ceramics Market Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of 3D Printing Ceramics, with sales, revenue, and price of 3D Printing Ceramics, 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 3D Printing Ceramics, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;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 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, 3D Printing Ceramics market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe 3D Printing Ceramics sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceMarketstudyreport.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 Report4 North Main Street,Selbyville, Delaware 19975USAPhone: 1-302-273-0910US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email:sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:Blog:Innovations Boost Revenues in the Global Data Center Cooling Market | Arizton

Global Data Center Cooling Market Insights 2023

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Tropical climate datacenter and underwater datacenter to bring evolution in global data center cooling marketAriztons recent market research report on the global data center cooling market provides comprehensive industry analysis, trend forecasts, and competitive analysis. The research study segments the market by cooling infrastructure (cooling system and other infrastructure), by cooling technique (air-based cooling and liquid-based cooling), by cooling systems (CRAC & CARH, chiller, cooling towers & dry coolers, economizers & evaporative coolers, and other cooling units), geography (America, EMEA, and APAC), and offers detailed competitive analysis.The global data center cooling market is expected to generate revenues of around $8 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of approximately 6% during 2017-2023.The increasing innovations that enhance the operational efficiency of datacenter facilities, reduce power consumption, and decrease carbon emissions is propelling the growth of the global data center cooling market. The growing focus on procurement of cooling systems of N+N redundancy and 2N systems especially for precision air conditioners is expected to transform the global market during the forecast period.The top 3 drivers and trends augmenting the growth of the global data center cooling market are discussed below:Increasing Construction of Green Data Center FacilitiesThe growing need to reduce the environmental impact of facilities is one of the primary considerations for operators and enabling the launch of innovative power and cooling solutions in the global data center cooling market. The operators are implementing the use of efficient IT and cooling infrastructures that will help reduce the OPEX and CAPEX considerably across facilities in the market. Modern facilities are being built with PUE of around 1.11.3, with flexibility in design and adoption of DCIM solutions to help operators attract new consumers in the global market. The use of free cooling systems across the US, Canada, and Europe which requires lesser energy than traditional solutions will lead to the evolution of the global data center cooling market. The use of free cooling solutions in facilities will help reduce energy consumption by up to 50% in terms of cooling OPEX in the market. Modern cooling systems are adopted with in-built monitoring control or wireless monitoring of the systems through DCIM. Such efforts in promoting and implementation of energy-efficient green datacenter operations will augment the growth of the global data center cooling market. The introduction of artificial intelligence and innovative equipment will contribute to revenues in the global market.Data Center Innovations Targeting CoolingThe increasing investment in developing innovative cooling systems will result in the evolution of the global data center cooling market. The two major innovations in the market consist of tropical climate datacenter and underwater datacenter. These projects are expected to reduce energy consumption significantly and have the potential to change the landscape of cooling solutions across countries that experience tropical climates. The leading vendors are developing facilities in tropical climates for regions such as India, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Australia, and MEA with these innovations to gain a larger global data center cooling market share. For instance, in November 2015, Microsoft deployed its first underwater container datacenter (Project Natick), which is approximately one kilometer off the Pacific coast of the US. In June 2018, after the success of Phase 1, Microsoft has deployed Phase 2 of its Project Natick, full-scale undersea datacenter modules and dropped it European Marine Energy Centre in June of 2018. These projected are expected to revolutionize the global data center cooling market during the forecast period.Request for your free sample today!:Increased Adoption of Automation and Monitoring SolutionsThe increasing power consumption and energy wastage are urging top operators to implement automation and monitoring solutions in the global data center cooling market. The adoption of end-to-end monitoring of facilities will help companies identify the maintenance requirements of infrastructure to avoid operational failures in the market. The top players are offering modern infrastructure with controls for direct and remote monitoring features to boost their revenues in the global data center cooling market. The implementation of DCIM solutions will help tackle situations such as high power consumption, increased carbon emissions, and inefficiency of traditional cooling systems in the global market. Companies such as Schneider Electrics StruxureWare, Siemens Datacenter Clarity LC, Nylte Software, Sunbird (dcTrack), Vertivs Trellis, and ABBs Ability are offering innovative solutions in the global data center cooling market.The leading vendors in the global data center cooling market are Airedale Air Conditioning, Rittal, Schneider Electric, STULZ, and Vertiv.The complete overview of the latest market research report on global data center cooling market by Arizton is now available.The report also offers a detailed study of major trends, drivers, challenges, and also provides the market size and forecast for major geographical regions and key countries.Source:About AriztonArizton  Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.Arizton Advisory & IntelligenceChicago, Illinois, 60605Mail: enquiry@arizton.comCall: +1-312-465-7864Debt Management Solutions Market 2022 by Application Overview - Healthcare Providers, Collection Agencies, Banks, Governments

ReportsWeb

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ReportsWeb Includes Global Debt Management Solutions Market Size Status and Forecast 2022 The aim of the study is to define, describe, and forecast the size on the basis of technologies, stages, components, applications, deployment types, organization size, industry types, and regions.Global Debt Management Solutions Market Size Status and Forecast 2022Top Players Capita PLCFair Isaac CorporationExperian Information Solutions, Inc.Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.Financial Sciences Corp.Allsec TechnologiesBrightOffice LimitedMellon Group of CompaniesGet sample copy of this report:Market segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Application, Debt Management Solutions can be split intoHealthcare ProvidersCollection AgenciesBanksGovernmentsOthersGet Discount of this report:Table of Content:1 Industry Overview of Debt Management Solutions2 Global Debt Management Solutions Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Capita PLC3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Debt Management Solutions Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Fair Isaac Corporation3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Debt Management Solutions Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Experian Information Solutions, Inc.3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions4 Global Debt Management Solutions Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)5 United States Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook6 EU Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook8 China Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook9 India Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Debt Management Solutions Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)12 Debt Management Solutions Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors AnalysisComplete Report: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.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Hypotension Treatment Market 2023 Top Key Players are A & D medical, Schiller AG, American Diagnostic Corporation, Spacelabs Healthcare, and OMRON Corporation

Hypotension Treatment Market

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MarketResearchFuture.com has as of late communicated another investigation to its wide research portfolio, which is titled as Hypotension Treatment Market Research Report - Global Forecast till 2023" gives an inside and out examination the gauge of market size and development.Global Key Players:Worldwide Hypotension Treatment Market include A & D medical, Schiller AG, American Diagnostic Corporation, Spacelabs Healthcare, and OMRON Corporation. They engage in product & therapeutic developments to generate higher sales & maintain an edge over the others.Get Premium Sample Copy @Market Overview:Hypotension refers to very low blood pressure and affects people across all age groups. Blood pressure is the force exerted by human blood against the artery walls, while blood is pumped out by the heart. Hypotension is normally characterized by a diastolic pressure that is lower than 60mm Hg. A systolic pressure lower than 90 mm Hg is also typically symptomatic of hypotension.The global hypotension market is propelled by hypotension incidences, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and other health issues. When patients suffer from low blood pressure or hypotension, they may feel dizziness while standing up after sitting for long periods of time. This is why, many of them are advised to not rise suddenly and take support/more time to stand up without any discomfort.Hypotension can also result from dehydration, nervous disorders, and endocrine issues. The geriatric population is quite susceptible to suffering from low blood pressure, boosting the rates of hospitalization and driving the industry. Apart from the elderly population, postpartum mothers and teenagers are also affected by hypotension. Rising population contributes to stress and lifestyle illnesses, leading to the demand for advanced treatments.In addition to the above factors, the advent of novel participants (companies investing in hypotension treatments) and wider technological adoption should drive market growth. With the industry predicted to experience decent expansion over the forecast period, the side-effects of hypotension medicines can prevent further growth.Considering the side-effects, many patients resort to alternative treatments and exercises. Patients need to assess whether they can tolerate the harmful effects of these medicines and decide for themselves. Every patient is different and what is suitable for someone may not be ideal for others. That said, exercising conveniently & regularly under the doctors guidance could yield very good results.Get Standard Discount @Some of the other propellers of the hypotension treatment market are the need for cardiovascular devices and poor eating habits. On the other hand, what has restricted the industry from progressing more is the lack of proficient medical professionals. Also, huge expenditures in the detection & management of cardiovascular disorders hamper the industry.The World Health Organization (WHO) states that approximately 59 percent of the overall mortality rates stem from chronic illnesses globally. The prevalence of diabetes and cardiac disorders is adding more burden on developed & emerging regions. The targeted audiences of the hypotension treatment industry comprise research laboratories, manufacturers, research & development firms, potential spenders, and market research & consultation services.Categorization/Segmentation:The worldwide market is divided on account of indications, products, end-users, and regions. Coronary heart diseases, hypotension, and others constitute the indications. The products consist of blood pressure transducers, sphygmomanometers, blood pressure devices, etc. By end users, the industry is fragmented on the basis of diagnostic centers, homecare, hospitals & clinics, and others. According to regions, the global hypotension treatment market is divided further into Europe, Americas, the Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific.Regional Analysis:Americas has generated the largest shares and its diabetic & cardiovascular incidences have accounted for the same. Europe is the second biggest market and driven by larger medical expenses & patient groups. Asia Pacific is projected to witness the fastest expansion till 2023. The Middle East & Africa would grow stably owing to its need for therapeutic & diagnostic centers.Table of Content1 Report Prologue2 Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.3 Research Objective2.4 Assumptions2.5 Limitations2.6 Market Structure2.7 Market Segmentation3 Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4 Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 Opportunities4.4 Mega Trends4.5 Macroeconomic IndicatorsContinuedReports Enquiry @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.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSinus Dilation Devices Market Report 2018: Segmentation by Product (Balloon Sinus Dilation, No-Balloon Sinus Dilation, Others) by Application (Physicians Office, Operating Room, Others)

Sinus Dilation Devices Market

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http://marketreportscompany.com/report.php?report=healthcare/global-sinus-dilation-devices-market-report-for-period-2017-till-2023-/36316

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Global Sinus Dilation Devices market research report provides company profile for Smith & Nephew, SinuSys Corporation, Acclarent, Entellus Medical, Medtronic and Others.This market study includes data about consumer perspective, comprehensive analysis, statistics, market share, company performances (Stocks), historical analysis 2012 to 2017, market forecast 2018 to 2025 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2018 to 2025, etc. The report also provides detailed segmentation on the basis of product type, application, end user and regional segmentation. The regional segment is further bifurcated on country level.Chronic sinusitis affects more than 31 million people in the United States. It is more prevalent than heart disease and asthma and has a greater impact on patients quality of life than chronic back pain or congestive heart failure. The majority of patients with chronic sinusitis are treated with oral antibiotics and/or nasal steroids, which can increase the risk of antibiotic resistance and cause unwanted side effects such as epistaxis (nose bleeds), nasal ulcers, and nasal and oral infections. The most effective treatments are Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS) and balloon dilation at high pressures, which are known to cause significant patient discomfort and are conducted in a surgical suite under general anesthesia or IV sedation.Request for Free sample copy of ready Report @Report Coverage:Top Manufactures/vendors of Sinus Dilation Devices market:AcclarentEntellus MedicalMedtronicSmith & NephewSinuSys CorporationOthers (Note: We can profile additional players without any additional charges)Sinus Dilation Devices Product Type:Balloon Sinus DilationNo-Balloon Sinus DilationOthersApplication of Sinus Dilation Devices:Physicians OfficeOperating RoomOthersRegions covered in Sinus Dilation Devices Market Research Report:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Others)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia and Others)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Others)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Others)(Note: We can provide country or region specific report on request; please contact us for your specific requirement)The Global Sinus Dilation Devices Market analysis report covers detailed value chain analysis of Global Sinus Dilation Devices Market. The value chain analysis helps to analyze major upstream raw materials, major equipments, manufacturing process, downstream customer analysis and major distributor analysis.The report also covers in-depth description, competitive scenario, wide product portfolio of prime players active in this market and business strategies adopted by competitors along with their SWOT analysis. The report also provides Porter analysis, PESTEL analysis and market attractiveness which helps to better understand the market scenario on macro and micro level. Side by side, it also explicitly provides information about mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and all the other important activities occurred in the market during current and past few years. The Global Sinus Dilation Devices Market report explores manufacturers competitive scenario and provides market share for all major players of this market based on production capacity, sales, revenue, geographical presence and other major factors. The report also covers import/export data across all major regions covered in this report. Moreover, we can exclusively provide information about import/export data across any particular country as per requirement.How helpful this report will be? Sinus Dilation Devices Market share (regional, product, application, end-user) both in terms of volume and revenue along with CAGR from 2018 to 2025 Key parameters which are driving this market and restraining its growth What all challenges manufacturers will face as well as new opportunities and threats faced by themEnquire before Buying @...Table of Content:1 Market Overview1.1 Market Segment Overview1.1.1 Product Definition1.1.2 Market by Type1.1.2.1 Balloon Sinus Dilation1.1.2.2 No-Balloon Sinus Dilation1.1.3 Market by Application1.1.3.1 Physicians Office1.1.3.2 Operating Room........................Continue (What does Report Include?Historic Data: What was the Sinus Dilation Devices Market data (Size, competition, company share, YoY growth rate, etc.) from 2013 to 2018.Current Market Status: A comprehensive analysis of current market Size, trends, growth drivers, industry pitfalls, challenges and opportunities for players.Market Forecast: Report will comment and provide details about market growth and forecast till year 2025.Customization: We can provide following things 1) On request more company profiles (competitors) 2) Data about particular country or region 3) We will incorporate the same with no additional cost (Post conducting feasibility).Contact UsJason Smith,Sales Manager, Global Business Development,Website: marketreportscompany.comEmail: jasonsmith@marketreportscompany.comContact us: +1-888-220-3424Address: 20 N State Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60602 United StatesFog Computing Market 2022 Detailed Insights on Upcoming Trends by Top Leading Vendors - ARM Holding Plc, PrismTech Corporation, Nebbiolo Technologies, Dell, Cisco, FogHorn Systems, CyberLightning

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2017-2022 Fog Computing Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and ApplicationsThis report studies the Fog Computing market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Fog Computing market by product type and applications/end industries.The major players in global and United States Fog Computing market, including Microsoft, PrismTech Corporation, Intel, ARM Holding Plc, PrismTech Corporation, Nebbiolo Technologies, Dell, Cisco, FogHorn Systems, CyberLightning.Request a Detailed Sample atGeographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share (%) and growth Rate (%) of Fog Computing in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesNorth AmericaEuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaThe On the basis of product, the Fog Computing market is primarily split intoHardwareSoftwareServiceOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversIndustrial AutomationTransportation & LogisticsSmart GridTraffic SystemNetwork SensorsOthersBuy this Report atTable of Contents:1 Methodology and Data Source2 Fog Computing Market Overview3 Fog Computing Application/End Users4 Fog Computing Market Status and Outlook by Regions5 Global Fog Computing Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers6 United States Fog Computing Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers7 Fog Computing Players/Manufacturers Profiles and Sales Data7.1 Microsoft7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.1.2 Fog Computing Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Microsoft Fog Computing Sales (Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 PrismTech Corporation7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.2.2 Fog Computing Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 PrismTech Corporation Fog Computing Sales (Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Intel7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors7.3.2 Fog Computing Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Intel Fog Computing Sales (Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview8 Fog Computing Manufacturing Cost, Industrial Chain and Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors and Market Effect Factors10 Global Fog Computing Market Forecast11 Research Findings and ConclusionReportsWeb.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Contraceptive Drugs Market overview 2018 to 2023 | Shares Analysis, Key Development Strategies | Increased Prevalence Rate | Avail Prime Report to MRFR

Contraceptive Drugs Market

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Market Research Future published a Half-Cooked research report on Contraceptive drugs Market Research Report - Forecast till 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Contraceptive Drugs Market - Key PlayersMerck & Co., Inc (US), Pfizer Inc (US), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Bayer AG (Germany), Allergan plc. (Ireland), Janssen Global Services llc. (US), Mankind Pharma Ltd. (India), Piramal Enterprises Ltd (India), Reckitt Benckiser Plc (UK), Church & Dwight (US), The Female Health Company (US), Mayer Laboratories (US), Cooper Surgical (US).Get Premium Sample Report Available @Global Contraceptive Drugs Market - Scenario:Birth controls are been used since ancient times but the safe and effective methods are introduce and available from 20th century. Contraceptive drugs are used to prevent the unwanted pregnancy by blocking the normal process of ovulations or by altering the process which support the fertilization of egg.Global contraceptive drugs market is driven by increasing need of population controls and increasing prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. Necessity of avoiding the unwanted pregnancy especially in the teenage women and increasing awareness among peoples also contributed in the growth of the market. Contraceptive pills is the third most widely used contraceptive method. Beside this cultural and religious opposition in developing countries is also responsible for hindering the market.The global market for contraceptive drugs is expected to reach US$ 22.15 billion by the end of the 2023 with a CAGR of 6.5%.Global Contraceptive Drugs Market - Intended AudienceResearch and Development (R&D) CompaniesContraceptive drugs manufacturersMedical Research LaboratoriesAcademic Medical Institutes and UniversitiesGovernment and Independent Research LaboratoriesContract Research Organizations (CROs)Global Contraceptive Drugs Market - Study ObjectivesDetailed overview of global contraceptive drugs market.Detail analysis of global contraceptive drugs market with all possible segmentation and key player of market.Detailed analysis of the historical and forecasted market on the basis of factors like- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.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 contraceptive drugs market.Detail analysis on the possible segments and sub segments of the market. And regional analysis of the market- America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East and Africa.Insights on the major countries/regions in which this industry is flourishing and to also identify the untapped regions which could be the potential markets in futureGlobal Contraceptive Drugs Market - SegmentationGlobal contraceptive drugs market is segmented on two category type and end user. On the basis of type they are oral contraceptive, injectable and other. Oral contraceptives are further sub segmented into combined oral contraceptive pills and progestogen-only pills. On the basis of end user they are segmented as hospitals, clinics and others.Browse Complete Report @Global Contraceptive drugs Market - Regional AnalysisThe market of contraceptive drugs is much higher in the Americas region owing to increasing awareness among the people and high incidence rates of abortion. According to the report published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015, around 229,715 babies were born from women aged between 15 to 19 years.Europe is also considering the huge market for contraceptive drugs players, owing to the increasing government support and awareness about healthcare industries, and well developed technology. Moreover, companies from these region are more into export to the developing region which increase the market share around the globe.Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa region are considering the big market. Whereas country like India and china of Asia Pacific region are considering fastest growing region due to the high rate of incidence of teen pregnancy. According to WHO, adolescent birth rates is 45 births per 1000 women in South-Eastern Asia and 7 births per 1000 women in Eastern Asia. Additionally they are open to adopt new treatment option from a developed country, this gap between the developed and developing countries will present significant growth opportunities for the contraceptive drugs market players in the coming years.MAJOR TABLE OF CONTENTS:1 INTRODUCTION1.1 DEFINITION1.2 SCOPE OF STUDY1.2.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE1.2.2 ASSUMPTIONS & LIMITATIONS1.2.2.1 ASSUMPTIONS1.2.2.2 LIMITATIONS1.3 MARKET STRUCTURE:2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY2.1 RESEARCH PROCESS:2.2 PRIMARY RESEARCH2.3 SECONDARY RESEARCH:3 MARKET DYNAMICS3.1 DRIVERS3.2 RESTRAINTS3.3 OPPORTUNITIES3.4 MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS4 MARKET FACTOR ANALYSIS4.1 PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL4.2 BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS4.3 BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS4.4 THREAT OF NEW ENTRANTSMajor TOC Continued!Get Exclusive Discount @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.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comErectile Dysfunction Drugs Market Overview 2018 | Changing Lifestyle and Increase in Lifestyle Disorders Favor the Growth | Boosting the Growth of Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market to CAGR Of 9.2% - Says MRFR

Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market

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Market Research Future published a Half Cooked research report on Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market  SegmentationGlobal Erectile dysfunction drugs market has been segmented on the basis of product which includes Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, Stendra, Zydena and other drugs and on the basis of end users the market is segmented into Hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies and others.Get Premium Sample Report Available @Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - ScenarioInability to keep firm erection firm enough during sexual intercourse in known as erectile dysfunction. It is also known as impotence. It is a common medical disorder primarily affecting men older than 40 years of age. Stress and mental health concerns may worsen the problem of erectile dysfunction. Physical and psychological issues may also cause erectile dysfunction.There is also an increase in the competition among the major market players. Patent expiry of number of blockbuster drugs, availability of counterfeit drugs and increasing manufactures of generic drugs in the market may result in the decline of erectile dysfunction drugs market. Global market of erectile dysfunction drugs is expected to reach USD 2.95 billion in 2023 from USD 1.65 billion in 2016 with a CAGR of approximately 6.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Key PlayersPfizer Inc. (U.S), Bayer AG (Germany), Eli Lily & Co. (U.S), DongA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Apricus Biosciences Inc.(U.S), S.K. Chemicals Co. Ltd. (South Korea), Apricus Biosciences Inc. (U.S), Cristalia Produtos Quimicos Farmaceuticos Ltd. (Brazil), Dong-A Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., (South Korea), Meda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (U.S), Vivus, Inc. (U.S), and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global erectile dysfunction drugs market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Study objectivesMain objective of this research is to provide information about erectile dysfunction drugs market, products and end users.To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next seven years of the various segments and sub-segments of the erectile dysfunction drugs market.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East and Africa.To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective.To provide country level analysis of the market for segments by products, by end users and its sub-segments.To provide overview of key players and their strategic profiling in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global erectile dysfunction drugs market.Browse Complete Report @Global Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Market - Regional AnalysisGeographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.The Americas account for the major share of the market owing to the presence of patient population, well-developed technology, and high healthcare expenditure. According to University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics Authority, about 5 percent of men that are 40 years old have complete erectile dysfunction, and that number increases to about 15 percent of men at age 70. Mild and moderate erectile dysfunction affects approximately 10 percent of men per decade of life.Europe holds the major share of the market, which is majorly contributed by Germany, the U.K., and France. According to the UK Health Centre, 50 percent of men that smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have a higher chance of developing erectile dysfunction. Furthermore, as per a study recently presented at the European Association of Urology showed that erectile dysfunction isnt being treated very often, with only 25.4 percent of men in the being treated for the condition.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market owing to rapidly changing healthcare sector, and the presence of huge opportunities for the development of this market. However, the Middle East & Africa has the least share in the market owing to the presence of poor and slow developing countries, especially, in African region. The Middle East holds the major share of the regional market due to well-developed technology and high spending.MAJOR TABLE OF CONTENTS:1. Report Prologue2. Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope Of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 Limitations2.3 Market Structure2.4. Market Segmentation3. Research Methodology3.1 Research Process3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size Estimation3.5 Forecast Model4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restraints4.3 OpportunitiesMajor TOC Continued!Get Exclusive Discount @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.Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAir Quality Monitoring (AQM)Market to witness huge potential in the future with involved key players: Emerson Electric, General Electric.

Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Market

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HTF MI recently launched the Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) study with 100+ market data Tables, Pie Chat, Graphs & Figures spread through Pages and easy to understand detailed analysis. At present, the market is developing its presence. The Research report presents a complete assessment of the Market and contains a future trend, current growth factors, attentive opinions, facts, and industry validated market data. The research study provides estimates for Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Forecast till 2025*.Request Sample of Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Report 2018 @:#Summary:Monitoring air quality is essential for local authorities as well as for major public and private industries to understand and prevent air pollution and assess emission sources, in order to preserve health and contribute to the fight against the greenhouse effect.The global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) market is valued at 3920 million US$ in 2017 and will reach 5610 million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% during 2018-2025.The in-depth information by segments of the Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) 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 Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Market.Professional Key players: Thermo Fisher Scientific, Teledyne Technologies, Siemens, Emerson Electric, General Electric & HoribaGlobal Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Product Types In-Depth: Indoor Monitors & Outdoor MonitorsGlobal Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Major Applications/End users: Government and Academic Institute, Power Generation Plants, Commercial and Residential, Pharmaceutical Industry, Petrochemical Industry & OthersThe Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) is valued at million US$ in 2017 and will reach million US$ by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR XX% during 2018-2025.Geographical Analysis: North America, United States, Canada, Mexico, Asia-Pacific, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Rest of Asia-Pacific, Europe, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, Russia, Rest of Europe, Central & South America, Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America, Middle East & Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey & Rest of Middle East & Africa** For global version, list of countries by region can be added as part of customization at minimum cost.North America (Country)Asia-Pacific (Country)Europe (Country)Central & South America (Country)Middle East & Africa (Country)In order to get a deeper view of Market Size, competitive landscape is provided i.e. Revenue (Million USD) by Players (2013-2018), Revenue Market Share (%) by Players (2013-2018) and further a qualitative analysis is made towards market concentration rate, product/service differences, new entrants and the technological trends in future.Enquire for customization in Report @In this study, the years considered to estimate the market size of Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) are as follows:History Year: 2013-2017Base Year: 2017Estimated Year: 2018Forecast Year 2018 to 2025Key Stakeholders/Global Reports:Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) ManufacturersAir Quality Monitoring (AQM) Distributors/Traders/WholesalersAir Quality Monitoring (AQM) Subcomponent ManufacturersIndustry AssociationDownstream VendorsBrowse for Full Report at @:What this Research Study Offers:Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) 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 advancements...ContinuedActual Numbers & In-Depth Analysis, Business opportunities, Market Size Estimation Available in Full Report.Buy Full Copy Global Air Quality Monitoring (AQM) Report 2018 @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact US :Craig Francis (PR & Marketing Manager)HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837Phone: +1 (206) 317 1218sales@htfmarketreport.comConnect with us atAdvanced Wound Care Market Outlook to 2025 - Braun Melsungen AG, Cardinal Health Inc., Smith & Nephew, Acelity L.P., Integra Lifesciences Corporation, ConvaTec, 3M, MiMedx, Inc., Molnlycke Health Care and Paul Hartmann AG

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The global advanced wound care market is expected to reach US$ 11,564.6 Mn in 2025 from US$ 8,181.9 Mn in 2017. The market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 4.5% from 2016-2025.An exclusive Advanced Wound Care market research report created through broad primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, and stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Advanced Wound Care Market By Type, By Application, By Region - North America, Europe, South America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. 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 Advanced Wound Care market. Additionally, the report also highlights market entry strategies for various companies across the globe.Get Sample Copy of this Report atLeading Advanced Wound Care Market Players:1. Smith & Nephew2. Acelity L.P.3. Braun Melsungen AG4. Integra Lifesciences Corporation5. ConvaTec6. 3M7. MiMedx, Inc.8. Molnlycke Health Care9. Paul Hartmann AG10. Cardinal Health, Inc.Worldwide Advanced Wound Care Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Advanced Wound Care industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Advanced Wound Care market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Advanced Wound Care market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Advanced Wound Care players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Advanced Wound Care market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Advanced Wound Care market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Order a copy of this RESEARCH STUDY atAlso, key Advanced Wound Care market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the global Advanced Wound Care market- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Advanced Wound Care market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.Get Complete Report With TOC and Company Profiles atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners 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, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Automotive and Defense.533, 5th Floor, Amanora Chambers,Amanora Township, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Wearable Heart Monitoring Devices Market 2023 Top Key Players are Medtronic, Kinetec Products UK Ltd., Beurer GmbH, Medisana AG, Briggs Healthcare, Polar Electro, SUUNTO, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Garmin Ltd and More

Wearable Heart Monitoring Devices Market

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Global Wearable Heart Monitoring Devices Market Research Report - Forecast to 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.The Global Wearable Heart Monitoring Devices Market is expected to grow at an approximate CAGR of 9.86% during the forecast period.Key players for global wearable heart monitoring devices market:The key players for the global wearable heart monitoring devices market are Medtronic (U.S.), Kinetec Products UK Ltd. (South America), Beurer GmbH (Europe), Medisana AG (Europe), Briggs Healthcare (U.S.), Polar Electro (Europe), SUUNTO (Europe), Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Europe), Garmin Ltd. (Europe), and others.Get Wearable Heart Monitoring Device Market Premium Sample Copy @Market Scenario:Digital revolution and the rapid development of the information technology has transformed virtually every industry and healthcare industry is no exception. Recently, novel devices for wireless monitoring have emerged and begun to be integrated with cardiac patient care. This has led to the development of wearable heart monitoring devices market. By set-up, a majority of the wearable heart monitoring devices consists of wearable monitoring device and a portable data transmission device which transmits real time medical data for analysis. According to the National Health Service in 2015, an average American is constantly connected via high bandwidth to a vast network of data and sophisticated digital platforms with over 90% of American adults owning a cell phone and 55% having smart phones. Such exploitation of the technology has facilitated the development of mobile phones based wearable heart monitoring devices. Cardiac conditions such as atrial fibrillation (AFib) requires extensive and continuous monitoring.Conventionally, Holter monitoring is exploited for the same. But since the technology is expensive and risks of missing arrhythmias are associated, a number of new and effective technologies for wireless monitoring are devised which has facilitated the market growth. According to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 2017, 2.7-6.1 million people in the United States have AFib. Moreover, it is reported that more than 750,000 hospitalizations occur each year in the U.S. because of AFib, accounting to the estimated medical cost for people who have AFib to be about USD 8,705 per person. Such trends in the prevalence of AFib along with high per capita healthcare expenditures in the developed countries and growing geriatric population is estimated to boost the market growth during the forecasted period. However, lack of awareness for the products, low healthcare expenditures in the developing countries and stringent FDA approvals will restrain the market growth during the forecasted period.Apply for Exclusive Discount @Segmentation:The global wearable heart monitoring devices is segmented on the basis of products, type, application, and end users.On the basis of products, the market is segmented as electric pulse based, optical technology based, and others. The electric pulse based segment is sub-segmented into chest straps, chest patches and others. The optical technology based segment, by product, is further segmented into smart watches, earphones, and others. On the basis of type, the market is categorised into chargeable, non-chargeable, bluetooth enabled, and others. On the basis of application, the market is segmented into healthcare, consumer market, and others. On the basis of end users, the market is segmented into hospitals, retail pharmacies, academic institutes, and others.Regional Analysis:America dominates the global wearable heart monitoring devices market owing to a well-developed healthcare sector and a highly developed information technology sector. Moreover, high prevalence of AFib diseases, increasing healthcare expenditure have boosted the growth of the market in America. Moreover, the presence of developed economies like the U.S. and Canada and global players such as Medtronic, Briggs Healthcare within the regional boundaries fuels the market growth.Europe is the second largest market for wearable heart monitoring devices, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Availability of funds for research, well developed healthcare infrastructure, huge patient population and government support for research & development will drive the market in the Europe.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for the market due to the presence of developing economies like India and China within the region which have increasing healthcare expenditures. This along with favourable government policies will boost the market growth in the presence of huge opportunity for the untapped market within the region.The Middle East & Africa has the least share in the global wearable heart monitoring devices market due to presence of poor economies especially in the African region. Majority of the market of the Middle & Africa region is held by the Middle East due to a well-developed healthcare sector and huge healthcare expenditure by the presence of regional economies like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar within the region.TABLE OF CONTENTChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of The Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market Dynamics4.1 Drivers4.2 Restrains4.3 Opportunities4.4 Challenges4.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4.6 Technology Trends & AssessmentContinued!Ask Query @Medtronic, Kinetec Products UK Ltd., Beurer GmbH, Medisana AG, Briggs Healthcare, Polar Electro, SUUNTO, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Garmin Ltd and MoreMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone: +1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comHydropower Industry Analysis of In-Pipe Hydro Systems in Global Market 2017 - 2025

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- Global In-pipe Hydro Systems Market: OverviewThis report analyzes and forecasts the market for in-pipe hydro systems at the global and regional level. The market has been forecast based on market share (percentages) and revenue (US$ in Thousands) from 2017 to 2025. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global in-pipe hydro systems market. It also covers the impact of these drivers and restraints on demand for in-pipe hydro systems during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the in-pipe hydro systems market at the global and regional level.. . Get Sample Report_' '- Global In-pipe Hydro Systems Market: SegmentationThe study provides a decisive view of the global in-pipe hydro systems market by segmenting it in terms of design, capacity, and application. These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for in-pipe hydro systems in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers demand for individual application segments in all the regions.The report segments the global in-pipe hydro systems market as follows:- In-Pipe Hydro Systems Market: by DesignInternal SystemExternal System- In-Pipe Hydro Systems Market: by ApplicationWastewater SystemIndustrial Water SystemIrrigation SystemResidential- In-Pipe Hydro Systems Market: by CapacityMicro Hydro (5kW-100kW)Pico Hydro (less than 5kW). . More Clear Details get Full Table of Contents_' '- In-Pipe Hydro Systems Market: by RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaEuropeU.K.SpainItalyContinue.....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Chemicals Insights of Industrial Silica in Global Market 2017 - 2025

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- Global Industrial Silica Market: OverviewDemand for fiberglass is high, due to its excellent functional and mechanical properties such as low weight and resistance to corrosion and heat. Thus, these resins are used in a wide range of end-user industries such as automotive. Usage of fiberglass in wind turbines is the fastest-growing application segment due to high demand for renewable energy and fast installation rate of wind turbines across the globe. Besides this, the fiberglass industry in China obtains subsidies from the government, enabling it to export fiberglass at a low cost to Europe and North America.. . Get Sample Report_' '- Global Industrial Silica Market: Research MethodologyPrimary research represents the bulk of our research efforts, supplemented by an extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.- Global Industrial Silica Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report includes an overview of the market share of key companies in the global industrial silica market. Key players profiled in the industrial silica study include Premier Silica LLC, International Silica Industries Company PLC, U.S. Silica Holdings Inc., Sil Industrial Minerals Inc., Adwan Chemical Industries Co. Ltd, Delmon Group of Companies, Opta Minerals Inc., Al Marbaie Est., Saudi Emirates Pulverization Industries Company, Short Mountain Silica, AGSCO Corporation, Al-Rushaid Group, and FINETON Industrial Minerals Limited.- The report segments the global industrial silica market into:Industrial Silica Market  By ApplicationSodium SilicateFiberglassCultured MarbleAdditive (Paints, etc.)Reinforcing filler (plastics, rubber, etc.)Foundry work (metal alloy, etc.). . More Clear Details get Full Table of Contents_' '- Industrial Silica Market  Regional AnalysisNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeFranceU.K.GermanyContinue.....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THE BELL TEAM OF KELLER WILLIAMS ANSWERS YOUR BURNING REAL ESTATE QUESTIONS

www.ringthebellteam.com

The Bell Team takes your questions in their latest Ask the Expert session. The home buying or selling process can become quite complicated, but with the right real estate partner by your side it doesnt have to be. Real estate advice is only as good as the knowledge behind it, and with guidance from The Bell Team purchasing or selling a home affords you trusted service and proven results.One of the questions we tend to get asked a lot is, How familiar are you with the area? Our team is home to a number of agents who have lived, worked, and played in North Georgia for generations. Were committed to continue serving the communities throughout Hall, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Jackson, and Barrow counties. And, weve recently expanded to the Boston, MA area too. Keep an eye out for The Bell Team Boston in Needham, Dedham, etc. officially launching in August.Now, according to Co-Owner and Listing Specialist, Trey Bell, one of the questions hes often asked is, How many houses have you sold in our area? Trey answers, Last year we sold 140 residences, and another 138 so far this year. Were on target to sell our goal of 225 homes in North Georgia, so lets talk about how we can help you sell yours quickly and profitably, as we do for our other clients. We average less than 30 days to sell and at 98% or more of list price.Another frequently asked question Buyer Specialist, Korey Anderson, hears is, Does it matter which lender I use? He says, Absolutely! But, it depends on the property youre looking at. For example, if youre looking at a traditional single family home you can choose from the plethora of banks, credit unions, and mortgage bankers around or one of our preferred lenders. But, if what you want is a specialty property, go with a specialty lender. Korey goes on to provide examples, Whether its an active horse farm, leisure horse ranch, land only, modular home, or whatnot, theres going to be a specialty lender to help you buy what you want. And, we can help connect you to the right people.Im under contract, now what? Yet, another question Buyer Specialist, Lauren Frullaney gets all too often and so does the rest of the team. She tells her clients, Remember, were a full service real estate team, so we guide you through the complete process from inspection and repairs through the appraisal. Well be in constant communication to lead you through the whole home buying experience.Buyer Specialist, Sam Gustafson says his most frequently asked question is about the beginning of negotiating: Do you think theyll take a pretty reduced offer? Sam explains, Educating our clients is essential to The Bell Team, and its our priority to help them get the best deal on their new home. He goes on to explain, Depending on the price point, days on the market, condition of the home, etc. we advise our clients on where to start negotiating.Speaking of negotiations, Becky Smith, another Buyer Specialist with The Bell Team shares one of her commonly received questions, How firm do you think the seller is on sticking to the list price? While its a great question, the answer isnt a catchall. Heres Beckys response educating clients through home purchase negotiation, Our answer can be different depending on whats going on in the market, which is our job to know exactly whats going on in the real estate market. Right now, she continues, homes are selling in our area for 96.6% of list price. That may not be the case 3 or 6 months from now though, which is why its always best to work with a knowledgeable agent to get the best deal.Relocation is a huge topic of discussion in the real estate industry and Rhonda Bell, Co-owner and Director of Business Development, doles another FAQ beauty: Where should I buy a house since Im relocating because of a job transfer? To which, Rhonda replies, We understand your concern and not only do we help you buy a house, but we connect you to the community. She goes on to explain, We suggest working with a reputable realty team who can understand your situation and exactly what youre looking for, especially in terms of schools, commute, neighborhood atmosphere, and more. Here at The Bell Team we make this transition as seamless as possible and consider all of these factors to help you get the right home for you and your loved ones.And last but certainly not least, this Q&A session brought forth the big one... What differentiates The Bell Team from other real estate agencies? According to Listing Specialist, Jake Moran, We cover these details in our complimentary Listing Presentation. In fact, about a third of the information in the presentation goes over our marketing strategy. Yes, there is a marketing strategy behind the sale of properties when theyre listed with The Bell Team. The consultation will answer all of your big questions including how we get your house sold for top dollar quickly. You can schedule your Listing Presentation todayjust ring The Bell Team at (678) 207-1542.A real estate team with Keller Williams, The Bell Team has been servicing homebuyers and sellers in Northeast Georgia and beyond for over 14 years. Clients turn to The Bell Team for their real estate expertise combined with their exemplary customer service. Residents looking to sell a home, purchase one, or both can also visit The Bell Team online atThe Bell Team3730 Village Way, Suite 160Braselton, GA 30517Lisa Cutter, Marketing(678) 207-1542Energy Complete Overview of Drones in Global Market for Energy Industry 2017 - 2025

Drones Market for Energy

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https://www.researchmoz.us/drones-market-for-energy-industry-global-industry-analysis-size-share-growth-trends-and-forecast-2017-2025-report.html#table-of-content

Drones have transformed aerial surveys and inspection services. Development in battery technology and sensors has vastly transformed the operations of drones. Drones are flying devices which carry cameras to areas that are difficult to access. The difficulty sometimes is likely to be physical or economical. The energy industry that includes oil & gas, renewable industry, and power & utility can employ drones primarily for inspection and real-time observation from remote locations. Until recently, engineers around the world would manually monitor oil wells, wind turbines, and oil and gas pipelines for any kind of inspections.. . Get Sample Report_' 'In terms of industry type, the drones market for the energy industry can be segmented into oil & gas, power & utility, and renewable energy. Operators of the energy industry are finding drone technology cost-effective, accurate, quick, and easy due to improved efficiency, powerful computers, and affordable drone technology.Key players operating in the drones market for energy industry include Aerovel, Altavian, Precision Hawk, Sky-Future, Skylark Drones Pvt Ltd, Leonardo  Societa per azioni, Intel Deutschland GmbH, BAE Systems, AERODYNE GEOSPATIAL, and Airware.. . More Clear Details get Full Table of Contents_' '- Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsContinue.....About Researchmoz,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Virtual art for a wall that unites.

virtual art, paolo grassi, lerici, castle wall, italy, virtual wall, utopian projects

www.lephotoart.com

www.arteamare.it

Within the "ArteAmare" exhibition at the Castle of San Terenzo in Lerici (Italy), the artist-photographer Paolo Grassi creates a work co-created with visitors. A wall that does not separate but unites people and the environment.The Castle has origins that refer to the years of the Renaissance (1400 AD) and was probably built with the participation of the entire population to protect the country from the assaults of Saracen pirates.Paolo Grassi, inside the exhibition held in the tower of the Castle, proposes an intervention to de-construct the walls intended as defense and closure through the composition of a virtual wall formed by individual "blocks" made by all the people who will visit the exhibition of the same photographer-artist inside the Castle.Each visitor will find in the castle a backdrop where to be photographed with his face inserted in a loophole of the walls. Each photo will represent a "brick" of the new wall.The photographs sent on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #arteamare will be recomposed by Paolo Grassi at the end of the exhibition to give rise to a collective work called The Castle Wall.This theme is part of the "Generation of the city" project recently developed by Paolo Grassi and visible in the Lerici exhibition, where with an overlap of images the artist connects the architectural elements of the city with the people who generated it that change it continuously.Just as the renaissance walls of the castle protected the "virtual" wall, a collective work of art, from the pirate assault, it will contain within itself the image and the spirit of the people who contribute to the work, it will therefore be a renewal intervention with in the center the man, an intervention of "Renaissance deconstruction".If the walls in the Renaissance cities were to serve to create the perfect synthesis between nature, man and history, the new virtual wall should serve to unite people and restore a correct relationship between man and the natural environment. Perhaps a new utopia, as were utopian projects of Renaissance cities.For any further information visit the websitesandRita Manzoni. Lerici 25 July 2018Lephotoart.com, or Limited Edition Photography Art, aims to enhance and disseminate the works of Paolo Grassi, an artist photographer active since the late 70s of the twentieth century, in galleries and art collectors.Lephotoart.comPiazza G. Matteotti 454033 CarraraItalyEurope, the Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market Professional Overview 2018-2021 with Major Vendors Size, Shares and Demand with F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Becton, LifeScan, Bayer etc.

Europe, Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/599

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/check-discount/599

https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/enquiry/599

Europe, Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market - Latest Industry UpdatesBeing a competitive market, a number of different manufacturer are focusing on the product launch, and acquisition for the market development. Some of the latest development in the market are-Hoffmann-La Roche AG is the world's biggest biotech organization, with genuinely differentiated solutions in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. In June 2016, the company offers a huge type of products: ACCU-CHEK Safe-T-Pro lancet, Accu-Chek Multiclix Finger Pricker, Accu-Chek FastClix, Accu-Chek Softclix, and others.Becton, Dickinson and Company, an American medical technology company that manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems, and reagents. The company is listed in fortune 500. In ode rot expand the market, in October 2014, the company has acquired CareFusion and in April 2017, the company agreed to acquire C. R. Bard.Get Sample Report @Europe, Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market - Competitive AnalysisThe Europe safety lancet market consists of many major players. However there are some major players in the market are F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Terumo Medical Corporation, Guangzhou Improve Medical Technology Co., Ltd., HTL-STREFA S.A., Bayer Crop Science Limited and others. HTL-STREFA S.A. accounted for major market share of Europe safety lancet market. The large share of the company is attributed to the high demand for safety lancet globally. Moreover, this company has a strong sales and distribution network and the after sales services provided helped the company to play major role in the satisfaction of the customers.Some of the key players in safety lancet market are: LifeScan (USA), BD (USA), Huahong Technology (China), Greiner Bio-One (Germany), Bayer (Germany), Roche Diagnostics (Switzerland), Terumo (Japan), Nipro Diagnostics (Japan), Guangzhou Improve (China), KDL China (China), Liuyang Medical Instrument (China), SteriLance Medical (China), Becton Dickinson and Company (US), Novo Nordisk (Denmark), and Nipro Diagnostics (Japan).Europe, Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market - HighlightsEurope safety lancet market is increasing every year and is expect to increase continuously in future. Lancet is a small needle which is generally use to prick the finger for collection of blood sample. Safety lancets are single use devices for collecting blood samples. They are used in hospitals, clinics, laboratories, doctors offices and wherever both patients and professionals need to feel safe. Safety lancets eliminates the needle stick injury and infections. Safety lancets are gamma-sterilized and protected with a sterility tab, fully enclosed needle housing ensuring that needle is hidden before and after use to prevent sharps injuries, Self-destructing mechanism preventing reuse of the device, lancet is triggered by a gentle push on the test site, minimizes pain because of its high speed penetration. Different shapes of safety lancets are introduced. Majorly safety lancets are used for collection blood sample for blood glucose test or for cholesterol test. Increase in the number of diabetic and obese patient significantly increased the market of safety lancets.Get Discount on Report @Major driver for increase in the Europe safety lancet market is increase in the diabetic population. It was estimates that one in every seventh person is suffering from diabetes in Europe. According to the WHO, over 60 million people in Europe are suffering from diabetes. Additionally, growing incidence number of contagious and non-contagious diseases, improving medical device regulation, and increasing inclination towards home healthcare will fuel the growth of the market. In 2013 there were approximately 320 cases of allergic reactions after blood transfusion in the UK, these allergic reactions are caused due to the bodys immune system which reacts to substances such as proteins in the donated blood. Lack of awareness and risk associated with blood transfusion may slow the market growth.Europe, Middle East and Africa Safety Lancet Market - Regional AnalysisEurope holds the second position in the global market owing to the strong government support, increasing prevalence of diabetes and high healthcare expenditure. Europe is segmented into two major regions: Western Europe and Eastern Europe. Western Europe dominates the Europe safety lancet market owing to the increase in the number of patient suffering from disease like diabetes, leukemia, HIV and other chronic diseases. Increasing different allergic test and toxicological test have a synergistic impact on the market growth. Various technological advances and increasing awareness among the people regarding the management of different diseases has also increased the Western Europe market. Additionally, the government in this region is supporting the manufacturer for research & development. However, Eastern Europe show the healthy growth due to developing economy and increasing healthcare expenditure.Major Table of ContentChapter 1. Report PrologueChapter 2. Market Introduction2.1 Definition2.2 Scope of the Study2.2.1 Research Objective2.2.2 Assumptions2.2.3 LimitationsChapter 3. Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Primary Research3.3 Secondary Research3.4 Market Size EstimationChapter 4. Market DynamicsContinued.To Know More Enquire @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.In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industry, MRFR often plans & conducts meet with the industry experts and industrial visits for its research analyst members.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: salesteam@marketresearchfuture.comSHUKR Jilbab Collection Highlight their Fashion-Forward Approach to Modern Clothing

www.ShukrOnline.com

www.ShukrOnline.com

With Western sensibilities an increasing influence in the fashion world, SHUKR Islamic Clothing has found an ideal market in helping Muslims find the style within dressing modestly.SHUKR Islamic Clothing, a leading producer of modest and Islamic clothing for Muslims in the West, has always separated itself from competitors by offering specific and appropriate seasonal collections. One of their most popular items is their stunning range of jilbabs. A SHUKR jilbab is unique, expertly crafted with womens needs in mind.Every woman likes to look beautiful, and Muslim women are no exception, says Anas Sillwood, Managing Partner of SHUKR. However, even when dressing for special occasions, Muslim Women like to look dignified and modest, as well as beautiful, in their clothing.The new jilbab range varies from elegant embellishments to full and flared skirts. From geometric designs to soft pastels to beautiful embroidery, each jilbab is uniquely designed for both comfort and style. Some pieces are subtle while others are brightly colored and stand out from any crowd. These traditional jilbabs with their western inspirations are proving to be popular among women across the world due to their versatility and modesty.SHUKR is inspired by the beauty if Islamic modesty, and we take pride in sharing that inspiration with the Muslim community around the world, continues Sillwood.Launched in 2001, SHUKR was the first company to provide contemporary modest clothing which met the aesthetic and cultural needs of the new generation of Muslims living in the West. As the company has developed, it has also attracted a loyal non-Muslim customer base, people who are attracted by the stylish, modest clothing SHUKR offers. SHUKR is proud to be able to serve people of all religions who find that their faith encourages them dress modestly, without having to sacrifice style and beauty.SHUKR Islamic Clothings collections can be viewed online atAnas Sillwood, Managing PartnerSHUKR Islamic ClothingWeb:Email: press@ShukrClothing.comSHUKR LLC8345 NW 66th St. #6483Miami Florida 33166United StatesPhone:1 203-304-2379Global Digital Freight Brokerage Market Likely Attain a value of US$10,964.3 mn and Expand at a Mind-Boggling 61.7% CAGR till 2025

Market Research Report Search Engine

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https://www.mrrse.com/digital-freight-brokerage-market

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https://www.mrrse.com/

A latest research report titled as Digital Freight Brokerage Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Click here For Free Sample Report @The freight brokering industry, in which freight brokers match shippers to the carriers, has been around for quite a while now. However, emergence of digital freight broker companies in the recent past have revolutionized the industry.Currently, the competition in the relatively new digital freight brokerage market is moderate. However, in the years ahead, the competition will likely intensify on account of the foray of numerous solution providers.Serving to boost the global digital freight brokerage market is the rising uptake of sophisticated smartphones, improved wireless connectivity, and advantages accorded by digital platforms such as better efficiency and reduced costs. This helps to save time and the brokerage money too. In the traditional freight brokerage market, carriers and the loads are forced to remain idle till the deal is finalized by brokers through phone or mail.A noticeable trend in the global digital freight brokerage market is the technological progress. However, a drawback is the upfront capital required for building the software. Once the company is up and running, there are some logistic hurdles to overcome as well.Being in a nascent state, the growth prospects in the global digital freight brokerage market is high. A research study by Transparency Market Research projects the market to expand at a mind-boggling 61.7% CAGR during the period between 2017 and 2025. Expanding at this pace, it will likely attain a value of US$10,964.3 mn by 2025 from US$144.5 mn.Full Utilization of Cargo Space in Trucking Industry Will Propel Road Transport SegmentDepending upon the mode of transportation, the global market for digital freight brokerage can be segmented into roadway, seaway, airway, and railway. Among them, the segment of road transportation is slated to expand considerably in the forecast period and also rake in maximum revenue. This is because of the rising use of digital applications to avoid hefty brokerage fees and desire to utilize unutilized cargo space in trucking industry.Browse Full Report with TOC @When it comes to industry verticals, the main sections of the global market for digital freight brokerage are automotive, food and beverages, manufacturing, retail and e-commerce, healthcare, and others such as aerospace and defense. Of these, the retail and ecommerce sector is expected to contribute the most to the market. Proliferation of organized retail in the upcoming years, particularly in the fast expanding large economies of India and China, will drive the market in Asia Pacific.North America Dominates Global Market due to Presence of Key PlayersFrom a geographical standpoint, North America accounts of maximum revenue share in the global digital freight brokerage market at present. The expansion in the region is being primarily driven by the U.S., which is home to a copious number of players. The high demand in the region is also serving to boost demand. The revenue in the region is slated to become US$4.70 bn by 2025-end. Vis-a-vis growth rate, however, Asia Pacific is forecasted to outshine all other regions by registering a 64.4% CAGR from 2017 to 2025, mainly on the back of uptake of digital freight brokerage in India, China, and Japan.Europe is another key market which is predicted to rise at 62.6% CAGR to become worth US$3.478 bn by 2025.Key players in the global market for digital freight brokerage are Echo Global Logistics Inc., Coyote Logistics, Transfix, LLC, Convoy, Cargomatic Inc., Trucker Path Inc., J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc., Cargocentric Inc., Uber Freight and TGMatrix Limited.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search EngineMarket 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:Karnataka Chief Minister to unveil the inaugural edition of MACHINE MAKER today

www.themachinemaker.com

https://www.themachinemaker.com

The inaugural edition of MACHINE MAKER  a platform featuring incredible stories of Indian manufacturing to be released by Karnataka Chief Minister Shri H. D. Kumaraswamy in Bangalore today. The launch of the magazine will be followed by a programme 6.30 pm onwards to felicitate eminent personality Shri Philip Samuel at Indrag Idea Theatre for his lifelong contributions to the Indian manufacturing industry. The inaugural edition of MACHINE MAKER also features the incredible journey of Shri Philip Samuel.Professor Philip, founder-director of Xavier Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship, Bangalore will grace the occasion as the Chief Guest of the programme which will also be attended by other dignitaries.MACHINE MAKER which was earlier known as Industrial Business MART, has been a leading monthly magazine on the Indian manufacturing industry for the last 15 years. Industrial Business MART has been covering the growth of Indian manufacturing industry all these years with in depth news, views, analysis, articles and interviews of industry experts.Now MART Infomedia Pvt. Ltd., the publisher of Industrial Business MART has embarked on an ambitious journey to tell the incredible journey of Indian manufacturers, the first of its kind initiative in the country.Expanding its presence to print and online, both MACHINE MAKER magazine andwill bring out the inspiring stories from Indian manufacturing exponents along with regular columns and features.About UsThe story of MAKE IN INDIA has reached far and wide. But who are makers of MAKE IN INDIA? What is their story? Machine Maker is a dedicated magazine that seeks to bring the incredible stories of the makers of India to the readers, the brains behind the manufacturing sectors, right from small scale manufacturers to large ones, start-ups to established ones, how they have made it big for themselves, how they have made the difference to industry. Machine Maker comes pre-empted with rich experience of Industrial Business Mart which has been delivering an interdisciplinary view into engineering and manufacturing trends and breakthroughs since 2014.MACHINE MAKER, an authentic magazine from the house of MART Infomedia Private Limited with 14 years of experience in Indian manufacturing sector, is all geared up to cover the growth of this new age manufacturing sector in India with special thrust on the makers who will make this happen. Read and Advertise with us to be part of this growth.Contact UsTHE MACHINE MAKER2nd floor Ariana, Bhumkar Chowk, Marunji Road, Wakad Pune-411057Phone no: +91-788-780-0015Email Id: info@themachinemaker.comWebsite:The story of MAKE IN INDIA has reached far and wide. But who are makers of MAKE IN INDIA? What is their story? Machine Maker is a dedicated magazine that seeks to bring the incredible stories of the makers of India to the readers, the brains behind the manufacturing sectors, right from small scale manufacturers to large ones, start-upsTHE MACHINE MAKER2nd floor Ariana, Bhumkar Chowk, Marunji Road, Wakad Pune-411057Royal Canadian Air Force, EU Training Mission Somalia and NATO SPA to present on Military Airlift and Air-Air Refuelling

http://www.military-airlift.com/openpr

http://www.smi-online.co.uk

SMi Group Reports: Three new presentations have been added to the 19th Annual Military Airlift and Air-to-Air Refuelling Conference agenda, taking place 3  5 December 2018 in Rome, Italy.Conference organisers, SMi Group are delighted to announce that three new presentations, led by Royal Canadian Air Force, EU Training Mission Somalia and NATO Support and Procurement Agency have been added to the three-day agenda for Military Airlift Air-to-Air Refuelling 2018.Taking place in Rome, Italy on the 4th and 5th December 2018, Military Airlift AAR 2018 will provide detailed updates on achieving strategic mobility through platforms and technologies. Plus, new for this year, a dedicated Air-to-Air Refuelling focus day on the 3rd December.Lieutenant Colonel Dean Rood, Senior Staff Officer, Air Mobility, Royal Canadian Air Force, will present at the conference on: Canadian Tactical and Strategic Airlift, Covering: Why the 1st Air Division is at the forefront of Canadian military airlift as the key response unit to international events The airlift ground segment  an overview of the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) Feedback from deployment as part of Operation Mobile within Libya and how AAR capabilities allowed for extended flight time above Libyan air space Overcoming unique arctic airlift challenges and ensuring that the Canadian Armed Forces can effectively operate within polar regions How the CC-177 Globemaster provides unique air mobility and plans to upgrade its flight capacity Enhancing interoperability with allied partners and how this streamlines coalition operationsLieutenant Colonel Salvatore Tagliata, Logistics and Support Branch Head, EU Training Mission Somalia will present at the conference on: Logistics in Degraded Environments. This presentation will cover: The Somali Culture and heritage Somali everyday life The ambitions and aims of the EU Training Mission in Somalia and its current status J4 (Logistics) presentation /logistical perspectiveDr Emilio Tunon Nieto, Deputy Director, Life Cycle Management, NATO Support and Procurement Agency will be presenting on the focus day on: MRTT at the Crossroad of European and NATO Cooperation. The presentation will cover: Building cooperation through NSPA MRTT cooperation as a force multiplier Role of industry in the MRTT European and NATO cooperation MRTT logistic support: challenges and opportunitiesThe full agenda is available to download from the event website.Bookings made by Tuesday 31st July will be eligible for a 400 early bird discount. This discount is available for all types of conference bookings and will be the biggest saving when booking a spot at this year's highly focused event.Register online at:19th Annual Military Airlift and Air-To-Air RefuellingConference: 4th and 5th December 2018Air-to-Air Refuelling Focus Day: 3rd December 2018Crowne Plaza Rome St. Peter's Hotel & Spa, Rome, ItalyGold Sponsors: Airbus and BoeingSponsored by: IRVINGQ, JBTC, Jetex, Leonardo, SHZ Aviation, TLD Group and ViasatTo sponsor or exhibit at Military Airlift Air-to-Air Refuelling 2018, contact Sadia Malick: smalick@smi-online.co.ukMilitary, government and public-sector rates available. For more information and for delegate queries, please contact James Hitchen at jhitchen@smi-online.co.uk-- END About SMi Group: Established since 1993, SMi Group is a global event-production company that specializes in Business-to-Business Conferences, Workshops, Masterclasses and online Communities. We create and deliver events in the Defence, Security, Energy, Utilities, Finance and Pharmaceutical industries. We pride ourselves on having access to the worlds most forward-thinking opinion leaders and visionaries, allowing us to bring our communities together to Learn, Engage, Share and Network. More information can be found atSMi Group Ltd1 Westminster Bridge Rd, South Bank, London SE1 7XW+44 020 7827 6000Global Fountain Machines Market Research, Trends and Forecasts to 2025

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This report studies the global Fountain Machines market status and forecast, categorizes the global Fountain Machines market size (value & volume) by manufacturers, type, application, and region. This report focuses on the top manufacturers in North America, Europe, Japan, China, India, Southeast Asia and other regions (Central & South America, and Middle East & Africa).Last five year has witnessed high growth in the Fountain Machines industry, with volume reached 990.3 k units in 2017, valued at 2206.4 million USD. This is driven by higher demand of consumption and widens application of Fountain Machines trends. Despite current downturn economy status, Fountain Machines are likely to be affected but should not be heavily. Global Fountain Machines industry is forecasted its growing trend, reaching 1462.6 K units with value 2601.2 million USD in 2024.Restaurant and Cinema are the main application areas for Fountain Machines market. They accounted for 59.33% and 26.20% of total market share in 2017.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The largest consumption area is North America and Europe which are much matured market. For emerging economies, like China, Fountain Machines technology is rapidly improving. Top Fountain Machines ManufacturersCovered in This reportLancerCorneliusManitowocZikoolHimalay Soda FountainPlanet Soda MachineCool StarSofty and SodaMarket Breakdown by Regions:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaRest of WorldMarket Breakdown by TypeDrop-In Fountain MachinesTower Fountain MachinesOtherMarket Breakdown by Application:RestaurantCinemaOtherClick to view the full report TOC, figure and tables:QY Research established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc.QY Research, INC.17890 Castleton,Suite 218,City of industry, CA - 91748USA: +1 626 295 2442Email  inquiry@qyrsearch.comWeb The 2018 South African Book Fair (SABF) will be held at the Newtown Cultural Precinct in Johannesburg from 7-9 September 2018. The three-day programme will present a range of topics and activities for visitors from all walks of life.

National Book Week

The programme of events is full of things to do and see for everyone from pre-schoolers to the most dedicated book lovers, including a vault of books with industry experts showcasing books that entertain, educate, empower, inform, and advance. The South African Library for the Blind will also showcase tactile books, promoting a positive reading experience for the blind and visually impaired.Celebrating #OurStories on the page, mic, and stage, the 2018 Book Fair also promises a feast for lovers of the spoken word as a giant of the South African literary world will be honoured. The late Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile, affectionately known as Bra Willie, will be celebrated through intergenerational voices in indigenous languages, a commissioned tribute poem and more. The inaugural Keorapetse Kgositsile Poetry Cafe at the SABF will feature some of the most recognised names in the realm of spoken word.The Book Fair, as part of the National Book Week campaign which runs 3-9 September 2018, kicks off with an exciting schools programme, where learners, librarians, teachers, caregivers, and parents will be treated to a delectable offering of storytelling in the vernacular, The Little Prince and other theatre productions, and a host of activities in The National Book Week Magic Tent.The literary programme lineup includes panel discussions with leading movers and shakers, a philosophy cafe, facilitated by prominent thought leaders, and sessions dealing with some of the most pressing social, economic, and political issues facing our country today. Attendees may meet Mandy Wiener, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, Ralph Mathekga, Christi van der Westhuizen, Mpho Dagada, Dudu Busani-Dube, Jan-Jan Joubert, David Higgs, and more.The fair also features a wealth of experts from the publishing industry who will be ready to assist with learning and support materials, the best research and non-fiction books from the university presses and SMME publishers from all provinces.The full programme for the 2018 South African Book Fair, which is the final event on the National Book Week calendar, may be accessed at www.southafricanbookfair.co.za Tickets are available through WebTickets . Entry into the exhibition, poetry performances, the storytelling festival, and the family zone will be free of charge.Cancer Supportive Care Products Market 2018 Top Profiled Companies are Johnson & Johnson, Novartis Ag., Baxter International Inc, Fagron Group BV, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Hoffmann LA- Roche Ltd

Cancer Supportive Care Products Market

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Global Cancer Supportive Care Products Market Research Report provides in-depth information and professional study 2018-2024 of Cancer Supportive Care Industry. This Report is segmented into Manufactures, Types, Applications and Regions. Global Cancer Supportive Care Products Market report also shares details of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and production value with some important factor that can lead to market growth.Global Cancer Supportive Care Products Market report scope includes a holistic study of the current dynamics of the market, industry growth and restraints of the market. It provides the market forecast to 2024, recent developments in the market and pipeline analysis of the major players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro forecasts, new entrant strategies, and market penetration strategies with a comprehensive value chain analysis.Get Free Sample Copy of Report atGlobal Cancer Supportive Care Products Market competition by top players include - Amgen Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Novartis Ag., Baxter International Inc, Fagron Group BV, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Hoffmann LA- Roche Ltd, APR Applied Pharma Science Research S.A., Acacia Pharma Ltd, and Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co Ltd., Bayer, Heron Therapeutics, Insys Therapeutics, Kyowa Hakko Kirin, Daiichi Sankyo, Fagron Group BV, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., Acacia Pharma Ltd. among othersOn the basis of geography, cancer supportive care products market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaSome of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others. In 2017, North America is expected to dominate the market.To Avail 10% Discount On This Report Mail Us on: - sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comReport Segmentation:By drug class the market for cancer supportive care products market is segmented into: Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Anti-Infective Anti-Emetics Monoclonal Antibodies Erythropoietin Stimulating Agents Opioid Analgesics BisphosphonatesBy cancer type the cancer supportive care products market is segmented into: Lung Cancer Liver Cancer Breast Cancer Leukemia Prostate Cancer Ovarian Cancer Bladder Cancer OthersOn the basis of therapeutic area the market is segmented into: Oral Mucositis And Dry Mouth Chemotherapy Induced Nausea And Vomiting Cancer Pain Chemotherapy Induced Anemia Chemotherapy Induced Neutropenia Bone MetastasesOn the basis of end-users the cancer supportive care products market is segmented into: Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Compounding PharmaciesTable Of Contents Available For This Market Request For TOC Here @Cancer supportive care products have its applications in prevention and treatment of symptoms of cancer and the side-effects caused due to cancer therapy. Cancer supportive care products are used for treatment of the side-effects of chemotherapy such as bone metastasis, cancer pain, oral mucositis, neutropenia, nausea and vomiting, anemia among others.Reason to Buy:- Save and reduce time carrying out entry-level research by identifying the growth, size, leading players and segments in the Global Cancer Supportive Care Products Market.- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Global Cancer Supportive Care Products Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.To Inquire Regarding This Report @About Us:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comOrganic Food and Beverages Market 2018-2025 Ongoing Trends | Industry Growth to Reach CAGR of +13.3% with Carrefour, Ahold, Rewe Group, Waitrose, Ltd., Kraft Foods, Inc.

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Worldwide Organic Food and Beverages Industry Market Research Report has been investigated in detail to help customers with all the indispensable information to outline strategic business judgments and propose vital development designs. The Global Organic Food and Beverages Market report offers a far reaching understanding into the advancement strategies and plans notwithstanding producing procedures and cost structures.The organic food and beverages market accounted to USD 110.3 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 13.3% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.For In depth Information Get Free Sample Copy of this Report@Global Organic Food and Beverages Market By Product Type (Fruits & Vegetables, Dairy, RTD, Baby Food, Meat & Poultry Products, Frozen Food, Bakery, Beverages, Others), By Distribution Channel (Store-based Retailers, Non-Store Retailing) By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Organic Food and Beverages Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Organic Food and Beverages MarketOrganic food and beverage products are gaining importance with increased awareness of the benefits of organic products. The rising incidences of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure, obesity among others have resulted in consumption of organic products.Key Questions Answered in Global Organic Food and Beverages Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Organic Food and Beverages Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Organic Food and Beverages Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Organic Food and Beverages Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Organic Food and Beverages Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Organic Food and Beverages Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Organic Food and Beverages Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Key Reasons to Purchase: To gain insightful analyses of the market and have comprehensive understanding of the Global Organic Food and Beverages Market and its commercial landscape. Assess the Organic Food and Beverages production processes, major issues, and solutions to mitigate the development risk. To understand the most affecting driving and restraining forces in the Organic Food and Beverages Market and its impact in the Global market. Learn about the market strategies that are being adopted by leading respective organizations. To understand the future outlook and prospects for Global Organic Food and Beverages Market.Major Market Drivers: Rising demand of organic baby food Marketing campaigns to create awareness by key players Growth in the number of clean label products Stringent Regulation High cost of productsTop Key Players: Aeon Co., Ltd. Tesco Metro Carrefour Ahold Rewe Group Waitrose, Ltd. Kraft Foods, Inc. Hipp Gmbh & Co. vertrieb Kg General Mills, Inc. Florida Crystals Corporation Conagra Foods, Inc. Clif Bar & Company Alberts Organics, Inc. Applegate Farms Coleman Natural Foods Llc Hain Celestial Group Inc. Wm Morrisons among others.Inquire Before Buying @Customize report of "Global Organic Food and Beverages Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Organic Food and Beverages Market is segmented on the basis of Product Type Distribution Channel GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Product Type the market for organic food and beverages market is segmented into fruits & vegetables, dairy, RTD, baby food, meat & poultry products, frozen food, bakery, beverages, others.On the basis of Distribution Channel the organic food and beverages market is segmented into Store-based Retailer, Non-store Retailer. The store-based retailer segment is sub-segmented into grocery retailers, supermarkets/hypermarkets, convenience stores and others.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompetitive Analysis: Global Organic Food and Beverages MarketThe organic food and beverages market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of organic food and beverages market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Speak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market, By Geography; Location Type (Indoor, Outdoor); Technology (Satellite, Microwave & Infrared Remote Sensing, OTDOA & E-OTD, RFID & NFC, Context-Aware Technology, Wi-Fi/WLAN, UWB, BT/BLE, Beacons, A-GPS); Hardware; Software; Service; Application Area  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comNew Study Focusing on Global Smart Pills Technology Market CAGR of +16% by Forecast year: newly Invented Strategies, Statistical Investigation, Regulative Landscape And Forecast Year From 2018 To 2023

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Smart pill technologies are the converging link between digital technology and healthcare industries. These smart pills have many benefits other than providing signals and alerts when consumed. By programming the pill accordingly, it can trigger a reminder according to the remaining time whenever the pill needs to be consumed.The smart pill is a wireless capsule that can be swallowed, and with the help of a receiver (worn by patients) and software that analyzes the pictures captured by the smart pill, the physician is effectively able to examine the gastrointestinal tract.For Sample PDF Copy of this Report: -Global Smart Pills Technology Market is expected to Grow at a CAGR of +16% during the forecast period of 2018 To 2023.The report on the Global Smart Pill Technologies Market is a complete overview of the market, covering various aspects of product definition, segmentation based on various parameters, and the prevailing vendor landscape. It compiles in-depth information and research methodologies. It is also combined with relevant charts and tables to enable readers to get a better perspective of this global market.The key opportunity areas in the market and the top trends impacting the development of the market have also been presented through this report. The current growth and development patterns of this market have also been encapsulated in this study. The competitive background section of the report covers the key vendors and throws light on the strategies being adopted by them for better penetration into the market.The report also creates a clear picture of the various factors that will drive the global Smart Pill Technologies market in the years to come. In order to help companies spot potential threats and to give them a clear picture of the opportunities that exist in the market, the report offers a SWOT analysis of the global market. For the purpose of the study, market analysts have employed rigorous primary and secondary research techniques. This makes the analyses and forecasts more accurate and helps analysts to examine the market from a broader perspective.Avail discount on this report: -The research report analyzes the Global Smart Pill Technologies Market in a thorough manner by clarifying the key characteristics of the market that are anticipated to have a measurable influence on its evolving prospects over the forecast period. The major growth drivers, challenges, and trends influencing the market are examined at length. Through qualitative and quantitative data on the impact these factors have on the market's future growth prospects are presented in the report.Table of Contents: -Global Smart Pill Technologies Market Analysis & Forecast.Chapter 1 Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Smart Pill TechnologiesChapter 3 Global Smart Pill Technologies Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Smart Pill Technologies Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Market AnalysisChapter 9 Smart Pill Technologies Cost AnalysisChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast.Chapter 13 AppendixFor more Information on This Report: -If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently, we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,+1-8886316977,Point of Care Diagnostics Market to Reach $43,336 Million, Globally, by 2022

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"The glucose monitoring kits is the top investment pocket in the POC testing devices market. This is attributed to its superior performance, innovative, and advanced applications of these kits. Moreover, the increase in adoption rate of glucose monitoring kits and rise in incidences of diabetes and long shelf life of kits would propel the stakeholders to capitalize on the underlying opportunities in this industry."Global Point of Care Diagnostics Market is expected to garner $43,336 million by 2022, registering a CAGR of 9.4% during the period 2016-2022. Glucose monitoring kit was the leading segment in 2015 and is expected to continue dominance throughout the forecast period. North America would continue its lead, accounting for more than two-fifths share of the global point of care diagnostics market in 2015.Access full summary at:Rising prevalence of various infectious diseases and several initiatives implemented by government and non-government associations for rise in health awareness around the world are the factors majorly driving the point of care diagnostics market growth. The technological advancements in point of care diagnostic devices, introduction of home-based point of care devices; and increase in healthcare expenditure also support the growth of the global point of care diagnostics market. However, stringent government regulations for the product approval and reimbursement issues for the point of care devices restrict the market growth.In 2015, the glucose monitoring kit segment accounted for over 40% share of the point of care diagnostics industry. Increase in demand for point of care glucose monitoring kits for the management of diabetes, and increase in prevalence of diabetes with rise in geriatric population & changes in lifestyle are the major factors that attribute to the high growth of this market. The infectious disease testing kits is the fastest-growing segment and is projected to register a CAGR of 13.1% during the forecast period. This is due to the growth in demand for point of care diagnostics in the diagnosis of various infectious diseases, which include tuberculosis (TB), HIV, influenza, and others.The prescription-based point of care diagnostics holds largest market share in the global point of care diagnostics market because the devices are frequently used in healthcare facilities and prescribed by healthcare professionals. However, OTC-based point of care diagnostics market is estimated to register fastest CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period owing to increase in awareness about the innovative and advanced applications of at-home point of care diagnostics and introduction of portable and hand-held devices.North America and Europe together accounted for nearly three-fourths share of point of care diagnostics industry in 2015, and is expected to maintain this lead throughout the forecast period. The growth in the point of care diagnostics market size in these regions is attributed to the increased adoption of advanced point of care diagnostic devices, rise in awareness about innovative and advanced applications of point of care diagnostic devices, and rapidly aging population coupled with increase in incidences of diabetes and liver diseases. However, Asia-Pacific is projected to be the fastest-growing region, registering a CAGR of 12.0% during the analysis period. Japan is the leader in the Asia-Pacific point of care diagnostics market. This is mainly due to the increase in awareness of innovative and advanced applications of POC testing devices.Key Findings of the Point of Care Diagnostics Market:1. In 2015, glucose monitoring kits was the leading segment of overall point of care diagnostics market revenue.2. Infectious disease testing kits segment is expected to grow at a remarkable CAGR of 13.1%, owing to increased demand in the diagnosis of infectious diseases.3. North America was the leading reginal POC devices market followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific in 2015.4. Over-the-counter testing kits segment is projected to grow at a CAGR of 104% during analysis period.5. Japan alone is the major shareholder in the Asia-Pacific region accounting for about one-third share of the Asia-Pacific point of care diagnostics market.6. Asia-Pacific infectious diseases testing kits market is expected to grow at a CAGR o 14.1% during analysis period.The key players in the point of care diagnostics industry are highly focused to expand their business operations in the fast-growing emerging countries with new product launches as the preferred strategy. The key players profiled in this report include Abbott Laboratories, Siemens AG, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Sinocare Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Sysmex Corporation, Nova Biomedical, Danaher Corporation, Becton Dickinson and Company, bioMrieux SA, and Bio-Rad Laboratories.Request sample copy of this report at:About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions. AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry.Contact:Shriram Dighe5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesToll Free: +1-800-792-5285UK: +44-845-528-1300Hong Kong: +852-301-84916India (Pune): +91-20-66346060Fax: +1855550-5975help@alliedmarketresearch.comWeb:Global Human Combination Vaccines Market Report, Trends, Size, Share, Analysis, Estimations and Forecasts to 2023, top key players - GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sanofi, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceutical and others

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A combination vaccine is designed to provide protection against two or more diseases or against single disease caused by completely different or similar organism. A combination vaccine also boosts the immune system to fight against infection. These vaccines contain two or more antigens that are either combined in ready form or mixed before administration. Safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of a combined immunizing agent are high. One of the latest trends that will gain traction in the human combination vaccines market in the coming years is the increase in the public-private initiatives. Organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) are supporting immunization programs through various government and publicprivate initiatives to help healthcare organizations achieve their immunization-related goals.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Key Players:GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Sanofi, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Takeda Pharmaceutical, Bavarian Nordic, and Pfizer, Inc.The regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America have been studied in depth to gain better market penetration and assure exact analysis. Top manufacturers have been given prime importance to make sure their strategies are understood and their position in this particular market can be elucidated.This report defines the specifications, applications, classifications of Human Combination Vaccines market and explains the industrial chain structure in detail. Recent policies and developments are researched in depth to help enhance this report. A detailed cost structure is examined and prices are coated by labors, raw material supplier and others. An insight about demand supply chain is also mentioned in detail.Avail Discount on this report now at:Furthermore, far-reaching investments are being made in the R&D sector to facilitate product developments and enhancements. With the arrival of new technologies on a regular basis, players are endeavoring hard to integrate the latest technology to gain a competitive edge over the rest. After studying the key players, the report concentrates on the startups impacting the growth of the market. Possible mergers and acquisitions among the startups and key establishments are identified by the reports analysts in the study. Most enterprises in the Human Combination Vaccines market are presently engaged in adopting new technologies, approaches, product expansions, developments, and long-term contracts to maintain their supremacy in the global market.Table of Contents:Global Human Combination Vaccines Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Human Combination Vaccines Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixGet Complete Report@:About Us :Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact us:Mr. Sunny DenisContact No. +1-888-631-6977sales@researchnreports.com(ResearchnReports)Workforce Analytics Market reach US$ 1830 million by 2023, from US$ 740 million in 2017

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The Global Workforce Analytics Market Research Report 2018 renders deep perception of the key regional market status of the Workforce Analytics Industry on a global level that primarily aims the core regions which comprises of continents like Europe, North America, and Asia and the key countries such as United States, Germany, China and Japan.Avail 20% Discount and Customization On This Premium Report@Workforce analytics is a combination of software and methodology that applies statistical models to worker-related data, allowing enterprise leaders to optimize human resource management (HRM).The workforce analytics solutions are expected to dominate the market from 2016 to 2022 with the largest market share, due to growing workforce challenges faced by the organizations worldwide. Among the services, due to the changing work dynamics and variations in global governmental labor regulations, the demand for consulting services is expected to gain traction in the next five years.The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) vertical is expected to hold the largest market share in the workforce analytics market in 2016. The healthcare sector is expected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2016 to 2022, in the workforce analytics market. The BSFI industry will be investing greater resources in the market to focus on providing better services to customers through their limited global and local workforce. Authorities are encouraging investments in the healthcare industry in a bid to modernize and digitize the industry infrastructure and workforce.North America is expected to have the largest market share and dominate the workforce analytics market from 2016 to 2022, due to the presence of a large number of analytics vendors. Asia-Pacific (APAC) offers potential growth opportunities.Over the next five years, I(AMR) projects that Workforce Analytics will register a 16.3% CAGR in terms of revenue, reach US$ 1830 million by 2023, from US$ 740 million in 2017.This report presents a comprehensive overview, market shares and growth opportunities of Workforce Analytics market by product type, application, key companies and key regions.To calculate the market size, AMR considers value generated from the sales of the following segments:Segmentation by product type:On-premisesSaas Cloud-BasedSegmentation by application:5000 employeesGet more information, Ask for Free Sample Copy of this Report@The report is generically segmented into six parts and every part aims on the overview of the Workforce Analytics industry, present condition of the market, feasibleness of the investment along with several strategies and policies. Apart from the definition and classification, the report also discusses the analysis of import and export and describes a comparison of the market that is focused on the trends and development. Along with entire framework in addition to in-depth details, one can prepare and stay ahead of the competitors across the targeted locations. The fact that this market report renders details about the major market players along with their product development and current trends proves to be very beneficial for fresh entrants to comprehend and recognize the industry in an improved manner. The report also enlightens the productions, sales, supply, market condition, demand, growth, and forecast of the Workforce Analytics industry in the global markets.Every regions market has been studied thoroughly in this report which deals with the precise information pertaining to the Marketing Channels and novel project investments so that the new entrants as well as the established market players conduct intricate research of trends and analysis in these regional markets. Acknowledging the status of the environment and products up gradation, the market report foretells each and every detail.So as to fabricate this report, complete key details, strategies and variables are examined so that entire useful information is amalgamated together for the understanding and studying the key facts pertaining the global Workforce Analytics Industry. The production value and market share in conjunction with the SWOT analysis everything is integrated in this report.For any Inquire before buying @About Acquire Market Research:Acquire Market Research is a shrine of world-class research reports from around the world and we offer you only the best in the Industry when it comes to research. At Acquire, every data need will be catered to and met with a powerful world of choices."We understand the integral role data plays in the growth of business empires."Contact Us:555 Madison Avenue,5th Floor, Manhattan,New York, 10022 USAPhone No.: +1 (800) 663-5579Email ID:sales@acquiremarketresearch.comNew Research Focusing on Vacation Rental Market Growth and its detail analysis by focusing on Top Key Players like 9flats, Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Wyndham Destinations

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A vacation rental is an alternative lodging option, which involves the short-term rental of myriad properties, such as apartments, farm stays, private homes, cabins, beach houses, villas, cottages, or chalets to travelers and tourists. These dwelling units are offered on a nightly, weekly, or a monthly basis although the dominant practice in the market is renting it out weekly. The patterns and trends in the market have changed over time, and vacation rentals are increasingly becoming a part of the global temporary accommodation market.Get Sample Copy of this Report@:Vacation Rental market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.Top Companies Profiled in this Report includes, 9flats, Airbnb, Booking Holdings, Expedia, TripAdvisor, Wyndham DestinationsAfter studying key companies, the report focuses on the startups contributing towards the growth of the market. Possible mergers and acquisitions among the startups and key organizations are identified by the report's authors in the study. As leading companies take efforts to maintain their dominance in the global Vacation Rental market, the right way to do so is by adopting new technologies and strategies. The report highlights major technological developments and changing trends adopted by key companies over a period of time. For a stronger and more stable business outlook, the report on the global market carries key projections that can be practically studied.Get Reasonable Discount on this Premium Report @:Vacation Rental market is segmented on the basis of various parameters. The factors which are impacting the markets growth are studied in detail. The report also presents a overall weaknesses which companies operating in the market must avoid in order to enjoy sustainable growth through the course of the forecast period. Besides this, profiles of some of the leading players operating and encouraging in the growth of the global market are included in the study. Additionally, using SWOT analysis, markets weaknesses and strengths are analyzed. It also helps the report provide insights into the opportunities and threats that these companies may face during the forecast period.Table of ContentsGlobal Vacation Rental Market Research ReportChapter 1 Vacation Rental Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global Vacation Rental Market ForecastFor More Information:If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Europe competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr,Houston, TX, Pin  77064,sales@researchnreports.com,Industrial Cyber Security Market: Classification, Opportunities, Types and Applications, Status and Forecast to 2025

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Industrial Cyber Security Market, provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Industrial Cyber Security Market analysis is provided for the international Industry including development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status.The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Industrial Cyber Security Market manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.For Free Sample report @Development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures are also analyzed. This report also states import/export consumption, supply and demand Figures, cost, price, revenue and gross market Industrial Cyber Security.The provincial analysis of the worldwide Industrial Cyber Security Industry splits the global market area into key areas that include both continents as well as specific countries which are currently shining in phrases of demand, volume or normal Trends.Complete report on Global Industrial Cyber Security Market spreads across 152 pages, and supported with 197 tables and figures @Global Industrial Cyber Security Market focuses on global major leading industry players providing information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials and equipment and downstream demand analysis is also carried out.The Industrial Cyber Security industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed. Finally the feasibility of new investment projects are assessed and overall research conclusions offered. With the tables and figures the report provides key statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.For more information about this report visit @Major Points Covered in Table of Contents:1 Industry Overview2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Industrial Cyber Security Market3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis4 Production Analyses of Industrial Cyber Security Market by Regions, Technology, and Applications5 Sales and Revenue Analysis of Industrial Cyber Security Market by Regions6 Analyses of Industrial Cyber Security Market Production, Supply, Sales and Market Status 2013-20257 Analysis of Industrial Cyber Security Market industry Key Manufacturers8 Price and Gross Mar Industrial Cyber Security Analysis9 Marketing Traders or Distributor Analysis of Industrial Cyber Security Market10 Development Trend of Industrial Cyber Security Market industries 2012-202211 Industry Chain Suppliers of Industrial Cyber Security Market with Contact Information12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Industrial Cyber Security Market13 Conclusion of the Industrial Cyber Security industry 2018 Market Research ReportDirect Purchase This Report@List of Tables and FiguresReportsAndMarkets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)Ph: +1-214-377-1121 (US)Ph: +91-703-049-0292 (IND)ORLANDO, Fla.  (July 9, 2018)  When the first bell rings for a new school year, kids everywhere will be excited to share their summer adventures or show off a new look. Nonprofit Remington College is making that easy. Throughout the month of August, Remington College campuses across the country are providing free back-to-school haircuts for kids through the Cuts for Kids program. The Cuts for Kids program is Global Pasta Sauce market research report provides company profile for Heinz, Newmans Own, B&G Foods, Premier Foods, Knorr, Mizkan, Campbell, Barilla, Dolmio, Hunts and Others. This market study includes data about consumer perspective, comprehensive analysis, statistics, market share, company performances (Stocks), historical analysis 2012 to 2017, market forecast 2018 to 2025 in terms of volume, revenue, YOY growth rate, and CAGR for the year 2018 to 2025, etc. The report Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  Three associate justices of the Supreme Court are vying for the Chief Justice post as of Wednesday, a day before the deadline for application.

Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta on Wednesday accepted his automatic nomination while Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. applied for the post, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, said in a text message to CNN Philippines. Guevarra is a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which screens applicants to the judiciary.

Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin sent his letter of acceptance on Tuesday, making him the first to apply for the position.

Meanwhile, Guevarra said Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro is expected to accept her automatic nomination Thursday. This is despite her mandatory retirement in October when she reaches 70.

"The JBC expects to receive the acceptance of other nominees, as well as applications from outside the Supreme Court, before the deadline tomorrow," Guevarra said.

Bersamin, Peralta, and de Castro were automatically nominated for the post being among the five most senior associate justices of the High Court. They had to formally accept the nomination to be considered an applicant according to the rules of the JBC.

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, the most senior justice, declined his nomination on Tuesday.

Carpio assumed the post in an acting capacity on May 11, when the Supreme Court unseated Maria Lourdes Sereno. She was permanently removed from her post on June 19 as the High court junked her appeal.

Bersamin, Peralta, Reyes, and de Castro all voted to oust Sereno.

Except for Reyes, Sereno had asked for the justices to inhibit from her case, accusing them of harboring bias against her. They all denied the ousted chief justice's allegation.

The JBC opened its one-month search last June 25. Applicants will then undergo comprehensive medical examinations, psychological evaluation, written evaluative examinations and public interviews.

An applicant should obtain the affirmative vote of at least four members of the JBC to be considered in the shortlist to be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.

CNN Philippines' Ella Hermonio contributed to this report.They said South Africa didn't belong in Bric. Others argued that South Africa's economy was way too small in comparison to those of Brazil, Russia, India and China - the countries which made up the Bric bloc.

There were those who believed that the oil-rich Nigeria was probably better suited for the affiliation. But as Sihle Manda writes, South Africas continuing strong role in Brics is disappointing all the prophets of doom.Until South Africa became a member in 2010, Bric was the acronym for the grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China.Interestingly, leading the charge against the move for South Africas inclusion into the bloc was the man who first coined the Bric term in 2003, Jim ONeill of Goldman Sachs, an international finance and investment firm.In his assessment, ONeill, speaking to thein 2012, felt that South Africas inclusion had weakened the groups power. His comments were probably strengthened by the countrys weak economic growth and outlook at the time.Although it could not be expected that South Africas inclusion would have automatically improved the countrys economic performance overnight nor would it immediately address the countrys economic challenges which are mainly structural, membership has certainly changed the countrys position in global politics.South Africas inclusion in Brics was not a favour extended to Pretoria by the four countries who were initially part of the group. The invitation was a show of confidence in Africas largest economy and the realisation of the importance of South Africa not only in Africa but on the global stage. It was a strategic move by the Bric bloc, a move that was not only going to benefit South Africa but would ensure Bric nations have a footprint in Africa as a whole considering the influence of South Africa on the continent.This is what critics of South Africas inclusion failed to see. But long before the invitation, there was already an appreciation among many countries, particularly in the West, that the power and significance of the grouping could not be ignored.There is no doubt that South Africas joining of the grouping further cemented its global political and economic influence and perhaps some felt intimidated by this new reality.Professor Wang Yong, in his 2012 Economic Diplomacy Programme paper titled:summed up South Africas unique role in the alliance when he wrote: South Africa is in a position to make unique contributions, particularly in terms of development of the Brics Africa agenda, promoting global economic governance reforms, and institution of the Brics as a credible international organisation.Already, these five BRICS countries account for 40 percent of the world population and as of this year, their combined nominal GDP amounted to US$18.6 trillion, about 23.2% of the gross world product.Trade between the five countries has doubled in seven years, ballooning from R203 billion in 2010 to R462 billion last year.South Africas membership also gallops towards the realisation of the countrys National Development Plan mandate of eliminating poverty and the reduction of inequality by 2030. This is aligned with Brics five pillars of priority.Investment deals between South Africa and its partners has reached fever pitch, with China leading the way. Several Chinese billion-dollar firms have headed south in recent times. Among them mobile and green energy companies such as Hisense, FAW, Beijing Automobile International Corporation, Phalabora Mining Company, China Longyuan Power Group.A PriceWaterCoopers (PwC) report recently showed that the bilateral trade between Pretoria and New Delhi have grown by 400% between 2004 and 2014. According to the report, the investment deals were in the environmental, financial services, mining, pharmaceuticals, automotive and information technology sectors.All this could mean one thing - the much-needed job creation. According to the PwC report, the R50 billion investments came with 18,000 jobs in tow.And thats not all. Russias corporate world raised its hand in June when its rail rolling stock manufacturer Transmashholding (TMH) announced it would be setting up operations in Boksburg, Ekurhuleni. The 45 000 square metre centre will see a R500 million rail manufacturing centre being set up.Efforts to revive the countrys weak economy will take more than just being a member of BRICS, but there is no doubt that these partnerships and investments that come with Brics membership will go a long way, turning South Africas fortunes around. The countrys turnaround will also be bolstered by President Cyril Ramaphosa ambitious plans for the economy.In April, the President, fresh from being sworn in as the countrys fifth democratically-elected President, set an ambitious target of attracting a staggering $100 billion (R1 trillion) in investment over the next five years. So determined was he to meet this target that he assembled a formidable quartet of investment envoys who would travel the globe in search of investors with deep pockets.In the team are former Finance Minister Trevor Manual, former Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas, businesswoman Phumzile Langeni as well as retired banker, Jacko Maree. Economist Trudi Makhaya joins the team in her capacity as President Ramaphosas economic advisor.The bold plan is within reach, according to Professor Anil Sooklal, SAs ambassador to Brics, who believes the target was modest and achievable.Barely a year into the project, President Ramaphosas target appears well on course. Early this month, Saudi Arabia vowed to plough in R10 billion into the South African economy. The pledge was made by Saudi king Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud during a state visit to the monarchy.South Africa as we know it, is a mere 24-year-old. If it were a human being, it would ideally be just starting its life in employment. Despite the continued regression in economic growth, the country continues to be the bridge connecting the continent, which has for years remained the poorest despite its natural mineral wealth. For now the continent can just pin its hopes on South Africas membership of powerful blocs like the Brics and the G20 to ensure its voice is heard loud and clear on the global stageFacebook shares fell as much as 21 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday on lower-than-expected revenue numbers from its second-quarter earnings report.

Revenue totaled $13.23 billion, shy of the $13.33 billion analysts expected, raising worries that the political and social backlash against the company is affecting its bottom line. The company beat the profit forecast, with $1.74 per-share earnings.

"Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO. "We are taking a broader view of our responsibility and investing to make sure our services are used for good. But we also need to keep building new tools to help people connect, strengthen our communities, and bring the world closer together."

Strong ad sales from Google, which is Facebook's main competitor for online advertising, had sent expectations for the social network's earnings up, along with its stock price.

The number of monthly users - a key indicator of Facebook's popularity - rose slightly, to 2.23 billion from 2.2 billion last quarter.

But the number of people who use the network every day, representing Facebook's most devoted users, remained flat in the U.S. at 185 million. That same number fell in Europe, where the company has had to comply with a strict new privacy law, known as GDPR.

Facebook growth was already slowing in Europe, and the new regulations may have added to that, said analyst Daniel Ives of GBH Tech Research. "GDPR is an added headwind, albeit containable," he said.

The company in its initial press release did not break out financial or user numbers for Instagram, the photo-sharing service it acquired in 2012. Many Facebook analysts hope that Instagram's growth will help offset any stagnation at the older social network. Instagram last month reported it had hit 1 billion monthly users for the first time, up from 800 million in September.

Facebook's shares had gained more than 10 percent over the last month and closed higher at $217.50 on Wednesday, before the company reported earnings. The stock was down more than $46 in after-hours trading Wednesday at $171.68.

-- The Washington PostThis story originally published at 12:59 p.m. and was updated at 2:51 p.m. to include information from Kylie Rogers' resignation letter.

Portland Public Schools' human resources director resigned Wednesday after 11 months on the job.

Kylie Rogers started last fall, predating Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero.

Guerrero was effusive about Rogers' work in his announcement to employees of her departure. He called her efforts before he started "invaluable" and praised her role in contract negotiations with the teachers union and the restructuring of the central office this spring.

Read Guerrero's announcement in full here.

Rogers was hired by former deputy chief executive officer Yousef Awwad, who at time was acting as interim superintendent. Guerrero fired Awwad last November, saying he had a different vision for his leadership team.

Rogers inherited a department critically in need of improvement. In addition, because the district has a lot of vacancies, the department had a huge volume of vetting and hiring to do.

Rogers resignation letter states that the staggering workload was hard on her family. She thanked the many colleagues she said checked on her and offered support as it became "increasingly more difficult for me to navigate the challenges of balancing the intensity of this work and this role with my even more important role as a mother and partner."

The decision to quit, she wrote, was difficult.

"I consider it one of the great fortunes of my career and my life to have landed in K-12 and at Portland Public Schools at a time and place that I could work with the Superintendent and all of you."

Read Rogers' resignation letter to others on the district leadership team in full here.

Read Rogers' resignation letter to Guerrero in full here.

Guerrero's announcement says Sharon Reese, a consultant already working for the HR department, will take over as the interim chief of human resources, a role she's held before.

Before starting at Portland Public Schools last September, Rogers had worked in human resources for the University of Arizona Library System and, before that, for Anheuser Busch InBev, her resume says.

During the time Rogers ran human resources for Oregon's largest school district, the district changed the name of her department to the "Talent & Culture department."

Rogers altered the way the district verifies applicants' academic credentials after the London School of Economics could not verify claims by a high-ranking Portland schools official, Laura Parker, that Parker had earned a doctorate from the prestigious university.

[enhanced link]

-- Bethany Barnes Have a tip about Portland Public Schools?

Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com

By Hoang Samuelson

I recently joined an online community called Nextdoor.com, a website designed for people who live in certain neighborhoods to communicate with one another. On a recent Sunday morning, I was greeted with an email from the site about what was considered a "top post." This top post turned out to be an opinion piece written by three residents of neighborhood that I live in. The op-ed, "Portland must stand up to predators," was published June 6 by The Oregonian/OregonLive and I felt disgusted after reading it. There are so many things that the authors failed to mention that I feel almost ashamed to say that I live in the same neighborhood as these folks, that they could, in theory, be called my "neighbors."

The issue here is their choice of language. Using the word "predator" to describe the transient individuals who inoculate themselves in higher income neighborhoods, such as the Grant Park neighborhood, and become violent and attack local, non-threatening residents. Webster's Dictionary defined the word "predator" as "one that preys, destroys or devours." Of course, they're talking about homeless people rummaging through their trash, shooting up in public restrooms, defecating on the street, stealing cars and so on. While there may be some element of truth to this, I've only ever experienced the occurrence of people rummaging through my dumpster and another incidence of a stolen car being parked next to my parking lot. To use the word 'predator' is demeaning, and it delineates a fast-growing population in the Portland metro area as being something that's vile and needs to be rid of.

Whenever I think of the word predator, I think of men luring little girls into their homes to commit sexual assault. I think of a wild animal on a mission to kill their prey. I don't think of them as homeless individuals who walk through my neighborhood looking for cans to sell for cash. I don't think of the people holding up cardboard signs asking for help. And I certainly don't think that people who smell because they haven't had a shower in more than a month as an indication that they're violent.

Nextdoor.com has become another version of Facebook, in which complaints of all shapes and sizes have cycled through. There are posts from neighbors about break-ins, car thefts and other forms of indignant criticisms, which can be safely aired from behind a computer screen. Look, I'm not downplaying the petty crimes and things that have happened in my neighborhood. These things have certainly happened, but what has also happened is a lot of judgment. For example, one post complained about a used needle and bloody tourniquet being left in a public restroom. Another one showed a mug shot of a woman who had grown up in the neighborhood. Another showed home video footage of a mail thief. And so it continues.

I'm not saying that these crimes aren't serious and that we don't need police intervention. We certainly do. But complaining about the lack of police officers patrolling an upper middle-class neighborhood when there is already a lack of community police officers isn't a way to solve the problem. If you want to keep your neighborhood safe, then rely in your own abilities and resources. Recognize the lack of public resources and try to make the best of what you have. After all, police officers are best utilized in areas that are high in crime, responding to real emergencies versus patrolling quiet neighborhoods looking for thieves. In other words, they have better things to do than check your dumpster for you.

Portland, as we all know, has become immensely unaffordable in the past few years. Before this housing crisis, I hardly ever saw homeless individuals -- let alone camps -- underneath freeway bridges. Now, residents of particular neighborhoods feel threatened by others who are less fortunate roaming their streets.

I can imagine the fear. After all, we have a lot of families here in our Northeast Portland neighborhoods. It's easy to feel alarmed and unsafe when you have small children. But before you start calling these individuals "predators" and saying that they are violent and need to be dealt with as if they are a pest, put yourself in their shoes.

If you catch an individual in the act, ask them why. Are they hungry? Do they need money? It's easy to forget how fortunate we are to be able to afford housing every month that we forget there are many others who can't do the same.

It's time to show a little sympathy.

-- Hoang Samuelson lives in Northeast Portland.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 800 words or less on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.By Neil H. Simon

A protestor threatened with jail time for exercising their First Amendment right.

A loiterer outside a bar hit in the ribs by police.

A man already pinned down by three officers repeatedly blasted with a taser gun.

This is a small sample of the cases brought to Portland's Citizen Review Committee, an independent panel of citizen volunteers that hears appeals of police misconduct complaints. The fact these cases are aired in public and that an independent body can hear from complainants and question the police brass is a net positive in a time when trust in law enforcement is at an historic low.

There's one problem - the process is not working as intended to increase police accountability.

That's why members of the Citizen Review Committee recently voted unanimously to call on city council to change the standard of review we are required to use when hearing a case.

Here's how the system generally works. When a citizen complains about officer misconduct, the Office of Independent Police Review (outside the bureau) and the Office of Internal Affairs (inside the bureau) investigate the complaint. If the complainant disagrees with the bureau's decision - which could range from dismissing the case to disciplining the officer - he or she can appeal to our committee.

But here's the issue: the bureau's commanding officer makes a decision based on a "preponderance of the evidence" standard of review, meaning a majority of the facts in the case should support the final decision on whether the officer violated policy.

City code requires our committee use the less stringent "reasonableness" standard. We are supposed to only determine if a hypothetical "reasonable person" could reach the same conclusion the commanding officer did.

That standard is so overly deferential to the police that since 2002, the committee has voted only 13 percent of the time to challenge the bureau's findings and uphold a citizen allegation against an officer.

It's long past time we strengthen this standard to parallel the "preponderance of the evidence" review standard used within the police bureau.

A Portland community survey of police community relations this April found that "accountability for law enforcement is a must to rebuild trust in the African American community." Changing our citizen review standard and holding more officers accountable for their actions is an essential part of addressing this community concern.

The Albina Ministerial Alliance Coalition for Justice and Police Reform, the League of Women Voters, Mental Health PDX, Portland Copwatch and some 30 other individuals have written to the city in favor of upgrading our review standard. One former police lieutenant even wrote to say the current standard "lessens the trust by the community in its government." The only opposition has been voiced from the police union.

In a time when so much of our political discourse is centered on the vast erosion of trust in our civic institutions, Portland City Council should take this simple step to help rebuild some of that trust between police and the people they are sworn to serve.

-- Neil H. Simon is a member of the Citizen Review Committee. He lives in Southwest Portland. The committee's proposal is available for public comment through July 30.

Share your opinion

Submit your essay of 800 words or less on a highly topical issue or a theme of particular relevance to the Pacific Northwest, Oregon and the Portland area to commentary@oregonian.com. Please include your email and phone number for verification.The mayoral meltdown is in progress, and it's not due to our current heat wave. Mayor Ted has finally seen the light and is doing the right thing, announcing he will encourage the lawless anti-ICE protesters in the South Waterfront to disband. This protest has been an affront to the rule of law and the city's sensibilities since day one. This comes on top of the recent "homeless profiling" kerfuffle, where police were castigated for arresting too many of the seedy lawbreakers who dot and blight our fair city. The mayor has failed here too, fecklessly developing no solution to the growing homeless problem. And let's not overlook the revolving door of bureau management assignments, where the Eudalys and Fritzes demonstrate their ineptness at running these important departments.

The mayor has recently offered that he's not sure whether he'll seek a second term. He should never have sought a first. Whoever advised him to leave his state treasurer's post in Salem to run for mayor -- probably to raise his visibility and pave the way to Mahonia Hall -- should be taken out behind the wood shed. Since the day he was sworn in, he's clearly demonstrated he cannot govern this city.

Here's hoping a true leader will rise to the occasion when the next mayoral election takes place. Portland is long overdue for true leadership in a city that isn't working right now.

-- Mike Rose, Southwest PortlandTen men and four women jurors will hear opening statements Wednesday in the trial of indicted FBI agent W. Joseph Astarita.

The 14 include two alternate jurors, all selected Tuesday among an 85-person pool after about two hours of questioning.

Astarita, 41, a member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, is accused of falsely denying he fired two shots at refuge occupation spokesman Robert "LaVoy" Finicum's truck on Jan. 26, 2016. One bullet went through the truck's roof and another went astray, investigators said. Moments later, two state police officers shot and killed Finicum.

The agent has pleaded not guilty to two counts of making a false statement, alleging he lied to his immediate FBI supervisor at the scene and another FBI supervisor days later, and one count of obstruction of justice for his initial interview with two Oregon state police detectives the night Finicum died.

The two disputed gunshots came as Finicum emerged from his pickup after swerving into a snowbank at a police roadblock on U.S. 395. The FBI and state police surprised the leaders of the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as they drove off the bird sanctuary.

Finicum's widow, Jeanette Finicum, and supporters, including refuge occupier Shawna Cox, waited to attend jury selection but were kept out of the courtroom for most of the afternoon because the jury pool took up all the seats.

Lawyers from both sides of the case examined written questionnaires completed by the prospective jurors and then asked follow-up questions in court, trying to gauge any sympathies for law enforcement, local police versus federal agents, familiarity with forensics or ballistics analysis or feelings about the refuge takeover.

Astarita, dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and dark tie, sat among his five defense lawyers.

More than an hour into the selection process, people in the pool started holding up their juror numbers like they were participating in an auction and, one by one, asked to be excused for hardship.

They spoke of planned vacations, impending childbirth, work conflicts or financial strains, after they were told the case could last three to four weeks.

"I leave Monday for Europe,'' one potential juror said. "Have a nice trip!'' the judge told him.

"My wife could be giving birth in a week or two,'' another said. "Goodbye Papa,'' the judge told him.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones was perturbed they hadn't been identified at the start but let at least eight go. "This should have all been done before you even got here,'' Jones said, noting he hadn't seen a jury pool unravel like this in his 55 years on the bench.

"No one asked about vacations ahead of time,'' one juror murmured. "This was not handled well,'' another said.

Defense lawyer David Angeli asked one woman about her response to the questionnaire when she acknowledged she'd have a difficult time following a judge's instructions to disregard certain testimony or information at trial.

"Yes, I think all facts should play in even if they're not directly relevant,'' the woman said.

The judge didn't wait a beat, immediately cutting in: "That's fine. You're excused. Goodbye.'' The woman left the jury box and walked out of the courtroom smiling.

Angeli followed up with another potential juror, who noted on her questionnaire that she has relatives who are in law enforcement. She said her husband has been a Portland police officer for 28 years and her son is a Woodburn officer.

"If a police officer were to take the stand,'' Angeli asked, "would you give them more credibility?''

"Probably,'' she responded. She didn't make the cut.

Angeli asked people in the pool if they believed the U.S. government owns too much land. Five prospective jurors raised their hands. Angeli continued, asking if anyone had sympathy for the Malheur refuge occupiers.

The judge stepped in again. "This has absolutely nothing to do with this case, counsel, '' he said, and directed the lawyer to move on.

Some Finicum supporters wore shirts to the courthouse declaring their views: One wore a shirt that read, "It Matters How You Stand'' with Finicum's cattle brand, LV, on the back. Another wore a shirt that read, "The US lied on 395.''

The judge made it clear to U.S. marshals and court security not to allow anyone into the courtroom wearing such messages or signs of any kind.

Nearly 100 witnesses are expected to be called during the trial, with competing forensic experts testifying and more than 1,000 exhibits shown, including Finicum's truck.

Seated with prosecutors Tuesday was jury consultant Laura Dominic, the same consultant retained by federal prosecutors in two prior Oregon refuge occupation trials and in the aborted Nevada trial of Cliven Bundy, his two sons Ammon and Ryan Bundy and co-defendant Ryan Payne.

The law enforcement case agents for the prosecution team were instructed to sit directly behind the prosecution table, not near the jury box, as they had done in previous trials.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonianUpdated at 4:50 p.m.: The cougar was killed one house south of where it was initially seen by teenagers, Lt. Scott McKee said just after 4:40 p.m. Tuesday. The tracker hound chased it up a tree, and a police sniper shot the animal.

***

Teenagers playing in a backyard pool Tuesday afternoon in Springfield said they saw a cougar leap up onto a fence before jumping back down, police said.

Springfield Police Department said on their Facebook page the cougar was sighted around 30th and Olympic streets. Lt. Scott McKee said the teens were from a hunting family, so police believe this is a credible sighting.

Tuesday's sighting follows other recent sightings in the area, and McKee said police think it is the same cougar, which they believe to be juvenile. A reported sighting early Sunday morning put the cat around 10th and D streets.

Police with K9 officers were still out searching for the cougar a couple of hours after the sighting, McKee said, and as a follow-up effort, police are enlisting the help of a local big game tracker in locating the cougar. McKee said police hope to pair the tracker and a searching hound up with law enforcement Tuesday afternoon. He said it's possible they could run the animal out of the area, but it is more likely the cougar may go up a tree, and they would then shoot and kill it.

McKee said people in areas where a cougar has been sighted should keep a close eye on children and pets. He said those in the area where Tuesday's sighting took place should remain inside while officials try to trap the animal. Should you encounter a cougar, McKee said, make yourself appear bigger by putting your arms up or out and make noise to shoo the animal away. He said turning around and running may make you appear like prey.

--Hannah Boufford

hboufford@oregonian.com / @hannahbouffordA marijuana business worker killed earlier this month during an encounter on company property with Lane County deputies was shot after walking toward them and unholstering his pistol despite orders not to, District Attorney Patty Perlow announced Tuesday. The shooting occurred after authorities tried for hours to get the man to surrender.

Joey K. Loop, 40, was hit twice by shots from an AR-15 rifle fired by Deputy Jason Franklin and once with a beanbag fired by Deputy Brian DeVault outside of Loop's home on a large parcel of land in the 78600 block of Cedar Park Road early July 13. Loop was about 10 feet from the deputies when they fired.

Both deputies were in the back of an armored Humvee with its top open at the time. Franklin said he fired because he thought Loop would shoot him, Perlow said.

Franklin and DeVault were legally justified in shooting Loop, Perlow said. Loop lived on property owned by cannabis company One Gro, Inc.

The business' CEO Dan Isaacson told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Loop, a father of three and his friend for 30 years, worked on the farmland and did information technology work for the company. Perlow said Loop was employed as a security guard.

Franklin has worked for the sheriff's office for 22 years and DeVault for 20 years.

Loop is one of 12 people who has been killed by police in Oregon this year and the second in Lane County.

According to Perlow, another resident on the rural property called 911 around 11:45 p.m. on July 12 saying Loop was drunk, that Loop threatened to fight him and fired a pistol several times. Another resident on the property reported hearing five gunshots and yelling.

Deputies and members of a crisis negotiation team responded to the scene. They used a PA system to call out to Loop and spent 90 minutes ordering him to come out of his home with his hands up, but didn't do so, Perlow said. Calls and texts to his phone went unanswered.

A sheriff's office special response team came to the property around 1:30 a.m. and they spent two hours ordering Loop to come out of his home with his hands up, and he eventually did, Perlow said.

Loop told Franklin and DeVault he had a gun when asked, and both told him not to touch it, Perlow said. Loop ignored commands from the deputies to stop walking toward them and lie down on the ground, according to the district attorney.

At some point, Loop took his 9mm Taurus pistol out of its holster and was shot, Parlow said. Two bullets remained in the gun, and Loop had a second magazine on him with seven rounds inside.

Isaacson told The Oregonian/OregonLive after the shooting that Loop was distraught when they spoke on the phone a few hours before he was killed. Isaacson said Loop had been suffering from depression throughout his life, and that other workers described Loop as in the midst of a "breakdown" on that night.

"If you see something, say something. I didn't say something enough," Isaacson told The Oregonian/OregonLive. "He wasn't a violent person. I think irrational things felt rational to him at the time. I feel bad for the officers who were there; they didn't know."

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyA police officer shot and killed a man during an encounter in an RV park in Seaside on Tuesday.

Seaside police officers responded to a 911 call around 1:35 p.m. involving a man being seen with a firearm at the RV Park near Avenue P and U.S. 101. That man was later shot by one Seaside officer who responded to the scene, according to Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis. No officers were injured.

The shooting is under investigation. Authorities have not yet released more details on what led to the shooting nor the identities of the people involved.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyThousands of scientists expressed alarm this week at the expansion of the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

A report in BioScience outlined the dangers of building a continuous and impermeable border wall, saying it would harm animals and plants in this sensitive region. The scientists cite bypassed environmental laws, habitat destruction, and losses to conservation and scientific research as the primary areas of concern.

The region is home to more than 1,500 native plant and animal species, including several endangered species.

After posting the article, lead author Robert Peters of Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation advocacy group, put out a call for scientists to sign on to it. The report has 16 co-authors, including eminent scientists such as E.O. Wilson and Paul Ehrlich, and as of Tuesday has 2,700 signatures from almost 50 countries.

The border wall's construction and enforcement affects more than just the narrow strip around a physical wall. It also includes roads and access on both sides, as well as off-roading patrols, said Jennifer Miller, co-author and senior scientist at Defenders of Wildlife.

"This would be the only wall on earth that would split a continent," said Miller.

William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University and an author on the paper said "We should be concerned about conserving biodiversity because ecosystems can become unraveled when we don't, and when ecosystems become unraveled, it doesn't bode well for humans."

For example, said Gerardo Ceballos, an author on the report and an ecology professor in Mexico City, changing ecological landscapes can affect the quantity and quality of available water.

"When you lose them (animals and plants), you're losing the capabilities of the environment to provide the conditions we need to have a good life," he said. The border wall would be a "massive blow" to the ecosystem and "truly affect the human communities," said Ceballos.

American bison, a wildlife icon, now has populations at the border. Krista Schlyer, a photographer and filmmaker working on a documentary about border wildlife, remembered the moment she realized the importance of the border lands habitat.

She watched a small group of bison hop over a broken-down barbed-wire fence. Interviews with ranchers on both sides of the border revealed that the bison were using the American side for feeding on a kind of nutritious grass and the Mexican side for drinking from a pond, one of the only water sources.

"One of the big misconceptions is that people sort of think of it as a desert. Which it is, it's a desert, but it's an extremely biodiverse desert ecosystem," said Schlyer on a phone call from Mission, Texas, at the border. The landscape is dotted with hunched mesquite trees. Butterflies of "every color" float by on the hot breeze, she said.

The House Appropriations Committee is discussing a homeland-security spending bill that allocates a suggested $5 billion for the border wall and associated security.

"What I'm hoping is that our national leaders and administration and congressional leaders will notice our report and listen to the concerns we have," said Ripple.

Historically, border walls are known to be bad for wildlife. However, this report also details the negative impacts it could have on scientists and international collaboration.

In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, "a rookie Border Patrol employee held us at gunpoint on our stomachs for one and a half hours, threatening to shoot us if we moved," said Gary Nabhan, an ecologist, in an interview with Peters recorded in an earlier report. "He was unaware that there is significant research being conducted at this National Park site along the border."

-- Kate Furby, The Washington PostWits Language School is offering a unique language course, which will soon be an official language, the South African Sign Language (SASL)! The upcoming course, will run from 29 September till 1 December 2018. This language will expose you to a new cultural and linguistic community, whilst at the same time helping you realise the importance of being able to communicate and understand people of the deaf community. Register for the SASL course now and start your journey to becoming a better communicator!

Course content and proficiency level

Wits provides a dynamic, fun learning environment in which to improve your SASL skills with experienced and competent deaf trainers, and the courses are divided into three levels of proficiency in order to maximise your learning experience. Proficiency levels include beginner, intermediate and upper intermediate, with two modules in each level (A and B). Each 40-hour module runs for nine weeks, and certificates of attendance and competence can be obtained for each module.Level 1Beginners will learn the fundamentals of SASL, from correct finger spelling and basic sign language structure, how to use simple phrases and ask and answer questions (module A), to forming and requesting descriptions, expressing likes and dislikes, delivering a monologue of approximately three minutes and understanding short signed dialogues (module B).Level 2Intermediate-level students will learn how to maintain short conversations in simple terms, understand short signed monologues, ask questions about a signed monologue and summarise the main points of a short simple signed text (module A), hold conversations with deaf individuals, form correctly structured phrases, explain complex processes, and understand specific predictable information in everyday signed conversations (module B).Level 3Lastly, at upper intermediate level, students will learn to communicate regarding specific concrete and abstract tasks requiring a sustained exchange of information, demonstrate understanding of sustained signed conversations delivered by first-language signers, discuss a practical problem and offer a solution, and build on previous knowledge of deaf culture, technology, services and education acquired up to intermediate level (module A), and summarise the main points of a signed text on an unfamiliar topic, deliver prepared presentations and answer questions, narrate a story, understand the main point of many radio and TV programmes, and understand sustained signed conversations and monologues relating to abstract and/or unfamiliar topics.South Africa needs more people who are fluent users of South African Sign Language.Jacob Tanzer, a Portland lawyer and judge known for his sense of humor, wise counsel and defense of civil liberties, died Monday. He was 83.

His daughter, Jessica Tanzer Conroy, said Tanzer fell and struck his head.

Tanzer may best be known for his time with the U.S. Department of Justice. He investigated the 1964 slayings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner and helped secured indictments against Ku Klux Klan members. The case later inspired the movie Mississippi Burning."

In 2014, Tanzer was named Legal Citizen of the Year by the Classroom Law Project. During the awards ceremony, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder praised the lawyer's dedication to his ideals.

"He has charted a courageous course and inspired others to follow in his pursuit of a more fair, more equal, and more just society," Holder said.

Born in 1935 in Longview, Washington, Tanzer graduated from Grant High School in Portland and earned his bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Oregon. He also attended Stanford University and Reed College.

Tanzer began his career in private practice, then joined the Justice Department under Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. He also was a deputy district attorney for Multnomah County, became the first solicitor general for the Oregon Department of Justice, and was the first director for what later became the Oregon Department of Human Services.

He served on the Oregon Court of Appeals and Oregon Supreme Court before finishing his career with Ball Janik, a Portland law firm.

Tanzer was known for mentoring the younger lawyers and helping them improve their writing, firm partner Steve Janik said.

"There was a great clarity and simplicity in Jake's analysis of complex problems," Janik said.

Tanzer would frequently talk to other people in the office and tell funny stories. Janik said he will miss Tanzer's laugh, which tended to start as a chuckle before becoming loud and full-throated.

Sally Landauer, another former law partner of Tanzer's, said the Yiddish language has the perfect word to describe Tanzer: mensch. It's a "gentleman who is outstanding in everything he does," she said.

The two became friends 50 years ago, Landauer said. They met during a group for Jewish young people and kept in touch over the years. They eventually began to work together around 1989.

"He was a lion of the legal profession and of humanity," Landauer said.

Tanzer could handle any case, and Landauer said she remembers the office would tease him about all his successes. Outside of work, they spent time in a book club; when it was Tanzer's turn to choose the book, it was always noticeably long, she recalled.

Though Tanzer was scholarly and rational, she said, he also was a warm person.

"I loved the fact that when I saw him, we would always hug," Landauer said.

Tanzer's wife of 44 years, Elaine, 75, said he truly felt for people. "He was probably the world's most kind person," she said. "He had a lot of feeling for the downtrodden."

Elaine said Tanzer did the chores she didn't want to. She said she's not used to doing laundry -- because that was always Tanzer's job -- or picking up food for his adored cats, Lucy and Simon.

Tanzer often pitched in on busy Saturdays at Elephants Delicatessen, the Portland-based deli and catering company founded by his wife. He would help sell cheeses and work the cash register.

He spent many mornings relaxing at Elephants. He would sit at a table, drink coffee and talk to almost everyone who came through the door.

"He had so many friends, you couldn't believe it," Elaine said.

After retirement, Tanzer took up photography, said his daughter, Jessica, who is a photographer in San Francisco. He loved to take pictures of his travels. India was his favorite spot.

Throughout his life, Tanzer continued to talk about issues that were important to him. Jessica noticed her father liked to share a similar message at the end of his interviews.

He'd often talk about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his power to unite white and black people toward a single cause.

"I don't believe in the 'us against them,'" he said in a 2014 YouTube interview. "I believe in the 'us together,' and I still do. I still do."

Tanzer is survived by his wife, Elaine Tanzer; children, Joshua Tanzer, Jessica Tanzer Conroy, Rachel Tanzer and Elan Tanzer; and one grandson.

--Lydia GerikeOregon is generally a blue state, yet three months before the general election Democrats are locked in a bitter fight to hold onto the governor's office.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Oregon assailed Republican Rep. Knute Buehler, claiming the Bend surgeon could no longer represent his legislative district because he's made Tualatin his home base while campaigning for governor.

At the same time, a political nonprofit advocating for foster care improvements launched a television ad campaign critical of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown in the Portland and Eugene areas. The group doesn't disclose who pays for its work. Buehler has gone after Brown for failing to solve perennial problems in Oregon's child welfare system.

The attacks came just days after a new survey showed Brown and Buehler in a dead heat, each with support from 45 percent of likely voters. Some observers questioned the methodology used by Florida-based Gravis Marketing, but one Oregon pollster said the results were in line with his firm's work.

"We've seen it pretty close, head-to-head, between Brown and Buehler," said John Horvick, vice president and political director of DHM Research in Portland. "It's a bit surprising to see a Democratic statewide candidate in Oregon have such weak numbers, but (Brown) does."

DHM Research conducted its last publicly released poll of the Brown-Buehler matchup in January. OPB paid for that poll, which found Brown leading Buehler 46 percent to 29 percent.

The Gravis Marketing survey was funded by the company, possibly as a strategy to drum up business. It relied in part on interactive robocalls, and Horvick said it appears Gravis allowed respondents to self-identify as members of political parties or unaffiliated voters, rather than working off lists of registered voters from the state of Oregon.

Brown's campaign spokesman Christian Gaston questioned the quality of the survey, writing in a text that "it's hard to understand how this is a reputable piece of public opinion research." Gaston declined to supply the campaign's own poll results.

Meanwhile, the Democrats' complaint against Buehler centers on statements that he moved into an apartment in Tualatin where his campaign headquarters is located. Buehler is finishing out his term as a state representative; and though there are no more legislative sessions scheduled this year, Buehler and other lawmakers will hold a couple more interim meetings in Salem.

Jeanne Atkins, chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon, alleged in a letter Tuesday that Buehler was not meeting a state constitutional mandate for lawmakers to live in the districts they represent and asked Secretary of State Dennis Richardson to investigate. In 2016, when Atkins was secretary of state, her office dismissed a similar complaint by Oregon House Democrats, who claimed a Republican legislative candidate didn't live in the district in which he was seeking election.

Buehler's campaign dismissed the complaint as a "desperate attack" and said the candidate needed the Tualatin apartment so he "has some place to sleep, shower and snack while he is campaigning vigorously nearly every week in the Portland-area and Willamette Valley." Buehler and his wife own a home in Bend.

The group attacking Brown, Oregon Foster Families First, is a political nonprofit advocacy group and it's unclear who is funding it. Ben West, the group's executive director, served as a foster parent and has an adopted son who spent time in the system. West and his husband, Paul Rummell, were plaintiffs in the lawsuit that overturned Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage; West ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican, against longtime Democratic incumbent Kurt Schrader.

In an emotional 60-second television ad, West and Rummell share their experience as foster and then adoptive parents. The ad ends with a request for viewers to "tell Gov. Brown to start putting our kids first."

The messaging by the Democratic Party of Oregon and Oregon Foster Families First on Tuesday is an example of how groups other than the candidates and their campaigns are involved in driving the increasingly hard-fought gubernatorial race. It also means some of the political spending is difficult or impossible to track.

West said Oregon Foster Families First distributed endorsement questionnaires to state legislative candidates, planned to give campaign contributions as well as endorsements and is working on a legislative agenda for the 2019 session.

"The status quo is not OK anymore," West said.

Horvick said the Gravis Marketing survey results might surprise some people, because Oregon is "a Democratic state and people are expecting a big Democratic year."

"Oregonians have never been in love with Kate Brown," Horvick said. "They're just neutral to her."

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrudA man shot himself in front of an Oregon State Police officer after being pulled over Monday in The Dalles for reckless driving, according to police.

The man, identified only as a 42-year-old from Portland, was stopped about 1 p.m. on eastbound Interstate 84 near Biggs Junction in Sherman County.

As the driver exited the car, the trooper noticed the man held a handgun. The trooper asked him to drop the weapon. Instead, the man walked toward the back of his car, shot himself and fell into a ditch.

The officer stayed at the scene until backup arrived and helped administer medical care.

The man was treated at a hospital in The Dalles then airlifted to a Portland area hospital, where his medical care is ongoing. His condition is unknown.

-- Lydia Gerike

lgerike@oregonian.com

@LydiaGerikeA knife-wielding Portland hotel guest was arrested Monday after authorities say he forced a hotel worker to remain in a room and repeatedly threatened to stab her.

William H. English III, 31, left the worker alone in the room at the Sheraton Hotel near the Portland International Airport after she used the phone inside to call the front desk for help, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was later tracked down by hotel security, and a knife was found inside his room near where the woman was being held, the court documents said.

The woman was not physically hurt.

The worker told investigators she was in a room Monday morning with the door open when English walked in while she was cleaning the bathroom and held a knife above his shoulders, the affidavit said.

The worker screamed when English told her not to scream, wouldn't turn around to face the bathtub when English ordered her to and sat on the floor after he physically moved her so she no longer faced him, the affidavit said. English kept telling the worker he would stab her if she didn't follow his orders, the affidavit said.

English ordered the woman to the bed, she contacted the front desk, English hung up the phone and ran from the room, the affidavit said.

English was later booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on suspicion of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, unlawful use of a weapon, coercion and menacing.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyPortland police Wednesday morning cleared the last remaining protesters from an encampment at the Southwest Portland offices of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

About a dozen protesters had remained at the headquarters in South Waterfront after the camp five weeks ago was created by demonstrators saying they were acting against the immigration policies of the Trump administration.

Police released a statement about 4:30 a.m. saying Portland officers were assisting in cleaning up the Occupy ICE Camp near Southwest Macadam Avenue and Bancroft Street.

The city had warned remaining campers Monday night that they needed to leave or face arrest after Tuesday.

Most occupiers, which at the camp's height numbered in the hundreds, had left over the past few weeks.

Police Wednesday morning taped off the area around the ICE headquarters and closed the intersection. About a dozen protesters initially remained, standing at the intersection of Lowell Street and Moody Avenue. By 6:30 a.m., only about five were still at the scene.

Police said protesters were subject to citation or arrest for charges including trespassing, illegal camping on public property and illegal structures on public property. The police statement said its explosives unit and Portland Fire & Rescue personnel were present as precautions.

Shortly after 6 a.m., Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw held a news conference at the site.

Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw gives an update on the #occupyICEPDX encampment. Posted by The Oregonian on Wednesday, July 25, 2018

She said police have received 76 calls during the encampment and have responded to 41 of them. She also said the roads near the ICE headquarters were needed for access to medical facilities in the area.

Outlaw also said the camp posed fire and biomedical hazards.

"We knew we had to get ahead of it before it spiraled out of control," she said.

Outlaw said after bringing those reasons to Mayor Ted Wheeler, he then "fully supported" clearing the camp of occupiers.

She said no arrests or citations were made and no pepper spray or other less-than-lethal munitions were used. She said police would review one incident in which an officer reported using his baton to push demonstrators from a restricted area.

The occupation began five weeks ago, when protesters set up a makeshift camp at the building and have been there around the clock since. They said their intention is to protest the Trump administration's policy of separating children and parents who are detained after border crossings and seek the abolishment of ICE.

The field office closed for days because protesters blocked its entrances. Several demonstrators were detained and charged with misdemeanors when federal police moved to reopen the building. Protesters carried on, with tensions between their ranks and federal officers flaring up on occasion.

Demonstrations came to a head last week, when members of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group came to the campsite and argued with protesters. Three demonstrators were arrested at the time for crossing police lines and preventing access to the building.

A faction of protesters left voluntarily Monday, Eudaly said. Wheeler encouraged others to follow suit.

Wheeler said he supports protesters' cause, but believes the camp-out demonstration is no longer "sustainable."

"To all demonstrators: I urge you to keep up this effort," Wheeler said. He added that he believes it is time to for protesters to "move on" and focus on changing immigration policy, rather than camping at the ICE field office.

Contract workers began cleaning the campsite shortly before 8 a.m. Their plan is to collect items of "obvious utility and value" left behind. The bureau will store the items, and people can claim any belongings until Sept. 1, 2018 by contacting Pacific Patrol Services at 503-595-3440.

Many of the tents and makeshift wooden walls had been taken down by 10 a.m. as contractors worked to move out the larger items first, including couches and tables.

Piles of belongings were spread around the camp. Hammers, stuffed animals, tuna cans and mattresses were among the vast array of items left behind.

"The Next Revolution: Popular Assemblies and the Promise of Direct Democracy" by Murray Bookchin lay open on the ground next to a single flip-flop. Toilet seats from a compostable toilet station sat a few feet from a filing cabinet labeled with medical supplies.

The action shut down numerous streets as the morning commute began, including:

Bancroft is closed between Macadam and Bond Avenue.

Moody is closed between Bancroft and Lowell.

Bond is closed at Bancroft.

All streets were open by midafternoon.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLiveAfter 40 years as a Republican, Lori Stegmann has had a change of heart  and political party.

Stegmann, elected a Multnomah County commissioner in 2016, has changed her affiliation to Democrat, she said in an interview Tuesday.

Stegmann, 58, said she can sum up the reason for the change with one word: Trump. She added that she "cannot condone the misogyny, the racism, and the unethical and immoral behavior of the current administration."

Stegmann represents District 4 on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. That district includes Gresham, Troutdale, Corbett and other small east county communities.

She said she is a political moderate, owing in part to her experience growing up in her district, as a businesswoman working in insurance and as a Republican who admired party greats like Sen. Mark Hatfield and Gov. Tom McCall.

"I have not changed but the Republican Party most certainly has," she said.

Stegmann cited the Trump administration policy of separating parents and children after border crossings caused as another reason she decided to change her political affiliation. Stegmann was born in South Korea and orphaned there, adopted by an American family and later became a naturalized citizen.

"I serve on an all-woman board," she said in reference to the county commission. "I'm a minority. I'm an immigrant."

She said some Republicans' rhetoric casting immigrants as a threat is a "false narrative," adding, "I think people need to see we're all immigrants."

Stegmann said that the Democratic Party better fits her politics, calling it "a big tent party."

The party change won't affect county business. Seats on the board of commissioners are nonpartisan. But Stegmann said the change is still symbolic and personal for her.

"This decision is about who I am, what I believe in and my core values. And if you don't stand for something, then you stand for nothing," Stegmann said.

"I prefer to stand," she said. "And now I stand with the Democrats."

-- Gordon R. Friedman

503-221-8209The Oregon Ducks are once again red-hot on the recruiting trail, having added a trio of four-star prospects in the past 36 hours - athlete Bryan Addison, safety Trikweze Bridges and wide receiver Mycah Pittman.

I joined "Dirt and Sprague" on 1080 The Fan on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how the three commitments came to be, what to expect from each prospect and whether Oregon is already back in the glory days before the start of the season.

Listen below (if embedded video/audio doesn't load, click here):

-- Andrew Nemec

anemec@oregonian.com

@AndrewNemecMater Dei 4-star prospects Jeremiah Criddell and Sean Dollars commit to Oregon over Florida State and others (Courtesy of Jeremiah Criddell, Sean Dollars)Women in the Midland area wishing to complete home projects now have free and easy access to those tools needed to complete their tasks.

The Greater Michigan Construction Academy, the Midland Area Community Foundation and Jeff Havens have collaborated to establish the GMCA Tool Library, a free lending library dedicated to women in the Midland area.

Its a community tool, GMCA President and CEO Jimmy Greene said Tuesday. We want to dedicate this to those women who need it the most, the ones that have been dependent on men or services and arent able to be self-sufficient.

The tool library is housed in the Mortensen-Havens room at the GMCA-Midland Campus, 7730 W. Wackerly St.

Jeff wrote the grant, we presented it to the Midland Area Community Foundation and Sharon Mortensen (MACF president) provided the grant, Greene said.

The shiny new tools are ready and waiting  everything from gloves to hand tools to a variety of saws. The library even includes do-it-yourself books for those that need a little guidance along the way.

This will help those who may not have access to tools otherwise and help to develop entrepreneurism, Mortensen said. "We are always looking for great ideas that would be transformational."

It only takes a basic small hand tools lesson for Midland area women to borrow tools.

This is home grown, home money and for home citizens. Its for all Midland County women, Greene said.

The brand new tools lined up on the shelves at GMCA were purchased from Lowes.

We went out on a shopping spree to Lowes. As we were checking out, the manager came over and asked what we were doing. He then proceeded to give us 20 percent off, Greene said.

As tools wear out, plans are to seek donations from manufacturers and individuals.

We know this will play into the heartstrings of tool manufacturers. The sustainability is simple as tools wear down you contact tool manufacturers and ask them, How much are you willing to donate? said the bold and insistent Greene.

Individuals may not have to look farther than their garage or basement to contribute.

A lot of tools are around the county in somebodys garage. When you clean out your garage, bring the tools here, Havens said. This will give women the opportunity to fix up their houses without having to spend $500 on tools they may only use once.

Tools are available to borrow from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday, after completing a lesson to get a "library card."

To contact GMCA, call 989-832-8879.Nearly 20 people from higher education campus women's centers and other gender equity offices met recently at Grand Valley State University for the Michigan Women's Centers Consortium, an initiative of the Michigan ACE Women's Network.

The Michigan ACE Women's Network is committed to identifying, developing the leadership of, advancing and supporting the retention of women in higher education throughout the state.In order to promote early breastfeeding success and breastfeeding outcomes, the Midland Breastfeeding Coalition is hosting a Walk for Breastfeeding Awareness on Saturday, Aug. 4.

Registration for the walk will begin at 9:30 a.m. at Dow Diamond. There is no cost to participate and information, prizes and snacks will be offered to participants.Tuesday was the kickoff for a program allowing Midland residents dealing with addiction to get connected to treatment by going to law enforcement.

Hope Not Handcuffs is an initiative started nine months ago by the Families Against Narcotics, aimed at bringing law enforcement and community organizations together in an effort to find treatment options for people facing drug and alcohol addiction.

"I hope this is going to make a difference, and I'm pretty sure it's going to," said Midland County Sheriff Scott Stephenson. "This is a new concept and why this wasn't thought of earlier I don't know."

The most important part about Hope Not Handcuffs is that it will help people, but Stephenson also believes it will save a lot of time for law enforcement.

"The old way of doing things isn't working," Stephenson said.

In conjunction with the Great Lakes Bay Region Families Against Narcotics chapter, Midland is among eight law enforcement agencies that started the program July 24, which comprises police and sheriffs in Saginaw City, Saginaw Township, Bay County, Bay City, Essexville and Hampton Township.

Midland's law enforcement office is open around the clock, so people seeking help through Hope Not Handcuffs can come in, fill out a form online at www.familiesagainstnarcotics.org/hopenothandcuffs, or call 833-202-4673.

People who come to Midland law enforcement for the program will not be run through the Law Enforcement Information Network to see if they have a warrant, said Rodney Roten, City of Midland Deputy Chief of Police.

People will still be held accountable for crimes, but it will be in the context of getting them help for their addiction, he said.

Because the police and sheriff's department in Midland are working on implementing the program together, it will be consistent for everybody seeking help, Stephenson explained.

There are about 115 trained "angels" across the newly added agencies to the program that will be dispatched to meet the person at the law enforcement office and facilitate the next step to connecting them with treatment.

Finding a trusted addiction treatment center for detox or in-patient care is something Judge Linda Davis, the president of Families Against Narcotics, struggled with herself when helping her own daughter find help.

Searching online for treatment facilities was "overwhelming," Davis said, and some of the centers were scams or not qualified. Vetting treatment facilities is an important function of Hope Not Handcuffs, and the program communicates regularly with local facilities, hospitals and other stakeholders, she explained.

The amount of time it takes to get someone in treatment to one of the 12 detox facilities will vary by community, Davis said, but usually they have seen success with people getting placed quickly. If it does take a few days, the "angel" in charge of their case will keep constant contact with the person until they get help, she said.

Davis used to be a prosecutor, and said "billions of dollars" have been wasted using the old mentality of getting drug users off the street by putting them in jail.

"We cannot arrest our way out of this," she said. "Without treatment, it is just a revolving door. The system is broken at every spoke."

Treating those with addiction as if it were any other medical disease works to take away the stigma and helps fight the real problem, said Lori Ziolkowski, vice president of Great Lakes Bay Region Families Against Narcotics.

"It's up to us as a community, nobody should be ashamed of being sick, but we stigmatize addiction," Ziolkowski said. "Without medical profession help, you cannot get well."Hermes Airports and Integrated Casino Resorts Cyprus have signed a commercial agreement to create a satellite casino at Larnaka International Airport, Cyprus.

The first location will be situated in the departures area and accessible only to departing passengers, while the second one is to be situated in the arrivals area so it can be used by the general public.

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The first location is expected to be ready and operational in the next three months, with the second opening at the end of the year. The satellite casino is planned to play host to 50 gaming machines.

On behalf of Hermes Airports, the agreement was signed jointly by the companys CEO, Eleni Kaloyirou, and chief financial officer, George Paschalis, while on behalf of ICR Cyprus, the agreement was signed by Melis Shacolas, director of ICR Cyprus and the property president Craig Ballantyne.

The term of the commercial agreement is two years with the possibility of renewal.Good Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

Looking to wring maximum benefit from an admittedly bumpy series of town hall meetings, Republican governor candidate Scott Wagner is out with a new digital spot touting his inteactions with state voters.

In the more than two-minute-long video that's now online, Wagner challenges Gov. Tom Wolf to sit with him and speak with voters about the issues because the incumbent Democrat "needs to go out and talk to the people of Pennsylvania and learn about the issues."

"I would love to have Governor Wolf sitting next to me tonight and we would be respectful," he says in the spot.

Wagner, as you'll recall, challenged Wolf to a debate in all 67 Pennsylvania counties this campaign season, a standard challenger trope. Wolf rejected the invite, but it appears likely the candidates will debate several times when the campaign really heats up this fall.

In an email, Wagner's campaign spokesman, Andrew Romeo, said "it's no wonder Tom Wolf doesn't want to face the people of Pennsylvania given that his harmful tax and regulatory policies have Pennsylvania's economy in the tank compared to the country as a whole.

"He's for an education plan to cut funding from 362 schools and he's no longer committed to property tax reform," Romeo continued. "Scott is going to continue doing town halls around the commonwealth and Tom Wolf should listen to his own party, stop being a coward, and join him."

But if Wagner is challenging Wolf to bone up on the issues, he'll need to do a tad bit of homework himself.

First up, Wolf isn't going to cut funding for 362 schools. That's a well-documented falsehood, stemming from Wolf's comments about implementing a new school funding formula that has been thoroughly debunked.

In the video, Wagner vows to eliminate school property taxes - a goal, as we've previously noted, that has eluded more than one GOP gubernatorial candidate and several ambitious Republican lawmakers.

Sponsors of a similar proposal this session are still gunning for a vote on their bill, and swear the math behind their bill works (another longtime bugaboo). But they also acknowledge that it'll be a tough lift during an abbreviated fall voting session.

Meanwhile, Wagner also pronounces Wolf a "failure" on school safety measures.

But if Wagner, a former state senator, had hung around to vote this year's state budget (a likely no, in any event), he would have found that the $32 billion document Wolf signed into law in June included $7 million for grants to address community violence and a further $50 million earmarked for school safety), and to '[back] off some regulations."

Wagner also repeated a vow to thin out state regulations. He's sponsoring a bill that would do that. But in a primary season interview with the PennLive editorial board, he conceded that he had not repealed a single regulation during his four years in the Senate.

Meanwhile, reminding us that you're only as good as your next ad, Pa. Republicans are apparently in the market for a Wolf doppelganger for their next commercial.

A casting notice, obtained by PennLive, circulated by the production firm Jamestown Associates, puts out a call for a "caucasian male (50-65 years old) Tom Wolf (governor of Pa.) lookalike."

Regardez:

This isn't the first time that a Republican campaign has tried to cast a Wolf-a-like for an ad. Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul Mango tried it during the primary season. Former GOP Gov. Tom Corbett also took a run at it during his unsuccessful 2014 campaign.

And this one's for the trainspotters: In 2010, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee axed Jamestown and "and apologized to the voters of West Virginia on Thursday after committee officials learned that the firm was responsible for the derogatory term 'hicky' in the casting call for an ad," Politico reported at the time.

Beth Melena, Wolf's campaign spokeswoman, said in an email that if Republicans "want to copy the same tired tactics of the failing campaigns of Paul Mango and Tom Corbett, we're all for it. Why get a new schtick when it worked so well for them?"

The rest of the day's news starts now.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., is out with a new spot, featuring a mixed-party married couple, that punches up his work reaching across the aisle in Washington.

Regardez:

In a tele-town hall with constituents on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-10th District, split with the White House on trade and says he's no fan of President Donald Trump sharing public stages with strongmen like Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. Dept. of Education is investigating the Temple Business School scandal, The Inquirer reports.

Former GOP guv candidate Paul Mango has joined the Trump administration as head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Inky also reports.

New Monmouth University polling shows Democrat Conor Lamb with a double-digit lead over Republican U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus in western Pa's 17th District, The Tribune-Review reports.

The founder of a well-known Pa. cyber-charter school, Nick Trombetta, has been sentenced to 20 months in prison, The Post-Gazette reports.

BillyPenn has a timeline for the construction of Comcast's new corporate palace in Philadelphia.

Ex-PG editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers, who was fired for drawing cartoons critical of Donald Trump, will mount an exhibit of his work in Pittsburgh this November, The Incline reports.

Here's your #Harrisburg Instagram of the Day:

Old homes and high poverty make Philly less than affordable for some would-be buyers, WHYY-FM reports.

WITF-FM profiles a community that's working together to fight opioid abuse.

A Lehigh Valley start-up has a goal: No more missing meds, The Morning Call reports.

WolfWatch.

Gov. Tom Wolf heads to Philly this morning for an 11:30 a.m. presser at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital to talk about how the Trump administration's gag rule on Title X services endangers women's healthcare.

And now you're up to date.In this July 20, 2018, photo, members of Halestorm, from left, Josh Smith, Joe Hottinger, Lzzy Hale, and Arejay Hale pose in Nashville, Tenn., to promote their new record, "Vicious," out on July 27. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)After almost six years, authorities say they have finally arrested an Allentown teen's killer.

Quante Cruz, 28, has been charged in the 2012 death of 17-year-old Kareem Fedd, who was apparently shot and killed while sleeping at his Fullerton Avenue home. The charges, which include first-degree criminal homicide, were announced Tuesday in a news release from Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.

Fedd was pronounced dead at 4:23 a.m. Aug. 24, 2012, at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Salisbury Township, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds. Later that morning, neighbor Fadi Sabbagh described to lehighvalleylive.com what he saw after waking about 4 a.m. to screams next door in the 1100 block of Fullerton Avenue.

Sabbagh, then 22, told a reporter that he ran to the house, where another teenager was screaming "My brother! My brother!" He hurried up the stairs to the second-floor bedroom and found Fedd's mother hysterical.

The boy was apparently dead on the bed, his torso bloodied from gunshot wounds. A window was open, and Sabbagh speculated that the killer entered via a fire escape.

"It seemed to me he was shot sleeping," Sabbagh said that morning, still appearing slightly dazed. "It was a shock."

Later, when paramedics entered the house to take Fedd, his mother tried to run back into the house and Sabbagh held her back.

"I knew when I heard the screams it wasn't just an argument, that something was wrong," Sabbagh said. "I thought somebody was hurt and that maybe I could help. I wasn't expecting anything like that. Maybe I shouldn't have rushed in like that."

In the days following, authorities said they were investigating if the shooting was gang-related. It was not clear from Tuesday's release if that was the case.

The slaying was investigated by Allentown police and the DA's office. Testimony and evidence against Cruz was reviewed by a grand jury, though its findings and other details of the case were sealed by Judge Maria L. Dantos, the DA said in the announcement.

Cruz, whose listed address is an apartment in the 900 block of West Hamilton Street, was due to be arraigned Tuesday, and prosecutors planned to request bypassing a pending preliminary hearing.

Cruz is charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide and burglary, all first-degree felonies, as well as lesser firearms offenses. Between 2009 and 2014, Cruz has faced numerous small charges including public drunkenness an drug offenses, several resulting in fines or dismissal. A burglary charge in February 2014 was withdrawn.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveNovakLVL and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.The U.S. Department of Labor on Wednesday announced more than $22 million in National Health Emergency (NHE) Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grant funding to six state grantees, including Pennsylvania.

The grants will be used to provide reemployment services for individuals impacted by the health and economic effects of widespread opioid use, addiction, and overdose.

On Oct. 26, 2017, President Trump announced that his Administration was declaring the opioid crisis a national Public Health Emergency under federal law.

READ MORE: Addicted Towns of Pa.: Stories from a state in crisis

"President Trump is fully committed to fighting the opioid epidemic, which has devastated lives, families, and communities across the nation," U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta said in a press release. "A family-sustaining job is a critical step toward long-term recovery and healing from opioid misuse and abuse. These grants will provide services to help Americans impacted by opioids rejoin the workforce."

Supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014, NHE Demonstration Grants provide funding to states, outlying areas, and eligible tribal governments to address the economic and workforce impacts associated with the opioid health crisis. The Department continues to review existing authorities to assist additional states as they address this health crisis.

The six states receiving NHE Dislocated Worker Demonstration Grant funding are:HARRISBURG--One speaker invoked a historic natural disaster to convey the calamity he predicts if the city is forced to accept a state-proposed plan that would raise property taxes by more than 80 percent.



"Folks are going to leave just like they did after the 1972 flood," said fire chief and city resident Brian Enterline.



Far from coming off as hysterical, Enterline seemingly summed up the view of everyone in an overflow audience that turned out Tuesday night to have a say on the state-authored plan intended to transition the city to solid financial footing and independence.



He captured it again when he added: "We're not gonna stand for it. Trust me."



The subject of the hearing was the Act 47 exit plan, meant to provide the final, state-guided pathway out of the city's dire financial predicament that began nearly a decade ago. The most contentious aspect of the plan, devised by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, would take away the city's ability to impose an increased earned income tax on city residents, and a local services tax on people who work in the city.





Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse

Those taxes, supposed to be temporary, account for about 20 percent of the city's budget. As they are phased out, they would be replaced by 20 percent property tax increases in each of the next two years and 43 percent in 2021.



On Tuesday night, one resident after another said such tax increases would be unaffordable for the vast majority of city residents, including many who are old and living on fixed incomes, or disabled, or in some cases living two or three families to a home. Landlords would be forced to raise rent, they said, pushing rents out of reach of the typical resident, and resulting in a "ghost town."



"I am terrified," said Emily Frola, who explained she contacted a real estate agent and was told it's already too late to sell her house without taking a loss.



Some residents vented on the panel of economic development department employees -- none are city residents -- who devised the plan and listened to their concerns. "That's why this plan is an unmitigated disaster," said Fran Harris. "You just put a bunch of crap on paper without thinking it through. You're going to put this city back in the disaster mode."



Still, the proposed plan, at nearly 100 pages, offers an array of steps and solutions, such as cutting back on certain expenses, adopting a home rule form of government, becoming part of a regional police force, and charging other municipalities when city firefighters respond to fires there. And the proposal isn't final, with Tuesday night's comments intended to influence the final one.



Still, there is one possible solution contained in the state-authored proposal that is embraced by Harrisburg officials and residents alike: persuading state lawmakers to allow the city to continue the local services tax and the increased earned income tax, with together amount to about $12 million annually.



That's not a far-fetched possibility, as a local lawmaker has introduced a bill and city officials are planning to renew the push this fall.



But for now, virtually everyone who turned out Tuesday night, along with 130 people who submitted written statements, made it clear they consider nearly every part of the proposed exit plan to be unacceptable.



Thomas Carter, the police chief, outlined how the police force fell to 113 during the depths of the financial crisis, but has expanded to 144 officers as the revenues from the special taxes stabilized city finances. He said a regional force isn't plausible, for reasons including pension differences between the low-paid city force and those of the better-paid nearby townships. Moreover, he said rectifying the disparities would result in service cutbacks for Harrisburg. "Harrisburg deserves better," said Carter, who received applause after stating city residents are not to blame for the financial crisis.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse offered a lengthy dissection of the report, saying its recommendations are inadequate and in some cases illegal, and "If anything, the city is more distressed after three years."

Resident Andy Isaacs argued that raising taxes to the extent called for in the proposal will drive residents away, prevent others from moving in, and have an effect that's opposite the intent. "The effect of all this is to lower the tax base of the city," he said. "You're going to have to raise taxes even more. This is not a recipe for getting out of distress."More rainfall is expected for central Pennsylvania Tuesday night and throughout Wednesday, according to forecasters.

But the sun and blue skies are expected to return later this week.

"A cold front will push through (Wednesday), triggering additional heavy downpours that could create additional flooding concerns. But here's some good news - the rain will stop and the sun will come out across much of central Pennsylvania on Thursday," according to the National Weather Service at State College.

For Tuesday night, expect rain showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 72. Rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch are possible.

A flash flood warning has been issued for southwestern York County until 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.

A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for northwestern Lancaster County, central York County and southeastern Dauphin County until 11:15 p.m. Tuesday.

WEDENSDAY: There will be a 100 percent chance of rain and possibly a thunderstorm. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. High near 78. Rainfall amounts between 1 inch to 1.5 inches of rain is possible. Low around 69.

THURSDAY: There will be a 20 percent chance of rain and thunderstorms before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Low around 69.

FRIDAY: There will be a 40 percent chance of scattered showers, with thunderstorms also possible after noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. Low around 67.

SATURDAY: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Low around 64.

SUNDAY: There will be a 40 percent chance of rain at night. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. Low around 65.

You can see live weather updates via the National Weather Service and other Twitter sources below.

Tweet us at @pennlive with photos of inclement weather at your place, incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.It could be another tricky morning commute thanks to numerous road closures as a result of flooded roadways.

511PA.com reported the following road closures as of 4:48 a.m. Wednesday:

PA 443 eastbound between Exit: US22/US322 West and Firehouse Road

PA 443 in both directions between Mumma Road and Appleby Road

PA 325 in both directions between Peters Mountain Road and Carsonville Road

Manada Bottom Road in both directions between Moyer Road and Furnace Lane

PA 39 eastbound between Allentown Boulevard and Park Boulevard / Hershey Park Drive

Oak Grove Road / Hoernerstown Road / Vine Street / Middletown Road / Hanover Street in both directions between Knight Drive and Devonshire Heights Road near Hummelstown

PA 230 in both directions between Hoffer Street and Colebrook Road near Middletown

Route 743 is also closed at Hersheypark drive heading north.

Various reports on Twitter also indicate water levels continue to rise on roadways across the region.

Spring Creek at Park Ave (near Zoo America and Hersheyparks Triple Towers) has spilled over its banks and onto the road w/in the past hour. Water levels are rising. @abc27News #27Daybreak #27Weather pic.twitter.com/kLQe0A8HgN  Justin Raub (@Justin_Raub) July 25, 2018

UPDATE: Flooding on I-81 northbound between Exit 89 - I-78 East and Exit 90 - PA 72. There is a traffic disruption.  511PA Harrisburg (@511PAHarrisburg) July 25, 2018

It's a day of weather and that means @fox43 #teamcoverage with @ChrisFOX43 @amichaelswx @TreniceFox43 @AmyFox43 and @Matt_Maisel. I'm in Columbia, Lancaster County this morning where the Susquehanna River is on the rise. Traffic alerts and full weather coverage all morning long. pic.twitter.com/n8ekIIthdq  Lynda Weed (@LweedTV) July 25, 2018

Flooding: Lebanon County



Union Twp: I-81, SB lanes closed between Exit 90: PA 72 & Exit 85: Fort Indiantown Gap. NB lanes restricted.



Fisher Avenue EB & WB all lanes closed between QuarterMaster Rd & Air Guard Rd.



PA 934 closed between Jonestown Rd & 22 West - Harrisburg  Amanda Peterson (@AmandaABC27) July 25, 2018

For more traffic information, follow live traffic updates, accident reports and road closures below from PennDOT, Total Traffic Network and other Twitter sources.

Get a look at conditions on local roads -- via PennDOT traffic cameras -- anytime here on PennLive. For Pennsylvania Turnpike updates and possible travel delays visit the Turnpike website here.

Tweet us at @pennlive with any incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.The search for a missing woman who fell into the Conewago Creek in Dauphin County and was swept away has been postponed due to the conditions.

Laura Olweiler, 19, disappeared into the creek at about 9 p.m. Monday near the 500 block of Koser Road in Conewago Township, near the border with Lancaster County.

State police were searching the area Tuesday, but had to call off the search into the evening hours after it was determined it was unsafe to continue.

"Emergency personnel are reassessing the conditions every few hours to resume the search," state police spokeswoman Megan Frazer said in an email. "The conditions are still too hazardous to proceed. There is no update for when the search will resume."

Two women, Olweiler and a 22-year-old, were walking across the creek when the high water swept them in, according to police. The 22-year-old was able to climb out of the water.

Other waterways throughout the region have also swelled as a result of the rain.

Central Pennsylvania remains under a flood warning and a flood watch. Many roadways were closed Wednesday morning thanks to overnight rain, and more rain is in the forecast for the rest of the day Wednesday.Some in Swatara Township have been asked to evacuate due to flooding.

Residents on Joyce Lane have been asked to evacuate, and the street is currently closed, according to the township's Facebook page.

"Residents of the area are being asked to evacuate for safety reasons and residents are asked to stay out of the evacuated area," the post reads. "Police and emergency personnel are onsite and are assisting."

Township personnel are continuing to monitor the situation and will post updates.

ALERT: Joyce Lane is currently closed due to flooding. Residents of the area are being asked to evacuate for safety... Posted by Swatara Township on Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Some residents in Derry Township have also been asked to evacuate.

Many roadways were closed Wednesday morning thanks to overnight rain, and more rain is in the forecast for the rest of the day Wednesday.

Waterways throughout the region have also swelled as a result of the rain, including the Susquehanna River.

Central Pennsylvania remains under a flood watch and flood warning.

You can see live weather updates via the National Weather Service and other Twitter sources below.

Tweet us at @pennlive with photos of inclement weather at your place, incidents you see on your commute or send a submission to submissions@pennlive.com.State Police are asking for help finding three teenage girls who left an intervention services residential facility in Franklin County early Monday morning.

Amy Yu, 16, Nichole Richard, 17 and Ajah Linares, 16, are believed to have left the Vision Quest facilities at 1101 Rocky Mountain Road, Greene Township, in an unknown vehicle around 1:20 a.m. Monday.

Police said the girls are not a threat to the general public.

Yu is described as wearing pants, sweatshirt and dark sneakers with light soles.

Richard is described as having red dyed hair, possibly wearing a light colored 3/4 sleeved two-toned shirt, shorts, backpack/cinch bag and duffle bag.

Linares is described as having long, curly black hair, possibly wearing a tank top, skinny jeans and carrying a bright pink camo bag.

Police confirmed that Yu ran away earlier this year, and was found in Mexico.

Anyone with information or that comes into contact with the juveniles is asked to contact the Chambersburg barracks at 717-264-5161.Firefighters in Hershey - as in other towns around central Pa. streams - have their eyes on water more than fire this week.

They are watching the rise of the Swatara Creek, which is expected to crest at 17 feet Wednesday night, well above major flood stage of 14 feet.

In Derry Township, about 28 residents were evacuated from their homes in the 1100 block of East Caracas Avenue and Sunset Drive Wednesday morning.

"There was swift water moving down Sunset Drive - several feet," Sassaman said, adding these were voluntary evacuations.

On Sunset Drive, 14 residents were assisted out of the neighborhood, and on East Caracas Avenue, 14 residents left.

These were the first water rescues since the rains began Saturday, and were voluntary evacuations.

Assisting were Harrisburg River Rescue, and Hummelstown, Lower Swatara and Middletown fire companies, and Hershey firefighters have assisted Hummelstown and South Hanover.

Hershey has 15 volunteer firefighters. "We are ready to respond if anyone needs assistance," Sassaman said. "We will man our firehouse if it is necessary."

He asks drivers and pedestrians to not go around "road closed" signs. There could be wash-outs, and manhole covers displaced, along with the water hazard.

With waters still rising on the Swatara Creek, firefighters continue to watch the stream, and Routes 743 and 39, and the Sand Beach Road bridges remain closed.

At Union Deposit Fire Co., assistant chief Shane Peterson said they weren't super-busy until Wednesday morning.

"Flood water is rising above major flood stage. Six or seven roads are closed in South Hanover Twp. - getting around is difficult," he said.

"The best advice I can give everyone is get somewhere high and shelter and stay off the roads," Peterson said.

Flood stage on the Swatara Creek is 7 feet, and it was at 16.28 feet around noon.

During Tropical Storm Lee in 2011, the stream reached 26.8 feet in Hershey.

Hummelstown Fire Company had seven calls between 3 and 9 a.m. Wednesday - four water rescues and three fire calls. That follows five water rescue calls Tuesday.

"We're just resting for the moment," said firefighter Joshua Kienzle, after a busy morning.

Stu Lutz, a 50-year member of the fire company, said Hummelstown's boat was used to help rescue residents on East Caracas and Sunset drives in Derry Township. Also, two calls were for vehicles that drove into the water near East Canal Drive in Union Deposit and East Hanover township.

Lutz said this storm's effects aren't as bad as Tropical Storm Lee, which resulted in a higher rise on the Swatara Creek.

During Lee, some fast food businesses on the edge of Hummelstown plaza were inundated with rising stormwater, among other areas heavily damaged.

In Lee, most of the rain arrived in one period, while in this storm, it's been spread over days. There have also been storm drain improvements in Hummelstown and Derry Township, he said.A Republican congressman from central Pennsylvania said Tuesday that he "can't get into" President Donald Trump's mind when it comes to Trump unwillingness to accept the truth of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Speaking during a telephone town hall with constituents, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-4th District, also said he was uncomfortable with Trump's chumminess with overseas strongmen like Russia's Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

"I would have a hard time standing right beside someone who murders someone, whether that's Vladimir Putin or Kim Jung Un or these other totalitarian thugs. I applaud the president for doing that, as long as it gets us where we need to go," Perry said.

"As long as we're doing things that are in America's interests, I can stomach it," he said later, adding that, "I don't love it, but I accept it ... If you're like me, it makes you feel uncomfortable."

Asked about Trump's public criticism of the intelligence community, Perry said he believes Trump is "tormented by people who somehow want him to agree with the implication that he didn't win the election fair and square."

"And by conceding the Russians meddled," undermines the legitimacy of Trump's victory, said Perry, who represents a section of Pennsylvania that helped deliver the Keystone State to Trump in 2016.

The Republican carried Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes over Hillary Clinton, breaking a Democratic winning streak stretching more than two decades.

Trump has delivered mixed messages on Russian meddling, sometimes acknowledging it, but also adding qualifiers including "no one really knows for sure."

Perry, an Army veteran, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he accepts the American intelligence community's conclusion that Russia, did, in fact, interfere in the 2016 election.

"Russia has been tampering forever. This is what Russia does. They are opposed the US and always sought to destabilize us. This is nothing new," he said.

Perry also questioned the White House's hardball tactics on trade on Tuesday, saying he believes the punitive tariffs the administration levied against imports from Canada, Mexico, the European Union and other nations do more harm than good to U.S. consumers.

The York County lawmaker also said he was concerned about the impact that the tariffs were having on Pennsylvania farmers.

"I understand what he is trying to do ... but I don't necessarily agree," Perry said. "The tariffs are hurting consumers. I understand the president is trying to get things back in line, I just think there is a better methodology."

On Tuesday, in apparent recognition of the harm suffered by American farmers, announced it would dole out $12 billion* in federal assistance to farmers, including direct payments to some growers, NPR and other outlets reported.

Perry's Republican colleague, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., issued a sharply worded statement criticizing the aid package, calling it a "band-aid" for a "self-inflicted wound."

"The administration clobbers farmers with an unnecessary trade war then attempts to assuage them with taxpayer handouts. This bailout compounds bad policy with more bad policy," Toomey said.

On Tuesday, Perry said he'd prefer a more targeted package of sanctions and that he and other lawmakers would be bringing those concerns to the White House.

"We can do the right thing without negatively affecting our folks. I'm frustrated by it, but I can only do what I can do," he said.With good reason, defendants in murder and manslaughter cases have a limited number of defenses to excuse their deadly actions. They include self-defense, and, in some cases, the claim that they were legally insane when they committed the crime.

But in Pennsylvania, with one glaring exception, you don't get a pass for killing someone simply because of their race, ethnicity, religion or some other fundamental component of their character or genetic make-up.

Pennsylvania, however, remains in the shameful company of states where criminal defendants can deploy what's known as the "gay and trans-panic" defense when they stand accused of taking the life of another human being.

Sadly, the defense is legal in all but three states, as the online news site BillyPenn reports. Fortunately, state Sen. Larry Farnese, D-Philadelphia, is looking to change that.

Last week, Farnese began soliciting his Senate colleagues for their support of yet-to-be introduced legislation that would ban the defense, arguing that the LGBTQ community is "facing an unprecedented rise in hate crimes."

Citing data compiled by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, a nationwide LGBTQ advocacy group, Farnese said hate- and violence-related homicides of LGBTQ and HIV-affected people increased by 29 percent between 2016 and 2017.

According to the Williams Institute at UCLA, the defense is usually employed in one of three ways:

that they were provoked by a victim's sexual or gender orientation,

to support a theory of diminished capacity or insanity,

self-defense

If you're not convinced the defense actually works, consider the 2008 case of California teen Brandon McInerney, who shot and killed a 15-year-old classmate who occasionally wore makeup and high heels to class.

As Vice News reports, citing reports by the Los Angeles Times, McInerney allegedly teased his classmate for weeks and promised to "to get a gun and shoot him."

McInerney invoked the defense at trial, arguing that he felt "threatened" by his classmate. Instead of potentially going to jail for life, he accepted a guilty plea that got him 21 years in jail, Vice reported.

Six years later, in 2014, California became the first state to ban the defense.

Lawmakers in Illinois and Rhode Island later followed suit by enacting their own bans. Other states, including New Jersey and Washington, are considering similar bans, Farnese wrote in his 'Dear Colleague' memo.

There's a similar push to end the defense in the federal judicial system as well, with U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy and U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, both Democrats, leading the push.

In 2015, Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, introduced his own version of the bill. But it died in committee without ever coming to a vote.

The push to end the gay panic defense comes even as state lawmakers again try to ban workplace, housing and public accommodation discrimination for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians.

That bill remains before the Republican-controlled Senate and has yet to receive a vote, even though its sponsor is GOP Sen. Pat Browne, of Lehigh County, the chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

In 2018, when LGBTQ Americans work, worship and play alongside us, and have won the right to marry as heterosexual Americans have, it's unconscionable that they do not have the same rights and protections enshrined in law as the rest of us.

It's an offense against decency that an accused murderer could try to excuse away their appalling acts merely because they felt threatened by someone's sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lawmakers will have only a handful of voting days available to them when they return to session in the fall.

They should give Farnese's and Browne's proposals every consideration and send them to Gov. Tom Wolf for his signature.PITTSBURGH -- At 1:54 p.m. on Wednesday a black helicopter curled over Latrobe, Pa., then St. Vincent College, around Chuck Noll Field and glided into a field behind Rooney Hall.

For four minutes it simply stood there. The pilot got out and spun the rear propeller. Then Antonio Brown emerged.

"What up, mate?" he shouted to punter Jordan Berry, who is Australian, standing on the edge of the parking lot behind the dormitories where Steelers will stay for the next three weeks.

Brown greeted the assembled members of the media, too.

He took questions about whether or not he was trying to make a statement with his training camp Day 1 mode of transportation. He was not, he said. Helicopters are just faster than cars or buses.

Brown has arrived in Latrobe in a Rolls-Royce in recent seasons.

He fielded a question about if the was seeking to limit distractions compared to past campaigns.

"I don't know what distractions you're talking about," Brown said. "This is my lifestyle."

After six-and-a-half minutes of questions and answers, Brown thanked the scrum. A small boy ran up to him for an autograph. He asked Brown to sign it "Business Is Boomin'," a catchphrase of the star receiver.

Brown obliged. As he made the signature the child exalted "Oh my god, I'm literally having a heart attack."

"Don't have a heart attack," Brown responded.

The boy did not.

Moments later the child bolted away, telling anyone in earshot that his legs were shaking out of excitement. Brown rounded the back of the helicopter.

The Steelers' 2018 season began.Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeat The Path in Canada

25.07.2018 by by Planetmountain

During a climbing trip to Canada Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeated a string of difficult routes, including the trad climb The Path at Lake Louise.

Give Barbara Zangerl a rock, and shell most certainly roll. The 30-year-old Austrian climber, fresh from her 9a ascent of the Speed at Voralpsee and the nigh 1000 meter high big wall Magic Mushroom on El Capitan in Yosemite, has just spent a few weeks climbing in Canada where she has made the first female ascent of The Path.

First ascended by Sonnie Trotter above Lake Louise in 2007 and flashed by Alexander Megos in 2016, this climb offers some important runouts between trad gear and difficulties up to 8b+. Zangerl briefly worked the route and then sent it on her last day in Canada, shortly after her partner Jacopo Larcher has repeated the route himself.

The plan had been to visit other areas, in particular the Bugaboos, but the weather proved fickle and the granite around Squamish so enticing that they mainly climbed in that area. Zangerl repeated testpieces such as Shadow and North Star on the Chief and onsighted the nearby classic Great Arch, while Larcher repeated North Star and Spirit of the west. Time and luck ran out on two of Canadas most famous climbs, Dreamcatcher and Cobra Crack, meaning that the duo will return to wrap up unfinished business.





Links: FB Jacopo Larcher, jacopo-larcher.com, FB Barbara Zangerl, barbara-zangerl.at, La Sportiva, The North Face2.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, hammered Trump for trying to destroy checks and balances while mentioning the potential Trump crime of money laundering for Putin.

In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Rep. Schiff said:

In recent interviews, President Trump and his legal team have demonstrated their continuing disdain for the independence of the FBI and Department of Justice. Trump appeared to threaten Special Counsel Bob Mueller, accused Jim Comey of attempting to blackmail him and lying about his conversations with Trump in the Oval Office, and complained about Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusal from the Russia investigation. Reportedly, his legal team has disturbingly begun to explore to use of presidential pardons for Trump family members and aides to undercut the Special Counsels probe, something Trump should rule out categorically.

There is no doubt that Mueller has the authority to investigate anything that arises from his investigation into the Trump campaigns ties to Russia, including financial links, and this is spelled out in the order from the Deputy Attorney General and the law that governs the powers of the Special Counsel. Indeed, this is a very important part of Muellers responsibility given that any financial impropriety between Russia and the Trump organization, such as money laundering, could represent just the kind of Kompromat that Russia could utilize to influence Administration policy. I have every confidence that Mueller will not respond to the President and his teams less-than-subtle effort to constrain his probe, and it will be up to Congress to ensure that he has the necessary resources and independence to carry out his investigation.

Trump, also in a recent interview, suggested that the FBI should report directly to the President, a view which is contrary to the long established tradition and policy ensuring the independence of our law enforcement agencies. The FBI Director does not report to the President on specific cases, and someone in the White House needs to counsel the President on the paramount importance of a truly independent Justice Department and Bureau. The decision by Attorney General Sessions to recuse himself was dictated by DOJ policy and the result of his intimate role in Trumps campaign and his subsequent misleading statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee about his contacts with Russian officials. This is not about being fair to the President; it is about being true to the system of checks and balances and following the law.

The point of Schiffs statement is that our democratic system of governance is under attack from Trump. The President is trying to destroy any check on his power. Rep. Schiffs specific mention of money laundering was intriguing because it is the second time in two days that Trump, his family, his businesses, and his associates have been mentioned in the same sentence as a serious crime.

Trump pointed his investigators towards his finances when he declared them off limits to the investigation.

Schiff was correct. This investigation isnt about fairness. It is about potential Trump campaign collusion with Russia, and money goes straight to the root of the relationship and the motive.One of the deepest fears of many Americans is that our government has been taken over, or at least unduly influenced, by Russia and its President Vladimir Putin. And this weeks revelations about Michael Cohen from Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti have done nothing to calm those fears. In fact, it is possible to interpret Avenattis disclosures of Cohens financial transactions as evidence that Russian influence over the Trump administration does in fact exist, and has existed for years.

Earlier this week the New York Times confirmed the explosive claims made by Avenatti that Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg deposited half a million dollars into a secret account set up by Cohen to pay off Trumps sexual partners. Vekselbergs company, Columbus Nova, said the large sum of money was a consulting fee paid to Cohen, which really doesnt explain anything.

Maybe Cohen was doing nothing other than selling access to President Trump. He did receive money from sources other than Vekselberg also. However, until we get more answers about the money trail, the Cohen-Vekselberg relationship raises some alarming questions. In fact, that relationship might be proof that Putin and his cronies (aka, oligarchs) have an uncomfortably close relationship with Donald Trump and his cronies (aka, Michael Cohen, etc.).

Jonathan Chait, in New York Magazine, offers this disturbing analysis:

Like all Russian oligarchs, Vekselberg operates in cooperation with the Putin government. The payments gave Russia several sources of possible leverage over Cohen and Trump. First, the money itself could amount to some kind of bribe, in return for which a favor would be expected. Second, Russia had knowledge of the secret payoff, which it could always expose. Third, the possibility (at minimum) exists that Russia knew the account was being used to silence Trumps mistresses, yet another source of kompromat.

Cohen and Vekselberg met at Trumps inauguration, and Cohen has been known to be an intermediary between Trump and Russia on other deals. It is possible that Muellers files contain much more evidence of Cohen being Trumps point man in doing favor for Putin and his pals (much as they do for Mike Flynn and Paul Manafort).

There is more evidence that Russia may be holding leverage over the current administration, and possibly even over Republicans in Congress. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee has demanded the right to get inside information about the Mueller probe. Officials in the Department of Justice now suspect Nunes goal is to compromise the investigation by handing information from the prosecutors over to Trump.

According to the Washington Post, Nunes has demanded information that intelligence officials believe would endanger a top-secret intelligence source. They asked Trump to stop Nunes from getting this classified information, in effect saying the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee cannot be trusted. They said that giving the information to Nunes would risk severe consequences including potential loss of human lives. Later Nunes threatened to vote to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt of Congress.

Why would a high ranking Congressional Republican risk the betrayal and potential loss of life of an intelligence source? Could it be he is working for Trumps interests and Russian interests instead of the interests of the American people?

We of course dont know all of the answers to these questions, but we can observe known behavior, and that points to a relationship with Russia, and with Putin and his oligarchs, that appears uncomfortably close.

When all the facts come out we may look back at this week as the first time we were given concrete evidence of Russian influence over Trump as well as collusion with the Trump campaign. It appears that with two adversaries like Mueller and Avenatti, Trump and Cohen dont stand a chance.110 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN (Reuters)  German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier called on Friday for Europe to remain unified in the face of rising trade tensions with the United States, saying it was unclear how a summit of the Group of Seven rich nations would end.

We have a serious situation, not just since last night or this morning, but rather the entire last few weeks, Altmaier told broadcaster ZDF.

He underlined the importance of European unity on free trade and economic interests, especially since domestic debate was continuing in the United States about punitive sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump on G7 allies like Canada, Japan and the European Union.

Leaders of G7 nations meeting in Canada from Friday are more divided than at any time in the groups 42-year history, with Trumps America First policies at risk of causing a global trade war and deep diplomatic schisms.

Trump has already imposed hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and threatened to do the same for cars. His decisions to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and a global climate change accord have also fueled tensions.

Altmaier said the EU had long resisted imposing tariffs of its own but had shown it would do so if left with no other choice.

European leaders remained committed to continuing the dialogue with the United States if both sides were willing to make concessions, he said, although there was no sign of that at the moment.

A business leader also expressed concern. Joe Kaeser, chief executive of the engineering group Siemens, warned against deepening the transatlantic trade dispute. Escalation was never a good answer. Thats why we must try to find areas of agreement, he said in Munich.

Germanys BDI industry association said U.S. protective measures could hit exports from Europes largest economy and so reduce German growth by up to 0.25 percentage points, adding that if the situation escalated, a lot more would be at stake.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the United States remained Germanys closest partner outside Europe. However, there were significant differences that could not be ignored, and Europe needed new partnerships, he told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

He took aim at Trumps actions on the Iran deal, trade and climate change, saying the president was willfully ignoring the negative consequences that his decisions would have on Europe and focusing solely on U.S. interests.

None of that will make the world better, safer or more peaceful, he told the newspaper. We were used to relying on what had been agreed. That has fundamentally changed.

Maas called for creation of a European security council, an idea backed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, and said ending the current requirement for unanimous decisions on foreign policy and security issues would make the EU more agile.

Maas also called for Europe to forge alliances with other regions, including countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Michelle Martin and David Stamp)199 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Donald Trump is abusing presidential power again. This time he threatened, via Sarah Sanders, to strip several people of their national security clearances. In short, he tried to weaponize security clearances. If you meet the standards for a clearance but are a critic of Trump, he wants to silence you by taking your security clearance. If you may be a risk to national security but are on Trumps good side then the nations secrets are at your disposal.

Most of the people on Trumps enemies list served on the national security teams of previous administrations (Republican and Democrat). The notable exceptions are former FBI director James Comey and his second in command Andrew McCabe. Of course, both men were stripped of their clearances when Trump fired them.

If he can stifle the voices of people like John Brennan, James Clapper, Susan Rice, James Comey and Andrew McCabe then he can stifle all of us. At least, thats how its done in Putins Russia, and other countries with strong man dictators.

It wont work. For one thing, some of the people on that list, (James Comey and Andrew McCabe) no longer have a security clearance. The fact that the White House didnt know, or didnt check on these facts is enough reason to be concerned about the administrations judgement on such matters.

It also illustrates just how little thought was put into this threat when Sarah Sanders announced it. The only thing more laughable than the fact that she showed America and the world the White House doesnt even know who has a security clearance was the reason she gave.

Theyve politicized and in some cases monetized their public service and security clearances. Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia, or being influenced by Russia, against the president is extremely inappropriate and the fact that people with security clearances are making these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence.

Thats rich coming from a White House where the president hasnt divested from his businesses and monetized the presidency on everything from fees at Mar-a-lago to pictures of Melania Trump.

I could write several posts just on the ways this White House has been monetized by the Trumps.

The same is true in relation to Russia which even Trump, sometimes, acknowledges attacked our elections in 2016 and are on track to do it again this year. The extent of Russias influence over Trump was on full display during that infamous performance in Helsinki  where Trump behaved more like a submissive puppy than an America president. Trump is reciting the Kremlins talking points on NATO and tried to get Russia reinstated at the G7.

Since the investigation is on-going, the fact is Sarah Sanders is in no position to know one way or another about evidence involving Trump and any inappropriate ties he may have with Russia.

None of the people on Trumps enemy list is a threat to national security. They are only a threat to Donald Trumps ego.

They didnt share matters of national security with a hostile foreign power, Russia  like Mr. Trump did.

The joke is on us because the only reason Trump has a security clearance is because he is the president.Trump has no legal basis whatsoever to strip critics of their security clearance simply because they are critics. If he tries to make good on his threat, Trump is violating their first amendment rights. Quoting Law professor Laurence Tribe, Jennifer Rubin summed it up in a Washington Post opinion piece.

This is probably the clearest and most indefensible of Trumps First Amendment violations. He observes, The idea that it could be covered up vis-a-vis the courts by blanket claims that national security is at issue strikes me as highly implausible. He continues, If the president [were] to make individualized findings that one of the officials he seeks to deprive . . . of security clearance has in fact [abused] the privilege of using that security clearance by releasing classified information, that would be another thing. But to take an enemies list of this kind and threaten every member of it the way the president has done makes Nixons enemies list look trivial by comparison. This isnt the first time Mr. Trump attacked the first amendment. We know about his frequent recitation of a strong man talking point calling the media an enemy of the people. We also know that when Trump tried to silence dissent on Twitter, he was ordered to unblock the people whose comments he didnt like. Judge Naomi Buchwald was very clear in her ruling:

The record establishes that [s]hortly after the Individual Plaintiffs posted the tweets . . . in which they criticized the President or his policies, the President blocked each of the Individual Plaintiffs . . . and defendants do not contest Plaintiffs allegation that the Individual Plaintiffs were blocked from the Presidents Twitter account because the Individual Plaintiffs posted tweets that criticized the President or his policies. The continued exclusion of the individual plaintiffs based on viewpoint is, therefore, impermissible under the First Amendment.

Combined with the vote, the first amendment is what makes America free and democratic. Even if the extent of Trumps concern is how dissent effects his ego, the fact remains, he cant punish people for exercising their first amendment rights. Obviously, his boss at the Kremlin will have to be taught that lesson.619 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sean Hannity excitedly announced that end of his show that he would be interviewing Roseanne Barr on Thursday night on Fox News.

Video:

Sean Hannity excitedly announced that end of his show that he would be interviewing Roseanne Barr on Thursday night on Fox News. Hannity's show is the perfect propaganda hour for Racist Rosie to worship Trump. https://t.co/qNP0ehPtBy pic.twitter.com/WPDiUumUw8  Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) July 25, 2018

Fox News hyped the interview as Roseanne talking about her firing and getting to worship Trump, During the live interview, (Barr) will react to reports about the tweet that got her fired, along with discussion of President Donald Trump.

Roseanne was canned from her own show after she launched a racist attack against former Obama adviser Valarie Jarrett. Fox News and Hannity are the perfect places for Roseanne to vent her, what many have called mentally ill ramblings while testifying to her fellow Trump cult members about her love for the president. Barr should have been fired, even though it is easy to see where Hannity and Roseanne are going to go with this interview. Liberal media, bias against Trump, maybe a dash of political correctness, blah, blah, blah.

One should expect Trump to tweet about how ABC unfairly fired Roseanne, and how he is investigating taking away their broadcasting license after the interview.

Roseanne shouldnt be given a platform anywhere. he isnt a victim. Shes a racist who self-destructed and got what she deserved.

Just when you think Hannity cant go any lower, he hosts Roseanne.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.1.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) just called on Robert Mueller to subpoena Trump, and if he refuses to comply, take him to court.

Video:

All Ins Chris Hayes asked Blumenthal if he agreed with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) that it is time for Mueller to subpoena Trump.

He answered, I agree. It is at the point where a subpoena from the special counsel will be entirely appropriate. This offer of a limited interview would be laughed out of his office if Rudy Giuliani were still U.S. Attorney. As a prosecutor, I would have laughed out of my office. And I think the special counsel in fairness to the country ought to talk about a subpoena and give the Giuliani and Trump camp a definite time limit on complying and then go to court if necessary and that action may go to the United States Supreme Court where as you know, the nominee in question believes very strongly that maybe the Nixon tape case ought to be considered, and the president should be above the law.

The Mueller investigation is going to result in a showdown over impeachment. While it is important that Mueller get to interview Trump, especially about obstruction of justice, the scandal has been on a path to impeachment from the beginning. It would be wise for Trump to talk to Mueller so that he can get his side of the story on the record because the Mueller report is likely to result in articles of impeachment if Democrats control the House.

Since everyone around Trump holds the belief that he will lie to Mueller, Trumps lawyers might be trying to keep perjury from being added to future articles of impeachment. It is time for Mueller to subpoena Trump. The president is dodging Mueller and trying to stonewall him because he is afraid of the Special Counsels investigation.

The consensus has grown to a roar. It is time for Mueller to subpoena Trump and force him to testify about his role in the Russia scandal.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.421 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Monday President Trump acted as if he were just considering revoking security clearances from critics and possible witnesses against him, but today on Air Force One during a gaggle, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said plans are already underway.  (H)e has begun the mechanism to remove security clearances from certain individuals. The names were listed yesterday.

Heres the Q and A as sent to PoliticusUSA from the White House press office:

Q: What has gone on in the last 24 hours on security clearances?

A: I cant get into specifics about the mechanism. What I can say is that the president finds it extremely inappropriate for somebody to go on television under the perception of legitimacy, integrity and level false and baseless claims against another person without any evidence whatsoever. He finds that to be somewhat troublesome and concerning and so he has begun the mechanism to remove security clearances from certain individuals. The names were listed yesterday. And when we have a further announcement on that, well give it to you.

Q: One of the rationales given were that individuals were profiting off their government service. Another former admin. official, Sean Spicer, is out with a book today apparently profiting off his service. Will the WH consider stripping his clearance now as well as other former Trump admin. officials who might try to profit off their govt service?

A: Im not going to get ahead of anything  any announcement, as I just said, or the process we are looking at now. What this specifically has to do with security clearance, not government service as a whole.

Q: Sean has a security clearance.

A: Thats fine. When we have an announcement, well let you know.

Q: Speaker Ryan said he thought the president was just trolling in regards to the clearance issue. Is this serious?

A: No. I mean, the president thinks it is extremely inappropriate for people to go out on television and level those claims with no evidence  to tease an audience with information that they claim to have but offer no backup. Thats problematic. He sees that as deeply concerning. And when we have an announcement on any front, well let you know.

Q: Is there a specific thing youre referring to that was said that is false in your view?

A: No.

So, thats a no theyre not removing security clearances from everyone who is profiting from them, because hello, the Trump family has to make money somehow.

But critics. Possible witnesses. Those are the people Trump is actually targeting. So his reasoning is, as usual, a lie.

Trump is going after anyone who can discredit or disagree with his lies with some integrity and facts, because that is what the security clearance provides- it provides the information the president has, for example on Russia attacking us in his favor, but upon which he is not acting.

Of course Speaker Ryans attempt to make this okay was also a lie, Trump is not trolling people. Trump IS going to do this. He has already started.

Trump wants you to forget about this but all he does centers on protecting his possible exposure for why he did this:201 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he thinks the United States and European Union should drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies. Trumps tweeted suggestion came after he has proposed to put in place large new tariffs on imports into the United States from the European Union.

The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!

The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

The president sent the provocative tweet just one day before he is scheduled to meet at the White House with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Trump began a global trade war several months ago by imposing large import duties on steel and aluminum from several U.S. allies in the European Union. They then retaliated by implementing new tariffs on imports into Europe of many American products such as motorcycles, blue jeans and whiskey.

Since then the president has also threatened to impose a new 20 percent tax on all automobile imports from Europe. The European Commission has warned that such import taxes would be harmful first and foremost for the US economy.

Juncker and EU trade minister Cecilia Malmstrom will meet with Trump and attempt to talk him out of moving forward with the new auto tariffs, which would hurt companies on both sides of the Atlantic and increase trade tensions significantly.

The aim of this visit is to cool down the situation and prevent an escalation of the trade conflict, Malmstrom told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter in an interview.

But she noted that if the U.S. proceeds with the duties, the EU is ready to respond. It will impose $20 billion of new tariffs on many U.S. products, including agricultural and high-tech products and machinery.

Trump has been very antagonistic toward Europe, and is not expected to give in to EU demands. Recently he called the EU a foe because of its trade policies during, and on Tuesday he posted a tweet declaring that tariffs are the greatest!

Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. Its as simple as that  and everybodys talking! Remember, we are the piggy bank thats being robbed. All will be Great!

Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. Its as simple as that  and everybodys talking! Remember, we are the piggy bank thats being robbed. All will be Great!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2018

The EU officials visit to Washington comes after Trumps visit to the NATO summit in Belgium earlier this month, after which Trump questioned whether the U.S. should have to defend all NATO member states.

But it is not just Europeans who are opposed to Trumps tariffs. Most American companies would also be hurt as the tariffs would interrupt their global supply chains. Trumps proposed import duties would cause large increases in the costs of the components that American manufacturers import in order to manufacture automobiles. Since this will make cars more expensive for U.S. consumers, it is widely expected that Trumps tariffs will cause layoffs and possibly permanent loss of jobs.

Trump thinks he is putting America First but in fact his misguided trade policies will end up hurting the United States including many of the working class people who voted for him. We can only hope that they wake up and see the truth and vote Republicans out of power in November.197 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

In a series of three tweets on Wednesday morning President Donald Trump set forth his opinions on his trade negotiations (they are going great) and on people who are criticizing him (they are weak).

He also wrote: China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect.

In his first tweet he makes it seem that anyone who has criticized his trade war is both weak and ignorant, saying what can they be thinking?

Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!

Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

After that he made it seem that his critics were causing the delays in reaching new trade deals with the countries who have retaliated against the United States, which include China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. He said negotiations are going really well with the implication being that if people would just leave him alone hed come up with some great deals on his own.

When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity. Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!

When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity. Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

Most people who know Donald Trump will laugh at his last tweet where he attacks China and accuses them of targeting farmers in the trade war that Trump started. Whats laughable is him saying he loves and respects farmers, which is ridiculous.

What is true is that he fears farmers will turn against him at the polls, and vote for Democrats who would then be in charge of Congress after Novembers elections.

China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.

China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

One thing Donald Trump is missing is that almost nobody outside his own administration believes that what he is doing in the area of trade:

Is a good idea, or

Will work.

With his latest tweets Trump has once again demonstrated his belief that if he tweets something then it is true, and people will believe it. Unfortunately what he tweeted today is NOT true and almost nobody believes what he wrote.

Even his $12 billion bribe of farmers he announced on Tuesday wont save him from paying the price for his ignorant and misguided moves on trade.313 SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

The Democratic Party is the only big tent left in America. Its also the only viable political party that defends American interests and American values. Its crucial we hold on to these characteristics, as Trump tries to take us further into the abyss of totalitarianism.

Now that the old Republican Party has been transformed into a party that mistakenly believes being one of Putins colonies will somehow make America great again, Putins puppets will focus their attentions on doing to the Democratic Party what they did to the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party is strongest as a big tent, full of young voices with new ideas and older voices who have been around the block a few times. The corporate media pundits will try to sell us on moving further to the right, rejecting centrist political ideals that they will malign as far left and they will try to convince us of the merits of ideological purity tests and they may question the validity of compromise.

I wont suggest that big tents are easy. They can be intense and passionate. Solutions for problems in one part of the country, wont fit in others. And what may be good for advancing opportunities for the older, white man isnt the best thing for young women of color.

Yet, this is the America we are, warts and all. Its an America worth defending and fighting for. Its an America where debate is not division, and unity doesnt carry a big gun. It is an America built by immigrants, not settlers. Its an America where freedom of speech, freedom of the press is not merely about echoing a narrative but acts as a check on government power, transparency and integrity.

Former Republicans will attest to the fact that the party they knew, no longer exists. At one time, it was a party of divergent ideas, and looked far more like America than it does today. But as Republicans moved further to the right, it was losing moderate voices. The cycle kept repeating until we have the party Trump created: largely of old, white men who long for a return to something that never was.

Its a world filled with handmaidens and slaves who obeyed rather than voicing their own thoughts or concerns. Its a world of strongmen, authority, conformity and violent solutions to created problems.

Every day, Donald Trump takes America further into the abyss of authoritarianism as more high profile former Republicans urge the electorate to vote for Democrats. Just this week were seeing the White House take deception to a frightening new level  with falsified transcripts of the Trump/Putin presser in Helsinki. You remember. Thats after the secret meeting of which we know nothing. Thats the meeting where Putin looked like a strong leader and Trump looked like the weak authoritarians apprentice he is.

Putins protege is using more of the tricks that dictators use and like those dictators, Trump has virtually unanimous approval from his supporters  in a political party where blind and unconditional obedience are what passes for unity. He has the same kind of approval that Putin has, the sort of approval he often spoke about during the campaign.

The nexus between ideological purity and authoritarianism has been playing out in the Republican Party for decades, but it accelerated as Russias hold on the party increased first via the NRA and most recently with whatever hold Russia has on Donald J. Trump.

Vladimir Putin was the man behind the curtain. During that infamous presser, Putin admitted to two things. A: He wanted Trump to be president. B: He ordered his officials to help Trump get there.

Putins admissions dont match Trumps narrative. But, in Trumpian form, the White House transcript of the Helsinki presser omits the questions that Putin was answering.

Jason Easley summarized Rachel Maddows account of this incident including this quote by Maddow.

In the specific that probably lays the groundwork for how president Trump intends to respond if the Democrats win the election in November, so stick a pin in that but in a more general sense, the president disappearing evidence that delays in plain sight pretending up is down and black is white, I think we should see this as Americans as a signal, broadly, that this is garbage time again. We are back into a politically potent era of deliberate nonsense. Disinformation, a form of information warfare. And it is being waged against us.

This is what Trumps takeover of the Republican Party has done.

There is no unity behind American ideas or values in Trumps party. There is no unity behind policies that benefit Americans. What they have is a shell of a leader who uses his megaphone to sell Russias interests, be it on Crimea, The G7 or NATO.

What they have is a mistaken belief that becoming Putins colony will somehow make America and their own lives great again.

The nightmare of Trumps party is a lesson in real time of what Democrats shouldnt do.1.3k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would provide up to $12 billion in aid for U.S. farmers to protect them from the adverse effects of trade disputes between the United States and China, the European Union and others.

Republicans in the U.S. Senate immediately expressed outrage, saying the president was authorizing a bailout and welfare for those affected by his own misguided tariff plan. They say that Trumps trade policy is already hurting American farmers but the answer is not a bailout or payoff system. The presidents trade policies have resulted in retaliatory tariffs on agricultural products from China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

Trump defended his approach Tuesday during a speech in Missouri, pleading with the public to be a little patient and arguing that farmers would eventually be the biggest beneficiary of his policies. The White House said farmers will start getting payments in September, and they clearly expect that the unprecedented payoffs will quiet the loud protests which have come from farm groups and GOP officials.

Most Republicans have criticized the administrations announced aid package, saying the president should stop his trade war. They would rather see the administration help farmers regain their foreign markets instead of offering them government payouts.

If tariffs punish farmers, the answer is not welfare for farmers. The answer is remove the tariffs, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote Tuesday.

The trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches. Americas farmers dont want to be paid to lose  they want to win by feeding the world, added Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.).

Its awful. American farmers want markets, not handouts. This is what we feared all alongthat this would just turn into more aid programs, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ).

Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said the Department of Agricultures decision is an acknowledgement of the unintended consequences and collateral damage of Trumps protectionist policies. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Trump was creating a Soviet type economy that wouldnt work and would be inefficient.

Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee issued a statement saying:

The Trump-Pence tariffs are hurting the American people as theyre now offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem they themselves created.

These tariffs are a massive tax increase on American consumers and businesses, and instead of offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem they themselves created, the administration should reverse course and end this incoherent policy. We will continue to push for a binding vote here in Congress to reassert our constitutional role on national security-designated tariffs.

Former Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Holtz-Eakin (who is a Republican) said the emergency aid for farmers is Trumps first taxpayer-funded bailout of private entities, which is not a popular concept. He also said it was highly unusual for taxpayers to pay for a bailout when the economy is doing well.

Holtz-Eakin joined other conservative economists who have strongly criticized Trumps approach to trade. He said Tuesday that Agriculture Department programs were not designed for this purpose.

This is a terrible idea, Holtz-Eakin said. These programs exist to insure farmers against the vagaries of nature and crop cycles. They are not there to offset bad policy. Two wrongs dont make a right. Its a misuse of the programs.

Republicans are clearly afraid they will face a huge backlash from voters in rural areas who are affected by Trumps trade tariffs which will hurt farmers ability to export their products. Several key races for the U.S. Senate will take place in November in states with large industries based on agriculture, such as Missouri, North Dakota and Indiana. If Democrats prevail in all of these states it could determine control of the Senate next year.

Right now Donald Trump thinks he is smart by attempting to solve his political problems by throwing $12 billion of taxpayer money at the trade problems he created. But, based on reactions from Republicans in Congress, he has not solved anything, and may have made his political problems worse.

Bailouts and corporate welfare dont go over well with conservatives in Washington, nor with conservatives in rural America. It is very likely that with Trumps latest misguided actions Democrats have increased their chances of taking back control of both houses of Congress.1.5k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Trumps National Security Advisor, John Bolton, said in a statement that Trump would not be meeting with Putin again until the witch hunt is over.

Bolton said, The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year.

According to NBC News, it is unclear exactly who made this decision:

Trump is running scared. The president is terrified of both Mueller and midterm election. There is no indication that the Mueller investigation will end by the beginning of next year. There has been no signal from the Special Counsel that the investigation is coming to a close, so this statement appears to be more wishful thinking by Trump and Giuliani that the Russia probe will be ending soon.

By citing the investigation in Boltons statement, the White House confirmed that they believe that there is political damage being done and they feel that even more damage will follow if Putin shows up in the Oval Office before the midterm election.

Trump is running scared. When push came to shove, the threat posed by Robert Muellers investigation caused the White House to back away from Vladimir Putin.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.(Reuters)  A man with a pickax vandalized U.S. President Donald Trumps star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame early on Wednesday and later surrendered to police, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said.

A pickax was used in vandalizing the star embedded in the sidewalk near Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Los Angeles, at about 3:30 a.m., Sergeant Ray Brown of the LAPD said by telephone.

Brown said he did not know the name of the man, who has not yet appeared in court.

Trumps star, installed in 2007, has been the site of frequent vandalism incidents since Trumps election in 2016, according to local media reports.

Video of the damaged star for Trump, 72, shows that it was nearly completely destroyed. The star has an image of a classic television set with a rabbit ears antennae.

Before being elected president, Trump was a real estate developer-turned-reality TV star who was producer of the NBC show, The Apprentice, and the Miss Universe Pageants.

The suspect pulled a pickax out of a guitar case before striking Trumps sidewalk honor, the Los Angeles Times reported.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Editing by Scott Malone and Bernadette Baum)(Reuters)  A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. Constitutions Second Amendment protects a right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense, rejecting a claim by Hawaii officials that the right only applies to guns kept at home.

The extent of the right to gun ownership protected by the Second Amendment is one of the most hotly contested debates in the United States, where life has been punctuated by a steady stream of mass shootings.

The ruling issued by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, came a year after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule either way on the carrying of guns in public.

Two of the three 9th Circuit judges voted to reverse a decision by the U.S. District Court in Hawaii that state officials did not infringe on the rights of George Young, the plaintiff, in twice denying him a permit to carry a gun outside.

We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence, Judge Diarmuid OScannlain wrote in Tuesdays ruling. But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense.

The decision did not change the courts earlier ruling that the Second Amendment does not guarantee a right to carry concealed firearms in public.

Judge Richard Clifton dissented from the ruling, saying the Second Amendment does not preclude the sort of licensing rules used in Hawaii and elsewhere.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep guns at home for self-defense in District of Columbia v. Heller.

The Second Amendment was adopted in 1789 and reads: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)The top U.S. official for Ukraine negotiations doubled down on recent assurances from the State Department and White House that President Donald Trump did not reach any agreements on Ukraine during last week's two-hour private meeting with his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, Finland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told a gathering of diplomats in Moscow that he and Trump discussed the possibility of an internationally supervised referendum in pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, a claim later reiterated by the Kremlins ambassador to the U.S.

In an exclusive interview with VOA's Ukrainian Service, Kurt Volker, U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said that Kremlin remarks about the referendum were not only misleading, but blatantly implausible.

"There was no move toward recognition of Russia's claimed annexation of Crimea. No support for a referendum. No movement toward Russia's position on a protection force for [OSCE] monitors, that would effectively divide the country," said Volker, referring to Russia's controversial September 2017 UN proposal.

Because referendums aren't part of the 2015 Minsk agreement, which aims to end the conflict, secure a cease-fire and pave the way for regional elections, Volker said any direct vote on secession from Kyiv would lack the necessary legal framework.

"So, a lot of things that people were worried about or had predicted might happen [in Helsinki] did not happen. So, I don't think there's really any basis to be worried here," he said, noting that the administration has continued to maintain sanctions on Russia in concert with European allies and approved weapons sales to Kyiv.

The Pentagon, he added, recently unveiled plans for a new military financing package for the occupied Eastern European country.

"Let me just say this, that on all of the issues that Ukrainians would care about, nothing was given away," he said. "No handing over of gifts to Russia at Ukraine's expense."

Volker's comments supplemented initial reactions by Garrett Marquis, U.S. National Security Council spokesman, who said the White House was not considering supporting a referendum in eastern Ukraine, and a statement by U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said an Eastern Ukraine referendum "would have no legitimacy."

The comments by the trio of U.S. officials follow days of speculation about what was discussed at the rare one-on-one meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders with only their translators present.

Trump has been on the defensive over the summit since returning from Helsinki, especially during a key moment when he was asked about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as Putin stood beside him.

This story originated in VOA's Ukrainian Service.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High around 75F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 49F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph.Press Secretary Sarah Sanders conducted a briefing yesterday. It featured the usual anti-Trump hysteria by members of the White House press corps, but I thought the most interesting point to emerge was the one that Sanders began with:

In the two weeks since President Trump nominated Judge Kavanaugh, he has met with 23 senators. Unfortunately, all of them are Republicans. Thats because Senator Schumer is encouraging his members to not even meet with the Judge. For members of the opposing party to demand answers to questions and yet refuse to even meet with a qualified Supreme Court nominee is unprecedented. Senator Schumer should stop these political games and meet with Judge Kavanaugh. We welcome Senate Democrats who take their constitutional duty of advise and consent seriously. Judge Kavanaugh stands ready to meet with members of both parties.

Maybe this has been widely reported. If so, Ive missed it. Of all the potential Supreme Court nominees on President Trumps list, Kavanaugh was probably the most obviously well-qualified and had the most liberal support. Yet, apparently not a single Senate Democrat will even talk to him.

The Democratic Party has gone so far around the bend that it is hard to see how it will find its way back to normalcy.I spoke with Minneapolis attorney Bob Bennett about the complaint he filed on Tuesday in connection with the death of Justine Damond at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. Bob represents the plaintiff trustee for the next of kin in the case. Ive known Bob as a dogged and straightforward attorney from the first time I met him at the rosy dawn of our legal careers. Since then Bob has become the go-to Minnesota plaintiffs lawyer in police misconduct cases.

Bob told me yesterday that the use of deadly force in this case is the worst [hes] seen since he took his first such a case in 1980. He paused to do the arithmetic for me: Thats 38 years.

In this post I want to note the basic legal issues that Bobs complaint addresses. (I have posted the complaint here and below.) My intent here is to deepen the understanding of interested readers in what its (almost) all about. These notes are a cursory guide with the proviso that, although I have professional education and experience in this area of the law, I am by no means an expert in it. When I make various pronouncements below, please understand that they are my opinion based on my limited expertise and understanding. I apologize in advance for any errors or inaccuracies.

Section 1983 lawsuits are like personal injury lawsuits under state law, but they have their own wrinkles. State law governs who can bring 1983 claims and how the proceeds are distributed when the lawsuit is concluded, but federal law otherwise generally governs their disposition (per 42 U.S.C.  1988). Minnesota law affords officers certain limitations of liability and defenses that do not apply here because federal law controls the case.

One such wrinkle is the inapplicability of the doctrine of respondeat superior that applies in personal injury or wrongful death cases. An officers employer is not as a rule responsible for his conduct under section 1983. Plaintiffs attorneys therefore look for additional defendants to maximize their chances of a favorable settlement and of recovering whatever damages a jury may award. In this case Bob has also asserted claims against Noors partner, Officer Matthew Harrity, against the past and present Minneapolis police chiefs and against the city of Minneapolis itself under an exception to the rule precluding employer liability.

Section 1983: The statute under which claims for the violation of constitutional rights may be asserted against state and local government officers is 42 U.S.C.  1983. Claims under the statute raise a variety of legal issues. Here is an overview.

The complaint asserts a claim against Officer Noor for using (objectively) unreasonable force against Justine in violation of her constitutional rights. If the jury determines that Noors use of force was unreasonable, he will be liable for the full panoply of personal injury damages deriving from Justines death. Note the complaints background on, and description of, Justine in her pajamas  that Officer Harrity responded with a Code 4 message indicating that all was well when he and Noor completed their trip down the alley behind Justines house. No fact remotely suggests the use of deadly force was objectively reasonable.

The complaint fashions a conspiracy claim against Noor and Harrity for failing to activate their body cameras in violation of departmental policy. This is not a claim that fits neatly under section 1983.

The complaint asserts claims against then Chief of Police Janee Harteau and then Deputy Chief (now Chief) of Police Medaria Arradondo for failing to overcome the coordinated blue wall of silence and duplicity of officers that manifested itself in the unsuccessful prosecution of Officer Efrem Hamilton by the Hennepin County Attorney. The complaint alleges facts demonstrating the manifestation and official toleration of the blue wall in the Hamilton case. Again, this is not a claim that fits neatly under section 1983.

Qualified immunity: Officers against whom section 1983 claims are afforded a legal defense of qualified immunity. When it applies, the legal defense of qualified immunity protects officers from the lawsuit as well as from liability. The defense applies to claims for the violation of a right that was not clearly established at the time. In other words, if an officer in the defendants position should not have known that his conduct violated plaintiffs constitutional rights under the circumstances, the lawsuit is to be dismissed. Here is a basic guide to the defense.

I dont think the defense of qualified immunity can successfully be asserted on the basic claim for use of deadly force against Noor. It may be asserted on the other claims and I am not clear on how it would be resolved. The defense of qualified immunity does not apply to the claims against municipalities, in this case the city of Minneapolis.

Monell and municipal liability: As stated above, municipalities cannot be held vicariously liable for the constitutional wrongs of their officers. However, if the wrong is committed as a result of a municipal policy, section 1983 liability can attach under the Monell case. The City of Canton case expands on Monell to allow for constitutional claims committed by reason of the municipalitys failure to train the officer or employee.

Here plaintiff asserts claims against the city for three prongs of municipal liability following these cases: failure to train, alteration of selection procedures and failure to enforce appropriate policies. The complaint alleges facts at length to make cognizable claims against the city.

I am reposting the complaint below for the convenience of readers who may want to take a look at the claims in this context.

Damon d Death Family Lawsuit by Scott Johnson on ScribdPR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 06:02:01

Bests Market Segment Report: GCC Natural Catastrophe and Man-Made Losses Highlight Importance of Enterprise Risk Management

A.M. Best

Mahesh Mistry, +44 20 7397 0325

Senior Director, Analytics

mahesh.mistry@ambest.com

or

Yvette Essen, +44 20 7397 0322

Director, Research & Communications 

Europe, Middle East & Africa

yvette.essen@ambest.com

or

Vasilis Katsipis, +971 4375 2782

General Manager, Market Development

vasilis.katsipis@ambest.com

or

Edem Kuenyehia, +44 20 7397 0280

Director, Market Development & Communications

edem.kuenyehia@ambest.com

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have traditionally been exposed to low levels of weather-related claims, although Cyclone Mekunu, which struck Oman in May 2018, Super Cyclone Gonu in 2007 and flooding in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia serve as reminders that the region is not entirely free of natural catastrophes, according to a new report by A.M. Best.

The Bests Market Segment Report, titled, GCC Natural Catastrophe and Man-Made Losses Highlight Importance of Enterprise Risk Management, states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have experienced lower activity for earthquakes, storms and flooding in comparison with other countries. However, Vasilis Katsipis, general manager, market development, said: In A.M. Bests opinion, a single large catastrophe event could have a severe impact on the regions (re)insurance industry. Had Gonus reach been wider or focused on an area with higher insured values, such a weather system or other catastrophic event would have had profound implications.

Based on A.M. Bests data captured on 164 companies, a single event with the same severity as Gonu across the GCC would have resulted in an estimated third of all companies requiring recapitalisation. A.M. Best estimates the total capital injection could potentially amount to USD 1.38 billion.

The report states although historically traditional losses caused by nature are less of a feature of the GCC markets, man-made risks such as outstanding balances can be regarded as hidden sources of peril. Consequently, A.M. Best believes that (re)insurers need to increasingly focus on enterprise risk management (ERM) to manage the impact of possible claims.

Mahesh Mistry, senior director, analytics, said: A.M. Best considers man-made events such as damages to high-value asset risks, premium collection and investment risk more than offset the more muted natural catastrophe activity in the region. It is A.M. Bests opinion that insurers will need to re-examine their risk appetite and strengthen their ERM practices to ensure risks are appropriately managed.

To access a complimentary copy of this special report, please visit http://www3.ambest.com/bestweek/purchase.asp?recor.

A.M. Best is the worlds oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright  2018 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180724005PR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 10:14:02

Investing in city networks, bringing near instant high bandwidth data centre to data connectivity to customers

euNetworks Invests in Dublin & Hilversum, Enabling dc connect

euNetworks

Hannah Britt

Senior Director, Marketing & IR

hannah.britt@eunetworks.com

+44 20 7952 1338 office

+44 7717 896 446 mobile

euNetworks announced today the completion of network investment projects in both Ireland and the Netherlands. euNetworks dc connect solution is now enabled in Dublin, giving customers access to an interconnected network of near instant capacity between 15 data centres in the city. Hilversum in the Netherlands has also been enabled with dc connect, supporting existing media clients in the region. euNetworks dc connect solution is available across the Netherlands, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and now Hilversum, with pre-deployed capacity to 34 data centres in-country.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005

network developments (Photo: Business Wire)

euNetworks first rolled out dc connect in London in 2014. Since then, the solution has been added to 8 of the companys 14 fibre based city networks including Frankfurt, Paris, Manchester, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and through key sites in Switzerland. Further euNetworks cities will follow as dc connects pre-deployed capacity delivers simple and seamless connectivity to customers, with a 20 day working day delivery SLA commitment between data centres in these locations.

We invest in our network and deploy capital to provide high bandwidth scalable connections in the markets in which we operate, said Jennifer Smith, Chief Financial Officer of euNetworks. We have owned and operated a fibre network in Dublin for a number of years. The acquisition of Inland Fibre in 2015 added a number of unique features to our footprint, with routes along canalways, diversity options to key data centres as well as access to business parks. Enabling dc connect in Dublin for our customers offers further service differentiation and support as the demand for rapid turn up of high bandwidth services between data centres, including hyperscale facilities, continues.

Our dc connect solution has delivered strong growth since we first rolled it out, said Brady Rafuse, Chief Executive Officer of euNetworks. We carefully select the data centres we enable with this solution, working closely with our customers and data centre operators. With the capability to rapidly deliver capacity from 1Gb Ethernet to 100G Metro Wavelengths, we offer further differentiation in our dc connect enabled markets. We will continue to invest in the solution across our footprint through 2018 to meet the demands of our customers.

euNetworks directly connects into more than 350 data centres across Europe today with fibre, with a subset of these data centres pre-spliced with fibre when they are dc connect enabled. For more information on the dc connect data centres in Dublin and other markets go to https://www.eunetworks.com/dcconnect/.

About euNetworks

euNetworks is a bandwidth infrastructure company, owning and operating 14 fibre based metropolitan networks connected with a high capacity intercity backbone covering 49 cities in 15 countries across Europe. The company leads the market in data centre connectivity, directly connecting over 350 today. euNetworks is also a leading cloud connectivity provider, directly connecting 14 cloud platforms with access to a further 7. The company offers a targeted portfolio of metropolitan and long haul services including Dark Fibre, Wavelengths, and Ethernet. Wholesale, finance, content, media, data centre and enterprise customers benefit from euNetworks unique inventory of fibre and duct based assets that are tailored to fulfil their high bandwidth needs.

For further information visit www.eunetworks.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005

.@eunetworks invests further in #dublin & #hilversum networks, enabling near instant capacity between data centres with dc connect solution https://eun.io/2Lzn8oVHalal Cosmetic Products Market, report categorizes the report by Product Type, Distribution Channel and Geography. It provides information about - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017  2025

Halal Cosmetic Products Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 14:48:46

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

Mr. Shah Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave,



Mr. Shah

CEO

+1-206-701-6702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/halal-cosmetic-products-market-1276





# 602 Words

Mr. Shah Coherent Market Insights 1001 4th Ave,CEO+1-206-701-6702

Halal stands for lawful or permissible in Arabic language. Halal cosmetics products are gaining popularity among consumers as they offer excellent advantages over most conventional cosmetics products. For instance, being alcohol free, halal cosmetics are less likely to irritate sensitive skin. Moreover, halal cosmetic products are not tested on animals and completely based on health and ethical benefits.Consumers are shifting their preference towards halal cosmetics, owing to increasing awareness regarding harmful effects of synthetic cosmetics such as skin allergy, respiratory distress and various others. Also, increasing demand for halal cosmetics in South East Asian countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia and marketing activities by key players to tap potential market into Middle East are driving growth of the global halal cosmetic products market.Download PDF Brochure @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-pdf/1276 Regional government cosmetics standardization authorities have executed strict regularity requirements on halal cosmetics. For instance, in 2017, Dubai Central Laboratory launched a new testing services in order to verify halal cosmetics for their quality and safety. Such regulatory requirements are a major challenge for small and medium scale cosmetics manufacturers. Furthermore, lack of awareness regarding halal cosmetics and dominance of other cosmetic products in the market is retraining growth of the global halal cosmetic products market.Among product type, skin care segment held a dominant market share in 2016 and the segment is projected to lead the market over the forecast period. Increasing awareness regarding harmful effects of cosmetic ingredients such as alcohol, sulphates is shifting consumer preference towards natural skin care products, which is fueling growth of the for halal skin care products.Among distribution channel, online stores are projected to be the fastest growing segment over the forecast period. According to India Brand Equity Foundation Report (IBEF), in 2016, over 62% of young consumers in major economies prefer online stores for buying beauty & grooming products. Moreover, ease of access and reliable services of giant online retail stores such as Alibaba, Amazon, and Flipkart are playing important role in growth of distribution channel segment in the market.Global Halal Cosmetic Products Market Outlook:Asia Pacific accounted for major market share in global halal cosmetic products market in 2016, owing to presence of key players in the Asian economies along with bulk availability of raw material, the region is projected to retain its dominance in the near future. In Asia Pacific, the personal care industry is gaining major traction due to increasing demand for cosmetics in China, India, South Korea, and ASEAN countries. According to International Trade Administration 2016 Report on Asia Personal Care and Cosmetics Market, China is projected to become largest market for cosmetics globally in next five to ten years. Moreover, in 2015, Indonesian government passed a new Halal regulation under which most of the cosmetics products are recommended to be Halal without containing alcohol or animal ingredients. Such factors are fueling growth of the Asia Pacific halal cosmetic products market.Get More Information @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/halal-cosmetic-products-market-1276 As Halal cosmetics products meet the Halal regulations in Middle East, they are gaining major traction among Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, and various others. Moreover, Halal cosmetics standardization authorities such as Emirates Authority for standardization and Metrology (ESMA) have established a special Emirati System for control of halal products and are supporting global cosmetic manufacturers to get halal accreditation through optimal model for halal certification.Key players in Global Halal Cosmetic Products Market:Major players in the halal cosmetic products market include Amara Cosmetics Inc., The Halal Cosmetics Company, Talent Cosmetics Co. Ltd., PHB Ethical Beauty Ltd, Clara International Beauty Group, Sampure Minerals, and IBA Halal Care among others.PR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 07:57:20

Press Information

Mark I. Cohen, ESQ

10 Vesey St Suite 1200 New York, NY 10007



Mark I Cohen

Owner

2127320002

email

https://www.markicohenattorneynyc.com/





# 412 Words

10 Vesey St Suite 1200 New York, NY 10007Owner2127320002

New York, NY- July 21, 2018- The Harvey Weinstein case is a high-profile case taking place in New York right now. Mr. Weinstein is accused and facing multiple charges revolving around sexual assault and harassment. Many of his victims are high profile actresses and the media has been following the case closely.On July 2, 2018 the New York Daily News wrote an article about the case. The article had quotes from both the defense attorney and the district attorney. The article disclosed that Weinstein is being charged using a theory that he has committed similar acts.Esteemed New York attorney, Mark Cohen, was also quoted sharing his expertise and knowledge of the criminal justice system in the article. His remarks were regarding the theory being used to prosecute Mr. Weinstein, stating the prosecution could be using a course-of conduct theory. Here is his quote from the article:obviously, credibility comes from numbers. He goes on to state, Youre essentially going in front of a jury saying this guy, hes out there. Hes a serial offender. He does this to multiple victims and you have the statue drawn that way . The statute makes the argument for you. Mark Cohen has over 27 years of experience has a criminal defense attorney. He has earned his reputation by taking some of the most complicated cases. He uses a personal approach when defending his cases. Mark Cohen knows that each case is different, and he focuses on the details provided to him by his clients so that he can build the best possible defense. This has assisted him in the court room and in gaining insight on the inner working of the criminal justice system.Mark Cohen was quoted in the New York Daily News on a high-profile case because of his insight. The quote not only shows that Mark Cohen understands how the legal system works and the prosecution works, but also can share his knowledge in a way that his clients can understand.Clients and their families find themselves stressed when going through the complex process of defending themselves in criminal court. Mark Cohen makes sure that his clients can reach him and ensure they are up-to-date and understand what is going on in their cases. Mark Cohen is not just highly respected in the New York justice system, but in the US justice system as well. If you are facing the stress of having to defend a criminal case, contact Mark Cohen today.PR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 15:49:36

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave,#3200



Seattle, WA 98154



Mr. Shah

CEO

2067016702

email

https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/





# 417 Words

1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154CEO2067016702

Image guided therapy or image guided interventions help surgeons by navigating the devices inside the body of patients and provides a three dimensional image of the targeted area, making the surgery safer and less invasive. The constant flow of information enables surgeons to plan for surgery, make minute adjustments to treat across various therapeutic areas, including cardiac, vascular, endovascular, pain, trauma, urology, orthopedics, spine, and neurology. Image guided therapy devices also can be potentially used in the treatment of hypertension through renal denervation.Click To Continue Reading on Image Guided Therapy System MarketAll these therapeutic areas rely on powerful imaging modalities, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), fixed interventional X-ray, and mobile C-arms. Each modality has advantages and limitations and differs according to its mode of operation, level of complexity, and price point. As the fields of minimally-invasive interventions, interventional imaging, and image-guided surgery (IGS) continue to mature, the advancements in integration of image guided therapy system market with therapeutic modalities in real time is expected to lead to major growth over the forecast period.Image guided therapy systems provides doctors and technicians with access to patient database records and accordingly develop exact detailed surgical plan or the optimal path to the targeted area. In addition, ultrasound recording during surgery makes the image guided therapy safer and helps the surgeon to operate on the targeted area avoiding any critical injury to the nearby parts of the area. Various hospitals are focusing on installing image guided system to offer wide range of interventional procedures to patients.For instance, in November, 2017, UnityPoint Health, a network of hospitals, clinics and home care services in Iowa, Illinois, U.S. and Wisconsin installed Infinix-i-4-D CT (computed tomography) system, a product by Toshiba Medical which offers fast, safe and accurate interventional radiology (IR) and oncology procedures, such as tumor therapy, embolization, arterial interventions, dialysis and stent placement. These rising demand among the hospitals expected to fuel the growth of the image guided therapy system market.Request Sample Copy of this Business Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1315 Key Vendors:General Electric Company, Toshiba Medical Systems, Siemens AG, Medtronic plc, Brain lab AG, Image Guided Therapy, and Ziehm Imaging, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Varian Medical System, Inc.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.Psychological stress is considered as one of the most important factors in the development of motion sickness.

Scopolamine Market

PR-Inside.com: 2018-07-25 13:08:39

Press Information

Coherent Market Insights

1001 4th Ave



MR.Shah

CEO

2067016702

email

http://www.coherentmarketinsights.com





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Psychological stress is considered as one of the most important factors in the development of motion sickness. The psychological stress impacts intestinal motility, intestinal sensitivity, permeability, and secretion that is co-related with the mucosal immune activation and alterations in the central nervous system.According to a survey by Buscopan IBS Relief in 2016, stress was the cause for seven out of ten patients suffering from gastrointestinal pain. Thus, increasing number of population suffering from stress and anxiety disorder are expected to fuel growth of the global scopolamine market.Click To Continue Reading On Scopolamine MarketUse of scopolamine in Alzheimer's disease may prove useful as a diagnostic or staging test in the evaluation of the cholinergic system in dementia, which provides opportunities to the researchers to explore application of these drugs for other neurological disorders, which in turn is driving the market growth over the forecast period.However, abuse of these drugs in various regions illegally, may restrict growth of the scopolamine market during the forecast period. For instance, this drug is more common and easily available in Colombia, where it is used to make victims carry out sexual assaults and robberies. Furthermore, online availability of this drugs at low cost, which are abuse by sexual predators and robbers frequently in the various European regions (in UK, scopolamine can be bought online for only US$ 12.8) might bring stringent regulations against the manufacturing and marketing of this drug in the near future which may affected growth of the scopolamine market.Get The Holistic SAMPLE With Research Methodology: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:Coherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@ coherentmarketinsights.com Visit our news Website: https://www.coherenttimes.orgGlobal Compartment Pressure Measurement Devices Market: Market Estimation, Dynamics, Regional Share, Trends, Competitor Analysis 2012-2016 and Forecast 2017-2023

PBI - Compartment Pressure Measurement Devices Market

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Compartment pressure measurement devices market report gives a comprehensive outlook on compartment pressure measurement devices across the globe with special emphasis on key regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The report on the compartment pressure measurement devices market gives historical, current, and future market sizes (US$ Mn) on the basis of product type, application, end users, and geographic regions. This report studies compartment pressure measurement devices market dynamics elaborately to identify the current trends & drivers, future opportunities and possible challenges to the key stakeholders operating in the market. In addition, compartment pressure measurement devices market report includes new product introduction, company share analysis, and competition analysis with vividly illustrated the competition dashboard to assess the market competition. Moreover, PBI analyzed Compartment pressure measurement devices market to better equip clients with possible investment opportunities across the regions (Regional Investment Hot-Spots) and market unmet needs (Product Opportunities). Key stakeholders of the compartment pressure measurement devices market report include suppliers, manufacturers, marketers, policymakers engaged in manufacturing and supply of compartment pressure measurement devices market.A sample of this report is available upon request @ https://bit.ly/2zqrGZK Compartment Pressure Measurement Devices Market:The compartment pressure measurement devices market estimated to be valued US$ 48.0 Mn in 2017 and poised to grow at CAGR 18.2%. Market for compartment pressure measurement devices projected to reach US$ 131.2 Mn by 2023 due to rise in prevalence of Intra-Abdominal Hypertension (IAH) and Intra-Compartment Pressure (ICP) in critical care units across different healthcare set-upsIncreasing prevalence of IAH and ICP across the healthcare set-upsThe rise in prevalence of IAP and ICP in different healthcare set-ups like Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and trauma centers across the world expected to fuel the compartment pressure measurement devices market over the forecast period. Moreover, increase in ICU admissions coupled with rising in road accidents, which necessities the compartment pressure measure expected to fuel the market revenue growth in near term. In additions, untoward incidents associated with these compartment pressures such as end-organ failures or amputations prompting the healthcare professions to adopt the compartment pressure monitoring devices in regular healthcare practice to monitor the compartment pressure.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @ https://bit.ly/2KQvCs7 Technological advances in compartment pressure measurement devicesTechnological advances like the development of digital compartment pressure measure devices expected to fuel the market revenue growth over the forecast period. Availability of digital pressure measurement devices further helps to avert the risk of non-availability of surgeons or non-availability of consumables for pressure measurement. These digital devices help healthcare professionals record the compartment pressure in no time and helps in avoiding further complications. For Instance, in 2016, Centurion Medical Products launched compass digital pressure transducers for measuring and monitoring pleural as well as intra-abdominal pressures (IAP).Developed markets account for significant market revenue share in compartment pressure measurement devices marketDeveloped markets such as North America and Europe expected to hold the larger market revenue share in global compartment pressure measurement devices market over the forecast period owing to increase in adoption of compartment pressure measurement devices across the healthcare set-ups. Regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America expected to register moderate growth rate owing lack of awareness regarding pressure measurement devices among healthcare professionalsNeed more information about this report @ https://bit.ly/2LEDgW4 Competition AssessmentKey players profiled in the compartment pressure measurement devices market include: Biometrix Ltd. (The Netherlands) R. Bard, Inc. (U.S) Centurion Medical Products (U.S) ConvaTec Group PLC (U.K) Holtech Medical (Denmark ) STRYKER CORPORATION (U.S)Market players are focusing on launching innovative products like digital pressure monitoring devices and to acquire market share in compartment pressure measurement devices market. Moreover, market is consolidated in nature with few players offering limited number of products in the marketKey Findings of the Report: Compartment Pressure Measurement Devices Market expanding at 18.2% CAGR over 2017 to 2023 to reach market value of US$ 131.2 Mn by 2023 owing increased adoption in developed markets like North America and Europe Based on product type disposables accounted for larger market share in 2016 owing to frequent pressure measurement in critical care units Intra-Abdominal Pressure application segment accounted for larger market revenue share in 2016 and projected to remain dominant over the forecast period due to rise in prevalence of IAH in ICU patients Players focusing on introducing novel devices in the market to garner market global market opportunitiesKey Features of the Report: The report provides granular level information about the market size, regional market share, historic market (2012-2016) and forecast (2017-2023) The report covers in-detail insights about the competitors overview, company share analysis, key market developments, and their key strategies The report outlines drivers, restraints, unmet needs, and trends that are currently affecting the market The report tracks recent innovations, key developments and startups details that are actively working in the market The report provides plethora of information about market entry strategies, regulatory framework and reimbursement scenario The report analyses the impact of socio-political environment through PESTLE Analysis and competition through Porters Five Force Analysis in addition to recent technology advancements and innovations in the marketDetailed SegmentationBy Product Type Equipment DisposablesBy Application Intra-Abdominal Pressure Intra-Compartment PressureEnd User Hospitals Clinics Ambulatory Surgical Centers Trauma Centers)Geography North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo Germanyo Franceo UKo Italyo Spaino Russiao Polando Rest of Europe Asia-Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australia & New Zealando ASEAN (Includes Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and Others)o South Koreao Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin Americao Brazilo Mexicoo Argentinao Venezuelao Rest of Latin America Middle East and Africa (MEA)o Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countrieso Israelo South Africao Rest of MEAGet access to full summary @ https://www.precisionbusinessinsights.com/market-reports/global-compartment-pressure-measurement-devices-market/ About Precision Business InsightsPrecision Business Insights is one of the leading market research and business consulting firm, which follow a holistic approach to solve needs of the clients. We adopt and implement proven research methodologies to achieve better results. We help our clients by providing actionable insights and strategies to make better decisions. We provide consulting, syndicated and customised market research services based on our client needs.Union Bank of Nigeria Plc on Wednesday reported N11.7 billion profit before tax for the half year ended June 30.

The bank stated this in its unaudited result submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.

It said the profit before tax indicated an increase of 23 per cent compared to N9.5 billion in the corresponding period of 2017.

The bank said gross earnings during the period rose from 72.1 billion in 2017 to 83.3 billion, driven by a 10 per cent increase in interest income and 37 per cent increase in non-interest income.

According to the bank, interest income grew from 56.6 billion in 2017 to 62.2 billion, just as net interest income before impairment went up from 30.1billion in 2017 to 34.4 billion in the review period.

It noted that net interest income was driven by an improvement in net interest margins from 7.9 per cent to 8.2 per cent on the back of lower cost of funds.

Also, non-interest income appreciated from 15.4 billion in the first half of 2017 to 21.1 billion as at review period; driven by enhanced treasury trading income, recoveries and 31 per cent growth in alternate channel revenues.

Commenting on the results, Emeka Emuwa, the banks Chief Executive Officer attributed the growth to efficiency and productivity drive.

Across all our business lines, we witnessed strong underlying performance, translating into improved earnings.

We will continue to focus on the recovery of non-performing loans.

With the resolution in Q2 2018 of the large real estate exposure which was impaired in December 2017, the Group NPL ratio is down to 10.8 per cent from 14.9 per cent at March 31 2018 and 19.8 per cent at Dec. 31, 2017, he said.

Mr Emuwa said the group would continue to demonstrate its ability to deliver strong results notwithstanding a competitive and challenging operating environment.

In the second half of the year, we will continue to focus on productivity, leveraging our enhanced platform to deliver best-in-class services to our customers, he said.

Mr Emuwa added that the bank would take advantage of targeted opportunities across its business lines and geographies.

Also, Oyinkan Adewale, the banks Chief Financial Officer, said the groups retained earnings moved from negative to positive position for the first time since 2012.

She said this eliminated a major technical impediment to the payment of dividends.

Mrs Adewale said the groups net interest margins improved from 7.9 per cent in the half year of 2017 to 8.2 per cent during the period under review.

(NAN)Aliko Dangote, Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Group, has urged the federal government to provide critical infrastructure that would make the nations environment conducive for businesses to thrive.

This was disclosed by Anthony Chiejina, Head of Corporate Communication, Dangote Group in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos.

Mr Dangote made the appeal while delivering the third Eminent Persons Business Lecture and Inauguration of the Aliko Dangote Complex, a N300 million naira building donated to the University of Ibadan, School of Business.

He said his foundation would continue to prioritise education as a means of raising entrepreneurs that would change the nations economy and drive growth and development.

Mr Dangote represented by Ahmed Mansur, Group Executive Director, Dangote Industries Limited, said this while presenting a paper titled Industrialisation  Backward Integration as a strategy for National Development: The Story of the Dangote Group.

According to him, Nigeria has the potential to be among the most industrialised countries in the world and required only the right policies to propel investors into taking the lead in its industrialisation efforts.

He noted that for the nation to breakthrough industrially, the leaders and citizens must have the political will, courage and perseverance to succeed.

Mr Dangote said backward integration was one of the best policies of government that had helped the economy, and advised that the policy should be replicated in other sectors of the economy.

The business mogul said backward integration would increase cost control, efficiency, improved coordination and delivery of raw materials along the production process.

The impact of the policy was felt within the first decade of its implementation as Nigeria became self-sufficient in cement production.

Installed cement production capacity has now grown from 3 million metric tons in 2002 to 44 million metric tons as at December 2017, he said.

He said as at 2002, about 600 million dollars was spent annually as cement import bill, but the country had now successfully transitioned from being a net importer to self-sufficiency and net exporter.

Mr Dangote noted that despite the benefits inherent in the policy, businesses faced major challenges in developing and using backward integration.

He listed some of the challenges as; inadequate power supply, lengthy and costly processes of gaining access to land, poor quality transportation infrastructure and high cost of capital.

Others are; Inconsistency of policy implementation, lack of inter-sectoral policy coordination, inadequacy of knowledge and skills in the workforce and lack of foreign exchange.

According to him, most of the challenges relate to the poor quality of the overall business environment, rather than local content policies.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Abel Olayinka, commended Mr Dangote for the building, describing it as the first largest individual donor to the university and a legacy that would forever be cherished.

He explained that Mr Dangote was to initially donate N250 million to the university, but they prevailed on him to build the complex rather than giving money and that the decision had paid off for the university.

The Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, urged Nigerian youth to learn a big lesson from Dangotes humble beginning, and that with hard work he had become one of the greatest entrepreneurs in Africa.

Mr Ajimobi, represented by Joseph Olowofela, Oyo State Commissioner of Education, lamented that nowadays, most youths did not cherish hard work, but wanted to get rich quick, which explained the increase in social vices in the country.

We need a paradigm shift from the get rich quickly at all cost to hard work that leads to wealth, Mr Ajimobi said in a statement by Mr Chiejina.

(NAN)Malaysian lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that limits or discourages child marriage, with the eventual goal of banning the practice, a minister in the Prime Ministers Department told parliament on Wednesday.

The legislation would tighten provisions on child marriage as an interim measure while authorities evaluated

Shariah and state laws, said the minister, Mujahid Yusof Rawa, according to media reports.

This is just something for the short term. In the long term, child marriages should be banned, he was quoted saying in the Malay Mail.

Mr Mujahid said he expected the legislation to be introduced within 30 days.

He noted that the task of permanently ending the practice would take time, as both state and civil laws would need to be changed.

There is no point having a law that is only followed at the federal level, he told newsmen outside parliament after the session ended, according to the Star Online.

There are the Shariah laws at the state level and civil law, which currently gives the permission for such marriages  I hope to see a total stop and ban to it, he added.

Both child marriage and polygamy are legal in Malaysia if certain conditions are met. Critics have attacked the laws, saying they provide cover for paedophiles and the exploitation of children, especially when the laws vary from state to state.

The move comes after a case involving a marriage between an 11-year-old Thai girl and a 41-year-old Malaysian

man in June sparked a national outcry and calls for the legal age of marriage to be raised to 18 without exceptions.

More than 9,000 child marriages were recorded between 2010 and 2015, according to Malaysias Women, Family and Community Development Ministry in 2016.

(dpa/NAN)Iran will respond with equal countermeasures if the U.S. tries to block its oil exports, the foreign ministry in Tehran said on Tuesday.

U.S. officials are stepping up diplomatic efforts to pressure countries to stop importing Iranian oil.

If America wants to take a serious step in this direction it will definitely be met with a reaction and equal countermeasures from Iran, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on Saturday backed President Hassan Rouhanis suggestion that Iran might block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are stopped.

Already fraught relations between Tehran and Washington have worsened in recent days.

On Monday, Iran dismissed an angry warning from President Donald Trump that it risked dire consequences the like of which few throughout history have suffered before if it made threats against the United States.

Irans parliamentary speaker on Tuesday described Trumps comments as the words of a troublemaker.

The United States is experiencing disorder and wildness in its diplomatic relations, Ali Larijani was quoted as saying by IRNA.

Iran has faced the threat of U.S. sanctions since Trump decided in May to withdraw the U.S. from a 2015 agreement between world powers and Iran over its disputed nuclear programme.

(Reuters/NAN)South Sudans government and the main rebel group inked a power-sharing deal in the Sudanese capital on Wednesday, local media reported.

They hoped it would end years of conflict, however, smaller opposition groups have refrained from signing.

Riek Machar, a former vice president who will be reinstated into his old post under the deal, was in the room when the agreement was signed by representatives of the government and his group at a security compound in Khartoum.

The agreement, which was reached earlier this month in talks in Uganda, provides for creating a new 35-member government comprising 20 ministers from the current government of President Salva Kiir.

Mr Machars SPLM-IO rebel group will have nine portfolios and the rest will go to other opposition groups.

Apart from Mr Machar, Mr Kiir will have four more deputies during an interim period under the agreement that was guided by Sudan and other east African nations.

However, another opposition group, the SPLM, said the latest version of the proposed agreement contained several shortfalls, including a serious lack of consistency in allocating power-sharing ratios at all levels of governance,

It also cited lack of clarity on whether to dissolve a transitional legislature or to expand it to make it more inclusive.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed acknowledged some issues needed more work, including how to share power in local government administration.

South Sudan descended into a civil war that ravaged the country in 2013 after a political disagreement between Machar and Kiir pushed them apart.

Several attempts to end the conflict have ended in failure.

(Reuters/NAN)The Minister of Trade and Investment, Okechukwu Enelamah, is enmeshed in a N993,000 accommodation allowance double payment mess, according to details of the annual report by the Auditor-General of the Federation for 2016.

The controversial payment, the report revealed, was made to the minister after he was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The 2016 report, which contains details of financial records of federal governments ministries, departments and agencies, is the latest from the Office of the Auditor-General (OAuGF). It was released last month.

Details of the report show that N993,195 was paid to a hotel in Maitama, Abuja, for the accommodation and feeding of the minister for the first days after his appointment. The audit report noted, however, that the minister was also paid a separate N980,000 as his first days allowance in lieu of hotel accommodation.

The auditor-general in his remarks frowned at the curious double payment and instructed the permanent secretary of the ministry of trade to recover the sum paid to Mr Enelamah and ensure that evidence of recovery is provided.

Therefore, the report said, the payment of the sum of N993,195.00 (Nine hundred and ninety-three thousand, one hundred and ninety-five naira) to the hotel cannot be justified.

In view of this, the payment of N993,195.00 for hotel accommodation and feeding of the Honourable Minister can not constitute a proper and legitimate charge against public funds.

The Permanent Secretary should recover the sum of N980,000.00 paid to the Honourable Minister in lieu of hotel accommodation and furnish evidence of recovery for my verification.

From details contained in the report, it is unclear whether the permanent secretary complied with the auditor-generals directive as no evidence of refund by the minister was captured in the report.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted Bisi Daniels, the Strategy and Communications Adviser at the Ministry of Trade and Investment, he said the ministry has commenced an investigation into the controversial payments.

There was a mix-up, with the likelihood that the second payment was wrongly titled, he told our reporter Tuesday evening. The essence of such audits is to correct mistakes of this nature. The correction will be promptly made after the investigation.

Last September, PREMIUM TIMES reported details of a similar payment made to the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, as contained in the auditor-generals report for 2015. The payments, totalling N11.7 million, were made by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to enable Mrs Alhassan, and some other staff members embark on familiarisation visits to unnamed skill acquisition centres in selected states in 2015.

But the report revealed that an audit investigation established that the purported acclaimed appraisal visits to skill acquisition centres were never undertaken.

Details of the report further show irregularities in payment processes, record keeping and dating of the said visits. Following these irregularities and in the absence of any justifiable defence, the Auditor-General also mandated the ministry to refund the N11,700,000 to the federation account.

It is unclear if the amount was refunded as directed.Despite a N1 billion suit against her for allegedly conspiring to subvert the trial of suspects in a multi-million naira contract scam involving Zinox officials, Stella Anukam was earlier this month named as one of 11 new Judges appointed for the African Court on Human & Peoples Rights.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mrs Anukam, who is also the national coordinator on human rights issues in Nigeria, was elected during the 31st African Union Summit of Heads of State and Government in Nouackchott, Mauritania.

According to NAN, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, in a statement on July 1 in Abuja hailed her election as a great victory for Nigeria.

But one mans frustrating cry for justice over alleged abuse of his rights, which he blames on Mrs Anukams alleged connivance with the Nigerian police, remains a living pain still seeking restitution.

The managing director of an Ibadan-based ICT retail firm, Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, Benjamin Joseph, said his N1 billion suit against Mrs Anukam is his quest for elusive justice.

Mr Josephs immediate reaction to Mrs Anukams latest appointment was that of sheer frustration and outright disgust, a sad commentary about the depth of corruption in Nigeria.

In a telephone interview, Mr Joseph told PREMIUM TIMES that apart from his subsisting case against Mrs Anukam, he was considering a strong protest to the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights against her election after due consultations with his legal counsel.

I feel absolutely pained, frustrated and disgusted. Here am I, being swindled by a syndicate who illegally took over a contract awarded to my company in 2012. The syndicate forged my documents used in opening, transferring and withdrawing the money.

Investigations by the police and all other security agencies, including the EFCC, identified the culprits since 2014. But, the police has refused to produce the culprits for prosecution, because Stella Anukam used her private law firm and public office as director to subvert the course of justice.

Mrs Anukam has been the tool used by the syndicate that swindled my company to manipulate and frustrate the course of justice since 2014. Now, she thinks she has finished with Nigeria. She is taking the manipulation to Africa; to further oppress the down-trodden. How did she become a judge in a court on human rights? I dont understand, Mr Joseph lamented on telephone.

How It Started

The alleged fraud against Citadel Oracle was uncovered in August 2013. A formal report was lodged with the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) of the police in Lagos. Investigations were concluded in 2014. A case was established against suspects, including senior officials of Zinox Group.

But prosecution has since stalled, because the police has refused to release the case file to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), for prosecution, despite several requests.

On May 8, 2015, Mr Joseph petitioned Solomon Arase, then newly appointed Inspector General of Police, highlighting his companys frustration.

Surprisingly, Mr. Arases response was an advice for him to allow the civil aspect of the case to run its full course before prosecution of the suspects, to prevent a miscarriage of justice.

On June 5, 2015, Mr. Josephs lawyers wrote to Mr Arase accusing him of attempts to shield the accused persons from prosecution, by asking for the conclusion of a non-existing civil case.

The lawyer issued a 21-day ultimatum for the former IGP to obey the rule of law and transfer the case file to the DPP for the prosecution of the suspects.

He equally followed up with another petition to the vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, who directed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and get the matter resolved.

On June 16, 2016, three days before the end of IGP Arases tenure, Mr. Joseph, the petitioner, was charged to court by the police, on a one-count charge of providing false information in his petition against the suspects. A petitioner became the accused.

On July 2, 2016, Mr. Joseph was formally arraigned before the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Apo, Abuja accused of alleged identity theft, impersonation and criminal conversion of contracts against the accused person. The former accused persons were now being used by the police as prosecution witnesses.

Petition Against Mrs Anukam

Alleging victimisation, Mr. Joseph petitioned the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, blaming his travails on insider manipulations orchestrated by a ministry top official.

Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (Photo Credit: DailyPost)

On December 7, 2016, in response to Mr Josephs petition, the AGF approved a senior counsel from the Ministry of Justice to formally take over the case in court at the resumed sitting. But, another twist was to follow.

At the resumed hearing on February 28, 2017, Simon Lough, the police prosecutor, came up with a letter signed by the DPP, Mohammed Umar, upturning the AGFs earlier directive. The letter reinstated the police to continue Mr. Josephs trial to its logical conclusion.

Interestingly, Mr. Umar who signed the previous letter that conveyed the AGFs directive to take-over the case was the same signatory of the letter restoring the police to the case.

Findings from the ministry of Justice revealed Mr. Umars letter upturning the AGFs earlier directive, was based on a petition dated December 13, 2016 by a private law firm, Integrity Law Firm.

The letter, signed by Innocent Eriomionkhale, alleged the AGF had been misinformed over his decision to take over Mr Josephs prosecution.

He told the AGF withdrawing prosecution from the police in the case would derail a pending trial against Mr. Joseph.

Further findings from the ministry revealed Mr. Eriomionkhale was the younger brother to Stella Anukam, the director of International & Comparative Law in the justice ministry, who doubled as the lead partner in Integrity Law Firm, the private law firm that wrote the protest against the AGFs take-over of the case.

Victim Petitions Vice President

On April 11, 2017, Mr Joseph petitioned the then acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, demanding Mrs Anukams investigation over allegations she abused her office by using her position to obstruct justice against the Zinox Group officials accused of involvement in a N170 million contract fraud.

The petition also called for the probe of Integrity Law Firm, which acted as legal counsel to Zinox Group and its accused top staff.

Until PREMIUM TIMES broke the story on the petition to the acting president, Mrs Anukam was paraded as lead team member of the law firm.

The story not only highlighted the illegality inherent in Mrs Anukams conduct, it raised serious conflict of interest issues about her role in Integrity Law Firm, which contravened the Nigerian law barring public officers from private practice.

Immediately, Integrity Law Firm edited Mrs. Anukams profile on its website, and later removed it completely from the site, along with that of a Federal Capital Territory Customary Court judge, Femi Odeahan.

Since then, all data on the law firms website linking Mrs. Anukam to the ownership of the law firm have been removed.

Apart from Innocent Eremionkhale, a lawyer, who is Mrs. Anukams younger brother, captured in the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents as proprietor, Mrs Anukam and Mr Odeahan were first and second management team members of the law firm.

On July 10, 2017, Mr Osinbajo, in acknowledging the receipt of Mr Josephs petition, said he had transferred the petition to the appropriate authority for necessary action.

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo

This was coming several months after similar petitions were sent to the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami; then Solicitor General of the Federation, Taiwo Abidogun, and Director of Public Prosecution, Mohammed Umar, without any action.

On May 4, 2017, Mr. Malami told PREMIUM TIMES in a text message: Investigation is ongoing, but not concluded.

On June 21, he confirmed the report on the investigation into the allegations against Mrs Anukam was ready and asked the reporter to contact him later for details of the findings.

Since then, Mr. Malami has neither picked several calls to his telephone nor responded to text messages sent to him on the issue. Same as Mr Umar.

During the month, Zinox, in what appeared a bid to gag critical reporting, sued PREMIUM TIMES. The company demanded N2 billion as damages. This newspaper has also sued Zinox N10 billion, for damages.

On July 26, 2017, Mr Josephs lawyers also wrote to the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), requesting them to investigate Mrs. Anukam for alleged abuse of office. None of them acknowledged receipt of the letters.

In October 2017, Mr Joseph filed a N1 billion suit against Mrs Anukam for alleged conspiracy to subvert the trial of top officials of Zinox Group for multi-million naira fraud against his company.

Also joined in the suit was Mrs Anukams brother, Mr. Eremionkhale.

Mr. Joseph accused Mrs Anukam of not only using her official position as director in the justice ministry, but also her link as a partner of the private law firm to suppress the prosecution of the Zinox Group officials for the fraud.

Although the quest for justice has lingered for almost four years, the EFCC penultimate Thursday formally filed charges against only two of the 11 suspects.

Officials Keep Mum

The AGF did not answer repeated calls to his telephone. He equally did not respond to text and WhatsApp messages sent to him . Calls to Mrs Anukams known telephone failed to connect.

Although the DPP, Mr Umar, answered the call from PREMIUM TIMES, when the issue of Mrs Anukams appointment in relation to her controversial role in the scandal was raised, he refused any further comment.

He has not picked up calls to his telephone number since then, neither has he responded to text or WhatsApp messages.

When contacted, the Solicitor General of the Federation, Dayo Apata, told PREMIUM TIMES he wanted to get in touch with Mrs Anukam before responding to our enquiry. He promised to call back with her response.

Hours later, when he was contacted again, Mr. Apata said Mrs Anukam travelled outside the country.

Mr Apata has since not responded again till the time of this publication.Kogi state senator, Dino Melaye, was on Wednesday arraigned in an FCT High Court, Apo, on a six-count charge, bordering on attempted suicide, attempt to escape from custody and damage of police property.

Mr Melaye, who represents Kogi West senatorial zone, denied committing the offences, while Justice Silvanus Oriji granted him bail in the sum of N5 million

Mr Oriji also ordered him to produce two sureties in like sum, as part of the bail condition.

The judge ordered that the sureties must be directors in the civil service, residents of the FCT, and must depose to affidavits of means.

The prosecuting counsel, Alex Izinyon, had told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences on April 24.

He said the defendant while being conveyed in a police vehicle to Lokoja, forced his way out and escaped.

Mr Izinyon further said that the defendant sat on the ground, holding a substance in one hand threatening to drink it to kill himself so that he can put the police officers in trouble.

The prosecutor also said that the defendant broke the glass of the vehicle with his elbow and caused damage to police property.

He said the offences contravened the provisions of Sections 148,153,173,231, 326 and 327 of the Penal Code.

The counsel to Mr Melaye, Mike Ozekhome, prayed the court to allow the bail granted to the defendant at the Magistrates Court Wuse on the same charges to continue.

The prosecution opposed the application, adding that bail is at the discretion of the court.

The judge upheld the submission of the prosecution and gave the new bail conditions.

He said that the case would be assigned to another judge by the chief judge after the vacation.

The arraignment came a day after Mr Melaye defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress to the Peoples Democratic Party.

(NAN)For the first time since the inauguration of the eighth assembly, over a dozen senators switched allegiance at once Tuesday.

After weeks of speculations, 14 senators of the All Progressives Congress dumped their party. Twelve went to PDP and two to the ADC.

Here are the senators who moved and the likely reasons they defected.

Dino Melaye

For many weeks now, it was almost certain the Kogi West senator will switch party allegiance to PDP. He was first on the list of names read by senate president, Bukola Saraki.

The unending political feud between Mr Melaye, and Kogi State governor, Yahaya Bello, and his acclaimed victimisation by the federal government, are major factors that pushed the lawmaker out of APC. Having survived a recall process which he believed was orchestrated by Mr Bello, Mr Melaye had been poised to join the PDP.

Barnabas Gemade

The return of Mr Gemade to the PDP was almost imminent having wined and dined with the party for long. In the first national convention of the PDP after the April 1999 general elections, Mr Gemade, a former minister of works, was elected national chairman. He contested the party presidential primaries in 2003 and remained with the party until 2014 when APC was formed.

His defection may not be unconnected to 2019 calculation.

Ibrahim Danbaba

The relationship between the senator and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State accounts for his defection. Prior to becoming a senator, he was in the public service and was the deputy governor of Sokoto State from 1999 to 2003.

Shaaba Lafiaji

Though without any known confrontations, Mr Lafiagi is believed to have defected due to his loyalty to Mr Saraki. He was a protege of Olusola Saraki, Senate leader during the second republic, who helped him emerge as governor of Kwara State in January 1992 on the Social Democratic Party platform, and was removed from office by the administration of Sani Abacha in November 1993. Mr Lafiagi became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

In April 2011, he was elected senator representing Kwara north senatorial district and re-contested for same position in 2015.

Mohammed Shitu

The senator first hinted at his defection two months when he said he would dump the ruling APC if it fails to put its house to order. Beyond this, his ambition to become the next governor of Jigawa State has created an enmity with Governor Abubakar Badaru.

His defection, obviously, is to make real his intention.

Rafiu Ibrahim

Mr Ibrahims Defection also could be explained on his relationship and loyalty to Mr Saraki. He was a member of Kwara State House of Assembly between 2009 and 2011. He contested and won the senatorial seat in 2015.

Suleiman Hunkuyi

His sour relationship with Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, accounts for his defection. The genesis of their disagreement is difficult to trace given the fact that Mr Hunkuyis younger brother was appointed commissioner and his elder, Idris Othman, was for many years a close associate of the governor.

Suleman Hunkuyi representing Kaduna North. [photo credit: Daily Trust]

Just recently, as in many other occasions, Mr Hunkuyi vowed to do everything possible to vote Mr El-Rufai out in 2019 governorship election in the state.

In February, the Kaduna State Government demolished a building belonging to a faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. Mr Hunkuyi, a leader of Restoration APC, alleged that the demolition was masterminded by the state.

Isa Misau

Mr Misau has not hidden his displeasure towards the government of President Muhammadu Buhari especially in his comments on the Nigeria police and its leadership.

In January, Mr Misau said the Buhari administration was populated with incompetent people who have now taken over the reins, with some of them acting as though they are above the president. His open confrontation with the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, whom he accused of corruption and incompetence also pitched him against the presidency.

Isa Misau [Photo Credit: Concise News]

Mr Misau also questioned Mr Buharis anti-corruption war citing the example of Babachir Lawal, the former SGF who was accused of embezzling funds meant for IDPs and still walking scot-free, including being a frequent visitor to the presidential villa.

Mr Misau is not in good terms with the Bauchi States governor, Mohammed Abubakar, over his ambition to return to the senate.

Monsurat Sunmonu Senator Monsurat Sunmonu steps in after family subjected teenager to torture for alleged theft

At first, she was announced to have defected to the PDP. She later cleared the air that her allegiance switch was to the African Democratic Congress (ADC). A former speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly, her reason for defecting may not be unconnected to the last series of APC congresses.

Usman Nafada

Usman Bayero Nafada, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives was not in good terms with Gombe APC excos. He was a member of the PDP until 2015. His ambition to become governor of the state has courted him many enemies, including the state governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo.

His decision to defect appears to be a step to realise this ambition.

Musa Kwankwaso

In the past months, it was obvious the former Kano State governor will make official his return to PDP soon. He wants to be president and his defection is also connected his feud with the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje.

Rabiu Kwankwaso

Early July, he boasted of his ability to defeat President Buhari if fielded by PDP.

Suleiman Nazif

Mr Nazif was a contender for the office of the governor of Bauchi State in the April 2011 elections, running on the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) platform. He came fourth with 102,093 votes, losing to the incumbent Governor Isa Yuguda, who won 771,503 votes.

His political calculations ahead of the 2019 accounts for his defection.

Lanre Tejuosho

The contention for the Ogun Central APC ticket in 2019 forced Mr Tejuosho out of the party. His relationship with Governor Ibikunle Amosun went sour because of the governors ambition to return to the senate after his second term as the state chief executive thereby denying the lawmaker of return ticket for Ogun Central.

Abdulaziz Nyako

He is the son of the immediate past governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako. Mr Nyako announced his defection a few days before the announcement at the senate. His feud with Governor Muhammadu Jibrilla of Adamawa State seems to account for his defection. He belonged to a different faction of the APC which organised a parallel congresses in the state.The All Progressives Congress on Thursday decried the defection of Governor Samuel Ortom, saying the Benue State governor gave the impression that everything was alright until his defection today.

Mr Ortom defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party this afternoon, saying the party was no longer properly positioned to address the yearnings of Benue people.

Bolaji Abdullahi, national spokesperson for the APC, said the party found the defection somewhat surprising because concerted efforts were made to keep Mr Ortom in its fold, and regretted that the governor had to leave.

The party recalls efforts made by the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to address some of the grievances raised by the Benue State Governor pertaining to the local politics in Benue State.

The governor had left the meeting saying he was satisfied with the assurances given by party leaders. We are still working on giving effect to the resolutions from the meeting. Therefore, we are somewhat surprised by Governor Ortoms decision, Mr Abdullahi said.

Nonetheless, the party said it would continue to respect the rights of citizens to chose which party they found accommodating enough for their political endeavours, even as he indicated that negotiations would continue to prevent others from decamping.

The party reiterates its earlier position that it respects the rights of every citizen to chose their political affiliation but expresses hope that those who have left the Party will rescind their decisions.

Even with this development, we dont think it is too late for reconciliation. We have to continue to talk. As long as people keep their minds open and have the courage to put the real issues on the table, reconciliation is still possible, he added.

The APC has been experiencing a wave of defection lately. At least 15 of its senators and 37 of its House of Representatives members decamped yesterday. A substantial majority of them swiftly joined the PDP.

Also in Benue yesterday, the APC speaker was impeached following mass defection of members that elevated the PDP to the majority in recent weeks.

The development had been predicted to hurt the ruling partys chances of retaining power in 2019 general elections.

Mr Abdullahi urged all APC members to remain calm and be absolutely confident of the partys ability to ensure that more high-profile politicians remained on its platform.

We once again call on members across the country to remain calm as the party leadership continues to work hard to position the party strongly for the next general elections, Mr Abdullahi said.President Muhammadu Buhari is currently meeting with senators of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The meeting is holding inside the conference room in the office of the wife of the president at the State House villa, Abuja.

The meeting is coming a day after 15 senators dumped the party for the opposition.

About 42 Senators are attending the meeting with Mr Buhari, which is expected to discuss Tuesdays defections.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, who is still a member of the APC is, however, not attending the meeting.

Below are the senators meeting with the president.

Adamu Aleiro,

Bala Ibn Na-Allah,

Aliyu Wamako,

Ibrahim Gobir,

Kabiru Marafa,

Abu Ibrahim,

Kabiru Gaya,

Barau Jibrin,

Abdullahi Gumel,

Shehu Sani,

Ahmed Lawan,

Ali Ndume,

Abubakar Kyari,

Baba Kaka Garbai,

Aliyu Abdullahi,

David Umaru, ,

Abdullahi Adamu,

George Akume,

Francis Alimekhina,

Andrew Uchendu,

Magnus Abe,

Ovie Omo-Agege,

John Enoh,

Nelson Effiong,

Andy Uba,

Sunny Ugboji,

Hope Uzodinma,

Ben Uwajimogu,

Yusuf Yusuf,

Oluremi Tinubu,

Gbenga Ashafa,

Solomon Adeola,

Tayo Alasoadura,

Soji Akanbi,

Ajayi Boroface,

Yele Omogunwa,

Fatima Rasaki,

Olanrewaju Tejuoso,

Yahaya AbdullahiA House of Representatives member, Abdulrazak Atunwa, who, along with 36 others defected from the All Progressive Congress (APC) on Tuesday, said more members would leave the party in the coming weeks.

Briefing journalists in company of some of the defected members, who moved to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atunwa said that Tuesdays defection was just the first batch of members that would leave the APC.

He said that the public should expect more as many members had indicated interest to defect from the party.

Mr Atunwa said that the APC was a party they all laboured for as people came from various parties, campaigned and formed a government in 2015.

According to him, we came together because of what was being proposed to the people of Nigeria as we believed in change and a better Nigeria.

The legislator said that they believed in respect for the rule of law, improved education, social welfare of the people as the men, women and youth of the country deserved better among other ideals.

Sadly, no sooner we formed government in May, 2015, the party put itself on course to be derailed and that derailment has continued to today.

Some of us have been agitating that we should go back to the ideals that brought us together, but the party was not listening.

The party rather embarked on victimisation and criminalisation of its members, those perceived as opponents and have divergent views, he said.

He said that the party set itself on the line of destruction when the aggrieved members brought up their concerns but were castigated and referred to as inconsequential and as nobody.

Putting all that together and the interest of the country, particularly as the APC has derailed from the ideals that will propel Nigeria to advance, we felt we have to take this step we took today, he said.

Mr Atunwa said the defectors were interested in economic development, respect for parliament and rule of law, while the APC was concerned about membership to form majority.

He, however, said that the PDP in the past three years had learnt its lesson.

The lawmaker added that they had monitored and had seen that the PDP had taken corrective measures.

He said that having been beaten at the polls in 2015, the PDP had got its acts together and was now a reformed party, adding that it was the reason they felt confident to return to the party.

Also, Hassan Saleh, who also defected, said that from the ward congress up to the national convention of the APC, no fewer than 25 states in the country had parallel congresses.

He questioned the process that brought about the national convention given the issues at ward levels, saying that the foundation was faulty.

According to him, we cannot continue to hide our faces like nothing is wrong when the problem is there.

Rep. Aliyu Madaki said some of the defectors joined the APC because it campaigned and promised to ensure security of lives and properties.

He said section 14 of the Constitution said that the primary responsibility of government is the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians.

According to him, nobody is safe today in Nigeria; under the PDP administration, I could drive from Abuja to Kano with my eyes closed but now, I depend on consistent prayer to arrive safely.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 33 lawmakers in the lower chambers defected from the APC to PDP, four others to African Democratic Party (ADC) while one resigned.

The house, however, adjourned to proceed on eight weeks break and will resume plenary on Sept. 25.

(NAN)Flood displaced hundreds of residents of Damaturu on Tuesday following a downpour which lasted many hours.

The rains destroyed houses and shops in places such as Nayi Nawa, Shago Tara, fulatari, Pompomari and Bulabulin.

Musa Jidawa, Permanent Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), who toured the affected areas described the flooding as unprecedented even though it did not claim lives.

The agency, in collaboration with Damaturu local government council, is assessing the damage and ascertaining people involved to provide them with the needed assistance.

Damaturu has not seen anything close to this flood in the last 20 years. We have gone round for first-hand information to determine areas of immediate needs and intervention. he said.

The permanent secretary said government would provide victims with food and building materials for them to reconstruct their buildings.

Meanwhile, some of the victims said they had relocated to their relations homes pending when they are able to rebuild their houses.

The victims, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said they were lucky that it rained in the morning and destroyed only their property.

Abubakar Mustapha, a victim who spoke on behalf of others in Nayi Nawa, pleaded with the state government to expedite action and provide them some succour in view of their predicament.

He also called on the government to construct more drains to channel excessive water in the event of rainfall in the area.

(NAN)The Nigeria Customs Command in Lagos have arrested an Iveco truck carrying 498 cartons of Codeine Cough Syrup of 100 milligrams worth N199.2 million.

The consignment, which was manufactured in the United Kingdom and had 200 bottles in each carton, was intercepted along the Ijebu Ode-Ore road last week.

According to the controller, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Lagos, Mohammed Uba, two suspects had been arrested and detained in a Customs cell in connection to the seizure.

You will recall that the federal government banned any importation of cough syrup that contains codeine, said Mr Uba.

The drugs and suspects will be handed over to NAFDAC for further investigation and possible prosecution in a court of competent jurisdiction.

The fight against drug abuse and illicit drugs is a collective effort and if all hands are on deck, we will make our nation a drug free society.

For the month of July, the Unit revealed that it had detained 21 exotic vehicles with duty paid value of N484,458,778.

Some were intercepted along the Ijebu Ode expressway while 10 were evacuated from Oluwalogbon Motors at 164 Awolowo Way in Ikeja based on credible information, Mr Uba said.

Among the seizures were 9,504 bags of 50 kilogramme foreign parboiled rice, 436 jerrycans of vegetable oil, 333 cartons of frozen poultry products, and 287 bales of used clothing.

The agency said ten suspects had been arrested in connection to the seizures.

Some have been released on administration bail while some are still our custody, Mr Uba said.

A total sum of N1,120,714,338 had been recovered as revenue from 141 seizures made for the month under review, he added.A former national legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress, Muiz Banire, has responded to opposition to his nomination as the chairman, Governing Board, of the Assets Management Company of Nigeria, (AMCON).

President Muhammadu Buhari last week nominated Mr Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, as head of the governments assets recovery agency.

The nomination was sent to the National Assembly for approval on July 18.

But the three All Progressives Congress senators representing Lagos State, Mr Banires home state, vehemently opposed the nomination.

Olamilekan Solomon (Lagos West), Oluremi Tinubu (Lagos Central), and Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East) in a petition during the senate plenary said their constituents had rejected Mr Banires nomination.

Mr Banire in a statement Wednesday said he would not join issues with the senators out of his respect for the office they occupy.

In the first place, let me recognise the constitutional right of the three Senators to express their views without let or hindrance, Mr Banire said.

It is part of the democratic tenets we all cherish and strive to protect at all times. Equally, because of the respect I have for the offices of the Senators, I will not join issues with them, particularly when it has become traditional and conventional for them to be objectors on occasions such as this.

All I can say is that I wish them well and remind them that no dynasty or empire lasts forever. Whatever has a beginning will have an end.

However, it is necessary to point out to interested/concerned members of the Nigerian citizenry that my nomination in the first place is not a quota appointment (as the three politicians and distinguished Senators may have wrongly perceived) requiring their special approval to deal with.

I was nominated simply as a Nigerian in whom the appointer has a lot of confidence and who is prepared to give his all in service of his fatherland.

Mr Banire, a two-time commissioner in Lagos State, had been a champion of internal democracy in the state chapter of the APC, putting him at loggerheads with Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party.

Last year, scores of protesting members of the APC marched to Governor Akinwunmi Ambodes office demanding Mr Banires expulsion from the party. The state chapter of the party also suspended Mr Banire, then national legal adviser of the party, a decision that was promptly overruled by the partys national body. In his statement, Mr Banire said a similar opposition by the legislators to the nominations of Olusegun Aganga (a former minister of trade and industry), Babatunde Fashola (the current minister of works, power, and housing), and Musiliu Obanikoro (a former minister of state for defence) did not succeed, even when, unlike in my case, their Ministerial positions were constitutionally mandated to fill the Lagos State quota representation in the Federal Executive Council. I urge all my well wishers to remain calm in the face of this provocation as I am optimistic that the proper thing will ultimately be done by the Senate as has been done in the past. They should please not engage them on any street contest. Beyond the above, let me also state clearly that I am blessed with so many alternative contact addresses and consequently, do not desperately need a political job to survive. It is those who are professional politicians and whose survival depends on such that can be so threatened. Here I am, a professional in politics. Of course, if this is a continuation of the consistent harassment, intimidation and threat to gag my advocacy for good governance and the rule of law, the effect, unfortunately is otherwise. It strengthens me further and makes me resolute in my crusade. I shall continue to interrogate and agitate (for) issues of good governance and rule of law, regardless of whose ox is gored.The reinstated registrar of the National Business and Technical Examinations Board (NABTEB), Ifeoma Abanihe, has spoken about the circumstances that led to the dissolution of the agencys governing council.

Mrs Abanihe, who was suspended by the board of NABTEB, rejected allegations of corruption against her, and instead accused the sacked chairman of the dissolved governing council, Leonard Shilgba, of wrongdoing.

In a document made available to PREMIUM TIMES, titled Putting the records straight, the registrar said the purpose of the clarification is to disabuse the minds of the general public in order to stop the former chairman from feeding the public with deliberate falsehood and to debunk his claims as an advocate of due process and anti-corruption.

Mr Shilgba had earlier accused the federal ministry of education of covering up fraud in the examinations agency.

The board said it acted on the report of a special investigative committee it set up to probe allegations of corruption at NABTEB, and decided to suspend the registrar of the agency, Mrs Abanihe, and four directors in June.

The directors were those of finance and accounts, examination administration, examinations development, and the procurement officer.

The panel also ordered the registrar to refund N49.7 million she allegedly could not account for, to the coffers of NABTEB.

But the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, on June 25, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the reinstatement of the registrar and the four directors and the dissolution of the governing board with immediate effect .

According to Mr Echono, The purported suspension of the Registrar, Prof. Ifeoma Abanihe, and four (4) other Directors of NABTEB has been nullified as it did not conform with due process especially in the case of the Registrar, because the Board went beyond its powers and in contravention of section 5 and Section 6 of NABTEB Act.

Registrar explains

In the documents she sent, the reinstated registrar alleged that the reason Mr Shilgba resolved to suspend and remove her was because she did not succumb to his plan to loot NABTEB and enrich himself.

Mrs Abanihe said she refused to accede to several corrupt demands made by the former chairman because she did not want to violate existing rules of the government.

The documents accuse Mr Shilgba of beginning to harass the registrar with demands for financial assistance from NABTEB more than six months before he was formally inaugurated as chairman of NABTEBs governing board in 2017.

It accused Mr Shilgba of pushing for an urgent employment of six staff, including one that aspired to be engaged as a deputy director without cognate experience and another, a driver without a valid drivers licence.

Contrary to his self-acclaimed love for due process, Mr Shilgba did not feel any qualms about flouting several Government regulations NABTEB said in the document.

NABTEB also said Mr Shilgba single-handedly introduced what he termed Standing Orders, inconsistent with extant laws and regulations as follows:

15% of N10,000.00 enrolment fees for NABTEB examinations, translating to N1,500.00 per candidate was to be appropriated for governing board members while 5% was appropriated for staff logistics.

The board also said the chairman, who is part-time, was not entitled to a permanent office, but he insisted on being provided with an office, as well as assistants, in the NABTEB Liaison Office in Abuja.

NABTEB said the office was furnished according to his dictates, thereby depriving the zonal office of the space needed for control of examination materials, which is a major activity of the examination process.

NABTEB also accused the former boad chairman of disobeying the Procurement Act by bringing vendors to bid for contract of online service providers without advertisement in Federal Government Tenders Journal and two other national dailies.

According to the board, the climax of Mr Shilgbas overzealousness and disregard for due process and rule of law was demonstrated in his desperate and reckless attempt to change the signatories of the NABTEB TSA accounts at the Office of the Accountant General.

Mr Shilgba actually directed the NABTEB director of administration to send letters to the Office of Accountant General of the Federation to execute the plan to change the signatories in Abuja, the document said.

Registrars suspension

The registrar of NABTEB, Mrs Abanihe said before her suspension, she was neither interviewed by the committee nor given the opportunity to defend herself contrary to the rules of fair hearing as entrenched in the 1999 Constitution.

She said the investigative committee which presented its report to the First Governing Board Meeting, on the basis of which the former Chairman suspended the her, was not properly constituted as it did not meet the criteria stipulated in the NABTEB Regulations.

On the issue of illegal recruitment ,the board did not recruit thirty staff, rather only fifteen staff who hail from five geopolitical zones were employed to replace exited staff while noting that approval was obtained from the supervising ministry in July 2017, Mrs Abanihe said.

Suspended chairman reacts

The allegations have not been independently verified. But when contacted on the allegations against him, the former chairman, Mr Shilgba, told PREMIUM TIMES that a special committee of NABTEB consisting of two presidential appointees, representative of federal ministry of education, representative of WAEC, and representative of PTBTA, representative of the Federal Ministry of Education found Mrs Abanihe guilty.

Mr Shilgba said the registrar was asked and allowed to make a response before board members on June 19, 2018.

Her predominant defence was, I apologise. I must also add that not one of the 12 members of the governing board of NABTEB present protested the decision to suspend Professor Ifeoma Abanihe, Mr Shilgba said.

Mr Shilgba said he turned down a contract offer from the registrar.

If, after she came to my hotel in Abuja on Monday evening of May 21, 2018 (I have witnesses) to beg me to let her off, I yielded and agreed to team up with her to perpetrate the corruption in NABTEB, would any Nigerian have heard about the rot? he asked.

Civil society reacts

Meanwhile, Hassan Soweto, the national coordinator of Education Right Campaign (ERC) in a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES considers the dissolution of the governing board of NABTEB and the reinstatement of the registrar without any effort to look into the weighty allegations of corruption levelled against her and four other members of staff by the board as an attempt to cover up a sleaze within NABTEB.

According to him, the whereabouts of the sum of N49 million is the most important issue for the tax-paying public and other stakeholders in the education sector besides the power play going on.

Mr Hassan said the group is demanding a full disclosure on the status of the investigation into the allegation of corruption leveled against the NABTEB registrar and four principal staff noting that tax-paying public deserves to know the truth.

He said the education minister will be held responsible if the matter is swept under the carpet as has happened to several cases of alleged corruption in several parastatals and agencies under an administration that claims to be devoted to fighting corruption.

This administration has largely turned this corruption fight into a selective exercise in which only foes are guillotined while cronies continue to make away with our public wealth, he said.Judge Aondover Kakaan of a Makurdi High Court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced Suleiman Goma and Haruna Idi to death by hanging for the murder of a reverend, Alexandra Adeyi.

Mr Adeyi was the former Vical-General of Otukpo Catholic Diocese.

Both convicts of Orokam in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue State were said to have conspired with one Saidu Abdullahi and Aliyu Garba, now at large, to kidnap the late reverend father at Otukpo on April 26, 2016.

Delivering judgment, Mr Kakaan said that the prosecution, which called eight witnesses, has proved its case beyond all reasonable doubts.

The judge held that evidence before him showed that the convicts committed the crimes.

Mr Kakaan held that three guns and charms were recovered from the convicts at the time and place of arrest in the forest.

The judge also held that the first convict, Mr Goma, in his statement tendered in court, admitted that he bought the guns for the purpose of armed robbery and kidnapping

In the suit filed by the Inspector-General of Police, the prosecutor, Simon Iough, told the court that the convicts took the former Vical-General of Otukpo Catholic Diocese to Okumgaga forest in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue where they demanded for a ransom of N2 million.

He said though the sum of N1.5 million was paid as a ransom, the convicts and Messrs Abdullahi and Garba(now at large), still killed the clergyman and dumped his corpse in the forest.

However, the convicts who testified and called no witness, denied the allegation.The Nigerian presidency came out swinging Tuesday against relentless allegations of presidential interference in the affairs of security agencies across the country, admonishing critics and opposition figures to desist from politicising law enforcement.

It is odd, strange and bizarre that while ordinary citizens can be called up to answer questions or be interrogated, the VIP cannot be questioned without the annoying insinuations of partisanship, persecution or outright politicisation, presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu said in a statement Tuesday night.

The statement came hours after Senate President Bukola Saraki accused security agencies of plotting to prevent a mass defection of federal lawmakers from the ruling All Progressives Congress at Tuesdays plenary.

The defection later played out almost as planned, but the conduct of security agencies in the hours preceding the exercise elicited suspicion from Nigerians who accused President Muhammadu Buharis as the instigator.

Mr Shehus message was apparently aimed at checking a widening narrative that cast Mr Buhari as a vindictive puppeteer of security agencies operations, especially as concerns political heavyweights whose loyalties are at variance with or lie outside the presidents interests.

Insinuations that Mr Buhari had converted law enforcement agencies to his personal attack dogs has simmered for the better part of his leadership, starting with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions crackdown on those perceived as corrupt.

The agencys anti-corruption efforts, a crucial part of the administrations larger campaign against graft, have seen scores of alleged corrupt politicians and their enablers taken into custody. The EFCC said it recovered billions from senior officials in the immediate-past administration, including ministers, security chiefs and shady contractors.

But at the peak of the campaign, independent anti-corruption experts said it became increasingly clear that opposition politicians were being specifically targeted. While corruption dossiers submitted against Mr Buharis appointees would be essentially ignored by anti-graft detectives, opposition politicians, especially those in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), were being locked up, sometimes for months amidst unsigned or suspiciously-procured remand warrants.

Earlier this year, Transparency International found that Mr Buharis anti-corruption tactics actually worsened rather than improving the countrys long-standing corruption perception. The administrations response to the verdict was mixed, with officials like Mr Shehu dismissing it as politically-motivated while Vice President Yemi Osinbajo took it as a bracer to fine tune their approach.

Mr Buharis loyalists with specific and difficult-to-controvert allegations of corruption but whom security agencies have been reluctant to go after included Babachir Lawal, the former cabinet secretary who was caught apparently dipping his hands into funds earmarked for the victims of Boko Haram, and Kemi Adeosun, the finance minister who was recently exposed as forging a national youth service certificate.

Despite the signals pointing to possible presidential interference in the conduct of security agencies, Mr Shehu absolved his principal, saying Nigerians are judging him by the objectionable manner with which past presidents approach law enforcement.

Mr Shehu dismissed allegations of Mr Buharis involvement in the onslaught against political foes as an orchestrated campaign, insisting strongly that the president does not dictate the direction of activities for agencies.

Security agents reportedly lay siege on Saraki, Ekweremadus residences Security agents reportedly lay siege on Saraki, Ekweremadus residences Security agents reportedly lay siege on Saraki, Ekweremadus residences Security agents reportedly lay siege on Saraki, Ekweremadus residences Security agents reportedly lay siege on Saraki, Ekweremadus residences

This country cannot achieve development in peace when important cases are viewed through a political prism and the law is considered as being applicable to some, and not applicable to others, Mr Shehu said. The law of the land is intended for all, not for the poor or those at the lowest rungs of the social ladder.

Echoes of tyranny blared through the countrys political spectrum on Tuesday morning, following revelations that the homes of Senate presiding officers had been blockaded. Top opposition politicians, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Balarabe Musa, were amongst those who condemned the action of the police and cautioned Mr Buhari against truncating the countrys democracy.

Mr Shehu said the Nigerian Constitution was at play yesterday and not the president, whom he said will not tolerate recklessness from security agencies but will not prevent them from cracking down on individuals their social status notwithstanding who have criminal questions to answer.

President Buhari does not stand in the way of law enforcement either. Under our constitution, he has no powers to stop the investigation of anyone or institution. When they are set to investigate anything and anyone, the best friend of the law is the one who lets them do their work.

The Presidents constant refrain is that he will not tolerate any form of illegality including corruption and the law enforcement agencies have been given complete freedom to identify and bring all culprits to justice. His instructions to them are very clear: Anyone with a case to answer or found guilty should not be spared, Mr Shehu said.

Mr Saraki has faced allegations he conspired with the suspects of a deadly armed robbery attack in Offa, Kwara State, in April. The police invited Mr Saraki for further questioning over the matter on Monday night, giving him until 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday to turn himself in. But the Senate President failed to comply with the directive, and instead emerged at the Senate where he presided over the plenary.

Mr Saraki said he played down the polices invitation after he learnt that other security agencies were holding Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu at his residence. Yesterdays plenary would not have held if the two presiding officers were unavailable.

In June, PREMIUM TIMES learnt that Mr Buhari permitted Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris to take Mr Saraki into custody if the police had enough grounds to do so, especially in relations to the Offa robbery carnage. This revelation had been used to support partisan arguments of Mr Buharis critics and supporters alike.

While the critics said Mr Idris visit to the president over such a matter showed that he had been taking directives from him on similar matters in the past, supporters focused on the presidents response instead, saying it was a remarkable act done to strengthen the independence of public institutions.

PREMIUM TIMES also uncovered yesterday that the siege laid to the residences of Messrs Saraki and Ekweremadu came at the instance of Buhari administration officials.

PDP spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, said it is difficult if not outright ridiculous to claim that Mr Buhari was given security agencies a hands-off approach, especially after he defended the Zaria massacre of Shiites and the failed assets declaration trial of Mr Saraki.

Also, take the most-recent instance of the presidents approach to Kemi Adeosuns certificate scandal, you will see clearly that the president gives direct orders to security agencies or his body language sanctions lawlessness on the parts of security agencies, Mr Ologbondiyan told PREMIUM TIMES by telephone Wednesday morning.

This government thrives on pretense, pretending not to know that the finance minister is involved in certificate scandal, he added. It is a waste of time exchanging words with characters like Garba Shehu.A Kwara State High Court in Ilorin on Tuesday granted an interim bail to Yusuf Abdulwahab, the Chief of Staff to the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, in the sum of N10 million.

Mr Abdulwahab has been held in police custody in Abuja since June 2, 2018 after he responded to police invitation over his alleged link with suspects who carried out robbery attacks on commercial banks in Offa on April 5, 2018.

Justice M.O. Adewara granted the bail upon carefully considering the oral application for bail made on behalf of the governors aide by his counsel, Adebayo Adelodun and the response of the counsel for the respondent, the Inspector General of Police.

It will be recalled that the Chief of Staff had initially filed a motion on notice before a Federal High Court in Abuja praying for an order granting him bail from police custody on the grounds that he had been detained for longer than 24 hours allowed by law, without charge.

But the presiding judge, Babatunde Quadri, rejected the bail application on the grounds that the subject matter of the case was outside the jurisdiction of his court. He therefore, ordered the transfer of the case to the High Court of Kwara State for hearing and determination.

The case was, thereafter, assigned to Justice Adewara, who issued a hearing notice to the respondent, and initially fixed hearing for Tuesday, July 17.

However, according to Mr Adelodun, no one represented the IG or filed any process on the said date of the hearing.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria then moved the court to grant his clients bail application. The court then adjourned the case till Tuesday, July 24, for ruling.

However, on Thursday, July 19, the Officer in Charge Legal for the Police filed three processes, seeking for time to file a response, a notice of preliminary objection to the case and a counter affidavit to the application for Abdulwahabs bail.

As a result, the ruling which was scheduled for Tuesday could, therefore, not be delivered.

Consequently, counsel to the chief of staff, made an oral application for his interim bail pending the determination of the main application.

According to Mr Adelodun, counsel to IGP did not object the application and left it to the discretion of the court. The IGPs counsel however, sought to move a motion for extension of time, which was granted by the court.

Thereafter, Justice Adewara in his ruling, granted the chief of staff bail in the sum of N10 million with two sureties each in like sum.

The judge also ruled that the sureties must be persons of means and should swear to an affidavit of means and deposit to the court, their respective certificates of occupancy of house or land located anywhere in Kwara State.

He then adjourned the case to October 15, 2018 for hearing of the motion.Two analysts attached to the Africa Programme of the Chatham House say President Muhammadu Buharis performance in the last six months of his tenure will determine if he gets reelected in 2019.

The duo also said the ability of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) to cushion the effects of the gales of defections that has hit it in recent days will also play a determining factor for Mr Buharis aspirations.

They said this will determine if he retains his seat in the midst of rising opposition not only from other political parties but a cross section of Nigerians.

The researchers, Matthew T. Page and Sola Tayo, in a research paper titled: July 2018 Countdown to February 2019: A Look Ahead at Nigerias Elections and published on Chatham House website said the roles of security agencies and foreign nations in ensuring peaceful polls are also crucial.

Mr Buhari, who will be running for a second term under the platform of the APC, is in the eye of the storm as his party battles to curtail mass defections to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which it seized power from at the polls in 2015.

About 37 members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday defected from the APC.

Of this number, 32 joined the PDP while four joined the African Democratic Congress (ADC). One later announced he was also leaving the APC but did not state his new party.

Announcing their defection on Tuesday during plenary, the first 36 lawmakers cited division at all levels of the APC as the reason for their defection.

Earlier in the day, 15 senators announced their defection from the APC, majority moving to the PDP.

The political terrain is at present witnessing coalitions of parties and realignments on its firmament as the opposition seeks to unseat the president, who himself defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 polls.

A few key factors will determine whether the APC will repeat its 2015 victory or risk defeat. The first is the degree to which the party either remains united behind Buharis candidacy or sees additional high-level defections and a widening of existing factional divisions. The second is the presidents performance in the last six months of his term, and his partys performance in off-cycle governorship elections, the researchers said.

A number of political groupings are now emerging that are keen to exploit popular disillusionment with the APC and PDP. They are raising awareness of the power that citizens hold, and calling for an end to political impunity by encouraging the electorate to hold political leaders to account, the analysts added.

The duo warned the security operatives to be proactive so that unscrupulous elements would not disrupt the elections.

Security conditions during the pre- and post-election period will greatly impact INECs ability to ensure credible and well-executed polls. A number of security crises have intensified across the country: these could be exploited by unscrupulous politicians and their supporters to disrupt pre-election logistics or the voting process itself, they said.

The researchers said Nigeria as usual has entered a volatile pre-election period in which politicians will be, as Nigerians would say, be heating up the polity.

Across the country, politicians and officials build up personal or party war chests  some of them using public funds. They will use these resources to build up their political machines, mobilise youth, and distribute patronage to influential individuals and voting constituencies. After party congresses and primaries conclude, some jilted politicians will decamp to other parties in the hope of reviving their campaigns elsewhere. Just prior to the election, governing party officials may well look to ensure that sympathetic officials are posted to top security and INEC postings in must-win states.

They however projected that the 2019 polls in all respects, will follow the pattern of other recent national polls.

Although the prospect of renewed military involvement in politics should never be totally discounted, on the surface at least it appears that Nigerias democratic trajectory will continue without interruption. Now that the PDP monopoly has been broken, legitimate questions are being asked about the manner in which politics is conducted in Nigeria, they said.

The researchers urged foreign countries not to abandon Nigeria as it prepares to undergo the crucial polls.

US policy towards Nigeria, in particular, has been weakened by a shift in emphasis away from democracy and governance towards counter-terrorism and trade. To make up for the lack of interest in Washington, the UK, the EU and their Nigerian civil society partners will need to redouble their efforts to support  but also closely and objectively scrutinise  INECs performance in the run-up to and during the elections. Just like Nigerians all-important participation in the democratic process, international engagement will be critical to the success of Nigerias elections.

Mr Page is a consultant and co-author of Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know. He is also an associate fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, a non-resident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a nonresident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja.

Mr Tayo is a London-based broadcast journalist at the BBC, and is also an associate fellow with the Chatham House Africa Programme, specialising in Nigerian politics, media and elections. She previously worked as an interview producer for Al Jazeera.Some lawyers on Wednesday flayed the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, for his statement justifying the flouting of a court order.

An Abuja based lawyer, Johnmary Jideobi, specifically asked Nigerias Body of Benchers to de-robe Mr Malami for allegedly scandalising the legal profession.

Mr Jideobis petition followed a recent statement by Mr Malami explaining why the government would not release a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, despite court orders directing that he be granted bail.

Mr Malami had said Mr Dasukis personal right can be violated for the larger public good. He accused Mr Dasuki of being responsible for more than 100,000 deaths.

His comments came after a federal court recently granted Mr Dasuki bail, the latest of such orders. The former NSA was arrested by operatives of the State Security Service in December 2015, accused of illegal possession of firearms.

He was also accused of diverting $2.1 billion from office while he served as NSA. Mr Dasuki is facing separate trials for the alleged offences.

Since his arrest in 2015, Mr Dasuki has been granted bail multiple times by different courts. The latest bail was approved on July 2.

But the Nigerian government has refused to release him.

A copy of the petition made available to PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday indicates Mr Jideobi saying the AGF explanation in the report is contrary to what he represents in the legal profession.

The office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is recognised as a great historic office that places its occupier in the rare position of the keeper of the kings conscience, the Chief Law Officer/Legal Adviser is not only to the President of the Nation alone but equally to the entire federal government with all the ministries, departments and agencies thereunder.

Added to these super responsibilities, by the ancient and ever-unbroken tradition of our profession, the Attorney-General of the Federation is rightly acclaimed the Leader of the Bar.

Mr Jideobi said nothing projects more the enormity of Mr Malamis iniquity than the interview he granted where he defended the indefensible.

A lawyer shall uphold and observe the rule of law, promote and foster the course of justice, maintain a high standard of professional conduct, and shall not engage in any conduct which is unbecoming of a legal practitioner, Mr Jideobi said in his petition.

According to Mr. Jideobi, a country fighting corruption should not be found wanting in the area of disobeying court orders.

Any genuine war against corruption should ordinarily command the support of all men of goodwill. However, nobody should be allowed to hide under the guise of supporting the war against corruption to undermine and spurn our constitution by pulling wool over the eyes of undiscerning members of the public.

That a government can keep a citizen behind bars despite avalanche of valid court orders is rather mind-boggling. However, that the defence of such impunity could emanate from the head and mouth of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria [and more so the Chief Law Officer of the Federation] makes it most unfortunate. Mr Malami cannot be allowed to enthrone let alone perpetuate a dangerous precedent. He is traumatising our settled constitutional jurisprudence and the brazen assault must now be halted, Mr Jideobi said.

In his reaction, another Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chijioke Okoli, also chided Mr Malami.

The government and the attorney general cannot be the court. This government came into power by acts of law. And if it chooses to disregard court orders, that is lawlessness and it is an invitation to anarchy. This government is a government of law.

It came into powers not by its own powers but by law, so if the same government now chooses to regard its powers above the law then that is very unfortunate.

Another senior advocate, Rotimi Oguneso, also said the decision to continue to detain Mr Dasuki amounts to lawlessness.

We are all under the law and the rule of law must prevail. If we dont aide by the rule of law, thats an invitation to anarchy.

If he has been given bail and there is no appeal nor stay, then the natural thing is for the people holding him to release him on bail. Anything to the contrary will amount to trampling on the rule of law. And it wont be good for the society.

The court must have taken into consideration what he is been accused of. Who determines the bail or the enormity of the offence? It is the court. If the court says that from the circumstances he must be entitled to bail, then I think the natural consequences ought to follow. And since the court has granted him bail, the next thing is for the order to be followed.

An Abuja-based lawyer, Monday Ejeh, also said there was no justifiable reason for the continuous detention of Mr Dasuki.

There is no reason that can justify any breach of the orders of a court of competent jurisdiction. The courts are competent to decide on issues personal to anybody. Once those issues have been taken and orders have been made, whether the orders are consequential or directly on the issues canvassed before the court, everybody has a duty in promotion of the rule of law to comply with that order.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 25)  A Kuwaiti social media personality has been dropped by several sponsors after her controversial remarks about laws protecting overseas Filipino workers in Kuwait.

In statements published on their Instagram accounts, Max Factor Arabia and Phyto USA said they were cutting ties with Sondos al-Qattan after she said new laws concerning the rights of Filipino domestic workers were "like a pathetic film."

Al-Qattan posted a video online saying she was against Filipino domestic workers keeping their passports and having one day off a week.

The video has since been deleted.

Of the incident, Max Factor Arabia said they were shocked by al-Qattan's comments, adding al-Qattan's comments were personal and did not reflect the values or principles of the company.

"Max Factor Arabia is taking this incident very seriously and has immediately suspended all collaborations with Sondos," it said.

Phyto USA, a company that manufactures hair care products, also released a statement saying they did not tolerate any kind of racism or abuse.

"Soon after finding out about her dreadful actions, we contacted our local distributor in Kuwait and requested that any partnerships with Ms. Alqattan were put to an end effective immediately. We take our brand's values very seriously and will not support such behavior or have it associated with our products," they said on Instagram.

International cosmetics brand Shiseido released a statement to The National, saying they did "not support or align with the recent statements made by Sondos Al Qattan."

Etude Phiilippines has also released a statement on the incident, saying, "We are not at all associated with the Kuwaiti influencer and her personal comments does not reflect Etude House Philippines not Etude House Global's beliefs."

Clarification, not apology

Al-Qattan received almost instant backlash after the video was posted online.

Netizens from both the Philippines and overseas took to social media to call her out and demand that she apologize for her remarks.

Khalid Al Ameri, another social media personality with over a million followers on Facebook, addressed al-Qattan and her comments in a recent video, "Believe me, there is reason why they keep running away from you. And maybe you are that reason."

On Tuesday, al-Qattan posted what she called a clarification on Instagram.

In it, she said passports of expatriate employees should be in the possession of the employer to protect the employer's interest. She added this should be done regardless of the nationalities of both the employee and the employer.

She also said many employees do not allow their household workers any days off even if their contract specifies a certain number of off days.

Al-Qattan said she has never mistreated any of her household workers .

"I consider all employees as equal human beings with equal rights that is of mine," she said. "I always make sure that every employee receives their full rights whether they fulfill their duties or not."The Minister of Labour and Employment has said that neither the ministers nor the board have the authority to award contracts in the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) or any other federal board.

Mr Ngige said this in a statement signed by Samuel Olowookere, the director of press in the ministry on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said his attention had been drawn to media reports indicating that his office appropriated the powers of the board of NSITF in the award of contracts, hence the delay in inaugurating the board.

Such a blatant falsehood is either on account of fertile ignorance or outright mischief or both by the originator as well as the peddlers.

It is, therefore, imperative that the provisions of the procurement Act 2010 which is clear and unambiguous on the process for the award of contracts be re-emphasised.

For purpose of clarity, the Ministerial Tenders Board (MTB) for the award of contracts in any ministry is made up of the Permanent Secretaries as Chairman and his directors.

In the parastatals, the Parastatals Tenders Board consists of Chief Executive Officer (Director-General or Managing Director) and his directors.

It was, therefore, a stunningly crass ignorance for anyone to think that part of the reasons for delaying the NSITF board inauguration was to enable the minister usurp the role of boards as regard award of contracts,.

In a subtle swipe at the national chairman of the of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, Mr Ngige advised those in positions of authority to be versed in the basic issues that guide public governance and also be properly guided in their utterance, to avoid character assassination and misinformation of the public.

He said the reason for the delay of the NSITF board inauguration was to enable the Administrative Panel of Inquiry probe the misappropriation of N48 billion out of which five billion naira disappeared in a day without vouchers.

The minister added that the panel had submitted its report while the committee implementing the report had begun work and would finish soon, paving way for the inauguration of the board.

Mr Oshiohmole had threatened to expel Mr Ngige, or any minister, who failed to inaugurate members of board of parastatals under their supervision, from the party.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, says the on-going face-off between Messrs Oshiomhole and Ngige will be resolved amicably.

The minister gave the assurance when he fielded questions from State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.

Mr Mohammed, who also spoke on Tuesdays defection of some members of the National Assembly from the ruling APC to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the issue was not discussed during the cabinet meeting.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari had already stated that the defectors were at liberty to belong to any political party in line with democratic tenets.

He noted that the APC was in firm control at the National Assembly, in spite the defections at the two chambers of the Assembly.

The governing party, the All Progressives Congress APC is still having the majority in both chambers of the National Assembly, he said.

(NAN)President Muhammadu Buhari will tonight meet with members of Parliamentary Support Group of the Upper Chamber Chapter at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Members of the group will be on solidarity visit to the president and will use the opportunity to show their loyalty to the president.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the meeting between the President and the senators is part of the presidents engagement with critical stakeholders to build synergy and consensus on national issues.

Buhari had on June 20, met with members of the Parliamentary Support Group, House of Representatives chapter, where members renewed their support to the president.

Altogether 14 senators of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday dumped their party. While 12 defected to the PDP, two went to the ADC.

President Muhammadu Buhari, in his reaction, expressed his total commitment to the values of democracy, freedom of choice as well as willingness to work with all members of the National Assembly, irrespective of their political party.

The president noted that none of the defecting federal lawmakers had any specific grievances against him or the government he leads; neither did he harbour anything against any of them.

He also said their movement will not affect the APCs electoral chances.

Mr Buhari also wished all the decamped members the best in their future undertakings.

(NAN)The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed August 18 for bye-election into Takum 1, Taraba House of Assembly seat.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner for the state, Baba Yusuf, said this on Wednesday while addressing state party chairmen in Jalingo.

Mr Yusuf explained that the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Abel Diah, had written to the commission on Tuesday declaring the seat vacant.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Hosea Ibi, representing Takum 1 constituency, was abducted in Takum on December 31, 2017 and murdered by his abductors in January 2018.

Mr Yusuf urged the stakeholders to cooperate with the commission to ensure a successful election.

I am pleased to inform you that the Speaker of Taraba Assembly, Mr Abel Diah wrote to the commission on Tuesday, July 24, and declared the long awaited Takum 1 seat vacant.

The commission is therefore mandated by law to conduct a bye election to fill the vacancy within 30 days, he said.

Mr Yusuf told the gathering that the continuous voters registration (CVR) would end on August 17 by 5 p.m.

He assured them that all registered voters would get their permanent voter cards (PVCs) before 2019 general elections.

We are ending the CVR on Aug 17 because we want all registered voters to get their PVCs.

Distribution of PVCs will end one week to the 2019 elections and we have put in place measures to ensure smooth distribution, he said.

(NAN)The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said it has banned the activities of scavengers from Abuja city centre.

It said such persons, popularly as baban bola, have been restricted to the official dump sites in the city.

This was disclosed in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday evening and signed by the Special Assistant media to FCT minister, Abubakar Sani.

According to the statement, the Secretary, FCTA Social Development Secretariat, Ladi Hassan, said the action was necessitated by outcries from residents to the effect that many valuables have been lost to scavengers in the territory.

Mr Hassan said many public utilities have been targets for vandalism and robbery activities that carried the footprints of Baban Bola operatives.

Mr Hassan said the scavengers have been involved in many criminal activities from petty stealing to armed robbery, vandalism of public utilities and other forms of crime and criminality.

Baba Bolas are to operate only at the Gousa, Karshi, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji and Kuje approved dumpsites as opposed to moving from one neighbourhood to another collecting waste objects across the city of Abuja, he said.

In furtherance of the commitment of the Administration to protect and secure lives and property of all residents of the Territory and in accordance with section 35 sub-section 1(i) of the AEPB Act of 1997, which prohibits the collection and disposal of refuse without authorization, the FCT Administration hereby bans scavengers a.k.a Baban Bola from collecting, disposing of refuse, trespassing on refuse bins or similar activities in any part of the Federal Capital City, he said

The Secretary requested the security agencies to arrest and prosecute anyone found to be violating the directive and plying their trade outside the official dumpsites.

The statement also said the FCTA had given May 2018 deadline to the group to seize their indiscriminate activities in the territory after it held a meeting with the leadership of the Abuja chapter of Baban Bola and craftsmanship last April.The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it is deploying more helicopters and fighter aircraft to Zamfara State to enhance air operations in the state.

The Chief of Air Staff, Saddique Abubakar, an air marshal, disclosed this when he visited the NAF 207 Quick Response Group Headquarters in Gusau, the state capital on Wednesday.

Mr Abubakar said he was in Zamfara primarily to understand what the force was doing in terms of supporting the Defence Headquarters in fighting insecurity in the state.

He said the efforts of the air force was being augmented with the special forces from the Nigerian Army and other sister security agencies.

I want to know efforts so far put in place and the areas that needed more intervention.

Part of the aim of the visit is to deploy more helicopters and fighter aircraft to Zamfara to fight the criminals that have been terrorising the state.

Because there is no airport here in Gusau, we will be operating from Katsina to Zamfara and other areas to ensure that we bring to an end the activities of these criminals, Mr Abubakar said.

He enjoined communities in the state to assist the force with intelligence reports.

According to him, air force operations, especially in a difficult situation such as that of Zamfara depended substantially on human intelligence reports.

The air chief said that communities in the state had the responsibility to support the air force personnel and other security agencies for the success of the operations.

The Commander, NAF 207 Quick Response Group, Caleb Olayera, Group Captain, thanked the chief of air staff for the visit which he described as timely.

Mr Olayera said the NAF fight against insecurity in the state had recorded tremendous success.

(NAN)Justice Muhammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Wednesday adjourned to July 31 for ruling on a no-case submission filed by a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, and others.

Mr Kalu alongside his former Commissioner for Finance, Jones Udeogu, and a company, Slok Nigeria Limited, are being prosecuted for alleged N3.2 billion fraud.

At Wednesdays sitting, the defence counsel led by Awa Kalu told the court that they had filed a no-case submission dated May 28, 2018 and adopted same as their written address.

Mr Kalu also informed the court that the defence had served the prosecution a reply on point of law dated July 20 and filed July 24.

Also, during todays proceedings, counsel to the second defendant drew the attention of the court to Section 126 of the Evidence Act that states that every evidence must emanate from the eyewitness, who will give direct evidence.

He further argued that exhibits D14 and D1 were not signed by the maker (bank), but an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The defence counsel, therefore, prayed the court to discharge their clients on the grounds that the prosecution had not proven the charges against them beyond reasonable doubts.

However, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, told the court that he had established a prima farcie case against the defendants.

He also told the court that he received the reply on point of law by the defendants last night.

My Lord, what the defendants gave to me was not reply on point of law, but just arguments, he added.

In response to the submission of the counsel to the second defendant, Mr Jacobs told the court that exhibit D14 came with a letter from the bank with reference.

He further stated that it also carried a main letter attached to it from the bank, adding that the witness who gave evidence in respect of the exhibit was the maker.

Mr Jacobs further submitted that he had made a clear case against the defendants and urged the court to evaluate the evidence against them, so as to take a decision.

Consequently, Justice Idris, after listening to both counsel, adjourned the matter to July 31 for ruling on the no- case submission filed by the defendants.The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Abia State, Joseph Iloh, on Wednesday, said that the commission registered 1.85 million voters in the state.

Mr Iloh said this when members of the steering committee of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the state paid him a courtesy visit in Umuahia, the state capital.

He added that the number of registered voters in the state stood at 1.39 million as at July 2017 when he assumed office.

The commissioner said on assumption of office, he set a target to register at least two million voters before the 2019 general elections after being convinced that the state was under registered.

He added that after intense education and sensitisation of the citizenry on the need to register and get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) the commission recorded improved participation.

He explained that workers of the commission visited the 17 local government areas of the state repeatedly as part of the public education and enlightenment campaign.

Mr Iloh, who decried the alleged activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in discouraging the people of the Southeast from taking part in the electoral process, said the activities of IPOB are injurious to national interest. The group should join the electoral process.

The REC dismissed the speculation that some politicians went to INEC offices at the local government councils to illegally collect PVCs belonging to supporters of their opponents to disenfranchise them.

According to him, INEC has effective control of its personnel at the local government councils but that anybody who suspects that his PVC has been taken by a politician can apply for replacement.

He gave assurance that a new PVC would be issued to such persons if proved right, while the old card would be invalidated by the system.

Mr Iloh further said the commission had introduced new measures to help check rigging in 2019 polls and beyond.

He said peoples votes must count in the 2019 general elections, stressing that with the way INEC is working, it will be difficult to rig elections in Nigeria.

Chidi Nwosu, the Chairman of the SDP steering committee in the state, said the visit was meant to officially introduce the rejuvenated SDP in Abia to the REC.

Mr Nwosu commended the commission for sensitising residents on the need to register and have a PVC, saying that the initiative had yielded results.

He assured the commission that the party would conduct its activities in line with the dictates of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

He announced that the party would soon conduct its congresses to elect leaders at the ward, local and state levels.

The steering committee members also visited security agencies in the state, where they solicited their cooperation to ensure the conduct of hitch-free congresses.

The Commissioner of Police in Abia, Anthony Ogbizi, promised that the command would provide adequate security and enabling environment for peaceful conduct of the partys congresses.

Mr Ogbizi, however, urged the party leadership, political office seekers and their supporters to shun acts capable of undermining public peace during the congresses and general elections.

(NAN)The chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in Lagos State, Moshood Salvador, has distanced himself from the deadly violence that rocked the party in Eti-Osa local council last Saturday.

The violence, which claimed the life of the partys chairman in Apapa local council, allegedly occurred between members loyal to Mr Salvador and those supporting Kehinde Fasasi, the chairman of Eti-Osa local council chapter.

Borishade Adeniyi, the chairman of the partys Apapa chapter, died from gunshot injuries after he was reportedly shot on the leg.

Mr Salvador told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview that the party had embarked on local government visitations across the state as part of efforts to educate as well as unite their members.

We had visited Somolu local government, Ojo local government, Oshodi-Isolo local government, Amuwo Odofin, Apapa, Surulere, Agege, Epe, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ibeju-Lekki, and Eti-Osa, said Mr Salvador.

When we got to Eti-Osa, immediately after the prayer, before we started, the LGA chairman said he will not allow the state officer to talk before him, that was his excuse.

I said no, the protocol is for him to talk, you will talk, and I will talk, you are his senior. He refused. He just carried the table, throw (sic) it up perhaps they have their hidden agenda and some hoodlums now came immediately and started beating the state officer with the result that they stabbed him.

Immediately I saw that, my security officer, the civil defence that follows me, they just bundled me out of the place into the vehicle and we ran away.

Later in the evening, I started hearing all these things that happened, it happened, not in my presence, all in my absence.

PREMIUM TIMES tried to reach Mr Fasasi but his listed number was switched off.

On Sunday, the police said Mr Fasasi, alongside four other suspects had been arrested in connection with the violence.

The others include Rotimi Kujore, chapter chairman, Lagos Island local council; Fatai Adele, chapter chairman, Mushin local council; Ismail Abiola, chapter chairman, Amuwo Odofin local council; and Amos Fawole, chapter chairman, Surulere local council.

On Tuesday, Edgal Imohimi, the Lagos State police commissioner, said a total of 11 suspects arrested in connection with the murder had all been charged to court.

But this does not preclude further investigation into the case with a view to arresting other suspects linked to the crime, Mr Imohimi said in a statement.

All political parties in the state are hereby warned to conduct their affairs peacefully as the Command will not tolerate political brigandage that can result in a breach of the public peace.The Ogun State Police Command says its operatives shot dead a runaway member of a kidnapping gang, Abdullahi Abdullahi, reportedly responsible for the abduction of a former Minister of Education, Iyabo Anisulowo, after months of manhunt.

The Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, while displaying the corpse of the suspect on Tuesday at Eleweran Police Headquarters in Abeokuta, said luck ran against him and his gang in another attempt to kidnap two businessmen in Abeokuta.

He said Mr Abdullahi was also caught with Lebanese currency, adding two other suspected gang members, Ali Mohammed and Audu Isa, were also arrested, as police thwarted the plot of the gang following intelligence report.

The police boss said the targeted victims were: Shehu and Alhaji Kabiru, adding that luck ran out against the gang while they were preparing for the operation.

He added that the gang arrived Abeokuta from the Northern part of the country for the illegal operation.

Mrs Anisulowo was kidnapped some months ago in Yewa axis of Ogun State, while on her way home from the farm, and was in captivity for weeks, before she was rescued by the police.

On the 12th of July 2018,intelligence revealed that some armed bandits who are specialists in kidnapping and armed robbery whose operation cut across the Northern and Southern parts of the country arrived the state, Mr Iliyasu said.

He added that on getting the intelligence he mandated the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad(FSARS) under the command of Uba Adams to track, trail and round up the hoodlums, adding that in compliance with the directive, the operatives technically trailed the bandits and accosted them in Abeokuta before they ever got to their targeted victims.

Their targets in Ogun State are two businessmen, namely Alhaji Shehu and Alhaji Kabiru. They planned to either rob or kidnap them for ransom. On sighting the policemen, they engaged them in gun battle, but were later subjected to the superior fire power of the police.

Mr Iliyasu said at the end of the gun battle, one of the suspects was shot dead. It also led to the arrest of others, and subsequent recovery of exhibits which include seven AK47 rifles, two pump action guns, seven magazines and 110 rounds of live cartridges

He disclosed that the suspects have given useful information to the police.The Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Abimbola, on Wednesday freed 44 inmates of Abolongo Prison in 0yo State.

Mr Abimbola freed the inmates during an official visit to the prison in Oyo town.

The chief judge had on Tuesday released 30 inmates in Agodi prison in Ibadan, bringing to 74 inmates the total number of inmates released from both prisons in Oyo State.

Mr Abimbola said the purpose of the prison visit was to decongest the prison in line with constitutional provision.

He said after a thorough consideration of 370 cases, only 44 inmates were found worthy to be released.

He said that 39 of them were released because they had exceeded the number of years stipulated for the offence they had committed.

Three were released because they had earlier been granted bail by the court while the remaining two were released on health grounds.

I urge the released inmates not to abuse the opportunity given to them by not going back to crime, the chief judge said.

The Oyo State Controller of Prison, Tosin Akinrumoju, said Abolongo prison was designed to accommodate 160 inmates but now had 455 inmates.

Akinrumoju said that 379 were awaiting trial while 76 of them have been convicted, adding that the visit of the chief judge would reduce the stress on the facility.

(NAN)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.



DUBLIN, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Fire Suppression Market by Product (Fire Suppressors, Fire Detectors and Control Panels, Sprinklers, Nozzles, Caps, and Control Heads), Suppression Reagent, Sector (Residential, Commercial, Industrial), and Region - Global Forecast to 2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The fire suppression market is estimated to be worth USD 22.97 billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 29.13 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 4.87% between 2018 and 2023.

Key factors such as technological advancements and innovations in the construction industry; increasing policies, regulations, and government mandates; and increased damage to human life and property due to fire breakouts are driving the fire suppression market growth. The fire suppression market has been segmented on the basis of suppression reagent, product, sector, and geography.

FM200 (fire suppression reagent) accounted for the largest market size in 2017. FM200 is a clean, colorless, and environmentally friendly fire suppression agent that is electrically nonconductive and safe for humans. It extinguishes flame primarily through heat absorption, leaving no residue, and thus minimizing downtime after a fire. FM200 agent is stored in a cylinder as a liquid and pressurized with nitrogen, which makes it a highly compact fire suppression system.

The use of FM200 does not affect aluminum, brass, steel, cast iron, lead, stainless steel, copper, etc., as well as rubber, plastic, and electronic components. Due to this, it is used in telecommunication facilities, computer rooms, control rooms, museums and art galleries, historical archive storage, and pharmaceutical and medical facilities.

Oil & gas and mining accounted for the largest market size in 2017. Fire breakouts in offshore oil platforms, oil pumping stations, refineries, gasoline storage tanks, compressor stations, gas processing plants, and liquefied natural gas receiving facilities could become unmanageable due to harsh environments and remote locations. Thus, fire suppression systems are in high demand for installation in oil & gas to prevent such fire breakouts.

Asia Pacific held the largest share of the fire suppression market in 2017. Growing urbanization in this region has increased construction activities, contributing significantly to the growth of the fire suppression market. The expansion of the manufacturing base in Asian countries has also led to the growth of the fire suppression market.

China Fire Protection Association, Fire and Security Association of India (FSAI), and Japan Fire Retardant Association (JFRA) have developed fire safety norms. HOCHIKI, Nittan Company, Nitin Fire Protection Industries, Firetronics, Ningbo DSW International, Yamato Protec, and Nohmi Bosai are some of the companies in APAC that manufacture, design, install, and maintain fire suppression systems.

Major factors restraining the fire suppression market growth are high installation and maintenance costs of fire suppression systems and the lack of integrity in system interfaces.

Major companies in the fire suppression market are Johnson Controls, United Technologies, Robert Bosch, Siemens, Halma, Hochiki, Firefly, Minimax Viking, Honeywell, and S&S Fire Suppression Systems. Key innovators in the market are EMS Security Group, Electro Detectors, Napco Security Technologies, Fike, and Gentex.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights

4.1 Fire Suppression Market

4.2 Fire Suppression Market, By Product (2018-2023)

4.3 Market, By Suppressionreagent (2018-2023)

4.4 Fire Suppression Market, By Sector (2018-2023)

4.5 Key Regions to Invest in During Forecast Period



5 Market Overview

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Market Dynamics

5.2.1 Drivers

5.2.1.1 Technological Advancements and Innovations in Construction Industry

5.2.1.2 Increasing Policies, Regulations, and Government Mandates

5.2.1.3 Increased Damage to Human Life and Property Due to Fire Breakouts

5.2.2 Restraints

5.2.2.1 High Installation and Maintenance Costs of Fire Suppression Systems

5.2.2.2 Lack of Integrity in System Interfaces

5.2.3 Opportunities

5.2.3.1 Improvement in Hmi Solutions

5.2.3.2 Amendments in Rules and Mandatory Standards

5.2.4 Challenges

5.2.4.1 Declining Prices of Oil & Gas



6 Fire Suppression Market, By Product

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Fire Detectors and Control Panels

6.3 Fire Sprinklers, Nozzles, Caps, and Control Heads

6.4 Fire Suppressors



7 Fire Suppression Market, By Suppression Reagent

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Chemical

7.2.1 Dry Chemical

7.2.2 Wet Chemical

7.3 Gaseous

7.3.1 Clean Agent

7.3.1.1 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Clean Agent Fire Suppression System

7.3.1.2 FM200 Clean Agent Fire Suppression System

7.3.1.3 Other Clean Agent Fire Suppression Systems

7.4 Water

7.4.1 Water Mist

7.5 Foam

7.5.1 Foam Water



8 Fire Suppression Market, By Sector

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Residential

8.3 Commercial

8.3.1 Telecommunications and Data Center

8.3.2 Healthcare

8.3.3 Government

8.3.4 Academic and Institution

8.3.5 Hospitality

8.3.6 Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)

8.3.7 Retail

8.4 Industrial

8.4.1 Manufacturing

8.4.2 Oil & Gas and Mining

8.4.3 Energy & Power

8.4.4 Transportation & Logistics



9 Geographic Analysis

9.1 Introduction

9.2 North America

9.2.1 US

9.2.2 Canada

9.2.3 Mexico

9.3 Europe

9.3.1 UK

9.3.2 France

9.3.3 Germany

9.3.4 Rest of Europe

9.4 Asia Pacific

9.4.1 China

9.4.2 Japan

9.4.3 India

9.4.4 Australia

9.4.5 Rest of APAC

9.5 Rest of the World (RoW)

9.5.1 Middle East & Africa

9.5.2 South America



10 Competitive Landscape

10.1 Overview

10.2 Market Player Ranking Analysis

10.3 Competitive Situations & Trends

10.3.1 Agreements, Contracts, Collaborations, and Mergers, 2015-2017

10.3.2 Product Launches and Developments, 2015-2017

10.3.3 Expansions, 2015

10.3.4 Acquisitions, 2015-2017



11 Company Profiles

11.1 Key Players

11.1.1 Johnson Controls

11.1.2 United Technologies

11.1.3 Robert Bosch

11.1.4 Siemens

11.1.5 Halma

11.1.6 Hochiki

11.1.7 Firefly

11.1.8 Honeywell

11.1.9 Minimax Viking

11.1.10 S&S Fire Suppression Systems

11.2 Key Innovators

11.2.1 EMS Security Group

11.2.2 Electro Detectors

11.2.3 Napco Security Technologies

11.2.4 Fike

11.2.5 Gentex

11.3 Other Key Players

11.3.1 Encore Fire Protection

11.3.2 Noha Norway

11.3.3 Sterling Safety Systems

11.3.4 Fireprotec

11.3.5 Fire Suppression Limited



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/l26l4c/29_13_bn_fire?w=5





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- National firm Vertical Consultants represents property owners and negotiates both lease agreements and buyouts for cell tower placement across the nation. With high demand for more real estate, new tower builds and 5G tower modifications, Vertical Consultants is passionate about helping their clients command top dollar for their leases.

Hugh Odom - Vertical Consultants Founder Cell Tower

In just eight short years, Vertical Consultants has built up a highly respected telecom lease business that represents landowners with existing cell tower leases, buyouts and those reviewing new offers from the carriers. Their team has already helped property owners of all types across the nation negotiate and collect an astonishing $450,000,000 in rents to-date. With over 300,000 cell towers in the United States, and with 10,000 on average being constructed per year, these towers are often built on private residential and commercial properties, with many leases being negotiated without proper representation.

In an ever-growing industry of mobile technology, cell towers are the lifeblood of cell services to make critical calls, send text messages and stream data needed to keep families connected. The telecom industry knows the value of this precious real estate, and has their sights on new properties and existing site upgrades for the upcoming standardization of 5G technology. Vertical Consultants has built their reputation by taking the pressure off the landowner, and continues to grow their incredible team of seasoned attorneys, real estate professional and telecom engineers. Vertical Consultants ensure their clients are getting the most value based off their property type, projected tower usage and overall location. The company was founded in 2010 by Hugh Odom, a former AT&T attorney with over 10 years of prior experience working on the other side of the industry he now negotiates against.

"We are committed to taking the guesswork out of these lease agreements," says Odom. "We know it can be intimidating to work these deals alone, and many simply take the deal without understanding they may be leaving money on the table." In 2017 alone, Odom and his Vertical Consultants team created an average 312% increase in rents for their north American clients in the United States and Canada. Odom's words that he stands by are "Advice Is Nice, But Results are Better." For more information and for a free review of your lease contract please visit - https://www.celltowerleaseexperts.com.

Vertical Consultants

6261 Wild Heron Way Ste 100

College Grove, Tennessee 37046

Email - [email protected]

Phone - 877.456.7552

About Vertical Consultants:

Vertical Consultants was formed in 2010 by attorneys, real estate executives and telecom engineers that had worked in the telecom industry for decades. They understand that most property owners, through no fault of their own, lacked either the information or the representation required to optimize either a proposed or existing cell tower or rooftop lease transaction. Vertical Consultants provide clients with the information they need to maximize the value of any cell tower lease agreement they are presented, and, at the same time, to protect them from hazards they might not otherwise recognize.

Media Contact:

Bob Bradley

714-321-1471

[email protected]

SOURCE Vertical Consultants

Related Links

https://www.celltowerleaseexperts.com

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Allant Group, a nationally recognized, data-driven analytics and marketing firm, today announced an expanded strategic alliance with Sprinklr, the world's leading Customer Experience Management (CXM) platform.

This partnership ensures that global companies have a successful Sprinklr implementation to support their most challenging social media management needs.

Sprinklr values Allant Group's timely and nimble implementation service delivery as well as strategic managed services from a team of highly trained and tenured consultants. Allant Group services that Sprinklr will utilize include the following:

Platform Enablement through conducting discovery of current workflows, challenges, and opportunities to providing core build of social media accounts and post go live support.

Remote and On-Site Training on core publishing and engagement, social listening, social benchmarking, content marketing and Sprinklr ads.

Managed Services delivering ongoing platform optimization and technical support.

Transformational Services to develop and enhance platform configuration to meet the needs of an organization's growth and transformation.

Needs Assessment that uses social listening data to drive content strategy and inform teams across the organization.

Strategic Consulting that empowers the client.

"Allant Group values our partnership with Sprinklr because they are an industry leader in social technology with state-of-the-art access to real-time data. Allant has a long history of turning data into insights which is why we see Sprinklr's platform as a continuation of generating insights that can help improve the customer experience across all touch points," said Paul Ernst, Senior Vice President Campaign Management at Allant Group.

About Allant Group

Allant Group is a marketing technology services provider that delivers end-to-end omni-channel marketing services. Allant's expertise and market knowledge enables the delivery through faster customer and 3rd party data integration, improved analytical insights and effective campaign management execution to enable targeted and personalized communication by marketers to acquire, retain and win back customers. For more information, visit allantgroup.com or tweet us at @theallantgroup.

About Sprinklr

Sprinklr is the world's most complete enterprise social technology, purpose-built for large companies to drive business outcomes and manage customer experiences across all touch points. Called "the most powerful technology in the market," Sprinklr's fully integrated social experience management software powers more than four billion social connections across 77 countries. Headquartered in New York City with more than 800 employees globally, Sprinklr is revolutionizing customer engagement for more than 1,000 of Fortune's top enterprise brands, including IHG, Intel, Microsoft, Samsung, and Virgin America, and partners like Accenture, Havas, and Razorfish. For more information, visit sprinklr.com or tweet us at @sprinklr.

Contacts

Allant Group

Tim Finnigan

[email protected]

SOURCE Allant Group

Related Links

http://www.allantgroup.com

CHEYENNE, Wyo., July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Argus Worldwide Corp. (www.argusworldwide.com) reported today that the Company has signed a Share Purchase Agreement with India based smart tech firm, Tejovat Technologies Pvt Ltd. (www.tejovat.com). The agreement gives the Company an initial 40% stake in the advanced engineering based smart tech hardware designer and manufacturer with terms and conditions that provide for Argus Worldwide to increase its stake to 100% ownership of Tejovat over a 12-18 month period. Selling Tejovat shareholders will be receiving a stock position in Argus Worldwide Corp. in return for their share position in Tejovat.

In addition, Santosh Labade, Tejovat founder and CEO, has agreed to serve as a Board Member and Senior Executive at Argus' new technology enterprise, CyberJ Inc set to launch before year end. Just 3 weeks ago, the Company reported that Mr. Labade has agreed to take on the interim role of Director, Technology at Argus Worldwide. With the signing of the Share Purchase Agreement, Mr. Labade will begin the process of phasing in to the day to day development activities at the Company's Cyber Junky unit.

Says Michael Wexler, Chairman and CEO, Argus Worldwide, "The signing of this Share Purchase Agreement with Tejovat, marks a great day for both our companies as we forge together not only to advance the development of our Cyber Junky aggregator, but equally important, to give Argus a strategic opportunity to work closely with Tejovat management to build a major stake in the rapidly expanding multi billion dollar markets for state of the art consumer and industrial smart tech hardware products for use in both the home and institutional settings worldwide."

Tejovat Technologies Pvt Ltd., was founded by Santosh Labade in 2015 and is headquartered in Pune, India. Tejovat is a leading consumer electronics company, engaged in the field of design, development, manufacturing, marketing and servicing of smart home products, tablets and mobile phones.

Argus Worldwide Corp. is a diversified operating company engaged in the development or acquisition of corporate properties in 'go to' business segments including but not limited to digital/internet products and services and health industries such as generic pharmaceuticals. The Company maintains its registered corporate office in Cheyenne, Wyoming and has affiliated offices in Ottawa, Canada; Warsaw, Poland; and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Shares of Argus Worldwide Corp. are traded on the US OTC Markets; Pink Current (OTC: ARGW).

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. The use of any of the words "will" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Corporation's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. Various assumptions or factors are typically applied in drawing conclusions or making the forecasts or projections set out in forward-looking information. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Corporation. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and the Corporation is not obligated to update or revise any forward looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained here.

SOURCE Argus Worldwide Corp.

Related Links

http://www.tejovat.com

SAN DIEGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Bridgepoint Education (NYSE:BPI), a provider of postsecondary education services, today announced its results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018.

Financial Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2018

Revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $120.8 million, compared with revenue of $124.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Operating income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $11.6 million, compared with operating income of $6.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Net income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $17.2 million, compared with net income of $6.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Diluted income per share for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $0.63, compared with diluted income per share of $0.21 for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

The Company recognized an income tax benefit of $5.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2018, compared with an income tax expense of $0.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP Financial Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2018

Non-GAAP operating income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $14.4 million, compared with non-GAAP operating income of $6.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017. Non-GAAP operating income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 excludes a legal settlement charge of $0.1 million, as well as restructuring and impairment expenses of $2.7 million. There were no such expenses for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP net income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $14.4 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of $6.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017. Non-GAAP net income for the three months ended June 30, 2018 excludes a legal settlement charge of $0.1 million, restructuring and impairment expenses of $2.7 million and an income tax benefit of $5.7 million, primarily associated with a non-recurring income tax audit examination settlement. There were no such expenses or tax benefit for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP diluted income per share for the three months ended June 30, 2018 was $0.53, compared with non-GAAP diluted income per share of $0.21 for the three months ended June 30, 2017.

Financial Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2018

Revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $238.9 million, compared with revenue of $254.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Operating income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $11.9 million, compared with operating income of $15.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Net income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $19.5 million, compared with net income of $16.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Diluted income per share for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $0.71, compared with diluted income per share of $0.44 for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

The Company recognized an income tax benefit of $7.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared with an income tax expense of $0.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP Financial Results for the Six Months Ended June 30, 2018

Non-GAAP operating income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $14.7 million, compared with non-GAAP operating income of $15.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Non-GAAP operating income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 excludes a legal settlement charge of $0.1 million, as well as restructuring and impairment charges of $2.6 million. There were no such expenses for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP net income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $14.8 million, compared with non-GAAP net income of $16.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017. Non-GAAP net income for the six months ended June 30, 2018 excludes a legal settlement charge of $0.1 million, restructuring and impairment charges of $2.6 million and an income tax benefit of $7.5 million, primarily associated with a non-recurring income tax audit examination settlement as well as tax deductions for refund claims for qualified production activities. There were no such expenses or tax benefits for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Non-GAAP diluted income per share for the six months ended June 30, 2018 was $0.54, compared with non-GAAP diluted income per share of $0.44 for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Balance Sheet and Cash Flow

As of June 30, 2018, the Company had combined cash, cash equivalents and investments of $173.7 million, compared with combined cash, cash equivalents and investments of $187.2 million as of December 31, 2017.

The Company used $9.2 million of cash in operating activities during the six months ended June 30, 2018, compared with $11.5 million of cash used in operating activities during the six months ended June 30, 2017.

Student Enrollment

Total student enrollment at the Company's combined academic institutions was 40,097 students at June 30, 2018, compared with total student enrollment of 43,461 at June 30, 2017.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains non-GAAP financial measures for non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted income per share, which exclude restructuring and impairment credits, as well as certain income tax adjustments, as applicable. These non-GAAP financial measures are not prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and are not based on a comprehensive set of accounting rules. Management believes non-GAAP financial measures are useful in providing investors with an understanding of how specific line items in the consolidated statements of income are affected by items that may not be indicative of the operating results of the Company's core business. To the extent that other companies use similar methods in calculating and reporting non-GAAP operating results, the Company believes provision of supplemental non-GAAP financial information allows for a meaningful comparison of the Company's performance against the performance of other companies. The Company further believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information regarding its ongoing operating activities and business trends related to its results of operations, as well as a meaningful comparison with historical financial results. The Company's management and board of directors utilize these non-GAAP financial measures, together with the Company's financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP, in developing operating budgets and evaluating the Company's performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are intended to supplement GAAP financial information, and should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. Refer to the accompanying tables for a detailed reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures.

Earnings Conference Call and Webcast

Bridgepoint Education will host a conference call at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time) today to discuss its latest financial results and recent highlights. The dial-in number for callers in the United States and Canada is 866-859-7412, and the dial-in number for other callers is 832-900-4623. The access code for all callers is 6997285. A live broadcast of the call will also be available on the Company's website at http://ir.bridgepointeducation.com.

A replay of the call will be available via telephone through August 25, 2018. To access the replay, callers in the United States and Canada should dial 855-859-2056 and other callers should dial 404-537-3406, and enter the access code 6997285.

About Bridgepoint Education

Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (NYSE:BPI) harnesses the latest technology to reimagine the modern student experience. Bridgepoint owns two academic institutions - Ashford University and University of the Rockies. Together, these programs, technologies, and resources represent a unique model for advancing education in the 21st century. Bridgepoint stands for greater access, social learning, and exposure to leading minds. For more information, visit www.bridgepointeducation.com or www.facebook.com/BridgepointEducation.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward-looking statements which are not statements of historical fact and are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, without limitation, statements regarding management's intentions, hopes, beliefs or expectations, and statements regarding the Company's outlook for the remainder of 2018 and beyond. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual performance or results may differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by such statements due to various factors, including without limitation: our ability to consummate the proposed merger of University of the Rockies into Ashford University and the conversion of Ashford University into a nonprofit university; the impact of the proposed merger, conversion, and separation of the Company from its academic institutions to focus on online program management; the success of our marketing, technology and new program development initiatives, the success of our Education Partnership programs, the impact of our ongoing cost-reduction initiatives; our ability to comply with the extensive and continually evolving regulatory framework applicable to the Company and its institutions; adverse administrative, economic, legislative or regulatory changes affecting the Company and its institutions; the imposition of fines or other corrective measures against the Company's institutions; the impact of competition in the postsecondary education market; recruiting costs and tuition rates; reputational and other risks related to potential compliance audits; regulatory or legal actions; negative publicity or service disruptions; and our ability to attract, recruit and retain students or develop new or expanded programs in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Additional information on factors that could cause actual plans implemented and actual results achieved to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements is included from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including, but not limited to, the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 filed with the SEC on February 21, 2018, the Company's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and the Company's current reports on Form 8-K which are available at www.bridgepointeducation.com. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made on the basis of management's good faith beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding future events based on information available at the time such statements are made. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or any changes in assumptions, expectations or other factors affecting such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable securities laws.

BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share amounts)



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017 Revenue $ 120,834



$ 124,581



$ 238,865



$ 254,071

Costs and expenses:













Instructional costs and services 53,986



61,148



110,848



124,187

Admissions advisory and marketing 39,875



43,702



88,069



88,464

General and administrative 12,549



13,551



25,297



25,578

Legal settlement expense 141







141





Restructuring and impairment expense 2,729







2,570





Total costs and expenses 109,280



118,401



226,925



238,229

Operating income 11,554



6,180



11,940



15,842

Other income, net 282



341



532



784

Income before income taxes 11,836



6,521



12,472



16,626

Income tax (benefit) expense (5,395)



207



(7,056)



443

Net income $ 17,231



$ 6,314



$ 19,528



$ 16,183

















Income per share:













Basic $ 0.63



$ 0.22



$ 0.72



$ 0.46

Diluted $ 0.63



$ 0.21



$ 0.71



$ 0.44

Weighted average number of common shares outstanding used in computing income per share:













Basic 27,170



28,918



27,167



35,473

Diluted 27,348



29,932



27,491



36,473



BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (In thousands)



June 30,

2018

December 31,

2017 ASSETS





Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 171,596



$ 185,098

Restricted cash 19,815



20,428

Investments 2,147



2,065

Accounts receivable, net 34,057



27,077

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 20,484



22,388

Total current assets 248,099



257,056

Property and equipment, net 9,141



10,434

Goodwill and intangibles, net 13,723



14,593

Other long-term assets 4,375



5,456

Total assets $ 275,338



$ 287,539









LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities:





Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 61,747



$ 71,165

Deferred revenue and student deposits 58,761



68,207

Total current liabilities 120,508



139,372

Rent liability 5,968



7,001

Other long-term liabilities 4,781



12,708

Total liabilities 131,257



159,081

Total stockholders' equity 144,081



128,458

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 275,338



$ 287,539



BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (In thousands)



Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017 Cash flows from operating activities:





Net income $ 19,528



$ 16,183

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash used in operating activities:





Provision for bad debts 11,709



16,974

Depreciation and amortization 3,533



4,696

Amortization of premium/discount 



21

Deferred income taxes 8



43

Stock-based compensation 2,325



1,751

Net gain on marketable securities (24)



(125)

Reassessment of lease charges 1,227





Loss on disposal or impairment of fixed assets 334



66

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:





Accounts receivable (21,376)



(23,258)

Prepaid expenses and other current assets 1,904



(427)

Other long-term assets 737



267

Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (10,588)



(11,764)

Deferred revenue and student deposits (9,910)



(9,505)

Other liabilities (8,624)



(6,439)

Net cash used in operating activities (9,217)



(11,517)

Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (1,291)



(2,296)

Purchases of investments (1,033)



(61)

Capitalized costs for intangible assets (470)



(218)

Sales of investments 975





Maturities of investments 



22,725

Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities (1,819)



20,150

Cash flows from financing activities:





Proceeds from exercise of stock options 



3,768

Proceeds from the issuance of stock under employee stock purchase plan 98



133

Tax withholdings on issuance of stock awards (753)



(1,653)

Repurchase of common stock (2,424)



(152,000)

Net cash used in financing activities (3,079)



(149,752)

Net decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (14,115)



(141,119)

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of period 205,526



332,335

Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of period $ 191,411



$ 191,216



BRIDGEPOINT EDUCATION, INC. Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited) (In thousands, except per share amounts)



Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017 Operating Income Reconciliation:













GAAP operating income $ 11,554



$ 6,180



$ 11,940



$ 15,842

Legal settlement expense 141







141





Restructuring and impairment expense 2,729







2,570





Non-GAAP operating income $ 14,424



$ 6,180



$ 14,651



$ 15,842

































Net Income Reconciliation:













GAAP net income $ 17,231



$ 6,314



$ 19,528



$ 16,183

Legal settlement expense 141







141





Restructuring and impairment expense 2,729







2,570





Income tax impact (5,743)







(7,487)





Non-GAAP net income $ 14,358



$ 6,314



$ 14,752



$ 16,183

































Diluted Income Per Share Reconciliation:













GAAP diluted income per share $ 0.63



$ 0.21



$ 0.71



$ 0.44

Legal settlement expense 0.01







0.01





Restructuring and impairment expense 0.10







0.09





Income tax impact (0.21)







(0.27)





Non-GAAP diluted income per share $ 0.53



$ 0.21



$ 0.54



$ 0.44



Contact: Nolan Sundrud, Investor Relations

866.475.0317 x11619

[email protected]

SOURCE Bridgepoint Education

Related Links

www.bridgepointeducation.com

SHARONVILLE, Ohio, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Like a typical adolescent, the cannabis industry faces no shortage of growing pains as it transitions from a cottage industry to big business. One of its challenges: developing professional-grade packaging at scale. Undercapitalized vendors, inefficient product designs and delivery systems dominate the eco-system. While many companies struggle with those problems, Budpack is finding solutions.

The brand has designed an innovative new line of flexible pouches for the marijuana industry. Budpack Child-Resistant Pouches make their debut at the Cannabis Business Summit & Expo, July 25-27, in San Jose.

The marquee event, hosted by the National Cannabis Industry Association, is one of the largest and most influential trade forums of the year. More than 7,500 industry professionals are expected to gather in California's Bay Area.

Child safety advocates will particularly appreciate Budpack's CFR 1700 rating, which makes it compliant with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Poison Prevention Act. Parents can also feel safe knowing that product is safely secured in FDA compliant food-grade material with closure systems that protect children from accidental ingestion. The pouches also block odors.

Cannabis users can say goodbye to the plastic baggie. Budpack containers offer the lightweight, portable, and cost-effective benefits of its ubiquitous predecessor - except with many more advanced features. They can be custom printed with eye-popping graphics and heat sealed with tamper-evidence features.

Pouches come in sleek, right-sized forms that are less bulky than bottles and jars. They are also more versatile. Budpack works equally well for containing flowers, extracts, edibles and topicals, making it a single-line solution for a wide variety of cannabis product types.

Another benefit: Flexible pouches hold a lot of product with very little waste. Compared to tin or glass options, pouches weigh less and require less energy to manufacture, both of which create cost savings. Shipping and storage space are also reduced, as is the area needed in landfills at the end of life.

For a young industry where the only constant is change, Budpack symbolizes the evolution that's taking cannabis from the back room to the showroom. And it's being driven by a company who bring the sophistication, resources, and experience gained from helping large brands across the consumer package goods spectrum solve their biggest packaging challenges.

About Budpack

With innovative technologies, a fierce commitment to customer service, and custom offerings, Budpack represents a full-line of packaging solutions to fit the unique needs of cannabis growers, processors, and retailers. The Sharonville, Ohio-based brand serves clients worldwide.

CONTACT: Michael Shepherd

(949) 798-5595

[email protected]

SOURCE Budpack

Related Links

http://www.budpack.com

Asman has extensive experience helping clients raise capital in the finance, banking, and regulatory consulting segments and most recently, has developed complex international tax structures in the tax advisory space. He has held investment banking, regulatory consulting, and transfer pricing roles at Liquidity Energy, Duff and Phelps, and Ryan LLC, a global tax firm. He is also a Venture Capital investor in multiple startups.

At TokenMatch, an elite group of ICO teams present to small groups of investors that have the capacity and mandate to deploy capital. Investors come by invitation only and ICO teams are preselected through a rigorous process. For those who want to allocate capital, their job is to find investable, credible projects related to blockchain and cryptocurrency. Investors review 21 separate projects, and listen to a new pitch every 20 minutes. Set in a boardroom, the small size is the ideal setting to interact, provide and receive feedback, negotiate, and close deals in one day.

"TokenMatch has devised an innovative model by creating an intimate environment between those who want to seek capital and those who want to allocate it," says Asman. "This as a much more efficient way to vet projects since it eliminates a lot of unnecessary travel and time since investors don't have to schedule three days over numerous cities to see some of the best programs in the industry."

The program also serves as an ideal networking event for blockchain startups, as it allows ICOs to learn about each other and form partnerships. To date, TokenMatch events have been held in New York, Hong Kong, and London.

In a similar role, Asman was chosen earlier this year to be an advisor for Daox, an ecosystem for ICOs, where he provides weekly guidance on the ICO process in general.

About Bx3

We are passionate professionals with decades of combined experience in banking, marketing, accounting, finance, tax, and law, and use our expertise to provide the necessary tools and framework to turn ideas into successful businesses in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. We believe that the disruption that blockchain technology enables will inevitably lead to increased pushback from regulatory bodies as they see bad actors and noncompliant parties continue to take advantage of the decentralized, pseudonymous nature of the industry. We exclusively work with clients and partners who reflect our core principals of collaboration, ethics, and transparency. Bx3 is headquartered in New York, NY. More at bx3.io.

Media Contact: Anne Talbot, 646-853-7435, [email protected].

SOURCE Bx3 Consulting

Related Links

http://bx3.io

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CELIE (the Civic Engagement and Leadership Institute for Everyone) is sponsoring two students from Spelman College, Asia Alexander and DeKiah Baxter as a part of CELIE's soft launch of its internship program promoting diversity and inclusion on Capitol Hill. The program runs from June 18th through July 27th and is a follow-on to a civic engagement and career program CELIE hosted on Capitol Hill this year in collaboration with Spelman.

Anita Estell, Founder and President of CELIE, explains, "For over seven years, more than 25 Spelman students have come to Washington, DC, annually to participate in a Capitol Hill Day. The students have an opportunity to shadow members of Congress and to design and participate in a civic engagement advocacy project. This year, a career seminar was added, and from that event, the need for a congressional internship program intentional on engaging high- potential female college students of color was apparent."

Estell a former Hill staffer observes, "As a woman of color pioneer in the Washington, DC, lobbying community, I take to heart broadly published findings that confirm the need for more culturally authentic programs that are intentional in addressing issues of 'intersectionality' to help ensure women of color, and particularly black women move into more leadership positions and the C-Suite." The term "intersectionality" refers to a unique set of factors  race, gender and class  that often impede the advancement of black women and other women of color in the workplace.

Estell says she had planned to launch the program in 2019. In light of the enthusiastic interest of the Spelman students and the assistance provided by New York Senator Chuck Schumer's office, and related efforts of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott seeking to diversify talent on Capitol Hill, she decided to test the model this summer. With the assistance of Senate staff, Lorenzo Olvera and William Reese, and CELIE's outreach, Alexander and Baxter were placed in the offices of Representatives Al Green (D-TX) and Marcia Fudge (D-OH). In addition to their work on the Hill, the students are producing a weekly federal update "Dear America," relevant to millennial women of color. Their work will appear in XXTRA Special and Free, an online public affairs publication managed and produced by CELIE to support its women and girls programming and broader engagement work.

The interns' achievements are exemplary says Estell. "We are familiar with the students at Spelman and welcome opportunities to assist them and other diverse female students to become global citizens and leaders." CELIE plans to expand its program for next summer.

Media outlets interested in learning more about the program are asked to send inquiries to: [email protected] (202) 277-6649 or [email protected] (202) 898-2010.

About CELIE

CELIE is a national 501 (c)(3) organization committed to expanding access and opportunity for all Americans, particularly underserved and multicultural populations. CELIE has three focus areas: civic engagement, women and girls, and diversity and inclusion.

CONTACT: Tima Hawes

PHONE NUMBER: (202) 277-6649

EMAIL: [email protected]

SOURCE CELIE (the Civic Engagement and Leadership Institute for Everyone)BUFFALO, N.Y., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Howard Hanna Real Estate Services announced on July 24 in Amsterdam, New York that CMK & Associates is now a part of the Hanna family of companies.

The joining together of these two well-known and respected names means that buyers, sellers, and agents will have access to some of the best resources in real estate. CMK & Associates is one of the leading brokerages in upstate New York and in 2017, their team of sales associates produced over $104 million in sold volume. Howard Hanna is the largest home seller in the state of New York and had a closed sales volume of $18 billion in 2017.

The over 60 sales associates and staff across the six offices of CMK & Associates will now be able to offer their clients access to Howard Hanna's programs. Among those are the exclusive 100% Money Back Guarantee, the luxury Homes of Distinction program, and apps that help to create a smooth buying or selling process. Howard Hanna's one-stop shopping will enable the team at CMK & Associates to offer comprehensive mortgage, title, insurance, and other real estate services to their clients.

"The focus of CMK over the years has been on growth and improvement so we can provide the best resources to our agents and great service to our clients. Joining Howard Hanna, the third largest brokerage in the United States, puts our agents and clients in the best possible position for continued success," said Christian C. Klueg, Broker of CMK & Associates. "With advanced resources and market exposure, this is the ideal next step in our journey to consistently provide the best in real estate services. I am excited about the opportunity this provides."

"We are thrilled that Christian and the rest of his team will be joining Howard Hanna and contributing to our growth in New York," said Howard W. "Hoby" Hanna, IV, President of Real Estate Brokerage. "This is a great time for us to partner with CMK & Associates to provide unmatched, innovative and comprehensive real estate services to more buyers and sellers throughout the state."

"As Christian and I began our conversations, we found we had the same passion for the real estate business, shared similar cultures, and realized that there are many synergies within our two companies," said Albert Picchi, Senior Vice President of the Eastern New York District. "CMK & Associates has grown tremendously over the past 10 years, and we are excited to expand our footprint into counties to the West of the Capital Region. I look forward to working with the entire team at CMK & Associates and helping continue their trajectory of growth as part of the Howard Hanna family."

The Howard Hanna brand will begin appearing on signs, advertising and marketing throughout the areas now served by CMK & Associates. Visitors to the website will soon be redirected to HowardHanna.com, a powerhouse that receives an average of over 1.6 million visitors per month from the entire United States.

"Through partnerships like this one with CMK & Associates, we hope to continue our position as the top choice in New York for buyers and sellers for many years to come," said Hanna.

Howard Hanna Real Estate Services is the 3rd largest real estate company in America, the #1 privately owned broker in the nation, and the largest home seller in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The family-owned and operated real estate company specializes in residential and commercial brokerage service, mortgages, closing and title insurance, land development, appraisal services, insurance services, corporate relocation and property management. With 262 offices across NY, PA, OH, VA, MI, WV, NC and MD, our more than 9,200 sales associates and staff are guided by a spirit of integrity in all aspects of the real estate process.

For more information, please visit www.howardhanna.com or www.facebook.com/howardhanna

Media contacts:

Elizabeth Grepp, 216-447-4477 x115, [email protected]

Debbie Donahue, 412-784-3816, [email protected]

SOURCE Howard Hanna Real Estate Services

Related Links

http://www.howardhanna.com

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) and working group partner Cellebrite, a leading provider of digital intelligence solutions, today announced at the CWAG 2018 Annual Meeting the public launch of a comprehensive repository of digital procedural documents and educational assets designed to enhance the investigative process for the legal community. Previously only available to CWAG members, the library and its digital intelligence resources are now accessible to a new, broader and thoroughly vetted community  legal and public sector professionals who can access the documents by providing information such as a verifiable government email address.

"CWAG is committed to providing resources that will aide our State Attorney General's offices with their investigations and prosecutions" said Karen White, CWAG Executive Director. "This repository ensures that law enforcement, prosecutors and others seeking guidance can be confident they are taking the right steps to obtain state-of-the-art technology in accordance to the law."

The Digital Forensics Repository provides professionals with key resources for adopting digital intelligence technology to improve evidence management, streamline investigations and build more informed narratives. The library has been fully updated to include valuable resources such as new and impactful best practices, suggested workflows, case studies, and sample warrants and court orders. This transparent and collaborative effort ensures interested parties can more easily navigate the processes to obtain and best utilize technology tools like Cellebrite's UFED Ultimate, Physical Analyzer, UFED Cloud Analyzer and Analytics Series.

"Civil legal professionals and law enforcement agents are dealing with unprecedented amounts of data and digital evidence, and the challenge of utilizing it in a meaningful way under time constraints makes process streamlining critically important," said Derek Brown, General Manager, North America at Cellebrite. "The Digital Forensics Repository will help professionals leverage data in public and private clouds to turn digital evidence into action. Moving forward from this successful expansion, we aim to continue to leverage our digital intelligence expertise and community-minded organizing to continue to help even more professional alliances and interest groups access and better deploy critical technology."

Through partnerships with influencers and collectives in the law enforcement and investigative world, Cellebrite continues to work with new pertinent communities to increase access to digital intelligence for a safer world. You can access the digital repository here: https://www.cwagweb.org/digital-forensics/.

The Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG)

The Conference of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) is a bipartisan group which has expanded beyond our regional designation to count 38 states as participants. The chief legal officers of 15 western states and three Pacific territories are the founding and voting members of the association. These include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Conference also includes the Pacific jurisdictions of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam. Associate Members participate in legal seminars and working groups active in a variety of legal areas. Associate members include: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, The District of Columbia, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

CWAG's primary function is to provide a forum for chief legal officers of member states and jurisdictions to cultivate knowledge, cooperate on concerns and coordinate actions which improve the quality of legal services available to members. CWAG focuses on common areas of interest to the west: water, fish and wildlife, public lands, minerals, environmental protection and Indian Law.

Cellebrite: Digital Intelligence for a Safer World

Digital data plays an increasingly important role in investigations and operations of all kinds. Making data accessible, collaborative and actionable is what Cellebrite does best. As the global leader in digital intelligence with more than 60,000 licenses deployed in 150 countries, we provide law enforcement, military, intelligence and enterprise customers with the most complete, industry-proven range of solutions for digital forensics and analytics in the lab and in the field.

By enabling access, sharing and analysis of digital data from mobile devices, social media, cloud, computer, cellular operators and other sources, Cellebrite products, solutions, advanced services and training help customers build the strongest cases quickly, even in the most complex situations. As a result, Cellebrite is the preferred one-stop shop for digital intelligence solutions that make a safer world more possible every day.

Media Contact:

Kelly Miller

1-202-750-7513

[email protected]

SOURCE Cellebrite

Related Links

http://www.cellebrite.com

"Creativity is a universal yearning that all humans possess," said Rosalind Rodgers, MA, R-DMT, GLCMA, creative arts coordinator at Timberline Knolls. "Our goal as a creative arts team is to provide experientials and interventions that emphasize creative exploration for our residents."

As residents at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center begin their recovery journey, they are asked to talk about their experiences of the past, present and future. Through the use of art, dance and yoga, residents are invited to explore and play. Creative arts invites residents to get back to their core-self, by providing a safe place to re-engage with their creativity.

Rodgers talks more about the benefits of creative arts therapy at Timberline Knolls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVDR9Buiz1U&feature=youtu.be

"Our residents have found ways to cope and manage emotional dysregulation in order to survive," adds Rodgers. "We provide a safe space for residents to heal their minds, bodies, and spirits through the use of music, movement and art. Empowerment and self-efficacy are experienced within the group therapy dynamic. A sense of universality is experienced as residents realize they are not alone in feeling inadequate, silly, or self-critical when participating in movement, yoga or art therapy. Our focus is on the process, not the end product."

Overall, the therapeutic goal of creative arts therapy is to:

Express feelings

Participate in human relationships/interactions/connections

Increase personal self-esteem/self-efficacy

Develop a more realistic concept of one's body image

Increase self-compassion

Achieve feelings of relaxation and enjoyment

Increase a sense of empowerment through accomplished movement, art and relational goals.

"We are focused on providing an invitation for residents to show up as their authentic self, without fear of judgement or rejection," adds Rodgers. "Creative arts differs from traditional talk therapy because it provides the space for residents to describe their experience more fully, whether it's through art, music or dance."

About Timberline Knolls:

Timberline Knolls is a leading private residential treatment center for women and adolescent girls (ages 12  65+) with eating disorders, substance abuse, trauma, mood and co-occurring disorders. Located in suburban Chicago, residents receive excellent clinical care from a highly trained professional staff on a picturesque 43-acre wooded campus. An adult partial hospitalization program is also available on campus for step down as well as in Orland Park, Ill., for women to direct admit. For more information on Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, call us at 877.257.9611. We are also on Facebook  Timberline Knolls, LinkedIn  Timberline Knolls and Twitter - @TimberlineToday.

Contact:

Mary Anne Morrow

1-602-359-6989

[email protected]

SOURCE Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center

Related Links

http://www.timberlineknolls.com

WOONSOCKET, R.I., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In their shared commitment to helping deliver the first tobacco-free generation, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) and Truth Initiative are calling upon women's colleges in the United States to apply for their grant program dedicated to helping colleges and universities advocate for, adopt and implement 100 percent smoke- and tobacco-free campus policies.

Currently, only 10 of 38 women's colleges, and just 1,853 of all colleges and universities in the United States have 100% tobacco-free policies in place. Applications for grants are being accepted through September 13, 2018.

According to a recent report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year more than 200,000 women die of tobacco-related diseases. Additionally, 13.6 percent of women smoke cigarettes and 15.4 percent use some type of tobacco product. Research also shows that over the past several decades, women have been slower to quit than men, with a 40 percent smoking rate decrease by men compared to just a 30 percent decrease by women.

"While there has been great progress made in reducing smoking in our country, research shows that casual smoking, especially among women, has continued in recent years, and college-aged women are at particular risk for becoming smokers," said Eileen Howard Boone, President of the CVS Health Foundation. "Through our continued partnership with Truth Initiative, we are encouraging the remaining women's colleges to take the next step in becoming tobacco-free campuses and bring us one step closer to a tobacco-free generation."

The latest grants are part of Be The First, CVS Health's five-year, $50 million initiative that supports education, tobacco control, and healthy behavior programming with a goal of helping to deliver the nation's first tobacco-free generation. Since 2016, CVS Health has reached more than 4 million young people with the help of the nation's leading tobacco control partners and is building upon the 146 colleges and universities they are helping become tobacco-free with this additional support for Truth Initiative.

"Our partnership with the CVS Health Foundation has already helped hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and staff at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, community colleges and minority serving institutions learn and work in tobacco- and smoke-free environments," said Robin Koval, CEO and President of Truth Initiative. "We are eager to expand our grant program to include women's colleges and help accelerate progress in creating the first tobacco-free generation especially among women whose smoking rates have declined slower than men."

Ninety-eight percent of smokers start by the time they turn 26. Despite lower youth and young adult smoking rates overall, smoking on college campuses remains a health problem in the United States.

"With generous support from Truth Initiative and CVS Health Foundation, more of our 38 women colleges and universities will have the opportunity to adopt tobacco and smoke-free campus policies," said Michele Ozumba, President of the Women's College Coalition. "We're proud to be part of this important movement as it aligns perfectly with Women's College Coalition's commitment to building a culture of health across all of our member institutions."

Applications for women's colleges are being accepted through September 13, 2018 and more information can be found at truthinitiative.org/collegegrant. Grants are also available to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, community colleges and other minority-serving institutions.

Since the launch of its tobacco-free college program in 2015, Truth Initiative has awarded funding to 152 minority-serving academic institutions and community colleges, including 83 in partnership with the CVS Health Foundation. To date, 87 of these colleges have gone smoke- or tobacco-free, covering 38 states.

About CVS Health Foundation

The CVS Health Foundation is a private charitable organization created by CVS Health that works to build healthier communities, enabling people of all ages to lead healthy, productive lives. The Foundation provides strategic investments to nonprofit partners throughout the U.S. who help increase community-based access to health care for underserved populations, create innovative approaches to chronic disease management and provide tobacco cessation and youth prevention programming. We also invest in scholarship programs that open the pathways to careers in pharmacy to support the academic aspirations of the best and brightest talent in the industry. Our philanthropy also extends to supporting our colleagues' spirit of volunteerism through Volunteer Challenge grants to nonprofits where they donate their time and fundraising efforts. To learn more about the CVS Health Foundation and its giving, visit www.cvshealth.com/social-responsibility.

About Truth Initiative

Truth Initiative is a national public health organization that is inspiring tobacco-free lives and building a culture where all youth and young adults reject tobacco. The truth about tobacco and the tobacco industry are at the heart of our proven-effective and nationally recognized truth public-education campaign, our rigorous and scientific research and policy studies, and our innovative community and youth engagement programs supporting populations at high risk of using tobacco. The Washington, D.C.,-based organization, formerly known as Legacy, was established and funded through the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between attorneys general from 46 states, five U.S. territories and the tobacco industry. To learn more about how Truth Initiative speaks, seeks and spreads the truth about tobacco, visit truthinitiative.org.

Media Contacts

Mary Gattuso, CVS Health

[email protected]

Nicole Dueffert, Truth Initiative

[email protected]

SOURCE CVS Health

Related Links

http://www.cvshealth.com

DENVER, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc. (OTCQB: DPWW) the premium marijuana brand and retail development company, today announced that it has secured a second store location in Denver, the former Colorado Wellness dispensary located at 2057 S. Broadway. Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc. will license the Diego Pellicer brand to the store and develop the location in the same upscale style to which Diego clients are accustomed.

"The Diego Pellicer model works. We've developed a system for marijuana retail success that's rooted in solid management experience along with a cutting-edge branding and architecture system that is adaptable to each market as we expand," said Ron Throgmartin, chief executive officer, Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc. "With our existing locations in Denver and Seattle experiencing double- and triple-digit growth, we look forward to making this newest location another winning success."

The new store will feature an innovative, customized design along with fresh Diego Pellicer branding, crafted by original Apple retail store creative team member Jill Savini and world-class architect Michael Rotondi, FAIA. Colorado Wellness will remain open for business during the remodeling, with the new Diego Pellicer store opening in the first quarter of 2019.

"Diego Pellicer is synonymous with quality," said Neil Demers, chief executive officer, Diego Pellicer - Colorado. "This newest location will feature our knowledgeable and welcoming staff, premium product that sets us apart from the rest, along with an innovative and inviting shopping environment that will raise the bar for cannabis retail. We can't wait to service this community in the same great fashion as our location on Alameda Avenue."

Forward-Thinking, Innovative Design

Diego Pellicer is a premium brand in an emerging market, providing an opportunity to pioneer new concepts at retail. The Broadway location will be consistent with current branding, yet unique to the location.

Two leaders in architecture and design, Rotondi and Savini are bringing their progressive ideas to Diego Pellicer cannabis retail and branding. World-renowned architect Rotondi is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and has built a legacy as an architecture educator at Arizona State University and the Southern California Institute of Architecture, of which he was a co-founder and later became its second director. Rotondi's Los Angeles-based firm RoTo Architects is the official architecture agency of record for Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc.

Rotondi's award-winning projects include: upscale retail stores on the Sunset Strip and Rodeo Drive working with famed fashion designers Leon Max and Sonia Rykiel; the first mall in Dubai City U.A.E, re-envisioning the Ibn Batutta Mall; and, high-profile, celebrity driven restaurants Nicola, 72 Market Street and Kate Mantilini in California.

Teaming up with Rotondi is creative trailblazer Jill Savini. Savini began her career at Apple working on creative for the first Mac and was the creative director on the original team that developed the Apple retail store. Savini works with other prominent brands such as DocuSign and Marriott's Renaissance Hotels as well as fast-growing start-ups including the organic, plant-based food company Forager Project. As head of corporate branding for Diego Pellicer she is responsible for ensuring a consistent look and branding across retail locations.

About Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc. (OTCQB: DPWW)

Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc. is the premium marijuana brand and retail development company. DPWW develops and leases legally compliant real estate, including turnkey cultivation and processing facilities as well as high-end, branded retail stores to licensed marijuana operators. When federally legal, DPWW is positioned to become a national, vertically integrated marijuana company. To learn more about how to become a branded Diego Pellicer retailer, cultivator or investor visit www.Diego-Pellicer.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release may be construed as "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of these statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company also undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

SOURCE Diego Pellicer Worldwide, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diego-pellicer.com

PETAH TIKVA, Israel, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ECI, a global provider of ELASTIC Network solutions for service providers, critical infrastructures and data center operators, today announced it has included several key advancements to its LightINSIGHT network analytics application to provide greater intelligence into overall network utilization, performance and health. The updates expand LightINSIGHT's ability to optimize capital expenditure (CAPEX) and reduce operational expenditure (OPEX), while improving customer satisfaction by ensuring service performance and availability.

As an analytics application, LightINSIGHT plays a central role in fulfilling ECI's commitment to providing complete service and network lifecycle support, something that will become increasingly essential to assuring the 5G services and network slices of tomorrow. Service providers can already leverage the intelligence gained from LightINSIGHT to optimize current resources, better facilitate network expansion planning and new service development, while speeding up service activation and quickly anticipating and correcting network failures. LightINSIGHT also allows for more accurate monitoring of network performance against customer service level agreements (SLA), increasing service reliability to avoid churn and penalties.

LightINSIGHT uses a scalable architecture to fit any network size and provides coverage of both ECI and third-party network equipment. It is composed of three modules that can be purchased individually or together:

Inventory & Utilization: Provides a 360-degree view of both physical and logical network resources, by analyzing and identifying network utilization, overutilized and underutilized resources, trends and misconfigurations, to make the most efficient use of CAPEX.

Performance: Monitors service and network performance including throughput, latency, utilization and availability, to compare against SLAs. Provides smart KPIs to identify and flag problem areas, and deal with these performance issues early, before customers complain.

Health: Delivers a clear visualization of network health and alarms through a single dashboard, identifying ongoing conditional issues and analyzing alarm history and trends to better identify source issues. This enables quick action before traffic and services are affected.

"The complexity of most networks makes it challenging to gather the right intelligence to better utilize and manage resources. When issues arise, manually digging through databases or reviewing an endless stream of alerts can be prohibitively difficult and make network audits, for example, nearly impossible," said Gali Malkiel, Head of Software Line of Business at ECI. "LightINSIGHT is one of our most popular apps with dozens of installations worldwide, attesting to both the need and suitability of our solution. With our continued improvements to LightINSIGHT, customers now have an even better tool to easily and quickly gather actionable information to help them make the most informed decisions about their network. Plus, it allows for deeper insights to better plan for future network expansion and services, particularly as operators forge their path to 5G."

LightINSIGHT is an open and flexible application that covers both packet and optical transport technologies. Data is automatically gathered via various sources and analytics are derived using a business intelligence platform to extract the reports. Through its customizable dashboards and simple report generation capabilities, LightINSIGHT offers both an intuitive visual snapshot of the network and the ability to explore individual issues or equipment at a much more granular level. Trend analysis provides more granular tracking of deployment, performance, RMAs and more.

For more information about ECI's LightINSIGHT and other network management applications, please visit: http://www.ecitele.com/network-management/.

ABOUT ECI

ECI is a global provider of elastic network solutions to CSPs, critical infrastructures as well as data center operators. Along with its long-standing, industry-proven packet-optical transport, ECI offers a variety of SDN/NFV applications, end-to-end network management, a comprehensive cybersecurity solution, and a range of professional services. ECI's elastic solutions ensure open, future-proof, and secure communications. With ECI, customers have the luxury of choosing a network that can be tailor-made to their needs today while being flexible enough to evolve with the changing needs of tomorrow.

For more information visit www.ecitele.com.

Press Contact

OneChocolate for ECI Telecom

+1-628-208-6428

[email protected]

SOURCE ECI Telecom Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.ecitele.com/

STOCKTON, Calif., July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The family of Misty Holt-Singh, who was killed during a shootout between police and three gunmen, settled the lawsuit filed against the City of Stockton over the incident.

"This is a bittersweet day for our entire family," said Paul Singh, Misty Holt-Singh's husband. "I am grateful that the legal process is over, but the loss of Misty has left a void in our hearts that will never be filled."

On July 16, 2014, Misty Holt-Singh, a devoted 41-year-old wife and mother-of-two, went to the Bank of the West in Stockton, California. She was making an ATM withdrawal at the bank while her then 12-year-old daughter sat in the car. At the same time, three armed robbers were in the process of robbing the bank, ended up pulling Misty inside, and later fled with three hostagesincluding Misty. A high-speed pursuit with the bank robbers followed through populated city streets, at times with over 50 police vehicles in pursuit and air support overhead. The pursuit ended with 32 Stockton Police officers firing over 600 bullets into the perpetrators' disabled vehicle, tragically killing Misty.

"We are glad that this matter is now settled," said attorney Gregory L. Bentley. "Misty Holt-Singh's family, including her husband and their children, can now focus on healing and mourning the loss of a great woman and mother without the extra stress of protracted litigation." As part of the settlement, the City agreed to honor Misty by naming a street or park in her name. The City will work with Paul Singh in bringing this to fruition. "We are very appreciative of the gesture, and we look forward to healing as a family and community," added Paul Singh.

The Police Foundation, a research group in Washington, D.C., conducted an independent review of the shooting after the fact and determined that the 600 rounds fired "were excessive and unnecessary." The case name is Paul Singh, et al. v. City of Stockton, et al.

About Bentley & More LLP

Bentley & More LLP specializes in working closely with clients to deeply understand their lives and tell their individual stories. The firm's success comes from tailoring each solution to a client's particular needs. That success is measured in far more than awards, verdicts, and peer recognition, it is measured in the real differences made in our clients' quality of life. Bentley & More focuses on the representation of consumers in the fields of catastrophic personal injury, product liability, insurance bad faith, and workers' compensation, with particular expertise in matters that cross over multiple fields.

Joe Marchelewski, Juris Productions

310-462-2252, [email protected]

SOURCE Bentley & More LLP

Related Links

http://www.bentleymore.com

MECHANICSBURG, Pa., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board today announced that Jonathan Goldsmith, former "The Most Interesting Man In The World," will sign purchased bottles of Astral Tequila Blanco at 5:00 PM Friday, July 27, at Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection, 6560 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County.

Jonathan Goldsmith is an actor and pop culture icon best known for his former turn as Dos Equis beer's The Most Interesting Man In The World  one of the most celebrated advertising campaigns of all time. Hailing from the Bronx, Jonathan began his career on the stage in New York before starting a 50-year career on television, spanning more than 500 film and television credits. He starred opposite John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in Westerns, and appeared in a long list of popular television programs including "Dallas," "Dynasty," "Gunsmoke," "Hawaii Five-O," "Charlie's Angels," "CHiPs," "General Hospital," "MacGyver," "Magnum P.I.," "Knight Rider," and "Murder, She Wrote." After a decade playing The Most Interesting Man In The World, Jonathan is now a partner in Astral Tequila.

Samples of Astral Tequila Blanco (Code 0148, $34.99) will be offered to those 21 years of age and older.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide, and licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups, and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $15.8 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies, and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit www.lcb.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shawn M. Kelly, 717.783.8864

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.pa.gov



The Indian Air Force personnel posing with the SU-30MKI fighter aircraft at Darwin, Australia on Tuesday. Photo: IAF/Twitter

NEW DELHI (PTI): An Indian Air Force contingent landed at the Darwin Air Force Base in Australia on Tuesday to participate in a multinational air exercise, the IAF said in a statement.



The IAF contingent comprised of four Su-30 MKI fighter jets, one C-130 and one C-17 transporter aircraft, it said.



Ex Pitch Black, a biennial large force employment warfare exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), involves over 100 aircraft from around the globe and will provide a unique opportunity to the air-warriors to operate in a dynamic warlike environment.



"After the recently-concluded Exercise Gaganshakti-2018, the IAF's engagement with the Indonesian and the Malayasian Air Forces and participation in the Exercise Pitch Black-18 in Australia, the IAF will once again showcase its capability to be an effective net security provider in the region," it said in a statement.



Navigating across the ocean, precise air-to-air engagement with tanker aircraft and ability to operate over the international airspace reaffirms that the Indian Air Force would always play the cutting edge of our nation's military capability, the statement added.



As part of the commonwealth countries, India and Australia have always enjoyed amicable bilateral relations. The air forces of both the countries have participated in the World War II.



"Su-30 MKI aircraft flew across the ocean to once again demonstrate our strategic reach and professionalism. As part of the military diplomacy and reassuring our neighbours of our commitment to regional peace and security, while en-route to Australia, the IAF engaged with the Indonesian and Malaysian Air Forces," the statement added.

Frisbie is the former chairman of RobustWealth, a FinTech startup focused on robo-advisory which grew successfully and was acquired in June 2018 by Principal Financial Group. Prior to RobustWealth, Frisbie served for over 20 years in a number of senior positions with Franklin Templeton, including Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Franklin Templeton Solutions.

The FinTech Consortium is expanding its FinTech hub model after international success in Bahrain and Singapore. Gerben Visser, founder of FinTech Consortium said, "We are pleased to work towards accelerating Detroit's position in the FinTech ecosystem. The new hub will further the development and acceleration of FinTech startups, as well as foster interaction between investors, entrepreneurs, government bodies, and financial institutions. Moreover, we are very pleased to announce the appointment of Rick Frisbie as our chairman to assist us with expansion into the United States."

"Detroit was chosen for the flagship North American location because of the region's raw talent for innovation and technology," said Frisbie. "Blockchain and other FinTech solutions are disrupting society much like the auto industry did a century ago. Detroit has all the right ingredients to be significant in this growing market, and it's an ecosystem I'm energized to join and nurture."

Detroit FinTech Bay is a dedicated FinTech coworking space, and a platform-neutral incubator, meaning there is not one sponsor or bank, but many. "We're looking for businesses who want in on the next generation of innovation, and entrepreneurs of excellence who are poised for success with the right support," said Maissan Almaskati, managing partner of FinTech Consortium and resident metro Detroiter. "Our model of bringing together banks and corporations alongside startups has proven to accelerate creativity and growth for everyone involved."

FinTech Consortium will bring together a local team to manage the hub, as well as integrate Detroit FinTech Bay into its global partner network and FinTech platforms such as BlockOn, InsurByte, RegFact, and others.

A key mission of Detroit FinTech Bay will be to drive collaboration between the great minds creating innovative FinTech solutions, and the institutions who need those solutions. Within the space, the community of residents, investors, and institutions will thrive through leadership courses and activities, monthly classes, hackathons, demo days, pitch practice, mentorship relationships, and more. Talent development, education and access to investment capital are additional hallmarks of the FinTech hub model.

Renovations on the 1938 building will be underway later this summer. Detroit FinTech Bay will occupy the basement and second level of the former bank building, retaining vaults and much of the original character in the design. State of the art facilities, including dedicated offices and desks, hot desks, private meeting rooms, communal areas, and a variety of other shared infrastructure, make it the ideal hub for local and international corporate innovation labs and FinTech startups.

Detroit FinTech Bay is scheduled to open in early 2019, and its leaders expect the partnerships and resident space to be filled in advance of the opening.

Businesses and financial institutions interested in becoming founding or corporate partners, or in incubating new innovations, as well as startups interested in becoming residents of the 20,000 square foot coworking space can now submit an application by visiting https://www.detroitfintechbay.com/.

MEDIA CONTACT

Adela Piper

Siren PR for FinTech Consortium

586.212.4792, [email protected]

ADDITIONAL CONTACT

Jolyn Goh, FinTech Consortium

Email: [email protected]h-cpnsortium.com

ABOUT DETROIT FINTECH BAY

Detroit FinTech Bay ("DFB") will be the leading FinTech Hub in Michigan. It will be a physical hub to incubate insightful, scalable and impactful FinTech initiatives and innovations and a foothold into the North American FinTech industry in a resurgent and fast-changing part of the United States.

Detroit FinTech Bay will partner with governmental bodies, financial institutions, corporates, consultancy firms, universities, associations, media agencies, venture capital and FinTech startups to bring the full spectrum of financial market participants and stakeholders together. We believe in partnership and collaboration to drive forward Detroit's FinTech ecosystem. https://www.detroitfintechbay.com/

ABOUT FINTECH CONSORTIUM

The FinTech Consortium is a FinTech Incubator and ecosystem builder that aims to further the development, interaction and acceleration of the global FinTech landscape.

We foster synergies among market players, including government bodies, financial institutions, corporates, investors and innovators, who believe that technology can bring added value to the financial industry. We facilitate corporate incubation and venture acceleration as well as access to analytical tools and FinTech related resources. http://www.fintech-consortium.com

SOURCE Detroit FinTech Bay

Related Links

https://www.detroitfintechbay.com

Dream Thieves  a short cinematic film produced by Cossette and directed by internationally-renowned auteur Fleur Fortune and DOP Matias Boucard, explores a dystopic out-of-control system selling through promises of financial freedom while draining its customers of their dreams. The 13-minute film is an existence of extremes. With references to The Matrix, Donnie Darko and Poltergeist, the visuals metaphorically paint a portrait of whereby banks promise to keep your money secure while simultaneously creating and selling products designed to be contrary to your goals.

"The North American Banking system is rigged against the everyday person," said Jason Chaney, CCO of KOHO. "To run, the system has to sell products and charge a host of fees that eat away at savings. Dream Thieves points to the heartbreaking effect of having your dreams stripped away, but the opportunity to leverage technology to rewrite a system and take back your dreams, because they belong to their rightful owners."

Awoken from a world of despair, the narrative looks to hack the system by bringing balance back into the lives of its characters. Dream Thieves concludes with the protagonist breaking free and waking up the world from the deceptive daze  aware of the manipulation, the world erupts with colour and becomes a society where dreams return to their rightful owners.

A hard-hitting approach in telling the company's foundational story, Dream Thieves echoes Koho's challenger position of restoring balance to a broken financial system. Creating simple, transparent and intuitive products that make sense for the consumer, Koho provides a solid foundation where savings becomes an empowered proactive choice. Within the first three weeks of using Koho, the app helps the average user reduce their spending by 15% and save nearly $500.00.

"Saving for future goals doesn't need to come at a cost." said Daniel Eberhard, CEO of Koho. "Every product that we design is with the sole focus of enriching the lives of our customers to help them spend smarter and save faster. We've hacked the system to put real-time money back in the pockets of consumers."

Dream Thieves  a 2-minute version spot, will debut in theatres across Alliance Atlantis distribution channels starting August 1, 2018. The full 13-minute film can be viewed at www.koho.ca and on their Instagram account @getkoho.

ABOUT KOHO

Koho is a financial technology company that provides simple, modern banking services to Canadians. Offering a tech-forward experience with options similar to those of traditional bank accounts, but without the fees associated with traditional bank accounts. Koho consists of a prepaid, reloadable Visa debit card and an intuitive app that tracks user spending and helps users find ways to cut costs and save money  with no fees attached to card usage. Koho's technology allows users to make purchases everywhere Visa cards are accepted and provides access to a suite of other products, such as direct deposit, ATMs, bill pay, free transfers and more. Koho is headquartered in Toronto, ON.

SOURCE KohoNEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Fredrick D. Scott on Monday announced the reorganization of The Scott Family Foundation Intl., an International Non-Governmental Organization created in 2011 and launching of a U.S. subsidiary of the same, The Scott Family Foundation Intl. U.S. Inc., a U.S. based Not For Profit Organization that focuses on various initiatives within the African American community.

Scott is a former financial consultant, private equity investor, venture capitalist, Investment Bank founder and is currently a motivational speaker. Named one of Ebony magazine's "Top 30 Under 30" in May 2010 at the age of 25, Scott was, at the time, the youngest African American hedge fund founder in history. Scott has appeared on TVOne's "Washington Watch" with Roland Martin and on New York's Hot 97-FM. He also spoke at the annual conferences for the National Action Network, the National Bankers Association, the Jackie Robinson Foundation and the renowned Eagle Academy.

"My passion is helping our community become economically stable and viable long term," said Scott. "To empower those, not only in our community, but globally by giving them access to information and opportunities that will put them in the best position to succeed in life. From my own experience, I understand what it means to be on the lower rung of the social caste system, to have to fight for even the most basic of human rights, to be a minority in a country that doesn't favor the color of your skin and uses it against you, uses it as justification for why you don't deserve equal rights and equal access! I know first hand what it means to be Black and Muslim in America. It is now my focus to use my knowledge, my experience and the lessons I've learned from my own mistakes, to empower those around me, to help them find strategic and lasting success; to do everything within my power to keep those around me from making the same mistakes I've made and suffering the consequences of the same. As a Felon in the United States, it is my goal to show those around me, with my actions and by example, that nothing can stop you from being successful and having a positive impact on the world you live in if you are armed with the right knowledge, support, vision and determination!"

About the foundation:

The Scott Family Foundation Intl. ("TSFF Intl.") is a private, international Non-Governmental Organization ("NGO"), created to help people in need reach their fullest potential through long term, sustainable, humanitarian, socioeconomic, healthcare, educational and inner-city youth development and mentor programs. TSFF Intl.works to ensure that all people, especially those with the fewest resources, have access to the opportunities they need to succeed in life. Its mission is to enhance the dignity and quality of life for individuals, families and communities globally. More information on The Scott Family Foundation Intl. can be found at: www.scottfamilyfoundationintl.org.

SOURCE The Scott Family Foundation Intl.

Related Links

http://www.scottfamilyfoundationintl.org

LONDON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fund Finance Association (FFA), a non-profit industry association in the fund finance market announced it will be hosting its fourth annual European Fund Finance Symposium on October 24, 2018 at The Landmark Hotel in London.

The event brings together investors, fund managers, bankers and lawyers for a day of education and networking within the fund finance market; it holds particular appeal to CFOs and those responsible for arranging financing within their respective investment firms. More than 400 industry professionals from 135 different firms attended the FFA's 2017 European Symposium. In past years, FFA Symposium topics have included discussion on European Investment and Financing Activity, Women in Fund Finance: Status in Equality, Global Perspectives on Fund Finance and others.

Information about tickets, registration and the conference agenda can be found at www.fundfinanceassociation.com. Attendance is complimentary for fund managers and investors.

In addition to the European Fund Finance Symposium, the FFA has announced a new location for their 9th Annual Global Symposium. The Global Fund Finance Symposium will be held from March 24-26, 2019 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Please email [email protected] to find out more. Women in Fund Finance will be hosting events in Paris and London this fall. Please visit www.womeninfundfinance.com for more information.

About Fund Finance Association

The Fund Finance Association is a non-profit industry association in the fund finance market, co-located in New York and Charlotte, N.C.

Its core mission is to:

Educate members, legislators, regulators, and other constituencies about the fund finance market and related capital markets through conferences and other events;

Build the broadest consensus among members on policy, legal, regulatory and other matters affecting or potentially affecting the fund finance market and related capital markets; and

Advocate on behalf of the fund finance industry with respect to policy, legal, regulatory and other matters affecting or potentially affecting the fund finance market and related capital markets.

Related Links

http://www.fundfinanceassociation.com



SOURCE Fund Finance AssociationDALLAS, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Generational Equity, a leading mergers and acquisitions advisor for privately held businesses, is pleased to announce the sale of its client, Strong's Insurance Inc., to Sunstar Insurance Group LLC. The acquisition closed July 1, 2018.

Strong's Insurance, based in Nashville, Kansas, is a nearly 100-year-old insurance firm dedicated to providing quality personal insurance, farm and crop insurance, and business insurance solutions to clients through its six offices. The firm has established relationships with numerous insurance carriers to give clients a variety of options at the most competitive prices.

Sunstar Insurance Group, based in Memphis, Tennessee, is a financial holding company focused on acquiring majority equity ownership positions in independent insurance agencies that are located in its geographical footprint in the Midwestern and southeastern states. The firm also searches for companies that are compatible with its entrepreneurial sales culture and partnership management philosophy. Sunstar is ranked as the 73rd largest independent insurance agency in the country and was recently recognized by the industry trade magazine, Insurance Journal, as a member of their Top 100 list of agencies based upon revenue size.

Generational Equity Senior Managing Director Michael Goss' team, lead by trusted affiliates Lorry Nelson and Mike O'Malley with support from Generational Equity Senior VP Luan Ly, successfully closed the deal. Senior Managing Director Doug Morrow established the initial relationship with Strong's Insurance.

"This deal was highly attractive in the market and our marketing efforts yielded multiple offers, but Sunstar stood out as the clear choice for Scott Strong and co-owner Gloria Theis," Goss said. "This transaction met the varying needs of both Scott and Gloria, and will help Sunstar further establish its strong service offerings and reputation across the Midwest."

Scott Strong expressed, "I just wanted to thank you, Lorry, Michael, and Luan, and Generational Equity overall, for all of your work on helping Gloria and I sell Strong's Insurance. It was bittersweet, but it is feeling better each day. I am grateful that we had you to guide us through this process. All of your work is greatly appreciated."

About Generational Equity

Generational Equity, DealForce, and Generational Capital Markets, member FINRA/SIPC, are part of the Generational Group, which is headquartered in Dallas and is one of the leading M&A advisory firms in North America. With over 250 professionals located throughout North America, the companies help business owners release the wealth of their business by providing merger, acquisition and strategic growth advisory services. Their four-step approach features exit planning education, business valuation, value enhancement strategies, and M&A transactional services.

The M&A Advisor named the company the 2016 and 2017 Investment Banking Firm of the Year. For more, visit https://www.genequityco.com/ or the Generational Equity press room.

For more information:

Carl Doerksen

972-232-1125

[email protected]

SOURCE Generational Equity

Related Links

http://www.genequityco.com

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blis, the global pioneer in advanced location data technology, today announced the appointment of industry veteran Diane Perlman as Chief Marketing Officer to oversee the company's global marketing strategy. Based in London, Perlman will be report directly to CEO Greg Isbister and serve on the company's leadership team.

An established marketing leader with big brand, startup, scaleup and agency-side experience, Perlman comes to Blis after having spent the last ten months as Interim CMO at video ad tech company Unruly. Previously, Perlman led the UK marketing communications for Windows Phone at Microsoft and later created and ran the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, graduating nearly 40 startups. She was subsequently the CMO at global startup accelerator MassChallenge.



"We are thrilled to welcome Diane to the Blis team," said Isbister. "As an American who has been living in London for the last two decades, Perlman is uniquely positioned to oversee marketing across regions, but especially the U.S. where we are seeing incredible growth."

Perlman's addition to Blis comes off the heels of impressive U.S. growth where the division is on track to more than triple YOY revenue in 2018, having already doubled total 2017 numbers midway through the year. Contributing to this growth was the roll out of industry-first cost-per-visit (CPV) pricing model in early 2017 as the industry suffered from major data quality and transparency issues. Blis' perspective has always been that brands deserve accurate data and verifiable value, creating a high standard in the quality of data used and subsequent insights and analytics reporting.

"I am very impressed with Blis and its mission to provide transparency to brands through its proprietary data and insights verification platform in a post-GDPR world," said Perlman. "It's super exciting to be joining Blis at such a big milestone in their U.S. growth, and I look forward to leveraging my expertise to help scale the business further both in the U.S. and globally."

Launched in New York in 2016, Blis has grown rapidly in the region, especially in the consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, quick serve restaurant (QSR) and travel categories. The U.S. division has seen ad campaigns run on the platform increased by 144% YOY while the number of brands running campaigns increased by 154% YOY. In May, Blis won a Gold Stevie Award in the Marketing Campaign of the Year - Culture & The Arts for a campaign that used its proprietary technology to create unique and relevant audience segments for a design studio client looking to drive attendance to an upcoming event.

The company recently expanded into the Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, DC markets with plans to open additional additional locations in Los Angeles and Toronto by the end of this year. Earlier this year, the New York City office was certified as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work.



"We've seen great success in the U.S. by helping brands drive customers in-store by leveraging a combination of our movement and foot traffic data coupled with third-party purchase based and sales uplift data" said Gil Larsen, VP, Americas. "Our continued U.S. growth speaks to this collaborative approach with our partners to leverage the quality of our data and power of our technology to develop right-time and place personalized consumer experiences that ultimately increase ROI."

To further address the challenges brands are facing around transparency and verification of data, Blis launched a global blockchain pilot platform with IBM earlier this month and brought on Unilever as the pilot partner to help evaluate and refine the service the company can provide to advertisers and data providers moving forward.

Since its launch in the U.S. market, Blis has been leading the conversation around the value of location-based marketing with two proprietary research studies into the changing consumer purchase journey. Blis' research surveyed consumers across the US, discovering a new conscious consumer and how best to reach them as well as how the path to purchase as marketers know it is dead and best practices moving forward.

About Blis

Blis is the global pioneer in location data. Our proprietary technology and platform helps agencies and brands use location data to better understand consumer behavior, allowing for effective targeted advertising to drive business outcomes. We believe that where you go defines who you are, and advertisers must capitalize on these insights for meaningful marketing experiences across devices. Our technology filters and scales location data, giving advertisers access to the most accurate location events, location data, and unique devices. The data is then applied across the apps that matter most to their consumers for targeting based on rich insights. Clients are supported by our location experts or can work in an agnostic service model of their choice. Since creating the world's first location data technology platform in 2004, Blis has grown to be a global company with 25 offices across 5 continents. Blis' clients include all major holding companies as well as leading brands in top verticals including Samsung, McDonald's, HSBC, Mercedes Benz and Peugeot. To learn more, please visit www.blis.com.



Media Contact:

Jamie Crespi

VP, Marketing

[email protected]

SOURCE Blis

Related Links

http://www.blis.com

DETROIT, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) today announced second-quarter 2018 results reflecting profitability in all core operating segments and the second consecutive quarter of records for China and GM Financial. Results included the unfavorable impact of rising commodity costs, and foreign currency devaluations in South America.

Second-quarter 2018 results:

EPS-diluted of $1.66 and EPS diluted-adjusted of $1.81

and EPS diluted-adjusted of Revenue of $36.8 billion

GM North America EBIT-adjusted of $2.7 billion and margin of 9.4 percent

and margin of 9.4 percent GM International EBIT-adjusted of $0.1 billion , includes record equity income in China of $0.6 billion , partially offset by unfavorable foreign exchange impact in South America

, includes record equity income in of , partially offset by unfavorable foreign exchange impact in GM Cruise EBIT-adjusted of $(0.2) billion , on plan and reflecting continued spending on autonomous as the company moves to commercialization

, on plan and reflecting continued spending on autonomous as the company moves to commercialization GM Financial EBT-adjusted of $0.5 billion , another record, as earning assets grew 12 percent to $90.4 billion , supporting expected long-term earnings growth

Recent and significant increases in commodity costs and unfavorable foreign exchange impact of the Argentine peso and Brazilian real have negatively affected business expectations. The company expects these headwinds to continue through 2018 and has revised its full-year outlook to the following:

EPS diluted of approximately $5.14

EPS diluted-adjusted of approximately $6

Auto Operating Cash Flow to approximately $11.5 billion

Adjusted Auto Free Cash Flow to approximately $4 billion

For complete details and to see reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures, click here to download the full press release, or visit the GM Investor Relations website.

Investor analyst conference call

GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra and Executive Vice President and CFO Chuck Stevens will host a conference call for investor analysts at 10 a.m. EDT today to discuss second-quarter business results. The call will include introductory remarks followed by a question and answer session for analysts.

Journalists who wish to listen to the call may dial in using the following numbers:

United States: 1-888-808-8618

International: +1-949-484-0645

Name of Call: GM Earnings Call

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is committed to delivering safer, better and more sustainable ways for people to get around. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Cadillac, Chevrolet, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, Maven, its personal mobility brand, and Cruise, its autonomous vehicle ride-sharing company, can be found at http://www.gm.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This presentation and related comments by management may include forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations about possible future events and thus are inherently uncertain. Our actual results may differ materially from forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including: (1) our ability to deliver new products, services and experiences that attract new, and are desired by existing, customers and to effectively compete in autonomous, ride-sharing and transportation as a service; (2) sales of crossovers, SUVs and full-size pickup trucks; (3) our ability to reduce the costs associated with the manufacture and sale of electric vehicles; (4) the volatility of global sales and operations; (5) our significant business in China which subjects us to unique operational, competitive and regulatory risks; (6) our joint ventures, which we cannot operate solely for our benefit and over which we may have limited control; (7) changes in government leadership and laws (including tax laws and regulations), economic tensions between governments and changes in international trade policies, new barriers to entry and changes to or withdrawals from free trade agreements, changes in foreign exchange rates, economic downturns in foreign countries, differing local product preferences and product requirements, compliance with U.S. and foreign countries' export controls and economic sanctions, differing labor laws and regulations and difficulties in obtaining financing in foreign countries; (8) our dependence on our manufacturing facilities; (9) the ability of suppliers to deliver parts, systems and components without disruption and on schedule; (10) prices of raw materials; (11) our highly competitive industry; (12) the possibility that competitors may independently develop products and services similar to ours despite our intellectual property rights; (13) security breaches and other disruptions to our vehicles, information technology networks and systems; (14) compliance with laws and regulations applicable to our industry, including those regarding fuel economy and emissions; (15) costs and risks associated with litigation and government investigations; (16) compliance with the terms of the Deferred Prosecution Agreement; (17) the cost and effect on our reputation of product safety recalls and alleged defects in products and services; (18) our ability to successfully and cost-efficiently restructure operations in various countries, including Korea, with minimal disruption to our supply chain and operations, globally; (19) our ability to realize production efficiencies and to achieve reductions in costs; (20) our ability to develop captive financing capability through GM Financial; and (21) significant increases in pension expense or projected pension contributions. A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, and our subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. GM cautions readers not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. GM undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE General Motors Co.

Related Links

http://www.gm.com

VANCOUVER, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - GOLDCORP INC. (TSX: G,NYSE: GG) ("Goldcorp" or the "Company") is pleased to report its second quarter 2018 results.

Second Quarter Highlights

Net loss was $131 million , or $0.15 per share, which was impacted by non-cash foreign exchange losses of $178 million , or $0.20 per share, primarily arising on deferred tax balances. Operating cash flows and adjusted operating cash flows (1) for the three months ended June 30, 2018 were $158 million and $310 million , respectively, compared to $158 million and $320 million , respectively, for the three months ended June 30, 2017 .



Operating cash flows and adjusted operating cash flows for the three months ended were and , respectively, compared to and , respectively, for the three months ended . Gold production of 571,000 ounces at all-in sustaining costs (1) ("AISC") of $850 per ounce, compared to 635,000 ounces at AISC of $800 per ounce for the three months ended June 30, 2017 . Ramp-up of sustainable capacity at Eleonore and Cerro Negro continued and are expected to be key contributors to increasing production in the second half of the year. Full year 2018 guidance reconfirmed for gold production of 2.5 million ounces (+/-5%) at AISC of $800 (2) per ounce (+/- 5%).





. Ramp-up of sustainable capacity at Eleonore and continued and are expected to be key contributors to increasing production in the second half of the year. Full year 2018 guidance reconfirmed for gold production of 2.5 million ounces (+/-5%) at AISC of per ounce (+/- 5%). Project pipeline continues to advance in support of the Company's 20/20/20 growth plan. The Penasquito Pyrite Leach has completed construction with commissioning further accelerated to the third quarter of 2018, now two quarters ahead of schedule, while the Musselwhite Materials Handling project advanced to 76% completion, on schedule and 10% below budget.





The Penasquito Pyrite Leach has completed construction with commissioning further accelerated to the third quarter of 2018, now two quarters ahead of schedule, while the Musselwhite Materials Handling project advanced to 76% completion, on schedule and 10% below budget. Significant milestones reached at Coffee and Borden with the signing of agreements with First Nation communities. On April 30, 2018 , Goldcorp signed a collaboration agreement with Tr'ondek Hwech'in relating to the Coffee project and, on June 6, 2018 , signed an Impacts and Benefits Agreement with three First Nation communities with respect to the development and operation of the Borden project.





On , Goldcorp signed a collaboration agreement with Tr'ondek Hwech'in relating to the Coffee project and, on , signed an Impacts and Benefits Agreement with three First Nation communities with respect to the development and operation of the project. Successfully executed on the Company's $250 million sustainable annual efficiency program with target now increased by a further $100 million . Through the execution of numerous cost reduction and productivity improvements across the portfolio, the Company achieved its target of $250 million of sustainable efficiencies and extended the program, targeting additional improvements of $100 million by the end of 2019.

"With the ongoing successful ramp up of the Eleonore and Cerro Negro mines, on plan gold production across the portfolio and our pipeline of growth projects being advanced on budget and on schedule, we continue to execute on the delivery of our 20/20/20 plan of growing production and reducing AISC by 20% by 2021," said David Garofalo, President and Chief Executive Officer of Goldcorp. "In addition, the strong exploration results achieved during the quarter, highlighted by the results at Musselwhite and Cerro Negro, demonstrate our exploration team's ability to find new discoveries within Goldcorp's highly prospective and underexplored land packages in order to achieve 20% reserve growth by 2021."

FINANCIAL AND OPERATING RESULTS

($ millions, except where indicated) Three months ended

June 30, 2018 Three months ended

June 30, 2017 Gold production(1) (ounces) 571,000 635,000 Gold sales(1) (ounces) 562,000 649,000 Operating cash flows $158 $158 Adjusted operating cash flows(1)(2) $310 $320 Net earnings (loss) ($131) $135 Net earnings (loss) per share ($0.15) $0.16 By-product cash costs(1)(3) (per ounce) $527 $510 AISC(1)(3) (per ounce) $850 $800

Please refer to the Company's financial statements, related notes and accompanying Management's Discussion and Analysis for a full review of its operations and projects. This can be accessed by clicking on this link: Q2-2018 MD&A and Financial Statements.

Second Quarter 2018 Conference Call and Webcast details:

Date:

Thursday, July 26, 2018 Time:

10:00 a.m. (PT) Toll Free (US and Canada):

1-800-355-4959 Outside US and Canada:

1-416-340-2216

A live and archived webcast will also be available on Goldcorp's website at www.goldcorp.com.

The conference call will be available for replay by phone at:

Toll Free (US and Canada):

1-800-408-3053 Outside US and Canada:

1-905-694-9451 Replay end date:

August 26, 2018 Replay Passcode:

4818060#

Footnotes

The Company has included certain performance measures, including non-GAAP performance measures on an attributable basis (Goldcorp share) throughout this release. Attributable performance measures include the Company's mining operations and projects and the Company's share from Pueblo Viejo, Alumbrera and NuevaUnion. Attributable performance measures also include the Company's share from Leagold up to May 24, 2018 , the date on which Goldcorp ceased to have significant influence over Leagold. Adjusted operating cash flows are comprised of Goldcorp's share of operating cash flows before working capital changes, calculated on an attributable basis to include the Company's share of Pueblo Viejo, Alumbrera, NuevaUnion and Leagold's operating cash flows before working capital changes. The Company believes that, in addition to conventional measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, the Company and certain investors use this information to evaluate the Company's performance and ability to operate without reliance on additional external funding or use of available cash.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net cash provided by operating activities in the consolidated financial statements to Goldcorp's share of adjusted operating cash flows:



Three months ended

June 30 ($ millions) 2018 2017 Net cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations $158 $158 Change in working capital 112 77 Adjusted operating cash flows provided by Pueblo Viejo, Alumbrera and Leagold 40 85 Goldcorp's share of adjusted operating cash flows $310 $320

3. "Cash costs: by product" per ounce and "AISC" per ounce are non-GAAP financial performance measures.

Cash costs: by-product:

Total cash costs: by-product incorporate Goldcorp's share of all production costs, including adjustments to inventory carrying values, adjusted for changes in estimates in reclamation and closure costs at the Company's closed mines which are non-cash in nature, and include Goldcorp's share of by-product silver, lead, zinc and copper credits, and treatment and refining charges included within revenue. Additionally, cash costs are adjusted for realized gains and losses arising on the Company's commodity and foreign currency contracts which the Company enters into to mitigate its exposure to fluctuations in by-product metal prices, heating oil prices and foreign exchange rates, which may impact the Company's operating costs.

In addition to conventional measures, the Company assesses this per ounce measure in a manner that isolates the impacts of gold production volumes, the by-product credits, and operating costs fluctuations such that the non-controllable and controllable variability is independently addressed. The Company uses total cash costs: by product per gold ounce to monitor its operating performance internally, including operating cash costs, as well as in its assessment of potential development projects and acquisition targets. The Company believes this measure provides investors and analysts with useful information about the Company's underlying cash costs of operations and the impact of by-product credits on the Company's cost structure and is a relevant metric used to understand the Company's operating profitability and ability to generate cash flow. When deriving the production costs associated with an ounce of gold, the Company includes by-product credits as the Company considers that the cost to produce the gold is reduced as a result of the by-product sales incidental to the gold production process, thereby allowing the Company's management and other stakeholders to assess the net costs of gold production.

The Company reports total cash costs: by-product on a gold ounces sold basis. In the gold mining industry, this is a common performance measure but does not have any standardized meaning. The Company follows the recommendations of the Gold Institute Production Cost Standard. The Gold Institute, which ceased operations in 2002, was a non-regulatory body and represented a global group of producers of gold and gold products. The production cost standard developed by the Gold Institute remains the generally accepted standard of reporting cash costs of production by gold mining companies.

AISC:

AISC include total production cash costs incurred at the Company's mining operations, which forms the basis of the Company's by-product cash costs. Additionally, the Company includes sustaining capital expenditures, corporate administrative expense, mine-site exploration and evaluation costs, and reclamation cost accretion and amortization. The measure seeks to reflect the full cost of gold production from current operations, therefore expansionary capital and non-sustaining expenditures are excluded. Certain other cash expenditures, including tax payments, dividends and financing costs are also excluded.

The Company believes that this measure represents the total costs of producing gold from current operations, and provides the Company and other stakeholders of the Company with additional information of the Company's operational performance and ability to generate cash flows. AISC, as a key performance measure, allows the Company to assess its ability to support capital expenditures and to sustain future production from the generation of operating cash flows. This information provides management with the ability to more actively manage capital programs and to make more prudent capital investment decisions.

The Company reports AISC on a gold ounces sold basis. This performance measure was adopted as a result of an initiative undertaken within the gold mining industry; however, this performance measure has no standardized meaning and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. The Company follows the guidance note released by the World Gold Council, which became effective January 1, 2014. The World Gold Council is a non-regulatory market development organization for the gold industry whose members comprise global senior gold mining companies.

The following tables provide a reconciliation of total cash costs: by product to reported production costs:

Three months ended June 30, 2018

($ millions unless stated otherwise)



Production

costs (a) By-Product

Credits Treatment and

Refining Charges

on Concentrate

Sales Other Total Cash

Costs: by-

product Ounces (000's) Total Cash Costs:

by-product per

ounce (b)(c) Total before associates and joint

venture $ 442 $ (220) $ 15 $ (1) $ 236

457 $ 516 Associates and joint venture $ 87 $ (29) $ 2 $ - $ 60

105 $ 578 Total - Attributable $ 529 $ (249) $ 17 $ (1) $ 296

562 $ 527



Three months ended June 30, 2017 ($ millions unless stated otherwise)



Production

costs (a) By-Product

Credits Treatment and

Refining Charges

on Concentrate

Sales Other Total Cash

Costs: by-

product Ounces (000's) Total Cash Costs:

by-product per

ounce (b)(c) Total before associates and joint

venture $ 456 $ (224) $ 30 $ (2) $ 260

497 $ 520 Associates and joint venture $ 111 $ (42) $ 3 $ - $ 72

152 $ 478 Total - Attributable $ 567 $ (266) $ 33 $ (2) $ 332

649 $ 510































(a) Production costs includes $17 million in royalties for the three months ended June 30, 2018 (three months ended June 30, 2017 $18 million).



(b) Total cash costs: by-product per ounce may not calculate based on amounts presented in these tables due to rounding.



(c) If silver, copper, lead and zinc were treated as co-products, total cash costs for the three months ended June 30, 2018 would have been $700 per ounce of gold (three months ended June 30, 2017  $644).

As described above, AISC include total production cash costs incurred at the Company's mining operations, which forms the basis of the Company's cash costs: by-product and which are reconciled to reported production costs in the tables above. The following tables provide a reconciliation of AISC per ounce to total cash costs: by product:

Three months ended June 30, 2018

($ millions unless stated otherwise)



Total cash

costs: by-

product Corporate

Administration Exploration

& evaluation

costs Reclamation

cost accretion

and

amortization Sustaining

capital

expenditures Total AISC Ounces

(thousands) Total AISC

per ounce(a) Total before associates and

joint venture $ 236 $ 39 $ 8 $ 6 $ 120 $ 409

457 $ 896 Associates and joint ventures $ 60 $ - $ - $ 1 $ 7 $ 68

105 $ 650 Total - Attributable $ 296 $ 39 $ 8 $ 7 $ 127 $ 477

562 $ 850

































Three months ended June 30, 2017

($ millions unless stated otherwise)



































Total cash

costs: by-

product Corporate

Administration Exploration

& evaluation

costs Reclamation

cost accretion

and

amortization Sustaining

capital

expenditures Total AISC Ounces

(thousands) Total AISC

per ounce(a) Total before associates and

joint venture $ 260 $ 36 $ 5 $ 9 $ 123 $ 433

497 $ 868 Associates and joint ventures $ 72 $ - $ - $ 4 $ 10 $ 86

152 $ 574 Total  Attributable $ 332 $ 36 $ 5 $ 13 $ 133 $ 519

649 $ 800



































(a) AISC may not calculate based on amounts presented in these tables due to rounding.

About Goldcorp

Goldcorp is a senior gold producer focused on responsible mining practices with safe, low-cost production from a high-quality portfolio of mines.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the United States Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, or in releases made by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, all as may be amended from time to time, and "forward-looking information" under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business, operations and financial performance and condition of Goldcorp. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the future price of gold, silver, zinc, copper and lead, the estimation of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the realization of mineral reserve estimates, the timing and amount of estimated future production, costs of production, targeted cost reductions, capital expenditures, free cash flow, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting and certification time lines, hedging practices, currency exchange rate fluctuations, requirements for additional capital, government regulation of mining operations, environmental risks, unanticipated reclamation expenses, health, safety and diversity initiatives, timing and possible outcome of pending litigation, title disputes or claims and limitations on insurance coverage. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" , "believes", or variations or comparable language of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "will", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of Goldcorp to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding Goldcorp's present and future business strategies and the environment in which Goldcorp will operate in the future, including the price of gold, anticipated costs and ability to achieve goals. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, gold price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and mineral resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operational and development risks, litigation risks, regulatory restrictions (including environmental regulatory restrictions and liability), changes in national and local government legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and/or change in the administration of laws, policies and practices, expropriation or nationalization of property and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Chile or other jurisdictions in which the Company does or may carry on business in the future, delays, suspension and technical challenges associated with capital projects, higher prices for fuel, steel, power, labour and other consumables, currency fluctuations, the speculative nature of gold exploration, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility, competition, loss of key employees, additional funding requirements and defective title to mineral claims or property. Although Goldcorp believes its expectations are based upon reasonable assumptions and has 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.

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Goldcorp to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: future prices of gold, silver, zinc, copper and lead; mine development and operating risks; possible variations in ore reserves, grade or recovery rates; risks related to international operations, including economic and political instability in foreign jurisdictions in which Goldcorp operates; risks related to current global financial conditions; risks related to joint venture operations; actual results of current exploration activities; actual results of current reclamation activities; environmental risks; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; risks associated with restructuring and cost-efficiency initiatives; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; risks related to the integration of acquisitions; risks related to indebtedness and the service of such indebtedness, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Description of the Business  Risk Factors" in Goldcorp's most recent annual information form available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Although Goldcorp has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. 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 statements. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Goldcorp, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any disposition, monetization, merger, acquisition, other business combination or other transaction that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of Goldcorp's operating environment. Goldcorp does not intend or undertake to publicly update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

For further information please contact:

INVESTOR CONTACT:

Shawn Campbell, Director, Investor Relations, Telephone: (800) 567-6223, E-mail: [email protected];

MEDIA CONTACT:

Christine Marks, Director, Corporate Communications, Telephone: (604) 696-3050, E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Goldcorp Inc.

Related Links

http://www.goldcorp.com

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Golub Capital recently announced that, as Administrative Agent, Sole Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner, it provided a GOLD facility to support the buyout of Inhance Technologies Holdings LLC ("Inhance Technologies" or "the Company") by Aurora Capital Partners. GOLD financings are Golub Capital One-Loan Debt facilities. The financing will enable Inhance Technologies to build new facilities in the U.S. and abroad, furthering their organic growth.

Inhance Technologies is a leading provider of fluorine materials science solutions. By leveraging proprietary chemical, engineering and technological processes, the Company transforms substrates such as plastics and composites into higher-performing materials. Their processes can be applied to a variety of products to add advanced features, increase durability, decrease friction, meet environmental regulations and solve design challenges. Inhance Technologies serves a variety of industries, including healthcare, automotive, consumer, transportation and industrial.

"The Company's proprietary technologies, market leadership and strong management team are an excellent fit for Aurora's partnership-oriented investment program and create an exciting platform for growth," said Michael Marino, Managing Partner at Aurora Capital. "Golub Capital has a long track record of providing flexible and scalable solutions for financing growth strategies, and we are excited to partner with them again for our investment in Inhance Technologies."

"We are impressed with the Company's unique market position and long history of innovation," said Troy Oder, Managing Director at Golub Capital. "We believe that Aurora's approach to partnering with management teams to identify and capitalize on new market opportunities will drive the continued expansion of the Inhance Technologies platform, and look forward to supporting this growth."

About Golub Capital Middle Market Lending

Golub Capital's Middle Market Lending group provides financing for middle market, private equity-backed transactions with hold positions of over $600 million and is an arranger of credit facilities up to $1 billion. Golub Capital's award-winning team strives to establish long-term, win-win partnerships by providing dependable, fast and creative solutions that meet private equity sponsors' and portfolio companies' needs.

Golub Capital is a nationally recognized credit asset manager with over $25 billion of capital under management. For over 20 years, Golub Capital has provided credit to help medium-sized U.S. businesses grow. The firm's award-winning Middle Market Lending business provides financing for middle market companies and their private equity sponsors. Golub Capital's credit expertise also forms the foundation of its Late Stage Lending and Broadly Syndicated Loan businesses. Golub Capital has worked hard to build a reputation as a fast, reliable provider of compelling financing solutions, and we believe this has inspired repeat clients and investors. Today, the firm has over 350 employees with lending offices in Chicago, New York and San Francisco. For more information, please visit golubcapital.com.

About Aurora Capital Partners

Aurora Capital Partners is a leading private equity firm managing funds with total capital commitments of over $3 billion. Aurora focuses principally on control investments in middle-market companies with leading market positions, stable industry dynamics, attractive business model characteristics and actionable opportunities for growth in partnership with management. Aurora provides a unique program for portfolio company growth and development through its Strategy & Operations Program. Aurora's investors include leading public and corporate pension funds, endowments and foundations active in private equity investing. For more information about Aurora Capital Partners, visit: www.auroracap.com.

About Inhance Technologies

Founded in 1983, Inhance Technologies focuses on the transformation of plastics and composites for higher performance through its Fluoro-Seal Process, Reactive Gas Technology, and DuraBloc Process. The company offers Barrier Technology, Surface Modification, and Performance Additives solutions that serve the crop protection, fuel systems, automotive, healthcare, consumer, and industrial markets from numerous locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and overseas. More information can be found at www.inhanceproducts.com.

SOURCE Golub Capital

Related Links

http://www.golubcapital.com/

The new, 240,000 square foot distribution facility is located at 480 E. 55 th Ave. in Denver, Colorado. The new service center will replace the Aurora warehouse, which closed on July 13. The current Denver location, located at 1375 W. 47 th Ave., will remain open as a full-service counter, will call, staging and storage facility.

The new facility will provide access to approximately $15 million in inventory and approximately 12,500 SKUs, as well as product staging, kitting, will call, jobsite boxes and carts, and wire and cable management services. The facility represents Graybar's commitment to sustainability and features LED lighting with daylight harvesting, high efficiency HVLS fans and automatic/low flow fixtures to reduce water consumption.

"This new service center will help us better serve our electrical, communications and industrial customers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Montana," said Dennis DeSousa, Graybar Regional Vice President  Western Region. "The service center is in a prime central location, and the additional space will allow us to offer enhanced logistics capabilities and increased local inventory."

A grand opening event is scheduled to take place in October.

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 nearly 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

Shipments of 770 MW in 2017 secured top market share among all module suppliers in Japan

Hanwha Q CELLS Japan has been the leading overseas solar module supplier since 2013, and the Company also surpassed domestic suppliers last year

Japan's preference for high quality aligns perfectly with Q CELLS' "Engineered in Germany " solar product portfolio

preference for high quality aligns perfectly with Q CELLS' "Engineered in " solar product portfolio The Company provides solutions that meet the needs of Japan's growing residential sector, such as 32- and 48-cell modules, and the Q.HOME+ energy storage system

BERLIN, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hanwha Q CELLS Japan Co., Ltd. ("Hanwha Q CELLS Japan") today announced that it secured a leading module supply market share with 770 MW of module shipments in Japan in 2017.

According to independent report, Reality and Future Perspective of Solar Battery Related Technology and Market 2018, published by Japanese market research company Fuji Keizai Co., Ltd, Hanwha Q CELLS Japan's module shipments in Japan last year was higher than any other company, including Chinese players as well as leading domestic brands.

Last year's market-leading performance built upon a strong showing for Hanwha Q CELLS Japan in 2016, when the company was the second largest module supplier with 700 MW of shipments.

Hanwha Q CELLS Japan first entered the Japanese solar market in 2011. In the following year, the Company delivered a relatively modest 50 MW of modules, before rising to become the leading overseas player in 2013 with shipments of 500 MW.

Japanese appetite for high quality matches the ethos of Hanwha Q CELLS Japan

Non-domestic solar module suppliers have long struggled to gain secure footing in the Japanese PV market. A combination of strong domestic brands and a historical preference for high quality products has meant that Japanese end consumers, distributors and installers have rarely chosen a non-Japanese solar module.

This preference for high performance and high quality is evident in multiple markets in Asia-Pacific, including Australia, which has consistently seen growth in market share that reached nearly 10% in the residential, rooftop segment as of 2017.

That attitude has begun to change over the past couple of years as leading international firms such as Hanwha Q CELLS Japan have entered the market. The product portfolio offered to Japanese customers by Hanwha Q CELLS Japan is defined by the highest technology standards of "Engineered in Germany" with Q CELLS' proprietary technology "Q.ANTUM". Moreover, Q CELLS' quality test is two to three times stricter than the global testing standard, so the Company is able to meet the exacting standards and preferences required in Japan.

Awards and accolades bestowed upon Q CELLS' modules  including the recent Intersolar Award 2018 in the category of Photovoltaics for the Q.PEAK DUO-G5 half-cell module, and the "Top Brand PV Europe Seal 2018" award from EuPD research  serve to underline the excellence in reliability, performance, quality and innovation that Japanese customers appreciate.

Hanwha Q CELLS Japan also provides localized products and solutions that have been adapted to meet the needs of the typical Japanese household, such as smaller 32- and 48-cell modules that are better suited to Japanese residential rooftops. Also, the Q.HOME+ all-in-one storage solution, which is comprised of a battery, inverter and energy management system is available in Japan.

Furthermore, Hanwha Q CELLS Japan operates one of the largest sales networks in Japan among non-domestic PV manufacturers, with a Tokyo HQ and four additional sales branches in Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Sendai. The technical support center is also located in Tsukuba. Such a broad presence provide Japanese customers a peace of mind that Hanwha Q CELLS Japan is on hand to support them and their PV systems at their convenience.

Residential growth equals residential strength for Hanwha Q CELLS Japan

Despite severe cuts to Japan's residential feed-in tariff (FIT)  which was lowered at the beginning of the year from 28/kWh to 26kWh  the residential PV sector is enjoying a renaissance, boosted by the Government's Zero Energy House (ZEH) directive. The ZEH states that more than half of new homes built by 2020 should have zero emissions, and thus more and more homebuilders and homeowners are turning to solar. According to consulting firm RTS Corporation, residential installations will play a leading role in pushing 2018 PV installations in Japan to as high as 7.5 GW  up from 2017.

In the residential market last year, Hanwha Q CELLS Japan's Q.PEAK product was the most preferred module in Japan, winning the 'Smart HIT Award 2017' prize given by Smart House Magazine. The Q.PEAK series uses Hanwha Q CELLS' proprietary Q.ANTUM (PERC) monocrystalline cell technology to deliver efficiencies of up to 18.6%, offering outstanding yields over smaller surface areas.

Hanwha Q CELLS, together with Hanwha Q CELLS Korea, another affiliate of Hanwha Group, is the world's largest manufacturer of PERC solar cells, with annual production capacity of over 6 GW. PERC technology was first developed at Australia's University of New South Wales. Inventor of PERC and recent Global Energy Prize winner, Dr. Martin Green predicts that PERC technology utilized in all Q.ANTUM module ranges of Hanwha Q CELLS, including half-cell PERC technology such as Q.ANTUM DUO, will be the direction in which the rest of the industry will go. "Hanwha Q CELLS has definitely led the way in getting PERC into production," says Dr. Green.

Dong-in Shin, the Head of Sales for Hanwha Q CELLS Japan, said, "Securing leading market share in a competitive, high quality solar market such as Japan is testament to the extensive effort put in by the Hanwha Q CELLS R&D team to ensure that our module products are continually the best-in-class."

"As a non-domestic company, thriving in the Japanese solar market is incredibly challenging, which is why Hanwha Q CELLS Japan has taken great care to understand the needs of end customers in Japan, examining closely which solutions, products and services would best fit their needs, and why we have duly delivered. Our aim now is to continue to strengthen this market-leading position in Japan and further build strong relationships throughout the country."

About Hanwha Q CELLS Japan

Hanwha Q CELLS Japan Co., Ltd was established in 1984 as Japanese subsidiary of a South Korea's leading enterprise, Hanwha Group and commemorated 30th anniversary in February 2014. Hanwha Q CELLS Japan conducts exportation, importation in Asia and sales in Japanese market for various key industries such as solar energy (photovoltaic module importation and IPP), chemicals, iron, steel, mechatronics, manufacturing facilities, automotive components and IT products. In 2017, Hanwha Q CELLS Japan became the leading PV module supplier in Japan based on shipment volume, reached 3.4 GW of total shipment volume and 30,000 installations on residential roofs, ever since the company entered PV business in 2011.

For more information, visit: www.q-cells.jp

Safe-Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the quotations from management in this press release and the Hanwha Q CELLS Japan's operations and business outlook, contain forward-looking statements. Such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or suggested by the forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Hanwha Q CELLS Japan does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:

Hanwha Q CELLS GmbH

Corporate Communications

Jochen Endle, Ian Clover

Tel: +49 (0)3494 6699 1012

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE Hanwha Q CELLS Co., Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.q-cells.jp

ATLANTA, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading dental health provider Kool Smiles today announced that, for the second time this year, it will award five $1,000 classroom grants to K-5 teachers who exceed expectations in their promotion of dental health and education in the classroom. As a new school year approaches, the grant is intended to support teachers and educators who go above and beyond in delivering quality education by providing additional funds for classroom supplies and other school needs.

Submissions for the My Kool Smiles Classroom Grant Program will be accepted online from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, 2018. Educators who would like to apply for the grant or members of the community who are interested in nominating an outstanding educator can find the application information and entry guidelines at www.mykoolsmiles.com/l/classroomgrants.

"Kool Smiles created the classroom grant program as a way of supporting teachers who passionately educate their students about the importance of starting good dental habits early in life," said Dr. Dale Mayfield, Chief Dental Officer for Kool Smiles. "Teachers are a frontline offense in the quest to educate children early about the benefits of good dental health habits. Kool Smiles wants our outstanding educators in the community to know we appreciate their efforts in the classroom and join them in the mission to improve the dental health of America's children."

In order for an educator to be eligible, they must be actively teaching in a K-5 classroom at a public, private, charter, or approved home school program in the United States. Submissions should include either an example of a dental lesson plan or details about how healthy dental habits are being promoted in their classroom. Submissions may be formatted as a video, essay, or photo.

Applicants are advised to carefully review the official rules before applying. Applications will be reviewed by a committee of Kool Smiles and Benevis team members, and the five winners will be notified by email on September 12, 2018.

Kool Smiles' latest K-5 Classroom Grant program follows an impactful giving program earlier this spring, in which Kool Smiles donated funds to exceptional teachers in El Paso, TX; Dalton, GA; Sheppard, TX; and, New Britain, CT. The five winners were recognized for their creative lessons that teach young students the importance of maintaining healthy oral hygiene habits and strong teeth.

The Kool Smiles classroom grant program is sponsored by the Benevis Foundation. For more information, please visit https://www.mykoolsmiles.com/l/classroomgrants.

About Kool Smiles

Kool Smiles is dedicated to creating a world of happy, healthy smiles. As a leading dental health provider, Kool Smiles' mission is to improve lives by providing high quality dental care in a fun, compassionate environment. Kool Smiles dentists are proud to offer care to kids and adults with almost any insurance plan, including Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP), Medicaid and Tricare. Kool Smiles also provides oral health education programs through partnerships with community schools and organizations. For more information, please visit www.mykoolsmiles.com .

About the Benevis Foundation

The Benevis Foundation is committed to improving dental care access and outcomes for underserved communities in the United States through research, education and outreach. The foundation sponsors ongoing research on the role of Medicaid dental providers in improving access to preventative care, early intervention, and dental health education among traditionally underserved pediatric populations, as well as research on the cost savings associated with improving access to dental care among these patient populations in both federal and state healthcare systems. Through these research efforts, the Benevis Foundation hopes to provide data that informs and strengthens public policy related to dental access and affordability. For more information, visit http://benevis.com/benevis-foundation/.

SOURCE Kool Smiles

Related Links

http://www.mykoolsmiles.com

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG International today announced an integration of its Intelligent Interactions solution with Google Cloud's new Contact Center AI, a solution that combines multiple artificial intelligence (AI) products to improve the customer service experience and productivity of contact centers.

KPMG's Intelligent Interactions uses machine learning (ML), AI and data and analytics to automate and enhance customer experiences and touchpoints through five main channels: voice, chatbots, virtual assistants, search and email.

When integrated with Contact Center AI  a solution that allows enterprises with limited ML expertise to deploy AI in their contact centers  KPMG clients can improve the quality of customer service, gain new insights with data and analytics and remove significant annual operating costs.

"Contact Center AI accelerates an organization's ability to understand customer trends so they can enable customer interaction channels with operational, training and decision making analytics," said Miriam Hernandez-Kakol, Global Leader for Customer & Operations Advisory, KPMG in the US. "With faster access to insights and enhanced understanding of intent and reason, businesses can proactively respond to trending customer needs, while reducing costs and improving efficiencies."

Key features of KPMG's Intelligent Interactions integration with Contact Center AI include:

Offering customers proactive outreach, relevant choices and expeditious service from virtual conversational agents that automatically chat with customers.

Enhancing human contact center agents and channels with AI to help improve service by receiving automatic suggestions and articles to answer customer concerns.

Ability to provide a live agent with full context of the virtual agent conversation.

Generating actionable analytics to distill trends and influence new product and service creation.

Increasing revenue and profitability through higher customer satisfaction and the resulting competitive advantage.

Extracting email topics and customer sentiment to generate intelligent responses and predict which templates agents need to resolve customer issues.

"Contact Center AI empowers enterprises with AI to complement and enhance their contact centers," said Rajen Sheth, Director of Product Management, Google Cloud. "Google Cloud's goal  through our relationships with key alliance partners like KPMG  is to make it as easy as possible for our customers to use AI for contact centers."

The integration leverages KPMG's deep industry and functional experience with Google Cloud's wide-ranging data analytics and ML platform built for large-scale elasticity and stability, security and performance. KPMG has decades of experience in architecting and integrating enterprise contact center solutions in many industries.

Hernandez-Kakol, added, "The art of the possible with analytics is where we really help provide value in teaming with Google Cloud. Our investment and capability in machine learning, smart analytics and other intelligent automation technologies is underpinned by a business-first, issues-led approach that helps KPMG clients achieve a more consistent and improved customer experience spanning email, voice, chat, search and virtual assistant channels."

The integration with Contact Center AI expands KPMG's global alliance with Google Cloud and is part of a growing AI portfolio of tools and technologies within the Intelligent Interactions ecosystem.

Through its strategic alliance with Google, KPMG has certified more than 65 Google Cloud consultants and established an innovation lab to help clients integrate the latest Google Cloud technologies, including the Contact Center AI, into their business and operating models.

During Google Cloud Next '18, Traci Gusher, Data & Analytics Principal, KPMG in the US, will showcase how to apply Google Cloud's Contact Center AI during a session, AI Powered Contact Center Analytics, on Wednesday, July 25, at 11:00 a.m. PT. The demo uses data from KPMG's IT Help Desk and includes more than 95,000 contacts from a nine-month period.

Future of Retail Banking on Display

During the Next '18 Financial Services Showcase, KPMG will join Google Cloud and Samsung Electronics America, Inc. for an immersive demo of the future of retail banking. Experience a next generation mortgage application process at "home" and at the "branch" that combines multiple Google Cloud technologies with the KPMG Intelligent Interactions solution.

For example, from the comfort of their living room, a customer can provide some basic information and shop for a mortgage for a new home. This automation-enabled process uses smartphone, tablet, virtual assistant and other technologies to connect with the lender, make a face-to-face appointment, conduct the meeting, and be pre-approved for the mortgage in a simple, streamlined process without having to re-enter or recap data already provided.

Phil Rolland, Advisory Managing Director, KPMG in the US, said, "KPMG and Google Cloud are using machine learning and analytics to radically reimagine the home mortgage application process for customers of our Financial Services clients. This automation is designed to reduce the 45 to 60 day average mortgage approval process by half or more, and it's just the beginning of what is possible."

KPMG at Google Cloud Next '18

KPMG is a sponsor of Google Cloud Next '18, July 24-26, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Learn how KPMG and Google Cloud are solving business challenges during the following speaking sessions:

Speaker Topic Date and time Arthur Franke, KPMG in the US 20-Minute Cloud Talk:

Enterprise Machine Learning from the Trenches Tuesday, July 24

12:30 p.m. PT Bill Cline, KPMG in the US Leaders Circle: Financial Services Tuesday, July 24

3:45-4:30 p.m. PT Sander Klous, KPMG in the Netherlands Panel: Principled Use of AI Wednesday, July 25 11:00 a.m. PT Bharat Rao, KPMG in the US KPMG HealthCare Breakout: Profitable Growth through Patient Loyalty and Provider Productivity Wednesday, July 25

4:35 p.m. PT

Google Cloud Next attendees can learn more at the KPMG booth #W3318, Moscone West, level 3, or by visiting www.kpmg.com/us/google-next.

Media contacts:

Kristen Morgan

KPMG LLP (US)

410-949-2668

[email protected]

Jennifer Samuel

KPMG International

416-451-8185

[email protected]

About KPMG International

KPMG is a global network of professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 154 countries and territories and have 200,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates.

SOURCE KPMG InternationalPreviously he was the Vice President of Legal Affairs and Corporate Secretary for Stillwater Mining Company, responsible for the legal affairs of the Company and proper governance of the Board. He has served as Senior Counsel at Combat Support Associates, a U.S. defense contractor in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Deputy General Counsel at infoGroup Inc., a direct marketing company in Omaha, Nebraska, and as an attorney for Ameritrade, Inc, a securities broker in Omaha, Nebraska.

Brent has over 17 years of broad corporate legal experience in a variety of industries. He currently counsels public and private companies concerning corporate ethics and governance, SEC compliance, internal investigations, and Board functions.

About Messner Reeves LLP

Messner Reeves LLP, a full-service national business law firm, provides legal services from seven offices in Colorado, Nevada, California, New York, and Utah. Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to individual entrepreneurs. We have earned a distinguished reputation for offering effective legal counsel, quick response, and the highest level of professional integrity in the following areas of practice: corporate transactions & securities, labor & employment, litigation- including commercial, insurance, constructions and professional liability, real estate, intellectual property, restaurant & hospitality, banking & financial services, art law, health law, trust & estates, transportation logistics, and private client and tax services. For more information, please visit www.messner.com.

SOURCE Messner Reeves LLP

Related Links

http://www.messner.com

RESTON, Va., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, was awarded a Department of Energy contract to support research for the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The single-award, cost-plus-award-fee contract has a three-year base period of performance with two two-year option periods and a final three-year option period. The potential 10-year contract has a total dollar value of $364.7 million.

The NETL develops tools and processes to provide clean, reliable, and affordable energy to the American people. Under the contract, Leidos will provide scientific and engineering personnel, facilities, equipment, materials, supplies, and services to support technology-based energy research, development and demonstrations.

Additionally, Leidos will lead a team that includes subcontractors, various universities and small businesses to provide logistical and research support, business development, financial management, and research execution. The contract supports efforts intended to accelerate the development of reliable, clean, efficient energy systems.

"Leidos and its partners have more than 100 years of combined experience providing scientific and engineering support to the federal government," said Angie Heise, Leidos Civil Group President. "We will leverage that experience as we work with the Department of Energy to continuously improve research efforts at the NETL and help them deliver on their critical mission."

About Leidos

Leidos is a Fortune 500 information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world's toughest challenges in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil, and health markets. The company's 31,000 employees support vital missions for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $10.17 billion for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2017. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.



Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 29, 2017, and other such filings that Leidos makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

SOURCE Leidos

Related Links

http://www.leidos.com

WESTMINSTER, CO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Maxar Technologies (the "Company" or "Maxar", formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd.), (NYSE: MAXR; TSX: MAXR), a global technology innovator powering the new space economy, announced today that members of senior management will present at the following investor conferences:

Jefferies Global Industrials Conference

Intercontinental Barclay, New York

August 8, 2018

4:00 p.m. EDT

Register for the webcast here:

http://wsw.com/webcast/jeff114/maxr/

Canaccord Genuity Growth Conference

Intercontinental Hotel, Boston

August 9, 2018

2:00 p.m. EDT

There will be no webcast available for this presentation

If indicated, webcasts of the presentations will also be accessible on the Investor section of the Maxar website,

http://investor.maxar.com/events-and-presentations/default.aspx

About Maxar Technologies

As a global leader of advanced space technology solutions, Maxar Technologies (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates) is at the nexus of the new space economy, developing and sustaining the infrastructure and delivering the information, services, systems that unlock the promise of space for commercial and government markets. As a trusted partner, Maxar Technologies provides vertically-integrated capabilities and expertise including satellites, Earth imagery, robotics, geospatial data and analytics to help customers anticipate and address their most complex mission-critical challenges with confidence. With more than 6,500 employees in over 30 global locations, the Maxar Technologies portfolio of commercial space brands includes MDA, SSL, DigitalGlobe and Radiant Solutions. Every day, billions of people rely on Maxar to communicate, share information and data, and deliver insights that Build a Better World. Maxar trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange as MAXR. For more information, visit www.maxar.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

The above referenced investor conferences may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, which reflect the current view of Maxar Technologies Ltd. (the "Company" or "Maxar") with respect to future events and financial performance. Any such forward-looking statements are based on Maxar's current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions made in light of its experience and perception of historical trends. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Maxar's control and the effects of which can be difficult to predict. Maxar's actual results of operations could differ materially from historical results or current expectations. You are referred to the risk factors described in the above referenced earnings release and in Maxar's most recent annual Management's Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form, which are available under the Company's profile on SEDAR, www.sedar.com, under the Company's EDGAR profile at www.sec.gov, or on the Company's website at www.maxar.com.

Investor Relations Contact:

Jason Gursky

Maxar VP Investor Relations

1-303-684-2207

[email protected]



Media Contact:

Turner Brinton

Maxar Media Relations

1-303-684-4545

[email protected]

SOURCE Maxar Technologies Ltd.

Related Links

www.maxar.com

TORONTO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A new partnership between Medicine by Design and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), founded at the Rotman School of Management, will strengthen Toronto's biomedical ecosystem by bringing together the University of Toronto's (U of T) world-class research in regenerative medicine and the CDL's proven seed-stage program for science-based companies.

The two organizations are collaborating to launch a health-themed cohort at CDL-Toronto, expanding on a stream pioneered in 2017/18 at CDL-West that helps technical teams take their health innovations to market by providing access to accomplished mentors and investors in life sciences.

Medicine by Design will provide ventures with technical advisory support from among its community of more than 110 scientists, engineers and clinicians across U of T and its affiliated hospitals who are working at the frontiers of regenerative medicine. The projects, technologies and companies Medicine by Design researchers are building will also provide a robust pipeline of potential candidates for the CDL health stream.

"Medicine by Design is delighted to work with the CDL to advance the commercialization of regenerative medicine therapies and technologies," said University Professor Michael Sefton, Executive Director of Medicine by Design. "By combining Medicine by Design's research expertise and CDL's success in scaling seed-stage science-based companies, this partnership promises to take Toronto to the next level as a global leader in the field."

"The Creative Destruction Lab has a strong history of supporting health-based companies, and we are very excited to deepen this area of focus through our Health Stream," said Sonia Sennik, Executive Director at the CDL. Through the success of companies like Phenomic AI and Avro Life Science, the CDL has shown that its objectives-based mentoring can have an impact on the trajectory of an early-stage health company. "By partnering with Medicine by Design, we can expand a successful model to include companies on the cutting edge of cell therapy and regenerative medicine."

Applications for the 2018/19 CDL-Toronto Health Stream are due by August 12 online at www.creativedestructionlab.com/cdl-app-2018-2019/.

About the Creative Destruction Lab:

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based companies that works with world-class entrepreneurs, scientists and investors as well as university students to bring the best ideas in the technology field to market. Launched in 2012 in Toronto at U of T's Rotman School of Management, CDL has since expanded to Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax and New York City, and companies that have participated in its programs have created $2.5 billion (Canadian) in equity value. The nine-month program employs an objectives-based mentoring process with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation.

About Medicine by Design:

Medicine by Design is a regenerative medicine initiative at U of T that undertakes transformational research to improve health outcomes and create value. Building on decades of made-in-Toronto discoveries, Medicine by Design is developing new peaks of excellence and strengthening Canada as a global leader in regenerative medicine thanks to a $114-million investment from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.

About the Rotman School of Management:

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada's commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

SOURCE Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Related Links

http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Luxury home sales activity in the seven-county Chicago area increased modestly during the second quarter, while prices showed little upward momentum, according to the quarterly RE/MAX Luxury Report on Metro Chicago Real Estate. Home purchases of $1 million or more climbed to 916 units, up +1.9% from the same period last year. For the full first half of this year, the increase was +3.2% to 1,408 units. Both those transaction totals were the highest for their respective periods since RE/MAX began tracking luxury home sales in 2011.

The second-quarter median sales price in the luxury bracket was unchanged at $1.3 million, and average market time, which is the number of days from the date a property is listed until it goes under contract, dipped to 149 days from 167 days a year ago.

"The luxury market isn't booming, but it is certainly doing well in terms of sales volume, and it is working through some of the excess inventory that accumulated over the 18 months prior to 2018," observed Jeff LaGrange, Vice President of the RE/MAX Northern Illinois Region. "The luxury inventory was -3.6% lower on June 30 than it was a year earlier. The exception to that trend was among luxury attached homes, primarily condominium units, in Chicago, where inventory increased +7.3% thanks to a steady supply of new construction. The detached-home inventory declined -11.8% in Chicago and -4.8% in the suburbs. Nonetheless, there remains an ample inventory of luxury homes, and that has helped restrain prices, a situation likely to continue through at least the second half of this year."

City of Chicago Luxury Sales

The city luxury market had an active second quarter, with 457 homes changing hands, +7.3% more than during the same quarter last year. First-half sales gained +5.9%. The median sales price for the second quarter was $1,311,500, -2.3% less than last year's comparable figure. Average market time shortened to 127 days from 142 a year ago.

The second-quarter increase in units sold is attributable to a surge in attached-home sales, which rose +18.8% to 215 units. The median sales price for luxury attached homes slipped -2.4% to $1.29 million. The biggest gains in attached sales occurred in two emerging areas that have seen a good deal of new high-rise construction. Sales in the Near West Side totaled 23 units, a gain of +228.6%, while 15 luxury sales in the Near South Side represented a gain of +114.3%. Also showing sales strength was the Near North Side, the traditional leader in luxury attached sales, where 125 units were sold, an increase of +30.2%. However, other key areas saw fewer transactions for the quarter than in 2017. Sales dipped -20% in the Loop, -27.3% in Lincoln Park and -41.7% in Lake View.

Sales of detached homes totaled 242 units in the second quarter, down -1.2% from the year-earlier period, while the median sales price for the first half of the year slipped -0.4% to $1.34 million. Average market time shortened by 26 days to 133 days.

Lincoln Park, Lake View and North Center again had the largest numbers of detached luxury sales, but only Lake View posted a sales increase, gaining +2.5% on 41 sales in the second quarter. Lincoln Park's 55 sales were a -14.1% decline, while North Center recorded 39 sales, down -42.6%. On the other hand, detached sales increased in most other city communities where they are common, led by Logan Square, where luxury sales soared +255.6% to 32 units. Luxury sales also increased +8.3% in Lincoln Square, +100% in Near North Side and +66.7% in Edgewater, while sales were unchanged in West Town and down -50% in Uptown.

Suburban Luxury Sales

Suburban luxury sales fell -3% in the second quarter but managed a +0.3% gain for the January-June period. The median sales price for the second quarter gained +0.4% to $1.28 million, and average market time shortened by 17 days to 172 days.

As it did in the first quarter, Hinsdale led all suburbs in luxury activity in the April-June period with 54 sales, while Winnetka, with 52 sales, was again in second place. In both cases, sales were higher than during the same period last year: +5.9% in Hinsdale and +4% in Winnetka. The biggest increases in luxury suburban sales were +90% in Naperville to 19 units, +41.7% in Wilmette to 51 units and +33.3% in Elmhurst to 24 units. The two luxury markets with the softest second-quarter results were Highland Park, down -52.4% to 10 units and Glenview, down -30.3% to 23 units.

Contact: James Nathan, [email protected], 1-773-588-0777

SOURCE RE/MAX Northern IllinoisNEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Michael Loeb, founder and CEO of Loeb Enterprises, the New York City-based startup firm, is continuing his longtime commitment to career development through his company's summer program for entrepreneurial internships in New York City. Sponsored by Loeb Enterprises, the paid internships are at startups within the Loeb portfolio as well as fast growing companies outside the Loeb portfolio that do not have a budget for internships.

Michael Loeb addresses students at Internatopia

Now in its second year, the Loeb Enterprises Summer Internship Program has placed 40 students from more than 20 U.S. colleges in 10-week, paid internship positions at a variety of New York City-based companies. The program is designed for students who express interest in spending their summer in a startup atmosphere rather than in a more typical, institutional internship.

"We are fortunate to have again attracted a group of bright, energetic students who are displaying a genuine enthusiasm for business and innovation," said Michael Loeb. "Our goal is to provide these extraordinary young minds the opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship from actual entrepreneurs. The program makes sure the students are fully engaged and complete assignments that contribute to a startup's trajectory."

Loeb, a serial entrepreneur, developed the Loeb Enterprises Summer Internship Program with Nicole Williams, an author of three bestselling books focused on careers and women in business. Williams is the founder of WORKS, a Loeb Enterprises portfolio company centered on energizing and advancing career success.

More than 1,000 students applied for the 40 spots offered in this summer's Internship Program. Two-dozen colleges are represented including the University of Chicago, Cornell, UConn, Harvard, NYU and Amherst, which is Michael Loeb's alma mater and home to the Loeb Center for Career Exploration and Planning.

Upon their arrival to New York City in June, the interns visited Michael Loeb's house in Southampton for a three-day event known as "Internatopia," during which the students heard pitches directly from the founders and CEOs of participating startups. In turn, the students pitch themselves and their ideas to the CEOs. Individual meetings between the startups and the students were held prior to each intern being matched with a company to assure fit and an optimally productive summer experience.

Loeb added: "Internatopia also includes an entrepreneur boot camp comprised of programming developed by myself and other startup veterans to help prepare the students for their immersive summer experience."

Throughout the summer, the interns visit Loeb Enterprises headquarters where they hear addresses from successful individuals from various fields of business, the arts, and philanthropy. In addition, interns participate in weekly roundtables where their progress is reviewed and their goals are discussed.

For more information on Loeb Enterprises click here.

ABOUT MICHAEL LOEB

Michael Loeb is a New York-based veteran entrepreneur who has backed, built, or funded over fifty successful companies. Chief among his successes are Priceline.com--known for its travel deals and travel search engine, and Synapse (acquired by Time, Inc.). Loeb now leads Loeb.NYC and Loeb Enterprises, a start up laboratory and private investment platform, respectively, based in New York City. A leading New York philanthropist, Loeb donates to a variety of charities, and he's donated the location fees related to his Hampton's home being used as a set for the Showtime television series Billions.

Press Contact: Shea Communications

Richard Shea (212) 627-5766

SOURCE Loeb EnterprisesEVART, Mich., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan Potash Company ("MPC" or "Michigan Potash") is pleased to welcome Mr. Clay M. Gaspar to the Board of Directors.

Mr. Gaspar is currently President and Chief Operating Officer at WPX Energy, Inc (NYSE: WPX). Clay has been instrumental at WPX, implementing widespread change associated with a $7 billion portfolio transformation that has made WPX an emergent, nibble leader in natural resource development and a part of the United States' dramatic shift to energy independence.

As identified by the United States Geological Survey, Michigan Potash is an emergent natural resource player sitting on a purported $65-billion, 150 year, proved and probable potash reserve. It is one of the highest grade ores in the world.

Potash ore in Michigan is accessed by drilling wells a mile and a half underground and circulating water and brine. MPC is re-initiating with new investment, high quality potash and food grade salt production from a tier one reserve serving the highest potash and salt consuming region in the United States.

"Our operation is more akin to energy development then conventional mining operations. Clay is a well-respected industry leader, with sound decision analysis and immediate experience in materializing similar projects to cash flow with state of the art technology," commented Theodore Pagano, CEO of Michigan Potash.

A Presidential order was issued in December to ensure secure and reliable US supplies of 35 critical and strategic minerals, including potash, which is considered critical to economic and national security. Potash is a natural potassium fertilizer required for food growth and has no known substitutes. It is also used in oil and gas drilling fluids, steel manufacturing, and food products. The United States currently imports over 95% of its domestic potash needs, principally from only four companies with assets in Russia (1) , Belarus (1), and Canada (2).

Clay Gaspar joins Angelo Brisitimakis, the former CEO of Compass Minerals, the US' largest publicly traded company of both specialty potash and salt.

"Clay's business savvy and leadership will be instrumental in facilitating a successful answer to the recent US Government call to increase domestic potash production and alleviate the current import reliance. His executive leadership will help us successfully transform Michigan's unique asset and infrastructural strength into new GDP while becoming the United States' only material and sustainable supplier of muriate of potash," continued Theodore.

Previously, Clay served as Vice President for Newfield Exploration Company, and prior, spent 16 years with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation holding positions as General Manager of Investor Relations, Business Advisor, and General Manager. Clay is a Registered Professional Engineer with a Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering and Master's degree in Petroleum and Geosciences Engineering.

Clay has worked across the country and abroad, offshore and onshore, engineering and administrative. Clay has also been pivotal when working together with communities. "Communities are affected by our operations, and it's incumbent upon us to work together," says Clay. "For every project, you want to not only add value, but also to leave things better than you found them."

About Michigan Potash Company:

Michigan Potash Company, LLC is a private, US-based potash and salt company responsibly controlling over 150 million tons of recoverable potassium K2O product in the US cornbelt, leading America into a new era of sustainable, low cost, domestic potash production.

The company is also planning to produce high grade saleable salt which will provide revenue streams that offset operating costs, which are already the world's lowest net delivered to the cornbelt.

Michigan Potash Company, LLC has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC as its exclusive financial advisor.

For further information, please visit our website: http://mipotash.com

SOURCE Michigan Potash Company

Related Links

http://mipotash.com

Ms. Bienfait joins the board following Christine N. Garvey's retirement today, after serving as a member of the Board of Directors since 2007. Ms. Garvey is the former Global Head of Corporate Real Estate services at Deutsche Bank AG, where she retired in 2004. She previously held the position of Group Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial Real Estate Services for Bank of America and held senior level positions at other major financial institutions.

Ms. Bienfait is the CEO of Emnovate, an executive advisory firm delivering enterprise-class services to large global companies. Prior to founding her own firm, Ms. Bienfait was Executive Vice President and Chief Enterprise Innovation Officer at Samsung Electronics from 2014 to 2016. She previously held a number of executive positions at Blackberry from 2007 to 2014, including: Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer for Software and Chief Information Security Officer. Prior to her career at Blackberry, Ms. Bienfait spent 23 years at AT&T in a range of roles, including: Senior Vice President, Worldwide Network Operations, Network Security and Network Disaster Recovery; and Chief Compliance Officer. Ms. Bienfait is Chairman of the board of directors for Global Aviation and a member of the board of directors at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She earned a B.A. in Engineering from Central Missouri State University and a M.A. in Technology Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

"The addition of Robin to our Board of Directors comes at a critical time in MUFG's journey, particularly with regard to how we leverage a range of technological advancements on behalf of our clients, including AI, blockchain, mobile banking and cryptocurrency," said Masato Miyachi, Executive Chairman of MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation and MUFG Union Bank, N.A. "I'm confident that Robin's depth of experience with some of the world's most innovative companies will be extremely valuable to MUFG." Mr. Miyachi continued, "On behalf of the Board of Directors and the entire MUFG family, we thank Christine Garvey for her service to the firm. She has been instrumental in guiding us as we've grown our franchise in the U.S. amid an ever-challenging competitive landscape."

About MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation

Headquartered in New York, MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation is a financial holding company, bank holding company and intermediate holding company with total assets of $157.3 billion at March 31, 2018. Its main subsidiaries are MUFG Union Bank, N.A. and MUFG Securities Americas Inc. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. provides an array of financial services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. As of March 31, 2018, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 355 branches, comprised primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states, along with commercial branches in Texas, Illinois, New York and Georgia, as well as 21 PurePoint Financial Centers and one international office. MUFG Securities Americas Inc. is a registered securities broker-dealer which engages in capital markets origination transactions, private placements, collateralized financings, securities borrowing and lending transactions, and domestic and foreign debt and equities securities transactions. MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation is owned by MUFG Bank, Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. MUFG Bank, Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., which is one of the world's leading financial groups. Visit https://www.unionbank.com/ or https://www.mufg.jp/english/ for more information.

About Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and MUFG Bank, Ltd.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) is one of the world's leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with over 1,800 locations in more than 50 countries. The Group has over 150,000 employees and offers services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing. The Group aims to "be the world's most trusted financial group" through close collaboration among our operating companies and flexibly respond to all of the financial needs of our customers, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world. MUFG's shares trade on the Tokyo, Nagoya, and New York stock exchanges. For more information, visit https://www.mufg.jp/english.

On April 1, 2018 the name of MUFG's commercial bank changed from "The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd." to "MUFG Bank, Ltd." Many of the bank's overseas subsidiaries followed suit on the same day, but branches and subsidiaries in some countries will carry out the name change at a later date. MUFG's New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol has also changed to "MUFG." For more information regarding overseas subsidiaries, visit http://www.bk.mufg.jp/global/newsroom/announcements/pdf/201803_namechange.pdf

SOURCE MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation

Related Links

https://www.mufg.jp/english

The National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) is a professional association that serves public television licensees and educational entities in all 50 states, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, connecting public television people and ideas, by providing quality programming, educational resources, professional development, management support, and national representation.

Erik Hastings, aka "Erik The Travel Guy", is the host and Executive Producer of Beyond Your Backyard and is thrilled with the partnership with NETA. "The team and I are so happy to partner with NETA. We have always admired their dedication to quality educational programming. We are delighted."

Hastings has worked closely with Blue Ridge PBS, a four (4)-time regional Emmy Award winner for documentaries and community service, in launching Beyond Your Backyard, and has been an integral part of the series' national distribution strategy. As the region's storyteller, Blue Ridge PBS offers outstanding informational, educational and cultural programming, along with an award-winning local production team devoted to regional issues and interests.

"Through our multiple public media platforms, Blue Ridge PBS helps paint a picture of what the world is like every day," says William Anderson, executive vice president. "What better way to help our viewers experience the joy of travel by providing the opportunity to visit these places and experience their unique treasures. Using the camera's eye and energetic conversation, Beyond Your Backyard offers a diverse perspective on each new destination. This program is designed to appeal to the most seasoned world travelers and also to those who are just looking for a weekend getaway."

Founded in 1967, Blue Ridge PBS is the sole public multimedia enterprise serving 4 million individuals in portions of five states. The station's coverage area includes southwestern Virginia and bordering counties in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and North Carolina. Based in Roanoke, Va., Blue Ridge PBS is comprised of three channels: WBRA-TV 15.1, Southwest Virginia PTV 15.2 and Blue Ridge PBS Kids 15.3.

Season One of Beyond Your Backyard is set for a feed date of September 5, 2018. Online media kit:

http://www.erikthetravelguy.com/bybmediakit.html

Contact:





Kevin Allen Sherry Spradlin Executive Producer Director of Programming "Erik The Travel Guy" Blue Ridge PBS 646-350-0037 (w) 540-983-1763 (w) [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Erik The Travel Guy

Related Links

http://www.erikthetravelguy.com

SEATTLE, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- First Sound Bank (OTCBB:FSWA) today announced that Patrick M. Fahey has retired as a member of its board of directors. Fahey has served as First Sound Bank's chairman of the board since January 1, 2012, and as its chairman, president and CEO from 2012 through 2016.

Steven J. Schwartz, who has served on the First Sound Bank Board of Directors since 2006, has been elected to serve as its new chairman.

In announcing Fahey's retirement, First Sound Bank President and CEO Jon Shelton stated, "Pat Fahey, a pillar in the Washington banking industry for five decades, has been a critical component in ensuring the success of First Sound since he joined us in early 2012. We wish him well in his retirement and sincerely appreciate his leadership, his strong support of our organization, and his invaluable contributions to our team over the years. He will be sorely missed."

Fahey deservedly looks forward to spending more time with his wife of 54 years, Barbara, his children, and his 14 grandchildren. He also looks forward to spending time at his summer lake property and enjoying his boat in the Pacific Northwest waters.

Fahey began his very long and storied banking career with Seattle-First National Bank in 1967, following his service as a U.S. Army Infantry Officer. He rose to an executive level position at Seattle-First, then served as president and chief operating officer with Old National Bank for four years. In 1987, he left Old National to start Pacific Northwest Bank, where he served as its chairman, president and CEO. It was under Fahey's leadership that Pacific Northwest Bank grew to become the largest commercial bank in the Northwest, before its acquisition by Wells Fargo Bank in 2004. Later, Fahey came out of retirement to consult with banks, before eventually assuming the role of chairman, president and CEO of First Sound Bank in 2012.

First Sound Bank President and CEO Shelton also was pleased to announce Schwartz's new appointment. "We are extremely fortunate that Steve Schwartz has agreed to assume the role of chairman of the board." Schwartz has a very successful history in the Seattle commercial real estate services industry. He is currently a senior vice president with CBRE Group Inc. in Seattle, where he advises tenants on their occupancy and leasing strategies throughout the Northwest and beyond. Prior to joining CBRE, Schwartz was a managing director at JLL, a national commercial real estate company. In 1992, he co-founded Pacific Real Estate Partners, Inc. and helped lead its growth in the region, culminating in the firm's acquisition by JLL in 2011. Schwartz is very active in a number of community and civic organizations.

About First Sound Bank

Seattle-based First Sound Bank offers customized banking for small- to medium-sized businesses, organizations, not-for-profits and professionals in the Puget Sound region. The bank is committed to delivering personalized service, convenient access, and competitive rates to support the needs of the business community. First Sound Bank offers online banking at www.firstsoundbank.com and an expansive array of cash management services, as well as ATM banking throughout the country and abroad.

SOURCE First Sound Bank

Related Links

http://www.firstsoundbank.com

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Persistent Systems, LLC ("Persistent") announced today that the MPU5 mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) radio received a Level 2 Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 security validation from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Users in defense, government, public safety, healthcare, and other industries with a requirement of FIPS 140-2 Level 2 can now make greater use of the MPU5 radio.

"The MPU5 runs the Wave Relay MANET routing protocol, allowing users to transmit and relay voice, video, text, and sensor data in a true peer-to-peer fashion," said Eric Stern, Director of Engineering at Persistent Systems. "This makes it a very attractive option for a wide variety of users, from the military to law enforcement, to the federal government and the healthcare industry."

In May, the radio received a Level 1 FIPS 140-2 validation. This meant that agencies that already used the Persistent MANET radio could also use it to connect to their enterprise networks.

The FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validation incorporates the Level 1 cryptographic data security requirement with the additional requirement of physical security mechanisms, such as tamper-evidence. Now the MPU5 could be used for even more sensitive data transmission applications.

"We prioritize the security of our products because we understand the sensitive and critical operations where our products are used," said Stern. "FIPS 140-2 Level 2 provides further confirmation that our MPU5 is not only the most advanced and most scalable MANET radio, but it is also extremely secure."

Persistent has a long history of achieving security validations for past products. Our heritage products such as the MPU3, MPU4, and Quad Radio Router, were all FIPS 140-2 Level 2 validated. And our MPU5 continues this legacy of information assurance validations.

Federal agencies with FIPS 140-2 requirements should ensure that their wireless networking solution are on the Validated Modules list prior to purchase. Customers can find the list of FIPS 140-2 validated products on the National Institute of Standards and Technology website:

https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/Cryptographic-Module-Validation-Program/Validated-Modules/Search

About Persistent Systems, LLC

Headquartered in New York City since 2007, Persistent Systems, LLC is a global communications technology company that develops and manufactures a patented and secure Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET) system: Wave Relay. Wave Relay transmits and receives data, video, voice and other applications under the most difficult conditions. Their suite of products is utilized in Commercial, Military, Government, Industrial, Agriculture, Robotics, and Unmanned Systems markets. Please visit http://www.persistentsystems.com to learn more. Follow Persistent Systems on Twitter to get updates on the latest developments @pswaverelay

SOURCE Persistent Systems, LLC

Related Links

http://www.persistentsystems.com

DES PLAINES, Ill., July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced today that Petron Corporation will expand and upgrade its Limay, Bataan refinery in the Philippines with technologies from Honeywell UOP. When the project is completed, the refinery will produce 75,000 barrels per day of refined fuels and 1 million tons per annum of aromatics, increasing its capacity by 55 percent.

Honeywell UOP will provide the basic engineering design, licensing and services for a condensate fractionation unit, naphtha hydrotreater, and UOP CCR Platforming, Sulfolane, LPG and kerosene Merox and distillate Unionfining units. These technologies will enable Petron to meet growing domestic demand for motor fuels by upgrading 100,000 barrels per day of condensates and light crude oils to aromatics and automotive fuels.

"This is a major expansion of refining capacity in the Philippines, and it will help the country satisfy its growing demand for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel with domestic production," said John Gugel, president of Honeywell UOP. "The expansion also adds a second aromatics train for Petron so it can better meet the growing demand for those products in the region."

With a population of 104 million people, the Philippines imported 46 percent of its gasoline, 59 percent of its diesel and 69 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas in 2017.

Honeywell UOP's CCR Platforming process produces reformate for high-octane, low-sulfur gasoline and aromatics, and is a reliable, continuous source of high-purity hydrogen for the production of other fuel products. Its Sulfolane process recovers high purity benzene and toluene from reformate.

The Merox process treats the naphtha feedstock to meet product specifications, while distillate Unionfining is a hydrotreating process that removes contaminants from feed streams.

Petron Corporation is the largest oil refining and marketing company in the Philippines, supplying nearly 40 percent of the country's oil requirements. Petron operates an integrated crude oil refinery and petrochemicals complex with a rated capacity of 180,000 barrels per day in Limay, Bataan. Its refinery processes crude oil into a full range of petroleum products including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), jet fuel, kerosene, industrial fuel oil, and petrochemical feedstock benzene, toluene, mixed xylene, and propylene.

Honeywell UOP (www.uop.com) is a leading international supplier and licensor of process technology, catalysts, adsorbents, equipment, and consulting services to the petroleum refining, petrochemical, and gas processing industries. Honeywell UOP is part of Honeywell's Performance Materials and Technologies strategic business group, which also includes Honeywell Process Solutions (www.honeywellprocess.com), a pioneer in automation control, instrumentation and services for the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, chemical and other industries.

Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 software-industrial company that delivers industry specific solutions that include aerospace and automotive products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes, and industry; and performance materials globally. Our technologies help everything from aircraft, cars, homes and buildings, manufacturing plants, supply chains, and workers become more connected to make our world smarter, safer, and more sustainable. For more news and information on Honeywell, please visit www.honeywell.com/newsroom.

SOURCE Honeywell

Related Links

http://www.honeywell.com

SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, AngelHack announced the launch of QTUM Hackathon 2018, a global, virtual hackathon for decentralized application (DApp) developers from around the world. Developers, designers, and entrepreneurs will have until September 16th to team up with no more than five individuals and build new startups using QTUM's payment, smart contract, and\or infrastructure development tool(s) in order to create an impactful DApp for QTUM blockchain.

QTUM will host three separate webinars on August 2nd, August 14th, and September 6th, to provide participants with guidance throughout the competition. All demos are due September 16th and judging occurs from September 17th-21st. The judges consist of c-suite executives from QTUM and founders of PlayCoin, Firmo.Network, Bluzelle, and Andoromeda.

"We're thrilled to launch this hackathon with QTUM and connect with developers and entrepreneurs around the world to create new solutions that utilize QTUM blockchain," said Kristen Scheven, CMO of AngelHack. "There are countless ways Blockchain can improve processes we're used to. It's up to these creators to show what applications blockchain can be utilized for and how they will change the world."

The top 10 teams will receive a sum total of $484,000 worth of QTUM Tokens to split among the individual members as well as a travel stipend for up to 3 members of the winning teams for travel and lodging to Devcon 2018 in San Francisco. An additional $50,000 worth of QTUM Tokens will be awarded to community members who receive honorable mentions.

About QTUM

QTUM is an open sourced blockchain platform built on Bitcoin's UTXO model, with support for Ethereum Virtual Machine based smart contracts and secured by a proof of stake consensus model. QTUM has a Decentralized Governance Protocol through which major parameters of the blockchain can be modified to avoid the possibility of a hard fork. QTUM is working hard on its X86 virtual machine which will allow programmers to write smart contract in programming languages such as C++, Rust, goLang etc.

About AngelHack

For over six years, AngelHack has encouraged their community of developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to become holistic and well-rounded hackers through programs that solve issues ranging from social impact to enterprise.

SOURCE AngelHackBOSTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rethink Robotics today announced that it has signed deals with ten new distribution partners throughout the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific to increase the availability of its smart, collaborative robots and allow manufacturers to automate more. Rethink's current global network  including select partners in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China, Korea, Japan, and Australia  is strengthened by these distribution partnerships as part of the company's ongoing effort to meet growing demand across the globe, bringing adaptable automation to the global manufacturing market.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to Sawyer as a smart automation solution to address challenges like labor shortages and improve efficiencies across industries like plastics, packaging and co-packing, metal fabrication, electronics and automotive supply chain. The new partners will join Rethink's existing suite of highly qualified partners to help meet the growing demand for Sawyer in North America, Europe and Asia. Rethink Robotics offers manufacturers a best-in-class cobot solution, including industry-leading Intera software and the Clicksmart gripper technology, which make it easy to train and deploy.

"The growing international demand for our smart, collaborative robots has encouraged us to expand our network of qualified distribution partners in critical geographies across North America, Europe and Asia," said Jason Barton, chief revenue officer, Rethink Robotics. "This selective group of distributors will help us continue to provide an extraordinary experience to our customers around the globe at every step of the implementation process, ensuring success from purchase to deployment and beyond."

Rethink's new partners include: Centro, Inc.  No. Carolina, U.S. Power Motion  Missouri, U.S. Electronics Control  Xiamen, China Robtech Industries  New Taipei, Taiwan Europneumaq  Serzedo, Portugal RT Robotics  Warsaw, Poland IEC Supply Inc.  Arizona, U.S. Tongchan Machinery  Hangzhou, China Monarch Automation  Ohio, U.S. Womack Machine Supply Co.  Texas, U.S.

Rethink Robotics' strategic network of qualified distribution partners is critical in delivering Sawyer to manufacturers in major markets around the world. Rethink Robotics will continue to add select distribution partners across the world in the coming months as market demand continues to rise.

For more information, please visit rethinkrobotics.com.

About Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics' collaborative robots transform the way work gets done in manufacturing and distribution operations. Powered by the Intera software platform, its Sawyer and Baxter cobots can be trained and on the job in a matter of hours, are designed to work safely alongside people, and are highly reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use. Deployed globally, Rethink Robotics' cobots provide a cost-effective industrial automation solution to several of the toughest issues manufacturers face today, including a shortage of skilled labor, sustainable levels of quality and efficiency and an opportunity to automate a wide range of tasks on the factory floor.

Based in Boston, the Rethink product suite is available in Asia, Europe and North America. The company is funded by Bezos Expeditions, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Partners, DFJ, GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. For more information about Rethink Robotics, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com and follow us on Twitter @RethinkRobotics.

Media Contact: Charlotte Jolicoeur, (617) 500-2487, [email protected]

SOURCE Rethink Robotics

Related Links

http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/

The Sawyer collaborative robot provides more manufacturers around the globe with a safe, reliable and cost effective cobot solution through select distributors

BOSTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rethink Robotics today announced that it has signed deals with seven new distribution partners throughout the United States, Europe and Asia-Pacific to increase the availability of its smart, collaborative robots and allow manufacturers to automate more. Rethink's current global network  including select partners in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, China, Korea, Japan, and Australia  is strengthened by these distribution partnerships as part of the company's ongoing effort to meet growing demand across the globe, bringing adaptable automation to the global manufacturing market.

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to Sawyer as a smart automation solution to address challenges like labor shortages and improve efficiencies across industries like plastics, packaging and co-packing, metal fabrication, electronics and automotive supply chain. The new partners will join Rethink's existing suite of highly qualified partners to help meet the growing demand for Sawyer in North America, Europe and Asia. Rethink Robotics offers manufacturers a best-in-class cobot solution, including industry-leading Intera software and the Clicksmart gripper technology, which make it easy to train and deploy.

"The growing international demand for our smart, collaborative robots has encouraged us to expand our network of qualified distribution partners in critical geographies across North America, Europe and Asia," said Jason Barton, chief revenue officer, Rethink Robotics. "This selective group of distributors will help us continue to provide an extraordinary experience to our customers around the globe at every step of the implementation process, ensuring success from purchase to deployment and beyond."

Rethink's new partners include:

Centro, Inc.  No. Carolina, U.S. Power Motion  Missouri, U.S. Electronics Control  Xiamen, China Robtech Industries  New Taipei, Taiwan Europneumaq  Serzedo, Portugal RT Robotics  Warsaw, Poland IEC Supply Inc.  Arizona, U.S. Tongchan Machinery  Hangzhou, China Monarch Automation  Ohio, U.S. Womack Machine Supply Co.  Texas, U.S.

Rethink Robotics' strategic network of qualified distribution partners is critical in delivering Sawyer to manufacturers in major markets around the world. Rethink Robotics will continue to add select distribution partners across the world in the coming months as market demand continues to rise.

For more information, please visit rethinkrobotics.com.

About Rethink Robotics

Rethink Robotics' collaborative robots transform the way work gets done in manufacturing and distribution operations. Powered by the Intera software platform, its Sawyer and Baxter cobots can be trained and on the job in a matter of hours, are designed to work safely alongside people, and are highly reliable, adaptable and easy-to-use. Deployed globally, Rethink Robotics' cobots provide a cost-effective industrial automation solution to several of the toughest issues manufacturers face today, including a shortage of skilled labor, sustainable levels of quality and efficiency and an opportunity to automate a wide range of tasks on the factory floor.

Based in Boston, the Rethink product suite is available in Asia, Europe and North America. The company is funded by Bezos Expeditions, CRV, Highland Capital Partners, Sigma Partners, DFJ, GE Ventures and Goldman Sachs. For more information about Rethink Robotics, please visit www.rethinkrobotics.com and follow us on Twitter @RethinkRobotics.

Media Contact: Charlotte Jolicoeur, (617) 500-2487, [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/77847/rethink_robotics_logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.rethinkrobotics.com/



SOURCE Rethink RoboticsROCHESTER, N.Y., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rochester City Council's vote on Tuesday allows non-profit Rochester Management to move forward with plans to modernize the Cobbs Hill Village affordable senior housing community. With its approval, City Council has ensured the site is not removed from Rochester's limited stock of affordable housing for seniors.

"The modernization of Cobbs Hill Village will allow our nonprofit to continue providing high-quality, affordable housing to seniors on this site for many years to come," said Peggy Hill, chief executive officer of Rochester Management. "We are very pleased that this important project has now received all necessary approvals and we thank city officials, including Mayor Warren, City Council and the Planning Commission, as well as members of the community, fellow nonprofit leaders and especially our residents for their consideration and input throughout this process. The new Cobbs Hill Village will be an asset to the Rochester community, one that increases the number of affordable units in our city and provides the senior citizens living there with vastly improved accessibility, a better sense of community, and modernized, high-quality homes in which to age in place."

In April, the Rochester City Planning Commission approved modernization plans and renderings for Cobbs Hill Village. Tuesday's vote by City Council to extend the property's reverter agreement allows the nonprofit to refinance and extend the property's mortgage, thus clearing the way for this important project to move forward. The property's current zoning, as well as the deed dedicating the site to affordable senior housing, will fully accommodate the modernization project, so no variances were required.

The modernized Cobbs Hill Village will be designed to help residents age in place and will feature apartments in a variety of sizes and layouts, each equipped with full-size kitchen appliances and energy efficient HVAC systems. The addition of accessible refuse collection and laundry rooms, a small fitness room, a computer lab, and indoor community space will allow senior residents to remain living independently, even if their mobility changes. These features will also help residents avoid isolation by having places to enjoy the company of neighbors, friends, and family whenever they choose year-round. In addition, the modernized complex will include a portion of fully handicap accessible units, and every apartment will be built to be readily converted for handicap accessibility to accommodate changes in any resident's health and mobility.

Existing structures will be replaced by new buildings on the same land that has been dedicated to affordable senior housing since 1957, in no way encroaching on the adjacent Cobbs Hill Park boundaries. Construction, expected to begin later this year, will take place in three phases, allowing current residents to move directly from existing units into newly constructed homes, without ever leaving Cobbs Hill Village.

All units in the modernized Cobbs Hill Village will continue to be affordable under state guidelines, serving individuals aged 55 years and older earning 30% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI) up to 80% of AMI. As Rochester Management has long-stated, all 60 current residents will continue to pay the same rents they pay today, including existing utilities, in a rebuilt complex. For more information on the significant commitments to enhanced affordability the nonprofit has made, please visit http://www.housingupstate.org/index.php/the-project#Current.

Without the reverter agreement extension, which the council approved on Tuesday, the expense and responsibility for operating the affordable housing community would have reverted to the City of Rochester in 2041, under the deed dedicating the site to that purpose.

About Rochester Management

With roots dating back to the 1940s, Rochester Management has long been committed to providing quality, affordable housing to those in need, including senior citizens, veterans, students and low-income individuals. The nonprofit was founded by citizens in partnership with local government in order to meet the affordable housing needs of our community, and that continues to be our focus today. Today Rochester Management manages more than 3,600 residential units for low- and middle-income individuals, many of whom have spent many years in these homes. Through its talented team of dedicated professionals, Rochester Management is committed to providing outstanding service to the residents of its stable, vibrant and well-maintained communities throughout Upstate New York.

More information on the Cobbs Hill Village modernization project and Rochester Management is available at www.housingupstate.org.

Media Contact:

Peggy Hill

President and CEO

585-467-2442

SOURCE Rochester Management

Related Links

http://www.housingupstate.org

A new 6 million Battle of Britain heritage site in London contains paving from Charcon.

The interactive visitor attraction is attached to a bomb shelter from WW2. It tells the story of the secret plot by the RAF to defeat the German air force in 1940.

Around its perimeter and on its step units is Andover Textured Paving by landscaping manufacturer Charcon, a division of Aggregate Industries.

The centre was built to celebrate the heritage of Hillingdon in Greater London, and was recently unveiled by Boris Johnson, MP for Uxbridge & South Ruislip, along with Cllr Carol Melvin, Mayor of Hillingdon.

Martin Mullan, Territory Sales Manager at Charcon, said: We are so pleased to have been able to offer our knowledge and product proficiency to a project of national, and even international, significance.

Charcon is delighted to be supporting the London Borough of Hillingdon by providing a positive visitor experience that will ensure the heritage of the site lives on.BOSTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Seniorlink, Inc., a tech-enabled health services company transforming care management in the home, received the 2018 Caregiver Friendly Award from Today's Caregiver magazine. The award recognized Seniorlink for its Thank You, Caregiver Nation campaign, an initiative to raise awareness of, and honor, the 16 million family caregivers nationwide caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease or a related dementia.

"Caregiving is not for the faint of heart. Providing care for a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease or dementia can be particularly difficult, and the stress and isolation can be overwhelming," said Thomas Riley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Seniorlink. "Thank You, Caregiver Nation reflects our commitment to family caregivers and our desire to increase recognition of, and support for, these unsung heroes." Riley continues, "It is an honor to receive this award, and an absolute privilege to support family caregivers nationwide."

In November 2017, Seniorlink launched Thank You, Caregiver Nation with the "My Wish" video. This video captures the story of Pam Montana, a woman diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's; Bob, her husband and caregiver; and Pam's wish to have family and friends not forget Bob as they battle Alzheimer's together. The video generated over 500,000 views, hundreds of heartfelt comments, and recently won a New England Emmy for outstanding Public Service Announcement.

The campaign also prompted 3,000+ caregivers to join Caregiver Nation, Seniorlink's private Facebook community (www.caregivernation.org), where caregivers can connect, share, vent and motivate each other on the challenges of caregiving.

"Seniorlink embodies the true spirit of this award, which recognizes outstanding companies, clinicians, authors and others who have dedicated themselves to supporting family caregivers," said Gary Barg, Today's Caregiver magazine's Editor-in-Chief.

Caregiver Friendly Award winners are listed on the caregiver.com website and will be announced in the November/December 2018 Holiday Issue of Today's Caregiver magazine.

About Seniorlink

Seniorlink is a tech-enabled health services company focused on transforming care management in the home, where family caregivers play a pivotal role. Our solutions combine proprietary collaboration technology, evidence-based clinical protocols, and the human touch of dedicated care teams who work in partnership with family caregivers to meaningfully lower costs and improve consumer engagement and satisfaction for risk-bearing provider and payer organizations. Learn more at Seniorlink.com.

About The Caregiver Friendly Awards

The Caregiver Friendly Awards are presented by Today's Caregiver magazine to celebrate outstanding books, media, products and services that have been designed with the best interest of the caregiver and his or her loved one in mind. Today's Caregiver magazine and caregiver.com, launched in 1995, are published by Caregiver Media Group, which also produces the Fearless Caregiver Conferences.

Today's Caregiver magazine and caregiver.com have been supporting caregivers since 1995 and been conducting the Caregiver Friendly award program since 2001. Congratulations on your 2018 Caregiver Friendly Award. You join in a great 17-year tradition of supporting caregiving leaders who work tirelessly to support the family caregiver as they care for their loved ones.

SOURCE Seniorlink

Related Links

http://www.seniorlink.com

PHILADELPHIA, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sidecar today released a new technology for retail marketers who manage paid search on Google and Bing. The solution, Sidecar for Paid Search, introduces two retail-specific datasets to paid search management: a retailer's product feed and search queries from Google Shopping campaigns.

Sidecar for Paid Search ingests this data, in addition to a retailer's historical keywords, paid search queries, sitewide data, and competitive metrics from Google. The data, collectively called the Sidecar Retail Index, drives paid search automationincluding campaign creation, keyword list creation, keyword bidding, ad copy development, landing page management, and ongoing testing and optimization.

"When shopping ads emerged several years ago, marketers finally gained insight into the one-to-one match between a product and how a consumer discovers it," said Mike Perekupka, Product Manager for Sidecar. "At the same time, the product feed is the #1 source of information about current products, including titles, descriptions, and other attributes that marketers often use to craft successful paid search ad copy. Yet marketers have had no way to use this data to drive paid search campaigns. Today they do with Sidecar for Paid Search."

Ripe for Innovation

Paid search is a marketing stalwart, with long-established tools and processes. The channel hasn't changed much over the past several years in terms of features and capabilities, yet it remains no less important to digital marketing strategy. Retailers have invested similar spend in paid search and Shopping over the past 12 months, according to Sidecar's analysis.

However, challenges continue to plague retail marketers who manage paid search. Building keyword lists is a matter of inference and A/B testing. Ad copy writing and testing are often manual processes. The channel has many moving parts that are cumbersome to alignincluding keywords, ad copy, bids, and match type.

With so many variables, many marketers remain overly focused on tactics and have little time left to cultivate strategy. Often, marketers invest the majority of their paid search effort in their top products, while other products remain under-promoted and under-targeted. The result is inefficient ad spend and sub-optimal revenue and ROI.

The Right Cross-Channel Data

Sidecar for Paid Search is a machine learning technology that leverages shopping-centric data to create campaigns and set bids at scale, taking into account new products, promotions, and shifting consumer search behavior. The technology:

Organizes keywords into tightly knit campaigns and ad groups based on a retailer's existing feed taxonomy.

Creates, evaluates, and optimizes keywords for every brand, category, and product in a retailer's catalog.

Continuously mines data to look for new positive and negative keywords, reducing the need for ongoing manual keyword testing, analysis, and management.

Analyzes performance and dynamically adjusts keyword bids to ensure spend is focused on the most important keywords.

Uses feed attributes and ad copy best practices to automatically generate and test copy for every product, eliminating the need for manual drafting and A/B testing and helping drive stronger click through.

Analyzes site search data to choose the most appropriate existing landing page URL or generate a new one to serve with a retailer's ads.

Sidecar for Paid Search is the latest solution in Sidecar's lineup, which also includes Sidecar for Shopping and Sidecar for Social. The company developed its paid search solution in response to customer feedback. Retailers of all sizes value Sidecar's technology and team, and have seen double- and triple-digit growth in their Google and Bing Shopping campaigns throughout their partnership.

At the same time, many of Sidecar's customers wanted to unite their paid search and Shopping approaches to drive more cohesive strategy. Sidecar recognized that it could apply its dedicated experience and expertise in Shopping to solve challenges that its customers were facing in paid search.

"Digital marketing in retail requires a balance between technology, data, and people," said Andre Golsorkhi, founder and CEO of Sidecar. "Technology should build bridges between ever-evolving, cross-channel datasets, driving automation that lets people bring their expertise to bear in increasingly strategicnot tacticalways. This combination is the heart of how marketers will deliver experiences more tightly aligned to the shopping journey. We are excited to introduce this approach to the paid search space with today's release of Sidecar for Paid Search."

Sidecar's leadership in performance marketing has led to an expanding customer base in the U.S. and Europe. Sidecar acquired twice as many customers in 2017 compared to 2016. The company's team has tripled in the past three years to fulfill its commitment to helping retailers grow.

Press Resources

Overview of Sidecar for Paid Search: https://go.getsidecar.com/l/127301/2018-07-24/3htphg

Webinar introducing Sidecar for Paid Search: https://go.getsidecar.com/l/127301/2018-07-24/3htqzd

Guide to developing a cohesive search + shopping strategy on Google: https://go.getsidecar.com/l/127301/2018-07-24/3htpjs

About Sidecar

Sidecar is a technology company dedicated to retail. Our mission is to maximize the value of performance marketing. By combining deep data, knowledgeable humans, and inspired technology, Sidecar is the magic behind retail's smartest marketing campaigns.

Press Contact

[email protected]

SOURCE Sidecar

Related Links

https://hello.getsidecar.com

Bujagali, a 250 MW hydropower facility located near Jinja, Uganda will continue to be operated by BEL. BEL's other shareholders are affiliates of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development ("AKFED") and the Government of Uganda ("GOU"), both of which will retain their interests in Bujagali. SN Power will, with their experience from operating other hydropower projects around the world, contribute to an effective operation of Bujagali.

The investment by SN Power follows the project's successful refinancing with its lenders  including development finance institutions such as the International Finance Corporation and African Development Bank  which reduced Bujagali Energy Limited's annual debt-servicing payments, lowering the tariff of electricity produced by the hydropower plant.

Today's announcement builds on the positive impact the Bujagali Hydropower Project has had on the Ugandan economy since it was commissioned in 2012. Bujagali generates almost half of Uganda's energy supply by providing clean, reliable base load energy. The cumulative inception-to-date savings from Bujagali are USD $1.9 billion and the cumulative CO2 emissions reductions are approximately 5.7 million tons due to the displacement of diesel generated electricity with hydropower. In 2043, Bujagali will be transferred to the GOU for one US dollar with an expected remaining life of 70+ years.

Torger Lien, CEO of SN Power said: "I am excited by this agreement. It is good for all parties and ensures Uganda clean and stable energy for several decades in the future. It is also proof of our commitment to the long-term strategy on focusing on investing in sustainable hydropower projects in developing markets across Africa and Asia."

Sean Klimczak, Senior Managing Director, Blackstone, said: "We are very proud of the pioneering role we were able to play as an early developer and investor in Bujagali and the project's many contributions to Uganda, from enhancing power generation to improving the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. We remain grateful for the opportunity to partner with the GOU and we are confident that AKFED and SN Power are the best possible stewards for Bujagali going forward."

Bilal Khan, Managing Director, Blackstone, stated: "Bujagali is a testament to Blackstone Energy Partners' ability to develop commercially successful greenfield power generation facilities in high-growth countries around the world, leveraging experienced management teams and working closely with local stakeholders. The strategy we crafted together with Sithe management over a decade ago has served as a model for our relationships with management teams currently engaged in power development initiatives in other regions, such as Fisterra Energy in Latin America, GenX in Southeast Asia and Zarou in the Middle East & North Africa."

About the Bujagali Hydropower Project:

The Bujagali Hydropower Project is widely considered the most successful public private partnership in the power sector in Sub-Saharan Africa and has been used as a model for subsequent projects in the region. Bujagali was commissioned in August 2012, putting an end to years of constrained economic growth caused by an insufficient and unreliable power supply in Uganda. Bujagali has produced the following economic and social benefits:

Nearly doubled capacity of the Uganda's power supply during peak periods.

power supply during peak periods. Increased supply of reliable electricity and eliminated load-shedding. Load shedding, which was a significant barrier to further economic development in Uganda , had been cited as resulting in losses to Uganda's GDP of 1.5% or greater. For the period 2011 to 2014, the total GDP increased 12.2%, of which 2.6% (20% of the GDP growth) was attributed to ceasing of load shedding and reduction in power outages. A total of more than 200,000 in job growth was attributed to the elimination of load shedding through 2014.

, had been cited as resulting in losses to GDP of 1.5% or greater. For the period 2011 to 2014, the total GDP increased 12.2%, of which 2.6% (20% of the GDP growth) was attributed to ceasing of load shedding and reduction in power outages. A total of more than 200,000 in job growth was attributed to the elimination of load shedding through 2014. Provided a reliable backbone for the Ugandan grid, averaging over a 99% contractual availability factor.

Even before the refinancing, the project reduced the marginal cost of power by over 66%, reducing the cost to Uganda's power utility by over USD $280 million in the first year alone and USD $1.9 billion to date.

power utility by over USD in the first year alone and USD to date. Eliminated the need for huge subsidies to end user tariffs that cost Uganda USD $180 million per year and to channel these savings toward other crucial public-sector investment.

per year and to channel these savings toward other crucial public-sector investment. In addition to the refinancing, GOU recently granted Bujagali an income tax holiday in furtherance of the goal of lowering the cost of electricity. These efforts combine to reduce the future cost of electricity over the next several years by approximately USD $90 million annually, or approximately 40% lower than if these steps were not taken.

annually, or approximately 40% lower than if these steps were not taken. Improved air quality by reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1 million tons per annum and reducing pollutants such as NOx, SOx and particulate matter.

The project sponsors, led by the affiliates of AKFED, were selected in April 2005 through an international competitive tender overseen by the GOU based on the lowest return on equity.

About SN Power:

SN Power, established in 2002, is a leading hydropower investor in emerging markets. SN Power invests in clean, renewable energy on a commercial basis, focusing on hydropower. The company concentrates on acquiring, developing, constructing, and operating hydropower assets. SN Power currently operate, through our joint-venture partnerships, hydropower plants in The Philippines, Laos, Zambia, Panama and now Uganda. SN power is fully owned by Norfund, the Norwegian Development Finance Institution (DFI), who invests venture capital in profitable privately owned emerging market companies. SN Power's headquarters are in Oslo, Norway.

About SGBH:

SGBH, a company incorporated and doing business in Mauritius, is one of the original shareholders of BEL and an affiliate of Sithe Global Power, LLC ("Sithe Global"), an international power development company. Sithe Global is led by a seasoned management and technical team with extensive experience developing and operating large scale, socially responsible power generation projects. The Sithe Global management team has successfully developed power projects in nine countries with a capital investment in excess of USD $5 billion.

Media Contacts:



For SN Power



Torger Lien

+47 918 88 112 Chief Executive Officer

[email protected]





For SGBH



Glover Park Group

+1 202.337.0808 Joshua Gross

[email protected] Andrew Johnson

[email protected]

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722958/Sithe_Global_Power_SN_Power.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722957/Sithe_Global_Power_LLC.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722956/Sithe_Global_Power_Blackstone.jpg

SOURCE Sithe Global Power, LLCMADISON, N.J., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC today announced that it has signed agreements with LIST Co., LTD, which owns List Sotheby's International Realty, to expand the Sotheby's International Realty brand presence into Indonesia and Vietnam.

List Sotheby's International Realty will expand into the important markets of Jakarta and Bali in Indonesia, and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam. Operations in both countries are projected to open in the second half of 2019.

Led by Owner and Chief Executive Officer Hisashi Kitami, List Sotheby's International Realty currently has a strong presence throughout the Asia-Pacific region including offices in Hawaii, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Singapore and a new office in Thailand opening September of this year.

"The addition of Vietnam and Indonesia to the List Sotheby's International Realty portfolio will further establish their foothold in Southeast Asia," said Philip White, president and chief executive officer of Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC. "Hisashi Kitami and his team have a strong history of growth in the markets they serve, and we are proud to have them lead this venture."

"Because of geographical and economical closeness, the addition of Indonesia and Vietnam to our current portfolio of locations will facilitate more cross-border transactions, which will be beneficial for all stakeholders including our clients, employees, and agents," said Kitami.

The Sotheby's International Realty network currently has more than 22,000 affiliated independent sales associates located in approximately 950 offices in 70 countries and territories worldwide. In 2017, the brand achieved a record global sales volume of $108 billion USD. List Sotheby's International Realty listings will be marketed on the sothebysrealty.com global website. In addition to the referral opportunities and widened exposure generated from this source, the firm's brokers and clients will benefit from an association with the Sotheby's auction house and worldwide Sotheby's International Realty marketing programs. Each office is independently owned and operated.

About Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC

Founded in 1976 to provide independent brokerages with a powerful marketing and referral program for luxury listings, the Sotheby's International Realty network was designed to connect the finest independent real estate companies to the most prestigious clientele in the world. Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Holdings Corp. (NYSE: RLGY), a global leader in real estate franchising and provider of real estate brokerage, relocation and settlement services. In February 2004, Realogy entered into a long-term strategic alliance with Sotheby's, the operator of the auction house. The agreement provided for the licensing of the Sotheby's International Realty name and the development of a full franchise system. Affiliations in the system are granted only to brokerages and individuals meeting strict qualifications. Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC supports its affiliates with a host of operational, marketing, recruiting, educational and business development resources. Franchise affiliates also benefit from an association with the venerable Sotheby's auction house, established in 1744. For more information, visit www.sothebysrealty.com.

CONTACTS

Lindsey Scharf

Director, Public Relations & Communications

Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC

175 Park Avenue Madison, NJ 07940

+1.973.407.5596

[email protected]

Takae Suzuki

List Sotheby's International Realty

List Kannai Bldg., 4-47 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa,

231-0015 Japan

+81 45 671 1111

[email protected]

SOURCE Sotheby's International Realty Affiliates LLC

Related Links

http://www.sothebysrealty.com

HOBOKEN, N.J., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Spirit Bascom Ventures, LLC ("Spirit Bascom") a partnership between Irvine, California based The Bascom Group, LLC ("Bascom"), and Stamford, Connecticut based Spirit Investment Partners, LLC ("Spirit") acquired 1024 Clinton Street in Hoboken, New Jersey for $17.65 million. Spirit Bascom acquired the property from a long-time family owner. The acquisition was the second transaction in partnership with a prominent Middle Eastern family office. Stephen Simonelli of HFF and James Giaccio and Kevin Helsinki of Chelsea Realty represented the seller. Jamie Leachman and Mike Klein of HFF arranged the acquisition financing through CIT Group.

1024 Clinton

The eight-story former warehouse facility was converted to multifamily use in the early 1990's and contains 37 residential units including a standalone townhome, and a rare 37 space parking structure. Many of the units feature loft style ceiling heights, Manhattan skyline views, and brick and timber accents.

The uptown Hoboken property is adjacent to Columbus Square Park and benefits from easy walkability to the famous Washington Street commercial corridor, the Hudson River Walkway, and multiple public transit options. The plan is to reposition the asset as a boutique institutional quality property.

Spirit Bascom has been focusing on acquiring urban and suburban value add multifamily properties along the eastern half of the country, acquiring over $500 million in assets in the partnership. Spirit Bascom is starting to turn its attention to neglected mixed use assets in the greater New York City area that can benefit from similar high-end renovations.

David Nachman, a principal of Spirit Investment Partners, explains, "We're excited to make our first acquisition in Hoboken. We see it as a market that is positioned favorably from a pricing standpoint to receive many residents unwilling or unable to pay top Manhattan rents." Scott Zwilling, principal of Spirit Investment Partners, adds, "The asset has been neglected for decades. Our business plan for this property is to deliver an institutional quality experience at a more approachable price point to new construction."

About Spirit Bascom Ventures: Spirit Bascom Ventures, LLC a joint venture between Spirit Investment Partners, LLC ("Spirit") and The Bascom Group, LLC ("Bascom") was formed to acquire transitional multifamily assets in the eastern half of the United States. Spirit is a Stamford, CT based real estate investment company, owned and operated by principals David Nachman, Scott Zwilling and Ian Hafner. Spirit has completed over $600 million in multifamily transactions since 2012 totaling nearly 4,000 units located in 9 states. Bascom is a private equity firm specializing in value-added multifamily, commercial, and non-performing loans and real estate related investments and operating companies. Bascom sources value-added and distressed properties including many through foreclosure, bankruptcy, or short sales and repositions them by adding extensive capital improvements, improving revenue, and reducing expenses by realizing operational efficiencies through implementation of institutional-quality property management. Bascom, founded by principals Jerry Fink, David Kim, and Derek Chen, is one of the most active and seasoned buyers and operators of apartment communities in the U.S. Since 1996, Bascom has completed over $15.5 billion in multifamily and commercial value-added transactions including more than 321 multifamily properties containing over 83,986 units. Bascom has ranked among the top 50 multifamily owners in the U.S. Bascom's subsidiaries and joint ventures include the Southern California Industrial Fund, Rushmore Properties, Bascom Portfolio Advisors, Shubin Nadal Associates, Spirit Bascom Ventures, REDA Bascom Ventures, MHF RM Holdings, Bascom Northwest Ventures, Bascom Arizona Ventures, Harbor Associates, Village Venture Partners, Bascom Milestone Ventures, and the Realm Group. Bascom's subsidiaries also include Premier Business Centers, the largest privately held executive suite company in the U.S. For additional information, please visit www.spiritinvestors.com and www.bascomgroup.com.

Contact: David Nachman

Tel: 212.331.8353

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE The Bascom Group

Related Links

http://www.bascomgroup.com

ATLANTA, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- To determine how the human brain reacts to seeing insects and other pests, pest control leader Orkin partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) on a scientific research study.

Georgia Tech researchers discovered that pests seen in a home elicited the neurological reaction of "strong disgust," an emotion associated with avoiding contamination and disease.

"We expected to find that the study participants were afraid of pests," said Orkin Entomologist Mark Beavers, Ph.D. "The reaction of disgust is actually very significant, as many of the common household pests shown in the study can contaminate food and spread disease. It's amazing how the human brain has adapted to the potential problems posed by many of these pests, and reinforces why we all should take precautions to keep such pests away from where we live, work and play."

Study Details

Georgia Tech researchers used a functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) machine to monitor participants' brain activity and heart rate. Inside the fMRI machine, researchers showed participants a series of video clips depicting insects and animals in different environments. They were shown common household pests (including cockroaches, bed bugs, flies, spiders and rodents), as well as video clips of "frightening" animals (including sharks, lions and crocodiles).

Participants were also shown video clips of everyday occurrences (such as a waving flag), to serve as a control condition to compare neurological responses. Video clips were displayed in a random order, each clip lasting 15 seconds.

With nearly every participant, the pest videos triggered a reaction in the brain's insula, a region deep in the cerebral cortex associated with disgust. The amygdala, a portion of the brain associated with fear, was only triggered by videos of frightening animals.

"Insects in the home produced more disgust in the brain than insects in the wild, especially cockroaches." said Dr. Eric Schumacher, director of Georgia Tech's Center for Advanced Brain Imaging. "Our research suggest that we may be conditioned against pests in the home, because they may be associated with contamination or illness," he said.

Twenty adults participated in the study, including 12 females and eight males.

Participants also ranked their own anxiety while viewing videos of pests, using a hand-held rating device and through a post-scan survey. Seventy percent of the participants ranked their level of anxiety while viewing images of household pests as either mild, moderate or severe.

The study was presented by Georgia Tech researchers at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society (CNS) meeting in 2017. After receiving interest by peers at the conference, Georgia Tech is pursuing publication of the study in a medical journal.

Preventing Common Pests

Common household pests can be more than a "disgusting" nuisance; they can also be a health threat. It's important to take steps to minimize them in and around the home by taking the following steps:

Clean up spilled food and drinks quickly and keep food stored tightly, especially during outdoor picnics.

Remove standing water from buckets, toys and other containers, as mosquitoes can breed in just an inch of standing water.

Seal any entry points around windows and doorways.

Remove clutter, such as boxes and newspapers, as cockroaches and other pests can hide inside them.

Keep gutters and downspouts clean and keep plants away from the home's foundation.

About Orkin, LLC

Founded in 1901, Atlanta-based Orkin is an industry leader in essential pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents and insects. The company operates more than 400 locations with almost 8,000 employees. Using a proprietary, three-step approach, Orkin provides customized services to approximately 1.7 million homeowners and businesses in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, Central America, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Asia, the Mediterranean and Africa. Orkin is committed to studying pest biology and applying scientifically proven methods. The company collaborates with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and eight major universities to conduct research and help educate consumers and businesses on pest-related health threats. Since 2014, Orkin's Start with Science initiative has donated $670,000 to fund science and math projects in public schools across the nation. Learn more about Orkin at Orkin.com. Orkin is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rollins Inc. (NYSE: ROL). Follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Orkin, LLC

Related Links

https://www.orkin.com

ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- From the Atlas Mountains to the Cape of Good Hope, from the Antarctic icecaps to the evolution of a species, the BBC Landmark Video Collection from BBC Studios offers a unique HD view into the beauty of our world. Now, a partnership between BBC Studios and ProQuest enables educators and students to access the collection through academic and public library customers globally. This partnership enhances the service to end users by providing streaming access to cutting-edge series like Planet Earth and Blue Planet.

Each series  covering earth science, climate science, geography and more  is available on the Alexander Street video platform and can be acquired worldwide as a collection by subscription or perpetual purchase.

"The BBC has been at the forefront of producing the most compelling and ground-breaking natural history programs for decades  with a stated mission to inform, educate and entertain," said Kara Iaconis, VP, Learning, BBC Studios  Americas. "Through this new partnership with ProQuest, educators will have global access to key BBC landmark programs to enhance their curriculum further."

"These critically acclaimed BBC shows are an important addition to the educational streaming video landscape," said Jesse Koennecke, Director of Acquisitions and E-Resource Licensing Services, Cornell University Library. "The collection includes many titles that see considerable use on DVD, and it will be great for our users to be able to access them online."

"We're thrilled to partner with the BBC to bring their Landmark Collection exclusively into the educational space," said David Parker, Senior Director of Product Management for Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company. "This on-demand content will enhance the way courses are taught and provides a dynamic and captivating way to learn."

ProQuest launched with 68 titles, including:

Complete Series:

Planet Earth

Blue Planet

Blue Planet II

Frozen Planet

Life

Life Story

Africa

Nature's Great Events

Spy in the Wild

Individual Programs:

Incredible Predators

Tiny Giants

Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet

Earthflight

Wild Africa

BBC Studios  Americas

BBC Studios, a global content company with British creativity at its heart, is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC. Formed in April 2018 by the merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios, it spans content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries. BBC Studios' award-winning British programs are internationally recognized across a broad range of genres and specialties. It has offices in 22 markets globally, including six production bases in the UK, and a further seven wholly-owned and production partnerships internationally. The company, which makes over 2,500 hours of content a year, is a champion for British creativity around the world and a committed partner for the UK's independent sector.

In the Americas, BBC Studios' production unit in Los Angeles is responsible for ratings juggernaut Dancing with the Stars, critically-acclaimed The Night Of, and award-winning Life Below Zero, while local productions Dancing Brasil and Bake Off Brasil are breakout hits made in Brazil. The company manages joint venture relationships with AMC Networks for flagship channel BBC AMERICA (U.S.) - home of global brands Planet Earth II, Blue Planet II, Doctor Who, and Top Gear - and with ITV for SVoD service BritBox (U.S./Canada), as well as strategic partnerships in Canada with Blue Ant Media for BBC Earth Channel, Corus for BBC Canada, and Knowledge Network for BBC Kids.

About ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com)

ProQuest is committed to supporting the important work happening in the world's research and learning communities. The company curates content that matters to the advancement of knowledge, assembling an archive of billions of vetted, indexed documents. It simplifies workflows so that people and institutions use time effectively. And because ProQuest connects information communities, complex networks of systems and processes work together efficiently. With ProQuest, finding answers and deriving insights is straightforward and leads to extraordinary outcomes.

ProQuest and its companies and affiliates  Ex Libris, Alexander Street, Bowker -- stand for better research, better learning, better insights. ProQuest enables people to change their world.

Visit us to learn more. www.proquest.com.



SOURCE ProQuest

Related Links

http://www.proquest.com

TORONTO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. ("Sun Life Financial") (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) will release its second quarter 2018 financial results on Wednesday, August 8, 2018, after markets close. Sun Life Financial will hold its earnings conference call and audio webcast at 10:00 a.m. ET the following day.



Date: Thursday, August 9, 2018

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit www.sunlife.com/QuarterlyReports 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-866-521-4909

Participant Dial In (International): 647-427-2311

A replay of the conference call will be available from Thursday, August 9, 2018 at 1 p.m. ET until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 23, 2018, and can be accessed by calling 416-621-4642 or 1-800-585-8367 (toll free within North America) using Conference ID: 2995058.

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individual and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2018, Sun Life Financial had total assets under management of $979 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars

Media Relations Contact:

Irene Poon

Manager, Media & PR

Corporate Communications

T. 647-256-2596

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Greg Dilworth

Vice-President

Investor Relations

T. 416-979-6230

[email protected]

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sunlife.com

Tailor-made learning solutions improve exam pass rates and increase the time students spend studying

BEIJING, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company"), a leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education market, announced that it has recently launched AI-powered personalized study programs to accelerate the learning process and improve student test results.

The AI software, developed in-house, uses machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze student behavior and their level of understanding of specific courses. Based on this analysis, Sunlands AI software is able to predict test results, with a high accuracy rate, and develop tailor-made learning solutions that are designed to improve study outcomes.

"Tertiary education is typically delivered as one-size-fits-all, with very little consideration for individual levels of understanding and progress," said Mr. Tongbo Liu, Chief Executive Officer of Sunlands. "Today, with AI technology, we are able to develop personalized solutions that prioritize educational content and accelerate the learning process for every student at every level."

Mr. Liu added, "Many of our students are juggling full-time jobs, caring for their families as well as studying. This kind of innovation can mean the difference between passing and failing. We will continue to invest in AI and other technology that will enable us to make the learning experience as seamless and effective as possible."

The introduction of predictive software and personalized study programs has translated into tangible benefits for Sunlands' students. With the help of such learning solutions introduced in early 2018, the average pass rate of tests taken by our students in April 2018 increased by approximately 15% compared to the average pass rate of tests taken by the same group of students in October 2017. The learning solutions also significantly increase the time students spend learning on Sunlands' platform.

The Company's ongoing investment in cutting-edge technology and educational content has led to continuous improvement. According to iResearch, the national average pass rate of STE exam-takers who participated in STE tutoring courses was 46.5% in 2016. The pass rate for Sunlands students taking STE exams in Jiangsu Province increased from 71.9% in 2016 to 79.2% in the first half of 2018.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Sunlands may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Any statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Sunlands' beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements that involve factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, but not limited to the following: Sunlands' goals and strategies; its expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its brand and services; its ability to retain and increase student enrollments; its ability to offer new courses and educational content; its ability to improve teaching quality and students' learning results; its ability to improve sales and marketing efficiency and effectiveness; its ability to engage, train and retain new faculty members; its future business development, results of operations and financial condition; its ability to maintain and improve technology infrastructure necessary to operate its business; competition in the online education industry in China; relevant government policies and regulations relating to Sunlands' corporate structure, business and industry; and general economic and business condition in China Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Sunlands' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is current as of the date of the press release, and Sunlands does not undertake any obligation to update such information, except as required under applicable law.



About Sunlands

Sunlands Online Education Group (NYSE: STG) ("Sunlands" or the "Company") is the leader in China's online post-secondary and professional education in terms of gross billings in 2017, according to iResearch. With a one to many, live streaming platform, Sunlands offers various degree and diploma-oriented post-secondary courses as well as online professional courses and educational content, to help students prepare for professional certification exams and attain professional skills. Students can access its services either through PC or mobile applications. The Company's online platform cultivates a personalized, interactive learning environment by featuring a virtual learning community and a vast library of educational content offerings that adapt to the learning habits of its students. Sunlands offers a unique approach to education research and development that organizes subject content into Learning Outcome Trees, the Company's proprietary knowledge management system. Sunlands has a deep understanding of the educational needs of its prospective students and offers solutions that help them achieve their goals.

For investor enquiries, please contact:

Yingying Liu

IR Director

Tel: +86 182 5691 2232

Email: [email protected]

For media enquiries, please contact:

Brunswick Group

Anqi Yang

Tel: +8610 5960 8639

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Sunlands Online Education GroupHahn was most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell International Inc.'s Home and Building Technologies group. Shaver, who has chosen to step down as Chief Executive Officer to pursue a unique professional opportunity, will remain on Axalta's Board and serve as Non-Executive Chairman, working closely with Hahn to ensure a seamless leadership transition.

Shaver said, "On behalf of Axalta's Board, I want to welcome Terrence Hahn to the Company. We are confident that Terrence is a great choice to lead Axalta going forward. His accomplishments as an executive with over a decade of domestic and international experience across multiple business groups at Honeywell, along with his nearly two decades of previous experience in a variety of leadership roles at Air Products and Chemicals, make him a terrific fit for Axalta."

"Since I became CEO more than five years ago, we have prudently managed Axalta's business and balance sheet, positioning the Company to capitalize on opportunities as they arise and generate long-term shareholder value. I am very proud of our achievements as well as our excellent prospects for the future. I recently informed the Board that I was considering stepping down as CEO and, consistent with our long-term succession planning, the Board commenced a search for a potential successor CEO to build on Axalta's accomplishments and lead the Company forward," said Shaver. "We identified Terrence as having a proven track record of success, and the right expertise, experience, and personality for Axalta. I look forward to a successful transition of the Chief Executive Officer role to Terrence and a wonderful partnership with him in my role as Chairman."

Shaver continued, "Serving as CEO of Axalta has been an honor and a privilege. It was an extremely difficult decision to step away from an executive role at Axalta, but I am confident that Terrence has the right skillset to take Axalta to the next level of growth and development."

Hahn commented, "I am honored to join Axalta at this dynamic time for the Company and the coatings industry. Axalta has leading positions, a terrific executive team, strong global presence, and top brands. I am excited about the tremendous opportunity at Axalta to drive organic growth through innovative and value-add offerings that will deepen existing customer relationships and attract new customers, as well as add inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions. I appreciate the Board's confidence in me and look forward to working with Charlie and the Axalta leadership team to help drive the next phase of Axalta's growth and build shareholder value."

Mark Garrett, Presiding Director of Axalta's Board, added, "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Charlie for his outstanding service to Axalta. As CEO, he led the Company's separation from its former parent and oversaw Axalta's initial public offering and listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Under his leadership, Axalta has made tremendous strides, driven by a resolute commitment to customer service and innovation. We are very pleased that he will continue to serve as Chairman. We are confident in a seamless transition of leadership to Terrence Hahn. With his experience and impressive track record he is well-suited to lead Axalta's continued growth in the coatings industry."

About Terrence Hahn

Terrence Hahn is an entrepreneurial leader with a track record of developing differentiated strategies for global deployment, having most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell's Home and Building Technologies business group. Before assuming that role, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Honeywell Transportation Systems in Switzerland, where he led a rapid global expansion of the business group. Mr. Hahn has served in various other executive leadership roles at Honeywell since joining in 2007. Prior to his time at Honeywell, Mr. Hahn spent nearly 20 years with Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., in a range of business, operations and technology leadership roles, with positions based in Taiwan, Malaysia and Canada. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Regal Beloit Corporation. He holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania and master and bachelor degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Lehigh University.

About Axalta

Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With more than 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the approximately 14,000 people of Axalta continue to find ways to serve our more than 100,000 customers in 130 countries better every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information, visit axalta.com and follow us @Axalta on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

Contact

Robert C. Ferris

D +1 215 255 7981

M +1 973 765 7393

[email protected]

www.axalta.com

SOURCE Axalta Coating Systems Ltd.

Related Links

http://www.axalta.com

PORTLAND, Maine, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Beacon Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Michaela Monahan as a Director joining our Healthcare & Life Sciences practice. Ms. Monahan will work alongside our Healthcare Senior Vice President, Oliver Richards, and Beacon's President and CEO Cliff Farrah.

"Michaela's addition to our healthcare team continues the high standard of excellence that we have developed in our Healthcare and Life Sciences practice. I look forward to her contributions as our practice continues to lead in the field of growth strategies and tactics for our clients," said Cliff Farrah, Beacon's President and CEO.

Michaela brings extensive healthcare business development and marketing experience to Beacon. With more than seven years of experience, Michaela most recently worked with a leading healthcare company to successfully implement a $100m marketing campaign. As Marketing and Business Development Manager, she led the cultivation of 500 consulting sales opportunities that resulted in 25% revenue growth over three years. Michaela's experience in business development and healthcare research will add to Beacon's already robust background of in-industry experience.

"We are excited to welcome Michaela to our Healthcare & Life Sciences team. She has a wide range of experience serving clients in the non-profit sector combined with a breadth of healthcare expertise," said Senior Vice President Healthcare & Life Sciences, Oliver Richards.

Michaela holds an MBA from University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, along with a Bachelor of Arts, French Literature and Women's Studies from Colgate University.

Michaela resides in New Gloucester and will be based out of Beacon's Portland, Maine Headquarters.

Media Contact: Natalie Barr, [email protected]

SOURCE The Beacon Group

Related Links

http://www.beacongroupconsulting.com

PETALUMA, Calif., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The numbers say it all: 97.8 percent of the value of innovations go to imitators. Innovators get only around 2.2 percent of the value of their revolutionary idea. The list of flamboyantly successful imitators and their dwarfed, lesser-known innovators is impressive. Diners Club innovated, and Visa, Mastercard and American Express imitated. Korvette innovated, and Walmart imitated. White Castle innovated, and McDonald's imitated. Saehan innovated with its MPman, and Apple imitated with its iPod. Entrepreneur and CEO Brandon Frere values imitation over innovation for the better value it brings.

"Imitation gets a bum rap. It takes as much creativity and energy to truly improve upon an innovation as it does to innovate," said Frere. "And usually, the product is more efficient and brings more value to the client than the original, which is always the first priority."

Oded Shenkar, author of "Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge," says that the cost of innovating is high, up to a third more. And while the innovators are sinking investments into their innovations, imitators are working on a version that is based on the market reaction to it. Good imitators don't wait, Shenkar says, "They actively search for ideas worth copying."

Imitators are disruptors. And though there are social constraints around copying, highly improved imitations (not cheap knock-offs of popular items) require great amounts of imagination and hard work. Though many CEOs shy away from calling themselves imitators, more and more are embracing the practice. Like the quality revolution that took place in the 1980s when American goods rather suddenly lacked the quality of their imported competitors, the mindsets of organizations need to swiftly embrace imitation as a highly competitive strategy with more value than innovation.

"As Warren Buffet says, there are three types of business models: innovators, imitators and idiots," said Frere. "Innovators just don't see enough value for their efforts. Idiots ruin a good thing by being late and out of touch. A good imitator makes something better, something more valuable and this is good for the client, the employee and the company."

About Frere Enterprises

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His company website, www.FrereEnterprises.com, is used as a means to communicate many of the lessons, fundamentals and information he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide.

As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider's look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs.

FrereEnterprises.com

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Related Links

Frere Enterprises

SOURCE Frere Enterprises

Related Links

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July 24, 2018

Dear Fellow WHLR Owner,

In March, Wheeler REIT announced a loss of $5.3 million on a $12 million loan to the 'Sea Turtle Marketplace Project.' Jon Wheeler was an investor and the general partner of the Sea Turtle Marketplace Project. As best we can tell based on the Company's spotty public disclosures, it was not a part of our Company.*

It appears that the Bank of Arkansas made a $16 million senior loan to the Sea Turtle Marketplace Project, and that loan was personally guaranteed by Jon Wheeler. Our Company made the $12 million junior loan to the Sea Turtle Marketplace Project (approved by the board which included these six legacy directors: Stewart Brown, David Kelly, John McAuliffe, Carl McGowan, Jr., John Sweet and Jeffrey Zwerdling) and -- inexplicably -- it does not appear as if the legacy directors got Jon Wheeler's personal guarantee on this junior loan (the place where the guarantee was needed).

Is it possible that Stewart Brown, placed on the Board by Westport Capital Partners (supposed real estate experts), didn't know better than to allow the approval of such an inherently conflicted loan? The directors' duty was to the shareholders -- not to Jon Wheeler. Didn't any of them recognize that? At a minimum, where was the guarantee for such a risky construction loan?

Rule #1: Don't make loans from Company funds for the CEO's outside projects.

Rule #2 : If, for some crazy reason, you violate Rule #1, make sure you watch very carefully.

The directors appear to have been dead asleep.

Sincerely,

Megan Parisi

CERTAIN INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PARTICIPANTS

Stilwel Activist Investments, L.P. ("Stilwell Activist Investments"), together with the other participants named herein, intends to file a preliminary proxy statement and accompanying proxy card with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") to be used to solicit votes for the election of a slate of director nominees at the 2018 annual meeting of stockholders of Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc., a Maryland corporation (the "Company").

Stilwell Activist Investments STRONGLY ADVISES ALL STOCKHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT AND OTHER PROXY MATERIALS AS THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. SUCH PROXY MATERIALS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT NO CHARGE ON THE SEC'S WEBSITE AT HTTP://WWW.SEC.GOV. IN ADDITION, THE PARTICIPANTS IN THIS PROXY SOLICITATION WILL PROVIDE COPIES OF THE PROXY STATEMENT WITHOUT CHARGE, WHEN AVAILABLE, UPON REQUEST. REQUESTS FOR COPIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO THE PARTICIPANTS' PROXY SOLICITOR.

The participants in the proxy solicitation are anticipated to be Stilwell Activist Investments, Stilwell Value Partners VII, L.P. ("Stilwell Value Partners VII"), Stilwell Activist Fund, L.P. ("Stilwell Activist Fund"), Stilwell Value LLC ("Stilwell Value LLC"), Joseph Stilwell, Paula J. Poskon, and Corissa Briglia Porcelli.

As of the date hereof, Stilwell Activist Investments directly beneficially owns 678,922 shares of common stock, $0.01 par value per share of the Company (the "Common Stock"), which includes 19,126 shares of the Company's Series D Cumulative Convertible Preferred Stock, no par value (the "Series D Preferred Stock"), that are convertible into 28,193 shares of Common Stock. As of the date hereof, Stilwell Value Partners VII directly beneficially owns 141,928 shares of Common Stock, which includes 4,016 shares of Series D Preferred Stock that are convertible into 5,920 shares of Common Stock. As of the date hereof, Stilwell Activist Fund directly beneficially owns 90,226 shares of Common Stock, which includes 2,258 shares of Series D Preferred Stock that are convertible into 3,328 shares of Common Stock. Stilwell Value LLC, as the general partner of each of Stilwell Value Partners VII, Stilwell Activist Fund and Stilwell Activist Investments, may be deemed the beneficial owner of the 911,076 shares of Common Stock, which includes 25,400 shares of Series D Preferred Stock that are convertible into 37,441 shares of Common Stock, owned in the aggregate by Stilwell Value Partners VII, Stilwell Activist Fund and Stilwell Activist Investments. Mr. Stilwell, as the managing member and owner of Stilwell Value LLC, the general partner of each of Stilwell Value Partners VII, Stilwell Activist Fund and Stilwell Activist Investments, may be deemed the beneficial owner of the 911,076 shares of Common Stock, which includes 25,400 shares of Series D Preferred Stock that are convertible into 37,441 shares of Common Stock, owned in the aggregate by Stilwell Value Partners VII, Stilwell Activist Fund and Stilwell Activist Investments. As of the date hereof, neither Ms. Poskon nor Ms. Porcelli own any securities of the Company.

Investor Contact:

The Stilwell Group

Megan Parisi

(917) 881-8076

[email protected]

SOURCE The Stilwell GroupNEW YORK, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenhill & Co., Inc. (NYSE: GHL), a leading independent investment bank, announced today that Tom Widener will join the Firm in New York as a Managing Director and Head of Power & Utilities Corporate Advisory.

Mr. Widener has more than 30 years of investment banking experience focused primarily on the power and utilities sector. Most recently he has been a Vice Chairman and Managing Director in the Natural Resources Group of Deutsche Bank, where he has led the firm's efforts with large corporate and industry-focused financial sponsor clients for transactions across the power and utilities sector. Prior to his 10 years at Deutsche Bank, he spent 3 years at Bear Stearns, where he was Global Head of the Power & Utilities Group and also led that firm's alternative energy investment banking activities. Prior to that he was a Managing Director in the energy and power group at Merrill Lynch & Co., where he spent 20 years.

Scott L. Bok, Chief Executive Officer of Greenhill, said, "We are pleased to further expand our capabilities in the energy sector by bringing in a senior specialist with a broad range of client relationships in the power and utilities sector. Over the course of his career, Tom has been responsible for many large, noteworthy transactions in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia. His experience and expertise will be of great value to our clients in both domestic and cross border M&A and restructuring situations. Tom is our tenth Managing Director recruit of the year to date, and his recruitment represents another important milestone in our strategy of building out our industry sector capabilities."

Greenhill & Co., Inc. is a leading independent investment bank entirely focused on providing financial advice on significant mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, financings and capital raising to corporations, partnerships, institutions and governments globally. It acts for clients located throughout the world from its offices in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Madrid, Melbourne, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Stockholm, Sydney, Tokyo and Toronto.

Contact: Patrick J. Suehnholz

Director of Investor Relations

Greenhill & Co., Inc.

(212) 389-1800

SOURCE Greenhill & Co., Inc.

Related Links

www.greenhill.com

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Health Services, Inc. (NYSE: UHS) announced today that its reported net income attributable to UHS was $226.1 million, or $2.39 per diluted share, during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to $185.4 million, or $1.91 per diluted share, during the comparable quarter of 2017. Net revenues increased 2.6% to $2.68 billion during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to $2.61 billion during the second quarter of 2017.

For the three-month period ended June 30, 2018, our adjusted net income attributable to UHS, as calculated on the attached Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule"), was $233.3 million, or $2.47 per diluted share, as compared to $188.1 million, or $1.94 per diluted share, during the second quarter of 2017.

Included in our reported and adjusted net income attributable to UHS during the second quarter of 2018, is a pre-tax unrealized gain of $8.0 million (included in "Other (income) expense, net"), or $.06 per diluted share, resulting from an increase in the market value of shares of certain marketable securities held for investment and classified as available for sale.

As reflected on the Supplemental Schedule, included in our reported results during the second quarter of 2018, is a net aggregate unfavorable after-tax impact of $7.3 million, or $.08 per diluted share, substantially all of which resulted from an unfavorable after-tax impact of $7.2 million, or $.08 per diluted share, resulting from a $9.5 million pre-tax increase in the reserve established in connection with the discussions with the Department of Justice ("DOJ"), as discussed below.

As reflected on the Supplemental Schedule, included in our reported results during the second quarter of 2017, is a net aggregate unfavorable after-tax impact of $2.7 million, or $.03 per diluted share, consisting of: (i) a favorable after-tax impact of $1.4 million, or $.01 per diluted share, resulting from our January 1, 2017 adoption of ASU 2016-09, "Compensation  Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting" ("ASU 2016-09"), offset by; (ii) an unfavorable after-tax impact of $4.0 million, or $.04 per diluted share, related to the depreciation and amortization expense recorded in connection with the implementation of electronic health records ("EHR") applications at our acute care hospitals.

As calculated on the attached Supplemental Schedule, our earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization ("EBITDA net of NCI"), was $444.7 million during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to $438.3 million during the second quarter of 2017. Our adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI"), which excludes the impact of the above-mentioned $9.5 million pre-tax increase in the DOJ reserve and $15.3 million of other income, net, recorded during the second quarter of 2018, was $438.8 million during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to $438.3 million during the second quarter of 2017.

Consolidated Results of Operations, As Reported and As Adjusted  Six-month periods ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:

Reported net income attributable to UHS was $449.9 million, or $4.76 per diluted share, during the six-month period ended June 30, 2018 as compared to $391.4 million, or $4.03 per diluted share, during the comparable period of 2017. Net revenues increased 2.7% to $5.37 billion during the first six months of 2018 as compared to $5.23 billion during the first six months of 2017.

For the six-month period ended June 30, 2018, our adjusted net income attributable to UHS, as calculated on the attached Supplemental Schedule, was $465.5 million, or $4.92 per diluted share, as compared to $392.4 million, or $4.04 per diluted share, during the comparable period of 2017.

As reflected on the Supplemental Schedule, included in our reported results during the six-month period ended June 30, 2018, is a net aggregate unfavorable after-tax impact of $15.6 million, or $.16 per diluted share, consisting of: (i) an unfavorable after-tax impact of $17.1 million, or $.18 per diluted share, resulting from a $22.5 million pre-tax increase in the reserve established in connection with the discussions with the DOJ, as discussed below, partially offset by; (ii) a favorable after-tax impact of $1.5 million, or $.02 per diluted share, resulting from our adoption of ASU 2016-09.

As reflected on the Supplemental Schedule, included in our reported results during the six-month period ended June 30, 2017, is a net aggregate unfavorable after-tax impact of $1.0 million, or $.01 per diluted share, consisting of: (i) a favorable after-tax impact of $8.1 million, or $.08 per diluted share, resulting from our adoption of ASU 2016-09, offset by; (ii) an unfavorable after-tax impact of $9.1 million, or $.09 per diluted share, related to the depreciation and amortization expense recorded in connection with the implementation of EHR applications at our acute care hospitals.

As calculated on the attached Supplemental Schedule, our earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization ("EBITDA net of NCI"), was $886.8 million during the first six months of 2018 as compared to $898.6 million during the first six months of 2017. Our adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI"), which excludes the impact of the above-mentioned $22.5 million pre-tax increase in the DOJ reserve and $15.3 million of other income, net, recorded during the first six months of 2018, was $893.9 million during the six-month period ended June 30, 2018 as compared to $898.6 million during the first six months of 2017.

Acute Care Services  Three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:

During the second quarter of 2018, at our acute care hospitals owned during both periods ("same facility basis"), adjusted admissions (adjusted for outpatient activity) increased 1.9% and adjusted patient days increased 4.7%, as compared to the second quarter of 2017. At these facilities, net revenue per adjusted admission increased 3.1% while net revenue per adjusted patient day increased 0.4% during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to the comparable quarter of 2017. Net revenues from our acute care services on a same facility basis increased 3.3% during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to the comparable quarter of the prior year.

During the six-month period ended June 30, 2018, at our acute care hospitals on a same facility basis, adjusted admissions increased 2.0% and adjusted patient days increased 5.1%, as compared to the comparable period of 2017. At these facilities, net revenue per adjusted admission increased 3.4% while net revenue per adjusted patient day increased 0.3% during the first six months of 2018 as compared to the comparable period of 2017. Net revenues from our acute care services on a same facility basis increased 3.5% during the first six months of 2018 as compared to the comparable period of the prior year.

Behavioral Health Care Services  Three and six-month periods ended June 30, 2018 and 2017:

During the second quarter of 2018, at our behavioral health care facilities on a same facility basis, adjusted admissions increased 1.2% while adjusted patient days decreased 0.3% as compared to the second quarter of 2017. At these facilities, net revenue per adjusted admission increased 2.0% while net revenue per adjusted patient day increased 3.6% during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to the comparable quarter in 2017. On a same facility basis, our behavioral health care services' net revenues increased 2.8% during the second quarter of 2018 as compared to the second quarter of 2017.

During the six-month period ended June 30, 2018, at our behavioral health care facilities on a same facility basis, adjusted admissions increased 1.4% while adjusted patient days increased 0.1% as compared to the comparable period of 2017. At these facilities, net revenue per adjusted admission increased 2.0% while net revenue per adjusted patient day increased 3.4% during the first six months of 2018 as compared to the comparable period in 2017. On a same facility basis, our behavioral health care services' net revenues increased 2.9% during the first six months of 2018 as compared to the comparable period of 2017.

Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities and Share Repurchase Program:

For the six months ended June 30, 2018, our net cash provided by operating activities was $629 million as compared to $534 million generated during the first six months of 2017. The $95 million increase was due to: (i) a $103 million favorable change in other working capital accounts resulting primarily from changes in accounts payable and accrued expenses due to timing of disbursements; (ii) a $64 million favorable change in cash flows from foreign currency forward exchange contracts related to our investments in the U.K; (iii) a $65 million unfavorable change in accounts receivable, and; (iv) $7 million of other combined net unfavorable changes.

In November of 2017, our Board of Directors authorized a $400 million increase to our stock repurchase program, which increased the aggregate authorization to $1.2 billion from the previous $800 million authorization approved during 2016 and 2014. Pursuant to this program, we may purchase shares of our Class B Common Stock, from time to time as conditions allow, on the open market or in negotiated private transactions.

In conjunction with our stock repurchase program, during the second quarter of 2018, we have repurchased approximately 1.12 million shares at an aggregate cost of $129.6 million (approximately $116 per share). During the first six months of 2018, we have repurchased approximately 1.16 million shares at an aggregate cost of $134.2 million (approximately $116 per share). Since inception of the program in 2014 through June 30, 2018, we have repurchased approximately 8.51 million shares at an aggregate cost of $970.5 million (approximately $114 per share).

Conference call information:

We will hold a conference call for investors and analysts at 9:00 a.m. eastern time on July 26, 2018. The dial-in number is 1-877-648-7971.

A live broadcast of the conference call will be available on our website at www.uhsinc.com. A replay of the call will be available following the conclusion of the live call and will be available for one full year.

Reserve-DOJ:

During the first six months of 2018, we recorded a pre-tax increase of approximately $22 million to the reserve established in connection with the civil aspects of the government's investigation of certain of our behavioral health care facilities, increasing the aggregate pre-tax reserve to approximately $43 million. Changes in the reserve may be required in future periods as discussions with the DOJ continue and additional information becomes available. We cannot predict the ultimate resolution of this matter and therefore can provide no assurance that final amounts paid in settlement or otherwise, if any, or associated costs, will not differ materially from our established reserve. Please see Item 1-Legal Proceedings in our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018 for additional disclosure in connection with this matter.

Adoption of new revenue recognition standard:

On January 1, 2018, we adopted, using the modified retrospective approach, ASU 2014-09 and ASU 2016-08, "Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606)" and "Revenue from Contracts with Customers: Principal versus Agent Considerations (Reporting Revenue Gross versus Net)", respectively, which provides guidance for revenue recognition. The standard's core principle is that a company will recognize revenue when it transfers promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The most significant change from the adoption of the new standard relates to our estimation for the allowance for doubtful accounts. Under the previous standards, our estimate for amounts not expected to be collected based upon our historical experience, were reflected as provision for doubtful accounts, included within net revenue. Under the new standard, our estimate for amounts not expected to be collected based on historical experience will continue to be recognized as a reduction to net revenue, however, not reflected separately as provision for doubtful accounts. Under the new standard, subsequent changes in estimate of collectability due to a change in the financial status of a payor, for example a bankruptcy, will be recognized as bad debt expense in operating charges. The adoption of this ASU in 2018, and amounts recognized as bad debt expense and included in other operating expenses, did not have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017:

Effective January 1, 2018, our provision for income taxes, net income attributable to UHS, and net income attributable to UHS per diluted share, were favorably impacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 which made broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code including, among other things, reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%.

General Information, Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors and Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

One of the nation's largest and most respected hospital companies, Universal Health Services, Inc. ("UHS") has built an impressive record of achievement and performance. Growing steadily since its inception into an esteemed Fortune 500 corporation, UHS today has annual revenue exceeding $10 billion. In 2018, UHS was recognized as one of the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune; ranked #268 on the Fortune 500; and in 2017, listed #275 in Forbes inaugural ranking of America's Top 500 Public Companies.

Our operating philosophy is as effective today as it was 40 years ago, enabling us to provide compassionate care to our patients and their loved ones: Build or acquire high quality hospitals in rapidly growing markets, invest in the people and equipment needed to allow each facility to thrive, and become the leading healthcare provider in each community we serve.

Headquartered in King of Prussia, PA, UHS has more than 83,000 employees and through its subsidiaries operates 326 inpatient acute care hospitals and behavioral health facilities and 32 outpatient and other facilities located in 37 states, Washington, D.C., the United Kingdom and Puerto Rico. It acts as the advisor to Universal Health Realty Income Trust, a real estate investment trust (NYSE:UHT). For additional information on the Company, visit our web site: http://www.uhsinc.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current management expectations. Numerous factors, including those disclosed herein, those related to healthcare industry trends and those detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (as set forth in Item 1A-Risk Factors and in Item 7-Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and in Item 2-Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018), may cause the results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Many of the factors that will determine our future results are beyond our capability to control or predict. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and therefore actual results may differ materially. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements which reflect management's view only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements, or to make any other forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

We believe that operating income, operating margin, adjusted net income attributable to UHS, adjusted net income attributable to UHS per diluted share, EBITDA net of NCI and adjusted EBITDA net of NCI, which are non-GAAP financial measures ("GAAP" is Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States of America), are helpful to our investors as measures of our operating performance. In addition, we believe that, when applicable, comparing and discussing our financial results based on these measures, as calculated, is helpful to our investors since it neutralizes the effect in each year of material items impacting our net income attributable to UHS, such as, changes in the reserve established in connection with our discussions with the DOJ, our adoption of ASU 2016-09, and other potential items that are nonrecurring or non-operational in nature including, but not limited to, reserves for various matters including settlements, legal judgments and lawsuits, costs related to extinguishment of debt, gains/losses on sales of assets and businesses, impairments of long-lived assets, and other material amounts that may be reflected in the current or prior year financial statements that relate to prior periods. To obtain a complete understanding of our financial performance these measures should be examined in connection with net income attributable to UHS, as determined in accordance with GAAP, and as presented in the condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto in this report or in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our Reports on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2018. Since the items included or excluded from these measures are significant components in understanding and assessing financial performance under GAAP, these measures should not be considered to be alternatives to net income as a measure of our operating performance or profitability. Since these measures, as presented, are not determined in accordance with GAAP and are thus susceptible to varying calculations, they may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies. Investors are encouraged to use GAAP measures when evaluating our financial performance.

Universal Health Services, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Income (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)

















Three months

Six months

ended June 30,

ended June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Net revenues before provision for doubtful accounts



$2,827,709





$5,653,181 Less: Provision for doubtful accounts



215,353





427,967 Net revenues $2,681,353

2,612,356

$5,368,869

5,225,214















Operating charges:













Salaries, wages and benefits 1,305,974

1,236,294

2,606,122

2,474,258 Other operating expenses 624,484

632,193

1,245,303

1,239,553 Supplies expense 289,733

274,539

582,662

552,153 Depreciation and amortization 109,581

113,112

222,684

223,910 Lease and rental expense 27,119

26,027

53,822

51,216

2,356,891

2,282,165

4,710,593

4,541,090















Income from operations 324,462

330,191

658,276

684,124















Interest expense, net 38,000

35,920

75,576

71,427 Other (income) expense, net (15,308)

0

(15,308)

0















Income before income taxes 301,770

294,271

598,008

612,697















Provision for income taxes 71,059

103,883

138,628

211,782















Net income 230,711

190,388

459,380

400,915















Less: Net income attributable to













noncontrolling interests ("NCI") 4,659

4,994

9,496

9,466















Net income attributable to UHS $226,052

$185,394

$449,884

$391,449































































































Basic earnings per share attributable to UHS (a) $2.40

$1.93

$4.78

$4.06















Diluted earnings per share attributable to UHS (a) $2.39

$1.91

$4.76

$4.03

Universal Health Services, Inc. Footnotes to Consolidated Statements of Income (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)

















Three months

Six months (a) Earnings per share calculation: ended June 30,

ended June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017 Basic and diluted:













Net income attributable to UHS $226,052

$185,394

$449,884

$391,449 Less: Net income attributable to unvested restricted share grants (392)

(82)

(496)

(176) Net income attributable to UHS - basic and diluted $225,660

$185,312

$449,388

$391,273















Weighted average number of common shares - basic 93,842

96,247

94,034

96,416















Basic earnings per share attributable to UHS: $2.40

$1.93

$4.78

$4.06















Weighted average number of common shares 93,842

96,247

94,034

96,416 Add: Other share equivalents 439

795

448

791 Weighted average number of common shares and equiv. - diluted 94,281

97,042

94,482

97,207















Diluted earnings per share attributable to UHS: $2.39

$1.91

$4.76

$4.03

Universal Health Services, Inc. Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule") For the Three Months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)















































Calculation of Earnings/Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization

("EBITDA/Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI")

















Three months ended

% Net

Three months ended

% Net

June 30, 2018

revenues

June 30, 2017

revenues















Net income attributable to UHS $226,052





$185,394



Depreciation and amortization 109,581





113,112



Interest expense, net 38,000





35,920



Provision for income taxes 71,059





103,883



EBITDA net of NCI $444,692

16.6%

$438,309

16.8%















Other (income) expense, net (15,308)





-



Increase in DOJ reserve 9,451





-



Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI $438,835

16.4%

$438,309

16.8%















Net revenues $2,681,353





$2,612,356



















































































Calculation of Adjusted Net Income Attributable to UHS

















Three months ended

Three months ended

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017





Per





Per

Amount

Diluted Share

Amount

Diluted Share















Net income attributable to UHS $226,052

$2.39

$185,394

$1.91 Plus/minus after-tax adjustments:













Increase in DOJ reserve, after-tax 7,205

0.08

-

- Impact of ASU 2016-09 61

-

(1,382)

(0.01) EHR depreciation & amortization, after-tax -

-

4,038

0.04 Subtotal 7,266

0.08

2,656

0.03 Adjusted net income attributable to UHS $233,318

$2.47

$188,050

$1.94

Universal Health Services, Inc. Schedule of Non-GAAP Supplemental Information ("Supplemental Schedule") For the Six Months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited)















































Calculation of Earnings/Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization

("EBITDA/Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI")

















Six months ended

% Net

Six months ended

% Net

June 30, 2018

revenues

June 30, 2017

revenues















Net income attributable to UHS $449,884





$391,449



Depreciation and amortization 222,684





223,910



Interest expense, net 75,576





71,427



Provision for income taxes 138,628





211,782



EBITDA net of NCI $886,772

16.5%

$898,568

17.2%















Other (income) expense, net (15,308)





-



Increase in DOJ reserve 22,451





-



Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI $893,915

16.6%

$898,568

17.2%















Net revenues $5,368,869





$5,225,214



















































































Calculation of Adjusted Net Income Attributable to UHS

















Six months ended

Six months ended

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017





Per





Per

Amount

Diluted Share

Amount

Diluted Share















Net income attributable to UHS $449,884

$4.76

$391,449

$4.03 Plus/minus after-tax adjustments:













Increase in DOJ reserve, after-tax 17,116

0.18

-

- Impact of ASU 2016-09 (1,537)

(0.02)

(8,132)

(0.08) EHR depreciation & amortization, after-tax -

-

9,111

0.09 Subtotal 15,579

0.16

979

0.01 Adjusted net income attributable to UHS $465,463

$4.92

$392,428

$4.04

Universal Health Services, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (in thousands) (unaudited)

















Three months

Six months

ended June 30,

ended June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Net income $230,711

$190,388

$459,380

$400,915 Other comprehensive income (loss):













Unrealized derivative gains (losses) on cash flow hedges (545)

(129)

1,579

2,937 Foreign currency translation adjustment 1,184

1,713

(3,157)

8,949 Other (2,367)

3,066

0

4,160 Other comprehensive income (loss) before tax (1,728)

4,650

(1,578)

16,046 Income tax expense (benefit) related to items of other comprehensive income (loss) (1,452)

1,095

(375)

2,646 Total other comprehensive income (loss), net of tax (276)

3,555

(1,203)

13,400















Comprehensive income 230,435

193,943

458,177

414,315 Less: Comprehensive income attributable to noncontrolling interests 4,659

4,994

9,496

9,466 Comprehensive income attributable to UHS $225,776

$188,949

$448,681

$404,849

Universal Health Services, Inc. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands) (unaudited)



















June 30,



December 31,





2018



2017 Assets











Current assets:











Cash and cash equivalents

$ 76,886

$ 74,423 Accounts receivable, net



1,557,298



1,500,898 Supplies



140,797



136,177 Other current assets



105,546



86,504 Total current assets



1,880,527



1,798,002













Property and equipment



8,281,347



7,921,126 Less: accumulated depreciation



(3,528,248)



(3,349,289)





4,753,099



4,571,837













Other assets:











Goodwill



3,815,203



3,825,157 Deferred charges



8,081



9,787 Deferred income taxes



2,967



3,007 Other



609,540



554,038 Total Assets

$ 11,069,417

$ 10,761,828













Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity











Current liabilities:











Current maturities of long-term debt

$ 126,302

$ 545,619 Accounts payable and accrued liabilities



1,321,049



1,284,081 Federal and state taxes



193



18,334 Total current liabilities



1,447,544



1,848,034













Other noncurrent liabilities



311,518



306,304 Long-term debt



3,864,162



3,494,390 Deferred income taxes



49,642



54,962













Redeemable noncontrolling interest



6,341



6,702













UHS common stockholders' equity



5,317,583



4,989,514 Noncontrolling interest



72,627



61,922 Total equity



5,390,210



5,051,436













Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity

$ 11,069,417

$ 10,761,828

Universal Health Services, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands) (unaudited)

Six months

ended June 30,

2018

2017







Cash Flows from Operating Activities:





Net income $459,380

$400,915 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net





cash provided by operating activities:





Depreciation & amortization 222,716

223,910 Stock-based compensation expense 34,716

29,053 Gain on sale of assets and businesses (2,513)

0 Changes in assets & liabilities, net of effects from





acquisitions and dispositions:





Accounts receivable (64,055)

941 Accrued interest 199

211 Accrued and deferred income taxes (42,540)

(5,529) Other working capital accounts 8,977

(93,715) Other assets and deferred charges (14,144)

(19,723) Other 18,876

(23,411) Accrued insurance expense, net of commercial premiums paid 46,255

58,903 Payments made in settlement of self-insurance claims (38,606)

(37,759) Net cash provided by operating activities 629,261

533,796







Cash Flows from Investing Activities:





Property and equipment additions, net of disposals (370,252)

(262,452) Acquisition of property and businesses (20,931)

(19,610) Proceeds received from sales of assets and businesses 13,502

0 Costs incurred for purchase and implementation of information technology applications (24,087)

(19,448) Decrease (increase) in capital reserves of commercial insurance subsidiary 100

(3,000) Investment in, and advances to, joint venture (14,059)

0 Net cash used in investing activities (415,727)

(304,510)







Cash Flows from Financing Activities:





Reduction of long-term debt (82,470)

(45,675) Additional borrowings 30,500

21,600 Financing costs (754)

0 Repurchase of common shares (134,784)

(147,463) Dividends paid (18,804)

(19,280) Issuance of common stock 4,959

4,927 Profit distributions to noncontrolling interests (7,914)

(11,430) Net cash used in financing activities (209,267)

(197,321)







Effect of exchange rate changes on cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (1,138)

938 Increase in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash 3,129

32,903 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, beginning of period 167,297

121,950 Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, end of period $170,426

$154,853







Supplemental Disclosures of Cash Flow Information:





Interest paid $70,890

$66,765







Income taxes paid, net of refunds $182,130

$216,214







Noncash purchases of property and equipment $91,742

$63,089

Universal Health Services, Inc. Supplemental Statistical Information (unaudited)





































































% Change

% Change













Quarter ended

6 months ended



Same Facility:







6/30/2018

6/30/2018























Acute Care Hospitals

















Revenues







3.3%

3.5%



Adjusted Admissions







1.9%

2.0%



Adjusted Patient Days







4.7%

5.1%



Revenue Per Adjusted Admission





3.1%

3.4%



Revenue Per Adjusted Patient Day





0.4%

0.3%































































Behavioral Health Hospitals

















Revenues







2.8%

2.9%



Adjusted Admissions







1.2%

1.4%



Adjusted Patient Days







-0.3%

0.1%



Revenue Per Adjusted Admission





2.0%

2.0%



Revenue Per Adjusted Patient Day





3.6%

3.4%



















































































UHS Consolidated



Second quarter ended

Six months ended





6/30/2018

6/30/2017

6/30/2018

6/30/2017



















Revenues



$2,681,353

$2,612,356

$5,368,869

$5,225,214 EBITDA net of NCI



$444,692

$438,309

$886,772

$898,568 EBITDA Margin net of NCI



16.6%

16.8%

16.5%

17.2% Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI



$438,835

$438,309

$893,915

$898,568 Adjusted EBITDA Margin net of NCI

16.4%

16.8%

16.6%

17.2%







































Cash Flow From Operations



$265,210

$50,687

$629,261

$533,796 Days Sales Outstanding



53

51

53

50 Capital Expenditures



$181,211

$118,114

$370,252

$262,452



















Debt











$3,990,464

$4,115,021 UHS' Shareholders Equity











$5,317,583

$4,812,854 Debt / Total Capitalization











42.9%

46.1% Debt / EBITDA net of NCI (1)











2.35

2.43 Debt / Adjusted EBITDA net of NCI (1)







2.34

2.43 Debt / Cash From Operations (1)











3.12

3.99



















(1) Latest 4 quarters



















Universal Health Services, Inc. Acute Care Hospital Services For the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands)



































































Same Facility Basis - Acute Care Hospital Services





































































Three months ended

Three months ended

Six months ended

Six months ended



June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017



Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues Net revenues before provision for doubtful accounts









$1,517,593













$3,071,060



Less: Provision for doubtful accounts









187,369













368,352



Net revenues

$1,374,725

100.0%

1,330,224

100.0%

$2,798,378

100.0%

2,702,708

100.0% Operating charges:































Salaries, wages and benefits

583,969

42.5%

551,661

41.5%

1,165,542

41.7%

1,106,563

40.9% Other operating expenses

307,800

22.4%

313,692

23.6%

615,197

22.0%

628,915

23.3% Supplies expense

240,118

17.5%

224,923

16.9%

483,271

17.3%

453,408

16.8% Depreciation and amortization

67,165

4.9%

66,608

5.0%

139,315

5.0%

129,657

4.8% Lease and rental expense

14,708

1.1%

14,545

1.1%

28,991

1.0%

28,461

1.1% Subtotal-operating expenses

1,213,760

88.3%

1,171,429

88.1%

2,432,316

86.9%

2,347,004

86.8% Income from operations

160,965

11.7%

158,795

11.9%

366,062

13.1%

355,704

13.2% Interest expense, net

431

0.0%

690

0.1%

962

0.0%

1,435

0.1% Other (income) expense, net

(2,498)

(0.2)%

-

-

(2,498)

(0.1)%

-

- Income before income taxes

163,032

11.9%

158,105

11.9%

367,598

13.1%

354,269

13.1%





































































































All Acute Care Hospital Services





































































Three months ended

Three months ended

Six months ended

Six months ended



June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017



Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues Net revenues before provision for doubtful accounts









$1,553,826













$3,124,356



Less: Provision for doubtful accounts









187,369













368,352



Net revenues

$1,403,991

100.0%

1,366,457

100.0%

$2,849,623

100.0%

2,756,004

100.0% Operating charges:































Salaries, wages and benefits

584,126

41.6%

551,735

40.4%

1,165,894

40.9%

1,106,695

40.2% Other operating expenses

337,926

24.1%

343,669

25.2%

667,962

23.4%

675,968

24.5% Supplies expense

240,118

17.1%

224,924

16.5%

483,271

17.0%

453,409

16.5% Depreciation and amortization

67,165

4.8%

73,017

5.3%

139,315

4.9%

144,355

5.2% Lease and rental expense

14,708

1.0%

14,545

1.1%

28,991

1.0%

28,461

1.0% Subtotal-operating expenses

1,244,043

88.6%

1,207,890

88.4%

2,485,433

87.2%

2,408,888

87.4% Income from operations

159,948

11.4%

158,567

11.6%

364,190

12.8%

347,116

12.6% Interest expense, net

431

0.0%

690

0.1%

962

0.0%

1,435

0.1% Other (income) expense, net

(2,498)

(0.2)%

-

-

(2,498)

(0.1)%

-

- Income before income taxes

162,015

11.5%

157,877

11.6%

365,726

12.8%

345,681

12.5%



































































We believe that providing our results on a "Same Facility" basis (which is a non-GAAP measure), which includes the operating results for facilities and businesses operated in both the current year and prior year periods, is helpful to our investors as a measure of our operating performance. Our Same Facility results also neutralize (if applicable), the effect of items that are nonrecurring or non-operational in nature including items such as, but not limited to, reserves for various matters, settlements, legal judgments and lawsuits, cost related to extinguishment of debt, gains/losses on sales of assets and businesses, impairments of long-lived assets, the impact of the EHR applications (in 2017) and other amounts that may be reflected in the current or prior year financial statements that relate to prior periods. Our Same Facility basis results exclude from net revenues and other operating expenses, provider tax assessments incurred in each period. However, these provider tax assessments are included in net revenues and other operating expenses as reflected in the table under All Acute Care Hospital Services. The provider tax assessments had no impact on the income before income taxes as reflected on the above tables since the amounts offset between net revenues and other operating expenses. To obtain a complete understanding of our financial performance, the Same Facility results should be examined in connection with our net income as determined in accordance with GAAP and as presented herein and the condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto as contained in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

































The All Acute Care Hospital Servicestable summarizes the results of operations for all our acute care operations during the periods presented. These amounts include: (i) our acute care results on a same facility basis, as indicated above; (ii) the impact of the implementation of EHR applications at our acute care hospitals (in 2017); (iii) the impact of provider tax assessments which increased net revenues and other operating expenses but had no impact on income before income taxes, and; (iv) certain other amounts including the results of facilities acquired or opened during the last twelve months.

Universal Health Services, Inc. Behavioral Health Care Services For the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 (in thousands)



































































Same Facility - Behavioral Health Care Services





































































Three months ended

Three months ended

Six months ended

Six months ended



June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017



Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues Net revenues before provision for doubtful accounts









$1,238,108













$2,443,185



Less: Provision for doubtful accounts









28,162













58,798



Net revenues

$1,243,429

100.0%

1,209,946

100.0%

$2,453,366

100.0%

2,384,387

100.0% Operating charges:































Salaries, wages and benefits

642,805

51.7%

606,919

50.2%

1,273,373

51.9%

1,204,011

50.5% Other operating expenses

234,168

18.8%

236,565

19.6%

464,515

18.9%

466,453

19.6% Supplies expense

48,957

3.9%

48,819

4.0%

97,726

4.0%

96,566

4.0% Depreciation and amortization

37,430

3.0%

35,933

3.0%

74,173

3.0%

71,249

3.0% Lease and rental expense

11,920

1.0%

10,951

0.9%

23,928

1.0%

21,712

0.9% Subtotal-operating expenses

975,280

78.4%

939,187

77.6%

1,933,715

78.8%

1,859,991

78.0% Income from operations

268,149

21.6%

270,759

22.4%

519,651

21.2%

524,396

22.0% Interest expense, net

410

0.0%

439

0.0%

837

0.0%

1,162

0.0% Other (income) expense, net

1,258

0.1%

-

-

1,258

0.1%

-

- Income before income taxes

266,481

21.4%

270,320

22.3%

517,556

21.1%

523,234

21.9%





































































































All Behavioral Health Care Services





































































Three months ended

Three months ended

Six months ended

Six months ended



June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017



Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues

Amount

% of Net

Revenues Net revenues before provision for doubtful accounts









$1,270,547













$2,520,295



Less: Provision for doubtful accounts









27,986













59,612



Net revenues

$1,274,083

100.0%

1,242,561

100.0%

$2,512,079

100.0%

2,460,683

100.0% Operating charges:































Salaries, wages and benefits

651,852

51.2%

622,829

50.1%

1,293,980

51.5%

1,236,678

50.3% Other operating expenses

259,959

20.4%

268,241

21.6%

516,361

20.6%

522,719

21.2% Supplies expense

49,470

3.9%

49,984

4.0%

99,006

3.9%

99,020

4.0% Depreciation and amortization

39,777

3.1%

37,564

3.0%

78,231

3.1%

74,509

3.0% Lease and rental expense

12,256

1.0%

11,358

0.9%

24,557

1.0%

22,518

0.9% Subtotal-operating expenses

1,013,314

79.5%

989,976

79.7%

2,012,135

80.1%

1,955,444

79.5% Income from operations

260,769

20.5%

252,585

20.3%

499,944

19.9%

505,239

20.5% Interest expense, net

410

0.0%

439

0.0%

837

0.0%

1,162

0.0% Other (income) expense, net

(1,085)

(0.1)%

-

-

(1,085)

(0.0)%

-

- Income before income taxes

261,444

20.5%

252,146

20.3%

500,192

19.9%

504,077

20.5%



































































We believe that providing our results on a "Same Facility" basis (which is a non-GAAP measure), which includes the operating results for facilities and businesses operated in both the current year and prior year periods, is helpful to our investors as a measure of our operating performance. Our Same Facility results also neutralize (if applicable), the effect of items that are nonrecurring or non-operational in nature including items such as, but not limited to, reserves for various matters, settlements, legal judgments and lawsuits, cost related to extinguishment of debt, gains/losses on sales of assets and businesses, impairments of long-lived assets, and other amounts that may be reflected in the current or prior year financial statements that relate to prior periods. Our Same Facility basis results exclude from net revenues and other operating expenses, provider tax assessments incurred in each period.However, these provider tax assessments are included in net revenues and other operating expenses as reflected in the table under All Behavioral Health Care Services. The provider tax assessments had no impact on the income before income taxes as reflected on the above tables since the amounts offset between net revenues and other operating expenses. To obtain a complete understanding of our financial performance, the Same Facility results should be examined in connection with our net income as determined in accordance with GAAP and as presented herein and in the condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto as contained in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017 and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

































The All Behavioral Health Care Servicestable summarizes the results of operations for all our behavioral health care facilities during the periods presented. These amounts include: (i) our behavioral health results on a same facility basis, as indicated above; (ii) the impact of provider tax assessments which increased net revenues and other operating expenses but had no impact on income before income taxes, and; (iii) certain other amounts including the results of facilities acquired or opened during the last twelve months.

Universal Health Services, Inc. Selected Hospital Statistics For the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017



















































AS REPORTED:















































































ACUTE

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH



6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

























Hospitals owned and leased

26

26

0.0%

301

294

2.4% Average licensed beds

6,213

6,120

1.5%

23,262

23,133

0.6% Average available beds

6,037

5,948

1.5%

23,178

23,052

0.5% Patient days

339,697

324,249

4.8%

1,605,977

1,625,692

-1.2% Average daily census

3,733.1

3,563.2

4.8%

17,648.1

17,864.7

-1.2% Occupancy-licensed beds

60.1%

58.2%

3.2%

75.9%

77.2%

-1.7% Occupancy-available beds

61.8%

59.9%

3.2%

76.1%

77.5%

-1.7% Admissions

74,997

73,552

2.0%

120,469

119,142

1.1% Length of stay

4.5

4.4

2.7%

13.3

13.6

-2.3%

























Inpatient revenue

$6,164,010

$5,430,997

13.5%

$2,448,894

$2,249,135

8.9% Outpatient revenue

3,760,326

3,286,930

14.4%

267,537

257,312

4.0% Total patient revenue

9,924,336

8,717,927

13.8%

2,716,431

2,506,447

8.4% Other revenue

100,171

118,177

-15.2%

51,145

52,883

-3.3% Gross hospital revenue

10,024,507

8,836,104

13.4%

2,767,576

2,559,330

8.1% Total deductions

8,620,516

7,282,278

18.4%

1,493,493

1,288,783

15.9% Net hospital revenue before























provision for doubtful accounts

1,403,991

1,553,826

-9.6%

1,274,083

1,270,547

0.3% Provision for doubtful accounts

0

187,369

-100.0%

0

27,986

-100.0% Net hospital revenue

$1,403,991

$1,366,457

2.7%

$1,274,083

$1,242,561

2.5%



















































SAME FACILITY:





















































ACUTE

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH



6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

























Hospitals owned and leased

26

26

0.0%

287

287

0.0% Average licensed beds

6,213

6,120

1.5%

22,714

22,348

1.6% Average available beds

6,037

5,948

1.5%

22,630

22,267

1.6% Patient days

339,697

324,249

4.8%

1,585,994

1,586,085

0.0% Average daily census

3,733.1

3,563.2

4.8%

17,428.5

17,429.5

0.0% Occupancy-licensed beds

60.1%

58.2%

3.2%

76.7%

78.0%

-1.6% Occupancy-available beds

61.8%

59.9%

3.2%

77.0%

78.3%

-1.6% Admissions

74,997

73,552

2.0%

119,085

117,286

1.5% Length of stay

4.5

4.4

2.7%

13.3

13.5

-1.5%

Universal Health Services, Inc. Selected Hospital Statistics For the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017



















































AS REPORTED:















































































ACUTE

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH



6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

























Hospitals owned and leased

26

26

0.0%

301

294

2.4% Average licensed beds

6,187

6,114

1.2%

23,252

23,094

0.7% Average available beds

6,011

5,940

1.2%

23,169

23,013

0.7% Patient days

692,496

657,249

5.4%

3,187,973

3,218,146

-0.9% Average daily census

3,825.8

3,631.2

5.4%

17,613.1

17,779.8

-0.9% Occupancy-licensed beds

61.8%

59.4%

4.1%

75.7%

77.0%

-1.6% Occupancy-available beds

63.6%

61.1%

4.1%

76.0%

77.3%

-1.6% Admissions

151,640

147,903

2.5%

240,449

237,472

1.3% Length of stay

4.6

4.4

2.8%

13.3

13.6

-2.2%

























Inpatient revenue

$12,525,776

$11,028,847

13.6%

$4,851,152

$4,432,137

9.5% Outpatient revenue

7,474,987

6,581,107

13.6%

522,718

503,772

3.8% Total patient revenue

20,000,763

17,609,954

13.6%

5,373,870

4,935,909

8.9% Other revenue

198,358

239,442

-17.2%

101,178

104,359

-3.0% Gross hospital revenue

20,199,121

17,849,396

13.2%

5,475,048

5,040,268

8.6% Total deductions

17,349,498

14,725,040

17.8%

2,962,969

2,519,973

17.6% Net hospital revenue before























provision for doubtful accounts

2,849,623

3,124,356

-8.8%

2,512,079

2,520,295

-0.3% Provision for doubtful accounts

0

368,352

-100.0%

0

59,612

-100.0% Net hospital revenue

$2,849,623

$2,756,004

3.4%

$2,512,079

$2,460,683

2.1%



















































SAME FACILITY:





















































ACUTE

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH



6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

6/30/18

6/30/17

% change

























Hospitals owned and leased

26

26

0.0%

287

287

0.0% Average licensed beds

6,187

6,114

1.2%

22,630

22,299

1.5% Average available beds

6,011

5,940

1.2%

22,547

22,218

1.5% Patient days

692,496

657,249

5.4%

3,145,110

3,130,920

0.5% Average daily census

3,825.8

3,631.2

5.4%

17,376.3

17,297.9

0.5% Occupancy-licensed beds

61.8%

59.4%

4.1%

76.8%

77.6%

-1.0% Occupancy-available beds

63.6%

61.1%

4.1%

77.1%

77.9%

-1.0% Admissions

151,640

147,903

2.5%

237,716

233,483

1.8% Length of stay

4.6

4.4

2.8%

13.2

13.4

-1.3%

SOURCE Universal Health Services, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.uhsinc.com

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented action, the University of Iowa has kicked 38 Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) off campus, including at least 22 organized around religion, culture, or ideology.

Tim Schultz, President of 1st Amendment Partnership, a nonpartisan organization committed to defending religious liberty for all Americans, calls on the Iowa legislature to address the issue:

"Freedom of association is guaranteed for all Americans in the 1st Amendment. Integral to this protection is the ability of groups to form and choose their own leadership.

"Singling out certain belief-based groups as the 'wrong kind of diverse' is a bad way to promote diversity.

"University of Iowa students will return in August to a school that is less dynamic and community-oriented than they left in the spring.

"Iowa lawmakers have the ability to defend freedom of association for students across Iowa during the 2019 legislative session. Last year the Iowa Senate passed this necessary protection; we hope to see a successful bipartisan effort land on the governor's desk next Spring."

Background

Across the country, faith-based student groups have been kicked off campus, and in ten states, legislators have passed laws affirmatively protecting the right of student groups to choose their own leaders. During the 2018 legislative session, the Iowa Senate passed a bill that would protect belief-based groups on Iowa's public campuses.

In 2017, Business Leaders in Christ (BLinC), a Christian RSO at the University of Iowa, sued University officials after being kicked off campus for requiring its student leadership embrace its religious beliefs. Up to this point, the court has agreed that the University of Iowa may not treat BLinC differently from other, non-religious groups.

Even so, the University of Iowa, a public institution, is demanding that student groups relinquish their right to choose their own leaders, or lose all the benefits of being an RSO. So far, groups like the Sikh Awareness Club, InterVarsity (Christian), and Imam Mahdi (Shia Muslim) have been deregistered and are denied resources all other groups enjoy, like meeting on campus and participating in club fairs.

For more information or to arrange an interview with 1AP, contact Derek Dye at [email protected] or call 202-682-1201.

The mission of the 1st Amendment Partnership is to promote and protect religious freedom for people of all faiths. We represent the common voice of our partnering faith communities that encompass over 80 million Americans. We focus on public policies and education that recognize the profound contribution of faith and religious freedom to the common good.

SOURCE 1st Amendment Partnership (1AP)SHANGHAI, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Epicor Software Corporation, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software to promote business growth, today announced that Veit Group, a leading global garment equipment manufacturer, has chosen the global enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution Epicor ERP for its wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary, Veit Zhejiang Co. Ltd. The implementation is part of the company's plans to improve production efficiency and increase competency amid fierce market competition both in China and globally, to support profitable business growth.

We found that Epicor has good industry insight as well as relevant customer successes in industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing. The solutions flexibility, ease-of-use, and multi-language features matches the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers like us who are looking for efficiency improvements. We are confident that the implementation of Epicor ERP will support our planned growth -Klaus Pflugbeil, General Manager, Veit Zhejiang Co. Ltd

Headquartered in Germany, the Veit Group is the worldwide leading manufacturer of ironing equipment, fusing machines, underpressing, and final pressing machines, as well as refinishing equipment for garments. Its Chinese subsidiary was founded in 2011 and is dedicated to the production and assembly of all kinds of ironing tables, irons, small steam generators, shirt folding tables, and some pressing as well as fusing machines, under the Veit brand.

Veit Zhejiang recently started looking for a global ERP solution with multi-language and industry-specific capabilities in order to support its mid-size, foreign-funded, operations in China. The solution had to provide access to the same information for German and Chinese staff in order to support the company's plans to improve management efficiency. Veit Zhejiang plans to improve material request and procurement, purchase order production and delivery, inventory management and turnover, office process standardization and mobility, decision accuracy and feasibility, as well as competitiveness and profitability.

With excellent flexibility and scalability, Epicor ERP has been selected by more than 1,700 industrial machinery and equipment manufacturers in the midmarket sector to help improve and optimize business operations and customer service, and ultimately, achieve business growth.

"We are proud to be partnering with Veit Zhejiang to support its business growth," said Vincent Tang, regional vice president for Asia at Epicor Software. "Industrial machinery is one of our key global focus sectors. We understand customers' demands for higher quality, lower costs, and faster delivery, as well as the complex challenges faced by global enterprises such as economic and market fluctuations. Our easy-to-use solutions combine flexible technology with deep industry insight and rich functionality to reduce complexity and help customers such as Veit Zhejiang prepare for upcoming enterprise and industry requirements and achieve profitable business growth."

"As a world leading manufacturer of garment equipment, Veit believes in the power of technology to enhance operational efficiency, increase competitiveness, and stimulate profitable business growth," said Klaus Pflugbeil, general manager for Veit Zhejiang Co. Ltd. "We found that Epicor has good industry insight as well as relevant customer successes in industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing. The solution's flexibility, ease-of-use, and multi-language features match the needs of small and medium-sized manufacturers like us who are looking for efficiency improvements. We are confident that the implementation of Epicor ERP will support our planned growth."

About Epicor Software Corporation

Epicor Software Corporation drives business growth. We provide flexible, industry-specific software designed to fit the precise needs of our manufacturing, distribution, retail, and service industry customers. More than 45 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 dramatically improve performance and profitability while easing complexity so you can focus on growth. For more information, connect with Epicor or visit www.epicor.com.

Epicor and the Epicor logo are 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: Anna Jiang

Marketing Manager, China

Epicor Software Corporation

(8621) 2306-7738

[email protected]

SOURCE Epicor Software Corporation

Related Links

http://www.epicor.com

"Recently major players in the hospitality industry both in the US and abroad have announced they have taken steps to eliminate plastic straws, which is a good start, but it's not enough. By implementing a Vero Water program, hotels and resorts can eliminate plastic bottles which represent a massive threat to our environment on a global scale," stated David Deshe, President of Vero Water. It is estimated that over 8 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year, having a catastrophic effect on marine life. Deshe continued, "Just last week, an island of over 30 tons of plastic waste was found floating off the coast of Playa Montesinos near the capital of the Dominican Republic and some of it has since washed up onshore. This not only threatens the marine eco-system but is a major threat to local businesses who rely on tourists attracted to the pristine beaches at their resorts."

Through the OneLink partnership, Vero Water has rapidly expanded in the region, establishing a presence in many of the leading hotel and resort operators such as Iberostar Hotels & Resorts who have made a corporate strategic commitment to "go green", incorporating Vero Water into the total guest experience. Collectively, these clients have projected to reduce waste by over 4 million plastic bottles this year alone. "As experts in both the region and meeting the unique needs the hospitality industry through sustainable solutions, we are proud to be a part of eliminating plastic waste in the Caribbean and Latin America," said Gennaro Cirone President of OneLink Global.

Vero Water is committed to meeting the growing demands of consumers and the hospitality industry for sustainability. Vero enables clients to purify, chill and fill still and sparkling water on-site and on-demand, delivering a consistent signature taste, swiftly, profitably and sustainably. Transforming tap water results in a significant reduction in food miles and carbon footprint versus sourcing, bottling and transporting bottled water, often from various countries thousands of miles away from the end consumer. Bottle waste is minimized as the signature luxury VERO WATER bottles are reusable-- sanitized and refilled on-premise.

About VERO WATER

Vero Water is a healthy lifestyle choice for Inspired Living. VERO WATER is a leading provider of luxury still and sparkling water to the hospitality industry and is served to over 40 million consumers a year in six countries and in the United States from coast-to-coast in over 40 states. Vero is an exceptionally great tasting still and sparkling water for consumers, more sustainable for the environment, and a more profitable for the hospitality industry versus traditional bottled water brands. Vero's proprietary purification and bottling process enables clients to purify, chill, fill and serve Vero still and sparkling water on-premise and on-demand. Served perfectly chilled from a luxury branded bottle with every pour, Vero's signature taste is pure and crisp - noted by a distinctively luxurious mouthfeel and a light and refreshing finish. The exceptional taste and quality, combined with the unparalleled level of concierge service, has propelled Vero Water into many of the most acclaimed restaurants worldwide, firmly establishing it as the water brand proudly served by the most demanding and successful chefs, restaurateurs and owner operators in the hospitality industry. verowater.com

ABOUT IBEROSTAR:

IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts is a resort hotel chain based in Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), founded by the Fluxa family in 1986. IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts is an integral part of GRUPO IBEROSTAR, one of the main Spanish tourist companies with over 60 years of experience, which currently has 100 hotels of 4 and 5 stars in 17 countries around the world. For more information, please visit: IBEROSTAR.com

About OneLink Global:

OneLink Global (OLG) was established with the aim of providing sustainable solutions to the hospitality industry, specifically targeting the needs and requirements of Hotels and All-Inclusive Resorts across the Caribbean and Mexico and Latin America. OLG are the exclusive distributors or authorized dealers for; EcoLogic Solutions, an EPA Award winning Green Chemical Program. Vero Water, allowing hospitality clients to serve exceptionally great tasting still and sparkling water, be environmentally responsible, and lower operational costs, and EcoBruner, a safer, cleaner, greener product for your chafing dish needs.

SOURCE Vero Water

Related Links

http://www.verowater.com

LEHI, Utah, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivint Solar, Inc. (NYSE: VSLR), a leading full-service residential solar provider, today announced it has promoted Jeremy Sabin to vice president of human capital. In this role, Sabin will serve as a member of the company's senior management team, lead cultural strategy and oversee HR operations, including talent acquisition, compensation, training and development, benefits and equity administration.

Sabin has more than 15 years of human capital experience and brings to this role a proven track record of positively impacting organizational performance, business operations and customer relationships. Sabin will oversee Vivint Solar's human capital team, which provides HR management and support to the company's nearly 4,000 employees.

"We're delighted to welcome Jeremy to our management team," said Vivint Solar CEO David Bywater. "At Vivint Solar, human capital is a true business partner, and Jeremy's leadership has played a pivotal role in cultivating this relationship. We look forward to working together to continue aligning human capital to our strategic business initiatives."

Previously Vivint Solar's senior director of human capital, Sabin joined the company as director of human capital in 2014, shortly before it completed its initial public offering. Among his accomplishments, he implemented key processes and compliance measures pre-IPO and also built a strong business partner function, furthering HR's impact and influence in the organization. Sabin's leadership and contributions have provided a strong foundation for growth as the company expanded rapidly from approximately 800 employees in 2014 to nearly 4,000 employees today.

"Vivint Solar provides a unique environment for professional growth and leadership opportunities that makes it an attractive destination for premier talent," Sabin said. "I look forward to leveraging a human capital strategy that helps us build a strong culture tied to our core values and supports our business growth and pathway to profitability."

Prior to Vivint Solar, Sabin served as senior HR manager for Sun Products/Henkel Corporation, a laundry and home care company, where he provided HR leadership and support to over 60 managers and 500 employees. He was previously a business partner supervisor at Intel-Micron Flash Technologies, a semiconductor company, where he led employee relations and helped drive performance management initiatives.

About Vivint Solar

Vivint Solar is a leading full-service residential solar provider in the United States. With Vivint Solar, customers can power their homes with clean, renewable energy and typically achieve financial savings over time. Offering integrated residential solar solutions, Vivint Solar designs and installs the solar energy systems for its customers and offers monitoring and maintenance services. In addition to being able to purchase a solar energy system outright, customers may benefit from Vivint Solar's affordable, flexible financing options, power purchase agreements, or lease agreements, where available. For more information, visit www.vivintsolar.com or follow @VivintSolar on Twitter.

Press Contact

Helen Langan

Senior Director of Communications

385-202-6577

[email protected]

SOURCE Vivint Solar

Related Links

http://www.vivintsolar.com

BATON ROUGE, La., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- DME Express, a leading technology-enabled provider of medical equipment solutions to the hospice industry, has completed its acquisition of Maryland-based Advanced Therapeutics. The transaction represents the fourth add-on acquisition for DME Express since the beginning of 2017. DME Express, which is backed by multi-billion-dollar single family office WayPoint Capital Partners, now serves over 10,000 hospice patients throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Hawaii.

DME Express' CEO, Mark Borneleit, stated, "This transaction will enable us to continue our strategy of new market expansion by acquiring high quality regional operations in fragmented markets ripe for consolidation, where DME Express can provide superior service, lower costs and higher quality equipment to customers. Advanced Therapeutics was founded in 1995 by two industry veterans with over 50 years of experience providing medical equipment to the subacute healthcare industry. Advanced Therapeutics has been serving customers in the Mid-Atlantic for over 15 years, providing medical equipment to some of the largest hospice providers in the nation. Advanced Therapeutics' strong reputation and established relationships in the area, combined with its experienced staff, provide a solid platform for DME Express to further expand in the Mid-Atlantic and other parts of the country."

Since partnering with WayPoint Capital Partners, DME Express has continued its rapid organic and acquisition-based growth strategy, completing four add-on transactions and adding over 4,000 new patient census across several markets. "DME Express is in the enviable position to be coming to new markets based on demand from customers," said Philip Edmunds, Principal at WayPoint Capital Partners. "The management team has a strong track record of partnering with acquired regional operators, improving operations and service levels, and leveraging its proprietary technology and scale to become the dominant provider in each market it serves. We expect to continue to see strong acquisition-based and organic growth over the next few years."

Other acquisitions completed by DME Express since the beginning of 2017 include the purchase of the hospice medical equipment operations of a local provider in the Little Rock Arkansas market, the acquisition of the medical equipment division of the largest hospice in the State of Arkansas, and the purchase of the largest provider of hospice medical equipment in Northern Mississippi.

About DME Express

DME Express was founded over 10 years ago to fulfill its mission of providing hospices and nursing facilities with the highest quality equipment and service, at the lowest price, whenever they need it. The founders and managers of DME Express have over 150 years of hospice and nursing facility experience and understand the unique needs of hospices and nursing facilities. Since 2006, DME Express has expanded to become the provider of choice in every market within its service areas. DME Express is committed to always be available to its patients with high quality medical equipment, proprietary technology, and unmatched customer service.

For more information: www.dmeexpress.com.

About WayPoint Capital Partners

WayPoint Capital Partners, based in Rye, NY, is a multi-billion-dollar single family office. WayPoint focuses on partnering with entrepreneurs across the middle market healthcare, logistics and business services sectors to grow their businesses organically and through add-on acquisitions. As a balance sheet investor with a perpetual capital source, WayPoint does not have predefined holding periods or exit horizons and can focus exclusively on long-term capital appreciation.

For more information: www.waypointcapitalpartners.com.

Media Contact:

Bri Wagner, 813-258-5858 x226

[email protected]

SOURCE WayPoint Capital PartnersWUHAN, China, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC), a new player in the NAND industry, will be joining Flash Memory Summit this year for the first time, delivering a much-anticipated keynote address to reveal its ground-breaking technology - Xtacking. YMTC is the first Chinese company to take part in the high-entry-barrier NAND flash memory industry with its new architecture for unprecedented performance, higher bit density, and faster time-to-market.

Simon Yang, YMTC CEO, will deliver a keynote address, Unleashing 3D NAND's Potential with an Innovative Architecture, on August 7th, from 3:00 p.m. at the Mission Ballroom in the Santa Clara Convention Center, where he will illustrate how the company's new technology can increase NAND I/O speed up to DRAM DDR4 while delivering industry-leading bit density, marking a quantum leap for the NAND market.

The Xtacking technology will enable the production of NAND that has unprecedented I/O speed and as a result, increase the performance of NAND solutions such as embedded UFS, client SSD, and enterprise SSD to a level that is unheard of. With help from customers, industry partners, and standard bodies, Xtacking will bring in a whole new chapter in high performance NAND solutions for smartphone, personal computing, data center, and enterprise applications.

The Xtacking technology enables parallel processing of the NAND array and periphery. This modular approach to 3D NAND development and manufacturing will shorten the time-to-market for new generation of 3D NAND and open the possibility for customized NAND flash products.

About Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC):

Founded in 2016 with $24B funding, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (YMTC) is a memory solutions company headquartered in Wuhan, China. YMTC designs, manufactures and sells memory products and solutions for a broad range of applications including mobile devices, computing, data centers and consumer electronics for customers around the world.

Leveraging its wholly-owned subsidiary XMC's existing 12-inch IC fab in Wuhan, its more than 10 years of memory and specialty IC R&D experience, and international partnerships, YMTC successfully designed and manufactured the first 32-layer 3D NAND flash chip in 2017. With over 3,000 employees and worldwide R&D centers, YMTC is committed to becoming a world leading memory solutions provider through technology innovations.

Additional Resources:

Schedule a meeting with Yangtze Memory Technologies at FMS, contact: [email protected]

Visit the conference website for program details: https://www.flashmemorysummit.com/

Visit the YMTC website at: www.ymtc.com

Media and Analyst Contact:

Maya Lustig

[email protected]

Phone: +972-54-6778100

SOURCE Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC)

Related Links

http://www.ymtc.com/

The Brooklyn native is the Director of the Inforce Systems Division for New York Life Insurance Company in New York City, responsible for managing multi-million-dollar projects and programs, training personnel, and overseeing new product development as the chief administrator of one of the company's major subsystems. She is an alumna of Fordham University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree at the young age of eighteen. Hollingsworth-Baker has been recognized in the "Who's Who of Information and Technology" and "Outstanding Women of America" publications.

St. Augustine's Church, the NAACP, and the Hancock T&T Block Association where she serves as the vice president.

Mary Breaux Wright, of Houston, Texas, precedes Hollingsworth-Baker as Zeta's 24th International President. Under her leadership, the sorority held record-breaking fundraising efforts for the March of Dimes, and made notable contributions to St. Jude, the American Cancer Society, Women's Veterans ROCK, and the Smithsonian African American Museum. Wright also led Zeta's international expansion, chartering chapters in Belgium, England, the United Arab Emirates, the Bahamas, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated was founded in 1920 on the belief that the social nature of sorority life should not overshadow the real mission to address societal mores, ills, prejudices, poverty, and health concerns of the day. The international organization's 125,000+ initiated members, operating in more than 850 chapters, have given millions of voluntary hours to educate the public, provide scholarships, support charities, and promote legislation for social and civic change. For more information about Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, please visit www.zphib1920.org.

SOURCE Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Related Links

http://zphib1920.org

FLINT, Mich., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pack Your Back, STATE Bags and 11-year-old local activist, 'Little Miss Flint' Mari Copeny have joined forces to distribute more than 10,000 backpacks filled with school supplies timed to the start of the 2018/2019 school year.

Select schools throughout Flint, Michigan will distribute a STATE backpack, filled with supplies for success, to each student on the first day of school. "The only way a student can succeed in the classroom is by having the proper tools and resources needed to do so," said Galen Miller, Executive Director of Pack Your Back. "We are excited to assist more than 10,000 students in getting those tools."

Students who do not attend these select schools can still receive a backpack and supplies from a School Supply Distribution on Aug. 31 at the Mott Community College Event Center starting at 4 p.m. Backpacks will be handed out on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Pack Your Back and Little Miss Flint have facilitated programming that has already impacted over 3,500 people throughout Flint in 2018 including distribution of water, bicycles and school supplies, among other items.

STATE Bags donates tens of thousands of backpacks to children with immediate needs each year.

"We're thrilled to dedicate our entire back to school giving efforts to the kids of Flint this year," says STATE Co-Founder, Scot Tatelman. "This community has been overlooked far too long, and we are looking forward to gearing up its students while shedding light on the continual struggles and resiliency of its residents. We couldn't be more honored to team up with Little Miss Flint and Pack Your Back as they both perfectly embody what Flint represents."

To donate to efforts in Flint, Michigan, please visit http://bit.ly/2mFga3z.

For a list of schools directly receiving support, please visit www.packyourback.org.

Media Contact:

Galen Miller

Phone: 989.245.4994

Email: [email protected]

Related Images

child-receiving-school-supplies.jpg

child-receiving-school-supplies.jpg

little-miss-flint-distributing.jpg

school-supplies.jpg

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syffHS2UQ-8

SOURCE Pack Your BackLONDON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Air Purifier Market By Filter Type (HEPA & Activated Carbon, Ion & Ozone, Electrostatic Precipitators, HEPA & Others), By End User (Commercial, Residential & Industrial), By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013  2023



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5479807



According to "Global Air Purifier Market By Filter Type, By End User, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013  2023" air purifier market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10.6% by 2023, on the back of depleting air quality due to rapid industrialization, growing number of manufacturing units and rising vehicular emission across major developing as well as developed economies. Moreover, increasing demand from hospitals, schools and hospitality sector, growing technological advancements and rising disposable income of consumers are among the other key factors that are expected to aid growth in the air purifier market, globally, during the forecast period. Growing instances of respiratory diseases caused by various air pollutants and adoption of stringent air quality measures by governments of several countries would also boost air purifier sales across the globe in the coming years. Some of the major players operating in the global air purifier market are IQAir AG, Koninklijke Philips N.V., Honeywell International Inc., Camfil AB, Sharp Corporation, COWAY Co., LTD., Panasonic Corporation, Blueair AB, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Whirlpool Corporation, etc.



"Global Air Purifier Market By Filter Type, By End User, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013  2023" discusses the following aspects of air purifier in global market:

 Air Purifier Market Size, Share & Forecast

 Segmental Analysis  By Filter Type (HEPA & Activated Carbon, Ion & Ozone, Electrostatic Precipitators, HEPA & Others), By End User (Commercial, Residential & Industrial), By Region

 Competitive Analysis

 Changing Market Trends & Emerging Opportunities



Why You Should Buy This Report?

 To gain an in-depth understanding of air purifier market in global market

 To identify the on-going trends and anticipated growth in the next five years

 To help industry consultants, air purifier distributor, distributors and other stakeholders align their market-centric strategies

 To obtain research-based business decisions and add weight to presentations and marketing material

 To gain competitive knowledge of leading market players

 To avail 10% customization in the report without any extra charges and get the research data or trends added in the report as per the buyer's specific needs



Report Methodology

The information contained in this report is based upon both primary and secondary research.Primary research included interaction with air purifier distributor, distributors and industry experts.



Secondary research included an exhaustive search of relevant publications like company annual reports, financial reports and proprietary databases.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5479807



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: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NEXT/NOW, a Chicago-based Digital Experiential Agency, beat out hundreds of small to medium-sized agencies to claim Ad Age's Coveted Small Agency of the Year, Silver Award, in the Midwest category; an honor that AdAge touts as "(shops) doing work that rivals or exceeds the 'big guys.'" With a lean 25-member staff, that's of considerable note, as the Small Agency Awards limit is for companies with 150 members.

NEXT/NOW, a Chicago-based Digital Experiential Agency NEXT/NOW VR

Specialists in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Projection Mapping, Gesture control, and more, NEXT/NOW's unique offering of interactive and fully immersive experiences finds itself increasingly the center of discussion regarding brand relationships as more and more consumers are "cutting the cord" on traditional broadcast and marketing. NEXT/NOW's high-tech style of engagement has helped brands and partner agencies circumvent ad fatigue and connect directly with their target markets in a more holistic way.

NEXT/NOW's roster of Brand Specialists, Producers, 3D animators, Art Directors, Software Scientists, and refugees from the Gaming Industry forms a diverse team informed by many disciplines that create bespoke marketing experiences available nowhere else.

For NEXT/NOW the win is a satisfying culmination of hard work, sustained growth, and persistence since it was first birthed six years ago as a startup. Founder and CCO, Alan Hughes explains, "From the start, we were determined to stay on the forefront of cutting-edge technology for the brand activations we create. It's an ever-evolving sandbox we play in, and it has been our pleasure to share these next-generation tools with our clients and consumers across the globe."

With a client roster that includes Intel, McDonald's, Chevron, BP, the NBA, LG, the San Francisco 49ers, Mazda, and more, NEXT/NOW, has transported people to the future, to virtual racetrack pits, and to peaceful bioluminescent forests. Their projection-mapped walls, floors, tables, sculptures, buildings, and vehicles have sent users to new worlds, while their mixed-realty applications have put fans in the shoes of their favorite athletes.

To learn more about NEXT/NOW's unique style of disruptive brand activations explore their website at http://nextnowagency.com/ or write them at [email protected].

Contact:

Mark Matthews

Marketing Strategist

NEXT/NOW

Phone 312.945.6222

[email protected]

Alan Hughes

Founder and CCO

[email protected]

Randy Gress

Director of Business Development

[email protected]

SOURCE NEXT/NOW

Related Links

http://nextnowagency.com

MCLEAN, Va., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Aireon announced today the seventh successful launch and deployment of its space-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) payloads, hosted by the Iridium NEXT satellite constellation. At 04:39:30 AM PDT (11:39:30 UTC), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California and placed 10 new Iridium NEXT satellites into low earth orbit, bringing the total number of Aireon payloads in orbit to 65. This leaves just a single launch of 10 more Iridium NEXT satellites and their Aireon payloads before the launch campaign concludes later this year. The Aireon system is scheduled to go live in 2018 with operational deployment beginning shortly after that domestically in the Edmonton and Gander Flight Information Regions. Operational trials in oceanic airspace over the North Atlantic will begin in early 2019.

Upon completion of the new network, the Aireon system will enable never-before possible capabilities for air navigation service providers (ANSPs), air traffic controllers, airline operators and industry stakeholders. Oceanic and remote airspace will, for the first time, have real-time air traffic surveillance, allowing further enhanced safety, as well as on-the-fly route adjustments, more direct flightpaths and increased predictability.

"We're getting closer to the finish line," said Don Thoma, CEO of Aireon. "Perhaps most exciting though is that the system has been functioning beyond expectation, resulting in even greater coverage redundancy than initially planned. We're seeing double coverage, and in many cases triple redundancy from our payloads before the constellation is even completed. With this seventh successful launch completed, we're now preparing to begin a new era for the aviation industry."

The Iridium NEXT satellite constellation will consist of 66 low-earth orbit crosslinked satellites that blanket the earth with pole-to-pole coverage. When pairing the Aireon service with the real-time communications capabilities offered by Iridium, such as Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) or Iridium SATCOM Voice, pilots flying oceanic and remote routes will be in real-time contact with air traffic controllers enabling them to obtain route adjustments and maximizing the benefits of Aireon's air traffic surveillance. Iridium is the only satellite communications provider that covers the entire globe, ensuring that wherever an aircraft may fly, it will always remain in coverage with real-time communication. This capability has become increasingly important as airlines fly more routes over the North Pole, dramatically reducing flight time and fuel cost.

"Iridium and Aireon share the same Iridium NEXT network, though they operate through separate payloads and on-board antennas, with Iridium utilizing the main mission antenna and Aireon utilizing its own custom-designed hosted payload," said Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium. "This combination creates a unique multi-purpose satellite network providing aircraft connectivity and surveillance with multiple built-in redundancies. No other pair of companies can come close to offering such revolutionary capabilities. We look forward to seeing the full constellation operational later this year and bringing all of these capabilities to life."

A total of 81 Iridium NEXT satellites are being built, all of which will have the Aireon payload onboard. Currently, 75 satellites are planned to be deployed with nine serving as on-orbit spares and the remaining six as ground spares. The constellation is planned for completion in 2018.

For more information about Aireon LLC, visit www.aireon.com

For more information about Iridium NEXT, visit www.IridiumNEXT.com

About Aireon LLC

Aireon is deploying a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon will harness next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that are currently ground-based and, for the first time ever, extend their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Real-time ADS-B surveillance will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augment existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), ENAV, Naviair and NATS, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon will have an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system in 2018. For more information, please visit www.aireon.com

Press Contact:

Jessie Hillenbrand

Aireon

+1 (703) 287-7452

[email protected]

SOURCE Aireon

Related Links

http://www.aireon.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leader in the global specialty chemicals industry, announced today changes to its global business unit leadership team, effective August 1, 2018.

Eric Norris becomes President, Lithium. Norris is a seasoned executive who joined Albemarle from FMC Corporation in January as Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Albemarle, he served as President, FMC Health and Nutrition, where he was responsible for leading a segment with over $750 MM of revenue, 13 stand-alone plants and 12 globally dispersed R&D centers. Previously, Norris served for five years in FMC's Lithium segment, first as Global Commercial Director before moving up to Vice President and Global Business Director.

Raphael Crawford, President, Bromine Specialties, will transition from his current position to take on the role of President, Catalysts. Crawford joined Albemarle in 2012 as the Division Vice President for Performance Catalyst Solutions (PCS) where he had overall responsibility for the direction and results of the company's global PCS business. He assumed the role of President, Bromine Specialties in January 2016. Crawford serves on the board of directors for the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) association and currently holds the Chairman position for its Petrochemical Committee.

Albemarle has named Netha Johnson to succeed Crawford as President, Bromine Specialties. Johnson is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of diverse business leadership experience both domestically and internationally. His prior experience includes several roles with the 3M Company, most recently as Vice President and general manager Electrical Markets Division.

"Albemarle is well-positioned for continued success, and we have tremendous confidence in these newly selected leaders and the important roles they will play in the execution of our long-term growth strategy," stated Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Luke Kissam. "Today's organizational announcement begins another exciting chapter for us. I look forward to the direction this talented and knowledgeable group will drive our company."

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is a global specialty chemicals company with leading positions in lithium, bromine and refining catalysts. We power the potential of companies in many of the world's largest and most critical industries, from energy and communications to transportation and electronics. Working side-by-side with our customers, we develop value-added, customized solutions that make them more competitive. Our solutions combine the finest technology and ingredients with the knowledge and know-how of our highly experienced and talented team of operators, scientists and engineers.

Discovering and implementing new and better performance-based sustainable solutions is what motivates all of us. We think beyond business-as-usual to drive innovations that create lasting value. Albemarle employs approximately 5,400 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. We regularly post information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, non-GAAP reconciliations, SEC filings and other information regarding our company, its businesses and the markets it serves.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Albemarle CorporationMINNEAPOLIS, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- AllOver Media, LLC (AOM), a portfolio company of Audax Private Equity and the largest alternative out-of-home advertising company in the U.S., announced today that their unique ski resort chairlift advertising platform has expanded to include Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado. Steamboat joins AllOver Media's exclusive list of the most popular North American Ski Resort partners that already includes; Aspen/Snowmass, Beaver Creek, Heavenly, Jackson Hole, Mammoth, Park City, Telluride, Vail, Whistler as well as the top European destination Courchevel, France.

Located in an authentic western town, Steamboat is known for their Champagne Powder snow, legendary trees, unmatched Olympic heritage and family friendly service. "Our partnership with AllOver Media will elevate the customer experience by providing mountain information in a clever and convenient space," said Dave Hunter, Vice President of Mountain Operations for Steamboat Ski & Resort Corporation. "Having trail maps front and center on the lifts of Christie Peak, Elkhead and Sundown will make it easier for guests to explore Steamboat trail's and plan their mountain routes."

"We're excited to add one of most iconic ski resorts in the country to our mountain resort chair lift advertising portfolio for the upcoming ski season. Skiers and snowboarders from beginners to world-class competitors come to Steamboat to get the classic ski experience of the Rockies in the American West. It's a phenomenal new audience for the brand messages from our global marketing partners." Jeff Griffing, CEO, AllOver Media.

ABOUT ALLOVER MEDIA

AllOver Media (AOM), founded in 2002, is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., and is the largest alternative out-of-home advertising platform in the U.S. AOM works with a wide range of national and regional advertisers based all over the US by promoting products within captive media formats that include outdoor advertising, convenience stores, nightlife media, mobile billboards, ski resorts and transit bus advertising. AOM is the only US alternative out-of-home advertising company that can provide placements in every market in the country.

For more information visit the AOM website at www.allovermedia.com.

ABOUT STEAMBOAT SKI & RESORT CORPORATION

North America's Top Family Resort, Steamboat-Ski Town, U.S.A. encompasses 165 trails, 3,668 vertical feet and nearly 3,000 skiable acres with six peaks filled with world-class groomed cruisers, bumps, steeps, meadows, legendary trees and four terrain parks. Steamboat's winter season is expected to run from November 21, 2018 through April 14, 2019. Find out more about Steamboat at www.steamboat.com or see for yourself by visiting Steamboat this winter with easy nonstop flights from 15 cities including new nonstop from Boston, Ft. Lauderdale and Long Beach via Jet Blue.

AllOver Media Contact:

Joel Eisfelder

763.762.2157

SOURCE AllOver Media

Related Links

http://www.allovermedia.com

The Accords were first drafted in January at the Outdoor Retailer Snow Show in Denver and focused on four key pillars:

Conservation and Stewardship

Education and Workforce Training

Economic Development

Public Health and Wellness

"This bipartisan effort is about harnessing the incredible power of the outdoor recreation community and creating a set of shared principles that each signing member can stand by," said Luis Benitez, director of Colorado's Outdoor Recreation Industry Office. "The economic impact of the industry is undeniable, but with these principles we now have a framework for the industry's political strength."

Kansas, Michigan, Maryland and Arkansas are all observer states who are working to join the Accords at the next Confluence Summit in January.

View the full Confluence Accords here.

Shelby Wieman | [email protected] | 303-957-6011

SOURCE Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry OfficeNEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Reach, the cloud technology platform for TV and video ad workflow and Talent and Rights management, today announced that broadcasting and advertising industry veteran Bunker Sessions has joined the company as VP of Sell-Side Solutions. With over 25 years of experience driving innovation for broadcasters, cable companies and the advertising industry, Sessions is spearheading the development and deployment of Extreme Reach's new sell-side solutions, addressing the creative sourcing needs of programmers and publishers in the increasingly-complex omnichannel media ecosystem.

Sessions, who has been consulting with Extreme Reach since January, brings to the company a significant track record of success across business management, technology development and market strategy implementation. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Business Development at Comcast, where he played a critical role in the creation of the company's ad asset management solutions.

In his new position at Extreme Reach, Sessions is responsible for developing sell-side creative sourcing solutions, working closely with programmers and publishers to maximize their ability to swiftly launch multi-platform campaigns in order to monetize content while ensuring their audiences have seamless viewing experiences across every platform.

"Bunker is a natural fit at Extreme Reach with his strong relationships and deep understanding of the specific challenges programmers and publishers face in this multi-platform, multi-screen world with regard to getting the myriad creative assets they need to launch campaigns,"said Tim Conley, CEO of Extreme Reach. "For over a decade we've worked closely with the thousands of TV outlets throughout North America, ensuring they receive ads in pristine, broadcast-ready quality. Now we have an opportunity to solve a host of messy workflow problems on IP-based platforms for these same networks, cable operators and local stations with Bunker leading the charge."



"Technology has made advertising so much more exciting, offering new opportunities to reach consumers at the right moment and on the right device. What it hasn't done is make doing so easier. That's what I intend on achieving for our partners on the sell-side of the advertising equation," said Sessions. "Programmers need a streamlined workflow to source and serve ads across VOD, OTT and all platforms on which they must monetize their content and no company is better suited to do that than Extreme Reach."

About Extreme Reach

Extreme Reach offers the only enterprise technology designed distinctly to bring together the TV and video ad workflow and all aspects of Talent & Rights management in a single, easy-to-use cloud platform. One platform and one process make brand advertising easier, and analytics more insightful, with the assurance of rights compliance wherever ads play. Founded in 2008, Extreme Reach proudly serves the world's biggest brands, agencies, post-production houses, all media destinations, and the talent community, altogether simplifying the process for every team that touches an ad campaign from start to finish. Headquartered in Needham, MA, Extreme Reach has offices in 19 cities worldwide.

Press Contact:

Michelle O'Rourke

Clarity PR for Extreme Reach

[email protected]

646.207.6187

SOURCE Extreme Reach(CNN)  At least 74 people have died in the worst wildfires to hit Greece in more than a decade, with some residents forced to flee into the sea to escape the advancing flames.

Residents told of horrifying scenes as flames engulfed a seaside village, where the only way out for some was to run for the water.

Boats were mobilized in a hurriedly-organized rescue operation as the flames took hold on Monday night. Reuters reported that 696 people were picked up from beaches and 19 from the sea. Rescuers also retrieved four bodies from the sea.

The Greek fire service confirmed that 25 people were found dead close to the seaside resort village of Mati as they tried to escape the fires.

At least 164 adults and 23 children have been injured in the blazes, which are burning in five main fronts in the Attica region, including one that is currently out of control near Mati. The area is popular with Greek tourists, in particular retirees and children who go to holiday camps there.

The fire service said many of those trying to escape were prevented from doing so by "increased wind intensity," which helped fan the flames at a rapid pace.

People whose relatives are missing are still making calls to the fire service. In addition to about 500 firefighters battling the five major blazes, more than 100 members of the armed forces and fire brigade are searching for the missing, according to Greek National Fire Brigade spokeswoman Stavroula Malliri.

'No words'

Greek Prime Minster Alexis Tsipras has declared three days of mourning.

"There are no words to describe the feelings of all of us," he said during a televised address Tuesday.

"The country is going through a tragedy," Tsipras said, adding that the events were "unbearable for everyone."

So far 715 people have been evacuated, mainly from the area of Mati, according to government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos.

The fires are the deadliest to have hit the country since blazes that burned through the southern Peloponnese in August 2007, killing dozens.

"Attica is facing a very difficult night. The combination of intense winds and multiple parallel fronts has created an unprecedented extent and difficulty for firefighters," Tzanakopoulos said in a briefing late Monday.

The Attica region, which has a population of around 3.5 million people, is home to the capital Athens, the port of Piraeus and a number of suburban towns.

The fires forced the Prime Minster to fly back early from a state visit to Bosnia. He has urged citizens to forget their property and focus on survival.

"Everyone should keep their temper and take care to protect the most precious good that is human life," he said.

"Property, all that has a material value, (can be) recreated. Human lives are the ones that cannot come back."

Mati resident Nana Laganou told journalists that she had escaped by running into the sea, that the fire was "lightning fast" and that it was the first time she'd encountered something like this.

"I would have liked to see some (reaction) from the state, but we didn't and we won't and that makes me angry."

Another Mati resident, Kostas Laganos, said that he had also escaped the flames by diving into the ocean. "Thankfully the sea was there and we went into the sea, because the flames were chasing us all the way to the water, it burned our backs and we dove into the water," he said.

"It reminded me of the eruption (of Vesuvius in 79 AD) at Pompeii, exactly that, and I said my God, we must run to save ourselves, and nothing else. Terrible."

The nearby port town of Rafina has also been hit by the wildfires.

Anastasiya Pontikas, 32, told CNN that she returned from the supermarket on Monday to find her home surrounded by flames.

She quickly packed up some belongings and fled with her husband.

"The wind became stronger and black smoke was coming for us," she said. "We could not breathe, panic started everywhere."

"The fire stopped 100 meters from our house. When we came back home to see what happened, all the trees in our street were still on fire."

So far Spain and Cyprus have offered assistance, and Greece has called on other fellow members of the European Union to help battle the blaze.

Various governments, including the U.S. and the Netherlands, offered sympathy to the beleaguered region.

Much of Europe has been baking under a massive high-pressure ridge that is allowing tropical heat to climb all the way to the Arctic.

Temperatures above 32C (90F) extended to the northern reaches of Scandinavia, setting records in Sweden, Finland and Norway for stations above the Arctic Circle.

The result has been a string of unprecedented wildfires in Sweden that have prompted the country to request assistance from other nations such as Italy, with more resources to fight wildfires.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Dozens dead as wildfires near Athens force people to flee into the sea."SAN DIEGO, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A proposed settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit involving Lang Pharma Nutrition, Inc., a manufacturer of CoQ-10 supplements, and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., CVS Pharmacy, Inc., Walgreen Company, and Meijer Distribution, Inc, retailers. The settlement establishes a $1,306,000 fund of cash and product credits.

On July 6th, 2018, California Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil preliminarily approved a settlement of a lawsuit between the above defendants and purchasers of certain Co-Q10 supplements. The lawsuit alleged that Defendants violated certain laws by misleadingly labeling or falsely advertising their CoQ-10 supplements as being more effective than they are and has having greater absorption rates then they do. Defendants deny the allegations and any wrongdoing and maintain that the products are effective and achieve the stated absorption rates. The Court did not rule in favor of Plaintiffs or Defendants. Instead, because of the complexity and uncertainty of litigation, the parties compromised and negotiated and agreed to a proposed settlement in order to avoid the expense and risks of continuing with the lawsuit.

The proposed class settlement provides $1,306,000 in relief. This relief will be comprised of three parts: (1) $656,000 cash fund; (2) $650,000 in products credits; and (3) mandatory disclosures on the product labels.

Class members, who purchased certain Lang Pharma Nutrition CoQ-10 supplements at Wal-Mart, CVS, Walgreens, and Meijer stores between July 1, 2013 and July 24, 2018, may be eligible for a partial refund or product credits under the settlement terms and are advised to carefully read the Class Notice as their legal rights may be affected whether they act or not. The covered products are listed below:

Wal-Mart's Equate Clinical Strength High Absorption CoQ-10 100 mg; CVS/Pharmacy Ultra CoQ-10 100 mg; CVS/Health Ultra CoQ-10 100 mg; CVS/Pharmacy Enhanced Absorption Formula CoQ-10 100 mg; CVS/Health Enhanced Absorption Formula CoQ-10 100 mg; Walgreens Well at Walgreens CoQ-10 Enhanced Absorption Formula 100 mg Walgreens Well at Walgreens CoQ-10 Enhanced Absorption Formula 200 mg; Meijer's Ultra CoQ-10 100 mg ("Meijer Ultra CoQ-10").

Class Members who file a valid claim form must choose between a partial cash refund of $3.50 or a product credit valued at $12.50 that may be used at a designated Lang Pharma website within 60 days. The amount of the cash refund and the product credit are estimates and may increase or decrease depending on the number of valid claims made by class members. Claims can be submitted online at the class website www.Q10Settlement.com. Claims must be submitted by September 4, 2018.

Class members may request to be excluded from the class ("opt out" of the settlement), comment on the settlement, or object to the settlement, but must do so by September 4, 2018. Class members who do nothing will not receive any payment but will bound by the Court's decision.

Your rights and options  and the deadlines to exercise them  are only summarized in this press release. It is only a summary of the full class action settlement. A Detailed Notice describes, in full, how to file a claim, object, or exclude yourself, and provides other important information. For more information and to obtain a Long Form Notice, claim form, or other documents, visit www.Q10Settlement.com, call toll-free 1-866-532-6710, or write to: Q10 Settlement Class Action Administrator, c/o Classaura Class Action Administration, 1718 Peachtree St #1080, Atlanta, GA 30309.

SOURCE ClassauraSARASOTA, Fla., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 20, 2018, leading digital automotive company Dealers United announced a final agreement to acquire Seattle-based media and video production company What's Next Media for an undisclosed amount. What's Next Media provides dealerships high-quality automotive video content, including video consulting and assets for Facebook and YouTube advertising, which Dealers United will integrate into their existing digital and social media campaigns through its extensive dealer network.

Both What's Next Media and Dealers United have quickly grown over the past seven years in correlation with the auto industry's adoption of digital marketing trends. What's Next Media's unique video strategies have helped dealerships identify and motivate customers' actions, which complements Dealers United's car shopper targeting on channels like Facebook and Instagram. The What's Next Media team will now work hand-in-hand with Dealers United to produce stronger, more accessible video messaging for auto dealers nationwide.

The two companies will operate together, with What's Next Media's main office remaining in Seattle, WA as a West Coast satellite office to Dealers United's headquarters in Sarasota, FL. The acquisition will add an innovative team with automotive experience and a variety of key players, including WNM's co-founders, in order to continue scaling Dealers United's digital marketing campaigns.

"I am so proud of what we have been able to build and do for our clients," said Andrew Myers, COO and co-founder of What's Next Media. "We reached a point where the opportunity was bigger than our ability to go after it on our own. Dealers United has been a partner of ours from the beginning - we've always had an aligned vision for putting our dealers first and building at scale. This move allows us to leapfrog our competition entirely, creating ads faster with our shared automation, access to data, powerful content, and knowledgeable teams. We couldn't be more excited for the future."

Dealers United has historically resold What's Next Media videos, and now will incorporate all of What's Next Media video campaigns into their product suite. The company's main offerings include model-line walkaround videos to better showcase dealership inventory, Facebook and Instagram video ad series to strengthen customer relationships, and custom video for use on any website or third party.

Pete Petersen, CEO of Dealers United, and his team have recently focused their product line around helping auto dealers reach car shoppers through Facebook and Instagram advertising. As one of nine Oracle Data Cloud Auto Elite Data Marketer partners, Dealers United has access to in-market automotive data targeting and other leading data sets within Facebook. In addition, the company has worked closely with Facebook's Automotive division to develop and test the most effective ad types and strategies specifically for auto dealers. Through Dealers United's ads, dealerships are able to transform their vehicle inventory into first-party website traffic and leads by delivering the right vehicle ad to the right shopper.

Petersen is eager to have the powerful video storytelling techniques from What's Next Media closer to the fold so they can help dealers position what makes them unique and yield stronger messaging online.

"No one can deny video's role in this industry," said Petersen. "Video is engaging; it's personal. It brings the customer onto the dealer's lot and into their newest model, it introduces their team, it tells the story of why a shopper should choose their store instead of the dealer down the street. With car shoppers on average visiting a single dealer before buying, dealers have to get their story out to buyers faster and online, and WNM has really nailed turning storytelling into results. We're incredibly excited by What's Next Media joining our team. What we have built together is so powerful  and we're just ramping up."

With paired digital expertise and a shared mission for dealer advocacy, both companies expect to propel dealerships into more engaging and effective digital conversations that can be tracked to true unit sales.

From the acquisition, Dealers United members and customers can expect greater size and scope of Dealer United's advertising methods, as well as gain the following enhancements:

Access to a full suite of new, custom video content

An expanded library of OEM / factory-approved campaigns

Quicker turnaround time and in-house video production

Advanced dealer customization specific to each dealership's needs

A unique dealer-focused strategy geared around dynamic ad campaigns

To learn more about Dealers United's video strategies, please visit www.dealersunited.com/video

About Dealers United: Dealers United is an online membership that helps over 6,500 auto dealers nationwide improve their dealerships. By offering solutions that save dealers time, cut costs, and sell more cars, Dealers United ensures that every dealer, regardless of its size, grows and succeeds in the automotive industry. Sign up for free at www.dealersunited.com.

About WNM: What's Next Media helps auto dealers create high-resolution, professional videos to convey their optimal marketing message. What's Next Media has driven outstanding success and results for their clients, and has often won NADA's 20 Group "Best Idea" contests for their dealership-branded content. WNM expects this acquisition to further their existing clients' success with even more powerful video messaging.

PR Contact:

Dealers United

1680 Fruitville Rd, Ste. 401

Sarasota, FL 34236

Phone: (941) 366-6760

[email protected]

SOURCE Dealers United

Related Links

http://www.dealersunited.com

ALBANY, New York, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research, the global digital transformation spending in logistics market is projected to reach US$ 94,972.3 Mn by 2026 driven by exponential rise in digital transformation spending in logistics modules. The market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 10.7% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. Growth of the market is attributed to rise in demand for digital transformation in logistics and increase in adoption of cloud-based deployment models to offer quality services to clients. North America is anticipated to lead the global digital transformation spending in logistics market, followed by Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and South America, during the forecast period. The digital transformation spending in logistics market is in a nascent stage and is anticipated to expand rapidly in the next few years.

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Complete Industry Evolution to Drive Market

Digitalization is happening across industries, and the benefits are revolutionary for companies with greater consumer awareness and reach, higher productivity, and innovative business models. It offers the potential for old-economy sectors to take steps in pushing efficiency and customer ease. Industries are investing in digital solutions for input, processing, and output competences throughout the business ecosystems. Above and beyond the benefits, several industries are pushed toward the adoption of new technologies due to new regulatory regimes. The utilities sector, for instance, has been induced toward adopting smart meters and liberalization of the energy markets. The transportation and logistics sector continues to make investments in digitally enabled infrastructure and has achieved efficiency improvements as a result of open-skies agreements and other regulations. This also leads to various kinds of integration. For instance, XPO Logistics, with a futuristic vision, started developing in-house digital solutions (backward integration) pertaining to logistics & supply chain solutions and warehouse management systems. This provides the company an upper hand in terms of overall spend on digital solutions. XPO invests around US$ 450 Mn into technology each year.

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Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market: Scope of the Report

Based on solutions, the global digital transformation spending in logistics market has been segmented into hardware solutions, software solutions, services, deployment, and industry. The hardware solutions segment dominated the global market in 2017. Hardware solutions enable users to optimize their applications on reliable, branded, and customized hardware platforms. In terms of deployment, the cloud-based segment held a prominent market share in 2017 and is expected to continue to dominate the market during the forecast period.

North America led the global digital transformation spending in logistics market, accounting for substantial share in 2017. The U.S. is the major market for logistics solutions in the region. Digital logistics solutions are also gaining popularity in Canada and Rest of North America. The digital transformation spending in logistics market in Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South America is expected to expand at a rapid pace during the forecast period.

Download Report TOC for in-depth analysis at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/41354

Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market: Competitive Dynamics

The research study includes profiles of leading companies operating in the global digital transformation spending in logistics market. Key players profiled in the report include 3GTMS, Inc., 4Flow AG, Advantech Co., Ltd., APL Logistics Ltd., Digistics, Digital Logistics Group Ltd., Hexaware Technologies, IBM Corporation, JDA Software WMS, Logistic Solutions, Inc., Logitech Corporation, Mindtree Ltd., Oracle Corporation, PartnerTech, S2K Warehouse Management, S2K Warehouse Management, Samsung Electronics, SAP SE, Scanco Software LLC, Syntel, Inc., and Tech Mahindra Limited.

Browse Research Release at https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/digital-transformation-spending-logistics-market.htm

The Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market has been segmented as below:

Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Solutions

Hardware

Software

Services



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Hardware Solutions

Systems

Devices

IT Equipment



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Systems

Conveyors

Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS)

Automatic Sorters

Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV)

Robotic Picking System

Automatic Palletizer

Peripheral & Supporting Components



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Devices

RFID Readers

Real-time Location System (RTLS)

Barcode Scanners

Barcode Printers

Barcode Stickers

RFID Tags

Global Positioning System (GPS)



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by IT Equipment

Enterprise Servers

Client Machines



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Software Solutions

IoT Platform

Warehouse Management and Control System

Transport Management System

Enterprise Solutions



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Enterprises Solutions

Supply Chain Management

Project Management System

Customer Relationship Management

Information Management System

Human Capital Management

Order Management System

Big Data and Analytics



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Deployment

Cloud-based

On-premise



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Services

Consulting & Training

Implementation & Integration

Operation & Maintenance

Managed Services



Global Digital Transformation Spending in Logistics Market, by Industry

3PL

Warehouse

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SOURCE Transparency Market ResearchRICHMOND, Va., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The board of directors of Dominion Energy Midstream GP, LLC, the general partner of Dominion Energy Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: DM), has declared a second-quarter 2018 cash distribution of $0.3510 per common unit  an increase of 5 percent above the first-quarter 2018 distribution  which corresponds to an annualized distribution rate of about $1.40 per unit.

Distributions are payable on Aug. 15, 2018, to unitholders of record at the close of business Aug. 6, 2018.

The partnership's last quarterly distribution was declared April 20, 2018.

This release is intended to be a qualified notice under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1446-4(b). All of Dominion Energy Midstream's distributions to foreign investors should be treated by brokers and nominees as being attributable to income that is effectively connected with a United States trade or business. Accordingly, the partnership's distributions to foreign investors are subject to federal income tax withholding at the highest effective tax rate.

Dominion Energy Midstream is a Delaware limited partnership formed by Dominion Energy, Inc., to grow a portfolio of natural gas terminaling, processing, storage, transportation and related assets. It is headquartered in Richmond, Va. For more information about Dominion Energy Midstream, visit its website at www.dominionenergymidstream.com.

SOURCE Dominion Energy Midstream Partners

Related Links

http://www.dominionenergymidstream.com

CARROLLTON, Texas, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today that CEO Catherine Monson will be the keynote speaker at the Franchise Association of New Zealand's 2018 National Franchise Conference on Aug. 10 at the Wairakei Resort Taupo. Catherine will share insights gained during her more than 30 years of experience with some of the top business-to-business franchise brands.

Concurrently Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development of FASTSIGNS will be joining Catherine to speak with potential Master Franchisee candidates while in Taupo and Auckland Aug. 3-11.

"As we continue to accelerate our international growth and build relationships with influential franchising associations around the world, the Franchise Association of New Zealand's 2018 National Franchise Conference is the perfect opportunity for FASTSIGNS to showcase all we have to offer to potential Master Franchisees," said Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. "FASTSIGNS has had a presence in Australia for over 20 years, where the brand operates as SIGNWAVE, and so we are fully equipped to grow the FASTSIGNS brand to New Zealand. We are looking forward to meeting with various qualified candidates during our visit next month."

The brand is targeting international expansion in New Zealand and will be recruiting a Master Franchisee candidate to open locations and help develop additional centers throughout the country. FASTSIGNS has experienced explosive international growth over the last year, including opening 43 locations in the U.S. and Canada, three in the U.K., and two in Australia. The brand is continuing to grow in Australia and is seeking franchisees with a particular focus on its Co-Brand and Conversion franchise programs. Earlier this year, FASTSIGNS signed a Master Franchise Agreement with Chilean sign company NEOMARK to convert its existing location to FASTSIGNS and open five additional locations in Santiago. In 2017, the Famalco Group became a Master Franchisee with FASTSIGNS to open 16 new centers throughout Malta, Italy, and Greece. FASTSIGNS is continuing to seek qualified candidates to grow its international footprint in markets throughout the world, including Brazil, Quebec, North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, Europe, and Latin America.

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. was ranked the #1 franchise opportunity in its category and 70 overall on Entrepreneur magazine's 2018 Franchise 500, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Acknowledged by entrepreneurs and franchisors as a top competitive tool of measurement, the Franchise 500 recognizes FASTSIGNS, the only sign, graphics, and visual communications franchise to be recognized in the top 100, for its exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, growth rate and brand power. FASTSIGNS also has been recognized for its franchisee satisfaction by being named a World Class Franchise by the Franchise Research Institute for five consecutive years and has been ranked by Franchise Business Review as one of the "Best of the Best" for franchisee satisfaction for the last 10 years. Additionally, FASTSIGNS also was named to Franchise Business Review's "Innovative Franchises" list in 2017 and a "Best-in-Category" franchise by Franchise Business Review in 2018. The Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) recently recognized FASTSIGNS International, Inc. with a special six-year Franchisees' Choice designation for its strong relationship with Canadian franchisees, as well as extensive franchisee training and support.

For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson ([email protected] or 214-346-5679).

About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of almost 700 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in ten countries including the U.S., Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Chile, Malta, and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE).

FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns.

CONTACT: Chelsea Bear

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

[email protected]

SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.fastsigns.com

ALBANY, New York, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report published by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled 'Dust Suppression Control Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018 - 2026', the global dust suppression control market was valued more than US$ 1,150 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of more than 3.0% during the forecast period. Expansion in the global dust suppression control market is driven by factors such as increase in demand for these chemicals in construction and mining & refineries applications. Dust suppression control is used reduce fugitive dust emission in the building & construction industry. Dust suppression control provides better visibility and air quality at construction sites. Dust suppression control is also used in the chemical processing applications where large amount of material handling is involved. The dust suppression control market in Asia Pacific is expanding at a significant pace due to the increase in demand for these chemicals in construction applications.

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Expansion in Construction Industry to Drive Dust Suppression Control Market

Dust suppression control chemicals used at construction sites help reduce fugitive dust particles in the air. This results in better site visibility, and better health of employees and people living in surrounding areas. The global construction industry is expanding at a significant pace. This is anticipated to increase dust emissions. In turn, this is projected to drive the demand for dust suppression control chemicals such as magnesium chloride, calcium chloride, lignosulfonates, polymer emulsion, and petroleum resins in the next few years. Additionally, rapid urbanization in developing countries such as China and India is likely to drive the overall construction output in these countries in the near future. This is anticipated to boost the dust suppression control market in China and India during the forecast period.

View in-depth table of contents for this report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/37436

Increase in Demand for Dust Suppression Control in Mining & Refineries Industry

Dust at mining sites can cause serious health issues to employees working in the area as well as residents of nearby areas. Dust suppression control is extensively employed in the mining industry in surface and underground mining operations. Products that are used for dust suppression differ depending upon various site characters and soil composition and humidity. Increase in demand for metals and other minerals such as copper, coal, and coke is estimated to fuel mining activities. This is anticipated to drive the dust suppression control market.

Tar and Bitumen Emulsions to Dominate the Dust Suppression Control Market

In terms of type, the global dust suppression control market has been divided into hygroscopic salts, lignosulfonates, petroleum resins, polymer emulsions, tar and bitumen emulsion, and others. The tar and bitumen emulsion segment is anticipated to dominate the market due to its strong binding properties. This results in reduced fugitive dust emissions. The polymer emulsions segment is anticipated to expand at a significant pace from 2018 to 2026.

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Rise in Usage of Dust Suppression Control in Developing Economies to Create Opportunities

In terms of region, the global dust suppression control market has been divided into Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Rapid urbanization in emerging countries such as China, India, and Mexico is boosting the demand for new construction in these countries. This is driving the demand for concrete admixtures in these countries. In turn, this is propelling the global dust suppression control market.

Few Key Players Operate in Semi-consolidated Dust Suppression Control Market

Key players covered in this report include DowDuPont Inc., BASF SE, Borregaard ASA, Archer Daniels Midland Company, Huntsman Corporation, Quaker Chemical Corporation, Accentuate Ltd., Benetech Inc., Cargill, Incorporated., Reynolds Soil Technologies Pty Ltd, APPLIED CONVEYOR TECHNOLOGY, INC., Global Road Technology International Limited, Sami Bitumen Technologies, and SUEZ North America Inc. DowDuPont Inc., BASF SE, and Borregaard ASA are active players in the dust suppression control market. These companies operate across the globe. This helps them establish control over the complete value chain and sustain their leading position in the market.

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The global dust suppression control market has been segmented as follows:

Global Dust Suppression Control Market, by Product

Dry Type Dust Control

Wet Type Dust Control

Global Dust Suppression Control Market, by Type

Hygroscopic Salts

Lignosulfonates

Petroleum Resins

Polymer Emulsions

Tar and Bitumen Emulsion Products

Others

Global Dust Suppression Control Market, by Application

Mining & Refineries

Construction

Power Plants

Chemicals Processing

Metal Extraction

Industrial Materials and Rock Production

Others

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Transparency Market Research is a global 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. Our experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information.

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SOURCE Transparency Market ResearchALBANY, New York, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

According to a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR) titled 'EMI Shielding Materials Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018-2026', the global EMI shielding materials market was valued at around US$ 5,400 Mn in 2017 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of over 6% from 2018 to 2026. Electromagnetic interference (EMI) can be defined as the electromagnetic field in radio frequency spectrum caused by nearby electronic devices, which can negatively affect the working of electronic devices located in surrounding areas. The electromagnetic field is also harmful to humans. Hence, EMI shielding materials such as metals, laminates, and conductive coatings are used to surround electronic devices and guard them against electromagnetic frequencies. These materials are extensively employed in defense, electronics, aerospace, automotive, and other industries where large amounts of electronic communication are used. Majority of electronic devices and equipment that are sold across the globe are manufactured in Asia Pacific and exported to other regions such as North America, Europe, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Hence, Asia Pacific is a major consumer of EMI shielding materials.

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Growth of the telecommunications industry drives the market

The telecommunications industry has been growing for the last 30 years. Demand for EMI shielding materials in this industry increases with every new technological development such as smartphones and Internet. Rise in use of these technologies is projected to increase emission of electromagnetic signals; therefore, it is important that signals do not interfere with each other, which can be ensured by the use of EMI shielding materials. In the telecommunications industry, EMI shielding materials are used in communication towers and associated wires and cables and server rooms and related instrumentation. Apart from shielding electronic devices from electromagnetic frequencies, EMI shielding materials also help protect devices during extreme environmental conditions such as strong winds.

View in-depth table of contents for this report @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/report-toc/19091

Expansion of EMI Shielding Materials Market Restricted by Regulatory Guidelines

Electromagnetic frequencies are harmful to human health. These also affect the working of other electronic devices. Hence, there are regulations regarding excessive emission of electromagnetic frequencies to protect humans and other nearby electronic devices. These regulations ensure the appropriate use of EMI shielding materials. However, stringent enforcement regulations have slowed down the development of advanced electronic devices. This, in turn, negatively affects the utilization of EMI shielding materials in industries such as telecommunications, aerospace, defense, electronics, and health care.

Use of EMI Shielding Materials to Increase in the Defense Industry

Many devices and equipment in the defense industry such as GPSs, radars, military satellites, and handheld communication devices require EMI shielding materials. The number of devices using electromagnetic signals has increased due to the development of advanced weapons such as fighter aircrafts and drones. This has increased the importance of ensuring that electromagnetic signals do not disrupt military devices, as improper working of devices can risk lives of soldiers. As a result, the importance and use of EMI shielding materials is expected to increase in the defense industry.

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Global EMI Shielding Materials Market is segmented into Material, Application, and Region

In terms of material, the market has been categorized into conductive coatings, metals, conductive plastics, laminates, and others. The conductive coatings segment is likely to increase at a considerable pace during the forecast period, as it can be used individually as well as in combination with other materials such as conductive plastics and laminates. The metals segment is also expected to expand at a substantial pace, as these can be used in a wide range of end-user industries such as automotive, defense, aerospace, and telecommunications. In terms of applications, the market has been segmented into defense, electronics, automotive, telecommunications, aerospace, and medical. The defense segment is expected to expand at a rapid pace due to the increase in activities such as manufacturing and innovation in the industry. This segment is likely to be followed by the automotive segment, which has been a consistent consumer of EMI shielding materials. In terms of region, the market has been divided into North America (the U.S. and Canada), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America), Europe (Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Russia & CIS, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, and Rest of Asia Pacific) and Middle East & Africa (GCC, South Africa, and Rest of Middle East & Africa).

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Companies Headquartered in Developed Economies to Dominate Global Market

Key players in the global EMI shielding materials market include Laird Technologies, 3M Inc., Parker Hannifin Corporation, HEICO Corporation, and Simotec (Thailand) Co. Ltd. Every region and country has several local players. However, their geographic reach and variety of products are highly limited as compared to multinational companies.

Global EMI Shielding Materials Market: by Material

Conductive coatings

Metals

Conductive plastics

Laminates

Others

Global EMI Shielding Materials Market: by Application

Automotive

Defense

Electronics

Telecommunications

Aerospace

Medical

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SOURCE Transparency Market ResearchDUBLIN, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Generic Drugs Market: Global Industry Trends, Manufacturing Process, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2018-2023" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global generic drugs market was valued at around US$ 244.5 Billion in 2017, growing at a CAGR of around 8% during 2010-2017.

Generic drugs are launched and marketed after the expiry date of the patent or other exclusive rights. Although generic drugs are chemically identical to their branded counterparts, they are typically sold at substantial discounts from the branded price. Unlike branded drug manufacturers who spend millions of dollars on R&D and marketing, generic drug manufacturers do not require such investments. Since the drug's formula is known, the clinical trials are complete; the generic drug manufacturer's only requirement is to demonstrate to the regulators that its version is as good and effective as the innovator or branded drug.

The biggest catalyst for growth is an increasing global pharmaceutical spending trend towards generics. Continuously increasing healthcare expenditures have pushed governments and third-party payers to seek ways to control their healthcare expenditures. This is catalyzing an increasing demand for generics versus their branded counterparts. Another major driver of this industry is the continued patent cliff that is providing growing pipelines opportunities for generic firms.

Similarly, a growth in the overall global population and aging demographics is also proving to be beneficial for the overall healthcare sector including generic drug manufacturers. Healthcare reforms in the US and other developed markets coupled with strong growth in emerging market are some other important drivers for the generic drugs market.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Preface



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Introduction



5 Global Generic Drug Industry



6 Performance of Key Countries



7 Competitive Landscape



8 Generic Drug Manufacturing Process



9 Project Details, Requirements and Costs Involved



10 Loans and Financial Assistance



11 Project Economics



Companies Mentioned



Teva Pharmaceuticals

Novartis

Mylan

Fresenius

Pfizer

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kc96dd/global_generic?w=5





Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

"This aircraft showcases the art of the possible," said Burns. "When you combine innovation, talent, commitment and expertise, you can transform an industry. With this aircraft  and our collaboration with the Beijing Red Cross Emergency Medical Center  we have done exactly that. This modified G550 will change  and save  lives, forever altering the expectations for medevac support."

To be used for disaster relief and air rescue services, the G550 aircraft features an unprecedented degree of technological innovation that draws on Gulfstream's more than 50-year heritage of providing special missions aircraft worldwide. The G550 features a dedicated medical bay outfitted with advanced equipment to sustain and stabilize critically ill patients, including:

360-degree in-flight patient access, a medevac first

Advanced life-support capabilities (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation)

A bed designed to accommodate an infant incubator

A powered gurney loading system on aircraft stairs

X-ray viewing equipment

Refrigerated medical storage cabinets

Fold-out nurses' seats for individual patient care

Crew rests with berthing

Since the G550's debut, Gulfstream has continually invested in the aircraft to ensure it remains ahead of evolving customer needs. It is the most reliable aircraft in its class and can fly nonstop from Beijing to New York or London. More than 560 G550 aircraft are in service worldwide.

The flagship G650ER is the fastest large-cabin, non-supersonic aircraft to fly around the world. With up to 7,500 nautical miles/13,890 kilometers of range at Mach 0.85, the G650ER, along with the G650, has established more than 70 speed records. Today, more than 300 G650ER and G650 aircraft are in service worldwide.

"With the G650ER's speed and range, medical care will arrive faster," Burns said.

Gulfstream continues to be a premier provider of aircraft supporting medical transport around the world. To learn more about Gulfstream Special Missions, please visit www.gulfstream.com/special-missions.

NOTE TO EDITORS

Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), designs, develops, manufactures, markets, services and supports the world's most technologically advanced business-jet aircraft. Gulfstream has produced more than 2,800 aircraft for customers around the world since 1958. To meet the diverse transportation needs of the future, Gulfstream offers a comprehensive fleet of aircraft, comprising the Gulfstream G280TM, the Gulfstream G550TM, the Gulfstream G500TM, the Gulfstream G600TM, the Gulfstream G650TM and the Gulfstream G650ERTM. We invite you to visit our website for more information and photos at www.gulfstreamnews.com.

More information about General Dynamics is available at www.generaldynamics.com.

SOURCE Gulfstream

Related Links

https://www.gulfstreamnews.com

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- House of Hope is the proud recipient of a Community Grant for $10,000 from Holman Enterprises. The grant was used to help purchase a Honda Odyssey vehicle that will transport House of Hope's clients to a variety of appointments and better ensure their path to recovery is continued.

"The support we have received from Holman Enterprises year after year has contributed to the continued success of countless individuals going through substance abuse treatment at House of Hope," said Chief Executive Officer of House of Hope Sue Glasscock. "This community grant will allow us to transport our clients to job interviews and necessary medical appointments that are essential to their continued rehabilitation efforts - we can't thank Holman enough for this support."



This year's gift represents the third consecutive year Holman has awarded a $10,000 grant to House of Hope. The first two years supported repairs, renovation, and improvements to the nonprofit's facilities, such as roof repairs, upgrades to plumbing and HVAC systems, new security cameras, and window replacements. The most recent gift, combined with special nonprofit pricing offered by Holman Honda, will enable House of Hope to transport clients to medical appointments, job interviews and a variety of other off-campus activities.

"House of Hope is changing the lives of people who suffer from substance abuse disorders," said Steve Holman, Director of Community Affairs for Holman Enterprises. "Holman is grateful that it can play a role in supporting that important mission."

About Holman Enterprises

Holman Enterprises is a global organization that has provided trusted automotive services for more than 90 years by training, empowering, and rewarding exceptional people; by earning the loyalty and exceeding the expectations of each and every customer; and by giving back to the communities that support their success. Headquartered in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, Holman Enterprises is comprised of six business segments that support diverse sectors of the automotive industry: Holman Automotive, one of the largest privately-owned dealership groups in the U.S. with 36 dealership franchises representing 17 brands; Steward Financial Services, an automotive retail finance company; Holman Insurance Services, a commercial and consumer insurance services company; Holman Parts Distribution, a national multi-brand powertrain parts distributor; Auto Truck Group, a truck up-fitting business; and ARI, the largest privately-owned fleet leasing and management company in North America. For additional information, please visit HolmanEnterprises.com.

About House of Hope

House of Hope is the largest and longest-serving provider of substance abuse treatment in Broward County. Since 1969, House of Hope has been dedicated to the treatment and support of people with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health conditions. Since its founding, House of Hope has provided hope and healing to more than 500 men and women annually, in both a residential and outpatient setting, who do not have sufficient financial resources to seek treatment. House of Hope aims to return residents to the community as productive and self-supporting individuals by teaching job and life skills, holding therapy sessions and conducting medical services. To learn more, visit www.houseofhope.org or call (954) 524-8989.





MEDIA RELEASE CONTACT

Aimee Adler, (954) 732-0754 (or)

[email protected]

SOURCE House of Hope

Related Links

http://www.houseofhope.org

A victim removed from debris W. Musa

At least 3 lives have been lost in a deadly flood caused by hours of downpour in Limbe, Fako Division in the South West region Tuesday morning.

The rains began as early as 3am Tuesday and lasted for about five hours plunging the entire OPEC city of Limbe into chaos as streets were filled water while houses collapsed.

Denizens remained indoors amid the unfavorable atmosphere; vehicles were submerged while properties got soaked.

Worst hit areas included; Mabeta, Motowo, Church Street, Manga Williams Avenue, Clerk's Quarters, Mbonjo and Down Beach among others.

In Mbonjo, a locality in Down Beach Limbe, houses were reduced to ground, three persons declared dead. Others who went missing were later found but some had died.

Late Tuesday, another corpse was discovered from the debris after his house collapsed with him inside.The Senior Divisional Officer for Fako , Emmanuel Engamba Ledoux visited the sites to assess the damages.

In other areas, roofs of houses were blown away by winds, while some had their doors taken away by floods.Beds, Chairs, Television sets among others have been completely destroyed.

Floods in Limbe have been constant and on each occasion hundredths suffer the consequences of poor geographical location of houses, poor drainage system among others.

In 2013 just like in 2014, houses were inundated and many deaths recorded but Government response to these natural disasters has not been the best.

It is true that the government has warned locals against building houses in hilly and dangerous areas, the follow up to see into it that they respect the order, has not been made.

Locals have continued building houses in dangerous zones and those marked for evacuation have not done so. The situation is becoming critical and any rainfall in Limbe may just be another time bomb.LONDON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Homelyfe, the InsurTech start-up and recent winner in the 2018 Top 100 Start-ups Index, has selected market leader Premium Credit as its premium finance supplier. The partnership allows Homelyfe's customers to quickly and efficiently acquire home insurance cover with the option to pay in instalments, all at the point of sale, through a collective use of ground-breaking technology and digital integration.

Homelyfe's digital offering enables customers to get an estimated insurance quote in seconds. The unique, digitally led premium finance option provided by Premium Credit presents Homelyfe customers with payment options to seamlessly complete the customer quote and buy journey.

Both businesses recognise that meeting the demands of consumers in today's digital age is paramount. This new partnership achieves this by combining their technologies to transform buying insurance cover into a fast and convenient experience.

Customer journey enhanced through innovation

Homelyfe's technology provides a new dimension to the way insurance is purchased. Uniquely, their AI-driven quote flow leverages first and third party data to pre-populate information the customer may not have to hand. This reduces the number of questions the customer needs to answer, dramatically speeding up their application.

The payment process is then picked up by Premium Credit's integrated technology which enables the setup of a premium finance agreement from within the app and entirely at the point of sale using their 'Fully Integrated Transaction System' (FITS).

Peter Goodman, CEO and co-founder at Homelyfe said: "We have great ambition to grow and evolve our business by partnering with other brands who can leverage our whitelabel solution and platform. Our technology has been so well received in the direct consumer space, we now want to enable other businesses to digitally transform their insurance offerings. Premium Credit's technology led premium finance offering helps facilitate this growth process by giving our customers a great option to spread the cost of their insurance cover. We share a similar desire to make the customer journey as frictionless and efficient as possible using the latest technology."

Simon Moran, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Premium Credit added: "We are delighted to be Homelyfe's chosen premium finance provider. It's important for us to support insurance providers and their networks across the whole spectrum whether new entrants or established players. We have a continuing appetite to innovate, regularly introducing new releases to the market ensuring we future proof our technology and provide the best premium finance options possible."

For more information, please visit: http://www.homelyfe.com and http://www.premiumcredit.com

About Homelyfe

Homelyfe offers digital insurance solutions to direct consumers and has now evolved to offer B2B whitelabel and platform solutions to partner businesses. Homelyfe's API-driven approach means that enterprise businesses can digitally transform their insurance offering at start-up speed, for minimal cost. Homelyfe was launched in 2015 and was recently selected as one of the 2018 Top 100 Start-ups Index; the "UK's best and brightest start-ups set for big things this year."

About Premium Credit Limited

Premium Credit is the No. 1 insurance premium finance company in the UK and Ireland. We also provide the finance to pay annual fees such as accountancy and school fees. We support over 3000 intermediaries in our chosen markets and help over 2.2 million customers, processing more than 26 million Direct Debits annually and achieve net advances of 3.4 billion.

SOURCE Premium CreditWASHINGTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Itero Group, LLC, a national provider of Agile, Cyber Security, Data Analytics and Customer Experience services, has been awarded a five-year U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) IT Schedule 70 contract to service federal, local, and state government agencies.

The IT Schedule 70 is the largest and most widely used acquisition vehicle by federal government agencies, providing direct access to products, services, and solutions from certified industry partners at pre-negotiated rates. The schedule delivers government agencies the tools and expertise to shorten procurement cycles and obtain the best value for innovative technology services from IT service providers that have been vetted and qualified.

"The GSA IT Schedule 70 expands our ability to work with federal, state, and local agencies, and our ability to provide value to these organizations through consulting, training, and embedded services," says Itero Group CEO, Erin Mckenzie-Brahms. "The GSA proposal process was a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate our experience, pricing, and stability as an IT service provider. We are excited to continue bringing this energy and performance to customers."

GSA has approved Itero Group, LLC to participate as a prime contractor under contract #47QTCA18D00GP for Special Item Numbers 132-50 and 132-51 that includes Training Courses and Information Technology Professional Services. For more information about Itero Group's Federal GSA IT Schedule, contact Itero Group at [email protected] or call 717-769-5800.

About Itero Group:

Itero Group, LLC is led by Entrepreneurs who believe in the meaning of the word. To revise, renew, iterate. Itero Group specializes in Agile Innovation, Cyber Security, Data Analytics, and Customer Experience. Itero Group, LLC is a certified Women's Business Enterprise and is a member of the Partner Training Network with Scrum.org.

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12720590

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Itero Group

Related Links

http://iterogroup.com/

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic announced today that they have successfully completed a comprehensive single-use plastics elimination program across their fleet. Lindblad's ships are now 100% free of all single-use plastic bottles, cups, straws and stirrers. The effort supports National Geographic's Planet or Plastic? campaign, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness about the global plastic crisis and reducing the amount of plastic in the world's oceans.

"The ocean is under major assault on so many fronts, and its protection is both a business mission and a personal passion," stated Sven Lindblad, CEO of Lindblad Expeditions, ocean advocate and founding member of Ocean Elders. "It is enormously gratifying that our team has achieved this milestone in our elimination program. The health of our planet is dependent on our oceans, and it is essential that we change our behavior with regard to plastics."

"Lindblad Expeditions has been a valued partner since 2004, when we first started working together to offer extraordinary expedition cruises to some of the world's most fascinating places," said Gary E. Knell, CEO of National Geographic Partners. "Our shared passion for adventure and conservation made our alliance a natural fit, and their tremendous effort to eradicate single-use plastic reaffirms that. We are proud that Lindblad is taking action to make a positive impact on this pressing problem, and we hope that their efforts inspire other travel companies to do the same."

Lindblad Expeditions began working towards the elimination of avoidable plastic waste in 2007 when they banned single-use plastic water bottles. Instead, guests receive individual reusable stainless-steel bottles that may be refilled at filtered-water stations located around the vessels. Lindblad's commitment continues as they work with suppliers and seek partners to eliminate and reduce plastic packaging for the items they supply.

"The next phase in executing a broader reduction in our plastic packaging requires an industry-wide mandate to our suppliers to explore sustainable alternatives," Lindblad said.

Lindblad has built a global travel company with conservation and environmental stewardship as core business tenets. The company's commitment to the places they explore includes (since 1997) more than $15 million to support stewardship efforts through the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund (LEX-NG Fund), which awards approximately $1.5 million dollars in grants per year. In 2017 that funding supported initiatives in Alaska, Baja, Galapagos, the Peruvian Amazon, Cambodia, Antarctica, the Pacific Northwest, Central America and more through the Pristine Seas project, National Geographic's largest initiative dedicated to environmental preservation. Initiatives included killer-whale research in Antarctica, artisan training in the Peruvian Amazon and Galapagos, and conservation-based research projects to protect humpback whales in Southeast Alaska.

The LEX-NG Fund has recently strengthened its strategic mission in support of projects that address the health and viability of the world's oceans, coastlines and coastal communities. Focused on the global regions explored by the LEX-NG fleet and beyond, in 2018 the aim is to engage and inspire people from all backgrounds, building unprecedented capacity in a new generation of marine leaders, while furthering its established conservation initiatives worldwide.

Take the National Geographic pledge to reduce single-use plastics at nationalgeographic.com/planetorplastic.

About Lindblad Expeditions

Lindblad Expeditions is an expedition travel company that works in partnership with National Geographic on its ship-based voyages to inspire people to explore and care about the planet. The organizations work in tandem to produce innovative marine expedition programs and to promote conservation and sustainable tourism around the world. The partnership's educationally oriented voyages allow guests to interact with and learn from leading scientists, naturalists and researchers while discovering stunning natural environments, above and below the sea, through state-of-the-art exploration tools. As pioneers of global exploration, their collaboration in research, technology and conservation provides extraordinary travel experiences and disseminates geographic knowledge globally. Destinations include Galapagos, Antarctica, the Arctic & Russian Far East, Baja California, Alaska, Pacific Northwest, Costa Rica & Panama, the Amazon, Europe, French Polynesia & South Pacific, South America, Mediterranean, Caribbean, and beyond. For more information visit us at www.expeditions.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest and LinkedIn.

About National Geographic Partners LLC

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic's media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children's media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 130 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers  and reaching millions of people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j183mal5end7znw/LEX_water_bottle.jpg?dl=0

SOURCE Lindblad Expeditions

Related Links

https://www.expeditions.com

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Mastech Digital, Inc. (NYSE American: MHH), a leading provider of Digital Transformation IT Services, announced today its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 and, additionally, that its Board of Directors has declared a two-for-one stock split of its common stock.

Second Quarter 2018 Highlights:

Revenues increased 28% to a total of $44.9 million , compared to revenues of $35.1 million in the 2017 second quarter; sequentially, revenues increased by 4% over the first quarter of 2018

, compared to revenues of in the 2017 second quarter; sequentially, revenues increased by 4% over the first quarter of 2018 The Company's data and analytics services segment, acquired on July 13, 2017 , contributed $6.1 million of revenues during the quarter

, contributed of revenues during the quarter Organic revenues in the Company's IT staffing services segment increased by 11% compared to the second quarter of 2017 and sequentially increased by 6% over the first quarter of 2018

The number of billable consultants at June 30, 2018 in the Company's IT staffing services segment grew by 6% during the quarter

in the Company's IT staffing services segment grew by 6% during the quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.51 versus $0.15 in the 2017 second quarter

versus in the 2017 second quarter Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.41 versus $0.23 in the 2017 second quarter

Board of Directors Declares Company Stock Split:

On July 24, 2018, the Company's Board of Directors declared a two-for-one stock split of its common stock. The record date for the stock split is August 13, 2018. Shareholders of record as of the close of business on the record date will receive one new share of common stock of the Company for every share that they own on such date. The distribution of the new shares of common stock will be made on August 24, 2018. The Company expects its common stock to begin trading at the split-adjusted price on August 27, 2018.

Commenting on the Board's decision, Vivek Gupta, Mastech Digital's President and CEO stated, "This action reflects our confidence about the future and our objective of increasing the liquidity of our shares for shareholders and potential investors."

Second Quarter Results:

Revenues for the second quarter of 2018 totaled $44.9 million, compared to $35.1 million during the corresponding quarter last year. Gross profit in the second quarter of 2018 was $10.9 million, compared to $7.1 million in the second quarter of 2017. GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2018 totaled $2.8 million or $0.51 per diluted share, compared to $696,000 or $0.15 per diluted share during the same period last year. Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of 2018 was $2.3 million or $0.41 per diluted share, compared to $1.1 million or $0.23 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2017.

Activity levels continue to remain robust in our data and analytics business segment , and we continue to secure new assignments. The revenue growth for this segment, however, was impacted this quarter due to the inherent lumpiness in this project-based business. Demand for the Company's IT staffing services also remained strong during the second quarter, and our billable consultant-base expanded by 65 consultants during the quarter. Additionally, gross margins in the IT staffing services segment increased by 120 basis points in the 2018 second quarter, when compared to the same period last year.

During the quarter, the contingent consideration liability related to the InfoTrellis acquisition was reduced by $9.1 million and contingent transaction fees were lowered by $140,000. These reductions were recorded after the Company determined that relevant conditions for the payment of such liabilities were unlikely to be fully satisfied. Additionally, the Company performed a quantitative impairment test related to the InfoTrellis acquisition as a result of the revaluation of contingent consideration. Based on the results of this testing, the Company recorded a $7.7 million impairment associated with the carrying amount of goodwill related to the InfoTrellis acquisition. The aggregate impact of these three items was a net reduction to selling, general and administrative expenses of $1.5 million during the second quarter of 2018.

"It feels good to report record earnings for the second consecutive quarter," said Vivek Gupta, President and CEO, Mastech Digital. "While there was a bit of softness in our data and analytics segment due to certain project completions, our pipeline remains very strong. We continue to win important deals in this area that contribute to our digital transformation journey. Our IT staffing segment also continues to impress with significant increase in revenues, gross margins, and net income."

Commenting on the Company's financial position, Jack Cronin, Mastech Digital's Chief Financial Officer, stated, "At June 30, 2018, we had bank debt, net of cash balances on hand, of $37.0 million and approximately $12.0 million of borrowing capacity available to us under our revolving credit line. Our accounts receivable balance remains of high quality; however, our Days Sales Outstanding measurement remained elevated at quarter-end as compared to our target range due to temporary inefficiencies related to the implementation of our new Cloud-based ERP platform."

In conjunction with its second quarter earnings release, Mastech Digital will host a conference call at 9:00 A.M. ET on July 25, 2018 to discuss these results and to answer questions. A live webcast of this conference call will be available on the Company's website, www.mastechdigital.com. Simply click on the Investors section and follow the links to the live webcast. The webcast will remain available for replay through August 1, 2018.



About Mastech Digital, Inc.:

Mastech Digital (NYSE American: MHH) is a leading provider of Digital Transformation IT Services. The Company offers Data Management and Analytics services; other digital transformation services that include Salesforce.com, SAP HANA, and Digital Learning services; and IT staffing services. A minority-owned enterprise, Mastech Digital is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA with offices across the U.S., Canada and India. For more information, visit www.mastechdigital.com.

Use of Non-GAAP Measures:

This press release contains non-GAAP financial measures to supplement our financial results presented on a GAAP basis. The presentation of these financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for, or superior to, financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. Investors are cautioned that there are material limitations associated with the use of non-GAAP financial measures as an analytical tool. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to their comparable GAAP measures are included in the attached financial tables.

We believe that providing non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share offers investors useful supplemental information about the financial performance of our business, enables comparison of financial results between periods where certain items may vary independent of business performance, and allows for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in operating our business. Additionally, management uses these non-GAAP financial measures in evaluating the Company's performance.

Specifically, the non-GAAP financial measures contained herein exclude the following expense items:

Amortization of acquired intangible assets: We amortize intangible assets acquired in connection with our June 2015 acquisition of Hudson IT and our July 2017 acquisition of the services division of InfoTrellis, Inc. We exclude these amortization expenses in our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe it allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates a helpful comparison of our results with other periods.

Stock-based compensation expenses: We incur material recurring expense related to non-cash, stock-based compensation. We exclude these expenses in our non-GAAP financial measures because we believe that it provides investors with meaningful supplemental information regarding operational performance. In particular, because of varying available valuation methodologies, subjective assumptions and the variety of award types that companies can use under ASC 718, we believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude these expenses allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates comparison of our results with other periods.

Acquisition-related transaction expenses: We incurred significant expenses in connection with our acquisition of InfoTrellis, Inc. which we would not have otherwise incurred in the periods presented as part of our continuing operations. These transaction expenses consisted of investment banking fees, legal expenses, audit charges related to our acquired companies and various advisor costs. In the 2018 period, we recorded a reduction in acquisition-related transaction expense due to a revised estimate of investment banking fees associated with contingent consideration payments. We believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude these expenses / credits allows investors to make more meaningful comparisons between our operating results and those of other companies within our industry and facilitates a helpful comparison of our results with other periods.

Revaluation of contingent consideration liability: In connection with the InfoTrellis acquisition, the Company may be required to pay future consideration that is contingent upon the achievement of specific earnings before interest and tax objectives ("EBIT"). As of the acquisition date, the Company recorded a contingent consideration liability representing the estimated fair value of such contingent consideration that was expected to be paid. In the second quarter of 2018 , this contingent consideration liability was revalued and reduced by $9.1 million after the Company determined that relevant conditions for the payment of such liability were unlikely to be fully satisfied. While it is probable that adjustments to the contingent consideration liability will occur in the future, we believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude this reduction to expense are useful for investors to understand the effects of these items on our total operating expenses and facilitate comparison of our results with other periods.

Goodwill impairment: The Company accounts for acquisitions in accordance with guidance found in ASC 805, Business Combinations. Accordingly, excess purchase price over the fair value of net tangible assets and identifiable intangible assets are recorded as goodwill. Goodwill is not amortized but is tested for impairment at least on an annual basis. If impairment is indicated, a write-down to fair value is recorded based on the excess of the carrying value of the asset over its fair market value. As a result of the revaluation of the contingent consideration liability related to the InfoTrellis acquisition, we performed a quantitative impairment test on June 30, 2018. Based on the results of this testing, the Company recorded a $7.7 million impairment associated with the carrying value of goodwill related to the InfoTrellis acquisition. While it is possible that goodwill impairment could occur in the future, we believe that providing non-GAAP financial measures that exclude impairment expense are useful for investors to understand the effects of these items on our total operating expenses and facilitate comparison of our results with other periods.

Forward-Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements based on management's expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "scheduled," "estimates" and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to (i) projections of revenues, earnings, and cash flow, (ii) the expected benefits to Mastech Digital from completing the acquisition of the services division of InfoTrellis, Inc. and the PNC credit facility and the expected performance of Mastech Digital following completion of these transactions, and (iii) the consummation, effectiveness and completion of the Company's planned two-for-one stock split and the timing thereof, including but not limited to, the record date and the distribution date. These statements are based on information currently available to the Company and it assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements as circumstances change. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation, the level of market demand for its services, the highly competitive market for the types of services offered by the Company, the impact of competitive factors on profit margins, market conditions that could cause the Company's customers to reduce their spending for its services, and the Company's ability to create, acquire and build new lines of business, to attract and retain qualified personnel, reduce costs and conserve cash, and other risks that are described in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017.

MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Amounts in thousands) (Unaudited)











June 30,

December 31,



2018

2017









ASSETS







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 747

$ 2,478 Accounts receivable, net

35,405

30,662 Prepaid and other current assets

1,131

1,533 Total current assets

37,283

34,673









Equipment, enterprise software and leasehold improvements, net

2,202

1,899









Deferred income taxes

188

468









Non-current deposits

364

255









Goodwill

28,106

35,844









Intangible assets, net

24,084

25,465 Total assets

$ 92,227

$ 98,604









LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY







Current liabilities:







Current portion of long-term debt

$ 4,384

$ 4,003 Accounts payable

3,561

5,028 Accrued payroll and related costs

9,129

8,969 Other accrued liabilities

2,162

2,109 Total current liabilities

19,236

20,109









Long-term liabilities:







Long-term debt, less current portion, net

33,382

34,149 Contingent consideration liability

8,019

17,125 Long-term accrued income taxes

68

68 Total liabilities

60,705

71,451









Shareholders' equity:







Common stock, par value $0.01 per share

63

63 Additional paid-in capital

20,531

20,304 Retained earnings

15,120

10,923 Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss)

(18)

17 Treasury stock, at cost

(4,174)

(4,154) Total shareholders' equity

31,522

27,153 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity

$ 92,227

$ 98,604

MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (Amounts in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)

















Three Months ended June 30,

Six Months ended June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Revenues $ 44,894

$ 35,086

$ 88,227

$ 68,186















Cost of revenues 34,002

28,009

67,074

54,900















Gross profit 10,892

7,077

21,153

13,286















Selling, general and administrative expenses 6,435

6,095

14,258

11,901















Income from operations 4,457

982

6,895

1,385















Other income/(expense), net (607)

(106)

(1,119)

(187)















Income before income taxes 3,850

876

5,776

1,198















Income tax expense 1,033

180

1,579

301 Net income $ 2,817

$ 696

$ 4,197

$ 897































Earnings per share:













Basic $ 0.52

$ 0.15

$ 0.77

$ 0.20 Diluted $ 0.51

$ 0.15

$ 0.76

$ 0.20















Weighted average common shares outstanding:













Basic 5,463

4,536

5,462

4,517 Diluted 5,571

4,576

5,553

4,563

MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. RECONCILIATION OF GAAP MEASURES TO NON-GAAP MEASURES (Amounts in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)



























Three Months ended June 30,

Six Months ended June 30,







2018

2017

2018

2017

























GAAP Net Income $ 2,817

$ 696

$ 4,197

$ 897

























Adjustments:



















Amortization of acquired intangible assets 689

204

1,382

407





Stock-based compensation 120

108

225

215





Acquisition transaction expenses (140)

265

(140)

265





Goodwill impairment 7,738

-

7,738

-





Revaluation of contingent consideration liability (9,106)

-

(9,106)

-





Income taxes adjustments 187

(220)

(27)

(337)



Non-GAAP Net Income $ 2 ,305

$ 1,053

$ 4,269

$ 1,447















































GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share $ 0.51

$ 0.15

$ 0.76

$ 0.20



Non-GAAP Diluted Earnings Per Share $ 0.41

$ 0.23

$ 0.77

$ 0.32















































Weighted average common shares outstanding:

















GAAP Diluted Shares 5,571

4,576

5,553

4,563



Non-GAAP Diluted Shares 5,571

4,576

5,553

4,563



MASTECH DIGITAL, INC. SUPPLEMENTAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION (Amounts in thousands) (Unaudited)

























Three Months ended June 30,

Six Months ended June 30,





2018

2017

2018

2017



















Revenues:















IT staffing services $ 38,811

$ 35,086

$ 75,572

$ 68,186

Data and analytics services 6,083

-

12,655

-



Total revenues $ 44,894

$ 35,086

$ 88,227

$ 68,186



















Gross Margin %:















IT staffing services 21.4%

20.2%

20.7%

19.5%

Data and analytics services 42.2%

-

43.3%

-



Total gross margin % 24.3%

20.2%

24.0%

19.5%



















Segment Operating Income:















IT staffing services $ 2,227

$ 1,451

$ 3,583

$ 2,057

Data and analytics services 1,411

-

3,186

-



Subtotal 3,638

1,451

6,769

2,057



















Acquisition transaction expenses 140

(265)

140

(265) Amortization of acquired intangible assets (689)

(204)

(1,382)

(407) Goodwill impairment (7,738)





(7,738)



Revaluation of contingent consideration liability 9,106





9,106



Interest expense and other, net (607)

(106)

(1,119)

(187) Income before income taxes $ 3,850

$ 876

$ 5,776

$ 1,198





















For more information, contact:

Donna Kijowski

Manager, Investor Relations

Mastech Digital, Inc.

+1-888-330-5497

SOURCE Mastech Digital, Inc.HUDDINGE, Sweden, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Successful progression of clinical projects

April  June

Significant events during the quarter

Positive top-line results from the MIV-711 osteoarthritis phase IIa extension study. The study met the primary endpoint, demonstrating that MIV-711 200mg had an acceptable safety and tolerability profile.

Preclinical data on MIV-818 were presented at the AACR Annual Meeting.

The design of the ongoing phase I/II study of birinapant in combination with Keytruda, including the planned phase II dose expansion cohorts, was presented at the 2018 American Society for Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

Additional data from the phase II study of remetinostat in patients with early stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma were presented during the International Investigative Dermatology meeting.

Due to continued discussions with FDA to agree on the design of the planned pivotal phase III clinical study of remetinostat, study start will not be possible by end of 2018 as was previously expected.

One class of shares outstanding as all series A shares have been converted to series B shares.

Financial summary

Net turnover totaled SEK 2.8 million ( 9.5 m ).

( ). The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled SEK -89.9 million ( -90.9 m ). Basic and diluted earnings per share were SEK -3.88 (-3.91) and -3.88 (-3.91) respectively.

( ). Basic and diluted earnings per share were (-3.91) and -3.88 (-3.91) respectively. The cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -82.7 million (-82.1).

(-82.1). Liquid assets and short-term investments totaled SEK 438.6 million ( 624.2 m ) at the period end.

January - June

Financial summary

Net turnover totaled SEK 7.3 million ( 27.3 m ).

( ). The loss before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled SEK -163.0 million ( -171.8 m ). Basic and diluted earnings per share were SEK -6.96 (-7.50) and -6.96 (-7.50) respectively.

( ). Basic and diluted earnings per share were (-7.50) and -6.96 (-7.50) respectively. The cash flow from operating activities amounted to SEK -169.7 million (-206.0).

(-206.0). Liquid assets and short-term investments totaled SEK 438.6 million ( 624.2 m ) at the period end.

Conference call for investors, analysts and the media

The Interim Report January  June 2018 will be presented by Medivir's President & CEO, Christine Lind.

Time: Wednesday, 25 July 2018, at 14.00 (CET).

Phone numbers for participants from:

Sweden + 46-8-566-426-62

Europe + 44-20-3008 9804

US +1-855-753-2236

The conference call will also be streamed via a link on the website: www.medivir.com

The presentation will be available on Medivir's website after completion of the conference.

CEO's comments

During the second quarter of 2018, Medivir continued the rigorous development and advancement of our projects. The interest for these projects from the scientific community is truly great, which was further demonstrated this spring as all our clinical projects  across the portfolio - had their day in the sun, being presented by our study investigators at important and well-respected scientific conferences.

On MIV-711, data from the initial phase IIa study demonstrating disease-modifying activity in patients with moderate knee osteoarthritis were presented by Dr. Philip Conaghan from the University of Leeds in the UK at the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) World Congress in Liverpool in April.

Top-line results from the phase IIa extension study with MIV-711 in osteoarthritis were announced at the end of the second quarter. We were very pleased with these results demonstrating an acceptable safety and tolerability profile and sustained effects on clinical symptoms supporting the advancement into further studies of MIV-711 as a disease-modifying osteoarthritis treatment

The discussions with potential partners for MIV-711 for osteoarthritis disease modification continue, now strengthened by the results from this extension study.

On remetinostat, data from the phase II study in patients with early stage cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) showing remetinostat's effect on reducing itching were presented by Dr. Madeleine Duvic from MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US at the International Investigative Dermatology (IID) meeting in Orlando in May.

We continue the dialogue with the FDA on the remetinostat phase III study design in order to ensure that we are able to initiate a pivotal study that, if successfully completed will bring the drug through approval and to patients with early-stage CTCL.

On birinapant, the design of the ongoing phase I/II study of birinapant in combination with Keytruda in advanced cancer patients was presented by the study's lead investigator Professor Russell J. Schilder from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in the US at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago in June.

We are looking forward to the outcome of the phase I part of the phase I/II birinapant combination study with Keytruda to enable us to further study in phase II birinapant's ability to improve patient responses in certain cancer types that are more likely to respond to birinapant.

In addition, MIV-818 further demonstrates the ability of our research organization to develop innovative new drug candidates. MIV-818 is our in-house discovered and developed nucleotide prodrug and is being developed for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and other liver cancers. Preclinical efficacy data of MIV-818 in combination with sorafenib was presented by our own scientists at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Chicago in April. This presentation focused on the preclinical efficacy data on MIV-818 in combination with sorafenib, the only agent currently approved in the USA as first-line treatment for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma.

We intend to advance MIV-818 into clinical studies specifically for liver cancer patients.

Rest assured that we will continue to develop our business the Medivir way: applying rigorous science to develop transformative drugs and thus create meaningful data and great partnerships. We will continuously keep you informed of the progress in each of our projects. It is my firm belief that with our expertise and thorough consistent execution, by continuing to put one foot in front of the other, we will get results that can make a true difference for patients and create value for our shareholders.

Christine Lind

President and CEO

The information in this report comprises the information that Medivir AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact persons set out above, at 08.45 CET on 25 July 2018.

For further information, please contact:

Christine Lind,

President & CEO,

+46(0)8-5468-3100

or,

Erik Bjork,

CFO,

+46(0)72-228-2831

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

http://news.cision.com/medivir/r/medivir-ab---interim-report-january---june-2018,c2580943

The following files are available for download:

http://mb.cision.com/Main/652/2580943/882936.pdf MEDIVIR AB a" INTERIM REPORT JANUARY a" JUNE 2018 (PDF)

SOURCE Medivir

Related Links

http://www.medivir.com

DURHAM, N.C., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (OTCQB: MGTI) announced today that Stephen Schaeffer, Chief Operating Officer of the Company, will host a "fireside chat" at the Crypto Mining Forum in Miami on Saturday, July 28, 2018. Mr. Schaeffer will address the group and field questions on multiple topics related to the bitcoin mining ecosphere. Among the expected topics will be public versus private ownership of mining entities, and the logistics of design and operation of large scale mining locations.

Sponsored by Bitmain Technologies Inc., the Crypto Mining Forum is an invitation-only gathering of the top bitcoin mining industry participants in the crypto mining industry from the Americas. Mr. Schaeffer stated, "I am honored to be invited to participate in this event of industry thought leaders."

About MGT Capital Investments, Inc.

Operating in facilities in northern Sweden and Washington State, MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (OTCQB: MGTI) ranks as one of the largest U.S. based Bitcoin miners. MGT owns and operates approximately 6,800 Bitmain S9 miners, and 50 GPU-based Ethereum mining rigs. Further, the Company continues to execute on an expansion model to secure low cost power and grow its crypto assets materially.

For more information on the Company, please visit: https://mgtci.com

Forwardlooking Statements

This press release contains forwardlooking statements. The words or phrases "would be," "will allow," "intends to," "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "project," or similar expressions are intended to identify "forwardlooking statements." All information set forth in this news release, except historical and factual information, represents forwardlooking statements. This includes all statements about the Company's plans, beliefs, estimates and expectations. These statements are based on current estimates and projections, which involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include issues related to: rapidly changing technology and evolving standards in the crypto mining industry; the ability to obtain sufficient funding to continue operations, maintain adequate cash flow and execute its business strategy; volatility in the Bitcoin market; and other factors set forth in the Company's most recently filed annual report and registration statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forwardlooking statements, which reflect management's analysis only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forwardlooking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof. Readers should carefully review the risks and uncertainties described in other documents that the Company files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investor and Media Contacts

Robert Lowrey

Chief Financial Officer

[email protected]

Grace Livingston

[email protected]

919.973.0954

SOURCE MGT Capital Investments, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mgtci.com

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA will announce on Friday, Aug. 3, the astronauts assigned to crew the first flight tests and missions of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon, and begin a new era in American spaceflight. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will preside over the event, which will begin at 11 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency's website.

NASA will announce the crew assignments for the crew flight tests and the first post-certification missions for both Boeing and SpaceX. NASA partnered with Boeing and SpaceX to develop the Starliner spacecraft to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and the Crew Dragon launching atop the Falcon 9 rocket, respectively.

U.S. media are invited to attend the event at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and, afterward, speak with the astronauts about their assignments. Media wishing to attend must contact Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 4 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Aug. 1.

Johnson Space Center Director Mark Geyer and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana will join Bridenstine and representatives from Boeing and SpaceX to introduce the crews.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is working with the American aerospace industry as companies develop and operate a new generation of spacecraft and launch systems designed to carry crews safely to and from low-Earth orbit. The Starliner and Crew Dragon will launch American astronauts on American-made spacecraft from American soil to the International Space Station for the first time since NASA retired its Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

Commercial transportation to and from the space station will enable expanded station use, additional research time and broader opportunities of discovery aboard the orbiting laboratory. The station is critical for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight, and necessary for a sustainable presence on the Moon and missions deeper into the solar system, including Mars.

Following the announcement, the astronauts will participate in a Reddit Ask Me Anything at 12:30 p.m. at:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/

Images and video highlights from the announcement will be available at:

https://images.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Panhellenic Association of Table Olive Processors, Packers and Exporters (PEMETE), showcased their "Olive You, European Table Olives" campaign in North America, at the the largest food and beverage trade show in North America, the Summer Fancy Food Show 2018. The trade show took place in New York on June 30-July 2, 2018 with more than 2.600 exhibitors from 54 countries and 40.000 visitors.

OLIVE YOU CAMPAIGN

The professional association PEMETE, was founded in1970 and promotes the interests of table olive exporters. PEMETE showcased their "OLIVE YOU, European Table Olives" campaign in North America at the Fancy Food Show for the second time.

The "Olive You" campaign is a three-year promotional program co-funded by the European Union, that aims to increase the awareness and demand for European table olives to both professionals and consumers, as well as to help increase exports to the United States and Canada. The "OLIVE YOU, European Table Olives" campaign also aims to reach journalists, chefs, foodies, retailers and consumers of all ages, through promotional activities, marketing events, sampling, and publicity in order to familiarize the public with this natural and delicious food product.

A large number of importers, distributors, and food service industry professionals visited the "OLIVE YOU, European Table Olives" booths at the Summer Fancy Food Show, were introduced to the European table olive varieties and learned more about the olives superior quality and flavors. Visitors also had the opportunity to taste this healthy product. In addition, 112 visitors completed the campaign questionnaires that provide insight to the American consumer's current perception about table olives.

Chef George Katrantzos along with Sous Chef Hilda Terrera, prepared and served delicious recipes on the first two days of the trade show. Chef Katrantzos prepared 3 recipes daily, and approximately 1000 samples were offered to the attendees, while Chef Katrantzos explained the wonderful benefits of using European Olives in recipes.

New Greek Television covered the Olive You Exhibit at the Fancy Food Show 2018, taking various interviews and producing and airing two presentations.

News Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ncb3djUDws&

Featured Community Event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0q8ImfXOnk&

"'OLIVE YOU, European Table Olives' participation in the Summer Fancy Food Show 2018 was a major success," said the President of PEMETE, Mr. Nelos Georgoudis. "Our main goals were achieved, providing information to the participants as well as leading to B2B meetings and further expansion of B2B agreements."

The 46 member-companies of PEMETE represent more than 90 percent of Greece's exports of table olives to more than 100 countries. These companies export some outstanding and unique Greek table olive varieties, including Konservolia, a variety mostly grown in Central Greece, Chalkidiki, mostly found in Northern Greece, and Kalamata olives, which are mainly but not exclusively grown in the regions of Etoloakarnania and Laconia. Small quantities of Throuba and Megaritiki varieties are also included in their product range. The greatest advantage of Greek table olives is that the fruit ripens naturally on the trees. In other words, they are natural, with no chemical means used to make them black.

For more information, visit www.oliveyou-eu.eu

Related Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0q8ImfXOnk

SOURCE PEMETEORMOND BEACH, Fla., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- CO2Meter, Inc. has released the new SAN-10 Personal 5% Carbon Dioxide Monitor to meet OSHA Confined Space Regulation for businesses who use or store carbon dioxide (CO2).

Personal 5% CO2 Monitor

Carbon Dioxide in high concentrations can cause serious injuries and even kill a human. By focusing on employee safety, this monitor measures exposure to CO2 in real time and alarm s if high CO2 levels are detected or exceeded. The monitor insures compliance with OSHA Confined Space Regulations that require the monitoring of a person inside a space where a known hazardous gas may be present. Recent CO2 incidents in Chicago and Atlanta demonstrate the importance for personal safety monitoring.

Using input from the compressed gas industry, draft beer community, brewers, and growers, CO2Meter was able to design a device that exceeds industry standards and our customers expectations for a compact design that doesn't restrict employee mobility.

"When we created this new design we were mindful of the CO2 incidents that are occurring in breweries, grow operations, gas delivery, and especially to draft technicians in walk-in coolers. Our customers asked for durable, loud, and fast acting monitors to keep them safe but it couldn't interfere with daily activities. They tell us this new monitor does precisely that," said Ray Hicks, President of CO2Meter.

The SAN-10 Personal 5% CO2 Monitor measures CO2 levels from 0 ppm through 50,000 ppm taking measurements 30 times per minute. With a rechargeable lithium-ion battery lasting more than 12 hours the new SAN-10 is perfect for daily use.

In addition, the device can be configured to sound an alarm at preferred levels including the common OSHA standards of 5,000ppm time-weighted average, 1.5%, and 3.0% CO2. The monitor includes an 80 db audible alarm, flashing strobe, a vibration feature, and a new "man down" alarm.

"We are delighted to take our experience and expertise and apply it to keep our customers safe. We already know the design is a success because we've had field testing partners tell us its already saved their lives. That's how I know our team has created a great device," added Hicks.

About CO2Meter, Inc.

CO2Meter, Inc. (dba as CO2Meter.com) is an Ormond Beach, FL based business that designs, manufactures and distributes carbon dioxide and other gas detectors, monitors, and sensors used in a variety of industrial, commercial, and consumer applications. Website: http://www.CO2Meter.com

Contact: Joshua Pringle, VP of Business Development

CO2Meter, Inc.

131 Business Center Drive

Ormond Beach, FL 32174

386-872-7669

[email protected]

SOURCE CO2Meter

Related Links

https://www.co2meter.com

SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PicsArt, the leading creative platform for social media editing, today announced that former Viki Inc. CEO Tammy H. Nam has joined the company as its first Chief Operating Officer. Nam was instrumental in driving Viki's targeted international growth and subsequent acquisition by Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten in late 2013. PicsArt, which ranks among brands like Instagram and Snapchat as a leading platform in the social media space, has over 300 employees and offices in the U.S., Armenia and China; the company also recently announced that it is profitable only a few months after launching its popular subscription service.

Tammy Nam, PicsArt Chief Operating Officer

"PicsArt serves an important need for easy image editing that millions of users rely on each month. Fueled by double-digit user growth and strong revenue momentum, PicsArt is well positioned to become the next impactful brand in social media," said Omar Hamoui, Partner at Sequoia Capital and PicsArt board member. "We are confident that Tammy will take PicsArt to the next level and capitalize on the company's foundational strengths."

PicsArt's all-in-one social editor is popular among Millennials and Gen Z fans who use the app to personalize and remix photos and other media with thousands of special effects, limitless stickers and one of the largest databases of community-generated, free-to-edit content in the world. Brands and artists have already taken notice. The company has worked with big names such as Maroon5, AMC's The Walking Dead and Thirty Seconds to Mars on fan-art community challenges that generate tens of millions of organic fan-generated impressions and shares on social media.

"PicsArt has grown organically so far, but our next big opportunity is in directing this growth through the right market development, community engagement and revenue channels," said Hovhannes Avoyan, CEO and founder of PicsArt. "In addition to her proven operational experience in both consumer advertising-and subscription-based businesses, Tammy adds deep bench strength in market, brand and community development  areas that will be critical for us moving forward."

Nam, who was an executive and marketing leader at other large, innovative consumer tech companies such as Scribd and Slide, will report to Avoyan and oversee all areas of the business outside product and engineering.

About PicsArt

PicsArt is the world's largest creative platform for social media editing with more than 100 million monthly active users and influencers. The PicsArt community creates, remixes and shares nearly 1 billion images every month; the company has amassed one of the largest open-source collections of content in the world, including free-to-edit photos, stickers and more. PicsArt is available in 30 languages for free and as a subscription on iOS, Android and Windows devices. Headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Yerevan, Armenia; Los Angeles; and Beijing, PicsArt is backed by Sequoia Capital, DCM Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, and Siguler Guff and Company. Download the app now or visit PicsArt.com or https://picsart.com/brands/ for more information.

Media Contact:

Juliet Travis

510-612-9622

[email protected]

SOURCE PicsArt

Related Links

http://PicsArt.com

| BY Ricki Green |

AKQA has announced the appointment of Daniel Robathan (left) as general manager and Daniel Holleb (right) as strategy director in the Melbourne studio. Robathan and Holleb will report directly to managing partner Brian Vella.

Robathan joins from IBM with over 15 years experience leading digital and technology teams, and is a proven leader with a strong track record.

Says Robathan: I passionately believe in the continued application of design thinking and technology  joining AKQA is serendipitous. He takes the lead role on one of the agencies most long-standing, prestigious accounts, and will oversee work across studios in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, and in South East Asia.

Originally from Berkeley, California, Holleb joins AKQA from Seoul, Korea where he was working in Samsungs internal strategy consulting group. Prior to that, he received his MBA from Stanford University and was an operations manager at a multibillion dollar e-commerce retailer in Los Angeles.

Says Holleb: Im looking forward to partnering with our tech, CX and design teams to drive the digital transformation of the most loved brands in Australia.LOS ANGELES, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Often times raising the first few rounds of capital can be very difficult since many investors will be skeptical on how tangible your companies' products are and if your companies can truly disrupt the market. A compelling presentation will allow your company to gain credibility with investors right away. Your company needs to construct the perfect pitch since you often only get one chance when pitching an investor. By utilizing the following pitch structure and content you can maximize the potential for a positive investor response.

SLIDE 1  Why are you here? This is your elevator pitch. The foremost item that needs to be addressed is a quick overview of the business and the investment opportunity. The overview of the business is composed of the mission of the company, business problem solved, products sold, the specific market, revenue model and list of locations. The investment opportunity should state the general terms of the investment in a concise manner.

SLIDE 2  Who is our core team? The overview of the company's team is the subsequent item in the pitch. Lead with a holistic statement that states what most of the members have in common and how they plan to execute the business plan. Introduce the team by highlighting the work experience and academic background of 3 to 4 individuals that are instrumental to the success of the company and presenting pictures of each key individual.

SLIDE 3  What problem do you address? Highlighting the business problem is critical. Identify a shortcoming in the market that the company addresses. Present statistics on the shortcoming and the impact of not addressing the shortcoming.

SLIDE 4  What is your solution? Next, the company should provide an overview of the products by providing pictures of the products, describing what the products do, stating the price of the products, stating what makes each product different. In many instances, an investor may not be familiar with all the jargon present so either use clear language or add supporting text. Conclude this section by discussing how the company's solution addresses the business problem.

SLIDE 5  How large is your market? Next, it is important to distinguish between the total addressable market and the served available market. Total addressable market (TAM) is the total market demand for products within the company's core competency, whereas served available market (SAM) is the portion of the TAM targeted by the company's existing products and within the company's geographical reach. Remember to explicitly lay out the assumptions for calculating the TAM and SAM which can be derived from online third-party sources or calculated based on assumptions. Lastly, gauge whether these market figures are realistic relative to other markets figures.

SLIDE 6  How do you reach your market? Another critical element of the pitch is how your company is reaching the target market. In this section you should discuss the sales, marketing and distribution strategy. What are your most important venues for gaining market visibility? Will you hire in house sales staff or partner to gain distribution (or both)?

SLIDE 7  How do you make money? Next, the company should discuss its revenue model. The company needs to maximize the revenue for each customer by assessing the demand and supply for their products based on its current business model. The intersection of demand and supply curves will yield a price and quantity which can multiplied together to obtain total revenue. Elasticity of demand and supply will heavily influence total revenue so justify slopes of these curves based on desire and availability of products in the market.

Lastly, support the revenue and profit projections by comparing your projections to the growth experience of similar companies.

SLIDE 8  Who is your competition? There is always competition for any idea. Perform extensive market diligence to determine market share and fragmentation of the market. Provide a list of criteria that assess the performance of the product to gauge the effectiveness of the company's product verse the competitor's products. End this section with the company's competitive advantage beyond those criteria.

SLIDE 9  How will you monetize the investment? Investors want to assess their return by gaining insight into the company's exit strategy. For M&A exit, mention big players in sector and recent M&A transactions and discuss potential synergies that company can provide. For IPO exit, discuss timeline and plan for becoming a public company and mention recent IPOs that have occurred and their performance since their IPO.

SLIDE 10  What are your offering terms? Provide details about the ask. For equity deals, answer the following questions:

How much is being raised and for what % of equity?

What is the use of proceeds?

What type of securities are being offered?

What are the preferences of these securities?

What price are these shares being offered at?

What is the current valuation of the company?

For debt deal, answer the following questions:

How much debt is being raised?

What is the use of proceeds?

How long is the tenure of the debt?

What is the interest rate of the debt?

SLIDE 11  Recap. Why is your offering a compelling investment? Finally, recap why this investment is compelling by discussing offering terms, products, competitive advantage, financial highlights, milestones, and exit strategies.

By following the aforementioned presentation structure and content, your company can create a compelling investor pitch.

ABOUT RAINMAKER SECURITIES: RainMaker Securities has 50 seasoned professionals that can assist clients in creating a compelling investor pitch, as well as performing extensive valuation and financial modeling to ensure that our clients are selling equity or debt at a the most compelling price. RainMaker Securities can also assist our clients to get their marketing materials in front of the right investors by leveraging our extensive network of top venture capital, private equity, and corporate strategic investors from across the globe. Contact [email protected] for more details.

This document does not represent an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. Any such offer must be made pursuant to a private placement memorandum or other definitive legal documentation prepared by the company offering the securities (the "Offering Documents"), and the securities are only available in states in which the offering of the securities is registered or is exempt from registration and only by a broker/dealer authorized to do so. This document contains excerpts from the Offering Documents, and should be read in conjunction with the Offering Documents prior to making any investment decision. The securities offered in the Offering Documents ("Securities") are offered through Rainmaker Securities, LLC  a registered broker dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC, 11390 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 380 Los Angeles, California 90064 ("RMS"). These Securities involve a high degree of risk, are speculative and involve a high degree of risk. The Securities have not been approved or disapproved by either the SEC or any state agency, nor has either the SEC or any state securities commission endorsed the accuracy or adequacy of the referenced Offering Documents. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense. An investment in these Securities should not be made by any person or entity that is not in a position to lose the entire amount of such investment, or one who needs liquidity of the investment. Only individuals and entities qualifying as "accredited investors" or "qualified institutional buyers," as defined by the Securities Exchange Commission ("SEC") are allowed to invest in these Securities. Potential investors in the company should carefully consider the risk factors contained in the Offering Documents to evaluate the company and its prospects before purchasing the Securities. This document and the referenced Offering Documents both contain forward-looking statements that are not historical facts, and are based on the company's attempt to describe the outcome if it executes well on its business plan. They are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties beyond the company's control or ability to predict. Potential investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the company's management's view only, as of the date of this document and the referenced Offering Documents.

SOURCE Rainmaker SecuritiesGILROY, Calif., July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pinnacle Bank (OTCQB:PBNK) headquartered in Gilroy, CA announced today that Ron Short, Senior Vice President and Jeff Scheinin, Vice President, Relationship Manager have joined the bank.

"We are very pleased that Ron and Jeff have joined our Pinnacle Bank team. They both bring a wealth of knowledge and will participate in further expanding our presence and activity with local businesses and existing clients," stated Jeffrey D. Payne, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Short has over 25 years of banking experience which includes SBA lending. Prior to joining Pinnacle Bank, Mr. Short worked for Harvest Small Business Finance Inc., Bank of the West and he was Senior Vice President, SBA Business Lending at California Bank & Trust.

"After working in the banking industry for over 25 years I wanted to work for a bank where the client relationship is a priority. Pinnacle Bank believes in listening to the client and providing a solution that meets the client's needs," stated Mr. Short.

Mr. Scheinin has more than 10 years of banking experience. He started his career with Wells Fargo as a licensed business banking specialist and was working at City National Bank as a vice president, relationship manager prior to joining Pinnacle Bank.

"Local businesses deserve a strong banking partnership and that is exactly what Pinnacle Bank delivers to their clients. I am excited to serve businesses and help expand our activity with local businesses as they continue to grow and Reach Higher," stated Mr. Scheinin.

About Pinnacle Bank

Pinnacle Bank is a full-service community business bank dedicated to providing quality depository and credit services in Santa Clara, San Benito, and Monterey counties. The bank focuses on commercial banking services for small to medium-sized businesses, offering a variety of products and services that combine the best of personal touch with convenient technology-based client service. Pinnacle Bank has locations in Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Salinas. For more information, visit www.pinnaclebankonline.com.

Media Contact:

Pinnacle Bank

Jeffrey D. Payne, President & CEO

408-762-7146

SOURCE Pinnacle Bank

Related Links

http://www.pinnaclebankonline.com

DALLAS, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") today announced net income for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 ("Q2 2018") of $335 million, or $0.92 per diluted common share.

The Company has declared a cash dividend of $0.20 per share, to be paid on August 8, 2018, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 6, 20181. In addition, the Company received authorization to repurchase $200 million of outstanding common stock through June 30, 20191.

"We had a strong second quarter, with clear momentum in our business performance and continued regulatory progress," said Scott Powell, SC President and CEO. "Earnings were up 26 percent from 2Q 2017, driven by strong originations across all channels, including Chrysler, and by strong credit performance. SHUSA also received a non-objection from the Federal Reserve to our capital plan, which allows SC to pay a meaningful dividend and launch an inaugural share repurchase program."

Juan Carlos Alvarez, SC Chief Financial Officer, added, "Our ongoing efforts to optimize pricing and dealer experience led to another strong quarter, with robust originations. Our credit performance, with continued stabilization in both gross and net charge-off ratios, resulted in solid financial performance during the second quarter."

Scott Powell, who is also CEO of Santander US, added, "We are proud of our work since the beginning of the year to prepare for the launch of our program to originate SC auto loans at Santander Bank, which began on July 2, 2018. The originations program is another step forward as we continue to bring the Santander US businesses closer together, leveraging their individual strengths."

Q2 2018 Highlights (variances compared to the second quarter of 2017 ("Q2 2017"), unless otherwise noted):

Total auto originations of $7.9 billion , up 45%

Total auto originations of , up 45% Core retail auto loan originations of $2.6 billion , up 15%

Core retail auto loan originations of , up 15%

Chrysler Capital loan originations of $2.7 billion , up 51%

Chrysler Capital loan originations of , up 51%

Chrysler Capital lease originations of $2.6 billion , up 84%

Chrysler Capital lease originations of , up 84%

Chrysler average quarterly penetration rate of 32%, up from 20% during the same quarter last year

Chrysler average quarterly penetration rate of 32%, up from 20% during the same quarter last year Net finance and other interest income of $1.1 billion , decreased 6%

Net finance and other interest income of , decreased 6% Net leased vehicle income of $178 million , increased 36%

Net leased vehicle income of , increased 36% Retail Installment Contract "RIC" gross charge-off ratio of 15.2% down 130 basis points

Retail Installment Contract "RIC" gross charge-off ratio of 15.2% down 130 basis points RIC net charge-off ratio of 6.0%, down 150 basis points

RIC net charge-off ratio of 6.0%, down 150 basis points

Auction-plus recovery rate of 60.6%, up 670 basis points

Auction-plus recovery rate of 60.6%, up 670 basis points Troubled Debt Restructuring ("TDR") balance of $6.0 billion , down $40 million vs. March 31, 2018

Troubled Debt Restructuring ("TDR") balance of , down vs. Return on average assets of 3.3%, up from 2.7%

Return on average assets of 3.3%, up from 2.7% Issued $3.5 billion in asset-backed securities "ABS"

Issued in asset-backed securities "ABS" Asset sales of $1.2 billion executed through the Santander flow agreement

Asset sales of executed through the Santander flow agreement Full roll-out of SBNA originations program in July

Full roll-out of SBNA originations program in July Common equity tier 1 ("CET1") ratio of 16.7%, up from 14.3%

Common equity tier 1 ("CET1") ratio of 16.7%, up from 14.3% Expense ratio of 2.2%, flat

Finance receivables, loans and leases, net2 of $37.1 billion, increased compared to $34.8 billion at December 31, 2017.

Net finance and other interest income decreased 6 percent to $1.07 billion in Q2 2018 from $1.14 billion in Q2 2017, primarily driven by lower average RIC balances and an increase in benchmark rates.

Servicing fee income decreased 14 percent to $28 million in Q2 2018, from $32 million in Q2 2017, driven by lower serviced for others balances. SC's serviced for others portfolio of $9.5 billion as of Q2 2018 decreased 4 percent from $9.9 billion the prior year quarter and increased 9 percent from $8.7 billion versus Q1 2018.

RIC delinquency ratio3 of 4.2 percent in Q2 2018 decreased compared to 5.2 percent in Q2 2017.

RIC net charge-off ratio4 decreased to 6.0 percent in Q2 2018 from 7.5 percent in Q2 2017. Provision for credit losses decreased to $353 million in Q2 2018 from $521 million the prior year quarter.

Allowance ratio5 decreased 80 basis points, to 11.5 percent at the end of Q2 2018, from 12.3 percent at the end of Q1 2018.

Recorded net investment losses of $83 million in Q2 2018, compared to net investment losses of $100 million in Q2 2017. The current period losses were primarily driven by held for sale accounting for SC's personal lending portfolio6. Excluding the impact of personal lending, net investment losses totaled $7 million.

During Q2 2018 SC incurred $277 million of operating expenses, down 2 percent from $282 million in Q2 2017. SC's expense ratio of 2.2 percent for the quarter, was flat compared to 2.2 percent during the same period last year.

1The timing and amount of any capital actions will depend on various factors, including the business plans and financial performance of both SC and SHUSA, as well as market conditions, and any SC capital distribution is subject to approval of the Company's and SHUSA's respective boards of directors.

2Includes Finance receivables held for investment, Finance receivables held for sale and Leased vehicles.

3Delinquency ratio is defined as the ratio of end of period delinquent principal over 60 days to end of period gross balance of the respective portfolio, excludes capital leases.

4Net charge-off ratio stated on a recorded investment basis, which is unpaid principal balance adjusted for unaccreted net discounts, subvention and origination costs.

5Ratio for allowance for credit losses excludes end of period balances on purchased receivables portfolio of $36 million and finance receivables and personal loans held for sale of $1.2 billion.

6The current period losses were primarily driven by $76 million of lower of cost or market adjustments related to the held for sale personal lending portfolio, comprised of $90 million in customer default activity, partially offset by a $14 million decrease in market discount, consistent with typical seasonal patterns.

Conference Call Information

SC will host a conference call and webcast to discuss its Q2 2018 results and other general matters at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. The conference call will be accessible by dialing 888-394-8218 (U.S. domestic), or 323-701-0225 (international), conference ID 5415846. Please join 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The conference call will also be accessible via live audio webcast through the Investor Relations section of SC's corporate website at http://investors.santanderconsumerusa.com. Choose "Events" and select the information pertaining to the Q2 2018 SC Earnings Conference Call. Additionally, there will be slides accompanying the webcast. Please allow at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register, download and install any necessary software prior to the call.

For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay of the call will be available on the Company's website or by dialing 844-512-2921 (U.S. domestic), or 412-317-6671 (international), conference ID 5415846, approximately two hours after the conference call. An audio webcast of the call and investor presentation will also be archived on the Investor Relations section of SC's corporate website at http://investors.santanderconsumerusa.com, under "Events".

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements about our expectations, beliefs, plans, predictions, forecasts, objectives, assumptions, or future events or performance are not historical facts and may be forward-looking. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as anticipates, believes, can, could, may, predicts, potential, should, will, estimates, plans, projects, continuing, ongoing, expects, intends, and similar words or phrases. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, these statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are subject to change based on various important factors, some of which are beyond our control. For additional discussion of these risks, refer to the section entitled Risk Factors and elsewhere in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed by us with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Among the factors that could cause the forward-looking statements in this press release and/or our financial performance to differ materially from that suggested by the forward-looking statements are (a) the inherent limitations in internal control over financial reporting; (b) our ability to remediate any material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting completely and in a timely manner; (c) continually changing federal, state, and local laws and regulations could materially adversely affect our business; (d) adverse economic conditions in the United States and worldwide may negatively impact our results; (e) our business could suffer if our access to funding is reduced; (f) significant risks we face implementing our growth strategy, some of which are outside our control; (g) unexpected costs and delays in connection with exiting our personal lending business; (h) our agreement with FCA US LLC may not result in currently anticipated levels of growth and is subject to certain conditions that could result in termination of the agreement; (i) our business could suffer if we are unsuccessful in developing and maintaining relationships with automobile dealerships; (j) our financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations depend on the credit performance of our loans; (k) loss of our key management or other personnel, or an inability to attract such management and personnel; (l) certain regulations, including but not limited to oversight by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the European Central Bank, and the Federal Reserve, whose oversight and regulation may limit certain of our activities, including the timing and amount of dividends and other limitations on our business; and (m) future changes in our relationship with SHUSA and Banco Santander that could adversely affect our operations. If one or more of the factors affecting our forward-looking information and statements proves incorrect, our actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking information and statements. Therefore, we caution the reader not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements. The effect of these factors is difficult to predict. Factors other than these also could adversely affect our results, and the reader should not consider these factors to be a complete set of all potential risks or uncertainties as new factors emerge from time to time. Any forward-looking statements only speak as of the date of this document, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking information or statements, whether written or oral, to reflect any change, except as required by law. All forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified by these cautionary statements.

About Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC) ("SC") is a full-service consumer finance company focused on vehicle finance, third-party servicing and delivering superior service to our more than 2.7 million customers across the full credit spectrum. The company, which began originating retail installment contracts in 1997, has an average managed asset portfolio of approximately $50 billion (as of June 30, 2018), and is headquartered in Dallas. ( www.santanderconsumerusa.com )

Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. Financial Supplement Second Quarter 2018





Table of Contents





Table 1: Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets 5

Table 2: Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income 6

Table 3: Other Financial Information 7

Table 4: Credit Quality 9

Table 5: Originations 11

Table 6: Asset Sales 12

Table 7: Ending Portfolio 13

Table 8: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures 14



Table 1: Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets



June 30, 2018

December 31, 2017 Assets (Unaudited, Dollars in thousands) Cash and cash equivalents $ 319,688



$ 527,805

Finance receivables held for sale, net 1,246,732



2,210,421

Finance receivables held for investment, net 24,096,770



22,427,769

Restricted cash 2,125,410



2,553,902

Accrued interest receivable 286,164



326,640

Leased vehicles, net 11,729,482



10,160,327

Furniture and equipment, net 64,599



69,609

Federal, state and other income taxes receivable 100,517



95,060

Related party taxes receivable 467



467

Goodwill 74,056



74,056

Intangible assets 31,613



29,734

Due from affiliates 35,398



33,270

Other assets 1,062,240



913,244

Total assets $ 41,173,136



$ 39,422,304

Liabilities and Equity





Liabilities:





Notes payable  credit facilities $ 4,502,823



$ 4,848,316

Notes payable  secured structured financings 24,300,820



22,557,895

Notes payable  related party 3,125,963



3,754,223

Accrued interest payable 43,882



38,529

Accounts payable and accrued expenses 470,439



429,531

Deferred tax liabilities, net 1,079,557



897,121

Due to affiliates 154,192



82,382

Other liabilities 449,726



333,806

Total liabilities $ 34,127,402



$ 32,941,803









Equity:





Common stock, $0.01 par value 3,614



3,605

Additional paid-in capital 1,693,896



1,681,558

Accumulated other comprehensive income, net 62,449



44,262

Retained earnings 5,285,775



4,751,076

Total stockholders' equity $ 7,045,734



$ 6,480,501

Total liabilities and equity $ 41,173,136



$ 39,422,304



Table 2: Condensed Consolidated Statements of Income



Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017

(Unaudited, Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts) Interest on finance receivables and loans $ 1,156,536



$ 1,232,252



$ 2,270,673



$ 2,441,438

Leased vehicle income 537,897



429,264



1,042,175



847,497

Other finance and interest income 8,494



5,205



15,631



9,030

Total finance and other interest income 1,702,927



1,666,721



3,328,479



3,297,965

Interest expense 273,953



233,371



514,981



460,460

Leased vehicle expense 360,335



298,224



719,018



588,395

Net finance and other interest income 1,068,639



1,135,126



2,094,480



2,249,110

Provision for credit losses 352,575



520,555



811,570



1,155,568

Net finance and other interest income after provision for credit losses 716,064



614,571



1,282,910



1,093,542

Profit sharing 12,853



8,443



17,230



16,388

Net finance and other interest income after provision for credit losses and profit sharing 703,211



606,128



1,265,680



1,077,154

Investment losses, net (82,634)



(99,522)



(169,154)



(175,921)

Servicing fee income 27,538



31,953



53,720



63,637

Fees, commissions, and other 77,480



91,964



162,871



192,159

Total other income 22,384



24,395



47,437



79,875

Compensation expense 118,598



127,894



240,603



264,156

Repossession expense 63,660



67,269



135,741



138,568

Other operating costs 94,692



87,252



188,518



184,769

Total operating expenses 276,950



282,415



564,862



587,493

Income before income taxes 448,645



348,108



748,255



569,536

Income tax expense 114,004



83,433



171,315



161,434

Net income $ 334,641



$ 264,675



$ 576,940



$ 408,102

















Net income per common share (basic) $ 0.93



$ 0.74



$ 1.60



$ 1.14

Net income per common share (diluted) $ 0.92



$ 0.74



$ 1.59



$ 1.13

Dividend paid per common share $ 0.05



$ 



$ 0.10



$ 

Weighted average common shares (basic) 361,268,112



359,461,407



360,987,233



359,284,213

Weighted average common shares (diluted) 362,057,614



359,828,690



361,829,283



359,928,003



Table 3: Other Financial Information





Three Months Ended June 30, Six Months Ended June 30,



2018

2017 2018

2017 Ratios (Unaudited, Dollars in thousands)

Yield on individually acquired retail installment contracts 15.5 %

16.1 % 15.4 %

15.8 %



Yield on purchased receivables portfolios 24.1 %

20.4 % 25.9 %

20.3 %



Yield on receivables from dealers 3.4 %

5.6 % 3.2 %

5.4 %



Yield on personal loans (1) 24.6 %

25.3 % 24.5 %

25.0 %



Yield on earning assets (2) 13.0 %

13.7 % 12.9 %

13.5 %



Cost of debt (3) 3.4 %

3.0 % 3.3 %

2.9 %



Net interest margin (4) 10.4 %

11.3 % 10.3 %

11.2 %



Expense ratio (5) 2.2 %

2.2 % 2.3 %

2.3 %



Return on average assets (6) 3.3 %

2.7 % 2.9 %

2.1 %



Return on average equity (7) 19.4 %

19.1 % 17.1 %

15.0 %



Net charge-off ratio on individually acquired retail installment contracts (8) 6.0 %

7.5 % 7.1 %

8.2 %



Net charge-off ratio on purchased receivables portfolios (8) (6.1) %

0.8 % (5.1) %

0.7 %



Net charge-off ratio on personal loans (8) 45.2 %

39.0 % 47.7 %

61.3 %



Net charge-off ratio (8) 6.0 %

7.5 % 7.1 %

8.2 %



Delinquency ratio on individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment, end of period (9) 4.2 %

5.2 % 4.2 %

5.2 %



Delinquency ratio on personal loans, end of period (9) 12.0 %

12.7 % 12.0 %

12.7 %



Delinquency ratio on loans held for investment, end of period (9) 4.2 %

5.2 % 4.2 %

5.2 %



Allowance ratio (10) 11.5 %

12.6 % 11.5 %

12.6 %



Common stock dividend payout ratio (11) 5.4 %



6.3 %







Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio (12) 16.7 %

14.3 % 16.7 %

14.3 %

Other Financial Information













Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on individually acquired retail installment contracts $ 398,658



$ 512,621

$ 936,450



$ 1,111,554





Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on purchased receivables portfolios (565)



419

(993)



772





Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on personal loans 515



1,321

1,264



4,779





Charge-offs, net of recoveries, on capital leases 406



1,278

712



2,592





Total charge-offs, net of recoveries $ 399,014



$ 515,639

$ 937,433



$ 1,119,697





End of period delinquent principal over 59 days, individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 1,149,429



1,412,377

1,149,429



1,412,377





End of period delinquent principal over 59 days, personal loans 164,458



177,615

164,458



177,615





End of period delinquent principal over 59 days, loans held for investment 1,151,410



1,417,461

1,151,410



1,417,461





End of period assets covered by allowance for credit losses 27,412,597



27,342,511

27,412,597



27,342,511





End of period gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 27,373,181



27,240,542

27,373,181



27,240,542





End of period gross personal loans 1,370,888



1,400,369

1,370,888



1,400,369





End of period gross finance receivables and loans held for investment 27,427,980



27,512,362

27,427,980



27,512,362





End of period gross finance receivables, loans, and leases held for investment 40,283,898



37,916,523

40,283,898



37,916,523





Average gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment 26,633,832



27,168,965

26,280,006



27,136,965





Average gross personal loans held for investment 4,562



13,566

5,304



15,587





Average gross individually acquired retail installment contracts held for investment and held for sale $ 27,534,479



$ 28,202,716

$ 27,221,983



$ 28,235,651





Average gross purchased receivables portfolios 37,284



202,097

39,257



211,494





Average gross receivables from dealers 15,361



68,810

15,507



69,361





Average gross personal loans 1,375,877



1,402,416

1,421,861



1,450,002





Average gross capital leases 20,937



25,752

21,699



28,235





Average gross finance receivables and loans $ 28,983,938



$ 29,901,791

$ 28,720,307



$ 29,994,743





Average gross operating leases 12,219,612



10,191,380

11,856,109



10,016,322





Average gross finance receivables, loans, and leases 41,203,550



40,093,171

40,576,416



40,011,065





Average managed assets 50,306,666



50,435,958

49,494,154



50,844,426





Average total assets 40,901,810



39,216,971

40,334,031



39,063,816





Average debt 31,898,900



31,519,486

31,589,063



31,545,144





Average total equity 6,891,934



5,540,371

6,737,055



5,434,973









(1) Includes Finance and other interest income; excludes fees (2) "Yield on earning assets" is defined as the ratio of annualized Total finance and other interest income, net of Leased vehicle expense, to Average gross finance receivables, loans and leases (3) "Cost of debt" is defined as the ratio of annualized Interest expense to Average debt (4) "Net interest margin" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net finance and other interest income to Average gross finance receivables, loans and leases (5) "Expense ratio" is defined as the ratio of annualized Operating expenses to Average managed assets (6) "Return on average assets" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net income to Average total assets (7) "Return on average equity" is defined as the ratio of annualized Net income to Average total equity (8) "Net charge-off ratio" is defined as the ratio of annualized Charge-offs, on a recorded investment basis, net of recoveries, to average unpaid principal balance of the respective held-for-investment portfolio. Effective as of September 30, 2016, the Company records the charge-off activity for certain personal loans within the provision for credit losses due to the reclassification of these loans from held for sale to held for investment. (9) "Delinquency ratio" is defined as the ratio of End of period Delinquent principal over 59 days to End of period gross balance of the respective portfolio, excludes capital leases (10) "Allowance ratio" is defined as the ratio of Allowance for credit losses, which excludes impairment on purchased receivables portfolios, to End of period assets covered by allowance for credit losses (11) "Common stock dividend payout ratio" is defined as the ratio of Dividends declared per share of common stock to Earnings per share attributable to the Company's shareholders. (12) "Common Equity Tier 1 Capital ratio" is a non-GAAP ratio defined as the ratio of Total common equity tier 1 capital to Total risk-weighted assets (for a reconciliation from GAAP to this non-GAAP measure, see "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures" in Table 8 of this release)

Table 4: Credit Quality

The activity in the credit loss allowance for individually acquired retail installment contracts for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017 was as follows (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):



Three Months Ended June 30, 2018

Three Months Ended June 30, 2017



Retail Installment Contracts Acquired Individually

Retail Installment Contracts Acquired Individually

Allowance for Credit Loss Non-TDR

TDR

Non-TDR

TDR





Balance  beginning of period $ 1,586,557



$ 1,595,465



$ 1,836,730



$ 1,604,489



Provision for credit losses 242,286



112,144



172,990



345,380



Charge-offs (584,296)



(427,079)



(654,613)



(457,102)



Recoveries 396,667



216,050



405,702



193,392



Balance  end of period $ 1,641,214



$ 1,496,580



$ 1,760,809



$ 1,686,159















Six Months Ended June 30, 2018

Six Months Ended June 30, 2017



Retail Installment Contracts Acquired Individually

Retail Installment Contracts Acquired Individually

Allowance for Credit Loss Non-TDR

TDR

Non-TDR

TDR





Balance  beginning of period $ 1,529,815



$ 1,731,320



$ 1,799,760



$ 1,611,295



Provision for credit losses 553,007



260,102



515,082



632,385



Charge-offs (1,263,735)



(946,661)



(1,388,767)



(947,645)



Recoveries 822,127



451,819



834,734



390,124



Balance  end of period $ 1,641,214



$ 1,496,580



$ 1,760,809



$ 1,686,159





A summary of delinquencies of our individually acquired retail installment contracts as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 is as follows (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):

Delinquent Principal June 30, 20181

December 31, 20171 Principal 30-59 days past due $ 2,532,058



9.3 %

$ 2,822,686



10.9 % Delinquent principal over 59 days2 1,149,429



4.2 %

1,541,728



5.9 % Total delinquent contracts $ 3,681,487



13.5 %

$ 4,364,414



16.9 %

Within the total delinquent principal above, retail installment contracts acquired individually held for investment that were placed on nonaccrual status, as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):

Nonaccrual Principal June 30, 20181

December 31, 20172 Non-TDR $ 505,399



1.8 %

$ 666,926



2.6 % TDR 1,554,860



5.7 %

1,390,373



5.4 % Total nonaccrual principal $ 2,060,259



7.5 %

$ 2,057,299



7.9 %

The table below presents the Company's allowance ratio for TDR and non-TDR individually acquired retail installment contracts as of June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017 (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands):

Allowance Ratios June 30, 2018

December 31, 2017 TDR - Unpaid principal balance $ 5,958,564



$ 6,261,894

TDR - Impairment 1,496,580



1,731,320

TDR - Allowance ratio 25.1 %

27.6 %







Non-TDR - Unpaid principal balance $ 21,414,617



$ 19,681,394

Non-TDR - Allowance 1,641,214



1,529,815

Non-TDR Allowance ratio 7.7 %

7.8 %







Total - Unpaid principal balance $ 27,373,181



$ 25,943,288

Total - Allowance 3,137,794



3,261,135

Total - Allowance ratio 11.5 %

12.6 %



1Percent of unpaid principal balance. 2Interest is accrued until 60 days past due in accordance with the Company's account policy for retail installment contracts.

Table 5: Originations

The Company's originations of individually acquired loans and leases, including revolving loans, average APR, and discount were as follows:



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

Three Months Ended

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

March 31, 2018 Retained Originations (Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 4,630,704



$ 3,750,752



$ 8,014,110



$ 6,669,307



$ 3,866,494

Average APR 16.8 %

15.6 %

17.0 %

16.7 %

16.1 % Average FICO (a) 602



612



599



598



611

Discount 0.004 %

0.3 %

0.2 %

0.4 %

0.3 %



















Personal loans (b) 340,088



351,068



613,416



638,764



273,328

Average APR 27.1 %

25.7 %

28.3 %

25.7 %

26.0 %



















Leased vehicles 2,632,052



1,426,957



4,725,657



3,027,616



2,093,604





















Capital lease 2,058



1,001



4,456



$ 2,178



$ 2,398

Total originations retained $ 7,604,902



$ 5,529,778



$ 13,357,639



$ 10,337,865



$ 6,235,824





















Sold Originations (c)

















Retail installment contracts $ 683,935



$ 304,748



$ 1,553,979



$ 1,172,771



$ 386,956

Average APR 7.6 %

6.6 %

7.3 %

6.2 %

6.8 % Average FICO (d) 726



725



726



727



732

Total originations sold $ 683,935



$ 304,748



$ 1,553,979



$ 1,172,771



$ 386,956





















Total originations $ 8,288,837



$ 5,834,526



$ 14,911,618



$ 11,510,636



$ 6,622,780







(a) Unpaid principal balance excluded from the weighted average FICO score is $594 million, $503 million, $1 billion, $1.0 billion, and $461 million for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended March 31, 2018, respectively, as the borrowers on these loans did not have FICO scores at origination. Of these amounts, $44 million, $49 million, $77 million, $77 million, and $54 million, respectively, were commercial loans. (b) Effective as of three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company revised its approach to define origination volumes for Personal Loans to include new originations, gross of paydowns and charge-offs, related to customers who took additional advances on existing accounts (including capitalized late fees, interest and other charges), and newly opened accounts. In the prior periods, the Company reported net balance increases on personal loans as origination volume. Included in the total origination volume is $58 million , $48 million, $84 million, $71 million, and $17 million for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended March 31, 2018, respectively, related to newly opened accounts. (c) Only includes assets both originated and sold in the period. Total asset sales for the period are shown in Table 6. (d) Unpaid principal balance excluded from the weighted average FICO score is $54 million, $39 million, $121 million, $156 million, and $32 million for the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, and the three months ended March 31, 2018, respectively, as the borrowers on these loans did not have FICO scores at origination. Of these amounts, $26 million, $14 million, $67 million, $58 million, and $20 million, respectively, were commercial loans.

SBNA Originations Program

Beginning in 2018, the Company agreed to provide SBNA with origination support services in connection with the processing, underwriting and purchase of retail loans, primarily from Chrysler dealers. In addition, the Company agreed to perform the servicing for any loans originated on SBNA's behalf. During the three and six months ended June 30, 2018, the Company facilitated the purchase of $29 million and $53 million of retail installment contacts, respectively.

Table 6: Asset Sales

Asset sales may include assets originated in prior periods.



Three Months Ended

Six Months Ended

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 1,156,060



$ 566,309



$ 2,631,313



$ 1,496,899

Average APR 7.5 %

6.6 %

7.0 %

6.2 % Average FICO 724



725



726



726

















Total asset sales $ 1,156,060



$ 566,309



$ 2,631,313



$ 1,496,899



Table 7: Ending Portfolio

Ending outstanding balance, average APR and remaining unaccreted dealer discount of our held for investment portfolio as of June 30, 2018, and December 31, 2017, are as follows:



June 30, 2018

December 31, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Retail installment contracts $ 27,408,764



$ 25,986,532

Average APR 16.6 %

16.5 % Discount 1.0 %

1.5 %







Personal loans $ 4,016



$ 6,887

Average APR 31.8 %

31.8 %







Receivables from dealers $ 15,200



$ 15,787

Average APR 4.2 %

4.2 %







Leased vehicles $ 12,835,718



$ 11,175,602









Capital leases $ 20,200



$ 22,857



Table 8: Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures



June 30, 2018

June 30, 2017

(Unaudited, Dollar amounts in thousands) Total equity $ 7,045,734



$ 5,678,733

Deduct: Goodwill, intangibles, and other assets, net of deferred tax liabilities 166,241



177,619

Deduct: Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss), net 62,449



27,860

Tier 1 common capital $ 6,817,044



$ 5,473,254

Risk weighted assets (a) $ 40,744,526



$ 38,368,928

Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio (b) 16.7 %

14.3 %





(a) Under the banking agencies' risk-based capital guidelines, assets and credit equivalent amounts of derivatives and off-balance sheet exposures are assigned to broad risk categories. The aggregate dollar amount in each risk category is multiplied by the associated risk weight of the category. The resulting weighted values are added together with the measure for market risk, resulting in the Company's total Risk weighted assets. (b) CET1 is calculated under Basel III regulations required as of January 1, 2015. The fully phased-in capital ratios are non-GAAP financial measures.

Contacts: Investor Relations Media Relations Evan Black Laurie Kight 800.493.8219 214.801.6455 [email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.

Related Links

http://www.santanderconsumerusa.com

LOS ANGELES, PUNE, India and TOKYO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The Slip Additives industry was 200.0 million USD in 2017 and is projected to reach 270.1 million USD by 2023, at a CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) of 4.9% between 2017 and 2023. The market is driven by various end-user industries, such as Packaging, and Non-Packaging.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/719476/QY_Research_Logo.jpg )

The industry is less concentration, the key brand include Fine Organics (India), Croda (UK), PMC Biogenix (US), Lubrizol (US), Afton (US), BASF (Germany), Emery Oleochemicals (Malaysia), Honeywell (US), Evonik (Germany), BYK Additives (Germany), and Lonza (Switzerland), and packaging industries, such as Amcor Limited (Australia), Constantia Flexibles Group (Austria), Sealed Air Corporation (US), and Bemis Company, Inc (US).

The leading companies own the advantages on better performance, more abundant product's types, better technical and impeccable after-sales service. Consequently, they take the majority of the market share of high-end market. Looking to the future years, the slow upward price trend in recent years will maintain. As competition intensifies, prices gap between different brands will go narrowing. Similarly, there will be fluctuation in gross margin.

The Slip Additives Market is expected to remain innovation-led, with frequent acquisitions and strategic alliances adopted as the key strategies by the players to increase their industry presence. Market stays in mature period with a clear concentration. Meanwhile, optimize product mix and further develop value-added capabilities to maximize margins.

Based on application, the slip additives market has been classified into packaging and non-packaging. The packaging segment has been further classified into food & beverage, consumer goods, healthcare, and others (industrial and agricultural). The food & beverage sub segment of the slip additives market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2018 and 2023, in terms of value.

Request Sample Report or Customized Sample Report as per your [email protected] https://www.qyresearch.com/sample-form/form/600114/global-slip-additives-sales-market

On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, and market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into

Fatty Amides

Waxes & Polysiloxanes

Others

Slip Additives Market, by Carrier Resin,

LDPE

LLDPE

HDPE

PP

Others (PET, EVA, Polystyrene, and Acrylics)

The Global Slip Additives Market Research Report 2018 report released by QYResearch provides a basic overview of the Slip Additives industry, including definition, classification, application and industrial chain structure. Discuss development policies and plans as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures.

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The report then focuses on major industry players in Global, including company profiles, product images and specifications, sales, market share, and contact information. More importantly, the Slip Additives industry development trends and marketing channels were analyzed. Providing the main statistical data on the current status of the industry is a valuable guide and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.

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SOURCE QY ResearchAUSTIN, Texas and BRISTOL, England, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Brightpearl, the world's largest purpose-built retail ERP platform, today announces a $15 million growth round and the appointment of a new Chairman to help drive further expansion.

More than 1,000 brands rely on Brightpearl to transact more than $1.8bn of trade across 26 countries. The company has seen a 77% increase in year-on-year new business growth and delivered 34% revenue growth in the last 12 months alone. Brightpearl was recently voted the top SaaS company to work for in Britain, beating companies such as Microsoft, Adobe and LinkedIn.

The latest growth round for the ambitious tech firm was led by Cipio Partners, who will join existing investors MMC Ventures and Notion Capital.

"Our mission is to enable intelligent retail," says Brightpearl CEO, Derek O'Carroll. "We've experienced tremendous growth over the last year because of our ability to service the need from fast-growing brands for a solution that automates their operational processes and supports real-time decision making, which is absolutely vital in today's culture of immediacy for retailers and wholesalers.

"It's a real credit to the Brightpearl team and the support of our customers that we have secured investment from a leading European technology investment firm. We plan to invest these funds into expanding our service and introducing machine learning capabilities to give our customers even more value when making business decisions."

Speaking on the growth round, Roland Dennert, a Managing Partner at Cipio Partners, adds: "A big reason why Brightpearl's retail ERP platform is catching on fast is that it provides multichannel retailers with a step-change improvement in ERP implementation time while being on feature parity or better for the targeted market than much more complex ERP solutions."

Russell Klein, chief development officer at BigCommerce, commenting on the growth capital, says: "What initially drew us to partner with Brightpearl is the same thing that continues to make them a valued BigCommerce partner today - a steadfast commitment to simplifying the merchant's back-office experience. This new investment, combined with their customer-first mentality, will only strengthen the company's ability to service BigCommerce merchants with a best-in-breed ERP solution."

With a view to scaling the business internationally, Brightpearl has also appointed Maurice Helfgott as Chairman, the former Marks & Spencer main board director, who has built a reputation for transforming the fortunes of fashion businesses, especially online. He is the founder of Amery Capital, an investment and advisory firm with a principal focus on retail and digital consumer businesses.

As well as supporting Amery's portfolio of companies including Oliver Sweeney, Goat, and Long Tall Sally, Helfgott is the Senior Independent Director of Moss Bros Group and NED at luxury street style brand END.Clothing. With 30 years of retail operations and industry expertise, Helfgott now makes the unique move to the technology sector by joining Brightpearl, with a focus on product innovation, building consumer and brand loyalty for its clients, and strategic operational growth.

Speaking on his appointment as Chairman, Helfgott said, "After years of intensive high-quality tech development, Brightpearl have produced an excellent and capable platform, growing rapidly under impressive leadership. The next step is introducing real-time machine learning data into the platform, so our customers are able to make more informed decisions -- that's hugely valuable in the current retail climate.

"Retail and wholesale are in a stage of transformation and reinvention and there is a huge opportunity in this sector. I know from experience that automating the back office to work efficiently is now a major priority for merchants. Brightpearl has purpose built an ERP solution that's designed specifically for retailers and wholesalers to take back control of their business and generate significant operational gains.

"I've always taken good note of the maxim 'armchair generals study strategy, professionals study logistics.' Product and marketing capability are vital to building a successful brand but efficient and effective back office capabilities are essential to building and scaling a successful business. Quality back office and ERP solutions are indispensable, especially in an increasingly fast, digital, complex operating environment. I'm really looking forward to working with Brightpearl's customers, its stakeholders, Board, and management team as we continue to develop and deploy our proven platform and accelerate Brightpearl's international expansion, particularly in the US."

Speaking on the appointment of Helfgott, O'Carroll adds: "We're delighted to have Maurice join us. Brightpearl will benefit from his broad strategic and operational experience across large and smaller retail brands with international pedigree. This will prove vital as we accelerate our growth efforts and his wealth of retail experience means that we'll be able to get even closer to our customers as we continue to develop our dedicated retail ERP platform to serve the operational needs of retailers and wholesalers."

About Brightpearl

Brightpearl is a cloud-based ERP for retailers and wholesalers. Our mission is to enable intelligent retail by automating the back office so merchants can spend their time growing the business.

Brightpearl's complete back-office solution includes financial management, inventory and sales order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehouse and logistics. In addition, the solution has high-performing connectors to the major ecommerce platforms, including Magento, BigCommerce and Shopify.

Brightpearl is designed for retailers and wholesalers and enables omnichannel merchants to manage the heart of their business easily from one single system. Our team guides merchants through a highly efficient implementation process which typically gets them up and running in less than 60 days.

For more information, visit http://www.brightpearl.com . Connect with Brightpearl on Twitter (@BrightpearlHQ), LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/Brightpearl), and Facebook (facebook.com/brightpearl).

SOURCE BrightpearlNEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Polyphenylene Oxide (PPO) Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application (Electronic Components, Fluid Handling, Air Separation Membranes, Medical Instruments, Automotive), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05479667



The global polyphenylene oxide (PPO) market size is projected to reach USD 2.27 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 5.3% during the forecast period. Rising demand from end-user industries such as automotive and electronics & electrical.



Globally, surging demand for electronic products such as outlet boxes, smoke detectors, and lighting is poised to boost the growth of the PPO market.Improving living standards coupled with increasing per capita disposable income is estimated to positively impact the market over the forecast years.



Burgeoning automotive manufacturing in Latin America and Asia Pacific is expected to stimulate the growth of the market.



Rising consumer awareness regarding new technologies in emerging economies is anticipated to fuel the demand for advanced electronic components. Increasing trade of electronic devices among countries is anticipated to unfold immense growth opportunities for market players.



Electronic components emerged as the leading application segment in the polyphenylene oxide market. Major products where electronic components are used are relay housings, pump housing/impellers, connectors, bobbins, circuit breakers, motor brush cards, coil encapsulation, fans and blowers, heat exchangers, thermostat housings, and large and small appliances.



Increasing PPO application in the electrical and electronics industry such as TV output transformer, air conditioning control boxes, deflection yoke and bobbins are slated to stoke the growth of the market. Asia Pacific is the leading regional market, with a global volume share estimated at over 50.0% in 2017. Favorable economic policies coupled with entry of global plastic manufacturers are supporting the growth of the market in Asia Pacific.



A well-established electrical & electronics manufacturing base in China, Taiwan, and South Korea coupled with a strong chemical manufacturing base in India is likely to trigger the adoption of polyphenylene oxide. China being the major market has witnessed tremendous growth in end-use industries.



Further key findings from the report suggest:

 In terms of revenue, the automotive application is expected to rise at a CAGR of 4.1% from 2018 to 2025 owing to growing automotive production in emerging economies

 The U.S. polyphenylene oxide market is anticipated to exceed 85 kilo tons by 2025, owing to presence of a large number of automotive companies and rapidly increasing shale gas operations

 The PPO market is moderately concentrated owing to presence of both large as well as small players

 Some of the key companies present in the market are BASF, SABIC, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp., Sumitomo Chemicals, Momentive Performance Materials, LyondellBasell, Polyplastics Co. Ltd., Asahi Kasei Chemicals Corp., and Solvay SA.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05479667



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NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Momentum Group, the leading WeChat solutions provider globally, has announced the newest release of its WeChatify Official Account Manager and WeChatify Mini Program Manager on Tencent Cloud. WeChat management modules include:

WeChat marketing

WeChat community

WeChat commerce

WeChat contacts

WeChat service

WeChat analytics

WeChatify is a cloud platform that enables brands to deliver marketing, sales, and service solutions on WeChat. The WeChatify platform is already powering WeChat strategies for globally recognized brands such as Cirque du Soleil, Destination DC, Visit Seattle, Shiseido, MCM, Education First and Saks 5th Avenue.

"Part of Cirque du Soleil's objectives for global expansion is to establish a strong and long-term presence in China in order to share our creativity with as many people as possible. We have a 360 marketing plan to achieve our goal, including setting up a deep online presence, building community, and engaging with fans on WeChat. WeChatify definitely represents a great opportunity for us to connect with the international markets and Chinese population and build awareness for the brand," says Katie Forte, Director Global Strategy, Social Media & Content at Cirque du Soleil.

"Adding The Momentum Group to produce our WeChat Mini Program helped Visit Seattle meet our Chinese consumers and visitors on the most important platform to the market. Visit Seattle is excited to work with The Momentum Group," says Marcus Carney, Tourism Manager at Visit Seattle.

"With WeChatify, global brands now have a social CRM & marketing automation platform for WeChat rolled into one, allowing brands to manage a 360 view of their customer on WeChat. By offering our services through Tencent Cloud we can now ensure that all aspects of the customer engagement will scale based on our client's needs," says Jeff Fish, Co-Founder of The Momentum Group.

About The Momentum Group: The Momentum Group is a WeChat technology and service provider focused on enterprise level integrations and strategies.

WeChatify is the WeChat management platform created by The Momentum Group and is used by some of the top brands in retail, hospitality and tourism like Saks 5th Avenue, Shiseido, MCM, Cirque du Soleil, Tanger Outlets, Herbalife, THE MET, and many more. The Momentum Group is headquartered in New York City and has branches in Guangzhou, Shanghai and India.

Jeff Fish

The Momentum Group

+1 646 503 1171

[email protected]

SOURCE The Momentum Group

Related Links

http://www.tmgworldwide.com

WALTHAM, Mass., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO), the world leader in serving science, today reported its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2018.

Second Quarter 2018 Highlights

Grew revenue 22% to $6.08 billion .

. Increased GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) 19% to $1.85 .

. Increased adjusted EPS 20% to $2.75 .

. Launched suite of new mass spectrometry systems for life sciences and applied markets  highlighted by the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive UHMR for protein research  as well as new products for clinical research and diagnostics, including the Ion Torrent Oncomine Childhood Cancer Research Assay and the Thermo Scientific B.R.A.H.M.S. Kryptor Gold immunoassay analyzer in Europe .

. Opened new Precision Medicine Science Center in the U.S., giving customers greater access to the range of technologies and expertise we offer to help them accelerate development of individualized patient treatments.

Announced agreement to acquire Gatan Inc., a leading provider of instrumentation and software to enhance the performance of electron microscopy systems.

Adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income, adjusted operating margin and free cash flow are non-GAAP measures that exclude certain items detailed later in this press release under the heading "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

"We're pleased to deliver another excellent quarter, which reflects the strength of our global competitive position," said Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Conditions across our end markets globally were strong and our team executed well to capture the opportunities for growth.

"Among the highlights during the quarter, we launched a comprehensive line-up of new products to help our customers meet their goals in life science research, applied markets and clinical settings. We continued to effectively leverage our scale to deliver strong growth in Asia-Pacific and emerging markets, including China. We also announced our agreement to acquire Gatan, which is a great fit with our electron microscopy business and will strengthen our customer offering."

Casper added, "Our excellent first half of the year positions us to achieve a very successful 2018."

Second Quarter 2018

Revenue for the quarter grew 22% to $6.08 billion in 2018, versus $4.99 billion in 2017. Organic revenue growth was 8%; acquisitions increased revenue by 12% and currency translation increased revenue by 2%.

GAAP Earnings Results

GAAP diluted EPS in the second quarter increased 19% to $1.85, versus $1.56 in the same quarter last year. GAAP operating income for the second quarter of 2018 grew to $0.94 billion, compared with $0.75 billion in the second quarter of 2017. GAAP operating margin increased to 15.4%, compared with 15.0% in the second quarter of 2017.

Non-GAAP Earnings Results

Adjusted EPS in the second quarter of 2018 increased 20% to $2.75, versus $2.30 in the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted operating income for the second quarter of 2018 grew 21% compared with the year-ago quarter. Adjusted operating margin was 23.1%, compared with 23.2% in the second quarter of 2017.

2018 Guidance Update

Thermo Fisher is raising its 2018 revenue and earnings guidance to reflect strong operational performance, partially offset by less favorable foreign exchange. The company is raising its revenue guidance to a new range of $23.68 to $23.86 billion versus its previous guidance of $23.62 to $23.86 billion. This would result in 13 to 14% revenue growth over 2017. The company is raising its adjusted EPS guidance to a new range of $10.89 to $11.01, versus its previous guidance of $10.80 to $10.96, for 15 to 16% growth year over year.

Segment Results

Management uses adjusted operating results to monitor and evaluate performance of the company's four business segments, as highlighted below. Since these results are used for this purpose, they are also considered to be prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Life Sciences Solutions Segment

In the second quarter of 2018, Life Sciences Solutions Segment revenue grew 12% to $1.57 billion, compared with revenue of $1.40 billion in the second quarter of 2017. Segment adjusted operating margin increased to 33.3%, versus 31.9% in the 2017 quarter.

Analytical Instruments Segment

Analytical Instruments Segment revenue grew 13% to $1.31 billion in the second quarter of 2018, compared with revenue of $1.17 billion in the second quarter of 2017. Segment adjusted operating margin increased to 22.2%, versus 19.9% in the 2017 quarter.

Specialty Diagnostics Segment

Specialty Diagnostics Segment revenue grew 8% to $0.93 billion in the second quarter of 2018, compared with revenue of $0.86 billion in the second quarter of 2017. Segment adjusted operating margin was 27.2% in both periods.

Laboratory Products and Services Segment

Laboratory Products and Services Segment results reflect the acquisition of Patheon in late August 2017. In the second quarter of 2018, segment revenue grew 42% to $2.55 billion, compared with revenue of $1.79 billion in the second quarter of 2017. Segment adjusted operating margin was 13.2%, versus 13.7% in the 2017 quarter.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EPS, adjusted operating income and adjusted operating margin, which exclude certain acquisition-related costs, including charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and significant transaction costs; restructuring and other costs/income; and amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. Adjusted EPS also excludes certain other gains and losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability, tax provisions/benefits related to the previous items, the impact of significant tax audits or events and the results of discontinued operations. We exclude the above items because they are outside of our normal operations and/or, in certain cases, are difficult to forecast accurately for future periods. We also use a non-GAAP measure, free cash flow, which is operating cash flow from continuing operations, less net capital expenditures, to provide a view of the continuing operations' ability to generate cash for use in acquisitions and other investing and financing activities. We believe that the use of non-GAAP measures helps investors to gain a better understanding of our core operating results and future prospects, consistent with how management measures and forecasts the company's performance, especially when comparing such results to previous periods or forecasts.

For example:

We exclude costs and tax effects associated with restructuring activities, such as reducing overhead and consolidating facilities. We believe that the costs related to these restructuring activities are not indicative of our normal operating costs.

We exclude certain acquisition-related costs, including charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition and significant transaction costs. We exclude these costs because we do not believe they are indicative of our normal operating costs.

We exclude the expense and tax effects associated with the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets because a significant portion of the purchase price for acquisitions may be allocated to intangible assets that have lives of 3 to 20 years. In 2018, based on acquisitions closed through the end of the second quarter of 2018, our adjusted EPS will exclude approximately $3.35 of expense for the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets. Exclusion of the amortization expense allows comparisons of operating results that are consistent over time for both our newly acquired and long-held businesses and with both acquisitive and non-acquisitive peer companies.

We also exclude certain gains/losses and related tax effects, the impact of significant tax audits or events (such as changes in deferred taxes from enacted tax rate changes or the estimated initial impacts of U.S. tax reform legislation), which are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability and that we believe are not indicative of our normal operating gains and losses. For example, we exclude gains/losses from items such as the sale of a business or real estate, gains or losses on significant litigation-related matters, gains on curtailments of pension plans, the early retirement of debt and discontinued operations.

We also report free cash flow, which is operating cash flow from continuing operations, less net capital expenditures, to provide a view of the continuing operations' ability to generate cash for use in acquisitions and other investing and financing activities.

Thermo Fisher's management uses these non-GAAP measures, in addition to GAAP financial measures, as the basis for measuring the company's core operating performance and comparing such performance to that of prior periods and to the performance of our competitors. Such measures are also used by management in their financial and operating decision-making and for compensation purposes.

The non-GAAP financial measures of Thermo Fisher's results of operations and cash flows included in this press release are not meant to be considered superior to or a substitute for Thermo Fisher's results of operations prepared in accordance with GAAP. Reconciliations of such non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are set forth in the accompanying tables. Thermo Fisher does not provide GAAP financial measures on a forward-looking basis because we are unable to predict with reasonable certainty and without unreasonable effort items such as the timing and amount of future restructuring actions and acquisition-related charges as well as gains or losses from sales of real estate and businesses, the early retirement of debt and the outcome of legal proceedings. The timing and amount of these items are uncertain and could be material to Thermo Fisher's results computed in accordance with GAAP.

Conference Call

Thermo Fisher Scientific will hold its earnings conference call today, July 25, 2018, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. To listen, dial (844) 579-6824 within the U.S. or (763) 488-9145 outside the U.S. You may also listen to the call live on our website, www.thermofisher.com, by clicking on "Investors." You will find this press release, including the accompanying reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures and related information, in that section of our website under "Financial Results." An audio archive of the call will be available under "Webcasts and Presentations" through Friday, August 10, 2018.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE: TMO) is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $20 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics, deliver medicines to market and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands  Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services  we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

The following constitutes a "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties relating to: the need to develop new products and adapt to significant technological change; implementation of strategies for improving growth; general economic conditions and related uncertainties; dependence on customers' capital spending policies and government funding policies; the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on international operations; use and protection of intellectual property; the effect of changes in governmental regulations; and the effect of laws and regulations governing government contracts, as well as the possibility that expected benefits related to recent or pending acquisitions may not materialize as expected. Additional important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are set forth in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, which is on file with the SEC and available in the "Investors" section of our website under the heading "SEC Filings." While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if estimates change and, therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today.

Media Contact Information:

Karen Kirkwood

Phone: 781-622-1306

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.thermofisher.com

or

Investor Contact Information:

Ken Apicerno

Phone: 781-622-1294

E-mail: [email protected]

Consolidated Statement of Income (unaudited) (a)(b)



















Three Months Ended



June 30,

% of

July 1,

% of (In millions except per share amounts)

2018

Revenues

2017

Revenues

















Revenues

$ 6,078







$ 4,990





Costs and Operating Expenses:















Cost of revenues (c)

3,211



52.8 %

2,578



51.7 % Selling, general and administrative expenses (d)

1,230



20.2 %

1,039



20.8 % Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

441



7.3 %

380



7.6 % Research and development expenses

242



4.0 %

222



4.4 % Restructuring and other costs, net (e)

17



0.3 %

22



0.5 %



5,141



84.6 %

4,241



85.0 % Operating Income

937



15.4 %

749



15.0 % Interest Income

31







18





Interest Expense

(170)







(134)





Other Income (Expense), Net (f)

8







(7)





Income Before Income Taxes

806







626





Provision for Income Taxes (g)

(54)







(13)





Income from Continuing Operations

752







613





Loss from Discontinued Operations









(1)





Net Income

$ 752



12.4 %

$ 612



12.3 %

















Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations:















Basic

$ 1.87







$ 1.57





Diluted

$ 1.85







$ 1.56





Earnings per Share:















Basic

$ 1.87







$ 1.57





Diluted

$ 1.85







$ 1.56





Weighted Average Shares:















Basic

403







390





Diluted

406







393









































Reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Operating Margin















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 937



15.4 %

$ 749



15.0 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

5



0.1 %

1



0.0 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

3



0.0 %

7



0.1 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

17



0.3 %

22



0.5 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

441



7.3 %

380



7.6 % Adjusted Operating Income (b)

$ 1,403



23.1 %

$ 1,159



23.2 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Income















GAAP Net Income (a)

$ 752







$ 612





Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

5







1





Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

3







7





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

17







22





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

441







380





Other (Income) Expense, Net (f)

1







3





Benefit from Income Taxes (g)

(103)







(123)





Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax









1





Adjusted Net Income (b)

$ 1,116







$ 903























Reconciliation of Adjusted Earnings per Share















GAAP EPS (a)

$ 1.85







$ 1.56





Cost of Revenues Charges, Net of Tax (c)

0.01













Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net of Tax (d)

0.01







0.01





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net of Tax (e)

0.03







0.04





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets, Net of Tax

0.83







0.68





Other (Income) Expense, Net of Tax (f)

0.01







0.01





Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes (g)

0.01













Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax















Adjusted EPS (b)

$ 2.75







$ 2.30























Reconciliation of Free Cash Flow















GAAP Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (a)

$ 1,444







$ 849





Net Cash Used in Discontinued Operations















Purchases of Property, Plant and Equipment

(183)







(88)





Proceeds from Sale of Property, Plant and Equipment

1







1





Free Cash Flow

$ 1,262







$ 762







Segment Data

Three Months Ended



June 30,

% of

July 1,

% of (In millions)

2018

Revenues

2017

Revenues

















Revenues















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 1,569



25.8 %

$ 1,405



28.2 % Analytical Instruments

1,311



21.6 %

1,166



23.4 % Specialty Diagnostics

932



15.3 %

862



17.3 % Laboratory Products and Services

2,550



42.0 %

1,792



35.9 % Eliminations

(284)



-4.7 %

(235)



-4.8 % Consolidated Revenues

$ 6,078



100.0 %

$ 4,990



100.0 %

















Operating Income and Operating Margin















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 522



33.3 %

$ 448



31.9 % Analytical Instruments

291



22.2 %

232



19.9 % Specialty Diagnostics

253



27.2 %

234



27.2 % Laboratory Products and Services

337



13.2 %

245



13.7 % Subtotal Reportable Segments

1,403



23.1 %

1,159



23.2 %

















Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

(5)



-0.1 %

(1)



0.0 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

(3)



0.0 %

(7)



-0.1 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

(17)



-0.3 %

(22)



-0.5 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

(441)



-7.3 %

(380)



-7.6 % GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 937



15.4 %

$ 749



15.0 %





































(a) "GAAP" (reported) results were determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The results for 2017 have been restated for the immaterial impacts of adopting new guidance on pension accounting.



(b) Adjusted results are non-GAAP measures and, for income measures, exclude certain charges to cost of revenues (see note (c) for details); certain credits/charges to selling, general and administrative expenses (see note (d) for details); amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets; restructuring and other costs, net (see note (e) for details); certain other gains or losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability (see note (f) for details); and the tax consequences of the preceding items and certain other tax items (see note (g) for details).



(c) Reported results in 2018 include $5 of charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition. Reported results in 2017 include $1 of accelerated depreciation on fixed assets to be abandoned due to facility consolidations.



(d) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include $4 and $6, respectively, of certain third-party expenses, principally transaction/integration costs related to recently completed acquisitions. Reported results in 2018 also include $1 of credits from changes in estimates of contingent acquisition consideration. Reported results in 2017 also included $1 of accelerated depreciation on fixed assets to be abandoned due to integration synergies.



(e) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include restructuring and other costs, net, consisting principally of severance, abandoned facility and other expenses of headcount reductions within several businesses and real estate consolidations. Reported results in 2018 include $1 of hurricane response costs. Reported results in 2017 include $2 of charges for the settlement of retirement plans.



(f) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include $2 and $1, respectively, of net gains on investments, offset in part by $1 and $1, respectively, of losses on the early extinguishment of debt. Reported results in 2018 also include $2 of net charges for the settlement/curtailment of pension plans. Reported results in 2017 also include a $3 charge related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the acquisition of Patheon.



(g) Reported provision for income taxes includes i) $109 and $124 of incremental tax benefit in 2018 and 2017, respectively, for the pre-tax reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income; ii) $6 in 2018, of incremental tax provision from adjusting the company's non-U.S. deferred tax balances as a result of tax rate changes; and iii) $1 in 2017, of incremental tax provision due to audit settlements.



Notes:

Consolidated depreciation expense is $130 and $97 in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Consolidated Statement of Income (unaudited) (a)(b)



















Six Months Ended



June 30,

% of

July 1,

% of (In millions except per share amounts)

2018

Revenues

2017

Revenues

















Revenues

$ 11,931







$ 9,755





Costs and Operating Expenses:















Cost of revenues (c)

6,355



53.3 %

5,024



51.5 % Selling, general and administrative expenses (d)

2,430



20.4 %

2,131



21.8 % Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets

885



7.4 %

748



7.7 % Research and development expenses

476



4.0 %

437



4.5 % Restructuring and other costs, net (e)

62



0.5 %

46



0.5 %



10,208



85.6 %

8,386



86.0 % Operating Income

1,723



14.4 %

1,369



14.0 % Interest Income

51







36





Interest Expense

(333)







(269)





Other Expense, Net (f)

(1)







(7)





Income Before Income Taxes

1,440







1,129





(Provision for) Benefit from Income Taxes (g)

(109)







35





Income from Continuing Operations

1,331







1,164





Loss from Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax









(1)





Net Income

$ 1,331



11.2 %

$ 1,163



11.9 %

















Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations:















Basic

$ 3.31







$ 2.98





Diluted

$ 3.28







$ 2.96





Earnings per Share:















Basic

$ 3.31







$ 2.98





Diluted

$ 3.28







$ 2.95





Weighted Average Shares:















Basic

402







390





Diluted

406







394









































Reconciliation of Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Operating Margin















GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 1,723



14.4 %

$ 1,369



14.0 % Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

8



0.1 %

32



0.3 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

11



0.1 %

38



0.4 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

62



0.5 %

46



0.5 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

885



7.4 %

748



7.7 % Adjusted Operating Income (b)

$ 2,689



22.5 %

$ 2,233



22.9 %

















Reconciliation of Adjusted Net Income















GAAP Net Income (a)

$ 1,331







$ 1,163





Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

8







32





Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

11







38





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

62







46





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

885







748





Other Expense, Net (f)

9













Benefit from Income Taxes (g)

(178)







(305)





Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax









1





Adjusted Net Income (b)

$ 2,128







$ 1,723























Reconciliation of Adjusted Earnings per Share















GAAP EPS (a)

$ 3.28







$ 2.95





Cost of Revenues Charges, Net of Tax (c)

0.01







0.05





Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net of Tax (d)

0.02







0.07





Restructuring and Other Costs, Net of Tax (e)

0.12







0.08





Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets, Net of Tax

1.72







1.38





Other Expense, Net of Tax (f)

0.02













Provision for (Benefit from) Income Taxes (g)

0.07







(0.15)





Discontinued Operations, Net of Tax















Adjusted EPS (b)

$ 5.24







$ 4.38























Reconciliation of Free Cash Flow















GAAP Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities (a)

$ 1,522







$ 1,210





Net Cash Used in Discontinued Operations









1





Purchases of Property, Plant and Equipment

(301)







(181)





Proceeds from Sale of Property, Plant and Equipment

3







2





Free Cash Flow

$ 1,224







$ 1,032







Segment Data

Six Months Ended



June 30,

% of

July 1,

% of (In millions)

2018

Revenues

2017

Revenues

















Revenues















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 3,068



25.7 %

$ 2,768



28.4 % Analytical Instruments

2,568



21.5 %

2,218



22.7 % Specialty Diagnostics

1,879



15.7 %

1,728



17.7 % Laboratory Products and Services

4,963



41.6 %

3,491



35.8 % Eliminations

(547)



-4.5 %

(450)



-4.6 % Consolidated Revenues

$ 11,931



100.0 %

$ 9,755



100.0 %

















Operating Income and Operating Margin















Life Sciences Solutions

$ 1,039



33.9 %

$ 881



31.8 % Analytical Instruments

537



20.9 %

424



19.1 % Specialty Diagnostics

496



26.4 %

467



27.0 % Laboratory Products and Services

617



12.4 %

461



13.2 % Subtotal Reportable Segments

2,689



22.5 %

2,233



22.9 %

















Cost of Revenues Charges (c)

(8)



-0.1 %

(32)



-0.3 % Selling, General and Administrative Charges, Net (d)

(11)



-0.1 %

(38)



-0.4 % Restructuring and Other Costs, Net (e)

(62)



-0.5 %

(46)



-0.5 % Amortization of Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

(885)



-7.4 %

(748)



-7.7 % GAAP Operating Income (a)

$ 1,723



14.4 %

$ 1,369



14.0 %





































(a) "GAAP" (reported) results were determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The results for 2017 have been restated for the immaterial impacts of adopting new guidance on pension accounting.



(b) Adjusted results are non-GAAP measures and, for income measures, exclude certain charges to cost of revenues (see note (c) for details); certain credits/charges to selling, general and administrative expenses (see note (d) for details); amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets; restructuring and other costs, net (see note (e) for details); certain other gains or losses that are either isolated or cannot be expected to occur again with any predictability (see note (f) for details); and the tax consequences of the preceding items and certain other tax items (see note (g) for details).



(c) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include i) $8 and $31, respectively, of charges for the sale of inventories revalued at the date of acquisition. Reported results in 2017 also include $1 of accelerated depreciation on manufacturing assets to be abandoned due to facility consolidations.



(d) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include i) $12 and $12, respectively, of certain third-party expenses, principally transaction/integration costs related to recently completed acquisitions and ii) $(1) and $25, respectively, of (credits)/charges from changes in estimates of contingent acquisition consideration. Reported results in 2017 also include $1 of accelerated depreciation on fixed assets to be abandoned due to integration synergies.



(e) Reported results in 2018 and 2017 include restructuring and other costs, net, consisting principally of severance, abandoned facility and other expenses of headcount reductions within several businesses and real estate consolidations. Reported results in 2018 include $6 of net charges for litigation and $4 of hurricane response costs. Reported results in 2017 include $4 of net charges for litigation and $2 of charges for the settlement of retirement plans.



(f) Reported results in 2018 include $4 of net losses from investments, $3 of losses on the early extinguishment of debt and $2 of net charges for the settlement/curtailment of pension plans. Reported results in 2017 include $4 of losses on the early extinguishment of debt and a $3 charge related to fees paid to obtain bridge financing commitments for the acquisition of Patheon, offset in part by $7 of net gains from investments.



(g) Reported provision for income taxes includes i) $208 and $243 of incremental tax benefit in 2018 and 2017, respectively, for the pre-tax reconciling items between GAAP and adjusted net income; ii) $(9) and $63 of incremental tax (provision) benefit in 2018 and 2017, respectively, from adjusting the company's non-U.S. deferred tax balances as a result of tax rate changes, iii) in 2018, $21 of incremental tax provision to adjust the estimated initial impacts of U.S. tax reform legislation recorded in 2017 and iv) in 2017, $1 of incremental tax provision in 2017 due to audit settlements.





Notes:

Consolidated depreciation expense is $261 and $194 in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet (unaudited)





















June 30,

December 31, (In millions)

2018

2017









Assets







Current Assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 937



$ 1,335

Accounts receivable, net

3,911



3,879

Inventories

2,866



2,971

Other current assets

1,760



1,236

Total current assets

9,474



9,421

Property, Plant and Equipment, Net

3,952



4,047

Acquisition-related Intangible Assets

15,680



16,684

Other Assets

1,177



1,227

Goodwill

25,120



25,290

Total Assets

$ 55,403



$ 56,669





















Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity







Current Liabilities:







Short-term obligations and current maturities of long-term obligations

$ 1,711



$ 2,135

Other current liabilities

4,269



4,913

Total current liabilities

5,980



7,048

Other Long-term Liabilities

5,269



5,335

Long-term Obligations

17,709



18,873

Total Shareholders' Equity

26,445



25,413

Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity

$ 55,403



$ 56,669





















Condensed Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (unaudited)





















Six Months Ended



June 30,

July 1, (In millions)

2018

2017









Operating Activities







Net income

$ 1,331



$ 1,163

Loss from discontinued operations





1

Income from continuing operations

1,331



1,164











Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

1,146



942

Change in deferred income taxes

(99)



(299)

Other non-cash expenses, net

154



148

Changes in assets and liabilities, excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions

(1,010)



(744)

Net cash provided by continuing operations

1,522



1,211

Net cash used in discontinued operations





(1)

Net cash provided by operating activities

1,522



1,210











Investing Activities







Acquisitions, net of cash acquired

(59)



(307)

Purchases of property, plant and equipment

(301)



(181)

Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

3



2

Other investing activities, net

(7)



9

Net cash used in investing activities

(364)



(477)











Financing Activities







Net proceeds from issuance of debt





519

Repayment of debt

(1,353)



(1,329)

Net proceeds from issuance of commercial paper

2,761



4,487

Repayment of commercial paper

(2,655)



(3,991)

Purchases of company common stock





(750)

Dividends paid

(129)



(118)

Net proceeds from issuance of company common stock under employee stock plans

78



99

Other financing activities, net

(50)





Net cash used in financing activities

(1,348)



(1,083)











Exchange Rate Effect on Cash

(215)



168

Decrease in Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash

(405)



(182)

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash at Beginning of Period

1,361



811

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Restricted Cash at End of Period

$ 956



$ 629





















Free Cash Flow (a)

$ 1,224



$ 1,032

















a) Free cash flow is net cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations less net purchases of property, plant and equipment.

SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific

Related Links

http://www.thermofisher.com

TFTs using oxides, including indium (In), gallium (Ga), and zinc (Zn), or IGZO, made possible high-resolution energy-efficient displays that had not been seen before. IGZO electron mobility is 10 times that of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, which was used exclusively for displays in the past. Additionally, its off current is extremely low and it is transparent, allowing light to pass through. IGZO has been applied to drive liquid crystal displays, such as those on smartphones and tablets. Three years ago, it was also used to drive large OLED televisions, which was considered a major breakthrough. This market is rapidly expanding, as can be seen from the products being released by South Korean and Japanese electronics manufacturers, which now dominate store shelves.

The electron conductivity of transition metal oxides has long been known, but electric current modulation using electric fields has not. In the 1960s, it was reported that modulating the electric current was possible when zinc oxide, tin oxide, and indium oxide were formed into TFT structures. Their performance, however, was poor, and reports of research on organic TFTs were mostly nonexistent until around 2000. A new field called oxide electronics came into existence in the early noughties, examining oxides as electronic materials. A hub for this research was the present-day Laboratory for Materials and Structures within IIR, and research into zinc oxide TFTs soon spread worldwide. However, since the thin film was polycrystalline, there were problems with its characteristics and stability, and no practical applications were achieved.

Application in displays, unlike CPUs, requires the ability to form a thin, homogenous film on a large-sized substrate -- like amorphous materials -- and a dramatic increase in electric current at a low gate voltage when the thin film is subjected to an electric field. However, while amorphous materials were the optimal choice for forming thin, homogeneous film, high carrier concentration and other issues due to structural disorder arose, for the most part preventing electric current modulation by electric fields. The only exception was amorphous silicon containing a large amount of hydrogen, reported in 1975. TFTs made of this material were applied to drive liquid crystal displays, which grew into a giant 10 trillion-yen industry. However, electron mobility was still lower by two to three orders of magnitude compared to that of crystalline silicon -- no better than 0.5 to 1 cm2 V-1 s-1. Amorphous semiconductors, therefore, were easy to produce, but were seen to have much inferior electronic properties.

Hosono focused his attention on oxides with highly ionic bonding nature, the series made up of non-transition metals belonging to the p-block of the periodic table. In this material series, the bottom of the conduction band, which works as the path for electrons, is made up mainly of spherically symmetrical metal s-orbitals with a large spatial spread. Because of this, the degree of overlap of the orbitals, which govern how easily electrons can move, is not sensitive to bond angle variation which is an intrinsic nature of amorphous materials.

The professor realized that this characteristic might allow for mobility in amorphous materials that is comparable to that of polycrystalline thin films. He experimented accordingly and was able to find some examples. In 1995, he presented his idea and examples at the 16th International Conference on Amorphous Semiconductors and had the paper on its proceedings published the following year. After proving this hypothesis through experiments and calculations, he started test-producing TFTs. Many combinations of elements fulfilled the conditions of the hypothesis. IGZO was selected because it had a stable crystalline phase that is easy to prepare, and its specific local structure around Ga suggested that carrier concentration could be suppressed. In 2003, Hosono and his collaborators reported in Science that crystalline epitaxial thin film could produce mobility of around 80 cm2 V-1 s-1. In the following year, they published in Nature that amorphous thin film could also produce mobility of around 10 cm2 V-1 s-1.

Following these findings, research on amorphous oxide semiconductors and their TFTs began increasing rapidly around the world -- not just among the Society for Information Display (SID) and the International Conference on Amorphous Semiconductors. This activity has continued, and Hosono's two papers have now been cited over 2,000 and 5,000 times respectively. The total citations of the patents associated with these inventions now exceed 9,000. Products with displays incorporating these TFTs have been available to the general consumers since 2012. In particular, large OLED televisions, which appeared around 2015, became possible only due to the unique characteristics of amorphous IGZO TFTs -- their high mobility and ability to easily form a thin, homogenous film over a large area. Such displays are installed on the first floor of the Materials Research Center for Element Strategy and the foyer of the Laboratory for Materials and Structures at Tokyo Tech. Application of IGZO TFTs to high-definition large LCD televisions are expected to start soon.

The outcomes of this research are a result of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) ERATO Transparent ElectroActive Materials project, carried out from 1999 to 2004. Related intellectual property has been established in many countries and regions including Japan, U.S.A., South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, India, various European countries and so on. The principal patentee, JST, handles the granting of licenses.

References

Journal: Hideo Hosono, How we made the IGZO transistor,

Nature Electronics, vol.1, July issue, 2018

https://www.nature.com/natelectron/

IGZO TFT-related papers:

K.Nomura, H.Ohta, K.Ueda, T.Kamiya, M.Hirano, H.Hosono, Thin-film transistor fabricated in single-crystalline transparent oxide semiconductor. Science, 300, 1269 (2003).

K.Nomura, H.Ohta, A.Takagi, T.Kamiya, M.Hirano, H.Hosono, Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors. Nature, 432, 488 (2004).

Reviews:

H.Hosono, Ionic amorphous oxide semiconductors: Material design, carrier transport, and device application, J.Non-Crystalline Solids, 352 , 851 (2006)

T.Kamiya, H.Hosono, Material characteristics and applications of transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors, NPG Asia Materials, 2, 15 (2010)

About Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo Tech stands at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university for science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in fields ranging from materials science to biology, computer science, and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech hosts over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students per year, who develop into scientific leaders and some of the most sought-after engineers in industry. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of "monotsukuri," meaning "technical, ingenuity, and innovation," the Tokyo Tech community strives to contribute to society through high-impact research. www.titech.ac.jp/english/

SOURCE Tokyo Institute of Technology

Related Links

http://www.titech.ac.jp/english

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Torque, an immuno-oncology company developing Deep Primed T Cells to direct immune power deep within the tumor microenvironment, announced today the appointment of James Mullen as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Maykin Ho, PhD, as Strategic Advisor to the Board of Directors, and Mario Sznol, MD, to the Scientific Advisory Board.

"We are delighted to welcome Jim Mullen, Maykin Ho, and Mario Sznol to help guide Torque as we build out our product pipeline and initiate our first clinical trials for Deep Primed T cells targeting both solid and hematologic tumors," said Bart Henderson, Chief Executive Officer of Torque. "We are working at the intersection of cell therapy and cytokine therapya unique and leading edge of immunotherapyand we intend to rely heavily on this group of pioneering leaders who are each highly successful in their respective fields: Jim has broad and diverse experience building global manufacturing, R&D, and commercial organizations; Maykin led the biotechnology financial analysis field for more than 20 years, including as a senior advisor to Goldman Sachs; and Mario Sznol is a world-recognized leader in oncology and immunotherapy clinical development."

Mr. Mullen has more than 30 years of experience building leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations in all aspects of marketing, manufacturing and finance, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Patheon N.V., a leading global provider of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing services, until its acquisition by Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2017. Prior to leading Patheon, Mr. Mullen was Chief Executive Officer and President at Biogen, where he had previously held the positions of Chief Operating Officer; Vice President, International; and Vice President, Operations. Before joining Biogen, Mr. Mullen held several manufacturing and engineering positions at SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline plc). Mr. Mullen holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Villanova University.

"Torque's Deep Priming technology engine is built on a strong foundation of biology and is moving several products into the clinic rapidly," said Mr. Mullen. "These products are a new class of immunotherapy with broad potential for treating a significant number of oncology indications by integrating the immune power of cytokines with multi-target, antigen primed T cells. I am very excited to join the Torque team to help build a great company that has the potential for making a dramatic impact on the treatment of cancer."

Dr. Ho is a retired Partner of Goldman Sachs & Co. where she spent 23 years, most recently as an Advisory Director for Global Healthcare Investment Banking. Previously, she was the lead biotechnology analyst and co-head of U.S. Healthcare for Global Investment Research. Dr. Ho was ranked the First or Second Team in Biotechnology by Institutional Investor and Greenwich Associates for more than 10 years. She has also received numerous awards from The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Dr. Ho held senior management positions in research, marketing, and business development at Dupont-Merck Pharmaceuticals and Dupont De Nemours & Company. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School after earning a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Ho is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

"I am excited about the potential for Torque's technology, because it builds upon well-understood immunology and the early success with checkpoint inhibitors and CAR T cells," said Dr. Ho. "Torque is evaluating a powerful combination of two approaches to direct a regulated immune response at the tumor site. First, priming natural T cells without genetic engineering should allow retention of the full immune signaling power of T cell receptors. Second, designing tethered cytokines to drive cell function in a targeted manner."

Dr. Sznol is a Professor of Internal Medicine, Leader of the Disease-Aligned Research Team, and co-Leader of the Cancer Immunology Program of the Yale Cancer Center. Previously, he served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Vion Pharmaceuticals. Before joining Vion, Dr. Sznol was Head of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)'s Biologics Evaluation Section, Investigational Drug Branch, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program. During his professional career, Dr. Sznol has focused on clinical development of cytokines, vaccines, antibodies, and bacterial products for treatment of cancer. He received a BA from Rice University and an MD from the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Sznol completed his fellowship in Medical Oncology, Department of Neoplastic Diseases, at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and his residency in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"There is a compelling need for cell therapies that target solid as well as hematologic tumors and that overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in a controlled manner," said Dr. Sznol. "The Deep-Priming technology has to potential to drive cytokine activation locally in the tumor microenvironment, which has been a goal for decades but is not possible with conventional approaches. I am excited to advise the Torque team on the development of this unique technology."

About Deep-Primed Immune Cell Therapeutics

Torque's Deep-Priming platform uses advanced cell process engineering to:

prime and activate T cells to target multiple tumor antigens, and

and tether immune-stimulatory drugs to the surface of these multi-target T cells to direct immune activation in the tumor microenvironment

Deep-Primed T cells both target multiple tumor antigens and pharmacologically activate an immune response with anchored cytokines. This process does not require genetic engineering of the T cells and so preserves the natural T cell receptor for delivering a regulated immune response, with the potential for a high margin of safety. In addition to antigen priming, a focused set of immunomodulators are tethered to the surface of Deep-Primed T cellsinitially IL-15 and IL-12 cytokines, and TLR agoniststhat activate and focus both innate and adaptive immunity. Administering these immunomodulators systemically to a patient can cause lethal toxicity by activating immune cells throughout the body. By loading precise doses of cytokines onto the surface of T cells, Deep Priming focuses the immune response to target the tumor, without systemic exposure.

In hematologic cancers, this new class of immune therapeutics has the potential to improve on the initial success of single-target CAR T therapeutics with expanded efficacy and also move cell therapy treatment out of the hospital with a high margin of safety. For solid tumors, Deep-Primed T cells have the potential to enable efficacy against tumors with heterogeneous antigens protected by hostile microenvironments, which are not readily addressable with the first generation of immune cell therapies.

About Torque (www.torquetx.com)

Torque is an immuno-oncology company developing Deep Primed T cells to direct immune power deep within the tumor microenvironment. Torque's lead product candidate is Deep IL-15, which is in pre-IND development for hematologic and solid tumors. The company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Contact:

Mary Moynihan

M2Friend Biocommunications

802-951-9600

[email protected]

SOURCE Torque

Related Links

http://www.torquetx.com

| BY Ricki Green |

Boutique, full-service digital marketing agency Pineapple Marketing has won the local account for Tsingtao, recently ranked as the worlds second largest beer brand (volume of beers sold) by Business Insider.

Managing all aspects of brand and digital, Pineapple is responsible for Tsingtao breaking into the imported beer market.

The beer celebrates its namesake with 10M strong populated City of Qingdao. The Chinese behemoth has its own annual Beerfest The Qingdao International Beer Festival which dwarfs the better-known Bavarian Oktoberfest by double in liters of beer sold and attendance.

Says Nicholas Mason, former Edge Agency commercial lead and CEO of Pineapple: Tsingtao is unique because its an immense producer of quality beer, but tastes like a small-batch micro brewed beer. Most craft beers in Australia are Ales and we see a real opportunity to provide the quality beer enthusiasts a quality craft Pilsner. With relative freedom over the brand n Australia, the team is excited about the upcoming creative campaigns.Adding to the excitement is the announcement that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will be speaking alongside a strong line-up of influential speakers including Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, Jr., Attorney General Jeff Sessions, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, Senator Rand Paul, Judge Jeanine Pirro, and many more. "We are excited to have Betsy DeVos join our prestigious line-up of speakers and thankful to everyone who has helped bring this life-changing opportunity to young students in America," said Charlie Kirk, Founder and Executive Director for Turning Point USA.

Betsy DeVos was confirmed on February 7, 2017, to serve as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Education. As the daughter of a public-school teacher, her interest in education was sparked at a young age. She has been involved in the fight for better education policy across the nation ever since, devoting nearly three decades to this cause. She is passionate about empowering parents and advocating for children and has worked to support reforms that aid underserved children's access to education and establish new educational choices for students.

DeVos is a strong conservative leader who believes that a zip-code or a household's income shouldn't determine the quality of a child's education. As secretary, she is an advocate for more localized control of education that provides parents with greater choices and power to ensure their children are receiving a quality education that puts them on a path to career success.

Turning Point USA's High School Leadership invites hundreds of selected high school students to learn about grassroots activism, leadership training, and politics. Each day's agenda is packed with thought-provoking speeches delivered by the most prestigious conservative leaders from around the nation. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for student attendees.

Thanks to the Summit's sponsors, selected students are provided with general admission tickets and on-site lodging for a small registration fee of $15. The 2018 High School Leadership Summit sponsors include the Leadership Institute, Campus Reform, the Heritage Foundation, NRA-IRA, the Atlas Society, and Liberty University.

For more information about Turning Point USA's High School Leadership Summit, please visit: https://www.tpusa.com/hsls2018

About Turning Point USA:

Turning Point USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded on June 5, 2012, by Charlie Kirk. The organization's mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government.

Since the founding, Turning Point USA has embarked on a mission to build the most organized, active, and influential grassroots activist network on college campuses across the country. With a presence on over 1,100 college campuses and high schools, Turning Point USA is the largest and fastest growing youth organization in America.

SOURCE Turning Point USA

Related Links

https://www.tpusa.com

"As we celebrate the Year of Zayed in 2018, it is an honor for the Embassy to display this inspiring testament to Sheikh Zayed's legacy," said Ambassador Al Otaiba.

The UAE delegation also held a series of meetings with think tank analysts, experts on countering violent extremism and US faith leaders. In meetings at the George Washington University Program on Extremism and the Middle East Institute, members the group discussed the UAE's shared interests with the US to counter extremism and highlighted the country's efforts to promote a positive vision for the region.

Yesterday, the delegation met with members of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council to discuss interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance in the UAE. The UAE delegation also spoke with members of the Advisory Council about the UAE's commitment to countering extremism.

"In the UAE, we are committed to promoting values of tolerance and coexistence," said Ali Al Nuaimi, delegation head and secretary general of the Muslim Council of Elders. "These are values we share with our partners in the United States."

The Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council brings together business, political and religious leaders in the Muslim and Jewish communities to jointly advocate for issues of common concern.

The group also toured the Washington National Cathedral Tuesday and met with Canon Missioner Reverend Dr. Leonard Hamlin, Sr.

The UAE delegation is in Washington, DC to attend the State Department Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom (July 25-26). The Ministerial brings together international leaders from governments, faith organizations and NGOs to discuss solutions for combatting religious persecution and ensuring religious freedom for all.

For media enquiries, please contact the embassy at: [email protected]

SOURCE Embassy of the United Arab Emirates

Related Links

http://www.uae-embassy.org

DENVER, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- University of the Rockies announced today it is now offering students a choice between a traditional dissertation and an Applied Doctoral Project (ADP) to complete their doctorate in psychology.

The ADP is especially useful for students who are practice-based, and is intended to extend and apply research by examining an issue in a practical setting.

An ADP is equivalent in rigor to a traditional dissertation, but allows students more flexibility in designing and conducting a research project with an applied focus, which is more in line with the practitioner-scholar philosophy of PsyD degrees. For the student who wants to practice directly in the profession, the ADP lets them apply existing knowledge in an advisor-mentored project aimed at solving problems within the field.

"By offering students a chance to complete an Applied Doctoral Project, we are giving them a chance to make an immediate impact in their workplace and communities," said Dr. Jeremy Moreland, University of the Rockies provost. "Having an ADP option alongside traditional dissertations helps more students achieve their academic goals while still contributing to the body of knowledge within the psychology community."

An ADP may be structured a lot like a traditional dissertation, or it can be designed as a program evaluation, an action research study, a theoretical work, or a case study. Each option requires of a student an extensive knowledge of the literature pertaining to the particular topic, a synthesis and application of this knowledge, and a sophisticated plan for how the project is developed and presented. Conducting these projects provides University of the Rockies students an opportunity to build expertise within a focused area, and prepares them to be effective practitioner-scholars.

About University of the Rockies

University of the Rockies is a leading graduate school of the social and behavioral sciences that offers programs for students seeking their PhD, PsyD, or Master of Arts degree. Based in Denver, Colo., the University provides students with the convenience of an online education. While working toward a degree from anywhere in the country, students enjoy access to industry professionals, research, and publishing opportunities. For more information, please visit www.rockies.edu/, www.twitter.com/URockies, www.facebook.com/UniversityoftheRockies, or call Jana Mathieson, Sr. Communications and Community Relations Manager at 866.621.0124 x11870.

Contact: Jana Mathieson, Sr. Communications/Community Relations Manager

866.621.0124 x11870  [email protected]

SOURCE University of the Rockies

Related Links

http://www.rockies.edu

TSX: WPM

NYSE: WPM

VANCOUVER, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. ("Wheaton" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Wheaton Precious Metals International Ltd. ("Wheaton International") confirms that all outstanding conditions required to complete the gold and palladium stream agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater ("Sibanye-Stillwater") (JSE: SGL;NYSE:SBGL) (the "Precious Metals Stream") have been fulfilled. Under the Precious Metals Stream, Wheaton International has paid a total upfront cash payment of US$500 million to Sibanye-Stillwater in exchange for an amount of gold equal to 100% of the gold production from the Stillwater assets over the operating life of the assets and an amount of palladium equal to: 4.5% of palladium production from the Stillwater assets until 375 thousand ounces ("Koz") are delivered to Wheaton International; thereafter, 2.25% of palladium production until 550 Koz are delivered; and subsequently 1% of palladium production for the life of the Stillwater assets. In addition, Wheaton International will make ongoing payments equal to a maximum of 18% of the spot gold price and spot palladium price until such time as the balance of the upfront cash payment is reduced to zero. Thereafter, ongoing payments will be 22% of the spot gold price and spot palladium prices. The Precious Metals Stream is effective July 1, 2018.

Full details of the transaction can be found in Wheaton's news release dated July 16, 2018.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING-STATEMENTS

The information contained herein 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 applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements, which are all statements other than statements of historical fact, include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to:

the timing of delivery of gold and palladium by Sibanye-Stillwater under the Precious Metals Stream;

the receipt of Wheaton of gold and palladium production in respect of Stillwater ;

; the demand, uses and supply of gold and palladium;

the construction timeline, including completion, of the Blitz Project; and

the commencement and timing of delivery of gold and palladium by Sibanye-Stilwater under the Precious Metals Stream.

Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "projects", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", "potential", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Wheaton to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to:

that each party does not satisfy its obligations in accordance with the terms of the Precious Metals Stream;

Sibanye-Stillwater is unable to commence, or the timing of delivery of gold and palladium by Sibanye-Stillwater is delayed or deferred under the Precious Metals Stream or Wheaton International is unable to sell its gold or palladium production delivered under the Precious Metals Stream at acceptable prices or at all;

the decrease in demand for palladium, the decrease in uses for palladium or the discovery of new supplies of palladium, any or all of which could result in a decrease to the price of palladium or a decrease in the ability to sell palladium; and

Sibanye-Stillwater does not meet the construction timeline, including anticipated completion of the Blitz Project.

Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions management currently believes to be reasonable, including but not limited to:

Sibanye-Stillwater is able to commence and meet its timing for delivery of gold and palladium under the Precious Metals Stream and Wheaton International is able to sell palladium production delivered under the Precious Metals Stream at acceptable prices;

the demand and uses for palladium will not significantly decrease and the supply of palladium will not significantly increase;

Sibanye-Stillwater is able to meet the construction timeline, including anticipated completion, of the Blitz Project; and

Sibanye-Stillwater is able to commence and meet its timing for delivery of gold and palladium under the Precious Metals Stream and Wheaton is able to sell gold and palladium production delivered under the Precious Metals Stream at acceptable prices.

Although Wheaton has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results, level of activity, performance or achievements not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and even if events or results described in the forward-looking statements are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, Wheaton. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and are cautioned that actual outcomes may vary. The forward-looking statements included herein are for the purpose of providing investors with information to assist them in understanding Wheaton's expected financial and operational performance and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Wheaton does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are included or incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.

Related Links

http://www.wheatonpm.com/

LIEGE and LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

DIAsource ImmunoAssays to assume production and sales of ZenTech RIA product portfolio

ZenTech signs strategic agreement to transfer its portfolio of radioimmunoassays (RIA) to DIAsource ImmunoAssays, a BioVendor group company.

ZenTech, a Belgian biotech company specialized in the development, production and commercialization of solutions for clinical diagnostics of early life stage diseases and newborn screening, and DIAsource ImmunoAssays, a leading diagnostics company delivering manual RIA and ELISA kits and open automation solutions to international markets, today announced a strategic agreement, under which ZenTech will transfer its portfolio of RIA products to DIAsource, securing the continued production and sales of these products.

ZenTech has strategically reoriented itself to focus on newborn screening and early life stage diseases. DIAsource is the second largest supplier of radioimmunoassays in the world, committed to servicing customers worldwide that use manual ELISA and RIA assays and open automation to complement their portfolio on closed automated systems.

Both Belgian companies have long standing collaborations for more than 15 years, whereby DIAsource already managed part of the commercialization of the Zentech portfolio successfully. The current transfer of the RIA products from Zentech to DIAsource is a logical next step in line with the strategies of both companies. The portfolio to be transferred includes the complete line of specialty radioimmunoassays with thyroid markers and markers for fertility and salt balance.

In order to support a smooth transition with minimal disruption for customers, the companies have agreed to a transition period. Effective today 24th of July 2018 DIAsource ImmunoAssays assumes commercial ownership of the RIA product portfolio and will service clients from order to shipment, whereby ZenTech remains the manufacturer during the transition period in which the production will be transferred to DIAsource. The latter will be done in close collaboration and in phases and concluded by 30 September 2019.

Jean-Claude Havaux, Chaiman of the Board, ZenTech, said: "Historically, ZenTech had a background and expertise in radioimmunoassays. However, when ZenTech acquired the Belgian company Gamma in 2011, it got access to new technologies and entered the market of newborn screening and early life stage diseases. Today's acquisition of the RIA products by ZenTech's commercial partner DIAsource will guarantee RIA customers are offered long term service and excellence in logistics worldwide. This transaction will give ZenTech the opportunity to focus on new innovative product lines and other technologies such as molecular diagnostics and mass spectrometry. ZenTech strives to "make innovation affordable for most" within a worldwide strategy."

Jef Vangenechten, CEO of DIAsource ImmunoAssays, said: "This acquisition is yet another step in our strategy to position DIAsource as a consolidator of manual specialty assays, after previous acquisitions of the Intertech RIA product line in 2012 and Viro-Immun ELISA and IFA product lines in 2017. DIAsource also acquired the RIA client businesses from distribution partners in France and Spain in 2015 and 2016. This fourth acquisition in the RIA space demonstrates our commitment to the long term future servicing and support of our large RIA customer base worldwide

We experience that RIA remains important as the gold standard for assays that are not available on automated systems or for parameters that require a higher analytical accuracy, whereby manual assays offer benefits in terms of quality and flexibility versus price.

DIAsource now has a unique position by combining the most complete offering of RIA specialty assays on the market with the ability to offer various RIA automation solutions. Furthermore our manual assays also allow customization for life science research and screening."

About ZenTech

ZenTech (http://www.zentech.be) is a Belgian biotech company specialized in the development, production and commercialization of solutions for clinical diagnostics of early life stage diseases and newborn screening.

ZenTech has a broad portfolio of products in prenatal, neonatal and pediatric screening and offers complete and flexible solutions to set up the screening activity. The company exports more than 95% of its production, especially to Middle East and South East Asia, China, South America and Africa.

About DIAsource ImmunoAssays (part of the BioVendor Group)

DIAsource ImmunoAssays http://www.diasource-diagnostics.com/ is a Belgian company, specialized since 30 years in the development, manufacturing, and sales and distribution of immunoassay tests and open instrumentation solutions for clinical diagnostics.

DIAsource is a leading provider of manual assays and open automation, based on a product catalog featuring over 190 ELISA and 140 RIA assays. It has direct sales representation in Belgium, France and Spain and strong sales in Middle East, Asia, and South America through a worldwide network of over 100 sales and distribution partners in over 70 countries.

Since September 2017 DIAsource is part of the Biovendor Group, https://www.biovendor.com/biovendor-group/ , an international diagnostics company with headquarters in Brno, Czech Republic.

SOURCE DIAsource ImmunoAssays SAWashington, July 25 : US President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, has decided to close down her fashion brand.

The move comes over a year after she split from the company to enter the White House as a senior adviser, BBC reported on Tuesday.

Trump launched the brand in 2014, but after her father's election was faced with boycotts from shoppers.

Trump had reportedly become frustrated by the difficulties posed by avoiding possible conflicts of interest while serving in the White House.

A spokesperson for the company said the decision "has nothing to do with the performance of the brand and is based solely on Ivanka's decision to remain in Washington indefinitely."

After 17 months in her White House role, Ivanka Trump said she did not know "when or if I will ever return to the business".

"But I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners," she said in a statement.

"I am beyond grateful for the work of our incredible team who has inspired so many women; each other and myself included. While we will not continue our mission together, I know that each of them will thrive in their next chapter," she added.

According to NBC News, she met personally her 18-person staff at Trump Tower in New York City after the company's closure was announced to employees.

The brand had already been dropped by several retailers such as the Nordstrom chain and - just last week - Canada's largest department store chain Hudson's Bay.

Both companies blamed poor sales for their decision.

Trump's company is private and does not release sales figures.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited research from Rakuten Intelligence, online sales at Amazon, Macy's and Bloomingdales fell almost 45 per cent in the year to June.

An investigation by the Washington Post last year found that virtually all of Trump's clothing was manufactured in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China.Cairo, July 25 : The Egyptian police have killed at least 13 terrorists during a shootout in Arish city in the restive North Sinai province, officials said.

Informed sources told Xinhua that police on Tuesday raided an under-construction house in a village in Arish where the 13 militants were holed up and eventually, the exchange of fire took place.

"The violent clashes killed 13 terrorists from the so-called Wilayat Sinai (Sinai state or province) group, the Egyptian arm of the Islamic State (IS) regional terrorist group," a security source said.

The police found four machine guns, two shotguns, three explosive devices and ammunition in their possession.

Bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, North Sinai province has been the centre of terrorist attacks that killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, as well as civilians, following the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests.Berlin, July 25 : German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned US President Donald Trump to expect a firm response from the European Union (EU) to new protectionist measures.

Speaking during an appearance on the public broadcaster ARD, Maas on Tuesday said that he was still hopeful that the trade conflict could be resolved consensually. Nevertheless, Europe would not "allow itself to be threatened and would not simply surrender" if Trump chose to escalate the dispute further, Xinhua reported.

The German foreign minister argued that Washington would leave Brussels with no other choice than to retaliate against a raft of new US tariffs. Otherwise, the credibility of the bloc and the wider system of rules-based free trade would suffer lasting damage.

Maas emphasized that it was crucial for Europe as a whole, but Germany and France in particular, to speak with one voice on trade in order to be heard on a global level. Member states which became divided on the issue would be at the mercy of greater non-European powers without having any effective say over their own future.

According to the German Social Democrat (SPD), no one could be seriously interested in the imposition of new and higher import tariffs as threatened again recently by the US.

"At the end of the day, all sides will lose, including the American side", he said. He consequently hoped that Washington would ultimately renege and depart from the protectionist path which it had embarked upon.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) recently argued that the key to resolving the US-EU trade dispute lay in creating a "shared understanding of the facts." Amongst others, the bloc needed to highlight that the German automotive industry employed over 118,000 staff in the US and exported 60 per cent of its local production to different countries.

Maas is scheduled to make visits to South Korea and Japan in the coming days where he will also discuss the possibility of a joint response from the EU and other countries affected by new US tariffs.

On Wednesday, EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem are also scheduled to hold widely-anticipated direct talks with Trump in Washington.Washington, July 25 : The US has asked the North Korean regime to allow observers to witness the dismantling of the Sohae missile testing base, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said.

When reporters in Palo Alto, California, asked Pompeo on Tuesday what further steps were needed by North Korea, the secretary of state said: "They need to completely, fully denuclearize. That's the steps that Kim Jong-un (North Korean leader) committed to."

Satellite photos published on Tuesday on the specialised website 38 North show that Pyongyang has begun dismantling the Sohae base, where the regime of Kim Jong-un builds engines for intercontinental ballistic missiles that supposedly have the range to hit US territory, Efe news reported.

The process of dismantling the base has been proceeding without the presence of international observers, according to various media reports.

When asked about the images of the military base, Pompeo said that North Korea's actions are "consistent" with the "commitment" Kim made to President Donald Trump during their historic June 12 summit in Singapore.

After that meeting, Trump said that Kim had promised to very quickly dismantle a missile engine testing base, although he did not specify which base that might be.

US government officials later said that Sohae -- in northwestern North Korea -- was the base that would be closed.

At their summit, the two leaders signed a declaration opening the door to North Korea's denuclearization in exchange for US guarantees regarding the Pyongyang regime's survival, but it did not specify the mechanisms or any concrete time periods for attaining that objective.

Skepticism over North Korea's willingness to denuclearize has grown since US media reported in late June -- citing national intelligence sources - that Pyongyang has continued to enrich uranium after the summit and that it was trying to hide a large part of its arsenal and other military assets from the US.Yangon, July 25 : Myanmar's Presidential Office has denied that it has issued an executive order to demonetise banknotes, saying that legal action will be taken against perpetrators of the fake news, media reported on Wednesday.

Director-General and Spokesman of the President's Office U Zaw Htay refuted the false executive order proliferating on Facebook, which is said to have been issued by the top office, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

The false presidential executive order, posted on the Facebook, reads: "Banknotes of 500 kyat, 1,000 kyat, 5,000 kyat and 10,000 kyat would be invalid beginning August 1."

Htay said that a probe is on and action would be taken against those spreading canards and trying to undermine the peace and stability of the country.

He warned the public that there has been no official announcements nor orders concerning banknotes, Xinhua news agency reported.| BY Ricki Green |

Two advertising industry leaders and The Academy of Entrepreneurs collaborated with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) to rebrand Australia as an Entrepreneurial Nation. As a part of the Australian Governments recently announced $3m initiative to develop a stronger Nation Brand; they joined forces over the course of 5 weeks to come up with unique ideas to contribute to the broader Nation Brand campaign.

The entrepreneurs presented their Brand Australia proposals to Fiona De Jong, head of Australias Nation Brand at Austrade after being mentored by two creative industry leaders, both entrepreneurs in their own right, Duncan Harriss, managing director of award-winning integrated production company Limehouse Creative and Dan Aldridge, creative director, BBC Studios Australia and HyperKid.

Says Harris: What brief could be more exciting than helping rebrand and better brand Australia! The Nation Brand initiative is one that resonates with our own industry as well citizens but perhaps more importantly, one that needs to be heard across the world by potential investors and talent to convince them Australia is the place to come and realise their dreams. We believe that Australia is the perfect place to test and launch a start-up; because we are a multicultural, young, innovative nation with a strong economy. Entrepreneurs are a key voice, a current and future demographic and the engine of Australia.

The Foreign Policy White Paper of 2017 found that the current nation branding is fragmented with no unified representation of Australia internationally. It showed that the number of individual brands in the global market place was diluting the effectiveness of the collective promotion of Australia.

Says De Jong: I had the opportunity to hear the top four pitches from extraordinary entrepreneurs of Australia. I was blown away by the creativity, and the expression and the imagination of these incredible young people in our country. Each of the ideas was executed in different ways but collectively articulated some really special attributes of this country and thats what this whole project was about. Lets get to the essence in a simple way about whats great about his country and lets celebrate that. The people in this course were able to do that over the course of a very short period of time so I do thank the Academy of Entrepreneurs for the opportunity to have this project come to life and for sharing with us the inspiring ideas from young entrepreneurs in our country.

Over the 5 week duration, 61 students and entrepreneurs from over 40 nationalities workshopped ideas and creative concepts to rebrand Australia. Students learnt branding and advertising 101, analysed what Australia has to offer as a nation and critiqued other successful global nation brand campaigns.

Says Aldridge: The brief most certainly peaked my interest and my hunger to be part of an ambitious and exciting branding exercise. By sharing my expertise, wisdom and skillsets in branding and design, I feel the entrepreneurs have really got a lot out of it, with a wide range of integrated ideas and concepts being displayed.Seoul, July 25 : South Korea will begin negotiating with the Pacific Alliance to achieve member status in the Latin American economic bloc by 2018, the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported on Wednesday.

Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong agreed to start proceedings with four members of the bloc -- Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru -- during the alliance's summit this week in the Mexican coastal city of Puerto Vallarta, Efe news reported.

Seoul, which has already signed free-trade agreements (FTA) with Chile, Colombia and Peru, seeks better access to the Mexican market through the partnership agreement with the Pacific Alliance.

Despite being one of the 10 largest exporting nations, South Korean companies have been at a disadvantage due to competitors from the US, the European Union and Japan in the absence of an FTA, Kim said in a statement.

He also said that a partnership agreement with the Pacific Alliance is significant because it makes way for access into the Mexican market 10 years after the suspension of bilateral ties.

Talks between South Korea and Mexico over the signing of an FTA were stalled in 2008 owing to the reluctance of some Mexican business sectors and the lack of South Korean investment at the time.

However, the significant increase in the volume of trade between the two countries (in 2017 it was $15.3 trillion, double that of a decade ago) and South Korean investment on Mexican soil now underlines the need to improve the regulatory bilateral framework.Islamabad, July 25 : Voters in large numbers on Wednesday morning started flocking outside polling stations across the country to cast their votes in Pakistan's 11th general election.

The first vote was cast in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Charsadda, according to Dawn news website.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m, the website said. Polling stations will remain open for voting till 6 p.m.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election.

The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

In an effort to increase voter participation the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning on July 13.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

According to the reports, women voters were being denied the right to vote in PK-65 constituency of Nowshehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Geo TV said a suspicious person was detained when he tried to enter Karachi's Lyari Bihar Colony polling station in NA-246, claiming to be a police officer.

"The suspicious person has been taken to Chakewara Police Station," a police officer said, adding that the polling process was halted for about 20 minutes.Moscow, July 25 : A rare survivor of the harshest Stalin-era labour camps has died aged 89 in Russia's far east.

Vasily Kovalyov had survived icy punishment cells and beatings in the former USSR's notorious Gulag prison system. He died of a stroke in a Magadan city hospital on Monday, the BBC reported.

During an escape attempt in 1954 he spent five months hiding in a freezing mine with two other prisoners. His story was featured in Vesma, a news website.

The communist regime shipped thousands of "enemies" to prison camps via Magadan, a port city.

In 1950, Kovalyov, then 20, was found guilty of anti-Soviet sabotage -- one among the millions of victims of Stalinist terror. An old sabre that he had used to chop vegetables was enough to condemn him, the BBC reported.

First he was sent to Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, he told Vesma. But he ended up in Kolyma, a notoriously harsh network of labour camps north of Magadan, after guards uncovered an escape plot.

In 1954 he and two other inmates hid in a mine and prepared an armed uprising, but someone tipped off the guards, who then came looking for them, the BBC report said.

"Miners who knew the place inside out accompanied them and said we wouldn't be able to stand the permafrost there longer than a week," he told Vesma.

"They blocked all the entrances with grills... We spent five months underground, in the dark, starving. After three months we had eaten all our food, and in the end we were chewing wood shavings."

He said they managed to dig a way out through the permafrost and emerged "half-blind, like moles". They made it to a nearby town, but were arrested there.

During a punishment beating the guards let loose a huge sheep dog on him, he said. "It leapt at me, but I had protective metal studs on my boots, and kicked the dog down. In a flash I dived at its throat and bit hard. I heard a crunch and the dog shuddered then died."

Kovalyov was released in 1957, when Stalin's successor Nikita Khrushchev declared an amnesty for Gulag prisoners, in the post-Stalin "thaw".

He stayed in Magadan, where he worked as a heating engineer. Kovalyov took the Vesma reporter on a tour of the grim prison -- a ruin still reeking of cruelty.

Millions died during Joseph Stalin's dictatorship -- in deportations, famine, forced collectivisation, executions and prison camps. The terror he unleashed involved massive purges of the Communist Party and state institutions, the BBC report added.San Francisco, July 25 : For more than a year, none of Google's over 85,000 employees have been hacked, thanks to physical security keys that have replaced one-time codes at their workplace.

Security Keys are USB-based devices that offer an alternative approach to two-factor authentication (2FA).

In 2FA, users log into a website using a password and then enter an additional one-time code usually sent to smartphones. In Google's case, the one-time password was sent via an in-house app called Google Authenticator.

A Google representative told Krebs on Security that physical security keys are now being used for all work-related account access since early 2017.

"We have had no reported or confirmed account takeovers since implementing security keys at Google," the representative was quoted as saying.

"Users might be asked to authenticate using their security key for many different apps/reasons. It all depends on the sensitivity of the app and the risk of the user at that point in time," the Google representative added.

A physical security key uses a version of multi-factor authentication called Universal 2nd Factor (U2F).

U2F lets users login by inserting the USB device and pushing a button on it.

"After the device is linked to a certain website, users don't have to enter their passwords anymore," CNET reported.

More platforms like Dropbox, Facebook and Github are now using U2F which is an emerging open source authentication standard. It's supported by browsers including Chrome, Firefox and Opera.

Microsoft is also reportedly updating its Edge browser to support U2F later this year.

Yubico is one physical security key maker which sells a basic U2F key for $20.Kochi, July 25 : The Kerala High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Father Job Mathew, one of the four priests accused in a rape case of a woman parishioner, attached to the Malankara Orthodox Church.

Earlier on Monday another priest Johnson V. Mathew, an accused in the same case had secured bail.

The court asked Job Mathew on Wednesday to surrender his passport, just as it had asked Johnson V. Mathew.

Job Mathew was also asked to present himself before the probe officer once every week.

Job Mathew was the first to be arrested on July 12, from near Kollam by the Crime Branch police probing the case. He has been holed up at the Pathanamthitta district jail since.

Last week a magisterial court in Thiruvalla had rejected his bail, following which he approached the high court.

In this case the Crime Branch has charged four Kerala priests, including the two who has now secured bail while Father Sony (Abraham) Varghese and Father Jaice K. George who moved the Supreme Court, have managed to get a stay order on their arrest till their petition is finally disposed.

While Johnson V. Mathew who got the bail on Monday, has been charged for outraging the modesty of a lady, the three others have been charged for rape.

The victim who regularly visited the church had accused five priests of sexually abusing her for a decade. Her husband had filed the complaint.

It was one priest in the beginning who first exploited her and then started blackmailing her.

When she sought help from another priest, he too, threatened her and shared her contact with a fellow priest and she was eventually victimised by five of them.

The National Commission for Women is monitoring the case. One of the priests escaped action as the victim had mentioned only four names, according to the police.Washington, July 25 : A federal judge has expressed his confidence in the US government to comply with the court order regarding the reunification of immigrant families within the deadline, but expressed concern over parents who had already been deported without their children.

At a follow-up hearing of the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the US government, lawyers of the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated on Tuesday that 1,012 children between 5 and 17 years of age have been returned to their parents, while an unspecified number of the remaining children have been sent to their relatives, Efe news reported.

San Diego-based District Judge Dana Sabraw had set July 26 as the deadline for the government to return more than 2,500 undocumented children between the ages of 5 and 18 to their parents, but lawyers for the administration of US President Donald Trump said that only 1,634 of them are eligible for reunification.

In a document presented to the court on Monday, government lawyers gave an account of 463 immigrant parents who are no longer in the US and who were separated from their children after being apprehended on the Mexico border as a result of the "zero tolerance" policy on illegal immigration adopted by the Trump administration.

The magistrate requested that a list of these immigrants be submitted along with details on the country to which they were deported in order to establish eventual reunification.

On July 16, Sabraw ordered the government to temporarily halt the deportation until July 23, so that these undocumented immigrants would have more time to determine their options, but he later decided to extend the deadline to July 25.

In a document handed in on Tuesday to the court, the federal government rejected the court order on the grounds that the additional waiting period would create insufficient space problems in detention centres and cause "inefficiencies" in the system.New Delhi/Kolkata, July 25 : Geeta (name changed), a resident of Sangli village in Maharashtra, was 19 when she became a sex worker, not as a victim of trafficking but as an option to feed herself and support her family financially.

Now 32 and a mother of 10-year-old son, Geeta is facing a new hurdle -- that of forced rehabilitation by the government of sex workers. And she expressed her anxiety that if Parliament clears an anti-human trafficking bill pending before it, it cause chaos in her life.

"I don't want to go to any rehab centre, I don't want to learn stitching work or making pickles. Nobody forced me to be a sex worker; it was my choice and I am earning well enough to survive with my son," Geeta told IANS.

This is not just the voice of Geeta -- many other sex workers too believe the anti-trafficking bill will create turmoil in their lives.

Kusum, 40, who only uses her first name, lives in one of the brothels on Delhi's GB Road. She said she is not ashamed of being known to the world as a sex worker and insisted on not changing her name.

"I had chosen to go ahead as a sex worker, nobody pressurised me. This is my profession, just like other jobs. Had I wanted to move out of it, I could have done so a long time ago. Now, the government is pushing for rehab but they don't understand that sex workers are not perceived by the society with dignity," said Kusum, who is also President of the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW).

"Not all sex workers are victims of human trafficking and the government needs to understand the difference between the two. There are many like me who have chosen it as a source of income," she added.

As the monsoon session began on July 18, the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, around 8,100 cases of trafficking were recorded in India in 2016 and around 23,000 victims of trafficking were rescued the same year (61 per cent of these were children).

Trafficking, under the Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), has been defined as "any act" of physical and sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude.

Legal experts and social activists also expressed their worry that the bill might have a direct negative impact on the lives of many sex workers as it does not address the legal and real-time challenges in trafficking in persons.

"The clauses of the bill do not directly point at sex workers; however, some of the clauses are linked to them," Samarjit Jana, Director, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute, Kolkata, told IANS.

According to the activists, the bill must clearly state that it does not include consenting adults and they should be enabled to continue with their chosen occupation.

"Trafficking of persons into forced or coerced labour should not be equated with sex work undertaken by consenting adults. This conflation can lead to misuse and over-broad application of the provisions in this bill," Jana, who has for long been associated with the rights of sex-workers, stated.

Another issue that the experts are concerned about is that the government does not offer a proper rehabilitation programme.

"What the government is offering as rehabilitation cannot be called a substantive package for surviving. In the name of rehabilitation, all they offer is stitching classes. How can a sex-worker, who is also a mother, earn enough through simply sewing work," asked Aarthi Pai, an activist and lawyer associated with the Bengaluru-based NGO Sangram.

"There is also the social-stigma factor which the government has been totally ignoring. Indian society will never accept an individual who has been a sex worker. Government needs to have a deeper insight into such factors," she noted.

Jana pointed out that certain guiding principles were shared with the government, asking the WCD Ministry to consider certain factors before drafting the bill -- but these have been ignored.

Earlier this month, around 4,300 sex workers had also written to Maneka Gandhi appealing to her to ensure that the new law does not lead to their incarceration. There has apparently been no action on this either.

(Somrita Ghosh can be contacted at somrita.g@ians.in)ATTAPEU (LAOS), July 24, 2018 Villagers are seen stranded on rooftop of a house after an under-construction dam collapsed in Attapeu, Laos, on July 24, 2018. At least two people are ... Image Source: IANS

: ATTAPEU (LAOS), July 24, 2018 Villagers are seen stranded on rooftop of a house after an under-construction dam collapsed in Attapeu, Laos, on July 24, 2018. At least two people are ... Image Source: IANS

Vientiane, July 25 : Rescuers are searching for survivors after an under-construction hydroelectric dam collapsed in Laos on Tuesday, leaving at least 19 people dead and over 3,000 still to be rescued, media reports said on Wednesday.

At least seven villages in the southern province of Attapeu were completely flooded after the collapse at the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project on Monday evening.

Sanamxay district Governor Bounhome Phommasane said that nearly 3,000 had been rescued and more than 3,000 were still in need of rescue, with more people stuck on trees and roofs of buildings, Efe reported.

He said seven villages and dwellings that are home to over 6,000 people were under water and nearly half the affected people are yet to be rescued or accounted for.

South Korea announced it would send an emergency relief team to Laos.

"President Moon (Jae-in) instructed the government to come up with strong support measures, including the dispatch of an emergency relief team, to Laos," the Presidential office said in a statement.

South Korea's Korea Western Power (KOWEPO) and SK Engineering and Construction (SK E&C) were part of the consortium that had built the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project in southern Laos, one of whose auxiliary dam collapsed on Tuesday flooding entire villages.

The chairman of SK E&C, Ahn Jae-hyun, and several top executives of the company, who have set up a crisis cabinet, are already in Laos to monitor the emergency operation, the company said at a press conference on Tuesday.

There were conflicting numbers of people missing in the remote area reported in the state media outlets of the secretive Communist one-party state.

The Lao weather service has forecast strong to moderate rainfall in the coming days accompanied by strong winds in the region, which could further aggravate the situation.

Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith traveled to the area to oversee the rescue and victim assistance operations.

Thai company Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding (RATCH), which is part of the construction project, attributed the collapse to the continuous rainfall that led a large volume of water to enter the reservoir.

The collapsed dam is part of a national plan to make use of the Mekong River flowing through the country and make Laos a source of electricity for Southeast Asia.

The joint venture Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company won the $1.02 billion tender to build three 410 MW hydroelectric powerplants where the accident occurred.

The plan was for the plant to contribute to the national electric grid with an annual output of 1,860 GWh, upon its completion in 2019, according to RATCH.Islamabad, July 25 : At least 32 people were killed and several injured mostly in a suicide bombing in Balochistan on Wednesday as millions of voters queued up across Pakistan to elect a new government.

The Balochistan bombing targeted the convoy of Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema near a polling station. It left 31 persons, including some policemen, dead. The senior police official escaped unhurt, Geo News reported.

Civil Hospital Quetta officials confirmed the casualties.

The area was crowded as people were making their way to vote at Tameer-e-Nau Model School. Polling was halted at the polling station.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m. Voting will officially end at 6 p.m. while as counting of the votes was being done simultaneously.

Results for the 11th general elections are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to Express News.

The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area.

Two people were also injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.

In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.

The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan's PTI.

In an effort to increase voter participation, the Election Commission has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning, inlcuding the July 13 bombing that killed 150 people.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared "highly sensitive" -- official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence -- in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

Sharif's PML-N has condemned the legal cases facing its members, and reported pressures to leave the party along with harassment to prevent it from returning to power after its absolute majority in 2013.

These elections are the second in Pakistan's history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.Damascus, July 25 : As many as 38 people were killed and 37 wounded in a series of bombings and attacks in Syria's Sweida province on Wednesday, authorities said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said suicide bombers from the Islamic State (IS) detonated bomb vests and explosive devices in Sweida city in tandem with an attack by this terror-designated group on towns in the eastern countryside of Sweida on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.

Three suicide bombers set off their bomb vests near the grocery market and the roundabouts of Mashnaqa and Najmeh in Sweida city, the Observatory said, adding that explosive devices were detonated in the same areas.

In the northeastern countryside of Sweida, where the Syrian warplanes are taking part in striking the IS fighters, the IS militants launched attacks on several towns amid confrontation between the Syrian army and the IS militants.

Meanwhile, a medical source inside the city said that over 30 people were killed in the attacks, adding that the wounded are being taken to the national hospital in the city.

Another explosion took place in the Maslakh area in the city.| BY Ricki Green |

Our Friends Electric (OFE) has announced that is has appointed Vanessa Ballauff to the newly created role of brand director. Sydney based Ballauff is ex-IMG sponsorship director.

Ballauff will be responsible for driving innovation, specifically targeted at new business diversity and growing the agencys owned events portfolio. A seasoned brand-professional, Ballauff brings with her extensive global experience spanning in-house and agency roles across the UK, Europe and Australia.

Says Tim Freeland, founder, OFE: The team are very excited about Vanessa joining as we expand our experientially led suite of services. Ive always known there was a place for Ness at OFE and couldnt be happier that she is joining us to lead this exciting new phase.Ahmedabad, July 25 : A Gujarat court on Wednesday sentenced Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel and two of his associates to two years in jail on charges of vandalising a BJP legislator's office in Mehsana district in 2015.

This was after a rally demanding reservations for Patidar youth in government jobs and educational institutions turned violent in Visnagar town.

A mob of around 3,000 to 5,000 people vandalised BJP MLA Rushikesh Patel's office.

In all, 17 people, including Hardik Patel, were charged with arson, rioting, and criminal conspiracy.

Patel was arrested and released on bail, and subsequently barred by the court from entering Mehsana district.Los Angeles, July 25 : "Beauty and the Beast" fame actor Dan Stevens is all set to share the screen space with actor Harrison Ford in 20th Century Fox's upcoming film "Call of the Wild."

The details of Stevens' role have not yet been revealed but it is said to be a significant one, while Ford is playing John Thornton, a prospector searching for gold in the unforgiving Yukon, reports variety.com.

Being directed by "The Croods" director Chris Sanders, the film is an adaptation of Jack London's classic novel of the same name.

The film will be shot in California, where cutting edge digital technology will be used that will help the filmmakers create the dog-sled racing sequences.

Stevens is currently starring in FX's "Legion".Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh), July 25 : An Assistant Sub-Inspector who had gone to arrest a wanted criminal was brutally done to death by a group of criminals and their supporters in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.

Eight persons have been taken into custody in the case.

Umreth police station ASI Dev Chand Nagle had gone to Jamunia Jethu village to arrest Johar Singh, against whom an arrest warrant had been issued, when the group of 8-10 persons armed with axes and batons attacked him on Tuesday night, Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Soni told IANS.

The ASI was accompanied by another police official, apart from a revenue official. However, the police personnel were unarmed.Kampala, July 25 : Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his country is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

"If I compare India-Uganda trade ties, I can see that we are in a win-win situation," Modi said while addressing the Uganda-India Business Forum here.

"But we are falling short and to correct that we need to strategise," he said.

Stating that Ugandan President is right in saying that there is trade imbalance between India and Uganda, the Prime Minister said: "India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda."

He exhorted the business community to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda.

"India is ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in this country," Modi stated.

He also stressed on innovation saying that without this the world cannot go ahead.

"Uganda can go ahead if the youth of Uganda and India work together," he said, adding that the East African country can play an important role in the overall development of Africa.

On his part, Museveni, while exhorting the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment, said: "You are in the right place in the right time."

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.New Delhi, July 25 : Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government must listen to people speaking truth to power, referring to observations made by economists Arvind Panagariya, Raghuram Rajan and Arvind Subramanian.

"Government must listen to people speaking truth to power. Three eminent economists have done that today," said Chidambaram on Twitter.

"Firstly, Dr Arvind Panagariya has written eloquently about the folly of the government's trade policy and its rush towards 'import substitution'," he said.

"Secondly, Dr Raghuram Rajan has spoken passionately about the 'need to tolerate dissent' in order to become a knowledge society. Thirdly, Dr Arvind Subramanian has spoken from experience why the CEA must always provide honest and disinterested advice. He must be pained that he was not consulted on demonetisation!" Chidambaram added.

Chidambaram was referring to Arvind Panagariya's article in 'The Times of India' which said import substitution would take the economy down from turnpike to dirt road.

The former Finance Minister was also referring to Rajan's remarks made at an event organised by "The Hindu BusinessLine" where he said: "... In an atmosphere, that tolerates dissent, you can exchange ideas and have new ideas created... This strength will carry us going forward when we build top universities because scholars will be able to debate without fear of voicing their views."Bhopal, July 25 : Services in Madhya Pradesh's medical colleges and hospitals continued to be affected on Wednesday, the third day of the strike by junior doctors.

The strike continued despite the fact that the Medical Education Department invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act to prevent agitation by employees in the medical colleges and even sacked an unspecified number of striking junior doctors from service.

Parleys held between the striking doctors, who are demanding an increase in monthly stipend to Rs 20,000, and authorities on Tuesday failed to break the deadlock.

After authorities threatened action, the junior doctors submitted mass resignations.

Owing to the strike, patients at medical colleges and hospitals in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Gawalior and Rewa faced inconvenience, forcing many to approach private hospitals for treatment.

"Patients are in a bad condition. They are not being admitted. There is no one to attend to them. The dates for operations are being postponed," griped Santosh Malaviya, who had come here from Raisen to get a family member treated.Jaipur, July 25 : Two men, identified as Anwar and Padhai, have been arrested in the case of lynching of a tribal, Khetaram, for his alleged affair with a Muslim woman in Barmer district of Rajasthan, police said on Wednesday.

The FIR was registered against 10 persons, including three women, after the man was lynched on July 21 night.

The accused were sent in judicial custody for seven days by a local court, said SHO Vikram Sandhu of Ramsar police station where the case was registered.

According to Sandhu, Khetaram had taken agricultural land on rent from its Muslim owner to set up brickworks. Khetaram allegedly had an affair with a Muslim woman from the family, which warned him to desist but he did not heed.

The police officer said the man's family claimed that he was beaten to death by a mob.

As Khetram belonged to the 'Bheel' tribe, a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was made out, apart from Sections 147, 148, 149, 365 and 302 of Indian Penal Code.New Delhi, July 25 : Bullish on its performance in India in the second quarter, Huawei sub-brand Honor is set to launch gaming-centric 'Honor Play' smartphone in India on August 6.

The device, unveiled in China in June this year, will be an Amazon exclusive, said the listing on the e-commerce platform.

"Honor Play" is one of the first phones to feature the turbo GPU technology for gaming and overall performance. The device has a powerful Kirin 970 CPU accompanied by the new turbo GPU.

The company on July 24 launched "Honor 9N" that comes with notch "Full View" display and 19:9 aspect ratio.

The phone comes in three storage variants -- 3GB RAM +32GB internal storage at Rs 11,999, 4GB RAM +64GB onboard storage at Rs 13,999 and 4GB RAM+128GB internal storage variant at Rs 17,999.

"Honor 9N" will be available on Flipkart from July 31.

With 188 per cent growth, Honor was one of the fastest growing brand in India in the second quarter, registering a 3 per cent market share at the fifth place in Q2 2018, said Counterpoint Research in its latest report.London, July 25 : Brazilian forward Richarlison has joined Everton from another English Premier League club Watford in a reported 50 million pounds deal.

It was reported by English media that the 21-year-old has signed a five-year contract with Everton, who paid an initial 35 million pounds with further clauses taking it to 50m, reports Xinhua news agency.

Richarlison joined Watford last year for 11.5 million pounds from Fluminense, scoring on his full debut for the Hornets in a 2-0 victory at Bournemouth and winning rave reviews for a sequence of assertive and vibrant performances.

The versatile forward struck five times in his first 11 top-flight starts and contributed three assists during the same period, propelling Watford to within three points of the Champions League spot.

Richarlison said: "Everyone in the world knows Everton. It is a very big club, one of the biggest in England as I said. I am really happy and honoured to be here."

"I want to have a lot of success with Everton," said Richarlison.

Everton boss Silva believes Richarlison's range of attributes and fierce work ethic will make him a perfect fit for the Club.

"He is one more player who can help us. "He is a good player who will make our team and our squad more competitive," Silva said.

"The player himself is fast, strong, very good technically and he can play in three positions across the front line. He can also score goals. Evertonians will see a player who will be 100 per cent committed to helping our team always."

Richarlison launched his professional career with America Mineiro as a 17-year-old in December 2014 before signing for four-times Brazilian champions Fluminense 12 months later.

He has been capped 10 times by his country's U-20 team and scored on his international debut against England at St George's Park in September 2016.Lahore, July 25 : For the first time in Pakistan's political history, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)gave the duty of "observers" during polling to members of the transgender community. However, on Wednesday in Lahore they were not allowed to vote and in Peshawar they were barred from entering polling stations.

"There are reports that voters from the transgender community in Lahore are not being allowed to cast their ballot in male polling stations," Dawn reported.

According to Express News, at least 25 transgender observers were barred from entering polling stations across Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa despite being issued the accreditation cards by the ECP.

The transgender community has informed the poll panel of the provincial police's behaviour but no action has been taken yet.

"Transgender Election Day Observer (EDO) was stopped by security forces at Afghan Colony despite having ECP accreditation card," the report said.

Members of the community are not only voting in the 11th general elections but also contesting. Five transgender candidates are in the fray.

At the onset of the election campaign, 13 transgender candidates filed their nomination papers for the contestable constituencies in both the national and provincial assemblies. But nine were forced to drop out due to lack of funds.

Unlike women and religious minorities, transgenders do not have any reserved seats in parliament or the provincial houses.| BY Ricki Green |

The Labs, a human centric experience design consultancy, has bolstered its Australian operations with the appointments of Lee Liversedge, Sally Orme and Yige Ma.

The trio brings strong backgrounds in brand strategy and design to their roles at The Labs, which partners with businesses, developers, architects, and brand builders to create Smarter Experiences that activate places and spaces.

Lee Liversedge, formerly head of brand at Imagination, has joined The Labs as principal consultant, bringing with him a background in brand strategy and over 20 years global experience as an award-winning designer. Through merging his passion for architecture, design and technology, and developing the role of cognitive processes within, he links people to place with purpose.

Sally Orme joins The Labs as a design-led strategist. She brings a unique skillset built over a 20-year career across a range of industries. Orme has collaborated with interdisciplinary teams to tackle diverse problems, including reimagining design specification processes for a manufacturer, prototyping a business model for a new category, coordinating arts programs, conceptualising and co-creating spaces for branded experiences, developing purpose-led brand platforms, and assisting organisations through change.

Yige Ma joins The Labs as a senior experience design consultant. She brings more than eight years of experience in management consulting, program management, digital transformation, start-up and innovation across sectors including financial services, tech/telco, FMCG, media, health and education in the APAC market. Ma has led numerous medium-to-large scale programs with multidisciplinary teams intersecting business strategy, creative, technology, customer experience, brand and agile delivery.

Says David Woodbridge, managing director, The Labs: The skills, experience and success that Lee, Sally and Yige bring to The Labs is exceptional and we are excited to expand our local capabilities with their talents. We have seen tremendous growth in the demand to activate permanent spaces and places with signature experiences and a move away from creating a so called destination.Damascus, July 25 : At least 38 people were killed and 37 wounded in a series of bombings and attacks that rocked government-held areas in Syria's Sweida province on Wednesday, state media and opposition activists reported.

The Islamic State (IS) terror organisation is believed to be behind the violence.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said IS suicide bombers detonated bomb vests and explosive devices in Sweida city in tandem with an attack by the group on towns in the eastern countryside of Sweida, the BBC reported.

Three suicide bombers set off their bomb vests near a grocery market as well as the roundabouts of Mashnaqa and Najmeh in the city, adding that explosive devices were detonated in the same areas.

State news agency SANA said one bomber detonated himself in the market area, adding that two others were killed as they were hunted down by the authorities.

Reports also said government forces were "targeting positions of the IS in countryside to the east of Suweida".

The Syrian military, backed by Russian forces, recently launched an operation to drive the rebels from their remaining strongholds in the south-west.

At least 270,000 people fled their homes in the region as fighting continues, the UN said.

On Sunday, Israel allowed the evacuation of hundreds of White Helmets civil defence workers who were trapped in a war zone in southern Syria.

The Syrian government condemned the move, describing it as a "criminal operation" by Israel and others.Hyderabad, July 25 : The fourth edition of the Indywood Film Carnival (IFC) will be held here from December 1-5.

The event, a flagship venture of Project Indywood, aims to elevate Indian cinema to an international level.

IFC 2018 will be a one-stop platform for showcasing the latest technology and future possibilities in the entire spectrum of filmmaking, skill development, pre-production, production, technical support, post-production, distribution, marketing and release among others.

"Our country is blessed with talented actors and technicians. However, our film industry is not concentrating on making movies which appeal to the international audience. 'Baahubali' is an exception," Sohan Roy, Founder Director of Project Indywood, said in a statement.

"The movie industry will fetch huge gains if we increase the number of international projects by using advanced technology and world-wide distribution. Indywood Film Carnival is an attempt to educate the stakeholders about the importance of such projects.

"The entire industry, including actors, technicians, producers and distributors apart from state and union governments should come forward to support this desi initiative," he added.

He shared that Indywood Billionaires Meet, Indywood Academy Awards, Indywood Telly Awards, Indywood Fashion Premier and All Lights India International Film Festival are major attractions of IFC 2018.Kampala, July 25 : Stating that India has deepened its partnership and engagement across the vast expanse of Africa, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday charted out 10 principles of his country's engagement with African nations.

"India is proud to be Africa's partner," Modi said while addressing the Ugandan Parliament, the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister.

"And, Uganda is central to our commitment to the continent," he said.

He assured India's continued support to Uganda in the fields of agriculture and healthcare, education and training, infrastructure and energy, capacity building in government and training in defence.

"As with Uganda, we have deepened our partnership and engagement across the vast expanse of Africa," Modi stated.

"In the past four years, our President, Vice President and I have collectively visited no less than 25 countries in Africa. Our Ministers have covered virtually all African nations."

The Prime Minister also said that as many as 32 heads of state or government from African countries visited India in the last four years.

"India's engagement with Africa will continue to be guided by 10 principles," Modi stated in the presence of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the House .

"One, Africa will be at the top of our priorities," he said.

"We will continue to intensify and deepen our engagement with Africa. As we have shown, it will be sustained and regular."

Secondly, Modi said, India's development partnership will be guided by Africa's priorities and by relying on African talent and skills.

"Three, we will keep our markets open and make it easier and more attractive to trade with India," he said.

"We will support our industry to invest in Africa."

The fourth principle, the Prime Minister said will be to harness India's experience with digital revolution to support Africa's development; improve delivery of public services; extend education and health; spread digital literacy; expand financial inclusion; and mainstream the marginalised.

"Five, Africa has 60 per cent of the world's arable land, but produces just 10 per cent of the global output," he said.

"We will work with you to improve Africa's agriculture."

The sixth principle, Modi said, is the India-Africa partnership addressing the challenges of climate change.

"We will work with Africa to ensure a just international climate order; to preserve our biodiversity; and, adopt clean and efficient energy sources," he said.

Seventh, he said, both sides will strengthen cooperation and mutual capabilities in combating terrorism and extremism; keeping cyberspace safe and secure; and, supporting the UN in advancing and keeping peace.

"Eight, we will work with African nations to keep the oceans open and free for the benefit of all nations," Modi stated.

"The world needs cooperation and not competition in the eastern shores of Africa and the eastern Indian Ocean," he said reflecting India's vision of a free and inclusive Indo Ocean region.

As the ninth principle, the Prime Minister called for both sides to work together "to ensure that Africa does not once again turn into a theatre of rival ambitions, but becomes a nursery for the aspirations of Africa's youth".

"Ten, just as India and Africa fought colonial rule together, we will work together for a just, representative and democratic global order that has a voice and a role for one-third of humanity that lives in Africa and India," he stated.

Modi also highlighted India's development partnership with Africa which currently includes implementation of 180 lines of credit worth about $11 billion in over 40 African countries.

"At the last India Africa Forum Summit, we had committed a concessional line of credit of $10 billion and $600 million in grant assistance," he said.

He also mentioned India-Africa trade figure which is now over $62 billion, 21 per cent more than the previous year.

Addressing the gathering ahead of Modi's speech, President Yoseveni said that with economic integration, Africa will become an economic powerhouse in the world.

He also described India as among the reliable partners of Africa.

Earlier in the day, Modi participated in the India-Uganda Business Forum during which he said that India is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.Delhi, July 25th 2018 : Indian Exports witness a 20% boosted growth: reveals Suresh Prabhu.

Of late, it has been noticed that the Indian exports have been growing in a healthy and steady pattern. India witnessed a steady success of 20% boost in Indian Exports, revealed Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation.

He had spoken all about the growth in Indian economy at the 2nd Services Excellence Awards and Summit- 2018 that was organized by ASSOCHAM.

Though the pressure from global protectionism was quite high, the Indian exports seem to showcase substantial growth rates. As per the current fiscal year, the rates are expected to reach about 350 USD billion and this is indeed remarkable.

The Minister further revealed from the present study that Service sector will act as the prominent driver of our Indian Economy. This sector is said to bring in $3- $5 trillion growth in economy by the 2025.

In order to reach the 2025 growth, the Commerce Ministry has approved a fund of  500 crore. The scheme outlay was presented in 2017-18 and will be continued up to 2020. This fund will be shared among 12 champion services sectors and alongside continual support initiatives will be provided.

Among the list of approved projects, it encompasses the setting up of trade promotion centre in Bhopal, Imphal International Airport, Solid waste management system at Noida SEZ and also the office construction and a laboratory for export inspection agency in Vishakhapatnam.

Suresh Prabhu added that the Ministry is very confident about the contribution from the services sector. It will also boost India s productivity levels and raise the countrys competitive levels. Better quality exhibited by the champion service sectors will pave way to the exports of other services from India.

It will also boost the employment possibilities within the country, in turn India will earn foreign exchange and boost a lot of economic activities in the long run.

India is constantly aiming for export services to various counties in Latin America and Asia. She has a defined two pronged agenda with her trading partners.

Indian professionals would be allowed to travel abroad and engage in trade facilitation in the service exports. The Minister stressed on the fact that ASSOCHAM should focus on maintaining high standards for the professionals who travel abroad. This in turn will add value and improve quality during the deliverance of services.

At the function, Suresh Prabhu released a Knowledge Study Report. This was jointly formulated with ASSOCHAM and Resurgent India. During the function, he had also given away Excellence Awards for 28 service categories.

At a recent event at the Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO), he notified exporters about new strategies that have to be prepared soon with regard to export. The FIEO President Ganesh Gupta also pitched in that Indian exporters will have to pay heed to challenges like delay in GST refund and the rising credit costs.New Delhi, July 25 : Claiming that Railways was used for "political reasons" earlier, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday slammed the previous governments for not being able to bring the Bullet Train.

"Earlier, Railways was used for political reasons. So many schemes were announced, but there was scarcity of budget to work on all the schemes. We ensured that wherever the land is available and the work is important, it is being done on a priority basis.

"Our plan is to have separate toilets for men and women, water facilities, upgraded waiting rooms and other facilities in every station in the country," he told the Lok Sabha in response to a question.

"The Prime Minister has a vision to make India a technology power so that people get world-class facilities. The bullet train technology has arrived in India after a delay of 50 years because Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come now."

"We got a loan of Rs 1.08 lakh crore for 50 years at an interest of 0.1 per cent from Japan. We want to develop a network of speed rail in the country.

"The government also ensured transfer of technology, so that it helps in 'Make in India' and contributes in improving the economy," he added.

Hitting out at the Congress, Goyal said: "They should be happy that the bullet train project which they could not implement, this government is doing it. The money which they couldn't bring, we got it at a minimal interest."

"The pace at which the work of track maintenance is being done now in one year, that was never possible in three years of UPA government. During 2012-13, only 800 kms of electrification was done, while we electrified 4,100 kms last year. We also laid 4,500 kms of new tracks in a year," he said to a question by Congress' Mallikarjun Kharge on bullet trains, doubling of tracks, electrification and laying of new tracks.Kathmandu, July 25 : Five Indian nationals were arrested on Wednesday for being in possession of over 3 kg of smuggled gold, worth Rs 14.7 million, at Tribhuvan International Airport here on Wednesday, police said.

Iswar Das, Awatar Singh, Amrit Pal Singh, Harmindar Singh and Rijwan Ansari were arrested for smuggling gold from Bangkok. They were flying on Thai Airways.

According to the police, the accused had concealed the gold in their suitcases' wheels. "This was an innovative idea to smuggle the gold... It has been seen for the first time," said Superintendent of Nepal Police Dinesh Raj Mainali.

All the five arrested have been handed over to the airport Customs office for necessary action.

On Saturday also, two Indian nationals were arrested with 2.7 kg of smuggled gold here. They were smuggling gold from Thailand.

"The ultimate market is India," said a police officer, adding that all the smuggled gold that lands in Kathmandu via Dubai, Bangkok, Singapore or China reaches the Indian market due to the open border.Lahore, July 25 : Millions of voters queued up to vote in Pakistan's 11th general elections, with some history-making events also taking place in the conservative areas where women are usually not allowed to take part in an activity outside their homes.

Women in a village located in Khuhab, a city in Punjab, made history by casting their votes for the first time ever since the country came into being.

They reached the polling stations soon after the polling time started and used their right, Daily Pakistan reported.

Females in the tribal district of Mohmand proceeded on foot to the polling stations. Likewise, women in Dir were also allowed to cast their ballot. Dir was once a Taliban stronghold where women had few rights and were not allowed to vote.

In Lower Dir, there was a heavy turnout of women voters and it was the same scene in Mithi and Badin areas of Sindh.

Women were allowed to cast their votes in Hali Banda area of Achini on the outskirts of Peshawar after the Election Commission took notice of locals barring female voters in Peshawar and Bannu from exercising their right to vote.

In another Peshawar constituency, women voter turnout was reportedly very low. Out of 1,700 votes expected to be cast, only 56 votes were cast till the afternoon.

Women have had the right to vote since the founding of the country but being able to use it is a different story.

As the polling progressed, there were complaints of women being barred from voting in several areas, including Noshera, said the Election Commission secretary.

In one constituency of Mandi Bahauddin, a city in Punjab, women were unable to exercise their right to vote.

According to reports, women in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were being dissuaded from voting. No woman voted in Shangla and Kohistan districts of the province.

The reason behind the low female turnout was the absence of a segregated polling station, reports said.

All political parties, especially the religious ones, said in their political campaigns that women should be allowed to vote. However, women in certain areas were forbidden to vote by jirgas -- Council of Elders.

Despite announcements aired by mosques in several areas, women did not turn up to vote.

The election body said that any polling station where women's votes were polled less than 10 per cent of the overall votes cast will have its results cancelled.

The 10 per cent requirement is part of election laws governing the process.

In the ongoing elections, as many as 105.96 million people, including 47 million female voters, will be able to use their right to vote from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m. without any formal break, with over 12,000 candidates vying for 272 national and 570 provincial assembly seats.Thiruvananthapuram, July 25 : Filmmaker Biju Damodaran, also known as Dr. Biju, deleted his facebook page on Wednesday after receiving a stream of abusive and defamatory messages online.

The online hate campaign against him was allegedly the fallout of his reportedly spearheading a campaign against the LDF government inviting a chief guest for the state film awards.

There used to be a facebook page in my name. I have deleted it after receiving a stream of abuses, threats and defamatory messages from fans of certain superstars and those in the film industry itself over the last two days, he wrote in a post on his personal facebook account.

Since the online abusers claimed to be fans of Malayalam movie superstars, there was no point in lodging a complaint against them in the present system, he wrote.

In cultural Kerala, when ordinary folks face a concerted campaign of abuses, threats and racial vilification, they get the feeling that they are completely isolated, the filmmaker wrote.

The post says henceforth he will only keep his personal facebook account where he would be sporadically online to talk with his friends.

He concludes the post with a warning to the online trolls not to harbour the notion that they can muzzle free speech through threats and personal vilification campaigns.

Dr. Biju and several other prominent personalities had signed a memorandum requesting chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to abandon the decision to have a chief guest for the state film awards function.

The signatories opined that the awards function should be a modest one on the lines of the national film awards.

Dr. Biju had publicly opined that the spotlight should be on the award winners and therefore the state government should drop the idea of having a chief guest for the function.

Since, the government had intended to invite actor Mohanlal as the chief guest, the memorandum was widely interpreted as a campaign against the actor, much to the chagrin of the actors fans and well-wishers.

Some of the signatories to the memorandum have since come out clarifying that they had nothing against Mohanlal and that the memorandum made no mention of the actors name.Kolkata, July 25 : A young man in West Bengal allegedly committed suicide, with the his family claiming his girlfriend was blackmailing and extorting money by threatening to make public their intimate videos, police said on Wednesday.

Police also claimed 21-year-old Soruav Ghosh, hailing from South 24 Parganas district's Rajpur, about 20 kilometer from Kolkata, had shared his ordeal through a video clip found on his mobile phone.

Ghosh, left home on July 18. The GRP said he was hit by a train on July 19 at North 24 Parganas district's Hridaypur, which is far from where he lived with his brother.

He died at a private hospital on July 20. As per Barasat Government Railway Police report, it was an "accidental death". Police said a post-mortem will make things clear.

"As per his family, he had an affair with a young woman and he committed suicide after some disagreement between the two. But it is still not confirmed if it is a suicide," said the Investigating Officer of Sonarpur police station.

In the clipping, the man claimed the woman was blackmailing him for money over intimate video clippings.

"We had no idea about their affair. But the video message and other details on my son's phone makes it clear that the woman blackmailed and extorted money from him. He left home as her family was putting pressure on him to marry her," claimed the young man's father.

"The man had refused to marry her after a long affair. We are looking at all possible angles and checking their mobile details," the officer added.New York, July 25 : People who are unemployed, single and young may be considering to deactivate their Facebook account, according to a study which says that the social media giant may be perpetuating existing social inequalities.

The findings showed that people who had looked for work within the last four weeks were more likely to have deactivated their Facebook accounts -- eliminating a potential resource in their job search, the researchers said.

"Facebook, rather than acting as a democratizer, may be perpetuating existing social inequalities," said Eric Baumer, from the Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Older adults, males, from a lower income household, more socially conservative, or those who weigh less are most likely to have never had an account on the social media site.

On the other hand, people who are younger, seeking employment, or unmarried are considering deactivation, while the current users include the middle-aged, females, higher-income earners, married and ideologically liberal.

"My analysis reveals that individuals from lower-income households are less likely ever to have had a Facebook account," Baumer said.

"Yet, social networks have been shown to play an important role in fostering 'social capital', which can be leveraged for accomplishing certain tasks, including securing employment," he noted.

For the study, presented at the 2018 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Canada, Baumer analysed data from 1,000 US households gleaned from a phone survey of adults 18 years or older.

Through probabilistic modelling, the team sought to identify predictors for the four different types of Facebook use and non-use.

Of the factors he explored, eight emerged as predictors of use and non-use: age, gender, marital status, whether the respondent had looked for work in the past four weeks, household income, race, weight and social ideology (liberal to conservative).| BY Lynchy |

In Japan, Coleman is known as a leading innovator and manufacturer of outdoor products. It has helped people have fun and make memories by providing the gear integral to their outdoor experiences. The slogan of Coleman in 2018 is Light Up and with this new brand movie, the brand aims to foster meaningful connections between people, through camping.

Ichiro Ota, CEO of Geometry Japan, said, Colemans history is said to be the history of gasoline lanterns. Wed like to re-introduce how the brand has evolved and what its symbolic lantern brings to people. Leave the hustle and bustle of the city and put yourself in nature with friends and families. Spend time to feel full of yourself. There are no rules or restrictions, just plenty of time for bonding and relaxing. For those feeling empty in this modern society, camping will certainly serve as a positive intervention.Mumbai, July 25 : Conglomerate Larsen and Toubro (L&T) on Wednesday reported a rise of 36 per cent in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

According to the technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services major, the consolidated net profit (attributable to the owners) during the quarter under review rose to Rs 1,215 crore from Rs 893 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year.

The multinational firm's consolidated gross revenue grew by 18 per cent to Rs 28,283 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

"The company won new orders worth Rs 36,142 crore at the group level during the quarter ended June 30, 2018, recording a growth of 37 per cent, with pick-up in domestic ordering activity during the quarter," the firm said in a statement.

"Infrastructure, Hydrocarbon and Heavy Engineering businesses largely contributed to the growth in order inflows during the quarter."

As per the statement, the consolidated order book stood at Rs 271,732 crore as on June 30, 2018.Imphal, July 25 : The three Central government officials who inspected the controversial Border Pillar 81 near Kwatha Khunnou along Manipur-Myanmar border on Wednesday said there was no inconsistency about its location.

"We are going to submit a report to the Centre," Surveyor General of India, Lt Gen Girish Kumar said.

Representatives of several political parties and civil society organisations alleging inconsistencies also joined the inspection.

The border villagers have alleged that the border post has been "shifted" inside Manipur, altering its position. They said the Central team had refused to visit the "original location of BP 81" which is now inside Myanmar.

Manipur Govenment spokesperson Letpao Haokip said: "There is no question of losing our land. We will study the report once it is submitted to the Centre. The official team came to Manipur at our request".

Hareswor Goswami, a Congress spokesperson and a retired bureaucrat who had authored a book on Manipur's shrinking border, says BP 81 is located deep inside Manipur. He produced maps and other documemnts before the officials.

This view is shared by A. Tombikanta, the collector of Tengnoupal district under which BP 81 falls.

The three Central officials, Sripriya Ranganathan, joint secretary of Ministry of External Affairs (Bangladesh and Myanmar), A.V. Dharma Reddy, joint secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs (border management) along with the Surveyor General of India had arrived at Imphal on Tuesday.

The Centre deputed the team to visit the border for verification of the location of the BP 81 in the wake of allegations by villagers, activists and some officials of Manipur that the BP 81 was shifted 3 km deep inside Manipur.

The Central team met representatives of United Committee Manipur (UCM) which was formed in June 2001 for the protection of Manipur's territory. Khuraijam Athouba, general secretary of UCM later said that the central officials came without instruments to verify the rightful location of BP 81.

"The officials said that the location of BP 81 is based on the traditional boundaries which were agreed upon in 1967. They could not explain the basis for the traditional boundaries. We are not satisfied and will continue our agitation," said Khuraijam Athouba.

Union minister of state for home Kiran Rijiju during his recent visit to Imphal had maintained that there was nothing wrong in the location of BP 81. However residents of Kwatha Khunnou and other villages say that BP 81 was shifted.

Activists say Manipur has lost 110 sq. km of territory in an "unexplained manner" ever since Manipur was merged with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949.Kolkata, July 25 : Godrej Interio, a leading furniture manufacturer, is looking at 25 per cent growth of its revenue to Rs 2,500 crore in the current financial year, a company official said here on Wednesday.

The company plans to invest Rs 300 crore in its plants and machinery for a period of three years and Rs 100 crore would be invested in the current fiscal for opening new 35 stores across India, company's Chief Operating Officer Anil S. Mathur said.

"Our revenue is expected to reach Rs 2,500 crore in the current financial year while the company posted a revenue of Rs 2,000 crore in the last fiscal," he told media persons on the sidelines of the opening of a flagship store here.

Of the company's total revenue last year, the business to business (B2B) segment, including office furniture, turnkey projects, healthcare and lab furniture and others, clocked a revenue of Rs 1,200 crore while the revenue from business to consumer (B2C) segment was Rs 800 crore.

"We are expecting B2C segment to grow to Rs 1,500 crore and revenue from B2C is expected to be reaching Rs 1,000 crore," he said.

"Our total investments in plants and machinery in the next three years would be Rs 300 crore," he said, adding that it has seven manufacturing facilities situated at Mumbai, Haridwar, Shirwal and Bhagwanpur.

In addition, the company would be investing Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal for opening of 35 new stores across India .

In its portfolio of furniture, non-metal products have a share of 75-80 per cent while metal furniture has the share of 20-25 per cent, he said.

The company, which has presence in multi-brand online sites, is coming out with an own e-commerce site in the next 4-5 months, Mathur said.

Mathur said the market for home furniture for organised players has been growing by about 20 per cent while the growth for overall market including organised and unorganised was about 8-10 per cent.

With the reduction of Goods and Services tax rates from 28 per cent to 18 per cent, the organised players became more competitive because pre-GST period, overall taxation including excise duty and sales tax was to the tune of 27 per cent.

He also said the home furniture segment in India was estimated to be around Rs 50,000 crore and the organised players have 20 per cent market share. From a state perspective, West Bengal market was estimated to contribute about Rs 5,000 crore.

"Bengal market contributed nearly Rs 200 crore to our overall revenue last year," he added.Patna, July 25 : An opposition delegation led by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday alleged that the Bihar government is trying to save the main accused in the rape case involving dozen minor girls at a shelter home in Muzaffarpur.

The delegation made the observation after visiting Muzaffarpur to assess the ongoing police probe. The delegation members discussed the case with district officials associated with the probe.

"We are looking into whether the probe is moving in the right direction or not. The state government is trying to suppress the case facts to save the main accused," said Tejashwi, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly.

Tejashwi reiterated that the accused had links with the ruling Janata Dal-United, Bharatiya Janata Party and government officials.

"The government is trying to save the accused. Why is police not taking main accused Brajesh Thakur on remand to interrogate him?" he asked.

The former Deputy Chief Minister said that his Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and Hindustani Awam Morcha of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi -- all partners in the Grand Alliance -- have already demanded a Patna High Court monitored CBI probe into the case.

"If Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is ready for a CBI probe, why is the state reluctant to recommend it," the opposition leader remarked.

RJD leaders and supporters raised the issue of shelter home rapes both inside and outside the Assembly here on Wednesday.

Amid growing demands for a CBI probe, Bihar Police chief K.S. Dwivedi on Tuesday said that there was no need since the police probe is satisfactory.

Muzaffarpur Senior Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur said that the shelter home had been sealed after cases of sexual abuse came to light during a social audit by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.

Last week, medical examination of 44 shelter home inmates revealed that 21 were raped. The district police has arrested an official but the main accused are still out.Beijing, July 25 : China said on Wednesday that it was ready to play its role in producing a peace treaty to formally end the Korean War and replace the Korean Armistice agreement, which is set to complete 65 years this week and includes China as a signatory.

China's Foreign Ministry said that it supported efforts to establish a treaty by the parties involved.

"Ending the war stage in the Korean peninsula and replacing the armistice with a peace regime is an important component of a political settlement of the Korean peninsula issue. It is also what the international community hopes to see," Efe quoted Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang as saying in a press briefing on Wednesday.

"As an important party of the Korean peninsula issue and as a signatory of the armistice treaty China will play its due role in this regard," he added.

Geng did not respond when asked if complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was a prerequisite for the peace treaty being signed.

North Korea's state media had urged South Korea on Monday to expedite efforts to sign a treaty and formally end the Korean War of 1950-1953, as agreed in a bilateral summit between the two countries on April 27.

"Given that the South Korean government also has an obligation to carry out what was agreed upon in the Panmunjom Declaration, it should not sit idle on the issue of declaring an end to the war," Uriminzokkiri, one of the main propaganda websites of the North Korean regime, said in an editorial, ahead of the 65th anniversary of the ceasefire on Friday.

"It is a historic task that cannot be delayed anymore to build a solid peace regime by ending the current abnormal state of armistice on the Korean Peninsula," the editorial added.

Meari, another propaganda website run by Pyongyang, urged Seoul to do "its part" to formally end the war.New Delhi, July 25 : Firebrand writer Gauri Lankesh's journalism was "mandatory" and flowed from her activism, her former husband and author of "Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" Chidanand Rajghatta said on Wednesday.

The book (Westland/Rs 299/242 pages) examines the lives of two people -- his own and that of Lankesh -- against the "volatile backdrop of an increasingly fractious and intolerant India".

"The two strands come together in the gutting death of a courageous woman who took on these forces and fought for a more equitable society, a better India," the publisher said in a statement.

"Following in the method of previous murders of rationalists M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, Lankesh's murder chilled the nation, sparking off protests across India," it said, adding that the larger forces that killed these four activists continue to grow.

Saying Lankesh was working close to the ground, the author of this personal-is-political narrative added that she became an activist-journalist from a journalist-activist.

Rajghatta and Lankesh had remained friends after ending their 5-year marriage.

An open critic of the "burgeoning Hindutva faction in Karnataka and elsewhere in India, and a strident supporter of separate-religion status for Lingayats", Lankesh was shot dead on September 5, 2017.

US-based Rajghatta is the foreign editor of The Times of India, and has authored "The Horse That Flew: How India's Silicon Gurus Spread Their Wings" earlier.

"Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason" is published by Westland under their new literary imprint, Context.

The book launch was followed by a discussion with Rajghatta and senior journalist Manoj Mitta.Thiruvananthapuram, July 25 : President Ram Nath Kovind will inaugurate the "Festival on Democracy", a series of programmes organised by the Kerala Assembly in August to mark the conclusion of its diamond jubilee celebrations, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan said on Wednesday.

Sreeramakrishnan told the media that the present series of programmes include a series of national level seminars, aimed at fostering, inculcating, sensitising, reiterating and thereby strengthening the values and ethos of democracy, as envisaged in the Constitution.

"On August 6, there will be a Legislator's conference on Challenges in the Empowerment of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in Independent India and taking part would be legislators from across the country. We are expecting two legislators from every state," he said.

He said among the other programmes that would be held as part of the concluding series include the National Women Legislator's Conference, National Student's Parliament, National Media Conclave on Democracy and Consensus Conclave on Kerala Development.Islamabad, July 25 : People in Pakistan on Wednesday woke up to words used by India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in his iconic first independence day speech at the Indian Constituent Assembly, hours before the country went to polls.

Leading newspaper Dawn carried a headline: "Nation's tryst with destiny today", on its front page. The iconic lines were used by Nehru in his independence day speech in New Delhi towards midnight on August 14, 1947.

"Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially," Nehru had said.

Nearing the conclusion of the speech, he said: "There is no resting for any one of us till we redeem our pledge in full, till we make all the people of India what destiny intended them to be."

Millions of voters queued up to vote in the 11th general elections.Geneva/Switzerland, July 25 : Two United Nations human rights experts on Wednesday urged the government of Pakistan to repeal provisions in its electoral laws that they claim discriminate against the Ahmadi Muslim minority.

Although the Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, an amendment to Pakistan's Constitution in 1974 declared them "non-Muslims", a provision that is included in the current Constitution.

"With national elections today, the current legal requirement for a separate electoral list for the Ahmadis, who have to declare themselves as non-Muslims in order to vote, is of particular concern," Efe quoted Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and Fernand de Varennes, Special Rapporteur on minority issues, as saying in a joint statement.

The civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Ahmadi minority have been progressively negated on account of differences with the majority community, Shaheed and de Varennes said.

"We are deeply concerned about increased acts of persecution of Ahmadis and about the discriminatory provisions against the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan's domestic law. These measures contribute to acts of violence against Ahmadis based only on religious differences," they added.

Both experts expressed concern about the legal requirement that prevents Ahmadis from obtaining national identification and travel documents, which is also a form of discrimination on the basis of their religion or belief, they say.

They called for the death penalty for blasphemy offences to be repealed, saying religious minorities in Pakistan were "disproportionately" charged, simply for practicing their faith.Tehran, July 25 : Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that resistance is the most powerful response to the US' anti-Iran policies.

"The Iranian nation has from the start stood up to the American rulers' intransigence, misconduct and breach of promises in all areas, and has chosen to follow the path of resistance," Xinhua quoted Rouhani as saying to Press TV.

He lashed out at the recent comments by the US officials against Iran as "baseless and unfounded", saying that their "hollow threats" do not even warrant a response.

On Sunday, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told a gathering of Iranian-American in California that "the level of corruption and wealth among Iranian leaders shows that Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government".

Following US President Donald Trump's decision to quit the historic Iran nuclear pact on May 8, the US vowed to re-impose sanctions lifted under the accord against Iran and inflict punishments on nations that have business links with the Islamic country.

The White House has announced that it would bring Iran's oil sales down to "zero".

Rouhani said Iran has undertaken legal international efforts to confront the US' misdeeds.

He said the proceedings have yielded their "first success" with the International Court of Justice telling the United States that it was not allowed to take any action that would influence the tribunal's potential rulings before "Iran's complaint is addressed".

"This is a warning to the United States by the world's most senior legal authority," he said.

"Today, an absolute majority of world states condemn or view US actions as wrong," said the President, describing it as proof that the Iranian nation's resistance has been fruitful.What can a retired Cornell University professor emeritus from the Department of Horticulture learn from his study of Cayo Costas natural history and plants? It turns out a lot! He even wrote a book about the subject: Island in the Sun Reflections on the natural history of Cayo Costa State Park.

Ken Mudge is a recently retired associate professor from the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Over the years, Mudge and his wife have visited many of the state parks in Florida and considers Cayo Costa the best of the best.

Mudge, originally from Ithaca, N.Y., became interested in horticulture as a young man when he began working for a landscaper.

Thats where my interest began, Mudge said, but my teaching has been in forestry farming.

Mudges page on the Cornell University website states that before retiring he was engaged in rural economic development through research and education on development of non-timber forest products

My research focuses on the agroforesty practice of forest farming, with a particular emphasis on forest cultivated mushrooms, Mudge said.

About 15 years ago my wife was looking for some place to vacation and selected the island of Cayo Costa off of a map, Mudge said. Weve visited many Florida parks but once we visited Cayo Costa, we just kept returning to the island.

Cayo Costa is a 2,426-acre Florida state park managed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The island was first inhabited by the Calusa Indians, then Cuban fishermen in the late 1800s and today a few residents own cabins.

According to Mudges book, Cayo Costa is the only Southwest Florida island that has been relatively unspoiled by development.

The other four barrier islands have been shaped by the same processes as Cayo Costa but they have been tamed by man, in terms of extensive developments of roads, condos, etc., Mudge said. Only Cayo Costa remains nearly as pristine as it was before the Spanish conquered the new world.

I think what has preserved the island is Lee County and then the state made Cayo Costa a park, Mudge said. Thats what protected the island from development.

The book, Island in the Sun Reflections on the natural history of Cayo Costa State Park, is a two-part book. The first half is about the early formation of the island, the amenities the state park offers and details of a tram ride from the bay side (east) to the beach side on the Gulf. Mudge calls this the tram ride the 15 minute plant diversity tour.

On the diversity tour, youll see six different communities of plants (out of a total of 12) beginning with the Mangrove Swamp Community on Pelican Bay near the landing docks. As you travel westward, you pass under the live oak trees of the Maritime Hammock Community into a Coastal Grassland Community Mudge identifies as a seasonal desert. Still traveling west youll enter the Coastal Strand Community where some cabbage palms that survived Hurricane Charley still stand and the area that was planted with Gumbo Limbo and Sea Grape. Finally youll reach the Beach Dune Community and the Gulf of Mexico.

The sixth, and last, plant community Mudge covers in his book is the Shell Mound Community. The Shell Mound Community covers the smallest footprint of the five mentioned so far. They carry more significance because of its anthropologic origin (they are Calusa Indian middens). These middens were refuse sites for shell fragments accumulated by the Calusa Indians. Over centuries these shell mounds became quite extensive and some of the few on Cayo Costa rise nearly 15 feet above sea level, he said.

The second half of the book covers the phytogeography. Phytogeography simply means, where the plants are. Mudge explains the plants that are found in the six plant communities in the book: Seagrapes, Saw Palmetto, Marlberry, Coral Bean, Wild Coffee and many others.

Mudge is planning a second book on the remaining six plant communities and the animals found on Cayo Cosa.

Thinking back, I am amazed how much I have learned from Cayo Costa, Mudge said. The geology is more complex than meets the eye. Its not just a pile of sand.

Im convinced that walking around with your eyes wide open is the best way to learn about nature, Mudge said. Hopefully this book will serve as a guidebook that allows the reader to take a systematic approach to learning about Cayo Costa but most of all I hope people have fun!

Island in the Sun Reflections on the natural history of Cayo Costa State Park is available at the concession stand on Cayo Costa for $20 each and on Ebay for $20 each, plus shipping. All of the proceeds from the sale of the book go to Cayo Costa State Park.New Delhi, July 25 : Congress on Wednesday pressed for its privilege motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for allegedly misleading the House on the Rafale fighter jets deal with France.

Raking up the issue during Zero Hour, Leader of Congress in Lok sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said he was moving the motion of privilege against Modi and Sitharaman for some statements made by them during the no-confidence motion debate on Friday.

His party colleague Jyotiraditya Scindia also got up to say that he has also moved a privilege motion against the Defence Minister.

Similarly, BJP member Anurag Thakur mentioned his privilege motion against Congress President Rahul Gandhi for trying to "mislead" the House by levelling baseless allegations during the debate on the no-confidence motion. He demanded action against Gandhi.

The Speaker told the members that their notices of breach of privilege were under her consideration.

The Congress had on Tuesday submitted a notice of privilege motion against Modi and Sitharaman.

Earlier, the Lok Sabha was adjourned briefly on Wednesday after a furore over remarks made by a BJP MP about four women being beaten up in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal and later stripped. He also alleged Dalit atrocities have taken place in West Bengal.

The House resumed work at 12.30 p.m. after being adjourned for some 15 to 20 minutes.

Kirit Somaiya, who represents Mumbai's North-East, said despite having a woman Chief Minister (Mamata Bannerjee), such incidents were happening in West Bengal.

Pointing towards Trinamool Congress members, Somaiya said: "You should be ashamed of this." This offended the Trinamool Congress members who protested.

Congress member K.C. Venugopal moved an adjournment notice over the NEET data leak.

"This type of leaking results in people losing trust and credibility of the examination is also lost.

"This is a very serious issue, government should come forward and put up an enquiry on this. Such things should not be repeated. This is our concern," said Venugopal.New Delhi, July 25 : A day after fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was reportely located in the small Carribean island-nation Antigua, the Congress on Wednesday targeted the government saying the government was "hurriedly" bringing the Ecomonic Offender Fugitive Bill in Parliament as a "face saving exercise."

"Three months after PM Modi meets Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Mehul Choksi gets Antigua's passport," said Congress leader Rajeev Gowda at a press conference.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Browne in London in April this year on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

"Nirav Modi (another fugitive jeweller in the PNB fraud) i.e. Chhota Modi is globetrotting and Prime Minister Modi's 'our Mehul Bhai' i.e Choksi gets an Antigua passport after Nirav visited China, Belgium, UK, US, UAE and Hong Kong," the Rajya Sabha MP said.

"Investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have failed to get a 'red corner notice (RCN)' issued against him (Choksi) till today," Gowda alleged.

The RCN is a request made to Interpol to locate and provisionally arrest a suspect and is usually issued by CBI to the Interpol. "That notice is pending against Choksi," said the Congress leader.Mumbai, July 25 : Two-wheeler major Hero MotoCorp on Wednesday reported a marginal decline of 0.54 per cent in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2018.

According to the company, the profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter slipped to Rs 909 crore from Rs 914 crore reported for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The two-wheeler major said that its EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) margin was impacted by commodity costs, although offset to a large extent by pricing and continuing cost management.

As per a company statement "The impact on the PAT in the Quarter has been on account of the tax benefits coming to an end in Q4 FY18 at the company's manufacturing facility at Haridwar."

The company's revenue from operations increased to Rs 8,810 crore from Rs 7,981 crore (net of excise duty of Rs 641 crore) in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Sales-wise, Hero MotoCorp registered the highest-ever quarterly sales of 21,06,629 units in the first quarter of the fiscal with a robust 13.6 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, when the company sold 18,53,647 units.

"The Indian economy continues to grow in the face of global headwinds from several fronts. However, the industry has been adversely impacted by the volatility in commodity prices driven by global trends," Hero MotoCorp Chairman, Managing Director and CEO Pawan Munjal was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Despite these challenges, the industry will maintain the growth momentum during the rest of the fiscal, with consumption expected to remain high on the back of a normal monsoon and the upcoming festive season. At Hero MotoCorp, we are geared up to ride the positive momentum with new premium motorcycles and scooters, lined up for launch in the coming months."Mumbai, July 25 : Domestic equity indices took a breather on Wednesday to close on a flat note after a largely volatile trade throughout the day. The benchmark BSE Sensex, however, settled at a new closing high of 36,858.23 points, with marginal gains.

Mixed global cues and selling pressure after a largely bullish trend in the past three trading days led the indices to trim gains and end on a flat note, analysts said.

Heavy selling was witnessed in the consumer durables stocks, after they rose in the last two trading sessions boosted by tax-rate cuts on several consumer items on Saturday, they added.

The Sensex also hit a new all-time high of 36,947.18 points during the afternoon session, but could not hold on to the gains.

It closed at 36,858.23 -- higher by 33.13 points or 0.09 per cent -- from its previous close of 36,825.10 points.

It hit an all-time intra-day high of 36,947.18 points, and touched an intra-day low of 36,803.15 points. It had also opened at a fresh high of 36,928.06 points surpassing the previous record of 36,902.06 points touched on Tuesday.

The wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,132 points, lower by just 2.30 points or 0.02 per cent from its previous close of 11,134.30 points.

"It was a volatile session as the index jumped from positive to negative territory several times during the day," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

BNP Paribas Mutual Fund's Senior Fund Manager for Equities, Abhijeet Dey said: "Stock markets opened the day on a positive note but soon pared gains to trade the rest of the day in a narrow range, albeit with a positive bias."

Globally, trade was cautious ahead of the meeting between the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and US President Donald Trump, at the White House, Washington later in the day, he added.

Major Asian markets closed on a mixed note and European indices like FTSE 100 and DAX traded in the red, Jasani told IANS.

On the currency front, the rupee closed at 68.79, appreciating by by 16 paise from the previous close of 68.95 per dollar.

Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 1,195.75 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 97.64 crore.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE metal index gained the most, by 100.21 points, followed by the banking index, up 42.46 points and the finance index rose by 28.10 points.

On the contrary, the S&P BSE auto index fell by 105.79 points, the auto index was down 105.79 and the healthcare index ended lower by 50.95 points from its previous close.

The major gainers on the Sensex were State Bank of India, up 1.78 per cent at Rs 271.45; Adani Ports, up 1.53 per cent at Rs 397.50; Tata Steel, up 1.49 per cent at Rs 534.55; Vedanta, up 1.30 per cent at Rs 218.95; and ONGC, up 1.21 per cent at Rs 159 per share.

The top losers were NTPC, down 4.01 per cent at Rs 150.95; Axis Bank, down 2.59 per cent at Rs 531.85; Power Grid, down 1.29 per cent at Rs 175.65; Bharti Airtel, down 1.28 per cent at Rs 351.85; and Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.19 per cent at Rs 909.45 per share.New Delhi, July 25 : Parliament on Wednesday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018, that provides for measures to deter absconding economic outlaws from evading prosecution by staying outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, with the Rajya Sabha's nod to the law.

The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill last week and it is now set to become a law following President's assent.

The Bill says a person can be declared a fugitive economic offender (FEO) if an arrest warrant has been issued against him for an offence where the value involved is over Rs 100 crore, and he has left the country and refuses to return to face prosecution.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will be the implementing and executing agency for this law.

To declare a person an FEO, an application containing details of the properties to be confiscated and the offender's whereabouts will be filed in a special court by the ED Director. The special courts will be designated under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 and would be "like exclusive courts", according to Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.

The special court will require the person to appear before it within six weeks from issue of notice.

While the Bill allows authorities to provisionally attach properties of an accused, while the application is pending before the special court, the proceedings will be terminated if the person appears before a court. Then he would be tried as per the existing laws.

If the person fails to attend, he/she would be declared an FEO and proceedings to confiscate their property/assets would be initiated.

However, the special court may exempt properties where certain persons may have an interest, such as secured creditors.

Further, the FEO or any company associated with him may be barred from filing or defending civil claims.

In his reply to the debate, Goyal said this provision was kept to prevent the offenders to scuttle legal proceedings through their proxies posing as minority shareholders.

He said some things have been left to the courts' discretion.

On an objection raised by a few members over the authorities not being required to obtain a search warrant or ensure presence of at least two witnesses before a search under the Bill, Goyal said proper safeguards and cautions have been provided under the Bill.

These include the officer mentioning in writing the reason for searches and ensuring the presence of at least two witnesses.

"We have not created any new offence under the Bill. One of the objectives of this Bill is deterrence and the other is to instil fear in the fugitive offenders' minds that they may be stopped from enjoying their ill-gotten wealth and to force them to return," the Minister said.

On the doubt raised by some members during the three-hour discussion that the Bill may not stand judicial scrutiny, Goyal cited a Supreme Court order of 2016 that has said that the government can rightfully deprive a person of enjoying his wealth if it is found that the assets/property is ill-gotten.

As some members raised the question of propriety of government seizing property of a person without his conviction, the Minister said the government sought to seize property of a person who has fled the country and refuses to return. But once he returns in designated time, he would be subjected to the regular laws, he added.

The upper house passed the Bill with a voice vote, rejecting a few amendments moved by CPI-M member Elamaram Kareem.

As Congress members claimed they did not get a copy of the amendments, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said he would order an inquiry into the matter because as per the Rajya Sabha table office, the said amendments were provided to all the MPs on July 24.Shimla, July 25 : An earthquake measuring 2.9 on the Richter scale hit Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday, the weather office said. No loss of life or damage to property was reported.

"Tremors were felt for some seconds at 6.52 p.m.," an official at the Meteorological Office told IANS.

He said the epicentre was in Kangra district.Agra : Agra July 25 (IANS) Even as the UP government and Agra district officials struggle to stitch together a "patch work quilt" called a Vision Document for the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), to submit before the Supreme Court on Thursday, after a stern warning by the justices "demolish or restore" Taj Mahal, environmentalists and social activists in Agra on Wednesday released an alternative Peoples Vision Document for Agra and Mathura.

Shravan Kumar Singh and Surendra Sharma of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society told IANS "the official document is a collection of old ideas and recommendations, with a new flavour, drawn up by a team from New Delhi'sSchool of Planning and Architecture".

But the official 'vision' lacks a soul and basic understanding of the ethos, the Braj culture and the composite Mughal perspective. "We have therefore after series of interactive sessions with all stake holders prepared an alternative vision document which has been sent to the apex court and other authorities," he added.

The Taj Trapezium Zone, (10,400 sq km) is essentially the Sri Krishna land or Braj Mandal. Braj sanskriti is pastoral, agriculture based and centres around cattle conservation. On the western side, the Rajasthan desert touches the borders, on the southern side, the Deccan plateau ends, on the eastern side the Indo-Gangetic (Doaab region) and the northern periphery is influenced by the Himalayan range. Agra is thus placed in a very unique geographical terrain, influenced by the Aravali ranges and the desert, Sharma explained.

River activist Dr Devashish Bhattacharya said: "The high air pollution level is due to dust from the western Rajasthan desert, the dry Yamuna river bed, continuous construction activity, denudation of forest land, population explosion, alarming increase in the number of vehicles. Therefore, we have suggested that the Taj Mahal and its critical ecological components: air, water and greenery, have to be preserved, promoted, restored, rejuvenated."

The alternative Vision document suggests there should be uninterrupted flow of water in Yamuna round the year along with restoration of thousands of water bodies in the Braj area. "Better air quality, without pollutants, particularly SPM, calling for effective ban not only on polluting industries but also on vehicles, plus of course the green buffers to insulate TTZ from dry dust laden winds from the desert. It is extremely important and urgent to arrest the march of the desert from the west and to filter dust laden westerly winds through gaps in the Aravali ranges. Satellite maps show how illegal mining activity has destroyed the ecology of the Aravali hills."

Also there is urgent need for developing Greenery all around, revival of dense forests/mangroves. Twelve forests (vans) are recorded in history: Within this 84 kos area of Braj Mandal there are about 133 vans (forests) including the 12 major forests, 12 up-vans, 12 prati-vans, 12 adhi-vans, 5 sevya-vans, 12 tapo-vans, 12 moksha-vans, 12 kama-vans, 12 artha-vans, 12 dharma-vans, 12 siddhi-vans. Most have now vanished falling prey to urban pressures.

The central thrust of the vision document is on securing recognition for Agra as a heritage city.

The chief reason why tourism has not become "everybody's business" in Agra and not directly benefited the locals in an effective manner is the lack of heritage consciousness, said activist Ranjan Sharma.

A progressive farmer and environmentalist Ravi Singh said in the so-called modern Agra there is evidence of haphazard planning and irrational growth, but then those are not the heritage pieces one would like preserved.

We have to begin by demarcating the areas as Mughal Agra, the British Agra and the Agra Development Authority's Agra. Only then can one go ahead with conserving the real heritage of the city of the Taj Mahal.

Ravi Singh said mixed land use will be detrimental to saving the Taj. The TTZ needs to be de-urbanised with counter magnets and an immediate complete ban on high rise structures in the vicinity of the monuments, as was suggested by Dr S Vardarajan committee.

Dr Anand Rai, ex-NASA scientist and social activist said "Restriction on registration of vehicles has become necessary. Automobiles are the chief source of air pollution. Only those who have garages or parking slots should be allowed to purchase four wheelers. High rise buildings in the vicinity of the monuments should not be allowed as these add to the urban pressure and cause ecological imbalance."

Cultural activist Jyoti Vishal Jha said: "To promote local culture the document demands open air theatres and auditoriums, to promote local art, culture, music and folk dances. Kathak, Haveli Sangeet, Sufi sangeet, nautanki and various other genres need conservational efforts, including research. Local cuisine also needs promotional efforts.

The alternative Vision document blames "multiple authorities" for the mess and lack of direction. It has been one of the long standing demands of the TTZ that for speedy and scientific development, the central government should work out some institutional arrangement to ensure there were no conflicting perspectives and action plans. The document recommends that the central government take up TTZ's development in its own hands, because it is India's most sensitive eco zone.Lucknow, July 25 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday made light of recent mob lynching incidents in some parts of the country and accused the Opposition of making "a mountain out of a mole hill."

In an interview given to an electronic news agency, the monk-turned-politician said that such incidents were being given too much and unnecessary importance.

He went on to question the Congress's all-out offensive against the BJP over mob lynching incidents by questioning them on the 1984 Sikh riots that left thousands dead in the aftermath of the assassination of the then prime minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.

The chief minister also announced that his government was for protection for all but added that "it was responsibility of every individual, every community and every religion to respect each other's sentiments."

"Humans are important as are cows as both have their own roles in nature. Everyone should be protected" the saffron robed politician said in the interview.Lucknow, July 25 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday lauded the state's police force for working hard to change its image.

At an event here, he said law and order had become a huge challenge during the previous governments but the hard work of police had changed the image of both the state and the force as well.

Improved law and order has also brought a change in the perception and investors are flocking to the state now, he said, adding that investment will usher in employment and create development like never before.

Adityanath however cautioned the police personnel from being complacent and advised them to keep pace with changing crime tactics and plan their actions in accordance.

"We have strengthened the ATS to be prepared for any and every contingency, efforts are underway to restart 54 companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) and forensic labs are being established in eight zones of the state," he said.Damascus, July 25 : At least 50 people were killed on Wednesday in a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks claimed by the Islamic State terror group on government-held parts of south-western Syria.

The attacks took place in and around the government-held city of Suweida, according to the state media and monitors. The IS claimed the attacks via its outlet on the messaging app Telegram.

The seemingly coordinated attacks were the deadliest in government-held territory in many months. At least 78 people were injured, reports said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, reported a string of suicide blasts in Suweida and in villages to the north and east. It said militants stormed homes in the villages and killed the occupants.

At least two attackers blew themselves up in the city itself, one near a marketplace and a second in another district, state television said.

The state news agency SANA said two other IS militants were killed before they could blow themselves up.

Militants attacked three villages northeast of the city, it said.

The state TV also said government forces were "targeting positions of the IS" in the countryside to the east of Suweida.

Suweida Governor Amer al-Eshi told state-run Ikhbariyah TV that the authorities had arrested another attacker. "The city of Sweida is secure and calm now," he said.

The Syrian military, backed by Russian forces, recently launched an operation to drive the rebels from their remaining strongholds in the south-west.

On Wednesday, Russia-backed government forces were also reported to be bombarding pockets of IS-held territory in Daraa, west of Suweida, the BBC said.

At least 270,000 people fled their homes in the region as the fighting continued, the UN said.

On Sunday, Israel allowed the evacuation of hundreds of White Helmets civil defence workers who were trapped in a war zone in southern Syria.

The Syrian government condemned the move, describing it as a "criminal operation" by Israel and others.If Cape Coral City Council follows the recommendations of the citys top administrator, the property tax rate will remain the same as will the citys tax on electric bills while the fire assessment rate will climb.

On Tuesday, Cape Coral City Manager John Szerlag released his FY 2019 Proposed Budget, which includes a recommendation to leave the property tax rate unchanged at 6.75 mils, keep the public service tax rate at 7 percent and increase the fire services assessment cost recovery rate from 59 percent to 62 percent of the cost of operations.

The city of Cape Corals taxable values increased 8.49 percent this year. The proposed property tax rate of 6.75 mils, or $6.75 for every $1,000 of taxable valuation, will generate about $92.7 million in property tax revenue. These other two two revenue sources, the public service tax and fire assessment, will produce an estimated revenue of $33.4 million, for the General Fund budget.

These revenues will help address some of the Citys financial challenges in the FY 2019 budget, officials said in a release issued by the city late Tuesday afternoon.

The recommendation to maintain the current rate is based on the financial impact Hurricane Irma had on the Citys fund balance and emergency reserves, the release states. The City used $9 million of emergency reserves and $8.6 million in unassigned reserves. The City expects reimbursement for some of these expenditures from FEMA, however, it could take years for these funds to be reimbursed.

While Hurricane Irma has impacted our FY 2019 budget, we will still be able to maintain a good level of service and keep Cape Coral one of the most affordable cities in Florida, said Szerlag said in the statement.

The budget contains a number of challenges, officials said.

One of these challenges required funding for School Resource Officers in all schools for the upcoming school year., the release states. While the City partnered with the Lee County School District to share these costs, the net annual impact is $1.3 million to the Citys General Fund.

Even with the challenges presented by Hurricane Irma and hiring more than 20 school resource officers, we have managed to craft a budget that allows Cape Coral to move the City forward and remain economically sustainable, said Szerlag.

The budget, which includes $6.5 million for local road paving, $100,000 for new streetlight fixtures, $312,000 for median improvements and $520,000 for alley paving, also maintains some key ongoing capital projects.New Delhi, July 25 : A request for provisional arrest and extradition of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Abdul Karim Naik was sent to Malaysia and a fresh Red Corner Notice (RCN) request sent to Interpol in January this year against him is still unanswered, government told parliament on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir said the Malaysian government was requested on January 19 following a fresh RCN issued on January 3 to the Interpol against Naik, who fled India on July 1, 2016 after terrorists in Bangladesh said they were inspired by his speeches.

Interpol is the international organization that facilitates international police cooperation.

"A request for issuance of RCN (against Naik) was sent to the Interpol on May 19, 2017. Clarifications sought by the Interpol on August 10, 2017 and October 6, 2017 were also provided. However, during 102nd session of the Interpol Commission from December 24-27, 2017, the organisation opined that at that stage of the proceedings, the issuance of RCN for Naik's arrest with a view to his extradition was pre-mature, since the charge sheet has not been filed till the sending of the original request for RCN to the Interpol.

"In view of the Interpol opinion, a fresh warrant was issued by the Ld. Court against Naik on November 24, 2017 and a fresh request of RCN was sent on January 3, 2018. No further communication has been received so far from the Interpol," Ahir said.

The minister said the "Government of India on November 17, 2016, declared Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) as an unlawful association under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967", stating that "IRF and its members, particularly, its founder and President Naik had been encouraging and aiding its followers to promote or attempt to promote feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious communities and groups".

In November 2016, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) registered a case against the televangelist, who is currently living in Malaysia, under the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. His Mumbai-based NGO Islamic Research Foundation has been declared an unlawful association.

The preacher came under the lens of security agencies after some terrorists, allegedly involved in the attack on a cafe in Dhaka in July 2016, reportedly claimed they were inspired by his speeches.

On July 4, Naik in a statement said "I have no plans to come to India till I don't feel safe from unfair prosecution. When I feel that the government will be just and fair, I will surely return to my homeland."

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on July 10 that he will not give in easily just because there were demands from India to extradite Naik. "We do not easily follow the demands of others. We must look at all factors before we respond," the New Straits Times quoted Malaysian as saying.

Mohamad had also said that the cleric would not be handed over to Indian authorities as he had been granted permanent resident status in Malaysia. He had said that Naik would be allowed to stay in Malaysia as long as he did not create any problem.New Delhi, July 25 : Former Vice President Hamid Ansari on Wednesday said that a question was staring at all of us if the open society "we used to take pride in" was facing a serious existential threat amid "voices of sanity" being silenced.

"Mourning is just not enough. We should challenge...if our freedom of expression is being challenged and if that is really facing a challenge then every citizen is threatened," Ansari said at an event here to pay tributes to Kashmiri editor Shujaat Bukhari who was shot dead outside his Srinagar office on June 14.

The former Rajya Sabha Chairman said Bukhari stood for sanity and that was what put him in a difficult condition.

"A good man, good editor and a thinking individual was snatched from us so brutally. We have to ask why." he said, adding the first victims of such a situation become those who carry voices of people to larger audiences.

"Shujaat's death is an example. Not the only one example. Those who speak honestly and candidly are prevented (from speaking) in the most brutal manner. We have a case in Bangalore," Ansari said, referring to the last year murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh who was shot dead in her home on September 5.

"We have to ask ourselves what we are going through. We used to take pride in being an open society and we still do. But we need to stop and ask if that society is in peril."

Malini Parthasarthy, the co-chairperson of The Hindu Group, speaking at the event organised by consulting firm Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals (BRIEF) said Shujaat's "assassination is a chilling reminder of the vested interests and anti-democratic forces who don't want democracy or peace flourish in Kashmir".

She said we needed to ask why the situation was being allowed to slide and why all the peace dividend that had accumulated because of earlier Kashmir initiatives had been wasted away.

"Clearly the answer lies in the continuing indifference of the Modi government to the terror and continuing alienation of the ordinary Kashmiri buffeted between the security forces and the terrorist groups.

"We must stand up to the vested interests on both sides. We owe it to Shujaat and the people of Kashmir for whom we fought so long and hard to isolate the hardliners and fascists, and build public momentum for the revival of a political process and democracy in Kashmir."July 25 (IANS) Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, chief of NDA constituent Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, on Wednesday said that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar should not be chief ministerial candidate in 2020 assembly polls.

"Nitish Kumar should not be the face of chief ministerial candidate in next assembly polls," he told a local TV channel here.

Calling for a new face to be projected as NDA's chief ministerial candidate in place of Nitish Kumar, Kushwaha said: "Nitish Kumar will be Chief Minister for 15 years till 2020, now other should get opportunity to work as Chief Minister."

"Nitish Kumar should go for bigger politics now and he should say no to the Chief Minister's post," he added.

Reacting strongly to Kushwaha's statement, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal-United leader K.C. Tyagi said Nitish Kumar would continue as Chief Minister till people of the state wanted him.

Kushwaha's statement indicates cracks in NDA in Bihar ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls with differences over seat sharing among allies are yet to be resolves.

Last month, the RLSP has presented its chief Kushwaha as a possible Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2020 Assembly polls, with party leader Nagmani saying he had a greater mass base than Nitish Kumar.Srinagar, July 25 : The Army said on Wednesday it has foiled an infiltration bid from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district.

Defence sources said alert troops noticed suspicious movement on the LoC in Keran sector of Kupwara district.

The infiltrating group of terrorists was challenged after which an exchange of fire started in the area, the sources said.

Firing exchanges have stopped, but a search is now going on in the densely forested area to ensure that the infiltrating terrorists do not slip away, the sources added.Canberra, July 25 : A 25-year-old Indian student was killed in Australia after meeting a woman he befriended on an online dating website.

Maulin Rathod, 25, went to a house at Ross Court in Sunbury on Monday night after arranging to meet up with the 19-year-old woman, the Australian media reported.

Later, emergency services were called to the scene and Rathod was found with life-threatening injuries. He was taken to hospital where he died on Tuesday night, according to the Age newspaper.

The woman who lived alone, was arrested and charged with intentionally causing serious injury. Her charges will be reviewed and are expected to be upgraded to manslaughter or murder, the daily said on Wednesday.

She faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was remanded to appear again next week.

Rathod's friend, Lovepreet Singh, said that the former moved to Australia four years ago to study and was in the process of completing his Masters of Accounting.

Rathod was the only child of his parents who have been left devastated by his violent and sudden death, said Singh.

"His parents are in shock... He had a very humble personality and tried really hard with his studies."

Singh said Rathod's friends were trying to raise money to send his body back to India.Chandigarh, July 25 : In a major twist in the investigation of a gang-rape of a 22-year-old married woman, who had alleged that around 40 men had raped her over four days in a guest house in Morni hills area of Haryana's Panchkula district, police on Wednesday arrested her husband on charges of immoral trafficking.

Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police R.K. Meena told media in Panchkula, adjoining Chandigarh, that the woman's husband has been booked under various provisions of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act after investigations done by the special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the Haryana Police revealed other angles to the gang-rape story.

The husband was on Wednesday produced in a local court in Panchkula which sent him to three days' police custody.

Police claim that two other persons arrested earlier were involved in an organized sex trade in the area. Investigators hinted that other women and men could be involved in the sex racket.

The young woman from Chandigarh's Mani Majra suburb had alleged last week that she was taken to the guest house by a man known to her husband on the pretext of getting her a job in the guest house.

"During in depth probe, the SIT came to know there were other angles to the case," Meena said.

Police investigators found a number of loopholes inn the statements of the victim, her husband and other men arrested in connection with the gang-rape case.

Police found records of calls made by the victim to her husband and calls between the husband and the main accused, Sunny, during the four day period of July 15 to 18 when the woman alleged that she was gang-raped in captivity.

Meena refused to say anything at this stage on whether the whole case will remain as that of gang-rape or be converted into a case of immoral trafficking and sex racket. He said that the past history of the victim's husband was being investigated.

The Chandigarh and Haryana Police had earlier made 10 arrests in the gang rape case.

A case was registered by the Chandigarh Police at the Mani Majra after the Haryana Police refused to register the rape case at the Morni police station. After the matter came to light, the Haryana Police suspended the Morni Police Post In-charge, a constable and a Woman ASI (assistant sub inspector) of Women Police Station, Panchkula.

An Assistant Commissioner of Police was also transferred.

An investigation was ordered into the gang-rape incident and the failure of the Haryana Police to register a case when the victim went to complain in Morni.Bhubaneswar, July 25 : The Odisha government on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the socio-economic development of persons with disabilities (PWDs) and their inclusive eye health services.

The Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department signed the MoU with Sightsavers, an international development organization, to create livelihood and job opportunities for persons with disabilities.

The agreement was signed in the presence of department minister Prafulla Samal.

The agreement aims to promote socio-economic development of PWDs and inclusive eye health services for the vulnerable population in 13 districts of the state, said a statement.

More than 3 lakh youths with disabilities in 13 districts of the state will get the benefit of the programme.

As per the MoU, Sightsavers will provide technical support to the SSEPD Department in facilitating inclusion of persons with disabilities in matters related to private sector employment, skill development and developing sustainable livelihood models for PWDs in the state.

The organization will work with the SSEPD Department and other government agencies like the Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM), Vocational Rehabilitation Centre (VRC) and the Odisha Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS) to create livelihood and employability opportunities for PWDs in the state.

Sightsavers will also work on strengthening disabled people's organisations and their networks in the state by building their knowledge and awareness around disability rights, policies, acts, rules and entitlements.

The programme will also make inclusive health services available for the vulnerable population such as widows, transgenders and the aged, it added.

IANS

cd/prs/bgNew Delhi, July 25 : The government on Wednesday agreed to form a select committee to scrutinise the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill but confusion remained whether it would be passed this monsoon session.

As soon as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel rose to speak about sending the Bill to a select committee, Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad opposed him, saying "it has to be in the next session".

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu urged Azad to let the minister move the motion but he did not relent and opposed it.

"It will be in a rush, and it will be passed. Which select committee has given its report in seven days," he asked even as the Chairman assured him that it would not be passed.

Goel said it was agreed upon that at least 10 days should be given as sought by the deputy leader of the Congress. "We are ready to extend it by two more days," he said.

Goel also said that the government has tried to ensure representation of almost every party in the committee.

Congress member Anand Sharma said the Bill needs parliamentary scrutiny.

"If the government feels the necessity to bring the amendment, that justification has to be established through scrutiny of Parliament. The select committee will call experts and all the stakeholders," he said.

He also raised the issue of representation of political parties in the committee.

As the matter generated heat, Naidu gave directions to the government saying "Rework, discuss and come tomorrow."

The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on July 25 by Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma, but it could not be taken up as the Opposition members, including the Congress, protested and demanded that it be sent to a select committee.

The demand was supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Left parties, the DMK, the RJD and others.

The Chairman then took sense of the House and asked the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to discuss the issue with all the political parties and come back to the House.

The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 18, 2017 by Mahesh Sharma and was passed by the Lower House in January. Since then it is pending in the Rajya Sabha.

The Act defines a 'prohibited area' as an area of 100 meters around a protected monument. The Central government can extend the prohibited area beyond 100 meters.

The Act does not permit construction in such prohibited areas, except under certain conditions. It also does not allow construction in 'prohibited areas' even if it is for public purposes.

The Bill amends this provision to permit construction of public works in 'prohibited areas.'New Delhi, July 25 : The scheme proposed by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) for compensating victims of sexual assault and acid attacks should be made applicable to child victims of such assaults, said the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta was of the opinion that the scheme should be modified to some extent to include children of sexual assault.

The bench asked senior advocate Indira Jaising, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, if slight modifications could be done in the 'Compensation Scheme for Women Victims/Survivors of Sexual Assault/Other Crimes-2018' to also include child victims.

The bench asked Jaising to submit a note in this regard to the court.

The NALSA's scheme clearly defines the compensation slabs for victims of sexual assault, acid attacks and even loss of a foetus, and earmarks minimum Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh respectively for women who go through a crisis post sexual assault or an acid attack/

As per the scheme, a minimum of Rs 5 lakh is to be paid in case of loss of life or gang rape of a victim and maximum of Rs 10 lakh. A minimum amount of Rs 4 lakh is to be paid in case of rape or unnatural sexual assault, with the maximum fixed at Rs 7 lakh.

In case of victims of burning and acid attacks, the minimum compensation will be Rs 7 lakh for total disfigurement, with a maximum of Rs 8 lakh. Rs 5 lakh has been fixed in case of 50 per cent burns, while the upper limit would be Rs 8 lakh.

For loss of limb or body part resulting in 80 per cent permanent disability, Rs 2 lakh is to be given, with Rs 2 lakh in case of grievous physical injury.

The scheme provides that in case of pregnancy on account of rape, the victim would get between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh, while for miscarriage or loss of fertility due to such assaults, the amount would be between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.

After the December 16, 2012, gang-rape and murder case in Delhi, the Central government announced in 2013 the Nirbhaya Fund scheme to support state governments and NGOs working for women's safety.

The court was hearing petitions filed after the 2012 case, raising concerns over the safety and security of women.

Earlier, NALSA had told the apex court that hardly 5-10 per cent of sexual assault victims across the country were able to get compensation under the relevant schemes in various states.Kolkata, July 25 : Five out of 12 people arrested for their alleged involvement in the carcass meat selling racket here were on Wednesday grated bail after the state CID failed to produce a charge sheet in the case, 90 days after their arrest.

Two more accused were earlier granted bail on the same grounds.

"Neither a charge sheet has been filed against any of these accused nor the forensic test report of the seized meat could be submitted to the court yet. So the prosecution today (Wednesday) asked the court to accept the bail plea of the accused persons and grant them conditional bail," the state counsel said outside the Alipore court here.

Sarafat Hossain, one of the main accused in the carcass meat case and former CPI-M councillor Manik Mukherjee were among those who were given bail during the day, he said.

The CID said it could not file the charge sheet due to the non-availability of certain reports.

"Five out of 10 people who were kept in jail custody in the carcass meat case were given bail today. The charge sheet could not be filed due to the non-availability of evasion reports," Deputy Inspector General, CID, Nishad Parvez told IANS.

Police had earlier this year, busted a racket involved in processing the flesh of carcasses collected from dumping grounds in Kolkata and adjoining suburbs and selling it to local restaurants and departmental stores. Huge quantity of rotten meat was seized from a city cold storage as part of the investigation.

A dozen people were arrested including the kingpin Biswanath Garai, 52, who also owned the cold storage in north Kolkata's Narkeldanga.

CID took over the probe into the meat racket in May.(CNN)  Hundreds of people are missing and thousands more have been displaced after a dam collapsed in southern Laos, causing flash flooding across six villages, according to the state news agency.

The Lao News Agency said the Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed at 8 p.m. on Monday night, triggering the catastrophic release of 5 billion cubic meters of water.

Houses were washed away in the torrent, which caused several deaths and left more than 6,000 people homeless.

Laotian Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith suspended a planned monthly government meeting to monitor the rescue and relief efforts, the agency said.

Authorities have made a public appeal for emergency aid for the victims of the flooding, including clothing, food, water and medicine.

Pauline Arce, regional disaster law officer for the International Federation of the Red Cross Asia-Pacific, said the Laos National Disaster Prevention and Control Committee had met to discuss the disaster.

She said the IFRC was preparing to issue emergency relief funds for Laos within the next 24 hours, but was already sending relief kits to help 1,000 people displaced by the floods and is helping with search and rescue operations.

The disaster is so far known to have affected at least six villages in the Sanamxay district of Attapeu province. There is no official information yet about how badly the dam has been damaged, what caused it to break or when the flooding is expected to recede.

U.S. non-governmental organization International Rivers said the break was caused by ongoing heavy monsoon conditions and heavy rain in Laos.

Construction on the dam began in February 2013 and commercial operations were expected to begin in 2018. It was due to cost an estimated $1.02 billion.

The South Korean construction company building the dam, SK Construction Co., has dispatched a rescue crew including helicopters and boats to Laos, South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 53 Koreans who were working at the site have been evacuated.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Hundreds are missing in Laos after a dam breaks and floods nearby towns."New Delhi, July 25 : The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the death of three minor sisters in their house in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

"The Delhi government has ordered the probe," Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a tweet.

"I shall go to the house in Mandavali on Thursday morning where this incident took place," he said.

The first autopsy revealed that the girls died due to 'starvation', though the police are still waiting for the second post-mortem report.New Delhi, July 25 : Delhi Police on Wednesday informed the High Court that it will install CCTV cameras in all its police stations in the national capital by mid-October.

A division bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar asked Delhi Police and the Public Works Department (PWD) to file a joint status report explaining the details of vulnerable spots where cameras are required and listed the matter for October 4.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation initiated by it in 2012 after the fateful incident of the December 16, 2012 gang rape case along with a plea of social activist Ajay Gautam seeking installation of CCTV cameras at police stations to ensure transparency.New Delhi, July 25 : A still-born baby was found in one of the lavatories of an AirAsia flight that landed here from Guwahati on Wednesday afternoon, the police said.

The flight had originated from Imphal.

A police official said that a lady, who boarded the plane from Guwahati, delivered a pre-mature baby during the journey. The suspect was identified after all female passengers onboard were questioned.

She was held back by the police for further investigation.

The airline, in a statement, said that the new-born infant was found lifeless and abandoned in one of the lavatories when the aircraft was being prepared for landing.

"The police were alerted and a doctor from the medical team at the Delhi International Airport confirmed that the baby had been delivered onboard."

The matter has been reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the airline's staff are attending to other guests and cooperating with the Delhi Police.

"We will be assisting in the investigation and cooperating with all concerned agencies," the statement said.Damascus, July 25 : The Islamic State terror organization killed at least 183 people, both combatants and civilians, in fighting and suicide bombings in southern Syria on Wednesday, a war monitor said in a report.

UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that IS militants killed 89 civilians in dawn attacks on villages near the city of Suweida, the capital of the southern province of the same name.

The SOHR said that 94 combatants were killed while fighting IS, claiming "most of them (were) people of villages in Suweida countryside, who took up arms to repel the violent and surprising attack of the terror group, which stretched on a 20-kilometre-long front", Efe news reported.

IS later claimed responsibility for the attacks via the group's outlet on the messaging app Telegram.

The Syrian government's official news agency SANA reported that one suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a market in Suweida, while two other bombers were killed by security forces.

However, the SOHR claimed at least four bombers had carried out attacks in the city and added that some civilians were taken prisoner by IS militants and moved to desert areas controlled by the terror organization north of the provincial capital.

Later, Suweida Governor Amer al-Eshi told state-run Ikhbariyah TV that the authorities had arrested another attacker and said that "the city of Sweida was secure and calm now".

The attack by the IS came as Syrian government forces backed by Russian airpower continued their month-long military offensive to recover territory in southwest Syria bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

On Wednesday, Russia-backed government forces were also reported to be bombarding pockets of IS-held territory in Daraa, west of Suweida, the BBC said.

At least 270,000 people fled their homes in the region as the fighting continued, the UN said.

On Sunday, Israel allowed the evacuation of hundreds of White Helmets civil defence workers who were trapped in a war zone in southern Syria.

The Syrian government condemned the move, describing it as a "criminal operation" by Israel and others.London, July 25 : The European Court of Justice on Wednesday ruled that while the makers of renowned chocolate bar Kit Kat might rightfully own the product's name, they cannot claim ownership of its well-known shape.

Swiss transnational food and drink company NestlA had for more than 10 years sought to secure trademark protection for its product's four-fingered wafer shape in the face of legal challenges by chocolate-making rival Cadbury.

"In 2002, NestlA applied to EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office) to register the three-dimensional sign as an EU trademark, which corresponds to the '4 Finger Kit Kat' product which it markets," the court said in its ruling, cited by Efe news.

It added that EUIPO had proceeded in 2006 to register the mark under the category of sweets, bakery products, pastries, biscuits, cakes and waffles.

Then, in 2007 Cadbury Schweppes (now Mondelez) sought to invalidate the registration, but the property office said the product "had acquired distinctive character through the use that had been made of it in the EU", in effect protecting the chocolate bar's shape.

However, the European court subsequently annulled EUIPO's decision, and now it has upheld that ruling.

The Kit Kat shape was only trademarkable if it was distinctive in all of the EU countries and those that trade using product laws in common, such as Norway.

This was not possible because there is another similar product in Norway.

"NestlA, Mondelez and EUIPO appealed to the Court of Justice against the judgment of the General Court," the ruling said and added, "the Court dismisses the appeals of NestlA and EUIPO".

The decision confirmed the legality of snacks like Norway's Kvikk Lunsj which has an identical shape to Kit Kat and has been in production for some 80 years and also creates an opening for imitations that might look like the tea-time chocolate covered biscuit.Kolkata, July 25 : Two school teachers in West Bengal's Nadia district have been arrested for their alleged misbehaviour with two girl students, police said on Wednesday.

The two teachers were nabbed following complaints from the parents of the two girls that he had behaved indecently with the students in the school premises last week.

One of the teachers had allegedly hugged and proposed marriage to one of the victims. The other teacher had purportedly touched the other victim inappropriately.

Both the teachers were presented before a court at Krishnanagar which sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.New Delhi, July 25 : Days after he hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament generating a controversy, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his attempt was to fight his political battles without hatred, pointing out Hinduism teaches that one can not be imprisoned by hostility.

Gandhi, who was the guest of honour at the formal launch of journalist Karan Thapar's book "Devil's Advocate: The Untold Story", said he can hug a BJP leader and fight him politically, but he was not sure if he can expect the same from the BJP.

"If there is one thing that our religion teaches us it is that you absolutely can not get imprisoned by hatred. And that's my endeavour in a little way," he said.

Gandhi referred to the episode in the Lok Sabha during the debate on no-confidence motion last week and said BJP MPs now move "two steps back" when he comes near them.

Attacking the Modi government for a situation where "India today is coloured with "a lot of hate, a lot of anger and frustration", he said that politicians across the political divide, including him, tend to "see the world as them or us".

Pointing to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, who were in the audience, Gandhi said they would agree that this ('them' or 'us') was not his worldview.

"This is the design of our politics: It is confrontational and it is like a winner takes it all. But this is not how I am designed from inside and I am sure this is how many of you are designed from inside. I am sure Mr Advani would agree with the basic idea of what I am saying," he said.

The Congress President recalled his visit to Vietnam about ten years back to see the impact of the country's war with America and said his boatman during ride on the Mekong river happened to be a person who had fought the Americans, had injuries all over his body, had killed an American, "but he did not hate them".

Gandhi emphasised that one can fight an opponent without hatred, which was "an active choice" that an individual makes.

Gandhi said he can disagree with Advani and have a completely different perception about the country. "I can fight him on every single inch but he does not need to hate me.

"I can actually hug him and fight him," Gandhi said to a loud applause.

"This is very interesting how it works because now whenever I come across BJP MPs, they sort of take two steps back... Let us fight, I will take on Narendra Modiji. All my friends sitting here, we will all take on BJP and they will fight us. But we don't need to hate them. I don't know if I can expect the same from them," he said.

Thapar later referred to his interview of Modi that was ended by the then Gujarat Chief Minister in about three minutes and said the leader never returned for an interview after that.

Asked what question he would like to ask Advani, Thapar said he would ask whether he would wear a suit with his name printed on the stripes, in apparent reference to Modi.

Noting he leaves for Britain every New Year, he said: "I am a great believer, that is superstitious side of me that you have to begin the new year in a civilised country. Every New Year's Eve, I disappear from the hatred that (Rahul) Gandhi talks about," he said.

The event was attended by several senior Congress leaders, including Karan Singh, Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel. CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury was also among those present.New Delhi, July 26 : Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that the Centre has approved Rs. 80 crore for flood relief in Kerala and added that an inter-ministerial team will visit the state's flood-hit areas within next 10 days.

The inter-ministerial team has been constituted and it would have officials from NITI Aayog and the Finance Ministry, said the Minister during a reply in the Lok Sabha on the drought and flood situation in the country.

"We have already deployed Army, Navy and other central armed forces in Kerala and the state government and the ministry are jointly working in the flood-hit areas," said Rijiju.

Responding to an allegation from some MPs that the Central government has not released funds, the Minister said it is not true, adding that there is a misunderstanding with regard to the Rs. 80-crore fund released for the state.

Rijiju said that within 10 days a team headed by the Joint Secretary from Home Ministry -- comprising members of NITI Aayog, Finance Ministry and other officials -- will visit Kerala.

Assuring that justice will be done to the state, Rijiju said: "Monsoon hit three days in advance, resulting in unprecedented rains in Kerala and other parts. No state would be discriminated against in release of funds. There is a quantum jump in Central assistance."

He also mentioned that compensation for the families of flood victims has been raised from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs. 4 lakh.

The Minister further said that 21 states and Union Territories have reported damages and losses due to floods and will receive due assistance.

The Minister's claims were challenged by Congress MP K.C. Venugopal, who said the promises made during the Okhi cyclone were never met.

"We are providing immediate relief to people who need it. Disaster management is a priority for the government," said Rijiju.

Patting his back, Rijiju said: "I don't want to appreciate myself but I have also been designated as 'Disaster Champion' for the Asia region by the United Nations for my efforts."

He said the funds for State Disaster Response Forces (SDRF) will be allocated as per the norms.

Venugopal also wanted the Minister to clarify on the funds which would be released for flood relief in the second instalment.

Another MP Suresh Kodikunnil sought to know about the measures taken for Kuttanadu, which was the worst-hit region following the floods in Kerala.

The Minister said he has done an aerial survey of the flood-hit areas and visited the relief camps. "I have instructed senior officials to immediately provide basic facilities to the victims."

He, however, admitted that some areas need more assistance and it will be provided soon.New Delhi, July 26 : After fugitive diamantaire Mehul Choksi was reportely located in the small Carribean island nation of Antigua, the Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi government of "hurriedly" bringing the Economic Offender Fugitive Bill in Parliament as a "face-saving exercise."

"Three months after PM Modi meets Antigua's Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Mehul Choksi gets Antigua's passport," said Congress leader Rajeev Gowda at a press conference.

Modi had met his Antiguan counterpart in London in April this year on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

"Nirav Modi (another fugitive jeweller in the PNB fraud) i.e. Chhota Modi is globetrotting and Prime Minister Modi's 'Mehul Bhai' i.e Choksi gets an Antigua passport after Nirav visited China, Belgium, UK, US, UAE and Hong Kong.

"Investigation agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate (ED) have failed to get a 'red corner notice (RCN)' issued against him (Choksi) till today," Gowda said.

Gowda also said: "Modi government is hurriedly trying to hide behind the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill as it has failed in its fight against black money."

"After four years, deposits in Swiss banks have gone up by 50 per cent. When cornered on these hard facts, a rattled Finance Minister Piyush Goyal is flashing new statistics, new methodology and newer lies to mislead the people," he said.

He also asked what happened to Modi's promise of bringing back Rs 80 lakh crore of black money stashed aboard.

"There are wide legal loopholes in the hurriedly brought Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill. If the constitutionally problematic sections are struck down, nothing worthwhile shall remain in the bill," said Gowda.

Noting that if black money moves out of India, "it doesn't move in a direct manner from India to Switzerland, but via various tax havens like Cayman Islands, Hong Kong etc", he said that Nirav Modi and Choksi also went to Hong Kong and UAE, but the Modi government was not revealing this.

To a question on increase in FDI inflow and money coming from Cayman Island, Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said: "You will be surprised that majority of money comes from all the tax havens."

"The money in Swiss accounts is reduced to a drastic level and the money goes to some other tax havens and from that tax havens it enters the country and that precisely is called a 'round tripping'."Gandhinagar, July 26 : Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday appointed Ashwin Kotwal the party's new chief whip in the Gujarat assembly.

A three term legislator from Khedbrahma, Kotwal was made the deputy whip under Amit Chavda after the December 2017 assembly elections when the party bagged a significant 77 seats.

With Chavda given the responsibility of heading the state Congress recently, Kotwal has been elevated.

Kotwal, 50, won the Khedbrahma seat, a constituency reserved for tribals, in 2007 and retained it in 2012 and 2017. An economics graduate from St. Xavier's, Ahmedabad, he was selected as a member in the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes in 2014, but with the change in government at the centre, could not assume that position.

The Leader of the Opposition Paresh Dhanani has sent a letter to Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, informing him about the new appointment.Tehran, July 26 : Iranian Foreign Ministry has said the US government should forget talks with Iran under sanction threats.

"Iran will never accept one-way negotiations that are based on excessive demands," Spokesman of Foreign Ministry Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying on Wednesday by IRNA news agency.

"Iran has never hesitated to defend the people's rights, territorial integrity, or independence of the country," said Qasemi, Xinhua reported.

US President Donald Trump hinted on Monday that Washington was open to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Tehran ahead of looming deadline for Washington to snap back gold and oil sanctions on Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said that any negotiation with the US to solve the existing mutual problems was an "obvious mistake".

However, Khamenei stressed that negotiations with the Europeans should continue to secure Iran's interests from the 2015 international nuclear deal following the US withdrawal from it on May 8.Almost 425,000 sq m of modern office space was leased in Warsaw in H1 2018 while an additional 700,000 sq m of offices remain under construction. Rents increase on a par with decreasing vacancy rate. New coworking concepts begin to gain traction as well, JLL summarizes the situation on the

[]Temple & Webster, which suggests it was becoming "the next Harvey Norman" has reported its inaugural profit.

It claims to be Australias largest ecommerce company in the furniture and homewares market.

Temple & Webster has over 130,000 products on sale from over 700 suppliers.

Temple & Webster earned $300,000 before interest, tax, amortisation and depreciation in the June-half following a 24% rise in revenues.

The company finished the year with a cash balance of $9.9 million and had net cash flows of $600,000 in the June quarter.

"[Two] years ago we promised our shareholders we would reach profitability during calendar year 2018 without having to raise additional capital, and I am proud to say that we achieved this goal," Coulter said in a statement on Monday.

He expected Temple & Webster to be EBITDA positive in 2019, eight years after its launch in 2011 and two year after being floated in 2016 with its management team, including Mike Henriques (former Wayfair Australia GM) and Sven Lindell (ex Bras N Things, Woolworths and Rebel).

Temple & Webster shares rose 7% to 76, compared with their issue price of $1.10.The Amphitheatre, a plot of land at Blackheath which was marketed as offering "an abundance of pure Australian splendour" has been sold for $900,000.

It comes with its own private cliff line and Blue Mountain escarpment views.

It's been 12 years since this property was on the market.

The 67-acre block of land at 22-40 Mount Blackheath Road was a marketed by Ray White agent Alan Gregory as "pristine bush privacy without sacrificing village accessibility".

.

Within the Blackheath holding is a natural amphitheatre from which it derives its name and is located within 10 minutes of Blackheath village.

Located on the Shipley Plateau it last sold in 2006 for $500,000.Attorney Daniel Gigiano Before Dan started working as an attorney, he already knew the meaning of hard work.

Attorney Daniel Gigiano has his own law practice in Wadsworth, Ohio. In business since 2002 and known as Daniel F. Gigiano Co., L.P.A., Attorney Gigiano provides legal services for Medina County, Wayne County and Summit County, and, occasionally, the counties surrounding that area. His practice primarily consists of family law, criminal defense, personal injury and civil litigation. However, he provides many of the other legal needs his clients may have: estate planning, real estate deeds, probate, bankruptcy, business organization, and business representation. His business representation practice consists of representing a variety of businesses, including small businesses, businesses with one owner, and condominium associations. By providing a variety of services, relationships build over time, as Dan can assist his clients in a variety of matters.

Attorney Dan Gigiano graduated with honors from the University of Illinois in 1990. He finished in the top 20% of his class at Loyola University of Chicago in 1993. He passed the Illinois bar examination on the first try. Coming from humble beginnings, Dan worked throughout this time as a laborer in a factory, installing garage doors, a busboy, a fast food cook, a canvasser for a lobby group, a law clerk in law firms, and a wrestling referee. Before Dan started working as an attorney, he already knew the meaning of hard work.

A few months after Dan Gigiano passed the bar, he started working as an assistant states attorney (assistant prosecutor) at the Will County States Attorneys Office in Joliet, Illinois. Dan spent most of his time on felony and misdemeanor DUI cases, but also handled other misdemeanors and felonies there. From 1996 to 1997, Dan worked as a full time Guardian Ad Litem at the Cook County Public Guardians Office in Chicago, Illinois. The job was fast-paced and challenging, as that juvenile court served an extremely large population with pockets of distressed communities. In that position, Dan represented abused and neglected children, many of whom lived in the high rise projects of the city. Dan visited these children in their homes, seeing first-hand how they lived their lives in one of the most dangerous parts of the city. In 1997, Dan returned to prosecuting cases at the Macon County States Attorneys Office, where he tried numerous felony and misdemeanor cases, and also served as a supervisor.

In 1999, he decided to move to Ohio. While waiting for his Ohio license to be approved, he worked a variety of positions: searching real estate titles, mergers and acquisitions due diligence, and with the Summit County Legal Defender Office. From 1999 to 2000, he worked in a complex civil litigation unit in an Akron firm, representing large corporations. There, Dan Gigiano not only handled extremely complex issues, he also attended a variety of court hearings for the attorneys in the general practice portions of the firm. From 2000 to 2002, he worked for a small general practice firm in Wadsworth, Ohio, where he focused on bankruptcy, criminal defense, estate planning and contracts, while rapidly expanding the family law practice in that firm. At the end of 2002, Attorney Daniel Gigiano decided to open up his own practice in downtown Wadsworth. He started in a small and humble office in downtown Wadsworth. As his practice expanded and succeeded, he moved to his current location in 2006. His current location is on the second floor of a professional office building with an elevator in downtown Wadsworth.

In November 2018, Attorney Daniel Gigiano will be celebrating twenty-five years in the practice of law. Dan worked hard throughout his career to reach this point, often putting in long hours in relentless pursuit of his clients interests. His office is located at 102 Main Street, Suite 200, Wadsworth, Ohio 44281, and he can be reached at 330-336-3330.

For more information, review Attorney Daniel Gigianos website.2019 California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence We are glad to have the chance to show our respect and appreciation for the work of public school educators each year. We applaud the great work of the California Casualty awardees.

California Casualty congratulates the 46 public school educators named 2019 California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence recipients.

The awards highlight educators from around the country cited by their peers for their dedication to the profession, community engagement, professional development, attention to diversity and advocacy for fellow educators.

We are delighted that during our 50th anniversary next year, we will celebrate the largest number of awardees in our history. These educators are keeping the promise of public education by creating learning opportunities for their students that are relevant and rigorous. They advocate for each other, the profession, and public education, says Harriet Sanford, NEA Foundation President and CEO.

We deeply appreciate California Casualtys partnership in recognizing these exemplary educators, and we look forward to honoring them next February on stage at the beautiful National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. and with virtual celebrations across the country.

We are glad to have the chance to show our respect and appreciation for the work of public school educators each year, said Beau Brown, California Casualty CEO. We applaud the great work of the California Casualty awardees.

Each California Casualty Award for Teaching Excellence awardees school will receive $500 from California Casualty. The awardees will also participate in the NEA Foundations 2019 Salute to Excellence in Education Gala held February 8, 2019 in Washington, D.C.

The NEA Foundation and the National Education Association jointly present the awards.

More information about the awards and the individual winners is at http://www.neafoundation.org/for-educators/awards-for-teaching-excellence/california-casualty-awardees/.

ABOUT THE NEA FOUNDATION

The NEA Foundation is a public charity founded by educators for educators to improve public education for all students. Since our beginning in 1969, the Foundation has served as a laboratory of learning, offering funding and other resources to public school educators, their schools, and districts to solve complex teaching and learning challenges. We elevate and share educator solutions to ensure greater reach and impact on student learning. We believe that when educators unleash their own power, ideas, and voices, communities, schools, and students all benefit. Visit neafoundation.org for more information.

ABOUT CALIFORNIA CASUALTY

California Casualty has been serving the insurance needs of educators for 68 years and is the only auto and home insurance company to earn the trust and endorsement of the NEA. As a result, NEA members qualify for exceptional rates, deductibles waived for vandalism or collisions to your vehicle parked at school, holiday or summer skip payment plans and free Identity Defense protection  exclusive benefits not available to the general public. Learn how to save by getting a quote at http://www.calcas.com/NEA, or by calling 1.800.800.9410.The Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association (SLDWA) announced today that their highly-limited Appellation Collection will be released on October 15th, 2018. The Appellation Collection is a highly sought-after wine gift, said Remi Cohen, Vice President and General Manager at Cliff Lede Vineyards and President of the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association.

The Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association (SLDWA) announced today that their highly-limited Appellation Collection will be released on October 15th, 2018. This is the only collection of this type offered to consumers. This years Appellation Collection includes one bottle of 2015 Stags Leap District-designated Cabernet Sauvignons from the seventeen Association member wineries. Only 150 sets are available for this one-of-a-kind offering and it is only available for purchase between October 15th through December 15th, 2018.

The Appellation Collection is a highly sought-after wine gift, said Remi Cohen, Vice President and General Manager at Cliff Lede Vineyards and President of the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association. It is an exclusive collection that allows wine lovers to experience the entire District in one complete horizontal set. Each bottle unveils the unique terroir and soft tannin structure that makes the Stags Leap District the iconic region it is.

The 2015 Appellation Collection includes one bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from each of the following: Baldacci Family Vineyards, Chimney Rock Winery, Cliff Lede Vineyards, Clos Du Val, Ilsley Vineyards, Lindstrom Wines, Malk Family Vineyards, Odette Estate Winery, Pine Ridge Vineyards, Quixote Winery, Regusci Winery, Shafer Vineyards, Silverado Vineyards, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Stags Leap Winery, Steltzner Vineyards, and Taylor Family Vineyards.

The 2015 vintage is a classic vintage in Napa Valley, added Cohen. Higher than average temperatures produced an exceptional vintage, that was high in quality but low in yields. The result are wines that are sensuous and full of character.

The 2015 Appellation Collection is priced at $1,999.00 for the 17-bottle set, packaged in two boxes, with ground shipping included. The Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association is the exclusive retailer of the Appellation Collection and the only American Viticultural Area (AVA) or appellation to offer a vintage-specific assemblage of its wines.

Consumers interested in purchasing the Collection may order online beginning October 15th, 2018, at http://www.stagsleapdistrict.com/appellation_collection.php. For additional information, contact the Association's Executive Director Nancy Bialek at (707) 255-1720.

Availability:

October 15th - December 15th, 2018

150 Appellation Collection sets (Limited Edition)

Sold exclusively by the Stags Leap District Winegrowers Association

Order online:

http://www.stagsleapdistrict.com/appellation_collection.php

Contact Executive Director Nancy Bialek at (707) 255-1720

Cost:

$1,999.00 includes ground shipping for 17 bottles shipped in two boxes with detailed winemaker tasting notes. Additional sales tax applies to purchases made in California and in various other states, to the extent required by law.

Shipping:

Included (where allowed by law).

The 2015 Appellation Collection includes one bottle of each of the following Stags Leap District-designated wines:



Baldacci Family Vineyards, 2015 Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon

Chimney Rock Winery, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon, Ganymede Vineyard

Cliff Lede Vineyards, 2015 Moon Fantasy Cabernet Sauvignon

Clos Du Val, 2015 Hirondelle Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Ilsley Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Lindstrom Wines, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Malk Family Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Odette Estate Winery, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Pine Ridge Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Quixote Winery, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Regusci Winery, 2015 'The Elders' Cabernet Sauvignon

Shafer Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon One Point Five

Silverado Vineyards, 2015 SOLO, Cabernet Sauvignon

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, 2015 FAY Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Stags Leap Winery, 2015 The Leap Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Steltzner Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon

Taylor Family Vineyards, 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve

About Stags Leap District Winegrowers:

The Stags Leap District Winegrowers is a non-profit association of vintners and growers united by the mission of enhancing the reputation of the appellation and its wines, and sharing its quality with the wine-loving world. The SLDWA is comprised of 17 wineries and 10 grower members. Wineries include: Baldacci Family Vineyards, Chimney Rock Winery, Cliff Lede Vineyards, Clos Du Val, Ilsley Vineyards, Lindstrom Wines, Malk Family Vineyards, Odette Estate Winery, Pine Ridge Vineyards, Quixote Winery, Regusci Winery, Shafer Vineyards, Silverado Vineyards, Stags Leap Wine Cellars, Stags Leap Winery, Steltzner Vineyards, and Taylor Family Vineyards. To learn more about the Stags Leap District, please visit stagsleapdistrict.com or find the Association on Facebook.com/StagsLeapDistrict, Instagram.com/StagsLeapAVA, and Twitter @StagsLeapAVA.Aeroseal's HomeSeal Connect: Residential Duct Sealing Made Simple Aeroseal is making duct sealing servicing productive and profitable.

Aeroseal LLC today announced that their HomeSeal Connect duct sealing system was selected as a winner in the 2018 Dealer Design Awards (DDA), an industry coveted honor presented each year by The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration NEWS magazine (ACHR NEWS). HomeSeal Connect was selected from among nearly 100 competing entries to receive the Bronze award in this years Contractor Services and Software category.

Aeroseals HomeSeal Connect received the award for its innovative design and features which make it an ideal tool for HVAC professionals and other residential contractors looking to increase profitability and meet the growing homeowner demand for duct sealing services.

This is the third year and fourth DDA award presented to Aeroseal LLC for its industry-changing duct sealing technology. In 2014, Aeroseal received the silver DDA award in the High Efficiency Residential Equipment category for its original HomeSeal duct sealing system. In 2016, Aeroseal received two silver DDA awards; one for its enhanced HomeSeal PRO system winning in the High Efficiency Residential Equipment category and its Mobile PRO system winning in the Ventilation Products category.

The dealer design award is a particularly coveted honor because winners are chosen by a panel of nearly two dozen HVAC professionals  individuals who are active within the industry and who really have their finger on the pulse of whats happening out in the field, said Bryan Barnes, VP - Business Development  Aeroseal. This award is a testament to the growing demand for duct sealing services and to the impact that aeroseal technology is having on making duct sealing productive and profitable.

The announcement that Aeroseal LLC received a 2018 Dealer Design Award comes on the heels of the company recently receiving the 2018 Environmental Leader award, another prestigious industry honor. Last month, the duct sealing technology was not only chosen to receive one of several Product of The Year awards by Environmental Leader magazine, but it was also chosen above all other award recipients to receive the Judges Choice award  the events highest honor.

About Aeroseal LLC

Aeroseal, LLC is one of the fastest growing clean technologies companies in the world. The companys debut technology, aeroseal duct sealing technology, solves the endemic problems associated with duct leakage in residential homes and commercial buildings. Originally developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with funding from the D.O.E, EPA and others, aeroseal technology is used in both new construction and in existing projects where issues involving comfort, indoor air quality, and energy efficiency, as well as meeting new building specifications, are a concern. Unlike tape and mastic, the aeroseal technology uses a computerized process that works from inside the ductwork to automatically locate and seal leaks. This unique approach to duct sealing is so effective that it is guaranteed to meet building code requirements the first time when used to seal ductwork in new residential construction. Aeroseal LLC has also developed a breakthrough air sealing technology, called AeroBarrier. This technology is helping builders reach airtightness standards that were once cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to achieve in new construction projects. For more information about HomeSeal Connect or Aeroseal technologies visit http://www.aeroseal.com....Alfred Miller Contracting continues to raise the bar for workplace safety in our industry.

Alfred Miller Contracting is proud to announce the success of their recent Better Practices for Safety Forum. Conducted by David Floyd, Safety Director at Alfred Miller Contracting, the forum focused on how to best implement incremental changes in existing safety practices to further enhance the field leaderships productivity, processes, and protocols.

Im proud to recognize our field leadership participants and their collective commitment to constant improvement in all facets of the job process, as Alfred Miller Contracting continues to raise the bar for workplace safety in our industry, says David Floyd.

In recognition of their achievements, 29 awards were given to Alfred Miller Contractings field operations leaders who support the companys 300+ fireproofing crew members on the jobsite in Lake Charles.

The announcement further compliments Alfred Miller Contractings long-standing history of workplace safety excellence in their hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, as the nationwide contractor celebrated its 70th Anniversary in 2017.

ABOUT ALFRED MILLER CONTRACTING:

A nationwide contractor based in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Alfred Miller Contracting has created innovative solutions for Industrial and Commercial construction projects, processes, and operations throughout North America for 70 years.

A recognized authority in Fireproofing, Buildings, and Custom Precast, Alfred Miller Contracting has earned a distinctive reputation in the petrochemical industrys Downstream vertical, as the companys notable history of innovation has literally paralleled its growth since the 1940s.Amberdata Aion Partnership Amberdatas partnership with Aion is the first step towards providing cross-chain analytics so interactions across chains can be observed, said Tongtong Gong, Amberdata co-founder.

Amberdata, the leading provider for blockchain monitoring and analytics, today announced a partnership with Aion Network to provide real-time transparency and intelligence of Aion's blockchain on Amberdata's platform for the community. With support for both the Aion Kilimanjaro (Mainnet) and Aion Conquest (Testnet) blockchains, Amberdata will offer a full suite of tools for monitoring, searching and analyzing Aion networks multi-tier blockchain system.

Businesses that run on blockchain need an easily accessible and clear view of the underlying infrastructure and the services they provide on it. Amberdata creates greater transparency into blockchain infrastructure, applications and transactions so businesses and developers can understand all aspects of what is taking place and make better informed decisions.

As Aion addresses the issues around scalability, privacy and interoperability of blockchain, Amberdata satisfies both developers and businesses need for visibility into the state and health of their smart contracts by providing context to key performance indicators and metrics, said Shawn Douglass, CEO of Amberdata. Were proud to be partnering with Aion Network and look forward to working with its community.

Amberdata enables anyone to monitor real-time block and transaction data, analyze smart contract applications, detect anomalies, track key metrics with historical context, and conduct full text search  information critical to running a business on blockchain and all of which will now be accessible for Aion.

Aion is presenting a decentralized future in which there isnt one blockchain, but many that connect and interact with one another. This creates an even greater need for access to transparent information for understanding how assets and smart contracts move across chains, said Amberdata co-founder, Tongtong Gong. Amberdatas partnership with Aion is the first step towards providing cross-chain analytics so interactions across chains can be observed.

"Amberdata is an exciting new dashboard and analytics platform that provides developers and users with deep insights into the operations and activity on blockchain networks. We are really excited to be part of this next generation platform," said Matthew Spoke, Aion founder.

Amberdata will release more features to its platform for the Aion Network blockchains in the coming weeks. In May, Amberdata launched the first advanced analytics for Ethereum at EDCON in Toronto.

To learn more about Amberdata, deployable enterprise platform, or to schedule an interview, contact media@amberdata.io. Sign up for the free community edition of the platform at https://amberdata.io

About Amberdata

Amberdata is building a SaaS platform for monitoring, searching, analyzing and securing public and private blockchains. Amberdata provides operational intelligence for blockchain infrastructure, on-chain decentralized applications, token utilization and transactions. For more information, visit https://www.amberdata.io

About Aion Network

The Aion network is a multi-tier blockchain network designed to support a future where many blockchains exist to solve unique industry problems and to power the services of the modern world. Aion will become the common protocol used for these blockchains, enabling more efficient and decentralized systems to be built. The Aion protocol enables the development of a federated blockchain network, making it possible to seamlessly integrate dissimilar blockchain systems in a multi-tier hub-and-spoke model, similar to the internet. For more information, please visit aion.networkParticipants in the 2018 Expedition Mt. Kinabalu get ready to climb for boys with Duchenne Our climbers trek up the mountain for all the brave and courageous boys and young men who cant

A pioneering Duchenne muscular dystrophy clinical trial is now recruiting patients at two sites in Malaysia, and Coalition Duchenne dedicated its annual Mt. Kinabalu climb to raising awareness of the need to enroll patients.

There is no cure for Duchenne, and the journey to finding one starts with patients and families willing to participate in a clinical trial, said Catherine Jayasuriya, the founder and executive director of Coalition Duchenne, a global charity committed to raising awareness and funding treatments for the disease. This year, our expedition is dedicated to raising awareness of the new opportunities for families to enroll in clinical trials in Malaysia.

For the past eight years, Jayasuriya has led climbers up Malaysias highest peak to raise money and awareness for Duchenne and the devastating impact it has on patients and families. Collectively, the annual expedition has brought together nearly 500 people from all over the world to climb Mt. Kinabalu. More than two dozen climbers made the trek for this years annual climb, from Germany, the UK, Australia, Malaysia, the US and elsewhere, held July 21-23, on the island of Borneo, in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

Our climbers trek up the mountain for all the brave and courageous boys and young men who cant, and to honor those who have lost their lives to Duchenne, Jayasuriya said.

Jayasuriya and her family speak about the importance of clinical trials from personal experience. Their son, Dusty Brandom, now 25, was one of the first patients to enroll in a PTC Therapeutics clinical trial for ataluren, an orally administered medicine for the treatment of Duchenne caused by a nonsense mutation.

PTC Therapeutics, a US-based biopharmaceutical company, is the sponsor of the clinical trial currently recruiting Duchenne patients at two sites in Malaysia and other countries. Investigators are looking for boys with Duchenne aged five and above who still have the ability to walk. The study will examine whether ataluren can delay Duchenne progression and maintain patients ability to walk, run, and climb up and down stairs over a period of 144 weeks (2.8 years). The safety of ataluren will also be assessed.

The Principal Investigators at the two clinical trial sites in Malaysia are Teik Beng Khoo, MD at Kuala Lumpur Hospital, and Meow Keong Thong, MD at University Malaya Medical Centre.

It is hoped that the results of this trial will drive better understanding of Duchenne and its treatment, and, ultimately, benefit future patients.

Joining this years Expedition were two representatives from PTC Therapeutics from the United States.

Jayasuriya grew up in Kota Kinabalu and always dreamed of hiking up Mt. Kinabalu with her children.

Ive been to the summit with so many people but never with my son Dusty, Jayasuriya said. It is heartbreaking that his body has failed him, but his mind is full of hope and dreams. Dusty is my daily inspiration and he inspires so many people with his ability to overcome personal adversity. This year, as I do every year, I climbed for him.

In addition to the annual climb, Jayasuriya has talked about her advocacy work to physicians around the world, most recently at the 2017 World Orphan Drug Congress in Singapore. She advocates for Asian patients to have access to drugs being developed in the US and Europe.

Boys and young men with Duchenne in this region need a voice and access to new drugs, Jayasuriya said. The drug trial participants are so brave and contribute significantly to the advancement of treatments for Duchenne and other diseases.

Dusty and his grandfather, Tan Sri Thomas, are featured in Jayasuriyas award-winning film Dustys Trail: Summit of Borneo (2013). The film is the story of Dustys journey with Duchenne, and it tells about people coming together from around the world to climb Mt. Kinabalu to raise awareness. Dustys Trail has an important message of hope in the face of adversity, and shows the beauty of Sabah and its people to the world.

About Coalition Duchenne

Catherine Jayasuriya started Coalition Duchenne with her son Dusty Brandom in 2011 to raise global awareness for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to fund research, and to find a cure for Duchenne. Coalition Duchenne is a US 501c3 non-profit corporation.

Coalition Duchenne and its founders have been leaders in sponsoring Duchenne research for over 16 years. Coalition Duchenne has several groundbreaking research initiatives that are making advances in potential cardiac and pulmonary treatments for sufferers of Duchenne and other muscle weakening conditions. The charity is one of the leading advocates for FDA approval of new treatments for Duchenne.

Coalition Duchenne recently launched Duchenne Without Borders, which supports underserved families and boys with Duchenne. Duchenne Without Borders provided boys with Duchenne in Sabah with Ambu bags and bipap machines, and provided information about Duchenne to doctors and families.

The vision of Duchenne Without Borders is to expand its outreach to underserved communities around the world, and give hope and a connection to treatment protocols, drugs, and research initiatives that are readily available in the United States and other developed countries. Duchenne Without Borders has already established collaborations in India, Algeria, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

For more information about Coalition Duchenne: Please visit http://www.coalitionduchenne.org.

About Dustys Trail: Summit of Borneo (2013)

A press kit is available for download from the Dustys Trail website:

dustystrail.com

About Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Primarily affecting males, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare and fatal genetic disorder that results in progressive muscle weakness from early childhood and leads to premature death in the mid-twenties due to heart and respiratory failure. It is a progressive muscle disorder caused by the lack of functional dystrophin protein. Dystrophin is critical to the structural stability of all muscles, including skeletal, diaphragm, and heart muscles. Patients with Duchenne can lose the ability to walk as early as age ten, followed by loss of upper body strength. Duchenne patients subsequently experience life-threatening lung complications, requiring the need for ventilation support, and heart complications in their late teens and twenties. More information on the signs and symptoms of DMD can be found at: http://www.duchenneandyou.comStan Kinnett commented, We have so many opportunities ahead of us at AssuredPartners, and solid leadership and talent on the M&A team will be critical to seizing those opportunities. Ian has already added significant value to the legal process for our acquisitions.

AssuredPartners, Inc. is pleased to announce the promotion of Ian Larson to Vice President & Associate General Counsel  M&A. In this new role, Ian will lead the acquisition function of the legal department and continue to report to Stan Kinnett, Executive Vice President & General Counsel. Ian joined AssuredPartners as Senior Acquisitions Counsel in 2013. During Ians tenure, he has been an integral part of AssuredPartners acquisitions legal team. To date Ian has assisted AssuredPartners in closing over 130 acquisitions.

Before joining AssuredPartners, Ian was in private practice as a corporate and business transactions attorney. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations and economics from the University of South Florida and a Juris Doctor degree from Stetson University College of Law.

Ian remarked, It has been a pleasure working with the AssuredPartners leadership team and the M&A team over the past four and half years and being a part of AssuredPartners unprecedented growth. I am excited to step into this new role and to continue to help execute on AssuredPartners exemplary M&A strategy.

Stan Kinnett commented, We have so many opportunities ahead of us at AssuredPartners, and solid leadership and talent on the M&A team will be critical to seizing those opportunities. Ian has already added significant value to the legal process for our acquisitions and I am confident that he will help us achieve even greater results in his expanded role. Congratulations to Ian on a well-deserved promotion.

ABOUT ASSUREDPARTNERS, INC

Headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida and led by Jim Henderson and Tom Riley, AssuredPartners, Inc. acquires and invests in insurance brokerage businesses (property and casualty, employee benefits, surety and MGUs) across the United States and in London. From its founding in March of 2011, AssuredPartners has grown to over $1 billion in annualized revenue and continues to be one of the fastest growing insurance brokerage firms in the United States* with over 200 offices in 30 states and London. Since 2011, AssuredPartners has acquired more than 200 insurance agencies. For more information, please contact Dean Curtis, CFO, at 407.708.0031 or dean.curtis(at)assuredpartners.com, or visit http://www.assuredpartners.com.

Business Insurance in the July 2018 edition, featuring the 100 largest brokers of U.S. business.Astro Pak moves Northwest Division from Benicia to Fairfield, CA

Astro Pak, the industry leader in stainless steel cleaning and passivation, is moving its northwestern base of operations from Benicia, California to nearby Fairfield. This move is being made to accommodate increased business.

While a large percentage of Astro Paks business is performed by its highly skilled and trained technicians at clients locations, the greater demand for in-house services required a much larger facility. We quite simply ran out of space, said Vice President of Western Region Field Operations, Tommy Tate Jr. Were getting consistent work from a number of ongoing projects and we need the room to be able to handle them.

The new location at 393 Watt Drive, Unit A in Fairfield is a mere 10 miles from its prior home of eight years. Prior to that, Livermore served as home base for the region, with the company previously serving customers from its Downey offices in Southern California.

The new facility has a special wet process area measuring 35 x 55 with several processing tanks of varying sizes. It is surrounded by a fenced 15,000 sq. ft. vehicle yard with a raised loading dock for ease of delivery which allows the company to securely base more service equipment in the area to better meet the needs of its clients. Well be able to provide better service at better prices, notes Carlos Monroy, Assistant Operations Manager in Downey which assists the Northern California office as needed. Well be able to grow the business with this new facility. Mr. Tate adds, The customer knows that were relocating to better serve them, and they appreciate it. Employees began moving to their new offices in the middle of this spring and completed the move without slowing down on service.

Northwest Divisions crews regularly service everything from wineries and railcars to valves and heat exchangers as part of their support of industries as varied as food and beverage manufacturers, biopharmaceutical facilities and power generation plants. It continues to capitalize on Astro Paks 59 years of innovative solutions to the needs of its clients.

About Astro Pak

Astro Pak has been the leading provider of passivation, high purity and precision cleaning services in North America since 1959. Astro Pak meets the critical cleaning and surface conditioning requirements for a myriad of industries such as biopharmaceutical and aerospace via our on-site services, as well as our state-of-the-art cleanroom and shop facilities. Astro Pak is privately held with headquarters in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, please visit astropak.com.

MEDIA CONTACT

Mary Cheng

Astro Pak Corporation

Tel: 949.270.0854

Email: mcheng@astropak.comToday, with annual company revenue approaching $3 million, JSC is well-positioned to experience continued growth and success in the upcoming years.

Jordan Search Consultants (JSC), a St. Louis-based executive healthcare recruitment firm, celebrates 15 years in business this July. Established in 2003 as a regional firm with just two team members, JSC has come a long way since its humble beginnings in one of the St. Louis Economic Development Partnerships incubator spaces. The firm has grown through two strategic mergers and acquisitions to 17 team members serving healthcare organizations across the country.

Today, with annual company revenue approaching $3 million, JSC is well-positioned to experience continued growth and success in the upcoming years. An office expansion is underway to accommodate the companys continued growth.

I started Jordan Search Consultants with the mission of providing top-tier healthcare providers to communities across the United States, said Kathy Jordan, the companys CEO and founder. Today, we remain true to that mission by helping premiere healthcare organizations throughout the country strategically solve recruitment and retention challenges.

In addition to recruiting healthcare providers for urban centers, JSC also focuses on recruiting for rural communities, which often struggle to fill healthcare provider positions.

At its beginning, the company only offered physician recruitment services. Today, their service offerings include recruiting for healthcare executives and academic leadership positions for a nationwide client base. Jordan attributes much of her success to her team: Strategically recruiting, building, developing, and trusting my team has contributed to Jordan Search Consultants extraordinary success.

The company also recognizes the importance of personal growth. Team members are encouraged to donate and volunteer to local causes, and JSC matches their contributions. Additionally, the company pays for continuing education courses for team members.

JSC will be marking its anniversary milestone by making several donations throughout the year to healthcare related causes and initiatives about which the team is passionate. In addition, the firms annual staff retreat will include a celebration and a review of the companys timeline and history to commemorate the anniversary.With the acquisition of Blaze Studios, we can offer our clients a higher caliber of marketing services, particularly in the areas of SEO and content development.

Bay Area digital strategy and marketing consultancy, Baycentric, LLC, announced today the acquisition of Blaze Studios (https://blazestudios.biz). The acquisition represents Baycentrics dedication to delivering innovative marketing techniques to its clientele. Blaze Studio's team of digital marketing experts bring an impressive history of high-impact marketing campaigns that utilize data-driven models, inbound marketing, creative content, SEO, and social media marketing.

With the acquisition of Blaze Studios, we can offer our clients a higher caliber of marketing services, particularly in the areas of SEO and content development, said Matthew Tamayo, CEO of Baycentric.

Baycentric is currently focused on expanding its team to service the rapid growth of its current clients as well as new accounts.

About Baycentric

Baycentric, LLC is a San Francisco based digital consulting firm. Founded in 2004 by Matthew Tamayo, the firm specializes in digital marketing solutions for data-driven business growth. Baycentric has launched over 850 websites and marketing campaigns from a diverse portfolio of local San Francisco Bay Area businesses.

For more information on digital strategy and marketing services please visit https://baycentric.com.

Contact information:

Matthew Tamayo

CEO, Baycentric, LLC

(415) 513-5445

connect(at)baycentric(dot)comWe look forward to working with our new Board leadership team in positioning BOMI International for continued success with a new generation of learners.

The BOMI International Board of Trustees elected several new officers and Trustees, effective July 1, 2018.

With the three-year terms of many of the members of BOMI Internationals Board of Trustees ending this past June, July 1 marked another milestone in BOMIs evolution. Two Board of Trustees members have been elected to serve on the Boards Executive Committee. Tim ODonald, RPA, CPM, President of Harbor East Management Group, LLC, now serves as Vice Chairman Elect. In addition, David Pogue, BOMI-HP, LEED-AP, Global Director of Corporate Responsibility of CBRE, has been elected to serve as Secretary/Treasurer.

The biannual Board of Trustees and officer elections is an exciting time for BOMI International, said Jeffrey Horn, President and CEO of BOMI International. We look forward to working with our new Board leadership team in positioning BOMI International for continued success with a new generation of learners.

In addition to the leadership changes, Chairman Howard Arndt welcomes new Board of Trustees members Peter MacHardy, President and Founder of PEMAC & Associates, and Jonathan JJ Jones, Senior Property Manager with Crescent Property Services.

The experience both trustees bring to BOMI International is outstanding, said Arndt. Peter MacHardy has over 46 years of experience in property and asset management, and Jonathan JJ Jones has over 14 years of facility and building operations management. They will undoubtedly be valuable assets to the BOMI International Board of Trustees.

Currently, MacHardy serves as Chair of BOMI Canadas Board of Trustees. Prior to founding PEMAC & Associates, MacHardys career spanned the areas of administration, project management, property management, occupational health and safety, strategic planning, and team building. He also sat on numerous nonprofit boards, such as Habitat for Humanity and Missing Children Society of Canada, as well as various commercial real estate boards.

Jones recently joined the Crescent Property Services team in Dallas, Texas, where he supervises a team of property and building service professionals. Before joining Crescent, Jones was a Senior Property Manager for Holt Lunsford Commercial, as well as an Assistant Property Manager with Hunt Oil Company. He also serves on the Dallas BOMA Board of Directors. Buildings under his management have received recognition for his property management skills. Awards include six local, five regional BOMA TOBYs, and an international top honor in BOMA Internationals Office Building of the Year competition.

About BOMI International

BOMI International, a nonprofit educational organization founded in 1970, provides critical education and expertise to industry personnel with property, facility, and building systems management responsibilities. As the Independent Institute for Property and Facility Management Education, BOMI International delivers courses, certificate programs, and industry-standard designationsReal Property Administrator (RPA), Facilities Management Administrator (FMA), Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA), High-Performance Sustainable Buildings (BOMI-HP), and Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT)with a proven record of increasing job performance and company efficiency. More than 40,000 industry professionals hold one or more BOMI International designations, and over 90,000 property and facility management professionals have turned to BOMI International for their continuing education, professional development, and staff training needs. To learn more, please visit http://www.bomi.org, call 1.800.235.BOMI (2664), or e-mail service@bomi.org.Set for a new marketing campaign, I Am John H. Holliday DDS. You May Call Me Doc (published by AuthorHouse) by author Patrick Gillen gives a thorough account of Dr. John H. Hollidays life told from his perspective with a lot emotion and a fun Western adventure that readers can enjoy.

Gillen has lived through many of the same most crucial moments as the famous dentist known as Doc Holliday. In this book, he explores Doc's life through a personal lens, drawing parallels from his own experience living with illness. Written from a first person perspective, the style is reminiscent of a memoir  using biographical background from Doc's birth to his death in a way that feels like Doc is sharing his personal story.

In I Am John H. Holliday DDS. You May Call Me Doc, readers are transported into the past as a remarkable story unfolds. Doc Holliday was immediately ostracized by his father due to the cleft palate he was born with. It was his mother who adored him and raised him in her faith and with a love of music. He enters into the field of dentistry with big dreams. His future is shattered when he was diagnosed with consumption and the doctor advises him to go to Texas for the dryer air. As he leaves his family to go into his own exile, he creates a different future for himself and develops a friendship with Wyatt Earp.

From the telling of a man coping with a disabling, terminal illness while trying to preserve his sense of honor and independence and avoid being a burden, Gillen hopes the book will encourage those who are terminally ill or disabled to see that they have a choice to focus on living or dying. He hopes that the story encourages them to focus on living.

Readers may visit https://www.authorhouse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001145882 to purchase and know more about the book.

I Am John H. Holliday DDS. You May Call Me Doc

By Patrick Gillen

Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 234 pages | ISBN 9781546206330

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 234 pages | ISBN 9781546206323

E-Book | 234 pages | ISBN 9781546206316

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Patrick Gillen is a disabled healthcare provider with numerous symptoms and life episodes mirroring Doc Hollidays condition. He was a researcher and author of professional journals. He has previously written Leadership in the Heat of Battle based on the book of proverbs and Thomas Stonewall Jackson. More information about the author can be found at http://www.westernholliday1886.com.James Silverwood, President of Affirmed Housing "Villas on the Park represents a new direction for the City of San Jose. This new community will offer services and housing in one location to help reduce homelessness." James Silverwood, President of Affirmed Housing

Affirmed Housing and partner PATH Ventures host celebratory event to commemorate construction progress. One of the first of its kind in San Jose, Villas on the Park will offer 84 units of permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless in the downtown core of the City of San Jose. Located at 290 N. 2nd Street, a half block north of the historic St. James Park, Villas on the Park will include 83 LIHTC studios for formerly homeless individuals and an on-site resident managers unit. This new model of housing will offer numerous services to assist the homeless residents and encourage them to, again, contribute to society.

The sleek 6 story building has been designed by Dahlin Group and is being built by Brown Construction. Financial support includes the County of Santa Clara, the City of San Jose, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and CCRC. Total development cost of 36 Million dollars, Villas on the Park will prove to be a turning point in the lives of the many people who will utilize the beds and services provided.

Villas on the Park represents a step in a new direction for the City of San Jose. This new community will offer services and housing in one location to help reduce homelessness. We are very proud to be a leader of this groundbreaking community. James Silverwood, President of Affirmed Housing.

Headquartered in San Diego, Affirmed Housing is dedicated to improving and sustaining the viability of California through the development of affordable housing. The company aims at enhancing communities and our environment by building professionally-managed, high-quality, green, multifamily housing. For more information, visit http://www.affirmedhousing.com.Cereius, Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel approaches to treat solid tumor brain metastases, announced today that it has closed a $6.75 million financing.

The financing includes a $6.5M Series A round led by BioInnovation Capital, and includes several individual investors. In addition, Cereius has received a $250,000 loan from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

Cereius was founded in 2017 by Dr. Michael Zalutsky and Dr. Kimberly Blackwell. Dr. Zalutsky is Professor of Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. Dr. Blackwell is Vice President, Early Phase Development and Immuno-oncology at Lilly Oncology and adjunct Professor of Medicine, Duke University. Cereius intellectual property includes next-generation radiolabeling chemistries developed by Dr. Zalutsky and exclusively licensed from Duke University. These techniques increase the uptake of radionuclides within the tumor site by up to 5-fold compared to existing methods while simultaneously reducing the off-target levels in healthy tissues. Moreover, the chemistries can employ a variety of medically advantageous radionuclides to either enhance the detection sensitivity of diagnostic imaging or to improve the therapeutic index of targeted therapies. By combining these technologies with advancements in the field of high-affinity, tumor-targeting agents that can cross the blood brain barrier, Cereius has positioned itself to deliver new targeted classes of both radiologic diagnostics and radiotherapeutics for the treatment of cancers in the brain.

"Solid tumor brain metastasis is a significant unmet need with 30% of advanced solid tumor patients developing brain metastasis. This represents between 100,000-170,000 patients/year in the US," said Dr. Blackwell. "Incidence is growing due to more effective systemic cancer therapies leading to improved survival. Our technology offers a very promising strategy that have the potential for significant advantages over traditional therapies."

Molecularly targeted radiotherapeutics offer multiple benefits compared with standard radiation treatments because they can be used to treat metastases with minimal normal tissue toxicity. There is an emerging interest in targeted radiotherapeutics in the oncology therapeutic arena. The success of Bayers Xofigo drug for treating prostate cancer bone metastasis alongside several recent large acquisitions are notable examples, said Dr. Zalutsky.

"Cereius brings a skilled team and unique solution to treating solid tumor brain metastasis," said Eric Linsley, General Partner of BioInnovation Capital. "We look forward to working with Cereius to support the advancement of its radiotherapies and imaging agents." In conjunction with the financing, Eric Linsley and Susie Harbouth, General Partners at BioInnovation Capital will join Cereius' Board of Directors. Additionally, William Hawkins, Chairman of the Board of Immucor and BioVentus and former CEO of Medtronic, has agreed to join the Board.

"We are excited to have the support of our investors including BioInnovation Capital and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center," said Ed Field, CEO of Cereius. "We are actively advancing our own portfolio of radiotherapies and imaging agents based on our technology. We have also initiated discussions with potential partners who have explored novel targeting agents, like antibodies or camelids (VHHs), and would benefit from our novel radiolabeling technology."

About Cereius, Inc.

Cereius, Inc. is a privately owned, pre-clinical stage company developing novel approaches to treating sold tumor brain metastasis. Cereius novel radiolabeling chemistries increase the uptake and retention of radionuclides in the target tumor while minimizing uptake by normal tissues, significantly enhancing the therapeutic index and diagnostic contrast of targeting agents.

For more information, please visit http://www.cereius.io

About BioInnovation Capital

BioInnovation Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the most-promising life-science companies, which operate out of a network of shared laboratory facilities in several cities across the US. BioLabs North Carolina, the preeminent co-working laboratory for life-science startups in North Carolina, is home to Cereius.

For more information, please visit http://www.bio-innovation.com

About the North Carolina Biotechnology Center

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is the oldest new-tech organization of its kind in the world. The mission of NCBiotech is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina through support of biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide. The General Assembly funds NCBiotech as a private, non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to biotechnology development. NCBiotech is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, with regional offices in Asheville, Greater Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Greenville and Wilmington.

PRESS CONTACT

Cereius Inc.

Ed Field

701 West Main Street

Suite 200

Durham, NC 27701

Phone: 919-667-2502

Email: ed@biolabs.ioAndy Yung, P.E., CFM The Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer credential is a tremendous industry accomplishment. Andy has long proven an invaluable member of our firms Water Resources team and we are proud to see him honored in his area of expertise. - Andres A. Salazar, PhD, P.E., D.WRE

Andy Yung, P.E., CFM, was recently named a Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer (D.WRE) of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE), a subsidiary of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In support of AAWREs mission in Elevating level of Standards  to broaden and deepen the body of knowledge for practicing engineers, AAWREs certification was developed to improve the practice, elevate the standards and advance the profession of water resources engineers. The D.WRE represents strong professional ethics and a commitment to life-long learning and continuing professional development. Since the start of AAWREs Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer (D.WRE) program in October 2004, only over 700 water resources engineers worldwide have qualified for the Diplomate, Water Resources Engineer credential.

Joining the industry in 1988, Yung has extensive experience as an engineer, planner, and hydrologist. He has managed a wide range of engineering projects involving hydrology, hydraulics, master drainage studies, channel modification and hydraulic structure designs, watershed impact analyses, detention facility designs, flood forecasting system development, and dam safety analyses. His project locations span from Alaska to California to New York and all over Texas. Based on his in-depth knowledge, Yung has given numerous seminars, technical papers, and presentations on hydrology/hydraulics to colleagues and the general public.

Yung holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech. He is a licensed engineer in Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia as well as a Certified Floodplain Manager. He is a resident of The Woodlands, Texas.

----------------------

About Walter P Moore

Walter P Moore is an international company of engineers, innovators, and creative people who solve some of the worlds most complex structural and infrastructure challenges. Providing structural, diagnostics, civil, traffic, parking, transportation, enclosure, and construction engineering services, they design solutions that are cost- and resource-efficient, forward-thinking, and help support and shape communities worldwide. Founded in 1931 and headquartered in Houston, Texas, Walter P Moores 600+ professionals work across 18 U.S. offices and five international locations.

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Editors Note: There is no period after the P in Walter P Moore."Our Performance Marketing Platform provides everything you need to drive the greatest volume of sales and growth from partnerships, ultimately resulting in more site traffic, more customers and more revenue." ~ Jessie Adamczyk, Director of Digital Marketing Services, cleverbridge

cleverbridge, a provider of ecommerce and subscription billing solutions for monetizing digital goods, online services and SaaS, announces the launch of its new Performance Marketing Platform. Leveraging Partnerizes partner and affiliate marketing solution, the new platform enables advertisers to onboard, track, optimize and pay any type of publisher  from a Fortune 500 brand to a niche blog  for advertising their products or services. The platform is available immediately as either a self-managed or managed service, the latter of which offers cleverbridges additional strategic marketing, campaign execution, and creative services expertise to help clients boost online traffic, customer acquisition and overall revenue.

The cleverbridge Performance Marketing Platform is powered by Partnerizes partner marketing solution, which supports the worlds top subscription, retail, travel and financial services companies and drives more than $6 billion in revenue annually across more than 300,000 partners in 214 countries and territories. The highly-scalable platform offers clients flexible partner and affiliate management capabilities, real-time performance measurement and analysis for web and mobile conversion, and payment processing and settlement in 60 currencies. In addition to the Performance Marketing Platform, clients also benefit from cleverbridges deep industry expertise, diverse publisher network with a special focus on digital goods and services, and its ability to design superior reward strategies for publishers.

Our clients success is our success, which is why we continuously help them acquire and build long-term customer relationships with shoppers who fall outside the scope of their direct marketing, said Jessie Adamczyk, Director of Digital Marketing Services, cleverbridge. By collaborating with Partnerize, were able to provide clients with best-in-class solutions to measure, optimize, and reward marketing partner and publisher performance, along with our vast experience in establishing profitable relationships with top-performing publishers that enables performance marketing success. Our Performance Marketing Platform provides everything you need to drive the greatest volume of sales and growth from partnerships, ultimately resulting in more site traffic, more customers and more revenue.

Having used multiple traditional networks, were incredibly impressed by the new Performance Marketing Platforms real-time performance tracking and measurement and the granular data and insights that help with budgeting and optimizing our online campaigns, said Vlad Vysotskyi, Affiliate Manager, Kromtech. As a long-time cleverbridge client, were excited about the possibilities of the new platform as we continue to grow and expand our business across the globe.

With cleverbridges Performance Marketing Platform, advertisers can:



Gain actionable insights  Measure and analyze campaign and performance data across channels to make data-driven optimizations to offers and rates in real time. Identify which publishers sell at specific points of the sales funnel; which publishers bring the most/least value; and how to optimize for maximum customer lifetime value.

Predict future performance  Leverage predictive analytics to accurately predict future partner performance for greater visibility and cost certainty with Partnerizes industry-first Performance Forecaster. Receive real-time alerts for anomalies in program data that may indicate problems or opportunities that warrant immediate attention.

Incentivize publishers  Design multi-tiered reward systems to compensate publishers at every stage of the sales funnel with multi-touch attribution, and commission higher rewards for more profitable conversions or sales. Optimize marketing activities based on which touchpoints and channels drive business impact and sales.

Consolidate networks  Centralize programs to minimize workload, expand branding opportunities, and make tracking performance much simpler and consistent. Direct an unlimited number of campaigns, commission structures, and programs, and automate commission calculations, payments, and settlements.

cleverbridge will demonstrate the Performance Marketing Platform at Affiliate Summit East 2018, to be held July 29-31 in New York. For more information on how cleverbridges Performance Marketing Platform can help your business grow globally, please visit https://cbridge.to/performance-marketing.

About cleverbridge

cleverbridge provides ecommerce and subscription management solutions for monetizing digital goods, online services and SaaS. Our cloud-based ecommerce platform simplifies recurring billing, optimizes the customer experience and offers comprehensive global compliance and payment capabilities. Leveraging cleverbridge expertise, technology and services, our B2C and B2B clients acquire more customers, improve retention and grow their revenue in international markets. cleverbridge is headquartered in Cologne, Germany with offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo and Taipei. For more information, visit http://www.cleverbridge.com.

About Partnerize

Partnerize helps the world's leading brands build powerful business partnerships that drive extraordinary business growth. The Partnerize Partner Management Platform (PMP) is an end-to-end, SaaS-based solution for forming, managing, analyzing, and predicting the future results of partner marketing programs using artificial intelligence. Hundreds of the world's largest brands leverage our real-time technology to manage more than $6 billion in partner programs and financial exchanges across 214 countries and territories worldwide. Partnerize is the trading name of the Performance Horizon group of companies. To learn more about Partnerize and partner marketing, visit partnerize.com.Ashleigh Stout For me, loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength means using languages to share the love of Christ with others

Corporate Chaplains of America (CCA) has announced that Ashleigh Stout from West Middlesex, Pennsylvania has been awarded the organizations 10:27 Scholarship.

Ashleigh graduated from high school on May 24, 2018. She plans to begin college at Cedarville University in the fall of 2018 where she looks forward to majoring in Linguistics and minor in Spanish and Bible. Ashleigh will also be certified in TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language). She is the daughter of Michael and Kristina Stout. Her father has served as a chaplain with CCA since April 2012.

CCAs 10:27 Scholarship  a grant of $2,500  is awarded to a student who has shown dedicated commitment to the command to love God and others laid out in Luke 10:27. It is also intended to be a blessing to a CCA chaplain by helping provide for the cost of their childrens higher education.

Jesus says in Luke 10:27, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Ashleighs love for people and her desire to glorify the Lord with her life are evident. At a young age, Ashleigh encountered a situation where a deaf woman was trying to communicate a problem. Ashleigh was unable to communicate with her and the Lord used this to spark her desire to learn sign language for His Glory. I stood there, wanting to help, but I did not know sign language. I could not understand her. I was so upset. I went home and learned the alphabet in American Sign Language. Then, I continued studying and learning. Today, I am fluent and sign daily. I learned that I never want language to be a barrier between me and helping someone For me, loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength means using languages to share the love of Christ with others, Ashleigh recalled.

The 10:27 Scholarship is open for dependent children of full-time CCA chaplains. Students must be US residents in their final year of high school or actively enrolled on a full-time basis and in good standing in an accredited community college or 4-year institution. Scholarships are one-time awards.

Corporate Chaplains of America is a 501(c)3 non-profit ministry and the nations leading provider of full-time chaplain services for companies and their employees. CCA chaplains are available 24/7/365 to provide permission-based, confidential help in times of crisis.

CCA serves over 1,250 work locations in 42 different states. We have more full-time chaplains than any other organization in the country. What sets our chaplains apart is the long-term relationship that is built between employees and their chaplain over the years. Many employees describe their chaplain as a part of their family or a close friend.

For more information about Corporate Chaplains of America, visit our website at http://www.chaplain.org.

Contact:

Kelly Morton

919-570-0700Tom Wheelwright, CPA, CEO of WealthAbility and Tax-Free Wealth Author While major retailers such as Apple, Nike, and Bed Bath and Beyond may see little change to their bottom line, small businesses may see all profits disappear, if this 'Wayfair' change is not managed carefully. - Tom Wheelwright, CPA, CEO and Tax-Free Wealth Author

CPA, CEO and Tax-Free Wealth Author Tom Wheelwright announces six major impacts of the South Dakota v Wayfair Inc. Supreme Court decision (June 21, 2018) on small business. The 5-4 ruling overturned the previous Quill decision, and favored states being able to charge online sales tax across state lines. This decision will hit the wallets of entrepreneurs, small business and consumers.

After studying this case for over 10 years, and teaching it as an Adjunct Professor at ASU (Arizona State University), Tax and Wealth Expert Tom Wheelwright is calling attention to ways small business may be impacted. Wheelwright emphasizes, While major retailers such as Apple, Nike, and Bed Bath and Beyond may see little change to their bottom line, small businesses may see all profits disappear, if this 'Wayfair' change is not managed carefully.

6 Ways Wayfair Supreme Court Decision Impacts Small Business

1. Each State Must Approve Taxes Across State Lines

2. Online Retailers Must Track Tax Law Changes in All States Where They Do Business

3. Retailers need to watch Transaction Levels

4. Retailers may have Extra Costs for New Systems to Collect Online Sales Tax

5. Online Retailers Profit/Loss Numbers need Review

6. Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Win

1) Each State Must Approve Taxes Across State Lines  Each state can now decide whether to tax most internet sales and most mail orders. While all 50 states are not currently taxing across state lines, its only a matter of time because it is a revenue-generator.

2) Online Retailers Must Track Tax Law Changes in All States Where They Do Business  This Wayfair decision gives states the option to charge online sales tax, but its not applicable in every state now. While many states are on board, small businesses need to monitor these online sales tax changes for each state.

3) Retailers need to watch Transaction Levels  Because each state may set transaction levels for the online sales tax to apply, small business need to pay attention to their total dollars and sales volume by state. For example, if a retailer reaches 200 taxable sales in a calendar year or $100,000 in gross income from customers in South Dakota, retailers must pay sales tax, even if they do not have a physical presence there. Many states are already adopting these South Dakota benchmarks.

4) Retailers may have Extra Costs for New Systems to Collect Online Sales Tax - Retailers may face new costs and extra manpower expenses to collect these new sales taxes, especially small business. While there are systems to help retailers, they may be required to send new payments and reports every month to states for sales tax based on where their customers live. For example, if an online retailer in San Francisco has a customer buy from Orlando, then this California retailer may be required to send a sales tax check to Florida that month. And for big retailers, systems may need to be set up to send 50 sales tax checks out every month.

5) Online Retailers Profit/Loss Numbers need Review - Small businesses who sell products on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy may no longer see a profit as states start charging online sales tax, unless they are careful and charge, collect and remit sales taxes to the states where they have significant sales. As a result, small business who sell products on the internet will need to carefully review their bottom line.

6) Brick-And-Mortar Retailers Win The good news for small business is the Wayfair decision is a big win for brick-and-mortar retailers with a physical store who found it hard to compete with online retailers. Consumers will no longer be able to avoid state tax by buying online in most states, and may start going back to the stores.

Bottom line, the internet has changed everything for retailers, and expanded sales opportunities for small business across state lines. According to research firm eMarketer, U.S. ecommerce sales in 2017 grew 15.8 percent to $452.8 billion. And research firm Statista projects that ecommerce will comprise 15.5 percent of all global retail sales by 2021. The Supreme Court Wayfair decision is saying its time to tax this significant revenue generator across state lines.

Media Contact

Liz Kelly, 310-987-7207

About Tom Wheelwright

Tom Wheelwright is a CPA, CEO of WealthAbility, Best-Selling Author of Tax-Free Wealth, Tax-Free Wealth Network Founder, Host of The WealthAbility Show with Tom Wheelwright CPA and Entrepreneur Magazine Contributor. Tom is best known for making taxes fun, easy and understandable, and specializes in helping entrepreneurs and investors build wealth through practical and strategic ways that permanently reduce taxes. His WealthAbility clients keep Way More Money and Pay Way Less Taxes by making taxes their Best Friend. As a Rich Dad Advisor to Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad), Tom frequently speaks at conferences worldwide to entrepreneurs on these topics. His work has been featured in Accounting Today, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Investors Business Daily, Consumer Reports, FOX & Friends, CBS 5 News Phoenix, FOX 10 News Phoenix, ABC News Radio, Marketplace, NPR, and many more media.http://wealthability.comDatometry, Inc. Solving replatformingone of the most pressing problems enterprises face todayat a fraction of cost time and risk is as critical to Microsoft as it is to enterprise customers.

Datometry today announced it has been named Winner of the Microsoft Cloud Innovation Data Estate Modernization 2018 Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence for its data warehouse virtualization SaaS solutions enabling enterprises to replatform existing or on-premise data warehouses to Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse in weeks, not years, and without rewriting applications.

Datometry virtualization technology makes databases and applications truly inter-operable which means Global 2000 enterprises can replatform to cloud databases, such as Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, in weeks, not years, and without rewriting applications. The companys solutions make the conventional approach of rewriting applications unnecessary, protect long-standing investments in mission-critical business logic, and enables enterprises to realize CAPEX savings swiftly.

Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a cloud-based, high-performance, globally available, and lower-cost secure cloud data warehouse which enables enterprises to independently scale compute and storage through a massively parallel processing architecture designed for the cloud. The data warehouse seamlessly creates the enterprise hub for analytics along with native connectivity with data integration and visualization services.

Were extremely proud and humbled to be named Cloud Innovation Winner by Microsoft among so many tier-one partners. This award is testament to the value we bring to Microsoft Azure. Solving replatformingone of the most pressing problems enterprises face todayat a fraction of cost time and risk is as critical to Microsoft as it is to enterprise customers, says Mike Waas, Founder & CEO of Datometry.

Bob Ellsworth, Director Enterprise Modernization at Microsoft Corp, We are very pleased that Datometry has emerged as the Winner of the Cloud Innovation Data Estate Modernization 2018 Award. Datometry was recognized with this award as a key member of our Platform Modernization Alliance. The customer response to our joint offering of replatforming existing data warehouses to the modern, cloud-native Azure SQL DW with Datometry SaaS solutions has been nothing short of phenomenal. We look forward to working closely with Datometry.

About Datometry

Datometry (http://www.datometry.com) is empowering global enterprises to gain competitive advantage by up-leveling their data management to become cloud-native quickly and effectively. With the companys suite of SaaS solutions, enterprises can replatform existing data warehouses to the cloud at up to 80% savings of replatforming time, cost, and risk, and without application rewrite. Powered by Datometry Adaptive Data Virtualization technology, the companys SaaS offerings include: Datometry Hyper-Q, the flagship product enabling replatforming of existing applications on any cloud database in real-time; Datometry qInsight, the only product in the market to provide unprecedented insights into data warehouse workloads; and, Datometry qShift automating the generation of optimized destination data warehouse schema.



Datometry is headquartered in San Francisco, California

Datometry and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Datometry, Inc.It's not easy being the boss. Executives share answers to C-Suite stress and isolation on fast-growing Talent Magnet Institute podcast.

Responding to a need from C-Suite leaders for transparency and community, talent strategy and executive search firm Centennial has launched the Talent Magnet Institute podcast. The podcasts premiere editions have already sparked interest from more than 2,600 listeners in 39 countries.

According to Forbes, Its not easy being the boss. In fact, some research shows that depression among CEOs could be double the national level of 20 percent. While it's no secret that the life of a CEO is a high-pressure job, many CEOs simply feel they have to 'push through' the hard times. In the process of supporting others, they often isolate their own struggles.

Forbes reporter Jeff Kauflin recently reported on the 10 biggest CEO departures of 2017 including Ursula Burns (Xerox), Jeff Immelt (GE) and Marissa Mayer (Yahoo). According to Kauflin, toxic corporate culture, auto industry disruption, dramatic shift in consumer tastes were many reasons high-profile CEOs left their jobs this year.

The Guardians Moya Sarner recently reported on the state of vital exhaustion in her article How burnout became a sinister and insidious epidemic. She notes that half a million people in the UK suffer from work-related stress and that psychological breakdown can creep up without warning.

What can be done to calm executives and stem turnover? Cincinnati businessman Mike Sipple, Jr. has an answer Community. Sipple is president of Centennial, as well as producer and host of the Talent Magnet Institute podcast, which is available for download on most podcast applications including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher and Google Podcasts.

To succeed, todays leader must focus on self-development and personal transformation. The podcast is a tool for executives to enhance their leadership skills, Sipple said. It directly addresses issues that burden leaders, as well as topics that pique their curiosity and spark inspiration. Its been enlightening for me as both host and a leader.

The Talent Magnet Institute podcast is the start of a new leadership movement that dives deeper than profits and business growth to focus on the personal transformation of leaders. Centennial is committed to developing leaders to succeed in relationships, work, community and life. Listening to episodes of the podcast is the first step in reframing the definition of success, Sipple said. Leaders are ultimately tasked with bringing balance to their organization. Its just as important to bring that balance to their personal lives as well.

The podcast features in-depth, transparent interviews with global C-suite executives and noteworthy community leaders. To date, podcast themes have touched on strengthening organizational leadership, the value of perspective in leadership, evaluating corporate responsibility in terms of talent and ROI, workforce issues, and how personal and professional decision-making coexist. Guests have addressed topics such as the generational domino-effect of poverty on community, business and family; the importance of knowing your neighbor, and how to overcome prejudice and discrimination.

"I am excited to support the Talent Magnet Institute because I learn interesting insights that other leaders share in their podcast episodes," Daniel Wachter, vice president, Global Sales and Marketing for Bemis Healthcare Packaging.

Listeners will get great value and encouragement from hearing the stories of other leaders, Sipple said.

Guests have included: Steve Shifman, president and CEO of Michelman; Dan Hurley, WVXU program host; Karen Bankston, executive director of the Child Poverty Collaborative; Jennifer McClure, chief excitement officer of Disrupt HR and Impact Makers podcast host; Mike Kelly, CEO of Right Path Enterprises, and Shakila Ahmed, president and board chair of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati. A complete list of podcast guests is available on Centennials website.

About Centennial and the Talent Magnet Institute Podcast

Since 1975, Centennial Talent Strategy and Executive Search has connected great leaders with organizations, enhancing the personal success of the leader and the growth of the organization. The Talent Magnet Institute (TMI), powered by Centennial, provides leaders with a holistic approach to manage and develop their people by aligning business strategy with talent strategy. Through the Institute, leaders learn how to develop brand ambassadors, attract and retain the right talent, foster leaders and onboard effectively. All of this knowledge moves leaders toward Becoming a Talent Magnet. Both Centennial and its Talent Magnet Institute are committed to strengthening organizational and business leadership  as well as the impact leaders and organizations make on our economy, communities, schools and families.Weve seen our clients businesses grow exponential amounts as a result of utilizing Googles advertising products, and its a missed opportunity if you arent taking advantage of Adwords in your marketing strategy.

Googles parent Alphabet Inc. continues to lead in the worldwide market for digital ads with soaring earnings in second-quarter reporting Monday afternoon.

Surpassing analysts estimates, the California-based tech giant reported $4.54 earnings-per-share on revenues of nearly $32.7 billion. Additionally, Google stock was up 4 percent in after-hours trading following the report.

This is Alphabets first earnings report since the European Union privacy rules took place, which require digital advertising companies and publishers to obtain a consumers explicit consent to use their personal data, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The outperforming sales and profit reported Monday prove Googles strength in online ads and its power to offset the impacts of the new European regulations for online privacy.

The reported fruition of the search engine giant Google comes as no surprise to Exults Internet Marketing Agency, an agency specializing in digital marketing, including Google AdWords sponsored search platform. Sponsored search, also known as pay-per-click, works in an auction format to place ads on search engine results pages (SERPs) in order of the most relevant bidder. The ultimate goal of Google AdWords is to help companies use targeted campaigns to reach the right audiences and ultimately generate lead conversions.

Google continues to maintain its lead in the global market for online advertising amidst the changes in European privacy regulations, further proving its resilience and unwavering dominance in paid online advertising.

Sponsored search continues to be Googles strong suit and a huge opportunity for businesses to use for marketing and company growth. Weve seen our clients businesses grow exponential amounts as a result of utilizing Googles advertising products, and its a missed opportunity if you arent taking advantage of Adwords in your marketing strategy, said Zach Hoffman, the CEO of Exults.

The Sponsored Search team at Exults has over 13 years of experience making effective campaigns that put your brand in front of 90% of all internet traffic.

Exults is a full-service internet marketing company that is results driven for its clients and offers a complete range of internet marketing services to reach its clients goals. Exults premier services include Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Management, Social Media Marketing, Video Optimization, and Digital PR. For more information, please visit the Exults website or call us at 954-763-1130.The CTO Forum, a premier organization for senior technology and business leaders, today announced its featured keynote speakers for the CTO Forum's ninth annual RETHINK STRATEGY executive education program, which will be held at the Harvard Business School in Boston from July 29 to August 1, 2018.

RETHINK STRATEGY is an elite program offered through partnership of the CTO Forum and Harvard Business School. The mission of this groundbreaking program is to help senior leaders identify, examine, and overcome the industry challenges they face in developing and leading the organization and in sustaining a competitive edge. HBS faculty and Fortune 500 Chairmen, CEOs and Leaders will deliver a series of interactive sessions that fundamentally provide the blueprints, frameworks and war chest for thriving in the digital age. The program provides an excellent opportunity for senior executives to learn how to embrace challenges, see opportunities and frame the big picture. Harvard's world-class faculty members and the participation of distinguished top-tier executives who will share their vision on the challenges at the intersection of technology, business and society, makes this program a must-attend event.

This year's featured keynote speakers include an exceptional group of distinguished leaders who will share their thoughts on Leadership, Strategic Innovation and the State of Business, Technology, and Digital Transformation. The CTO Forum is honored to welcome:

Patrick Bass, Chief Executive Officer - thyssenkrupp North America, Inc.

Patrick Bass was named CEO of thyssenkrupp North America, Inc., in October 2014 and began his tenure January 2015. He is responsible for facilitating growth in the United States, Canada and Mexico by spearheading greater coordination and collaboration among thyssenkrupps operating companies. As the leader of thyssenkrupps largest regional headquarters, Bass provides strategic direction and services for all thyssenkrupp companies in North America and helps identify new markets and growth opportunities in the region. In his role, Bass oversees a region with more than 22,000 employees and 9 billion (approximately $9.6 billion) in sales in fiscal year 2016/2017.

Lance M. Fritz, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer - Union Pacific Corporation

Lance M. Fritz is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Union Pacific. He became chairman of the board effective October 1, 2015. Fritz became President and Chief Executive Officer February 5, 2015, when he also was elected to the corporations Board of Directors. He previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Union Pacific Railroad, a position he had held since February 2014, after serving as Executive Vice President-Operations and Vice President-Labor Relations, respectively. He began his Union Pacific career in July 2000 as Vice President and General Manager-Energy in the companys Marketing and Sales department.

Tom Hayes, President and Chief Executive Officer - Tyson Foods, Inc.

Tom Hayes is President and Chief Executive Officer of Tyson Foods, Inc. He has led the largest U.S. food company since late 2016, spearheading its transformation to a modern food company and putting sustainability at the center of everything Tyson Foods does. In his role, he leads 122,000 team members and familiar brands including Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Sara Lee, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells, ibp and State Fair. Tom is focused on creating shared value, addressing societal needs and challenges in a way that benefits company stakeholders. Hes committed to using the companys unmatched scale to make a positive impact  for instance, making chicken raised with no antibiotics ever widely accessible in the U.S.

Stuart Miller, Executive Chairman - Lennar Corporation

Stuart Miller is the Executive Chairman of Lennar Corporation, one of the nations largest homebuilders. He is also a member of Lennars Board of Directors. Mr. Miller has worked full time with Lennar for over 35 years, serving in various capacities for the Companys Homebuilding Division and former Investment and Commercial Properties Division. From 1991 to October 1997, Mr. Miller was the President of both of these business segments and the primary force behind their growth and success during that time. He became CEO of Lennar in April 1997 until he assumed his current role as Executive Chairman in April 2018.

Amrit Ray, Global President, R&D - Pfizer Essential Health

Amrit Ray, MD, MBA, serves as Global President, Research & Development (R&D), Pfizer Essential Health (PEH). PEH produces some of the worlds most trusted medicines that touch hundreds of millions of patients around the world, every year and at every stage of life. As the Global President of PEH R&D, Dr. Ray has responsibility for a R&D organization supporting both a rich R&D pipeline and an unrivaled on market portfolio of over 600 medicines. The end-to-end, global organization comprises all core R&D functions for both small and large molecules, and also houses unique scientific strengths in complex sterile injectables, drug delivery systems, and combination product development that enable us to better meet the needs of patients. R&D thrives on a patient-centric, innovative culture and has built a broad pipeline of compounds that hold the promise of delivering new, life-changing therapies for a wide range of debilitating and chronic diseases including in cardiovascular, pain-management, oncology, mens/womens health, and in anti-infectives where Pfizer offers the industrys largest and most diverse portfolio including more than 80 potentially life-saving medicines.

Stephan Schenk, President and CEO - TD Bank US Holdings LLC

Stephan Schenk is the President and CEO of TD Group US Holdings and member of the TD GUS Board of Directors. Stephan is responsible for management of the risks of the combined U.S. operations, which include TD's U.S. retail and wholesale businesses. Previously, Mr. Schenk served as the Chief Auditor, TD Bank, America's Most Convenient Bank. In this role, he oversaw the independent assessment of the Banks key processes and controls and managed the talented group of individuals who conduct internal audits for the Bank. Before this role, Mr. Schenk also served as Head of Operational Risk Management where he was responsible for the Operational Risk program development and implementation across TD Bank.

Michael L. Tipsord, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer - State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

Michael L. Tipsord is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. State Farm and its affiliates are the largest providers of auto, home and individual life insurance in the United States. More than 19,000 agents and 70,000 employees live the State Farm mission to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected, and realize their dreams. Alongside the State Farm senior executive leadership team, Michael is driving State Farm to demonstrate unsurpassed value to customers and grow the business in an expanding, evolving and increasingly complex marketplace. Michael was named Chief Executive Officer in Sept. 2015 and President earlier the same year. He was elected Chairman of the Board of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in June 2016.

Steven C. Voorhees, Chief Executive Officer - WestRock Company

Steve Voorhees is Chief Executive Officer of WestRock Company. Previously he was CEO of RockTenn. Prior to that, Steve served in various executive leadership roles, including president and chief operating officer; executive vice president and chief financial officer; and chief administrative officer. Before joining RockTenn, Steve was in operations and executive roles at Sonat Inc., a diversified energy company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.

Jeremy King, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer - Walmart

Jeremy King is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for all Walmart U.S. stores and eCommerce. His organization, Walmart Labs, consists of U.S. retail technology, U.S. eCommerce technology and Jet technology  including a global presence in infrastructure, cloud and data platforms. Their charter is to create a seamless shopping experience so customers can save money and live better  anytime and anywhere. Jeremy has been on the forefront of cloud computing and brings more than 20 years of experience building highly available and scalable technology platforms to support global commerce operations. He is an expert on engineering methodology and productivity, developing software as a service (SaaS) technology platforms and presentation layer frameworks.

Deepak Krishnamurthy, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer

As Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Deepak Krishnamurthy is responsible for shaping SAPs global strategy and identifying the short- and long-term growth drivers for SAP. Deepak has architected SAPs transition to the cloud, including driving several large cloud M&A transactions. Deepak drives SAPs innovation strategy around new business models, including its focus around AI/ML, IoT and Blockchain. Deepak also oversees SAPs Customer and Market Insights, which is responsible for competitive positioning and sales enablement leveraging big data analytics. Deepak also leads SAP.iO, an open innovation initiative made up of a unique combination of early stage venture investments and startup acceleration across San Francisco, New York City, Berlin, Paris and Tel Aviv.

Raji Arasu SVP, Platform and Core Services, CTO-Dev - Intuit, Inc.

Raji Arasu is Senior Vice President of Platform and Services at Intuit, Inc. In this role she leads the development of the companys platforms and core services to enable Intuits product development teams to build innovative products and services. Prior to Intuit, she served as Chief Technology Officer for eBay subsidiary StubHub, after holding a variety of leadership roles at eBay.

Scott Crowder, SVP & Chief Information Officer - BMC Software

Scott Crowder is Chief Information Officer for BMC Software, Inc. He is responsible for the companys Information Services and Technology group, which provides business applications, end user support, production and R&D cloud infrastructure, unified communications, information security and service governance. Scott has more than 30 years of experience in product development, service delivery and assurance for information technology organizations. Prior to BMC, he was Vice President of Data Center Operations at Blackbaud where he was responsible for delivering managed services, SaaS CRM, CMS and eCommerce services for approximately 12,000 customers.

Allegra Driscoll, Managing Director, Head of Global Markets Client & Content Technology - Credit Suisse

Allegra Driscoll is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Global Markets division based in New York. She is the Global Head of Client & Content Technology, which is responsible for the development of client facing applications and internal client management tools. She has previously worked on the business side at Credit Suisse with responsibility for designing and optimizing the Investment Banks client service functions and related technology. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Allegra spent 10 years at Goldman Sachs in a variety of roles including Vice President in the Securities Division Sales Management team, Associate on the Futures, Clearing, and Execution Franchise Management Team, and a developer on the risk technology team.

Ryan Kean, VP Technical Strategy and Architecture - The Kroger Company

Ryan Kean is Vice President of Technical Strategy and Architecture for The Kroger Company. He has responsibility for the strategic vision and delivery of enterprise operations, engineering and architecture for mainframe, open systems, midrange systems, enterprise storage, backup and recovery, and virtualization technologies. His current focus and initiatives include the infrastructure responsibility for enterprise application and master data management project, development of a private cloud architecture, identification and realization of infrastructure cost optimization opportunities, process and efficiency enhancement, and championing associate engagement career growth opportunities.

Sarah Riley, IT Director of Technical Platforms - Monsanto Company

Sarah Riley serves as IT Director of Technical Platforms for Monsanto. She has over 20 years experience in Information Technology in both hands-on technical and leadership roles. A St. Louis area native, Sarah has worked at TALX (now Equifax Workforce Solutions) and Express Scripts and is currently the IT Director of Technical Platforms in the Products & Engineering team at Monsanto. She has also served as Adjunct Professor in Computer Information Systems at Lewis and Clark Community College in IL.

Fidelma Russo, Chief Technology Officer, Iron Mountain

In her role as CTO of Iron Mountain, Fidelma Russo provides the leadership, vision and roadmap for how technology can further strengthen the companys current and future product offerings, service delivery and overall business. Fidelma leads the Global Technology Organization, a customer-centric global team that includes product engineering, product management, innovation, advanced development and internal technology infrastructure. Leveraging her extensive high tech background, Fidelma drives a shortlist of priorities for Iron Mountain led by digital transformation; cloud enablement; globalization and an unrelenting focus on quality. She is deeply committed to raising the profile of women in technology and is a frequent speaker on the topic at industry and educational events and forums.

Jason Strle, EVP & Group CIO Payments, Virtual Solutions, Innovation and Community Banking - Wells Fargo & Co.

Jason Strle is head of Payments, Virtual Solutions, and Innovation (PVSI) & Community Banking Technology (CBT) for Wells Fargo & Company. He is responsible for providing strategic technology solutions to both the PVSI and Community Banking lines of business, including application design, development, and support. Jason works closely with his business and enterprise technology partners to create a competitive advantage and positive customer impact through innovation, simplification and an obsession with the customer experience. Jason has significant experience reengineering and transforming banking platforms leveraging digital banking, agile delivery, and payments. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Jason worked at JPMorgan Chase where he was CIO for Consumer Banking, Small Business, and Auto Finance Businesses and Enterprise Core Banking Platforms.

Radhika Venkatraman, Head of Technology, Data and Infrastructure for Global Markets and Credit Suisse Holdings (USA) - Credit Suisse

Radhika Venkatraman is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Global Markets Division, based in New York. She is Head of Technology, Data and Infrastructure for Global Markets (GM) and Credit Suisse Holdings (USA) Inc. and is a member of the Global Markets Management Committee, the IHC Operating Committee and the Group CIO Management Committee. Radhika joined Credit Suisse in 2017. Previously, Radhika was the Chief Information Officer of Network and Technology at Verizon where she worked for 20 years.

Ajay Waghray, EVP & Chief Technology Officer - Assurant, Inc.

Ajay Waghray is Chief Technology Officer of Assurant, Inc, and a member of the Companys Management Committee. Based in Atlanta, he is responsible for driving technology strategy and aligning IT with business objectives across Assurants global enterprise. Prior to joining Assurant in May 2016, Mr. Waghray served as Chief Information Officer of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, which provides products and services to a global customer base that includes 98 percent of the Fortune 500. He stepped into the role in 2012, leading the global information technology strategy, systems portfolio development and operations for the then newly created organization. Prior to this, Mr. Waghray served as CIO for Verizon Wireless, where he was instrumental in the companys 4G/LTE launch and the integration of the Alltel acquisition.

Brett Wingo, SVP, Software, Systems & Operations Cisco Systems, Inc.

Brett Wingo is the Senior Vice President of the Software, Systems and Operations group for the Cisco Services organization within Cisco Systems, Inc. He is responsible for global operations, as well as for the automation, analytics, systems, and infrastructure that optimize and enhance Cisco's services business. His team's mission centers on providing great experiences for customers, partners, and service delivery professionals to increase customer satisfaction and Cisco's profitable growth. Since joining Cisco in 2009, Wingo has served as the Vice President and General Manager of Cisco's service provider infrastructure businesses, including the Routing, Cable, and Optical business units; the Cable Access business unit; and Cisco's Home Networking group, where he held end-to-end P&L responsibility for all aspects of the Linksys business.

The RETHINK STRATEGY program is reserved for CIOs and CTOs of Fortune-ranked firms. The program agenda along with a complete list of faculty and speakers can be found at http://www.ctoforum.org.

About CTO Forum

The CTO Forum is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a trusted, open and creative environment where the brightest minds of our times convene to address industrys most important issues. The CTO Forum brings together the best minds in technology from different industries to define opportunities, and to collaborate in harnessing the extraordinary potential of technology. The CTO Forums mission is to deliver a Global Innovation Platform, where technology leaders collaborate and co-create the technology and solutions that will be critical to meeting tomorrows global opportunities and challenges. For more information, visit http://www.ctoforum.org.Any business that isnt taking stock of the way it shows appreciation to its employees is behind the curve. As long as the labor markets remains tight, we should expect to see even more eye-popping headline news about large raises and generous benefits. - Bill Stoller, Express CEO

In West Texas, truck drivers are earning six figures and 20-something-year-old newcomers are doubling their earnings in the oilfields after just two weeks at a junior college. Nationwide, some companies are expanding parental benefits to include egg freezing. A sandwich shop in greater Indianapolis is offering part-time workers college tuition reimbursement. A business owner in Redwing, Minnesota, rented homes to the companys seasonal workers to alleviate housing issues.

Anecdotes like these sound extreme, but they are increasingly commonand for good reason. Pressure is building on companies across the country to do whatever it takes to retain workers. In the spring of 2018, the number of job openings in America exceeded the number of unemployed persons for the first time since December 2000, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting total non-farm job openings.

In such a tight labor market, businesses must spend significantly more energy on retentionon showing employees they are appreciated and valuedgiven that recruiting new employees is more difficult than ever.

Express Employment Professionals franchise owners report a range of new initiatives, which fall into four main categories:



Wages and bonuses

Family benefits

Education and training

Workplace culture

Wages and Bonuses

Terri Greeno, an Express franchise owner in Crystal Lake, Illinois, finds that overtime workers are the first to see significant raises.

Some clients have started to offer double time for overtime hours worked, she said.

Luke Sodergren, a franchise owner in Minnesota and Wisconsin, has seen starting wages increase as much as 33 percent from 2016 to 2018.

In Covina and Santa Fe Springs, California, franchise owner Anne Woods sees employers offering sign-on bonuses and hourly workers receiving raises of up to $6 an hour.

Family Benefits

Americas largest corporations are enhancing their paid family leave policies, offering expanded leave and new benefits to more workers, including elder careand even pet care.

As Sodergren observes, at smaller companies, this may not take the form of formal benefits, but rather flexibility and patience as workers grapple with day care, elder care and transportation issues. Sodergrens office also worked with the client who opened up rental homes to seasonal workers.

Education and Training

Businesses have long invested in education and training to help their employees earn credentials and skills that will empower them do their jobs better. Now, companies are increasingly offering workers education benefits that will help them secure different jobs in the futurehoping that it will help them retain these workers at least for the short- and medium-term.

We work with a client that has expanded their benefits to include college reimbursement for earning a bachelors degree, Greeno said. They had previously offered it only to employees working toward an associate degree.

Wenninger added, A local sandwich franchisee is offering tuition reimbursement for part-time associates to lure college students to work for them.

Workplace Culture

As valuable as raises, bonuses, benefits and education can be, the most important step a business can take to retain employees is to improve the workplace culture. Saying thank you is both the simplest and most powerful action an employer can take.

Personal recognition has the most dramatic impact, Wenninger said. We have a client who does not have the best working conditions and who has a good pay rate but not top of the scale; however, we rarely have associates leave, because the entire leadership team makes a point of getting to know everyone and letting them know how much they are appreciated.

My favorite thing Ive seen done is by a client in our Red Wing, Minnesota, office, Sodergren said. The company created a program for new hires that looked like this: When someone new started, they are assigned a quick connect buddy. This buddy is their one-on-one partner for the next six months. They immediately have a friend in the business, a knowledgeable ally who they can ask questions and learn from, and it gives them a wonderful experience from their first day.

A focus on workplace culture has spurred an increase in employee appreciation days, family outings and events, special meals and other initiatives to build relationships among coworkers. It also has led supervisors to show a greater tolerance for employees shortcomingstardiness, for example.

Treat your people like gold, Sodergren said. Everyone is hiring, and its easy to walk down the street and find 10 other companies that will take a chance on you. Companies need to invest in better orientations, better leadership training and take the approach that our most important asset is our people.

A culture of inclusion and honesty helps an employee feel more connected and therefore less likely to leave. And Sodergren and his team again emphasize that most important step: actually saying thank you.

Its a job-seekers economy, and it doesnt look likely to change anytime soon, said Bill Stoller, CEO of Express. Any business that isnt taking stock of the way it shows appreciation to its employees is behind the curve. As long as the labor market remains tight, we should expect to see even more eye-popping headline news about large raises and generous benefits. But even the extreme cases shouldnt obscure the fact that, above all, employers must take the time to personally thank employees.

***

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Karami, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the international staffing company has more than 800 franchises in the U.S., Canada and South Africa. Since its inception, Express has put more than 6 million people to work worldwide.

About Express Employment Professionals

Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.4 billion in sales and employed a record 540,000 people in 2017. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.Greenlight Guru, the only cloud-based quality management software specifically for medical device companies, today announced continuous, exponential growth in the first half of 2018. With a continued focus on workplace culture and development, hiring initiatives are on target to meet 120 employees by 2020. Additionally, Greenlight Guru continues to significantly grow new customer acquisition, resulting in notable Fortune 500 clients.

On the heels of an explosive close to Q4 2017, Greenlight Guru has achieved a 45 percent increase in quarter-over-quarter new subscription revenue, as well as a 125 percent increase in year-over-year, new subscription revenue growth.

To keep up with demand and customer support, Greenlight Gurus team has increased by more than 33% percent in 2018, putting them on track to achieve its goal of employing 120 employees by 2020.

Our customer growth explosion is a sign of the times, says David DeRam, CEO and co-founder of Greenlight Guru. We strive to help manufacturers develop devices we would be proud to have our own families use. Case in point, the FDA chose us as a partner to educate the medical device industry on the case for quality, resulting in a four part webinar series on the topic.

Greenlight Guru developed an electronic quality management system (eQMS) to help medical device manufacturers develop devices before, during and after introduction to the market. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, the European Union and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) each have complicated processes in which manufacturers must navigate.

With the assistance of Greenlight Guru, MYOLYN, a Florida-based medical device developer achieved their FDA 510(k) clearance in just 93 days, 84 days less than the market average.

Greenlight Guru played a pivotal role in helping us attain the clearances needed to launch our product, says Matt Bellman, CTO and co-founder of MYOLYN. We strive to help patients with paralysis enjoy a fuller life. Greenlight Guru shares the same passion for making the lives of our patients better.

This announcement follows a newly overhauled software platform and growing international market penetration. For more information, please visit http://www.greenlight.guru.

About Greenlight Guru

Greenlight Guru is the only quality management platform designed specifically for medical devices companies. The platform helps companies get safer products to market faster, simplifies FDA and ISO regulatory compliance and provides a single source of truth by connecting the management of all quality processes like CAPAs, risk, audits and more. Greenlight Gurus platform is used by thousands of users across the globe to push beyond baseline compliance achieving True Quality. For more information, visit http://www.greenlight.guru.The Great Toxic Slime Outbreak of 2018 has befouled the Caloosahatchee River, the river of my childhood. I needed to see for myself, so I grabbed my cameras and headed south to Fort Myers and Cape Coral. A heartbreaking sight awaited.

Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in seven counties to combat the noxious green algae fed by water discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

The governor directed state health officials to warn Floridians and visitors of the dangers of toxic algae. Visit Florida, the states official tourism marketing corporation, will assist impacted businesses. And the governor once again blamed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the slow pace of Everglades restoration projects.

Missing from Scotts emergency declaration  and indeed, missing from his entire tenure as governor  was a targeted response effectively dealing with the source of the pollution. Real leadership demands an acknowledgment that Floridas water woes are a time-release disaster of our own making.

An epidemic of indifference has led to this riot of slime, and the response of officialdom has clearly been incommensurate with the severity of the ongoing crisis we face.

I believe were missing the big picture in part because our political leaders are reluctant to connect the dots and help us see that we are killing Floridas waters with our lifestyle choices and business practices.

Nobody wanted this to happen, but thats no excuse for the choices weve made. My message to our political leadership is clear: It is the Earth that lies at the very center of our existence and makes possible life itself, to say nothing of human endeavors like the economy.

That famous line about the business of government is business is shallow and shortsighted. We must aim higher: The business of government is well-being.

And to our business leaders, I say there can be no long-term well-being in Florida if we continue to use and abuse our waters like theres no tomorrow.

Look in the mirror, Florida: Choices have consequences. Sustainability must be more than a marketing buzzword. Real sustainability must be at the foundation of our vision for Florida in the 21st century, for without it this will not be a place our childrens children will want to live or work or play.

Floridas waters are the very foundation of our economy, our way of life, and our identity on the world stage.

This is the truth that must be said: Our waters are a mess. We are failing the test of responsible stewardship. With apologies to the great Caloosahatchee, Denial remains the mightiest river in Florida.

For the love of Florida, listen to the pictures and then listen to your heart.

John Moran is a Florida nature photographer based in Gainesville.Strong product-market fit is paramount, and HealthCrowd understands how to bring products to market in this complicated ecosystem. - Mykel Sprinkles, Partner at TVC Capital

HealthCrowd, the industrys first healthcare communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS), today announced it has completed a $7.2 million round of funding led by TVC Capital with continued participation from Startup Capital Ventures, Healthy Ventures and other investors. With the investment, HealthCrowd will continue its mission of delivering purposeful healthcare communications that drive healthy actions and generate targeted clinical and financial outcomes on behalf of its customers. HealthCrowd already calls many national, regional and local healthcare organizations its customers across 26 states.

Healthcare organizations use HealthCrowd to communicate with their members and patients across modalities including text, voice, email and mobile web, in a natural and holistic way. Having focused on outcomes, data and analytics from inception, HealthCrowd is aligned with the industrys ongoing evolution to value-based care. In contrast to the previous generation of solutions, HealthCrowd learns on every single communication. This industry innovation means HealthCrowds communications platform becomes more intelligent over time and can drive healthy actions with fewer targeted touchpoints, contributing to a better consumer experience. The companys business model, based on its unwavering belief that its customers should pay for value, not per communication, is equally disruptive. Accordingly, the company routinely publishes the results of outcomes analyses across its customer base.

Healthcare is a big market, but its complexities and nuances can make it challenging for companies to succeed. Strong product-market fit is paramount, and HealthCrowd understands how to bring products to market in this complicated ecosystem. The company has done a tremendous job of assessing and satisfying immediate market needs while laying the foundation for exceeding future customer expectations. For example, their application of machine learning is ambitious but at the same time immediately useful. What truly amazed me was the unanimous degree of enthusiastic satisfaction amongst HealthCrowds customers, said Mykel Sprinkles, Partner at TVC Capital.

We are proud to have built a strong and sustainable business. However, to keep up with organic growth driven by market demand for our solutions, we decided to partner with TVC Capital to accelerate our ability to transform the state of healthcare communications in the country to be on par with other industries. The growth capital will allow us to make investments across key areas that are necessary to maintain our technology and market leadership. We chose TVC because of their strong operational expertise and track record of helping SaaS companies be successful, said Neng Bing Doh, Co-Founder and CEO of HealthCrowd.

About HealthCrowd

HealthCrowd helps healthcare organizations unify, automate and optimize multimodal communications to deliver member-centric engagement, at scale, in a risk-managed way. Technology, service excellence and pride of ownership are the driving force behind HealthCrowds success, from member/patient navigation and activation, to gap closure (HEDIS, STARS), retention, redetermination and any communication requiring an action be taken. The impact is profound: a positive difference in member/patient perception of healthcare communications and significant, quantifiable savings to the organization. Predictive analytics, data mining and natural language processing techniques create durable platform IQ and EQ to drive rapid, measurable results. The company is based in San Mateo, CA.

About TVC Capital

TVC Capital is a San Diego-based growth equity firm with over $380 million under management. TVC is focused on investments in and acquisitions of mission critical software firms. TVC targets a wide spectrum of software sectors and industry verticals that are poised for growth and consolidation. The TVC team is led by operating executives with more than 80 years of experience growing technology companies into market leaders. Current and past investments include SmartAction, Accordent Technologies, Docupace, MediaPlatform, Levels Beyond (Reach Engine), Del Mar DataTrac, Centage, Perspectium, Limeade, LiquidPlanner, Mercent, Celigo and ReverseVision. For more information, visit http://www.tvccapital.com.With the opportunity for seniors to live with dignity in their own apartments and receive the assistance they need, we are proud to say we continue to set the standard for assisted living in the McHenry area. Past News Releases RSS Villas Senior Living Apartments...

The Sanctuary Will Host Outreach...

The Sanctuary at St. Cloud...

Heritage Woods of McHenry is celebrating 10 years of service to area seniors and their families with an anniversary party from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on July 26.

Since the beginning, Heritage Woods of McHenry has established itself as the premier affordable assisted lifestyle community, said Rod Burkett, CEO of Gardant Management Solutions, the company that manages the community. With the opportunity for seniors to live with dignity in their own apartments and receive the assistance they need, we are proud to say we continue to set the standard for assisted living in the McHenry area.

Over the past decade, Heritage Woods has spent more than 5 million minutes touching lives and providing love, compassion and care for residents. The community has served more than 500 families since it opened its doors.

Heritage Woods also has a significant impact on the local economy and employs more than 50 people.

Much of the success can be attributed to the people who work at Heritage Woods of McHenry.

During the celebration, the community will honor employees who have been with the community for the past decade, including Tracy McCafferty, a CNA, and Fernando Cueto, a housekeeper.

Three residents  Doris Aggerwal, Marilyn Tousignant and Jennie True  who have lived at Heritage Woods since the building opened will be honored as well.

Heritage Woods of McHenry combines residential apartment home living with the availability of personal assistance, help with medications and a variety of convenience and support services.

We provide a wonderful alternative to a nursing home or to struggling alone at home, explained Heritage Woods Administrator Teri Schultz.

Residents live in private apartments that they furnish and decorate to their tastes. Each of the studio and one-bedroom floor plans includes a kitchenette, spacious bathroom with shower and grab bars, individually controlled heating and air conditioning, and emergency alert system.

Certified nursing assistants, working under the direction of a licensed nurse, are on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Meals, housekeeping and laundry are among the included services.

Residents also benefit from all of the opportunities that are available to socialize with friends and neighbors and participate in activities and special programs, said Schultz.

Heritage Woods of McHenry is fully certified to operate through the Illinois Supportive Living Program. Gardant Management Solutions is the largest provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and the 12th largest provider in the nation.

For more information about Heritage Woods of McHenry, call 815-344-2690 or visit the community website: https://www.gardant.com/heritagewoodsmchenry.When we started this company, we wanted to accomplish two things. The first, was to do really great work with clients. The second was to create a compelling environment for our colleagues to work. To make Insigniam a place where employees felt both self-expressed and light up by their work."

For the second year in a row, Insigniam was certified as a great place to work by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work. Insigniam earned this credential based on extensive ratings provided by its employees in anonymous surveys.

When we started this company, we wanted to accomplish two things. The first, was to do really great work with clients. The second was to create a compelling environment for our colleagues to work. To make Insigniam a place where employees felt both self-expressed and light up by their work. Today, we could not be prouder to have received affirmation from them that we have achieved creating that compelling environment, said co-founding partner, Nathan Owen Rosenberg, Sr. I am proud to work here, but Im even more proud of each one of my colleagues who come to work each day and are up to something bigger than themselves.

The results from the 2018 Great Place to Work survey shows that Insigniams employees feel they work for a company that is empowering, supportive, and is providing them with positive work opportunities. Insigniam employees cited managements transparency, the quality of benefits, time off to volunteer, a generous bonus program, and the opportunity to do pro bono consulting engagements as reasons for rating the company so highly.

The partners of Insigniam are all accountable for creating and maintaining the firms culture every day. We could not be prouder of the work the entire organization has done to make Insigniam such a great place to work, said Jen Zimmer, partner. I believe, and we think the results of the survey show the employee body at large believes also, that Insigniam really is a place where you can have anything you want for yourself and your life.

According to our study, 88 percent of Insigniam employees say it is a great workplace, says Sarah Lewis-Kulin, Vice President of Great Place to Work Certification & List Production.

Insigniam employees completed 42 surveys, resulting in a 90 percent confidence level and a margin of error of  0.00.

A summary of these ratings can be found at http://reviews.greatplacetowork.com/insigniam

About Insigniam

Insigniam has over 30 years of experience working with large, complex organizations in generating breakthroughs in their management resultswhether that be in topline growth, strategy implementation, improving profitability, or culture change. Insigniam pioneered the field of organization transformation by marrying breakthrough performance and innovation, thus creating services and solutions that are unparalleled in their potency to quickly create dramatic growth. Clients have documented, in aggregate, more than 50x ROI in management results considered critical and essential to the success of their enterprises. Insigniam solutions include Enterprise Transformation, Breakthrough Projects, Transformational Leadership, and Managing Change. Offices are located in Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Paris and Philadelphia.

To learn more about Insigniam and its breakthrough consultants, visit them online at http://www.insigniam.com.

About Great Place to Work

Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, including Best Workplaces lists and workplace reviews, Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures. In the United States, Great Place to Work produces the annual Fortune "100 Best Companies to Work For" list and a series of Great Place to Work Best Workplaces lists including lists for Millennials, Women, Diversity, Small and Medium Companies and over a half dozen different industry lists.

Follow Great Place to Work online at http://www.greatplacetowork.com and on Twitter at @GPTW_US.Montessori School Serving Danville Parents in Blackhawk are usually interested in signing their child up for something beyond average childcare, daycare or preschool.

Learn and Play Montessori, leaders in preschool through kindergarten education in Danville and surrounding East Bay communities, is proud to announce a new informational page. The new page offers details for busy parents searching for a quality learning environment for children aged 18 months to six years in communities such as Blackhawk, California, and others that are nearby to Danville, where the school is located.

"Parents in Blackhawk are usually interested in signing their child up for something beyond average childcare, daycare or preschool, explained Harpreet Grewal, director of Learn and Play Montessori. "They know the value of early learning, and so our new page discusses the importance of learning for small children prior to elementary school. We welcome any Danville, Blackhawk, or Pleasanton parents to schedule a tour of our incredible Montessori program!

Interested persons can review the new informational page for Blackhawk preschools by going to https://www.learnandplaymontessori.com/blackhawk.php. The new page can provide information concerning Montessori teaching methods and the importance of preparing for school at a young age. Blackhawk families commuting to work can read details to find a Montessori school nearby in Danville, California. It should be noted that parents who live in nearby cities such as Pleasanton will also find the Danville location an easy commute. Indeed, Pleasanton parents can check out the page on Pleasanton preschool opportunities at https://www.learnandplaymontessori.com/pleasanton.php.

BLACKHAWK PRESCHOOLS CAN HELP YOUNG CHILDREN HIT MILESTONES ON FIRST DAY WITH MONTESSORI SCHOOL TRAINING

Here is background on this release. The first day of elementary school may be an unfortunate wake up call for some East Bay parents. It could be a surprise to find out a preschool or daycare did not prepare children for simple milestones.

A percentage of children beginning kindergarten may not be able to fully recite the alphabet. Another percentage may not understand how to write a full name or identify basic colors. Teachers could tell parents a child can catch up during the school year. If a child has already fallen behind on the first day of school, however, it may not be acceptable to parents. Before a child enters elementary school, finding a top Blackhawk preschool should be a priority.

For these reasons, Learn and Play Montessori has announced a new page for Blackhawk preschool information. Parents commuting near Danville may be concerned about more than childcare. Expecting a child to hit important milestones on the first day of elementary school could be important. Montessori schools can combine high-quality learning and playtime to help prepare children for school. Teachers can help small children explore art, music, language and movement in an enriching environment. Montessori schools can help young children be at important learning milestones on the first day of elementary school.

Parents could find delivering a young one to a Blackhawk preschool on the way to work a smart investment.

ABOUT LEARN AND PLAY MONTESSORI

Learn and Play Montessori aims to be one of the best Montessori schools in the greater San Francisco Bay Area. Whether parents are looking for a Montessori School in Danville, a Blackhawk preschool or a top-rated Montessori School in Dublin / San Ramon, Learn and Play has a campus for their child or children. All schools use the famed Montessori method, offering programs from childcare to daycare, preschool to kindergarten, in not only Danville, Fremont, Dublin or San Ramon but also in nearby towns such as Alamo, Blackhawk, Diablo or San Ramon on the I-680 corridor as well as Walnut Creek.

Learn and Play Montessori

Media Relations

https://www.learnandplaymontessori.com/Make-to-Order manufacturers not leveraging the benefits of modern ERP solutions are operating at a significant disadvantage

Ultra Consultants, Inc., an independent research and enterprise solutions consulting firm serving the manufacturing and distribution industries, will host a series of three make-to-order manufacturing webinars August 7-9 designed to help project teams streamline ERP selection. The webinars will each feature a leading ERP vendor demonstrating how its solution helps manufacturers in the make-to-order manufacturing market.

The one-hour webinars start on Tuesday, August 7 at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) and conclude on Thursday, August 9. Hosted by Ultra Consultants, the webinars include a side-by-side comparison from these industry-leading vendors.



Tuesday, August 7 Microsoft

Wednesday, August 8 Epicor

Thursday, August 9 Infor

The free webinars are designed to provide C-level executives, managers and IT professionals considering the acquisition of a robust make-to-order ERP solution the information necessary to help make informed buying decisions.

Attendees will be:



Educated about what is possible with modern enterprise technology

Introduced to three of the top enterprise software vendors

Delivered a script of relevant business processes available

Provided demonstrations specific to make-to-order manufacturing

Make-to-Order manufacturers not leveraging the benefits of modern ERP solutions are operating at a significant disadvantage, stated Jeff Carr, CEO and founder of Ultra Consultants. This series of informative webinars will provide a definitive picture of some of the industry-leading solutions available.

Register for the Make-to-Order Manufacturing Webinar Series to reserve your spot.

About Ultra Consultants

Ultra Consultants is an independent research and enterprise solutions consulting firm serving the manufacturing and distribution industries throughout North America, as well as companies with global operations. Since 1994, Ultra has delivered enterprise technology expertise and process management to drive business performance improvement for our clients. More information on the company's services, leadership, industry verticals served, and software vendor relationships can be found at http://www.ultraconsultants.com.MediExcel Health Plan presents MAAC Community Charter School with donation. By partnering with MAAC and assisting their efforts of helping young adults access education through technology, we are not only impacting the lives of the students but everyone in our communities, said Dr. Santiago Hernandez, CEO for MediExcel Health Plan.

MediExcel Health Plan, a California HMO specializing in Binational Healthcare, presented MAAC Community Charter School (MCCS) with a donation check of five-thousand dollars ($5,000) this past Monday, July 23rd, 2018, to help support new academic tools for low-income students.

This generous investment in our school will allow us to offer innovative education opportunities to our students by purchasing up-to-date laboratory equipment and digital books, stated Tommy Ramirez, MCCS Director. Many of our students come from low-income homes throughout San Diego County and may have difficulty buying supplies or investing in school property. We are able to continue providing quality education and bring our students one step closer to self-sufficiency because of donations from organizations such as MediExcel. We are very thankful and excited about our growing relationship.

This donation builds on a long-term partnership between MediExcel Health Plan and MAAC, the nonprofit organization that makes MAAC Community Charter School possible.

MediExcel is committed to investing in the communities we serve. By partnering with MAAC and assisting their efforts of helping young adults access education through technology, we are not only impacting the lives of the students but everyone in our communities, said Dr. Santiago Hernandez, CEO for MediExcel Health Plan. We are delighted to continue our strong partnership.

MAAC Community Charter School (MCCS) is a free public charter high school serving students through a supportive, alternative learning environment. We provide students ages 14-20 with an extended opportunity to earn a high school diploma. More than 1,000 students have graduated since MCCS opened in 2001. For more information on MCCS and other MAAC programs, visit http://www.maacproject.org.

MediExcel Health Plan is an ACA compliant, Binational HMO, licensed by the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC.) We offer covered health benefit options to employer groups in San Diego and Imperial County. Care is delivered at our all-inclusive healthcare campus in Tijuana, MX and through our Medical Network in Mexicali, MX. For more information about MediExcel plans, please visit http://www.mediexcel.com.

****Microsoft Inspire - Inner Circle 2018 We are honored to recognize Thinkmax for this achievement. Being named as an Inner Circle member for a third year in a row demonstrates Thinkmaxs knowledge, expertise and dedication in delivering digital transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Thinkmax Consulting Inc. (Thinkmax) has been named to the prestigious 2018/2019 Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics, which honors partners for their outstanding sales and innovation accomplishments. Members in this elite group have performed to a high standard of excellence by delivering valuable solutions that help organizations achieve increased success.

This recognition of Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics came during Microsoft Inspire July 17, 2018, in Las Vegas, NV. Microsoft Inspire provides the Microsoft partner community with the opportunity to learn about the companys road map for the upcoming year, share best practices, experience the latest product innovations and learn new skills that benefit organizations wanting to transform their business processes.

Being named as a Member of the prestigious Inner Circle for Microsoft Dynamics for three consecutive years is a great honor, states Marc Belliveau, President of Thinkmax. This group consists of the most distinguished partners in the world who have the greatest contribution to Microsoft and to the success of its Dynamics 365 clients. This recognition would not have been possible without our teams unique contribution and devotion. Their passion, team spirit and hard work shine through in all of our projects and this achievement is a result of their collaborative effort.

Suzanne Gagliese, Vice President One Commercial Partner, Microsoft Canada said, Each year Microsoft recognizes and honors partners from around the world for exemplary business performance. Their critical impact on the success of our shared customers is what truly stands out. We are honored to recognize Thinkmax for this achievement. Being named as an Inner Circle member for a third year in a row demonstrates Thinkmaxs knowledge, expertise and dedication in delivering digital transformation with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

This recognition translates Thinkmaxs vision in providing valuable solutions that help organizations attain a competitive edge by working with them to deliver leading ERP and digital solutions that propel their business objectives.

About Thinkmax Consulting Inc.

Thinkmax is a business strategist and information technology consulting firm with offices in Canada and the USA. The companys focus on business process improvement and the design and implementation of innovative solutions with Microsoft centric technology, helps world-leading manufacturers, distributors, retailers and professional services companies achieve optimal performance, greater agility and a sustainable competitive advantage. For more information visit http://www.thinkmax.com

Contact:

Patrik Chavarie

Vice President Business Development

pchavarie@thinkmax.com

855-219-1475Our new MAT programs will enable aspiring and current teachers to complete the advanced learning and earn credentials that will help them succeed with young learners in todays diverse classrooms. Past News Releases RSS Monroe College Honors Three...

Monroe College Hospitality...

Monroe College President Marc...

Monroe College, a national leader in educating urban and international students, today announced that it will offer Masters-level programs in Childhood Urban Education and Early Childhood Urban Education starting in the Winter 2019 semester (January). The two programs will allow graduate students to earn dual certification in general education and special education.

The Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) programs are being offered in response to the need for qualified, classroom-ready teachers, especially in New Yorks economically disadvantaged, and racially and ethnically diverse schools and regional districts. The special education concentration is particularly needed in New York City, as the Department of Education has identified it as a high needs credential for teachers. The Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSE) has more broadly documented the nationwide need for special education teachers.

Dr. Anne Lillis, Dean of the School of Education at Monroe College, said: Our new MAT programs will enable aspiring and current teachers to complete the advanced learning and earn credentials that will help them succeed with young learners in todays diverse classrooms. The programs combination of clinically rich special education and the study of urban needs aligns with current research and classroom needs. That will benefit students as they pursue sustainable careers.

I look forward to welcoming the first cohort of students to these programs in our Winter 2019 semester starting January 4th, she added.

Monroes new Childhood Urban Education and Early Childhood Urban Education graduate degree programs are designed to develop high-performing, skilled, and passionate educator-practitioners who advocate for their students, particularly those with disabilities. MAT candidates will become well-versed in all aspects of the development of typical and delayed young children, including the myriad challenges and heightened risk factors facing urban families and schools. Monroes MAT programs will train teachers to also master non-instructional documentation, including developing and managing IEPs, to be well-equipped to provide effective instruction and intervention for all learners.

Monroes School of Education also offers a Bachelors (B.S) degree program in Early Childhood Education, as well as a Bilingual Education Certificate Extension program for NY State-certified Early Childhood teachers. Admissions and financial aid information is also available.

ABOUT MONROE COLLEGE

Founded in 1933, Monroe College is a recognized leader in urban and international education. The College is proud of its innovative programs to increase college access, affordability, and completion outcomes, especially among first-generation students. The strength of its warm, supportive culture is reflected in the personal connections fostered among students, faculty, and staff.

Monroe educates close to 8,000 students each year, offering Certificate, Associate, Bachelors, and Masters degree programs from campuses in the Bronx, New Rochelle, and St. Lucia. Students may also take courses online.

Programs are offered through seven academic schools -- the Schools of Allied Health Professions, Business & Accounting, Criminal Justice, Education, Hospitality Management and the Culinary Institute of New York (CINY), Information Technology, and Nursing -- as well as through King Graduate School. Liberal arts and continuing education programs are also available. For more information and admissions criteria, please visit http://www.monroecollege.edu.MultiPlan, Inc. today announced the recipients of its 2018 Rural Health Outreach Grant. The four hospitals selected to receive this years grants have each submitted creative proposals for addressing the healthcare needs of people in their community.

The recipients of the 2018 MultiPlan Rural Health Outreach Grant are:

Banner Payson Medical Center in Payson, Arizona will use their grant to obtain Wound Care Certification for two nurses. With this certification, nurses will be able to provide specialized care for burns, pressure ulcers, surgical dressings, and other complicated wounds  treatment that currently must be performed by a physician and is not available within 100 miles of this rural town. The certified wound care nurses will also educate patients and other health care professionals in the community.

Conway Hospital in Conway, South Carolina is taking to the streets to deliver mammography services. The hospital will use MultiPlans grant to help purchase a vehicle for their Mammography on the Move program. The program will bring 3D mammography imaging to women in the Horry County community who might otherwise not be able to visit the hospital for their breast cancer screening.

Limestone Medical Center in Groesbeck, Texas will help members of the community suffering from congestive heart failure manage their disease. The hospital has an established Congestive Heart Failure Clinic and will use the grant to help educate the community about the resources available at the clinic and to purchase tools that patients can use to monitor themselves at home. With education and outpatient resources, this program will help reduce preventable hospitalizations and readmissions.

Mile Bluff Medical Center in Mauston, Wisconsin is shining a light on Alzheimers and other forms of dementia in their community. They will use the grant to help fund education programs that increase awareness and understanding of dementia-type diseases, decrease the stigma of the disease, and foster community involvement to help improve the lives of those living with dementia. The hospital is also working with local organizations to establish the Juneau County Memory Cafe, which will offer regularly-scheduled programs, activities and support for individuals with memory issues and their care partners.

About the MultiPlan Rural Health Outreach Grant

Since the programs inception in 1995, MultiPlan has awarded over half a million dollars to hospitals serving rural communities. Grant recipients use the funds to help them introduce or expand services, education, screenings and other endeavors that support the healthcare needs of people in their communities.

For more information about the MultiPlan Rural Health Outreach Grant and other programs that help support MultiPlan participating hospitals and the patients they serve, visit http://www.multiplan.com/ruralgrant.

About MultiPlan

MultiPlan is committed to helping healthcare payers manage the cost of care, improve their competitiveness and inspire positive change. Leveraging sophisticated technology, data analytics and a team rich with industry experience, the company interprets clients needs and customizes innovative solutions that combine its payment integrity, network-based and analytics-based services. MultiPlan is a trusted partner to over 900,000 healthcare providers nationwide and to 700 healthcare payers in the commercial health, property and casualty, and government markets with 60 million members using our networks. MultiPlan is owned by Hellman & Friedman and other investors. For more information, visit multiplan.com.Our new partnership with McGraw-Hill Educations textbook rental program aligns with our mission to provide the best selection of course materials while combating the ever-rising cost of higher education. - Matt Montgomery, President and CEO, eCampus.com.

eCampus.com, an industry-leading provider of online course material solutions for colleges and universities, and learning science company McGraw-Hill Education today announced an agreement for eCampus.com to participate in McGraw-Hill Educations new textbook rental program, making learning materials more affordable for students in the 2018-19 school year and beyond.

Under the agreement, eCampus.com will offer more than 200 McGraw-Hill copyright 2019 titles for rent, in bound or eBook format, through more than 250 Virtual Bookstores and ALL Access programs across the country. With rentals, students will save as much as 70% off the cost of traditional bound textbooks.

The agreement also expands the eCampus.com ALL Access program, which provides students with 100% of their required course materials from Day 1 at a significantly reduced cost. As part of the eCampus.com course material solutions suite, the program focuses on a simple and affordable solution for students to get all the materials they need for their courses with a flat rate price, included as part of their tuition or fees. With the addition of McGraw-Hills textbook rental program, ALL Access will further reduce the cost of course materials for students. Faculty also benefit from an expanded selection of affordable curriculum options.

Were excited to work with eCampus.com on our rental program to make effective, affordable learning materials available to more students nationwide, said Bill Okun, president of higher education at McGraw-Hill Education. By working together, were able to help students be more successful and instructors achieve their teaching goals, at a more affordable price.

Our new partnership with McGraw-Hill Educations textbook rental program aligns with our mission to provide the best selection of course materials while combating the ever-rising cost of higher education, said Matt Montgomery, President and CEO of eCampus.com. We continuously seek ways to best serve our partner institutions through innovative solutions like our ALL Access program and believe this new partnership with McGraw-Hill will further eCampus.coms ability to increase textbook affordability and ultimately drive student success.

The new agreement marks the continued expansion of McGraw-Hill Educations affordable options for students, which include digital learning solutions, eBooks, loose leaf, mobile applications and open educational resources (OER) for select titles. Depending on the format, these solutions are available for purchase, rent, subscription or through institutional inclusive access agreements.

More information on eCampus.com Course Material Solutions can be found at http://ecampuscms.com.

For more information about McGraw-Hill Educations focus on affordability and outcomes, visit: https://mheducation.com/realvalue.

About eCampus.com

eCampus.com is a premier online retailer of course materials and digital content. Consistently exceeding industry standards, eCampus.coms mission is to provide the easiest, fastest, and most affordable way for high school, college and university students to buy, rent, and sell textbooks and access digital content. The company launched on July 2, 1999, the birthday of original investor Dave Thomas of Wendys. From the beginning, their driving force has been meeting the needs of the customers they serve. Remaining an innovative leader in the course materials industry, eCampus.com serves over 250 colleges and universities through an innovative course material solutions suite, including full service Virtual Bookstores and the eCampus.com ALL Access program. eCampus.com's mission enables institutions to increase course material affordability, serving millions of students to date. Through products that simplify the adoption, management and procurement of course materials, eCampus.com propels student success by delivering the right course materials, at the right time, at the right price. Learn more at ecampus.com and ecampuscms.com.

About McGraw-Hill Education

McGraw-Hill Education is a learning science company that delivers personalized learning experiences that help students, parents, educators and professionals drive results. McGraw-Hill Education has offices across North America, India, China, Europe, the Middle East and South America, and makes its learning solutions available in more than 60 languages. Visit us at mheducation.com or find us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contacts:

Tiffaney Lavoie

eCampus.com

(859) 514-6885

tlavoie@ecampus.com

Tyler Reed

McGraw-Hill Education

(646) 766-2951

tyler.reed@mheducation.comSomeone asked me one time why so many Christians feel so compelled to talk about their faith to others. Admittedly, some have been offended by what they have experienced as pushy, almost threatening proclamations, calling for a fear of Hell and condemnation. Seems to me the gospel, which means good news, ought to be just that, and because it is good news, it is worth sharing.

I really have trouble keeping any good news to myself! I remember when our youngest daughter and her husband told us she was pregnant, how excited we were! But then she said, But dont tell anyone yet. Yikes! I had already started to type a text! Thats how the message of the love of God through his son Jesus is for me. The news that God so loved the world that he sent his son that all who believe in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life is great news! How  or why  would I keep that to myself when clearly his love is for the whole world?

The other reason I love to tell others is because telling others was priority for the one who is the center of that good news. Jesus himself said that he must go everywhere telling the good news of the kingdom of God. Throughout his brief time on the planet, Jesus went everywhere telling folks of Gods love, forgiveness and power to heal and restore. What a great example from the good news himself!

Not that Jesus needed to tell his followers to keep on telling the good news, but his final charge to the followers standing out on the hill when he ascended to heaven was to go and tell (and show and tell), sharing the good news of Gods love in word and in deed. I love what Francis of Assisi said, Go everywhere proclaiming the good news, and when necessary, use words.

Maybe one of the reasons folks find all this talk about the good news of Jesus offensive is that they dont see the good news in our lives. I grew up in Missouri, the mule state. Francis the talking mule was raised five miles from my home. I love the story about the grandfather and his grandson walking out on the farm one day, and as his grandson peered into the sad face of a Missouri mule he said, Look grandpa, this mule has religion, just like grandma! Lets face it; if our face doesnt show it, most folks arent buying it that the good news is good!

The Rev. Dr. Daryl Donovan is the senior pastor at the Sanibel Community Church.Your personal wellbeing is connected to your success.

It is time to redefine leadership and business in noble terms. It is clear to me that a sustainable society requires it. The Yoga of Leadership shows a leader how to become a happy, healthy, and connected leader that is motivated through purpose and principle, continues Mitchell.

The Yoga of Leadership is the WINNER of the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards in both the Leadership and Motivational categories and the FINALIST in Wellbeing. The Yoga of Leadership is also a FINALIST in the Motivational category in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Award contest.

I am truly honored and humbled for the recognition of two nationally known award contests, says yoga teacher and financial services professional Tarra Mitchell about her new book, The Yoga of Leadership: A Practical Guide to Health, Happiness, and Inspiring Total Team Engagement.

To help leaders achieve and maintain qualities essential to leadership success while fostering team engagement, Mitchell has designed a novel approach to leadership growth and development. Leveraging time-honored techniques from the traditional practice of yoga, The Yoga of Leadership explains how, by taking care of their holistic well-being, leaders are better able to:



control emotions and manage stress,

focus and concentrate,

strengthen relationships, connection, and engagement,

lead through an embodied set of principles,

think more clearly and decisively, and

make life-enhancing choices that improve overall well-being.

Personal well-being is not only principle centric, but also a leading indicator of success at work and in life. When the rubber meets the road and we have to perform as leaders, it all needs to be in check, Mitchell says.

As Ive seen time and again, its better to get folks to enlist than be drafted. True winning is about winning people over, inspiring them. Leaders must connect with their teams, know them well, and communicate the right messages to them so they willingly enlist. People want to follow principled leaders who are ethical and supportive, furthered Mitchell.

Praise for The Yoga of Leadership

The Yoga of Leadership is an informative and thought-provoking complement to books on leadership. Oriented toward individual transformation, Tarra Mitchell shares a morally deep and timely message empowering leaders to raise consciousness through what she calls holistic wellbeing. With the integrity of an insider, she intelligently weaves together the elements necessary to become inspiring leaders in today's fast-paced work environment and offers a convincing case leveraging ancient wisdom, science, and stories. This book has profound implications for how we manage our days, weeks, teams, and organizations.

John Mackey, Co-Founder and CEO, Whole Foods Market, Co-Author, Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business

In our 30 years of working with clients on personal finance, we at Edelman Financial know that personal finance is more personal than finance. There is a necessary human element in all business endeavors. Tarra and I share the same language. The Yoga of Leadership teaches us how to tap into our inner self so we can be the best leader and person we can be. Brava, Tarra!

Jean Edelman, Co-Founder, Edelman Financial Services, and Author, The Other Side of Money

The Yoga of Leadership is a deep and meaningful resource with real world applicability. Tarra Mitchell brings the ancient wisdom of yoga into leadership in a way that will easily resonate. Tarra committed to me many years back that she would bring yoga to the business world in some way and here it is!

Rolf Gates, Teacher and Author, Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Meditations on Intention and Being: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga, Mindfulness and Compassion.

About the author

Tarra Mitchell, author of The Yoga of Leadership, is integrating her distinctive background in business and yoga to contribute to the great conversation around leadership and consciousness. The Yoga of Leadership demonstrates how personal wellbeing is not only principle centric but also a leading indicator of success at work and in life. With an MBA in International Finance and German, her keen ability to connect with people led to an investment career directing billion-dollar fundraising events and developing relationships around the world. Tarra has practiced yoga for over twenty years and has studied extensively with master yoga teachers and private mentors.

Title: The Yoga of Leadership: A Practical Guide to Health, Happiness, and Inspiring Total Team Engagement

Author: Tarra Mitchell

Paperback: 318 pages

Publisher: TarraYoga LLC

Release Date: December 12th, 2017

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0999508210

ISBN-13: 978-0999508213

Price: $16.99

For review copies, interviews, and speaking please contact:

Tarra Mitchell

info(at)tarramitchell.com

http://www.tarramitchell.com

###Flying solely state-of-the-art Cirrus aircraft, were positioned to deliver a vastly improved experience to our sophisticated audience, said P6 CEO and Co-founder, Pete Widry.

P6 Aviation, a new general aviation platform founded by former airline pilots, today announced that it has officially launched operations from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, NJ.

P6 will be the exclusive Cirrus Training Center at the airport, providing flight instruction and aircraft management services to clients who value both safety and an elevated, modern experience. Essex County provides the ideal location for our platform. Flying solely state-of-the-art Cirrus aircraft, were positioned to deliver a vastly improved experience to our sophisticated audience, said P6 CEO and Co-founder, Pete Widry.

Mr. Widry is joined in this effort by John DeLillo, who along with Mr. Widry, is also a former airline pilot and entrepreneur. The companys strategy is to build a network of premium aviation properties leveraging the Cirrus Aircraft brand and its commitment to safety, modernity and innovation.

P6 Aviation has met the stringent requirements necessary to be designated a Cirrus Training Center and plans to grow that relationship wherever able. We are very excited to work with Pete and John, and to support their vision of breaking the general aviation mold by providing professional flight training in the best-selling single-engine aircraft in the world, said Eric Sanderman, Cirrus Regional Sales Director NJ/NY.

P6 Aviation is actively engaged in pursuing adjacent development opportunities in NYC and the surrounding areas.

About P6 Aviation

P6 Aviation is a growing company that is building a network of flight training and aircraft management properties. The management team includes former airline pilots, executives and entrepreneurs who all share a passion for aviation and safety. For more information, visit: http://www.p6aviation.com

About Cirrus Aircraft

Cirrus Aircraft is the recognized global leader in personal aviation and the maker of the best-selling SR Series piston aircraft and the Vision Jet, the worlds first single-engine Personal Jet and recipient of the 2017 Robert J. Collier Trophy. Founded in 1984, the company has redefined performance, comfort and safety in aviation with innovations like the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS)  the first FAA-certified whole-airframe parachute safety system included as standard equipment on an aircraft. To date, worldwide flight time on Cirrus aircraft has passed nine million hours and 153 people have returned home safely to their families as a result of the inclusion of CAPS as a standard feature on all Cirrus aircraft. The company has three locations in the United States, located in Duluth, Minnesota, Grand Forks, North Dakota and Knoxville, Tennessee. Find out more at http://www.cirrusaircraft.com.

Contact: P6 Aviation, Pete Widry, pete(at)p6aviation.comPharmafusion Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Jonathan Retano. Pharmafusion is about more than technology. Its about analytics, answers, and action. It is about the right people to have the right information at the right time in an easy to understand format  We like to describe it as Smart TV for pharma."

Privately held Pharmafusion LLC offers its clients an all-inclusive, cloud-based business analytics platform designed specifically for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Essentially a one-stop-shop for fresh data, the companys core product, Pharmafusion360, delivers customizable reports and dashboards rapidly from diverse data sources to support commercialization efforts. Based on an award-winning approach developed by company founder and chief executive officer Jonathan Retano, along with a team of forward-thinking healthcare professionals, Pharmafusion360 provides insight from nearly 50 subject areas from a multi-dimensional enterprise data warehouse built explicitly for pharma. The data is presented via web and tablet enabled reports and executive dashboards essential for business analytics.

Pharmafusion is about more than technology, says Retano. Its about analytics, answers, and action. It is about the right people having the right information at the right time in an easy to understand format. Having the data integrated into one solution allows us to combine data sets for deeper insights. Without an integrated solution this cross pollination could not happen. We like to describe it as Smart TV for pharma. Pharmafusion360 cost-effectively provides any channel our clients may want, in an easy to use and visually appealing way. Just as with television where you can watch any program at any time, Pharmafusion has channels for professionals in marketing, finance, trade, managed-care, sales, clinical, business development, and regulatory. We provide our clients with the means to answer questions that are critical when it comes to business analytics for commercial pharmaceutical and biotech operations in both the branded and generic markets. There is something for everyone.

An industry veteran, Retano, who has been featured in Pharmaceutical Commerce and CFO magazines, leaned heavily on his experience to develop an easily accessible, prebuilt, and user-friendly suite of proprietary results-oriented services. His companys executive dashboards provide comprehensive and easy-to-interpret visualizations, providing snapshots of key business insights to assist in charting the course for business success. The platform is designed to offer insights to C-suite leaders, analysts and everyone in between.

As a sales director I am tasked to drive scripts, market share, and profitability, says John McLaughlin, sales director at Mission Pharmacal Company. However, there are many factors that influence my ability to succeed, such as coverage, pricing, stocking, rebates, and much more. I need easy to use and clear tools to understand those factors and drive my team at the physician level. Having worked at many companies, I have never seen a more comprehensive pulling together of all this information that presents in a way to make it actionable in the field than Pharmafusion360. I believe this platform is very useful for any sales directors and VPs in the industry.

While there may be internal resources available for analytics, utilizing an external partner such as Pharmafusion whose sole focus is pharma business analytics can create momentum and synergy to move the organizations analytics capacity forward.

Our entire business model is built on having a complete, single integrated, turnkey solution and customizing our offering to meet the needs of our client partners, says Retano. Having nearly 20 years experience on the corporate side of the industry, I understand the necessary information leadership teams rely on to successfully operate their companies. I also understand that now is the time many corporations are planning and budgeting for 2019. It makes sense to start a conversation with our team now to properly budget to help meet those needs and assure success.

About Pharmafusion:

Pharmafusion LLC, a privately held company located in East Norriton, Pennsylvania, is a one-stop-shop for pharmaceutical and biotech companies searching for comprehensive data analytics for a wide range of key business performance indicators. Supported by in the trenches experience on the corporate side of the industry, Pharmafusion provides client partners in marketing, finance, trade, managed-care, sales, clinical, business development, and regulatory with the information required to aid in successful commercialization efforts. The companys primary offering, Pharmafusion360, goes beyond the breadth of what others in the industry provide, and does so with a quality of functionality and service that is unparalleled. Pharmafusions current client base represents more than $25 billion in sales.

To learn more about Pharmafusion and its flagship offering, Pharmafusion360, please visit pharmafusion360.com or email Jonathan Retano at jon(at)pharmafusion360.com.Private equity firms and their portfolio companies continue to expand in the sector, dominating the acquisition market.

Physician medical group M&A activity was strong in the second quarter of 2018, according to new data from HealthCareMandA.com. The number of physician medical group acquisitions totaled 53 in the second quarter, a slight decline from the first quarter's activity of 55 transactions. Compared with the year-ago second quarter, however, the M&A activity increased by 60% from 33 acquisitions. Although prices were disclosed on only four transactions, they totaled $12.178 billion as a result of two billion-dollar deals. KKR purchased Envision Healthcare for $9.9 billion, and Summit Partners bought Sound Inpatient Physicians Holdings from Fresenius Medical for $2.15 billion.

The most prolific buyers in the second quarter were U.S. Dermatology Partners with four acquisitions, followed by MEDNAX, Inc., Platinum Dermatology Partners and Chesapeake Urology Associates with two acquisitions each. Private equity firms were the direct buyers in nine of the acquisitions, while portfolio companies of private equity firms accounted for 19 acquisitions in the second quarter. The most sought-after practice was dermatology with nine acquisitions, followed by ophthalmology with four and urology with three. Private equity firms and their portfolio companies continue to expand in the sector, dominating the acquisition market, said Lisa Phillips, editor of the Health Care M&A Report, which publishes the data. Their exit strategy is not clear, but they are targeting those practice areas with the least amount of managed care interference," Phillips continued.

All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of health care, which is part of the HealthCareMandA.com. For more information, or to order the report, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates, Inc. was established in 1948 and has headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors, and 2017 marked the third year in a row that the firm was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing media companies in the country. The company publishes research reports and newsletters, and maintains databases on the health care and senior housing M&A markets.

*To receive this press release via email, send a message to pressreleases@levinassociates.com

Phone: (203) 846-6800Lisa Phillips, Editor

Fax:(203) 846-8300

PHYSICIAN MEDICAL GROUP M&A ACTIVITY STAYS STRONG IN Q2:2018,

ACCORDING TO ACQUISITION DATA FROM HEALTHCAREMANDA.comI am very excited about becoming a part of the Certrec team, Vidal said. I look forward to using my expertise in nuclear plant licensing to help our clients and the nuclear industry achieve and maintain excellent regulatory performance.

Certrec, a leading licensing and regulatory compliance service provider that supports NRC and NERC compliance, announced today that industry veteran Ozzie Vidal has joined its staff to serve as a Senior Project Manager.

I am very excited about becoming a part of the Certrec team, Vidal said. I look forward to using my expertise in nuclear plant licensing to help our clients and the nuclear industry achieve and maintain excellent regulatory performance.

Mr. Vidal brings almost 40 years of licensing, regulatory affairs, emergency preparedness, and risk-informed engineering experience to Certrec. He previously worked at Turkey Point Nuclear Plant as a Reactor Engineer and served in various roles at Hatch Nuclear Power Plant. He has spent the last seven years as a Contract Engineer in the areas of Risk-Informed Engineering and Regulatory Affairs.

Ozzie is known throughout the nuclear community for his broad design basis and technical specification knowledge, said Mike OKeefe, Office of Licensing and Compliance Services Director. We are excited for him to join us at a critical time in the nuclear industry when the ability to thoroughly research a plants design and licensing basis helps them remain competitive.

CERTREC

Founded in 1988, Certrec is an engineering and technology-based organization providing regulatory support services in the electric power industry. With more than 1,000 cumulative years of direct industry experience (including nuclear, fossil, and renewables), Certrec has developed exceptional capabilities to support regulatory activities emanating from regulatory entities such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and Regional Entities (NERC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other regulatory agencies. Certrec's Office of Licensing and Compliance (OLC), Office of Assessment and Recovery (OAR), Office of NERC Compliance (ONC), and Office of New Plant (ONP) services are used by utilities and entities across the United States to help manage the regulatory process to their advantage.

Certrec offers support from highly skilled and experienced industry professionals who possess degrees in a variety of engineering disciplines (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, and Nuclear). Additionally Certrec's staff has multiple degreed personnel in physics, communications, a variety of MBAs, and information technology. This highly skilled team of personnel has direct working experience in all regulatory areas of licensing, compliance, and engineering, including nuclear, fossil, and renewable generation and transmission.

For more than 30 years, Certrec has been applying its hundreds of years of industry experience to help clients develop and manage solutions to complex regulatory issues. Combining this direct industry experience with Certrec's Information Technology assets has led to the development of technology-based solutions and tools directly targeted to the electric power industry and specifically focused on helping clients manage regulatory issues.With growth in traditional college student enrollment projected to slow in the coming decade, the adult and online learner market will become even more vital for colleges and universities to secure sustainable enrollments. At the same time, there is enormous potential for institutions to grow in these markets. According to NCES data, there are 36,000,000 adult learners who have some college but no degreeprime candidates to be recruited back to college, and many who will take courses online.

Graduate enrollment has also swelled to 3 million, and the global pool of international students is expected to rise to 7 million by 2025 according to data from the Open Doors research projectadding additional enrollment streams for institutions to harness.

At many institutions, however, enrollment management for these student populations does not match the same level of strategy development, data-driven decision making, and prospective student outreach that traditional undergraduate enrollment doesall critical capabilities RNL intends to provide.

Colleges and universities have trusted RNL with their on-campus undergraduate enrollment for decades, said Sumit Nijhawan, president and CEO of Ruffalo Noel Levitz. Our approach represents a strategic evolution in applying our pioneering work in college student recruitment to the nontraditional, graduate, and international markets that will become increasingly important for enrollment sustainability.

The firms solution extends to four key markets:



Adult learners aged 25 and older who are taking undergraduate coursework, both for degree purposes and for continuing education.

Online learners taking distance learning courses, both part- and full-time.

Graduate students pursuing masters and professional degrees.

International students looking to study in the United States.

RNLs solution for this area brings three key components that have been lacking from nontraditional student enrollment:



Student attitudinal data to drive responsive engagement, so that campuses can personalize every key touchpoint based on what the student has revealed about their preferences and expectations.

Multichannel marketing deployed across every viable channeldigital, social media, email, print, and phoneat a strategic and creative level not usually seen with nontraditional students. For the international market, this includes multilingual phone outreach to increase student engagement.

Optimized lead generation precisely blending digital lead generation with high-touch, list-based opportunities.

Our work in the entire student lifecycle also provides added insight for nontraditional enrollment, said Brett Frazier, RNLs chief customer officer. For instance, we have vast data and experience with student success and alumni affinity, two areas that can be applied directly to excite and engage adult and online learner as well as graduate students.

For more information, visit RuffaloNL.com.

About Ruffalo Noel Levitz

Ruffalo Noel Levitz is the leading provider of higher education enrollment, student success, and fundraising solutions. The firm serves more than 1,900 colleges and universities through data-driven solutions focused on the entire lifecycle of enrollment and fundraising, assuring students find the right program, graduate on time, secure their first job in their chosen field, and give back to support the next generation. With a deep knowledge of the industry, Ruffalo Noel Levitz provides institutions the ability to scale their efforts by tapping into a community of support and resources.Sonitrol of Lexington and Bates Security along with 3xLOGIC lend helping hand to The Nest Non-profit One of our biggest concerns is for our children and staff during operating hours, and us not knowing what is going on in the approach to our buildingwe need that visibility. Jeffrey White, Director, The Nest

3xLOGIC, Inc., a leading provider of integrated, intelligent security solutions, and a three-time Deloitte Technology Fast 500 winner, today announced, in cooperation with Bates Security, Sonitrol of Lexington, and Sonitrol corporate, the partners have completed a video surveillance and audio detection security upgrade project for The Nest, known formally as the Center for Women, Children, and Families.

The Nest, located in a Lexington, KY public park, does a little bit of everything, according to Danny Goodpaster, Sales Consultant for Bates Security/Sonitrol of Lexington. It provides needy families with free essential items, offers counseling for domestic violence issues, and has daycare services onsite. The Nest is located in a somewhat rough part of town, so a robust security system is crucial.

The center had been equipped with a four-camera analog system complete with alarm capabilities, so staff were very aware of the importance of verified alarms in providing a higher degree of safety and security. Goodpaster met with the customer and determined that, at a minimum, eight cameras were needed to provide enhanced visibility of the Centers surroundings and greater protection. Also, expanded coverage of The Nests parking lot and the approach to the entrance were critical.

The Nest just didnt have the budget for the upgraded system they needed, and we could have installed a much less expensive, non-verified alarm system to save costs, explained Goodpaster. But they have been our customer since 1989, and their verified alarm capability plus panic buttons has led to successful police apprehensions at the site on several occasions. Staff understood the importance of Sonitrol brand equipment and our positive relationship with law enforcement. So, in cooperation with our corporate office, we decided to ensure they had the system they truly needed to be able to function more safely and securely.

Bates/Sonitrol of Lexington installed a total of eight 3xLOGIC Sonitrol-branded cameras, equipped with full video verification capabilities, and an NVR onsite. There are different camera models to fit the varying surveillance needs, including wide-dynamic range 3MP HD cameras and a 180-degree camera to cover a wider, outdoor area. Most of the cameras are located outside, covering the parking lot and a playground. Two interior cameras cover both of The Nests entrances, the office, and the entrance to the daycare facility. The entire upgrade project was completed in April of this year.

One of our biggest concerns, related Jeffrey White, The Nest Director, is for our children and staff during operating hours, and us not knowing what is going on in the approach to our buildingwe need that visibility. The center has had a number of incidents over the recent past, including a break-in, as well as one of the old analog cameras actually being shot out.

The old system was just not doing the job for them, said Goodpaster. It was in disrepair, the image quality was poor, and the wiring had deteriorated. We replaced the old DVR with a new NVR that has Smart Search capability, and the entire system is now IP. I was really impressed with the commitment by our corporate office to make sure this important non-profit, doing essential work, has a system that provides them with peace of mind and genuine security. Once we were fully installed, we provided a staff training day that included an orientation for law enforcement as well.

About Bates Security

Sonny and Pat Bates purchased Sonitrol of Lexington in 1984 and simultaneously began ADR Security Services, later rebranded to Bates Security. The team has built Bates Security into the largest, privately-owned company based in Kentucky and opened a second office in Jacksonville, Florida in 2016. Bates Security was awarded Small Business of the Year by Commerce Lexington, ranks as one of the top security companies in the nation, and continues to be a proud community partner. Today, the operations are driven by the Bates sons, Jeremy, in Lexington, and Bryan, in Jacksonville.

About 3xLOGIC

3xLOGIC Inc. has been a leading innovator in server and cloud-based security technology for 15+ years. The company is recognized for providing easy-to-use surveillance and business intelligence solutions that seamlessly integrate video, access control, and disparate data such as ATM, Point-of-Sale, analytics, and more.

3xLOGICs video surveillance solutions are engineered for ease of installation, scalability and affordability combined with a managed services portfolio that enables integrators to effectively evolve from dealers to high-value strategic partners. Follow 3xLOGIC on Facebook, Linked-in, or our Twitter account, and read our latest news at http://www.3xlogic.com

For 3xLOGIC Media Queries:

Bruce J. Doneff

Public Relations

843.476.3022

doneff(at)verizon(dot)netTRish logo Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are invaluable tools in addressing the healthcare challenges associated with long-duration human space flight

The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), a NASA-funded innovation research and development institute, is set to host a special virtual workshop, Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare in Long-Duration Human Space Flight, at Caltech on Tuesday, July 31, 2018 at 8:45 am PST.

As NASA prepares to send astronauts farther and longer in space than ever before in human history, deep space exploration will pose considerable physical and mental health risks for the select few who will journey. There will be long communication gaps for the journey to Mars, a 30-36 months spaceflight, which will require cutting-edge, transformative health technologies to predict, protect and preserve human health. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is quickly rising to the top of the list as a mechanism to keep astronauts safe.

Join TRISH and academic and industry experts who will discuss emerging technologies from biosensors and health data generation to data aggregation to human interaction for this one day interactive.

Open to scientists, academics, and the general public via livestream the fascinating event will bring together a number of experts, including world-renowned genomics pioneer, Dr. Leroy Hood, to discuss the critical role of big data in changing the healthcare landscape and how AI and machine learning, (ML) are being used to keep humans safe during deep space missions.

Hosted by Professor Steve Mayo, Bren Professor of Biology and Chemistry and Leadership Chair of the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at Caltech, the interactive workshop seeks to promote the long-term opportunities that R+D present in innovating for the human condition, specifically in deep space and TRISHs commitment to funding space health research developed by the worlds best and brightest.

Speaking ahead of next Tuesdays event Prof. Mayo said, "Big data is having an impact in many fields and there is a tremendous opportunity to use this approach to create machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to address the healthcare challenges associated with long-duration human space flight.

This is exactly the kind of cutting-edge, highly interdisciplinary workshop that is needed to help set future directions for the development of applications in this area."

About TRISH

Led by Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Space Medicine, TRISH is a consortium with the California Institute for Technology and the Massachusetts Institute for Technology.

Livestream viewers are encouraged to submit comments and questions via Twitter @bcmspacehealth with #spacehealth.

For more information contact:

Stratis.Catacalus(at)bcm.edu

Note to Editor:

Partnering with NASA through a cooperative agreement, the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) funds high-risk, high-reward, transformative human health technologies and performance solutions to predict, protect, and preserve astronaut physical and mental wellness during deep space exploration missions.

Focused on early stage (proof of concept) and late stage (market-ready) research, TRISH stands apart from other funding organizations due to its high-risk tolerance, its flexible grant mechanisms, and its ability to connect researchers with NASA scientists and space analogs.

For more information on research funding go to http://www.bcm.edu/spacehealthWe treat our team the same way we treat a client or partner: with a commitment to excellence. Its this trust-based environment that has grown both our organization and our client base.

Technossus, an award-winning software, solutions and technology consulting firm focused on providing uniquely-tailored, technology-driven business solutions, is proud to announce it has been named as one of the Orange County Business Journals (OCBJ) 2018 Best Places to Work in OC.

This is the organizations third annual win in this category.

This county-wide awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Orange County, California, benefiting the county's economy, its workforce and businesses. Evaluation consists of a review of each employer's workplace policies, employee experience, practices, and demographics. OCBJs Best Companies Group manages the overall process and analyzes the data to determine final rankings.

Amongst previous winners are Sprint, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of OC, Northwestern Mutual, Zillow and GigaSaavy.

Human capital is one of our major core competencies. As a progressive technology-driven organization, one of our biggest commitments is a profound respect for culture. Said Kevin Castle, Managing Partner at Technossus, We treat our team the same way we treat a client or partner: with a commitment to excellence. Its this trust-based environment that has grown both our organization and our client base. We are delighted to be acknowledged for this by the OCBJ and see nothing but continued success in the future.

About Technossus

Since its inception in 2008, Technossus has become one of the fastest-growing technology consultancies in the nation, working closely with clients across multiple industries to design, build and implement uniquely-tailored solutions across desktop, mobile, Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud. The company works closely with customers to determine the best method of increasing profits and decreasing risk through uniquely tailored solutions. Technossus prides itself on its ability to maintain a roster of dedicated and passionate professionals. It maintains that great tech starts with great human capital.

For Media Inquiries:

Liz Cabrera Spencer

Lisbeth.Spencer@technossus.com

Head of Marketing

O: 949.769.3525

C: 949.463.5439Terbium Labs is gearing up for an eventful week in Las Vegas, Aug. 4-9 at the annual Black Hat USA Conference. The dark web data intelligence company will be speaking, exhibiting, and hosting an exclusive event, Sharks and Shpiony: A conversation with Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, founders and editors of Agentura.ru and authors of The Red Web.

Clare Gollnick, CTO of Terbium Labs will be joined by Dr. Cathal Smyth of the Royal Bank of Canada to present the session: Money-rity Report: Using Intelligence to Predict the Next Payment Card Fraud Victims. By using intelligence gathered from online sources such as the dark web combined with transactional data, the session will demonstrate predictive analytics that can not only identify who the next fraud victims will be, but also where card data is being stolen from, all before any fraudulent transactions have occurred.

Terbium Labs will close out the conference hosting the Sharks and Shpiony event the evening of Aug. 9 from 6-10 p.m. in the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Guests will have the opportunity to meet the authors of The Red Web, in from Moscow, who will discuss the history of surveillance technologies in Russia from the beginnings of the Internet to now, and how that history relates to current issues of data privacy, identity theft, and disinformation. Cocktails, small bites, and book signings will be available. Register to attend by July 31, 2018: https://go.terbiumlabs.com/lp-ts-black-hat-book-signing-press

Terbium Labs can be found on the Black Hat exhibition floor, booth #370. Follow Terbium Labs throughout the conference on Twitter @TerbiumLabs, #BHUSA or #BlackHat. Members of the media can arrange one-on-one briefings with executives by contacting April H. Burghardt, PR Manager at pr@terbiumlabs.com.

About Terbium Labs

Terbium Labs is a premier dark web data intelligence company. As the maker of Matchlight, the worlds most comprehensive and only fully private dark web data monitoring system, Terbium gives organizations an unprecedented ability to continuously monitor the dark web and be alerted as soon as any of its sensitive data or keywords appear. Featuring a patented, privacy-protecting, data fingerprinting technology and sophisticated collection infrastructure, Matchlight has become a must-have data breach detection solution among risk management, security and privacy professionals. Learn more about Terbium Labs' automated, affordable and actionable approach to dark web intelligence by visiting terbiumlabs.com or follow us on Twitter @TerbiumLabs.

###The Fiduciary Group (TFG), an independent wealth management firm based in Savannah, Georgia, announced the addition of Brendan Flaherty as the Director of Operations and Bess Butler as a Client Account Administrator. The hiring efforts demonstrate TFGs continuous commitment to deepen its bench strength and enhance client service.

Brendan Flaherty is responsible for the firms technology platforms and business operations to ensure an optimal client experience. He brings unique operational experience from financial technology vendor RedBlack Software and financial firms Scottrade and Chubb Insurance. Mr. Flaherty graduated with honors from the University of New Hampshire with a BS in Finance and Marketing.

Bess Butler joined TFG as a Client Account Administrator in September 2017. Ms. Butler received a Bachelor of Science from Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech in 2015. After college, she moved back to Savannah to work for Colonial Group, Inc., a multigenerational family-owned company. Ms. Butler is the third-generation Butler to work at TFG. Her grandfather, Lee Butler, founded the firm in 1970. Her father, Malcolm Butler, joined the firm in 1980 and has served as President and CEO since 1998.

These talented professionals further enhance the strength of the TFG team and bring added value to our clients, said Malcom Butler.

About The Fiduciary Group

Based in Savannah, Ga., The Fiduciary Group was founded in 1970. The company provides comprehensive wealth management, investment management, and financial planning services to high net worth individuals and families, trusts and estates, closely-held businesses, and nonprofit organizations. The firm also provides fiduciary investment advisory services to 401(k) plans and company-sponsored profit sharing and pension plans. For more information, please visit http://www.tfginvest.com.Tonelight Warning Indicators with Stainless Steel Housings Tonelight annunciators emit both sound and flashing lights, which is especially desirable in environments with high levels of ambient noise.

Tonelight annunciators emit both sound and flashing lights, which is especially desirable in environmental conditions with high levels of ambient noise.

In addition to their stainless steel housings and buttons for use in harsh environments, the new Tonelight models from Transducers USA are available with green, yellow, orange, blue, white or red LED lens covers. Two new models are offered:

TRIP-LB100SS-R12  The voltage rating for this model is 12 VDC. Other models include 24 VDC and 110 VAC to 220 VAC. The siren operates at 85dB @ 10cm. Operating temperature range is -20 C to +55 C. A screw terminal provides for panel mounting. This model is rated IP50 and IK04.

TRIP-LB150SS-R12  The voltage rating for this model is 12 AC/DC. Current rating is 30mA. Its siren also operates at 85dB @10cm. This model is rated IP40.

All Tonelight units provide distinct audio/visual warnings with flashing LED lights and repetitive audio alerts. The sound and light alert signals can be emitted simultaneously or separately. In addition, Tonelight allows the audible alert signal to be delayed, allowing workers to have time to respond to visual alerts before the audible beeping begins.

This feature is ideally suited where excess noise is either undesirable or hard to detect. The Tonelight indicators are ideal for potentially serious events where both audio and visual warnings are needed. Typical applications for Tonelight include:



Alarms of all types

Low-voltage

Low-pressure

High-radiation

Tank Level

Cycle Status

Dangerous Condition

High-temperature

Liquid Detector

Transducers USA customers are finding the Tonelight warning indicators very helpful in many applications, such as:



On dashboards of RVs, off- and on-road highway and other vehicular equipment, providing warning when the contents of storage or collection tanks are either full or empty

Industrial machines and factory floor operations

Restaurant kitchens

Mobile and portable applications

For more information on Tonelight Series, please visit: http://www.tusainc.com.

FREE samples of Tonelight devices are available to editors upon request. Please contact Joe Sieracki at 847-956-1920.

About Transducers USA

Transducers USA produces quality audible signal devices at very competitive prices for Original Equipment Manufacturers. The company manufactures a comprehensive line of audio indicators and transducers in piezo and electro-mechanical varieties, including microphones, speakers, and ultrasonic components.

Products are manufactured in ISO-9000 and RoHS certified facilities in Asia. Transducers USA provides customer support and engineering assistance from their local headquarters in Elk Grove Village, IL. Over 1,300 production workers and 100 specialized audio engineers support Transducers USA.

In addition to hundreds of standard audible signal devices, custom products are also available at Transducers USA, based on either a customers design or one created by Transducers USA engineers. CAD drawings and tooling will be provided at no charge for qualified orders.

Distributors and sale representatives are utilized as a channel to market. Local contacts can be found on http://www.tusainc.com.Megan Stewart, Trident University's Outreach Education Specialist for Fort Irwin Given our over 22,000 military alumni and active involvement in military-focused community events, Tridents support of military students and their families at the Fort Irwin National Training Center is a natural fit for the University. - Esmeralda Silva

Trident University International (Trident) has announced the hiring of Megan Stewart as the new University Outreach Education Specialist at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in California.

This arrangement is part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in September 2016, and applies to Fort Irwin military service members, Department of Defense civilian employees, military retirees, and their immediate families who are Trident students.

Stewart will coordinate supplemental instruction and educational resources offered on post. Resources available to students include regularly scheduled writing labs, available to anyone on post, and supplemental instruction for students in the Master of Science in Leadership program. This is in addition to Tridents standard classroom instruction, which is available online.

Given our over 22,000 military alumni and active involvement in such military-focused community events as Snowball Express and Operation Gratitude, Tridents support of military students and their families at the Fort Irwin National Training Center is a natural fit for the University, stated Esmeralda Silva, Trident, Vice President Strategic Initiatives & Government Relations/Compliance.

Stewart is a military spouse who prides herself in being an active part of the Fort Irwin community. After spending 16 years in a career in ophthalmology, she turned to volunteer work during her time on post. Stewart joined the Trident team to help service members, spouses, and members of the Fort Irwin community gain access to the best education possible while serving their country. She is currently finishing her Bachelors in Healthcare Administration at the University of Central Florida.



The Fort Irwin National Training Center is a major training base for the military, located in northern San Bernardino County, CA. This facility prepares brigade combat teams (BCTs) and other units for action while serving the needs of soldiers, civilians, and family members.

About Trident University

Founded in 1998, Trident University International (Trident) is a leading online postsecondary university serving adult learners. Trident uses the EdActive learning approach, which employs case-based learning in an online setting to teach real-world relevant critical thinking skills to enhance the lives and careers of students. Trident offers high-quality bachelors, masters, and doctoral degree programs and certificates, led by a qualified faculty team, over 80% of whom have doctoral degrees. Trident is regionally accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) and has over 30,000 alumni, including more than 22,000 with a military affiliation. The University has received multiple acknowledgements from Military Times, Victory Medias Military Friendly Schools, and Military Advanced Education & Transition for their dedication to military-affiliated students. Visit http://www.trident.edu, Tridents Facebook page, or call at (855) 290-0290 to learn more about Trident's wide range of educational options.Dr. Pinkard is a passionate and compelling speaker. I know this Mayors Luncheon is going to be an afternoon to remember as we continue the work of getting minority students to and through college, said Andrea Neely, UNCF regional development director.

UNCF unites the community for a great causeeducationhosting its sixth annual Mayors Luncheon at the David H. Ponitz Conference Center on Friday, August 17, 2018 at 11:00am. The event brings together more than 200 of Ohios business, civic and education leaders who support UNCFs efforts in providing resources to minority students in pursuit of a higher education and operational support to UNCF 37 member institutions. Dr. Elfred Anthony Pinkard will deliver the keynote address emphasizing the importance of education in securing better communities for us all.

Dr. Pinkard is a passionate and compelling speaker. I know this Mayors Luncheon is going to be an afternoon to remember as we continue the work of getting minority students to and through college, said Andrea Neely, UNCF regional development director.

Events such as the Mayors Luncheon are vitally important in providing the necessary resources for Ohio students to get to and through college. Last year, UNCF awarded 58 scholarships to Central Ohio students totaling $736,184 in scholarships and raised over $21,000 from the luncheon in support of these efforts.

With the support of this years sponsors, UNCF continues the diligent work of investing in young people. Gold sponsors of the luncheon are Honda and Premier Health.

We are excited to participate  [We] know this is going to be a wonderful event, said Diane Ewing, chief liaison to the president/CEO of Premier Health.

For more information on how you can invest in better futures or to purchase tickets, please click the link HERE or call 614.221.5309.

About UNCF

UNCF (United Negro College Fund) is the nations largest and most effective minority education organization. To serve youth, the community and the nation, UNCF supports students education and development through scholarships and other programs, strengthens its 37 member colleges and universities, and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. UNCF institutions and other historically black colleges and universities are highly effective, awarding nearly 20 percent of African American baccalaureate degrees. UNCF awards more than $100 million in scholarships annually and administers more than 400 programs, including scholarship, internship and fellowship, mentoring, summer enrichment, and curriculum and faculty development programs. Its logo features the UNCF torch of leadership in education and its widely recognized motto, A mind is a terrible thing to waste, but a wonderful thing to invest in. Today, UNCF supports more than 60,000 students at more than 1,100 colleges and universities. Learn more at UNCF.org or for continuous news and updates, follow UNCF on Twitter @UNCF.University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma The seamless integration with the Canvas LMS was a key decision point for USAO in selecting the Student Success platform, along with Portfoliums easy-to-use platform and integrated assessment capabilities, says Kelly Brown, Vice President of Library & Information Technology Services at USAO.

University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma (USAO) has chosen Portfoliums Student Success platform to assess students learning artifacts while helping students share those same artifacts with employers as proof of competencies and skills.

Portfoliums ePortfolio technology will help students maintain lifelong access to curricular and co-curricular learning artifacts in order to reflect on their skills and navigate their career journeys. These skill-tagged artifacts can then be leveraged by students to land internship and employment opportunities through Portfoliums unique social network and TalentMatch features.

Staff and faculty will also benefit from the partnership through Portfoliums Assessment software, allowing faculty the ability to conduct direct, authentic assessments of student work samples to accurately measure student learning outcomes. Portfoliums intuitive assessment tools also include customizable rubrics, curriculum mapping and easy one-click reporting.

Portfoliums seamless integration with the Canvas LMS was a key decision point for USAO in selecting the Student Success platform, along with Portfoliums easy-to-use platform and integrated assessment capabilities, as cited by Kelly Brown, Vice President of Library & Information Technology Services at USAO.

At Portfolium, we understand the importance of solidifying the connection between learning and opportunity in order to realize definitive Student Success, said Troy Markowitz, VP of Academic Partnerships at Portfolium, This is why we are thrilled to provide the metrics and platform needed to make that a reality at USAO.

ABOUT PORTFOLIUM:

Portfolium is the worlds fastest growing Student Success Network. 3,600+ colleges, universities and high schools use Portfolium to manage and align competency assessment, student success, and career readiness programs. Portfoliums academic solutions plug students into an open ecosystem of employers, mentors, educators, and peers around the world. Our 4M+ users are linked to internships, jobs, and lifelong learning opportunities via ePortfolios that showcase their proven competencies. To learn more about Portfolium's network for learners and solutions for educators, visit: https://portfolium.com

ABOUT UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND ARTS OF OKLAHOMA:

The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, or USAO, is a public liberal arts college located in Chickasha, Oklahoma. Founded in 1908, USAO is the only public college in Oklahoma with a strictly liberal arts-focused curriculum and is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. For more information, please visit: https://usao.edu/Visiun, the leader in laboratory analytics, will be showcasing the latest advancements in laboratory analytics at the 2018 AACC Clinical Lab Expo. Visit Visiun at booth 4367 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, from July 31  August 2 to discover why hundreds of laboratories across the United States and Canada select Visiuns Performance Insight as their tool of choice for laboratory analytics.

New this year, Visiun will be demonstrating unique capabilities including advanced new features such as microbiology antibiograms, point of care testing vs in lab workstation comparisons, acute kidney injury detection and reporting, and more. Compatible with every major LIS on the market, Performance Insight provides laboratory management with business intelligence and analytics to help their teams monitor key service commitments and improve workflow, quality, and financial performance. With Performance Insight, laboratories can visualize everything that is happening in the lab on a daily basis ranging from turnaround time, quality, QC, productivity/workflow, blood product utilization, test utilization, population health, anatomic pathology, and more.

Visit Visiun at booth 4367 for on-site demonstrations, Q&A with product specialists, and raffles. Rest at ease after walking the show floor! A massage therapist will be providing free five-minute massages for booth visitors needing a break. For more information or to schedule an on-site demonstration, please contact Kristina Ziaugra at (727) 420-5152 or Kristina.Ziaugra(at)visiun.com.

AACC Clinical Lab Expo Hours:

Tuesday, July 31: 9:30 A.M.  5:00 P.M.

Wednesday, August 1: 9:30 A.M.  5:00 P.M.

Thursday, August 2: 9:30 A.M.  1:00 P.M.

About Visiun, Inc.

Visiun, Inc. is the leading provider of performance analytics to the laboratory industry. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Visiun has been providing services to the laboratory industry for over eight years, with hundreds of laboratories installed throughout the United States and Canada. Performance Insight, Visiuns core product, provides laboratory managers with a comprehensive suite of analytics that deliver immediate improvements in performance, efficiency, and quality.Vium Logo

Vium, Inc. http://www.vium.com, the leading innovator for in vivo research utilizing its state-of-the-art Digital Vivarium and Vium Cloud approach to accelerate preclinical drug discovery and development, today announced the promotion of Laura Schaevitz, Ph.D., to Chief Scientific Officer. Additionally, the company announced the appointment of Jeff Caron to the newly formed role of Senior Vice President of Engineering and Ted Ira to Vice President of Sales.

I am pleased to announce the promotion of Dr. Schaevitz who has been a crucial member of the Vium team for more than three years. She has played an integral role in building Viums in vivo drug testing platform into a world leading technology that is improving data insights and advancing drugs to clinical trials, said Vium President and CEO Wendel Barr. As we continue to grow and innovate as a company, we are pleased to welcome Ted and Jeff to the Vium leadership team. We believe that Jeffs precision health technology and engineering background and Teds significant pharmaceutical and contract research sales and sales leadership experience will be invaluable as we continue to advance our Digital Vivarium technology to deliver breakthrough accuracy and speed in preclinical testing.

Dr. Schaevitz has more than 20 years of experience with in vivo animal studies and has a proven track record in utilizing a broad spectrum of mouse models including transgenic models including autism, schizophrenia, Rett syndrome, and blindsight. Formerly Vice President of Scientific Technologies for Vium, she now oversees the development of Viums scientific program drawing upon her experiences as a molecular and behavioral neuroscientist to direct the application of Viums digital metrics to animal models across therapeutic areas including respiratory and inflammatory diseases.

She and her team work to enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to conduct effective animal studies with predictive, continuous digital data that allows life science companies to better identify and prioritize lead compounds for further investigation. Dr. Schaevitz received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Stanford University in 2006.

Jeff Caron joined the company as the lead digital technology executive with experience in delivering secure solution architecture and innovative healthcare and life sciences solutions. Prior to joining Vium, Caron was vice president, software engineering and chief architect at GE Healthcare where he grew the GE Life Science Digital organization to include two global engineering centers of excellence (COEs) that focused on digital solutions for drug discovery, process development, manufacturing, clinical trials decision support, and AI-driven diagnostics. Previously, Caron worked at Microsoft where he led the development of data aggregation and analytics enterprise and cloud-based platforms enabling real-time patient monitoring and population health.

Caron holds patents in methods that analyze images leveraging quantitative assays, and algorithmic techniques for diagnostics and clinical interpretation. He received his Computer Science, Mathematics degree (specialization in advanced image analysis and visualization) from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Ted Ira brings more than 20 years of senior level sales and business development experience in the bioscience and health services field to Vium. Prior to joining the company, Ira was the executive director of business development for SRI International where he led the drug discovery, development, and innovative platform commercial efforts for the Biosciences division. Previously, Ira held various senior sales roles at Covance in support of its preclinical services business. Ira received a BS in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of San Francisco.

About Vium, Inc.

Vium is the first company to create a living informatics platform for preclinical in vivo drug research. The Vium Digital Vivarium, Vium Cloud, and online Research Suite empower scientists to optimize advances in bioengineered research models in ways previously not possible. Vium is fully accredited by AAALAC International and received an unprecedented AAALAC commendation for upholding the 3 Rs, the gold-standard framework for humane animal research. Customers run the spectrum of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and computational drug discovery companies, academia, and novel therapeutic labs. Vium is backed by leading investors, including Lux Capital, Data Collective, Dolby Family Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Founders Fund, and Future Shape LLC. Vium is headquartered in San Mateo, California.Wayne Homes, an Ohio-based custom home builder that specializes in custom on-your-lot homes, is proud to announce the recipients of the Wayne Homes Scholarship Project at Stark State College in Canton, Ohio.

This year, the newly-established Wayne Homes Scholarship awarded $4,000 in scholarships to eight Stark State students. The recipients of the scholarships are Brendan L. Gates, Michael E. Hall, Neshaunda Lockett, Athena R. Mack, Ryan McGough, John A. Rogers, Taylor N. Valentine-Krepps, and Daniel Wahsum.

Last September, Wayne Homes formed an alliance with Stark State College to provide annual scholarships to eligible students pursuing careers in design engineering, construction management, business, sales and marketing and with an interest in pursuing careers with Wayne Homes upon graduation.

Weve recognized the value that the school has brought to us with at least 30 percent of our home office employees having, at a minimum, taken classes there, Ben Vogel, Wayne Homes Product Development Manager and Stark State Board of Directors member, said. Through the relationship we build with the school, wed like to build more relationships with the students and help them become the best candidates possible for our job openings.

The recipients were chosen by the Stark State College Foundation in collaboration with the heads of the degree fields to identify and recommend students they felt were the most deserving for the scholarship.

For more information about Wayne Homes, or to inquire about job opportunities, visit WayneHomes.com.

About Wayne Homes

Wayne Homes is a custom home builder in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, and West Virginia (see all Model Home Centers). We offer nearly 50 customizable floorplans and a team dedicated to providing the best experience in the home building industry. For more information, Ask Julie by live chat or call us at (866) 253-6807.This is M. Sasek

By Olga Cerna, Pavel Ryska, and Martin Salisbury, translated from the Czech by Martina and Stuart Nicholson (Feb. 13, Universe, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-7893-3427-5).

Illustrated in the style of the Czech illustrators bestselling picture books such as This Is New York, this volume tells the story of the artists life with plenty of drawings, photographs, and other documents.Eboo Patel, a scholar and Muslim social activist, may be the kind of person who stands in the middle of an intersection, renames it a meeting point, and calls for a potluck supper on the spot.

Patel, 42, born in Mumbai, and reared from infancy in suburban Chicago, still remembers being bullied on the school playground as a curry-maker Muslim, yet feeling somewhat disconnected from his Islamic religion. But after college at the University of Illinois and a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar, a visit to his grandmother in India was a turning point for Patel. She gave him a lifelong vision of what mercy means when he saw her shelter and support poor women fleeing domestic abuse. I do it because I am Muslim. This is what Muslims do, she told him.

He recalls, I realized this is not just a religion of secret prayers apart from the rest of your life. It ought to be the inspiration for profound engagement with the rest of the world.

Engage he has. Patel has devoted decades to an expansive and optimistic vision. He spells it out in his new book, Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity & the American Promise (Sept., Princeton University Press and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). He writes, its a sacred duty to work for a nation where diverse identities are respected, where relationships are formed between communities, where promises are made to protect what is held in common.

Now, as a married father of two and living in Chicago, Patel regards the hyphen in Muslim-American as a bridge, not a separation. He is not dissuaded by waves of Islamophobia or by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding limits on immigration that President Trump repeatedly touted as a Muslim ban.

Patel tells PW, I play the long game. I am thinking more about 25 years, not 25 days, into the future, not worrying about a 24-hour news cycle. To build toward that future, he founded the Interfaith Youth Core in 1998 to develop interfaith leadership on 500 college campuses, served as a faith adviser to President Obama, and has written about his Muslim-American life in books such as (Acts of Faith, 2007), on pluralism (Sacred Ground, 2012) and on Interfaith Leadership (2016) as well as in a blog, Conversations on Diversity.

Out of Many Faiths is the third book in an ongoing current affairs series of books by scholars addressing issues of diversity. Series editors Earl Lewis, president of the Organization of American historians and director of the Center for Social Solutions at University of Michigan, and Nancy Cantor, chancellor of Rutgers-University-Newark, say they had Patel in mind from the outset to do a religion book. Cantor calls Patel one of the central scholars working across generations and communities to face the challenge we share out of many faiths to create a sense of mutual empathetic citizenship.

Despite what Patel describes in the book as the fear-generating Islamophobia industry, he says in an interview he draws comfort from founders and early giants of the American tradition of religious diversity. He looks back to the example of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, which responded to American anti-Semitism in the 1930s by constructing and promoting the idea that the nation stands on a Judeo-Christian heritage.

Patel says, The NCCJ engaged the Trump racists of their time and won. We inherit that 1930s victory. Today, we have to ask what it means to write the next chapter in the great tradition of diversity, one that stretches to include Islam and others. The response to prejudice is not anger, it is a long-term vision, leading us to a place where all of us can thrive. We are a potluck nation and the only way we can feast is if we all contribute.Ten years after the death of John ODonohue, who was best known for popularizing Celtic spirituality with his 1997 bestseller Anam Cara, new books from three religion and spirituality publishers are highlighting teachings from the ancient Celtic nations.

Celtic Christians, who are believed to have lived in Ireland and the U.K. during the Early Middle Ages, practiced a unique form of Catholicism that emphasized the importance of hospitality and nature, among other differences with mainstream Catholics. Consequently, their practices, which associate publisher at Hampton Roads Greg Brandenburgh calls one size fits all, can appeal to readers of all faith backgrounds, including the growing number of nones, or spiritually unaffiliated people. Learn more about the new releases here.

The Souls Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred By Christine Valters Paintner (Sorin, Sept.) Paintner, author and founded of a virtual monastery on AbbeyoftheArts.com, introduces 12 Irish saints who demonstrate concepts from Celtic spirituality for discovering Gods will, such as pilgrimages, blessing each moment, and observing wisdom in natures rhythms. The book also features reflections on each concept as well as guided prayers and writing prompts.

An Invitation to Celtic Wisdom: A Little Guide to Mystery, Spirit, and Compassion By Carl McColman (Hampton Roads, Nov.) McColman, whose background includes Lutheranism, Episcopalian, and Paganism, offers a short primer on Celtic spirituality that is split into three parts: the Celtic mystery, the Celtic saints, and walking the Celtic path. The book includes information on Celtic myths, folklore, and poetry.Nonfiction

Aug. 7

The Five Hurdles to Happiness: And the Mindful Path to Overcoming Them by Mitch Abblett (Shambhala, $22.95, 978-1-6118-0449-2) is an approach to becoming aware of the five hindrances, or negative qualities, that prevent spiritual awakening and living mindfully.

DMT Dialogues: Encounters with the Spirit Molecule, edited by David Luke and Rory Spowers (Inner Traditions, $18.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-62055-747-1) collects discussions on and experiences with DMT, a natural hallucinogenic, from such figures in the fields of psychedelic research and plant sentience as Rick Strassman, Rupert Sheldrake, Dennis McKenna, and Graham Hancock.

Captive: A Mothers Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult by Catherine Oxenberg (Gallery, $27, ISBN 978-1-982100-65-0) is an investigation of NXIVM, the secretive cult of which Oxenbergs daughter is a member. The book also features the authors continued attempts to reach her daughter.

The Mountains Are Calling: Making the Climb for a Clearer View of God and Ourselves by Jarrett Stephens (Multnomah, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-7352-9119-5). The teaching pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Tex., urges readers to study the mountaintops mentioned in scripture and what God said there.

A Future of Faith: The Path of Change in Politics and Society by Pope Francis and Dominique Wolton (St. Martins, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-20056-3). Pope Francis met with French reporter and sociologist Wolton for a series of 12 conversationsopen dialogues on political, cultural, and religious issueswhich are the basis of this work.

13 Days in Ferguson by Ron Johnson (Tyndale Momentum, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-4964-1657-5). Missouri Highway Patrol captain Johnson shares his view of what happened during the 13 turbulent days he spent stabilizing the city of Ferguson, and the impact it had on his faith.

Survival Guide for the Soul: How to Flourish Spiritually in a World That Pressures Us to Achieve by Ken Shigematsu (Zondervan, $16.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-310-53532-4). Drawing on church history, psychology, and neuroscience, Shigematsu demonstrates how the Gospel redeems desires and reorders lives, offering perspective on how the soul can flourish in the midst of a demanding, competitive society.

Aug. 10

Laughing at the Devil: Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich by Amy Laura Hall (Duke Univ., $18.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-4780-0025-9). Historian Hall tells the story of a medieval visionary, now known as Julian of Norwich, believed to be the first woman to have written a book in English.

Aug. 14

Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are VanishingAnd How We Can Revive Them by Jonathan Merritt (Convergent, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-60142-930-8) rethinks the meanings of key Christian terms in light of how secular society sees the terms.

Aug. 15

Living the Sacraments: Finding God at the Intersection of Heaven and Earth by Joe Paprocki (Loyola, $11.95 paper, ISBN 978-0-8294-4659-3) argues that the sacraments of the Catholic Church are not just rites of passage, but gateways to fulfilling lives centered on a transformational and spiritual relationship with God.

Aug. 20

Love Without Limits: Jesus Radical Vision for Love with No Exceptions by Jacqueline A. Bussie (Fortress, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-5064-4688-2). A theology professor at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., Bussie urges readers to love as God loveswithout limits or exceptions.

Alongside by Andrew Hill (New Growth, $17.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-945270-89-5) explores the challenges teenagers face and how youth leaders and parents can share the Gospel with them.

Aug. 21

Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence--The Groundbreaking Meditation Practice by Dr. Daniel Siegel M.D. (TarcherPerigee, $28, ISBN 978-1-1019-9304-0) looks at scientific proof of meditations effectiveness and provides a guide to the Wheel of Awareness, which is a tool used to achieve focus, presence, and peace.

I Am Rahab: Touched by God, Fully Restored by Autumn Miles (Worthy, $16.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-68397-269-3). Radio host and speaker Miles offers hope to readers who discount their worth and dismiss their participation in the kingdom of God because of sin or a troubled past.

Gods Library: The Archaeology of the Earliest Christian Manuscripts by Brent Nongbri (Yale Univ., $35, ISBN 978-0-300-21541-0) provides an up-to-date introduction to early Christian manuscripts and demonstrates that much of what is known about these books and fragments is mistaken.

Aug. 28

The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice Their Religion Today by Jack Wertheimer (Princeton Univ., $29.95, ISBN 978-0-691-18129-5). Wertheimer, professor of American Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary, sets out to discover how Jews of various orientations practice their religion in modern societies.

The Gospel in Miniature: Meditations for When You Have a Minute by Martin Copenhaver (Skylight Paths, $16.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-68336-719-2) collects over 140 short lessons for busy readers based on the New Testament from theologian Copenhaver.

Locked In by Victoria Arlen and Valentin Chmerkovskiy (Howard, $24.99, 978-1-5011-7462-9) delves into Paralympics gold medalist Arlens experience with two mysterious childhood diseases that left her in a vegetative state, her fight to live, and how faith helped get her through it.

Aug. 28

Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains, and Health by Rupert Sheldrake ($26, ISBN 978-1-64009-117-7). Biologist and parapsychologist Sheldrake makes a case for how science can help validate seven practices on which many religions are built.

Fiction

Aug. 7

The Hope Jar by Wanda E. Brunstetter (Barbour, $15.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-62416-747-8) follows Michelle Taylor, who poses as an Amish couples long-lost granddaughter in order to avoid homelessness.

Auschwitz Lullaby by Mario Escobar (Thomas Nelson, $15.99, 978-0-7852-1995-8). Based on a true story and translated from its original Spanish, this book follows Helene Hannemann, a German nurse married to a Gypsy man who lived for months in Auschwitz.

Aug. 21

As the Tide Comes In by Cindy and Erin Woodsmall (Waterbrook, $14.99 paper, ISBN 978-0-7352-9101-0). After a tragedy, Tara Abbott travels from North Carolina to Georgias St. Simons Island in order to reconnect with her past.Gun Control Advocate Lands at Chalice

Rev. Sharon Washington Risher, whose mother and two cousins were killed in the 2015 shooting at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., has signed with Chalice Press for a book about grief, anger, forgiveness, and faith, as well as the effects of gun violence on communities. Brad Lyons, president and publisher of Chalice, took North American, English rights to the book, tentatively titled What A Day That Will Be, from Lynn Johnston of Lynn Johnston Literary. The book will be co-written by writer Sherri Wood Emmons and is slated for publication in June 2019, coinciding with the four-year anniversary of the shooting.

Harvest House Sees Red

Todd Hafer of Harvest House took world rights from Adria Goetz of Martin Literary to Threads with Red by Lisa Hennessy. The book is a knit-along devotional featuring simple knitting patterns and exercises that encourage readers to share both their knitting projects and their faith with others. Threads with Red is slated for publication in summer 2019.Life in Lamu County is set to become a little bit easier after the government announced it has released Sh130 million ($13 billion) for the renovation and restoration of four key jetties in the county which are currently structurally unsound.

Speaking in Lamu on Friday, Chief Structural Engineer in the Public Works Department, Hillary Nyaanga, said those to be renovated include Mokowe Customs Jetty, Lamu Terminal Jetty, Manda Airport Jetty, and Mtangawanda Jetty.

We want to give all the Lamu jetties a modern facelift. For the Mokowe Jetty, we will have to reconstruct it afresh. For the Lamu Terminal Jetty, we will have to change a section. At Manda Airport Jetty, we will repair the pontoon which is already in the water and also do protection work. Said Mr.Nyaanga.

In March this year, the government announced plans to reconstruct and renovate six jetties in Lamu county most of which face closure due to poor maintenance.

99 per cent of movement and transport by Lamu residents is also by sea.

Also read: 11 interesting places to visit in Lamu Archipelago that will blow you away

However, due to years of neglect and under funding, most jetties in Lamu are in a deplorable state.

Some lanes have collapsed, endangering travellers.

We have already received cash to undertake the first phase of renovation of four key jetties in Lamu, Mr Nyaanga said.

The official had earlier announced that Sh400 million will be spent on building Mokowe jetty.

A total of Sh80 million had been set aside for building the Mokowe Customs Jetty, and Sh25 million was allocated to the renovation of Lamu Terminal Jetty.

Sh20 million will go towards renovation of Manda Airport Jetty while another Sh5 million will be used to renovate the Mtangawanda Jetty.

Apart from the four jetties, others which also require urgent renovation include Kizuke Jetty and Jeti ya Ngombe.Kenyas national carrier has acquired the worlds quietest and most efficient passenger jet.

The airline took to its Twitter handle to announce the big news.

Among the people who received the jet was Brazilian Ambassador to Kenya Hon. Fernando Coimbra

"The debut of the E190-E2 in Nairobi is a landmark moment in our long term successful relationship with Kenya Airways." said Fernando Coimbra.

The Embraer E-Jet E2 family are medium-range jet airliners developed by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, executive and agricultural aircraft and provides aeronautical services.

The company is the third largest producer of civil aircraft, after Airbus and Boeing.

Kenya Airways currently operates 15 Embraer E190-E1s, making the airline the largest E-jet operator in Africa.

"We have used these planes for the past twelve years to boost our fleet and have been very useful in servicing new routes and frequencies in our growing African Network." Jan De Vegt, Chief Operating Officer, Kenya Airways said.

Also read: 5 interesting facts about Kenya Airways Dreamliner that will make the maiden trip to US

Chairman of the Parliamentary Transport Commission and Pokot South Member of Parliament David Pkosing lauded the partnership between Kenya Airways and Embraer.

"This is not a marriage between Kenya Airways and Embraer but a marriage between Embraer and the Kenyan people." Said Mr. Pkosing.

Meanwhile, Kenya Airways (KQ) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Air Madagascar and Reunion Island-based French carrier Air Austral that will see the three airlines develop a codeshare pact meant to grow their network in Africa.

The partnership will explore possibilities of new connections in Africa and the Indian Ocean island, opening up additional business opportunities for the three airlines.

Improving access to the Indian Ocean islands is the goal that this agreement seeks to achieveOur customers will have better access to Mayotte, La Reunion, domestic Madagascar and Kenya as well as other destinations beyond our respective hubs, said Kenya Airways managing director and chief executive Sebastian Mikosz.

The announcement follows an agreement between KQ and American-based aircraft maker Boeing that will see the local airline access the latters global network of spare parts and on-demand services.Switzerland has taken the first step in the recovery and repatriation of stolen funds from Kenya.

The Swiss government has frozen more than $2 million (about Sh201 million), suspected to be proceeds of corruption in Kenya, which had been stored in Swiss bank accounts.

The money is linked to the multi-billion Anglo leasing scam  one of the largest in the history of corruption in Kenya.

Money has been frozen in Switzerland in relation to the Anglo-Leasing case in the amount of approximately $2 million, Saskia Salzmann, a diplomatic attache at the Embassy of Switzerland to Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, told a local business daily.

The diplomat added that the frozen stolen funds would probably be the first assets to be returned to Kenya.

The recovery of the money is part of a revamped and wider offshore scrutiny of proceeds of graft and assets that corrupt Kenyans have hidden in the European country's banks, according to Swiss authorities.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Swiss President Alain Berset early this month signed an agreement dubbed the Framework for the Return of Assets from Corruption and Crime in Kenya (FRACCK).

The Framework for the Return of Assets from Corruption and Crime in Kenya is not limited to a specific case or amount of money to be returned, Ms Salzmann said, hinting at recovery and repatriation of more stolen assets that Kenyans have kept in Swiss banks.

Kenya is suspected to have lost more than $600 million (more than Sh50 billion) in the Anglo Leasing scam.

The money was lost in 18 security-related contracts awarded to companies that did not render services or deliver goods paid for.

Some of the companies were later found to have supplied substandard equipment at highly inflated prices.

Some of top government officials in former President Mwai Kibakis government were adversely mentioned in the Anglo Leasing scandal. The list included former Vice-President Moody Awori, former Internal Security minister Chris Murungaru and former Finance minister David Mwiraria.

However, despite the renewed pressure, the amount of money that rich Kenyans have kept in Swiss banks continue to rise.

The total amount stored in Swiss accounts was reported to have increased 4.3 percent to Swiss francs 950 million (CHF) or about Sh96 billion last year from 911.4 million or about Sh92.1 billion in 2016, according to a Swiss National Bank (SNB) report.

The additional amount alone can finance the construction of three equivalents of the 50km Thika superhighway. The funds, however, once reached a record high of CHF 1.7 billion (Sh172 billion) in 2007.

The funds include deposits from Kenyans and duciary liabilities or money held in Swiss banks in trust on behalf of Kenyans.Sister Namibia (Namibia)

The feminist group, formerly known as the Sister Namibia Collective, is nonpartisan and a non-governmental organization in Namibia. This group was formed on the eve of Namibias independence from South Africa in 1989.

Sister Namibia advocates for womens rights by engaging in activities to enhance gender equality in a world free from violence, discrimination, and oppression. Another function is to produce its magazine alongside educational programs, research, activism, media engagement, and cultural activities in support of womens rights.

Pepper Dem Ministries (Ghana)

This feminist group is a strong group of charming young women in Ghana and their male counterparts who have placed gender on everybodys agenda in the nation. In 2016, a group of like-minded women started it as a Facebook page who were already in the business of probing into the structures operating in the Ghanaian society that somehow leave both genders imbalanced and incompatible to work in unison to advance society.

This popular Ghanaian group gets its name from the fact that it tackles issues which are mostly uncomfortable and unpopular to talk about in their socio-cultural space.

This group has placed gender on Ghanas map through a number of public discourses and gatherings.

Akina Mama wa Afrika [AMwA] (Uganda)

This international and pan-African non-governmental organisation is headquartered in Ugandas capital but was started in 1985 in the United Kingdom by a small community organisation for African women.

The organization is a training centre and advocacy engine for the womens movement in Africa. They host African Womens Leadership Institutes (AWLI) designed by women leaders from Africa and women activists aged 25-45 from across the continent. Their themes of focuses are gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive rights, anti-poverty efforts and peacebuilding.

AMwA, conducted a regional conference in 2014 with other womens organisations in Kampala on the theme Strengthening African Womens Voices in the Post-2015 Processes. Other feminist organisations like the African Womens Development Fund and the Sigrid Rausing Trust supports Akina Mama wa Afrika.

The Uganda womens network [UWONET] (Uganda)

This group was created after the 1993 East African Womens Conference, held in Kampala, Uganda, in preparation for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995.

It is a non-governmental body in Uganda. They operate in East Africa and an umbrella group of national womens NGO.

UWONET seeks to advance public policy regarding womens rights. This connects collective action among members to achieve gender Equality in the Country. UWONET has improved womens economic output and helped women win land rights in the 1998 Land act

Egyptian Feminist Movement (Egypt)

This movement in 6 March 1923 had its first meeting at activist Huda Shaarawis home who served as its first president until her death on December 12, 1947.

The movement objective was social freedom as symbolized by the publicized gesture by Sharawi and her associate, Saiza Nabrawi, who removed their veils as they stepped off a train at Cairos main railway station in 1923.According to him, the Free SHS must not be made free-for-all, saying people with financial clout should be excluded from the policy.

Before the Free SHS was implemented, some groups like IMANI Africa and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) called for the policy to be targeted.

However, government went ahead to make if free for all Ghanaian students who are qualified to enroll in second-cycle public schools.

The policy covers the full fees of students who attend public senior high schools, and recorded about 90,000 students on board when it kickstarted in September 2017.

But increased enrollment has posed a major challenge to government on how to sustain the implementation of the Free SHS.

Speaking to Citi TV, the Finance Minister said the policy must be implemented discriminatorily in order to ensure that only those with genuine need benefit.

He said persons who have the means must be made to pay for their childrens second-cycle education.He said the implementation of the double track system will eventually destroy the fabric of education system in the country.

In an interview on Accra-based Neat FM, he said "For me, I wont take my child to any senior high school now, this is not any policy to be excited about, I think we are not being serious with our education in this country and that is not how to go about things."

The government has argued that the new system is expected to reduce class sizes and increase contact hours and address the growing number of students benefiting from the free SHS policy due to infrastructure deficit.

Franklin Cudjoe said the double track system will actually do more harm than good to the future of Ghanaian children and has vowed not to make his child be part of it.

Double tracking system

In a single-track system, students and staff are in school or vacation at the same time within an academic year.

But the double year-round system divides the entire student body and staff into two different tracks. So while one track is in school, the other is on vacation.

The rotation sequence will depend on the year-round calendar being used. In Ghana, the school calendar starts from September and ends in April with three different terms. The first term is from September to December, the second term starts in January and ends in April while the third term is from April/May to July.

Deputy Education Minister reacts

But the Deputy Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum disagreed with Franklin Cudjoe's position.

READ MORE: IMANI describes double tracking system as needless

He, however, explained that the new system will help contain the surge in enrollment due to free SHS.Gladys Chepkirui Ngetich got 298 out of possible 500 marks at Lelaibei Primary School in Uasin Gishu County as against the 472 marks scored by the national best student.

She failed specifically in English and Kiswahili languages by 45% and 56% respectively, and it was impossible to gain admission in any of the countrys high schools.

Instead of giving up on her daughter, Gladys Chepkirui Ngetichs mother kept prospecting schools that could possibly admit her until she got to Mercy Girls' Secondary School in Kericho County.

Unfortunately, when Mercy Girls' Secondary School examined her she failed the entrance exam, which meant that she was not going to be admitted.

However, surprisingly, headmistress of the school, Josephine Anyango did not throw Gladys away. She said she had seen a great potential in the young girl despite her failure, hence she admitted her in her school.

Recounting her experience at the Mercy Girls' Secondary School in a Facebook post, Gladys said: "I remember the school principal taking my mum aside and having a lengthy conversation after my admission test. Mum told me later the headmistress had informed her I had not passed the test very well.

"I was not surprised myself because I had performed relatively dismally in the two languages in KCPE and the admission test itself tested the languages and Mathematics. Mum further confided in me that nevertheless, the headmistress had chosen to give me admission in her school because she saw a great potential in me.

To the shock of everyone, she emerged top in Kenya National Certificate of Secondary Education exams four years later which earned her admission at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering at JKUAT where she graduated with distinction.

Currently, Chepkirui Ngetich is finding it difficult to believe that she has been name as one of 2018 amazing Top 10 UKs Rare Rising Stars.

She resorted to Facebook to share her story to inspire others not to give up on themselves.The Ministry, therefore, demanded that cooperation of the trading community and the general public in this regard.

Per the GIPC law Section 27(1) of the GIPC Act, a person who is not a citizen or an enterprise which is not wholly owned by citizen shall not invest or participate in the sale of goods or provision of services in a market, petty trading or hawking or selling of goods in a stall at any place.

Over the years, Ghanaian retailers have complained about foreigners including the Chinese invading the retail sector.

In 2016, some fishing gear retailers threatened to close down shops operated by Chinese nationals if the government does not stop them from establishing retail businesses.

According to the aggrieved traders, the Chinese who are mainly their suppliers had also established shops in the country and are engaging in retailing of the fishing gears and other equipment.His action angered social media users after the video went viral.

The victim, Patience Safo, was ruthlessly assaulted by the policeman.

Lance Corporal Frederick Amanor punched her powerfully in the face after he was asked to drive her away.

The policeman has been arrested on the orders of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and is currently being held at police headquarters assisting investigations.

But Akua Donkor thinks the police officer is being victimized for carrying out his duties and protecting the bank from being robbed.

She said she is ready to submit her evidence to court if Lance Corporal Amanor is sacked by the IGP and taken to court for prosecution.

She stated: "I will even go and bail him if he is sacked. I want to know which court the IGP intends to take him to, I will go there personally, surrender the evidence I have and fully support the policeman".

According to her, women are used as accomplices by armed robbers in robbing banks.

"When things are going on and you dont know, be open to learn. Women lately negotiate with armed robbers and pull stunts on banks. She said she was withdrawing money, how much money was she taking so much so that she had to spend a week at the bank? Its obvious she was sent by robbers, its what they do. Some women fake pregnancy and labour by putting clothes on their tummies to truck drivers by the roadside and get their accomplices to rob them when they pick them," she added.

Akua Donkor hinted that the woman with her two-month-baby should have been given more beatings than she received.This will be a mean of controlling the countrys population growth.

The taxpayer must not be made to bear the cost of additional children by families who exceed the three children. No, it should not be a burden on the state and so we must review our social intervention programmes to reflect this policy.

Dr Appiah explained that they are calling for this measures to be put in place so that the total fertility rate (that is, the number of children a woman is likely to have during her reproductive years) will be reduced from 5.5 to 5.0 by 2000; 4.0 by 2010 and 3.0 by 2020.

Dr Appiah said that the current annual growth rate of 2.5 percent posed a threat to national development.

However, she said that before the government makes such a law it must ensure that its family planning service was easily made available, accessible and affordable.

We need to balance between reproduction and production because some of our policies are at variance with the population policy, she said.

In Ghana currently, some people have more than 10 children. Dr Appiah expressed fears that Ghanas population would double 28 years from now at the current annual growth rate of 2.5 percent.The reason for the commotion was as a result of his supposed indiscipline attitude exhibited in front of both the Omanhene, the western regional minister, MCE for Nzema East and the Member of Parliament Madam Catherine Afeku last Sunday when the MP (Catherine Afeku), led by the Regional Minister went to beg for forgiveness from Awulae Adyefi Kwame after betraying him (Awulae Agyefi) to the Presidency late last year.

Madam Afeku in 2017, according to Awulae Adyefi Kwame lured him under the pretext of being invited by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo regarding his opposition to Dr Ben Asantes appointment as the Ghana Gas Chief Executive, which later turned to be a stab in his [Awulae] back by his lovely daughter Madam Catherine Afeku for fabricating lies against him.

This betrayal did not go down well with Awulae Agyefi after regretting for her sins.

She [Ms Afeku] was then first led by the President of Western Regional House of Chiefs Ogyeaahoho Yaw Gyebi and T3t3tr3 of Wassa Traditional Area to beg on her behalf that later ended up in a confrontation.

The second move which led to the melee was after he threatened to deal with Nana Koomson, one of the sub-chief of Nsein Traditional Council for ordering him to leave the palace for his continuous noise making and yelling at the elders.

The reason for Mr Seth Afekus insubordination was as a result of the demands from Awulae Adyeifi Kwame which were made up of two sheeps, bottles of schnapps, a cash amount of two thousand cedis as a sign of accepting Catherine Afeku's plea for lying and betraying exposing him to ridicule to the presidency.

This did not go down with the Minister's husband, which he vehemently yelled at the chiefs leading to his exit from the palace leaving behind the Regional Minister Dr Afriyie, the MCE Frank Okpeyen, and some NPP party supporters.

Mr Afeku later attacked Nana Koomson with a pistol threatening to shoot him and was prevented by the irate youth who nearly lynched Mr Afeku but managed to escape.

The chiefs and the Assemblyman of Nsein, Kofi Agyefi Kwame after the incidence drove to the police station at Axim to lodge a complaint where Mr Afeku after getting a tip off stormed the police station to give Nana Koomson two slaps. He claimed that the party [NPP] is in power and nobody can touch him.

READ ALSO: Akua Donkor to defend police officer for assaulting nursing mother

Madam Afeku later rushed to the scene and apologised to the chief for the assault whereas, Awulae Adyeifi Kwame lodged a formal complaint to the Regional CID office for an assault.

The office of the Minister has therefore appealed to the irate youth of Nsein to forgive his husband and promised to bear the cost of the medical bills of the chief.This was after Cabinet okayed the concession after scrutinizing documents covering the takeover.

Under this compact, six projects will be implemented to address the root causes of the unavailability and unreliability of power in Ghana which are ECG Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, NEDCo Financial and Operational Turnaround Project, Regulatory Strengthening and Capacity Building Project, and Access Project.

READ MORE: Electricity tariff reduction will commence after second purchase in April

Others include Power Generation Sector Improvement Project and Energy Efficiency, and Demand Side Management Project.

Presenting the joint committee's report on the floor of Parliament, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the Chairman of the Committee on Mines & Energy, Hon. Emmanuel K. Gyamfi told Members that the Committee is hopeful that the private sector participation in the ECG by means of a concession would help to turn around the fortunes of the utility service provider and return the company to financial and operational viability.

The deal, he noted, is advantageous to the government partly because the Concessionaire is responsible for all major new investments that will help to minimize the impacts of such investments on the national budget.

Local content

MiDA, earlier confirmed receiving a letter from one of the Consortia shortlisted for the ECG Concession.

"MiDA confirms that it has received such a letter on a Bidders concern about the Government of Ghanas Policy to have 51% Ghanaian ownership in the structure of the Concession," a press release from MiDA stated.

French electricity conglomerate EDF, French transnational company Veolia and their local partner CH Group  who have put in a joint bid for the ECG Concession  rejected the government policy that allocates 51 percent mandatory ownership of the concession to Ghanaian companies.

In a letter dated February 12, 2018 and signed by Kevin Dadzie of CH Group, EDF and Veolia are protesting against the latest local content policy direction under the amended Request for Proposal (RFP), aimed at encouraging Ghanaian companies and entrepreneurs to be majority shareholders in the concession arrangement.

In the letter, addressed to CEO of Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) Enson Benjamin, and copied to the Board Chair Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, EDF and Veolia said: "We are writing on behalf of the consortium comprising CH Group Ltd, EDF and Veolia Africa, to express our significant concerns regarding the Newco [ECG] structuring requirements as set out in the amended Request for Proposals, dated 29 November 2017 (the Amended RFP).

The latest amendments under the amended RFP introduced mandatory 51 percent Ghanaian ownership  ultimate legal and beneficial ownership by Ghanaian citizens.

It puts express restrictions on creating different categories or classes of shares in NewCo; and the requirement for this 51 percent threshold is to be maintained for the concessions full duration; a potential company event of default would trigger the default buy-out-option if this 51 percent threshold is not maintained.

According to the consortium, the above requirements significantly impact the consortiums ability to structure a workable solution.

The consortium further stated its financiers have cautioned that such restrictions will ultimately impact the concessions bankability.According to reports, the victim received 36 cane lashes on the orders of ASP Obeng, for fighting a school mate after school.

The father of the victim, Enoch Tandoh, a 36-year-old farmer said his son [Antwi] returned from school with his uniform soaked in blood after the flogging.

He narrated the incident to Accra-based Citi FM that "I was in my farm when my wife called to inform me that our children have returned from school, but Stanley is bleeding at his back and so I should stop the farm work and assist to take him to the hospital".

"So I rushed home to see my children only to see my son Stanley with severe marks of beatings at his back, his chest and parts of his stomach. When I asked Stanley what happened, he said the District Police Commander ASP Dickson Obeng whose office is just behind their school ordered his men to whip him for fighting with one of his classmates after school has closed," he added.

He said he later confronted the police commander ASP Obeng over the matter and he admitted ordering his men to flog the boy to teach him a lesson.

According to Tandoh, his son was pinned to a table and flogged by the officers.

READ ALSO: Akua Donkor to defend police officer for assaulting nursing mother

He said after his son was flogged, the police commander told him to apply shea butter on the wounds. so everything will be fine.

The victim was then taken to the hospital for treatment.Accra-based Class FM reports that the irate okada riders accused the police of arbitrary arrest, harassment and illegal fines to the sum of GH2,500 on some occasions.

They subsequently damaged police vehicles and pelted the MTTU commander with stones in the cause of the chaos.

Some riders explained that the Police has been preventing them from operating despite previously taking GH600 from them for registration and documentation.

They, therefore, massed up at the Sakasaka Park at Ashaiman in red and marched to the police station to stage a protest and demand a refund.

The protest led to a bloody clash with some Police officers, which required the firing of warning shots and tear gas in order to disperse hundreds of okada riders.

Speaking to Accra-based Class FM, the Ashaiman Divisional Police Commander, ACP Peter Gyimah, said the GH600 was not for a commercial permit but for registration so they could be easily identified.

He explained that the registration was a joint exercise between the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).Numbering 134, the caterers averred that government has deliberately refused to pay their arrears for the first term after payments for the second and third terms within the year.

According to them, there have been numerous attempts to dialogue with government to ensure their arrears are paid, but every move has so far proved futile.

They said all efforts to get the Ministry of Finance through the Gender, Child and Social Protection Ministry to pay them their arrears have also been unsuccessful.

Addressing journalists on Tuesday, leader of the aggrieved caterers, Monica Terlabi, said they will picket the Jubilee House naked if nothing is done about the situation.

She explained that banks are on their necks for the monies they borrowed to pre-finance the services of the school feeding programme.Her comments were in relation to the recent killing of seven suspected armed robbers at Asawase by a team of Police officers, as well as last weeks assault of a nursing mother at a Midlands Savings and Loans branch at Shiashie.

She held that the growing rate of violence against citizens is as a result of some normative ideals of society which regrettably seem to express violence.

Ms. Hamah was speaking at the second Progressive Organisation for Women Advancement (POWA) forum, held at the British Council.

These isolated incidents, as well as other similar occurrences in the past, are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are intrinsically linked to the normative ideals governing the use and expression of violence in our society, she said.

Even more worrying is the unfortunate reality of acceptance and tolerance of the use of violence in the Ghanaian society especially within the domestic environment as well as police brutalities against suspected criminals.

The womens right activist also lamented the loopholes in Ghanas justice system, citing her personal experience with an alleged conman called Faith Mensah Tekpor.

She explained that despite the evidences against Mr. Tekpor  who she has accused of drugging her with the intention of sexual abuse and black  the Police has still failed to put him behind bars.

She urged victims of assault and violence, especially women, to be bold enough to come out and speak for the culprits to be arrested.

I have come to understand that attempts at prosecution of these matters invariably fail due to lack of cooperation by the female victims, she urged.

in the case of Mr. Faith Mensah Tekpor, I wish to express my disappointment at the lack of seriousness the Police Service has attached to the matter as well as the unwarranted sensationalism the media has given to a matter of this serious nature which borders on the security and dignity of Ghanaian women.Jesus and the Original Hog Jog Lessons from the Heart

At church the other week we were talking about the story in Matthew 8:28-34 where Jesus encounters two demonpossessed men...

The red flat marble Lessons from the Heart

I have been using red flat marbles since 1995 to let people know that others care about them, even when...Chairman Wontumi and Chief Executive Officer of the of the Forestry Commission were accused of actively involving in illegal small-scale mining [galamsey].

According to the chiefs at Jacobu in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region, Sir John chairman Wontumi have become the bad nuts in the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The chiefs made this known in a meeting with the Minister of Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs, Kofi Dzamesi last week.

The chiefs of Amansie Central District speaking on the development have called on the President to fight his own appointees and party members who are engaged in galamsey.

Spokesperson of the chiefs said "Sir John and the Ashanti Regional Chairman sent about 30 excavators into the forest with the protection of military men.

"As the chief of my community, I didnt know anything about that. All we hear was that they were coming to reclaim the land. But not too long just about two weeks, they [Sir John and Wontumi] began illegal mining activities."

But the Concerned Small-Scale Miners said Chairman Wontumi and others must be arrested.

Michael Kwadwo Preprah, Chairman of the association in an interview on Kumasi-based Angel FM said "We are asking the president to immediately call for the arrest of Chairman Wontumi and his cohorts and allow an independent body to investigate the matter."

READ MORE: 4 Chinese galamsey operators busted

However, Chairman Wontumi has denied the claim by the chiefs indicating that the chiefs lied.He said among those that have declared their intention to contest, he is the most competent.

The mood in the party today is for change, Change has occurred throughout the constituency elections, we expect to see a lot more changes in our regional elections and a lot more at the National elections and then we will be plunging into the Presidential primaries, he said.

Former President John Mahama and former Rector of the University of Professional Studies, Joshua Alabi have also declared their intentions to contest.

The former Presidential Staffer in the erstwhile John Mahama administration also admonished the NDC to go back to their roots as a political party that familiarizes itself with the ideals of social democrats.

Ghana is in a hurry. I have a passion for the youth of this country; my passion for the aged is unmeasurable. We need to deepen our credentials as social democrats. We [NDC] have wasted too much time without establishing ourselves as true social democrats. The time is now, Ghana cannot wait."In a tweet, he said it is not too late to seek ideas from stakeholders on how best to implement the all important free SHS programme.READ ALSO: Ex-president Mahama describes happenings at the EC as regrettable

Introducing shift system for SHS? It doesnt help to continue to implement this all important free SHS programme on an ad hoc basis. Its not too late to hold a comprehensive national consultation to forge a consensus on a sustainable framework for its implementation, Mahama tweeted.

The government has adopted a double tracking system in Senior High Schools to accommodate the surge in students population following the introduction of free SHS last year.A total of 362,118 first-year students from public Senior High Schools across the country are currently benefiting from the governments fee-free education policy since its inception. Of the above figure, 117,692 are day students with 244,426 being boarders.Auditor-General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, has faulted the 2016 Financial Statement of the Federal Government as having several undisclosed revenues and poorly disclosed expenditures and lack of accountability from government agencies.

In a 743-page, 2016 Audited Annual Report of Federal Government of Nigeria financial statement, seen by Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa, the Auditor-General for the Federation (AuGF) said the several lapses from government agencies is a major setback to the country's accountability process.

In the report, submitted to the National Assembly, the AuGF expressed disappointment at the shoddy job by Accountant-General of the Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris, which led to the late submission of the report to the National Assembly.

According to him, the non-disclosure and non-remittance of revenues by some agencies of government into its coffers have become a critical factor militating against the economy.

Here are some of the shocking revelations from the report:

1. The Nigerian government diverted N28 billion from the Ecological Fund in 2016.

2. Some agencies are not complying with financial regulations for audit purposes.

3. 65 government agencies have never submitted their accounts for audit.

4. Only 51 audited financial statements for 2016 and 149 for 2016 despite the provision of Financial Regulation 3210(v) which enjoins the chief executive officers of these bodies to submit both the audited accounts and management report not later than May 31 of the following year of account.

5. As at April 2018, 109 agencies have not submitted beyond 2013.

6. 76 agencies last submitted for the 2010 financial year.

7. The Auditor general said ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and their accounting officers are reverting to the situation in the past where they did not promptly respond to audit observations.

8. The audit report cited discrepancy in the over-payment of the Department of Petroleum Resources ( DPR) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service ( FIRS) in August 2016 in the amounts of N305,922,200.48 and N531,160,436.78 respectively totalling N837,082,637.24.

9. Joint venture (JV) cash calls (funds injected into JVs by the NNPC on behalf of the Federation could not be accounted for in the books of the accountant general and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC).

10. NNPC returned marginal sum from the Export of Crude Oil and Gas revenue inflows to the Federation Account for January to December 2016 in respect of Sales of crude oil and gas and payment of JV Cash Call funding.

No record of oil revenue for some period and no explanation was provided for such action.Well, you'll definitely find these tips shared at the business training hosted by MTN and Google, in Lagos, very useful:

1. Get online

Thats obviously the first thing! You cant own a business these days and not be online. Be it a website, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you just have to get online. Google also offers tools like Google My Business, a tool that provides SMEs with a free listing and simple website that will help them pop up on Google searches and drive traffic to their businesses.

2. Mobile is key!

Its great to get a website, but always note that the website has to be optimised for mobile because according to some research, 50% of people expect a site to load in less than two seconds. Googles tool, Test My Site helps with this. It is a free, online tool that helps businesses with their websites.

3. Ads never hurt!

You have to promote your business! Push, push, push!! Paid ads using platforms like AdWords will help your businesses reach lots of potential customers all over the world. With this, when people search, watch videos, and browse online content relevant to your business, you pop up!

4. Google and MTN's other gems! You're Welcome!

There are also other Google tools like Shopping Ads that provides image-based ads and Global Market Finder that analyses data from Google Search, Translate and AdWords. Dont forget the exciting opportunities MTN business provides, with their cloud services, voice and messaging services, value-added services, unified communication and broadband.

5. With all this, youd definitely be worried about the stable internet!

Well, MTN provides a lot of broadband internet packages for businesses and youll definitely find one that suits you! After all, its Nigeria, you need that assurance for your business to thrive!Agusto & Co., in its latest Banking Sector Report, noted that while fintech companies may not be a threat to the Nigerian banking industry in the short-term, they are the potential long-term threat to the sector.

The agency said it supported ongoing strategies by proactive players in the banking industry to either partner with these fintech companies or create an alternative form in-house.

Here are few findings from the report

- The report observed that banks with net interest spread (NIS) consistently above the industry average of 59% in 2017 garnered a large pool of stable, low-cost deposits through investments in technology to enhance digital services in their retail banking strategies.

- Financial inclusion strategy aimed at capturing the informal and unbanked portion of the Nigerian populace, which accounts for about 47.5% of Nigerians, remains an avenue to get low-cost funds into the system.

- The young populace, particularly millennials, are available targets that can be on-boarded into the banking system through digital solutions like the mobile and agency banking.

Agusto & Co. said the use of digital platforms reduces the marginal (or additional) cost of serving customers, thereby maintaining profitability.

What traditional banks need to do to stay in business

The agency said the future of banking in Nigeria lies with the retail market and with banks ensuring that this segment of the market is well served using digital solutions.Leke Adeboye, the last son of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has shown his support for the preacher whom he describes as "mother/sister."

He did this via Instagram writing:

Apostle Johnson Suleman steps in

The General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries has also spoken out in support of the female cleric.

In the Youtube video below, he says, "I was a journalist, there is nothing you will write about me that will get to me, I won't even read it and now its a woman of God, Reverend Funke Adejumo that they are busy attacking. It is not right, it is not fair and it will not stand. We stand by her at this time. We pray for her that this will be promotion for her ministry"

ALSO READ: All you need to know about Rev Adejumo

Laurie Idahosa weighs in

Rev. Mrs. Laurie Idahosa, the wife of Bishop F.E. Benson Idahosa, has defended Rev Adejumo with the Instagram hashtag #istandwithfunkeadejumo, which has garnered 650 posts.

On July 24, 2018, she posted a picture of the preacher with the caption: "I don't need to write any long explanation. If you know me and what I stand for and you know her, you'll know why #istandwithfunkeadejumo #awesomewomanofGod"

This did not sit well with well known religious critic, who aired his views on her post via his Instagram account.

He said:

More support for Rev Adejumo

Meanwhile, a new petition has been launched on change.org to counter the call for the preacher to be banned from entering the United Kingdom, the United States, and the E.U.

It was started by Temi Chris-Kuye who wrote, "Call to ban Funke Felix Adejumo is a direct attack on Christianity. Unfounded malicious, defamatory and slanderous accusations are not lawful. Discrimination against a specific religious leader and denomination of a faith is indeed unjust and a prejudicial treatment.

"Article 9 of the Human Rights Act expressly states the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Funke Felix Adejumo is a Christian woman who has dedicated her life to serving humanity- she has built orphanages, Children's hospital and shelter homes for women fleeing domestic violence."

Reportedly, the petition got over 10,000 signatures within 24hrs. So far, over 19,000 people have signed.Dutse made the call during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in Lagos.

The ASUP president reportedly said that some students deliberately dress awkwardly to classes and thereby provoke their male colleagues and lecturers.

When the issue of dress code was introduced some years ago, it was received with mixed feelings; but actually, this is one of the reasons why dress code should be adopted.

Dress code will check the excesses of female students in all institutions and will compel them to dress properly at all times to avoid sexual harassment and rape.

Any form of indecent dressing is a means of instigation; not only to lure their male colleagues, but anybody around and that is why we have many instances of rape and abuses.

Parents should also advise their children to dress decently and neatly to avoid all this kind of abuses, Dutse said.

ALSO READ: How runs girls combine sex work with their academic pursuit

Explaining why female students get sexually harassed, Dutse said students are lazy and they get harassed when they are looking for shortcuts to get grades.

Students nowadays are lazy, they are looking for shortcuts to get grades and that is why these things are occurring.

But, if they can face their books and study hard, I doubt if these things will continue,

Sexual harassment between lecturers and students have recently been one of the most discussed topics as sexual scandal keeping happening in Nigerian tertiary institutions.Betty Irabor suffered a similar fate as she didn't even know she was going through depression when she realised that she couldn't sleep at night anymore. In her new book 'Dust To Dew,' the magazine publisher shared her struggles with depression and how she was able to seek help and overcome it.

After reading Betty's book, here are ten things I feel you can learn from her struggles with depression.

1. She wasn't aware of problem at the early stage

For Betty Irabor, she had always found it difficult sleeping at night even at an early stage of her life. Even though she didn't take it really seriously, it got worse as she aged. She was elusive of the fact there was a problem, rather she found solace in taking drugs from the pharmacy counter especially Valium 5. Apparently, it became a norm for her and it really didn't do much for her, rather sleep became a luxury that she couldn't afford.

2. The effects of an absent dad

In her very explosive book, Betty Irabor had a very strange relationship with her late father. Coming from a home where her father was always present, to watching your father send you away with your siblings to your mum, it must have been traumatic for her. Just like every child who grew up with a love and hate relationship with their dad, Betty mentioned her dad in almost every chapter making it look like she really liked him.

3. She had a strong family bond

One cannot ignore the fact Betty Irabor apparently has a very united and strong bond with her mother, two sisters, two brothers (one of them was her half-brother). From growing up with their dad to moving in with their mum who later got married again, she had an eventful childhood. They were all aware of her sleepless nights and tried as much as possible to be involved in getting her help. Even though they tried, it was obvious they too, were unaware of Betty's ailment. They unconsciously had a specific way of starting up conversations with her "Did you get enough sleep?" or "Did you sleep at all?"

4. And a supporting husband

In the first and a bit of the second chapter, Betty sounded like she was fighting her sleepless nights alone until she began to mention how her husband and veteran journalist, Soni Irabor became a part of the journey through her fights with depression. In the book, Soni could read her body languages, he alone understood more than anyone when she wasn't alright. Even when she wanted to left alone, Soni knew the right buttons to get to his beautiful wife. He was present in almost all her visits to the various doctors and therapist.

5. Betty Irabor the workaholic

From childhood, Betty Irabor had always been the hardworking one even among her siblings. According to her, her mother preferred her doing the house chores and errands to her other sisters. Guess it played a major impact when she started off Genevieve Magazine. All through her struggles with depression, it didn't affect her work as she put in so much work even when there were delays and little distractions. It took a lot of pressure from her staff for her to go on a two months break in the UK and allow them to run the affairs of the publishing house.

6. When she lost her brother

If you haven't seen a copy of this book, then you should know it was dedicated in loving memory of her late brother, Fred Bello-Osagie. Fred and Betty had a very close relationship right from childhood so she was always there when he got ill (Sickle cell anemia). In the book, Betty had just gotten back from the United Kingdom and was making a recovery from depression when her brother fell ill and passed on. It gave her recovery a big blow as she relapsed in depression again.

7. Nigeria has a ''failed'' medical system

After reading the book, you would see a clear reason why the government has to declare a state of emergency in the health sector. Betty gave instances where she visited hospitals with power facilities, like the time she describes a ceiling fan at a doctor's office which looked really bad and old. The effects of a failed health system also came to play in the book when her late brother's friend revealed that he (Fred) didn't get urgent medical attention when they got to the hospital as he was left on the floor until a nurse was bribed to get a bed for him.

8. Discovering the exact problem

In the book, Betty Irabor wanted a solution to her inability to sleep and sought for help which kind of give the good, bad and ugly results. At some point, some hospitals made as much as almost half a million naira from treating her and it didn't solve anything. She got really despite to finding a solution, she even visited a hypnotist while in the UK which amounted to nothing. It took the intervention of a Professor of psychiatry to discover that she was actually suffering from depression.

9. Depression ruins self-esteem

In the social circle, Betty Irabor is known to be a fashionista and is always a toast to the cameramen on the red carpets. Well when she began to fight depression, it took a toll on her physical appearance as she lost a lot of weight. Well, it really gave a big blow to her self-esteem as she began to hide for cameramen by always covering her face with a hand fan. A major blow to Betty's self-esteem was when she traveled for the New York Fashion Week and didn't leave her hotel all through the duration of the fashion event.

10. Finding help at the right placeMetro Boomin is an American producer, record executive and DJ, whose early production success came with tracks such as ILoveMakonnen's 2014 hit 'Tuesday' as well as Future and Drake's 2015 'Jumpman'.

In 2016, Metro Boomin was credited on charting hits such as 'Bad and Boujee' by Migos, 'Low Life' by Future and The Weeknd, and the 21 Savage collaboration 'X', taken from the duo's 2016 EP, Savage Mode.

While in 2017, he worked on hit singles such as 'Congratulations' by Post Malone featuring Quavo, 'Tunnel Vision' by Kodak Black, 'Bounce Back' by Big Sean, 'Mask Off' by Future, and 'Bank Account' by 21 Savage.

Metro Boomin has also featured on Forbes as easily one of the most in-demand hitmakers in the world.

Wizkid, who had earlier stated that his first official single for 2018 will be dropping soon, worked with a number of international producers on his Sounds From The Other Side Ep like New York's Dre Skull, DJ Mustard and Major Lazer.

Then he returned home in December to release a work on a number of singles with producers like KillerTunes on 'Fake Love' and Northboi on Soco.According to reports, the shawarma lovers sought medical attention days after eating what is believed to be tainted chicken shawarma in Siberian region of Tuva, Russia.

The allegation of food poisoning was confirmed by a medical authority on Wednesday, July 25, 2018.

The food-poisoning outbreak is believed to have been caused by the meat, a spokeswoman for the local branch of the federal Health Ministry told newsmen.

ALSO READ: The riskiest foods that can easily make you sick

The spokeswoman also advised against eating fast-food, and urged people to eat healthily.

No need for alarm

Media reports also noted that at 100 people, who were hospitalised and diagnosed for food poisoning after eating the chicken shawarma, had recovered and have been allowed to return to their various lives.

In India, 23-year-old Pradnya Survase had reportedly brought snake poison to a party purposely to place in food for her husband and other in-laws for allegedly mocking her dark skin and cooking skills for years.On Wednesday, July 25, 2018, two of the surviving suspects were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

Fr. John Adeyi, a Vicar General of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo and Parish Priest of Catholic Church Okpoga, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on April 24, 2016 after which he was killed.

A team of the Nigerian police led by ACP Abba Kyari arrested four of the kidnappers few months after the kidnap and eventual killing.

Kidnappers kill Imo Catholic

Reverend Father Cyriacus Onunkwo who was the head of the diocese was kidnapped on Friday, September 1, 2017, at Banana Junction, Amaifeke, Orlu, while his corpse was found in Omuma, in the Oru East Local Government Area of the state the following day.The police in Niger State confirmed yesterday the arrest of Umar and accomplices Adamu Amudu and Aliyu Isah who are both of the same age with him.

Punch News gathered that the trio operate around the Zaragi Maito Fulani Camp of the state.

According to Punch, the armed robbers "attacked their victim with cutlasses, single barrel gun and robbed him of N87,000, two sets of wrapper and a Tecno handset".

ALSO READ: Two lawyers beat up policemen to protect armed robbery suspects

Crime does not pay

Juli Umar who is reportedly the organizer of the attack regrets his action involving the duo of Amudu and Isah as the arrests now seem a blight on their future.

The primary suspect is also sorry for harming his former boss who helped and gave him a cow after serving him for six months.

I shouldnt have done what I did after all he did for me, Allah will punish me severely.

"My master did not in any way offended me and as such did not deserve this kind of treatment from his servant.

I have made the biggest mistake in my life, I am even sorry to have deceived Amudu into participating in this heinous crime that has ruined our lives, Umar shares his note of regret.

ALSO READ: These dangerous thieves are as deadly as Offa robbery suspects

Punch confirmed that the items used in the robbery has been seized by the police.Audu who lives at a house located on London Street, Minna was apprehended after neighbours observed that the victim was experiencing difficulty in walking.

According to Punch News, the dad initiated sexual intercourse with the girl while her mother was away on a trip to her hometown in Katsina State.

He claims he could not restrain the urge to have sex.

I blamed my wife for not being around when I needed sex, she travels a lot and that was why I had to sleep with my daughter; what a shameful thing.

That night, I was having a burning sensation to have sex and since my wife was not around, I had no option but to sleep with my daughter to ease off tension, says the child abuser.

In his thoughts, Muhammad Abubakar who is a spokesperson for the state police observed that the world is nearing an end when a father sleeps with his child.

Punch News gathered this in a report.

ALSO READ: Little boy cuts off private part of policeman who tried to rape him

14-yr-old girl raped by 17 men working in her apartment

In India, a total of 17 men have reportedly raped a teenager at a Chennai building where she lives. She is reportedly 14 years old.

According to CNN News, one of the persons to have sexually assaulted the teen is a 66-year-old lift operator.

S. Rajendran the deputy commissioner of police for Chennai's Kilpauk district confirmed that the rape incidents began since January.

Some of the men who raped the girl are described as security and facilities personnel. A sedative was administered on the victim who also has hearing disabilty.

She was reportedly violated in a generator house located in the Chennai building.While waiting to be allowed passage at the airport tollgate, a security expert Tunde Adeparusi, had no idea he had been shot until an attendant at the tollbar directed attention to his vehicle.

When he was interviewed by Punch News, he stated that a group of policemen who were chasing some suspects started shooting in the air when the tollgate officials challenged them.

According to reports, the outlaws being chased broke the barricade mounted at the facility while trying to get away from the cops.

The workers at the tollgate blamed the police as a result.

This reportedly produced an angry response from the cops who accused the attendants of letting the suspects escape.

I was at the airport tollgate on Friday around 12.35pm, waiting to be attended to. I noticed that on the exit side of the tollgate, one vehicle sped past, while another speeding vehicle broke the barrier.

After occupants of the vehicle noticed that they have broken the barrier, they stopped.

Argument ensued between workers at the tollgate and the occupants of the vehicle who were apparently policemen; and before we know what happened we heard gunshots.

They started shooting when the workers at the tollgate challenged them.

"The officer who shot was inside the car shouting that the workers allowed the suspects they were chasing to escape, threatening that he would shoot, and he eventually released some shots.

At first, I did not know it was a gunshot, but I noticed that something pierced through my window side and the glass shattered on my face.

One of the tollgate attendants shouted, They have shot this man, not knowing that it was me they were referring to until I saw blood on my face.

The policemen thought I was dead, one of them came out of the vehicle to pick up the empty shell and they drove off.

I came out of my vehicle and I was taken to a nearby hospital. If not for God, I probably would have lost my life on Friday," Tunde Adeparusi told Punch in a comment he offered yesterday.

ALSO READ: Student jumps off massive Lagos bridge to escape police

Aggressive police officers now too common

Just as she was rounding up her service year in the Federal Capital Territory, a female corps member, Linda Igwetu, has been reportedly killed.

A policemen allegedly shot her dead while she was travelling home with a bunch of friends on Wednesday, July 4, 2018.

The Cable News confirmed that she died around 3am on the day in Mabushi located in the F.C.T.

Her sister asked for justice through Twitter profile Enyi Di Ya.This is a unique incident considering frequent reports of police brutality against civilians with lawyers and journalists being occasional victims.

The police chief told Punch News that members of the force were attacked while on duty at the Umuneke Ngor Magistrates Court.

Punch earlier gathered that the members of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Imo State staged a protest asking the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris to sack Galandanchi who had this to say:

The two lawyers who are counsel for the three armed robbery suspects attacked policemen. The video clip of what transpired in the court and how the lawyers broke chairs and used them on my men is with us.

One of the lawyers positioned his car in front of the door to the court room in order to prevent the police from re-arresting the suspects once they stepped out of the court.

We never invaded the court and no police officer attacked or assaulted the magistrate. We were waiting for the discharged robbery suspects to step out of the court so that we can re-arrest them. But the two lawyers who were defending them prevented us.

They positioned their vehicle at the door of the court in order to aid the escape of two out of the three suspects.

One of the lawyers went inside and broke chairs in the court and used it on my men who were on a lawful duty.

We have the video clip and we will be using it as one of our evidence in court.

ALSO READ: Policemen beat up man over roasted yam

The bone of contention

The police chief was responding to comments earlier made by Damian Nosike, the chairman of Imo's NBA, who alleged that two lawyers Emma Eke and Chukwuemeka Anyanwu were beaten by unidentified policemen during a court session on Thursday, July 19, 2018.This was made known to newsmen by APCs spokesman, Bolaji Abudullahi on Wednesday in Abuja.

Ortom, on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, announced his resignation from the APC.

APC calls for calm

The APC spokesman also called on its members to remain calm, adding that the partys leadership are working hard to reach aggrieved members and resolve issues.

On Ortoms resignation, Abdullahi said he does not think it is too late for the Governor to come back.

We once again call on members across the country to remain calm as the party leadership continues to work hard to position the party strongly for the next general elections.

According to Punch, he said The Governor had left the meeting saying he was satisfied with the assurances given by party leaders,we are still working on giving effect to the resolutions from the meeting.

Therefore, we are somewhat surprised by Governor Ortoms decision.

President Buhari has also urged APC members not to be troubled by the recent defection of some lawmakers in the National Assembly.On Monday, July 16,Ortom said the APC had kicked him out and announced that he was shopping for a new party. However, he was back in the APC on Thursday, July 19 as he declared, "I am here in APC, a member of APC, I'm still flying the flag of APC" after a meeting with the party's national leadership in Abuja.

He was on his way to another scheduled meeting with national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and some other party members when the youths refused to grant him access of the road.

According to a report by Channels Television, the youths asked the governor to resign his membership from the APC or lose the support of the people.

A leader of the protesting youths, Dave Ogbole, said, "If the governor insists on travelling to Abuja for the APC meeting, he will risk losing the support of the people."

The governor's pleas to be allowed to attend the meeting and protect the interest of the people of the state fell on deaf ears and he was forced to make a U-turn and return to the Government House.

Benue's troubled year

The governor has had a frosty relationship with the federal government in the past few months on the back of violent killings in the state which has led to the death of hundreds.

The governor has repeatedly accused the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore of sponsoring cattle herders to kill residents of rural communities, claiming in May 2018 that an estimated 492 people had been killed by herdsmen.Kalu's argument for dismissal of the case is coming barely eight days after the former governor was re-arraigned by the EFCC with an increase in the charges against him.

Kalu urged Justice Mohammed Idris to dismiss the entire 39 counts filed against the ex-governor saying that despite tendering several exhibits and calling a total of 19 witnesses, the EFCC failed to establish a prima facie case against his client.

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria urged Justice Mohammed Idris to discharge the ex-governor and let him go.

EFCC insists there is a case against Kalu

The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), contended that the charges against the former governor is valid.

Jacobs urged the court to dismiss the defendants no-case submissions, insisting that the prosecution had proven its allegations against them.

Jacobs urged Justice Idris to order the defendants to proceed to open their defence if they had any.

Jacobs further said Ude Udeogu, Director of Finance and Accounts under Kalu had, in his statements to the EFCC, clearly admitted taking several millions of Naira, while he was Director of Finance and Accounts, on the instruction of the governor to lodge for the purchase of Okrika (fairly-used clothes) in Aba.

How can they now turn around and say this does not call for questioning? Jacobs queried.The Mack tanker truck, loaded with 33,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), lost control of its brake and exploded on Otedola Bridge along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway after spilling its content on June 28, 2018. At least 12 people were killed in the inferno with a few others injured with varying degress of burns.

Preliminary investigation by the government had revealed that the fuel tanker in question was registered in Kano State and had changed ownership 13 times since purchase.

However, while speaking during a meeting on investigations conducted about the accident, at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre in Alausa on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, the state's Commissioner for Transportation, Ladi Lawanson, disclosed the current owner of the tanker to be a certain Hassan Yusuf Maiwaka.

According to a report by The Nation, Lawanson disclosed that Maiwaka will be brought to the state to face prosecution as the government had earlier ruled that the accident occurred due to a combination of vehicular defect and human errors.

"It is so unfortunate, but the Lagos State government has written to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos to ensure that the owner of the vehicle is brought from Kano to Lagos for prosecution," he said.

Earlier in July, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, disclosed plans to prosecute the driver as well as the owner of the fuel tanker.

Lawanson had also disclosed that the tanker was originally designed as a 14,959kg (approximately 15 ton) drilling rig with low bed in 1999 before it was converted in Nigeria to a fuel tank carrier of 30 tonnes.

"From this preliminary investigation, the truck should not have been loaded to the weight of 30 tonnes, which is twice its pulling capacity," he said.

ALSO READ: Watch video of fuel tanker losing control before explosion in Lagos

55 cars lost in accident

Tuesday's meeting was convened by the state's Ministry of Transport to enable the Nigerian Insurers Associations access vehicles damaged in the accident in order to take necessary steps in ensuring prompt and proper payment of compensation to the victims and their families.

Lawanson said a total of 55 vehicles were involved in the accident and 39 of them were registered in Lagos; and their owners have been traced and contacted.Biu made the call on Wednesday during a luncheon organised by the command for Defence Correspondents.

The media is a critical stakeholder in the campaign against insurgency, he said.

He added that reporters in the theatre of operation should always check their facts so as to present accurate and balanced information to the public.

The commander disclosed that the military had set up media desks in all its formations to facilitate smooth flow of information, and to keep the people abreast of the development of the operation in the region.

According to him, the military in collaboration with other security agencies recorded significant successes in the ongoing clearance operation, designed to root out the remnants of Boko Haram insurgents and deny them the ability to re-group.

While reiterating the commitment of the military to end insurgency and restoration of peace, Biu assured of the commands support to reporters, to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.

Alhaji Haruna Dauda, Chairman, Correspondents Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ), Borno chapter, lauded the successes recorded by the military in the war against insurgency and the peace-building process in the North-East.Munta freed the inmates during an official visit to the prison in Oyo town.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the chief judge had on Tuesday released 30 inmates in Agodi prison in Ibadan, bringing to 74 inmates the total number of inmates released from both prisons in Oyo State.

Abimbola said the purpose of the prison visit was to decongest the prison in line with constitutional provision.

She said that after a thorough consideration of 370 cases, only 44 inmates were found worthy to be released.

He said that 39 of them were released because they had exceeded the number of years stipulated for the offence they had committed.

Three were released because they had earlier been granted bail by the court while the remaining two were released on health grounds.

I urge the released inmates not to abuse the opportunity given to them by not going back to crime, the chief judge said.

The Oyo State Controller of Prison, Tosin Akinrumoju, said Abolongo prison was designed to accommodate 160 inmates but now had 455 inmates.Nine police officers and at least 24 others lost their lives when a group of around 30 armed robbers attacked Union Bank, Eco Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank and Ibolo Micro Finance Bank,as well as the Owode Police Station in Offa, Kwara State, on April 5, 2018.

The police force has invited Saraki for questioning after the the main gang leader involved in the Offa robbery named him as his gang's political sponsors.

In a letter, dated July 23, 2018, signed by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, he directed Saraki to report himself to the Intelligence Response Team office in Abuja on Tuesday, July 24. However, the senate president failed to show up, opting instead to preside over the day's session at the National Assembly complex.

Later on Tuesday, Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, warned the senate president to report to the police force as soon as possible before it is compelled to use all the instruments of the law to ensure compliance.

While appearing on Channels Television on Wednesday, July 25, DCP Moshood said the force has enough to charge the senate president to court with the amount of evidence available. He said the force will not hesitate to see to the prevalence of the rule of law.

He said, "The investigators have been directed to take all actions within the ambit of the law to ensure that there's compliance with the law because the bottomline is that we have a case that can stand the test of trial against the senate president and we don't want people to politicise criminality.

"People (were) alleged of criminal act and he was indicted in the confession of five principal suspects in this Offa bank robbery that, 'You armed us as political thugs' and they decided to use it for robbery; and part of the vehicles that he equally gave them were used for robbery.

"Anybody that is involved at the beginning, at the middle, in the commission of the crime is as culpable as anybody that committed the crime."

He said the senate president's failure to honour Tuesday's invitation is a disrespect to the rule of law and promised that appropriate actions will be taken against the leader of the upper legislative chamber.

He said, "We are treating it as a disrespect to the law and we're going to take appropriate actions to ensure that he complies with the rule of law. Nobody is above the law.

"We'll ensure that no stone is left unturned in resolving this crime. We want him to know that in democracy, the rule of law prevails. The supremacy of the law must be adhered to."

ALSO READ: Read full story of why Police force wants to question Saraki over links to Offa robbery

Saraki's alleged links to Offa robbery

According to DCP Moshood, the main gang leaders involved in the robbery are Ayoade Akinnibosun (aka, AY), Ibikunle Ogunleye (aka Arrow), Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, and Niyi Ogundiran, all indigenes of Oro, Irepodun local government area of Kwara.

During the course of investigations, the main gang leader, Akinnibosun, named Saraki and incumbent Kwara governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, as his gang's political sponsors.

He said, "I am the chairman of Liberation Youths Movement, Kwara South. My involvement with the senate president is we're his boys; we work for him at Kwara South. We're the ones that hold Kwara South for him. We've been working for him since he was Governor of Kwara.

"We mobilise and do political arrangement there (Kwara South). For example, where we can't win, we make dabaru (disruptive) arrangement there; we scatter elections if we don't win."

Akinnibosun further disclosed that a Lexus jeep GX-300, which was used during the robbery, was a gift from Saraki which he received through Ahmed's Chief of Staff, Yusuf Abdulwahab, who has also been arrested in connection to the robbery.

"The connections between me and the senate president is that he's the one that is arranging everything for us. For example, this car (a Lexus jeep GX-300) was given to me by His Excellency (Governor Ahmed) through the Chief of Staff of Kwara state as a gift from leader, Bukola Saraki. I participated in the Offa robbery. I took this Lexus car along to Offa," he said.

The vehicle was used in the robbery with a sticker plate number inscribed with "SARAKI" and registered to "Kwara, State of Harmony". Abdulwahab allegedly replaced the vehicle's number plate with a new one (registration number: Kwara, KMA 143 RM) and registered it in Akinnibosun's name to cover up its identity.

Governor Ahmed's personal assistant on politics, Alabi Olalekan, has also been arrested in connection with the robbery as he allegedly attempted to hide the vehicle in question. A revolver pistol and pump action gun were also allegedly recovered from his farm.

Akinnibosun told the police, and the media, that two of the guns used in the robbery were supplied to him by Abdulwahab, although he noted that he only supplied it for political thuggery and not the Offa robbery.

Akinnibosun has noted twice in public that his gang's alleged sponsors, Saraki and Ahmed, knew absolutely nothing about the robbery.

More 'evidence' pile up against Saraki

Days after the first parade of the suspects in Abuja, the police paraded the gang leaders again and disclosed that more evidence had been unearthed about Saraki's links to the criminal gang.

During the June 6 media briefing, DCP Moshood said two more suspects had implicated the senate president as a sponsor of political thuggery.

He disclosed that after the first media parade, Akinnibosun mentioned three other notorious political thugs who worked for Saraki in Kwara Central. The police proceeded to arrest two of the suspects, Kehinde Gobiri (aka, Captain) and Oba Shuaib Olododo (aka, Jawando), who allegedly both admitted to committing various crimes in Kwara Central senatorial district under the guise of political thuggery for the senate president. The third suspect, Alhaji Dona, remains at large.

The police further alleged that, since the first briefing, all five gang leaders had confessed to having a direct connection to Saraki and were at his daughter's recent wedding ceremony. He disclosed that they confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by Saraki and Governor Ahmed.

DCP Moshood also claimed that Akinnibosun, Ogunleye and Abraham followed the senate president to the Olofa of Offa's palace when he paid a condolence visit to the town after the bank robbery.

He concluded that, due to the new pieces of evidence, Saraki was still under investigation in connection to the Offa bank robbery and that the ongoing investigation would be driven to a logical conclusion.On Monday, February 19, 2018 Boko Haram invaded Government Girls Secondary School in Dapchi, Yobe state and kidnapped over 100 girls.

Also, in April 2014, the sect raided Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno state and kidnapped over 200 girls.

According to the Red Cross, reports saying that it was involved in the negotiations for the release of the abducted girls are false.

This was made known to newsmen by the Communication Coordinator of ICRC Nigeria, Aleksandra Mosimann.

Mosimann said that the international organization only played a neutral role as an intermediary.

She said As a neutral humanitarian organisation, the ICRC cannot play such a role, which would be contrary to our principle of neutrality and is outside our mandate.

In Nigeria, the ICRC has acted as neutral intermediary on three different occasions: after the release of Chibok girls on 13, October 2016 (21 Chibok girls and a baby); after the release of Chibok girls on 07 ,May 2017 (82 Chibok girls); and after the release on 10, February 2018 (10 women  relatives of the police officers  and three university professors from the University of Maiduguri).

Red Cross on transported the girls

According to Punch, theRed Cross spokesman also revealed that its role in the talks between Boko Haram and the government was to transport the girls who were released.

The ICRC was not involved in negotiations leading to the release of any of these persons. We did not visit them prior to their release either. We transported them, upon the request of the parties involved.

In practice, it worked like this: representatives of the government and armed opposition contacted the ICRC and asked the organisation to receive the released persons in the location indicated to us and hand them over to the Nigerian military.

This ensured that the two parties did not meet face to face. It also shows trust that both place in the ICRC.

ALSO READ:Army denies Boko Haram controls 7 Borno LGAs

The ICRC has also acted as neutral intermediary in cases of released persons in Sudan and Colombia and for the return of dead bodies in Sri Lanka.

The ICRCs role of a neutral intermediary is widely recognised world-wide, and an indication of trust that parties to the conflict place in the ICRC, she added.

Meanwhile, Abubakar Shekau has re-emerged in a new video, calling on his followers to keep up the fight against the infidels.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that many houses have been marked for demolition to give way for the Lagos  Ibadan Standard Gauge Railway Project.

Mr Fred Ayika, spokesman for the residents, told NAN on Wednesday in Lagos that the maximum price of N13 million placed on each house did not reflect the present value of the affected property.

According to him, the current value of each property in the estate is about N30 million, adding that paying maximum compensation of 13 million for a house is most scandalous.

Paying maximum N13 million compensation to residents fall short of the current value of the property in the estate.

Four years ago, a three-bedroom bungalow in the estate was sold for N35 million, and that is the same property the consultants valued at N13 million, Ayika said.

He noted that half plot of land opposite the estate went for N40 million, adding that the estate residents were not carried along in the valuation process.

However, Mr Femi Olaseinde, property consultants for Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC), told NAN that valuation of the affected houses was guided by the Land Use Act.

Olaseinde said that there was a difference between compulsory valuation and conventional valuation.

According to him, in valuing a property under the compulsory valuation, guided by the Land Use Act, the land on which the said property sits is not considered.

The exercise of compulsory valuation is not peculiar to Adisa Estate alone, it cuts across other affected property in Apapa, Tin Can through to Ibadan.

It is a federal project that demands sacrifice from all.

The law says that the land belongs to the government, therefore the land is forfeited.

We do not derive any pleasure in making people sad, but it is the law, Olaseinde said.

Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transport, had during an on the spot assessment of the project, said the ministry was in talks with those whose property would be affected by the project.Officers of the force blocked the convoy of the Senate President at his Abuja residence at Lake Chad Crescent in Maitama on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. The blockade of Saraki's convoy is believed to be in connection to his scheduled meeting with police authorities to answer questions over his alleged links to the criminal gang that carried out the Offa robbery attack that led to the death of 33 people in April.

Since Nigerians have reacted to the blockade with outrage, the police force has strongly denied any knowledge of a sanctioned blockade against the senate president.

While speaking on Channels Television on Wednesday, July 25, Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, reiterated the position of the police force and suggested that Saraki 'stage-managed' the blockade to curry public favour.

He said, "I want to make it abundantly clear that the force has no hand in the blockade. In the first instance, these are what were stage-managed for the purpose of waving public sentiment in his favour."

The police spokesperson also claimed that the security aides deployed to secure the senate president and his family are enough to be used for such a public stunt.

In response to DCP Moshood's comments on Wednesday, Toyin Saraki took to her Twitter account to dismiss his insinuation that the trucks seen in the blockade were for her protection. She urged the police spokesperson to leave her out of the 'unseemly contretemps'.

She posted, "Dear @ @ I am absolutely flabbergasted by Jimoh Moshood on TV attempting to claim that these white vehicles that blockaded the road outside our Abuja residence could possibly be "protection provided to the Wife of the Senate President"!

"Firstly I have never received any vehicle from @. Secondly, I believe these vehicles bear a striking resemblance to cars donated by my dear brother @. I hope DSP Jimoh Moshood can leave me out of this unseemly contretemps. Thank you!In a statement issued by Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Jimoh Moshood, on Tuesday, July 24, 2018, he warned the Senate President to honour police invitation before the force is compelled to use all the instruments of the law to ensure compliance.

This statement followed an earlier invitation signed by the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, inviting Saraki to answer questions on his alleged links to the criminal gang that carried out the Offa robbery attack that led to the death of at least 33 people in April.

In June 2018, the police had linked Saraki to the ringleader of the Offa robbery and even though he was first summoned, he was later asked to send in a written response, which he did.

Questions have continued to spin about the motive behind the senate president's invitation by the police and some still remain unclear on the nature of his links with the robbery.

So, here's a quick rundown of Saraki's links with the robbery:

Nine police officers and at least 24 others lost their lives when a group of around 30 armed robbers attacked Union Bank, Eco Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank, Zenith Bank and Ibolo Micro Finance Bank,as well as the Owode Police Station in Offa, Kwara State, on April 5, 2018.

22 suspects have been arrested and some of them were presented to the press during a media briefing on June 3, 2018.

According to DCP Moshood, the main gang leaders are Ayoade Akinnibosun (aka, AY), Ibikunle Ogunleye (aka Arrow), Adeola Abraham, Salawudeen Azeez, and Niyi Ogundiran, all indigenes of Oro, Irepodun local government area of Kwara.

Saraki's alleged links to Offa robbery

While many have incorrectly assumed that the police accused the senate president of sending the gang to rob, in his home state where he was governor for eight years, the police have never officially made that assertion.

During the course of investigations, the main gang leader, Akinnibosun, named Saraki and incumbent Kwara governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, as his gang's political sponsors.

He said, "I am the chairman of Liberation Youths Movement, Kwara South. My involvement with the senate president is we're his boys; we work for him at Kwara South. We're the ones that hold Kwara South for him. We've been working for him since he was Governor of Kwara.

"We mobilise and do political arrangement there (Kwara South). For example, where we can't win, we make dabaru (disruptive) arrangement there; we scatter elections if we don't win."

Akinnibosun further disclosed that a Lexus jeep GX-300, which was used during the robbery, was a gift from Saraki which he received through Ahmed's Chief of Staff, Yusuf Abdulwahab, who has also been arrested in connection to the robbery.

"The connections between me and the senate president is that he's the one that is arranging everything for us. For example, this car (a Lexus jeep GX-300) was given to me by His Excellency (Governor Ahmed) through the Chief of Staff of Kwara state as a gift from leader, Bukola Saraki. I participated in the Offa robbery. I took this Lexus car along to Offa," he said.

The vehicle was used in the robbery with a sticker plate number inscribed with "SARAKI" and registered to "Kwara, State of Harmony". Abdulwahab allegedly replaced the vehicle's number plate with a new one (registration number: Kwara, KMA 143 RM) and registered it in Akinnibosun's name to cover up its identity.

Governor Ahmed's personal assistant on politics, Alabi Olalekan, has also been arrested in connection with the robbery as he attempted to hide the vehicle in question. A revolver pistol and pump action gun were also allegedly recovered from his farm.

Akinnibosun told the police, and the media, that two of the guns used in the robbery were supplied to him by Abdulwahab, although he noted that he only supplied it for political thuggery and not the Offa robbery.

Akinnibosun has noted twice in public that his gang's alleged sponsors, Saraki and Ahmed, knew absolutely nothing about the robbery.

More 'evidence' pile up against Saraki

Days after the first parade of the suspects in Abuja, the police paraded the gang leaders again and disclosed that more evidence had been unearthed about Saraki's links to the criminal gang.

During the June 6 media briefing, DCP Moshood said two more suspects had implicated the senate president as a sponsor of political thuggery.

He disclosed that after the first media parade, Akinnibosun mentioned three other notorious political thugs who worked for Saraki in Kwara Central. The police proceeded to arrest two of the suspects, Kehinde Gobiri (aka, Captain) and Oba Shuaib Olododo (aka, Jawando), who allegedly both admitted to committing various crimes in Kwara Central senatorial district under the guise of political thuggery for the senate president. The third suspect, Alhaji Dona, remains at large.

The police further alleged that, since the first briefing, all five gang leaders had confessed to having a direct connection to Saraki and were at his daughter's recent wedding ceremony. He disclosed that they confessed to have been sponsored with firearms, money and operational vehicles by Saraki and Governor Ahmed.

DCP Moshood also claimed that Akinnibosun, Ogunleye and Abraham followed the senate president to the Olofa of Offa's palace when he paid a condolence visit to the town after the bank robbery.

He concluded that, due to the new pieces of evidence, Saraki was still under investigation in connection to the Offa bank robbery and that the ongoing investigation would be driven to a logical conclusion.

In the IGP's letter of invitation to Saraki, dated July 23, 2018, the police alleged that the last financial handout Akinnibosun got directly from the senate president was the sum of N500,000. He also reiterated that three gang leaders were in Saraki's convoy on his condolence visit to Offa.

From all indications of how events have unfolded, it appears the police want to establish a connection between Saraki and the gang, not necessarily to nail him for the Offa robbery, but more likely to hit him with an illegal arms trafficking charge, like the type for which Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West - PDP) is currently standing trial.

Holes in official Police stories

Even though the police force has relentlessly dismissed criticisms that its insistence on Saraki's links to the group is not politically-motivated, there are certain inconsistencies in its catalogue of evidence against the senate president.

For instance, during the second media briefing with the alleged gang leaders, DCP Moshood said all five had confessed to having a direct connection to Saraki and were at his daughter's recent wedding ceremony.

However, during the first media briefing, the only person who spoke on any sort of connection to Saraki was Akinnibosun.

When Ogunleye was asked about any links between Saraki (and Ahmed) and the gang, he could not answer and clumsily referred to Akinnibosun's previous statement.

Azeez, who killed two people during the robbery attack, appeared even more clueless during the media briefing as he confessed that he was an ordinary mechanic who was recruited for the operation only days before the devastating attack.

Even though DCP Moshood asserted that all gang leaders had admitted at the first media briefing that they worked as political thugs for Saraki who sponsored them with firearms, money and operational vehicles, it was only Akinnibosun that made such a confession.

Furthermore, the police force has consistently claimed that three of the gang leaders were on Saraki's convoy when he paid a condolence visit to the palace of the Olofa of Offa, HRM Oba Muftau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II, just two days after the tragic loss of lives.

However, in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph, Akinnibosun disclosed that they were not on Saraki's convoy and didn't personally meet him at the palace.

He said, "I was at home when a friend of mine called me. His name is Shamsudeen Bada; he is a boy to Bukola Saraki too. We have a platform, but I did not quickly see the message on the platform. So, he now called me and said the Senate President would be going to Offa. I now called Aro and Adex and asked them where they were; they said they were at the saw mill, that we should meet at home. We now moved from our house to Offa. On getting there, it was just 15 minutes the senate president had been inside already. So, we didn't stay much and he left."

Also, when Akinnibosun was asked about how he got possession of the sticker plate number inscribed with "SARAKI", he said, "The sticker is being (sic) given to us. When we go for a political meeting, they use (sic) to share it."

Saraki vs IGP

In his letter of invitation, the IGP declared that the senate president needed to make some clarifications on his written response to the allegations and directed him to meet with the Intelligence Response Team at 8am on Tuesday, an appointment Saraki failed to honour.

In light of the fractious relationship the two share, many people have alleged that the IGP is abusing his power to politically persecute the senate president. In response to the new summon, Saraki accused the IGP of being a tool in a political game orchestrated by the "party in power to suppress perceived opponents".

This took on even more significance as police officers were alleged to have swarmed Saraki's Abuja residence at Lake Chad Crescent in Maitama on Tuesday, around an hour before he was scheduled to meet with authorities.

This led to more public outcry as security operatives also besieged the residence of Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, leading to rumours that it was a ploy by the federal government to remove the two from office or stop them from presiding over the day's session that was expected to witness the defection of a dozen lawmakers from the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC).

It's unclear how the Senate President made it out of his residence, but he appeared at the National Assembly and sanctioned the decision of 14 senators to dump the APC for opposition parties.

Saraki snubbed the police invitation for the rest of the day, meeting with American diplomat, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, instead.He made the announcement on Wednesday, July 25, 2018, at the Government House in Makurdi, the state capital.

During a meeting with elected local government chairmen and councillors, he disclosed that he was joining the PDP to ensure justice, equity and fairness for the people of Benue.

He said, "The 22 local governments represented by the councillors here and then the 13 local government chairmen have unanimously endorsed that my stay in the APC has expired, that I should look for another platform. On that note, I have formally resigned from the All Progressives' Congress.

"With your support, and because you have given me a blank cheque to also nominate a party that we can further fight to ensure justice, equity and fairness for the people of Benue State, let me formally announce to you that I now would join the People's Democratic Party."

Ortom made his announcement only hours after a large number of Benue youths formed a human barricade and stopped his convoy from leaving the Government House to attend a reconciliation meeting with the national leadership of the APC in Abuja on Wednesday.

The youths asked the governor to resign his membership from the APC or lose the support of the people. His pleas to be allowed to attend the meeting and protect the interest of the people of the state fell on deaf ears and he was forced to make a U-turn and return to the Government House.

The governor's Chief Press Secretary, Terve Akase, told Pulse Nigeria that the governor's decision is in compliance with the wishes of the Benue people.

"The youths came and asked him not to go to Abuja for any meeting with the APC national chairman that they don't want him to continue in APC. The governor is a people-oriented governor, he obeys the wishes of his people, so he has done just what the people want," he said.

Ortom, a former Minister of State for Trade and Industry, had dumped the PDP for APC in 2014 after he lost out at the party's gubernatorial primary election.

Ortom's defection was expected

The governor's defection comes as no surprise as he has had a frosty relationship with the federal government in the past few months on the back of violent killings in the state which has led to the death of hundreds.

The governor has repeatedly accused the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore of sponsoring cattle herders to kill residents of rural communities, claiming in May 2018 that an estimated 492 people had been killed by herdsmen.

The governor's several public calls have been ignored by the federal government and the governor's frustration has been public knowledge for months.

His defection finally happened a week after he said the APC had kicked him out and announced that he was shopping for a new party. However, he was back with the party on Thursday, July 19 as he declared, "I am here in APC, a member of APC, I'm still flying the flag of APC" after a meeting with the party's national leadership in Abuja.

Youths of the state prevented him on Wednesday from continuing that reconciliation in his scheduled meeting with national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and some other party members.

APC continues to bleed

Ortom's defection also happens just a day after 14 Senators left the ruling APC, with 12 moving to the PDP and the other two pitching tent with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the political party adopted by the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) launched by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.Ortom's decision to quit the APC is coming after 15 senators and 10 members of the House of Assembly quit the ruling party.

Here are three major reasons that necessitated the bold decision by Governor Ortom to quit his party despite reconciliatory moves by the party's leadership.

Endorsement from 35 local government bosses

Governor Ortom's decision to leave the ruling party has been revealed as a welcomed idea by the chairmen of the 35 local governments in Benue state.

In his resignation speech, Ortom said: The 22 local governments represented by the councillors here and then the 13 local government chairmen have unanimously endorsed that my stay in the APC has expired, that I should look for another platform. On that note, I have formally resigned from the All Progressives' Congress."

Fight for justice, equity and fairness for Benue people

Governor Ortom said that one of the reasons he decided to resign his membership with the APC is to secure a better political platform in ensuring justice, equity and fairness for the people of Benue state.

ALSO READ: PDP welcomes Ortom after defection from APC

He said,"With your support, and because you have given me a blank cheque to also nominate a party that we can further fight to ensure justice, equity and fairness for the people of Benue State, let me formally announce to you that I now would join the People's Democratic Party."

Alleged attacks from Benue APC

Ortom also claimed that he has been the target of major attacks from the Benue chapter of the All progressive Congress.

The Governor also said despite the intervention of APC national leadership, the state's APC has continued to attack his office and person.

The state chapter has continued to launch an attack on me," he said.

Obeying choice of electorates

In his speech while announcing his resignation from the APC, Governor Ortom implied that his actions are as a result of the yearnings of the electorates in Benue - most of whom are youths.

He noted that the leadership of the local government areas in the state unanimously endorsed his resignation from the ruling party.

In the same vein, the governor's Chief Press Secretary, Terve Akase, said Ortom's decision is in compliance with the wishes of the Benue people.

"The youths came and asked him not to go to Abuja for any meeting with the APC national chairman that they don't want him to continue in APC. The governor is a people-oriented governor, he obeys the wishes of his people, so he has done just what the people want," Akase said.

Prior to his announcement of quitting APC, a large number of Benue youths formed a human barricade and stopped his convoy from leaving the Government House to attend a reconciliation meeting with the national leadership of the APC in Abuja on Wednesday.

The youths asked the governor to resign his membership from the APC or lose the support of the people.During a meeting with elected local government chairmen and councillors at the Government House on Wednesday, Ortom disclosed that he was joining the PDP to ensure justice, equity and fairness for the people of Benue.

"I have formally resigned from APC to PDP and have presented my letter of resignation to the partys chairman of my ward," he announced.

The PDP took to its official Twitter account (@OfficialPDPNig) to congratulate the governor on dumping the "failed and dysfunctional" APC.

The post read, "Breaking News: Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has finally dumped the failed and dysfunctional @APCNigeria and has returned to the reformed & re-positioned @OfficialPDPNig. We welcome him back to our Party as we await the return/defection of others. PDP! Power to the People."

Ortom, a former Minister of State for Trade and Industry, had dumped the PDP for APC in 2014 after he lost out at the party's gubernatorial primary election.

The governor made his announcement only hours after a large number of Benue youths formed a human barricade and stopped his convoy from leaving the Government House to attend a reconciliation meeting with the national leadership of the APC in Abuja on Wednesday.

The youths asked the governor to resign his membership from the APC or lose the support of the people. His pleas to be allowed to attend the meeting and protect the interest of the people of the state fell on deaf ears and he was forced to make a U-turn and return to the Government House.

The governor's Chief Press Secretary, Terve Akase, told Pulse Nigeria that the governor's decision is in compliance with the wishes of the Benue people.

"The youths came and asked him not to go to Abuja for any meeting with the APC national chairman that they don't want him to continue in APC. The governor is a people-oriented governor, he obeys the wishes of his people, so he has done just what the people want," he said.

Ortom's defection was expected

The governor's defection comes as no surprise as he has had a frosty relationship with the federal government in the past few months on the back of violent killings in the state which has led to the death of hundreds.

The governor has repeatedly accused the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore of sponsoring cattle herders to kill residents of rural communities, claiming in May 2018 that an estimated 492 people had been killed by herdsmen.

The governor's several public calls have been ignored by the federal government and the governor's frustration has been public knowledge for months.

His defection finally happened a week after he said the APC had kicked him out and announced that he was shopping for a new party. However, he was back with the party on Thursday, July 19 as he declared, "I am here in APC, a member of APC, I'm still flying the flag of APC" after a meeting with the party's national leadership in Abuja.

Youths of the state prevented him on Wednesday from continuing that reconciliation in his scheduled meeting with national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and some other party members.

APC continues to bleed

Ortom's defection also happens just a day after 14 Senators left the ruling APC, with 12 moving to the PDP and the other two pitching tent with the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the political party adopted by the Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) launched by former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.At the last count, 37 House of Reps members have also defected to the PDP from the APC.

The mass defections the Nigerian political scene just witnessed points to deeper problems in our democracy. Again, this just goes to show that we run a political system where parties have no ideologies and where politicians simply swap one political platform for another because of whats in it for them in their new platforms. This point has been over-flogged now but it needs restating again and again because it has ramifications for the rest of society.

Among the APC senators who defected to the PDP are Gemade, Melaye, Shittu, Rafiu, Isa Misau, Hunkuyi, Monsurat, Danbaba, Nafada, Nazif and Rabiu Kwankwaso, among others.

Since the nations return to democracy in 1999, politicians have had no scruples switching camps at the drop of a hat. We have had politicians who join parties for elective positions only to dump that platform once they have achieved their election goals. We have had politicians who switched camps back-to-back-to-back in one calendar year. The defections are driven by money, power and nothing else.

In a chat with Pulse two weeks ago, lamented that we run political platforms in Nigeria as opposed to political parties. Because political platforms have neither values nor ideologies, they welcome just about everyone, no matter how tainted, into their folds.

Take Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso for instance. The former Kano Governor is only joining the PDP because he has lost control of the APC structure in his home State to Governor Abdullahi Ganduje.Senator Dino Melaye is returning to the PDP because he fell out with the APC in his home State and because he sees no way back to the senate from an APC where Governor Yahaya Bello has all but annihilated him.

Senate President Bukola Saraki will soon rejoin the PDP to continue his unbridled lust for power at all cost.Musiliu Obanikoro who was accused of theft to the tune of millions of Naira, has since pitched tent with the APC ostensibly to escape the law; and Senator Buruji Kashamu, an alleged former drug lord who is wanted in the United States for heroin trafficking and who has just been expelled from the PDP, may just be welcomed into the APC with open arms.

In the United States where we copied this brand of democracy, you are not likely to see a Democrat becoming a Republican the next day because both parties have a set of beliefs and values they hold dear and because the lines for both parties never meet. Where one party is pro-choice, the other is pro-life. Where one party has no problems with more guns in the hands of lunatics, the other preaches gun control and pines for stricter gun laws. Where one party is conservative, the other is liberal. In Nigeria, there is no left, right or center in the political firmamentthere is only a gathering of politicians who converge in a camp for the sole purpose of sharing the national cake and feeding fat on the treasury.

The ideology deficit in our nations politics has far reaching consequences for the rest of society. Political parties who have no values, no promised manifestoes or no discernible ideologies are not likely to deliver dividends of democracy to the people. Our ideology deficit politics contributes to why we have decrepit infrastructure and the highest number of poor people in the world. It is why the nation is crumbling before our eyes because you can't hold any political leader to anything.Nabena's call for the dismissal of Saraki was contained in a statement titled 'Time to Expel Saraki from APC.'

Nabena's statement on the call to expel the Senate President from the APC was released in Abuja on Wednesday, July 25, 2018 - many hours after the defection of 15 APC senators and 37 lawmakers from the House of Representatives.

The APC deputy spokesman accused Saraki of being the ringleader of the lawmakers that defected on Tuesday, July 24, 2018 saying there is no justification for APCs continued toleration of Saraki.

Nabena's statement reads:

The news of the about 15 senators who reportedly defected from our party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), today hardly came as a surprise to anyone, not least the APC leadership. What however, shocked political observers, especially democratic minds, was Senate President Bukola Sarakis postures and expressions, which clearly communicated his unhidden complicity in the charades against his supposed party.

Clearly, Saraki had a big hand in organising the events that transpired in the National Assembly today. He has, therefore, lost the moral justification to remain in APC. The time to expel him from the party is now. The public outing by the deserters at the National Assembly was the culmination of months of anti-party activities organised and directed by Saraki. And every scene in that dramatic work of shame revealed his hand.

When the senators submitted the letter declaring their intention to leave APC, which was excitedly read by Saraki, Senate Leader Senator Ahmed Lawan attempted to point out what should have been the right procedure if APC had a true party man at the helm. Lawan tried to emphasise the need to allow some time for dialogue, knowing that politics is always a game of negotiation, dialogue, and agreement. Rather than listen to the Senate Leader and stand down the defections, at least temporarily, to see how the situation could be salvaged, Saraki simply gave in to his own consuming interest in the whole affair and enthusiastically shut down the valid intervention by Lawan.

The Senate President went on to make a deceitful case for the defectors: 'APC as a democratic institution of democrats understands that people have the freedom of association'. Saraki did not need to remind us or anyone of that fact. Like we had cause to emphasise in a recent statement, 'The APC is not averse to dissenting positions. But we reject deceit in every shade or form.

We have also previously emphasised the fact that the Senate President is the major sponsor of the so-called Reformed All Progressives Congress (rAPC), which has pulled out of APC, and whose members in the National Assembly staged the exit that we saw today. Being the ringleader, therefore, there is no justification for APCs continued toleration of Saraki. He must go now. Or be shown the way out.

Buhari wishes Kwankwaso, Melaye, others well

In his statement to the 15 senators that quit APC for the PDP, President Buhari said he wishes them all well.

The statement partly reads:

"I wish all of our party members who today defected, the very best in their future undertakings. The APC has done its best to stop the defections, and I must commend the party leadership for working tirelessly to unite the party and position it for future victory.

"I am confident that no harm or injury will be done by these defections, to the APC and its aspirations. I urge party faithful to not despair, but to instead see this as something that happens in seasons like this, on the eve of elections.

"As the saying goes, all politics is local. We understand that some of the Distinguished and Honourable lawmakers have issues in/with their home states, especially on zoning which bars some of them from seeking another term in their constituencies.

"Let me also note that none of the defecting federal lawmakers has any specific grievances against me or the government I lead; neither do I harbour any ill-feeling towards any of them. I fully respect their freedom to choose what party to associate with."

Here is a full list of decampee lawmakers

Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) and Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano Central ) are two of the most notable lawmakers that dumped the APC for the PDP on Tuesday.

Others are Lanre Tejuoso (Ogun Central), Shaaba Lafiagi (Kwara North), Banabas Gemade (Benue North East), Rafiu Ibrahim (Kwara South), and Shitu Ubali (Jigawa North-East)

The others are Danbaba Ibrahim (Sokoto South), Usman Nafada (Gombe North), Nasif Nafada (Bauchi North), Isah Misau (Bauchi Central) and Suleman Hunkuyi (Kaduna North).The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.

The raids began when three suicide attackers detonated their explosive belts in Sweida city as other blasts hit villages to the north and east, said the Observatory.

A fourth suicide blast hit the city later.

"IS fighters then stormed villages in the province's northeast and killed residents in their homes," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Observatory.

IS seized three of the seven villages they targeted, he said.

The suicide blasts and attacks have left at least 32 pro-government fighters and 22 civilians dead, he added, updating an earlier toll.

"The death toll rose after bodies were found in people's homes," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

At least 21 IS jihadists were also killed.

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll.

Abandoned shoes

State television said the army was targeting IS in the province's east, and state news agency SANA reported "army units blocked an IS attack on a number of villages in northeastern Sweida, killing a large number" of the jihadists.

SANA published images of the aftermath of the attack in Sweida city.

The remains of a victim lay sprawled on a staircase near a damaged wall, while abandoned shoes lay in the middle of the road among fruit that had spilled out of cartons.

Abdel Rahman said unidentified warplanes were also targeting IS fighters in the area.

Despite pro-government forces ousting the group from urban centres in eastern Syria last year, surprise IS raids in recent months have killed dozens of regime and allied fighters.

The regime of President Bashar al-Assad has in recent weeks ousted rebels from a majority of the country's south, part of which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

His forces are now closing in on a patch of territory in nearby Daraa province held by jihadist group Jaish Khaled bin al-Walid, which has pledged allegiance to IS.

The group, which has around 1,000 fighters in the region, has been the target of an intense bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian jets in recent days.

SANA said the IS attacks on neighbouring Sweida were an attempt to relieve pressure "on IS remnants facing their inevitable end in the western Daraa countryside".

Desert holdouts

On Wednesday, Russia-backed regime forces continued their bombardment of the IS-held pocket in Daraa.

At least 41 civilians have been killed in air strikes on the jihadist holdout since July 19, the monitor says.

Fierce clashes between the two sides have killed 49 regime fighters and 67 jihadists.

On Tuesday, a Syrian military source accused Israel of firing at one of its warplanes as it carried out operations against jihadists in southern Syria.

Israel's army earlier said it had shot down a Syrian fighter jet that had infiltrated Israeli airspace, risking another escalation around the sensitive buffer zone.

The Damascus regime has long accused Israel of backing IS and other anti-government factions.

IS overran large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq in 2014, declaring a self-styled "caliphate" in territory it held.

The jihadists have since been ousted from all major urban centres in both countries, but they retain a presence including in desert border areas.

In Syria, IS controls a pocket of the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on the Iraqi border, and is present in parts of the vast central Badiya desert including in Sweida.The US leader himself, under fire over plans to invite Putin to the White House in the fall, opted to delay until 2019 -- pushing the talks back until Robert Mueller has completed his probe into Moscow's election interference, according to National Security Advisor John Bolton.

And Pompeo went on the offensive to stress steps Trump has taken to show resolve against the Kremlin, stepping into a white-hot spotlight during a grilling by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The top diplomat said he would back bipartisan efforts in Congress to slap new sanctions on Russia in response to their meddling in the 2016 US election, and as a deterrent against meddling this year or in 2020.

"I personally made clear to the Russians that there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes," he said in his opening statement.

Pompeo reaffirmed as official policy that the United States "rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea" -- an issue on which the US leader had appeared to waver.

And with the US president accused -- including by members of his own Republican party -- of casting doubt on the alliance's founding principle of mutual defense, Pompeo sought to smooth ruffled feathers.

"NATO will remain an indispensable pillar of American national security," he said. "We know weakness provokes our enemies, but strength and cohesion protect us."

On the North Korea front, Pompeo also struck a resolute tone, warning that Washington will not let nuclear negotiations "drag out to no end," amid criticism that Trump's June summit with Kim Jong Un has so far yielded few results.

"We are engaged in patient diplomacy, but we will not let this drag out to no end," Pompeo said.

'Submissive and deferential'

Lawmakers -- and America's allies around the world -- have been eager to learn the details of Trump's one-on-one July 16 meeting with Putin, including whether Trump made any secret promises to Putin or as-yet undisclosed verbal agreements.

Republicans and Democrats alike have described Trump's performance as a betrayal of US interests and too conciliatory towards the Russian leader.

The hearing quickly turned testy as lawmakers sought details on what exactly transpired in the Finnish capital.

"I don't think that's unfair to know," Senator Robert Menendez, the panel's top Democrat, told Pompeo. "Did he tell Putin that he'll release or ultimately relax sanctions?"

"Senator, what you need to conduct your role, your appropriate role, I will provide you today," a steely Pompeo shot back, without answering the question.

While Pompeo gave no hints of any secret promises or deals between the presidents, the US State Department has said three "modest proposals" emerged from the summit: a high-level business leaders' working group; a council of US and Russian political experts, diplomats and military officials; and discussions between the two presidents' national security staffs.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, the committee's chairman, issued a blistering critique of Trump's performance in Helsinki, saying the president appeared "submissive and deferential" standing next to Putin, and reprimanding the White House effort to throw a veil over the proceedings.

"We really need a clear understanding as to what is going on," Corker said.

With Moscow asserting that "agreements" had been reached between the leaders over Syria, the content of their two-hour conversation with no one else but their interpreters present has been the subject of conjecture.

"I gave up NOTHING," Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Congress has been rattled by Trump's Helsinki showing, particularly when he appeared to accept Putin's denial that Russia interfered in the 2016 election -- dismissing US intelligence conclusions.

Congressional leaders in Trump's Republican Party have made clear that the Russian strongman is not welcome in the US Capitol.The Nation carried a story of Wambu Muturi, who was last week gunned down by police during an operation to rescue a kidnapped woman.

The elderly woman had worked with accomplices including John Mwangi and Samuel Kangethe (her nephew), who were also killed during the operation in Gatundu village, Muranga.

They had been demanding Sh5 million ransom from Margaret Waithera who was kept hostage for six days.

The cucu (grandmother) was the one looking after me. She also threatened to have me circumcised...She would also threatened to cut my hands if I did not cooperate, the victim recalled in an interview with the Nation.

Despite her criminal ways, Wambui is said to have been a devout catholic and although neighbours found her secretive, they were rather shocked on discovering she was a dangerous criminal.The Members of Parliament cited integrity question raised against him during his tenure at the energy firm.

The legislators said this in a report tabled in the August House on Wednesday. They quoted the Constitution noting that the corruption related charges filed against Chumo will inhibit him from taking up the chairman position at the SRC.

"The committee considered how provisions of section 62 of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes would affect the nominee, as it requires that a public officer who has been charged with corruption or economic crimes should be suspended. Therefore, the nominee, if approved, would find it difficult to take up the position," the report reads in part.

"The Committee is of the view that the nominee is unsuitable to be appointed as the chairperson of the SRC," the lawmakers added.

Also Read: Mohammed Ali lands in trouble after asking a controversial question in Parliament

Though Chumo provided the committee with his certificate of good conduct, the MPs revealed that the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) did not reply to a letter requesting the conduct of the nominee.

The committee went ahead to advise the NAtional Assembly to reject Chumo's nomination.

Mr Chumo, who appeared before the Committee on Monday, was nominated as chairman of the SRC by President Uhuru Kenyatta.Robert Lumpkin died July 17 at his home; he was 71.

TUCUMCARI - Longtime resident, former educator, Marine veteran and Tucumcari Mayor pro-tem Robert Lumpkin has passed away following an extended illness at his home in Tucumcari.

Lumpkin, 71, passed away on July 17, at his residence, said Bobbi Sandoval, Lumpkin's daughter.

Lumpkin was serving as the District 4 City Commissioner and mayor pro-tem (2018-2022). He had also served as Mayor (2014-2016).

Robert Lumpkin had served as a city commissioner since Oct. 2007, said Angelica Gray, City Clerk.

Sandoval said her father was more of a statesman than a politician. She said he stepped out from his career of teaching students right into serving the community.

During his time as commissioner, Lumpkin spoke in Washington DC., advocating for renewable wind energy projects in Quay County. Lumpkin was also the city's longtime representative appointed to the preservation of the city's, county's water rights at Ute Lake Reservoir.

There will be no discussion about appointing a new mayor pro-tem or commissioner to fill Lumpkin's vacancy until Thursday's city commission meeting, said Britt Lusk, City Manager.

"It is a truly sad time for Lumpkin's family and the city," Lusk said. "The loss is deeply felt by all, but unfortunately the city has to continue forward."

Lusk said Lumpkin's passing is a huge loss to the community. He said despite being new to the job, he is aware of the impact Lumpkin has had serving the residents of Tucumcari.

Lumpkin is a Vietnam War veteran serving in the United States Marine Corps. from 1964-1967.

Lumpkin was a teacher at Tucumcari High School for 25 years (1972-1997), said Dave Johnson, Tucumcari assistant superintendent.

According to family friend Sue Dowell's social media post:

A memorial service celebrating the life of Robert Lumpkin will be held at 2 p.m. on Aug. 4 at Rattler Gym in Tucumcari.

In lieu of flowers, people are being asked to donate to the Robert Lumpkin Memorial Fund at the First National Bank of New Mexico in Tucumcari. The money raised will be used for a memorial at Tucumcari High School and/or the City of Tucumcari.Most Americans are far likelier to be searched by an agent of the Transportation Security Administration than by an FBI agent. But according to a federal appeals court, if an FBI agent violates your rights you can file a lawsuit. If youre manhandled by a TSA employee youre out of luck.

By a 2-1 vote, the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has ruled against Nadine Pellegrino, a business consultant from Boca Raton, Florida, who claimed that a search of her belongings at Philadelphia International Airport in 2006 was too rough and invasive. She was arrested and charged with assault after she clashed with TSA agents, but was found not guilty. She then filed a lawsuit against the TSA and the individual agents.

The appeals courts decision turned not on the truth or falsity of Pellegrinos allegations but on a question of how a law called the Federal Tort Claims Act should be interpreted.

Generally, the federal government is immune to lawsuits under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. But the Federal Tort Claims Act creates various exceptions, including one allowing citizens to sue investigative or law enforcement officers for civil wrongs including false arrest, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Writing for the majority, Judge Cheryl Ann Krause said that TSA agents didnt qualify because the searches they performed were administrative. The judge suggested that if searches by TSA agents could give rise to lawsuits, so could other routine searches by government officials, such as those carried out by meat inspectors and employees of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Yet Krause conceded that airport screenings are particularly invasive because they may involve thorough searches of not only the belongings of passengers but also their physical persons  searches that are even more rigorous and intimate for individuals who happen to be selected for physical pat-downs after passing through a metal detector or imaging scanner. She suggested that although current law didnt authorize lawsuits against TSA agents in her view, Congress could pass a law allowing them.

We disagree. The judges cramped reading of the law seems to miss the point of what TSA agents do. And it denies recourse to people who are abused by them.

Most TSA agents do their jobs diligently and courteously. But those who take advantage of the sometimes intimate contact they have with the traveling public shouldnt be immune to legal sanctions. If the courts wont recognize that, Congress should step in.

 Los Angeles TimesDear Alcohol,

It's been 19 years (July 23, 1999) since we broke up. I would say our time together had been fun, but it really wasn't.

Sure, we may have hit it off at first - you wooing me with the promises of what you could give me. Confidence. Euphoria. Escape.

But whatever you had initially provided, you eventually took away - and then some. You also did it all with a few black eyes, broken windows and a burnt laundry hamper in the process.

Past photos of our time together show you in just about every one of them. You greeted me heartily in the heart of New York City, gifting me with a legal drinking age of 18.

You moved with me to Brooklyn. Followed me on my trip to France. Had me screaming bloody murder in London when I went to buy you on a Sunday and found stores padlocked their beer, wine and booze for the entire day.

Yeah, you really pulled some shenanigans. But I kept you hanging around anyway.

Long enough for my body to bloat. My mind to turn spongy. My soul to decay. By the end of our time together, you had taken away everything that mattered most.

My self-confidence. Self-worth. Simple common sense. Even my ability to speak. One time I tried to answer a coworker's question, and the words in my head would not connect with my mouth.

You had me speaking jibberish. Falling under a subway train. Telling myself it was A-OK to wake up at 5 a.m. and not reach for a coffee but a beer. Heck, you were the only reason I got out of bed in those days. Life had nothing else to offer.

You had done it, provided the ultimate hell on earth.

You had taken away my hope.

But this letter wasn't meant to take you on a jolly stroll down memory lane, or look at how far down you took me. It's to tell you how far I've risen once I finally had the courage to let you go.

I can't take all the credit. No way. You're much too big a foe to face solo. I am blessed with staunch supporters. Friends and fellows. A boyfriend and dogs. Mom and family. Angels. God.

I also learned enough to know you're capable of pulling any number of stunts in an attempt to get us back together at any time. So I work on my recovery daily. Keep it strong. Stay connected. Fill up joy buckets. Meditate. Reiki-ize. Exercise. Get on my knees and pray.

As they say in some recovery circles, getting sober really can bring on a life beyond your wildest dreams. How true it is. I would have never dreamed I would have lived in rural New Mexico after 18 years in NYC - with five pet goats, to boot.

Or follow my full-time journalist dream across five whole states. Or land in Arizona with my own business that lets me share my creativity and humor with others. I never would have thought I could actually like people, especially myself.

And never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could go more than 30 minutes without a beer, never mind 19 years.

Yep, amazing things have happened since we broke up. And amazing things can happen to others, too. I've seen it. I rejoice every time I see another squeak past your cunning grip to break free of your suffocation.

It's a beautiful thing, this life without you.

I hope many more come to know it, too.

Ryn Gargulinksi wrote for the Clovis News Journal and the Quay County Sun from 2005 to 2007. Contact her at:

ryngargulinski

@hotmail.comThe National Party has written its own bill for medicinal cannabis in New Zealand.

The member's bill will rival the Government's, which National says will make only "minor improvements" to cannabidiol products.

If it makes it through to the House, it will be the third cannabis bill to do so in quick succession, after a bill authored by Julie Anne Genter failed to gain enough support.

"Its pretty clear theres strong support for medicinal cannabis," National Party leader Simon Bridges told RadioLIVE Drive.

Mr Bridges says what the Government has been doing wasnt good enough and didnt provide enough framework for how its medicinal cannabis regime would operate.

We thought we could do it better, a more comprehensive job than theyre allowing, he said.

Under National's draft bill, loose leaf cannabis would remain illegal, with regulated extract "manufactured as liquid or pills."

"We do not support the smoking of any products and do not support cannabis normalisation or recreationalisation associated with loose leaf," National says.

Mr Brides clarified to RadioLIVE that he personally believes complete decriminalisation is several steps too far because of mental health implications and the drugs debilitating effect.

Under National's proposed medicinal cannabis regime:

Medicinal cannabis products would be approved in the same way a medicine is approved by Medsafe.

Medical practitioners would decide who should have access to a Medicinal Cannabis Card, which will certify them to buy medicinal cannabis products.

Medicinal cannabis products will be pharmacist-only medicine.

Cultivators and manufacturers must be licenced for commercial production.

Cultivators and manufacturers will not be able to be located within 5km of residential land or 1km of sensitive sites such as schools and wahi tapu.

No advertising of medicinal cannabis products to the public will be permitted.

The Ministry of Health will review the legislation in five years.

The bill would also do away with the Government's bill's terminal illness carve out, which will allow cannabis use for those with terminal illnesses. National says there is too much "uncertainty about the logistics of supply".

The Government's bill - which National has announced it will not support - allows for a framework around medicinal cannabis to be set up, but the bill doesn't set the framework itself.

Under the Government's bill, the shape of New Zealand's future medicinal cannabis scheme would depend on decisions made by a medicinal cannabis committee.

Listen to the full interview with Simon Bridges above.

Drive with Ryan Bridge and Paula Penfold, filling in for Lisa Owen, 3pm - 6pm Weekdays and streaming live on 'rova' channel 9 - available on Android and iPhone.

RadioLIVE/Newshub.The BT TV subscription IPTV service offered by the UKs largest telecom service provider has adopted Telestreams Vantage Media Processing Platform to glean insights from on-demand content and services.





The move creates a multiscreen media processing solution with automated quality assurance. Telestreams local channel partner, Boxer Systems, worked closely with BT TV to specify, install and configure the system.At BT TVs London-based technical headquarters, Vantage is being used to analyse the technical properties of VOD content, extract and create appropriate metadata which is used to drive Vantage workflow decisions and to transcode VOD content into high quality multiscreen formats for OTT delivery. In addition, Telestream Switch player is now the companys media player of choice, with multi-format support, solid file inspection and support for captions and subtitles playback.The Vantage Workflow Designer has proved popular with our team as an easy to understand, yet powerful and dynamic toolset, said Peter Harvey, head of content operations at BT Technology . Vantage has given greater control of our VOD processing, reducing manual effort and helping the team to work more efficiently. It has reduced multiscreen media transcoding times by up to 30%, which was key in selecting Vantage.From September, Netflix will take three 1,200 square metre sound-proofed theatres in the 22,000 square metre Ciudad de la Tele production facility located in the Madrid suburb of Tres Cantos which is currently under construction. The hub will be managed by leading Spanish audio-visual firm Grupo Secuoya under a multi-year contract which will also see it become Netflixs exclusive partner of production services for all projects developed on the Ciudad de la Tele campus. Netflix has the option of occupying additional space when construction of the campus is complete.The Madrid campus will be home for the creation of Spanish original content including existing and new titles produced by Netflix, as well as series and films produced by associates. The SVOD company says that the creation of this plant reflects its investment in Spain. It is thought that as many as 13,000 people will be employed as cast, extras and technical roles working on 20 original Netflix productions this year.The Hispanic markets are hugely important for Netflix and the hubs will build on the popularity of Spanish-language content such as La Casa de Papel, the most-watched non-English-speaking series on the platform Narcos, and Club de Cuervos. Also recently, Netflix and Oscar-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro announced that they are to produce an original horror anthology series. .In a few weeks time, more Spanish content will content will arrive on Netflix including the third season of Las Chicas del Cable on 7 September and new teen drama Elite. Original titles already in production include Elisa and Marcela, a new film directed by Isabel Coixet, and Los Crimenes de Alcasser, a new original documentary series. Netflix also recently announced a global agreement with La Casa de Papel creator Alex Pina, and, shown as part of a preferential access deal with the programmes maker Atresmedia, Netflix will make other dramas such as Farina and La Catedral del Mar made available on the SVOD platform globally.We are delighted that Netflix has chosen the Ciudad de la Tele for its first production centre in Europe., President of, commented Grupo Secuoya president said Raul Berdones. Netflix has established a world benchmark with its productions and the decision to create a venue in Madrid is proof of Spain's leadership in the audio-visual industry as well as the importance of its talent pool. Grupo Secuoya is delighted to partner with Netflix to support the production of content in Spanish for the entire world.Adding his view on the new facility and the likely outcomes for the company, Netflix vice president of original series Erik Barmack said: Spain has a great tradition in the creation of innovative content and we are very excited to reinforce our investment in the cultural heart of Madrid. Netflix users around the world, from San Sebastian to Santiago de Chile or from Toronto to Tokyo, enjoy the content in Spanish. The establishment of our first plant in Europe will create new opportunities for incredible talent in Spain while demonstrating our commitment to the production of original content throughout Europe.The announcement also comes only weeks after leading global Madrid-based telco Telefonica said it was to integrate Netflix within its TV and video grids across Europe and Latin America.Video-on-demand giant Netflix is readying to exclusively stream Indian film Brij Mohan Amar Rahe worldwide from 3 August.





Produced by Saregamas nascent film studio, Yoodlee Films, the movie follows the life of 36-year-old Brij Mohan, a hosiery shop owner in a busy Delhi market who desperately wants to change his unhappy life. Changing his appearance and adopting a new identity, he ends up committing a botched murder. On the run, he nds himself trapped in a web of his own making.Described by director Nikhil Bhat, as a comic and complex look at the concept of Karmic justice played out with ironic humour, the film stars Arjun Mathur (Indian Summers), Nidhi Singh (Permanent Roomates), and Sheetal Thakur (Bambukat).We are very proud to have films of the calibre of Brij Mohan Amar Rahe on the service, where millions of film-lovers around the world can discover these strong, captivating stories. We are also thrilled to get our first collaboration with Saregama off the ground, marking another milestone in our commitment towards forging solid relationships with Indian content creators , said Swati Shetty, director, International Originals and Acquisitions, Netflix Brij Mohan Amar Rahe opened the South Asian International Film Festival in New York last year. It follows Ajji, also from Yoodlee Films, onto the US streaming platform.Saregama VP TV & Films Siddharth Anand Kumar said: Netflix is the premium VOD player and it is especially gratifying that the very first two films in our slate have found a home on this platform. It encourages us to continue to make fearless films that will reach out to audiences both domestic and international.Brij Mohan Amar Rahe (Long Live Brij Mohan in English) is part of Yoodlees project to make 100 independent films in a range of Indian languages over the next five years.A new poll shows President Trump has lost support among his blue-collar base in the wake of his much criticized Helsinki news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The survey from Quinnipiac University shows a drop of eight percentage points among white voters without a college degree, compared to the organizations last national poll.

In June, 57 percent of these voters approved of the presidents job performance, but that number now stands at 49 percent. Conversely, the number of those who disapprove has also increased, from 36 percent to 47 percent. Trumps other key demographic  white men  saw a five-point dip in support from a 54 percent approval rating last month to 49 percent in the latest poll. Those who disapprove also grew by five points.

"Whether it is with love or not, President Donald Trump's relationship with Russia has delivered a small blow to his already poor standing with the American people," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll.

Trumps decision to side with Putin on the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 election over his own intelligence agencies  a stance he corrected the next day -- seems to have also caused a decrease in his overall approval rating, which is back below 40 percent again compared to 43 percent in June. Among the electorate overall, 54 percent say Trump was not acting in the best interest of the United States and another 52 percent say the summit was a failure for the U.S. Another 73 percent say it was a success -- for Russia.

Over half of American voters believe the Russian government has compromising information about President Trump, the survey also found. The only group that does not believe this to be the case is Republicans, by a margin of 70 percent to 18 percent. Again, however, the numbers are closer when white voters are broken out. Forty-four percent of white voters without a college degree believe Russia has something on the president compared to 43 percent who dont believe it. Forty-two percent of white men believe it vs. 43 percent who dont.

A sizable majority of respondents also remain concerned about Trumps relationship with Russia in light of the Putin meeting. Sixty-eight percent are very concerned or somewhat concerned, compared to 32 percent who are not so concerned or not concerned at all.

The poll of 1,177 voters, conducted July 18-23, has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. Voters were contacted via live interviewers on landlines and cellphones.,



We're sorry, this article is not currently availableTORRINGTON  The rising cost of prescription medicine is an emotional issue for the patients of Dr. Stacy Taylor, a primary care physician at Charlotte Hungerford Hospital.

The inability of Taylors patients to afford their medicines, she said, is unforgivable. When a prescription isnt filled by a patient because it costs too much, she said, We see declining health, and the worst case is they are admitted to the hospital because they arent managing their disease.

The issue of unaffordable medicines is a statewide concern, according to the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut. It notes that nearly 90 percent of state residents are worried they wont be able to afford their medications.

To address the concern, Taylor and a panel of medical and policy experts held a roundtable discussion this week at the City Hall auditorium.

State Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, was the moderator for the event, which also included state Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Victoria Veltri, chief health policy adviser for the state Office of Health Strategy. The roundtable discussion was streamed live on Facebook.

Veltri heads the states Health Care Cabinet, of which Lembo is a member. She said the group examined a cost-containment strategy for health care and found that prescription costs far exceeded other health care expenses.

Prescription costs are going crazy, for state employee insurance plans, Lembo said. Pharmacy costs are eating our lunch.

He noted that when pharmaceutical corporations are asked why they have increased costs so drastically, they responded, because we could.

More for you Pharma sues New York over 'unconstitutional' opioid tax

Recent legislation, co-sponsored by Cook and a number of her colleagues, will require drug companies to report when a drug price increases more than 20 percent in one year. The bill, which will go into effect in 2020, would also require pharmacy benefit managers, who negotiate prescription prices for the industry, to report on profits they receive from their contracts with insurance companies, pharmacies and prescription drug manufacturers.

The legislation is a good first step, said Marghie Giuliano, CEO of the Connecticut Pharmacists Association.

In an interview Wednesday, she said requiring PBMs to simply report their profits, rather than have their records audited, is not working in the best interest of patients or pharmacists.

Future legislation needs to make sure there is a fiduciary responsibility, by PBMs, Giuliano added. They are completely unregulated.

We see evidence of PBMs playing hardball, Lembo said. He notes that pharmacy managers attitudes are if you dont want this, we wont sell you that. Giuliano agreed. She said PBMs offer pharmacists a take it or leave it contract.

The government should be able to push back, said Veltri. Changes are needed in the marketplace. The high deductible format puts pressure on the consumer, when medicine is expensive, she noted.

There are several options for patients who cant afford their prescriptions, Cook said. Patients can ask their pharmacist if there is a less expensive alternative, or if they can switch to a generic medicine.

Other suggestions, Taylor said, are online companies such as GoodRx, which is available to everyone. She also said some doctors can provide money-saving coupons.

You can get a $250 medication for $20 for 12 months, Taylor said.

For additional help, patients may also contact the states Office of the Health Care Advocate online, or call the office toll-free at 866-466-4446.It's been more than seven years since the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, but the effects of such a disaster can linger for decades, often in subtle, unseen ways.

One such side effect has been growing on vines  and aging in barrels  in Northern California, according to a team of French researchers, unbeknownst to the wine lovers who drink it.

The 2011 Fukushima meltdown, triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami, released radioactive materials into the ocean and the air. The World Health Organization said that while some radioactivity was detected in food products from Japan following the disaster, it was below a safe threshold. As the radiation was carried by currents and atmospheric patterns, food from other countries was also found to have even smaller traces of radiation.

That includes the treasured wines of Napa Valley, according to the newly released study.

The researchers examined California cabernet sauvignon vintages between 2009-12, wondering if they would see a jump in radioactive particles after 2011, when the Fukushima disaster occurred.

At first, they weren't able to detect any cesium-137 (a radioactive isotope) without opening the bottle and using a gamma detector. But then they vaporized the wine, reducing it to ashes. Among the ashes of the vintages after 2011, they found about twice as much cesium-137 compared to those from before the nuclear meltdown.

The contamination detected was still "extremely low."

Interestingly, the amount of cesium-137 was higher in red wine as compared to rose, as it was in French wines tested after Chernobyl.

One of the pharmacologists behind the study, Philippe Hubert, came up with this method of testing wines in 2001, according to the MIT Technology Review. Hubert invented the technique not to determine if they were safe to drink, but rather to test if rare vintages were legitimate or frauds.

Any French wines claiming to be produced before 1952 should have no trace of cesium-137 whatsoever because it would predate atmospheric nuclear tests and explosions. After an international ban on atmospheric tests was passed in 1963, the amount of radioactive particles in wines steadily decreases, with a small spike after Chernobyl.

Using this logic and a gamma detector, you can determine if a vintage is a fraud when the amount of cesium-137 in the bottle doesn't match the normal range of the year it purports to be from.

Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.Authorities in the southwestern Chinese mega-city of Chongqing have tried in secret and jailed two rights activists sent home from Thailand as they were awaiting resettlement as political refugees, prompting an international outcry.



Dong Guangping and Jiang Yefei fled with their families to Thailand in 2015, and were granted refugee status by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees office in Bangkok.



But as they awaited resettlement in a third country, they were handed over to China by the Thai police, in a move that drew strong criticism from the U.N.



Dong and Jiang were both found guilty of "incitement to subvert state power" and "illegally crossing a national border" by a court in Chongqing.



Jiang received a six-and-a-half-year jail term, while Dong was sentenced to three-and-a-half years, their relatives said, citing phone calls with police and online reports.



Jiang's wife Chu Ling and Dong's wife Gu Shuhua and daughter Dong Xuerui flew to Canada from Bangkok for resettlement as political refugees just days after the two men were repatriated.



Gu told RFA on that she has still received no official notification of her husband's trial or sentence from the authorities.



She said she had learned his fate from a Facebook post by the China News Service.



"I read that news item online," Gu said. "The [ruling] Chinese Communist Party isn't going to send the families any notification at all. We weren't even notified of his detention or formal arrest."



No legal documents or lawyer

She added: "None of the legal documents were available ... I heard that the trial was held on , 2017, but that Dong didn't have a lawyer at that time."



The China News Service report said the court found that, "between May 2009 and , the defendant Jiang Yefei subverted the power of the Chinese state and sought to overthrow the socialist system, and in Thailand joined several overseas organizations aimed at overthrowing Chinese state."



It said Dong Guangping had joined and helped Jiang Yefei to cross the border into neighboring Laos from China's southwestern province of Yunnan, bypassing border inspections, and traveling from there to Bangkok.



"[Jiang] participated in two occasions on activities aimed at subverting the Chinese government and overthrowing socialism," the report said.



According to Gu, the activities referred to in the report were small gatherings that could have had no such effect.



"I would like to protest in the strongest terms the persecution visited upon Dong Guangping and upon us, his family, by the Chinese Communist Party," she said. "Dong Guangping is innocent."



"How could a gathering of the kind [attended by Dong and Jiang] lead to the overthrow of the entire Communist Party state machinery?" she said. "Which government did it subvert?"



"I call upon the Chinese Communist Party to release Dong Guangping and to drop the charges against him; which I dismiss totally," Gu added.



Secret trial

Dong's former lawyer, Chang Boyang, said he was denied permission to meet with his client when he showed up at the Chongqing No. 2 Detention Center last July.



"This trial went against the principle of openness; it was tantamount to a secret trial that the outside world knew nothing about," Chang said. "It is unclear if they had the support of any lawyer."



"I filed a complaint at the political and legal affairs committee [about not being given access to Dong] but they didn't give me any information at all," he said. "Everything and everyone was kept totally in the dark."



"This kind of trial goes against all the legal rules and regulations, because defendants in a secret trial have no access to a legal defense."



Zhengzhou democracy activist Chen Wei said Jiang's sister was only told on , after making repeated phone calls to police.



"They then told her that they weren't obliged to give her any other details," Chen said. "This entire case has been prosecuted behind the scenes ... over a period of three years."



He said the men's families had been denied permission to send them money or clothing to meet their daily needs during three years of pretrial detention.



"The real reason the trial wasn't an open one was that they didn't have any evidence, and that neither of them would 'confess' to their 'crimes'," he said.



Dong had been a prominent rights activist before his initial detention in , after he participated in memorials for late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, late reformist premier Hu Yaobang, and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) massacre of civilians that put an end to weeks of student protest on Tiananmen Square in .



After his release on bail, pending trial, Dong fled China in September 2015, only to be sent back to China with Jiang the following November.



Reported by Yang Fan for RFA's Mandarin Service, and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Chinese authorities appear to have withdrawn approval from Facebook's planned "innovation hub" in its eastern province of Zhejiang, according to the New York Times.



The social media platform announced on Tuesday it had registered a subsidiary in Hangzhou as part of a plan to invest in local start-ups.



But the approval, listed on a Chinese government database, later disappeared, and references to it were partially removed from the country's tightly controlled media, the Times reported.



An employee who answered the phone at the Market Regulation Bureau in Zhejiang's provincial capital Hangzhou on Wednesday said they were unable to check the status of the Facebook subsidiary, which had been briefly listed on China's National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, the paper said.



"I can't find it from here, because we don't have the system to do that," the employee said. "We're not a companies search facility."



Facebook had registered Facebook Technology (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd. on July 18, with start-up capital of U.S.$30 million and a manager named as Zhang Jingmei. The company was wholly owned by Facebook's Hong Kong subsidiary.



Commentators said Facebook had likely overestimated the ruling Chinese Communist Party's willingness to cooperate.



"They don't want real openness on the Chinese internet," Veteran journalist Zhu Xinxin said. "They don't want companies like Facebook bringing more freedom with them."



Limited information



Retired Shandong University lecturer and rights activist Sun Wenguang agreed, saying that not everyone in China knows how to scale the Great Firewall of internet censorship coordinated by the government's powerful Cyberspace Administration.



"We would greatly welcome Facebook being available [here], because a lot of people here have no channels of information through which to gain a real understanding of China," he said. "All they can get is a limited number of websites and newspapers approved by the Communist Party."



"According to my understanding, 99 people in 100 have no idea how to scale the Great Firewall."



Beijing-based political commentator Zha Jianguo said Facebook's planned venture is likely a casualty of the looming trade war with the United States.



"One thing we can be sure of, and that is that the Chinese government will be seeking to curb online freedoms and preserve the difference between China's internet and the rest of the world's," Zha said.

"Particularly when it comes to politics and news."



Zhu agreed. "There are bound to be limits to what they will let Facebook do in China, especially when we are looking at a trade war," he said. "There's no way the Chinese Communist Party will loosen up its tight hold on power."



According to Guangdong-based activist Jia Pin, Facebook will remain a valuable platform for those internet users who do know how to circumvent the complex system of blocks, filters, and human censorship that make up the Great Firewall.



"I will still carry on using Facebook, because I need it to put out information on human rights issues," Jia said.



"A lot of social media platforms here in China have no privacy to speak of. Chinese internet service providers will cooperate and give information [about users] to government departments, especially the police, for certain."



'Chinese characteristics'



Internet user Hu Qiang said there is little hope of Facebook making an entry into the Chinese market without giving up some important features.



"Facebook would definitely have to lose some features, so it would become Facebook with Chinese characteristics, and its users would be limited in what they could say on it pretty much as they are on other social media platforms," Hu said.



"They would still run the risk of censorship and having their account shut down, and Facebook user data would very likely be shared with the government," he said.



Facebook has previously admitted to having data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese companies, including smartphone-maker Huawei, which has already been the subject of security concerns in the United States.



Facebook has said it had allowed Huawei, Lenovo, and smartphone manufacturers OPPO and TCL to access some user data.



The companies may have been able to access data about users' friends on Facebook, under the agreement, regardless of what the users' privacy settings were, the Times reported last month.



Facebook's Hong Kong subsidiary has been registered for nearly eight years, but the company's capital was increased in May.



Reported by Lau Siu-fung for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects part of a nuclear warhead at an undisclosed location in a photo released by the Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 3, 2017.

The Central Committee of the ruling Workers Party has decreed that North Korea will not relinquish its nuclear arsenal, which it termed a precious legacy of the countrys late leaders, according to local sources, despite an earlier pledge by party chairman Kim Jong Un to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Kim held historic talks with South Koreas Moon Jae-in in April, as well as an unprecedented summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June, and agreedin principleto abandoning the Norths nuclear weapons program in exchange for promises of regime security and economic prosperity.

But a lack of any concrete agreement on steps to denuclearize and recent reports that progress on talks have slowed, combined with indications that North Koreas ally China has continued to send fuel into the country to ease economic strains caused by international sanctions, have prompted questions over how sincere Pyongyang is about abandoning its weaponry.

A source from North Koreas North Hamgyong province, along the border with China, recently told RFAs Korean Service that the countrys leadership cabal has no intention of entirely ditching the nuclear program it had taken decades to build.

In early July, there was a meeting for the core membership of high-ranking party officials from provincial organizations, party secretaries, and managers from business firms  to deliver policy from the Central Committee regarding the current political situation, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The last speaker who ended the six-hour-long meeting emphasized that nuclear is a precious legacy from the late leaders and if there is no nuclear, there is death, he said.

North Korea began acquiring the basic knowledge necessary to develop a nuclear weapons program in the 1950s, under Kim Jong Uns grandfather Kim Il Sungthe nations founderand producing plutonium in the late 1980s under his father Kim Jong Il, before testing its first nuclear device in 2006.

According to the source, many of the officials were taken by surprise by the Central Committees decree.

Public divided

A second source from North Hamgyong told RFA that the Central Committees order had divided North Koreans after news of the meeting filtered out to the public.

Some agree that without nuclear there will be death and some say that it is breaking a promise to the U.S. and the international community, the source said.

The source said officials are confused about whether the reference to nuclear weapons as a precious legacy from the late leaders and the only protection against the obliteration of the country meant that the North could never give them up.

The high-ranking party officials were listening to the speakers at the meeting because they were trying to determine whether Kim Jong Un really doesnt intend to give up nuclear weapons or if it was just part of a ploy to gain leverage in [international] negotiations over the denuclearization process, he said.

This is the first time since the U.S.-North Korea summit  that the Central Committee officially declared at a high-ranking party officials meeting that nuclear is a legacy from the late leaders, but it could simply be an ideological statement aimed at tightening discipline among the ranks.

A major obstacle to reaching and implementing any nuclear deal is that the U.S. and North Korea have differing definitions of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula. North Korea wants the extended nuclear deterrence the United States offers South Korea included in any deal, while Washington sees the issue as the dismantling and removal of North Koreas nuclear weapons and facilities.

Reported by Jieun Kim for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Leejin Jun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.An aerial view of shows villages inundated by flooding downstream from the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in southeastern Laos Attapeu province, July 25, 2018.

UPDATED at 10:30 A.M. EDT on 2018-07-27

At least 26 people are confirmed dead and 131 missing, Laos Prime Minister Thonglun Sisoulit confirmed Wednesday, as rescue efforts continued following a dam collapse he said had caused the countrys worst flooding in decades.

On the night of July 23, water poured over a saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Champassak, sweeping away homes and causing severe flooding in up to 12 villages downstream in Champassak and neighboring Attapeu province.

Speaking to reporters in a rare televised press briefing on Wednesday, Thonglun confirmed the known casualties and said that some 3,060 villagers, comprised of 581 families, had been left homeless in the disaster.

He attributed the collapse of the dam to heavy rainfall and possibly faulty construction, adding that a task force had been assigned to evaluate losses and determine the cause of the incident, in order to address long- and short-term problems.

The impact from this flooding is immense and the worst weve seen in many decades, Thonglun said, adding that he had declared Attapeus Sanamxay district a national disaster area and opened the region up to international assistance.

Provincial officials organizing rescue efforts said Wednesday that the six worst affected villages include Hinlath, Thaseangchanh, Sanong, Thahin, Mai and Yaithawhich together are home to 6,631 residents, comprised of 1,372 families.

Officials had earlier suggested that hundreds were missing in the aftermath of the collapse.

Teams from Thailand and China headed to the remote region on Wednesday to assist in rescue operations, as residents huddled on rooftops while floodwaters pooled below.

Despite early warnings of a possible breach due to heavy rainfall, many were left behind in their homes when the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower projects Saddle Dam D collapsed on Monday night, prompting questions about the evacuation process and what was known about the dams structural integrity before the disaster struck.

The project involves Lao, Thai and South Korean partners and consists of two main dams and five subsidiary dams.

On Wednesday, the project's main partner, South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction, said in a statement that the firm had discovered fractures in the dam 24 hours before the collapse, and had immediately alerted the authorities and began evacuating villagers downstream.

Owners at fault

Ian Baird, a professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert on Laos, told RFAs Lao Service Wednesday that the project partners should be held responsible for the collapse of the dam, noting that heavy rains should not have been enough to cause the tragedy.

It is important to recognize that this tragedy is not a natural disaster, he said in an interview.

It was caused due to poor management of the reservoir water of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Dam. It is the middle of the monsoon rainy season, so heavy rains should be expected during this time of year.

Baird added that the dam project is also responsible for a host of environmental and social issues affecting the region during the dry season, because it is diverting water from the Xe Pian River into a reservoir area.

Those downstream impacts are not being compensated, but they certainly should be, Baird said.

The owners of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Dam should be held responsible for the negative impacts of the downstream flooding, not only along the Xe Pian River but along the Sekong River in downstream areas of Cambodia, he added.

It is important that dam safety is taken much more seriously in Laos, and downstream impacts need to be considered much more carefully in general.

Also on Wednesday, Cambodias Ministry of Water Resources told RFAs Khmer Service that the Lao dam collapse had caused the Sekong Rivers water level to rise by 11 meters (36 feet), causing flooding in two district in Stung Treng province and four districts in neighboring Ratanakkiri province.

Te Navuth, the secretary-general of the Cambodia National Mekong Committee (CNMC), told RFA that authorities had placed certain areas of Stung Treng on high alert, and begun evacuating villagers to a safe zone, where they are providing them with food an medication.

Cambodia is watching the situation very closely, as the flooding from Laos is flowing to us via the Sekong River, he said, adding that the government intends to ask Laos for compensation after authorities have the crisis in hand.

Laos and many other Asian countries are on a dam-building spree as they try to harness the power of the Mekong and other rivers.

While the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the countrys economy, the projects are still controversial for their environmental impacts and financial arrangements.

Dam collapses last year

On Sept. 11, 2017, hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of muddy water flooded eight villages in central Laos' Xaysomboun province after the reservoir of the Nam Ao Dam upstream burst its banks following heavy rain.

Central and regional government officials held the project developer legally responsible for repairing damage to electrical networks and water supplies, calling the reservoir's construction "not standard."

According to International Rivers, an environmental advocacy group, the current Lao hydropower development plan includes 72 new large dams, 12 of which are under construction and nearly 25 in advanced planning stages.

The Lao government says the dams will help pay for anti-poverty and other social welfare programs, but International Rivers asserts that much of the power generated by Laos is sold to neighboring countries and then resold to Laos at higher rates.

Reported by RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Correction: An earlier version of the story misidentified the location of the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project. The affected dam is located in Champassak province, while the villages impacted by the flooding are located in Champassak and neighboring Attapeu province.At least 27 people are missing and feared dead following the collapse early Tuesday of a slag heap at a jade mine in northern Myanmars Kachin state, with heavy rains hampering recovery efforts, sources in Myanmar said.



A search is now being carried out with backhoes in the Sait Mu village group of Kachins Hpakant township, site of the collapse, village official Maung Ngwe told RFAs Myanmar Service on Wednesday.



The work is being led by the General Administrative Department, together with the fire department, the Red Cross, and civil society organizations, but no one has been found yet, Maung Ngwe said.



We have put Danger Zone signboards up all around the area, he said.



Quoting witnesses at the scene, media reports said that as many as 40 migrant workers, most from the Rawang ethnic group, may actually have been lost in the collapse, the latest in a string of deadly mining-waste landslides that have occurred in recent years in Hpakant.



On July 14, 22 migrant workers were killed, with 63 injured and four left missing, following a landslide at a mine site in Hpakant, while in May, at least 13 migrant workers were killed and eight injured by a collapsing slag heap as they scavenged jade remnants at another Hpakant mine.



In November 2015, at least 115 migrant miners died when a 200-foot mountain of dirt and mine waste collapsed on a makeshift settlement of miners huts.



That deadly accident prompted calls for reform, and in August 2016, Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation Minister Ohn Win said the government planned tougher controls, including suspending the renewal of mining licenses and checking the entrances to the mining areas for illegal migrant workers in an effort to stop the scavengers.



Hpakant, which lies about 400 miles (640 kilometers) north of Myanmars capital Naypyidaw, is the center of the countrys jade mining industry and produces some of the highest-quality jade in the world.



Much of the gem is exported or smuggled to neighboring China, where demand for the precious stone is high.



As many as 300,000 outside workers will gather in Hpakant during the rainy season each year to search for jade, which they can easily see on the banks of slag cast off from mining, local resident Zaw Moe Htet told RFA in an earlier report.



So they go to look for jade even in heavy rain, and then the landslides happen.



Jade mining companies dont follow rules and regulations, and the authorities dont take action against them. Thats why so many people are killed every year, he said.



Reported by Kyaw Myo Min for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Richard Finney.Taliban fighters have overrun two districts in the southeastern province of Paktika, on the border with Pakistan, officials said on July 24.

Local officials said Taliban fighters began attacking security checkpoints and the centers of the Omna and Gayan districts in Paktika on July 22, forcing Afghan security forces in the area to pull out leaving large quantities of weapons and equipment.

After almost two days of heavy fighting, the Taliban captured both district centers, provincial council members said, adding that at least three members of the Afghan security forces and as many as 22 were killed, with a number of others injured.

The Taliban has taken control of a series of district centers so far this year, many of which have been subsequently retaken by Afghan security forces, who control areas with around two thirds of the country's population.

At least 14.5 percent of Afghanistan's approximately 400 districts are fully controlled by the Taliban, while 30 percent are contested, according to the country's military.

On July 23, General John Nicholson, the U.S. general who commands the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, said security had improved in 14 districts and declined in eight others this year, to leave the overall levels of government control across the country roughly stable.

Reuters, citing local officials, reported that south of Paktika, in the neighboring province of Zabul, 15 members of the Afghan security forces were killed and 18 others were injured after the Taliban stormed the district of Atghar.

The Taliban attackers were eventually pushed back as Afghan security forces received air support, with 25 Taliban members killed and 20 wounded, Reuters reported.

Based on reporting by dpa and Reuters

Two days after exchanging harsh warnings with Iranian leaders, U.S. President Donald Trump says he is still eager to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Tehran.

"We'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration, which was a disaster," Trump said on July 24 in a speech to veterans in the U.S. state of Missouri.

Trump over the weekend had threatened Tehran with "consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before" after Iranian President Hassan Rohani had warned Trump not to "play with the lion's tail."

The exchange of harsh rhetoric was reminiscent of the threats that volleyed back and forth between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last year -- exchanges that disappeared after the two adversaries agreed to negotiate a nuclear deal at a summit this spring.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on July 24 declined to comment directly on Trump's threats against Iran, but he voiced his own concerns about Iranian actions in the Middle East, including Tehran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and for Huthi rebels fighting the government in Yemen.

"I think the president was making very clear that they're on the wrong track," Mattis said on a visit to California.

"It's time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation. It cannot continue to show irresponsibility as a revolutionary organization that is intent on exporting terrorism, exporting disruption, across the region."

Based on reporting by AP, dpa, and ReutersBISHKEK -- A court in Kyrgyzstan has reinstated a senior customs official who was fired on Almazbek Atambaev's last full day in office, drawing an angry reaction from the former president.

The July 25 ruling reinstating deputy customs service chief Raiymbek Matraimov sparked the latest flare-up in a public feud pitting Atambaev against President Sooronbai Jeenbekov, the former ally and prime minister who succeeded him in November 2017.

Atambaev accused associates of Jeenbekov of conducting "reprisals against political opponents."

One day before Jeenbekov's inauguration, Matraimov was dismissed by then-Prime Minister Sapar Isakov, who said he had "lost the government's trust." Isakov was jailed in early June on suspicion of corruption.

Matraimov appealed his sacking in April, saying the decision to fire him was illegal.

Isakov and another prime minister under Atambaev, Jantoro Satybaldiev, were both arrested and jailed in June in connection with a graft case that stems frpm modernaization work at a major power plant in Bishkek.

Jeenbekov has fired several of Atambaev's allies since April, and some have been jailed.

The pressure on Atambaev's allies points to a rift between Atambaev and Jeenbekov, an ex-prime minister who was tapped by Atambaev as his favored successor in the October 2017 presidential election but who has clashed with his former boss in recent months.

After the Birinchi Mai district court in Bishkek reinstated Matraimov at his former post on July 25, Atambaev issued a statement condemning the court's ruling and criticizing Jeenbekov.

Atambaev linked the court's ruling with arrests of Isakov and other former officials who served under his leadership, calling the arrests "political retaliation" by Matraimov and "his friends and patrons."

"Unfortunately the warnings and advice I voiced repeatedly to President Jeenbekov personally, and publicly on March 31, have not been taken into account," the ex-president said in a statement.

"Reprisals against political opponents [conducted] by his circle under the guise of a robust...fight against corruption are discrediting the authorities and the anti-corruption course they have announced," Atambaev's statement said.The 10th summit of BRICS countries opened on July 25 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with discussions expected to focus on developing international trade wars.

The BRICS group unites the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

South African Trade Minister Rob Davies said the international trade system was experiencing a period of "enormous turbulence," citing concerns over new U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions from other countries.

It was "a moment of crisis for the global multilateral trading system," Davies said.

The official agenda for the summit also includes topics such as peacekeeping, new technologies, and vaccine research.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the heads of several African countries have also been invited to attend the BRICS summit.

The BRICS group represents more than 40 percent of the world's population.

The summit opened with a trade forum on July 25, with the heads of state set to hold talks the following day.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, Reuters, and TASSA British man poisoned with Novichok has said in interviews that he found a perfume bottle that contained the deadly nerve agent and unknowingly gave it to his girlfriend, who sprayed the liquid on her wrists and later died.

Charlie Rowley, 45, said in interviews released on July 24 that he was amazed he survived after handling the "oily" substance himself, but was still struggling with the death of his partner Dawn Sturgess, a 44-year-old mother of three.

Both fell ill in Amesbury, near the southwestern English city of Salisbury where a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned with Novichok in March.

In an interview with ITV News television, Rowley said he could not remember where he picked up the glass perfume bottle, but said it was still in its box and plastic packaging.

When he offered it as a gift to Sturgess, "she recognized the bottle and product as a known brand" and sprayed it on her wrists.

"Within fifteen minutes Dawn said she had a headache," and she went to lie down in the bath, fully clothed.

Rowley also got some of it on his hands but washed it off. "It had an oily substance and I smelled it and it didn't smell of perfume," he said.

'Awful And Shocking'

Both of them fell ill and were hospitalized later that day, June 30.

A few days later, authorities confirmed their exposure to Novichok, a military-grade nerve agent developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Sturgess died on July 9, but after two weeks in an induced coma Rowley was discharged from the hospital on July 20.

In an interview with The Sun newspaper, he said: "It's awful and shocking. I was still on medication when they told me she passed away. I don't think I will ever be able to get over it.

"My heart goes out to Dawn's family. It's amazing that I'm alive. In a way I feel lucky I survived, but I've also lost so much."

Police are treating Sturgess' death as murder and say a link with the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia on March 4 is a major line of inquiry.

Britain and its allies blamed Russia for trying to kill Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was jailed for betraying Russian agents to Britain and released in a 2010 spy swap.

Russia has strongly denied involvement in the poisonings, which sparked a major diplomatic row.

Rowley said he was "very angry at the whole incident."

"It was very irresponsible for people to leave the poison for anybody to pick up. It could have been children," he told ITV.

With reporting by AFP and dpa

Islamic State (IS) militants have killed about 100 people in several attacks on government-held areas of southern Syria, including multiple suicide bombings in Sweida, a city located some 100 kilometers south of Damascus, a monitoring group and local officials said on July 25.

A local health official told a pro-Damascus radio station that the death toll climbed to 204 people killed and 180 wounded in total.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said 183 people were killed -- 89 civilians and 94 local militiamen. It said another 45 IS militants were killed in the clashes. IS said in a statement that it had killed more than 100 people in the attacks.

One of the attacks was a suicide bombing at a crowded market, according to the state news agency SANA. At least two other would-be suicide bombers were killed by security forces before they were able to detonate their explosives.

Syrian state television also reported that Islamic State (IS) militants attacked three villages northeast of Sweida.

Troops loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have recently retaken territory in the area that had been controlled by rebels and are currently attempting to clear the area of IS militants.

Based on reporting by dpa, Reuters, and APA court in Russia has ordered two months of pretrial detention for five prison guards suspected of involvement in the severe beating of an inmate.

The Zavolzhye district court in the city of Yaroslavl also ruled on July 25 that a sixth suspect, deputy prison warden Ivan Kalashnikov, must remain in custody for another 72 hours pending a ruling on whether he will also be jailed.

The Investigative Committee said on July 23 that six officers of Corrective Colony No. 1 in Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, were detained after a video showing the beating of an inmate identified as Yevgeny Makarov was published by the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and circulated widely on the Internet last week.

The video, which Public Verdict NGO said was shot at the penitentiary, showed Makarov lying on a desk without pants while two people in uniform forcibly hold his hands behind his back. At least 10 other uniformed men repeatedly strike his legs and heels with rubber truncheons and fists, while he cries and begs them to stop beating him.

The Investigative Committee said that all the officers on the video had been identified and a probe was launched into what it called "a crime." A lawyer who gave Novaya Gazeta the video has fled the country while seeking protection from state law enforcement authorities.

The Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) said on July 24 that it will investigate all reports about violence in penitentiaries across Russia in 2017.

Meanwhile, Deputy Justice Minister Mikhail Galperin, leading Russia's delegation at a hearing of the UN Committee against Torture in Geneva, said strict rules governed the use of force in prisons.

But panel chairman Jens Modvig replied that "there is no rule ensuring that punishment for torture corresponds to the seriousness of the crime," adding, "this is more regrettable in that torture is practiced widely."

With reporting by Interfax and TASS

Hundreds of people have attended the funeral service for Hatidza Mehmedovic, the head of a group of women known as the Mothers of Srebrenica who are fighting for justice for the victims of the 1995 massacre.

Mehmedovic was buried July 25 near Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was the site of Europe's worst massaccre since World War II.

Mehmedovic's husband, two sons, and brother were among some 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed when Bosnian Serb forces, led by General Ratko Mladic, overran the UN-protected Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in July 1995. They separated men from women, detained them, and killed them en masse in the following days.

The UN War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia last year convicted Mladic of genocide and crimes against humanity, including at Srebrenica, and jailed him for life.

The Mothers of Srebrenica have won praise for their efforts to have those responsible for the massacre brought to justice.

With reporting by APThe New York-based Human Rights Watch has called on Azerbaijan to adopt a policy of "zero tolerance" of torture by police and other law enforcement officials.

President Ilham Aliyev's government should also "ensure prompt and effective investigations into all such allegations," HRW said in a July 25 statement.

The statement comes in the wake of a July 18 report by a committee of the Council of Europe that found that police torture in Azerbaijan is "systemic and endemic."

The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) conducted six visits to Azerbaijan between 2004 and 2017 and its report also highlights "corruption in the whole law enforcement system and impunity."

"It is high time that the Azerbaijani authorities took decisive action to stamp out torture in the country and implement to the fullest extent the committee's recommendations," CPT President Mykola Gnatovskyy said.

'Culture Of Violence'

The committee's report said that the body had "repeatedly observed" cases of torture and physical abuse during its visits, leading it to suspect "the existence of a generalized culture of violence among the staff of various law enforcement agencies."

The report also noted prison overcrowding, poor prison conditions, inadequate medical care for prisoners, and poorly paid prison staff.

The HRW statement added that the NGO's research in Azerbaijan has revealed that detainees are often denied access to legal representation and that "even if complaints are made of serious ill-treatment, the investigations almost never result in anyone being held to account."

Popular Azerbaijani anticorruption blogger Mehman Huseynov is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after being convicted of libeling police when he said he had been beaten by them in January 2017.

Last month, the Azerbaijani Supreme Court upheld Huseynov's conviction. His lawyers have said they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.Iranian President Hassan Rohani has said he feels no need to respond to what hecalled "empty threats" from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Iran's IRNA news agency reported on July 25 that, after Rohani mentioned "baseless comments" by "some U.S. leaders," he told a cabinet meeting "there is no need for us to respond to any nonsensical comment and answer back to them."

"We should respond with action," Rohani said.

Rohani's remarks came in response to a July 22 all-capital-letters post on Twitter by Trump in which Trump warned Iran not to "threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, responding to Trump's post on July 24, said there would be "a reaction and equal countermeasures from Iran" if the United States attempted to block Tehran from exporting oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded to Trump with a Twitter post of his own, saying: "We've been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, incl our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries."

On July 24, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis voiced concerns about Iran's actions in the Middle East, including Tehran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and for Huthi rebels fighting the government in Yemen.

"I think the president was making very clear that they're on the wrong track," Matthis said. "It is time for Iran to shape up and show responsibility as a responsible nation."

During a speech two days after his Twitter post, however, Trump said the United States "was ready to make a real deal" on constraining Iran's nuclear program.

In May, Trump decided to withdraw from a landmark 2015 agreement between Tehran and global powers that restricted Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Trump has called that agreement a "disaster."

With reporting by IRNA, Reuters, and APBISHKEK -- Kazakh Defense Minister Saken Zhasuzaqov traveled to Bishkek on July 25, making the first official visit by a Kazakh defense chief to Kyrgyzstan since the two Central Asian nations gained independence in the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Zhasuzaqov's talks with the chief of the Kyrgyz armed forces' General Staff, Raiymberdi Duishenbiev, focused on regional security and military cooperation, the Kyrgyz military said.

An agreement on military intelligence cooperation was signed after the talks.

The two countries are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) along with Russia, Armenia, Belarus, and Tajikistan.The leaders of the U.S. Congress, citing Russia's alleged interference in U.S. elections, say they will not invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to address Congress or visit the Capitol if he accepts President Donald Trump's invitation to a second summit in Washington this fall.

On July 24, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell both rejected any friendly outreach to Putin and expressed disagreement with Trump's embrace of the Russian president in the wake of their one-day summit on July 16 in Helsinki.

Ryan and McConnell said they had no plans to ask Putin to address a joint session of Congress, a typical honor for visiting foreign leaders.

"We would certainly not be giving him an invitation to do a joint session," Ryan said. "That's something we reserve for allies."

"The speaker and I have made it clear that Putin will not be welcome up here at the Capitol," McConnell said.

Their comments came as a top Kremlin aide on July 24 said that Putin was waiting for the "dust to settle" over his controversial meeting with Trump in Helsinki before deciding whether to take up Trump's offer of a second summit.

Yuri Ushakov, citing a desire not to inflame what he described as an already "overheated" U.S. political situation, said no preparations were being made to visit Washington and Putin would be open to meeting with Trump in other venues, such as a Group of 20 (G20) summit in Argentina this fall.

The congressional leaders cited what they said were Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election in shunning any embrace of the Russian leader.

The U.S. intelligence community and a U.S. special counsel have concluded that Russia used a campaign of spreading propaganda on social media and hacking Democratic documents to try to aid Trump's candidacy and hurt his opponent, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Moreover, intelligence officials have warned that Moscow is working to meddle once again in this year's congressional elections.

"The Russians better quit messing around in our elections. They did it the last time. They better not do it again," McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding that he was open to legislation to put more pressure on Moscow after Congress enacted a bill imposing tough sanctions on Russia over its alleged 2016 election meddling a year ago.

Wave Of Criticism

Ryan said he does not have a problem with Trump sitting down with foreign leaders like Putin, as long as he is delivering the right message.

"If the message is, 'Stop meddling in our country, stop violating our sovereignty,' then I support that. But it's the message that counts," Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Trump faced a bipartisan tidal wave of criticism after a news conference with Putin in Helsinki where he gave credence to Putin's denials of Russian interference while seeming to question the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Putin acknowledged at the news conference that he wanted Trump to win the election, though he denied doing anything to bring that about.

Trump has called the summit a success and invited Putin to visit Washington in the autumn.

Besides McConnell and Ryan, other prominent congressional Republicans do not share Trump's upbeat views of Putin.

"I'm suspicious of everything Putin does," said Representative Mac Thornberry (Republican-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (Republican-Arizona) has called Putin a "tyrant" and "America's enemy."

With reporting by AP and ReutersThe Russian State Duma has approved in its final reading a bill on the teaching of "native languages" in schools that has angered representatives of many of the country's ethnic minorities.

The bill approved on July 25 cancels the mandatory teaching of indigenous languages in Russia's so-called ethnic regions and republics, where non-Russian ethnic groups are well-represented.

President Vladimir Putin, responding to complaints from ethnic Russians living in these regions, said last year that children should not be compelled to study languages that are not their mother tongues.

Putin's instruction led to the abolition of mandatory indigenous-language classes in the regions, which prompted protests in parts of Russia's North Caucasus, the Volga region, Siberia, and the Far East, where local languages have official status alongside Russian.

The bill now proceeds to the upper chamber of parliament, the Federation Council.

If it is approved there, it will go on to Putin for signing before becoming law.

Based on reporting by TASS and InterfaxAmerican pastor Andrew Brunson, who has been jailed in Turkey for nearly two years on terrorism and spying charges, has been transferred to house arrest as his trial continues.

Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported on July 25 that the 50-year-old would be remanded in his home, but did not say when he would leave custody.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release and the case has strained relations with the United States.

Brunson, who was arrested in late 2016, faces up to 15 years in prison on the charge of "committing crimes on behalf of terror groups," a reference to Kurdish separatists and a group that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames for a failed 2016 coup attempt against him.

Brunson also faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the espionage charges against him.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFPHatidza Mehmedovic lost a husband, two sons, and a brother in the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, when Bosnian Serb troops overran the eastern enclave and killed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, most of them men and boys.



She later advocated for Srebrenica victims by heading Mothers of Srebrenica, an organization that spearheaded efforts to bring those responsible for Srebrenica to justice.

On July 22, the 65-year-old Mehmedovic died at a hospital in Sarajevo after a long battle with cancer. She was buried on July 25 in her home village of Bektici, not far from Srebrenica.



Her death triggered tributes, but not many -- if any -- from ultranationalists in Serbia or Republika Srpska, the mainly ethnic Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, highlighting the ethnic fault lines that remain after the region was engulfed in conflict in the 1990s during the breakup of Yugoslavia.



The deputy speaker of the Serbian parliament, Vjerica Radeta, posted a tweet on July 24 that appeared to mock her death, sparking not only outrage in Bosnia but Serbia as well.

"I've just read that Hatidza Mehmetovic from the 'Businesswomen of Srebrenica' (sic) organization has died," tweeted Radeta, a representative of the Serbian Radical Party led by convicted war criminal Vojislav Seselj.



"I wonder who will bury her. Her husband or her sons?" she wrote.

The tweet was later deleted.



The Serbian Radical Party has long disputed the massacre in Srebrenica, which is considered Europes worst carnage since World War II.



The UN War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic over the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia.



The Mothers of Srebrenica group has fought for those responsible for the killings to be brought to justice. Leading the group naturally made Mehmetovic a lightning rod for hate from ultranationalist Serbs.



After the war, Mehmetovic lived in a Sarajevo suburb before returning to her home in Bektici in 2002. The house became a memorial for the victims of the genocide.



That same year, she founded the Mothers of Srebrenica organization that advocated for justice and collected donations for survivors who wanted to return to Srebrenica.



The U.S. actress and activist Angelina Jolie, who met Mehmedovic during a visit to the Srebrenica Memorial four years ago, praised her for living an "honest life" in a tribute posted by CNN.

In Bosnia, Radeta's tweet has triggered calls for an end to all cooperation with Serbia.



"I ask of you, as a lawmaker from Podrinje, Srebrenica, to halt any kind of cooperation with Serbias Assembly until someone apologizes for this...," a state lawmaker from the Independent Bloc political party, Sadik Ahmetovic, wrote in an open letter addressed to the chairman of the state parliament and his deputies, according to the N1 news channel.



The leader of Nasa Stranka (Our Party) wrote an open letter to the Serbian Embassy in Bosnia, condemning Radeta's social-media post.



"Considering that we are speaking about a person who serves a very important function in the governmental system of the Republic of Serbia and that her statement has not only shaken Bosniaks, but all of us citizens in Bosnia, I consider it necessary to reach out to you with this letter and ask of you, as the diplomatic representative of Serbia in Bosnia, to publicly distance yourself from the stance of the deputy head of your National Assembly," party leader Predrag Kojovic wrote.



In Serbia, politicians and others have come forward to condemn Radeta.



Maja Gojkovic, president of the Serbian parliament, slammed Radeta over the tweet.

Others stepped up as well.

"The committee for human rights should condemn and other committees should take action as well," Maja Videnovic, deputy chairwoman of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights, told RFE/RL's Balkan Service.

A Serbian NGO said it would seek to take legal action against Radeta.

"The Belgrade Center for Human Rights will submit a criminal complaint with the Office of the High Prosecutor. The criminal acts that will be listed in the complaint are inciting ethnic, racial, and religious hatred, as well racial and other discrimination," Dusan Pokusevski, head of the NGO, told RFE/RL.

The comment captures the zeitgeist of much of today's Serbia, claims Sonja Biserko, founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.

"That is an image of the state of the spirit of Serbia and its society today or, at least, one part of its political elite which, actually not only questions all the sufferings on the territory of former Yugoslavia which relate to other people, but mocks and ridicules them. And I think it is that that eventually put Serbia in a position from which it will be difficult to extract itself. In a way, it takes [Serbia] back to the time of Slobodan Milosevic," Biserko explained, referring to the notorious former Yugoslav president, once known as the "butcher of the Balkans."

Biserko also doubts Radeta will face any repercussions for her remarks given her political backing at the top.

"She has the support of the ruling elite and was shielded several times by the president himself when she was sought by The Hague Tribunal because she is one of the people who still needs to answer why she, and others, pressured witnesses, [someone] who turned the Seselj trial into a farce," says Biserko.

Radeta, along with Petar Jojic and Jovo Ostojic, were indicted by the UN tribunal in December 2014 for allegedly trying to influence witnesses at Seselj's trial.

According to the indictments, the three officials from Seselj's party threatened two protected witnesses, blackmailed them, and offered them bribes of 500 euros ($585) in order not to testify at his trial.WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump wants to meet at the White House with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019 -- sometime after the Justice Departments probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election is over, his national security adviser says.

"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year," John Bolton said in a statement on July 25.

Trump drew harsh criticism for his July 16 performance in Helsinki during his first summit with Putin, with critics saying he sided with Russia over his own intelligence agencies in their conclusions that Moscow interfered in the U.S. presidential campaign.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing Moscows actions and investigating whether members of the Trump team colluded with Russian officials.There is no indication when Mueller's probe will be completed.

Trump has often called the investigation a witch hunt and has denied any collusion with Russia.

Despite the criticism over his Helsinki summit, Trump later invited Putin to visit the White House, initially saying it would happen in the fall.

However, a top Kremlin aide on July 24 said Putin is waiting for the "dust to settle" over his controversial meeting with Trump in Helsinki before deciding whether to take up Trump's offer for a second summit.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the U.S. Congress, citing Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. elections, said they would not invite Putin to address Congress or visit the Capitol if he accepted Trump's invitation to a second summit this fall.WASHINGTON -- The United States announced a formal policy reaffirming its rejection of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blasting Moscow for seeking to undermine a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states.

Pompeo's announcement July 25, released an hour before his scheduled testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, followed recent conflicting remarks by President Donald Trump and administration officials about whether Washington was moving to reverse a policy in place since Russia's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.

The United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlins claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law, said Pompeos statement, titled the Crimea Declaration.

In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russias attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraines territorial integrity is restored, it added.

It said the United States called on Russia to respect the principles to which it has long claimed to adhere and to end its occupation of Crimea.

In the later testimony before the Senate committee, Pompeo said there will be no relief for Moscow from sanctions imposed by the United States after the attempted annexation until Russia returns control of the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine.

Moscow in 2014 forcibly annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula, a move condemned by the international community. It has also backed separatists in eastern Ukraine fighting against the Kyiv government in a war that has killed more than 10,300 people -- actions that led to U.S. and EU sanctions being imposed against Moscow.

It wasn't immediately clear what the declaration would entail, but Pompeo in his announcement referenced the Welles Declaration of 1940. That act was a decision by the United States not to recognize the Soviet annexation of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. That policy lasted for 50 years and outlasted the Soviet Union.

Nonrecognition of the Crimea annexation was also the policy of the previous administration of President Barack Obama, but Pompeo's remarks appear to be an effort to clearly state the current administration's attitude after the recent diplomatic confusion.

Asked by reporters on June 29 whether reports about him ending Washington's longstanding opposition to the Crimea annexation were true, Trump replied: "We're going to have to see."

Trump answered in a similar manner when asked whether he would consider lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia.

"We'll see what Russia does," Trump said.

The remarks caused concerns throughout Europe, and particularly in Ukraine, that Trump could overturn U.S. policy and effectively accept the first major land grab on the continent since World War II.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry tweeted after Pompeos declaration that we welcome the U.S. position on territorial integrity of Ukraine and nonrecognition of Russias attempt to annex CrimeaNo one has the right to change the borders of free sovereign states by force."

In a brief statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova responded by saying, We know the value of such momentous declarations.

Maja Kocijancic, the spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, said in a statement that the U.S. declaration illustrates the U.S.'s continued strong and principled stance on Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

She said the EU remains firmly committed to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and to fully implementing our nonrecognition policy, including through restrictive measures.

Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement that "the U.K. echoes the United States firm statement of opposition to Russias illegal annexation of Crimea. The U.K. position is clear: We condemn Russias continued breach of international law; Crimea is Ukrainian territory. We remain fully committed to upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders."

In the face of Russian aggression, Ukraine has relied on U.S. diplomatic, financial, and military support that has so far remained steady and featured the delivery of lethal Javelin antitank missile systems and $200 million in additional security funding to boost defensive capabilities.

The announcement also comes as Trump continues to insist that no president has ever been tougher on Russia amid criticism from Democrats and others that he has been too complimentary toward Putin and has overlooked alleged wrongdoing by Moscow regarding meddling in elections and activities in Ukraine, Syria, and elsewhere.

In his statement to the Senate panel, Pompeo said Trumps recent summit in Helsinki with Putin and their continuing dialogue was in the interest of the United States and the whole world.

Trump strongly believes that now is the time for direct communication in our relationship in order to make clear to President Putin that there is the possibility to reverse the negative course of our relationship. Otherwise, the administration will continue imposing tough actions against Russia in response to its malign activities, Pompeo said.

We cant make progress on issues of mutual concern unless we are talking about them, he added.

He specifically cited issues involving Ukraine, the fight against terror, the civil war and humanitarian aid in Syria, security for Israel, and shutting down all of Irans malign activity.

In Helsinki, we sought to explore whether Russia was interested in improving the relationship, but made clear that the ball is in Russias court. We defended Americas fundamental strategic interests in Syria and Ukraine, and I personally made clear to the Russians that there will be severe consequences for interference in our democratic processes, Pompeo told the committee.

Pompeo said Trump has accepted the U.S. intelligence communitys conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

He has a complete and proper understanding of what happened, Pompeo added.

Pompeo also said that after the Trump-Putin summit, U.S. policy on Russian sanctions is "completely unchanged" and told the senators that NATO "will remain an indispensable pillar of American national security."

Trump has called on the Western military alliance members to increase their level of defense spending and reduce their dependence on U.S. funding.Cancun seeing large increase in foreign street vendors

Cancun, Q.R.  Authorities in Cancun say they are seeing an increase in the amount of foreign street vendors, adding that they are starting to take over the streets.

Meliton Ortega Garcia, Cancun alderman and representative of the Commission of Industry, Trade and Agricultural Affairs says they have registered an increase in foreigners arriving from other countries selling items on the streets.

He says that they are often selling items such as flower-shaped palm leaves to tourists, however, they are also flooding traffic light areas where they ask motorists for money. He explained that the behavior of trades on Cancun streets is changing.

Now, he says, instead of seeing seasonal countrymen and merchant sellers from Chiapas or Yucatan, there are a lot of Central Americans arriving and taking over the streets which adds to an increase in insecurity.

They not only come to sell, but they also do pillerias (dirty, dishonest tricks), so for that reason there is a need to put a brake on them, explained Ortega Garcia.

The National Commission for the Protection of Financial Services (Condusef) have detected the foreigners asking for money at traffic lights, noting that what they are really doing is scouting the inside of the vehicle for items, then assaulting drivers for the items.

Ortega Garcia says Cancun has become a point of refuge for migrants from different countries such as Cuba, Venezuela and Guatemala who come to Cancun for a better life. However, they are saturating the streets with trades, which also brings unfair competition for business and vendors that pay for permits.Government announces expansion project of Zaragoza Canal

Chetumal, Q.R.  The Government of Quintana Roo says they have an agreement that will see the expansion of the Canal de Zaragoza at Chetumal Bay.

The Integral Port Administration along with the Secretariat of the Navy have signed a coordination agreement to carry out the project of access to the Chetumal Bay through the expansion and maintenance of the Zaragoza Canal.

The agreement signed by the general director of the Integral Port Administration, Alicia Ricalde Magana and Admiral Jose Luis Vergara Ibarra, senior official of the Secretariat of the Navy, will allow the operational and functional access to the maritime navigation of larger vessels through the Bay of Chetumal with the Caribbean Sea.

Zaragoza Canal

The government of Quintana Roo, headed by Carlos Joaquin, says they have also acquired the land adjacent to the Zaragoza Canal.

The Navy Secretariat of Mexico will carry out dredging work on the Access Project to Chetumal Bay, through the expansion and maintenance of the Zaragoza Canal.

They will supervise the work of fragmentation of the seabed, as well as prepare the reports required by the General Directorate of Impact and Environmental Risk of the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources, among others.

The expansion project of the Zaragoza Canal to access Chetumal Bay is 4,970 meters long, 50 meters wide and 3 meters deep and, once complete, will allow larger vessels to access the area.Man shot twice in popular Psicodelia bar in Cancun

Cancun, Q.R.  An employee inside a bar at the Plaza de Toros in Cancun was reported shot early Tuesday morning.

The emergency call came in around 1:30 a.m. with reports of gunfire inside a bar. Witnesses reported hearing four shots inside Psicodelia in Supermanzana 4 of the citys center. Police arrived to find a man had been shot and suffering firearm injuries.

Red Cross paramedics arrived to transfer the injured man to the hospital who was reported to have suffered two bullet wounds.

Ballistic experts arrived at the site along with municipal authorities to carry out the corresponding investigations, saying that six casings were lifted from the scene.

A police operation was implemented in the area to find the alleged perpetrators. The identity of the victim is a 40-year-old male of Honduran decent with the name Carmino S.G.

There have been no updates about the shooting or the health condition of the victim.A CANCER information bus will visit Rotherham next week.

Specialists from Macmillan Cancer Supports Mobile Information and Support Service will offer free advice and answer questions at each stop.

The bus will stop on Howard Street, in the town centre, from 9am to 4pm on Wednesday, August 1.

It will visit High Street, Mexborough, between 9am and 4pm on Saturday, August 4.

In light of the sunny weather, the team will also provide information about sun safety and skin cancer.

There are two types of skin cancer  non-melanoma and melanoma.

Around 136,000 of the former are diagnosed in the UK each year, making it the most common cancer.

It is unlikely to spread and easy to treat, if caught early.

Melanoma is the fifth most common cancer in the UK, with around 15,400 people diagnosed each year.

Wayne Priestley, from the mobile information team, said: Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to the sun.

This may be long term exposure, or short periods of intense sun exposure and burning.

Using sunbeds can also increase your risk. Our team will be on hand to answer questions about sun safety and for any other cancer-related queries.

For further information about Macmillans mobile information service, go to www.macmillan.org.uk/mobileinfo.

Visit www.macmillan.org.uk or call 0808 8080000 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm) to access more free cancer information.Wallace Hible (89) with pupils (L-R), Lawrence, Austin, Abbie and Millie.

PENSIONER Wallace Hible has thanked the people that came to his aid when he suffered an accident after leaving a primary school where he has found a new lease of life.

Wallace (89) has been attending Thorpe Hesley Primary School twice-a-week after losing his wife.

The grandfather-of-six is a volunteer reader and enjoys two-hour sessions listening to youngsters reading.

But after leaving the Upper Wortley Road school earlier this month, he fell and broke his rib.

Wallace, who walks with a stick, said: When I was coming back home, I stumbled on a footpath just near the Texaco garage.

Two young chaps came to help me - I think I must have been unconscious for a bit. They rang the paramedics and I was taken to Rotherham Hospital for a scan and chest X-ray.

I had cuts and bruises all over. The pain I had in my chest was just excruciating. The scans showed I had a cracked rib.

I want to thank the two young chaps, who were roughly in their 40s, who helped me and all the medical staff at Rotherham Hospital - they were first class.

Widower Wallace is now back in the classroom and enjoying the reading sessions again.

I enjoy listening to the children reading - its surprising how good they are, he said.

Former financial director Wallace helps pupils with their pronunciation and confidence with speaking out loud.

Headteacher Trudi Toms said a charity for the elderly had recommended Wallace joined the school after his wife died as part of an initiative to combat loneliness.

Trudi said Wallace was the schools oldest volunteer, adding: Its lovely for him and nice for the children to interact with someone who has completely different experiences.

The children love it and are always fighting to go out and talk to him, along with the staff!

Hes a very cute guy - a proper old-fashioned cap-and-cane kind of man.

The kids love reading with him - for some they dont encounter people of that kind of era. Hes amazing.

When we do history topics, he will be a great resource for us too.

Trudi added: Were a community-based school and are keen to do things with the community.

A grandmother used to come in and teach knitting, but her children left school and it dropped off.

We always welcome people with these kind of skills that people dont have anymore.

It makes the children feel really special when people come in to visit.

Volunteers are Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checked and anyone interested in sharing their skills and knowledge with pupils should contact the school, added Trudi.Lucapa Diamond said the first sale of alluvial diamonds from the Lulo project in Angola, which it owns with Endiama and Rosas & Petalas has grossed $2 million.





Image credit: Lucapa Diamond





It said 2,527 carats were sold at an average price per carat of $800.

The July sale excluded four large white Specials and a pink coloured special that would be put for sale later this year, said Lucapa.

The specials included three large white and a coloured Special recovered in the first half of the year, along with a 114 carat diamond recovered earlier this month.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Rough&PolishedThe Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has stated in a statement that there has been at least 10 percent decline in bank finance to the gem and jewellery sector which will adversely impact exports out of the country. According to GJEPC, the exports of gem and Jewellery from India declined to 8.84 per cent from April to June 2018 to $10.1 bn compared to $11.1 bn in the same period last year.

Pramod Agrawal, Chairman, GJEPC, said, The Council is taking all efforts to self-regulate and instil confidence amongst key stakeholders through a slew of reforms. However, the industry is witnessing a crisis of sorts as the banks have curtailed lending to the traders and demanding collateral security and extensive documentation. In such a scenario, gem & jewellery industry, a $ 41 bn export industry will see a gradual decline in FY 2018-19. We are hoping that the Government will intervene and bring some relief to the ailing industry that contributes 7% to the GDP. It is time to bring back Interest subvention scheme to help in ease of doing business.

Colin Shah, Vice Chairman, GJEPC, said, Bank finance is the lifeline of the industry and any decrease would see a decrease in gem & jewellery exports as well. After all the efforts to make sure genuine players continue to get the finance, Banks are insisting for discounting that all customer invoices should be through the bank which is seriously hampering relationships with customers as well as cash flow on a daily basis. Banks have also taken away all benefits on assessment fees due to which cost of finance has gone up. Post the recent incident, banks and other financial institutions have become stringent and are insisting on a much higher collateral security against bank finance.



Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished



Image credit:

www.sa-venues.com

De Beers said it is transporting 200 elephants across 1,500km from its Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve (VLNR) in South Africa to Mozambique.The move would help restore Mozambiques elephant population.This translocation is born of a deep sense of responsibility and is part of our wider commitment to continue to invest in new and innovative ways to protect the natural world, said De Beers chief executive Bruce Cleaver.The first phase of the project, would see about 60 elephants being transported this month and August from the VLNR to Zinave National Park in central Mozambique.The remaining elephants would be moved to conservation areas that hold sufficient elephant carrying capacity within Mozambique from next year.The VLNR, which covers 32,000 hectares can accommodate about 60 elephants without adverse impacts on the surrounding ecosystem.It currently had more than 270 elephants on the reserve, as a result of natural population growth, with their presence risking extensive damage to an ecosystem that should sustain a diverse wildlife population.Ecosystems require a range of fauna and flora to stay balanced, said Peace Parks Foundation chief executive Werner Myburgh.If you remove one species, such as elephant, it has a ripple effect on the whole system. The reintroduction of elephants to Mozambique will bring us one step closer to achieving our dream of restoring the landscape and establishing uninterrupted connectivity with seamless migration of wildlife across the parks within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area.De Beers would also provide the Peace Parks Foundation with US$500,000 over five years towards anti-poaching support measures.Representatives of major shareholders to get to know about production activities of Severalmaz

25 july 2018 News

This Friday the representatives from 10 largest Russian and international investment funds and banks will visit the facilities of PJSC Severalmaz to get to know about the production activities of the company.

Analysts and portfolio managers of such companies as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan, HSBC, VTB Capital, April Capital and others will become the guests of Severalmaz.

Such study visits to ALROSAs production facilities is a key part of cooperation with our current and potential investors. It is important for us to know that they have an opportunity to see with their own eyes the principal technological processes, get realistic idea about the state of production, examine the performance of the applied technologies, the degree of automation and, of course, safe working conditions, said ALROSA Vice CEO Aleksey Fillipovskiy.

PJSC Severalmaz is ALROSAs subsidiary. It has mining operations on Archangelskaya and Karpinskogo-1 pipes in Archangelsky Region.



Photo: Alanna Kelly - File Photo

Just how many homeless people reside in the west side of Okanagan Lake?

That question will be answered, in part, through a point-in-time count, to be conducted in co-ordination between the City of West Kelowna and Westbank First Nation.

The survey has already been completed with results expected to be compiled by mid-August

Those results will be provided to both local governments along with service providers to assist with future funding requests to senior levels of government.

Data was collected from those experiencing living without permanent, safe housing.

The idea for the count was inspired by a research paper completed by the city, as well as WFN's participation in Kelowna's Journey Home task force.

Supportive housing options were recently provided to WFN by BC Housing. Discussions on funding and development opportunities are taking place.

West Kelowna has also requested a meeting with provincial ministries at the upcoming UBCM meetings on supportive housing issues.Senior AAP leader and legislator from Dakha, H S Phoolka

Senior AAP leader and legislator from Dakha, H S Phoolka said he will quit the party if it joins hands with the Congress. He made it clear here that any understanding with the Congress party would amount to giving a clean chit to the alleged "perpetrators" of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. "I shall be the first person to quit the Aam Aadmi Party if and when it joins hands with the Congress (either) in a direct or indirect manner," Phoolka said here.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh

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His statement comes after Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh supported senior party leader P Chidambaram's views on the need for a broad-based alliance with other opposition parties at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) at Delhi on Sunday. Phoolka, a noted lawyer who has represented the riot victims in the courts, blamed the Congress for the violence that took place in the aftermath of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination.The former leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly said he would continue to fight cases of the riot victims. A total of 3,325 people were killed in the riots.PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Uganda after concluding his two-day visit to Rwanda during which the two countries signed a defence cooperation agreement and India extended a USD 200 million lines of credit to the East African country for its economic development. "I thank the wonderful people of Rwanda for their warmth and affection. This visit adds tremendous strength to closer economic and cultural relations between India and Rwanda," Modi tweeted just before his departure.

Narendra Modi left for Uganda after concluding his two-day visit to Rwanda

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Prime Minister Modi arrived here yesterday on the first leg of his three-nation Africa tour, becoming the first Indian premier to visit the East African country. During his stay here, Modi held wide-ranging talks with Rwanda's President Paul Kagame and discussed measures to boost the bilateral strategic ties by strengthening cooperation in defence, trade and agriculture sectors. He also addressed a gathering of the Indian community here.

PM Modi interacts with villagers from Rweru before leaving for Uganda

India will soon open a High Commission in Rwanda as part of New Delhi's efforts to bolster the strategic partnership with the fast-developing East African country. Modi also visited the Genocide Memorial Centre which honours over 250,000 victims of Rwanda's mass killings in 1994.Photo: Facebook

An Okanagan business owner is putting his money where his mouth is in an effort to catch  and convict wildfire arsonists.

Jayme Knyx of Ogologo Media says he believes a $10,000 reward he has posted for information leading to the arrest and conviction of people starting wildfires is "just the right thing to do."

Knyx has asthma, and says enough is enough when it comes to smoke that continues to haze Okanagan skies.

"In March, I was hospitalized and almost died from asthma," said Knyx. "To be a prisoner in my own home because of air quality is a bit of a concern."

Ogologo took to Facebook to offer the reward.

West Kelowna businessman Terry Laurin responded with an additional $1,000, bringing the total to $11,000.

Knyx said the reward is not a reaction to an RCMP investigation into 29 wildfires police believe were deliberately set over the past four years. And, it's not about money, but rather the preservation of the Okanagan.

While the current fires burning around the valley were lightning-caused, Knyx says many others around the region earlier in the fire season were human caused.

Fortunately, he said, none of those got away.

While the RCMP has yet to comment, Knyx says he does have the endorsement of Central Okanagan CrimeStoppers.Photo: RDOS

Faulder/Meadow Valley residents are taking the initiative to prevent fires in their community.

The area is still under evacuation alert following a week of evacuation orders and power outages, but that didn't stop their local citizen FireSmart team from attending a meeting Sunday to discuss ways to keep fires from sparking nearby.

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen tweeted about the group's efforts Tuesday.



"Each summer Faulder residents respond to spot fires caused by human activity," the tweet read.

The group picks up cigarette butts and shards of discarded glass along roadways from Fish Lake Road to Darke Lake. This type of litter can spark fires quickly in intense heat.

They have also deployed 55-gallon barrels of water, placed along the road, which can be used to douse small fires which spring up as need be.It is a night Goret Fontoura and Larry Gilchuk will never forget.

A wall of water, mud, rocks and trees smashed into their home last April as they slept, causing extensive damage to their yard and house.

And once the debris settled they learned it would not be covered by insurance.

The couple wondered what they would do, but as news of the incident spread, friends, family and total strangers rallied to help.

When it first happened we thought we were on our own, said Fontoura. But we had so many friends come and help us, we had neighbours that we've never met, total strangers came and helped us. The community really came out and helped us. It was really great.

Gilchuk said seniors showed up at his home with shovels, volunteering to help; contractors cut their rates, a dry waller helped fix the corner of their home that was smashed in.

It was really nice to see that people actually cared, said Gilchuk, adding without the help, it would have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more money to repair the extensive damage to his yard and house.

People who live on Smith Road came up, elderly people you never expected to show up with a shovel and a power washer. It was quite touching.

A GoFundMe page was also set up to help the couple.

Now, their yard and home are back to normal and the pair are filled with gratitude to a community that helped when they needed it the most.Colorful, hardened algae that dot the ocean floor from Alaska to Mexico often set the tone for which plant and invertebrate species inhabit a given ecological community.

But as rising temperatures change the chemistry of ocean waters, a Florida State University researcher said these almost rock-like organisms called coralline algae are changing too. That could mean a great shift to the overall ecosystem.

"They are almost the canary in the coal mine," said Assistant Professor of Biological Science Sophie McCoy. "Their interactions with other species make them more valuable than people give them credit."

McCoy's research is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Coralline algae have a hard skeleton and are often pink, red, purple, yellow, or gray-green. Most people wading in the sea barely notice the algae, but they release chemical cues that tell invertebrates or plant species whether the environment is hospitable.

If the algae alter in some way or even disappear, the cues for a given ecological community would change in turn. McCoy's study examined how ocean acidification affects three common types of coralline algae found in the waters off of Tatoosh Island in Washington. With rising global temperatures and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, ocean waters have become more acidic.

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Though all three types of algae are growing at the same rate they have in the past, there are some significant changes.

Of the three types of algae, one -- Pseudolithophyllum whidbeyense -- showed extensive changes over the past few decades as the sea water acidified. Its skeleton had more magnesium in it than calcium carbonate, meaning it was significantly weaker. The weaker the skeleton, the more likely it is to dissolve or be eaten by snails. The other two types of algae were able to maintain their skeletal integrity, but were slightly smaller in size than samples from past decades.

Historical samples from 1980-2010 were almost uniform in size and skeletal integrity, McCoy said.

"What we're seeing is how individual types react in different ways when stressed," McCoy said. "That is something to consider in the climate change research overall -- some species of plants and animals may go away and others could flourish."

McCoy will now turn her attention to the relationship between the coralline algae and snails or other grazers to see if the grazers are experiencing changes in behavior or physical changes to their teeth and bite wounds.

McCoy's research was funded by Florida State University, the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland Postdoctoral and Early Career Research Exchange and the Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship.

Her co-author on the study is Nicholas Kamenos from University of Glasgow.What inspired the iconic red-and-yellow sky in The Scream, the painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch that sold for a record $119.9 million in 2012? Some say it was a volcanic sunset after the 1883 Krakatau eruption. Others think the wavy sky shows a scream from nature.

But scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, University of Oxford and University of London suggest that nacreous, or "mother of pearl," clouds which can be seen in southern Norway inspired the dramatic scene in the painting. Their study is published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

"What's screaming is the sky and the person in the painting is putting his or her hands over their ears so they can't hear the scream," said Alan Robock, study co-author and distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick. "If you read what Munch wrote, the sky was screaming blood and fire."

There are four known versions of The Scream: an 1893 tempera on cardboard; an 1893 crayon on cardboard; an 1895 pastel on cardboard that billionaire Leon Black bought for nearly $120 million at auction; and a tempera on hard cardboard thought to have been painted in 1910.

Iridescent light from below the horizon illuminates polar stratospheric clouds, also known as nacreous clouds. Robock said the sky colors and patterns in Munch's paintings match sunset colors better when nacreous clouds are present versus other scenarios.

The study builds on a 2017 study that also proposed nacreous clouds. The new study provides a more detailed and scientific analysis of Munch's paintings, focusing on photographs of volcanic sunsets and nacreous clouds and analyzing the color content and cloud patterns. If the new analysis is correct, Munch's art is one of the earliest visual documentations of nacreous clouds, the study says.

Robock and others have previously proposed that a volcanic sunset inspired the painting, and he still thinks that's possible.

"We don't know if Munch painted exactly what he saw," Robock said. "He could have been influenced by the Krakatau sunset and nacreous clouds and combined them."To sustain human civilization in the future, clean energy sources must be harnessed to replace the fossil fuels that are now polluting our atmosphere. Solar and wind energy can supply all the necessary energy. However, storage will be needed when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing.

Organic flow batteries are a potentially safer, less expensive alternative to lithium ion batteries and vanadium flow batteries for large-scale renewable energy storage.

Now, Harvard researchers have demonstrated a new organic molecule that outlives and outperforms its predecessors, offering the longest-lasting high-performance organic flow battery to date. Nicknamed the Methuselah quinone -- after the longest-lived Biblical figure -- this molecule could usefully store and release energy many tens of thousands of times over multi-year periods.

The research is published in the journal Joule.

The research was co-led by Roy Gordon, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science, and Michael Aziz, the Gene and Tracy Sykes Professor of Materials and Energy Technologies at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

"We designed and built a new organic compound that can store electrical energy and also has a very long life before it decomposes," said Gordon. "We discovered degradation processes of the molecules that we previously used in flow batteries. Then we created new, more stable molecules that avoid these problems."

"In previous work, we had demonstrated a chemistry with a long lifespan but low voltage, which leads to low energy storage per molecule, which leads to high cost for a given amount of energy stored," said Aziz. "Now, we have the first chemistry that has both long-term stability and comes in at more than one volt, which is commonly considered the threshold for commercial deployment. I believe it is the first organic-based flow battery that meets all of the technical criteria for practical implementation."

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The new chemistry builds off previous research led by Aziz and Gordon. The Methuselah molecule is a modified quinone, an abundant, naturally occurring molecule integral to biological processes like photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Collaborating with theoretical chemistry Professor Alan Aspuru-Guzik, their research team characterized the degradation process of previous quinone molecules in flow batteries and made modifications to increase the calendar life.

In experiments in their laboratories, the Methuselah molecule had a fade rate of less than 0.01 percent per day and less than 0.001 percent per charge/discharge cycle -- which extrapolates to less than 3 percent degradation over the course of a year -- and useful operation for tens of thousands of cycles.

Methuselah also proved highly soluble, meaning it can store more energy in a smaller space. It operates in a weak alkaline electrolyte, reducing the cost of the battery by allowing the use of inexpensive containment materials and an inexpensive polymer membrane to separate the positive and negative terminals.

All of these advances drive down the cost of storage and may make organic storage chemistries cost-effective for long-duration discharge.

"This research demonstrates the potential of organics," said David Kwabi, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and co-first author of the paper. "We show that organic molecules are a viable, long-lasting, cost-effective alternative to expensive vanadium batteries."

The research was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Electricity energy storage program, by the Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy, by Innovation Fund Denmark, by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center, and by the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

"This important work represents a significant advance towards low cost, long duration flow batteries," said Imre Gyuk, Director of DOE's Office of Electricity storage program. "Such devices are needed to allow the electric grid to absorb increasing amounts of green but variable renewable generation."

With assistance from Harvard's Office of Technology Development (OTD), the researchers are seeking commercial partners to scale up the technology for industrial applications. Harvard OTD has filed a portfolio of pending patents on innovations in flow battery technology.The first dementia prevalence data from a large population of lesbian, gay and bisexual older adults was reported today at the 2018 Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago.

Researchers from University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, CA, examined the prevalence of dementia among 3,718 sexual minority adults age 60+ who participated in the Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment, and Health (RPGEH). Dementia diagnoses were collected from medical records.

Over 9 years of follow-up, the overall crude prevalence of dementia was 7.4 percent for sexual minority older adults in this study population. For comparison, Alzheimer's Association 2018 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures reports U.S. prevalence of Alzheimer's disease dementia and other dementias for age 65+ at approximately 10 percent. According to the researchers, significant rates of depression, hypertension, stroke and cardiovascular disease in the study population may be contributing factors to the level of dementia.

"Current estimates suggest that more than 200,000 sexual minorities in the U.S. are living with dementia, but -- before our study -- almost nothing was known about the prevalence of dementia among people in this group who do not have HIV/AIDS-related dementia," said Jason Flatt, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor at the Institute for Health & Aging, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco. "Though our new findings provide important initial insights, future studies aimed at better understanding risk and risk factors for Alzheimer's and other dementias in older sexual minorities are greatly needed."

"With the growing prevalence of Alzheimer's disease dementia and the swelling population of LGBT older adults, we place a high priority on examining the intersections of Alzheimer's disease, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression," said Sam Fazio, PhD, Alzheimer's Association Director of Quality Care and Psychosocial Research. "A more thorough and thoughtful understanding of this intersection will enable us to better meet the needs of LGBT elders living with dementia and their caregivers."

"Encouraging people to access healthcare services and make healthy lifestyle changes can have a positive impact on both LGBT and non-LGBT communities. Effective outreach to LGBT communities that is sensitive to racial, ethnic, and cultural differences could result in earlier diagnosis, which has been linked to better outcomes," Fazio added.

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"Our findings highlight the need for culturally competent healthcare and practice for older sexual minorities at risk for, or currently living with, Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. There are also important implications for meeting the long-term care services and caregiving needs of this community. Given the concerns of social isolation and limited access to friend and family caregivers, there is a strong need to create a supportive healthcare environment and caregiving resources for sexual minority adults living with dementia," Flatt said.

The LGBT Community and Dementia

According to "Issue Brief: LGBT and Dementia," a co-publication of the Alzheimer's Association and SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders), there are 2.7 million LGBT people over age 50, and that number will likely double over the next 15 years. While the LGBT community faces similar health concerns as the general public, the LGBT population who receive a dementia diagnosis face uniquely challenging circumstances.

Even with recent advances in LGBT rights, LGBT older adults are often marginalized and face discrimination.

They are twice as likely to age without a spouse or partner, twice as likely to live alone and three to four times less likely to have children -- greatly limiting their opportunities for support.

There's also a lack of transparency as forty percent of LGBT older people in their 60s and 70s say their healthcare providers don't know their sexual orientation (Out and Visible).

The Institute of Medicine identified the following pressing health issues for LGBT people: lower rates of accessing care (up to 30%); increased rates of depression; higher rates of obesity in the lesbian population; higher rates of alcohol and tobacco use; higher risk factors of cardiovascular disease for lesbians; and higher incidents of HIV/AIDS for gay and bisexual men (Brennan-Ing, Seidel, Larson, and Karpiak, 2014). Risk factors for heart disease -- including diabetes, tobacco use, high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- are also risk factors for Alzheimer's and stroke-related dementia.

Due to the healthcare-related challenges they and others have faced, an LGBT person may not reach out for services and support because they fear poor treatment due to their LGBT identity, because they fear the stigma of being diagnosed with dementia, or both. Several studies document that LGBT elders access essential services, including visiting nurses, food stamps, senior centers, and meal plans, much less frequently than the general aging population.

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Among the 16 recommendations for organizations and service providers in their Issue Brief, the Alzheimer's Association and SAGE suggest:

Expand your definition of family.

Educate yourself and your staff on LGBT cultural competency.

Find or create support groups specifically for LGBT people.

Partner with local LGBT community groups and political organizations.

Help LGBT people and their families with legal and financial planning.

Dementia Survival Time is Short, Regardless of Age at Onset

Previous studies of survival times in persons with dementia have varied considerably, reporting between three and 12 years in elderly populations with either general dementia or Alzheimer's disease dementia. To better understand survival time in individuals of a relatively young age and with different types of dementia, Hanneke Rhodius-Meester, MD, PhD, of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues investigated survival time of 4,495 early-onset dementia patients in a memory clinic (aged 66 10 years; 45 percent female) enrolled in the Amsterdam Dementia Cohort between 2000-2014, with any type of dementia (n=2,625), mild cognitive impairment (n=739) or subjective cognitive decline (n=1,131).

The study found that the median survival time across all groups was six years and varied based on dementia type: 6.4 years in frontotemporal lobe degeneration; 6.2 years in Alzheimer's disease; 5.7 years in vascular dementia; 5.1 years in dementia with Lewy bodies; and 3.6 years for rarer causes of dementia. Survival time hardly differed when comparing younger patients (age 65 or younger) to those older than 65. However, over time and compared to the general Dutch population, survival time in older patients showed a marginal increase, while survival time in younger patients remained unchanged.

"These findings suggest that, despite all efforts, and despite being younger and perhaps physically healthier' than older people, survival time in people with young-onset dementia has not improved since 2000," said Rhodius-Meester. "While these results still need to be replicated and confirmed, they do highlight the urgency of the need for better treatments and effective prevention strategies."

Prevalence of Dementia Increases with Age, Even in "Oldest Old"

Evaluating data from 17 centenarian studies conducted across 11 countries through the International Centenarian Consortium for Dementia (ICC-Dementia), Yvonne Leung, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow from the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), University of New South Wales in Sydney, and colleagues examined dementia prevalence, risk factors and cognitive and functional impairment in 4,121 centenarians and near-centenarians (aged 95-110).

When statistical predictive models were applied to examine impairment as a function of age, sex and education, researchers found that:

Prevalence increased with age (from 95-99 to ? 105 years) in all societies for dementia (from 35.75 to 75.61 percent), cognitive impairment (from 45.24 to 78.72 percent) and functional impairment (from 67.46 to 91.55 percent).

The risk of dementia, cognitive and functional impairment varied significantly between countries, suggesting cultural and lifestyle factors play a role in remaining physically and cognitively healthy as we age.

Participants with higher levels of education expressed lower prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment than those with fewer years of education.

Women in this age group had a higher risk of dementia and cognitive impairment compared to men.

"This is the first study to define the global prevalence of dementia in this advanced age group using a set of common diagnostic criteria," said Dr. Leung. "These data, and this type of research, may help identify protective factors to reduce the risk of dementia, and provide insights into longevity and brain health."One thing is certain: there's something out there we don't yet know. For years now scientists have been looking for "dark matter" or "dark energy" -- with our current inventory of particles and forces in nature we just can't explain major cosmological phenomena, such as why the universe is expanding at an ever faster rate.

New theories for "dark energy" have been suggested. One of the candidates is the so-called "symmetron field," which is said to pervade space much like the Higgs field. At the TU Vienna researchers have developed an experiment capable of measuring extremely small forces with the help of neutrons. The measurements were taken during a 100-day campaign at the Institut Laue-Langevin, on its PF2 ultra-cold neutron source. They could have provided pointers to the mysterious symmetrons -- but the particles didn't show up. Although this is not the end of the theory, it does at least exclude the possibility of symmetrons existing across a broad range of parameters -- and "dark energy" is going to have to be explained differently.

The Symmetron -- the Higgs Boson's Little Brother?

According to Hartmut Abele, the project's lead scientist, the symmetron theory would be a particularly elegant explanation for dark matter. "We already have proof of the Higgs field, and the symmetron field is very closely related." However, as with the Higgs particle whose mass was not known until the existence of the particle was confirmed, the physical properties of symmetrons cannot be accurately predicted.

As Abele explains, "nobody can say what the mass of symmetrons is, nor how strongly they interact with normal matter. That's why it's so hard to prove their existence experimentally -- or their non-existence." The existence of symmetrons can only be confirmed or refuted within a certain parameter range -- symmetrons, in other words, with mass or coupling constants in a specific value range.

Scientists are therefore progressing with caution, from one experiment to the other, testing different parameter ranges. It was already clear that a number of ranges could be excluded. Symmetrons for example with high mass and low coupling constants cannot exist, as they would already have shown up at atomic level. Investigations into the hydrogen atom would have given different results. Similarly, symmetrons in a certain range with very high coupling constants can also be excluded, as they would already have been detected in other experiments using massive pendula.

Using Neutrons as Force Sensors at the Institut Laue-Langevin Neutron Source

That said, there was still plenty of scope for admitting the existence of symmetrons, and this is what the team has now investigated in the experiment. A stream of extremely slow neutrons was shot between two mirror surfaces. The neutrons can be found in two different quantum physical states. The energies of these states depend on the forces exerted on the neutron, and this is what makes the neutron such a sensitive force detector. If the force acting on the neutron just above the surface of the mirror is different from the force further up, this would be a strong pointer to the existence of a symmetron field. Mario Pitschmann from TU Vienna, Philippe Brax from the CEA near Paris and Guillaume Pignol from LPSC in Grenoble have calculated the influence of a symmetron field on the neutron. This effect, however, cannot be observed, despite the extreme accuracy of the measurement.

The precision of the energy difference measurement is about 2x10^-15 electron-volts (a figure owes to Gunther Cronenberg's dissertation). That is the energy required to lift a single electron in the earth's gravitational field a distance of about 30 micrometres, which is an unimaginably small amount of energy.

The ultra-cold neutrons required for the experiment were generated and delivered by the Institut Laue-Langevin's PF2 instrument. "With its unrivalled flux of ultra-cold neutrons, PF2 is practically the only instrument out there for this type of high-precision measurement at extremely low count rates," says Tobias Jenke. Jenke played an important part in the development of the TU Vienna experiment. He is now, together with Peter Geltenbort, responsible for the Institut Laue-Langevin cold neutron source. Austria is a Scientific Member of the Institute and thus has access to its suite of instruments. The experiment is an excellent example of scientific collaboration between Austrian and French researchers.

The Beginning of the End of the Symmetron Theory

For the moment things are not looking too bright for the symmetron theory, although it's too early to completely exclude their existence. "We have excluded a broad parameter domain: if there were any symmetrons with properties in this domain we would have found them." To close the remaining loopholes however, science needs even better measurements -- or a major discovery providing a completely different solution to the mystery of dark energy.Amidst increased tensions over the US-Mexico border, a multinational group of over 2500 scientists have endorsed an article cautioning that a hardened barrier may produce devastating ecological effects while hampering binational conservation efforts. In the BioScience Viewpoint , a group led by Robert Peters, William J. Ripple, and Jennifer R. B. Miller call attention to ecological disturbances that could affect hundreds of terrestrial and aquatic species, notably including the Mexican gray wolf and Sonoran pronghorn.

The authors argue that the border wall will harm wildlife populations by fragmenting, degrading, and eliminating existing habitat, as well as by blocking species migration. "Our analysis shows that the border bisects the geographic ranges of 1506 native terrestrial and freshwater animal (n = 1077) and plant (n = 429) species," say the authors, noting that the number includes 62 species already listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered, or Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Further, the authors express concern that as a result of the 2005 Real ID Act, construction could proceed "without the necessary depth of environmental impact analysis, development of less-damaging alternative strategies, postconstruction environmental monitoring, mitigation, public input, and pursuit of legal remedies." Compounding the issue of forgone legal protections, Peters and colleagues warn that a border wall could threaten ongoing research and conservation programs, including those in binational habitat corridors and the 18% of borderlands that contain environmentally protected lands.

To mitigate the effects of the proposed wall, the authors make several urgent recommendations to the United States Congress and Department of Homeland Security; these include following existing environmental laws, taking action to mitigate ecological harm, and forgoing physical barriers in particularly sensitive areas. The article` also calls for the government to encourage scientific research in the borderlands, to inform and assist environmental evaluation and mitigation efforts. The authors conclude that "national security can and must be pursued with an approach that preserves our natural heritage."A team of astronomers has discovered a new way to unlock the mysteries of how the first galaxies formed and evolved.

In a study published today in Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author Dawn Erb of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her team -- for the very first time -- used new capabilities at W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii to examine Q2343-BX418, a small, young galaxy located about 10 billion light years away from Earth.

This distant galaxy is an analog for younger galaxies that are too faint to study in detail, making it an ideal candidate for learning more about what galaxies looked like shortly after the birth of the universe.

BX418 is also attracting astronomers' attention because its gas halo is giving off a special type of light.

"In the last several years, we've learned that the gaseous halos surrounding galaxies glow with a particular ultraviolet wavelength called Lyman alpha emission. There are a lot of different theories about what produces this Lyman alpha emission in the halos of galaxies, but at least some of it is probably due to light that is originally produced by star formation in the galaxy being absorbed and re-emitted by gas in the halo," said Erb.

Erb's team, which includes Charles Steidel and Yuguang Chen of Caltech, used one of the observatory's newest instruments, the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), to perform a detailed spectral analysis of BX418's gas halo; its properties could offer clues about the stars forming within the galaxy.

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"Most of the ordinary matter in the universe isn't in the form of a star or a planet, but gas. And most of that gas exists not in galaxies, but around and between them," said Erb.

The halo is where gas enters and exits the system. The gas surrounding galaxies can fuel them; gas from within a galaxy can also escape into the halo. This inflow and outflow of gas influences the fate of stars.

"The inflow of new gas accreting into a galaxy provides fuel for new star formation, while outflows of gas limit a galaxy's ability to form stars by removing gas," says Erb.

"So, understanding the complex interactions happening in this gaseous halo is key to finding out how galaxies form stars and evolve."

This study is part of a large ongoing survey that Steidel has been leading for many years. Previously, Steidel's team studied BX418 using other instruments at Keck Observatory.

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This most recent study using KCWI adds detail and clarity to the image of the galaxy and its gas halo that was not possible before; the instrument is specifically engineered to study wispy currents of faint gas that connect galaxies, known as the cosmic web.

"Our study was really enabled by the design and sensitivity of this new instrument. It's not just an ordinary spectrograph -- it's an integral field spectrograph, which means that it's a sort of combination camera and spectrograph, where you get a spectrum of every pixel in the image," said Erb.

The power of KCWI, combined with the Keck telescopes' location on Maunakea where viewing conditions are among the most pristine on Earth, provides some of the most detailed glimpses of the cosmos.

Erb's team used KCWI to take spectra of the Lyman alpha emission of BX418's halo. This allowed them to trace the gas, plot its velocity and spatial extent, then create a 3-D map showing the structure of the gas and its behavior.

The team's data suggests that the galaxy is surrounded by a roughly spherical outflow of gas and that there are significant variations in the density and velocity range of this gas.

Erb says this analysis is the first of its kind. Because it has only been tested on one galaxy, other galaxies need to be studied to see if these results are typical.

Now that the team has discovered a new way to learn about the properties of the gaseous halo, the hope is that further analysis of the data they collected and computer simulations modeling the processes will yield additional insights into the characteristics of the first galaxies in our universe.

"As we work to complete more detailed modeling, we will be able to test how the properties of Lyman alpha emission in the gas halo are related to the properties of the galaxies themselves, which will then tell us something about how the star formation in the galaxy influences the gas in the halo," Erb said.Photo: Facebook

The man at the centre of a 15-hour long standoff with police in Coldstream last winter has been sentenced.

Kelly Blake Torvik, 33, pleaded guilty to five of the nine counts brought against him, which were assault, uttering threats, pointing a firearm, careless handling or storage of a firearm, and possession of a firearm without licence or registration. The other four counts stayed.

Torvik was sentenced to an 18-month conditional sentence order with 27 conditions, to be followed by a 1-year probation order. He was also prohibited from possessing firearms for 10 years.The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged a former professional trader with allegedly participating in a serial insider trading scheme with an investment banker and his father that generated $1.1 million in illicit profits.

According to the SEC's complaint, Robert Stewart recruited his friend, defendant Richard T. Cunniffe to place trades based on inside information that Robert received from his son, Sean Stewart, an investment banker. Cunniffe allegedly cashed in on those tips by placing trades for himself and Robert. The SEC's complaint charges Cunniffe with violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Cunniffe, who cooperated in the investigation and previously pled guilty to criminal charges, has agreed to settle the SEC's civil charges against him. The settlement, which is subject to court approval, orders injunctive relief, disgorgement and interest, but no penalty. The SEC barred Cunniffe from the securities industry based on his guilty plea.

The SEC previously charged Sean Stewart and Robert Stewart in a separate complaint, and obtained a final judgment against Robert Stewart, who also pled guilty to criminal charges. The SEC's action against Sean Stewart is pending and seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains plus interest, and civil penalties.

The SEC's investigation was conducted by David W. Snyder and John S. Rymas. The case was supervised by Joseph G. Sansone, Kelly L. Gibson, and Assunta Vivolo. The litigation against Sean Stewart is being led by Jennifer C. Barry and Julia C. Green of the Philadelphia Regional Office. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.By early Tuesday afternoon, no one but Nia Wilsons killer could know for certain why Wilson and her sister were singled out of the crowd, stabbed in the neck, and left for dead on a BART station platform Sunday evening.

But for many who mourned Wilsons death, the evidence had already stacked up. The randomness of the attack, the rumored meeting of a white supremacy group in Oakland, and the races of a black victim and white alleged perpetrator all carried the trappings of a hate crime.

The trappings alone were enough. As soon as details of the attack spilled forth in the hours following the killing, the assumption by many on Twitter, many who protested, and at least one relative of the slain woman was that this was a racially motivated attack  despite statements as late as Tuesday afternoon from city leaders and investigators that such a motivation had not yet been proved.

Even for Oakland, a city that has for years led the nation in protest rallies for racial justice after police shootings of African Americans, the swiftness of the assumption was jolting. And observers and experts are blaming that swiftness on a growing national atmosphere of racism that stretches from the shores of Lake Merritt all the way to the White House.

President Trump is enabling racist people, plain and simple, said Eva Paterson, an Oakland attorney who is founder of the national Equal Justice Society. It used to be people felt shame for being a racist or saying the word n. Not now.

Now you have Charlottesville, where Trump says there were good people on both sides. You had the (Ku Klux) Klan endorsing Trump. And you have Trump putting children in cages at the border.

Charlottesville, Va., is where a neo-Nazi rally last year led to the death of an anti-racism protester, and the cages Paterson referred to are detention centers for Latino immigrants along the Mexican border who were separated in recent months from their parents after entering the U.S. without permission.

But the problem, she said, is now everywhere, locally and nationally  as evidenced by the flap this spring when a white woman called police to complain about African Americans barbecuing at Lake Merritt. And last week, when the black owner of a high-end lemonade stand in the Mission District said someone called police on him, thinking he was breaking into his own business.

Now Playing: Reaction to fatal stabbing of Nia Wilson, 18, on BART platform Video: San Francisco Chronicle

Paterson said that in this context, Wilsons killing at the BART platform sent instant ripples of fear through her. The Wilsons are black, suspect John Lee Cowell  whose photo was released by BART police, and who was arrested Monday night  is white, and those two aspects by themselves, in context, spoke volumes to her.

I thought, OK, now theyre (white-hate racists) killing us in Oakland  which is a city known for having black people, Paterson said. It just feels like theyre coming for us. Its not paranoid. Its objectively just looking at what is happening.

Her fear was echoed by a Wilson family member, who posted a GoFundMe page asserting that Nia Wilson had been killed by a White supremacy male. The page had attracted more than $35,000 in donations by Tuesday evening.

I feel like it was a hate crime, said Wilsons sister, Malika Harris, who posted the GoFundMe, and told The Chronicle, I feel like there was some racist s going on, but I really dont know.

I just dont understand. Out of all the people on the BART, why her?

Not everyone leaped to the same conclusion, even as they acknowledged the racial tensions.

In a statement issued Monday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said: Although investigators currently have no evidence to conclude that this tragedy was racially motivated or that the suspect was affiliated with any hate groups, the fact that his victims were both young African American women stirs deep pain and palpable fear in all of us who acknowledge the reality that our country still suffers from a tragic and deeply racist history.

In a meeting with reporters Monday afternoon, Wilsons godfather Daryle Allums urged the community to stand down since no one knew the motives of the crime just yet.

On Monday evening, Allums, the leader of a movement based in Oakland that fights violence against children, wove with a megaphone through a protest called in reaction to the attack.

Peace in the streets! he yelled, over and over.

We want peace, but we want justice  we dont want no more blood on our hands, he told The Chronicle. If we send the community out there  itll be an old-school 1968-1970 civil rights war in Oakland right now.  So we just need the community to be on standby right now.

Cat Brooks, a longtime rights activist and Oakland mayoral candidate who attended Wilsons rally, said it would be irresponsible to ignore that the Proud Boys  described by many as a white supremacist group, although the group disputes that characterization  had reportedly planned a meeting in Oakland on Monday, but also irresponsible to flatly claim that the slaying and the meeting were connected.

However, she added that because of the current race and power dynamics in the city and country, its impossible to separate race as a factor when a white person commits an act of violence against a black person.

Theres been a lot of debate around whether or not white supremacists or domestic terrorist organizations have the right to assemble and spew hate, she said. And what we consistently see, and what the data shows, is that hate speech incites hate crimes.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The sentiment manifested Monday evening after the suspects arrest, when a planned vigil quickly evolved into the anti-racism protest and march. No justice no peace and Say her name chants erupted throughout the evening, and a crowd of about 1,000 marched from the MacArthur BART Station to downtown Oakland.

The march took a violent turn when demonstrators  seen in a video making the rounds on social media  began beating a man some believed to be a member of the Proud Boys. An Oakland Police Department spokeswoman said two people were detained after the incident and later released.

While removing them from the area, police said a portion of the crowd became disruptive and began throwing M-80 and M-1000 firecrackers at officers, injuring six of them. Officers deployed one chemical agent.

Proud Boys co-founder Gavin McInnes tweeted Tuesday that his organization had not planned a meeting Monday night in Oakland, and he denounced the attack that occurred during the march.

John Powell, director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, stressed that Wilsons slaying didnt happen in a vacuum, and black people are being harmed in large and small ways on a daily basis.

If its not a stabbing or a shooting, its a barbecue, he said.

Further, Powell said the crime appeared to be more calculated than random.

Its a white guy, its a black woman. ... He changed his clothes, Powell said. In other words, it didnt seem just like a deranged person to me, it seemed more sophisticated.

Powell noted that police face a lack of trust in the community, and said investigators should release as much information to the public as possible on Wilsons case.

On Tuesday afternoon, BART Police Deputy Chief Ed Alvarez said there was still no evidence to charge Cowell, 27, with a hate crime. Alvarez said Cowell declined an interview with investigators. The suspect has a long, violent rap sheet.

As of today, theres nothing to substantiate that (hate crime) claim, he said. Our investigators go through everything  his histories, his criminal history, all that stuff. ... If there was anything there, that would come to our attention, and we would deal with it accordingly.

Megan Cassidy and Kevin Fagan are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com, kfagan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @meganrcassidy @KevinChronA judge has given the go-ahead to a lawsuit accusing California of violating the rights of hundreds of thousands of minority and poor children to equal access to educational literacy.

The suit was filed in December on behalf of elementary school students and their families in two districts in Los Angeles and Stockton and a charter school in Los Angeles County. Lawyers said the lead plaintiff was a 7-year-old second-grader who couldnt spell words like need and help, and that some Stockton students start crying when asked to read aloud in class.

They also said 11 of the nations 26 lowest-performing large school districts are in California, which ranks near the bottom of the states in both school funding and test scores.

The state Department of Education sought to dismiss the suit, saying California has one of the nations strongest programs to serve low-income students and spends more than $10 billion a year on programs for English learners. They also noted a state appeals court ruling in 2016, in a separate case, that found the California Constitution does not guarantee a right to public education at any particular level of quality.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos, in a ruling made public this week, refused to dismiss the case and said the plaintiffs could try to prove that the state is discriminating by race in its educational programs and funding.

The 10 children in the suit attend three schools that are among the lowest-performing in the state and have students who are mostly racial minorities, Palazuelos said. She said the central claim of the suit, if proven, would show a violation of the state Constitution: that minorities and low-income students are getting left behind with respect to literacy such that they are denied their right to education.

The ruling gives the youngsters their day in court, said attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the nonprofit Public Counsel, which filed the suit along with the Morrison & Foerster law firm.

This case isnt about money. Its about who gets to learn in California, Rosenbaum said. If you are a child of color or from a low-income family, you dont have the same opportunity.

He cited a 2012 report by the state Department of Education that found an urgent crisis in student literacy, particularly among poor and minority children. California has done little in response, and is dragging down the nation when it comes to literacy, Rosenbaum said.

Bill Ainsworth, a spokesman for state school Superintendent Tom Torlakson, called the ruling disappointing and said Torlaksons department, along with the state Board of Education, will be reviewing all legal options moving forward.

An appeal seems likely, in view of the potential statewide impact of the case and the April 2016 ruling rejecting an earlier attempt to rely on the California Constitution to improve educational quality in the state.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

That suit, whose plaintiffs included the state PTA, the California Teachers Association and nine school districts, argued that the states anemic level of school funding violated Californias constitutional guarantee in 1879 of a school system that encourages the promotion of intellectual ... improvement.

Similar suits have been successful in other states. But the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco said the state Constitution does not confer any right to an education of some quality and instead leaves those decisions to state lawmakers. The state Supreme Court denied review of the ruling by a 4-3 vote.

Rosenbaum said the current lawsuit has a different focus.

This case is not about a substantive quantity of education that every child has a right to receive, he said, and is based instead on a contention that all children must have equal access to education.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelkoPhoto: BC Wildfire Service The Glenfir Road fire is burning on very rocky terrain on the south edge of Okanagan Mountain

The Glenfir Road wildfire northwest of Naramata has been held at 32 hectares, according to the BC Wildfire Service.

The blaze is burning 10 kilometres away from the community, within cracks and crevices of small steep canyons on the southern face of Okanagan Mountain.

Thirty-two firefighters are managing the fire, with air support as needed. The blaze is classified as under control and is not threatening any structures.

Objectives today include continuing to extinguish hot spots that are burning in the numerous crevices found in the steep canyons and establishing better access to these areas, the BC Wildfire Service said Wednesday morning.

Crews are also dealing with the smaller 55 hectare Frederick Creek wildfire further north into Okanagan Mountain Park. It is not listed as a fire of note, meaning there is little concern for public safety or it is not visible.U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke appears to be interested in the idea of draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park after meeting with a group that wants to tear down the century-old OShaughnessy Dam.

Good meeting with Restore Hetch Hetchy, Zinke tweeted, referring to the Bay Area organization thats long advocated getting rid of the reservoir and returning Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state.

Taking a fresh look at different opportunities and options to restore public access and recreation to the valley, Zinke tweeted Sunday. The Department of the Interior did not respond to a request for more details about the secretarys position.

Spreck Rosekrans, Restore Hetch Hetchys executive director, said Wednesday that his group met with Zinke for about an hour on Sunday at Yosemite, where they took a brief tour of the dam.

The meeting, Rosekrans said, was relaxed and informal.

The secretary asked good questions and his interest is sincere, but he understands that solving water issues in California is no simple matter, so I think hell take a cautious approach, Rosekrans said.

Restore Hetch Hetchy has long sought the support of the Interior Department in its quest to drain the reservoir, which provides drinking water for about 2.7 million people across the Bay Area. Rosekrans said they asked Zinke for an Interior Department study that would include keeping San Francisco completely whole with respect to water supply.

Critics of the plan to drain the roughly 117-billion-gallon reservoir, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, have derided the idea as overwhelmingly expensive and detrimental to the regions efforts to maintain a reliable source of water and hydroelectricity.

The jolt of attention following Zinkes meeting with Restore Hetch Hetchy represents a small victory for the group following a series of setbacks. In 2012, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly opposed a ballot measure spearheaded by Restore Hetch Hetchy that would have required city officials to come up with a plan for draining the reservoir.

This month, a state appellate court ruled against the groups argument that the reservoir represented an unlawful diversion of water at odds with the state Constitution, upholding a lower court decision.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Draining it is a terrible idea that would jeopardize the water needs of Bay Area families, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said following the ruling. Rosekrans said Restore Hetch Hetchy plans to appeal its case to the state Supreme Court.

Steven Ritchie, assistant general manager for the SFPUCs water division, said the agency is largely unconcerned that Zinkes apparent interest in the reservoir could rekindle a meaningful effort to drain it. The Interior Department has flirted with the idea of draining the reservoir for decades, he said, going back at least to the Ronald Reagan administration.

It would be extremely costly and we would lose all the energy efficiency out of it, Ritchie said. That would be really costly to all our ratepayers, with limited benefits.

Ritchie said the SFPUC expects to communicate to the Trump administration about the value of the reservoir and the importance, not just to San Francisco, but to the whole service area and the water infrastructure of California.

Dominic Fracassa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dfracassa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dominicfracassaOnce criticized as a sham, BARTs cameras played a key role in identifying John Lee Cowell, the parolee who allegedly stabbed to death a young woman Sunday night on the MacArthur BART Station platform in Oakland.

And, from the looks of it, the cameras also showed other key details certain to be useful to prosecutors at trial.

It was only last year that BART finished installing live digital cameras aboard all trains after The Chronicle revealed that three-fourths of the cars had only decoys  camera shells that were meant to discourage crime but didnt actually function.

This time, BART was able to record Cowell, a transient on parole for robbery, from the time he got on the train until after the attack.

But it was the platform cameras  and those inside the nearby MacArthur parking structure  that also provided the key evidence about what happened.

According to BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost, video aboard the train shows that when victim Nia Wilson, 18, and her older sister, 26-year-old Lahtifa Wilson, boarded the rail car in Concord, they had no contact with Cowell.

In other words, there wasnt any sign of conflict prior to the attack.

It was only as the two women got off at MacArthur to change trains that Cowell allegedly swooped past them, fatally slashing Nia Wilson in the throat and wounding her sister. That horror was captured on station cameras and helped police identify Cowell.

BART cameras inside the stations parking garage showed Cowell removing his jacket and pants afterward, apparently changing his clothes.

This is key to showing him knowing what he was doing, and that he was not out of his mind, Trost said.

As it turns out, BART police got Cowells name from identifiable information he left at the scene  which they matched to a fare-evasion citation he had received just days earlier, on July 18. More importantly, Cowells face had been captured on a BART police officers chest camera during that stop  providing authorities with a high-quality photo of the suspect that was released to the public.

The new cameras come at a key time for BART, as concerns among riders continue to grow about the systems safety and its police force remains 25 officers short of its budgeted staffing level.

I totally understand the concerns that folks have, BART police Chief Carlos Rojas told reporters Monday.

But Rojas also noted that BART is not alone when it comes to public safety challenges.

Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle

The same type of crimes that are found on the streets of San Francisco, Oakland, Hayward, Concord or any of the other cities that BART serves are now bleeding into our stations, he said.

BART has 227 sworn officers, putting it ahead of both Fremont and Santa Clara  with 199 and 155 officers respectively. Those two Bay Area cities 200,000-plus populations roughly equal the number of BARTs weekday riders, but there is an important difference.

BARTs officers have to cover trains filled with passengers traveling over 121 miles of track spread over three counties and 48 different stations.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

In general, there is one officer to every two to three stations on patrol, Rojas said.

But its possible to have cameras everywhere  which may explain why, just last week, the Bay Areas congressional delegation led by Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen backing BARTs request for another $11.2 million for cameras and other security upgrades.

In the trees: All attention at the Bohemian Clubs annual redwood forest retreat in Sonoma County on Friday was on Camels Camp, where retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy took center stage.

Kennedy used the Bohemian Grove appearance to talk about both the history and future of the high court. And the response from the largely conservative group of 150 campers was rather tepid, were told.

There was polite applause, but a lot of people didnt clap, said a club insider privy to the exchange. There was a lot of talk that Kennedy sold out, allegedly having agreed to retire from the bench in exchange for President Trumps picking his conservative former law clerk Brett Kavanaugh to succeed him.

In contrast, over at the Owls Nest encampment, were told TV pundits Chris Matthews, David Gergen and David Brooks lit up the crowd, especially when Brooks lamented the loss of honesty, truth and civility during the Trump era, calling it a disaster and threat to democracy.

The entire camp erupted into applause, says our spy.

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Several years ago, while Ingrid Rojas Contreras was stuck in the alien cold of a Chicago winter, she began to write about a former life. Alone and feeling homesick, the San Francisco writer recalled her childhood in Colombia  and also, the dark circumstances that ultimately led to her leaving her home country.

Those early writings, chronicling happy memories alongside the complicated and violent web of political factions  guerrillas and paramilitary forces during the reign of drug lord Pablo Escobar  that beleaguered Colombia, would become the basis of her moving new novel, Fruit of the Drunken Tree. But after initially revisiting these memories, she put the writing aside.

Because it was a story that haunted me for so long, I didnt want to touch it right away, Contreras says. So I spent many years just writing other things, and it all kept leading me back to this writing. It just all led me back to this character.

That character in the novel is named Petrona, a young maid who works in the house of a wealthy family in Bogota. Based on a maid who worked in Contreras own childhood household, Petrona befriends Chula, one of the familys young daughters. But their friendship eventually leads to their being thrust into the harsh realities of a country racked by assassinations, car bombings and, most frequently, kidnappings.

In Contreras writing, the characters became their own people, she says, but the narrative structure of what occurs in the novel, a fateful choice made by Petrona and what haunted Contreras for years, remained the same.

There are many ways in which you carry guilt as an immigrant, Contreras says. When you are able to emigrate, you think of all the people who are not able. When you leave a life behind and you know all the people who are not able to leave it behind, you carry that with you as you start a new life.

Violent circumstances, which take place in the book, would lead Contreras family to search for a way out of the country. But theirs was a story that still paled in comparison to the level of desperation and suffering for countless other Colombians who might qualify for refugee status.

I always think about all the ways in which we dont think of the backgrounds of immigrants, Contreras says. I came on a student visa, but theres this other history behind it.

Contreras family first left Colombia after her mother met a man who hired people overseas. He only spoke English, and my mother doesnt speak English, Contreras says. Nonetheless she walked up to him and grabbed his hand, and just looked into his eyes and said the two words she knew how to say in English, which was: My daughters. My daughters.

Touched, the man offered Contreras father a job in Venezuela, granting the family a way out, but only for a yearlong contract. After returning to Colombia, Contreras and her sister were able to leave again on student visas.

More Information Book events Ingrid Rojas Contreras: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2. The Bindery, 1727 Haight St., S.F. www.booksmith.com. 7 p.m. Aug. 16. Free. East Bay Booksellers. 5433 College Ave., Oakland. www.ebbooksellers.com R.O. Kwon: The San Francisco writer discusses her debut novel, "The Incendiaries," with Esme Weijun Wang. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 31. Green Apple Books on the Park. 1231 Ninth Ave., S.F. www.greenapplebooks.com Poetry Flash: Poets Martin Espada, Lauren Marie Schmidt and Gary Soto read their work. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 2. Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. www.moesbooks.com See More Collapse

One of the more complicated emotions that I came away (with) leaving Colombia, was the idea of a heroic gesture that is embedded in violence, so that its not clear what heroism is, she says. What is the right choice? Where is the morality in all of this?

Contreras novel doesnt attempt to draw a line, but rather sends a letter of love and fear to a country of complex truths. The title of the book alludes to this: a beautiful tree with flowers both sweetly scented and frighteningly poisonous.

I was thinking in parallel to Colombia at the time, of how beautiful of a country it is, how gorgeous, how enticing and how wild it grows, and yet there was this violence running underneath the beauty of it.

Brandon Yu is a Bay Area freelance writer.Its more than a bit surprising to hear Glen David Gold, well into a lengthy and reflective conversation about his new memoir, I Will Be Complete, admit that hes still feeling a little inarticulate about all of this.

Did this celebrated novelist, best known for spinning historical characters and fictional scenarios into vivid, stylistic prose  whether about rival 1920s magicians in his best-selling debut Carter Beats the Devil (2001), or Charlie Chaplins 1916 doppelgangers in his punchy follow-up Sunnyside (2009)  just admit to being at a loss for words?

Of course, no writer is immune to finding language wanting in the face of lifes off-kilter experiences. Gold might even agree thats the heart of the whole literary enterprise. Yet, his admission is startling because his remarkably expressive new book  about Golds unconventional upbringing in 1970s San Francisco and relationship with his unreliable, downward-spiraling mother  is essentially a 500-page exercise in finding just the right, most artfully calibrated language to describe, and thereby explain to himself in the process, experiences that in most other authors hands would remain ineffable.

To name just a few of those stranger-than-fiction incidents Gold, 54, weathered on his jagged path to manhood, and to becoming a writer:

Being left alone at age 12 in his Presidio Heights apartment when his mother, on a whim, flew to New York to be with her fashion-designer boyfriend  and returned only sporadically for the next five months.

Hearing as a young adult that his mother was raped at home while young Glen was in the house asleep, and that she had sex with two strangers while being evicted from her San Diego apartment, in exchange for their help carrying her belongings.

Mistaking his mother for a homeless woman when she came to visit him at work at an indie bookstore in Los Angeles.

Gold, who last spoke with his mother about six years ago, first used the outrageous contours of her life, as described in her own letters, as material in Ishmael Reeds fiction-writing course at UC Berkeley, only to be told that his story was anti-feminist.

Apparently my mother only made sense if her life was satire, Gold writes, delivering one of many hard truths wrapped in wry humor that permeate the book.

Knopf

Interviewed after his books release, Gold said he was still reckoning with how deeply gratifying it is to have spent nine years of painstaking work (therapeutic, as well as artistic) on such an intensely personal story  and to have it so roundly celebrated. (In his capable hands even the smallest events seem revelatory, wrote Alexis Burling in The Chronicles review.)

I wasnt always aware of this, but writing this wasnt just for me, said Gold over coffee in Sausalito. I realized there are other people who need a way to feel these same transgressive feelings about a difficult parent or family member.

Through the first of the books three sections (Gold first conceived of them as separate volumes), Gold is a precocious, high-IQ, insomniac preteen. Hes bullied at Town School and finds solace in comic books. Its a childhood spent hanging out on the edges of an adult world of smoke-filled 70s parties where he was seen not as a child but as a 36-year-old midget, a smart-ass who lent an exotic presence to my mothers parties. (His parents divorced when he was young, and his father and stepmother lived in Chicago.)

About his mothers pivotal absence at 12, Gold said, I dont think my life would have been any better if anyone had called Child Protective Services. I was forced to be resourceful, and that particular loneliness was fuel for me becoming an artist.

Ironic should be on our family crest, he said with a laugh.

A Bay Area resident for many years, until he moved to Los Angeles in December, Gold lived in West Marin while writing the memoirs early drafts and honed passages by reading them at open mikes in Fairfax.

Im really glad whats coming across to people is that Im not beating up on my mom, he said. Im not blaming her or saying she didnt love me. In fact, Im very tough on memoirs that do either, All these terrible things happened to me or else, Well, theyre my parents, so I forgive them. Neither of those conclusions really rang true for me.

Instead, Gold wrestles with such persistent questions as: How does one truly make peace with a parents harmful choices? What does being an adult really mean? And, after decades of walling off certain painful feelings, whats the right psychological distance from your own experiences (too close and youre engulfed by emotion; too far and youre cold and remote)?

Calibrating that range was essential, Gold said, to writing his memoir and to achieving the hard-won autonomy the books title suggests.

People wonder if writing the book was therapeutic, and the answer is, No, not at all.

He couldnt write, for example, about his mothers admission that she never left her abusive, HIV-positive addict boyfriend, Daniel, because she was afraid he would kill Glen, until the events became colder, until they didnt have that kind of gravitational power. Otherwise, its like trying to hit a moving target while youre moving as well.

Before Gold was ready to tackle his unconventional upbringing without fictions guise, he worked all the same emotions into my novels, just changing the nouns. Stranding two brothers in their home in a blizzard (in the first chapter of Carter Beats the Devil) where theyre left by the adults? Thats completely based on my experiences.

The hardest thing for me (in writing I Will Be Complete) was to make myself a character, the protagonist people care about and want to follow. That was  well, weird. Especially because, as Gold admits, emotional transparency has not come easily.

When I was in graduate school (at UC Irvine, where he met his ex-wife, Alice Sebold of The Lovely Bones fame), I was writing Carter, and every time I turned in a chapter, I got the same response from the group: Great action. But we cant really feel what Carters feeling inside.

Thankfully for readers of I Will Be Complete, Golds triumph is finding at last just the right emotional vocabulary for his own heartbreaking coming-of-age tale, without losing his sense of wonder, and skewed humor, about it all.

He writes, What a mystery it is when we try to live in the present, when all we have to guide us is the past.

Jessica Zack is a Bay Area freelance writer.SACRAMENTO  As multiday fires continue to scorch California, the question of who should pay for blazes sparked by utility-owned power lines is drawing intense scrutiny in Sacramento.

In a legislative hearing Wednesday, experts said Californias current system for assigning liability is unsustainable for electric utilities, but warned that shifting the burden can have unintended consequences for residents across the state, including making it more expensive and difficult to get homeowners insurance or hitting ratepayers in the pocketbooks.

Billions are at stake.

We have more fires, more acres burned, thus far than we did in 2017, which was a record year for us, Thom Porter, chief of the southern region for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told lawmakers.

At issue: California law is among the strictest in the nation in holding utility companies like PG&E liable for the cost of wildfires caused by their equipment, even when they followed all safety regulations. With longer fire seasons in part due to climate change, utilities say those costs could drive them into bankruptcy.

Thats not good for consumers, who rely on electrical power to heat and cool their homes and keep hospitals and fire stations running, Gov. Jerry Brown wrote to lawmakers on the committee.

Brown released a plan Tuesday to ease some of the concerns by allowing courts to consider several factors before determining whether electric companies should be dinged, such as whether the company acted reasonably, if safety regulations were followed and what else contributed to the fire, like windstorms. Consumer advocates quickly jumped on Browns plan, calling it a bailout for PG&E and its shareholders.

Liability laws exist for good reason  providing a constitutional right for utility victims to recover loss, said Patrick McCallum, co-chair of Up from the Ashes, an anti-PG&E lobbying campaign funded by the lawyers suing PG&E. And in doing so, they provide an incentive for utilities to act safely and responsibly.

PG&E is facing more than 200 lawsuits from last years Wine Country fires, with damages estimated to be as much as $15 billion. Browns proposal would apply starting Jan. 1 of this year, and thus not cover last years deadly Wine Country blazes. State investigators have blamed PG&E equipment and power lines for 16 wildfires last fall, and said that in 11 of those cases, they found evidence that the utility had violated state safety laws.

The cause of the most destructive fire in state history  Octobers Tubbs Fire, which swept into Santa Rosa neighborhoods and consumed 5,600 homes and structures, killing 24 people  has yet to be released. That investigation is ongoing, Porter said.

Michael Wara, a lawyer and Stanford University scholar focused on climate and energy policy, told lawmakers Wednesday that the Tubbs Fire underscores what is at stake in the question of who pays for wildfires.

Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Wildfires affect everyone in California through their impacts on the finances of everyone in California, either as an electricity customer or a taxpayer, Wara said. If it turns out that ratepayers are accountable for the fire we know the least about, the Tubbs Fire, that could be anywhere from $20 to $40 a month for everyone in the PG&E service territory. That risk is there for Tubbs and future fires.

State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, who chairs the committee reviewing proposals on wildfire liability and prevention, said his focus is on ensuring that ratepayers and fire victims arent forced to pay undue costs.

We know downed power lines have caused many of the devastating fires in the past, Dodd said. Frankly, PG&E violated our trust and must be held accountable.

Nothing was voted on in the purely informational hearing on Wednesday at the state Capitol. Any plan that comes out of the joint legislative Conference Committee on Wildfire Preparedness and Response would become part of SB901 by Dodd and would have to be voted on by Aug. 31.

If the Legislature fails to act, avoidable fires will continue to happen, Dodd said.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrezAlector, a 4-year-old biotechnology company in the heart of the Bay Areas booming biotech sector, is attempting to cure Alzheimers  an elusive feat that drug companies many times its size have tried and failed to achieve.

The South San Francisco firm, which plans to announce $133 million in new funding Wednesday  bringing its total investment to $215 million  is taking an unconventional approach to treating Alzheimers, the most common type of dementia that plagues 5 million Americans and has no known cure.

Most drug companies clinical trials have focused on removing or preventing the buildup of a specific protein in the brain, the amyloid protein, which accumulates and disrupts brain function. Alector is taking a slightly different approach by developing a drug that, if successful, would bolster the brains own immune cells, known as microglia, to clear out multiple damaging proteins, not just the amyloid. It is analogous to the way recent developments in immunotherapy are treating cancer, Alector executives say.

We got the message that we need to take a different approach, said Alector co-founder and CEO Arnon Rosenthal, who has founded two other biotech startups that develop therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, including one that was sold to Pfizer in 2006.

The tactic is new and deserves exploration, Alzheimers experts and biotech analysts say.

Theres a lot of active researchers in academia looking at the microglia and the immune system, said James Hendrix, director of global research initiatives at the Alzheimers Association, which does not have a stake in Alector. Its still innovative and early with respect to clinical development.

Major drugmakers are taking notice. Last year, Alector signed a $205 million deal with the global pharmaceutical company AbbVie to jointly develop two Alzheimers therapies. It has also received backing from the venture arms of drug companies whose own Alzheimers trials have proved disappointing, including Eli Lilly and Merck.

Alector is the first company to receive an investment from the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund to which Bill Gates contributed $50 million of his own money. But the company would not say how much it received from the fund.

Alector expects to start phase 1 clinical trials this year for two therapies  one for Alzheimers and one for frontotemporal dementia. Both are injectable drugs. UCSF will be one of the trial sites; Bruce Miller, head of UCSFs Weill Institute for Neurosciences, is on the companys scientific advisory board.

Alector is one of a slew of young Bay Area biotech firms taking unconventional approaches to Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases. San Carlos Alkahest is experimenting with blood plasma transfusions to treat memory loss; South San Franciscos Denali Therapeutics, which went public in December, is developing treatments for Alzheimers, Parkinsons and ALS.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

The number of people with Alzheimers is expected to triple to nearly 14 million by 2050, according to the Alzheimers Association. And it is the most expensive disease in America to treat, in part because the costs of long-term or institutional care are so high.

Its been a long time since we had a successful drug candidate, Hendrix said. That makes some investors nervous about putting money into it if you dont have a lot of successes. On the other hand ... an effective drug could really have a huge impact financially for the drugmaker but also on our society and our ability to care for people affected by the disease.

Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_HoThe median price of a Bay Area home was $875,000 in June, matching the all-time high set in May, while sales dropped precipitously to the lowest level for the month of June in four years, according to a CoreLogic report released Wednesday.

The median price of a new home, resale or condo in the nine-county region was up 12.9 percent from June of last year. Sales, meanwhile, were down 2.2 percent from May and 9.2 percent from June 2017, according to the real-estate information firms report.

The Bay Area continues to defy expectations that prices would drop  or at least moderate  this year as a result of rising mortgage rates and the federal tax law that limits the benefits of homeownership, especially in high-cost markets. If a couple bought a median price house (in San Francisco), they probably lost $35,000 to $40,000 in deductions, said Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst with Compass Real Estate.

Yet the price of a single-family home in San Francisco in the first half of this year was $1.62 million, up an astonishing $220,000 from the same period last year, he said.

Asked if thats a sign of irrational exuberance, Carlisle responded, There are signs of irrational exuberance in the national and international economies, from cryptocurrencies to stock market prices to housing prices in certain select neighborhoods.

Even though the tax law limited the mortgage interest and property tax deductions in a way that disproportionately hurts higher-end homeowners in high-tax states, it also cut federal tax rates in a way that disproportionately helps higher-income people, who often own expensive homes in coastal markets, said Garrett Frakes, a managing partner with Polaris Pacific, which markets new condo developments.

He noted that prices for new and existing condos in San Francisco, which held fairly steady throughout 2016 and 2017 as new construction came online, have started rising this year. Last year we were looking at approximately a $1.1 million median condo price in San Francisco. This year that median has stepped up to about $1.25 million in the first six months. That is the first large increase we have seen in condo prices really since 2015.

At the other end of the spectrum, Polaris Pacific is just finishing up the sale of 571 units in three new condo complexes in Richmond  the Shores, the Cove and Marina Bay. Prices ranged from around $250,000 to $500,000. If we had another 500, we could have sold those as well. That demonstrates the appetite for affordable housing in the Bay Area, Frakes said.

A new ferry service will connect San Francisco and Richmond in the fall. Mass transit is critical to opening areas of affordable housing, he added.

He said the modest rise in mortgage rates  a little over half a percentage point this year  have not affected us.

Bank of the West chief economist Scott Anderson said the big jump in home prices is all about the jobs. The Bay Area has been outperforming (the rest of the nation) in job growth for like seven years. The latest employment report we got last week suggested really strong hiring for information and technology companies, not just in Silicon Valley but in San Francisco. Its really driving up the price of housing in San Francisco more than in past cycles.

The San Jose and San Francisco metro areas combined added 6,400 information technology jobs last month, far above their long-term averages, according to the California Employment Development Department.

Until we see a softening in job growth, particularly in the tech sector, I think you will continue to see double-digit year-over-year gains in home prices, Anderson said.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

A shortage of homes for sale is contributing to the run-up. CoreLogic noted that sales of newly built Bay Area homes and condos were 31.9 percent below the historical average for June, while resales were 12.6 percent below average.

A portion of last months year-over-year (9.2 percent) sales decline reflects one less business day for recording deals this June. But affordability and inventory constraints are likely the main culprits in last months sales slowdown, which applied to eight of the nine Bay Area counties, CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage said in a news release. San Francisco was the only county where sales rose year over year.

A report issued Monday by the California Association of Realtors showed little letup in demand. The median number of days a Bay Area home sat on the market before snagging an offer was 13 days in June, up from 12 in May but down from 14 last June.

The inventory shortage is the result of many factors, including the difficulty of building new homes in the Bay Area and tax laws that discourage many long-term homeowners with a large capital gain and low property tax base from selling. Although its worse here, inventory shortages are popping up nationwide.

The National Association of Realtors reported Monday that existing-home sales for June dropped 0.6 percent from May and 2.2 percent from June of last year. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting a 0.5 percent gain since May.

The root cause is without a doubt the severe housing shortage that is not releasing its grip on the nations housing market. What is for sale in most areas is going under contract very fast and in many cases, has multiple offers, the associations Lawrence Yun said in a news release.

Kathleen Pender is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: kpender@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kathpenderThousands of visitors are fleeing Yosemite Valley on Wednesday, ending their vacations early due to park closures, as firefighters struggle to wrangle the obstinate Ferguson Fire, which jumped fire lines and moved south before dawn.

Were working really hard to catch it, said Jim Mackensen, a forest service spokesman. But its in a bad area, thick with growth, and the fire in that spot has grown very quickly.

Fire crews and personnel numbering 3,434 men and women will focus their efforts on that area Wednesday while they continue to build lines farther north to keep the fire out of the park and Yosemite West, a community just outside the boundaries and frequented by visitors.

Now Playing: A nearby fire has led to the closure of some parts of the Yosemite National Park. Video: GeoBeats

Meanwhile, visitors were ordered to leave two of Yosemite National Parks most popular areas  Yosemite Valley and Wawona, on the parks southern end  by noon Wednesday.

Park officials decided on Tuesday to close those parts of the park through at least Sunday because of the thick clouds of unhealthy smoke, rather than the approaching flames. The fire remains about two miles west of the park.

Highway 140, one of three main routes in and out of the park, remains closed, so departing visitors havecrowded onto highways 120 and 41, where they may encounter firefighting equipment. Mackensen advised drivers to exercise caution.

The Ferguson Fire grew to 38,522 acres on Tuesday and is 25 percent contained. There is no projection on when it will be brought under control.

Temperatures hovering around 100 degrees are expected to tax firefighters, Mackensen said, and weather conditions could limit the use of helicopters and airplanes, which are key to battling the blaze.

Fire Tracker Follow wildfires across the state Latest updates on wildfires burning across Northern and Southern California

The Ferguson Fire has killed one one firefighter, injured seven and destroyed one structure that was not a home. As of Wednesday morning, 3,494 other structures are being threatened.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuanYou dont stumble across hidden presidential history every day.

While a recent hunt for photos of President Franklin D. Roosevelts wartime 1942 tour of the Bay Area proved fruitless, the search did turn up photo negatives from FDRs 1938 San Francisco visit that havent been published in decades.

In recent decades, when a president stops in the Bay Area its usually brief and boring, and it almost always revolves around fundraising. Eighty years ago, a presidents visit was a huge news story.

While several presidents had visited San Francisco before Roosevelt  and one, Warren G. Harding, died within city limits  these appear to be the oldest staff photos in our archive of a visit by the nations chief executive.

Roosevelt left Washington, D.C., on July 7, 1938, on a transcontinental tour to support his New Deal program and to campaign for liberal candidates in that years Democratic primaries. The entourage traveled across the country in a special 10-car train and arrived in Crockett shortly after 9 a.m. July 14. The popular president was greeted by 20,000 well-wishers and presented with a 10-inch sugar cube from a representative of the C&H Sugar Co. refinery, which is still in operation today beneath the Carquinez Bridge.

On the automobile portion of the tour, Roosevelt rode in the lead car, a seven-passenger 1927 Packard. The motorcade wound through rural Solano County, west to Mare Island, and then through downtown San Rafael, with a brief stop at Dominican College before crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Military representatives greeted the president as the motorcade stopped partway across the span. Hats were removed and all but the president stood as The Star-Spangled Banner played. Roosevelt also met Army troops at the Presidio.

No one who has been to the Golden Gate Bridge in the summer should be surprised by The Chronicles July 15, 1938, Page 2 headline: Gate Bridge fog greets presidents S.F. entry.

A half-million spectators lined the streets of San Francisco as Roosevelt and his motorcade paraded from the Golden Gate to the Civic Center before heading toward the Bay Bridge. Their only lengthy stop was a luncheon and speech at the Exposition Administration Building on Treasure Island, where the president spoke of the increasing tensions around the world.

FDR, perhaps foreseeing the coming war, railed against the spike in weapons spending in Europe and across the globe: We fervently hope for the day when the other leading nations of the world will realize that their present course must inevitably lead to disaster.

The Chronicle 1938

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Settle in for some stories: FDRs Floating White House has a wild history, in the Bay Area and beyond. These are some of the tales.

More from the Archive The Vault Home of the San Francisco Chronicle's archive and more than 150 years of journalism covering the Bay Area and beyond.

Like that  poof  he was gone: It seems inconceivable now, but 75 days ago the president of the United States, FDR, disappeared for two weeks on a secret trip.

R.I.P. FDR: Heres how The Chronicle covered President Franklin D. Roosevelts death in 1945.

Chronicle Covers: FDR cruised to a fourth term in 1944; heres what the front page looked like the following morning.

Ship worth a salute: During World War II, San Franciscos namesake ship was a Navy hero.

Isolated in the bay: As World War II escalated in Europe, Nazi sailors sat stuck on Angel Island. Its true.

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim ORourke, The Chronicles assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.At age 18, he beat up a man and sucker-punched the mans daughter outside their Concord home. At 22, he battered a victim in Walnut Creek. Three years later, while robbing an El Cerrito grocery store, he threatened a security guard with a box cutter and a fake gun.

Long before he was accused of stabbing 18-year-old Nia Wilson to death Sunday night at Oaklands MacArthur BART Station, John Lee Cowell was trouble. He was in and out of jail and repeatedly harassed and threatened people, some of whom obtained restraining orders, court records show.

But even as a picture emerged of the 27-year-old Cowell as he sat in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on Tuesday, awaiting a decision on potential charges by Alameda County prosecutors, the motive in this weeks seemingly unprovoked stabbing of Wilson and her sister  who survived  remained elusive.

Some shocked community members, including hundreds who took to the streets of Oakland Monday night, have questioned whether the attack was racially motivated, because Cowell is white and Wilson was black. But BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas said investigators have not found evidence  at least not yet  of a hate crime.

And Cowell, who was described as transient, appears to have a history of mental illness, having once been evaluated for competence to stand trial and participate in the proceedings, according to court records. His family told KRON-TV in a statement that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

One thing is certain: Those who have encountered Cowell in the past arent surprised he would do something terrible.

I wish he would get the death penalty for what he did to that poor little girl. She didnt deserve it, said 51-year-old Shane Glick, the man who was beaten up by Cowell and three other teens outside his Concord home nearly a decade ago.

Cowell, who is expected to be arraigned Wednesday in an Oakland courtroom, was arrested roughly 21 hours after the attack on Wilson and her 26-year-old sister, Lahtifa Wilson. BART police said the suspect returned to the transit system Monday and was nabbed on an Antioch-bound train after being spotted by riders who alerted officers.

BART police were already familiar with Cowell and had confronted him for fare evasion just four days before the stabbing, officials said.

The killing has raised questions about safety on BART, which has seen violent crime go up 69 percent in the past decade. The slaying was the third possible homicide in recent days on the system.

Before allegedly graduating to homicide, Cowell was known as a troubled kid in a gritty neighborhood in Concord. He and other teens would hang out at Hillcrest Community Park near Glicks home, about a tenth of a mile from where Cowell lived with his family at the Adobe Mobile Lodge mobile-home park.

Glick said that when he confronted the group in 2009 about his home being burglarized, they began their beating. When his daughter came outside while on the phone with police, Cowell sucker-punched her. He was charged with felony assault.

At the mobile-home park on Tuesday, a resident named Ty, who would not give his last name, described Cowells violent behavior over the past 12 years, saying, He just wasnt in a normal state of mind.

He would come and would just start disrespecting his dad, who lived at the park for many years, Ty said. His dad would try to keep it cool, and he would bring him in and let him stay the night and visit, but inevitably it would turn into something. It got physical.

In 2013, Cowell was convicted of battery for an attack in Walnut Creek. Two years later, he was arrested for being under the influence of methamphetamine and sentenced to 90 days in jail, records show.

Cowell eventually became homeless. In 2015, an aunt filed for a restraining order against him in Contra Costa County Superior Court after he came into her home under the influence of drugs and yelled and threatened me, she wrote.

The aunt and many of Cowells other relatives did not return phone calls Tuesday. One family member who declined to comment said he had not spoken to Cowell for 12 to 15 years.

In April 2016, Cowell walked into the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital in Richmond and verbally accosted the receptionist, she said.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

Where the f is my backpack? he was quoted as saying in an application for a restraining order filed by the woman. How the f do you not know where it is you crack headed bitch?

The woman said she was familiar with Cowell, who repeatedly threatens my life.

A month later, Cowell stole several items from a Lucky store at 1000 El Cerrito Plaza, pulling a replica gun and a box cutter on a guard who tried to stop him. In that case, police reported arresting Cowell in a familiar place  on the platform of the El Cerrito BART Station.

At one point, Cowells competency to participate in his own defense was questioned, but the case continued. He was sentenced to two years in prison and sent to state lockup in October 2016. He was released in early May, less than three months before the BART attack.

Cowells family said he served part or all of his term in the state psychiatric hospital in Atascadero (San Luis Obispo County), was released directly from there and was living on the streets without proper treatment.

The system has failed in this instance, the family told KRON-TV. This is in no way an excuse for this senseless and vicious attack.

A resident of the Concord mobile-home park, 38-year-old Primitivo Alvarado, said Cowell had returned to his old ways after his prison stint. He said that after he spotted Cowell trying to break into his unit last month, he installed surveillance cameras, which showed Cowell attempting to gain entry again.

I opened my window (curtain) a little and its this guy in the window, he said Tuesday, pointing to Cowells mugshot. Its scary to know this kind of person was trying to break in. Thats why I bought those cameras. I had nobody to protect my four daughters and my wife while I was at work.

Sarah Ravani and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani @EvanSernoffskyNearly two years after a San Francisco man was shot and killed in the Tenderloin, San Francisco police gathered the victims family and friends Wednesday morning to request the publics help in identifying the suspect investigators believe shot and killed 24-year-old Mitchell Warren.

On Sept. 30, 2016, at about 4:30 a.m., police responded to a 911 call about a shooting on the 700 block of Ellis Street, police said. Officers found Warren suffering from a gunshot wound and provided medical aid before he was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where he died.

In the course of the investigation, San Francisco police detectives obtained video surveillance footage of the area shortly after Warren was shot that shows a man riding on the handlebars of a bicycle as another man peddles. The footage, revealed at a news conference held Wednesday at police headquarters, also shows the same man walking down the street earlier in the morning.

We still have been unable to positively identify the shooter, said police Cmdr. Greg McEachern.

Police declined to release the name of the person steering the bicycle but requested the publics help in identifying the suspect riding on the handlebars.

We know they know each other, McEachern said. What their relationship is and his involvement in the investigation, we cant release at this point.

Police are certain that Warren got into an altercation with his killer, leading to the shooting.

The exact circumstances of what was said in that altercation, were looking to get to the bottom of, McEachern said.

A dozen of Warrens family members and friends stood behind McEachern as the police commander spoke. Warrens life and death were still fresh in their minds.

He mostly grew up in Pacifica, his family said, before moving to the city for an apprenticeship to become an electrical technician. Two of Warrens three sisters traveled from their homes in Utah and Colorado to attend the news conference.

As McEachern retold the circumstances that led to the young mans death, Warrens sister Ashley King shut her eyes tightly, her face and forehead tense with pain.

The hardest thing I had to do in my life was to call my daughters and tell them that their baby brother had been shot and killed, said Lary Warren, Mitchells father. If somebody comes up and says, Oh, I know how you feel, they have no idea.

Additional family friends expressed sadness and made an urgent plea for the publics help.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

It just doesnt make sense to me, said Steve Lipman, a family friend who was an uncle to Mitchell Warren. Were hoping somebody out there can help us identify and track down this individual so he doesnt hurt somebody else. We want to get him locked up. Put the guy behind bars, so he cant do it again.

Wiping her eyes, King was last to speak. She said losing her baby brother is still a moment etched into her mind.

My dad told me just before 8:30 a.m., she said. I was on my way to work, eight days before my wedding.

Her father told her Mitch had been murdered, she said, her voice shaky but stoic. He had purchased his ticket. He was flying to Salt Lake to attend the wedding. He had rented his tux. He was supposed to be there. Saturday will be Mitchs 26th birthday. But instead of wishing him a happy birthday, were begging you to help us find out who murdered him.

Anyone with information can call the San Francisco Police Departments 24-hour tip line at 415-575-4444 or text the number TIP411. Tipsters may remain anonymous.

Erin Stone is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: erin.stone@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erstone7A suspected killer and serial rapist who avoided arrest for nearly a decade, as the rape kits that allegedly contained his DNA sat untested, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Alameda County.

Keith Kenard Asberry Jr., 33, of Antioch appeared in a jail red-and-white jumpsuit in an Oakland courthouse where he denied guilt on 14 counts, including murder and rape.

In 2008, Asberry allegedly carjacked two teens, ages 15 and 19, at gunpoint and raped them. The victims immediately drove to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Richmond, and a rape kit was administered, authorities said.

An investigation by The Chronicle revealed that the rape kit sat untested on a shelf in a Berkeley Police Department evidence room  one of 1,900 untested rape kits in Alameda County and an estimated 400,000 across the country.

The evidence went untouched for six years. If it had been tested immediately, officials said, Asberry would have been identified as the alleged attacker due to a felony gun conviction in 2005. Instead, he was arrested in 2015 after being pulled over for a traffic stop. Eight months before that stop, the rape kit allegedly containing his DNA had been tested, authorities said.

DNA evidence also tied Asberry to two other rape cases from 2015  one involving the murder of a UCSF dental student, authorities said.

Asberry was charged in 2018 in the sexual assault and shooting of 37-year-old dental student Randhir Kaur in her second-floor apartment on Kains Avenue, a block east of busy San Pablo Avenue.

In February 2015, a 46-year-old woman was the victim of an attempted sexual assault in her home in Berkeley. Authorities said they collected blood on her shirt, which matched with Asberry.

Last year, he was charged with a 2005 home-invasion rape in El Cerrito after authorities retested evidence using newer technology.

The Chronicles investigation prompted state lawmakers to propose legislation to eliminate rape-kit backlogs. In May, two bills to ensure rape kits get tested moved forward from the state Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB1449 requires law enforcement agencies to submit evidence from a rape kit for testing within 20 days, and it mandates that labs complete their analysis within 120 days.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

AB3118 would force law enforcement agencies and crime labs to report the number of untested kits they have in storage to the state Department of Justice.

On Wednesday, Asberry waived the formal reading of the 14 counts he faces, but the judge insisted.

OK, Ill give an informal reading, said Judge James Cramer, listing off the counts and enhancements, which include murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, rape and first-degree robbery.

Asberry stared at the judge as he read and his attorney entered his not guilty plea.

A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Sept. 10. Asberry is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail.

Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavaniFacing a dramatic rise in violent crime over the past decade and criticism that they dont do enough to protect and inform the public, BART officials defended the agencys crime-fighting Tuesday and said the system is safe.

Our officers are out there, said BART Deputy Police Chief Ed Alvarez. Just because you dont see them doesnt mean theyre not out on the trains, theyre not walking our stations and platforms, and driving through parking lots.

Statistics for the first six months of the year show that violent crime on BART is up 2 percent over last year, and, if it remains on the same pace for the rest of the year, will show a 66 percent rise over the past five years.

At the same time, BART officials  criticized a year ago for failing to inform the public of crimes including a takeover robbery of a train car by a mob of juveniles  remain under fire for a lack of consistency and clarity about crime.

Were not doing enough to let the public know these people are committing these crimes, said BART board director Debora Allen. I have long thought for a year now that there has been some inconsistency in the way information and photos of people of interest of have been released.

Allens comments come after a week in which three BART passengers died  two in homicides and one in a possible homicide.

On Sunday, Nia Wilson, 18, was slain when a man identified as John Lee Cowell, 27, a transient, stabbed her in the neck in an unprovoked attack at the MacArthur BART Station platform, police said.

On Saturday, Don Stevens, 47, a transient, was punched by a man, fell and struck his head on the platform at Bay Fair BART Station, police said. He died at a hospital on Sunday in a case being investigated as a homicide.

Last Wednesday, Gerald Bisbee, 51, was injured at the Pleasant Hill BART Station when he was attacked by Abdul Bey, 20, who was arrested, police said. Bisbee was found dead at his home on Friday. Bisbee died from an infection from a cut on his leg, according to BART, a determination made after an autopsy Sunday.

BART officials, however, did not disclose information about the two older cases until after Wilsons slaying  when The Chronicle began asking questions.

In the Wilson case, BART released information and photos of the suspect the morning after the slaying. Yet information and photos of the unidentified suspect in the slaying of Stevens was withheld until Monday morning.

BART officials released additional photos of that suspect Tuesday.

Why were the pictures of the man who assaulted him very early Saturday morning, why werent those pictures in front of us by Sunday afternoon? Allen said. They werent. They werent until Monday.

BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the incident at Bay Fair Station was initially considered a medical call. It wasnt until Sunday that BART police reviewed security tapes and saw the assault. They planned to release the suspects photo Monday even before the incident at MacArthur Station, she added.

We were already going to release these images of this other guy, she said. Theres no hiding.

Board member Lateefah Simon said BART police responded quickly to the MacArthur stabbing, holding a news conference within 12 hours to release surveillance images from the incident, leading to the arrest later that day.

I dont think thats quick enough for grieving families, but in this case  this man is behind bars, Simon said.

That said, the public deserves transparency in all cases, she added.

My job is to make sure that information continues to be conveyed, Simon said.

BART officials increasingly have more incidents to convey.

The number of violent crimes on BART jumped 69 percent in the past decade, even as they fell 7 percent across California, according to figures released this month by the state Department of Justice.

The state statistics show that BART recorded 428 violent crimes in 2017  293 robberies, 130 assaults, five rapes and no homicides. In 2007, there were 254 violent crimes on BART trains and at stations.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

The trend appears to be holding strong this year. Agency data show that BART reported 222 violent crimes in the first six months of 2018, a slight uptick from the 218 such crimes in the same period last year. At this pace, BART could establish a modern high mark for violent crimes.

Some of the added crime can be attributed to a roughly 22 percent increase in ridership in the past decade.

The three homicides within a week  combined with increased crime overall  have again pushed safety to the forefront for riders and BART officials.

Its the most important thing in the community I represent: to have a safe transit system, Simon said. In my system, you should be safe, and (Nia) wasnt safe and she died.

Board President Allen wants BART police to increase the information pushed out to the public, with photos and information about all assault suspects made available, perhaps leading to more arrests and reduced crime.

Im really sad weve gotten to a point on BART that only a murder is immediately newsworthy, she said. Were becoming immune to this. I think BART is becoming immune to it, and the public to some extent is becoming immune to it, but maybe they arent getting it put in front of them.

Allen said that currently BART lacks a clear policy detailing how and when the agency broadly publicizes crime, other than the use of a daily crime log, something she plans to raise at the next board meeting.

Were not doing enough to let the public know these people are committing these crimes, she said.

In the meantime, BARTs police force is hampered by a shortage of officers. The department is authorized for a staff of 176 sworn officers but has 151 filled, down from 41 vacancies a year and a half ago. BART fills shifts by routinely requiring officers to work overtime, and Chief Carlos Rojas has placed an emphasis on hiring more officers.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Megan Cassidy and Demian Bulwa contributed to this report.

Michael Cabanatuan and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan, @jilltuckersfPerhaps the most colorful mix of students in the world attends Californias public colleges and universities, yet most of the people appointed to run those schools, it turns out, are white.

A new study points out the disparity  and the opportunity  as Californias next governor will be able to fill 38 openings over the next four years on the governing boards of the University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges and the states Student Aid Commission.

Gov. Jerry Brown also expects to fill five current vacancies on the UC Board of Regents and two on the community colleges Board of Governors before he leaves office this year.

Students deserve to have leaders who can relate to their experience. Leaders they can see themselves becoming, said Michele Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit group that advocates for expanded access to higher education in California.

The groups study, Left Out, looks at the diversity of the majority of board members, who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate Rules committee. Those not included in the study are ex officio members who serve automatically because of their positions  such as the governor, who is a UC regent and a CSU trustee  and the few appointed by other groups, and student members serving one-year terms.

Members appointed by the governor generally serve longer: 12 years for UC regents, eight years for CSU trustees, six years for community college governors and two years for the Student Aid commissioners who regulate the financial aid program known as Cal Grants.

Against a backdrop of ethnic diversity among undergraduates across the three college systems, 69 percent of whom were nonwhite in the 2016-17 academic year, the study finds far less ethnic representation among education leaders:

 Of the 13 governor-appointed UC regents, eight are white; three are Latino, one is black and one is Asian American. There are five vacancies. The panel has 26 members.

 Of the 16 CSU governor-appointed trustees, 10 are white, three are Latino, two are black and one is Asian American. The panel has 25 members.

 Of the 12 governor-appointed community college governors, five are white, two are Latino, two are black and one is Asian American. There are two vacancies. The panel has 17 members.

 Of the 15 Student Aid commissioners  including four appointed by members of the Legislature  seven are Latino, four are black, four are white and none are Asian American.

The role of the higher education governing boards is to appoint college chancellors and presidents, set their pay and establish policies on academics, admissions, finances, faculty and campus planning, the report points out.

Their work can better match the needs of students when you have folks on the board who have had to navigate financial aid, and who understand economic diversity, Siqueiros said.

The report praises most of the panels for gender diversity, with women making up half of the 16 appointed CSU trustees and six of the 10 appointed community college governors.

Among its recommendations are for Brown and the next governor to appoint more women to the UC regents, and to diversify the rest of the boards.

One of the reasons the researchers cite for the relative lack of diversity among the regents is that governors have routinely skirted a requirement of the state Constitution: that they consult with an advisory committee specifically intended to diversify the Board of Regents.

The researchers urge the governor to stop bypassing that requirement.

COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California.

Brown responded to the report through a spokewoman, who said: Our goal for every appointment is to select the best possible candidate from a deep and diverse pool of candidates  and no governor has done more to diversify Californias boards, commissions, courts and state government.

The Campaign for College Opportunity said it sent a questionnaire to the gubernatorial front-runners, asking their views on higher education board appointments. Siqueiros said the group heard back only from Democrat Gavin Newsom who, as lieutenant governor, serves as an ex officio UC regent and CSU trustee.

Newsom wrote that as governor he would appoint regents and trustees who reflect the diversity of the state, and said equity will be the driving criterion in all of my decision-making.

The group also recommended that the Senate Rules Committee, which must confirm appointments, tell the governor that it prioritizes greater diversity and inclusivity.

The committees chairwoman, Senate President Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, could not be reached for comment.

The committees vice-chairman, State Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres (Stanislaus County), said it was important to be aware of the increased racial diversity of California students, but said geographic diversity matters, too.

For example, in looking at the UC Board of Regents, there are no members representing the Central Valley, he said. I hope this will change soon.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimovPaul Chinn / The Chronicle

California State University trustees approved raises of about $8,000 to $13,000 a year for executives but delayed a plan for much higher pay amid strong objections from Gov. Jerry Brown and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.

The pay approved by the trustees Tuesday amounted to a 3 percent increase for the 23 campus presidents, five vice chancellors and CSU Chancellor Timothy White, whose annual pay grew by $13,510 to $463,855. White, an ex officio trustee, abstained on the vote to raise his own salary. At his suggestion, however, one vice chancellor, Garrett Ashley, received a 13 percent raise of $33,929, bringing his pay to $297,546.YOSEMITE VALLEY  The glacial canyon where tens of thousands of tourists flock each summer to view towering waterfalls and stately granite domes became a veritable ghost town Wednesday as wildfire prompted a rare closure of much of Yosemite National Park.

Visitor centers emptied. Guests at the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, formerly the Ahwahnee, ferried suitcases to their rental cars as the buffet shut down, trays of bacon and eggs uneaten. Campsites with full signs at their kiosks became eerily void of tents.

We had planned this trip six months in advance and now theyre making us leave, said Danny Hernandez, 53, from Hesperia (San Bernardino County) as he reluctantly rolled up his tent tarp and began toting a cooler to his car while his son-in-law and other family members grabbed cooking pots and an inflatable raft.

I wish they would have let us know sooner, Hernandez said.

The nearby Ferguson Fire, which had grown to 41,576 acres by 6 p.m., was choking the lower elevations of Yosemite National Park with smoke. Although the blaze remained at least 2 miles to the west in the Sierra National Forest, health concerns and firefighting traffic moved administrators to order a noon shutdown of Yosemite Valley and Wawona Village, as well as Highway 41 in between. Also closed were Merced Grove and Mariposa Grove.

The last time such a large chunk of the park was closed because of wildfire was 1990.

Still open were Hetch Hetchy and Tuolumne Meadows.

About 1,000 reservations for campsites, cabins and hotel rooms were canceled for Wednesday evening and were to remain offline until Sunday.

Celine Gravereaux and her husband, Frederic, had come from Paris with their two kids to see Yosemite. They checked in to the Majestic Yosemite Hotel late Tuesday only to be told they had to be out by 9 the following morning.

We really didnt have time to take advantage of things, Celine said, as she fumbled to get her suitcase containing three weeks of travel gear into her trunk. Its really a pity that we cant enjoy it.

As an alternative, the Gravereauxs planned to head over Highway 120, which remained open, to the eastern Sierra where the skies were free of smoke. In their rented GMC Yukon, the family joined the traffic pouring out of the valley floor Wednesday morning.

Its certainly not a typical July day, said Scott Gediman, spokesman for the park, who was among the limited staff who will remain on duty throughout the shutdown. But people have been pretty good about it.

Park officials said they would reassess the closure of Yosemite Valley and the Wawona area later this week.

The prospects didnt look good. Winds were forecast to pick up over the next few days, helping relieve some of the smoke, but improvements to air quality were expected to be slight.

The harmful particulate matter that has smirched the skies since the Ferguson Fire began July 13 has been at unprecedented levels. For several hours each day, in many areas in and around the park, the air quality index at the Mariposa County Pollution Control District has read hazardous, the most severe ranking.

The conditions are continuing to be the worst Ive seen, said Dave Conway, the districts deputy air pollution control officer, who has monitored air quality since 1987.

In the park, many employees who staffed ranger stations and maintenance buildings were garbed in masks. Some covered their mouths with bandannas. Mechanical air scrubbers, brought in from a nearby hospital, rumbled in many of the offices in an attempt to make breathing a little less onerous.

Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Check the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts.

On Highway 41, just south of the valley, firefighters were taking their latest stand against the Ferguson Fire. Crews were planning to light back burns to clear vegetation in hope the blaze would die out when it converged on the newly created fire breaks.

Nearly 3,700 personnel were engaged in the firefighting effort. Helicopters and planes tore through the skies. Ground crews lumbered up steep hillsides. One firefighter, heavy equipment operator Braden Varney, has died, and seven have been injured.

The blaze was 26 percent contained Wednesday evening.

Brian Knapp, 56, and his son David, 17, got the boot from a cabin at Half Dome Village early Wednesday after arriving at the park from Fairfax, Va., the night before. After learning about the closure at check-in, however, they were determined to make the most of their limited time.

Weve already seen four waterfalls, said David, a first-time visitor whose dad grew up in Los Angeles and had come to Yosemite before.

Their favorite stops this trip were Vernal Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls, where Brian appreciated the fact that there were few people in the park, many having already left because of the smoke.

Weve done everything we can, Brian Knapp said. I guess well just have to come out again.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexanderThe Trump administration has threatened a range of natural resources, but the capital quagmire it promised to drain abides. While the president lost one swamp creature in recently departed Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke remains. And the former Montana congressman bears a remarkable resemblance to Pruitt in his approach to established personal and policy standards, which seems to be that they were made to be broken.

Like his onetime EPA counterpart, Zinke has accumulated close to a dozen inquiries into his propensity to use public resources for private ends. By undoing rules protecting the countrys wilderness and wildlife, he is determined to let others do the same.

Over the year and a half since he literally rode into office, Zinke has become a focus of at least 11 investigations by the Interior Departments inspector general and others, according to the conservation group the Center for Western Priorities. It took four of Zinkes predecessors a total of 16 years to reach the same number.

Like Pruitt and former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Zinke has a noted tendency, at least when not on horseback, to choose modes of travel that are especially costly to taxpayers. The department watchdog has criticized the lack of oversight of his travel and questioned a charter flight that cost more than $12,000.

The inspector general recently opened another investigation into Zinkes role in a Montana land deal involving the chairman of Halliburton. The oil services company stands to benefit from such policies as Zinkes push to expand offshore drilling.

Accidentally released documents related to the departments reductions of protected lands suggest a similar zeal for exploitation. They show officials dismissing the recreational value of the sites and plotting to resume logging in places such as the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument on the California-Oregon border, according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, the department has intensified a push to roll back endangered species protections.

Contrary to this sustained attack on preservation, were asked to believe that the secretary may support restoring the Hetch Hetchy to its natural state. Zinke met with a group opposed to the reservoir this week in what looked like an attempt to taunt San Franciscans and others who depend on its water. Given its history, however, this administration looks about as likely to drain the Hetch Hetchy as it is to drain the swamp.

This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters.The evacuation and closure of Yosemite Valley and Wawona at noon Wednesday leaves the northwestern sector of the 750,000-acre park still accessible for recreation.

That includes Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, Tuolumne Meadows, as well as trailheads and lakes along Tioga Road in the high country roughly from White Wolf Campground past Tioga Lake to Lembert Dome and Tioga Pass.

The temporary closure is expected to last until Sunday, said Scott Gediman at park headquarters. Earlier this week, rangers closed Glacier Point Road and firefighters have used the Bridalveil Campground as a staging area.

In the meantime, an underlying story line is a potential nightmare scenario: Both in Yosemite and adjacent Stanislaus National Forest, a band of drought-killed pines from roughly 4,500 to 6,500-foot elevation sets up catastrophic fuel potential for wildfire. In the fall of 2013 in the same region and a similar context, the 257,000-acre Rim Fire burned so hot that some trees exploded rather than burned. Across vast areas west of the border of Yosemite, only bare ash and smoldering, burned-out holes, where the base of the trees once stood, were left behind.

The closure will be most difficult for foreign travelers, such as from Japan, across Europe, and as far away as New Zealand and Australia. Each summer, distant travelers turn their life upside down for Yosemite to book dates, airline tickets, lodging, rental vehicles and plan their dates, often with no wiggle room. Most of the towns just outside the park that provide lodging for park visitors are already long booked for peak summer. Travelers evacuated with could end up in the San Joaquin Valley from Manteca to Fresno, where highs are forecast to hit 107 on Thursday.

For those willing to hike and backpack in Yosemites most remote wilderness, with access out of Hetch Hetchy, Tuolumne Meadows and elsewhere, there are still many options. A Wilderness Permit is required for camping.

Hetch Hetchy provides access to a trail routed out of the reservoir canyon and through Miguel Meadow and to what is called Beehive, a meadow with a trail junction. Beyond is Laurel Lake with its good trout fishing, and then as you emerge from forest to a pristine landscape set it granite, Lake Vernon. A fork leads up a ridge and far beyond to Wilma Lake and the Pacific Crest Trail, where a left turn takes you to gorgeous Benson Lake, with the largest white-sand beach of any wilderness lake in California.

Hikers out of Hetch Hetchy can also make the easy hike over the dam and to the bridge near the base of Wapama Falls. Some continue beyond for the all-day trek to Rancheria Falls (a trail camp is available), located a short distance above the headwaters of the reservoir.

In addition, trails from neighboring national forests also provide access to the northwestern section of the Yosemite wilderness. This includes on the east side of Cherry Lake in Stanislaus National Forest, with a trailhead that leads a short distance to Lake Eleanor, and in turn, beyond north to Beehive and its trail junction.

In neighboring Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, the Pacific Crest Trail enters the northwestern corner of Yosemite National Park and leads south to Forsythe Lake, overlooked by most all but a few PCT-through hikers for a nights camp.

Tom Stienstra is The Chronicles outdoor writer. Email: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTomIt was an overflowing crowd for a district overflowing with problems.

The three top candidates in the race for San Francisco District Six supervisor gathered Tuesday night at the offices of Cloudflare in the heart of San Franciscos tech-rich South of Market to stake out their positions on the problems and possibilities of the citys busiest and most challenging neighborhood, an area that includes South of Market, the Tenderloin and Mission Bay.

The race to succeed Supervisor Jane Kim features school board member Matt Haney, housing activist Sonja Trauss, and former Planning Commissioner Christine Johnson.

Even more than the mayoral election that just narrowly put London Breed in the mayors office, the race to be decided in the November election is shaping up to be litmus test of many of the citys most pressing problems: homelessness, crime, dirty streets and the housing affordability crisis.

Thats because District Six is home to the most of the citys billion-dollar tech companies and its tallest new residential towers. It has the largest homeless population, the highest crime rate and the most congested streets. More than 60 percent of the new housing constructed in the past decade has been in South of Market.

During the debate, moderated by former Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius, the differences between the candidates were more about style and priorities than stances on issues. All three said they support Proposition 10, a state ballot measure that would repeal Costa-Hawkins, the law that limits rent control to buildings constructed before 1985 and allows local governments to reject it altogether. All said they support the late Mayor Ed Lees goal of building 5,000 new housing units a year. All said they were for safe injection sites.

But the approach to how to meet these objections varied.

Haney portrayed himself as nonideological and solutions-oriented and said he would focus on the on street issues. Trauss, who has built a national movement out of the simple idea that popular urban areas should legalize housing to prevent displacement, said that she would work to force neighborhoods across the city to accept affordable, multifamily development. Johnson, an engineer with deep knowledge of public policy and 14 years experience in public finance, said she would bring to the job clear understanding of what she wants to achieve and how to do it.

Trauss and Haney took the most shots at each other.

Haney questioned Trauss focus on building housing outside of District Six  her nonprofit, YIMBY Action, pursues a sue the suburbs campaign that forces communities outside of San Francisco to build affordable housing. Trauss said the only way to solve the housing crisis is to force every neighborhood in the city, including the development-adverse west side, to accept more units.

Four years ago when I started organizing renters, the city controller said we needed 100,000 units  he said that as a joke number that obviously it wasnt something we could do, Trauss said. What I said  what the YIMBYs said  was why not? Lets do it. Now its so much a part of the conversation that both my opponents are running on a pro-housing platform.

Haney said he would stick to District Six.

I am not running to sue the suburbs. I am not going to pick fights on the other side of the city. Im not going to shout people down on the steps of City Hall. Im actually going to fight for you all, the residents of District Six, he said.

All three candidates bemoaned the conditions on the streets of District Six. Trauss said she wanted to be able to walk down the street with my kid without worrying about him picking up a needle.

Johnson emphasized her working-class roots in New York City where her mother, a nurse, worked two jobs but was still unable to keep up with rent.

Every two years, we would get a rent increase and have to move, Johnson said. I had eight different home addresses growing up and I decided early on that I wanted to dedicate my life and my career to making cities a place where everyone could live life.

She said as a planning commissioner she had helped create child care facilities, worked for transit improvements and approved more than 10,000 units of housing. But she said she realized that none of those efforts matter much if the city is unlivable.

I realized that nobody is going to care about any of that if you are stepping over poop and needles and you feel like you cant stay here because housing is unaffordable and you cant make a life here, Johnson said.

Haney, who has been endorsed by incumbent Kim, said the district has been too often ignored by the city establishment.

We are not getting the resources we need, he said. We have been failed by City Hall. We have been failed by the Planning Department. Our residents need a champion, someone who is focused here, block by block.

J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineenThree times during our conversation, T.J. Cox mentioned something I was unfamiliar with. Each time, he told me to look it up.

You rarely hear politicians suggest that. Too many fear you might actually do it and find something that contradicts their alternative facts.

Perhaps Cox does that because he is still an aspiring politician  and a trained engineer. Hes a Democrat running for a Central Valley congressional seat held by GOP Rep. David Valadao, and he talks up his professional background all the time.

Thats what I tell people: Im a engineer and were trained to fix things, Cox said. And Congress needs to be fixed.

Cox is part of a wave of an estimated 60 doctors, scientists and technologists who are running for the House this year, frustrated by a GOP-led Congress that doesnt believe the science behind climate change and a president who spreads inaccuracies in 70 percent of his public statements, as measured by the nonpartisan fact checkers at Politifact. Many of the candidates, including Cox, were recruited or endorsed by a new organization called 314 Action.

The record of these science candidates so far is mixed. Of the 17 House races this year in which 314 Action endorsed a candidate, eight have won and nine have lost. Three of the four candidates 314 Action endorsed in California lost in the June primary.

The reasons, in some cases, defy logic. Even political logic which, as we all know, really isnt logic. The three Democrats who lost, all in Orange County districts held by Republicans, boast sterling resumes. (314 Action is open to all candidates, but has endorsed only Democrats thus far.)

Hans Keirstead is a world-renowned stem-cell researcher and entrepreneur who lost by 125 votes. Pediatrician Mai Khanh Tran has one of the most compelling personal stories youll find  child refugee from Vietnam raised in poverty; Harvard-educated; two-time breast cancer survivor and single mom. She finished eighth in her primary.

Brian Forde was a technology adviser during the Obama administration and raised a competitive $1.6 million in taking on GOP Rep. Mimi Walters of Irvine. All it got him was 6 percent of the primary vote and a fourth-place finish.

Forde stressed his tech background to distinguish himself, since the top Democrats in his race largely agreed on the major issues. He admits that might not have been the best way to win public attention as an unknown candidate.

The value of his expertise became clearer when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress in April about the social media giants many problems. It was obvious that for many of the senators, the most advanced piece of a technology they use is a can opener.

They had no clue what they were talking about, Forde told me. And this was Facebook. Were not talking about autonomous vehicles or drones.

But by then, it was April, and time was running out for his campaign.

Forde said the format of campaigns isnt friendly to science and tech candidates, who like to explain the details of their policy ideas. He is fond of digging into big-picture issues, like what the future of work will look like.

Even at candidate forums, where you have a 60-second response or a 120-second response, you cant have a substantive debate on issues, Forde said.

One danger for many tech and science candidates is coming off as know-it-alls who get too deep into the policy weeds. Jobs and health care are pressing issues in Coxs district in Kings County, where fewer than 9 percent of adults have graduated from college and 17 percent are unemployed.

Engineers want to explain everything to a certain degree, but you have to speak to broader issues, Cox said. And a lot of time when we speak to the issues, we can get way too into the details. I can go on and on and on about the mechanics of how biochar works.

Wait, whats biochar? Cox explained how emerging technology can convert agricultural and forestry wastes into energy without releasing carbon into the environment, which would cut down on global warming. It also produces a charcoal-like product called biochar that can help improve the soil. Its an idea worth exploring that could play well with liberal environmentalists and more conservative farmers in his agricultural district.

Look it up, Cox said.

Regardless of the middling win-loss primary record of 314 Action-endorsed candidates, founder Shaughnessy Naughton is pleased with the early results. She expects to raise up to $7 million for candidates by the end of the cycle. Since Trumps inauguration, more 7,000 people have contacted the group for information or help, and 314 Action has trained roughly 1,500 of them to be candidates.

The 314 in the name, by the way, is a proud, nerd nod to pi. As the groups website says, Why 314 Action? Because Pi is everywhere.

Naughton  a chemist and former congressional candidate in Pennsylvania (she lost)  knows that challenges remain. Like helping scientists understand that the currency of facts isnt as valued in a political campaign as it is in the laboratory. It can be a bit of a language barrier.

One of our candidates told me, I dont mind when people say mean things about me. I just mind when theyre not true,  Naughton said.

The good news for her is that people like Forde want to stay involved in politics. Hes campaigning hard for Katie Porter, the Democrat who qualified for the general election against Walters, and looks forward to a day when Congress has more technologists in office. Now, there are more former talk radio show hosts serving in the House and Senate (seven) than physicists (one). In the Capitol, 222 members hold law degrees; 21 hold medical diplomas.

Especially now, there is a premium on people who not only have the domain knowledge, but have the capacity to explain what they know simply to others, Forde said. He always admired his former boss in Barack Obamas White House, science adviser John Holdren, in that way.

He was always the smartest person in the room, but never looked down on anyone. He could explain complex things very simply to people, Forde said. We need to get better at doing that.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoliA few days remain for the rare chance to view, and potentially purchase, paintings by Sir Winston Churchill  the storied British prime minister, hero of WWII and noted painter  now (through Thursday, July 27) at a new San Francisco gallery, Heather James Fine Art.

The collection of 11 Churchill works  priced between $1 million and $3 million  then moves to the Heather James Fine Art gallery in Jackson Hole, Wyo., also owned by Heather Sacre and James Carona.

To give this tour a personal touch, Duncan Sandys, a great-grandson of the statesman, was in town last week greeting fans during lectures held at the University Club and the Battery.

Beginning at age 40, Churchill, a self-taught painter with natural talent, created more than 500 works of art.

He first picked up a paintbrush after he led the 1915 disaster on the Gallipoli peninsula (in Turkey) while serving as first lord of the Admiralty over the British Navy. This World War I tragedy resulted in some 115,000 British troops and 27,000 French troops being killed or wounded.

Churchill was demoted and subsequently resigned from the government.

Had the disaster of 1915 not happened, I believe, Churchill wouldve continued a seamless, meteoric rise in government, says Sandys. But if he hadnt experienced that diversity, effectively having the corners knocked off him, he might not have been the right man in 1940 to lead the fight against Hitler during World War II.

Long known for suffering from bouts of depression he dubbed my black dog, Churchill sought solace in painting.

Drew Altizer

In 1915 the depression Churchill suffered, frankly, wouldve killed him if he hadnt picked up that paintbrush, Sandys continues. Once he started painting, he never suffered again from a depression as deep as after Gallipoli.

During his lectures, Sandys spoke on leadership and core Churchillian principles he defines as preparation, audacity, courage and failure.

One of the problems of modern life is everyone wants to avoid failure. Yet failure is actually an essential stop on the way to success, he says. No one ever questions why theyre successful; theyre just so pleased to be successful. Failure is also much more intellectually interesting because were forced to ask ourselves difficult questions, like What the hell happened?

Sandys lives in Atlanta and has put on numerous traveling exhibitions of his great-grandfathers artwork, including a 50th anniversary commemoration honoring Churchills death in 2015 at the National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Mo.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

One of the things Churchill said during WWII was, The price of greatness is responsibility, Sandys explains. A huge level of interest still exists for all things Churchill. And being born into this family, there is a personal responsibility for me to share his painting collection.

More Information Heather James Gallery: 49 Geary St. (fifth floor), S.F. Through Thursday, July 27. https://www.heatherjames.com. See More Collapse

However, if youre in the market for a Churchill original, dont look for his signature on the canvas. While some are signed, others use his artistic pseudonym, Charles Morin.

Yet even sans that official autograph, Churchill still reigns as the only amateur artist to have a solo exhibition, in 1959, at the Royal Academy of Art in London.

Having arrived at the craft at the lowest point of his career, painting made Churchill a more effective leader. And it was a paintbrush that pulled him out of spiraling depression, Sandys says. He basically rebuilt himself while learning the skills of painting and observation. When you look at how compelling his WWII speeches were, you realize hes painting a picture for the people of England to endure.

Catherine Bigelow is The San Francisco Chronicles society correspondent. Email: missbigelow@sfgate.com Instagram: @missbigelowHundreds of thousands of people visit Muir Woods National Monument each year, but, if not for one couple, there wouldnt be a Muir Woods to visit at all.

More than a century ago, most of Californias old-growth redwoods had been clear-cut by logging interests, and a water company threatened to take possession of a valley just north of San Francisco that was home to one of the remaining groves in the Bay Area and across the Pacific coast. Enter William and Elizabeth Thacher Kent.

The North Coast Water Co. coveted Redwood Canyon, as Muir Woods was then known, and in 1906 set in motion a plan to fell the giant trees, build the dam and create a reservoir in the nearly inaccessible sliver of Marin County. William Kent, a future congressman, and Elizabeth Thacher Kent, an environmental and womens rights activist, had purchased the land in 1905 for $45,000. When the water company threatened to use eminent domain to take the land, they sprung into action.

According to a Chronicle article from Jan. 5, 1908, On December 2nd (1905), the water company had filed a suit in condemnation proceedings to compel (William) Kent to sell the canyon and its trees, converting the area into a reservoir. It seemed the Sausalito water company would prevail, and the redwoods would be lost to history.

The Kents, however, had plan: They deeded part of the land to the federal government, thus taking the case out of the local courts, where it could have prevailed. They also contacted Gifford Pinchot of the Forestry Department to use his influence to procure the prompt acceptance of this gift, according to The Chronicle.

Dig deep into Chronicle Vault Read hundreds of historical stories, see thousands of archive photos and sort through 153 years of classic Chronicle front pages at SFChronicle.com/vault. See More Collapse

On Jan. 4, 1908, William Kent was informed that the 295-acre gift had been accepted by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and the land would be a public park forever. Five days later, President Theodore Roosevelt used the American Antiquities Act to create Muir Woods National Monument. The park was set to be named for William Kent, but he insisted it honor environmentalist John Muir.

In Roosevelts thank-you letter to Kent dated, Jan. 22, 1908, he wrote: All Americans who prize the natural beauty of the country and wish to see it preserved undamaged and especially those who realize the literally unique value of the groves of giant trees must feel that you have conferred a great and lasting benefit upon the whole country.

Vincent Maggiora / The Chronicle 1991

Fast facts about Muir Woods

Muir Woods is small by national parks standards, at 554 acres, with 240 of those acres home to old-growth redwoods.

Access to Muir Woods has always been an issue. Automobiles had to use a toll road access the park until 1939, when the state highway system took over and provided free access. Parking has been problematic since. Heres how you can bike there.

The number of visitors to Muir Woods has exploded the past decade, jumping by more than 30 percent in the past 10 years. Here are tips for planning your visit.

A new reservation system was established this year to limit the number of cars driving to the site. A shuttle system is in place.

Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle 1986

More from Chronicle Vault

Babe in the woods: Muir Woods tallest tree is a youngster when compared with others in Californias old-growth forests.

A dive into the archive: The Bay Area celebrated for a year when Muir Woods marked its 100th anniversary as a national monument.

Fitting designation: It took a century, but Muir Woods got itself listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Looking skyward: Examining the tradition of trees accompanying beams atop new buildings in San Franciscos skyline.

Going underwater: See stunning photos from the catastrophic Northern California floods of 1997.

From the Archive is a weekly column by Bill Van Niekerken, the library director of The Chronicle, exploring the depths of the newspapers archive. Its part of Chronicle Vault, a twice-weekly newsletter highlighting more than 150 years of San Francisco stories. It is edited by Tim ORourke, The Chronicles assistant managing editor and executive producer of SFChronicle.com. Sign up for the newsletter here and follow Chronicle Vault on Instagram. Contact Bill at bvanniekerken@sfchronicle.com and Tim at torourke@sfchronicle.com.Bartenders go to bars on their nights off, but only Atsuko Morita walks in with a view camera and tripod to spend an evening under the black hood. She works four nights a week behind the plank at Festa Karaoke Bar in Japantown to pay for the three nights she spends behind the camera, shooting the classic dives of San Francisco.

"I feel like I should document them before they are gone, says Morita, who works in the large format like an indoor Ansel Adams in order to catch all of the accumulated detail in the barrooms of the Little Shamrock, the Geary Club, Pittsburghs Pub and all the other old-time neighborhood joints.

She does not photograph the bar that she tends because karaoke has been done. So have barflies and bartenders. So have outdoor neon bar signs.

Morita is interested in the interior still life of decay and clutter to be found on dusty liquor bottles, cocktail glasses, cash registers, pinup calendars, dim light bulbs, pool table felt and the worn-out leather on barstools. I want to show how the character of the bar reflects the owner and its customers, she says.

She tends to go shortly after opening, or past midnight, when dives are uncrowded, and shell hit as many as three bars a night. She never drives, which makes it convenient that many of the best dives are near her home, a shared $1,600-a-month apartment on the first floor of a multiunit building on Bush Street below Nob Hill.

"Rent control, is the first thing she says to a visitor admiring the woodwork in the lobby. Morita, 46, came from Osaka, Japan, 13 years ago to learn photography at the Academy of Art. She is still learning English, which costs $500 a month for lessons. Shed been a bartender in Japan and was a bartender here while shooting the Pacific Ocean with a pinhole camera she built.

She wasnt looking for a project shooting bars. The project found her when she went to one of her hangouts, California Dreamn on California Street, only to find it out of business.

"I didnt have time to capture it, she says. I realized so many bars are closing down.

More Information Silicon Valley Plastic Camera Show: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Through Oct. 12. Art and Art History Building Gallery, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara. 408-554-4000. www.scu.edu The Artist's Life is a recurring feature that will shine a spotlight on the talent who help make up the rich tapestry of the Bay Area's cultural life. See More Collapse

She is not the type to just barge in with her camera and set up her tripod. She will scout a location first and tell the manager about her project. To build her confidence she started with her own neighborhood  High Tide, the Outsider and Hanaro.

Talking to the regulars, she would learn other spots to hit. Bar people are happy to talk about bars, and they got more talkative when she brought in her gear and set up. So she started a side project with a Fuji Instax camera. When people would chat her up, shed take their picture with the Instax then ask them to sign and date it, and write about their personal history in that bar in a notebook she carries. She now has two notebooks full and is working on a third.

Flipping through the books, she stops at a Polaroid of a man named Ron. In his entry, he described Gino & Carlo in North Beach as a place where everyone can find a common bond while wasting valuable time. At Aub Zam Zam in the Haight, Kristy wrote we come here to drink from the water of life or to seek answers when youve run out of your own.

At the Casanova Cocktail Lounge on Valencia Street, a customer wrote This is the first bar I went to when I moved here. I had a beer in front of a velvet painting from the 70s and I knew I was home.

The instant photos and confessionals are a nice distraction because it can take Morita hours to set up one shot. She works in sheets of film and is careful not to take too many because her Kodak Professional Portra film costs $4 an exposure and another $10 to develop it.

If it is dark, which dives tend to be, it can take 30 minutes with the shutter open to gather enough light. She never knows exactly what mystery her camera will uncover until she prints an image in the shades of red and gold and blue that are the natural light in bars.

The long exposure picks up scratches on the bar top and the tiny holes in the wall, left by errant throws at the dartboard.

"Damaged floors or money pinned to the walls, she says. Everything means something.

Morita always works in color film, and two of her pinhole images were jury selections for the Silicon Valley Plastic Camera Show, now under way at Santa Clara University.

Her barroom work has not yet seen the light of day. Shed like to make a book, maybe have a gallery show at SF Camerawork or SOMArts, both of which have included her in group exhibitions.

By now, Morita has shot 30 or 40 bars, some of which have closed during the three years shes been shooting.

She recently had to return the large-format view camera, which was on loan, and is using a medium-format Mamiya, which doesnt require a hood.

Shes been asked to leave a few places but has never had a drink poured over her head or on her camera. She knows how to handle herself in bars, but just to be on the safe side she usually brings along a few friends to protect her gear. She always buys, which adds to her overhead.

"Free drinks for them, she says.Officials posted signs at trail entrances around Desolation Wilderness just west of South Lake Tahoe after hikers had an unusual encounter with a mountain lion.

The group was traveling the Velma Lakes Trail from Camper Flat to Middle Velma Lake when the animal began stalking them, according to a report U.S. Forest Service officials received on July 15.

"They reported it circling them four times while making sounds at them," said backcountry ranger Shannon Maguire. "They were clapping hiking poles and blowing whistles, but it took awhile for the lion to leave."

Maguire has never seen a lion in the 63,960-acre wilderness area, but she often notices their paw prints and scat, especially in recent weeks near Middle Velma Lake.

"Mountain lions are typically out there, we just do not have many sighting reports, and I've never received a report of one circling visitors in this way before," she said.

ALSO: Coyotes are being spotted from San Francisco to Silicon Valley. Are there actually more of them?

As a result of the incident, park rangers posted signs and over the past week they've been patrolling trails.

Maguire reminds people to be aware when they're hiking and know what to do if you encounter a mountain lion. She advises making yourself visibly bigger by waving your hands over your head or fanning out a jacket. You can throw anything you have in your hand, but not stoop down to pick up a rock or stick as this will make you appear smaller and more vulnerable.

You shouldn't run as this can trigger a puma's instinct to chase its prey; instead back away slowly. But if the animal attacks, fight back.

MORE: Best spots to see wildlife in the Bay Area

U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Lisa Herron adds you're more likely to see a bear in Desolation Wilderness and Tahoe Basin, than a mountain lion. In fact, the area has seen an increase in bear activity since the start of the month and bears are breaking into parked cars in search of food. (See photos of recent break-ins above.)

"We're trying to get the word out to remind people to not leave anything scented in their car. No food or trash, even air fresheners or lip balm. Bears have an incredible sense of smell. They say it's like nine or 10 times stronger than a bloodhound's."At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings in Yosemite Valley have been canceled after officials announced swaths of the park would close from Wednesday at least until Sunday due to the Ferguson Fire.

Closures affect the 7.5-mile-long valley, the Wawona area of Yosemite National Park and the 20-mile stretch of State Route 41 that leads into the area, park spokesperson Scott Gediman said.

FERGUSON FIRE: Yosemite National Park visitors flee as fire grows 'quickly'

Those who reserved lodging through Aramark, an authorized concessioner in the park, between Wednesday and Sunday in evacuated areas  the Majestic Yosemite Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge and Half Dome Village  will receive a full refund of their deposit and can change their reservation dates, according to spokesperson Lisa Cesaro. Any pre-booked tour or activity is also eligible for a refund or reschedule.

The cancellation policy  you must forfeit the deposit of a night's stay if it is canceled less than one week before the reservation  remains in effect for all other dates and on the east side of the park, including Tuolomne Meadows Lodge, the High Sierra Camps, White Wolf Lodge and the Hetch Hetchy region.

CHOKED IN SMOKE: What's open and closed in Yosemite

If you booked a reservation on Recreation.gov, which serves many of the campgrounds on the west side of Yosemite, you may receive a full refund by calling (888) 448-1474, according to the website. Reservations booked through August 6 will be canceled and refunded.

The last time Yosemite Valley closed due to fire was 1990, Gediman said.

"This is the prime visitor season, so this wasn't an easy decision to make," Gediman said. "This was purely for safety's sake."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.

The annual cable car bell-ringing contest usually held at Union Square in July has been canceled amid a boycott by cable car operators protesting the reduction of late-night service hours, according to union transportation officials.

Roger Marenco, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, said cable car operators decided to pull out of the 55-year-old San Francisco tradition after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency scaled back late-night service hours by more than an hour for its California cable car line in recent months.

Operators are really bummed because it has a very negative impact on the service we provide to riders, Marenco said. Its a reduction of service which doesnt make sense because the city and county of San Francisco is increasing in numbers, not decreasing.

Paul Rose, chief spokesman for the Municipal Transportation Agency, declined to say why the contest was not taking place, deferring questions to union officials. He said they would explain why theyre encouraging operators not to participate.

Regarding the change in operating hours, Rose said, To operate a cable car, we have to have one grip and one conductor, and for many of the (late-night) trips, the number of operators outnumbered the passengers.

He said Muni made the change to allocate its resources better. Seven California line cable cars operate on weekdays and five operate on weekends, Rose said.

Currently, the last cable car runs at 11:45 p.m. and ends operation around midnight, Rose said. Before the change, the last California cable car pulled in at 1:30 a.m.

Thats a big difference for people getting off of work who are just trying to get home, Marenco said. Its going to be difficult for those people to utilize other forms of transportation at those late-night hours.

Marenco said the contest boycott is a way for operators to be loud about their disagreement over the service adjustments.

Before the change was implemented roughly two months ago, Rose said the service changes had been discussed for more than a year before being announced in fall 2017.

Rose said SFMTA officials encouraged nighttime riders to use a California bus as an alternative.

Officials have not received any rider complaints on social media platforms or via 311, where residents can file complaints related to services in San Francisco, Rose said.

Rose said officials hope to incorporate elements of the bell ringing into the annual Muni Heritage Weekend on Sept. 7 and 8.

Municipal Transportation Agency officials hope to bring the bell ringing contest back in 2019.

Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LaurenPorFavorBlanketed in a sooty haze from the Ferguson Fire, Yosemite National Park is closing large sections of the park Wednesday, asking visitors to leave by noon.

Here's everything you need to know about what's open and what's closed.

Areas of the park

Closed: Yosemite Valley, Wawona, Mariposa and Merced Grove are closed starting July 25 at noon until at least July 29 due to fire operations.

Open: Hetch Hetchy and Tuolumne Meadows

Roads and entrances

Closed: The South Entrance, Highway 41 from Wawona to the tunnel entry to Yosemite Valley, will also be closed beginning Wednesday.

Glacier Point Road has been closed since July 20.

Highway 140 (El Portal Road) from Midpines to Big Oak Flat Road inside Yosemite has been closed since July 14.

Open: Big Oak Road from Big Oak Flat to Crane Flat (continuation Highway 120 from Manteca), including the Big Oak Flat entrance is open.

Tioga Road (continuation of Highway 120 through the park), including the Tioga Pass entrance, remains accessible.

Hetch Hetchy Road is open, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Call (209) 372-0200 for the most up-to-date information on roads.

Hotels and tent cabins

Closed: Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly the Ahwahnee Hotel), Yosemite Valley Lodge and Half Dome Village tent cabins.

You can receive a refund or change your reservation if it was cancelled. You can also request refunds for cancelled activities like a rafting trip.

Open: White Wolf Lodge, Tuolumne Meadows Lodge, High Sierra Camps and Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp.

Campgrounds

Closed: all Yosemite Valley campgrounds (Upper Pines, Lower Pines, and North Pines), Bridalveil Creek closed (closed July 19 until further notice), Wawona (closed July 23 until further notice).

Recreation.gov, the website for making reservations in the park, will offer refunds for cancelled reservations by calling (888) 448-1474.

Open: Hodgdon Meadow, Crane Flat, and Tuolumne Meadows

Find updates on closures on the Yosemite National Park website and information on air quality on the San Joaquin Valley's air quality website.

ALSO, Tourism nightmare: Yosemite Valley closing as fire closes in, smoke at hazardous levels

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of California's State Route 41 that leads in, park spokesman Scott Gediman said.

At least a thousand campground and hotel bookings will be canceled  to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said. Rangers went to campsites one at a time to inform visitors of the closures. Hotels guests got phone calls and notes on their doors.

"This is the prime visitor season, so this wasn't an easy decision to make," Gediman said. "This was purely for safety's sake."

Officials were quick to point out that Yosemite wasn't under imminent danger from the Ferguson Fire. Authorities decided on the closure to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometer-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through more than 57 square miles (148 square kilometers) of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 percent contained Tuesday.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while others have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.WASHINGTON  The government announced a $12 billion plan Tuesday to assist farmers who have been hurt by President Trumps trade disputes with China and other trading partners.

The plan focuses on Midwest soybean producers and others hit by retaliatory measures.

The Agriculture Department said the proposal would include direct assistance for farmers, purchases of excess crops and trade promotions to cultivate new export markets. Officials said the plan would not require congressional approval and would come through the Commodity Credit Corp., a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.

This is a short-term solution that will give President Trump and his administration the time to work on long-term trade deals, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

Officials said the direct payments could help producers of soybeans, which have been hit hard by the Trump tariffs, along with sorghum, corn, wheat, cotton, dairy and farmers raising hogs. The food purchased from farmers would include some types of fruit, nuts, rice, legumes, dairy, beef and pork, officials said.

In Kansas City, Trump told a veterans convention that he is trying to renegotiate trade agreements that he said have hurt American workers, and he asked for patience ahead of key talks.

Were making tremendous progress. Theyre all coming. They dont want to have those tariffs put on them, Trump told the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention. Were opening up markets. You watch whats going to happen. Just be a little patient.

Agriculture officials said the payments wont be calculated until after harvests come in. Brad Karmen, the USDAs assistant deputy administrator for farm programs, noted that the wheat harvest is already in, so wheat farmers could get payments sooner than other growers.

But officials said soybeans were likely to be the largest sector affected by the programs.

Trump declared earlier Tuesday that Tariffs are the greatest! and threatened to impose additional penalties on U.S. trading partners as he prepared for negotiations with European officials at the White House.

Tariffs are taxes on imports. They are meant to protect domestic businesses and put foreign competitors at a disadvantage. But the taxes also exact a toll on American businesses, which pay more for imported products.

The Trump administration has slapped tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese goods in a dispute over Beijings high-tech industrial policies. China has retaliated with duties on soybeans and pork, affecting Midwest farmers in a region of the country that supported the president in his 2016 campaign.

Trump has threatened to place penalty taxes on up to $500 billion in products imported from China, a move that would dramatically ratchet up the stakes in the trade dispute involving the globes biggest economies.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the administrations move is encouraging for the short term. What farmers in Iowa and throughout rural America need in the long term are markets and opportunity, not government handouts.

Indeed, the plan magnified objections among many Republicans that the tariffs amount to taxes on American consumers. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said lawmakers are making the case to Trump that tariffs are not the way to go.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the administration finally seems to understand that the Trump-Pence tariffs are hurting the American people. These tariffs are a massive tax increase on American consumers and businesses, and instead of offering welfare to farmers to solve a problem they themselves created, the administration should reverse course and end this incoherent policy.

Before departing for Kansas City, Trump tweeted that any U.S. trade partner needs to either negotiate a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. Its as simple as that.

The rhetoric came as the president has engaged in hard-line trade negotiations with China, Canada and European nations, seeking to revise trade deals he says have undermined the nations manufacturing base and led to a wave of job losses in recent decades.

The imposition of punishing tariffs on imported goods has been a favored tactic by Trump, but it has prompted U.S. partners to retaliate, creating risks for the economy.

Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to U.S. national security, an argument that allies such as the European Union and Canada reject. He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totaled $335 billion.

The president is meeting Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The U.S. and European allies have been at odds over the presidents tariffs on steel imports and are meeting as the trade dispute threatens to spread to automobile production.

Ken Thomas and Paul Wiseman are Associated Press writers.Coding wizardry

Harry Potter never learned computer code, but a London startup plans to help Muggle children do so. Aspiring young developers can use a new coding kit developed by Kano, which includes a physical wand that responds to hand movement, to recreate some of the magic spells cast by Harry and his friends. The kit, to be released in October through a partnership with Warner Bros., will cost $99 and introduce children to programming languages such as JavaScript. Kano makes computer-building kits sold in the U.S. at Walmart.

No break

The maker of KitKat candy bars has tried for 16 years to trademark its four-finger shape in the European Union, arguing it is a distinctive feature that deserves protection  like Toblerone s pyramid blocks, which are trademarked. But a European court ruled Wednesday against KitKat maker Nestle , saying that its shape is not recognized throughout all the 28 countries of the EU. The court sided with Mondelez , the makers of Kvikk Lunsj , a Norwegian favorite of hikers and skiers that is shaped almost exactly like a KitKat.

Streaming out

Hulu, the streaming media company owned by major studios and cable providers, is closing its Novato office as part of a reorganization orchestrated by its new chief technical officer, TechCrunch reported. Dan Phillips, who joined Hulu from TiVo, has been restructuring the company and wants to move engineering and operations to Seattle, Santa Monica and Beijing. About 20 people work in Novato, and half will go to other Hulu offices.

From staff and news services. More at www.sfgate.com.After a decade of effort in which Facebooks progress at courting China often seemed to stall, the social network finally gained an official status in the country  at least temporarily.

Facebook has registered a subsidiary in the city of Hangzhou, according to a Chinese government filing, which said the company had received approval July 18. The subsidiary was financed with an investment of $30 million, according to the records.

Yet late Tuesday, in a sign of possible complications, the corporate registration was taken down from the Chinese government website and some references to the new subsidiary appeared to be censored on social media in the country.

The moves indicated how complicated it remains for Facebook to navigate China, where it has been blocked for almost 10 years. If the subsidiary is allowed to proceed, it will be a toe in the water for the Menlo Park company. Facebook said it wants to use the subsidiary to coordinate with Chinese developers in the closely censored market.

Even to release an app in China, Facebook will probably need a separate license from regulators. To introduce its social network or messaging service would require further negotiations over issues like data storage and security. Facebooks photo-sharing service Instagram and its messaging platform WhatsApp are also blocked in China.

We are interested in setting up an innovation hub in Zhejiang to support Chinese developers, innovators and startups, said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman, referring to the province in eastern China where Hangzhou is. We have done this in several parts of the world  France, Brazil, India, Korea  and our efforts would be focused on training and workshops that help these developers and entrepreneurs to innovate and grow.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party deems all social networks that it does not ultimately control, like Facebook and Twitter, as potentially destabilizing. A series of sophisticated internet filters block residents from gaining access to such sites.

Some American companies, like LinkedIn, have voluntarily censored their products.

If Facebook started introducing services in China, it would probably face questions about whether to censor content or share data with Beijing. The latter could be a particularly tricky issue for the social network while it is under scrutiny by the U.S. government for its handling of user data.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told Recodes Kara Swisher last week that the company is a long time away from doing anything in China. He said Facebook is working on services for China over the long term, but added: We need to figure out a solution that is in line with our principles and what we want to do, and in line with the laws there, or else its not going to happen. Right now, there isnt an intersection.

Paul Mozur and Sheera Frenkel are New York Times writers.Thousands of visitors are fleeing Yosemite Valley on Wednesday, ending their vacations early due to park closures, as firefighters struggle to wrangle the obstinate Ferguson Fire, which jumped fire lines and moved south before dawn.

Were working really hard to catch it, said Jim Mackensen, a forest service spokesman. But its in a bad area, thick with growth, and the fire in that spot has grown very quickly.

Fire crews and personnel numbering 3,434 men and women will focus their efforts on that area Wednesday while they continue to build lines farther north to keep the fire out of the park and Yosemite West, a community just outside the boundaries and frequented by visitors.

Meanwhile, visitors were ordered to leave two of Yosemite National Parks most popular areas  Yosemite Valley and Wawona, on the parks southern end  by noon Wednesday.

Park officials decided on Tuesday to close those parts of the park through at least Sunday because of the thick clouds of unhealthy smoke, rather than the approaching flames. The fire remains about two miles west of the park.

Highway 140, one of three main routes in and out of the park, remains closed, so departing visitors havecrowded onto highways 120 and 41, where they may encounter firefighting equipment. Mackensen advised drivers to exercise caution.

The Ferguson Fire grew to 38,522 acres on Tuesday and is 25 percent contained. There is no projection on when it will be brought under control.

Temperatures hovering around 100 degrees are expected to tax firefighters, Mackensen said, and weather conditions could limit the use of helicopters and airplanes, which are key to battling the blaze.

The Ferguson Fire has killed one one firefighter, injured seven and destroyed one structure that was not a home. As of Wednesday morning, 3,494 other structures are being threatened.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuanIt didnt look like foul play when authorities first discovered Raynard Hydes lifeless body last week in Santa Claras Central Park.

The 54-year-olds nose was bloodied as he lay motionless near the duck pond, officials said Wednesday, but it wasnt until an autopsy concluded that Hydes cause of death was a homicide that police arrested one of his co-workers.BART police on Tuesday released new surveillance photos of a suspect who is accused of a fatal assault on a fellow passenger on the platform of the Bay Fair BART station.

The incident, which occurred about 1:20 a.m. Saturday, is the third fatal attack linked to the transit system in a five-day stretch.

ALSO: Stabbing suspect arrested in 'vicious' BART slaying

Responding to reports of an injured man on the platform, BART officers performed CPR on the victim, 47-year-old Don Stevens. He was taken to the hospital with a pulse, but was later declared "brain dead," according to BART officials.

Video footage from the station and train later revealed that a man punched Stevens in the side of the head, causing him to fall and hit the cement of the train platform.

"The suspect is an African American man who stands 5'8" to 5'10" and has a medium build with a dark complexion," BART police wrote in a press release. "He has shoulder length dreadlocks in a ponytail with a scruffy beard. The suspect was wearing a white t-shirt and a green jacket."

MORE: Teen's slaying was BART's third possible homicide in five days

The fatal incident only surfaced after a young woman, Nia Wilson, was fatally stabbed at the MacArthur BART station on Sunday night in an attack that also left her older sister critically injured. A suspect in that case, John Lee Cowell, was taken into custody on Monday.

Anyone with information on the punching suspect is asked to contact BART police at (510)-464-7011.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterLOS ANGELES  A supermarket worker was killed by a bullet fired by Los Angeles police  not the gunman they were trying to stop  the citys police chief acknowledged Tuesday, defending the decision to use deadly force as an attempt to stop what officers feared could become a mass shooting.

The suspect, Gene Evin Atkins, 28, already had shot his grandmother, kidnapped his girlfriend and shot at officers Saturday afternoon as they chased his car and then as he ran into the Trader Joes in the citys congested Silver Lake neighborhood, according to police.

After exchanging gunfire with police, Atkins ran into the store and took about 40 people hostage, police said.

Police released several minutes of body camera and dash-cam video that showed Atkins leading officers on the high-speed chase  during which officers can be heard saying hes shooting at them  before he crashed into a pole outside the market.

In deciding whether to open fire, officers had to consider whether the gunman was likely to harm the scores of shoppers and workers inside, police Chief Michel Moore said.

Its every officers worst nightmare to harm an innocent bystander, he said.

Those officers actions to stop him, the split-second decisions they had to make, I recognize how they will forever go through their lives debating whether that was what they had to do, Moore said. I believe its what they needed to do in order to defend ... the people in that store and to defend themselves.

As police chased the gunman after the car crash, one officer is heard on video saying she had pulled out her gun, but her partner tells her not to shoot.

However, two officers did fire back at Atkins just as the stores assistant manager, Melyda Corado, 27, was walking out the door. One of the rounds went through her arm and into her body and she died at the scene, Moore said. No other bystanders were shot. Atkins was wounded in the arm.

The videos show Atkins running from his car after the crash and shooting at officers as they duck for cover behind the doors of their police car and return fire. They then position themselves behind a cement wall on the far end of the stores parking lot as Atkins shoots three times from inside the store.

Officers fired a total of eight gunshots, Moore said.

Several friends of Corado have questioned why officers chose to open fire outside the crowded supermarket.

Geoff Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina, said the video appeared to show a very controlled police response with few bystanders in the background.

The officers were firing at a serious threat to the community. And then we have this tragedy of her coming out of the door, said Alpert, who helped investigate a 2014 hostage standoff at a cafe in Sydney.

This is one of those tragic situations that is kind of a lose-lose situation for the police, he said.

Moore said Corado walked back inside the store after she was shot and collapsed behind the managers counter, where she died.

It is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family. We share that pain, Moore said.

Christian Dunlop, a real estate agent and actor who lives nearby, was on a corner near the store when he saw an employee dragging Corado out of the store by her hands.

She appeared lifeless, he said.

Some people inside the supermarket climbed out windows and others barricaded themselves in rooms as scores of police and firefighters and 18 ambulances converged on the scene and prepared for the possibility of mass casualties as the standoff played out on live television.

About three hours later, Atkins agreed to handcuff himself and walked out the front door of the store, surrounded by four hostages.

Hours earlier, police said, Atkins shot his grandmother, Mary Madison, seven times in her South Los Angeles home and kidnapped his girlfriend  who was grazed by a bullet, Moore said. Madison, 76, remained hospitalized in critical condition.

Atkins cousin, Charlene Egland, said Atkins had been arguing with Madison  who had raised him since he was 7  on and off for about two or three weeks over his girlfriend staying at the womans home.

Atkins was charged Tuesday with murder, attempted murder, false imprisonment and dozens of other charges.

Even though he is not accused of firing the bullet that killed Corado, prosecutors said he was charged with murder under a legal rule that his actions prompted a series of events leading to her killing.

Atkins was scheduled to be arraigned later Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney to comment on the allegations.

Michael Balsamo is an Associated Press writer.A San Bruno man was arrested Wednesday for threatening by phone to blow up San Bruno City Hall.

San Bruno police say that Keith Gillam, 38, called the city at 4:13 p.m. Tuesday and made the threat. No explosive devices were found in the building.

At 11 a.m. Wednesday, authorities served a search warrant at his home. They found no explosives but confiscated two firearms and other unidentified items of evidence.

Gillam was booked into San Mateo County Jail for making criminal threats.

MORE: 24-year-old man killed in shooting in San Francisco's Hunters Point

The investigation into this incident is continuing, and anyone with information can contact the San Bruno Police Department at 650-616-7100 or sbpdtipline@sanbruno.ca.gov. Tips may be left anonymously.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuanPhoto by The Star on Grand on Yelp

Oakland is a culinary wonderland. The Town's restaurants dish up some of the best meals in the Bay Area. The only issue you might face is where to start.

OpenTable narrowed down the 25 most-booked Oakland restaurants in the last year, all of which showcase culinary prowess.

If ambiance is your thing, these places have plenty of style while you enjoy your meal. Calavera Mexican Kitchen & Agave Bar, for instance, has exposed brick walls with decorative lamps adorned within the space.

The restaurants on OpenTable's list are popular with diners as well as critics. For example, A16, was featured on the Chronicles Top 100 Restaurants in 2018.

"Pasta remains a strength of the kitchen, whether the orecchiette with firm chunks of lamb sausage and fried senise chiles from Southern Italy; cavatelli with geoduck sugo, chiles and cannellini beans; or pansotti with a ricotta and eggplant filing," The Chronicle's Michael Bauer wrote.

ALSO: Oakland's dining is hot. Is it even hotter than SF's?

Great food has always been part of Oakland's DNA. Daniel Patterson, owner of Oaklands Plum Cocktail Bar (not listed), told GQ that what makes Oaklands food scene so special is that chefs cook for the people who live there.

Oakland businesses have never relied on tourists, Patterson added, and that has allowed chefs to really focus on locals.

I think theres something about a restaurant culture that evolves out of the spotlight that allows it to be more grounded in its community.

Take a look at the slideshow above to see the most-reserved Oakland restaurants, according to OpenTable.

Follow Susana Guerrero on Twitter and email her at sguerrero@sfchronicle.comATHENS, Ga.  Brian Kemp, Georgias secretary of state, captured the Republican nomination for governor Tuesday, dispatching the preferred candidate of the state party establishment after a series of provocative ads that evoked President Trumps incendiary politics and a well-timed endorsement from the president himself.

Kemp now faces Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee, in a November pegeneral election that will test whether this rapidly changing Southern state prefers a Trump-style conservative or a progressive black woman.

According to results from the Associated Press, Kemp held a wide lead in the runoff over his opponent, Casey Cagle, the states lieutenant governor. Georgia Democrats were also choosing candidates Tuesday to compete for a pair of Atlanta-area House seats held by Republicans who could prove vulnerable.

In the governors race, Kemp and Abrams both likely will recalibrate their appeals to try to reach Georgias growing population of moderate voters. But Kemp  whose hard-line campaign has featured ads in which he volunteers to round up unauthorized immigrants and brandishes guns  will first have to unite his party, after an unusually bitter runoff that effectively ended last week when Trump endorsed him.

The victory by Kemp, who won just 26 percent of the vote during the first balloting in May and was heavily outspent throughout the nominating contest, was the latest testament to the strength of Trumps grip on the Republican electorate. And in a mournful essay that amounted to an early concession, Cagle wrote Monday that Trumps intercession was a kick in the gut.

But what alarms Republican officials in Washington and Atlanta, where the outgoing governor, Nathan Deal, endorsed Cagle, is that Trumps endorsement of Kemp may have made it harder to defeat Abrams in November.

Large swaths of suburban Atlanta swung away from the Republicans in 2016, recoiling from Trumps divisive and racially tinged appeals. And Kemp has adopted the same approach, but even more vividly.

Kemp aired commercials that showed him wielding a shotgun that, he vowed, no ones taking away. And he sat in a Ford F350 truck that he said he would use just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself.

In a separate ad that many here believe helped propel him into the runoff, the secretary of state pointed a shotgun at a young man purportedly interested in dating one of his daughters.

And as secretary of state, Kemp backed so-called religious freedom legislation that has drawn strong opposition in the past from the business community and gay-rights groups.

Alan Blinder and Jonathan Martin are New York Times writers.A 24-year-old man was shot and killed Tuesday night in San Franciscos Hunters Point, authorities said.

At 10:51 p.m., San Francisco police received a report that a man was shot on the 700 block of Kirkwood Avenue. The alleged shooter, a 30-year-old man, was not arrested and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

The victim was transported to the hospital, where he later died.

Police were not immediately available for comment.

MORE NEWS: With violent crime up on BART, officials struggle to reassure riders

Erin Stone is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: erin.stone@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erstone7LOS ANGELES  A secretly recorded tape of Donald Trump by his longtime personal lawyer was played on CNN Tuesday night in which the two can be heard discussing a potential payment for a Playboy models story and the soon-to-be president is heard saying at one point pay with cash.

The audio recording, surreptitiously made by Trumps former personal lawyer Michael Cohen two months before the 2016 presidential election, was provided to CNN by Cohens attorney, Lanny Davis.

The conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirers parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. Trump denies the affair ever happened and his campaign had said he knew nothing about the payment.

Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougals story from the Enquirers parent company.

Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, a possible reference to David Pecker, Trumps friend and president of the National Enquirers parent company, American Media Inc.

When Cohen begins to discuss financing, Trump interrupts him and asks, What financing?

Well have to pay, Cohen responded.

The audio is muffled, but Trump can be heard saying pay with cash, though it isnt clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash. Cohen immediately says, No, no, no and Trump can then be heard saying, check.

A transcript of the conversation provided by Trumps current attorney, Rudy Giuliani, says Trump actually said, Dont pay with cash...check.

Last week, Giuliani said the recording would prove that the president said it has to be done correctly and it has to be done by check.

The transcript that we provided CNN accurately reflects the taped conversation, Giuliani told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Michael Balsamo is an Associated Press writer.CAMPBELL (BCN)



California Highway Patrol officials released new information about a fatal crash in Campbell on Monday night that caused a fire on state Highway 17.



Officers went to the area of southbound Highway 17 just south of East Hamilton Avenue at 9:33 p.m. to reports of a two-vehicle collision.



A Ford Mustang became disabled for some reason and a Toyota crashed into it, unable to stop in time, according to the CHP.



The force of the impact caused both to catch on fire and the Ford became engulfed in flames, according to the CHP. Multiple "heroic" bystanders attempted to extricate a 60-year-old man from the Ford but were unable to save him, according to the CHP.



The Toyota's driver did not suffer any injuries and was able to help extricate his passengers.



Two other people suffered major injuries while a third suffered minor injuries, according to the CHP. All were taken to the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.



The Santa Clara County medical examiner's office will release the identity of the 60-year-old man after contacting his next of kin.













Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.BERKELEY (BCN)



Activists who rushed the dais at a Berkeley City Council meeting last year concerning a controversial first-responder training exercise have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city alleging that officers used excessive force during the incident.



The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, says activists "peacefully" unfurled a banner reading "Stop Urban Shield, End the Militarization of our Communities" at the council meeting at Longfellow Middle School on June 20, 2017.



Urban Shield is a training exercise the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has hosted for multiple law enforcement agencies since 2007.



The suit alleges that, "Berkeley police immediately responded with aggression and violence, applying unnecessary pain holds and forcefully herding protesters out of the auditorium with baton shoves and blows."



The suit charges that officers injured several people, including Lewis Williams, a 74-year-old retired elementary school teacher, and photojournalist Brooke Anderson, who the suit said presented officers with her press pass but was struck multiple times on her arm, which already was in a brace due to a prior injury.



The lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting Berkeley police from using unnecessary force against protesters and journalists as well as monetary compensation for the injuries to the three plaintiffs in the case.



The suit names the city of Berkeley, police Chief Andrew Greenwood and five sergeants and officers as defendants.



City officials didn't immediately respond to a request for a comment on the suit.



Shortly after the council meeting, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said in a statement, "The audience in the meeting rushed the dais, making many councilmembers fear for their safety. Extra officers were called from around the City to come to the school for support."



Arreguin said, "The officers gave people multiple verbal warnings and asked them to get off the stage. When they did not, they arrested two people inside the auditorium on charges of obstructing, delaying or resisting an officer, and for the obstruction of a council meeting. Both were cited and released."



Arreguin said, "Once outside, crowds encircled police cars and began demanding the release of the people detained. Officers gave verbal commands to have people back off of the car. When they did not, they were pushed out of the way to allow the patrol car to leave."



The mayor said, "One person apparently reached for a police officer's weapon. I don't know why a person was hit with a baton and police are investigating the incident. I wish them a speedy recovery."



The lawsuit follows another long City Council meeting on the issue Monday night that ended with a 5-4 vote in favor of participating in the Urban Shield training again this September.



The Stop Urban Shield Coalition alleged in a news release that the training exercise is "militarized, xenophobic and racialized."



But Sheriff Gregory Ahern said at an Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting in March that he already has made many changes to Urban Shield based on community input, such as installing safeguards to make sure that it bans racial profiling, excludes vendors who display derogatory or racist messages and excludes the sale or transfer of assault weapons and firearms.



The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at the end of that March meeting to fund the training exercise for this year but not for future years in its current format.



The motion approved by the board calls for the exercise format in 2019 and future years to focus more on training for natural disasters and less on terrorism and on weapons vendors.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.3 1 of 3 Courtesy Alameda County Sheriff's Office Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Courtesy Alameda County Sheriff's Office Show More Show Less 3 of 3





An Amber alert has been issued this afternoon because a 16-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, according to the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.



Isabelle Epps was allegedly abducted at about 2 p.m. from Hayward by Antonio Aguilarelizarrag.



Sheriff's officials said a statewide Amber alert has been issued.



Aguilarelizarrag may be driving a black 2005 Honda Ridgeline with a chrome roof rack and California license plate No. 7Y51010.

MORE CRIME TODAY: 2 dead in apparent murder-suicide in San RafaelBERKELEY (BCN)



Berkeley police are asking for the public's help in locating a 69-year-old woman who was last seen on Tuesday morning.



Mirta Batista-Tatum, 69, is described as an African-American woman who was last seen wearing a red/orange top, leather vest, white jacket and a long, black skirt at the intersection of Dwight Way and Eighth Street around 11 a.m. Tuesday.



Anyone that sees Batista-Tatum or has information on her whereabouts is asked to call 911 or Berkeley police at (510) 981-5900.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.VACAVILLE (BCN)



A woman who was fatally shot allegedly by her boyfriend in Vacaville on Sunday has been identified by police as Samantha Jack, 22, of Elk Grove.



Jack suffered a single gunshot wound to the upper chest, Vacaville police Lt. Chris Polen said.



Police arrested her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Gage Harold Pontarelli, 24, of Vacaville. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Solano County Superior Court on Aug. 31.



Police found Jack's body around 3 a.m. Sunday in a detached garage on Pontarelli's mother's property in the 400 block of Kentucky Street, Polen said.



Pontarelli and Jack had a sporadic dating relationship for the past year, and there were no prior calls about violence at the Kentucky Street address, Polen said.



Police located a semi-automatic firearm, and Pontarelli cooperated with the investigation and his arrest, Polen said.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)



San Francisco supervisors unanimously voted at their meeting today for a citywide ban on single-use foodware items such as plastic straws, stirrers and toothpicks.



The Plastics, Toxics and Litter Reduction Ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Katy Tang, will amend the city's environment code to prohibit the sales of straws and other plastic-related food accessories.



Tang, who was not present at today's meeting, said in a statement, "The negative environmental impacts of single-use plastics are astronomical."



"San Francisco has been a pioneer of environmental change, and it's time for us to find alternatives to the plastic that is choking our marine ecosystems and littering our streets," she said.



According to Tang's office, single-use plastic foodware contributes to the tons of trash and waste found in our oceans.



In San Francisco alone, about a million straws are used each day. Furthermore, small plastic foodware makes up about 67 percent of street litter that goes into the San Francisco Bay.



"We are dedicated to protecting our coast and waterways from the harmful effects of plastic and our disposable culture," said Eva Holman with the Rise Above Plastics Campaign of the San Francisco Surfrider Foundation.



"We are excited to lend the Surfrider Foundation's support for this groundbreaking legislation, which will greatly reduce plastic waste, encourage people to reuse items, and protect our city and families from toxic fluorinated chemicals," she said.



Earlier this month, Seattle became the first major U.S. city to pass a plastic straw and utensil ban. Bay Area cities that have recently approved a ban or limit on small plastics include Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley.



In addition, the European Union plans to ban certain plastic and chemically-produced items that account for 70 percent of pollution in the ocean, Tang's office said.



San Francisco's ordinance is set to take effect in the city on July 1, 2019. Businesses and vendors will be required to fully comply by January 2020.



The ordinance, however, contains a provision that would allow plastic straws for medical reasons or for people with disabilities.



The approved ordinance adds to a list of innovative measures taken in the city to reduce plastic waste, with a citywide ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags happening in 2007 and a ban on Styrofoam going into effect last year.



"People everywhere look to us to make change toward a cleaner environment," Tang said. "We must take a stand for our environment because we are entrusted by future generations to do so."





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.SALINAS (BCN)



Monterey County sheriff's deputies arrested a man last week on suspicion of shooting and killing another man during a Salinas Quinceanera celebration in May.



Deputies responded to the shooting on May 26 and found Josiah Marquez of Salinas suffering from gunshot wounds in his car in the 400 block of Towt Street.



Marquez later died at a hospital, according to sheriff's officials, and investigators determined he was shot at the party.



In June, deputies obtained an arrest warrant for Angel Fabian Iniguez, 26, and said they tracked him across two states and multiple California cities.



Iniguez was arrested on Thursday night at his home near the location of the shooting, according to sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. John Thornburg. Iniguez was booked into the Monterey County Jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and possessing a firearm as a felon.



Giovanni Solis, 20, of Salinas was also arrested in connection with the killing.



Solis was arrested on May 31 and booked into the Monterey County Jail on suspicion of attempted murder and participating in a criminal street gang, in addition to other offenses, according to Monterey County Jail online records. His bail was set at $2 million.













Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.STANFORD (BCN)



U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at a speaking engagement hosted this morning by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.



Mattis and Pompeo were joined by their counterparts from Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister Marise Payne, and today's event came at the tail end of two days of meetings.



"We're proud to call Australia one of our best friends and strongest allies," Pompeo said.



"The economic relationship between our two countries is unrivaled in the world, and I think everyone in the region should know that," he added.



The event comes amid rising controversy over doubts raised by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding long-standing relationships with military allies such as NATO, which was established in the wake of World War II.



Topics addressed included the de-nuclearization of North Korea and China's buildup of military resources on man-made islands in the South China Sea.



"In relation to North Korea, Australia stands firmly with the United States and the international community in holding North Korea to abide by the numerous UN Security Council resolutions that banned its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and we will offer whatever support we can in the process of verifying the complete dismantling of those programs," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.



"We're totally aligned, Australia and the United States, with what we want as an end state in the Pacific, and that is of course the free and the open Indo-Pacific, where nations large and small are treated with respect for their territorial integrity, for their sovereignty, their sovereign decisions," Mattis said. "And I think that as we look at the South China Sea, our concern is that features that have never been militarized before have been militarized by the (People's Republic of China)."



They also discussed Iran and security across the Middle East when a reporter asked them to comment on a recent Tweet from President Trump suggesting the possibility of a military strike.



"I think that what we have to look at is the destabilizing influence that Iran has consistently portrayed and demonstrated throughout the region," Mattis said. "And the only reason that the murderer Assad is still in power - the primary reason - is because Iran has stuck by him, reinforced him, funded him."





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.A 23-year-old man was fatally shot in San Francisco's Hunters Point neighborhood on Tuesday night, according to police.



The city's medical examiner's office has identified the victim as San Francisco resident Matthew Higginbotham, who died in the shooting reported at 10:51 p.m. in the 700 block of Kirkwood Avenue.



Police said the suspect is a man in his 30s who has not been arrested, but no other details about the shooting were immediately released.



Anyone with information about the shooting is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message.







A woman who was fatally shot allegedly by her boyfriend in Vacaville on Sunday has been identified by police as Samantha Jack, 22, of Elk Grove.



Jack suffered a single gunshot wound to the upper chest, Vacaville police Lt. Chris Polen said.



Police arrested her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Gage Harold Pontarelli, 24, of Vacaville. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Solano County Superior Court on Aug. 31.



Police found Jack's body around 3 a.m. Sunday in a detached garage on Pontarelli's mother's property in the 400 block of Kentucky Street, Polen said.



Pontarelli and Jack had a sporadic dating relationship for the past year, and there were no prior calls about violence at the Kentucky Street address, Polen said.







A bicyclist who died after being struck by a vehicle in the Crockett area of unincorporated Contra Costa County Tuesday evening has been identified as 42-year-old Christopher Bunag, according to the county coroner.



Bunag, a Hercules resident, was riding in the area of 20050 San Pablo Ave., near a vista point parking lot at the southern end of the Carquinez Bridge Trail around 7:25 p.m. when he was struck by a vehicle, which fled the scene, according to the California Highway Patrol.



Further details about the circumstances of the crash were not immediately available.







The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office has identified a motorcyclist who died after a collision with a van last week as David Jimenez, 20, of Santa Rosa.



The crash was reported at 6:07 p.m. on July 17 in the 3000 block of Wiljan Court. Jimenez was found in the roadway and was taken to a hospital where he died, Santa Rosa police said.



Jimenez was riding a Kawasaki sport bike and was speeding south on Wiljan Court when he crossed over double yellow lines to pass a slower vehicle, police said.



The motorcycle collided with a northbound van that was making a left turn into a driveway. The van driver was not injured and he cooperated with the investigation, police said.







A Petaluma woman whose teenage son died in April of an overdose of fentanyl pleaded guilty to child endangerment this morning in Sonoma County Superior Court.



Danielle Faletto, 35, also admitted having two prior violent or serious felony strikes related to two robberies in May 2017. She faces 12 years in prison when she is sentenced on Aug. 21.



Faletto's 16-year-old son was found unconscious April 16 at a residence on Vallejo Street in Petaluma. He was taken to Petaluma Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from an overdose of Xanax containing fentanyl, a synthetic opioid more powerful than morphine or heroin.







Activists who rushed the dais at a Berkeley City Council meeting last year concerning a controversial first-responder training exercise have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city alleging that officers used excessive force during the incident.



The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, says activists "peacefully" unfurled a banner reading "Stop Urban Shield, End the Militarization of our Communities" at the council meeting at Longfellow Middle School on June 20, 2017.



Urban Shield is a training exercise the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has hosted for multiple law enforcement agencies since 2007.



The suit alleges that, "Berkeley police immediately responded with aggression and violence, applying unnecessary pain holds and forcefully herding protesters out of the auditorium with baton shoves and blows."



The suit charges that officers injured several people, including Lewis Williams, a 74-year-old retired elementary school teacher, and photojournalist Brooke Anderson, who the suit said presented officers with her press pass but was struck multiple times on her arm, which already was in a brace due to a prior injury.



The suit names the city of Berkeley, police Chief Andrew Greenwood and five sergeants and officers as defendants. City officials didn't immediately respond to a request for a comment on the suit.







A 38-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening to "blow up" City Hall in San Bruno Tuesday afternoon.



Police identified Keith Gillam, a San Bruno resident, and arrested him around 11 a.m. Wednesday.



No explosive devices were found during a search of his residence, but police say they seized firearms and other evidence at the scene.



Gillam has since been booked into San Mateo County Jail on suspicion of making criminal threats. Anyone with additional information is asked to contact investigators at (650) 616-7100.







A fire that sparked Sunday in the hills east of Milpitas has been fully contained as of this morning, according to Cal Fire.



The 320-acre blaze dubbed the Country Fire burned vegetation in and around Ed R. Levin County Park in unincorporated Santa Clara County, scorching land in a southwesterly direction from where it began, Cal Fire officials said.



One structure was destroyed and the fire briefly threatened the Mount Allison communications site, but crews were able to contain it with help from cooling and increased humidity during the nighttime hours the past couple of days, according to Cal Fire.



Crews will remain in the area today to look out for any hot spots. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.







The dispatch phone line for the Lafayette Police Department is working again after being temporarily disabled this morning by an unspecified AT&T malfunction, police said.



The Police Department issued an advisory shortly before 9 a.m. saying that residents should call 911 or an alternate dispatch number at (925) 646-2441, and can email any non-emergency issues to 94549TIP@gmail.com.



The main dispatch line at (925) 284-5010 is working again, according to a statement posted online around 11 a.m.







Marin County is adding 41 electric vehicle charging stations to its Civic Center campus in San Rafael, according to the county's Department of Public Works.



There will be 31 charging stations at the Hall of Justice parking lot for public use, and the remaining 10 stations will be installed at the Civic Center's garage to charge county vehicles.



The additional charging stations are part of a collaborative effort with PG&E's EV Charge Network Program. PG&E will provide funding for electrical infrastructure upgrades to the parking lot including trenching and running electrical wiring.



Construction started Monday and will end in a month. Access to the Hall of Justice parking lot may be affected for a short time but additional parking is available throughout the Civic Center campus, county officials said.







A Santa Rosa Junior College adjunct chemistry instructor was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of disturbing the peace and false imprisonment after allegedly arguing and attempting to fight two women on campus, campus police said.



Campus police said John Peter Melbardis, 44, of Rohnert Park, was taken into custody as an officer was investigating a report of a verbal disturbance at Bech Hall at 12:02 p.m. Tuesday.



When the officer arrived on scene, police said two women -- a student and campus employee -- were visibly upset outside of the hall. The officer then entered the building and allegedly heard Melbardis arguing with other people, then detained him.



After speaking with witnesses and the victims, police determined Melbardis had allegedly used aggressive language and cursed in an attempt to provoke a violent reaction from the victims.



Police said after Melbardis did that, he then allegedly assumed a "threatening fighting stance" against one of the women, held up his arms, clenched his fists and cocked one hand back as if to prepare to throw a punch.



After that, police said Melbardis allegedly backed the other woman into a wall and prevented her freedom of movement by blocking her path with his body.



Melbardis has been booked into Sonoma County Jail and is not allowed on any SRJC district property for at least 14 days from his arrest.





Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.The attorney for a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assaulting a female student in 2016 has argued in an appeal of the jury's verdict that it should be overturned because of a lack of evidence.



Brock Turner was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object in March 2016. He was sentenced to six months in jail and was released after three months for good behavior.



Tuesday morning Attorney Eric Multhaup said of his appeal that Turner had only engaged in "sexual outercourse" that did not involve the intent to commit rape. Turner was not present in the courtroom during the appeal.



He defined "sexual outercourse" as an activity that does not involve vaginal sex and described it as "a version of safe sex."



He said Turner was not naked and his genitals were not exposed when two students witnessed "aggressive thrusting" in January 2015 at a fraternity party near Stanford, and said the lack of evidence did not meet the standard of reasonable doubt pointing to an intent to rape.







Alameda County sheriff's officials said they have found a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly abducted from Hayward.



As of 6:41 p.m. Monday, Isabelle Epps had been found safe by BART police at the Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre BART station.



Earlier in the evening sheriff's officials said they located the suspect in the abduction.



Antonio Aguilarelizarrag was found by Pittsburg police in his black 2005 Honda Ridgeline and stopped him. Epps was not with him.



Epps was allegedly abducted at about 2 p.m.







San Francisco supervisors have unanimously voted for a citywide ban on single-use foodware items such as plastic straws, stirrers and toothpicks.



The Plastics, Toxics and Litter Reduction Ordinance, introduced by Supervisor Katy Tang, will amend the city's environment code to prohibit the sales of straws and other plastic-related food accessories.



Tang, who was not present for the vote at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, said in a statement, "The negative environmental impacts of single-use plastics are astronomical."



"San Francisco has been a pioneer of environmental change, and it's time for us to find alternatives to the plastic that is choking our marine ecosystems and littering our streets," she said.



According to Tang's office, single-use plastic foodware contributes to the tons of trash and waste found in our oceans.



In San Francisco alone, about a million straws are used each day. Furthermore, small plastic foodware makes up about 67 percent of street litter that goes into the San Francisco Bay.







U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at a speaking engagement hosted Tuesday morning by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.



Mattis and Pompeo were joined by their counterparts from Australia, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Defense Minister Marise Payne, and Tuesday's event came at the tail end of two days of meetings.



"We're proud to call Australia one of our best friends and strongest allies," Pompeo said.



"The economic relationship between our two countries is unrivaled in the world, and I think everyone in the region should know that," he added.



The event comes amid rising controversy over doubts raised by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding long-standing relationships with military allies such as NATO, which was established in the wake of World War II.



Topics addressed included the de-nuclearization of North Korea and China's buildup of military resources on man-made islands in the South China Sea.







The San Francisco Police Department on Monday released body camera footage from a brief encounter between officers and a business owner in San Francisco's Mission District last week after the owner alleged racial profiling.



Around 7:30 a.m. on July 17, officers responded to a report of a burglary in progress at 899 Valencia St. A caller said that a person was taking items from a small, open door, police said.



Four officers arrived and spoke with the man and determined he was the owner and left within about three minutes, according to police.



The owner, a black man, has identified himself on social media as Vicktor Stevenson, the owner of Gourmonade, a recently opened beverage kiosk. Stevenson was reportedly checking the kiosk's security systems at the time.



Following the incident, Stevenson posted a photo of himself with the officers on the Gourmonade Facebook page, as well as video of the encounter.







Six Oakland police officers were injured when explosive devices were thrown at officers during a march that followed a gathering in memory of 18-year-old Nia Wilson, who was fatally stabbed at the MacArthur BART station, police said.



On Monday afternoon about 1,000 people gathered at the MacArthur Station, where Wilson was stabbed on Sunday night, and marched to downtown Oakland Monday evening, according to police and a marcher.



While the marchers were in the downtown area there was a dispute between multiple people and officers detained two men who were later released, police said.



However, a portion of the crowd became disruptive and violent while officers were removing the men from the area, according to police.



Authorities said at least two M80- or M1000-type devices were thrown at officers, which caused six officers to suffer injuries not considered to be life-threatening, police said.







A Santa Rosa man and his mother have pleaded not guilty in Sonoma County Superior Court to allegedly operating a brothel in Rohnert Park.



David Scott Romesburg II, 38, and Fay Romesburg, 59, were arrested by the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety Jan. 26 for alleged pimping and pandering. The alleged prostitution business employed approximately 150 women over 10 years, public safety officials said.



Court hearings on the complaint by the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office have been continued since January. The Romesburgs are now scheduled to appear in court Aug. 8 for a disposition of the case or the setting of a preliminary hearing date.



Charles Applegate, Fay Romesburg's attorney, told the court Tuesday morning there is "substantial movement to a resolution."













Copyright  2018 by Bay City News, Inc. Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.Perth Amboy Police Departmen(PERTH AMBOY, N.J.) -- Body camera footage shows the harrowing moment when a New Jersey police officer saves a man who was on the train tracks just seconds before an oncoming train came speeding by.



The shaky video begins as Perth Amboy Police Officer Kyle Savoia runs alongside the tracks toward the man wearing a red shirt, who appears to be lying on the tracks.



As Savoia gets closer to the man, so does the train. The officer yells at the man in a panic, telling him to get off the tracks.



"Hey, bud! Hey, move!" he shouts before screaming for the train to stop.



Miraculously, the train stops before hitting the man, who then stood up and jumped to the side of the tracks. Savoia could be heard breathing a huge sigh of relief after the man scurried to safety.



The man then crosses the tracks, again, in front of the stopped train, to greet the officer.



"Sit down," Savoia told the man, who appeared to be distressed.



When Savoia asked him if he was OK, the man replied between heavy breaths, "Where'd you come from? Thank you. Oh my God. Thank you so much."



The incident occurred on Thursday morning, police said. Two other officers who were with Savoia notified the New Jersey Transit Police Department "immediately" upon receiving the call detailing the man on the tracks, which gave the train time to slow down and eventually stop, the Perth Amboy Police Department said.



It is unclear what the man was doing on the tracks.



The police department credited Savoia with saving the man, "who was just moments away from being struck by a moving train," it wrote on Facebook.



Savoia told NJ.com that police officers are required "to make quick decisions in difficult situations and act on them."



"Also, at such an early stage of my career, to be able to make an impactful difference in a person's life is incredible and makes me love what I do every day," Savoia told the local newspaper.



Savoia was just sworn into office in January, but his father, who died in 2016, was a Perth Amboy police officer for more than 28 years, according to NJ.com.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.American, Delta and United joined other global carriers and bowed to pressure from China on Wednesday and stopped listing the city of Taipei as being located in Taiwan. The airlines, however, didn't go so far as to say that Taipei is part of China.On Tuesday, the Agriculture Department said it would make available up to $12 billion of short-term aid, a one-time bridge for farmers as Trump attempts to negotiate new trade agreements. In addition to making direct payments to corn and soybean farmers, the administration says it will buy surpluses of crops like fruits and nuts and distribute them to food assistance programs. It will also direct funds toward building trade in other countries, officials said.Facing an uncertain future on the airwaves, the producers of UFC's "Ultimate Fighter" show have put the mansion where they've filmed the past few seasons on the market for $5 million.

Located in Las Vegas, the 9,500-square-foot, nine-bedroom, 12-bath home last traded hands in mid-2014 for $2.75 million, which means the UFC could turn a $2.25 million profit if it gets the full asking price.

"Ultimate Fighter" debuted on Spike TV in 2005, as the UFC was still wobbling and unsteady. Its new owners had picked up the struggling brand in 2001 for $2 millionand went on to lose $44 million over the next three and a half years, according to news reports at the time.

UFC President Dana White needed a marketing boost to vault the circuit into the pop culture mainstream. He found that in The Ultimate Fighter, which put up-and-coming mixed martial artists in the same house, competing in a series of elimination matches to win a six-figure contract with the UFC.

The show was an instant success, and over the past 27 seasons, some of the sports most recognizable names have competed on the show, notably Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, and Rashad Evans.

Aerial view realtor.com

Built in 1996 on a little over 2 acres, the oversize mansion features a grand porte-cochere and plenty of space for guests to park. We imagine it's seen its fair share of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Bugattis.

Double doors open to a two-story, circular foyer with Roman columns. The homes previous owner had commissioned a pastoral mural on the ceiling above the foyer, with recessed lighting to show the murals intricate details, according to a listing video from 2015.

Foyer realtor.com

Just off the foyer is the open-concept kitchen and living room, which has large, arched windows looking out on the backyard.

Living room and kitchen realtor.com

It appears the UFC renovated the kitchen, replacing its black countertops with a lighter stone, painting its cabinets and island, taking out a chandelier, and replacing drapes with modern shades. It turned the homes formal dining room into a pool hall, with a custom, UFC-branded pool table, and large art prints of past UFC champions.

Dining room realtor.com

Master bedroom realtor.com

Master bathroom realtor.com

Outside, the home has a walk-in pool with stone waterfall, gazebo, and kitchen. Palm trees and walkways give the property a resortlike feel.

The mansion is located west of the Las Vegas Strip, a 20-minute drive from the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

Pool realtor.com

Backyard realtor.com

In 2011, UFC signed a seven-year deal that moved the show to Fox. Five years later, the UFC was acquired by the talent agency William Morris Endeavor for $4.2 billion.

The UFCs contract with Fox ends this year, and the organization will move to ESPN. White said its unclear if Ultimate Fighter will find a new home under the Disney umbrella. Hes credited the show with saving the UFC, helping turn the organization into a multibillion-dollar global juggernaut.

It's amazing to think how close we came to not being here today, White recalled in 2008, at an Ultimate Fighter reunion show. If it weren't for what these guys did, I don't know if there would even be a UFC. I'll never forget these guys, ever.

The post Reality TV Knockout? Buy UFC's $5M 'Ultimate Fighter' Mansion in Las Vegas appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com.Page Content

Many employers have policies stating that workers don't have an expectation of privacy when using company resources, such as computers, phones and e-mail programs. This type of policy is usually permissible in California, but employers must be aware of the state's stringent privacy rules that afford more protection to employees than federal statutes do.

The California Constitution identifies certain inalienable rights for citizens, including "pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness and privacy." Additionally, employees in the state are covered by various statutes that protect their privacy. For example, under the California Labor Code, employees can't be demoted, suspended or fired for engaging in lawful conduct during off-duty hours and while away from the worksite.

California workers also can't be discriminated against based on their political affiliation or political activity.



Here are five areas of workplace-privacy compliance that employers might be getting wrong.





1. Medical Information



"California employers should be mindful of privacy rights as they pertain to medical information," said Christopher Olmsted, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in San Diego. For example, when requesting a medical certification for a leave of absence under the California Family Rights Act, an employer should not request any medical facts relating to the employee's condition. Similar restrictions apply to fitness-for-duty or other medical testing.

Furthermore, employers should take care to maintain the confidentiality of employee medical documents, he added. Medical records relating to workers' compensation claims, health insurance claims, and disability or medical leaves should be kept in a secure location that is accessible only to designated staff members.

Medical documents should be kept separately from personnel files, noted Steve Hernandez, an attorney with Barnes & Thornburg in Los Angeles.

2. Social Security Numbers

All states have laws protecting personal data to some degree because the risk of identity theft is so high. California law provides specific protections for employee Social Security numbers, which can only be used in very limited circumstances, Hernandez said. Full Social Security numbers can't be used as an employee identification number and aren't supposed to be put in anything that goes in mail or in other communications.

3. Workplace Monitoring

California employers should exercise care in connection with workplace monitoring, such as video surveillance, e-mail monitoring, and listening to employee telephone conversations, Olmsted said. "Where employers have legitimate business purposes for such monitoring, it is a best practice to disclose the monitoring to employees in a handbook, memo, sign or by other means."

[SHRM members-only toolkit: Managing Workplace Monitoring and Surveillance]

Hernandez noted that "monitoring" and "recording" are not the same thing. In California, no one should be recorded without consent, so it's not enough for a notice to state, "This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes." If the call might also be recorded, the notice needs to say so.

Likewise, a convenience store camera may be placed in an obvious position to put employees on notice of the surveillance, but if the system records sound in addition to video, the employer needs to notify workers and obtain consent, he added.

4. Background Checks

California imposes limits on conducting background checks, such as credit- or criminal-history reports. In addition to being aware of federal rules on conducting background investigations, employers must also be aware of their responsibilities under the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act and the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act.

Employers may often be required to obtain the employee's consent and disclose certain rights and procedures when conducting such investigations, Olmsted said.

The state recently enacted a "ban-the-box" law that prohibits employers from asking job applicants about their criminal history until after a conditional offer has been made.

5. Drug Testing

Employee privacy rights are implicated when businesses test for drugs, particularly when they have random drug testing programs, Olmsted said. "Due to privacy rights, employers should limit random drug testing to special circumstances, such as for safety-sensitive roles or when state or federal law may require such testing."

Drug tests qualify as a medical examination under California law. Employers can test potential new hires between the time a conditional offer has been made and the tentative start date, but, even then, there are specific steps and notification requirements that employers must follow, Hernandez noted.

Compliance Tips



When dealing with the maze of privacy issues that come up in the employment setting, it is a good idea to consult local counsel, Hernandez said. The biggest issue for employers to be aware of is that any time they are dealing with an employee's private information, notice and consent are likely required.

Think of it like the Golden Rule, he said: "Don't do anything with someone else's records that you don't want done with yours."





STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There aren't many people who can impact a child's life the way Dr. Nadia Maraghy has.

I was about two or three weeks old when my parents carried me into a pediatrician's office in Dongan Hills. After that introductory visit, Mom and Dad concluded their little boy was in good hands, the hands of a soft-spoken, calming Dr. Maraghy.

My parents had an easy decision to make when my sister, Lauren, was born three years later.

My story isn't unique, not when it comes to Dr. Maraghy, at least. Until her retirement three years ago, she cared for thousands of infants and young children - and in many cases, their own children. Call them grand-patients if you will.

On Wednesday afternoon, she welcomed them back. Scores of excited patients visited their favorite doctor at her Lighthouse Hill home for a special reunion. Flashing wide smiles, they carried in flowers and cookies.

They shared big hugs and kisses. Some shed tears.

"One of a kind," many folks said of the genuine, caring Dr. Maraghy, whose dedicated nature made her seem like a reliable, extended family member.

Every Christmas, parents sent in holiday photographs of Dr. Maraghy's patients. The images were pinned to cork-boards that were installed throughout the office for others to see. During our visit, the same dozen or so boards were displayed in her living room, allowing for grown patients to point out their younger selves.

A stack of newer Christmas cards and photos sat on the doctor's kitchen table. Just steps away were images of Dr. Maraghy's own family members.

Dr. Maraghy came to America on Columbus Day 1972, three years after obtaining her medical degree in Cairo. She opened her Richmond Road and Barton Avenue office in 1981, where she tended to infants, toddlers and young teenage Staten Islanders until retiring in 2015.

Maria LaMarch was 11 years old when she first visited Dr. Maraghy during the doctor's first year in her Dongan Hills office. All five of her children later became her patients.

"My joke with her was when I went to college, she said 'You have to find another doctor,' and I said 'No, I'll just get married and I'll bring my kids here,'" laughed the Tottenville mom. "She's the old-fashioned, caring doctor that calls when your child is sick."

She was right. Dr. Maraghy was always within reach, be it in person or by phone. Her stethoscope was spotted wrapped around the home telephone, which was conveniently located next to a quartet of family photographs.

"We miss her," said LaMarch, echoing a similar story as another longtime patient, Angela Fagen, who met Dr. Maraghy when she was 8.

Like many of the doctor's patients, Fagen's kids also saw the pediaictrician when they were ill.

"But so did my sister, my brother, my niece, my nephew," said Fagan. "We love her so much. There was nobody that I would trust more with my children than Dr. Maraghy."

Fagen, now an Eltingville resident, said that when she lived in Brooklyn, she'd trek across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to see the Dongan Hills pediatrician. There were no other options.

"She was the best," said Lynn Leotta, joking that after Dr. Maraghy retired, "I wanted her to move in with me."

Dr. Maraghy has spent her retirement visiting relatives in Minnesota. She often grabs breakfast, lunch, or dinner with former patients. Occasionally, she'll dine at their homes.

Despite not practicing medicine for three years, "I'll be very honest with you," she told me, "mentally, I'm not retired."

As she exchanged hugs and kisses with her guests, Dr. Maraghy asked each of them how a sibling, or another child was doing.

In one instance, she told a teenager who was preparing for college that higher education is essential. As they shared a moment together, Dr. Maraghy shared a bit of encouragement.

"Do your best."

It was an appropriate phrase. After all, it's what she did for her patients.Update: Read the full obituary at this link.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Guy V. Molinari, a giant of Staten Island political and civic life, has died, the Advance has learned.

Molinari, 89, a political force here for half a century, had been ill and housebound for several years.

He was in NYU Medical Center where it is said he passed away.

Molinari began his political career as a state assemblyman 1974 before winning Staten Island's congressional seat in 1980. He then ran for borough president and won in 1989.

Along the way, he became an intimate of and advisor to stellar political figures like Vice President George H.W. Bush, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and U.S. Sen. John McCain.

"The Staten Island Republican family is saddened by the news of the passing of former Congressman, Borough President, and Assemblyman Guy Molinari," said Brendan Lantry, Chairman of the Staten Island Republican Party. "Guy was, simply stated, a larger than life figure here on the Island and throughout New York. He was a mentor to dozens of young, eager Republicans who have risen up the ranks over the years. His numerous accomplishments for the people of Staten Island will live on for generations. Our prayers are with Susan and the rest of the Molinari family at this difficult time."

Check back on SILive.com for a full obituary recounting Molinari's legendary and often combative career in Staten Island and national politics.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Port Richmond residents came out in force to voice their opposition to the development of two hotels proposed for the neighborhood.

About 50 people attended the meeting -- including members of Port Richmond Strong, a community group formed to fight the development and local elected officials -- at the Reformed Church of Staten Island on Tuesday night to discuss the situation and available options.

Department of Building records identify the owner of both properties as Amritpal Sandhu, and the architect of the project as Manish Savani, who has a Queens-based practice.

HOMELESS ISSUE

The main concern within the community is that the hotels would not generate legitimate business, instead being turned into de facto homeless shelters.

"Port Richmond is a community that has thrived on permanent housing, and when we start talking about this hotel being built we know what it is, it's transient housing," said Assemblyman Matthew Titone (D-North Shore).

Sandhu is a construction consultant for RiverBrook Equities, a real estate investment firm "that purchases land in opportunistic areas, builds and manages all its hotels," according to the company website.

The firm also notes that it operates in "outer boro neighborhoods of opportunity."

"Given the developer's history in the Rockaways ... we already know that it's their M.O. to build these hotels in vulnerable areas and convert them into homeless shelters," said Saul Porter, co-organizer of Port Richmond Strong.

A spokesperson for the office of Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Rockaway-Ozone Park) confirmed that a Comfort Inn & Suites, owned by RiverBrook Equities in the Rockaways, is currently housing 50 homeless families.

Neither Sandhu nor RiverBrook Equities could be reached for comment.

Oddo says he's determined to not let the two hotels become homeless shelters.

"I told the owners mine and the community's concern, which is at some point this will be used [to house] homeless. For what it's worth, he [the developer] assured us that's not the purpose," Oddo told the Advance earlier this month.

Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) stated she has already discussed the issue with the commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services.

"I've gotten him to commit to the fact, and he has said this, and I've asked him if he's prepared to state that publicly, that they're not going to convert any hotel rooms for the use of homeless shelters," said Rose.

She implored those in attendance to attend Mayor Bill de Blasio's town hall on Wednesday night and use the opportunity to demand a public statement.

"This is your opportunity to have the commissioner state publicly for the record, in front of the mayor, that this community does not want this hotel to be converted into homeless shelter," said Rose.

PARKING ISSUE

Another major concern raised regarding the project is the lack of available parking necessary to construct a legitimate hotel.

"This is something that the Community Board has already presented to this developer. He has to have 'X' number of parking spots in order for this project to go forward. Because of that, there is an opportunity for us to have some input," said Rose.

COMMUNITY INPUT

Wary of vehemently opposing the project without providing a viable alternative, members of the group discussed suggestions for other possible uses of the space.

"We have been talking with Staten Island Arts to see if we can perhaps put an artist studio or artist housing," said Porter. "We do have a vision for what we can do going forward, though it's still in it's infancy, but we're not going into this with absolutely no idea what we're planning."

Other residents suggested a community center, similar to the two YMCAs located on Broadway and Richmond Avenue.

"Why not something like that where we can bring in youth to actually do something productive? This is a neighborhood that isn't necessarily fed well by Broadway or the South Shore locations," said one resident.

NEXT STEPS

Port Richmond Strong has started circulating a petition, hoping to garner signatures from thousands of community members. Petition sheets can be picked up or dropped off at the Reformed Church of Staten Island, 54 Port Richmond Ave.

Democratic congressional candidate Max Rose pledged the full resources of his campaign to collecting signatures and assisting in the process in anyway possible.

"I was here for the first meeting of this group and we had about 12 people. Now at our third that's more than quadrupled in size. My suggestion to this group is simply that we demand that we're heard," said Rose, who is running against Rep. Daniel Donovan (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) in this year's general election..

"I've heard concerns about the proposed hotel and its impact on the community. During August recess, I plan to speak to community leaders and local elected officials about best next steps," Donovan said in a statement.

Port Richmond Strong's next meeting will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Reformed Church of Staten Island, 54 Port Richmond Ave.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.

-- A Staten Island woman who, along with her husband, was accused of duping the feds out of more than three-quarters of a million dollars in Hurricane Sandy relief has copped to her role in the scheme.

Nagwa Elsilimy, 60, pleaded guilty to disaster relief fraud during an appearance in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday, said a court spokesman.

The defendant and her husband, Ahmed Arafa, were indicted back in October, but Arafa was in Egypt when his wife was arrested and has remained in the Middle East since then, according to a source.

Arafa's case is still pending.

Elsilimy faces up to 30 years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $1.5 million, when she is sentenced. The date has yet to be determined.

The couple obtained more than $750,000 in federal aid after filing false applications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Build It Back (BIB), according to allegations in court records.

Prosecutors allege the couple received the money after claiming their New Dorp Beach home was their primary residence and was damaged after the hurricane ravaged parts of Staten Island in October 2012.

The couple, however, had abandoned that property at least seven months before the storm because it needed several repairs, the complaint said. Meanwhile, they had been living in New Springville for several years, according to court records.

One witness who lived near the New Dorp Beach home told investigators the family, including the couple's three kids, had moved out of the home a few years before Sandy hit the borough, prosecutors said.

According to the complaint, Arafa and Elsilimy entered a one-year lease agreement with the New Springville property in December 2009, then signed at least four more yearly leases, authorities said. From 2013 to 2016, the monthly rent was $1,475.

In her relocation assistance forms, Elsilimy allegedly asserted that the family was displaced by

BIB

construction activities. The couple then claimed they spent $27,827.50 in temporary housing costs.

The defendants received a total of $767,249.11, including $16,526 from

FEMA

and $750,719.89 from

HUD,

through

BIB,

after filing for disaster relief assistance, authorities said.Coles is taking an unexpected leaf out of e-commerce giant Amazons book by introducing a premium subscription tier to its flybuys loyalty scheme that gives members discounted groceries, free home delivery, and access to online video streaming.

The supermarket is quietly rolling out the subscription service, called flybuys max, which will cost $10 a month or $99 a year and entitles members to a 5 per cent discount on all fresh produce, including meat, at Coles supermarkets.

The paid-for subscription service will give members discounts on fresh food and free online delivery. Credit:Wade Laube

Members can opt to instead earn 10 flybuys points for every dollar spent on fresh food at Coles, compared to the normal rate of 1 point per dollar, and will earn points at the same rate at Coles Express service stations, including on up to 250 litres of fuel a week.

The subscription includes free home delivery on all Coles online orders over $50.A burger chain and its ad agency have apologized for tweeting an image of James Foley, a journalist beheaded by ISIS in 2014. (Nicole Tung / AP)Australian building materials manufacturer CSR is considering selling off its troubled Viridian glass business, revealing it has received interest from prospective buyers.

CSR responded to growing speculation about the future of Viridian by advising the stock market on Wednesday morning that it was reviewing strategic alternatives ... including potential sale options.

CSR bought the glass business for $1.2b more than a decade ago. Credit:Peter Braig

CSR has received interest from external parties attracted to acquiring the Viridian assets as a platform for growth, it said in a statement.

Whilst there has been no decision to sell the business at this stage, CSR intends to assess this potential interest over the next few months.Hedge fund Morphic Asset Management has quietly taken a big bet on Coca Cola Amatil disappointing shareholders in the near future and the share price falling in response.

But it has not engaged in the trash talking that often goes along with hedge funds taking short positions. Not yet at least.

CCA is due to release its earnings update in June. Credit:Zak Kaczmarek

Taking a punt on Coca-Cola Amatil is a nail biting exercise for Morphic which entered the short position in March and has since watched the Coke bottlers share price rise fairly consistently - in line with the Australian stock market generally.

It wont have too long to wait with the earnings announcement for the first six months of June due for release next month - this should contain the all-important big reveal on how the business is travelling in the second six months of the 2018 calendar year.Long-suffering consumers will start to get relief from high power bills as electricity prices start to fall, but the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the savings are not uniform across the country.

New consumer price index data from the ABS shows electricity prices were down 1.3 per cent nationally in the June quarter, although they still remain 10 per cent higher than June last year.

Electricity prices are beginning to cool off from their record high levels seen earlier this year. Credit:Virginia Star

Federal Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg told Fairfax Media the data shows "we have turned the corner on power prices".

Despite the national fall in prices, not every state has seen the same level of electricity savings.The email looked authentic: a virus-protection software provider said my subscription was overdue and about to expire; there had been a credit-card billing problem.

I knew that my subscription was due about then, so clicked on a payment link. Thankfully, some loose grammar in the email caught my attention and aroused suspicion that it was a phishing site designed to steal personal information. Crisis averted.

The email often looks authentic. Credit:Alamy Stock Photo

Later that day, a friend complained about a phone scam doing the rounds. The scammer asks if you received unwanted telemarketing calls and would you like to join the Do Not Call Register, for a fee. The fraud was equal parts disgraceful and clever (as it leveraged off other frauds).Dark Emu. Bangarra Dance Theatre. Choreographers: Stephen Page, Yolande Brown and Daniel Riley and the dancers. Composer: Stephen Francis. Dramaturg: Alana Valentine. Original book by Bruce Pascoe. Canberra Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre, until July 28. canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.

Bangarra Dance Theatre's new work, Dark Emu, sets out to challenge the "hunter-gatherer" myth of pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians.

It was inspired by Bunurong man Bruce Pascoe's award-winning book of the same name, and choreographed by Bangarra's artistic director, Stephen Page, along with Yolande Brown and former Canberran Daniel Riley, with input from members of the company.

Dark Emu: Beau Dean Riley-Smith and Bangarra Dance Theatre Ensemble. Credit:Daniel Boud

Page says Pascoe's research showed that far from being just hunter-gatherers, the Indigenous people had their own sophisticated systems of agriculture, fishing and land care across the continent.Developers may be hit with a levy to pay for new infrastructure in Sydneys inner west under a plan being investigated by the NSW government.

Anthony Roberts, the NSW Planning Minister, also rubbished reports that up to 90,000 dwellings would be built in the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor as quite frankly, just ridiculous.

Anthony Roberts, the NSW Planning Minister, said his department was investigating a levy on developers to pay for infrastructure along the Bankstown rail line. Credit:Dean Osland

While that figure was contained in a report released by the NSW government in 2017, Mr Roberts said: Can I assure you that was an extreme projection.

Mr Roberts said it was more realistic to expect the building of 35,400 homes in the 13.5-kilometre corridor over the next 20 years.Barcelona begins

The 25th Olympic Games opened in Barcelona this morning with a spectacular four-hour fiesta in the central stadium. King Juan Carlos performed the opening ceremony as Spain threw a party for 3.5 billion television viewers around the world. One of the most moving highlights was the lighting of the Olympic flame by archer Antonio Rebollo, a polio victim, and Olympic medallist who shot a flaming arrow into the cauldron high above the stadium.

Uproar over cars

A political row erupted yesterday over a controversial move to give state MPs tax-free cars. As well as cars, MPs will be able to sacrifice part of their allowances for benefits such as holidays, child-minding and school fees. MPs can also get a tax break on health insurance, superannuation and mobile phones. Independent MLA John Hatton complained that the proposals were sneaked in to sweeten legislation on reforming management of Parliament.

Quayle seasonA Sydney charter boat operator has been fined after the vessel was found to have been pumping sewage directly into Sydney Harbour.

Following reports about potential safety breaches, the Roads and Maritime Services and NSW water police carried out random inspections on two charter boats in June.

The company was fined $15,000. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The owner of the vessels was on Wednesday fined $15,000 for polluting waters in Sydney Harbour.

Investigators found a cable tie was holding open the sewage discharge valve on one of the luxury boats and the sewage tank was empty after it returned from a two-hour charter, the RMS said in a statement.Gavin Zimmermann was reportedly taking selfies on a cliff edge when he fell to his death. Credit:Facebook

In the wake of 19-year-old American tourist Gavin Zimmermann's death on Sunday , Sutherland Mayor Carmelo Pesce is pleading with visitors to take more care in the area.

But after two tragic cliff falls in just six weeks, its reputation now comes with a warning.

Cape Solander, in the Kurnell section of Kamay Botany Bay National Park, is famous for being one of Sydney's best whale watching spots.

It's believed both Mr Zimmermann  and a man in his 30s who died in the same area last month were taking photographs on the cliff when they lost their footing, falling more than 10 metres to their deaths below.

Offering his condolences to the young man's family, Mr Pesce said these recent tragedies highlight the need for visitors to pay close attention to signs, use their common sense and "stick to the designated areas" at risky locations like cliffs and tidal pools.

The deaths at Cape Solander could have been prevented if the men had remained on the designated viewing platform instead of moving to the cliff's edge, he said.

"The area that I believe this has happened ... wasn't where the viewing platform was, where people normally go," Mr Pesce said. "The gentleman went down below onto the rocks where he lost his balance and tragically fell into the water."

But a glance at Instagram posts tagged at the location reveals Mr Zimmermann was far from alone in venturing beyond the designated viewing platform at Cape Solander for the sake of an impressive photo.Sinclair announced its bid to buy Tribune in May 2017, spurred on by the arrival of Trump in the White House and Pai at the FCC, which quickly began relaxing regulations on the telecom industry - and the companies that broadcasters could own. For example, Pai moved to allow more consolidation among TV stations last year by restoring an FCC accounting method known as the UHF discount. Under the discount, broadcast companies can own more stations before bumping up against a national audience cap limiting their reach to 39 percent of U.S. households. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court dismissed an effort by consumer advocacy groups challenging Pai's decision.Police have found the body of 28-year-old Sydney woman Qi Yu, who disappeared in early June.

The body was found in scrub just after 8am on Wednesday morning, at the side of the M1 Motorway near the Berowra off-ramp at Mount Ku-ring-gai.

Police believe they have found the body of Qi Yu. Credit:Police Media

Police said it was "wrapped", although they did not disclose in what kind of material.

While the remains are yet to be formally identified, a police spokesman said detectives believe the body is that of Ms Qi.The $315 million upgrade of Queenslands busiest public transport station should not simply be functional and bland, but rather an impressive statement piece, a conference has heard.

Brisbane City Councils public and active transport chairman Adrian Schrinner was part of an industry briefing for the Brisbane Metro on Wednesday, which was attended by more than 200 leaders from local and international companies.

Concept images for the new Metro Cultural Centre station at South Brisbane, as part of the council's Brisbane Metro plans. Credit:Brisbane City Council

The expression of interest for several parts of the $944 million project are now open, including for the construction of the underground station at the Cultural Centre, which is estimated to cost about 33 per cent of the total cost of the project, or $315 million.

This project needs your innovation and needs your input, Cr Schrinner told the industry briefing.A Queensland woman cut off her de facto partner's head, hands and legs not as his murderer but rather a victim of his abuse, her defence lawyer claims.

A jury is set to decide if Lindy Yvonne Williams was a cold, calculated killer or a domestic violence sufferer whose panic after Mr Gerbic's accidental death led her to dump his torso, set it alight and concoct an elaborate story about his whereabouts.

Defence lawyer Simon Lewis outside the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Credit:AAP

Both sides of her Brisbane Supreme Court murder trial have agreed the 60-year-old is a liar.

She deceived family and friends for 10 months by sending messages from Mr Gerbic's email and phone after he died, telling people he was overseas.Artistic impression of the Mars Express spacecraft probing he southern hemisphere of Mars. Superimposed is a mosaic of a portion of Planum Australe. Credit:USGS Astrogeology Science Centre, Arizone State Universiry, ESA, INAF

A satellite orbiting Mars has found evidence of a huge underground lake of liquid water, in a discovery greeted by scientists as stunning, incredible, and of extraordinary significance.

This is currently our best, albeit slim chance of discovering life elsewhere in our solar system, says Warwick Holmes, executive director of space engineering at the University of Sydney.

The "lake" is buried about 1.5 kilometres beneath Mars southern ice cap. It is 20 kilometres wide.

The water is likely sludgy, filled with salt, and under incredibly high pressures, all of which keeps it from freezing in the minus 68 degree temperatures.Apologies for the delay in posting but we just got some big news; it has just been announced that Fairfax Media will be merging with Nine.

Here's the statement from our CEO Greg Hywood and you can read more here.Right now in Sydney and Melbourne  our most populous cities and home to 8.2 million Australians  close to one in three Millennials (31 per cent) were born in Asia. And their younger brothers and sisters are not far behind: more than one in five Generation Zs in Sydney and Melbourne (23 per cent) were born in Asia.

However there is one thing that makes them completely unique - the profound impact of immigration on this generation, which has defined it like no other before, ever.

Some of this is borne out in the data  particularly the travel-loving, mortgage-dodging bits - but Australian Millennials (born between 1976 and 1990) are no more all the same than any other generation.

They have been cast as experience-seeking, travel-loving, commitment-avoiding mortgage-dodgers who privilege lifestyle above all else and invented the concept of the "bank of mum and dad".

To put this into perspective, people born in Asia account for 11 per cent of the overall Australian population aged over 14. They are also much less prominent in other generations; in Sydney and Melbourne, 12 per cent of Generation X was born in Asia, 6 per cent of Baby Boomers and just 3 per cent of pre-Boomers.

So a very a large proportion of todays young Australians was born Asia, particularly those living in Sydney and Melbourne. So what? Digging deeper into the data reveals that Asian-born Millennials are very different to their Australian-born peers when it comes to mindset. In contrast to their typically progressive, tradition-eschewing counterparts, Asian-born Millennials are much more likely to hold socially conservative views and values, despite their youth.

They are already bucking some of the big generational trends that have defined their Australian-born generational counterparts. Take marriage for instance. Four in 10 Australian-born Millennials are married (44 per cent), compared to more than seven in 10 Asian-born Millennials (74 per cent) across the country.

When you break that down further, Millennials born in India are even more likely to embrace the institution  86 per cent are married, almost double the figure for their Australian-born peers. They are also more likely to have children  six in 10 have children under 16 at home, compared to 55 per cent of their Australian-born peers.

When it comes to house and home, close to one in five Millennials from China own their home outright, compared to one in eight Australian-born Millennials. Across the board, a greater percentage of Asian-born Millennials are light spenders compared to Australian-born Millennials.Police on Wednesday are continuing their search for the last inmate who escaped from a prison in WA's mid-west.

Nine inmates who escaped from Greenough Regional Prison are now back in custody, with the latest two men handing themselves into police just after 1pm on Wednesday.

WA Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said Brendan Bartley, 35, and Darryl Councillor, 18, had handed themselves in at the Geraldton Police Station and were taken into custody without incident.

WA Police are continuing their search for the other the last outstanding prisoner, with 35-year-old Bradley Silvester still unaccounted for.The federal government may be forced to go back to the drawing board with My Health Record after AMA president Tony Bartone vowed to do "whatever it takes" to safeguard patient privacy ahead of a meeting with Health Minister Greg Hunt.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Dr Bartone promised to ensure that any ambiguity over the conditions under which personal information could be handed over to authorities without a court order was resolved.

"Anything that gets in the way of the trust, the faith in the system by doctors will be seen as a deal breaker and be dealt with appropriately," he said.

Dr Tony Bartone, president of the AMA at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Crucially, Dr Bartone did not rule out pushing for the legislation governing the scheme - which allows patient information to be handed over to police, courts and the Australian Tax Office, without a warrant - to be scrapped and rewritten.A judge sets the rules for the proceedings in a court, just as the President does in the Senate. I conduct myself according to those rules, as evidenced by the fact that my conduct has never been called into question. In contrast, the Senate chair has requested Senator Hanson-Young to withdraw her comments on more than a dozen occasions since I became a senator.

It is a fundamental tenet of Western liberal democracy that the proceedings in court and in parliament are open to the public. But that does not mean that such proceedings should be expected to be as genteel as afternoon television. If you dont want to hear an argument between people who dont like each other, dont tune in.

Loading

Proceedings in court and in parliament are meant to be heated. After all, in Western liberal democracies, such proceedings are the only legitimate method to sort out serious differences. We use words where others use violence, so those words will often be confronting and harsh. This is particularly the case in countries that draw on the traditions of Westminster and the common law, where courts and parliaments are adversarial by design.

Many of those who call on parliamentarians to be more courteous towards each other also call on them to agree with each other. This would make sense if there were a universally acknowledged truth about what are the best policies, such that there would be no role for anyone who wanted to deviate from that righteous path. But there is no truth about what are the best policies; it is the process of argument that provides our best hope of arriving at the truth.21 Deverell Dr. in North Barrington: $1,895,000 Listed on May 22, 2018 This suburban home boasts nearly 10,000 square feet of luxury living. Features include an outdoor batting cage, ten televisions, built-in bar seating, a billiards room and stone wine room. The commercial-grade kitchen has a steamer and keg tap, as well as a walk-in pantry, breakfast area and cherry cabinets. A floating staircase leads to four bedroom suites with custom closets. The home's outdoor space includes a stone fireplace, stone terrace, speakers, trees and a view of a pond. Agent: Lori Rowe of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, 847-774-7464 *Some VHT Studios photos are "virtually staged," meaning they have been digitally altered to represent different furnishing or decorating options. To feature your luxury listing of $800,000 or more in Chicago Tribunes Dream Homes, send listing information and high-res photos to ctc-realestate@chicagotribune.com.Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has slammed a controversial anti-vaccination documentary ahead of its Australian launch, warning against "false and reckless claims" targeting the government's cancer prevention program.

The science is in and the medical experts advice is absolute  vaccinations save lives and protect lives and they are an essential part of a healthy society," Mr Hunt told Fairfax Media.

"I have no time for the false and reckless claims made by anti-vaxxers and I will continue call out their dangerous claims."

Health Minister Greg Hunt has warned a film about the Gardasil vaccine is "reckless". Credit:Fairfax Media

The film Sacrificial Virgins, which opposes the Gardasil vaccination program and claims that HPV does not cause cervical cancer, will screen at seven locations across Australia next month.The average rural debt per borrower was $940,000, down 12.35 per cent on 2011.

That was up 1.57 per cent from $16.98 billion from 2011.

A report has revealed the extent of debt being held by Queensland's rural industries. Credit:Louise Kennerley

The 2017 Queensland Rural Debt Survey report reveals total rural debt in Queensland was $17.24 billion as at the end of last year.

The number of borrowers also increased, from 15,822 to 18,335, up 15.88 per cent.

The survey, tabled in the Queensland Parliament by Agricultural Industry Development Minister Mark Furner, showed the rating of rural debt had improved since 2011, with 94.41 per cent of the total value of rural debt rated either viable (rating A) or potentially long-term viable (B+), up from 85.89 per cent in 2011.

Of the 16 industries captured in the survey, the three major rural debt holding industries included beef, cotton and sugar, which accounted for $11.72 billion, or 67.90 per cent of the total debt, and was in line with the relative size of the industries in Queensland.

The report said the industry had suffered through volatile commodity prices, increased climate variability, increased demands from a growing population and limitations on land and water resources since the 2011 period.

Mr Furner said the figures demonstrated the resilience of Queensland's farmers, even in times of drought.Owners of thousands of apartments across Victoria covered in combustible cladding will be able to get their buildings repaired via a loan paid off on their council rates, under laws to be introduced on Thursday.

In a bind over many apartments and townhouses around Victoria clad in dangerous materials, the Andrews government will create the new scheme so that owners can pay for their building to be repaired more quickly.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne will on Thursday introduce the laws, which will allow for Cladding Rectification Agreements.

Lacrosse building's 2014 fire was exacerbated by its flammable cladding. Credit:Scott Barbour

The laws will allow owners and body corporates to pay off a bank loan to fix their cladding via their council rates.Most residents will be able to tell you of a time when a party on their floor got out of control and  they were too scared to confront the partygoers, says Ms Hughes, who is regularly kept awake by parties. Last time she confronted youths at 3am, they abused her. Each weekend the 70 per cent of permanent residents in the tower face an onslaught of holidaymakers who Ms Hughes says dont care if you see them vomiting or something like that. Since Saturdays incident, The Age has spoken to dozens of residents affected by a range of short-stay lettings in their block, their street, their neighbourhood. Since Airbnb began disrupting the hotel industry a decade ago, the home-sharing economy has escalated wildly.

In Melbourne, there are 20,400 homes listed on that site alone, according to the InsideAirbnb website, which tracks the company (Airbnb disputes the website's accuracy). As Airbnb has boomed, scores of competing homesharing websites, and established travel sites, have joined the frenzy. Loading Some, like Port Melbourne host Gillian Butler are the very model of sharing economy success. The ground floor of her three-storey building is used for a business. The two floors above, which Ms Butler once rented to her children, are now on Airbnb.

I love it because I can call the shots, says Ms Butler, who enjoys meeting people from all over the world. Ms Butler is the sort of success story Airbnb and other sharing sites use to promote a system used by 1.8 million guests in Melbourne last year, one which Deloitte Access Economics says now contributes $413 million to Victoria's gross state product. There is no stopping Airbnb and other companies now  in part because it is so popular with travellers. But Eq Towers Ms Hughes says the idea companies such as Airbnb are trying to maintain  a sharing concept  rent out a bedroom if you have a spare  is increasingly a fiction.

Now its a business designed to help people get cheap accommodation and for investors to make more money, says Ms Hughes, who argues the sharing economy is slowly transforming into an economy where neighbours such as herself are being asked to foot the bill for other peoples profits. This is hardly news to the Victorian government  and yet it has done nothing. More regulation Labor came to office promising to improve the regulation of CBD residential buildings, so property is protected from unruly short stay parties. The governments response to an inquiry analysing its proposed short-stay bill found that anecdotal evidence indicated some apartment residents currently feel unsafe in their buildings.

That anecdotal evidence is starting to turn into a flood of hard evidence. In the wake of Laa Chols death, outraged residents contacted The Age with remarkably similar tales of hell caused by short-term lettings. Among them is Jack Clarke, who in 2008 moved into his Queens Road apartment with housemate Peter Itchins. They had no problems with the apartment upstairs until last year, when it was placed on Airbnb. Now, he says, parties regularly rage upstairs into the early hours of the night, suitcase wheels scrape across their ceilings, there is regular loud singing and dragging of furniture above them. Mr Clarke, a tax lawyer, has scrupulously documented his complaints, which range from confronting a scared woman with a blood nose to regular trips upstairs at 2am to demand the noise is kept down, to encountering groups of up to 15 people staying in the three-bedroom apartment.

Mr Clarke has contacted Airbnb repeatedly; the companys response is it is powerless to act. (On Wednesday, an Airbnb spokesman told The Age it was investigating the complaints again.) The pairs negotiation with the apartments owner, Mr Clarke says, has resulted in everything from offers of cash bribes to a threat of an apprehended violence order against them. Short-stay crackdown While Victoria has done nothing to regulate the short-stay industry, governments elsewhere have cracked down on Airbnb and other platforms. In Sydney, laws may soon be passed so that apartments cant be let for more than 180 nights a year and a vote of 75 per cent or more of owners in a block can ban short-term lettings outright.

Japan is set to enforce tougher laws on apartment sharing, and protest movements in cities including Venice, Berlin and San Francisco have seen residents publicise how short-term lets are forcing out long-term locals. The Greens MP for Melbourne, Ellen Sandell, was elected in 2014 and has regularly been contacted by residents affected by the rise of Airbnb and other home-sharing sites. She says, while Labor promised to tackle the issue since the last election, they didnt really want to do anything. "Its taken a crisis for Daniel Andrews to become interested. A damaged police car after an out-of-control Airbnb party in April. Consumer Affairs Minister Marlene Kairouz though says the laws the government brought into parliament in 2016 would "help stamp out unruly behaviour", and protect residents. She said the Greens and the state Coalition were "playing politics" by not backing the laws.

It isnt just apartments being affected by short-stay lettings. In April, North Melbourne resident Eliana Tait saw how badly things can go wrong when lettings arent properly policed. That night partygoers at the two-bedroom townhouse next door  which had been regularly booked out over previous weeks  pelted police with objects and smashed up their cars. While Airbnb has become a verb for the online short-stay industry, the proliferation of other sites has made it harder for neighbours to resolve their problems. 'They're absolute pigs'

Yarra Valley resident Maddy, who asks that her surname not be used, says her short-stay nightmare began in 2016 when the house next door was sold to investors. The first weekend they rented it out, we were just like Holy moly!. Thirty people turned up, there were people everywhere sleeping in cars." Now, Maddy dreads weekends, when the house is leased for $300 a night. Listed on Airbnb, Booking.com, Homeaway, HomeToGo, Trivago, TripAdvisor and Expedia, among others, Maddy is never clear which platform to complain to. Usually the house is rented by wedding parties, with groomsmen arriving on a Friday. They party all night and they are absolute pigs, says Maddy, who then watches as their guests arrive on Saturday. The party starts again on Saturday night once the wedding is over. When Maddy has complained to the police, if they come at all, its obvious who's called them. Then you've got 20 drunken people in there, and you feel in danger, so I don't do that.

Maddy has also complained to the Yarra Ranges Council, but they say they are powerless to act. Linda Wimetal has learnt the hard way how powerless councils are to take meaningful action against owners of short-stay lettings who do the wrong thing. Her home in Rye is next door to a large family home that was once rented to a family. Loading Now, its like having them partying in my bedroom at night its so loud, she says, describing this past summer as from hell.Washington: US President Donald Trump has accused China of "vicious" tactics on trade as he prepared for tough negotiations with European leaders in an escalating trade battle among world powers.

Trump tweeted that China was specifically targeting US farmers with retaliatory tariffs because "they know I love & respect" them. His defence came after his administration announced a plan to provide $12 billion in emergency relief for farmers who have been slammed by the president's trade disputes with China and other countries.

Addressing the China trade relationship, Trump wrote on Twitter, "They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"

It came after Chinese President Xi Jinping said at a summit in South Africa that the world faces "a choice between cooperation and confrontation", in remarks that criticised escalating US tariffs on goods from China and other major trading partners. He warned that those who pursue "economic hegemony" will "only end up hurting themselves".London: The British Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a woman must remain married to her husband of 40 years after he opposed her request for a divorce, saying its hands were tied by the country's divorce laws.

The justices upheld a lower court ruling that Tini Owens, 68, failed to prove "unreasonable behaviour" by her husband, 80-year-old Hugh Owens, who she claimed was moody, argumentative and disparaging. English law requires a spouse to prove unreasonable behaviour, adultery, desertion or a separation of five years unless both parties agree to divorce.

In issuing their ruling, the justices made their unease plain, noting that society's expectations for reasonable behaviour have changed since divorce laws were last updated in 1969 and marriage is now seen as a partnership of equals. The court then opened the door for legislators to rewrite the rules.

"I have found this a very troubling case," Judge Brenda Hale wrote. "It is not for us to change the law laid down by Parliament - our role is only to interpret and apply the law that Parliament has given us."Whether for real-world CIA handlers or fictional 007s, there is no tactic in spycraft more enduring than the honeypot. And so in the Old Testament, we saw the Philistines deploy Delilah's feminine wiles to undermine Samson, and in the 1980s, we had Clayton Lonetree, the U.S. Marine blackmailed at his Moscow post by a beautiful Soviet. And now we have Maria Butina, allegedly the latest in a long history of double-crossing women whose success depends entirely on how much more they understand men than their marks understand women.

Maria Butina in a photo from her Facebook page. Credit:Facebook

Spend an hour or three scrolling through Butina's prodigious social media presence and certain themes emerge. Her Instagram is a series of strategic fitness selfies - a sculpted deltoid, a Lycra'd thigh - showcasing both strength and femininity. In photos snapped outside the gym, her hair is long and styled. She cooked homey-looking recipes: baked chicken, scrambled eggs. She shared spiritually-tinged aphorisms: "Faith makes all things possible. Love makes them easy." She posted dog-whistle appeals to lonely men: "I want to love someone whose heart has been broken, so that he knows exactly how it feels and won't break mine."

Maria Butina in an image from her Facebook page. Credit:Facebook

And she posted guns. In picture after picture, Butina holds firearms of all shapes and sizes. Here, she brandishes a handgun and wears a cowboy hat. There, she crouches in the snow, leaning a rifle over a dead boar. Do wingtipped eyeliner and bombshell-red lipstick pair well with semi-automatic weapons? On Maria Butina's Facebook feed they do.The recording, surreptitiously made by Cohen two months before the 2016 presidential election, was provided to CNN by Cohen's attorney, Lanny Davis.

On the recording, the two can be heard talking about a potential payment for a Playboy model's story about an alleged affair. The soon-to-be president is heard discussing whether to "pay with cash".

Los Angeles: A secretly recorded tape of US President Donald Trump by his long-time, now former, personal lawyer Michael Cohen has been played on CNN.

It first came to light on Friday. Then, Trump's attorney Rudolph Giuliani confirmed its existence but said no payment was ever made.

"Nothing in that conversation suggests that he had any knowledge of [the payment] in advance," Giuliani said on Friday. "In the big scheme of things, it's powerful exculpatory evidence."

The recorded conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc, reached a $US150,000 ($202,000) deal to pay former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill. Trump denies the affair happened.

US President Donald Trump Credit:AP

Cohen can be heard on the tape saying that he needed to start a company "for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David", a possible reference to David Pecker, the president of American Media Inc and a friend of Trump.Wellington: New Zealand's acting prime minister has added fuel to a trans-Tasman war of words by claiming Australia copied the Kiwi flag and should get a new one.

During New Zealand's failed 2016 referendum into replacing its flag, confusion between the Australian and Kiwi ensigns was often raised by those looking for change.

Asked about the matter this week, New Zealand Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters - whose party fiercely opposed a change - blamed Australia.Mott points to the difficulty these performers had in obtaining their travel visas to the U.S. as an example of animosity toward Middle Eastern culture. But, creating an artistic connection with the Middle East  a place of historic turmoil and tension with the United States  can be critical for overcoming otherness. When it comes to the disparity Americans have interacting with Egyptian art, it is not a matter of a lack of curiosity, Mott says, but a lack of opportunity.PHILIPSBURG:--- Parliament invites the public to send in nominations for the Annual President of Parliament Award.

The application documents are on the Parliaments website. Persons have until August 15, 2018 to submit their nominations.

The website address is: www.sxmparliament.org and can be found under the documents section of the site. Select the link and you will be able to download the application form.

The purpose of the award is to honour young persons on Sint Maarten that are a great example to the youth and who have contributed positively to the community and the country.

Nominations can be submitted by any citizen of Sint Maarten who believes that the individual that he/she is nominating meets the criteria.

The eligibility criteria are: the candidate must have the Dutch nationality and/or has been legally residing in Sint Maarten for 10-years or more consecutively, and has been registered in the Civil Registry for that period of time; must be between the ages of 15-24 years; has made a worthwhile contribution to the development of the community and the country; these contributions/achievements must have taken place within the last three years; contributions/achievements must have been made while the individual was acting as a private citizen, not as an appointed or elected government official; and must have demonstrated capacity for leadership and ability to motivate.

An award committee will be established each year consisting of three members of Parliament. Members of the committee will review the nomination documents prior to the selection meeting and select three nominees.

During the selection meeting, the President of Parliament selects the recipient of the award based on the recommendations of the award committee.

The award will be presented yearly to the recipient during the reception ceremony at the Opening of the Parliamentary Year.

Nominations for the Annual President of Parliament may be submitted to The Parliament of Sint Maarten, attention, Annual President of Parliament Award Committee, Wilhelminastraat 1, Philipsburg or via e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .Meyer Burger awarded further contract for its SWCT? platform

Posted by Publisher Internet

Meyer Burger Technology Ltd (SIX Swiss Exchange: MBTN) today announced the successful conclusion of a strategic agreement for its award winning SWCT? technology with an important international solar module manufacturer in Southeast Asia. Meyer Burger will deliver and install the 200 MW SWCT? manufacturing platform towards the end of 2018. Commissioning and ramp-up of the SmartWire solar module production line at this customer using Heterojunction (HJT) solar cells supplied by an external party is planned for the first half of 2019.

?

SmartWire Connection Technology (SWCT?) ? the natural evolution in cell connection technology

Meyer Burger?s ground-breaking SmartWire Connection Technology employs an innovative foil-wire electrode with up to 24 perfectly aligned wires to connect solar cells. This reduces silver consumption per heterojunction solar module by over 50% which in turn reduces production costs for solar module manufacturers. The resulting dense wire contact matrix enables SWCT? modules to easily cope with the increased power extraction necessary for today?s high efficiency heterojunction solar cells enabling energy yields of up to 20% to 30% more power per installed module in comparison to standard modules with PERC and PERT cell technologies. The resulting structure of a SWCT? module significantly strengthens its stability and enhances its lifetime. The powerful combination of higher energy yield, longer module lifetime and lower manufacturing costs delivers the lowest LCOE in the photovoltaic industry today.

?

In May 2018 at the SNEC, one of the world?s largest PV trade exhibitions, Meyer Burger?s SWCT? stringer platform received a 2018 Technology Highlight award by PV Magazine recognizing its advantages over standard cell connection processes.

?

This press release may contain ?forward-looking statements?, such as guidance, expectations, plans, intentions, or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The reader is cautioned that actual future results may differ from those expressed in or implied by the statements, which constitute projections of possible developments. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are based on data available to Meyer Burger Technology Ltd as of the date that this press release is published. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

?

?

Meyer Burger is a leading global technology company specialising on innovative systems and processes based on semiconductor technologies. The company\-\-s focus is on photovoltaics (solar industry) while its competencies and technologies also cover important areas of the semiconductor and the optoelectronic industries as well as other selected high-end markets based on semiconductor materials. Over the past ten years, Meyer Burger has risen to the forefront of the photovoltaic market and established itself as an international premium brand by offering superior precision products and innovative technologies.

Meyer Burger\-\-s offering in systems, production equipment and services along the photovoltaic value chain includes the manufacturing processes for wafers, solar cells and solar modules. Meyer Burger provides substantial added value to its customers and clearly differentiates itself from its competitors by focusing on core technologies of the value chain.

The company\-\-s comprehensive product portfolio is complemented by a worldwide service network with spare parts, consumables, process know-how, customer support, after-sales services, training and other services. Meyer Burger is represented in Europe, Asia and North America in the respective key markets and has subsidiaries and own service centres in China, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan and the USA. The company is also working intensively to develop new markets such as South America, Africa and the Arab region. The registered shares of Meyer Burger Technology Ltd are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (Ticker: MBTN).Elanix Biotechnologies AG announces cash capital increase with indirect subscription rights from currently EUR 7,779,139 by up to EUR 777,910 to up to EUR 8,557,049

Posted by Publisher Internet

.

 Subscription period for current shareholders from July 27 to August 10, 2018?

 Subscription price for shareholders to be EUR 2.75

 Management explaining planned usage of capital raised and future milestones

Elanix Biotechnologies AG (\Elanix\; \Company\), a developer of tissue regeneration products and Advanced Skin Care in the field of dermatology and?gynaecology, has announced a cash capital increase via an ad-hoc news today. According to the Management the capital increase will be used to strengthen the business activities by enlarging the product portfolio, by enlarging the distribution and sales network, by running a dynamic e-commerce campaign of the Elanix Advanced Care products, and by further investments in the development and industrialization of the Advanced Wound Care products.

Tomas Svoboda explaining: \Some milestones have already been achieved in the first half of 2018, including the passing of agreements with distribution partners and key accounts in Germany, France, Switzerland and Russia, the strengthening of the management team with an experienced COO&CFO and a Business Head for Advanced Skin Care, and the development of a new e-commerce website. The market launch of SKINrepair will take place during Q4 2018.\

The capital increase will be legally designed in such a way that it does not require a securities prospectus under German law pursuant to ?? 3 (2) no. 5, 4 (2) German Prospectus Act (\WpPG\) in the new version as of 21 July 2018. During the subscription period from (expected) 27 July to 10 August, shareholders may exercise their subscription rights (ISIN DE000A2G9KU4) by way of their depository bank and can subscribe to new shares of the Company at a ratio of 10:1 (ten existing shares allow a subscription of one new share) at a price of EUR 2.75 per new share. The subscription price is based on the average closing share price of the last five trading days at Frankfurt Stock Exchange before fixing the final issued share price minus 10% subscription discount.

In addition, shareholders can register for so-called supplement subscriptions (\over-subscription\) through their depository bank but will not automatically be guaranteed an allotment of shares. Any shares not purchased in the course of the pre-emptive rights offering will be offered to selected investors in the form of a private placement. The share price for the private placement will be, at minimum, the offered share price during the subscription period. Totally up to 777,910 new shares might be issued through this cash capital increase. The subscription rights offer will be available on the company website at https://elanixbiotechnologies.com/ under Capital Increase in the Investor Relations section and also at Federal Gazette (\Bundesanzeiger\) from expected July 27 on.

Disclaimer

This publication may not be published, distributed or transmitted, directly or indirectly, in the United States of America (including its territories and possessions), Canada, Japan or Australia or any other jurisdiction where such an announcement could be unlawful. The distribution of this announcement may be restricted by law in certain jurisdictions and persons who are in possession of this document or other information referred to herein 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.

This publication does not constitute an offer of securities for sale or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities of Elanix Biotechnologies AG in the United States of America, Germany or any other juris-diction. In connection with this transaction there will be no publication of a securities prospectus.

Neither this announcement nor anything contained herein shall form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any offer or commitment whatsoever in any jurisdiction. The securities referred to herein may not be offered or sold in the United States of America in the absence of registration or an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the \Securities Act\). The securities of Elanix Biotechnologies AG have not been, and will not be, registered under the Securities Act.

This announcement does not constitute a recommendation concerning the placement of securities described in this announcement. Investors should consult a professional advisor as to the suitability of the Placement for the person concerned.

In the United Kingdom, this document is only directed at persons who (i)are investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (as amended) (the \Order\) or (ii) are persons falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (high net worth companies, unincorporated associations, etc.)(all such persons together being referred to as \Relevant Persons\). This document must not be acted on or relied on by persons who are not Relevant Persons. Any investment or investment activity to which this document relates is available only to Relevant Persons and will be engaged in only with Relevant Persons.

In member states of the European Economic Area which have implemented the Prospectus Directive (each, a \Relevant Member State\), this announcement and any offer, if made subsequently, is directed exclusively at persons who are \qualified investors\ within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive. For these purposes, the expression \Prospectus Directive\ means Directive 2003/71/EC (and amendments thereto, including the Directive 2010/73/EU), and includes any relevant implementing measure in the Relevant Member State.

No action has been taken that would permit an offering of the securities, a purchase of the securities or possession or distribution of this announcement in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required. Persons into whose possession this announcement comes are required to inform themselves about and to observe any such restrictions.

This announcement also does not constitute a prospectus within the meaning of the EU Directive 2003/71/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 as amended (\Prospectus Directive\).

Forward-looking statements

This publication may contain certain forward-looking statements concerning the Company and its business. Such statements involve certain risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the actual results, financial condition, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Readers should therefore not place undue reliance on these statements, particularly not in connection with any contract or investment decision. The Company disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

The information contained in this release is NOT to be published OR forwarded in or into the United States of America, Australia, Canada or any other country where such a distribution or publication could be unlawful.

?The rise to prominence of smart cities should not go unnoticed. To the untrained eye, you might not realise just how connected your city is and how its helping your everyday life. From crossing the road to monitoring water levels, technology is allowing cities to think quicker and act smarter.

Data-driven decisions

A recent whitepaper by ABI Research has revealed that the total global cost-saving potential offered by smart cities stands at more than $5 trillion. This shows how technological improvements to the places we live offer a significant opportunity to not only improve our personal lives and wellbeing, but to also ensure our cities are able to continue contributing to the wider economy.

One of the major areas of technology that is going to shift how we interact with our cities is the Internet of Things (IoT). One benefit will be the ability to use video surveillance to analyse data on large crowds at sporting events The IoT already accounts for swathes of technology and devices operating in the background. However, were increasingly seeing these come to the forefront of everyday life, as data becomes increasingly critical.

In an IDC study sponsored by Seagate, Data Age 2025 estimates that by 2025, nearly 20% of data will be critical to our daily lives and nearly 10% of that will be hypercritical. Data is no longer just going to provide simple insights and recommendations, it is going to be making decisions that impact the fabric and quality of everyday life.

Analysis and application

The decisions that this critical data is attached to must be made quickly. A living, breathing city must constantly be monitoring, assessing and utilising data in order to ensure it keeps people safe and mobile.

A prime example of this is in the Dutch city of Almere, where the local police force and parking management teams are using surveillance technology to improve congestion and manage traffic flow. This is hugely important when 20% of city traffic is caused by drivers circling around trying to find a parking space, according to Stuart Higgins, Strategic Lead - Cisco Impact.

While older cities such as London may not be as equipped with new technology like modern cities, such as Dubai, an appreciation of the different ways individual cities can adopt technology is vital.

For those that have the right infrastructure, one key benefit will be the ability to use video surveillance to analyse data on road congestion, or even large crowds at sporting events or national ceremonies. Using this data to spot patterns of behaviour will enable city planners to develop long term solutions to ensure city life runs smoothly.

Instant access to connected devices

By 2025, an average connected person anywhere in the world will interact with connected devices nearly 4,800 times per day  thats one interaction approximately every 18 seconds.

As access to data becomes the central component to a functioning smart city, the way data is stored has become more important than ever

It isnt just new-paradigm services such as Uber that are causing this. Increasingly, the ability to instantly access data relevant to many aspects of our lives will drive our interactions with these devices, and industries around the world are undergoing a digital transformation motivated by these evolving requirements.

The benefits of data access is best shown through Project Green Light in the US city of Detroit, where the police department has partnered with gas stations across the city and the community to improve the quality of life within the neighborhood. The result is a strengthened relationship between public services and private businesses operating in the area.

As access to data becomes the central component to a functioning smart city, the way data is stored has become more important than ever. When it comes to surveillance in our cities, the need for not only the technology but the hardware to analyse this data is of imperative importance.

Real time data storage availability

The growth of real-time data will cause a shift in the type of storage needed in the future  with fast, uncompromised access to data being non-negotiable. Data Age 2025 predicts that by 2025 the global datasphere will grow to 163 zettabytes.

The security of our data and how it is stored will be the foundation to any future smart city strategy

Thats ten times the 16.1ZB of data generated in 2016. This increase in data will propel the need for data to be available in real-time to heighten the focus on low-latency responsiveness from enterprise edge storage, as well as from the endpoints themselves. The rise in edge computing exemplifies how this demand is already present.

The stakes are rising and with them, the critical importance of our datas veracity and timeliness. It is important to identify city-wide data partnerships, architecture, and standards for effective and safe data sharing when developing a data strategy.

Securing stored data

Its important to note that the security of our data and how it is stored will be the foundation to any future smart city strategy, ensuring that safety, regulatory, speed and access requirements are all met. Securing the data that underpins life as we know it is circular, not linear. Every company that creates, uses or touches data has to have a role in keeping it secure and should be the backbone of any smart city.

Whats evident however is that digital transformation is shaping the surveillance industry and in turn how our cities operate. As a result, data is the fuel that will ensure the impact is a positive one.

People, government and businesses all contribute to the cities of today, so no one can afford to ignore the shift we are seeing. The cities that utilise surveillance data when considering any changes to their infrastructure will ultimately become the cities of tomorrow, not only future-proofing, but prospering in the data-driven age.In a special performance, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst played a virtual synthesizer from space alongside electronic band Kraftwerk.

At the Jazz Open Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, on July 20, Gerst appeared on a massive screen behind the stage, floating in microgravity aboard the space station, as shown in a video from ESA. Gerst welcomed famed electronic band Kraftwerk and even joined the band in a live performance. Gerst played a virtual synthesizer through an app on a tablet; you can see him pressing buttons and affecting the note on screen.

Gerst began with a solo. In fact, he started off by playing the famous melody from the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"  the song that's used to communicate with extraterrestrials in the film.

After his first song, Gerst addressed the crowd in German, subtitled in the ESA video, saying, "I am one of only six people in space, on the outpost of humanity, the International Space Station (ISS), 400 kilometers [250 miles] above sea level."

"The ISS is a man machine, the most complex and valuable machine humankind has ever built," Gerst continued. "Here in the European Columbus laboratory, the successor to the Spacelab, the European Space Agency is researching things that will improve daily life on Earth. More than 100 different nations work together peacefully here and achieve things that a single nation could never achieve." This last line elicited exuberant cheers from the crowd of 7,500.

"We are developing technologies on board the ISS to grow beyond our current horizons and prepare to take further steps into space, to the moon and Mars," Gerst concluded.

Gerst then put down the microphone and picked the tablet back up, ready to perform again. He played a duet of the song "Spacelab" with Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hutter.

Gerst will live and work on the space station until mid-December 2018. Perhaps he'll spend just a little of that time honing his synthesizer skills.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her @chelsea_gohd. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.An Ariane 5 rocket launched four European navigation satellites into orbit today (July 25), bringing the total number of satellites in Europe's Galileo navigation system up to 26.

The two-stage rocket, built by the European launch provider Arianespace, lifted off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 7:25 a.m. EDT (1125 GMT, 8:25 a.m. local time).

A few minutes later, the rocket's two solid boosters separated and fell into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Peru, and the payload fairing jettisoned from the rocket's second stage. [The Most Exciting Space Missions to Watch in 2018]

An Ariane 5 rocket carrying four Galileo satellites lifts off from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, on July 25, 2018. (Image credit: ESA)

After the rocket's core stage separated, the second-stage engines ignited, kicking off a 3-hour coast into medium Earth orbit, where the satellites were deployed at an altitude of 14,243 miles (22,922 kilometers) shortly after 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT).

These four satellites will join the 22 Galileo satellites already in orbit. The Galileo constellation, which will eventually consist of 30 satellites, has provided Europe with a high-precision navigation system  similar to the U.S.'s Global Positioning System (GPS)  since it became operational in 2017.

With its own GPS satellite network, Europe is ending its reliance on Russia's GLONASS navigation system and the U.S. Air Force's Navstar GPS satellites, European Space Agency officials said in a statement. Unlike those networks, Europe's independent system is made for and operated by civilians. Its lower-precision navigation services are free for anyone to use, and private companies can purchase higher-precision capabilities.

Today's mission was the third and final time that an Ariane 5 rocket has been used to launch Galileo satellites. With the next launch, in 2020, the new Ariane 6 rocket will take over and will start launching pairs of Galileo satellites. The Ariane 6 rocket will replace the Ariane 5, and the Ariane 5 ES configuration of the rocket that flew today has officially been retired.

"The Ariane 6's A62 version will take over, with two launches used to orbit another four satellites during a timeframe between December 2020 and June 2021," according to Arianespace's description of today's launch.

Arianespace has launched all of the Galileo satellites that are currently in orbit, starting with the first test satellite, launched in 2005. Before the Ariane 5 started launching them in 2016, Arianespace Soyuz rockets launched the first Galileo satellites into orbit.The Red Planet just got quite a bit bluer, with scientists announcing the discovery of what they believe is a lake that's about 12 miles across and hidden below a mile (1.6 kilometers) of ice at the south pole of Mars.

Scientists have previously offered much weaker evidence for such reservoirs, as well as strong evidence for smaller amounts of water on the planet. But the new findings are still sure to make a splash.

"It's always exciting when you talk about liquid water on present-day Mars," Ashwin Vasavada, project scientist at NASA for the Curiosity mission, told Space.com. However, he declined to say how confident he is in the study's claims, because he isn't an expert in the kind of radar imagery the team used. "It's exciting because of any implications it might have for the habitability of Mars." [Geometry Helps Solve the Mystery of Mars' Water]

And it's too early to say what precisely those implications may be. Scientists still need to confirm the discovery itself and understand precisely what characteristics that water may have, which will require missions that have yet to be designed, much less launched.

An artist's depiction of the Mars Express spacecraft orbiting Mars. (Image credit: ESA)

Water below the ice?

The new research builds on more than three decades of theorizing by scientists about the chances that water lurks below Mars' polar caps, just as it does here on Earth.

That idea was first proposed by Steve Clifford, now a planetary scientist specializing in water on Mars at the Planetary Science Institute based in Arizona, who was not involved in the new research. He was inspired by scientists' studies of lakes below the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets here on Earth, he told Space.com. Those lakes are created when heat from within the planet melts the glaciers in patches. He thought a similar scenario could be happening below the ice caps on Mars  we just didn't have any way to see below the ice.

The new research attempted to do just that using radar data gathered by an instrument called MARSIS, which uses pulses of radar to study the planet's ionosphere and interior structure. It has been orbiting the planet aboard Mars Express, a European spacecraft, since 2003.

An artist's depiction of Mars Express in orbit with the spacecraft's radar data on the left. The blue patch represents the team's evidence for subsurface liquid water. (Image credit: ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga, Media INAF)

The radar signals that MARSIS produces bounce back to Mars Express in different ways depending on what material they hit. And the team behind the new research said the signals MARSIS picked up over the south pole of Mars can be explained only by a large underground pool of liquid water.

"We discovered water on Mars," lead author Roberto Orosei, the co-investigator on MARSIS and a scientist at the National Institute for Astrophysics in Italy, said in a video released with the paper. "MARSIS was able to detect echoes from beneath the southern polar cap of Mars that were stronger than surface echoes. This condition on Earth happens only when you observe subglacial water like in Antarctica over places like Lake Vostok." And while the team only has evidence for the one location, they suspect it isn't the only such subglacial lake (Antarctica hides about 400 such features).

According to the radar echoes, the lake is no more than 12.5 miles (20 km) across and is buried about a mile below the surface of the ice cap. The scientists can't figure out precisely how deep the lake is, but they have confirmed that it is at least 3 feet (1 meter) deep. It must be rather salty, because the ice above it is quite clear and therefore quite cold  if there were pure water below that sort of ice, it would be frozen, the researchers said.

The team used data spanning three and a half years to make sure that their analysis included multiple passes over the same region. They also considered a couple other scenarios that might have explained the data they saw, including a layer of carbon dioxide ice hiding below the water ice. But the researchers said they came away unsatisfied with those explanations.

Other scientists may not agree. "I think it's a very, very persuasive argument, but it's not a conclusive or definitive argument," Clifford said. "There's always the possibility that conditions that we haven't foreseen exist at the base of the cap and are responsible for this bright reflection."

The research is described in a paper published July 25 in the journal Science.

An artist's depiction of Mars Express over a patch of Planum Australe, with data from the study area superimposed on the planet's surface. (Image credit: USGS Astrogeology Science Center, Arizona State University, ESA, INAF. Graphic rendering by Davide Coero Borga, Media INAF)

Life means water, but water doesn't mean life

If future studies confirm that the mysterious layer below the ice is indeed water, scientists will have a host of further questions to tackle about the reservoir before they can make any predictions about what the discovery means for the possibility of life on Mars. [Curiosity Rover Finds Ancient 'Building Blocks for Life' on Mars]

"If you do have liquid water and you consider its relevance to life, then you also have to go beyond just the fact that it's liquid and ask the temperature that it's at and whether it's able to be used by life," Vasavada said. "Not all liquid water is equal in terms of life's ability to use it." In particular, he pointed to the high salt content that would be needed to keep water liquid at such low temperatures. This level might overwhelm even the most salt-loving life-forms, he suggested.

Scientists on Earth have drilled through glaciers to sample the water hiding below them and have found microbial life. So if there has ever been life on Mars, that life could theoretically have survived, hidden in this or similar lakes, Clifford suggested.

"There's no reason to expect that it wouldn't continue to the present day," he said of any ancient microbial life on Mars. "The subsurface is a very, very stable environment compared to the surface of a planet. It's protected from impacts. It's protected from climate change."

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.One example of the audio track sheet, printed out from an analog tape from the Apollo 11 mission.

NASA's Apollo 11 mission comes to life in 19,000 hours of newly available audio.

Over the eight-day, 3-hour Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins stayed in constant communication with mission control and supporting teams. The back-and-forth conversations, which took place over what are called communication "loops," were released to the media, because NASA is required to make its work public. But these fragile physical recordings had to be stored in special, climate-controlled vaults.

Now, thanks to a dedicated collaborative effort between NASA and the University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas), all 19,000 hours of audio recordings from the Apollo 11 mission have been converted into a digital format and are available online. [How the Apollo 11 Moon Landing Worked (Infographic)]

NASA collection: https://go.nasa.gov/2yFz8zN

UT Dallas collection: https://app.exploreapollo.org/

UT Dallas' online collection has a number of labeled audio categories, which are useful if you want listen to a specific part of the mission. There are even transcripts of these conversations available, a monumental effort by this collaborative team. The written records will make it easier for researchers and enthusiasts to find of-interest moments in the recordings.

An indisputable magic surrounds the Apollo 11 mission, starkly apparent in listening to these recordings. Many people still remember hearing Armstrong announcing, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." But these recordings reveal countless other incredible moments from the mission.

John H.L. Hansen, principal investigator for this project, said in a NASA statement that digitizing the recordings is a way "to contribute to recognizing the countless scientists, engineers and specialists who worked behind the scenes of the Apollo program to make this a success. These are truly the 'heroes behind the heroes' of Apollo 11!"

A catalogue of awe-inspiring audio, the recordings boast a number of highlights. Amongst occasional static silence in communications, the Apollo 11 astronauts and the wide variety of support staff talk about everything from school reunions to critical mission instructions.

This audio puts you right inside the command module of the Saturn V launch vehicle, winding the year back to 1969.

Buzz Aldrin stands on the moon during NASA's Apollo 11 mission in 1969. NASA recently revealed 19,000 hours of audio from the mission. (Image credit: NASA)

A significant portion of the audio consists of technical back-and-forth. Though dry, these conversations record an important part of Apollo 11, essential to the success of the mission and the survival of the crew. Even correspondence that might seem mundane carried life-or-death consequences.

However, even in these serious situations, the astronauts remained calm and even cracked jokes, the recordings reveal. For instance, Hansen said in the statement, at one spot in the recordings, Aldrin is working with flight controllers while the sensor that measures his breathing fails to function correctly. As Aldrin and the flight staff go through the possible explanations and talk through the issue, 10 to 15 minutes go by. Aldrin then jokes to the flight controllers, "Well, if I stop breathing, I'll be sure to let you know!"

In another instance, Aldrin complains about how much of Earth's surface is water, and he asks if mission control can do anything about it, according to the statement.

"We're approaching the 50th anniversary of Apollo, and I'm really pleased that this resource is becoming available," Mark Geyer, director of NASA's Johnson Space Center, said in the statement.

"Experience is one of the best teachers, so as we continue our work to expand human exploration of our solar system, go back to the moon and on to Mars, we stand on the shoulders of the giants who made Apollo happen," Geyer continued. "These tapes offer a unique glimpse into what it takes to make history and what it will take to make the future."

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her @chelsea_gohd. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Over the decades, the internet has served as a reliable bogeyman for Hollywood writers in need of a villain. And as the technology that connects us to the World Wide Web has evolved, so have our fears about what we can do with our computers - and what can be done to us. With "Unfriended: Dark Web," the terror feels more real than ever.

In the 1980s, fear of nuclear catastrophe merged with hype about computer systems for flicks that promised the end of the world was just a mouse click away. In back-to-back years, "WarGames" (1983) and "The Terminator" (1984) posited the dangers of tying our nuclear arsenal to the whims of a computer (WOPR in "WarGames"; Skynet in "The Terminator") operating outside the controls of its human creators. The internet was little more than a tool for nerds to share jokes about "Star Trek," and we were already contemplating the ways in which it could destroy us.

In the '90s and early '00s, that post-history age, when commerce ruled and prosperity reigned, the internet became a mechanism for shadowy entities to wipe away our identities and steal fortunes. "The Net" and "Hackers," both out in 1995, suggested that the scariest thing about the internet was the way computer files could be changed to erase our existence - from the DMV, from the IRS, you name it.

The black-hat hacker in "Hackers" only used the threat of imprisonment of our protagonists as a means to a more common end, of course: He wanted to make a ton of money. But what had been played for laughs in the previous decade (Matthew Broderick hacks into his high school mainframe in two different films, "WarGames" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"), now felt deadly serious.

In the new millennium, hacking has faded to background noise, and horror pictures have tried to exploit our discomfort with technology. "FearDotCom" (2002) was an early, disastrous effort at making the internet a terrifying place: Visitors to a website (three guesses at the address) found themselves dead 48 hours later after experiencing creepy hallucinations. Turns out the site was created by a (apparently technologically advanced) ghost that sought revenge on the world for having been murdered years before by a serial killer who allowed people to watch her killing.

Make no mistake: "FearDotCom" is terrible, the 50th-worst movie of all time according to IMDB users. Much better was "Pulse," the 2001 horror film out of Japan. Nominally focused on spirits trying to invade the physical world by way of our WiFi, "Pulse" was actually about the ways in which the internet atomizes society and the depression this iteration of isolation engenders.

The two "Unfriended" movies seem to have the best understanding of how the internet actually works and how people actually use it, and are scarier as a result. Both flicks unfold in real time, with the movie screen portraying the actions on a laptop's desktop. The characters interact over apps and websites we recognize - Skype, Facebook, that sort of thing - and act as we might expect them to act, typing and deleting and retyping messages in a manner that not only heightens the reality (who hasn't struggled over the proper wording of an apology?) but also delivers more information to the viewers.

"Unfriended" (2014) focused on cyberbullying and the harm supposed friends can do to each other in the name of racking up likes, shares and clicks. Six friends of Laura Barns (Heather Sossaman), a high schooler who committed suicide after a video uploaded to YouTube turned her into a pariah, start to receive spooky messages from someone with access to Barns' previously defunct social media accounts. Soon after, they begin committing suicide one by one until Barns's betrayer reveals herself.

Despite the aesthetic achievement of making us all care about a story unfolding via a laptop screen - I recommend watching it at home on your own for a truly immersive experience - "Unfriended" isn't as scary as it could be given its reliance on an actual ghost in the machine: It turns out that Barns herself is the one orchestrating the orgy of blood.

Far more terrifying is standalone sequel "Unfriended: Dark Web," which posits a world where anonymous trolls can get away with literal murder and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Again told from the POV of a laptop screen, "Unfriended: Dark Web" shows six friends struggling to understand the internet's underbelly, where Bitcoin is the preferred method of exchange and snuff films circulate.

"Dark Web" dwells on horrors familiar to those who spend a fair amount of time on social media, such as "swatting" (the practice of calling the cops on someone with the intent of getting the police to injure them) and the casual cruelty that untraceable anonymity inculcates. The evolution of the internet as a villain - from a place where your identity might be stolen to one in which strangers might murder you for lulz - mirrors the very real way the internet has evolved for many of us. The nihilistic hate that passes for community in certain corners of the internet is terrifying, unstoppable and, frankly, incomprehensible.

Maybe Skynet was right all along.

---

Bunch is the executive editor of, and film critic for, the Washington Free Beacon.Doyle's staging began at the 180-seat Menier Chocolate Factory in London and it was never supposed to come to Broadway. For one thing, not enough time had passed since the original 2005-08 production, according to the usual Broadway rules. For another, Doyle was an older white Brit and hardly the most obvious choice to direct this material, as he freely admits. For a third, this staging could not have been simpler. But the original producer of the material, Scott Sanders, made his way to the Chocolate Factory and was sufficiently enamored of what he saw that he brought the show back to Broadway.Math and reading scores for Connecticut public high school juniors, including some in Stamford, took a tumble this year.

The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering showed a 17-point drop in the average score for language arts, but a four-point rise in math, according to results of school-administered SATs released on Wednesday. The magnet school recorded the highest averages  527 in math and 533 in language arts  in the Stamford Public Schools district.

At Westhill High School, the averages reflected the statewide trend with scores dipping by one point in math and nine points in language arts. Stamford High School showed a similar decline, with average scores down three points in both language arts and math.

Westhill students scored an average of 492 in language arts and 486 in math. Stamford High students recorded an average of 476 in math and 488 in language arts.

Statewide, language arts scores dropped 8 points to 516 and math scores fell 4 points to 503. Both are out of a possible score of 800.

Stamford Superintendent of Schools Earl Kim said the districts scores are misleading and do not perform on a typical bell curve.

Providing all students with the opportunity to take the SATs, regardless of their immediate future plans, is beneficial to familiarize them with that aspect of the college search and application experience, Kim said. However, one cannot and should not infer anything by looking at the central tendency data from those or any placement tests The mean score is misleading and does not describe the distribution in the same way it would if our scores were a bell curve. Further illustrating this point is the fact that last year the average SAT score of the top 10 percent of Stamford students was 1,387, while the overall average was 1,011.

Stamford Academy saw a rise in scores, with language arts averaging 380  up from 368  and math improving to 377 from 360.

Craig Baker, chief education officer for Domus Kids, which runs Stamford Academy, said the school began teaching test preparation techniques to help students understand the format of the SAT. Baker said the school will offer SAT-aligned assessments next year to examine scores and adjust its curriculum based on student performance.

Weve been thinking really deeply around how to better prepare our students for the SAT, Baker said. Were taking a dual approach to it. Its making sure what were teaching in the classroom not only aligns to Common Core state standards, but align with whats being taught on the SAT. Based on the growth weve seen in the last year, we need the growth to be greater.

While the averages have improved, Baker said Domus wants the students scores to reach state standards.

Were not satisfied with where we are on average, but were excited about that growth, Baker said. We want to build on this growth year over year so we can close the gap between state standards and where our students are performing.

Statewide view

Statewide, average language arts scores remain higher than the grade level score of 480 set by the state when it adopted the SAT as the states standardized test for 11th-graders three years ago. For the third year in a row, more than 60 percent of juniors taking the test scored at or above the expected target.

Average math scores have yet to reach the grade-level score of 530. In math, 40.3 percent of students met or exceed the target.

More Information By the numbers Language arts Math 2017-18 2016-17 2017-18 2016-17 Stamford High 488 491 476 479 Westhill 492 501 486 487 Stamford Academy 380 368 377 360 AITE 533 550 527 523 State average 516 524 503 507 Source: State Department of Education See More Collapse

The score decline cut across every category in reading. In math, the one increase was for students who qualify for free meals, who rose from an average score of 435 to 440.

In that, Commissioner of Education Dianna Wentzell took some solace.

While results have remained relatively stable over the last three years, we are encouraged by the bright spots in the results of this years SAT School Day including a majority of students mastering college and career readiness in English language arts and an increase in achievement in mathematics for students from low-income backgrounds, Wentzell said in a prepared statement.

She said the Connecticut SAT School Day serves as an accountability assessment measure but also provides all high school juniors the opportunity to take a college readiness exam at no cost. The SAT is one of two tests many colleges still look to when admitting students.

The results, in addition to measuring student performance, can also be used by students applying to college.

Our goal is to make sure all of our students are prepared to succeed in college and their careers, Wentzell said. To that end, we are dedicated to supporting districts efforts to close achievement gaps and raise student performance across the board.

As for why overall scores went down, state officials say one reason is that different kids are taking the test each year.

It is hard to say why the achievement of this group of 11th-graders was slightly lower than that of the group from 2016-17, said Peter Yazbak, a state Department of Education spokesman. He also characterized the change as narrow.

Statewide, 95.2 percent of high school juniors  about 37,900 students  took the test last spring. For many, testing occurred on a make up day in April, since on March 21, the designated SAT Day, many schools canceled classes because of an expected noreaster.In early June, the MV Aquarius, a search-and-rescue ship run by a migrant-aid group, found itself stuck between Italy and Malta with nowhere to go. On board were 629 migrants who had been rescued from rubber dinghies in the Mediterranean.

But neither country wanted to let them in.

After a days-long standoff, Spain finally acquiesced and opened its doors, redirecting the boat to Valencia. On Twitter, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, an immigration hard-liner who says Italy has carried too much of the burden of the Europe's migration crisis, called the redirection of the boat a "victory."

"This was a first important signal that Italy cannot go on alone supporting this huge weight," Salvini said at a news conference after Spain agreed to take in the ship.

As The Washington Post reported in June, that tense episode shed light on how Italy's new populist, anti-immigration government could influence the years-long debate in Europe over which countries should take in migrants and how their asylum claims should be handled. According to European rules, refugees applying for asylum must do so in the country where they are first registered - a situation that does not suit front-line countries such as Italy and Greece, where many migrants first land.

On Tuesday, as part of a regional effort to deal with migrants, the European Commission offered to pay countries up to $7,000 per migrant they take in, hoping to persuade more countries to accept migrants rather than simply turn them away. Brussels also offered to pay for the hundreds of staff members needed to manage centers where migrants and asylum seekers could be processed to avoid having them travel through Europe to secondary destinations.

Italy quickly rebuffed the suggestion.

"We aren't asking for charity handouts. Every asylum-seeker costs the Italian taxpayer between 40,000 and 50,000 euros," Salvini said after the offer was announced. "Brussels, they can keep their charity for themselves."

The commission's latest suggestion that it pay countries to deal with migrants' arrivals follows an all-night summit in June, which led to an agreement that the European Union would help establish centers to process asylum claims. (Some of those centers could potentially be in Africa.) EU diplomats are expected to more formally discuss Tuesday's offer this week, even if Salvini has already dismissed it.

Jeff Rathke, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Europe program, said that "it's not really about the money for the Italians."

"It's about their desire along with a few other like-minded EU member states to shift the debate and shift the paradigm of how Europe is dealing with migration," Rathke said. "I think it's unlikely that a particular level of compensation is going to change the approach or perspective of this Italian government."

Salvini, for his part, made that much clear on Tuesday.

"We don't want money," he told reporters. "We want dignity."WASHINGTON - Bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, lawmakers unveiled a sweeping defense policy bill Tuesday that would give the president greater power to forgo certain Russia-related penalties.

The move to scale back sanctions stands in sharp contrast to mounting bipartisan fervor in the Senate to get tougher on Russia after a summit between Pressident Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that was roundly decried as an embarrassment and a missed opportunity to deal harshly with the Kremlin over election interference.

Lawmakers have unleashed a flurry of bills, resolutions and other initiatives to try to force Trump to step up penalties against Russia. There is also pressure to take steps before Putin can make good on an invitation from Trump to visit the United States this fall - though at this juncture, the State Department is unaware of any formal invitation, and Russian authorities say they are making no formal preparations for a second summit.

In negotiations on the annual defense authorization bill, House and Senate lawmakers agreed to give the president the power to waive sanctions, without first checking with Congress, against certain entities that still do business with Russia. The move came in response to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' request for more latitude to bring countries, such as India, that historically have been dependent on Russian defensive materials in closer alliance with the United States.

Leading Republicans hailed the move as "necessary . . . to wean them off Russia and build them onto U.S.-made products," in the words of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who co-authored the original sanctions legislation.

But Democrats decried the action as the start of "a slippery slope," according to Sen. Robert Menendez, N.J., ranking Democrat on the same committee. "It undermines the essence of what we were trying to do . . . and I'm concerned it may not only create a waiver but it may also waive Congress' right to bring a vote on any arms sale to those countries."

The House could vote as early as this week on the defense legislation.

On Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., stated firmly that Putin would not be invited to address Congress if he came to the United States, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., stressed that Putin "will not be welcome up here at the Capitol."

Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and Banking committees also announced that they would soon hold hearings to address, among other matters, the implementation of sanctions against Russia.

But rank-and-file lawmakers are growing impatient for action, as demonstrated by several bipartisan pairs of senators who have raised and endorsed bills and resolutions demanding an increase in punitive measures against Russian actors caught undermining the United States.

On Tuesday, Sens. Menendez and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., teased forthcoming legislation that would immediately step up sanctions on Russian oligarchs and the country's energy, financial and cyber sectors; tighten reporting requirements to Congress about existing sanctions implementation; and require Senate approval for any bid to withdraw from NATO. Also Tuesday. Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin demanding that the department impose sanctions on the Russians cited in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's latest indictment.

Those moves come on the heels of repeated efforts by Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Christopher Coons, D-Del., to secure a vote in the Senate expressing lawmakers' conviction that Trump should fully enforce existing sanctions against Russia. In recent days, a wave of Republican and Democratic senators has also signed on to a bill from Sens. Van Hollen and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that would slap new sectoral sanctions on Russia if the director of national intelligence concluded that the Kremlin had tried to interfere in another election, within 10 days of his determination.

In addition to bipartisan efforts, individual senators have also written resolutions to push back against Trump's erratic Russia diplomacy, such as a proposal from Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., opposing any more one-on-one meetings between Trump and Putin without a second U.S. official present. After Russia's description of "agreements" reached in Helsinki, the administration has been repeatedly pressed to report what happened during Trump's two-hour-plus meeting alone with Putin.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in California, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praised Trump's summit with Putin and said they had agreed "to put together a business council" to "start track-two processes," apparently referring to agreements announced by both sides to establish working groups of nongovernmental foreign policy experts. Pompeo is expected to be asked about those agreements and other details of the summit during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday afternoon.

But the swirl of initiatives to press the president is unlikely to sway Republican leaders, who have been noncommittal about where sanctions and other measures might find room in a tight congressional calendar - the House leaves for a month-long recess at the end of the week - and are warning against Congress binding itself to anything with the weight of law too hastily.

"The Helsinki news conference was a sad day for our country, and everyone knows it," Corker said Tuesday. But he warned against making policy "with our hair on fire," adding that "moving a bill three days after a deplorable news conference is not an intelligent thing to do."

Democratic leaders have jeered Republicans for refusing to speed any of the measures, even the nonbinding resolutions, to the floor for the Senate's consideration.

"Against someone like Putin you need tough, strong action," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y. "We haven't seen our Republican colleagues do any of that."

---

The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.Facebook signed a legally binding pledge on Tuesday promising that it would not allow advertisers to exclude people on the basis of race, national origin, religion, sexual orientation and other protected categories from viewing certain ads on the site, a widespread practice that investigators in the state of Washington called as "unlawful discrimination."

The settlement with Attorney General Bob Ferguson - the result of a roughly two-year probe of the social giant - also guarantees that ads for housing, employment, credit, insurance and "public accommodations," can't be hidden from users of a particular national origin, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, disability status, religion, or race.

Because it is legally enforceable, the settlement holds Facebook to a higher standard than previous commitments, which until Tuesday had been voluntary. It also expands the types of ads that will receive more enforcement from Facebook.

The state's probe stemmed from a series of reports in ProPublica, beginning in 2016, that found advertisers, using Facebook's micro-targeting tools, could conceal housing ads from African American users and other minorities. Investigators in the attorney general's office said Tuesday that they tested the system by creating "20 fake ads" on Facebook as part of their investigation in November and December 2017, touching everything from nightclubs to employment opportunities, that "excluded one or more ethnic minorities."

After the ProPublica investigation, Facebook said it would no longer let advertisers target ads for housing, credit offers, and employment by "ethnic affinities," a category that the social network had previously created to enable businesses to reach minority groups.

Even after Facebook's first pledge, which was voluntary, reports revealed that advertisers who posted housing ads were still able to exclude people on the basis of race, calling into question Facebook's promise of stepped up enforcement. Facebook's ad system also automatically approved housing excluding other types of people, such as mothers of high school kids, Jews and Spanish speakers.

Tuesdays' agreement with Washington makes the commitment legally binding. As part of its settlement Facebook did not have to admit that it violated state anti-discrimination laws as part of the proceeding, but it could face additional penalties if Washington finds other, future instances of discrimination.

The order technically covers only Facebook's business within the state, but Furguson said that the company would adhere to the policy nationally.

"If a restaurant owner put a sign out front that said, 'whites only,' we all know the reaction. Well, my team posted an ad on Facebook that said 'whites only,' and it got accepted," Furguson said in an interview.

More News Uber drivers reportedly faking vomit spills to rip off passengers

In response, Will Castleberry, Facebook's vice president for state and local policy, said in a statement that the company had "worked closely with them to address the issues they've raised," adding: "Discriminatory advertising has no place on our platform, and we'll continue to improve our ad products so they're relevant, effective, and safe for everyone."

Like its peers in Silicon Valley, California, Facebook has struggled to find its footing on issues of race and discrimination. Even within its own ranks, white men make up much of its workforce: Black employees, in contrast, hold about 1 percent of the technical roles at Facebook, while Hispanic employees hold 3 percent, according to data the company released in July. Both numbers are relatively unchanged from the previous year.

In the nation's capital, federal lawmakers also have urged Facebook to diversify its workforce. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus specifically pushed the tech giant to add people of color to its board of directors, an addition Facebook made earlier this year with the selection of American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault.

Peter Romer-Friedman, an attorney involved in a class action suit accusing Facebook of enabling discrimination in job ads against older Americans, said Facebook's agreement on Tuesday did not protect older adults as well as discrimination on the basis of gender.

"Right now as we speak, Facebook is literally sending job ads that exclude people on the basis of their age," he said. "It's laudable that the AG has gotten Facebook to agree to some basic first steps, but this agreement really doesn't do much more than what FB has agreed to do voluntarily."James Holzrichter and test engineer Rex Robinson, who died in 2003, accused Northrop Grumman of fraud at its Rolling Meadows facility in a landmark 1989 lawsuit. Holzrichter, who tracked inventory for the company, says on Whistleblower he believed Northrop Grumman was double- or triple-billing expensive parts to the U.S. government and this was adding up to the tune of millions of dollars. He said he smuggled copies of documents by taping them to his body to give to federal agents later.WILTON  A 37-year-old White Plains man posed as the owner of the Boston Bruins and is now facing criminal charges, according to police.

Police said Jeffrey Jacobs, 37, lied about his identity to curry favor with a tree service company after a tree fell on his home on Drum Hill Road during a storm last year.

The tree companys owner, who told police he was an avid Bruins fan, was enticed to come out to the home in the middle of the storm and later billed the $5,100 job to Jeremy Jacobs, the actual owner of the Bruins.

In May 2017, Wilton police learned of the incident when they received a call from the security department of Delaware North, a hospitality and food service management company chaired by the Bruins owner.

Police were familiar with Jacobs. They said he was pulled over in November and used a similar lie to try and get out of a traffic ticket.

A warrant for Jacobs arrest was obtained by police. Jacob was arrested Friday, July 20, by police in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., after he was pulled over for using his phone while driving. He was transferred to the Wilton Police Department later that night.

Jacobs was charged with criminal impersonation. He was released on a $5,000 bond and given a court date of July 30.O ur new Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, is talking tough, telling those people in Brussels that Britain is preparing for no deal, the option of walking out of the EU at the end of March 2019 without a transition period and without special trading arrangements.

Bold talk; perhaps he has taken to heart Boris Johnsons remarks, reportedly made at a private meeting, where the former foreign secretary castigated the Prime Minister for weakness, wishing that Donald Trump were in charge of Brexit talks. Hed go in bloody hard Thered be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think hed gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere.

Its the delusion of those who believe their own propaganda, the terrible mistake of one who hears the cheers of the crowd and dares to believe he really can win, against all the odds. Think of the face of Harry Kane, England captain (sorry to bring this up) during the ill-fated semi-final, the moment of his dawning realisation that the team that would bring it home to Blighty was out of its depth, out-classed by Croatia.

Of course, President Trump plays dirty and bullies but he only does so from a position of absolute strength and safety.

If The Donald is rude to the UKs Prime Minister, it is because he can be so with impunity. Trump is never rude to President Putin.

And so it is with the Brexit negotiations. The question is not why Theresa May is being meek but why Michel Barnier, the EU negotiator, is not doing a Trump  threatening to deport British retirees in Malaga, for example, or ban the import of British beef (remember those mad cows?) Why does he not push the steak knife into the exposed, pink and slightly plump side of Britain and give it a good twist?

Lets be absolutely clear: walking out (no deal) is an English fantasy. It means chaos at UK airports and the Channel ports (the Government is already preparing to commandeer the M26 as a lorry park), chaos that will mean big financial losses for British exporters and importers.

Raab might say the EU will lose too. Indeed, they will lose but the 27 remaining states will carry on trading with each other and the world while the UK is gridlocked in a very expensive mire. And while Britain struggles with paperwork and lorry parks, will European businesses sit on their hands or will they rush to steal Britains customers in Europe and around the world?

The UKs no deal trading arrangements will be tough and, initially, very uncertain. Under the WTO rules, Britain must apply the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle. It means you cannot offer one state a special tariff without offering it to all WTO members.

Average EU external tariffs are quite low (1.5%) but on certain important sectors are very high, in particular cars, about 10%. The Government would hope to agree a special deal on cars but the EU will never agree because it would have to offer that special tariff to every other WTO member state to satisfy the MFN rule. A tariff of 10% on cars would be ruinous in an industry where profit margins on new cars vary between 4% and 8%.

Walking out of the EU would be disastrous for industry and for agriculture, too, a sector at present protected by billions of euros of EU subsidy.

For example, sheep farmers benefit from the EUs high external tariff of 12% plus 1700 (1500) per tonne on lamb. Without a deal, UK farmers will face that tariff on exports of lamb to Europe. If we scrap tariffs in order to do overseas trade deals, cheap New Zealand lamb will flood the domestic market and Britains hill farmers will face ruin.

The warnings have come thick and fast. Amazon, an organisation not known for hysteria or melodrama, added to the pile when it said it was planning for civil unrest.

Johnsons response to businesses concerns was simply: F*** business. Those two words were greeted with embarrassment by some and two-fingered cheers in others. But overseas, the language from a Tory cabinet minister caused astonishment, at first, and then glee.

From New York to Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, the word is out: Britain is no longer a friend of business, the nation of shopkeepers is now a nation of shop looters.L ondons deputy mayor for business has admitted City Hall is readying for a no-deal Brexit but backed the capitals resilience to face it.

Rajesh Agrawal said: It looks like a no-deal scenario is quite likely. The authority commissioned a study from Cambridge Econometrics which modelled the impact of each Brexit outcome.

It is clear that a no deal is the worst outcome. In all scenarios all regions will be worse off but London will be resilient. That gives me optimism. He told an audience of entrepreneurs at a Federation of Small Businesses event yesterday: Entrepreneurs see change and they turn that into an opportunity.

The City of London yesterday said up to 12,000 financial services roles could leave the UK after Brexit. The fintech entrepreneur, who took on his role six days after Britains vote to leave the EU, is steering a string of initiatives designed to protect London.

These include an existing TechInvest initiative to co-fund start-ups, which has seen 140 million spent, and a new 100 million fund, to launch this year using EU money, to help small businesses.T he boss of Vodafone, Vittorio Colao, wasnt too popular on Wednesday as investors hung up on the mobile phone giant.

Colao, who leaves in October after a decade at the helm, stuck to the groups outlook for the year. But shareholders remained unimpressed with his update on the first quarter.

Sales fell 4.9% to 10.9 billion (9.7 billion), hurt by currency headwinds and the adoption of different accounting standards. Revenues also took a hit from price competition in Italy and Spain, leaving the shares down 1.94p at 175.2p.

Other fallers on the FTSE 100 included events and publishing business Informa, which posted its first results since closing a 3.9 billion deal for UBM last month. Sales are growing but it also expects to book a one-off cost of 100 million linked to the merger.

Informa, which is behind the Monaco Yacht show, fell 31.4p to 818.6p.

Things were better for property firms, as a report today from research firm Hometrack said that London house prices recovered in the quarter to June. They rose 1.8%, having fallen by 1% over the previous six months.

Upgrades from Berenberg meant builders were among the biggest risers. Berkeley rose 44p to 3745p, Barratt gained 6.8p to 528.8p, and Taylor Wimpey was up 2.4p at 174.65p.

But these strong performances were not enough to stop the FTSE 100 slumping 54.13 points to 7654.92.

Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said miners were going into retreat and investors were jittery ahead of a no-doubt feisty trade face-off between Donald Trump and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday evening.

Over on the FTSE 250, it seemed as though Primary Health Properties was not what the doctor ordered in the City. The surgeries landlord revealed net rental income jumped 7.5% to 37.4 million in the first half.

It declared an interim dividend of 2.7p per share, up from 2.62p a year earlier. Primary Health Properties chief Harry Hyman said his business represents a highly attractive investment opportunity.

But the Square Mile disagreed, looking instead at the pre-tax profits falling 13% to 38.7 million.

The shares slipped 0.42p to 115.98p.

Small-cap spotlight

E-sports firm Gfinity has agreed a deal with pizza firm Dominos, for significant investment in its Challenger and Elite series.

Dominos will be a presenting partner, tapping into millennials who like a takeaway with their gaming. Dominos gets in-show presence through the liveFIFA, Rocket League and Street Fighter V broadcasts.H eres a way to prove that London is open for business despite Brexit: put a stop to queues at our main international airport.

Yes, we know that building a new runway at Heathrow will take ages. But hiring enough staff to get arriving passengers through immigration quickly ought to be simple. Or so youd think.

But as we report today, the man in charge of the UK Border Force at one of the busiest airports on the planet says ending long waits is not a sensible ambition.

That must be why, at every Heathrow terminal last month, a quarter of non-EU passengers had to wait more than the target of 45 minutes to get their passports checked.

Among them is Shashank Krishna, a city lawyer, who as we report today, has been stuck for up to three hours.

Compare that with our competitors. Even the US, which was once infamous for long lines at arrivals, now welcomes passengers with an efficient service much of the time. So in London does Gatwick Airport, which reliably processes passengers from the EU and beyond inside the target time, month after month.

Interviewed by us, Nick Jariwalla, who runs the service at Heathrow, says he is very well aware of the problem and that queues really matter. But his excuse  security must come first  just doesnt stand up.

Checking passengers after a long wait is no more secure than checking them fast. The problem isnt security at all. Its a Home Office culture which hasnt wanted a fix.

Fortunately, the new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, now has a chance to make his mark. He needs to do two things.

First, ensure that all the electronic passport gates are open, all of the time  and then let some non-EU passengers use them. Why shouldnt passengers from places such as Australia, Japan and the US get a fast service alongside those from the EU?

Second, get Heathrow, which has just announced another big profit, to contribute to the cost of hiring more staff. The airport says it is willing to pay  but only once current targets are met.

Thats too late.

The summer queues are here and Londons economy and global standing are the victims. The waits need to end.

Trade and the President

Tariffs are the greatest! President Trump tweeted yesterday, adding to the long list of his claims which are definitely not true.

He followed up by offering to get rid of them if the EU does but no one believes it for a moment. Tariffs  a tax on trade  hold back growth, limit competition and leave everyone involved worse off.

Announcing them is easy, as the President shows. Explaining why they are wrong is not. Its taken decades to set up even a half-effective system of rules through the World Trade Organisation, which the President now risks pulling apart.

Thats not all, though. Britains economy, as Brexiteers never cease to tell us, has thrived on the back of international trade.

Our car industry, in crisis in the Seventies, has been transformed since we became part of the EUs single market. So youd think that those who claim to want to leave the EU to trade with the world would be the loudest in condemning new barriers such as Trumps tariffs.

After all, many say we shouldnt worry about trading on WTO terms, in the event that there is no UK-EU deal. Dont bet on it.

They still think that a President threatening to put tariffs on Jaguars and Range Rovers being exported to the US can be trusted to protect UK jobs once weve walked away from the biggest single free-trade area on the planet.

Fire school heads home

Slowly, the painful aftermath of the Grenfell fire is being overcome.

The latest step forward is news that Kensington Aldridge Academy, next to the tower, is planning to move back to its main site this autumn.

Since the fire, pupils have had to study in temporary huts a mile away. Its impressive that 90 per cent of them voted for their school to go home  and right that care is being taken to help them cope.T rigger warning: the following article includes passages sympathetic to Sajid Javid , so if you find such material offensive please seek a safe space now. All set? Here we go.

This week there has been a clamorous recoil from the Home Secretarys decision not to seek a death penalty assurance from the US in the case of two alleged Islamic State (IS) members, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, part of the murderous jihadi unit grimly nicknamed the Beatles because of their British accents.

Straying from standard procedure  though not, please note, overturning all precedents  Javid and the then Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson , did not make the sharing of UK evidence conditional upon guarantees that capital punishment be ruled out in any prospective prosecution on American soil.

Let me be quite clear: I abhor the death penalty , wherever it is used. I would not have taken the same decision as Javid. But I acknowledge the serious dilemma that he faced. I also believe it is symptomatic of a much deeper problem facing liberal democracies in their conflict with Islamism.

Matthew d'Ancona

The gang of which Kotey and Elsheikh were members was especially vicious, even by the exacting standards of IS: it was allegedly responsible for the beheading of at least 27 hostages, the horrific torture of many more, and a sadism that stretches the boundaries of the imagination.

It became clear that, given the state of the law, it would be difficult to mount a successful prosecution in Britains courts, but that the prospects were better under US federal jurisdiction. At this point, Javid  and Johnson, however much he tries to distance himself from the decision  faced an undoubted moral quandary. He knew that the US authorities would never grant death penalty assurances in such a case.

So on this basis he could withhold evidence that he knew might help to secure convictions. Or, exceptionally, he could decide that in this case public safety overrode the default position that Britain seeks such undertakings from foreign jurisdictions. You and I might disagree with the path he chose. But recognise, at least, the difficulty of that choice.

The phrase virtue-signalling is over-used but in the case of the opprobrium that has been heaped upon the Home Secretary it is all too apt. There is something distastefully sanctimonious about the relish with which many have queued up to condemn his decision. Diane Abbott finds Javids actions shameful and abhorrent; Hilary Benn insists that we have to show we are better than them and what they did, while Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorist legislation, declares the decision extraordinary.

All of which would be easier to stomach if this ethical kangaroo court had been clearer about what they themselves would do with Kotey and Elsheikh, and how, precisely, they would combat the deadly threat of jihadism at home and abroad.

In 2017, 36 people were killed by terrorists in the UK, and at least 25 additional plots have been foiled since June 2013. Fourteen months ago, 22 people were slaughtered and hundreds more injured in the Manchester Arena attack. As MI5s admirable chief, Andrew Parker, has consistently warned, there is more terrorist activity coming at us, more quickly.

"It became clear that, given the state of the law, it would be difficult to mount a prosecution in Britain"

A steady stream of radicalised young Britons have followed the example of the so-called Beatles, seeking a vile glory in licensed murder wherever IS is fighting overseas. Many of them then attempt to return or, as in the case of Kotey and Elsheikh, demand a fair trial under the very system they sought to destroy.

How much easier, when faced with such a complex conflict, to retreat from action to introspection. It has suited the body politic to disavow the orthodoxy that prevailed in the aftermath of 9/11 that 21st-century jihadism represented a new form of warfare that would be fought over many years, in many theatres and in many different forms.

Instead of thinking strategically about this geopolitical challenge, we now hide in the comfort zone of secondary issues. The Left labels almost every measure taken to address the terrorist threat as actually or potentially Islamophobic. The Right focuses with bovine insistence upon immigration.

Every measure that is proposed to tackle Islamism  including much of the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill presently before Parliament  is scrutinised with disproportionate scepticism, as though the objective of successive governments has been only to make the state mightier. Credit, then, to rising Conservative star Tom Tugendhat, who suggests in a new Policy Exchange pamphlet that the ancient law of treason be updated to address the transformed context: he, at least, grasps the need to adapt rather than simply to pontificate.

In this context, every MP would do well to heed the best book written on the subject of contemporary terrorism, Philip Bobbitts Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century, and his warning that good law must be stockpiled like vaccines before atrocities take place, lest bad law be hurried through in the wake of bloodshed. We need, writes Bobbitt, a new jurisprudence rooted in a supply side analysis that focuses on our own exposure in a hyperconnected, mobile, technologically-driven world.Y esterday we learned that the Brexit department will no longer be handling Brexit. This happened at the same time as the new Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab , was trying to reassure us that the Government would make sure there would be adequate food supplies in the event of a no-deal Brexit. So now hes the minister for tinned food and rations. On a positive note, maybe thats one way to solve the obesity epidemic . Im taking no chances and have stockpiled my freezer with all the essentials. Mainly Magnums.

It is fair to say that Brexit is not going so well. Even Brexiteer cheerleaders have confessed to me privately that the whole thing needs an intervention  either a pause or another dose of democracy.

Many people who opposed a second referendum , such as John Major, think it now may be the only way forward. And I reluctantly agree, although I fear it could deliver a bigger Brexit vote. Lets be honest, if you voted for us to leave the EU because you didnt exactly love how politics was working for you in the run-up to the referendum, you probably despise it two years on.

There are concerns that another referendum would spark race riots and violence. I am alive to those fears but the problem is that the far-Right is on the march, whether we have another Brexit vote or not. We saw the ugly face of it at the rally for Tommy Robinson and we saw it quite literally when Steve Bannon toured the television and radio stations on his recent visit.

Bannon is talking about moving to Europe to orchestrate far-Right political activity  its funny how freedom of movement for white supremacists is fine. In the current dumbed-down, emotionally charged, social media- driven political climate which feasts on a populist betrayal narrative he could be dangerously effective come the next general election. The new party we fantasise about may not be a nice mainstream dream  it may come in the form of a hard-Right nightmare. So what do we do? We cant halt democracy because we fear extreme politics.

We have to stand up to it, as difficult as that is. And I understand why people are scared  especially if youre from a minority group which already feels marginalised because there is an unpleasant culture war brewing in this country. Brexit didnt start it but it did awaken it and give it life. And that happened partly because politicians failed to take on big issues that people were getting angry and wound up about. Politicians tried to hide, and it didnt go so well because it allowed people such as Nigel Farage to set the agenda.

"We need our leaders to be braver  if politics is failing, then we have to ask the public what they should do"

There arent any easy answers to this crisis we find ourselves in, and we desperately need our political leaders and influencers to be braver. But if politics is failing, then maybe we have to ask the public what politicians should do. As an old friend reminded me, the British people are on the whole a pretty smart, decent bunch.

Shes probably right.

Great albums and their art still stand tall

In an age where we have immediate and unlimited access to all the music we could ever want its easy to forget the joy of the album.

I thought about this yesterday as I was reminded that its 29 years since The Stone Roses released their self-titled first album  one of the most celebrated recordings of our generation. Its still one of my favourites and it contains so many great tracks which hang together perfectly.

The music community has just announced the first National Album Day on Saturday, October 13, to celebrate the UKs love of the album and the role it has played in our popular culture over the past 70 years since the first vinyl album was released. As well as activity from BBC Music and events, fans will be encouraged to discuss their favourite album and take time out to play it in full.

Its a great idea because as much as we all select individual tracks, the album still remains the ultimate expression of the artists craft and vision at that particular moment. And I love looking at all the artwork and sleeve-notes because they tell a story which you dont quite get on digital. Were a nation of music lovers and makers so its important that we dont forget about the album just because of the rise of technology.

*As the Edinburgh Festival looms, many comedians, including me, are popping up in clubs and pubs all over the city frantically trying out new material. But back in London the audience at the Phoenix pub near Oxford Street werent expecting Hollywood actress and comic Amy Schumer to walk on stage. She did a short set and it went pretty well.

Amy Schumer / Getty ImagesThe book ends with 9/11, the paradigm shift that revealed our collective naivete. Its Moshfeghs admonition that control is an illusion. We cant be the authors of our happiness any more than we can choose our parents or choose how we are loved. Theres nothing we can do to prevent the next cataclysmic disaster: the wildfire, the earthquake, the next school shooting, or the next man to be president. Through My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Moshfegh contends the only real control any of us has when catastrophe hits is whether we choose to jump to our deaths.M ONDAYS publication of the London Assemblys report on women in the criminal justice system is timely. We know that the vast majority of women are sent to prison for short sentences for non-violent offences. This leads to reoffending rates of 71 per cent.

Most women in prison have experienced physical and sexual abuse during their childhood and adulthood, 70 per cent require clinical detox on arrival at prison, and 50 per cent have attempted suicide.

These figures mean that women in the prison present a far greater risk to themselves than others and should be recognised as more troubled than troublesome.

Additionally, 17,000 children experience their mother being imprisoned each year and 90 per cent are taken into care or looked after by their relatives.

Short custodial sentences are ineffective, short-sighted and destructive. They disrupt family ties, housing, employment and treatment programmes, yet they do not provide any meaningful rehabilitation.

In contrast, there is good evidence that womens centres can be effective in helping women address substance misuse problems. There should be a presumption against short custodial sentences.

Christina Marriott

CEO, Revolving Doors Agency

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Christina,

THERE is much to agree with in your letter because short prison sentences  whether for women or men  often achieve little. Reoffending rates tend to be high because the brief time inside makes it hard for rehabilitation to take place and, as you say, they also disrupt family life, housing, employment in a way that might make new offending more likely rather than less.

The Government seems to agree too. The prisons minister Rory Stewart recently suggested to MPs that short sentences could be abolished for all but the most serious offenders, while a new Government strategy for female offenders signals a similar stance, with a much greater focus on the need for rehabilitation rather than punishment.

The only obstacle is the effectiveness of non-community sentences. These must be made to work much better, particularly for serial offenders, to ensure that the courts feel they have viable alternatives to custody.

If that can be achieved, then keeping more non-violent offenders out of prison should be in everyones interest.

Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor

Sending men to their deaths shames the Home Secretary

BRITAIN left the death penalty behind in 1965. But on Monday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid took a step back to the dark ages, abandoning the UKs long-standing policy of denying extradition requests or intelligence sharing where they could facilitate an execution.

Justice will not be served by the execution of these Islamic State militants. The mother of one of their alleged victims would rather see them imprisoned.

The Home Secretarys decision  made in secret and without any public or Parliamentary consultation  undermines the UKs leadership in the abolition movement and makes us all complicit in entrenching the legitimacy of the death penalty around the world. Complicity in the death penalty is a gross human rights violation for which the Government must be held to account if it does not reverse this position.

Martha Spurrier

Director, Liberty

Back to drawing board over Brexit

Ever since the EU referendum both the Conservatives and Labour have been turning themselves inside out trying to work out how to deliver at least the main goals of Leave voters. The trouble is, many of the aims are in conflict with each other.

Give our politicians some credit. They and their advisers have been doing their utmost, in very different ways, to respect and deliver the referendum mandate. But it cant be done: the circle cant be squared.

Its time for our politicians to be frank and say, Weve tried every which-way,but we cant deliver a Brexit that pleases all Brexiteers, let alone saves the country from growing division.

They need a new mandate, a Peoples Vote, to settle whether we plough on with Brexit regardless, or draw back and develop a more practicable agenda to improve peoples lives.

Petra Laidlaw

EU regulators right to take on Google

The European Commission is right to have taken a tough line on Googles anti-competitive practices. With enormous quantities of information comes enormous market power. Shouldnt regulators have more to say on this? At what point is forced sharing of anonymised data justified, to give smaller firms a fair chance to compete against large incumbents?

Tech giants have brought us great products and services but their market power needs to be kept in check. Regulators and politicians across the globe need to stop shying away from their duties here. Its complicated but faith in capitalism hinges on a competitive economy  not one where large monopolies are impossible to topple.

Scott Corfe

Chief economist, Social Market Foundation

Get much tougher on rogue cyclists

I agree with Charlotte Kasners letter regarding cyclists [Cyclists are a menace to pedestrians, July 23]. Even though they have been provided with lanes, paths, superhighways and so on, cyclists continue to ride on pavements, which is not only illegal but an ever-increasing danger to pedestrians. Many pavements are already overcrowded with pedestrians and there isnt space for cyclists as well.

Paul CaseyHaving launched in 2011, the mid-priced brand started with the promise to "fill a void in the market by creating a line of chic, affordable, easy to wear pieces for modern women".

But, due to the political outcome of the 2016 elections, which saw Donald Trump, controversially, become the 45th President of the United States, the label's future became uncertain.

According to Fortune, the brand's sales did soar in 2016 during the election campaign, with the notoriety of the Trump family earning Ivanka's clothing brand $47.3 million.

But, as Ivanka has distanced herself from the brand in order to concentrate on her role as First Daughter, the clothing brand was been hit with one controversy after another leading to low stockists and sales.

Ivanka Trump HQ took to Instagram to confirm to close, saying: "Our team would like to extend a sincere thanks to all of our fans and customers. It has been an honour to build this incredible community of women and we are very proud of the content and product we delivered".

We take a close look at the demise of Ivanka Trump...

October, 2016: The Trump Twitter boycott

It all started going down hill in October 2016, when Shannon Colter launched the campaign #GrabYourWallet, which called for a boycott on all Trump-related products.

The hashtag quickly went viral and saw people directly avoiding the Ivanka Trump brand. Some women even went as far as to burn their Trump branded shoes. Other went out of their way to avoid any stockist that had affiliation with Trump, which included Saks Off Fifth, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus.

January, 2017: Ivanka steps down as president of the fashion brand

In order to focus on her new role in the White House, Ivanka Trump stepped down as president of the brand in January 2017.

Her entirely female-run team was taken over by Abigail Klem, who had previously helped to grow Diane von Furstenburg. The mum-of-one's mission statement read: "Abigails goal is to extend the brands mission of inspiring and empowering women to create the lives they want to live."

February, 2017: stockists start pulling out

Inside a closed Ivanka Trump Store / Getty Images

Unsurprisingly, due to the ongoing backlash, stockists started ditching Trump's brand in February 2017.

Nordstrom was the first to drop the clothing line from its stores, which was followed by a plethora of other companies following suit.

This left the brand with very few stockists and very few sales. One of the last remaining stockists, Canadian brand Hudson's Bay, finally dropped the brand this month due to poor sales.

April, 2017: The company was unofficially renamed

An Ivanka Trump brand coat for sale at the Century 21 department store / Getty Images

The brand was hit by even more controversy in April 2017 when American discount store Stein Mart discovered two identical items, one labelled 'Ivanka Trump' and another 'Adrienne Vittadini'.

The sneaky name swap was seen as a desperate attempt for the label to flog unsold stock, with the brand's distributor, G-III Apparel Group, telling Business Of Fashion: G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organisation."

Ivanka Trump in Berlin 1 /10 Ivanka Trump in Berlin Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser of US President Donald Trump, arrives for a dinner in Berlin REUTERS Ivanka Trump attends the W20 Summit in Berlin REUTERS Ivanka Trump during the W20 Summit REUTERS Ivanka Trump with German Chancellor Angela Merkel REUTERS Ivanka Trump with German Chancellor Angela Merkel REUTERS Ivanka Trump visits the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin REUTERS Ivanka Trump visiting the Siemens Technik Akademie after participating in the W20 Summit REUTERS Ivanka Trump at the Siemens Technik Akademie REUTERS Ivanka Trump in Berlin REUTERS Ivanka Trump with Christine Lagarde and Angela Merkel REUTERSW hatever time of year it is, a glass of vino and a cheese board always goes down a treat.

Whether its dining al fresco in the summer with a drink in hand and some cheesy nibbles on the table or sitting in a cosy bar in winter and tucking into a seasonal platter.

London has bountiful bars showcasing grapes and cheeses from all over the globe.

With that said, here are the best cheese and wine spots in the capital.

Gordons Wine Bar

Secret spot: A taste of Old England / Gordon's Wine Bar

Established in 1890, this bar is one of the oldest in London and stepping inside it really does feel like going back in time. This semi-circular wine cellar is lit by candlelight and looks like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. Theres ample wines on offer from all over the world and theres the option for a build-your-own platter with over 17 types of cheese; from softer varieties to more pungent types. All cheeses are accompanied by bread, butter, chutneys and pickles. Its quite a romantic spot but be prepared to wait around for a table as this popular venue has limited seating in its unique basement.

47 Villiers St, WC2N 6NE, gordonswinebar.com

Bottles

Bottles is unassuming from the outside; once through the door it's a den of crates and charcoal black boards, dark steel stools and, no surprise, bottles after bottle stacked up in boozy pyramids. It's cosy in that happy, crowded sort of way, and serves a selection of fine wine, with a heavy lean into Italian stuff  the owners from there  alongside food that's far better than it needs to be. In fact, the food is really rather good: freshly made, delicately done plates, some simple, some less so. All in all, it's a wonderful little place; perfect date night fare, but good if you just need a really good glass of wine to gently soften the sharp edges of a long day.

Old Spitalfields Market, 67 Brushfield Street, E1 6AA, bottleswine.bar

Yield N16

This neighbourhood wine bar-cum-shop has a super relaxed feel to it and the staff know their stuff too. To stop wastage, they serve what they have open at the time so cheese and meat varies on a daily basis. The menu features organic and artisanal producers with cheese from Neals Yard and wines from lesser-known regions. Theres only a handful of tables and chairs which gives it a more intimate vibe too.

44-45 Newington Green, N16 9PX, yieldn16.com

Where to eat burrata in London 1 /5 Where to eat burrata in London Sager + Wilde Charlie McKay Magpie Humble Grape Sodo Pizza East

Humble Grape

This comfy bar tucked away on St. Brides Passage, is the perfect date night spot. It boasts an extensive drinks list with a focus on biodynamic and organic wines, they also offer retail Mondays where customers can enjoy wines from the shop at takeaway prices. As for the food, theres a selection of mouth-watering cheeses including cheese croquetas, Taleggio, and Fourme d'Ambert.

1 St. Bride's Passage, EC4Y 8EJ, humblegrape.co.uk

Vivat Bacchus

Cheese lovers, brace yourselves. This bar has an entire room dedicated to the stuff and staff will even take you in and explain whats on offer before opting for your own cheese board. While cheeses change regularly, theres usually around 40, so plenty to choose from. To compliment the food, theres a hearty wine list that heavily features French and South African vinos (to pay homage to the South African owners).

4 Hays Lane, SE1 2HB, vivatbacchus.co.uk

Cork & Bottle Wine Bar

This long-standing Leicester Square haunt has been serving wine for over 30 years. The drinks list is full of character, taking guests on a tour of wine regions across the world. They also host regular themed tasting events for guests to learn more about the world of wine. As for bites, theres plenty of cheese here too, 14 types to be specific.

44-46 Cranbourn St, WC2H 7AN, thecorkandbottle.co.uk

La Fromagerie

Each seasonal cheese board at this joint is themed with a different country and paired with wine to match. For something slightly warmer, the menu includes a fondue savoyarde and a melted raclette. All in all, the shop itself is perfectly presented and the dishes match, making it an incredibly Instagrammable bar. It also has sister sites in Highbury and Bloomsbury, so cheese lovers can get their fix anywhere in the city.A t some eateries in London, its all about location, location, location... largely because its impossible to ignore that youre in a pretty peculiar place.

From world famous landmarks to underground nooks and crannies, these are some of the weirdest locations you never knew you could eat at in London.

In the Houses of Parliament

Its probably the most recognisable building in the country, inside and out, but it could also be your next dinner date spot. The House of Commons is now hosting its own pop-up restaurant, allowing the politically pertinent the chance to dine inside the Strangers Dining Room, situated in the hallowed halls of the Palace of Westminster, for dates currently booking up until 2019. Lets hope the next Prime Ministers Questions doesnt end in a food fight...

In a tube carriage

A tube carriage similar to the ones that feature at Basement Galley / UNSPLASH/Maria Molinero

Weve all shoved a quick croissant in our mouths on the way to work, but this London Underground-inspired dining experience is a little more refined. Forget the rush hour, and kick back and relax with Basement Galley, the supper club held in a decommissioned London tube carriage, created by Chef Alex Cooper. And no, you dont need an Oyster card to attend.

10 S Access Road, Walthamstow, E17 8AX, basementgalley.com

On board HMS Belfast

Getty Images

Got your sea legs? Then all aboard the HMS Belfast, the Thames-moored historic warship which is now a floating museum to all things naval. After inspecting the kitchens on the Second World War vessel, hungry visiting shipmates dont have to head for dry land: an on-board cafe offers a spot of lunch, giving stowaways an even closer look at what it's like to live at sea.

The Queen's Walk, Southwark, SE1 2JH, iwm.org.uk

In a church crypt 

Those looking for a truly heavenly dinner should head to Gremio de Brixton. This south London tapas bar can be found beneath St Matthew's Church, in its crypt. Dont worry, your croquetas arent accompanied by coffin-dwellers, but do be prepared for DJ sets on the weekends. Were not sure theyd be able to feed the 5,000 but were sure theyd give it a go.

Effra Road, Brixton, SW2 1JF, gremiodebrixton.com

On the London Eye

Getty Images

There are plenty of restaurants with views in London  but none of them are quite like this one. The Dinner at 135 experience at the London Eye will see the iconic London landmark open, just for you and seven mates after hours, and will see you welcomed with a Champagne reception before tucking into a 3 course meal. The trick to this too-good-to-be-true supper comes in the price  hiring the wheel will set you back 8,400.

In a prison

The Clink, a restaurant at HMP Brixton, offers you the chance to have lunch or dinner within the prisons walls  and you dont even have to break the law (wed actually advise against it). Three course meals are cooked and served by prison inmates, who are completing rehabilitation training courses in cookery and food service, aimed at lowering reoffending rates.L abour MP Fiona Onasanya has been charged with perverting the course of justice.

The 34-year-old Peterborough MP appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on July 12.

Ms Onasanya, who was elected in last year's snap general election, will appear again at the same court on August 13.

Court records show she was charged over allegedly lying about who was behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle.

Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has appeared in court charged with perverting the course of justice / PA

A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said: "Fiona Oluyinka Onasanya, 34, from Peterborough has been charged with one count of perverting the course of justice.

"She appeared at Westminster Magistrate's Court on 12 July and is due to appear in court again on 13 August."

A Labour Party spokesman said: It would not be appropriate to comment on an ongoing case.

Ms Onasanya, who was a solicitor before her election to Parliament, is a Labour whip, meaning she is responsible for party discipline.

She won the Peterborough seat with a majority of just 607 votes, ousting Tory Stewart Jackson.

The former Conservative MP then took up a role as David Davis' chief of staff until the then Brexit secretary quit earlier this month.

The politician hit headlines last year after reciting lyrics by rapper Big Shaq in the House of Commons.

During a debate on Philip Hammond's budged in November, Ms Onasanya quoted lyrics from hit song 'Man's Not Hot'.A police officer who allegedly sawed and smashed his way through a suspect's windscreen said the rise in violent crime is due to officers being too afraid to make arrests in case they face backlash.

Joshua Savage, 28, is accused of attacking Leon Fontana's Ford Fiesta with a baton before cutting the glass with a lock knife on September 16 2016.

The incident, at around 5.25pm, on Vicar's Road in Camden, was filmed by Mr Fontana and shared widely online at the time, provoking a public outcry.

Police mistakenly thought the driver was a potentially violent drug dealer called TJ Dixon who may have had a weapon and only a provisional licence, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Savage's actions have been described as those of "a bully in uniform".

Trial: PC Joshua Savage arrives at Southwark Crown Court / PA

But he claimed on Wednesday that what he did was necessary to protect himself, his colleagues and the public.

The court heard that Savage had run a check on the vehicle by radio and learned that it had previously been used to make off from police.

"I knew I was in a police-unfriendly area, potentially with a person who could present a risk to myself or my colleagues, he said.

"I knew the driver was potentially someone who might make off from us, so I approached the vehicle feeling very anxious.

"I explained why I stopped him. All he would say was 'I'm not TJ Dixon' so he was well aware of my concern that he wasn't entitled to drive the vehicle."

The incident was caught on film / Twitter

He said that when Mr Fontana started filming him, it seemed like he wanted to repeat the whole exchange from the beginning 'for the benefit of the community and his YouTube fans".

"This is the problem we are seeing throughout London - police officers are more reluctant to deal with things because they are scared of what might come afterwards.

"Hence why we are seeing gang members not being disrupted and the rise in violent crime."

Savage said Mr Fontana had repeatedly failed to comply with his requests and his commands.

"My decision making was legitimate and lawful. It was made in line with the need to protect myself and my colleagues or to prevent harm occurring to members of the public or their property," he said. It was also necessary for the arrest of the subject."

Savage claimed that "the majority" of response officers carry their own bladed tools on duty for acts such as slicing seat belts off trapped car passengers in emergency situations.

Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, asked Savage if it was simply a botched arrest due to "adrenaline, inexperience or a combination of the two".

He added: "Can you understand why people might not like police if their windows are smashed?

"Do you accept you don't have the power to break into vehicles to arrest someone for driving, other than in accordance with a licence?"

Police officers restrain 7-year-old kid

"This wasn't self-defence at all. This was a botched, over-the-top, rude arrest."

In the footage of the alleged assault, when Mr Fontana refuses to leave his vehicle, the Metropolitan Police officer can be heard saying in footage played to the jury: "Get out of the car", and "You're not allowed to drive it".

Mr Fontana, who placed his keys on the dashboard, replies: "I've got a licence and insurance" and says he is filming for his own safety.

Mr Fontana denied he was being deliberately unhelpful and said he did not know if TJ Dixon was involved in crime, saying: "I keep myself to myself."

He told the court he had to have glass removed from his eye and pay around 175 to fix the windscreen following the alleged attack.

Savage, of Hermon Hill, Wanstead, north-east London, is charged with possessing a bladed article; common assault and destroying property.P olice are hunting a man after a 19-year-old woman was raped in central London after a night out with friends.

The woman was waiting for a minicab on The Strand shortly before 3am when the man walked up to her and said he could help find it.

Moments later he led her down a secluded alleyway where he raped her, police said.

The incident happened on Saturday, May 5 in Exchange Court, Westminster.

The suspect is described as being an Asian male with short brown hair and facial hair.

Officers from the Met Polices Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command (CASO) are investigating and have released an e-fit image of a man they would like to speak to in connection to the incident.

Detective Inspector Liz Wilcox, from CASO, said: This female was targeted after being separated from her friends.

I would urge anyone with information which may assist this investigation to come forward. Any information we receive will be looked at thoroughly and sensitively.

If you can identify this man or offer any information to help progress the investigation, please contact officers on 0208 733 5999 or tweet @MetCC.A father has appeared in court charged with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm after a suspected acid attack on his three-year-old son in Worcester.

The 39-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared alongside four other men charged with the same offence at Kidderminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

Adam Cech, 27, and Jan Dudi, 25, both from Birmingham, Norbert Pulko, 22, from London, and Jabar Paktia, 41, from Wolverhampton are the others to be charged.

The boy suffered serious burns to his face and an arm at the Home Bargains store in Worcester on Saturday afternoon and was discharged from hospital the following day.

Magistrates were told by Stephen Davies, prosecuting, that the boy and his mother were now "in a place of safety".

It is not yet known whether the youngster has suffered longer-term implications as a result of his injuries.

The suspected attack occurred in the Tallow Hill area of Worcester, while the boy was out with his mother and other children.

During a lengthy hearing, the men spoke only to confirm their names, ages and addresses.

All, including Slovakian nationals Pulko; who is a registered carer for his disabled mother, Cech, a father-of-two who is a team leader at an Oliver James Foods factory, and father-of-two Dudi, denied any wrongdoing through their solicitors.

Angela Channon, chairman of the bench, remanding the men into custody, told them they would appear next month at the crown court.

The boy's father, together with Cech, of Farnham Road, and Dudi, of Cranbrook Road, both Handsworth, Birmingham, Paktia, of Newhampton Road, Wolverhampton, and Pulko, of Sutherland Road, Walthamstow, London, will next appear at Worcester Crown Court on August 28.A lmost half of London students who graduated in the past five years regret going to university, research shows.

A survey of recent students found that 47 per cent regret studying for a degree, while 30 per cent said they do not need a degree to do their current job.

Among the reasons were that they could not to get a job afterwards, were left with average debts of 50,000, or failed exams, according to the research by Barclays, which runs its own apprenticeship schemes.

The survey revealed that London students feel under particular pressure to go to university, with 82 per cent of young people questioned saying it was expected by their parents, compared to with 70 per cent elsewhere.

London parents were also more likely to say they would be disappointed if their child did not go to university, and 20 per cent of London graduates admitted that they went to university purely to please their parents.

Teachers in London were more likely to discuss apprenticeships with their pupils  55 per cent of London students said they had been given information about apprenticeships from school, compared with 42 per cent outside London.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton said: Our universities are world-class, but there are other routes to a successful career. We want to change the perception that one route is better than any other.

Doing an apprenticeship brings amazing opportunities; you are earning while you are learning, and getting really valuable skills that will make you an attractive prospect to businesses.

Louise Brennan, who works in Barclays Canary Wharf branch, said she regrets going to university.

The 28-year-old graduated from Bournemouth University with a degree in television production in 2011, but found it difficult to get work in the area she studied in.

She ended up working as a Barclays customer service adviser. She then heard about apprenticeships and enrolled on the risk higher apprenticeship, which focuses on credit risk.H yde Parks Joy of Life fountain has been turned off after complaints that rough sleepers were using it to wash themselves and their clothes.

Officials from the Royal Parks moved in yesterday to drain and clean the monument.

Up to 50 people have set up a makeshift camp by bushes in Park Lane, sleeping on old mattresses.

One, who had been using the fountain to wash, said: We have no choice. The cafes say we cannot use their toilets for a wash and we have nowhere else to go to bathe or wash our clothes.

The park camp is one of several to have sprung up in Knightsbridge and Mayfair, triggering concern for the rough sleepers welfare and the areas reputation as a tourist destination.

Rough sleepers in Hyde Park / Jeremy Selwyn

Westminster council took action in 2015 after East Europeans were photographed using the nearby 7/7 memorial as a lavatory before the 10th anniversary of the terror attack. The local authority even offered to pay for return flights.

Residents and tourists are calling on the council to step in again.

Up to 50 people have set up a makeshift camp near Park Lane / Jeremy Selwyn

Carina Amona, 18, has been camping on Park Lanes grassed central reservation with 10 relatives for the past week after travelling from Bosnia. She said: Weve been sleeping here because we heard about the area from friends. Lots of people have stopped to say they will help but nothing has happened. My mothers leg is injured and during the day we just wander the streets. We do what we can to live but this is not the life we expected. My mother needs medical treatment.

Dog owner Jason Broadhurst, 33, urged the council to get a grip on the way the fountain was being used. He said: They were even washing their underwear. We were all looking on in shock.

Royal parks workers turn up to switch off the fountain

Tourist Carmela Ignazio, 23, said: I live in Spain and there this would never be allowed. Its disrespectful. The fountain is for everyone.

Resident Jeremy Pocock, 61, said the group were literally doing their dirty washing in public. He added: I am furious  this is such a beautiful park and loved by all, this is unacceptable.

But park user Lisa Ryan called on the council to install public showering facilities. Its all right for those people whove got a warm bed and shower and a washing machine, she said.

Ian Adams, the councils cabinet member for public protection, confirmed that it was investigating reports of anti-social behaviour in and around Hyde Park.

Our ornamental ponds and fountains are not designed to be used for swimming or bathing and we encourage the public not to use them in this way for their own safety, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Parks said it was understandable that people were looking for ways to cool down in the hot weather, but regulations prohibited bathing in fountains. She added: We request that park visitors do not do anything that pollutes our fountains, lakes, ponds or rivers  including bathing, personal grooming or littering.

If we see anyone bathing in fountains, the Metropolitan Police Service patrolling the area could move them on.

Petra Salva, Director of Rough Sleeping Services at St Mungos, said that health problems connected to continued exposure to heat, including dehydration, sunburn or heatstroke, could exacerbate roughsleepers often poor physical and mental health.

She added: Thats why, as well as talking about ways off the streets, our outreach teams are working hard to provide extra water and sunscreen.

We would urge people to get in touch with emergency services if they are concerned that someone sleeping rough requires medical attention.A live auction, paddle raise and cake-cutting was followed by a Q&A between Ebert and Kutza that covered his history, starting with founding the festival at age 22. Kutza explained his inspiration for the 55-year success of the festival. "It's the energy of seeing something that no one's ever seen before that keeps the spark alive for me," he said.S adiq Khan was today urged to throw out new plans for a residential, shopping and office development in west London.

Revised proposals for the Newcombe House site in Notting Hill Gate actually raise the height of two of the six buildings, but also increase the amount of affordable housing. One building will be increased from five storeys to seven, while another will go from four to five storeys to allow for the extra homes and more office space. Residents who oppose the scheme say it is a monstrosity that will bring months of chaos and create an overbearing skyline.

Peter Thompson, chairman of Hillgate Village Residents Association, said: Everyone is complaining about the height and bulk. The revised application has increased the height.

The Mayor had seized control of the planning decision from Kensington and Chelsea council in March, arguing the council was significantly underdelivering on its affordable housing targets .

He has launched a fresh round of consultation. Resident Ann Smith said: I am staggered that the Mayor feels he has a right to interfere, We dont want this monstrosity, it is an eyesore.

Under the previous plans, rejected twice by the council, the 14-floor Fifties office block would be demolished and replaced by six buildings including a 17-storey tower. The new blueprint, submitted to City Hall this month, raises the height of two buildings but increases the number of affordable housing units from nine to 23, meeting the Mayors 35 per cent target. The original application by property firm Brockton Capital led to 727 letters of objection and 177 of support.

Opponents included CNN host Christiane Amanpour, who told the council that the tower will stick out like a sore and ugly thumb: think the grotesque Montparnasse Tower in Paris which continues to stand as a sole finger in the air and a monument to disastrous planning decisions in the City of Light.

Locals are unhappy that City Hall has set an August 10 deadline for their views, saying many will be away on holiday. Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, said she would ask Mr Khan to extend the consultation: The Mayor took this application out of our hands and is now seemingly hell-bent on upsetting every resident. He has chosen to consult during the height of summer  when people are away.B ritain could be offered extra time to strike a Brexit trade deal to avoid the economic havoc of crashing out of the EU, it emerged today.

EU leaders believe key elements of her Chequers blueprint might severely undermine the single market and customs union and therefore be unacceptable, raising the risk of no deal.

Today the Irish deputy prime minister suggested that the two-year Article 50 process for the UK to splinter away from the EU could be extended beyond the deadline in eight months.

If Britain asks for more time, and if that is necessary to get to a sensible agreement, well then we would support that, of course we would, Simon Coveney said.

Theresa May faces a race against time to clinch an agreement by March / AFP/Getty Images

Brexit talks could also be hit with further delays if Right-wing Conservative MPs seek a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister in the autumn.

After the summer recess, Brexit is set to reach boiling point as the UK and EU attempt to finalise deals on the divorce settlement and the outline of a future trade arrangement.

Negotiators will spend the intervening period trying to find compromises which would enable Mrs May to get her party, Parliament, Brussels and other EU nations to support her proposals.

But Mr Coveney, who is also Irelands foreign minister, cast doubts on whether a core plank of the Chequers plan  for close ties with the EU on the trade in goods but not services  would be agreed by Brussels.

It will be difficult to separate goods and services, he told BBC radio. If you look at a car, a large part of that is services as well as the physical components which are goods.

He also dismissed Mrs Mays proposed facilitated customs arrangement as complex, as it would involve the collection of different levels of tariffs, with questions over enforcement, supervision and dispute resolution.

Mr Coveney dismissed much of the talk of the UK crashing out of the EU as bravado, adding: The truth is that I dont believe Britain can afford to have no deal on Brexit.

Many Brexiteers would be infuriated if Britain did not quit the EU on March 29 next year, and the Government has allocated 3 billion to prepare for no deal.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said he would not support extending Article 50. The Prime Minister has categorically said there will be no extension, he said. This is all part of a game being played by Ireland to try to destabilise the negotiations  they dont want the UK to leave the EU.

A No 10 spokesman said: We will not extend Article 50. We are leaving the EU on 29 March, 2019.

The EU has not formally discussed extending the Brexit negotiating time, according to a Brussels source, but said the bloc would not be opposed to the idea. Austria, which holds the EUs six-month rotating presidency, has not ruled out an Article 50 extension.

However, the EU would be reluctant for a long extension, especially if it affected European Parliament elections in May next year.

Former Northern Ireland first minister Lord Trimble accused EU leaders of exaggerating the problem of solving the dispute over the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

The Tory peer also warned that any attempt to impose tariffs on trade between Ireland and the UK would lead to an upsurge in smuggling at the border with Northern Ireland.T heresa May today told the country not to worry about emergency plans to secure food supplies and medicines in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Mrs May told 5 News: Far from being worried about preparations that were making, I would say that people should take reassurance and comfort from the fact that the Government is saying that were in a negotiation working for a good deal.

I believe we can get a good deal ... but lets prepare for every eventuality.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab said he was working to ensure there is adequate food supply if Britain crashes out of the EU.

Dominic Raab said he was working to ensure there is adequate food supply if Britain crashes out of the EU / PA

Mrs Mays comments came as the possibility was raised that Britain could be offered extra time to strike a trade deal to avoid the economic havoc of crashing out of the EU.

EU leaders believe key elements of her Chequers blueprint might severely undermine the single market and customs union and therefore be unacceptable, raising the risk of no deal.

The Irish deputy prime minister suggested that the two-year Article 50 process for the UK to splinter away from the EU could be extended beyond the deadline in eight months.

If Britain asks for more time, and if that is necessary to get to a sensible agreement, well then we would support that, of course we would, Simon Coveney said.

After the summer recess, Brexit is set to reach boiling point as the UK and EU attempt to finalise deals on the divorce settlement and the outline of a future trade arrangement. Negotiators will spend the intervening period trying to find compromises to win support for Mrs Mays proposals.

Mr Coveney, who is also Irelands foreign minister, cast doubts on whether a core plank of the Chequers plan  for close ties with the EU on the trade in goods but not services  would be agreed by Brussels.

It will be difficult to separate goods and services, he told BBC radio. If you look at a car, a large part of that is services as well as the physical components which are goods.

He also dismissed Mrs Mays proposed facilitated customs arrangement as complex, as it would involve the collection of different levels of tariffs, with questions over enforcement, supervision and dispute resolution.

Mr Coveney dismissed much of the talk of the UK crashing out of the EU as bravado, adding: The truth is that I dont believe Britain can afford to have no deal on Brexit.A female cyclist is fighting for life after being hit by a lorry at a busy roundabout in east London.

Police rushed to Old Street Roundabout, in Islington, to reports of a crash between a lorry and a cyclist.

The busy roundabout, next to Old Street Tube Station, was sealed off shortly after 3.30pm on Wednesday.

The Met Police said the woman had been taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Emergency response: A woman, aged in her 30s, was involved in the crash / Heather Deacon/Twitter

Dramatic images posted on social media showed a bike lying in the road close to a cement truck.

Numerous police cars, fire engines and ambulances were also pictured within the police cordon.

Serious crash: The crash happened on Old Street Roundabout / Sophia Wardman/Twitter

A police spokesman said: Enquiries are underway to inform her next-of-kin.

Road closures are in place.B ritains heatwave heroes are sweltering in staggering temperatures as they go about their jobs during the summer months.

Research found workers clothes were heating up to temperatures of 80C or more as they kept up their job during the hot weather of the past few weeks.

In one instance, an iron mongers protective clothing reached up to 84C, while the metal on an armed police officers bullet proof vests reached 60C.

Thermal imaging technology also revealed baristas working on equipment which hit 50C, while buildings being scrubbed by window cleaners also heated up to 50C.

Thermal images show ironmongers working at White Eagle Forge in Hurstpierpoint, west Sussex / CAT

Sand on Brighton beach was recorded at 46C, leaving bathers hopping to their towels after cooling off in the sea.

The extraordinary thermal images taken on a Cat S61 smartphone showed how Brits had faced extreme temperatures during the summer heatwave.

UK heatwave 1 /17 UK heatwave Scorcher: beach-goers enjoy the hot weather in Cornwall Getty Images Kayakers at Portobello beach PA People enjoy the fine weather as they gather on Porthmeor Beach in St Ives Getty Images Norman the puggle takes a dip in the sea at Portobello beach PA People relax in the sun at St Paul's Cathedral AP Beachgoers at Portobello beach, Edinburgh PA People wander around the harbour at low tide in St Ives Getty Images Brits were enjoying the third successive day of hot weather today Getty Images A woman applies sun lotion to a man's back as they enjoy the fine weather on Porthmeor Beach Getty Images People enjoy the fine weather as they sunbathe on Porthmeor Beach Getty Images Temperatures hit 32C in parts of the UK Getty Images A seagull sits on a boat as people gather around the harbour at low tide in St Ives Getty Images Beachgoers in Edinburgh PA Chloe Precious serves ice cream on a boat converted into an ice cream shop called the Full Moos, on the River Ouse in York REUTERS Customers line up for ice cream in York REUTERS The hottest temperature in the UK was recorded in Wales REUTERS Millions of Brits were out enjoying the sunshine today REUTERS

They were released as forecasters predicted temperatures would hit 36C in the south-east this week, before thunderstorms rolled in on Friday.

An amber "heat health watch" warning remains in place for parts of England, with people being warned to try to stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm.

Weather forecast Wednesday 25th July

Nurses have warned that some hospital wards have reached more than 30C, leading to patients and relatives passing out or vomiting.To explain the reasons for not demanding an assurance from the US in this case that there will be no death penalty.

What is the legal advice over flying the two men from Kurdish-controlled northern Syria to the US to face trial?

Does Britain not want to try the duo just because of limitations in UK anti-terror laws?

In how many cases since 2010, has the Government provided intelligence to other countries with the death penalty without receiving assurances that it could be used in trials against individuals who could be executed?

What factors should be taken into account when the Government decides on seeking an assurance of no death penalty?T his is the dramatic moment a tourist was pushed out of the way by a member of the Queen's Guard at Windsor Castle.

The footage shows a woman standing directly in front of the guard on the wrong side of a rope as he marched outside the castle.

Wearing sunglasses, she appears to be having her photo taken and trying to get the soldier in the background.

But the Queen's Guard, dressed in the traditional red uniform with a bearskin hat, shoves her in the back with his free hand, causing her to stumble forwards in shock.

The soldier, meanwhile, doesn't break stride as the startled woman tries to get out of his way.

The Queen's Guard are charged with protecting official royal residences, and have defended royals since the 17th century.

It is not known exactly when the incident took place.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence told The Sun: "The Household Division is proud to guard Her Majesty and honoured that people come from around the world to watch our ceremonial spectacle."

"The ropes are there to protect both the public and our soldiers; please stay behind them."These days there is no real let-up in the pressure on NHS services in summer in the way we used to see.

But the heatwave has meant that in some places at least, we're back to winter conditions - in hospitals, community, mental health and ambulance services - and although fewer staff are off sick there are more away on holiday.

Some trusts are reporting record numbers of people coming into A&E, with increased emergency admissions, often for respiratory problems and conditions made worse by dehydration.

We have heard concerns about large numbers of people from care homes requiring treatment.I sis has claimed responsibility for a blast outside a crowded polling station on election day in Pakistan which has claimed at least 31 lives.

A hospital official said a further 40 people were wounded in the explosion in Quetta.

Jaffer Kaker, a doctor, said five policemen and two children are among the dead. He fears the death toll could rise as many of the wounded are in a critical condition.

The attack on Wednesday was targeting a police van, reports said, as the nation holds general elections.

It was unclear if voting had been disrupted by the attack.

Abdur Razzaq Cheema, the police chief in Baluchistan's provincial capital, said the explosion took place when near the city's eastern bypass.

Television images showed a charred police vehicle, cordoned off by security officials.

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The violence comes as millions across the country are heading to the polls to choose a new government.

Pakistanis are voting in general elections for 270 members of the law-making National Assembly, or lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.

Polling across the country for the 11th general election began at 8am local time (4am BST).

Pakistani election workers ahead of today's historic vote / AP

Geo TV put the death toll at 22, while rival Samaa TV put it at 20.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Baluchistan also saw the deadliest suicide bombing in the run-up to election day, with 149 people, including a provincial assembly candidate, killed at a campaign this month.

The leading candidates to become prime minister following the election condemned the attack on Twitter.

Imran Khan called it a terrorist attack by Pakistans enemies seeking to disrupt our democratic process.

His opponent Shehbaz Sharif said he was "heartbroken" to learn about the attack and said that police officials were among those who died.B BC presenter Emily Maitlis grilled former White House spokesman Sean Spicer and accused him of helping Donald Trump spread damaging lies which corrupted the discourse of the world in a tense on-air interview.

The former press secretary to the US President appeared on Newsnight to promote his new book The Briefing, which details his time in the White House.

In the interview, he was asked about controversy over claims Mr Trump's inauguration drew the biggest crowd of any president.

This was despite pictures clearly showing that the crowd for Barack Obama was considerably larger and appeared to set the standard for, at best, dubious claims being made by the administration.

Tense: Emily Maitlis grilled the former press secretary in an interview on Newsnight / BBC

Ms Maitlis asked Mr Spicer why he didnt stand up to the President and say youre wrong.

Mr Spicer replied to say that he was aware he had made mistakes and would like to live that day again differently, but defended his actions by arguing that the press had it out for the new president from the start.

We had faced a press that was constantly undermining our ability . At every turn (they) were saying yours isnt good enough, he said.

Donald Trump with Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary / REUTERS

If you constantly feel under attack then you feel at some point you need to respond and say enough of this.

Ms Maitlis then launched an extraordinary attack on Mr Spicer, saying: It is just not good enough though, because actually Donald Trump as you well know made stuff up long before he was a candidate.

She cited Kellyanne Conway, Mr Trumps advisor, as saying that the inauguration crowd lies were alternative facts and said: She introduced a second version of the truth. How dangerous is that?

White House press secretary Sean Spicer lies to the media during press conference

It became a joke that defined you, Ms Maitlis went on.

But it wasnt a joke, it was the start of the most corrosive culture. You played with the truth, you led us down a dangerous path.

You have corrupted discourse for the entire world by going along with these lies.

I am not sitting here saying I am not without fault, Mr Spicer retorted.

Contrast: An aerial view of Barack Obama's inauguration in 2009 (top) compared with Donald Trump's (bottom) / AP

[But] you are acting as though everything began and ended with that. You are taking no accountability for the many false stories that the media perpetrate."

He said: My job was to be the presidents spokesperson and communicate his thoughts or his ideas. My job wasnt to interpret for him.

I would give him the best advice and counsel in private, I shared strategy with him, but at the end of the day he is the President of the United States and it was his thoughts and his ideas.

Launch: Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's new book "The Briefing / Getty Images

The duo also discussed the recent outrage of Mr Trumps meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin during Tuesday night's interview.

Mr Trump appeared to side with Mr Putin over his own secret service, despite being told the country had interfered in US elections. Mr Trump then backtracked on his claims.

Asked about the incident, Mr Spicer said he was very glad that the White House had clarified its stance on this issue.But if everyone else is giving their child access to technology, do you want to be the only parent restricting it? Parents of tweens and teens are largely in unchartered territory, as there are no real guidelines on the age and amount of technology thats appropriate. Add social media to the mix, and its a maze that parents must navigate among seemingly daily warnings of the danger of it all. But try to mention this to your child, who will remind you that youre the only parent in the universe worried about it.P olice in Toronto today named a 10-year-old girl killed in a mass shooting in the city.

Julianna Kozis, from Markham, Ontario, died along with student Reese Fallon, 18, during Sunday nights shooting in Greektown.

Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti said in a statement: This heartbreaking story speaks to the unbreakable bond between a father and his daughter and I salute the Toronto paramedics, doctors and nurses who reportedly brought them together, showing incredible compassion and kindness in her final moments.

Police near the scene of the shooting in Toronto / REUTERS

This senseless act of violence has shaken us and hurt us.

We stand with the victims, the brave first responders and all the communities impacted by this tragedy.

A further 13 people were injured when Faisal Hussain, 29, went on the rampage. He died after exchanging gunfire with police officers at the scene.D onald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker have reached a deal to avert a full-blown trade war between the US and the EU following tense talks at the White House.

The pair have agreed to work towards zero tariffs, barriers and subsidies, the US leader announced following his meeting with the European Commission chief.

Following what the US President called a very big day for free and fair trade, they will now work to resolve their current dispute after Mr Trump slapped tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Mr Juncker on Wednesday, the president said the deal will lead to greater prosperity in both the US and the EU.

"We agreed today, first of all, to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods," Mr Trump told reporters.

"We will also work to reduce barriers and increase trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical products, as well as soybeans," he added.

Trade talks: Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker speak in the Rose Garden of the White House / AP

Mr Trump said the deal means the EU and US have now entered a "new phase" in their relationship.

Their meeting came amid tense trade talks with Europe, China, Mexico and Canada after US tariffs on steel and aluminium sparked fears of a trade war.

The US president said the EU had agreed to buy "a lot of soybeans" and increase its imports of liquefied natural gas.

Mr Juncker, meanwhile, said the US and EU had agreed to hold off on further tariffs as part of trade talks aimed at averting a crippling trade dispute involving the lucrative automobile market.

Mr Trump vowed to "resolve the steel and aluminium tariff issues and we will resolve retaliatory tariffs.

We have some tariffs that are retaliatory and that will get resolved as part of what we're doing."

"We're starting the negotiation right now, but we know very much where it's going," Trump said after talks with European counterparts.

Mr Juncker said he had an "intention to make a deal today and we made a deal today.

Trump meets Juncker - 'If we could have no tariffs the US would be extremely pleased'

We have identified a number of areas on which to work together, work towards zero tariffs on industrial goods.

That was my main intention, for those to come down to zero tariffs on industrial goods."

As US soybean farmers have struggled against retaliatory tariffs, Mr Juncker said the EU "can import more soybeans from the US and it will be done."

He said the two sides also agreed to work together to reform the World Trade Organization, which Mr Trump has vehemently criticized as being unfair to the US.

Donald Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker walk from the podiums after speaking at their joint press conference / AP

Earlier in the Oval Office, Mr Juncker told the US leader that the two trading partners were "allies, not enemies" and said they needed to work together to address recent frictions involving Mr Trump's threats to impose tariffs on auto imports and EU plans to retaliate.

Mr Trump has placed tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, saying they pose a threat to US national security, an argument that the EU and Canada reject.

He has also threatened to slap tariffs on imported cars, trucks and auto parts, potentially targeting imports that last year totalled $335 billion.

The president has repeatedly called the EU - which includes many of the US' oldest and most committed allies - an unfair trading partner and even labelled it a "foe."

The European Union has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs on products worth $20 billion if Trump puts duties on cars and auto parts from Europe.

In a Twitter post yesterday, Mr Trump said dropping all tariffs would lead to what would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade".

He wrote: The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade.

I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies!P olice in Los Angeles are investigating after Donald Trump's Hollywood walk of fame star was destroyed by a man wielding a pickaxe.

The man reportedly concealed the tool in a guitar case before using it to destroy the US president's star, leaving rubble strewn across the pavement.

Police were called at around 3.30amn to the scene on Hollywood Boulevard. They found Trump's star, awarded to him for his role in the US Apprentice, smashed to bits.

The Los Angeles Police Department said a suspect later handed himself in to Beverley Hills police.

Piers Morgan posted on Twitter: "Donald Trump's star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame destroyed overnight by vandal with a pickaxe.

"Hysterical Trump-hating liberals once again failing to understand that such violent intolerance will strengthen his support, not damage it. Why are they too dumb to realise this?"

The star was also vandalised in 2016 by a man dressed as a builder.

James Otis pleaded no contest to felony vandalism in February 2017 and was sentenced to three years probation, 20 days of community service and agreed to pay $4,400 for the damage.N estle faces being stripped of its EU trademark for the iconic four-fingered KitKat design after failing to prove the chocolate bar is popular enough across Europe.

Judges sitting in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg today opened the door for rival firms to copy one of the confectionery giants best known products. Dismissing an appeal by Nestle, the court said KitKats are sufficiently well-known in the UK, as well as Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.

However, the chocolate treat does not enjoy the same level of popularity in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal, the court ruled.

The decision means that the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) must now reconsider whether Nestle can retain the KitKat shape as an EU trademark.

Todays appeal decision confirms a 2016 court judgement that forced Nestle to prove KitKats popularity across the EU.

This is the latest development in a confectionary battle that has been waged between Nestle and its rival Mondelez International  which was previously known as Cadbury Schweppes.

Mondelez challenged the KitKat trademark in 2007, arguing it was not distinctive enough to be given the coveted protected status.

Nestle has in turn challenged the British trademark of Mondelezs purple Dairy Milk wrapper, while Mondelez successfully trademarked the zig-zag prism shape of its Toblerone product.

The EU appeal court heard Nestle has spent up to 11 million a year advertising and promoting KitKats between 1996 and 2007, selling more than 40million in Britain in 2010.

However the firm lost its UK trademark for the chocolate bar when British judges agreed the four-fingered shape was not distinctive enough.A bride on her honeymoon is in hospital whilke her new husband missing after being caught up in Greek wildfires that have killed at least 80 people.

Zoe Holohan and Brian OCallaghan-Westropp were on holiday close to the town of Mati, the worst-affected area, having got married last Thursday.

It is understood the couple got separated as the inferno broke out on Monday afternoon. They are believed to have been travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee due to the approaching wildfire.

Ms Holohan, who works in the advertising department of the Sunday World newspaper, suffered burn injuries but managed to escape to a nearby beach.

Search for survivors as scores dead from Greece wildfires

She was being treated in an Athens hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Her husband, an operations and HR manager in Dublin, was today still missing.

Missing: Brian OCallaghan-Westropp

The couple became engaged last year after Mr OCallaghan-Westropp proposed while on holiday in Portugal.

Colleagues of Ms Holohan at Independent News and Media (INM), were said to be shocked and upset by the news.

One guest who attended their wedding at Clonabreany House in Co Meath, told the Irish Sun: You couldnt meet a nicer couple and were just so happy together.

Its awful to think that they have been caught in such a terrible disaster.

Everyone is just hoping that they are OK and are home soon.

Worried relatives and friends of holidaymakers are desperately searching for news of loved ones following the fires that have devastated the country near the Greek capital Athens.

So far 80 people have been confirmed dead and 187 people, including 23 children, taken to hospital, with the death toll expected to rise as rescuers today continued their searches of charred houses and cars.

A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens / AFP/Getty Images

The youngest victim was thought to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation, while three women and a child drowned in the sea trying to escape advancing flames.

One British man was admitted to hospital with minor burns.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: Our consular staff are assisting a British man and his family following his hospitalisation in Greece.

They have visited him in hospital to check his welfare, and remain in contact with the Greek authorities.

Two twin girls, aged nine, were also missing.

Greece: Firefighters and volunteers try to extinguish flames during a wildfire at a village near Athens / AFP/Getty Images

Yiannis Philipopoulos said that he and his wife recognised Sophia and Vasiliki in TV news footage of people who fled getting off a fishing boat.

He said the girls went missing along with their grandparents.

Confirmed among the dead was one Belgian, and a Polish woman and her son, the authorities said.

The fires sent thousands fleeing for their lives, while around 1,000 homes have also been destroyed.

Survivors told how the flames were chasing us all the way to the water.

Kostas Laganos said: It burned our backs and we dived into the water... I said: My God, we must run to save ourselves.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who declared a state of emergency, has said the country is going through an unspeakable tragedy and has declared a three-day national mourning period.

Wildfires: flames leap into the air in Greece / EPA

Meanwhile a criminal investigation has been launched into the fires, which swept through the coastal resort like a flamethrower.

Athens mayor Giorgio Kaminis, said it was believed the blaze could have been caused by arson, adding: We have criminal procedures that have opened and we will see what happens.

Yesterday rescuers discovered 26 victims lying together near the top of a cliff overlooking a beach in Mati. Many were thought to be related.

Greece forest fires - In pictures 1 /40 Greece forest fires - In pictures In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP A firefighter wears a flame resistant uniform as wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People stock up on supplies at a shop in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Damaged beach facilities at Kineta near Athens Rex Features A pall of smoke turns large parts of the sky orange over the ancient Acropolis hill, Rex Features A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Reuters People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Burned cars remain after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece EPA People bring supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP Memders of Red Cross give fist-aid to residents after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece, EPA A firefighter tries to extinguish hotspots during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters and soldiers fall back as a wildfire burns near Athens Reuters A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens AP A helicopter tries to extinguish flames from the fire in Penteli, north suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Cars are blocked at the closed National Road during a forest fire in Greece AFP/Getty Images Rescuers wait at the area where bodies were found following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece REUTERS Burnt cars are still in the driveways of destroyed house in Kineta village, west of Athens AP People watch a wildfire raging in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters Firefighters try to extinguish flames during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa, a northeast suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Flames rise as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter reacts as a house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Rescuers and volunteers help local people evacuate the village of Mati during a wildfire near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters inspect a burned compound in Mati, east of Athens AP A man passes burned cars in Mati, east of Athens AP Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks to the media during his visit to the fire brigade's operational centre in Athens, Greece EPA A wildfire rages in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greec Reuters A house burns following a wildfire at Neos Voutzas, near Athens, Reuters A fireman sprays water outside a burnt house at Kineta village, west of Athens AP

Nikos Economopoulos, head of Greeces Red Cross, said: They had tried to find an escape route but unfortunately these people and their kids didnt make it in time. Instinctively, seeing the end nearing, they embraced.

The two major fires broke out at lunchtime on Monday in Kineta and Mati, fanned by gale-force winds and helped by a searing heatwave gripping the country.

Families were trapped behind walls of thick smoke as they fled towards the sea. Flames engulfed cars caught in jams, clogging escape routes. Some people made it to the shore, standing in the water or swimming out to escape the heat.

A total of 620 children from a summer camp near Athens had to be evacuated in an emergency operation at the height of the blaze, while coast guard boats rescued more than 700 people trapped by the fires from beaches or the sea.

In all, 47 brush and forest fires broke out across Greece on Monday and early Tuesday.

Greece has sought international help through the European Union.A newly married Irishman caught up in devastating wildfires in Greece while on his honeymoon has died, his family confirmed.

Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp became separated from his wife Zoe Holohan as they tried to escape the fires in the coastal town of Mati.

The pair got married at Clonabreany House, Kells in Co Meath last Thursday before flying out to Greece on Saturday.

Ms Holohan, who works in advertising for the Sunday World, is in hospital after suffering burns to her head and hands.

In a statement, the family of Ms Holohan and Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp said: "We are deeply saddened to confirm the death of our family member, Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp.

In hospital: Zoe Holohan on her wedding day in County Meath / PA

"The families would respectfully appreciate privacy at this time as we grieve and as Zoe makes her recovery.

"Funeral arrangement will be announced at a later stage."

Zoe Holohan and Brian O'Callaghan-Westropp on their wedding day / PA

Ireland's Ambassador to Greece Orla O'Hanrahan confirmed Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp's death.

She said her sympathies and heart went out to his family at this time.

Greece: Firefighters and volunteers try to extinguish flames during a wildfire at a village near Athens / AFP/Getty Images

The couple, who lived in Dublin, were travelling in a vehicle when they were forced to flee.

Ms Holohan was able to escape to a nearby beach and was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night.

The Irish Embassy in Athens is providing consular assistance to Ms Holohan and her family.

Coast: drone footage shows aerial view of a burnt urban area / AFP/Getty Images

Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp worked in finance for a Dublin catering company and also volunteered for Blood Bikes East, which provides an emergency medical transport service around hospitals in Dublin.

Committee member Franco De Bonis said Mr O'Callaghan-Westropp started off as a volunteer rider a year ago and very quickly became further involved in the service and was its secretary.

Greece forest fires - In pictures 1 /40 Greece forest fires - In pictures In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP A firefighter wears a flame resistant uniform as wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People stock up on supplies at a shop in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Damaged beach facilities at Kineta near Athens Rex Features A pall of smoke turns large parts of the sky orange over the ancient Acropolis hill, Rex Features A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Reuters People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Burned cars remain after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece EPA People bring supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP Memders of Red Cross give fist-aid to residents after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece, EPA A firefighter tries to extinguish hotspots during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters and soldiers fall back as a wildfire burns near Athens Reuters A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens AP A helicopter tries to extinguish flames from the fire in Penteli, north suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Cars are blocked at the closed National Road during a forest fire in Greece AFP/Getty Images Rescuers wait at the area where bodies were found following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece REUTERS Burnt cars are still in the driveways of destroyed house in Kineta village, west of Athens AP People watch a wildfire raging in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters Firefighters try to extinguish flames during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa, a northeast suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Flames rise as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter reacts as a house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Rescuers and volunteers help local people evacuate the village of Mati during a wildfire near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters inspect a burned compound in Mati, east of Athens AP A man passes burned cars in Mati, east of Athens AP Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks to the media during his visit to the fire brigade's operational centre in Athens, Greece EPA A wildfire rages in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greec Reuters A house burns following a wildfire at Neos Voutzas, near Athens, Reuters A fireman sprays water outside a burnt house at Kineta village, west of Athens AP

"Brian is a very charitable man - he's one of these people who you know when he's in the room. He has a big voice and he's the type who wants to get things done," Mr De Bonis said.

"He's a man of action and is very selfless. His heart is in the right place and will always want to help.

"Brian would never walk away from a situation knowing someone needed help," he added.S urvivors of the huge wildfires that have killed at least 74 people in Greece have told how they were forced to leap from cliffs into the sea to escape the flames.

Scores of gutted vehicles were seen lining the streets alongside dead bodies in the coastal town of Mati, near Athens, as the scale of Monday nights devastation began to emerge.

A group of 26 people were found dead in the town, some discovered locked in an embrace as the enormous fire engulfed large parts of the area.

One victim who managed to escape the blaze said: "We went into the sea because the flames were chasing us all the way to the water.

Greece forest fires - In pictures 1 /40 Greece forest fires - In pictures In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP In this aerial view taken from a drone, showing the devastation caused by Greece wildfires, in the village of Mati, east of Athens AP A firefighter wears a flame resistant uniform as wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People taking refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece People stock up on supplies at a shop in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Damaged beach facilities at Kineta near Athens Rex Features A pall of smoke turns large parts of the sky orange over the ancient Acropolis hill, Rex Features A woman reacts as she tries to find her dog, following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Reuters People sort supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athen AP Burned cars remain after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece EPA People bring supplies for residents rescued from the wildfire in the village of Nea Makri near Athens AP Memders of Red Cross give fist-aid to residents after a fire in Argyra Akti, Mati, close to Nea Makri, in Attica, Greece, EPA A firefighter tries to extinguish hotspots during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters and soldiers fall back as a wildfire burns near Athens Reuters A house is threatened by a huge blaze during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter sprays water on the fire in the town of Mati, east of Athens AP A helicopter tries to extinguish flames from the fire in Penteli, north suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Cars are blocked at the closed National Road during a forest fire in Greece AFP/Getty Images Rescuers wait at the area where bodies were found following a wildfire at the village of Mati, near Athens, Greece REUTERS Burnt cars are still in the driveways of destroyed house in Kineta village, west of Athens AP People watch a wildfire raging in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greece Reuters Firefighters try to extinguish flames during a forest fire in Neo Voutsa, a northeast suburb of Athens, Greece EPA Flames rise as a wildfire burns in the town of Rafina, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images A firefighter reacts as a house burns during a wildfire in Kineta, near Athens AFP/Getty Images Rescuers and volunteers help local people evacuate the village of Mati during a wildfire near Athens AFP/Getty Images Firefighters inspect a burned compound in Mati, east of Athens AP A man passes burned cars in Mati, east of Athens AP Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras speaks to the media during his visit to the fire brigade's operational centre in Athens, Greece EPA A wildfire rages in the town of Rafina, near Athens, Greec Reuters A house burns following a wildfire at Neos Voutzas, near Athens, Reuters A fireman sprays water outside a burnt house at Kineta village, west of Athens AP

It burned our backs and we dived into the water.

Everything happened in seconds," said Andreaas Passios, who lives next to the compound in Mati where the 26 bodies were found.

"I grabbed a beach towel. It saved my life. I soaked it, grabbed my wife and we ran to the sea."

People take refuge from fires along the beach in Argyris Akti, Nea Makri, Greece

Mr Passios said he and his wife stayed by the sea for two hours.

"It was unbelievable. Gas canisters were exploding. Burning pine cones were flying everywhere," he said.

Among the survivors was former Greek Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga.

Aerial footage shows devastation caused by wildfires in Greece

"The police tried to direct us away from the fire, but we couldn't escape it," she said.

"We got stuck in traffic and the flames were on top of us. We managed to find a small gap and we made it out."

Greece: Firefighters and volunteers try to extinguish flames during a wildfire at a village near Athens / AFP/Getty Images

Some 74 people have been confirmed dead as the search for missing people continued today, with authorities saying they expect the death toll to rise.

It was not clear how many people remained unaccounted for as boats combed beaches for any remaining survivors.

Greece's prime minister Alexis Tsipras described the fires as an "unspeakable tragedy" as he appeared on television to declare three days of national mourning.

Firefighters search the area were 26 charred bodies were found huddled together / EPA

"Greece is living one of its most difficult moments," he said. "There are absolutely no words to describe how we feel right now."

Residents, their faces blackened by smoke, wandered the streets, some searching for their burned-out cars, others for their pets.

Many in the area had been unable to escape the fast pace of the blaze even though they were a few metres from the Aegean Sea or in their homes, the fire service said.

At least 187 people were injured, officials said, among those 23 children.

Flags atop the ancient Acropolis hill and parliament flew at half mast.

The inferno was thought to be Greece's deadliest, with the death toll higher than fires which ravaged the southern Peloponnese peninsula over several days in August 2007, killing dozens.The heatwave has been declared a natural disaster following the death of 65 people and the medical treatment of thousands more as a result of heatstroke.

But which areas of Japan are the hottest and is it still safe to travel to Tokyo? Here's everything you need to know

What is causing the heatwave in Japan?

This heatwave is the latest natural disaster for Japan since the country experienced extensive flooding and landslides earlier this month.

CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said the current heatwave in Japan is being caused by a high-level pressure system blocking other weather systems - such as a cold front - from coming through, thus building a "dome of heat over Japan and surrounding regions."

Which areas of Japan are the hottest?

On Monday, the city of Kumagaya, 53 miles north-west of Tokyo, reported a temperature of 41.1 C, the highest ever recorded in Japan.

Temperatures also reached 40 C in central Tokyo, almost 12 degrees hotter than average temperatures for Japan's summer months.

The Japan Meteorological Agency warned that temperatures of 35 C and above would persist until early August.

Japan heatwave - In pictures 1 /14 Japan heatwave - In pictures The thermometer reads 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Kumagaya city, north of Tokyo AP A woman holds a portable fan at a business district in Tokyo AP Children enjoy a water slide at the Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo AFP/Getty Images A man wipes the sweat from his face in the scorching heat at a business district in Tokyo AP People cool off in Odaiba Kaihin Park in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan Two women eat ice cream in Odaiba, Tokyo Getty Images People cool down in a swimming pool at Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo AFP/Getty Images People relax in the heat at Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan Getty Images People cool off in Odaiba Kaihin Park in Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan Getty Images Children play on a beach in Odaiba, Tokyo Getty Images Families swim and play in the water at a seaside park in Tokyo AFP/Getty Images Children play on a beach in Odaiba, Tokyo Getty Images Children eat ice cream on a bench in Roppongi, Tokyo Getty Images Families swim and play in the water at a seaside park in Tokyo AFP/Getty Images

How many people have died because of the heat?

65 deaths have been recorded in the past week.

However, AccuWeather analyst Joel N. Myers said that the death toll is "likely already in the hundreds despite the official death toll of somewhat more than two dozen".

More than 22,000 people have been taken to hospital with heatstroke, most of them elderly.

The Japan Meteorological Agency added that the heatwave was "a threat to life and we recognise it as a natural disaster."

Is it safe to travel to Tokyo, Japan?

The Foreign Office has not put in place any official travel warnings due to the heatwave, and flights are running as normal.

However, passengers are advised to be aware of extreme heat upon arrival and for the elderly and those travelling with children to take extra care.

The Japan Meteorological Agency are urging residents and visitors to take the following precautions:A n American politician persuaded to expose his bottom to scare away Muslim terrorists in a television sting by Sacha Baron Cohen stepped down today after apologising for the ridiculously ugly episode.

Jason Spencer, a Republican member of the Georgia state legislature, was shown on the British comedians US series Who Is America?

Cohen posed as an Israeli military expert who convinced Mr Spencer to take part in several outlandish exercises for a counter-terrorism video.

Mr Spencer shouted a racial slur after being told the tactic is useful for drawing attention to an unfolding attack.

He also dropped his trousers and underwear and backed his exposed rear end towards Cohen while shouting USA!A Swedish student prevented an Afghan asylum seeker from being deported by refusing to sit down on a flight from Gothenburg to Istanbul, preventing the plane from taking off.

Elin Ersson, a student at Gothenburg University, broadcast the seemingly pre-planned stunt live on Facebook on Monday.

The footage showed the woman refusing to take her seat or get off the Turkish Airlines flight as she announced that a man on the plane was being deported to Afghanistan by Swedish immigration services.

Speaking to the camera, the student said: Is there war in Afghanistan and this man has to go to death?"

Airline staff can be heard in the footage attempting to take Ms Essons phone from her as she filmed the interaction and pleading with her to take her seat.

The student refused claiming that everything she was doing was legal.

I am doing what I can to save a persons life. As long as a person is standing up and if more people are standing up then the pilot cant take off, all I want to do is stop the deportation then I will comply with the rules here.

This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime," she said.

Ms Ersson urged other passengers to stand up in order to prevent the plane from taking off and explained she had originally planned to stage he protest after hearing another younger man was set to board the flight.

She adds that although that man did not face deportation that day, another 52-year-old man did.

During the commotion a British passenger can be heard taking the students phone and accusing her of scaring children, to which Ms Ersson responded that the refugees life was more important.

As the footage continues other passengers begin to stand in solidarity with the student.

Eventually Ms Ersson is told by a staff member that she would be allowed off the plane with the Afghan asylum seeker.

The announcement was met by applause from the other passengers.

Speaking through tears, Ms Ersson said: There was only one person on this flight today, but there will be more.

A spokesman for Swedavia Airline, a company which operates and develops a network of Swedish airports including Gothenburg, confirmed that the incident took place on a Turkish Airlines flight.

He said: I can confirm that the Turkish Airline flight from Gothenburg to Istanbul on July 23 was delayed for two hours.

Swedish police confirmed that that a man and a woman were removed from the plane by officers.

It is not clear whether or not the asylum seeker will be deported at a later date.NEW YORK  The London fashion world didn't know quite what hit it when Alexander McQueen 's disheveled models staggered down the runway at his 1995 "Highland Rape" show, their Scottish-inspired clothing ripped to expose breasts and nether regions.



It was exactly the reaction that McQueen, then in his 20s and subsisting on McDonald's and unemployment checks, was seeking. "I don't want a show where you come out feeling like you've just had Sunday lunch," he said at the time. "I want you to come out either feeling repulsed or exhilarated."



McQueen would go on to provoke, repulse, inspire and exhilarate  often simultaneously  until he was 40, when he tragically took his life. How did a taxi driver's son from working-class London make the unlikely journey to the top of the fashion world, and what made him end it all at the height of his powers? For filmmakers Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui, the two questions proved irresistible; their resulting documentary, "McQueen," opens this week.



Fashion is a compelling topic for documentaries  indeed, few subjects are so enticingly visual. But the challenge is always to peel away the well-polished  and well-guarded  facade. "The fashion world is a bubble," says Ettedgui, who wrote and co-directed the film. "They don't necessarily take kindly to outsiders coming in and revealing their secrets."



The filmmakers approached close to 200 sources, says Bonhote. Finding footage was painstaking work, but they were fortunate to secure key parts of McQueen's most dramatic runway shows, along with some strikingly candid interviews with the designer  a rarity at fashion shows.



They also found some valuable archival footage  including some private footage that McQueen and his associates captured for fun, trying out a new camera as they traveled to Paris for the designer's new, high-profile post at Givenchy in 1996, looking like grinning kids taking their parents' car for a spin.



The filmmakers were also able to convince some key McQueen family members to speak, namely his older sister, Janet, and her son, Gary, a designer himself who worked for his uncle. And they interview some of McQueen's former colleagues, though not all: Sarah Burton, for example, who succeeded McQueen at his namesake label, doesn't appear.



At the heart of the film, though, is McQueen's work  and the way his bracing talent reverberated through the fashion establishment. Watching now, one can almost feel the gasps in the audience as the designer places model Shalom Harlow on a revolving platform in a plain tulle dress in his 1999 show "No. 13," then has two robots spray yellow and black paint on her as she turns and turns. It was a mesmerizing effect that brought McQueen himself to tears.



The film is divided into chapters, each focusing on a particularly influential McQueen show. The first, "Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims" in 1992, was originally his final project at Central Saint Martin's, the well-known London fashion school.



Even getting to the school was unlikely. The young Lee McQueen (he reverted to his middle name, Alexander, later because it sounded posh) was supposed to become "a mechanic or something," but he was obsessed with drawing clothes. His mother encouraged him to knock on doors on Savile Row for an apprenticeship, and there, he became a superb craftsman.



Isabella Blow, a prominent fashion figure, bought up his entire "Jack the Ripper" collection and helped him make his way. But it's clear that, as an associate says: "No one discovered Alexander McQueen. Alexander McQueen discovered himself."



At first, there was no money. A friend describes how the two went to McDonald's after a major show, dropped the food on the floor, but had to pick it up and eat it because they couldn't afford to buy more.



Things changed radically when luxury conglomerate LVMH hired McQueen for Givenchy. But McQueen didn't just sit back and enjoy his financial windfall  he poured it back into his own label. It was a time of enormous pressure; McQueen says in one interview that he produced an astounding 14 collections in a year.



For a man often called the "bad boy" or "enfant terrible" of fashion, there was much else to learn about McQueen, the filmmakers say. Among the things that surprised them: his sheer technical craftsmanship, and a constantly developing business savvy.



They were also struck by how McQueen's personality contrasted with the myth. "He had this reputation for being abrasive, punk," says Ettedgui. "But what we see in the archive is McQueen with friends, with his parents, even his beloved dogs, being very human and very tender at times."



At the end of his life, two deaths devastated McQueen. Blow took her life in 2007  we see him at her funeral, looking destroyed. And in early 2010, McQueen's beloved mother died. Only days later  on the eve of her funeral  the designer killed himself.



The filmmakers can only speculate why McQueen, who struggled with drug use, took his life. "Fashion does come with a very unique set of pressures," says Ettedgui. But, he adds, "People we spoke to said, 'Don't try to make him a victim, because ultimately the person who put the most pressure on McQueen was McQueen."



Bonhote also notes the designer's ambivalence about the world he had chosen, clearly expressed in shows like his famous 2001 "Voss," in which he forced the assembled fashion world to literally stare at itself for long minutes into a mirrored cube  which in turn represented an insane asylum.



"To some degree, he was always a misfit in the world he found himself in," Bonhote says.



Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.K atie Price reportedly staged a series of lewd holiday snaps in Thailand in an attempt to stave off financial woes as she battles her third divorce.

The former model is currently in the process of divorcing estranged husband Kieran Hayler after calling time on their marriage earlier this year amid cheating allegations.

Price has already moved on from the former stripper with fitness instructor Kris Boyson, 29, and the two have been enjoying a break in Thailand.

The topless photos, including one where she tries to pull down her boyfriend's shorts in the sea, are claimed to be a staged attempt to make money.

Loved up: Katie Price and Kris Boyson (Instagram / Katie Price) / Katie Price

A source told the publication: She always felt that whatever anyone said about her, she could at least point to her huge income to shut them up. But even that is disappearing.

Standard Online has reached out to representatives for Price for comment.

Split: Katie Price is divorcing third husband Kieran Hayler / Ian West/PA

Price recently gave her first television interview since going official with Boyson as she returned to Loose Women.

Boyson admitted that his girlfriend looks totally different now to when they first met, adding that he told her she looked ill and old at first.

He said: When I met her Ill be honest with her, I said that she looked too skinny - she looks ill and old.

Kris Boyson admits Katie Price looked old and ill when they first met

Im just brutally honest with her. What you see is what you get.

"I said you need to put on weight, you need to start training, you need to be healthier, she wouldnt get up in the morning.

The pair met when Boyson began to train Price's eldest son Harvey, with Boyson saying "It was meant to be on a professional manner - I was talking about training Harvey.

"He [Harvey] is on a long journey, but well definitely get there. Its a challenge, but I like the challenge."D umped Love Islanders Charlie Brake and Ellie Brown have been official for less than a month  and theyre already struggling to agree on their future.

The couple were booted off of Love Island after receiving the fewest public votes and Brown quickly moved in to her billionaire boyfriends London home, with the couple introducing each other to their parents.

But Brake, who is heir to a 2 billion fortune, is not as keen as Brown to take the next step and awkwardly shunned any suggestion of marriage during an interview with The Sun.

Im not into the whole marriage thing if you want to be with someone you dont need a piece of paper, Brake said.

A concerned Brown asked: But we are going to get married?

Brake replied: Well see.

The couple also struggled to agree on when to have children with Brake telling Brown not to put words in my mouth after she insisted he has been broody.

Love Island: Ellies hilarious reaction after finding out boyfriend Charlie is a multi-millionaire

I have said before I want to be a younger dad some of my family were youngish dads and I sort of see them having a better relationship with their children, he said.

Brown added: He wants a baby.

Shutting down her comment, Brake replied: No, not now.

The couple did agree that life outside of the villa is easier than their time on the show as they were faced with challenges intent on rocking their romance and were living with multiple people.

Brown said: To people it sounds a lot but weve lived in a villa with 12 other people on a show thats constantly trying to test our relationship, so us living together now is the easiest thing in the world.

Love Island 2018: Series 4 - In pictures 1 /40 Love Island 2018: Series 4 - In pictures The islanders gather for the final dumping of the series ITV The final four couples learn to salsa Kaz and Josh Dani and Jack talk to Danny Dyer The islanders gather for the final toast ITV Dr Alex and Alexandra talk about their relationship as they cradle their 'baby' ITV Newborns: The baby challenge put the couples to the test ITV Megan asks Dani and Ellie whether she should ask Wes out Passion: Megan Barton Hanson and Wes Nelson are getting closer ITV Dani and Ellie go for afternoon drinks ITV Josh talks to Kaz ITV Caroline Flack arrives with some big news ITV The original islanders are about to get a shock ITV Here come the new girls... ITV ...and the new boys ITV Georgia kisses Sam during the Snog, Marry, Pie game. ITV Laura vs Wes ITV Wes kissing Megan during Snog, Marry, Pie ITV Megan and Eyal chat ITV The recoupling looms... ITV Eyal and Megan kiss. ITV Sam ruffles some feathers ITV The Islanders get to know Sam ITV Georgia and Josh ITV Laura and Wes ITV Ellie and Zara arrive ITV Wes admits he could chat to other girls ITV Eyal and Alex bicker over Megan ITV Jack and Dani take a walk ITV Dani and Jack give things another go ITV After the turbulence of the last recoupling, chill time awaits for the Islanders as a text arrives informing them that they will spend their morning in a couplesO yoga class. ITV Adam and Rosie get close ITV The original girls look on from the balcony ITV Dani Dyer uses a hairdryer on her eyelashes ITV Having spent a number of days trying to find a way forward with Hayley, Eyal is beginning to lose faith ITV The girls discuss developments in the vill ITV The Islanders party ITV The Boys chat ITV Wes, Adam, Alex and Niall chat ITV The Boys chat ITVP rofessor Green has said he wants to see heroin legalised, claiming criminalising drugs leads to increased usage.

Green, real name Stephen Manderson, claimed the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1971, which introduced classes A, B and C, resulted in millions more people using the opioid.

I don't believe in prohibition for anything, he told the Daily Mirror. You look at the Misuse of Drugs Act, which was brought in in 1966 [1971].

I believe before that I think there was only 17,00 people or so who were using heroin, now its well over half a million and weve stopped counting.

Legalisation: Professor Green wants to see cannabis legalised / Ian West/PA

He continued: So that's what prohibition does. If you bring prohibition in for alcohol, people don't stop drinking alcohol, they start drinking moonshine.

He also called for the legalisation of cannabis on the grounds of its medical benefits.

He said: Theres kids that dont respond to medication, I think about 20,000 of us in this country, who can pretty much have their fits controlled with medicinal cannabis.

Demi Lovato awake and with family after reportedly being taken to hospital

Why would you take that away from a child? And putting the parents in a position where they're being penalised for treating their child, seems ridiculous.

Greens comments come amid reports that Demi Lovato was rushed to hospital after she recently admitted to relapsing, following a long-time battle with drugs and alcohol.

The 25-year-old is believed to have been taken to a Los Angeles hospital from her Hollywood home on Tuesday morning.

An LAPD spokesman said officers were called to an address in Hollywood at around 11am local time.Central America is awash with nature opportunities ranging from rainforests filled with monkeys and exotic birds to crystal clear seas teeming with brightly colored fish and sea rays. It also has a wealth of sites that document the ancient cultures that once ruled these lands. Natural Habitat Adventures has a new land and sea tour  Belize to Tikal: Reefs, Rivers & Maya Ruins  that explores both aspects. The nine-day/eight-night trip begins aboard the new National Geographic Quest, a 100-passenger expedition vessel built to get into out-of-the-way spots without sacrificing luxury. While exploring highlights such as the Belize barrier reef, theres the opportunity to snorkel, kayak or try stand-up paddleboarding. Theres a visit to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary, the worlds first jaguar reserve, and Lighthouse Reef Atoll, 55 miles offshore from the reef, whose Half Moon Caye is a nesting area for roughly 4,000 red-footed boobies. The land portion of the trip involves a flight to Guatemala to visit the ruins of Tikal amid the rainforest. The sprawling Mayan city contains stone temples, palaces and other structures that were once home to perhaps as many as 90,000 people. Theres also a visit to Yaxha, near Tikal, which gets few tourists despite being the third largest Mayan ruin. Pricing for the trip in 2019 is from $5,760 per person, double occupancy. Internal flights are extra. Bookings made by Oct. 31 get free round-trip economy airfare from Miami to Guatemala City or a $350 air credit. Info: 800-543-8917, http://tinyurl.com/y95xb2h7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"I have three kids, two of whom are daughters, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said recently in an interview with liberal radio host Bill Press. One just graduated college, one who is in college, and they were both texting me about their excitement over Alexandria because she really  she represents the future of our party.The new solar home EFdeN Signature, the brainchild of a team made up mainly of students, is Romania's entry to the Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 international contest taking place this November in Dubai.

Featuring a modern design, energy efficiency, intelligent and automated equipment, the house was unveiled on Wednesday at an event organized in Bucharest, in the presence of President Klaus Iohannis, US deputy chief of mission David Schlaefer, Rector of the Bucharest Technical University Radu Vacareanu, and Rector of the "Ion Mincu" Architecture and Urban Planning University Marian Moiceanu.

"In the year of the Centennial we hope to return victors from Dubai and more than that, happy and proud of being Romanian," the project's general manager Mihai Toader Pasti said at the event organized in the parking lot of a Bucharest mall where the EFdeN Signature solar home was mounted."Why EFdeN? It comes from the math functional notation f(n), because we follow nature in our design and building work. In the last two years an extraordinary team of young people has made superhuman efforts to build the EFdeN Signature home. With this concept EFdeN will represent Romania at the most important dedicated international competition - the Solar Decathlon. (...) It's the world's toughest such contest, not everybody makes it, it's an international Olympiad of solar homes. (...) The contest starts in Dubai on November 14 and will have 18 teams from 13 countries presenting a home each," said Mihai Toader Pasti.Designed for two, the house has 75 sqm of usable floor, and the layout includes a dining and living room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen, said Pasti.He also explained the annual energy output of the house is higher than its consumption, but that in certain months it still cannot ensure its own energy consumption. The house is equipped with a voice-controlled automated system that operates temperature and humidity conditions, the light and door system.Mihai Toader Pasti also said that the price of the house amounts to 300,000 euro.Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu welcomed on Tuesday Ambassador of the Republic of the Sudan to Romania Abdelhafiz Elawad Seedahmed Elfaki. During the meeting they agreed on the need to strengthen the sectoral dialogue, with the education area being among the priorities, according to agerpres.

According to a Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) release, the two officials analysed the modalities to intensify the political-diplomatic dialogue, as well as the economic cooperation, aimed at keeping an ascending trend of commercial exchanges.

During the talks, the very good cooperation between Romania and the Republic of the Sudan in the multilateral forums was also mentioned."At the same time, they discussed aspects regarding the regional situation in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea region," the release also reads.With CPS finances just barely having reached more stable footing, the Civic Federation does not believe this is the right time to be issuing massive amounts of additional debt with only a portion going to the Districts most critical facility needs, the watchdog group said in its annual assessment of the districts budget.Prime Minister Viorica Dancila reconfirmed on Wednesday the firm support for Montenegro's accession to the EU as soon as possible, on the basis of its own merits and the fulfillment of the accession criteria, according to a press release issued by the Government for AGERPRES.

Viorica Dancila, on an official visit to Montenegro, had a meeting with her counterpart Dusko Markovic on Wednesday. The agenda of talks between the two officials included bilateral cooperation, NATO cooperation, the status of Montenegro's European path, and the latest developments in the region.

"The two senior dignitaries have expressed their interest in deepening relations in all areas of common interest, with emphasis on economic cooperation, increased trade and deepening the sectoral energy cooperation, focusing on interconnectivity, and also environment, tourism and home affairs. In this sense, it was agreed to intensify the ministerial dialogue, and a meeting between the Energy ministers was proposed. Moreover, the officials expressed the intention to activate the bilateral contacts at the working level and to prepare direct contact platforms between the business communities of the two countries, deciding to hold a common economic forum," reads the quoted release.The Romanian prime minister emphasized the importance that the forthcoming Romanian presidency of the EU Council in the first half of next year will give to the EU's enlargement policy and "reconfirmed the firm support for Montenegro's EU accession as soon as possible, on the basis of its own merits and the fulfillment of the accession criteria."Viorica Dancila reaffirmed, in this context, "the full availability of our country to provide the relevant expertise and technical assistance in this process, continuing the exchange of experience that has been successfully carried out so far through bilateral cooperation mechanisms and instruments, in areas of interest for the Montenegrin side in the accession negotiations."According to the communique, the Romanian dignitary conveyed "the special appreciation for the clear strategic option of the Montenegrin state and noted that one year since joining NATO, the opened consistent reform process will also be a benefit to the success of the EU accession negotiations."During the meeting, the Romanian side expressed the conviction that the increased participation of Montenegro in the relevant regional cooperation initiatives, such as the projects developed under the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, represents a natural continuation of the consolidation of the European path of the entire region.The strategic partnership between the United States and Romania is "very robust", with the two states collaborating in several fields, including innovation and scientific cooperation, said David Schlaefer, Deputy Chief of Mission with the US Embassy in Bucharest, in a message sent to the presentation of the EFdeN Signature solar house.

We work closely with all institutions in Romania, especially with the Presidency, the Government and Parliament, to make progress in terms of our common priorities in many areas. These priorities include cooperation in the fields of security and defense, including strengthening law enforcement and promoting prosperity for both countries. This is one of the key objectives of our Strategic Partnership and the promotion of trade and investment also requires strong support for innovation and scientific cooperation and exchanges between our countries. This includes enhancing collaboration between academic and research communities, said David Schlaefer.

He attended an event in Bucharest where the new EFdeN Signature solar house was presented, which will represent Romania at the Solar Decathlon Middle East 2018 international competition, due to take place in Dubai, a competition sponsored by the US Department of Energy.On this occasion, he also talked about the importance of this type of technology and research, which can help reduce the upkeep costs of a home and, in particular, mitigate the negative effects people have on the environment.We are extremely delighted that Romania is one of the finalists this year, David Schlaefer said.One should give credit to Donald Trump for his ability to stand tall and do what he believes is right. Despite the hailstorm of criticism inflicted by the media after the US presidents meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on July 16, he felt confident enough to extend to the Russian leader an invitation to visit the United States in the fall. Unfazed by the backlash, he has a reason to be self-confident, as his approval rating has risen to an all-time high since he took office. Forty-five percent of those surveyed approved of the president's performance, according to the most recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey released on July 22. For comparison, his approval rating was only 36% in July 2017. It sank to as low as 32% in December 2017.

The WSJ/NBC News poll began on the day the summit was held. Eighty-eight percent of Republicans approve of the job the president is doing. Of them, 64% strongly approve of Donald Trump. One can now say with certainty that the attempts to turn him into a lame-duck president have failed.

The more criticism Donald Trump gets from the media, the more his supporters rally behind him, and thats a solid base. There is nothing to suggest that the Trump-GOP deal is on shaky ground. The president can bank on the backing of the Partys grassroots, and thats whats most important. As Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, explained, I cant read his intentions or what he meant to say at the time. Suffice it to say that for me as a policymaker, what really matters is what we do moving forward. There is a reason to believe the GOP will do well during the November midterm elections, strengthening the presidents position.

The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media, Trump tweeted. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that most Americans do not feel Trump went too far in supporting Putin in Helsinki. According to the Federalist, Americans dont give a hoot about the so-called Russia collusion.

As of May, public confidence in Trumps handling of economic policy had also seen a jump since January (53% in May, 46% in January) according to the Pew Research Center. With Defense Secretary James Mattis and State Secretary Mike Pompeo at the helm, foreign policy has at last been aligned with the goals set by the president.

In late 2017, Donald Trump was in dire straits, suffering one setback after another. Now everything has changed and he can stand his ground and invite the foreign leader he wants to Washington without worrying about what his opponents say.

Defense officials could have easily avoided making any comments about the invitation made to the Russian president, leaving the State Department staff to deal with the issue, but they did state their position. On July 20, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy John Rood defended the White House's invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to Washington in the fall. "I think it's a very normal and practical thing," he said.

After the Helsinki meeting, experts started to work on arms-control cooperation. The New START was mentioned as part of the agenda in Finland, but it is still not known if the treaty is to be extended or replaced with something new. Thanks to the summit, the differences over the INF Treaty are being addressed by experts, but the fate of the agreement has still been left hanging. There is a dialog happening over Syria, but nothing has been made public as yet. The unrest in Iraq and the situation in Libya cannot just be ignored. Afghanistan is not in the spotlight, but the escalated fighting in the northern part of the country is an issue of mutual concern. These are the potential areas of cooperation.

The diplomatic row has yet to be settled. If relations are improving, its time to fully staff the respective embassies in order to facilitate contacts and to change the environment. The US could refuse to recognize Crimea as part of Russia and then just drop the issue in favor of areas where progress can be made. After all, its a European problem. Washington could maintain a close relationship with Ukraine and Georgia, while ceasing its support of their full-fledged membership in NATO, in order to allay Russias concerns. Moscow could help Washington make progress on North Korea, including through economic projects in which the US and South Korea could play a role. The administration could also let the fate of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project be decided by Russia and the EU. It does not prevent US LNG from being shipped to Europe, but so far East Asia has been more attractive for American exporters, so why make an issue of it? Russia and the US could join together to work out guidelines for a new European security document to be submitted jointly to the OSCE for consideration. If it goes through, the US president would greatly strengthen his position internally and abroad.

A top-level meeting always provides an impetus for progress in a relationship. The presidents could meet at least three more times this year: at the UN General Assembly session in September; at the meeting President Trump invited President Putin to in the fall; and at the November G20 summit in Argentina.

The relationship is a disaster right now, but there are no irreconcilable differences or fundamental conflicts. The Helsinki event set the stage for diplomacy. President Trump believes that There are many answers, some easy and some hard, to these problems but they can ALL be solved! The public reaction in the United States shows that progress in this relationship can boost the GOP position in Congress. Suppose a major agreement is signed at the summit that Donald Trump is to set up in Washington, and the meeting takes place right before the November midterm elections! The president and his party will see their chances improve. A victory would spur progress in the relationship, paving the way for major agreements that would be a real feather in Trumps cap during his campaign for a second term.Rand Paul is becoming the most intriguing figure in U.S. politics behind Donald Trump. As the war waged by the media and Deep State against Trump escalates, Paul is deftly coming to the Presidents aid.

And that makes him someone worth watching.

On two key issues this week Paul took the Deep State head on to diffuse the outcry over Trumps performance at Helsinki. First, in an article published the day of the summit he announced he would be travelling to Russia as a diplomatic envoy to build on Trumps meeting with Putin.

But, more importantly Paul sided with the President on another matter, NATO and, by extension, our entangling military alliances. On these issues he truly rises to take on the mantle of his fathers foreign policy, a foreign policy which nearly won him the Republican nomination in 2012.

Dialogue is especially important when hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, as is the case in relations between the United States and nuclear-armed Russia. So I applaud Trump for both chiding our NATO allies and greeting its expansion with skepticism, and I applaud him for sitting down with Putin. We should be doing more of such self-examination and dialogue.

Socrates famously said, An unexamined life is one not worth living. But, the lack of examination of the horrific consequences of U.S. foreign policy as proscribed by the neoconservatives in the GOP and DNC has led to a life on this planet that far more dangerous than it needs to be.

Life is always worth fighting for, and Pauls stance here is both principled and correct. As is Trumps.

Since Trump took office, Paul has been the Presidents critic and ally. As a libertarian at his core, Pauls principles lead him to put his own ego aside when insulted by Trump, stand his ground on the issue nut keep his options open to future opportunities for common ground.

In effect, Pauls approach to Trump is to praise Trump when hes on the right of an issue and criticize him when he isnt.

And he always has a concrete policy option to offer, which is very important in any negotiation.

So, now, with Trump attempting to take control of foreign policy after ceding it to his staff and their neoconservative bias for most of 2017, Paul is supporting Trump directly in this turn away from them.

His questioning ex-CIA Director John Brennans use of his security clearance for personal gain led directly to a meeting with Trump and an announcement that not only is Brennan in trouble of it being revoked, but also that of James Clapper, James Comey, Susan Rice, Michael Hayden and Andrew McCabe.

These form the core of the resistance and likely the leaks to the media that have been undermining Trumps ability to function as the U.S.s executive.

Unfortunately, for Paul, Trump demands loyalty as well as trust. So, I fear Pauls balanced approach will keep him at arms length with Trump. But, as I said, rarely does Paul criticize the President without presenting him an alternate plan of action.

Criticism is worthless otherwise. In this way Paul is always seen as a willing partner in solving problems even if it is politically inconvenient for Trump at that moment.

But, on foreign policy Trump has precious few allies inside the Beltway. Trump needs allies and Paul knows this is his opportunity to build that trust with Trump and his base, who are, by and large, not as libertarian as he is.

So, Pauls support on this front will go far with Trump while their confrontation on Obamacare reform, for example, will be properly depreciated.

Pauls campaign against intelligence agents keeping their security clearance is a direct attack on the Deep State itself and is an important vector to starve the media of any relevancy in the public forum. As he said on Fox News recently.

I don't think that ex-CIA agents of any stripe who are now talking heads should continue to get classified information. I think it's wrong.

Paul clearly has John Brennan in his sights.

But, this move to support Trump here is both strategic and tactical. Strategically, Paul is learning the rules of what will work for him in the post-Trump era. He is setting himself up for a more important position within the New GOP I see forming after the mid-term elections.

The Democrats are imploding. People like James Comey are now openly calling for the party to support moderate candidates this fall and not the new golden child, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The poll numbers are showing that #TreasonSummit was a failure. Trumps approval rating keeps climbing. Rasmussen put out a poll recently which I believe is accurate saying that 65% of self-identified Democrats believe Trump is a traitor while as many as a third of Republicans do as well.

Those numbers shouldnt frighten you. This is a wedge issue. It represents a fork in the road for the U.S. voter. Treason is a serious charge, it comes, as Paul reminds us with a death sentence.

With more than 40% of the U.S. electorate identifying as Independent (and that number is rising) those in the treason camp represent, at most, 30% of voters  20% from the Democrats, at most 10% from Republicans.

Thats about right for the true cross-over of neoconservatives and liberal interventionists (or do I repeat myself?). The neocons have already said theyre going back to the Democrats from which they came, since they are just moldy, warmed-over Trotskyites anyway.

So, Paul knows this is about as bad as it gets for Trump. Once you go nuclear, theres no going back without a massive loss of face. Going after the treason point-man Brennan is tactically the right move.

And the mid-term elections are shaping up to be the moment where Trump welcomes the disaffected centrist voter who sees things improving and a President working for peace and rejects the insanity coming from the Left.

Treason will be a very hard sell from here.

People like Lindsay Graham cannot jump party lest they lose their important committee positions. Old guard Democrats like Dianne Feinstein could be out of a job anyway. There is real change on the horizon in Congress if Trump plays his cards right.

Strategically, it allows Paul to rise in the ranks of the most important committees. Because Trump will, in effect, control a New GOP that represents to voters the American they hold in their heads, not the one we actually live in.

There he can begin wielding real power versus just being a gadfly. By the time Trump is done in 2024 he could easily be seen as the standard-bearer to rebuild the American political system that Trump took a hammer to.

My feeling is that Trump is Loki. His job is to create chaos, upset the balance of things because they are in desperate need of realignment. Rand Paul is a much more balanced presence, a man of strong convictions but milder temperament that will be needed after we pass through the eye of this political storm.

He is a man to watch very carefully from here.I want to make sure that I give my students what I never had, Williams said, a young man who they can look up to, a person of color who they can look up to and see that they dont have to just go be basketball players, or football (players) or rappers or anything like that. You know, you have people of your skin color who are teaching and shaping young minds.If an independent Republic of Kanaky Nouvelle-Caledonie  the present-day French colony of New Caledonia  is ever to be seated in the United Nations General Assembly hall between Jordan and Kazakhstan, it will not because France has done everything possible to ensure a fair vote in the independence referendum scheduled for November 4, 2018.

The chief political party backing independence, the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), finds itself battling a perception management campaign, largely being waged in France and Australia, that independence will bring New Caledonia into the orbit of an expanding sphere of influence of China. The canard of Chinese influence has recently been advanced by Australia to call for an abatement of ties between Vanuatu, the former Anglo-French colony of New Hebrides, and China. Vanuatu, which has accepted financial assistance from China, is being used as a bogeyman by Canberra, backed by U.S. military interests in Hawaii, to argue against independence for New Caledonia.

The battle for independence of New Caledonia is opposed by 60 percent of the 270,000 eligible voters of the island group, who represent French white transplants to the colony. Some 40 percent of the population, largely the indigenous Kanaks, favor independence. Current polling indicates that the independence option will go down to defeat.

In the worlds current race to gain control over natural resources important to high-tech supremacy, New Caledonia possesses one-quarter of the worlds known nickel resources. In addition to the racist attitudes of metropolitan French migrants who moved to New Caledonia and who do not want to share political and economic power with the indigenous Kanaks, control of the nickel industry, important in the production of batteries, means the pro-independence forces in New Caledonia have an uphill battle.

French mining companies have ensured that the Kanaks, who work in the mines, do not have the opportunity to advance up the economic ladder to ownership positions in the mining industry. France has ensured that an all-too-typical colonialist system lives on in New Caledonia with the native subjugated population serving the interest of the French state and a mercantilism-based inequitable economic system.

Anti-independence propaganda being distributed to the worlds media largely emanates from the neo-conservative and pro-Zionist Lowy Institute based in Sydney, Australia and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-funded East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Such propaganda warns that an independent New Caledonia will be subject to Chinese and even Islamist influence. These propaganda mills are nothing more than fronts for Western mining companies. The same arguments being used against New Caledonias independence in the November 2018 referendum are also being used to disparage independence in the referendum scheduled for Bougainville, an island of Papua New Guinea, in 2019. In New Caledonia, it is the nickel exploiters who dominate the debate on independence, in Bougainville it is the copper companies who have long exploited the Panguna copper mine.

French President Emmanuel Macron, a product of the Rothschild Bank, an enterprise that wrote the book on exploitation of native peoples by unscrupulous European colonialists for well over two centuries, said, during a May 2018 visit to New Caledonia, that, after 164 years of colonization I recognize New Caledonia is a jewel. Macron showed his cards when he called for a sovereignty in partnership between New Caledonia and France. Macron, playing to the music of big power politics, said that New Caledonias future is inextricably linked to a French Indo-Pacific axis that must not fall under a new hegemony.

Macrons visit was accompanied by a 4,000-strong March for France in Noumea, the capital city. Macron might as well have said that he sees New Caledonia as nothing more than a jewel in the French colonial crown. Macron also said he wanted to preserve the status quo in New Caledonia with the assistance of the two regional colonial powers, Australia and New Zealand.

The French Caldoches  migrant colonialists and their offspring in New Caledonia  are led by the Caledonia Together Party. Its leader, Philippe Gomes, was born in Algeria during the French colonial rule of that country. Gomes is one of the pied-noirs, or black feet, the term used by French Europeans who enjoyed special privileges in Algeria and were firmly opposed to Algerian independence. It is particularly galling for the Kanaks to see a pied-noir from Algeria, with all the social baggage of brutal French colonialism in that country, now leading the political force in New Caledonia who wants the territory to remain French. Gomes is more at home with multi-millionaires from the French mainland, who have built massive holiday homes and berthed expensive yachts in New Caledonia, than with the native Kanaks.

Kanaks, who live only a short walk from Noumeas European cafes and boutiques, live in squalor. Many do not have access to the water, sewage, or electrical systems. In 1988, many Kanaks lost their lives in anti-French demonstrations on the island of Ouvea, protests that were brutally suppressed by French military force in Operation Victor. Pro-independence sentiment in New Caledonia is generally found in certain geographic areas. For example, the pro-independence Melanesian Progressive Union, which joins the FLNKS is supporting total independence for New Caledonia, finds most of its support in the North Province. Pro-independence sentiment is also strong in the largely underdeveloped Loyalty Islands.

In 1980, the pro-independence Caledonian Union (UC), a Kanak-European mixed party, stated that it planned to unilaterally declare independence in 1982. Prior to the declaration, the UC Secretary-General, Pierre Declercq, a native of metropolitan France, was assassinated in his home in Noumea. The killers were never found but native Kanaks believed the assassination was carried out by agents of the French intelligence service, the Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE). The successor of the SDECE, the Direction generale de la securite exterieure (DGSE), had no problem bombing the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbor in New Zealand in 1985. The action, Operation Satanique, resulted in the death of one of the crewmen.

Pro-independence parties called for a boycott of a 1987 independence referendum. A mere 59 percent of eligible voters participated, resulting in a lop-sided anti-independence result of 98.3 percent. The Noumea Accord of 1998 paved the way for this years independence referendum. So far, only one pro-independence party, the Labor Party, said it will not participate in the November referendum. Its leader, Louis Kotra Uregei, has called the vote an electoral farce, with France and its well-off transplants on the islands holding all the cards.

The Labor Partys reasoning is a sound one. It argues that France has stacked the deck against independence by permitting the electoral roll for the plebiscite to discriminate against native Kanaks who have no fixed address. The French authorities and the non-Kanak majority in the territory have refused the franchise to 12,000 Kanaks. The Kanaks put much of the blame on French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who showed an unusual interest in determining who is and who is not eligible to vote. The Kanaks object to Caldoches who are recent arrivals in New Caledonia voting in the referendum. The 1988 Noumea Agreement specifies that only Caldoches who arrived prior to 1994 may vote, but the Kanaks believe there has been a manipulation of the electoral rolls to favor the Europeans.

By all rights, Kanaky should be an independent country. However, the machinations of Macron, Philippe, Gomes, and others seem intent on preventing a new country from joining the international parade of nations.Two men were shot around 7:25 p.m. by a shooter who approached them while they were standing on the sidewalk in the 7100 block of South Wabash Avenue in the Park Manor neighborhood on the South Side, police said.An 8500 signature petition is calling on the government to include Whitianga and Coromandel rescue helicopter services in the tender process.

Coromandel Rescue Helicopter Trust members presented the petition to Coromandel MP Scott Simpson at Parliament yesterday.

The Government has failed Whitianga and Coromandel residents at the very first hurdle by not including the existing rescue helicopter services in the tender for review of nationwide rescue helicopter services, says Simpson.

It will be simply unacceptable to local residents and the hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Coromandel Peninsula each year if existing services are reduced in any way.

The Minister was not prepared, when asked, to commit the inclusion of Whitianga, Rotorua, Taupo and Te Anau as locations for a base for an air ambulance when given the opportunity to reassure the community.

He says this means that these bases may close because they are still not included in the request for proposals and wont receive the necessary support and therefore helicopters would not be dispatched from a local base.

It is difficult to see how clinical outcomes can be improved if air ambulances are dispatched from further afield.

Surely the Minister can acknowledge that the extra time that it will take to travel the further distance may be the difference between life and death for some patients.

When the Minister was further questioned whether he could commit to the people of regional New Zealand that the timeliness and quality of the air ambulance service would not be diminished he would not address those concerns.

The fact that the Minister wouldnt directly address these points is worrying. His evasive answer that the tender process was driven by a desire to improve clinical outcomes is at odds with the fact that a number of bases have been left out of the tender.

Local Coromandel communities have supported and helped fund the existing facilities. If those services are reduced lives will be at risk.Former residents of a botched development in Tauranga have described a compensation offer as "heartbreaking".

Tauranga City Council signed off on the Bella Vista development despite major construction defects. Residents were forced to abandon their homes in March.

Young families, retirees and solo parents sank their savings into their new Bella Vista homes, but their dreams were dashed when it was discovered the homes were leaky and built on unstable foundations.

Two months ago the residents pleaded with the council to buy back the properties at full market value - before any defects were found - and provide extra compensation.

Yesterday, the council said it would buy back the houses at the prices residents paid for them about three years ago, plus $10,000 dollars each in costs.

Andre Stewart, who bought his first home at Bella Vista with his wife Chloe and their two young children, is devastated by the offer.

"Heartbroken, was my immediate reaction. That after two years, I'm in a worse position than I was."

The family's options were limited to looking for something well below what they intended to buy.

Former resident Degen Prodger says the loss of value in the past two years locked them out of buying another home in Tauranga.

"It is only fair to get full market value to set up in a similar house."

The residents' request was not unreasonable for a group of people left with nothing, through no fault of their own, Degen says.

"We are ratepayers ourselves and the ratepayers they are talking about are supporting us."

Yesterday, the council said it had to balance the needs of residents with those of ratepayers.

Resident Lee Konowe says in 13 years living in New Zealand, he's never witnessed such shoddy work from local government.

"If part of our process reduces that probability in the future, then maybe we have done a good thing."

There was no reason why the council could not increase its offer when it was getting the majority of compensation from insurers, Lee says.

Some residents have already filed documents in the High Court against the council, seeking damages of $50,000 per property plus costs and damages.

Tauranga City Council declined to be interviewed today. It's considering court action against the developers.Countdown has dropped the price of its Homebrand and Select sanitary products to make them more affordable for women and girls in New Zealand.

Speaking at a Parliamentary event on the issue yesterday, Countdowns corporate affair general manager Kiri Hannifin says while all women will benefit from lower prices on these essential items, one of the drivers for the business in making sanitary products more affordable was to help address a real need for many women and girls in New Zealand.

Period poverty is a worldwide phenomenon and a reality here in New Zealand. Too many women go without sanitary products themselves so they can provide essentials like food and rent for their family, or for some families its simply something they cant stretch their budgets to afford for their children.

Sanitary products are a necessity for all women, no matter who you are or where you come from.

The fact that not all women and girls can access them is something Countdown felt we wanted to help address by making good quality products more affordable for all women.

MP for Manurewa, Louisa Wall, says girls and young women have resorted to makeshift measures such as wearing socks in their underwear, or using types of paper or torn sheets and cloth as sanitary protection when families cant afford sanitary items.

This leads to increased risk of infection, or because of stigma and embarrassment, it has also led to young people not attending school at all.

Period poverty limits opportunities for current and future generations of Kiwi women, and the impact is much greater than missing a few days of school or not participating in sport or other social activities every month, says Louisa.

"Female sanitary products aren't a luxury but for Kiwi girls, women and families on tight budgets or low incomes, they're an expense that is simply out of reach. Weve all got to work together to address this issue and make it easier to ask for help.

The Salvation Armys National Secretary for Social Services, Major Pamela Waugh says we need to start talking about how we can better address this issue here in New Zealand.

We know that poverty of all kinds can follow people throughout their lifetime. Its essential women who are making every effort to support themselves and their families are not held back because they cant fit sanitary products in their budget.

Sanitary products are essential items for women, not a luxury item for the privileged.

In July 2016, Countdown, The Salvation Army and MP for Manurewa Louisa Wall, launched an initiative via The Foodbank Project to help stock the charitys foodbanks with sanitary products. Since then, more than $190,000 of tampons and sanitary pads have been donated.

Countdowns move to lower the price of Homebrand and Select tampons and pads is expected to save customers $750,000 a year.

In addition to the changes to its own brand range, Countdown is now retailing menstrual cups at 80 per cent of stores nationwide.Auckland

Summer is almost on its way and we are seeking 20 staff to help with stop go operations, site set ups and general traffic...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzNew Zealand is smack bang in the middle of winter and yet it's in a warmer than usual phase with mild westerlies about to kick in.

"We're not talking tropical heat or anything like that, but we are talking about temperatures above average either by day or by night, or for some regions both day and night," says WeatherWatch.co.nz

While the south eastern corner of Australia gets hit by cold southerlies, New Zealand is seeing more of the westerly after thought and that is creating snow on the Southern Alps, colder days in the lower South Island but, generally, it's bringing a milder flow of weather with most regions looking frost free.

"We may have a few more frosts on Thursday morning well inland but the westerlies are coming.

"Don't be too fooled by the mild weather. As SE Australia is seeing there are plenty of big southerlies that can come in at any time, but as we head through what is usually the coldest time of the year New Zealand is indeed in a warmer than average flow for the most part.

"Major snow storms and cold blasts can hit anytime in August, September and even into October but the coldest point of the year is usually around mid July to mid August, precisely 6 months after our hottest period of the year, mid January to mid February."

The first week of August 2018 also looks milder than average for a number of areas with more lows forming in the Tasman Sea and more westerly quarter winds.Whakatane Police is discrediting claims accusing them of child abuse and negligence.

The claims have been made following a social media post which shows a number of children, discovered in a car, outside of the station on Monday night.

The post includes three videos, showing the children unattended in the vehicle at night.

In the first the man filming can be heard asking: how long have you been in the car?

Three or two hours, keeping our babies in the car, who are you guys with? Just yourselves, and they lock you out here like this? How rude, thats shameful, he says.

He claims to have come from Tauranga, to collect the children, after their mother was arrested.

Im sick, I was supposed to come pick up the kids I asked their mother to, because Im crook and they arrested her and left the kids outside.

No food, no water, in the car for three hours, is that New Zealand law? This is a family, not criminals.

The last of the videos shows fast food on the bonnet of the car, and pans to the children eating.

New Zealand Police you should be proud of yourselfs, I aint.

They reckon theyre in the law. If I leave my kids out in the car for three hours, I go to jail.

Police strongly disputes the claims made in this social media post.

In a written statement, Eastern Bay of Plenty area commander Inspector Kevin Taylor says a woman was arrested for breaching bail conditions, which included not associating with some of the children she had in her car.

He says the 30-year-old woman is due to appear in Hamilton District Court on September 20, facing three charges of assault of a child.

When the woman was arrested, police offered to drop the children to a family member who lived nearby but the woman would not agree to this.

She arranged for a family member in Tauranga to come and get them instead, he took three hours to arrive.

Police then suggested the children could wait for the family member inside the station, but again the woman would not agree to this.

She insisted that the children would be looked after by the 18-year-old in the group and told them to stay in the car and not enter the Police station, says Kevin.

Police takes our responsibilities seriously and made every effort to ensure the safety of these tamariki.THROOP, N.Y. -- Three people were arrested Tuesday afternoon after a man stabbed his younger brother in Cayuga County, troopers said.

The New York State Police rushed to a home on Emily Drive in Throop on Tuesday afternoon after a stabbing was reported to 911. Investigators discovered Jorge L. Sanchez had stabbed his brother, Alex A. Baez, in the stomach with knife at a home on North Division Street in Throop, troopers said.

Sanchez, 30, of Auburn, was charged with second-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child.

Baez, of Auburn, was treated at Auburn Community Hospital for a "minor" wound, troopers said. Then, after he was released from the hospital, the 23-year-old man was charged with criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation and endangering the welfare of a child.

A third person was also arrested: Sanchez's girlfriend.

Troopers said Louise A. Partin, 23, of Auburn, gave false information about the stabbing. She was charged with making a false written statement.

The brothers were remanded to the Cayuga County Jail in lieu of $2,500 cash or a $5,000 bond.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Sanchez remained in jail.

Partin was given an appearance ticket and released from custody. Baez is not listed in custody.

State police were assisted by the Cayuga County Sheriff's Office and Cayuga County Child Protective Services.Syracuse, NY -- A Family Court judge nearly sent evicted son Michael Rotondo to jail today after he refused to sign paperwork related to his back child support.

Michael Rotondo, 31, who made international headlines in May for being evicted from his parents' Camillus house, came to court today after being found guilty of willfully refusing to pay child support for his 8-year-old son.

He owes $55 a week but has not voluntarily made any payments since March. The court's collection bureau got permission to raid Rotondo's bank account and intercepted his tax refunds. That paid for nearly all of the back child support, minus a few hundred dollars.

Family Court Judge Julie Cecile said today she would sentence Rotondo to probation for a year. He refused. Cecile said his other choice was 30 days in jail.

"What if I accept neither?" the unemployed man wondered.

"Then I will take you in, and you will be doing 30 days" in jail, the judge replied.

"Then I choose probation," Rotondo replied.

It could be a hard road for the evicted man, who has most recently been living on Syracuse's East Side. A month ago, he was getting free rent in exchange for doing odd chores for the homeowner, according to a New York Post video. Probation will force him to get a job, pay his back and future child support and put restrictions on his life.

Rotondo's biggest objection? He won't be able to go to a bar while on probation.

"The only socializing I do is at a bar," Rotondo protested.

"The whole point is that the money you're spending at a bar should be going toward your child," the judge replied.

That's when Rotondo revealed his favorite hangout: Mello Velo, off Erie Boulevard East at Walnut Avenue.

Mello Velo: Syracuse bike shop/cafe/bar relocates to bigger, more visible space. 24 Gallery: Mello Velo: Syracuse bike shop/cafe/bar relocates to bigger, more visible space.

It's not really a bar, Rotondo explained. It serves alcohol, but it's also a bicycle shop and restaurant.

Cecile relented. Mello Velo was fine, she ruled, writing the business's name as an exception to Rotondo's probation conditions.

"If you're able to socialize at Melo Vello, I think that's great," the judge said.

Where else?

How about Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge? Rotondo asked. No, the judge replied, to the Armory Square institution.

She cut off the debate there, noting that this wasn't an episode of Let's Make a Deal.

What if I get a job at a bar? Rotondo wondered. Talk to probation, the judge replied.

Rotondo also protested a restriction on him owning firearms. He has a rifle, he noted. The judge refused to lift that restriction.

Rotondo's driver's license was also suspended by probation. Can I get that back? he asked the judge.

Start paying child support and we'll see, she replied.

The judge ended the back-and-forth with a public wish that Rotondo get his act together. If he gets a job and pays his $55 a week, he'll probably be off probation early, she noted.

"Rest assured, I am going to comply with probation," Rotondo replied.

It's more than that, she pressed. If Rotondo doesn't comply, he'll be back in court and could be facing jail.

"Any other questions?" Cecile asked.

"This is outrageous," Rotondo said as he walked out of the courtroom.In the Middle Ages, Persia became the epicenter of the Muslim world. Islam shared with Christianity the Old Testaments prohibition of idolatry. But Muslims held more strictly to it  putting Christians on the defensive in places where the two faiths met. The Byzantine Empire  as the Roman Empires eastern territories came to be called  was racked by the so-called Iconoclastic Controversy of the 8th century. Inspired by the Muslim ban on religious imagery, one Byzantine faction fought for the removal of such icons in churches. Another faction was equally adamant in defense of saints icons.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Two 18-year-olds were treated at Upstate University Hospital on Tuesday night after being shot on Wood Avenue, according to Syracuse police.

At 9:57 p.m., officers arrived to the 100 block of Wood Avenue to investigate a shooting call, police said.

Officers found an 18-year-old man who was shot in his right leg, police said. He was taken to Upstate University Hospital by AMR ambulance, police said. His injury was not considered to be life-threatening, police said.

A second 18-year-old man arrived at Upstate University Hospital in a private vehicle, police said. He also suffered a gunshot to his leg and told officers he'd been shot on the 100 block of Wood Avenue, police said. His injury was also considered non-life threatening, police said.

The suspect in the shooting was "possibly" in a dark colored SUV-style vehicle headed westbound on Wood Avenue, police said. No other suspect information is available, police said.

Police ask that anyone with information contact the department's criminal investigations division at 315-442-5222. All calls remain confidential and anonymous tips can be submitted via the SPD Tips app.CICERO, N.Y. -- New York State Police released the name of a man found dead Sunday night in the Oswego River in the town of Granby.

Jason J. Burr, 36, of Fulton, died from drowning, according to an autopsy conducted Tuesday.

A resident called 911 at about 8:50 p.m. Sunday after they observed a male floating in the Oswego River unresponsive and about 35 feet from the shore, troopers said.

The man was recovered by Phoenix Fire Department Water Rescue and brought to the shore where they attempted life saving measures.

State police said Sunday that they did not know yet why the man went into the river. The investigation is continuing.Anthony Saccone is brought into Judge Matthew Doran's court. At left is his lawyer, William Sullivan. July 25, 2018.

By Douglass Dowty and Samantha House

Syracuse, NY -- Anthony Saccone, the drunken driver who killed three young people in a crash near Onondaga Community College, has been labeled an accused murderer for months.

But no more: Saccone, 31, of Camillus, today pleaded guilty to lesser charges in connection with the Feb. 23 crash that killed three: Baylie Rose, 19, Michael Walker, 18, and Samra Osmanovic, 20.

All told, Saccone will be sentenced to 10 to 30 years in prison. That's 8 to 24 years for driving recklessly and under the influence of alcohol and cocaine (aggravated vehicular manslaughter), as well as 2 to 6 years for leaving the scene afterward and going to sleep at his mother's house nearby.

Saccone was driving more than 80 mph when he ran a red light at Onondaga Boulevard and Onondaga Road, slamming his vehicle into the one carrying the three young people, Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick has said.

Why didn't Saccone, accused of one of the worst local crashes in recent memory, face a lifetime behind bars? Didn't a grand jury indict him for murder? Why accept a plea for less than murder?

Anthony Saccone mug shots: Feb. 23, 2018, day of fatal crash that killed three; March 12, 2018, indicted on murder charges; and July 22, 2018, reckless driving and drinking in a motor vehicle.

It all came down to risk at trial, Fitzpatrick said. One member of victim Baylie Rose's family agreed.

"There are a number of hurdles that have to be overcome in a case like this to get a murder conviction," Fitzpatrick said after court. "The law in New York, frankly, is split: some cases more egregious than this have resulted in manslaughter convictions. Other cases that have more elements than this have resulted in murder convictions."

In other words, the courts have decided that what Saccone did was far from a slam-dunk murder case. Even if a jury found Saccone guilty of murder, a higher court could overturn that verdict, ruling the case didn't meet to requirements for a murder charge.

What has appeared to be a clear-cut case, however, is Saccone's reckless driving (running a red light going 80 mph), his alcohol and drug consumption and his fleeing the scene. That's what he admitted to today.

The murder charge, which carried a much harsher possible sentence of 25 years to life in prison, didn't allege any other facts. It simply charged that Saccone's actions were so callous that they were murder, nothing less.

Saccone's defense lawyer William Sullivan, had argued in court against the murder charge, pointing to many of the cases that appeared just as bad as Saccone's that did not end in a murder conviction. He declined comment after court today.

Syracuse.com did an analysis of those cases after an earlier court appearance:

Gigi Meyers, Baylie Roses's stepmom, said after court today that her family knew Saccone wouldn't get as much time as they wanted. But she said they didn't want to leave his fate up to chance - or sit through a gruesome trial.

"We're just happy to have a little closure," Meyers said. "We're just happy to put this behind us and work on healing."

Michael Walker, Baylie Rose and Samra Osmanovic were killed early Friday, Feb. 23, 2018 in a hit-and-run DWI crash near Onondaga Community College.

So Saccone's sentence spared the families a traumatic trial and locked up a virtually iron-clad conviction. Saccone also agreed not to appeal his sentence, which is standard for plea agreements.

"I've explained all this to the families since Day One, and there's something to be said for finality and certainty," Fitzpatrick said. "There's no appellate court that's going to reverse this. This is over. We won't see this guy again."

So 10 to 30 years will be Saccone's sentence. County Court Judge Matthew Doran signed off on the deal, which means it can't change nor can the judge add to it.

There is a very slight increase that could happen if Fitzpatrick is able to prove Saccone was drinking and driving while out on bail last weekend. But that won't add much time.

Saccone's sentencing is scheduled for October. He remains in jail until then.

Today's court hearing:DEWITT, NY - In April, town of DeWitt officials said they were told ShoppingTown Mall's owners would soon have a redevelopment plan for them to review.

Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC, which owns the mall, in May provided a one-page sketch of its redevelopment plan, said Town Supervisor Ed Michalenko.

The plan was "very similar to what they showed us several years ago,'' he said.

Michalenko said the sketch didn't have any details.

Back in 2015, Moonbeam unveiled plans for redeveloping ShoppingTown.

Those plans included demolishing part of the Sears wing and redesigning parts of the mall into a strip mall, Moonbeam told the town at the time.

More detailed plans have never materialized, and more stores have moved out of the enclosed shopping mall.

Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard filed a Freedom of Information request for the latest document, but the town refused to release it. Town officials said the document was marked confidential.

The town asked Moonbeam officials for permission to share the document, but they didn't respond, the town said.

Moonbeam has not returned calls or emails from Syracuse.com.

In June, the town passed new zoning that streamlines the process for developers who want to build mixed-use projects of up to six stories. That should make it easier for Moonbeam - or another developer - to rehabilitatte ShoppingTown, Dewitt officials say.

Meanwhile, the ShoppingTown mall - once crowded with shoppers and stores - sits nearly empty.

Another Moonbeam-owned property, Century III mall, is scheduled for a sheriff's sale in September in Pittsburgh, Pa. Moonbeam is embroiled in a legal dispute with the Sears that was located in that mall, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A judge has said Moonbeam owes Sears about $4.2 million after failing to buy back the department store location when Sears terminated the lease early, the report said.

Century III was at one time a premier mall which, like ShoppingTown Mall, has lost major anchors and many smaller retailers.

Another mall owned by Moonbeam, the Burlington Center Mall in New Jersey, will see its last store close in September- Sears, according to NJ.com. The vacant mall has deteriorated, and Moonbeam proposed putting warehouses on the site, the article said. The has rejected that plan. saying they prefer a mixed-use development.

In other areas, Moonbeam is moving ahead with other projects.

At the same time, Moonbeam recently acquired the Gateway Marina in Brooklyn with plans to beautify it.

According to the National Park Service, Moonbeam will manage the 500 boat-slip marina.

The park service said Moonbeam was selected based on its ability to reconfigure, upgrade, and make improvements at the marina facilities as specified by NPS. Among the anticipated improvements are upgrades to the marina's appearance and boater amenities.SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A sprawling mural in a downtown hotel has sparked a vigorous debate about one of Syracuse's most historic moments, and how its depiction can evoke pride or pain depending on who's looking at it.

The mural, in the lobby of the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, shows a black slave in shackles at the feet of two white men -- a scene that's drawn criticism from guests and community members.

It's a glimpse of the "Jerry Rescue," a legendary piece of Syracuse's abolitionist history. It was included as one of 20 notable historic events of the city's first 100 years when the mural was painted in 1948.

To critics, however, it's a display of whitewashed history, a culture of oppression and lack of recognition of black contributions to the city. And to the uninformed hotel guest, it's a confusing reminder of America's most heinous institution.

The hotel's prominence amplifies the dilemma. It's the crown jewel of downtown and a popular spot for weddings, conventions and parties. It's a first stop for incoming travelers. It's a gateway to the city.

Last fall, hotel owner Ed Riley convened a group of citizens to analyze the painting's impact and weigh its future.

Their undertaking is complex: How do we honestly and accurately talk about racial issues of the past and present? How do we honor a proud historic event without ignoring the pain that comes with it? And how do we incorporate modern sensibilities when dealing with art created decades before the Civil Rights movement?

Unpacking history

During the Hotel Syracuse restoration in 2015, workers discovered the 40-foot mural hidden behind a set of mirrors in the lobby. It depicts scenes from Syracuse's early days, like a gathering of the Iroquois tribes on the shore of Onondaga Lake, the digging of the Erie Canal and the city's first mayor giving a speech.

The Jerry Rescue, as depicted in a 1948 mural that hangs at the Hotel Syracuse.

Featured in the lower right hand corner, just above the hotel welcome desk, is a shackled slave. Two white men are standing over him, one with an outstretched arm.

It's a moment from one of Syracuse's most famous stories.

In 1851, hundreds of citizens stormed the city jail to free William "Jerry" Henry, an escaped slave who had been arrested in Syracuse under the Fugitive Slave Law. The city was an abolitionist hotspot and the federal slave law was unpopular.

Syracusans smuggled Jerry out of the city and, eventually, into Canada. Some of the organizers were arrested for their involvement.

That history, however, is easily lost on the casual observer -- there's nothing triumphant about the scene as pictured. A guest sees only a shackled slave surrounded by white men. Jerry is the lone black person in the mural.

Last year, a guest sent a harshly worded letter to the hotel's franchiser, Marriott, complaining about the mural. The hotel chain wanted to respond.

Riley, who owns the hotel, said Marriott wrote to him about the complaint. He had previously worked with the Onondaga Historical Association to educate people about the mural, including hanging a guide next to it. But that wasn't enough.

"It's a person of color in a derogatory situation," Riley said. "We talked to [OHA] about educating people on it, but that still doesn't address transient guests who come and go very quickly."

Hotel owner Ed Riley

Riley didn't have a solution. Neither did Marriott. Removing the mural wasn't an option, Riley said. It's part of the fabric of the historic hotel. Currently, there's a beige curtain hiding the Jerry Rescue portion of the mural - a temporary fix.

Last fall, Riley turned to the community. He issued a call to dozens of influential locals to come together and discuss a solution. That meant, first, identifying the problem.

"I've always said I'm a caretaker of this building," Riley said. "I don't have the expertise nor the experience to make those decisions."

Riley is white. Many people in the group are black.

More than 20 people showed up to an initial meeting. The conversation was frank and, at times, tense, according to Riley and others present. They talked about race and oppression and the lenses through which history is seen.

"I went in with what I thought was a pretty open mind," Riley said. "After, I definitely could see how people could misrepresent it...I learned a lot, sitting and listening to viewpoints about how those representations can be misconstrued and hurtful."

Specifically, Riley said he pictured the mural through someone else's eyes. Imagine, he said, a young boy of color who regularly visits the hotel - maybe his mother works there. That boy sees a grandiose painting celebrating the achievements that made Syracuse what it is today. But the only person in the mural who looks like him is a slave in chains.

"If you're a young person of color, you're thinking, 'What's he doing in shackles?' " Riley said.

>> Local students start petition to make Oct. 1 "Jerry's Day" | Video

Telling the whole story

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir is director of the local chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union. He's been a part of the discussions -- as an individual, not a NYCLU representative -- about the mural since the beginning.

Abdul-Qadir recognizes the mural means different things to different people. To him, the image is offensive for several reasons.

Yusuf Abdul-Qadir asks a question at a meeting at Southwest Community Center, Feb. 8, 2016.

"For some people seeing a black man in shackles itself is very painful," he said. "For others, showing someone black in an inferior way is painful."

The mural, he said, shows only the contributions white men made to Syracuse. That ignores contributions by people of color and women, who have often been written out of history.

"You don't get context," he said. "From our beginning there were African Americans who were a part of the salt trade, individuals who contributed to our culture..."

Dr. James Haywood Rolling Jr. is chair of the art education program at Syracuse University. He said he's considering the painting both as an academic and as an African American.

Art, Rolling said, is about story. The mural's portrayal of the Jerry Rescue, he said, tells an incomplete story. Jerry appears helpless, in need of rescue by white people.

"It's an African American with no agency, no power," he said. "We live in a region where the underground railroad was active. African Americans had lots of agency over their lives, even at the risk of death or imprisonment."

Rolling said the mural doesn't wholly reflect what it meant to be black in Syracuse, even in the 1850s. There were many African Americans -- Harriet Tubman, for example -- who openly rebelled against racist laws and policies even before the Civil War. Their contributions are overlooked.

Still, Rolling doesn't believe in hiding a piece of the mural or painting over it, as some have suggested. Art shouldn't be censored, he said, it should be addressed and discussed. He and Abdul-Qadir praised Riley for creating a forum for that discussion.

One man's perspective

Some critics have focused on the perspective of the artist, a white man in post-war America.

"I think we have a rich history here. It isn't just from one person's perspective," Abdul-Qadir said. "It's essential to tell that whole history."

The mural was painted in 1948 by Carl Roters, a professor at Syracuse University's College of Fine Arts. The hotel owners commissioned Roters to paint something celebrating the city's centennial and its history to that point.

His daughter, Carlene Roters, is an artist in New Mexico.

She acknowledged the challenges of capturing a complex piece of history in a single painting.

"How do you depict a rescue of an escaped slave by citizens of Syracuse, from federal marshals, in a few concise symbols, in a mural that depicts years of history and a multitude of events?" she said. "My father chose to put William Henry in shackles, worried about losing his newfound freedom, with a gentleman's hand on his shoulder...It seems to me the issue is not the mural, though it might be depicted differently today. It's educating the public about the history of the event."

Roters said she doesn't think any part of the mural should be hidden. That makes it seem like there's something controversial or unsavory in need of covering.

She suggested the hotel prepare a more prominent display explaining the mural and the Jerry Rescue, and have an informational pamphlet available to send to anyone who complains about it.

"I don't feel historical art created out of ignorance, racism and bias is appropriate for public art," she said. "The Hotel Syracuse mural is not any of those...The Jerry Rescue is history and something Syracuse can be proud of."

Covering the mural

The group of citizens has met a handful of times. There's no consensus among its members, Abdul-Qadir said. But they're starting to better understand each other.

While the group deliberates, the hotel hung a beige curtain over the Jerry Rescue portion of the mural. Not everyone likes the compromise. Some say art that makes us uncomfortable should be talked about, not censored. Others say it's a good start until a better solution is found.

One proposed answer, which Riley backs, is to commission a second mural on the wall adjacent to the front desk. Something from a local artist to celebrate the city's more recent history. It would, as Rolling puts it, complete the story.

Rolling offered another option from our neighbors.

In Albany, a mural in the state education building attracted criticism 20 years ago. The painting, called "The Genius of America," shows a slave in a loin cloth being propped up by a white man. The intent isn't clear.

The painting was covered with drapes in 2000 and mostly forgotten, according to a 2013 story from The New York Times. Five years ago, Education Commissioner John King decided to unveil it for occasional glimpses.

Once a month, for an hour, the painting was revealed for a public showing. Brochures were distributed explaining the mural and placards were installed to offer context, according to the Times.

King wanted people to discuss it and make up their own minds. The monthly reveal quickly became a sort of public art show of its own.

"I thought we should make it accessible," King told the Times in 2013, "But that we should also tell the story."Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh is right to demand an independent assessment of the safety of railroad bridges throughout the city owned by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad.

The NYS&W rated its bridge along South Clinton Street in "fair to good condition" last year. On July 5, 30 tons of concrete broke away from the bridge and tumbled onto the sidewalk and road below. Luckily, no one was hurt or killed.

Obviously, that's not what you'd expect from a bridge rated "fair to good." It begs the question: Why should we trust the railroad's inspections of its other 34 structures in the city?

The summaries of inspection reports filed with the Federal Railroad Administration do not inspire confidence in NYS&W's aging infrastructure. (The bridge sidewalls that fell were roughly 80 years old.)



On many bridges, concrete is observed to be cracked and "spalling," or breaking into pieces, and rebar embedded in the concrete is exposed to weather and road salt. Yet, every bridge in service is "confirmed to have the capacity to safely carry traffic being operated over the bridge."



Walsh isn't buying it. In a letter to the FRA, he wrote, "only 13 of the 35 structures were characterized as 'no safety hazards found.' With the limited information provided, we can only conclude that the 22 remaining structures present safety hazards to the community."



Don't ask the Federal Railroad Administration if the bridges are safe. The agency relies on private railroads to self-inspect their tracks and bridges, and to self-report the results.



Railroads inspect their tracks weekly and are supposed to conduct structural inspections of bridges once a year. Under law, only a brief summary of the structural inspection is released to the public. As the mayor wrote in his letter, the summary is "woefully inadequate to assess the full range of safety concerns that exist along the rail line."



Given the collapse of the railroad bridge over West Onondaga Street, the railroad administration ought to conduct its own inspection of NYS&W's elevated tracks and bridges in Syracuse, as Walsh requested. Drivers and pedestrians should expect they won't be hit by falling concrete when crossing beneath railroad bridges.

Syracuse.com editorials

Editorials represent the collective opinion of the Advance Media New York editorial board. Our opinions are independent of news coverage. Read our

Members of the editorial board are Tim Kennedy, Jason Murray and Marie Morelli.

To respond to this editorial: Post a comment below, or submit a letter or commentary to

. Read our

If you have questions about the Opinions & Editorials section, contact Marie Morelli, editorial/opinion leader, atTo the Editor:

At the end of June and early July, you ran opinion pieces from the Washington Post concerning the inhumane treatment of immigrants at the border. The first three-quarters of the articles blame the Trump administration for separating families. When we get to the end of the pieces, we learn that inhumane treatment of detainees occurred during the Obama administration. The lawsuit covering inhume treatment spans the years 2005 to 2015.

According to a report in the Post, the Obama administration was cited by a federal judge for holding immigrant children and their mothers in

something officials admitted was designed as a means "to deter them (families) from coming to the United States illegally."

The policy on family separation is actually due to the bipartisan

The reasoning was that many of the accompanied children were not with their parents or other family members, but with non-related adults, some of whom are child traffickers. This is evidenced by the recent report that of the 100-plus accompanied children, 17 were with non-related adults, several others could not be reunited since their parent or the people living the parent presented a danger to the child. Yet, unbelievably, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to speed up family reunification, time for proper vetting be damned.

A federal judge has also allowed, at the request of the ACLU, to allow families being deported a week to decide if they want to leave their children in the U.S. If family separation is such a big deal, why allow them this option?

The Clinton, Bush 43 and Obama administration all separated families and kept immigrants in holding cells. In addition, the Obama administration intentionally held immigrant children and their mothers in widespread deplorable conditions.

I don't remember any outrage from Democrats or their lapdog media then -- only when Trump is president. Spare me your faux outrage and crocodile tears.

James Johnson

BaldwinsvilleWASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer made a final public appeal Wednesday against a U.S. tariff on Canadian paper, warning that thousands of American jobs are at risk in the newspaper and publishing industry.

Schumer, D-N.Y., said he hopes U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross considers the broader impact on the economy when his department decides next week whether to make the tariff permanent on uncoated groundwood paper. The paper is used as newsprint by newspapers.

The Commerce Department imposed a temporary tariff of up to 22 percent in March.

Schumer told Ross in a phone call earlier this month that the tariff has resulted in cutbacks and job losses at newspapers across the United States, and threatens the existence of small, community newspapers.

"The only saving grace here, if you can call it that, is that these tariffs are temporary," Schumer said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

Schumer said he made a strong case with Ross, who seemed to understand the gravity of the situation for the newspaper and publishing industry.

"Ross seemed sympathetic, but you never know what's going on," Schumer said. "We can nip it in the bud if Commerce says they're not going to have it. I'm going to do everything I can to stop this counter-productive, job-killing tariff."

The tariff would simply expire if the Commerce Department decides not to make it permanent, Schumer said.

But if the Commerce Department keeps the tariff in place, the case could ultimately be decided by the International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency.

A bipartisan group of elected officials last week asked the International Trade Commission in Washington to rule against making the tariff permanent. About 20 members of Congress testified against the tariff at a public hearing. A final ruling from the commission is expected in September.

Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, told commission members that New York printers and publishers had to make "severe cost-cutting measures." He said the tariff has cost The Buffalo News about $600,000 per month as prices for Canadian newsprint spiked up to 30 percent.

No members of Congress support the tariff, which is also opposed by the association representing the paper industry and other paper mill owners in the U.S. and Canada.

The U.S. Commerce Department approved the preliminary tariff in response to a complaint from a single paper mill -- North Pacific Paper Co. in Washington state.

The mill, which employs about 385 people, is owned by a private equity firm in New York City. The company claims that Canadian newsprint suppliers have a price advantage because of government subsidies.

The mill is among only five in the United States that still produce newsprint. Demand for the product has dropped 75 percent in the U.S. since 2000 amid declining circulation and cutbacks by newspapers.

In an open letter last week, Canadian Ambassador David MacNaughton said the tariffs will only hurt the industry they are intended to protect as more newspapers close or cut back their use of newsprint.

MacNaugton said North Pacific Paper Co.'s profits were not hurt by Canadian newsprint, which primarily supplies markets in the Northeast and Midwest.

"This rogue actor seeks to game American trade laws for its own short-term advantage," MacNaughton wrote, "while putting thousands of U.S. and Canadian jobs at risk."

Contact Mark Weiner: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751Upstate New York's most popular animal is having another baby.

The Animal Adventure Park in Harpursville, N.Y., announced Wednesday that April the Giraffe is pregnant again. The calf will be her fifth child.

"The results are in and we are having a baby!" park owner Jordan Patch said on NBC's "Today" show.

"Who's the daddy?" host Savannah Guthrie asked.

"What show is this?" Patch laughed. "Of course, it is Oliver the Giraffe, the same father as Tajiri."

Patch said last month that they were hopeful after April went on several "dates" with her male mate, Oliver.

"We're allowing the male and female giraffe, Oliver and April, to share space once again and of course nature will take its course if given the opportunity, and we believe that might have happened," Patch told Fox 40 in June.

Zoologist Allysa Swilley shipped fresh fecal samples to a lab to confirm the results and staff at the zoo began watching April's behavior closely.

April the Giraffe became a Southern Tier sensation last year when she gave birth to a baby calf named Tajiri at the zoo near Binghamton. Thousands watched live-streaming video both before and during the birthing process.

The 16-year-old giraffe is expected to give birth in 2019 sometime, but no one knows when exactly.

"The average (gestation period) for a giraffe is 15 months," Patch told NBC. "April likes to go 16, 17, 18 ... 19 months."

Tajiri, meanwhile, is nearing adulthood and may have to live on his own by the end of the year to participate in his own breeding program soon.

"To have another pregnancy for April here at the park would just be an awesome achievement for our staff and another step forward for giraffe conservation," Patch said last month. "As many know, there are less than 80,000 giraffes left in the wild."

The Animal Adventure Park says it will keep fans updated on April's pregnancy on social media.During a quarrel on the evening of July 18 in Rogers Park, Amer Al Rabadis 20-year-old daughter  who is Shakeer Al Rabadis cousin  tried to call for help and the men tried to take her phone, police said. Shakeer Al Rabadi then punched the woman and Amer Al Rabadi stabbed her in the right thigh with a knife, police said.What just happened? A Bluetooth vulnerability has been discovered that could allow an attacker within proximity to intercept traffic being sent between devices. The bug affects firmware or operating system drivers of major firms, including Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom.

Lior Neumann and Eli Biham of the Israel Institute of Technology discovered the cryptographic vulnerability (CVE-2018-5383), which has since been shared by Intel and CERT. The bug is related to Bluetooth devices not sufficiently validating encryption parameters during connections.

The elliptic-curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) key pair consists of a private and a public key, and the public keys are exchanged to produce a shared pairing key, writes CERT. The devices must also agree on the elliptic curve parameters being used. Previous work on the Invalid Curve Attack showed that the ECDH parameters are not always validated before being used in computing the resulted shared key, which reduces attacker effort to obtain the private key of the device under attack if the implementation does not validate all of the parameters before computing the shared key.

The issue affects Bluetooth's Secure Simple Pairing and Low Energy Secure Connections, allowing nearby hackers (within 30 meters) to intercept, monitor, and manipulate traffic as it passes from one device to another.

Some companies, including Apple, Broadcom, Intel, and Qualcomm have already deployed fixes. Apple fixed the bug with the release of macOS High Sierra 10.13.5, iOS 11.4, watchOS 4.3.1, and tvOS 11.4.

Microsoft said its devices arent affected, while researchers have been unable to say if Android, Google, or the Linux Kernel are at risk.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) said the official Bluetooth specifications have now been updated to require products to validate any public key received as part of public key-based security procedures. The group said: "For an attack to be successful, an attacking device would need to be within wireless range of two vulnerable Bluetooth devices that were going through a pairing procedure."



"The attacking device would need to intercept the public key exchange by blocking each transmission, sending an acknowledgment to the sending device, and then injecting the malicious packet to the receiving device within a narrow time window. If only one device had the vulnerability, the attack would not be successful."

Thankfully, there are no reported instances of the attack being used in the wild, and its unlikely that to pose much risk to everyday users.In context: Waymo recently clocked in over 8 million miles of fully-autonomous driving, with their fleet of self-driving cars traveling roughly 24,000 miles on a daily basis. A significant portion of this mileage likely comes from the company's "early rider" autonomous taxi program in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Later this week, that program is seeing an expansion through Waymo's new partnership with Walmart.

It seems Waymo's self-driving car ambitions don't end with mere taxi services - Google's autonomous car tech branch has partnered up with Walmart to break into the grocery business.

Specifically, Waymo will act as a ferry between Walmart locations and consumer homes. Customers can order groceries online through Walmart's website, call a Waymo vehicle to pick them up and ride to the store to grab their supplies at a discount.

This program is launching later this week in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Waymo hasn't made it clear how users will take advantage of the service, nor is it evident whether or not the service will cost money. However, since the autonomous ride-hailing service is restricted to members of Waymo's "early rider" program, most eligible users likely already know how everything works.

In other news, Waymo has also announced expansions to existing vehicle maintenance partnerships they have with AutoNation and Avis Budget Group. Currently, the companies offer their customers loaner vehicles while their personal cars are in the shop.

Now, instead of a loaner car, Phoenix-based Avis and AutoNation customers could get access to a self-driving Waymo vehicle for city travel. Interestingly, this service does not appear to be limited to members of Waymo's early rider program.The more companies talk about 5G, the more the idea becomes a pipe dream no one will ever be able to make into a reality. Despite the numerous reports about experiments, field testing, and carriers pushing for 5G, it still doesn't feel like it's arriving soon.

The fact is, however, transitioning to 5G will definitely be a slow process, and perhaps the smartphone market is currently in the thick of it. There are a lot of pieces that need to come together to get 5G networks on mobile devices, not to mention new standards and new modems, but Qualcomm is clearing away one huge hurdle, thanks to the announcement of its new QTM052 mmWave antenna modules, which will enable smartphones to connect to the high-speed networking spectrum needed for 5G.

Why 5G Is So Hard To Develop

Part of why the 5G dream is so elusive is because not all 5G is created equal, as The Verge notes. Qualcomm's own test from the Mobile World Congress earlier this year showed as much, with some users getting speed bumps even with just lower-bandwidth 5G implementations. However, true 5G will have more significant gains than that, a feat that'll largely depend on the mmWave network.

Of course, Qualcomm isn't going to solve the 5G problem alone. Again, a lot of factors must come together perfectly before a true 5G evolution can ever happen  but it's making a huge contribution by developing mmWave hardware for handsets. That's no easy feat too. While mmWave can lead to faster speeds, it also transmits at shorter ranges and is more susceptible to simple blockage, including walls and even skin.

Qualcomm Is Very Confident About Its New 5G Module

Qualcomm says its 5G component is the real deal, though. The antenna array, barely the size of a penny, features four antennas that can accurately locate the closest 5G tower. It's also designed to be small enough to fit into tiny phone bezels.

While everything mentioned above seems pretty exciting, it will largely depend on whether Qualcomm's new module performs as promised. It's an understatement to say that 5G development is very fickle at the companies, and it seems companies are all just throwing possibilities around to see what sticks. Qualcomm is confident its solution will work, though. In fact, the first devices equipped with the QTM052 will apparently launch as early as 2019.

It goes without saying, though: a 5G-capable phone is useless without a true 5G network.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Changchun Changsheng Bio-technology Ltd., which produces 23 percent of rabies vaccines in China and made more than 3 million shots last year, was found to have violated protocols for drug production.

Vaccine Scandal

Outrage swept across China after reports emerged that thousands of children may have been injected with faulty vaccines as two vaccines, one for rabies and the other for diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) manufactured by the company have been found defective.

Changsheng was found to have falsified production and inspection records, and distributed about 250,000 defective DPT vaccines to Shandong province, which has a population of about 100 million people. A surprise inspection also discovered that the company forged the data of about 113,000 rabies vaccine.

The offense has prompted the State Drug Administration to revoke the company's license to produce rabies vaccine. Authorities have also announced that they are launching an official criminal investigation into the company.

Many of the defective vaccines were already on the market and given to Chinese children as part of a mandatory vaccination program. While a number of these vaccines have already been recalled, it is not yet clear how the defective vaccines could affect the health of the children who have been injected.

Impact On Public Trust

Amid a series of scandals that involve tainted food and drugs produced in China, parents call on the government to take more severe action. In 2008, 300,000 Chinese infants fell ill after consuming milk powder tainted with melamine. Authorities have also caught several factories in the country that produce counterfeit versions of popular soy sauce and spice mix products.

Huo Xiaoling, whose 1-year-old daughter received a vaccine produced by Changchun Changsheng, said that she would no longer buy Chinese-made vaccine since she could not trust officials to clean up this industry.

"We don't know who we can believe in," Huo Xiaoling said. "As Chinese, we probably should have confidence in our country, but getting hurt again and again has made us lose faith."

In a statement posted on government website on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that the public deserves to have a clear explanation of what happened, citing that a moral line had been crossed.

"We will resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that endanger the safety of peoples' lives, resolutely punish lawbreakers according to the law, and resolutely and severely criticize dereliction of duty in supervision," he said.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Climate change apparently also affects people's mental health. Findings of a new study have linked rising temperatures to increasing suicide rates in the United States and Mexico.

Hotter Temperatures And Suicide Rates

In the study published in Nature Climate Change on Monday, researchers compared historical temperature and suicide data over several decades and found a strong correlation between hotter weather and increased incidents of suicide.

Solomon Hsiang, from the University of California-Berkeley, and colleagues projected that a 2.5 degrees Celsius increase in temperature by the year 2050 could lead to a 1.4 percent increase in America's suicide rate, and a 2.3 percent rise in Mexico's suicide rates.

They predicted that the hotter temperatures may lead to an additional 21,000 suicides in two countries by 2050.

"We find that suicide rates rise 0.7% in US counties and 2.1% in Mexican municipalities for a 1 C increase in monthly average temperature," Hsiang and colleagues wrote in their study. "This effect is similar in hotter versus cooler regions and has not diminished over time, indicating limited historical adaptation."

Researchers have long known that conflict and violence tend to peak during warmer months. However, the researchers said that the new study provides evidence that in addition to hurting others, some people also hurt themselves.

The researchers also looked at the languages used in over half a billion tweets to investigate if hotter temperatures can influence mental well-being. They found strong evidence that hot weather also increases the use of depressive language on social media.

Hsiang said that heat appears to have a profound effect on the human mind and how people decide to inflict harm.

"This may be the first decisive evidence that climate change will have a substantial effect on mental health in the United States and Mexico, with tragic human costs," Hsiang said. "We've been studying the effects of warming on conflict and violence for years, finding that people fight more when it's hot."

Risk For Suicidal Tendencies

Potential factors can contribute to people's overall risk for suicide. Mental health experts, for instance, have warned that high-profile celebrity suicides may also lead to a spike in suicidal tendencies.

Researchers of the new study, however, said that temperatures may have an influence on how people perceive, evaluate, and act on their situations.

Suicide rates in the United States have increased by 25 percent since 1999 with more than 40,000 Americans taking their own life in 2016.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A Tennessee woman said that her teenage daughter had to undergo surgery because she was eating too many spicy snacks.

Consumption Of Too Many Hot Snacks May Lead To Gallbladder Removal

Rene Craighead said that her 17-year-old daughter had to have her gallbladder removed because of abdominal pain. She attributes this to her child consuming too many hot snacks.

Craighead said that the doctor told her that hot chips such as Hot Cheetos, Takis, and Hot Fries caused the stomach problems of her daughter, who is also named Rene.

"Every time I go out she says, 'bring me back some Hot Takis. Bring me back some Hot Chips.' I want to make her happy, so I brought them back. She was eating big bags and would take them to school with her," Craighead said.

Cary Canvender, a gastroenterologist at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital, said that while there are several factors that can contribute to the removal of the gallbladder, consumption of spicy chips more likely contributed to the ailment and the operation of the high school student.

Canvender said that they actually see a number of gastritis and ulcer-related conditions due to this. He also urged the parents to monitor what their children eat and feed them with fruits and vegetables.

Why Kids Love To Eat Hot Cheetos

Doctors said that the red peppers and spice in the snack are likely causing abdominal pain in some people who consume Hot Cheetos, one of the most popular spicy snacks in the market.

Experts think that the addictive qualities of these food products are among the reasons why kids overeat them.

"It's something that has been engineered so that it is fattier and saltier and more novel to the point where our body, brain and pleasure centers react to it more strongly than if we were eating, say, a handful of nuts," said Ashley Gearhardt, from the University of Michigan.

Spicy Snacks Not For Everyone

People with a known history of GERD or gastroesophageal reflux, a condition that can cause acid reflux and heartburn, are particularly discouraged to consume the spicy treat since this can lead to a flare-up of their condition.

In a statement, Cheetos maker Frito-Lay said that its snacks meet quality standards and food safety regulations. The company, nonetheless, said that some people may be more sensitive to spicy food and may opt to avoid these spicier snacks.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Tracy Martinez said that she almost lost her leg when she contracted skin infection during a pedicure. The North Carolina woman now warns others about the dangers of a pedicure tool responsible for her infection.

Cellulitis

Martinez claimed that she visited what she described as a clean salon for a pedicure on June 22. The following day, however, she became ill and suffered from chills, fever, nausea, and vomiting.

Her condition got worse as she had a swollen leg and she was walking off balance. She eventually had to be taken by an ambulance to a local hospital, where she learned she had a serious infection.

Doctors told Martinez that she had a serious case of cellulitis, a bacterial infection that can spread to the lymph nodes and bloodstream and can rapidly become life-threatening.

The condition occurs when bacteria such as streptococcus and staphylococcus enter through a break in the skin. Symptoms include swelling, tenderness, pain, blisters, and red spots.

Callus Cutter

Doctors said that Martinez may have contracted infection after she was minorly cut by a callus cutter. The tool is used to remove dead skin from heels and feet.

A callus cutter was used during her pedicure at the unidentified salon. Martinez learned too late that callus cutters are actually prohibited by North Carolina's Board of Cosmetics. She said she was not aware of this until after she had spent two weeks at the hospital because of the infection.

"When the skin is compromised even a bit-like with a minor scrape-it is very easy for bacteria to creep in and wreak havoc," shared Mona Gohara, a dermatologist who works as an assistant clinical professor at Yale University. "I never let them use instruments on me when I get a pedicure for this very reason; it's too risky."

Still Recuperating

Martinez is lucky that doctors were able to save her life and her leg. Martinez will still be on medication for the next three months. She also needs to wear a compression stocking on the infected leg to prevent potential infections.

The 35-year-old now warns others about the potential danger of using callus cutters, saying that there is no way to properly disinfect it to be continually used on people.

"I have been through hell, pain, shock, all of it.... But I want to raise awareness," Martinez said. "I no longer recommend pedicures but definitely say NO to these callus shavers if you do go."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.The United Nations asked the dictatorship to immediately release politicians, ministers, a member of the Sovereign Council, and the Khartoum governor. | Read MoreHooper and Parker are being held in the Madison County Jail in downstate Edwardsville until they can be transported back to Will County, according to the states attorneys office. Hooper was ordered held in lieu of $5 million bail, and Parker is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Court appearances for the pair in Will County have not yet been scheduled.NBN chairman Ziggy Switkowski says a write-down of the taxpayer's investment into the $49 billion project is not currently being considered by the board or the federal government, despite a global ratings agency saying that is inevitable.

"There is no work at the moment [internally] looking at that matter," Mr Switkowski, a former Telstra chief executive, told Fairfax Media.

An NBN writedown has been described as "inevitable" Credit:Rob Homer

"The valuation of NBN is best considered once the network build is completed and the business is operating on a predictable footing," he said. "I think discussions on valuations of assets are premature, even if the interest is understandable."

The comments come after global ratings agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday said the NBN risks being relegated to a network of last resort amid the rise of 5G mobile services, and that a write-down of the massive infrastructure project by the federal government "appears inevitable".A Pennsylvania state board has determined that Bill Cosby is a "sexually violent predator," an assessment that could play a role in how severe a penalty the judge imposes on him when he is sentenced in September.

The determination was made by the state's Sexual Offenders Assessment Board after a psychologist met, questioned and evaluated Cosby, who has been confined to his home in Montgomery County since being convicted in April of three counts of aggravated indecent assault.

In a filing Tuesday, the Montgomery County district attorney, Kevin R. Steele, who prosecuted Cosby, asked the judge who had presided at the trial, Steven T. O'Neill, to schedule a hearing on the board's finding. The hearing must be held before Cosby's sentencing, scheduled for September 24-25.

The judge will decide whether to uphold the board's opinion after hearing arguments and witnesses from both sides, lawyers said.An international koala conservation group plans to take the Palaszczuk government to court for being too slow to protect the koala and for what it describes as politically sanctioned extinction.

Sue Arnold, from the conservation group Australians for Animals, which also works extensively in the United States, said they planned to use environmental law barrister Dr Chris McGrath, who has worked with the Environmental Defenders Office and provided evidence in the 2015-16 Carmichael coal mine court cases.

Ms Arnold said neither the Queensland nor New South Wales governments set up koala protection zones as promised and neither set aside land for koala habitat as promised.

Koala conservationist Sue Arnold from the group Australians for Animals plans to take the Queensland Government to court for poor koala policy.

This should have been the primary recommendation of the Queensland governments response to the koala expert panel and the New South Wales koala strategy, Ms Arnold said.Karlie Kloss is engaged to her long-time beau, Joshua Kushner.

The 25-year-old model, who visited Australia last year as the face of David Jones' A/W campaign, announced the news on her Instagram account on Tuesday.

I love you more than I have words to express, she wrote. Josh, youre my best friend and my soulmate. I cant wait for forever together. Yes a million times over.

Kushner is the younger brother of Jared Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump and a senior adviser to her father, US President Donald Trump.Colin Winchester's widow thought "for one crazy minute" that her husband was joking when she found him slumped in the driver's seat of his car, a jury heard on Wednesday.

Widow Gwen Winchester leaves the Coroner's Court in 1992. Credit:Canberra Times

But when Gwen Winchester shook Canberra's police chief and then grabbed his head and tried to resuscitate him, she felt his blood wet her hand.

Mrs Winchester heard her husband pull into the next door neighbour's driveway about 9.15pm on January 10, 1989, after visiting his brother Ken in Queanbeyan to plan a hunting trip to Bourke.

She heard two "sharp cracks", and assumed it was neighbourhood children mucking around with stones.The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, whose leaders want the litigation over the consent decree dismissed, is seeking to intervene in the case, though the judge has not ruled on whether the union can be involved. The unions attorney, Joel DAlba, said in court that the issue of documenting the pointing of guns is very critical to the safety of officers. He voiced concern that forcing the department to document the incidents would cause officers to second-guess themselves.A life-long Rebels member has become the fifth person charged with murder in connection with the death of Central Coast man Clint Starkey.

Officers from Strike Force Bartondale on Wednesday arrested Colin Crane at a home in Narara on the Central Coast in a dramatic pre-dawn raid, charging him over the attack last year that left Mr Starkey, 42, in a coma from which he never woke.

Clint Starkey died two months after he suffered severe head injuries.

A source says that police will allege in court that Mr Crane, 50, was the mastermind of the plot to brutally attack Mr Starkey at a Central Coast service station in April last year.

He appeared at Gosford Local Court on Wednesday afternoon, where Magistrate Ron Maiden formally refused his bail application. Mr Crane will return to the same court on Friday.Premier Daniel Andrews statement he is open to overhauling short-term rentals to give tower residents more control is welcome. But the signal that hes getting ready to crack down on out-of-control party renters feels like only a little after too long, given the process to deliver change has been stalled in the State Parliament for two years.

The increasing amount of violence, vandalism and community disturbance in the party towers demonstrates a need for better regulation.

A young woman, Laa Chol, was killed last Friday at a gathering of young people that somehow spiralled out of control  with tragic consequences.

There have been so many other incidents of short-term rentals in Melbourne and throughout the world being used for wild, riotous and destructive gatherings, sometimes booked under false names or pretences.A mother charged with the murder of her eight-year-old son has died in jail.

Joanne Finch, 42, from Tootgarook on the Mornington Peninsula, was charged with murder over the death of her son Brodie Moran, 8, at their seaside home in March.

Joanne Finch and her son Brodie. Credit:Facebook

She was found dead at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Ravenhall, west of Melbourne, on Tuesday.

A police spokeswoman said the death was not being treated as suspicious.A state Labor minister is under fire for using a mobile EFTPOS terminal to take donations to the party at a fundraising event.

Small business minister Philip Dalidakis did not breach the rules for ministers raising funds for his party but the Opposition says it is inappropriate for a state minister to be taking money for his party in this way.

Victorian Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade Philip Dalidakis. Credit:Jesse Marlow

Labor found itself under attack in State Parliament on Wednesday over the fundraiser.

Mr Dalidakis unusual approach was revealed the day after Labors campaign donations laws, aimed at taking corporate money out of state politics, finally passed the parliament.Another Andrews government minister, Adem Somyurek, sacked after being accused of bullying by a staffer, has gone on to do, well, interesting things with the partys internal factional landscape and made life very uncomfortable at times for the Premier. The red shirts scandal might have something left in it and Andrews has another MP under investigation for allegedly using money meant for official printing jobs to pay for dodgy Labor Party memberships. Prepare for mud-slinging. Credit:Matt Davidson Most of Labors travails this term have gone public through factional players throwing their rivals under the bus. Now the painful and time-consuming federal preselection process is over, internal plotters are free to return to their first love: cooking up trouble for their enemies in the party.

So you wouldnt bet against this Labor government squeezing in another scandal or two in the limited time remaining to it. Over in the blue corner, Guy has had to punt a Nationals MP from a junior shadow portfolio because he has been charged with a real estate scam worth more than $375,000 and must front court between now and the election. There's also Ramsay's yet-to-be-determined date with a magistrate to be endured. Guys term as planning minister in the Baillieu government has been used by Labor a lot to bludgeon his reputation, and there could be more to come. Andrews openly threatened Guy in Parliament this week that Labor is going to come after the Opposition Leader between now and November over the whiffy Ventnor land deal that occurred under his watch.

Liberal state director was jailed for nicking $1.5 million from party funds, taking further gloss off the party's law-and-order credentials; and, of course, there was that infamous lobster dinner Guy shared with the man police believe is the godfather of Melbournes mafia. It all adds up to a picture of Andrews and Guy as a couple of fighters emerging from their corners for the first round, looking like they have already been beaten up. By a gang. Of experts. Loading Its no secret that Liberal strategists reckon Andrews is a drag on the Labor vote and intend to target the Premier, a lot, in their campaign. As for Labor, the rough stuff is in their DNA and they would be looking to dirty up Guy even if they didnt think his record was a big problem.

To say all of this is a turn-off for voters is to grossly understate the case the and latest opinions polls show the primary votes for the two big parties way down on what they achieved in 2014. The state of the big two should be an opportunity for minors to cash in, but the next biggest grouping in Parliament, the Greens, have lost a bit of bark themselves of late. Senator Janet Rice, Greens leader Dr Richard Di Natale, Greens candidate for Batman Alex Bhathal (centre) and Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt (right) concede defeat in Batman. Credit:AAP Their disastrous Batman byelection campaign this year offered a glimpse behind the scenes in the party that does politics differently, and it wasnt pretty. The revelation that departed leader Greg Barber had signed off on a taxpayer-funded payout to a staffer worth $56,000 over claims of sex discrimination and bullying in Barbers office won't help his former colleagues present themselves as a clean Green alternative.Laa Chol died after a dispute at a Melbourne high-rise apartment complex.

A second teenager has been charged over the death of a young woman in a high-rise dispute in Mebourne's CBD.

A 16-year-old Truganina male was charged on Wednesday with being an accessory to murder and assault over the death of Laa Chol, 19, at the weekend.

He has been remanded to appear at a childrens court at a later date.

A 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was also charged over Ms Chol's death and appeared briefly in a Childrens Court on Tuesday.Two bodies found at a rural property west of Melbourne are believed to be an elderly couple, police said.

A man and a woman were found at the Parwan property on Smiths Road just after 10am on Wednesday.

It's understood the couple were aged in their 90s and that the homicide squad have taken over the investigation.

Ballarat Police Acting Superintendent Trevor Cornwill said although he was unable to release many details at this point, it appeared the couple were husband and wife.Further details of how Perth and Peel will make room for 800,000 new homes within 30 years without further urban sprawl were revealed on Wednesday by the state planning system's top public servant.

The government has formed an implementation plan for the Perth and Peel@3.5 Million plan's four frameworks  Central, North-west, North-east and South Metropolitan Peel.

Mass clearing of native vegetation on the Swan Coastal Plain, and the high lifestyle and infrastructure costs associated with urban sprawl, have led to a push for infill. Credit:Pat Scala

These include targets for the number and location of jobs to be delivered in each local government area, while protecting amenity and the environment, as the population reaches a projected 3.5 million by 2050.

The final frameworks dont quite set boundaries for Perth but permit only half the homes to be greenfield, the rest being infilled as high and medium density in established areas.Premier Mark McGowan has backed Corrective Services Minister Fran Logan following a prison riot in WA's mid-west in which 10 inmates escaped and three guards were injured.

Greenough Regional Prison is located 16km south of Geraldton. Credit:Google

He told Gareth Parker on 6PR's Morning Show the prisoners escaped after lighting a fire inside Greenough Regional Prison and scaling a perimeter fence with a ladder.

There was confusion in the wake of the outbreak, with police initially saying several inmates had escaped, before revising the information to 12 last night and settling on 10 this morning.

Initial reports said four had been recaptured, whereas the number was three.Before the full City Council meeting, the Finance Committee will reconvene to decide whether to vote on Ald. Edward Burkes proposal to require prominent nonprofit Heartland Alliance to get licensed by the city. The alderman says he wants the change in light of reports of mistreatment of some immigrant children who were kept at a Heartland shelter after being separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border by President Donald Trumps administration. (John Byrne)The Turnbull government has challenged Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to sack his beleaguered MP Emma Husar, casting it as a test of the Labor leader's commitment to workers' rights.

NSW Labor appointed a barrister to investigate Ms Husar following multiple complaints of bullying and allegations she had her staff perform domestic duties such as cleaning up after her dog.

Former staff have also alleged the western Sydney MP used the taxpayer-funded limousine service inappropriately, including travelling by Comcar to see her personal divorce lawyer on one occasion.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham called on Labor leader Bill Shorten to sack Emma Husar if any complaints against were were true. Credit:AAP

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said Mr Shorten should "go to Sydney" immediately to find out the truth about the allegations and, if any were true, "dismiss her as a Labor MP, disendorse her as a candidate and ensure that he takes responsibility".This 'Perth China Club' is the result of a highly successful campaign waged by Chinas regime to make its strategic ambitions more palatable in the west. "It's in the interests of the state and in their interests as well to do whatever's possible to cosy up to the Chinese Communist Party, its agents and agents of influence," Professor Hamilton said. Professor of public ethics Clive Hamilton says a group of WA business leaders and politicians, which he has dubbed "Perth's China Club", was the result of a campaign waged by Beijing to make its strategic ambitions more palatable. Credit:Rohan Thomson "I noticed as I was researching and writing my book, Silent Invasion, that Western Australia seemed to be particularly prone to political influence through the business community and through political leaders who've been cultivated over many years." Professor Hamilton said the CPC targeted regions feeling hard done by or which struggled economically to gain political influence.

"In Australia we've seen that particularly in Western Australia and Tasmania, he said. Ross Babbage is the former Head of Strategic Analysis for the Office of National Assessments, the intelligence agency responsible for advising the Prime Minister and Cabinet's National Security Committee. Now a senior fellow at Washington D.C.'s Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, he is warning politicians and business leaders of the risks of dealing with Beijing. "I think it's really interesting that senior members of the state government go to China at all, frankly," he said. "And then when they express those views, I start wondering about whether they are really well informed, whether they've done their homework.

"It's so incredibly frustrating that people  are operating as though China is somehow like the UK, or Germany or Japan. It isn't." WA a target for 'political warfare' and the subtle art of influence Western Australian MP Andrew Hastie, a former SAS officer and chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, called the kinds of influence foreign states are seeking to exert in WA "political warfare". He told parliament in June, without naming the countries involved, that "authoritarian states are using political warfare to undermine the legitimacy of Western democracies by targeting our media, political processes, financial networks and personal data". "These authoritarian states view political warfare as a standard instrument of statecraft rather than a specialised tool," he said.

"Their centralised regimes can leverage all elements of their national power towards their strategic objectives." And those strategic objectives include Western Australia. Ross Babbage, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (Washington) and chief executive of the Strategic Forum. Credit:Christian S. Eskelund/US Naval War College Mr Hastie told WAtoday our resource-rich state is "certainly a target" for our strategic competitors. He said they are "wanting to know what our business leaders are thinking, what our political leaders are thinking, what sort of decisions might be around the corner".

And the aim of these intelligence operations is to leverage influence. Mr Hastie said the methods used by these states are more subtle than the cloak and dagger of traditional espionage. "There are inducements offered to our political and business leadership to get them to support the interests of another country, for example," he said. There is no suggestion any inducements were offered to Mr McGowan. Cyber-attacks on the nation's data and communications networks are also tools of the trade.

Professor Hamilton said the CPC had spent decades developing an arsenal of "sophisticated and subtle techniques for influencing foreigners by developing warm personal relationships" to bring people around to seeing the world the same way as Beijing's regime does. "There are manuals to train the Communist Party cadre in these techniques; it's what they do and they're very good at it," he said. "It really is painful to see Australia's political leaders continue to travel to China and come back to Australia and start mouthing world views that reflect Beijing's interests. "I think the Labor party has a particular problem with this." In relation to Mr McGowan's comments criticising the Australian Government's China strategy, Dr Hamilton said it seemed the Premier had been influenced in that way.

Mr Hastie pointed to a recent $136 million deal struck by the state government with Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to build a network of mobile towers along Perths rail corridors for rail communications. The deal was recently thrust into the spotlight after WAtoday revealed the company paid for a delegation of five WA state politicians  including the minister responsible for the tender  to tour China and gave the MPs mobile phones. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie has negotiated cross-party support for foreign influence laws in the Federal Parliament. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Hastie said the Huawei trip and the gift of phones to the MPs from the company "had a very fishy smell about it" and was the kind of activity through which foreign powers attempted to influence Australia. "Certainly, I would've liked to have known about that before the decision was made," he said.

Mr Hastie said his committee recommended a foreign influence transparency scheme for the Federal Parliament which included a register of interests for MPs to declare gifts. But aren't close ties to China the future for WA? Mr McGowan said his criticism of the Australian Government was about keeping in Beijing's good books because the state's economy depends on it. He said wherever he goes and whoever he talks to, his priority is to act in the best interests of the state. "Chinese investment in WA creates thousands of jobs for Western Australians, which is why it is important that we maintain a strong trade relationship," the Premier told WAtoday.

"During my recent trip to China, in virtually every meeting, I pointed out that the relationship between the Federal Government and China is improving. "I called on the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to visit China, and I stand by that view." Mr McGowan's official trips to China were paid for by the state government. But Dr Babbage said although WA doesn't want to walk away from "big bags of gold", he questions the emphasis placed on the Chinese economy by our political leaders. "My attitude is, when you look at the economic relationship between Australia and China and here's an obvious myth you see repeated often, where they say China is Australia's most important economic partner, that simply is not true," he said.

"If you actually do the sums, we sell a lot of stuff to China, we don't invest regularly there. They sell a lot of stuff to us and they don't invest very heavily here despite the controversies." He said there was "too much loose thinking" about the relationship with Beijing, especially because of the ageing of the Chinese population, the rapidly changing structure of its economy, and its rapidly falling growth rate. Premier Mark McGowan celebrates the 30th anniversary of the WA-Zhejiang sister-state relationship with Province Communist Party of China Secretary Che Jun on November 10, 2017. Credit:Twitter/@MarkMcGowanMP Mr Hastie said politicians especially had to be more transparent about their dealings with foreign governments and their agents when fostering closer diplomatic and economic ties. "We welcome foreign influence in our democratic system," he said.

"Thats a good thing, we have lots of allies through the region and through the world. "They have views they want to put and thats fine, we just ask that they do so in a transparent manner. "But where foreign governments seek to disguise their influence, then thats a problem." Better education, more transparency According to many in Australia's community of intelligence officials, there is a lack of understanding about the risks of dealing with Beijing.

"What we're talking about here is a completely different sort of regime," Dr Babbage said. "And these people are coming back from visits there as though it's just a visit to Japan. It's breathtaking, almost." He pointed to ASIO director general Duncan Lewis who said recently there were more espionage agents operating in Australia now than at the height of the Cold War. "And yet you have these people going to China and coming back and giving the impression that it's all sweetness and light and that these are our friends that we can deal with forever," Dr Babbage said. Professor Hamilton said Australian political leaders were succumbing to bullying from Beijing.

"Australian political leaders have been intimidated out of defending basic Australian values," he said. Politicians needed to be more transparent about the influence that China is bringing to bear on them. Loading "I think we need all the transparency we can get because so much of this influence activity goes on in private, we don't see it, we don't hear about it, all we see is political and business leaders suddenly start to repeat what is basically Beijing propaganda," he said. "The more important thing here is for the Australian public to be alert to what is going on and to insist that their political leaders continue to represent Australia's interests rather than being won over to a Beijing point of view."

There is a high-level attempt by Australia's intelligence community to school WA's politicians and business leaders about Beijing's influence operations. "There is a deeper issue here, I think there is a real need, and I've been quietly encouraging officials to do this and there is some of it happening. There needs to be a better communication flow from the official community and from people in the know to everybody else," Dr Babbage said. "I think it makes a lot of sense for there to be a closed session of COAG and a briefing that's not the highest level of security, but reasonably high, of premiers, and they should be told pretty bluntly what the facts of life are." But Dr Babbage said the news wasn't all bleak. "There have been occasions when I've been asked to brief business groups and others, and when I do nearly everybody says, 'We had no idea'," he said.Rafina: The 26 bodies were found huddled together, in a last embrace. The group, many of them children, had been driven to the sea in an attempt to escape the Greek wildfire, only to be engulfed metres from the shore.

"We assume they became trapped by the fire because it was so strong and so fast," Haris Malimagolou, from the Hellenic Red Cross, said in the resort of Mati. "Some were huddled together as if trying to protect each other. They were badly burned and have not been identified."

A Greek national flag flutters over the charred remains of a burned-out car and house in Mati. Credit:AP

The official toll from the "biblical disaster" stood at 74 on Tuesday night, but was expected to rise. Survivors described their efforts to escape, amid mounting anger at the lack of resources to tackle the blaze and to warn locals and holidaymakers.

Paulina Corvisier, 25, from Lyon, on holiday in a villa in central Mati, fought back tears as she displayed cuts and bruises sustained while scrambling over rocks to escape.New York: The biggest bloc of developing countries at the United Nations has chosen the observer state of Palestine as its next leader, the Palestinian ambassador said Tuesday, a decision that could cause new tensions with Israel and the United States.

The ambassador, Riyad Mansour, said Palestine would take over leadership of the bloc, known as the Group of 77, from Egypt, starting in January.

Protesters fly Palestinian flags during a rally in the West Bank Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar. Credit:AP

Originally 77 countries when formed in 1964, the bloc's membership has nearly doubled in size. The bloc often speaks as one voice in the General Assembly and represents more than 80 per cent of the world's population.

"We will be negotiating on behalf of 135 countries," Mansour said, a total that would include his own delegation.Washington: An American man seized in Syria by a US-backed militia has been charged with providing material support to Islamic State militants.

Ibraheem Izzy Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, provided support to the group from 2015 until last month, , the US Justice Department said in a statement. Musaibli, a natural-born US citizen, will be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday, it said.

Demonstrators chant pro-IS slogans in the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014. Credit:AP

US prosecutors in Indiana said Musaibli was transferred from the custody of the Syrian Democratic Forces along with a US woman, Samantha Elhassani, who has been charged with making false statements to the FBI.

Elhassani was accompanied by her four minor American citizen children, who were placed in the care of the Indiana Department of Child Services, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana said.TORRANCE, Calif. July 24, 2018:

New Sport trim offers unique styling cues, 18-inch wheels

New Display Audio with volume knob, Apple CarPlay & Android Auto integration

New Touring trim adds multi-element LED headlights, leather-trimmed seats & power driver's seat

Honda Sensing suite of active safety and driver-assistive features now available on EX trims and higher

The 2019 Honda HR-V begins arriving today in dealer showrooms around the country with a starting price of $20,520 (excluding $995 destination and handling)1. For 2019, HR-V expands its appeal with the addition of new Sport and Touring trims, refreshed styling, new technology, and a more refined driving experience, adding to an already established reputation as a versatile and sporty 5-door subcompact SUV.

For the first time, HR-V now features the Honda Sensing suite of advanced safety and driver-assistive technologies  including but not limited to Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Lane Keeping Assist (LKAS)  standard on EX and above trims, making Honda Sensing available on every model Honda sells.

All 2019 HR-V models feature new styling, with revised bumpers, headlights, grille, and taillights, while the new HR-V Sport and Touring trims get a unique look all their own. Blackout trim and 18-inch wheels visually distinguish HR-V Sport trims, while the all-wheel-drive-only Touring trim gets multi-element LED headlights, dark chrome trim, and LED fog lights.

Inside, HR-V benefits from a new Display Audio system featuring a simplified interface that includes a volume knob and the addition of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration. The navigation system, available exclusively in Touring trims, has also been improved with sharper graphics and 3D landmarks. All models feature a redesigned driver's meter with a large analog speedometer and digital tachometer. EX models and above receive a 4.2-inch Thin-Film Transistor (TFT) Driver Information Interface color display offering additional selectable information including available turn-by-turn directions.

Sport trims get a unique interior treatment that includes a black headliner, gloss-black trim and sport pedals, while EX and EX-L models get redesigned seat upholstery with high-contrast stitching. Touring models get double-stitched leather-trimmed seats, with 8-way power adjustment for the driver.



The 2019 HR-V benefits from refinements to its standard Continuously Variable automatic Transmission (CVT), resulting in a more natural driving feel and quieter operation. Other measures to reduce interior noise include additional sound deadening in the fenders and floor, plus the inclusion of Active Noise Cancelling on Sport and above grades. HR-V Sport models also receive variable-ratio electric power steering, while upgrades to the available all-wheel drive system yield improved performance in low-traction conditions such as snow.

EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR

For 2019, HR-V receives exterior styling updates to further expand its appeal. The grille is enhanced by a new interpretation of the flying wing rendered in dark chrome and extending over the new projector-style headlights. Under the chrome band the grille opening has been restyled to emphasize a wide look, and the fog light housings have been enlarged to help give HR-V a more aggressive stance. In the rear, new smoked turn signal lenses are connected by a thin chrome band, lending an upscale air to HR-V's exterior. Three new colors have been added to HR-V's palette: Orange Burst Metallic, Midnight Amethyst Metallic, and Platinum White Pearl. Inside, in addition to the new Display Audio system and its easy-to-use interface, the HR-V has an updated interior with new seat fabrics and upper door panels, and a revised cupholder.

New for 2019 is the HR-V Sport trim. Fitting between LX and EX, the Sport trim gives HR-V a youthful vibe with unique styling touches. HR-V Sport features unique lower body trim, painted glossy black on the lower front and rear bumper, rocker panels, and wheel arches, as well as the gloss-black exterior mirrors. HR-V Sport also receives a honeycomb pattern grille, exclusive 18-inch alloy wheels and tires, and in the rear there's a chrome exhaust finisher. Inside, Sport trims come with the new Display Audio system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration, a blackout headliner, contrast stitching on the seats, leather-covered steering wheel and shifter, and sport-style pedals.

The new line-topping HR-V Touring trim flanks its honeycomb grille with multi-element Honda LED headlights that are unique in the HR-V lineup, as are the 5-element LED fog lights. Touring models come with exclusive 17-inch machined alloy wheels, for an upscale look. HR-V Touring also comes with similar lower-body trim as Sport, but painted body color rather than gloss black, along with the body-color outside mirrors. Inside, Touring trims get double-stitched perforated leather seats with an 8-way power driver's seat.

All 2019 HR-Vs benefit from additional sound deadening measures. Additional sound absorbing materials have been placed in the firewall, under the floor, and in the passenger-side foot well. Sport trims and higher also receive Active Noise Cancellation, which sends reverse-phase audio signals through the HR-V audio system to cancel out low-frequency road noise.

Regardless of trim, the 2019 HR-V offers voluminous interior space for passengers and cargo inside an exterior package that's compact and easy to park. Thanks to a revised stay-spring mechanism for the hatch, it's now easier than ever to access HR-V's cargo space of 24.3 cubic feet behind the rear seats (23.2 cubic feet with AWD). HR-V also uses the multi-position 2nd row Magic Seat, similar to Fit, which is easily reconfigured for maximum cargo and passenger carrying capacity. HR-V also offers up to 100.1 cubic feet of passenger space with abundant rear seat head and legroom, especially considering HR-V's compact outer dimensions.

Trim MSRP1 MSRP Including $995 Destination EPA Fuel Economy Ratings2

(city / highway / combined) LX (FWD) $20,520 $21,515 28/34/30 LX (AWD) $21,920 $22,915 27/31/29 Sport (FWD) $22,220 $23,215 28/34/30 Sport (AWD) $23,620 $24,615 26/31/28 EX (FWD) $23,720 $24,715 28/34/30 EX (AWD) $25,120 $26,115 26/31/28 EX-L (FWD) $25,320 $26,315 28/34/30 EX-L (AWD) $26,720 $27,715 26/31/28 Touring (AWD) $28,540 $29,535 26/31/28

POWERTRAIN

The 2019 Honda HR-V is powered by a 141 horsepower, 1.8-liter DOHC i-VTEC 4-cylinder engine. Driving either the front or all four wheels, all HR-V models now use a Continuously Variable automatic Transmission (CVT). The 6-speed manual transmission has been discontinued for the 2019 model year.

HR-V's CVT receives numerous upgrades for the 2019 model year to help provide a more natural feeling driving experience. At full throttle, the CVT now features revised shift mapping that, under hard acceleration, more closely resembles the stepped gear changes of a conventional fixed-gear transmission. This stepped feel gives HR-V a more familiar feel during acceleration, while also helping to reduce interior noise levels. Additionally, HR-V's CVT uses a more refined and natural feeling engagement, staying at lower revs more often. Other improvements include HR-V shifting to higher revs under deceleration, providing a measure of engine braking force and better responsiveness when the driver returns to the gas pedal.

On models so equipped, HR-V's Real Time all-wheel drive system has been improved for better performance in low-traction conditions such as snow. Steering feel in Sport models has also enhanced with the adoption of variable gear ratio electric power steering, which varies steering response in accordance with steering wheels position from center. HR-Vs steering becomes more stable at higher speeds as it becomes less sensitive to small movements of the steering wheel. At lower speeds, the steering wheel requires less movement to turn the front wheels, making HR-V feel exceptionally maneuverable in parking lots.

POWERTRAIN DETAILS All Trims Engine 1.8-liter 4-cylinder 16-Valve SOHC i-VTEC Transmission Continuously Variable Automatic (CVT) Horsepower @ rpm (SAE net) 141 @ 6,500 rpm Torque @ rpm (lb.-ft., SAE net) 127 lb.-ft. @ 4,300 rpm Recommended fuel Regular Unleaded CARB emissions rating ULEV-70 Tune-up interval 100K +/- Miles No Scheduled Tune Ups (does not include fluid and filter changes)

SAFETY & Driver Assist

For the 2019 model year, HR-V EX and higher trims come standard with the Honda Sensing suite of safety and driver-assistive systems. Honda Sensing includes Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS), Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS) and Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) incorporating Lane Departure Warning (LDW). HR-Vs A-pillars have also been reengineered to achieve a Good score in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) test for small-offset frontal collisions. Lastly, EX and higher trims receive Honda LaneWatch as standard equipment.

The 2019 HR-V also benefits from a long list of standard active and passive safety features. This includes Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with traction control, driver and passenger front and side airbags, side curtain airbags with rollover sensor, Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), Brake Assist and Hondas next-generation Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure. All HR-V models feature a multi-angle rearview camera with guidelines; EX and above get dynamic guidelines that follow the rotation of the steering wheel.

Safety and Driver Assistance Features



Honda Sensing Features LX Sport EX EX-L Touring Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS)    Road Departure Mitigation (RDM)    Lane Departure Warning (LDW)    Lane Keeping Assist System (LKAS)    Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)   

Active Safety Features LX Sport EX EX-L Touring Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with Traction Control      Advanced 4-Channel ABS      Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD)      Brake Assist      Multi-angle rearview camera with guidelines   Multi-angle rearview camera with dynamic guidelines    Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)      LED Daytime Running Lights (DRL)     

Passive Safety Features LX Sport EX EX-L Touring Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure with crash stroke front frame design      Advanced Front Airbags (SRS)      Front Side Airbags      Side Curtain Airbags with Rollover Sensor      3-Point Seat Belts at all Seating Positions      Front 3-Point Seat Belts with Automatic Tensioning System      Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren (LATCH):

Lower Anchors (2nd-Row Outboard), Tether Anchors (2nd-Row All)      Driver's and Front Passenger's Seat-Belt Reminder      Child-Proof Rear Door Locks     

TECHNOLOGY

The 2019 HR-V incorporates numerous upgrades to its in-vehicle technologies. Headlining the changes is an updated Display Audio system available in Sport and higher trims. Its 7-inch touchscreen has been reconfigured with new icons for ease of use, and there is now a physical volume knob. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration is now standard on Sport and higher trims as well, while Touring models are available with an upgraded navigation system with higher resolution, 3D landmarks, and an easy-to-use interface.

Standard on EX models and higher are walk-away door locks, which automatically lock HR-Vs doors when it detects the key fob is no longer near the vehicle. Sport and higher grades also benefit from Active Noise Cancellation for a quieter cabin, Smart Entry and push-button start, SiriusXM and HD radio, fully automatic headlights, and variable intermittent wipers. Touring models use full Honda LED headlights and fog lights, an 8-way power drivers seat, and HomeLink remote.

MODELS

The 2019 Honda HR-V lineup offers a variety of trims to choose from, suitable for a wide variety of budgets and buyer tastes from LX to the line-topping Touring. All-wheel drive is available on all HR-V trims. A full breakdown is below.



Trim Level Summary

LX Halogen Projector Head Light (New) LED DRL (New) Redesigned Cupholder (New) Rearview Camera Liftgate Spoiler Driver-side Seat Height Adjuster Steering Wheel Audio Control Console Armrest Map Lights Soft touch Dash 5 Display Audio LED Taillights 1-touch turn signals

Sport (New Trim)  Add or replace from LX 18 wheels (New) Display Audio with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto integration (New) Black roof lining (New) Sport Pedals (New) Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) (New) Roof Rails Leather Steering Wheel Leather Shift knob Paddle Shifters 7-inch Display Audio Halogen fog lights

EX  Add or replace from LX Honda Sensing (New) Walkaway auto lock (New) Honda LaneWatch Moonroof Smart Entry and Pushbutton Start Rear Privacy Glass Heated Front Seats Single Zone Auto Climate SiriusXM Radio HD Radio Side Mirrors w/Turn Indicators Fully Automatic Headlights Two Tweeters Variable Intermittent Wipers Lighted Vanity Mirrors Chrome Interior Handle Trim Chrome Speaker Rings Chrome Air Vent Trim EX-L  Add or replace from EX Leather-Trimmed Seats Leather Door Lining Auto-Dimming Rear-View Mirror Leather Steering Wheel Leather Shift Knob

Touring  Add or replace from EX-L Embedded Navigation (New) 8-way power drivers seat (New) LED Headlights (High & Low Beam) (New) LED Fog Lights (New) HomeLink (New)

1 MSRP plus $995 destination charge, excluding tax, license, registration and options. Dealer prices may vary.

2 Based on 2019 EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle, driving conditions and other factors.Sergio Marchionne Former Head of Fiat Dies at 66 From Complications Of Cancer Surgery







Sergio Marchionne New Archive

London July 25, 2018; BBC reported that the former chief executive of carmaker Fiat-Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, has died in hospital in Zurich aged 66.

He was replaced four days ago when his health worsened following complications from surgery on his right shoulder.

Mr Marchionne, who was also Ferrari's chairman, had led the combined company for more than a decade and planned to step down next year.

Mr Marchionne has been succeeded by Briton Mike Manley, head of the Italian-American firm's Jeep division.

"Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man and friend, is gone," said group chairman John Elkann, a member of the Agnelli family that controls the company.

Tributes paid Mr Elkann praised Mr Marchionne's "values of humanity, responsibility and open-mindedness".

He added: "My family and I will always be grateful for what he has done."

Politicians and car industry figures also paid tribute to Mr Marchionne.

Wes Lutz, 2018 NADA chairman: "NADA is deeply saddened to learn of the tragic passing of Sergio Marchionne. Marchionne was a force of nature and a true visionary within our industry. Franchised dealers will always be grateful for his unrelenting drive and incredible focus, which not only helped steer one of the worlds most iconic brands through some pretty dark days, but through foresight helped position that brand for success and growth in a changing market. He will leave a lasting legacy, and will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him."

Italian President Sergio Mattarella said: "Marchionne wrote an important page in the history of Italian industry. As leader of Fiat, he went through years of very deep and radical transformation of markets, production systems, financial strategies and trade union relations."

Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said: "With Sergio Marchionne, Italy loses not only the most brilliant of its managers, but one of the symbolic figures of our country. He represented the best of Italy."

Ford's executive chairman Bill Ford and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi chief executive Carlos Ghosn both expressed their sympathies.

Workaholic lifestyle Mr Marchionne was seen as the driving force behind Fiat-Chrysler's growth.

Famous for his signature black jumpers, sharp tongue and workaholic lifestyle, he is credited with saving both Fiat and Chrysler from bankruptcy.

An accountant and lawyer by training, Mr Marchionne joined Fiat in 2004 after the death of its patriarch Gianni Agnelli.

In 2009, he presided over Fiat's merger with Chrysler, which was then the number three carmaker in the US.

He carried out two successful spin-offs from the merged group - first its tractor-making arm in 2011, which became CNH Industrial, then Ferrari, which was floated in 2016.

By this year, Mr Marchionne had managed to wipe out the group's near-$13bn (10bn) debt pile, something he described as a "healing" process for two companies that for so long were associated with failure.

'Great leader' Mr Marchionne was also a big figure in the world of Formula One, and after taking charge at Ferrari in 2014 oversaw a major restructuring of the racing team.

He formed a powerful alliance with Mercedes, fighting major changes to the sport being planned by new owners Liberty Media for 2021.

Mr Marchionne more than once threatened to pull Ferrari out of F1 after 2020 if he was unhappy with the changes.

Chase Carey, the chief executive of F1, described Mr Marchionne as "a great leader", both for the sport and in the business world generally.

"He led with great passion, energy and insight, and inspired all around him. His contributions to Formula One are immeasurable.

"He was also a true friend to all of us and he will be deeply missed."One person was airlifted to hospital as a precaution after crashing her dirt bike on a narrow dirt access road along the Seine River diversion north of Landmark Tuesday afternoon.

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One person was airlifted to hospital as a precaution after crashing her dirt bike on a narrow dirt access road along the Seine River diversion north of Landmark Tuesday afternoon.

The individual, a female in her late teens from Ile des Chenes, was discovered conscious and wearing a helmet by two children passing by on an ATV, but couldnt remember the circumstances of the crash, said Lorette district fire chief Rene Gougeon.

A rut may have caused her to lose control of the red dirt bike as she commuted home from work, Gougeon said.

Cpl. Pierre Demers of the St Pierre RCMP said alcohol was not a factor.

A STARS air ambulance departed at 3:10 p.m. from the scene, about one kilometre north of Landmark off Provincial Road 206.

Update Wed. 9:30 a.m. - Adds details from St Pierre RCMP.Larry Nassar. Photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images

Larry Nassars attorney is claiming that the former USA Gymnastics doctor was attacked in prison  and that the judge who presided over his sexual-assault case emboldened inmates to assault him.

According to TMZ, attorney Jacqueline McCann filed court documents alleging that Nassar was assaulted in May, mere hours after being released into the general population at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona. Nassar, who was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison after more than 140 women and girls accused him of sexual abuse, claims that he sustained injuries, the details of which are unclear.

In the court documents, McCann attempts to place some of the blame surrounding Nassars attack on Rosemarie Aquilina, the judge who handed the disgraced doctor his sentencing  or in her words, his death warrant  on January 24.

Unfortunately, Judge Aquilinas comments and conducting of the sentencing proceeding appeared to encourage this type of behavior, McCann writes in the documents, in which she points to Aquilinas death warrant comment.

At Nassars January sentencing, Aquilina stated that while she typically believes in rehabilitation, she feels that Nassar doesnt deserve to have a life after prison for the lasting trauma that he inflicted on 100-plus girls whose cries for help went unheard for years.This is a real pot of gold, he said of the $660 million, noting that nearly half of it goes into TIF districts in more affluent city neighborhoods. The fundamental question is: Are we spending it as wisely as we could, given that we really do have a tale of two cities here in Chicago, given massive wealth in some parts of the city and massive amounts of (poverty) in other parts?(L-R) Amy Yu, 16, Ajah Linares, 16, and Nichole Richard, 17, left a Franklin County intervention services facility in the early hours of July 23, 2018. (Pennsylvania State Police)

16-Year-Old Girl Who Went to Mexico With 45-Year-Old Man Goes Missing Again

Two other girls go missing from youth facility

A Pennsylvania teenager who went to Mexico earlier this year with a 45-year-old man disappeared with two other girls from a shelter near Harrisburg, according to police.

Amy Yu, 16, disappeared from the VisionQuest center in Franklin County at 1:21 a.m. on Monday, the Pennsylvania State Police said, according to the Allentown Morning Call newspaper.

Allentown Police Assistant Chief Gail Struss said police were told of the girls disappearance in case she showed up in Allentown. Struss said shes unsure if Yu is believed to be in danger.

Nicole Richard, 17, and Ajah Linares, 16, also went missing from the shelter, police said.

I feel very sad. I say how come she ran out from that place? I thought that place is safe for her. So Im very sad and concerned now, Mui Luu, Yus mother, told WFMZ-TV.

Yu was admitted to Vision Quest, a facility for at-risk youth, after she ran away with Kevin Esterly, 45, to Mexico. Esterly was jailed.

CBS News reported that the two went missing Feb. 9. Her mother told CBS that Esterly befriended the family at a church.

Esterly remains in Lehigh County Jail on $500,000 bail. In the case, he was charged with interference with child custody, concealing the whereabouts of a child, and corruption of a minor.

PennLive reported that Richard is said to have red dyed hair and is possibly wearing a light colored three-quarter sleeve, two-toned shirt, shorts, has a backpack, and a duffle bag. Yu was said to be wearing pants, sweatshirt, and dark sneakers that have light soles. Linares is said to have long, curly black hair and was wearing a tank top, skinny jeans, and had a bright pink camouflage bag.American Pastor Andrew Brunson was reportedly released from prison July 25, 2018, and placed on house arrest while awaiting an October trial in Turkey. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

American Pastor Released From Prison in Turkey, Placed on House Arrest

American Pastor Andrew Brunson has been released from prison in Turkey and put under house arrest due to health problems, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Wednesday.

The paper said the Second High Penal Court in the western province of Izmir released him due to health problems.

Brunson has been in prison for two years on spying and terrorism charges, which he has called shameful and disgusting.

For the past 23 years, Brunson and his family have lived in Turkey where he runs a protestant church in the Aegean province of Izmir on Turkeys western coast.

In 2016, he was arrested for allegedly working with the outlawed PKK Kurdish militants that have waged a years-long insurgency in southeast Turkey, and for allegedly being involved in a failed coup against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

There is no concrete evidence against me, Brunson said earlier this month after a Turkish court decided to keep him in jail. I am an innocent man on all these charges. I reject them.

The Christian pastors imprisonment has angered Washington, A NATO ally, with the Senate passing a bill prohibiting Turkey from buying F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jets, and condemning Turkeys purchase of Russias S-400 air defense system.

President Trump has called out Erdogan by name, saying in a July 18 tweet that Brusons detainment is a total disgrace.

He has been held hostage far too long. @RT_Erdogan should do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him! he wrote.

Responding to the news of Brunsons release from prison, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said transferring him to house arrest still wasnt good enough.

We welcome long overdue news that Pastor Brunson has been moved from prison to house arrest in #Turkey, but it is not enough. We have seen no credible evidence against Mr. Brunson, and call on Turkish authorities to resolve his case immediately in a transparent and fair manner, Pompeo said in a tweet.

Pastor Andrew Brunson, a fine gentleman and Christian leader in the United States, is on trial and being persecuted in Turkey for no reason. They call him a Spy, but I am more a Spy than he is. Hopefully he will be allowed to come home to his beautiful family where he belongs!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

A total disgrace that Turkey will not release a respected U.S. Pastor, Andrew Brunson, from prison. He has been held hostage far too long. @RT_Erdogan should do something to free this wonderful Christian husband & father. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2018

Brunsons next trial date is set for October.

The 50-year-old pastor, who is from North Carolina, has a wife and a daughter.Peter Dutton, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection enters the House of Representatives before Question Time on Feb. 5, 2018 in Canberra, Australia. (Michael Masters/Getty Images)

Australia Will Not Sign UN Global Migration Agreement In Its Current Form

Australia will not sign the United Nations global migration deal in its current form, with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton saying that its not in the nations interest to sign the agreement.

In an interview with 2GB on July 25, Dutton was pressed on whether Australia would sign The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migrationan agreement negotiated by U.N. member states with the aim to improve the governance on migration and address the challenges that migrants face.

A spokesperson for the immigration minister told The Australian on July 24 that Australia was still considering its position on the agreement and will respond later in the year, leaving open the door for the Turnbull government to withdraw from the deal if needed.

Dutton insisted that the Turnbull government will not sign a deal that sacrifices anything in terms of our border protection policies.

Were not going to surrender our sovereignty. Im not going to allow unelected bodies to dictate to us, to the Australian people, he told 2GB.

The agreements final draft was released by the U.N. on July 11. It states that countries should agree to use immigration detention only as a measure of last resort.

The deal pushes U.N. member states to review and revise laws and policies to ensure that decisions to detain are based on law, are proportionate, have a legitimate purpose, and are taken on an individual basis and should not be used as a deterrent.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been critical of Australia for implementing a number of strong measures to stop the boats, including offshore detention and processing to deter asylum seekers from coming to the country by boat. The policy was aimed at stopping the people smuggling trade and deterring asylum seekers from embarking on dangerous sea journeys.

Dutton said that the Turnbull government will ensure that they dont sacrifice the policies they had fought hard to bring in.

Were not going to allow the people smugglers to get back into the business, Dutton told 2GB.

The immigration minister acknowledged that although Australia had a hand in negotiating the deal, which was spearheaded by Mexico and Switzerland, Australia will not sign over its border protection policy to the U.N.

Were happy to negotiate in good faith but were not going to sign any document thats not in our national interest and its not in our national interest to sign our border protection policy over to the U.N., he told the radio station.

In response to the release of the agreements final draft, the Australian Mission to the U.N. reiterated Australias position on migration on July 13.

Only through a balance of strong border controls, lawful and well-managed migration programs, and considered and coordinated humanitarian responses can the full benefits of migration be realised, and the interests of migrants and states be protected, the statement read.

The compact came about after 193 U.N. member states adopted the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants on Sep. 19, 2016. The agreement, which could be signed in December this year, provides a framework for facilitating safe and orderly migration globally with an effort to deal with migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner.

It also sets out a range of actionable commitments, which could possibly influence legislation and policymaking for member states.

So far, two countries have refused to be part of the agreementthe United States and Hungary. The United States was the first country to leave the agreement in December 2017, with the Trump administration saying that the agreement, which was recognized by the Obama administration, was inconsistent with the countrys sovereignty.

Ambassador Nikki Haley: America is proud of our immigrant heritage and our long-standing moral leadership in providing support to migrant and refugee populations across the globeBut our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone." pic.twitter.com/By2ObmBrEy  US Mission to the UN (@USUN) December 3, 2017

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said at the time, America is proud of our immigrant heritage and our long-standing moral leadership in providing support to migrant and refugee populations across the globe.

But our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone. We will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country, she said in a statement.

In response, Miroslav Lajcak, the president of the general assembly, said it regrets the decision of the United States.

The role of the United States in this process is critical as it has historically and generously welcomed people from all across the globe and remains home to the largest number of international migrants in the world, Lajcak said in a statement.

As such, it has the experience and expertise to help ensure that this process leads to a successful outcome.

Following the United States, Hungary announced their withdrawal to the agreement on June 18 this year.

Their Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in a statement that the agreement was totally at odds with the countrys security interests.

The primary issue for us is the security of Hungary and the Hungarian people, Szijjarto said in the statement.

According to the governments position, the U.N. Global Compact for Migration is in conflict with common sense and also with the intent to restore European security.

Hungary does not regard the goals and principles declared by the Compact as valid guidelines with regard to itself.

In addition, the document does not deal with the truly existing fundamental human rights of people who want nothing else than to be able to live in peace and security in their own homelands.

Szijjarto added that although the fundamental premise of the agreement is a good and unavoidable phenomenon, the document itself was dangerous, extremist, biased, and an encouragement to migration.

It could serve as an inspiration for millions to set out from home, he said.

According to a 2017-18 discussion paper on Australias humanitarian programme, the Turnbull government adopted the New York declaration in 2016 to enhance responsibility sharing and promote regional cooperation in assisting refugees and displaced people.

Australia will advocate for a balance of effective humanitarian response, maintaining a focus on the root causes of displacement and political and peacebuilding interventions, and orderly migration and resettlement pathways, the discussion paper said.

Australia has already played an important role in the Asia-pacific region by working with other southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia, on people smuggling, human trafficking, irregular migration, and transnational crimes. It has also consistently ranked among the top three permanent resettlement countries, along with Canada and the United States.

From NTD.tv

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Why did the US Leave the UN Human Rights Council

We are withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, an organization that is not worthy of its name.Legal Council representing Keith Raniere and the group NXIVM Mark Agnifilo and Paul DerOhannesian speak to the media outside the United States Eastern District Court after a bail hearing for actress Allison Mack and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere in relation to the sex trafficking charges in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on May 4, 2018. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Billionaire Heiress Clare Bronfman, 3 Others Charged in NXIVM Case

NEW YORKClare Bronfman, heiress of Seagram, a billion-dollar liquor company, was arrested with three other women on July 24 for a barrage of crimes related to running the secret society known as NXIVM, prosecutors announced.

A federal court unsealed a superseding indictment that charged Bronfman, a member of NXIVMs executive board, for the first time, as well as Kathy Russell, a former bookkeeper, Nancy Salzman, the president of NXIVM, and her daughter Lauren Salzman, also a board member.

The recent charges come after leader Keith Raniere and former Smallville actress Allison Mack were previously arrested over sex-trafficking charges and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Both will be arraigned on July 25 before Judge Garaufis in Brooklyn.

All four women were charged with racketeering conspiracy, including identity theft, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice.

The New York-based NXIVM masqueraded as a self-help company that ran executive success programs and other similar curricula. In wake of the recent allegations, the company announced the suspension of all operations until further notice.

The details of these alleged crimes become more and more grim as we continue to dig deeper into the conduct of this organization and its intended mission, said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney in a statement.

Bronfmans lawyer, Susan Necheles, insisted that Bronfman was innocent.

Clare Bronfman did nothing wrong, Necheles told Reuters. NXIVM was not a criminal enterprise but instead was an organization that helped thousands of people.

Members of the NXIVM society were recruited on the condition they gave up private information on themselves, including compromising images or videos, as collateral. Once inside, they were regularly required to provide additional materials to ensure they kept secret the societys inner workings.

Bronfman was the groups largest financial backer, contributing at least $150 million, Frank Parlato, a whistleblower who first broke the story about the societys schemes, told The Epoch Times. The $150 million was also cited in documents that came out in a legal case going back to 2010.

While some money went into recruiting, the majority, Parlato says, went into legal fees so NXIVM could prosecute their enemies, who were largely whistleblowers.

As alleged in the superseding indictment, for over a decade, Keith Raniere was the leader of a racketeering conspiracy in which he and members of his inner circle committed a broad range of serious crimes from identity theft and obstruction of justice to sex trafficking, all to promote and protect Raniere and Nxivm, stated U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue.

The Doctor

Brandon B. Porter, NXIVMs doctor, is also accused of illegally conducting a slew of shocking human experiments among other accusations. Just recently he attended his hearing on June 27.

The New York State Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) accused Porter of moral unfitness, gross negligence, and gross incompetence, as detailed in a 16-page report.

Depending on the findings of the closed-door hearing, Porter, 44, a high-ranking member of the society could face a criminal referral to the New York State Attorney General. The current charges only center on suspending or revoking his license.

Porter is accused of conducting illegal and highly perverse experiments, including a so-called fright study, which involved showing murder and dismemberment videos to subjects without their consent. In another incident cited by the OPMC, 50 to 60 children fell ill from an undetermined infectious disease at an NXIVM retreat in August 2016.

A spokesperson told The Epoch Times previously that they could not comment until the hearing committee renders a determination and order. A timeline for when that would occur was not disclosed.

Due to the confidential nature of the proceeding, the department cannot comment on the evidence presented at the hearing, any witnesss testimony, any exhibits, or legal arguments presented, spokesperson Jill Montag responded via email.

While Porter himself could not be reached for comment, his lead attorney, Michael S. Kelton, said in an email on June 29 that they were optimistic about the future.

We are very pleased with the way yesterdays hearing session went. We have an excellent judge and a very attentive and professional hearing panel, wrote Kelton. There are many more hearing sessions scheduled over the next few months and we are very optimistic.

Results of a Google search for Porters office in Albany lists it as permanently closed.Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Dominic Raab, gives a statement to Parliament about the Brexit White Paper, in the House of Commons, central London, July 24, 2018. (Parliament TV/Handout via Reuters)

British Government Preparing to Secure Food and Medicine for No Deal Brexit

LONDONThe UKs Brexit lawmaker has admitted that the British government will have to make sure there are adequate food supplies in the event that a deal cant be reached on Brexit.

Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union Dominic Raab, made the statement as part of testimony to a Brexit committee in Parliament on Tuesday, July 24, although he emphasized Britain would not be stockpiling food.

We will look at this issue in the round and make sure that theres adequate food supplies, Raab said when asked about his preparations for a so-called no deal scenario. It would be wrong to describe it as the government doing the stockpiling  of course the idea that we only get food imports into this country from one continent is not appropriate.

His words will alarm those who fear Britain will exit the EU without a deal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said that the Department of Health and Social Care is stockpiling drugs and medical supplies should there be a disruption to the UKs ports.

We are working right across government to ensure that the health sector and the industry are prepared and that peoples health will be safeguarded in the event of a no deal Brexit, Hancock told MPs.

Contingency Measures

There are around 70 other contingency measures due to be announced by the government to advise British citizens and businesses on how to prepare should a no-deal scenario happen.

Last week Amazons UK boss warned that the country could face civil unrest if Britain leaves the EU without a deal.

Highways Agency officials said they are expecting 30-mile lines of trucks from the port of Dover because of customs checks. The Department of Transport has announced that part of the M20 motorway could be used as a truck park.

Lord Adonis, a supporter of an anti-Brexit campaign, told The Independent, These delays may well end up causing queues of lorries for miles and miles, clogging up Kent and beyond and causing shortages of goods in our supermarkets.

Also on Tuesday, Britain issued a policy document on how it plans to keep European Union laws during its transition from the bloc after next March. Elements of the 1972 laws that make Britain a member of the bloc would need to be saved, according to the document, including a role for the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

The document is the clearest presentation yet of how the government intends the relationship between Britain and the EU to be little changed during the so-called implementation period until December 2020.

It sets out a continuing role for the ECJ throughout the transition and for EU laws still to apply.

May Will Lead

Prime Minster Theresa May has said she will now be leading negotiations with the EU, with Dominic Raab deputizing on her behalf.

She said in a written statement to Parliament, DExEU (Department for Exiting the EU) will continue to lead on all of the governments preparations for Brexit: domestic preparations in both a deal and a no-deal scenario, all of the necessary legislation, and preparations for the negotiations to implement the detail of the Future Framework.

Mays Europe adviser Oliver Robbins said he doubted the change would see her meeting EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to negotiate directly.

The key interlocutor for Mr. Barnier is the secretary of state, Robbins told a parliamentary committee.

What the prime minister means is that she meant all along that the overall strategy and conduct of these negotiations she regards very much as her personal responsibility now with the secretary of state very close at hand, he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The referendum vote left the nation dividedIn this photo illustration, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) logo appears on a California driver license on May 9, 2017, in San Anselmo, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesPhoto Illustration)

California DMV Worker Slept on Job Three Hours a Day for Nearly Four Years, Audit Finds

An employee at the California Department of Motor Vehicles was found to have slept for extended periods of time at her desk during work hours, a state audit found.

The California State Auditors Office said the woman, a key data operator, failed to perform her essential duties over a period of nearly four years because she slept at her desk for extended periods of time during work hours.

The woman misused more than 2,200 hours of work time as a result of sleeping on the job, from February 2014 to December 2017, the audit found.

That sleep time cost the state more than $40,000.

The workers supervisors were aware of her misuse of time but failed to take disciplinary or medical action against the employee after initial efforts to address her conduct proved unsuccessful, the audit said, as the supervisors speculated the sleeping was due to a medical condition but failed to ask for proof of a medical condition.

Expected to process an average of 500 documents daily, the woman, who was not named, only managed to process an average of 200 documents daily.

Officials at the department told auditors that they couldnt discipline the worker because her behavior wasnt properly documented because the supervisors hadnt used the appropriate language in their corrective memos.

After supervisors finally asked for medical proof in late 2016, two years after the sleeping was first witnessed, the womans physician informed the department that the employee couldnt perform her duties as a key data operator.

The DMV then tried to locate a suitable vacant position with duties the employee could perform but was unsuccessful. In November 2016, after exhausting its options, the DMV finally denied the employees reasonable accommodation request and informed her that she could retire, resign, or return to work as a key data operator with a release from her physician indicating that she could perform her duties, the auditors wrote.

The employee chose to return to work as a key data operator with a release from her physician in January 2017; nonetheless, she continued to sleep at work and failed to meet the units production standards. Therefore, from January 2017 to December 2017, the supervisors once again had sufficient time to issue adverse action because the employee did not have a reasonable accommodation in place.

The auditors added, Moreover, if the supervisors still believed that the employee had a medical condition that caused her to fall asleep, they could have required the employee to submit to a medical examination by a physician selected by the DMV, as state law allows. However, the supervisors also failed to take this course of action.

The auditors recommended disciplinary action against the supervisors, but the department stated that they were given training and not disciplined.

The case of the DMV worker is one of 1,481 cases of alleged improper activities by government workers investigated by the California State Auditors Office over the past year.

Other highlights of the report, according to the authors, include two employees at California State UniversityFresno who took extended breaks or left the premises over a five-year period, resulting in a failure to account for more than 5,100 hours of work; one Kern Valley State Prison employee who regularly left 45 minutes early from work over two years; and a California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection official who built an unauthorized structure in the backyard of a state residence he was renting with the help of his staff.A file photo of a doctor showing the anti-impotence drug Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate) at a hospital in Shanghai in this file photo. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images)

Clinical Trial of Viagra on Pregnant Women Halted After 11 Babies Die

The deaths of 11 babies whose mothers were given sildenafil (SIL), commonly known as Viagra, during pregnancy as part of a clinical trial in the Netherlands, have sparked an immediate shutdown of the experimental treatment.

Medical researchers at the Amsterdam University Medical Center announced on Monday that the experimental study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug on unborn babies suffering from severe fetal growth restriction and who faced increased risk of being stillborn or dying after birth, would be brought to an end.

Amsterdam UMC has immediately stopped a study into the effects and safety of the drug sildenafil (also known as Viagra), which was given to pregnant women whose babies had a severe growth restriction, the medical facility stated on its website.

The women who participated in the study, which started in 2015, have been notified about the incident, the Amsterdam UMC stated.

All participants were approached personally and almost everyone was informed and knows by now whether they have taken the drug or the placebo. All the women concerned are accompanied to the extent possible by the doctors involved in the study.

Half of the 183 mothers in the trial had been treated with SIL, while the other half were treated with a placebo. At the time they were treated, the mothers did not know which treatment they were receivinga standard practice in clinical trials.

Fetal growth restriction, also called Interauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), happens when the growing fetus doesnt get enough nutrients or oxygen from the placenta.

According to Stanford Childrens Health, IUGR is a condition in which the fetus is smaller than expected for a number of weeks of pregnancy.

Newborn babies with IUGR often look thin, pale, and have loose, dry skin. Severe cases of IUGR can cause long-term developmental problems or death.

A number of factors are linked to the condition, including genetically predetermined growth potential, as well as maternal, fetal, placental, and external factors.

Pregnant women suffering from high blood pressure, advanced diabetes, or substance abuse may be at a higher risk of IUGR, Stanford Childrens Health states.

Over the years, there has been growing interest among researchers in using SIL in the treatment of a range of maternal and fetal conditions, including IUGR.

SIL, aka Viagra, is a drug approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension in adults.

The hope in the UMC study, according to CNN-cited Dr. Mohan Pammi, medical director of the neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Childrens Pavilion for Women in Houston, who was not involved in the Dutch study, was that the drug can open up some blood vessels in the placenta and then can help the growth of the fetus.

Studies on Animals

A number of studies administering SIL during pregnancy have been carried out on animals, with mixed results.

A joint research project by scientists at the University of Manchester, University of Alberta, and University of Auckland, concluded that the use of SIL on mice test subjects increased placental and fetal weight.

Another study, referenced in the January 2017 issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, involved sheep.

We hypothesized that sildenafil would improve placental volume blood flow without any detrimental effects on fetal central hemodynamics during prolonged hypoxemia in a sheep model, the researchers wrote.

Hemodynamics is blood flow. Hypoxemia is abnormally low blood oxygen level.

The researchers concluded that fetuses with the SIL infusion had lower blood pressure during the recovery phase.

This indicates that sildenafil can have potentially detrimental effects on fetal cardiovascular hemodynamics, they wrote.

The Dutch researchers at UMC found that SIL was associated with the babies developing a blood vessel disease in the lungs and with an increase in the risk of death after birth. The condition can be likened to a type of high blood pressure in the lungs.

According to the Amsterdam UMC, of the 93 women treated with SIL in the clinical trial, 19 babies born to the 93 women treated with the drug died, 11 of them due to the lung disorder. Six babies were born with the lung disorder and survived.

In comparison, nine babies born to women treated with the placebo died, but none of them had the lung disorder. Three babies with the lung disorder were born to women who were treated with the placebo, and they all survived.

The further growth and development of the children in the stopped Netherlands study will be monitored and the data further analyzed, according to the medical center. This is likely to include scrutinizing the dosage and timing of administering the drug.

Similar trials in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand found no adverse effects linked to SIL.

Low birth weight contributes to 60-80 percent of neonatal deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.Danish Imam Charged for Quoting Muslim Scripture Encouraging the Killing of Jews

STOCKHOLMAn imam in Denmark has been charged with approbation of the killing of Jews after quoting and commenting on Muslim scripture that calls for it. This is the first time a defendant will be tried under the controversial so-called imam law that took effect in January 2017.

The imam, Mundir Abdallah, spoke at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque in Copenhagen in March 2017 and quoted a hadith (a Muslim scripture) in which the prophet Muhammad is quoted as saying, with reference to Judgement Day, The Hour will not begin until you fight the Jews, until a Jew will hide behind a rock or a tree, and the rock or tree will say: O Muslim, O slave of Allah, here is a Jew behind me; come and kill him.

While the new law does not make it illegal to quote scripture, prosecutor Eva Ronne said in a press release that it is illegal if, for instance, the killing of a group of people is called for, and if the preacher at the same time makes the words his own.

Abdallah was also charged with hate speech. If found guilty, he may be fined or face up to three years in prison.

In the sermon, which was made available on Youtube, Abdallah spoke in the context of Israel and Palestine. According to the press release from the Danish prosecutors office, he called for an Islamic Caliphate to repair what the West has corrupted, where a united Muslim nation will free the Al-Aqsa Mosque [in Jerusalem] from the Zionist scum, so that the aforementioned words of the prophet Muhammad would be realized. He further said that this future nation would free Jerusalem and tear the Jewish entity out by the roots, this colonialist crusader-base.

Prosecutor Rnne said, I think its appropriate that the court will now have a chance to evaluate this matter.

The new law, which specifically targets religious speech, is controversial in Denmark, since some observers view it as limiting free speech, and others believe that it was written solely with Muslim preachers in mind.

Abdallah himself said in a Facebook post that his sermon could in no way be construed as inciting the killing of Jews. He writes that the Muhammad quote does not pertain to Jews in general, but Jews as military aggressors, and that its therefore appropriate to use in the context of the military occupation of Palestine.

The Palestine problem is a military problem and can therefore only be solved militarily, by a military liberation of Palestine and the destruction of the Zionist occupation, Abdallah said.

Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, director of the Jewish Community in Denmark, told Kristeligt Dagblad that he was satisfied with charges being brought against Abdallah.

We are aware that its a legal gray area, analyzing Koran quotes in a contemporary context. But for us, theres never been any doubt about the intentions behind this sermon, he told the paper.

I feel that its deeply troubling that everyday sermons are held that encourage the killing of Jews.

Some Danish commentators have voiced criticism. Jacob Mchangama, director of the Justitia think tank, told the Politiken newspaper that the law has problems, especially the use of the word approbation rather than incitement.

You could imagine other situations, where you simply make a positive comment about something illegal, which is something youll find every day on Facebook, and I dont think that should be a crime, he said.

The mosque where Abdallah held the sermon was previously in the media spotlight, in 2015, when it emerged that terrorist Omar El-Hussein visited it prior to killing two people and wounding five in an attack against a cultural center in Copenhagen.

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Why did the US Leave the UN Human Rights Council

We are withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council, an organization that is not worthy of its name.Acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks to staff at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters on July 11, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

EPA Wants 50-State Fix for Auto Efficiency

The Environmental Protection Agencys acting administrator Andrew Wheeler said on Tuesday that the agency wanted a 50-state solution to the nations vehicle emissions standards and would also pursue reforms to the countrys biofuel policy.

The comments were among the first by Wheeler on such policy issues since Scott Pruitt resigned as EPA administrator earlier this month.

The Trump administration is expected as early as Thursday to propose revoking Californias power to set state vehicle emissions rules, a government official briefed on the matter said.

California received a federal waiver under the 1970 Clean Air Act, enabling it to impose its own fuel efficiency standards. The states that followed its lead, including New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, do not have such waivers.

Under President Barack Obama, three disparate sets of fuel efficiency rules were tightened to match those already in place in California. The California Air Resources Board has warned that if the Trump administration adjusts the rules, it will lead an effort by 14 states to impose their own, tighter, local regulations.

The Obama administration tightened fuel-efficiency rules despite a Harvard-Brookings study showing that the goals of the measure caused a 14 to 27 percent increase in traffic deaths due to car downsizing. In 1996 alone, the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards caused an estimated 2,700 to 4,700 deaths, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The original intent of the fuel efficiency standards was to reduce oil consumption at a time when the United States was heavily dependent on foreign oil. That is no longer the case as the country is on track to become a net energy exporter by 2026, according to a study by the Energy Information Administration.

Meanwhile, the efficiency standards have a marginal impact on reducing carbon emissions. A 2017 policy brief by the Reason Foundation showed that CAFE standards would contribute to a mere 1 percent of U.S. carbon emissions.

Reuters contributed to this report.These young people are here without parents to protect them and are being sheltered and cared for at this facility. That fact brought home to me the reality that many children are left to fend for themselves in life, and are put at risk when adults who should be nurturing and protecting them cannot or will not do so, Cupich said in the statement. Yet, we should be grateful for the many dedicated people in society who care for them in these circumstances, which is, for the most part an untold story. I stand in admiration of all care givers, social workers and counselors.The Home Bargains store in Worcester, West Midlands, where the attack took place on July 21, 2018. (Screenshot via Google)

5 Men Charged in UK Over Acid Attack on 3-Year-Old Boy

Five men have been charged with conspiracy to commit grievous bodily harm after a 3-year-old boy in England was doused in acid.

Three men from London, aged 22, 25, and 26, and two men from Wolverhampton, aged 39 and 41 appeared in Kidderminster Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning.

The toddler was left with serious burns on his face and arm after the attack at a Home Bargains store in Worcester, West Midlands, at about 2.15 p.m. on Saturday.

West Mercia Police said the boy has been discharged from hospital but the long-term implications of his injuries remain unknown.

The force said they are not identifiying the names of the men who have been charged.

Following the attack, Chief Superintendent Mark Travis from West Mercia Police said, This has been a shocking incident which we know has caused a great deal of concern in our community. I can reassure people that Worcester remains a safe place to live and work and that such crimes remain thankfully extremely rare in our area.

This is a developing story.L: The gunman who shot George H.W. Bushs former doctor was wearing a fully-loaded backpack, as seen in a new police surveillance footage. R: Dr. Mark Hausknecht is pictured on the yellow bicycle in the surveillance video. (Houston Police Department)

Gunman of George HW Bushs Former Doctor Had Fully-Loaded Backpack, New Footage Reveals

The gunman who shot George H.W. Bushs former doctor last week was wearing a fully-loaded backpack, as seen in a new surveillance footage released by Houston Police Department.

A man riding a bicycle fatally shot Dr. Mark Hausknecht, 65, twice in the torso on the morning of July 20, authorities said. Hausknecht, a renowned cardiologist, was also on a bike at the time. He was taken down immediately as the gunman fled the scene.

UPDATE #4 New surveillance photo of the suspect wanted in the killing of Dr. Hausknecht. Suspect is now described as wearing a blue, short sleeved polo shirt, (not a gray warm-up suit), a khaki ball cap and khaki shorts. He has a large, fully-loaded, olive green backpack. pic.twitter.com/VRk66CFeXb  Houston Police (@houstonpolice) July 23, 2018

Hausknecht was seen by a private ambulance driver who stopped to assist, local media reported, with paramedics applying CPR. Hausknecht was then transported to Ben Taub Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The suspect is now described as wearing a blue, short-sleeved polo shirt (not a grey warm-up suit), a khaki ball cap and khaki shorts, police wrote on Twitter.

He has a large, fully-loaded, olive green backpack.

This is surveillance video from a Metro Lift bus traveling southbound on Main. The doctor and suspect are traveling northbound on Main. No other information at this time. Call HPD Homicide or @CrimeStopHOU if you can ID the suspect. All updates will be posted here. pic.twitter.com/eNwbA4zql6  Houston Police (@houstonpolice) July 23, 2018

Houston Police said the shooting happened in front of a hotel at 6600 Main Street in Houston. They are still actively looking for the suspect and believe the man to be white or Hispanic and aged around 30 years old.

Crime Stoppers deputy director Nichole Christoph said that fewer than a dozen tips were received, but none were able to help identify a suspect, the Houston Chronicle reported.

This is a crime that doesnt make sense, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said July 21, reported the Houston Chronicle. We dont even have a motive yet.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered for information that leads to the arrest of the suspect.

Anyone with information is asked to call the departments Homicide Division at 713-308-3600.

From NTD.tvImmigration and Customs Enforcement agents seek to arrest immigration fugitives, re-entrants, and at-large criminal aliens during an operation in Atlanta, Georgia on Feb. 9, 2017. (Bryan Cox/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images)

ICE Arrests 132 People in Washington DC, Virginia

An operation carried out by federal immigration officials resulted in the arrest of more than 132 illegal immigrants in Washington and Virginia.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) targeted notable threats to public safety throughout Virginia and Washington, calling it Operation Eagles Shield.

Some of those who were arrested are members of the 18th Street and MS-13 gangs, sex offenders, and violent offenders, ICE said.

ICE officials said in all, 131 men and one woman were arrested. They hail from Bolivia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa, and Sudan.

Some of those who were arrested included an El Salvadoran man identified as a high-ranking MS-13 member, a Guatemalan national who was convicted for consensual sexual intercourse with a child, and a Bolivian who had four prior rape convictions.

Officials also arrested a a Peruvian who failed to register as a sex offender and was convicted for battery, a Mongolian who was convicted of driving under the influence as well as forgery, a Philippine national previously convicted of felony possession of a firearm with a controlled substance, and an El Salvadoran who is the subject of a U.S. Marshals arrest warrant for felony assault with a deadly weapon.

We set out to locate and detain known, dangerous criminal aliens who are hiding and operating in the neighborhoods we call home, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Washington Field Office Director Russell Hott said in a news release. Todays announcement is the result of the absolutely essential work our ICE officers perform to identify the worst of the worst and ensure they have no refuge here.

Nine people arrested during the operation have already been deported out of the United States, according to the release.

Officials are now pursuing criminal charges against 37 of the individuals arrested during Operation Eagles Shield for federal offenses like re-entry after removal, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and unlawful possession of a firearm, said ICE.

Those who arent being criminally processed will be processed and removed from the country. Immigrants who illegally returned to the U.S. after being removed and individuals who have outstanding orders of removal will be subject to immediate removal, said the agency.

The enforcement operation took place between July 9 and July 20.

In June, illegal border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border dropped. More than 42,000 individuals were arrested or deemed inadmissible, which is an 18 percent decline over May, which saw 51,905 crossings. That figure is still almost double from June 2017, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).ICE delivers more than 5,200 I-9 audit notices to businesses across the United States in a 2-phase nationwide operation between July 16 and July 20, 2018. (ICE.gov)

ICE Auditing Hiring Records of 5,200 Businesses

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents completed the second phase of employment record audits started in June, investigating more than 2,700 businesses and arresting 32 people.

ICE s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) department announced that the first phase of the program, from January 29 to March 30, began with 2,540 Notices of Intent to audit (NOI) and yielded 61 arrests.

The second phase, from July 16 to 20, saw HSI agents serving 2,738 audit NOIs and arresting 32 individuals.

Employers are required to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires, and to document that information using the Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9. After getting an NOI an employer has three days to file I-9s.

According to the law firm FoleyHoag LLP, employers must produce Form I-9s and supporting documents, including payroll records, employee lists, articles of incorporation, and more.

If during audits, employers are found not to be in compliance they could face civil or criminal charges. Illegal immigrants discovered during these audits are subject to detention and deportation.

This is not a victimless crime, HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Derek N. Benner said in a statement.

Unauthorized workers often use stolen identities of legal U.S. workers, which can significantly impact the identity theft victims credit, medical records, and other aspects of their everyday life.

ICE assessed $97.6 million in judicial forfeitures, fines, and restitution, and $7.8 million in civil fines in fiscal 2017 (Oct. 1, 2016 through Sept. 30, 2017.)

HSI uses inspections and civil penalties, criminal penalties, and outreach, to enforce U.S. employment laws.

According to an ICE press release, ICE uses the I-9 inspection program to promote compliance with the law, part of a comprehensive strategy to address and deter illegal employment. Inspections are one of the most powerful tools the federal government uses to ensure that businesses are complying with U.S. employment laws.

Employers not in compliancethat is, employers found to be knowingly employing illegal aliensface civil fines, and potential debarment from consideration for federal contracts.

According to FoleyHoag, even paperwork violations can cost an employer between $216 and $2,126 for each I-9. Penalties for knowingly hiring and continuing to employ violations range from $375 to $16,000 per violation.

HSI can also criminally arrest employers and administratively arrest illegal workers. The workers wont have criminal records but will likely be deported.

ICE is stepping up efforts to keep employers from providing a haven for illegal aliens.

Between Oct. 1, 2017 and May 4, 2018, HSI more than doubled the number of audits and arrests from all of fiscal 2017.

In fiscal year 2017, HSI opened 1,716 worksite investigations; initiated 1,360 I-9 audits; and made 139 criminal arrests and 172 administrative arrests related to worksite enforcement.

Between Oct. 1, 2017 and July 20, 2018, HSI opened 6,093 worksite investigations and made 675 criminal and 984 administrative worksite-related arrestsalmost triple the volume of fiscal 2017.

The final portion of the enforcement triad is outreach. ICE has created the IMAGE programICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employersto keep employers clear and up to date on their requirementsand the risks of non-compliance.

From NTD.tv

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Texas Sheriff Talks About Why Sanctuaries Dont Help Public SafetyAntidepressant prescriptions for children have increased over the past three years in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to investigations by BBCs current-affairs radio program File on 4. (Stock/Joshua Coleman/Unsplash)

Increase in Antidepressant Prescriptions for Children in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland

Antidepressant prescriptions for children have increased over the past three years in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, according to investigations by BBCs current-affairs radio program File on 4.

The figures pertain to a powerful class of antidepressants referred to as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Numbers of prescriptions for these drugs rose from 290,393 to 330,616 from 2015-16 to 2017-18 respectively, according to BBCs File on 4 findings which were obtained by Freedom of Information requests. The figures from Wales were not available as they dont hold the data.

According to the findings, prescriptions in England rose the most overall by 15 percent. Prescription numbers rose by 10 percent in Scotland and 6 percent in Northern Ireland. Prescriptions for the youngest group of children (aged 12 and under) rose the most, from 14,500 to almost 18,000a 24 percent increase. There were 950,000 prescriptions given to children between April 2015 and March 2018.

Mental health charity Young Minds said that waiting times for specialist child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs) have been increasing.

The government recently suggested that average waiting time for general access to Camhs is around 12 weeks, which is a long time to be in distress, Marc Bush, chief policy advisor at Young Minds, told BBC. And that is why front-line professionals are turning to prescription pads, because theyre thinking seeing someone in front of me in crisis with a level of distress I dont want to leave them withhow do I offer them some kind of alleviation from that?

The governments said more money will be spent to transform Camhs. According to the BBC, England pledged 1.7bn to transform Camhs, Scotland has invested 5m to improve Camhs services, and Northern Ireland plans to spend an extra 1m on Camhs projects.

What we dont know from todays data is why these antidepressants are being prescribed, and how, Dr Bernadka Dubicka chairs the child and adolescent faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists told BBC. It is vital that they are being used judiciously, monitored carefully, and the risks and benefits of taking them are assessed in each individual case.Ivanka Trump speaks at the Derry Opera House during a town hall with residents of Derry, New Hampshire on April 17, 2018. (Ryan Mcbride/AFP/Getty Images)

Ivanka Trump Closes Her Namesake Brand, Concentrates on Her Work in Washington

Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trumps daughter and White House senior advisor, is closing her namesake fashion brand and planning to focus on her work in Washington.

The brand was launched in 2011 and is known for moderately priced shoes, purses, clothes, and accessories. The line is available at Bloomingdales, Lord & Taylor, Dillards, Macys, Zappos, and Amazon.

In a statement first obtained by Page Six, Ms. Trump said, When we first started this brand, no one could have predicted the success that we would achieve. After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners.

The Ivanka Trump Headquarter thanked all fans and customers in a farewell style tweet on July 24, It has been an honor to build this incredible community of women and we are very proud of the content and product we delivered.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.  ITHQ pic.twitter.com/58JCMmrNLv  Ivanka Trump HQ (@IvankaTrumpHQ) July 24, 2018

After Mr. Trump won the 2016 election, Ms. Trump and her husband Jared Kushnernow a fellow White House advisormoved from New York to Washington in late 2016 to join the administration.

Ms. Trump formally separated herself from the business more than a year ago, as the companys former Chief Brand Officer, Abigail Klem, took over as president of the brand and began to run the day-to-day operations.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ms. Klem told its 18 employees on Tuesday that the company will be closed. I know that this was a very difficult decision for Ivanka and I am very grateful for the opportunity to have led such a talented and committed team, she said.

In January 2017, the company canceled a plan to bring the brand to Japan through Sanei International after learning Sanei had ties to the Japanese government, the New York Times reported.

From NTD.tv

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Ivanka Trump Asked About Lessons She Learned From Her Dad, She Listed 5 PrinciplesKraft Recalling Taco Bell Cheese Dip Over Botulism Fears

Kraft Heinz Co said on Tuesday it was voluntarily recalling about 7,000 cases of its Taco Bell Cheese Dip as the product showed signs that it could allow for the growth of the bacteria that causes botulism.

The company said it was recalling 15-ounce cases of its Taco Bell Salsa Con Queso Mild Cheese Dip that had best when used by dates ranging from Oct. 31, 2018, to Jan. 23, 2019.

Consumers are warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled, the company said in a press release.

Botulism is a rare but potentially fatal form of food poisoning that attacks the bodys nerves and can cause paralysis. Its sometimes linked to contaminated food, primarily improperly home-canned, preserved, or fermented foods, but does appear sometimes in store-bought foods.

The Associated Press, citing health officials, said that commercially canned foods are typically heated long enough and to high enough temperatures to kill the spores that otherwise can grow and produce the toxin.

Food packaged in defective cans, including those with leaky seams, can become contaminated because the bacteria can be sucked into the containers as the product cools, the media outlet reported.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of botulism usually start with weakness of the muscles that control the eyes, face, mouth, and throat.

This weakness may spread to the neck, arms, torso, and legs. Botulism also can weaken the muscles involved in breathing, which can lead to difficulty breathing and even death, the federal agency added.

Anyone who believes they have botulism should go to the nearest emergency room immediately; people can die if they dont get proper medical treatment quickly.

Kraft Heinz said no cases of botulism from the Taco Bell Cheese Dip have been reported.

The recall follows a number of recent recalls by other major packaged food companies including Kellogg Cos Honey Smacks cereal, Campbell Soup Cos Goldfish Crackers, and Mondelez International Incs Ritz Crackers due to potential salmonella contamination.

Reuters contributed to this report

From NTD.tvThe National Energy Guarantee is projected to save households up to $150 a year in the next decade, according to a policy blueprint. (Frank Ling/The Epoch Times)

NEG Will Cut Power Bills by $150 Every Year for a Decade, Report Says

Households are expected to save up to $150 every year on their power bills under the National Energy Guarantee (NEG), according to a new policy blueprint.

The final report detailing the design of the NEG, prepared by the Energy Security Board, said the energy policy would cut electricity prices in most states and territories over the next decade, The Australian reported.

The report projected households would save around $550 a year on their power bills in the next decade, with a saving of $150 a year directly attributed to the NEG. Previous forecasts put total savings at $400 every year, with $120 directly as a result of the policy.

It said that power prices were expected to fall, even without the policy, due to more renewable generation entering the system in the next three years, reported the ABC.

The NEG is the Turnbull governments flagship energy policy aimed at guaranteeing reliable electricity and emissions reduction. It seeks to do this by requiring power companies to invest in sources such as pumped hydro, battery, gas, and coal to cover potential shortfalls in electricity on demand. The plan also requires them to meet a emissions reduction target consistent with Australias obligations under the Paris climate agreement.

The policy proposes a 26 percent carbon dioxide reduction for the electricity sector as part of Australias overall commitment to a 26-28 percent reduction on 2005 level emissions by 2030. It also programs a review to be conducted in 2024 of the emissions reduction trajectory from 2025-2030, The Australian reported.

While the review could recommend a higher target, any alterations to the 26 percent level would have to be made through legislation, reported the paper.

The emission reduction target has been a sticking point for Labor governments in Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, who see it as not ambitious enough.

Even if the states agree to a framework, federal Labor has indicated it would block the federal legislation on the NEG if it did not contain measures to allow an increase in the emissions reduction target, the ABC said.

The report also predicted a collapse in renewable energy investment if the policy is not passed due to uncertainty in the market.

NSW Labor Senator Jenny McAllister told Sky News the governments target was inadequate.

We think the targets are inadequate we actually think they will do harm to other parts of the economy, she said.

If you go light on the electricity sector it just means that the transport sector the agricultural sector has to do more of the heavy lifting we dont think that is good for the economy.

Liberal backbencher Tony Pasin said it would be foolhardy for Labor to lift the target if they win the next election.

[If Labor wins the next election] its very likely theyll use this infrastructuresadly, I sayto ratchet up the target for emissions reduction and thereby lead to higher energy costs, he told Sky News.

State energy ministers will meet on Aug. 10 to decide whether to approve the NEG and have it legislated by the states.Mayor Rahm Emanuel said theres poetry in renaming Congress after Wells due to the streets history. Long ago, Congress was named after former President John Tyler, who was the only president to join the Confederacy. The Chicago Public Library said the street was renamed Congress in September 1872, and though it wasnt explicitly said, No doubt the Union veterans on the council were not ready to forgive and forget in 1872.Ontario Premier Doug Ford says his government will consult parents before crafting Ontario's sex education curriculum. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin)

No Decision on Sex-Ed Until Thorough Consultation is Done, Says Ford

Questions on Wynnes 2014 online survey of parents not specific about sex-ed changes

With September not far off, the rollback of Ontarios new sex education curriculum continues to be a hot-button issue in Queens Park.

The new PC government has said it is reverting to the sex-education curriculum in place from 1998 until 2015, before the previous Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne introduced an updated and modified curriculum. That change proved controversial, with some parent groups deeming some content age-inappropriate.

On July 24, NDP leader Andrea Horwath pressed Premier Doug Ford during question period on what kind of sex education would be taught when children across the province return to school in September.

Will the premier confirm that all information about consent, cyber bullying, and gender identity will be taught in Ontario classrooms this September? Horwath asked.

As Ive said day and day after day, were going to consult with the people of Ontario, Ford replied. There are 14 million in Ontario, and less than .001 percent of the public school system and separate school system was consulted. Thats not consulting people.

Ford has long maintained that Wynne didnt adequately consult parents before she introduced the new curriculum. He said the former premier asked for parents thoughts after, rather than before, the curriculum was written.

In March, Wynne told reporters that claims parents werent consulted were just not true.

About 4,000 parents, as well as child development professions, were given an opportunity to weigh in on the changes to the curriculum, she said, according to the National Post.

However, its not technically true that the respondents were able to give their opinion on changes to the sex-ed curriculum.

Many questions on the online survey, a reference copy of which was obtained by The Epoch Times, ask parents for their opinion on broad issues, but there are none that ask about specifics of the updated curriculum, which could have been asked since it was already written by then.

A respondent could click on a link from the online survey to get a fact sheet about how the curriculum was updated and the FAQ. But the survey questions did not ask respondents directly about any sex-ed changes.

Heres a typical example, excerpted from the survey.

This next question deals with the role of parents/guardians in learning about sexual health. Please indicate how much you agree with the following statements using a scale of strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree, or dont know.

I feel confident in my own knowledge about sexual health topics and concepts.

I feel confident having discussions with my child(ren) about sexual health topics and concepts.

My child(ren) face challenges today, such as access to information on the Internet, social media and cyber-bullying that I didnt, so I am a little unsure how to address these topics.

I would like to be informed about what my child is learning in school, including when my child is learning about sexual health, so that I can discuss this learning with my child at home.

A link to the survey was provided to principals of the 4,000 elementary schools in Ontario who then each shared it with one parentone for every elementary school in the province, according to media reports.

The government tallied 1,638 responses from the 4,000 links issued, according to a freedom of information request obtained by Postmedia Network.

The curriculum was written in 2014, parents were surveyed in autumn of that year, and the curriculum was launched in September 2015.

In 2014, Wynnes Education Minister Liz Sandals said that the then-upcoming results of the survey are unlikely to lead to any direct changes to the curriculum, the Toronto Star reported at the time.

Ford said July 24 that his government will conduct a broad consultation with parents, contacting constituents in 124 ridings.

Were going to do a thorough end-to-end consultation thats never taken place ever before when it comes to the sex-ed curriculum, he said.

I know the leader of the opposition does not believe in consulting with the parents, but we will consult with the parents. Well get their input, and from there well move forward with a more modern sex-ed curriculum.The Democratic Party in 2018: At War With Itself?

The current rise of an active socialist base in the Democratic Party has led some observers to describe whats taking place as an intraparty civil war.

The Democrats began to move decidedly to the left a decade ago with Barack Obamas election to the presidency. Between 2009 and 2017, President Obama governed further to the left than any previous president since Franklin Roosevelt. There was little opposition from fellow Democrats.

The strong showing in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was another indication that a substantial part of the partygenerally referred to as the basehad turned hard left.

More recently, the move to political center stage of Congressional candidate socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and her embrace by many leaders of the party including Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez, appear to presage an even more important role for socialism in the partys future.

Socialism Popular

Recent opinion polls point to the popularity of socialism. A 2017 survey by YouGov found 37 percent of Americans prefer socialism or even communism over capitalism: Given the choice, most Americans would opt for a capitalist country. However, one third would prefer to live in a socialist nation. Millennials are the leading force behind this preference with more than four in ten opting for socialism.

The YouGov study found that 44 percent of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist country, with another 7 percent saying the same about communism. A Gallup Poll May 6, 2016 revealed that 55 percent of Millennials ages 18-29 had a favorable view of socialism.

Another poll conducted for Fox News in March 2017 identified socialist Bernie Sanders as the most popular individual or group in the country with a 61 percent favorability rating, followed by Planned Parenthood, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Vice President Mike Pence, and Obamacare. A Harris Poll in August 2017 also named Sanders as the countrys most popular politician.

A Left-Wing Base

In 2018, the Democratic Party has continued to espouse positions that were once considered socialist.

The most active and increasingly visible part of the Democratic Party, the base, and several of its leading prospective candidates for president in 2020 support proposals like higher taxes on high income earners, more government regulations, aggressive government action to combat climate change, a fast-track pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens, and major cuts in spending on the military. The partys biggest and most universal support is for single-payer health care, recently renamed the more relatable Medicare for All.

On July 24, Adele Malpass in Real Clear Politics wrote In an analysis of RealClearPolitics tossup list of contested House seats, its clear that the progressives [sic] approach to health care is catching fire even in the nations heartland. . . The progressive wing of the Democratic Party is seizing power over moderates and establishment liberalsand its not just in New York City.

Currently in the House, which has 192 Democrat members, the Medicare for All Act H.R. 676, which would implement a single-payer system in the United States, has 123 Democrat co-sponsors.

On the local level, most Democratic politicians in major cities endorse Sanctuary Cities, the abolition of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), discouraging and preventing local police from enforcing laws targeting crimes that are considered minor (which reportedly results in a disproportionate number of arrests of people of color), and comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty for illegal aliens). Democratic controlled cities including San Francisco are making it legal for illegal aliens to vote in local elections.

On Feb. 28, Ted Rall analyzed the looming intraparty fight in the Wall Street Journal: A civil war rages among Democrats in the wake of Hillary Clintons defeat. Mainstreamers are coming under attack from their left flank, with the sharpest broadsides emanating from the postindustrial Midwest. . . The left has growing numbers, enthusiasm and a potent small-contribution fundraising model. As they pull the party away from the center, the perpetually lamented polarization of America will continue.

In recent weeks, the partys left flank has started to visibly flex its muscles. On June 23, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) urged a crowd of constituents, If you see anybody from that [Trump] cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them theyre not welcome anymore, anywhere.

Push Back

A rising chorus of more traditional center-left Democrats is beginning to express concern. The size and potential impact of this slice of the party are unclear. On July 18, Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Partys 2000 vice presidential nominee, wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal subtitled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hurts the party, Congress and even America.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Lieberman wrote, is a proud member of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose platform, like hers, is more Socialist than Democratic. . . if Democrats are to regain a majority, it will be by winning swing districts with sensible, mainstream candidates. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is making that task harder across America.

Top elected party leaders in the Congress, as Lieberman noted, are putting distance between Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and House Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), for example, have been decidedly lukewarm and cautious in their praise for Ocasio-Cortez, the newest Democratic Socialist in their midst. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, while still expressing opposition to President Trump, issued a news release on July 13 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Opposes Bill to Terminate ICE.

Earlier this month, 250 Democrats from key swing states, organized by the center-left think tank Third Way, met in Columbus, Ohio for an invitation-only three-day Opportunity 2020 conference to strategize a more mainstream Democratic approach to beating Republicans. NBC News reported that the gathering gave middle-of-the-road party members a safe space to come together and voice their concerns.

The time has come to mend, but not end, capitalism for a new era, according to Third Way President Jon Cowan. NBC reported, however, that Notably, the proposed moderate agenda [of Opportunity 2020] does not take issue with the partys broad consensus in favor of abortion rights, LGBT equality, stricter gun control and support for immigrants and a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

Campaigning

The partys most prominent and telegenic new far left voice, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, joined her mentor Sen. Sanders last weekend in Wichita, Kansas on the first stop of a national tour to pump up the candidacies and turbocharge the fundraising of other progressives and socialists campaigning for election this fall as Democrats. Their initial rally in the Midwest heartland generated large enthusiastic crowds, like the ones that greeted Sanders in his 2016 presidential primary campaign.

On Friday July 20, Sanders told the cheering audience in Kansas The ideas that we campaigned on which a few years ago were seen to be radical ideas are now mainstream ideas. . . I thank all of you for. . . being part of a political revolution which is sweeping this country.

In response, Republicans appear to be sitting tight for now, while they wait to mobilize their own base and pounce on the Democrats surge to the left as a key issue in the fall campaign for the control of the 116th Congress.

An early indication of whats to come from the GOP was provided by House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) during an interview July 21 on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM Patriot 125. McCarthy said he no longer refers to his opponents as the Democratic Party, but as the The New Socialist Democratic Party.

Follow Peter Barry Chowka on Twitter: @pchowkaUS President Donald Trump (R) meets with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC on July 25, 2018. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump Slams Critics of Trade and Tariff Strategy

President Donald Trump fired back at critics of his approach to trade and tariffs on July 25 a day after politicians attacked his administrations plan to give $12 billion in aid to American farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs.

Senior officials at the Department of Agriculture described the aid as temporary relief for farmers impacted by retaliatory tariffs while U.S. trade representative negotiates long-term deals. On July 24, Trump called for patience and the need to stick it out.

Several Republicans were nonetheless critical of the aid plan. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) referred to the aid as welfare for farmers. Trump responded to the critics in a series of tweets.

Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness! Trump wrote.

Every time I see a weak politician asking to stop Trade talks or the use of Tariffs to counter unfair Tariffs, I wonder, what can they be thinking? Are we just going to continue and let our farmers and country get ripped off? Lost $817 Billion on Trade last year. No weakness!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity, Trump added. Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!

When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity. Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

The Department of Agriculture aid plan includes three programs. One program will provide funds to farmers producing commodities directly impacted by retaliatory tariffs, including soybeans, corn, and cotton. The second program will buy surplus products, including fruit, nuts, and dairy, and distribute them to food pantries and other programs. The third program will help farmers find new export markets for their crops.

Trump is leveraging tariffs to negotiate better trade deals with China, Canada, Mexico, and the European Union. The president imposed a tariff on $34 billion worth of goods from China and levied duties on steel and aluminum imported from around a world, with a few exceptions.

The trade partners responded with tariffs of their own, targeting a range of goods with a particular focus on agriculture. China imposed tariffs on $34 billion worth of American goods in a tit-for-tat move. Trump promptly ordered a review of an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to target for import duties.

China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt, Trump wrote. We were being nice  until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.

China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S. They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice  until now! China made $517 Billion on us last year.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

The bulk of the criticism of Trumps approach to trade and tariffs centers on the fact that tariffs are a double-edged sword which hurts both the foreign country and Americans. Ideologically, Republicans are proponents of free trade.

Trump is a proponent of free trade but sees tariffs as a necessary pressure to get trade partners to lower their trade barriers and tariffs. Trump made a free trade offer to the European Union via Twitter ahead of a visit by Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission.

The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! Trump wrote. That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!

The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready  but they wont!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2018

Trump told Juncker at the White House that the United States would be extremely pleased if there were no tariffs or trade barriers with the EU. At a minimum, tariffs should be reciprocal in nature, the president added.

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Business is WarBook Review: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War IIFather Pfleger worked with the Police Department on preparations, Emanuel said at a news conference after the City Council met Wednesday. Its my hope that Mr. Livingston also works with the Police Department so we can ensure that if people want their voices to be heard that it be done in a way that is responsible, that theres a message of anti-violence.NORWALK  Silvermine Dual Language Magnet School Principal Elizabeth Chahine failed the first two quarters of Spanish she ever took.

I walked into that classroom, my teacher said Hola and I said Aloha, Chahine recalled of her freshman year experience at Choate Rosemary Hall.

It was an immersion program, so when you walked in you were not allowed to speak English and nobody would speak English to you. It was a sink-or-swim model, Chahine said. I sank.

Up to that point, Chahine, who is a native of Wallingford and grew up part of the time in Westbrook, had not taken any language classes, whereas her classmates at the prestigious preparatory school had come mostly from private school backgrounds where second languages were emphasized. It wasnt until she was able to travel to Spain, two years later, that she began to get a handle on the language and the seeds of her educational philosophy were sown.

That was where it all happened for me, Chahine said. Sitting in a classroom and studying grammar, memorizing vocabulary lists, it doesnt stick. It isnt interesting. It isnt fun. You have to be comfortable, you have to be motivated, you have to have tangible, real-life experiences and you have to have a reason to communicate and people to communicate with.

Chahine is now a veteran language educator who spent eight years at the Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago (which has one of the oldest dual language immersion programs in the country), half a year at Nathan Hale Middle School as a Spanish teacher, and two years as Silvermines dual language program coordinator, before being named principal.

Silvermines immersive dual language program began 20 years ago, and uses a 50-50 model, in which half of the classes during the day are taught in Spanish and the other half in English.

It is both a magnet and a neighborhood school, Chahine explained. Students across the district can enter a lottery, but preference is given to those districted to the school and the siblings of already enrolled students. Currently, about half of the schools students take dual language classes, but with the support of Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski, change is under way.

Weve been a strand within the school. We have four classrooms per grade. Two of those classrooms were always dual language, and two of those classrooms were always monolingual classrooms. In response to our growing needs in the district to have more choice, Dr. Adamowski, who is a huge supporter of our program, gave us permission to expand, Chahine said.

Over the course of the next five years, Chahine will work to overhaul the curriculum and expand the dual language aspect to all Silvermine students, which, she stressed, is different from English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction in that is is meant to create strong readers and writers who are able to communicate outside of a school setting.

Our district certainly has bilingual education and we have a very strong ESL department and all sorts of offerings for those students, but thats not what this school is. This school is really about developing biliteracy. Its not just the oral language, Chahine said.

Under her leadership, Chahine said she hopes to make Silvermine a hub for the neighborhood and the larger Latino community. She aims to forge relationships with local universities and encourage family participation and, especially, to create an equitable environment at Silvermine in which kids are communicating across languages and cultures.

Especially given the climate, the culture, everything thats going on in our world, I think its more important than ever to promote programs like this, she said.

justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1; 203-824-2586NORWALK  Connecticut Public Televisions plan to create an innovation and tech center on Wall Street got a $1.5 million boost from the State Bond Commission on Wednesday.

We are delighted that the State of Connecticut continues to support our statewide educational initiatives and are truly grateful to (state) Senator Bob Duff for championing our efforts in Norwalk, an area of growth for Connecticut Public Television and Radio, Connecticut Public Broadcasting President and CEO Jerry Franklin said in a statement.

We are striving to create another innovative learning center with the Norwalk Public Schools, which will train high school students and veterans in the field of journalism, digital media, project management and life skills. When we first approached Senator Duff two years ago, he immediately embraced this idea and has become our chief advocate, Franklin continued.

The facility would be Connecticuts first digital-themed business incubation center for startups and digital entrepreneurs and serve six to 10 businesses a year. Duff described the proposed center as an exciting project that will serve as a creative hub where community organizations and businesses can share ideas and resources to grow their fledgling businesses.

At the same time, the location of the tech center remains up on the air.

One of the things well be doing is looking to identify a site to determine a location that best matches what they (CPTV) want to do with available space, but it will not be the Fairfield County Bank, said Duff, D-Norwalk.

In fall 2016, the PBS affiliates parent submitted to Norwalk Building officials plans for a 15,000-square-foot Connecticut Public Broadcasting Norwalk Innovation and Tech Center at 67-90 Wall St. The property, home to Fairfield County Savings Bank, was recently purchased by local real estate broker Jason Milligan.

Train station study

In other business, the State Bond Commission also approved Wednesday $250,000 to study the feasibility of bringing a train station back to the Wall Street area.

Doing a feasibility study is important first step in the long-term development of the Wall Street area, state Rep. Chris Perone, D-Norwalk, said in the press statement. Increasing transportation options will encourage residential and retail growth in the area.

During the first part of the 20th century, a train station serving the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad operated from 47 Wall St. The push to open a new station comes amid ongoing apartment construction in the Wall Street and West Avenue neighborhoods.

For South Norwalk, the State Bond Commission approved Wednesday $6 million for phase two of the Washington Village Transformation Plan. The money will help finance a new 85-unit building on the south side of Raymond Street, between Day and Water streets.

$6M for Washington Village

The Norwalk Housing Authority and Boston-based developer Trinity Financial are rebuilding Washington Village under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Choice Neighborhoods Program. The goal of the program is to build high-quality, mixed-income housing, provide children and families with educational and other services, and to spur public and private investment.

Its an important component to the overall funding and were glad that theyve done it quickly, Housing Authority Executive Director Adam Bovilsky said of the $6 million approved by the Bond Commission.

Four-percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits will support construction of 42 units with 10 market rate units and 32 units for households earning up to 60 percent of the area median income. Nine-percent Low-Income Housing Tax Credits will help build 43 units, with 10 market-rate units and 33 units for households earning up to 60 percent of area median income, Duffs office said.

The redevelopment of Washington Village is great news for the neighborhood and the city, Duff said. Quality affordable housing and the renovation of nearby Ryan Park are important efforts to benefit neighborhood residents.

Money for Darien, Stamford

Norwalk wasnt the only city that received funding through the State Bond Commission on Wednesday.

Old Town Hall Houses, an affordable housing community for seniors in Darien, received $6 million to assist with the demolition and new construction of 55 affordable elderly rental units. The new, modern units will include handicap-accessible upgrades and elevators.

Stamford got a big boost from the State Bond Commission on Wednesday, with $8.4 million approved for projects in the City That Works.

Professional services giant KPMG was granted a $3 million loan to assist with a Stamford expansion that will retain 546 jobs and create up to 110 new positions within four years, while $2 million was awarded for the completion of improvements to Veterans Park, and $1.2 million was earmarked for a roof replacement at the Rich Forum and new seating-and-aisle lighting at the Palace Theatre.

Stamford is a hub of economic and civic activity. Im happy the Bond Commission recognizes that and eases the burden on local taxpayers by underwriting the cost of these local improvements, said state Sen. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, in a news release. Im especially happy the state will pay to finish the redesign of Veterans Park, which is a project that I and others have been working on for several years ... it will serve as a reminder every day of the contributions of Americas vets.

The commission also provided funding to expand the Port of New Haven, make improvements to Discovery and Barnum museums in Bridgeport and Stern Village in Trumbull.

Smaller city projects to move ahead with bond funding include $850,000 to the Stamford Charter School for Excellence and $823,000 to Optimus Health, both for renovations. The Boys and Girls Club at the Yerwood Center was granted $255,000 to install an elevator, and Rippowam Middle School and Westhill High were awarded $243,000 to address building and site deficiencies, the release said.

Bill Cummings contributed to this report.WESTPORT  The ukulele is having a bit of a moment, according to recent converts Steven Forlano of Norwalk and Peter Propp of Westport.

For those who know where to look, the instrument is everywhere. A ukulele cruise in June brought together some 60 enthusiasts who strummed as they skimmed across Long Island Sound. Music from the four-stringed lute can be found in The Descendants, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam released an entire ukulele album.

And on his way to a ukulele group at the Westport/Weston YMCA, Glenn Hayes of Middlefield pointed to a two-week stretch on the horizon when local musicians will have the chance to attend seven separate ukulele meetups.

Its a lot of fun, Hayes said. I plan my schedule that way.

Hes been known to frequent strum sessions in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and even Dublin, where the Stags Head hosts ukulele Tuesdays.

So Forlano and Propp thought it only made sense to start a ukulele festival in Norwalk.

We feel like theres nothing like this in the area, Forlano said.

Weve seen the enthusiasm just around Connecticut  and if you look across the country its the same, agreed Propp, a ukulele player with experience with events and marketing. We feel its sort of the right time to be doing this. Ukulele is just hot.

They teamed up with Factory Underground to organize the Connecticut Ukulele Festival, which will take place at the Factory Underground Studio on Isaacs Street in Norwalk on Sept. 29.

Starting at 1 p.m., there will be workshops, open mics and group strums open to people of all skill levels. The day will be rounded out with ukulele concert. (Ticket information is available at Connecticut Ukulele Festivals Facebook page, and if youre an interested ukulele performer, Propp urges you to reach out to peter@proppmail.com.)

One of the performances will be the CUkes, a group of ukulele players who practice every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Westport/Weston YMCA. Forlano started it nearly two years ago, after picking up a ukulele his daughter had checked out from the Westport Library (shes a fan of the band Twenty One Pilots, in which Tyler Joseph sometimes plays the instrument, Forlano explained). Since then, the group has quickly gained traction  their performance at Connecticuts Got Talent in February moved the audience to clap along, swaying happily to and fro.

This Tuesday, two dozen ukulele players carrying music and stands trooped into the YMCA for their weekly practice. Many had picked up the ukulele within the past year. Some wore Hawaiian shirts.

I dont want to say that the ukulele is easy to play, but you actually get to a point where you have success with playing it more quickly than other instruments, Forlano said. Its very accessible. I could probably sit down with you for half an hour, an hour, and I could get you playing three, four chords  and you could do a lot with that.

Sam Goldman of Norwalk had brought an extra ukulele that day  clear and made of plastic, perfect for the pool  for her sister, Shauna, who was trying the instrument for the first time.

As the group ran through songs about love and summer living  Under the Boardwalk, All I have to Do Is Dream  Shauna Goldman imitated the positions of her sisters fingers and strummed tentatively. Forlano embraced the beachy vibes and kicked off his shoes, tapping out the beats barefoot. In the mirrored workout room, wallpapered with a floor-to-ceiling photograph of waves and clouds, the sounds of two dozen strumming ukuleles filled the air.

The sisters giggled as Shauna tried for the chords. I like it! she declared as the group paused to flip to their next song (Do You Believe in Magic?).

Lew Horowitz of Fairfield pulled out a kazoo and gave a triumphant toot.

Shauna smiled. You definitely meet a lot of people who enjoy getting loosey goose.

rschuetz@hearstmediact.com; @raschuetz2 hours ago

If You Don't Watch Out, These 3 Tax Issues Could Blow Up Your Retirement

No matter how you save your money  whether you go for a retirement fund, mutual fund or another method to build up your nest egg  you know the IRS will eventually want its cut. You may have a hazy idea that you need to protect your money, but without understanding exactly how to do it, it's also possible to let tax issues slide.

Read ArticleJose Luis Villanueva Alvarado and his daughter Danely Villanueva Hernandez walk into a migrant shelter in El Paso, Texas, on July 20, 2018. They were reunited after being separated upon crossing the U.S. border. (Ivan Pierre Aguirre / For The Washington Post)A U.S. government official said MQ-9A Reaper drones currently based in central Greece had been used in the effort, along with U.S. Navy VP-10 and P-8A reconnaissance and patrol aircraft. The official asked not to be identified because details of the U.S. assistance had not yet been formally announced.In the late 1970s, she established a business called Pacesetter to offer tours and programs for the spouses of visiting conventioneers. Rising gas prices eventually brought the bus tours to an end, but Quinn shifted the business to providing on-site personnel for conventions in town in need of assistants to help with logistics, credentials and the like. She continued the business until she was in her 80s, her daughter said.Hundreds missing in Laos after hydropower dam collapse

LAOS: Hundreds are missing and an unknown number feared dead after a partly built hydropower dam in southeast Laos collapsed after heavy rain and sent a wall of water surging through six villages, state media and contractors said yesterday (July 24).

accidentsconstructiondisastersdeathhealthweather

By AFP

Wednesday 25 July 2018, 08:50AM

An aerial view of the flooded plains in Attapeu province after a dam collapsed the day before. Photo: AFP

Laos News Agency said the accident happened on Monday evening (July 23) near the border with Cambodia, releasing five billion cubic metres of water  more than two million Olympic swimming pools.

The agency said there were several human lives claimed, and several hundreds of people missing while some 6,600 people had been made homeless as authorities scrambled to evacuate villagers.

Communist Laos is traversed by a vast network of rivers and several dams are being built or planned in the impoverished and landlocked country, which exports most of its hydropower energy to neighbouring countries like Thailand.

Aerial footage posted on the Facebook page of local news outlet ABC Laos showed a vast brown inundation swamping houses and jungle alike over a huge area.

Another video showed families waiting for rescue on the rooftop of their house, with a nearby Buddhist temple partially submerged.

Nearly 24 hours after the collapse local authorities said they were struggling to gauge the extent of the disaster.

We do not have any formal information yet about any casualties or how many are missing, an official in Attapeu province, where much of the flooding occurred, said on condition of anonymity, adding that was no phone signal in the flooded region.

We sent rescue teams who will help them and provide basic assistance first, the official added.

The Thai government said it would also send rescue experts to its northern neighbour.

The $1.2 billion (B40.120bn) dam is part of a project by Vientiane-based Xe Pian Xe Namnoy Power Company, or PNPC, a joint venture formed in 2012 between a Laotian, a Thai and two South Korean companies, according to the projects website.

Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, the Thai company, said it had been told by operators that a 770-metre-long auxiliary dam used to divert river water had failed after heavy rainfall.

The incident was caused by continuous rainstorm which caused high volume of water to flow into the project's reservoir, it said in a statement.

One of the South Korean companies, SK Engineering and Construction, said it had sent a crisis team to Laos, according to Yonhap news agency, and was bringing in helicopters from Thailand.

South Koreas foreign ministry said another Korean firm, Korea Western Power, was also involved.

The companies and others had sent helicopters, boats and rescue workers.

All of our 53 nationals who were taking part in this construction evacuated in advance, the ministry said in a statement.

Pope Francis said in a Vatican message he had learned with sadness of the loss of life, and expressed heartfelt solidarity with all those affected.

The 410 megawatt capacity plant was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the ventures website.

The project consists of a series of dams over the Houay Makchanh, the Xe-Namnoy and the Xe-Pian rivers in Champasak province.

It planned to export 90% of its electricity to energy-hungry Thailand and the remainder was to be offered up on the local grid.

Under the terms of construction, PNPC said it would operate and manage the power project for 27 years after commercial operations began.

Dam projects in Laos, mainly providing power to neighbouring countries, have long been controversial with fears over environmental damage and the impact on local communities who are often displaced.

Maureen Harris, an expert on Laotian dams at the International Rivers NGO, said the flooding raised major questions about dam standards and dam safety in Laos, including their appropriateness to deal with weather conditions and risks.

Many of these people have already been relocated or suffered impacts to livelihoods due to the dam construction and are now experiencing further devastating impacts  loss of homes, property and family members," she said.

Laos has been keen to turn itself into the battery of Southeast Asia with a series of massive hydropower projects that has sparked opposition in downstream Mekong nations like Vietnam and Cambodia, who fear it will disrupt vital ecosystems, fisheries and their own river systems. Communist authorities in Laos keep tight control on information and are often opaque about business deals and development projects. The media is state-controlled and the government vigorously pursues dissent or protesters.

The country has around 10 dams in operation, 10 to 20 under construction and dozens more in planning stages.

Once they cast themselves as the battery of Asia, exporting electricity became one of the major revenue sources, so its basically selling natural resources such as water, Toshiyuki Doi, Senior Advisor at Mekong Watch, said.It's a flawed analogy, but I'm reminded of the early days of the Iraq war, when polls showed strong support for President George W. Bush and his foreign policy even as evidence mounted that the conflict was going to be much tougher and uglier than many (including yours truly) had hoped. If you went solely by the polls and what elected Republicans said on TV, you'd have had a poor understanding of what was really going through the minds of many Republicans.No irregularities found in Phuket fishing boat checks

PHUKET: Officials from various local government agencies carried out random inspections on fishing boats at Rassada Pier yesterday looking for cases of illegal employment, working conditions and human trafficking in the fishery industry.

immigrationmarine

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 25 July 2018, 10:36AM

Officials carried out random inspections on fishing boats at Rassada Pier. Photo: PR Dept

No irregularities were found during the course of the officials inspections.

At 3:30pm yesterday (July 24), Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office Chief Kowit Kao-ian assigned Paisarn Sukpunwan, head of the Administration Department at the Phuket Provincial Fisheries Office to inspect fishing boats at Rassada Pier for any irregularities including illegal employment, working conditions and human trafficking.

Joining Mr Paisarn for the inspection were officials from the Phuket Labour Protection and Welfare Office, Phuket Employment Office, Phuket Social Development and Human Security Office, Phuket Immigration Office, Phuket Marine Office, Phuket Public Health Office, Police Region 8, and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO or OrBorJor).

A boat from the Krabi Marine Fisheries Suppression and Protection Centre also joined the operation.

During the inspection officials carried out checks on three fishing vessels, the first, Siri Namchok 8 was found to have 30 workers on board; three from Thailand, 26 from Myanmar, and one from Cambodia. No irregularities were found.

Officials then checked the Chok Kanjana 95 which had 33 workers on board; four from Thailand and 29 from Myanmar. No irregularities were found.

The last vessel to be inspected was the Sor Eakwaraporn 3 which also had 33 workers on board; two from Thailand and 31 from Myanmar. Again, mo irregularities were found.

During the course of their inspections, officials also conducted random interviews on the boats workers and found that all had gone to work in the fishing industry voluntarily.Swimming at Phuket beaches still allowed, confirms lifeguards

PHUKET: Swimming is not banned at all beaches in Phuket today (July 25), The Phuket News has confirmed.

tourismmarineSafetyanimalsweather

By Sirapisit Bunchoocheep

Wednesday 25 July 2018, 01:23PM

Some sections of Patong Beach hve been marked with red flags warning people it is too dangerous to swim there. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

People can still swim in designated swim zone at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

People can still swim in designated swim zone at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

People can still swim in designated swim zone at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

People can still swim in designated swim zone at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

People can still swim in designated swim zone at Patong Beach. Photo: Patong Lifeguards

The confusion follows a report posted online by an English-language news portal yesterday (July 24) quoting the Governor as saying, Swimmers have been banned on every beach until the crocodile is caught.

As such the report informed readers, Swimmers have been banned on all beaches in Phuket while the crocodile hunting operation is still in operation.

The Phuket Governor has yet to respond to questions directly from The Phuket News to clarify the report posted in English yesterday.

However, Somprasong Saengchat, Chief Lifeguard at Patong Beach, this morning confirmed to The Phuket News that he himself has confirmed that there are no such orders banning swimmers from entering the water at all Phuket beaches.

We have already held a meeting with the Patong Municipality. There are no orders to close Patong Beach, he said.

In the area of Patong Beach and other nearby beaches such as Karon, there are officers on watch and people are allowed to play in the water, but only in designated areas, he added.

Mr Somprasong noted that tourists were not allowed to swim at Tri Trang Beach and Paradise Beach, where the crocodile has been spotted, confirming the safety mandate issued after sightings at those locations earlier this week.

At Patong Beach, safe swm zones have been set up, but other areas have been marked with red flags indicating it is too dangerous for people to swim at those areas.

Likewise, at Surin Beach red flags have been posted all along the beach as surf conditions are too dangerous for swimmers to enter the water.

Meanwhile, the hunt for the crocodile continues, Supachai Chanphet, Head of the Karon Municipality Tourist Assistance Center based on Karon Beach, confirmed to The Phuket News this morning.

We are now focussing our search around Tri Trang Beach and Paradise Beach, and officers are on watch at Patong, Karon and Yanui, he said.

The crocodile was last seen near Tri Trang Beach around 3pm yesterday, he added.

Officers are also scouring the coast around the headland at the southern end of Patong Bay to Freedom Beach, Mr Supachai noted.

The patrols are closely monitoring the beaches at Tri Trang, Paradise Beach and Patong, as well as any other areas where we believe the crocodile might travel to.

We are continuing our search all day long. There is always constant communication between the command centre and me, he said.Air Canada and three financial firms made an unsolicited $2.25-billion offer to buy the Aeroplan loyalty business from Aimia Inc. to allow customers to transfer their points to its own platform in 2020, the Montreal-based airline told its clients.

We heard from many customers who were excited about our plans, and would prefer to transfer their Aeroplan Miles to the new Air Canada loyalty program, Air Canada said in an email to customers on Wednesday. This is what this proposed deal allows us to do.

Shares of Aimia Inc. soared after the Air Canada-led consortium  including Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Visa Canada  proposed to buy Aeroplan in a deal valued at $2.25 billion, including points liabilities they would assume.

The group said the offer would expire Aug. 2, but such deadlines are often amended.

The consortium said the proposed transaction would provide continuity for Aeroplan members as well as customers of the four companies  which all have long-standing relationships with Aimia  behind the bid.

If completed, the proposed transaction would result in a positive outcome for Aimia shareholders and Aeroplan members, allowing for a smooth transition of Aeroplan members points to Air Canadas new loyalty program launching in 2020, safeguarding their points and providing convenience and value for millions of Canadians, the group said in a statement on Wednesday.

It wasnt immediately clear whether Aimias board would recommend the offer, which the consortium said was worth the equivalent of $3.64 per share.

Aimia stock rose as much 44 per cent to $3.60 in late morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange after the consortiums announcement. Shares had slipped to $3.50 by 2 p.m.

Aimia confirmed Wednesday that it received the consortiums conditional proposal, noting that it followed prior private engagement and discussions between the parties.

The loyalty companys board of directors formed a special committee of independent directors some time ago in connection with such engagement and discussions and had engaged legal and financial advisers, Aimia said in a statement.

The special committee will consider this proposal in consultation with its legal and financial advisers to assess whether the proposal is in the best interests of shareholders and the company as a whole and will make appropriate recommendations to the board, Aimia said.

Under the proposal, a corporation to be formed by the consortium would acquire Aimias loyalty business, including roughly $2 billion worth of Aeroplan points obligations as of March 31, 2018, for $250 million in cash. The total purchase price, in turn, is valued at approximately $2.25 billion.

The future of Aeroplan, which has more than five million members, has been in doubt since Air Canada announced in May 2017 that it planned to launch its own loyalty rewards plan in 2020. Aimias 30-year-partnership with Air Canada is due to expire in July 2020.

Over the past 14 months, Aimias stock had fallen to $2.50 as of the close on Tuesday, down from $8.84 prior to Air Canadas departure announcement.

Shares got a boost earlier this month, however, when Aimia announced plans to get into the airline business itself by offering charter flights to its most popular destinations. It said on July 19 that it was in discussions with potential airline partners to operate narrow-body aircraft ideally suited for flights to sun destinations in the Caribbean.

The consortiums proposed acquisition of Aimia on Wednesday surprised analysts, given Air Canadas plans for its own platform.

Air Canadas offer may be difficult to accept for Aimias management given that Air Canada had abruptly decided not to renew its contract with Aeroplan last year causing havoc in Aimias share price, said Martin Landry, an analyst with GMP Securities.

Given the magnitude of the transaction, it will likely require a vote from Aimia shareholders, he said in a note to clients.

We believe they will be tempted to accept Air Canadas offer despite the sour taste it may leave with some shareholders, Landry said.

For Air Canada, the transaction potentially removes the customer relations headache of orphaned Aeroplan members and potential negative goodwill, Canaccord Genuity analyst Doug Taylor said in a note to clients.

The smooth transition for Aeroplan members to the new program would also ensure significant initial uptake for Air Canadas own program when it begins in mid-2020, Taylor adds.

While it is tough to handicap the financial impact of the values being discussed, having the much larger and well-funded financial services partners coming along with the deal certainly helps spread the assumed liability around, Taylor said. Additionally, Air Canada will likely have more control on how the liability is serviced vs. the prior agreement with Aimia.

Developing a loyalty program as sophisticated as Aeroplan is a challenge, and the consortiums move to buy it instead is not surprising, said Louis Hebert, a professor at the department of management at HEC Montreal.

It seems that Air Canada came to the conclusion that it was simpler to buy it and enjoy a program that works well and has a good reputation, he said.

Air Canada created Aeroplan as in-house loyalty program but it was spun off as an independent business as part of a court-supervised restructuring of Canadas largest airline. At the time, CIBC was Aeroplans main bank partner.

Since 2014, TD has been Aeroplans main Visa card partner although CIBC continues to offer Aeroplan cards rewards points that can be redeemed for Air Canada flights and other merchandise.

Visa Canada did not respond to a request for comment. TD and CIBC declined to comment.

For the banks, the primary motivation behind this bid is defensive in nature, said Gabriel Dechaine, an analyst with National Bank.

Credit cards are one of the highest return businesses the banks have, and the Aeroplan portfolio is a high quality one, he said in a note. We estimate it generates combined profitability well in excess of $400 million for the two banks.

The banks likely wanted to avoid annoying their customers with another transition to a different loyalty program, which could have made them vulnerable to being picked off by competitors, he added.

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Read more about:BRUSSELSIt was a good day for Kit Kat copycats.

Nestle, which makes the candy bar outside the United States, could lose exclusive rights in the European Union to its four-fingered shape, the regions highest court ruled Wednesday.

The company has long argued that the Kit Kats four trapezoidal bars, linked by a rectangular base, had enough of a distinctive character that they deserved a trademark across Europe.

The European Court of Justice, however, told Nestle that it had not presented evidence that shoppers in Belgium, Greece, Ireland or Portugal would recognize a Kit Kat by shape alone.

The main takeaway of the Kit Kat decision, said Rachel Wilkinson-Duffy, a senior trademark attorney at the global law firm Baker McKenzie, was that companies would find it more difficult to get protection across the bloc for unconventional trade marks such as shapes.

But Holly Gallagher, a press officer for the court, said that Nestle still had options. As a general rule, the shape of a product cannot be protected by an EU trademark, she said.

However, there is an exception, if a company or an individual can show that its product has acquired a distinctive shape so that consumers identify it without knowing its brand.

The burden of proof, in that case, is on the party applying for the trademark, Gallagher explained. The applicant has to prove acquired character in all 28 European Union member states, or in the European single market as a whole.

(After Brexit, the number of countries will be 27  but that may not help Nestle, given that Britain is where Kit Kats were first sold.)

We believe that the distinctive shape of our four-finger Kit Kat deserves protection, said Peggy Diby, a senior spokesperson for Nestle, after the decision, adding that the case would go back to a board of appeals to examine the evidence.

Nestles battle to trademark the shape has lasted more than 15 years.

In 2002, Nestle  which has production rights to the Kit Kat everywhere except the United States, where a subsidiary of Hershey produces it under licence  applied to register the candy bars shape at the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

As part of its application, Nestle submitted evidence that the shape was recognized as distinctive in most European countries, and in 2006 it was granted a trademark on the shape covering several categories of food.

But the British chocolate maker Cadbury  now a part of Mondelez International  quickly appealed that decision. Mondelez subsidiaries offer similarly shaped products in several European markets: The Kvikk Lunsj, or Quick Lunch bar, is popular in Norway; and the Leo bar, sold under the Swiss chocolate brand Milka, is popular in Belgium.

The intellectual property office rejected Mondelezs appeal in 2012, but the company fought the decision. It won a first victory in 2016, when the General Court of the European Union ordered the intellectual property office to reconsider the appeal.

Rather than settling the case, however, the 2016 decision infuriated all three parties. Nestle, Mondelez and the intellectual property office all appealed at the Court of Justice, each for a different reason.

Wednesday, the Court of Justice ruled that the intellectual property office must indeed reconsider Mondelezs appeal, but Nestle will be permitted to hold on to its trademark while that process goes ahead.

The only added nuance, experts say, is that apart from presenting proof of acquired character in all member states, a company can also bring proof of acquired character in the European single market as a whole, or in the different product-based markets that make up the single market.

National borders should not be the only point of reference in the European Union, Gallagher, the press officer, explained.

Read more:

We paid $7 for KitKats new pink chocolate bar

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Read more about:CALGARYGlobal Affairs Canada says it is concerned by reports in Turkey that a Calgary imam has been sentenced to prison there.

A report on the website of news outlet Haberturk says Canadian Davud Hanci has been handed a 15-year sentence.

Hanci, who has dual citizenship, was detained in Turkey two years ago on allegations he was connected with an attempted coup.

His family has said he is a peaceful man who had nothing to do with the violence in 2016.

Relatives have said Hanci was visiting the city of Trabzon, on the coast of the Black Sea, to visit his sick father at the time.

Global Affairs spokesperson John Babcock says officials are in contact with him.

Babcock says consular officials have also been in contact with local authorities to gather information and are assisting Hancis family. He says no other information can be released for privacy reasons.

Following the failed coup on July 15, 2016, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instituted a state of emergency that ended this month. During that time, Turkey has arrested more than 75,000 people for alleged links to Fethullah Gulen, a U.S.-based cleric whom Ankara blames for the attempted government overthrow.MEDICINE HAT, ALTA. Premier Rachel Notley says its hypocritical for Albertas United Conservatives to encourage more women to enter politics but then take aim at a woman who left their movement due to what she said was abuse.

Notley says driving away Sandra Jansen, who is now NDP infrastructure minister, in such an ugly, public fashion still resonates.

That probably has had the biggest negative impact on women being involved in politics for many, many years, Notley said after an announcement Wednesday.

Actions speak louder than words and its a bit hypocritical.

Notley was responding the day after former Conservative MP Rona Ambrose and Laureen Harper, wife of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, announced a non-profit foundation that will work to mentor and assist more women to run for Albertas United Conservatives in the spring provincial election.

Laureen Harper told a crowd in Edmonton on Tuesday that she lives in Jansens Calgary North West riding. She said her husband told her that no matter who wins the United Conservative nomination, he will be going door to door in that constituency to make sure that person wins.

Jansen did not reply to a request for comment but responded on Twitter.

If the UCP are sending the Harpers to door knock Calgary NW, then I assume my poll numbers are pretty good. See you guys in the hood today. Happy to buy any unemployed politician a coffee.

The two-term legislature member is a former rival to and bitter foe of United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.

She was a lifelong conservative elected as a Progressive Conservative in the 2015 election and ran against Kenney for leadership of the party in late 2016.

But Jansen dropped out of the race, then quit the party altogether. She said harassment and abuse from Kenney supporters had become intolerable, particularly at a November 2016 party event in Red Deer.

An investigation by the party found both Jansen and Kenney had been the target of abuse, but said there was no evidence specific campaigns had directed the attacks. Kenney called for civil discourse in debate.

Jansen later crossed the floor to join the NDP and was eventually elevated to cabinet.

Kenneys PCs went on to merge with the Wildrose party to become the United Conservatives, which Kenney now leads.

Read more:

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All parties are recruiting and nominating candidates ahead of the spring election. United Conservatives have nominated 19 candidates to date for the provinces 87 constituencies, including four women.

Kenney has said 65 women are vying for nominations in the remaining races. Laila Goodridge has also joined caucus after winning a byelection in Fort McMurray-Conklin earlier this month.

The parties are also fighting over fundraising. New numbers released Wednesday by Elections Alberta show the United Conservatives lead all parties by raising over $1.5 million in the first six months of 2018.

The NDP is second at almost $1.2 million. The Alberta Party raised almost $255,000 and the Liberals just over $57,000.

Notley dismissed concerns the NDP trailed the UCP in fundraising.

In the last election the Progressive Conservatives outspent our party (by) about 10 to one-ish, and yet we all saw the results.

Notley noted her government has since capped political donations and banned corporate and union donations.

Its not going to be money that wins this election. Its going to be ideas, and I am certainly happy to engage in a very robust contest on that platform, she said.

Its really a great feeling to know about the reception that our new party is getting from Albertans, Janice Harrington, the UCPs executive director, said in an interview.

Its an indication that theyre ready for change and eager to get the province back on track.

Read more about:HALIFAXA $55 million revitalization is in the works for Dartmouths Mic Mac Mall.

Ivanhoe Cambridge announced in a media release on Wednesday that the renovation of the shopping centre will include new upgrades in the common areas, including the renovation of the food court on the third level with new seating, lighting and dining options.

The project also includes the complete replacement of the floor and handrails throughout the centre, the renovation of its washrooms, a new family washroom, the relocation and replacement of the existing centre court escalators and the replacement and relocation of the south court escalators to create additional retail offerings.

A new entrance at the south-end of the property will be added and there will be upgrades to the exterior entrances and lighting.

Ivanhoe Cambridge said Mic Mac Mall will stay open during the entire project and noted the majority of the work will be completed by the end of 2019.

Mic Mac Mall has a dominant position in Greater Halifax, Claude Sirois, president of Ivanhoe Cambridge Retail said in the statement.

This project will help redefine its retail and service offering and will enhance its competitive positioning, which will benefit the 5 million discerning visitors that shop at Mic Mac Mall every year.

Share your thoughts

Ivanhoe Cambridge is also announcing a new retail offering with the Linen Chest.

The Linen Chest new store concept will have a fresh, and inspiring look highlighting the latest new products for customers to explore in a boutique-inspired setting, noted the release.

With special emphasis on storytelling, the new concept store will also feature three-dimensional lookbook open-frame structures throughout the store to showcase vignettes of curated merchandise stories for an improved shopping experience.

The Mic Mac Mall Linen Chest store will feature an interactive kitchen with cooking demonstrations every weekend in addition to an Espresso Bar.

Yvette d'Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter covering health, environment and education. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

Read more about:HALIFAXA Nova Scotia man is facing two counts of attempted murder over an incident at a home on Brookland St. in Antigonish on Wednesday morning.

In a media release, Nova Scotia RCMP said they responded to a 911 call at 8:30 a.m. about a woman who had been injured. The caller said a man had tried to stab her and a 3-year-old child in the home.

At the time of the call, police said, the woman was at a neighbours home with the child while the man was still inside the residence.

When police went to the home, they located the woman and child who had both been injured. They were taken to hospital by ambulance and are expected to recover.

The man was located a short time later outside the home and was immediately arrested. He is expected to appear in Antigonish provincial court on Thursday.

On Wednesday afternoon, police said they were still on the scene and planned to be for several hours. The investigation is ongoing.

Read more about:VANCOUVERFour candidates in the race for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations are claiming election interference by the federal government because of the presence of a cabinet minister ahead of the vote.

Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett was at the annual general assembly today in Vancouver where voting is taking place.

After the first round of voting put incumbent candidate Perry Bellegarde in the lead, his four challengers stood together beside a stage to discuss their concerns.

Sheila North of Manitoba said Bennetts presence represents a disgusting display of interference and a direct attack by the Liberal government on the assembly, while Miles Richardson of B.C. said the federal government has divided First Nations long enough.

Russ Diabo of Quebec called for the minister to be sanctioned.

In a statement, the federal department says in no way did the minister interfere in the election process.

It says Bennett was invited by Chief Marlene Poitras of Alberta to listen to her regional concerns and at no point was the election for national chiefs discussed.

Katherine Whitecloud of Manitoba was eliminated after the first round of voting.

A candidate must win 60 per cent of the votes to be elected leader. A total of 538 chiefs cast ballots in the first round of voting, but none of the candidates reached the threshold of 323 votes.

Bellegarde won 286 votes, followed by North, with 106 votes.

Richardson received 87 votes, while 40 votes were cast for Diabo and 19 for Whitecloud.

Bellegarde, who is from the Little Black Bear First Nation in Treaty 4 territory in Saskatchewan, says his close relationship with the federal government has secured billions of dollars in new funding for Indigenous issues over the last three budgets, although he has been criticized by other candidates for being too cosy with the government.

Read more about:VANCOUVEROfficials in British Columbias southern Interior say evacuation alerts have been rescinded for 698 properties in Peachland and the Central Okanagan Regional District.

The Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre says no properties in the regional district are currently on evacuation alert or order.

Although the BC Wildfire Service says the Mt. Eneas wildfire near Peachland remains active and is almost 18-square kilometres in size.

The Forests Ministry says smoke from wildfires burning outside B.C. is widespread within the Northwest Fire Centre and is expected to linger for several days.

The ministry says only three wildfires are burning in the area, and theyre not the primary source of the smoke.

However, it says hot and dry conditions forecast for the Northwest Fire Centre could lead to an increase in fire activity.

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Photos: About 2,000 Okanagan residents put on notice to evacuate after wildfires grow overnight

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The public is urged to remain vigilant in the backcountry and be extremely careful with any recreational activity that could potentially spark a wildfire, it says in a statement.

The BC Wildfire Service said campfire bans would take effect Thursday in the Kamloops and southeast fire centres, which faced sweltering heat.

Those bans, in addition to a prohibition imposed last week in the Coastal Fire Centre, mean campfires will not be allowed across southern B.C., until further notice.

Fire danger ratings for most of the southern third of the province are listed as high to extreme and heat warnings are posted for northeastern B.C., inland sections of the north and central coast and the entire inner south coast, Fraser Valley and Fraser Canyon.

Environment Canada forecasts temperatures in the mid to high 30s in many areas, including the Okanagan Valley where crews are making good progress containing the Mt Eneas fire south of Peachland.

Read more about:One, vastly increasing its membership can only make NATO weaker, not stronger. In some sense, when everyone is in an alliance, no one really is. Vladimir Putin may gamble to find out whether affluent Dutch or Belgian youth will really be willing to die fighting for the territorial integrity of distant Bulgaria. If not, then Article 5 will be exposed as a farce and NATO itself will be finished.The largest and most precise study yet done on acid emissions from Albertas oilsands suggests they could eventually damage an area almost the size of Germany.

The study finds that in 2013 more than 330,000 square kilometres in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan absorbed acid deposits high enough to eventually damage life in rivers and lakes.

This work is a warning, said Paul Makar, an Environment Canada scientist and lead author on the paper published in the Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

If emissions continue at 2013 levels, there will be ecosystem damage over a very large area.

Some industry players have invested heavily in recent years to reduce sulphur and nitrogen emissions, which lead to the acidification of water and soil. But its not clear whether overall oilsands emissions have fallen.

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The research involved scientists at Environment Canada as well as their counterparts in Alberta and Saskatchewan and from Trent University in Peterborough, Ont.

Their work began with a study of 90,000 lakes to determine how different water bodies responded to acids and at what point they would no longer be able to buffer them. That data was used to create a map of carrying capacities across a large swath of the northern prairie provinces.

Previous studies used grids of 45 square kilometres. This one resolves to 2.5 square kilometres.

The team used the latest datasets and techniques  including satellite imagery  to model how 2013 emissions were likely to affect forests, rivers and lakes. Predictions were checked against measurements in the field and the model was then refined.

If those emissions levels continue, there will be ecosystem damage for aquatic ecosystems over an area thats about the size of Germany, Makar said.

The study says tree growth would be stunted. Water plants would suffer from increased toxins. Fish and the bugs they prey on would get sick and reproduce less easily.

Although previous studies have suggested dust from plant operations would provide a buffer, Makar said that effect falls off well before the acidification does.

The study also shows some ecosystems are much more sensitive than others. A nearby lake could remain relatively healthy if it could buffer lots of acid, but the research suggests sensitive lakes could be affected as far east as Manitoba.

Theres quite a far-reaching effect hundreds of kilometres downwind for ecosystems that are sensitive, Makar said.

The papers conclusions rest on 2013 measurements. Both Syncrude and Suncor say theyve substantially reduced their sulphur dioxide emissions since then.

Makar said scientists are working to confirm the numbers against other measurements from planes and satellites.

The paper cant estimate the rate of acidification, he said.

This ecosystem is being pushed past its buffering capacity and it will eventually go. I dont have the when.

The study builds on years of research on acid-causing emissions from the oilsands.

In 2009, Saskatchewan found rainfall in the La Loche area just across from Fort McMurray showed an average pH level of 4.93  about three times as acidic as unpolluted rainfall and about the same acidity as a cup of black coffee.

A 2008 review found that up to 12 per cent of Albertas forest soils had probably reached the limit of how much acid they could hold, probably because of the oilsands. In 2006, the same researchers concluded that about two per cent of forest soils in Saskatchewan downwind from Alberta were over their limit.

Read more about:Mayor John Tory says he needs more power at city hall to run Toronto effectively  an opinion he says crystallized during a lengthy city council debate over measures to combat gun violence.

When (Premier) Doug Ford speculates on a strong mayor system, I want to take him up on that, Tory told the Star Tuesday during an interview in his city hall office.

I think people right now, they think that I have the authority to do a whole lot of things, and in fact I have authority to do very little.

Toronto, like other Ontario municipalities, has a weak mayor system where the mayor has some levers of power  such as appointment of committee chairs  but wields only one vote. He or she must get the support of a majority of councillors to push through initiatives, including the budget.

So-called strong mayors in many U.S. cities wield executive powers including shaping budgets before council has a say, appointing and dismissing heads of departments such as transportation, and the ability to veto city council decisions they dont like.

In the 2016 book Ford Nation: Two Brothers, One Vision  about his time on city council when his brother Rob was mayor  Ford wrote that if elected provincially, he would give mayors across Ontario stronger powers. One person in charge, with veto power, similar to the strong mayoral systems in New York and Chicago and L.A.

Ford repeated that idea in passing to Tory during a private meeting this month, said Tory, who is currently running for re-election to a second term that he says would be his last.

Tory revealed to the Star his controversial proposal to change current mayoral powers, wielded by three mayors before him since Toronto amalgamation in 1998, as his colleagues spent a full day debating gun violence measures.

Tory cited his need to convince city council to spend about $4 million to double the number of surveillance cameras and invest in gunshot detection technology  council approved the measures hours later  as something a more muscular mandate could allow him to do unilaterally.

When the police chief, our most senior relied-upon expert, says, I need this, I maybe should have been in a position where I can say, You know what, you can have that. Thats a decision I can make, Tory said, alluding to an increase in gun violence including Sundays fatal Danforth Ave. shooting rampage.

Tory said he will ask Ford to start the process of amending the City of Toronto Act, which affirms the supremacy of city council, but said autumn is the earliest he would expect any provincial action.

Asked exactly what powers he wants, Tory said he doesnt want to be prescriptive but offered examples. He wants to be able to approve spending below a threshold to be determined, ensuring full council approval is still required for big decisions such as the Scarborough subway, he said. He wouldnt expect a veto over decisions council is authorized to make.

Tory also wants the mayor to shape a proposed city budget before council has its say. Currently, the budget committee starts debating spending priorities over months, with a proposal that goes to Torys executive committee and finally to city council, with multiple chances for public input.

He also wants a bigger say in hiring senior public servants, and said he would welcome a provincial decision to allow the mayor to hire the city manager  the public service head who now reports to council and whose appointment is approved by it.

Strong-mayor systems have been proposed for Toronto before, including by a 2008 mayors fiscal review panel. More recently, critics of the idea have pointed to Rob Ford  who as mayor smoked crack cocaine with gang members who sold drugs and guns, and who made world headlines with outrageous behaviour  as an argument for keeping a weak mayor system.

Tory said he would advocate keeping the safety valve of council being able to strip Torontos mayor of powers in extraordinary circumstances.

The mayor will also ask Premier Ford to give Toronto more powers to act without provincial approval. He cited frustration over waiting for provincial approval for traffic wardens  special constables guiding traffic flow at intersections  and also photo radar in school zones to boost pedestrian safety.

Torys third proposal is to have city council review its procedural bylaw that dictates how committee and council meetings work. Rules that allow councillors to question each other over motions, sometimes repetitively, need to be overhauled to make decision-making more effective, he said.

The mayor rejected a suggestion that hes taking advantage of the Danforth tragedy to amass more power, saying he raised the strong-mayor option with former premier Kathleen Wynne and citing urgent issues including homeless shelter services, Vision Zero road safety measures, and now gun violence prevention.

Im not saying that (the current system) hasnt worked for the last four years or that it didnt work in the previous 25 years, Tory said. Im saying we could make the place work better.

I think thats obviously what was in Premier Fords head when he talked about this, which is that you could get more done more efficiently, Tory said.

Gord Perks, a left-leaning councillor who often puts conservative Tory on the spot at council meetings, called the mayors power push a terrible idea, saying he is frustrated with Torys current level of power and how he wields it with a mostly compliant majority of council allies.

The thrill of being on Toronto council is that we dont solidify into the mayors party and not-the-mayors party, Perks said.

At times, Toronto city council can act if they feel the mayor is not acting in the public interest. If John Torys proposals had been in place when Rob Ford was mayor, we could have had a much bigger disaster than we did.

David Rider is the Stars City Hall bureau chief and a reporter covering Toronto politics. Follow him on Twitter: @dmrider

Read more about:She lowered herself onto the ground and, clutching a stick of chalk, scrawled Tana Tana Tana on the sidewalk.

Then, the girl with the bandaged knees, fresh blood leaking through the thick, white gauze, stood up and repositioned herself about a foot away. This time she wrote fried chicken in bold, white letters.

Fried chicken was her favourite thing, the girl said of her friend Reese Fallon, to two others standing nearby.

Fallon, 18, was killed Sunday when a lone gunman opened fire on groups of people enjoying a summers night on the Danforth.

The girl with the bandaged knees, along with a clutch of others, spent more than an hour outside Malvern Collegiate Institute Tuesday afternoon, chatting, hugging and writing messages in chalk.

The Tana Tana Tana was an ode to another facet of Fallons cultural repertoire  a popular YouTube star.

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Malvern Collegiate, Fallons alma mater, opened for the day to offer support, comfort and counselling to the friends, faculty and staff she left behind.

The schools library became a hub for mourners to meet with social workers and pat therapy dogs. Outside the school, teenagers, visibly shaken, sobbed and embraced. Some placed flower bouquets at the base of the flag that was flying at half-mast. Others left notes. One message, printed on red paper, said: The world was a better place with you in it. We will carry you in our hearts forever. Shine bright beautiful.

Another message printed on the sidewalk in neat, bold lettering nearly spanned the length of the school. It read: Love for all hatred for none

Misty Saha, 17, a recent graduate in Fallons class, looked as if she had been crying.

She was supposed to be at the same dinner as Fallon on Sunday night, a celebration of a friends birthday, she said. The group was supposed to go for ice cream, but she couldnt attend because she was out of town.

It wasnt until the next day that Saha found out about the nights tragic end, she said. And then, she could barely process what was going on.

It could have been me, it could have been anybody else, she said. Calling her friend charismatic, Saha said she and Fallon became close while working together on the prom committee.

They bonded over a shared desire to work with children. Our personalities were pretty much alike, said Saha, who will attend Queens University in the fall. Fallon wanted to be a childs nurse, she said, and was eager to start her degree at McMaster University.

Mark Steel, 39, a Malvern chemistry teacher who taught Fallon, was among those who came to find comfort Tuesday in the schools community. His wife set up a GoFundMe page hours after learning of Fallons death. The goal is that the money earned will, each year, go to a Malvern graduate who embodies Fallons qualities and is entering a nursing program, he said.

Steel, who himself donated $500 to the GoFundMe campaign, said Fallon worked hard and pushed herself. We thought a scholarship would be a good idea to keep her memory going.

Anthony Parise, a Malvern English teacher who also taught Fallon, stood among the students outside the school. He said that like the others, he too was struggling to understand the senseless violence. All at once, he said, the community was thinking about Fallon and the positive impact she had on all of them. And then, he said, theres this horrible feeling of loss and the unthinkable nature of how she was lost.

Students in the McMaster Nursing class of 2022, in which Fallon was enrolled, plan to memorialize Fallons life as they begin the next school year. Theyre encouraging their fellow students to wear red bandanas on their arm through welcome week to commemorate Reeses presence on campus, one student said in a Facebook group for McMaster students. Theyre calling the plan #RedforReese.

When we received word that Reese was the victim of such senseless violence, we all felt called to do something to honour her. Her opportunity to even start studies at McMaster was stolen from her, and we knew we needed to acknowledge her presence in the program, said McMaster nursing student Mandy Lau on Wednesday.

We hope that we can see a sea of red bandanas during welcome week, regardless of what faculty the student is from, she said.BOWMANVILLE, ONT.Police say theyre trying to identify a person who threw a firebomb at a business east of Toronto early Wednesday morning.

Durham regional police say officers were called to a convenience store in Bowmanville, Ont., at about 4 a.m. to investigate a report someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail at the business.

They say a male suspect was seen throwing the firebomb, which landed in front of the store, creating a ball of flame.

Police say the fire did not result in any damage.

Investigators are asking for the publics help in identifying the suspect who threw the incendiary device.A man who was found not criminally responsible for killing a Toronto police officer with a stolen snowplow has been given a conditional discharge from a mental health facility in Durham Region.

The Ontario Review Board decided to release Richard Kachkar at its hearing on July 13.

In 2013, a jury decided Kachkar was in a psychotic state when, on Jan. 11, 2011, he stole a snowplow and hit Toronto police Sgt. Ryan Russell, who tried to intervene.

The boards chair, Richard Schneider, said Kachkars release is subject to a number of conditions.

He will continue to live at a transitional home and is required to report to the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby once every two weeks, Schneider said.

The release also bars Kachkar from consuming alcohol, carrying any weapons or using non-medical drugs. A violation of any of these conditions would mean that hed be arrested anywhere in Canada, with or without a warrant, Schneider said.

The decision only means that his condition is sufficiently well-controlled and he no longer requires in-patient hospital care.

After he was found not criminally responsible, Kachkar was sent to live at the Ontario Shores Centre.

A person found not criminally responsible by a court faces a number of conditions and is subject to annual reviews.

In 2015, at the advice of the Ontario Review Board, Kachkar was moved to a lower-security unit within the centre and allowed limited circulation in the Durham Region while under the supervision of another person.

A year later, a board decision said Kachkar was a low risk to act out violently. He was then allowed to gradually transition into living in the community, with minimum supervision and professional support.

Sgt. Russells widow, Christine Russell, has in the past expressed concern about the release of Kachkar, saying she would always see him as a murderer.

Hes going to walk away, out the door and no one is going to remember, she said in 2017 when Kachkar was sent to live in a supportive housing program, with daily visits from mental health workers.

He killed somebody. Its not a light matter and I know (the board members) are very careful with their decision-making, but I dont think any of them have had to walk in our shoes and know the hell weve gone through  There are no guarantees this could not happen again, she said then.

Schneider said the board has more than 1,500 cases like that of Kachkar. The board constantly reviews them with the goal of imposing conditions that are least restrictive to the accused, while at the same time protecting the public, he said.

Karen DeFreitas, the medical director of forensic psychiatry at the Whitby centre, said a patient is given a conditional discharge when theyve already lived in the community and have a track record of good and stable behaviour.

Theres no such a thing as perfect security, but people can be assured that the person has been thoroughly assessed and vetted, she said.

I understand the frustration, but when a person is not criminally responsible for their action its about rehabilitation and not punishment.Premier Doug Fords Progressive Conservatives have ended the lengthy strike at York University.

The Tories used their large majority in the House to push through back-to-work legislation that orders almost 2,000 teaching and graduate assistants back on the job after a dispute dating to March 5.

Our government was clear: The people of Ontario couldnt afford to wait, and thats why our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, acted immediately to get down to business and brought in our Urgent Priorities Act. We have hit the ground running, Government House Leader Todd Smith said Wednesday.

The people of Ontario spoke. They wanted us to clean up the hydro mess. Thats what were doing on this side of the House, said Smith, referring to the omnibus bill that also tackles Hydro One executive compensation and cancels a controversial wind turbine project in Prince Edward County.

But ending Yorks dispute with members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903, which has affected 37,000 students, was the most pressing concern.

We needed to get the kids back in class at York University. Thats what were going to do, said the House leader.

The strike began after six months of negotiations and 27 face-to-face meetings between York and CUPE 3903 failed to produce an agreement.

The University and the Union also met after the strike began, including several meetings led by William Kaplan and later, with Kevin Burkett, a second mediator jointly agreed to by CUPE 3903 and York.

On June 16, contract faculty in CUPE 3903 Unit 2, representing 1,100 contract faculty, voted to accept Yorks offer and return to work. However, CUPE 3903 Unit 1, representing 1,900 teaching assistants, and CUPE 3903 Unit 3, representing 130 graduate assistants, remained on strike.

Under former premier Kathleen Wynne, the previous Liberal government tried to pass back-to-work legislation before the June 7 election, but efforts were thwarted by the New Democrats.

The NDP opposed the Tory move as well, blaming the almost five-month dispute on the Liberals level of funding of post-secondary education.

With the Liberal government over the last 15 years not funding universities appropriately, (it) has led to difficulties with universities being able to find the ability to meet their budgets, their requirements, and so as a result tuition fees have gone up and strikes have become more frequent, said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

What the government needs to do is fund our universities properly and instead theyve trampled on the rights of these workers and well see if they end up going to court as a result of that, said Horwath.

There has been no negotiated settlement, so the two sides have not come together, which means that that is going to lead to a poisoned work environment, she said.

Im sure that that will impact the students and the learning environment as well, and its not going to be ... a pleasant place.

Proceedings in the legislature were twice disrupted Wednesday as CUPE protesters voiced their displeasure from the public galleries.

Despite that, the vote easily passed 69-40.

Afterward, Ford announced the legislature will continue sitting this summer for two to three more weeks as we continue moving this province forward.

We appreciate that Premier Ford and his government have made it possible to end the strike and allow our students to return to their studies, said Rhonda L. Lenton, York Universitys president and vice-chancellor. We look forward to welcoming our CUPE 3903 colleagues back and coming together to provide students access to a high quality, research intensive learning experience.

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

Read more about:Cap and trade will soon be scrapped and paid.

The Progressive Conservative government tabled legislation Wednesday to scrap Ontarios market-driven environmental alliance with Quebec and California.

And the province expects to be paying out $5 million in compensation as it leaves the joint carbon-pricing auction  a sum critics warn is unrealistically low.

Environment Minister Rod Phillips said the moves should help the Progressive Conservatives fulfill their campaign promise to reduce gasoline prices by 10 cents a litre and could save the average family $260 a year.

Were sending a clear message: Ontarios carbon-tax era is over, said Phillips, whose government will spend $30 million to fight Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus national carbon-pricing system.

Its a punishing, regressive tax that forces low- and middle-income families to pay more. Its a job-killing tax that would impose massive costs on business, he said.

Under cap-and-trade, businesses had greenhouse-gas-emission limits  or caps  and those who polluted less could sell  or trade  credits for these to those who emit pollution contributing to climate change.

Over time, an industrys cap is lowered to cut pollution, creating an economic incentive to curb emissions.

But Premier Doug Ford was elected on June 7 on a promise to eliminate cap-and-trade, which was introduced two years ago by former premier Kathleen Wynnes Liberals.

It brought in $1.9 billion annually to the provincial treasury with all proceeds going toward environmental programs such as retrofitting schools and homes and subsidizing electric cars. Those initiatives have already been cancelled.

Phillips said even though 272 companies, such as oil and gas giants, have purchased $2.87 billion in emission credits, he believes the most that will have to be paid out in compensation is $5 million.

Thats because the new legislation is designed to inoculate the government against litigation.

As well, only those who were required to participate in the cap-and-trade program and did not pass those costs onto consumers will be eligible for compensation.

Were very confident in our position, the minister said, noting market speculators will not be compensated for playing in the carbon market.

For people who speculated in the market, we dont believe that we owe them compensation, he said.

Green Leader Mike Schreiner said it doesnt sound realistic to me at all that the governments exposure could be limited to $5 million.

This bill is disrespecting the taxpayers because its subjecting Ontarians to legal risks that we shouldnt be subjected to, said Schreiner.

By entering into the frivolous lawsuit (against Trudeaus carbon pricing) that is doomed to fail, theyre going to be wasting more taxpayers dollars fighting this at the federal level, he said.

Schreiner noted companies that bought emission allowances that have now been cancelled  are going to want to be made whole.

My guess is theyre going to engage in legal action against this government.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns said the governments claims are not realistic.

Were going to see higher carbon prices in the coming year, because the federal governments program is going to cut in, said Tabuns, pointing out Ontario was exempt from Ottawas plan, because it had cap-and-trade.

Thats going to be a problem for a lot of people, he said.

While the Tories promised to release a plan to reduce carbon emissions later this fall, environmentalists are skeptical.

If and when this government gets around to making a plan to combat climate change, its hands will be tied by Fords opposition to carbon pricing in any form, said Ecojustice lawyer Charles Hatt.

The only tools left are heavy-handed regulations, expensive subsidies and meaningless voluntary measures. Add it all up and you come to this conclusion: either the Ford government will take climate change action that costs more to the economy or it will shrink from the challenge of reducing our carbon pollution, said Hatt.

Neither outcome is good.

Environmental Defences Keith Brooks expressed concern that Ontario now has no plan to fight climate change, no carbon pollution reduction targets, and no carbon pricing system.

We are encouraged that the bill introduced today requires the government to develop its own climate plan and carbon emissions reduction targets. Ontario needs to develop and launch this plan as soon as possible, said Brooks.

A first step would be to begin consultations with businesses, economists, scientists and other climate change experts to forge a cost-effective and ambitious way forward. We look forward to participating in the development of that plan.

Robert Benzie is the Stars Queens Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

Read more about:WASHINGTONTwo months before the 2016 election, Donald Trump and his lawyer discussed plans to pay for a former Playboy models story of an alleged affair, according to a secretly recorded tape released amid an escalating feud between the president and his longtime personal attorney.

The audio recording, made by Trumps former lawyer Michael Cohen, appears to contradict the Trump campaigns later claim that the president knew nothing about a media companys purchase of model Karen McDougals story or any efforts to keep it from becoming public.

The tape captures the soon-to-be elected president and his lawyer discussing logistics of financing and whether to pay with cash, although the sound is muffled and Trumps instructions on that are unclear. Lawyers for Trump and Cohen are disputing what was said.

The tape was provided to CNN on Tuesday by Cohens attorney, Lanny Davis, and signals a new level of open hostility between the president and the man who once described himself as Trumps fixer. Cohen, who is under federal investigation for possible bank fraud and campaign finance violations, has shown a growing willingness to reveal damaging information.

On Wednesday, Trump vented on Twitter about the release of the surreptitious tape.

What kind of a lawyer would tape a client? So sad! he said. Is this a first, never heard of it before? Why was the tape so abruptly terminated (cut) while I was presumably saying positive things?

In an earlier interview, Davis said Cohen released the tape in response to an intense campaign of disparagement from Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and the presidents team. He accused Giuliani of inventing words concerning the tapes reference to cash payments.

Giuliani says Trump said dont pay with cash, which he says shows Trump was not trying to hide the potential payment.

Read more:

Cohen secretly taped Trump discussing payment to former Playboy model

Stormy Daniels alleges her former lawyer colluded with Michael Cohen

The word is cash. Everybody should listen to the tape and see whether Im right or not, Davis said on ABCs Good Morning America.

The taped conversation between Trump and Cohen came weeks after the National Enquirers parent company reached a $150,000 deal to pay McDougal for her story of a 2006 affair, which it never published, a tabloid practice known as catch and kill.

Davis also hinted that Cohen may have more to say.

Michael Cohen has turned a corner in his life and hes now dedicated to telling the truth to everyone, and well see what happens, Davis said.

Asked if Cohen was still seeking a presidential pardon while under federal investigation, Davis responded simply: No.

On the tape, Trump and Cohen appear to be discussing buying the rights to McDougals story from the Enquirers parent company. Trumps lawyers say the payments were never made.

Cohen can be heard saying he needed to start a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend David, a possible reference to David Pecker, Trumps friend and president of the National Enquirers parent company, American Media Inc.

When Cohen begins to discuss financing, Trump interrupts him and asks, What financing?

Well have to pay, Cohen responds.

The audio is muffled, but Trump can be heard saying pay with cash, though it isnt clear if he is suggesting to pay with cash or not to pay with cash. Cohen immediately says, No, no, no and Trump can then be heard saying, check.

Giuliani told the Associated Press that hes had an expert, whom he did not name, enhance the recording and the president says dont pay with cash.

Suggesting otherwise is ridiculous and is inconsistent with the rest of the conversation, during which it was discussed doing it through a corporation, Giuliani said.

Giuliani said Cohen, as Trumps lawyer, thought it would be best if he could buy the rights to McDougals story and the recording captures the two of them discussing how to do that.

Cohen says I have to pay him. The president brings up cash and says dont pay with cash and says check, He wants it memorialized, Giuliani said. Cohen then says No, no, no, no and he cuts off the tape. He obviously cuts it off in mid-sentence and that in itself is suspicious.

The president wanted to do it the right way. If you wanted to hide something, you would not do it by corporation or check, he said.

Giuliani said he didnt know why the payment was never made.

Davis said he released the tape because his client has been smeared in the press and wanted to set the record straight. He noted Trump does not appear to be learning about the McDougal matter for the first time and does not appear surprised by Cohens plans.

Listen to the tape. Donald Trump is not shocked money is being paid about someone named Karen McDougal, Davis said during an interview with CNN.

American Media, Inc.s payment effectively silenced McDougal through the election, though days beforehand news of the deal emerged in The Wall Street Journal. At the time, a Trump spokeswoman said his campaign had no knowledge of any of this.

The FBI raided Cohens office, home and hotel room in April, searching in part for information about payments to McDougal and porn actress Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump in 2006  which Trump denies  and was paid $130,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement signed days before the 2016 election.

A dozen audio recordings seized during those raids were forwarded to federal prosecutors last week after lawyers dropped challenges on attorney-client privilege grounds.

Giuliani said those recordings captured Cohen discussing the president with third parties, whom he would not identify.

Trump and Cohen can also be heard on the recording released Tuesday discussing other legal issues, including fighting a request by The New York Times to unseal court records concerning Trumps divorce from his first wife, Ivana.

Read more about:Homes burned as a fast-moving wildfire forced an entire Southern California mountain town to evacuate Wednesday, while tourists emptied from the heart of Yosemite National Park so firefighters could battle a growing blaze nearby.

Authorities ordered residents to leave Idyllwild, home to about 12,000 people, and surrounding forest communities in the San Jacinto Mountains east of Los Angeles. At least four homes burned as crews used aircraft to attack the flames that quickly burned nearly 12 square kilometres of dry brush and timber in inaccessible terrain. No injuries were reported.

Officers detained a motorist for questioning after people called 911 to report a suspicious vehicle near the fires starting point in Riverside County, the California Highway Patrol said.

As his neighbours tried to corral dogs and horses, William Blodgett fled when flames hopped a highway near his home in Idyllwild.

We were all peeling out of there as fast as we could, he told KNBC-TV. It was apocalyptic.

The fire is one of several across California amid a statewide heat wave. To the north, in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least one home burned in a fast-moving blaze in Clayton, where houses are spread out around windy roads.

Mara Schumann photographs a plume of smoke from the Ferguson Fire in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Tuesday. Parts of the park, including Yosemite Valley, closed Wednesday as firefighters work to stop the blaze.







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Yosemite Valley, the scenic heart of the national park, was closed at noon Wednesday during the height of tourist season as smoke cast a pall on the region from a fire in the Sierra Nevada. The closure was heartbreaking for travellers, many of whom mapped out their trips months in advance to hike and climb amid the spectacular views of cascading waterfalls and sheer rock faces.

We had one guest who planned a weeklong trip, said Tom Lambert, who owns a vacation rental property near Yosemite Valley. It was a father-daughter trip, for her high school graduation ... Now its done. Its sad. Another guest had to delay plans to climb Half Dome.

The closure has also been a financial blow to Lambert and other businesses that rely on the summer tourist traffic.

Most people left the valley Tuesday, when officials reluctantly announced the closure, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. The remaining campers packed up their gear Wednesday, joining the exodus that has been mostly orderly.

People have been very understanding, Gediman said.

Officials emphasized that Yosemite wasnt in imminent danger from the fire. Authorities decided on the shutdown to allow crews to perform protective measures such as burning away brush along roadways without having to deal with traffic in the park that welcomes 4 million visitors annually.

On Wednesday, an extended family from Los Angeles on their annual trip to Yosemite prepared to leave the Upper Pines campground.

Very disappointed, Lisa Salgado said. We look forward to this all year. This is the trip of our summer.

The group arrived Monday and had planned to stay through Saturday. Instead, they packed tents and other gear into vehicles, hoping they could find another campground elsewhere.

So, this is a new memory, said Miguel Martinez. Ive never been evacuated before.

Yosemite Valley will be closed until at least Sunday, along with a winding, mountainous, 20-mile (32-kilometre) stretch of Californias State Route 41 that leads into the area, Gediman said.

At least 1,000 campground and hotel bookings were cancelled  to say nothing of the impact on day visitors, park workers and small businesses along the highway, Gediman said.

The last time the 7.5-mile-long (12-kilometre-long) valley was closed because of fire was 1990, he said.

Lambert and his wife, Theresa Ho, were briefly evacuated last week when smoke cast an unhealthy pall over the home where they live upstairs and rent the downstairs to tourists.

Basically June, July and August are the big revenue months, he said, estimating that about 100 nearby vacation properties would be forced to offer refunds. Were gonna lose half of July and half of August probably.

Yosemite Valley is the centrepiece of the visitor experience, offering views of landmarks such as Half Dome, Bridal Veil Fall, El Capitan and Yosemite Falls. The glacial valley has been enveloped by a choking haze of smoke from the Ferguson Fire.

Over nearly two weeks, flames have churned through 155 square kilometres of timber in steep terrain of the Sierra Nevada just west of the park. The fire was just 25 per cent contained.

Mandatory evacuations are in place in several communities while other people have been told to get ready to leave if necessary.

More than 3,300 firefighters are working the fire, aided by 16 helicopters. One firefighter was killed July 14, and six others have been injured.

Gediman suggested valley visitors divert to Tuolumne Meadows, on Yosemites northern edge, or to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks to the south.

In the states far north, an 18-square-kilometre wildfire has forced the evacuation of French Gulch, a small Shasta County community that dates to the Gold Rush.Less than two weeks after torrential rains wreaked destruction across Japan, the country is facing yet another weather-related crisis: a record-breaking heat wave that forecasters say could last until early August.

More than 30,000 people have been admitted to the hospital for heatstroke, and at least 77 deaths have been registered in the past two weeks, including a 6-year-old boy in Aichi prefecture who died last Tuesday after a school excursion, Kyodo News reported. Government agencies have warned that the countrys 35 million senior citizens are particularly vulnerable to the heat; at least 80 per cent of the casualties have been among those age 65 and above, a researcher told Reuters.

This heat is a threat to life, a spokesperson for Japans Meteorological Agency said in a news conference Monday. We recognize it as a natural disaster.

A spokesperson for the agency told the BBC that many areas of the country have experienced unprecedented levels of heat. In the city of Kumagaya, 40 miles from Tokyo, temperatures rose to about 41 degrees Celsius on Monday  the highest recorded in Japan. In Tokyo, home to more than 9 million people, temperatures topping 40 degrees were reported for the first time.

In the past week, schools across Japan have cancelled outdoor and sporting events, CNN reported, including parts of the famous Gion Matsuri festival that runs in Kyoto each July.

Air conditioning is relatively rare in Japan, where years of government-led environmental campaigns have encouraged residents and organizations to reduce their reliance on cooling technology. According to CNN, a 2017 government survey found that less than 45 per cent of state-run elementary and middle schools had air conditioning and that most apartment buildings did not have centralized climate-control systems.

To cool off, many people in Tokyo have started bringing small fans with them as they walk through the streets. Other heat-combating devices were put on display on Thursday at a trade fair in the city, including industrial-strength mist sprayers and a jacket with built-in fans.

Japans heat wave has also renewed concerns about the countrys ability to host the next Summer Olympics, which are scheduled for July and August 2020. Earlier this month, a representative of the International Olympic Committee said steps were being taken to minimize the impact of Japans summer heat on the Games, the Wall Street Journal reported. Announcements have already been made that some outdoor events, such as the marathon, will be held at earlier hours than usual to avoid the heat.

Read more about:The first part of this that's rather rich is the idea that it's unacceptable to monetize political office and experience. Trump as president hasn't gone very far to separate himself from his businesses, and he has made a habit of promoting and using his properties, with both foreign leaders and political types frequenting them. As for using positions of power for personal gain, there were more than a dozen investigations into now-former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt for exactly that kind of thing before he was pushed out. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke faces similar probing.GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORYEmployees of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency are holding a demonstration in the Gaza Strip in protest of sweeping pay cuts and dismissals.

Hundreds of employees of the agency, known as UNRWA, held a sit-in on Wednesday at the organizations Gaza City headquarters. One former staffer attempted to set himself on fire, but was stopped.

UNRWA recently fired 125 Gaza employees and downgraded another 580 to contract workers.

Earlier this year, the U.S. cut around $300 million in funding to UNRWA, resulting in a $217 million budget shortfall that U.N. officials warned would result in major cutbacks.

UNRWA provides basic services to millions of Palestinians and their descendants, made refugees in Gaza, West Bank and neighbouring Arab countries after Israels creation in 1948. Israel contends UNRWA perpetuates the refugee problem.

Read more:

UN receives $100M in new funding for Palestinian aid after U.S. cuts

Liberals give $25 million to controversial Palestinian aid agency

U.N. agency suspends Gaza staffer amid alleged ties to Hamas

Read more about:SAN DIEGOA federal judge on Tuesday criticized the Trump administrations accounting of hundreds of parents who may have been deported after being separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it a deeply troubling reality.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw was responding to a government court filing that said 463 parents may not be in the United States. The government said those findings are based on case notes and are under review, signalling the number could change.

Its the reality of a policy that was in place that resulted in large numbers of families being separated without forethought as to reunification and keeping track of people, and thats the fallout were seeing, he said in a court.

The comments were in line with his long-standing criticism of the governments zero-tolerance policy on illegal entry for causing many families to be separated. He also praised the administrations recent efforts to reunite as many people as possible before his court-imposed deadline of Thursday, calling it a remarkable achievement.

As many as 2,551 children 5 and older are being considered for family reunification, though the administration deems more than 900 either not eligible, or not yet known to be eligible, for reunification.

There have been 1,187 children reunified with their parents or other appropriate discharges, which include guardians and sponsors, according to a government filing.

Tuesdays hearing  the seventh in the case this month  came after negotiations broke down between the government and the American Civil Liberties Union on how much time parents should have to decide whether to seek asylum after they are reunited with their children. The impasse kept a temporary halt on deporting reunified families in place at least until a hearing on Friday.

According to a government filing in federal court on Tuesday, the administration proposed a four-day waiting period, three days shorter than the ACLU proposed. ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt disputed that account and said more details would be offered in a court filing Wednesday.

The Justice Departments longer waiting period would increase costs and occupy limited beds, David Jennings, an official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a declaration filed with the court. It costs $319 a day to detain a family member, and there are about 2,500 to 2,700 beds nationwide to house families.

The ACLU argues that parents need at least a week to discuss whether to seek asylum with their children, lawyers and advocates.

Things are really a mess on the ground and we absolutely need seven days, Gelernt said.

Justice Department attorney Scott Stewart disputed Gelernts remarks that reunifications were a mess.

The two sides appeared close to an agreement on Monday when they jointly requested a 24-hour extension to iron out differences.MINNEAPOLISTwo teenage boys sued the Minnesota State High School League on Wednesday, alleging it maintains unconstitutional rules that bar boys from joining girls competitive high school dance teams.

Dmitri Moua and Zachary Greenwald filed a federal lawsuit with help from their parents and the Pacific Legal Foundation, which has worked on similar cases with students in at least two other states.

The two 16-year-olds want to try out for their schools dance teams in suburban Minneapolis, but the leagues rules prohibit boys from competing on girls dance teams, according to the lawsuit. The suit argues the rules violate Title IX, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funds.

Things are changing, Moua told The Associated Press on Wednesday. I feel that students should not be limited based on sex.

Foundation attorney Caleb Trotter added in a statement: Minnesotas school sports league cannot discriminate against boys based on nothing more than an outdated stereotype that dancing is for girls only.

The Minnesota State High School League doesnt comment on pending litigation, spokesperson Tim Leighton said Wednesday.

Moua, who will be a junior this fall at Roseville Area High School, volunteered to become the manager for his schools dance team but no longer wants to sit on the sidelines. He said he finds that dance gives him self-confidence and a feeling of acceptance and belonging, the lawsuit said.

Greenwald, who will be a junior at Hopkins High School, began dancing in fifth grade and thrives on the athleticism and competition of dance, according to the lawsuit.

The Minnesota State High School League was previously threatened with a lawsuit by the California-based Pacific Legal Foundation after the league barred a male student from the high school dance championship in 2017. The student attended a high school in northwestern Wisconsin that competed against Minnesota teams.

Attorneys for the student filed a federal civil rights complaint that November. In May, the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights determined that there wasnt enough evidence to conclude that the league discriminated against boys in the case. The students school had already withdrawn from the Minnesota league, and he was able to dance with his team in Wisconsin, according to the foundation.

The South Dakota High School Activities Association board of directors voted to suspend its rule to allow a male student to compete on his high schools dance team this fall. The move came after the student filed a lawsuit with help from the foundation.ATTAPEU, LAOSRescuers searched Wednesday for scores of villagers left missing when part of a newly built hydroelectric dam broke in southeastern Laos, flooding the surrounding countryside and killing at least 24 people, officials said.

More than 6,000 people lost their homes when the South Korean-built dam gave way on Monday, flooding surrounding villages.

Hundreds took shelter in nearby towns, travelling by bus and pickup trucks and sleeping on plastic sheeting.

The water came so quick we just left the house and ran away, said Phon Vuongchonpu, whose family of 12 fled as the floodwater rose to roof level. Weve lost everything: motorbike, furniture our cows and pigs.

Bounyong Phommachak, a Red Cross official, said 24 bodies had been recovered and 96 people were officially listed as missing. He said by phone that about 6,600 people have been displaced from their homes.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed people sitting on rooftops to escape the surging water, while others were carried to safety or rescued by boat.

One of five auxiliary earth-fill dams at the project began visibly weakening on Friday, said Korea Western Power, one of two South Korean partners in the hydroelectric project.

SK Engineering & Construction, the other Korean joint venture partner, said the top of the dam was swept away Sunday as workers were struggling to control the damage amid heavy rain. The situation worsened on Monday as water cascaded out of the reservoir, flooding seven out of 12 villages in the area, SK E&C said. It was helping to evacuate and rescue residents and sent its president and a team of 30 people to the disaster zone.

Read more:

Hundreds missing in southeastern Laos after hydroelectric dam collapses

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Continued heavy rain and strong winds forecast for the area could hinder rescue efforts, and risks from flooding persisted in the mountainous region. A report by the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission said storms had caused water levels along the river to rise by 3-5 metres in the past week.

Provincial authorities issued a call for emergency aid, and residents in Paksong were streaming to the evacuation shelter bringing food, as doctors attended to those needing help.

I feel safe here, but worry for my husband and son who are still in the village, said Tem Namsakhunpiraded, who escaped the floodwaters with three of her children and a six-month-old grandchild.

The International Red Cross said food was a concern because village food supplies were drenched in the flooding. It was arranging for water purification units to be sent to the area to ensure supplies of clean drinking water.

The presidential office in South Korea said President Moon Jae-in had ordered an emergency relief team to help with the disaster.

The $1.02 billion project encompassing several river basins in a remote corner of southeastern Laos is the first hydroelectric dam to be built by a South Korean company, and it was unclear how severe the damage would be to the overall plan. The dam was due to begin operating in 2019, with 90 per cent of the power generated going to Thailand.

Shares of companies affiliated with SK E&C sank on Wednesday on concerns over potential costs for compensation and other financial setbacks from the disaster.

Laos has dozens of hydroelectric projects under construction and plans for sales of power to neighbouring countries, now accounting for about a third of its exports, to grow substantially.

But dam building along the Mekong River and its tributaries, including those affected by this disaster, has raised concerns over environmental impact and other problems.

International Rivers, a non-governmental group generally critical of such projects, said the catastrophe showed the need to improve warning systems.

With over 70 hydropower projects currently built, under construction and planned across Lao PDR  most of them owned and operated by private companies  authorities must immediately review how dams are being planned, designed and managed, the group said in a statement.

Read more about:A federal judge ordered the immediate release of a New York City pizza deliveryman from immigration custody Tuesday, calling the undocumented Ecuadoran immigrant a model citizen and pointedly questioning the U.S. governments desire to immediately deport him.

Pablo Villavicencio, father of two U.S. citizens, was arrested June 1 while delivering pasta to a Brooklyn military base, where Army security officers questioned his identification and alerted immigration authorities. At the time of his arrest, he was in the middle of seeking legal status. But the U.S. government sought to deport him as soon as possible, causing uproar among activists and public officials alike.

U.S. District Judge Paul Crottys decision Tuesday, however, stays Villavicencios removal so that he can continue pursuing permanent residency. To deny him that opportunity, Crotty wrote in the order, would violate his rights.

Although he stayed in the United States unlawfully and is currently subject to a final order of removal, he has otherwise been a model citizen, Crotty, a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in the order. Petitioner married . . . a United States citizen. He now has two children, both of whom are United States citizens. He has no criminal history. He has paid his taxes. And he has worked diligently to provide for his family.

Crottys decision came hours after oral arguments in the case Tuesday afternoon, a hearing that drew scores of protesters outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan. The government argued that Villavicencio could continue his bid for a green card in Ecuador  but Crotty, unconvinced by the governments justification for deporting him, questioned what purpose this would serve in the interest of justice.

Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must, he said, according to multiple media reports of the hearing. I mean, is there any concept of justice here or are we just doing this because we want to? Why do we want to enforce the order? It makes no difference in terms of the larger issues facing the country.

Read more:

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Questioning the purpose of Villavicencios continued detention, he asked, What is the danger to the community for a man who has committed no crime?

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York did not comment on the ruling Tuesday and the lawyer handling Villavicencios case could not be immediately reached by The Washington Post early Wednesday.

Villavicencio entered the United States illegally in 2008 and agreed to voluntarily leave the country at an immigration hearing in 2010, according to Crottys order. Instead, he remained in the country, married Sandra Chica, a U.S. citizen, and started a family. In February, Chica helped him submit a petition for alien relative asking the government to recognize Villavicencio as her spouse, which is the first step in seeking a green card, according to the order. But before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services could process the form, Villavicencio was arrested.

It was a routine delivery, Villavicencio would soon tell the New York Post from behind bars. In fact, he had delivered pizza to the Fort Hamilton Army garrison in the past and had no problems. But that day, June 1, a different security guard working the gate questioned his New York ID card, finding it insufficient.

He called the NYPD and the NYPD told him I didnt have any record, that I was clean, Villavicencio told the New York Post. But the man said, I dont care. He said I need to keep waiting and he called ICE.

Since then, Villavicencio missed Fathers Day and his oldest daughters birthday, Chica said at a news conference Tuesday. Activists with the immigration rights group Make the Road New York galvanized the community to his defence, attracting the support of the city council and New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who called Villavicencios 53-day detention unconscionable and a disgraceful affront to our New York values.

On Tuesday, Chica and Villavicencios immigration lawyers, from The Legal Aid Society and the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, held a news conference pleading a last time for Villavicencios release ahead of the hearing. Chica and Villavicencios younger daughter had a birthday coming up, Chica said. She and the girls couldnt bear his absence at another one.

Pablos absence has brought us significant hardship, Chica said. Its not easy to become a single mom in one day. Its hard, being with two little girls, to be by myself with all the responsibilities I have now. We hope this nightmare is finished tomorrow, and my daughters can be again with their father. We hope the right thing is done tomorrow. Is it really too much for me to ask to keep my family together?

Crotty explained in his order that because USCIS was in the middle of processing Villavicencios petition for alien relative, deporting him would violate his rights under the Fifth Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act. USCIS had in fact already scheduled an interview with Villavicencio, according to Crottys order. His continued detention served no purpose because removal is no longer reasonably foreseeable, Crotty wrote.

Should the Villavicencios petition be approved, his next step would need to obtain permission to reapply for admission into the United States since he entered illegally. Then he would need to obtain a provisional unlawful presence waiver, which allows undocumented people to remain in the United States while they apply for a green card rather than having to stay in their home countries for the duration.

Crotty noted that he intends to publish a formal opinion beyond the four-page writ of habeas corpus order granting Villavicencios release Tuesday.

Surrounded by supporters, Villavicencio walked out of the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey about 9 p.m. He embraced his wife, and then he knelt down as his two daughters ran toward him. In Spanish and in a cracking voice, he yelled, I love you, and hugged them both.WASHINGTON  A Republican congressman says Canada has committed economic terrorism by imposing tariffs on U.S. agricultural products.

We knew that Europe, China, Canada and Mexico would go after American ag. Thats how they try to take us down. This is, I think, economic terrorism in a way, Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy said on Fox News on Wednesday. They want to shock us into submission by going after our ag instead of saying you know what, lets reduce barriers.

Canada imposed its tariffs on more than 200 U.S. products, including cucumbers, orange juice and beef, in response to President Donald Trumps own tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

The remarks from Duffy were the most inflammatory uttered about Canadas trade practices by any Republican member of Congress in the Trump era. Many of them have been sympathetic to Canadas position.

Duffy spoke a day after the Trump administration announced a $12 billion aid package for farmers who have been hurt by the retaliation. Farmers and several farm-state Republican senators denounced the package, saying Trump should pursue free trade rather than a cycle of protectionism and welfare payments.

Trump has expressed increasing frustration with critics of his tariffs, among them many members of his own party. In a speech on Tuesday, he asked farmers to just be a little patient. In tweets on Wednesday, he criticized tariff critics as weak and accused them of undermining his negotiating position.

When you have people snipping at your heels during a negotiation, it will only take longer to make a deal, and the deal will never be as good as it could have been with unity, he wrote. Negotiations are going really well, be cool. The end result will be worth it!

Some companies have already taken a major hit from the tariffs. Shares of General Motors and Fiat Chrysler fell sharply on Wednesday after they cut their profit forecasts in response to tariff-related costs.

Trump met at the White House on Wednesday with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission. Trump has been threatening to impose hefty tariffs on European cars; the Washington Post reported that he indeed wants to impose them, despite warnings from his own advisers and every corner of the U.S. industry.

Trump offered conciliatory words at the beginning of their meeting, calling Juncker smart and tough. He said: If we could have no tariffs, and no barriers, and no subsidies, the United States would be extremely pleased.

Canadas Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Mexico on Wednesday to meet with top economic officials and with representatives of newly elected president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who takes office in December.

Trump has mused again in the last week about splitting the North American Free Trade Agreement into two separate agreements, one with Canada and one with Mexico. Last week, he said he might try to make a deal with Mexico first and Canada at a later time.

Both the current and incoming Mexican governments have rejected this idea. On Wednesday, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said, The essence of this agreement is trilateral, and it will continue being trilateral.

In a July 20 letter to Lopez Obrador, Trump said a NAFTA deal would have to be made quickly or else he would be forced to go a much different route, implicitly suggesting his usual threat to terminate the deal.

It would not be my preference, Trump said of the different route, but it would be far more profitable for the United States and its taxpayers.

Lopez Obrador has long been a NAFTA critic, but his public rhetoric has been warmer in the last year. On Tuesday, his NAFTA negotiator expressed optimism that a deal could be completed this year.

What I seeto be a very feasible expectation is that well be concluding the negotiation in the next two months if possible, or in the next few months a bit further down the road, Jesus Seade told Mexican radio, Reuters reported.

Others are skeptical that a deal could be made that fast, especially because of the upcoming U.S. congressional mid-terms.

Seade made clear that there are major differences outstanding. He said Mexico cannot accept Trumps proposed five-year sunset clause, seasonal tariffs on Mexican fruits and vegetables, and elimination of the independent dispute-resolution tribunals.

Read more about:HELSINKIA Swedish student activist has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum-seeker by purchasing a ticket for the flight removing him and then refusing to sit down, preventing the plane from taking off.

Elin Ersson live-streamed her protest to Facebook from inside the plane that was due to fly from Swedens second city, Goteborg, to Istanbul and then on to Kabul.

Speaking in English she explained that the man was being deported to Afghanistan where he will most likely get killed.

The video was widely shared on social media and had received some 2 million views by Wednesday.

The man and Ersson were eventually both removed from the plane after a tense standoff.

German channel Deutsche Welle said he was taken into custody and would still face deportation, while Ersson may face legal action.

Read more about:CONCORD, N.H.A hamburger chain and a marketing company are apologizing over a tweet that featured an image of a journalist who was killed by the Daesh group.

James Foley, of New Hampshire, was killed in 2014 after being held hostage.

WMUR-TV reports the now-deleted tweet promoting Washington, D.C.-based Z-Burger said, When you say you want a burger and someone says okay lets hit McDonalds. A photo of Foley moments before his death was shown under the tweet with the words, you disgrace me.

Z-Burger owner Peter Tabibian cut ties with the contracted marketing company, Valor Media. Michael Valor said the employee who created the tweet hadnt heard of Foley and thought the image was from a movie.

Foleys mother released a statement saying she looked forward to an apology.

Read more:

Twitter, social media outlets block images of James Foley beheading

Islamic State group claims to have executed U.S. journalist James Foley

James Foley beheading key suspect former U.K. rapper

Read more about:ISTANBULAn American pastor who has been in custody for nearly two years on terror and espionage charges will be put under house arrest as his trial continues, Turkeys official news agency said Wednesday.

Anadolu news agency said that Pastor Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina would be released from a jail in western Turkey and be remanded at his house. Its not clear when he will be transferred.

Brunson has been in custody since he was arrested in December 2016.

If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison for committing crimes on behalf of terror groups without being a member, in reference to outlawed Kurdish militants and the network of a U.S-based Muslim cleric blamed for a failed coup attempt, as well as an additional 20 years for espionage.

Brunson strongly denies the charges.

The case has strained ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded his release.

Read more:

U.S. pastor denies terror links, spying in Turkish court

Trump tweeted in Brunsons defence last week, calling it a total disgrace that Brunson is being held. He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!

Brunsons case was among issues Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed by telephone earlier.

At the end of a recent hearing, the court inside a prison complex in the town of Aliaga in western Turkey rejected Brunsons lawyers request that he be freed pending the outcome of the trial. The case was adjourned until Oct. 12.It used to take 35 minutes to commute from my home to my downtown office at Ryerson University. Now I allow over an hour because of delays. And like many who use the Toronto subway every day, Im losing patience.

Perhaps Id cut the TTC some slack, but having recently returned from Tokyo, nothing about Torontos subway looks the same. For the weeks we were there, we rode Tokyos subway several times a day. Never was there a delay. On the rare occasion this happens, workers offer profuse apologies.

Sometimes wed see people who appeared to be in a deep sleep but then, uncannily, wake up at precisely the moment the train pulled into the station. Turns out the subway keeps such a strict schedule that people can literally set their clocks by it. A cellphone alarm wakes those commuters at the precise moment the train arrives.

And we never had to worry about a line being closed for construction as all work is done overnight, after the subway closes. This summer in Toronto there have been weekend closures for construction virtually every weekend.

Japans subway is run by two companies. Tokyo Metro, which runs nine of Tokyos subway lines, is a private company owned by the Japanese federal and the Tokyo municipal governments in an arms-length relationship. Toeis four lines are owned by the municipal government. The citys transit funding is stable and the subway system is a priority.

And when that happens everyone takes notice. Attendants seemed to take enormous pride in their work. When we asked a station attendant for information, he later came running to find us, holding a map that made directions clearer.

Yes, the subway is crowded at peak times and notorious for attendants who push people on. But Ive seen the subway in Toronto when its every bit as crowded. And thats without the consolation of an exquisitely run system.

So maybe I was getting spoiled by the time I arrived home to a community report from our councillor that said the TTC relief line should be our highest priority but remains unfunded. Unavailable too, it seems, money to address technical issues that cause many of the delays.

During the Ontario election campaign, Doug Ford pledged $5 billion for public transit. Thats on top of the $9 billion over the next decade already pledged last March by the federal and provincial governments. Lets see what happens, and lets not forget Fords promise.

We can continue to argue that excellent public transit is an expense we cant afford. We can speculate that people wont be willing to pay higher taxes to support the transit system. We can incite people to turn to their cars in frustration, and to continue to clog the downtown core. We can continue to debate the issue as we wait to see what the new provincial government will do.

But for any commuting Torontonian, that train has already left the station.

Marsha Barber is a professor at the Ryerson University School of Journalism.

Read more about:As for Democrats, lets hope their newfound antipathy for Russia is not just a convenient way to get President Donald Trump. Russia is a threat not just because it interfered in the 2016 election. Russia is a threat because it assassinates Putins critics with chemical weapons, shoots down civilian airliners, arms the Taliban, supports Iran, violates its treaty obligations, targets NATO allies with nuclear missiles and annexes the territory of its neighbors. That threat will still be there when Trump is gone. The question is: Will the Democrats still be Russia hawks then?Getting there without a car, July 23

Here are four ways for carless locals and tourists to get out of town for wonderful daytrips.

1) The Stratford Festival runs round trips from Front Street to Stratford for theatre ticketholders on performance days until November ($29).

2) The Shaw Festival runs round trips from Front Street to Niagara-on-the-Lake four times a week until October for ticket holders ($25).

3) The McMichael Canadian Art Collection runs an Art Bus from Spadina and King to Kleinburg every Sunday until late October ($15 plus admission).

4) The Toronto Club of the Bruce Trail Conservancy organizes bus hikes to the wilderness (around $20).Thoughts and prayers are fine. Certainly cant hurt.

Shrines of flowers and stuffed animals are fine. A community wants to express its sorrow when tragedies strike, although weve become so cynical that small gestures are often ridiculed as shallow sentimentality.

Programs to engage youth, diverting them from gun and gang culture, are fine. Nobody is born bad, but some do grow up that way when options are limited, when theyre surrounded by a society of plenty and they have nothing. They want.

Enhanced mental health resources are fine. But the severely mentally ill are rarely dangerous to anyone other than themselves and demonizing the crazies  be they wasted drug users, or schizophrenic, or psychotic  is malicious.

Strangling gangbangers (not literally, obviously) is fine. But theyre laughing at us. Even when rounded up in aggressive multi-jurisdictional police raids, theyre laughing. Theyll make bail or not. Theyll be sent off to jail or not. But as weve seen, from the names of accused charged in Project Patton last month, many of the same individuals had been arrested before for the same crimes. Theyve done time. And theyve gone right back to criminal lives, a plague on their neighbourhoods. The laughter may be a mask, but sometimes the mask becomes grafted to the face.

You can blame it on poverty, on hopelessness, on racial and economic disparities, on families with absent fathers and shabby parenting, even on the allure of a swaggering macho gun culture glamourized in rap lyrics and videos.

One cant, shouldnt, conflate the horrors of Sunday night on the Danforth or the April van attack along north Yonge St.  double whammies to the Toronto gut  with the night-to-night week-to-week violence on the citys streets, in a year where murders and shootings are headed toward record heights.

Characterizing the spikes as modest or anomalies or short-term distortions ignores the fact that these were real lives lost, not mere statistics on a police database, and while the homicide tally stands at 58  29 fatal shootings, compared to 17 at this time last year  scant attention has been paid to the other 308 victims in 228 shooting incidents, year to date.

A shooter with a gun in his hand has all the power.

Thats what entices them.

Whether for financial profit  the drug business which underpins so much of the violence  or to avenge a perceived dis, as part of an urban gang, a kind of nihilistic militia, theres power at the end of a gun. Theres warped immediate justice.

And its so easy, if you have the nerve, if you dont have the conscience, and especially if you care about yourself as little as you care about others.

What to do what to do.

Read more:

Toronto gunman not on the radar of national security agencies, safety minister says

From Alexander the Great Parkette to a shootout on Bowden St., how a gunmans walk hit at the heart of the Danforth

What drove the Toronto shooter to unleash violence on the Danforth?

That was the debate, the hand-wringing, at Toronto city council on Tuesday, particularly a $44 million five-year strategy  developed by city staff but drawn up by Mayor John Tory and Police Chief Mark Saunders  to combat escalating gun violence, incorporating intervention and prevention programs (asking the feds for $29 million to pay for it), installing 40 additional CCTV cameras and perhaps purchasing the controversial ShotSpotter technology that detects the sound of gunshots and reports it in real time to police.

Much of it amounted to righteous rhetoric, before they got around to passing some sensible motions. But the exercise served as microcosm for crusaders at obstinate cross-purposes: the roots of violence brigade (thug huggers) versus the muscular law enforcement brigade (shock doctrine).

I dont give a tinkers damn about repurposing gun clubs and rezoning gun ranges. Those arent the firearms being used in homicides. Its distracting argy-bargy.

I dont care about resurrecting the ditched long-gun registry that wrongly put the burden of bureaucracy on lawful hunters and farmers. Those arent the firearms spilling blood on Toronto streets.

I do care about dismantling transit routes that bring guns into Canada  a federal jurisdiction. So, nothing but blather from the municipal politicians, to-ing and fro-ing, demanding Ottawa do this and do that. Nobody needs a gun blah-blah-blah. Well, Im not entirely sure about that either. But nobody needs an assault rifle  and theyre already banned, as are most semi-automatic assault weapons.

I do care, as everybody should, about young men seduced into the gang culture. Dont require even a high school diploma for that. But target those at-risk communities  protecting the overwhelmingly law-abiding citizens therein  and youre accused over-policing and racializing law enforcement.

It cant be soft-soaped that crime is eating Toronto Community Housing alive  4 per cent of city residents live there, coping with a drastically disproportionate level of crime in their midst, with the takeover by drug-dealers and gangbangers of units often inhabited by vulnerable tenants such as the elderly. They do exist, said new CEO Kathy Milsom. Theyre still a small percentage but theyre a huge concern to us.

The eviction for bad elements is lengthy and laborious. And, in the past, some of these same councillors who suddenly give a great big damn about violence advocated against loosening eviction protocols. Of course they dont live there.

Milsom asked council to urge the province  their jurisdiction  to provide Toronto public housing with more tools and flexibility for evictions.

We do have the ability to evict tenants who have been convicted of crimes and we do undertake to do so as quickly as we can.

Much talk about increasing community officer presence and crisis response units. Yet, at any given time, they have only between nine to 13 special constables on the road to cover 2100 buildings in 104 communities.

If the problem is so urgent  no disputing it  then how can this be? Those numbers are ridiculous  outmanned, certainly outgunned, by the malefactors.

The most shocking fact that jumped out Monday was when Police Chief Mark Saunders, in reply to a question, noted that, at peak times, he has only about 245 front-line officers to be deployed. On a police force of some 4800 uniformed personnel.

I need to get 300 people on the road.

There have already been labour grumbles about the stopgap move  begun last weekend  to reduce gun violence by sending an extra 200 into priority areas between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. over the next eight weeks via mandatory overtime.

Youd probably grumble too if, as a cop, your insights into crime, on everything from street carding to intensive community mobilization strategies, are dismissed out of hand.

The road to the greater good is paved with noble intentions  and scattered with bullet-riddled bodies.

Rosie DiManno is a columnist based in Toronto covering sports and current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

Read more about:VANCOUVERMothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) joined several Metro Vancouver mayors Tuesday to add their voices to an increasing number of politicians and organizations calling for immediate action from the provincial government on bringing ridesharing to the province.

MADDs western regional manager Tracy Crawford said denying British Columbians access to ridesharing hamstrings the positive impact the industry could have on reducing impaired driving in the province.

Further delays cannot be justified, she said. Its an option that should be available to people in British Columbia now, not next fall.

MADD is a member of pro-rideshare coalition Ridesharing Now For B.C., which is made up of 30 member organizations including hospitality groups and other business associations.

Transportation Minister Claire Trevena offered an update on when services like Uber and Lyft might become available, and what would be done to modernize taxi regulations in the meantime. https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/07/19/still-no-timeline-on-ride-hailing-options-for-bc.html

While she avoided giving a definitive answer Thursday, on whether another New Years Eve would come and go without rideshare services available, Ridesharing Now president and CEO Ian Tostenson said the ministers explicit commitment to developing rideshare legislation in the fall was good news.

We are very happy with what we heard from the ministry..., he said. I think the governments taking a cautious approach to what theyre doing, which is fine.

But Trevenas message failed to assuage the concerns of all of Rideharing Nows members.

Iain Black, president and CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, said there is no excuse for the holdup.

Black, a former provincial minister, said in an interview Thursday that the public safety concerns cited by Trevena as a motivation for legislative due diligence were unwarranted. The province has had more than enough time to do its homework, he said.

In the meantime, the governments heel-dragging amounts to a de facto win for the cab companies, who continue to hold a monopoly on B.C.s for-hire ridership, he added, while riders looking for a lift are left in the lurch.

City of Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart said he didnt wish to point the finger at the current provincial government, since the previous government failed to move on ridesharing as well. But Stewart  who spoke to reporters about losing a high school friend shortly after graduation because of an impaired driver  was adamant there could be no more delays in bringing ridesharing to B.C.

Asked what his ideal timeline would be, he answered: What time is it now?

It has to be before Christmas, he added, noting residents of Metro Vancouver suburbs were especially affected by the taxi crunch that often leaves reams of riders waiting outside popular bars in downtown Vancouver, fighting for a late-night ride home. Some of these people, he said, may choose to drive home drunk rather than wait on the curb for an hour  a choice he said ridesharing would help make unnecessary.

This is urgent, he said.

West Vancouver Mayor Michael Smith was less generous with his patience, saying the governments delay in bringing rideshare to market is clearly politically motivated.

Smith said the provinces delays were designed to appease powerful taxi lobbies and their many supporters around Metro Vancouver. And though its not tactful to acknowledge that fact, he said, he was fed up with pretending otherwise.

We use weasel-words, like, We need two years to ensure public safety, he said. Thats complete nonsense.  This is not rocket science. Its done all over the world.

Publicly-available data from Elections BC shows the BC NDP received $68,525 from cab companies and associations over the course of 2016-17. The Vancouver Taxi Association gave more than $33,500 during that period, with one donation of $20,000 landing two weeks before the 2017 election.

(The BC NDP are not the only party to have received significant financial support from cab companies leading up to last years election. The BC Liberals, for instance, received $57,490 from many of the same contributors between July, 2015 and the end of 2017, according to Elections BC data. Nearly $55,000 of that total came from the Vancouver Taxi Association.)

The NDP has since introduced campaign finance reforms, which ban union and corporate donations, and limits individual campaign contributions to $1,200.

Meanwhile, The Provinces Mike Smyth reported last week that the Vancouver Taxi Association is lobbying the provincial government to approve a six-month pilot for a new ride-hailing app called Kater.

The association wants 200 new Kater Cabs rolled out across B.C.  to the exclusion of competitors like Uber and Lyft  with 20 per cent of the profits going to taxi firms. The cars would operate in the same way as Uber, and would charge users rates equal to those charged by standard cabs.

And for mayor Smith, this situation is inexcusable.

The governments ministers, he said, were elected to serve their constituents.

They wont do what they were elected to do, which is bring in legislation that serves the public, Smith added. Its not right.

Read more about:But theres more! And it involves an even juicier topic than a Trumps alleged affair with a Playmate: $12 billion in bailout money to soybean farmers as compensation for Trumps tariff war. Yes, thats true, and weve obtained the transcript (not true) of a phone conversation between the president and an unidentified Illinois farmer that explains everything (in our overheated imaginations, anyway):Authorities have suspended the active ground search for a missing Murrayville man, although the investigation into his disappearance continues.

Ryan Rahn, 33, is considered medically endangered. A search began Sunday after he left on foot from his residence on Leetham Road about 9:20 a.m. The search continued Monday and Tuesday, with Illinois Search and Rescue assisting.ALTON  A 9-year-old boy who died Monday evening after rescuers pulled him from the muddy Mississippi River waters by the public boat launch had been with a group of friends and relatives.

A relative identified the victim as Harry B. Saulsberry Jr. of Alton, who went by the nickname BB. The boat launch area is at the east end of Alton Marina under the Clark Bridge.

Pfc. Emily Hejna, public information officer for the Alton Police Department, confirmed the boys death at a local hospital, and said he was with a group of people when he went into the water.

She referred a reporters questions to the Madison County Coroners Office. The coroner and deputies, though, all were attending a funeral in the morning and did not release information later Tuesday on the death.

Alton detectives returned to the site early Tuesday morning as part of the death investigation.

Someone called 911 at 4:48 p.m. Monday to report that a 9-year-old boy, who could not swim, had fallen into water by the marina. A police officer was the first to reach the area, with Fire Chief Bernie Sebold and five firefighters and other officers soon arriving thereafter. The rescuers quickly waded into the dark, murky waters, combing the depths for the submerged child. The rescuers moved from area to area as they searched for BB.

After several tense minutes, one of the rescuers located the unconscious boy in about 10 feet of water, about 9 feet from the end of a dock.

Sebold carried the child as he ran up the concrete public launch ramp and loaded BB into a waiting, Alton Fire Department ambulance. Firefighter paramedics then drove the boy to OSF Saint Anthonys Hospital emergency department where staff unsuccessfully attempted to revive the child.

It was unclear how long the boy had been under water.

Sebold said such rescues are extremely difficult, as firefighters are not equipped with diving equipment. Monday evening, Sebold described visibility in the water as being pitch black.

Youre searching blindly under water, and you just have to stay down as long as you can, he said.

Nathan Woodside, web producer at Hearst, provided information for this article.EDWARDSVILLE  Recent felony charges filed by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Herbert E. Johnson, 46, of the 500 block of Stowell Street, Alton, was charged July 20 with domestic battery (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony, after allegedly throwing a telephone, grabbing and pinning a family member to a wall that day. He has a prior conviction for domestic battery in 2008 in Madison County. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Freddy R. McDonald, 70, of Tuscola, Illinois, was charged July 24 with stalking, a Class 4 felony, after allegedly placing a GPS tracking device on a womans vehicle, and sending her multiple letters with this information of her whereabouts on it and language to make her fear for her safety. The incidents allegedly took place in Edwardsville between Dec. 8 and June 1. Bail was set at 30,000.

 Suheir A. Hamid, 33, of the 400 block of Westchester, Glen Carbon, was charged July 24 with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony, after Glen Carbon police allegedly found less than 15 grams of fentanyl April 1. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Elizabeth A. ODell, 36, of the 700 block of Harvard Drive, Edwardsville, was charged July 24 with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony, after Glen Carbon police found less than 15 grams of tramadol on July 7. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Chrissy L. Pehm, 40, of Springfield, and Nicholas A. Sharp, 38, of Centralia, were each charged with one count of forgery, a Class 3 felony, for checks passed on June 27. Bail was set at $30,000 each.EDWARDSVILLE  Madison Countys Chief Judge David Hylla swore in the Edwardsville District 7s new school board member Nekisha Omotola during the general board of education meeting last week.

Omotola was appointed to fill the seat of William Catalano, who resigned at the last board meeting.

We posted notices, and we had a list of very good candidates who came before us, Edwardsville District 7 Board of Education President Monica Laurent explained about the selection process. We went through a process, and we want to congratulate Mrs. Nekisha Omotola for taking the position. We are very excited to have her on board with us.

Omotola earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, and a Master of Business Administration from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis.

She has served as Goshen Elementary Schools PTO Vice President and Secretary as well as served as the assemblies and fundraising chairperson. She also volunteered in the community creating marketing materials and raising funds as a member of the Madison County Child Advocacy Center Friends Board and assisted with marketing materials through the Friends of the Wildey Theatre.

She and her husband, Aaron, and their two daughters reside in Glen Carbon.

I want to let everyone know that I am truly invested in this school district. Our family is invested in this school district, Omotola said after being sworn into her position.

Following Omotolas official appointment to the board of education, she took her seat on the board and the board proceeded with action items which included the approval of bills amounting to $1,214,247.37 and a list of approved financial institutions for District 7 depositories during the 2018-19 school year. The approved banks included Bank of New York, First Mid-Illinois Bank and TheBANK of Edwardsville.

The board unanimously approved school safety and security enhancements discussed during the last board meeting. The two-phase plan involves improving the security measures in each District 7 school building for the 2018-19 school year.

Phase one of the plan involved the locking of all school doors (including the main entrances) during the school day and the relocation of the districts School Safety Officers (SSOs) to the front of each school buildings main entrance, Edwardsville District 7 Superintendent Lynda Andre recapped.

Phase two of the plan included the installation of a video and audio communication system at each school buildings main entrance, new main entrance cameras to record each visitor entering a District 7 school building and the expansion of the districts SSO program to cover all hours of elementary school operations, including morning and afternoon hours for the districts Kid Zone (before and after school) program, Andre further noted.

Andre emphasized that Monday morning district administration had sat down with Glen Carbon Police Department Chief Todd Link, Edwardsville Police Department Chief Jay Keeven and Madison County Sheriff John Lakin as well as assistants and administrators from all three departments to brief them all on the districts new security plans.

They were extraordinarily pleased to see us taking these steps and have pledged to help us in any way to implement these changes, Andre stressed.

All phase one and phase two security updates will be completed prior to school beginning Aug. 16.

In addition, the board approved revisions to District 7 policies that were discussed at the last board meeting. The policy revisions were required due to the district allowing students to access its network as a part of the Bring Your Own Device program being implemented with the Schoology Learning Management System at Edwardsville High School for the 2018-19 school year.

Parents of EHS students can access more details about the Bring Your Own Device program by clicking on the Bring Your Own Device graphic located in the upper left-hand corner of the high schools web site at www.ecusd7.org/ehs

The next board of education general meeting is scheduled for Aug. 13.Judge Guzman was in no mood for the leniency requested by Kelleys lawyer, who asked for a term of no more than three years behind bars. The judge used the opportunity to recite a litany of the chaos that gun traffickers facilitate: Kids shot while skipping rope in front of their homes, people being shot while sitting in their living room, police officers being shot at and having to shoot back, police officers shooting people who dont have guns because they are so afraid that they might have guns.GODFREY  The Centralia Economic Development Office invites local business owners and entrepreneurs throughout the region to meet the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Metro East Small Business Development Center (SBDC) staff from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 28 at the RiverBend Growth Association (RBGA) Office, located at 6722 Godfrey Road, Godfrey.

Metro East SBDC staff will be available for one-on-one confidential counseling sessions with business owners and entrepreneurs. Topics will include, but are not limited to:

 Business financing

Marketing assistance

 Social media strategy

 Business plans

 Expansion opportunities

 Buying and/or selling a business

 State/federal regulations

 Exporting and international trade

Marc Voegele, owner of Express Employment Professionals, will present a 60-minute Generational Differences in the Workplace workshop, starting at noon.

This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs and business owners to discover the valuable business resources that the SBDC has to offer. Attendees who desire to meet privately with an SBDC counselor are encouraged to request a 30-minute appointment by calling (618) 650-2929.

Metro East SBDC Director JoAnn DiMaggio May finds these open house events to be an effective way to connect with the local business community. We always enjoy SBDC Community Days and greatly appreciate RBGA President John Keller for serving as our host, said Di Maggio May. It truly takes a team effort to help small businesses survive and thrive.

Di Maggio May and her staff plan to hold at least 10 SBDC Days in 2018.

The Metro East SBDC assists entrepreneurs as well as existing business owners operating in the nine-county Metro East region of Calhoun, Jersey, Madison, Bond, Clinton, St. Clair, Washington, Monroe and Randolph. It enhances the regions economic interests by providing one-stop assistance to individuals by means of counseling, training, research and advocacy for new ventures and existing small businesses.

SBDCs in Illinois are funded, in part, through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Small Business Administration, Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity and SIUE as a service to the community. To learn how these no-cost services may help your business venture, contact the Metro East SBDC at (618) 650-2929 or sbdcedw@gmail.com.EDWARDSVILLE  Edwardsville police are investigating a theft that took place Tuesday at Hudson Jewelers, located in Edwardsville Crossing off Troy Road.

Edwardsville Police Lt. Chris Byrne said a black male subject entered the store and was viewing merchandise. He reportedly took an item and left the area in a dark colored sedan.SPRINGFIELD  John Neece, 95, of White Hall took a sentimental journey Tuesday, when he climbed aboard a plane that took him back to 1945. At least in his mind.

The year 1945 was when Neece, then a 22-year-old radar operator, last rode in a B-24 Liberator bomber. But through the generosity of some friends, he got to experience that thrill again at Springfields Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport.

I never thought I would see a B-24 again, let alone ride on one, said Neece, who was visibly moved after the plane touched down following a short flight over central Illinois.

The biggest thrill was looking at the engines, the wingtips and the tail while we were in flight, Neece said. This was a surprise. It was just overwhelming.

Arranging the surprise flight was Neeces friend Willie Rees of Franklin.

I got the idea from an article in an aviation magazine and then talked to friends of John, and we sponsored his flight, Rees said. John has been a close friend for several years, and I wanted to do something special to repay him for all he has done for me. I knew this B-24 flight would mean something special to John.

Joining Neece on the flight were Rees, Phil Howe of Jacksonville and Chuck Frost of Winchester. Rees, Howe, Frost, Carl Moran of White Hall and Rick Hires of Carrollton sponsored the flight.

In 1945, Neece served in the 7th Air Force, 494th Bomb Group, 864th Squadron of the U.S. Army Air Forces in the South Pacific.

One night, we took off of Saipan and grazed the top of a hill with the back of the bomb bay as we were lifting off, Neece recalled. We made a 14-hour round-trip flight to Iwo Jima and back, and when we returned, the flight engineer grabbed a piece of sod off of the retracted tail wheel and waved it under the pilots nose. The pilot had refused to acknowledge that the plane struck the hill.

Neece said he and his B-24 crewmates went on bombing missions and snooper missions.

Snooper missions were to gain information about the enemy, Neece said. On one mission, we looked for the Japanese battleship Haruna, which we found and verified in a harbor. It was the largest blip, or target, I ever saw on my radar screen. The Navy sank the Haruna the next day.

The B-24 Neece got to relive his wartime experiences on Tuesday was brought to Springfield by The Collings Foundation, an educational organization based in Stow, Massachusetts. The foundation owns more than 50 aircraft from different eras and is traveling around the country giving people airplane rides as part of its Wings of Freedom Tour.

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.The United NationsWorld Food Programmme (WFP) in partnership with the government of Uganda isimplementing a Single Registry Modelling exercise for Karamoja. The exercise isbeing rolled out to Amudat District and includes the registration of allHouseholds and individuals in the District into a single model electronicdatabase as part of WFPs commitment to the Government of Uganda to bring allthe households in the community into a single database linked to the NationalSocial Protection Single Registry. This exercise will help act as a modellingplatform for the Government of Uganda in implementing a National SingleRegistry but also help address significant challenges associated with thefragmentation, duplication and inconsistencies in service delivery andenhancing coordination and partnership with all stake holders in the district.The adage that failures can teach many lessons seems quite...Nothing is true. Nothing is real. This column might not even exist, who knows? We may all be ducks. Its just impossible to tell, because what we see isnt what we think it is, you see? (Or do you? Who can know?)A panel headed by the director general of police (crime) of Kerala Police has submitted a report to state police chief Loknath Behera, recommending disciplinary action against as many as 59 personnel involved in criminal cases, ranging from attempt to murder to sexual harassment.

The panel was formed on Behera's directions about two months ago to suggest action against tainted officers in the force. The Kerala Police would seek legal advice from the Law Department regarding the action to be initiated. At least 10 of the 59 officers named by the panel could be dismissed from service, it was learnt.

A majority of the Kerala Police personnel who will face disciplinary proceedings and criminal investigation are police officers of, and below, the rank of sub-inspector. The cases against them included attempt to murder, atrocities against women, sexual abuse of children, forgery, assault on complainants and illegal financial transactions.

The Kerala State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) had directed Behera to fetch details of the Kerala Police officers named as accused in criminal offences after responses to queries under the Right to Information Act (RTI) showed an upward trend in the number of 'criminals in khaki' during the last two years.

Following this order, a panel comprising the DGP (crime), inspector general of police (intelligence), deputy inspector general (Armed Police Battalion), superintendent of police (security) and superintendent of police (NRI cell) was constituted to identify law enforcement officers who have been accused of criminal activities.

The data released by the Home Department in April in reply to an RTI application had pegged the number of Kerala Police officers involved in criminal cases at 1,129. That list included 10 DySPs, eight CIs and 195 personnel of SI-ASI ranks.

Based on that report, the committee was formed on April 24. A detailed probe was conducted into each case and 387 Kerala Police officers were prima facie found guilty in the inquiry. A revised list of offenders was prepared later, in which 59 officers were found to be involved in cases which were of grave nature. The final list was submitted to Behera on July 20.

Opining that the presence of such tainted officers would undermine discipline in the Kerala Police, the panel has recommended stringent action against the offenders. The DGP has also made it clear that those who are facing criminal charges would be shown the door.

As per Section 86 (C) of the Kerala Police Act, no person shall be eligible for appointment as a police officer or shall have the right to continue in employment as a police officer if that person is found mentally, physically or behaviourally unfit for carrying out the duties of the police. Since the rule also stipulates that the appointing authority needs to give reasonable opportunity to the accused to prove his/her innocence, criminal proceedings will be initiated only after completing all the legal formalities.

Based on legal advice, an explanation will be sought from the officers whose names figured in criminal case, revealed sources.

The Kerala Police started documenting officers facing charges of illegality as per a circular issued on September 9, 2011. Though the number of 'criminals in khaki' dropped in 2014, the figures took an upward curve in the following years, according to the reply to an RTI query filed by V. Sreekumar, secretary of the Kerala RTI Federation.

-Via onmanoramaThe unions response: Because, by law, all employees in an organized shop enjoy the raises, benefits, job protections and workplace conditions negotiated by unions, then all employees should share the cost of winning and protecting these advantages. Allowing them to opt out of so-called agency fees, which are independent from the portion of union dues that go toward political action, would make them like the deadbeats who enjoy a restaurant meal with friends and then refuse to help with the bill.Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Tuesday said the blatant reliance on social media needs to be checked by citizens themselves in order to ensure peace and order in society.

Misra said there was a surge in mob lynching incidents recently based on "viral texts on social media" leading to "mobocracy".

Misra was delivering the presidential address at a function organised by the International Law Association (ILA), where eminent jurist N.R. Madhava Menon delivered a lecture on courts, media and fair trial guarantee.

"There is a recent surge in mob lynching; please don't misunderstand me because I have authored the judgement, there is a recent surge in mob lynching based on the viral text on the social media and this leads to mobocracy and loss of individual life, in certain cases. The blatant reliance on social media needs to be checked by the citizens themselves to ensure peace and order in society," Misra said.

"Indian media houses must introspect and develop a sense of responsibility and maturity. The citizens need to be more responsible and filter the information as per their judgement before replying and acting, thereby paving a path to ensure fair trial with greater sense of responsibility," Misra noted.

He also said freedom of press is the mother of all liberties in a democratic society, and the media should have its own guidelines for self-regulation.

Chief Justice Misra said freedom of speech played a pivotal role in generating public opinion in matters of national importance, adding that it created an informed citizenry.

Freedom of press in a democratic society is the mother of all liberties. There is no doubt it is one of the most cherished and valuable rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It includes the right to know and the right to inform, Misra explained.

I am of the firm belief that there should be no guidelines [for the media]. Let them frame their own guidelines and be guided by that. Nothing can serve better than individual or collective guidelines of the press. There should not be any imposition, but there should be some kind of self-restriction, Misra added.

Misra said the media has the responsibility of maintaining objectivity while reporting on cases that could stir the emotions of the citizens.

Menon said media coverage at times posed a threat to a fair trial at three stagesprior to the trial, during the trial and after the completion of the trial.

He pointed out that disclosing the identity of the witnesses and accused might affect the trial process in many ways.

Menon said a parallel trial by the media might influence an investigating agency to make arrests and might even cause witnesses to turn hostile.

He added that post-trial, the independence of the judiciary was threatened if the media questioned the integrity of the judge.

The current chief justice of India does not want any curbs on the media and has, in fact, said in court that he does not want any curbs on the media, Menon said.

Menon added that the recent development in the Supreme Court regarding live telecast of proceedings will open a new chapter in media-judiciary relations.

Supreme Court Justice A.M. Khanwilkar was also present at the event.Space: the final frontier... More than being immortalised as the opening monologue of Star Trek by William Shatner, these four words also describe one of the fiercest battlegrounds between the worlds of faith and reason. The unknown expanse of the cosmos and its origins have long fascinated, intrigued and terrified mankind and often pitted the clergyman against the rationalist.

However, lost in the din of rationalist criticism of religion is the fact that several clergymen have taken lead roles in furthering research into the unknown. For instance, Belgian Catholic priest and astronomer Georges Lemaitre was the first to propound what later became known as the Big Bang Theory when he was pursuing his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1920s. And one of the people who initially opposed Lemaitres theory of the universe expanding was a certain Albert Einstein!

Now, a Jesuit priest-scientist, Richard D'Souza, could well be the next to follow the path of Lemaitre. D'Souza, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, made headlines recently as he was the lead author of a study that sheds light on our galaxy, the Milky Way, having a long-lost sibling galaxy. This sibling galaxy was devoured by Andromeda, the major galaxy that is nearest to the Milky Way, about 2 billion years ago. The study, led by D'Souza, is expected to alter our understanding of how a galaxy evolves.

Forty-year-old D'Souza has an Indian connection. He hails from Goa and grew up in Kuwait. After joining the Jesuits, he began his college education at St Xaviers College in Mumbai, which eventually led him to earn his PhD in astronomy from Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, in 2016. D'Souza, who works with the Vatican Observatory, is currently pursuing his post-doctoral studies in Michigan. In a conversation with THE WEEK, D'Souza gave insights into his work, what motivates him and the science-faith debate:

Can you explain what the nature of your research in astronomy is?

I study the growth and evolution of galaxies. Galaxies grow either by forming their own stars or by merging with other smaller galaxies. In the last few years, I have been focusing on the latter process. In particular, I am interested in studying what mergers do to galaxies. Do the properties of the main galaxy change after an impact with a smaller galaxy? By using a combination of computer models and observations, I tried to reconstruct the merger history of a particular galaxy.

... As a Catholic priest, what made you choose astronomy? Is it to show faith and science can be harmonious and prove God does exist?

I have always been interested in science, and as a person of faith, I believe in God and in his creation. For me studying the universe helps me learn more about its creator. Hence for me, studying astronomy, the stars and the galaxies is a form of worship. My Jesuit superiors have always encouraged me to pursue the study of astronomy and have destined me to work for the Vatican Observatory. Ultimately, I hope that my scientific research demonstrates that the Catholic Church is not against science, and that science and faith can mutually coexist and help each other.

A Vatican observatory was first established in 1774; would you argue that its work in astronomy has helped change the image of the Catholic Church, which has often been associated with the hounding of the likes of Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler?

In re-founding the Vatican Observatory in 1891, Pope Leo XIII wanted a scientific organisation that demonstrated that everyone might see clearly that the Church and her pastors are not opposed to true and solid science ... but that they embrace it, encourage it and promote it.

Over the years, the Vatican Observatory tries to do thisnot only in doing frontier research, but to demonstrate through our research that the Catholic Church is not opposed to good and true science. It is rather unfortunate how things played out in the life of Galileo; most of the happenings were connected with power struggles within the church. It must be emphasised that Galileo, till the end of his life, remained a good Catholic and one of his daughters was a nun.

What impact do you think your recent findingthe discovery of a long-lost sibling galaxy of the Milky Waywill have in boosting our understanding of the universe?

First, it is just cool to realise that there was a large galaxy, the third-largest member of the Local Group after the Andromeda and the Milky Way galaxies, and we did not know anything about it. Furthermore, this finding gives us the confidence that if we could solve part of the merger history of the Andromeda galaxy (for which we have the best data because of its proximity to us), then we could begin to unravel the merger history of more distant galaxies.

Finally, we have learned some important lessons from this finding: the disk of the Andromeda galaxy survived this massive merger and probably thickened in the process. We are confident that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, will survive the eventual collision with its satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, in about 1-2 billion years. In the future, we are confident that we will eventually unravel what mergers do to other galaxies.

What are the areas of astronomy you would like to venture into?

I would like to carry on with my current research into understanding what mergers do to galaxies. Eventually, I would also like to study our own Milky Way galaxy, and understand which of the properties of the Milky Way are due to mergers and which are due to its own evolution. Finally, I also would like to study the various physical processes that shape the growth and evolution of galaxies.

Being a Catholic priest, how 'different' do you feel while among fellow scientists, who are almost always perceived to be rationalists/sceptics?

Most scientists are often pleasantly surprised that I am a Catholic priest. This is because the members of the Vatican Observatory have set a good precedent in this academic field. Everywhere I go, I find that scientists know who they [Vatican Observatory researchers] are, and that they are well loved and accepted. Sometimes, I do encounter a few younger rationalists and sceptics, but these initial feelings soon go away once we start talking about science!

And how would you answer the 'believers/creationists'? Would people who believe the earth was formed in six days be comfortable to hear a priest talk of galaxies formed billions of years ago?

Before starting my PhD in astronomy, I taught biblical theology for about two years in Goa, catering towards the educated laity! Most people misunderstand the Catholic Churchs teaching on creation, or the Churchs position on Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

In fact, the first few chapters of Genesis are one of my favourite portions of the Bible and are a rich theological resource of the Christian understanding of the human person and the world. Much of our Christian ideas come from those chapters! I wish, in general, Christians and, in particular, these creationists would learn some more theology, beyond what is taught to children. This is why Pope Leo XIII insisted way back in 1891 that through the research and work of the members of the Vatican Observatory, we educate both the clergy and the laity about the Catholic Churchs teaching!

And finally, you spent years in India ministering as a priest before leaving for pursuing doctoral studies. Any plans to return?

I would love to come back to India; I always enjoy visiting, especially my parents in Goa. Some of my happiest years were the initial ones where I taught biblical theology for the laity in Goa. However, I am at the disposal of my Jesuit superiors. If there is an urgent need, they will mission me back to India.New Zealands Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has called on Australia to change its flag, accusing its neighbour of copying New Zealands own design - a jab at a time of testy relations between the normally close allies.

The two countries have been exchanging barbs over Australias so-called character test, which has resulted in a rise in the number of New Zealanders being deported from the country.

We had a flag which we had for a long time  copied by Australia and they should actually change their flag, Peters said on Television New Zealand, when an interviewer referenced a failed local 2015 referendum to change their own flag.

Peters is acting leader while Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is on maternity leave.

A spokesman for Australias Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Both nations flags feature the Union Jack - a nod to their British colonial past - as well as the Southern Cross cluster of stars set against a blue backdrop. The only difference is New Zealands design features four red stars, while Australias is adorned by six white ones - a similarity that often causes confusion over the identify of the flags.

New Zealand formally adopted its flag in 1903, while Australia did not take up its current design until 1952, though it used a similar design with a red backdrop as early as 1901.

Around that time, New Zealand opted against becoming an Australian state; however visa arrangements allow citizens to easily travel and work in either country.

Squabbles over the origins of national icons regularly break out between nationals of the two countries, which normally share a good-hearted cultural and sporting rivalry.

However Peters comments underscore a genuine escalation of political strains.

It is the latest twist in trans-Tasman crankiness, said Ian Hall, professor of international relations, Griffth University in the Australian state of Queensland.

New Zealands Justice Minister Andrew Little last week accused Australia of venal politics and breaching human rights over a steep rise in deportations of long-term Australian residents who are New Zealand citizens.

Australia can deport anyone who has a substantial criminal record or who is considered a threat to the country under a policy dubbed locally as failing the character test.

In February, Australia disclosed it had cancelled nearly 1,300 visas, more than half of which were held by New Zealanders. While officially New Zealand citizens, some had never stepped foot in their home country.

Roughly 600,000 New Zealand citizens - around a tenth of the smaller countrys population - live in Australia.

Littles comments drew the ire of Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who said the neighbour did not contribute as much as Australia to their defence relationship.

-ReutersAs Pakistan votes to decide who rules it for the next five years, Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) face each other in what many see as being a rigged election. Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which was a major contender till the last election, has pretty much withdrawn to the sidelines. While the military establishment seems to be secretly supporting Imran Khan and victimising PML-N and its leader, what chance does Sharif's party stand in coming back to power?

PML-N likely faces a difficult task this year as many candidates, who were given tickets, abandoned the party and shifted to PTI. This last-minute shift in loyalty meant that PML-N was left with no time to nominate a new candidate and hence has almost provided a walkover win for the competing candidates in some constituencies. Some, who were not given a PTI ticket post the betrayal, have chosen to fight the election as independents and are likely to emerge as the deciding factor at the end of counting. In case of their victory, these candidates are likely to charge high prices in order to join the party that needs them.

The army's high-handedness has made it difficult for other candidates who chose to stick with the PML-N. Many were threatened with arrests and some were arrested. Within hours of filing nomination as the PML-N candidate at the NA-59 Sector against former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Qamarul Islam Raja was arrested by the NAB over his alleged role in having awarded contracts for 84 water treatment plants at inflated prices.

Another PML-N leader, Hanif Abbasi, was arrested and sent to jail after he was convicted by the Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) Court of Rawalpindi and handed down a life term in a case related to misuse of the controlled chemical ephedrine. Abbasi is contesting election against Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid from NA-60, Rawalpindi. The conviction of Abbasi will give Rashid a walkover since there is no covering candidate of the PML-N in the constituency.

While Nawaz Sharif's move to return to Pakistan after the conviction by the NAB to serve a 10-year prison sentence cannot be called a masterstroke, it is generally agreed to be a good move. His return to Lahore from the side of an ailing wife in London, only to be arrested and taken straight to jail, has generated sympathy not only among his followers but also among those who were till then undecided on their votes.

By returning to Pakistan two weeks ago and submitting to a 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges, Sharif is hoping to rally his partys base by casting himself as a political martyr and the PML-Ns voters as democracys last line of defence against power-hungry generals and a corrupt legal system, argued Christopher McKee of PRS Group, a political and country risk rating and forecasting firm.

Though a desperate move, suggesting of Nawaz Sharif's fears that his party will splinter and ultimately disintegrate if it does not win the upcoming electionsif he had chosen not to returnit would have also been interpreted as cowardice.

One possible way to keep the party united under such circumstances would be organising a protracted campaign of protests, effectively copying the strategy embraced by Khan after the 2013 elections, says McKee.

Shahbaz Sharif (C), the younger brother of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and head of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), greets supporters upon his arrival for a campaign meeting in Pindi Gheb, in the district of Attockm, in the Punjab province | AFP

The absence of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam during election campaigning meant that his brother, Shahbaz Sharif had to lead the campaign. Though he is known for his skills in organising and administrating, he is not an effective leader like Nawaz or his daughter, whose oratory skills have been praised after their recent surrender. "Shahbaz just fails to connect with the masses the way Nawaz Sharif does. The PML-N vote is Nawaz Sharifs vote and the lacklustre campaign being led by Shahbaz is not really helping the PML-N," Indian analyst Sushant Sareen noted in a report of the Observer Research Foundation.

The party which wins Punjab, will rule Pakistan. With 141 seats, out of a total 272 in the National Assembly for which voting is held, whoever wins Punjab, gets to form the next government. The PML-N had swept to a victory in all three regionsnorth, central and southof Punjab in 2013. This year, though the army managed to poke holes in PML-N's plans for south Punjab, the military establishment's' moves of political engineering in north and central Punjab has not quite worked. Polls show that PML-N still has a chance in these two regions.

"The optimistic scenario in the PML-N is that it could win 60 to 65 seats in the region, perhaps even 70 because of the sympathy that has been generated on account of the perceived victimisation of Nawaz Sharif and his family by the judiciary and the military, and the intimidation of party candidates and leaders by the deep state," Sareen writes in his report. Besides, the area underwent major developmental activity under the PML-N, bolstering the local support for the party.LONDON / NEW YORK  Thomson Reuters has expanded its leading legal entity data service to help the financial community comply with the new AnaCredit European lending regulation that takes effect in September.

AnaCredit (Analytical Credit Datasets) requires Eurozone-domiciled lending institutions to report up to 98 data attributes about their corporate debtors on a loan by loan basis, where the client total debt exceeds 25,000 (some countries have opted for a lower threshold). After two years of preparation, this EU legislation comes into full force from September and impacts financial reporting for banks domiciled across the Eurozone and their branches located outside the area. Denmark and Sweden have also elected to participate.

The legislation has been introduced to provide the European Central Bank and National Central Banks of the Eurozone System of Central Banks with detailed, current and harmonized knowledge on the debt exposures across the region in order to identify and avert potential financial shock.

The AnaCredit service is a new regulation module from Thomson Reuters Verified Entity Data as a Service. The module exclusively focuses on assisting firms to comply with the Counterparty Reference Dataset requirements of the AnaCredit regulation, delivering and maintaining the information that must be reported each month on the institutions counterparties.



Thomson Reuters Verified Entity Data as a Service provides financial institutions with independently researched quality legal entity data to support their core client information needs. Entity verification and knowledge enrichment is provided on all legal entity forms registered in jurisdictions worldwide.

AnaCredit is the latest of a long line of regulations that financial firms need to manage that requires comprehensive entity reference data, making a robust data strategy across their business essential, says Stuart Martin, Managing Director for Risk Information and Learning Services for the Financial & Risk business at Thomson Reuters. Digital tools and a trusted source of trusted data are the only way for the financial community to succeed in the face of multiple needs to report accurate and timely data to the regulators.

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the worlds leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

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louis.auty@thomsonreuters.com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.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of ENI: Adriaplin Podjetje za distribucijo, Agenzia Giornalistica Italia SpA, Agip Caspian Sea BV, Agip Energy and Natural, Agip Karachaganak BV, Agip Petroli, Aldro Energy, Banque Eni SA, Burren Energy (Bermuda) Ltd(1), Burren Energy (Egypt) Ltd, Burren Energy Congo Ltd, Burren Energy India Ltd, Burren Energy Plc, Burren Shakti Ltd, D-Service Media Srl, D-Share SpA, D-Share USA Corp., Dhamma Energy Group, Dunastyr Polisztirolgyarto Zartkoruen, Ecofuel SpA, Eni AEP Ltd, Eni Abu Dhabi BV, Eni Abu Dhabi Refining & Trading BV, Eni Abu Dhabi Refining & Trading Services BV, Eni Albania BV, Eni Algeria Exploration BV, Eni Algeria Ltd Sarl, Eni Algeria Production BV, Eni Ambalat Ltd, Eni America Ltd, Eni Angola Exploration BV, Eni Angola Production BV, Eni Angola SpA, Eni Argentina Exploracion, Eni Arguni I Ltd, Eni Australia BV, Eni Australia Ltd, Eni Austria GmbH, Eni BB Petroleum Inc, Eni BTC Ltd, Eni Bahrain BV, Eni Benelux BV, Eni Bukat Ltd, Eni CBM Ltd, Eni Canada Holding Ltd, Eni China BV, Eni Congo SA, Eni Corporate University SpA, Eni Cyprus Ltd, Eni Cote dIvoire Ltd, Eni Denmark BV, Eni Deutschland GmbH, Eni East Ganal Ltd, Eni East Sepinggan Ltd, Eni Ecuador SA, Eni Elgin/Franklin Ltd, Eni Energy Russia BV, Eni Exploration & Production Holding BV, Eni Finance International SA, Eni Finance USA Inc, Eni France Sarl, Eni Fuel SpA, Eni G&P Trading BV, Eni Gabon SA, Eni Ganal Ltd, Eni Gas & Power France SA, Eni Gas & Power LNG Australia BV, Eni Gas Transport Services Srl, Eni Ghana Exploration and Production Ltd, Eni Hewett Ltd, Eni Hydrocarbons Venezuela Ltd, Eni Iberia SLU, Eni India Ltd, Eni Indonesia Ltd, Eni Indonesia Ots 1 Ltd, Eni Insurance DAC, Eni International BV, Eni International NA NV Sarl, Eni International Resources Ltd, Eni Investments Plc, Eni Iran BV, Eni Iraq BV, Eni Ireland BV, Eni Isatay BV, Eni JPDA 03-13 Ltd, Eni JPDA 06-105 Pty Ltd, Eni JPDA 11-106 BV, Eni Kenya BV, Eni Krueng Mane Ltd, Eni LNS Ltd, Eni Lasmo Plc, Eni Lebanon BV, Eni Liberia BV, Eni Liverpool Bay Operating Co Ltd, Eni Lubricants Trading (Shangai) Co Ltd, Eni Marketing Austria GmbH, Eni Marketing Inc, Eni Maroc BV, Eni Mediterranea Idrocarburi SpA, Eni Middle East Ltd, Eni Mineralolhandel GmbH, Eni Montenegro BV, Eni Mozambico SpA, Eni Mozambique Engineering Ltd, Eni Mozambique LNG Holding BV, Eni Muara Bakau BV, Eni Myanmar BV, Eni Mexico S. de RL de CV, Eni Next Llc, Eni North Africa BV, Eni North Ganal Ltd, Eni Oil & Gas Inc, Eni Oil Algeria Ltd, Eni Oil Holdings BV, Eni Oman BV, Eni Pakistan (M) Ltd Sarl, Eni Pakistan Ltd, Eni Petroleum Co Inc, Eni Petroleum US Llc, Eni Portugal BV, Eni RAK BV, Eni RD Congo SA, Eni Rapak Ltd, Eni Rovuma Basin BV, Eni Schmiertechnik GmbH, Eni Sharjah BV, Eni South Africa BV, Eni South China Sea Ltd Sarl, Eni Suisse SA, Eni TNS Ltd, Eni Timor Leste SpA, Eni Trading & Shipping Inc, Eni Trading & Shipping SpA, Eni Transporte y Suministro Mexico , Eni Tunisia BV, Eni Turkmenistan Ltd, Eni UHL Ltd, Eni UK Holding Plc, Eni UK Ltd, Eni UKCS Ltd, Eni ULT Ltd, Eni ULX Ltd, Eni US Operating Co Inc, Eni USA Gas Marketing Llc, Eni USA Inc, Eni USA R&M Co Inc, Eni Ukraine Holdings BV, Eni Ukraine Llc, Eni Ukraine Shallow Waters BV, Eni Venezuela BV, Eni Venezuela E&P Holding SA, Eni Vietnam BV, Eni West Africa SpA, Eni West Ganal Ltd, Eni West Timor Ltd, Eni Yemen Ltd, Eni do Brasil Investimentos em Exploracao e Producao de Petroleo Ltda, Eni gas e luce SpA, EniPower Mantova SpA, EniProgetti Egypt Ltd, EniProgetti SpA, EniServizi SpA, Esacontrol SA, Esain SA, Eurl Eni Algerie, FRI-EL Group, First Calgary Petroleums LP, First Calgary Petroleums Partner Co ULC, First Calgary Petroliums, Floaters SpA, Gas Supply Company Thessaloniki - Thessalia SA, Gazoduc Transtunisien SA - Scogat SA, Ieoc Exploration BV, Ieoc Production BV, Ieoc SpA, LNG Shipping SpA, Lasmo Sanga Sanga Ltd, Liverpool Bay Ltd, Mizamtec Operating Company, Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag, Nigerian Agip CPFA Ltd, Nigerian Agip Exploration Ltd, Nigerian Agip Oil Co Ltd, OOO Eni Energhia, OOO Eni-Nefto, Oleoduc du Rhone SA, Petroven Srl, Raffineria di Gela SpA, Resources (Nigeria) Ltd, S. de RL de CV, SEA SpA, SeaPad SpA, Serfactoring SpA, Servizi Aerei SpA, Servizi Fondo Bombole Metano SpA, Societa Petrolifera Italiana SpA, Societe de Service du Gazoduc, Societe pour la Construction du, Tecnoesa SA, Trans Tunisian Pipeline Co SpA, Transtunisien SA - Sergaz SA, Versalis Americas Inc, Versalis Congo Sarlu, Versalis Deutschland GmbH, Versalis France SAS, Versalis International SA, Versalis Kimya Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Versalis Mexico S. de R.L. de CV, Versalis Pacific (India) Private Ltd, Versalis Pacific Trading (Shanghai) Co Ltd, Versalis Singapore Pte Ltd, Versalis SpA, Versalis UK Ltd, Zetah Congo Ltd, Zetah Kouilou Ltd, and zemeljskega plina doo Ljubljana.COLONIE  Ladan Alomar remembers herself celebrating the new year as a 9-year-old in Iran, with a bow in her hair and colorful polka dot dress that had a satin sash.

"One of the traditions is, from head to toe, you wear new clothes," Alomar told a crowd of some 50 women Wednesday at the sixth "Changemakers" breakfast held by the Times Union's Women@Work networking group.

Did you attend the breakfast? See if we shot your photo.

"I felt like I had the whole world and I was this little princess," she said, recalling the dress her mother had sewn. "And I ran out of the door to just say 'hello' to the world."

But she fell and her dress ripped and her knees bled. She felt her "world shatter."

"My father hugged me and ... said, 'many times in your life you will fall but it's about standing up.'"

Alomar, as executive director of Centro Civico, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam with a branch in Albany, has continued to use that philosophy throughout her life.

Alomar joined Centro Civico in 1989 to coordinate the Liberty Partnership Program to serve youth at risk of dropping out of high school. Three years later, she moved into her current role working to provide a range of services to the Capital Region's Hispanic community.

Alomar, who is an immigrant from Iran, said she has always felt acceptance and safety within the Hispanic community. Her road to the Capital Region began when her plans to attend college in her home country were dashed by the revolution there and the American hostage crisis, which began in 1979.

"All of those dreams were shattered because all of the colleges and universities closed," she said.

"Being there during that time and seeing people getting killed in the street ... has an impact on you. And I knew I could not stay because no one knew when all of the colleges and universities would open. And if they opened, the priority would be given to men, not women, for enrollment."

She decided to leave the country.

"It was not the norm," she said. "I had the support of both my parents. Eventually I got a visa to go to Canada."

Her sister joined her and they studied English in Toronto. But they felt discriminated against and her sister had a more difficult time. When they saw a derogatory poster of then Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini in Toronto, they realized he represented them although they did not believe in him.

"It was very hard to see that poster and realize that's the way people think about you and your country," she said.

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She then went back to Iran and eventually to Italy. After three tries, she finally received a visa to come to the United States and arrived in Albany to continue her studies. She attended Hudson Valley Community College and transferred to the State University of New York at Albany, where she earned a bachelor's degree in theater and a master's degree in educational administration.

While Centro Civico provides educational, health services, and housing assistance programs among others, most recently, Alomar said it has served a critical role in helping immigrants facing deportation as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continues making arrests. She recounted a case in which a legally documented Dominican woman living in Amsterdam with two four-year-olds was detained recently.

"She has one phone call to make," Alomar said. "She makes it to Centro Civico."

LADAN ALOMAR: WHAT I'VE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY When you know your worth, no one can devalue you. I believe no one can devalue you. My worth is not defined by others. When you are authentic and true to yourself, your focus is not on what others think about you, but your purpose. People are entitled to their opinion regardless. Situations don't make you. They reveal who you are. We grow from every situation if we manage that situation and we don't let it manage us. We reveal our values, inner strength and skills by the way we handle any situation that comes our way. Your destiny and success is tied to the people you surround yourself with. I am in charge of my own destiny by the decisions I make, and my success is based on my hard work. We can always surround ourselves with the people who support who we are and who we want to be, people who give us the opportunity and or push us forward are our support system. I believe in the power of we, but ultimate responsibility lies with us. Not a member of Women@Work? Sign up now at tuwomen@work.com. See More Collapse

Alomar explained how she frantically worked to organize care for the woman's children while also making phone calls to lawyers and politicians to help sort out the situation.

Later that evening, Alomar said, "ICE released her."

It was all in a day's work for Alomar, who said she strives to treat everyone who comes to Centro Civico with dignity.

Not a member of Women@Work? Sign up now at tuwomen@work.com.Stavanger, Norway

KitKat is not getting its break.

The maker of the chocolate bar has tried for 16 years to trademark its four-finger shape in the European Union, arguing it is a distinctive feature that deserves protection  like Toblerone's pyramid blocks, which are trademarked.

But a European court ruled Wednesday against KitKat and its maker, Nestle, saying that its shape is not recognized throughout all the 28 countries of the EU.

The court instead sided with the makers of Kvikk Lunsj, a Norwegian snack that is a long-time favorite of hikers and skiers  and is shaped almost exactly like a KitKat.

The decision will allow Mondelez, the maker of Kvikk Lunsj, to market and sell the chocolate bar more widely throughout the bloc.

The court is the latest battleground in the feud between the chocolate bars, which began when the company Freia first introduced the Kvikk Lunsj  which literally translates to "Quick Lunch"  to Norwegians in 1937, two years after KitKat hit U.K shelves.

Their battle intensified in 2006 when Nestle secured a trademark for KitKat's shape, only to be challenged by Kvikk Lunsj maker Cadbury, now owned by Mondelez.

In 2016, Nestle was stripped of the trademark since the shape of the treat was not considered recognizable throughout the EU.

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The manufacturer appealed the decision in the bloc's highest court, which today ruled that though the shape was viewed as distinctively KitKat in many EU countries, consumers in Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Portugal did not recognize it.

Norway is not part of the EU, but adopts many of the bloc's rules.

It is not the first time a chocolate maker failed to trademark a shape. Switzerland's Lindt & Spruengli wanted to protect the form of its chocolate Easter rabbits covered in gold foil with a red ribbon. But its case was thrown out in 2012 for similar reasons.

In the United States, Hershey has a trademark registration for the shape of Kisses chocolates, Mondelez has one for Toblerone and General Mills has one for the cone-shaped Bugles.Albany

Accusations by Public Service Commission Chairman John Rhodes that Charter Communications is "gaslighting" its customers in New York state stem from a series of videos that the company has posted to social media and run on cable TV over the past seven months.

Back on June 26, the PSC's general counsel, Paul Agresta, wrote Charter CEO Thomas Rutledge to tell him to stop running and take down the videos, which were also posted to YouTube and highlighted the company's efforts to expand its Spectrum high-speed internet network to 145,000 new potential customers.

Charter's lawyers meanwhile have suggested in correspondence with the PSC that the issue may infringe on free speech protections.

The PSC has claimed that Charter has failed to meet its goals for the network expansion, required under its 2016 acquisition of Time Warner Cable, and is not on target to reach 145,000 new addresses by 2020 as required under its agreement with the PSC. The PSC has already fined Charter $2 million.

The fine was a direct result of Charter allegedly not meeting a December deadline to reach 36,771 new addresses in underserved areas of the state. Charter claimed in January that it had beat that goal by reaching more than 42,000 new addresses. The PSC disqualified more than 18,000 of those addresses, however, resulting in the dispute.

The PSC and Rhodes in particular were outraged because Charter has repeatedly used the 42,000 buildout number that the PSC says is false in its video ads and online posts. One YouTube video posted back in May is entitled "Bringing a New, True Broadband Choice to Over 42,000 New Yorkers."

"We demand that Spectrum immediately cease and desist all advertising and publishing of knowingly false claims..." Agresta wrote Rutledge in the June 26 letter. "And we call on Charter to set the record straight by instead advertising and publishing the truth that Charter has been found by the Public Service Commission to have failed to keep its buildout commitment to New York state."

That same day, Rhodes announced that he was referring Charter's conduct to the state Attorney General and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last week, Rhodes accused Charter of "gaslighting" its customers. Gaslighting is a pop culture word that refers to a misinformation campaign and has recently been used to describe President Donald Trump's efforts to discredit the Russia investigation on Twitter and in the press.

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Charter has denied any wrongdoing, and an attorney for the company wrote Agresta, the PSC's general counsel, on July 6 saying the company "disagrees with and disputes" the PSC's accusations.

That July 6 letter, written by Samuel Feder of the law firm Jenner & Block, said that the PSC was trying to "deprive Charter of its rights to express itself" and was trying to "coerce the adoption of speech favored by the PSC."

Feder is a former general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission and specializes in representing major media and cable TV companies.

As a result of the PSC's previous cease and desist letter from June 26, Charter produced a list of "public relations communications" that refer to its network buildout in the state. The list includes the May YouTube video and seven other instances of the company promoting its buildout progress in the state.Colonie

Southwest Airlines canceled at least two flights to Baltimore from Albany early Wednesday as storms continue to drift up the East Coast.

Flights 1348 and 224 were canceled, according to the Albany International Airport departure board. Three other Southwest flights to Baltimore were operating, however.

Meanwhile, three arriving flights were canceled and two others were delayed, according to flightaware.com. The airport departure board showed one American flight from Philadelphia had been canceled, as had two Southwest flights from Baltimore.

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Passengers are advised to check the status of their flight with their airline.

On both Monday and Tuesday, eight departures from Albany were canceled and another 13 delayed, according to flightaware.com.Albany

Uber Technologies has once again lost a challenge to a decision by the state to award unemployment benefits to its drivers who lost their jobs driving for the car-hailing service.

On July 12, the state Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board reaffirmed decisions by the state Department of Labor to award unemployment benefits to three New York City Uber drivers who lost their jobs driving for the online service several years ago for various reasons, including low rider ratings and excessive ride cancellations.

This was the second time that Uber had appealed the cases, and during this appeal process, Uber tried to withdraw its appeal to no avail.

A copy of the latest decision is here.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Times Union.

The decision is important because it shows that the state views drivers for ride-hailing apps to be employees who are eligible for unemployment benefits. In New York City, the bar is much higher for Uber and other types of drivers because they have to get licensed by the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission, which is a costly and time-consuming process.

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Driving for Uber and other services upstate is much easier and less expensive, although Uber is not allowed to pick up riders at Albany International Airport. Lyft is the other major ride-hailing service in the Capital Region.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance hailed the decision.

"Drivers now have some security when we get deactivated or if we leave the job because we can't make enough to cover expenses or earn less than minimum wage," the alliance said in a statement. "Uber will now pay a price if they keep firing us, or over-hiring when there isn't enough work."OPENING FRIDAY

BLINDSPOTTING: Lifelong friends Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal co-wrote and star in this timely and wildly entertaining story about the intersection of race and class, set against the backdrop of a rapidly gentrifying Oakland. (R for language throughout, some brutal violence, sexual references and drug use) https://tickets.blindspotting.movie

DON'T WORRY, HE WON'T GET FAR ON FOOT: On the rocky path to sobriety after a life-changing accident, John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) discovers the healing power of art, willing his injured hands into drawing hilarious, often controversial cartoons. Also stars Jonah Hill, Rooney Mara and Jack Black. (R for language throughout, sexual content, some nudity and alcohol abuse) https://www.dontworry.movie

EIGHTH GRADE: Twenty-seven-year-old comedian and actor Bo Burnham wrote and directed this already award-winning film about an introverted teenage girl trying to survive the last week of her disastrous eighth-grade year before leaving to start high school. (R for language and some sexual material) http://eighthgrade.movie

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE  FALLOUT: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong. Returnees include Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin. Newcomers are Henry Cavill and Angela Bassett. (PG-13 for intense sequences of action and violence throughout) https://www.missionimpossible.com

TEEN TITANS GO! TO THE MOVIES: A villain's maniacal plan for world domination sidetracks five teenage superheroes who dream of Hollywood stardom. Based on the Cartoon Network TV series. (PG for action and rude humor) https://www.warnerbros.com

Love movies? Love talking about them? Love reading about them? Go to Times Union Movies blog, moderated by film fanatic C.J. Lais Jr., and join in the conversation. http://blog.timesunion.com/moviesDarvish hasnt pitched for the Cubs since May 20 because of right triceps tendinitis, and he suffered a setback during a bullpen session on June 28. He resumed playing light catch nearly two weeks ago, but Epstein said Sunday the Cubs cant be overly reliant on Darvish making a full recovery because of his lack of work this season.In Saratoga Shakespeare Company's production of "As You Like It," Gwynedd Vetter-Drusch plays Rosalind, a woman who disguises herself as a man. The audience and some characters know of the ruse, but others don't, offering opportunity for comedy and dramatic irony.

Matters of gender-bending are both more nuanced and less clear in "Henry IV Parts 1 & 2," Saratoga Shakespeare's second production of the summer. "As You Like It" ends Saturday; on Tuesday, "Henry" takes its place on the company's home venue, the Alfred Z. Solomon Stage in Congress Park in downtown Saratoga Springs.

Vetter-Drusch, a 27-year-old based in New York City, in "Henry IV" plays Hotspur, a fiery-tempered nobleman who is a rival of Prince Hal. While it will be apparent to the audience that Hotpsur is being played by a woman, other characters use male pronouns when talking about him.

"I don't think we have to commit to saying explicitly how Hotspur defines himself," says Vetter-Drusch. (In contrast, the innkeeper Mistress Quickly in "Henry IV" is very obviously played by a man in drag.) Vetter-Drusch says, "I have to know for myself what Hotspur thinks about the matter, but we're more leaving it up to the audience to see how they perceive where the character is."

In both Saratoga Shakespeare productions this year, Vetter-Drusch, in her second summer with the Spa City company, co-stars opposite Woodrow Proctor, who at 24 is back for the fourth time.

"Saratoga Shakespeare feels like a family, like it's my artistic home," says Proctor, who was a student at Skidmore College and now lives in New Jersey and works in the metro-New York City scene. The family feeling, a sentiment echoed by everyone interviewed for this story, starts with Larry and Barbara Opitz, who are, respectively, the producing artistic director and executive director of Saratoga Shakespeare.

"They not only saved a company that was going to end if they hadn't taken it over, they built it into something that they will be able to pass on to the next leaders when they decide they're ready to go," says David Girard, associate artistic director of Saratoga Shakespeare. Larry Opitz, former chair of the theater department at Skidmore, is easing toward retirement from teaching; Barbara Opitz is an adjunct theater professor at the college, where Saratoga Shakespeare rents office and rehearsal space for its productions and education programs. The couple are in their sixth year leading the company, which attracts audiences of 6,000 to 8,000 to its shows in the park and reaches more through its education and outreach programs.

Girard, 44, for several years has been mulling a condensed version of both parts of "Henry IV," which when produced in full run about seven and a half hours as they tell the story of the title king trying to settle his kingdom down so his son, Price Hal, can become Henry V and rule in peace. Saratoga Shakespeare's production, directed by Girard, lasts a little less than two hours. The severely shorter script is partly necessitated by a company of only eight actors, all of whom play multiple parts, and partly by the fact that, since the production is performed without lighting, it has to be finished by sundown. The condensation also allows the production to focus less on the political maneuverings and more on the relationships between Hal and his two father figures: with his biological father the king and with Falstaff, the legendary man of mirth and girth with whom Henry and friends revel during their misspent youth.

"The father-son thing is something everyone can really relate to," says Girard. He says he has a particular personal connection as a result of several older men in area theater who were father figures for him in the years after he first started appearing in local community-theater productions at age 20. He even had his own Falstaff in Doug de Lisle, the late arts editor of The Record newspaper, bon vivant and veteran of area community theaters, who directed Girard many times. Others include Bob Goepfert, theater critic for The Record, who ran a small theater company with de Lisle and Girard, and Kevin McGuire, former artistic director of Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, where Girard first performed Shakespeare. McGuire, who plays the title character in "Henry IV," acted alongside Girard in "She Loves Me" at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany last fall.

"I've known (McGuire) a long time, but we really reconnected on that show," says Girard. "It was different, too, because he wasn't treating me like he was mentoring me anymore  we're colleagues." Thinking of his young Saratoga Shakespeare cast members, either interns or professionals at the beginning of their theater careers, Girard realizes he's himself now in the position that his former mentors were two decades ago, cultivating the next generation of talent. He's doing a similar thing at Troy Foundry Theatre, an adventurous company that he co-founded last year.

"To have such a short rehearsal period, then start performing one show at night while you're rehearsing the other during the day  that can't help but make you a better actor," says Proctor.

"It's really great to be able to bring in actors of this quality and let them be creative," says Girard, who has pipelines to the New York City scene and to Philadelphia, where he received a graduate degree in directing from Temple University and last year acted in the world-premiere production of a trilogy by playwright John Guare.

One of those imports is Ed Swidey, who also was in the Guare cast. Swidey plays Falstaff in "Henry IV." After 12 years in Philly, Swidey is headed to Missouri State University to be a guest artist for the upcoming academic year, after which he plans to relocate to New York City. Playing the highly coveted role of Falstaff in Saratoga for a few weeks in the summer seemed ideal.

"I hadn't done outdoor Shakespeare in a long time, so that appealed to me," Swidey says. "But it's also free Shakespeare, and I think that's so important. I felt how important it was to everyone as soon as I got here. It really is a family."

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  blog.timesunion.com/tablehopping  @Tablehopping  facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCriticWashington

Democratic lawmakers want Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to clarify where a citizenship question on the 2020 census originated after newly released documents show he was seeking such a question early in Donald Trump's presidency.

The Trump administration's decision to ask people about their citizenship has set off worries among Democrats that immigrants will dodge the survey altogether, diluting political representation for states that tend to vote Democratic and robbing many communities of federal dollars.

The administration announced in late March that it was including the question to improve the data the Justice Department needed for enforcing voting rights laws.

Just days before the announcement, Ross told lawmakers, "The Department of Justice, as you know, initiated the request for inclusion of the citizenship question."

However, records from a lawsuit filed by more than a dozen states and big cities included a heavily redacted message from Ross nearly 11 months earlier saying: "I am mystified why nothing have been done in response to my months old request that we include the citizenship question. Why not?"

Earl Comstock, director of the Commerce Department's office of policy and strategic planning, explained to Ross, "We need to work with Justice to get them to request that citizenship be added back as a census question, and we have the court cases to illustrate that DOJ has a legitimate need for the question to be included."

Following the administration's decision, more than a dozen states, including New York, Connecticut and Illinois, filed a lawsuit that alleges the inclusion of the question would fatally undermine the accuracy of the count and thus harm their constituents.

The records with the statements from Ross and Comstock were released as part of that lawsuit. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood led the effort to have the records released.

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Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York said the exchanges between Ross and Comstock, first reported by National Public Radio, "make it clear that voting rights enforcement was nothing more than a manufactured ruse to justify adding a citizenship question and that the Secretary lied to Congress when he said it was DOJ that 'initiated the request.'"

Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Cory Booker of New Jersey said that in light of the emails: "Secretary Ross must come before Congress to clarify the testimony he gave under oath. Who initiated the request for the citizenship question and why? The American people deserve to know the truth."

A Commerce Department spokesman said in response to a question from The Associated Press that "executive branch officials discussing important issues prior to formulating policy is evidence of good government, and the Secretary's previous testimony before Congress is consistent with that fact."

The spokesman said nothing in the court-ordered records changes "the sound rationale" Ross cited in March.ALBANY  A federal judge issued an order Tuesday allowing a caucus by the Guilderland Democratic Committee to go forward as scheduled this week as long as improvements are made to the park where it will take place.

U.S. District Chief Judge Glenn T. Suddaby declined to issue a restraining order that would have blocked the caucus from taking place because of concerns about accessibility at the park.

The ruling stemmed from a federal lawsuit filed last week by town Justice Christine M. Napierski and her father, Eugene E. Napierski, against the Democratic committees for the town and Albany County, as well as the county Board of Elections.

They accused the committee of disenfranchising many voters by holding a caucus to nominate candidates for town justice and highway superintendent in Tawasentha Park, which they said had multiple violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Christine Napierski had also accused town Democratic leaders of threatening her political aspirations after she declined their demands to step aside and not seek election to a four-year term as town justice in the November elections.

Suddaby ruled that the Napierskis had proven their case that the park is unsuitable for the large gathering under federal accessibility standards, but he said the defendants had offered to make accommodations, including adding a handicapped-accessible portable bathroom and more handicapped parking spaces.

The judge ruled that a "monitor" must also be placed at the park's entrance to ensure that all participants have arrived before the caucus begins, and that additional parking areas be made available.

The political tensions began a few months ago after one of Guilderland's three town justice positions became vacant when Richard Sherwood was suspended from the bench following his arrest for stealing more than $11 million from estates associated with a deceased couple that had used him for legal services. Sherwood later pleaded guilty to felony charges and is awaiting sentencing.

The Town Board interviewed more than a dozen candidates to fill Sherwood's term through the end of the year, including Napierski and Bryan M. Clenahan. The board voted unanimously to appoint Napierski to fill the position.

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Napierski also took steps to seek election to the justice position in the November elections and that put her at odds with the town's Democratic Committee, which voted to endorse Clenahan, a county legislator.

But the official appointment of the Democratic candidate must be voted on by registered Democrats who attend the caucus scheduled for Thursday evening at Tawasentha Park.

Suddaby, in his ruling, cast aside assertions in the suit that the town party's leaders deliberately used the antiquated caucus system  where only registered Democrats who are present at the event can vote by a show of hands  to disenfranchise many of the town's 9,229 registered Democrats. The lawsuit noted that people who are permanently disabled, or otherwise unable to attend the caucus, have no way to vote.TROY  Democratic and Republican private investigators want to know how three allegedly fraudulent signatures ended up on Working Families Party petitions that were turned in by a Democratic committeeman.

Ive got nothing to say, said Anthony Isopo, the Democratic official, when asked about the alleged forgeries in a Wednesday phone call. He then hung up.

The alleged forgeries appeared on petitions for Democratic district attorney candidate Mary Pat Donnelly and Troy Democratic Chairwoman Carole Claren-Weaver, who is running for county legislature.

Republicans recognized there might be forgeries among the five signatures collected by Isopo when they reviewed the petitions. One of the names, Joseph Riley III, was known as a person who would be unlikely to support Mary Pat Donnelly, the Democratic candidate for district attorney.

County Republicans and Democrats are aware of the identities of voters in the minor parties, many of which have ties to the two main parties. The Democrats and Republicans usually battle in every primary to secure the additional minor party lines to gain marginal advantage in the November general elections.

Riley filed specific objections to the petitions late Monday afternoon, complete with affidavits from him and two other people who say they never signed the petitions.

The existence of these forgeries demonstrates the petition is permeated with fraud and should therefore be disqualified, Riley wrote in both objections, which were identical except for the candidate's name.

Riley said he signs his name "Joseph" and not "Joe," as it appears on the petition.

Timothy Nelson's affidavit said he didnt sign the petition, and chalked up the appearance of his signature to "identity theft. Jennifer Poehlman said she was out of town in Essex County when her name was signed to the petition  at least according to the contested document.

These names account for three of the five signatures submitted by Isopo, who is a Democratic committeeman in Troys 2nd Election District. Isopo also collected 20 signatures on Democratic party petitions.

Isopo is a commissioner of deeds appointed by the City Council, a post that allows him to collect signatures for other party petitions. A Republican leader said the party has sent an investigator to the other addresses, but has been unable to contact the voters.

Donnelly said Wednesday that knowing Rensselaer Countys political history, she feared this was an attempt to undercut her campaign message of restoring ethics and integrity to the district attorneys office.

I do not know nor have I ever met the individual who carried the petition in question," Donnelly, of East Greenbush, said in a statement Tuesday night. "This individual has never been a member of my campaign committee. I am at a loss to explain why this individual endeavored to commit this apparent act of deceit. In fact, I cannot help but question if it was done as an act of sabotage to sully my reputation and jeopardize my campaign."

Donnelly said she hired a private investigator to look into the matter. She said she has not ruled out filing a criminal complaint.

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Republican District Attorney Joel E. Abelove of Rensselaer issued a lengthy statement Wednesday afternoon on his campaigns Facebook page attacking Donnelly.

"It is unbelievable and unconscionable that in this day and age voters signatures are being forged and the rights of voters stolen," Abelove said.

Abelove called for a probe by the county Board of Elections. As of Wednesday afternoon, the board had not reviewed the contested petitions.

In the County Legislature race, the comments mirrored those in the district attorney's contest. "I didn't know anything about it," Claren-Weaver said.

Legislator Kim Ashe-McPherson, C-Troy, said, "Voter fraud and forgery are serious offenses and the residents whose names were forged deserve justice."

Even if the signatures are disqualified, they do not appear to be enough to lead to the removal of the two Democrats from the Working Families Party line.

Phil Markham, county chairman of the WFP, said the party didn't know who Isopo is. Markham said the party collected enough signatures for the nominating petitions on its own.

The flap harkens back to the 2009 Working Families Party primary, in which scores of voter signatures were forged on absentee ballots for Democratic candidates in Troy. Four Democratic operatives pleaded guilty and two were acquitted in trials.A State Police traffic stop early Monday morning resulted in multiple felony charges and the discovery of a number of prescription pills.

State Police stopped a vehicle at about 2:45 a.m. on the Thruway in Bethlehem. Police interviewed the driver, Max Quirindongo, Jr., 21, of Schenectady and established probable cause to search the vehicle.

Troopers found 200 grams of Xanax, 4.4 grams of Diazepam, a small amount of marijuana, .3 grams of MDMA and a digital scale.

Quirindongo and his passenger, Meleidy M. Mata, 21, of Amsterdam, were both charged with felony criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, as well as several drug-related misdemeanors.

Both were arraigned in Bethlehem town court and sent to Albany County jail on $10,000 bail.ALBANY - A city teen accused of twice shooting guns at people will serve eight years in prison as part of a a guilty plea, the Albany County District Attorney's office announced Wednesday.

Nashadi Chandler, 19, fired into a crowd of people on Sherman on Street on April 22, prosecutors said. On June 13, he shot at a man at Sherman and Lexington streets. No one was hit with the bullets, prosecutors said.TROY  Union members rallied outside the Social Security Administration office Wednesday in support of a union official who painted words on the building's windows protesting what the workers contend are Trump administration moves to curtail union representation and activity for federal employees.

Adam Pelletier, a claims representative and union grievance chairman, issued the protest in washable paint on the building at 500 Federal St. on July 1 and was placed on paid administrative leave on three weeks ago.

Were totally behind his right to speak out. Hes just the catalyst for us to be here, said Pedro Pete Aviles, an SSA employee in Schenectady and president of American Federal Government Employees Local 3343, which covers most SSA offices upstate.

The union's locals have rallied around the country as its lawyers in Washington, D.C., are seeking to stop the Trump administration's moves to limit union activities and representation in SSA offices, Aviles said.

As an example, Aviles and Pelletier pointed to the notification that they wont be able to use a bulletin board for union announcements beginning July 31.

Pelletier said he was inspired him to write on the windows when he saw a manager measuring the bulletin board it.

First they came for the bulletin board, was one of the messages Pelletier wrote.

Theyre beginning by trying to take down the bulletin board, he said.

His actions led managers at the SSA office to call city police, he said, and federal police officers arrived to escort him out of the offices on July 2.

Pelletier and Aviles said no explanation for Pelletier being placed on paid administrative leave has been offered.

The SSA New York Regional Offices press office was aware of Pelletier's suspension when contacted Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman was not available to comment on the situation.

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New York State United Teachers President Andy Pallotta was demonstrating with members of his and other unions.

We want to show NYSUTs support, Pallotta said.

NYSUT has been dealing with the U.S. Supreme Courts recent Janus decision that ends the collection of fees for public employees who dont join unions. Pallotta said NYSUT has been reaching out to these members and finding theyre supporting the unions activities.

Mike Silvestri, a vice president in NYSUTs Schenectady local, said the teachers were fighting union busting.

Were in support with his issue, said Seth Cohen, president of the Troy Teachers Association.West and Jackson entered the restaurant on 1350 E. New York St. and demanded money around 8:24 p.m. Sept. 4, 2014. When the three employees couldnt access the cash register, Jackson fired single shots at each employee, wounding one in the stomach, a second in the leg and the third in the arm and body, authorities said at the time. After the shooting, the two men fled to a waiting Cadillac Escalade driven by Scott.A man who escaped from State Police earlier this month is among the people who troopers say they are hunting as part of their Warrant Wednesday effort.

Tariq A. Yacub, 39, is wanted by State Police in Brewster on charges of escape, evidence tampering and resisting arrest. Troopers said Yacub fled from police on July 9 on Interstate 84 in Putnam County. Troopers said he was last seen in a tan 2003 Ford Explorer. Troopers said Yacub is known to travel between Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.Saratoga Springs

It was news that was expected, but it stung just the same.

Justify, just the 13th Triple Crown winner in the history of thoroughbred racing, will run no more.

"I think we are in a denial," Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said by cell phone from his summer base at Del Mar Race Track in California on Wednesday afternoon. "I knew this was coming a week ago and it's going to be sad not to see him run again. He is one of the most beautiful horses I have ever trained."

The announcement came via press release from the majority owner and trainer and it came as no surprise, really. It had been announced earlier this month that Justify had a filling in his left front ankle, which is akin to a swollen ankle.

In two weeks, the horse would be re-evaluated, but 11 days after that news came out, the end was here.

Baffert said there just would not be enough time to get the horse ready to run at the level he had run at in his first six starts, all of them wins.

"Our window was closing," Baffert said. "He was healing, but we needed more time."

Baffert hoped that Justify could run at the end of the year, in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. In order to make sure his colt was in peak athletic shape, Baffert would have wanted to work him and run him, maybe in the Pennsylvania Derby at Parx on Sept. 22.

Getting him to the Haskell at Monmouth Park this Sunday and then the Travers here on Aug. 25 had been the ideal plan after the Triple Crown. But then came the setback and those races were out. The filling in the ankle showed up after Justify flew back to California a week after winning the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown. It went away and then it came back again.

All the horse could do for exercise was be walked around the barn. And he hated it.

"He was climbing all over the top of us," Baffert said. "He looked like he could run, that's what makes this so tough. We just couldn't train him, and I wasn't going to hurt him."

Justify is scheduled to depart California next Wednesday and will be flown to WinStar Farm, the organization that owns the majority share in the horse. Other owners are the China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners and Starlight Racing.

He will be at WinStar until the official announcement comes where Justify will be sent to Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., also the home of Baffert's other Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah.

WinStar President, CEO and racing manager Elliott Walden has never spoken on what the price will be for the breeding rights for Justify. But it has been reported that Coolmore is paying $60 million.

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Baffert said that had nothing to do with the announcement of Justify's retirement.

"It was not because of the money," Baffert said. "The reason he is retiring is that he had an issue and it was going to take longer to heal. The last thing we wanted to do was send a horse (to the track) and have him be pulled up."

Justify won his six career starts by a combined 23 3/4 lengths and ends his racing life with earnings of $3,798,000. He started his career on Feb. 18 and, just less than four months later, he was a Triple Crown winner.

Justify is just the second undefeated Triple Crown winner. Seattle Slew was 9-0 when he won it in 1977, but would go on to lose three of his final eight starts.

Even though everyone knew this was coming, it was still a day of mixed emotions.

"He is happy, he is healthy and unbeaten," his jockey, Mike Smith, said by cell phone from California. "You can't ask for anything more than that. It was an unbelievable ride. What (Justify) has done for me and my life, I can't thank him enough. He owes nobody absolutely nothing."

twilkin@timesunion.com  518-454-5415  @tjwilkinSaratoga County has long been a vacation destination, well before thoroughbred racing became the popular draw.

The county's history is long and we decided to explore some of its perimeter on a recent Saturday.

We began our journey in downtown Ballston Spa, a charming village that exists in the shadows of Saratoga Springs. Like its bigger neighbor, Ballston Spa had natural springs to draw visitors early on. One of its earliest hotels, the Sans Souci, built in 1803, was at the time the nation's largest, according to some sources.

Related: Ballston Spa's unique, vibrant downtown

Today, Front Street downtown is lined with restaurants and cafes, as well as a bed and breakfast and various antique and other shops.

Heading west out of town, we passed through rolling countryside, with horse farms and what's left of small country crossroads. Charlton, in the county's southwest corner, features the Charlton Country Store and historic Charlton Tavern, rebuilt after a disastrous fire destroyed the 1700s-era building several years ago.

Heading north, you'll bump up against the Great Sacandaga Lake, an artificially created body of water that is used for flood control in the Hudson and Mohawk river valleys.

While several small communities were sacrificed in the effort to create the reservoir, the move also yielded a recreational draw for vacationers and owners of second homes.

The shore is lined with docks and beaches, with mountains providing a picturesque backdrop.

Related: Film captures making of the Great Sacandaga Lake

Beyond the north end of the lake is Corinth, once home to International Paper Co., a major manufacturer that was the backbone of the local community's economy.

The mill is gone now, and the community has seen better times. In this area of the southern Adirondacks, new industries, from medical instruments in Glens Falls and adjacent Washington County, to the massive semiconductor plant in Malta, offer high-paying jobs to those with the necessary skills and the willingness to go east to reach them.

And while the technology these employers use is state-of-the-art, the eastern section of Saratoga County, which we're now entering, offers plenty of history from the earliest days of the nation as well.

Related: Beloved by its residents, Corinth, at 200, struggles

The Hudson River valley was to be the means by which British troops under General John Burgoyne would travel down from Montreal to join with other British troops coming up the river to Albany to split the rebellious colonies in 1777.

Except Burgoyne never made it past Saratoga.

Today, a National Parks Service Historic Site relates the story of Burgoyne's defeat, and a description of Benedict Arnold's heroic performance in battle leading Colonial troops in the days before his name became synonymous with traitor.

There's a do-it-yourself tour of the battle sites, with an app that can be downloaded from a QR code you can get at the visitors' center.

The 9 miles of winding, one-way road feature several stops of historic significance. At the end, you can head back to Route 4 and continue south toward Waterford.

In Waterford, a visitors center provides a picnic area and other amenities for boaters traveling the Erie and Champlain canals, and views of the nearby locks. Exhibits at the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center off Route 32 just north of the bridge over the Mohawk River provide context to what was one of the young nation's earliest infrastructure projects.

The canals today draw more pleasure boaters than cargo boats. A new trail and bike path along the Erie route, meanwhile, is also proving popular, bringing visitors to smaller upstate communities that have largely missed out on economic growth.

The same can't be said for Saratoga County. It was one of the state's fastest growing counties in recent years, and continues to be a major job generator for the region.

But despite all of that, there are still more than enough private corners of the county where you can relax and unwind.The police department even expressed their excitement about the parade when I met with them to create a route. We have village support  we could not ask for more, she added. Molly is having the most beautiful coming out experience I could ever imagine, and my husband and I are enjoying every second of her joy in knowing exactly who she is. In our house, things are finally normal as my daughter can be herself 100 percent of the time. Now, we hope to pay it forward to help other families to find this happiness.The average engagement lasts 14 months. That gives couples more than one year to book a caterer and a venue, find a DJ, florist and photographer, design invitations, plan a honeymoon and schedule  then go out for  engagement photos.

Oh, yes. The engagement photo session. While no hard statistics exist to indicate just how many couples now put these pics on their list, theyre listed as a most searched topic on TheKnot.com and Capital Region wedding photographers say theyre on the rise.

Social media alone suggests thats true. Scroll through your feed and, depending on your age, youre sure to see a friend (or five) with a professional engagement photo as their profile or cover photo. Or maybe he or she has a full album dedicated to the shoot.

Social media is actually the main reason for the surge, says Matt Ramos, owner of Matt Ramos Photography in Albany. People want to share these type of images online with friends and family and there may be some added pressure to do so when others see friends post their engagement images as well, he says.

A poll on the Times Unions On the Edge blog didnt necessarily pair up with what seems to be happening. While 36 percent did say they have  or would  opt for the engagement shoot, our survey found a large number of brides and grooms (past and present) are a bit iffy when it comes to these images. Forty-three percent said they would/did not get these photos done because people always look so silly. (See box for full results.)

That concern  the fear that these photos looked staged, and awkward  is a natural concern. Because while professional photos celebrating your wedding well before your actual event can be a fabulous memento, they can also be the kind of thing that generate laughs  for you, and others. Numerous websites are dedicated to these shoots-gone-wrong and the ever-popular AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com site has a separate tab for engagement photos.

But mockery doesnt have to come with the click of the shutter. Engagement sessions have evolved quite a bit over the past few years, to where they have gone from being stiff and cheesy for a newspaper announcement to a much more styled fun shoot, says Ramos.

So how do you make sure you walk away with a crop of frame-worthy photos rather than images best suited for the wall (or site) of shame?

The obvious, it would seem, would be to hire a professional  a trained photographer whose work you admire. Check his or her website, or ask friends for recommendations. While working with a photography student or a friend who has a camera and likes to take photos will save you money, he or she doesnt have the experience.

A professional is also versed on helping camera-shy people relax, says Tracey Buyce, owner of Tracey Buyce Photography in Saratoga Springs. Weve all seen those engagement images where one  or both  people look angst-ridden. Someone who shoots for a living will make the subjects comfortable enough (e.g. shooting at a location thats familiar while doing an activity thats natural) so that these pained looks wont be a problem.

Buyce, Ramos and others recommend using the engagement shoot as a trial run not just for how you feel  and look  in front of the camera, but for how other elements will work on film.

I often recommend to the couples wanting to do an engagement session that they make it more of an experience by having a hair/makeup trial done that same day, says Ramos. [This] not only kills two birds with one stone, but also allows the future bride to be all glammed up and feeling amazing for the shoot.

Its important as well to make sure youre including this element in your wedding planning for the right reasons. Engagement sessions should be something that is fun and hopefully, wanted by both future bride and groom, not necessarily because a couple feels pressure to do one because they think they have to, says Ramos.

Photographers typically do two looks  one casual, and one a little more dressy. The casual images are often most reflective of the couple, says Buyce.

One bride-and groom-to-be were serious animal lovers, and took their dog everywhere, so she shot them (and their pooch) shopping at their favorite pet treat store. Another couple were avid runners, so Buyce caught them in action.

I dragged my husband along, hung out the back of a Highlander and got to work, says Buyce.

Engagement sessions should be unique and different and also allow the couple to incorporate a bit more of their personal side, Ramos says. Location and appropriate lighting are two points that can really set a couples images apart.

Ramos recommends starting the engagement session about one or two hours before sunset to achieve the best light and mood for the images.

In terms of location, says Ramos, couples often may have access to unique locations without even realizing it. Over the years, Ive had couples have access to unique and fun places such as the Saratoga Race Track, boats, private islands on Lake George, farms, horses, or whatever may be significant and out of the ordinary, he says. I understand not every couple is going to have such connections, however researching fun and different locations (along with amazing lighting), can make all the difference.Tipperary County Council has been spending up to 200,000 on some days during the summer in order to get up to speed with the roadworks programme running right across the county.

However, the extraordinary temperatures experienced during the summer so far has made life very difficult for workers, with some projects beginning at 6:00am in order to beat the road temperatures which have topped 50 degrees centigrade in some places.

And, though the cost of bringing all roads in the county up to an acceptable standard has been placed at 196million, the local authority has the capacity to undertake much more work, provided the monies are allocated from government and the TII, the County Council says.

Tipperary, being a predominantly rural county covers an area of 4,305 square kilometres and is the sixth largest county in Ireland, based on size, and the twelfth largest based on population. According to Census 2016, the population of Tipperary has risen from 158,754 in 2011 to 159,533 in 2016.

Tipperary County Council, which was established in 2014 under the Local Government Reform Act 2014 is the local government authority for the county and as Roads Authority, the Council is responsible for 5,703 km of road network excluding motorways, of which 5,493 km is made up of regional and local roads. The figure including motorways is 5,822 km. Administratively, there are 5 Municipal Districts in Tipperary: Carrick-on-Suir; Cashel/Tipperary; Clonmel; Nenagh; and Templemore/Thurles.

Maintaining and improving the existing road network is a significant challenge, particularly in recent years as grant funding is limited. Although the level of grant funding is limited, the Council has maintained the level of own resources funding which currently stands at over 8m.

For 2018, the grant allocations notified from central government/Transport Infrastructure Ireland is :National Roads - 13,061,891: Regional & Local Road - 21,073,750.

The main improvement works are carried out during the summer months when road temperatures are normally suitable for such works. This year has been particularly challenging with weather extremes such as Storm Emma in the earlier part of the year and very high road temperatures in recent weeks. For example, road temperatures were recorded in excess of 50 degrees centigrade in some areas and this resulted in the softening of the road binder. In these circumstances, it is very difficult to carry out successful surface dressing and to overcome this, works had to be commenced in very early morning, circa 6:00 am when road temperatures were not as high.

The main expenditure on road works occurs in the month of July and on some days this expenditure can be circa 200,000 per day.

This years programme includes for the surface dressing of 95km of roadway and the strengthening of 138km of roadway across the 5 Municipal Districts. In overall terms, this represents approximately 4% of the total road network.

According to the Senior Engineer in the Roads Department, Mr Michael Hayes All the roads in Tipperary have been surveyed over the last number of years and based on these surveys there is a backlog cost of 196m to bring the roads up to a very good standard. The capacity exists within Tipperary County Council to carry out a significantly greater programme of works but obviously that is dependent on the level of funding received from central government.

It is also worth noting that the Council administers a number of schemes aimed at improving local roads, such as the Community Involvement Scheme (public tertiary roads), and the Local Improvement Scheme (non-public roads). Both schemes require that a local contribution be paid before works can be carried out.

A number of submissions were also made to the Department of Rural & Community Development under the CLAR scheme under Measure 1 (support for schools  community safety measures).A Templemore man who told a Garda to f**k off was ordered to be assessed for his suitability to undergo community service at Thurles District Court.

Judge Conal Gibbons heard that Garda William Lynch was called to a disturbance in Ballyheen, Templemore, on June 19, 2017. Garda Lynch met with two young people, aged 15 and 16, and took them away from the scene at their request. While doing so, he was approached by Johnny McInerney, of 6 Ballyheen, Templemore.

McInerney became abusive and aggressive and threatened me with violence, said Garda Lynch. McInerney was directed to leave the scene and he complied.

Judge Gibbons heard that McInerney was sitting in a parked car, just down the road, before he intervened. One of the young persons had been in an altercation with McInerneys friend. He was sitting in the car, watching, said Judge Gibbons. He came over to you.

Yes, said Garda Lynch. He told me to f**k off, and I will break your face.

Big words from a small man, said Judge Gibbons.

McInerney was charged with being threatening and abusive. He has 10 previous convictions, including for entering a building with an intent to commit an offence, unlawful possession of drugs, handling stolen property, and burglary. A chequered career, said Judge Gibbons.

Solicitor Mr Colin Morrissey said McInerney resides in close proximity to where the incident occurred.

McInerney was not involved in an altercation with the young people, but foolishly became involved afterwards. It was extremely foolish. He has since apologised, said Mr Morrissey.

McInerney has not come to the attention of the Gardai for over two years. McInerney is holding his hands up. Theres no disguising that what he said to Gardai was extremely serious, said Mr Morrissey. He has seen the error of his ways. McInerney lives with his father, and has three siblings.

Judge Gibbons said McInerney is lucky to live in Ireland. I know places where if he said that to a police officer, he would be in serious difficulty.

McInerney showed outrageous cheek and audacity, to go up to and interfere with a Garda during the course of his duties. It takes some brass neck, said the Judge. McInerney showed a completely misguided loyalty to his friend, said Mr Morrissey. His obligation is to assist the Gardai, said Judge Gibbons. The Gardai are professionals who have become inured to this kind of rubbish. They are able to put up with it due to their training. They are there to protect the community.

McInerney had the cheek and audacity to threaten a member of An Garda Siochana. He is in difficulty with me, said the Judge, who said he was considering a custodial sentence.

I have to strike a balance between you and civil society, and my inclination is take your freedom, the Judge told McInerney. I have not met any people in my life who would go up to a Garda and say what you said. McInerney was a know all, a Mr big shot, and a tough man.

In times past, monks would reflect in a monastery cell on their own. Prisoners are now kept in cells more comfortable than the cells the monks used to go to, said Judge Gibbons.

Id ask you not to deprive him of his liberty, said Mr Morrissey. Three months jail is the maximum penalty for this type of offence.

Your client has too much time on his hands, Judge Gibbons told Mr Morrissey. Judge Gibbons convicted Mr McInerney of the offence, and adjourned the case to July 24th for confirmation of McInerneys suitability to undergo 200 hours of community service in lieu of 2 months prison.July 25, 2018



The cryptocurrency industry and the legal cannabis industry are very different, yet there is a growing synergy between this unlikely duo. There are actually lots of similarities to share between these two. Their youth-biased customer base and the kinds of challenges and opposition faced are part of such similarities. They both face similar sorts of challenges; some of which includes acceptance among other political factors. Legal cannabis and cryptocurrency also both have their major markets in more liberal regions of the world; the United States being one of them.







The business structure run by these two industries are complementary and their alliance would move both industries forward. This article will compare their business structures and challenges plus the areas where they overlap. It will also prove that as the two industries become more widely accepted, their similar structures will work to aid them grow together.

The trials of the legal Cannabis industry.

In about two-thirds of U.S states, marijuana is legal. Yet, a critical look at this industry reveals the numerous challenges cannabis still faces in these legalized states.

The legal cannabis industry is forced to make transactions on a cash-only basis. This is because banks and other financial institutions are a federal affair and marijuana is yet to be legalized on the federal level resulting in cannabis companies and cultivators being unable get credits, loans or carry out any transactions with these banks. The newness of this particular market is also one reason why banks are either hesitant or not forthcoming.

The pains of Cryptocurrency

Since cryptocurrency became a public affair decades ago, it is yet to gain a status of reliability and general acceptance. Many regulatory bodies are uncertain about whether to regard cryptocurrency as a source of value or not. This uncertainty has affected business transactions, with many dealers unwilling to trade in cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is relatively new when compared to how long cash funds have been in the market, so they are still considered as unconventional tools for finances except in some major cities in the U.S and Asia.

It also keeps waging a legal war because of its anti-authoritarian nature. Satoshi Nakatomo, the founder of Bitcoin explained that cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology. Blockchain contains all the information for verification and circumvents the need for a financial third-party like banks and government agencies. This is what is referred to as its anti-authoritarian nature. The use of blockchain then raises the legal concern of whether cryptocurrencies pass the Howey test to be qualified as securities or not.

Merging: How do they work together?

Blockchains ability to bypass banks and other financial institutions is one of the things bringing crypto and cannabis together into this association. Blockchain has value stored in it and it can be transferred in such a way that it wont involve any other party. All the necessary information are also stored across the block chain, making it a very useful alternative to the usual old-fashioned bank account.

Because there are no third-party involvements, untraceable purchases of illegal products like drugs and other contrabands could be made. Silk Road black market is a typical example of the first major adoption of the use of Bitcoins. Lots of illegal and untraceable purchases were made.

Cryptocurrency industry and Cannabis industry might be a difficult association at first but they will eventually be of profitable to each other. Blockchain would provide the much required platform for making impeccable transactions for cannabis. Cannabis would in turn bring a supply of a teeming group ready to use the cryptocurrency for transactions, thereby validating it.

Merging: What has been done?

Since 2014, several projects marrying the crypt and cannabis industries together have been looked into. Though none of them has been widely adopted by the public yet, they are all birthed with the same mindset of using the cryptocurrency platform to give cannabis dealers a reliable means of exchange.

Some of the projects are; DopeCoin, PotCoin, CannaCoin, HempCoin and Cannabis coin. Of all these projects, only CannaCoin doesnt have a market running into millions of U.S Dollars.

The Future for Crypto and Cannabis

At the moment, crypto and cannabis are not there yet when it comes to infrastructure and adoption. Many more countries are yet to declare a legal status across all their states for cannabis and the United States Securities and Exchange has even detached itself from all forms cryptocurrency transactions.

But as the two industries grow; Cannabis providing the customer base and cryptocurrencies making transactions continually transparent, there will be widespread adoption leading to more dependence on the synergy between the two industries.





Author's Bio:

Sunil Gupta is the founder of ACG Digital Marketing a digital marketing company based in India.[July 24, 2018] AHMSA Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results

Altos Hornos de Mexico, S.A.B. de C.V. and Subsidiaries ("AHMSA" or "the Company") (BMV:AHMSA) reported financial results for the second quarter period ended June 30, 2018 (2Q 2018). Financial and operating figures included in this report are unaudited and are based on AHMSA's operating figures and financial statements; they are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and are expressed in U.S. dollars (US$) and metric tons (MT). 2Q 2018 Highlights Adjusted EBITDA reached US$ 126 million, a 130% increase compared to US$ 55 million in 2Q 2017.

reached US$ 126 million, a 130% increase compared to US$ 55 million in 2Q 2017. Steel Segment Adjusted EBITDA increased 146% to US$ 143 million from US$ 58 million in 2Q 2017. Steel shipments were 985 thousand MT, a 6% increase compared to the same period in 2017. Average realized prices increased by 24%, due to stronger steel market conditions. Net Sales grew 31%, compared to 2Q 2017, driven by higher volume and better price conditions. Cost of sales increased by 24% compared to 2Q 2017, mainly due to higher raw material costs and higher raw material usage.

increased 146% to US$ 143 million from US$ 58 million in 2Q 2017. Steam Coal Segment adjusted EBITDA resulted in a loss of US$ 13 million compared to a US$ 2 million gain in 2Q 2017. This was mainly explained by the following factors: Adverse exchange rate conditions negatively impacted the pricing formula of the CFE 1 contracts, specifically a 35% price adjustment due to the exchange rate fluctuation. Reduction in the monthly shipment volume requested by CFE.

resulted in a loss of US$ 13 million compared to a US$ 2 million gain in 2Q 2017. This was mainly explained by the following factors: Corporate Update AHMSA continues to move forwardon a number of strategic investments : During the current month, the Company initiated the operating phase for its vacuum degassing system . This new line will allow the Company to access markets that require higher value-added products. The progress rate for the Proyecto Artemisa iron ore recovery program is advancing at a solid pace. The system, through which the Company aims to increase iron ore recovery rates and the optimization of concentrate production is expected to be operational year-end. AHMSA continues to report progress in the repair project of 35 coke ovens at our #1 Coking Battery. As a result, we expect to increase annual coke capacity at this plant by approximately 177 thousand MT.

: During the month of June, AHMSA concluded new steam coal supply contracts with the CFE, which include a new formula that corrects the former price distortions caused by foreign exchange imbalances. The new contract terms will become effective in January 2019. Plans are underway for the re-instatement of AHMSA's shares on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV).



http://ir.ahmsa.com/en/

In Spanish: http://ir.ahmsa.com About AHMSA AHMSA is the largest steel producer in Mexico. The Company was founded in 1942 and began operations in 1944. In December 1991, the Company was privatized and Grupo Acerero del Norte, S.A. de C.V. (GAN) assumed control. In December 1995, GAN incorporated into AHMSA the iron ore and coal mines to convert AHMSA into an integrated steel producer in Mexico with a nominal capacity of 3.8 million MT of liquid steel per year. Since 2007, it has managed the Fenix Project, the most ambitious investment program in the Company's history aimed at increasing installed capacity by at least 40% and enabling AHMSA to surpass 5 million MT of liquid steel per year following the incorporation of its new electric arc furnace. With this new equipment, AHMSA also expanded its ranges of steel and increased specifications, which allows the Company to enter new market niches. In 2017, AHMSA held 12% share of the domestic steel market, 22% of the domestic market for flat products and 12% of exports from Mexico of finished steel products. The corporate headquarters and steel mills have an area of approximately 1,200 hectares and is located in Monclova, Coahuila de Zaragoza, 248 km from the U.S. border. 1. CFE. Comision Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electricity Commission). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180724006029/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 24, 2018] Agari Awards InfoTrust Channel Partner of the Year

RSA (News - Alert) Conference-- Agari, the leading predictive AI solution to protect the cloud inbox from advanced phishing attacks, today announced it had awarded InfoTrust Channel Partner of the Year. InfoTrust has become Agari's highest revenue generating partner globally and has signed new customers across diverse industries and sectors including government, energy and retail. Agari presented the award to InfoTrust in Singapore at RSA Conference 2018 Asia Pacific & Japan. "Agari is proud to recognize InfoTrust as 2018 Channel Partner (News - Alert) of the Year for its outsized contribution to our global channel revenue," said Steve Bell, Vice President of Global Sales, Agari. "Our top performing partners are closely aligned with Agari while also possessing strong email security industry domain and excellent customer relationships - InfoTrust exemplifies all of these qualities." Based in Australia, InfoTrust delivers holistic cyber security practices, best-in-class solutions and continuous support. "The InfoTrust Way" delivers ongoing proactive support to increase customer success and a higher return on investment, creating secure and more productive clients. "The InfoTrust Way is all about delivering customer love -- and we're thrilled that Agari has recognized this core value and awarded us Channel Partner of the Year," said Dane Meah, CEO, InfoTrust. "As organizations realize the growing risk of advanced email attacks such as phishing and business email compromise, Agari has become a critically important security offering in the InfoTrust portfolio." Earlier this year InfoTrust was recognized for delivering successful customer outcomes protecting the Australian Federal Government from Email Fraud attacks using Agari Email Trust Platform. Agari's recognition of InfoTrust comes as the two companies plan to extend their relationship by working together to serve customers in the Asia Pacific region. p> Agari Channel Program Expands Across Europe and the Americas



The Agari channel partner program continues its global expansion by welcoming new partners in the Americas and EMEA. During the first half of 2018, Agari began working with UK partners Armadillo and Gradian Systems. In the Americas, Agari welcomed GuidePoint Security, AccessIT Group, SoftChoice, Armature Systems and Sycomp to its growing channel partner community. "Agari continues to achieve record-breaking sales and revenue growth, thanks in part to a rapidly expanding channel partner ecosystem," said Steve Bell. "We welcome our newest channel partners to the family and look forward to delivering Agari's innovative email security solutions to customers around the world."

Agari is seeking qualified partners as it continues to expand its channel program around the world. Additional Resources: Learn more about the Agari Channel Partner Program

Watch Dane Meah, CEO of InfoTrust discuss the value of the Agari partnership About Agari Agari is the leading predictive AI solution to protect the cloud inbox from advanced email and phishing attacks. Winner of Best Email Security Solution by SC Magazine in 2018, the Agari Email Trust Platform prevents ransomware, ATO, phishing, BEC and other identity deception attacks, restoring trust to digital channels for businesses, governments, and consumers worldwide. Learn more at www.agari.com. About InfoTrust InfoTrust is a specialised Cyber Security Practice that provides expert consultancy, professional services and ongoing support in the delivery of a range of best of breed technologies. Learn more at www.infotrust.com.au. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180724006024/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 24, 2018]

PlasmaPay Calls for Applications for the Beta-Testing of Its Service

SINGAPORE, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

PlasmaPay is a global payment system which works with cryptocurrencies and fiat currency and allows users from any country to open multi-currency bank accounts online and manage their assets via a mobile application.

In September, the system will be launched in beta mode to test its infrastructure and payments in cryptocurrencies.

"By the end of 2019, the company will implement cryptocurrency- and fiat-based processing, launch a pilot project with several EU banks, and a money transfer service. After that, we will start a wide expansion to all EU and Asian countries," says CEO Ilya Maksimenka.

All cryptocurrency transfers in PlasmaPay will be provided free of charge and transfers to plastic cards will requir a commission of 0.5-1%. All types of transfers will be available to users, i.e., transfers to bank accounts, cards, through other payment systems, or in cash.







PlasmaPay is negotiating with five banks in Germany, UK, Czech Republic, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and three partners in the money transfer industry. The company's priority is to make a convenient service for users from different countries.

Contacts:

Natalia Kolesnikova

Director of Communications

nk@plasmapay.io

+7-926-640-52-92

Telegram: @bmbagency

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kolesnikova_n

Ilya Maksimenka

CEO

im@plasmapay.io

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ilya.maksimenka

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ilya_Maksimenka

LinkedIn: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/maksimenka

SOURCE PlasmaPay[July 24, 2018] ZAGG Protocol and EduHash Announces Their First Strategic Partnership Into Korean Market

SEOUL, South Korea, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- This Partnership marks ZAGG Protocol's entry into South Korean Education sector ZAGG Protocol signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with EduHash, The KPA Education Group, Korea. The MoU was signed by Mr. Raj N Phani, Founder, ZAGG Protocol and Mr. KT Kang, Managing Director, EduHash. With this strategic partnership, ZAGG Protocol and EduHash will enable a seamless secure creation, redemption and exchange of value across verticals and provide affordable and effective solutions to manage their respective programs. The ZAGG Protocol will be integrated with EduHash and their 700,000 students. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Raj N Phani, Founder, ZAGG Protocol, said, "We are delighted to sign the agreement with the EduHash, The KPA Education Group. Through this strategic partnership ZAGG Protocol now enters the South Korea's Education market. It's our endeavourto offer the best services through our partners and create differentiators in the market. The tie up will help us to leverage GBRL assets of ZAGG Protocol and integrate our services. We look forward to working with EduHash and achieve greater success in the future."



Speaking on the occasion, Mr. KT Kang, Managing Director, EduHash, said, "This strategic partnership will help EduHash to operate, execute and trade the decentralized protocol, GBRL Assets (Gift cards, Benefits, Rewards & Loyalty) and offer better services to our customers. We will be able to further improve our focus and provide a platform to EduHash to strengthen our functions in the long term." About ZAGG Protocol:

ZAGG Protocol is founded by Raj N. Phani, a serial entrepreneur who has built successful businesses in the fields of Prepaid Payments, Internet, Retail and Brand Merchandising. ZAGG Protocol is building a powerful and flexible blockchain protocol for the GBRL Industry. The infrastructure is built for both consumers and businesses to seamlessly operate, execute and trade GBRL programs and assets on a global scale and make them liquid and monetizable. The protocol seamlessly evaluates the private and public transactions and accordingly executes the transaction over the global ledger or the private ledger. This seamless coexistence of public and private ledger on the blockchain provide the ideal platform for businesses, developers to bring powerful apps and services to end consumers. To know more about Zagg Protocol, follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ZAGGProtocol and Telegram: https://t.me/zaggprotocol For more information contact: mukta.kumar@konnections.co.in



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Dassault Systemes Announces ExxonMobil Selects 3DEXPERIENCE Platform as Part of Its Digital Transformation

Regulatory News: Dassault Systemes (Paris:DSY) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) announced that Exxon Mobil Corporation ("ExxonMobil") has selected the 3DEXPERIENCE platform as a foundational component for its digital transformation effort. This implementation will support the aggregation of engineering data and derive greater value from ExxonMobil's data across a multitude of tools. A long-time customer of Dassault Systemes' (News - Alert) simulation, materials science and supply chain planning applications, ExxonMobil is the largest publicly traded energy company in the world and uses technology and innovation to help meet growing energy needs. ExxonMobil will now use the "Capital Facilities Information Excellence" industry solution experience based on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. In a unified digital environment, ExxonMobil employees can collaborate in real time. Engineers, operations and maintenance personnel will be able to access a single source of information describing the complex assets for which they have responsibility, in order to improve business process control and performance. "Digital transformation is a strategic enabler for energy companies facing increasing pressures and challenges due to market instability, technical complexity, and increasing regulations," said Thomas Grand, Vice President, Energy, Prcess and Utilities Industry, Dassault Systemes. "The 3DEXPERIENCE platform helps companies like ExxonMobil capture, control and reuse data to improve the efficiency of projects, assets and resources."



Social media: Share this on Twitter (News - Alert) : World's largest integrated energy company @exxonmobil turns to #3DEXPERIENCE to digitally transform its global processes @Dassault3DS

Connect with Dassault Systemes on Twitter Facebook LinkedIn YouTube For more information: Dassault Systemes' industry solution experiences for energy, process and utilities: https://ifwe.3ds.com/energy-process-utilities Dassault Systemes' 3DEXPERIENCE platform, 3D design software, 3D Digital Mock Up and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions: http://www.3ds.com ### About Dassault Systemes

Dassault Systemes, the 3DEXPERIENCE Company, provides business and people with virtual universes to imagine sustainable innovations. Its world-leading solutions transform the way products are designed, produced, and supported. Dassault Systemes' collaborative solutions foster social innovation, expanding possibilities for the virtual world to improve the real world. The group brings value to over 220,000 customers of all sizes, in all industries, in more than 140 countries. For more information, visit www.3ds.com. 3DEXPERIENCE, the Compass logo and the 3DS logo, CATIA, SOLIDWORKS, ENOVIA, DELMIA, SIMULIA, GEOVIA, EXALEAD, 3D VIA (News - Alert) , BIOVIA, NETVIBES and 3DEXCITE are registered trademarks of Dassault Systemes or its subsidiaries in the US and/or other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180724005712/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Xoxoday Acquires Blue Bulb to Enhance Experience Offerings for Enterprises

BANGALORE, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Xoxoday, the experiential rewards, engagement and loyalty solution provider for enterprises, has acqui-hired Bluebulb.in, a localised tours/experiences and activities start-up based in Mumbai. The company, which provides social platforms for enterprises to digitise rewards and engagement, would integrate Blue Bulb's unique local activities to make the experience catalogue more attractive. Blue Bulb, has been selling unique local experiences primarily to locals in Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa for the last 8 years. Xoxoday which currently works with 800+ enterprises like HCL, ITC, Eclerx, Adobe, Siemens, etc. is funded by Club Mahindra and Kshatriya Ventures. Experiences as reward and engagement solutions are provided to small, medium and large enterprises for their employees/channel partners/customers loyalty program to influence positive behaviour which delivers business value to the organizations. The experiences via social reward and engagement platforms help HRs to simplify tasks like improving productivity, efficiency of the employees, reduce cost of hiring, reduce attrition, and povide better ROI for HR investments along with other benefits. Marketing organizations purchase the digitised program and experiences to achieve targets by gamifying sales person target, channel partner engagement, referral and trade schemes.



The unique Blue Bulb local experiences that will get integrated with Xoxoday experiences will be offered to existing enterprise customers to engage their workforce for their team bonding activities and rewards. The same experiences will be available for members of Club Mahindra, an investor with Xoxoday. While commenting on the new acquisition, Sumit Khandelwal, Co-founder, Xoxoday said, "We believe that Blue Bulb's unique local experiences would add value to our business and will help us to improve our relationship with the vendors of the experiences. Also, we are glad to have a passionate entrepreneur like Mr. Regan Rodrigue, Co-founder, Blue Bulb joining Xoxoday as AVP sales to drive business in Mumbai and Western region."

Khandelwal added, "Xoxoday would definitely refine these experiences using our superior technology, RNR and customer loyalty program." About Xoxoday: Xoxoday Enterprise is a technology platform helping organizations to manage rewards, incentives and loyalty programs. Xoxoday develops scalable, secure, distributed and seamless solutions that help employees, consumers, and channel partners engage with brand through our unparalleled catalogue of curated experiences. To learn more, visit http://www.xoxoday.com. Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and LinkedIn

Media Contact :

Jiji Janardhanan

jiji@xoxoday.com

+91-7996917589

PR Manager

Xoxoday





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]I would end up at Vals Halla at least once a week, ready to spend my hard earned cash on a tight music budget of about $20. At that time, I could probably get three new albums. Or, if I was really lucky, could find some great bargain in what we called the cutout bin, a stash of discarded and discounted albums that could contain rare and cheap finds to us music lovers.[July 25, 2018] University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering Launches Online Master's in Computer Science

The University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science today announced its first completely online master's degree, a Master of Computer and Information Technology. MCIT Online is designed to be affordable, at one-third the cost of an on-campus degree, and open to students with no previous background in computer science. Offered exclusively on Coursera, MCIT Online is ideal for students who wish to pursue a variety of high-potential career paths, ranging from software development to product management to data science, that require a strong technical foundation. "Computer Science is now as fundamental to our future as math, reading or writing. And while we can't predict the future, we can help people prepare for it by making a strong grounding in these fundamentals as easy to acquire as possible," says Vijay Kumar, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering. "Our vision is for a high-impact program that is more accessible and more affordable for more students." MCIT Online confers the same degree as the on-campus MCIT, the only Ivy League Computer Science degree that has no computer science prerequisites. This design enables people with diverse academic backgrounds to pursue a career in technology. MCIT is a well-established program from a top 20 engineering school. The degree has more than 1,000 graduates who have gone on to work at top employers including Amazon, Facebook (News - Alert) , and Google. "This degree represents the democratization of computer science. It brings a world-class, Ivy League degree within reach of people of all backgrounds, from anywhere in the world," says Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera's CEO. "MCIT Online is a game-changer for people who want to earn a Master of Computer Science but don't have a tech background or can't attend an on-campus program. We're thrilled to deliver this degree from the University of Pennsylvania that shares our commitment to providing universal access to the world's best education." The total cost of the MCIT Online degree is $26,300, roughly a third of the cost of the on-campus degree, due to its online delivery model, with the same level of academic rigor and excellence for which the University of Pennsylvania is known. The Coursera platfor enables professors to build a variety of beginner to advanced programming assignments that combine auto, peer, and human grading done by on-campus teaching assistants and faculty. Students will also have the opportunity to participate regularly in live video office hours with the same faculty who teach on campus.



"Not only is computing permeating our everyday lives, but there's so much potential for it to help solve some of the world's major problems and have significant social impact. This program will allow people from all backgrounds to participate in that," says Chris Murphy, Associate Professor of Practice in Penn Engineering's Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS) and co-director of MCIT Online. "We've spent the past 17 years refining the MCIT curriculum so that it prepares our students to be computer scientists, not just programmers. That's so important for supporting their long-term careers throughout all areas of computing." The rigorous curriculum, composed of 6 core courses and 4 electives in areas such as data science and machine learning, features a blend of both computer science theory and applied, project-based learning. Students will gain experience working as part of a collaborative development team and combining mathematical foundations and engineering principles to develop solutions to real-world computing problems. Students will have the chance to work on projects using a variety of programming languages (Python, C, SQL, Java), data analytics tools (Hadoop, TensorFlow), and computing environments (Linux, Amazon Cloud), preparing them for careers in industries such as bioinformatics, medicine, finance, and telecommunications, as well as in the core software development industry.

"I was searching for a well-rounded education, and MCIT allowed me the flexibility to explore my interests in business and prepare me for the real world," says Priyanka Vergadia, who graduated from the MCIT program in 2011. "I'm now at Google (News - Alert) , working with customers and helping them to adopt cloud computing." Upon graduating, MCIT Online students will become part of the University of Pennsylvania alumni community and have access to career services and networking opportunities. "One of the best things about MCIT is the incredibly strong community of students and alumni," says Sampath Kannan, Henry Salvatori Professor in CIS and co-director of MCIT Online. "We fully intend to include our online students in that community and give them meaningful opportunities for personal experiences." The first cohort of the ten-course program will begin in January 2019. Applications are open now. Go here to learn more. About Penn Engineering: Penn Engineering prepares students for leadership roles in a technological world where creativity, critical quantitative thinking, effective communication skills and a strong commitment to humane values are essential. Established in 1852 as the School of Mines, Arts and Manufactures, Penn Engineering is among the oldest and most respected engineering schools in the United States. ENIAC, the first general purpose digital computer was developed at Penn Engineering in 1946, and the Department of Computer and Information Science awarded the first doctoral degree in Computer Science in 1965. With six academic departments and numerous interdisciplinary centers, institutes, and laboratories, Penn Engineering graduates close to 1,000 students each year and has a worldwide alumni network of more than 31,000. About Coursera: Coursera is an online education company that partners with 170 of the world's top universities and industry leaders to offer courses, Specializations, and degrees that empower learners around the world to achieve their career, educational, and personal enrichment goals throughout their lives. Since launching in 2012, the company has grown to 34 million registered learners who can choose among 2,700 courses and 250 Specializations. Leading universities are now also working with Coursera to offer online degrees in areas like business, computer science, data science, and public health. Coursera is backed by leading venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, GSV Capital, International Finance Corporation, Laureate Education Inc., and Learn Capital. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005181/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor Hideo Hosono's story of IGZO TFT development features in "Nature Electronics"

TOKYO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Each issue of the journal Nature Electronics contains a column called "Reverse Engineering," which examines the development of an electronic device now in widespread use from the viewpoint of the main inventor. So far, it has featured creations such as the DRAM, DVD, CD, and Li-ion rechargeable battery. The July 2018 column tells the story of the IGZO thin film transistor (TFT) through the eyes of Professor Hideo Hosono of Tokyo Tech's Institute of Innovative Research (IIR), who is also director of the Materials Research Center for Element Strategy. TFTs using oxides, including indium (In), gallium (Ga), and zinc (Zn), or IGZO, made possible high-resolution energy-efficient displays that had not been seen before. IGZO electron mobility is 10 times that of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, which was used exclusively for displays in the past. Additionally, its off current is extremely low and it is transparent, allowing light to pass through. IGZO has been applied to drive liquid crystal displays, such as those on smartphones and tablets. Three years ago, it was also used to drive large OLED televisions, which was considered a major breakthrough. This market is rapidly expanding, as can be seen from the products being released by South Korean and Japanese electronics manufacturers, which now dominate store shelves. The electron conductivity of transition metal oxides has long been known, but electric current modulation using electric fields has not. In the 1960s, it was reported that modulating the electric current was possible when zinc oxide, tin oxide, and indium oxide were formed into TFT structures. Their performance, however, was poor, and reports of research on organic TFTs were mostly nonexistent until around 2000. A new field called oxide electronics came into existence in the early noughties, examining oxides as electronic materials. A hub for this research was the present-day Laboratory for Materials and Structures within IIR, and research into zinc oxide TFTs soon spread worldwide. However, since the thin film was polycrystalline, there were problems with its characteristics and stability, and no practical applications were achieved. Application in displays, unlike CPUs, requires the ability to form a thin, homogenous film on a large-sized substrate -- like amorphous materials -- and a dramatic increase in electric current at a low gate voltage when the thin film is subjected to an electric field. However, while amorphous materials were the optimal choice for forming thin, homogeneous film, high carrier concentration and other issues due to structural disorder arose, for the most part preventing electric current modulation by electric fields. The only exception was amorphous silicon containing a large amount of hydrogen, reported in 1975. TFTs made o this material were applied to drive liquid crystal displays, which grew into a giant 10 trillion-yen industry. However, electron mobility was still lower by two to three orders of magnitude compared to that of crystalline silicon -- no better than 0.5 to 1 cm2 V-1 s-1. Amorphous semiconductors, therefore, were easy to produce, but were seen to have much inferior electronic properties.



Hosono focused his attention on oxides with highly ionic bonding nature, the series made up of non-transition metals belonging to the p-block of the periodic table. In this material series, the bottom of the conduction band, which works as the path for electrons, is made up mainly of spherically symmetrical metal s-orbitals with a large spatial spread. Because of this, the degree of overlap of the orbitals, which govern how easily electrons can move, is not sensitive to bond angle variation which is an intrinsic nature of amorphous materials. The professor realized that this characteristic might allow for mobility in amorphous materials that is comparable to that of polycrystalline thin films. He experimented accordingly and was able to find some examples. In 1995, he presented his idea and examples at the 16th International Conference on Amorphous Semiconductors and had the paper on its proceedings published the following year. After proving this hypothesis through experiments and calculations, he started test-producing TFTs. Many combinations of elements fulfilled the conditions of the hypothesis. IGZO was selected because it had a stable crystalline phase that is easy to prepare, and its specific local structure around Ga suggested that carrier concentration could be suppressed. In 2003, Hosono and his collaborators reported in Science that crystalline epitaxial thin film could produce mobility of around 80 cm2 V-1 s-1. In the following year, they published in Nature that amorphous thin film could also produce mobility of around 10 cm2 V-1 s-1.

Following these findings, research on amorphous oxide semiconductors and their TFTs began increasing rapidly around the world -- not just among the Society for Information Display (SID) and the International Conference on Amorphous Semiconductors. This activity has continued, and Hosono's two papers have now been cited over 2,000 and 5,000 times respectively. The total citations of the patents associated with these inventions now exceed 9,000. Products with displays incorporating these TFTs have been available to the general consumers since 2012. In particular, large OLED televisions, which appeared around 2015, became possible only due to the unique characteristics of amorphous IGZO TFTs -- their high mobility and ability to easily form a thin, homogenous film over a large area. Such displays are installed on the first floor of the Materials Research Center for Element Strategy and the foyer of the Laboratory for Materials and Structures at Tokyo Tech. Application of IGZO TFTs to high-definition large LCD televisions are expected to start soon. The outcomes of this research are a result of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) ERATO Transparent ElectroActive Materials project, carried out from 1999 to 2004. Related intellectual property has been established in many countries and regions including Japan, U.S.A., South Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, India, various European countries and so on. The principal patentee, JST, handles the granting of licenses. References Journal: Hideo Hosono, How we made the IGZO transistor,

Nature Electronics, vol.1, July issue, 2018

https://www.nature.com/natelectron/ IGZO TFT-related papers: K.Nomura, H.Ohta, K.Ueda, T.Kamiya, M.Hirano, H.Hosono, Thin-film transistor fabricated in single-crystalline transparent oxide semiconductor. Science, 300, 1269 (2003). K.Nomura, H.Ohta, A.Takagi, T.Kamiya, M.Hirano, H.Hosono, Room-temperature fabrication of transparent flexible thin-film transistors using amorphous oxide semiconductors. Nature, 432, 488 (2004). Reviews: H.Hosono, Ionic amorphous oxide semiconductors: Material design, carrier transport, and device application, J.Non-Crystalline Solids, 352 , 851 (2006) T.Kamiya, H.Hosono, Material characteristics and applications of transparent amorphous oxide semiconductors, NPG Asia Materials, 2, 15 (2010) About Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo Tech stands at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university for science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in fields ranging from materials science to biology, computer science, and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech hosts over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students per year, who develop into scientific leaders and some of the most sought-after engineers in industry. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of "monotsukuri," meaning "technical, ingenuity, and innovation," the Tokyo Tech community strives to contribute to society through high-impact research. www.titech.ac.jp/english/ View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tokyo-institute-of-technology-professor-hideo-hosonos-story-of-igzo-tft-development-features-in-nature-electronics-300686197.html SOURCE Tokyo Institute of Technology

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Servify Goes Global, Launches Operations in North America for OnePlus

MUMBAI, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Servify, a Mumbai-based technology and aftersales service management company has announced the launch of its North America operations, with its regional headquarters based out of Seattle, USA. As part of its global expansion strategy, Servify will also become operational in Europe, Middle East and Asia by Q3, 2018. Servify is one of the few start-ups that has endeavoured to become an Indian multi-national company; all its global entities are and shall be wholly owned subsidiaries of Servify India. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/722723/Servify_Logo.jpg )

Keeping with its promise of providing differentiated customer experience driven by technology, transparency, quick turn-around time and value for money, Servify has partnered with over 400 'Walk-In' service locations across the U.S. & Canada and is working on increasing the spread further. Customers can visit any of these locations and get their smarthones serviced within 2 hours of visiting. This is a big differentiator compared to the current conventional service models used by most OEMs where the customers have to wait for days once they ship their smartphone to a central hub recommended by the brands.



"We take great pride in starting our global journey with OnePlus, who was also one of the first brands to trust our abilities in India. Our technology platform, device protection and extended warranty offerings have already seen significant traction with multiple marquee brands in India since then, and we will continue to focus on scaling it as we expand to new markets," said Sreevathsa Prabhakar, Founder and CEO of Servify. Servify is an exclusive partner to OnePlus distributing and administering OnePlus's Damage Protection and Extended Warranty Plans in North America. To support this rapid growth, Servify has also inducted senior executives like Ajay Mishra from Qualcomm, Bharat Jain from Star TV, Ranjeet Walunj from B2X and Melville Fernandes from B2X in the leadership team recently. Servify is funded by early stage investors Blume Ventures and Beenext Japan.

About Servify Servify is a technology platform built to empower the device ownership experience across the life cycle assisting in pre-purchase to post-purchase and re-purchase to re-cycle transactions; and thus, close the gap between consumer's expectations and the brands' existing fulfilment delivery mechanism - all 'One Touch' and transparent. Servify currently works with a number of top brands spread across OEMs, Distributors, Retailers and Carriers such as Apple, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Motorola, Micromax, OPPO Mobiles, Godrej Appliances, Panasonic, Reliance Jio, Reliance Retail, Croma, Amazon, 10.or, Ingram Micro, Redington, HCL. For more information on Servify visit http://www.servify.tech Media Contact:

Ketaki Desai

ketaki.d@servify.tech

+91-9920715887

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[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Anthem Reports Second Quarter 2018 Results Reflecting Strong Overall Enterprise-Wide Execution

Anthem, Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) reported second quarter 2018 financial results driven by strong medical cost performance and a continued focus on optimizing execution. "We are pleased with our second quarter 2018 financial performance, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering strong medical cost performance and innovative healthcare solutions to our members," said Gail K. Boudreaux, President and CEO. "We remain focused on improving fundamental execution across the enterprise and we expect the positive momentum exhibited in the first half of 2018 to persist for the balance of the year. We will also continue to invest in capabilities that will enable us to more effectively meet the needs of our customers and seamlessly adapt to the ever-changing healthcare landscape. I'm excited about the growth opportunities we see ahead of us and I'm confident that with our trusted brand and deep local market presence, we are well-positioned to gain share in our markets and deliver quality, affordable healthcare to our members." Based on second quarter results and the business outlook for the remainder of the year, Anthem has increased its outlook for 2018 adjusted net earnings to be greater than $15.40* per share. * Refer to the GAAP reconciliation table. CONSOLIDATED HIGHLIGHTS Membership: Medical enrollment was approximately 39.5 million members at June 30, 2018, a decrease of 888 thousand members from 40.4 million members at June 30, 2017. The enrollment decline was driven by a reduced footprint in the Individual ACA-compliant marketplace in addition to membership losses in Medicaid. Medicare enrollment grew by 254 thousand, year-over-year as a result of acquisitions and organic growth in our existing counties. Medical enrollment was down 129 thousand lives sequentially, reflecting declines in Medicaid, continued attrition in Individual, and declines in the Local Group business. The decline was partially offset by growth in Medicare enrollment. Operating Revenue: Operating revenue was $22.7 billion in the second quarter of 2018 compared to $22.2 billion in the prior year quarter. The increase in operating revenue is attributable to premium increases to cover overall cost trends and the return of the health insurance tax in 2018 as well as acquisitions, partially offset by a reduced footprint in the Individual marketplace. Benefit Expense Ratio: The benefit expense ratio was 83.4 percent in the second quarter of 2018, a decrease of 270 basis points from 86.1 percent in the prior year quarter. The decrease was a result of the return of the health insurance tax in 2018 and enhanced medical cost performance across our business segments. Medical claims reserves established at December 31, 2017 developed moderately better than the Company's expectation during the first six months of 2018. Medical Cost Trend: Local Group medical cost trend for the full year 2018 is expected to be in the range of 6.0% +/- 50 basis points, unchanged from our previous outlook. Days in Claims Payable: Days in Claims Payable ("DCP") was 38.7 days as of June 30, 2018, a decrease of 1.6 days sequentially. The decline was primarily due to operational improvements, our reduced participation in the Individual ACA-compliant market, and the timing impact of the America's 1st Choice acquisition. SG&A Expense Ratio: The SG&A expense ratio was 15.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of 130 basis points from 13.8 percent in the second quarter of 2017. The increase, as expected, was primarily driven by the return of the health insurance tax in 2018 as well as the impact of increased investment spend in 2018 to support growth initiatives. The increase was partially offset by the 2015 cyber attack litigation settlement recorded in the second quarter of 2017. Operating Cash Flow: Operating cash flow was $542 million in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of $149 million compared to the prior year quarter. Operating cash flow was $2.8 billion, or 1.2 times net income for the six months ending June 30, 2018. Share Repurchase Program: During the second quarter of 2018, the Company repurchased 1.7 million shares of its common stock at a weighted average price of $229.75 for approximately $0.4 billion. During the first six months of 2018, the Company repurchased 3.4 million shares of its common stock for $0.8 billion, or a weighted average price of $231.61. The Company had approximately $6.4 billion of Board-approved share repurchase authorization remaining as of June 30, 2018. Cash Dividend: During the second quarter of 2018, the Company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.75 per share, representing a distribution of cash totaling $196 million. The Audit Committee declared a third quarter 2018 dividend to shareholders of $0.75 per share on July 24, 2018. On an annualized basis, this equates to a dividend of $3.00 per share. The third quarter dividend is payable on September 25, 2018 to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 10, 2018. Investment Portfolio & Capital Position: During the second quarter of 2018, the Company recorded net realized gains on financial instruments totaling $4.0 million and other-than-temporary impairment losses totaling $4.4 million. During the second quarter of 2017, the Company recorded net realized gains of $16.2 million and other-than-temporary impairment losses totaling $7.2 million. As of June 30, 2018, the Company's net unrealized loss position in the investment portfolio was $73.3 million, consisting of fixed maturity securities. The adoption of a change in accounting standards has resulted in the Company accounting for changes in the value of equity securities in realized gains or losses. As of June 30, 2018 cash and investments at the parent company totaled approximately $2.2 billion. REPORTABLE SEGMENTS Anthem, Inc. has three reportable segments: Commercial & Specialty Business (comprised of the Local Group, National Accounts, Individual and Specialty businesses); Government Business (comprised of the Medicaid and Medicare businesses, National Government Services, and the Federal Employee Program); and Other (comprised of unallocated corporate expenses and certain other businesses that do not meet the quantitative thresholds for separate reportable segment disclosure).



Anthem, Inc. Reportable Segment Highlights (Unaudited) (In millions) Three Months Ended June 30 Six Months Ended June 30 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change Operating Revenue Commercial & Specialty Business $9,162.9 $10,308.8 (11.1 )% $18,229.3 $20,598.4 (11.5 )% Government Business 13,543.0 11,883.4 14.0 % 26,805.4 23,909.1 12.1 % Other 8.9 5.8 53.4 % 22.4 10.0 124.0 % Total Operating Revenue1 22,714.8 22,198.0 2.3 % $45,057.1 $44,517.5 1.2 % Operating Gain / (Loss) Commercial & Specialty Business $1,052.8 $967.9 8.8 % $2,461.2 $2,270.3 8.4 % Government Business 537.4 293.3 83.2 % 1,028.3 611.9 68.1 % Other (31.2 ) (34.2 ) NM2 (62.6 ) (69.8 ) NM2 Total Operating Gain1 $1,559.0 $1,227.0 27.1 % $3,426.9 $2,812.4 21.8 % Operating Margin Commercial & Specialty Business 11.5 % 9.4 % 210 bp 13.5 % 11.0 % 250 bp Government Business 4.0 % 2.5 % 150 bp 3.8 % 2.6 % 120 bp Total Operating Margin1 6.9 % 5.5 % 140 bp 7.6 % 6.3 % 130 bp (1) See "Basis of Presentation." (2) "NM" = calculation not meaningful. Commercial & Specialty Business: Operating gain in the Commercial & Specialty Business segment totaled $1,052.8 million in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of $84.9 million, or 8.8 percent, from $967.9 million in the second quarter of 2017. The increase was driven by improved medical cost performance and the 2015 cyber attack litigation settlement recorded in the second quarter of 2017, partially offset by our reduced participation in the Individual ACA-compliant marketplace and increased investment spend in 2018 to support growth initiatives. Government Business: Operating gain in the Government Business segment was $537.4 million in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of $244.1 million, or 83.2 percent, from $293.3 million in the second quarter of 2017. The increase is a result of the acquisitions of HealthSun and America's 1st Choice in addition to organic membership growth in Medicare. Other: The Company reported an operating loss of $31.2 million in the Other segment for the second quarter of 2018, compared with an operating loss of $34.2 million in the prior year quarter. OUTLOOK Full Year 2018: Net income is now expected to be greater than $14.20 per share, including approximately $1.20 per share of net unfavorable items. Excluding these items, adjusted net income is now expected to be greater than $15.40 per share (refer to the GAAP reconciliation table).

Medical membership is now expected to be in the range of 39,900,000 - 40,100,000. Fully-insured membership is now expected to be in the range of 14,600,000 - 14,700,000 and self-funded membership is expected to be in the range of 25,300,000 - 25,400,000.

Operating revenue is expected to be in the range of $91.0 - $92.0 billion.

Benefit expense ratio is expected to be in the range of 84.4% plus or minus 30 basis points.

SG&A ratio is expected to be in the range of 15.4% plus or minus 30 basis points.

Operating cash flow is expected to be greater than $4.0 billion. Basis of Presentation Operating revenue and operating gain are the key measures used by management to evaluate performance in each of its reporting segments, allocate resources, set incentive compensation targets and to forecast future operating performance. Operating gain is calculated as total operating revenue less benefit expense and selling, general and administrative expense. It does not include net investment income, net realized gains/losses on financial instruments, other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income, interest expense, amortization of other intangible assets, gains/losses on extinguishment of debt or income taxes, as these items are managed in a corporate shared service environment and are not the responsibility of operating segment management. Refer to the GAAP reconciliation tables. Operating margin is defined as operating gain divided by operating revenue. Conference Call and Webcast Management will host a conference call and webcast today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time ("EDT") to discuss the company's second quarter results and outlook. The conference call should be accessed at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the call with the following numbers: 800-230-1059 (Domestic) 800-475-6701 (Domestic Replay) 612-234-9960 (International) 320-365-3844 (International Replay) An access code is not required for today's conference call. The access code for the replay is 432035. The replay will be available from 11:00 a.m. EDT today, until the end of the day on August 8, 2018. The call will also be available through a live webcast at www.antheminc.com under the "Investors" link. A webcast replay will be available following the call. About Anthem, Inc. Anthem is working to transform health care with trusted and caring solutions. Our health plan companies deliver quality products and services that give their members access to the care they need. With over 73 million people served by its affiliated companies, including nearly 40 million within its family of health plans, Anthem is one of the nation's leading health benefits companies. For more information about Anthem's family of companies, please visit www.antheminc.com/companies. Anthem, Inc. Membership Summary (Unaudited and in Thousands) Change from Medical Membership June 30, 2018 June 30, 2017 December 31,

2017 June 30, 2017 December 31,

2017 Customer Type Local Group 15,612 15,705 15,870 (0.6 )% (1.6 )% Individual 712 1,779 1,588 (60.0 )% (55.2 )% National: National Accounts 7,833 7,760 7,683 0.9 % 2.0 % BlueCard 5,653 5,561 5,521 1.7 % 2.4 % Total National 13,486 13,321 13,204 1.2 % 2.1 % Medicare 1,738 1,484 1,545 17.1 % 12.5 % Medicaid 6,391 6,529 6,475 (2.1 )% (1.3 )% FEP 1,560 1,569 1,562 (0.6 )% (0.1 )% Total Medical Membership 39,499 40,387 40,244 (2.2 )% (1.9 )% Funding Arrangement Self-Funded 25,273 24,938 24,966 1.3 % 1.2 % Fully-Insured 14,226 15,449 15,278 (7.9 )% (6.9 )% Total Medical Membership 39,499 40,387 40,244 (2.2 )% (1.9 )% Reportable Segment Commercial & Specialty Business 29,810 30,805 30,662 (3.2 )% (2.8 )% Government Business 9,689 9,582 9,582 1.1 % 1.1 % Total Medical Membership 39,499 40,387 40,244 (2.2 )% (1.9 )% Other Membership Life and Disability Members 4,673 4,705 4,700 (0.7 )% (0.6 )% Dental Members 5,788 5,818 5,864 (0.5 )% (1.3 )% Dental Administration Members 5,384 5,335 5,342 0.9 % 0.8 % Vision Members 6,760 6,791 6,867 (0.5 )% (1.6 )% Medicare Advantage Part D Members 933 679 702 37.4 % 32.9 % Medicare Part D Standalone Members 312 322 318 (3.1 )% (1.9 )% Anthem, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited) (In millions, except per share data) Three Months Ended

June 30 2018 2017 Change Revenues Premiums $ 21,248.4 $ 20,813.1 2.1 % Administrative fees and other revenue 1,466.4 1,384.9 5.9 % Total operating revenue 22,714.8 22,198.0 2.3 % Net investment income 229.3 200.2 14.5 % Net realized gains on financial instruments 4.0 16.2 (75.3 )% Other-than-temporary impairment losses on investments: Total other-than-temporary impairment losses on investments (4.4 ) (7.3 ) (39.7 )% Portion of other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in other comprehensive income - 0.1 NM Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income (4.4 ) (7.2 ) (38.9 )% Total revenues 22,943.7 22,407.2 2.4 % Expenses Benefit expense 17,727.8 17,917.2 (1.1 )% Selling, general and administrative expense: Selling expense 323.6 345.5 (6.3 )% General and administrative expense 3,104.4 2,708.3 14.6 % Total selling, general and administrative expense 3,428.0 3,053.8 12.3 % Interest expense 191.7 189.9 0.9 % Amortization of other intangible assets 93.6 40.6 130.5 % Gain on extinguishment of debt (0.9 ) - NM Total expenses 21,440.2 21,201.5 1.1 % Income before income tax expense 1,503.5 1,205.7 24.7 % Income tax expense 450.1 350.4 28.5 % Net income $ 1,053.4 $ 855.3 23.2 % Net income per diluted share $ 3.98 $ 3.16 25.9 % Diluted shares 264.5 270.8 (2.3 )% Benefit expense as a percentage of premiums 83.4 % 86.1 % (270 )bp Selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of total operating revenue 15.1 % 13.8 % 130 bp Income before income taxes as a percentage of total revenue 6.6 % 5.4 % 120 bp (1) "NM" = calculation not meaningful Anthem, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Income (Unaudited) (In millions, except per share data) Six Months Ended

June 30 2018 2017 Change Revenues Premiums $ 42,151.2 $ 41,764.4 0.9 % Administrative fees and other revenue 2,905.9 2,753.1 5.6 % Total operating revenue 45,057.1 44,517.5 1.2 % Net investment income 458.5 407.4 12.5 % Net realized (losses)/gains on financial instruments (22.1 ) 23.5 NM Other-than-temporary impairment losses on investments: Total other-than-temporary impairment losses on investments (12.3 ) (16.9 ) (27.2 )% Portion of other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in other comprehensive income - 1.6 NM Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income (12.3 ) (15.3 ) (19.6 )% Total revenues 45,481.2 44,933.1 1.2 % Expenses Benefit expense 34,773.7 35,460.0 (1.9 )% Selling, general and administrative expense: Selling expense 641.8 694.1 (7.5 )% General and administrative expense 6,214.7 5,551.0 12.0 % Total selling, general and administrative expense 6,856.5 6,245.1 9.8 % Interest expense 375.9 424.9 (11.5 )% Amortization of other intangible assets 173.1 82.4 110.1 % Loss on extinguishment of debt 18.2 - NM Total expenses 42,197.4 42,212.4 - % Income before income tax expense 3,283.8 2,720.7 20.7 % Income tax expense 917.9 855.5 7.3 % Net income $ 2,365.9 $ 1,865.2 26.8 % Net income per diluted share $ 8.97 $ 6.89 30.2 % Diluted shares 263.7 270.6 (2.5 )% Benefit expense as a percentage of premiums 82.5 % 84.9 % (240 )bp Selling, general and administrative expense as a percentage of total operating revenue 15.2 % 14.0 % 120 bp Income before income taxes as a percentage of total revenue 7.2 % 6.1 % 110 bp (1) "NM" = calculation not meaningful Anthem, Inc. Consolidated Balance Sheets (In millions) June 30,

2018 December 31,

2017 Assets (Unaudited) Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 4,682.0 $ 3,608.9 Fixed maturity securities 17,081.6 17,377.3 Equity securities 2,435.3 3,599.2 Other invested assets, current 23.8 17.2 Accrued investment income 161.6 162.5 Premium receivables 4,268.3 3,605.2 Self-funded receivables 2,650.0 2,579.7 Other receivables 2,182.6 2,266.5 Income taxes receivable 154.5 341.9 Securities lending collateral 624.6 455.1 Other current assets 3,106.1 2,249.3 Total current assets 37,370.4 36,262.8 Long-term investments: Fixed maturity securities 487.5 560.8 Equity securities 32.9 32.8 Other invested assets 3,495.2 3,343.8 Property and equipment, net 2,392.2 2,174.9 Goodwill 20,414.5 19,231.2 Other intangible assets 9,224.3 8,368.4 Other noncurrent assets 950.4 565.3 Total assets $ 74,367.4 $ 70,540.0 Liabilities and shareholders' equity Liabilities Current liabilities: Policy liabilities: Medical claims payable $ 7,545.3 $ 7,991.5 Reserves for future policy benefits 72.1 69.9 Other policyholder liabilities 3,009.8 2,950.3 Total policy liabilities 10,627.2 11,011.7 Unearned income 2,089.9 860.3 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 5,931.4 5,024.4 Security trades pending payable 159.9 112.6 Securities lending payable 624.3 454.4 Short-term borrowings 1,120.0 1,275.0 Current portion of long-term debt 650.2 1,274.6 Other current liabilities 3,302.8 3,343.0 Total current liabilities 24,505.7 23,356.0 Long-term debt, less current portion 17,515.4 17,382.2 Reserves for future policy benefits, noncurrent 644.7 647.3 Deferred tax liabilities, net 1,902.2 1,726.5 Other noncurrent liabilities 1,074.4 925.1 Total liabilities 45,642.4 44,037.1 Shareholders' equity Common stock 2.6 2.6 Additional paid-in capital 9,747.9 8,547.4 Retained earnings 19,757.3 18,054.4 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (782.8 ) (101.5 ) Total shareholders' equity 28,725.0 26,502.9 Total liabilities and shareholders' equity $ 74,367.4 $ 70,540.0 Anthem, Inc. Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (Unaudited) (In millions) Six Months Ended June 30 2018 2017 Operating activities Net income $2,365.9 $1,865.2 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: Net realized losses/(gains) on financial instruments 22.1 (23.5 ) Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income 12.3 15.3 Loss on extinguishment of debt 18.2 - Loss on disposal of assets 0.5 0.4 Deferred income taxes 1.9 (209.9 ) Amortization, net of accretion 495.1 385.0 Depreciation expense 60.6 54.5 Share-based compensation 78.1 87.1 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Receivables, net (570.1 ) (134.7 ) Other invested assets (11.0 ) (22.4 ) Other assets (445.2 ) (322.4 ) Policy liabilities (609.9 ) 254.0 Unearned income 1,157.6 865.9 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 28.8 (53.0 ) Other liabilities 70.1 81.5 Income taxes 187.4 281.7 Other, net (105.3 ) (43.4 ) Net cash provided by operating activities 2,757.1 3,081.3 Investing activities Purchases of fixed maturity securities (4,885.8 ) (7,637.0 ) Proceeds from sales and maturities of fixed maturity securities 4,881.1 6,119.3 Purchases of equity securities (657.9 ) (506.0 ) Proceeds from sales of equity securities 1,777.1 214.7 Purchases of other invested assets (246.7 ) (162.3 ) Proceeds from sales of other invested assets 197.8 121.8 Change in collateral and settlements of non-hedging derivatives - (2.1 ) Changes in securities lending collateral (170.0 ) (134.8 ) Purchases of subsidiaries, net of cash acquired (1,722.5 ) - Net purchases of property and equipment (532.5 ) (294.2 ) Other, net 15.2 11.8 Net cash used in investing activities (1,344.2 ) (2,268.8 ) Financing activities Net (repayments of)/proceeds from commercial paper borrowings (703.7 ) 1,347.8 Net (repayments of)/proceeds from short-term borrowings (155.0 ) 140.0 Net proceeds from/(repayments of) long-term borrowings 171.9 (929.9 ) Changes in securities lending payable 169.9 134.8 Changes in bank overdrafts 69.4 (146.2 ) Proceeds from equity put options 0.3 - Proceeds from issuance of common stock under Equity Unit contracts 1,250.0 - Repurchase and retirement of common stock (795.0 ) (509.0 ) Change in collateral and settlements of debt-related derivatives 21.9 (128.4 ) Cash dividends (388.3 ) (344.0 ) Proceeds from issuance of common stock under employee stock plans 94.8 151.0 Taxes paid through withholding of common stock under employee stock plans (75.6 ) (45.6 ) Net cash (used in) financing activities (339.4 ) (329.5 ) Effect of foreign exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents (0.4 ) 2.9 Change in cash and cash equivalents 1,073.1 485.9 Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 3,608.9 4,075.3 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $4,682.0 $4,561.2 Anthem, Inc. Reconciliation of Medical Claims Payable Six Months Ended

June 30 Years Ended December 31 2018 2017 2017 2016 2015 (In millions) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) Gross medical claims payable, beginning of period $ 7,991.5 $ 7,892.6 $ 7,892.6 $ 7,569.8 $ 6,861.2 Ceded medical claims payable, beginning of period (104.9 ) (539.1 ) (539.1 ) (645.6 ) (767.4 ) Net medical claims payable, beginning of period 7,886.6 7,353.5 7,353.5 6,924.2 6,093.8 Business combinations and purchase adjustments 199.2 - 75.8 - 121.8 Net incurred medical claims: Current year 34,733.8 35,686.5 71,872.3 66,371.4 60,708.4 Prior years redundancies(1) (804.5 ) (951.0 ) (1,164.6 ) (850.4 ) (800.2 ) Total net incurred medical claims 33,929.3 34,735.5 70,707.7 65,521.0 59,908.2 Net payments attributable to: Current year medical claims 28,146.4 28,540.4 64,249.7 59,156.6 54,067.7 Prior years medical claims 6,358.2 6,070.9 6,000.7 5,935.1 5,131.9 Total net payments 34,504.6 34,611.3 70,250.4 65,091.7 59,199.6 Net medical claims payable, end of period 7,510.5 7,477.7 7,886.6 7,353.5 6,924.2 Ceded medical claims payable, end of period 34.8 491.8 104.9 539.1 645.6 Gross medical claims payable, end of period $ 7,545.3 $ 7,969.5 $ 7,991.5 $ 7,892.6 $ 7,569.8 Current year medical claims paid as a percentage of current year net incurred medical claims 81.0 % 80.0 % 89.4 % 89.1 % 89.1 % Prior year redundancies in the current year as a percentage of prior year net medical claims payable less prior year redundancies in the current year 11.4 % 14.9 % 18.8 % 14.0 % 15.1 % Prior year redundancies in the current year as a percentage of prior year net incurred medical claims 1.1 % 1.5 % 1.8 % 1.4 % 1.4 % (1) Negative amounts reported for net incurred medical claims related to prior years result from claims being settled for amounts less than originally estimated. Anthem, Inc.

GAAP Reconciliation

(Unaudited) Anthem, Inc. has referenced "Adjusted Net Income" and "Adjusted Net Income Per Share," which are non-GAAP measures, in this document. These non-GAAP measures are not intended to be alternatives to any measure calculated in accordance with GAAP. In addition to these non-GAAP measures, references are made to the measures "Operating Revenue" and "Operating Gain." Each of these measures is provided to further aid investors in understanding and analyzing the company's core operating results and comparing Anthem, Inc.'s financial results. A reconciliation of Operating Revenue to Total Revenue is set forth in the Consolidated Statements of Income herein. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, together with a reconciliation of reportable segments operating gain to income before income tax expense, is reported below. Three Months Ended

June 30 Six Months Ended

June 30 (In millions, except per share data) 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change Net income $ 1,053.4 $ 855.3 23.2 % $ 2,365.9 $ 1,865.2 26.8 % Add / (Subtract): Net realized losses/(gains) on financial instruments (4.0 ) (16.2 ) 22.1 (23.5 ) Amortization of other intangible assets 93.6 40.6 173.1 82.4 Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income 4.4 7.2 12.3 15.3 (Gain)/Loss on extinguishment of debt (0.9 ) - 18.2 - 2015 cyber attack litigation - 115.0 - 115.0 Transaction related costs - 51.2 9.0 150.9 Penn Treaty assessment costs - - - - 253.8 Income tax true-up of prior transaction costs - (69.3 ) - (69.3 ) Tax impact of non-GAAP adjustments (22.6 ) (71.4 ) (55.9 ) (212.0 ) Net adjustment items 70.5 57.1 178.8 312.6 Adjusted net income $ 1,123.9 $ 912.4 23.2 % $ 2,544.7 $ 2,177.8 16.8 % Net income per diluted share $ 3.98 $ 3.16 25.9 % $ 8.97 $ 6.89 30.2 % Add / (Subtract): Net realized losses/(gains) on financial instruments (0.02 ) (0.06 ) 0.08 (0.09 ) Amortization of other intangible assets 0.35 0.15 0.66 0.30 Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income 0.02 0.03 0.05 0.06 Loss on extinguishment of debt - - 0.07 - 2015 cyber attack litigation - 0.42 - 0.42 Transaction related costs - 0.19 0.03 0.56 Penn Treaty assessment costs - - - 0.94 Income tax true-up of prior transaction costs - (0.26 ) - (0.26 ) Tax impact of non-GAAP adjustments (0.09 ) (0.26 ) (0.21 ) (0.78 ) Rounding Impact 0.01 - - 0.01 Net adjustment items 0.27 0.21 0.68 1.16 Adjusted net income per diluted share $ 4.25 $ 3.37 26.1 % $ 9.65 $ 8.05 19.9 % Full Year 2018 Outlook Net income per diluted share Greater than $14.20 Add / (Subtract): Net realized losses on financial instruments 0.08 Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income 0.05 Loss on extinguishment of debt 0.07 Transaction related costs 0.03 Amortization of other intangible assets Approximately $1.35 Tax impact of non-GAAP adjustments Approximately ($0.38) Net adjustment items Approximately $1.20 Adjusted net income per diluted share Greater than $15.40 Three Months Ended

June 30 Six Months Ended

June 30 (In millions) 2018 2017 Change 2018 2017 Change Reportable segments operating gain $ 1,559.0 $ 1,227.0 27.1 % $ 3,426.9 $ 2,812.4 21.8 % Net investment income 229.3 200.2 458.5 407.4 Net realized gains/(losses) on financial instruments 4.0 16.2 (22.1 ) 23.5 Other-than-temporary impairment losses recognized in income (4.4 ) (7.2 ) (12.3 ) (15.3 ) Interest expense (191.7 ) (189.9 ) (375.9 ) (424.9 ) Amortization of other intangible assets (93.6 ) (40.6 ) (173.1 ) (82.4 ) Loss on extinguishment of debt 0.9 - (18.2 ) - Income before income tax expense $ 1,503.5 $ 1,205.7 24.7 % $ 3,283.8 $ 2,720.7 20.7 % Forward-Looking Statements This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements reflect our views about future events and financial performance and are generally not historical facts. Words such as "expect," "feel," "believe," "will," "may," "should," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "project," "forecast," "plan" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements include, but are not limited to: financial projections and estimates and their underlying assumptions; statements regarding plans, objectives and expectations with respect to future operations, products and services; and statements regarding future performance. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond our control, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied or projected by, the forward-looking statements. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof. You are also urged to carefully review and consider the various risks and other disclosures discussed in our reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, which attempt to advise interested parties of the factors that affect our business. Except to the extent otherwise required by federal securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to republish revised forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the impact of federal and state regulation, including ongoing changes in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, as amended, or collectively the ACA; trends in healthcare costs and utilization rates; our ability to contract with providers on cost-effective and competitive terms; our ability to secure sufficient premium rates including regulatory approval for and implementation of such rates; reduced enrollment; risks and uncertainties regarding Medicare and Medicaid programs, including those related to non-compliance with the complex regulations imposed thereon, our ability to maintain and achieve improvement in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, Star ratings and other quality scores and funding risks with respect to revenue received from participation therein; competitive pressures, including competitor pricing, which could affect our ability to maintain or increase our market share; a negative change in our healthcare product mix; our ability to adapt to changes in the industry and develop and implement strategic growth opportunities; costs and other liabilities associated with litigation, government investigations, audits or reviews; the ultimate outcome of litigation between Cigna Corporation, or Cigna, and us related to the merger agreement between the parties, including our claim for damages against Cigna, Cigna's claim for payment of a termination fee and other damages against us, and the potential for such litigation to cause us to incur substantial costs, materially distract management and negatively impact our reputation and financial positions; medical malpractice or professional liability claims or other risks related to healthcare services provided by our subsidiaries; possible restrictions in the payment of dividends by our subsidiaries and increases in required minimum levels of capital; the potential negative effect from our substantial amount of outstanding indebtedness; a downgrade in our financial strength ratings; the effects of any negative publicity related to the health benefits industry in general or us in particular; unauthorized disclosure of member or employee sensitive or confidential information, including the impact and outcome of any investigations, inquiries, claims and litigation related thereto; failure to effectively maintain and modernize our information systems; non-compliance by any party with the Express Scripts, Inc. pharmacy benefit management services agreement, which could result in financial penalties, our inability to meet customer demands, and sanctions imposed by governmental entities, including CMS; state guaranty fund assessments for insolvent insurers; events that may negatively affect our licenses with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; regional concentrations of our business and future public health epidemics and catastrophes; general risks associated with mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances; our ability to repurchase shares of our common stock and pay dividends on our common stock due to the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings and other considerations; possible impairment of the value of our intangible assets if future results do not adequately support goodwill and other intangible assets; changes in economic and market conditions, as well as regulations that may negatively affect our liquidity and investment portfolios; changes in U.S. tax laws; intense competition to attract and retain employees; various laws and provisions in our governing documents that may prevent or discourage takeovers and business combinations; and general economic downturns. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005134/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Clinical Cardiology Publishes Study Demonstrating Simple Blood Test from Prevencio Accurately Detects Cardiovascular Disease

Prevencio, Inc., announces the publication of data that demonstrates a simple new blood test accurately diagnoses significant Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), a circulatory problem in which plaque-narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to a patient's limbs and kidneys. If left untreated, PAD can lead to clogged arteries and increase the risk of a major cardiac event or amputation. Researchers believe the data, published in Clinical Cardiology, could lead to the use of this test as a gatekeeper to imaging or invasive testing, thus reducing cost and exposures to potentially harmful intravenous contrast and/or ionizing radiation. In the study, Massachusetts General Hospital and Prevencio researchers developed and validated a multi-protein blood test, HARTTM PAD, that identifies the presence of PAD and predicts the need for a future medical intervention. Principal Investigator James L. Januzzi, MD, is a practicing cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Januzzi and a team of researchers tested 355 patients referred for diagnostic peripheral angiography to Massachusetts General Hospital. When divided into low-risk and high-risk categories, the HART PAD test predicted with 98 percent accuracy to exclude obstruction of the peripheral arteries. Additionally, the test predicted with 86 percent accuracy to identify obstruction of the peripheral arteries. "This blood test may allow for the diagnosis and treatment of many more patients with PAD," said Januzzi. "As well as giving physicians the opportunity to provide patients with more appropriate care, we believe the test could also benefit clinical trials by saving time and thereby lowering overall trial costs." PAD affects more than 202 million people globally and is often underdiagnosed and undertreated until the disease has reached its advanced stages. In addition to the HART PAD test, Prevencio is developing a multi-protein blood test, HART AMP, to specifically identify a patient's risk for amputation.



"We are pleased to have our third publication validating the high accuracy of our HART tests which have the potential to improve treatment for millions of cardiovascular patients," said Rhonda Rhyne, Prevencio's Chief Executive Officer. "This could not have been accomplished without our collaboration with Dr. Januzzi and his researchers and Myriad RBM. It is also highly rewarding to work on our HART biomarker blood tests with pharmaceutical companies to test drug efficacy, improve drug development, and decrease clinical trial expenses." Powered by AI, Prevencio is revolutionizing blood tests for cardiovascular disease. Employing this novel approach, the company has produced five blood tests to-date that significantly improve diagnoses for a variety of heart and blood vessel-related complications.

These tests are: 1. HART CADTM - obstructive coronary artery disease diagnosis 2. HART CVETM - 1-year risk of heart attack, stroke or cardiac death 3. HART PADTM - peripheral artery disease diagnosis 4. HART ASTM - aortic valve stenosis diagnosis 5. HART AMPTM - risk of amputation HART test results have been presented at leading cardiovascular meetings-(European Society of Cardiology Congress Scientific Sessions - 2016, American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions - 2017, American Heart Association Scientific Sessions - 2017, American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions - 2018, American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions - 2018) and published in top-tier cardiology journals (Journal of American College of Cardiology - March 2017, American Journal of Cardiology - July 2017, and Clinical Cardiology, June 2018). About Prevencio, Inc.: Prevencio's value proposition is "Preventing the Preventable" - That is, preventing unnecessary procedures and related side effects, as well as improving patient outcomes and clinical trials through more accurate blood tests for Cardiovascular Disease conditions. Prevencio utilizes Machine Learning (Artificial Intelligence) + Multi-Proteomic Biomarkers + Proprietary Algorithms to deliver cardiovascular diagnostic & prognostic tests that are significantly more accurate than standard-of-care stress tests, individual biomarkers, genetic markers and clinical risk scores. The company is headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. For additional information, visit www.PrevencioMed.com. Prevencio-Preventing the Preventable. Forward-Looking (Safe Harbor) Statement: Except for historical and factual information contained herein, this press release contains forward-looking statements, such as market need, acceptance, size, potential, and penetration rates, the accuracy of which is necessarily subject to uncertainties and risks including the Company's sole dependence on HART technology and various uncertainties characteristic of development-stage companies. The Company does not undertake to update the disclosures contained in this press release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005196/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Nozomi Networks Tackles TRITON and the Rise of Critical Infrastructure Cyber Threats at Black Hat 2018

SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nozomi Networks Inc., the leader in real-time cyber security and operational visibility for industrial control systems (ICS), today announced that it will share insights from its extensive research on TRITON at Black Hat USA 2018. The company will show how TRITON, the latest and one of the most sophisticated attacks on an ICS system, was developed, why it failed and what anyone seeking to secure critical infrastructure can do to help keep it safe.

In the face of TRITON and a growing number of threats targeting energy and other critical infrastructure, the pressure is on to secure operational networks. According to the Annual Black Hat Attendee Survey, nearly 70 percent (up 10 percent from last year) believe that a successful cyber attack on U.S. critical infrastructure will occur in the next two years. Only 15 percent believe that government and private industry are prepared to respond to a critical infrastructure breach. And while more than two-thirds of respondents think its likely their own organizations will have to respond to a major security breach in the next 12 months, 65 percent say they do not have enough staff to meet the threat; 53 percent feel they do not have adequate budget; and 66 percent say they themselves do not have enough training to handle the current threats and perform all the job functions required of them. In a briefing session at Black Hat, international ICS cyber security expert Dr. Andrea Carcano, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Nozomi Networks, and members of the Nozomi Networks research team will share findings from the most in-depth analysis of TRITON to date. They will provide comprehensive insights into how one of the most advanced attacks on an ICS system was developed and why it continues to pose a serious risk to critical infrastructure around the world. Who: Nozomi Networks Co-Founder Dr. Andrea Carcano and Security Researcher Younes Dragoni br />What: TRITON: How it Disrupted Safety Systems and Changed the Threat Landscape of ICS Forever





When: 11:15 a.m. PT, Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Where: Tradewinds EF, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas *Note: Based on their extensive research of the TRITON malware, Nozomi Networks has released a Wireshark dissector for the TriStation protocol - the TriStation Protocol Plug-in for Wireshark. A second TRITON analysis tool will be released at Black Hat.

In addition to Wednesdays TRITON briefing, Dr. Carcano will join a special session with Fortinet to discuss how innovations in artificial intelligence are helping address rising threats to operational networks. Attendees will learn how applied machine learning can map, model, detect and defend industrial control systems (ICS) in real-time. Who: Nozomi Networks Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Dr. Andrea Carcano

What: New Cyber Security Technologies and Methods for Todays CISO

When: 2 p.m. PT, Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Where: Fortinet Theater, Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Booth #828 Also during Black Hat 2018, Nozomi Networks will participate in an exclusive BrightTALK @ Black Hat panel produced by BrightTALK in partnership with ITSPmagazine. Cyber security veteran Chenxi Wang, a Managing General Partner at Rain Capital, will moderate the panel of security experts as they explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning are being used to power cyber security attacks, and detect and respond to them faster. Who: Nozomi Networks Director of Research and Strategy Paul Smith joins a panel of security experts

What: AI-Armed Cyber Adversaries: Cyber Crime & Defense in 2018

When: 10:30 am. PT, Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Where: Live Streaming from Black Hat Now in its 21st year, Black Hat is the worlds leading information security event, offering attendees the very latest in research, development and trends. Black Hat USA 2018 opens August 4th at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, with four days of technical training followed by the two-day conference (August 8-9). About Nozomi Networks

Nozomi Networks is the leader of industrial cyber security, delivering the best solution for real-time visibility to manage cyber risk and improve resilience for industrial operations. With one solution, customers gain advanced cyber security, improved operational reliability and easy IT/OT integration. Innovating the use of artificial intelligence, the company helps the largest industrial facilities around the world See and Secure their critical industrial control networks. Today Nozomi Networks supports over a quarter of a million devices in sectors such as critical infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, mining, transportation and utilities, making it possible to tackle escalating cyber risks to operational networks (OT). www.nozominetworks.com Press Contacts:

Jil Backstrom

jil.backstrom@nozominetworks.com - 303.913.1650

Follow the Nozomi Networks Blog

Follow @nozominetworks on Twitter

Visit and follow the Nozomi Networks Corporate Page on LinkedIn

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Haven Life publicly offers term life insurance API

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Modern life insurance agency, Haven Life, today launched an API to give business partners access to their simple and innovative term life insurance buying process. Now, insurtech leaders, financial service startups and providers, parenting and lifestyle sites, insurance lead generators, health and wellness platforms and more can offer a proven solution for buying affordable, high-quality term life insurance to their customers and users. "Our team has dedicated several years of hard work to building an industry-leading technology stack that supports a fully digital term life insurance application process," said John Latona, General Manager of Haven Life. "Life insurance is a critical part of most people's financial plans -- yet it's very challenging to offer online. With this API, we are seeking new business partners who wish to help us further demystify life insurance so that more people have access to a simple way to financially protect their loved ones." The Haven Life API can be implemented in a matter of minutes by simply entering a few lines of code and embedding an optimized quote widget. For those seeking a more customized integration, the REST API allows for more flexibility in user experience. Haven Life has been quietly piloting the API with more than 15 partners. According to internal data, users who start the application fromthe API have a 614% higher conversion rate than those who do not -- demonstrating a frictionless path to purchase.



With the API, users can get a personalized quote for coverage without leaving the partner's web property and then seamlessly connect to Haven Life's easy online application process. If approved, coverage can start that day. The platform is set up so that both the partner and Haven Life can have full transparency into how many applicants are going through the purchasing process. Haven Life's API announcement closely follows its recent expansion in availability, which includes offering coverage to non U.S. citizens and individuals with complicated medical histories, subject to underwriting approval. The Haven Term policy is a nationally available medically underwritten term life insurance policy that is issued by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual).

To apply for early access to Haven Life's API or to speak with the Haven Life team about personalized business solutions, fill out the interest form here: welcome.havenlife.com/api ABOUT HAVEN LIFE

Haven Life Insurance Agency, LLC is a life insurance startup, backed and wholly owned by MassMutual, that offers a simple online experience for buying high-quality and affordable coverage. Driven by a mission to make life less hard, we're transforming the typically time-consuming and confusing process of buying life insurance into one that's easier, faster and just plain better. Haven Term is a Term Life Insurance Policy (ICC17DTC) issued by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual), Springfield, MA 01111 and offered exclusively through Haven Life Insurance Agency, LLC. Policy and rider form numbers and features may vary by state and not be available in all states. Our Agency license number in California is 0K71922 and in Arkansas, 100139527. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/haven-life-publicly-offers-term-life-insurance-api-300685716.html SOURCE Haven Life

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Microdesk Wins Port Authority of NY & NJ Contract to Expand Enterprise Asset Management

NEW YORK, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Microdesk, a global leader in AECO consulting, was recently awarded a multi-year contract with the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ) to broaden its Application Maintenance and Support Services through an Enterprise Asset Management Program. Microdesk is a longtime partner of the PANYNJ and currently provides a range of services to support the agency's strategic objectives in the areas of Application Development, BIM and CAD Support Services, and Enterprise Asset Management Consulting Services. "Microdesk is excited about the opportunity to play such a critical role in the Port Authority's effort to expand its Enterprise Asset Management Program to all its facilities throughout the New York metropolitan area," says George Broadbent, director of asset management. "This contract provides a platform for Microdesk to demonstrate its capabilities and expertise, building upon our ongoing work of assessing and implementing systems to collect, integrate and analyze data that helps optimize the agency's operations, and planning, and asset management." Under the new agreement, Microdesk will be responsible for maintining the agency's Maximo Platform and associated mobile applications. In addition to the technical duties, it will provide high-level Asset Management Program guidance, recommendations, and development of policies to ensure the continuity of Enterprise Asset Management as a supportable, sustainable and efficient platform that meets the agency's objectives. Microdesk is one of the few international consultancies with teams specializing in Maximo and System Integration.



Microdesk's Asset Management Team members have diverse backgrounds in global consulting, government agencies and regulated industries, and advanced degrees in business administration as well as doctorates. Their range of knowledge and experience will be invaluable in delivering innovative solutions. The contract is effective beginning on or about August 1, 2018.

About Microdesk: Microdesk is a technology consulting firm providing technical services for successful planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of land and buildings. Combining vision with the latest Building Information Modeling (BIM), Virtual Design & Construction (VD&C), and Asset Management tools and the talent of Microdesk's consulting team, Microdesk aids clients in successfully managing the entire building and infrastructure project delivery process. Interested in joining Microdesk's team? Visit: https://www.microdesk.com/careers/join-our-team/ Follow Microdesk on: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook Media Inquiries: marketing@microdesk.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microdesk-wins-port-authority-of-ny--nj-contract-to-expand-enterprise-asset-management-300686160.html SOURCE Microdesk

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Oracle TimesTen Scaleout Sets New Performance Standard for In-Memory Databases

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Empowering global organizations to manage growing transaction workloads, Oracle today announced Oracle TimesTen Scaleout, the world's fastest Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) database. Oracle TimesTen Scaleout, built on a proven enterprise architecture, is capable of massive scaleout, extreme transaction processing throughput, and ultra-low response times. TimesTen Scaleout was designed specifically to address real-time business workloads that handle an immense volume of data transactions, such as real-time trading, real-time telecommunications billing, IoT, and real-time fraud detection. Delivering breakthrough high throughput read and write speeds, TimesTen Scaleout achieves an impressive 144 million SQL transactions/second and 1.2 billion SQL statements/second running the Telecom Provider Throughput Benchmark (TPTBM) on commodity hardware. "We are proud to announce the release of TimesTen Scaleout, a new scaleout in-memory database for OLTP workloads," said Andrew Mendelsohn, executive vice president, Oracle Database. "Since it is based on the mature and time-tested TimesTen In-Memory Database, TimesTen Scaleout has both extensive sophisticated functionality, as well as incredible performance. This scaleout architecture is designed for extreme performance OLTP workloads and further extends Oracle's in-memory database technology leadership." Built on Oracle's unmatched experience delivering industrial-strength database offerings, Oracle TimesTen Scaleout offers always-on operations and instant scalability. It includes a highly available architecture with multiple active copies of data that are automatically kept in sync. Queries and transactions can be initiated from, and executed on, any replica, ensuring database users always have access to data. With instant scalability, organizations can expand or shrink database instances and resources as business demands change. "Our marketing service system was successfully deployed under the new TimesTen Scaleout architecture with almost no application code changes," said Tang Tang, head of the construction and mintenance department at Chongqing Mobile (China Mobile). "The entire system has not only improved performance by more than three times, but also successfully supported a number of new high concurrency business modules. This fully demonstrates that Oracle TimesTen Scaleout is an excellent distributed relational in-memory database product for OLTP SQL-based applications."



"Processing business transactions with large workloads with speed and agility is critical for making real-time business decisions, particularly those related to connected IoT devices, fraud detection and billing," said Julian Dontcheff, Global Oracle Technology Lead for Accenture. "Having teamed with Oracle for more than two decades to deliver the latest technology innovations to our joint clients to help them accelerate digital transformation, we look forward to leveraging TimesTen Scaleout as an important component of our data architecture toolkits." Oracle TimesTen Scaleout supports parallel SQL execution, global secondary indexes, and full-featured multi-statement distributed transactions. It features Oracle Database compatible data types, languages, and APIs, including SQL and PLSQL, the Oracle Call Interface (OCI), JDBC, among others. The system also allows for multiple data distribution options to accommodate a wide variety of application requirements and provides centralized management capabilities that can be accessed via Oracle SQL Developer.

TimesTen Scaleout is just the latest Oracle database innovation. To learn more about recent database solutions, including the Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, please visit here. Oracle Data Management Oracle provides the industry's most complete family of data management software products: Oracle RDBMS, Oracle TimesTen Scaleout In-Memory Database, Oracle NoSQL Database, MySQL, and Berkeley DB. Oracle's new Autonomous Database Cloud provides the industry's first self-driving, self-securing, and self-repairing database cloud service. It's built on unique Oracle data management technologies, including Oracle Exadata Database Machine, Oracle Database 18c, Oracle Real Application Clusters, and Oracle Multitenant, plus algorithms using artificial intelligence to make it autonomous. Additional Resources Learn more about TimesTen

Download Oracle TimesTen Scaleout

Learn more about Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse Cloud

Follow Oracle Database via Blog, Facebook and Twitter About Oracle The Oracle Cloud offers complete SaaS application suites for ERP, HCM and CX, plus best-in-class database Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) from data centers throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information about Oracle (NYSE:ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com. Trademarks Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oracle-timesten-scaleout-sets-new-performance-standard-for-in-memory-databases-300686126.html SOURCE Oracle

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] BitGo Adds Zcash to its Diverse Multi-Currency Platform

BitGo, the market leader in institutional-grade cryptocurrency security, announced today it has added support for Zcash to its expanding list of diverse digital currencies. Last week, BitGo announced it had added 57 ERC 20 tokens, which are expected to grow to over 100 by the end of 2018. BitGo is the only company in the industry with 100% multi-signature wallets across all coin types and provides the highest level of security, compliance and custodial services. This distinction makes it the perfect solution to support Zcash - a digital asset focused on privacy protection and cutting-edge cryptographic technology. "Our mission is to offer our institutional clients the most complete portfolio of digital currency investment services, which includes the largest and most diverse basket of coins and tokens to help them hedge the market and get better returns," said Ben Chan, Chief Technology Officer of BitGo. "As one of the world's most valuable and technologically demanding digital currencies, Zcash is an important new asset for our institutional investors." "With BitGo's exceptional standards, institutional grade, multi-signature security and custody servces, investors are able to seamlessly send and receive Zcash in a safe and secure way," said Brad Miller, Zcash engineer and ecosystem lead. "The Zcash Company ecosystem team and BitGo worked collaboratively to ensure Zcash is well integrated and supported."



For additional information, please contact us at sales@bitgo.com. About BitGo:

BitGo Inc. is the market leader in institutional-grade investment services, providing institutional investors with security, compliance, and custodial solutions for blockchain-based currencies. BitGo is the world's largest processor of on-chain bitcoin transactions, processing 15% of all global bitcoin transactions, and $15 billion per month across all cryptocurrencies. The company has a customer base that includes the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges and spans more than 50 countries. BitGo is headquartered in Palo Alto (News - Alert) , California, and has offices in New York, London, Singapore, and Tokyo. For additional information, please visit www.BitGo.com. About Zcash: The Zcash Company mission is to empower everyone with economic freedom and opportunity. We believe that everyone has a right to privacy, that the pursuit of economic freedom is virtuous, and that the future of money is an attack- and censorship-resistant digital currency. The Zcash Company launched and supports the development of the Zcash cryptocurrency - a privacy-protecting, digital currency built on strong science. Since its launch in 2016, Zcash has quickly grown to be one of the most valued and admired cryptocurrencies in the world. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005369/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Candace Parker not only lived up to the winning standard set by Michael Jordan and the 1990s Bulls teams she idolized growing up  she reminded Chicagoans that standard is alive and well as long as she plays for the WNBA champion Sky.[July 25, 2018] Rangle Appoints Camas Winsor to Chief Operating Officer

TORONTO, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rangle, one of the fastest growing digital transformation consultancies, today announced Camas Winsor to the role of Chief Operating Officer. Winsor, who will continue to lead Rangles Client Services, steps forward to steward the companys growth and optimize overall operations. This unique purview ensures Rangle clients receive exemplary service, big-thinking strategy, and efficient solution delivery as they embark on their digital transformation journey. The announcement follows on the heels of Rangles announcement that Michael Howie Howatson joined the company as Executive Creative Director.

Rangle Appoints Camas Winsor to Chief Operting Officer







Rangle is rapidly expanding beyond its roots in JavaScript and Agile to offer clients an end-to-end digital transformation program, said Nick Van Weerdenburg, Rangles Chief Executive Officer. As we look to strengthen our client-centric organization, Camas is the perfect person to enable our pursuit of strategic, and disruptive digital transformation projects that deliver superior customer experiences. Stepping into the role of COO is a natural progression for Winsor, who has more than 15 years of experience working in development and operational roles for agencies and technology companies. Winsors cross-functional team generated over $30M in organic revenue and contributed to revenue growth of 116 percent from 2016 to 2017. During her tenure, her team has played a pivotal role in expanding the companys work for key accounts including jetBlue, Uniqlo, and Progressive Insurance.

Thanks to the incredible work of our team to evolve and expand our service offerings for clients, Rangle is rapidly expanding with global brands like Uniqlo and jetBlue, said Winsor. Our relentless focus on client success starts with understanding their business, their culture, and how technology can drive a transformation that will position them for long-term success. Our next phase of growth is exciting and our teams are creating innovative ways to wrap our clients in the strategic support they need at every level of interaction with Rangle. Those interested in joining Winsor and the Rangle team can submit their resume via https://rangle.io/careers/. About Rangle

Rangle is a digital transformation consultancy that plans, designs and builds innovative applications for clients like Aldo, Uniqlo, Raymond James, DriveTime, ThyssenKrupp and Sprout. The companys unique approach to partnership-based development ensures clients can move quickly from ideation to implementation. rangle.io For More Information:

Megan Wheeler,

Director of Marketing

megan.wheeler@rangle.io A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e92deb83-8534-4052-baae-40e039eeb5e9

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] ZoomInfo Appoints Derek Schoettle as Its CEO

Zoom Information, Inc. [ZoomInfo], the leading growth acceleration platform, today announced that it has appointed Derek Schoettle as its CEO and to its Board of Directors. Mr. Schoettle assumed the role on July 10, 2018. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005335/en/ Derek Schoettle, ZoomInfo CEO (Photo: Business Wire) "Derek is an outstanding executive carefully selected to be ZoomInfo's next leader to expand the company's product set and to accelerate ZoomInfo's already impressive revenue growth," Christopher Gaffney, managing director, Great Hill Partners, said. "When Great Hill Partners acquired ZoomInfo last year, we did so in partnership with ZoomInfo's founder and CEO, Yonatan Stern, planning to recruit an enterprise-class successor CEO who has navigated these paths before. Derek's extensive background leading both high growth technology organizations and large scale, complex platform businesses cemented for us that he is the right person for this role." Mr. Schoettle jons ZoomInfo after a successful four-year stint at IBM (News - Alert) , where most recently he was the Chief Business Officer and General Manager of the Watson and Cloud Platform business. Mr. Schoettle was previously CEO of Cloudant, a Database-as-a-Service provider, and led that company through an acquisition by IBM. He has also held executive roles with Vertica Systems, acquired by HP, and Infocrossing (News - Alert) and Intellireach, both acquired by Wipro.



"I've spent the last 10 years of my career at the intersection of data analytics and artificial intelligence and I'm thrilled to be able to work on the industry's best platform for business data," Mr. Schoettle said. "ZoomInfo is one of the best kept secrets in the Boston tech market. The company has 8,000 clients, has experienced a staggering 250 percent increase in revenue over the last four years, and is growing at 50 percent quarter-over-quarter. This growth is just the beginning as the company evolves from a sales and marketing performance management product to an intelligent, dynamic customer engagement platform that gives companies a deep understanding of its customers and prospects." Mr. Schoettle succeeds Yonatan Stern, who was also the company's founder and chief scientist. As part of the terms of ZoomInfo's sale to Great Hill Partners in August 2017, Mr. Stern planned his departure from the company in June 2018 in order to pursue other interests in his home country of Israel. Mr. Stern, who founded the company in 2000, will remain on its Board of Directors.

"Yonatan has been ZoomInfo's CEO from its founding and he's done an amazing job establishing the company as the definitive leader in the account and contact database market," Gaffney said. "We thank him for his vision and the effort required to build the company from a start-up. He will continue to play an active role in the future direction of ZoomInfo and we wish him well with future endeavors." About ZoomInfo Accelerate your growth with Zoom Information, Inc. (ZoomInfo), an Inc. 5000 company. ZoomInfo's Growth Acceleration Platform combines the world's most comprehensive and searchable account and contact database with integrated tools to help companies optimize sales and marketing effectiveness, jump-start growth, and maximize profitability. The continuously updated B2B contact database gives businesses access to direct-dial phone numbers, email addresses, and professional background information. For more information, visit www.zoominfo.com, check out our data dashboard, or call 866-904-9666. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005335/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Five Easy Ways to Plan Your Social Media Marketing Strategy | Infiniti Research

Infiniti Research, a world-renowned market intelligence solutions provider, has announced the completion of their latest article on the five easy ways to plan your social media marketing strategy. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005425/en/ Create a Winning Social Media Marketing Strategy in 5 Easy Ways. (Graphic: Business Wire Research says, around 79% of the Americans using the internet are active on social media. This evidently proves that social media is now "the place to be" for brands targeting to reach out to a larger target audience. Most of the brands are investing time and money in devising the right social media marketing strategy to attract customers. But this task is generally not as easy as it sounds. There are many players in the marketplace fighting for the attention of the same group of customers. So, to be noticeable in this chaos, it is imperative for organizations to wisely build the right social media marketing strategy. "Most marketers are investing ample time and money into formulating the right social media marketing strategy to lure customers," says an industry expert from Infiniti. To know more about the scope of our engagement, request a proposal



Easy ways to plan your social media marketing strategy: Personalization is the key: There are so many ads on social media at present that customers frequently tend to consider them as 'spammy' content. Personalization is a serious social media strategy that will help surpass this problem. Personalizing the content of your ads to fit the needs of a certain customer will make them feel more associated with the brand. There is a higher chance of conversion and brand loyalty by personalizing the advertisements. To know more about our solutions , get in touch

There are so many ads on social media at present that customers frequently tend to consider them as 'spammy' content. Personalization is a serious social media strategy that will help surpass this problem. Personalizing the content of your ads to fit the needs of a certain customer will make them feel more associated with the brand. There is a higher chance of conversion and brand loyalty by personalizing the advertisements. , Chatbots for communication: Chatbots are found in most of the popular websites today and most of us are familiar with it. Chatbots are a great tool that let companies answer customers' queries effectively without any human interference. In addition, chatbots integrate with the platforms that consumers now feel most happy interacting through - social media. Hence, integrating chatbots is a great social media marketing strategy to convert potential customers into sales and also answer their queries quickly. To know more about our solutions , request a proposal

Chatbots are found in most of the popular websites today and most of us are familiar with it. Chatbots are a great tool that let companies answer customers' queries effectively without any human interference. In addition, chatbots integrate with the platforms that consumers now feel most happy interacting through - social media. Hence, integrating chatbots is a great social media marketing strategy to convert potential customers into sales and also answer their queries quickly. , Brand advocates: Using brand advocates is an extremely positive social media marketing strategy that many popular organizations swear by. Brand advocates are pleased customers of the brand, or in some cases, companies also bring in social media influencers for this task.

Using brand advocates is an extremely positive social media marketing strategy that many popular organizations swear by. Brand advocates are pleased customers of the brand, or in some cases, companies also bring in social media influencers for this task. Get in touch, to know more about how we can help you boost business profits Infiniti Research is a global market intelligence company offering strategic insights to help look beyond market disruptions, study competitive activity, and develop intelligent business strategies. Listed below are the five easy ways to plan your social media marketing strategy.

View the complete list of the five easy ways to plan your social media marketing strategy: https://www.infinitiresearch.com/thoughts/social-media-marketing-strategy-5-easy-ways About Infiniti Research Established in 2003, Infiniti Research is a leading market intelligence company providing smart solutions to address your business challenges. Infiniti Research studies markets in more than 100 countries to help analyze competitive activity, see beyond market disruptions, and develop intelligent business strategies. With 15+ years of experience and offices across three continents, Infiniti Research has been instrumental in providing a complete range of competitive intelligence, strategy, and research services for over 550 companies across the globe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005425/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] IoT + Artificial Intelligence Startup Ambyint Announces Expanded Commitment with Equinor to Optimize Production Operations in North Dakota

Ambyint, the emerging player in AI-powered artificial lift and production optimization, and international energy major Equinor today announced that Equinor will deploy Amybint's technology on all rod pump wells in Equinor's Bakken asset in North Dakota. The partnership comes at the end of a successful pilot and will expand to full field implementation in this asset. During the pilot, Equinor was able to automate rod pump well optimization through use of Ambyint's autonomous setpoint management functionality. By identifying wells that were over-pumping or under-pumping, controller set points were adjusted with minimal human interaction. This kind of proactive machine-driven optimization resulted in increased production rates and pump efficiency while reducing well volatility. "The Ambyint technology has improved the remote data visibility and has delivered a more accurate diagnostic of downhole conditions to our rod pump wells in the Bakken. The Autonomous speed range management tool has leveraged the power of machine learning to optimize our wells by identifying and acting on real opportunities," said Jack Freeman, Production Engineer for Equinor's Bakken Asset. "Research & Technology teams facilitated the internal technology qualification process by setting up robust and measurable success criteria for the evaluation of pilot. We worked closely with Ambyint to ensure that the technology development and future roadmap meets Equinor's business needs and priorities," said Pandurang Kulkarni, principal researcher at Equinor Research and Technology. Ambyint delivers substantial operating improvements to customers by combining the best of traditional physics-based methods with modern artificial intelligence and machine learning. Ambynt's data science success is fueled by the industry's largest repository of labeled training data, totaling nearly 100 million operating hours of high-resolution data. Using its proprietary High-Resolution Adaptive Controllers (HRAC), Ambyint continues to build on both the size and quality of its industry-leading data lake. As a result, Ambyint has already helped customers show 20%+ reductions in operating expenses and as much as 10% improvements in production volumes.



This deployment of Ambyint's technology expands the company's partnership with Equinor. In September 2017, Ambyint announced that Equinor Technology Ventures, Equinor's corporate venture unit, participated in the company's $11.5M Series A round along with GE Ventures, Cottonwood Venture Partners, and lead investor Mercury Fund. "The strong positive results from Ambyint's pilot in Equinor's Bakken asset is a direct result of the hard work and deep collaboration between Equinor's Bakken asset team, Research & Technology team, and the Ventures team," said Chris Robart, President of Ambyint USA. "Equinor's commitment to deploying leading-edge and novel technologies into their operations is what made the pilot possible and what ultimately resulted in significant value creation for the Bakken asset."

About Ambyint Ambyint is building the "self-driving car" for oil wells to enable autonomous well operations for it's E&P customers. The company is leveraging best-in-class technology tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT controllers, in combination with physics-based analytics, deep domain expertise, and a massive proprietary data lake that's nearly 50 terabytes, equivalent to 100 million operating hours. Ambyint creates value for customers by increasing production and reducing labor costs, maintenance costs, and G&A. Ultimately the company can deliver production improvements of up to 10% and OpEx cost savings of up to 20%. For more information, visit http://ambyint.com. About Equinor We're Equinor, an international energy company with a proud history. Formerly Statoil, we are 20,000 committed colleagues developing oil, gas, wind and solar energy in more than 30 countries worldwide. We're the largest operator in Norway, among the world's largest offshore operators, and a growing force in renewables. Driven by our Nordic urge to explore beyond the horizon, and our dedication to safety, equality and sustainability, we're building a global business on our values and the energy needs of the future. For more information, visit http://equinor.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005084/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] BioRestorative Therapies Appoints Jason M. Lipetz, M.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board

MELVILLE, N.Y., July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. ("BioRestorative" or the Company") (OTC:BRTX), a life sciences company focused on stem cell-based therapies, today announced that Jason M. Lipetz, M.D. has been appointed to the Companys Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Lipetz is the founder of Long Island Spine Rehabilitation Medicine, a prominent spine and musculoskeletal care center specializing in the non-surgical treatment of the spine and orthopedic rehabilitation. In 2014, Dr. Lipetz was appointed Chief of Spine Medicine for the Northwell Health Spine Center and previously served as the Director of the Center for Spine Rehabilitation for the North Shore Long Island Jewish healthcare system from 1999-2006. In his current capacity, Dr. Lipetz is responsible for the development of non-surgical spine care services for the Northwell Health System. Dr. Lipetz has served as a representative to national medical organizations since his residency years, including Chair of the Education Committee of the Physiatric Association of Spine, Sports, and Occupational Rehabilitation (PASSOR). Dr. Lipetz has most recently served as a member of the research committee of the International Spine Intervention Society. He served as the Residency Training Program Director for the Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Long Island Jewish Medical Center from 2003 to 2005, and is an Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Hofstra University School of Medicine. Dr. Lipetz is uniquely triple board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Pain Management, and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. Dr. Lipetz has authored over thirty original articles and abstracts in peer reviewed journals and several textbook chapters, including chapters within the leading texts in both the Interventional Spine Care and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation literature. He has lectured nationally and has been featured in both regional and national TV and newspaper segments. Dr. Lipetz received his specialized and interventional spine medicine training during a fellowship year at the Penn Spine Center of the Hosital of the University of Pennsylvania. After receiving his medical degree with Alpha Omega Alpha honors from Columbia Universitys College of Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Lipetz completed his residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He was elected and served as Academic Chief Resident during his senior year of residency. Dr. Lipetz received his bachelors degree in biology with summa cum laude honors through the Presidential Honors Program of the State University of New York at Buffalo.



Mark Weinreb, Chief Executive Officer of BioRestorative Therapies, said, We are pleased to welcome Dr. Lipetz to our Scientific Advisory Board, as he brings a wealth of medical knowledge, relationships, and expertise that will be invaluable as we advance our spine program through clinical trials. About BioRestorative Therapies, Inc.

BioRestorative Therapies, Inc. (www.biorestorative.com) develops therapeutic products using cell and tissue protocols, primarily involving adult stem cells. Our two core programs, as described below, relate to the treatment of disc/spine disease and metabolic disorders: Disc/Spine Program (brtxDISC): Our lead cell therapy candidate, BRTX-100, is a product formulated from autologous (or a persons own) cultured mesenchymal stem cells collected from the patients bone marrow. We intend that the product will be used for the non-surgical treatment of painful lumbosacral disc disorders. The BRTX-100 production process utilizes proprietary technology and involves collecting a patients bone marrow, isolating and culturing stem cells from the bone marrow and cryopreserving the cells. In an outpatient procedure, BRTX-100 is to be injected by a physician into the patients damaged disc. The treatment is intended for patients whose pain has not been alleviated by non-invasive procedures and who potentially face the prospect of surgery. We have received authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to commence a Phase 2 clinical trial using BRTX-100 to treat persistent lower back pain due to painful degenerative discs.





Metabolic Program (ThermoStem): We are developing a cell-based therapy to target obesity and metabolic disorders using brown adipose (fat) derived stem cells to generate brown adipose tissue (BAT). BAT is intended to mimic naturally occurring brown adipose depots that regulate metabolic homeostasis in humans. Initial preclinical research indicates that increased amounts of brown fat in the body may be responsible for additional caloric burning as well as reduced glucose and lipid levels. Researchers have found that people with higher levels of brown fat may have a reduced risk for obesity and diabetes. Forward-Looking Statements This press 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, and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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 as a result of various factors and other risks, including those set forth in the Company's Form 10-K filed 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 the Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements. CONTACT:

Email: ir@biorestorative.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Allianz Life Partners with Orion Advisor Services

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) announced today that it is partnering with Orion Advisor Services, LLC (Orion), a top portfolio management solution provider for registered investment advisors (RIAs). With the partnership, those utilizing the Orion platform will have daily, timely access to data for all Allianz Life fixed index annuities and index variable annuities within Orion's seamless trading and reporting interface. "We are pleased to partner with Orion," said Tom Burns, chief distribution officer, Allianz Life. "The Orion platform will allow us to provide advisors with the tools they need to help provide their clients with innovative annuity solutions." "Providing up-to-date, verified position information for Allianz Life's leading annuity products within our platform, enables advisors to thoroughly and efficiently deliver solutions their clients need while enhancing our data integrity with Allianz Life," said Eric Clarke, founder and CEO of Orion. "People's financial lives can change rapidly before and during retirement. This partnrship arms advisors with timely data to better adapt their financial plans as needed."



"Orion is a proven leader in the RIA space," continued Burns. "The service they provide in connecting advisors with up-to-date annuity data for their clients is of increasing importance as more Americans realize the need for proper income planning within retirement." About Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, one of FORTUNE's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2018, has been keeping its promises since 1896. Today, it carries on that tradition, helping Americans achieve their retirement income and protection goals with a variety of annuities and life insurance products. In 2017, Allianz Life provided a total of $2.7 billion in benefit payments that supported policyholders' financial objectives. As a leading provider of fixed index annuities, Allianz Life is part of Allianz SE, a global leader in the financial services industry with 142,000 employees in more than 70 countries worldwide. More than 85 million private and corporate customers rely on Allianz knowledge, global reach, and capital strength to help them make the most of financial opportunities. About Orion Advisor Services, LLC Orion Advisor Services, LLC (Orion) is the premier portfolio accounting service provider for advisors. Orion has unique insights into the advisory profession because it was founded for investment advisors by an investment advisor in 1999. Orion frees advisors from back-office tedium so they can enjoy their business again by devoting their time and energy to better serving clients. Orion provides the integrated and fully customizable technology solutions that advisors need to help grow their businesses over the long term. Orion's technology solutions empower more than $650 billion in AUA and over 2 million accounts. For more, please visit www.orionadvisor.com or follow our news and insights via our blog. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005474/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Cointraffic and Iskander.Events Are Proud to Present the Unblock Community Conference in Hong Kong

TALLINN, Estonia, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Cointraffic is pleased to announce the Unblock Community Conference in Hong Kong on Sept. 9 and 10. This event will bring together senior experts from across the blockchain industry to address the key challenges and opportunities faced by this rapidly expanding global community. Organized by Iskander.Events, this two-day conference will create a unique platform for industry professionals to network with both peers as well as leading community figures and develop strategies capable of delivering best value and practice for the blockchain industry. Numerous leading speakers, tech experts and thought leaders from the blockchain fraternity have already confirmed their participation at the Unblock Community Conference. The global blockchain space has experienced extraordinary growth over recent years. However, this thriving industry has its unique challenges in terms of regulatory, technical and commercial harmonization. As a noted industry thought leader, Cointraffic believes that the global blockchain fraternity can address these challenges only by partnering, sharing and growing together. The Unblock Community Conference will be a unique community-focused event providing a platform for: Meeting global investors, startups and tech partners

Facilitated P2P meetings, meeting the right partners in one place

Exclusive VIP networking

Informal community gathering, meeting the world's tech elite The event will cover several topics closely related to community value for businesses and the blockchain industry. The first day will focus on the core concepts, including what is a community, its role in the crypto industry, how communities' quality can be estimated, how tokens can support and motivate it, and much more. This day will feature experts from different universities, research laboratories, funds and top projects where the community played an active role in developing the product and providing token support. The second day of the event will discuss more practical topics related to community management such as the instruments, strategies and communication channels during the development, pre-sale, ITO and post-ITO stages. This day will also cover many top consulting agencies, project founders, exchanges and funds. "The community will assess the major drivers making the market what it is today including how tokens can both support and motivate the community, as well as discussing the exact rol that a renewed sense of community can deliver as well as the instruments, strategies and communication channels at all stages of project development  from pre-sale, ITO and post-ITO," said Sergei Verbitski, the CEO of Cointraffic.



"Every coin is based on community. Community is a trustworthy group of people that create intrinsic and fundamental value for every decentralized project," mentioned the ??? of Iskander.Events Anton Zanimonets. "We are hosting the event to learn how to achieve network effect and find the path from greedy motivated audience to real loyal community in a grown-up market." Some of the key speakers attending the Global Unblock Community Conference are:

Richard Millington : The Founder of FeverBee and author of Buzzing Communities

: The Founder of FeverBee and author of Buzzing Communities Juwan Lee : The Founder and CEO of NexChange, a venture innovation platform, CEO of Arrakis Ventures and Co-Founder and Director of the Blockchain Centre of Hong Kong

: The Founder and CEO of NexChange, a venture innovation platform, CEO of Arrakis Ventures and Co-Founder and Director of the Blockchain Centre of Joel John : Working on blockchain-related projects since 2012

: Working on blockchain-related projects since 2012 Ismail Malik : The Editor in Chief of ICOcrowd, world's foremost publication on Initial Coin Offerings

: The Editor in Chief of ICOcrowd, world's foremost publication on Initial Coin Offerings Roxana Nasoi: Leader in business strategy with almost a decade of experience in modern technology and health-tech

Chia Hock Lai : The founding President of the Singapore FinTech Association

: The founding President of the Singapore FinTech Association Kohei Kurihara : President, Tokyo Chapter at Government Blockchain Association

: President, Tokyo Chapter at Government Blockchain Association Mikhail Mironov : The Head of Investment Relations at ICORating

: The Head of Investment Relations at ICORating Will Ruddick : Director of Community Currencies at Bancor Limited to a total of 400 attendees, places are getting booked fast. The organizers are urging all blockchain enthusiasts to claim a 10 percent discount on the Iskander Events website with the promo code: "COINTRAFFIC". To find out more about the Global Unblock Community Conference, please visit https://cointraffic.io/blog/cointraffic-are-proud-to-present-the-global-unblock-community-conference. About Cointraffic: Based in Tallinn, Estonia, Cointraffic is the premier digital advertising partner in the blockchain and crypto sectors. Since 2017, they have been instrumental in helping 80 ICO projects that raised around $800 million. With an experienced team of digital marketing, PR, community management and consultants set in arguably the fastest-growing tech capital of the world, the company's mission is to provide premium service and tools to make projects successful in the most cost-effective way possible. About Iskander.Events: Iskander.Events is a series of blockchain events bringing together a smart, conscious, elite crypto community in a relaxed casual atmosphere. The company hosts three formats: conferences, meet-ups and networking events. Contact: Jelena Golubeva Email: pr@cointraffic.io Related Images cointraffic-and-iskander-events.jpg

Cointraffic and Iskander.Events Are Proud to Present the Unblock Community Conference in Hong Kong richard-millington.jpg

Richard Millington juwan-lee.jpg

Juwan Lee joel-john.jpg

Joel John Related Links Cointraffic Iskander.Events View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cointraffic-and-iskanderevents-are-proud-to-present-the-unblock-community-conference-in-hong-kong-300686403.html SOURCE Cointraffic

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Top Chicago Litigators Launch Boutique Law Firm Palmersheim & Mathew

Seasoned trial and appellate attorneys Robert J. Palmersheim and Anand C. Mathew have announced the formation of Palmersheim & Mathew, a boutique law firm focused on complex business disputes for clients. The firm provides clients the best of both worlds: the breadth and depth of skills and experience they would expect from a large firm, coupled with the unparalleled client service that a boutique firm can deliver. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005520/en/ The new firm represents clients in a range of areas including alternative dispute resolution, antitrust, appellate, professional liability, fiduciary litigation, fraud litigation, breach of contract, business fraud and torts, shareholder disputes, partnership disputes, and more. "Both Anand and I spent most of our careers at the venerable litigation boutique, Schopf & Weiss LLP, which merged with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP in 2015," said partner Robert Palmersheim. "We are pleased to return to our litigation boutique roots-with an emphasis solely on business liigation and a drive to deliver outstanding results, superior client service, and real value."



Palmersheim & Mathew bring more than 30 years of combined experience and success handling sophisticated commercial litigation cases nationwide. They are known for their ability to achieve outstanding results in business disputes through a range of creative, pragmatic litigation and non-litigation strategies. "Rather than taking the formulaic approach often deployed by some firms, our approach is to find the optimal strategy for resolving each unique business dispute," partner Anand Mathew said. "In addition, our new firm leverages technology to streamline litigation, and staffs cases with seasoned attorneys who serve as long-term partners to their clients."

"The office itself is a reflection of our distinctive approach," Palmersheim commented. "Rather than opening shop in the skyscraper jungle of loop law firms, we purposefully chose a non-traditional, loft-style space just north of the Chicago River, near Chicago's design centers and technology startups-a nod to the fact that we think out-of-the-box in the development of customized strategies for each client and case." For more information about Palmersheim & Mathew, visit www.thepmlawfirm.com. About Palmersheim & Mathew Located in the River North area of downtown Chicago, Palmersheim & Mathew is a boutique law firm representing clients in sophisticated, highly-complex business disputes. Founded by seasoned trial and appellate attorneys Robert J. Palmersheim and Anand C. Mathew, the firm provides the breadth and depth of expertise clients would expect from a large firm, coupled with the unparalleled creativity, flexibility, and service that a boutique firm can deliver. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005520/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Cologix Solidifies Status As The Canadian Market Leader With Third Vancouver Data Center

Expansion supports need of hyperscaler interconnection to the region, delivers on-ramps for global cloud service providers and answers demand from local enterprises DENVER, July 25, 2018 /CNW/ -- Cologix, a network-neutral interconnection, data center and cloud exchange company, announced today the development of its new VAN3 data center located at 2828 Natal Street, just a 20-minute drive from the heart of downtown Vancouver. VAN3 is expected to be completed in Q2 2019 and will deliver an additional 42,000 square feet and 5MW of power. Pre-sale opportunities are available now. VAN3 is part of Cologix's ongoing strategy to be the leading provider of cloud and interconnection services throughout Canada.



Tethered to the Cologix-operated VAN1 Carrier Hotel at 555 West Hastings, and VAN2, its hyper-efficient annex at 1050 West Pender, VAN3 has the space and density needed to support hyperscale deployments. Today, Cologix's Vancouver data centers offer diverse, scalable solutions and enable access to more than 20 networks and direct on-ramps to key hyperscale cloud providers, including AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM Cloud. With this expansion, post-production film companies, gaming and local enterprise customers can extend their ecosystems and have the flexibility and control needed to support hybrid-cloud implementations.

"There is significant demand in Vancouver as the western Canadian point for interconnection. Vancouver is an emerging global hub to meet the requirements for cloud and SaaS service providers expanding north and APAC hyperscalers expanding east as momentum for cloud capacity accelerates," said Bill Fathers, Chairman and CEO, Cologix. "Our VAN2 expansions each sold out in six months and the pent-up demand clearly shows that the market is underserved. With the addition of VAN3 and its scale, we continue to solidify our role as the leading network and cloud interconnection provider in Canada with the unique ability to support data sovereignty requirements with our 11 data centers across Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal." With the addition of VAN3 to its data center offering, Cologix is set to increase infrastructure investment in the region with more than a total of 60,000 square feet and 8 MW of power in Vancouver. This will ensure that hyperscale cloud and content providers can build resilience and add connectivity into their networks while supporting the long-term growth of Vancouver's regional business climate. About Cologix Inc.

Cologix provides reliable, secure, scalable data center and interconnection solutions from 25 prime interconnection locations across 9 strategic North American edge markets. Over 1,600 leading network, managed services, cloud, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers trust Cologix to support their business-critical infrastructure and connect them to customers, vendors and partners. Our dedicated, experienced local teams and scalable solutions enable us to provide industry-leading customer service and the ability to successfully support customers at the internet's new edge. For a tour of one of our data centers in Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email sales@cologix.com. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter. SOURCE Cologix Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Joao Pedro Resende and Mateus Bicalho of Hotmart are chosen as Endeavor Entrepreneurs

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Joao Pedro Resende and Mateus Bicalho, Hotmart CEO and CTO, respectively, have been selected as Endeavor Entrepreneurs by the 80th International Selection Panel in Milan, Italy. The organization is renowned for driving high impact business throughout the world, supporting organizations as they secure new growth opportunities. "We're proud to be a part of Endeavor. We believe that entrepreneurship is one of the principal forces capable of transforming the world, and both Hotmart as well as Endeavor share the mission of empowering entrepreneurs so that they can go farther," says Joao Pedro Resende. On the Brazilian market since 2011, Hotmart is the Latin American leader in the sale and distribution of digital products, registering 4 million users and sales in more than 180 countries. The business model is based on offering and distributing digital products such as: online courses, ebooks, audiobooks and podcasts, among others. Today, in addition to Brazil, this startup has offices in Spain, the Netherlands and Colombia. In coming months, Hotmart will commence oerations in Mexico.



After gathering experience at the head of Hotmart, the young entrepreneurs are beginning to invest in the new generation of entrepreneurs. In addition to capital, they offer the know-how of people who have overcome a wide range of difficulties to build a business from scratch and offer it to the whole world. Among the companies they have invested in are eNotas, a management platform for Electronic Tax Receipts, ROBOS.im, specializing in chatbots and service, 12Min, an application that provides book summaries in audio and written formats, and VidMonsters, technology for webinars and video marketing. For this year, the outlook is for the company to keep growing at an accelerated pace, while increasing its investments to strengthen its position in the global market. "The results achieved so far have laid a solid foundation for driving the next chapter of growth and indicate that we have provided our users and partners with value," notes Joao Pedro Resende.

About Hotmart - https://www.hotmart.com/en/

Hotmart is the Latin American leader in the sale and distribution of digital products. More than 4 million people have become users of the platform since its launch in 2011. Located in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and with offices in Spain, the Netherlands and Colombia, Hotmart is committed to helping people transform their knowledge and passion into digital business. For further information:

Daniel Lopes  daniel.lopes@hotmart.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/joao-pedro-resende-and-mateus-bicalho-of-hotmart-are-chosen-as-endeavor-entrepreneurs-300685637.html SOURCE Hotmart

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Nerdio Recognized by CRN as one of 2018's Emerging Vendors

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nerdio ( www.getnerdio.com ), a pioneer in cloud IT automation, announced today that CRN  , a brand of The Channel Company , has named Nerdio to its 2018 Emerging Vendors List in the Cloud category. This list recognizes recently founded, up-and-coming technology suppliers who are shaping the future of the IT channel through unique technological innovations.

Were excited to receive this prestigious distinction from CRN as a key cloud vendor leading the marketplace, said Vadim Vladimirskiy, CEO of Nerdio. Nerdios technologies are transforming how MSPs manage customer cloud environments from end to end. Were empowering these service providers to simplify, streamline, and scale so that accelerate their business and increase their profit margins while helping customers unlock the full benefits of the cloud. The list is divided into seven categories: Cloud, Data Center, Security, Big Data, Unified Communications, Internet of Things (IoT) and Storage. In addition to celebrating these notable companies, the Emerging Vendors list serves as a valuable resource for solution providers looking to expand their portfolios with cutting-edge technology. Nerdio nables hybrid and completely virtual IT environments for organizations and the MSPs who serve them. By uniquely standardizing and neatly integrating all necessary IT components, Nerdio allows more businesses to access powerful IT at lower cost, complexity, and risk. The companys two mainstay products are: Nerdio for Azure, the first-ever IT automation technology that delivers ridiculously easy packaging, pricing, provisioning, management, and optimization on the Microsoft Cloud; and Nerdio for Private Cloud, which delivers comprehensive virtual IT infrastructure  including virtual hardware, software, security, and BDR.



Nerdio is always there by your side -- I call them the Enterprise Data Center In a Box experience. I can sleep soundly at night knowing that I have their full support, and that my desktop is available any time and from wherever I need it 24/7/365," commented Seann Moreno, COO of Data Tech Cafe, a managed service provider based in Michigan. The technology suppliers on CRNs 2018 Emerging Vendors list are creating a bright future for the IT channel, aggressively developing products to meet complex IT market demands, while positively impacting the bottom line of solution providers, said Bob Skelley, CEO, The Channel Company. The array of leading-edge products delivered by these organizations will have a lasting impact on the channel for years to come.

The complete Emerging Vendors list will be featured online at www.crn.com/emergingvendors . About Nerdio

Nerdio provides ridiculously easy IT automation for Managed Service Providers and their customers. Nerdio Private Cloud is a fully-integrated platform that delivers comprehensive IT infrastructure at your fingertips  including virtual hardware, software, security, BDR, and 24/7 tech-nerd support. Nerdio for Azure is the first IT automation technology that delivers easy packaging, pricing, provisioning, management, and cost-optimization of hybrid and full IT environments on the Microsoft Cloud, allowing MSPs to build and rapidly grow their IT practices in Azure. About The Channel Company

The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelco.com Kim Sparks

The Channel Company

(508) 416-1193

ksparks@thechannelco.com Press Contact:

Vanessa Koo

PulpPR

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[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] EU5 Blockchain Technology Market (2018-2023): European Union is Expected to Increase its Blockchain Investment from 83 Million in 2018 to 340 Million by 2020 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "EU5 Blockchain Technology Market (2018-2023)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Blockchain technology has made maximum penetration in these five mentioned countries. The European Commission has invested a significant amount on Blockchain related projects. The European Union is expected to increase its Blockchain investment from EUR83 Mn 2018 to EUR340 Mn by 2020. The European Union has already invested more than USD 6 Mn on the start-ups who are working with Blockchain technology. A European Blockchain observatory and forum hub began monitoring the existing Blockchain initiatives, trends and potential risks. The forum will create more awareness that will further drive the adoption in the region. France is planning to use Blockchain technology for trading unlisted securities. Estonia had started testing with Blockchain technology long before the term Blockchain was coined. Since 2012, Estonia made use of Blockchain technology to protect national data, e-services and smart devices. Spanish Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) became the first global bank to issue loans using the technology. The Spanish government is trying to build Blockchain-friendly legislation, providing a possible tax break to attract companies to work with the emerging technlogy.



As reported by The European Insurance and Reinsurance Federation, Europe dominates the global insurance market. An industry consortium has created a Blockchain based solution for the insurance market to allow simplified, transparent sharing of information and improved customer efficiency. Key Growth Factors

The European Commission is liberalizing the regulation. It has created a new task force entrusted with Blockchain expertise. The flexibility of law are expected to drive the market in this region.

The European Commission launched EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum in February 2018. Its aim is to bring together various sectors to develop new use case of Blockchain and highlight the key benefits of Blockchain initiatives. Threats & Key Players The lack of public decision is restraining the EU5 countries from adopting Blockchain technology in despite huge investments made by the European commission.

The decentralized characteristic of Blockchain technology clashes with the European regulation on personal data protection. These factors hinder the adoption of the technology.

The key player in EU5 countries are Microsoft Corporation, IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, Capgemini, Cognizant, Infosys (News - Alert) , and Tata Consultancy Services. Key Topics Covered Chapter 1: Executive Summary Chapter 2: Introduction Chapter 3: EU5 Blockchain Technology Market Overview Chapter 4: EU5 Blockchain Technology Market by Industries Chapter 5: Company Profiles Chapter 6: Start-up Company Overview Chapter 7: Conclusion Companies Featured Major Companies Microsoft Corporation

IBM

Accenture

Deloitte

Capgemini

Cognizant (News - Alert)

Tata Consultancy Services

VirtusaPolaris

Wipro Start-up Companies Ripple

Ethereum

Coinbase

IOTA For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/n74zjz/eu5_blockchain?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005605/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Yangtze Memory Technologies to Debut New 3D NAND Architecture and Deliver Keynote at Flash Memory Summit 2018

WUHAN, China, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC), a new player in the NAND industry, will be joining Flash Memory Summit this year for the first time, delivering a much-anticipated keynote address to reveal its ground-breaking technology - Xtacking. YMTC is the first Chinese company to take part in the high-entry-barrier NAND flash memory industry with its new architecture for unprecedented performance, higher bit density, and faster time-to-market. Simon Yang, YMTC CEO, will deliver a keynote address, Unleashing 3D NAND's Potential with an Innovative Architecture, on August 7th, from 3:00 p.m. at the Mission Ballroom in the Santa Clara Convention Center, where he will illustrate how the company's new technology can increase NAND I/O speed up to DRAM DDR4 while delivering industry-leading bit density, marking a quantum leap for the NAND market. The Xtacking technology will enable the production of NAND that has unprecedented I/O speed and as a result, increase the performance of NAND solutions such as embedded UFS, client SSD, and enterpris SSD to a level that is unheard of. With help from customers, industry partners, and standard bodies, Xtacking will bring in a whole new chapter in high performance NAND solutions for smartphone, personal computing, data center, and enterprise applications.



The Xtacking technology enables parallel processing of the NAND array and periphery. This modular approach to 3D NAND development and manufacturing will shorten the time-to-market for new generation of 3D NAND and open the possibility for customized NAND flash products. About Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC):

Founded in 2016 with $24B funding, Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (YMTC) is a memory solutions company headquartered in Wuhan, China. YMTC designs, manufactures and sells memory products and solutions for a broad range of applications including mobile devices, computing, data centers and consumer electronics for customers around the world. Leveraging its wholly-owned subsidiary XMC's existing 12-inch IC fab in Wuhan, its more than 10 years of memory and specialty IC R&D experience, and international partnerships, YMTC successfully designed and manufactured the first 32-layer 3D NAND flash chip in 2017. With over 3,000 employees and worldwide R&D centers, YMTC is committed to becoming a world leading memory solutions provider through technology innovations. Additional Resources: Schedule a meeting with Yangtze Memory Technologies at FMS, contact: sales_ymtc@ymtc.com

Visit the conference website for program details: https://www.flashmemorysummit.com/

Visit the YMTC website at: www.ymtc.com Media and Analyst Contact:

Maya Lustig

maya@handson-events.com

Phone: +972-54-6778100 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/yangtze-memory-technologies-to-debut-new-3d-nand-architecture-and-deliver-keynote-at-flash-memory-summit-2018-300686471.html SOURCE Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd (YMTC)

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] FiscalNote Intends to Acquire CQ Roll Call from The Economist Group

FiscalNote, a technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government that provides advanced, data-driven Issues Management solutions, today announces that it intends to acquire CQ Roll Call from The Economist Group. As part of the transaction, The Economist Group would obtain an 18 percent equity stake in the company, making it the largest single shareholder of FiscalNote. In addition, Chris Stibbs, CEO of The Economist Group would join the FiscalNote Board of Directors. FiscalNote Founder and CEO, Tim Hwang, would remain the largest individual shareholder and CEO of the company. This acquisition would anchor FiscalNote as one of the largest technology employers headquartered in Washington, D.C. and a global provider of Issues Management solutions. This strategic acquisition would leverage the rich history of the CQ and Roll Call brands, trusted for their non-partisan and unbiased coverage of the federal government for decades and strength in federal content, to complement FiscalNote's expertise in technology and real-time policy data and analytics to provide a broader suite of products and services in a dynamic market. In addition to bringing the combined company's enhanced offerings to market, FiscalNote would uphold CQ Roll Call's editorial independence while identifying opportunities to adapt and grow in a transforming digital news landscape. "By acquiring CQ Roll Call, FiscalNote will be positioned to provide best-in-class solutions in the issues management space," said Tim Hwang, CEO of FiscalNote. "We are excited to provide our clients with reater access to enhanced products that will inform their decision making and maximize their influence on government as they tackle the challenging issues impacting their business."



"FiscalNote's technology-driven approach to products and services is the perfect complement to CQ Roll Call's editorial excellence and advocacy services," said Chris Stibbs, CEO of The Economist Group. "I look forward to joining FiscalNote's board of directors to support it on the next phase of its remarkable journey." CQ Roll Call provides news, analysis and grassroots advocacy resources for government and political professionals. It is the premier source of timely, objective news and analysis on government and electoral politics. CQ Roll Call journalists have won more Dirksen Awards for "Distinguished Reporting of Congress" than any other organization.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized and completed later this year pending customary closing conditions. About FiscalNote FiscalNote's mission is to connect the world to their governments. It is the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government, whose revolutionary Issues Management solutions combine real-time policy data from Congress, all 50 states and nearly 30 countries with machine learning, advanced analytics, and innovative workflow tools to help organizations better understand the risks and opportunities of today's socio-political environment. With offices in DC, NYC, Baton Rouge, Seoul, India, and Brussels, the company has raised more than $50 million from prominent early-stage investors including Mark Cuban, Jerry Yang (News - Alert) /AME Cloud Ventures, Steve Case, Renren, First Round Capital's Dorm Room Fund, Green Visor Capital, MoneyToday, Visionnaire Ventures, Perle Ventures, NEA, and 645 Ventures. Organizations - from small startups and non-profits to multinational corporations - that rely on FiscalNote's suite of products and services include Toyota, Intel (News - Alert) , Johnson & Johnson, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, Microsoft, PhRMA, Salesforce, the Consumer Technology Association, Anthem BlueCross BlueShield, Schlumberger (News - Alert) , and the National Education Association. About The Economist Group The Economist Group is built on high-quality, independent analysis which runs through all of its businesses. Based in London and serving a global readership and client base, the group publishes print and digital products, produces global events, and offers a range of subscription and other services for clients and readers. Its flagship businesses include The Economist newspaper, and research and analysis division The Economist Intelligence Unit. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005500/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Management Decisions: Global Market Outlook (2018-2022) - A $6.18 Billion Market Opportunity - Increase in Need for Business Agility and Faster Operational Decisions - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Management Decision Market by Software, Service, Deployment Type, Function (Credit Risk Management, Collection Management, Customer Experience Management), Organization Size, Industry, And Region - Global Forecast to 2022" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The management decision market is expected to grow from USD 3.09 Billion in 2017 to USD 6.18 Billion by 2022, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.9% during the forecast period, owing to the increase in need for business agility and faster operational decisions. In addition, the rapidly changing regulations across countries are expected to contribute to the growth of the market. Moreover, enterprises consider management decision as an important part of their decision-making processes to improve operational efficiency of the organizations. Rapidly changing competitive scenarios have encouraged enterprises to adopt management decision solutions to improve the operational efficiencies. The Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) companies deal with critical credit management and need to effectively manage collection management and fraud detection management forits day to day financial operations. Increasing number of repeatable operation decisions daily is expected to drive the demand for management decision software in the BFSI vertical. These are some of the key aspects that have contributed to the large adoption of management decision solutions by the BFSI industry. The BFSI industry has been a major contributor, in terms of the revenue generated, in the management decision market.



The credit risk management segment is estimated to dominate the management decision market in 2017. Credit risk management is an important process as it directly impacts the revenue management of an organization. Management decision software assists lending institutions, banks, and other enterprises in making a critical decision related to credit risk by offering benefits, such as minimizing compliance risks, enhancing business responsiveness, and streamlining workflow processes. North America is estimated to account for the largest market size and dominate the management decision market in 2017, while Europe is expected to reach the largest market size by 2022. North America has a high concentration of BFSI, telecom and IT, and healthcare and life sciences companies that largely contribute to the adoption of management decision solutions. However, the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is expected to provide high growth opportunities for the providers of management decision software. This is attributed to the increasing commercial investments by several companies in developing countries.

Companies Featured Actico

Decision Management Solutions

Equifax

Experian

FICO

IBM

OpenRules

Oracle

Parmenides

Pegasystems

SAS (News - Alert)

Sapiens International Corporation

Sparkling Logic

Tibco Software For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2td6gh/management?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005721/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Hitachi Vantara Named a Leader in 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays

SANTA CLARA, Calif., July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), today announced it has been recognized as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays for a second consecutive year. Hitachi Vantara was evaluated for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. Gartners 2018 evaluation of Hitachi Vantara included earlier generations of Hitachi VSP arrays: VSP F400, VSP F600, VSP F800, and the VSP F1500.

The news follows on the heels of the companys recent expansion to the VSP all-flash array (AFA) family, updates to Hitachi Vantaras AI-powered analytics and IT automation software and extension of the industry's only 100-percent data availability guarantee. Used in combination, these solutions help enterprises modernize their data centers for intelligent, autonomous operations with unprecedented agility and scalability to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies. "We are pleased to be named a Leader in the solid-state array market for the second year in a row, said Iri Trashanski, senior vice president, Infrastructure and Edge Products at Hitachi Vantara. To us, Hitachi is driven by a commitment to developing data-driven solutions that give enterprises a competitive edge in the digital age. We believe the real-world success stories and measurable ROI achieved by our customers every day is evidence that Hitachi is continuing to bring high-value innovation to market that companies can put to work today while building for the future. Download a complimentary copy of the full Jly 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays: https://www.hitachivantara.com/ext/magic-quadrant-for-solid-state-arrays-2018.html (registration required).



Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, Valdis Filks, John Monroe, Joseph Unsworth, Santhosh Rao, 23 July 2018. In the 2017 version of the report, the company was listed as Hitachi Data Systems. Gartner Disclaimer

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., helps data-driven leaders find and use the value in their data to innovate intelligently and reach outcomes that matter for business and society. We combine technology, intellectual property and industry knowledge to deliver data-managing solutions that help enterprises improve their customers experiences, develop new revenue streams, and lower the costs of business. Only Hitachi Vantara elevates your innovation advantage by combining deep information technology (IT), operational technology (OT) and domain expertise. We work with organizations everywhere to drive data to meaningful outcomes. Visit us at www.HitachiVantara.com. Connect with Hitachi Vantara Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer societys challenges, combining its operational technology, information technology, and products/systems. The companys consolidated revenues for fiscal 2017 (ended March 31, 2018) totaled 9,368.6 billion yen ($88.4 billion). The Hitachi Group is an innovation partner for the IoT era, and it has approximately 307,000 employees worldwide. Through collaborative creation with customers, Hitachi is deploying Social Innovation Business using digital technologies in a broad range of sectors, including Power/Energy, Industry/Distribution/Water, Urban Development, and Finance/Social Infrastructure/Healthcare. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com. COMPANY CONTACT

Amanda Lennon

Hitachi Vantara

amanda.lennon@hitachivantara.com

650-703-7610 HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks, service marks, and company names are properties of their respective owners.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange Selects Canadian Firm Stratx Consulting as Newest Sponsor Firm

TORONTO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Stratx Consulting Inc. is pleased to announce that they have been selected to join an exclusive group of Sponsor Firms for the Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX). The GBX offers an institutional-grade token launch and exchange platform that connects select token projects with AML/KYC-cleared contributors. The GBX GRID is a token sale platform that leverages a Sponsor Firm Network to deliver token projects that are adept from a business and technical standpoint and also comply with jurisdictional regulations. As a Sponsor Firm, Stratx joins an exclusive list of companies in the crypto space with an eye for quality projects. The Stratx research and due diligence team has extensive experience in vetting token projects and will be able to deliver these projects to the GBX Grid. Michael Horowitz, Co-founder and CEO of Stratx, discussed his excitement on the partnership: "The Stratx team is thrilled to be joining the GBX network of Sponsor Firms. It enables Stratx to participate in a growing international community that promotes increased transparency and holds token projects to a high standard of regulatory compliance. The Stratx team is looking forward to working with the GBX." Nick Cowan, CEO of Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange commented: "We're very excited to continue to grow the global presence of our Sponsor Firm network. The North-American region has always played a vital part in the development and evolution of technology. That hasn't changed. Welcome to the team Stratx, we can't wait to see what you bring to the GRID." p>About Stratx:



Stratx Consulting Inc. is a global research and due diligence firm in the blockchain industry. They provide advisory, global liquidity solutions, and investment in select token projects. They perform rigorous analysis of exceptional token projects in pursuit of the highest business, technical, and legal standards. By leveraging their extensive professional experience in capital markets, business, and technology, Stratx is able to deliver to their clients and partners. Stratx has an impressive track record of success as they have worked with multiple globally-renowned, top-100 token projects. Their standard for working with quality projects is rooted in the fact that they are extremely selective when evaluating potential clients. This exclusivity has allowed Stratx to build positive relationships with some of the most reputable token projects and to discover key characteristics which make a token project successful.

About Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange: The Gibraltar Blockchain Exchange (GBX) aims to position itself as a world-leading institutional-grade token sale platform and Digital Asset Exchange that is a part of the GSX Group, which also includes the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX), a European Union (EU) regulated stock exchange. The GBX is a global listing and token sales springboard for utility tokens that have satisfied a strict due diligence and admissions process as well as a high-quality Digital Asset Exchange. The GBX is setting a higher standard for token issuance and trading through best practices and good governance, for the benefit of all market participants. Media Contact: Kevin Robson  kevin@stratx.co Stratx Engagements: Website: https://stratx.co Related Images stratx-logo.png

Stratx Logo

Stratx Logo gbx-sponsor-firm.png

GBX Sponsor Firm

GBX Approved Sponsor Firm Logo Related Links GBX Announcement View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gibraltar-blockchain-exchange-selects-canadian-firm-stratx-consulting-as-newest-sponsor-firm-300686640.html SOURCE Stratx Consulting Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] JBT Corporation Reports Second-Quarter 2018 Results

CHICAGO, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- JBT Corporation (NYSE: JBT), a leading global technology solutions provider to high-value segments of the food & beverage industry, today reported results for the second quarter of 2018. "JBT posted better than expected revenue growth and margin expansion as well as record orders in the second quarter, putting us on track to deliver double-digit growth in revenue and adjusted earnings for full-year 2018," said Tom Giacomini, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. Second quarter 2018 revenue increased 27 percent from the second quarter of 2017, including growth of 14 percent organically and 4 percent from acquisitions, a 1 percent foreign exchange benefit, and an 8 percent benefit from the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606, adopted January 1, 2018. Second quarter 2018 operating income of $42.2 million  which included a restructuring expense of $8.5 million  increased 44 percent from the year-ago period. Total segment operating profit of $62.1 million increased 48 percent, including 18 percent from ASC 606. Segment operating profit margins expanded 170 basis points year over year and 540 basis points sequentially. Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.04 for the second quarter of 2018 compared to $0.57 for the second quarter of 2017. Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.24 for the second quarter of 2018 excluding the restructuring expense. Second quarter 2018 results included a $0.17 per share benefit from ASC 606 and a $0.15 per share discrete tax benefit associated with accounting rules for stock compensation costs. Orders and Backlog For the second quarter of 2018, inbound orders of $530 million increased 27 percent, with record levels at both FoodTech and AeroTech. Backlog expanded 15 percent. Restructuring In the second quarter of 2018, JBT recorded a restructuring expense of $8.5 million, part of the previously announced $50 million improvement program to unlock the benefits of the Company's expanded global scale. Acquisitions On July 12, JBT announced the acquisition of FTNON, a leading provider of equipment and solutions for the fresh produce, ready meals, and pet food markets. "We are pleased to add additional, complementary capabilities to JBT's customer relationships," stated Giacomini. "Moreover, FTNON provides entry into the fast-growing market for ready-to-eat fresh produce and offers labor-saving robotic technology we plan to apply across the protein and liquid food segments of the food industry." 2018 Outlook For full-year 2018, JBT maintains projected diluted earnings per share from continuing operations of $2.80 - $3.00, or $3.95 - $4.15 adjusted for restructuring charges, while absorbing the $0.07 per share dilutive impact from the acquisition of FTNON. For the third quarter of 2018, the Company expects similar results to the second quarter, absent the discrete tax benefit. Second-Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call A conference call is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday, July 26, 2018 to discuss second-quarter 2018 financial results. Participants may access the conference call by dialing (833) 238-7952 in the U.S. and Canada or (647) 689-4200 for international callers and using conference ID 4278196, or through the Investor Relations link on our website at www.jbtc.com/investors. An online audio replay of the call will be available on the Company's Investor Relations website at approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT on July 26, 2018. JBT Corporation (NYSE: JBT) is a leading global technology solutions provider to high-value segments of the food & beverage industry with focus on proteins, liquid foods and automated system solutions. JBT designs, produces and services sophisticated products and systems for multi-national and regional customers through its FoodTech segment. JBT also sells critical equipment and services to domestic and international air transportation customers through its AeroTech segment. JBT Corporation employs approximately 5,900 people worldwide and operates sales, service, manufacturing and sourcing operations in more than 25 countries. For more information, please visit www.jbtc.com. This release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are information of a non-historical nature and are subject to risks and uncertainties that are beyond the Company's ability to control. These risks and uncertainties are described under the caption "Risk Factors" in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission that may be accessed on the Company's website. The Company cautions shareholders and prospective investors that actual results may differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements.







JBT CORPORATION CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (Unaudited and in millions, except per share data)

































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Revenue $ 491.3



$ 386.1



$ 900.5



$ 730.6

Cost of sales 351.0



271.3



656.6



518.2

















Gross profit 140.3



114.8



243.9



212.4

Gross profit % 28.6 %

29.7 %

27.1 %

29.1 %















Selling, general and administrative expense 81.5



77.3



158.4



148.1

Research and development expense 7.1



6.4



15.0



12.7

Restructuring expense 8.5



0.6



21.2



1.0

Other expense, net 1.0



1.1



1.2



1.0

















Operating income 42.2



29.4



48.1



49.6

Operating income % 8.6 %

7.6 %

5.3 %

6.8 %















Other (expense) income, net (0.4)



0.3



(0.6)



0.6

Interest expense, net (3.4)



(3.3)



(7.1)



(6.7)

Income from continuing operations before income taxes 38.4



26.4



40.4



43.5

Provision for income taxes 4.9



8.1



5.3



7.6

Income from continuing operations 33.5



18.3



35.1



35.9

Gain (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes 0.1



(0.4)



(0.3)



(0.6)

Net income $ 33.6



$ 17.9



$ 34.8



$ 35.3

















Basic earnings per share:













Income from continuing operations $ 1.05



$ 0.57



$ 1.10



$ 1.16

Loss from discontinued operations 



(0.01)



(0.01)



(0.02)

Net income $ 1.05



$ 0.56



$ 1.09



$ 1.14

















Diluted earnings per share:













Income from continuing operations $ 1.04



$ 0.57



$ 1.09



$ 1.14

Loss from discontinued operations 



(0.01)



(0.01)



(0.02)

Net income $ 1.04



$ 0.56



$ 1.08



$ 1.12

















Weighted average shares outstanding













Basic 31.9



31.9



31.9



31.0

Diluted 32.1



32.3



32.3



31.4



















JBT CORPORATION NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES RECONCILIATION OF DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE TO ADJUSTED DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE (Unaudited and in millions, except per share data)

































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Income from continuing operations as reported $ 33.5



$ 18.3



$ 35.1



$ 35.9

















Non-GAAP adjustments:













Restructuring expense 8.5



0.6



21.2



1.0

















Impact on tax provision from Non-GAAP adjustments(1) (2.2)



(0.2)



(5.4)



(0.3)

















Adjusted income from continuing operations $ 39.8



$ 18.7



$ 50.9



$ 36.6

































Income from continuing operations as reported $ 33.5



$ 18.3



$ 35.1



$ 35.9

Total shares and dilutive securities 32.1



32.3



32.3



31.4

Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.04



$ 0.57



$ 1.09



$ 1.14

















Adjusted income from continuing operations $ 39.8



$ 18.7



$ 50.9



$ 36.6

Total shares and dilutive securities 32.1



32.3



32.3



31.4

Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations $ 1.24



$ 0.58



$ 1.58



$ 1.17

















(1) Impact on tax provision was calculated using the Company's annual effective tax rate of 25.63% and 31.17%, for 2018 and 2017,

respectively.

The above table contains adjusted income from continuing operations and adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations, which are non-GAAP financial measures, and are intended to provide an indication of our underlying ongoing operating results and to enhance investors' overall understanding of our financial performance by eliminating the effects of certain items that are not comparable from one period to the next. In addition, this information is used as a basis for evaluating our performance and for the planning and forecasting of future periods. This information is not intended to nor should it be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

JBT CORPORATION NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME TO ADJUSTED EBITDA (Unaudited and in millions)

































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017















Net income $ 33.6



$ 17.9



$ 34.8



$ 35.3

















Gain (loss) from discontinued operations, net of taxes 0.1



(0.4)



(0.3)



(0.6)

















Income from continuing operations as reported 33.5



18.3



35.1



35.9

















Provision for income taxes 4.9



8.1



5.3



7.6

Net interest expense 3.4



3.3



7.1



6.7

Depreciation and amortization 14.1



12.9



27.8



25.1

















EBITDA 55.9



42.6



75.3



75.3

















Restructuring expense 8.5



0.6



21.2



1.0

















Adjusted EBITDA $ 64.4



$ 43.2



$ 96.5



$ 76.3

















The above table provides net income as adjusted by income taxes, net interest expense and depreciation and amortization expense recorded during the period to arrive at EBITDA. Further, we add back to EBITDA significant expenses that are not indicative of our ongoing operations to calculate an Adjusted EBITDA for the periods reported. Given the Company's focus on growth through strategic acquisitions, management considers Adjusted EBITDA to be an important non-GAAP financial measure. This measure allows us to monitor business performance while excluding the impact of amortization due to the step up in value of intangible assets, and the depreciation of fixed assets. We use Adjusted EBITDA internally to make operating decisions and believe this information is helpful to investors because it allows more meaningful period-to-period comparisons of our ongoing operating results. This information is not intended to nor should it be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

JBT CORPORATION NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES RECONCILIATION OF DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE GUIDANCE TO ADJUSTED DILUTED EARNINGS PER SHARE GUIDANCE (Unaudited and in cents)





















Guidance



Full Year 2018





Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations

$2.80- $3.00





Non-GAAP adjustments:



Restructuring expense (1)

1.55





Impact on tax provision from Non-GAAP adjustments(2)

(0.40)





Adjusted diluted earnings per share from continuing operations

$3.95 - $4.15











(1) Restructuring expense is estimated to be approximately $50.0 million for full year of 2018. We have used the mid-point of the full year estimate in the table above. These amounts have been divided by our estimate of 32.2 million total shares and dilutive securities to derive the earnings per share value.





(2) Impact on tax provision was calculated using the Company's expected tax rate to be incurred on these restructuring costs of 26.0%.

JBT CORPORATION BUSINESS SEGMENT DATA (Unaudited and in millions)

















Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2018

2017

2018

2017 Revenue













JBT FoodTech $ 361.6



$ 278.9



$ 665.2



$ 520.5

JBT AeroTech 129.5



107.1



235.1



210.0

Other revenue and intercompany eliminations 0.2



0.1



0.2



0.1

Total revenue $ 491.3



$ 386.1



$ 900.5



$ 730.6

















Income before income taxes













Segment operating profit (1)













JBT FoodTech $ 47.4



$ 31.1



$ 68.9



$ 51.6

JBT FoodTech segment operating profit % 13.1 %

11.2 %

10.4 %

9.9 %















JBT AeroTech 14.7



10.8



22.6



20.4

JBT AeroTech segment operating profit % 11.4 %

10.1 %

9.6 %

9.7 %















Total segment operating profit(2) 62.1



41.9



91.5



72.0

Total segment operating profit % 12.6 %

10.9 %

10.2 %

9.9 %















Corporate expense(1) (11.4)



(11.9)



(22.2)



(21.4)

Restructuring expense (8.5)



(0.6)



(21.2)



(1.0)

















Operating income $ 42.2



$ 29.4



$ 48.1



$ 49.6

Operating income % 8.6 %

7.6 %

5.3 %

6.8 %















Other business segment information















Inbound Orders













JBT FoodTech $ 349.9



$ 283.0



$ 670.6



$ 600.9

JBT AeroTech 180.3



135.1



301.6



221.4

Intercompany eliminations/other 0.1







0.1



0.1

Total inbound orders $ 530.3



$ 418.1



$ 972.3



$ 822.4



























As of June 30,









2018

2017 Order Backlog













JBT FoodTech







$ 440.6



$ 427.3

JBT AeroTech







330.7



242.7

Total order backlog







$ 771.3



$ 670.0

















(1) Segment operating profit is defined as total segment revenue less segment operating expenses. Corporate expense, restructuring expense, interest income and expense and income taxes are not allocated to the segments. Corporate expense generally includes corporate staff-related expense, stock-based compensation, LIFO adjustments, certain foreign currency-related gains and losses, and the impact of unusual or strategic events not representative of segment operations. (2) Total segment operating profit, as presented elsewhere in this release, is a non-GAAP measure. The table above includes a reconciliation of total segment operating profit to operating income. We believe that this measure provides to investors a more comprehensive understanding of the information used by management in evaluating the performance of its segment operations. It is not intended to nor shall be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. JBT CORPORATION CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited and in millions)









June 30, 2018

December 31, 2017 Cash and cash equivalents $ 36.3



$ 34.0

Trade receivables, net 318.7



316.4

Inventories 270.5



190.2

Other current assets 59.7



48.0

Total current assets 685.2



588.6









Property, plant and equipment, net 234.8



233.0

Other assets 559.1



569.8

Total assets $ 1,479.1



$ 1,391.4

















Short-term debt and current portion of long-term debt $ 0.1



$ 10.5

Accounts payable, trade and other 162.1



157.1

Advance and progress payments 206.9



127.6

Other current liabilities 147.0



146.2

Total current liabilities 516.1



441.4









Long-term debt, less current portion 437.2



372.7









Accrued pension and other postretirement benefits, less current portion 71.5



85.9

Other liabilities 43.7



49.5









Common stock and additional paid-in capital 230.6



248.5

Retained earnings 333.8



333.7

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (153.8)



(140.3)

Total stockholders' equity 410.6



441.9

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 1,479.1



$ 1,391.4

JBT CORPORATION CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (Unaudited and in millions)









Six Months Ended June 30,

2018

2017







Cash flows from operating activities:





Income from continuing operations $ 35.1



$ 35.9









Adjustments to reconcile income to cash provided by operating activities:





Depreciation and amortization 27.8



25.1

Other (0.2)



6.1









Changes in operating assets and liabilities:





Trade accounts receivable, net (23.7)



(13.2)

Inventories (47.2)



(39.9)

Accounts payable, trade and other 9.2



(4.0)

Advance and progress payments 55.5



10.6

Other - assets and liabilities, net (41.4)



(18.6)









Cash provided by continuing operating activities 15.1



2.0









Cash required by discontinued operating activities (0.6)



(0.6)









Cash provided by operating activities 14.5



1.4









Cash flows required by investing activities:





Acquisitions, net of cash acquired (18.8)



(62.1)

Capital expenditures (18.7)



(17.5)

Other 1.2



1.1









Cash required by investing activities (36.3)



(78.5)









Cash flows provided by financing activities:





Net proceeds (payments) on credit facilities 55.1



(99.2)

Dividends (6.6)



(6.4)

Purchase of treasury stock (12.0)





Proceeds from stock issuance, net of stock issuance costs 



184.1

Other (10.6)



(9.5)









Cash provided by financing activities 25.9



69.0









Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (1.8)



1.2









Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 2.3



(6.9)









Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 34.0



33.2









Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 36.3



$ 26.3

Investors & Media: Media: Jeff Scipta +1 312 861 5930







View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jbt-corporation-reports-second-quarter-2018-results-300686591.html SOURCE JBT Corporation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Brandman University Applauds State's Expansion of Transfer Pathway for California Community College Students

As a new transfer pathway is announced today between the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, Brandman University - a member of the AICCU - reiterates its strong commitment to community college transfer students and continued acceptance of all 36 Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADT) from the 114 California community colleges. As a leading career-oriented education institution focused on meeting the unique needs of adult students, Brandman University has provided historical support for California's ADT program since the California Community Colleges first developed it with the California State University (CSU) system in 2010. "Creating clear pathways from California's community colleges to four-year institutions is one of the most beneficial ways we can support student success and meet the workforce needs of California and beyond," said Tod A. Burnett, Ed.D., Executive Vice Chancellor at Brandman University. "We applaud our AICCU peers who agreed to sign on to today's MOU with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and join in Brandman University's historical commitment to expanding community college transfer students." The ADT pathway is designed for students graduating with an Associate in Arts for Transfer (AA-T) or an Associate in Science for Transfer (AS-T) from a California community college and wishing to transfer to a four-year independent, nonprofit institution like Brandman University. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed today by AICCU President Kristen Soares and California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley to expand the number of California's independent nonprofit higher education institutions like Brandman University that are committed to the access and success of students, and affordability of quality education across the state. This pathway is the AICCU sector's adoption of the Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) pathway between the California Community Colleges and the California State University (CSU) system. Much like the current CSU ADT pathway, Brandman University continues its policy to guarantee admission and junior standing for ADT students who apply, as well as accepting a minimum of 60 units transferred. Brandman University is one of just two participating AICCU institutions that accepts all 36 ADT majors.



"AICCU has been actively engaged with Governor Jerry Brown's administration and the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office to open up a guaranteed transfer pathway for community college students to transfer to an independent California institution," said AICCU President Kristen Soares. "Our commitment today will provide tremendous help toward creating new regional college access opportunities for transfer students to attend an institution that best meets their educational goals and increases their opportunity to succeed." "Projections from the Public Policy Institute of California say the state will by 2030 have a shortage of 1.1 million workers holding a bachelor's degree needed to meet workforce demands," said Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley. "The Associate Degree for Transfer program is vital to our economy, and we are proud to work with the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities in providing our students additional opportunities to further their education and help guarantee their chances of achieving upward social mobility."

California's independent, nonprofit colleges and universities enroll about 8,500 transfer students annually, and, with this partnership with the California Community Colleges, hope to increase that number to ensure all students can find a place at a California institution. AICCU institutions serve nearly 189,500 undergraduate students, who reflect the rich diversity of the state. Brandman University embodies a mission of serving California's diverse population, with flexible education programs that serve the varying needs of nontraditional students including full-time workers, active military, parents, and other adults looking to further their career. As an independent, nonprofit institution Brandman University is at the forefront of new education initiatives, including programs with interdisciplinary perspective and corporate-academic partnerships that provide students with skill sets that are critical for success in today's rapidly changing workforce. Brandman University offers undergraduate, graduate, credential and certificate programs at campuses throughout California and Washington and online, and through its self-paced online Competency-Based Education modality, Brandman MyPath. For more information on the AICCU ADT pathway, visit www.aiccu.edu/transfer. Visit Brandman.edu to learn more about its academic programs that meet the unique needs of adult students and working professionals. About Brandman University Brandman University is a private, nonprofit institution accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). As part of the Chapman University System, Brandman blends a legacy of academic excellence with innovative curriculum and strong support services designed for students with busy schedules. The university offers more than 80 undergraduate, graduate, credential and certificate programs across its schools of arts and sciences, business, education, nursing and health. Brandman serves 12,000 students annually with programs available at more than 25 campuses throughout California and Washington and online, and through Brandman MyPath, our self-paced online competency-based education modality. The university's online programs consistently rank among the top in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. For additional information, visit http://www.brandman.edu. About AICCU The Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) is comprised of 82 independent, nonprofit colleges and universities, which make up the Independent California Colleges and Universities (ICCU) sector. The ICCU sector plays a pivotal role in the development of the state's model higher education offerings and in making California a symbol of innovation across the globe. Within California, ICCU institutions award 21 percent of all bachelors degrees and 54% of graduate degrees, making them the largest preparers of California's advanced workforce. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180725005876/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] In Virtuo Pursuing New Markets

The Government of Canada is providing $40,000 in funding to a Gatineau-based virtual reality company to treat anxiety disorders GATINEAU, QC, July 25, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) A market development project can now proceed at Cliniques et developpement In Virtuo (In Virtuo). In 2017, the Government of Canada introduced a plan to support businesses in the development of innovative solutions and in their growth efforts. Financial support is being provided to the company with the aim of giving companies that focus on innovation the right resources to develop or sell innovative products. A true vector of change in the world of business, innovation drives the Canadian economy and generates economic growth that benefits businesses and communities. Greg Fergus, Member of Parliament for Hull-Aylmer, on behalf of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for CED, today announced that a repayable contribution of $40,000 was awarded to Cliniques et developpement In Virtuo (4431588 Canada Inc.). In Virtuo was founded in 2007 and offers innovative specialized treatment services to people with anxiety disorders, mainly through the use of virtual reality. Since 2016, the company has had an exclusive licence to sell two high-quality virtual reality software programs in order to make these accessible to healthcare professionals. The software was devloped in partnership by the Canada Research Chair in Clinical Cyberpsychology at the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais and In Virtuo.



The funding provided under CED's Quebec Economic Development Program will support the company in the commercialization of its software in Canada, Europe, and the United States. Quotes:

"The Government of Canada has implemented an ambitious approach to support businesses that invest in developing new markets. The financial support provided to In Virtuo is concrete support to a company that has demonstrated its skills and, moreover, is ready to navigate new markets." Greg Fergus, MP for HullAylmer "As the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, my goal is to help businesses grow and innovate so that they can create high-quality jobs and wealth for Canadians. This is why we support businesses such as In Virtuo, whose success reflects on the region and the Canadian economy as a whole." The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister Responsible for CED "With the support and valuable advice of CED throughout our marketing efforts, the In Virtuo team has been able to accelerate its international sales process and build future collaborative relationships with European and North American teams." Stephane Bouchard, President, In Virtuo Quick facts Last June, In Virtuo received the 2018 MercadOr Outaouais award, in the "New Exporter" category, for setting itself apart with its exceptional and highly innovative product, which it began exporting in 2017.

More than 70% of the company's sales are in various markets outside Canada , on almost every continent.

, on almost every continent. CED is one of the six regional development agencies under the responsibility of the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of federal regional economic development in Quebec : half a century of concrete action dedicated to the development of the regions and local businesses.

: half a century of concrete action dedicated to the development of the regions and local businesses. For more information on CED and its priorities, consult the 2018-2019 Departmental Plan or visit www.dec-ced.gc.ca. Stay connected

Follow CED on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube

Follow In Virtuo on Facebook SOURCE Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] Registration Opens for BlackBerry's 2018 Security Summits in London and NYC

WATERLOO, Ontario, July 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BlackBerry Limited (NYSE:BB) (TSX:BB), today announced registration is now open for the 2018 BlackBerry Security Summits in London and New York City. During the companys fifth annual event, industry experts and thought leaders from across the globe will come together to share their hands-on experience with BlackBerrys solutions, and discuss a wide range of topics including cybersecurity, EoT-driven workstreams and improving business processes.

Taking place September 12th in London and October 4th in New York City, attendees will also be able to hear the latest updates to BlackBerrys vision and strategic direction from Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen, as well as new capabilities and use cases for its enterprise communication and collaboration software and safety-certified embedded solutions. Tech Talks sessions will be led by BlackBerrys customers and discuss how the Enterprise of Things (EoT) is driving digital transformations within industries such as financial services, healthcare, government and transportation, while an on-stage hack will demonstrate the vulnerabilities that hyperconnectivity can create. As part of the conference program, both events will feature a DevZone where developers can collaborate with BlackBerry experts to help them build best-in-class, secure enterprise solutions. Additionally, two lucky winners of the companys Spark Hackathon will win trips to the Security Summits to demonstrate their solutions based on the new BlackBerry Spark Communications Platform, which enables developers and organizations to embed secure voice, video and text and into their own applications and services (Android, iOS or web).



There will also be an invitation-only event the day before the Security Summit for the Distributors, ISVs and Solutions Providers that make up BlackBerrys growing partner ecosystem. To register and view a full agenda for the BlackBerry Security Summit, please visit www.BlackBerry.com/SecuritySummit.

Editors Note: Reporters interested in attending should email mediarelations@blackberry.com

Developers looking to participate in the Spark Hackathon are encouraged to join a live, 30-minute webinar on July 26 at 9 a.m. ET to receive an overview of the competition and platform. A replay will be made available.

Full contest details and official rules for the hackathon can be found at www.BlackBerry.com/SparkHackathon. About BlackBerry

BlackBerry is an enterprise software and services company focused on securing and managing IoT endpoints. The company does this with BlackBerry Secure, an end-to-end Enterprise of Things platform, comprised of its enterprise communication and collaboration software and safety-certified embedded solutions. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry was founded in 1984 and operates in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. The Company trades under the ticker symbol "BB" on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. For more information visit BlackBerry.com, and follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services. Media Contacts:

BlackBerry

(519) 597-7273

mediarelations@BlackBerry.com Investor Contact:

BlackBerry Investor Relations

(519) 888-7465

investor_relations@BlackBerry.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][July 25, 2018] FASTSIGNS CEO Catherine Monson To Keynote Franchise Association Of New Zealand's 2018 National Franchise Conference On Aug. 10

CARROLLTON, Texas, July 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise, announced today that CEO Catherine Monson will be the keynote speaker at the Franchise Association of New Zealand's 2018 National Franchise Conference on Aug. 10 at the Wairakei Resort Taupo. Catherine will share insights gained during her more than 30 years of experience with some of the top business-to-business franchise brands. Concurrently Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development of FASTSIGNS will be joining Catherine to speak with potential Master Franchisee candidates while in Taupo and Auckland Aug. 3-11. "As we continue to accelerate our international growth and build relationships with influential franchising associations around the world, the Franchise Association of New Zealand's 2018 National Franchise Conference is the perfect opportunity for FASTSIGNS to showcase all we have to offer to potential Master Franchisees," said Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. "FASTSIGNS has had a presence in Australia for over 20 years, where the brand operates as SIGNWAVE, and so we are fully equipped to grow the FASTSIGNS brand to New Zealand. We are looking forward to meeting with various qualified candidates during our visit next month." The brand is targeting international expansion in New Zealand and will be recruiting a Master Franchisee candidate to open locations and help develop additional centers throughout the country. FASTSIGNS has experienced explosive international growth over the last year, including opening 43 locations in the U.S. and Canada, three in the U.K., and two in Australia. The brand is continuing to grow in Australia and is seeking franchisees with a particular focus on its Co-Brand and Conversion franchise programs. Earlier this year, FASTSIGNS signed a Master Franchise Agreement with Chilean sign company NEOMARK to convert its existing location to FASTSIGNS and open five additional locations in Santiago. In 2017, the Famalco Group became a Master Franchisee with FASTSIGNS to open 16 new centers throughout Malta, Italy, and Greece. FASTSIGNS is continuing to seek qualified candidates to grow its international footprint in markets throughout the world, including Brazil, Quebec, North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, Europe, and Latin America. FASTSIGNS International, Inc. was ranked the #1 franchise opportunity in its category and 70 overall on Entrepreneur magazine's 2018 Franchise 500, the world's first, best and most comprehensive franchise ranking. Acknowledged by entrepreneurs and franchisors as a top competitive tool of measurement, the Franchise 500 recognizes FASTSIGNS, the only sign, graphics, and visual communications franchise to be recognized in the top 100, for its exceptional performance in areas including financial strength and stability, growth rate and brand power. FASTSIGNS also has been recognized for its franchisee satisfaction by being named a World Class Franchise by the Franchise Research Institute for five consecutive years and has been ranked by Franchise Business Review as one of the "Best of the Best" for franchisee satisfaction for the last 10 years. Additionally, FASTSIGNS also was named to Franchise Business Review's "Innovative Franchises" list in 2017 and a "Best-in-Category" franchise by Franchise Business Review in 2018. The Canadian Franchise Association (CFA) recently recognized FASTSIGNS International, Inc. with a special six-year Franchisees' Choice designation for its strong relationship with Canadian franchisees, as well as extensive franchisee training and support. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson (mark.jameson@fastsigns.com or 214-346-5679). About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of almost 700 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in ten countries including the U.S., Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico, Chile, Malta, and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE). FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials. Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns.







CONTACT: Chelsea Bear

Fish Consulting

954-893-9150

cbear@fish-consulting.com

View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fastsigns-ceo-catherine-monson-to-keynote-franchise-association-of-new-zealands-2018-national-franchise-conference-on-aug-10-300686796.html SOURCE FASTSIGNS International, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]The Zenfone 8 is a compact, powerful phone. WIth its top-tier specs and decent camera performance, it punches well above its weight, especially given this price point.

Asus Zenfone 8: Specs OS: Android 11 / ZenUI 8

Display: 5.9-inch AMOLED (2400 x 1080)

Refresh rate: 120 Hz

CPU: Snapdragon 888

RAM: 6GB, 8GB, 16GB

Storage: 128GB, 256GB

Rear cameras: 64MP (f/1.8) main, 12MP (f/2.2) ultrawide

Front camera: 12MP

Battery: 4,000 mAh

Battery life (Hrs:Mins): 10:52 (60Hz) / 10:16 (90Hz) / 9:58

(120Hz)

Charging speed: 30W

Colors: Obsidian Black, Horizon Silver

Size: 5.9 x 2.7 x 0.4 inches

Weight: 5.96 ounces

The Asus Zenfone 8 is here and its quite the head-turner. Asus may be a big name in the computing world, but its quite the underdog when it comes to phones. A few years back, the company rejected camera notches and cutouts, turning to a flipping camera module on the Zenfone 6 . But the Zenfone 8 takes a more conventional approach to smartphone design and refines it. It does this in a small, compact frame with a ton of horsepower, a great display and good cameras.

With a large battery, a fast-refreshing display, and a headphone jack, the Zenfone 8 ticks all of the boxes for what wed look for in a great smartphone. The only question is one of availability: at this point, we dont know if or when this is coming to North America.

Despite that, the Zenfone 8 is an excellent device and perfect for people who want the most power out of their small phone. This is easily the best small Android phone with a screen thats smaller than 6 inches. Read our full Zenfone 8 review to find out why.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Price and availability

Asus has not yet revealed full pricing and availability, though we do know that the phone will start at 599. That's for the model with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

The Zenfone 8 also comes in 8GB and 16GB flavors. You can pair that 8GB of RAM with either 128GB or 256GB of storage. The 16GB version comes with 256GB.

We still don't know full pricing and availability, but stay tuned for an update when we find out more.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Design

From all appearances, the Zenfone 8 is quite unassuming. In fact, it looks a bit like phones from a few years ago. The metal body curves to fit your hand and I love that. The phone is very small by modern standards, with a sub-6 inch display, just like the best small phones .

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The dual lens camera module protrudes ever so slightly from the back of the Zenfone 8, and the front camera sits in a hole punch cutout in the top left corner of the display.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

On the Obsidian Black model I tested for this Zenfone 8 review, the power button is a blue that contrasts well with the dark frame. The Zenfone 8 also packs in a wonderful surprise: a 3.5mm headphone jack.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The compact body makes one-handing it a breeze. Its also IP68 rated, so you need not worry about water being an issue. Theres an in-display optical fingerprint sensor, which worked quite well in my experience.

Frankly, the only thing missing from the Zenfone 8 is a micro SD card slot. The lack of wireless charging due to the metallic body is a bummer, but no phone can be perfect. All told, I love the phones subdued design.

At 5.9 x 2.7 x 0.4 inches, the Zenfone 8 is a diminutive little guy. I enjoy picking it up, especially given how accustomed to big phones I am. Asus did a great job on build quality and design.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Display

Coming in at 5.9 inches, the Zenfone 8s AMOLED display is pretty small in this age of giant phablets. It packs a FHD+ resolution and up to 120 Hz on the refresh rate. Youll get punchy colors and deep blacks with excellent viewing angles, too.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

You can lock the Zenfone 8s display at 60Hz, 90Hz, or 120Hz. Or you can leave it in the auto mode, and the phone will adjust the refresh rate as needed, like weve seen on other phones recently.

While not quite as striking as the OnePlus 9 s display, the Zenfone 8s screen is still very good. In our testing, it reproduced 154.5% of the sRGB spectrum and 109.5% of the DCI-P3 gamut in its default color profile. It managed a Delta-E score of 0.27  0 is perfect, so the lower the number, the better.

Compare that to the OnePlus 9s Delta-E of 0.28 for its AMOLED panel. That phone managed 199.4% of the sRGB and 141.3 of the DCI-P3 color gamuts in its default mode. The Zenfone 8 gets brighter in our testing at 727 nits versus the OnePlus 9s 696 nits.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Cameras

The Zenfone 8 uses two camera lenses, not unlike the Pixel 5 . It has a 64MP wide-angle primary shooter and a 12MP ultrawide lens. For reference, the Pixel 5 has a 12.2MP primary and 16MP ultrawide.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

It might seem a bit unfair to pit the Zenfone 8 against the Pixel 5 in the camera department, as Googles phone still ranks among the best camera phones . But both phones are similar in price, and this lets us see just how good of a bargain the Zenfone 8 really is.

In this shot of flowers, the Zenfone 8 overexposed the scene and the focus is a bit soft. The color of the flowers is vibrant, yes, but it teeters on being too bright. The Pixel, meanwhile, kept its shot toned down since the image was captured in shadow on a bright, sunny day. I wouldnt call the Zenfones image bad, but the Pixels is definitely better.

I next took the phones to a part of the forest near my house. Again, you can see the slight differences between the two phones. The Zenfone is almost overexposed again, with greens that border on oversaturated. The Pixel kept the scene subdued and rich, with the green of the trees lush and verdant. Once more, the Zenfones shot is great, but the Pixels is better.

Moving indoors, the Zenfone 8 captured Meridas likeness extremely well. The well-lit room certainly helped, but this image really impressed me, especially when compared to the Pixels photo. Its hard to tell a difference between the two because theyre both excellent. The blue of Meridas dress, the yellow candle, and the green fern all come together in a great composition.

The Zenfone 8 holds its own in the night mode department, too. In fact, I like its image better than the Pixels. It comes down to the noise. Yes, the Pixel 5 brought in more light, but at the cost of making the smoker noisy. The Zenfone 8 still brought in a ton of light, and the metal of the smoker is a bit smoother.

The Zenfone 8 does not put out nearly the same quality of portrait shot as the Pixel does. The Zenfones attempt has a terrible blur radius, overexposing on my face and doing too much face smoothing. The Pixels photo captures the wrinkles near my eyes, the dry skin I need to moisturize, and the individual curly hairs of my beard. While the Zenfone 8 has done well thus far, it cant hold a candle to the Pixels portrait shot.

Finally, for selfies, you cant go wrong with the Zenfone 8 and its 12MP front camera. It photographed me quite well, taking in the blue of my shirt, the black of my hat, and even the color of my eyes. The difference between the two selfies comes down to exposure and saturation. The Zenfone takes a similar approach to Samsungs camera phones, boosting the colors in the scene, whereas the Pixel takes a more naturalistic approach, looking toned down overall. Regardless, Id gladly post the Zenfones selfie.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Performance

The Zenfone 8 sports a Snapdragon 888 processor with up to 16GB of RAM. It's a little powerhouse, crushing anything else Android-based in this size class  even the Pixel 5. This phone is no slouch, and it proves that both in real-world applications and in testing.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In Geekbench 5, the Zenfone 8 scored 1,120 in single-core and 3,659 in multicore. Thats right in line with the numbers we tallied with the Snapdragon 888-powered OnePlus 9, which were 1,126 and 3,618 respectively. Those are good scores, but the iPhone 12 mini beats both phones at 1,602 and 4,123, thanks to Apples A14 Bionic processor.

In the 3DMark Wild Life Unlimited graphics test, the Zenfone 8 achieved 34 frames per second, which lines up perfectly with the OnePlus 9. However, it still falls short of the iPhone 12 minis whopping 54 fps.

Weve seen several Snapdragon 888 phones by this point, so it shouldnt surprise anyone that the Zenfone 8 does as well as it does, even though it lags behind the iPhone 12 mini. In real life, though, the phone performs amazingly well. Its snappy, quick, and I dont notice any lag when performing certain tasks like opening an app in Recents.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Battery life and charging

The Zenfone 8 packs a 4,000 mAh battery, which is quite large considering the phones physical size. In my use, the phone got decent battery life, enough to get me through most days. Push it hard with Google Duo calls or gaming and you might be looking for a charger before winding down for the day.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

In the Toms Guide battery test, where a device is left to endlessly reload web pages on a cellular connection, the Zenfone 8 managed some decent times. In the 60 Hz mode, it lasted for 10 hours and 52 minutes, which is close to the 11-hour mark that devices on our best phone battery life list achieve.

Up the display to 90 Hz and the phone managed a respectable 10:16 result on our battery test. Bump it up to 120 Hz and the phone just barely fell below the 10-hour mark wed like to see at 9:58. So you can get a lot of life out of the Zenfone 8, especially if you take the middle road and set the dislays refresh rate at 90 Hz. Ive stuck with the auto mode and Ive had no complaints about battery life.

We noticed some inconsistencies with charging speeds in our lab testing. Asus includes a 30W charger with the Zenfone 8, which should provide decent charging numbers. Instead, we saw that it only managed to recharge to 22% in 30 minutes. This heavily contrasts with Asus claims that it can recharge to 60% in 25 minutes.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Software

Asus took a page from OnePlus book all the way back with the Zenfone 6. The company radically changed its software design to more closely resemble OxygenOS. The result was a clean, minimalistic UX with plenty of tweaks and features tucked away in settings. I remember remarking at the time that Asus had finally gotten ZenUI to a good place.

That decision continues all the way through the ROG Phone 5 and here with the Zenfone 8. ZenUI 8 looks a lot like what youd find on a Pixel and it does a great job of doing what you want it to do and staying out of the way. Whereas OnePlus has since diverged a bit from Googles vision, Asus sticks pretty close to it.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Based on Android 11, ZenUI has a few tricks up its sleeve to set it apart from stock Android. First off, the power button can act as a Smart Key, meaning that you can change its behavior. You can customize both a double click and a press and hold action. There are quite a few options to choose from, though Ive stuck with launching the camera and bringing up the power menu on my review unit.

Elsewhere, youll find a gaming mode to reduce distractions while youre gaming and push the Zenfone 8 to its max for intensive titles. Asus OptiPlex feature, wherein the software learns your habits and pre-loads commonly used apps, returns once again. You can disable or tweak it to your liking. Theres also a one-handed mode, making this small phone even easier to use single-handed.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

So far, Asus has not committed to any number of software updates for the Zenfone 8. Were hoping for at least three as the company continues to put an emphasis on good software. Stay tuned for an update on this once we get confirmation.

Asus Zenfone 8 review: Verdict

The Asus Zenfone 8 is a great phone, though its availability might leave some confused. But the hardware is excellent, the software is great, and the cameras perform way better than expected (especially after the extreme disappointment I had with the ROG Phone 5s cameras). Youre getting a ton of phone with the Zenfone 8 and its definitely the best small Android phone, handily beating the Pixel 5 in every way except camera performance.

I have few qualms with recommending this Zenfone 8, especially compared to some of its Android competitors, like the OnePlus 9. The value proposition is strong here, even though we dont know full pricing just yet.







More Local Renter Rage!?!

Can a rental inspection program help solve Kansas City's eviction epidemic? Advocates for low-income Kansas Citians were seething as they walked out of City Hall one hot afternoon last August. The City Council's Housing Committee had stomped on a measure they thought would bring some relief to tenants living in dangerous and unhealthy places: a rental inspection program.

Celebrate Local Doc Payback

KC doctors pay off $1.47M in medical debt Allison Edwards explains how she and a group of other doctors donated $11,000 to pay off $1.47 million in medical debts for people in Kansas and Missouri.

TEXTHERE

Parents seek alternatives after Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy closes A Kansas City charter school has closed, about two weeks before the scheduled start of classes. The Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy of Technology was in operation for 18 years. The school at Meyer and Rockhill was under charter from the University of Central Missouri.

Take The Bus To Meth Town

Putting On Perfect Village Act

Longtime Prairie Village antique mall set to close PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. - If you're looking for a harpsichord, an Italian-made chandelier or an intricate bar to store your spirits, you'll find these hidden treasures at the Mission Road Antique Mall. "We have lots and lots of doo-dads," Carol Jean Barta, a dealer at the antique mall said.

Local Foodie Guide

The 10 Best Kansas City Restaurants 2018 - TripAdvisor Reserve a table for the best dining in Kansas City, Missouri on TripAdvisor: See 66,006 reviews of 1,508 Kansas City restaurants and search by cuisine, price, location, and more.

Home Team Big Win Last Night

Smith gets first win as Royals beat Tigers 5-4 KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Burch Smith picked up his first win in nearly five years, Mike Moustakas and Salvador Perez hit home runs and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4 on Tuesday night.

Sad celeb news that should encourage all of us, even news junkies, to take it easy:Closer to home and in news that might actually make a difference in local lives. Take a look at this morning news link collection:is the song of the day and this is thefor right now . . .DID PREZ TRUMP OR PROTESTERS & CRITICS WIN THE KANSAS CITY DISCOURSE TODAY???

Channel 9: President Trump pays tribute to victims of duck boat tragedy





























ABC News: President Trump defiant on trade war in remarks to VFW

















It's all over but the crying but there's a lot crying and even the echos of cheering as Prez Trump put this town on pause today.To wit . . .Here's acollection of all the major talking points and news items today to inform a decision.Checkit:You decide . . .Missouri Senate race: GOP primary rival fumes over Trump support for Josh Hawley Underdog Republican Senate candidate Austin Petersen warned President Trump on Tuesday against going all-in for primary rival Josh Hawley in Missouri, as the president prepared to stump and fundraise for the front-running candidate. Trump visited Kansas City Tuesday to speak to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, and was attending a private fundraiser later for Hawley, the state attorney general.

We've said it before, this GOP contender is more captivating, braver and far more excited about the campaign than anybody in the contest. He's worth a look for those who can think outside the establishment/machine political box.Checkit:Missouri Senator McCaskill fights for Duck Boat Legislation ST. LOUIS- U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill on Tuesday told colleagues she is working on legislation to ensure that another duck boat tragedy like the one that claimed the lives of 17 people in Missouri last week never happens again.

Check the political reaction regarding a horrific tragedy and what is likely the end for an old school Missouri tourism transit tradition:The city also agreed to pay $10,730 to ME Simpson, of Valparaiso, Ind., for a water system distribution leak survey to be done for 2018, while also giving city Administrator Troy Ishler the authority to renew the contract through 2020. Public Works officials said that is a 1.35 percent increase over what the city had paid in recent years for similar services.CLAY CHASTAIN MAKES HIS DEBUT AS A REPUBLICAN IN THE KCMO MAYORAL RACE!!!

Actual Press Release Title: "Biased Star proclaims Clay cannot win mayor's race, but when Clay does his light will shine on Kansas City and he will shine on the Star."

A fun tidbit that needs to be highlighted . . .The contest is non-partisan and this is a bit of a "coming out" for the champion of public transit given that he hasn't discussed his political affiliations previously.Take a peek:If elected mayor, Clay will begin shining his visionary light upon Kansas City while "shining on" Kansas City's far left-lunging progressive-driven repository of "Fake news" - the Kansas City Star.The Star is biased toward Clay because Clay is an independent thinking and acting conservative Republican that has rocked the hell out of the liberal-lunging Star and Kansas City's elite-controlled, and Star-supported, establishment.Over the years, the Star has continually presented Clay to the public in a demeaning and mocking light in order to undermine public support for Clay and his innovative ideas to improve Kansas City. And doing this, while sitting idly by while the current mayor has strong-armed the people with all his secret doings for the elite.Just yesterday, the Star's guru, Dave Helling, astonishingly whined in a Star column about the lack of a conservative (Clay) boat-rocking (Clay) Republican candidate (Clay) to challenge (Clay) all the status quo-oriented democratic mayoral candidates. Unable to avoid the obvious, Helling then wrote in classic anti-Clay dumbfounding Star style this...(" Don't get me started on Clay Chastain. He may not be eligible, and he can't win.")And what does the Star know? Here is what has happened to Kansas City over the last 4-decades under the leadership of left-leaning elected officials, the elite and the know it alls at the Star and, what Mayor Clay Chastain will have to do to fix our city...(1) Kansas City has lost over 100,000 citizens.(2) Kansas City's violent crime rate and economic disparity have soared.(3) Kansas City's infrastructure has crumbled while glitzy projects for the elite have flourished.(4) Kansas City has crushing debt largely due to a plethora of misguided tax-abated projects (TIF) for the elite.(5) Kansas City has been crippled by a $100 million a year failed diesel bus-based transit system (useful to only 7% of the people) while the city pursues a novelty streetcar system for tourists and rich developers.(6) Kansas City has suffered an horrendous decline in families living in the city with school-age children as public school enrollment has declined from 78,000 (forty years ago) to 12,500 today!(7) Kansas City has seen an assault on the people's democratic petition process by an elite-controlled government that has unfairly and illegally interfered with valid petitions from the people and cares little about ordinary citizens.There is finally an honest, conservative and idea-oriented populist candidate running for mayor who has the where with all to... make the "City Beautiful," beautiful again. But, the biased, liberal and misspoken Star says, "He can't win."We will see. Kansas City is still worth fighting for and Clay is the man to do it.Mayoral ('He can't win") Candidate Clay Chastain#############It all started as routine shoulder surgery

Sergio Marchionne, the man who saved Chrysler from going belly up during the 2009 recession, has passed away at the age of 66. He was recently admitted to the hospital for routine should surgery but took a turn for the worst shortly thereafter. Reports came in early in the week that he had been placed on life support without expectation of recovering. He passed away shortly thereafter, leaving behind two sons and a legacy of hard work and dedication that can never be forgotten.

Unfortunately, what we feared has come to pass. Sergio Marchionne, man, and friend is gone," John Elkann, chairman of FCA, said in a statement.

Those are grim words, no doubt. Earlier in the week, FCA, Ferrari, and CNH Industrial took steps to replace him and announce that he would be unable to work. Now that hes gone, its important to remember him for what he was  a dedicated worker. Reports show that he worked nearly non-stop. He took over Chrysler with no cash down during the Great Recession of 2009 and managed to turn it around, saving 300,000 jobs in the process. He even initiated the first-ever no-strike pledge with the UAW and brought FCA brands up to par with benefits and pay familiar to only familiar to those working at Toyota and Honda. He made seemingly constant trips between Italy and Detroit.

Ken Lewenza, President of Canadian Auto Workers, met with Marchionne in 2009 and had something very interesting to say:

He looked like he just got off a 20-hour shift, and he probably had,

He never seemed to stop, and he requested the same from his executives, and it drove some of them away, but those who stayed grew into positions they didnt think were possible. And, thats exactly what it took to keep a brand like FCA afloat in one of the darkest times in U.S. automotive history. With Marchionne laid to eternal rest, its up to Mike Manley, the former head of the Jeep Division to keep the company alive and moving at warp speed. Manley took over just this week once it was discovered that Marchionne had taken a turn for the worst. As CEO of Ferrari, he was replaced by John Elkann, former Fiat Chrysler chairman.

At this point, theres nothing else to say and nothing to speculate. A good, hard-working man has passed away, and our hearts go out to his family and all those that worked so closely with him. May he rest in peace.Robert Sutherland holds the photo of the Japanese surrender in which he is pictured.

Robert Sutherland was present for the Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. Sutherland is pictured in the photo of the event, which he discovered hanging in Brevard's WNC Military History Museum on a visit July 19.

Early Sunday morning on Sept. 2, 1945, aboard the new 45,000-ton battleship U.S.S. Missouri and before representatives of nine Allied nations, the Japanese Gen. Yoshijiro Umezu signed The Instrument of Surrender to end the war in the Pacific. Sutherland stood in row two on the left side as the document was signed.

Admission is free to th...On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted Tariffs are the greatest! Just hours later his administration announced that it would provide up to $12 billion in emergency relief to farmers to compensate for financial losses resulting from other countries retaliating with tariffs of their own.

Many Republicans were swift to condemn the presidents tariffs and his bailout of the farmers.

This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers and White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches, said Sen. Ben Sasse (R.-Neb.) Tuesday. This administr...Safari travel is one of the most exciting journeys for a traveler who seeks refuge with nature. There are many ways to enjoy safari while observing wildlife and how they fare along with other animals.

Unlike before, travelers stay in the safari vehicle to keep safe while watching the animals from a distance. Tourists can now get off their safari vehicle and get closer to the animals that are not content just watching them from afar. For them, that is where the real quest starts.

As cited by Travel + Leisure, Africa's historic conservation parks situated in the remote parts of Botswana to Zimbabwe, tourists can see the continent's variety of wildlife either by trekking, riding a horse, camping or boating. These are some of the different ways that travelers can enjoy watching the daily routine of the animals.

Canoeing

Visitors can take a glimpse of the 600 bird species living on the pre-historic waterway of Botswana's Selinda Spillway filled with the different birds' chatter and chirps by canoeing. It is one of the infrequent places around the world where large elephant herds, as well as buffalo, wander freely. The spillway can be found in the northern most part of Botswana and connects the Okavango Delta which lies in the west and the Linyanti Swamps which is situated to the east. It could cost from $3,500 for five days.

Trekking

Adventurers who preferred to enjoy nature on foot can be accompanied by the Masai guides when on tour the Crater Highlands located in Tanzania and the Lake Manyara National Park. While trekking, the guides can provide insights on how life has been in the community. The tour will cost around $11,749 for 13 days.

Horseback Riding

If the tourists do not feel like walking for a long time, there are available horses as a means of commuting. While on horseback, sightseers can watch from a distance the yearly migration of zebras and wildebeest in Masai Mara located in Kenya while being chased by predators. The tour could cost $2,220 for four days.

Camping

Lastly, visitors who want to stay for a few more days can set camp in a mobile safari offered by the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania. The package includes captivating expedition that would track game animals by walking guided by the local expert guides costing around $2,397 for four days.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018Crews of Ryanair are going on a strike and forced the airline to cancel up to 600 flights. This will affect thousands of travelers.

The low-cost Irish carrier has canceled flights in Belgium, Portugal, and Spain because of the planned strike of its staff over pay and work conditions in the mentioned countries.

According to a statement, the 100,000 passengers who will be affected have been offered alternative flights and re-accommodation, or a full refund.

The cabin crew in Italy are also on strike; however, the activity would not affect the "Italian-based schedule," reported a spokesman.

Staff Demands

According to Ryanair, 27 percent of its flights to and from Portugal will be affected, as well as 31 percent from Belgium, and 24 percent from Spain. It adds up to around 12 percent of the flights all over the continent.

The two-day staff demonstration is the newest in a series of strikes for the low-cost airline. Ryanair started recognizing unions late last year after a string of employee demonstrations caused canceled flights, which put its operation in trouble. Additionally, Ryanair pilots in Ireland are striking as well.

According to the list of 34 demands issued by the airline's employees, they want a fair wage that mirrors the amount of work that they do. Other highlighted requests touch on seniority pay, compensation for interrupted schedules, an end to additional costs incurred by its cabin crew, which include uniforms, food, and even water while they are on duty.

Furthermore, the unions in the four countries are requesting for its staff to be employed according to the national legislation of the country they are in, instead of being under Ireland, which is currently the case they are in. Its crew also wants a fair and universal pension scheme.

The document gives away some of the employment practices of the airline. Its staff stated that the company should work towards the eradication of agency employment and give employment contracts in the language spoken by the crew.

The charter also called for the airline to preserve minimum rest periods that reflect the European Aviation Safety Agency regulation.

Ryanair Statement

The budget airline's chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said that the strikes are unjustified and it will attain nothing other than disrupt family holidays and benefit its rival airlines in Spain, Portugal, and Belgium.

Jacobs also said that the cabin crew already enjoy a great pay of up to $47,000 annually, generous sales commissions, sick pay, and even uniform allowances.

The staff demands Ryanair to recognize unions for cabin crews and pilots, and for it to negotiate with the representative chosen by the alliance and not by the company.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018Divers off Ulleungdo, a South Korean Island, discovered what is believed to be a Russian warship, which is said to contain 5,500 boxes of gold coins and bars.

Called Dmitrii Donskoi, the treasures in the fabled warship is believed to be worth a staggering $133 billion. Shinil Group, a Seoul-based maritime salvage company, has been searching the location of the wreckage for a long time and gathered experts from China, Britain, Canada, and South Korea for their efforts this year.

Proof Of The Found Shipwreck

A video footage which was released by the company shows many images of extensive damage to the 5,800-tonne ship. Featured in the footage are deck guns, cannons, anchor, and ship wheel which have been engulfed with marine growth.

The company's website stated that the body of the incredible ship was damaged by shelling, and its stern is almost broken. However, the deck and sides are still wondrously preserved.

The divers positively identified the ship when one of its floodlights shone upon the name written in Cyrillic characters on the stern.

In an interview with Reuters, company spokesman Park Sung-jin said that they believe that the gold boxes are historically proven. He also added that it was firmly lashed, which indicates the precious gold inside.

About The Ship

The ship was built in August 1883 in St. Petersburg. It was meant to serve as a commerce raider and was fitted with a full set of sails and a coal-fired engine. Most of the operational career of the ship was spent in the Far East and the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, it sailed from the Baltic to join Imperial Russia's Second Pacific Troops following the demolishment of the Japanese ships to most of Russia's naval power during the start of the Russo-Japanese War combats.

However, when it was met by Japanese ships in 1905 during the Battle of Tsushima, it was destroyed. Although the ship escaped the attack, it was intercepted as its captain went for the Vladivostok Russian port.

Around 60 of the 591 crew were killed, and 120 were injured before its captain anchored off in Ulleungdo and tasked his men to go seek shelter from the shore.

According to reports, the ship was carrying the funds that would be used to pay for fuel, port fees, and crew of the Russian fleet.

The announcement of the maritime salvage company was opposed by the government-run Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, which told the media that the famous shipwreck was discovered in 2003.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018World-famous coffee chain Starbucks is set to open a new store where all staff will be able to communicate with its customers using sign language.

Starbuck's first deaf-friendly store in the country will hire around 20 people who are proficient in American Sign Language, or ASL. According to Starbucks, this move would give more employment opportunities for the deaf and people who have other hearing disabilities. This is part of the store's undying commitment to be inclusive, accessible, and diverse.

The newest store of its kind will be situated in Gallaudet University in Washington, DC, the only university in the world which is designed for hard-of-hearing and deaf students. Many businesses in the area are trying their best to work with the deaf community by offering deaf-friendly services.

Promoting Inclusivity And Accessibility

Tons of people were delighted by Starbucks' new venture. Chief executive of the National Association for the Deaf in the United States, Howard A Rosenblum, said that the coffee shop has made an innovative approach to incorporating the deaf culture, which will increase not only employment opportunities, but also the accessibility for the hard-of-hearing and deaf people.

The British Deaf Association also commended Starbucks and it hopes that other businesses would also be inspired with the move. The organization added that in UK, there is still so much to do for the British and Irish sign-language users who are not given equality of access with people who can hear across many sectors.

The store also sparked social media interest. Marlee Matlin, Deaf Oscar-winning actress, even tweeted that she could not wait to order her hot chai latte in sign. Deaf actress and co-creator of deaf-led TV series, This Close, Shoshannah Stern, also expressed her enthusiasm on Twitter.

The company was also met with challenges. Many people questioned why some stores do not have a sign-language training program for its staff, and urged them to also do something for those with physical disabilities.

Deaf-friendly Business Ventures

However, this is not the coffee chain's first store where the employees are users of the sign language. The store already has a deaf-friendly store in Malaysia.

Furthermore, other stores also do the same thing. As a matter of fact, all the staff of Mozzeria, a U.S. pizza restaurant, know sign language. Many menu items in Mozzeria include sign-language images to aid people communicate, and Starbucks will be also be offering its customers alternative options to communicate when they are ordering their favorite coffee.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018Interested in hibernating in one of the most beautiful places in the world? Travelers can do that by renting a unique cave on Airbnb.

Tourists are rushing to pack their bags and book a flight to Greece to stay in a majestic lava cave suite. The place looks like something out of a romantic movie and will make its guests want to stay in their room forever.

With the astounding vibrant white buildings and deep blue sea as the backdrop for this place, guests are assured that their Airbnb experience is elevated to the highest level. Although they will not be expecting the same dark lighting just like in a regular cave, this one is still worthy to be checked out. Its lighting compliments the mood that it sets, and offers a luxurious private view of the Aegean Sea.

The structure is the result of a local volcano's lava. It was renovated in 1987 as a sailor's domicile. Because of its distinct qualities and features, there is nothing quite like it anywhere else in the world.

Offered Amenities

The place located in the cliffside town of Santorini includes a lavish, fully-furnished room complete with heating and air conditioning, private bathroom packed with shower amenities, a king-sized bed, a kitchenette with a coffee maker, dinnerware, stovetop, microwave, mini fridge, and full use of its indoor-outdoor Jacuzzi, which will surely make any guest feel like royalty. The room even has Wi-Fi for its guests so they can post their photos on Instagram.

Its owners, brothers George and Stavros have always adored the island's beauty over the years and have become so attached to it. This drove them to restore the property from scratch, while still making sure to preserve its soul.

Accessibility Of The Rental

Its location is close to many amazing sights on the island, including the Naval Museum of Oia, Cape Columbo beach, Skaros, Megaro Gyzi, Archaeological Museum of Thera, Museum of Prehistoric Thera, Art Space Santorini, and many more.

Staying in this one of a kind rental will make guests enjoy their privacy in the most remarkable way, while still having access to the main road that is packed with all sorts of restaurants and bars such as The 1800 and Ammoudi Tavern.

Although guests have to spend $441 a night, it guarantees an incredible stay. For those who are not sure about booking the place, fret no more, because its 9.4 rating on Booking.com speaks for itself.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018The old New Lenox depot was in position, ready to be moved five miles north to Konow's farm, but that has been postponed until Aug. 15, and the station has been placed back on pallets. The 118-year-old station had to be relocated to make room for the new CVS Pharmacy, right. (Susan DeMar Lafferty / Daily Southtown)Treehugger and our third-party partners use cookies and process personal data like unique identifiers based on your consent to store and/or access information on a device, display personalized ads and for content measurement, audience insight, and product development. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Treehugger.com, including your right to object where legitimate interest is used, click below. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. List of Partners (vendors)Who would have imagined that this would happen so fast?

Years ago, Bill Gates looked at the computer revolution and noted that, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon. Today it would be a flying car running on sunshine that costs a dime.

But in many ways, the LED revolution has been just as breathtaking. I couldnt help but smile when I read about a recent deal from a certain omnipresent online company, offering a dozen 800 lumen Philips LED bulbs for twenty-two bucks.

This is truly extraordinary, a transformation that we have watched in in real time on TreeHugger. The first LED bulb we showed on TreeHugger in 2007 punched out 594 lumens and cost $70. The post got 174 comments.

A Bulb from the Future! It Looks Like it Belongs on a Spaceship!

Then TreeHugger emeritus Mike spent a few years reviewing every new bulb; I loved his review of the Philips AmbientLED 12.5-watt A19 LED lightbulb: A Bulb from the Future! It Looks Like it Belongs on a Spaceship! Exciting times. It looked weird, cost $40, and was rated for 25,000 hours. The two-buck Philips bulbs selling today are rated for ten years, give the same 800 lumens running at 8.5 watts.

About the same time, Mike reviewed GE bulbs with big radiator fins that cost $50 and drew 9 watts to pump out 450 lumens.

Since then, the bulbs have been getting consistently better and cheaper. But energy efficient bulbs were still controversial; even certain real estate developers had opinions.

Now the Department of Energy has been considering rolling back legislation that would demand minimum 45 lumens per watt by 2020 that was in George Bushs 2007 light bulb law, but its moot, the market has done it already and not even Fox Republicans are buying incandescent bulbs to own the Libs anymore. This particular revolution is over and the LEDs won, and will continue to even as Trump puts tariffs on Chinese LEDs.

Whats next?

1. Better CRI (Colour Rendering Index)

 Cree bulb

Most LED bulbs are phosphoric -- they work like fluorescents, where an ultra-violet LED excites the whitish phosphor to fluoresce. The output of cheap bulbs is spiky, unlike incandescent bulbs which are smooth. The goal is to make LED output as even as incandescent. Cree has been working on this and revamped their entire line; Al Safarikas of Cree explained why CRI is important:

I mean a higher CRI. I mean a better adherence to keeping the light on the Planckian black body line. What you see with a lot of inexpensive LED bulbs is that they seem weird, the light seems a little alien, you say that doesnt look right and what it really means is that it is off the Planckian black body line. If you want to build a bulb of higher quality you want to make sure it stays on the black body line. You want to make sure that the color rendering is very good. Non-technical people simply look at it and say things look better. I see better. I perceive better. Older technologies and cheap LEDs will often stray from that.

2. Phosphoric bulbs will give way to full RGB

CC BY 2.0. George Nelson Bubble Lamp with Hue LED bulbs/ Lloyd Alter

George Nelson Bubble Lamp with Hue LED bulbs/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Most of the lighting companies are making RGB bulbs now, where instead of phosphors, there are red, green and blue LEDs that you can mix to your taste, adjusting your colour temperature like your room temperature or changing the colours completely to whatever you want. They will all talk to you, your phone, Alexa, Siri or your Roomba.

3. Goodbye, Edison Base

Ikea transformer/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Its crazy that we have new LED bulbs screwing into a 110 year old base designed to carry 300 watts at 120 volts, for bulbs that run on low voltage direct current at 10 watts. Computers change their sockets every couple of years; its time for bulbs to run on USB style sockets and for the power supply to be separated from the bulb, as it is on notebook computers. Ikea does this now with some portable lamps; there is a little transformer that plugs into the outlet, with its own little 2-pin socket going to low voltage wiring that feeds the fixture.

4. Goodbye, base. Who needs you anymore?

 IKEA/ VIKT wall lamp

Bulbs now last as long as fixtures, and soon will be integrated right into them, like this ugly IKEA fixture. This has already started, there are many fixtures available now where the bulbs are wired in and are never changed, but more and more will be like this. A few years ago I noted that "we are in a weird, in between time when the designers and manufacturers have not caught up with the technology, and one has far more options mixing the LEDs with the Edison bases with existing fixture designs." We are still there.

5. Goodbye, bulbs. You are part of the building now.

 LED carpeting

You can get LED encrusted wallpaper now; soon LEDs will be a standard part of the building fabric, built right into the walls. As OLEDs become more common we may have glowing ceilings and walls and no fixtures at all.

Thats the future, but the present is pretty exciting, when LED bulbs are as cheap as incandescents used to be.While officers searched, family members noticed the boys clothing on the ground near one of the pools at the center, which is a few blocks from his home. An officer scaled the security fence, pulled the boy from the water and began performing CPR, but Drayton was later pronounced dead at Franciscan Health Olympia Fields in Olympia Fields, according to police.rchopra@tribunemail.com

New York, July 25

Four people of Indian origin, including three women, have been named by Fortune among 40 of the most influential and inspiring young people in business under the age of 40.

Instagram Cofounder and CEO Kevin Systrom and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, both 34, are tied for first place on the Fortune 40 Under 40 list.

Chief Finance Officer of the US largest automaker, General Motors Dhivya Suryadevara, comes in at the fourth spot, followed by Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud (14), Cofounder and Co-CEO of Robinhood Baiju Bhatt (24) and Female Founders Fund founding partner Anu Duggal (32).

For the first time ever, Fortune also assembled a supplementary honour roll of the most impressive, young superstars who are transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology.

The Ledger 40 Under 40 supplementary honour roll list shines a light on the pioneers building some of the worlds fastest-growing businesses.

This list includes Senior Vice President of Product at real-time currency exchange and remittance network Ripple, 39-year old Asheesh Birla, digital currency wallet and platform Coinbases chief technology officer Balaji Srinivasan, Director of MIT Digital Currency Initiative Neha Narula and Coinbases vice president of operations Tina Bhatnagar.

Fortune said Suryadevara, 39, made history when it was announced she would become GMs first female CFO later this year, making the auto giant one of only two Fortune 500 companies led by a female CEO and CFO (the other is chocolate giant Hershey).

Sud, 34, joined video-sharing website Vimeo as head of marketing in 2014 and was last year named CEO, charged with focusing Vimeo as a cloud-based platform for video creation, distribution, and monetisation, targeting individuals and small- to medium-size businesses.

Bhatt, 33, cofounded financial services company Robinhood with Vlad Tenev in 2013 as an egalitarian challenge to oldguard brokerage houses. Five years later, it has shot to a valuation of $5.6 billion. This year, the company added Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the trading mix and now hope to build Robinhood into a full-blown digital bank, Fortune said.

Duggal, 39, launched Female Founders Fund in 2014 as a seed-stage venture fund to invest in female-led technology companies. She had initially raised five million dollars and by May of this year, she closed $27 million for her second early-stage fund, with a roster of limited partners, including philanthropist Melinda Gates, Fortune said. PTIharinder@tribunemail.com

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Farmers of Punjab will soon have an option to buy lightweight, fuel-efficient, sleek aluminum-bodied diesel engines for irrigation and other agricultural purposes as the government plans to set up a Rs 15-crore Common Facility Centre (CFC) for product development at Phagwara.

The Centre will cater to about 100 diesel engine manufacturing units who can sell the newly designed machine at 23% below the cost of traditional iron-cast bulky engine. This will reduce farmer input cost to the extent of Rs 5,000-Rs 6,000 per acre as the aluminum-based engine will consume 50% less diesel. Besides, it will be half in size and weight of the traditional models, therefore, potable and farmer-friendly, said DPS Kharbanda, Director, Industries and Commerce, Punjab.

This aluminum-based engine can compete with imported engines from China and Japan, he said. Farmers use diesel engines for pumping water, chopping fodder and threshing. The project has received an in-principle approval by the Centre, he said.

The industry has formulated a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Foundry and General Engineering Cluster Phagwara for the implementation of the CFC for 96 members. The CFC will produce aluminum die-casting for the members and also take job work of others. The CFC will be equipped with modern machinery, testing lab, R&D centre and requisite infrastructure as per the requirement of industries.

Currently, the Phagwara-based diesel engine cluster has an annual turnover of Rs 190 crore. Introduction of latest technology will double its sales in a couple of years, said Mukhinder Singh, secretary of the SPV.

Farmers will not only be able to save on diesel but also on the acquisition cost as the product will be at least 20% cheaper than the conventional engine, he said. A cast-iron diesel pump set of 5 HP costs Rs 13,000. The aluminum engine of the same power will cost around Rs 10,000, he said.

Out of the total project cost, the Centre will fund 90% of the cost while the rest will be contributed by the Punjab government. The working capital and other incurring expenses will be borne by the SPV that will include all cluster members, officials said.

The Department of Industries and Commerce has proposed 24 industrial clusters under the CFC scheme in the past one year. Out of the two dozen proposals, this case was taken up in the National Project Clearing Committee meeting on Wednesday along with another project pertaining to setting up of an oil expeller cluster in Ludhiana.

The oil expellers and manufacturing cluster of Ludhiana will benefit 179 units engaged in the production of oil expeller machines. The industry cluster has an annual turnover of Rs 250 crore. The oil expeller and parts manufacturing industry in Ludhiana contributes 83% of the total oil expeller machinery production in the country.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, July 25

The local police on Wednesday arrested the husband of the Morni gang rape victim under various Sections of the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. He was produced before a court, which remanded him in three-day police custody.

The husband has also been booked under Section 370 of the IPC for buying or disposing of any person as a slave.

Earlier, on July 18, the victim and her husband had claimed that the main accused, Sunny, lured her by offering her a job as a domestic help at his farmhouse. However, instead of taking her there, he took her to a guest house in Morni, where about 50 people allegedly raped her over four days. She escaped from the guest house in Morni on July 18. A special investigation team (SIT) was formed to look into the case which had arrested Sunny and some others in the case before nabbing the victims husband.

How the husband landed in police net

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) RK Meena, the husband had sent the victim for flesh trade to Sunny. He claimed that both the husband and the victim were in touch with each other on the phone during her alleged confinement at the guest house. Earlier, the couple had claimed that they were not in touch with each other during this period.

Not just this, the victims husband and the main accused, Sunny, were also in touch during this period. The husband has been facing similar two or three other cases. Beyond this, I cannot say anything, said the DCP.

He did not comment on whether the victim was an accomplice in the flesh trade racket.

The husband was rounded up on Tuesday night and later he was arrested.

The victim claimed on Wednesday that her husband was being framed. She said her husband was taken to the police station for identifying suspects, but was arrested instead. She has been asking for the probe to be transferred to the UT police.

In this case, for dereliction of duty, Assistant Commissioner of Police (women police station) Mamta Sauda and the Station House Officer (women police station), Inspector Rajesh Kumari, have been transferred, while ASI Saraswati, Morni police post in-charge, ASI Mange Ram and Ramgarh police post in-charge ASI Jagdish have been suspended.Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (Retd)

ALL over India there are efforts by many to hold events marking the Kargil Vijay Diwas today, the anniversary of the day when the undeclared war at the Kargil heights drew to a close in 1999. The Indian Army recaptured much of the territory occupied deceitfully by Pakistan during the winter vacatedperiod of 1998-99. As many as 527 of our jawans made the ultimate sacrifice and 1,363 were injured. The remaining territory was vacated by the Pakistan army under politico-diplomatic pressure from India and the international community. India needs to remain reassured that if our politico-diplomatic efforts had not borne fruit, our Army would have fought on and recaptured the occupied territory and more. This would have been even to the extent of launching a war and suffering more casualties; an unfortunate consequence of misreading intent and being lulled at the operational level by events at the national-strategic level.

As someone who had a grandstand view of events from the flank and was repeatedly tasked to analyse the potential of a second Kargil, I remain convinced that a Kargil-like situation may never again be experienced. Yet I am diffident about the Pakistan leaderships utter unpredictability and irrationality. It is not just our weapons, equipment, training or intelligence that will prevent a potential Kargil 2, but better public information, interest in matters related to the armed forces, knowledge on national security at every level and better aware operational and tactical level commanders, that will.

Most of the events organised today will remain bereft of explanation of what happened at Kargil and why. We are duty bound to tell the nation more about this. It is good to read Pakistani author Nasim Zehras recent book, From Kargil to Coup, to get a better idea of Pakistani psyche and how irrationally things work in that country.

Why did Musharraf decide to target Kargil? A Mohajir General picked from lower in the seniority list to be chief; a former SSG commando deluded by perception of Indian incapability and a man perceiving himself smarter than all, led his army to intrude across the LoC for early occupation of the Indian winter vacatedKargil heights. He hoped it would give advantage by interdicting the summer highway from Srinagar to Leh. This artery is the lifeline to Ladakh and opens in May each year; the alternative route from Manali is less viable. In the absence of a communication artery for the logistics stocking effort, Indian occupation of the Siachen glacier would become untenable, thus forcing withdrawal; at least, that is what Musharraf thought.

He had other linked intentions too. One of these was to bring J&K into limelight again and the other was to give an impetus to militancy in the Valley. He was convinced that the movement of reserve forces from the Valley (immediate flank) would open vast spaces for conduct of militant operations and infiltration; he wasnt wrong on this. In addition, concerns of the international community would run high as there was little clarity on doctrines and protocols in the nuclear-armed region. This would bring diplomatic intervention by the big powers and force India to the negotiating table to resolve J&K. From all indicators and recent literature, the political leadership of Pakistan remained in the dark up to a point after which it was misled into acquiescence. Nawaz Sharif, at best, gets the benefit of the doubt. Musharrafs attempted deception through projection of his army as just local mujahideen, out to expand the J&K conflict, also considered PM Vajpayees Lahore bus yatra as a contribution to the credibility of the deception plan. His assumption, like many Pakistani leaders before him, was that India lacked the will and courage to pursue robust operations to evict the intruders.

No one questions the valorous response of the Indian Army to a situation that surprised it. The question is how and why we were surprised. The lesson from Kargil is that at no time must we lose balance in our focus. Our concentration was on the big-ticket counter-terror operations to neutralise the dangerous situation in the hinterland of the Valley and the Jammu region, as also on Siachen, where we were strong, but even a toehold by the adversary on the Saltoro Ridge could be disastrous. So it was only Kargil where the existing gaps in deployment were unviable and, therefore, vulnerable, especially in winter when a large number of posts were vacated. Attempts to do serious wide-area reconnaissance by helicopter in winter were restricted many times due to constraint in flying hours. At the operational level, the Army can never allow itself to be lulled by actions being undertaken at the national strategic level (such as the peace efforts through the Lahore yatra). The operational stance must cater to manageability of the volume of intelligence inputs, resources for deployment and response and even the nature of terrain. The sheer expanse of 15 Corps which managed the deployment from Gulmarg to Demchok (east Ladakh), Siachen and the hinterland operations obviated focus on a comparatively low-priority sector such as Kargil, where the population was not anti-national and the nature of LoC apparently fitted into the perception of only frequent exchanges of fire.

In the light of an unstable state of polity in Pakistan, under the control of an army which seeks ways of retribution against India despite many efforts coming cropper, India needs to be wary. The Pakistan army has not learnt its lessons and is ever willing to risk employing innovative ways of attempting to wrest advantage. A nation in the habit of issuing daily nuclear threats and believing that it has achieved deterrence against us may lack intellectual capability to read the likely effects of its actions. Not its capability but its irrationality should continue to worry India.

Kargil Vijay Diwas is a good occasion to recall the grit, valour and supreme sacrifice which was on display during the Kargil war. However, it would also be in order to conduct an audit of what has changed for the better since then, and what continues to constrain the armed forces. The Kargil Review Committees recommendations along with the Group of Ministers report have many benchmark measures which yet need consideration almost 20 years down the line. Shying away from them would be tantamount to repeating the mistakes of Kargil 1999.

A former GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corpslaxmi@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has rescued 16 Nepali girls from a flat in the Munirka area in the capital from where they were on the verge of being trafficked to Gulf countries.

The commission yesterday received a tip off at 7 pm about the girls who were trafficked by agents from Nepal to India on the pretext of employment, but were confined in a small room for several days.

As per a statement by the DCW, its teams accompanied by DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, along with the police, reached the spot at 8 pm and rescued the girls.

During the rescue operation, girls were found to be confined in a room which was very small and unhygienic. Their passports had been stolen by the traffickers, said a DCW official.

The girls informed the DCW chief that they were from Sindhupalchok district of Nepal which was the worst affected district in the Nepal earthquake. They said they were brought to Delhi by agents in Nepal with the promise of jobs.

However, upon reaching Delhi their passports were snatched away from them by the traffickers. They were made to stay in the room for the past 20 to 22 days. The girls kept coming on different dates and they told us that in last 15 days seven girls have been sent outside to Iraq and Kuwait with one among the seven being pregnant, said the official.

An FIR has been registered at the Vijay Vihar Police Station and the girls have been sent to shelter home.

The traffickers had been running this racket at this location in South Delhi for the past eight months.

Maliwal appealed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to fix accountability of the Delhi Police and ensure that the top bosses running such trafficking rackets are identified and all those responsible are given strict punishment.

Place from where we rescued these girls is only 500 meters away from the police station. The question arises if the DCW gets to know about such rackets operating here just 500 metres away from the police station, why doesnt the police get to know. It is time the polices accountability is fixed, said Maliwal noting that trafficking in Delhi will continue to increase until accountability of police is not fixed.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

New York, July 25

An Indian-origin woman has pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully distributing controlled substances and healthcare fraud, US Attorney Scott Brady said.

Madhu Aggarwal, 68, of Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to the charges before United States District Judge Arthur Schwab.

Aggarwal, a physician who practiced at a clinic in Pennsylvania, and others conspired together to create and submit unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances such as buprenorphine and then unlawfully dispensed those substances to other persons.

Aggarwal is also charged with healthcare fraud for allegedly causing fraudulent claims to be submitted to federal insurance programme Medicare for payments to cover the costs of the unlawfully prescribed buprenorphine.

Schwab scheduled the sentencing for November, when she will face a sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of US$ 500,000 for the controlled substances offenses.

Aggarwal faces an additional maximum imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of US$ 250,000 for the healthcare fraud charge. PTIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

How did the worm turn in the Congress over a mere three days? The latest news from the Congress camp is about Rahul Gandhis diffidence to claim the PMs spot in a unified lineup against the BJP. For, at last weeks confabulations of the overhauled Congress Working Committee (CWC), the impression was of it having endorsed Rahul Gandhi as the prime-ministerial candidate. Backtracking began immediately when the blowback of such a declaration was assessed. The process gathered momentum after PM Modis broadside during the no-confidence motion; no name was taken but the PM left no doubt about the target for his fusillade when he termed the kind of mannerisms and behaviour we are seeing stems from arrogance. What will happen to the aspirations of your other partners?

The prospective partners were not amused. Left with little choice but to hitch its fate to the Congress wagon, the SP and BSP held their counsel. The SP opted to express muted disquiet by pointing out that floating the trial balloon of Rahul as the PM candidate was jumping the gun on an alliance that has not yet been firmed up. Amidst this fog, the Congress has now indicated that the field is still open and is contingent on how the dice falls and who gets the numbers. The latest calculation seems to be to rule no one out from the race for the top slot in order to gather as large a flock as possible for a unified fight against the BJP.

Though the latest signals from the Congress camp amount to jettisoning the sentiments at the CWC, they serves the larger purpose of stalling the BJP from sowing dissension in the Opposition ranks. As the no-confidence motion showed, at least 20 per cent of the non-BJP Opposition showed little inclination of siding with the grand alliance in the making. Clearly a lot of midnight oil needs to be burnt before the Opposition begins to feel comfortable in Congress company. Recusation is a good opening reassurance, given the Congress past history of pulling the rug from under the Oppositions feet.editorial@tribune.com

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Nearly 26-year-old wait of over 50,000 residents of four Faridabad colonies for civic amenities is set to end with the state government coming to their rescue and declaring the land acquisition-free.

Following Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattars approval to a proposal moved by the Haryana Shehari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) to declare the area acquisition-free, the residents of Trikha Colony, Bhatia Colony, Raghubir Colony and Shiv Colony can hope for development in their areas.

In 1987, the Haryana Government had issued a notice under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for the acquisition of land in Sihi and Uchagaon villages for the development of Sectors 2 and 3. However, the notice was later withdrawn.

Again in 1992, a notice under Section 4 was issued by the Haryana Government for acquisition of land. However, between 1987 and 1992, a lot of construction had taken place on the land following selling of land by farmers to the general public.

Since the land was legally and technically already under acquisition, the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) could not provide civic amenities to the residents. Meanwhile, BJP leader Hukam Singh Bhatti and others moved the court pleading for development of basic infrastructure in the four colonies spread over three wards of the MCF.

Several BJP leaders, including Union Minister of State Krishan Pal Gurjar and Industry Minister Vipul Goel, then approached Khattar for relief to the residents of the colonies. In fact, the residents had been agitating for several years demanding provision of basic amenities, including water supply, drainage system and streetlights.

Now, Khattars approval to the HSVPs proposal to declared the land in four colonies acquisition-free has removed the legal lacuna paving the way for the provision of basic amenities by the MCF to the residents.

50,000 to benefit

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattars approval to the HSVPs proposal to declared the land in four colonies in Faridabad acquisition-free has removed the legal lacuna paving the way for the provision of basic amenities by the Municipal Corporation to the residents. Over 50,000 residents are set to benefit by the decision of the Haryana Government.The administration has made a commitment to try to bring back as many workers as possible, and to keep us informed regarding those efforts, he said. We were told that the mayor, first of all, has to meet with his department heads. And he said that he would be able to get back with us within the next week or two.editorial@tribune.com

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 25

Smuggling and consumption of chitta is on the rise in the hill state, with drug peddlers are procuring it from Delhi and parts of Punjab.

Investigations into different cases revealed that drug peddlers from the state are procuring chitta from Delhi, mainly from Nigerians, and parts of Punjab, said Shimla SP Omapati Jamwal.

He added that Delhi was the hub of chitta, from where it was supplied to various parts of the country, including Punjab. Mostly, Nigerians are involved in illegal drug trade.

The consumption of chitta, a semi-synthetic intoxicant, has increased and the policemen are targeting consumers and peddlers. As a result, there is an increase in number of cases registered. The total number of cases involving use or smuggling of chitta registered by the police increased from five last year to 24 during the first six months of 2018 in Shimla district, Jamwal added.

The intoxicant, which is 40 per cent cheaper as compared to heroin, is highly addictive. Local drug peddlers are involving themselves in chitta smuggling as the profit margin is more, sources in the Police Department said.

The Shimla police had arrested a Nigerian, Kra Basile, from Delhi for alleged involvement in peddling drugs to Shimla, nearly two weeks back and recovered 25.46 gm of chitta from his possession. An FIR was registered against him under Sections 21-29 of the NDPS Act at the Dhalli police station.

The accused was involved in the supply of chitta to several parts of the district for some time and his name had appeared during the questioning of some local youths allegedly arrested with chitta.

During investigations, the accused reportedly revealed that he was part of the supply chain and the main dealer was not known to him. The demand for drugs was conveyed to him and time and place for transaction were fixed. Mobile phones were not used for the deals. The focus of police investigations is on the kingpin.

What is chitta

Chitta (diacetylmorphine) is a semi-synthetic opioid, mainly derived from heroin. It is very addictive and the consumption increases with the passage of time. Drug overdose can result in death.editorial@tribune.com

Dipender Manta

Tribune News Service

Mandi, July 25

Scenic Kullu district has turned a haven for foreign nationals involved in drug trade. Every year, the police launch campaigns to uproot cannabis plants, but things are back to square after a while.

The plantation continues in the high-altitude areas on forest land, where the police are unable to reach.

A large number of foreign nationals with drugs have been arrested in Kullu so far. The idea is to earn a quick buck here.

Data available with the district police reveals that since 2003, as many as 164 foreign nationals have been arrested with drugs.

Kullu district seems to be their favourite. Every year, lakhs of domestic and foreign tourists visit the place. So, it becomes difficult for the police to check each foreign tourist and identify those peddling drugs.

Two days ago, the Kullu police arrested a Nigerian national, Charles David, and seized 15-gm heroin and 0.2 gm of methamphetamine, also known as crank drug, from his possession. The accused had been into the illicit trade for long here. He flourished the business with the help of local drug peddlers.

Similarly in 2008, the police had arrested British national James Albert (56) with 2-kg charas. He was in a cab when a police party at Goj village stopped him for checking.

In 2016, an Italian national, Antonio Rossini, was arrested for possessing 109-gm charas, 10-gm opium, and 16 LSD.

Last year in February, the police arrested Visvamber Isiah Streisand of California and recovered 126-kg ganja, 9-litres hashish oil and 1,296-gm solid hashish oil from his rented apartment in the Naggar area in Manali subdivision.

According to Superintendent of Police Shalini Agnihotri, this year, four foreign national were arrested. Three possessed charas and one heroin. They were from the UK, Switzerland, Kuwait and Nigeria. The SP said: The police with the help of locals is keeping a tab on drug peddlers. We put up nakas at various places to check suspicious persons and patrolling too has been intensified.

She said the accused were arrested with charas, opium, cocaine, brown sugar and LSD papers. They were from Italy, UK, France, Israel, Uganda and other countries.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 25

A 32-year-old mentally-challenged woman, who was under treatment at the Himachal hospital of mental health and rehabilitation at Boileauganj, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 22-year-old youth who was also under treatment in the same hospital.

The incident came to notice yesterday evening when a woman employee engaged for cleaning the premises found the two in the toilet in a compromising position and informed the authorities.

The hospital authorities maintained that they were found in a compromising position but were not sure that whether it was a sexual assault or not. An internal probe has been started to ascertain the facts as reported by the hospital staff.

A case has been registered in Boileauganj police station on the complaint of Dr Puneet under Section 376 of IPC and the woman has been sent for medical examination. No arrest has been made so far and medical report is awaited as both the accused and the victim, hailing from West Bengal, are mentally challenged and under treatment, police sources said.editorial@tribune.com

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, July 25

With the strike initiated six days ago by the All-India Motor Transport Congress continuing, major multinational companies (MNCs) like Colgate-Palmolive, Wipro, Proctor&Gamble and Mondelez have shut their manufacturing operations in the Baddi industrial areas.

With no raw material having been received for the last six days, a majority of the industrial units had exhausted their inventory. Most of the small scale industries had either scaled down their manufacturing operations by as much as 40 per cent or were heading for a shutdown.

Sanjay Khurana, senior vice president, Baddi Barotiwala Nalagarh (BBN) Industries Association, manufacturing aluminum foils for pharmaceutical units, said his raw material inventory would be exhausted on Wednesday and no manufacturing can take place without raw material. Even the last lot of raw material dispatched on July 19 had not been received, rued Khurana.

He informed that major companies like DP Cholcolates, Mondelez, Colgate-Palmolive, Wipro, Proctor and Gamble and pharmaceutical unit United Biotech had informed the association that they had shut their manufacturing activities following non-availability of raw materials. The labour sitting idle will have to be paid the wages despite incurring losses.

A senior official of a major pharmaceutical unit, which has five plants in the BBN area, said manufacturing activities had been reduced to 40 per cent and it will be further curtailed by 10 per cent on a daily basis if the strike did not end. Since the local transport unions did not allow transportation of goods from the local godowns, they had run short of raw materials. Attempt to secure raw materials from other states by plying vehicles at night have been resisted by the local transport unions who had levied Rs 11,000 per vehicle at the entry of the industrial area.

An official of the TVS Motor Company, which had shut its plant on Tuesday, informed that a stock of 10,000 bikes was awaiting dispatch and since there was neither the raw material nor the space to stock the bikes, the plant has been closed. He said that they followed the just in time system whereby raw material owing to their bulky nature are procured on an hourly basis and about 2,000 bikes are dispatched on a daily basis. Since the local transportation of raw material from the ancillary units was also not being permitted by the transport unions, they had shut the plant till the impasse was over.

The BBN area which houses 89 per cent of the states industry was facing daily loss of Rs 500 crore owing to this strike. The BBN Industries Association on Wednesday wrote to the Chief Minister requesting him to take up the issue with the union government for an early solution.

Rs 500-cr loss every day

The BBN area, which houses 89 per cent of the states industry, is facing losses to the tune of of Rs 500 crore every day. The BBN Industries Association on Wednesday wrote to the Chief Minister, requesting him to take up the issue with the Union Government for an early solution.editorial@tribune.com

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 25

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have sought US assistance for the collection of cyber evidence in the case of assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and requested New Delhi to invoke the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).

It is for the first time that the state police have processed such a request as they aim to go for scientific collection of evidence. The police sought the assistance of the US government in collecting evidence from social media sites which operate under the US jurisdiction.

The state police wrote to the state Home Department in this regard which has forwarded the request to the Central government, a senior police official said. The Centre will now evaluate the request and decide if it will invoke the treaty and seek the assistance of the US government.

Kashmir Inspector General of Police (IGP)Swayam Prakash Pani confirmed to The Tribune that MLAT request had been initiated. We need investigative support for cyber evidence, the IGP said.

The treaty was signed in October 2005 and enables the two countries to provide each other assistance in connection with the investigation, prosecution, prevention and suppression of crime, including those relating to terrorism. The assistance under the treaty includes taking the testimony or statements of persons, providing documents, records and items of evidence, among other clauses.

Bukhari, editor and owner of a local English daily Rising Kashmir, was shot multiple times and killed outside his Srinagar office on June 14. His killing was widely condemned.

The police investigation had found that three militants of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, including a Pakistani national Naveed Jatt, were involved in the assassination. The police had also found the involvement of a Kashmiri militant based in Pakistan who had wrote a smearing blog against Bukhari.

A government official said the MLAT request in Bukharis case is the progressive state of the investigation. The police are proceeding in a very scientific manner. They have approached the Interpol and now trying to collect cyber evidence to make the investigation foolproof, the official said.

Looking for cyber proofeditorial@tribune.com

Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 25

Noted earth scientist Prof Talat Ahmad has been appointed as the new Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Kashmir (KU), official sources confirmed on Wednesday.

Officials said a formal order is likely to be issued in this regard soon. A senior official from the university said Professor Ahmad had been appointed as the VC among the three shortlisted candidates whose presentations were held earlier this month.

Professor Ahmad has served as the VC of the university earlier also from 2012 to 2014. Prior to his appointment as the VC again, he was teaching geology at the University of Delhi.

At KU, Professor Ahmad was given a three-year extension six months ahead of the completion of his first term but was soon appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia on May 15, 2014, for a term of five years which was scheduled to end next year.

Professor Ahmad is a reputed Indian Earth scientist and professor at the Department of Geology, University of Delhi. The search for KU VC began in October 2017 when the three-year tenure of incumbent Vice Chancellor Khurshid Iqbal Andrabi ended.

The Kashmir university search committee was constituted by Governor NN Vohra, who was given the task of finding the new VC.

The committee had shortlisted eight candidates for the post, and among them, three candidates were chosen to make the final selection.

A total of 65 candidates had applied for the post initially. The post was advertised twice and the age bar was also increased in the second advertisement from 62 to 65 years. A total of 102 candidates had applied for the post which included both locals and non-locals.

The university students have welcomed the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 25

Prof Manoj K Dhar, a distinguished plant scientist and academician, on Wednesday took over as the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Jammu (JU).

The formal order for his appointment was issued by Meenakshi Kilam, Registrar of the university. Prof Dhar took the charge from Prof RD Sharma, the outgoing VC.

The new VC sought the cooperation and support of all stakeholders for taking the University of Jammu to the higher level of excellence.

The university fraternity welcomed Prof Dhar and acknowledged the distinguished services rendered by Prof RD Sharma.

In his address, Prof Sharma thanked the university for the support and cooperation extended to him during his tenure as the VC. He also hoped that the university would continue to work with zeal and enthusiasm.

Born on November 17, 1964, Prof Dhar started his career as a lecturer in the department of botany, University of Jammu. He has held several major academic and administrative positions at the university, including Director at the school of biotechnology, Controller of Examinations, Registrar, and the adviserto the Vice Chancellor.

An academician of international repute, Prof Dhar has around 25 years of professional experience asan educationist, researcher and administrator.

An MSc, MPhil and PhD in botany from the University of Jammu, Prof Dhar specialises in plant molecular biology genomics.

Prof Dhar, till now a professor at the school of biotechnology, University of Jammu, was elected fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, in 2017.

He was elected fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2016. Besides, he has made notable contributions in the area of rare human genetic disorders in some population groups of Jammu and Kashmir.shalender@tribune.com

Nonika Singh

Like the eternal notes of classical music, some people wedded to the tradition are timeless. One such great human being is flute wizard Hariprasad Chaurasia. Ebullient as ever at 80, the Padma Vibhushan awardee has neither lost his energetic verve nor passion for music.

Ready to answer all kinds of queries, frivolous ones too, nothing irks the maestro, in Chandigarh at the invitation of Durga Das Foundation. Music for him is music. As he runs Vrinadaban gurukuls in Mumbai and Bhubaneswar, all he tells the disciples is  develop an ear for saat sur, the source of which can emanate from any corner of the world. Indeed, the man who himself stands as a bridge between east and the west, and has been the artistic director of the World Music Department at the Rotterdam Music Conservatory in the Netherlands, does not look down upon any kind of music. Why he has even played on the song The Inner Light that was featured in The Beatles single Lady Madonna.

Musical sensibility

Besides, melody may have transformed into malady in Bollywood, which by the way, he feels has infected the world. He may lament; where is the music of Anarkali, Baiju Bawra or Mughal-e-Azam. Yet he will not pass any disparaging remarks against todays breed of music directors of filmdom. Sure, he, who along with santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma gave us lilting notes in films such as Lamhe, Silsila, Chandni and Darr, is not averse to composing once again for films, provided makers have a musical sensibility.

But then Pandit Chaurasias world is far removed from the artifice of films; divine notes, divine instrument and the divine presence of Lord Krishna he feels all around him. I play for Lord Krishna, and can sense him between the audience and me. My ultimate aim is to please him; its my pooja and archana. Interestingly, all his inspiration too comes from marveling and reflecting. What was Lord Krishnas mastery, how and what did he play that he could mesmerise everyone!

Classical thought

Associated with classical music for decades, he doesnt think the world has changed. Appreciation for classical music, he insists has only grown not just in India but the world over, Were it not so, 75,000 people would not listen in rapt attention in Dacca at 5 am. In Rotterdam, he has converted quite a few into the classical fold. Closer home, he is not worried about numbers but is wistful and wishes for more efforts from the government. On SPICMACAYs endeavour to promote classical music, he is all praise for its chairperson Kiran Seth, he is totally committed but does insist the organisation could do with a greater fillip.

On those misrepresenting tradition, all he would say is, Blind will remain blind. Who can show them light? To impressionable minds, however, his entreaty remains, The more you delve into the expanse of classical music, the better it is. Having received the second highest civilian honour of the country, only Bharat Ratna eludes him, he laughs and quips, You should never get it all. But to give it all remains his mantra. Any wonder, in his hands a simple instrument like the flute is elevated to another pedestal. Ethereal and spiritual so the melody continues.editorial@tribune.com

Our Sports Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 25

Arjun Singh Cheema, a student of Om Parkash Bansal Modern School, Mandi Gobindgarh, hogged limelight as he won medals in the 28th Shooting Hope Meet held at Plzen, Czech Republic, recently.

Arjun brought laurels for his school and the country, finishing among position holders in this competition. Proving his shooting skills, Arjun won a gold medal in the individual as well as the team event in the 50-metre free pistol event.

He also bagged a silver medal in the 40-metre air pistol event in both categories.

Sangeeta Sharma, Principal of the school, appreciated the outstanding achievement of Arjun. With the benchmarks he is setting, Arjun has been inspiring not only the students of our school, but also the upcoming shooting stars of the country at large, she said.

She urged upon students to emulate Arjun and win glory for their parents and the nation by excelling in sports.Col HP Singh (retd)

Col HP Singh (retd)

STANDING on an elevated platform some 10 feet above the ground level, I got a scenic view of the vast expanse of cultivated tract extending as far as the eye could see. Barring isolated human hutments, there werent many artificial structures in the area except for an unaesthetically constructed fence. The expanse on the other side of this manmade eyesore is called Pakistan. In front of us was the meandering Ravi, flowing peacefully yet defying the manmade boundaries sometimes crossing over to Pakistan and then returning to India.

The visibility was good and we could see the white dome of a gurdwara with a prominent Nishan Sahib to its right. Among the scores of sacred shrines left behind in 1947, Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, the final resting abode of Guru Nanak, also lay about 4 km inside the forbidden land. I always nurtured a dream to travel to the historic shrines of West Punjab, but having once adorned the olive green uniform getting a visa is next to impossible. Moreover, a Pakistan visa on the passport has the potential of a visa of Western countries being denied to you. This was perhaps the closest I could get to my dream.

A pair of binoculars provided by the BSF guard changed hands quickly between people on the platform, giving just enough time to focus, view and say a prayer. One of our co-visitors had the fortune of visiting this shrine via the Wagah border earlier. There is a mazar of Guru Nanak next to his samadhi where locals come regularly and offer their Fateha (first verse of the Quran). The locals regard him as a saint. The excitement in his tone was apparent. Muslim families of neighbouring villages provide monetary support for the gurdwara where more Muslims partake of langar than Sikhs. This was a fascinating revelation for us.

One could feel the despondency among the visitors for being so close, yet so far. Guru Nanak spent his entire life trying to get the two faiths together to live in harmony. Half a millennium later, destiny has not only insulated his simple teachings from the masses, but also has separated the final resting place of this great prophet from his disciples. Had Sir Radcliffe, who demarcated the boundaries between the two countries, made a minor error on the map by only a few centimetres, the shrine of Kartarpur Sahib would have been in India.

Some time ago, there were talks of providing a visa-free corridor through which pilgrims could visit the shrine and return by dusk. Unfortunately, fear of terrorism and drug trafficking has not allowed much progress. With prayers of thousands of devotees going to the cosmos every day, maybe one day the proposed passageway will come up as a corridor to peace in the region. That day, the Guru would once again become a teacher of the Hindus and guide of the Muslims  Guru Nanak Shah Fakir Hinduon ka guru, Mussalmanon ka pir, as goes the saying.Friday marks the 65th anniversary of the Korean War Armistice. To recognize the end of the hostilities and to honor those who served as well as those who supported the Americans and the Republic of (South) Korea, a wreath-laying ceremony is scheduled on Saturday at Chicagos Kennedy Park, home to the nations first Korean War Memorial, 11320 S. Western Ave.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Noting that the maximum number of incidents of communal violence were reported in 2017, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in a written reply informed the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday of a steady rise of 30 per cent in such incidents across the country since 2014.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir provided a table enumerating the year-wise number of incidents of communal violence. According to it, while in 2014 the country witnessed 644 such incidents, in 2017 the number rose to 822.

In 2015, the number of such incidents stood at 751, whereas in 2016, 703 such incidents were recorded. In his reply, the minister said as many as 111 persons were killed across the country in such incidents last year.

He also told the Rajya Sabha that 86 persons were killed in incidents of communal violence in 2016.

The responsibility of maintaining law and order, peace and communal harmony, and action against culprits rests primarily with the state governments and UT administrations, the minister said.

In order to maintain communal harmony, the Centre assists state governments in a variety of ways like sharing of intelligence, sending alerts and advisories on important developments, he added.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, July 25

The security forces gunned down two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in Anantnag on Wednesday in the first gunfight in the town in 14 years.

The slain militants were identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar (alias Binyamin Dar) of Khodweni in Kulgam district and Abid Hussain Bhat of Suzan village in Doda district of the Jammu region.

Dar had been among militant ranks for a year now, while Bhat joined the outfit on July 1. Bhat is considered to be the first youth from Doda district to have joined militancy in recent memory.

The gunfight started in the wee hours in Mehman Mohalla locality of Lal Chowk  the busiest business hub of Anantnag town.

The area was cordoned off and searches were conducted for several hours. They were holed up in a house, police sources said. The contact with militants was established at 4.30 am.

The militants were neutralised after about six hours. People were not allowed to venture out of their houses, but that could not prevent clashes in which a policeman was injured.

The body of the local militant was handed over to his family at Khodweni. Several rounds of funeral prayers were held and some militants also offered a gun salute.

First in town after 14 yrsuttara@tribuneindia.com

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Keeping in view the scheduled unveiling of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) on July 30, the Centre on Wednesday issued a security advisory for Assam and its neighbouring states asking them to ensure maintenance of law and order in the run up to and post-publication of the document.

In the advisory note, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the MHA has said: The Assam Government has been advised to set up a state-level coordination committee under the chairmanship of chief secretary to ensure coordination among state agencies, NRC authorities and central agencies. The state government has also been advised to set up round-the-clock control rooms both in the state capital and district headquarters to receive complaints and coordinate prompt response, it added.

The Registrar General of India (RGI) has also been asked to use all means of communication including websites, toll-free numbers, SMS, etc. to provide information to public about the Draft NRC, the MHA informed the state administration.

An intensive public awareness campaign has been launched to disseminate information regarding the NRC process, options available for individuals, whose names do not figure in the Draft NRC, the procedure and timeline for filing claims and objections, etc. so as to address the concerns of people left out of the list, a senior MHA official said.

Earlier, Union Home Minister in a statement has also assured that every individual will get justice and will be treated in a humane manner, the official said, adding that everyone will have sufficient opportunity for the remedies available under the law.

In the advisory the MHA has also directed the Assam government that no action should be initiated by the administration or the police based on the Draft NRC. There is no question of referring the persons, whose names do not figure in the Draft NRC to the Foreigners Tribunal as people are entitled to file claims and objections and due opportunity has to be given to them before final publication, it said.

The advisory further noted that the question of referring any person to a detention centre based on NRC exercise also does not arise and so the state government is advised to issue clear instructions in this regard to all administrative and police functionaries.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Citing the alleged mass rape of a 22-year-old woman from Chandigarh in Morni, Congress leader from Haryana Kumari Selja on Wednesday expressed concerns about safety of women across the country and implementation of laws governing it.

Selja, who also cited a recent report ranking India as the worlds most dangerous country for women, said in the Rajya Sabha that incidents like Morni raised the question of not just the laws meant for women safety but also their implementation.

Its not the question of one state but the situation is prevalent in the entire country, Selja said. She was joined by Jaya Bachchan of the SP on the issue.

Citing the recent assault on a Muslim boy in Ghaziabad to press her point, she termed such incidents a major embarrassment for the country. Parents of the perpetrators should also be shamed, she said.

A Muslim youth was assaulted on the premises of a court in Ghaziabad, allegedly by members of a right-wing Hindu organisation.

The environment is creating fear psychosis in the country, Selja said.

Meanwhile, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said what is required is not a new Bill but administrative will for the implementation of exiting laws.amansharma@tribunemail.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Nair Service Society (NSS) - which represents the Nair community in Kerala - on Wednesday contested the Supreme Court's observation that the restriction on entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 years into Sabarimala temple was due to patriarchy and most women were conditioned to obey it.

Appearing for NSS, senior counsel K Parasaran rejected the allegation that the restriction on entry of women between the age of 10 and 20 was misogynistic.

"Women in Kerala are socially advanced, owing to their education, and most of them are not opposed to the practices followed in Sabarimala Hindus in Kerala followed matrilineal practices, and hence it was baseless to contend that they are subjugated. Therefore, the issue should not be approached through notions of patriarchy or misogyny," Parasaran told a five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

The bench, also comprising justices RF Nariman, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, is seized of PILs against the age-old tradition of keeping women of menstruating age (10-50 years) out of the famous Sabarimala Ayyappa temple-one of the holiest Hindu shrines-situated on a hilltop in Kerala. The tradition is rooted in the belief that the deity is an eternal celibate (Naisthika Brahmachari). The petitioners have challenged Rule 3(b) of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorization of Entry) Rules, 1965, which restricts entry women between the age of 10 and 50 into the shrine.

Parasaran was responding to the comments made by Justice Chandrachud on Tuesday women accepted the practice due to their patriarchal conditioning.

Parasaran cautioned the bench, saying, "A right question will lead to the right answer while a wrong question will lead to a wrong answer."

He sought to emphasise that the basis of the restriction on entry of women between the age of 10 and 50 years into Sabarimala temple was not patriarchy or misogyny but the very nature of the deity who was an eternal celibate and its nature can't be changed by courts.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

Parliament on Wednesday passed the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill 2018, which seeks to deter big ticket economic offenders like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi from evading the process of law by fleeing the country.

The Bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha with a voice vote. The Lok Sabha had cleared the measure on July 19.

During the debate, the Opposition parties said the step was too little and too late and pointed out that the Bill was being brought in with an eye on the General Election next year. They also criticised the government for not taking action and letting the likes of Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and Vijay Mallya flee the country.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said without a law, it is not possible to stop those indulging in economic offences from leaving the country as there would be allegations of political targeting.

Goyal said the Bill sought to confiscate properties of the absconding economic offender and the threshold for this law to kick in had been fixed at Rs 100 crore so that the special courts being set up did not get clogged.

Goyal said the government could not allow a situation where the properties of an absconding economic offender could not be attached.

Congress MP Vivek Tankha said that there are already many laws under which confiscation of property of offenders takes place, including the PMLA. He also questioned that if the properties and assets are being confiscated, why will the economic offender come back to India.

He also said that if any of the big names of economic offenders being mentioned ever come back to the country, he will congratulate the Finance Minister.

The objective of the Bill is to re-establish the rule of law with respect to the fugitive economic offenders as they would be forced to return to India to face trial for scheduled offences. As per the Bill, this would also help the banks and other financial institutions achieve higher recovery from financial defaults committed by such fugitive economic offenders.

Most of the cases of economic offences involve non-repayment of bank loans, which worsens the financial health of the banking sector in India. The existing civil and criminal provisions in law are not entirely adequate to deal with the severity of the problem. It is, therefore, felt necessary to provide an effective, expeditious and constitutionally permissible deterrent to ensure that such actions are curbed, as per the Bill.

System so helpless?

What is agitating the common man is whether the system is so helpless. People want to know if confiscation of property, criminal prosecution and bringing the accused back will be possible. Venkaiah Naidu, RS Chairmanmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Washington, July 25

Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley is neither in Chicago nor in hospital, his lawyer said today, dismissing reports that the prime accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack case was battling for his life in the US city after being beaten by inmates at a detention centre.

"Although I cannot disclose his location, he is neither in Chicago nor in a hospital," John Theis, Headley's lawyer, told PTI.

Media reports had said that Headley was attacked by two inmates at a Chicago prison on July 8 and that he was admitted to an intensive care unit of a hospital in the city since then.

"I am in regular communication with Mr. Headley. There is no basis for the report in the Indian press," Theis said.

The reports had said Headley suffered serious injuries and was rushed to North Evanston hospital, where he was admitted to the critical care unit.

He has been sentenced to 35 years in prison by a US court for the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people.

Headley  who recced various Indian cities including Mumbai before the 26/11 attacks  was arrested in 2009.

On Monday, US authorities refused to comment on the reports.

"We are not able to locate information about this individual," the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago said in a brief email response to PTI when asked about the reported prison incident. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Hyderabad, July 25

A 26-year-old Hyderabadi youth is missing since Friday in the US.

The family is now seeking help from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Indian Embassy in the United States.

Mirza Ahmed Ali Baig, a native of Hyderabad, was reportedly facing issues in the United States, according to his family.

Baig's younger brother, Mirza Sujjat, said, "He went to the US in 2015 to pursue higher education. Last Friday, he called us and complained that he is facing problems since the last six months."

The 26-year-old had landed in Pennsylvania in July 2015 to pursue higher education in the field of aeronautical engineering.

A year later, he switched to another educational institution in New Jersey.

The family said Baig had not visited them since the time he left for the US. ANIuttara@tribuneindia.com

Kampala, July 25

India and Uganda on Wednesday voiced their strong commitment to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and reaffirmed the need for the UN Security Council's comprehensive reform to make it more effective to the geo-political realities of the 21st century.

According to a joint statement issued after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, the two leaders underlined the traditionally warm and close ties between the two countries.

They agreed that the terrorism poses a grave threat to global peace and stability and reiterated their strong commitment to combat it in all its forms and manifestations, it said.

They stressed that there could be no justification for acts of terror on any grounds whatsoever.

The leaders asserted that strong measures should be taken against terrorists, terror organisations, their networks and all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism, or provide sanctuary to terrorists and terror groups, it said.

They also underscored the need to ensure that terror organisations do not get access to any weapons of mass destruction or technologies and committed to cooperate for the early adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT), the statement said.

India had proposed the CCIT more than two decades ago in the United Nations as an instrument for a global alliance of nations against terrorism.

Prime Minister Modi and President Museveni reaffirmed the need for a comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, including its expansion, to make it more representative, accountable, effective and responsive to the geo-political realities of the 21st century, the statement said.

India along with Brazil, Germany and Japan has been pushing for the expansion of the UN Security Council for long, saying that the current UN and its powerful Security Council do not reflect the ground realities of the 21st century.

They reiterated their commitment to intensify their cooperation in the UN and other multilateral organisations in order to address current global challenges such as climate change and to foster international and regional peace and security, as well as sustainable development.

The two leaders emphasised the need for regular convening of bilateral mechanisms, including at Foreign/External Affairs Ministers level, to review the overall state of bilateral relations, and for the expeditious implementation of the economic and development cooperation projects.

Modi arrived in Uganda on Wednesday on a two-day state visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in 21 years.

President Museveni praised the contribution of the 30,000-strong Indian Diaspora towards Uganda's national development and economic growth. India appreciated the significant role played by Uganda for economic integration and maintenance of peace and stability in the region.

During the visit, Modi also announced gifting of 100,000 National Council of Educational Research and Training books for school-going children of Uganda and 100 solar power irrigation pumps for helping Uganda's efforts in the development of agriculture. PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

New Delhi, July 25

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday granted former Union minister P Chidambaram interim protection from arrest till August 1 in the Enforcement Directorates (ED) money laundering case related to INX Media.

Justice K Pathak while granting interim relief directed Chidambaram to cooperate with the EDs investigation as and when required and not to leave the country without courts prior permission.

The court sought the response of the ED on the senior Congress leaders plea in which he said he was apprehending arrest.

The court asked ED not to take any coercive steps till August 1 when it would also hear Chidambarams both the pleas in INX Media cases lodged by the ED and the CBI, seeking anticipatory bail.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the ED, opposed Chidambarams plea on the point of maintainability contending that the politician was forum shopping which could not be allowed.

Mehta, who appeared along with advocate Amit Mahajan, said while in the Aircel-Maxis case, which had allegation of a similar modus operandi, Chidambaram had approached the trial court seeking anticipatory bail and he moved the high court for the relief in the INX Media case.

Senior advocate Dyan Krishan and advocate P K Dubey, appearing for Chidambaram said they were apprehending arrest as in the main case, the CBI had said it required custodial interrogation of the Congress leader.

The counsel said this matter was from the same transaction on which the CBI had also registered the case. The only difference was that this petition related to the EDs case while the other one, in which Chidambaram had already got protection from arrest, was of CBI.

The petition, filed through advocate Arshdeep Singh, said though no summons had ever been served to the former Union finance minister by the ED in this case, he had an apprehension of arrest in view of the summons issued to him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which was investigating the scheduled offence.

The senior Congress leaders role had come under the scanner of the investigating agencies in the Rs 3,500-crore Aircel-Maxis deal and the INX Media case involving Rs 305 crore.

It was during his tenure as the finance minister in the UPA-1 government that clearances from the FIPB were given to the two ventures, in which alleged irregularities were found.

In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year, alleging irregularities in the FIPB clearance to the media group for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 during Chidambarams tenure as finance minister.

Thereafter, the ED had last year lodged the money laundering case in this regard. PTIAn attorney for GP Transco, however, noted the earlier study was in error and that it included duplicate trips and estimates with 500 spaces dedicated for truck trailer parking. He said the facility is meant for over the road drivers who will come and pick up a trailer and then make stops over several days at other locations before returning to the proposed facility in Plainfield again.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

With ruling BJP and TMC members indulging in heated exchanges in the Lok Sabha over the alleged lynching of women in West Bengal, Speaker Sumitra Majahan was forced to adjourn the proceedings for a brief period.

Raising the issue in the House, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya accused that people, including women, are being lynched in West Bengal and Kerala, which invited protest from members belonging to TMC and Left parties.

An enraged Somaiya and other TMC members, including Kalyan Banerjee and Idris Ali, moved towards the Well and engaged in verbal duel exchanges. Mahajan adjourned the House for about 10 minutes. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anant Kumar and a few other ministers tried to pacify the angry TMC members.

Somaiya alleged that four women were lynched and even stripped in West Bengal and he also wanted to know what the state was doing. He also talked about alleged lynching incidents in Kerala and Left members from the state were up on their feet protesting against it. Kumar said the government did not approve of such incidents and steps are being taken against the menace.

The trigger

BJP MP Kirit Somaiya accused that people, including women, are being lynched in West Bengal and Kerala, which invited protest from members belonging to TMC and the Leftuttara@tribuneindia.com

Kampala, July 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday wrapped up his two-day visit to Uganda where he held wide-ranging talks with President Yoweri Museveni and discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral ties.

Modi arrived here on Tuesday evening in Uganda's capitalthe first bilateral tour by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

The Prime Minister addressed the country's Parliament and announced that India will strengthen its cooperation and mutual capabilities with Africa in combating terrorism and extremism.

"In another special gesture reflecting the warmth and bonding between our two countries, Ugandan President Museveni came to the airport to see-off PM Narendra Modi. PM concludes his historic visit and takes off for the final leg of his 3-nation trip to S Africa," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

"My visit to Uganda has been productive. I express gratitude towards President Kaguta Museveni and the people of Uganda for their kindness through the visit. This visit will lead to further cementing of bilateral relations, particularly giving a strong impetus to economic ties," Modi said in a tweet.

India extended two lines of credit worth nearly USD 200 million to Uganda in energy infrastructure, agriculture and dairy sectors yesterday.

Modi also announced that India would build a Gandhi Heritage Centre at the sacred site in Uganda's Jinja, where a statue of Mahatma Gandhi now stands.

The Prime Minister will now head to South Africa to participate in the BRICS Summit, whose theme this year is 'BRICS in Africa'.

He will attend the 10th edition of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa during which the grouping's leaders are expected to deliberate on global hot-spot issues, international peace and security, global governance and trade issues among others.

BRICS is a grouping of five major emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC", before the induction of South Africa in 2010. PTI



monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Mumbai, July 25

Maratha Kranti Morcha called off their shutdown call on Wednesday afternoon after violence over reservation spilled on to Mumbai streets, forcing police to detain 447 protesters.



A police spokesperson said they had detained 447 people and were registering cases against them.

Maratha organisations had given a call for Bandh in Mumbai and surrounding areas on Wednesday.

Protests were held at 45 places in the city, and in some places the civic-run BEST buses were stoned, roads were blockaded and public property was damaged, the spokesperson said.

In adjoining Thane city, police detained 20 persons for vandalising public property.

Thane police commissioner Param Bir Singh said some "mischievous elements" indulged in violence even though the leaders of the agitation tried to maintain peace.

"We have registered offences and so far detained 20 persons. We have also identified some more persons who were involved in these acts," he said.

Police burst teargas shells to disperse a mob that went on a rampage at Nitin Junction, Singh said.

The bandh was called off just before 3 pm after various parts saw violence.

We only wanted to prove that we are together and proved it. We never wanted protests to get violent and therefore we are calling off our bandh in Mumbai for today, Virendra Pawar, leader of the Maratha Kranti Morcha, an outfit spearheading agitation for quota for the Maratha community in jobs and education, told reporters here.

The Maratha Kranti Morcha had given the call for the bandh, demanding an apology from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for alleging that some members from the community were planning violence at Pandharpur town in Solapur district.

Fadnavis, who was scheduled to perform puja at a temple on Ashadhi Ekadashi on Monday but later cancelled it after the Maratha outfits threatened to disrupt the event, has offered to talk to Maratha leaders over their demand.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the states population, has been a hugely contentious issue.

The community leaders had earlier taken out several rallies in various districts to highlight their demands. Last year, a huge rally was organised by the Maratha Kranti Morcha in this connection in Mumbai.

Violence

Earlier today, violence marred the bandh as protesters threw stones at policemen in the neighbouring Navi Mumbai township and Satara district, injuring three personnel.

The police retaliated and cane-charged protesters, fired plastic bullets and lobbed tear gas shells at them, an official said.

Sataras Superintendent of Police Sandeep Patil sustained a minor injury while two policemen were injured at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai, he said.

Protesters who gathered at Kalamboli blocked the Mumbai-Goa and Mumbai-Pune highways, he said.

The policemen deployed at the spot tried to take them away as the traffic was blocked because of the protest.

Some persons in the crowd then started throwing stones at the policemen, injuring two personnel, the official said.

Protesters also set afire two police vans in the area, he said.

The police then cane-charged the protesters, lobbed tear gas shells at them and also fired plastic bullets in the air, he said.

Additional police force was called at the spot, he said, adding that the situation in the area was tense.

The traffic movement from Mumbai to Pune and Goa was affected due to the protests at Vashi, Kharghar, Kalamboli and Palaspe, he said.

In Satara district, police cane-charged protesters who blocked the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway at Bombay Restaurant Chowk and threw stones at the policemen, SP Sandeep Patil said.

Tear gas shells were also lobbed at the pro-quota agitators, said Patil, who was injured in the stone-pelting.

A few vehicles were also set afire by the angry protesters in Satara, a police official said.

Meanwhile, the local train services on the trans-harbour line (between Thane and Vashi) were affected for over an hour in the afternoon as protesters halted trains at Ghansoli station, he said.

In the morning also, the movement of trains was disrupted at Ghansoli, he said.

The Mumbai-Goa highway was also blocked near Palaspe at Panvel in Raigad district by protesters.

The Sion-Panvel highway was blocked for some time at Kharghar and Vashi, but the police removed protesters from the road, the official said.

Some agitators burnt tyres at Majiwada in the neighbouring Thane city and auto-rickshaw drivers staged protests at the Nitin Junction, another official said.

In Mumbai, the Western Express Highway witnessed traffic jams due to protests near Jogeshwari flyover and Kandivali.

While imposing the bandh, protesters pelted stones at some local trains as well as buses and set ablaze a bus of the state-owned Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) in suburban Mankhurd.

"Till 1 pm, three buses were damaged by stone pelting and nine buses were damaged by deflating their tyres," BEST spokesperson Hanumant Gofane said.

At around 1.30 pm, protesters set a bus on fire after pouring petrol on it, which was later doused by the fire brigade, he added.

Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire and Congress MLC Subhash Jhambad were manhandled yesterday during the last rites of one of the protesters, Kakasaheb Shinde (27).

Shinde had jumped to death from a bridge over the Godavari river in Aurangabad on Monday.

Another protester, Jagannath Sonawane, 55, consumed a poisonous substance yesterday during the agitation. He died at the Government Medical College and Hospital here on Wednesday morning.

Aurangabad Superintendent of Police Arti Singh claimed he was not a part of the protest and killed himself over domestic issues.

Besides, protester Jayendra Dwarkadas Sonawane (28), who jumped from the bridge on river Venganga on Nashik-Aurangabad road yesterday, was undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Another agitator, Amol Jagtap (26), from Latur district had set himself ablaze but was over-powered by the police.

He was undergoing treatment at a government hospital in Latur for his injuries.

Amid the protests, Shyam Lakhan Kadgaonkar, a head constable from Osmanabad, died on Wednesday near Shinde's funeral venue.

"We are awaiting an autopsy report. Some injury marks were seen on his hands and legs," a police official had earlier said, adding another constable got injured there in stone pelting.

Protesters had torched at fire brigade van and a state transport (ST) bus during Tuesdays agitation.

Internet services were also suspended in rural areas of Aurangabad district on Tuesday to prevent any untoward incident.

As the stir for reservation in jobs and education intensified, the Maratha Kranti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation, called for a shutdown in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Quotas for Marathas, a politically influential community that constitutes around 30 per cent of the state's population, has been a hugely contentious issue. Agenciesmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, July 25

Several business class passengers have taken to social media to vent out their anger over being bitten by bed bugs on the Newark-Mumbai flights.

The incidents were reported on different days.

Meanwhile, the Air India said the incidents of bed bug bites in its flights from the US were isolated ones but it had taken a "serious" view of the complaints and carried out an extensive service of the aircraft, including fumigation, as the airline continued to face flack from passengers.

Disturbing images were posed on Twitter about the bedbugs crawling on the seats and bite marks all over a woman's hand.

"Air India is deeply concerned with a few reports of bugs causing inconvenience to its esteemed passengers. The issue has been viewed seriously and every possible step is being taken to closely inspect and further strengthen our system at every level to ensure that such isolated incidents of passenger discomfiture do not affect our consistent performance," the airline said in a statement.

"Experienced experts have carried out extensive service on the aircraft from fumigation to overhaul of the upholstery/seat covers/carpets etc to ensure that passengers keep enjoying their in-flight experience with us as always without any complaint of inconvenience," it added.

The airline said every department related to maintenance and cabin upkeep had probed deep into the concerns raised by a few passengers.

The state-run carrier said it would weed out any deterrent that tarnishes or maligns its image due to its own inadvertent lapse or resulting from any external machination.

On July 17, one of the passengers of the Newark-Mumbai flight described his ordeal and the unpleasant experience his family had to go through in the 17-hour long journey.

"...just arrived from New York on Air India 144 business class with family. All our seats infested with bed bugs. Sir, have heard of bed bugs on trains but shocked to experience on our maharaja and that too business," Pravin Tonsekar tweeted and tagged the airline and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu.

In a second tweet, he said that his "wife and daughters had to suffer half of the journey sitting in economy seats with broken tables and inoperative TV".

Incident of a toddler being bitten was also reported.

On July 20, Saumya Shetty, another passenger, posted a picture on Twitter of her hand covered in bite marks.

"Travelled business class thinking it would help with three kids. I'm covered with bed bugs bites and it's been a painful day so far. @airindiain Inspite of complaining I had to sleep in the same seat and only got moved the next day when we were landing," she tweeted.

She alleged that despite her repeated attempts to get in touch with Air India, the airline still had to get in touch. PTIuttara@tribuneindia.com

New Delhi, July 25

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked state governments to take strong action against cow vigilantes who indulge in violence, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

The written reply of Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir came in response to Samajwadi Party MP Javed Ali Khan's question on whether the government has taken cognisance of the statements made by the prime minister on August 6, 2016, June 30 and July 16, 2017.

"Hon'ble Prime Minister has stated that the state governments must deal sternly against anti-social elements that create violence in the name of cow protection," he said.

Ahir said police and public order are state subjects under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution and state governments are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, registration and investigation of crime and for prosecuting the criminals through their law enforcement agencies.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued advisories to the states and union territories, from time to time, to maintain law and order and ensure that any person who takes law into his or her own hands is punished promptly as per law, he said. PTIROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, July 25

The day-long bandh in Mumbai, called by pro-quota Maratha groups, was called off midway on Wednesday after violence marred the protests even as one more protester died, a day after consuming poison.

The protesters attacked buses, indulged in arson and hurled stones at trains in several parts of Maharashtra, including Mumbai and the adjoining Thane city, during the bandh called by Maratha outfits to press their demand for reservation in jobs and educational institutions. Three policemen, including SP Sandeep Patil, suffered injuries in stone pelting. We have called off the bandh as we have proved our point to the government. The bandh was a grand success. We never wanted protests to turn violent, said Virendra Pawar, an office-bearer of the Maratha Kranti Morcha. He said the decision was taken after outsiders with vested interests indulged in violence to discredit the community.

The Mumbai-Pune and Mumbai-Goa highways were blocked for hours by the protesters. The police used force, including teargas shelling and baton charge, to disperse the protesters at several places. After the protesters attacked the police personnel and damaged patrol vans, internet was suspended at many places.

Meanwhile, after being criticised by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CM Devendra Fadnavis said he was willing to hold talks with representatives of the community. The government has taken note of the protests and has taken several decisions in this regard. We are ready to talk to them. A law was introduced to provide them reservation but it was stayed by the Bombay HC, Fadnavis said.

Sena MLA quits in support

A Shiv Sena MLA from Maharashtras Aurangabad district, Harshavardhan Jadhav who represents Kannad constituency, on Wednesday resigned in support of the quota demand.harinder@tribunemail.com

Our Correspondent

Jaipur, July 24

Calling it a custodial death owing to error of judgement by the Ramgarh police, Rajasthan Home Minister GC Kataria on Tuesday ordered a judicial probe into the alleged lynching of Haryana native Akbar Khan, 28, in Alwar district on the night of July 20-21 on the suspicion of cow smuggling.

The police have submitted a report to the Additional CJM with evidences, Kataria, who visited the crime site along with Chief Secretary DB Gupta and DGP OP Galhotra, told mediapersons in Alwar. The court will hand over the case to the competent judicial officer at the earliest.

The minister said it appeared to be a custodial death as the policemen on duty did not take the injured Akbar to CHC hospital, barely 300 metres away, choosing to first transport rescued cows to a gaushala. Had Akbar been provided medical aid in time, he would have probably survived, Kataria said.

The minister, who met the victims family, said an initial compensation of Rs 1.25 lakh had been ordered. As in the Pehlu Khan lynching case, the state government has ordered a compensation of Rs 1.25 lakh to Akbars family and further compensation will be provided on the recommendations of the district legal committee.

Facing a barrage of questions on whether Akbar had been tortured at the Ramgarh police station, as reported in a section of the media, he replied in the negative. There was no manhandling. The policemen even offered him tea at a vend. It was ASI Mohan Singh (now suspended) who decided to transport the cows to a shelter home instead of rushing Akbar to hospital.There was no senior officer on the spot.

A four-member committee set up by the Rajasthan Police had on Monday ordered the suspension of the ASI and transferred three others to the Police Lines. The action was taken after a video purportedly showing ASI Mohan Singh admitting his mistake went viral.

Will frame new law, if needed: Rajnath

New Delhi: Responding to queries on incidents of lynching, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said in the Lok Sabha: If need be, we will frame a law (to check lynching incidents). He said a decision would be taken by the group of ministers (GoM) headed by him after considering recommendations made by the committee headed by the Union Home Secretary that would file its report in four weeks. The panel will suggest ways and legal framework to effectively deal with such incidents. TNS

Akbar died of injury-induced trauma: Autopsyuttara@tribuneindia.com

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25



The Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a scheme that provides for uniform compensation to women survivors of sexual assault and acid attacks and asked the Centre and states to implement it in letter and spirit.

Under the scheme prepared by the National Legal Services Authoritys (NALSA), survivors of gang-rape would get a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a maximum of Rs 10 lakh. Victims of rape and unnatural sexual assault would get a minimum of Rs 4 lakh and the maximum of Rs 7 lakh as compensation.

In case of victims of acid attacks, a victim would get a minimum of Rs 7 lakh in case of disfigurement, with an upper limit of Rs 8 lakh. In case of injury exceeding 50 per cent, the victim would be entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and the maximum of Rs 8 lakh. It has also provision for compensation in cases of acid attacks where injury was less than 50 per cent and 20 per cent. It provides for Rs 7 lakh maximum compensation for victims of burning cases.

As the scheme did not have provisions for monetary aid to child victims of sexual assault, a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur directed that suitable modifications should be carried out to extend the benefits of the scheme to child victims of sexual abuse, irrespective of their gender.

Any victim or her family member is entitled to approach the state or district legal services authority with a copy of the FIR and medical report to claim compensation amount.

The NALSA scheme approved by the top court will substitute existing compensation guidelines of various states that provided varying amounts as compensation to survivors of sexual assaults. NALSA had prepared the report in consultation with the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare and Centres Legal Affairs Department.

We expect the Union of India and states to implement the scheme in letter and spirit, the Bench, which also included Justice Deepak Gupta, said.

The Bench clarified that a victim covered under more categories of the schedule would receive a total value of compensation. In case of death of a victim of gang-rape, her family would be entitled compensation for both sexual assault and murder, it said

It said that in case of pregnancy caused by rape, victims would get compensation between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh. Similarly, miscarriage or loss of fertility due to sexual assaults, would entitle the victims to a compensation of Rs two lakh to Rs 3 lakh.rchopra@tribunemail.com





New Delhi, July 25



The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked BJP leader Subramanian Swamy to mention his plea, seeking enforcement of his fundamental right to pray at the disputed site in Ayodhya, after it pronounces its verdict on the question of whether mosques are integral to Islam.



On July 20, the special bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved its order on a plea by Muslim groups of the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute seeking reconsideration by a larger bench on the observations made by it in a 1994 verdict that a mosque was not integral to Islam.



M Siddiq, one of the original litigants of the Ayodhya case who has died and is being represented through his legal heir, had assailed certain findings of the 1994 verdict in the case of M Ismail Faruqui holding that a mosque was not integral to the prayers offered by the followers of Islam.



The bench, which also comprised Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, asked Swamy to seek listing and urgent hearing of his plea on right to pray after the pronouncement of verdict in the main matter.



Swamy had moved the apex court seeking enforcement of his right earlier as well.



Swamy, at whose instance the sensitive land dispute case in Ayodhya was fast-tracked, had filed a separate petition stating that he had a fundamental right to offer hassle-free prayer at the birthplace of Lord Ram.



The special bench of the apex court has a total of 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits.



A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties--the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla. PTI

ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a scheme which provided for a uniform compensation for victims of sexual assault and acid attacks and asked the Centre and states to implement it in letter and spirit.

Under the scheme prepared by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), survivors of gang rape would get a minimum compensation of Rs 5 lakh and a maximum of Rs 10 lakh. The victims of rape and unnatural sexual assault would get a minimum of Rs four lakh and the maximum of Rs seven lakh as compensation.

In case of the victims of acid attacks, if there was disfigurement of face, she would get a minimum compensation of Rs seven lakh, while the upper limit would be Rs eight lakh. In case of injury exceeding 50 per cent, the victim would be entitled to a minimum compensation of Rs five lakh and the maximum of Rs eight lakh. It has also provision for compensation in cases of acid attacks where injury is less than 50 per cent and 20 per cent. It provides for Rs 7 lakh maximum compensation for the victims of burning cases.

As the scheme did not have provisions for monetary aid to child victims of sexual assault, a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur directed that suitable modifications should be made to extend the benefits of the scheme to the child victims of sexual abuse, irrespective of their gender.Markey L. Price, 41, of the 1100 block of Abbott Drive, was arrested about 5:30 a.m. Jan. 21 after police were called to the Carpentersville apartment he shared with his then-girlfriend in the first block of Oxford Road, according to police reports. Police found the woman with a swollen eye socket and upper lip, a laceration to her eyebrow, and contusions on her face, arms and legs, prosecutors said in a news release.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Fasihur Rehman Khan

Islamabad, July 25

Pakistans mainstream political parties  Shehbaz Sharifs PML-N and Bilawal Bhuttos PPP  on Wednesday night rejected the poll results, alleging widespread rigging and manipulation.

The countrys election commission, however, played down the charges, claiming that the delay in results was due to the tedious result-gathering system.

We reject the results as there has been a blatant violation of election rules. We will announce the future line of action after a meeting of our party on Thursday, Sharif said.

Earlier, the PPP leadership charged election officials with bias.ROBINSINGH@TRIBUNE.COM

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 25

Trouble for Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar Diocese seems to have amplified with voices being raised demanding his removal following an FIR alleging rape being lodged against him by a nun in Kerala last month.

On Wednesday, women activists requested the Vatican to advise Pope Francis to remove the Bishop from his post at least till the time the investigation was on. Leaders of various national women's organisations and human rights activists submitted a memorandum to Giambattista Diquattro, India Apostolic Nunciature (Vatican envoy), on the alleged sexual harassment of the nun.

Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, said an impartial inquiry could be conducted only if the Bishop stepped down. The activists have already taken up the matter with the National Women Commission, which has assured all help to the aggrieved nun.

Earlier, the Joint Christian Council too had demanded the Bishops removal. Bishop Franco Mulakkal and other priests who have similar complaints against them should be immediately removed. The churches should take immediate action, the council had said.

A team led by Viakom DSP K Subhash was in Bengaluru last week interrogating two ex-nuns who served with the complainant when the offence allegedly took place (between 2014 and 2016).

The DSP said he would be meeting the Vatican representative in New Delhi next week to discuss the issue before coming to Jalandhar for the Bishops interrogation.

Kottayam police chief Hari Sankar said when his team would come to Jalandhar, a medical examination of the Bishop too would be conducted. We have collected a lot of evidence in the form of written complaints that the Sister had filed against the Bishop.

But we are now talking to the witnesses with whom she discussed her problem at the time when she says she was actually suffering. An audio clip submitted by the complainant last week regarding a telephonic conversation between Keralas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church head Cardinal George Alencherry and the nun, too, has been a big clue in the case, he added.

Meanwhile, Father Peter, spokesperson of Jalandhar Diocese, said the demand for the Bishops removal was another vicious move against him.

The Bishop will be fully cooperating with the Kerala police and is ready for all medical tests, he said.rchopra@tribunemail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The Delhi Commission for Women has rescued 16 Nepalese girls from a house in Munirka from where they were on the verge of being trafficked to Gulf countries.

As per a statement by DCW, at 1.30 am on Wednesday the DCW received a tip-off about the girls who were brought to Delhi on the pretext of employment, but were confined in a small room for several days.

The DCW teams, along with the police, reached the spot and rescued the girls, said a commission official. Their passports had been stolen by the traffickers.

DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal appealed to Home Minister Rajnath Singh to fix accountability of Delhi Police and ensure that the top bosses running such trafficking rackets are booked.

Our team reached the spot and we called the police and rescued 16 girls who were about to be trafficked to the Gulf region. The girls were very disturbed. The question arises if DCW gets to know about such rackets operating here just 500 metres way from the (Vasant Vihar) police station why cant the police nab them. It is time the polices accountability is fixed, said DCW chief Swati Maliwal who on Wednesday morning met Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

The traffickers had been running this racket at this location for the past eight months and seven girls are learnt to have been already sent abroad in the last 15 days.editorial@tribune.com

Our Correspondent

Abohar, July 25

Students of Homoeopathic Medical College Abohar (HMCA) organised a candlelight march on Tuesday night as the police allegedly took no action on a cheating complaint filed by students and staff against the management on July 7.

Leading the march, the HMCA doctors thanked the family of late Ami Chand, nambardar of Azeemgarh village, for knocking the doors of the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the management.

The family claimed that they had gifted the land to develop a college to promote homoeopathy, but the management indulged in breach of trust and basic concept of agreement by raising an engineering college on the same premises.

The management failed to repay loan worth Rs 6.6 crore that is now Rs 8.8 crore, following which Punjab and Sind Bank sealed the college.

Raising slogans, the protesters demanded that a case should be registered against the management and action be initiated against Punjab and Sind Bank officials who advanced loan without verifying the credentials of the property.

A few days ago, the students had made the management officials captive for two hours when the latter were holding a meeting at the college.

The officials were released after the intervention of the police. The protesters claimed that that no solution was offered even after two weeks and the management was now reportedly planning to merge it with another institution.

Earlier, some protesters had damaged the car of a senior functionary of the management when he was attending a meeting called by the local administration.

Affiliated to Guru Ravidas Ayurved University, Hoshiarpur, the institute got recognition from the Council of Homoeopathic System of Medicines, Punjab, in 1975. Bhai Kanhaiya Sewa Society Goniana (Bathinda) had taken over its control in 1990. The bank officials sealed the college on July 6 and students and staff were asked to vacate the hostel.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana July 24

The police on Tuesday claimed that Jatinderpal Singh Sunny, son of Congress councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetu, had confessed to his involvement in the attack on slain BJP worker Rinkal Khera.

Ludhiana CIA chief Harpal Singh said during questioning, Sunny told them that he along with his friend Sunny Nai and their hired goons had attacked Khera with the intention of injuring him, but not killing.

Sunny had hatched the conspiracy to attack Khera owing to political rivalry, he claimed.

The officer said the accused told them that they did not want to kill the victim, but he accidentally sustained a head injury, which led to his death. The accused had also confessed to have paid money to goons after the attack, he said.

Meanwhile, the deceaseds family refused the postmortem examination till the councillor was not arrested. Sunny has already been arrested, while Neetu, who was booked on criminal conspiracy charge, is reportedly evading arrest. The six hired assailants are also absconding.

Mani Khera, victims brother, said they had held a protest in Patiala on Monday. We had lifted the dharna on the assurance of the Patiala SSP that the accused would be arrested by Tuesday evening. Now, we have decided to move to Chandigarh to protest outside the CMs house. He said they would demand an inquiry into the case from an independent agency.

Sources said the Congress was also planning to remove Neetu from the party. Sunny is already facing some criminal cases and even the deceased was facing five cases, including that of attempt to murder, they said.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

While taking up the public interest litigation on the issue of high fees being charged for the MBBS course by private medical colleges, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Punjab Government, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, and three private medical colleges.

The PIL was filed on the basis of a report that featured in The Tribune on July 7.

The report had highlighted that the state government had ignored its own Act and a Supreme Court judgment which had helped private medical colleges in virtually selling MBBS seats.

The colleges had started charging Rs 50-70 lakh for the MBBS course.

Taking up the PIL, the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Avneesh Jhinghan issued a notice to the Chief Secretary, Punjab, Principal Secretary, Department of Medical Education and Research; Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot; and private medical colleges, including Adesh University, Bathinda; Sri Guru ram Das Medical College, Amritsar; and CMC, Ludhiana. The PIL was filed by Dr Sandeep Kumar Gupta, a Hisar-based veterinary scientist.

Referring to The Tribune story, the petitioner had pointed out that being a welfare state, it was the primary duty of the state government to regulate the fee structure in private colleges but the State of Punjab had given full autonomy to private colleges to fix their own fee structure and there was no difference of fee structure in state quota seats and management quota seats. This forced all candidates to pay a huge amount to secure admission in private medical colleges for the MBBS course.

The charging of fee excessively higher than that fixed by the state government amounts to the violation of the direction of Supreme Court issued in the Islamic Academy of Education and others vs State of Karnataka case wherein it has been held that no institution can charge an amount higher than that fixed by the state government. The next date of hearing is August 28.

The Tribune had reported that to favour private colleges for fixing their own fee and virtually auction MBBS seats, the government had ignored a dissent note by the Principal Secretary, Medical Education, who was later transferred from the department.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 25

The Haryana government on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking early hearing in the matter related to its row with Punjab over the Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

The matter was mentioned before a Bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud.

The Bench asked Haryana's counsel to approach the apex court registry for listing of the matter before an appropriate Bench.

The apex court had earlier granted the Centre time to explore the possibility of an amicable solution to the SYL canal row between Punjab and Haryana.

On July 11, the apex court said it was obligatory for Punjab and Haryana to respect and execute its orders on the SYL canal issue.

The controversial 1981 water-sharing agreement came into being after Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966. For effective allocation of water, the SYL canal link was conceptualised and both states were required to construct their portions within their territories.

Haryana constructed the portion of SYL canal in its territory. However, Punjab, after the initial phase, stopped the work, leading to a spate of litigations.

In 2004, the Congress government in the state came out with the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act with the intention to terminate the 1981 agreement and all other pacts relating to sharing waters of the Ravi and Beas rivers.

The apex court had first decreed Haryana's suit in 2002 asking Punjab to honour its commitments with regard to water sharing in the case.

Punjab had challenged the verdict by filing an original suit that was rejected in 2004 by the Supreme Court which asked the Centre to take over the remaining infrastructure work of the SYL canal project. With PTIeditorial@tribune.com

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, July 25

Over two years after his son died due to an alleged drug overdose, a farmer from Namol village is still awaiting the arrest of the peddler who supplied the contraband.

Though the Government Railway Police (GRP) has closed the case after completing proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC after a post-mortem report declared poisoning as the reason of death, Labh Singh has decided to approach the Punjab Chief Ministers Office for a high-level inquiry into the case and action against the peddler and policemen who did not conduct a thorough investigation.

My son, Amrik Singh (28), left home on February 7, 2016, for Sangrur to meet his friend. But later he was found lying unconscious at the railway station and declared brought dead by the hospital authorities. He died due to an overdose of chitta. Though from the mobile phone of my son, I got the number of the peddler and shared it with police officers, no one is taking it seriously, alleged Labh Singh.

Labh Singh alleged that he owned seven acres and the deceased was his only son. Some other addicts of his village made his son an addict. His son remained addicted for around five years from 2011 to 2016. He did not shun drugs even after his marriage in 2012. After requests from the family and relatives, he underwent a de-addiction course from the DMC, Ludhiana, in January 2016. But when he came back in February, the same peddler again started calling him.

My son had shunned drugs and I do not know how drugs were found in his body. I have visited the offices of all senior police officers, but none is taking action. I along with my relatives will approach the CMO this week, he said.

Sangrur SSP Dr Sandeep Garg and SP (Investigation) Harmeet Singh Hundal could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

I have joined here recently and I am not aware of the case. I will look into the matter and take immediate action, said Hardeep Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Sunam.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 25

After 40 Jodhpur detainees got compensation through a local court, the SGPC has decided to help the remaining 325 Sikhs, who were arrested by the Army and police during Operation Bluestar.

The SGPC has released advertisements in newspapers, inviting the victims or their families, who did not get compensation, to approach it by August 5 with the proof of their detention and relevant records.

At least 365 Sikhs were detained in Jodhpur jail till 1989-90. More than 200 had filed the case in 1991. With the passage of time, some of them died and many others gave up. Eventually, only 40 came forward to make an appeal in 2011. In April 2017, a local court awarded a compensation of Rs 4 lakh each with 6 per cent interest, directing the state and Central governments to pay up. Recently, all of them got around Rs 11 lakh each.

Congress MLA from Patti Harminder Singh Gill, who was also one of the detainees, said: I have submitted a list of victims with the CM office. At least 100 of them have died. It is difficult to locate the remaining victims, he said.

SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal said: We have already given jobs to the detainees and helped their children in education. There were many who could not come forward for the legal battle due to economic constraints. We are trying to locate them.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 25

The mother of slain BJP worker Rinkal Khera on Wednesday threatened to commit suicide outside the residence of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh in Chandigarh.

Rinkal was allegedly killed by Congress councillor Gurdeep Singh Neetus son Jatinder Pal Singh, alias Sunny, and his aides over political rivalry on July 19.

Accompanied by senior BJP leader Satpal Gosain and Lok Insaaf Party leader Simarjit Singh Bains, Rinkals mother Parminder Kaur said, Although the police have arrested Sunny but his father Neetu, who is the main conspirator, has not been apprehended. We suspect that the police are planning to give a clean chit to him. Fed up with the hollow promises of the police, I have decided to commit suicide outside the CMs residence in Chandigarh in a day or two if Neetu is not arrested.

Rinkals brother Mani Khera said they had also made it clear to the police that they would not give a nod for the post-mortem examination of the deceased till Neetu was arrested.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashwani Kapur, who is heading a special investigation team, said, Although Neetu has been booked in the case, so far there is no direct evidence against him. Even during his sons interrogation, his role has not been established behind the murder. Let the police arrest the remaining accused, if in their interrogation Neetus role comes to the fore, he will be arrested as per the law.All these Leftists protesting and marching on TV remind me of lost sheep following lost sheep. They want to abolish (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), but no one says what will replace it or who will do it. They just love to march. Is there just one problem solver among them? Their strength is not just in numbers. Their strength is in brilliant problem solvers taking problems on and making our country better. That is what they are lacking big time. Mob rule just wont cut it.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 25

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has said the Justice Ranjit Singh (retd) Commission report on sacrilege cases will be tabled in the next session of the Vidhan Sabha and legal action will be taken against all those held guilty by it.

The Chief Minister said the government had so far received the first part of the report, which was under legal scrutiny. He said the remaining parts of the report were expected soon and the complete report would be tabled, along with the action taken report, in the ensuing Vidhan Sabha session.

The commission had submitted the first part of the report to the Chief Minister on June 30. It was forwarded to the state Home Secretary and the Advocate General to examine the findings and suggest action so that the guilty can be brought to book.

Sikh radicals have been demanding action against those behind Bargari sacrilege and the Behbal Kalan firing incident.

The Commission was set up in April 2017 by the Congress government to investigate incidents of sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and other religious texts, after rejecting as inconclusive the findings of the Zora Singh Commission set up by the previous SAD-BJP government.

Capt to lay stone of lift irrigation scheme

Ropar: Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will lay the foundation stone of Rs 60-crore lift irrigation scheme for the Changar area on August 18. As providing water supply in this sub-mountainous area is an arduous task, residents from nearly two dozen villages are forced to shift with their cattle to temporary camps on the banks of the Sutlej every year during summer. The residents of the area get water supply only twice or thrice a week that too just for an hour and their crops are on the mercy of rain god. TNSvinaymishra188@gmail.com

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 25

Giving a breather to the residents of the Malin Bastis (slums), who were served notices during the High Court-directed anti-encroachment drive underway in Dehradun, the Uttarakhand Cabinet on Wednesday approved an ordinance that aims at tackling the rehabilitation and resettlement issues and also punishing persons occupied government land illegally.

The ordinance called Uttarakhand Urban Local Bodies and Authorities Special Provisions (2018) has become effective in the entire state.

We have decided to bring an ordinance which will be followed by an Act and rules and regulations aimed at addressing all issues of resettlement, rehabilitation, regularisation and prevention of encroachment on government land within a period of three years , said Madan Kaushik, Uttarakhand government spokesperson and Minister for Urban Development, while briefing mediapersons.

Significantly, in the court tomorrow, the government is likely to make a submission about its intention to deal with the illegal encroachments. It will also give a grace period (three years) to the residents of Malin Bastis who were served with eviction notices.

Kaushik said during the period of three years, the Malin Basti Act (2016) will continue to be in place.

When asked why the government was planning to bring a new Act, instead of bringing amendment in the existing Malin Basti (2016) Act Kaushik said; We were forced to bring a new Act as the 2016 Malin Basti Act which is in place right now and brought by the Congress government failed to address the issue giving land ownership rights to the dwellers of malin bastis (slums).

Meanwhile, Kaushik said that the ongoing anti-encroachment will continue in the city and said that no decision had been taken regarding urban encroachments, where several people have been served notices for running commercial activities from residential complexes.

In another decision approved by the Cabinet, Aganwari workers would receive an honorarium of Rs 2 on each packet of sanitary napkins distributed by them to women and girls. The government also decided to set up a revolving fund of Rs 6 crore for the sanitary napkins distribution scheme.

Around 25 ITIs have been selected for upgradation exercise to be undertaken under the World Bank (Rs 500 crore) programme.

The Cabinet also gave a nod for the constitution of committees that will look into the hosting of Investors Meet to take place in Dehradun between October 4 and October 5.

The committee will also decide on a partner country for the summit for which proposals have been received from Singapore, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, Thailand, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates.

Prior to the Investors Meet road show will be held in Bengaluru (Aug 22), Hyderabad (August 23) and in other cities.pardeepdhull@gmail.com

Brasilia, July 25

Brazil condemned the violence against anti-government protesters in Nicaragua and recalled its ambassador in Managua on Tuesday after the death of a Brazilian student.

Rayneia Gabrielle Lima, a medical student at the American University in Managua, was killed by gunshots in unclear circumstances on Monday, a Brazilian foreign ministry statement said.

The Brazilian government condemns the worsening repression and disproportional and lethal use of violence and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security teams, the statement said.

The Nicaraguan ambassador was called in to give an explanation and our ambassador has been recalled from Managua, a ministry spokesperson said.

Almost 300 people have been killed in weeks of clashes in a clampdown on protests by President Daniel Ortegas government.

Ortega first took power in 1979 when Sandinista rebels overthrew the Somoza dictatorship. He returned to office in 2007.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in April over a new law that raised worker and employer social security contributions. Ortega scrapped the cuts, but the violent repression of dissent sparked wider protests. Reutersshalender@tribune.com

26/11 mastermind votes

Hafiz Saeed, head of the Pakistani religious party Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), affixes his thumb impression before casting a vote in Lahore on Wednesday. The Milli Muslim League, political wing of Saeeds banned JuD, has fielded 260 candidates for the national and provincial polls under the umbrella of Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek.

Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of Saeed, is contesting from NA-91 seat from Sargodha, the home town of JuD leader. Saeeds son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is a candidate in PP-167. These candidates are contesting under the AAT banner because the election commission has denied registration to the MML.

IS claims Quetta blast

Pakistani security personnel gather at the site of a suicide attack near a polling station in Quetta on Wednesday. Hours after polling began, an Islamic State suicide bomber blew himself up outside a polling station in Bhosa Mandi area of Balochistans provincial capital, Quetta, killing 31 persons, including policemen.

Security sources said the bomber drove his motorcycle into a police vehicle. In separate incidents, four persons were killed in poll-related violence. About 371,000 soldiers have been stationed at polling stations across the country, nearly five times the number deployed at the last election in 2013.

Breaking tradition

Women, clad in burqas, stand in line to cast their vote in Peshawar. In a historic first, women of a conservative tribal district of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan cast their ballots on Wednesday. The poll panel had earlier said any area where women were stopped from voting could face the election in its constituency becoming invalid.

Since Pakistans first General Election in the 70s, the women in Upper Dir, which was once a Taliban stronghold, had been deprived of using their right to franchise on the pretext of cultural taboos. Queues of women could be seen outside the polling stations in constituencies NA-5 and PK-12 of Upper Dir.gspannu7@gmail.com

Lahore, July 25

Mumbai attack mastermind and JuD chief Hafiz Saeed on Wednesday asked the people to give vote for Pakistans ideology as he cast his vote in the general election in which his son and son-in-law are participating as candidates.

He cast his vote in Lahores Wafaqi Colony amid concerns in the country over the participation of Islamist hardliners in election in large numbers.

The Milli Muslim League (MML), the political wing of Saeeds banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), has fielded 260 candidates for the national and provincial polls under the umbrella of little known outfit Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT).

Hafiz Talha Saeed, the son of Saeed, is contesting from NA-91 seat from Sargodha (about 200 km from Lahore), the home town of JuD leader.

Saeeds son-in-law, Khalid Waleed, is a candidate in PP-167. These candidates are contesting under the AAT banner because the election commission has denied registration to the MML.

Talking to reporters after casting his vote, Saeed said the people should come out of their homes and vote for Pakistans ideology.

I wish these elections turn out be useful for the country, he said and urged the people to vote for chair  the election symbol of AAT.

The JuD was declared as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in June 2014. The group is a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror group that carried out the deadly 2008 Mumbai attack.

Saeed carries a USD 10 million American bounty on his head for his role in terror activities.  PTIshalender@tribune.com

Beirut, July 25

A string of suicide blasts and raids claimed by the Islamic State group killed more than 220 persons in southern Syria today, in one of the jihadists deadliest ever assaults in the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attacks hit several areas of the largely government-held southern province of Sweida, where IS retains a presence in a northeastern desert region.

They came almost a week into a deadly Russia-backed regime campaign to oust IS fighters from a holdout in a neighbouring province of the countrys south.

IS claimed responsibility for the violence, saying soldiers of the caliphate attacked Syrian government positions and security outposts in Sweida city, then detonated their explosive belts.

The Britain-based Observatory said three suicide attackers set off booby-trapped belts in Sweida city, as other blasts hit villages to the north and east. A fourth suicide explosion hit the city later.

IS fighters then stormed villages in the provinces northeast and killed residents in their homes, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding, The suicide blasts and raids killed at least 221 persons, 127 of them civilians.

The remaining 94 dead were pro-regime fighters, most of whom where residents who had picked up weapons to defend their villages, it said. The violence also left 30 IS fighters dead, including the suicide attackers. The jihadists captured at least three of the seven villages it targeted but clashes were ongoing today, the Observatory said.

State media confirmed the attacks had killed and wounded people in Sweida city and villages to the north and east, but did not give a specific toll. SANA published images of the attacks aftermath in Sweida, showing the remains of a victim sprawled on a staircase near a wall.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Islamabad, July 25

The Election Commission on Wednesday took notice of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif delivering speeches after casting their votes in the 11th General Election, which it termed as violation of the code of conduct.

The poll panel spokesperson Nadeem Qasim told Express News that actions may be taken against politicians who delivered speeches and those who voted on-camera with their every move being monitored.

Qasim said that the vote might not be endangered, but the voter may face consequences as per the Election Commissions law. The electoral body also directed media channels to not air live media talks of candidates as long as polling was under way.

The poll body also took notice of PML-N leader and former Foreign Minister Khawaja Asifs press talk after casting his vote in Sialkot.

A day earlier, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority issued show-cause notices to several news channels for inviting candidates on their live election transmissions.

The representatives of the channels were directed to file written replies as well as appear for personal hearings on July 31.  IANSpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Madrid, July 25

Spanish rescue services said they had plucked nearly 500 migrants from the Mediterranean in a single day who were trying to reach the countrys coast.

The Spanish Maritime Safety Agency said on Twitter that it had picked up a total of 484 people in 30 makeshift vessels in the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea, which separate Spain from Morocco.

According to a count by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), some 18,653 migrants reached Spanish shores between the beginning of the year and July 18.

They are mainly from sub-Saharan Africanotably Guinea, Mali and Mauritaniaas well as Morocco.

At least 294 migrants have died in their attempts to reach Spain this year, out of a total of 1,489 who died in the Mediterranean, according to IOM.

In June Spain agreed to take in 630 migrants who arrived aboard three vessels, including the French NGO rescue ship Aquarius.

The Aquarius rescued the migrants off Libyas coast on June 9 but Italys new populist government and Malta both refused to let it dock, triggering an international outcry before Spain stepped in to help.

Then on July 4, a ship belonging to Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms docked in Barcelona with 60 migrants rescued off the Libyan coast on board after Italy refused to take them in.

Faced with growing tensions in the EU over the issue, member states struck a deal in late June to stem the arrival of migrants.

The accord includes the setting up of secure centres for migrants in EU countries and disembarkation platforms outside the bloc, as well as sharing out refugees among member states.

But the plan remains fraught with rows over how to divide responsibility for migrants and ease the stress on coastal countries such as Italy and Greece.

Italy, which had earlier vowed to turn away rescue boats, agreed Monday to continue accepting migrants picked up at sea, at least until the bloc finds a solution for sharing responsibility.  AFPuttara@tribuneindia.com

LONDON, July 25

Teenagers, and particularly girls, are bearing the brunt of the global AIDS epidemic with around 30 adolescents becoming infected with HIV every hour, according to a report by the United Nations children's fund UNICEF.

Of those 30 new infections each hour among 15 to 19 year-olds in 2017, around 20or two-thirdswere in girls, UNICEF said, representing a "crisis of health as well as a crisis of agency".

While there has been substantial progress in the fight against AIDS in the last two decades, the failure to prevent so many new infections among children and teenagers is slowing this down, the report said.

It said the epidemic's spread among adolescent girls is being fuelled by early sex, including with older men, forced sex, powerlessness in negotiating around sex, poverty and lack of access to confidential counselling and testing services.

"In most countries, women and girls lack access to information, to services, or even just the power to say no to unsafe sex," said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF's executive director.

"HIV thrives among the most vulnerable and marginalised, leaving teenage girls at the centre of the crisis." UNICEF's report, presented on Wednesday at an AIDS conference in Amsterdam, said that 130,000 children aged 19 and under died from AIDS last year, while 430,000almost 50 an hourwere newly infected.

Adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 account for almost two thirds of the 3 million under-19 year-olds living with HIV.

And while AIDS-related deaths among all other age groups have been falling since 2010, those among older adolescents aged 15 to 19 have seen no reduction.

Angelique Kidjo, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador who contributed to the report, said economic empowerment and education were crucial.

"We need to make girls and women secure enough economically that they don't have to turn to sex work," she said. "We need to make sure they have the right information about how HIV is transmitted and how to protect themselves." UNAIDS says the fight against the AIDS epidemicin which 37 million people worldwide are infected with the incurable HIV virusis at a "precarious point", with deaths falling, treatment rates rising, but rates of new HIV infections stubbornly high. ReutersThe Integrity Commission has issued a warning that from today it will publish, in the newspaThe unions previous contract expired June 30, and the raise included in the new agreement is not expected to extend to the workdays that occurred between the lapse of the old contract and the boards approval of the new one, Dusek said.All very fair points and yes, I realize I didn't give very much info, sorry! My planning is pretty all over the place right now. We are in Australia for a first visit for about 3 weeks. 6 nights in Sydney, 2 nights in the Yarra Valley for a wedding, possibly 2 nights in Phillip Island (or other near Melbourne), 7 nights in Melbourne and ending with 5 nights in Brisbane (possibly split with a coastal/beach area) so I'm pretty overwhelmed with planning and booking everything!

In Melbourne we are staying at an Airbnb in the CBD. We thought it would be convenient to have more space and a washer/dryer since we are away a fair amount of time.

For Sydney, we are considering Airbnb, serviced apartment or hotel. I have connections that can get decent rates at Starwood and Marriott properties and the pricing ranges around mid-200s in Canadian dollars which I think is comparable to AUD (?). So I guess our price range is below $300/night if possible.

All I know so far for Sydney is that we would like to visit the Taronga Zoo, take the ferry there or to other areas, visit Bondi Beach, Coogee beach walk. I honestly just started researching Sydney very recently as we only received the wedding details 2 weeks ago!

I think my friend who recommended North Sydney is on the cautious side. She's the one who said Darlinghurst is an unfavourable area. My cousin said Darlinghurst and Surry Hills would give more food options, but she cautioned on being by Central station and that's why I got confused because on the map it looks like SH and Central are in the same area... This one actually lives in Sydney and works in North Sydney so she is the one who said we would be bored. So after that, I think we are ruling that area out.

I was originally looking at Potts Point too, but the first friend said we might need a car or else Kings Cross is the closest station and she was the one who said it's sketchy. I'm just thinking, for a big station, how sketchy could it really be?? Maybe she's a more paranoid traveler.Given you have 4x4 experience you could consider this option. Buy cheap tent and camping gear ( including some water containers) from places like KMart.

However, can you rent a 4X4 from Exmouth one way?

You can then explore a bit more in Karijini and around Exmouth/ Coral Bay then places like Gnarloo and Red Bluff near Carnarvon- you need to be self sufficient in those spots.

Wicked certainly have bad reviews over the years but dont know the current situation for rentals from them in Exmouth.

Did you see this rental place in link below? Again, need to check reviews. Campervan rental seems to have very mixed reviews here in Australia and generally it appears the more you pay the better the experience. Definitely check van is road worthy and safe before accepting.

Is the 7 days locked in? For more than 7 days a 4X4 could work but for only a week I dont know how remote you will actually get.

How many days for the Margaret River region? Lots to do and see right through the south and September is wild flower time so good time for outdoor adventures.

Edited: 3 years agoWe are heading to Japan (2 adults) and 2 kids (1 year and 6 years old) for a month. So far this is our rough itinerary.

Days 1-4 Tokyo- local sightseeing

Day 5 travel from Tokyo to Kyoto

Days 6 to 11 in Kyoto with day trips to Nara, Kanazawa and Himeji

Day 12 travel from Kyoto to Hiroshima

Days 13 to 19 around Hiroshima

Day 20 travel Hiroshima back to Nagoya

Days 21 to 22 visit friends in Nagoya

Day 23 travel Nagoya to Lake Kawaguchi

Day 24 in Lake Kawaguchi for sightseeing

Day 25 travel Lake Kawaguchi to Tokyo

Days 26-28 Tokyo/Disneyland

Questions:

1. Should I purchase a 21 day national rail pass and activate to use that leaving Tokyo on Day 5. It would cover trips up until we get back to Tokyo on Day 25? Or should I get a 14 day rail pass and activate on day leaving Kyoto (Day 12) going to Hiroshima. The cost is about AU$232 difference (ordinary class) between a 14 and 21 day pass. How can I work out the cost to travel from Tokyo to Kyoto and the various day trips.

2. Should I buy a child ticket for my then 19 mth year old so she has her own seat?

3. Any feedback on the rough itinerary?- Rift Valley MPs urgently convened in Weston Hotel Nairobi to arrest widening rift over Mau Forest evictions

- Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny said the exchanges over the eviction process were unhealthy warranting the need to meet urgently

- According to the MP, they also agreed to tame reckless utterances in reference to the Head of State

- He said Murkomen's manner of reference to President Uhuru Kenyatta was unacceptable but never warranted for his ousting from Senate majority leader position

- 2022 succession politics were also on agenda following statements by some MPs opposing Ruto's ascendance to presidency

Members of Rift Valley legislators caucus urgently convened a Nairobi Hotel in what was reported to be a crisis meeting to calm raging storms ignited by Senate Majority leader Kipchumba Murkomen's sentiments over Mau Forest evictions.

TUKO.co.ke understands the legislators met at Deputy President William Ruto's Weston Hotel on Tuesday, July 24, evening to iron out issues surrounding Mau Forest evictions and 2022 sucession politics which have threatened to split Jubilee party into two.

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READ ALSO: Gavana wa Nandi amulikwa baada ya kutuma ujumbe wa kimapenzi kwa WhatsApp kimakosa

Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny said the meeting's agenda included taming reckless talk among themselves and as members of Jubilee Party. Photo: Joshua Kutuny/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kipchumba Murkomen makes U-turn, says all is well in Jubilee

Speaking to NTV on Tuesday, July 24, in an interview monitored by TUKO.co.ke, Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny dismissed Murkomen's initial hint that they had convened for routine monthly meetings having met barely a month after the Wednesday, June 27.

"We had an urgent meeting to address urgent matters. There have been real raging storms and exchanges among ourselves over the Mau Forest issue. Some of us have not been reacting because we know we are in government and we wanted to get to a consensus over this matter," Kutuny said.

The outspoken Cherangany MP said it was logical for Rift Valley leaders to come to an agreement over what was happening in Mau Forest evictions because both President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto were there leaders.

The MPs met in June to quell a looming rift over 2022 succession politics after allegations allies of President Uhuru Kenyatta were working against DP Ruto's 2022 bid. Photo:Joshua Kutuny/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kalenjin senior leaders meet to counter looming division in Rift Valley ahead of 2022

"The two are our party leaders and we convened to know who was evicting the people who voted for them. The eviction was brutal and inhumane but we needed to approach this soberly without severing ties as key components of Jubilee government," he explained.

He however did not mince his words over sentiments attributed to Murkomen in his recent reference to Uhuru and Opposition leader over the issue of Mau Forest evictions, saying it was their responsibility to ensure decorum in advocacy of issues.

"There have been incidences of name calling coming from politicians while discussing the Head of State. Murkomen's sentiments do not warrant him to be ousted from majority leader position but there needs to be an equilibrium in how we present issues. As leaders we need to be mature, reasonable and objective which we have agreed to observe," Kutuny added.

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen ignited mixed reactions after opposing Mau Forest evictions terming it inhuman. Photo: Kipchumba Murkomen/Twitter.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: If there is one man who sired a fool, then it is Murkomens father - Orengo

The legislator disclosed they had agreed to constitute a small team of MPs which would engage the Environment, Land and Interior and Devolution ministries in a bid to churn out an amicable solution to the Mau stalemate.

Coincidentally the Wednesday, June 27, meeting was occasioned by Murkomen's sentiments that all was not well in Jubilee and members had threatened to oust him as the chairman of the caucus.

Same way, the Tuesday meeting was a result of the senator's sentiments contradicting government's position on Mau eviction and statements from members like Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter who was opposed to Ruto's 2022 presidential bid.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

How street Women In Kenya Deal With Periods | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Wetangula insisted the ODM leader was behind his all his woes in the Senate

- The Ford Kenya boss was kicked out of Senate minority leadership position by majority ODM senators

- The move to oust Wetangula came following threats by FORD Kenya to push ODM out of the NASA coalition

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula has reiterated his ouster as the Senate Minority leader was orchestrated and executed by none other than the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader Raila Odinga.

Wetangula, who fell out with the former prime minister following the January 30 mock swearing-in ceremony, also blamed Raila for the persistent political turbulence in the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition.

Send 'NEWS' to 40227 to receive all the important breaking news as it happens

READ ALSO: Wetangula joins long list of politicians whove been badly bruised after working with Raila

Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetangula (L) his insists his ouster as the Senate minority leader was orchestrated and executed the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party boss Raila Odinga (R).

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: Wetangula claims Raila is silent against Jubilee because he was bribed

Appearing on Citizen TV on Tuesday, July 24, the Ford Kenya party leader claimed Raila dictated everything both in his ODM party and in the NASA coalition and was the one who approved his removal from the leadership position in the Senate.

"Raila planned and executed it (his ouster), I can tell you for a fact. The majority party within NASA is ODM. Nothing happens without his (Raila's) approval. That is the manner in which Raila runs his party," the Bungoma senator claimed.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula claimed ODM party boss Raila Odinga conspired with ODM senators to remove him from leadership position in the Senate.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Stop dragging me into your misfortunes - Raila to Wetangula

Wetangula, who is still Raila's co-principal in the NASA despite indicating he had exited the coalition, was forcefully kicked out of Senate Minority leadership slot by NASA senators, majority of who were from the ODM party.

The move to oust the Bungoma senator came amid wrangles within NASA and following threats by the FORD Kenya party to eject ODM out of the coalition.

Siaya Senator James Orengo was picked to replace Wetangula with Kakamega Senator Cleopha Malala as his deputy.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

Raila Odinga Is a Project Employed Under Uhuru Kenyatta - Nazlin Umar - On Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- Wetang'ula said Raila was untrustworthy partner, could not be fully trusted in any alliance

- He denied having confided to Jubilee members that Raila had plans to wreck their party

- The senator said Opposition leader had a history of joining parties before bringing them down later on

- He said Raila intentionally pushed for dissolution of Coalition for Reforms and Democracy to avoid backing Kalonzo Musyoka in 2017

- The FORD Kenya party leader said he would not work with Raila again and instead would vie for presidency in 2022

FORD Kenya party leader Moses Wetang'ula has continued his onslaught on Opposition leader Raila Odinga calling him a party wrecker and warned Jubilee to be wary of working with him.

Wetang'ula said Raila had an excellent record of bringing down established and popular political parties in pursuit of personal interests.

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READ ALSO: Gavana wa Nandi amulikwa baada ya kutuma ujumbe wa kimapenzi kwa WhatsApp kimakosa

Moses Wetang'ula who ended rivalry with Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa said Opposition leader Raila Odinga had history of destabilising political parties. Photo: FORD Kenya/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Raila told us to keep off from his swearing in - Moses Wetangula

The Bungoma senator blamed the ODM leader for being the thorn to National Super Alliance's (NASA)'s stability, reiterating he was done working with the man who was their flag bearer in the August 2017, General Election.

He also dismissed allegations he had confided to his Elgeyo Marakwet counterpart Kipchumba Murkomen that Raila had reconciled with President Uhuru Kenyatta with an aim of collapsing Jubilee.

The Bungoma Senator accused Raila Odinga of pushing for dissolution of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy to deny Kalonzo Musyoka a presidential ticket in 2017. Photo: Nation.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: If there is one man who sired a fool, then it is Murkomens father - Orengo

"It is however clear from history that Raila has been killing political parties. We worked with him in KANU he rocked it just like he did to National Rainbow Coalition. We worked with him in the Coalition of Reforms and Democracy and he literally killed it," Wetang'ula said on Tuesdau, July 24, during an interview on Citizen TV .

According to the legislator, the ODM leader engineered everything to ensure his troop abandoned the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) to join NASA.

He said the Opposition leader did so because he wanted to neutralise all agreements made in 2013 among them supporting Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka's presidential bid in 2017.

"He said people were tired with CORD and I was not. He did not want to hold on the agreement to support Kalonzo in 2017 and the sure way to do it was kill the institution and all its agreements, " the Bungoma senator explained.

Moses Wetang'ula said he could not longer trust and work with opposition leader Raila Odinga saying he had supported him twice but he was ungrateful. Photo: Raila Odinga/Facebook.

Source: Original

READ ALSO: Kalenjin MPs in crisis meeting as Jubilee faces breakup over Mau evictions sparked off by Murkomen

Wetang'ula claimed Raila was behind the woes which saw a split in NASA.

"After we made sacrifices to hold on to NASA which had captured imaginations of Kenyans and brought many supporters on board , he and his ODM brigade came up with National Resistance Movement leading to this stalemate," the senator explained.

He said he had sacrificed twice to support an "ungrateful" Raila and he would himself vie for the presidency in 2022.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

How street Women In Kenya Deal With Periods | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko.co.ke- The committee acknowledged Chumo was excellent academically and had vast leadership experience

- Legislators observed Chumo had however not stepped aside from the position of chairman of council in Egerton University despite being charged

- MPs observed the law barred individuals facing criminal charges from taking over office since they were required to be on suspension

- Chumo is among several current and former Kenya Power heads facing corruption charges and are out on bail

- The committee recommended the National Assembly should reject Chumo's nomination in line with public appointment laws

Parliament has rejected President Uhuru Kenyatta's nomination of ex-Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo to the position of Salaries and Remuneration Commission chairperson.

National Assembly's Departmental Committee on National Finance and Planning on Wednesday, July, 25, tabled a report recommending the rejection of Chumo's nomination stating he was unsuitable because he was facing pending corruption charges.

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READ ALSO: Ex-Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo is unfit for SRC job - Aden Duale

National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale had earlier stated Chumo was unfit for vetting in the house since he had active corruption charges leveled against him. Photo: Kenya Power/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Kenyans erupt as MPs vet graft-ridden ex-Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo for plum job

In the report seen by TUKO.co.ke, the committee noted Chumo being a public officer had been charged for corruption and economic crimes yet he had not relinquished or stepped aside from his position as chairperson of Egerton University Council.

"The committee considered how provisions of section 62 of the anti-corruption and Economic Crimes Act would affect the nominee because it requires a public officer who has been charged with corruption or economic crimes should be suspended. Therefore, the nominee if approved, would find it difficult to take up the position," read part of the report.

Ben Chumo faced the committee on Monday, July 23, and defended his suitability for the SRC chairperson position saying he was innocent until proven guilty. Photo: National Assembly/Twitter.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Raila is a party wrecker Jubilee should be wary of - Wetang'ula

The committee led by Kipkelion East MP Joseph Limo was categorical Chumo was excellent in terms of academics and professional experience but integrity issues as laid down in the Constitution were his major impediment from being cleared to take the new lucrative job.

"Based on the above issues, the committee is of the view that the nominee is unsuitable to be appointed as the chairperson of the SRC. Having considered the suitability, capacity and integrity of the nominee, and pursuant to public appointment laws, the committee recommends the National Assembly rejects the nomination for appointment of Dr Ben Chumo as SRC chairperson," the committee recommended.

Chumo and 16 other Kenya Power managers were charged with several economic crimes counts involving over KSh 400 million misappropriated through purchase of substandard transformers and is out on bond pending hearing and determination of case.

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How street Women In Kenya Deal With Periods | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko- ODM Parliamentary Group said FORD Kenya party Wetang'ula lacked moral authority to call Raila a betrayer

- Wetang'ula had referred to Raila as an untrustworthy friend fond of wrecking political parties

- The legislators however said Wetang'ula's background was punctuated with numerous acts of betrayal

- They accused the Bungoma senator of switching off his phone and skipping the famous swearing in of Raila as People's President

FORD Kenya party leader Moses Wetang'ula should be the last person to call Opposition leader Raila Odinga a betrayer, Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) MPs have said.

In a statement to newsrooms seen by TUKO.co.ke, ODM Parliamentary Group said Wetang'ula's past was dominated by acts of utter betrayal against movements fighting for liberation of Kenyans from oppressive regimes.

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READ ALSO: Gavana wa Nandi amulikwa baada ya kutuma ujumbe wa kimapenzi kwa WhatsApp kimakosa

The ODM Parliamentary Group said Moses Wetang'ula had dined with oppressors of the nation when Raila Odinga was fighting for liberation of Kenya. Photo: Moses Wetang'ula/Facebook.

Source: UGC

READ ALSO: ODM makes good threat to kick Moses Wetangula out of plum Senate position

The legislators accused the senator of using his interview session with Citizen TV on Tuesday, July 24, to unfairly disparage and undermine their party leader Raila without keenly looking into his past ways.

"We are perturbed by continued claims by Wetangula akin to baby cries. We want to remind him history cannot change. When Kenyans were being killed, injured and hurt in the struggle for second liberation, Wetangula was busy wining and dining with oppressors of the people. He was the oppressors lawyer," read part of the statement.

The ODM legislators said Raila Odinga had a huge following in the streets and significant representation in Parliament and deserved respect. Photo: ODM/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Parliamentary Finance committee rejects ex-Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo's nomination as SRC chairman

They accused Wetang'ula of sticking with KANU masters and had no time for change movements like FORD Kenya in 1997 to an extent he lost his seat to John Munyasia elected on the latter party.

The Bungoma senator also stayed away from the Tuesday, January 30, controversial mock swearing in of Raila in Uhuru Park.

"On Tuesday, January 30, when close to one million Kenyans thronged Uhuru Park for the swearing of Raila Odinga as the Peoples President, a cowardly Wetangula switched off his phone and never attended the event despite having vowed he would show up three days earlier," the statement added.

Moses Wetang'ula had accused Raila Odinga who was the National Super Alliance (NASA) flag bearer of secretly shaking hands with President Uhuru Kenyatta. Photo: Khamati Kahamati/Facebook.

Source: Facebook

READ ALSO: Nairobi tycoon at centre of controversial KSh 3.1 billion land sold to government re-arrested

"Wetang'ula lacks the political clout to be consulted on matters of national unity, economic growth, strengthening of devolution and reforms. To claim Raila betrayed him by shaking hands with the president is misplaced. What Raila did was in the interest of the stability of the nation. He had been earmarked for arrest and charged with treason," the MPs stated.

They claimed the senator wanted Raila arrested, charged and sent to jail so that he could celebrate saying he was not a friend anyone would need and was the least of persons to talk about betrayal since his past worked against his moral authority on loyalty.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

How street Women In Kenya Deal With Periods | Tuko TV

Source: TukoAt the age of 78, one would expects a septuagenarian to be spending her sunset days with grandchildren but that is not the case for Cecilia Wangari.

Wangari is a music technician and a proprietor running Shosh Sound Systems complete with a garage along Outering road in Nairobi where she fixes music systems for public and personal vehicles.

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READ ALSO: Boyfriend needed! 65-year-old woman looking for love puts up recruitment sign outside her home

Wangari is a music technician and a proprietor running Shosh Sound Systems. Photo: Nairobi Updates/Twitter.

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Murang'a: Mysterious fire kills 60-year-old woman and her 40-year-old lover

As opposed to selling vegetables in the estates which are highly perishable, 78-year-old Wangari said her goods can withstand low seasons with few customers.

"This business is good because I can stock these items for years when business is low. It depends on the customers since they see the sign post and come. My family members do not want to be employed too. They tell me they do not want boring jobs,"she said on Wednesday, July 25 during an interview with Citizen TV.

Interestingly, Wangari never stepped into any tertiary learning institution but her aptitude in a male dominated business is worthwhile to those looking to pimp their cars.

READ ALSO: Jamaa akiona cha mtema kuni baada ya kuoa dadake, wazee waingilia kati

Shosh Shosh Sound Systems complete with a garage along Outering road in Nairobi where she fixes music systems for public and personal vehicles. Photo: Nairobi Updates/Twitter.

Source: Twitter

Her parting shot:

"Let everyone stop being lazy and idle. If we all work hard, we can end some of the financial constraints we are facing. However, no child will work hard without support and guidance from the parents," she advised.

TUKO.co.ke sampled some reactions from the Kenyan online community.

Source: Tuko- Khalwale urged the co-principals in NASA to quit the coalition

- He noted the first one to do so would be the serious challenger of DP Ruto

- The former Kakamega senator also claimed Raila will also be on the ballot in 2022

- Wetangula has been on record saying he is technically out of the NASA coalition

- The Bungoma senator has also declared interest in the presidency come 2022

Hours after FORD Kenya party leader Moses Wetangula claimed his party was still part of the National Super Alliance (NASA), former Kakamega senator Bonnie Khalwale has come out to challenge him to exit the coalition.

Khalwale claimed the first among the three co-principals- Wetangula, Kalonzo Musyoka, and Musalia Mudavadi- in the coalition to quit, would be the first serious challenger of Deputy President William Ruto come 2022.

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READ ALSO: Wetangula is the least person to call Raila a betrayer - ODM

Khalwale claimed the first among the three co-principals in the coalition to quit, would be the first serious challenger of William Ruto. Photo: Citizen TV

Source: Twitter

READ ALSO: Gavana wa Nandi amulikwa baada ya kutuma ujumbe wa kimapenzi kwa WhatsApp kimakosa

In a tweet post seen by TUKO.co.ke, the former senator argued another NASA co-principal and ODM leader Raila Odinga will also be on the ballot paper.

"Unless a man is prepared to lose sight of the shore he cannot set sail. The co-principal who abandons NASA will be the first serious challenger of DP Ruto for the presidency. Raila Odinga will be on the 2022 ballot paper. Moses Wetangula, Musalia Mudavadi, I'm now reminding you publicly," wrote Khalwale.

READ ALSO: Kisumu landlord arrested for allegedly burning 19 vehicles, shops after dispute with tenants

The ex-senator who has been a huge critic of the Opposition party since the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila made the remarks after Wetangula said he was in the coalition technically.

Wetangula also noted he was not bound by any law to be a member of the outfit despite having being urged to officially quit the coalition.

READ ALSO: We cannot have only the Mois, Kenyattas and Odingas running our politics - Wetangula

Wetangula had also strongly castigated the three big political families for monopolising the country's politics. Photo: Daily Nation.

Source: Facebook

A section of MPs from ODM shot back at the Bungoma governor and accused him of undermining Raila.

He had in an interview with Citizen TV accused the former premiere of being a party wrecker who the Jubilee government should be wary of.

Wetangula had also strongly castigated the three big political families for monopolising the country's politics.

Do you have a hot story or scandal you would like us to publish, please reach us through news@tuko.co.ke or WhatsApp: 0732482690 and Telegram: Tuko news.

How street Women In Kenya Deal With Periods | Tuko TV

Source: Tuko NewspaperWhen an emergency occurs, the University of Cincinnati utilizes several tools to communicate with members of our community in a quick and coordinated manner. These tools include:

voice notification system

text message

email

electronic signage boards

website

social media (Twitter and Facebook)

Rave Alert

If you have a question about the universitys operational status or emergency notification process, please send an email to publicsafety@uc.edu or call 513-556-4900.The U.S. Congress plans to allocate $250 million in 2019 to assist Ukraine in the security sector, Ukraine's Embassy in the United States has reported.

"The Senate and the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress approved the draft National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. The amount of funds allocated to the U.S. Department of Defense for the provision of security assistance to Ukraine is estimated at $250 million," the embassy said on Tuesday.

At the same time, the report notes that $50 million of this amount is to be allocated for lethal weapons.

The draft law should be voted by the Senate and the House of Representatives and signed by the U.S. president.

opThe Pentagon has signed a contract with the Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin JV for the production of Javelin anti-tank missile systems worth more than $307.5 million for sale abroad, in particular, to Ukraine.

"Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin JV, Tucson, Arizona, was awarded a $307,535,950 modification (P00107) to Foreign Military Sales (Australia, Estonia, Lithuania, Turkey, Taiwan and Ukraine) contract W31P4Q-13-C-0129 for Javelin Weapon System full-rate production," the U.S. Department of Defense informed in the press release.

The work will be performed in Tucson, Arizona, with an estimated completion date of August 31, 2021.

As reported, the United States decided to allocate $200 million to Kyiv to enhance its security and defense in the 2018 fiscal year.

ishThe Slovenian company Riko d.o.o. has won a tender for the development of a project and the construction of a solar power station with a capacity of 10.79 / 9.35 MW in the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.

Ukrinform learnt this from the Embassy of the Republic of Slovenia in Ukraine.

"The Slovenian company Riko d.o.o. won a tender for the performance of a set of works for the development of design estimates, as well as construction and installation works, for the establishment of a 10.79 / 9.35 MW solar power station in the city of Zhytomyr," the report reads.

This is the second project the Riko d.o.o. company implements in Zhytomyr. Previously, this Slovenian company won an open tender of the World Bank and signed an agreement with the Zhytomyrvodokanal public utility company for the implementation of a project for the preparation of drinking water and the reconstruction of a pumping station of drinking water in Zhytomyr.

The establishment of a solar power plant will be held with the financial support of the Government of Slovenia. It is an important stage in the agreements between the presidents of the Republic of Slovenia and Ukraine regarding the deepening of bilateral cooperation and the introduction of effective mechanisms for state support of projects in the fields of energy efficiency, renewable energy and alternative energy sources.

The signing ceremony of the agreement between the Slovenian company Riko d.o.o. and the Zhytomyr public company Center for Investments will be held in Kyiv on July 30, 2018.

ishU.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker believes that Ukraine should extend the law on special status of Donbas.

"I understand the disappointment of Ukrainian legislators and society. They took the necessary steps, such as the adoption of this law on the special status and the amnesty law, but Russia did nothing to end the conflict and withdraw troops," Volker said in an interview with the Voice of America.

In his opinion, the law was adopted but not applied.

"Currently, there is no special status. It will work only when certain agreements are reached, when Russia withdraws troops and local elections are held," the U.S. special envoy added.

However, he believes that termination of the law will do more harm than its continuation.

"I do not see any harm in continuation of the law. Nothing will change from today and till the day the law is extended. I do not think it is harmful. However, Russia will use the suspension of the law as a reason to accuse Ukraine of non-compliance with the Minsk agreements. So, do not give Russia this argument. The continuation of the law will not really change anything," Volker believes.

Volker believes that it would be logical for Ukraine to continue to exert pressure on Russia and prevent it from using the suspension of the law against Ukraine.

As reported, in September 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law on special status of Donbas. The document defines a temporary procedure for organization of local self-government, activities of local authorities in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The special order in these territories was introduced for three years.

In October 2017, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law to continue the special status for a year.

olThe festival of Ukrainian culture was held in Canadas capital Ottawa for the fourth consecutive year, the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada reports.

"For the fourth consecutive year, the festival of Ukrainian culture is taking place in Ottawa," reads the statement.

This year, the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada was a co-organizer of the solemn opening ceremony of the festival, which was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps, federal ministers and deputies, senators, representatives of local authorities, and the Ukrainian community.

According to the Ukrainian diplomatic mission, in general, the three-day holiday of Ukrainian traditions was visited by over 20,000 guests, who were able to enjoy delicious Ukrainian dishes, Ukrainian dances and songs, as well as to visit the fair.

The embassy also noted that bands from all over Canada and musicians from Ukraine performed at the festival.

iyMountaineers from Donetsk region have conquered one of the highest peaks of the Caucasus  mount Kazbek and placed there a Ukrainian national flag and a flag of the town of Kramatorsk (Donetsk region), which this year marks 150th anniversary of its foundation.

"The group of 11 mountaineers from Donetsk region, aged 15 to 60 years, conquered mount Kazbek. Five climbers are from Kramatorsk and decided to devote their trip to their native town, which this year celebrates the 150th anniversary of its foundation. July 10, Kramatorsk mayor Andriy Pankov solemnly handed over a towns flag to the group, which was placed at the Kazbek top along with the national flag of Ukraine," the Kramatorsk town council told an Ukrinform correspondent on Tuesday. olThe city of Lysychansk in Luhansk region on Tuesday marked the fourth anniversary of its liberation from illegal armed groups by holding a rally and honoring the memory of the deceased soldiers, the press service of the Luhansk regional military and civilian administration has said.

"Lysychansk was the next after the liberation of Rubizhne and Severodonetsk. Heavy fighting lasted here for several days. Residents of the city left the epicenter of fighting. They had to cross the Siversky Donets River themselves, because the bridge was mined. Inhabitants of the neighboring cities did not hesitate to respond to the call for assistance to Lysychansk residents. Somebody sheltered them at home, and somebody helped them with food and clothes. They were experiencing these events together, and then together they rejoiced at the victory," said Olha Lishyk, deputy head of the regional state administration.

She said that the day will come when all the cities that are now temporarily occupied by invaders will join a united, independent Ukraine and the state flag of Ukraine will fly above every government institution.

The rally participants laid flowers at the memorial to the deceased servicemen, Major General, Commander of the Military Unit No. 3011 of the National Guard of Ukraine Oleksandr Radiyevsky, Colonel Pavlo Snytsar and Soldier Yuriy Kotsiara, and commemorated them with a minute of silence.

Military and residents of the city held a festive procession from the bus station to Peremohy Square.

There was also a parade of soldiers and military equipment, followed by a concert of the military-musical center of the Ukrainian Ground Forces on Peremohy Square.

opThe Aley Festival took place in the Lebanese city of Aley, where the Ukrainian Embassy created a small national cultural space.

This was reported by the press service of the Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon.

"The Aley Festival was held in the city of Aley on July 20-22, 2018. The Embassy of Ukraine in Lebanon created a small national cultural space at the festival," the report reads.

Works of masters of Petrykivka decorative painting, embroidery, icon painting were presented at the Ukrainian stand.

ishOver 50 Ukrainian public figures, including Ivan Dziuba, Lina Kostenko, Yuriy Andrukhovych, Ivan Malkovych, Oleksandr Roytburd and others, have written a letter to Oleg Sentsov, who went on hunger strike to demand that all Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia be released.

"There are not so many people in the world with such will as you have. We know that you don't like when they say something good about you, but we need such a strong-willed man alive, in order to continue the further struggle for all our guys for whom you are ready to die. We need you. Even from prison, you managed to unite all of us for this struggle. If not now, then, in the near future, we will still release you. We are Ukraine, and there are many people of good wll in a civilized world," the letter reads.

As reported, on May 11, 2014, Sentsov was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service in Crimea. Later he was taken to Moscow, to a detention facility in Lefortovo.

The film director was charged with terrorism and illegal possession of weapons. In the materials of the trumped-up case he was called the organizer of a subversive and terrorist group.

In August 2015, Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. In February 2016, he was taken to Yakutia, and from November 2017, Oleg Sentsov began to serve his term in the White Bear penal colony in Labytnangi (Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District).

On May 14, 2018, Sentsov went on an indefinite hunger strike demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners detained in Russia.

opThe Ukrinform National News Agency of Ukraine and Greece's Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency (ANA-MPA) have agreed to expand professional cooperation on a bilateral basis, as well as interaction as part of international forums and organizations.

A respective cooperation agreement was signed by Ukrinform Director General Oleksandr Kharchenko and ANA-MPA President Michalis Psilos.

"We agreed to cooperate for the sake of increasing information in Greece about Ukraine and in Ukraine about Greece, as well as about cooperation in the European information space," Kharchenko said.

According to him, the agreement provides for information exchange between the two agencies, as well as the development of mutually beneficial cooperation as part of the European Alliance of News Agencies, whose members are Ukrinform from Ukraine and ANA-MPA from Greece.

Both agencies have operated for more than a hundred years - Ukrinform since 1918 and ANA-MPA since 1905. Ukrinform in Ukraine and ANA-MPA in Greece have extensive regional and foreign correspondent networks.Pentagon signs off a contract for the production of Javelin ATGMs.

Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin joint venture has won $307.5 million modification contract for Javelin Weapon System full-rate production for Australia, Estonia, Lithuania, Turkey Taiwan and Ukraine.

Work is estimated to be completed by Aug. 31, 2021, the United States Department of Defense said in a statement Wednesday, according to DefenseWorld.

Javelin is a light infantry surveillance and anti-armor weapon system.

As UNIAN reported earlier, in early July, Ukrainian officials refuted the reports by a number of Russian news agencies about the alleged malfunctioning of recently received Javelins. The Russian-favored disinformation piece alleged that U.S.-supplied ATGMs had certain technical flaws and that Ukrainian missile developers had allegedly complained about them to the National Security and Defense Council.

Tina Kaidanow, the State Departments acting assistant secretary for political-military affairs, said such reports represented propaganda of the worst kind.Putin could well offer Trump such a scenario as a referendum in Donbas on the status of occupied territories because the U.S. president is inclined to simple solutons to complex issues. For Trump, this kind of format would be okay, but not the referendum itself.

The official reaction of the White House and Department of State clearly indicates that Washington is not considering the Donbas referendum as a likely option. Also, the idea does not fit into the concepts of either the European Union or, moreover, Ukraine.

So, discussing any possibility of holding a referendum without the prior pullback of Russian troops from eastern Ukraine and without de-seperatisation is simply inappropriate. Ukraine should emphasize the fact that a certain period of time must pass after Russian troops withdraw and full control is re-established over the border in order to carry out any actions related to elections, referendums and other electoral measures. That is, first of all, there is a need for a certain "quarantine" in these territories to carry out de-separatisation measures and investigate war crimes, punish perpetrators, grant amnesty to some of them, and ensure forgiveness at a personal level.

Therefore, under today's conditions, there can be no referendum in Donbas. Ukraine cannot afford it politically, geopolitically, or military-wise.

Of course, despite non-acceptance by international community and Ukraine of such a scenario, Russia will still try to push and spin the idea in the Normandy Four talks, seeking allies that would exert pressure on Ukraine to realize the plan. But, from my point of view, such a scenario has no potential for its implementation.

Under today's conditions, there can be no referendum in Donbas. Ukraine cannot afford it politically, geopolitically, or military-wise

So how exactly would the Donbas referendum favor the Kremlin and what threats would it bear for Ukraine? When journalists asked the sources who leaked the info on referendum discussions in Helsinki, they explained that it would not be held in line with a "Crimean scenario." That is, the people of Donbas would not be asked whether they seek the region's accession to Russia. Instead, the referendum would be about the region's return to Ukraine under certain conditions. This would mean a de facto consolidation of the occupational status of these territories under the guise of their return and reintegration. And this would mean the need to pass amendments to the Constitution, grant these areas a separate status, greenlight mass amnesty, create joint military units, police departments, etc. And that's without the actual withdrawal of Russian troops and without cleansing the territory of criminals.

In addition, there is a risk related to the fact that Ukraine has certain political forces that could pick up the idea of the referendum  it's those who advocate "peace at all costs." These political forces, of course, will try to "pump up" Ukrainian society  claiming that referendum is actually an easy way to resolve the crisis, capable of eliminating contradictions and ending the war...

In fact, it will be capitulation. Every Ukrainian national must realize this because any discussion on such a referendum by the Kremlin scenario will mean Ukraine's complete surrender.

Vitaliy Kulyk is a Director of the Center for the Study of Civil Society ProblemsIn order to understand what's happening, one should focus on the source of spins.

The Kremlin propaganda in channeling its agenda uses not only own national-level media and pro-Russian outlets in other countries, but also smaller-scale information platforms and opinion leaders to spin their stories, that's according to Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military columnist for OSINT NGO Information Resistance.

"There are plenty of such examples in Ukraine as well, and they have become especially apparent today, as the panicking Kremlin is pushing its information wave amid the expected granting of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church. But, what particularly surprised me, Russians are acting in a similar way not only in Ukraine, but also in the very heart of the EU, France," the expert wrote in a column for Information Resistance.

When the first spins appeared on the eve of the 1030th anniversary of the Baptism of Kievan Rus, an article by Christelle Neant titled "Poroshenko's aspiration to create his church may cause religious war" was published on the French "AgoraVox" news and information platform.

Read alsoConstantinople ahead of Russia in church diplomacy game

The report by this "journalist" describes how the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Local Orthodox Church may lead to a civil war in Ukraine (the narrative of the Moscow Patriarchate), and claims that the rights of parishioners of Moscow Patriarchate are being infringed. But more disturbing is her claim that the situation in Ukraine raises concern in the government of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR"). Such claims aim at legitimizing Russia-supported militants in eastern Ukraine.

In order to understand what is happening, one should focus on the source of spins, the expert says.

"AgoraVox is a civic journalism website, where activists and volunteers rather than professional journalists publish their stories. The website was founded by Carlo Revelli (Cybion CEO) and Joel de Rosnay, scientist, PhD, Knight of the National Order of Merit, Chevalier of the National Order of Merit, Knight of the Legion of Honor and Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor. The founders are generally respected and acclaimed people.

Read alsoRussia launches yet another fake story targeting Ukraine church independence aspirations

In 2005, Deutsche Welle even called the platform the best website for civic journalism in France.

However, despite the respected founders and praise from world-famous colleagues, AgoraVox eventually started publishing more frankly fake stories, which became especially apparent in 2016. The biggest scandal was a result of a carefully crafted smear piece targeting Emmanuel Macron, published on April 21, 2017, on the eve of the first round of presidential elections.

Christelle Neant is an even more interesting persona, the expert says, adding that since 2016 she has been working for the DONi Press news agency in Donetsk, covering the Donbas war exclusively from the perspective of the Kremlin propaganda.

Read alsoSowing discord: Russia spins fake staged video of "SBU raid against volunteer troops in Donbas"

In the same year, on September 10, Christelle was granted the so-called "DPR" citizenship and later even became an officer of the press service of the so-called "DPR Ministry of State Security."

"And taking into account that this person publishes her pieces on AgoraVox, a question remains of how the website founders, people so much respected and titled, allow turning their project into a garbage can," the expert wonders.It is necessary to make Crimea cumbersome for the occupying state, the prosecutor said.

The Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea offers to prosecute foreigners who take part in various events hosted by occupation authorities on the Russian-annexed peninsula.

According to the office's press service, the relevant proposal was put forward at a coordination meeting of Crimean law enforcement agencies on crime situation in the temporarily occupied peninsula in 1H 2018, held July 24 under the chairmanship of Prosecutor of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Gyunduz Mamedov.

At the meeting, an issue was also raised of illegal entries of sea vessels to the sanctioned Crimean ports, aircraft arriving in Crimea, as well violations of Ukrainian border crossing rules by foreign officials and businessmen as they visit the temporarily occupied territory to participate in various events hosted by occupation authorities.

Read alsoUkraine to sanction Russian media outlets working in occupied Crimea

"I have repeatedly stressed the need to engage institutions of special pre-trial investigation and mechanisms for international legal cooperation... Yes, we have established registries that are being updated daily by new data on violators of Ukrainian legislation, but I demand real steps to bring those responsible to justice," Mamedov said.

"I will repeat the words of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko: We must make Crimea cumbersome for the occupying state. When ships stop entering, planes stop flying and foreign guests stop coming, this will certainly accelerate the process," he said.Russia occupied Crimea in March 2014, having conducted a "referendum," which has not been recognized internationally.

The United States has called on Russia to end its occupation of Ukraine's Crimea.

"The United States calls on Russia to respect the principles to which it has long claimed to adhere and to end its occupation of Crimea," U.S. Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said in a press statement titled, "Crimea Declaration," on July 25, 2018.

"As democratic states seek to build a free, just, and prosperous world, we must uphold our commitment to the international principle of sovereign equality and respect the territorial integrity of other states. Through its actions, Russia has acted in a manner unworthy of a great nation and has chosen to isolate itself from the international community," the statement said.

Read alsoNo "gifts to Russia at Ukraine's expense": Kurt Volker

"Russia, through its 2014 invasion of Ukraine and its attempted annexation of Crimea, sought to undermine a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states: that no country can change the borders of another by force. The states of the world, including Russia, agreed to this principle in the United Nations Charter, pledging to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. This fundamental principle  which was reaffirmed in the Helsinki Final Act  constitutes one of the foundations upon which our shared security and safety rests," it said.

The United States reiterated the recognition of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"As we did in the Welles Declaration in 1940, the United States reaffirms as policy its refusal to recognize the Kremlin's claims of sovereignty over territory seized by force in contravention of international law. In concert with allies, partners, and the international community, the United States rejects Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea and pledges to maintain this policy until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored," the statement said.

UNIAN memo. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held for Crimeans to decide on accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities reported that allegedly 96.77% of the Crimean population had voted for joining Russia. On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to Russia was signed in the Kremlin. The West did not recognize the annexation in response to which sanctions against Russia were introduced. Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date when the temporary occupation of Crimea began.He is held in the Lefortovo detention center.

Citizen of Ukraine Serhiy Buhaichuk, who works as a train host, has been arrested in Moscow, Russia.

"There is a new story with a Ukrainian hostage in Russia. This is a train host from [the Ukrainian city of] Rivne  Serhiy Buhaichuk. He has been remanded in custody," lawyer Mark Feygin wrote on Twitter on July 25.

The detainee is currently kept in the Lefortovo detention center, the lawyer added.

Feygin later said that he had met Buhaichuk's wife in the detention center while visiting Ukrainian journalist Roman Sushchenko, who is now kept in Lefortovo on charges of "espionage."

Read alsoUkrainian political prisoner Hryb in Russian court: "I plead not guilty"

Buhaichuk was arrested on July 11, 2018. He is accused of arms trafficking across the Ukrainian-Russian border with two other persons: he allegedly wanted to sell, among other things, a Glock 19 handgun.

His case is being investigated by Russia's FSB security service under Article 222 of the Criminal Code of Russia (illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or possession of arms, its main parts, ammunition). The punishment under the article includes imprisonment from five to eight years and a fine.

Buhaichuk pleads not guilty. The Consulate of Ukraine is currently looking for a lawyer to be hired for him.

Feygin is a Russian lawyer who was deprived of his right to work as a lawyer in Russia, however, he is allowed to take part in the Sushchenko case as a public defender.Nayev met with UVA head, MP Dmytro Yarosh to discuss this issue.

Commander of the Joint Forces of Ukraine Serhiy Nayev has invited members of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army (UVA) to join the regular troops by signing a contract.

This issue was discussed at a meeting between Nayev and UVA head, MP Dmytro Yarosh in Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, the headquarters of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said on Facebook on July 24.

"The participation of motivated fighters from the UVA in any unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (including as a fully equipped unit) was discussed on condition they sign a contract (including a short-term one)," the JFO HQ said.

They were also offered military service in the reserve as part of the special forces units, reconnaissance and territorial defense units, it said.

Read alsoJFO: Ukraine reports 2 WIAs amid 21 enemy attacks in Donbas in past day

Currently, the Ukrainian legislation does not regulate UVA members' participation in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the front.

Nayev assured if military volunteers agree to such a proposal, this will let them serve in other security agencies of the JFO security and defense sector in Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

Those who have no right to keep and bear arms, those who are not part of the JFO and those who had earlier visited the frontline "for the sake of own publicity" cannot serve at the front, Nayev added.

Yarosh in turn confirmed on Facebook that he had met with Nayev and Chief of the JFO Headquarters Major General Valeriy Zaluzhny.

"We met, exchange information, discussed the current situation and prospects. We assured each other that unity is power, and that people who are united by an idea of the Ukrainian nation's statehood can defeat any enemy, mainly the Moscow Empire, and we agreed to jointly celebrate in Donetsk the liberation of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Crimea was not forgotten," Yarosh wrote.

Yarosh assured that the administrative bases of the 5th and 8th Separate Battalions, the Volyn separate light infantry unit, the Hospitallers medical battalion, as well as the military intelligence service, the training center, the territorial units of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army and its frontline operating bases work in usual mode.

According to Yarosh, members of Ukraine's military counterintelligence service have always been present at all UVA bases since 2015, and the UVA itself is subordinate to the JFO Command.Ukraine's authorities expect that the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will green-light granting a tomos, an official church document, on autocephaly to the Orthodox church in Ukraine by the 1030th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus, which will be celebrated on July 28, 2018.

One of the leaders of Ukraine's Opposition Bloc, Member of Parliament Vadim Novinsky warns of a possible civil war if the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is granted autocephaly, which will make it independent from the Moscow Patriarchate.

"I told His All-Holiness Bartholomew very clearly: if any document is given, well, at least something, even the one without substance, where there are no specifics of a plan, but if this document itself exists, then a civil war will begin in our country," he told the news portal LB.ua.

Novinsky also threatens that there will be a "war for churches in every town, in every village," simultaneously calling members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate "gangsters and invaders." In addition, he claims he personally is going to protect the churches.

"I do not know if I organize anything, but I will definitely defend our shrine  the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery [which is currently controlled by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate]. I myself will rise up to defend," Novinsky said.

Asked what way he plans to defend the monastery, he did not answer directly, saying only that "a prayer is a main weapon of a believer."

Novinsky was earlier a citizen of Russia until the then president Viktor Yanukovych granted him Ukrainian citizenship on May 29, 2012, at the request of the then Minister of Economy Petro Poroshenko, who is now Ukraine's incumbent president.

Read alsoMoscow could stage provocations on Rus Baptism anniversary in Kyiv to tar Ukraine church image - MP

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced on April 17, 2018, that the heads of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had decided to officially appeal to Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for autocephaly.

Autocephaly is the status of a hierarchical Christian Church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop (used especially in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Independent Catholic churches). Autocephaly opens the way for the creation of a united Orthodox church in Ukraine, which will not be subordinate to Moscow.

Poroshenko said he hoped that the Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate would green-light granting a tomos, an official church document, on autocephaly to the Orthodox church in Ukraine by the 1030th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus, which will be celebrated on July 28, 2018.

The split between the Moscow and Kyiv branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church happened during the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Ukraine's Primate Filaret broke with the Russian Orthodox Church. He argued that an independent Ukraine deserved a national church truly independent of Moscow. The Moscow Patriarchate whose parishes prevail in Ukraine has never recognized the Ukrainian Patriarchate.Their legislation will require Senate approval for any U.S. withdrawal from NATO.

Two leading U.S. senators said Tuesday they'll introduce a bipartisan bill to increase U.S. sanctions against Russia that would target Russian sovereign debt as well as the country's energy and financial sectors.

The announcement by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democrat Bob Menendez follows last week's uproar after President Donald Trump stood next to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki and questioned the validity of the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Bloomberg reported.

The ruble reversed gains just after the senators announced their proposal. It lost as much as 0.6% in Moscow, the most since July 19.

Read alsoPutin won't be invited to address U.S. Congress: House Speaker Ryan  media

The bipartisan proposal is another sign that Trump hasn't been able to tamp down the furor raised after his news conference with Putin and his invitation for the Russian leader to come to the White House in the fall.

Graham and Menendez said in a joint statement that just as Putin has sought to challenge U.S. power and influence, "The United States must make it abundantly clear that we will defend our nation and not waver in our rejection of his effort to erode Western democracy."

Graham of South Carolina and Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said their legislation will require Senate approval for any U.S. withdrawal from NATO. It will include increased efforts to counter Russian disinformation, and assistance to democratic nations in Europe to defend against Russian interference, the senators said.

Senators Marco Rubio and Chris Van Hollen are pushing for a vote on a separate bill which also would impose new sanctions, including on debt transactions, for countries interfering in the midterm elections. Their legislation would impose stiff sanctions on several key Russian economic sectors if the Director of National Intelligence  not Trump  certifies that Russia interfered in any future election. The sectors include finance, energy, defense, and metal and mining.Pompeo said the world needs the Russians to continue to be held accountable for that.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States will continue to support efforts to hold the perpetrators for MH17 flight crash over Donbas in July 2014 accountable.

"We need the Russians to continue to be held accountable for that. We take this matter seriously and we committed over these last two days, as we have for the last months, to continue to support every effort through the Joint Investigative Team to hold the perpetrators for this heinous activity accountable. You have America's support in that and will continue to do so," he said at a press conference with U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne.

Read alsoU.S. State Department: Russia "without a doubt responsible" for shooting down MH17

UNIAN memo. Malaysia Airlines' MH17 Boeing 777 heading from Amsterdam for Kuala Lumpur was shot down on July 17, 2014, over militant-occupied territory in Donetsk region. All 298 people on board who were citizens of 10 countries were killed in the crash. The majority of the victims, 196, were citizens of the Netherlands.

The Dutch Safety Board October 13, 2015, issued a report on the causes of the accident. It was revealed that the plane had been shot down by a Buk anti-aircraft missile system.

The Joint Investigation Team in its report published on September 28, 2016, confirmed that the plane had been downed by a Russian-made Buk brought to Ukraine from Russia.

Dutch Chief Prosecutor Fred Westerbeke said his office had identified 100 "persons of interest" in the investigation, including those who organized the arrival of the rocket and oversaw its transportation from Russia to Ukraine and back.Putin and Trump both denied the rumors at last week's summit.

Does the Kremlin have dirt on President Donald Trump? Half of American voters think so, according to a new poll.

Fifty-one percent of voters believe "the Russian government has compromising information about President Trump," a Quinnipiac University national poll found. Thirty-five percent of Americans surveyed do not believe so, POLITICO wrote.

Speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin has compromising information on Trump has long plagued the U.S. president. Russian meddling in the 2016 election is under federal investigation, and Trump's reluctance to stand up to Putin on the world stage in Helsinki last week has only stoked questions.

"Whether it is with love or not, President Donald Trump's relationship with Russia has delivered a small blow to his already poor standing with the American people," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. "Following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump's job approval is back below 40 percent again."

Read alsoBloomberg: Senators propose boosting sanctions on Russia, including debt

Putin and Trump both denied the rumors at last week's summit. During a joint news conference, Trump said his reasoning was that any compromising information would have been made public by now.

"We don't have anything on them, and there can't be anything on them," Putin said in a Fox News interview that aired the night of the summit. "I don't want to insult President Trump when I say this, and this may come off as rude, but before he announced that he would run for the presidency, he was of no interest for us."

Read alsoPutin on allegations Rusia has "kompromat" on Trump: "Throw this junk out of your head"

Trump has also repeatedly attacked a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele that described a complex, multiyear effort by Russia to cultivate Trump and ultimately help him win the presidency. It later emerged that Steele's work was partially funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic Party.

GOP voters largely agree with Trump: Seventy percent of Republicans don't believe the Russian government has compromising information on him. Quinnipiac surveyed 1,177 voters from July 18 through July 23, just days after the summit. Republicans are the "only listed party, gender, education, age or racial group which does not believe it," Quinnipiac said in a news release.

Read alsoPutin won't be invited to address U.S. Congress: House Speaker Ryan  media

Among divided groups are white voters without a college degree, 44 percent of whom believe the Russians have something on Trump, while 43 percent do not. And 42 percent of white men believe Putin has dirt on Trump, while 43 percent do not, according to the poll.

The survey included additional questions about the Helsinki summit and the president's performance. Most voters  54 percent  agree the U.S. and Russia "share the blame" for the relationship between the two countries. The same percentage of respondents say the American president was not acting in the best interest of the United States. And 52 percent say the summit was a failure for the United States, while 73 percent say it was a success for Russia.

The poll, conducted via landlines and cellphones, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall.

REUTERS

Donald Trump's proposed Washington meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has been delayed until 2019.

The national security adviser, John Bolton, in a statement, cited special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay, The Guardian reported.

Read alsoPutin won't be invited to address U.S. Congress: House Speaker Ryan  media

Bolton said: "The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year."

The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall. This came amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the fall.July 25 2018

The University of St Andrews has marked the beginning of construction work at its 12.5m music centre on Queens Terrace, a purpose-built venue which will double as a performance and recording space.

The Laidlaw Music Centre will provide the institution with a new recording suite open to students wishing to pursue their passion for music in tandem with their studies while also enabling the university to host recitals.

Designs drawn up by Flanagan Lawrence call for the creation of three rehearsal rooms, ten practice rooms, recording suite and library together with a chamber recital hall.

The Universitys Director of Music, Michael Downes, said: The Younger hall, where our current facilities are located, was never intended to house a busy music centre which in a typical week hosts around 40 ensemble rehearsals and almost 300 individual lessons, in addition to hundreds of hours of private practice.

The new building will provide facilities to match the talent and ambition we see shining bright in the St Salvators Chapel Choir, Byre Opera, the University Chamber Orchestra, and St Andrews and Fife Community Orchestra.

Completion is expected by late 2019.Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, today published a consultation paper setting out its proposed regulatory framework for operators of Private Financing Platforms, PFPs, in ADGM.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 25th Jul, 2018) Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, the International Financial Centre in Abu Dhabi, today published a consultation paper setting out its proposed regulatory framework for operators of Private Financing Platforms, PFPs, in ADGM.

The consultation paper follows positive feedback received from the industry in response to the March discussion paper issued by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, FSRA, on the scope and form of a regulatory framework for PFPs, which has informed the development and refinement of the proposals set out in this consultation paper. This is part of FSRAs ongoing initiatives to provide an inclusive regulatory platform that bolster the growth and development of start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, in Abu Dhabi and MENA region.

PFPs are online platforms that enable private enterprises to seek financing from private and institutional investors to launch and grow their businesses. PFPs that facilitate such business-to-business lending, equity crowdfunding, invoice financing and private placements can play an important role in improving access to alternative financing for private enterprises, start-ups and SMEs, which are key engines of economic growth and diversification in the UAE and wider region.

The FSRA is proposing a tailored, risk-proportionate regulatory framework that effectively addresses the risks posed by transactions facilitated through a PFP.(@FahadShabbir)

DP World has signed a 20-year concession with an automatic 20-year extension with the Republic of Mali to build and operate a 1000-hectare modern logistics hub outside of Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali. The multimodal logistics platform, Mali Logistics Hub, MLH, will have inland container depots, ICD, and Container Freight Stations, CFS, that will facilitate the import and export of goods.

DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 25th Jul, 2018) DP World has signed a 20-year concession with an automatic 20-year extension with the Republic of Mali to build and operate a 1000-hectare modern logistics hub outside of Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali. The multimodal logistics platform, Mali Logistics Hub, MLH, will have inland container depots, ICD, and Container Freight Stations, CFS, that will facilitate the import and export of goods.

The Mali Logistics Hub will be located on the main road corridor from Dakar, Senegal to Bamako and close to the Dakar - Bamako rail line and will be capable of handling 300,000 TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit), four million tons of bulk and general cargo. The first phase of the project, with an estimated initial investment of US$50 million, will include an inland container depot and container freight station facility that will support the growth of the Malian economy by streamlining the import and export of goods. Construction is expected to start in 2019 and is to take approximately 18 months to complete.

DP World will also provide the Republic of Mali with three locomotive trains to boost cargo & passenger traffic along the Bamako-Dakar rail system.

The Mali logistics hub will significantly reduce processing times for products entering the Malian market as part of efforts to reduce obstacles to trade and economic development. DP World will also implement its online paperless facilitation platform to accelerate the movement of goods as part of the agreement.

The concession agreement was signed in Dubai on Monday by Suhail Al Banna, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World middle East and Africa, and Moulaye Ahmed Boubacar, Mali's Minister of Equipment and Transport, in the attendance of Malian and DP World officials.

Commenting on the announcement, DP World Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, said, "The Malian market is expected to grow over the next two decades and is driven by a robust economic and population growth. Thus, the Mali Logistics Hub is much needed and will provide the country with a logistics platform that aims to facilitate the import and export of goods via the Port of Dakar, which is operated by DP World.

"DP Worlds investment will significantly cut processing times for goods and thus facilitate trade. We are committed to enabling trade in the region and helping local businesses and people prosper, and look forward to working together."

Minister Boubacar said, "We are excited to partner with DP World on this project. The Mali Logistics Hub will dramatically improve the cost and time of trade for Mali. The project will provide us with a first-class logistics facility comparable to global standards and will be the largest in terms of capacity."

"We are confident that with DP World as a partner we will be able to meet the expectations of our people, traders and exporters to have access to more markets and to bring more efficiency and cost effectiveness to international trade. The project also gives the Republic of Mali the opportunity to be connected to global trade lanes, and to speed up access and transport in and out of the country," he concluded.The festival is geared toward families earlier in the day. The first performers are jazz students at the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory. They performed for the first time last year. People loved them, Fejklowicz said. This is a great way to include some of the young artists and get families to the event early on when we have activities for kids such as a face painter and balloon artist. She added well-behaved leashed dogs are welcome.Dubai Police on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Emaar Properties to set up smart police stations at Emaar projects to provide all police services to tenants and owners without human intervention.

DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 26th Jul, 2018) Dubai Police on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Emaar Properties to set up smart police stations at Emaar projects to provide all police services to tenants and owners without human intervention.

Brigadier Khalid Nasser Al Razooqi, Director of Artificial Intelligence Department of Dubai Police, signed the agreement with Ahmad Thani Al Matroushi, managing director of Emaar Properties, to set up the first smart police station in Arabian Ranches with a walk-in system.

Brig Al Razooqi praised the cooperation with Emaar Properties to establish more smart police stations in the future to serve the residents.

"Under directives from Major-General Abdullah Khalifa Al Merri, Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, we are keen to communicate and reach all members of the public to provide best smart services for their happiness.

The new station in Arabian Ranches will give services round the clock," Brig. Al Razooqi said.

The walk-in station will be open 24 hours, seven days a week. The station offers 27 key services such as reporting crimes and traffic incidents as well as community services ranging from getting a good-conduct certificate to social support for victims of family violence. The services can be accesses in six different languages without human intervention.

"We are looking to reduce the number of customers in police centres by 80 per cent."

Al Matroushi said that Emaar Properties is keen to cooperate with innovative entities like Dubai Police to provide the best services to the residents.

"Having smart police stations will provide smart, excellent and easy services to the public," Al Matroushi said.(@rukhshanmir)

Major General Mohammed Al-Marri, Director-General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, GDRFA, received a number of consular representatives in Dubai from India, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, with the aim of strengthening cooperation with regard to the modification of the residency status for defendants.

DUBAI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 25th Jul, 2018) Major General Mohammed Al-Marri, Director-General of the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, GDRFA, received a number of consular representatives in Dubai from India, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, with the aim of strengthening cooperation with regard to the modification of the residency status for defendants.

At the beginning of the meeting, Al-Marri welcomed the representatives and reviewed the details of the cabinet's decision to amend the conditions of residency in the country. He pointed out that the 2018 initiative is entitled "Protect Yourself by Modifying Your Status" within "Year of Zayed." He also informed the representatives of the procedure of receiving the violators' requests and the facilities provided by the department. He stressed that the UAE is a tolerant country that makes all efforts for everyone to live safely, securely and happily.

Al-Marri was accompanied by Brigadier-General Khalaf Ahmed Al Ghaith, Director-General Assistant of Follow-up Sector of Violators and Foreigners in Dubai. Lieutenant Ghazi Al Nuaimi, Deputy Assistant Director of Follow-up Affairs; Lieutenant Abdullah Atiq, Deputy Assistant Director of Investigation Affairs; Lieutenant Jassim Ahli, Director of the Entry Permit Department, and a number of senior officers and officials inspected the facilities prepared for the reception of residents to adjust their conditions during the period spanning 1st August to 31st October.

"This cooperation with the consulates in Dubai will contribute significantly to conveying our message to violators of the need to cooperate with the concerned authorities to change their situation without hesitation or fear, and to respond to all their inquiries," Al-Marri said.

The late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan always cared for the residents of the UAE without distinction between them and the citizens of the State and extended a helping hand to every needy person regardless of nationality. President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan continues his father's legacy to facilitate the affairs of citizens and residents as much as possible, thus making the UAE a safe destination for everyone to live and work in.

Al-Marri added that Dubai is keen to provide good support and facilities to disabled residents to help them enjoy of a decent life in the country, in addition to achieving the vision of the leadership that the UAE community is completely free of violators.

Brigadier-General Al Ghaith appealed to violators to respond to the deadline and take advantage of this opportunity to amend their status to avoid legal accountability by visiting the designated offices at the headquarters of the follow-up sector of the violators (foreigners) in the Al-Aweer area or through the Customers Happiness Centres. He said they should submit applications, explain their situation in detail, and complete the necessary supporting documents in case of need from other parties to correct their status.Nawah Energy Company, Nawah, the nuclear operating joint venture company established by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, ENEC, and Korea Electric Power Corporation, KEPCO, celebrated the successful graduation of 195 students who are specialising in nuclear energy as part of the Energy Pioneers scholarship programme.

ABU DHABI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 25th Jul, 2018) Nawah Energy Company, Nawah, the nuclear operating joint venture company established by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, ENEC, and Korea Electric Power Corporation, KEPCO, celebrated the successful graduation of 195 students who are specialising in nuclear energy as part of the Energy Pioneers scholarship programme.

The graduates completed nuclear science and technology focused courses from various institutions of higher education in the UAE and abroad, including Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, and Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University and North Carolina State University in the US.

Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mark Reddemann, congratulated the students in his speech, and emphasised their responsibility towards building and developing the nuclear energy sector in the UAE for future generations.

"It is with great pride that we witness the graduation of an outstanding group of energy pioneers, who have demonstrated great diligence, commitment and passion to become future leaders in the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program," said Reddemann.

"In line with the Abu Dhabi Plan, these energy pioneers will play a critical role in supporting operational readiness and safe operations of the four units at Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant for decades to come, and contribute to the social and economic prosperity of the UAE," he added.

Nawahs education programmes align with Abu Dhabi Plan and aim to give young UAE nationals the skills and knowledge needed to pursue a career in the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme.

By offering scholarships in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, subjects and highly technical fields, the Energy Pioneers programme has been successful in helping students gain the skills needed to fill highly-skilled, technical positions at Nawah, the company that will operate and maintain the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the Al Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi.

The Energy Pioneers programme was launched by ENEC in 2010 with the aim of developing human capability and ensuring a talented and committed workforce that will lead the UAE peaceful nuclear energy programme throughout its construction and operational phases. Once completed, the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant will operate for at least 60 years, providing high-quality jobs and supporting the development of a knowledge-based economy in the UAE for decades to come.

To date, over 500 UAE nationals have benefitted from a scholarship through the Energy Pioneers programme. In addition, Nawah currently has approximately 200 young Emiratis in training to become reactor operators and senior reactor operators. Alongside Nawahs international experts, they will operate the nuclear reactors at Barakah and will ensure the safe generation of clean, efficient and reliable electricity at each of the four units.(@rukhshanmir)

President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, has received credentials of Mahash Saeed Al Hamili, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, as non-resident ambassador to Botswana.

(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 25th Jul, 2018) GABORONE, 25th July, 2018 (WAM)  President of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, has received credentials of Mahash Saeed Al Hamili, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, as non-resident ambassador to Botswana.

This came during a meeting at the Presidential Palace, Gaborone, which was attended by a number of officials.

The UAE envoy conveyed the regards of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to President Masisi. They also wished him good health and happiness and permanent progress and prosperity to the people of Botswana.

The UAE Ambassador emphasised the UAE's keenness to strengthen its relations and common interests with Botswana.

He stressed the importance of promoting bilateral and cooperation relations and expanding the common interests of both countries.

The President of Botswana asked the UAE diplomat to convey his greetings to His Highness Sheikh Khalifa and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and his best wishes of good health and happiness as well more development and welfare for the Emirati people.

He also wished him good luck and success to discharge the duties of his missions. He emphasised the readiness of the official authorities to provide all kind of support for him to enhance bilateral relations and cooperation in various fields.Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, is on official visit to Sultanate of Oman

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, is on official visit to Sultanate of Oman. During the visit, the Naval Chief called on Commander Royal Navy of Oman, Rear Admiral Abdullah Bin Khamis Al Raisi and Commandant of Sultan Qaboos Naval academy in separate meetings. Upon arrival at Royal Navy of Oman Headquarters, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi was received by his counterpart Rear Admiral Abdullah Bin Khamis Al Raisi. A smartly turned out contingent of Royal Omani Navy clad in ceremonial dress presented him the Guard of Honour.

Later, Chief of the Naval Staff called on Commander Royal Navy of Oman. During the meeting, discussions on professional matters including bilateral naval collaboration and security environment in Indian Ocean Regionwere held. Various avenues of cooperation between the two Navies were also focused. A comprehensive brief on Royal Oman Navy was given to Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi. Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi highlighted Pakistans contributions in fight against terrorism and ensuring maritime security at sea by protecting National and International shipping plying inthe Indian Ocean Region against threats of Piracy, Maritime Terrorism, Narco-arms smuggling and human trafficking etc.

Rear Admiral Abdullah Bin Khamis Al Raisi lauded Pakistan Navys efforts and focused commitments in support of maritime security in the region. Rear Admiral Abdullah Bin Khamis Al Raisi also appreciated the professionalism of Pakistan Navy personnel and acknowledged the valuable training support being provided to Royal Navy of Oman by Pakistan Navy. Both the dignitaries agreed to further enhance the interaction between the two navies in diverse fields of training, mutual visits and defence collaboration. Later, during the day, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi visited Said Bin Sultan Naval Base, Sultan Qaboos Naval Academy, Royal Navy of Oman Ship and Fleet Maintenance Facility. During the meeting with Commandant Sultan Qaboos Naval Academy, matters of mutual interest including professional & academic training and grooming of young officers were discussed. Chief of the Naval Staff also visited various segments/ sections of the Academy and interacted with Midshipmen and cadets. This visit of Naval Chief is taking place concurrent with the port visit of Pakistan Navy Ship SAIFto OMAN currently deployed in North Arabian Sea;that is yet another manifestation of the ongoing collaboration which will further expand and strengthen in future.Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, is on an official visit to Oman

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, is on an official visit to Oman. During the visit, the Naval Chief called on Secretary General of Ministry of Defence Oman, Mohamed Bin Naseer AL-Rasby and Chief of Staff Sultans Armed Forces, Lt General Ahmed Bin Harith Al Nabhani in separate meetings. During the meetings, various avenues of defence collaboration between the two countries were dilated upon.

Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi highlighted, Pakistans commitment and performance in fight against terrorism including Pakistan Navys contribution towards regional maritime security through a collaborative approach and expressed, existing cordial relationship between two countries be translated into further constructive engagements between Armed Forces of the two countries in general and the Navies in particular to promote peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean Region.

Omani dignitaries thanked Chief of the Naval Staff on Pakistans support to Oman in diverse defence related realms and appreciated role and contributions of Pakistan Navy in maintaining peace and stability in the region. Pakistan and Oman enjoy cordial relations characterized by common and shared bonds of culture, traditions, religious and social values. The collaboration between PN and Royal Navy of Oman has strengthened over the years marked by conduct of joint naval exercise THAMMAR AL TAYYIB, training exchange, port calls and visits. It is expected that recent visit of the Naval Chief will enhance and expand collaboration between the two countries in general and navies in particular.The Commonwealth Observer Group will release its interim statement on the elections on Friday, 27 July 2018, with a full report to come at a later stage, Chairman of the Group, former Head of State of Nigeria, General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar said.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :The Commonwealth Observer Group will release its interim statement on the elections on Friday, 27 July 2018, with a full report to come at a later stage, Chairman of the Group, former Head of State of Nigeria, General Abdulsalami A. Abubakar said.

According to a press statement, he said, the Group would release comprehensive report at a later stage. Of these, approximately 46 million are 18 to 35 years old. "We wish the people of Pakistan credible, transparent, inclusive, peaceful and democratic elections, and we remain hopeful that this noble nation will live up to the standards to which it has committed itself, both domestically and internationally," said General Abubakar.

The Group has met with a wide range of stakeholders in the lead up to elections, including the Election Commission of Pakistan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, various political parties, civil society organisations, members of the media, and the military.

The Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group said that around 105.95 million Pakistanis - 59.22 million men and 46.73 million women have registered to vote at the general elections.(@rukhshanmir)

Chief Secretary (CS) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Naveed Kamran Baloch Wednesday visited Election Coordination Cell at Home Department and reviewed the security arrangements made for the elections.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :Chief Secretary (CS) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Naveed Kamran Baloch Wednesday visited Election Coordination Cell at Home Department and reviewed the security arrangements made for the elections.

Secretary Home Ikramullah Khan briefed the CS about the elections arrangements.

Naveed Kamran was informed that coordination cell with a close contact with DC in the districts and receiving first hand information on any complaint received.

The complaints received were immediately sent to the Districts Officers for broad action.

The CS directed the officers to keep close liason with all the district administrations for early disposal of complaints.

Meanwhile the Chief Secretary and KP IGP Muhammad Tahir visited the Command and Control Room at Capital City Police Station.

The SSP Operation Javed Iqbal Wazir briefed the CS and IGP about the working of the control room.

The SSP Operation said that he was in contact with the police officers on security duty in the provincial metropolis.(@rukhshanmir)

The Supreme Court (SC) Tuesday declined Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's request for suspending the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision of postponing election in NA-60 (Rawalpindi), observing that there was no possibility of holding election now in the constituency.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jul, 2018 ) :The Supreme Court (SC) Tuesday declined Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's request for suspending the Election Commission of Pakistan's (ECP) decision of postponing election in NA-60 (Rawalpindi), observing that there was no possibility of holding election now in the constituency.

However, the bench admitted the petition for regular hearing and issued notices to the attorney general of Pakistan and others.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, and comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, passed the orders while hearing the petition filed by Sheikh Rashid.

Earlier, Sheikh Rashid's counsel argued that after the conviction of rival PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi in the ephedrine case, the ECP decided to postpone the election in the constituency, which did not have any legal backing.

However, Justice Bandial observed that under Article 218(3) of the Constitution, the ECP was empowered to hold free, fair and transparent elections and it was mandatory for the purpose that all parties should be part of it. In the absence of a covering candidate, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would be out of race, he added.

At this, the chief justice remarked that the court could order for holding elections in the constituency but then Hanif Abbasi would also be allowed to take part.

Justice Ijaz observed that there was a close contest in the constituency between the candidates. How come 40 per cent people of the constituency could be deprived of their right to vote for a candidate of their choice, he questioned. If the elections were held now, then Sheikh Rashid would get a walkover, he added.

But, the counsel contended that elections could only be delayed in case of the death of a candidate, as per law. He further submitted that the ECP took decision of postponing election under the pressure of media.

To which, Justice Ijaz reiterated that major portion of the constituency would be deprived of their right to vote to a candidate of their choice, if a party was taken out of the race.

However, the counsel mentioned that the Commission did not stop elections in the two Constituencies after the disqualification of Maryam Nawaz Sharif and Capt (retd) Safdar.

At this, the bench remarked that the covering candidates were available in those constituencies, whereas a major party had been out of the race in NA-60.

To a court query, the counsel replied that elections could be held in the constituency as elections were taking place in two provincial assembly constituencies falling under NA-60 constituency.

But, the chief justice observed that only material regarding provincial assembly had been delivered to polling stations and there was no possibility of making arrangements for the NA constituency now.

The bench declined to suspend the decision of the ECP for postponing elections. The court remarked that it would review whether elections could be postponed under Article 218(3) and Section 4 of the Election Act, which only envisages death of a candidate and do not envisage a situation like the present one.

It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday, the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench had dismissed Sheikh Rashid's petition and upheld the ECP decision.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, who is on an official visit to Oman held separate meetings with Secretary General of Ministry of Defence Oman, Mohamed Bin Naseer AL-Rasby and Chief of Staff Sultan's Armed Forces, Lt General Ahmed Bin Harith Al Nabhani.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, who is on an official visit to Oman held separate meetings with Secretary General of Ministry of Defence Oman, Mohamed Bin Naseer AL-Rasby and Chief of Staff Sultan's Armed Forces, Lt General Ahmed Bin Harith Al Nabhani.

During the meetings, various avenues of defence collaboration between the two countries were dilated upon, a press release issued here by directorate of public relations of Pakistan Navy on Wednesday said.

Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi highlighted, Pakistan's commitment and performance in fight against terrorism including Pakistan Navy's contribution towards regional maritime security through a collaborative approach and expressed, existing cordial relationship between two countries be translated into further constructive engagements between Armed Forces of the two countries in general and the Navies in particular to promote peace and prosperity in the Indian Ocean Region.

Omani dignitaries thanked Chief of the Naval Staff on Pakistan's support to Oman in diverse defence related realms and appreciated role and contributions of Pakistan Navy in maintaining peace and stability in the region.

Pakistan and Oman enjoy cordial relations characterized by common and shared bonds of culture,traditions, religious and social values. The collaboration between PN and Royal Navy of Oman has strengthened over the years marked by conduct of joint naval exercise THAMMAR AL TAYYIB, training exchange, port calls and visits. It is expected that recent visit of the Naval Chief will enhance and expandcollaboration between the two countries in general and navies in particular.Leo was able to escape by wedging his way through a Plexiglas divider that forms a barrier between the front and back seat, and he then escaped from the front of the vehicle, Covelli said. Authorities are reviewing video to see if Leo was able to get out of his handcuffs before he squeezed through the barrier or after, according to Covelli.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The votes polling process was peacefully concluded in Khyber Pakthunkhwa including seven tribal districts on Wednesday with no untoward incident reported except Swabi incident.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :The votes polling process was peacefully concluded in Khyber Pakthunkhwa including seven tribal districts on Wednesday with no untoward incident reported except Swabi incident.

Polling of votes continued in all 26 districts of KP and seven tribal districts recently merged in Khyber Pakthunkhwa uninterrupted till 6pm and voters inside polling stations were allowed to cast votes.

Soon after completion of polling process, counting of ballot papers continued in presence of political agents of contesting candidates. Senior citizens, disabled persons, youth and women voters besides registered male and females voters in hundreds of thousands polled their votes during last three hours of polling process.

KP has witnessed healthy voters turn out in 2018 general election in comparison with 2013 elections and turned out of women were comparatively higher in this election than last general elections.

In Peshawar, great turned out is expected in city polling stations including Gul Bahar, Hashtnagri, Dalazak Road, Tarnab, Tehkal, Qisakwani, Ganj, Kohati, Ramadas, Chamkani, Faqirabad, Latifabad, Shami road, Hayatabad, University Town, Warsak Road, Badagbar, Surizai, Pandu, Nasirbagh and University Town.

After Zuhar prayers, hundreds of thousands of voters thronged to these polling stations and polled their votes in favour of their choice candidates. The women also polled votes at different polling stations in Dir Upper and Lower districts.

Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Naveed Kamran Baloch visited Election Coordination Cell at Home Department and reviewed the security arrangements made for elections.

Meanwhile the Chief Secretary and KP IGP Muhammad Tahir visited the Command and Control Room at Capital City Police Station where they were briefed by SSP Operation Javed Iqbal Wazir about the working of the control room.

All the polling stations were monitored from the control room. Security forces' personnel and police were deployed at all polling stations in KP that immensely helped the voters in casting their votes in a safe and secure environment.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Voting is going on smoothly at Islamabad Model College for Girls Noor Pur Shahn Polling Station, Bara Kahu falling under the constituency of NA-53, The Presiding officer Ibrat Un Nisa, told APP that the registered voters of the polling station are 1008 among which more than 60 percent have been cast so far.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :Voting is going on smoothly at Islamabad Model College for Girls Noor Pur Shahn Polling Station, Bara Kahu falling under the constituency of NA-53, The Presiding officer Ibrat Un Nisa, told APP that the registered voters of the polling station are 1008 among which more than 60 percent have been cast so far.

She expressed satisfaction over the security and other arrangements, adding that this time work load is less as compared to last time as more polling stations have been set up to facilitate public.

Naseem Akhtar a polling agent, shared that it is for the third time that she is witnessing elections and found quite good arrangements besides trained staff.

Another polling station IMSG Noor Pur Shahan, Bara Kahu, the Presiding Officer, informed that the registered voters of the polling station is 1279 among which half of the voters have been polled out till after noon.

While in Air Foundation school, E-11/1 falling under the constituency of NA-54, a combined station for both male and female voters, more than 70 percent votes were cast till after noon.

In the female polling station, the registered voters were 446 while in male station 476 were registered among which more than 300 votes from each sides were cast.

This is one of the most important Constituencies as the PTI's Imran Khan and PML-N's Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former prime minister, are contesting from here.

Other candidates include PPP's Syed Sibtul Haider, the brother of former Senate chairman Nayyar Bukhari, PTI's disgruntled leader Ayesha Gulalai and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal's Mian Aslam.

Around 50 percent vote had cast at the polling station of IMCG Noor Pur Shahan and total number of votes 1008.

No complaint has been yet received from any candidate said by presiding officer Ibrat un Nisa.A team of firefighters and rescuers from Cyprus is getting ready to leave for Greece to help the Greek authorities deal with the deadly forest fires raging in the country, which so far have killed at least 24 persons and injured more than 150

NICOSIA , (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jul, 2018 ) :A team of firefighters and rescuers from Cyprus is getting ready to leave for Greece to help the Greek authorities deal with the deadly forest fires raging in the country, which so far have killed at least 24 persons and injured more than 150.

Cyprus will send a team of 60 firefighters and 4 rescuers and nurses aboard a Hellenic Air Force C130.

The aircraft arrived early this morning at the old Larnaka airport and preparations are earnestly underway to enable the team to depart as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, President Nicos Anastasiades held a telephone conversation yesterday with President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos during which he expressed his full sympathy towards Greece and the Greek people.

A press release issued by the Presidency in Greece, says that President Anastasiades told the Greek President that the competent authorities of Cyprus have provided the respective services of Greece with fire-fighting equipment and human resources to deal with the situation.

The Greek President warmly thanked President Anastasiades and stressed that this demonstrates the long-lasting solidarity between the peoples of Greece and Cyprus.

The flight programme at the international airport of Larnaka was affected yesterday. Three departures and three arrivals to and from the airport of Larnaka to the airport of Athens were delayed by 2-3 hours. The flight programme has now been restored.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Tripoli, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :Italy's Defence Minister Elisabetta Trenta on Tuesday appeared to take a swipe at a French push for Libya to hold elections this year, insisting a vote should not be rushed after visiting Tripoli.

"Italy is close to Libya, not out ahead of it, and will help it to resist foreign interference," Trenta told journalists after returning to Italy from Libya.

"We do not believe that an acceleration of the electoral process can bring stability," she said, adding that the north African nation also needed "reconciliation, the return of security and political work".

The statement appears at odds with French efforts to get conflict-wracked Libya to hold elections in December.

Rival Libyan leaders agreed to a Paris-brokered deal in May to hold a nationwide poll by the end of the year, but scepticism remains high as to whether the country is ready for such a vote.

Trenta held talks with the head of Libya's UN-backed government in Tripoli Fayez al-Sarraj a day after France's top diplomat Jean-Yves Le Drian visited the country to push Paris' initiative.

Former colonial power Italy has close ties to Libya and is deeply involved in efforts to stabilise it after years of chaos following the 2011 ouster of Moamer Kadhafi.

Rome is particularly keen to stem the flow of migrants making the perilous journey to Europe from Libya across the Mediterranean.

Seven years since dictator Kadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed uprising, Libya remains divided, with rival administrations in Tripoli and the east of the country.

The internationally backed administration in Tripoli said in a statement that Trenta had "reiterated Italy's support for national reconciliation in Libya".

The talks also focused on cooperation over curbing illegal migration, a Libyan spokesman said.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an open initiative that welcomes private-sector players from China, Pakistan and third countries to join on the principle of equality and voluntary participation.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :The multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is an open initiative that welcomes private-sector players from China, Pakistan and third countries to join on the principle of equality and voluntary participation.

As Pakistan strives to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI), the private sector's share of CPEC projects is likely to increase, according to an article published by Global Times, a prestigious Chinese newspaper, on Wednesday.

The Pakistan government is working to make the country more appealing to foreign privately owned companies by offering incentives such as investor facilitation services to attract new capital inflows.

The CPEC is the major driver of FDI in Pakistan, driven by China's rising investment in roads, railways, power facilities, industrial zones and other infrastructure.

The multi-billion-dollar project has improved local infrastructure, which is a precondition for Pakistan's economic take-off. Although Pakistan's external debt is a source of concern, its economy is on an upswing. Pakistan's positive economic outlook will make it a more attractive destination for private players.

The question remaining is how to encourage private-sector companies to capitalize on business opportunities under the CPEC.

Infrastructure improvement has enabled Pakistan to overcome bottlenecks such as power shortages, and this will encourage green-field investment in areas such as garments, manufacturing and other labor-intensive industries.

But foreign companies have expressed concerns over issues such as political stability, policy transparency and the security situation of the country. There are also concerns over Chinese influence, because some have an incorrect perception that Chinese companies will receive preferential treatment because of the China-Pakistan friendship.

The first step is always the hardest, so joint ventures with local and Chinese companies will help foreign private players start doing business in the emerging country.

Chinese state-owned enterprises are expected to keep an open mind to work with private players in Pakistan. CPEC will help Pakistan improve its infrastructure and regional connectivity, with the goal of letting all countries, instead of only China, gain benefits.

FDI in Pakistan reportedly increased 21.76 percent year-on-year in June to $291.5 million. An increase of foreign capital inflows will help ensure sufficient funding for CPEC projects. We have confidence in Pakistan's ability to attract private investors(@FahadShabbir)

An under-construction hydropower dam collapsed on Monday in Sanamxay district of Laos' southeastern Attapeu Province, the provincial administration office announced in a statement on Tuesday.

VIENTIANE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Jul, 2018 ) :An under-construction hydropower dam collapsed on Monday in Sanamxay district of Laos' southeastern Attapeu Province, the provincial administration office announced in a statement on Tuesday.

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy hydropower dam collapsed at 20:00 p.m. local time on Monday, releasing 5 billion cubic meters of waters, sweeping away several houses, claiming several human lives and leaving hundreds of people missing, said the statement.

The Attapeu Provincial Administration Office has announced relief aid for flood victims. Authorities of Attapeu Province also called on Party, government organizations, business community, officials, police and military forces and the Lao people to provide emergency aid for the victims.

Being constructed by Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Power Company (PNPC), a joint venture of South Korean, Thai and Lao companies, the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydroelectric power project is estimated to coast 1.02 billion U.S. Dollars, and is estimated to have an annual electricity generation of approximately 1,860 GWh.

Feasibility study for the hydroelectric project was completed in November 2008. Construction of the project began in February 2013 and commercial operations are expected to begin in 2018.The United States on Tuesday warned Nicaragua to halt violence against opposition groups as at least four more people were killed in unrest that has gripped the country for three months.

Managua, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 25th Jul, 2018 ) :The United States on Tuesday warned Nicaragua to halt violence against opposition groups as at least four more people were killed in unrest that has gripped the country for three months.

US Vice President Mike Pence said it was "undeniable" that Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's government was behind the violence, despite his denials.

Pence used Twitter to call on Ortega to "end the violence NOW" and bow to opposition demands to hold early elections. "The world is watching!" Pence added.

On Monday Ortega gave an interview to US television channel Fox news saying that he would not step down and would see through his current term to 2021.

He also asserted that "the turmoil has stopped" in his country after offensives over the past couple of weeks against protest hubs, and he denied his security forces and coordinating paramilitaries were attacking peaceful demonstrators.

Speaking on Venezuelan television, Ortega on Tuesday accused US senators in Miami of being behind a "conspiracy" to try to effect regime change in Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

- Brazilian killed - According to a non-governmental rights group, the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights, Nicaragua's death toll stands at 301 since the turmoil started in mid-April. Other groups give higher figures.

An AFP photographer in the city of Jinotega, north of the capital, saw funerals for two of three people locals said were killed by police and pro-government paramilitaries.

Those killed included a boy, said the Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights.

In Managua, a 32-year-old Brazilian medical student was fatally shot while driving home in the middle of the night, one of her professors at the American University in the capital said.

Brazil's government expressed "profound outrage" at the killing.

In a statement, it demanded the killers be brought to justice, and condemned the "disproportionate and lethal use of force, as well as the use of paramilitary groups in operations with security teams.

" Ortega, in his Fox News and Venezuela state television interview, spoke only of dozens of police officers killed in the violence. He also denied controlling paramilitaries acting against protesters.

Those assertions prompted Pence to tweet: "State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing." In his interview with Venezuela's Telesur channel, Ortega said US senators in Miami were bankrolling "criminal gangs" in Nicaragua, with the help of extreme-right groups in the country to try to topple government.

He also slammed a mooted US law, the Nicaraguan Investment Conditionality Act, which aimed to curb international loans to Nicaragua unless it can satisfy Washington that it is promoting democracy.

- Stalled talks - US lawmakers are reportedly mulling a resolution condemning Nicaragua, and preparing possible additional sanctions on Ortega's government.

The Organization of American States has also backed early elections as a way out of the crisis.

But talks between Ortega's administration and the opposition, mediated by Catholic bishops in the country, have stalled for over a month, with the president refusing to bring forward polls.

Managua's archbishop, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, told AFP that the Church "is not an enemy" of Ortega's government, and urged the administration to "listen" to the people.

He said that, while conditions were not right now to resume dialogue, "without talks there could be more deaths."For Nicaragua's 72-year-old president, a former leftwing guerrilla who has ruled over his poor nation for 22 of the past 39 years since his Sandinista rebels toppled a US-backed dictator, the unrest has been the worst he has faced since returning to power in 2007.

The protests were prompted by cutbacks to the social security system, but quickly spread as they tapped into broad disgruntlement with Ortega and his wife, whom he has made his vice president. Critics liken their government to a corrupt leftist dictatorship.First and foremost I want to extend my deepest heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of the victim in this case. Lake Villa Chief of Police Craig Somerville said in a prepared statement after the men were arrested. This man did nothing wrong. He was an innocent victim, minding his own business, when he encountered evil in that alley.The Bishops of Canada release a statement for the 50th anniversary of Pope Pauls Encyclical Humanae Vitae published by Pope Paul VI in 1968, saying it was and is an emphatic Yes! to the fullness of life.

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp

The Commission for Doctrine of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) have issued a statement to Canadian Catholics and all people of good will. In The Joy of Married Love, issued in both English and French, the Canadian Bishops hope to inspire and encourage married copies to find the promise of joy that Humanae Vitae offers.

Yes to life

Rather than only saying No to contraception, the Canadian Bishops affirm that Humanae Vitae provides a resounding  Yes! to the fullness of life promised to us by Jesus Christ (John 10:10).



Human love incarnates divine love

The Bishops continue saying that human love is meant to reflect divine love which is free, total, faithful, and fruitful. Human beings embody this love and express it through the language of the body. This love is, therefore, life-long, exclusive, and ready to reach beyond the couple itself, even bringing forth a new life! the Bishops write.



Marriage reflects Christs love

Using Ephesians 5:32, the Bishops then reflect on married love. We unite ourselves physically and intimately with Christ the Bridegroom when we receive Communion. Union with Christ empowers us to make the complete gift of self which he models to us, they write.



Sexuality expresses divine love

Even the gift of human sexuality partakes in expressing divine love. Thus, the Bishops explain that every sexual act is meant to speak a love that is free and not coerced, total in the gift of ones entire self, faithful, and open to new life which makes the couples love fruitful.



Made for infinite love

Since we are made for infinite love, only infinite love can satisfy us, the Bishops remind us. The Church wishes that married couples experience the fullness of human love in marriage. This means using this divine gift without depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, as Pope Paul VI wrote in Humanae Vitae. Intentionally modifying a sexual act so as to render it sterileends up falsifying the language of our sexuality, the Bishops write.



Joy of Married Love

In conclusion, the Bishops encourage Catholics to read Humanae Vitae and rediscover the beautiful truth contained within it. For this end, the Bishops pray,

May all married couples, in faithfulness to the grace of their baptism and marriage vows, live and experience the joy of married love as taught in Human Vit and thus be signs of Gods loving presence in the world.A group of liberal Asean parliamentarians has said Cambodias election process is dirty following the exclusion of the countrys only viable opposition party from Sundays vote and a widespread crackdown on dissent.

Cambodians will vote on Sunday in an election that has been criticized as a one-horse race with the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has been in power for more than 33 years, expected to win comfortably.

In November, the CPP-controlled Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party. Its president, Kem Sokha, was charged in September with conspiring to overthrow the government, while numerous other CNRP politicians and supporters have faced criminal charges, intimidation, and violence from the CPP since the last election in 2013 saw the CNRP threaten the ruling partys dominance of the countrys parliamentary system.

We can see already two years ago that Hun Sen was preparing infrastructure, where there is no dissent, where he will win the election, and where all forms of free speech including the media are completely muzzled and [opposition] politicians chased out of the country, and therefore, you will have a shame of an election, said Charles Santiago, chairperson of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

Speaking to reporters at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Tuesday, Santiago said there was absolutely no chance at all of a free and fair election taking place.

The CNRP won about 44 percent of the popular vote in local elections in 2017.

Its very shameful that Asean hasnt stood up and even other international bodies havent stood up and called [the election] off. This is very shameful, he said.

I think basically what we need to do is that we need to move forward. We need to remain vigilant of the human rights violations in Cambodia, and also what I think is important is Asean countries do not congratulate Cambodia for a successful election, he said. This election must be delegitimized. The leadership of Hun Sen and the CPP has to be delegitimized, and the international community should not give any form of legitimacy to an ashamed election.The Cambodian government has criticized Rhona Smith, the U.N. human rights rapporteur to the country after she questioned the targeting of election boycott campaigners by the authorities.

On Friday, Smith wrote on the Facebook page of the Cambodian branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that she was concerned by the threat of financial penalties levied as punishment for taking part in a legal campaign to oppose the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party at the election on Sunday, which was organized by the banned opposition, the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

I welcome recent government calls to local authorities to avoid discrimination during the campaign and encourage the government to condemn in very clear terms voter intimidation and to clarify that calling for a boycott in a non-compulsory vote is permitted, she said.

But the foreign ministry on Monday said the government interpreted the law to mean that taking part in an election boycott campaign was preventing others from going to vote, which is banned under the election law, despite Cambodians maintaining the free will to decide their own course of action.

The Special Rapporteur seems to lose sight of the dangerous populism of Mr. Sam Rainsy and his squad, who call for military rebellion against the government, incite racial hatred and xenophobia, and provoke ultra-nationalism, jeopardizing peaceful relations with one of Cambodia's neighbors, the foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the former CNRP president, Sam Rainsy, and his campaigning against Vietnamese influence in Cambodia. Such methods do not bear a semblance of democracy and are condemned in any democratic society.

Chum Sounry, a foreign affairs spokesman, could not be reached.

Simon Walker, an OHCHR representative in Cambodia, said in an email that the special rapporteur was an independent expert and not U.N. staff, thus her comments should not reflect on the ongoing work between the OHCHR and Cambodia.

The OHCHR globally has a role to service special procedures and, as such, OHCHR does not make judgments about the possible bias or prejudice of their work, he wrote.

In terms of elections, the U.N., in any country, hopes for credible, inclusive and peaceful elections and follow-up to elections, he added.[Editors Note: In the absence of its main competitor, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the long-ruling Cambodian Peoples Party is primed for a landslide victory in the general election this weekend. Amid widespread criticism of an electoral process accompanied by a sweeping political crackdown on dissent, the CPP continues to defend its actions. VOA Khmers Aun Chhengpor recently spoke with Suos Yara, a CPP lawmaker and spokesman, about the ruling partys definition of electoral democracy.]

VOA: What are the achievements of the CPP that make you proud?

Suos Yara: The biggest achievement of the CPP is the peace and the stability we bring to the people nationwide. This is the first thing we feel proud of. Second, it is the economic growth and the new job creation for Cambodian people. We think these are the two biggest accomplishments. The third is that we stay with the people at all times and in all circumstances.

VOA: From your and your partys point of view, what makes the July 29 election important?

Suos Yara: The election is a point demanded by the people as stated in the constitution, which permits the organization of a constitutional monarchy that ensures a liberal multi-party system. Thus, the peoples electoral participation is their freedom protected by law and their individual autonomy.

VOA: Cambodia National Rescue Movement President Sam Rainsy said, in the absence of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, that the July 29 election will be illegitimate. What do you think are the factors to determine its legitimacy?

Suos Yara: The legitimacy of the July 29 [election] is that there are 20 political parties legally registered to compete in accordance with the Kingdom of Cambodias laws. Secondly, Cambodian people registered in the voter poll are the ones who shall decide their own fates. Thirdly, regarding [the speeches of] Mr. Sam Rainsy, a prisoner and a constant provocateur to the Cambodian people who routinely disturbs the development in the communities; it is an unfortunate propaganda in an attempt to destroy the peace and the stability of Cambodia.

VOA: Is recognition from foreign governments, including China, important to determine an elections legitimacy?

Suos Yara: In general, Cambodia is friendly to all countries with no nation as an enemy. If those foreign friends are happy to observe the vote, we welcome that. And thats fine if foreign friends do not come to observe. But the factors to define the legitimacy of our election is our law. No one can be more authoritative over our sovereignty, independence, and constitution.

VOA: It is common that the ruling politicians tend to believe that the CPP is the only party that is able to bring about peace and stability to the country, otherwise there would be war. If so, why do we need an election?

Suos Yara: In general, the people who turn out to vote to tell us about their support and confidence in one party to run the government. So, if they keep supporting and believing in a government run by the same party, it is a very good thing because they think that the CPP is the party with a history of national liberation, with a history of national unification, with achievements in bringing and protecting peace, stability, and economic growth. And the people keep casting their votes for us. All the accusations are just made by envious people with neither a legal nor democratic basis. As a democracy, there will be elections regularly. As long as the people are able to vote, the power in Cambodia is decided by the ballot box. We see this practice in many countries. Even in Germany, which is a Western democracy, those who win electorally remain in power; they do not talk term limits, that it doesnt have to be three or four terms. The constant re-election of Chancellor Angela Merkel will keep her in power if the German people keep supporting [her]. Same here with the CPP. If the people keep having confidence in us, we will remain in power.

VOA: What do you think will happen if any political party defeats the CPP on July 29?

Suos Yara: That will be the peoples decision that we welcome because that party must have properly joined the electoral competition in accordance with the law.

VOA: So if it loses, will the CPP hand over power peacefully to the winning party?

Suos Yara: Respect the laws of the Kingdom of Cambodia. And we will not discuss anything besides respecting the laws and what will be decided by the ballot box.

VOA: Cambodia is a designated democracy since the Paris Peace Agreement. How important is a democracy in Cambodia?

Suos Yara: From the year 1991 or from the year 1993 when we promulgated a constitution, our workers did not earn more than $50 in a month ... and now our minimum monthly salary stands at $170. This is a small thing standing among the big other stuff people demand. It is small for those individuals living abroad who do not understand Cambodias situation. But for us, who understand Cambodia, we know clearly how much we earned back in time. And now we can understand how these infrastructures  for example, some 20,000 kilometers of roads  are even possible? Its because of peace and stability. Otherwise, we have no roads, no hospitals, or no schools.

VOA: What is your outlook on that to the future of Cambodias democracy?

Suos Yara: Individually, I think that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia has priceless value, in which the Cambodian Peoples Party will continue to respect the constitution and respect the values of Nation, Religion, and King.

VOA: Do you think that some people may not turn out to vote?

Suos Yara: It is a legally permitted right and freedom for an individual to vote or not. But those who campaign urging people not to vote are breaking the law enough to be punished. Regarding this matter, we should not get confused. To not vote is your personal right you can exercise, but if you incite and lead people to boycott the vote, it is an action violating the law.

VOA: Cambodia has grown closer with China and other Asian powers, like Japan and India, while having a difficult time with the Western world. Do you think this trend is positive?

Suos Yara: I said earlier that Cambodia is friendly to all friends in the world and Cambodia takes no country as an enemy. Just that relationship can be closer or not with different countries. No country is our enemy. Secondly, there is a say in Khmer that trading near is better than far. Therefore, Cambodia shall engage with as many Asian countries as possible as a priority, but we do not take the rest of our foreign friends for granted; we will keep good relationships and we keep talking to everybody.Her attorney Catherine Simmons-Gill, said at the time she expected the award to be reduced because the section of law under which the suit was had a $300,000 cap. Issues about sexual harassment and a hostile work environment were dismissed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox before the trial, which focused primarily on gender discrimination.Turkey is expanding its economic and cultural influence over the Balkans, and analysts say the strategy, which targets the region's large Muslim minorities, is worrying some of its Western allies.

The Balkan region was the center of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. That historical legacy has made the area a priority for Turkey's ruling AKP under recently re-elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey's growing influence was visible at this month's inauguration ceremony of Erdogan. While Western European leaders stayed away, five heads of state from the Balkans attended.

"Since AKP has this mental construction of re-establishing the Ottoman past, it's [the Balkan region is] important for them," said professor Istar Gozaydin, who has studied the Balkans extensively.

"The Balkans as a region, as it has for so many centuries, was under the Ottoman rule and influence. I do see the renaissance of Islamic identity of Turkish influence in the region," said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci, an expert on the Balkans at Ankara's Middle East Technical University.

"Turkey is using smart power there culturally, economically and language-wise," he continued. "When you look to those Turks living in the Balkans, they get more and more under the increasing Turkish influence."

Some European leaders are already voicing concern. "I don't want a Balkans that turns toward Turkey or Russia," French President Emmanuel Macron declared in May. Erdogan quickly shot back, saying the comment was "unbecoming of a statesman."

The Turkish economy dwarfs those of its Balkan neighbors, and economic muscle is at the forefront of Ankara's projection of influence. "Turkey is building airports, even investing in several sectors, like in Bulgaria and Romania, from textiles to many others," Bagci said.

"There is an aggressive economic policy toward the Balkan countries, which cannot compete with Turkey," Bagci said. "In the Balkans, we have two big countries getting influence. One is Germany and the other one Turkey."

Trade has helped Ankara overcome past animosities. "These countries, many of them, don't have automatic access to the EU [European Union], and many of them look to Turkey for trade," said columnist Semih Idiz of the Al Monitor website.

'Quite close'

"During the recent Balkan war, Turkey and Serbia were at opposite ends of the fence. They looked at one another with great enmity. Today, we see Serbia and Turkey are quite close, despite differences over Kosovo and Bosnia and things like that. A country like Serbia values its friendship with Turkey, and I think it applies to a certain extent to countries like Croatia, too," Idiz said. He was referring to the events that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia.

Serbia is now Turkey's main Balkan trading partner, with $1 billion in commerce.

Reaching out to the Balkans' large ethnic Turkish population, through the promotion of religion and cultural awareness, is also an essential tool deployed by Ankara.

"They are using religion. They are using diplomacy. Institutions like Tika and Diyanet have been working quite efficiently and hard in the region," Gozaydin said.

Tika is the Turkish state's development agency, while the Diyanet administers Turkey's Islamic affairs nationally and internationally. The two institutions are at the forefront of expanding Turkish influence in the Balkans.

"They work with the authorities in those countries. They try to influence the politics there," Gozaydin said. "In Bosnia, they are trying, for example, to be influential in the appointment of religious authorities so they can work together."

Turkey has been funding mosque projects across the Balkans, including two of the region's largest mosques in Albania and Bulgaria. Turkish cultural foundations also work to promote ethnic Turkish identity.

While Ankara has been successful in projecting its influence, there are signs of growing unease, Gozaydin warned. She said she had met quite a few people in the Balkans, including some authorities, "who were not happy with Turkey trying too hard to have an influence on them. So that was considered to be an interference in their domestic politics."

'Grave concern'

Last year, the United States voiced alarm about Ankara's policy. "The Balkans is an area of grave concern now," said then-national security adviser H.R. McMaster.

Ankara dismissed such criticism, contending that it was only re-establishing cultural ties that date back centuries and claiming that Russia and other European countries were jockeying for influence in the Balkans. In May, European officials held talks with western Balkan leaders in Bulgaria to reaffirm the "European perspective" of that region.

Given the Balkans' recent history of ethnic and religious conflict, however, analysts warn of the risk of a nationalist backlash if Ankara does not tread carefully.

"The Turkish minorities, or Muslim minorities, yes, they are always considered as a potential threat by the majority of the Balkan countries," Bagci said. "The more the Muslim identity gets stronger, the more populist movements in the Balkans, like in Germany and other countries, will increase and get stronger. This is the potential conflict."At least 15 officials at a Chinese drug manufacturer have been detained as part of an investigation that it produced false records involving its rabies vaccine.

The detained executives include the chair of Changsheng Biotechnology, which was ordered last week to stop production and recall the vaccine after the China Food and Drug Administration discovered it had been falsifying production and inspection records.

Premier Li Keqiang issued a statement Sunday denouncing Changsheng for crossing a moral line, and promised to "resolutely crack down" on any actions that endangers public safety.

There have no reports of injuries from the vaccine, but the news led to a wave of criticism on social media.

Changsheng Biotechnology was forced to stop production of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis last year after regulators found the vaccine to be defective.

China has been working to restore confidence in its food and drug industries, both at home and abroad, after a series of scandals over the last decade over shoddy and tainted products, the most notorious in 2008, when 300,000 children were sickened when they were given milk powder contaminated with the chemical melamine. Six of the children died.Asia's youngest nation, East Timor (Timor-Leste), held its second annual LGBT pride parade in its capital, Dili.

The small country cemented its role as a regional LGBT rights leader during a time when that community is under threat in many of its neighboring countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

East Timor's pride campaign is notable for its broad base of support in a country of fewer than 1.3 million people. Last year, its prime minister, Rui Maria de Araujo, supported the fledgling movement, stating that "discrimination, disrespect and abuse toward people, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, does not provide any benefit to our nation."

This year, the campaign started early with a documentary film on LGBT acceptance within families that was released in April for an audience that included former president and prime minister Xanana Gusmao. It was filmed by the community advocacy group Hatutan.

"Kinship is an important issue for the LGBT community in East Timor because it's such a small country," said Dede Oetomo, who founded the Indonesian gay rights advocacy group Gaya Nusantara.

This year's parade, held July 20, had about 1,500 participants  up from 500 last year  and had "more participation from LGBT community members, especially the transgender and the lesbian community," said Natalino Guterres, an activist who spearheaded both parades. "It was great to see people of all generations coming to walk together."

Small but powerful

Pride 2018 was larger but also more complicated, said Guterres.

"Last year, people weren't really sure what was going on, but this year they knew that it was an LGBTI pride parade. Some opponents are becoming more vocal  and some even threaten us by using phrases like 'trash of the society,'" he said.

Over the weekend, a local band led LGBT marchers in a traditional Timorese resistance song and participants spontaneously held hands, danced in a circle, and cried "tears of happiness," Guterres said.

East Timor became fully independent in 2002, and many citizens still have memories of the nationalist struggle against Indonesia. The dance circle showed that the movement was "truly Timorese," said Guterres. "We showed that we are also a part of this country, and that our friends and families are also proud of us to come out to march with us in solidarity."

Guterres was surprised by the turnout, and moved by one visitor in particular: his mother. He didn't realize she was there until after the fact, when friends informed him that they had seen her.

"Just last year we had a discussion where [my parents] made me promise to be normal,'" he said. "So it was amazing to find out that she also went."

Mixed fortunes

Oetomo, who advocates for LGBT rights across Southeast Asia, said that East Timor activists have quietly been growing a movement for many years.

"In 2002, protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation almost made it into the constitution," he said. "Timorese people have been freedom fighters, they know how to fight for their rights."

Plus, said Oetomo, "they don't have the Islam factor, to be frank, like we do in Indonesia."

Conservative Muslim groups like the Family Love Alliance and the Islamic Defenders Front have petitioned for same-sex intercourse to be outlawed and have conducted raids on private establishments, respectively.

"The Catholic Church in Timor has never really opposed LGBT rights the way Indonesia's Islamists do," Oetomo said.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch released a landmark report on the rapid decline of LGBT rights in Indonesia, East Timor's largest neighbor, which occupied the country for 22 years. Indonesian police conducted at least six raids on private gatherings that included LGBT people in 2016, and apprehended at least 300 LGBT people in 2017, according to the report.

What the report shows, said Human Rights Watch researcher Kyle Knight, is how quickly the climate for LGBT rights can change in a nation.

Before January 2016, "Human rights groups like us would hold up Indonesia as an example of pluralism  where governments didn't scapegoat and goad people using the LGBT community as a political pawn," Knight said. However, that was the month when several prominent officials made anti-LGBT remarks, sparking a nationwide moral panic that continues to this day. The situation for LGBT Indonesians declined precipitously within just two-and-a-half years, he said.

But there are signs of change. Both Thailand and the Philippines may legalize same-sex marriage or partnerships, and LGBT rights are flourishing in Vietnam.

"More and more of what is happening in Timor-Leste will be happening around the region," Oetomo said.

"What Timor-Leste has accomplished is inspiring to all of us," he said. "Look, people in my organization are going to save money  in fact they've probably already started  and we will go to Dili [Pride] come 2019!"Leaders from the five BRICS nations sounded the alarm over what South Africas president described as recent threats to multilateralism and sustainable global growth  a not-so-coded reference to a brewing trade war between the U.S. and BRICS wealthiest member, China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping raised his concerns as the three-day summit began in South Africa.

A trade war should be rejected because there will be no winner, he said. Economic hegemony is even more objectionable, because it will undermine the collective interest of the international community. Those who pursue this cause will only hurt themselves.

WATCH: Leaders of BRICS Economic Bloc Cite Concerns at Protectionist Policies

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed his sentiments.

We are meeting here, ladies and gentlemen, at a time when the multilateral trading system is facing unprecedented challenges, Ramaphosa said. We are concerned by the rise in unilateral measures that are incompatible with World Trade Organization rules and we are worried about the impact of these measures, especially as they impact developing countries and economies. These developments call for thorough discussion on the role of trade in growing and in promoting sustainable development, particularly inclusive growth.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bloc admitted South Africa in 2010 as part of its aim of leveling the global playing field by representing nontraditional powers.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on all $505 billion worth of Chinese imports, a move that has caused global concern. Summit watchers say his blunt rhetoric will influence this years summit.

I think that something that is pertinent that relates to the United States and President Trumps administration is of course their protectionist measures that they have put on in terms of trade, and the trade wars that have every country in the globe speaking, analyst Luanda Mpungose told VOA. But something that the BRICS have actually come out and actually spoken about quite strongly, is that they want to support multilateralism and a rules-based world order.

But, she says, BRICS may use that adversity to seek to build a new world order, even beyond the five-member bloc.

Something thats different about BRICS this year, specifically about South Africa as a host country, is that this initiative is not only about the BRICS member countries, the five countries, but actually, weve actually seen an outreach of neighborhood countries being invited, she said. So this is taking along the Africa developmental agenda and bringing it Into the BRICS agenda, I mean countries like Rwanda, like Senegal, like Togo have been invited to come and attend.

The summit continues through Friday.The Chilean public prosecutor's office has summoned the archbishop of Santiago to testify in an investigation into the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, the archbishopric said on Tuesday.



The Santiago archbishopric said in a statement that Ricardo Ezzati had been summoned to speak with prosecutors on August 21 as a defendant accused of concealment.



Prosecutors investigating criminal accusations against bishops, clerics and lay workers in the Roman Catholic Church in Chile are also probing claims that Ezzati and others covered up a network of 14 priests who systematically abused minors.



Ezzati denied wrongdoing and vowed to cooperate with authorities.



"I reiterate my commitment and the commitment of Santiago's Church to the victims," Ezzati said in the statement by his office. "I have the conviction that I never covered up or obstructed justice, and as a citizen will fulfill my duty to contribute all the information that may help clarify the facts."



Last month police seized documents from the ecclesiastical court of the diocese of Santiago.



The child sex abuse crisis has gripped Chile's Catholic Church since 2011, when Chilean priest Fernando Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of abusing children in the 1970s and 1980s.



Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadima's victims, said on Twitter that Ezzati has "little time left as archbishop of Santiago, but his new mission of answering for his cover-up, lies and other crimes ... has just begun."



Accusations of sex abuse against various members of the Catholic Church led Pope Francis to open an investigation in the South American country that has led the Church to oust bishops and other priests accused of carrying out or covering up abuses against minors.Three U.S. airlines have agreed to China's demands to change how it refers to Taiwan on their websites ahead of a Wednesday deadline imposed by Beijing.

American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines removed the name "Taiwan" from the results of its destination searches, using instead the name "Taipei," the island's capital.

China's Civil Aviation Administration sent out a letter to dozens of international airlines in April demanding them to switch its reference of Taiwan to "Taiwan, China," to reflect Beijing's view that the self-ruled island is part of the mainland. Dozens of air carriers, including Australia's Qantas Airlines, British Airways and Air Canada, have already complied with the demand.

"Like other carriers, American is implementing changes to address China's request," American Airlines spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said in a written statement. "Air travel is global business, and we abide by the rules in countries where we operate."

The International Air Transport Association forecast last year that China would surpass the United States as the world's top aviation market by 2020.

The Trump administration denounced Beijing's demand back in May as "Orwellian nonsense."

China and Taiwan split after Mao Zedong's Communists drove the Nationalists off the mainland in the 1949 civil war, but Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its control - if necessary, by force.

Beijing has broken off contact with Taipei since President Tsai Ing-wen, the leader of the independence-leading Democratic Progressive Party, was elected president in 2016 and refused to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of China. It has pressured other nations to break off diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and has increased its military presence with naval and aerial exercises through the Taiwan Strait.Qian Zhiya may be Starbucks' worst nightmare.

The 42-year-old Chinese entrepreneur says she is betting that her fledgling Luckin Coffee brand will eventually have more cafes in China than Starbucks, and she has Singapore's sovereign wealth fund and other investors bankrolling her plan.

Luckin, which only officially launched in January, has opened more than 660 outlets in 13 Chinese cities thanks to a supercharged growth plan based on cheap delivery, online ordering, big discounts and premium pay for its staff.

Its assault comes at a crucial time for Starbucks, which has 3,400 stores in China  its second biggest market after the U.S.  and plans to almost double that number by 2022.

And the speed of the attack is a warning to other established consumer brands in China that they too could be vulnerable to a start-up's attempt to reinvent a market, brand consultants say.

Starbucks' shares were pummeled in June after it warned same store sales growth in China had plunged to zero or worse last quarter, against 7 percent growth a year earlier.

Its fiscal third-quarter results are due out on Thursday.

Starbucks said some new cafe openings were cannibalizing customer visits at nearby stores and it also blamed a drop-off in orders through delivery firms.

While it did not mention increased competition, investors and analysts said it is clear that Luckin does represent a threat.

However, they also point out that Starbucks' brand has been very resilient to challenges from rivals around the world over the years, largely because of the ambience of its stores, its service and the consistent quality of the coffee served.

There is also no sign that Chinese consumers have turned against such a very American brand as a protest over U.S. President Donald Trump's imposition of punitive tariffs on Chinese exports.

Big Promotions

Reuters spoke to 30 consumers in Beijing Yintai Center, a shopping mall that has a Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Luckin outlet, among others. Half of those polled said they had tried Luckin; most said they liked it, though more than two-thirds said their top choice remained Starbucks.

The majority drank coffee in-store or bought to take away, with only a small number saying they had coffee delivered, a potential challenge for Luckin's delivery-focused strategy.

Taste, convenience and environment were their top three priorities, more than price.

Luckin's customers can order coffee via an app, watch a livestream of their coffee being made, and have it delivered to their door in an average of 18 minutes, the company says. A regular latte, roughly the size of a Starbucks grande, costs 24 yuan plus 6 yuan for delivery (free delivery for orders of more than 35 yuan), but can be half price after promotions. A grande latte at Starbucks costs 31 yuan.

More than half of Luckin's stores are larger "relax" outlets or pick-up stores with some seating. The rest are delivery kitchens.

The speed of Luckin's growth is extraordinary  it took Starbucks about 12 years to open as many stores. In many ways it echoes the way in which some major Chinese technology firms, such as ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing, have burned through cash to grab market share and been valued highly as a result.

Qian, who was previously chief operating officer at Chinese ride hailing firm Ucar, says Luckin's focus now is all about increasing customers.

"I don't have a timeline for profit," Qian told Reuters at the firm's Beijing headquarters as she sipped her third Luckin coffee of the day. "For us, what we care about now is the number of users and if they are coming back to us, whether they recognize us, whether we can take market share."

The firm raised $200 million this month to help fund its expansion, including an undisclosed sum from Singapore government fund GIC, a funding round which Luckin said valued the firm at $1 billion.

"In the future we will have more cafes than Starbucks," she declared.

One of the investors in the latest fundraising said it is the logical time for there to be a shake-up of the coffee world in China.

"This model will appeal to young customers amid the country's consumption upgrade," said David Li, former head of Warburg Pincus Asia Pacific. He led the financing round for Luckin via his new investment firm Centurium Capital.

The use of online ordering and delivery should be enough to unnerve many established brands, said Bruno Lannes, Shanghai-based partner with consultancy Bain & Co.

"It's a big threat, that's why western brands need to pay attention," he said.

"Flash Mob"

Still, not everyone agrees the internet model translates easily to the coffee business, given the need for costly stores and quality control.

"It remains to be seen if they can really hook consumers in and create a monopoly in the market, like those we see in sectors like cab-hailing," said Liu Xingliang, president of tech consultancy China Internet Data Center.

And some of the consumers Reuters spoke to in the Beijing mall saw hurdles ahead for Luckin.

Liu Xu, 23, an advertising professional, who compares Luckin to a "flash mob" that came out of nowhere, said he tried the firm's coffee out of curiosity but prefers hand-drip single-origin coffee.

And Lian Yiheng, 22, a student, said she was attracted by Luckin's promotions and the convenience of delivery, but felt it needed to improve its selection of coffees and store decoration to lure people in the longer run.

Qian said the plan was to have more sit-in stores and reduce the proportion of delivery-only outlets, which would require higher spending on setting up in better locations and on decor.

On the question of quality, she says that it uses select arabica beans from Ethiopia.

Luckin's expansion comes as Starbucks' global rivals, like Canadian chain Tim Hortons, are also pushing hard in China. Tim Hortons plans to open 1,500 outlets in China over the next 10 years, while smaller local chains are also popping up fast.

As China's middle class continues to increase in size and the coffee chains move into many smaller towns and cities, the market is growing at 5-7 percent a year, according to research firm Mintel.

Li Yibei, owner of Double Win Cafe, which has a chain of eight coffee shops in Shanghai, said Luckin would have an impact on the market, but there was plenty of space left.

"Maybe they will hit Starbucks to some extent, but remember Starbucks has many die-hard fans. Maybe they can grab some followers from them, but I don't think that many," she said.

Starbucks may also soon be moving more formally into online delivery in China.

Howard Schultz, Starbucks' departing executive chairman, said in Shanghai this month that he was close friends with Jack Ma, the head of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which controls food delivery platform Ele.me., and suggested the two could work together on Starbuck's online delivery in China.

Schultz also said he isn't wasn't worried about the China slowdown.

"The more good coffee and competition that comes into the market, the more the Chinese people will be exposed to good coffee," he said. "Emerging new players that are coming into the market will actually benefit Starbucks."

($1 = 6.8142 Chinese yuan renminbi)Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe resigned his Senate seat on Tuesday after the Supreme Court called on him to testify in an investigation into whether he participated in witness tampering and bribery.

Uribe, who was in office from 2002 to 2010 and mounted a military offensive against Marxist guerrillas, is a mentor of incoming President Ivan Duque, who won the June 17 election as the candidate for Uribe's right-wing Democratic Center party.

Uribe is under investigation by the court over allegations he made false accusations and tampered with witnesses in a case he himself started by making similar accusations against leftist Senator Ivan Cepeda.

"The supreme court has called me to an inquiry," Uribe said on Twitter. "I feel morally impeded from being a senator, I will send my resignation letter so that my defense does not interfere with the work of the Senate."

Uribe's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2012 Uribe accused Cepeda of orchestrating a plot to falsely tie him to right-wing paramilitary groups during jail visits to former fighters.

But in February the Supreme Court, the body charged with investigating criminal matters involving lawmakers, said Cepeda had collected information from former paramilitaries in the course of his Senate work and that he had not paid or pressured them. Instead, the court said, it was Uribe who was at fault.

The activities continued even after the ruling, the court said in a statement on Tuesday.

"As a reaction to that ruling and apparently with his consent, persons allied to the ex-president Uribe began new acts of witness manipulation," the statement said.

Uribe will be called to respond to accusations of bribery and fraud, the court said, and will have sufficient time to prepare his defense in the criminal case that could possibly lead to jail time for Uribe if he is convicted.

Uribe has remained a polarizing kingmaker in Colombian politics as his party has sought to stymie a peace accord with Marxist rebels. He and his family have long been accused of paramilitary involvement by the opposition, but previous investigations have borne little fruit.

Paramilitary groups in Colombia - originally funded by landowners eager to protect themselves from rebel fighters - became violent organizations connected to drug trafficking, massacres and sexual violence.

The demobilization of a major paramilitary group during Uribe's term in office was widely criticized as ineffective.

The 50-year conflict in Colombia has killed more than 220,000 people.When new students leave home for college or university, mom and dad aren't the only ones left behind.

Kimberly Brubaker said she didn't want to break the connection she has with family members Dino and Mars: her cat and pet snake.

If an animal is part of your entire life, and caring for them is a huge part of it, to take that away is pretty dramatic, she told Associated Press.

So when Brubaker left home to attend Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, she brought Dino and Mars with her. College officials gave her permission to live with them in a school-owned dormitory.

In the United States, Eckerd is not the only school to accept pets in student housing, but it may have been one of the first. Since the early 1970s, the college has accepted many kinds of animals.

Brubaker heads a student organization that registers pets on campus. It ensures that the animals are well taken care of and that students follow Eckerds pet policies. And it tries to solve any disputes.

We do pet checks once a month  we go around and knock on all the doors, Brubaker said. The student group receives an average of one or two problem reports each month. But most issues are minor, such as misunderstandings of the rules governing pet registration.

Law students Josh Richey, right, and Lindsay Stewart play with Hooch, a 19-month-old golden retriever and Stanley, a 4-month-old golden retriever, in between final exams at Emory University in Atlanta.

Pets on campus are mostly problem-free and may help their owners and others.

Miranda Goodman-Wilson, an assistant professor of psychology at Eckerd, recently co-authored a study on the effect pets have on students.

Students reported their pets reduced their levels of stress, and had incredibly favorable things to say about living with the animal, Goodman-Wilson said. Also, a majority of students claimed that animals were a good influence on their educational performance.

I think that for many students, having a pet provides a structure that they otherwise lack, Goodman-Wilson noted. If you have a dog who has to go out to the bathroom, thats a powerful alarm clock right there.

The results of her study were mixed when it came to measuring exactly how helpful pets were for the students mental health. She found that students who owned pets did not have lower levels of stress, depression, anxiety or nervousness.

But there was an effect when it came to somatic anxiety  the physical effects of stress, such as a sudden increase in heart rate. Among the pet owners, increased levels of stress did not result in increased somatic anxiety.

It may be that they are serving as a buffer, said Goodman-Winslow. So yes, Im still having stress, but by having my animal, that stress is not translating into this sort of anxiety in the same way.

Law student Amelia Myers, 25, is reflected in a book case in the law library as she plays with Hooch, a 19-month-old golden retriever, between final exams at Emory University in Atlanta.

While pets might be good for students, some might worry whether college life is good for the animal. Last year, Mekenna Hooper decided to adopt a dog and said she wanted a small, older dog.

Hooper, who studies at at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, Colorado, said among pet adoption organizations, none of them liked the fact that we lived in a dorm. She eventually adopted Max, a seven-kilogram dog who is now 11 years old. Hooper and her roommate attend classes at different times and have different work schedules, so Max is rarely alone more than a few of hours at a time. He also gets all the attention he could ever want in student housing.

Everyone knows his name, Hooper noted. They know his name better than they know ours.

Goodman-Wilson believes that there can actually be good reasons for bringing your pet to school. The activities of college students can often change from one day to the next, and there are lots of people around them to look in on the pet.

More so than your typical animal, there are ways for the wellness of the animal to be checked up on, she said. And I think students generally are around their animals more than your average working adults.

If you are looking for an animal-friendly college or university, know that each school has different rules. There are more schools that accept animals kept in small containers than ones that permit dogs or cats. And where dogs are permitted, school officials may set limits on a dogs breed or size.

Some colleges and universities limit pets to students who have been at the school for more than a year. Even Eckerd only accepts pets that lived with students before they started taking classes.

Emily Rosenfeld, a first-year student at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, spends time with her Chihuahua, Archie, in her dorm room.

Goodman-Wilson expects the number of pet-friendly schools to grow, partly because of the increase of animals that give emotional support to the owner. Their owners are required to carry a doctors note stating that the person needs the animal to help them deal with a mental health condition.

Once policies are in place for emotional support animals in student housing, this can open the door to permitting pets on school grounds, in general.

In a few weeks, Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, will open its first pet-friendly housing. The colleges new policy grew out of increasing numbers of assistance animals, and because of requests to raise service dogs.

Allison Bridgeman is an administrator with Elizabethtown College. She says that on-campus animals are now seen to have a more general value.

We see this as part of creating a  campus community that  promotes well-being, she said.

But it also seems clear that there will be more pet-friendly college campuses as long as students have anything to say about it.

I answer emails all that time that say, Hey, Im trying to start a pet policy on campus, what are the first steps? Kimberly Brubaker of Eckerd College said. I probably get at least one email a week from students at other colleges asking about our program.

Please visit our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn for more stories for and about students.The governor of a violent, crime-ridden Mexican state that produces much of the local opium used to make heroin on Tuesday backed a proposal from the next government to decriminalize cultivation of opium poppies.

Olga Sanchez, the designated interior minister of incoming president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has said the next administration will explore decriminalizing marijuana and regulating opium production for pharmaceutical use.

"It's time," Guerrero state Governor Hector Astudillo told Mexican radio. "I'm delighted that a different way of dealing with the poppy is finally going to be explored."

A member of outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto's defeated Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), Astudillo in 2016 himself floated the idea of legalizing medicinal cultivation of opium poppies to tackle mounting drug gang violence.

"To curb the violence, we must look for another approach to poppy cultivation, not only in Guerrero but in the golden triangle," he said, referring to the region in the northern Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango where large quantities of marijuana and poppies are grown.

"Because it's such an important ingredient for medicine, the poppy could be used for medical purposes, as is being done in other countries," Astudillo added.

He said he welcomed a new approach to fighting the gangs put forward by Lopez Obrador, a leftist who won the presidency by a landslide on July 1. Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor, takes office on Dec. 1.

Lopez Obrador is proposing major changes to the drug war strategy, suggesting a negotiated peace and amnesty for some of the very people currently targeted by security forces.

Located in southwestern Mexico, Guerrero has the highest murder rate in the country and is a major supplier of heroin, along with Afghanistan, to the United States.

In late 2006, then-President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to battle drug gangs. Some 12 years on, the cartels have fragmented into violent warring groups and murders are at record levels. More than 160,000 people have been killed in the bloodletting, and tens of thousands have disappeared.When four-piece hard rock band Halestorm went back into the studio to work on their fourth album, they had already thrown out a bunch of songs they felt sounded too much like songs they had recorded before.



Led by frontwoman Lzzy Hale, the group has been dealing with critics for years saying they leaned too pop and didn't shred hard enough. But the band wasn't trying to please everyone, because they just wanted to keep evolving.



"We're on our fourth record on a major label and we won a Grammy Award, and there's this misconception that you've had the success and therefore it gets easier," said 34-year-old Hale. "It really doesn't because you've put so much out in the world and you're like, 'OK, what's next?'"



Their new album "Vicious," out Friday, came out of a lot of experimentation in a Nashville, Tennessee studio working with acclaimed rock producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has worked with bands like Foo Fighters and Alice in Chains. Hale and her brother Arejay Hale, Joe Hottinger and Josh Smith have been performing together for more than 15 years and Raskulinecz wanted to capture that live sound as much as possible.



The Pennsylvania-based band will also start the second leg of a tour with all female-fronted rock bands  including In This Moment and New Year's Day  on Friday in Kansas City, with additional stops in Albany, Seattle and San Francisco. A third leg of the tour was just added starting in November.



Lzzy Hale and Hottinger, who plays guitar, talked with The Associated Press about dealing with critics, finding new inspiration and touring with other female rockers. Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.



AP: What was it like in the studio this time?



Hottinger: We were really like, "How do we push this band forward? How do we do something interesting that's hard rock these days?" Because it seems like it's really hard to find good rock music and something that is pushing the boundaries a little bit. And (Nick) is like, "Well, let's just start with the four of you in a room and who's got a riff? We'll start there."



Hale: He was a Halestorm fan before we ever started working together. So when we would be excited, like this is really cool, he would say, "No, no, no. I've seen what you can do live. I know you can sing harder, I know you can play faster, I know your brother can be crazier. Let's push everything that makes you guys who you are. Let's push it forward."



AP: Is there a democratic process to making decisions as a band?



Hale: It's interesting because we've been a four-piece for over 15 years now and it's interesting how you settle into your roles. Everybody has a tremendous amount of respect to what everybody brings to the table. And not everybody has to be interested in the same thing.



AP: Do you pay attention to critics and reviews of your albums?



Hale: We pay attention to critics and reviews, but we've never paid any mind to what people think of us. I think that comes with literally growing up on the stage. Since we were 13 we were performing.



Hottinger: Like the first record came out and nobody really cared and the only thing you'd see about us was positive things 'cause people would take the time because they were excited.



Hale: We always said once people started hating on us, then we've got it.



Hottinger: You can't make everyone happy and we're not going to. I think it's great actually when you get some of the good, creative criticism.



Hale: We've always been our biggest critics and like any obstacle that is in front of us or judgment that's in front of us, we usually put it there.



AP: That feels like a theme throughout the album, especially on songs like "Uncomfortable," of being unapologetic.



Hale: I was trying to figure out how to be OK with not being the person that makes everybody happy. And writing an album and moving this band forward specifically for myself and my bandmates and not for anybody else. So it came through very honestly in the lyrics.



AP: By touring with other female-fronted rock bands, did you hope to change perceptions about what rock fans will pay to see?



Hale: Halfway through this tour we realized the audience is no longer 60/40 male to female, which is usually kinda what happens at a rock show. It's either 50/50 or it's completely turned on its head. So we're seeing this kind of sea of girls that are like us. We're kind of proving on this tour that this heavy music is genderless.



Hottinger: You look at the crowd and there's these girls that are like embracing these traditionally masculine moments, like heavy moments or these screams, and these girls are loving it. And you realize these are just rock 'n' roll moments and there's no gender.



Hale: I think the goal with this next leg is to really show these girls that this is a place for you.Hundreds of people on Wednesday attended an emotional funeral service for Hatidza Mehmedovic, who headed a group of women fighting for justice for the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The somber crowd stood in silence and many cried during a commemoration ceremony and a Muslim religious service held in the eastern Bosnian town that was the site of Europe's worst carnage since World War II.

Mehmedovic, who headed the Mothers of Srebrenica group comprising women who lost their loved ones in the massacre, was buried later in a village near the town.

The Mothers of Srebrenica have won praise for their struggle to have those responsible for the killings brought to justice.

"Today we are all sad, everyone who knew Hatidza, everyone who knows what the word 'mother' means," said Munira Subasic, another women heading the quest for justice. "She wanted to send the message of peace, message of respect to others. She was seeking only one thing and that was the truth and justice."

Mehmedovic's husband, two sons and brother were among some 8,000 Muslim men and boys killed when Bosnian Serbs overran Srebrenica in July 1995.

More than two decades later, experts are still excavating victims' bodies from hidden mass graves throughout Bosnia.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, over the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities of the 1992-95 war.

Although an international court has labeled the Srebrenica killings as genocide, Serbs have never admitted their troops committed the ultimate crime and nationalist politicians have viewed Mladic and Karadzic as heroes.

A Serbian far-right lawmaker, Vjerica Radeta, has sparked outrage this week with a tweet mocking Mehmedovic's tragedy after her death. The tweet was widely shared on social networks and reported by the media before it was deleted, and Radeta's Twitter account shut down.

Serbia's parliament speaker Maja Gojkovic has said Radeta's position does not reflect that of the assembly.Voters across Pakistan will go to the polls Wednesday to elect a new civilian government. The country's election commission disqualified many candidates on various grounds, including allegations of corruption.

Some observers charge that justice is implemented selectively against candidates who are deemed a threat to the military, while hundreds of other candidates with alleged ties to banned militant groups are allowed to run for seats.

"Although the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the federal entity responsible to organize and conduct elections, clearly states no terror-linked group or individual would be allowed to contest elections, ECP made no effort to stop such elements from arranging political gatherings or to run election campaigns," Rasul Baksh Raees, a Lahore-based analyst, told VOA.

"Look at Hafiz Saeed and Khadim Rizvi of Tehreek-e-Labbaik, and several other individuals competing for national and provincial seats from all over the country," he added.

More than 110 political parties and hundreds of independent candidates will run for more than 570 provincial assembly and 340 national assembly seats. Among those running for office are candidates who are either members of banned terror groups or support religious extremism.

Election commission officials say it is not their responsibility to declare an individual or a party as a terrorist.

"This responsibility lies with the government. Our job is to make sure the legal procedures and requirements are fulfilled, and only after the vetting do we allow any individual or party to participate in the elections," Altaf Ahmad, ECP spokesperson, told VOA.

Last week, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also issued a statement, expressing concerns about election legitimacy amid dozens of extremists and banned outfits participating in the elections.

Military involvement

Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States and director for South and Central Asia at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, believes Pakistan's military is meddling in elections with a clear agenda.

"The establishment wants to root out the two parties that have dominated the political scene for the last three decades  the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)," Haqqani wrote in an opinion piece Monday for Foreign Policy magazine.

"Several religious extremists, including some who have been designated as terrorists, have been allowed to run and campaign for office freely," Haqqani added.

The military denies the accusations that it is meddling in the country's electoral process.

"We do not have any link with the elections. We are only working on the election commission's directives to improve the law-and-order situation. We do not have a direct role in polls," Maj Gen. Asif Ghafoor, spokesperson for Pakistan's Army, told the country's lawmakers last week.

The military is deploying about 350,000 soldiers across the country to various polling stations.

Militant groups

Several militant organizations are running for seats in Wednesday's elections. The Milli Muslim League (MML), a U.S.-designated terror group, is fielding more than 260 candidates to participate in the state and provincial elections under the platform of Allah-O-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), an old Islamist political party.

The U.S. State Department declared MML a terrorist group earlier this year and labeled its leadership as terrorists.

Hafiz Saeed, a U.S.-designated global terrorist accused of being the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 160 people, including six Americans, openly addressed political gatherings and rallies arranged on MML's behalf.

Another militant group, Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), has more than 150 candidates who are contesting for seats in the national and provincial assemblies under the platform of Rah-e-Haq Party or as independent candidates.

Aurangzeb Farooqi

Aurangzeb Farooqi of ASWJ has managed to run a strong election campaign for a seat in the national assembly from Pakistan's largest city, Karachi.

This is not the first time Farooqi has competed in elections. He ran for office in 2013 and lost by a margin of 202 votes.

"There is a chance Aurangzeb Farooqi will be able to win this time. The guy has remained on Pakistan's terror watchlist. His party, ASWJ, has a proven record of inciting hatred and sectarian violence. But he has still managed to run an election campaign, and that is an irony," Lahore-based analyst Raees said.

ASWJ is a sectarian Sunni militant group established in Punjab province in 1985 to counter Shi'ite Islam in the country. It was previously known as Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP). The party was placed on the country's terror watchlist for its alleged links to militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and al-Qaida.

Shafiq Mengal

Shafiq Mengal, a controversial candidate running for office, allegedly has ties to terror groups. He is running for a national assembly seat from Khuzdar, Blaochistan.

Mengal is the founder of Baloch Musalla Diffa Tanzeem, which was placed on a terror watchlist by Pakistan in 2010.

Mengal is believed to have participated in sectarian violence against the Hazara Shi'ites and Baloch insurgents running separatist movements in Pakistan's Balochistan province.

Khadim Rizvi

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP), an Islamist political party that advocates for the strict enforcement of the country's controversial blasphemy law, has also fielded more than 180 candidates for the elections.

The party's leader, Khadim Rizvi, openly admires Mumtaz Qadri and vows to follow in his footsteps.

Qadri was a bodyguard for Punjab's Governor Salman Taseer, whom Qadri assassinated in 2011 after Taseer demanded changes to the country's controversial blasphemy law.While the Trump administration fortifies the southern border, there's growing concern over the number of foreigners entering the country illegally across the porous northern border with Canada.

People crossing the border between Vermont and Quebec have paid smugglers up to $4,000, usually payable when the immigrants reach their U.S. destination, according to officials and court documents.

While the number of arrests is tiny compared with the southern border, the human smuggling is just as sophisticated.

"They are very well organized. They have scouted the area. They have scouted us,'' said U.S. Border Patrol Agent Richard Ross. "Basically, we are not dealing with the JV team; this is the varsity.''

Driving the increase here, officials say, is the ease of entry into Canada, where visas are no longer required for Mexicans, and a border that receives less scrutiny and resources than the southern border, where thousands fleeing violence in Central America are being detained.

In a sector that covers 300 miles (480 kilometers) of border with New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, agents have apprehended 324 people who crossed illegally from Canada so far this fiscal year, compared with 165 in all of 2017, according to figures prepared by the Border Patrol for The Associated Press. Last month, agents apprehended 85 people across the three states, compared with 17 in June 2017 and 19 in June 2016, statistics show.

So far this fiscal year, there have been at least 267 apprehensions along Canada's border with Vermont alone, compared with 132 all of last year, according to statistics compiled by federal prosecutors in Vermont.

The statistics show no corresponding spike in illegal immigration or apprehensions elsewhere along the northern frontier. Border Patrol agents speculate it's because the area that includes Vermont is the first stretch of land border east of the Great Lakes and is a short drive from the population centers of Canada and the U.S. East Coast.

The northern border numbers are still small compared with the southern border. Federal statistics show that in fiscal 2017 there were 303,916 apprehensions on the U.S. border with Mexico, compared with 3,027 on the entire northern border.

Still, there is a growing sense of unease among U.S. law enforcement authorities.

"The number of illegal alien apprehensions at the Vermont-Canada border has skyrocketed,'' said Christina Nolan, Vermont's U.S. attorney.

Much of the illegal border crossing activity in Vermont appears to be focused on a 30-mile (50-kilometer) segment of the Vermont-Quebec border where Interstate 91 reaches the Canadian border at Derby Line, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Montreal.

From Derby Line, it's about a six-hour drive to New York and its teeming immigrant communities.

Guarding the border here is tricky because Derby Line and the neighboring Quebec town of Stanstead comprise one community where homes and buildings happen to be bisected by an international border.

The community library was purposely built straddling the border to serve people in both communities. Quebecers simply cross an international boundary marked outside the library by pots of petunias. Occasionally, illegal border crossers will walk, or even drive, across near the library.

"This is really a town with an invisible border going through it,'' said Stanstead resident Matthew Farfan, who has written a book about life along the border, after he left the library's Vermont entrance and prepared to cross back into Canada.

As part of a broader recent immigration crackdown, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has set up highway checkpoints in Maine, New Hampshire and upstate New York. One person was apprehended in New York on charges she had picked up four people crossing from Canada.

Visa-less entry into Canada for countries like Mexico and Romania, another nationality noted by Nolan and Border Patrol agents as contributing to a spike in apprehensions, play a role by making the northern border more attractive for people seeking to enter the U.S. illegally, Nolan said. A plane ticket from Mexico City to Montreal or Toronto can cost less than $350.

The Canadian government in late 2016 lifted its requirement that Mexican citizens apply for visas to enter the country as part of broader efforts to strengthen ties with Mexico. A similar requirement for Romanian citizens took effect in late 2017.

Canada views the recent visa changes for Mexico and Romania as having a minimal impact on the border, said Beatrice Fenelon, a spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

In the past two months, agents in Vermont have chased border crossers through the woods near Derby Line; there have been car chases and cases in which agents have lost sight of suspects in the woods, only to apprehend them days later.

"They have kind of gone southern-border style where they are taking a hike and they are coming through the tall grass,'' Ross said. "It's something I would have seen years ago when I worked in Harlingen, Texas.''

The agents won't guess how many make it across.

The flow of illegal border crossers goes in both directions. Since around the time President Donald Trump took office, thousands of immigrants in the U.S. have fled north to Canada seeking asylum.

Last October in the largest single case in memory of Border Patrol agents in the Derby Line area, 16 people were apprehended at a hotel after 14 had entered the United States west of Derby Line. The other two were the smugglers.

In another case east of Derby Line, a group of eight Mexican immigrants met at a McDonald's restaurant in Montreal after flying into Toronto and Montreal, where they hired two taxis to take them to Stanhope, Quebec, not far from where Quebec meets Vermont and New Hampshire.

After the immigrants walked six hours through the forest, they were apprehended in a taxi by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Norton, Vermont, court documents say.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, responsible for border security in Canada, made arrests last month in two human-smuggling cases between Stanstead and Derby Line.

In one case, the suspect, a Mexican who did not have legal status in Canada, has been convicted of bringing immigrants to the Vermont border and was sentenced to six months in jail, after which he will be deported.

The Mounties are aware of the cases and ready to help their U.S. counterparts, said RCMP spokeswoman Sgt. Camille Habel.

But the RCMP doesn't appear to view the problem with the same urgency as U.S. officials: It's not a trend yet,'' Habel said.India will open 18 new embassies across Africa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the Ugandan parliament Wednesday.

In the first speech to Ugandan lawmakers by a sitting Indian leader, Modi also announced loans worth $200 million for infrastructure and environmental projects and thanked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for welcoming back Ugandan Asians who were expelled during the reign of Idi Amin in the 1970s.

"Your visionary leadership has enabled Ugandan people of Indian origin to return to their cherished home, regain their lives and help rebuild the nation that they deeply love," Modi said.

The Indian leader's three-nation African tour is seen as a sign New Delhi wants greater influence on the continent that has been aggressively pursued by its regional rival, China.

While Modi did not specify where the embassies will be built, it will bring to 47 the number of full Indian diplomatic missions in Africa. China has 50.

Before the stop in Uganda, Modi visited Rwanda, where he symbolically donated 200 cows to poor families and oversaw Indian loans to Kigali.

Later Wednesday, he flew to South Africa for a meeting of the world's emerging economies.

He will join the leaders of other BRICS nations  Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa  for a summit.The Gaza Health Ministry said three Palestinians were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes east of Gaza City.

The Israeli military said it was "targeting Hamas military posts in the Gaza Strip" after Israeli troops on the border came under fire. An Israeli officer was also wounded by a Palestinian sniper.

The latest clash comes days after Gaza's Hamas leaders and Israel agreed to a cease-fire in an attempt to de-escalate hostilities. The cease-fire was broken last weekend when an Israeli soldier was killed by a Palestinian sniper.

Israel retaliated with a massive offensive that raised fears of another war between Israel and Hamas, which have fought three wars since 2008.U.S. cable news networks broadcast an audio recording Tuesday in which President Donald Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen discuss a potential payment for the rights to a model's story about her alleged affair with Trump.

Cohen secretly recorded the conversation in September 2016 when Trump was running for president. Cohen's own attorney, Lanny Davis, made the recording available to CNN.

Trump has repeatedly denied he had an affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal, who sold her story to a tabloid publisher American Media for $150,000. No story about the alleged relationship was published.

In the brief recording, Cohen discusses the need to "open up a company for the transfer of all of that information regarding our friend, David," a possible reference to Trump's friend and American Media President David Pecker.

Trump at one point asks how much has to be paid, "One-fifty?"

He also mentions a possible cash payment, but it is difficult to hear whether he suggests paying with cash or not.

Trump took aim at Cohen on Twitter Wednesday, questioning Cohen's ethics as an attorney and calling Cohen's recording of the conversation "So Sad!"



In April, the FBI raided Cohen's office and home and seized a dozen recordings that were sent to federal prosecutors last week.

Trump has expressed his displeasure with the investigation of Cohen.

He tweeted last week: "Inconceivable that the government would break into a lawyers office (early in the morning) - almost unheard of. Even more inconceivable that a lawyer would tape a client - totally unheard of & perhaps illegal. The good news is that your favorite President did nothing wrong!"

Various states have different rules for when it is legal to record a conversation that basically require either one person or both people involved to give their consent. In the state of New York, where the conversation took place, only one party is required to consent to a recording, so Cohen was legally allowed to tape his exchange with Trump.

Cohen made a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels less than two weeks before the November 2016 election to buy her silence about an alleged one-night affair she claims to have had with Trump in 2006, shortly after Trump's wife Melania gave birth to their son Barron. Some U.S. legal analysts have said the payment could be construed as a campaign finance law violation by Cohen.

In recent months, Cohen has said he made the payment on his own initiative. Trump denied he had an affair with Daniels and said the payment to her was made to stop her from making false accusations.On Monday, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker sat down with VOA to discuss the recent U.S.-Russia summit in Helsinki, Finland, and upcoming Normandy Format discussions about securing peace in Ukraine. The talks, involving political directors of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France, are slated for July 26 in Berlin.

Question: Thank so much for coming today. Political directors of Germany, Russia, Ukraine and France, the four nations tasked with resolving the war in eastern Ukraine, are meeting in Berlin on Thursday. You've kept close contact with these representatives. What's on the agenda, and what can Ukrainians expect?

Ambassador Volker: This particular meeting, they're going to be talking about what a UN-mandated peacekeeping operation might look like. And that's something that's been on the table for a long time. Russia proposed that there be a UN protection force for the OSCE monitors, but the rest of us who have looked at thiswhether it's France, Germany or the U.S. and, frankly, the Ukrainianshave all seen that you need to have a genuine peacekeeping operation to provide broad area security. And what we're hoping to be able to do is talk about how you build up to that kind of peacekeeping operation. I've been in very close touch with my French and German counterparts both in the last week, as well as throughout the last year. And so we are very much in sync on this. They are going to be meeting with Ukrainian and Russian counterparts on Thursday, as you indicated. I'll also be reaching out to my Russian counterparts soon to convey the same information.

Q: A representative of Russia's Foreign Ministry told media outlets that they're planning to renew talks on a possible referendum on occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, a claim the White House quickly rejected. Are there any grounds to believe there may be renewed talks on a referendum?

VOLKER: No, I really don't think so. First off, as you mentioned, the White House put out a very strong statement on Friday saying that they do not believe that any such referendum could or should be held, and that it would not be legitimate if it were held. And that's because you can't really hold a referendum in a part of Ukraine where the Ukrainian government is not in control. [The Donbas is] under conditions of terrible hardship for the populationlack of freedom of movement, a million-and-a-half displaced personsso there's no way that this could be a fair vote. Moreover, there's no basis for doing it because this is really the result of foreign intervention and occupation of the territory, not the result of an indigenous uprising in Ukraine, as is often said. Certainly the wishes of the local population need to be respected in terms of their ability to vote for local governance. That's something they have not been able to do since the conflict began, and it's what the Minsk agreement actually calls for: an opportunity for the local population to participate in local elections, after which the territory would be restored to Ukrainian control, Ukrainian sovereignty. The Minsk agreements are the framework for addressing these things, not some separate idea of outside referendums.

Any kind of referendum is not a part of the Minsk agreement. There is no basis for it. It would not have any legitimacy if it were to take place, so it shouldn't happen.

Q: A very unpopular law on the special procedure of self-government in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk is soon to expire, and there's not much support to extend it. How would you see the situation developing if this law is not extended?

VOLKER: First off, let me say I understand the frustration of Ukrainian lawmakers and the Ukrainian public, that they've taken steps such as passing the special status law passing an amnesty law, and Russia has done absolutely nothing to help end the conflict, to bring about security, withdraw its forces, and so forth. That being said, the law is passed but it doesn't have any application today. There is no special status as of today. It only kicks in when there is an agreement, when Russia withdraws its forces, when there are local elections. And so I don't see any harm in extending it. The situation from today would be no different the day after an extension was passed; it would be exactly the same. So I actually think there's no harm done. And then the flip side is that Russia will use this as an excuse to complain about Ukraine saying, "it's not doing its share to implement the Minsk agreement." So I would just take that argument off the table. Don't give Russia that argument. It doesn't change anything anyway. Let the special status be extended.

Q: There were a lot of rumors leading up to Helsinki about a U.S.-Russia deal on Ukraine that wouldn't involve Kyiv. Now Trump says Putin is coming to Washington in September. What can Ukrainians expect from upcoming meeting, and should they be concerned about what appears to be a new status between the U.S. and Russia following Helsinki?

VOLKER: Well, first thing I would do is call everyone's attention to the Helsinki meeting itself. There was no move towards recognition of Russia's claimed annexation of Crimea. No support for a referendum. No movement toward Russia's position on a protection force for the monitors that would effectively divide the country. A lot of things that people were worried about or had predicted might happen, did not happen, so I don't think there's really any basis to be worried here. In fact, this administration has continued to maintain sanctions on Russia and worked with our European allies very carefully. They've kept sanctions in place as well. We've lifted the arms embargo on Ukraine, so Javelins [anti-tank missiles] have been provided and other systems have been sold, such as anti-sniper systems. Just last week the Pentagon announced that there will be a new foreign military financing package available to Ukraine. So I think Ukrainians should have some confidence that the United States is doing all of the right things here. And in that context, the U.S. and Russia talking about trying to resolve this conflict is probably a good thing.

Q: Still, Ukrainian and U.S. lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction that President Trump didn't mention the illegal occupation of Crimea, aggression in eastern Ukraine during the press conference. It seems that Russia is still controlling the post-Helsinki narrative on what transpired behind closed doors. Can you provide us with some more information about what really happened, as I know you were briefed on the extended meetings held in Helsinki?

VOLKER: Let me just say this, that on all of the issues that Ukrainians would care about, nothing was given away. No handing over of gifts to Russia at Ukraine's expense.

Q: So far...

VOLKER: No, none. And in addition to that, Ukraine was not even a principal topic. I think Syria was the topic that was most prominently discussed, Ukraine rather little. And I think that's largely because we recognize that we just simply disagree with Russia on this and there isn't a whole lot of point of delving deeply into that. I do think it is useful for the presidents to get together. A situation where the United States and Russia are in the worst relationship that they have been in since the end of the Cold War is a potentially dangerous situation for lots of people. So it's better to be talking. We just need to be clear about the substance of what we're talking about as well. And in this case I think that Ukraine came out quite well.

Q: Was it enough that Poroshenko met with Trump before the meeting in Helsinki? Can the Ukrainian government do more in this situation?

VOLKER: Well, I think the Ukrainian government has done a lot. Let's give enough credit to reforms that have taken place over the last four years, since the Maidan. Everything from pensions to, last week, the national security reform, the anti-corruption court reform, the education system as well. There's quite a lot that's been done. Nonetheless, there is still more to do to create an attractive business climate for investment in Ukraine, to build up greater growth and to genuinely fight corruption so that people, both inside Ukraine and from outside Ukraine, feel that things are fair. So there's a long way to go. And that's where I think the government should be focusing its effortson making Ukraine as successful and prosperous a democracy and market economy as it can possibly be.

And another area I would mentionI always mention thisis that I think the government needs to do everything it can to reach out to the population in the Donbas. The people that live there are suffering tremendouslyeverything from questionable water supplies to power shut-offs, cell phone shut-offs, lack of freedom of movement, physical insecurity, disease, and they need as much support from their government as they can possibly get. And I know that the Ukrainian government wants to help them, but it needs to be as proactive as possible in demonstrating that.

Q: Speaking of eastern Ukraine, the OSCE remains the only monitoring in the region, and that group was recently compromised by Russia. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin recently said all Russians in OSCE are spies. There are calls to exclude Russian representatives from the OSCE mission, as it was during the Balkan war. Is this now a possibility, that Russia could be excluded from the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission (SMM)?

VOLKER: I would say I think it's too late for that now. I think that Russia has been in the SMM from the beginning. No one should be surprised that information is being passed back to governments who have seconded people into the SMM. I'm sure lots of governments in addition to Russia are getting information from their people in the SMM. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. What is maybe more surprising is that is so clearly demonstrated recently and so clearly talked about, and I don't think there's anything terribly secret that the SMM is coming across that isn't already more widely known. So I think it's not something to spend too much time worrying about. If Russia were to be excluded from the SMMwhich, again, I believe would be impossible at this point, since they are part of the OSCE, but even if that were the caseit would probably hurt the effectiveness of the SMM in operating in the occupied territories, which is where they're most needed.

Q: Ukrainian officials have reported 15 attacks on Ukrainian Army positions in Donbass in the last 24 hours. This is almost a daily routine in the war zone. And I know we've mentioned the prospects of a peacekeeping mission. But are we now any closer to a tangible solution for stopping this warfare?

VOLKER: Honestly, no, I don't think we're any closer. These are the same issues that have been on the table since 2014, and the Normandy group has tried to convene people. They've put all kinds of creative ideas on the table to inspire implementation of the Minsk agreement. The Russians continue to deny any responsibility for it, they continue to deny their presence there. They have not implemented a cease fire. There's been no effective withdrawal of heavy weapons. That's why we believe the idea of a UN-mandated peacekeeping operation is a constructive one. Because it would be a way to create security, replace the Russian forces, and create a period of time in which you can then see political steps under Minsk implemented as well, and break this logjam in implementation. But as it is, there has been no movement on the security side or, as a result of that, on the political side.

Q: When was the last time you had contact with your Russian counterpart, Vladislav Surkov?

VOLKER: We exchanged some notes, I believe it was in May, might have been June even. It was after he was reconfirmed in his position by President Putin. Prior to that it had been January.

Q: Any plans for one-on-one conversations on the horizon?

VOLKER: I intend to reach out soon. My desire is to make sure that we are well-coordinated with our French and German colleagues first. They're having a meeting with the Russians and Ukrainians, of course, on Thursday, so I want to make sure we're all linked up, and then I'll be reaching back out again later.

Q: Are you planning to do that before the Putin-Trump meeting here in Washington, assuming it happens?

VOLKER: We don't have dates for that yet, so we'll see how that plays out. But I don't intend to wait. In fact, I'd like to be able to reach out and see whether we can test Russia's willingness to genuinely resolve the conflict in advance. That would be ideal.

Q: Again, to make a go of the peacekeeping mission, what needs to happen?

VOLKER: Russia needs to decide. That's the fundamental thing. Russia needs to decide that it wants to end the conflict and withdraw its forces. If Russia is willing to do that, and the international community is ready to step forward to create security for all of the citizensall the inhabitants that are there, to create the conditions where the Minsk agreements can genuinely be implemented, and to see the territory then restored to Ukrainian controlif Russia is willing to do that, which is what it has signed up for in the Minsk agreement, then we can get it done.

Q: And so far they haven't shown the will to do that, and some observers speculate they won't until after next year's elections in Ukraine. Do you foresee any possibility it could happen sooner?

VOLKER: Well, any possibility? There's always a possibility, right? It's just a question of people making the necessary decisions. I don't think it's likely. I think, based on four years of experience, watching how this has played out, I don't see Russia really changing what it's doing right now. But we have to keep open the possibility; we have to keep up the hope. We have to keep offers on the table as to how it can get done, so that if there is any chance at all, we're ready to take that chance.

Q: Are you regularly in touch with Trump's National Security Adviser? Do you have regular conversations with them about this situation?

VOLKER: Yes, both with National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Yes, we're in regular contact.

Q: Thank you so much.

VOLKER: Thank you.Burkina Faso's army backed a military colonel as the country's transitional leader on Saturday after the resignation of President Blaise Compaore, showing apparent unity within the armed forces after 24 hours of confusion.

Following talks held after Lt. Colonel Isaac Yacouba Zida had declared himself head of state in an early morning radio address, military leaders released a statement confirming that he is in charge.

Lt. Colonel Zida has been retained unanimously to lead the transition, said the statement, read by General Pingrenoma Zagre to the nation. The structure and the duration of this transition will be determined later."

The statement laid to rest reports of a power struggle within the armed forces, saying that any apparent confusion and contradiction were a by-product of the fast pace at which events unfolded.

Compaore resigned Friday in the face of continued protests.

Both Zida, who was second in command of the presidential guard, and army chief General Honore Traore then declared themselves in charge. General Traore signed the statement Saturday.

The former president fled the country after 27 years in power and four days of some of the biggest and fiercest protests the nation has ever seen.

Many celebrating in the streets said all that matters is that Compaore is gone.

The president is gone. We are too happy, one man said. From now on we can live in peace.

Young people organized themselves and cleaned the streets of Ouagadougou Saturday at the request of civil society groups, an attempt to restore order.

But analysts warned not to expect a smooth transition.

Possible trouble ahead

Some characterize Compaores time in power as semi-authoritarian and said he kept any clear capable successors from emerging within the political class.

More than half of the population was born after Compaore came to power in 1987. Hes the only president theyve ever known.

Burkinabe consider this to be a people's revolution but they looked to the military for interim leadership.

Lt. Col Zida is said to have considerable support from the streets - including the backing of a civic group, the Citizens Broom, that was instrumental in the protest movement.

The power, Zida said, belongs to the courageous and combative people of Burkina Faso. No one - I repeat - no one will take this victory away from us.

The crowd cheered Zida as he made his first public declaration Friday afternoon.

However, people gathered at that same public square Saturday told VOA they are worried about Zidas ties to the now ex-president. Zida was the number two in Compaores elite presidential guard. The presidential guard fired on protesters Thursday, killing at least one person.

Zida suspended the Constitution. He has implemented a curfew and shut the countrys borders.

He has given few details about whats ahead, other than to say he will create a transitional body with input from all sides to organize democratic elections. He said the goal is a return to constitutional order as soon as possible though he cant say when.

"I call on the international community, in particular countries that are friends and allies of Burkina Faso, notably in the African Union and ECOWAS, to demonstrate their understanding and support our people in this difficult time,'' Zida said.

US condemnation

The United States Friday repeated its call for all sides to follow the constitutionally mandated process for the transfer of power Compaore's resignation.

"We condemn any attempts by the military or other parties to take advantage of the situation for unconstitutional gain and call on all parties to respect the peoples support for the democratic process," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The State Department also issued a travel warning Friday alerting U.S. citizens to incidents of looting throughout the capital city of Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, and other parts of the country.

"The situation is dynamic and closures or openings of border and airports are likely to change and remain unpredictable for some time. Currently, land and air borders have been closed."

Compaore stepped down Friday after protesters stormed parliament and set the building ablaze, ending his 27-year reign and sparking a struggle in the military for control of the West African country.

The longtime leader arrived in neighboring Ivory Coast Saturday. Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara confirmed that Compaore, his family and those close to him had crossed into the country. It did not elaborate.

In resigning, Compaore had called for a 90-day transition period leading to elections. He ruled the country for 27 years after seizing power in a 1987 coup.

Unrest had broken out Thursday as lawmakers prepared to vote on a constitutional amendment that would have allowed Compaore to run for another term.

The government withdrew the amendment after protests became violent.Led by Mexico, major Latin American nations pledged to deepen commercial and economic ties on Tuesday as they sought to counter the risk of a deepening trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's "America First" policy.

Leaders of the Pacific Alliance and Mercosur trading blocs met in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta, seeking to present a united front against potential disruptions stemming from Trump's threats to slap new tariffs on major markets.

"The aim was to strengthen the links between the two most important trade blocs in Latin America," said outgoing Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who has spent much of the past two years mired in trade negotiations with Trump.

"Today we're sending the world a clear signal we're moving onward with regional integration and free trade," he added.

Later this week, top Mexican officials will renew talks with the Trump administration in Washington aimed at renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mexico is heavily dependent on the United States as an export market and Trump's threat to pull out of NAFTA have rattled investors and put pressure on the peso currency.

Pena Nieto said the Pacific Alliance, which comprises Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru, agreed with Mercosur - made up of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay - to explore new ways of cooperation to boost trade in areas of common interest.

The eight countries pledged to undertake a series of steps, including making goods trade easier, helping small and medium-sized firms do business internationally and boosting the knowledge-based economy, Pena Nieto told the summit.

Trump has slapped billions of dollars worth of duties on Chinese goods and is weighing fresh steps against auto imports.

Still, Jesus Seade, the incoming NAFTA negotiator of Mexico's next president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said on Tuesday he believed a new NAFTA deal would be reached in the next few months ahead of the talks in Washington.On Tuesday night, Niles Police Cmdr. Robert Tornabene said the driver of the car has since been identified as the husband of a babysitter who was caring for a child in the area of Neva Avenue and Kedzie Street. The man believed he was trying to pick up a different child when he told the girl to get in his car, Tornabene said.The Democratic party's newest star, New York City congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, visited the Capitol Tuesday to meet with lawmakers who may soon be colleagues.

The 28-year-old former bartender, who defeated one of the most powerful House Democrats last month, had lunch with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and met with several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

Khanna was the only member of Congress to endorse Ocasio-Cortez, a self-described democratic socialist, before her upset victory over Rep. Joe Crowley, a member of the House Democratic leadership.

Khanna called Ocasio-Cortez "a bold champion for progressive values'' and said he looks forward to working with her in Congress.

Another New York Democrat, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, did not meet with Ocasio-Cortez, but said he was not concerned that her brand of politics could drag down Democrats in less liberal states.

"On economic issues, Democrats are united in a very strong way,'' Schumer told reporters. "We're all for improving health care and lowering the cost, ... making it easier for middle-class people and people trying to get there to get a good job. The unity on issues is very strong.''

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, a member of the progressive caucus, said she talked with Ocasio-Cortez for about 15 minutes in her office. "It was nice to meet her,'' Gabbard said.

The caucus co-chairs, Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, also met separately with Ocasio-Cortez.

A spokesman for Pocan said they discussed possible committee assignments, what she hoped to work on in Congress and how the progressive caucus could work with her.

Ocasio-Cortez has caused a stir in Democratic politics since her surprise victory. She has emerged as the face of a growing democratic socialist movement that emphasizes government-paid health care for all, a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition and the abolition of the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE.

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned last week in Kansas, headlining a rally with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that drew a crowd of more than 3,000 in a suburb of Kansas City.Increasingly impatient people from a war-razed city in the Muslim region of the Philippines expect reconstruction to take at least five years, despite pledges for quick recovery, after a Chinese-backed building consortium failed to get a building contract.

Many among the 27,000 families officially listed as "internally displaced people" by the 2017 war between troops and a group of Muslim separatists said this week theyre ready to live indefinitely in single-room units built with relief money. They lost their own houses and small businesses when firefights last year wrecked a quadrant of their hilly lakeside city, Marawi.

If recovery drags on, refugees may lose patience, playing into the hands of rebel groups such as the one that sparked last years civil war, one scholar in Marawi said.

In November the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council executive director said Marawi would be rebuilt "as fast as we can." In May presidential spokesman Harry Roque "assured the public that the government is acting fast."

But a building consortium backed by investors from China and Malaysia was disqualified in June for a bid to rebuild Marawis war zone for lack of available capital. That job will cost 17 billion to 20 billion pesos ($319 million-$375 million), said Asec Felix Castro, field office manager with a government housing coordination agency in charge of Marawi.

"Unfortunately, the negotiation with the first developer failed so were talking with the number two developers," Castro said.

Surge in temporary housing

Cairona Alonto, 60, has lived since February in a single-room, prefab unit in a barren refugee camp on the outskirts of Marawi. The government paid for her unit, but she had lost a four-room house and her dress shop to the fighting. Troops razed houses as they suspected rebel snipers were taking shelter there.

"Right now, we are still adjusting (to) the environment," said Alonto, who now shares the unit with her aging mother. "Its different from our past. You look at our house, very small. There is no proper way of comfort and its really hard for our small place."

Lack of a reconstruction schedule has given rise to 3,000 one-room, temporary housing units and 3,000 more permanent ones with more on the way, a National Housing Authority official in Marawi said. More refugees live in a Marawi tent city, and still others live in camps outside town.

Money from China, Japan and Taiwan has helped the Philippine government build the temporary housing. Vehicles at a temporary housing site show the name of a Japanese corporate donor. The Taiwan government and the Taiwanese charity Tzu Chi Foundation broke ground this month on 400 more prefab homes.

The war started in May last year when separatists called the Maute Group joined hands with a more established, IS-backed group and tried to take over central Marawi. About 1,100 people, mostly rebels, died in the five-month war that extended the surrounding island of Mindanaos decades-old struggle between Muslim separatists and the Philippine government.

Doubts about government resolve Internally displaced people, or IDPs, say they are angry that reconstruction will take longer than expected. Some have prepared to stay the legal maximum five years in the temporary units -- longer if allowed.

Some people are living five or six people per unit, often on the floor for lack of furniture.

"Most of the misplaced IDPs are so sad about that," said Monara Maruhom, assistant dean of the King Faisal Center for Islamic, Arabic and Asian Studies at Mindanao State University in Marawi."IDPs are really congested inside the very little temporary shelter with a kitchen and everything. Their condition is not healthy."

Mounting impatience could turn displaced people against the government a point where they sympathize with Muslim separatist groups, she said.

About 20 such groups exist in Mindanao and its offshore islands, drawing support from Muslims who believe the largely Christian nation has deprived it of resources.

Reconstruction timeline

The rejected contractor backed by Chinese money had "many liabilities" and a poor "record" including unfinished projects elsewhere, Maruhom said.

But its not clear when a new contractor will be picked, and Marawi dwellers  largely poor or lower-middle class small business owners -- say theres no guarantee the government will pay to rebuild the private houses that were destroyed.

Once the government finds another contractor, it should take six to 12 months to clear the war-torn structures, Castro said. The contractor would later rebuild roads and utility lines, he said.

Reconstruction is taking time because the government consults local people about its plans, Castro added. Those talks can get bogged down in confusion over land rights, he said. Because of the enormity of the problem, the project, there were all sorts of consultations, Castro said.French police searched the presidential palace office Wednesday of the former security aide to President Emmanuel Macron who was seen beating a protester in a video that triggered a political firestorm.

An official at the presidential Elysee Palace confirmed that Alexandre Benalla, who was fired last week, was present during the search. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named.

Authorities opened a judicial investigation of Benalla's actions at a May Day protest after Le Monde newspaper identified him as the person acting violently in the video it released last week. Investigators searched Benalla's apartment on Saturday.

Macron's office has been criticized for not disclosing the accusations weeks ago and the way it handled them. The French leader said Tuesday night at a gathering of officials and lawmakers from his centrist party that he alone was responsible.

On Wednesday, Macron brushed away questions during an official visit in the Pyrenees, where he was welcomed with local songs.

"Stop getting so excited about this affair," he told inquiring journalists. "Stay calm. I'm with people here. We're happy and all is well."

The dismissive reaction was unlikely to sit well with opposition lawmakers. They are among the members of parliament who are questioning presidential officials as part of two inquiries set up to find out why Benalla was kept on the job after the May incident.

Lawmakers also want to know why Benalla's behavior while accompanying police officers at the protest was not immediately reported to judicial officials. His punishment at the time  two weeks' suspension and what has been described in inquiry testimony as a demotion  have been seen by many legislators as inadequate.

Testimony by the director of Macron's office, Patrick Strzoda, might have made matters worse. Strzoda, who said he decided the punishment, told the Senate inquiry commission Wednesday that Benalla's pay was not withheld during the two-week suspension in May, but was being deducted from vacation time owed him on his firing date.

Macron addressed the issue for the first time on Tuesday night, six days after the beating video surfaced.

"If they want someone responsible, tell them he is in front of you," Macron said at the party event. "Because the one responsible is me and me alone. Tell them they can come and get me."

Some lawmakers criticized the president for failing to address the nation and instead choosing a forum where neither the press nor the public was present. A video of the event was leaked to some French media.North Korea is still producing fuel for nuclear bombs despite pledges to give up its nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday.

Questioned by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime was continuing to produce fissile material.

He declined to answer questions about whether the North's nuclear program was still advancing generally and whether Pyongyang was looking to acquire ballistic missiles that could be launched from submarines.

Pompeo said he preferred to answer such questions in a "different setting," meaning in a classified briefing. He told the senators that answering those questions in public could hurt "complex negotiations with a difficult adversary."

During last month's Singapore summit with President Donald Trump, Kim promised to denuclearize. He gave no timetable and Pompeo said it would be impossible to predict when that would happen.

Just after the summit, Trump tweeted that North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat.

Pompeo said Wednesday that the "primary systems" that have threatened the U.S. still existed. He said what Trump most likely meant by his statement was that the tension between the U.S. and the North had been "greatly reduced."

But Pompeo told lawmakers that ongoing talks with North Korea were "verifiable evidence" of movement toward denuclearization. He said Kim understood the U.S. definition of denuclearization and that the North was not taking the Trump administration "for a ride." He told the lawmakers that they could sleep easy at night.U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to discuss U.S.-Russia relations, including President Donald Trump's meeting last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as he testifies Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Ahead of the session, Pompeo on Tuesday defended the talks in Helsinki as "incredibly important" and said he thinks the world will benefit from the discussion.

At the summit, Trump appeared to embrace Putin's denial that Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election and equated Putin's statement with the U.S. intelligence finding that it had meddled. Putin said at a news conference he wanted Trump to win.

Trump's comments drew sharp criticism, and after returning to Washington he said he supported his intelligence officials and their conclusion, often coupling it with his oft-repeated statement that his campaign did not collude with the Russians and that the Russian interference had no effect on the outcome of the election. By Sunday, however, he blamed former President Barack Obama for not stopping the Russian interference in the election, yet called it "all a big hoax."

A new Quinnipiac University poll said Americans believe, by a 51 to 35 percent margin, "that the Russian government has compromising information about President Trump." The survey said that U.S. voters, by a 52-27 percent margin, believe the summit was a failure for the United States, while those polled, by a 73-8 percent edge, believe it was a success for Russia.

Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russia is again attempting to interfere in the U.S. electoral process in the November voting, although Trump administration officials have vowed to try to stop it. The Quinnipiac poll said 63 percent of voters are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about Russian interference in the upcoming vote.

Trump said Tuesday that Russia "will be pushing very hard for the Democrats" in November's congressional elections, against his favored Republican candidates.

The U.S. leader said on Twitter that he was "very concerned that Russia will be fighting very hard to have an impact on the upcoming Election."

Trump claimed that "based on the fact that no President has been tougher on Russia than me, they will be pushing very hard for the Democrats. They definitely dont want Trump!"



Trump's contention that Moscow would favor Democrats in the November 6 congressional contests  when the entire 435-member House of Representatives and a third of the Senate is up for election  is at odds with the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election to help Trump win the White House.

Republicans now hold majorities in both chambers of Congress, but U.S. political analysts say Democrats could wrest control of one or both houses, more likely the House. Democrats need to pick up two seats to claim the Senate majority and 23 to control the House when the new Congress takes office in January.

Even with control now, Republicans have had difficulty approving Trump's legislative agenda and likely would have even more trouble should Democrats take over one or both houses. If Democrats assume control of the House, Trump opponents could start numerous investigations of his administration and open impeachment hearings to remove him from office.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is continuing his criminal investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, probing whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow. Mueller recently indicted 12 Russian military intelligence officials for hacking into the computer files of Democratic operatives supporting Trump's challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton.When North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed in June to help return the remains of American troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, it was seen as one of the more attainable goals to come out of his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump.

American officials expect North Korea to hand over around 50 sets of remains in coming days or weeks, but the drawn-out process of negotiations to get to this point highlights the complications involved in the issue.

At the heart of the difficulty, former officials involved in previous recovery missions say, are likely demands from North Korea for cash compensation, as well as the unsolved tensions over the North's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile arsenal.

More than 7,700 U.S. troops who fought in the Korean War remain unaccounted for, with about 5,300 of those lost in what is now North Korea, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the U.S. military agency tasked with tracking down prisoners of war and troops missing in action.

The Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the United States and North Korea still technically at war.

Soon after the June summit, Trump announced North Korea had returned the remains of 200 soldiers that had already been found, but this has yet to take place and negotiations over the actual handing over of the remains have dragged on.

Trump told an audience of veterans on Tuesday that he hoped "fallen warriors" would begin to come home "very soon."

Bill Richardson, a former U.S. diplomat with experience negotiating with North Korea, including during the recovery of the remains of seven Americans in 2007, said Pyongyang was using the issue as "a bargaining chip."

"They're stalling," he told Reuters. "I think in the end the North Koreans will turn over the majority of the remains that they have  but it will have a price. Not just a financial price."

Remains returned

Between the 1990s and 2005, more than 400 caskets of remains found in North Korea were returned to the United States, and the bodies of some 330 Americans were accounted for, according to the DPAA.

Decades-old remains that North Korea has handed over in the past have not always been identifiable as U.S. troops.

The U.S. and North Korea worked together on so-called joint field activities (JFAs) to recover remains from 1996-2005, until Washington halted operations, expressing concerns about the safety of its personnel.

A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report said the United States paid $28 million to North Korea for assistance in the effort.

"To the best of my knowledge, it was never based on a per body calculation. Payments were made in support of each field mission  each joint recovery operation," said Frank Jannuzi, a former Democratic Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer focusing on East Asian and Pacific affairs. Payments were to compensate North Korea for direct expenses incurred such as fuel costs, disruption of agricultural planting, or equipment costs, he said.

In 2011, President Barack Obama's administration agreed with Pyongyang to restart recovery missions, offering to pay $5,669,160 in "compensation" for services provided by North Korea.

Those planned missions never happened, however, as Washington called off the deal after North Korea tested a rocket in early 2012, said Paul Cole, author of POW/MIA Accounting.

"If the past is any indicator, the [North Koreans] are demanding upfront deliveries of food, fuel and at least $5 million in cash," Cole told Reuters. "In the era of 'maximum pressure,' the dilemma for the Trump administration is whether to give the [North Koreans] massive amounts of food, fuel, trucks, SUVs and millions in cash, or cancel the deal."

Former officials say typically North Korea has not asked for compensation when it unilaterally returns remains it recovers, such as the roughly 200 currently being discussed.

But if the United States hopes to send its own teams into North Korea, there will likely be a cost.

Asked whether the cost of future joint field activities would be similar to what was paid in the past, the Pentagon's DPAA Public Affairs Office said: "As of yet, there are no JFAs scheduled in North Korea so we cannot speculate on what such activities may cost."

The U.S. State Department did not have an immediate comment on the negotiations, but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week North Korea had committed to return the first remains "in the next couple of weeks."

According to CRS, the United States also paid for recovery operations in Vietnam. As with North Korea, critics complained the Vietnamese government charged "extraordinarily high fees for providing support ... and that the services received are by no means as lavish as the bills presented indicate."

South Korea's former vice minister of foreign affairs and trade, Kim Sung-han, said Pyongyang would likely want to use the return of remains to improve its relations with Washington, while avoiding addressing more touchy subjects such as denuclearization.

"North Korea wants the war declared ended sooner rather than later, so trust can be built and progress on its international standing can be made," he said, adding that any "reimbursements" were likely to violate sanctions.

Besides being politically sensitive, however, handing the North Korean government stacks of cash offers no guarantee that authenticated U.S. servicemen's remains would be recovered, Jannuzi said.

"We might spend a million dollars and come up with nothing."An American pastor who has been jailed in Turkey on terrorism and espionage charges was put under house arrest Wednesday, live footage from Turkish broadcasters showed.

The two-year detention of Andrew Brunson, an evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, has strained relations between Turkey and the U.S., both NATO allies.

Hours after a court ruled Brunson be transferred from jail to house arrest, Turkish broadcasters DHA and NTV showed Brunson being escorted from prison in the coastal city of Izmir and departing shortly thereafter in a convoy of vehicles.

Brunson's transfer came one week after a court inside a prison complex in the western Turkish town of Aliaga ruled to keep Brunson in detention while he is tried. The court dismissed Brunson's attorney's request for Brunson to be freed pending the outcome of the trial, which was adjourned until October 12.

Brunson was indicted on charges of helping a network led by U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, which Turkey blames for a failed 2016 coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in addition to supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The 50-year-old pastor, who denies the charges, could face up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that Brunson's transfer was "long overdue news," but added the U.S. expects Ankara to do more.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded Brunson's release. Last week, Trump tweeted that Brunson's detention is "a total disgrace" and added, "He has done nothing wrong, and his family needs him!"

Brunson is among the tens of thousands of people Erdogan detained on similar charges during the state of emergency he declared following the failed coup.

The state of emergency ended July 18, but the Turkish legislature passed a new "anti-terror" law Wednesday that gives authorities more power to detain suspects and restore public order.A group of Republican U.S. senators has appealed to members of the nation's Christian evangelical community to provide more support for their push for tougher U.S. policies toward Iran.

Speaking to a Christian evangelical conference in Washington on Tuesday, the four senators described Iran as a mortal danger to the U.S. and its ally Israel, and promised action to counter that threat. They had a receptive audience in the hundreds of activists who gathered at the Washington Convention Center for the final session of the two-day annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) summit.

Ted Cruz of Texas was one of the four Republican senators who received warm welcomes from the politically conservative crowd. He said Americans and Israelis face a common danger from Iran, whose Islamist leaders long have led public chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."

"I am thankful that we [now] have a president and an administration who understand a simple and powerful truth," said Cruz, "that Israel is our friend, that [Iranian Supreme Leader] Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei should never, ever be allowed to have nuclear weapons, and that they will stop or we will stop them."

South Carolina's Lindsey Graham told the conference he sees Iran as one of the biggest threats to the U.S. and Israel and vowed to do something about it.

"I am going to introduce legislation soon that sides with the Iranian people against the ayatollah and his henchmen, and I need your support to make that a law," Graham said. "We are going to treat the Iranian regime the way [then-U.S. President] Ronald Reagan treated the Soviet Union. It is an evil empire, and it will fall."

Reagan, also a Republican, referred to the Soviet Union as an "evil empire" in a speech to Christian evangelicals in Florida in 1983.

A third Republican senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, urged the crowd to support his idea for a law that would try to curb the elaborate lifestyles of Iranian leaders engaged in perceived illicit activities.

"I have introduced new legislation to expose ill-gotten wealth of senior Iranian officials," Cotton said. "[The bill also] would prohibit any Iranian official involved in hostage-taking of Americans, and the family of such an official, from entering the U.S. If you are holding an American hostage  away from his children or wife or his parents  then your wife and your kids and your family should not vacation in the U.S."

Another proposal came from Texas Senator John Cornyn, who said he was seeking bipartisan support for a bill he introduced to sanction Iran's Mahan Air. For years, Washington has accused the self-described commercial airline of serving as a transport vehicle for the elite Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"This airline is the primary way in which terrorist personnel and weapons are spread in places like Syria and Lebanon, presenting a clear danger to the security of Israel," Cornyn said. "That is an unacceptable condition that my bill will change, and I hope we will pass this bill with your support."

Shiite-majority Iran denies sponsoring terrorism and long has asserted it is a victim of Sunni terror in the region.

The conference ended with CUFI organizers echoing the senators' calls for participants to visit Congress later in the day to try to persuade other lawmakers to support the proposed measures against Iran.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Persian service.At least 19 people have been confirmed dead in the wake of Monday's catastrophic dam collapse in southern Laos that left thousands of residents homeless and hundreds more missing.

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam collapsed in the southeastern province of Attapeu late Monday, releasing as much as five billion cubic meters of water throughout the district, washing away hundreds of homes and leaving scores of residents homeless.

State news agency KPL put the number of displaced downstream from the dam, located about 550 kilometers south of the capital, Vientiane, at 6,600.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has ordered an emergency relief team to Laos to assist with the recovery efforts. Two South Korean firms, SK Engineering and Construction and Korea Western Power, are part of a consortium building the 410-megawatt project, along with Thailands Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company, and Lao Holding State Enterprise.

The Xepian-Xe Nam Noy dam was set to be completed next year is at an estimated cost of about $1 billion.

Just hours before the disaster on Monday night, the consortium warned in a letter that millions of tons of water would surge down the Xe-Pian River if the dangerously unsafe dam failed.

And within hours of this letter in the evening, the dam did actually break. So its clear that the warning system appears to have been inadequate and appears to have been too late for many people, Maureen Harris, Southeast Asia director at International Rivers, told VOA.

Thousands of people have been displaced downstream from the dam, one of five that make up the Xe-Pian-Xe-Namnoy dam cascade project on the Bolaven Plateau, Harris said.

In their warning letter, the consortium, known as PNPC, said the saddle dam had become unsafe due to heavy rainfall and would release five million tons of water into the Xe Pian River if it failed. The project reservoir is intended to rise 73 meters high by 1,600 meters long, with the capacity to store about 1,043 million cubic meters of water.

The dam "was fractured, and the water had leaked to the downstream area and down to the Xe-Pian River, which is about five kilometers from the dam," said Kijja Sripatthangkura, chief executive officer of Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Company.

The Laos Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has not responded to Voice Of America inquiries, while the Mekong River Commission, the MRC, said it was investigating the disaster and would comment Wednesday.

Videos and photos posted to Facebook by state media showed huge areas inundated and people stranded on the roofs of their flooded houses. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith is pictured visiting the affected area.

The Xe-Pian-Xe-Namnoy dams flow down into the Sekong River through Cambodia, and there are concerns of potential downstream impact.

Water levels across the Mekong region have been rising rapidly since July 15, in one case by more than four meters in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang, due to extremely high rainfall caused by tropical Storm Son-Ting, according to the MRC.

Harris said the incident raised concerns about the risks around dam designs unable to cope with extreme weather events exacerbated by climate change, and the adequacy of warning systems, including for dams currently under construction.

More than 70 dams are currently under construction or planned in Laos, including several on the Mekong mainstream. Harris said the roles and responsibilities of private companies developing these projects should be seriously questioned, in light of the disaster.

VOA Laos contributed to this article.South Sudan's government and main rebel group have signed a preliminary power-sharing deal aimed at ending the country's nearly five-year civil war.

However, a coalition of nine opposition parties has refused to sign the document, saying their suggestions for the deal were ignored.

The agreement, seen by VOA News, leaves President Salva Kiir as head of a transitional government while returning rebel chief Riek Machar to his previous position as first vice president.

It also calls for creation of a 550-person transitional national legislature and the appointment of another four vice presidents, one of whom will be a woman.

The agreement was signed in Sudan's capital, Khartoum on Wednesday. The government and Machar's group reached a separate peace deal in 2015 but the agreement collapsed a year later amid a flare-up of deadly violence in the South Sudanese capital, Juba.

The East African bloc IGAD mediated the talks leading to the latest agreement.

The civil war broke out just two years after South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011. Fighting has led to widespread hunger and prompted nearly 2.5 million South Sudanese to flee the country. Another two million are displaced internally.Velma is a jazz star in the 20s who has lived and breathed fame for a while now, Gina said. However, she got into an incident with her sister and her husband and ended up murdering them both. Through Chicago, you see Velmas journey in realizing that the spotlight isnt always on her.The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for a series of suicide bombings and other attacks Wednesday in southern Syria, killing at least 204 people.

Multiple bombers blew themselves up near a market and a busy square in the city of Sweida.

Hassan Omar, a local health official, said at least 180 others were wounded in the attack. Among the casualties were civilians who took up arms to defend against the IS assault, Omar said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported clashes in nearby villages between pro-government forces and Islamic State fighters.

The Islamic State group has lost much of the territory it once held in Syria and neighboring Iraq, but does still control parts of eastern and southern Syria.

Syrian forces have retaken territory from the militants in recent weeks, particularly west of Sweida near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Observatory said Wednesdays attacks marked the deadliest day in the province of Sweida since the countrys civil war first broke out in 2011.Films starring Timothee Chalamet and Hugh Jackman as well as Bradley Cooper's directorial debut "A Star Is Born" with Lady Gaga are among the selections announced Tuesday for this year's Toronto International Film Festival.



"Beautiful Boy" stars Chalamet and Steve Carell and will be one of several films having their world premiere at the festival, a launching pad for Hollywood's awards season.



Other world premieres include "The Front Runner" starring Jackman as former presidential candidate Gary Hart, "Life Itself" from "This Is Us" creator Dan Fogelman, the police shooting drama "The Hate U Give" and Steve McQueen's "Widows."



Tuesday's announcement was scaled back and handled by press release because of Sunday's attack in Toronto's lively Greektown neighborhood left two people and a gunman dead. Among the 47 films announced, 13 are directed by women.



Chalamet, an Oscar nominee for last year's "Call Me By Your Name," plays a meth addict whose recovery is seen through the eyes of his father, played by Carell. "The Front Runner," from director Jason Reitman, chronicles Hart's rise and fall as the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee after his extramarital affair became tabloid fodder and a national scandal.



Other notable films screening at the festival include the Neil Armstrong film "First Man," which stars Ryan Gosling as the astronaut. It is directed by Damien Chazelle and is his first film since the Oscar darling "La La Land." Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk," based on a novel by James Baldwin, will also premiere at the festival. "Moonlight" beat out "La La Land" for best picture at the 2017 Academy Awards.



The festival's opening film will be "Mouthpiece" from Canadian director Patricia Rozema. The closing film will be Cannes Film Festival winner "Shoplifters" from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda.



The 43rd annual festival will run from Sept. 6-16.U.S. President Donald Trump attacked China on Wednesday for targeting American farm products with new tariffs in what he said would be a failed effort to gain a trade advantage over the United States.

"China is targeting our farmers, who they know I love & respect, as a way of getting me to continue allowing them to take advantage of the U.S.," Trump said on Twitter. "They are being vicious in what will be their failed attempt. We were being nice - until now!"

Beijng recently imposed new tariffs on an array of American farm produce, including soy beans, corn, wheat, cotton, rice, sorghum, beef, pork, poultry, fish, dairy products, nuts and vegetables.

It is part of a tit-for-tat tariff battle that Trump is waging with China in an effort to get Beijing to further open up its markets and end what the U.S. views as onerous requirements that American companies hand over proprietary technology information in order to do business in China.

The U.S. has chronically run a trade deficit with China, although Trump overstated the 2017 figure as $517 billion. The U.S. government says the deficit actually was $375.6 billion.

With the new tariffs in China, some U.S. farmers, many of them among Trump's biggest political supporters in the 2016 election, have voiced their dismay at declining sales.

With the agricultural financial fallout occurring less than four months before nationwide congressional elections in November, the Trump administration said Tuesday it would provide up to $12 billion in aid to farmers who have been hurt by the president's tariff policies. He has said the tariffs he has imposed are needed to force foreign governments to improve their trade deals with the U.S.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the compensation to U.S. farmers was "a firm statement that other nations cannot bully our agricultural producers to force the United States to cave in. This administration will not stand by while our hardworking agricultural producers bear the brunt of unfriendly and illegal tariffs.

White House officials contend the tariffs inflict some necessary minor, domestic short-term pain in order to achieve long-term large gains for the U.S. economy.

However, several lawmakers, including farm-state Republicans, attacked Trump's compensation plan for U.S. farmers.

Our farmers want trade, not aid, declared Congressman Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, a Midwestern state where agriculture alone accounts for one-fourth of the revenue base.

This trade war is cutting the legs out from under farmers, and the White Houses plan is to spend $12 billion on gold crutches, said Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, where beef and corn are the top agricultural products. This administrations tariffs and bailouts arent going to make America great again. Theyre just going to make it 1929 again.

Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, where soybeans are the top row crop, said, You have a terrible policy that sends farmers to the poorhouse. And then you put them on welfare. And we borrow the money from other countries. Its hard to believe there isnt an outright revolt right now in Congress.

A Democratic House member, Jackie Speier, whose prosperous California district is known for its Brussels sprouts and grape production, wrote on Twitter: "OK @POTUS -- you created this mess with your trade war and now you are going to spend $12 billion to placate the farmers that voted for you.

The American Soybean Association said in a statement, While soybean growers appreciate the administrations recognition that tariffs have caused reduced exports and lower prices, the announced plan provides only short-term assistance." It called for a longer-term strategy to alleviate mounting soybean surpluses and continued low prices, including a plan to remove the harmful tariffs.

Mark Santucci, a farmer of tart cherries in the state of Michigan, told VOA that while the relief programs will not directly benefit him, I am glad the president has decided to implement it. I think we are in for a long battle with the Chinese government, so this program will go a long way in helping our farmers who are on the front line.President Donald Trump hosts European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Wednesday after Trump threatened more tariffs on U.S trading partners.

"Tariffs are the greatest!" Trump tweeted Tuesday. "Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with tariffs. Its as simple as that."

Trump again complained the world uses the United States as a "piggy bank" that everyone likes to rob.

Juncker is coming to Washington with the hopes the European Union can avoid an all-out trade war by convincing Trump to hold off punitive tariffs on European cars.

The potential car tariffs would hurt Germany's thriving automobile industry and come on top of hefty tariffs that Trump has already imposed on aluminum and steel imports.

The European Commission has responded with retaliatory tariffs, but new levies on cars could prompt Europe to take further action.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday Europe won't cave in to Trump's threats.

"No one has an interest in having punitive tariffs, because everyone loses in the end," Maas wrote on Twitter. "Europe will not be threatened by President Trump If we cede once, we will often have to deal with such behavior in the future."

Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday he does not think "the tariff route is the smart way to go."

Ryan said he understands Trump is seeking "a better deal for Americans" but added the U.S. should instead "work together to reduce trade barriers and trade restrictions between our countries."Newly declassified files from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta from 1997 to 1999 provide fresh insight into American foreign policy in Indonesia during its tumultuous transition from the Suharto military dictatorship to fledgling democracy, as well as into the Asian financial crisis that swept the region around the same time.

The roughly 500 documents were declassified before being published by the nonprofit National Security Archive at George Washington University. Last fall, the archive published thousands of declassified files from the Jakarta embassy in the 1960s, when the Indonesian military killed up to 1 million suspected communists and leftists with material support from the U.S.

The major takeaways from this batch of files, which corroborate and fill out the existing historical record, are that the U.S. supported the Suharto military government until it collapsed in 1998 and that Washington "played a fairly decisive role in convincing Suharto to sign off on the [International Monetary Fund]'s structural adjustment program, which many scholars believe was responsible for the ouster of Suharto," said Dr. Bradley Simpson, a University of Connecticut professor and specialist on U.S. foreign relations who leads the declassification effort.

Clinton-era foreign policy

The new cache of documents underscores how then-President Bill Clinton pledged his support for the Suharto government despite mounting evidence that it was involved in human rights abuses.

"Your personal leadership has produced unprecedented economic growth and prosperity for Indonesia and its people. I am convinced you can get through this present difficulty," were the words of Clinton, according to a transcript of his phone call with Suharto on February 13, 1998, from Camp David, about three months before the longtime ruler would be deposed.

"These documents show that the U.S. viewed the Indonesian military as a stabilizing force, even though they were well aware of the activities of the Special Forces in spring 1998," Simpson said. This was when the military brutally crushed students' anti-Suharto protests and kidnapped pro-democracy activists, some of whom are still missing today.

"It was also the Clinton administration that put the final kibosh on Suharto's proposal to create a currency board that would essentially artificially stabilize the value of the [Indonesian] rupiah rather than letting it float and continue to get pounded in international currency markets," Simpson said.

"I have consulted with the IMF and G-7 countries and everyone seems to believe that if you implement a currency board, you could put at risk all the progress you have achieved," Clinton told Suharto during the same phone call.

In 1998, Indonesia fell victim to the Asian financial crisis, a series of currency devaluations that swept the region starting with Thailand in 1997.

Steve Hanke, a Johns Hopkins applied economics professor who advised Suharto at the time, has alleged that Clinton and the IMF deliberately counseled Indonesia to float its currency in order to hasten the fall of Suharto. Hanke counseled Suharto to create an orthodox currency board with a fixed exchange rate.

"On the day that news hit the street, the rupiah soared by 28 percent against the U.S. dollar on both the spot and one-year-forward markets," Hanke wrote. "These developments infuriated the U.S. government and the IMF," he added, and prompted strong pushback.



Not long after this, the Suharto presidency collapsed.

Insight on military activity

The documents also shed light on the role in 1998 of former military general Prabowo Subianto, Suharto's son-in-law, who remains in headlines today as a possible contender in the 2019 presidential election. (Prabowo also ran in 2014 and lost to current President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.)

An embassy cable from August 1998 states that Prabowo would be summoned by a military "honor council" for his role in the kidnapping and torture of student activists. But another cable indicates that U.S. Embassy officials believed that lower-ranking officers would be prosecuted over powerful individuals like Prabowo.

Other documents suggest that some of the ammunition and material support for Kopassus, or special forces, during this period was provided by the United States, corroborating the reports of journalists like Allan Nairn.

Earlier this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated that he would explore reopening ties with the controversial military unit, whose alleged human rights abuses in East Timor and against student protesters have never been prosecuted.

Incomplete effort

The release of the documents is seen as unusual because the papers are so recent. Declassification review is automatic only after 25 years. "These are ahead of the declassification curve," Simpson said.

Still, there are many more still-classified documents that could shed light on the U.S.'s awareness of and its policy regarding Indonesia's actions in East Timor, which Jakarta brutally occupied for 22 years, and Aceh, the western province where the military quashed a long-standing separatist movement.

Within Indonesia, the declassified files are being disseminated by Tempo, a prominent investigative magazine that was briefly banned under the Suharto dictatorship.

Today, declassification of federal documents is spearheaded by nonprofits like the National Security Archive, but some past administrations have taken an outsized role in promoting the process.

"It starts all the way back with Clinton," said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the archive, circling back to the president who features prominently in this batch of declassified files from Indonesia. "He was known as 'the declassification president' for authorizing a number of declassification projects through executive order."

Such "declassification diplomacy" seems to have paused under the current administration.A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense, rejecting a claim by Hawaii officials that the right only applies to guns kept at home.

The ruling by a three-judge panel on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals makes the San Francisco-based court the sixth U.S. circuit court to interpret the Second Amendment this way and could set the issue on a path toward the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not taken up a major gun rights case since 2010.

The extent of the right to gun ownership is one of the most hotly contested debates in the United States, where mass shootings have become almost commonplace.

In a split 2-to-3 decision Tuesday, the panel found Hawaii infringed on the rights of plaintiff George Young when it twice denied him a permit to carry a gun outside.

"We do not take lightly the problem of gun violence," Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote in Tuesday's ruling. "But, for better or for worse, the Second Amendment does protect a right to carry a firearm in public for self-defense."

The 9th Circuit had ruled in 2016 that the Second Amendment does not guarantee a right to carry concealed firearms in public in Peruta v. County of San Diego.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on that decision last year.

President Donald Trump, a vocal gun rights supporter, is seeking to fill a vacant Supreme Court seat and make the court more conservative, raising the prospect that it may take up more cases in coming years.

Alan Beck, a lawyer for the plaintiff in Tuesday's ruling, said he believed the question about openly carrying firearms would eventually end up before the Supreme Court.

"I think the Supreme Court is receptive to this," Beck said in a phone interview.

Attorneys for the state of Hawaii were not immediately available for comment.

Judge Richard Clifton dissented from Tuesday's ruling, saying the Second Amendment does not preclude the sort of licensing rules used in Hawaii and elsewhere.

Laws on openly carrying firearms vary widely by state and type of gun. The most restrictive are California, which falls under the 9th Circuit's jurisdiction, Florida, Illinois and the District of Columbia, which generally prohibit people from openly carrying any sort of firearm, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit policy organization that favors greater gun control.

Hawaii is one of 15 states that requires a license or permit to openly carry a handgun, according to the center's data.

In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep guns at home for self-defense.

The Second Amendment was adopted in 1789 and reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."The U.S. base near southern Syrias al-Tanf border crossing was set up to train local Syrians to fight Islamic State militants, but it also serves as a counterweight to Iranian activities in the war-torn country, U.S. officials and experts tell VOA.

Our mere presence there accomplishes that, whether its a goal or not, Army Maj. Josh Jacques, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said.

The U.S. militarys primary focus across Syria has been the defeat of Islamic State fighters, and to serve that mission, U.S. soldiers at al-Tanf are training a Syrian group called Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT), Jaques said.

While the military is not directly focused on Iran in Syria, it can still indirectly impede Irans destabilizing acts in the country, according to CENTCOM commander U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel.

There are opportunities for us to indirectly influence their [Irans] activities by our presence, by the pursuit of our ongoing operations, that I think disrupt and make it difficult for them to pursue their unilateral objectives, Votel told reporters during a July 19 briefing.

Land bridge

Jordan, Iraq, and Syria all meet in the area surrounding the U.S. base, a potential space, officials say, through which Iran could create a continuous land bridge that would stretch to the Mediterranean.

But the U.S. has established a so-called deconfliction zone in the area that spans about 55 kilometers around the base. The zone is meant to protect the United States and its allies as they battle the Islamic State militant group, and it essentially prevents any non-U.S. ally from entering the area.

One quiet rationale for maintaining a presence there is to at least monitor and then perhaps deter some of the Iranian forces, or Iranian-backed forces that may have used that part of the country to transit into Syria, said Brian Katulis with the Center for American Progress.

The base is not meant to completely block Irans involvement in Syria because much of its engagement comes via airplanes.

The U.S. post does, however, protect American military assets, giving the U.S. the ability to mount drone operations, conduct surveillance, and perhaps even create human intelligence networks.

It also helps to reassure U.S. ally Jordan, whose officials have expressed concerns about how secure its border would be if Americans werent in southern Syria.

As small as that [U.S.] presence is, I think it sends a signal, Katulis said.

'Shades of gray'

Michael O'Hanlon, a senior defense fellow at the Brookings Institution, says defeating IS is the black and white goal for American forces at al-Tanf, while all the ways that the U.S. indirectly influences Iran in Syria are shades of gray.

He says the base also allows the U.S. to exercise some influence on parts of the country so that Iran isnt the only important foreign actor.

In the short term, you want to create some alternative power centers, said OHanlon.

Once IS is defeated, however, the United States will need a long-term political transition strategy that clearly explains why the military would stay in Syria.



Were sort of in a transition phase, where you can still sustain the current effort on the grounds of it being anti-ISIS, but everyone recognizes that the days of that argument carrying the day are numbered, OHanlon said, using an acronym for the Islamic State terror group.

Just staying for presence sake is not a good enough reason, he said.The top U.S. official for Ukraine negotiations doubled down on recent assurances from the State Department and White House that President Donald Trump did not reach any agreements on Ukraine during last week's two-hour private meeting with his Russian counterpart in Helsinki, Finland.

Russian President Vladimir Putin last week told a gathering of diplomats in Moscow that he and Trump discussed the possibility of an internationally supervised referendum in pro-Russian separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, a claim later reiterated by the Kremlin's ambassador to the U.S.

In an exclusive interview with VOA's Ukrainian service, Kurt Volker, U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, said that Kremlin remarks about the referendum were not only misleading but also blatantly implausible.

"There was no move toward recognition of Russia's claimed annexation of Crimea. No support for a referendum. No movement toward Russia's position on a protection force for [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] monitors that would effectively divide the country," said Volker, referring to Russia's controversial September 2017 U.N. proposal.

Because referendums aren't part of the 2015 Minsk agreement, which aims to end the conflict, secure a cease-fire and pave the way for regional elections, Volker said any direct vote on secession from Kyiv would lack the necessary legal framework.

"So, a lot of things that people were worried about or had predicted might happen [in Helsinki] did not happen. So, I don't think there's really any basis to be worried here," he said, noting that the administration has continued to maintain sanctions on Russia in concert with European allies and approved weapons sales to Kyiv.

The Pentagon, he added, recently unveiled plans for a new military financing package for the occupied Eastern European country.

"Let me just say this  that on all of the issues that Ukrainians would care about, nothing was given away," he said. "No handing over of gifts to Russia at Ukraine's expense."

Volker's comments supplemented initial reactions by Garrett Marquis, U.S. National Security Council spokesman, who said the White House was "not considering" supporting a referendum in eastern Ukraine, and a statement by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, who said an eastern Ukraine referendum "would have no legitimacy."

The comments by the trio of U.S. officials followed days of speculation about what was discussed at the rare one-on-one meeting between the U.S. and Russian leaders with only their translators present.

Trump has been on the defensive over the summit since returning from Helsinki, especially during a key moment when he was asked about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as Putin stood beside him.

The full interview transcript is available here.

This story originated in VOA's Ukrainian service.The United States and France have imposed sanctions upon groups and individuals with links to Syria's chemical weapons program, the U.S. Treasury Department said Wednesday.

"Syria's horrific use of chemical weapons, including attacks against innocent women and children, remains deeply embedded in our minds," said Sigal Mandelker, treasury undersecretary for terrorism, said in a statement. "Today, we are continuing our campaign to stop the Assad regime's ruthless attacks by targeting the procurement networks that have supported its chemical weapons program."

According to the statement, the United States will block five entities and eight individuals who have been part of a network supplying electronics to Syria's chemical weapons program.

On Sunday, France froze the assets of 24 individuals in the same network, the statement read.

One entity that Treasury sanctioned is Electronics Katrangi Trading, a Lebanese electronics retailer. Two of the individuals sanctioned by the department were former residents of Massachusetts.

The Syrian government has long received criticism for its alleged use of chemical weapons against its own civilians amid the nation's civil war. The Syrian government and Russia, its ally, have denied these claims.

In April, over 70 people were killed in a suspected chemical attack in the Syrian city of Douma, a rebel-held town. An interim report released in July by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, an intergovernmental chemical weapons watchdog, found "explosive residues [and] various chlorinated organic chemicals" on the site.

As a response to the April attacks, the U.S., French and British governments launched a missile strike on suspected chemical weapon sites in Syria.

"If the Syrian regime uses this poisonous gas again, the United States is locked and loaded," Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in April.Testifying before a Senate panel, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday declined to divulge details of President Donald Trump's private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last week, but declared the United States does not recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

"Presidents are entitled to have private meetings.  I think it was more than appropriate that President Trump meet with Vladimir Putin," Pompeo said in the first Capitol Hill appearance by a member of Trump's national security team since the Helsinki summit, at which the president questioned U.S. intelligence on Russian election meddling.

Trump later sought to clarify his position on Russian interference. Pompeo told lawmakers the president was absolutely clear on Russia's actions in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

"He [Trump] has a complete and proper understanding of what happened. I know  I briefed him on it for over a year," the secretary of state and former CIA director said after listing steps the administration had taken to counter Russia, from imposing sanctions to sending military aid to Ukraine.

"The United States does not and will not recognize the Kremlin's purported annexation of Crimea," Pompeo stressed, adding that economic sanctions against Moscow would remain "until Ukraine's territorial integrity is restored."

Moments earlier, the White House announced that a planned second Trump-Putin summit in the United States would not occur until 2019.

National security adviser John Bolton said Trump wanted to wait until after special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 election was completed.

"The president believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year," Bolton said in a statement.

WATCH: Pompeo Declines to Reveal What Trump and Putin Discussed

Testy Senate exchange

In a series of often testy exchanges with Pompeo, lawmakers of both parties expressed continuing concerns about the Helsinki summit, Trump's approach to North Korea as well as NATO, and the administration's overall strategy for America on the world stage.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, described Trump as "submissive and deferential" to Putin at the Helsinki joint news conference.

The committee's top Democrat, Bob Menendez of New Jersey, said Congress and the American people had a right to know what Trump and Putin might have agreed to behind closed doors, and he accused the president of cozying up to brutal dictators like North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

"Frankly, the Singapore [Trump-Kim nuclear summit] agreement seems more the art of concessions than the art of the deal," Menendez said.

Pompeo said he'd had fruitful conversations with North Korean officials since the June summit, but added that "until North Korea eliminates its weapons of mass destruction, our sanctions and those of the United Nations will remain in effect."

The secretary of state also defended the administration's handling of Iran, saying, "Financial pressure [on Tehran], our withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and our full-throated support for the Iranian people  are having an impact."

Pompeo defended Trump's discussions with adversaries like Putin, saying, "We can't make progress on issues of mutual concern unless we are talking."

Corker signaled bipartisan skepticism about the administration's handling of global affairs was likely to continue.

"The administration tells us, 'Don't worry, be patient, there's a strategy here.' But from where we sit, it appears that in a ready-fire-aim fashion, the White House is waking up every morning and making it [U.S. policy] up as they go," the chairman said.Were kind of in the situation where this usurps home rule authority and we have, for lack of better words, no choice but to abide by the law the state passed, Oak Park Trustee Dan Moroney said. It would be nice if we were to apply our own ordinances, but sometimes you have to comply with state law. I think if you set proper specifications, you can still deliver the service to residents that a municipality will want to give. Its a little unfortunate, but I hope residents realize this because we expect them to pop up throughout the village.At least two Americans believed to have joined the Islamic State terror group have been brought back to the United States to face charges.

Senior administration officials confirmed Tuesday that Ibraheem Musaibli of Dearborn, Michigan, and Samantha ElHassani of Indiana, arrived on U.S. soil Tuesday after U.S. forces escorted them from Syria.

In a statement, the Justice Department said Musaibli, "a natural-born U.S. citizen," would be arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday.

'Material support to ISIS'

Musaibli is charged with attempting to provide material support to IS, fighting with the terror group from April 2015 until his capture by U.S.-backed Syrian forces in June.

"Musaibli's alleged provision of material support to ISIS put the United States at risk and may have endangered the lives of countless innocent people," John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement that used an acronym for the militant group.

"The indictment in this case serves as a reminder of the danger posed by those who travel overseas to join forces with ISIS," Timothy Slater, FBI special agent in charge, added.

ElHassani has been charged with making false statements to the FBI and will appear in federal court in Hammond, Indiana, at a later date, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

She was accompanied by her four children, two of whom were born in Syria, an official said. Her children are in the care of the Indiana Department of Child Services, a Justice Department statement said.

In media interviews done while in Kurdish custody, ElHassani said her husband, Moussa ElHassani, a Moroccan national, tricked her into accompanying him to Syria while they were vacationing in Turkey in 2015.

"We ended up in Raqqa," she said in an interview with Frontline and the BBC. "The first thing I say to him is, 'You're crazy, and I'm leaving.' And he said, with a big smile on his face, 'Go ahead. You can try, but you won't make it.' "

Moussa ElHassani was reportedly killed while fighting for IS. Samantha ElHassani said she and her four children eventually left Raqqa along with two Yazidi slave girls and ended up in a Kurdish detention camp.

In various media interviews, she has described her time in IS-held territory as harrowing, telling of failed escape attempts.

Her eldest son, Matthew, 10, was featured in an IS propaganda video in which he threatened attacks on the West.

According to a report earlier this year by George Washington University's Program on Extremism, about 70 Americans have traveled to Iraq and Syria and have affiliated with IS or other jihadist groups since 2011.

Of those, 24 are believed to be dead, more than 14 have been apprehended, and the fates of a couple dozen others are still unknown.

European nations

U.S. officials have been pushing for European countries to take back nationals who left to fight with IS and prosecute them, but many have refused.

Earlier Tuesday, a French air force general serving with the anti-IS coalition in Iraq said his government's position had not changed.

"It is quite clear. The government of France has said they don't want these people back," said Brigadier General Frederic Parisot, who also serves as the coalition's director of civil-military operations.

Despite pushing for countries to take back their foreign fighters, U.S. policy on what to do with Americans suspected of fighting for IS has been less than clear.

In June, the U.S. announced it would release an American citizen suspected of being a member of IS in Syria. The Justice Department said it had given the man, who holds dual U.S.-Saudi citizenship, a choice of being released "either in a town or outside an Internally Displaced Persons camp." But that decision has been put on hold, pending further legal action, according to court filings.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the man, slammed the decision to release him in what it described as a war zone.

Department of Justice correspondent Masood Farivar contributed to this report.Every year, Neelabeni and her family await the monsoon with trepidation in their mud-and-brick home in an informal settlement near the coast in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Nearly every year, cyclones that brewed in the Bay of Bengal would damage the nearly 300 homes in their settlement in Gopalpur town, tearing the tin and thatch roofs and smashing the flimsy walls.

This year however, Neelabeni, who goes by one name, is looking forward to the monsoon, as she and her neighbors will start building pucca, or permanent homes, when the rains stop.

Nearly every family has received a title, or patta, under an ambitious program to give land rights to about 1 million people living in slums across Odisha. They will also receive loans with which to build their homes.

"We have always lived in a kutcha [temporary] home, and we would spend all our savings on building a new home every year after the rains. Now we will build a proper home," she said.

"This is the first document with my name  everything else only has my husband's name. I will have full rights over the house," she said, showing the laminated title, along with a loan approval document and an assurance from the chief minister.

About 65 million people live in India's slums, according to census data, which activists say is a low estimate.

Nearly half the country's population is forecast to live in its cities by 2025, as more people leave the villages to seek better prospects, according to demographers.

Many will end up in overcrowded slums that lack even basic facilities, with no claim on the land or property, and in fear of being evicted every day.

The Odisha program aims to give titles to 200,000 households in urban slums and those on the outskirts of cities by the end of the year.

Alongside, authorities are widening roads, laying sewage pipes, and installing water taps, toilets and playgrounds.

"People who come to the cities are all contributing to its economic activity, yet they are considered encroachers," said G. Mathi Vathanan, the state housing department commissioner.

"The usual policy of settling them in the city's periphery doesn't work because they don't want to live so far away. So the idea behind the legislation was: Why not settle them where they live, and transform these slums into livable habitats?"

Drone mapping

The Odisha Land Rights to Slum Dwellers Act 2017 gives slum dwellers in small towns rights over up to 600 square feet (56 square meters) of land, while in the cities they get rights over up to 450 square feet. It was unveiled last year by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who called it "historic" legislation.

Charity Tata Trusts is helping implement the mission, as are dozens of local charities that are conducting surveys and verifying documents.

Officials have made detailed maps of the slums after drone surveys and door-to-door interviews to fix property boundaries and ensure that no private lands are encroached upon.

A slum dwellers association in each settlement liaises with officials and a designated charity on the data and the applications for titles.

The process is streamlined to avoid bureaucratic bottlenecks, with everyone communicating via mobile chat app WhatsApp, said Mathi Vathanan, showing notifications on his phone from the dozens of groups that he is a part of.

He was a district official in Ganjam, where Gopalpur is located, when a super cyclone struck Odisha in 1999, killing nearly 10,000 people and damaging more than 1.5 million homes.

"I realized then how inadequate shelters of the poor are," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "We attach so much value to land, we sometimes don't value people. Owning their homes can ensure their safety and dignity."

Across India, at least six homes are destroyed and 30 people forcibly evicted each hour as authorities modernize cities and build highways, activists say.

Slum dwellers have long opposed authorities' efforts to relocate them to distant suburbs, which limits their access to jobs and amenities. Instead, they favour in-situ upgrading of facilities and secure tenancy.

But while several states have schemes to give land to the rural poor, the high cost of land in India's cities has hamstrung slum redevelopment and affordable-housing schemes.

Feasible, sustainable

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Housing for All Mission in 2015, with a deadline of 2022. It aims to build 20 million urban housing units and 30 million rural homes.

Despite the shortage, tens of thousands of low-cost homes are lying empty because they are too expensive for the urban poor, or because they are in undesirable locations.

The Odisha program offers financial assistance of up to 200,000 rupees ($2,900) along with the titles, and leaves construction to the homeowner.

Officials have distributed more than 2,000 titles and aim to hand titles to all 200,000 households by the end of the year.

Odisha's model is "feasible and sustainable, and already imagined at scale," said Renu Khosla, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence, which is assisting the state in the program.

While other states have hesitated to settle slum dwellers because of a lack of political will and lobbying by developers, Odisha can succeed because it is a collective action led by the community, she said. The impact can be enormous.

"Upgrading slums can trigger development of the entire town or city. So developing slums may be good for the city's development," she said.

In Gopalpur, Neelabeni's neighbors are buying cement, bricks and paint, and comparing notes on layout and design.

Her home will have a single room and a kitchen, with a toilet added on later with separate funds, she said.

"This house is just mud and bricks; we will demolish it and build a strong house that can withstand any cyclone," she said. "Once we have our new houses, we will have better lives."U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is demanding that the Daniel Ortega government in Nicaragua stop the violence now and hold early elections.

"The world is watching," Pence tweeted Tuesday. "State-sponsored violence in Nicaragua is undeniable. Ortega's propaganda fools no one and changes nothing."

Pence wrote that more than 350 had died "at the hands of the regime." Nicaraguan officials say the death toll is much lower.

WATCH: Nicaragua Struggles Amid National Political Crisis

A Nicaraguan human rights group said four more people were killed Monday night in Managua, including a Brazilian medical student on the verge of graduating.

The group accused pro-government civilians of firing on the car in which she was riding near the American University of Managua.

The Brazilian foreign ministry expressed indignation at the killing and condemned "the deepening repression, the disproportionate and lethal use of force, and the use of paramilitary groups in operations coordinated by security forces."

Anti-government protests erupted in Nicaragua in April when Ortega announced changes to the pension system. He has since given up those plans, but authorities continue to crack down on protesters.

Ortega has called the protesters terrorists who are planning a coup. He is refusing to hold early elections, saying they would only make things worse.The URL has been copied to your clipboard

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Zimbabweans being shown the state of a replica of an election room where voters will be casting their ballots next Monday in the country's crucial elections. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission says people will vote secretly. #voazimvotesLONDON  Before the Internet, being a spy was more challenging.

Now, spies have Facebook and LinkedIn and other social-media networking sites to expand their contacts, say former and current U.S. and British intelligence officials. And younger spies may be more skilled using social media to do their jobs.

Western governments accuse Russian intelligence services of exploiting social media platforms as propaganda, where they can plant fake news, deepen political discord and try to influence Western public opinion. But Russian spies  as opposed to trolls  also use networking sites in highly sophisticated ways to work their way into Western political circles.

FILE - Maria Butina speaks at a rally in support of legalizing the possession of handguns, in Moscow, Russia, April 21, 2013.

The case of Maria Butina -- who came to the United States in 2014 on a student visa and whom U.S. prosecutors allege is a Russian female spy -- shows how social media can assist covert influence operations, says a U.S. counter-intelligence official who asked not to be identified for this article.

Butina was using old tradecraft, turning up at political events, making contacts," the official said, "and then befriending them on Facebook or LinkedIn and vice versa. Social media platforms are useful in mapping out friendship networks and opening doors.

This courtroom sketch depicts Maria Butina, in orange suit, a 29-year-old gun-rights activist suspected of being a covert Russian agent, listening to her attorney Robert Driscoll, standing, as he speaks to Judge Deborah Robinson, left.

Butina, 29 and a recent graduate at American University in Washington where she attended the School of International Service, was charged last week with acting as an agent for the Kremlin in the United States. The Justice Department alleges she was in regular contact with Russian intelligence services. She has been indicted for conspiracy to operate on behalf of the Russian government and failing to register as a foreign agent.

She has not been formally charged with espionage, which would indicate stealing state and military secrets. Experts see her focused on getting into U.S. political circles in ways that would be useful for Russias foreign policy, including further seeding division between political parties in Western countries, and opening avenues of influence.

Federal prosecutors accuse Butina of conspiring with two American citizens, one with whom she cohabited, and the other a top Russian official. They are accused of trying influence U.S. policy more favorably toward Russia by infiltrating the National Rifle Association gun rights group and other conservative special interest groups that could be influential with the Trump administration.

FILE - Public figure Maria Butina (R) attends a meeting of a group of experts, affiliated to the government of Russia, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on July 17, 2018.

U.S. prosecutors allege in a memorandum filed in support of a request for Butina to be held in detention while she awaits trial. The memorandum says that the Russian gun-rights activist maintained contact information for individuals identified as employees of the Russian FSB, or Russian Federal Security Service.

Additionally, prosecutors claim FBI surveillance observed Butina having a private meal with a Russian diplomat whom the U.S. government expelled in March 2018 for suspicion of being a Russian intelligence officer.

From court papers filed by U.S. prosecutors last week it remains unclear whether her operation was initiated by Russias FSB, or whether it was conceived by her patron, Alexander Torshin, a Russian central banker, as a way to boost himself within the Kremlin administration.

Court papers unsealed Monday, July 16, 2018, photographed in Washington, shows part of the criminal complaint against Maria Butina.

Many Russian intelligence officers occupy high-ranking positions in the government of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer.

Among the more traditional techniques Butina allegedly used was offering sex to cozy up to U.S. politicians and lobbyists; in one case, according to U.S. prosecutors, to try to secure a job with an American special interest organization she had targeted. She lived with a Republican political operative twice her age. He has been identified in U.S. media as lobbyist Paul Erickson. She chafed, though, at the cohabitation, and, according to prosecutors she treated the relationship as simply a necessary aspect of her activities.

Posts are seen on Maria Butina's Twitter page. Butina has been arrested on charges of conspiring to act as an agent of the Russian government in the U.S. without notifying the attorney general.

Butina has pled not guilty. Her lawyer, Robert Driscoll, says she was only trying to help improve relations between the United States and Vladimir Putins Russia. He denies shes a spy, telling CNN Friday that much of the case against her was taken completely out of context.

Butina founded a pro-gun group in Russia called Right to Bear Arms and used gun activism in what U.S. prosecutors allege was a calculated, patient plan directed by Torshin to infiltrate the NRA and conservative special interest groups.

Social media platforms were highly useful as she cut a swathe through U.S. conservative politics, boasting on her Facebook page of meetings with, among others, former Republican presidential candidates Rick Santorum and Scott Walker, the current Wisconsin governor.

In one e-mail to Butina, disclosed in court papers, Torshin praised her efforts, comparing them to Kremlin agent Anna Chapman, another flame-haired Russian who gained international notoriety after her 2010 arrest in the United States. Chapman and a handful of other Russians were deported to Russia in July 2010, as part of a prisoner exchange.

You have upstaged Anna Chapman, Torshin declared.

Journalist Michael Isikoff at Yahoo! News had a front seat view to Butinas methods. With co-author David Corn, he published Russian Roulette: The Inside Story Of Putin's War On America And The Election Of Donald Trump and had been tracking Butinas activities.

He said she and Torshin had been working to influence American conservative political organizations. He told the American public broadcaster NPR in an interview:

As we reported in the book  David Corn and I  there's a Republican lobbyist who remembers being approached by her at a CPAC conference  Conservative Political Action Conference  and just being struck by how solicitous she was, how she wanted to stay in touch with him and become his Facebook friend.

"And this is a somewhat elderly gentleman, balding, wasn't used to this kind of attention from a young, attractive Russian woman.

Hiding in plain sight on the Internet holds risks, too. Being active on Facebook increases the chance of exposure, prompting the attention of counter-intelligence watchers, as well as journalists. In an e-mail exchange with VOA, Isikoff noted, he friended her [on Facebook] in order to get in touch so I could interview her.

And a U.S. counter-intelligence official says Butina drew attention to herself on social media as much as her personal activities. She was called to testify earlier this year by the Senate Intelligence Committee, during which, according to CNN, she disclosed that her gun activism received funding from Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev, another Kremlin-tied oligarch.The U.N. Human Rights Office is warning about rising tensions as presidential and parliamentary elections draw near in Zimbabwe. The OHCHR is also appealing to the government and all political parties to ensure that elections are peaceful.



July 30th will mark the first elections in Zimbabwe since former president Robert Mugabe was forced to resign last November after 37 years in power. State-sponsored violence that usually characterized elections during the Mugabe years has been notably absent during the current pre-election campaign.



U.N. Human Rights Office spokeswoman Liz Throssel says it is encouraging to see political rallies and peaceful demonstrations in the capital, Harare, and the cautious optimism expressed by civil society.



"We remain concerned however at the increasing number of reports, particularly in some rural areas, of voter intimidation, threats of violence, harassment and coercion, including people being forced to attend political rallies," she added.



Zimbabwe's constitution reserves 60 seats for women in the 270-member parliament. Despite the legally-enforced quota system, Throssel said women political candidates are being met with resistance and hostility and are subjected to disparaging language.



"Now, the kind of disparaging language is really not going to come to any surprise," she told VOA. "It is targeting them on the basis of them being women, calling them bra-burning feminists, calling them sort-of sub-standard candidates, attacking them personally."



The constitutional quota system, which is set to expire before the 2023 elections is creating uncertainty about the future participation of women in politics.



U.N. Human Rights Officials say violence and other forms of intimidation must not be allowed to mar what could and should be a credible election process, free of fear for all Zimbabweans.Zimbabwe's electoral commission said Monday that all votes cast during the July 30 general election will count and be secret. Past elections in Zimbabwe have been marred by accusations of rigging to favor the ruling ZANU-PF party.

The deputy chair of the commission, Emmanuel Magade, spoke to journalists, diplomats and observers Monday as part of a credibility-building exercise.

My assurance to this audience is that the secrecy of the vote will not be compromised. My own personal opinion is that the question of the secrecy of the vote is non-negotiable. That is the assurance that I am giving to the international community and that is the assurance that I am giving to the good people of Zimbabwe, Magade said.

The promise came as the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC), said it would launch mass demonstrations Tuesday, should the commission fail to meet MDC demands to ensure that every vote counts.

The MDC says the electoral body is trying to rig the vote in favor of the ruling ZANU-PF party, just as it allegedly did for the party during the rule of former president Robert Mugabe.

MDC and commission officials are expected to meet to discuss the presidential ballot, which the opposition says was designed by the electoral panel to give an unfair advantage to President Emmanuel Mnangagwa.

The MDC is also seeking the nullification of votes by some police officers who were forced to cast ballots in front of their superiors.

The opposition has already approached Zimbabwes Electoral Court with urgent applications over the same issue and to order the elections body to release the actual voter rolls to be used in the elections. The opposition says it wants to check for voter fraud, which it said occurred under Mugabes 37-year rule. He was forced to resign last November.

Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe, maintained last week that the election would be free, fair, credible and transparent. He challenged the opposition to approach the courts if it doubted the electoral commissions professionalism.Zimbabwe's main opposition party has accused the country's electoral commission of planning a "manipulated" general election on July 30.

The Movement for Democratic Change Alliance spoke out Tuesday after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission turned down several of its demands for changes to procedures in the presidential election.

Among the changes sought was a redesign of the presidential ballot, which the opposition says gives an unfair advantage to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The chief election officer for the MDC Alliance, Jameson Timba, spoke to VOA after meeting with the electoral commission.

"The outcome of the meeting is a confirmation that President Mnangagwa and ZEC are committed to a peaceful but manipulated election," he said. "All the issues that we had put before ZEC have all been turned down. So that is where we stand right now."

The opposition also wanted to escort ballots to polling stations, guard them and be allowed to test if votes migrated to Mnangagwa.

The spokesman for the electoral commission, Qhubani Moyo, confirmed the Tuesday meeting but dismissed opposition demands.

He said, "All practical demands were met, or accepted. No other concessions will be made. It is now a closed chapter."

The MDC Alliance said failure to reach an agreement would be met with vigils held at the commission's offices.

However, police on Tuesday denied an MDC Alliance request to demonstrate. The opposition had written to police seeking clearance and an escort for a Wednesday demonstration.

Tawanda Chimhini, director of the Election Resource Center, a think tank and advocacy organization on electoral and democracy issues in Zimbabwe, questioned the commission's assurance that the election would be free and fair.

"We are not yet out of the woods yet. It is important that the finalization of the voters roll is characterized by strict mechanisms of transparent and accountability," he said. "The roll that will be used on the day must be availed to observers and agents so that as voting is happening, there is an independent verification of people voting."

Zimbabwe's elections body is facing several lawsuits aimed at making it release the voters roll ahead of the election.

The Movement for Democratic Change Alliance plans to meet Wednesday to discuss a way forward on its demands.Freeman-Wilson said that situations show the importance of equipping first responders with the tools they need. Walker said its comforting to know Gary firefighters will have the best equipment with these new engines to do their jobs as effectively as they can.stratovolcano 1117 m / 3,665 ftKyushu, Japan, 31.59N / 130.66E(3 out of 5)1955-ongoing, 1954(?), 1950, 1948, 1946, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1939, 1938, 1935, 1914-15, 1899(?), 1860, 1799, 1797, 1794, 1792, 1791, 1790, 1785, 1783, 1782, 1779-81, 1756, 1749, 1742, 1706, 1678, 1670(?), 1642, 1478, 1471-76, 1468, 778, 766, 764, 716-18, 712(?), 708Explosive(5-day volcano expedition to observe Sakurajima volcano's activity from close)

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We truly love working to bring you the latest volcano and earthquake data from around the world.We need financing to increase hard- and software capacity as well as support our editor team.If you find the information useful and would like to support our team in integrating further features, write great content, and in upgrading our soft- and hardware, please PayPal or Online credit card payment )., these features have been added recently:AbbVie has won approval for an oral medicine that treats pain caused by the gynecological disorder endometriosis. The Food and Drug Administration has approved elagolix to treat pain associated with endometriosis, a common condition in which the tissue that lines the uterus grows in other parts of the body.It is the first such treatment approved in more than a decade, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Marketed under the brand name Orilissa, the medicine should be available in pharmacies at the beginning of August, the drugmaker said.We value editorial integrity above all else, Stibbs said. Thats ingrained in our DNA. We would not consider a transaction with anybody, in any part of our business if we did not believe they would uphold those values. If I didnt believe that Tim and FiscalNote valued editorial integrity, we really wouldnt be getting into this transaction.Commerce Department officials are considering a variety of options to address Trumps insistence that cheap foreign cars are flooding the U.S. market, and some of those measures would stop far short of imposing tariffs, two people briefed on the discussions said. But several of Trumps advisers think he is expected to follow the approach he took with steel and aluminum imports and choose the most severe restrictions and his favored tool  tariffs across the board, according to the three people briefed on White House discussions.King struck a family member in the face multiple times with his fist and an unknown object, causing the victim to black out, Pawlak said. The victim was taken to Methodist Hospital for treatment and received stitches near his right eye with a possible tear to his cornea, the release states.From this perspective, consider this books odd-sounding title. When Ragnar Hairy-Breeches  no one knows why he bears this weird nickname  is dumped into a snake pit, he composes a death-song that ends with the line laejandi skalk deyja, or laughing shall I die. Earlier in this poem he grimly jokes that the piggies would grunt if they knew of the old boars death. Ragnar, of course, is the old boar and the piggies are his sons. There in the pit, this fierce Viking  neither hoping for nor expecting rescue  uses this farmyard metaphor to tell his enemies that their days are numbered. As Shippey then reminds us, the bloody vengeance taken by the Ragnarssons, especially Sigurd Snake-eye and Ivar the Boneless, will eventually include the conquest of much of England during the 860s and 870s. (The fight against the Rangarssons and their allies forms the subject of Max Adamss highly readable The Viking Wars: War and Peace in King Alfreds Britain, 789-955, published by Pegasus.)Todays Headlines

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyThe casual observer might be inclined to say good riddance to a guy who could respond to the hashtag #unromanticmovies with the suggestion: Three Men and a Baby They Had Sex With or come up with this tweet: The best thing about being raped is when youre done being raped and its like whew this feels great, not being raped! Those include the addition of a bar in the middle of the first floor dining area, previously been described as a casual beachside restaurant; the addition of a barroom to a second-floor fine dining restaurant, as well as bar seating on a balcony; and a glass-enclosed restaurant and pub, as well as three bars, on the rooftop, formerly used as an observation deck for the public.We found one of the mice in a trap. But it was neither hidden nor dead. There, from the inside of a translucent green house, it looked at us, and we looked at it. Then our children saw it and excitedly asked whether we could keep it. We explained that it preferred to live outside, far from any people, and thats where my husband released it.I describe this sort of as a pause when you had so many years of continual decreases, said Michael Kharfen, who leads STD prevention at the D.C. Department of Health. But this does raise a flag for us that what weve been doing has been working, but now we have to step it up.Sabraw last week gave families a one-week reprieve, after the ACLU argued that parents who have been forced apart from their children lacked information about their legal rights, and were in no position to make momentous decisions about their immigration cases. Many of the parents say they are fleeing violence and poverty and want to seek asylum in the United States.There is a great divide, said Landis, who defeated Dudley 17 to 3 (three members abstained, and one was absent). As leader of the central committee, I know we have to get ourselves in order. We have got to build a foundation so we are all on the same page.He also represented a fundamental shift for Fiat and the wider landscape of Italian industry. He was the first person outside the Agnelli clan to be at the helm of Turin-based Fiat, and  as the son of an Italian immigrant to Canada  was not groomed within the rarefied cliques that have dominated Italys industrial and banking sectors for generations.Lindendale Rd., 14000 block, 11:55 p.m. July 14. Church staff members reported three males were found inside the place of worship. The three left before police arrived. There was no sign of forced entry and nothing was reported stolen.The victim was reported conscious when he was taken to a hospital. Police said he was found lying in the roadway near an entrance to the Third Street Tunnel. A police report says he had been shot in the abdomen.They moved the potties! she said at one such stop, grabbing the Fuji Finepix X-Pro on a strap around her neck to get a shot of the three squares of grass left after the portable toilets were pushed back a few feet. The Fuji, she explained, is her fair camera, her oldest, used because of the amount of dust it will withstand during the fair.In court, Driscoll said he also wanted a transcript of Butinas eight hours of testimony to the intelligence committee behind closed doors in April, because it may contain evidence that could aid his client. He said the committee allowed him to read the transcript but not copy it, but would provide the transcript to prosecutors if asked. Saunders said he did not have a copy, and the issue of access to the transcript was not resolved during the court hearing.In reporting the arrests, transit police also said the number of robberies on Metro has declined by more than 20 per cent this year, compared with the first half of last year. Serious crime on Metro has fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade.The following is what is described and explained: There is a new beginning, after nearly 50 years in the Calumet Region, the Northern Indiana Arts Association, at long last, through the efforts of a number of community-spirited individuals under the leadership of Don Powers, has finalized plans for a new building to be occupied in 1988. The building will be built on the site of the old Lanier School in Munster, on Ridge Road, across from the Munster Town Hall.During the weeks-long occupation at Malheur, Finicum was often seen as a voice of calm. He talked to the news media repeatedly, explaining his theories about the Constitution and suggesting that he was willing to die for the protesters cause. To the protesters and their supporters, already mistrustful of the government and incensed by what they perceived as federal overreach, Finicums death reinforced long-held beliefs that the government is willing to kill people with ideas it opposes.Houthi attack damages Saudi ship off Yemen's coast: Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, causing slight damage, an Arab coalition said, after the Houthis reported targeting a Saudi warship in the area. Saudi Arabia and its coalition of Sunni allies have been fighting in Yemen for three years against the Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen and drove a Saudi-backed government into exile in 2014. A coalition statement said the tanker was attacked west of Yemen's Hodeida port, but it did not name the vessel. The Houthis' al-Masirah TV said earlier on Twitter that the rebels had targeted a warship named the Dammam.Elhassani was brought with her four minor children, who are U.S. citizens, the release states. The children are currently in the care of Indiana Department of Child Services, who will make any necessary determinations regarding their custody, safety and well-being, according to the release.I think of the combat mission I witnessed from the back seat of an F-15 that gave me a firsthand look at the care our aircrews take when conducting those missions. I think back to the summer of 2004 in Iraq, when I heard about a battle in which eight of our soldiers were killed in just a few hours, most trying to rescue a platoon that had been ambushed. If the Army hadnt helped me tell that story, if those soldiers and their families hadnt trusted me with some of the most painful memories they will ever have, the heroics of that battle would never have come to light. There would have been no ABC News stories, no book, no National Geographic series on the battle.The think tank has put forward its own set of proposals, to deal with what it calls a crisis of opportunity. Among them are replacing unemployment insurance with a program that would also fund job-skills development, and vouchers to help people move to places where there are job openings; a minimum wage that would vary by region; and eliminating all tax on the first $15,000 of earned income.Such casual corruptibility is certainly dismaying. But what should really alarm us is what Baron Cohen is teaching us about ourselves: that this sort of behavior bothers us but is also expected. That we are uncomfortable with the direction in which our country is headed, but we also feel that its too far gone for us to do more than laugh, shrug and sigh. That in essence, weve given up. Who is America? is an ugly catalogue of disappointments, and we know. We have decided that there is nothing to be done.To its credit, the bureau issued a response the next day, but, to our disappointment, the response fell short. The 121-word statement acknowledged the use of a single standard cybersecurity practice  two-factor authentication  and then urged the public to know that we have strong and resilient security measures protecting every respondents information. In light of the massive 2015 cyber breach at the Office of Personnel Management, which resulted in the theft of highly sensitive security clearance information for more than 20 million current and former federal employees, the public deserves more than generic assurances.When the history of the Trump era is written, this quotation from our president will play a prominent role in explaining the distemper of our moment and the dysfunction of his administration. Trump was talking about media coverage of his trade war, but he was also describing his genuinely novel approach to governing: He believes that reality itself can be denied and that big lies can sow enough confusion to keep the truth from taking hold.I voted for Trump because of the corrupt union money backing Hillary. She would have turned the USA into another Illinois, with those too lazy to work getting a free ride in life, and those willing to earn an honest living picking up the tab. I admire Trump for trying to keep his campaign promises on immigration, trade, draining the swamp and tax breaks. He's a good man. Too bad so many are still bitter from Hillary's loss and trying to hold the country back.During Wednesdays television interview, DeSantis, whose candidacy has been endorsed by President Trump, expressed bewilderment that he had come under fire for calling Ocasio-Cortez this girl. He noted that she had used the term herself during a recent interview on The Late Show, telling host Stephen Colbert that Trump wouldnt know how to deal with a girl from the Bronx.Davis appeared on ABCs Good Morning America to discuss the release of a recording of a September 2016 conversation between Trump and Cohen that makes it appear Trump was familiar with a deal that Playboy model Karen McDougal made to sell the rights to her story of an alleged affair with him.In one, Kemp explained that his chain saws ready to rip up some regulations and that he drives a big truck, just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take em home myself  a line followed up with: Yup, I just said that. In another, Kemp sat, shotgun in hand, next to a teenage boy named Jake and made the young man recite his campaign platforms and his two rules for dating one of his daughters: Respect and a healthy appreciation for the Second Amendment, sir.The notion that Mr. Cohen would have spoken to Mr. Weisselberg about a proposition he had yet to even make to the president does not ring true, he said. Mr. Weisselberg is a bookkeeper who simply carries out directions from others about monetary payments and transfers. There would be no reason for Mr. Cohen to have any conversation with Mr. Weisselberg prior to him recommending and obtaining approval for the purchase he was suggesting.New York is a one-party consent state, meaning that, in general, it is legal to record a conversation as long as at least one party agrees, even if that person is the one doing the recording. In addition, Trumps attorneys have not claimed that the recording is a privileged attorney-client conversation.The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so weve agreed that it will be after the first of the year, national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement, referring to special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.But rank-and-file lawmakers are growing impatient for action, as demonstrated by several bipartisan pairs of senators who have raised and endorsed bills and resolutions demanding an increase in punitive measures against Russian actors caught undermining the United States. On Tuesday, Sens. Menendez and Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) teased forthcoming legislation that would immediately step up sanctions on Russian oligarchs and the countrys energy, financial and cyber sectors; tighten reporting requirements to Congress about existing sanctions implementation; and require Senate approval for any bid to withdraw from NATO. Also Tuesday. Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin demanding that the department impose sanctions on the Russians cited in special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs latest indictment.I dont even pay attention to it, the Wisconsin Republican said at his last annual lecture to congressional interns. Ryan then gave the roughly 450 interns some final advice about how they should not be snarky or attack others on Twitter: Just think about what youre doing to kind of poison the well of society, think about what youre doing to try and just degrade the tone of our debate.Gunness said that the agency is doing what it can to maintain its core services but that it does not have enough money to open its schools. But this is a priority, and we are working with our donors to make this happen, he said. The consequences of not opening schools for over half a million children would be disastrous.At 14, Uri is one of this years youngest participants. The Jewish teen said he had always been interested in the conflict and thought this was a way to learn more. What he found, he said, was the surprise of becoming close to people he might never have met outside the program.The IIT alumni argue in their petition that LGBTQ people have had to forego better paying employment prospects, including employment under the State and instead choose employers who would be more accepting and accommodating of their identities. Others, they said, were considering settling abroad or have done so because of the sense of vulnerability and inability to lead a free existence, solely on account of their LGBTQ identity.I always want to make sure that Im taking my work into spaces that are similar to the places that I grew up in, Kirk said. Because I know what its like to grow up as a kid in a lower-income neighborhood or working-class neighborhood and not necessarily see things like this until you get downtown or into more affluent neighborhoods.Clashes between a local defense force and the Islamic State continued throughout Wednesday in the provinces eastern countryside, with the militants eventually losing their foothold in the villages they had entered in the morning. Although local fighters said the Syrian army had not been involved, the official Syrian Arab News Agency claimed later that government soldiers had. But on social media, some residents pushed back, questioning why the armys presence hadnt been larger at such a sensitive time for the region.The family lived in Raqqa, Syria, for more than two years, during which time they had two more children, according to Frontline. When Elhassanis husband was killed in an airstrike fighting for ISIS, she and her four children were taken into custody by Kurdish forces. They were interviewed in detention by the news organizations.In remarks to Turkish media Wednesday in Ankara, Erdogan indicated that Trump had told him, when the two met at the NATO summit in Brussels this month, that the F-35 deal would go forward. This issue, as you know, is completely at the disposal of the U.S. president, Erdogan said, noting that Turkey has already paid $900 million on the aircraft contract.Taiwan is Taiwan, the Taiwan ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement. It does not fall under the jurisdiction of Chinas government. Taiwan is a democratic nation whose achievements in freedom, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law have won international recognition and are the envy of the people of China, who have no political freedom.The latest signs of the fallout came in activity reports from Japan, Europe and the US, as well as anxious words from companies facing an additional uncertainty and having to decide between taking a hit to their profit margins or jacking up prices. Many manufacturers are also facing higher raw-material costs, another squeeze on earnings.

From demand at factories to company profits and prices consumers are paying, the tit-for-tat trade battle US President Donald Trump started with China and the European Union is starting to show up in numbers. And it's still early days, with Trump saying on Tuesday that "tariffs are the greatest," a warning that he may not let up until he gets what he wants.

Harley-Davidson on Tuesday cut its profit margin forecast, citing tariffs. The iconic motorcycle maker was caught in the crossfire of the trade war last month when it announced plans to shift some US production overseas, prompting attacks from Trump.

Dutch electronics firm Royal Philips chief executive Frans van Houten says an escalation of tariffs may mean it has to pass on costs to customers, and Whirlpool Corp said rising raw material costs hurt results in some of its markets in the second quarter.

Golden run comes to an end

For the global economy, which was enjoying its best spell in years, there's a sense that the period of synchronised global growth is at an end. The US has got a temporary shot in the arm from tax cuts, but growth is cooling in China, a number of emerging markets are dealing with a currency sell-off, and Europe has been slow to recover from a winter-battered start to the year.

According to Abby Joseph Cohen, advisory director at Goldman Sachs, global growth will continue into 2019, but it's moving into a slower phase. A trade war on top of that would be a further weight.Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar is the complete package: equal parts style and substance, he's both a commercial force and a critical darling. Without Drake's chart-dominating populism or Kanye's controversy courting, Lamar has managed to grab the world's attention based solely on his politically charged, hyper-literate and boundary-pushing take on hip-hop.

Any doubts that the 31-year-old MC is able to translate his success into a compelling live show are blown away on this night as Lamar emerges on stage amid a sea of fog and pyrotechnics, launching into an explosive take on DNA from last year's Damn album. There's a disciplined lyrical precision at work that perhaps explains Lamar's nickname 'Kung Fu Kenny', a moniker that gives the show a martial arts theme alongside Lamar's Bruce Lee-style garb, a sword-spinning ninja cameo and various '70-inspired kung fu video skits.

Live musicians including a bassist and drummer beef up the requisite backing tracks as Lamar tears through a selection of songs largely taken from Damn and 2012 breakout album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, the charismatic MC consistently keeping the energy at fever pitch as a sea of faithful fans bounce in unison, hanging on his every word.

Complementing the lyrical prowess is a visual flair atypical of hip-hop shows: on top of the regular deployment of fireworks, Lamar is occasionally joined by an acrobatic dancer, the pair at one point emerging from beneath the stage vertically stacked on top of each other, Lamar rapping sideways. Other sleight-of-hand flourishes, including the rapper rising from a mid-crowd platform and performing inside a dazzling cage of light, only add to the impressive spectacle.

The effortless control Lamar holds over his craft and the enraptured crowd is best exemplified during a performance of Humble toward the show's climax, with thousands in the room rapping every word a cappella as the MC silently looks on, nodding his approval.

The king had held court and his loyal subjects were unanimous in their praise. They may have been humbled at witnessing an artist operating at the top of his game but, given this performance, Lamar should be anything but.As Ive had one-on-one conversations with neighbors, one thing thats become clear is that people are fearful of gentrification and being able to afford rent and their taxes, she said. But people are also interested in discussing the relationship between people and the police, the state of education, and everyday things like the cleanliness on the streets and public safety.Bangkok: Rescuers are searching floodwaters for dozens of people feared dead and hundreds missing after a dam collapsed in a remote part of land-locked Laos, one of Asia's poorest countries, a government official says.

Villagers take refuge on a rooftop above flood waters from a collapsed dam in the Attapeu district of south-eastern Laos. Credit:Attapeu Todya/AP

State media photographs show pictures of villagers, some with young children, stranded on the roofs of submerged houses. Others showed villagers trying to board wooden boats to safety in Attapeu province, the southernmost part of the country.

At least seven villages have been submerged.London: British Novichok nerve agent survivor Charles Rowley says he feels lucky to be alive but doubts he will ever get over what happened.

Rowley, 45, was discharged from hospital in Salisbury on Friday after being exposed to the deadly substance that claimed the life of his partner, Dawn Sturgess, on July 8.

Dawn Sturgess, who died after being exposed to nerve agent novichok. Credit:AP

The pair were struck down after handling a contaminated cosmetic bottle that Rowley had given his partner as a gift, with both admitted to hospital in a critical condition on June 30.

"I'm feeling very low about Dawn. I remember finding a cosmetic bottle which I had picked up and gave it to Dawn as a present," Rowley told The Sun newspaper.WESTPORT  Rarely does a big decision in Westport go down without a fight, and the same is true of the proposal to add two more school police officers for the coming year.

The debate appeared to come to a close when, on July 11, the towns Board of Finance voted 4-2 against funding two school resource officers for the middle schools, in addition to the one already approved for Staples High School. However, School Superintendent Dr. Colleen Palmer and two members of the Representative Town Meeting have now challenged that decision.

On the RTM front, Nicole Klein of District 5 discovered after the July 11 meeting that, per the towns charter, the group has a 30-day window to overturn the finance boards decision if two RTM members request the appropriation be on the next meetings agenda and if a majority of the full RTM vote yes on the appropriation.

I wanted to keep the discussion going around the SROs and didnt feel there had been enough discussion about it among the RTM. There actually had been no discussion about it among the RTM, and I felt it was really due a robust conversation, Klein said.

Klein enlisted fellow RTM member Andrew Colabella to bring forth the vote to overturn the BOF decision, which appears on the Aug. 7 meeting agenda.

Meanwhile, Palmer and the Board of Education found their own way to reopen the SRO debate by returning to the town $275,541 in unspent money, which is more than the $260,000 needed to hire the two additional officers. Returning the funds is meant to help replenish the money Westport would spend on the SROs if hired, Palmer said.

School resource officers are not new. Its a new idea for Westport and what Ive found is that communities who dont understand SROs are more reluctant to adopt them becaue theyre concerned were going to have a police officer in our building who will arrest and go after our kids. That is entirely incorrect, Palmer said.

Palmers original request to hire the two officers was priced at $320,000 for one year, but town Finance Director Gary Conrad said he later realized the officers would only work nine months of the year due to summer vacation. Conrad then recalculated and came up with the $260,000 figure.

This new appropriation request will come before the Board of Finance at its Aug. 1 meeting.

Since the officers would be police department employees and on the towns payroll, not that of the schools, the new funding request will come from Chief of Police Foti Koskinas, a vocal advocate of SROs, in conjunction with First Selectman Jim Marpe, who in the past has said the finance board should heed to the expertise of Palmer and Koskinas and hire the officers.

svaughan@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2638; @SophieCVaughan1Ecologic Material's Corp. creates stronger asphalt with waste plastic

With a high-volume use for recyclable plastic, Ecologic Materials' Pueblo business will help make a stronger and less costly asphalt.Really Useful Theatres is to be renamed LW Theatres (Lloyd Webber Theatres) from today.

The name change is designed to end any confusion between the theatre division and the Really Useful Group which handles Andrew Lloyd Webber's creative output.

Lloyd Webber's six West End theatres  including the London Palladium, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Cambridge Theatre and the newly renamed Gillian Lynne Theatre  will keep their titles.

Rebecca Kane Burton, the managing director of LW Theatres said: "The change will help the theatre company communicate directly and more effectively with a wider public and the business world."Chinese ships are already reportedly showing up at Canadian ports to buy soybeans, thanks to the trade spat between the United States and China.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Chinese ships are already reportedly showing up at Canadian ports to buy soybeans, thanks to the trade spat between the United States and China.

China, the world's largest buyer of soybeans, has stopped buying the crop from the U.S. after the Trump administration slapped massive tariffs on Chinese products.

China is looking to source supplies elsewhere and soybean growers in Brazil, Argentina and, to a lesser extent, Canada stand to gain.

This is not a peripheral gesture. Soybeans are the U.S.'s biggest crop in terms of value. It grows about 90 million acres of soybeans and produced 120 million tonnes in 2017. China purchased US$12 billion worth of soybeans from the U.S. last year.

"There have been anecdotal reports that we've already sold quite a few cargos of soybeans off the West Coast (to China), and a lot of that will be from Manitoba," said Neil Townsend, a senior market analyst with FarmLink Marketing Solutions in Winnipeg.

As well, people in the grain trade believe China will look to replace some of its soybean requirements by upping purchases of canola from Canada. Some market analysts estimate China may buy as much as 5 1/2 million tonnes of canola, which would break its previous record purchase from Canada by a million tonnes.

"Every available seed of canola could potentially be sold to China," Townsend said.

The danger is not knowing how long the trade war will last. "I think it will all get resolved, I just don't know if it gets resolved in six weeks, 26 weeks, 52 weeks, two years...," he said.

Earlier, China offered to purchase more soybeans and other agricultural products as a way to appease the Trump administration. If those are the terms of ending the trade war, that could negate any gains for Canadian farmers.

"What would that mean for Canada? There might be cancellations of cargos of canola (from Canada) and canola prices might drop 10 to 15 per cent," Townsend said.

The U.S.-China trade war has triggered a free fall in U.S. soybean prices. Soybeans on the Chicago futures market have dropped from US$10.40 per bushel in May before U.S. President Donald Trump launched the trade war with China, to about US$8.50 per bushel this week. Also contributing to weaker prices are very good growing conditions in North America and other parts of the globe.

However, the weaker U.S. price is also hurting Canadian farmers because prices are largely set on U.S. futures, Townsend said. "The price has gone down a bit (for Canadian farmers) but not to the same extent as in the U.S.," he said.

Canadian crop should eventually sell at a premium, such as the South American crop, said Marlene Boersch, managing partner at Mercantile Consulting Venture Inc. in Winnipeg. Boersch said the Argentine price for soybeans worked back to Vancouver is about $14 per bushel.

"We should be trading equal to the higher value. We're not seeing it in the market yet, but it will happen," she said.

The weaker Canadian dollar has also boosted returns on farm exports, which are sold in American dollars. Canada should also fetch some premium because it's closer to China than Argentina or Brazil. But Canada doesn't have nearly as much supply as those two countries.

On the downside, China is expected to reduce its reliance on soybeans and that will affect the entire oilseed market negatively, Boersch said.

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"As far as I'm concerned, for Canada, as an exporting country overall, this is not good. We do a lot better when the rules are clearly defined," Boersch said.

Townsend maintained China is in the weaker position in a trade war with the U.S. "The Chinese are running out of ammunition in a trade war because the U.S. buys more stuff from China than China buys from U.S.," he said.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is reportedly setting aside up to US$12 billion in assistance so its farmers don't bear the brunt of Trump's trade war with China, the European Union, Canada and others. Countries targeted with higher tariffs have shot back with tariffs on farm products like soybeans, meat and milk.

In China, the government is expected to compensate crushers if they are forced to buy from the U.S. and pay the 25 per cent tariff.

Trump triggered the trade wars by introducing high tariffs on numerous fronts as a way to improve his country's trade balance with other countries.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.caChinese President Xi Jinping will soon wrap a five-country trip to the UAE and Africa, ahead of the annual BRICS summit in South Africa.

The trip, Xis first overseas since beginning his new term in March, has seen him visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Senegal, Rwanda, and South Africa. Xi will conclude the tour with a stopover in the island nation of Mauritius, before returning to China.

During the trip, Xi signed a range of trade and investment deals with host countries, securing greater support for his signature Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

At the annual BRICS leaders summit, which takes place from July 25-27 in Johannesburg, Xi is expected to deliver statements in support of multilateralism and trade.

The trips progress bodes well for Xi, as it comes at a time when China is facing a variety of foreign policy challenges.

China is currently in the midst of an escalating trade war with the US, and other Western powers like Australia and the EU have also been increasingly vocal about their discomfort with Chinas economic practices.

Further, China is facing backlashes to BRI plans in several countries countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Kenya.

While Xis trip to UAE and Africa will not change these dynamics, it will still be a welcome reprieve from the recent bout of sustained international pressure on China.

Some of the main outcomes of Xis five-country trip are summarized below.

United Arab Emirates

Xis three-day visit to the UAE  the first by a Chinese head of state in 29 years  ended with a number of political and economic deals.

The two countries upgraded their relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, making the UAE the first Middle Eastern country to establish ties with China at that level.

China and the UAE committed to deepen their political and security ties, further cooperate on the BRI, and increase trade in oil and gas.

Total bilateral trade between China and the UAE amounted to US$54 billion in 2017.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, said that he hoped to double the UAEs trade with China in the next decade.

Senegal

Xis two-day trip to Senegal was the first visit by a Chinese head of state in nine years, and also Xis first visit to a West African country.

As with the UAE, China and Senegal agreed to a comprehensive strategic partnership, with China committing to support Senegals development, and aid in anti-terror, peacekeeping, and maintaining social stability.

Most notably, Senegal became the first West African country to sign up for the BRI, thereby extending the policys reach.

China is Senegals second largest trade partner after France, with total bilateral trade worth just over US$1 billion in 2016.

Rwanda

Xis two-day visit to Rwanda was the first ever by a Chinese head of state, but the two countries already enjoy a significant relationship.

China and Rwanda signed 15 bilateral agreements, including infrastructure deals under the BRI label. Among them was a US$126 million loan agreement for China to build roads in Rwanda.

Chinese firms have a large presence in Rwanda, exemplified by the fact that about 80 percent of the countrys roads are built by Chinese companies, according to Chinas former ambassador to Rwanda.

Trade between the two countries stood at US$238.69 million in 2017, heavily imbalanced in favor of China.

South Africa

Xis five-day visit to South Africa is already his third state visit to the country since assuming Chinas presidency in 2013.

Xi pledged to increase imports from South Africa to lessen the trade imbalance between the two countries and to advance their comprehensive strategic partnership.

According to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, China pledged to invest US$14.7 billion in the country.

During the visit, Xi will be attending a BRICS summit; the grouping consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Bilateral trade reached US$39.17 billion in 2017, making South Africa Chinas largest trading partner on the continent.

Mauritius

Xis stopover visit to Mauritius will be the first visit by a Chinese head of state in nine years.

Xi and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth are set to discuss regional issues and ways to deepen bilateral ties.

The two countries have already begun talks on a potential free trade agreement, which, if completed, would be Chinas first free trade agreement with an African country.

China is Mauritius largest trade partner, with bilateral trade worth about US$900 million in 2016, heavily skewed towards China.While it may be reeling from this weeks mass shooting on the Danforth, Torontos tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of talent markets.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While it may be reeling from this weeks mass shooting on the Danforth, Torontos tech scene is so hot the city created more jobs than the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, D.C., combined last year, while leapfrogging New York in a ranking of "talent markets."

Toronto was the fastest-growing tech-jobs market in 2017, according to CBRE Group Inc.s latest annual survey, released Tuesday.

The city saw 28,900 tech jobs created, 14 per cent more than in 2016, for a total of more than 241,000 workers, up 52 per cent over the past five years, CBRE said.

In the citys downtown area, tech accounted for more than a third of demand for office space.

Canadas biggest city took fourth place in "tech talent," a broad measure of competitiveness, pushing New York down a notch and coming in just after the Bay Area, Seattle and the U.S. capital.

CBRE ranked 50 markets across North America, using measures such as talent supply, concentration, education and cost as well as outlooks for job and rent growth for both offices and apartments.

The real estate services firm cited some five million technology workers in the U.S. and more than 830,000 in Canada, across all sectors.

For employers, combined labour and occupancy costs increased in every market, by 13 per cent even in the least expensive one  Montreal.

"Companies looking to house operations are putting serious thought into locating in Canada," Paul Morassutti, executive managing director at CBRE Canada, said in a statement accompanying the report.

Toronto is among the best values for tech firms, he said, citing cheaper labour and real estate and a well-educated workforce.

The U.S. Midwest offers good value as well, the report noted.

A 500-worker company requiring 75,000 square feet of office space can expect total annual costs to range from US$27.6 million in Montreal to US$32.2 million in Ottawa, with Toronto in the middle at US$30.2 million.

The costs in Rochester, N.Y.  the cheapest U.S. market of those CBRE studied  amount to US$36.3 million, while the Bay Area adds up to US$57.4 million.

"The forces that are driving innovation and technology are really in the early stages here," Morassutti said by phone.

"When it comes to overall costs, even if you assume upward pressure on office rents, housing and salaries, our major markets still constitute a significant bargain to the U.S."

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To measure a markets growth potential, CBRE looked at the concentration of technology labour as a percentage of total employment.

Here the winner was Ottawa, Canadas capital, at 11.2 per cent, more than three times the U.S. national average of 3.5 per cent. Toronto came in third, at 8.9 per cent.

"Ottawa is shedding its government-town image. It is home to over 1,700 technology companies and employs over 70,000 tech-talent employees," Shawn Hamilton, managing director of CBRE Ottawa, said in the statement.

"In the last five years, urban tech has grown to be the second-largest user group in downtown Ottawa, bigger than the accounting and legal sectors combined."

U.S. markets rising in the studys ranks include Columbus, Ohio, as well as Cleveland and San Diego.

 Bloomberg NewsIt's an uncommon management challenge to be the head of a traditionally profitable Canadian division of a U.S.-based global retail brand when the U.S. operation itself  10 times the size of the Canadian one  declares bankruptcy, liquidates inventory and closes all its stores.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It's an uncommon management challenge to be the head of a traditionally profitable Canadian division of a U.S.-based global retail brand when the U.S. operation itself  10 times the size of the Canadian one  declares bankruptcy, liquidates inventory and closes all its stores.

But Melanie Teed-Murch, CEO of Toys'R'Us Canada, sounds like someone who's recently broken free of the shackles and is determined to make losing a parent a liberating experience for her company.

At the end of last month, the last of the 735 U.S. Toys'R'Us stores closed after trustees were unable to find a buyer or restructure the more than $5 billion US in debt.

But all the Canadian stores remain open and the operation has not broken stride. Fairfax Holdings, which is gaining a reputation as to the go-to Canadian white-knight, closed its acquisition of the Canadian division June 1 for a reported $300 million, allowing parents across the country to shop-Canadian for all of their Hot Wheels, Barbie and Slime toy needs.

Not one of the 82 Toys'R'Us Canada stores have been affected, the company still employs 4,000 people in this country and with new owners it's now about to invest in the business, something it was not able to do because of the parent company's woes.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Melanie Teed-Murch, CEO of Toys'R'Us Canada and Babies'R'Us Canada.

"We need to get our story out there," Teed-Murch said in the L.O.L Surprise! aisle (more on that later) of the Pembina Crossing store. "We are here to play and here to stay."

And depending how it turns out, it could become one of the most endearing Canadian business success stories for some time.

Much has been said of the mess private equity owners of Toys'R'Us left the company in, groaning under $400 million worth of annual interest payments.

Teed-Murch, who is about to hit her second anniversary as CEO of the now-Canadian-owned company, has the classic optimism of a good CEO and says she prefers to look to the future.

Regarding the mis-management of the parent company, she said, "The last five years the company was very leveraged. The debt was a growing problem. Given the competitive environment and the global marketplace today, being leveraged as a retail company is definitely being behind the eight-ball."

But the Canadian company had always had enough autonomy to be consistently profitable and was smart enough to build a robust on-line operation to hold its own with Amazon and the e-commerce competitors.

Maureen Atkinson, senior partner with the Toronto-based global retail advisory firm, J.C. Williams Group, said, "I think in general they've had good leadership in Canada. They have really kind of tracked in their own way."

"The last five years the company was very leveraged. The debt was a growing problem. Given the competitive environment and the global marketplace today, being leveraged as a retail company is definitely being behind the eight-ball"  Melanie Teed-Murch, CEO of Toys'R'Us Canada

Among other things, they did not over build in this country -- there are three locations in Winnipeg, each of which has been here for many years.

"Also they got into online very early," Atkinson said. "They recognized it would be important in that category. So they really had a bit of a run at it. They (the Canadian leadership team) have really been quite astute in terms of how they managed the business."

That team has succeeded where its counterparts in the U.S, the U.K. and Australia have failed. A buyer for the stores in Germany, Austria and Switzerland has been found and a deal for the Asian division is likely to be announced in a few weeks.

The Pembina Crossing store looks prosperous. Shelves are all packed with product including the hottest toys like the L.O.L. Surprise!  the idea is to unwrap multiple layers of packaging to find dolls and animals along the way  and a whole section filled with do-it-yourself slime kits, currently the hottest items in kids' toys.

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Each store has a sizable Babies'R'Us section  and a booming baby registry business. It was the only area of the business Teed-Murch said that felt any negative affects of the U.S. problems what with new parents worried about warranties and timely purchases.

Teed-Murch is just about finished her tour of every store in the chain expertly telling all who will listen the stores are here to stay.

In the next two weeks, renovations at the Pembina Crossing store will begin including building toy demonstration tables for kids to experience the toys, lower (kid-level) sightlines instead of tall walls of shelving and space for lots of events to "activate and interact with our customers."

Teed-Murch said the transition to a stand-alone business has not been a complete shock. It had already been doing most of its own buying and she said here team has been "invigorated by the opportunity ahead of us."

"We have had to add experts to the team helping us source product in China and we've added our own quality assurance and testing people," she said. "And the supplier base has been exceptionally supportive. We have the number two market share in Canada in toys. So it is important to have a healthy Toys'R'Us in Canada for our supplier base as well."

martin.cash@freepress.mb.caOTTAWA  The Assembly of First Nations will pick its national chief Wednesday, in a vote that will set the tone as Ottawa navigates pipelines, land claims and its vision for reconciliation.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The Assembly of First Nations will pick its national chief Wednesday, in a vote that will set the tone as Ottawa navigates pipelines, land claims and its vision for reconciliation.

Hundreds of chiefs are gathered in Vancouver for the election, where two Manitoba women are among the five candidates on the ballot.

Sheila North has served since 2015 as the first female Grand Chief of the northern Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. The former broadcast journalist gained national prominence while calling for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

North grew up on the remote Bunibonibee Cree Nation, and has lived in Winnipeg since age 15. Shes one of the three candidates who have attracted the most attention, including on social media, which plays an even larger role on reserves than federal parties do in national elections. But she is not widely considered a frontrunner in the race.

When North launched her campaign in May, she stressed that the AFN should be more of a conduit between First Nations chiefs and the federal government, instead of negotiating on their behalf:

"The pendulum was so far in one way that the government called the shots, and now were seeing it go the other way and theyre trying to contain it, and I dont think they can contain it much longer," North had said.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Grand Chief Sheila North speaks before the Winnipeg Art Gallery breaks ground for the new Inuit Centre in Winnipeg on Friday, May 25, 2018. Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press 2018.

Tara Williamson, a University of Winnipeg instructor in Indigenous governance, wrote in a recent analysis that North will have to translate that into clear positions on issues such as dams and pipelines.

"Her biggest challenge will be balancing her passion for community-led initiatives with strong, tangible policy positions that hold weight at the national level  for First Nations and the federal government," Williamson wrote for the Yellowhead Institute, a new think-tank focusing on Indigenous self-determination.

The AFN has elected 11 chiefs, all male, since it began as the National Indian Brotherhood in 1968, though there have been female candidates previously.

Most analysts say incumbent National Chief Perry Bellegarde has the best shot at winning, though media reports have suggested an uptick in support for Russ Diabo, a longtime policy analyst from a Quebec reserve.

Bellegarde has focused on "closing the gap" in education and employment between First Nations and other Canadians  a disparity that economists with the Centre for the Study of Living Standards found will cost Manitoba 11 per cent of its workforce growth over next two decades.

The former top chief for Saskatchewan, Bellegarde has claimed success as national chief in his pledges for language funding, the national inquiry and predictable federal funding. But Williamson pointed out that those commitments have come under a sympathetic Liberal government, which might not be in office after the fall 2019 national election.

Meanwhile, Diabo feels Ottawa has co-opted Indigenous rights and that the AFN should strike a more adversarial tone in defence of treaty rights. He has released arguably the most detailed platform of the five candidates, one that outright opposes the Trans Mountain project. "Diabo might be considered the populist candidate of this race," Williamson wrote.

CP Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegrade addresses delegates at the AFN Annual General Assembly, in Vancouver on Tuesday, July 24, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The two other candidates have received far less media coverage.

Katherine Whitecloud has served as chief of Sioux Valley First Nation west of Brandon and has a background in both education and leadership.

"Whiteclouds platform is based on traditional knowledge and governance roles," which involves focusing on revitalizing languages, social cohesion and ties to the land, Williamson wrote.

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Pipeline, treaty rights loom for AFN head The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations has a four-year term to lead the organization that represents almost all First Nations people in negotiations with the federal government  while also navigating the reality that Ottawa funds the AFN. click to read more The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations has a four-year term to lead the organization that represents almost all First Nations people in negotiations with the federal government  while also navigating the reality that Ottawa funds the AFN. The looming four-year term will likely surround the chasm along the Trans Mountain pipeline route, where some First Nations are prepared to go to jail in opposing the pipelines widening in their territories, while others have carved out revenue and employment deals with Kinder Morgan, the pipeline's owner until suspending construction of its expsnsion project triggering Ottawa's decision to take it over. More immediately, the AFN will have to contend with the federal Liberals looming rights-recognition framework, a document that the government says will clarify the rights and responsibilities associated with treaties and land claims, but opponents fear will instead undermine them. Ottawa has said the yet-to-be-written legislation would help avoid constitutional squabbles that led to the Kapyong Barracks saga, though some analysts fear that what Ottawa has discussed in consultations would degrade First Nations' ability to contest projects in court and get a fair share of resource projects. Provincial grand chiefs are also watching closely as Manitoba and other governments reform child-welfare rules. Chiefs will also likely scrutinize next spring's final report by the troubled inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.  Dylan Robertson Close

Longtime B.C. chief Miles Richardson is an environmentalist who touts economic-development projects as a requirement to achieve self-government, though critics claim his approach could undermine existing treaty rights.

Each reserve gets one vote Wednesday, either by its chief or a designate, regardless of the First Nations population. That skews the share of the 636 total votes to British Columbia, which has more ballots than all three Prairie provinces combined.

Chiefs in Vancouver will vote in as many rounds as it takes for a candidate to get 60 per cent support. That usually means multiple ballots, each eliminating the candidate with the least support. Sometimes, that has meant a process that continues late into the night.

Even the number of rounds required can illustrate how First Nations chiefs feel about the current government. For example, Bellegarde winning on the first or second ballot would suggest chiefs support his co-operative tone with Ottawa, while a protracted battle between Bellegarde and Diabo might indicate a split in thinking over how cosy AFN should be with the Liberals.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.caUnless he gets a new $100,000 sleigh, Virginia, there will be no Santa Claus parade this year.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Unless he gets a new $100,000 sleigh, Virginia, there will be no Santa Claus parade this year.

Santas float has been declared unfit to roll down Portage Avenue in the iconic November parade that marks the unofficial start of winter.

Organizers issued an appeal Tuesday for a $100,000 gofundme campaign under the banner Save Wpg Santa Claus Parade.

"The current float is more than 60 years old and is no longer safe to use. With extreme winter temperatures and wear and tear for decades, the old Eatons billboards, key to the structural integrity, are damaged beyond repair. The decor is crumbling and the snowmen are disintegrating," Winnipeg Santa Claus Parade director Monica Derksen said.

Unless donors replace St. Nicks rickety old ride, the parade may have to pack it in, ending 108 years of history and generations of family memories.

"This year with the unexpected costly expense of the float, the parade is in jeopardy," Derksen said.

In an email she added that organizers hadnt anticipated they would have to replace the float this year.

As a not-for-profit, organizers couldnt take money set aside from donations and corporate sponsorships for the parade itself, which goes towards everything from permits and security to porta potty stations along the parade route.

"Unfortunately the parade would be cancelled," Derksen wrote.

The former department store Eatons launched the Winnipeg Santa Claus parade in 1909.

The largest night time parade in Canada and the second largest Santa parade in the country, the November event kicks off the winter season and typically draws a crowd of 60,000 spectators.

Some 75 floats roll through Portage Avenue downtown for the event. Not counting Santa and his elves.

For a donation of $500 you can get your family name forever etched on Santa's new float. A donation of $1,250 buys a new reindeer while a $2,500 gift makes Rudolph's nose glow bright red.

Every donation of $100 or more gets an adult and child into the parade's gala event where you can meet Santa in person and where his new float will be unveiled.

The pricey float is a function of technology and the need for sophisticated hydraulics, so Santa can fit under the rail overpass at the end of the parade route. The route follows Portage Avenue from Young Street east to Main Street and turns on to William Stephenson Way to pass under the bridge and end at Westbrook Street.

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Santa always had to turn off the route before the end of the parade in the old sleigh.

"Some people dont realize . . . the old one didnt fit . . . under the rail bridge at the end of the route," Derksen said. "If they sit at the end of the traditional route, they dont get to see Santa and the finale of the parade."

Meanwhile, the timinig of the campaign was deliberate.

"We decided on a Christmas-in-July launch, to give us as much lead time as possible to raise the funds," Derksen said.

"Weve created a list of thank-you notes for supporting the parade and the float project. . . we have our fingers crossed that well be unveiling our 2018 parade float in November," Derksen said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.caWinnipeggers who want to see Portage and Main re-opened to pedestrians have a right to feel a bit disappointed that Mayor Brian Bowman was one of 14 members of city council to vote in favour of a proposal to hold a referendum on the matter in this fall's election.

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This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeggers who want to see Portage and Main re-opened to pedestrians have a right to feel a bit disappointed that Mayor Brian Bowman was one of 14 members of city council to vote in favour of a proposal to hold a referendum on the matter in this fall's election.

After all, Bowman campaigned in 2014 on a promise to re-open the intersection and his ringing electoral victory gave him a mandate to do just that. All those who want to free Winnipeg's most famous intersection believe Bowman at the very least should have opposed the referendum on that basis alone.

Has the mayor abandoned cause of Portage and Main? The short answer is yes, and no.

Yes, in failing to oppose the referendum, Bowman was demonstrating a greater interest in getting re-elected than pursuing an open intersection.

Mayoral challenger Jenny Motkaluk has pledged to stop the city from re-opening Portage and Main. Although it is unclear that Portage and Main was going to make or break anyone's campaign, the prospect of a referendum more or less defuses one of Motkaluk's sharpest points of attack.

This is not a risk-free strategy for the mayor. If Winnipeggers vote to keep the intersection closed, Bowman will have to bear some of the responsibility. Whether or not that will happen is, however, anyone's guess at this point.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman

Given the hastiness with which Coun. Jeff Browaty raised the prospects of a referendum  at the last council meeting before the fall election  there is very little time for 'yes' and 'no' sides to mount a formal campaign. Even the motivation for holding the referendum has been muddy and poorly defined.

A constant source of political non-sequiturs, Browaty actually argued that referendum was necessary to give those people who voted for Bowman but do not support him on this issue a chance at a do-over. "This is an opportunity to have a real debate on the matter and for the public to say which way they go and, hopefully, we never have to discuss it again," he said.

And in that ridiculous context, no, Bowman is not entirely abandoning the cause. He is, however, reaching out to the citizens for some help. And if social media is any indication, Browaty and his collaborators may only have provoked the #TeamOpen constituency. That will be important if Bowman's vision is to survive the irreconcilable gulf that separates core area Winnipeggers from those who live in the suburbs.

Poll results show that a slim majority of Winnipeggers oppose the re-opening of Portage and Main. However, dig deeper and you can see the real fault lines.

The people who want the intersection re-opened generally include younger Winnipeggers, those who live downtown, citizens with mobility issues, most urban planners and architects with an interest in downtown development, entrepreneurs who own businesses downtown and  perhaps most importantly  those who own property right at Portage and Main.

Opposition to a barrier-free intersection includes many older Winnipeggers, people who live outside the core and only drive through the centre of the city on their way to work or on their way somewhere else.

With those lines of demarcation, the debate comes down to a battle between those for whom downtown is a daily and significant presence in their lives, and those for whom it is mostly an afterthought. And that is a potentially dangerous scenario given that there is so much disinformation surrounding the issue.

Mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk

Browaty, Coun. Janice Lukes and even Motkaluk would have people believe that this is largely a fiscal issue, a waste of money on something that will only delay the afternoon commute for people who hate going downtown in the first place.

In fact, in relative terms, it's a pretty frugal project.

All told, the city is committed to spending about $3.5 million on street-level upgrades and planning the re-opening of the intersection. We do not know the final cost of tearing down the barriers. However, the existing barriers are falling apart and removing them could very likely be less expensive than rebuilding them.

There is also the fact that private land owners at Portage and Main need to do repairs to the underground infrastructure that supports Winnipeg Square, the underground shopping mall. That work will require the removal of some of the barriers. Rebuilding them seems a pointless endeavour.

Dan Lett | Not for Attribution A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world that is sent every Tuesday. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

Traffic is often cited as a concern, even though a survey of the existing patterns at Portage and Main reveal some very long delays between green lights. For those who need to get across the intersection, there will be time.

Pedestrian safety is also raised as a concern, although there is nothing to suggest that this intersection will be any more dangerous than any other. In fact, it's quite likely it will be safer than using a cross-walk on Pembina Highway during the morning rush hour.

By deferring to the will of the people who vote in the referendum, Bowman has clearly passed the buck to citizens who share his vision of a barrier-free Portage and Main. That is bad news for those people who believe he earned the mandate to re-open the intersection four years ago.

The good news is that the referendum also serves as an opportunity to get the intersection re-opened with a promise that  in Browaty's words  we never have to discuss the legitimacy of the issue ever again.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.caStudents from many countries participate in the 2018 Youth Innovation Competition on Global Governance in Shanghai, and share their ideas on sustainable development, Xu Xiaomin reports.

With the rapid progress of urbanization globally, rural life is becoming increasingly foreign to many young people.

According to the UN World Urbanization Prospects 2018 report, 68 percent of the global population will reside in cities in 2050, a big jump from the current 55 percent.

In light of such circumstances, 73 students from 44 countries gathered in Shanghai earlier this month for the 2018 Youth Innovation Competition on Global Governance, where they shared their ideas on sustainable development in rural areas.

Organized by the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University and sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme in China, the week-long annual eventit was launched in 2007 by Fudanis a platform for youngsters from various countries to discuss pressing global issues and how the world can tackle the challenges.

This year, the competition took place on Shanghai's Chongming Island, the largest estuarine alluvial island in the world, and featured a theme that echoed China's strategy for rural revitalization that was put forward in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.CFB SHILO  A Canadian military judge has ordered a retired master corporal be demoted to private after he grabbed the breast of a military spouse during a holiday potluck almost two years ago.

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This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CFB SHILO  A Canadian military judge has ordered a retired master corporal be demoted to private after he grabbed the breast of a military spouse during a holiday potluck almost two years ago.

At a general court martial Tuesday at CFB Shilo, Evan William Paul, 33, pleaded guilty to one charge under the National Defence Act of behaving in a disgraceful manner against the complainant, who cannot be named due to a publication ban.

A conviction carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, but the prosecution and defence submitted a joint recommendation to have Pauls rank reduced instead.

A charge of sexual assault and a second count of behaving in a disgraceful manner were withdrawn.

In his decision, Military Judge Cmdr. Martin Pelletier described Pauls behaviour as "an unacceptable assault of a perverted nature" against the wife of a subordinate that was "personal, disrespectful and highly offensive."

"The acts of Master Cpl. Paul invaded his victims privacy in the most intrusive way without any form of consent," Pelletier said.

Paul joined the military in 2001 as an infantryman with the reserves, before becoming a material technician in the regular forces. He was previously posted to CFB Borden and CFB Edmonton and served two deployments to Afghanistan.

Paul was with the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry at CFB Shilo at the time of the incident on Dec. 9, 2016, at a holiday potluck at the junior ranks mess facility.

Paul had been drinking at a co-workers home on base beforehand, where he had consumed a 750-millilitre bottle of hard liquor.

Prosecutor Maj. Greg Moorehead told the court Paul was "blackout drunk" and had no memory of what happened after he arrived at the club. Moorehead said Paul continued to drink several "doubles" and began socializing with other groups.

At approximately 10 p.m., Paul joined a group that included the complainant, her husband and another female spouse of a military member.

Displaying signs of intoxication, Paul squeezed the complainants left breast with his right hand. The complainant reacted angrily and Moorehead said her husband had to restrain himself.

Paul then turned to the second spouse and poked her breast with his hand, but Moorehead said she laughed it off.

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The complainant was upset and left the function, while her husband reported the incident to his superior officer.

Moorehead summarized the complainants victim-impact statement, describing the emotional and physical impacts of Pauls actions.

"Whats more is it was done publicly, in a place that was supposed to be relaxed and festive  and it was done by a junior leader in the presence of subordinates and spouses," Moorehead said.

Moorehead said the reduction in rank would send a message to other members of the Canadian Forces.

Defence counsel Lt.-Col. Denis Berntsen said Paul, who has no criminal or disciplinary record, was "devastated" when he found out about the incident and chose to leave the military voluntarily. Paul officially retired April 10.

 Brandon SunExcept for the parrot perched on the Crown witness's shoulder, it was like any other provincial court trial.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Except for the parrot perched on the Crown witness's shoulder, it was like any other provincial court trial.

There were no interruptions or disturbances -- just a steady stream of defecation in the witness stand -- during a one-day assault trial in Winnipeg last month that featured an avian support animal.

CP An Alexandrian parrot.

A middle-aged woman who alleged a 23-year-old man physically assaulted her in their home was allowed to have her bluish-green parrot with her as she testified in court. The bird stood less than six inches tall, and defecated on the woman's shoulder several times during the hour or so she was on the stand.

"I can advise the court that she has a service animal with her -- um, a parrot," Crown attorney Erin Dunsmore told provincial court Judge Kelly Moar as the woman entered the Winnipeg courtroom June 25.

"OK. That's fine," Moar answered, without missing a beat.

The case is gaining notoriety in Manitoba's legal community because of its novelty -- "It's not every day we see a bird in court," said Scott Newman, spokesman for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba -- but it also raises questions about acceptable courtroom decorum, as advocates push for national standards in the growing field of animal-assisted support services.

The bird came as a surprise to defence lawyer Amado Claros, whose client was convicted later that day of simple assault and sentenced to 45 days in jail.

"I just got used to the whole idea of a service animal being a dog, or I was thinking the complainant was partly blind or something. And then," he said with a laugh, "the witness walked into the courtroom with a parrot on her shoulder.

"I just said nothing at the time. And I dont think the judge found anything wrong with that. I mean, the animal didnt really make much of a noise while she was testifying. (It) made a big mess of her shoulder."

He was prepared to raise an objection if the bird became disruptive, but it didn't, so Claros said he decided to let it be. He said he feared his client's case might be delayed if lawyers spent time arguing over the parrot.

"I really didnt think it was going to be a big thing, but since then, counsel have come up to me and asked me, 'Was it true there was a parrot inside the courtroom?' So the reaction is mixed," he said.

"Some reacted the way that I did, which is thats fine, you know, everyone is entitled to a request and if the court allows it, fine. And some other lawyers said, well, its an outrageous scenario where were pushing the boundaries and it shouldnt have been allowed."

A spokeswoman for Manitoba Justice said in a statement service and support animals are allowed in the Law Courts building as long as the animal has a service vest or the owner has appropriate documentation -- such as a note from a doctor or therapist or accreditation for the service animal.

The court gets about four to six such requests per year, and it's up to the judge whether the animal will be allowed in the courtroom.

"I just got used to the whole idea of a service animal being a dog, or I was thinking the complainant was partly blind or something. And then, the witness walked into the courtroom with a parrot on her shoulder"  Defence lawyer Amado Claros

"There is not a formal policy in place, since the situation is relatively uncommon and it would be difficult to account for all the possibilities. A reasoned approached is taken -- so service or support animals that can reasonably be accommodated in the building are permitted, but those likely to disturb court proceedings would not," the spokeswoman wrote in an email to the Free Press.

"We know that animals other than dogs have been allowed in the building, but dont track this information."

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There is a definite need for national standards when it comes to allowing animals into courtrooms, said Joanne Moss, national director for the Canadian Foundation for Animal-Assisted Support Services.

"We know that people want animals in the courtroom. We know that they can be very helpful in the courtroom. We know that it can be sometimes problematic in the courtroom and so before anything really goes terribly wrong, we would like to be proactive as an organization," Moss said, noting the legal complications that can arise if an animal is disruptive in court.

The Ottawa-based organization has been around for 20 years, researching the benefits of animal support and calling for more regulation and resources. In a federally-funded 2017 report, Paws for Justice, the foundation looked into how dogs can help victims participate in the justice system and how animal-assisted therapy is evolving. There's been little Canadian research about how other animals fit into the court process.

"There isnt an infrastructure to support all of this, and thats why were trying to build it," Moss said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemayThe demise of the Churchill railroad and the announced departure of Greyhound from major Prairie routes has constrained travel options for many rural residents. Predictably, calls have gone out for the federal and provincial governments to step in. Some even suggest nationalization of intercity bus transit and outright purchase of the Churchill rail operation.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The demise of the Churchill railroad and the announced departure of Greyhound from major Prairie routes has constrained travel options for many rural residents. Predictably, calls have gone out for the federal and provincial governments to step in. Some even suggest nationalization of intercity bus transit and outright purchase of the Churchill rail operation.

So, what should the government do?

First, consider the rail line to Churchill. Canada has a storied history with railroads; much mythology attends the National Dream and the essential role played by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in building a nation.

While Canadas first major infrastructure project was rife with scandal, whats relevant for understanding the current challenge is that upon its completion, the CPR encouraged entrepreneurs to engage in a frenzied expansion of branch lines to support a rapidly expanding Prairie population and to ship grain internationally. The result was an overbuilt rail network in which most branch lines quickly went bankrupt. In 1918, the federal government consolidated these failing railroads into a new government-owned entity  Canadian National Railway  that needed constant taxpayer subsidies.

Finally, after an arduous two-decade period in which government allowed closure of money-losing branch lines, CNR became private in 1992. Management further eliminated staff overburden, minimized passenger service and focused on freight. We now have two privately owned and profitable rail companies that operate services continent-wide.

Rail excels at moving bulk freight. The rail line to Churchill had some rationale when Canada was making grain sales to Russia and Europe, but the grain market has shifted to Asia, and even if the government had not chopped the Canadian Wheat Board, there will never be enough bulk freight to support a viable railroad to Churchill.

This is hard for Churchills residents, who have invested in businesses and homes with the expectation that the rail line will continue. Here is an idea: rather than putting some $43 million into the repair of a service that will certainly require ongoing public support, why not spend a fraction of that subsidy on the transportation of commodities by barge and air as well as compensating, at least partially, Churchill residents who wish to sell their homes and businesses? Such a plan must be time-limited, with the transport subsidy and offer to purchase expiring in three years.

Business owners and residents who choose to stay in Churchill would make the calculation that they could operate profitably with the higher level of transportation costs reappearing after three years. Those who elected to leave would receive partial compensation for the losses. Most importantly, the public would dodge a perpetual subsidy and could direct their taxes elsewhere to support sustainable economic activity.

Turning to Greyhound, the only mystery is why it took so long to make the final decision.

Declining revenue is the reason Greyhound cites for its decision to withdraw services in Western Canada. Indeed, according to Statistics Canada, intercity bus revenue has plummeted since 2010.

One might think that a declining rural population is to blame, but this tends to be true only for small towns and villages with populations under 500. Larger rural centres are posting decent population growth, so having a smaller population is not the source of the problem

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No, the answer is much simpler: the decline in ridership clearly indicates that rural residents prefer cars over buses. They are more convenient, at least for those who can afford to own their own vehicle. Unfortunately, this leaves some rural residents on the side of the road.

The demise of Greyhound service opens opportunities for alternative forms of rural transit. It is likely that ride-hailing will emerge as a form of rural Uber, where, for example, those driving to Winnipeg from Thompson would post trips on social media to secure passengers willing to defray gas and operating costs.

Entrepreneurs may also well be willing to implement "jitney" service. Imagine someone driving a van of six people from Thompson to Winnipeg and back. Matching the Greyhound return fare of about $200, that means a $1,200 payday.

The government could assist such an entrepreneur by subsidizing the insurance, exempting PST and GST, and even offering a loan guarantee for those willing to acquire new vehicles. Again, the plan must be time-limited and regulated only enough to ensure basic safety.

Before government considers diverting ever-increasing tax dollars to subsidize a profitable company to offer an unprofitable service, it needs to wait to see whether the free market will produce viable options that minimize taxpayer exposure. Common in many other countries, these jitney alternatives could work in rural Canada, provided government offers selective, time-limited support with minimal regulation.

Gregory Mason is an associate professor in the department of economics of the University of Manitoba.Fifty years ago this month, in the midst of the Cold War, countries began signing an international treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Today, as artificial intelligence and machine learning reshape every aspect of our lives, the world confronts a challenge of similar magnitude and it needs a similar response.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

Fifty years ago this month, in the midst of the Cold War, countries began signing an international treaty to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Today, as artificial intelligence and machine learning reshape every aspect of our lives, the world confronts a challenge of similar magnitude and it needs a similar response.

There is a danger in pushing the parallel between nuclear weapons and AI too far. But the greater risk lies in ignoring the consequences of unleashing technologies whose goals are neither predictable nor aligned with our values.

Ian C. Bates / The Washington Post Files Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has called for a major treaty to limit the use of autonomous weapons.

The immediate prelude to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons was the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The United States and the Soviet Union went to the brink of nuclear war before reason intervened. A few months later, with that near-catastrophe on his mind, U.S. President John F. Kennedy warned that as many as 25 countries could have nuclear weapons by 1975, a sharp rise in the risk of Armageddon.

The non-proliferation treaty, which went into effect in 1970, rested on a central bargain: countries without nuclear weapons promised never to acquire them, and those with them agreed to share nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and eventually to disarm.

Reasonable people can argue about the effectiveness of the treaty  in the intervening years, four more countries acquired nuclear weapons. But the facts are that Kennedys dire prediction did not come true, and nuclear war has so far been avoided.

Artificial intelligence has not yet confronted a crisis like the showdown between the USSR and the U.S. in Cuba. By and large, AI has provided us with amazingly beneficial tools. "Learning algorithms" on our digital devices extract patterns from data to influence what we buy, watch and read. On a grander scale, AI helps doctors detect and treat diseases, opens new markets and improves productivity for business, and creates data sets and models that address critical issues related to education, energy and the environment.

At the same time, AIs perils are apparent. Google wont renew a U.S. Defense Department contract that involved using artificial intelligence to improve drone targeting and enhance surveillance because 4,000 of its employees objected to the use of their work for lethal purposes.

Similar concerns led Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, to express fear recently about the uses of AI in lethal autonomous weapons. He proposed "a big treaty... something that would help regulate these weapons."

The danger that autonomous weapons will alter the nature of war and eliminate human control over war-making is real. So is the risk of accidents involving driverless vehicles and the threat to liberty and critical thinking posed by the misuse of Facebook and search engine files. Other dangers are just as real but less obvious.

First, familiarity breeds complacency. We are seduced by machines that make work and play easier, so we ignore the fact that those same machines increase our vulnerability to threats to civil liberties, democracy and economic equality.

Second, the complexity of AI science may lead policymakers and the public to believe the tech industry is best positioned to decide the future of AI Yet certainly the issues AI raise should not be left to commercial interests.

Third, the dominance of China and the U.S. and a few tech giants creates the real prospect of digital feudalism. The concentration of huge amounts of wealth and power in the hands of a few means enormous numbers of people  entire countries and continents  could be left behind.

The ultimate solution to these challenges is a new grand bargain on the scale of the non-proliferation treaty: Countries agree to share the beneficial uses of artificial intelligence and accept universal safeguards to protect against the misuse of these powerful technologies.

The treaty would enshrine certain basic principles. The concept of "human in command" to guarantee that people retain control over AI should be a priority. Standards would be set for monitoring AI systems. Fundamental human rights should be specifically protected. A new international body should be created for oversight, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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The obstacles are apparent, from rogue countries and monopoly-minded companies to the sorry state of international co-operation. But advances in AI and machine learning are moving so fast that today seems like yesterday, making the challenge urgent.

Fortunately, the conversation has begun. Industry groups, think tanks and policymakers are tackling issues like economics, law, security, human rights and environmental protection. The leading industrial economies, through the G7 and G20, are examining AIs effect on growth and productivity. The United Nations is debating a ban on fully autonomous lethal weapons. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union are weighing principles to guide the future of AI

It took enormous effort to develop, negotiate and finalize a non-proliferation treaty that is still evolving today. Any attempt to control the power of AI will be just as fraught, bumpy and epic. AI is technology that must be controlled. The world reached consensus in the 1960s and reined in an existential risk. It can be done again.

Douglas Frantz was deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development from 2015 to 2017.

 Los Angeles TimesThe July 18 cabinet shuffle that put Winnipegs Jim Carr into the International Trade Diversification hot seat pulled together the ministerial group that must prepare Canada for a period of narrowed access to the United States. Still to come is the plan showing what this team is supposed to do.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The July 18 cabinet shuffle that put Winnipegs Jim Carr into the International Trade Diversification hot seat pulled together the ministerial group that must prepare Canada for a period of narrowed access to the United States. Still to come is the plan showing what this team is supposed to do.

While Mr. Carr is diversifying Canadas trade, Dominic LeBlanc is supposed to remove trade barriers among provinces, Amarjeet Sohi is supposed to build pipelines to export Albertas oil, Bill Blair is supposed to manage the borders in a trade-sensitive way and Mary Ng is supposed to turn startup companies into exporters.

Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press Files International Trade Diversification Minister Jim Carr

All of these are worthwhile endeavours under any circumstances. They may suddenly become desperately important if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out his threats to curtail trade between Canada and the U.S. He has already imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. He threatens barriers on automobiles and parts and on uranium. All of this would be done ostensibly to protect U.S. national security, but the real intent is to bully Canada into accepting U.S. demands for changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

At the same time, Mr. Trump has been saying he might seek a separate deal with Mexico, leaving Canada to negotiate one-on-one for a trade treaty with the U.S. The longer he drags this out, the longer companies are left wondering if their Canadian plants will be able to ship products into the U.S. market.

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At the moment, it seems likely that Mr. Trump and his Republican party will lose support in the November midterm congressional elections so that he may have to scale back his protectionist plans, but there is no way of knowing that with certainty this summer.

Canadas companies and its economic ministers have to plan for two different kinds of future: one in which the U.S. market is open to Canadian products, and another where Canada is outside the fence.

To start with, Mr. Carr should revive the governments interest in its embryonic trade treaty with Japan and nine other Pacific Rim countries  the grandly titled Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. All 11 countries have signed, but so far only Japan, Mexico and Singapore have ratified. Mr. Trump pulled out but later said he might want back in.

The Canadian auto industry and the government have been of two minds about auto-trade rules with Japan for fear of undermining the current automotive deal with the U.S. and Mexico. Mr. Carr and his colleagues need to work out a way of playing on both tables at once until the U.S. decides whether it is in or out.

Meanwhile, Mr. Carr and his colleagues have to press ahead with boosting sales to the U.K., Europe, Mexico, Chile and other non-U.S. markets that seem receptive to Canadian products. The U.S. share of Canadian exports has varied between 73 per cent and 87 per cent in recent years. Proximity dictates large dependence on the U.S., even with tariff barriers. The government must do more than ever to open more distant markets or else we may be forced to accept the terms the U.S. imposes upon us.

Eventually, the other trading nations will bring China and the U.S. to end their trade war and agree to a set of trade rules they can all live with. Canada should try to hasten that conclusion, though it may take many years. In the meantime, Canada needs a plan to prosper in a protectionist environment.They say it takes a village to raise a child. Thats the idea behind the Congo Canada Charity Foundations summer school program. Its a real community effort to fund this program, said Paul Kambaja, a teacher at Grant Park High School and an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, founded the Congo Canada Charity Foundation nine years ago after watching kids from his home country struggle academically at school in Winnipeg. We have this conflict back home, he said. Some of those kids coming from Congo faced big challenges. They couldnt read, they couldnt write. I wanted to help them. Nine years on, Congo Canadas summer school program, which operates out of Elmwood High School (505 Chalmers Ave.), helps nearly 100 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 overcome academic obstacles. While math and science are the primary focus, literacy and life skills like resume writing (for high school students) are also taught. In the afternoons, students play sports, games, or take part in field trips to the local library or across the city to Camp Manitou. Tuesday afternoons, students can take swimming lessons. I know swimming is a challenge (for some newcomers), Kambaja said. This provides opportunities for our students to learn. The program runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, from the start of July through Aug. 10. Its a good program for newcomers, Kambaja said. Some of those kids who go through program are now mentors. Some of the staff too. With provincial Green Team funding and a federal Canada Summer Jobs grant, the program is able to provide a few summer jobs for former students. For teaching roles, teacher candidates from the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg are hired. Its been great, said Kim Cleto, a teacher candidate in her second year teaching Grade 9 to 12 students in the program. I have a great group of students. My other job is tutoring kids. I do it all year. I love it. The Canada Congo Charity Foundation also receive funding from the Winnipeg Foundation, Aurora, the Winnipeg Social Council, and private donations to run the program. We get anything we can, Kambaja said. Without them, things would be really tight. The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba provides funding for their snack and lunch program. The food is important, said Kambaja, whose wife makes the rice and main dishes for the program daily. We try to provide both ethnic and Canadian food. Its a small connection to the food they eat at home. They are also one of four groups who make up the Newcomers Education Youth Support Services coalition, a registered non-profit charity. The Eritrean Community of Winnipeg, Emmanuel Mission and the Sierra Leone Refugee Resettlement, Inc. are the other three members who offer summer school programming for newcomers students. As a coalition we can work together, we can share resources, Kambaja said. Theres a lot of benefit, even just to see different African countries with same issues coming together for our common goal of helping our kids. One thing that sets Kambajas program apart is that it provides transportation for students to and from the daily sessions, regardless of where in Winnipeg their families have settled. This is a big challenge, Kambaja said. But we want to see them achieve a good outcome. This year was the first that the Congo Canada program set up shop in Elmwood High School. Last year they worked out of River Elm School, and before that they had an arrangement with Grey United Church (651 Sandhurst Ave.). Theyre a church that really supports our program, Kambaja said. So many other people, they are helping, too. To wrap up each summer session, the four coalition programs hold a Celebration of Learning. This years event will take place on Aug. 10, but at press time a location had yet to be confirmed. Its a lot of work, a lot of time, Kambaja said of the program. But the result is huge. This program, it helps the community.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/7/2018 (1188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Thats the idea behind the Congo Canada Charity Foundations summer school program.

"Its a real community effort to fund this program," said Paul Kambaja, a teacher at Grant Park High School and an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, founded the Congo Canada Charity Foundation nine years ago after watching kids from his home country struggle academically at school in Winnipeg.

"We have this conflict back home," he said. "Some of those kids coming from Congo faced big challenges. They couldnt read, they couldnt write. I wanted to help them."

Nine years on, Congo Canadas summer school program, which operates out of Elmwood High School (505 Chalmers Ave.), helps nearly 100 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 overcome academic obstacles.

While math and science are the primary focus, literacy and life skills like resume writing (for high school students) are also taught. In the afternoons, students play sports, games, or take part in field trips to the local library or across the city to Camp Manitou. Tuesday afternoons, students can take swimming lessons.

"I know swimming is a challenge (for some newcomers)," Kambaja said. "This provides opportunities for our students to learn."

The program runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, from the start of July through Aug. 10.

"Its a good program for newcomers," Kambaja said. "Some of those kids who go through program are now mentors. Some of the staff too."

With provincial Green Team funding and a federal Canada Summer Jobs grant, the program is able to provide a few summer jobs for former students. For teaching roles, teacher candidates from the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg are hired.

"Its been great," said Kim Cleto, a teacher candidate in her second year teaching Grade 9 to 12 students in the program. "I have a great group of students. My other job is tutoring kids. I do it all year. I love it."

The Canada Congo Charity Foundation also receive funding from the Winnipeg Foundation, Aurora, the Winnipeg Social Council, and private donations to run the program.

"We get anything we can," Kambaja said. "Without them, things would be really tight."

The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba provides funding for their snack and lunch program.

"The food is important," said Kambaja, whose wife makes the rice and main dishes for the program daily. "We try to provide both ethnic and Canadian food. Its a small connection to the food they eat at home."

They are also one of four groups who make up the Newcomers Education Youth Support Services coalition, a registered non-profit charity. The Eritrean Community of Winnipeg, Emmanuel Mission and the Sierra Leone Refugee Resettlement, Inc. are the other three members who offer summer school programming for newcomers students.

"As a coalition we can work together, we can share resources," Kambaja said. "Theres a lot of benefit, even just to see different African countries with same issues coming together for our common goal of helping our kids."

One thing that sets Kambajas program apart is that it provides transportation for students to and from the daily sessions, regardless of where in Winnipeg their families have settled.

"This is a big challenge," Kambaja said. "But we want to see them achieve a good outcome."

This year was the first that the Congo Canada program set up shop in Elmwood High School. Last year they worked out of River Elm School, and before that they had an arrangement with Grey United Church (651 Sandhurst Ave.).

"Theyre a church that really supports our program," Kambaja said. "So many other people, they are helping, too."

To wrap up each summer session, the four coalition programs hold a Celebration of Learning. This years event will take place on Aug. 10, but at press time a location had yet to be confirmed.

"Its a lot of work, a lot of time," Kambaja said of the program. "But the result is huge. This program, it helps the community."

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Thats the idea behind the Congo Canada Charity Foundations summer school program.

"Its a real community effort to fund this program," said Paul Kambaja, a teacher at Grant Park High School and an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, founded the Congo Canada Charity Foundation nine years ago after watching kids from his home country struggle academically at school in Winnipeg.

"We have this conflict back home," he said. "Some of those kids coming from Congo faced big challenges. They couldnt read, they couldnt write. I wanted to help them."

Nine years on, Congo Canadas summer school program, which operates out of Elmwood High School (505 Chalmers Ave.), helps nearly 100 students from kindergarten to Grade 12 overcome academic obstacles.

While math and science are the primary focus, literacy and life skills like resume writing (for high school students) are also taught. In the afternoons, students play sports, games, or take part in field trips to the local library or across the city to Camp Manitou. Tuesday afternoons, students can take swimming lessons.

SHELDON BIRNIE Congo Canadas summer program at Elmwood High School employs a staff of former students and teachers in training, and also relies on volunteers from the community. (SHELDON BIRNIE/CANSTAR/THE HERALD)

"I know swimming is a challenge (for some newcomers)," Kambaja said. "This provides opportunities for our students to learn."

The program runs from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, from the start of July through Aug. 10.

"Its a good program for newcomers," Kambaja said. "Some of those kids who go through program are now mentors. Some of the staff too."

With provincial Green Team funding and a federal Canada Summer Jobs grant, the program is able to provide a few summer jobs for former students. For teaching roles, teacher candidates from the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg are hired.

"Its been great," said Kim Cleto, a teacher candidate in her second year teaching Grade 9 to 12 students in the program. "I have a great group of students. My other job is tutoring kids. I do it all year. I love it."

The Canada Congo Charity Foundation also receive funding from the Winnipeg Foundation, Aurora, the Winnipeg Social Council, and private donations to run the program.

"We get anything we can," Kambaja said. "Without them, things would be really tight."

SHELDON BIRNIE Nearly 100 students from kindergarten through Grade 12 take part in Congo Canada Charity Foundations summer program. In the morning, they take part in academic lessons. In the afternoons, students play games and sports, go on field trips, or take part in swimming lessons. Older students often volunteer to help younger students. (SHELDON BIRNIE/CANSTAR/THE HERALD)

The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba provides funding for their snack and lunch program.

"The food is important," said Kambaja, whose wife makes the rice and main dishes for the program daily. "We try to provide both ethnic and Canadian food. Its a small connection to the food they eat at home."

They are also one of four groups who make up the Newcomers Education Youth Support Services coalition, a registered non-profit charity. The Eritrean Community of Winnipeg, Emmanuel Mission and the Sierra Leone Refugee Resettlement, Inc. are the other three members who offer summer school programming for newcomers students.

"As a coalition we can work together, we can share resources," Kambaja said. "Theres a lot of benefit, even just to see different African countries with same issues coming together for our common goal of helping our kids."

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One thing that sets Kambajas program apart is that it provides transportation for students to and from the daily sessions, regardless of where in Winnipeg their families have settled.

"This is a big challenge," Kambaja said. "But we want to see them achieve a good outcome."

This year was the first that the Congo Canada program set up shop in Elmwood High School. Last year they worked out of River Elm School, and before that they had an arrangement with Grey United Church (651 Sandhurst Ave.).

"Theyre a church that really supports our program," Kambaja said. "So many other people, they are helping, too."

To wrap up each summer session, the four coalition programs hold a Celebration of Learning. This years event will take place on Aug. 10, but at press time a location had yet to be confirmed.

"Its a lot of work, a lot of time," Kambaja said of the program. "But the result is huge. This program, it helps the community."I Need a Lawyer! If you have a legal problem and are looking for an attorney or other legal services in Wisconsin, the State Bar of Wisconsin has resources that may be able to help. Lawyer Referral| Reduced Fee Services| Hiring a Lawyer

Information for Educators The State Bar of Wisconsin's Law-related education programs promote awareness of the law and citizenship through interactive educational experiences. Programs| Calendar| Teacher Resources"If Treasures could Talk" is a documentary about Chinese cultural relics jointly produced by China Central Television and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.



The first series was a hit across China, and the second season begins today.

This season will bring viewers 25 national treasures from the Warring States period (475-221 BC) to the Qin Dynasty ( 221-207 BC) and Han Dynasty (202 BC- 220 AD). Each of the 100 episodes will cover a cultural relic in five minutes.

Each relic has its own distinct personality and portrays the temperament of the time they were created as well as the ancient wisdom concealed in them.

The documentary will use the eyes of the relics to look back at the ancient civilization that has been sealed by time to tell stories from their perspectives. The second season will use more high-tech means to provide audiences with more imaginative and creative exploration.

In order to meet the needs of media convergence, high-tech including 8K resolution, High precision 3D scanning and VR are all being applied. Worthy of mention is the "headset cinema," which allows audiences to enjoy the sound effects as if they were in the theater.

"As documentary creators, we should leave more high-quality documentary works for the society. How to improve both visual and auditory skills is one of the most important issues," said chief director Xu Huan.

Besides being high-tech, the second season has other new elements. The selection of cultural relics has been further expanded and the types of cultural relics are more abundant. In addition to the pottery, jade and bronze wares of the first season, lacquerware, stone carvings, slips, brocade and other cultural relics were added, reflecting the development of productivity from the Warring States period to the Qin and Han dynasties.Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. provides software-as-a-service core systems to the property and casualty insurance industry in North America. It offers Duck Creek Policy, a full lifecycle solution for the development of products and quoting, binding, and servicing of policies across various channels from agents and brokers to end-users; Duck Creek Billing that provides payment and invoicing capabilities, such as billing and collections, commission processing, disbursement management, and general ledger capabilities for insurance lines and bill types; and Duck Creek Claims that supports the entire claims lifecycle from first notice of loss through investigation, payments, negotiations, reporting, and closure. The company also provides Duck Creek Rating that allows carriers to develop new rates and models and deliver accurate quotes in real-time based on the complex rating algorithms; Duck Creek Insights, an insurance analytics solution that allows carriers to gather and analyze data from internal and external sources and facilitate rapid analysis and reporting on a single system; Duck Creek Digital Engagement that offer digital interactions between property and casualty insurers and their agents, brokers, and policyholders; and Duck Creek Distribution Management that automates sales channel activities for agents and brokers, including producer onboarding, compliance, and compensation management. In addition, it offers Duck Creek Reinsurance Management that automates critical financial and administrative functions; and Duck Creek Industry Content that provides pre-built content, including base business rules, product designs, rating algorithms, data capture screens, and workflows for insurance lines of business. The company serves insurance carriers and leaders. Duck Creek Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Read MoreCorindus Vascular Robotics, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells robotic-assisted systems for use in interventional vascular procedures in the United States and internationally. The company offers CorPath system, a medical device with robotic-assisted precision for coronary and peripheral interventional procedures. Its CorPath system allows the physician to perform procedures with a control console located within an interventional cockpit; and CorPath GRX system enables the precise robotic-assisted control of guide catheters, guidewires, and balloon/stent devices from the safety of a radiation-shielded interventional cockpit. The company sells its products through direct sales force, as well as through distributor and partnership relationships. It serves vascular, coronary, peripheral vascular, neurointerventional, and structural heart markets. Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc. is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Read MoreGrupo Supervielle SA operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of banking services. It operates through the following segments: Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Treasury, Consumer, Insurance and Asset Management and Other Services. The Retail Banking segment involves in granting of loans and other credit products such as deposits of physical persons. The Corporate Banking segment focuses in advisory services at a corporate and financial level, as well as the administration of assets and loans targeted to big clients. The Treasury segment operates with Government Securities of the Group, syndicated loans, and financial lease. The Consumer segment consists of loans and other credit products targeted to middle and lower-middle income sectors and non-financial products and services. The Insurance segment comprises insurance products, with a focus on life insurance. The Asset Management and Other Services segment offers mutual funds and other products and services. The company was founded on October 8, 1979 and is headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Read MoreCF Industries Holdings, Inc. engages in the manufacture and distribution of nitrogen fertilizer. The firm owns and operates nitrogen plants and serves agricultural and industrial customers through its distribution system. It operates through following segments: Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other. The Ammonia segment produces anhydrous ammonia, which is company's most concentrated nitrogen fertilizer product as it contains 82% nitrogen. The Granular Urea segment produces granular urea, which contains 46% nitrogen. The UAN segment produces urea ammonium nitrate solution, which is a liquid fertilizer product with a nitrogen content from 28% to 32%, is produced by combining urea and ammonium nitrate. The AN segment produces ammonium nitrate, which is a nitrogen-based product with a nitrogen content between 29% and 35%. The Other segment includes diesel exhaust fluid, nitric acid, urea liquor and aqua ammonia. The company was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Deerfield, IL.

Read MorePresident of Imperial College London Alice Gast has spoken highly of the college's link to China, and urged more cooperation and collaboration between the Chinese and British institutions.

China connect

With less than 17,000 students on its books, just under half of them undergraduates the rest postgrads, Imperial has proved to be a magnet for Chinese students and researchers.

Imperial more than punches its weight when it comes to attracting students from China. It helps that Imperial is number one when it comes to collaborations with Chinese universities.

Gast told Xinhua in a recent interview: "We really greatly benefit from a tremendous number of Chinese students, currently 2,600, coming to study here at Imperial. They're exceedingly bright and clever, and there's a great opportunity here for them, especially as the world is becoming much more interconnected. We have opportunities to really drive innovation and entrepreneurship."

Having such an international community at Imperial is a great asset, added Gast, explaining: "I think that our students who come from abroad really benefit from that mixture not only of all the UK and European students, but students from all over the world. You see that in the things that they do and programs they follow."

Imperial has a large number of entrepreneurs among its alumni, though Gast said what has now changed is the fast pace of technology development and opportunity.

"Our biggest mechanism of technology transfer are the brilliant students that come out of our universities, some of them going to start up and some going to companies, taking up what they've learned and their new ideas, to help shape industries and other sectors," said Gast.

Imperial is able to offer more and more opportunities for students to pursue entrepreneurship, through initiatives such as its innovation program for women entrepreneurs and we a major catalyst challenge with a place for students to come and learn from one another and also from mentors.

"What is so exciting is that if you look at our most successful entrepreneurial ventures, they're mostly international there'll be a Chinese student and a British student and another European student working together. That mixture of cultures and backgrounds and perspectives gives you much more fruitful innovations," Gast said.

With 7,000 Imperial alumni in China, there are three very active alumni associations and a very strong growing network growing, with many entrepreneurial alumni in China pursuing their own companies.

Gast said that the alumni in China can give back is connecting with today's students both as role models and mentors themselves, as well as being connections when Imperial students want to go to China. And it's not only Imperial's Chinese students who benefit from that network, but all students attracted to China, including those thinking China might be the place where they'd like to launch their start-up or expand into the Chinese market, and so our alumni network is very beneficial for that.

Gast has visited the lab at Tsinghua University in China, saying some of Imperial's entrepreneurial students will go over there, and some of theirs will come to Imperial. It is a prime example of academic collaboration that Gast encourages.

"We learn from one another, what the best practices are, and sometimes some good ideas come out that we want to do together," said Gast.

Reforms and opening up

China has seen a huge transformation since its opening up to the world 40 years ago, said Gast, adding the world has benefited from Chinese students coming into outside communities and cultures.

"At the same time we've also benefited from it being open and being able to explore and understand the rich heritage and the culture of China," added Gast.

It's grown, she says, from being one where it would have been driven by alumni of an individual university as an expatriate Chinese in the West making connects back into China, to now seeing Chinese universities as being attractors to all kinds of collaborators, even those who don't speak Mandarin.

As for the next 40 years, Gast believes China will continue to thrive, especially if the openness and collaboration is maintained.

"I do think that the entrepreneurial efforts and the opportunities to bring people together to pursue new technologies, to solve Grand Challenge problems, and continuing collaboration is so important in the future," said Gast.

Small is beautiful

Gast is President of the college which traces its lineage back to the 19th century. Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, envisaged the creation of a cultural area in London composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Imperial Institute.

It was in 1888, more than a quarter of a century after her husband's death, that Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for the Imperial Institute.

Today it is ranked among the top universities around the globe, the only high-ranking university in Britain to focus exclusively on science, medicine, engineering and business.

If any top-ranking higher academic institute proves the old saying "small is beautiful" it is Imperial, punching its weight in numerous external rankings against much bigger world universities.

As universities across the world strive to become bigger, Imperial is way down the list, especially when compared with the more than 160,000 enrolled at the University of London, the biggest higher education combine in Britain.

So if big might be good and small is beautiful, can a university maintain its own characteristics by becoming bigger or is it better to remain individually independent, but smaller?

Gast replies that whatever the size, universities need to maintain their own characteristics.

"I think one of the great benefits is to have a diversity of opportunities, and a diversity of types of institutions where different students will thrive in different ways," said Gast.

Larger universities, with their benefits of scale and their broader sets of opportunities, while there are smaller more focused universities.

"I think that no matter how large or small you are, there are natural sizes for thriving research groups," said Gast, adding she sees a lot of multidisciplinary challenges where academics collaborate across disciplines, and still end up then with a group that's kind of a natural set of colleagues that they affiliate with.

Gast agrees that the pursuance of excellence has nothing to do with the size of a university, saying it's important to measure excellence on all of its measures, not just by quantity.

Post-brexit

As for Brexit and Britain's future outside the EU, Gast said after Brexit if EU citizen are considered as international foreigners, Britain needs good immigration policies.

"I've been a strong supporter of international student visas, but also entrepreneur graduate entrepreneur visas," said Gast.

She wants opportunities for collaborators and top research programs to have free movement or access through other mechanisms and immigration policies.

"I still believe that needs to happen so London and Britain, and Imperial, can remain a magnet for talent."

Gast wants to be able to bring in people from all over the world, including China, not because of a new agreement, but because Britain has had immigration policies that allowed universities to bring in international students and scholars.

Uncertainties surrounding Brexit are the most damaging thing because people are wondering and worried about what's going to happen.

"We definitely study all the possible scenarios, and we have worked very hard to make sure we're building and maintaining our ties to Europe," said Gast, "we're talking to many others in other countries to make sure we can still collaborate across the borders, no matter how the borders have set up."

As for the age of robots, will Imperial, famed for its scientific research, ever see AI replacing its lecturers and tutors?

Gast said she does not see machines taking over the lecture halls in the future.

When does she expect the first AI teacher to appear at the university?

"I think we will have AI partners for teachers, and we will have teachers who will make great use of AI, and that will be wonderful because they can allow the human teacher to focus on what they're really good at, and augment their understanding of the group," said Gast.Wall Street analysts have given Noble a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but Noble wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.The following companies are subsidiares of Accenture: 2nd Road, 2nd Road Pty Ltd., ?What If!, ?What If! China Holdings Ltd, ?What If! Holdings Limited, ?What If! Innovation Singapore Holdings Pte, ?What If! Limited, ?What If! Shanghai Co. Ltd, ?What If! USA LLC, ACN Consulting Co Ltd, AD Dialeto Agencia de Publicidade SA, AD.Dialeto (Digital Agency acquired by Accenture), AGS Business and Technology Services Limited, ASM Research Inc., ASM Research LLC, ATAN, Accenture (Beijing) Mobile Technology Co Ltd, Accenture (Botswana) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (China) Co Ltd, Accenture (Shenzhen) Technology Co. Ltd., Accenture (South Africa) (Proprietary) Limited, Accenture (South Africa) Pty Limited, Accenture (UK) Ltd, Accenture 2 Business Process Services S.A., Accenture 2 LLC, Accenture A/S, Accenture AB, Accenture AG, Accenture AS, Accenture Africa Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Holding B.V., Accenture Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Azerbaijan Ltd, Accenture BPM Operations Support Services S.A., Accenture BPM S.C.R.L., Accenture BV, Accenture Branch Holdings B.V., Accenture Bulgaria EOOD, Accenture Business Services for Utilities Inc, Accenture Business Services of British Columbia Limited Partnership, Accenture Business and Technology Services LLC, Accenture C.A, Accenture CAS GmbH, Accenture Canada Holdings Inc., Accenture Capital DAC, Accenture Capital Inc, Accenture Central Europe B.V., Accenture Chile Asesorias y Servicios Ltda, Accenture Cloud Services GmbH, Accenture Cloud Software Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions LLC, Accenture Cloud Solutions Ltd, Accenture Cloud Solutions Pty Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd, Accenture Co Ltd., Accenture Communications Infrastructure Solutions Ltd, Accenture Company Ltd, Accenture Consulting Services Ltd Tanzania, Accenture Consultores de Gestao S.A., Accenture Consultoria de Industria e Consumo Ltda, Accenture Consultoria de Recursos Naturais Ltda, Accenture Credit Services LLC, Accenture Customer Services Distribution SAS, Accenture Customer Services Limited, Accenture Danismanlik Limited Sirketi, Accenture Defined Benefit Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Ltd, Accenture Delivery Poland sp. z o.o., Accenture Dienstleistungen GmbH, Accenture Digital France Holdings SA, Accenture Digital Holdings GmbH, Accenture East Africa Limited, Accenture Ecuador S.A., Accenture Egypt LLC, Accenture Enterprise Development (Shanghai) Co Ltd., Accenture Federal Services LLC, Accenture Finance (Gibraltar) III Ltd, Accenture Finance GmbH, Accenture Finance GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II GmbH, Accenture Finance II GmbH in liquidation, Accenture Finance II Ltd, Accenture Finance Limited, Accenture Finance and Accounting BPO Services S.p.A., Accenture Finance and Accounting Services Srl, Accenture Flex LLC, Accenture GP LLC, Accenture Ghana Limited, Accenture Global Holdings Ltd., Accenture Global Services Ltd, Accenture Global Solutions Ltd, Accenture GmbH, Accenture HR Services Ltd, Accenture HR Services S.p.A., Accenture Healthcare Processing Inc., Accenture Holding GmbH, Accenture Holding GmbH & Co. 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Ltd., Orbium Pty Ltd, Orbium Services sp. z o.o., Orbium Sarl, Origin Digital, PCO Innovation, PCO Innovation Canada Inc., PCO Innovation EURL, PIXO PUNCH Limited, PLM Systems S.r.l, POC Holdings, PRION GmbH, PT Accenture, PT Asta Catur Indra, PT Kogentix Teknologi Indonesia, Pach Invest SARL, Pach Invest SAS, PacificLink Group, PacificLink iMedia Ltd., Paja Finanssipalvelut Oy, Parker Fitzgerald Inc, Parker Fitzgerald Inc., Parker Fitzgerald International Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Limited, Parker Fitzgerald PTY Ltd, Parker Fitzgerald Services Limited, Parker Fitzgerald Solutions Limited, Partners Technology Mexico Holdings BV, Pecaso Ltd., Pegasus Production K/S, Perseroan Terbatas. Accenture, Phase One Consulting Group, Pillar Technology, Pollux, Pragsis Bidoop, Pragsis Bidoop UK Ltd, Pragsis Technologies S.L, PrimeQ, PrimeQ Australia Pty Ltd, PrimeQ Ltd, PrimeQ NZ Pty Ltd, Procurian Germany GmbH, Procurian Inc., Procurian International I LLC, Procurian International II LLC, Procurian LLC, Procurian Singapore Pte. Ltd., Procurian Switzerland GmbH, Procurian USA LLC, Proquire LLC, PureApps Ltd., Qi Jie Beijing Information Technologies Co Ltd, Radiant Services, Radiant Services LLC, Random Walk Computing Inc., Reactive Media Limited, Reactive Media Pty Ltd., Real Protect, Realworld OO Systems Ltd., Redcore, Redcore (Asia) Pte Ltd, Redcore (India) Private Limited (India), Redcore (New Zealand) Limited, Redcore Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Redcore Pty Ltd, Renacentis IT Services, Revolutionary Security, RiskControl, Rothco, Rothco Holdings Designated Activity Company, Rothco Unlimited Company, S.C. EnergyQuote S.r.l., S3 TV Technology Limited, S3 TV Technology Ltd., SEC Servizi, SEC Servizi S.p.A., SOPIA Corp., Sagacious Consultants, Sagacious Consultants LLC, Salt Solutions, Sanchez Capital Services Pvt Ltd, Schlumberger Business Consulting, Seabury Airline Planning Group, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace (UK) Limited, Seabury Aviation & Aerospace Asia (Hong Kong) Limited, Seabury Aviation Consulting LLC, Seabury Cargo Advisory B.V., Seabury Consulting, Seabury Corporate Advisors LLC, Seabury Human Capital LLC, Seabury Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seabury Structured Finance LLC, Search Technologies BPO, Search Technologies BPO Inc., Search Technologies GmbH, Search Technologies International LLC, Search Technologies LATAM, Search Technologies LATAM S.A., Search Technologies LLC, Search Technologies Limited, Sente Partners LLC, Sentelis, Servicios Tecnicos de Programacion Accenture S.C., Shackleton, Shackleton Barcelona S.L., Shackleton Chile S.A., Shackleton Madrid S.L., Shackleton S.A., Shanghai Baiyue Advertising Co. Ltd., Shun Zhe Technology Development Co. Ltd., Silveo, Simian Pty Limited, SinnerSchrader AG, SinnerSchrader Commerce GmbH, SinnerSchrader Content GmbH, SinnerSchrader Deutschland GmbH, SinnerSchrader Praha s.r.o., SinnerSchrader Swipe GmbH, Sinnerschrader, Sistemes Consulting S.L., Solutions IQ, Solutions IQ LLC, SolutionsIQ, SolutionsIQ India Consulting Services Private Limited, Storm Digital, Storm Digital B.V., Structure Consulting Group, Structure Consulting Group LLC, Sutter Mills, Systor AG, TQuila Limited (UK), Tadata Creative Unlimited Company, Tara Insurance DAC, Tara Risk DAC, TargetST8, TargetST8 Consulting LLC, Tech - Avanade Portugal Unipessoal Lda, Tecnilogica Ecosistemas S.A., Tecnilogica Ltd., Tecnilogica, The Brand Learning Partners Limited, The Callisto Integration Corporation, The Monkeys, The Monkeys Pty Limited, The Myrtle Group, Total Logistics, Total Logistics Supply Chain Consultants Limited, Tquila, Trivadis AG, Troop Studios Pty Ltd, VanBerlo, Verax Solutions, Verax Solutions Corporation, Vertical Retail Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong, Vertical Retail Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Vertical Retail Consulting Ltd., Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucoes SA, Vivere Brasil Solucoes De Credito Ltda., Wabion GmbH, Weblinc Pty Ltd, Wire Stone, Wire Stone LLC, Wire Stone Sarl, Wolox, Workforce Insight Inc, Yesler, Zag, Zenta, Zenta Global Philippines, Zenta Global Philippines Inc., Zenta Mortgage Services LLC, Zenta Recoveries Inc, Zenta US Holdings Inc., Zielpuls, Zielpuls (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Zielpuls GmbH, avVenta, designaffairs, designaffairs Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., designaffairs GmbH, designaffairs group China Co. Ltd., dgroup, i4C Analytics, iDefense, and solid-serVision.com GmbH.For readers on the Chinese mainland, the name of Teng Jia-wan, a translator from Taiwan, is closely related to British writer JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, whose latest Chinese version was released in 2013 to a good reception from readers and critics.



Teng contributed 80 percent of the translation to the 1 million-character Chinese version, leaving the rest - poems and appendices - to two other fans of the fantasy, Tu Yun-Tzu and Shi Zhongge.

However, few people know that when Teng first took her college entrance examinations in Taiwan, she got only 2 points in the English test and, in total, she spent four years studying to pass the examinations.

Born in 1962 in the south of Taiwan, Teng went to a vocational middle school to study children's education after failing her high school examinations. After graduation, 18-year-old Teng then wanted to continue with higher education, but her parents had planned a life for her: working to make money for the family, blind dates and marriage by 21.

However, she started work at a factory. And using the money she managed to save, one year later, she left home for Taipei and started preparing for her college entrance exams. But her vocational education meant that she had to study all the courses normally taught at high school on her own.

So, she rented a bed at a Catholic women's dormitory, went to work at a factory during the day and studied in the evening. And, despite always performing badly in examinations, after four years of working and selfstudy, at 23 she was finally enrolled at a Christian university, which offered only three majors: the Bible, English and music. Teng wanted to study the Bible, but that year, few students were enrolled, so Teng had to study English instead.

"As a Christian, I obeyed God's will to study English even if I didn't really like it," she says.

With a weak foundation of the English language, Teng had to work very hard to catch up, so she devoted all her time to learning and study, meaning that she had no time to follow her passion: writing fiction.

"Compared to translation, I am more enthusiastic about creating stories. And even before college, I already had some work published," she says.

After graduating from university, Teng became a Chinese teacher for English speakers in Taipei, and later worked in a company as an interpreter, translator and secretary, but her health began to suffer so she quit. Translation then became the only thing that she was capable of, she says, so she started translating books.

In 1997, a heartbreak saw her rethink her life and explore new territory. So, she went to Newcastle University in Britain to study sociolinguistics, which was indeed life-changing.

During the Easter holiday in 1998, Teng and her British roommate traveled to Greece, where they visited the roommate's Greek classmate. When the two got into an enthusiastic discussion about something called The Lord of the Rings, Teng asked about it. And they strongly recommended that she read it, so upon her return to Britain, Teng went to buy the novel immediately.

Once she started reading it, she couldn't put it down, considering it to be "the best story that I ever read", she says.

"I love Tolkien's story about Middle Earth because it's vast, beautiful, profound and melancholy. It makes you really sad, but at the same time evokes an extreme longing for it.

"Reading it became a reward for me during my thesis writing. So, after I produced 500 words, I would take a break to read The Lord of the Rings."

Enchanted by the fiction, Teng aspired to translate it into her native language, only to find there were already five Chinese versions.

Later, in 1998, after Teng returned to Taiwan, she decided to translate The Silmarillion into Chinese. And in 2002, it was published in Taiwan. But since there was no authorized print edition, fans of Middle Earth on the mainland spread The Silmarillion online.

Meanwhile, Teng frequented those online forums both on the mainland and in Taiwan, and that's where she met Shi and Tu.

In 2012, when Teng turned 50, like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, who started his adventure at 50, or Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, who destroyed the ring at age 50, Teng got the job to create a new translated version of the epic tale, itself a great adventure and mission after 20 years of diligent translation - and much like the tale's Hobbit protagonist, she invited her friends to join her on the quest.

Teng has been a full-time translator since 2004 and is popular among publishers for her high-quality work.

Shen Yu, one of the editors of The Lord of the Rings, with the publisher Beijing Horizon, says that Teng's translation is more literary and accurate than the other versions.

Although she does not have the passion for translation that she has for writing stories, she works extremely hard and quite enjoys the independence and solitude that translation offers.

"You don't have to face people or talk, which I like a lot. But still it's a job that requires perseverance, endurance and self-discipline," she says.Axel Springer SE operates as a publishing company primarily in Europe and the United States. The company operates through three segments: Classifieds Media, News Media, and Marketing Media. The Classifieds Media segment operates a portfolio of online classified portals in the areas of real estate, jobs, cars, and general. This segment operates SeLoger, Immoweb, and Immowelt/Immonet real estate portals; Totaljobs, Jobsite, and Saongroup job portals; meinestadt.de, a regional portal; and car and general classified ad portals, including LaCentrale and Yad2. The News Media segment offers newspapers primarily under the BILD and WELT brands in Berlin, as well as the FAKT name in Poland; automotive, computer, and sports magazines under the AUTO BILD, COMPUTER BILD, and SPORT BILD brand names; and a tabloid under the BLIKK name in Hungary. This segment also operates Internet portals, such as Onet.pl and azet.sk; profession.hu, a job portal; WELT, a news channel; BILD.de, a news and entertainment portal; WELT.de, a news portal; Upday, a mobile news portal; businessinsider.com; and Autobild.de, a digital appearances of the magazine. Its digital offerings also comprise analytics, studies, and digital market data for companies and institutions. The Marketing Media segment provides advertising services on performance or reach based marketing. The company distributes its print media primarily through press wholesale companies, station book trade, and press import companies; and digital products principally through its webpages or download platforms, including the app stores of Apple and Google. Axel Springer SE was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Banco Santander: 2 & 3 Triton Limited, A & L CF (Guernsey) Limited (f), A & L CF June (2) Limited, A & L CF June (3) Limited, A & L CF March (5) Limited, A & L CF September (4) Limited, AFB SAM Holdings S.L., ALIL Services Limited (b), AN (123) Limited, ANITCO Limited, Abbey Business Services (India) Private Limited, Abbey Covered Bonds (LM) Limited, Abbey National, Abbey National Beta Investments Limited, Abbey National Business Office Equipment Leasing Limited, Abbey National International Limited, Abbey National Nominees Limited, Abbey National PLP (UK) Limited, Abbey National Property Investments, Abbey National Treasury Services Investments Limited, Abbey National Treasury Services Overseas Holdings, Abbey National UK Investments, Abbey Stockbrokers (Nominees) Limited, Abbey Stockbrokers Limited, Ablasa Participaciones S.L., Administracion de Bancos Latinoamericanos Santander S.L., Aduro S.A., Aevis Europa S.L., Afisa S.A., Albert., Aljardi SGPS Lda., Alliance & Leicester, Alliance & Leicester Cash Solutions Limited, Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (Derivatives) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments (No.2) Limited, Alliance & Leicester Investments Limited, Alliance & Leicester Limited, Alliance & Leicester Personal Finance Limited, Altamira Santander Real Estate S.A., Alternative Leasing FIL, Amazonia Trade Limited, Amherst Pierpont, Andaluza de Inversiones S.A., Aquanima Brasil Ltda., Aquanima Chile S.A., Aquanima Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Aquanima S.A., Arcaz - Sociedade Imobiliaria Portuguesa Lda., Argenline S.A. (b), Asto Digital Limited, Athena Corporation Limited, Atual - Fundo de Invest Multimercado Credito Privado Investimento no Exterior, Atual Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos e Meios Digitais S.A., Autodescuento S.L., Autohaus24 GmbH, Auttar HUT Processamento de Dados Ltda., Aviacion Antares A.I.E., Aviacion Britanica A.I.E., Aviacion Centaurus A.I.E., Aviacion Comillas S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Intercontinental A.I.E., Aviacion Laredo S.L., Aviacion Oyambre S.L. Unipersonal, Aviacion Real A.I.E., Aviacion Santillana S.L., Aviacion Suances S.L., Aviacion Triton A.I.E., Aymore Credito Financiamento e Investimento S.A., BEN Beneficios e Servicos S.A., BRS Investments S.A., BZW Bank, Banca PSA Italia S.p.A., Banco Bandepe S.A., Banco Madesant - Sociedade Unipessoal S.A., Banco PSA Finance Brasil S.A., Banco Popular, Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A., Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 100740, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso 2002114, Banco Santander (Mexico) S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico como Fiduciaria del Fideicomiso GFSSLPT, Banco Santander - Chile, Banco Santander Consumer Portugal S.A., Banco Santander International, Banco Santander International SA, Banco Santander Mexico S.A. Institucion de Banca Multiple Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Banco Santander Peru S.A., Banco Santander Rio S.A., Banco Santander S.A., Banco Santander Totta S.A., Banco Santander de Negocios Colombia S.A., Banco de Albacete S.A., Bansa Santander S.A., CCAP Auto Lease Ltd., Canyon Multifamily Impact Fund IV LLC, Capital Street Delaware LP, Capital Street Holdings LLC, Capital Street REIT Holdings LLC, Capital Street S.A., Carfax (Guernsey) Limited (f), Carfinco Financial Group, Carfinco Financial Group Inc., Carfinco Inc., Casa de Bolsa Santander S.A. de C.V. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Cater Allen Holdings Limited, Cater Allen International Limited, Cater Allen Limited, Cater Allen Lloyd's Holdings Limited, Cater Allen Syndicate Management Limited, Centro de Capacitacion Santander A.C., Certidesa S.L., Chrysler Capital Auto Funding I LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Funding II LLC, Chrysler Capital Auto Receivables LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 2 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding 4 LLC, Chrysler Capital Master Auto Receivables Funding LLC, Cobranza Amigable S.A.P.I. de C.V., Community Development and Affordable Housing Fund LLC (g), Compagnie Generale de Credit Aux Particuliers - Credipar S.A., Compagnie Pour la Location de Vehicules - CLV, Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Argentina S.A., Comunidad Laboral Trabajando Iberica S.L. Unipersonal en liquidacion (b), Consulteam Consultores de Gestao Lda., Consumer Lending Receivables LLC, Crawfall S.A. (b), Cantabra de Inversiones S.A., Cantabro Catalana de Inversiones S.A., Darep Designated Activity Company, Decarome S.A.P.I. de C.V., Deva Capital Advisory Company S.L., Deva Capital Holding Company S.L., Deva Capital Investment Company S.L., Deva Capital Management Company S.L., Deva Capital Servicer Company S.L., Digital Procurement Holdings N.V., Diners Club Spain S.A., Direccion Estratega S.C., Dirgenfin S.L. en liquidacion (b), Ebury, El Corte Ingles, Elavon Mexico, Electrolyser S.A. de C.V., Entidad de Desarrollo a la Pequena y Micro Empresa Santander Consumo Peru S.A., Erestone S.A.S., Esfera Fidelidade S.A., Evidence Previdencia S.A., Financeira El Corte Ingles Portugal S.F.C. S.A., Financiera El Corte Ingles E.F.C. S.A., Finsantusa S.L. Unipersonal, First National Motor Business Limited, First National Motor Contracts Limited, First National Motor Facilities Limited, First National Motor Finance Limited, First National Motor Leasing Limited, First National Motor plc, First National Tricity Finance Limited, Fondos Santander S.A. Administradora de Fondos de Inversion (en liquidacion) (b), Fortensky Trading Ltd., Fosse Funding (No.1) Limited, Fosse Master Issuer plc, Fosse Trustee (UK) Limited, GTS El Centro Equity Holdings LLC, GTS El Centro Project Holdings LLC, Gamma Sociedade Financeira de Titularizacao de Creditos S.A., Gesban Mexico Servicios Administrativos Globales S.A. de C.V., Gesban Santander Servicios Profesionales Contables Limitada, Gesban Servicios Administrativos Globales S.L., Gesban UK Limited, Gestion de Instalaciones Fotovoltaicas S.L. Unipersonal, Gestion de Inversiones JILT S.A., Gestora de Procesos S.A. en liquidacion (b), Getnet Adquirencia e Servicos para Meios de Pagamento S.A., Global Vosgos S.L. Unipersonal, Grupo Empresarial Santander S.L., Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Santander SAB de CV, Guaranty Car S.A. Unipersonal, HQ Mobile Limited, Hispamer Renting S.A. Unipersonal, Holbah II Limited, Holbah Santander S.L. Unipersonal, Holmes Funding Limited, Holmes Master Issuer plc, Holmes Trustees Limited, Hyundai Capital Bank Europe GmbH, Iberica de Compras Corporativas S.L., Independence Community Bank Corp., Insurance Funding Solutions Limited, Interfinance Holanda B.V., Inversiones Capital Global S.A. Unipersonal, Inversiones Maritimas del Mediterraneo S.A., Isla de los Buques S.A., Klare Corredora de Seguros S.A., Landcompany 2020 S.L., Langton Funding (No.1) Limited, Langton Mortgages Trustee (UK) Limited, Langton Securities (2008-1) plc, Langton Securities (2010-1) PLC, Langton Securities (2010-2) PLC, Laparanza S.A., Liquidity Limited, Luri 1 S.A. en liquidacion (b) (e), Luri 6 S.A. Unipersonal, Master Red Europa S.L., Mata Alta S.L., Merciver S.L., Mercury TFS, Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.A. de C.V., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.L., Mercury Trade Finance Solutions S.p.A., Moneybit S.L., Mortgage Engine Limited, Motor 2016-1 PLC, Motor 2017-1 PLC, Mouro Capital I LP, Multiplica SpA, NW Services CO., Naviera Mirambel S.L., Naviera Trans Gas A.I.E., Naviera Trans Iron S.L., Naviera Trans Ore A.I.E., Naviera Trans Wind S.L. (b), Naviera Transcantabrica S.L., Naviera Transchem S.L. Unipersonal, NeoAuto S.A.C., Norbest AS, Novimovest  Fundo de Investimento Imobiliario, Open Bank Argentina S.A., Open Bank S.A., Open Digital Market S.L., Open Digital Services S.L., Operadora de Carteras Gamma S.A.P.I. de C.V., Optimal Investment Services SA, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland Euro Fund, Optimal Multiadvisors Ireland Plc / Optimal Strategic US Equity Ireland US Dollar Fund, PBE Companies LLC, PECOH Limited, PI Distribuidora de Titulos e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., PSA Bank Deutschland GmbH, PSA Banque France, PSA Finance UK Limited, PSA Financial Services Nederland B.V., PSA Financial Services Spain E.F.C. S.A., PSA Renting Italia S.p.A., PagoFX Europe S.A., PagoFX HoldCo S.L., PagoFX UK Ltd, PagoNxt Merchant Solutions S.L., PagoNxt S.L., Parasant SA, Patagon.com, Pereda Gestion S.A., Pingham International S.A., Popular Spain Holding de Inversiones S.L.U., Portal Universia Argentina S.A., Portal Universia Portugal Prestacao de Servicos de Informatica S.A., Prime 16  Fundo de Investimentos Imobiliario, Punta Lima LLC, Punta Lima Wind Farm LLC, Retop S.A., Return Capital Servicos de Recuperacao de Creditos S.A., Return Gestao de Recursos S.A., Riobank International (Uruguay) SAIFE (b), Rojo Entretenimento S.A., SAM Asset Management S.A. de C.V. Sociedad Operadora de Fondos de Inversion, SAM Investment Holdings S.L., SAM UK Investment Holdings Limited (b), SANB Promotora de Vendas e Cobranca Ltda., SCF Eastside Locks GP Limited, SDMX Superdigital S.A. de C.V., SMPS Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A de C.V, Sancap Investimentos e Participacoes S.A., Santander (CF Trustee Property Nominee) Limited, Santander (UK) Group Pension Schemes Trustees Limited, Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 1 S.A., Santander Ahorro Inmobiliario 2 S.A., Santander Alternatives SICAV RAIF, Santander Asesorias Financieras Limitada, Santander Asset Finance (December) Limited, Santander Asset Finance plc, Santander Asset Management - S.G.O.I.C. S.A., Santander Asset Management Chile S.A., Santander Asset Management LLC, Santander Asset Management Luxembourg S.A., Santander Asset Management S.A. Administradora General de Fondos, Santander Asset Management S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Asset Management UK Holdings Limited, Santander Asset Management UK Limited, Santander Back-Offices Globales Mayoristas S.A., Santander Banca de Inversion Colombia S.A.S., Santander Bank & Trust Ltd., Santander Bank National Association, Santander Bank Polska S.A., Santander Brasil Administradora de Consorcio Ltda., Santander Brasil Gestao de Recursos Ltda., Santander Brasil Tecnologia S.A., Santander Capital Desarrollo SGEIC S.A. Unipersonal, Santander Capital Structuring S.A. de C.V., Santander Capitalizacao S.A., Santander Cards Ireland Limited, Santander Cards Limited, Santander Cards UK Limited, Santander Chile Holding S.A., Santander Consulting (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Santander Consumer (UK) plc, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2013-B3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L4 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2018-L5 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2019-L3 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-B1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L1 LLC, Santander Consumer Auto Receivables Funding 2020-L2 LLC, Santander Consumer Bank, Santander Consumer Bank AG, Santander Consumer Bank GmbH, Santander Consumer Bank S.A., Santander Consumer Bank S.p.A., Santander Consumer Banque S.A., Santander Consumer Credit Services Limited, Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V., Santander Consumer Finance Global Services S.L., Santander Consumer Finance Oy, Santander Consumer Finance S.A., Santander Consumer Finance Schweiz AG, Santander Consumer Financial Solutions Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Finanse Sp. z o.o. (b), Santander Consumer Holding Austria GmbH, Santander Consumer Holding GmbH, Santander Consumer International Puerto Rico LLC, Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH, Santander Consumer Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.L., Santander Consumer Multirent Sp. z o.o., Santander Consumer Operations Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Receivables 10 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 11 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 3 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables 7 LLC, Santander Consumer Receivables Funding LLC, Santander Consumer Renting S.L., Santander Consumer S.A., Santander Consumer S.A.S., Santander Consumer Services GmbH, Santander Consumer Services S.A., Santander Consumer Technology Services GmbH, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc., Santander Consumer USA Inc., Santander Consumo S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Corredora de Seguros Limitada, Santander Corredores de Bolsa Limitada, Santander Corretora de Cambio e Valores Mobiliarios S.A., Santander Corretora de Seguros Investimentos e Servicos S.A., Santander Customer Voice S.A., Santander Digital Assets S.L., Santander Drive Auto Receivables LLC, Santander Equity Investments Limited, Santander Espana Merchant Services Entidad de Pago S.L. Unipersonal, Santander Espana Servicios Legales y de Cumplimiento S.L., Santander Estates Limited, Santander F24 S.A., Santander Facility Management Espana S.L., Santander Factoring S.A., Santander Factoring Sp. z o.o., Santander Factoring y Confirming S.A. E.F.C., Santander Finance 2012-1 LLC, Santander Financial Exchanges Limited, Santander Financial Services Inc., Santander Financial Services plc, Santander Finanse Sp. z o.o., Santander Fintech Holdings S.L., Santander Fintech Limited, Santander Fundo de Investimento SBAC Referenciado di Credito Privado, Santander Gestion de Recaudacion y Cobranzas Ltda., Santander Global Consumer Finance Limited, Santander Global Facilities S.A. de C.V., Santander Global Facilities S.L., Santander Global Operations S.A., Santander Global Services S.A. (b), Santander Global Sport S.A., Santander Global Technology Brasil Ltda., Santander Global Technology Chile Limitada, Santander Global Technology S.L., Santander Global Trade Platform Solutions S.L., Santander Guarantee Company, Santander Holding Imobiliaria S.A., Santander Holding Internacional S.A., Santander Holdings USA Inc., Santander ISA Managers Limited, Santander Inclusion Financiera S.A. de C.V. S.O.F.O.M. E.R. Grupo Financiero Santander Mexico, Santander Insurance Agency U.S. LLC, Santander Insurance Services UK Limited, Santander Intermediacion Correduria de Seguros S.A., Santander International Products Plc. (d), Santander Inversiones S.A., Santander Investment Bank Limited, Santander Investment Chile Limitada, Santander Investment I S.A., Santander Investment S.A., Santander Investment Securities Inc., Santander Investments GP 1 S.a.r.l., Santander Inwestycje Sp. z o.o., Santander Lease S.A. E.F.C., Santander Leasing LLC, Santander Leasing S.A., Santander Leasing S.A. Arrendamento Mercantil, Santander Lending Limited, Santander Mediacion Operador de Banca-Seguros Vinculado S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Operations S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Services S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions S.A., Santander Merchant Platform Solutions Uruguay S.A., Santander Merchant Platform SolucoesTecnologicas Brasil Ltda., Santander Merchant S.A., Santander Mortgage Holdings Limited, Santander Paraty Qif PLC, Santander Pensiones S.A. E.G.F.P., Santander Pensoes - Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Pensoes S.A., Santander Private Banking Gestion S.A. S.G.I.I.C., Santander Private Banking UK Limited, Santander Private Banking s.p.a. in Liquidazione (b), Santander Private Real Estate Advisory & Management S.A., Santander Private Real Estate Advisory S.A., Santander Real Estate S.A., Santander Retail Auto Lease Funding LLC, Santander Rio Asset Management Gerente de Fondos Comunes de Inversion S.A., Santander Rio Trust S.A., Santander Rio Valores S.A., Santander S.A. Sociedad Securitizadora, Santander Secretariat Services Limited, Santander Securities LLC, Santander Seguros y Reaseguros Compania Aseguradora S.A., Santander Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., Santander Servicios Especializados S.A. de C.V., Santander Technology USA LLC, Santander Tecnologia e Inovacao Ltda., Santander Tecnologia Argentina S.A., Santander Tecnologia Espana S.L.U., Santander Tecnologia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Santander Totta SGPS S.A., Santander Totta Seguros Companhia de Seguros de Vida S.A., Santander Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych S.A., Santander Trade Services Limited, Santander UK Group Holdings plc, Santander UK Investments, Santander UK Operations Limited, Santander UK Plc, Santander UK Technology Limited, Santander Wealth Management International SA, Santander de Titulizacion S.G.F.T. S.A., Santusa Holding S.L., Services and Promotions Delaware Corp., Services and Promotions Miami LLC, Servicio de Alarmas Controladas por Ordenador S.A., Servicios de Cobranza Recuperacion y Seguimiento S.A. De C.V., Sheppards Moneybrokers Limited, Shiloh III Wind Project LLC, Sociedad Integral de Valoraciones Automatizadas S.A., Sociedad Operadora de Tarjetas de Pago Santander Getnet Chile S.A., Socur S.A., Sol Orchard Imperial 1 LLC, Solarlaser Limited, Sovereign Community Development Company, Sovereign Delaware Investment Corporation, Sovereign Lease Holdings LLC, Sovereign REIT Holdings Inc., Sovereign Spirit Limited (f), Sterrebeeck B.V., Suleyado 2003 S.L. Unipersonal, Summer Empreendimentos Ltda., Super Pagamentos e Administracao de Meios Eletronicos S.A., Superdigital Argentina S.A.U., Superdigital Colombia S.A.S., Superdigital Holding Company S.L., Superdigital Peru S.A.C., Suzuki Servicios Financieros S.L., Swesant SA, TIMFin S.p.A., TOPSAM S.A de C.V., Taxagest Sociedade Gestora de Participacoes Sociais S.A., Teatinos Siglo XXI Inversiones S.A., The Alliance & Leicester Corporation Limited, The Best Specialty Coffee S.L. Unipersonal, Time Retail Finance Limited (b), Tonopah Solar I LLC, Toque Fale Servicos de Telemarketing Ltda., Tornquist Asesores de Seguros S.A. (b), Totta (Ireland) PLC, Totta Urbe - Empresa de Administracao e Construcoes S.A., Trabajando.com Mexico S.A. de C.V. en liquidacion (b), Trabajando.com Peru S.A.C., Trans Rotor Limited (b), Transolver Finance EFC S.A., Tresmares Growth Fund Santander SCR S.A., Tresmares Santander Direct Lending SICC S.A., Tuttle and Son Limited, Universia Brasil S.A., Universia Chile S.A., Universia Colombia S.A.S., Universia Espana Red de Universidades S.A., Universia Holding S.L., Universia Mexico S.A. de C.V., Universia Peru S.A., Universia Uruguay S.A., Uro Property Holdings SOCIMI S.A., WIM Servicios Corporativos S.A. de C.V., WTW Shipping Designated Activity Company, Wallcesa S.A., Wave Holdco S.L., Waypoint Insurance Group Inc., and Wirecard (Technological Assets).Sprott Physical Gold Trust operates as a closed-end investment trust, which engages in investing and holding all of its assets in physical gold bullion. Its investment objective is to provide a secure, convenient, and exchange-traded investment alternative for investors through investing primarily in long-term holdings of unencumbered, fully allocated, physical gold bullion and will not speculate with regard to short-term changes in gold prices. The company was founded on August 28, 2009 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Boston Scientific: 34 Biomedical Merger Corp., 9357-1867 Quebec Inc., Acurate Industria e Comercio Ltda., Advanced Bionics, Advanced Stent Technologies, American Medical Systems, American Medical Systems Europe B.V., Apama Medical, Apama Medical Inc., Asthmatx, Atritech, Augmenix, Augmenix Inc., Augmenix K.K., BSC International Medical Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BSC Medical Device Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., BTG, BTG Australasia Pty Ltd, BTG Europe B.V., BTG IM Holdings Ltd., BTG International (Holdings) Limited, BTG International Asia Limited, BTG International Canada Inc., BTG International Germany GmbH, BTG International Healthcare Inc., BTG International Healthcare LLC, BTG International Healthcare Limited, BTG International Inc., BTG International Limited, BTG Limited, BTG Management Services Limited, BTG Medikal Limited Sirketi, Bard Electrophysiology, Barosense, Biocompatibles Inc., Biocompatibles International Limited, Biocompatibles UK Limited, Boston Scientific (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Boston Scientific (South Africa) Proprietary Limited, Boston Scientific (Thailand) Ltd., Boston Scientific (UK) Limited, Boston Scientific AG, Boston Scientific Argentina S.A., Boston Scientific Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Boston Scientific Benelux NV, Boston Scientific Canada Limited, Boston Scientific Ceska republika s.r.o., Boston Scientific Chile SpA, Boston Scientific Colombia Limitada, Boston Scientific Comercial de Costa Rica BSCR S.R.L., Boston Scientific Far East B.V., Boston Scientific Gesellschaft m.b.H., Boston Scientific Group plc, Boston Scientific Hellas S.A., Boston Scientific Hong Kong Limited, Boston Scientific Iberica S.A., Boston Scientific India Private Limited, Boston Scientific International B.V., Boston Scientific International Finance Limited, Boston Scientific International S.A., Boston Scientific Israel Ltd., Boston Scientific Japan K.K., Boston Scientific Korea Co. Ltd., Boston Scientific Lebanon SAL, Boston Scientific Limited, Boston Scientific Ltd., Boston Scientific Medical Device, Boston Scientific Medical Device Limited, Boston Scientific Medizintechnik GmbH, Boston Scientific Middle East FZ-LLC, Boston Scientific Middle East SAL, Boston Scientific Nederland B.V., Boston Scientific Neuromodulation Corporation, Boston Scientific New Zealand Limited, Boston Scientific Nordic AB, Boston Scientific Peru S.A.C., Boston Scientific Philippines Inc., Boston Scientific Polska Sp. z o.o., Boston Scientific Portugal - Dispositivos Medicos Lda, Boston Scientific Pty Ltd, Boston Scientific Romania S.R.L., Boston Scientific S.A.S., Boston Scientific S.p.A., Boston Scientific Scimed, Boston Scientific Scimed Inc., Boston Scientific Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific TIP Gerecleri Limited Sirketi, Boston Scientific Technology & Engineering Services Private Limited, Boston Scientific Uruguay S.A., Boston Scientific Vietnam Company Limited, Boston Scientific de Costa Rica S.R.L., Boston Scientific de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Boston Scientific del Caribe Inc., Boston Scientific do Brasil Ltda., Bravo Bidco Limited, BridgePoint Medical, Cameron Health, Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., Cardiac Pathways Corp, Catheter Innovations, Claret Medical, Claret Medical Inc., Cosman Medical, Cosman Medical LLC, CryoCor, Cryterion Medical, Cryterion Medical Inc., Cryterion Medical Ireland Limited, EKOS LLC, EMcision, EMcision International Inc., EP Technologies, EP Technologies Inc., Electron Acquisition Corporation, EndoChoice, EndoChoice Holdings Inc., EndoChoice Inc., EndoChoice Innovation Center Ltd., EndoChoice Israel Ltd., Endotex, Enteric Medical Technologies, Galil Medical Inc., Galil Medical Ltd., Galil Medical UK Limited, Guidant, Guidant Delaware Holding Corporation, Guidant Europe NV, Guidant Puerto Rico B.V., Hong Kong Medtech Trading Limited, Intelect Medical, Millipede, Millipede Inc., NXT Merger Corp., Notebook Merger Sub Ltd., Novate Medical Limited, NxThera, NxThera Inc., PT Boston Scientific Indonesia, PneumRx GmbH, PneumRx LLC, PneumRx Liimited, Protherics Medicines Development B.V., Protherics Medicines Development Limited, Protherics UK Limited, Provensis Limited, RMI Acquisition Corp., Remon Medical Technologies, Rhythmia Medical, Robert S. Smith M.D. Inc., Roxwood Medical Inc., SNS Merger Corp, Sadra Medical, Sadra Medical Inc., Securus Medical Group, Securus Medical Group Inc., Special K Merger Corp., StarMedTec, Stream Enterprises LLC, Symetis, Symetis SA, Target Therapeutics, Target Therapeutics Inc., The LumenR Tissue Retractor System, Veniti, Veniti Inc., VertiFlex, Vertiflex Inc., Vessix Vascular, Xlumena, Zuma Investment Pty Ltd, iogyn, nVision Medical, and nVision Medical Corporation.According to Wang Meiying, a 51-year-old writer, "reality is a kind of power; be it bitter or sweet, it's all we have; writing about reality explores basic human nature." She made the remark during her speech at the opening ceremony of a realism writing seminar at the Lu Xun Literary Institute in Beijing on May 11.



She continued: "Realistic literature is mysterious and each character behind the words possesses a living soul."

Wang explained that she has devoted herself to realistic writing for decades. "The great era in which we live will gradually shape our perspectives on reality, social customs and the world and it is a writer's responsibility to present the glory of the times."

With a sense of awe towards the beauty and all kinds of power in nature, Wang has produced many influential compositions in various forms in her career. She has combined objective realism with traditional Chinese culture, thus acquiring endless originality and artistic creation freedom.

She spent a long time on observing life through social investigation as she lived together with farmers in rural areas of Shaanxi Province, participating in poverty alleviation and expansion of the coverage of education.

She also visited Guizhou, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and areas along the ancient Silk Road. "The literature we seek to pursue is the guidance or forerunner of the social civilization at present," Wang explained.

Based on traditional Chinese values, her works tried to seek and display the brightness and warmth of the human heart. Two of her novellas, "Ai Yun" and the "Eleven Kinds of Light," narrated rural stories and depicted vivid figures from the real world.

The picturesque scenery, characters of rural women and village officials under her pen have aroused much sympathy from readers and become popular once they were published.

"A Tale of a Former Capital," her most recent novel, became a hit in literary circles after its publication last year. It tells a story of three women named Ling Xiao, Jiu Mi and Yan Hong who are from a remote villagePeach Blossom Grove  and seek to make a living and realize their dreams in the city of Xi'an, a former capital in ancient China.

Their experiences, especially the success and loss of Yan Hong, a female official, reflects the gain and loss, growth and confusion of many women in contemporary times.

Yang Xinlan, vice chief editor of "Dangdai," a bimonthly Chinese literature magazine, believes "A Tale of a Former Capital" records a grand era and shows the great ambition of a contemporary female writer.

Bai Ye, a literary critic, also notes its focus on the relationship of three female friends, presenting their struggles and the twists and turns of life in a large city. It is rarely seen that a female writer can make such a sharp analysis and criticism on fellow females in literary works, he added.

Fan Yongge, a literary critic, recommended highly the novel's language. "Both the language of the narration and the characters are deeply rooted in the abundant local culture. The novel has its own cultural identity due to its well-preserved original local language," he said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Wang expressed her consistent resolution to uphold social justice and morality and create more works shining with the glory of the era. At the same time, she hoped her works can reach a global audience and she has been invited to pay an academic visit in Australia by a publishing group.

Dubbing herself a "Cinderella" in the literary world, Wang perseveres in bravery, benevolence and goodwill. "Once there is goodness and virtue, extraordinary life miracles can be found," she insists. "I always observe mountains, earth and the human world with passion, and I want to make their beauty as a forever theme in my works."The following companies are subsidiares of JinkoSolar: Canton Best Limited, Jiangxi Photovoltaic Materials Co. Ltd., Jinko PV Material Supply Sdn. Bhd., Jinko Solar (Malaysia) SDN BHD., Jinko Solar (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Australia Holdings Co. Pty Ltd., Jinko Solar Canada Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Denmark ApS, Jinko Solar Import and Export Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Japan K.K., Jinko Solar Korea Co. Ltd., Jinko Solar Technology SDN.BHD., JinkoSolar (Chuxiong) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Chuzhou) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Shangrao) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Sichuan) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Switzerland) AG, JinkoSolar (U.S.) Inc., JinkoSolar (U.S.) Industries Inc., JinkoSolar (US) Holdings Inc., JinkoSolar (Vietnam) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar (Yiwu) Co. Ltd., JinkoSolar GmbH, JinkoSolar Hong Kong Limited, JinkoSolar International Development Limited, JinkoSolar Investment Limited, JinkoSolar LATAM Holding Limited, JinkoSolar Middle East DMCC, JinkoSolar Technology (Haining) Co. Ltd, JinkoSolar Trading Private Limited, Jinkosolar Household PV System Ltd., Poyang Ruilixin Information Technology Co. Ltd., Rui Xu Co. Ltd., Wide Wealth Group Holding Limited, Xinjiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Yuhuan Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., Zhejiang Jinko Solar Co. Ltd., and Zhejiang Jinko Trading Co. Ltd..Cellcom Israel Ltd. operates and maintains a cellular mobile telephone system in Israel. It operates in two segments, Cellular and Fixed-line. The company offers cellular communications services, such as basic cellular telephony services comprising voice mail, cellular fax, call waiting, call forwarding, caller identification, and conference calling; text and multimedia messaging; and cellular content and data services. It also provides international roaming services; value-added services, such as short message and multimedia messaging; cloud backup; and content services, including Cellcom Volume music, Cellcom TV, and other applications. In addition, the company sells handsets, tablets, streamers, smart watches, and home security cameras, as well as offers repair services. Further, it provides internet infrastructure and connectivity services, over-the-top TV services, international long distance services, and landline telephony and transmission services; transmission and data services through fiber-optic infrastructure and complementary microwave links; IP switchboard services; and cloud services and data protection products, as well as operates and manages business telecommunication systems to selected business customers and telecommunications operators. As of December 31, 2019, the company had approximately 10.6 million cellular subscribers. Cellcom Israel Ltd. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Netanya, Israel.

Read MoreCiveo Corp. engages in the provision of workforce accommodations, logistics and facility management services to the natural resource industry. It operates through the following business segments: Canada, Australia, and U.S. The Canada segment provides accommodation services through lodges, open camps and mobile assets, which supports workforces from oil sands and in a variety of oil and natural gas drilling, mining and related natural resource applications, as well as disaster relief efforts. The Australia segment provides accommodations services on a day rate basis to mining and related service companies, such as construction contractors. The U.S. segment provides open camp facilities and highly mobile smaller camps that follow drilling rigs and completion crews as well as accommodation, office and storage modules that are placed on offshore drilling rigs and products platforms. The company was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Houston, TX.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.China's foreign exchange regulator dealt with 1,354 forex-related violation cases in the first half of this year, up 19.7 percent year on year, an official statement said Tuesday.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in an online statement that it fined and confiscated a total of 345 million yuan (50.8 million U.S. dollars), nearly 60 percent higher than the same period last year.

Among those cases, 559 were committed by individuals, 455 by financial institutions, while the rest were by enterprises.

The regulator has stepped up inspections of financial institutions to ensure a healthy and orderly forex market.

The administration said it would continue to crack down on market irregularities such as fraud and underground bank cases to safeguard economic and financial security.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 and financial reinsurance, and fund management businesses. Additionally, the company holds and manages oil and gas properties; holds oil and gas royalties, and foreign bonds and equities; and provides investment management, counseling, advisory, and dealer services. Manulife Financial Corporation was incorporated in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

Read MoreCoreLogic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides property information, insight, analytics, and data-enabled solutions in North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Property Intelligence & Risk Management Solutions (PIRM) and Underwriting & Workflow Solutions (UWS). The PIRM segment combines property information, mortgage information, and consumer information to deliver housing market and property-level insights, predictive analytics, and risk management capabilities. It also offers proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with decision-making and compliance tools in the real estate and insurance industries. This segment primarily serves commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, investment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, MLS companies, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, government agencies, and government-sponsored enterprises. The UWS segment combines property, mortgage, and consumer information to provide comprehensive mortgage origination and monitoring solutions, including underwriting-related solutions, and data-enabled valuations and appraisals. This segment also provides proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with vetting and onboarding prospects, and meeting compliance regulations, as well as understanding, evaluating, monitoring property values. It primarily serves mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, fixed-income investors, government agencies, and property and casualty insurance companies. The company was formerly known as The First American Corporation and changed its name to CoreLogic, Inc. in June 2010. CoreLogic, Inc. was incorporated in 1894 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.

Read MoreYou are here: Business

The annual Sino-Australian Entrepreneurs Summit (SAES) will be held from Sept. 23 to 27 in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia.

The summit will serve as a platform to help top entrepreneurs from China and Australia to build trust and relationships with each other and expand their business influence.

Around 150 entrepreneurs from healthcare services, agriculture and infrastructure sectors are expected to participate in the event.

They will be visiting local companies to seek partnerships with their Australian counterparts as well as attending business trips, round-table discussions and social activities to meet and share their views with influential Australian politicians, scholars and business leaders.

John Howard, former Australian prime minister, Andrew Robb, former Australian minister of trade and investment, and Dominic Stevens, CEO of the Australian Securities Exchange will attend the summit.

Chinese billionaires Yao Junliang, chairman of Meijin Energy Group, Liu Yonghao, chairman of New Hope Group, and Song Jianmin, chief supervisor of Nanshan Group will also be participating in the event.

The summit is organized by the Sino-International Entrepreneurs Federation, a Beijing-based global non-profit organization committed to building extraordinary partnerships between Chinese business leaders and their counterparts from around the world.The following companies are subsidiares of General Motors: 2140879 Ontario Inc., ACAR Leasing, ACAR Leasing Ltd., ACF Investment, ACF Investment Corp., AFS SenSub, APGO Trust, Adam Opel, Adam Opel GmbH, Aftermarket (UK), AmeriCredit, AmeriCredit Consumer Loan, AmeriCredit Consumer Loan Company Inc., AmeriCredit Financial Services, AmeriCredit Financial Services Inc., AmeriCredit Funding, AmeriCredit Syndicated Warehouse Trust, Annunciata Corporation, Argonaut Holdings, Argonaut Holdings LLC, BOCO (Proprietary), BOCO (Proprietary) Limited, Banco GMAC, Banco GMAC S.A., Baylis (Gloucester), Boco Trust, Boden Brussels, CHEVYPLAN, CHEVYPLAN S.A. Sociedad Administradora de Planes de Autofinanciamiento Comercial, Cadillac, Cadillac Europe, Cadillac Europe GmbH, Carve-Out Ownership, Carve-Out Ownership Cooperative LLC, Chevrolet Deutschland GmbH, Chevrolet Sales (Thailand), Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Limited, Chevrolet Sales India, Chevrolet Sales India Private Ltd., Chevrolet Sociedad Anonima de Ahorro para Fines Determinados, Controladora General Motors, Controladora General Motors S.A. de C.V., Cruise, DCJ1, DCJ1 LLC, DMAX, DMAX Ltd., Dealership Liquidations, Dealership Liquidations Inc., Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems UK, Delphi Energy and Engine Management Systems UK Overseas Corporation, EDS (Electronic Data Systems), FAW-GM, Fundacion Chevrolet, G.M.A.C., GCAR Titling Ltd., GM (UK) Pension, GM (UK) Pension Trustees Limited, GM APO Holdings, GM Administradora de Bens, GM Administradora de Bens Ltda., GM Asia Pacific Regional Headquarters Ltd., GM Auslandsprojekte, GM Automotive, GM Automotive Services Belgium, GM CME, GM Canada Holdings, GM Canada Limited, GM Components Holdings, GM Components Holdings LLC, GM Cruise, GM Cruise Holdings LLC, GM Cruise LLC, GM Defense, GM Eurometals, GM Eurometals Inc., GM Europe Treasury, GM Finance, GM Finance Co. Holdings LLC, GM Financial, GM Financial AB, GM Financial Canada, GM Financial Canada Leasing, GM Financial Canada Leasing Ltd., GM Financial Colombia Holdings LLC, GM Financial Colombia S.A. Compania de Financiamiento, GM Financial Consumer, GM Financial Consumer Discount, GM Financial Consumer Discount Company, GM Financial Del Peru, GM Financial GmbH, GM Financial Holdings LLC, GM Financial Insurance Services, GM Financial Mexico Holdings, GM Financial Mexico Holdings LLC, GM Financial Real Estate, GM Financial de Mexico, GM Financial de Mexico S.A. de C.V. SOFOM E.R., GM Financial del Peru S.A.C, GM Global Business Services, GM Global Propulsion Systems -Torino S.r.l., GM Global Purchasing and Supply Chain, GM Global Technology Operations, GM Global Technology Operations LLC, GM Global Tooling, GM Global Tooling Company LLC, GM Global Treasury Centre Limited, GM Holden, GM Holden Pty Ltd., GM Holdings U.K. No.1 Limited, GM Inversiones Santiago Limitada, GM Investment Trustees Limited, GM Korea, GM Korea Company, GM LAAM Holdings, GM LAAM Holdings LLC, GM Mexico Holdings, GM Mobility Europe GmbH, GM PSA Purchasing Services, GM Personnel Services, GM Personnel Services Inc., GM Philippines Inc., GM Plats (Proprietary), GM Regional Holdings, GM Regional Holdings LLC, GM Retirees Pension Trustees, GM Retirees Pension Trustees Limited, GM Subsystems Manufacturing, GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC, GM Technical Center Korea Ltd., GM Viet Nam Motor Company, GM-DI Leasing, GM-DI Leasing LLC, GMAC - Instituicao Financeira de Credito, GMAC Administradora de Consorcios, GMAC Administradora de Consorcios Ltda., GMAC Banque, GMAC Continental, GMAC Espana de Financiacion, GMAC Holdings (U.K.), GMAC Lease B.V. (aka Masterlease Europe), GMAC Nederland N.V., GMAC Prestadora de Servicios de Mao de Obra Ltda., GMAC Servicios, GMAC UK, GMAC de Venezuela, GMAC-Prestadora de Servios de Mo-de-Obra, GMACI Corretora de Seguros, GMACI Corretora de Seguros Ltda, GMAM Real Estate I, GMCH&SP Private Equity II, GMCH&SP Private Equity II L.P., GMF Australia Pty Ltd, GMF Europe, GMF Europe Holdco, GMF Europe LLP, GMF Floorplan Owner Revolving Trust, GMF Funding, GMF Germany Holdings, GMF Global Assignment, GMF Global Assignment LLC, GMF International, GMF International LLC, GMF Leasing LLC, GMF Leasing Warehousing Trust, GMF Wholesale Receivables, GMGP Holdings, General Motors (China) Investment Company, General Motors (China) Investment Company Limited, General Motors (Thailand), General Motors (Thailand) Limited, General Motors - Colmotores, General Motors - Colmotores S.A., General Motors Advisory Services LLC, General Motors Africa and Middle East, General Motors Africa and Middle East FZE, General Motors Asia, General Motors Asia LLC, General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings, General Motors Asia Pacific Holdings LLC, General Motors Asset Management, General Motors Asset Management Corporation, General Motors Australia, General Motors Australia Pty Ltd., General Motors Austria, General Motors Austria, General Motors Auto, General Motors Auto LLC, General Motors Automobiles Philippines, General Motors Automobiles Philippines Inc., General Motors Automotive Holdings, General Motors Automotive Holdings S.L., General Motors Belgique Automobile NV, General Motors Belgium, General Motors Chile, General Motors Chile Industria Automotriz Limitada, General Motors China LLC, General Motors Daewoo Auto and Technology, General Motors Daewoo Auto and Technology CIS LLC, General Motors East Africa, General Motors Egypt, General Motors Egypt S.A.E., General Motors Espana, General Motors Europe Holdings, General Motors Europe Limited, General Motors Financial Chile, General Motors Financial Chile Limitada, General Motors Financial Chile S.A., General Motors Financial Company, General Motors Financial Company Inc., General Motors Financial International, General Motors Financial Italia, General Motors Financial Suisse, General Motors Financial UK, General Motors Financial of Canada, General Motors Financial of Canada Ltd., General Motors Finland, General Motors France, General Motors GBS Hungary, General Motors Global Service Operations, General Motors Global Service Operations Inc., General Motors Hellas, General Motors Holden Australia, General Motors Holden Australia NSC, General Motors Holden Australia NSC Pty Ltd., General Motors Holden Australia Pty Ltd., General Motors Holdings LLC, General Motors IT Services (Ireland) Limited, General Motors India Private, General Motors India Private Limited, General Motors International Holdings, General Motors International Holdings LLC, General Motors International Operations, General Motors International Operations Pte. Ltd., General Motors International Services Company, General Motors International Services Company SAS, General Motors International Services LLC, General Motors Investment Limited, General Motors Investment Management, General Motors Investment Management Corporation, General Motors Investment Participacoes, General Motors Investment Participacoes Ltda., General Motors Investments, General Motors Investments Pty. Ltd., General Motors Ireland, General Motors Israel, General Motors Israel Ltd., General Motors Italia, General Motors Japan, General Motors Japan Limited, General Motors LLC, General Motors Limited, General Motors Manufacturing Poland, General Motors Nederland, General Motors New Zealand Pensions, General Motors New Zealand Pensions Limited, General Motors Overseas, General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle, General Motors Overseas Commercial Vehicle Corporation, General Motors Overseas Corporation, General Motors Overseas Distribution, General Motors Overseas Distribution LLC, General Motors Peru, General Motors Peru S.A., General Motors Poland Spolka, General Motors Portugal, General Motors Powertrain (Thailand), General Motors Powertrain (Thailand) Limited, General Motors Research Corporation, General Motors South Africa, General Motors South Africa (Pty) Limited, General Motors Suisse, General Motors Taiwan, General Motors Taiwan Ltd., General Motors Technical Centre India, General Motors Technical Centre India Private Limited, General Motors Treasury Center, General Motors Treasury Center LLC, General Motors Turkiye, General Motors UK, General Motors Uruguay, General Motors Uruguay S.A., General Motors Venezolana, General Motors Ventures, General Motors Ventures LLC, General Motors Warehousing and Trading (Shanghai), General Motors Warehousing and Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., General Motors de Argentina, General Motors de Argentina S.r.l., General Motors de Mexico, General Motors de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., General Motors del Ecuador, General Motors del Ecuador S.A., General Motors do Brasil, General Motors do Brasil Ltda., General Motors of Canada, General Motors of Canada Company, General Motors-Holden's Sales, General Motors-Holden's Sales Pty. Limited, GigaPower LLC, Global Services Detroit, Global Services Detroit LLC, Global Tooling Service Company Europe, Global Tooling Service Company Europe Limited, Go Motor Retailing, Go Trade Parts, Grand Pointe Holdings, Grand Pointe Holdings Inc., Grand Pointe Park Condominium, Grand Pointe Park Condominium Association, H.S.H., Haines & Strange, Holden New Zealand, Holden New Zealand Limited, IBC Pension Trustees, IBC Pension Trustees Limited, IBC Vehicles, Lease Ownership Cooperative, Lease Ownership Cooperative LLC, Lidlington Engineering Company, Lidlington Engineering Company Ltd., Limited Liability Company "General Motors CIS", Master Lease Germany, Maven Drive, Maven Drive LLC, Millbrook Pension Management, Millbrook Pension Management Limited, Monetization of Carve-Out, Monetization of Carve-Out LLC, Motor Repris Automocio, Motors Holding, Motors Holding LLC, Motors Properties, Motors Properties (Trading), Multi-Use Lease Entity Trust, North American New Cars, North American New Cars LLC, Omnibus BB Transportes, Omnibus BB Transportes S. A., OnStar Connected Services Srl, OnStar Egypt Limited LLC, OnStar Europe, OnStar Europe Ltd., OnStar Global Services, OnStar Global Services Corporation, OnStar LLC, OnStar de Mexico, OnStar de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Opel Bank, Opel Danmark, Opel Group, Opel Group Warehousing, Opel Leasing, Opel Norge, Opel Sonderdienste, Opel Southeast Europe, Opel Sverige, Opel Szentgotthard Automotive Manufacturing, Opel Wien, P.T. G M AutoWorld Indonesia, P.T. General Motors Indonesia, PIMS, PIMS Co., PT. General Motors Indonesia Manufacturing, Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, 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 Investment 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 Chengxin Used Car Operation and Management Company Limited, Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co. Ltd., Sherwoods (Darlington) Limited, Sidecar Technologies, Skurrays Limited, Stam-Terberg Autobedrijven B. V., Strobe Inc., VHC Sub-Holdings (UK), Vauxhall Defined Contribution Pension Plan Trustees Limited, Vehicle Asset Universal Leasing Trust, Vickers (Lakeside) Limited, Vision Motors Limited, WRE, WRE Inc., and Zona Franca Industrial Colmotores SAS.Gildan Activewear Inc. manufactures and sells various apparel products in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It provides various activewear products, including T-shirts, fleece tops and bottoms, and sport shirts under the Gildan, Gildan Performance, Gildan Hammer, Comfort Colors, American Apparel, Anvil by Gildan, Alstyle, Prim + Preux, and GoldToe brands. The company also offers hosiery products comprising athletic; dress; and casual, liner, therapeutic, and workwear socks, as well as sheer panty hoses, tights, and leggings under the brands of Gildan, Under Armour, GoldToe, PowerSox, GT a GoldToe Brand, Silver Toe, Signature Gold by Goldtoe, Peds, MediPeds, Kushyfoot, Therapy Plus, All Pro, Secret, Silks, Secret Silky, and American Apparel. In addition, it provides men's and boys' underwear products, and ladies panties under the Gildan and Gildan Platinum brand names; and ladies' shapewear, intimates, and accessories under the Secret and Secret Silky brands. The company sells its products to wholesale distributors, screen printers, or embellishers, as well as to retailers and consumer brand companies. The company was formerly known as Textiles Gildan Inc. and changed its name to Gildan Activewear Inc. in March 1995. Gildan Activewear Inc. was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given BlackRock Long-Term Municipal Advantage Trust a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but BlackRock Long-Term Municipal Advantage Trust wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.HSBC Holdings plc provides banking and financial products and services worldwide. The company operates through Wealth and Personal Banking, Commercial Banking, and Global Banking and Markets segments. The Wealth and Personal Banking segment offers retail banking products and services, such as current and savings accounts, mortgages and personal loans, credit and debit cards, and local and international payment services for ultra high net worth individuals; and wealth management services, including insurance and investment products, global asset management services, investment management, and private wealth solutions. The Commercial Banking segment provides credit and lending, treasury management, payment, cash management, commercial insurance, and investment services, as well as commercial cards, and international trade and receivables finance services; and foreign exchange products, and capital raising and advisory services to small and medium sized enterprises, mid-market enterprises, and corporates. The Global Banking and Markets segment is involved in the provision of financing, advisory, and transaction services, including credit, rates, foreign exchange, equities, money markets, and securities services, as well as principal investment activities to government, corporate and institutional clients, and private investors. The Global Private Banking segment provides a range of services to high net worth individuals and families with complex and international needs. HSBC Holdings plc was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreMore than 4,000 Chinese youths have been awarded the Chevening Scholarship since the program started in China in 1983, according to the Consulate-General of the United Kingdom in Chongqing.

More than 200 people from southwest China, including 50 from Chongqing, have been granted the scholarship, the UK Consulate-General in Chongqing said Monday, marking the 35th anniversary of the launch of the program in China.

Funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and partner organizations, Chevening is a UK government international award program aimed at developing global leaders. It has enabled students and youths with leadership qualities from more than 100 countries to undertake postgraduate studies in UK universities.

In 2017, a total of 68 Chinese youths were awarded the scholarship, including eight from west China.

"There is a growing number of people from this region who want to make a connection with the UK," said Mark Field, UK Foreign Office Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific, at an anniversary celebration in Chongqing.

The 2019 scholarship round will open for applications on August 6 in China.Keane Group Inc (NYSE:FRAC) issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October, 31st. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $558.91 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $545.56 million. Keane Group had a net margin of 0.53% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 7.21%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.04 earnings per share.

View Keane Group's earnings history.Lonmin Plc explores, mines, refines, and markets platinum group metals in South Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. The company explores for platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and gold, as well as chrome, nickel, copper, and cobalt deposits. Its flagship property is the Marikana mine located on the Western Limb of the Bushveld igneous complex in South Africa. In addition, the company holds 100% interest in Pandora mine. The company was founded in 1909 and is headquartered in Melrose North, South Africa.

Read MoreOasis Petroleum Inc., an independent exploration and production company, focuses on the acquisition and development of onshore unconventional oil and natural gas resources in the United States. It operates through Exploration and Production(E&P), and Midstream segments. The E&P segment engages in the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties. The Midstream segment offers midstream services, such as natural gas gathering, compression, processing and, gas lift supply; crude oil gathering, terminaling, and transportation; produced and flowback water gathering, and disposal; and water distribution. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 401,766 net leasehold acres in the Williston Basin; and 24,396 net leasehold acres in the Permian Basin, as well as approximately 152.2 million barrels of oil equivalent of estimated net proved reserves. The company sells its crude oil and natural gas to refiners, marketers, and other purchasers that have access to pipeline and rail facilities. Oasis Petroleum Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Read MoreCenovus Energy Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops, produces, and markets crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. The company operates through Oil Sands, Conventional, and Refining and Marketing segments. The Oil Sands segment develops and produces bitumen in northeast Alberta. Its bitumen assets include Foster Creek, Christina Lake, and Narrows Lake, as well as other projects in the early stages of development. The Conventional segment holds assets primarily located in Elmworth-Wapiti, Kaybob-Edson, and Clearwater operating areas of British Columbia and Alberta, as well as various interests in natural gas processing facilities. The Refining and Marketing segment transports and sells crude oil, natural gas, and NGLs. This segment owns a 50% ownership in Wood River and Borger refineries located in the United States; and owns and operates a crude-by-rail terminal in Alberta. Cenovus Energy Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.

Read MoreA pair of twin brothers Chen Dingyi and Chen Hongyi from Zhumadian, Central China's Henan province, received the acceptance letter from Peking University and Tsinghua University, commonly believed to be China's top two universities, on Friday.

Dingyi, the elder brother, is only nine-minute older than Hongyi. In this year's gaokao, China's college entrance examination, Hongyi's grade was three points higher than Dingyi.

"Dingyi is a well-behaved student with good grades, and he loves reading, listening to music and travelling in his spare time," Cai Zhiqiang, his head teacher said. Dingyi studies hard and is always willing to help others.

"Hongyi had a clear plan for life when he entered high school. He has a meticulous learning attitude and a strong thirst for knowledge. And he is always eager to explore something new," said Zhai Changhai, Hongyi's head teacher.

The twins' parents are both teachers. When asked about the experience of raising their sons, the mother said, "We focused on developing their learning habits. As they have good habits, their grades will go up. And I think students shouldn't spend all day studying; they need time to relax."

"We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once," the line of Friedrich Nietzsche's is the twins' favorite motto. Talking about their future plan, the twins said they will study harder at university, and contribute to China's scientific research field.The following companies are subsidiares of Marsh & McLennan Companies: 8WORKS INC., 8WORKS LTD, A. Constantinidi & CIA. S.C., A.C.N. 000 951 146 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 001 572 961 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 076 935 683 Pty Limited, A.C.N. 102 322 574 Pty Limited, ACE Insurance Agents Limited, ACE Insurance Consultants Limited, ACE Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Limited, AD Corretora de Seguros, AFCO Premium Acceptance Inc., AFCO Premium Credit LLC, Access Equity Enhanced Fund GP LLC, Admiral Holdings Limited, Agnew Higgins Pickering & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd, Aldgate Investments Limited, Aldgate Trustees Ltd, Alexander Forbes Group Holdings Limited, Alpha Consultants Limited, Alta SA, Altius Real Assets (GP) LLC, Amal Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Anda Insurance Agencies Pte Ltd, AssetVal Pty Ltd, Assur Conseils Marsh S.A., Assurance Capital Corporation, Assurance Services Corporation, Australian Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Australian World Underwriters Pty Ltd., BBPS Limited, Barney & Barney Orange County LLC, Beaumonts (Leeds) Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), Beaumonts Insurance Services Limited, Beneficios Integrales Oportunos SA, Benefitfocus Inc., Blue Marble Micro Limited, Blue Marble Microinsurance Inc., Bluefin, Bluefin Insurance Group Limited, Bluefin Insurance Services Limited, Boulder Claims LLC, Bowring (Bermuda) Investments Ltd., Bowring Marine Limited, Bowring Marsh (Bermuda) Ltd., Bowring Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Bowring Marsh Asia Pte. Ltd., Bowring Marsh Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Bowring Marsh Limited, Broderick Piller Pty Ltd, Broker 2 Broker Limited, BuildPay LLC, Burke Ford Trustees (Leicester) Limited, C.T. Bowring Limited, CMC-Belgibo NV, CPRM Limited, CPSG Partners LLC, Carpenter Marsh Fac Chile Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Carpenter Marsh Fac Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Carpenter Marsh Fac Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.C., Carpenter Marsh Fac Re LLC, Carpenter Turner Cyprus Ltd, Carpenter Turner S.A., Cascade International Holdings C.V., Cascade Regional Holdings Limited, Central Insurance Services Limited, Charter Risk Management Services LLC, Chartwell Healthcare Limited, Chronos Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Claims and Recovery Management (Australia) Pty Limited, Clark Thomson Insurance Brokers Limited, Client Provide Limited, Colombian Insurance Broking Wholesale Limited, Consultores 2020 C.A., Cronin & Co Insurance Services Limited, DVA - Deutsche Verkehrs-Assekuranz-Vermittlungs GmbH, Dawson Insurance, DeLima Marsh S.A. - Los Corredores de Seguros S.A., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Insurance Corp., Dovetail Managing General Agency Corporation, Dovetail Technology Service India Private Limited, Draw Connect Limited, Draw Create Limited, Draw Group London Limited, Eagle & Crown Limited, Echelon Australia Pty Limited, Echelon Claims Consultants Sdn Bhd, Echelon New Zealand Limited, EnBW Versicherungs Vermittlung GmbH, Encompass Insurance Agency Pty Ltd., English Pension Trustees Limited, Epsilon (US) Insurance Company, Epsilon Insurance Company Ltd., Eustis Insurance & Benefits, Evolution Management Ltd, Exchange Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Exmoor Management Company Limited, Faulkner & Flynn LLC, Freedom Trust Services Limited, GC Genesis LLC, GCube Insurance Services Inc, GCube Underwriting Limited, Gama Consultores Associados Ltda., Gem Insurance Company Limited, Global Premium Finance Company, GrECo International Holding AG, Gracechurch Trustees Limited, Gresham Pension Trustees Limited, Group Promoters Pty Limited, Guy Carpenter & Cia (Mexico) S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter & Cia. S.A., Guy Carpenter & Co. Labuan Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company AB, Guy Carpenter & Company Corredores de Reaseguros Limitada, Guy Carpenter & Company Corretora de Resseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company GmbH, Guy Carpenter & Company LLC, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd./Guy Carpenter & Compagnie Ltee, Guy Carpenter & Company Participacoes Ltda., Guy Carpenter & Company Peru Corredores de Reaseguros S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company Private Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Proprietary Limited, Guy Carpenter & Company Pty. Ltd., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A., Guy Carpenter & Company S.A. (Uruguay), Guy Carpenter & Company S.A.S., Guy Carpenter & Company S.r.l., Guy Carpenter (Middle East) Limited, Guy Carpenter Bermuda Ltd., Guy Carpenter Broking Inc., Guy Carpenter Colombia Corredores de Reaseguros Ltda., Guy Carpenter Insurance Brokers (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Guy Carpenter Japan Inc., Guy Carpenter Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., Guy Carpenter Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, HAPIP GP 2009 LLC, HAPIP GP LLC, HSBC Insurance Brokers International (Abu Dhabi) LLC (in liquidation), Hamilton Bond Limited, Hansen International Limited, Hayward Aviation Limited, INSIA Europe SE, INSIA SK s.r.o., INSIA a.s., INSURANCE BROKERS OF NIGERIA LIMITED, IRC Asia Insurance Brokers Limited, InSolutions Limited, Industrial Risks Protection Consultants, Ingeseg S. A., Ingeseg S.A., Insbrokers Ltda., InsurTech Alliance LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC, Insure Direct (Brokers) LLC [BAHRAIN BRANCH], Insure Direct - Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, International Catastrophe Insurance Managers LLC, International Loss Control Services Limited, International Risk Consultants (Asia) Limited, Invercol Limited, Irish Pensions Trust Limited, Isosceles Insurance (Barbados) Limited, Isosceles Insurance Company Limited, Isosceles Insurance Ltd, Isosceles PCC Limited, J&H Marsh & McLennan Limited, J.W. Terrill Benefit Administrators Inc., JI Holdings Limited, JIB Group Holdings Limited, JIB Group Limited, JIB Holdings (Pacific) Limited, JIB Overseas Holdings Limited, JIB UK Holdings Limited, JL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co. KG, JLM Verwaltungs GmbH, JLT (Insurance Brokers) Limited, JLT Actuaries and Consultants Limited, JLT Advisory Limited, JLT Affinity Colombia Solutions SAS, JLT Agencies Limited, JLT Asesorias Ltda, JLT Asia Holdings BV, JLT Asia Shared Services Sdn Bhd, JLT Belgibo, JLT Benefit Consultants Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions Limited, JLT Benefit Solutions SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Bermuda Ltd, JLT Brasil Holdings Participacoes Ltd, JLT Chile Holdings SpA, JLT Colombia Retail Limited, JLT Colombia Wholesale Limited, JLT Consultants & Actuaries Limited, JLT EB Holdings Limited, JLT EB Services Limited, JLT Employee Benefits Holding Company (PTY) LTD, JLT Employee Benefits SA (Pty) Ltd, JLT Financial Planning Limited, JLT France Holdings, JLT Group Services Pty Limited, JLT Holdings (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Holdings (NZ) Limited, JLT Independent Insurance Brokers Private Limited, JLT Insurance Agencies Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited ( Shanghai Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Beijing Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Co. Limited (Guangzhou Branch), JLT Insurance Brokers Ireland Limited, JLT Insurance Brokers SA, JLT Insurance Group Holdings Ltd, JLT Insurance Management Malta Limited, JLT Intellectual Property Limited, JLT Intellectual Property [UK Branch], JLT Interactive Pte. Ltd., JLT Investment Management Limited, JLT LATAM (Southern Cone) Wholesale Limited, JLT Latin American Holdings Limited, JLT Life Assurance Brokers Limited, JLT Management Services Limited, JLT Marine (Pty) Ltd, JLT Mexico Holdings Limited, JLT Mexico Intermediario de Reaseguro S.A. de C.V., JLT Netherlands BV, JLT Norway AS, JLT PLA, JLT Pension Trustees Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Holdings Limited, JLT Pensions Administration Limited, JLT Peru Reinsurance Solutions Limited, JLT Peru Retail Limited, JLT Peru Wholesale Limited, JLT QFM Services Limited, JLT RE Brasil Administracao e Corretagem de Resseguros Ltda, JLT Re (French Branch), JLT Re (Northern Europe) AB, JLT Re Argentina Corredores de Reaseguros S.A.U., JLT Re Labuan Limited, JLT Re Limited, JLT Re Pty Ltd, JLT Reinsurance Brokers GmbH, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited, JLT Reinsurance Brokers Limited [French Branch], JLT Risk Management Limited, JLT Risk Solutions AB, JLT Risk Solutions AB Branch - Germany, JLT SA IB Holdings Company (Pty) Limited, JLT SCK Affinity Administracao e Corretora de Seguros Ltda., JLT SCK Corretora e Administradora de Seguros, JLT Secretaries Limited, JLT Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerlii A.., JLT Singapore Holdings Pte. Ltd., JLT Specialty France, JLT Specialty Insurance Broker A/S, JLT Specialty Limited, JLT Specialty Limited [DUBAI BRANCH], JLT Specialty Pte. Ltd., JLT Towner Insurance Management (Anguilla) Limited, JLT Trust Services (Barbados) Ltd, JLT Trustees (Southern) Limited, JLT Trustees Limited, JLT UK Investment Holdings Limited, JLT Vantage Risk and Benefit Consulting Private Limited, JLT Wealth Management Limited, JLT do Brasil Corretagem de Seguros Ltda, JLTPCS Holdings Pte. Ltd., JMIB Holdings BV, JSL Securities Inc., Japan Affinity Marketing Inc., Jardine IBR Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson (Proprietary) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Asia Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Australia Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Canada Inc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group plc, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson India Private Limited (UK Branch Office), Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance Consultants Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers Inc., Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Holdings Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Ireland Unlimited Company, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Korea Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Limited [Macao Branch], Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS (Dubai) Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS Pte Ltd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson PCS SA, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Private Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pty Limited, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Sdn Bhd, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Valencia y Iragorri Corredores de Seguros SA, Jardine Pension Trustees Ireland Limited, Jardine Risk Consulting Co. Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited, Jardine ShunTak Insurance Brokers Limited [Macao Branch], Jardines PF- Consultoria Em Gestao De Risco Limitada, Jelf, Jelf Commercial Finance Limited, Jelf Financial Planning Limited, Jelf Insurance Brokers Limited, Jelf Limited, Jelf Risk Management Limited, Jelf Wellbeing Limited, John Lampier & Son Ltd, Johnson & Higgins (Bermuda) Limited, Johnson & Higgins Limited, KESSLER & CO AG, Kepler Associates Limited, Kessler & Co Inc., Kessler Consulting Inc., Kessler Prevoyance Inc., Key Underwriting Pty Limited, Kroll, Lambert Brothers Holdings Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Employee Benefits) Limited, Lambert Brothers Insurance Brokers (Hong Kong) Ltd, Laterlife.com Limited (in liquidation), Lavaretus Underwriting AB, Lavaretus Underwriting AB (BRANCH - Denmark), Libra Insurance Services Limited (in liquidation), Lloyd & Partners Limited, Local Government Insurance Brokers Pty Limited, Lomond Macdonald Limited, Lynch Insurance Brokers Limited, M&M Vehicle L.P., M.P. Bolshaw and Company Limited, MAG JLT SpA, MERCER ALTERNATIVES LIMITED, MM Risk Services Pty Ltd (for dissolution), MMA Mid-Atlantic Employee LLC, MMA Securities LLC, MMB Consultores S.A., MMC (Singapore) Holdings Pte. Ltd., MMC 28 State Street Holdings Inc., MMC Borrower LLC, MMC Brazilian Holdings B.V., MMC Capital Inc., MMC Cascade Regional Holdings LLC, MMC FINANCE (EUROPE) LIMITED, MMC FINANCE HOLDINGS LTD, MMC Finance (Australia) Limited, MMC Finance (Singapore) Limited, MMC France Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., MMC GP III Inc., MMC Group Services sp. z o.o., MMC Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, MMC Holdings (New Zealand) ULC, MMC Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC International Finance (Barbados) SRL, MMC International Holdings LLC, MMC International Limited, MMC International Treasury Centre Limited, MMC Middle East Holdings Limited, MMC Poland Holdings B.V., MMC Realty Inc., MMC Regional Asia Holdings B.V., MMC Regional Caribbean Holdings Ltd., MMC Regional Europe Holdings B.V., MMC Regional LATAM Holdings B.V., MMC Securities (Europe) Limited, MMC Securities LLC, MMC Treasury Holdings (UK) Limited, MMC UK Group Limited, MMC UK Pension Fund Trustee Limited, MMOW Limited, MMRC LLC, MOW Holding LLC, MPIP III GP LLC, MPIP IV GP LLC, MPIP V GP LLC, MPIP VI GP LLC, Mangrove Insurance Europe PCC Limited, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC, Mangrove Insurance Solutions PCC Limited, Manoel Management Services Ltd, Marchant McKechnie Insurance Brokers Limited, Marine Aviation & General (London) Limited, Marsh & McLennan (PNG) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agencies AS, Marsh & McLennan Agencies Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency A/S, Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC, Marsh & McLennan Agency Limited, Marsh & McLennan Agency Pty Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Argentina SA Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh & McLennan Colombia S.A., Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Funding Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Acquisition Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies Asia Pacific Treasury Center Limited, Marsh & McLennan Companies BVBA/SPRL, Marsh & McLennan Companies Finance Center (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies France S.A.S., Marsh & McLennan Companies Holdings (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies Regional Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Companies Services B.V., Marsh & McLennan Companies UK Limited, Marsh & McLennan Europe S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan GP I Inc., Marsh & McLennan Global Broking (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Holding GmbH, Marsh & McLennan Holdings (Canada) ULC, Marsh & McLennan Holdings Inc., Marsh & McLennan Incorporated (for dissolution), Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings II, Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Holdings S.a.r.l., Marsh & McLennan Innovation Centre Limited, Marsh & McLennan Insurance Services Limited, Marsh & McLennan Ireland Limited, Marsh & McLennan Management Services (Bermuda) Limited, Marsh & McLennan Risk Capital Holdings Ltd., Marsh & McLennan Servicios S.A. De C.V., Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Canada Limited, Marsh & McLennan Shared Services Corporation, Marsh (Bahrain) Company SPC, Marsh (Beijing) Risk Management Consulting Co. Ltd., Marsh (China) Insurance Brokers Co. Ltd., Marsh (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh (Insurance Brokers) LLP, Marsh (Insurance Services) Limited, Marsh (Malawi) Limited, Marsh (Middle East) Limited, Marsh (Namibia) (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh (Pty) Ltd, Marsh (Risk Consulting) LLP, Marsh (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Marsh A/S, Marsh AB, Marsh AG, Marsh AS, Marsh Advantage Insurance Holdings Pty Ltd, Marsh Advantage Insurance Pty Ltd., Marsh Africa (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Argentina S.R.L., Marsh Associates (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Austria G.m.b.H., Marsh Aviation Insurance Broking Pty Ltd (for dissolution), Marsh B.V., Marsh Botswana (Proprietary) Limited, Marsh Brockman y Schuh Agente de Seguros y de Fianzas S.A. de C.V., Marsh Broker Japan Inc., Marsh Broker de Asigurare-Reasigurare S.R.L., Marsh Brokers (Hong Kong) Limited, Marsh Brokers Limited, Marsh Canada Limited/Marsh Canada Limitee, Marsh Company Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Compensation Technologies Administration (Pty) Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Isle of Man Ltd, Marsh Corporate Services Limited, Marsh Corporate Services Malta Limited, Marsh Corretora de Seguros Ltda., Marsh EOOD, Marsh Egypt LLC, Marsh Emirates Consultancy LLC, Marsh Emirates Insurance Brokerage LLC, Marsh Employee Benefits Limited, Marsh Employee Benefits Zimbabwe (Private) Ltd, Marsh Eurofinance B.V., Marsh Europe S.A., Marsh FJC International Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh For Insurance Services S.A.E., Marsh Franco Acra S.A., Marsh GSC Servicos e Administracao de Seguros Ltda., Marsh GmbH, Marsh Holding AB, Marsh Holdings (Pty) Ltd, Marsh India Insurance Brokers Private Limited, Marsh Insurance & Investments LLC, Marsh Insurance Brokers, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Macao) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Insurance Brokers (Private) Limited, Marsh Insurance Brokers AO, Marsh Insurance Brokers Limited, Marsh Insurance Consulting Saudi Arabia (in liquidation), Marsh Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers LLC, Marsh Intermediaries Inc., Marsh International Broking Holdings Limited, Marsh International Holdings II Inc., Marsh International Holdings Inc., Marsh Investment B.V., Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited, Marsh Ireland Brokers Limited (UK Branch), Marsh Ireland Holdings Limited, Marsh Israel (1999) Ltd., Marsh Israel (Holdings) Ltd., Marsh Israel Consultants Ltd., Marsh Israel Insurance Agency Ltd., Marsh Israel International Brokers Ltd. (in liquidation), Marsh JCS Inc., Marsh Japan Inc., Marsh Kft., Marsh Kindlustusmaakler AS, Marsh Korea Inc., Marsh LLC, Marsh LLC Insurance Brokers, Marsh LLC [Ukraine], Marsh Lda., Marsh Limited, Marsh Limited [Fiji], Marsh Limited [New Zealand], Marsh Limited [PNG], Marsh Ltd. [Wisconsin], Marsh Management Services (Bahamas) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Bermuda) Ltd., Marsh Management Services (Dublin) Limited, Marsh Management Services (Labuan) Limited, Marsh Management Services (MENA) Limited, Marsh Management Services (USVI) Ltd., Marsh Management Services Cayman Ltd., Marsh Management Services Guernsey Limited, Marsh Management Services Inc., Marsh Management Services Isle of Man Limited, Marsh Management Services Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Marsh Management Services Malta Limited, Marsh Management Services Singapore Pte. Ltd., Marsh Management Services Sweden AB, Marsh Marine & Energy AB, Marsh Marine Nederland B.V., Marsh Medical Consulting GmbH, Marsh Mercer Holdings (Australia) Pty Ltd, Marsh Nest Inc., Marsh Oman LLC, Marsh Oy, Marsh PB Co. Ltd., Marsh Philippines Inc., Marsh Privat A.I.E., Marsh Private Client Life Insurance Services, Marsh Pty. Ltd., Marsh Qatar LLC, Marsh RE S.A.C. Corredores de Reaseguros, Marsh Rehder Consultoria S.A. (MRC), Marsh Rehder S.A. Corredores de Seguros, Marsh Resolutions Pty Limited, Marsh Risk Consulting B.V., Marsh Risk Consulting Limitada, Marsh Risk Consulting Ltda., Marsh Risk Consulting S.L., Marsh Risk Consulting Services S.r.L., Marsh Risk and Consulting Services (Pty) Ltd, Marsh S.A. Corredores De Seguros, Marsh S.A. Mediadores de Seguros, Marsh S.A.S., Marsh S.p.A., Marsh SA [Argentina], Marsh SA [Belgium], Marsh SA [Luxembourg], Marsh SA [Uruguay], Marsh SIA, Marsh Saldana Inc., Marsh Saudi Arabia Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers, Marsh Secretarial Services Limited, Marsh Semusa S.A., Marsh Services Limited, Marsh Services Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Sigorta ve Reasurans Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Marsh Spolka z.o.o., Marsh Szolgaltato Kft., Marsh Takaful Brokers (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Marsh Treasury Services (Dublin) Limited (in liquidation), Marsh Treasury Services Limited, Marsh Tunisia S.a.r.l., Marsh UK Limited, Marsh USA (India) Inc., Marsh USA Borrower LLC, Marsh USA Inc., Marsh Uganda Limited, Marsh Venezuela C.A. Sociedad de Corretaje de Seguros, Marsh Vietnam Insurance Broking Company Ltd, Marsh Zambia Limited, Marsh Zimbabwe Holdings (Private) Limited, Marsh d.o.o. Beograd, Marsh d.o.o. za posredovanje u osiguranju, Marsh for Insurance Services - Jordan, Marsh i-Connect (Pty) Ltd, Marsh s.r.o., Matthiessen Assurans AB, Mercer (Argentina) S.A., Mercer (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer (Austria) GmbH, Mercer (Belgium) SA-NV, Mercer (Canada) Limited/Mercer (Canada) Limitee, Mercer (China) Limited, Mercer (Colombia) Ltda., Mercer (Danmark) A/S, Mercer (Finland) OY, Mercer (France) SAS, Mercer (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer (Ireland) Limited, Mercer (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Mercer (N.Z.) Limited, Mercer (Nederland) B.V., Mercer (Norge) AS, Mercer (Polska) Sp.z o.o., Mercer (Portugal) Lda, Mercer (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer (Sweden) AB, Mercer (Taiwan) Ltd., Mercer (Thailand) Ltd., Mercer (US) Inc., Mercer Administration Services (Australia) Pty Limited, Mercer Africa Limited, Mercer Agente de Seguros S.A. de C.V., Mercer Asesores de Seguros S.A., Mercer Asesores es Inversion Independientes S.A. de C.V., Mercer Broking Ltd., Mercer Career Unipessoal Lda, Mercer Consultation (Quebec) Ltee., Mercer Consulting (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Consulting (Chile) Limitada, Mercer Consulting (France) SAS, Mercer Consulting (India) Private Limited, Mercer Consulting B.V., Mercer Consulting Group Inc., Mercer Consulting Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Mercer Consulting Limited, Mercer Consulting Middle East Limited, Mercer Consulting S.L.U., Mercer Consulting Venezuela C.A., Mercer Corredores de Seguros Limitada, Mercer Corretora de Seguros Ltda, Mercer Danismanlik Anonim Sirketi, Mercer Deutschland GmbH, Mercer Employee Benefits - Medicacao de Seguros Unipessoal Lda., Mercer Employee Benefits Limited, Mercer Financial Advice (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Financial Services Limited, Mercer Financial Services Limited liability company, Mercer Financial Services Middle East Limited, Mercer Global Investments Europe Limited, Mercer Global Investments Management Limited, Mercer HR Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer HR Services LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Health & Benefits Administration LLC, Mercer Health & Benefits LLC, Mercer Holdings Inc., Mercer Holdings Inc. [Philippines], Mercer Human Resource Consulting Ltda, Mercer Human Resource Consulting S.A. de C.V., Mercer ICC Limited, Mercer Investment Consulting Limited, Mercer Investment Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Mercer Investment Solutions (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Mercer Investments (Australia) Limited, Mercer Investments (Hong Kong) Limited, Mercer Investments (Japan) Ltd, Mercer Investments (New Zealand) Limited, Mercer Investments LLC, Mercer Ireland Holdings Limited, Mercer Italia Srl Socio Unico, Mercer Japan Ltd., Mercer Korea Co. Ltd., Mercer LLC, Mercer Limited, Mercer MC Consulting Borrower LLC, Mercer Master Trustees Limited, Mercer Mauritius Ltd., Mercer Oliver Wyman Holding B.V., Mercer Outsourcing (Australia) Pty Ltd, Mercer Outsourcing S.L.U., Mercer Pensionsfonds AG, Mercer Pensionsraadgivning A/S, Mercer Philippines Inc., Mercer Private Investment Partners IV General Partner S.a.r.l., Mercer Private Markets AG, Mercer Private Markets Advisers (US) AG, Mercer Services Poland Sp. z.o.o., Mercer Sigorta Brokerligi Anonim Sirketi, Mercer South Africa (Pty) Limited, Mercer Superannuation (Australia) Limited, Mercer Switzerland Inc., Mercer System Services LLC, Mercer Technology Acquisitions Limited, Mercer Treuhand GmbH, Mercer Trust Company LLC, Mercer Trustees Limited, Mercer WorkforcePro LLC, Mercury Insurance Services Pty Ltd, Moola Systems Limited, Mountlodge Limited, Muir Beddal (Zimbabwe) Limited, NERA Australia Pty. Ltd., NERA Economic Consulting GmbH, NERA Economic Consulting Limited, NERA S.R.L., NERA SAS, NERA UK Limited, NERA do Brasil Ltda. (for dissolution), National Economic Research Associates Inc., NetComp Insurance Corp., Neuburger Noble Lowndes GmbH, Normandy Reinsurance Company Limited, Northern Alliance Brokers Limited (in liquidation), OWL Marine Insurance-Brokers GmbH & Co.KG, OWL Marine Verwaltungs GmbH, Oliver Wyman (Bermuda) Limited, Oliver Wyman (Hong Kong) Limited, Oliver Wyman AB, Oliver Wyman AG, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., Oliver Wyman B.V., Oliver Wyman Consulting (Shanghai) Ltd, Oliver Wyman Consultoria em Estrategia de Negocios Ltda., Oliver Wyman Energy Consulting Limited, Oliver Wyman FZ-LLC, Oliver Wyman Group KK, Oliver Wyman Inc., Oliver Wyman LLC, Oliver Wyman Limited, Oliver Wyman Limited Liability Company, Oliver Wyman Limited/Oliver Wyman limitee, Oliver Wyman Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pte. Ltd., Oliver Wyman Pty. Ltd., Oliver Wyman S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman S.A.S., Oliver Wyman S.L., Oliver Wyman S.r.l., Oliver Wyman SNC, Oliver Wyman SPRL/BVBA, Oliver Wyman Sdn. Bhd., Oliver Wyman Services Limited, Oliver Wyman Servicios S. de R.L. de C.V., Oliver Wyman sp. z o.o., Omega Indemnity (Bermuda) Limited, Organizacion Brockman y Schuh S.A. de C.V., Osbornes Insurances Oxford Limited (in liquidation), PFT Limited, PI Indemnity Company Designated Activity Company, PT JLT Reinsurance Brokers, PT Jardine Lloyd Thompson, PT Marsh Indonesia, PT Marsh Reinsurance Brokers Indonesia, PT Mercer Indonesia, PT Nexus Asia Pacific, PT Oliver Wyman Indonesia, PT Quantum Computing Services, PT Quantum Investments, PT Quantum Support Services, Pallas Marsh Servicos Ltda., Pavilion Alternatives Group (Singapore) PTE. Ltd, Pavilion Financial Corporation Holdings UK Limited, Pavilion U.S. Investments Holdco LLC, Pension Trustees Limited, Pensionsservice Benefit Network Sverige AB, Perils AG, Personal Pension Trustees Limited, Pet Animal Welfare Scheme Limited, Portsoken Trustees (No. 2) Limited, Portsoken Trustees Limited, Potomac Insurance Managers Inc., Premier Pension Trustees Limited, Premium Services Australia Pty Limited, Professional Claims Handling Limited (in liquidation), Profund Solutions Limited, Promerit AG, Promerit Hungary Kft, Promerit Schweiz AG, Pymetrics Inc., R G Ford Brokers Limited, R R B Beratungsgesellschaft fuer Altersversorgung mbh, R. Mees & Zoonen Holdings B.V., Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters LLC, Renewable Energy Loss Adjusters Limited, Resource Benefit Associates, Rightpath Reinsurance SPC Ltd., Risk Management Australia Pty Limited, Rivers Group Limited, Rockefeller Risk Advisors Inc., Rutherfoord International Inc., SAFCAR-Marsh, SBJ Holdings Limited, SCIB (Bermuda) Limited, SCM Global Real Estate Select GP LLC, SCM Infrastructure General Partner S.a r.l., SCM International Private Equity Select III GP LLC, SCM LT General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE General Partner S.a.r.l., SCM PE II GP Ltd., SCM PE II Scotland GP Ltd, SCM Strategic Capital Management (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., SICAR Marsh S.a.r.l., SME Insurance Services Limited, Sail Insurance Company Limited, Scalene Re Ltd, Seabury & Smith Borrower LLC, Seabury & Smith LLC, Secure Limited, Sedgwick (Holdings) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Consulting Group Limited, Sedgwick Dineen Group Limited, Sedgwick Financial Services Limited, Sedgwick Forbes Middle East Limited, Sedgwick Group, Sedgwick Group (Australia) Pty. Limited, Sedgwick Group (Bermuda) Limited, Sedgwick Group (Zimbabwe) Limited, Sedgwick Group Limited, Sedgwick Internationaal B.V., Sedgwick Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Barbados) Limited, Sedgwick Management Services (Singapore) Pte Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes (UK) Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Group Limited, Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Limited, Sedgwick Overseas Investments Limited, Sedgwick Private Limited, Sedgwick Re Asia Pacific (Consultants) Pte Ltd (for dissolution), Sedgwick Trustees Limited, Sedgwick UK Risk Services Limited, Sedgwick Ulster Pension Trustees Limited, Settlement Trustees Limited, Shanghai Mercer Insurance Brokers Company Ltd., Shorewest Insurance Associates LLC, Sirota Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd., Sirota Consulting UK Limited, Smith Long Term Disability Management Group Inc., Societe d'Assurances et de Participation Guian SA, Software Underwriting Systems Limited (in liquidation), Southern Marine & Aviation Inc., Southern Marine & Aviation Underwriters Inc., Sudzucker Versicherungs-Vermittlungs GmbH, Sumitomo Life Insurance Agency America Inc., Sylvite Financial Services, TBX Solutions Limited, Talent Tech Labs LLC, The Benefit Express Holdings Limited, The Benefit Express Limited, The Carpenter Management Corporation, The Insurance Partnership Holdings Limited, The Insurance Partnership Services Limited, The Positive Ageing Company Limited, The Purple Partnership Limited, The Recovre Group Pty Ltd, Thomsons Online Benefits (HK) Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits Inc., Thomsons Online Benefits Limited, Thomsons Online Benefits Pte Ltd., Thomsons Online Benefits S.R.L, Torrent Government Contracting Services LLC, Torrent Insurance Services LLC, Torrent Technologies, Torrent Technologies Inc., Tower Hill Limited, Tower Place Developments (West) Limited, Tower Place Developments Limited, U.T.E. AMG, U.T.E. Marsh - Caja Castilla La Mancha Junta de Comunidades, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus (in liquidation), U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Reus 2012, U.T.E. Marsh - Salvado Vila-Seca 2010, UAD BB Marsh Lietuva, Vezina & Associes Inc., Vezina Assurances Inc., Victor Insurance Europe B.V., Victor Insurance Holdings Inc., Victor Insurance Italia S.r.l., Victor Insurance Managers Inc., Victor Insurance Managers Inc./Gestionnaires d'assurance Victor inc., Victor O. Schinnerer & Co. (Bermuda) Ltd., Victor O. Schinnerer & Company Limited, Victoria Hall Company Limited, Wellnz Limited, William M. Mercer (Canada) Limited/William M. Mercer (Canada) Limitee, William M. Mercer AB, William M. Mercer Comercio Consultoria e Servicos Ltda., Wortham Insurance & Risk Management, everBe SAS, and realright GmbH.The following companies are subsidiares of Masco: A&J Gummers, Airex 3 LLC, Arrow Fastener, BEHR PAINTS IT! INC., BSI Holdings, Behr (Beijing) Paint Company Limited, Behr Paint (Beijing) Commercial Co. Ltd., Behr Process, Behr Process Canada Ltd., Behr Process Corporation, Behr Process Paints (India) Private Limited, Behr Sales LLC, BrassCraft Manufacturing Company, Brasstech Inc., Bristan, Bristan Group Limited, Cambrian Windows, ColorAxis Inc., Davenport Insulation Group, Delta Faucet (China) Co. Ltd., Delta Faucet Company, Delta Faucet Company India Private Limited, Delta Faucet Company Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Delta Faucet Company of Tennessee, Diversified Cabinet Distributors Inc., Duraflex, Duraflex Limited, Erickson Framing, Glass Idromassaggio, Guy Evans Inc., Hans Grohe Pte. Ltd., Hansgrohe, Hansgrohe A.B., Hansgrohe A/S, Hansgrohe AG, Hansgrohe Armature Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Hansgrohe B.V., Hansgrohe Brasil Metals Santitarios Ltda., Hansgrohe CS s.r.o., Hansgrohe Deutschland Vertriebs GmbH, Hansgrohe Handelsges.mbH, Hansgrohe Inc., Hansgrohe India Private Ltd., Hansgrohe International GmbH, Hansgrohe Japan K.K, Hansgrohe Kft., Hansgrohe Ltd., Hansgrohe N.V., Hansgrohe Pty Ltd, Hansgrohe S. de R. L. de C. V., Hansgrohe S. a r.l., Hansgrohe S.A., Hansgrohe S.A.U., Hansgrohe SA (Pty) Ltd., Hansgrohe SE, Hansgrohe Sanitary Products (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Hansgrohe Sanitary Products W.L.L., Hansgrohe Sp. z.o.o., Hansgrohe Wasselonne S.A., Hansgrohe d.o.o., Hansgrohe ooo, Hansgrohe s.r.l., Hot Spring Spa Australasia Pty Ltd, Hot Spring Spas New Zealand Limited, Huppe B.V., Huppe Belgium S.A., Huppe GmbH, Huppe Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., Huppe S. a r.l., Huppe S.L., Huppe Spolka z.o.o., Huppe s.r.o., IDI Group inc, Inrecon, Jet Acquisition LLC, Kichler Lighting LLC, L.D. Kichler Lighting Services (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Landex of Wisconsin Inc., Liberty Hardware Asia Co. Ltd., Liberty Hardware Mfg. Corp., Liberty Hardware Retail & Design Services LLC, Masco Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Masco Building Products Corp., Masco Cabinetry Hong Kong Limited, Masco Canada Limited, Masco Capital Corporation, Masco Chile Limitada, Masco Corporation Limited, Masco Corporation of Indiana, Masco Europe Inc., Masco Europe S. a r.l., Masco Europe SCS, Masco Framing Corp., Masco Germany Holding GmbH, Masco HD Support Services LLC, Masco Home Products Private Limited, Masco Home Products S.a r.l., Masco Retail Sales Support Inc., Masco Singapore Pte. Ltd., Masco WM Support Services LLC, Mascomex S.A. de C.V., Masterchem Industries, Masterchem Industries LLC, Mercury Plastics LLC, Milgard Manufacturing, Mill's Pride, Mirolin Industries Corp., My Service Center Inc., NCFII Holdings Inc., Newport Brass, Oz Acquisition LLC, Peerless Sales Corporation, SCE Unlimited, Service Partners, Shanghai Hansgrohe International Trading Co. Ltd., SmarTap, SmarTap A.Y. Ltd., Tapicerias Pacifico SA de CV, Tempered Products Inc., Texwood Industries, The Faucet-Queens, The GMU Group, The L.D. Kichler Co., Tvilum, Vapor Technologies Inc., Vapor Technologies Shenzhen Co. Ltd., Watkins Distribution UK Limited, Watkins Europe BVBA, Watkins Manufacturing Corporation, and Wellness Marketing Corporation.Morguard North American Residential Real Estate Investment Trust (the Trust) is a real estate investment trust (REIT). The Trust's investment objectives are to generate stable and growing cash distributions on a tax-efficient basis; enhance the value of the REIT's assets and maximize long-term Unit value through active asset and property management, and expand the asset base of the REIT and increase adjusted funds from operations per Unit primarily through acquisitions and improvement of its properties through targeted deployed capital expenditures. The Trust owns multi-suite residential rental properties in Canada and the United States. The Trust owns interest in a portfolio of over 10 Canadian residential apartment buildings and approximately 30 residential walk-up garden communities in the United States, consisting of over 13,470 residential suites that are located in Alberta, Ontario, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.

Read MoreNearly 90 percent of Chinese railways are subject to anti-smoking regulations, but enforcement remains poor, particularly on slower services, according to new research.

State and local tobacco control policies require that station waiting areas, platforms and train cars be smoke free.

But compliance is far from satisfactory, according to research released on Monday by Yang Jie, deputy director of tobacco control for the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, during a symposium.

Health officials and experts at the gathering, held by the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, called for tougher enforcement of tobacco control laws and regulations on trains in response to the recent smoking lawsuit against train operators in northern China.

On June 25, a Beijing court ruled in favor of a female passenger, surnamed Li, who sued Harbin Railway Bureau for having smoking areas on a slow train she rode in June 2017. The bureau was ordered to eliminate the smoking areas and ashtrays within 30 days of the ruling.

Currently, 21 cities in China ban smoking in indoor public areas, with the latest regulation taking effect in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. Another five cities have prohibited tobacco use on public transportation, according to Yang.

"Those statutes stipulate that smoking accessories on trains, including ashtrays, should be eliminated. Otherwise, the train regulators violate the law," Yang said.

Yang suggested that railway departments and health officials should work together to determine who should be in charge of enforcing the smoking bans on trains.

China prohibits smoking on airlines and bullet trains, but slower trains that carry more than one-third of the total 3 billion train passengers in China a year still have smokers on a daily basis, according to the association.

Wang Qingbin, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, also blamed lax rules for the unbridled tobacco use on slow trains and advocated harsher penalties.

"I suggest we take lessons from the Food Safety Law, which stipulates that food manufacturers involved in problematic production should pay fines whether or not harmful results are caused," Wang said.

Wang said owners of restaurants or train regulators who don't bar consumers from smoking should pay compensation to people who must endure exposure to smoke.

"It's almost impossible to replicate the success of Li's lawsuit, but we learn from the case that the current slack regulation fails to meet our expectations, and harsher enforcement is needed in the push for smoke-free environments," Wang said.

The association predicts that about 27.7 percent of Chinese people older than 15 years old smoke. The Healthy China 2030 initiative issued by the central government in October vows to cut the ratio to 20 percent before 2030.Wall Street analysts have given PSA Group a "N/A" rating, but there may be better buying opportunities in the stock market. Some of MarketBeat's past winning trading ideas have resulted in 5-15% weekly gains. MarketBeat just released five new stock ideas, but PSA Group wasn't one of them. MarketBeat thinks these five companies may be even better buys.

View MarketBeat's top stock picks here.Plastics Capital plc manufactures and sells plastic products focusing on proprietary products for niche markets in North America, the United Kingdom, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and rest of world. The company operates through Industrial and Films segments. The Industrial segment provides hydraulic hose and packaging consumables, and plastic rotating parts. The Films segment offers film packaging. The company also offers hydraulic hose mandrels and hose films; plastic bearings and assemblies, technical moldings, gears, shafts, and bushes; creasing matrix, rubbers, and printing accessories; sacks, bags, pouches, liners, and films; and polyethylene films. It sells its products directly or through distributors. Plastics Capital plc was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreSRC Energy Inc., an oil and natural gas company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, development, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids primarily in the Denver-Julesburg Basin of Colorado. As of December 31, 2018, it had net proved oil and natural gas reserves of 88 million barrels of oil and condensate, 771.9 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 89.1 million barrels of natural gas liquids; and operated 985 net producing wells, as well as had 95,200 gross and 86,200 net acres under lease in the Wattenberg Field. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Read MoreTelefAnica Brasil S.A., together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile and fixed telecommunications services to residential and corporate customers in Brazil. Its fixed line services portfolio includes local, domestic long-distance, and international long-distance calls; and mobile portfolio comprises voice and broadband internet access through 3G, 4G, and 4.5G, as well as mobile value-added services and wireless roaming services. The company also offers data services, including broadband and mobile data services. In addition, it provides pay TV services through direct to home satellite technology, IPTV, and cable, as well as pay-per-view and video on demand services; network services, such as rental of facilities; other services comprising internet access, private network connectivity, computer equipment leasing, extended service, caller identification, voice mail, cellular blocker, and others; wholesale services, including interconnection services to users of other network providers; and digital services, such as entertainment, cloud, and security and financial services, as well as sells wireless devices and accessories. Further, the company offers multimedia communication services, which include audio, data, voice and other sounds, images, texts, and other information, as well as sells devices, such as smartphones, broadband USB modems, and other devices. Additionally, it provides telecommunications solutions and IT support to various industries, such as retail, manufacturing, services, financial institutions, government, etc. It markets and sells its solutions through own stores, dealers, retail and distribution channels, door-to-door sales, and telesales. The company was formerly known as TelecomunicaAAes de SAo Paulo S.A. - TELESP and changed its name to TelefAnica Brasil S.A. in October 2011. The company was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in SAo Paulo, Brazil.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Eli Lilly and: 1096401 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, ARMO BioSciences Inc, ARMO Bioscience, Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Alnara Pharmaceuticals Inc., Andean Technical Operations Center, Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., AurKa Pharma, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals Inc., ChemGen, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals, CoLucid Pharmaceuticals Inc., Dermira, Devices for Vascular Intervention(DVI), Disarm Therapeutics, Dista Ilac Ticaret Ltd. Sti., Dista S.A., Dista-Produtos Quimicos & Farmaceuticos LDA, ELCO Dominicana SRL, ELCO Insurance Company Limited, ELCO Management Inc., ELCO for Trade and Marketing S.A.E., ELGO Insurance Company Limited, Elanco Animal Health Ireland Limited, Elanco Switzerland Holding Sarl, Eli Lilly (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Eli Lilly (Philippines) Incorporated, Eli Lilly (S.A.) (Proprietary) Limited, Eli Lilly (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Eli Lilly (Suisse) S.A., Eli Lilly Asia Inc., Eli Lilly Asia Pacific SSC Sdn Bhd, Eli Lilly Australia Pty. Limited, Eli Lilly B-H d.o.o., Eli Lilly Benelux S.A., Eli Lilly Bienes y Servicios S de RL de CV, Eli Lilly CR s.r.o., Eli Lilly Canada Inc., Eli Lilly Cork Limited, Eli Lilly Danmark A/S, Eli Lilly Egypt for Trading, Eli Lilly European Clinical Trial Services SA, Eli Lilly Export S.A., Eli Lilly Finance S.A., Eli Lilly Ges.m.b.H., Eli Lilly Group Limited, Eli Lilly Holdings Ltd., Eli Lilly Hrvatska d.o.o., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc., Eli Lilly Interamerica Inc. y Compania Limitada, Eli Lilly International Corporation, Eli Lilly Ireland Holdings Limited, Eli Lilly Israel Ltd., Eli Lilly Italia S.p.A., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Eli Lilly Kinsale Limited, Eli Lilly Nederland B.V., Eli Lilly Nigeria Ltd., Eli Lilly Norge A.S., Eli Lilly Pakistan (Pvt.) Ltd., Eli Lilly Polska Sp.z.o.o. (Ltd.), Eli Lilly Regional Operations GmbH, Eli Lilly Romania SRL, Eli Lilly S.A., Eli Lilly Saudi Arabia Limited, Eli Lilly Services Inc, Eli Lilly Services India Private Limited, Eli Lilly Slovakia s.r.o., Eli Lilly Sweden AB, Eli Lilly Vostok S.A. Geneva, Eli Lilly and Company, Eli Lilly and Company (India) Pvt. Ltd., Eli Lilly and Company (Ireland) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (N.Z.) Limited, Eli Lilly and Company (Taiwan) Inc., Eli Lilly and Company Limited, Eli Lilly de Centro America S.A., Eli Lilly do Brasil Limitada, Eli Lilly farmacevtska druzba d.o.o., Eli Lilly y Compania de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Eli Lilly y Compania de Venezuela S.A., Glycostasis Inc, Greenfield-Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Heart Rhythm Technologies Inc, Hybritech, Hypnion, ICOS Corporation, ImClone GmbH, ImClone LLC, ImClone Systems Holdings Inc., ImClone Systems LLC, Imclone Systems, Irisfarma S.A., Ivy Animal Health, Kinsale Financial Services Unlimited Company, Lilly (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd, Lilly Asia Ventures Fund I L.P., Lilly Asia Ventures Fund II L.P., Lilly Asian Ventures Fund III L.P., Lilly Cayman Holdings, Lilly China Research and Development Co. Ltd., Lilly Deutschland GmbH, Lilly France S.A.S., Lilly Global Nederland Holdings B.V., Lilly Global Services Inc., Lilly Holding GmbH, Lilly Holdings B.V., Lilly Hungaria KFT, Lilly Japan Financing G.K., Lilly Korea Ltd., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V., Lilly Nederland Finance B.V. - GCC, Lilly Nederland Holding B.V., Lilly Pharma Ltd., Lilly Portugal - Produtos Farmaceuticos Lda., Lilly S.A., Lilly Suzhou Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Lilly Trading Co. LTD, Lilly USA LLC, Lilly Ventures Fund I LLC, Lilly del Caribe Inc., Lilly ilac ticaret limited sirketi, Lohmann Animal Health, Loxo Oncology, Lylly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology PTE. LTD., Novartis Animal Health, OY Eli Lilly Finland AB, Origin Medsystems, PT. Eli Lilly Indonesia, Pacific Biotech, Pharmaserve-Lilly S.A.C.I., Physio-Control, SGX Pharmaceuticals, SGX Pharmaceuticals Inc, Spaly Bioquimica S.A., UAB Eli Lilly Lietuva, Valquifarma S.A., and Vital Pharma Productos Farmaceuticos.Avianca Holdings S.A., through its subsidiaries, provides passenger and cargo air transportation services in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Europe, South America, and internationally. It also offers aircraft maintenance, crew training, and other airport services to other carriers, as well as travel and cargo related services to its customers. In addition, the company is involved in the ground operations for third-party airlines, and aircraft leasing activities; and operates LifeMiles, a frequent flyer program. As of December 31, 2017, it operated a fleet of 186 aircraft, including 144 jet passenger aircrafts, 30 turboprop passenger aircrafts, and 12 cargo aircrafts. The company was formerly known as AviancaTaca Holding S.A. and changed its name to Avianca Holdings S.A. in March 2013. The company was founded in 1919 and is based in Panama City, Panama. Avianca Holdings S.A. is a subsidiary of Synergy Aerospace Corp.

Read MoreThe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)  under which China is connecting itself with its "natural partners" along the Silk Road trading routes of the past  continues to be a guide for the Arab world and the Middle East.

China realizes that the Arab world is an important and inevitable outlet for the realization of the project, which will connect Asia and Europe through a network of roads, ports and railways.

The wars and political instability sweeping the Arab world, however, threaten Beijing's plan. Regional complications pose challenges to China-Arab ties and demand new solutions.

China has long asserted that it pursues a "non-interference" policy in the Mideast, one that is purely economic and mainly energy-driven. The country has relied on the region's oil and gas supplies to drive its fast-paced growth, but has shunned political involvement.

Beijing's policy has drawn criticism internationally, with the U.S. accusing it of being a free rider in the Middle East for taking financial advantage of the energy flow and giving little in return with regard to democratization, conflict resolution and the fight against terrorism.

However, China's Mideast strategy cannot be entirely viewed through the prism of the approach that saw the U.S. and its allies launching wars and regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria, and failing to solve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Instead, China has publicized a policy that promotes stability, security and economic development as solutions to rid the region of its problems.

A conflict management-oriented strategy has been a defining characteristic of China's Mideast policy thus far.

Beijing disagreed with the U.S.'s 2003 invasion of Iraq, vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at imposing regime change during that country's civil war, tries to keep balanced ties with the regional foes Iran and Saudi Arabia, and supports a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Beijing claims that it does not have any geopolitical agenda in the Mideast, and asserts that its approach is based on peace brokering and economic development. Indeed, regional oil-rich countries are opening their petroleum markets wider to China to fill the void left by the U.S., whose Mideast energy sales are dwindling as it increasingly relies on its own shale oil and gas.

Seeking to diversify their revenue sources and attract foreign investment, Arab countries have allowed China to develop new infrastructure, build harbors, airports, metros, roads, high-speed railways and industrial parks, and import advanced technologies. 2016 visits to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran by Chinese leadership resulted in contracts and loans worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Chinese humanitarian aid has flowed into the region, Chinese products have flooded Arab markets, and China is positioning itself as a leading actor in reconstruction in post-war Syria.

In 2010, China surpassed the U.S. as the Arab states' largest trading partner. China-Arab trade in 2017 reached US$200 billion, and direct Chinese investment in Arab countries reached US$1.26 billion. Chinese leaders have promised over US$23 billion in loans to Arab states and in aid to Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Jordan and Lebanon, in addition to supporting the financial sector in the form of a China-Arab bank consortium. China also expects to import US$8 trillion worth of products from Arab states by 2025.

This relationship demonstrates the intersections of Arab countries' "eastward-looking" policies and China's "westward-looking" strategy.

Haifa Said is chief editor of the English Department at the Syrian Arab News Agency.





Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation produces and sells a range of containerboards, corrugated products, and specialty paper products in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Paper and Packaging, and Distribution. The Paper and Packaging segment offers containerboards consisting of linerboard and corrugated medium to manufacture corrugated containers for packaging products; and corrugated products. It also offers specialty paper products, including kraft paper, such as multiwall paper used to produce bags for agricultural products, pet food, baking products, cement and chemicals; specialty products comprising shingle wraps, end caps, roll wraps, and dunnage bags; and lightweight paper. In addition, this segment provides saturating kraft paper under the Durasorb trade name for use in construction, electronics manufacturing, and furniture manufacturing industries; and unbleached folding carton board under the Kraftpak trade name to integrated and independent converters in the folding carton industry. The Distribution segment distributes corrugated and other specialty packaging products consisting of stretch films, void fills, carton sealing tapes, and other specialty tapes. KapStone Paper and Packaging Corporation was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

Read MoreConfirmation that UK Prime Minister Theresa May supports the decision not to seek guarantees from Washington against the death penalty in the case of the so-called ISIS Beatles sets a dangerous and sinister precedent.

On Monday, the Daily Telegraph leaked a letter from Home Secretary Sajid Javid to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions disclosing that the government would not seek death penalty assurance in the case of Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh. The pair are alleged to be members of a four-man ISIS cell responsible for the brutal murders of several Western captives in Syria and Iraq.

Dubbed the Islamic States Beatles due to their British accents, Kotey and Elsheikh, along with Mohammed Emwazi (AKA Jihadi John) and Aine Davis, are alleged to have appeared masked in videos glorifying the bloody executions of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Emwazi was killed in a targeted US air strike in 2015, while Davis was convicted in Turkey of membership in a terrorist organisation and jailed for seven-and-a-half years in 2017. Kotey and Elsheikh were captured by Western-backed Kurdish militias in Syria in January 2018, as they fled advancing Syrian government forces and have been held there since.

Britain abolished the death penalty for murder in 1965 (although it remained in force in Northern Ireland until 1973) and officially has declined to extradite suspects to any jurisdiction that might result in their execution. But in the leaked letter, Javid wrote the UK does not currently intend to request, nor actively encourage the transfer of Kotey and Elsheikh to Britain, suggesting there was more chance of their successful prosecution in the US.

He wrote: I am of the view that there are strong reasons for not requiring a death penalty assurance in this specific case, so no such assurances will be sought.

Lord Carlile, the cross-bench peer, described Javids letter as a dramatic change of policy by a minister, secretly, without any discussion in parliament. ... That is a decades-old policy and it is not for the home secretary to change. ...

Not only has the government covertly abandoned blanket opposition to the death penalty, but it has overturned its publicly stated opposition to the Guantanamo Bay US military camp in Cuba. In January, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order to keep Guantanamo open, building on Barack Obamas failure to close the facility.

The internal briefing, marked official sensitive, says: If the US deems a federal prosecution not possible, they might seek transfer of Kotey and El-Sheikh to Guantanamo Bay (GTMO).

Cynically, it notes that, although Her Majestys Government will not lobby the US to not send them to GTMO, we will maintain our long-standing position that GTMO should close, in part due to the wider reputational risks of HMG seemingly undermining our publicly stated desire to see the facility closed.

The briefing states that Javid and Boris Johnson, then foreign secretary, made the decision, and notes that May is aware of this. ...

The briefing notes that Javid instructed officials to action the request for UK cooperation in intelligence sharing. According to the Telegraph, the Metropolitan Police and FBI have been investigating Kotey and El-Sheikh activities in Syria for the past four years, collecting more than 600 witness statements in a criminal inquiry involving 14 other countries.

It has now been revealed that the government had already secretly stripped the two of British citizenship, making them stateless. El-Sheikh grew up in London as the child of parents who fled Sudan in the 1990s, while Kotey, of Ghanaian and Greek-Cypriot parentage, was born in London.

The British media is loudly propagandising that the atrocities of which the pair are accused means they have forfeited any rights. Noting smugly that this is not an extradition case as it had now been officially acknowledged that these men are no longer UK citizens, the Telegraph questioned why government should ever have been required to seek assurances about the use of the death penalty in order to hand over intelligence to the US courts?

Rupert Murdochs Sun, under the heading, We couldnt care less about the fate of the two ISIS jihadis and good riddance if they are executed in the US, editorialised, We should give them [the US] every scrap of evidence we have. And if this pair face the death penalty under US law, what business is it of ours?

The case underscores the extent to which democratic rightsgoing as far back as the Magna Cartahave been overturned under the pretext of the war on terror.

The 2014 Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill empowered the home secretary to strip UK-born citizens of British citizenship under the royal prerogative.

In September 2015, then-Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he had authorised the extra-judicial killings of British citizensReyaad Khan, Ruhul Amin and an unnamed otherin a US drone strike.

The British authorities are known to have participated with Washington in extraordinary rendition and torture at CIA black sites. The decision of the May government in this case goes even further in enabling the state to accrue authoritarian powers on the pretext of national security.

In May, the Washington Post reported a dispute between London and Washington over whether Kotey and El-Sheikh should stand trial in the UK, in keeping with the US governments position that terrorist fighters captured overseas should be returned to their countries of origin, or be sent to Guantanamo or stand trial in the US.

The report cited an apparent reluctance on the part of the Department of Justice to the latter course because federal prosecutors did not believe there is sufficient evidence to secure convictions and lengthy prison terms.

Detention in Guantanamo, however, might also lead to lengthy wrangles, leading to Sessionss complaint that he was disappointed, frankly, that the Britishare not willing to try the cases but pretend to tell us how to try them.

In the leaked briefing, Javid refers to the governments intent to address Washingtons concerns. I do understand your frustration on this subject, he wrote, so, in order to improve the chances of prosecution in other cases in the future we in the UK are introducing new legislation to improve the range of offences on the statute book going forward. ...

Additional issues of grave import are also raised by this case, which coincides with the extraordinary Israeli operation to transfer Syrian White Helmets out of danger of capture by Syrian government forces for resettlement in Canada and Europe. As the WSWS noted, this is aimed at the salvaging of individuals who have served as assets in the Western-backed campaign to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad and replace it with a pliant stooge regime.

This is only the most overt instance of US and British military/intelligence backing for Islamic jihadis. It is a matter of public record that the Islamic extremists responsible for the Manchester and London bombings in 2017, like those involved in the 2005 London bus bombings, were known to British intelligence.

Jihadi John was known by MI5 for six years and yet was able to travel to Syria in 2013. Not only did Britains MI5 intelligence agency carefully track his movements, but it had sought to recruit him as an informant and covert agent. Chief among the questions the intelligence agency had to answer about its relations with Emwazi, the WSWS wrote at the time, was whether it was successful in its recruitment efforts. In other words, did Emwazi go to Syria with MI5s foreknowledge and blessings?

Is it to avoid the possibility that Kotey and Elsheikh might say too much that the British authorities do not want them to stand trial in the UK?

Yet another alarming coincidence arises. Ben Emmerson, QC, a former UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, described Javids stance as unprincipled, incompetent and almost certainly unlawful.

Historically, the British governments position to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances has translated to an absolute rule, which is legally enforceable, not to extradite an individual to a country where they are at serious risk of the death penalty without an assurance that the penalty will not be carried out.

It was immaterial that the men were no longer British citizens. It is passing information to a foreign power where they know the consequences are going to be a fundamental human rights abuse of this kind, he said.

In the last days, it has been revealed that the US and UK are in cahoots with Ecuador to evict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange imminently from the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has been forced to shelter for six years for exposing the war crimes of Washington and its allies.

If he leaves the embassy, he will be imprisoned by Britain for breaching bail and almost certainly face an application to extradite him to the United States to stand trial on manufactured charges of espionage, which carries the death penalty. It cannot be ruled out that these latest actions are part of the British governments preparations to serve Assange up to Washington.More than 2,400 nurses, mental health workers, technicians and therapists at Rhode Island Hospital and its associated Hasbro Childrens Hospital have gone on strike this week, with hundreds picketing the hospital in Providence. Workers called the strike after rejecting a new contract by vote last week, along with demands made by management in a federal mediating session on Monday morning.

The workers are striking against attacks on their raises, pensions and working conditions. The three-year contract that recently expired guaranteed 3.5 percent yearly step increases for each worker. These steps cover the first 10 years of a workers tenure, and no additional cost of living increase has been given to them for the last eight years.

In the recent negotiations, management sought to restructurethat is, weakenthe steps, with raises as low as 2.25 percent per year over a four-year contract.

A striking nurse told WPRO, Im doing everybody elses job with very little resources, poor equipment, and the people are getting sicker and sicker. Im incapable of doing my job, at this point, safely.

Lifespan is a hospital group composed of Rhode Island Hospital and four others, including the Brown University medical school. RIH by itself is the fourth largest employer in the state, and Lifespan, with 17,000 workers, is the largest.

On Monday Lifespans director of public relations boasted that the system is worth $2.2 billion, then complained to the press that last year it showed an operating income of only $14.6 million. The organization is paying $10 million to Huffmaster Strike Services to provide scabs during the strike. If this amount were paid out to the 2,400 striking workers, each would receive more than $4,000.

The previous three-year contract, which contained a no strike-no lockout clause, expired on June 30.

A Frequently Asked Questions document on the website of United Nurses and Allied Professionals Local 5098, which represents the workers, dodges the question of a strike fund, claiming that it would require extra dues. Instead, it advises members to borrow money from their Fidelity retirement accounts or notify your creditors that you may have difficulty paying some bills in the event of a strike. Reassure them that you will continue to do your best to pay them.

Picketing nurses were pictured holding signs that read Patients Before Profits. Like many not-for-profits, Lifespan avoids taxes but pays its executives handsomely. Rhode Island Hospital had revenues of nearly $1.3 billion in 2016, up 5 percent from the year before. Its president took home nearly $800,000 in salary and other compensation that year, and the executive vice president made more than $1.65 million.

The strike was scheduled to last from 3 p.m. Monday to 3 p.m. Thursday. Management is then planning a one-day lockout because it signed a four-day contract with the scab company.

While the union weakened the strike from the beginning by setting a three-day limit, management and the states government were far better prepared. On Monday the Providence Journal wrote, in the basement of the Department of Health, officials gathered Monday morning in an impromptu command center as if preparing for a major storm.

In fact, the Rhode Island Department of Health began issuing nursing licenses to scabs as early as June 1 in preparation for the strike. Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott, Director of RIDOH, told the press: We have evaluated and seen that the nurses that are brought in are experienced nurses. This is a company that deals with strike management, so there is reassurance.

That company, Huffmaster Strike Services, boasts on its wesite, Huffmaster can assist with all aspects of pre-strike contingency planning and, if a work stoppage occurs, we can provide replacement workers, strike trained uniformed officers, and a full array of supporting services.Extreme weather in Japan continues to claim lives as more than 77 people have died during a heatwave in which temperatures reached record highs. This comes on the heels of massive flooding and landslides caused by torrential rains that left over 210 people dead, the most in such a disaster in 35 years.

Temperatures have been as high as 41.4 degrees Celsius in Tokyo and have impacted the continued clean-up operations in the southwestern part of the country following the floods. AccuWeather analyst Joel Myers warned that the real death toll is likely already in the hundreds despite the official toll of somewhat more than two dozen, a result of the more indirect effects of the heat wave on ones health.

The death toll is the latest example of a pattern of inadequate preparation for extreme weather as seen in previous natural disasters in Japan. In these cases, the elderly often bear the brunt and this year has been no different, with older people and retirees being the majority of those killed in the heat wave and floods.

Many apartments and schools lack air conditioning or centrally controlled climate systems meaning that people do not have access to cooling centres, particularly workers and the poor who cannot afford private air conditioning units. Eleven people, mostly elderly, died on Saturday alone.

Similar patterns are seen amongst the flood victims. In reporting on the fatalities, the Japan Times noted that of the 169 identified victims, as of July 15, 118 were over the age of 60. Even more shockingly, the Financial Times reported that in the town worst hit by the floods, Mabi, located in Okayama Prefecture, only 1 of the 40 confirmed deaths was under the age of 62.

In explaining the high proportion of deaths, both Japanese media outlets and the government have sought to shift blame on to the elderly, claiming in the case of the floods that they failed to heed warnings and evacuate in time. When asked to comment, one senior government official reportedly said I think Japan is going to have to recognise that old people either cannot, or do not want to, follow the textbook procedures in a crisis.

Others have attributed the deaths as an inevitable part of the ageing demographic of Japan, which now has the largest proportion of elderly people in the world, with more than one-quarter over the age of 65. Such explanations were contradicted by revelations of the inadequate measures taken by local and federal Japanese authorities in providing adequate warning and evacuation during the storm, an issue seen consistently in prior natural disasters.

As Professor Shiro Maeno, of Okayama University, an expert on river engineering noted, There was no way the elderly and the disabled could have been evacuated with an order that was past midnight [only a few hours before the disaster struck]. The response should have come much earlier.

In Mabi, residents were only given minutes to evacuate due to a delay in issuing the necessary warnings. Compounding this, in some cases, many elderly individuals simply had nowhere to go. Evacuees from around Japan reported that some shelters were either too small or were already full when they arrived.

Mabi residents also reported that the government delayed for decades implementing appropriate flood-control plans, and upgrading early warning systems, with construction of appropriate defences planned to start only later this year despite the project being approved in 2010.

Poor planning and criminal negligence are the norm, not the exception. With each disaster, the government issues empty platitudes while doing nothing to make genuine improvements. When eastern Japan was struck by the devastating 2011 Tokohu earthquake and tsunami, resulting in the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, roughly two-thirds of the nearly 16,000 killed were over the age of 60.

Invariably, the bulk of the burden and suffering caused by such negligence and misappropriation of public wealth is borne by the working class and the poor. Due to the decades-long economic stagnation of Japan, coupled with intensifying attacks by the ruling elite against living and working conditions, poverty rates have increased across most age-groups since the 1980s.

Current rates of old-age poverty in Japan are estimated at roughly 20 percent, one of the highest in the developed world and nearly double the OECD average of 12.5 percent. However, certain layers of elderly workers, particularly single women have been hit even more severely, with poverty rates in that group reaching 40 percent for divorced women, a product of the regressive measures of Japans welfare system that penalizes unmarried women.

Like the current generation of youth and middle-aged workers, who have often had years of insecure employment, the poverty rates for the elderly will worsen. This social reality is met with indifference, if not outright hostility, by the Japanese governments who refuse to provide workers with any real support once they have outlived their usefulness as sources of exploitation.

Contrary to Tokyos claims that an aging society means that no money will be available for social programs, the Japanese government, while providing tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations, has embarked upon massive re-militarization. Earlier this year, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party proposed to double its military spending to two percent of GDP, which would make it the third-largest military spender in the world.A protest against Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno took place in Londons Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park yesterday morning, outside the Global Disability Summit.

Some of those protesting Moreno in London

Organised at short notice, a small group, mainly Latin American migrants and exiles, condemned the new President for his right-wing social policies and threats to withdraw protection from WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

The formally given reason for Morenos visit to the UK was to attend the Summit. A growing number of credible reports, however, suggest that Morenos real purpose was to discuss secret plans with British government officials to evict Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then arrest him.

Assange has spent over six years inside the embassy, seeking asylum from ultimate extradition to the United States, where he could face a Grand Jury on possible charges of espionage that can carry a death sentence. The UK is playing a key role by maintaining breach of bail charges against Assangerelating to a case that no longer existsas a pretext for taking him into custody if he steps out of the Embassy. A United Nations working group ruled in February 2016 that this amounted to arbitrary detention.

Now Moreno is preparing the way for an even greater injustice. His presidency has been marked by a shift to the right in Ecuadorian politics and a related reorientation towards an alliance with American imperialism. He and his government see Assange not as an asylum seeker and whistle-blower of international significance, but as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States. A major step was taken in this direction four months ago, when Assanges contact with the outside worldexcluding only his lawyerswas cut off, under increasing pressure from the US.

Both the fraud of Morenos official reasons for visiting the UK and his importance to the British state were made clear yesterday. He spent less than two hours at the summit he had nominally travelled so far to attend. He was whisked into and out of the building in a motorcade, and protected by a police presence, wholly disproportionate to the 20 or so peaceful protestors in attendanceincluding some with children.

The extent of the machinations Ecuador was carrying out against Assange were further exposed yesterday when WikiLeaks tweeted, An Ecuadorian press report states that a double agent at the Ecuadorian embassy, who was spying on @JulianAssange, defected to the UK last month when she was dismissed. The agent had been formally working for Ecuadors intelligence agency SENAIN under diplomatic cover.

WSWS reporters spoke to Mayra, a dental hygienist currently studying in the UK for a masters degree in public health. Asked why she was attending the protest, Mayra explained, There are various issues. In my opinion, it is totally wrong that Lenin Moreno is here today supposedly representing disabled people, because he is applying a neoliberal agenda in Ecuador. In addition, he is persecuting Julian Assange by trying to remove him from the Ecuadorian Embassy.

Its not just a question of me or you, its a question of defending the whole planet against the abuses of the United States and other countries that are attacking innocent countries because they dont like the president and want to get rid of him for not following their agenda Julian Assange was one of the people who exposed these abuses, abuses of human rights and of the laws governing war.

Hes not just protecting people in Iraq and Syria, for example. With his efforts to find out what is actually going on in those countries hes actually defending the human rights of the whole world.

Mayra

On the role of the UK government, Mayra said, This government does not stand up for human rights at all. It abuses everybody. It has a completely different agenda. It acts to protect the rich, following the United States and their criminality. Julian Assange is an innocent person and freedom of speech must be respected.

Also attending the protest was Clara, a long-time campaigner in defence of WikiLeaks, who regularly attends a vigil outside the Ecuadorian Embassy. Clara said, Morenos main purpose [in Britain] is to negotiate with the UK government to get rid of Assange. This conference is a cover. It has been in the press in Ecuador, with the new foreign minister, publicly saying that the asylum [case of Assange] is taking too long, so its another way of saying that they want him out.

Clara explained the political context of Morenos actions, saying that the US was playing a greater role in Ecuadorian politics. They already have troops in Ecuador from the US. The ex-President got rid of US bases, but now Moreno has opened all the doors to get them in. Mr Moreno, when he got into power, made a comment about Julian saying that he was a hacker, which hes not, and saying that he should be very careful about what hes doing in his embassy, in his territory. Since then, he keeps saying that Assange is a stone in his shoe, that he got lumbered with this problem.

Clara continued, And there are rumours being spread in Ecuador in the newspapers that [former president] Mr [Rafael] Correa didnt carry out any legal investigation about whether to give Julian asylum, because they were very close friends. That is a lie. Ive been involved in this campaign for many years and its a lie. Correa took two months with a legal team to investigate whether Assange was politically persecuted. There was a legal investigation, suggestions otherwise are a smear.

And they have been helped by the Guardian. They [Ecuador] have this man called Fernando Villavicencio. One minute hes a reporter, the next he isnt. And he is giving the Ecuadorian government smears about Mr Assange. The Guardians attacks against Julian have been absolutely incredibleworse than any other paper.

Clara

Asked about the protest and the need for further actions in defence of Assange, Clara said, There should be more people protesting, obviously. We are very frustrated that there are only a few of us, practically.

I think these [WikiLeaks] leaks regarding [Hillary] Clinton [in 2016] were a turning point. For example, we used to have a group, Women Against Rape, who bravely published a statement in the Guardian in 2012 in favour of Julian, without any doubts. They were with us for years. But the last message I had from them was that they were very angry with the revelations about Clinton. That had a lot to do with it.

On Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyns silence over Assange since he was elected, Clara said, Im very angry with Mr Corbyn, I dont know whats happened to him. I know he has worked all his life for human rights, so I dont understand his position; why he hasnt said anything about Julian Assange. But I think hes under siege in his party. Theyve got that man gagged.

Clara thanked the WSWS for its work in defending Assange, saying, We are really grateful that your website has been so strong in defending Julian.

There is immense support internationally for WikiLeaks work in exposing imperialist crimes and abuses of democracy. But that support finds no expression in the bourgeois media or existing political set-up. Support for Assange must be drawn into a powerful movement in defence of free speech across the world, based on the working class and directing all its energies to securing the freedom and safety of Julian Assange. The Socialist Equality Party and WSWS will continue the fight to organise such a campaign.

A further protest is planned for August 16th outside the Ecuadorian embassy, to mark the sixth anniversary of Assange being granted political asylum by Ecuador.In the aftermath of Donald Trumps meeting in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, the Democratic Party and the bulk of the American media have relentlessly attacked the US president, branding him a traitor or Kremlin stooge. With virtual unanimity, the press has condemned Trump for selling out America by questioning the claims of the US intelligence agencies that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to secure Trumps victory.

Despite the hysteria whipped up inside the Beltway and among the affluent sections of the upper-middle class aligned with the Democratic Party, the Democrats anti-Russia campaign is finding no significant response among the broad mass of the American people.

While opinion polls conducted after the Helsinki summit report divergent results, one, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, registers a one percentage point rise in Trumps approval rating compared to June, bringing it to 45 percent, the highest mark of his presidency.

At the same time, the poll shows broad popular opposition to the right-wing policies of the Trump administration. Fifty-one percent of voters disagree with Trumps handling of border security, according to the survey, and 58 percent oppose the separation of immigrant children from their parents and their confinement in detention camps.

Another poll conducted after the Helsinki summit, this one by the Washington Post and ABC News, reports that more than half of Americans approve of Trumps handling of the meeting.

It is always necessary to treat with skepticism polls conducted by the capitalist media, which are themselves part of the internal warfare in Washington. Other polls show Trumps approval rating falling, and there is no doubt that he remains deeply hated.

It is clear, however, that the Democrats campaign over Russian meddling is not evoking a popular response. If the Democrats were to call demonstrations under their preferred slogansAll the way with the CIA!, War with Russia! or, perhaps, God Bless the Deep State!it would not produce a significant turnout. The broad mass of the American population is not in favor of war. They know, moreover, why they voted the way they did in 2016, and it had nothing to do with Putin.

The two presidential candidates in 2016 were the most unpopular in US electoral history. Masses of workers felt they had been conned by Obama and turned away from the Democrats in disgust after his eight years of war, austerity and handouts to the bankers.

They saw Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton for what she wasa corrupt pawn of Wall Street and the military-intelligence apparatus. When Bernie Sanders carried out his pre-planned capitulation and backed Clinton, Trump was given free rein to demagogically appeal to anti-establishment sentiment, including among sections of workers devastated by plant closures and layoffs.

The Democrats resorted to the fiction of Russian meddling and Trump collusion in 2016 because they were incapable of offering any policies to address the real concerns of working people, whom Clinton treated with barely concealed contempt. They are today even less able to make a popular appeal based on the concerns of workers and youth. Instead, they repeat the very approach that produced their electoral debacle in 2016.

Indeed, the Democrats hope that one consequence of the media hysteria over the Helsinki summit is that it will allow them to center their 2018 election campaigns on the issue. The Washington Post reported last week, Citing polls and focus groups that have put Trump and Russia far down the list of voter priorities, Democratic strategists have counseled candidates and party leaders for months to discuss kitchen table issues. Now those strategists believe the ground may have shifted.

Since Trumps election, the Democrats have devoted their energies to undermining and suppressing the mass opposition that exists to the fascistic billionaire. They were terrified by the mass protests that erupted at the time of Trumps inauguration and the wave of teachers strikes that occurred earlier this year. They have worked single-mindedly to channel social and political discontent behind a program of military confrontation with Russia, Internet censorship and defense of the military-intelligence deep state.

This raises very real dangers. The Democrats pro-war hysteria following the Helsinki summit has only burnished Trumps anti-establishment credentials, serving to legitimize his brand of right-wing nationalism. The entirely right-wing, pro-war character of the Democrats opposition to Trump underscores the impossibility of the sentiments and interests of the working class finding any expression within the framework of the capitalist two-party system.

The Democrats speak for the predominant factions of the US intelligence complex and sections of the military command and financial elite who oppose any retreat from the aggressive policy against Russia initiated by the Obama administration. They are seeking to manipulate public opinion by resurrecting a narrative of anti-Russian hysteria that goes back to the days of Joe McCarthy and the John Birch Society.

Trump, on the other hand, speaks for a faction of the ruling class that favors leveraging the United States preeminent position in the global economy and geopolitical order to reverse Washingtons trade deficits and supports a temporary accommodation with Moscow in return for Russias acceptance of a US-led war against Iran.

This basic unanimity of the two parties on war and reaction is demonstrated by the overwhelming bipartisan support for the near-record $717 billion military budget that is rapidly moving through Congress.

There is, however, another opposition to Trump that is of a completely different and opposed social character. It is rooted in the working class, the only social force capable of mobilizing behind it all progressive sections of society in a struggle against war, inequality and authoritarianism.

The upsurge of teachers in the US, part of an international revival of class struggle, has shown that the ability of the trade unions to suppress working-class opposition is breaking down. This resistance must be broadened and given organizational and political expression through the building of new organs of working-class strugglerank-and-file factory and neighborhood committeesand a socialist, revolutionary and internationalist program directed against all of the parties and politicians of the ruling class and the capitalist system they defend.A fortnight has passed since around 30,000 New Zealand nurses, healthcare assistants and midwives in public hospitals held their first 24-hour nationwide strike in 30 yearsthe largest strike by any section of workers in decades.

The July 12 strike was carried out in defiance of the NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) leaders, who cancelled an earlier strike scheduled for July 5an anti-democratic move that provoked outrage among workers.

Hundreds of health workers in the nurses Facebook group New Zealand, please hear our voice have demanded more strikes. However, as soon as the strike was over, the NZNO and government moved to close down the dispute. Bargaining was promptly re-started without any specific demands being advanced by the union and the government insisting that it would not increase its offer.

The fact that the talks have stalled with no further communication to nurses indicates that another sell-out is being prepared behind the scenes. Workers have now rejected four deals presented by the NZNO since late 2017 because none have met the needs of workers or the decrepit health system.

The struggle of health workers now stands at a crossroads: if it remains in the hands of the union bureaucracy, it will be betrayed. The NZNO has no intention of waging a sustained political and industrial campaign against the government. It is working with District Health Boards (DHBs) to wear down workers and pressure them to accept the governments lie that there is no more money.

There are decisive political lessons to be drawn from this dispute. This is not simply an industrial conflict, but a political struggle against the Ardern Labour government, which rules, not on behalf of workers, but for the capitalist class. This government, in a coalition with NZ First and the Greens, has made clear that, despite campaign promises, there will be no gains for nurses or any other section of workers. The trade union bureaucracy is enforcing that austerity program.

The health workers struggle has demolished claims that the Labour-led government, installed in October 2017, would restore capitalisms human face. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been glorified internationally by the corporate media and the unions as a beacon of progress for women. The pseudo-left groups, the International Socialist Organisation and Socialist Aotearoa, supported Labours election campaign based on false claims that it was a lesser evil to the National Party.

In fact, the Labour-led coalition is continuing Nationals attacks on living standards. It refuses to raise corporate taxes to address poverty and the underfunding of health, education and other basic services. Meanwhile, Labour has committed $20 billion to military upgrades over the next decade and a half, to participate in US-led wars abroad, at the direct expense of health and other services.

The government is carrying out the demands of the corporate elite. On July 14 Kim Campbell, head of the Employers and Manufacturers Association, told TV3 many workers were lucky to get one percent annual pay rises and businesses feared that if nurses and teachers received much more, then everybody else is going to have their hands out.

The ruling classs determination to keep wages down highlights the urgent need for workers to unite their different struggles. The main obstacle is the trade union bureaucracy, which has acted for decades on behalf of governments and big business to divide the working class and suppress resistance to redundancies, privatisations and wage cuts.

The Socialist Equality Group calls on workers to consciously adopt a socialist and internationalist perspective, in opposition to the entire political establishment, and to rebel against the pro-capitalist union bureaucracy by establishing independent rank-and-file workplace committees controlled democratically by workers themselves. These committees must broaden the fight against austerity by uniting all sections of the working class in New Zealand and internationally.

In Britain, thousands of people have joined protests against repeated cuts to the National Health Service, which has been brought to the brink of collapse by underfunding and outsourcing to private companies. In Venezuela, the US, and in Australia, nurses are also engaged in struggles over low wages and staffing.

In New Zealand there has been a wave of industrial action. As well as nurses, thousands of rail and bus workers, fast food workers and public servants have struck, while primary school teachers recently voted to strike in pursuit of a 16 percent pay increase.

Unless the strangle-hold of the union bureaucracy is broken, these struggles will be isolated and betrayed.

NZNO leader Memo Musa admitted on July 10 that the union compromised with hospital management for the past decade by accepting low staffing, low wages and under-resourcing of hospitals. Before the recent strike, NZNO echoed the Labour governments insistence that the current offer could not be increased. The union has ignored nurses demands, which gained widespread support on Facebook, for a pay rise of 18-20 percent and a mandatory ratio of one nurse to four patients.

Following the nationwide nurses strike in 1989, the unions quickly demobilised the movement against the then-Labour government and settled for a pay increase of about 2 percent. Over the next three decades strikes virtually disappeared while National and Labour governments oversaw the closure or privatisation of more than 100 hospitals, froze wages, increased patient fees and pushed thousands off surgery waiting lists.

The unions betrayals stem from the fundamental transformation of these organisations. The unions originally based themselves on gaining limited improvements for workers within the framework of capitalism and the nation-state system. The globalisation of productionthe ability of corporations to operate on a global scalefatally undermined this national-reformist perspective, and the unions transformed themselves into management agents of employers and the state.

Today, amid growing economic volatility, trade war and the lack of any real recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, the unions accept the governments position that spending on public services must be strictly limited so taxes can be kept low for the super-rich, and billions of dollars made available to the military.

Health workers are already being driven to organise independently of the NZNO. Protests have been coordinated and demands discussed in the Facebook group New Zealand, please hear our voice. The group administrators, however, see their role as placing pressure on the union leadership, without challenging its authority. They have on several occasions deleted criticism of NZNO.

In opposition to the unions efforts to isolate every industrial dispute, independent rank-and-file committees will strive to unite workers across different industries and communities in a common fight against soaring inequality, homelessness, poverty and militarism. They must also forge ties with workers in Australia and other countries, who are seeking to fight back against their appalling conditions.

Poverty is placing unbearable pressure on the health system, with growing reports of third world diseases such as rheumatic fever and bronchiectasis, caused by damp and overcrowded housing. Rank-and-file committees must connect the fight for well-staffed hospitals and highly paid health workers with demands for affordable, high-quality housing, and decent wages and benefits for all.

The formation of independent workplace committees must be accompanied by the building of a new political party, based on socialism and internationalism, in opposition to every party in parliament.

Workers cannot accept the Labour governments lie that there is no money for these basic rights. There is plenty of money in the hands of the super-rich. A well-funded health system, accessible to all who need it, is incompatible with capitalism, in which everything is subordinate to the profit interests of the wealthy elite. Society must be completely reorganised on the basis of human need, not private profit.

We call on those who agree with this perspective to study our program, read the WSWS and above all, join the Socialist Equality Group, which is fighting in New Zealand to build a section of the Trotskyist movement, the International Committee of the Fourth International.In a marked escalation of Israeli and US aggression aimed against Syria and Iran, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shot down a Syrian plane near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights Tuesday.

The plane, which was attacked with two US-supplied Patriot missiles, was involved in an offensive by Syrian government forces to wrest from Western-backed Islamist militias Syrias Daraa and Quneitra provinces, near the Israeli border.

According to the Syrian government, the plane fell inside Syrian territory. It said the planes first pilot, identified as Omran Muri, died in the attack, while the fate of the second pilot was unknown.

The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida, on the edge of the Yarmouk Valley in Syrian airspace, the Syrian news agency SANA reported, quoting a military source.

Defending the shooting down of the airplane, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, said: Israel will not allow any violation of our sovereignty. He added, We seek no escalation in the region

Danons every word is a lie. There is no evidence that the Syrian warplane ever violated Israeli airspace, much less that the IDF perceived its operations as a threat to the Israeli population.

The IDFs own statement appeared to acknowledge that the plane was engaged in operations inside Syria. Since morning hours, there has been an increase in the internal fighting in Syria, including an increase in the activity of the Syrian Air Force, it said.

The operations were reportedly directed against ISIS forces operating in the border area. An Israeli military spokesman said that the plane was targeted after approaching the area at a relatively high speed and allegedly entered two kilometers into Israeli airspace.

What the IDF means by Israeli airspace are UN-monitored buffer zones separating Syria from the occupied Golan Heights, which were seized from Syria in 1967 and annexed by Israel in 1981. There is no evidence that the plane even crossed into these zones, and Damascus insists that it was shot down in Syrian airspace.

Syrian forces have returned to the border area for the first time since the onset of the Western-backed war for regime change. Israel has provided logistical support for ISIS and other Islamist militias operating in the area, including arms, ammunition and supplies, as well as medical care for wounded fighters.

According to the IDF, the plane had taken off from the T-4 airbase near Palmyra in central Syria, a base that has been repeatedly hit by Israeli airstrikes purportedly aimed at Iranian advisers stationed there.

The attack itself is bound up with increasingly aggressive Israeli operations aimed against Iranian targets inside Syria. This has included recent airstrikes far to the north of the border, including near the city of Aleppo.

The shooting down of the Syrian jet came just one day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the countrys armed forces chief, General Valery Gerasimov, flew to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman described the meeting as urgent and important.

Israeli sources claimed that Lavrov presented Netanyahu with a proposal that Russia would assure that Iranian advisers and Iranian-backed militias are kept at least 100 kilometers from Syrias southern border. According to these sources, Netanyahu rejected the offer, demanding the expulsion of all Iranians and Iranian-backed forces from Syria.

Iran has insisted that its advisers are in Syria at the invitation of the Syrian government and that it has no intention of withdrawing them.

In advance of the meeting, Netanyahu said he would tell the Russians that Israel insists on the separation of forces agreement between us and Syria being honored, as they were honored for decades until the civil war in Syria broke out.

He also stated that Israel will continue to act against any attempt by Iran and its proxies to entrench militarily in Syria.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tuesday denied Israeli accounts of the meeting, stating Israels leadership highly assessed Russias efforts on the establishment of a de-escalation zone in southwestern Syria, which envisaged withdrawal of all non-Syrian armed groups from that area.

Netanyahu had met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 11 in advance of the Helsinki summit, where both Putin and US President Donald Trump indicated that they had discussed Syria and Israels security.

The provocative attack on the Syrian warplane was apparently carried out with Israeli knowledge that the Russian-made Sukhoi aircraft was not a Russian-piloted aircraft. Russian and Israeli military commands have established communications that have allowed Israeli warplanes to strike Syrian and alleged Iranian targets inside Syria without facing threats from sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft systems.

Israel has also been given a green light for its attacks from Washington, which is aggressively escalating its confrontation with Iran. Trump tweeted his all-caps threat Sunday night that Iran would SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED if it EVER dared to THREATEN Washington again with retaliation for illegal US sanctions that constitute acts of war.

While the Syrian government has largely succeeded in reasserting its control over Syrian territory, and Washington acknowledges that ISISthe supposed reason for its intervention in the countryis defeated, US troops are continuing to occupy the country, and Israeli provocations are setting the stage for a dramatic escalation of the Middle East conflict, where a relatively minor incident could erupt into a war that draws in major regional and world powers.Shadow of the Tomb Raider Comparison - Xbox One vs. Xbox One S vs. Xbox One X vs. PS4 vs. PS4 ProYou are here: Travel

 Flash





A new Israeli visa application center opened Tuesday in Shanghai, following the opening of a center in Beijing last week.





Another visa application center is expected to open soon in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province.





Zvi Heifetz, the Israeli Ambassador to China, said in a speech at the opening ceremony Tuesday in Shanghai that the opening of visa application centers in three Chinese cities would bring convenience to Chinese tourists.





These centers would play an important role in strengthening the relationship between China and Israel, he added.





The new center in Shanghai will provide services including online and telephone consultations, as well as a fast-track visa service, which allows applicants to get a visa just one day after they submit their application.





In 2016, China and Israel signed an agreement to issue each other's applicants multiple-entry visas valid for 10 years.





Shanghai opened a direct air route to Israel last year. More direct air routes are scheduled to open, connecting Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province, Guangzhou city with Israel in August.



When Donald Trump promised at the 2016 Republican National Convention to do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens, it was heralded as an unprecedented declaration by a GOP presidential nominee  and a sign of hope that Trump would prove more moderate in his gay-rights policies than his party platform. Two years and multiple anti-LGBTQ policies later, a new book by his former press secretary Sean Spicer reveals that the sentence in Trumps convention speech was nothing more than empty payback for a political favor.

In The Briefing: Politics, The Press, and The President, out Tuesday, Spicer writes that Trumps campaign team was on a mission at the time to derail anti-Trump delegates seeking to prevent Trump from becoming the Republican presidential nominee  a process that Never Trumpers had initiated by signing a petition ahead of the Republican convention.

[Trump campaign chairman Paul] Manafort and his lieutenants went one by one down the list of people who had signed the petition and persuaded them to remove their signatures, Spicer writes. How Manafort and company did this was a scene out of 1950s politics  alternating between carrot and stick and sometimes bat, even, at one point, conveniently making the conventions parliamentarian unavailable to keep the opposition from formally submitting their petition.

Paul Manafort

Spicer adds, The Manafort message was clear: Trump will be our nominee and our next president, and anyone who didnt want to work to that end could spend the next four years in political Siberia. (No Russia pun intended.)

The final name that needed to be scrubbed from the petition, Spicer writes, was that of Washington, D.C., delegate Robert Sinners. The book describes an alleged deal between Sinners, who Spicer says told the Manafort team he wanted Donald Trump to support gay rights, and senior Trump communications advisor Jason Miller.

Jason assured Sinners that Trump would be the most inclusive candidate the Republican Party ever had, Spicer writes.

Story continues

This is your moment, Robert, Miller told Sinners, according to the book. You can deliver this.

Sinners then reportedly signed a form that officially removed his name from the petition, and the deal was done.

Jason told Sinners Donald Trumps acceptance speech would acknowledge the LGBT[Q] community, which no other Republican acceptance speech had done, Spicer writes. And it did.

The White House and Sinners did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs requests for comment.

Donald Trump

During Trumps acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in July 2016, he referenced the then-recent mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, which resulted in 49 deaths.

As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, Trump said, according to The Hill, referencing the fact that the shooter, Omar Mateen, had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

RELATED VIDEO: Sean Spicers Greatest Hits

The crowd cheered, and Trump said, As a Republican, Im so happy to hear you cheering for what I just said.

But since his inauguration, Trump has come under fire by LGBTQ rights groups for ordering the Department of Defense to stop accepting transgender people in the military, and for twice failing to acknowledge pride month, among other controversial incidents. Trumps administration also sided last year with a Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in a high-profile Supreme Court case. And Trumps attorney general, Jeff Sessions, last year reversed course on an Obama-era policy protecting transgender people from workplace discrimination.

In October 2017, shortly after that reversal, ACLU legislative director Ian Thompson called Trumps administration easily the most anti-LGBT administration in at least a generation, The Hill reported at the time. They are hard at work trying to dismantle and erase every gain LGBT people have made since 2009.

In his book, Spicer presents his perspective on some of the most controversial moments in the White House and seems to assert his enduring loyalty to Trump.

He also sums up the presidents unique political style: I dont think we will ever again see a candidate like Donald Trump, Spicer writes. His high-wire act is one that few could ever follow. He is a unicorn, riding a unicorn over a rainbow.All seemed normal for Dalton Jack and his girlfriend, Mollie Tibbetts, until last Wednesday night.

Jack reportedly last saw her two days earlier, on July 16, in Brooklyn, Iowa, where they both live. He headed the next day to Dubuque, Iowa, for work, some two hours away, according to ABC News.

Tibbetts, a 20-year-old rising sophomore at the University of Iowa, stayed behind in Brooklyn at Jacks house, to dog-sit, he told ABC.

On Wednesday evening, authorities say she was seen running around town, like she normally did. She messaged someone around 7 p.m., local TV station WOI reports, and around 10 oclock that night, Jack opened a picture from her on Snapchat  a selfie that seemed to be sent from inside, with a caption  though its unclear when the message was sent.

Tibbetts has seemingly not been heard from again.

Six days later, her disappearance remains a mystery with many questions and no answers, even with the ramping up of a nationwide campaign  both on the ground and online  to find her. Local authorities are stymied as to why and how she could have gone missing from her rural community of about 1,500 people and who may be responsible.

Her wallet and ID were left behind at the house where she was dog-sitting, according to ABC News.

Detectives are still trying to determine for certain if she disappeared while jogging or if she left from the house afterwards, Poweshiek County Sheriff Thomas Kriegel told PEOPLE on Monday morning.

The run happened and then she was at the house as far as we know. I dont think she wouldve run in the dark, her aunt Kim Calderwood told local station KCRG.

At this point, Kriegel said on Monday, everything is being considered  we are looking at everything and everybody.

Jack, however, is certain of this: This is not like her, he told WOI of Tibbetts, whom he has reportedly been dating for nearly three years after they met in high school.

Mollie Tibbetts

Mollie Tibbetts

If this is her running off, nobody wouldve seen it coming, Jack said. Nobody in the world. Not her family, not me  nobody wouldve ever guessed that she just take off and not tell anybody.

Story continues

He said he believes Tibbetts is out there, somewhere, and that she will be found safe and returned home, according to WOI.

She goes for a run every night, he told ABC News on Monday. She likes to go whenever the suns not down, but its starting cool off, like 6 or 7. She knows Brooklyn extremely well, better than I do and Ive lived here my entire life.

 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.

Speaking with WOI, Jack said he first learned Tibbetts had vanished on Thursday afternoon, when one of her coworkers called and said she had not called into work that day and she hadnt showed up. Hed texted her that morning but got no response, according to KCRG.

And then I looked at the messages and she hadnt opened or read the message, he recalled to WOI. And then I started getting in contact with her friends and family, saying, Have you seen her or heard from her? And they all said the same thing: No, we havent heard from her since yesterday. 

Tibbetts family reported her missing on Thursday.

According to WOI, Jack quickly returned to Brooklyn to join the search efforts: I came home as soon as her mom said that she called the hospital and she wasnt there. On Friday, more than 200 people swept the area, hoping to find her.

Shes the sweetest, kindest most caring person that Ive ever met in my life, Jack told WOI. (PEOPLEs attempts to reach him directly were not immediately successful.)

Ive never seen her do anything like an act to hurt anybody ever, he said, and Ive known her for three years and I spend pretty much ever day with her.

Laura Calderwood, Tibbetts mother, told ABC News that Tibbetts had planned to fly out for the upcoming wedding of her boyfriends brother, scheduled for early August in the Dominican Republic.

As that date gets closer, its like closing in on me, because Im thinking about these two people that are getting married that were also really close to Mollie, Calderwood said. [Its] supposed to be the happiest day of their life.

She said she did not have words to describe how you feel when you dont know where or how your child is.

Mollie Tibbetts

While searches have so far been fruitless, Tibbetts loved ones are steadfast in their efforts to solve her disappearance.

The sheriff said Monday that authorities were reviewing the case and plotting their next moves.

Said cousin Emily Heaston: We know Mollie wants to be home.

All we can do is raise awareness, Alyssa King, who has known Tibbetts for years, told PEOPLE, and were working as hard as we can to spread the word.

Tibbetts is described as 5-foot-3-inches tall, weighing about 120 lbs., with long brown hair and brown eyes. Those with any information about her whereabouts are urged to email investigators at tips@poweshiekcosheriff.com or call 641-623-5679.Georgia lawmaker to resign after using racial slurs on new Sacha Baron Cohen show (ABC News)

Georgia lawmaker to resign after using racial slurs on new Sacha Baron Cohen show originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

A Georgia state legislator handed in his resignation on Tuesday amid fallout over a controversial television appearance in which he exposed himself on camera, used racial epithets and appeared to speak in a mock-Asian accent.

Republican Rep. Jason Spencer caved to mounting pressure for him to step down after an appearance on Sacha Baron Cohen's new Showtime series, "Who Is America?"

"Rep. Jason Spencer has written to Speaker Ralston to announce his resignation from the Georgia House of Representatives effective July 31," a spokesperson for the Georgia House of Representatives told ABC News in a statement Tuesday.

This image released by Showtime shows Jason Spencer in a scene from the series 'Who Is America,' starring Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode featuring Spencer, Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Spencer to take part in several out (The Associated Press)

He submitted his resignation via email at around 11 p.m. EST.

Spencer, who lost a primary election in May, could have remained office through the November election.

In the TV episode, which aired Sunday, Spencer is seen using multiple racial slurs, including the N-word, and exposing his bare buttocks while shouting "USA!" and "America!" for what he thought was a counterterrorism video.

Spencer apologized for what he called a "ridiculously ugly episode," but initially refused to step down.

PHOTO: Sacha Baron Cohen arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif., March 4, 2018. (Evan Agostini/Invision via AP, FILE)

This image released by Showtime shows Jason Spencer in a scene from the series 'Who Is America,' starring Sacha Baron Cohen. In the episode featuring Spencer, Cohen poses as an Israeli military expert who persuades Spencer to take part in several out (The Associated Press)

"Sacha Baron Cohen and his associates took advantage of my paralyzing fear that my family would be attacked," Spencer said in a statement. He said he was told that the tactics would deter "what I believed was an inevitable attack."

Cohen posed as an Israeli military expert who convinced Spencer to participate in over-the-top behavior.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had called for Spencer's resignation, and the state's governor, Nathan Deal, said he was "saddened and disgusted" by the video.

"The actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive," Deal said in a statement Monday. "There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it."

Story continues

The actions and language used by Jason Spencer are appalling and offensive. There is no excuse for this type of behavior, ever, and I am saddened and disgusted by it.  Governor Nathan Deal (@GovernorDeal) July 23, 2018

Spencer's resignation came just hours after Georgia's secretary of state, Brian Kemp, won the state's Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday, defeating Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle in a runoff election.

Both candidates had urged Spencer to resign.

"Rep. Spencer's words and behavior are hurtful, insensitive, and completely unacceptable. At the very least, he should issue a public apology for this shameful incident," said Kemp, who is backed by President Donald Trump.

Editor's note: Republican Rep. Jason Spencer is a Georgia state legislator. An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to him as a member of Congress.

ABC News' Briana Montalvo contributed to this story.Yahoo Life Videos

With so many people returning back to work and school it can be difficult to keep our homes looking and feeling clean. Lifestyle expert Anna De Souza gathered the latest and greatest products everyones raving about on Tik Tok that will leave your home feeling spotless! Here are the viral products you need for a clean home.Photo credit: Win McNamee - Getty Images

From Harper's BAZAAR

Ivanka Trump's eponymous fashion brand is shutting down, Wall Street Journal reports.

The move arrives over a year after Trump distanced herself from the company and became an unpaid advisor to her father, President Donald Trump, WSJ adds. The employees were told about the shutdown today.

Sales for the Ivanka Trump brand grew after the 2016 election, but the label also came under fire by anti-Trump critics for its ties to the president. Department stores including Nordstrom, along with Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay, stopped selling the brand due to performance. A spokesperson from the former said "it didnt make good business sense."

Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla - Getty Images

A source told Page Six that Ivanka's brand "never recovered" after she stepped away from the company to take on an official role in the White House in November 2016. She put the business in a trust run by family members, WSJ previously reported. Though she didn't keep a managerial role, she was still informed of finances and received a share of profits. Trump said she didn't sell the brand in order to protect its name (and hers).

When the brand announced the separation, it said its "mission is not political-it never was and it never will be." However, business and politics still mixed. The President criticized Nordstrom for treating his daughter "so unfairly" when it dropped her line, and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway encouraged the public to "go buy Ivanka's stuff" in an interview.

Ivanka also often wore looks from her own label during day-to-day appearances at the White House. Whether it was intentional promotion or not, she served as what WSJ called a "walking billboard" for her brand.

Photo credit: John Lamparski - Getty Images

In the past 18 months, Neiman Marcus and T.J. Maxx either scaled back on selling pieces from Ivanka's brand or changed the way they're merchandised in store, WSJ reports. However, companies like Lord & Taylor and Saks Off 5th continue to sell the line.

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The Ivanka Trump brand is a private business and doesn't publicly disclose finances, but its sales at retailers like Amazon, Macy's Bloomingdales, and Zappos fell by 43 percent in the past year. According to disclosure forms from June, the trust is worth over $50 million and made $5 million in 2017.

Photo credit: JIM WATSON - Getty Images

Seventeen months after working in Washington, the first daughter is unsure if she'll ever return to the retail business, "but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, she told WSJ. So making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners.

Trump's licensing agreements with the brand's parent company G-III will expire in the coming months, the newspaper adds. The umbrella company also owns labels like Calvin Klein, DKNY, Levi's, and Guess.

('You Might Also Like',)North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un looks at U.S. President Donald Trump as Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong exchanges document with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonath

Khang Vu

Security, Asia

Pyongyang has switched from cooperation to antagonism within the same month. This behavior may be aimed at driving a wedge between Washington and Seoul.

Behind North Koreas Charm Offensive

Earlier this month, Secretary Mike Pompeo made a trip to North Korea to hammer out the details of the joint agreement signed at Singapore between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un. Contrary to a sense of progress at the Singapore summit, this time North Korea publicly criticized the U.S. demand for denuclearization despite Pompeos positive assessment of North Korean intentions after the meeting. Even though the prospect of North Korea giving up its nukes are now dim after Pompeos trip, South Korean president Moon Jae-in is still determined to preserve the peace momentum by declaring that North Korea is seeking to build long-term trust with Washington. Pyongyangs newest unfriendly moves, switching from cooperation to antagonism within a month, merit close attention since they reflect a pattern of North Koreas many decoupling tactics towards Washington and Seoul.

Throughout its existence, North Korea has always been seeking to undermine the U.S.-South Korea alliance by both coercive and accommodating means. Pyongyangs wedging strategy is based on the key differences in how the South Korean liberal and conservative devise their North Korea policy. The South Korean left, which embraces engagement with North Korea due to shared ethnicity, often receive friendly treatments from Pyongyang; while the South Korean right, for reasons regarding ideological confrontation, tend to clash with Pyongyang. As a result of such variations, North Korea adjusts its decoupling tactics according to changes in South Korean politics to widen the differences in how Washington and Seoul perceive the North Korean threat.

Indeed, a brief history of North Koreas diplomacy illustrates how Pyongyangs decoupling tactic plays out. During the Sunshine years under President Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun (19982007), North Korea accommodated the South and emphasized the two Koreas shared interest in joint economic development and preserving regional security. South Korean liberals hoped to transform the North through engagement, but their efforts only helped North Korea get away with the collapse of the Agreed Framework while turning Seoul and Washington against one another. President Bushs axis of evil rhetoric seriously clashed with Kim and Rohs friendly North Korea policy, which resulted in a deadlock over North Koreas denuclearization policy and intra-alliance tensions.

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Under the conservative Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations (2007-2017), North Korea switched from accommodation to coercion by sinking a South Korean corvette and carrying out a series of nuclear and missile tests with an aim to complicate how the United States and South Korea would respond to North Koreas provocations and raise entrapment fears in the United States about North Koreas acquisition of Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) technology further raises a decoupling fear in Seoul and Washington and brings back the conventional dilemma: is Washington willing to trade Los Angeles for Seoul in a nuclear exchange with North Korea? Even though Seoul and Washington find a common ground over their respective North Korea policy (strategic patience) during this period, North Koreas ability to strike the South and U.S. military bases in Japan and Guam prevented the two allies from making any meaningful progress over denuclearization and allowed Pyongyang to perfect nuclear and missile technologies under the shadow of its ICBMs. North Koreas overall wedging strategy, consisting of both accommodation and coercion, thus constitutes the main rationale behind Pyongyangs provocations and charm offensive.

Turning to the liberal Moon administration, North Korea is now switching back to accommodation like it did during the Sunshine years. Pyongyangs sudden change in tone in Kims New Years Address and its renewed interest in inter-Korean exchanges and joint economic projects illustrate the Norths calculation to turn Moons friendly gestures against Trumps fire and fury. North Korea understands that as long as it can keep South Korea invested in the peace momentum, the United States cannot break out of the diplomatic process, which potentially will result in a deadlock in the two allies denuclearization agenda in the long run. The fact that Pyongyang is still producing nuclear fuel, expanding its missile-manufacturing plant, and focusing more on solid-fuel ballistic missile technology under the shadow of North-South engagement and variations in the United States and South Koreas North Korea policies illustrates a continuity in Pyongyangs wedging strategy. In this context, it is not hard to understand why North Korea can drag its feet on the denuclearization front without any fear of collapse in talks with the United States.

South Korea and the United States need to recognize this pattern in North Koreas policy towards the alliance in order to avoid making wrong assumptions about North Koreas sincerity to denuclearize. North Korea will never totally abandon the capability to blackmail South Korea and attack continental United States since such a capability constitutes the coercion side of its wedging strategy. In order to keep Seoul and Washington guessing its true intentions, Pyongyang needs to be able to calibrate between accommodation and coercion whenever there is a change of government in the Blue House.

Even though the prospect of denuclearization is not promising, this assessment does not call for a preventive counterforce strike on North Korea. North Koreas quest for a survivable nuclear arsenal aims at regime stability rather than a desire to reunify the Korean Peninsula on its terms. In this situation, Washington should accept a mutual deterrence relationship with Pyongyang and seeks to engage in talks to limit North Koreas nuclear arsenal at an acceptable cost. Furthermore, the United States and South Korea need to coordinate their North Korea policy in order to find a common voice over denuclearization and economic engagement matters. Differences in how Washington and Seoul manage and perceive the North Korean threat will allow Pyongyang to develop its nuclear arsenal free of sanctions and punishments. Overall, it is highly important for the United States and South Korea to align their priorities in the face of North Koreas wedging strategy before any talks with Pyongyang can yield any meaningful outcomes.

Khang Vu is a master's candidate at Dartmouth College, where he focuses on East Asian politics and U.S. East Asia policy. Vu is conducting a research on how states use nuclear weapons to neutralize adversarial alliance. The author would like to thank Dr. Nicholas Miller, Assistant Professor of Government at Dartmouth, for his intellectual support for the research.

Image: North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un looks at U.S. President Donald Trump as Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong exchanges document with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at their summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore June 12, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Read full articleChinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a briefing on the final day of the Belt and Road Forum, at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center, north of Beijing, China May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Nicolas Asfouri/Pool

Huong Le Thu

Security, Asia

Beijing is wrong to think other countries will roll over when confronted.



China's Aggression Is Starting to Backfire



There is an argument that the West got China wrong. It argues that the assumption that Chinas economic opening would lead to its political liberalization and transformation into a responsible stakeholder was incorrect. In fact, American policy advisors even concluded that basing Washingtons policy towards China on these assumptions has been a failure. This point-of-view claims China is a country that not only has taken advantage of the rules-based world order but also one that got away with it abusing it. China has grown into a monstrous economic power that is not constrained by the global rules, but instead is a ruthless stakeholder.

Indeed, China is providing more and more evidence that it is not willing to abide by international law and does not hesitate to act unilaterally in matters it considers critical for its interestssuch as in the South China Sea. Beijings four-nos strategy to ignore the Arbitral Tribunal ruling from 2016no participation, no acceptance, no recognition and no enforcementremains one of most striking examples of open disregard for the rules-based international order. But such conclusion seems too generous for China and too premature. China's ability to "shake" the current order is hard to deny, but changes in Washingtonnamely Trump's policiesare more likely to have stronger ripples across the global rules-based order. Moreover, Beijing may have shaken the status quo, but has not necessarily reached its desired position and still is at risk of a stronger push-back from other countries.

Chinas military activities in the South China Sea are not only a concern for its direct neighbors and claimants in the disputed waters; they present high risks and unwelcomed tensions to an already unstable region. Despite earlier assurances from China that it is not militarizing the artificial islands built in the South China Sea, the continued show of force undermines Beijings credibility and peaceful intentions. Military build-ups and actions have also become more prominent in the Taiwan Strait, where recently Beijing conducted war games. The question is why is Beijing risking its reputation, and potentially even confrontation, instead of asserting its global position peacefully?

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Xi Jinpings China is ambitious not only in laying out its strategic vision of a new order, but also in racing against time to implement that vision. That dream has many facets well beyond militarising artificial islands in the South China Sea. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) involves building ports in places ranging from Africas Djibouti to wharves in Vanuatu in the Pacific. Chinas BRI also includes securing access to sea and land-routes globallyfrom the Arctic to Latin Americaas well as proposing new global institutions such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). These are all elements of a unified plan for the extension of Chinas global reach. Finally, all of these massive and potentially game-changing projects are seen as Xi Jinpings flagship initiatives.

Video: Xi Visiting Several African Nations to Bolster Alliances

For more news videos visit Yahoo View.

Beijing's strategy to attain dominance has been primarily based on two key components. The first is incrementally asserting its territorial claims, even if doing so often includes open disregard for the rule of law. The second is offering economic inducements for states to play ball while forging close relationships with key political and business leaders, often with financial incentives.

By many accounts, China's aggressive tactics in the South China Sea seem to have been successful, by both effectively undermining the rules-based order while continuing to expand the range of its Beijing's operations. Whether the international community will respond stronger to China's growing arrogance remains a question, but one thing is surewhile the international community (or certain actors in it) keeps pondering, Beijing has managed to gain the time necessary to further its military plans.

Another issue that concerns more actors globally is China's economic statecraft. Initially, the BRI projects have been hailed as both the most significant change in global history and Chinas gift to the world. In fact, many enjoyed the excitement of the new economic and transportation infrastructure opportunities that Chinese initiatives offered. Beijing's generosity has been well received, but not without varying levels of reservations about the political implications of Chinese money. Furthermore, the global context has helped to strengthen this perception. For example, the U.S. protectionist agenda, the Europian Union's self-absorption, and Japan's low-profile economy have only boosted the view that China is filling a void in global leadership. After all, China's global projects of the BRI and the AIIB gained the support of even those who had ongoing territorial disputes with China, including India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Yet, the Belt and Road Initiativeperhaps the most anticipated project among the developing economieshas become a subject of skepticism and scrutiny. For instance, debt traps and compromised national strategic assets have become the most feared outcomes of the BRI. Furthermore, Sri Lanka's case of its ill-fated Hambantota Port remains the poster-warning for many. Sri Lanka's $1 billion in Chinese loans were used as leverage to give Bejing a controlling interest in, and ninety-nine-year lease over, the Hambantota Port. As a result, the perception that Chinese aid and loans are a trap is spreading around the South Pacific islands.

Also, something has changed over the past months, and there is a growing wave of push-back from around the globe led by "natural rivals," too-close-to-comfort neighbors, and even more distant countries. Concerns have also been voiced by countries who have no geographical security concerns vis-a-vis China, like New Zealand or the Czech Republic. While the scale and intensity of push-back vary, one concern is universalthat Chinese economic initiatives translate too directly into the capacity to extort political influence over the recipient country. For example, to some degree, most Chinese preferences have been incrementally met over the years through international support for Beijing and silence on its taboo topics such as Taiwan, Tibet and human rights. But China's political influence now exceeds many other countries' levels of toleranceparticularly given Bejing's influence includes meddling with economic partners' domestic politics.

In Australia, for example, there is an ongoing debate over Chinese influence. This includes Four Corners, a report released in June 2017, which exposed the personal connections of Chinese-born business people, not only with Australian politicians but also with high ranking UN officials. In America, concerns are stronger over Russian meddling into U.S. domestic politics, but the Chinese presence at universities is also a matter of a widespread discomfort. Reports show that the Chinese Community Party has been setting up cells at the University of Illinois, while the Chinese Students Scholars Associations (CSSAs) across the country have been distributing money for activities and engagement praising the Chinese government. Elsewhere, in Central Europe, the concern about Chinese state influence is not a distant concept either. A website, called Chinfluence, collects the cases of Chinese political and economic influence in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

China's fast-lane to global influence has been pursued through the exploitation of that most common of human weaknessesgreed and fear. Aiming at the top leadership and by-passing lengthy processes through corruption has proved effective for Bejing. But only for short-term and in certain countries.

Seeking to influence politicians is rather costly and can be only useful in the short term. In democratic countries, the political mandate is comparatively short, although former politicians can remain influential and high profile public voices. In the case of Australia, former Labour Senator Sam Dastyari demonstrates Chinas attempts to cultivate influence and how it could backfire. Financial donations from an Australian-Chinese businessman, combined with public statements that seemed to echo the Chinese states line on the South China Sea, brought about the end of Dastyaris political career. It also fuelled an ongoing debate over legislative changes relating to foreign interference and foreign donations.

Malaysias May general election, which overthrew Najib Razak and over sixty years of his partys rule also shows the risks for China in building relationships with selected individuals. Chinas top-down mindset dictates its strategy of forging relationships with targeted individuals, which is effective and fast in the short-term, but which fails to build a foundation for long-term. In other words, China fails to institutionalize relationships that stretch beyond personal connections with those leaders should they fall or leave office.

Najib Razak of Malaysia, Hun Sen of Cambodia, and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines all fit into this template. So far, only Hun Senwho has dissolved his opposition party heading to the July electionshas proved the strategy useful. In addition, Duterte has proven to be a game-changer in the lawfare in the South China Sea by disregarding the legal victory from the Tribunal Arbitral ruling for the sake of improving relations with Beijing. But, as a populist leader, he is also subject to his nations swinging mood.

In contrast, Chinas relationship with Vietnam is an example of a relationship which does involve a few long-standing and close affinities extending beyond personal benefits. Based on a party-to-party relationship, Hanoi and Beijing have developed a history of close ties dating back a couple of decades. Yet, instead of nurturing that relationship, Beijings rush to assert its position in the South China Sea has pushed its fellow communist regime away. In fact, that rift has been to the degree that even though Hanoi is traditionally suspicious of America, Vietnam has invited an American aircraft carrier to visit and is working on strategic partnerships with Washington and its allies. Given the size and importance of Vietnam, the costs to the Chinese state in its relationship with Hanoi might seem insignificant in comparison to Beijings perceived value of the South China Sea claims. But souring the relationship with Vietnamincluding recently preventing it from conducting oil and gas explorations or Chinas dispatching of long-range bombers to the Paracelsis hurting its relationships by stirring up the otherwise relatively pacified periphery.

Trumps erratic leadership in global affairs does provide a strategic opportunity for China to fill that gap. Xi Jinping is astute in seizing this opportunity. In fact, China would be welcome to fill in the global leadership void on many critical issues, such as climate change, trade and infrastructure development. But while Xis vision of a community of common destiny is attractive in various ways for many economies around the world, China's execution of the vision invokes increasing unease, including among those who do not have strategic connections with Beijing. China's grand plans to achieve national rejuvenation by 2049 sounds impressive, but the tactics it applies are creating tensions. Xi Jinping's ambitious and impatient strategy of assertion is insensitive to fellow "common community" members' values, interests and needs. Additionally, it is a missed opportunity for global leadership and contradicts the rhetoric of international harmony and win-win' behavior. Leaders supporting Beijing are also driven by the pursuit of immediate gains, seeking economic benefits rather than long-term common beliefs and solidarity. China is doubling down on a costly strategy of buying "followers" rather than winning the hearts and minds of friends and partners. This is neither an effective nor an efficient strategy.

Dr. Huong Le Thu is a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. She is the author of "Chinas Dual Strategy of Coercion and Inducement towards ASEAN, The Pacific Review.

Image: Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a briefing on the final day of the Belt and Road Forum, at the Yanqi Lake International Conference Center, north of Beijing, China May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Nicolas Asfouri/Pool

Read full articleImmigrants recently released and reunited with family arrive at a Catholic Charities facility in San Antonio on Monday. (Photo: Eric Gay/AP)

The federal judge hearing a challenge to the administrations policy separating immigrant families at the border told U.S. lawyers Tuesday that they must provide more information about the process of reunifying parents and children.

This should really be a transparent process, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw said during a status hearing ahead of Thursdays deadline for the reunifications, ordering the government to provide the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the class-action suit on behalf of the parents last month, with additional information on parents who the government says may not be eligible to get their children back. That includes upwards of 400 who may have already been deported.

Some of this information is unpleasant, its the reality of the case, said Sabraw, of the Southern District of California. In June, Sabraw issued a nationwide injunction, temporarily halting the separation of families at the border. He set a July 10 deadline to return all tender age children under the age of 5, which the government missed, and made this Thursday the deadline for older children.

Its the reality of a policy that was in place that resulted in large numbers of families being separated without forethought as to reunification and keeping track of people, he said. And thats the fallout were seeing.

Judge Dana Sabraw on July 17. (Photo: Martin Panuco/U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California via AP)

Sabraw commended the governments efforts to reunite parents with older children, saying it was a remarkable achievement that all 1,637 parents whom the government has deemed eligible for reunification appeared on track to have their children returned to them by Thursday.

But Sabraw noted that there are still hundreds of cases in limbo among the 2,551 children of parents potentially covered by the ACLU suit who have been held by the government. He cited the deeply troubling reality that according to the governments own figures, as many as 463 parents may have either already been deported without their child or for some other reason cant be located. He ordered the government to provide that information to the plaintiffs.

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For those parents who were removed without children, the sooner the plaintiffs have that information, [the sooner] they can locate them, Sabraw said. He gave the governments attorneys until Wednesday at noon to provide the ACLU with lists  even if incomplete  of parents whove already been deported, those who waived their right to reunification prior to removal, and those whove been released from ICE custody.

Rosayra Pablo-Cruz, a Guatemalan mother who had been separated from her two sons, is greeted after being reunited with them in New York City on July 13. (Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

In a court filing Monday, lawyers for the ACLU noted the governments failure to provide this previously requested information, emphasizing the need for a complete list of the parents with final removal orders who signed a form electing to be removed without their children. The ACLU is concerned that parents might not have understood their rights. Earlier this month, it asked ICE to stop presenting detained parents with a form that, the organization said, misleadingly suggests parents must waive their right to contest removal if they want to get their child back.

These parents urgently need consultations with lawyers, so that they do not mistakenly strand their children in the United States, they wrote in Mondays filing.

Michelle Lapointe, acting deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center Immigrant Justice Project, echoed the ACLUs concern that people werent fully informed about their rights before they were made to sign paperwork from the government.

The SPLC has been providing varying degrees of legal services to more than 40 fathers whod been held in ICE detention in Georgia after being separated from their children, mostly older than 5. Of that group, she said, about 19 have been reunited with their children and released into the interior of the country over the past week. The rest, she said, have been moved from Georgia without prior notice from ICE. Lapointe said they are believed to be in Texas, but the organization has limited information and communication with them.

A Honduras immigrant seeking asylum, Carlos Fuentes Maldonado, who was released and reunited with his family, wears an ankle monitor as he waits at a Catholic Charities facility in San Antonio on Monday. (Photo: Eric Gay/AP)

Related Slideshow: Violence, poverty and politics: Why Hondurans are escaping to the U.S. >>>

Lapointe said she does not yet know whether any of those fathers waived reunification. ICE has claimed that the waiver form was not being given to parents who arrived seeking asylum, but the SPLC told Yahoo News it knew of at least four cases where it was.

Agreeing to accept deportation without ones child is an incredibly momentous decision for any parent to make, and we just want to make sure it was made knowingly and it was an informed choice, Lapointe said.

During Tuesdays status hearing, government attorney Sarah Fabian stated that ICE had identified at least 85 individuals with a final order of removal who waived reunification by signing this form, though she expected to be able to provide a more complete number by Wednesday. According to the court filing submitted by the government on Monday, 900 parents covered under the class action suit have final orders of removal.

The Trump administrations lack of transparency is now bordering on stonewalling, Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLUs Immigrants Rights Project, said in a statement following the hearing Tuesday. Gelernt disputed the success of the reunification effort, saying the government set a low bar for itself by counting only those parents and children whose identities and locations are known.

No one should forget that the governments claim that it will meet the reunification deadline is based on its exclusion of parents it has deported or cant locate, as well as on its unilateral, unchecked decision of who is eligible to be reunited or not, he said.

Children at Casa Padre, an immigrant shelter for unaccompanied minors, in Brownsville, Texas, on June 14. (Photo: ACF/Health and Human Services handout via Reuters)

The governments rationale for labeling families ineligible for reunification has come under scrutiny by immigration attorneys and advocates. Diane Eikenberry, associate director of policy at the National Immigration Justice Center, said that two weeks after the government missed its court-ordered deadline to reunify the 102 children under age 5 whod been separated from their parents at the border, NIJC continues to advocate for two child clients under the age of 5 who the government has deemed non-eligible for reunification.

In both cases, Eikenberry said, the government still has yet to provide the families or NIJC any evidence or documentation justifying their determination that the families should not be reunified.

The SPLCs Lapointe expressed similar concerns about the wide range of reasons the government has been using for not reunifying certain parents with their children.

Im very concerned that some of these parents are not being given due process to show that theyre fit and have a right to be with their kids, she said, arguing that We need a process to test these assertions that the government is making about fitness, we cant just take their word for it.

Javier, a 30-year-old from Honduras, holds his son William, 4, after they were reunited in New York. They had been separated for 55 days following their detention at the Texas border, July 11. (Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

Certainly, she acknowledged, there are cases where a parent is not fit, but I dont think that is the majority of those parents. And in any case, they should be given a process to challenge governments accusations.

So far, Lapointe said, none of the men the SPLC has spoken to have been deemed ineligible for reunification, but its something theyre keeping a close eye on.

The federal government has shown that they did not have a plan to reunite these children with their parents and only did so because the federal court forced them to, she said, suggesting that the idea that they would be excluding parents from the class for reasons that are not proper is not far-fetched.

In Monday afternoons court filing, the government listed 917 adults whod either been deemed ineligible or not yet known to be eligible. Sixty-four, it said, had a prohibitive criminal record or were otherwise deemed ineligible for reunification. In that same filing, the government stated that 130 parents had waived reunification prior to removal during interviews with a representative from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is tasked with housing unaccompanied immigrant children and has been largely leading the reunification effort. By Tuesdays hearing, that number had dropped to 127.

Asked to explain the change, Fabian told the judge, my understanding is that some have changed their mind.

Read more from Yahoo News:By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Aggressively lowering blood pressure significantly reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia among hypertension patients in a large government-backed clinical trial, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday. The results, presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Chicago, offer some of the first tangible steps individuals can take to reduce their risk for dementia, experts said. The results come from a landmark 2015 trial dubbed SPRINT involving of more than 9,300 hypertension patients which showed significant cardiovascular benefits in people whose systolic blood pressure - the top number in a blood pressure reading - was lowered aggressively to below 120, compared to a higher target of under 140. The Sprint MIND study looked specifically at the implications of aggressive blood pressure lowering on symptoms of dementia from any cause, and mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, a precursor to dementia. It found that people whose blood pressure was lowered to below 120 had a 19 percent lower rate of new cases of mild cognitive impairment and a 15 percent reduction in MCI and dementia combined. The takeaway of the study, said Dr. Keith Fargo, director of scientific and outreach programs at the Alzheimer's Association, is "see your doctor and know your numbers," and if individuals have hypertension, get it treated. "Not only do we already know that it reduces the risk for death due to stroke and heart attacks but we now know it supports healthy brain aging," he said in an interview. Although the study showed effects on MCI and combined dementia plus MCI, it did not show an overall reduction in dementia alone, at least not yet. Fargo said it takes longer for people to develop dementia, but as the study continues, he expects more people treated to the higher target of 140 will develop dementia. "Since it's too early, too few people have developed dementia," he said. The study looked at all causes of dementia, including Alzheimer's, the most common form marked by clumps of amyloid in the brain, and vascular dementia, which is caused by blocked blood flow to the brain. Fargo said the result most likely affects the impact of blood pressure lowering on vascular dementia but noted that many people with Alzheimer's also have some degree of vascular disease, and reducing the total dementia risk could delay the onset of memory problems. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bill Trott)Complete strangers get married in the hope of spending the rest of their lives together. What could possibly go wrong?

On Married at First Sight, newlyweds Mia Bally and Tristan Thompson were en route to their honeymoon when Bally was held at the airport. Mia has been detained, Thompson said. I dont know whats going on. They said there was a warrant out for her arrest and she is in the back. They separated us. Im feeling like this isnt real. Im feeling confused. Im feeling anxious. Like, I dont know what the heck is going on.

It was only day two of the couples marriage and, apparently, the warrant for Ballys arrest didnt come as a surprise just to Thompson. According to the shows executive producer, Eric Detwiler, it had allegedly been filed one day after the producers received their full background check report on Bally.

In the episode, Thompson said the warrant read that Bally was charged with three counts of stalking and one for credit card fraud. What I just read is very, very troubling, he said. She was stalking her ex-boyfriend.  Obviously, this was a big risk. You dont know who it is that youre marrying. I was actually really falling for Mia, and falling for her hard, and now this document is showing that she may be a stalker and may have committed credit card fraud on her previous boyfriend. This is my worst nightmare.

Not really knowing his wife, Thompson was nervous. However, he said he believes that there are two sides to every story and, after two days in custody, Bally got the chance to tell her side when she was reunited with her husband.

Bally claimed that she was completely unaware of the warrant and that her car had been stolen by someone who then stole her identity. My car was stolen with all of my information still in there. So the police say that it is identity theft and that I guess whoever stole my car also used my information to access whatever other charges they did. They wouldnt tell me everything since it ended up not being me. Strangely, Bally also said she felt anxious about Thompsons seeing the police report and, when she asked her husband to see it, things didnt quite add up.

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When Thompson asked his wife about the man listed on the report, Bally quickly responded that his name doesnt even ring a bell. But just five seconds later she said, I mean, I know of him. Like, through just mutual friends. I mean, small town.

Fans have since begun to dig into Ballys past and, according to multiple sites, the police report stated that Bally was stalking her ex-boyfriend, Jared Evans, until two months before she went on the show.

Well have to wait to find out if Bally is telling the truth or not. Until then, best of luck to Thompson, who chose to trust Bally. Im choosing to stay by Mias side, even though I just met her, Thompson said. I really dont know her, but I still care for her. Shes still my wife. God has a plan, and Gods plan for me is Mia.

Married at First Sight airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Lifetime.

Check out this Teen Mom pulling a gun on an aggressive driver during an explosive road rage incident, in front of her 8-year old son:

Read more from Yahoo! Entertainment:

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China and South Africa on Tuesday pledged to carry forward their traditional friendly relations and advance their comprehensive strategic partnership in the new era.

During the talks between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, the two leaders agreed to strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen political mutual trust, align their development strategies, promote practical cooperation and increase people-to-people exchanges, thus enabling the two peoples to enjoy more fruits of the bilateral cooperation.

Xi expressed appreciation to Ramaphosa for his important contributions to the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries and to the development of bilateral relations.

Noting that China and South Africa are both major developing countries and emerging-market countries with important influence, Xi said that since the forging of diplomatic relations 20 years ago, the two sides have been committed to mutually-beneficial cooperation and common development, stood together through thick and thin, shared weal and woe, and established a "comrade plus brother" relationship featuring sincere friendship, mutual trust and close bond.

He said that China-South Africa relations have leapt from a partnership to a strategic partnership and then to a comprehensive strategic partnership over the past years, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples.

"Taking the opportunity of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties, China stands ready to work with South Africa on supporting each other in hosting this year's BRICS summit in Johannesburg and the Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), inheriting the past and ushering in the future, and pushing for more outcomes from the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, so as to bring greater benefits to our two peoples," Xi said.

Noting that China-South Africa relations are now standing at a new historical point, the Chinese president proposed the two sides to focus on the following areas to advance the bilateral relations:

-- The two sides should strengthen high-level exchanges, deepen political mutual trust, support each other in independently choosing the development path that suits their own national conditions, continue to understand and support each other on issues involving respective core interests and major concerns, increase exchanges between the governments, legislative bodies and various other areas, and deepen the inter-party exchanges and cooperation.

-- The two sides should enhance cooperation within the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative and the FOCAC, align their development strategies, deepen exchanges and cooperation in new economy sectors and sunrise industries, and share the development opportunities brought by the fourth industrial revolution. The Chinese side is willing to focus on promoting cooperation in such areas as infrastructure construction, trade and investment, scientific and technological innovation, and finance, and supports the endeavors made by the South African government to develop the economy, create jobs, improve people's livelihood and promote social transformation.

-- The two sides should deepen people-to-people bonds, implement the consensus the two sides have reached on facilitating personnel exchanges and strengthening cultural and educational exchanges, and consolidate cooperation in human resources development and tourism.

-- The two sides should promote security and law-enforcement cooperation. The Chinese side is willing to strengthen cooperation with South Africa on law-enforcement capacity building.

-- The two sides should increase coordination within multilateral frameworks including the UN, G20, BRICS and BASIC (Brazil, India, South Africa and China), jointly safeguard multilateralism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, and promote a more just and equitable international order.

For his part, Ramaphosa said that South African and Chinese peoples enjoy traditional friendship, and the two countries have constantly consolidated and developed their relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties 20 years ago.

The relations have gone beyond the bilateral scope with important strategic significance, and the two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation on regional and multilateral levels, he said, noting that the special friendly ties have brought substantial benefits to the two peoples.

Ramaphosa said that it is in the fundamental and long-term interests of South Africa to continue to strengthen political mutual trust, expand practical cooperation, enhance scientific, technological and people-to-people exchanges with China, and promote their comprehensive strategic partnership.

He pledged that South Africa will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China policy, push for positive progress in cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, increase communication and coordination with China on major international and regional issues, oppose unilateralism, strengthen multilateralism, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

On the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg on July 25-27, Xi said that it is the first one to be held in the second "golden decade" of BRICS cooperation and has a special significance.

BRICS gathers the world's five major emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"We should bear in mind the big picture of BRICS cooperation, constantly cement our strategic partnerships, make a loud and clear voice on upholding multilateralism, and jointly build an open world economy," Xi said, while pledging to coordinate with and support South Africa for a successful BRICS summit.

Xi and Ramaphosa will co-chair the FOCAC Beijing summit in September. Hailing the contributions that South Africa has made for the institutionalization of the FOCAC and friendly cooperation between China and Africa as co-chair of the forum, Xi said that China looks forward to discussing with African countries on plans to promote China-Africa friendly cooperation in the new era and jointly build a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

"It is China's long-term and firm strategic choice to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with African countries," he said.

Ramaphosa expressed gratitude for China's support in the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg. He told Xi that he looks forward to attending the FOCAC Beijing summit and will coordinate with China to ensure the success of the two major events.

After the talks, the two heads of state witnessed the signing of a series of bilateral cooperation documents and met with the press.

Ramaphosa held a grand welcome ceremony for Xi prior to the talks.

Xi arrived in Pretoria on Monday to pay his third state visit to the "rainbow nation."

South Africa is the fourth stop of Xi's five-nation Middle East and Africa tour, which has taken him to the United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Rwanda. He will also visit Mauritius during a stopover.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed "long overdue news" that American pastor Andrew Brunson was transferred from a jail in Turkey to house arrest on Wednesday but said the United States expects the Turkish government to do more. "We welcome long overdue news that Pastor Brunson has been moved from prison to house arrest in #Turkey, but it is not enough," Pompeo said on Twitter. "We have seen no credible evidence against Mr. Brunson, and call on Turkish authorities to resolve his case immediately in a transparent and fair manner." (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Bill Trott)Taiwanese soldiers stand in front of a M60A3 tank during a military drill in Hualien, eastern Taiwan, January 30, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

John J. Mearsheimer

Security, Asia

In sum, a powerful China isnt just a problem for Taiwan. It is a nightmare.

RIP Taiwan?

It is my firm conviction that the continuing rise of China will have huge consequences for Taiwan, almost all of which will be bad.

WHAT ARE the implications for Taiwan of Chinas continued rise? Not today. Not next year. No, the real dilemma Taiwan will confront looms in the decades ahead, when China, whose continued economic growth seems likely although not a sure thing, is far more powerful than it is today.

Contemporary China does not possess significant military power; its military forces are inferior, and not by a small margin, to those of the United States. Beijing would be making a huge mistake to pick a fight with the American military nowadays. China, in other words, is constrained by the present global balance of power, which is clearly stacked in Americas favor.

But power is rarely static. The real question that is often overlooked is what happens in a future world in which the balance of power has shifted sharply against Taiwan and the United States, in which China controls much more relative power than it does today, and in which China is in roughly the same economic and military league as the United States. In essence: a world in which China is much less constrained than it is today. That world may seem forbidding, even ominous, but it is one that may be coming.

(This first appeared in 2014 and is being reposted due to reader interest.)

It is my firm conviction that the continuing rise of China will have huge consequences for Taiwan, almost all of which will be bad. Not only will China be much more powerful than it is today, but it will also remain deeply committed to making Taiwan part of China. Moreover, China will try to dominate Asia the way the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere, which means it will seek to reduce, if not eliminate, the American military presence in Asia. The United States, of course, will resist mightily, and go to great lengths to contain Chinas growing power. The ensuing security competition will not be good for Taiwan, no matter how it turns out in the end. Time is not on Taiwans side. Herewith, a guide to what is likely to ensue between the United States, China and Taiwan.

Story continues

IN AN ideal world, most Taiwanese would like their country to gain de jure independence and become a legitimate sovereign state in the international system. This outcome is especially attractive because a strong Taiwanese identityseparate from a Chinese identityhas blossomed in Taiwan over the past sixty-five years. Many of those people who identify themselves as Taiwanese would like their own nation-state, and they have little interest in being a province of mainland China.

According to National Chengchi Universitys Election Study Center, in 1992, 17.6 percent of the people living in Taiwan identified as Taiwanese only. By June 2013, that number was 57.5 percent, a clear majority. Only 3.6 percent of those surveyed identified as Chinese only. Furthermore, the 2011 Taiwan National Security Survey found that if one assumes China would not attack Taiwan if it declared its independence, 80.2 percent of Taiwanese would in fact opt for independence. Another recent poll found that about 80 percent of Taiwanese view Taiwan and China as different countries.

However, Taiwan is not going to gain formal independence in the foreseeable future, mainly because China would not tolerate that outcome. In fact, China has made it clear that it would go to war against Taiwan if the island declares its independence. The antisecession law, which China passed in 2005, says explicitly that the state shall employ nonpeaceful means and other necessary measures if Taiwan moves toward de jure independence. It is also worth noting that the United States does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country, and according to President Obama, Washington fully supports a one-China policy.

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Thus, the best situation Taiwan can hope for in the foreseeable future is maintenance of the status quo, which means de facto independence. In fact, over 90 percent of the Taiwanese surveyed this past June by the Election Study Center favored maintaining the status quo indefinitely or until some later date.

The worst possible outcome is unification with China under terms dictated by Beijing. Of course, unification could happen in a variety of ways, some of which are better than others. Probably the least bad outcome would be one in which Taiwan ended up with considerable autonomy, much like Hong Kong enjoys today. Chinese leaders refer to this solution as one country, two systems. Still, it has little appeal to most Taiwanese. As Yuan-kang Wang reports: An overwhelming majority of Taiwans public opposes unification, even under favorable circumstances. If anything, longitudinal data reveal a decline in public support of unification.

In short, for Taiwan, de facto independence is much preferable to becoming part of China, regardless of what the final political arrangements look like. The critical question for Taiwan, however, is whether it can avoid unification and maintain de facto independence in the face of a rising China.

WHAT ABOUT China? How does it think about Taiwan? Two different logics, one revolving around nationalism and the other around security, shape its views concerning Taiwan. Both logics, however, lead to the same endgame: the unification of China and Taiwan.

The nationalism story is straightforward and uncontroversial. China is deeply committed to making Taiwan part of China. For Chinas elites, as well as its public, Taiwan can never become a sovereign state. It is sacred territory that has been part of China since ancient times, but was taken away by the hated Japanese in 1895when China was weak and vulnerable. It must once again become an integral part of China. As Hu Jintao said in 2007 at the Seventeenth Party Congress: The two sides of the Straits are bound to be reunified in the course of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

The unification of China and Taiwan is one of the core elements of Chinese national identity. There is simply no compromising on this issue. Indeed, the legitimacy of the Chinese regime is bound up with making sure Taiwan does not become a sovereign state and that it eventually becomes an integral part of China.

Chinese leaders insist that Taiwan must be brought back into the fold sooner rather than later and that hopefully it can be done peacefully. At the same time, they have made it clear that force is an option if they have no other recourse.

The security story is a different one, and it is inextricably bound up with the rise of China. Specifically, it revolves around a straightforward but profound question: How is China likely to behave in Asia over time, as it grows increasingly powerful? The answer to this question obviously has huge consequences for Taiwan.

The only way to predict how a rising China is likely to behave toward its neighbors as well as the United States is with a theory of great-power politics. The main reason for relying on theory is that we have no facts about the future, because it has not happened yet. Thomas Hobbes put the point well: The present only has a being in nature; things past have a being in the memory only; but things to come have no being at all. Thus, we have no choice but to rely on theories to determine what is likely to transpire in world politics.

My own realist theory of international relations says that the structure of the international system forces countries concerned about their security to compete with each other for power. The ultimate goal of every major state is to maximize its share of world power and eventually dominate the system. In practical terms, this means that the most powerful states seek to establish hegemony in their region of the world, while making sure that no rival great power dominates another region.

To be more specific, the international system has three defining characteristics. First, the main actors are states that operate in anarchy, which simply means that there is no higher authority above them. Second, all great powers have some offensive military capability, which means they have the wherewithal to hurt each other. Third, no state can know the intentions of other states with certainty, especially their future intentions. It is simply impossible, for example, to know what Germanys or Japans intentions will be toward their neighbors in 2025.

In a world where other states might have malign intentions as well as significant offensive capabilities, states tend to fear each other. That fear is compounded by the fact that in an anarchic system there is no night watchman for states to call if trouble comes knocking at their door. Therefore, states recognize that the best way to survive in such a system is to be as powerful as possible relative to potential rivals. The mightier a state is, the less likely it is that another state will attack it. No Americans, for example, worry that Canada or Mexico will attack the United States, because neither of those countries is strong enough to contemplate a fight with Uncle Sam.

But great powers do not merely strive to be the strongest great power, although that is a welcome outcome. Their ultimate aim is to be the hegemonwhich means being the only great power in the system.

What exactly does it mean to be a hegemon in the modern world? It is almost impossible for any state to achieve global hegemony, because it is too hard to sustain power around the globe and project it onto the territory of distant great powers. The best outcome a state can hope for is to be a regional hegemon, to dominate ones own geographical area. The United States has been a regional hegemon in the Western Hemisphere since about 1900. Although the United States is clearly the most powerful state on the planet today, it is not a global hegemon.

States that gain regional hegemony have a further aim: they seek to prevent great powers in other regions from duplicating their feat. Regional hegemons, in other words, do not want peer competitors. Instead, they want to keep other regions divided among several great powers, so that those states will compete with each other and be unable to focus their attention and resources on them. In sum, the ideal situation for any great power is to be the only regional hegemon in the world. The United States enjoys that exalted position today.

What does this theory say about how China is likely to behave as it rises in the years ahead? Put simply, China will try to dominate Asia the way the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere. It will try to become a regional hegemon. In particular, China will seek to maximize the power gap between itself and its neighbors, especially India, Japan and Russia. China will want to make sure it is so powerful that no state in Asia has the wherewithal to threaten it.

It is unlikely that China will pursue military superiority so it can go on a rampage and conquer other Asian countries, although that is always possible. Instead, it is more likely that it will want to dictate the boundaries of acceptable behavior to neighboring countries, much the way the United States lets other states in the Americas know that it is the boss.

An increasingly powerful China is also likely to attempt to push the United States out of Asia, much the way the United States pushed the European great powers out of the Western Hemisphere in the nineteenth century. We should expect China to come up with its own version of the Monroe Doctrine, as Japan did in the 1930s.

These policy goals make good strategic sense for China. Beijing should want a militarily weak Japan and Russia as its neighbors, just as the United States prefers a militarily weak Canada and Mexico on its borders. What state in its right mind would want other powerful states located in its region? All Chinese surely remember what happened in the previous two centuries when Japan was powerful and China was weak.

Furthermore, why would a powerful China accept U.S. military forces operating in its backyard? American policy makers, after all, go ballistic when other great powers send military forces into the Western Hemisphere. Those foreign forces are invariably seen as a potential threat to American security. The same logic should apply to China. Why would China feel safe with U.S. forces deployed on its doorstep? Following the logic of the Monroe Doctrine, would Chinas security not be better served by pushing the American military out of Asia?

Why should we expect China to act any differently than the United States did? Are Chinese leaders more principled than American leaders? More ethical? Are they less nationalistic? Less concerned about their survival? They are none of these things, of course, which is why China is likely to imitate the United States and try to become a regional hegemon.

WHAT ARE the implications of this security story for Taiwan? The answer is that there is a powerful strategic rationale for Chinaat the very leastto try to sever Taiwans close ties with the United States and neutralize Taiwan. However, the best possible outcome for China, which it will surely pursue with increasing vigor over time, would be to make Taiwan part of China.

Unification would work to Chinas strategic advantage in two important ways. First, Beijing would absorb Taiwans economic and military resources, thus shifting the balance of power in Asia even further in Chinas direction. Second, Taiwan is effectively a giant aircraft carrier sitting off Chinas coast; acquiring that aircraft carrier would enhance Chinas ability to project military power into the western Pacific Ocean.

In short, we see that nationalism as well as realist logic give China powerful incentives to put an end to Taiwans de facto independence and make it part of a unified China. This is clearly bad news for Taiwan, especially since the balance of power in Asia is shifting in Chinas favor, and it will not be long before Taiwan cannot defend itself against China. Thus, the obvious question is whether the United States can provide security for Taiwan in the face of a rising China. In other words, can Taiwan depend on the United States for its security?

LET US now consider Americas goals in Asia and how they relate to Taiwan. Regional hegemons go to great lengths to stop other great powers from becoming hegemons in their region of the world. The best outcome for any great power is to be the sole regional hegemon in the system. It is apparent from the historical record that the United States operates according to this logic. It does not tolerate peer competitors.

During the twentieth century, there were four great powers that had the capability to make a run at regional hegemony: Imperial Germany from 1900 to 1918, Imperial Japan between 1931 and 1945, Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Not surprisingly, each tried to match what the United States had achieved in the Western Hemisphere.

How did the United States react? In each case, it played a key role in defeating and dismantling those aspiring hegemons.

The United States entered World War I in April 1917 when Imperial Germany looked like it might win the war and rule Europe. American troops played a critical role in tipping the balance against the Kaiserreich, which collapsed in November 1918. In the early 1940s, President Franklin Roosevelt went to great lengths to maneuver the United States into World War II to thwart Japans ambitions in Asia and Germanys ambitions in Europe. The United States came into the war in December 1941, and helped destroy both Axis powers. Since 1945, American policy makers have gone to considerable lengths to put limits on German and Japanese military power. Finally, during the Cold War, the United States steadfastly worked to prevent the Soviet Union from dominating Eurasia and then helped relegate it to the scrap heap of history in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Shortly after the Cold War ended, the George H. W. Bush administrations controversial Defense Planning Guidance of 1992 was leaked to the press. It boldly stated that the United States was now the most powerful state in the world by far and it planned to remain in that exalted position. In other words, the United States would not tolerate a peer competitor.

That same message was repeated in the famous 2002 National Security Strategy issued by the George W. Bush administration. There was much criticism of that document, especially its claims about preemptive war. But hardly a word of protest was raised about the assertion that the United States should check rising powers and maintain its commanding position in the global balance of power.

The bottom line is that the United Statesfor sound strategic reasonsworked hard for more than a century to gain hegemony in the Western Hemisphere. Since achieving regional dominance, it has gone to great lengths to prevent other great powers from controlling either Asia or Europe.

Thus, there is little doubt as to how American policy makers will react if China attempts to dominate Asia. The United States can be expected to go to great lengths to contain China and ultimately weaken it to the point where it is no longer capable of ruling the roost in Asia. In essence, the United States is likely to behave toward China much the way it acted toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Chinas neighbors are certain to fear its rise as well, and they too will do whatever they can to prevent it from achieving regional hegemony. Indeed, there is already substantial evidence that countries like India, Japan and Russia as well as smaller powers like Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam are worried about Chinas ascendancy and are looking for ways to contain it. In the end, they will join an American-led balancing coalition to check Chinas rise, much the way Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and even China joined forces with the United States to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

How does Taiwan fit into this story? The United States has a rich history of close relations with Taiwan since the early days of the Cold War, when the Nationalist forces under Chiang Kai-shek retreated to the island from the Chinese mainland. However, Washington is not obliged by treaty to come to the defense of Taiwan if it is attacked by China or anyone else.

Regardless, the United States will have powerful incentives to make Taiwan an important player in its anti-China balancing coalition. First, as noted, Taiwan has significant economic and military resources and it is effectively a giant aircraft carrier that can be used to help control the waters close to Chinas all-important eastern coast. The United States will surely want Taiwans assets on its side of the strategic balance, not on Chinas side.

Second, Americas commitment to Taiwan is inextricably bound up with U.S. credibility in the region, which matters greatly to policy makers in Washington. Because the United States is located roughly six thousand miles from East Asia, it has to work hard to convince its Asian alliesespecially Japan and South Koreathat it will back them up in the event they are threatened by China or North Korea. Importantly, it has to convince Seoul and Tokyo that they can rely on the American nuclear umbrella to protect them. This is the thorny problem of extended deterrence, which the United States and its allies wrestled with throughout the Cold War.

If the United States were to sever its military ties with Taiwan or fail to defend it in a crisis with China, that would surely send a strong signal to Americas other allies in the region that they cannot rely on the United States for protection. Policy makers in Washington will go to great lengths to avoid that outcome and instead maintain Americas reputation as a reliable partner. This means they will be inclined to back Taiwan no matter what.

While the United States has good reasons to want Taiwan as part of the balancing coalition it will build against China, there are also reasons to think this relationship is not sustainable over the long term. For starters, at some point in the next decade or so it will become impossible for the United States to help Taiwan defend itself against a Chinese attack. Remember that we are talking about a China with much more military capability than it has today.

In addition, geography works in Chinas favor in a major way, simply because Taiwan is so close to the Chinese mainland and so far away from the United States. When it comes to a competition between China and the United States over projecting military power into Taiwan, China wins hands down. Furthermore, in a fight over Taiwan, American policy makers would surely be reluctant to launch major attacks against Chinese forces on the mainland, for fear they might precipitate nuclear escalation. This reticence would also work to Chinas advantage.

One might argue that there is a simple way to deal with the fact that Taiwan will not have an effective conventional deterrent against China in the not-too-distant future: put Americas nuclear umbrella over Taiwan. This approach will not solve the problem, however, because the United States is not going to escalate to the nuclear level if Taiwan is being overrun by China. The stakes are not high enough to risk a general thermonuclear war. Taiwan is not Japan or even South Korea. Thus, the smart strategy for America is to not even try to extend its nuclear deterrent over Taiwan.

There is a second reason the United States might eventually forsake Taiwan: it is an especially dangerous flashpoint, which could easily precipitate a Sino-American war that is not in Americas interest. U.S. policy makers understand that the fate of Taiwan is a matter of great concern to Chinese of all persuasions and that they will be extremely angry if it looks like the United States is preventing unification. But that is exactly what Washington will be doing if it forms a close military alliance with Taiwan, and that point will not be lost on the Chinese people.

It is important to note in this regard that Chinese nationalism, which is a potent force, emphasizes how great powers like the United States humiliated China in the past when it was weak and appropriated Chinese territory like Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thus, it is not difficult to imagine crises breaking out over Taiwan or scenarios in which a crisis escalates into a shooting war. After all, Chinese nationalism will surely be a force for trouble in those crises, and China will at some point have the military wherewithal to conquer Taiwan, which will make war even more likely.

There was no flashpoint between the superpowers during the Cold War that was as dangerous as Taiwan will be in a Sino-American security competition. Some commentators liken Berlin in the Cold War to Taiwan, but Berlin was not sacred territory for the Soviet Union and it was actually of little strategic importance for either side. Taiwan is different. Given how dangerous it is for precipitating a war and given the fact that the United States will eventually reach the point where it cannot defend Taiwan, there is a reasonable chance that American policy makers will eventually conclude that it makes good strategic sense to abandon Taiwan and allow China to coerce it into accepting unification.

All of this is to say that the United States is likely to be somewhat schizophrenic about Taiwan in the decades ahead. On one hand, it has powerful incentives to make it part of a balancing coalition aimed at containing China. On the other hand, there are good reasons to think that with the passage of time the benefits of maintaining close ties with Taiwan will be outweighed by the potential costs, which are likely to be huge. Of course, in the near term, the United States will protect Taiwan and treat it as a strategic asset. But how long that relationship lasts is an open question.

SO FAR, the discussion about Taiwans future has focused almost exclusively on how the United States is likely to act toward Taiwan. However, what happens to Taiwan in the face of Chinas rise also depends greatly on what policies Taiwans leaders and its people choose to pursue over time. There is little doubt that Taiwans overriding goal in the years ahead will be to preserve its independence from China. That aim should not be too difficult to achieve for the next decade, mainly because Taiwan is almost certain to maintain close relations with the United States, which will have powerful incentives as well as the capability to protect Taiwan. But after that point Taiwans strategic situation is likely to deteriorate in significant ways, mainly because China will be rapidly approaching the point where it can conquer Taiwan even if the American military helps defend the island. And, as noted, it is not clear that the United States will be there for Taiwan over the long term.

In the face of this grim future, Taiwan has three options. First, it can develop its own nuclear deterrent. Nuclear weapons are the ultimate deterrent, and there is no question that a Taiwanese nuclear arsenal would markedly reduce the likelihood of a Chinese attack against Taiwan.

Taiwan pursued this option in the 1970s, when it feared American abandonment in the wake of the Vietnam War. The United States, however, stopped Taiwans nuclear-weapons program in its tracks. And then Taiwan tried to develop a bomb secretly in the 1980s, but again the United States found out and forced Taipei to shut the program down. It is unfortunate for Taiwan that it failed to build a bomb, because its prospects for maintaining its independence would be much improved if it had its own nuclear arsenal.

No doubt Taiwan still has time to acquire a nuclear deterrent before the balance of power in Asia shifts decisively against it. But the problem with this suggestion is that both Beijing and Washington are sure to oppose Taiwan going nuclear. The United States would oppose Taiwanese nuclear weapons, not only because they would encourage Japan and South Korea to follow suit, but also because American policy makers abhor the idea of an ally being in a position to start a nuclear war that might ultimately involve the United States. To put it bluntly, no American wants to be in a situation where Taiwan can precipitate a conflict that might result in a massive nuclear attack on the United States.

China will adamantly oppose Taiwan obtaining a nuclear deterrent, in large part because Beijing surely understands that it would make it difficultmaybe even impossibleto conquer Taiwan. Whats more, China will recognize that Taiwanese nuclear weapons would facilitate nuclear proliferation in East Asia, which would not only limit Chinas ability to throw its weight around in that region, but also would increase the likelihood that any conventional war that breaks out would escalate to the nuclear level. For these reasons, China is likely to make it manifestly clear that if Taiwan decides to pursue nuclear weapons, it will strike its nuclear facilities, and maybe even launch a war to conquer the island. In short, it appears that it is too late for Taiwan to pursue the nuclear option.

Taiwans second option is conventional deterrence. How could Taiwan make deterrence work without nuclear weapons in a world where China has clear-cut military superiority over the combined forces of Taiwan and the United States? The key to success is not to be able to defeat the Chinese militarythat is impossiblebut instead to make China pay a huge price to achieve victory. In other words, the aim is to make China fight a protracted and bloody war to conquer Taiwan. Yes, Beijing would prevail in the end, but it would be a Pyrrhic victory. This strategy would be even more effective if Taiwan could promise China that the resistance would continue even after its forces were defeated on the battlefield. The threat that Taiwan might turn into another Sinkiang or Tibet would foster deterrence for sure.

This option is akin to Admiral Alfred von Tirpitzs famous risk strategy, which Imperial Germany adopted in the decade before World War I. Tirpitz accepted the fact that Germany could not build a navy powerful enough to defeat the mighty Royal Navy in battle. He reasoned, however, that Berlin could build a navy that was strong enough to inflict so much damage on the Royal Navy that it would cause London to fear a fight with Germany and thus be deterred. Moreover, Tirpitz reasoned that this risk fleet might even give Germany diplomatic leverage it could use against Britain.

There are a number of problems with this form of conventional deterrence, which raise serious doubts about whether it can work for Taiwan over the long haul. For starters, the strategy depends on the United States fighting side by side with Taiwan. But it is difficult to imagine American policy makers purposely choosing to fight a war in which the U.S. military is not only going to lose, but is also going to pay a huge price in the process. It is not even clear that Taiwan would want to fight such a war, because it would be fought mainly on Taiwanese territorynot Chinese territoryand there would be death and destruction everywhere. And Taiwan would lose in the end anyway.

Furthermore, pursuing this option would mean that Taiwan would be constantly in an arms race with China, which would help fuel an intense and dangerous security competition between them. The sword of Damocles, in other words, would always be hanging over Taiwan.

Finally, although it is difficult to predict just how dominant China will become in the distant future, it is possible that it will eventually become so powerful that Taiwan will be unable to put up major resistance against a Chinese onslaught. This would certainly be true if Americas commitment to defend Taiwan weakens as China morphs into a superpower.

Taiwans third option is to pursue what I will call the Hong Kong strategy. In this case, Taiwan accepts the fact that it is doomed to lose its independence and become part of China. It then works hard to make sure that the transition is peaceful and that it gains as much autonomy as possible from Beijing. This option is unpalatable today and will remain so for at least the next decade. But it is likely to become more attractive in the distant future if China becomes so powerful that it can conquer Taiwan with relative ease.

So where does this leave Taiwan? The nuclear option is not feasible, as neither China nor the United States would accept a nuclear-armed Taiwan. Conventional deterrence in the form of a risk strategy is far from ideal, but it makes sense as long as China is not so dominant that it can subordinate Taiwan without difficulty. Of course, for that strategy to work, the United States must remain committed to the defense of Taiwan, which is not guaranteed over the long term.

Once China becomes a superpower, it probably makes the most sense for Taiwan to give up hope of maintaining its de facto independence and instead pursue the Hong Kong strategy. This is definitely not an attractive option, but as Thucydides argued long ago, in international politics the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

By now, it should be glaringly apparent that whether Taiwan is forced to give up its independence largely depends on how formidable Chinas military becomes in the decades ahead. Taiwan will surely do everything it can to buy time and maintain the political status quo. But if China continues its impressive rise, Taiwan appears destined to become part of China.

THERE IS one set of circumstances under which Taiwan can avoid this scenario. Specifically, all Taiwanese should hope there is a drastic slowdown in Chinese economic growth in the years ahead and that Beijing also has serious political problems on the home front that work to keep it focused inward. If that happens, China will not be in a position to pursue regional hegemony and the United States will be able to protect Taiwan from China, as it does now. In essence, the best way for Taiwan to maintain de facto independence is for China to be economically and militarily weak. Unfortunately for Taiwan, it has no way of influencing events so that this outcome actually becomes reality.

When China started its impressive growth in the 1980s, most Americans and Asians thought this was wonderful news, because all of the ensuing trade and other forms of economic intercourse would make everyone richer and happier. China, according to the reigning wisdom, would become a responsible stakeholder in the international community, and its neighbors would have little to worry about. Many Taiwanese shared this optimistic outlook, and some still do.

They are wrong. By trading with China and helping it grow into an economic powerhouse, Taiwan has helped create a burgeoning Goliath with revisionist goals that include ending Taiwans independence and making it an integral part of China. In sum, a powerful China isnt just a problem for Taiwan. It is a nightmare.

John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He serves on the Advisory Council of The National Interest. This article is adapted from a speech he gave in Taipei on December 7, 2013, to the Taiwanese Association of International Relations.

Read full articleLet's check out the Yahoo Finance charts of the day. Up first, AT&T. (T): Shares are down in early trading here around 3.6%. The telecom giant beat on earnings and issued full-year profit guidance that topped estimates, however revenue came in a little light. iRobot. (IRBT): Shares surging here, up around 22.21%. The Roomba vacuum cleaner maker handily beat on earnings, almost doubling estimates, with revenue beating the street as well. The company also raised its full-year profit outlook, and noted Amazon Prime Day was a huge success. Finally Boeing. (BA): Shares are lower this morning , weighing on the Dow Industrials, down around 2.5%. While the plane maker beat on earnings and revenue, its commercial airlines business was lagging, at it's full-year earnings forecast came in below expectations. For more on today's big stock movers check out the Final Round, live at 3:55 p.m. ET, right here on Yahoo Finance.Mountain Lion: Flickr

A woman in Oregon said she used telepathy, a loving gaze and a high frequency, among other tactics, to get a mountain lion to leave her home after finding it in her living room.

Lauren Taylor shared a series of posts on Facebook documenting the moments she found a mountain lion in her living room and the moments following it took to get the animal to leave. Ms Taylor wrote that by loving her to peace, she was able to get the animal to leave the home safely  though she noted she has extensive experience working with energy and animals.

I'm not suggesting anyone seek out interactions with mountain lions, she wrote. She added, Cats are extremely psychic and perceptive of energy and this lion could have been dangerous in an energy field of fear or anger.

Ms Taylor explained that when she found the mountain lion in her living room, she consciously elevated the energy field to calm the animal, and waited for it to fall asleep before she exited her own home. She then kept an eye on the mountain lion through a window outside; the animal remained calm and slept behind a sofa for more than six hours, Ms Taylor wrote. She added that she used feline-speak eye blinking to keep the animal calm from the outdoors.

She was sleeping! she wrote. When I made noise, she woke up and looked startled so I consciously raised my frequency, gazed lovingly into her eyes, and communicated using feline-speak eye blinking to calm her.

She added, It was amazing to realise that this worked. I gazed lovingly then blinked hard and then she did it back!

Ms Taylor said that she sent telepathic routes of her home to the animal in an effort to help it guide itself out the home. She and her housemate then began playing the drums as another means to guide the cougar out.

She roused and knew just what to do.... walking out through the open doors, through the yard, across the creek, and through the empty field behind us exactly as we had shown her, she said.

Story continues

Ms Taylor later updated her post to note that she intentionally did not put out food for the mountain lion, addressing the importance of animals, like cougars and bears, not associating humans with food.

US National Park Service officials say individuals who encounter mountain lions should stand upright and never approach the animal. Officials also suggest to not run away or crunch down, among other recommendations.

It was a perfect ending to a blessed encounter that could have been dangerous if approached from a lower frequency, she wrote. Thank you for seeing and honouring the spirit of the encounter and this beautiful and powerful animal. The United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria said on Tuesday it was ready to provide support to a Franco-Russian initiative to deliver medical aid to government-controlled eastern Ghouta after earlier saying it would not.

France had said the cargo would be distributed under the independent supervision of a UN team so it could guarantee where and when it would go. A French diplomatic source said on Friday it was "not entrusting the aid with the Red Crescent".

The 50 tonnes of aid, including blankets, clothes and tents, arrived on a Russian plane to Russia's Hmeimim military base in northwestern Syria from France on Saturday and came after an agreement reached between President Emmanuel Macron and Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow following talks since May.The UN Mideast envoy said Tuesday that Israel and Hamas were "minutes away" from another "devastating confrontation" in Gaza on Saturdaya clash averted after UN and Egyptian diplomatic efforts got both sides to "step back from the brink."

Nikolay Mladenov warned that "unless we begin in earnest the crucial work required to change the current deteriorating dynamics, another explosion is almost a certainty."The UN Mideast envoy said Tuesday that Israel and Hamas were "minutes away" from another "devastating confrontation" in Gaza on Saturday after an IDF soldier was killed near Kissufim by sniper fire from the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon, leading to a retaliatory strike by the IDF that killed at least four Hamas fighters.

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Nikolay Mladenov said a clash was averted after UN and Egyptian diplomatic efforts got both sides to "step back from the brink."

UN Security Council (Photo: Reuters)

He warned that "unless we begin in earnest the crucial work required to change the current deteriorating dynamics, another explosion is almost a certainty."

Mladenov told the Security Council that he just returned from Gaza and "the situation is calming down although tensions remain," warning that he still "perilous" faceoff could lead to the fourth war in a decade between Hamas and Israel.

"Only through the repeated, collective efforts of all sides has another catastrophic escalation been averted over the past weeks," Mladenov said.

The latest outbursts of violence followed months of near-weekly border protests organized by Gaza's Hamas rulers.

Israel says it is defending its sovereign border and accuses Hamas terror organization of using the protests as a cover for attempts to breach the border fence and attack Israeli civilians and soldiers.

Israel's UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said flaming kites sent across the border by Hamas have destroyed over 7,400 acres"that is half the size of Manhattan."

Israel's UN ambassador Danny Danon (Photo: Reuters)

He said it is time that the Security Council declares Hamas a terrorist organization like al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, saying it is "holding hostage the entire population of Gaza" and its goal is to destroy Israel.

Danon again urged Hamas to release two Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers. "One cannot demand humanitarian assistance to Gaza, which we support, while refusing to ensure the basic humanitarian rights of returning our captives and our fallen," he said.

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the "dire humanitarian situation has placed an explosive pressure on the infrastructure and caused loss of livelihood among the entire population of the Gaza Strip."

He accused Israel of persisting "with its willful killing of Palestinian civilians and disregard of human life," and said it is "imperative" that international protection be provided for Gaza's civilian population.

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour (Photo: EPA)

Mansour said it is also imperative to mobilize funds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, "given its vital role in Gaza and beyond."

UNRWA is facing a funding crisis following the Trump administration's decision to cut some $300 million to the agency this year. It is now reviewing some $200 million in assistance for the Palestinians.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley made no mention of the cuts to UNRWA in her speech, which accused Arab and Islamic nations of being generous with their words in support of the Palestinians but not opening their wallets.

She said Iran, Algeria and Tunisia gave nothing to UNRWA last year and Pakistan and Egypt gave just $20,000. While Turkey gave $6.7 million, Kuwait $9 million and the United Arab Emirates $12.8 million, she said the United States gave $364 million to UNRWA last yearplus an additional $300 million to the Palestinians in bilateral aid.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley (Photo: Reuters)

Since 1993, Haley said, the United States has provided over $6 billion in assistance to Palestinians.

"How much have the Arab countriessome of whom are wealthy countrieshow much have they given to the Palestinians?" Haley asked. "It does not come anywhere close to what the United States has done."

Saudi Arabia's ambassador, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, had a sharp reply, though he didn't mention the United States, which is a close ally.

He said Saudi Arabia gave $100 million to UNRWA over the past year, $1 billion to UNRWA over the last two decades, "and more than $6 billion, with a B, to the Palestinian people over the last two decades in the form of humanitarian development."

UNRWA providing humanitarian aid to Gaza (Photo: AFP)

"Saudi Arabia strongly believes in actions, not words," Al-Mouallimi said.

Israel also drew sharp criticism at the council's monthly Mideast meeting from many countries over last week's approval by its parliament of a bill defining it as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador, said the new law "has transformed a situation of de facto apartheid into a situation of apartheid by law."

Deputy Iranian ambassador Eshagh Al Habib said the law means the legalization of "racism and apartheid, and ultimately, it means legitimizing exclusion, segregation and systemic inequality."

He recalled the General Assembly's 1975 resolution calling Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination" that was revoked in 1991. Nearly 30 years later, Al Habib said, "it is crystal clear that by doing so, the UN General Assembly has only emboldened Israel to legalize racism."Multiple attacks killed at least 38 people and wounded 37 others in Sweida and villages northeast of the Syrian city, the head of the health authority told state-run Ikhbariyah TV.

A suicide bomber blew himself up near a marketplace in the city early on Wednesday, as Islamic State militants mounted attacks on several villages to the northeast.

State media said authorities were hunting down militants in the city.A Syrian source said that Damascus has no intention of rushing into a war with Israel following the downing of a Syrian warplane by the IDF on Tuesday, since currently Syrias main priority is trying to conclude the military operation against terrorist centers in the south of the country, the Lebanese news website Al-Nusra reports.

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However, the source warned that the shooting down of the fighter jet will not go unanswered by the regime.

"You will not have to wait long for a response, but well get there in a few steps, firstly we need to finish all the ongoing military operations in the country. The direct response to the Israeli forces will come at an appropriate time. The final step will be thwarting any attempts to remove the Syrian allies from the region.

(Photo: shutterstock, Noy Golan)

In Tel Aviv they are aware that the situation that was before the civil war is different from what will be after. It must be careful not to light the kind of fire that it will not be able to extinguish later. Israel shot down the plane knowing it was a Syrian plane in the Syrian airspace," explained the source.

The IDF shot down the jet after it entered Israeli airspace from the Golan Heights border on Tuesday afternoon. Damascus confirmed one of its jets was shot down, but insisted it was taking part in operations against rebels over Syrian territory.

A Syrian military official told Russian news agency Sputnik that one of the pilots of the jet, Omran Muri, was killed when the aircraft was shot down, while the fate of the other remains unknown. The source insisted the plane did not infiltrate Israel and was downed over Syrian territory.

The pilot of the jet, Omran Muri.

The infiltration into the Israeli territory is believed to be a technical navigational error made by the pilot.

The downed plane took part in a heavy bombardment of the ISIS enclavea militia called The Khalid ibn al-Walid Armyin the border triangle of Israel, Syria and Jordan, adjacent to The Yarmuk River, that has so far refused to surrender to Assads army.

In the meantime, during talks between Russia and Israel, the Russians expressed resentment over the downing of the Syrian plane and claimed that it did not enter Israeli territory. In response the Israeli side presented the Russians with a radar image that proves unequivocally that the plane had penetrated Israeli territory.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Sergey Lavrov (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

The Russians also officially addressed on Tuesday a claim made by an Israeli official, who said on Monday that during the talks held between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Russian delegation in Jerusalem, Israel had rejected the Russian proposal to keep the Iranian forces in Syria 100 kilometers away from the Israeli border.

The Russian Embassy in Israel posted a response on its official Facebook page denying that Israel had rejected the offer.

"The reports are not rooted in reality. The talks held between Israeli and Russian representatives in Jerusalem were productive and we were complimented on our efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria," concluded the official statement.One hundred Druze reserve officers, many of them with a rich record of fighting in Israel's various wars over the years, have joined the special forum established in protest against the Nationality Law that passed in the Knesset last week.

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The law declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country.

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Imad Fares (Photo: Dudu Azoulay)

During talks held with several Druze reserve officers, several of them expressed anger for being excluded from Israeli society after they had served and are still serving the country.

Speaking to Ynet, Brig. Gen. (Res.) Imad Fares said, "The feeling is it was decided to burry us outside of the graveyard," "The feeling we are not equal was always a bit present in the street. It's sad, because we've always believed that someday we would be (treated as) equal, but now when it's enshrined into law (this thought) looks farther than even."

"I don't understand why this law is necessary. Is somebody questioning that the fact the country is Jewish? This law only creates second-class citizens," he lamented.

Fares's son serves as an IDF officer and is other son is expected to join the army soon.

"Going to the army is our duty as the citizens of this country. However, I expect the county to treat me as I treat it," Fares added.

Druze community protests against Nationality Law

"The Druze community's loyalty to this country is more profound and serious than any political statement. Why is it necessity hurting us every time to check our loyalty?" the Brig. Gen. wondered.

"This law creates unease in the Druze community. The lawmakers would have been smarter if they would have written it according to the Declaration of Independence, which mentions a Jewish country that allows minorities to coexist in it," he elaborated.

The law legally enshrines Israel's democratic character, its state symbols, Jerusalem as the capital, Hebrew as the official language and the right of return for Diaspora Jewry.

Knesset passes nationality bill into a law (Photo: Amit Shabi)

One of the main controversial sticking points of the law was article 7 which defined the development of the Jewish settlement as a national value, and enabled to exclude populations from new communities.

However, after a warning from the Knesset legal advisor, the article was altered. The law in its new version states that Israel "views the development of Jewish settlement as a national value and will act to encourage and promote its establishment."

The bill also strips Arabic of its designation as an official language alongside Hebrew, downgrading it to a "special status" that enables its continued use within Israeli institutions.

The first petition to the High Court of Justice against the Nationality Law was submitted last week by the heads of the Druze communities, followed by three Knesset members, including two from the coalition who also filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on Sunday against the law.

The move was initiated by MKs Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beytenu), Akram Hasson (Kulanu) and Saleh Saad (Zionist Union).

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Amal As'ad, former commander of the Coordination and Liaison Administration, also expressed his anger saying, "After we built this home together with the Jews, the Nationality Law excludes the Druze community from that home and put it outside the fence."

"We encourage the fact that Israel is a Jewish state even prior to its establishment and we will continue doing so with or without the law," As'ad elaborated.

"But, for some reason the Druze community was left behind. I've served in the IDF for this country for 26 years and I have the right to demand for it to mine exactly as it is yours," he went on to say.

"We intend to take further measures, without making any reckless moves. We are thinking together about our next steps to amend the law," the former commander of the Coordination and Liaison Administration explained.

The Druze community has defended Israel prior to its establishment and in 1947 the IDF Sword Battalion in which members of the Druze community served was founded.

In 2015, the IDF decided to dissolve the battalion.

Former Druze MK Amal Nasser el-Din who serves as the Druze Yad Lebanim chairman lost his son in 1969 who was killed while chasing after terrorists.

Nasser el-Din sent this week a harsh letter to President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the Nationality Law's sponsor MK Avi Dichter.

Col. (Res.) Anwar Saab

"I'm very angry. The decision-makers must have forgotten that the Druze are not new here, and should be ashamed of this legislation," he lashed out.

"The state has bestowed 160 members of the Druze community the medals of honor. All of Israel's leaders have respected us and now we are thrown to the dogs and even worse. History will judge those who vote in favor of the law, because we are the only ones who stood the test of all of Israel's wars," the Druze Yad Lebanim chairman vented.

"I'm having difficulty understanding why to do such a thing?" he wondered.

Nasser el-Din who resides in the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel added that his community is in emotional turmoil and its anger is directed at the Druze MKs in the coalition.

"The community is furious, None of the Druze accepts this, except for Ayoob Kara, who is the "yesman" of the man who appointed him as communications minister. The decision-makers have lost their minds," he concluded.

Col. (Res.) Anwar Saab backed Nasser el-Din saying, "We are very angry with MK Hamad Amar that was one of this law's initiatives and Akram Hasson who made deals around that law but failed to look out for the Druze community."

"Minister Ayoob Kara also voted in favor of the law," he added.

Col. (Res.) Anwar Saab backed Nasser el-Din saying, "We are very angry with MK Hamad Amar that was one of this law's initiatives and Akram Hasson who made deals around that law but failed to look out for the Druze community."

"Minister Ayoob Kara also voted in favor of the law," he added.

Saab is a member of the senior officers and authorities' heads forum to amend the Nationality Law, with 100 Druze officers recently joining it.

"We are acting to lead practical moves to amend the law. There are also Jews who are angry over the fact the Druze community was excluded from being defined as part of the Israeli people," Saab said.

"It is important to us that the state remains Jewish, but not at the expense of democracy," he concluded.

The passing of the Nationality Law drew harsh criticism not only among opposition members, but also among The Arab and ultra-orthodox sectors.

EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini (Photo: EPA)

The European Union on Thursday said it was "concerned" about Israel's new Nationality Law, which declares that only Jews have the right of self determination, and said it would complicate a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

We are concerned, we have expressed this concern and we will continue to engage with Israeli authorities in this context, a spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini told a news briefing.Paul Morigi/WireImage via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- A lawsuit accusing President Donald Trump of violating a constitutional clause that prohibits elected officials from doing business with foreign governments can move forward, a federal judge wrote Wednesday.



Attorneys general from Maryland and Washington, DC, say President Trump violated the foreign emoluments clause of the Constitution by profiting from his Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, which foreign governments frequently patronize while in the nations capital.



Judge Peter Messitte in Maryland on Wednesday struck down President Trumps latest attempt to dismiss the case, writing in an opinion to the court that Maryland and D.C. have convincingly argued that the term emolument means any profit, gain, or advantage and that accordingly, they have stated claims to the effect that the President, in certain instances, has violated both the Foreign and Domestic Clauses.



The Constitution prohibits any federal office holder, including the president, from accepting any payment or benefit from a state or foreign government.



Following his election, Trump pledged to divest from his family businesses, ceding the Trump empire to his three adult children via a blind trust and promising to donate any foreign earnings to the US Treasury. In February, the Trump Organization announced it had made its first such donation to the tune of $151,470.



Neither the Trump Organization nor the White House immediately responded to ABC News' request for comment.



Maryland and the District of Columbia brought the lawsuit last year, alleging that local businesses have suffered as a result of the presidents decision to permit his family business to do business with foreign customers.



Defining the intent of the foreign emoluments clause in the Constitution was at the heart of the presidents motion to dismiss the case.



At a hearing in June, government attorneys representing Trump argued for a narrow definition of the term emolument, hoping to have the case dismissed on the basis that foreign payments to a hotel did not amount to a violation of the emoluments clause.



Unilateral action to try to curry favor wouldnt be enough, a government attorney said of the business involving the Trump property, because there is not a reciprocal exchange.



Judge Messitte expressed skepticism over the governments claim at the June hearing, but hedged on making a decision from the bench, noting that there is no spot-on precedent for this case.



Both sides have three weeks to file a joint motion suggesting next steps in the case.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Flash

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday met with Tadamori Oshima, speaker of the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament, calling for a healthy and stable bilateral relationship.

"Healthy and stable China-Japan ties are beneficial to the two countries and their peoples, as well as regional and global peace, stability and prosperity," Li said.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Li said both sides should follow the four political documents signed between the two countries and implement their consensus to promote bilateral ties along the right track.

As major economies in the world, China and Japan are also the beneficiaries of free trade. The two countries should safeguard multilateralism, and advocate rules-based international order and free trade system, he said.

"China will continue its opening-up, relax market access and welcome foreign companies, including Japanese companies to expand their cooperation with China," Li said, adding that China is willing to work with Japan to strengthen cooperation in innovation-driven development and third-party markets.

He also called for more parliamentary exchanges to enhance understanding and mutual trust.

Oshima said Japan is willing to promote bilateral ties by "following the four political documents signed between the two countries and in the spirit of taking history as a mirror to guide the future."

"The Japanese side is willing to work with China to strengthen exchanges between legislative bodies to promote a steady development of bilateral ties," Oshima said.

Wang Chen, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), also met with Oshima on Tuesday.

Wang said the legislative organs of the two countries could deepen cooperation to facilitate culture, youth and people-to-people exchanges in order to consolidate public support for bilateral ties.

Oshima said the House of Representatives of the Japanese parliament is ready to work with the NPC to play a role in developing Japan-China relations.A 25-year-old Atia Shenran from the Gaza Strip is requesting to be granted a permit to travel to the Palestinian Authority in order to finally meet his three-year-old son Medhat and help his wife Malaka cancer patient, but he is being refused by the Israeli Authorities time and time again.

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The Palestinian resident used to live in the city of A-Ram near Ramallah, but he violated his permit and was consequently deported back to the strip in 2015 before the birth of his son. Atia claims to have only seen his child in videos.

Atia Shenran's son

X

Atia and Malak Shenran married in May 2014 and lived together in A-Ram. To earn a living he used to work without a permit in the Triangle area, but in April 2015, while his wife was pregnant, he was arrested and deported to Gaza.

Atia Shenran

Atia told about his anguish of not being able to reunite with the loved ones in a Ynet interview.

"I want to hug my son and they wont let me. Every day my son asks me, 'Dad, when will you come home? I want to kiss you and play with you.' When I hear that I start to cry. I worked in Israel without a permit, but it was only to support the family. I never hurt anyone. I am an honest man, Atia vented.

The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said in response that Atia does not meet the required criteria in order to receive the needed permit.

"As a resident of the Gaza Strip, his request does not meet the existing criteria and policy. In addition, this resident has previously violated the permits granted to him and was arrested for a prolonged illegal stay in Israel. The entry of Palestinian from the Gaza Strip into Israel is not a vested right and is only permitted in accordance with the policy and consequent security checks,"

Atia Shenran's son

Atias wife Malak said that coping with such a serious illness without her husband has been extremely hard.

"Every day were waiting for some good news, but the days go by and the suffering continues. Recently I found out that I have a life-threatening illness. I want my husband to come back and give us a hug before anything happens to me. I do not want to die before seeing my son on his fathers lap," she exclaimed.

MK Yousef Jabareen, who is trying to help the family, labeled the Shenrans family situation as a humanitarian crisis.

"This is a first-class humanitarian issue. Its completely insensitive to deny his request. You need to be emotionally apathetic in order not to take into account the difficult family situation and continue to prevent a father from seeing his family. This is another example of the continued Israeli control over the lives of the Palestinian people. Israel has never actually left Gaza," Jabareen claimed.Minister of Education Naftali Bennett addressed on Wednesday the claims made by Druze MKs who criticized the Nationality Law.

"After talks with many of our Druze brothers, it appears that the Nationality Law has deeply hurt them and others who are fatefully connected to the Jewish state  This was not the intention of the Israeli government and we have a responsibility to find a way to fix this," said the education minister on his Twitter account.Thank you. Thank you sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I feel obligated to express my heartfelt appreciation to the Rabbinical Court in Haifa for finally performing such a logical actfor instructing the police to summon Rabbi Dubi Haiyun for questioning for illegally presiding over a Jewish wedding in Israel.

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And it is not because of the public relations we received that I am thankful to you, Judges of the Religious Court. Although the word "Conservative" has finally been spoken out loud and many have learned about the difference between this central and important movement and other Jewish movements. The main reason I am grateful is for the recognition. Now, through an official complaint that caused the police to pull Rabbi Dubi Haiyun out of bed at 5:30am, the Chief Rabbinate proved that marriages performed by MasortiConservative rabbiare indeed marriages according to the law of Moses and Israel and must be legally registered.

Could we have wished for more distinct recognition?

Rabbi Dubi Haiyun (Photo: Muhammad Shinawi)

In fact, the arrest has laid to rest a saga which has been going on for decades. I have a faded letter from July 1995, over 20 years ago, in which the advisor to the Chief Rabbis at the time (the elder Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Bakshi-Doron) warned the Masorti Movement to desist immediately from sending reports of wedding ceremonies performed by its rabbis in Israel to the Chief Rabbinate. "I think you must be openly brazen, writes the advisor on behalf of the Rabbi, "to send the Chief Rabbinate what you refer to as marriage reports."

Yes, the leaders of the Masorti movement at the time naively thought that the Chief Rabbinate (which is legally authorized to register marriages in Israel) would be interested in registering that a certain couple is married according to Jewish law for the the sake of good order, or at least for the sake of Halacha. But, the reports were ignored. To what extent? The envelopes with the reports of marriage, which had been sent by the Masorti movement by registered mail, were attached to the advisors letterunopened.

I hope that now, the Chief Rabbinate will act differently. As far as we are concerned, we would be happy to renew the practice and update them about each of the hundreds of weddings throughout the country at which our Rabbis will officiate this summer.

The watershed that was crossed last week clearly demonstrates that the Chief Rabbinate is in a state of collapse. Public trust in it has reached rock-bottom. After this monopoly disappears from the world, we will look back and fail to understand how we let it determine what Judaism is for us.

The revolution is already taking place, and it is bubbling up from below. Almost a quarter of the couples who set up a home in Israel have already choose to do so outside the Rabbinate. No one even dreams anymore about converting through the Rabbinate. And Kashrut? Even the heads of the Chief Rabbinate themselves will not eat in a restaurant that bears a kashrut certificate which is solely from the Rabbinate.

However, when all is said and done, and despite the recognition and the attention in the media, I would have been happy if the rabbi's arrest had never taken place. The destructive effect of this arrest on the relations between Israel and its Diaspora is alarming. Rabbis who woke up on Thursday morning in North America and learned that their colleague in Israel was arrested for officiating at a Jewish wedding were shocked. Everything suddenly jumbled and became a lump choking the throat. The ritual bath lawthat forbids non-Orthodox converts from using the mikvehthe conversion lawthat is still on the agendathe abolishment of the Western Wall Compromise Agreement, the humiliation of the Diaspora by the Nation State law and now, believe it or not, religion police that drag a rabbi from his bed to be taken to jail. The many emails I received from abroad on Friday projected a feeling that official Israel has declared a war of extermination on non-Orthodox Judaism.

This snowball must be stopped. The nation state of the Jewish people cannot call itself that without first understanding that the Jewish nation does not want or agree to bending itself to the Orthodox definitions of who is a Jew and what Judaism is. This change in Israel will eventually take place, however my fear is that by the time this happens, the rift with our brothers and sisters overseas will be impossible to heal.

Dr. Yizhar Hess is the CEO of the Masorti Movement in Israel.Iran's President Hassan Rouhani says there's no need to respond to President Donald Trump's "empty threats."

Rouhani's remarks Wednesday were his first since Trump warned the Iranian leader of dire consequences for threatening the United States.

Rouhani told his Cabinet that there are "baseless comments and empty threats" by "some US leaders."

He added: "There is no need for us to respond to any nonsensical comment and answer back to them."

Rouhani also said: "We should respond to them with action."Turkey's president has argued against severing economic ties with Iran as the United States readies for sanctions.

Speaking in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it goes against the independence of states to cut ties with its "neighbor and strategic partner" because the US demands it.

President Donald Trump announced in May that he would pull out of a 2015 agreement over Iran's nuclear program and would re-impose sanctions. His administration threatened countries with sanctions if they don't cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.ISIS assumed Wednesday responsibility over the series of suicide bombings in the Sweida district in southern Syria.

The terror organization issued a statement saying the bombings targeted the Syrian regime's security centers.

Dozens of people were killed in the bombings.Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday he will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin ways to protect Syrians from potential attack in the northern province of Idlib, the largest remaining Syrian rebel-held enclave.

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Syrian's government and allied forces backed by Russia and Iran have swiftly recaptured other rebel strongholds in the southwest and vowed to push on and recover all of the country.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: AP)

Speaking to reporters in Ankara before heading for a summit of emerging market countries in South Africa, Erdogan described the situation in Daraa and Idlibwhere Turkey has set up a dozen military observation postsas troublesome.

"We will be discussing Daraa (with Russia), which is one of the most problematic issues of all. There is also the issue of Idlib, which we will discuss because in these places anything can happen at any time," he said.

"What we want is that Syrian people would be protected from these attacks and particularly the brutal attacks of some organisations in the region," Erdogan said.

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, backed by the Russian military, have captured most of the southern province of Daraa in an offensive that began in June.

Daraa city was the scene of the first major peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 which spiralled into a war now estimated to have killed half a million people.

Rebels evacuate Daraa region (Photo: AFP)

Erdogan has already raised the issue of Idlib with Putin in a telephone conversation in mid-July, saying an attack by the Syrian army there could destroy the Astana process, a deal struck last year with Russia and Iran to reduce fighting between insurgents and the Syrian government in de-escalation zones.

Erdogan said the avoidance of "negative developments" in Idlib was important in terms of encouraging rebel groups to attend a meeting in Astana planned for July 30-31, according to a source at the Turkish presidency.

Referring to Turkey's relationship with Iran, Erdogan has argued against severing economic ties with Iran as the United States readies for sanctions.

Speaking in Ankara, President Erdogan said it goes against the independence of states to cut ties with its "neighbor and strategic partner" because the US demands it.

President Donald Trump announced in May that he would pull out of a 2015 agreement over Iran's nuclear program and would re-impose sanctions. His administration threatened countries with sanctions if they don't cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.

Turkey imported 3 million tons of crude oil from Iran in the first four months of 2018, amounting to 55 percent of crude supplies and 27 percent of its total energy imports.

Erdogan asked Wednesday: "Who will heat my country throughout the winter?"The IDF Spokespersons unit said on Wednesday that Brig. Gen. Ofer Winter will be appointed as the next military secretary to Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.The UN Human Rights Council announced on Wednesday the appointment of a three-member committee that will investigate the protesters on the Gaza border that have been happening over the last few months.

The committee will consist of representatives from the United States, Bangladesh and Kenya and the results of its investigation will be submitted in March 2019.The leaders of the Israeli gay community held a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, presenting a document detailing their demands for the government.

The document focuses on six main issues: prevention of violence and crime committed against the community, recognition of gay families, adjusting welfare services to fit the needs of the LGBT community, equality in health services, and allocating resources to tolerance education programs. Flash

China on Tuesday called on the U.S. government to urge relevant U.S. airlines to observe the one-China principle.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a question regarding U.S. airlines not having changed their listing of Taiwan on their websites.

In late April, China's civil aviation authority sent a formal notice to 44 foreign airlines, asking them to list Taiwan as part of China on their websites.

"The one-China principle represents the consensus shared by the international community and is the political foundation for the steady development of China-U.S. relations, something not negotiable," said Geng, pointing out that the U.S. side is very clear about this.

"We hope the U.S. government can urge the relevant enterprises to observe the one-China principle and rectify the relevant websites as soon as possible," Geng said.The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) announced Wednesday it was cutting more than 250 jobs in the West Bank and Gaza after the United States held back hundreds of millions in aid.

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In total, 154 employees in the West Bank and 113 in the Gaza Strip will be let go, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said in a statement.

More than 500 other full-time staff will be offered part-time contracts, the statement added.

The job cuts were the first since the US announced it would only provide the agency with $60 million this year , down from $360 million the previous year.

Gunness's statement said the US cut represented an "existential threat" to UNRWA, which had been trying to raise the money from other donors.

Amal al-Batsh, deputy head of UNRWA's staff union, condemned the cuts.

"The decisions are unfair and will adversely affect employees and their families," she told AFP.

Hundreds of people rallied outside UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City to protest against the decision to axe jobs, as the union called for a sit-in.

One man tried to set himself on fire but fellow protesters rushed to help him and put out the flames, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

The UNRWA staff union also called for a general strike by employees to be held on Thursday in Gaza.





Protests break out amid UNRWA redundancies (Photo: AP)

The agency provides services to more than three million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East and employs more than 20,000 people, the vast majority Palestinians.

Israel complains that UNRWA grants Palestinian refugees special status by counting descendants of Palestinians who were either forced to leave or fled during the 1948 War of Independence, thereby perpetuating the conflict and intensifying the refugee problem.

Gunness's statement said UNRWA was seeking to "protect core services, including education, health and relief," as well as ensure the schools they run in the territories, Lebanon, Jordan and elsewhere open on time after the summer holidays.

"The decision of the US to cut $300 million in funding to UNRWA this year has been described by our commissioner general as an existential threat to UNRWA," it said.

"As we continue to pursue every avenue of support to overcome a severe financial crisis, UNRWA, its dedicated staff and the refugees have only one option: to face up to this situation together and preserve the most important work we do."

Trump threats

In January, US President Donald Trump linked the cutting of Palestinian aid to the decision by president Mahmoud Abbas to refuse to talk with his administration.

The Palestinian leadership froze ties with the White House after it recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and accuses Trump's administration of blatant bias in favour of Israel.

"We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect," Trump tweeted on January 2, shortly before the funding freeze was announced.

President Trump (Photo: Reuters)

"With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

UNRWA was set up after the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel, which saw more than 700,000 Palestinians expelled or flee.

UNRWA leadership and Palestinian officials say its presence is necessary until a permanent solution can be found for the refugees.

Israel has also complained that the UNRWA-funded facilities are exploited by terrorists.

Last year, for exampled, UNRWA discovered a Hamas attack tunnel underneath one of its schools in Gaza.A rocket alert siren was sounded in the southern Golan Heights on Wednesday afternoon, with the IDF originally concluding that the siren had been triggered by internal fighting in the Syrian civil war, and later confirming that errant rocket fire had in fact landed in Israeli territory.

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The incident came a day after the IDF shot down a Syrian fighter jet that entered Israeli airspace from the northern border.

The IDF began investigating suspicions that the rocket may have landed in the Kinneret, Israels northern water jewel.

Police scour the Kinneret (Photo: Emek HaYarden Regional Council)

Locals told the Director of the Gofra Beach in Kinneret that they saw a suspicious object fall into the water, prompting the police to scour the area.

There were two explosions and we saw a wave of people leave the water, recalled one Acre resident who was at the beach. We heard a strong boom that caused a strong wave in the water.

The police said that they had begun looking for evidence that the rockets had landed in the water, but nothing was found by the early evening. No injuries or damage was reported.

(Photo: Emek HaYarden Regional Council)

It was the third consecutive day that a siren has been blasted in northern Israel, with the border becoming increasingly volatile as Syrian President Bashar Assad recaptures swathes of rebel-held land in an intensive military offensive, and retakes areas overlooking the Golan Heights.

Damascus confirmed one of its Sukhoi fighter jet was shot down on Tuesday, but insisted it was taking part in operations against rebels over Syrian territory. The plane was said to have entered Israeli territory due to a navigational error.

The plane apparently crashed inside Syria, with Sky News Arabic reporting it went down in the Yarmouk area.

The Israeli military said it monitored the advance of the jet and shot it down with a pair of Patriot missiles after it penetrated Israeli airspace by about two kilometers (1.2 miles).

File photo (Photo: EPA)

Israel's army has been on heightened standby amid the rising tensions on its northern frontier and in anticipation of a possible retalitation. The IDF's vigilance was further intensified after a Syrian source warned that the shooting down of the fighter jet will not go unanswered by the regime.

"You will not have to wait long for a response, but well get there in a few steps, firstly we need to finish all the ongoing military operations in the country. The direct response to the Israeli forces will come at an appropriate time. The final step will be thwarting any attempts to remove the Syrian allies from the region," the source said.

In Tel Aviv they are aware that the situation that was before the civil war is different from what will be after. It must be careful not to ignite the kind of conflagration that it will not be able to extinguish later. Israel shot down the plane knowing it was a Syrian plane in the Syrian airspace," the source added.

The source also noted, however, that Damascus has no intention of rushing into a war with Israel following the downing of the warplane, since currently Syrias main priority is trying to conclude the military operation against terrorist centers in the south of the country, the Lebanese news website Al-Nusra reported.

On Monday, Israel's launched its "David's Sling" air defence system for its first ever operational mission as a precauation against rockets fired within Syria, setting off sirens in northern Israeli communities, the IDF said.

David's Sling file photo (Photo: Defense Ministry)

However, inquiry teams made up of representatives from the manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the Defense Ministry's Missile Defense Organization (MDO) and the Israel Air Force, launched an investigation into the incident and concluded that David's Sling failed its attempt to intercept two Syrian missiles.

David's Sling, which is part of Israels multi-layered missile defense program, operates in the layer above the Iron Dome and below the Arrow systems.A rocket alert siren was sounded in the Golan Heights on Wednesday afternoon, with the IDF originally concluding that the siren had been triggered by internal fighting in the Syrian civil war, and later confirming that errant rocket fire had in fact landed in Israeli territory.Iran will never take part in one-sided negotiations with the United States under threat, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said Wednesday, according to the Tasnim news agency.

"America should forget for ever the idea of one-sided negotiations under the shadow of a threat," spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.A former senior US legal official, David Crane, will lead a UN investigation into violence in Gaza, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

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At least 140 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF during violent protest on the Gaza border in recent months, with demonstrators launching incendiary balloons and kites into southern Israel.

One Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, was killed during the weekly protests that began on March 30, and thousands of acres of farmland have been incinerated by the tide of flaming kites and balloons that the IDF has so far not managed to stem.

The UN Human Rights Council voted in May to set up the probe into the killings, to the fury of Israel, which said it was being demonized while the violent activities of the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group were being overlooked.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday declined immediate comment.

Israel, with its long history of not cooperating with UN human rights inquiries or allowing them access to Gaza, decries what it says is a disproportionate number of discussion items and resolutions against it, the conclusions of which it suspects are predetermined and biased.

Crane, who leads the three-person Commission of Inquiry, is a law professor at Syracuse University who the UN said had over 30 years' experience in the US federal government, including as Senior Inspector General in the Department of Defense.

"Professor Crane served as Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone from April 2002 until 15 July 2005, during which period he indicted, among others, the then-President of Liberia, Charles Taylor," a UN statement said.

His co-commissioners will be Sara Hossain, a Bangladeshi barrister who formerly worked on UN investigations into human rights in North Korea, and Kaari Betty Murungi, a board member of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and previously a legal adviser at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The commissioners will present a final written report in March next year.

Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi

The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that he had visited Gaza over the past week in an urgent effort to de-escalate tensions.

"I appealed to Palestinian factions not to provoke incidents at the fence, to immediately stop the firing of rockets and mortars and to stop the incendiary kites and balloons. And I appealed to Israel to reopen the crossings, stop shelling, particularly in populated areas, and to exercise restraint towards Gaza," he said.

"Over the last two weeks however the situation quickly spiralled out of control, nearly to a point of no-return."

Intense efforts by the United Nations and Egypt had calmed the situation, Mladenov said, but only in the short-term.Islamic State published on Wednesday photos of what it said was the body of the pilot of a Syrian aircraft that Israel says it shot down after crossing into the Golan Heights.

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The terror group posted four photos, one of which showing a mutilated body and three of pieces of metal, some still smouldering, on its Nasher news agency site. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the pictures.

The downed Syrian jet

Israel had said it shot down the Syrian warplane after it crossed into the Golan Heights on Tuesday, but Damascus said the jet was fired on as it took part in sorties against rebels within Syria.

A Syrian military source told the Russian news agency Sputnik that Omran Muri was the pilot killed in Israeli attack on the jet.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Tuesday on the on the downing of the Sukhoi Su-24 jet.

"Our air defense systems identified a Syrian Air Force jet that took off from the T-4 Syrian Air Force base and penetrated Israeli airspace. This is a gross violation of the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement with Syria," he said.

"I have reiterated and made clear that we will not accept any such violation. We will not accept any such penetration of, or spillover into, our territory, neither on the ground nor in the air. Our forces acted appropriately. We insist that the Syrians strictly abide by the Separation of Forces Agreement between us and them."

A Syrian source said that Damascus has no intention of rushing into a war with Israel following the downing of the warplane, since currently Syrias main priority is trying to conclude the military operation against terrorist centers in the south of the country, the Lebanese news website Al-Nusra reported.

Syrian jet and trails of smoke from Israel's Patriot missiles (Photo: shutterstock, Noy Golan)

However, the source warned that the shooting down of the fighter jet will not go unanswered by the regime.

"You will not have to wait long for a response, but well get there in a few steps, firstly we need to finish all the ongoing military operations in the country. The direct response to the Israeli forces will come at an appropriate time. The final step will be thwarting any attempts to remove the Syrian allies from the region.

In Tel Aviv they are aware that the situation that was before the civil war is different from what will be after. It must be careful not to light the kind of fire that it will not be able to extinguish later. Israel shot down the plane knowing it was a Syrian plane in the Syrian airspace," claimed the source.70 MK's signed a letter sent to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanding the government to immediately implement a decision made three years ago to let a community of Ethiopian Jews into Israel.

The letter was initiated by the chairman of the Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, MK Avraham Neguise (Likud).

A protest will be held on Sunday at 10am in front of the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem.Terrorists in the southern Gaza Strip opened fire on IDF soldiers on Wednesday evening, prompting the military to retaliate by attacking Hamas outposts along the border, the IDF said.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to meet with representatives of the Druze community in the upcoming days, following their protest against the National Law.Three Palestinian terrorists in Gaza were killed and another critically wounded on Wednesday evening in a retaliatory IDF attack along the border after a sniper opened fire on Israeli soldiers in a latest round of violence that has gripped the region in recent months.

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Israeli tanks began targeting at least 7 Hamas outposts along the volatile border, the IDF said, after the terrorists began shooting from the southern Gaza Strip.

Hamas outpost attacked by IDF

Approximately one hour later, a Code Red alert siren was sounded in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman convened a special security meeting in the Kirya Headquarters in Tel Aviv to discuss the situation with IDF senior officials.

The incident occurred in the Kissufim area where IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi was killed by a Hamas sniper on Friday afternoon on the Gaza border.

The sniper fire led to a retaliatory strike by the IDF that killed at least three Hamas terrorists.

The IDF attacked some 60 terror targets across the Gaza Strip with both tank and aircraft fire. So far, 15 targets were bombed at the Hamas Zaytun battalion headquarters. The headquarters were destroyed, while arms depots, training facilities, observation posts, the battalion situation room, the battalion commander's office and other infrastructures were hit.

File photo of Israeli tank on Gazan border (Photo: AFP)

The three Palestinians killed were from Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade, while at least 120 Palestinians were reported wounded in the IDF's retaliation.

Earlier on Wednesday, a rocket alert siren was sounded in the southern Golan Heights, with the IDF originally concluding that the siren had been triggered by internal fighting in the Syrian civil war, and later confirming that errant rocket fire had in fact landed in Israeli territory.

The incident came a day after the IDF shot down a Syrian fighter jet that entered Israeli airspace from the northern border.

The IDF began investigating suspicions that the rocket may have landed in the Kinneret, Israels northern water jewel.

Police scour the Kinneret (Photo: Emek HaYarden Regional Council)

Lieberman warned Friday morning that the Hamas terror group is leaving Israel with no choice but to launch a wide scale and painful military campaign, as incendiary kites and balloons continue to fall from Gaza on Israeli border communities.

We are making efforts to weigh matters and be responsible, but the heads of Hamas are forcefully leading us to a situation in which we have no choice, to a situation in which we will have to embark on a wide scale and painful military operation that is not intended for showa wide scale and painful military operation, he emphatically repeated. Flash

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called on China and South Africa to continue striving to develop closer ties and join hands to achieve their dreams in development.

"There is huge potential for bilateral ties, but we cannot stop racing ahead. As the two countries embark on a new journey of development, we should work hand in hand and heart to heart to assist each other in achieving our dreams in development," he said.

Xi made the remarks while attending a welcome banquet hosted by his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and South Africa.

The two countries established diplomatic ties on Jan. 1, 1998, opening a new chapter in bilateral ties.

"The China-South Africa relationship has taken a major leap forward over the past 20 years," Xi said, adding that the rapid development of ties not only embodies the constant deepening of China-Africa cooperation, but also manifests the solidarity and coordination between major developing countries.

Such fruitful outcomes of bilateral ties in just 20 years mainly resulted from the fact that the two sides always support and rely on each other, maintain mutual respect and trust, and promote mutual understanding and win-win cooperation, he said.

Xi called on the two sides to bear in mind the big picture of the direction of bilateral ties, cement political mutual trust, and always treat each other as sincere comrades and brothers sharing weal and woe.

He also urged the two sides to constantly tap their development potential, advance practical cooperation, strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

The two countries should enhance high-level strategic coordination and continue to support each other in international affairs, so as to jointly build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind, Xi said.

For his part, Ramaphosa extended warm welcome to Xi, saying that he was glad to celebrate with the Chinese president the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

Hailing the close contact between the two ruling parties, countries and peoples, as well as the sound cooperation on bilateral, regional and global level, Ramaphosa said that South Africa-China relationship is at the best period in history.

Xi's visit shows that the South Africa-China relationship is of strategic significance, surpassing the usual scope of bilateral ties, he said.

The South African president also pledged to implement the consensus reached between the two sides and deepen all-round cooperation in such areas as economy, trade, technology and people-to-people exchanges.Following US President Donald Trump's statement on Tuesday, that he is ready to "make a real deal" with Iran, Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, said that Iran will never take part in one-sided negotiations with the United States under threat.

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"America should forget forever the idea of one-sided negotiations under the shadow of a threat," Tasnim news agency quoted Qassemi as saying.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and US President Donald Trump (Photo: AFP, Getty Images)

According to the IRNA news agency, Qassemi also said that in response to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech on Sunday in which he compared Iran's leaders to a "mafia", Iran has filed an official letter of objection to the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which oversees US diplomatic relations in the Islamic Republic.

Pompeo, in a California speech to a largely Iranian-American audience, dismissed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who negotiated a nuclear deal with the United States and five other countries, as merely polished front men for the ayatollahs international con artistry.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Photo: Reuters)

Iran is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government, Pompeo said, citing what he called Iranian leaders vast wealth and corruption.

Pompeos speech was the latest step in a communications offensive launched by the Trump administration that is meant to foment unrest in Iran and help pressure its government to end its nuclear program and support of militant groups, US officials familiar with the matter said.

The offensive is meant to work in concert with severe economic sanctions that Washington plans to reimpose in the coming months, including on Tehrans oil exports, its principal revenue generator.

The United States will work with countries that import Iranian oil to get imports as close to zero as possible by November 4, Pompeo said.

Rouhani cautioned Trump on Sunday about pursuing hostile policies against Tehran, saying: War with Iran is the mother of all wars. But he did not rule out peace between the two countries, which have been at odds since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

You are not in a position to incite the Iranian nation against Irans security and interests, Rouhani said, in an apparent reference to reports of efforts by Washington to destabilize Irans Islamic government.

Donald Trump (Photo: AP)

Trump responded to Rouhani in a tweet late on Sunday, warning Rouhani of dire consequences if he threatens the US again.

NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!

Publicly, the Trump administration says its policy with Iran is not regime change, but to change Tehrans behavior so it stops nuclear and missile work, support for proxies in the Middle East and backing of militant groups.

While it is ultimately up to the Iranian people to determine the direction of their country, the United States ... will support the long-ignored voice of the Iranian people, Pompeo said.

Pompeo spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, to a packed house of about 1,000 people. He received frequent applause, although one audience member heckled him over the Trump administrations immigration policies.





Trump and FM Zarif (Photo: Reuters)

Several dozen protesters lined the route to the site, including one group that distributed fliers opposing both Irans current government and any US intervention in Iran.

Pompeo said senior Iranian leaders had benefited from embezzlement, sweetheart deals and other ill-gotten gains.

rans ayatollahs, he said, were hypocritical holy men who seem more concerned with riches than religion.

Pompeo added that the US government broadcasting agency was launching a 24/7 Farsi-language channel on TV, radio, digital and social media platforms. The US government is also taking steps to help Iranians get around internet censorship, he asserted.Israeli jets struck a rocket launcher and shelled the area on Wednesday evening from which two rockets were launched by ISIS and landed in the Kinneret earlier as part of the internal fighting raging in Syria.

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Two BM-21 rockets were found by Israeli security authorities in the northern freshwater lake after a three-hour search prompted by reports by eyewitness who claimed to see two suspicious objects crash into the water accompanied by explosions.

Police scour the Kinneret (Photo: Emek HaYarden Regional Council)

According to the defense establishment, the rockets were not intercepted due to the non-hermetic air defense system.

The IDF responded by attacking the rocket launcher and shelling the area from where the projectile was lauched with artillery fire.

The IDF issued a statement after the military response saying, The IDF will act against any attempt to violate the State of Israels sovereignty and harm the security of its citizens.

When the rocket alert siren was sounded in the southern Golan Heights on Wednesday afternoon, the IDF originally concluded that the siren had been triggered by internal fighting in the Syrian civil war, and later confirmed that errant rocket fire had in fact landed in Israeli territory.

The incident came a day after the IDF shot down a Syrian fighter jet that entered Israeli airspace from the northern border.

(Photo: Emek HaYarden Regional Council)

Locals told the Director of the Gofra Beach in Kinneret that they saw a suspicious object fall into the water, prompting the police to scour the area.

There were two explosions and we saw a wave of people leave the water, recalled one Acre resident who was at the beach. We heard a strong boom that caused a strong wave in the water.

"As I was watching the water, I saw something fall in. I didn't see what it was but I saw the spray from the impact," Hasdia Rada, a life guard at one of the lake's beaches said. Another man said he heard a whistling sound before an impact.

There have been many instances of stray fire landing on the Israeli side of the rocky Golan plateau during years of fighting between Syrian rebels and forces loyal to President Assad, but a rocket flying between 7-10 kilometres (4-6 miles) into the lake is thought to be the farthest yet.The deadly violence that took place on the Gaza border on Wednesday evening after Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops was caused, according to an initial investigation, when soldiers from the Givati Brigade were called to the Gaza border to disperse a bait riot staged by children before a sniper opened fire on them.

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Three Palestinians belonging to the Hamas military wing were killed while another Palestinian was critically wounded in a retaliatory IDF attack along the border after a terrorist sniper opened fire on Israeli soldiers in a latest round of violence that has gripped the region in recent months.

Hamas outpost after being struck by IDF

X

The incident took place in the Kissufim area, just 400 meters away from where IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi was killed by a Hamas sniper on Friday afternoon on the Gaza border.



The IDF responded to what it has described on Wednesday evening as a trap terror attack by using children to lure soldier within the snipers range, by attacking seven Hamas outposts.

An hour after the incident, a Code Red alert was sounded in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, but the IDF later confirmed that it was a false alarm.

Hamas post attacked by IDF

The IDF said that the sniper attack was staged by a group of terror organizations in the Gaza Strip defined as rogue groups.

The attack is the most serious to have been carried out since a ceasefire was struck between Israel and Gaza on Saturday.

The scope of the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip and its deliberate attacks on fighters of the resistance reflects Israels intention to kill, a Hamas statement read. These steps clearly demonstrate that Israels leadership is criminal. We cannot remain silent in the face of its crimes. We will not forgo our obligation to defend the Palestinian people and to respond.

"The blood of the dead was not spilled in vain, Israel will pay a steep price," the terror group added.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group also responded to the incident. The Israeli crime will not go unpunished. We are weighing all options for a response. We are still sticking to the equation of bombing will be met with bombing, it said.

In May, Hamas and Islamic Jihad published a joint statement saying: We warn Israel against continuing to attack our people. All options are open to the resistancebombings will be met with bombings and blood with blood. We will adhere to this equationno matter the cost."An IDF officer was moderately wounded on Wednesday evening after being shot by a sniper from the Gaza Strip during the most serious outbreak of violence between Israel and the coastal enclave since the two sides reached a ceasefire on Saturday.

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The officer from the Givati Brigade was originally said to be in serious condition, but he was later said to be in light condition. Shortly after, doctors said that he was in moderate but stable condition, it was cleared for publication on Wednesday evening after a gag order was initially placed over the incident.

(Photo: Haim Horenstein)

The shooting took place in the Kissufim area just 400 meters away from where IDF soldier Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi was killed by a Palestinian sniper on Friday afternoon on the Gaza border.

After being shot, the officer was evacuated to Soroka University Medical Center in Beer Sheva and taken to the operating theater suffering from a gunshot wound in the chest and stomach area.

The 21-year-old soldier from Dimona in south Israel recently finished his mandatory service and began his service as a career soldier.

According to an initial investigation, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops from the Givati Brigade's Tzabar Infantry Battalion who were conducting routine operations near the border fence when they were called to to disperse a bait riot staged by children to lure soldier within the snipers range.

The initial investigation found the officer was wearing full protective gear, including ceramic armor and helmet.

IDF investigators are checking whether the sniper who hit the IDF officer Wednesday was the same one who shot Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi five days prior.

The sniper is believed to be a member of one of the smaller factions in Gaza that do not answer to Hamas. However, since Hamas controls the border area, the IDF sees it as responsible for everything that happens there.

Three Palestinians belonging to the Hamas military wing were killed while another Palestinian was critically wounded in a retaliatory IDF attack on seven Hamas outposts along the border.

Also on Wednesday evening, Israeli jets struck a rocket launcher and shelled the area from which two rockets were launched by ISIS and landed in the Kinneret earlier as part of the internal fighting raging in Syria.President Donald Trump's proposed Washington meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has been delayed until 2019.

National security adviser John Bolton, in a statement, cites special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as the reason for the delay.

Bolton says: "The President believes that the next bilateral meeting with President Putin should take place after the Russia witch hunt is over, so we've agreed that it will be after the first of the year."

The White House said last week that Trump had directed Bolton to invite Putin to Washington for a meeting in the fall. This came amid the backlash over Trump's performance at a news conference with Putin following their Helsinki summit, and many members of Congress had objected to them meeting again in the fall.Last weeks CoreLogic Property Pulse gave a wider perspective of the ways the Australian property market has changed over the past decade throughout each of Australias biggest sub-state regions, revealing substantial change in house and unit values, as well as market movement.

From June 2008 through June 2018, national home values have risen by a cumulative 43.9%, with the combined capital cities recording an increase of 52.6% and the combined regional markets recording growth of 16.6%.

Houses values surged by 46.9% nationally over the past decade with combined capital city values rising at a faster pace (56.2%) than the combined regional markets, which were only up by 20%. Of the 88 biggest sub-state regions across the nation, 73 areas recorded a hike in home values over the past decade. The biggest sub-state regions in New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (Vic), Tasmania, Northern Territory or Australian Capital Territory have not recorded a decline in values over the last ten years. A majority of Western Australias (WA) biggest sub-state regions, on the other hand, have recorded decreases in values over the past decade.

The region to see the greatest gains in house values over the past decade was the South West region of Sydney, where values climbed 112.9%. On the other hand, house values at the following markets recorded the largest decline over the same duration  Outback (North) in WA, Outback (South) in WA, Mackay-Isaac-Whitsunday in Queensland (QLD), Central Queensland, Townsville.

Value growth in NSW and Vic has been substantially stronger than growth elsewhere. In fact, the regions of NSW (Riverina) and Vic (North West) that recorded the weakest conditions over the decade have seen value growth well in excess of the best performing WA region (Perth-North West), research analyst Cameron Kusher said.

In terms of the national unit values movements throughout the past decade, the report showed that they increased by 34.2%. Moreover, unit value growth in the combined capital cities (42%) and combined regional housing markets (0.4%) was similarly lower than that for houses, advancing only by 56.2% and 20%, respectively.

Among the biggest sub-state regions across the country, 53 have climbed in unit values over the past decade.

The South West region of Sydney recorded the greatest increase in house values of all the biggest sub-state regions (112.9%), and also saw the highest gain in unit values (98.0%). While house values doubled across seven regions in Australia over the past ten years, not one region has seen unit values double over the same period.

Only the Outer South West region of Sydney (81.0%) and Sydneys Eastern Suburbs (78.2%), along with Sydneys South West, have posted decade unit value growth of more than 75%. By comparison, 24 regions of the country have recorded house value growth over 75%.

Recording the largest declines in terms of unit values were Outback (North) WA, Outback (South) WA, Darling Downs-Maranoa in Qld, Central Queensland, and Townsville.

Kusher noted that house and unit values growth over the past decade has been very much slanted to strong growth in Sydney and Melbourne.

While the last 10 years is not predictive of the future, dwelling values are already falling in Sydney and Melbourne and regional markets are currently outperforming capital cities. With housing in a downturn in Sydney and Melbourne and affordability stretched, at this point it seems unlikely the returns of the past decade will be replicated over the next 10 years, he claimed.

Related stories:

Australian Home Values Down 0.8% Since October

Melbourne Property Prices Unfazed By Crime RatesNews

Yuma, Arizona - Its Christmas in July, at least for 150 Santas who traveled from around the world to attend the 61st World Santa Claus Congress in Copenhagen, according to the Association of Mature American Citizens.

One Santa from the U.S., who has attended the event for 12 years in a row, told the Reuters News Agency that more and more Kris Kringles have been choosing to dress like an American Santa. Danish Santas, for example, have traded in their traditional gray suits for red suits, white fur trimmed nightcaps, black boots and wide black belts. And, if you doubt the popularity of Old Saint Nick in the non-English speaking world, consider this: Japanese kids are now among the worlds most prolific writers of letters to Santa. As they say in Japan during Yuletide, Merikurisumasu!Living Section

Wellton, Arizona - Beginning Friday, August 3rd, the Wellton Library will host a Bilingual Beginning Drawing Workshop every Friday in August at 1:00 p.m. Adults can learn basic drawing techniques through creative activities. Supplies will be provided. No prior training needed! Instruction will be provided in English and Spanish.

There is no charge to attend.



The Wellton Library is located at 28790 San Jose Avenue in Wellton, AZ. For more information, call (928) 785-9575.Living Section

Wellton, Arizona - Feeling overwhelmed by ever-evolving technology? Beginning Saturday, August 4th, the Wellton Library will host Tech Talk every Saturday in August at 10:30 a.m. Learn more about popular technology with hands-on experience, or simply listen and watch.

There is no charge to attend.



Saturday, August 4th @ 10:30 a.m.

Getting Acquainted with Personal Computers



Saturday, August 11th @ 10:30 a.m.

3D Printers  What They Are and Why You Care



Saturday, August 18th @ 10:30 a.m.

Podcasts  the 21st Century Version of Gathering Around the Radio



Saturday, August 25th @ 10:30 a.m.

Whats Coding?  Basic Information



The Wellton Library is located at 28790 San Jose Avenue. For more information, call (928) 785-9575.Our directory features more than 18 million business listings from across the entire US. However, if we're missing your business, add your business by clicking on Add Your Business.Whenever Lucky Mensah is mentioned, so much comes to mind; his top trending songs for example, and his contribution to the music industry that is significant. Lucky Mensah songs are loved far and wide. The following is a breakdown of some of his most trending songs in Africa and beyond. It would be impossible to count musical stars in Ghana without featuring Mensah.

Source:ghanacelebrities.com

READ ALSO:Top 10 Songs in Ghana Currently

Lucky Mensah may be known for several things but nothing identifies him as best as his great musical talent does. This is evident in the number of songs he has released so far. People seem to be captivated by the messages and lyrics that his songs represent. To get a touch of this, check out some of his most trending songs so far.

Top Trending Mensah songs

1. Lucky Mensah Woo ti akoma

This is a song that anyone who cares to know about love challenges ought's to listen to. As much as the artist is not that good of a dancer, his singing prowess is heart moving. You will definitely find yourself moving to the beats.

2. Lucky Mensa I miss you

This song keeps the original Ghanaian music alive. It touches the depth of one's soul. It is no wonder that you can easily keep replaying it without noticing. If you are looking for a jam to keep you refreshed then this is it.

3. Lucky Mensah Aduu Sumo Akwadu

Aduu Sumu Akwadu is a sweet song. If none of Mensah's songs have spoken to you yet, this will definitely do the trick. It is rated as one of Lucky Mensah latest songs that will make you fall in love with him. It is a song with a message that is relevant to our times and the future as well. Indeed, love knows no height, size or any other hindering factors.

4. Lucky Mensah Old School

Meet the other side of Lucky Mensah. It is a song that brings out the emotional side of the star. You will definitely have tears rolling down your cheeks. Chances are that you will not get enough of this great song.

5. Lucky Mensah Bottom of my heart

Singing about love seems to be Mensah's specialty. This is yet another of his great love songs. This song works well as a special dedication to those you love. The lyrics are quite seductive, saying so much in very few words. Lucky Mensah is indeed a talented artist and this song just goes to prove it.

7. Lucky Mensah NPP Aseda

This is the Lucky Mensah victory song. It was sung to thank God for the victory in the election. Lucky Mensah NPP Aseda, one of Lucky Mensah latest, expresses the joy of finally having Nana Addo as the president of the republic Ghana. A song that is really liked by those who are in support of the ruling regime. This can be considered as Lucky Mensah Nana Addo song showcasing his political contributions through song. It is Lucky Mensah latest track for NPP.

10. Lucky Mensah I wanna know

In this song, Lucky Mensah features Mike Pinodo. It is a masterpiece of fine artists working together. You can tell that two legends are doing what they love the most just by listening to the song.

8. Lucky Mensah Agogi Baby

This song was released way back in 2001 but it is still rocking the music arena as if it is one of Lucky Mensah latest hits. It has maintained its position in the dynamic music industry because of its liveliness and charming sense of appeal.

9. Lucky Mensah Brofrie Nie

It is one of the famous songs done by Lucky Mensah. In fact, it is safe to say that it is his favorite. This does not mean that he has put less effort in other songs. What stands out in this music is the length of the chorus. This makes the song more interesting and easy to sing along.

10. Lucky Mensah Gome

One of the best Lucky Mensah latest songs. It reminds you of the old times and brings fond memories to mind. These old school memories have something in common as they sometimes appear similar for all people. Listening to this song is emotion-invoking as it takes you way back.

11. Lucky Mensah I need u

I need you ranks among his favorite releases. This song is slow which makes it easy for you to understand. It is the kind of song you would listen to a couple of times without getting enough of it. The fact that it is a slow jam makes it a perfect choice to listen to on your way to work especially when there is traffic. It is somehow soothing and relieving which will help calm you down.

READ ALSO:Top trending Banky W songs

12. Lucky Mensah Mene wo Nni Asem

In this song, Lucky Mensah features Nkasei. This interesting song will take you back to days of your youth. If you want a tune that will give you that step you had back in the days then this is a great jam to listen to. Call a few of your friends and reminisce.

Apart from the songs mentioned above, Mensah has done other songs that are worth noting. These include:

1. Lucky Mensah Onongbor

The song combines both vocals and instrumentals seamlessly. Sometimes that is all that is needed for music to be great. He solos are in a perfect manner that tempts you to keep listening to the song long after its done.

2. Lucky Mensah Atiaa tina

Song done in perfect voice and harmony.

3. Lucky Mensah Heche

Heche is a song in which Lucky Mensah features Kofi Kinaata. Heche means hatred.

This song provokes your thinking. The two artists try to tell you to ignore hatred. That is one way of living a peaceful life. Lucky Mensah heche may very well be one of the best songs in Ghana, considering its message. Everyone, regardless of age and gender gets to learn from this.

4. Lucky Mensah Wope Ahwe

He may be getting older every day but his music still retains the taste it had in his younger years. This song is proof of his Mensah's agelessness as far as musical talent is concerned.

5. Lucky Mensah Sweety dzole

You may not truly understand who Lucky Mensah is until you listen to this song. Here, the artist portrays himself as the king of music.

6. Lucky Mensah Adwoa Fodwuo

This is the kind of music with fast beats. Even so, it has a soothing twist to it which makes it a favorite for many listeners.

7. Lucky Mensah Enda dinn

An elevating soul. The perfect choice for every tie you want to boost your mood.

8. Lucky Mensah Woote Akoma

Woote Akoma is one of Lucky Mensah latest songs. The music has received much play time and is common in most households in Ghana.

9. Lucky Mensah Nakaa Nooni

This song brings out a perfect combination of vocals and beats in a song. It is no wonder that it stands to be counted among the best song ever played.

10. Lucky Mensah Come back to me

This is a classic song. It may not be one of Lucky Mensah new songs but one thing is for sure, the song has lived to prove the test of time. Old as it is, it still receives considerable play all over Ghana and Africa. This song will make you nostalgic as you remember the olden days.

11. Lucky Mensah Atian

Cool music to listen to. It could be confused with Lucky Mensah Atiaa tina song but they are very different songs altogether. The song has slow beats that make it easy to follow and sing along. They both keep the spirit of Ghana music alive.

12. Lucky Mensah Esiraba

At the time of this song's release, Mensah was seen as a strong supporter of the ruling Party NDC. Many believe that the song was Lucky Mensah song for NDC

13. Lucky Mensah Meni Obiaa

Salsa dancers will appreciate this song. The inviting beats will get you on your feet and prompt you to dance.

14. Lucky Mensah Jah Jehova

Whoever thought that this would come? This is one of lucky Mensah new songs. He praises God in this one for the blessings he has granted him throughout his life. It is an inspirational song especially from one of the best.

15. Lucky Mensah Mpatam

Mpatam is yet another amazing piece from Lucky Mensah. If you want to listen to some nice and motivating music then Mpatam is the music to quench your desire.

16. Lucky Mensah Kokuara Me

This a fabulous song in which he is featuring Bacteria. The collaboration between these two artists has never been a letdown. The song is amusing which makes it even more exciting.

17. Lucky Mensah Ka shen ko du

Ka shen ko du is yet another song with slow beats released by Lucky Mensah. The interesting part about this song is that you do not have to be too keen on it to enjoy. It is an easy jam that will help you relax.

18. Lucky Mensah Yenye Wo den ni

A very beautiful song to listen to. The song attracts your attention and elevates your soul. It is perfect for those days that you want to meditate. Have it as your background music and you will be good to go.

19. Lucky Mensah ye se sem

This is his political song in support of NPP. It is just like the Lucky Mensah ye se wo den ni hi song.

Lucky Mensah is a star in his own right. Having come up with many songs in his time, one can only acknowledge that he was born to be a great artist.

READ ALSO:Top trending Busy Signal songs in Ghana

Source: Yen.com.gh- US Ambassador Robert Jackson has supported the nomination of Jean Mensa as EC Chair

- Robert Jackson who revealed that he has high respect for Jean Mensa described the nomination as a good one

- The US Ambassador thus urged all stakeholders who have issues with the nominee to bring them up at vetting

The US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, has backed President Nana Akufo-Addo over his choice of Jean Mensa as the next Electoral Commissioner.

According to Ambassador Jackson, the choice of Mrs. Mensa is a good one as she is someone he respects a lot.

US Ambassador Robert Jackson (Photo credit: Supplied)

President Akufo-Addo on Monday announced that he had sent the name of Jean Mensa and three others to the Council of State for consideration as the new Electoral Commissioners of Ghana.

READ ALSO: Sarkodie's mother-in-law got all the attention at his wedding with her 'teenage' appearance

The announcement has led to criticisms from opposition parties, especially, the NDC, that Akufo-Addo was appointing pro-NPP sympathisers to the EC.

They also questioned the timing of the appointment as this has come in the wake of several petitions filed in Court over the removal of former EC Chair Charlotte Osei and her deputies.

Speaking at a round-table conference with selected media personnel on the nomination an the criticism that has arisen, Mr Jackson admonished the NDC and other political parties who may have issues with the nomination of Jean Mensa to bring them up during vetting.

Jean Mensa has been nominated as EC Chair

"I was here during the 2016 election process, very involved, we did indeed work with our diplomatic colleagues and also with the Electoral Commission and the National Peace Council and Civil Society. We invested in the capacity of all three of those entities and of course Ghana had a very successful and peaceful election. I know Jean Mensah, I respect her.

"From what I know I think she is a good choice to head the Electoral Commission. If the opposition, whether it is the NDC or other parties have concerns about her fitness for the job then they should bring those concerns up during the vetting process and let everyone have their say, people can make a decision and the public can make its own views known, Ghanaweb reported him as saying.

READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong opens up on his future in Parliament in latest interview

Explaining further, the US Ambassador cited the impending referendum for the creation of new regions and elections of MMDCEs saying that there was the need for a Commissioner to be appointed to start work.

He stressed the relevance of the nomination but emphasised the need for all parties and stakeholders to have their issues resolved with regards the presidents decision.

It is important the EC gets back to work. For more than a year now the Commission has been paralysed by the impeachment process. It plays a very important role in the country. It is important that Ghana moves ahead with the creation of new regions if the voters wish to do that and with elected local and municipal officials as well as preparing for the 2020 parliamentary and presidential elections.

"Lets ensure that everyone is satisfied with the people that the president has proposed. Let us get the commission back to work and move on so that the Commission is in the best possible position to be a neutral arbiter for the next elections, he urged.

READ ALSO: Helicopter loaded with gold lands on maize farm in E/R after serious emergency

The EC Chairmanship became vacant earlier this year after a judicial committee set up to investigate Charlotte Osei and her two deputies found them guilty of procurement breaches and recommended their removal in accordance with Article 146 of the 1992 Constitution.

One of the nominees is to fill the position of Pauline Dadzawa who retired as a member of the Commission in April.

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Source: Yen- Elders of Kpikpira in the Tempane District of the Northern Region have accused men in southern Ghana of luring their women with money

- According to spokesperson for the Kpikpira elders, lots of men up north remain, bachelors, because the women they had hoped to marry have chosen to stay with relatively richer men in Accra, Kumasi

Some elders of Kpikpira in the Tempane District of the Northern Region have accused men in the southern part of the country of flirting with women from the north and luring them with money.

According to them, some married women from the north travel down south to seek greener pastures but fail to return to their husbands after being lured by men in the south with money.

This, they said, has become a worrying trend and has kept many men up north as bachelors because the women they had hoped to marry have chosen to stay with relatively richer men in Accra, Kumasi and other southern cities of the country.

An elder of Kpikpira in the Tempane District of the Northern Region. Photo Credit: Adomfmonline.com

READ ALSO: Free SHS: Persons who can pay must be excluded - Ofori-Atta suggests

Speaking to a team from World Vision, spokesperson for the Kpikpira elders, Ali Yaro, lamented the situation, attributing it to poverty in the north.

He explained that there are no jobs, resulting to the high poverty rate up north, the women, including married ones, travel to the south in search of greener pastures, and that is how they get trapped by the men in the cities.

The poverty level here is very high during the dry season because our lands are not fertile enough so both men and women travel to the cities to look for other alternatives for survival, and some end up doing galamsey.

When our women go because they are new and desperate for jobs to make money they accept offers from men who promise to give them money and we the men up north suffer for it, he quipped.

READ ALSO: Kennedy Agyapong to quit parliament at end of current tenure

He praised World Vision for installing shea-butter machines in the area which has boosted the Shea-butter business and also addressed issues of poverty.

Ali Yaro also made a passionate appeal to all men and women from the community who have travelled to the south to return home and join the lucrative Shea-butter business.

Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh

READ ALSO: Minister pays GHc1,500 fine to rescue jailed pregnant teenager

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Source: Yen.com.gh- Joyce Bawa Mogtari has criticized the Akufo-Addo government for playing politics with the new Terminal 3 project at the Kotoka International Airport

- The former Transport Minister in a statement said NPP government is taking undue credit for the KIA project executed by the Mahama administration

The Akufo-Addo government must acknowledge John Mahama and stop playing politics with the new Terminal 3 project at the Kotoka International Airport, former Transport Minister, Joyce Bawa Mogtari, has said.

According to her, the New Patriotic Party government is exhibiting a morbid fear to acknowledge the actual source of the project.

In a statement released ahead of the inauguration of the terminal for use, Madam Mogtari said the current government has deliberately set out to discredit Mahama by peddling lies.

READ ALSO: Minister pays GHc1,500 fine to rescue jailed pregnant teenager

She, therefore, accused the government of playing politics with the new terminal, likening it to the handling of the 650-bed University of Ghana Medical Centre project.

The government of Nana Akufo-Addo has begun rather sadly, an unfortunate attempt to rundown the project and spread false claims against the initiator of the project, John Mahama, she wrote.

Madam Mogtari, who also speaks for the former president, said some persons in government are busy spreading false information that the project cost was high, and could have been done for less.

For example, in throwing the figures around, they will never tell you that the new terminal, now referred to by some as the Mahama Terminal, was funded with a syndicated loan facility, secured solely on the books of the Ghana Airport Company Limited, which will be responsible for repaying the facility and not central government, she explained.

Joyce Bawah Mogtari, spokesperson for former president Mahama. Source: Event PR.

READ ALSO: 6-month-old baby becomes internet sensation because of her incredible hair

Below are portions of her statement;

THE FACTS

1. Airports and specialized facilities are not comparable across board like simple commodities (oranges and bananas). The cost of such projects depends on many variables such as scope, materials, size and the standard that one needs.

2. The Terminal 3 project followed ALL the international tender procedures, including value for money justification.

3. The commercial banks and institutional investors such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) undertook exhaustive due diligence before committing to fund the project. These organisations will never assess a project, find them to be overpriced and still go ahead to fund the project. Never!

4. The support and endorsement of financing institutions such as AfDB, AFC, DBSA, Stanchart and Qatar National Bank who agreed to fund the project should indicate to all concerned folks that it is a good project.

My point is that it is a non-starter to attempt to compare project costs without reference to the scopes and bills of quantities, and all the relevant contracts and conditions.

So instead of folding your arms and being a political quantity surveyor why not stop the talk-shop and actually do something to improve the lives of the struggling masses of Ghanaian?

By Joyce Bawah Mogtari

Former Deputy Minister for Transport

24/07/2018

Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh

READ ALSO: Free SHS: Persons who can pay must be excluded - Ofori-Atta suggests

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Source: Yen- A Ghanaian pastor killed in Cameroon

- The family of the deceased say, their son was murdered by soldiers in Cameroon

A Ghanaian pastor, identified as Apostle Isaac Attoh, has been gruesomely murdered in Cameroon.

He is reported to have been gunned down by military men alleged to be loyalists of President Paul Biya and his body dumped on the walkway of a street.

The deceased used to be a missionary at the Destiny Impact Ministry at Barn Yard in Accra, but decided to travel to Cameroon to run his own ministry.

The lifeless body of Apostle Isaac Attoh. Source:Citinewsroom.com

READ ALSO: Southern men luring our women with money - Kpikpira chief

Family of the deceased said he arrived at Batibo, Cameroon on July 13, 2018, before his gruesome murder took place.

The family said National Telegraphs secret stringers have confirmed that the corpse of the 28-year-old match one in a mortuary at Bali, a neighboring town to Bamenda.

Information reaching us [family] from Cameroon indicates that, the military is trying to bury the body to conceal the evidence, a family member said.

Apostle Attoh was in his pastoral cloth when his lifeless body was found, as captured in photos making rounds on social media.

Pastor Isaac Attoh and his wife and child. Photo Credit: Citinewsroom.com

READ ALSO: Free SHS: Persons who can pay must be excluded - Ofori-Atta suggests

Although, observers have condemned the death of the Pastor, the church in Cameroon is yet to come out with any official statement.

According to reports, the Cameroonian soldiers have refused to the released the body of the deceased, together with two other Ghanaians who were also killed.

The late Pastor Attoh left behind a wife and a 2-month-old baby boy.

How a Cameroon newspaper reported the news. Source: Citinewsroom.com

His family has, however, appealed to government and the international community to help them retrieve his mortal remains in order to bury him in Ghana.

Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers:

READ ALSO: Jean Mensa is a good choice - US Ambassador to Ghana

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Source: Yen- The population council wants to sanction all couples who have more than 3 children

- The executive director of the council believes this new measure could manage Ghana's growing population

- Ghana's population stands around 30 million as at the last 10 years of 24 million

The Ghana Population Council is making a case for couples who have more than three children to be sanctioned.

The council believes this move could go a long way to arrest Ghana's growing population which has hit 30 million.

It is for this reason that the council wants to reduce the total fertility rate (that is, the number of children a woman is likely to have during her reproductive years) from 5.5 percent in the past decade to 3 percent by 2020.

READ ALSO: I sacrificed my husband for a job - Sad woman confesses

The taxpayer must not be made to bear the cost of additional children by families who exceed the three children. No, it should not be a burden on the state and so we must review our social intervention programmes to reflect this policy, the head of the National Population Council (NPC), Dr. Leticia Adelaide Appiah argued.

Ghana's population census

The chief statistician at the Ghana Statistical Service, David Kombat, says that Ghana's population currently stands at 29.6 million as against 24.6 million in 2010.

According to him, the statistics call for some urgent steps to deal with the recent challenges faced by the youth in the country. So far, checks by YEN.com.gh show that the main issues confronting Ghana's youthful population have been the scramble for limited jobs.

In fact, the spate of unemployment in the country has been described by President Akufo-Addo as "a national security issue. "

To this effect, the president has committed to creating about 100,000 new jobs by the end of the year through the Builder's Corps which aims to link Graduates with ready and available jobs.

High population rate VS social vices and disease

Under the menace of unemployment has also been the increase in cases of armed robbery and other social vices.

In the beginning of March alone, there have been troubling cases of daylight armed robbery across the country mostly leading to the death of victims. A growing youthful population has also seen Ghana record high cases diseases.

The Ghana AIDS Commission has revealed that the prevalence of HIV has risen sharply as the years go by.

The Chief Statistician has, therefore, expressed the need for access to quality education and healthcare, especially reproductive health and the need to empower women economically, with entrepreneurial skills and development to drive economic growth.

READ ALSO: Jean Mensa is a good choice - US Ambassador to Ghana

Shocking revelations on how HIV is killing young people between 15 to 25 years This is because of the potential of skills and their capacity to contribute immensely to the country's economy.

Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh

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Source: Yen- Police in Ashaiman had to fire warning shots and tear gas in order to disperse hundreds of irate commercial motorbike operators

- The angry motor riders accused the police of extorting monies from them unnecessarily

There was chaos at the Ashaiman Divisional Police Headquarters on Tuesday, when some irate commercial motor riders(Okada riders) engaged in a bloody clash with police officers.

The confusion that ensued led to some officers sustaining cuts on their faces after they were pelted by the riders.

According to a report by Accra-based Class FM, the motorists, popularly known as okada riders, caused some damage to police vehicles and pelted the MTTU commander with stones.

READ ALSO: Ghanaian pastor murdered in Cameroon; family accuses military

The riders accused the police of arbitrary arrest, harassment and illegal fines to the sum of GH2,500 on some occasions.

Some of the commercial riders said despite being asked to pay GH600 each for registration and documentation a few months back, they are still being prevented from freely operating.

They, therefore, massed up at the Sakasaka Park at Ashaiman to protest, while demanding a refund of their monies.

Dressed in red attires, they marched to the Ashaiman Divisional Police Headquarters  a move which resulted in bloody clashes with the Police.

The escalation of the situation led to the Police firing warning shots and tear gas in order to disperse hundreds of protesting okada riders.

READ ALSO: Southern men luring our women with money - Kpikpira chief

Meanwhile, the Ashaiman Divisional Police Commander, ACP Peter Gyimah, explained that the GH600 was not for a commercial permit but for registration so they could be easily identified.

According to him, the registration was a joint exercise between the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

Ghana news: President Akufo Addo Asked For More Prayers

READ ALSO: Awesome pre-wedding photos of a military man and his gorgeous wife-to-be

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Source: YenPopular Ghanaian rapper, Okomfuor Kwadee has disclosed that his topmost priority at this moment is to secure management deal from Ghanas biggest record label, Zylofon Media.

According to a Zionfelix.net report, Okomfour Kwadee, is currently working on some serious songs and he is looking out to Zylofon Media before releasing the songs.

The one-time hitmaker, told some MUSIGA executives after the union visited the musician on Tuesday at Willing Way Rehabilitation Center in Accra.

Ghanaian rapper, Okomfuor Kwadee. Source: nydjlive.com

READ ALSO: eShun exposes big man who wanted to invest $100k in her career in exchange for atopa

The MUSIGA delegation, led by the Greater Accra Chairman, Ras Caleb Appiah Levi, conveyed Kwadees message to Nana Appiah Mensah while speaking on Zylofon FM on Wednesday.

The MUSIGA Chairman in his interview told Zylofon FM host, Sammy Flex that Kwadee has fully recovered, and lives with founder of the Rehab Center.

Ras Levi added that Kwadee currently lives with the founder of the rehab center, contrary to all the negative media being thrown out there.

READ ALSO: Atta Mills' son reveals why he personally swept his late father's graveyard with a broom

Kwadee is still talented like we used to know him, and he even wants to be signed by Zylofon Media, Ras Levi said.

The MUSIGA regional Chairman also added that, Kwadee is coming back with hit songs, so all Ghanaians should expect him soon.

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READ ALSO: Sarkodies wedding cake designers in alleged stolen concept scandal

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Source: Yen News- Ghanaians are pressurizing Shatta Wale to get married

- The argument is that his colleagues Sarkodie, and Stonebwoy have married

- It is unclear if Wale will listen to the calls to get married anytime soon

YEN.com.gh has sighted an interesting post on social media about some people giving Shatta Wale pressure to get married.

In the post, a collage has been made of Sarkodie with his wife, Stonebwoy with his wife, and then Shatta Wale standing alone and eyeing the couples.

The caption accompanying the post made by one Kwame Dadzie reads: Why are you guys like that? Marriage too ebe force? Shatta don't mind them. God's time is the best.

READ ALSO: eShun reveals how she turned down trip to Dubai and $100K atopa offer

The expectation is that once Shatta Wales colleague top musicians have all married, Shatta Wale should also marry.

However, YEN.com.gh cannot say if Shatta Wale would succumb to the pressure and get married anytime soon.

His relationship with his long-time girlfriend and baby mama, Shatta Michy, has not been in good shape for some time now.

READ ALSO: Sarkodies wedding cake designers accused of concept theft

In April this year, the two announced their breakup, following accusations and counter accusations from them.

Michy accused Shatta Wale of threatening her with a gun, while Wale also accused her of chasing him about with a knife at the slightest provocation.

However, two months after their breakup, Wale and Michy were reported to have reunited, but Michy again quashed that report, claiming that she was still single.

READ ALSO: Criss Waddle disappointed in Sarkodie for not inviting him to his wedding

Despite all this, Michy was still warning people off Shatta Wale, with the most recent person being Rosemond Brown.

Given her as if as if attitude, many people concluded that she was probably pressuring Shatta Wale to marry her.

She was recently in Shatta Wales house with their son Majesty, but Michy claimed she had gone there to visit him because of their son since she did not want to deny him the love of both parents.

READ ALSO: Next time launch your album privately like your wedding  Fan warns Sarkodie

In a latest report by YEN.com.gh, Shatta Wale has declared that his relationship with Michy is for life, adding that Michy is now back home to live with him again.

With their relationship going up and down life the sea waves, YEN.com.gh cannot confidently say if they would be getting married soon.

Shatta Wale had earlier addressed Michy as my wife, and it is hoped that he would soon take the necessary road to making her his wife officially, just like Sarkodie, and Stonebwoy have done with Tracy, and Louisa.

READ ALSO: Sarkodie and Tracys wedding cake 'miraculously' appeared from the ceiling in latest video

Yenkasa: How Bad is the Healthcare in Ghana? | Yen.com.gh

READ ALSO: Latest video of John Dumelos wife proves she is heavily pregnant

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Source: Yen- The outgoing U.S. ambassador to Ghana says the two former Gitmo detainees have reintegrated into the Ghanaian society

- Robert P. Jackson says the Yemenis have now married Ghanaian women and even have children with them

- There was an outburst of criticism following the decision by the erstwhile Mahama administration to admit the ex-detainees

It has emerged that all former Guantanamo Bay detainees have married Ghanaian women and also had children when them.

This was disclosed by the outgoing U.S. ambassador to Ghana, Robert P. Jackson, who told journalists that these Yemenis; Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby are now fully integrated

Both of them are married now; both of them have children now; both of them are well integrated into Ghana, he stated.

READ ALSO: Awesome pre-wedding photos of a military man and his gorgeous wife-to-be

The outgoing ambassador has assured Ghanaians that the presence of these ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees poses no security threats to the country.

I dont believe Ghanaians should be concerned about their presence here in Ghana based on a track record that is now two and a half years long, he stated.

Meanwhile, the deputy foreign affairs minister, Charles Owiredu, says it has become possible for them due to the refugee status conferred on them by the Refugee Board in 2016.

The deputy minister who disclosed this on TV3s News 360 on Monday refused to disclose the kind of business the two are involved in Ghana.

READ ALSO: Pretty Ghanaian female 'shoeshine' wins admiration on social media

The two-year bilateral cooperation between the erstwhile Mahama administration and the United States, to keep Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby in the country expired on January 6, 2018.

Watch: Ghana news: President Akufo-Addo Asks For More Prayers | Yen.com.gh

Your stories and photos are always welcome. Send us a message via YENs official Facebook page.

Source: Yen.com.ghHe has been cited by Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed on radio, TV and in social media.





For many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.





Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post and other publications.



A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.



He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and was inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame. He received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. The Award is the Section's highest honor. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.









Cirucci's passions include politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel. In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, Matt Rooney's sidekick on Save Jersey's weekly videocast and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.Sandra Merritt Seeks to Recuse AG and Dismiss Charges

Contact: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org



SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 25, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- Sandra "Susan" Merritt has filed a motion to recuse California's Attorney General Xavier Becerra and his Office from prosecuting the criminal complaint brought against her, and to dismiss all charges, because the charges are politically motivated and the Attorney General has a documented bias in favor of, and has publicly pledged to "stand with Planned Parenthood."

Liberty Counsel is defending Merritt against 15 felony charges, brought by the Attorney General to punish Merritt for her undercover work in exposing Planned Parenthood's unethical and potentially illegal profiteering from the sale of aborted baby body parts.

The recusal and dismissal motion documents show both the Attorney General and his predecessor, now Senator Kamala Harris, received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood. In addition, when the "investigation" began under then-AG Harris, the Attorney General's Office has maintained an ongoing financial, political and close working relationship with executive officers and employees of various Planned Parenthood entities. The motion demonstrates an indisputable loyalty by the Attorney General to Planned Parenthood.

The public does not have to wonder whether the Attorney General will act impartially, as he is legally required, or whether he will stand with Planned Parenthood. This is because the Attorney General has made it very clear, publicly, that "I Stand with Planned Parenthood."

The recusal and dismissal motion also demonstrates how the Attorney General's investigation has been contaminated by the direct involvement of a Planned Parenthood employee, who directed the AG's investigators to seize computers for Planned Parenthood from Merritt's co-defendant, David Daleiden. Private meetings between Planned Parenthood representatives and former Attorney General Kamala Harris also resulted in a list of "action items" to be accomplished between the two entities, much of that list being edited out without a legitimate basis (also a subject of the motion). Meanwhile, both entities were collaborating extensively to draft Assembly Bill 1671, which was eventually enacted as Penal Code 632.1, which now purports to criminalize actions that Planned Parenthood wanted to preventthe further release of videos exposing Planned Parenthood.

Not only does the camaraderie and collaboration between Planned Parenthood and the Attorney General demonstrate a severe conflict of interest, but there are numerous other, well-publicized undercover investigations that have taken place in California  exposing the meat industry, unethical treatment of animals or consumer fraud  and yet Merritt and Daleiden are the first undercover journalists to be criminally prosecuted in the history of the state. Liberty Counsel has shown that, to date, no other citizen journalist or journalism organization has ever been charged with a crime for undercover recordings made in the public interest. Together, the weight of the evidence demonstrates that the prosecution against Merritt is selective and discriminatory.

"The irrefutable evidence of the Attorney General's bias comes straight from the horse's mouth," said Horatio Mihet, Vice President of Legal Affairs and Chief Litigation Counsel at Liberty Counsel. "Attorney General Becerra has no business prosecuting this case, after pledging publicly to 'stand with Planned Parenthood.' The People of California deserve better, and the law plainly requires more. The Attorney General's office must be recused from this case, and these outrageous charges must be dismissed," said Mihet.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.

CRJM anunta concurs de selectare a unei companii sau persoane fizice care sa presteze servicii de traducere scrisaQuesto comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.



He said on October 6, the boy had hurt himself at the canal and the next daily dresses day he had crashed his bike into a pole. Amenities include: Cable TV, Floating Docks, Ice, Internet Access, Laundry, Picnic Area, Pumpout, Restaurants, Restrooms, Showers, and a Swimming Pool.

Jon Tester, D Mont.. For light touch, the neck, forearm, and vaginal margin are the most sensitive areas, and the areola is the least sensitive. Of course, marketers aren't immune to typos, either (as these mistakes reinforce). This morning KOAM's Michael Hayslip sits down with the chair of the Downtown Advisory Board Marketing Committee, Sydney Anselmi, to talk Small Business Saturday in Pittsburg, Kansas.For every year over the last decade, 60% 80% of new jobs were generated by small businesses.

Planting a tree is a symbol of a looking forward kind of action; looking forward, yet not too distantly.". New York and Pennsylvania don require surgery.. Theresa Moretti, Dylan grandmother, said she found out that the boy had died in a panicked phone call from her daughter.

The program serving Western Massachusetts has drop off locations across the region; here are some of the sites: West Springfield: AAA of the Pioneer Valley, 150 Capital Drive. This year our kids had a blast on jumping jungles, dunking booths and even a hang gliding simulator..

Healthy self love, on the other hand, is characterized by a capacity to self reflect, acknowledge problems, take responsibility, express a full range of empathy, and balance one own needs with those of others. Municipal Enforcement keeps the pet for 48 hours, waiting to reunite pet with person.

In a nutshell, you take a hefty little beanbag (actually its called a corn bag since it's filled with dried whole kernel corn, not beans), toss it at a rectangular plywood board about 30 feet away, and hope to have it land somewhere on the board or sink it through the single hole cut into the board's surface.

Nokia, which was once an iconic name in the mobile phone game, fell from its hallowed position at the top quite spectacularly as a result of poor decisions like underestimating the advent of touch screen phones and forsaking Android for Windows Phone..

The anonymous foster parent wonders why she is held to those standards when biological parents can get away with abusing drugs.. School districts across the state have several concerns about this bill they feel like they weren't asked for input."It really poses a problem budget wise personnel wise legally I think there is going to be some issues with it," said Nelson.

Welcome To Shop Up To 60%OFF Summer Women Dresses At Jollyhers 2018 Midsummer Promotion, Ends at July 31,2018.

Code"MS10" for Order $109+

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Code"MS50" for Order $389+

Visit Jollyhers to find Women Dresses, Women Tops/Bottoms, Girls Wears, Boys Wears, Shoes, and more. Enjoy designer stylish,high-quality materials,reasonable price,and free shipping from Jollyhers. Snap on https://www.jollyhers.com/daily-dressesLONDON, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Phone, live-chat and email support is now available 24/7 Vision Direct, the leading online retailer for contact lenses in the UK, has expanded its support hours to provide customer service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is an industry first in the UK and will enable customers in the UK and the US to receive help at any time when they are ordering products from Vision Direct's website. From helping customers understand their prescription to offering product advice, the service makes the process of ordering contact lenses faster and easier: Customers can obtain answers to important questions before they purchase products

Specialist advice will help to reassure customers who are new to wearing contact lenses or unfamiliar with ordering them online

24-hour service will enable new customers to speak to a team member at any time before ordering to receive next day delivery ORDERING CONTACT LENSES ONLINE MADE EASIER WITH 24/7 CUSTOMER SERVICEA

"Being available 24/7 will provide a better and more efficient service to our customers" said Ashley Mealor, Chief Marketing Officer at Vision Direct. "Trips to the optician are often overlooked because they are time consuming and expensive, leaving customers' questions and concerns unaddressed. Now they can speak to our customer service team whenever it suits them." The customer service team members have specialist knowledge both in terms of products and general eyecare, enabling them to answer a wide range of questions, so customers can feel reassured that they are receiving the best advice possible. Vision Direct's extended customer service team will be run by teams in York and Manchester, where there will now always be team members available to answer queries. This will have a positive effect on customers in the US especially, as they will be able to receive an immediate response during their daytime hours, making the entire process of ordering more efficient. Extended hours will also be beneficial to customers in the UK, who will no longer need to worry about visiting the site within a certain time frame or waiting until the next day for a response if they need to make a quick purchase. For more information about Vision Direct visit http://www.visiondirect.co.uk ABOUT VISION DIRECTA

Vision Direct is Europe's largest online contact lens supplier, stocking over 1 million lenses from leading brands, including Focus Dailies, Air Optix and Acuvue Moist. Vision Direct is dedicated to making the purchase of contact lenses easy, quick and affordable. It offers free, fast delivery and 24/7 customer support, as well savings of up to 42% against high street opticians. Customers can order their lenses through the UK Vision Direct website, http://www.VisionDirect.co.uk, any of its European web properties, or by calling the telephone number, 0207-768-5000. Customers can also benefit from a free repeat prescription and reminder service and receive free eye care advice from Vision Direct's resident optician.LONDON, July 24, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Worldpay unveils Drone Pay proof-of-concept for secure and speedy deliveryA Researchers at Worldpay are investigating the use of drone technology to help combat the growing issue of parcel fraud, it was announced today. The payments provider has unveiled a prototype design that could help pave the way for drone delivery around the world. Worldpay's Drone Pay proof-of-concept uses EMV contactless* payment card technology to verify the identity of the recipient, ensuring a parcel is delivered to the right person at the right address. This technology is embedded into a drone landing pad, which is issued to the customer in the form of a doormat. When the drone lands to drop off the package, the card details stored within the doormat are read automatically. If the information matches that of the correct recipient, the parcel is released. The growing popularity of online shopping has helped move the value of the Australian parcel market to $9 billion,[1] and this number is set to explode following the launch of Amazon Prime last month. However, a natural consequence of this growth has been the rise in delivery complaints, which topped 1.1 million last year.[2] Worldpay's prototype demonstrates how drone technology could help retailers provide a better last-mile experience by offering a more reliable proof of delivery. Recent research by the payments company suggests that Australian consumers are ready for drone delivery to become a reality, as public perception towards the concept becomes increasingly positive. A survey of 2000 consumers found that Australia has reached a tipping point for drone delivery adoption, with 42% ready to embrace delivery by drones, compared to 30% hanging back[3]. For consumers, drone delivery could offer far greater convenience when shopping online. Shoppers can choose to have a package delivered to a location convenient to them, and also have the opportunity to check the item before accepting it. For merchants, Worldpay's Drone Pay proof of concept could help reduce delivery complaints, which cost companies unnecessary time, money and lost custom every day. Phil Pomford, General Manager for Asia Pacific, Global Enterprise eCommerce at Worldpay Inc. said: "Drones are already proving invaluable to certain industries, from search and rescue, to environmental research, so there is undoubtedly a huge potential market for delivery too. Our data suggests that consumers are becoming increasingly open to the notion of drone delivery. Nevertheless, there are still several logistical hurdles that need to be addressed before it becomes commonplace. The weight of the package and flying distance both remain potential barriers to adoption, in addition to ensuring that parcels are delivered to the correct customer. This is where payment technology can help. By verifying the identity of the recipient before releasing the parcel, our proof of concept is an example of how technology can address the common problems that many Australians experience with parcel delivery. The volume of packages in transit is projected to reach 1 billion by 2021[4], as online increasingly becomes the channel of choice for Australian shoppers. Merchants should therefore explore new ways of innovating their supply chain capabilities, to keep pace with demand." You can watch a demo of the proof of concept here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR9s_lp9l30&feature=youtu.be * EMV stands for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, and is a global standard for credit and debit cards that uses computer chips to authenticate (and secure) chip-card transactions. About the data

The research was compiled in partnership with Opinium and interviewed over 20,102 consumers about their opinion on the Internet of Things and drones. Research was conducted in 10 markets - Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, the UK and USA. In Australia, the study interviewed 2,006 consumers. About Drone Pay

Drone Pay is a prototype technology developed by Worldpay's innovation team to understand how payment technology can be used to create more secure delivery and fulfilment for online retailers, whilst also adding an additional layer of buy authentication.The proof of concept uses EMV contactless payment card technology to authenticate the identity of the recipient. The technology is drone agnostic, and simply clips onto the drone model. The original drone remains unaltered. A About Worldpay

Worldpay, Inc. (NYSE: WP; LSE: WPY) is a leading payments technology company with unique capability to power global integrated omni-commerce. With industry-leading scale and an unmatched integrated technology platform, Worldpay offers clients a comprehensive suite of products and services globally, delivered through a single provider. Worldpay processes over 40 billion transactions annually through more than 300 payment types across 146 countries and 126 currencies. The company's growth strategy includes expanding into high-growth markets, verticals and customer segments, including global eCommerce, Integrated Payments and B2B. Worldpay, Inc. was formed in 2018 through the combination of the No. 1 merchant acquirers in the U.S. and the U.K. Worldpay, Inc. trades on the New York Stock Exchange as "WP" and the London Stock Exchange as "WPY." Visit us at http://www.worldpay.com. References

1. https://internetretailing.com.au/e-commerce-drives-parcel-boom/ [https://internetretailing.com.au/e-commerce-drives-parcel-boom ] 2. Citizens Advice: Parcel delivery - delivery services in the online shopping market 3. Research of 2,006 consumers conducted by Opinium in June 2017 4. https://internetretailing.com.au/e-commerce-drives-parcel-boom/ [https://internetretailing.com.au/e-commerce-drives-parcel-boom ]Undocumented Immigrants Can Vote in Some Elections. But ICE Could Keep Them Away.



California has a track record of giving undocumented immigrants certain rights they wouldnt have in most parts of the country: drivers licenses, in-state college tuition, and, at least in San Francisco, a chance to vote.



But now, that same right to vote, celebrated when it passed via a city ballot measure less than two years ago, has become a source of anxiety for city leaders and the immigrants it is meant to serve. Some worry that federal immigration agents could use identifying information on public voter rolls to target those who are living in the Bay Area without the proper paperwork.There is at least one thing about this summer of 2018 on which we can all agree: the past months have unquestionably been swelteringly, abnormally hot.

And not just here in Britain, but in many other countries right across the northern hemisphere.

In the UK, our own heatwave began in May and has continued relentlessly ever since. In Japan, where one city claimed the highest temperature ever recorded in that country, topping 106 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degrees Centigrade), the heatwave has been declared a natural disaster.

Parched grass on Primrose Hill, London, as Britain endures the driest summer for years but some experts are questioning the thermometers

Meanwhile, wildfires in Greece have killed at least 80 people, leading to claims that this has been the worst disaster of its kind seen in Europe since World War II.

There have been numerous other claims of temperature records being broken, all the way from California to Armenia and Azerbaijan (although here in Britain we have not so far seen anything to equal the 101.3f  38.5c  that was recorded near Faversham, Kent, on August 10, 2003).

Distorted

But more sober experts have raised question marks over the reliability of these temperature measurements, because of the siting of the thermometers which recorded them.

In every case, it turned out, they broke the golden rule that such thermometers must not be placed near heat-retaining structures or surfaces, such as in the centre of large cities, near airport runways or on Tarmac car parks.

This is because their readings are then distorted by the so-called urban heat island effect, which can exaggerate temperatures by up to 2 degrees Celsius or more.

One comical example of this was on June 28, when the UK Met Office rushed to announce that the 91.7f (33.2c) reached at Motherwell made it the hottest temperature recorded in Scotland.

A businessman in Tokyo feels the heatwave smacking Japan

Only when it was pointed out that its thermometer was in the middle of a Tarmac car park did the Met Office hastily withdraw its claim, with the rather sad explanation that the reading had been distorted by a car left nearby with its engine running.

But all these excitable little mishaps notwithstanding, it has certainly been abnormally hot. Above all, this raises the question: how unprecedented has this summers heat really been? And, secondly, how long was it going to be before certain climate scientists came round to telling us that this was unquestionably proof the world is in the grip of man-made global warming?

At last this week they have come in on cue, with Peter Stott, head of climate change predictions at the Met Office, and Rowan Sutton, head of atmospheric science at Reading University, both making that point loud and clear.

As Professor Sutton told us on yesterdays BBC Radio 4 Today programme, thanks to climate change we can expect summers like this one to become more frequent. And even if we curb our carbon dioxide emissions in accord with the famous Paris climate agreement of 2015, this will continue for decades to come.

Elephants at Whipsnade Zoo are able to keep cool in the water

Perhaps it is time, therefore, to start looking at some proper historical evidence in order to gain a more balanced perspective on what is really going on.

For a start, here in the UK we have the longest-running set of temperature data in the world, the Central England Temperature Record (CET), which goes back to 1659. And this shows that June of this year was only the 18th warmest June in more than 350 years  the hottest being as long ago as 1846.

So this kind of summer heat is far from unprecedented. In fact, as people have begun to observe, the nearest parallel to what has been happening this year was the celebrated drought summer of 1976.

That was the year when, as older folk vividly recall, the heatwave lasted virtually unbroken for three months, until rain finally came at the end of August. And, according to the CET, those daily temperatures 42 years ago frequently beat this summers figures hands down,

A lack of rainfall weeks combined with soaring temperatures is having a dramatic effect on water levels the Llwyn-on Reservoir, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales has had hardly any

But there is another striking parallel between this year and 1976  as there also is with that other heatwave summer of 2003 when the highest single temperature ever recorded in Britain was set.

In each case the cause of the prolonged heat has been a large area of high pressure that has sucked in hot air from the Sahara (when my next-door neighbour returned to Heathrow this week, she found her car covered in this desert sand).

This in turn has been caused and prolonged by a movement of the jet stream (which dictates much of the northern hemispheres weather conditions) because of cooler ocean temperatures in the Atlantic. This movement has kept lower-pressure weather formations containing moister and cooler air parked further out in the Atlantic to the north-west of Britain and Europe.

Sweltering

Although the causes of this cooler Atlantic are an entirely natural cyclical shift, the global warming-obsessed Met Office became so excited by that heatwave in 2003 that the following year it produced a report based on computer models, called Uncertainty, Risk And Climate Change.

This predicted that baking summers would soon be so frequent that by 2040 more than half of Europes summers would be hotter than 2003.

But the same 2004 report predicted that by 2014, global temperatures would have risen by 0.3c. In fact, during those ten years, temperatures recorded by weather satellites did not rise at all. Neither, until the past few weeks, have we seen a single summer to compete with the sweltering 2003.

We need to recall such facts, if only to remind ourselves that there are those so convinced of their particular theory of how climate works that they will leap on any evidence which seems to confirm that they and their computer models are correct.

Although there have recently been claims in the U.S. that America is getting hotter than ever before, more than half the temperature records for the 50 U.S. states were set in the baking dustbowl years of the Thirties. Another 13 state records are even older. Indeed, only two state records were set in the 21st century, at a time when  we are constantly told  increases in industrial emissions are causing dangerous warming of the planet.

Drastic

On yesterdays Today programme, Professor Sutton of Reading University and his BBC interviewer agreed on how important it is that the world should follow the Paris climate agreement by making very drastic reductions in its emissions of CO2.

What neither of them seemed to realise was that the much-touted Paris Accord was no more than a wholly non-binding Western wish list. Even at the time, the rest of the world  led by China and India, respectively the worlds largest and third-largest CO2 emitters  made no secret of the fact that it had no intention of reducing its CO2 emissions.

In fact, buried away in the small print of the documents every country had to supply before Paris, it was clear the rest of the world would continue to build coal-fired power stations. China planned by 2030 to double its emissions and India to treble them, to keep their economies growing.

Despite all pretences to the contrary, Paris was little more than an empty charade. But the good news is that this may well have not the slightest effect on the worlds climate.

We shall continue to have abnormally hot summers from time to time, just as we did in 1976 and 1846, way back before global warming was invented. Meanwhile, we can only keep praying for rain.British chocolate lovers have been sent into meltdown after a holidaymaker spotted a much-missed chocolate bar on sale abroad.

Reddit user AnnieIWillKnow noticed the Cadbury Dream bar on sale for 5 in Kuala Lumpur International Airport earlier this week - prompting one fan to declare they were 'booking a one-way ticket to Malaysia'.

The white chocolate Dream bar hit UK shelves in 2002, but was discontinued just a few years later because of dwindling popularity.

However, since then hoards of internet users have called for it to be brought back, with some even starting petitions.

Reddit user AnnieIWillKnow spotted the Cadbury Dream bar on sale for 5 in Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia

The Reddit post has was flooded with dozens of comments, with internet users desperate to get their hands on one of the bars.

The chocolate treat appeared to be on display alongside other British favourites, including Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut, at the duty free shop.

AnnieIWillKnow admitted they couldn't resist buying the chocolate, despite the hefty price tag.

They posted: 'Found in Kuala Lumpur International Airport - you can still buy Cadbury's Dream bars in Malaysia!

'It was an outrageous 5 for a bar, but I couldn't resist... my sister has already requested a portion of it.'

The post has was flooded with dozens of comments, with many Redditors desperate to get their hands on one of the bars

They noted that the Dream bar was also on sale in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, three of the countries they had visited before returning to the UK over the weekend.

Other Reddit users said they sorely missed the chocolate bar in the thread, with one commenting: 'Right lads, we're going to Malaysia.'

'Hello yes I'll take 600,' another posted.

A third wrote: 'OH MY GOD I'm actually going out there for a trip soon, this makes me so happy.'

Cult favourite: The white chocolate Dream bar, pictured, hit UK shelves in 2002, but was discontinued just a few years later because of dwindling popularity

'Its a dream for them to be brought back,' another said.

Others advised that the product was still available in other countries aside the UK, such as Austraila and News Zealand, while others pointed out they were on sale for 2.50 each on Amazon.

It emerged in May that Sanza - an imported goods shop that sells products from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand - also sells the bars online as they are still available in those three countries.

Earlier this year Cadbury brought back its popular white chocolate Dream ice cream sticks - a hunk of vanilla flavour ice cream covered in white chocolate.

On its website, Cadbury describes the new ice creams as: 'Vanilla flavour ice cream covered in Cadbury Dream white chocolate.'Kylie Jenner is likely to become the 'youngest ever self-made billionaire' thanks to her success in the cosmetics industry - but when it comes to building one of the world's most successful beauty brands, the reality star still has some tough competition.

Just weeks after 20-year-old Kylie appeared on the cover of Forbes, where it was revealed she is well on her way to becoming a billionaire, her beauty business, Kylie Cosmetics, has been overtaken by another big-name eponymous brand: Pat McGrath Labs.

The popular cosmetics company, founded by celebrity makeup artist Pat McGrath, has just been valued at a staggering $1 billion, putting it ahead of Kylie Cosmetics, which is currently reported to be worth a relatively-small $800 million.

Beauty mogul: British makeup artist Pat McGrath's eponymous brand has overtaken Kylie Jenner's company after being valued at a staggering $1 billion

Celebrity pals: The 48-year-old has worked with the likes of Naomi Campbell (left), Kaia Gerber and Rita Ora (right)

Sell-out success: Pat's products, which first debuted in 2016, have flown off the shelves, regularly selling out just days after launching

Pat, 48, who counts the likes of Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss among her clientele, secured a $60 million investment earlier this month from New York-based Eurazeo Brands, which quickly saw the valuation of her company soar, according to Fashionista.

The latest investment brings the total external funding for Pat's namesake brand to $88 million in just two years since the brand's debut in 2016.

In that time, the makeup mogul has seen almost every one of her products sell out within days - and even minutes - of their release online.

'It has always been my dream to create an iconic beauty brand that goes beyond the usual limitations, that lives outside the parameters of what is expected,' Pat said of the new investment. 'I am thrilled to be working with the unique and expert team at Eurazeo Brands.'

Meanwhile, Jill Granoff, CEO of Eurazeo Brands, added: 'We are honored to be working with Pat, whose vision, talent and trailblazing history in the beauty industry have set Pat McGrath Labs up to be one of the most authentic and innovative makeup brands to ever come to market.

'Were excited to combine our experience of building global beauty and fashion brands with Pat and her teams unmatched creativity and passion.'

However, while Pat reached 'billionaire' status before Kylie, the mother-of-one is hot on her tail; Forbes reported earlier this month that Kylie, who will turn 21 in August, has sold more than $630 million worth of makeup since launching her company just two years ago.

Makeup maven: 20-year-old Kylie's own company, Kylie Cosmetics, was valued at $800 million by Forbes earlier this month

On her way: The publication revealed that Kylie is well on her way to becoming the youngest ever 'self-made billionaire'

The magazine valued Kylie Cosmetics at nearly $800 million and, with her reality shows and product endorsements, pegged her net worth conservatively at $900 million.

The magazine also estimated that Kylie has far surpassed her older sister and fellow beauty-focused businesswoman Kim Kardashian West, 37, who has a net worth of $350 million.

Forbes' description of Kylie as a 'self-made' billionaire in the August 31 issue, which was titled America's Women Billionaires and ranked the 60 richest self-made women, sparked some controversy, however.

The budding beauty mogul was attacked online after the magazine was published, with many calling it unfair that she was being given the title in light of her famous family, and her background as a reality TV star.

For some, however, the mother-of-one's fortune was still woefully inadequate; social media star Josh Ostrovsky, better known as The Fat Jew on social media, quickly launched a GoFundMe page in an attempt to raise the final $100 million needed to earn Kylie the title of a true billionaire.

The 36-year-old social media star started the crowd-sourcing fundraiser just hours after Forbes published a cover story estimating Kylie's net worth at $900 million.

Cosmetics queen: Kylie graced the cover of Forbes who valued her net worth at $900 million

Self made? Social media was quick to criticize Forbes for categorizing Kylie as a 'self-made' billionaire, with some saying her privileged background has significantly boosted her wealth

Crowd sourcing: The Fat Jew has created a GoFundMe page to raise $100 million for makeup mogul Kylie to make her a billionaire

'Kylie Jenner was on the cover of Forbes Magazine today for having a net worth of 900 million dollars, which is heartbreaking,' reads the GoFundMe description.

'I dont want to live in a world where Kylie Jenner doesnt have a billion dollars. WE MUST RAISE 100 MILLION DOLLARS TO HELP HER GET TO A BILLION, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD, THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT,' the mission statement concluded.

It seems not everyone was so eager to help out Kylie, however; within a day, the fundraiser had brought in just $68 of its $100 million goal.

The Fat Jew, real name Josh Ostrovsky, shared the GoFundMe campaign on with his roughly 10.5 million followers on Instagram.

The GoFundMe page was liked by Kylie and Pagesix reported that if the fundraising challenge isn't met that donations will go to those in need.

'All money will be donated to something awesome, like a charity that feeds people who dont have food,' Ostrovsky said.Mother-of-five Constance Hall has unleashed a tirade against her husband of seven months Denim Cooke, implying she is forced to be the main caretaker of their newborn son Raja.

The Perth blogger, 34, gave birth in May via C-section and is already 'angry' with Denim because she carried 'the mental load of our baby'.

'The first time you have a baby you'll notice a few injustices.. The second time you have a baby you'll be used to them.. And the third you could accept it or you could just move out,' she said.

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Mother-of-five Constance Hall (pictured) has unleashed a tirade against her husband of seven months Denim Cooke

Constance has four children - Rumi, Snow, Arlo Love and Billie-Violet - to her previous husband Bill Maher and Denim has two sons - Zeyke and Sunny - from a previous relationship.

Raja is their first child together as a couple.

'I know when he's hungry, tired or needs a bath. My husband will happily bath him, or cuddle him.. when he's asked,' she continued in the now viral Facebook post.

'When my husband is holding him friends ask to take over, if he cries... they give him back to me.

'When he's smiling my husband picks him up, when he's grumpy he gives him back.'

Constance has four children - Rumi, Snow, Arlo Love and Billie-Violet - to her previous husband Bill Maher and Denim has two sons - Zeyke and Sunny - from a previous relationship

The outspoken author even pointed to a time where Denim said he was likely going to be late for an event because he had been taking care of the baby for Constance.

'The other day I was giving my husband a kick up the a*** to get ready quicker so we weren't late and he turns to me and says "Calm down, I've been looking after the baby all morning... for you..." Wait what? For who?'

'Oh me? Doing me a favour? Hang on should I get you some cash? What's the rate for a babysitter these days - $16 an hour?

'When I need to leave the house without the baby I must book it in: "Darling I'm going to the shops, you have Raja, I'll be 20 mins."

The admission comes just weeks after Constance was trolled online for posting an innocent image of her newborn son Raja Wolf and husband Denim Cooke

Many of her followers saw the fact she was on her phone and drinking a soft drink, rather than holding her newborn son, as poor parenting

'Nobody reminds me that I have my baby when they leave.'

She said asking her husband to change his nappy would incur almost as much energy as changing it herself, so she does just that.

'And guess what... my brain fried,' Constance explained.

'I don't say this to bag blokes. I say it because equality doesn't mean sh** if it doesn't start in the home and what better place to start showing your kids what equality looks like then when they first arrive in this beautiful world?

'I say it because I don't want the stats to keep growing on relationships breaking up in the first year of a baby being born.'

The admission comes just weeks after Constance was trolled online for posting an image of her newborn son and husband Denim Cooke in the maternity ward.

The controversial blogger, 34, was alerted by 'concerned Queens' about the uproar surrounding the well-intentioned snap

Many of her followers said that it was 'poor parenting' for her to be on her phone and drinking a soft drink rather than holding her newborn son.

'Obviously googling parental advice,' one person wrote. Another added sarcastically: 'It's important to check your phone.'

Many of the other nasty comments have since been deleted.

Constance addressed the issue and defended her actions while making another post of herself on holiday.

'Yesterday I posted a picture of myself on the phone the day my son was born,' she said.

'And of course it was followed by a few f***ers and their stuck-up judgments about what I was doing on my phone instead of spending my every second doting and being the eternally grateful goddess mother.'

She reasoned that it wasn't anybody's business 'what a mother is doing on her phone the day she gives birth' unless it falls under two categories.

The proud parents shared the exciting news of the birth via Instagram after the mother delivered their son Raja via a Caesarean section

'If a child is being abused sexually, mentally, physically, or neglected, starved or not having their medical needs met. By ALL means, intervene. And when I say intervene I mean... Call the department of child protective services, do NOT b**** and moan on Facebook,' she said.

'And secondly YOUR children. They are your problem, how you raise them, what YOU'RE doing on your phone, what kind of a mother YOU are.'

But all other aspects of being a mother, she said, 'ain't your f***ing problem.'

The proud parents shared the exciting news of the birth via Instagram after the mother delivered their son via a Caesarean section on May 28.

'Raja. Born at 2.46pm 38 weeks 4.2kgs. We couldn't have dreamt a more perfect baby,' Ms Hall wrote alongside a picture of her breastfeeding her newborn son.

'Love you so much Denzy. We are blown away with support from you all.'Instagram Stories is another way to engage followers in more meaningful ways, but utilizing the feature doesn't always guarantee more eyes on your account.

Like all things related to social media, there is an art to posting content that resonates with and interests viewers, but that doesn't mean there is a one-size-fits-all approach to follow.

Speaking with Ad Week, eight Instagram influencers have shared their tips for optimizing the tool's 24-hour-window to earn more followers  and sometimes that means posting less family photos and more relatable content.

Color coded: Lucia Litman is among the Instagram influencers who have opened up about how they create engaging Instagram Stories and earn more followers

Conundrum: She has more than 103,000 followers thanks to her eye-catching snapshots featuring Pantone color swatches, but she admits posting personal photos has cost her fans

Lucia Litman (@lucialitman) has earned more than 103,000 followers thanks to her eye-catching photo shoots featuring Pantone color swatches and different foods arranged into artistic creations - but she admitted that she will lose followers when she posts more personal snapshots, including pictures of her friends and family.

Meanwhile Lachrista Greco, the woman behind the intersectional feminism account @guerrillafeminism, also told the outlet that she sees a dip in followers when she shares posts about herself.

Her page, which has more than 187,000 followers, mostly features pictures of quotes and tweets, but she will slip in images of herself, explaining that she wants people to 'understand there's a real person behind the account.'

These days, Instagram accounts can sometimes be a little too curated, and Litman pointed out that Stories has become the perfect platform for people to really let loose and give followers 'an unfiltered look at creators' everyday lives.'

Woman behind the Instagram: Lachrista Greco said she occasionally posts snapshots of herself because she wants people to 'understand there's a real person behind the account'

Brand: Greco's intersectional feminism account mostly features pictures of quotes and tweets

Be vulnerable: Aleshea Dominique believes there is an intimacy in sharing your life with your followers

Yum! She has has nearly 20,000 followers who are interested in her life in Texas, including her stuffed avocado recipe

Whether they are crying about difficult moment or admitting that they are completely stressed out, more and more Instagram stars are showing their vulnerable sides on their Instagram Stories to their followers' delight.

Aleshea Dominique (@glitzsngrits) believes there is an intimacy in sharing your life with your followers in that way, explaining: 'Society as a whole wants to belong, to see there are others just like them.'

She has nearly 20,000 followers who are interested in her life in Texas, and her feed shows her doing everything from chowing down on southern food to going lavender picking.

Meanwhile, Christina Brown, the mom behind @lovebrownsugar, 'a dope digital destinations for savvy brown girls,' likes to keep it real.

Keeping it real: Christina Brown makes it a point to remind her nearly 40,000 followers that having a large Instagram following 'does not equate being super human'

Wellness: MaryKate Schmidt shares photos of herself eating greens and ice cream on her page, which is dedicated to her healthy lifestyle

Interaction: In her recent Instagram Story, she answered her followers questions about her fitness journey

She makes it a point to remind her nearly 40,000 followers that having a large Instagram following 'does not equate being super human.'

Part of being an Instagram influencer is building a community, and MaryKate Schmidt (@froyotofitness) explained that 'people want to feel a part of something.'

Her Instagram page is dedicated to her healthy lifestyle, and she shares photos of herself eating greens and ice cream with her 28,000 followers.

She's also not one to shy away from sharing before-and-after photos of herself while opening up about her physical transformation on her Instagram Story.

Travel lover Esmeralda Rodriguez (@esmeraldatravels) hopes her account motivates people to 'explore our world' as she is dedicated to building a community of people who have the same wanderlust she does.

What a view: Travel lover Esmeralda Rodriguez wants to build a community of followers who share the same wanderlust she does

Contact: Rodriguez uses her Story to ask followers for recommendations and answer their questions

In a recent Instagram Story, she told fans that she was headed to Cost Rica and Colombia, not only did she ask for recommendations, she invited her followers to meet up with her if they were in the area.

Whether its looking for a new restaurant or a store to shop at, asking for recommendations and having direct contact with followers helps keep them engaged with your content.

Greco said she like to use Instagram Stories' polls and questions features, while holistic nutritionist Alison Marras (@foodbymars) said she has seen a boost in followers since she started her @whole30recipes takeover.

Corissa Enneking (@fatgirlflow) utilizes Stories, questions in posts, videos, and IGTV to help increase engagement on her page, which advocates for fat acceptance and has more than 177,000 followers.

Fan club: Holistic nutritionist Alison Marras Marras has more than 21,000 followers thanks to her mouth-watering snapshots of her paleo-approved recipes

Trustworthy: She said she will only feature brands that she would personally recommend to her clients

Popular: Corissa Enneking's page advocates for fat acceptance and has more than 177,000 followers

Did you see? Enneking utilizes Stories, questions in posts, videos, and IGTV to help increase engagement on her page

Being authentic and trustworthy is also of the utmost importance, and almost all the influencers who spoke with Ad Week, agreed that they only promote brands that align with their views.

Marras has more than 21,000 followers thanks to her mouth-watering snapshots of her paleo-approved recipes, and she told the publication she will only feature brands that she would personally recommend to her clients.

Ironically, one of the tips is to avoid obsessing about your follower count, but it's important to understand that there will always be an ebb and flow when it comes to that particular number.

'It is hard to believe but the number of followers is not something I am too worried about,' Rodriguez said. 'I try to focus on building a real community of people who are genuinely interested in travel and the message I am trying to send.'A powerful pro-vaccination sign penned by an Australian doctor has struck a chord with mothers around the world.

Dr Rachel Heap - who works in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales - wrote the poster in a compelling stance against 'professional anti-vaxxers'.

The intensive care specialist decided to create the poster after spending more than 10 years treating 'many patients with vaccine preventable diseases'.

Her note, which was written two years ago, emerged on social media this week after a US mother spotted the powerful words of warning framed up on the wall of a doctor's office in Colorado.

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A powerful pro-vaccination sign penned by an Australian doctor has struck a chord with mothers around the world (pictured in a doctor's clinic in Colorado)

Taking to Facebook, Sunni Mariah shared the snap of the sign, with the caption: 'New sign at my dr's office is throwing some serious shade #vaccinateyourkids.'

And within four days, her social media post has attracted more than 166,000 'shares', 24,000 'likes' and 4,000 comments.

The note opens with the line: 'Not vaccinating your kids leaves them vulnerable to disease their whole lives.

'When your daughter gets rubella when pregnant, how are you going to explain that you chose to leave her at risk?

'What will you say when she calls you and tells you she has cervical cancer because you decided that she wouldn't need the HPV vaccine?

'What do you tell your son when he breaks the news to you that he cannot have kids, thanks to the mumps that he got as a teenager?

'Do you tell them that you didn't think these diseases were that serious? That you thought that your organic, home cooked food was enough to protect them?

'Do you say sorry?'

Dr Rachel Heap (pictured) - who works in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales - wrote the poster in a compelling stance against 'professional anti-vaxxers'

Speaking to Mamamia, Dr Heap revealed the inspiration to fight against the anti-vaxxer movement stemmed from a heartbreaking reason.

'The ghosts of the people that I've looked after keep driving me,' she said.

She explained those 'ghosts' were the patients who have tragically died vaccine preventable diseases, including influenza, chicken pox, shingles, cervical cancer, hepatitis, meningococcal and more.

Dr Heap said her patients included: 'The 28-year-old guy who died of late complications of whooping cough' and a baby who also died from pertussis.

'How can I not continue this fight? And no, I'm not paid for it. Most of the people in the pro-vax field, we do this in our spare time, because we are passionate about protecting the vulnerable,' she added.

The intensive care specialist decided to create the poster after spending more than 10 years treating 'many patients with vaccine preventable diseases' (stock image)

On her website, Dr Heap explained the 'heartbreaking tragedy' she worked in rural and remote Australia to stabilise critically ill and injured people.

'The work was challenging, funny, interesting, tiring, and a whole lot more. But it was also upsetting and frustrating,' she said.

'I have seen heartbreaking tragedy - I have seen physical pain and suffering, social pain and suffering, and harrowing grief, on a scale that has been, at times, incomprehensible. It leaves scars.

'The best I was able to do professionally in my work in that time was to "stick a band aid" on that pain, and subsequently survive the burn-out that came with it.

'I decided that the fight to increase vaccination rates was something I would not walk past without at least trying to help.

'My approach has been to try and help my community, and those further afield, understand why vaccine preventable diseases are bad, and that vaccines are the safest and most effective way to protect everyone from them.'Advertisement

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle set the trend for wildlife safari getaways when they jetted to Botswana last year to mark the actress' 36th birthday at a six-star resort.

But the average holidaymaker can now follow in the footsteps of the royal couple without having to leave Australia, thanks to an impossibly lavish African-themed resort located in Canberra.

The Jamala Wildlife Lodge is just three hours' drive from Sydney - but boasts luxury suites where lucky guests can share their bedrooms with lions, cheetahs and tigers and feed giraffes from their balcony.

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The average holidaymaker can now follow in the footsteps of the royal couple without having to leave Australia, thanks to an impossibly lavish African-themed resort located in Canberra

Lucky guests can share their bedrooms - and even a bath - with lions, cheetahs and giraffes

The Jungle Bungalow has just a glass wall separating the bedroom from an enclosure where a pride of lions, cheetahs, a tiger and a Malayan sun bear (pictured) roam freely

The incredible lodge is located at Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium and has rooms featuring decadent four-poster beds, stunning views over the mountains and African-style furnishings.

Guests at the $1,500-a-night Giraffe Treehouse can feed the resident backyard giraffe named Hummer from their terrace at lunchtime.

Meanwhile, the $1,275-a-night Reef Room features a large viewing window that looks directly into a five-metre deep ocean aquarium.

Also on offer is the Jungle Bungalow, which has a glass wall separating the bedroom from an enclosure where a pride of lions, cheetahs, a tiger and a Malayan sun bear roam freely.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle set the trend for wildlife safari getaways when they jetted to Botswana last year to mark the actress' 36th birthday at a six-star resort

One guest looks on in awe as she gets up close and personal with a dozing cheetah

A lucky visitor curls up in a furry blanket just inches away from a tiger, who appears to be oblivious to the attention

One woman enjoys a relaxing soak in a bath as an inquisitive bear wanders over to investigate

The Ushaka Shark Suite is situated above a shark tank and allows guests to view the creatures at feeding time, while those staying at the Ushaka Private Encounter Room can get up close and personal with a cheetah.

Guests are also treated to a private tour of the zoo, where they can see everything from meerkats to marmosets.

The dining hall, located under the aquarium, is a lavish affair with a five-course fine dining menu boasting Moet champagne and oysters.

Diners can tuck into their meals while watching hyenas and white lions being fed just centimetres away in an enclosure separated by a glass wall.

The incredible lodge is located at Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium, just three hours' drive from Sydney. The rooms boast decadent four-poster beds, stunning views over the mountains and African-style furnishings

The African-themed rooms feature lavish four-poster beds and walk-in showers complete with giraffe-decorated tiles

Meanwhile, the $1,275-a-night Reef Room features a large viewing window that looks directly into a 5-metre deep ocean aquarium

Those willing to fork out thousands, however, could head to the exclusive Meno a Kwena tented bush camp where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stayed.

Harry, 32, chose his beloved Botswana for a special visit last year, not only to celebrate Meghans 36th birthday but also to mark their first year together.

The camp features a stunning backdrop of the African bush, overlooking the sparkling Boteti river.

Guests at the $1,500-a-night Giraffe Treehouse can get an incredible view of the giraffes that roam outside

Visitors can feed the backyard giraffe named Hummer from their terrace at lunchtime

The decadent rooms offer impeccable views of the wildlife that wander around the resort

The staff had arranged for Harry and Meghan to stay in safari tent 5, with its king-size bed, open-air shower and hand-carved furniture. Teak chests and explorers trunks dotted the bedroom, with kilim rugs on the floor.

But its biggest attraction is the spectacular veranda offering a breathtaking view of a broad bend in the Boteti river where elephant, zebra and wild buck come to drink each evening.

The river had been dry for more than 20 years, but came teeming back to life in 2008 when millions of gallons of water came gushing through from the Okovango Delta due to a shift in tectonic plates.

The dining hall is located under the aquarium and features long dark wood tables where guests jostle up and eat together

The menu is a lavish affair with a five-course fine dining menu boasting Moet champagne and oysters

Diners can tuck into their meals while watching hyenas and white lions being fed just centimetres away in an enclosure separated by a glass wall

Harry first visited the country when he was just 13, two months after his mother Diana died, and has made many return visits. In January he agreed to become patron of Rhino Conservation Botswana.

Harry brought his first love, Chelsy Davy, to the same camp in 2007 when they slept under the stars and took game drives through the Central Kalahari reserve.

Jamala Wildlife Lodge is at the National Zoo & Aquarium on Lady Denman Drive in Canberra.

Those willing to fork out thousands, however, could head to the exclusive Meno a Kwena tented bush camp where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stayed

Harry, 32, chose his beloved Botswana for a special visit last year, not only to celebrate Meghans 36th birthday but also to mark their first year togetherMost Australian students are heading into their second semester for the year and likely thinking about job prospects once graduation season begins.

And while many pursue degrees because they have a passion for that chosen field, when it comes to how much they'll be paid on a graduate salary, that varies depending on what they studied and what gender they are.

The median salary of all undergraduates employed full-time in 2017 according to the Department of Education and Training was $60,000 which is an increase of $2,100 from 2016 - and men were paid higher wages across the board.

For those who chose to study dentistry (which on average costs $53,770 for five years) they will be paid the highest gross salary of $80,000 in their first year out of university

For those who chose to study dentistry (which on average costs $53,770 for five years) they will be paid the highest gross salary of $80,000 in their first year out of university.

Medicine ($64,524 for six years) and engineering ($36,740 for four years) follow close behind with $65,000 and $62,000 respectively.

If you've undertaken the recommended four year course to become a lawyer or paralegal, which costs students $43,016 in total, you'll be looking at a $60,000 wage in your first year.

Medicine ($64,524 for six years) and engineering ($36,740 for four years) follow close behind with $65,000 and $62,000 respectively

HIGHEST MEDIAN SALARIES VS DEGREE COST FIELD DEGREE COST AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY Dentistry (five years) $53,770 $80,000 Medicine (six years) $64,524 $65,000 Engineering (four years) $36,740 $62,000 Lawyer/Paralegal (four years) $43,016 $60,000 Teacher (four years) $25,776 $60,000

And rounding out the list in fifth place are teachers who, after four years and $25,776 of HECS debts, will secure $60,000 at their very first school.

On the other side of the spectrum are five fields of study that will hardly cover the costs of doing the degree during your first year out of university.

Interestingly pharmacy is at number one, which takes four years and costs $36,740, because you're only looking to get $41,600 as a graduate.

Creative arts (three years) and communications (three years) follow because they both cost $19,332 to do but give you $45,000 and $46,000 respectively after you receive your diploma

Interestingly pharmacy is at number one, which takes four years and costs $36,740, because you're only looking to get $41,600 as a graduate

Creative arts (three years) and communications (three years) follow because they both cost $19,332 to do but give you $45,000 and $46,000 respectively after you receive your diploma.

Tourism (three years) comes in at number four on the list with the degree costing $32,262 and earning the student $48,000.

And six long hard years of studying veterinary science (which costs $64,524) will wind up having you lose money by earning $49,600 in your first year.

LOWEST MEDIAN SALARIES VS DEGREE COST FIELD DEGREE COST AVERAGE GRADUATE SALARY Pharmacy (four years) $36,740 $41,600 Creative arts (three years) $19,332 $45,000 Communications (three years) $19,332 $46,000 Tourism (three years) $32,262 $48,000 Vet science (six years) $64,524 $49,600

And rounding out the list in fifth place are teachers who, after four years and $25,776 of HECS debts, will secure $60,000 at their very first school

In between these sectors there are prospects for those endeavouring to study mathematics ($57,500 first year salary), computing and information systems ($59,900), architecture ($56,400), nursing ($60,000), psychology ($57,600) and social work ($62,600).

Career Development Association of Australia's (CDAA) president Wanda Hayes said there were clear benefits enjoyed by university graduates that those who aren't tertiary-educated get.

'But we know that once you're in [some organisations], there is a ceiling that you can pass through if you have a degree, which you can't pass through if you don't have a degree,' she told the ABC.

Ms Hayes said those with degrees generally had lower rates of unemployment and lower rates of underemployment across their working lives - meaning more money.They spend most of their career jetting around the globe, so it's no wonder flight attendants have become the masters of efficient packing.

And now a handful of pro travellers have now dished their secrets to packing light, revealing the essentials they would never board a plane without.

From a sarong to a $15 miracle cream and a 10-foot phone charger, these are the items that will see you through your journey - be it an international flight or a short trip.

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A sarong, a $15 miracle cream and a 10-foot charger: The five essentials flight attendants ALWAYS pack before boarding a plane

Grace Antipala, a flight attendant with Hawaiian Airlines, was one of several staff who gave Insider the lowdown on her carry-on essentials.

She always makes sure to pack key electronics, like a 10-foot phone charger, an extra battery pack, and an iPad mini.

Another Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant, Mapuana Faulker, revealed she always packs a sarong.

'Lightweight and definitely multi-purpose, these colourful fabric pieces can be used as an in-flight blanket/wrap or scarf. They can also be fashioned into a pillowcase or used as an impromptu beach/picnic blanket,' she told the publication.

Joyce Foley, who works for Hawaiian Airlines, advised bringing an empty reusable water bottle, because flight attendants will always fill up your bottle for you

Another raved over the $15 L'Occitane travel-size hand lotion, while a third worker recommended bringing a mini iPad to stay entertained on long flights

Delta Connection Carrier flight attendant Gloria Nelson explained that she always packs a notebook so she can write down ideas 'whenever they arise' while Heather Sanchez of Hawaiian Airlines said she swears by the $15 L'Occitane travel-size hand lotion.

'Being that we fly at such high altitudes the air is very dry. Hand moisturiser and lip balm have become a staple in my flight bag,' she said.

Another, Joyce Foley, said travellers should bring an empty reusable water bottle, because flight attendants will always fill up their bottle for them.

'This will help you stay hydrated which also helps with jet lag, dehydration, and bloating since often we eat too much salt when we travel,' she said.

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia worker Lauren Gaynor, who completes the airline's incredible Sydney to Los Angeles services, raves about the important of good make up and a rock solid skincare routine

Meanwhile, Virgin Australia worker Lauren Gaynor, who completes the airline's incredible Sydney to Los Angeles services, raves about the important of good make up and a rock solid skincare routine.

'I've always subscribed to the theory that cleansers are only in contact with your skin for a minimal amount of time, so I prefer to keep this step relatively simple and inexpensive,' she told News.com.au.

'My favourite method of makeup removal is Face Halo. It's a microfibre pad that lasts up to 300 washes, so it's as convenient as a makeup wipe whilst being much more sustainable.'

And because the system only requires water it's an easy packing option in your carry on luggage.

'I've always subscribed to the theory that cleansers are only in contact with your skin for a minimal amount of time, so I prefer to keep this step relatively simple and inexpensive,' she told News.com.au (pictured second from the right)

She follows that step with Buffet serum by The Ordinary and Jurlique Moisture Replenishing Day Cream (pictured right)

As a pre-flight ritual Lauren will slather on Frank Body's coffee scrub - but will refrain from drinking caffeine on the flight itself.

To get a little more insight into the life of a flight attendant, FEMAIL previously caught up with Qantas employee, Anastasia Andreev, who lifted the lid on her business - as well as the in-flight essentials she swears by.

The 22-year-old, who is from Sydney, swears by a 'versatile' wardrobe, a universal travel adaptor and Estee Lauder's Double Wear foundation - which she said 'many flight attendants wear, as it 'stays put for 24 hours'.

FEMAIL also caught up with Qantas employee, Anastasia Andreev (pictured), who lifted the lid on her business - as well as the in-flight essentials she swears by

The 22-year-old, who is from Sydney (pictured), swears by a 'versatile' wardrobe and Estee Lauder's Double Wear foundation - which she said 'stays put for 24 hours'

What a flight attendant packs in her suitcase * A good pair of jeans * Shorts * Singlet * Dress * Denim jacket * Three pairs of shoes - including black Converse, nude strappy heel and bright sandal * Small day bag * Sunglasses * Swimsuit * Perfume x 2 - a fresh day fragrance and something 'muskier' for the evening * A book * Noise-cancelling headphones * Universal travel adaptor Advertisement

She also swears by a 'small day bag' for sight-seeing, two bottles of perfume (something 'fresh' for the day and something 'muskier' for the evening, sunglasses, a swimsuit and a good book.

Over her time as a flight attendant, Anastasia has also learned that it's worth leaving some items behind, as you are less likely to use them when you're away.

'From my experience, I've found you don't need to bring a hairdryer as many hotels offer them,' she said.

'You could also avoid packing high heel stilettos as they aren't very practical, will be unlikely to be worn and take up so much space.

'You're far better off bringing a pair of wedges, which can be worn with jeans or a dress.'

The 22-year-old admitted the one thing she would never travel without is her 'universal travel adaptor', which she sees as the 'best travel investment you can make' - and her noise-cancelling headphones, which are a lifesaver on a long-haul flight.